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Open Letter to Israeli soldiers - PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY --- APOLOGIES FOR DUPLICATE MAILINGS ---
Friends,
As you may know, American Jews for a Just Peace has written an Open Letter to Israeli soldiers calling on them to refuse to take part in war crimes and atrocities in Gaza. We are gathering signatures from Jews all over the world, and hope to raise enough money to publish the Open Letter as an ad in Ha'aretz in the coming days. The views of "World Jewry" still carry some weight in Israel, and we owe it to both the people of Gaza and to the Israeli soldiers to try to raise our voices in opposition to the horror we are watching unfold day by day.
If you haven't already done so, I invite you to read and sign the Open Letter. If you can contribute even a small amount, it will help us toward the total advertisement cost. Organizational signers are invited to email info@ajjp.org to authorize organizational participation.
A link to the Open Letter is on the front page of AJJP's website: www.ajjp.org .
In these dark days, it is good to be able to do something -- anything. I hope you will join this effort.
Hannah Schwarzschild
for the Coordinating Committee
AMERICAN JEWS FOR A JUST PEACE
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The DAILY SHOW with Jon Stewart
Strip Maul
Israel gets their bombing in before the January 20th hope and change deadline.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=213380&title=strip-maul
Gallery: Gaza Demonstration Montreal
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Gallery+Gaza+Demonstration+Montreal/1141378/story.html
We will not go down (Song for Gaza)
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfhoU66s4Y
MY LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRONICLE PROTESTING THE TOTALLY
INACCURATE REPORT OF THE JAN. 10 "LET GAZA LIVE" DEMONSTRATION--
FULL ARTICLE BELOW:
12) Peaceful S.F. protest of Israel's Gaza bombing
Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, January 11, 2009
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/11/MNK6157880.DTL
Here's a link to some great photos of yesterdays protest:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/10/18561295.php
Dear Editor,
Deborah Gage's article reporting on the January 10 "Let Gaza Live" demonstration sighting "More than 1,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators and a few hundred pro-Israel demonstrators" was in the ballpark only on the number of pro-Israeli demonstrators; but was off by at least ten-to-one on the number of those demonstrating against Israel!
Even your own photos on your website can testify to this fact! There were at least seven to ten thousand people marching in protest of this most horrible and criminal assault upon a defenseless and imprisoned people.
As one of many Jewish woman and men at this demonstration-and there were many more pro--Palestinian Jewish people protesting Israel than the tiny group of pro-Israeli Zionists that stood on half-a-sidewalk directly outside of City Hall--clearly, the Israeli Zionists do NOT speak for us!
We will keep to the streets demanding END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL! NOT ONE MORE DOLLAR! NOT ONE MORE DIME! STOP THE HORROR! STOP THE CRIME! LONG LIVE PALESTINE!
Sincerely,
Bonnie Weinstein
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Stop the Bombing and Blockade of Gaza!
End all U.S. Aid to Israel!
Bring the Troops Home Now from Iraq and Afghanistan!
A Statement Issued by the National Assembly to
End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
Join with the National Assembly and other coalitions, networks and organizations on March 21, 2009 for a national mass March on the Pentagon in D.C. (and actions in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities) to demand:
Stop the Wars Against Iraq and Afghanistan! -Bring the Troops Home Now!
End U.S. Support for the Occupation of Palestine!
No to U.S. Wars Against Iran and Pakistan!
Money for Jobs, Health Care, Housing, Pensions, and Education-Not for Wars and Corporate Bailouts!
For further information contact:
National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
natassembly.org, natassembly@aol.com, 216-736-4704
As of January 3, the Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza has killed over 450 Palestinians-the largest number of people killed by Israel in such a short time in decades. 1,600 more have been wounded, an overwhelming number of whom are civilians-women, children and the elderly. The massing of soldiers and tanks along the Gaza border suggests that additional horrors are contemplated.
The ruination of Gaza has been long in the making. Over 75 percent of Gaza's inhabitants are refugees from land that became Israel. They have been denied the internationally recognized right to return to their homes and are now denied the elementary right to flee relentless bombing and a threatened invasion. These are the families who had developed the agriculture and economy of Palestine under the rule of foreign empires for generations. Ripped from their land, they were crowded into what is now the most densely populated 360 square kilometers in the world.
Their homes have been bulldozed, their crops and livelihoods destroyed, food and fuel severely restricted, their borders closed, their water pilfered by settlers, their fishing restricted.
In 2006, the Palestinians of Gaza conducted a democratic election and chose Hamas as the governing party. They have desperately reached out to obtain basic food, medical supplies and the essentials for survival that have been denied them. It is for these "crimes" that the Palestinians of Gaza are being punished-for choosing their own leaders, seeking freedom, and refusing to be driven from their homeland.
The people of Gaza have seen their elected officials imprisoned. They have been put on a starvation diet and placed in darkness by an internationally-enforced blockade. They are subjected to nighttime sonic booms that shatter windows and cause miscarriages, and suffer recurring aerial bombardments that have decimated their infrastructure.
The Hamas government's signing and enforcement of the June 2008 truce with Israel led to no relief from this relentless siege. On November 4, Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians. Isolated shelling attacks from Gaza, which resulted in few, if any, Israeli casualties, have been used as a pretext by Israel to launch genocidal attacks, which have been denounced by people around the world. Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, now says this will be a "war to the bitter end."
The Israeli government claims that Gaza is no longer "occupied" since "settlers" were withdrawn a few years ago. This is a boldface lie used to abdicate legal and moral responsibility for the welfare of an occupied people and to demonstrate that Gazans cannot govern themselves and live peacefully with their neighbors. A land that is completely surrounded and controlled, lacking the very basics of survival, is even more cruelly "occupied" than before. This describes a prison, not a sovereign territory.
The horrors experienced in Gaza are closely linked to the murderous U.S. wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which aim to control the resources in the Middle East. The systematic torture of Gaza, many call genocide, is a crime against all people of this planet. No one can be free while others are oppressed. It is time for the people of the world to unite and say, "No to the U.S.-Backed Israeli War in Gaza!" and "No to the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!"
The atrocities carried out against Gaza are made possible by $3 billion in yearly U.S. aid to Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, with $30 billion more to be allocated over the next ten years. Israel has the fourth largest military in the world.
Hundreds of billions of our tax dollars go yearly for the U.S. war machine-for the most modern weapons of mass destruction, mainly profiting U.S. contractors and weapons makers."
