Diary about peace and freedom

Most of the time, we post messages/videos/photos from Gaza, but many of us who have advocated for the rights of the occupied Palestinians in Gaza also have been in the occupied West Bank and have seen the brutality and mendacity of the Israeli Occupying Forces.

We must never forget, all of us who are working for justice in Gaza, that justice for the Palestinians means Gaza, occupied West Bank and Jerusalem and all of the Palestinians in the diaspora deserve better than gas grenades in the chest. They deserve to have their human and civil rights just like any other people, and they have been denied those rights for 61 years.

In this video tape, Bassem Aburahma (nick-named ElFeel, the elephant, for he was always thought of as a giant among his peers) is seen pleading with Israeli soldiers to wait...wait... (saying Raiga in Hebrew) as Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals protested the land confiscation and building of the apartheid fence on vilage land.

The soldiers then shoot Bassem point blank with a high velocity gas grenade which kills him within five minutes. The white-haired man protesting to the Israeli military thugs is also Israeli, outraged at what his own country is doing to the Palestinians. Although the dialogue is in Arabic and Hebrew, you don't need much translation to be appalled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlbzuZ_50mU

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Greta Berlin
Media Team
Free Gaza Movement
www.freegaza.org
www.flickr.com/photos/29205195@N02/

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Many of you have written over the past two weeks asking us what our next project will be and whether we intend to go back to Gaza. We are going back, and this time, we will take a flotilla of boats with us. Some of the steps are listed below, and many of us are already hard at work to make the flotilla a success. If you want to follow our progress, we hope to continue to update every week now as it gets closer to going.

Also, if you have not visited our website lately, please check it out and see what we have added. Look at the wonderful artwork, videos, music and poems that have been written about Gaza at http://www.anis-online.de/2/freegaza/artfestival.htm. You will be inspired, you will weep, and you can also smile at the sheer resilience of the people of Gaza.

Here, then is our update.

1. Several of the board members along with volunteers in the Middle East are now on a fundraising trip through the Gulf area as well as other countries. We have been promised money to help defray the costs of the flotilla organizing, and we are waiting for deposits to our account in Cyprus. If you have not seen our new website information under DONATE, please check it, as we now have a charity set up in Cyprus and a PayPal account as well.

2. Two countries have told us they are sending between 4-6 ships to Cyprus and will load supplies either in Cyprus or in the country of origin. We will be responsible for having the contents inspected once the ships get to Cyprus. Most of the contents will be building supplies, and Derek has laid out a clear plan of what we hope to be able to transport, items such as generators for hospitals and schools.

3. We are busy assembling the land team in Cyprus; Ramzi and Derek are already there, Huwaida and Greta should be there by the end of April or early in May.

4. Passengers have been applying to go, and the only drawback we have will be how many boats the Free Gaza Movement will have with how many spaces available. To date, we have confirmation from Hedy Epstein, Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, Norman Finklestein, Lauren Booth, Yvonne Ridley and a few others who will be announced when we can.

5. The date to leave should be sometime between May 25-May 31 if all goes according to plan. However, those dates may slip the way they did last year depending on logistics, funds and commitments. Many people who want to come are students and professors and may not be able to make it until the first part of June, but, so far, we are sticking to the week listed above.

Although many of us are better equipped to run the project having several voyages under our belts, there is a huge difference between sending one or two boats and sending 5-10 ships from several nations. We will do our best to keep you updated as we can.
--
Greta Berlin
Media Team
Free Gaza Movement
www.freegaza.org

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NOTES:
1. E.g. in the German "Spiegel", "Israelische Armee: Gaza-Veteranen schockieren mit Aussagen über wahllose Morde." by Ulrike Putz, Beirut, http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,614286,00.html
2. See e.g. 'Shooting and crying', von Amos Harel, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072475.html
3. See e.g. http://news.sky.com 20 March 2009, "Israeli Army T-Shirts Mock Gaza Killings", by Dominic Waghorn (URL too long)
4. Guardian 25 March 2009, "Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's shame", by Neve Gordon, http://www.redress.cc/palestine/ngordon20090327
5. Ilan Pappe, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine", 2006
6. Markus A. Weingardt (2002): Deutsche Israel- und Nahostpolitik. p. 33
7. See e.g. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 June 2006 "'Im Auftrag des Gewissens'. Begin war Drahtzieher des Adenauer-Attentats", www.faz.net/s/RubFC06D389EE76479E9E76425072B196C3/Doc~E35BBCD5A37DA47809AD4F6A865C6332B~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
8. Myths like "A land without a people for a people without land", "Arab aggressions/ David vs. Goliath", "anti-Semitic Arabs/Muslims", Palestinian Nazi cooperation (it was far less effective than Zionist Nazi cooperation), Arab military superiority (Jordan was the only country with a decent army then, and the Jordanian king was successfully promised a part of the prey, namely the West Bank); also see John Rose (2004), "Myths of Zionism"
9. This comparison is still forbidden in the mainstream, "for the security of Israel", but it is as obvious as it is founded and necessary. See my essay "The Second Case", Feb. 5, 2009, http://www.anis-online.de/1/essays/23.htm
10. Amnesty International, Press Release, April 1, 2009, United States Delivers Massive New Weapons Shipment to Israel, Confirmed by Pentagon, Says Amnesty International, http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20090402002&lang=e (NB: The German government is co-guilty, cf. (in German): http://www.radio-utopie.de/2009/01/23/Bundesregierung-dementiert-Wissen-ueber-Waffentransport-nach-Israel-Chronologie-der-Wehr-Elbe-Affaere)
11. See press release and updates at www.freegaza.org
12. http://palsolidarity.org

