Palestine
An Outrageous Massacre to Enforce Horrific Crimes
- Category: Palestine
By Alan Goodman 
May 31, 2010: In the middle of the night, in international waters, Israeli military forces stormed the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships carrying humanitarian relief to Gaza, killing at least 9 activists and injuring dozens of others. This is a shocking, horrific, and belligerent massacre.
While the details of the Israeli attack and killings are not all clear at this writing, and Israeli officials and media are unleashing a massive disinformation barrage, what is known is that the Mavi Marmara and other ships in the Freedom Flotilla were in international waters when stormed by heavily armed, elite Israeli military forces.
Protests Throughout Country; Across Globe
- Category: Palestine
|
At a demonstration today in Istanbul |
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Attacked - Unarmed Peace Activists Killed
The savage Israeli attack on unarmed peace activists has already brought protests and condemnation in Turkey and across the globe. The world condemns these murders, and knows that the number one supporter, financially and politically, of Israel, is the United States.
Emergency Response Protests have been called for many U.S. cities, including Boston, Boulder, Cleveland, St. Louis, Houston, as well as numerous cities throughout the world. Find a complete (and growing) list on our calendar, and at the web site of Gaza Freedom March. World Can't Wait calls on you to join protests wherever you are!
BREAKING NEWS: Israel Attacks Justice Boat; Kidnaps Human Rights Workers; Confiscates Medicine, Toys, and Olive Trees
- Category: Palestine
Israeli Occupation Forces have kidnapped 21 Human Rights workers aboard the Free Gaza boat, Spirit of Humanity, including Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire & former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney [and WCW Advisory Board Member]. For more information, see: www.FreeGaza.org
For more information contact:
Greta Berlin (English)
tel: +357 99 081 767 / <friends at freegaza.org>
Caoimhe Butterly (Arabic/English/Spanish):
tel: +357 99 077 820 / <sahara78 at hotmail.co.uk>
[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] - Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney [also a World Can’t Wait Advisory Board Member] (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.
Israeli Nukes? Not according to the U.S.
- Category: Palestine
By Kenneth J. Theisen
Each year Israel receives billions in funding from the U.S. Israel would not exist today if it had not been for U.S. aid given over the last 60 years. In 2007 the United States government agreed to provide Israel with $30 billion in military aid over the next decade. The transfer of this aid to Israel actually violates U.S. law. But don’t expect U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to seek any arrest warrants against President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials.
In 1976 Congress passed the Symington Amendment. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended by the Symington Amendment and the Glenn Amendment of 1977, prohibits U.S. military assistance to nations that acquire or transfer nuclear reprocessing technology outside of international nonproliferation regimes, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Israel has refused to sign the NPT and for very good reason – it would be in breach of the treaty as it is a nuclear weapons power.
Amnesty International: Huge U.S.-munitions delivery to Israel after Gaza War
- Category: Palestine
By Kenneth J. Theisen
On April 2nd Amnesty International announced that a massive consignment of U.S.-supplied munitions was delivered to Israel on March 22nd. Amnesty stated that a German ship, chartered by U.S. Military Sealift Command, unloaded its cargo at the Israeli port of Ashdod. The port is near Gaza.
According to the Amnesty report, “the German ship left the U.S. for Israel on 20 December, one 
week before the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza. It was carrying 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.” A U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson confirmed to Amnesty International that "the unloading of the entire US munitions shipment was successfully completed at Ashdod on 22 March”.
week before the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza. It was carrying 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.” A U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson confirmed to Amnesty International that "the unloading of the entire US munitions shipment was successfully completed at Ashdod on 22 March”. Some of the white phosphorus artillery shells that Israeli forces used in Gaza during its war were from U.S.-made stockpiles. The overwhelming majority of the other munitions used by Israeli forces to commit violations of international law in the recent war against Gaza were also supplied by the U.S.
Human Rights Watch: Israel Used White Phosphorus Against People of Gaza
- Category: Palestine
By Kenneth J. Theisen
On Wednesday, March 25th Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a 71-page report that provides eye witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus munitions had on Palestinian civilians and their property during Israel’s recent war against Gaza. After the war ended, HRW 
researchers in Gaza discovered spent white phosphorus shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and even at a United Nations school. The HRW report presents ballistics evidence, photographs, and satellite imagery, as well as documents from the Israeli military and government.
researchers in Gaza discovered spent white phosphorus shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and even at a United Nations school. The HRW report presents ballistics evidence, photographs, and satellite imagery, as well as documents from the Israeli military and government.According to the report, Israel's repeated firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its recent military campaign was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes. (The report is entitled, "Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza”)
Three Small Bodies in Gaza
- Category: Palestine
Note – the following poem was submitted to World Can’t Wait comments, by Rick the poet
Three small bodies in Gaza.
Lined on linen in a row.
Like triplets,
all the same.
No blood distracts from their toddler trance
No grimace of death pain.
I cannot but stare at the innocence.
Missing limbs are but there, still attached.
Someone points and the pale sleep speaks.
How neatly is this death?
See the circle-symmetry of centered targets,
slow moving.
Cleansed by the echo of cleansing shots.
Exit wounds all the size of an infant's fist.
Each one, small-chest center.
Already mother-cleansed
and lifetime-wept.
The crowd stirs in uniform misery.
A dance in the greed of hell.
Lonely witness to
the mercy of an American rifle
in the hands of an Israeli sniper
making room for his sister’s house.
Lined on linen in a row.
Like triplets,
all the same.
No blood distracts from their toddler trance
No grimace of death pain.
I cannot but stare at the innocence.
Missing limbs are but there, still attached.