We demand that Congress and the current president of the United States end all support for Israel's war, invasion and occupation of Palestine. We join with people all across the world in demanding that Israel initiate an immediate cease fire and withdraw all military forces from Gaza. We call upon president-elect Barack Obama to denounce the present atrocities committed against the people of Gaza. We call upon the people of the U.S. and the international community to declare solidarity and to offer all assistance to the besieged Palestinians.
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U.S. resisters' solidarity with Israeli "shministim" refusers
Courage to Resist
Statement signed by over two dozen U.S. military war resisters. Reprinted by AlterNet, Democracy Now, The Progressive, Common Dreams, Indymedia, and Daily Kos.
We are U.S. military servicemembers and veterans who have refused or are currently refusing to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We stand in solidarity with the Israeli Shministim (Hebrew for "12th graders") who are also resisting military service. About 100 Israeli high school students have signed an open letter declaring their refusal to serve in the Israeli army and their opposition to "Israeli occupation and oppression policy in the occupied territories and the territories of Israel." In Israel, military service is mandatory for all graduating high school seniors, and resisters face the possibility of years in prison.
Read more at:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
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Reminder from: Justice4Oscar_GRANT Yahoo! Group
Justice for Oscar Grant! Emergency Meeting
Sunday January 11, 2009, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Revolution Books
2425 Channing Way Berkeley / (1/2 block off Telegraph Avenue)
Bekeley
510-848-1196
Notes:
Why can't this system stop police brutality and murder? Why does it justify and protect murdering pigs every time? Why can't it offer our youth something better? Because like we say in Revolution newspaper's The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of this System and the Revolution We Need, "The oppression of Black people has been at the very heart of the fabric and functioning of this country, since its beginning and up to the present time," and that only revolution "could deal with and overcome that oppression, bringing in an entirely different, and far better, system as part of getting to a whole new, emancipated world." So join with us to live andfight for that future.
The Whole Damn System is Guilty!
Humanity Needs Revolution More Than Ever!
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PROTEST THE MURDER OF OSCAR GRANT III
and All Victims of Police Brutality!
Wednesday, January 14, 4:00 P.M.
Rally and March
Gather at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall
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Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
January 11, 2009
LET GAZA LIVE!
Fourth Al-Awda West Coast Regional Conference
Sunday February 8, 2009 at The University of California in San Diego (UCSD)
hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine
Save the Date! Mark Your Calendars! Plan to Attend!
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition's Al-Awda chapters in Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego thank all who took part in the Mass Rally and March in Los Angeles yesterday January 10 as part of the Let Gaza Live National Emergency Day of Mass Action and Protest that took place around the country. Thousands took to the streets demanding an immediate end to the carnage that is being carried out by the 'Israeli' military against our people in the Gaza Strip, and to demand an end to the political, economic and military support it has received from the US administration.
As announced at the protests, please take note that the Fourth Al-Awda West Coast Regional Conference, LET GAZA LIVE!, will take place Sunday February 8, 2009 at The University of California in San Diego (UCSD). This conference will be hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine. All members and supporters of the Right to Return movement on the West Coast are urged to participate in this important and timely one day conference.
Save the Date, Mark Your Calendars, and Plan to Attend.
Further details will be posted over the next few days and as soon as they become available.
Until Return,
Al-Awda Chapters in Southern California
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible.
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March on the Pentagon! March 21, 2009
The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations is joining with other coalitions, organizations, and networks in a united MARCH 21 NATIONAL COALITION to organize the broadest mobilization of people across the United States to take part in a March on the Pentagon on the sixth year of the military invasion and occupation of the Iraq War: Saturday, March 21.
Demonstrations will also be held on that date in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities across the U.S.
These actions will remind the nation that all U.S. military forces must be brought home from Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the U.S. antiwar movement - marching behind a banner demanding "Out Now!' - will intensify its struggle to make it happen.
The actions are needed to assure the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries threatened by Washington's expansionist policies that tens of millions of people in this country support their right to settle their own destinies without U.S. interventions, occupations and murderous wars. International law recognizes - and we demand - that the U.S. respect the right to self-determination. We reject any notion that the U.S. is the world's self-appointed cop.
The March 21 united mass actions are also needed at this time of economic meltdown to demand jobs for all; a moratorium on foreclosures; rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure; guaranteed, quality health care for all; an end to the ICE raids and deportations; and funding for sorely needed social programs. So long as trillions of dollars continue to be spent on wars, occupations, and bailouts to the banks and corporate elite, the domestic needs of the people of the U.S. can never be met.
The So-called Status of Forces Agreement
As for Iraq, the so-called "Status of Forces Agreement" offers proof positive that far from ending the U.S. occupation, the plan is to extend it indefinitely. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops and mercenary soldiers will be maintained to carry out a number of stated missions, but in reality their aim is to carry out the one mission that is not stated: Ensure the U.S. subjugation of Iraq to exploit its oil resources and dominate the Middle East.
Any doubt about Washington's intentions should be dispelled by the statement by Gen. Raymond Odierno who said on December 13, 2008 that U.S. forces would remain indefinitely in dozens of bases in Iraq cities, despite the language in the Status of Forces Agreement that appears to require a withdrawal from urban areas by next summer. (Wall Street Journal 12/15/08)
As for Afghanistan, it is not the "good war" claimed by the Obama administration and the power structure, which plans to increase the number of U.S. troops in that country by 20,000. Afghanistan will prove to be another U.S. Vietnam. The Soviet Union's intervention in Afghanistan resulted in a million Afghanis being killed, along with 15,000 Soviet troops. The U.S. war will only result in a continuation of the slaughter that has been the hallmark of all previous occupations by foreign powers.
The daily U.S. bombing and killing of Afghanis attending weddings, classes, funerals, or simply trying to survive shows how cruel and deadly this war is. It is directed against the same forces that the U.S. armed, financed, and helped bring to power.
Why is the U.S. at war against Afghanistan? To gain control of a pipeline across that country. (See the 1998 statement submitted to Congress by the Union Oil Company of California, which later merged with Chevron, stressing the need to build a natural gas pipeline across Afghanistan. And note Dick Cheney's 1998 statement made when he was chief executive of a major oil services company: "I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian," which led the Guardian newspaper to remark "But the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved. The only route that would make both political and economic sense is through Afghanistan.")
