Ovaj post sadrži uglavnom linkove (uglavnom na engleskom) na neke tekstove koji mi se čine zanimljivi i vrijedni čitanja, a koje sam propustila pročitati i preporučiti tijekom izraelske agresije na Gazu.
Vittorio Arrigoni: Guernica in Gaza
Sunday, 28 December 2008
By bombing the central police station in Al Abbas in the city centre, the neighbouring elementary school was also seriously damaged by the explosion. It was the end of the school day and the children were already in the street. Most of their flapping sky-blue aprons were splashed with blood. When bombing the Dair Al Balah police academy, some dead and wounded were also recorded from the market nearby, Gaza's central market. We've seen the bodies of animals and humans mixing their blood in rivulets trickling down the asphalt roads. A Guernica transfigured into reality. I saw many corpses in uniforms in the various hospitals I visited – I knew many of those boys. I greeted them every day when I met them in the street on my way to the port, or walked to the central café of an evening. I knew several of them by name. A name, a history, a mutilated family. The majority were young, around eighteen or twenty, mostly without political leanings, not with Fatah nor Hamas, simply enrolled into the police force once they had finished university in order to have a secure job in Gaza, which under Israel's criminal siege has more than 60% unemployment among its population.
The world's message to Gaza: No one cares
As I look again at the toll of today's Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, my eyes glance across a headline in one of the Israeli papers: "White House blames Hamas" .....and the fury and grief flow through me again. Israel drops 60 bombs on the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of civilians, wounding and maiming many more, and the first thing the White House has to say is that it is Hamas' fault! For what? For having been elected as the Palestinian government in uncontested and fair elections? For taking the unprecedented step of engaging in a unilateral ceasefire against Israel for the last six months, which was never reciprocated or even recognized by the occupying Israeli army? For begging Israel for a ceasefire this last week, but being rebuffed at every turn? The truth is, it doesn't matter what Hamas does, it is their very existence that Israel is trying to eradicate, with full US support. The fact that there is an Islamic movement that stands in resistance to the Israeli occupation is something that Israel cannot stand, and it's clear from their targets in today's airstrikes: Hamas government buildings, police stations, municipal headquarters, offices of the bureaucrats of an elected government. And they struck during rush hour, when the streets were full, in one of the most crowded places on earth, so as to maximize casualties. And the US blames Hamas.
16 year-old has administrative detention order renewed for a seventh time
Maloljetniku po 7. puta obnovljen administrativni pritvor (27. prosinac 2008.)
Sa'd Abu Khalilu je 24. prosinca 2008. po 7. put obnovljen nalog po kojem ga izraelske vlasti drže u administrativnom pritvoru. Sa'd je iz Tulkarema na Zapadnoj obali i bilo mu je 16 godina kad su ga uhitili 28. veljače 2007. Tada je po prvi puta zatvoren administrativnom odlukom na 4 mjeseca jer navodno „pripada zabranjenoj organizaciji, Islamskom džihadu“. Sa'd poriče da je povezan s Islamskim džihadom, a „dokazi koji ga terete su tajni“. Nalog za administrativni pritvor Sa'du je ponovo obnovljen 27. lipnja 2007. (na 4 mjeseca), 26. listopada 2007. (4 mjeseca, smanjeno na 3), 25. siječnja 2008. (4 mjeseca), 26. svibnja 2008. (4 mjeseca, smanjeno na 3), 25. kolovoza 2008. i 25. prosinca 2008. na 2 mjeseca.