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From jail to jail: a mother from Balata Palestine Monitor 24 March 2009 Omm Ahmad Khadeash is a mother and grandmother who has spent most of her life living in Balata Refugee Camp, near Nablus in the West Bank. She is around 70 years old and has seen everything from the Nakba in 1948 to the brutality of the second Intifada. Omm Ahmad Khadeash Pictures: Palestine Monitor Omm Ahmad was born in a village called Ejzem, near Haifa. Her village was expelled and destroyed by the Israeli military in 1948. Her family fled to Huwarra, near Nablus, and then moved to the Balata Refugee Camp when it was created in the 1950’s. Balata Refugee Camp is known for being very political, the heart of the resistance. Many Fatah resistance leaders in the Intifada came from the camp. For this reason, the Israeli military has been especially hard on the people of Balata. Imposing curfews, conducting nightly raids of the camp in which they break down doors to the houses and destroy things inside, beat people—men and women, arrest, and sometimes kill people for being active in the resistance. Omm Ahmad married at 15 and has seven sons and five daughters. Every one of her sons has been imprisoned. She has never experienced a time where all of her sons were at home together. At the moment, she has six sons out of prison. One was released two months ago and another, Khaled, is still in prison—with a sentence of over 1000 years for being one of the Fatah leaders in Balata. He has four children, the youngest, Aboud, was born on the day his father was imprisoned. Now Omm Ahmad takes care of Khaled’s wife and family—just as she has taken care of all of her sons’ families while they were imprisoned. Omm Ahmad is well-known in Balata for intervening when the Israeli soldiers raid the camp and try to arrest anyone. She will run out and get in the middle of the fight; screaming, and saying “this is my son! This is my son!”—no matter who it is that they are trying to arrest. She will “give the signal” to the other mothers around the camp and they will all run down and scream at the soldiers, and others will join in; screaming or throwing stones. One time, Omm Ahmad saw Israeli soldiers running after a young girl. They caught her and started beating her. “I began screaming and brought all of my daughters with me to where the soldiers were. Some other women heard us and joined us, screaming. We created a big chaos and the soldiers left the girl.” Another time, Omm Ahmad saw soldiers running after a teenage boy who was carrying a flag. When he ran past her house she grabbed him and took him inside. When the soldiers came to the door she blocked them from getting in, and started screaming. Soon, other women started screaming and people began throwing stones. She had a real fight with the soldiers and even took a gun from one of them. But because there was so much chaos around them from the screaming women and kids throwing stones, the soldiers decided it wasn’t worth it and left. During the second Intifada, when the Israeli soldiers would impose a curfew on the camp for being active in the resistance, Omm Ahmad would ignore the curfew and take food and other supplies around to all her sons and daughters and their families. “It was dangerous, but I did not care”, said Omm Ahmad. Omm Ahmad has spent most of her life traveling from one prison to another visiting her sons. “I have never had all of my sons at home at the same time.” Her only son in prison now, Khaled, has a sentence of over 1000 years. His only chance to be released from prison is if the prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel is successful. Hamas, who is holding the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, is trying to reach an agreement with Israel. In exchange for releasing Shalit, Hamas is asking Israel to release 450 Palestinian political prisoners—the prisoners who have consecutive life sentences—and Khaled is on that list. Omm Ahmad was only recently given permission to visit Khaled; once a month—before that she was not allowed to visit because she is known as a “trouble-maker” by the soldiers. Khaled’s wife is only allowed to see her husband once or twice a year. Visiting her sons in prison is like a “trip to hell”. Khaled’s prison is in southern Israel, on the border with Egypt. So when Omm Ahmad makes the trip to visit her son, she must get up before 3am and go to the special bus station in Nablus that has buses specifically for taking family members to different prisons. The visitors must go through many checkpoints, getting rigorously searched at each one. Another humiliating process they must go through before they can visit their family members is being stripped naked. The trip is exhausting, humiliating and takes an entire day. After all of this, Omm Ahmad is allowed to see her son for less than an hour. Recently, Omm Ahmad and all of the families of the prisoners on the exchange list received more bad news. The talks between Hamas and the Israeli government failed, once again. Hamas requires that all of the prisoners are released to the West Bank or to Gaza. But Israel has rejected some of the prisoners on the list and has also said that the only way they will release the remaining prisoners is by deporting them to other Arab countries. Omm Ahmad is worried that Khaled may not be released while she is alive. “They took our sons. They took our land. They stole it from us…they have this belief that this is their land and we should not be here.”

