carnations for valentines, or the history of throwing oranges into the sea

The story of farmers who have been allowed to export their carnations from Gaza to the Netherlands in time for Valentines is a lot sadder than it seems.

Ha'aretz reports on February 12 that Israel allowed the export of 25,000 carnations to the Netherlands. The word allowed there kind of clues you in to the fact that the farmers themselves do not have much control over the process.

The article then goes on to say that The amount of carnations allowed out of the Gaza Strip was only a fraction of what farmers produce. Many farmers say they have no choice but to feed the crop to sheep. That's a livelihood we're talking about there. The story is also reported here.

Israel tightened its blockade of Gaza after Hamas Islamists wrested control of the territory from President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction in 2007. Israel allows in aid, but exports are banned with few exceptions.

B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights watch group, reports on these exports. They can go out the Rafah border, which is the Egyptian border, but as most exports are destined for Israel or Israel's ports, there is not much sense in this. Imports are not allowed into the Rafah border.

They summarise it much better, (also in the report linked below) and in more detail than I can, so here is the following (my emphasis):

Imports and exports: Israel continues to exercise complete control over the movement of goods into the Gaza Strip. The three crossing points designated for this purpose - Karni, Sufa, and Kerem Shalom - are under Israel's sole control. Rafah Crossing, the administration of which was handed over to the Palestinian Authority, has a terminal for the crossing of goods, but according to the November 2005 agreement, the crossing is limited to exports. The importance of the PA's independent ability to export goods via Rafah Crossing is limited, given that most of the exports are intended for Israel or are shipped abroad via Israeli ports. As a result, most exports pass through Karni. Israel's almost complete control of the movement of goods to and from the Gaza Strip has far-reaching consequences: Israel 's decision to close the commercial crossings, a frequent occurrence, paralyzes the Gaza Strip economy and causes a shortage of basic goods, including food and medicines.

Due to the inefficient operation of the Karni crossing, Gaza exporters and merchants are prevented from competing fairly in foreign markets. The delays and frequent disruptions in the passage of goods make it hard for them to plan a production and marketing schedule for their goods, and do not allow them to commit to supply dates. This causes them to lose existing and potential customers. In addition, the delays lead to a great increase in shipping and storage costs of goods, and in some cases goods rot or are damaged before they reach their destination. As a result, import and export industries have been paralyzed, businesses have collapsed and many residents of Gaza have lost their source of employment.

The bottleneck at the Karni crossing stems from the illegitimate and faulty conduct of both Israeli and Palestinian actors. In order to completely release this bottleneck and to enable optimal movement of goods, therefore, conduct on both sides of the crossing must be improved. However, the State of Israel, which as stated above holds effective control of the crossing, has to do everything in its power in order to improve the movement of goods into and out of Gaza , thereby reducing the economic distress of Gaza residents. This is the case even if the faulty operations on the Palestinian side of the crossing are not rectified.

A substantial step in this direction could be made if Israeli authorities would enable operation of an airport or sea port from Gaza , or if they would operate additional land crossings for goods. A significant improvement would also result if the authorities would improve a few grave failures in the way they operate Karni:
Repeated and unnecessary closing of the crossing ・the proper balance between Israel's security needs and the needs of Gaza residents requires abstaining from closing the goods crossing between Gaza and Israel except at those times and places where it is essential to neutralize a security threat.

Convoluted and unnecessary checks carried out at the crossing - Investment in appropriate technologies and adopting more efficient checking procedures would enable much more rapid movement of goods without harming Israeli security interests in any way.

Limited operation of the crossing - Israeli authorities must invest the necessary funds in order to expand the hours of operation of the crossing and the number of personnel employed there.

Corruption and exploitation of the crossing's faulty operation - the authorities responsible for the operation of the crossing must supervise their employees and sub-contractors in a more efficient way in order to reduce the phenomenon of corruption.

Women in Gaza preparing carnations. This feelgood (?) picture appeared in Ha'aretz today (13 Mar, 2009, severed from the article linked above, in the online version, anyway. Though, if you clicked on the picture, it took you to the article.
Some of those convoluted and unnecessary checks and procedures include unloading the truck on the Palestinian side, reloading another truck on the Israeli side, and checking all produce by hand, it seems. Scanning technology has been bought by the Palestinians that would avoid this, but it is not used by the Israeli side, therefore goods are bruised and damaged and often mixed with other goods to their detriment. At various checkpoints, goods are often checked more than once, too, which, in the case of fruit, vegetables, flowers and so on, can only lessen their value. There are other methods of technology which could be employed to ensure Israeli safety, such as hermetically sealing the goods once they have been checked, to avoid multiple checking. If you want more information on the points above, B'Tselem has this document Blocked Arteries:Israel's responsibility for Gaza's failing foreign trade. Also, this quick factsheet.

In a 12 May 2008 report in the Guardian,'A disaster for everybody', one of the United Nations representatives in Gaza, John Ging, had this to say on the result of stricter and even more strict (draconian?) border controls:

"The civilian population are not lost to civilisation. They have not given in to violence as the only way," Ging said.

"They are actually struggling to protect themselves against that and they are getting no support. If this were understood - that Gaza is not lost to violence, that Gaza is not hopeless rather that the majority of people in Gaza are civilised - then the whole equation would change," he said

"People respond much more positively to help than they do to force, coercion or violence."

The report goes on to say, as has been detailed by many other human rights groups, that

Israel has significantly reduced the amount of fuel it sells to Gaza and there are now such shortages of diesel and petrol that many cars run on cooking gas or vegetable oil and that many schools can now longer bus their pupils to class.

Israel only allows 2.2m litres of industrial diesel into Gaza for the strip's sole power plant each week, which means it can produce just 45-55mW of electricity, compared to 80mW if it was fully fuelled, and the more than 100mW it was able to produce before the plant's transformers were bombed by Israeli aircraft two years ago. On Saturday, the power plant cut back its output even further, leaving most of Gaza City in darkness for several hours, because not enough fuel had been supplied.

Fuel shortages have affected water systems, leaving the 70,000 people who rely on water from fuel-pumped wells with a precarious supply, and meaning that 60m litres of raw and partially treated sewage are being pumped straight into the sea every day. More than two-thirds of Gaza's 4,000 agricultural water wells rely on fuel-powered pumps, and shortages are leaving crops to die. The World Bank said last month that poverty rates in Gaza were now close to 67% and that economic growth was zero last year.

That was written in May of last year, and even in that time, and before that time, Palestinian amenities were bombed and destroyed, and now that so much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, including further amenities, the chances of them ever being self-sufficient are certainly slim (Conflict leaves Gaza's agriculture in ruins, New Scientist, 30 Jan, 2009).

Israel controls the water that is available in Gaza and the West Bank. In the case of the West Bank, mostly, through its diversion and use of the Jordan River, and and in Gaza, mostly, at least of 2003, due to Israel stopping the flow of water from Wadi Gaza in Hebron to the Gaza aquifer which results in over-pumping . The wadi used to partially renew the source. Read below. It is over-pumped as a source, too, because wells are destroyed (by Israel) and new wells are not allowed to be built, and Palestinians are not allowed the parts to fix them.