The March 21 demonstration will also highlight the dangers of expanding Washington's two wars to Iran and Pakistan. It will also condemn U.S. support for the continued occupation of Palestine.
The National Assembly
From its inception, the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations has called for united antiwar demonstrations this spring. We urge the entire movement to unite now around March 21. We will do everything possible to make this unity a reality.
Think of the civil rights, union, anti-Vietnam War, women's liberation and gay rights movements. They would not have achieved victories without having built truly massive movements that were able to organize repeated and powerful independent mobilizations in the streets.
Why the demonstration in Washington? Because it is the seat of power, where foreign and domestic policies are decided, where money for war is allocated, and bailouts of the banking industry and corporate rich are given away.
Join us in mobilizing the largest possible outpouring of antiwar opposition built by a united movement on March 21. Let's march and continue to march until all U.S. forces come home, U.S. bases are dismantled, and the sovereign people of the world have the right to control their own resources and determine their own futures.
To endorse the March 21 March on the Pentagon, please click here.
http://natassembly.org/Continuation.html#March21
To send a contribution to support the National Assembly's work, please click here.
http://natassembly.org/donate.html
For more information, please visit the National Assembly's website at www.natassembly.org or write natassembly@aol.com or call 216-736-4704.
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MARCH 21 NATIONAL COALITION FOR A MARCH ON THE PENTAGON
ON THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRAQ WAR
SATURDAY, MARCH 21, DC, SF, LA AND SEATTLE
The ANSWER Coalition is joining with other coalitions, organizations, and networks in a March 21 National Coalition to bring people from all walks of life and from all cities across the United States to take part in a March on the Pentagon on the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war: Saturday, March 21.
The Iraqi journalist Muntather Al-Zaidi spoke for millions of Iraqis and outraged people everywhere when he threw his shoes at George Bush during Bush's publicity stunt "victory lap" in Baghdad yesterday. As he threw his shoes, Muntather said, "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!"
Tragically, the criminal occupation of Iraq will not be over even by the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in March 2009. People around the world will be marching together on the sixth anniversary in the strongest possible solidarity with the people of Iraq demanding an end to the occupation of their country.
Marking the sixth anniversary of the criminal invasion of Iraq, on March 21, 2009, thousands will March on the Pentagon to say, "Bring the Troops Home NOW!" We will also demand "End Colonial Occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Everywhere" and "Fund Peoples' Needs Not Militarism and Bank Bailouts." We will insist on an end to the war threats and economic sanctions against Iran. We will say no to the illegal U.S. program of detention and torture.
To endorse the March 21 March on the Pentagon, click here. To sign up to be a Transportation Organizing Center, click here.
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=4580&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS
While millions of families are losing their homes, jobs and healthcare, the real military budget next year will top one trillion dollars--that's $1,000,000,000,000. If used to meet people's needs, that amount could create 10 million new jobs at $60,000 per year, provide healthcare for everyone who does not have it now, rebuild New Orleans, and repair much of the damage done in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost for the occupation of Iraq alone is $400 million each day, or about $12 billion each month.
The war in Iraq has killed, wounded or displaced nearly one third of Iraq's 26 million people. Thousands of U.S. soldiers have been killed, and hundreds of thousands more have suffered severe physical and psychological wounds. The U.S. leaders who have initiated and conducted this criminal war should be tried and jailed for war crimes.
The idea that the U.S. is in the process of ending the criminal occupation of Iraq is a myth. Washington and its dependent Iraqi government signed a "Status of Forces" agreement, supposedly calling for the U.S. military to leave Iraqi cities by July 1, 2009, and all of Iraq by 2012. But even this outrageous extension of an illegal occupation is just one more piece of deception, as was soon made clear by top U.S. and Iraqi officials.
The ink was hardly dry on the agreement when, on December 12, official Iraq government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh dismissed the idea that U.S. troops would leave by 2012: "We do understand that the Iraqi military is not going to get built out in the three years. We do need many more years. It might be 10 years."
The next day, General Raymond Odierno, commander of "coalition (U.S.) forces" in Iraq, stated that thousands of U.S. troops could remain inside Iraqi cities after July 1, 2009, as part of "training and mentoring teams."
Government propaganda aside, the reality remains that only the people can end the war and occupation in Iraq. To sign up to be a Transportation Organizing Center, click here.
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=4680&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS
The war in Afghanistan is expanding. The incoming administration and Congressional leaders have promised to send in more troops.
Federal bailouts and loan guarantees for the biggest banks and investors, many of whom have also made billions in profits from militarism, are already up to an astounding $7.2 trillion this year. None of that money is earmarked for keeping millions of foreclosed and evicted families in their homes.
Coming just two months after the inauguration of the next president, the March 21, 2009, March on the Pentagon will be a critical opportunity to let the new administration in Washington hear the voice of the people demanding an immediate end to war and occupation, and demanding economic justice. Joint actions will take place on the West Coat in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Sincerely,
Brian Becker
National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition
P.S. You can make a difference. Please continue to support the ANSWER Coalition's crucial anti-war work by making your end-of-the-year tax-deductible donation online using our secure server by clicking here, where you can also find information on how to donate by check.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
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"A slave-owner who through cunning and violence shackles a slave in chains, and a slave who through cunning and violence breaks the chains - let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that they are equals before a court of morality!"
-Leon Trotsky, "Their Morals and Ours," 1938
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/morals/morals.htm
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Doctor Decries Israeli Attacks
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev6ojm62qwA&feature=channel_page
Israeli Crimes of War in Gaza
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=3ebswF8Kly4
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) What You Don't Know About Gaza
By RASHID KHALIDI
Op-Ed Contributor
January 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html
2) Israel and Hamas Rebuff U.N. Cease-Fire Call
By ETHAN BRONNER
January 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/world/middleeast/10mideast.html?hp
3) 2 Qaeda Leaders Killed in U.S. Strike in Pakistan
[They were Qaeda according, of course, to the CIA...bw]
By ERIC SCHMITT
January 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/asia/09pstan.html?ref=world
4) Major Push Is Needed to Save Afghanistan, General Says
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
January 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/washington/09petraeus.html?ref=world
5) PROTEST POLICE SHOOTING IN OAKLAND!
JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
JAIL KILLER COPS!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
LACFreeMumia@aol.com
6) Resolution of the Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice - January 4, 2009
Condemn Israel's Assault on Gaza
7) Gaza
Socialist Viewpoint Editorial (Publication Pending)
January/February 2009
socialistviewpoint.org
8) The West Bank: We're all Hamas now - supporters of Fatah unite behind enemy
By Ben Lynfield in Ramallah
Friday, 9 January 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-west-bank-were-all-hamas-now--supporters-of-fatah-unite-behind-enemy-1242606.html
9) Canada expels US woman deserter
Story from BBC NEWS
January 8, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7817078.stm
10) As His Inmates Grew Thinner, a Sheriff's Wallet Grew Fatter
By ADAM NOSSITER
January 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/us/09sheriff.html?ref=us
11) 30 Confirmed Dead in Shelling of Gaza Family
By ALAN COWELL
January 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/world/middleeast/10zeitoun.html?ref=world
12) Peaceful S.F. protest of Israel's Gaza bombing
Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, January 11, 2009
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/11/MNK6157880.DTL
13) The Sand Creek logic of the Gaza Massacre
Friday, January 9, 2009
By Travis Wilkerson
http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10911
[ALSO CHECK OUT: http://sandcreekmassacre.net/videos/]
14) Gaza: Canadian Union of Postal Workers calls for boycott
by Denis Lemelin, National President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
January 7th, 2009
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=18088
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/2597
15) Oakland Education Association Condemns Israeli Assault On Gaza And Role Of US Government
by Oakland Education Association
Wednesday Jan 7th, 2009 5:35 PM
http://www.oaklandea.org
16) Gaza medics face war's carnage, horrors daily
'What can you do? ... I want to smash my head against a wall,' a medic says
updated 3:27 p.m. PT, Sat., Jan. 10, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28594770/
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1) What You Don't Know About Gaza
By RASHID KHALIDI
Op-Ed Contributor
January 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html
NEARLY everything you've been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip.
THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.
THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza's air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
THE BLOCKADE Israel's blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.
The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment - with the tacit support of the United States - of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.
THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.
WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
This war on the people of Gaza isn't really about rockets. Nor is it about "restoring Israel's deterrence," as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: "The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people."
Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming "Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East."
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2) Israel and Hamas Rebuff U.N. Cease-Fire Call
By ETHAN BRONNER
January 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/world/middleeast/10mideast.html?hp
JERUSALEM - Israel and Hamas rebuffed a United Nations call for a cease-fire in the 14-day Gaza war on Friday, with Israel saying continued barrages of rocket fire from its adversaries made the United Nations resolution "unworkable."
In a statement after a cabinet meeting as the two sides traded fire, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Israeli military would "continue acting to protect Israeli citizens and will carry out the missions it was given," according to news reports.
Officials from Hamas dismissed the United Nations resolution, according to news reports, although one official said it was being studied.
In Beirut, a Hamas spokesman, Raafat Morra, said the resolution "does not suit us because it is not in the best interest of the Palestinian people," Agence France-Presse reported.
As the war continued unchecked on Friday, the Israeli military said its forces attacked more than 50 targets overnight despite the United Nations vote on Thursday night calling for "an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire."
Israeli warplanes attacked launching sites and missile-manufacturing facilities, the military said, while witnesses reported seeing around 30 rockets fired out of Gaza into southern Israel. The casualty toll was not immediately known. One Israeli air strike destroyed a five-story building, killing at least seven people, Hamas security officials told The Associated Press.
The developments came as international aid groups lashed out at Israel, saying that access to civilians in need is poor, relief workers are being hurt and killed, and Israel is woefully neglecting its obligations to Palestinians who are trapped, some among rotting corpses in a nightmarish landscape of deprivation.
One of the most grisly accounts of civilian loss has revolved around an extended family of Palestinians in the Zeitoun district of Gaza city who began telling their story to a reporter last Monday after, they said, Israeli forces ordered them to leave their separate homes and gather indoors at a single dwelling.
At that time, Israeli forces were in the early stages of a ground offensive in Gaza and seized several high-rise buildings on the outskirts of Gaza City commanding a field of fire into the tangled street below. From the beginning, members of the Samouni family said, they had been trying to contact the Red Cross to be evacuated but no help came.
Initial reports about the incident on Monday said 11 members of the Samouni extended family were killed and 26 wounded, according to witnesses and hospital officials, with five children age 4 and under among the dead.
Only on Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Thursday, did Israel give Red Cross representatives permission to enter Zeitoun, and what the operatives found there chilled them. Four small children , so weak they could not stand unassisted, cowered next to the corpses of slain mothers, the Red Cross said on Thursday. At least 12 corpses lay on mattresses and three more bodies were found in another house.
On Friday, it seemed, the carnage had been worse than at first suspected. The United Nations Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs said a total of over 100 people had been ordered to leave their homes and gather in the single dwelling last Sunday.
"The next day the house was shelled," Allegra Pacheco, a spokeswoman for the United Nations office, told BBC television, quoting unidentified witnesses. And as rescuers finally removed corpses from the rubble, the death toll rose to 30, Ms. Pacheco said on Friday. It was one of the most grisly, known incidents of the Gaza war.
Ms. Pacheco said her organization was not making any accusations at present about who was responsible for the 30 reported deaths.
Initial accounts by members of the Samouni family said they believed the house in which they gathered had been the target of an air-strike at 6 a.m. Monday. But the Red Cross said Thursday that the building had been "affected by Israeli shelling."
The Zeitoun killings have ignited international outcry. In a rare and sharply critical statement, the Red Cross said it believed that "the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded."
Israeli officials said that they were examining all the allegations, that they did not aim at civilians and that they were not certain that the source of fire that killed and wounded the United Nations drivers was Israeli.
"We do our utmost to avoid hitting civilians, and many times we don't fire because we see civilians nearby," said Maj. Avital Leibovich, chief army spokeswoman for the foreign media. "We are holding meetings with U.N. officials to try to work out a mechanism so that their work can go forward."
She said that the army learned of the Red Cross allegations in a media report, and that the committee had not yet presented the evidence of what she called "these very serious allegations" to the army.
Separately, the United Nations declared a suspension of its aid operations after one of its drivers was killed and two others were wounded despite driving United Nations-flagged vehicles and coordinating their movements with the Israeli military. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called for an investigation by Israel for a second time in a week of the more than 40 deaths near a United Nations school from Israeli tank fire on Tuesday.
The Red Cross also said it was restricting its operations on Friday after one of its trucks was hit by small arms fire.
