Aloha Palestine

Saudi king donates $US1 billion for Gaza
 

January 27, 2009 – 6:19AM

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz on Monday announced the donation of $US1 billion ($A1.52 billion) for the reconstruction of Gaza battered by a deadly Israeli offensive.
“On behalf of the Saudi people, I declare the donation of one billion dollars for programmes to rebuild Gaza,” the [...]

Rabbi told Israeli troops ‘to show no mercy’ in Gaza
 
Mon Jan 26, 9:21 am ET

AFP/File – Israeli soldiers walk on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza Strip as smoke billows in the background, …

JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli human rights group on Monday called for the immediate dismissal of the chief military rabbi, claiming he gave soldiers fighting in Gaza [...]

Hamas slams EU official over anti-Hamas statement

www.chinaview.cn  2009-01-27 01:16:32
 
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    GAZA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) — The deposed Hamas government in Gaza on Monday slammed European Union (EU) Aid Commissioner Louis Michel over his statements holding Hamas responsible for the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
    Taher el-Noono, spokesman of Hamas government, said in a statement that “We condemn Michel’s rude statements, [...]

The Mideast’s One-State Solution
By Muammar Qaddafi
January 26, 2009 “IHT” — Jan 22, 2009 –The shocking level of the last wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which ended with this weekend’s cease-fire, reminds us why a final resolution to the so-called Middle East crisis is so important. It is vital not just to break this cycle of destruction [...]

Hamas to pay victims of Gaza war

Hamas says more than 20,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in Israel’s Gaza offensive [AFP]

Hamas is set to hand out money to Gazans afflicted by Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip.
The territory’s government was due to start giving out the money, expected to total about $45m, on Sunday - a day after a Hamas committee was established to oversee [...]

Why Israel won’t survive 
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 19 January 2009 

From a hill just outside the Gaza Strip, Israelis watch the air assaults on Gaza and dance in celebration of the attacks, 8 January 2009. (Newscom)

The merciless Israeli bombardment of Gaza has stopped — for now — but the death toll keeps rising as more bodies are [...]

Names and Photos of Israeli War Criminals in Gaza

Kawther Salam

Jan 25, 2009
I have decided to publish some names and photos of the Israeli military personnel who participated in the so-called “Operation Cast Lead”, the offensive launched by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip between 27 December and 18 January 2009. The names of [...]

FOR GAZA’S CHILDREN, THE WAY OF LIFE IS ACTUALLY THE WAY OF DEATH

Desertpeace
 
 

Jan 25, 2009

After an unexpected winter ‘vacation’, hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza returned to school yesterday. In some cases, the buildings were gone, completely destroyed by Israeli bombs. In most cases, classmates were missing, murdered by Israeli forces. 

Can any of you [...]

Details on the Arrest of Khalid Amayreh

SHERINE BAHAA
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
With friends like these
KHALED AMAYREH, the Al-Ahram Weekly correspondent in the West Bank was arrested Sunday evening by the Preventive Security Forces (PSF) in Hebron. He was released after two days. Amayreh, 52, lives in Dura, 12 miles southwest of Hebron and has worked as the [...]

When Exactly Did Israel Lose Its Soul?

umkahlil
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
When Exactly Did Israel Lose Its Soul?
In 2009? Lina Hassan (2000-2009)
From 2000-2008?
1050 Palestinian Children Killed
In 1987 when the Prime Minister ordered Israeli soldiers to “break the bones” of Palestinian demonstrators?
In 1982? Sabra and Chatila
In 1967?
Approximately thirty-five percent of the Palestinian population of the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and [...]

Israel acts to block war crimes charges

Jonathan Cook
 
 

The National
January 25. 2009
Jerusalem // Mounting fear in Israel that the country’s leaders face war crimes charges over their involvement in the recent Gaza offensive pushed officials into a frenzy of activity at the weekend to forestall legal actions abroad.
The urgency was underlined after rumours last week that [...]

War is Politics: The Israeli Invasion of Gaza

William James Martin, Axis of Logic
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
War is politics by other means. –
Carl von Clausewitz
 
US President George Bush stated: 
“In response to these attacks on their people, the leaders of Israelhave launched military operations on Hamas positions in Gaza. As part of their strategy Hamas terrorists often hide within civilian [...]

We will survive this latest Nakbah too

May A. Altoukhi | Arab News
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
I, like most people, have been feeling miserable these past three weeks because of the genocide against my people in Gaza. I can neither sleep, nor eat…Some days, I cannot even breathe. I thought that if I shared my thoughts and feelings [...]