The portion of the Coastal Aquifer underlying Gaza has an annual safe yield of 55 million cubic meters (mcm) but is now being overpumped. The aquifer used to be partially recharged from the Wadi Gaza coming from Hebron but Israel stopped its flow. There are approximately 3,850 wells in the Gaza Strip, pumping 122 mcm of water a year. Mekorot supplies an additional 5 mcm.

For facts at a glance, which mostly look at the West Bank, look at this CESR fact sheet, and for more detail on Gaza, look at page 35 and 36 of this report Thirsting for Justice; Israeli Violations of the Human Right to Water, A Report to the 30th Session of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Center for Economic and Social Rights, May 2003. Really look at it! I doubt very little, regarding access to water, has changed, apart from the fact that the settlers are no longer in Gaza. Rafah wells and houses were regularly being bulldozed and destroyed in other ways as reported in 2003, and that has continued up until today.

From the fact sheet:

After 1967, Israel took control over all water resources in the newly occupied Palestinian territories by a series of military orders that negated all previous and existing settlements of water disputes, set pumping quotas and forbade construction of new wells by Palestinians without permission from the area Israeli military commander. Since 1967, permits have been granted for only 23 new wells.

I am not sure if that number of permits applies to the West Bank only, or if the Guardian article rounded up the number of wells in Gaza. Even so, the water situation in either place is not new, and the above policy (and many others) isn't new; it can't be said it was implemented to collectively punish people for voting Hamas.

Between March and May of 2002 alone, the World Bank, UNDP and USAID estimate that damage to West Bank water supply and sewerage infrastructure by the Israeli military reached US$7 million.

Again, this was before Hamas became government. All people took part in that election. Not just the Palestinians in Gaza. If Hamas were the sole reason for Israel's current blockade and restrictions on Gaza, what were and are their reasons for these punitive actions on all Palestinians before Hamas were even elected?

This is from the larger report:

Researchers from MIT estimate that within 20 years, agriculture will no longer be possible in Gaza due to the salinity of the groundwater. Currently agriculture provides about one-third of Gaza’s GDP and is becoming increasingly important as a means of income and food security for Gazans, many of whom have lost their jobs as wage laborers in Israel due to the intifada. Already the increasing salinity has affected the types of food grown, eliminating most citrus fruit— which are sensitive to saline — in favor of salt-tolerant vegetables and flowers.

That report was 2003, when things were bad, but before the siege and definitely before the latest massacre and effective destruction of much of Gaza's infrastructure. I wonder if the researchers from MIT would now say: within the next 10 years, or less, agriculture will no longer be possible.

Anyway, back to the carnation growers. Apart from water access difficulties, and no guarantee that they will be able to export their crops, and all the extra costs involved in exporting them, which it seems that businessmen and farmers in many other areas in the world do not have to face, there is no guarantee, of course, that they won't get shot while they are picking their flowers.

As reported in Tales to tell blog, and in the news, recently (just after the 'ceasefire' ) a farmer was killed by a bullet to the neck (from Israeli forces) while trying to harvest his parsley crop. A week later, international volunteers accompanied Palestinian farmers and workers trying to get their crops in before they withered (water is not in constant supply), and while there was still some chance they might get a return from their investments by being able to pick them (the crops) in a timely manner. They were fired upon. The international workers, too. It is in the blog. In two entries. There is a clip uploaded to youtube, if you want to see. Follow this link and this one and this one. Ah, what the hell, let's embed the clip, but the stories are at the other links (I have posted them before). The youtube is originally on the In Gaza blog, as is the first link (the two writers are both ISM volunteers).




One more word from B'Tselem:

As a result of the siege, the stocks of imported food products in Gaza are dwindling, driving their prices sky-high, while fruit and vegetables that were intended for export are being sold in Gazan markets at a loss. Many families cannot afford to buy them, however, due to the high poverty rate in Gaza. 80 percent of Gazan households now live below the poverty line, subsisting on less than 2,300 shekels a month for a family of six. Households in deep poverty, living on less than 1,837 shekels a month, currently comprise 66.7 percent of the population. 80 percent of all Gazan families would literally starve without food aid from international agencies.

And this poignant observation from Sara Roy, who wrote for Counterpunch in October 2006 ("79 Percent of Gazan Households are Living in Poverty", The Economy of Gaza) (my emphasis):

In one of many reports and accounts of economic life in the Gaza Strip that I have recently read, I was struck by a description of an old man standing on the beach in Gaza throwing his oranges into the sea. The description leapt out at me because it was this very same scene I myself witnessed some 21 years ago during my very first visit to the territory. It was the summer of 1985 and I was taken on a tour of Gaza by a friend named Alya. As we drove along Gaza's coastal road I saw an elderly Palestinian man standing at the shoreline with some boxes of oranges next to him. I was puzzled by this and asked Alya to stop the car. One by one, the elderly Palestinian took an orange and threw it into the water. His was not an action of playfulness but of pain and regret. His movements were slow and labored as if the weight of each orange was more than he could bear. I asked my friend why he was doing this and she explained that he was prevented from exporting his oranges to Israel and rather than watch them rot in his orchards, the old man chose to cast them into the sea. I have never forgotten this scene and the impact it had on me.

Note: May 1st: An updated report on the water situation. World Bank finds Israel’s water policy hard to swallow. April 28, 2009.

here's to hoping

The recommendations from this December 2008 report from the U.S. army Strategic Studies Institute, make a lot of sense, so I figure they will be routinely ignored. There is the qualifier that it expresses the views of the author, and [does] not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S.Government. It is a government document, however. The recommendations are at the end of the report, the number one recommendation being:

Let HAMAS fulfill its electoral promise to the Palestinians. The International Crisis Group recommended in the summer of 2006 that HAMAS be allowed to govern and should cease hostilities against Israel. Further, the boycott should end, as it has caused terrible hardship for Palestinians

There are a further eleven recommendations.
Hamas And Israel:Conflicting Strategies Of Group-Based Politics, Sherifa Zuhur.

If this plan ever comes into being, things could lighten up for a while. But as shown in posts before, it is rare that Israel keeps its end of the deal. But here's to hoping.

pure as the driven snow

Yes, 'glo. The title is deceiving, but it is mentioned.

I was thinking this yesterday (and nearly inserted parentheses into the Glenn Grenwald article). I wonder how often it will get mentioned or noticed, or reflected upon.
__________________________________________________________________
A 2006 article, (Making (Non) Sense of the Funding Cut-Off; Hamas and Israel's "Right to Exist", Virginia Tilley)[scroll down]

taken from

Eva's latest blog entry.
__________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Gideon Levy from the Israeli paper Haaretz (12 February, 2009)and the stuff that Israeli papers show us, but local papers don't.

