GAZA: ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES (IDF) RAID KILLS EIGHT, INCLUDING A MOTHER AND HER FOUR CHILDREN: Yet this time the Italian Ambassador did not request a suspension of the UN Security Council meeting in protest.
Rome, April 29th, 2008
Yesterday Israeli tank shells killed eight civilians, including a mother, her four children ages seven, six and four, and a fifteen month old baby. They were having breakfast when they died under the rubble of their home in Beit Hanoun, in the northernmost part of the Gaza Strip.
Last Wednesday, April 23rd, a meeting of the UN Security Council dedicated to the Middle-East was suspended at the request of Italian Ambassador Marcello Spatafora in protest of a statement by Libyan Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi, who compared “the actual conditions in Gaza to the situation of Nazi’s concentration camps” during the Second World War. I have never said, and never will say, that Israeli policies towards the Palestinian people are the same as those adopted by Nazis against Jews, communists, homosexuals and gypsies. The uniqueness of the Holocaust belongs to our European history, the same is true for the persecutions against Jews, and we have said “never again.” Therefore, I don’t blame our Ambassador for raising objections to comparisons of Nazi and Israeli policies, as made by the Libyan Representative when talking about Gaza.
Yet, I strongly disagree with our Ambassador for not taking any initiative to stop the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, or to bring the collective punishment of the exhausted civilian population in Gaza to an end. Day after day, we hear of civilians dying, of bombardment, of house demolitions, of land confiscations: why doesn’t our Ambassador feel indignation on behalf of those women, children and elderly who in Gaza have no bread left to eat? And also for those in the Strip who are sick and are dying since they can’t access medical treatment? Or, finally, for those students in Gaza who, having obtained scholarships from renowned Universities abroad, can’t leave the Strip because Gaza is closed and its population imprisoned as in an open-air jail? On April 24th, The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugee aid (UNRWA) was forced to stop food deliveries due to the cut-off of fuel by the Israeli Authorities.
Is this not enough of an outrage for our Ambassador? Isn’t it sufficiently outrageous that Israel has refused to grant exit permits to the 1,562 Palestinian patients who need to leave Gaza for urgent treatments? Or that 133 Palestinians have already died in the Strip because of these refusals? I call on our Ambassador to go to Gaza and to see the little bodies of premature babies who may die for the lack of electricity or fuel due to the Israeli siege, remembering though, that even if he wanted to go he might not be able to: the Israeli Authorities, as the occupier, decide who can enter or exit. Even Nobel Peace Prize winner and former US President Jimmy Carter was recently denied entry.
It’s really time for Italian diplomats, EU governments and the entire International Community stop using indignation as a hypocritical tool for a ‘double standard’ policy. They must start listening and supporting the frequent denunciations of Israel’s human rights violations: denunciations coming from Palestinian, Israeli and International organizations, as well as the UN. Even the World Bank, just yesterday, highlighted the dramatic deterioration of Palestinian economy in the Occupied Territories, where, due to the “restrictions imposed by Israel to the freedom of movement and of access in the West Bank,” 35% of the population lives in conditions of absolute poverty. In 2007 the economic growth fell to zero, with continued stagnation expected in 2008. The unemployment rate is currently 23% in West Bank and 33% in Gaza Strip in spite of the 7.7 billion dollars in aid promised by donor countries.
After 40 years of occupation and 60 years of Nakbah, Palestinians have the right not only to aid but above all a future, a future of justice and peace and the creation of their own State: autonomous, sovereign, independent, based on ‘67 borders, with Jerusalem as shared capital and in peaceful co-existence and in security with the Israeli State. They request not just indignation but freedom, independence, legality and real steps from the Israeli Government and the International Community. These could begin simply by ending the military occupation, implementing UN resolutions (that have languished for years), and by ensuring the respect of universal rights. All this will bring freedom and security to Palestinians and also to Israelis: the children of Sderot will no longer have to live in fear of the illegal barrages of rockets raining on their town.
Further information: Luisa Morgantini +39 348 39 21 465 Rome office: +39 06 69 95 02 17 www.luisamorgantini.net
Defend LSE SU call for Boycott of Israel
*15th February 2008*
*LSE Union Demands Divestment from Israel*
The London School of Economics Students’ Union (LSESU) yesterday voted overwhelmingly to call on its university and the National Union of Students (NUS) to divest from companies that provide military and commercial support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, condemning the decades of human rights abuses and systematic oppression that has occurred as a result.