‘Cancer within 10 months of attack’

New Straits Times
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
FOR the victims of white phosphorus attacks, the horrific burns are just the beginning of their problems.
If past experiences are to be taken into account, those hit by the deadly chemical can expect to develop cancer within a year of the attack.
Al-Sifa Hospital Burn Unit surgeon [...]

Endless pain for Gaza burn victims

Marc Lourdes
 
 

Three-year-old Sayed Mansour Abou Warda is one of the many children suffering from the white phosphorus attacks. (Inset) Sabah Abou Halimah, a burn victim who also lost her husband and children.
Jan 25, 2009
MORE than a week after the ceasefire, the victims of white phosphorus attacks were still writhing in [...]

Video: Gazans witout homes to return to
 
AlJazeeraEnglish
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
Families in Gaza are returning to the homes they were forced to leave during the Israeli offensive.
Gazan officials say the Isareli attacks destroyed and damaged around 20,000 homes, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Awad spent a day with one family now forced to live [...]

Doctors Document Gaza Horrors

Special for IslamOnline.net
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
CAIRO — A team of Arab doctors who rushed to the rescue of thousands of civilians injured during Israel’s 22-day onslaught against the sealed off Gaza Strip are coming back with heart-breaking stories of horror and never-seen-before injuries.
“The destruction and death I saw in front of my bare [...]

VIDEO: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200912595830751937.html

 
Cairo hospitals treat Gaza’s war-scarred children
 

 
Israel’s cabinet is considering how to protect its soldiers from international prosecution for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s three week offensive, many of them women and children.
Al Jazeera’s Amr El-Kahky has been to a hospital in Egypt, where doctors claim the wounds they [...]

Israeli Soldiers Play ‘Sophie’s Choice’ With Palestinian Mothers

umkahlil

Jan 24, 2009
The sickening horrors to which the Zionists have subjected the Palestinians for more than sixty years defy credulity. I received this message from Barbara Lubin, founder of Middle East Children’s Alliance today:
I entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night with my friend and fellow activist Sharon [...]

Israeli doctors: Hundreds of wounded Palestinians in danger of dying due to Israeli closure

Saed Bannoura – IMEM
 
 

Sunday January 25, 2009
A group of Israeli doctors with Physicians for Human Rights released a report Saturday with their observations from a delegation to the Gaza Strip. They say that due to the overcrowded conditions, lack of medical supplies, [...]

Video: Thousands displaced in Gaza

AlJazeeraEnglish
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
UN struggles to house displaced after Gaza war
Israel has rejected international calls to fully reopen border crossings into Gaza, delaying the massive task of reconstruction on the strip.
That’s adding to the woes of the tens of thousands of displaced people.
Zeina Awad reports from Gaza City.
 
VIDEO: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51199&s2=26
 

:: Article nr. 51199 sent on [...]

Israel proposes 18 month truce with Hamas; Hamas counters with one year offer

Ma’an news
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel has proposed an 18-month truce with Hamas in indirect negotiations taking place in Egypt.
Hamas heard of the offer during a meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Umar Suleiman, who is brokering the talks with Israel and [...]

Infant dies of wounds sustained in Gaza

Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
 
 

Monday January 25, 2009
Palestinian medical sources at Al Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, reported on Sunday that a Palestinian infant died at the hospital of wounds sustained during the recent Israel war against the Gaza Strip.
The infant, Nancy Sa’di Wakid, 6 months, inhaled gas that was [...]

Poll: More Israelis prefer Netanyahu as PM to any other candidate

Haaretz Service
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
Israelis prefer Benjamin Netanyahu to be the next Prime Minister of Israel over any other candidate, with the Likud chairman being picked by 29 percent of those surveyed.
Sixteen percent of those polled said they preferred Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the Kadima [...]

Israeli cabinet grants legal aid to political and military officials accused of war crimes

Saed Bannoura
 
 

January 25, 2009
In its Sunday session, the Israeli cabinet decided to grant full legal aid to its military and political officials accused of committing war crimes against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, defended the Israeli war [...]

Gaza: Urgent action needed to protect journalists

PNN
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
eGaza – During three weeks in the Gaza Strip Israeli forces killed four journalists and directly targeted media offices and cars. This is in addition to preventing the entrance of international media.
The International Federation of Journalists and the Federation of Arab Journalists and a number of journalists’ [...]