_____________________________________________________________

management

And so people in Gaza have a right to ask us, how do you manage? How do you keep going? How can you sit back and watch while your taxes pay to massacre us? If it is wrong to send rifles and bullets and primitive rockets into Gaza, weapons that could kill innocent Israelis, then isn't it also wrong to send Israelis the massive arsenal that has been used against us, killing over 400 of our children in the past six weeks, and maiming and wounding thousands more?

It is quite an arsenal, if you read that article.

opinion and lies, lies and lies

Israel's elections and U.S. Policy (Glenn Grenwald, February 9, 2009).

This is a country that has waged two brutal wars against largely defenseless neighbors in the past three years, that just banned certain Arab political parties from existing (a ban reversed by its Supreme Court), and that continues expansions on land that does not belong to it despite those expansions being universally condemned and declared illegal in numerous international tribunals. And now, it is turning to political leaders who believe that these measures have been insufficiently aggressive and who vow far more aggression and, in the case of Lieberman, even more internal repression of its own ethnic and religious minorities.

Israel, like all countries, has the right to choose what leaders it wants. But as is also always true, other countries have the right -- and, in the case of the U.S. as the enabler of virtually everything Israel does, the responsibility -- to react appropriately. It's bad enough that we have tied ourselves so blindly and inextricably to Israel as it has existed over the past several years. But an Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman produces whole new responsibilities for the U.S. not to continue on this path of uncritical support for a government like that.

The election results are in, but undecided, but will be right-winged. Shout out to Antony Lowenstein where I first read this.

____________________________________________________________

I also found this on Antony's blog, from the Jeruselem Post (February 9, 2009, Encountering Peace: Spins and lies: Schalit, Hamas and Olmert,Gershon Baskin):

The war was supported by 94 percent of Israelis because they really believed it was a "war of no choice." Lies, lies and lies

I still hold that very few must read the news in Israel, or maybe this is tucked away in the darkest corners, or people have got used to the obsfucation.

there are solutions

This photo is from last year.

It seems I'm in the mood to post today. I'll be on holidays soon, so you will all (oh, how I kid myself :smiley: ) get a bit of respite.

Well, there is this news from Ireland where

Trade unionists are to launch a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a major campaign to secure a peaceful settlement in the Middle East...
...

Last year:

ICTU [Irish Congress of Trade Unions] President Patricia McKeown led the Middle East visit that involved 11 senior members of the umbrella group representing trade unions across Ireland, including 36 trade unions with 250,948 members in Northern Ireland.

The delegation met Israeli trade unionists and politicians, plus Hamas political leaders, but said they were shocked by the conditions they found in Palestinian areas.

"I was profoundly shocked by what we found," said Ms McKeown.

"I didn't expect the denial of human rights and the discrimination to be so evident and to be an obvious part of daily life.

"To see unemployment on the West Bank rising to 80%, to see people having to get up at three in the morning, and virtually sleep outside the the army controlled crossings in order to get into work - that's something we didn't expect to see."

The ICTU trip took place more than a year ago, but its campaign will move up a gear this year with a major conference to highlight the Palestinian/Israeli situation, while research on a boycott of Israeli goods to press for a settlement will also be finalised.

The article states:

"Unless the international community and that includes the Irish government, the British government, the EU and the US government exercises its considerable influence and authority, any relaxation of the current assault on Gaza will only bring a short respite for citizens there."

He said a sustained international effort was needed to secure a durable settlement and added: "If the conflict here taught us anything, that is that no conflict is intractable. There are solutions."

As said above, there are solutions, and who better to know than those from Northern Ireland.

hollow support

An interesting article from yeterday's Guardian on the Egyptian arrest and subsequent 'disappearing' of a pro-Palestinian Egyptian-German campaigner (it seems he has since been returned to his family as of today).

Abducted in Egypt: The detention of protesters highlights Middle East governments' Middle East governments' ambivalent attitudes towards support for the Palestinians, Ben White.

________________________________________________________________

An article by Randall Kuhn, January 14, 2009 from The Washington Post.

safe transit, plastic bags and text books

Meanwhile on Monday, UN officials reiterated their call for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza and open the crossings for urgent supplies to be sent in to the Palestinian territory.
"It is absolutely crucial that Israel allow the crossings to be opened"
Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special envoy"It is absolutely crucial that Israel allow the crossings to be opened and also expand the list of items that go in," Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, told reporters following her recent visit to Gaza, the West Bank and southern Israel.
"At the moment less than 200 [aid] trucks are going through [the crossing points into Gaza]," she said.
"We need at least 400 just for the humanitarian needs and over 1,000 once reconstruction begins."
The UN also appealed for Israel to allow plastic bags and human rights textbooks into the Gaza Strip.
"We run out of plastic bags to distribute the food," John Ging, the Unrwa director of operations in Gaza, said in a video link on Monday, adding that the process of getting the plastic locally was "unreliable" and "very expensive".
Unrwa, which only provides assistance to Palestinians holding refugee status, plays a key role in distributing aid in Gaza by handing out food aid to some 900,000 people of out of a population of 1.5 million.(UN to resume Gaza aid operations, Al Jazeera, Feb 10 2009).

900,000 people out of 1.5 million equals sixty percent of the population. Sixty percent who, from my reckoning, would not be refugees, if borders were opened, sanctions lifted and some serious approaches towards the peace process were made.



By human rights textbooks, above, I don't think it is meant textbooks which are human rights in content as this article (Israel is being urged to explain why it will not allow basic educational materials into Gaza, February 5, 2009) details.
_________________________________________________

I was reading about the Sri Lankan woes the other day, and was struck by this newspaper article title: Civilians pour out of Sri Lanka war zone. It seems that the Sri Lankan government is employing many techniques similar to the onslaught on Gaza, including bombing hospitals and using cluster bombs. Both sides, according to articles, are heavily armed, however:

Claims by both sides cannot be verified because journalists, most aid groups and international observers are not allowed into the conflict zone.

Hundreds of non-combatants have been killed this year, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and global concern has mounted that a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding away from the public's gaze.

I have not followed this conflict closely, but I assume if recognised democracies can get away with the above, then so can any other government, or faction, on this earth. However, within the Gaza crisis, I think that the questions posed in this article should seriously be pondered: If the Hamas rockets are so lethal, why doesn't Israel swap an F-16 for some? (Mark Steel, The Independent, January 21, 2009).

In this article, Hillary Clinton and David Miliband call for Sri Lanka ceasefire with Tamils, Clinton asks for a temporary ceasefire to:

"...allow civilians and wounded to leave the conflict area and to grant access for humanitarian agencies."

There was nowhere for the civilians of Gaza to run to. Many of the civilians in Sri Lanka are trapped, too, as indicated by the above articles, but they still have tried to flee as best they can. From articles, it seems this exodus has some level of co-ordination with the government. I know there was the tragedy of a suicide bomber being amongst the civilians who were fleeing, but my point is, that there seems some hope, even if it is minimal, that there was somewhere to flee to. In a walled and closed off territory, this is not possible. That is one of the things that strikes me the most about Gaza, that and the fact it could have been very easily avoided. That, and did Rice push for a ceasefire so that the civilians could flee and the wounded could leave areas of conflict? But, that's right, where would they flee to? Maybe she spoke.