A motion, brought to the weekly Union General Meeting of more than 400 LSE students by the LSESU Palestine Society, resolved to lobby the LSE and NUS to divest from companies that provide military support for the Israeli occupation, facilitate the maintenance of the illegal “annexation” wall or operate on illegally occupied land or within Jewish only settlements. With a six to one margin, the Union voted to support the aim of targeted divestment until companies cease such practices or until Israel ends its discriminatory oppression and colonisation of Palestinian communities.
The Union also resolved to affiliate to the international campaign to end the siege on Gaza and engage in education campaigns to publicise more widely the injustices of Israel’s discriminatory polices. This includes working with Palestine solidarity organisations such as Jews for Justice for Palestinians, the British Committee for Universities in Palestine (BRICUP), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Zochrot and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), in a bid to end the legalised racial and religious discrimination in Israel.
This has been the result of much debate on LSE’s campus over recent weeks, following an earlier motion which acknowledged growing public comparisons made between Apartheid South Africa and the legalised ethnic segregation that has been imposed for decades by the
Israeli state. As such, the original proposed motion was amended to provide consensus across the Union in unequivocally condemning Israel’s policy of ethnic segregation, with 339 students voting in favour of divestment compared to just 46 against.
Irene Calis of the LSESU Palestine Society stated: “This is an historic moment in the struggle for justice and peace for all citizens of the Middle-East. It is time for us to demand our universities divest and stop funding Palestinian oppression. By putting political and economic pressure on the Israeli state, the student movement can not only show continued solidarity with the Palestinian people, but also expedite the end of the Israeli occupation”
Emilano Huet-Vaughn, who spoke in favour of the motion added, “The resounding support for divestment after lengthy debate shows growing awareness of Israel’s systematic discrimination against the Palestinian people and a disgust with the colonial settler regime in the West Bank, and the brutal siege of the Gaza Strip. As a result many LSE students of all backgrounds have voted to take a stand for justice, equality and human rights for all.”
*ENDS*
Adalah: We will Seek the Establishment of an Independent, Impartial Investigatory Committee with the Participation of International Experts in Response to AG Mazuz’s Decision to Close the October 2000 Killings Cases
None of the police officers or commanders involved in the fatal shootings of Palestinian citizens of Israel in October 2000 will face criminal indictment, the Attorney General of Israel, Menachem Mazuz, announced yesterday, Sunday, 27 January 2008. His announcement officially closes the case against police over the deaths and injuries of Palestinian Arab citizens who demonstrated in towns and villages across Israel in October 2000 against the government’s oppressive policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The police used snipers, live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse the unarmed demonstrators, which led to the thirteen deaths and to thousands of injuries.
Mazuz argued in his decision that there was a lack of sufficient evidence to issue criminal indictments against the police officers and commanders. He further found that the police who shot the victims faced direct threats to their lives. This situation, he claimed, necessitated the use of operational judgment and negates criminal responsibility. Thus, even if it could be proven that police officers fired the fatal bullets, it nevertheless could be argued that the shootings were justified.
Mazuz’s perception, as revealed in his decision, is that Arab citizens of Israel are enemies of the state, and as a result the police possess wide discretion to open fire on them. Further, according to the Mazuz, the police officers were facing a real and immediate threat to their lives. These perceptions were sharply criticized by the Official Commission of Inquiry (Or Commission) into the October 2000 events, which issued in its final report in September 2003. In the report, the Or Commission recommended that the Israeli police stop relating to the Arab citizens as enemies. In addition, the Or Commission’s clearly concluded that the use of snipers and the use of live ammunition by other police officers was illegal and that the demonstrators posed no immediate and real threat to the lives of police officers. In Adalah’s view, trust cannot be placed in the Attorney General, who continues to relate to Arab citizens as enemies.
In response to the decision, Adalah stated its intention to seek international justice in these cases. “We will not approach the Supreme Court in these cases. We have now exhausted all legal proceedings in Israel. We will seek the involvement of the United Nations and other international foraâ€, stated Attorney Hassan Jabareen, the General Director of Adalah, at a press conference held yesterday, the 27 January 2008, following the Attorney General’s decision. The press conference was held jointly by the High-Follow up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the Committee of the Victims’ Families and Adalah.