Israel must be judged at the International Criminal Court – Universal petition

Jan 24, 2009
Approximately 300 among NGOs and associations ask the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation on the war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. Our support is indispensable. Sign and circulate this urgent «universal petition». 
To the Prosecutor of the [...]

Obama: True Friend of Israel

Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
 
 

Jan 25, 2009
Beware of Straight-A Students!
Democrats are like the good, intelligent students to the Republicans mostly jocks and too rich to study types. Vast stereotypes, both, but will do for the purpose.
Among the Democrats’ goody-two-shoes student types, though, Obama is exceptional. I wouldn’t be surprised at all [...]

 
Video: Gaza zoo destroyed 
Monkeys and camels were among many animals killed by Israeli fire at a Gaza zoo.
By Ashraf Helmi, Videographer, and Megan Hirons, Photographer
 
 

 
 
Jan 25, 2009
 
Israeli troops shot and killed zoo animals
VIDEO: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51213&s2=26
The Gaza Zoo reeks of death. But zookeeper Emad Jameel Qasim doesn’t appear to react to the stench as he walks around the [...]

First Blood: Pictures From Life’s Other Side

Chris Floyd
 
 

Jan 25, 209
I.
Already, Gaza has faded from the front pages of the Western press. Already it is yesterday’s news, yesterday’s massacre, just another in a long, long, endless line of human debauchery. After all, the Western press, the Western establishments, indeed, Western popular opinion, have often countenanced — [...]

Jan 25, 2009 12:05 | Updated Jan 25, 2009 21:44
Erdogan: Israel broke 6-month truce

 
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that Hamas made a mistake by firing at Israel, but he also blasted Israel for “failing to abide” by the Gaza cease-fire prior to Operation Cast Lead.
 

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. 
Photo: AP

“Hamas, without a doubt, erred by firing rockets at Israel, but [...]

Hamas Government Offices Reopen in Gaza

By Robert Berger 
Jerusalem
25 January 2009
 

A Palestinian family sit next to their destroyed house after the Israeli army operation in Rafah refugee camp, 19 Jan 2009

The Islamic militant group Hamas is trying to re-establish control of the Gaza Strip after a devastating three-week war with Israel. Meanwhile, Israel is concerned about [...]

Israel may fund Gaza war with US loan guarantees 
January 25, 2009
By David Rosenberg
War-related defence spending and civilian aid would boost the budget deficit and increase borrowing, said former treasury official Yoram Gabai, who is now the chairman of the Pe’ilim fund management unit of Bank Hapoalim. 
Raising the money at home might impede central bank efforts [...]

Israeli PM in war crimes pledge
 

Rights groups say white phosphorus shells were fired into built-up areas of Gaza

Any Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in the Gaza Strip will be given state protection from prosecution overseas, the country’s PM has said.
Ehud Olmert said troops should know Israel would keep them safe after they acted to [...]

Infant dies after inhaling white phosphorus

Military and Security    1/25/2009 4:47:00 PM

RAMALLAH, Jan 25 (KUNA) — A six-month old Palestinian infant died on Sunday after Israeli forces shelled Gaza with white phosphorus mortar bombs.
Nansi passed out after medical rescuers failed in saving her. The infant suffered from serious complications as she was not able to breathe, [...]

Israeli commanders in crosshairs for war crimes 
Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:43:49 GMT 

Israel has taken measures to protect the identity of Gaza war commanders as the case for war crimes in the populated area gains momentum. 
Israeli authorities have issued an order banning the publication of the full name and photographs of the field commanders of the [...]

Breaking Gaza’s Will
 
Israel’s Enduring Fantasy
 
By Ramzy Baroud
 
January 25, 2009 “Information Clearinghouse” – – My three-year-old son Sammy walked into my room uninvited as I sorted through another batch of fresh photos from Gaza.
 
I was looking for a specific image, one that would humanise Palestinians as living, breathing human beings, neither masked nor mutilated. But to no [...]

 
Children of GazaStories of Those Who Died and the Trauma for Those Who Survived
Rory McCarthy reports from Gaza City on the individual stories of some victims and the physical and psychological toll on an estimated 350,000 youngsters
By Rory McCarthy
January 24, 2009 “The Guardian” — Amira Qirm lay on a hospital bed today with her right [...]

Benn accuses BBC of betrayal over Gaza appeal

By Laura May, Press Association
 
 

Saturday, 24 January 2009
Veteran politician Tony Benn accused the BBC today of a “betrayal” of its public service obligations following its decision not to broadcast a public appeal for funds for Gaza.
Having spoken on the Today programme, he will address a pro-Palestine rally called [...]