Amnesty International in the U.S. was concerned enough on the second of January to send a letter to her, some selections of which are below:

...Amnesty International USA is particularly dismayed at the lopsided response by the US government to the recent violence and its lackadaisical efforts to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Amnesty International, as indeed other human rights and humanitarian organizations, is concerned about attacks directed at or resulting in harm to unarmed civilians. We expect the US government to share this concern for all unarmed civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinians, who are caught in this conflict...

Without diminishing the responsibility of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians, the US government must not ignore Israel’s disproportionate response and the longstanding policies which have brought the Gaza Strip to the brink of humanitarian disaster. While Israel has the right and the duty to protect its citizens, it must do so in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law. International law takes security concerns into consideration and allows states to use reasonable means to confront legitimate threats. However, operations must be strictly necessary, proportionate and make every effort to discriminate between combatant and civilian. The least intrusive means must be selected to confront the threat.

I have written about many of the areas covered in the letter before, so I won't quote too much more, suffice to say, it details whether U.S. provided weapons are being used legally in relation to U.S. law, and discusses the humanitarian crisis that was already in place due to the Israeli siege. But it is a short letter. It is worth reading. The letter does urge Rice to try and ensure that the following happens:

Israel must also grant the wounded access to hospitals in Israel and to Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.
The United States should also take steps to insist that the Egyptian authorities open Egyptian hospitals to those in need of medical care which is not available in Gaza and ask that Egypt guarantees that its border guards do not resort to excessive use of force against those fleeing the bombing. Hamas must also ensure that its security forces and militias do not, under any circumstances, hinder or prevent the passage of the wounded or others patients trying to leave Gaza.

Amnesty said this. I don't know if Rice ever did, and with borders closely monitored, or closed, it is highly unlikely that the above safe transit occurred or is occurring smoothly and regularly, though it can and does occur. This August 2008, Israeli Physicians for Human Rights report attests that transfer for medical reasons often does not go smoothly:

After a patient receives a message from the Palestinian side explaining that he must undergo interrogation, he must arrive at the Erez Crossing, where he is taken down into the depths of the earth, to the GSS basement. His cellular phone is taken from him, and the numbers are extracted from its memory. Interrogators then question the patient and demand information in return for permission to access care. In some cases patients are asked to collaborate with the GSS on a regular basis. Thus testifies A, cancer patient (38): “Afterwards the interrogator told me ‘you are sick with cancer and soon it will spread to your brain. As long as you do not help us – wait for [the opening of] Rafah Crossing.”

GSS are the General Security Service (GSS- Shabac), who make the final decisions regarding exit permits, and the above report alleges that they are targeting sick patients as potential collaborators, making informing and cooperation with the GSS a pre-condition for exiting Gaza. This practice constitutes a violation of The Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Convention Against Torture, as well as criminal law.

Though Israel opened a field clinic on the 18th of January, this was said about it:

Miri Weingarten of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said the Israeli army has repeatedly refused her group's requests to evacuate wounded Gazans during the war, and called the border clinic too little, too late.

"We think that it demonstrates a cynical use of medical care for propaganda, meaning that when Israel wants to correct its public image, it can and will evacuate the wounded," Weingarten said.

In a rare case, a Palestinian doctor known to Israeli TV audiences for his reports of human suffering during the war was able to secure the transfer of two of his daughters to Israeli hospitals after they were wounded by Israeli shells.

I just wanted to mention a fact that is not often heard in the news, in light of the Sri Lankan suicide bomber mentioned above, that Hamas has carried out only* one suicide bomb attack since 2005 keeping in line with this January 7, 2009 viewpoint put forward by Mouin Rabbani, perhaps, on why the Gaza onslaught was necessary for Israel.

Hamas’ demonstrated capacity to make and uphold agreements with Israel put Israel in a quandary, in light of the Islamists’ growing willingness, particularly since 2005, to coexist with and even support a two-state settlement. A new agreement -- particularly if augmented by one between Hamas and Abbas (the prospects of which would have been enhanced) -- would have been utilized by European states and others, who had painted themselves into a corner by singing for too long and too loudly from Washington’s neo-conservative hymn sheet, to find ways to engage with Hamas. That the movement has, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry website, carried out a grand total of one suicide attack in Israel since March 2005 (shortly before a previous ceasefire -- most others were claimed by Islamic Jihad) would only have facilitated such engagement.

*I say "only" keeping in mind the number of Palestinians that have died during this period, and the number of members of parliament and civilians who have been kidnapped and kept in Israeli jails. I do not condone suicide bombing.

To finish on a positive note, and to kind of tie into the beginning of this post, this picture of children in a Gazan classroom is stolen from Tales to Tell, the blog of an ISM volunteer (as might be the first one, I can't remember). The post that accompanies it is quite positive, which is needed, amongst all the gloom and doom. Of course all copyright remains with the photographers.

The personal story is second to the end.

Well, in the past Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush 1 and even Bush 2 have at times withdrawn aid or reduced loan agreements, prevented the export of cluster bombs, condemned or verbally disciplined Israel over many of its actions as can be seen in an Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU) report up to 2002, here. It seems Obama so far is not willing to enter similar waters. This reflection from an Egyptian columnist seems reflection he thinks wise to tune out (Why the Muslim World Can't Hear Obama, New York Times, Alaa Al AlSwany, Feb 7, 2009), though the article still holds some hope.

We saw Mr. Obama as a symbol of this justice. We welcomed him with almost total enthusiasm until he underwent his first real test: Gaza. Even before he officially took office, we expected him to take a stand against Israel’s war on Gaza. We still hope that he will condemn, if only with simple words, this massacre that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, many of them civilians. (I don’t know what you call it in other languages, but in Egypt we call this a massacre.) We expected him to address the reports that the Israeli military illegally used white phosphorus against the people of Gaza. We also wanted Mr. Obama, who studied law and political science at the greatest American universities, to recognize what we see as a simple, essential truth: the right of people in an occupied territory to resist military occupation.

But Mr. Obama has been silent. So his brilliantly written Inaugural Speech did not leave a big impression on Egyptians. We had already begun to tune out. We were beginning to recognize how far the distance is between the great American values that Mr. Obama embodies, and what can actually be accomplished in a country where support for Israel seems to transcend human rights and international law.

This was said of Colin Powell in 2001:

... perhaps more than other senior official [sic], Secretary Powell has recognized the deep resentment and anger in the Arab and Muslim world toward the United States because of the Palestinian crisis. Asked by the Jazeera television network six days after the attacks why America is hated in the Muslim world, Secretary Powell acknowledged that violence in the Middle East had created a ''sense of hopelessness'' and that terrorism is fueled by these ''grievances.''

In the interview, Secretary Powell stressed that it was ''essential to move quickly in order to jump-start the Palestinian economy again, let people get to work and remove the level of humiliation that exists in the region.'' That reality ''adds to the anxiety and the aggressive activity and behavior on the part of so many people,'' he said. (Powell Poised To Announce New Strategy In Middle East, New York Times, November 15, 2001).