At the United Nations , fourteen nations approved the Security Council resolution urging a cease-fire, with the United States abstaining. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States abstained , which left it unclear how a cease-fire would be enforced, because it wanted to see whether mediation efforts undertaken by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt would succeed. The United States did not veto the resolution because Washington supports its overall goals, she said.
The resolution called for a cease-fire that would lead to the "full withdrawal" of Israeli forces from Gaza, the passage of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and an end to the trafficking of arms and ammunition into the territory.
Reporting was contributed by Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations; Rachel Donadio from Rome; Isabel Kershner and Steven Erlanger from Jerusalem; Taghreed El-Khodary from Gaza; and Alan Cowell from Paris.
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3) 2 Qaeda Leaders Killed in U.S. Strike in Pakistan
[They were Qaeda according, of course, to the CIA...bw]
By ERIC SCHMITT
January 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/asia/09pstan.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - An American missile strike on Jan. 1 in Pakistan's tribal areas killed two senior leaders of Al Qaeda, including one militant suspected of overseeing last September's deadly suicide bombing at a Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital, an American counterterrorism official said Thursday.
In the past week, American officials have concluded that Hellfire missiles fired from a remotely piloted Predator aircraft operated by the C.I.A. killed a Kenyan citizen who used the name Usama al-Kini and who was described as Al Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan, as well as his Kenyan lieutenant, identified as Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan, the official said.
Both militants have been linked to suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent months, and were also on the F.B.I.'s most-wanted list for ties to the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Mr. Kini, whose death was first reported on The Washington Post's Web site on Thursday, was at least the eighth senior Qaeda leader killed in an increasingly aggressive C.I.A. air campaign to attack top militants who have carved out a sanctuary in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghanistan border.
The C.I.A. declined to comment on the reported deaths of the top Qaeda operatives, reflecting the secrecy surrounding the Predator strikes along the border that have stirred anger among Pakistan's political and military leaders, and the residents of the mountainous region.
But an American counterterrorism official confirmed that the airstrikes in South Waziristan on Jan. 1 were successful. "There is every reason to believe that these two individuals have met their end," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the missile strikes.
"Al-Kini was a rising and lethal operations figure within Al Qaeda," the official added. "The demise of a succession of senior Al Qaeda figures is certain to have at least a near-term debilitating effect on the group."
As part of the intensified attacks in recent months, the C.I.A. has expanded its list of targets in Pakistan and has received approval from the government there to bolster eavesdropping operations in the border region, according to American officials.
Once largely reserved for missions to kill senior Arab Qaeda operatives, the Predator has since last summer been increasingly used to strike Pakistani militants and even trucks carrying rockets to resupply fighters in Afghanistan. Many of the Predator strikes are taking place as deep as 25 miles into Pakistani territory, not just along the border.
Mr. Kini, whose given name was Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam and who was believed to be 32 years old, was active in training terrorists in Africa in the 1990s, the American official said. He was indicted by a federal grand jury for his role as a central planner in the attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Kini became head of Al Qaeda's operations in Zabul Province in Afghanistan. At the same time, he oversaw operations to recruit and train operatives and raise money in the Horn of Africa, the American official said.
By 2007, Mr. Kini had been tapped as Al Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan, and was a mastermind of a string of suicide attacks against the Pakistani police, military personnel and political figures, the American official said. He was behind the failed attempt to assassinate Benazir Bhutto, a former Pakistani prime minister, in Karachi in October of that year, as well the truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad last September that killed more than 50 people. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007.
Senior military and counterterrorism officials say the increased Predator strikes have disrupted planning, pushed some insurgents deeper into Pakistan, prompted some militant commanders to post additional sentries and forced the militants to use their cellphones and satellite phones, which American eavesdropping operations can monitor.
But American officials also acknowledge that Al Qaeda has shown surprising resilience and a knack for regrouping quickly under new operational commanders.
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4) Major Push Is Needed to Save Afghanistan, General Says
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
January 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/washington/09petraeus.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - The top American commander responsible for Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said Thursday that the country would require a "sustained, substantial" commitment from the United States and other nations to stop a downward spiral of violence and a resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
General Petraeus, who declined to suggest a time frame for that commitment, also said that Iran, which has been the target of United Nations sanctions because of its nuclear program, had common interests with the United States and other nations in a secure Afghanistan.
Although he hinted that such interests might make talks with Iran feasible, he said he would leave the topic to diplomats and policy makers.
"I don't want to get completely going down that road because it's a very hot topic," General Petraeus told a conference of the United States Institute of Peace, a government-financed research organization. Nonetheless, he said, "there are some common objectives and no one I think would disagree."
Like the United States, Iran is concerned about the narcotics trade in Afghanistan and the resurgence of extremists there, he said. "It doesn't want to see Sunni extremists or certainly ultrafundamentalist extremists running Afghanistan any more than other folks do," he said, while acknowledging that the United States and Iran have "some pretty substantial points of conflict out there as well."
President-elect Barack Obama said frequently during the campaign that he considered Afghanistan the central front in defeating terrorism. The Obama administration is expected to send 20,000 to 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan over the next year.
General Petraeus also cautioned that security in Afghanistan would not improve if the only initiative was the deployment of more American troops; he said that Afghanistan required a diplomatic and economic commitment as well.
"There has been nothing easy about Afghanistan," General Petraeus said. Although "the natural tendency will be to look to the way progress was achieved in Iraq for possible answers," he added, it is clear that Afghanistan is different from Iraq.
Afghanistan has a higher illiteracy rate, more difficult terrain and fewer developed resources than Iraq does, he said.
The daylong conference, which was meant to highlight the foreign policy challenges facing the new administration, also included a warning from William J. Perry, a defense secretary in the Clinton administration, that Mr. Obama will "almost certainly" face a serious crisis with Iran during his first year in office.
Mr. Perry, who is influential in Democratic national security circles and has ties to members of Mr. Obama's foreign policy team, said that Iran was "moving inextricably" toward developing nuclear weapons.
"And it seems clear that Israel will not sit by idly while Iran takes the final steps toward becoming a nuclear power," he said.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama filled top Pentagon positions under Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
For deputy secretary of Defense, Mr. Obama selected William J. Lynn III, an executive and lobbyist at the defense contractor, Raytheon, who served as undersecretary of defense in the Clinton administration. Although Mr. Obama campaigned against the influence of lobbyists in government, a transition spokesman said Mr. Lynn came highly recommended by both Republicans and Democrats.