Scenes from Gaza

As’ad AbuKhalil, The Angry Arab News Service
 
 

Jan 24, 2009

“Palestinian Rawan Abu Taber, 4, wounded during the Israeli military operations, screams in pain as doctors change bandages to her severe burns, at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday Jan. 21, 2009. Doctors had to amputate her thumb because it kept on burning. A [...]

Aid agencies: Continued Gaza blockade will cause crisis to double

Ma’an news
 
 

Jan 24, 2009
Gaza – Ma’an – A coalition of international aid agencies urged the Israeli government on Saturday to open the Gaza Strip’s border to allow vital goods into the territory.
After 19 months of blockade and 23 days war, Gazans continue to suffer a lack [...]

 
it’s a ceasefire… just not on the beach, not in your home

In Gaza
 
 

 
 
7 year old Ahmed Hassanin, shot in the head outside his home by Israeli soldiers from Gaza’s eastern border, January 22nd.
Jan 24, 2009
On the 5th morning after Israel declared a ‘ceasefire’, Israeli gunboats began shelling, as they had on several mornings since halting the [...]

Gaza: Unexploded Bombs Hold More Deaths

Erin Cunningham
 
 

GAZA CITY, Jan 24, 2009 (IPS) – At first the 44 children that live in the Zani family home in Beit Hanoun were wary of the unexploded F-16 rocket whose tail has protruded menacingly from their garden since it landed in the first week of the Israeli assault on [...]

Uncle Subhi’s Puzzling Questions in Gaza

By Dr. Haidar Eid – Gaza
 
 

‘What can one say to comfort a man who had to bury his entire family?’
January 24, 2009
‘Where can I bring him a father from? Where can I bring him a mother from? You tell me!’
These are the desperate words of Subhi Samouni to Al Jazeera’s [...]

Report: The IOF troops executed many detained civilians during its war on Gaza

Palestinian Information Center
 
 

Jan 24, 2009
GAZA, (PIC)– The Palestinian center for the defense of prisoners on Saturday revealed that the IOF troops kidnapped during their aggression on the Gaza Strip about 300 Palestinian civilians, some of them were executed by gunfire or tank shells.
In [...]

Growing concern over Israel’s weapons use

By Donald Macintyre in Atatra
 
 

Northern Gaza Strip
Friday, 23 January 2009
Whether from delayed shock or not, Mahmoud Abu Halima was almost dispassionate as he pointed to the hole in the roof made by the artillery shelling which killed his father and burned to death his baby sister and three of his [...]

Fatah and Hamas trade accusations of political arrests, torture

Ma’an news
 
 

Jan 24, 2009
Bethlehem – Ma’an – The Palestinian rival parties Fatah and Hamas on Friday traded accusations of each abusing the other’s supporters in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority’s official news agency Wafa published a report accusing Hamas of pursuing Fatah supporters, [...]

Israel Admits White Phosphorous Use in Gaza

IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
 
 

Jan 24, 2009
CAIRO — As calls are crying louder for an international probe into Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, Israel admitted Saturday, January 24, using white phosphorous, a chemical that burns away human flesh to the bone, in shelling the densely-populated strip.
“Yes, phosphorus was used but not [...]

Absolutely Not in Their Name, Not in Ours

Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
 
 

Jan 24, 2009
Absolutely Not! Not in Their Name, Not in Ours 
Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni, Gabi Ashkenazi and Ehud Olmert–don’t you dare show your faces at any memorial ceremony for the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto, Lublin, Vilna or Kishinev. And you too, leaders [...]

video: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51184&s2=25

Video: Unseen Gaza

Channel 4
 
 

Jan 24, 2009
Is what has been presented on our screens and in our papers a true reflection of events on the ground in Gaza? And how do these reports differ to those aired in other countries?
With reporters unable to enter Gaza, attempted media manipulation from both sides and strict regulations governing what [...]

Long term soil devastation in Gaza due to use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium

PNN
 
 

Jan 24, 2009
ImageGaza / PNN – Losses are huge in the Gaza Strip with many of the devastated population still in tears, some little kids afraid to return to school today.
The environmental effects will continue to be uncovered for years on [...]

January 23, 2009

In Gaza, Alarm Spreads Over Use of Lethal New Weapons

by Erin Cunningham

GAZA CITY – Eighteen-year-old Mona al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the United Nations (UN) school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in [...]

Patrick Cockburn: In Israel, detachment from reality is now the norm
All these years on from Sabra and Chatila, has anything changed?

