Shattered Lives in Gaza
Even through all that has happened to him, all that he has lost, Ahmad Dalu has not resorted to religious hatred. He does not blame the Jews he said; he knows that they are not the same as Israel. He blames the governments of Israel and the US. “Obama has blood on his hands,” he said. It was in fact a US made F-16 that the Israeli government used to target the Dalu family. The highly accurate F-16 fighter jet was used throughout “Operation Pillar of Defense” by the Israeli Defense Force to hit civilian targets. Between 2000 and 2009, the United States government provided and paid for more than 93 F-16D fighter jets at a cost of 2.48 billion dollars. ... The day after the Dalu family massacre, IDF attacks on civilians and civilian property continued as if no “mistake” had been made the day before. One such attack was perpetrated in the town of Al Nasassra, between Rafah and Khan Yunis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. This time the bomb fell on a Bedouin family, refugees from the Negev. Over a low burning fire, in a small low room with walls of corrugated metal, a screen roof and a sand floor, Wallid Al Nasassra recounted the tragedy that had befallen his family. Wallid's brother, Teewfiq Mamduh Id Abid, his wife, Amani Ibrm Qader and his 10 children were in their home on the 6th night of the Israeli siege. Some of the children were sleeping. Others were kept awake by the sound of drones which had been in the area every day since the start of the attack. Those who were up were watching TV when, around 10 PM, they heard the sound of a plane. Already accustomed to the sound, they did not imagine that it might be coming for them. But a minute or so later, an Israeli F16 fired a rocket at the tin roofed home, immediately killing two of the children, Ahmed and Mohamad, aged 17 and 19. Two weeks later, the two parents, Teewfiq and Amani are still in the hospital. Teewfiq has a broken leg, while Amani was blinded in the explosion and is still nursing severe burns. Teewfiq's son Sakher also remains hospitalized and in critical condition. The family is hoping Sakher can be transported to a hospital in Tunis that can better treat his serious wounds. The other seven children that survived the blast are staying in the house we visited with their uncle Wallid and his family of nine. Four year old Lama has already had one surgery but will probably need another. Her leg is supported by a long brace with nine thick, eight-inch pins extending up, like pins in a pin cushion, out through a bandage. The pins are holding together her shattered leg bones. Wailing in the orange light of the fire, Lama does not seem like she should be out of the hospital. She and her six year old sister, Fatma, both have raised burns all around their heads. Their nineteen month old baby sister, Sama, is severely burned along her torso and legs. Wallid says that none of the children have been able to sleep since the rocket hit their home. He himself has been so traumatized that he has not been able to water the olive plants that are their livelihood. Instead he goes every day to visit his brother and sister-in-law in the hospital. His house is just 200 meters from the one that was hit by the Israeli missile and the explosion shattered his windows and cracked his walls. Where his brother's house had stood is now a 12 foot deep crater. A piece of the rocket is still there, sticking out of the mound of rubble that was their home. “The resistance fighters did not come here. We would not permit them if they did,” Wallid said. “So why did Israel send a rocket here?” Why indeed? Israeli political and military leaders who authorized or carried out these and other attacks in Gaza failed to meet the elemental requirements of law. US political and military leaders who provided the weapons and who authorized their use in this assault also failed to meet these requirements. An independent and impartial investigation is needed. ... Massive public pressure is needed to end the system of immunity and impunity enjoyed by Israeli political and military leaders and by their US government sponsors. Without accountability for violations of international law, the law will become mere recommendation and the violations will be repeated. More families like those of Jamal and Ahmed Dalu and Wallid Al Nasassra will be torn apart. More lives will be ruined and more children traumatized and killed.
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Israel and Palestine: Who is The Victim and Who Is the Aggressor?
Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the victim's former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, explained the rationale of the blockade: "The idea is to put the 'Aggressors' on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger." A 2008 study by the "victim's" Ministry of Defense of the minimum daily humanitarian food needs of the "aggressor" revealed that the "victim" allowed in to the aggressor's territory substantially less than the minimum daily amount of food needed by the population. Among the items the "victim" prohibited being imported into the aggressor's territory from 2006 until June 2010 were notebooks, cilantro, sage, jam, chocolate, French fries, dried fruit, fabrics, and toys. With the international condemnation of the "victim's" June 2010 murder of nine international activists on the Freedom Flotilla, the "victim" was forced to allow more products in the "aggressor's" land. The "victim" still restricts imports of basic construction materials, despite a shortage of approximately 250 schools and some 71,000 housing units, and restricts travel between the two territories of the "aggressor." ... In a 1956 Knesset speech, the "victim's" Prime Minister David Ben Gurion said: "If I believed in miracles, I would pray that Gaza would be washed down into the sea." The "victim's" Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in 1993: "If only it [Gaza] would just sink into the Sea." In the victim's slang, "go to Gaza" means "go to hell." The "victim's" Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai stated: "We must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure, including roads and water." The "victim's" transport minister and member of Netanyahu's Likud party, on 11 November 2012 said: "We must detach from Gaza in a civilian manner -- electricity, water, food, and fuel -- and transition into a policy of deterrence, just like in Southern Lebanon." Avi Dichter, the "victim's" Minister of Home Front Defense said: "There is no other choice, Israel must carry out a formatting action in Gaza, actually format the system and clean it out, the way we did in Judea and Samaria during Operation Defensive Shield." A member of the "victim's" parliament, the Knesset, Michael Ben-Ari says, "Brothers! Beloved soldiers and commanders -- preserve your lives! Don't give a hoot about Goldstone! There are no innocents in Gaza, don't let any diplomats who want to look good in the world endanger your lives[;] at any tiniest concern for your lives -- Mow them!" Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of the "victim's" former Chief Rabbi and spiritual leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has said: "The army has got to learn from the Syrians how to slaughter and crush the enemy." Gilad Sharon, the son of the "victim's" former prime minister Ariel Sharon, in the Jerusalem Post: "The residents of Gaza are not innocent, they elected Hamas. The Gazans aren't hostages; they chose this freely, and must live with the consequences." We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn't stop with Hiroshima -- the Japanese weren't surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too."
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Israel Is Dangerously Breaking the Ceasefire
Izrael krši dogovor o prekidu vatre (03. prosinac 2012)
U proteklih 4 dana izraelske su snage uhitile 31 palestinskog ribara, uništile jedan čamac, a drugi zaplijenile, kažu na 3 godine, te uništile 4 motora na ribarskim čamcima. Također, ribari tvrde da ih Izraelci više ne napadaju vodenim topovima, već bojevim streljivom, te da, kad ih uhite tijekom ispitivanja, najviše interesa pokazuju za informacije o međunarodnim mirovnim aktivistima u Gazi. Jedan od ribara još se uvijek nalazi u izraelskom pritvoru. Ribari se nadaju da će im dogovor o prekidu vatre jamčiti da mogu isplovljavati do 6 nautičkih milja od obale kako bi lovili ribu. Za 5. prosinac su najavili prosvjed u luci koji će održati zajedno s međunarodnim aktivistima. Izraelske snage su također otvorile vatru na poljoprivrednike u Beit Lahyji. 02. prosinca 2012. Izraelci su pucali na palestinske poljoprivrednike i međunarodne mirovne aktiviste u „tampon zoni“ kod Khan Younisa. 03. prosinca vojnici su toliko pucali bojevim streljivom da poljoprivrednici i međunarodni aktivisti nisu mogli ni doći do polja na tom području. Od stupanja „prekida vatre“ na snagu poginulo je 2 ljudi, jedan na jugu Pojasa Gaze, a drugi na sjeveru, od neeksplodirane bombe zaostale od posljednje izraelske agresije.