"The president-elect felt it was critical that Mr. Lynn fill this position," said the spokesman, Tommy Vietor.
Michele A. Flournoy, a leader of Mr. Obama's transition team for the Pentagon, was selected for the No. 3 job, under secretary of defense for policy. Ms. Flournoy was the lead architect of the Clinton administration's 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review, a strategy and planning document that the Pentagon is required to produce every four years.
The transition team also said that Robert F. Hale, who was assistant secretary of the Air Force during the Clinton presidency, would become an under secretary of defense, serving as the Pentagon's chief financial officer.
Mr. Obama named Jeh Charles Johnson as the Defense Department's general counsel. Mr. Johnson served as general counsel of the department of the Air Force during Mr. Clinton's second term.
Michael Falcone contributed reporting.
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5) PROTEST POLICE SHOOTING IN OAKLAND!
JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
JAIL KILLER COPS!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
LACFreeMumia@aol.com
As of this writing (late on January 7th, 09), young people from the Fruitvale neighborhood and around Oakland are in the streets protesting the outrageous shooting of Oscar Grant III, an unarmed man who was LYING ON HIS STOMACH on a BART (subway) platform in Oakland early on New Years day. He died a short time later at Highland hospital. The shooter was a BART cop who stood over the victim and fired the shot into Oscar at point blank range for no apparent reason. Cell phone video footage, now displayed at www.ktvu.com, a local tv station, shows clearly that Grant was flat on the gound and not resisting at the time of the shooting. Protestors have closed three BART stations, attacked police cars, and marched on city hall. The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (an Oakland-based defense organization), also protests this horrendous, barbarous act of murder. Justice for Oscar Grant! Jail killer cops!
Oscar Grant III was a young black man and father of a young girl, who lived in Hayward and worked as a butcher in an Oakland food market. The cop, who has only been publicly named after a week's delay--Johannes Mehserle--HAS YET TO EVEN BE INTERROGATED ABOUT THE INCIDENT, let alone arrested! But crocodile tears over the "tragedy" continue to rain down from BART officials and the press--no justice there! Famed civil rights attorney John Burris has filed a $25 million damage suit on behalf of the family, to which we say: go for it, but no amount of money can make up for police atrocities such as this.
Forged largely to replace slavery after the Civil War, the criminal "justice" system in this country is so bent with racial and class bias as to make the word "corrupt" sound limp. Torture and murder of black people at the hands of cops has been even more prevalent and longer lasting than the frequent Klan lynchings in the South, which went on for decades. And the infamous beating of Rodney King in LA, also caught on video, resulted in an acquittal of the cops, who were conveniently tried in a white suburb full of police residences. While these crimes go unprosecuted and ignored, now suddenly, in reaction to the Bush administration's criminal "war on terror," we learn that "the US doesn't torture"! What a farce.
The innocent are routinely put to death by a system which values "timeliness" and courtly rules and regulations above evidence. Innocence is no defense in the US! This is what threatens political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose case, now before the Supreme Court, could still result in his execution for a crime he didn't commit. And the same threat hangs over many other victims of this system, such as Troy Davis, whose Georgia frame-up is now before the 11th Circuit Court.
We say: free Mumia, free Troy Davis, and free all class-war prisoners and innocent victims of the death penalty system! And:
NO REPRISALS AGAINST PROTESTORS OF THE OSCAR GRANT MURDER! JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT! JAIL ALL KILLER COPS!
- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal LACFreeMumia@aol.com
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6) Resolution of the Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice - January 4, 2009
Condemn Israel's Assault on Gaza
The Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice unreservedly condemns the murderous Israeli military assault on Gaza , their deliberate targeting of the civilian population of Gaza , and Israel 's ongoing collective punishment of the Palestinian people - in violation of the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - and carried out with the strong support of the U.S. government.
The Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice calls for an immediate cutoff of all U.S. aid to Israel , in compliance with the U.S. Military Assistance Act of 1968, which forbids military assistance to any nation guilty of "gross violations of internationally recognized human rights."
The Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice endorses the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel .
Resolution unanimously adopted by the Labor Committee at its regular monthly meeting, held in Oakland , California on January 4, 2009.
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7) Gaza
Socialist Viewpoint Editorial (Publication Pending)
January/February 2009
socialistviewpoint.org
On the thirteenth day of Israel's deadly strikes against the Palestinian people of Gaza, the number of fatalities reported by the New York Times has been readjusted upwards approaching 800 Palestinian men, women and children, and thousands more wounded--in fact it is impossible to keep up with the death toll while Israeli casualties can be counted on one's fingers and toes--and some of them caught by their own "friendly fire." Meanwhile, the relentless and indiscriminate Israeli bombings continue on homes, schools, ambulances-any Palestinian targets being "fair game!" All Israel need do is label them "Hamas."
Israel's aerial and ground war is in full swing with no end in sight. Palestinian children throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers are met with tank and aerial bombardment of their entire neighborhoods by Israel. None of this horror could take place without the massive aid the U.S. is and has been supplying to Israel even before its birth in 1948.
In a News Analysis written by Ethan Bronner that appeared in the Times December 29, 2008 entitled, "Israel Reminds Foes That It Has Teeth," Bronner, reports that while Israel maintains that the reason they are carrying out this military operation in Gaza is to force, "...Hamas to end its rocket barrages and military buildup." He goes on to say, "But it has another goal as well: to expunge the ghost of its flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli deterrence." Bronner continues, "...[Israel] worries that its enemies are less afraid of it than they once were, or should be. Israeli leaders are calculating that a display of power in Gaza could fix that."
But in another article (also December 29) that appeared in Counterpunch, by Joshua Frank, entitled "Obama and the 'Special Relationship'," the author writes, "Over the last seven years only 17 Israeli citizens have been killed by Palestinian rocket fire, which makes it extremely difficult for Israeli politicians, which are in the midst of an election, to argue that their response has been proportionate or defensible in any way."
Not only have the people in Gaza been enduring an Israeli blockade of all goods and services, including electricity, water and medical supplies and equipment, for over a year; the death toll among all the people of Palestine is counted in the tens-of-thousands since before the formation of Israel in 1948.