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Israelis Are Beginning to See the Power of BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] / Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Sunday, 01 March 2009

http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1605/381/


In recent years, there has been a gradual growth in the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, calling to put economic pressure on Israel until it recognizes the rights of the occupied Palestinian people and puts an end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, starting on 27 December 2008, which lasted for nearly a month, has given this movement a powerful reason to redouble its efforts. Dozens of BDS campaigns have gained momentum and publicity; dozens of new ones were launched during or immediately after Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip.

These campaigns range from calls to boycott goods from the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to calls to stop all economic contacts with Israel altogether. They include protests at sporting events, two countries cutting diplomatic ties with Israel (Bolivia and Venezuela), and many demonstrations around the world, attended by hundreds of thousands of protestors.

The growing protest against the atrocities committed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip have begun to change something in the Israeli political discourse, and the first indication of this can already be seen in the Israeli economic media.

Although the Israeli economic media doesn't concern itself with the moral dimension of the attacks on Gaza, the economic dimension of recent events have created a rising level of concern. In order to demonstrate this trend, here are summaries of four articles that appeared in the Israeli The Marker magazine for economic news:

1. On 2 February, Guy Grimland warned about a growing phenomenon of boycott of Israeli high-tech companies, and several Israeli companies received letters from European and U.S. companies explaining that they cannot invest in Israel for moral reasons.

2. In 3 February, Nehemia Strassler, one of Israel's most famous economic correspondents, attacked the Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Eli Yishai, for calling on the Israeli military to "destroy one hundred homes in Gaza for every rocket that falls in Israel." Strassler had nothing to say about the Palestinians living in these homes or about the loss of life, but he warned:

"[the minister] doesn't even understand how the operation in Gaza hurts the economy. The horror sights on television and the words of politicians in Europe and Turkey change the behavior of consumers, businessmen and potential investors. Many European consumers boycott Israeli products in practice. Intellectuals call for an economic war against us and to enforce an official and full consumer boycott.

Calls are heard in board meetings of economic corporations to boycott trade relations with Israel. So far deals were canceled with Turkey, the UK, Egypt and the Gulf States, and visits by economic delegations were cancelled. It’s much easier now to switch providers while abandoning Israeli providers. Many company boards are required to take wide considerations into account with regards to the good of society and the environment, and they put political considerations in that slot as well.

Of course there is also an economic cost to severing diplomatic ties. Qatar cut its trade relations with Israel, Venezuela and Bolivia cut diplomatic relations. Mauritania recalled its ambassador and the relations with Turkey worsened considerably—and this bad ambience seeps into the business sector decisions. Here, just yesterday Dudi Ovshitz, who grows peppers for export, said that 'there is a concealed boycott of Israeli products in Europe.'"

3. On 6 February, Shuki Sadeh wrote about even more companies that have decided to boycott relations with Israel. A Turkish company demanded that Israeli companies sign a document condemning the Israeli massacre in Gaza before they can offer their services for it. Sadeh quoted Naomi Klein's recent call for boycott, the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for boycott and Israeli organizations that support the boycott and provide information for the global BDS movement. Sadeh's article also had concerned quotes by Israeli businessmen who demanded government intervention to protect them from the growing boycott.

4. In 11 February, Ora Koren reported that the Israeli business sectors feel the effects of the attack on Gaza. She reported that Israeli businessmen in Turkey are hiding their names so that the local BDS organizations won't learn about their activities, and that the situation is even worse in the UK.

These four articles are a sign that there is a shift in the effectiveness of the BDS movement against Israel, and that if the momentum is maintained and strengthened, Israeli businessmen may decide to move their headquarters away from Israel, or to begin to put pressure on the Israeli government to begin respecting international law, and ending the occupation. (Jewish Voice for Peace)

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