I wonder what happened to that strategy?

Earlier that year, in May 2001 the U.S. was voted off the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for the first time since the committee’s establishment in 1947. The AMEU claims that "The Financial Times of London suggest[ed] that Washington, by vetoing U.N. resolutions alleging Israeli human rights abuses, showed its inability to work impartially in the area of human rights. Secretary of State Colin Powell suggests the vote was because “we left a little blood on the floor” in votes involving the Palestinians (House Threatens To Hold U.N. Dues in Loss of a Seat, David E. Sanger, New York Times, May 9, 2001). The Financial Times articles only go back to 2004, but Powell's words can be verified through the New York Times, though the article hardly dwells on them.

It would seem that if some fairness were shown, especially in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, crisis, call it what you will, everyone would be a lot less at risk. Everyone.

Well, it's difficult to fight money, and it's difficult to fight fanatics (Kahane won, Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, February 10, 2009), and when the fanatics are fully backed financially, it's almost damned near impossible. This 2008 CRS report, U.S. aid to Israel, shows that there is little hope really to expect the U.S. to do little other than encourage the current conflict, whether that is their desire or not, it is the definite result. An interesting 2008 article here.

Encouragingly, there are some protests across the U.S. in the BDS movement, and also at some colleges. More so in the U.K. where the following has occurred:

Around the UK, thousands of students have occupied lecture theatres, offices and other buildings at more than 20 universities in sit-down protests. It seems that the spirit of 1968 has returned to the campus.

Beginning with a 24-hour occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) on 13 January, the sit-ins spread across the country. Now occupations have been held at the LSE, Essex, King's College London, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester Metropolitan, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Nottingham, Queen Mary, Manchester, Strathclyde, Newcastle, Kingston, Goldsmiths and Glasgow.

Among the demands of students are disinvestment in the arms trade; the promise to provide scholarships for Palestinian students; a pledge to send books and unused computers to Palestine; and to condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza.

"This is something different to anything we've seen for a long time," ... "There is genuine fury at what Israel did."

Establishments that have not previously been known for their activism have also become involved. Fran Legg was one of several students to set up the first Stop the War Coalition at Queen Mary, a research-focused university in London, a month ago. Now they are inundated with interest (Students are revolting; The spirit of 68 is reawakening, The Independent, 8 February, 2009).

Maybe there is hope. Anyway stories always tell the tale better. A bone of contention has always been the building of illegal settlements, and the development of the apartheid wall throughout the occupied territories. Well, at least they are things that the U.S. government has occasionally condemned and even withdrawn aid to Israel for, due to their development and spread. So here, after a little more rambling from me, is a story from a friend of mine.

I used to work in Oman, and I shared an office with him and another teacher for six months. He is Palestinian and grew up under the occupation. His parents had a farm in Qabatya. He did his undergraduate studies in Manila and his postgraduate studies in India. He now has a Jordanian passport, and that is where he returns on his holidays with his wife and children. He used to make me laugh a lot. He was a witty, generous and thoughtful friend. This is from an email he sent me a short while ago:

One time in 1986 0r 1987, I don't remember very well, when I was in Manila, my older brother (Shaheen), he is 2 years older than me, was driving his car in Qabatya town in the West Bank when an Israeli car deliberately crashed into him. He almost died. His two thighs (legs) were severely broken. The hospital in my district (Jenin) refused to admit him because of the seriousness of his case, so they transferred him to another city called Nablus. A doctor performed an operation on Shaheen. He stayed in the hospital more than six months. Belal [my friend's younger brother] was very young at that time. He left his school and stayed home all the time to look after Shaheen in the hospital. After Shaheen left the hospital he stayed in bed at my parents' house in Qabatya for more than a year. and then for more than a year he used to walk on sticks. The doctor who did the operation is the best doctor in Palestine his name is Dr. Mahmoud. Now Shaheen's legs are very good, and I guess he does not have any problem with them at all.

My friend's family is lucky it has money, I would say. The settlers are not gentle souls. The land they are on, is not theirs, though they will claim that God gave it to them. Yet, expansion into the lands is encouraged. Most are immigrants, particularly from Russia, and there are many Americans among them too. Probably some Australians as well, given their prominence as military mouthpieces at the moment. The CRS report linked before talks of them, and so do the blogs listed in the volunteers section of the blog roll, on the left, and the Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem. I know we took land from the Aboriginal people, the Maori people, and the Native American people, and committed genocide left, right and centre. Does that condone these actions now? Doesn't time and human awareness march on and evolve? Plus, bad and shocking as that was, it was done without the gaze of the world, and the subsequent, more than likely, anger of a large proportion of the world. This is a fairly young crisis. Don't be fooled. 100, 60, or 40 years old, depending upon which standpoint you take your history from. The late 1880s were when the Zionists started coming into the area. The pictures below and above are of Palestinians being displaced from their lands, by the way, not of Zionists and displaced Jews (from Europe after the Nazi atrocities) coming into the land.


From the United Nations:

One of the two States envisaged in the partition plan proclaimed its independence as Israel and in the 1948 war expanded to occupy 77 per cent of the territory of Palestine. Israel also occupied the larger part of Jerusalem. Over half of the indigenous Palestinian population fled or were expelled. Jordan and Egypt occupied the other parts of the territory assigned by the partition resolution to the Palestinian Arab State which did not come into being.

In the 1967 war, Israel occupied the remaining territory of Palestine, until then under Jordanian and Egyptian control (the West Bank and Gaza Strip). This included the remaining part of Jerusalem, which was subsequently annexed by Israel. The war brought about a second exodus of Palestinians, estimated at half a million. Security Council resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 called on Israel to withdraw from territories it had occupied in the 1967 conflict.

The Palestinians don't call it Nakba (the catastrophe) for nothing.

bats and bushfires

My Melbourne brother went for a walk nowhere near (I hope) the fires that have been raging in Victoria and which have claimed a hundred plus lives. It has been 46 degrees Celsius, which is 114 degrees Fahrenheit, or thereabouts, over there. He said there were bats dead in the trees, and one that was alive (the last photo). Or were they sleeping? Probably dead. Why would they be out in the open like that in broad daylight otherwise? I am guessing that the general heat got them, or that they were fleeing the bushfires and died from a mixture of the heat, exhaustion, disorientation and smoke inhalation. Any information from bat experts out there would be welcome.

* Note: It seems from this article that this hanging about in the daylight hours is quite normal. I'll have to ask my brother just which part of bushland he walked in. Also seems they are Flying foxes or Fruit bats. Still, cool photos.

posts from posts

I keep lifting posts from posts, but as long as the word gets spread around, somewhat, I don't feel too guilty about it. And I do provide links.