And, as for U.S. intentions in the region from that time on, in an article in the March 1995 issue of The Middle East Forum Promoting American Interests entitled, "Jesse Helms: Setting the Record Straight," Helms, who was the senior senator from North Carolina and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time stated,
"I have long believed that if the United States is going to give money to Israel, it should be paid out of the Department of Defense budget. My question is this: If Israel did not exist, what would U.S. defense costs in the Middle East be? Israel is at least the equivalent of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Without Israel promoting its and America's common interests, we would be badly off indeed."1
This quote was from 13 years ago. Just think of the buildup of Israel's arsenal funded by U.S. dollars since that time! How many aircraft carriers is Israel worth today with its U.S.-stocked nuclear arsenal?
This siege on Gaza is not just to throw the proverbial fear of the almighty into the people of Gaza but to all who stand opposed to U.S. wars and occupations throughout the world, including opposition to their funding of Israel's ongoing and relentless war against the Palestinian people.
In fact, Palestine can be viewed as the first front of the U.S. "War on Terror." The U.S. came out on top of the world imperialist heap after WWII. And immediately it facilitated the formation of Israel with the intention of establishing Israel as a beachhead for U.S. imperialist interests in the Middle East. That's why they have funded Israel's war against the people of Palestine all these years since Israel's formation.
The U.S./Israeli war on Palestine cannot be separated from the U.S. War on Terror any more than you can separate the war on Iraq from the war on Afghanistan; the attacks in Pakistan; the threat to Iran, etc. It is just another front along its designated "Axis of Evil" which includes many other targets around the world in Lebanon, Africa, Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Columbia--anywhere the U.S. meets resistance to their imperialist exploitation of workers and natural resources.
It is incumbent upon the American people including the entire antiwar movement in this country to stand squarely opposed to these murderous assaults against a people pummeled by war for decades, bankrolled by the U.S. to benefit U.S. Big Business and maintain its world military domination!
The working class of the U.S. must join the workers of the rest of the world not only to condemn the ongoing bloodshed and the inhuman blockade of Gaza, and demand it end immediately, but it must condemn all U.S. funding and aid to Israel and demand that it end NOW!
We must educate people who have been brainwashed by years of lies and propaganda justifying the hundreds of billions of dollars this bipartisan government has already spent funding the wars to insure U.S. domination in the Middle East. And we must point out that Israel--the former Palestine--is but one of 725-plus U.S. military bases around the globe.
The antiwar movement can make a huge step forward by demanding that the U.S. end all aid to Israel now. Palestinian speakers should be featured at antiwar rallies.
"End All U.S. Aid to Israel NOW! Not One More Dime for War and Occupation! Bring All the Troops and Contractors Home from Iraq and Afghanistan NOW! Money for Human Needs Not War and Occupation!"
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8) The West Bank: We're all Hamas now - supporters of Fatah unite behind enemy
By Ben Lynfield in Ramallah
Friday, 9 January 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-west-bank-were-all-hamas-now--supporters-of-fatah-unite-behind-enemy-1242606.html
Even if Israel wins on the battlefield or in the diplomatic corridors it
is already paying the price of its Gaza onslaught in intensified hatred
in the hearts of its Palestinian neighbours in the West Bank. The
campaign also appears to be increasing public scepticism about the
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's chosen path of
negotiations as the way to establish an independent state alongside Israel.
The diplomacy championed by Mr Abbas has for years been difficult to
sell to Palestinians because it has brought little or no relief from
occupation or improvement in their daily lives, only the expansion of
Israeli settlements. This existing frustration -which helped Hamas
defeat Mr Abbas's Fatah movement in the 2006 elections - is now combined
with popular anger and dismay at the carnage among fellow Palestinians
in Gaza.
Palestinian Authority security forces are keeping a tight lid on
protests, preventing confrontations with Israeli troops and arresting
anyone raising Hamas banners at rallies. But displays of identification
with the beleaguered Gazans are everywhere. Nine-year-old
green-kerchiefed girl Scouts, their foreheads marked with the word Gaza
in red ink, were among those who marched through the main al-Manara
square in a protest. They held up pictures of bandaged toddlers, and
dozens of demonstrators chanted, "With blood and spirit, we will redeem
you, O Gaza".
Leaders of Fatah, which lost control of Gaza to Hamas fighters in June
2007, are torn between their own hopes that Hamas, which they view as a
usurper and agent of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan, is
defeated, and the people's anger over the Israeli campaign. There is a
great deal at stake for them. "If Hamas is victorious and the Israelis
raise the white flag there will be a problem in the West Bank, more
people will support Hamas, and the Arab regimes will have problems too,"
said Ziad Abu Ein, the deputy minister of prisoner affairs and a veteran
of 13 years in Israeli prisons.
Bassem Khoury, the president of the Palestinian Federation of
Industries, launched the PA-supported National Palestinian Campaign to
Relieve Gaza by holding up a picture from the al-Ayyam daily newspaper
showing the head of a Palestinian girl buried in the rubble of an
Israeli attack. "This is unbelievable," he said. "How will this help the
Israelis? It only generates more recruits for Hamas."
Unlike the people, who seem less concerned as yet with apportioning
Palestinian blame, some Fatah leaders couple calls for national unity
with accusing Hamas of causing the suffering in Gaza. Tawfik al-Tirawi,
an adviser to Mr Abbas and a former security chief, said: "The political
leadership that miscalculated has brought catastrophe on itself and its
people."
Palestinians in the West Bank have their own long-standing grievances
against Israel: the ongoing occupation, checkpoints Israel says are
needed for security but that hamper their movement, often humiliate them
and paralyse economic life, the expropriation of Palestinian land, and
the threat of Israeli army incursion or arrest. The images from Gaza are
being layered onto a collective memory of being expelled at Israel's
creation in 1948.
A teacher in a PA school talked of the Israeli attack on a UN school in
Gaza that killed at least 40 people and other killings of civilians.
"The feeling is of severe anger," he said. "We are angry at the Jews and
the hatred of them inside of us has increased. This is more than people
can bear. We are mad at the Palestinian Authority and we are mad at the
Arab regimes. When there is a call to convene an Arab meeting it looks
like they are giving Israel a free hand to do whatever it wants"
Another PA employee, from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, said:
"I want to educate my kids to hate Israel. If I can't do something maybe
my kids can. I will educate them to fight the Israelis."
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9) Canada expels US woman deserter
Story from BBC NEWS
January 8, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7817078.stm
Canada has ordered the deportation of the first woman US soldier to have sought asylum in the country to avoid being deployed to Iraq.