Izraelske vlasti Palestince često zatvaraju u administrativni pritvor na temelju „tajnih dokaza“. Izraelska vojna naredba 1226 izraelskim vojnim zapojvednicima daje ovlast da pritvaraju Palestince, uključujući djecu od 12 godina i više, na do 6 mjeseci. Početno razdoblje pritvora od 6 mjeseci može se beskrajno produljivati za dodatnih 6 mjeseci. Ovim se postupkom zatočenicima uskraćuje pravo na pošteno suđenje i mogućnost da se obrane od „dokaza“ zbog kojih su pritvoreni. 29. prosinca 2008. u izraelskim je zatvorima u administrativnom pritvoru bilo zatvoreno najmanje 569 Palestinaca, uključujući 5 maloljetnika, uključujući 2 maloljetne djevojke. Od 2000. godine, kada su izraelski vojni zapovjednici počeli izdavati naloge za administrativni pritvor djece, broj pritvorene djece stalno raste. U prosjeku Izrael godišnje pritvori oko 30 palestinskih maloljetnika.
The dogs of war
Caught between this collection of madmen, criminals and fools are the people of Gaza, who have suffered for far too long and have paid an unbelievable price for simply being Palestinian. After more then 30 months of sanctions and siege, many have become desperately poor, living a daily reality of constant terror and deprivation that few can imagine. Yet, in the face of overwhelming cruelty and a conspiracy of silence and indifference they persevere. That they must do so is an indictment of us all.
Resistance to Israeli occupation – a right?
Palestinians are a people under occupation who has the right to self-determination under the UN Charter, the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations from 1970, and Article 1 of both the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Nir Rosen: Gaza: The Logic of Colonial Power
An American journal once asked me to contribute an essay to a discussion on whether terrorism or attacks against civilians could ever be justified. My answer was that an American journal should not be asking whether attacks on civilians can ever be justified. This is a question for the weak, for the Native Americans in the past, for the Jews in Nazi Germany, for the Palestinians today, to ask themselves. Terrorism is a normative term and not a descriptive concept. An empty word that means everything and nothing, it is used to describe what the Other does, not what we do. The powerful - whether Israel, America, Russia or China - will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism, but the destruction of Chechnya, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the slow slaughter of the remaining Palestinians, the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan - with the tens of thousands of civilians it has killed ... these will never earn the title of terrorism, though civilians were the target and terrorising them was the purpose. Counterinsurgency, now popular again among in the Pentagon, is another way of saying the suppression of national liberation struggles. Terror and intimidation are as essential to it as is winning hearts and minds. Normative rules are determined by power relations. Those with power determine what is legal and illegal. They besiege the weak in legal prohibitions to prevent the weak from resisting. For the weak to resist is illegal by definition. Concepts like terrorism are invented and used normatively as if a neutral court had produced them, instead of the oppressors. The danger in this excessive use of legality actually undermines legality, diminishing the credibility of international institutions such as the United Nations. It becomes apparent that the powerful, those who make the rules, insist on legality merely to preserve the power relations that serve them or to maintain their occupation and colonialism.
...
A Zionist Israel is not a viable long-term project and Israeli settlements, land expropriation and separation barriers have long since made a two state solution impossible. There can be only one state in historic Palestine. In coming decades, Israelis will be confronted with two options. Will they peacefully transition towards an equal society, where Palestinians are given the same rights, à la post-apartheid South Africa? Or will they continue to view democracy as a threat? If so, one of the peoples will be forced to leave. Colonialism has only worked when most of the natives have been exterminated. But often, as in occupied Algeria, it is the settlers who flee. Eventually, the Palestinians will not be willing to compromise and seek one state for both people. Does the world want to further radicalise them?
Kucinich Calls For Independent UN Inquiry on Gaza
Yet in both cases civilian populations were attacked, countless innocents killed or injured, infrastructure targeted and destroyed, and civil law enforcement negated. All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable. It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel's actions.