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Truth and Trauma in Gaza
The 8-day Israeli offensive in November lasted for fewer days and brought fewer casualties, but it was nonstop and relentless, and everywhere. “At 1:00 a.m. the bank was bombed, and everyone in the area was awakened from sleep. Doors were broken and windows were shattered. There was an agonizing sound, as if we were in a battlefield.” “The bombing went on every day. F16 U.S. jets were hitting hard.” “This is more than anyone can tolerate. We were unsafe at any place at any time.” U.S. media and government statements are full of accounts about the scattershot Hamas rocket fire that had taken one Israeli life in the months before the Israeli bombing campaign. The U.S. government demands that the Gazans disarm completely. Due to simple racism and a jingoistic eagerness to get in line with U.S. military policy, Western commentators ignore the bombardment of Gazan neighborhoods which has caused thousands of casualties over just the past few years. They automatically frame Israel's actions as self-defense and the only conceivable response to Palestinians who, under whatever provocations, dare to make themselves a threat. “Any house can be destroyed. The airplanes filled the skies,” Dr. T. continued. “They were hitting civilians like the one who was distributing water.” The Palestine Centre for Human Rights report confirms that Dr. T is discussing Suhail Hamada Mohman and his ten year old son, who were both killed instantly at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 18, 2012 in Beit Lahiya while distributing water to their neighbors. Dr. T. then mentioned the English teacher and his student killed nearby walking in the street. The PCHR report notes that on November 16, at approximately 1:20 p.m., Marwan Abu al-Qumsan, 42, a teacher at an UNRWA school, was killed when Israeli Occupation Forces bombarded an open space area in the southeast section of Beit Lahia town. He had been visiting the house of his brother, Radwan, 76, who was also seriously wounded. And Dr. T. mentioned the Dalu family. “They were destroyed for no reason. You can go visit there.”
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We Want It to Stop
While they were talking, at approximately 10:35 pm, the Israeli Air Force fired three rockets from a U.S.-provided F-16 bomber into a nearby olive grove. Ahmed's house rocked, all his windows shattered, electricity went out plunging the family in darkness, and Ahmed's fifteen year old son Nader screamed from the next room that his brother was dead. When Ahmed went into the room, he saw, with horror, that it was true. A fleck of shrapnel from the rocket had killed his youngest son, eight year-old Fares Basyouni. Fares had been completely decapitated but for a strip of flesh from the side of his face. The child's blood covered the ceiling, the walls and the floor.
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Tonight I am Confused
The Israeli Offensive Forces insist they protect civilians in Gaza, only targeting terrorists. They have several methods to protect innocent civilians. One method is to call the civilians on the phone, another method is to drop leaflets telling them to flee for their lives, as an attack is imminent. During the latest offensive, Israeli dropped leaflets in the rural areas telling people to flee to the city. In Gaza City, leaflets were dropped warning people to flee to the rural areas. A new, ingenious method they use to protect civilians is to drop 'loud, non-lethal bombs' on a home as a warning for the inhabitants as to what will come. They even have a name for this warning. They call it 'roof tapping'. Then anywhere from 3 minutes to 20 minutes pass before they bomb the house from F-16's. These bombs are a very large and very lethal. The homes I have seen today have been completely flattened, and the houses around the target are also rendered uninhabitable. The 'non-lethal bombs' penetrate rooftops and can travel through 4 stories. Children or other civilians sitting under these bombs lose limbs, suffer head trauma, shrapnel wounds, and other injuries. The idea behind these warnings is that inhabitants will flee their homes once they are warned. If elders, small children, newborns, or disabled people are in the home, this can be a difficult endeavor. If a child suffers an amputation, fleeing will take a little more precious time. But lets ignore these complications as they just muddy the waters. I am amazed at the generosity of the Israeli occupiers. You see, they are the “Most moral army in the world,” everyone knows this. The generals and politicians have been saying this for decades! But this is my consternation. If you are so bent on protecting civilians and killing ‘terrorists’ why warn civilians to leave? Do they think the terrorists, who everyone knows hide behind civilians, will remain behind after the warning? An even more confounding question remains. Why flatten an empty home?
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