The following is a question that anyone who can actually find a news article about Gaza in Australia might be asking (the question is in the second paragraph):

Israel must lift its ban on materials to rebuild Gaza after its offensive in a territory resembling "hell" where children have to sleep outside shattered homes, the European Union's Middle East envoy said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

"What encouragement to terrorism would it be to rebuild the sewage system, have clean water, have kids going to school, have clinics that work, have mothers delivering their babies in safe conditions?" Marc Otte asked following Operation Cast Lead - Israel's devastating 22-day assault in the Hamas-ruled territory (EU envoy: Israel must ease aid restrictions on 'hell-like' Gaza, Ha'aretz,February 5, 2009).

The response to the above information and question at Jews sans frontieres was pithy and ended with this observance:

Your question [Mark Otte] should be directed at the governments that sent you. Ask them this:

For how long are you going to support and defend the criminals instead of supporting bringing them to justice? For how long are you going to support the murder of children in defense of the dispossession of their parents?

Though the UN and international human rights presence are necessary in the area, (I sometimes think it is the sole reason that the Palestinians haven't been wiped out as a whole - yet?), Gabriel's (the person who wrote the post) questions are straight to the point, and are ones that we should be asking governments. In that, why is it necessary to have such a strong and continuing UN presence in the area?

It is a question I ask of the Australian government, which unconditionally supports the Israeli government and all that it does. Aside from supporting Israel's obvious disregard for human life, Australia gives full support to the Israeli government's blatant destruction of buildings and infrastructure and other forms of aid that we have provided again and again. By never offering criticism, but always supporting a one-sided 'right of defense' we do this. Treatment of the wounds is essential, as is trying to give people a modicum of a life, but why not address what causes the wounds, rather than continuously trying to get the plasters through Israeli blockades each time another incursion occurs, another home is bulldozed, another farmer shot in his fields?

picking parsley 2

One can only hope that the fairly ineffective international presence in Gaza can stop the Palestinian's current and future lives from being totally decimated. But it doesn't seem likely:

From Eva Bartlett, a freelancer and ISM volunteer in Gaza, on the testimonies she hears from the Israeli assault on Gaza:

the general theme is one of being held captive in one’s house or a neighbour’s for 3-5 days in general –in miserable conditions, without food, water, medicine, toilets…–and either having family members shot or being terrorized as captives who when finally released tried to run away only to be sniped or accosted by further Israeli snipers and soldiers positioned in occupied houses and on the streets.

Of those who survived the ordeal, or had evacuated before the land invasion, many came back to partially or completely destroyed homes. With no where else to live, some have erected tattered tents in the place of their houses, some are moving into refugee tents reminiscent of the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland (the “Nakba”), when over 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes, left to miserable conditions in refugee tents which have evolved into the densely inhabited refugee camps throughout Gaza and the West Bank (as well as those in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria).

While many buildings were evidently hit by missiles from F-16s, Apache helicopters, and the massive tanks occupying the area, others were leveled by bulldozers and by explosives, the remnants of which were littered in and around houses in the region. Read more

And further on the farmers who are trying to harvest their parsley, from the blog - Tales to Tell:

Returning to farm-land of Al Faraheen village, in the Abassan Jedida area, east of Khan Younis, where soldiers had opened fire on Tuesday 3rd February, farmers and HRWs were able to harvest the parsley crop for only half an hour, before soldiers again began to shoot. A number of shots were fired into the air, before the soldiers started to aim in the direction of the farmer and international accompaniment. Bullets were heard to whiz past, close to people’s heads.

The soldiers continued to shoot on the group, despite the fact that many members of the group had their arms in the air and were wearing fluorescent vests to make them highly visible, and identify them as Human Rights Workers; had erected a banner indicating that the farmers and accompaniment were civilians; contact had been made with the Israeli army to advise them that Palestinian civilians and internationals would be working in the area; the various international embassies had been advised of the planned accompaniment; and the internationals were announcing their presence via a megaphone - demanding that the soldiers stop shooting on unarmed civilians.

“We are unarmed civilians! We are farmers and international Human Rights Workers! Stop Shooting!”

With internationals acting as human shields, the farmers - after initially lying down to avoid being shot - attempted to continue harvesting. After a few moments, however, the shooting intensified and farmers decided to leave the area, rather than be killed. Internationals announced on the megaphone that the group was leaving the area - asking that the soldiers halt their fire. Instead, as the group started to leave, the shooting further intensified in rapidity and proximity. Even after the group had taken refuge in a house, approximately 1km from the Green Line, the soldiers continued to shoot at nearby houses that were demolished during the recent Israeli Operation Cast Lead.Read more

Australia doesn't get much maritime trade with Israel, but this step from the Maritime Union of Australia, in my home state of Western Australia, in light of the above and a multitude of similar stories, is a step in the right direction, as far as I am concerned. As of January 27, 2009, they have decided to do the following:

1. This delegates’ meeting of the WA branch of the MUA [hereafter this meeting] calls on the Rudd government to denounce the latest Israeli aggression against Gaza, and to cut all economic, diplomatic, cultural and political ties with the Israeli state until this aggression and the Israeli siege of Gaza ends.

…

4. We will participate fully in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign when it is initiated and support actions related thereof when they are called by either Friends of Palestine WA or other interested parties (including other trade unions). We call on the ACTU and Unions WA to join us in supporting the BDS campaign and specific actions related thereof

5. In furtherance of resolution 4, this meeting recommends State Conference adopt a position of boycotting all Israeli-registered vessels, and all vessels known to be carrying either goods destined for Israel or goods sourced from Israel.

I lifted that information from the blog The Bureau of Counterpropaganda. It can also be found here.

The posts on the Bureau of counterpropaganda are very informative, and I found this one from January 26, 2009, Change we can believe in particularly incisive. The whole article does not talk about stories which are written and then which disappear, as happened to Australia's Michael Blackman in the Age recently, apparently due to anti-Semitic content; the apparent being whether the content is anti-Semitic or not. Anti-Israel, and especially anti-Israeli military and government, yes. But anti-Semitic? Well, I guess it's for the people with the best lawyers and public relations to decide. But it is touched upon, and I might expand upon this in a later post. As I say, that is only part of the post.

It delves into ideas related to this gem from Joseph Massad, an Associate Professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York:

…while Israel has the right to defend itself, its victims have no similar right to defend themselves. In fact, the logic is even more sinister than this and can be elucidated as follows: Israel has the right to oppress the Palestinians and does so to defend itself, but were the Palestinians to defend themselves against Israel's oppression, which they do not have a right to do, Israel will then have the right to defend itself against their illegitimate defense of themselves against its legitimate oppression of them, which it carries out anyway in order to defend itself legitimately.

That is the kind of headspin logic that is used in repressive societies the world over, I guess. I think Dwight Eisenhower hit it on the head with this quote:

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it

- Dwight Eisenhower

And the media, Dwight, or it should step into the fray and show responsibility.

Dwight, as with most leaders, was not really one to pursue peace while in leadership, but maybe he mellowed in his old age, and because a bit more astute, in the tradition of Carter and Fraser.