At the press conference, Mr. Shawqi Khatib, the Chairman of the High-Follow up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel stated, “This is a black day for justice and human rights and for the hopes of equality and respect between the peoples. Mazuz, with his deafness, has legitimized the killing and the result is that Arab blood flows freely.â€
Hassan Asleh, the father of Asel Asleh who was killed by police in October 2000 and the head of the Committee of the Victims’ Families, also spoke at the press conference. He read out the names of the thirteen Palestinian youths killed in October 2000 and those police officers and commanders responsible for each of their deaths. He promised that the family members would continue in their struggle for justice.
Mazuz’s decision endorsed the report on police conduct during the events of October 2000 released by Ministry of Justice’s Police Investigations Department (“Mahashâ€) in September 2005. In the report, Mahash announced its decision to close all the investigation files against police officers and commanders implicated in the October 2000 deaths on the pretext of lack of evidence.
Following the release of Mahash’s report, and as a result of public pressure, the Attorney General decided to conduct a review of the decision, and to this end appointed a special investigatory committee within the State Attorney’s Office to review the files. At the time and today, Adalah argues that the decision to review Mahash’s report within the State Attorney’s Office lacked all integrity because the office is headed by current State Attorney Eran Shendar. Shendar was the Director of Mahash during October 2000 and bears direct responsibility for the failure to open an immediate investigation into the police officers and commanders responsible for the deaths.
In October 2006, Adalah submitted a comprehensive report entitled “The Accused†to the Attorney General, in which it addressed the shortcomings and failures of the law enforcement authorities – first and foremost Mahash – in investigating the October 2000 killings. The report primarily exposes Mahash’s negligent work and its failure to fulfill its duty to investigate the criminal offenses committed by police in October 2000. In addition, the report discloses how Mahash concealed significant facts from the public and issued a falsified report regarding the events. Mazuz’s decision included specific responses to “The Accused†report.
For more information, see a special web-report on the October 2000 Killings
End the Siege on Gaza
International Day of Action
Saturday 26th January
The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition will hold a protest at 10am in Adderley Street, Cape Town, on 26th January 2008.
This has been declared as an International Day of Action to End the Siege on Gaza.
Action Palestine is organising a coach from Manchester to go to London
for the protest outside the Parliament
Leaving from outside the Students’ union at 9am
The coach will be returning on the same day.
Tickets: £5
Tickets available from the Campaigns office in UMSU.
Join us in protesting against Israel blocking desperately ill Palestinians from accessing medical treatment and its escalating military attacks on Gaza.
Saturday 26 January, 4-6pm Parliament
We are particularly appealing to medical staff to join us in uniform to visibly express their opposition to Israel preventing Gazans from travelling for lifesaving medical treatment.
‘The human catastrophe deliberately inflicted on Gaza by western policies over the past two years is one of the great crimes of the century so far’. Jonathan Steele, Guardian 11 January.
Israel’s illegal, brutal siege of Gaza is tightening, restricting fuel and electricity, and preventing even medical supplies, food, essential construction materials and paper for UN schoolbooks from entering Gaza . With lethal military strikes being launched on Gaza , and Ehud Barak has warned that an Israeli invasion of Gaza is nearing.
Even those who desperately need medical treatment are prevented from leaving. Over 65 Palestinians have died as a direct result of Israel ’s prevention of access to medical treatment. Miri Weingarten from the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said ‘ Israel intends and wishes to punish the general population in Gaza , and they’re not hiding it — in fact, they’ve stated it clearly.’
Dr Ahmed Abu Tawahineh, deputy director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, has pointed out that since last June, only a hundred patients have been allowed out of Gaza to seek treatment – less than 10 per cent of the more than 1,000 applicants.
How long can this inhuman treatment continue unchallenged by international leaders?
Collective punishment is being inflicted upon the Palestinians for voting for a government against the wishes of Israel , the US and the EU.
Call on the British government to end its collusion with these policies, which are imprisoning Gazans and attempting to destroy their lives by limiting access to food, electricity, clean water supplies and medical treatment.
Action Palestine