January 12th, 2009
Updated: Israel’s war crimes must be prosecuted
From: Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle-East
The ICRC has chosen to openly accuse Israel of a specific breach of international law. It is compelling evidence that the situation on the ground is absolutely unacceptable.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053877.html
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine-news-080109?opendocument
The UNHCR yesterday also had forceful words about the conflict, stating openly that this is the only conflict in which people are not even allowed to flee the fighting – more evidence, again, that despite leaflets falling from the sky, people have nowhere to go. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MCOT-7N3HVF?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
CPJME has posted a factsheet on the recent fighting and the official Canadian response: http://www.cjpmo.org/DisplayDocument.aspx?DocumentID=275&SaveMode=0
Here is how you can help the people of Gaza
January 11th, 2009
Gaza diary: Are we not human?
As the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza continues to climb, Mohammed Ali, an advocacy and media researcher for Oxfam who lives in Gaza City, will be keeping a diary of his feelings and experiences.
| Are we not human? |
The air, the sea and the earth in Gaza City are now occupied by the Israeli military. They occupy Gazans’ minds, nerves and ears too.
In a bid to stop my children twitching, jerking, trembling and waking at every sound of an attack during their few hours of sleep and their many waking hours, I put cotton wool in their ears - it has not worked.
I wonder what damage is being done to my children’s tiny hearts. Theirs are not as big as mine, they can cope less with the stress that is being put on them.
READ THE REST HERE
Here is how you can help the people of Gaza
January 11th, 2009
The Guardian: Winning the Media War on Gaza
Rachel Shabi: Twitter, YouTube, blogs – Israel has proved a master of networking. Shame it’s being used to promote a bloody conflict
One of the things that annoyed Israel about the second Lebanon war was that it ended prematurely – without a clean Israeli victory against Hezbollah. The Jewish state considered that this, in part, was the result of a lily-livered international community balking at the sight of more than 1,000 civilian deaths – not to mention the devastation of Lebanese infrastructure – and deciding that enough was enough. Consequently, one of the recommendations of an Israeli committee investigating the war was that Israel set up an information/propaganda coordination body, to keep those pesky liberals on message even when bloody images of the victims of Israeli assaults were relayed across world media.
Israel’s war on Gaza was the first time we saw the “hasbara” directive in action. A body set up to spin (or “explain”, if you like) the country’s justifications for the war, it tightly coordinated key messages and worked on so many levels – mainstream media as well as diplomatic channels, friendship leagues, YouTube, Twitter and the blogosphere – that the effect was epidemic. It got world media repeating the Israeli government’s core messages practically verbatim. Those messages boil down to, and I’m paraphrasing here: “Hamas is a vile terrorist group; they started it, and you must support Israel’s defensive war because we’re civilised, just like you.” For just one glimmer of the success rate, check how many of the US media talking heads collated by the Daily Show use the Israeli government’s own analogy to explain the assaults on Gaza.
READ THE REST HERE
Here is how you can help the people of Gaza
January 11th, 2009
The Independent: Welcome to Hell: Gaza’s unending misery
Israeli forces yesterday pounded dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip and dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as southern Israel came under renewed Palestinian rocket fire. Last night, as flames and smoke rose over Gaza City, speculation grew that Israel was about to launch the so-called third stage of its offensive: the forcible entry into Gaza City by thousands of troops.
In response, Hamas said that the Gaza offensive had “killed the last chance for settlement and negotiation with Israel”. Earlier yesterday, Israeli aircraft attacked more than 40 targets throughout Gaza, striking 10 rocket-launching sites, weapons-storage facilities, smuggling tunnels, an anti-aircraft missile launcher and gunmen. And civilians. In the day’s bloodiest incident, an Israeli tank shell landed outside a home in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya, killing nine people as they sat in their garden. They were all from the same clan, and, said health administrator Adham Hakim, their bodies were so mangled they were brought to hospital in the boot of a civilian car. Two were women and two were children.
READ THE REST
Here is how you can help the people of Gaza
January 10th, 2009
Human Rights Watch: Israel using white phosphorus in Gaza yet US politicians support Israel
January 10th, 2009
UPDATED! Demonstration Today / Manifestation Aujourd’hui
Source: www.tadamon.ca/post/1174
Update: See Radio-canada text and video report on today’s demonstration here
WHEN: Saturday 10 january, 1pm / Samedi le 10 janvier, 13h
WHERE: Montreal Corner/ Coin Peel et René Levesque. Métro Peel
DRESS VERY WARMLY. IT’S -14C TODAY. / HABILLEZ-VOUS CHAUDEMENT. IL FAIT -14C.
Medical Aid for Palestine will be collecting donations at the demonstration
55 000$ Collected so far. Please keep up the effort!
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO HELP
January 10th, 2009
Habib Battah: In US, Gaza is a different war
The images of two women on the front page of an edition of The Washington Post last week illustrates how mainstream US media has been reporting Israel’s war on Gaza.
On the left was a Palestinian mother who had lost five children. On the right was a nearly equally sized picture of an Israeli woman who was distressed by the fighting, according to the caption.
As the Palestinian woman cradled the dead body of one child, another infant son, his face blackened and disfigured with bruises, cried beside her.
The Israeli woman did not appear to be wounded in any way but also wept.
Arab frustration
To understand the frustration often felt in the Arab world over US media coverage, one only needs to imagine the same front page had the situation been reversed.