The thunder over head is mighty loud; It's shaking my apartment

We are having a mild winter. Spring is not a-bluster, but winter's not putting up a fight. Still, the locals say it's not over. The ricefields are brown with the severed broom-heads of harvested crops. Sprinkled with green. Encroaching green. Mosquitoes circle under train station lights. The locals say that snow is needed to kill them off so that they don't become a plague at the time of planting and in the summer months. Wind blows across a puddle, a careless ruffling of hair. A train in the distance as I ride home. First the fields, then the barriers, then the car-beam swept road. Four carriages warmly curving into the night.

I'm not talking about an extreme dictatorship

Some quotes from a Ha'aretz article on Leiberman, the leader of the right-winged Yisrael Beiteinu , and the rise of support for him, especially among younger Israelis. He has a chance of becoming prime-minister (Liebermania, Ha'aretz, February 7, 2009). The whole article is in depth, and worth reading.

[At a Yisrael Beiteinu conference]:

The youths, ages 16-18, many of them good friends from school, had stood for a long time before the event began at the intersection near the hotel, waving Israeli flags and shouting "Death to the Arabs" and "No loyalty, no citizenship" at passing cars.

"This country has needed a dictatorship for a long time already. But I'm not talking about an extreme dictatorship. We need someone who can put things in order. Lieberman is the only one who speaks the truth." Adds Edan Ivanov, an 18 year old who describes himself as being "up on current events":

"We've had enough here with the 'leftist democracy' - and I put that term in quotes, don't get me wrong. People have put the dictator label on Lieberman because of the things he says. But the truth is that in Israel there can't be a full democracy when there are Arabs here who oppose it.

[A civics teacher talking about the rise of the above popular sentiment, which contradicts the civics classes which are part of the Israeli curriculum]:

"When I talk in civics class about the Arab minority, and about its uniqueness in being a majority that became a minority, my students argue and say it's not true that they were a majority. When I go to the history teacher and ask her why the students don't know that in 1947 there was a certain number of Arabs here, and in 1948 there was a different number, she becomes evasive and says it's not part of the material."

Well, the western world overtly destroys elected governments (Hamas) through its apathy and supply of weapons, support of blockades, its arming and training of rival factions, and so on; through the massive US foreign aid which Israel receives, which is far more than Palestine receives. And, if Lieberman is elected, the western world overtly supports a government with principles far from democratic. I think, if economic sanctions are imposed on Hamas for their failure to recognise Israel (and that term is debatable, as seen by this Ha'aretz article, and many before it), and their platform, then the international community should be as comfortable imposing sanctions on an Israeli government that does not recognise the rights or right to exist of the Arabs in the area, whether within Israel or illegally occupied Palestine. It's only democratic, after all
(Hamas: We will accept long-term truce if Gaza borders opened, Ha'aretz, February 2nd, 2009).
Uri Avnery also had the following to say (Dirty socks, Gush Salom, Israeli Peace Bloc, 7 February, 2009):

THERE REMAINS the Liberman phenomenon.

Liberman has created a party that is simply and thoroughly racist. Its election campaign is centered on the demand to annul the Israeli citizenship of “non-loyal” people. Meaning: the Arabs, who constitute 20% of Israel’s citizens.

In every other country, Liberman’s program would be called fascist, without quotation marks. Nowhere in the Western world is there a large party that would dare to advance such a demand. The neo-fascists in Switzerland and Holland want to expel foreigners, not to annul the citizenship of the native-born.

The core of the party is made up of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of whom have brought from their homeland an utter contempt for democracy, a desire for a strong leader (a Stalin or a Putin), a racist attitude towards brown-skinned citizens and a taste for brutal, Chechnya-style wars. They have now been joined by young, native-born Israelis, who have been radicalized by the recent war.

When Joerg Haider was taken into the Austrian cabinet, Israel recalled its ambassador from Vienna in protest. But compared to Liberman, Haider was a raving liberal, and so is Jean-Marie le Pen. Now Netanyahu has announced that Liberman will be “an important minister” in his government, Livni has hinted that he will be in her government, too, and Barak has not excluded that possibility.

Avnery ponders whether what he terms the facism of Lieberman's government is a passing fad, or a serious player in politics. He feels that as the three main parties have legitimized it that it might be the latter.
* The Avnery link was added February 8, 2009.
__________________________________________________________________
More about that school .

A letter to Prime Minister Rudd from Amnesty International

For Australian readers, a letter you can send via Amnesty International to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, calling for an investigation into the war crimes recently committed in Gaza. Please read, and send it, if you agree with it.

From their blurb:

Over the last four weeks the world has looked on in horror as women, men and children have borne the brunt of the conflict in the Gaza Strip and Southern Israel. It is not just the number of casualties that has sent shockwaves, but the high proportion - around half - who are civilians.

Their deaths and injuries are not the inevitable consequences of war, and cannot be discounted as “collateral damage”. These casualties represent mounting evidence of war crimes, committed on both sides of the conflict.

More than 1,300 Palestinians - including over 400 children - and 13 Israelis have been killed in the conflict to date, with thousands more injured.

Our team of researchers have found undeniable evidence of war crimes by both sides in the conflict. And after two weeks on a fact-finding mission in Gaza, our researcher Donatella Rovera and her team are still shocked and horrified by the scale of the destruction caused by the 22-day offensive launched on December 27 by the Israeli army.

And from the blog of one of their workers in Gaza, February 4:

4 February 2009: As we leave after more than two weeks in Gaza, we are still shocked and horrified by the scale of the destruction caused by the 22-day offensive the Israeli army launched on 27 December. The task of reconstruction will be truly immense.

The main priority in our fact-finding research has been to investigate the Israeli forces’ direct and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and their homes, but, before concluding our visit, we also spent some time focusing on the wholesale destruction of factories, workshops and farms, for which it is difficult or impossible to see any possible justification. What we found was even worse than we had first realized.

In the industrial areas to the north-east and south-east of Gaza City there is total devastation; each factory has been methodically destroyed. At the cement factory near the Zaitoun district of Gaza City, we found the same. Every single vehicle – trucks, cement mixers, even the car of the factory’s elderly watchman – had been overturned, dragged through the yard and partially crushed. Whether by design or due to some bitter irony, only a previously broken down vehicle was left untouched and in its place.

To the east of Jabalia, in the ‘Izbet ‘Abderrabbo/Al-Qarm industrial area, we saw just piles of debris between the Haddad tile factory at one end and the Abu ‘Ida cement factory at the other. Pieces of machinery, merchandise, metal sheets from the roof and bricks from the surrounding walls had all been smashed and mangled together by the Israeli army’s destructive machines – particularly their infamous D9 armoured bulldozers.

In the same area, dead cows and sheep still litter the grounds of what used to be a dairy farm, posing a health risk to the thousands of now homeless residents who have set up camp nearby by the ruins of their destroyed homes.

Children are especially at risk. The mountains of rubble left from destroyed houses and factories are now virtually their only playground. Gaza’s schools, which had to be turned into shelters during the three-week conflict for the tens of thousands forced to flee their homes, are now functioning again, but, once the school shift, is over, children have to return to the reality of their devastated homes and neighbourhoods. Read more

They need 10,000 letters to make sure the message carries impact. When I sent my letter, they were at 4871.