Thursday, 22 January 2009

I was watching the superb animated documentary Waltz with Bashir about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It culminates in the massacre of some 1,700 Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila [...]

Fatah fears Gaza conflict has put Hamas in the ascendancy

Palestinian party created by Yasser Arafat suffers sharp decline in support

By Patrick Cockburn in Nablus
January 23, 2009 “The Independent” — The Islamic movement Hamas is taking over from Fatah, the party created by Yasser Arafat, as the main Palestinian national organisation as a result of the war [...]

January 8, 2009

Holocaust Denied

The lying silence of those who know
 

by John Pilger
 

“When the truth is replaced by silence,” the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, “the silence is a lie.” It may appear the silence is broken on Gaza. The cocoons of murdered children, wrapped in green, together with boxes containing their dismembered parents and the [...]

Video: Mosques not spared in Gaza war – 23 Jan 09

AlJazeeraEnglish
 
Jan 23, 2009
Gazans have started the massive task of rebuilding, after Israel’s three-week war on the strip.
Even its 24 mosques weren’t spared.
But for the first time since the offensive ended, Muslims will be able to hold Friday prayers.
Zeina Awad reports from Gaza City.
 
VIDEO: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=51161&s2=24

:: Article nr. 51161 [...]

The self-defence defence

Rachel Shabi
 
 

Jan 23, 2009
Accusations of war crimes by foreign critics simply bounce off Israel’s bullet-proof sense of moral imperative in its military action
Wartime in Israel is effectively a totalitarian blackout: objectors are denounced as traitors and suppressed or sidelined, while the media almost entirely ignores the consequences of Israeli military actions. This is partly [...]

UN investigator Richard Falk says evidence shows Israelis committed war crimes in Gaza

Ma’an news
 
 

Jan 23, 2009
There is evidence that Israel committed war crimes during its three-week onslaught in the Gaza Strip, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk said on Thursday.
Falk said that the psychological trauma of the civilian [...]

Gaza phosphorus casualties relive Israel’s three-week war 
Special Report: Tim Butcher in Gaza City argues why the true story about Israel’s use of phosphorus shells may never emerge.
Tim Butcher,Telegraph
 
 

Sabbah Abu Halima, 45, suffered burns in the shelling of the village of Atatra on the northern edge of Gaza. She saw her husband and baby daughter killed. [...]

Starve Them; Shoot Them; then Give Them Cancer
An Inquiry into Israel’s use of DIME weaponry in of the Gaza Strip
James Brooks, Vermonters for a Just Peace
Original Article: http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article799

23 January 2009
At the end of 2006, James Brooks from Vermonters for a Just Peace published a three part expose into Israel’s suspected use of a previously unseen [...]

When the assault on Gaza entered its nineteenth day, with no end in sight. Israel continued its intense bombardment of the territory as Israeli troops edged closer to the heart of Gaza City. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians had been killed, more than 4,400 injured, many of them women and children. Thirteen Israelis had died over the [...]

Tomorrow there is a emergency national demonstration taking place to call an end to the terror and bloodshed in Gaza.
The demonstration, which is organised by the Stop the War Coalition, amongst many others, sets out at 12.30 from the Speakers Corner in Hyde Park (nearest tube station is Marble Arch):
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/images/documents/leaflet_100109.pdf
You are most welcome to meet [...]

Israel targeting UN relief workers in Gaza:
The UN’s move came shortly after it said one person had been killed and two hurt when a fork-lift truck on a UN aid mission came under Israeli tank fire at Gaza’s Erez crossing.
The UN’s relief agency Unrwa said it was “with great regret” that it had been forced [...]

40 dead as Israelis bomb two UN schools:
Israel’s assault on Gaza has exacted the bloodiest toll of civilian lives yet, when the bombing of UN schools being used as refugee centres and of housing killed more than 50 people, including an entire family of seven young children.
Most of those killed were in the school playground [...]

Oxfam has reported that the northern town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza Strip was experiencing serious sewage flooding after generators that run the local pumping station ran out of diesel:
International aid agency Oxfam today called on the high level EU delegation, expected to arrive in the Middle East Sunday, to put maximum pressure on all parties [...]

Richard Falk writing for The Nation:
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war.
Those violations include:

Collective punishment: The entire 1.5 million people who [...]

Francis A. Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, argues for the establishment of an Israeli War Crimes Tribunal:
The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a “subsidiary organ” under U.N. Charter Article 22. The ICTI would be organized along [...]