Neve Gordon: The dire cost of domestic rivalries
What is clearly missing from this list of Israeli objectives is the attempt to halt the firing of Qassam rockets into Israel's southern towns. Unlike the objectives I mentioned, which are not discussed by government officials, this one is presented by the government as the operation's primary objective. Yet, the government is actively misleading the public, since Israel could have put an end to the rockets a long time ago. Indeed, there was relative quiet during the six-months truce with Hamas, a quiet that was broken most often as a reaction to Israeli violence: that is, following the extra-judicial execution of a militant or the imposition of a total blockade which prevented basic goods, like food stuff and medicine, from entering the Gaza Strip. Rather than continuing the truce, the Israeli government has once again chosen to adopt strategies of violence that are tragically akin to the ones deployed by Hamas; only, the Israeli ones are much more lethal. If the Israeli government really cared about its citizens and the country's long term ability to sustain itself in the Middle East, it would abandon the use of violence and talk with its enemies.
Ramzy Baroud: Gaza and the World: Will Things Ever Change?
Strangely enough, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remained faithful to the script, despite Gaza's unprecedented tragedy. On Sunday, he blamed Hamas for the bloodbath. "We talked to them (Hamas) and we told them, 'please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop", so that we could have avoided what happened."
Was Mr. Abbas informed of the fact that Hamas hasn't carried out one suicide bombing since 2005? Or that the 'truce' never compelled Israel to allow Palestinians in Gaza access to basic necessities and medicine? Or that it was Israel that attacked Gaza in November, killing several people, claiming that it obtained information of a secret Hamas plot?
Even stranger that while Abbas has chosen such a position, many Israelis are not convinced that the war on Gaza was at all related to the Hamas' rockets, and is in fact an election ploy for desperate politicians vying for Israel's dominating right wing vote in the upcoming February elections. In fact, the Israeli design against Gaza had little to do with the 'escalation' of the rocket attacks of mid December.
"Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip," wrote the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz on December 28, which also revealed that the plan had been in effect for six months.
"Like the US assault on Iraq and the Israeli response to the abduction of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser at the outset of the Second Lebanon War, little to no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians," said Haaretz.
And why should Israel devote a moment to the question of harming civilians or violating international law or any such seemingly irrelevant notions – as far as Israel is concerned - as long as their „Palestinian partners“, the Arab League, or the international community continue to teeter between silence, complacency, rhetoric and inaction?
A doctor from a Khan Yunis clinic in Gaza told me on the phone, “scores of the wounded are clinically dead. Others are so badly disfigured; I felt that death is of greater mercy for them than living. We had no more room at the Qarara Clinic. Body parts cluttered the hallways. People screamed in endless agony and we had not enough medicine or pain killers. So we had to choose which ones to treat and which not to. In that moment I genuinely wished I was killed in the Israeli strikes myself, but I kept running trying to do something, anything.”
Until Arab countries and nations translate their chants and condemnations into a practical and meaningful political action that can bring an end to the Israeli onslaughts against Palestinians, all that is likely to change are the numbers of dead and wounded. But still, one has to wonder if Israel kills a thousand more, ten thousand, or half of Gaza, will the US still blame Palestinians? Will Egypt open its Gaza border? Will Europe express the same “deep concern”? Will the Arabs issue the same redundant statements? Will things ever change? Ever?
Ostali linkovi:
The story of stuff
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
(crtić je preveden na više jezika: engleski, francuski, njemački, španjolski, arapski, hebrejski... pogledajte na linku)
A Disturbing Night in Iraq: Witnessing the Abuse of 'Insurgent' Prisoners
This story was written in the early days of September, 2008; about the night that I encountered questionable treatment of Iraqi prisoners, while flying in a U.S. Army CH-47 helicopter from Fallujah, to Balad, Iraq. I have delayed publishing it, but more revelations today about the authorized torture and abuse of prisoners in Iraq by Bush Administration officials caused us to make the decision to release this today. The LA Times and other media groups today published articles about a bipartisan Senate report linking decisions made by the former Defense secretary with the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. This report released Thursday, concludes that the decisions of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, were a "direct cause" of widespread detainee abuses. The report says other Bush administration officials were to blame for creating a legal and moral climate that contributed to inhumane treatment.