Someone points and the pale sleep speaks.
How neatly is this death?
See the circle-symmetry of centered targets,
slow moving.
Cleansed by the echo of cleansing shots.
Exit wounds all the size of an infant's fist.
Each one, small-chest center.
Already mother-cleansed
and lifetime-wept.
The crowd stirs in uniform misery.
A dance in the greed of hell.
Lonely witness to
the mercy of an American rifle
in the hands of an Israeli sniper
making room for his sister’s house.
Israel Treated Gaza Like Its Own Private Death Laboratory
- Category: Palestine
By Conn Hallinan
Erik Fosse, a Norwegian cardiologist, worked in Gaza hospitals during the recent war. "It was as if they had stepped on a mine," he says of certain Palestinian patients he treated. "But there was no shrapnel in the wound. Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before."
Dr. Fosse was describing the effects of a U.S. "focused lethality" weapon that minimizes explosive damage to structures while inflicting catastrophic wounds on its victims. But where did the Israelis get this weapon? And was their widespread use in the attack on Gaza a field test for a new generation of explosives?
Erik Fosse, a Norwegian cardiologist, worked in Gaza hospitals during the recent war. "It was as if they had stepped on a mine," he says of certain Palestinian patients he treated. "But there was no shrapnel in the wound. Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before."Dr. Fosse was describing the effects of a U.S. "focused lethality" weapon that minimizes explosive damage to structures while inflicting catastrophic wounds on its victims. But where did the Israelis get this weapon? And was their widespread use in the attack on Gaza a field test for a new generation of explosives?
More Horrors Revealed of U.S.-Israeli Massacre in Gaza
- Category: Palestine
by Larry Everest
On January 17, the hail of U.S.-Israeli bombs and missiles, tank shells and bullets that savaged Gaza and its people for 22 days stopped and, at least for now, Israel has withdrawn its forces. In close coordination with the U.S. Israel declared a ceasefire in the war. (On January 18, Hamas, which controls Gaza, declared a one-week ceasefire and the opening of Gaza’s border crossings and the lifting of Israel’s siege.)
The full scope—and the deliberate criminal nature of this U.S.-Israeli massacre—continues to emerge, along with new U.S.-Israeli moves to crush the Palestinian people. And the carnage is staggering. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports (January 19, 2009) that 1,314 Palestinians were killed, including 416 children and 106 women; 5,320 were injured, including 1,855 children and 795 women. Meanwhile, 13 Israelis were killed, nine of them soldiers—three by friendly fire– and 84 were injured. Palestinian casualties will no doubt climb as more bodies are discovered amidst the widespread rubble.
The list of Israeli targets ran the gamut of society: residential neighborhoods, apartment blocks, a UN headquarters, with a vocational center, food warehouse, and fuel depot; schools, universities, money-changers, farms, harbors, markets, and many others.
With Gaza, Journalists Fail Again
- Category: Palestine
by Chris Hedges
The assault on Gaza exposed not only Israel's callous disregard for international law but the gutlessness of the American press. There were no major newspapers, television networks or radio stations that challenged Israel's fabricated version of events that led to the Gaza attack or the daily lies Israel used to justify the unjustifiable. Nearly all reporters were, as during the buildup to the Iraq war, pliant stenographers and echo chambers. If we as journalists have a product to sell, it is credibility. Take that credibility away and we become little more than propagandists and advertisers. By refusing to expose lies we destroy, in the end, ourselves.
All governments lie in wartime. Israel is no exception. Israel waged an effective war of black propaganda. It lied craftily with its glib, well-rehearsed government spokespeople, its ban on all foreign press in Gaza and its confiscation of cell phones and cameras from its own soldiers lest the reality of the attack inadvertently seep out. It was the Arabic networkal-Jazeera , along with a handful of local reporters in Gaza, which upheld the honor of our trade, that of giving a voice to those who without our presence would have no voice, that of countering the amplified lies of the powerful with the faint cries and pain of the oppressed. But these examples of journalistic integrity were too few and barely heard by us.
A Time When Silence is Betrayal
- Category: Palestine
By Michael Ratner
On the celebration of King’s birth I often read or listen to the anti-war speech that he gave at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967—A Time to Break the Silence. It was a powerful statement of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He spoke of how he was told to not oppose the war because his opposition would anger President Johnson and harm the civil rights movement. He was warned that “Peace and Civil rights don’t mix.” King admitted he held back because of this possible consequence for too long and failed to speak out earlier.
I bring this up today when I think about Israel’s recent invasion of Gaza. While we are celebrating King’s birth and the inauguration of Barack Obama, Israel invaded Gaza killing over 1200 people, men women and children, and injured thousands. It targeted UN buildings, homes, mosques, police stations, universities and media outlets. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed—a ratio of one hundred Palestinians for each Israeli. The international law violations have been well documented: disproportionate military force, attacks on civilian targets, collective punishment. The killings of the three daughters of a Palestinian doctor gave a face to those killed in way that numbers could not. Members of my broader family knew the doctor, had visited him in Gaza and heard from during the Israeli onslaught. He was terrified for his family, but had no way out.
When I heard the news of the murders of the doctor’s children I was at the Sundance film festival and had just viewed an amazing and moving film about radical lawyer Bill Kunstler called Disturbing the Universe. The film shows Bill in Chicago during the 1969 Chicago 8 trial. During the time of the trial Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was murdered by the Chicago police. Bill was appalled by the murder, but he did not just blame the Chicago police. He blamed himself and all white Americans. For it was white Americans that for too long had remained silent and accepted the pervasive racism and the murder of Blacks in our society.
Palestine