Australians do care about this, even though it is hardly being reported in local presses, as shown by these actions by the Moreland Council in Melbourne, Australia.
____________________________________________________________________
From another day from the amnesty worker's blog: faulty intelligence, wanton recklessness, or a combination of the two?, about the damage that drones can and do.

like a charnel house
clean on the surface
black on the inside
I feel like shutting
everything down;
from a hundred years to the next
bones will pile up
within them shards of
my fraudulence
ineffectiveness
and within me splinters of
wrongness
inability
pierce friendships
are lost
I cannot see beyond
what I am not.


(c) 2009 park rose/lizardrinking

ghosts in the park

And shoe throwing, a new fashion. The third time I have read of it over the last few months.

some findings

Some findings in the Israeli Human Rights Watch group, B'Tselem's, 2008 report .

school supplies

readings

Eva's blog and What's going on in the West Bank? . But, some encouraging news .

two short videos

From an American Quaker run peace group (AFSC).



A memo to Obama on Israel, Uri Avnery* (The Nation, Dec 29, 2008)

*Uri Avnery is a veteran of Israel's 1948 war, a former Member of the Knesset, founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement

3)Unfortunately, all your predecessors since 1967 have played a double game. While paying lip service to peace, and sometimes going through the motions of making some effort for peace, they have in practice supported our governments in moving in the very opposite direction. In particular, they have given tacit approval to the building and enlargement of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, each of which is a land mine on the road to peace.

6) By now, the number of settlers in the West Bank has reached some 250,000 (apart from the 200,000 settlers in the Greater Jerusalem area, whose status is somewhat different). They are politically isolated, and sometimes detested by the majority of the Israel public, but enjoy significant support in the army and government ministries.

7) No Israeli government would dare to confront the concentrated political and material might of the settlers. Such a confrontation would need very strong leadership and the unstinting support of the President of the United States to have any chance of success.

9) The Clinton administration, and even more so the Bush administration, allowed the Israeli government to keep up this pretense. It is therefore imperative to prevent members of these administrations from diverting your Middle Eastern policy into the old channels.

Some more background here .
____________________________________________________________________
And a thirty second video that was not shown on DirectTV in the states:



___________________________________________________________________

Business as usual, a joint effort from the two volunteer blogs above.

Aid ship .

For any of my American friends who happen to wander by

For any from the U.S. who might happen to wander by this blog:

Just Foreign Policy and Jewish Voice for Peace have launched a campaign to urge President Obama to reform U.S. policy toward the Palestinians so that George Mitchell's diplomacy can succeed. They are recommending the following:

lift the blockade on Gaza,
authorize U.S. diplomats to talk to Hamas officials,
get serious about ending Israeli settlements in the West Bank,
insist that US weapons supplied to Israel be only used for self-defense, as required by US law.

You can sign their letter here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1814

The petition's deadline is February 23, 2009.

The background of the petition is provided in this article in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/a-window-for-israelpalest_b_160830.html by: John Lewis-Dickerson

This information was originally found in the comments at the Mondoweiss blog.

the boxer

I always thought it said I've squandered my existence for a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises. Closer listening tells me it is "resistance". I should have known, too. My parents had the album and I would play it and pore over the lyrics and sing very badly. The melancholy of the whole album still eats me up, especially The Only Living Boy in New York, this one, and So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright. I couldn't understand in those days of Ballroom Blitz and Fox on the Run, when the sexuality of adolescence was somehow spilling over and impinging onto my own eight or nine year old life, why somebody was singing about architects. Songs were always about sex and love, weren't they? Only dags (nerds) would sing about architects and ragged people.

But really, as Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Sounds of Silence were my parents' albums, and it seemed they had bought none since, the songs seemed to be of an era before me, finished a long, long, time ago, even though its release was 1970, only five or six years previous. But time when you are a child is eternal, and if you are eight, well, six years is more than half your lifetime.

I enjoyed Cecilia, too and Baby Driver, and felt slightly scandalised in my Catholic-schoolgirl-on-Saturdays (the day when I went to learn how to be a Catholic) way, that they sang about things I wasn't meant to know, that is, sex. I wonder how my folks felt to have me bellowing around the house, I wonder how your engines feel, bah-bah-bum. I guess it was euphemistic enough for them to just shrug. I guess I knew in our quietly restricted home that I probably couldn't get away with singing:

My daddy got a big promotion
My mamma got a raise in pay
There's no-one home, we're all alone
Oh come into my room and play
Yes we can play.

I'm not talking about your pigtails
But I'm talking 'bout your sex appeal
Hit the road and I'm gone ah
What's my number
I wonder how your engine feels.
Ba ba ba ba
Scoot down the road
What's my number
I wonder how your engine feels.

The sex appeal bit, you know, and I don't know if I ever clomped around the lino-clad kitchen shouting out:

Making love in the afternoon with Cecilia
Up in my bedroom (making love)
I got up to wash my face
When I come back to bed
Someone's taken my place

And what was with his ... mamma [being] an engineer... (Baby Driver)? Where I grew up everyone knew that mammas stayed at home or worked in shops. They must do it differently in America, I thought. Though it probably also was a reflection on my folks that they probably were the only people in the neighbourhood who had Simon and Garfunkel albums, and who thought that women could be engineers. Just don't talk about it at school.

Ahh, I guess I should bellow a bit more. Am feeling kind of Adrienne Rich, though not quite so severe. Is squandering an existence the same as squandering a resistance? I guess it depends upon whether you have to fight to survive. Therefore, in my case, I think it is the former.
___________________________________________________________________

Responding in a severe and disproportionate fashion *sigh*

water purification

Despite Peres saying on January 30 that there was no siege on Gaza, the news comes through from France that Israel has blocked their efforts to get a water purification system into Gaza. Gaza has very little infrastructure left and, after the recent assault, conditions are rife for disease to break out, as houses and services have been bombed to rubble, sanitation systems have failed, and running water is not readily available. The area was already suffering a humanitarian crisis prior to the Israeli attack.

Chevallier said the equipment was badly needed in Gaza, which is reeling from a 22-day Israeli offensive. Officials had hoped to transport it across the Israel-Gaza border last Sunday but were denied access.

France summoned Israel's ambassador to complain after French diplomats were blocked for hours on the Jewish state's border with the Gaza Strip.

Chevallier said the fate of the water unit was also raised but Israel refused to budge.

"There were a very great number of steps taken at all levels to try to get the water purification station into Gaza," he said (France says Israel blocks water equipment for Gaza, Reuters U.K., Jan 30, 2009).

If they are the same diplomats, there were also warning shots fired in their direction by Israeli border guards, according to this report. If they are not the same diplomats, firing the warning shots was still an audacious thing to do.

Other aid was let through, but anything that might sustain long term self-sufficiency or life is not allowed, or so it seems.

SBS Australia has this video on the aftermath in Gaza. Their videos only stay current for a week or so, though.