Kimberly Rivera, a mother of three, had requested permission to remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds but her appeal was rejected.
She could face up to five years in prison when she returns to the US.
Some 200 deserters from the US military are believed to have fled to Canada, some living incognito.
Mrs Rivera served in Iraq in 2006 but deserted a year later after refusing to be redeployed.
The War Resisters Supporters Campaign, who are backing Mrs Rivera, said her experience in Iraq was "a huge awakening" which convinced her that "the war was immoral and that she could not participate in it".
Mrs Rivera and her family have been told they must leave Canada by the end of January unless the court order is reversed.
Last year, the Canadian parliament passed a non-binding motion granting asylum to deserters from the Iraq war.
But correspondents say the governing Conservatives opposed the motion, not willing to risk upsetting Washington over the issue.
So far Canada has deported only one US deserter, Robin Long. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison on his return.
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10) As His Inmates Grew Thinner, a Sheriff's Wallet Grew Fatter
By ADAM NOSSITER
January 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/us/09sheriff.html?ref=us
DECATUR, Ala. - The prisoners in the Morgan County jail here were always hungry. The sheriff, meanwhile, was getting a little richer. Alabama law allowed it: the chief lawman could go light on prisoners' meals and pocket the leftover change.
And that is just what the sheriff, Greg Bartlett, did, to the tune of $212,000 over the last three years, despite a state food allowance of only $1.75 per prisoner per day.
In the view of a federal judge, who heard testimony from the hungry inmates, the sheriff was in "blatant" violation of past agreements that his prisoners be properly cared for.
"There was undisputed evidence that most of the inmates had lost significant weight," the judge, U. W. Clemon of Federal District Court in Birmingham, said Thursday in an interview. "I could not ignore them."
So this week, Judge Clemon ordered Sheriff Bartlett himself jailed until he came up with a plan to adequately feed prisoners more, anyway, than a few spoonfuls of grits, part of an egg and a piece of toast at breakfast, and bits of undercooked, bloody chicken at supper.
The shock in the courtroom on Wednesday was palpable: a sheriff was going to jail - if, as it turns out, only for one night - because his prisoners did not like the food. The world was upside down.
"You're never going to satisfy any incarcerated individual," grumbled the head of the Alabama Sheriffs Association, Bobby Timmons. Besides, Mr. Timmons said, "an inmate is not in jail for singing too loud in choir on Sunday."
Melanie Velez, a lawyer for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, which represents the inmates, took a different position. "Our clients, all they want is sustenance," Ms. Velez said. "They shouldn't be punished by not being given adequate nutrition. After every meal, they are hungry."
The sheriff's defenders, like Mr. Timmons, said Sheriff Bartlett, who told the court his salary was about $64,000, was merely following the law - Alabama law.
"He has not violated any laws of the state of Alabama," Mr. Timmons said. "Everything he has done is by the rules, including the feeding allowance."
But that was the whole problem, in Judge Clemon's view. An unusual statute here dating from the early decades of the 20th century allows the state's sheriffs to keep for themselves whatever money is left over after they feed their prisoners. The money allotted by the state is little enough - $1.75 a day per prisoner - but the incentive to skimp is obvious.
That is what the sheriff did, Judge Clemon found. As Mr. Bartlett's wallet got fatter, according to testimony, the prisoners got thinner and thinner. One testified to losing 30 pounds in the brick jail by the railroad tracks in this quiet courthouse town of clean and empty streets near the Tennessee border.
The judge expressed no regret about sending Mr. Bartlett to jail. The Alabama law is "almost an invitation to criminality," he said in the interview. Sheriffs, he said, "have a direct pecuniary interest in not feeding inmates."
The practice is thought to go on in other counties, though it is difficult to be certain, as sheriffs in Alabama are notoriously unforthcoming about their finances.
"The sheriff has a responsibility to feed his inmates, but he's also got an incentive to line his own pocket," said Ms. Velez, the human rights center lawyer. She said, "We were shocked to learn that the sheriff had pocketed over $100,000."
The inmates' complaints came to light because the jail, which holds about 300, was already under a federal consent decree governing conditions there.
"Given the testimony about the fairly blatant violations of the consent decree, I knew of no more efficient means of impressing on the sheriff the seriousness of the matter than by placing him in jail until he indicated a willingness to comply," the judge said.
Sheriff Bartlett was released from jail on Thursday afternoon, after he submitted a plan that satisfied the judge. He will now spend all the food money solely on food and will "no longer keep any funds for his personal use," Judge Clemon said.
After his release, Mr. Bartlett did not appear at his offices and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not return phone calls.
With precision and some wonder, Judge Clemon, who is retiring shortly, recounted a typical inmate lunch here: "Two peanut butter sandwiches, with small amounts of peanut butter, chips, and flavored water." Hunger pains were not uncommon.
One inmate interviewed from the jail, William Draper, said he had lost 15 pounds since his incarceration on marijuana trafficking charges in October. "Yeah, you stay hungry," Mr. Draper said. "Hunger is something you live with."
Inmates were forced to supplement the meager meals with purchases at the high-priced jail store, he said. "We have clients who are indigent who are very, very thin," said Ms. Velez. Some spend as much as $100 a week at the store, a severe burden for their often impoverished families.
"If you can't catch store, you'll starve to death," Mr. Draper said. Complaints, he said, were met with cold stares from the guards: "They look at you like, 'you've got to deal with it,' " he said.
Mr. Draper said he was glad that someone in authority had finally listened to his and others' complaints. "If I'm going to be held accountable for breaking the law, other people should be too," he said.
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11) 30 Confirmed Dead in Shelling of Gaza Family
By ALAN COWELL
January 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/world/middleeast/10zeitoun.html?ref=world
The death toll in the shelling of a family compound in Gaza rose to 30, the United Nations said in a report issued on Friday, as relief workers continued to comb through wreckage they had been denied access to for days after the attack.
The episode has ignited intense international criticism of the Israeli military for its failure to allow relief workers to reach the scene in a timely manner. On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, also pointed to the deaths in the family compound as cause for an independent investigation into possible war crimes by Israeli forces in Gaza.
"Incidents such as this must be investigated because they display elements of what could constitute war crimes," she told Reuters.
Initial reports on Monday said 11 members of the extended Samouni family had been killed and 26 wounded, according to witnesses and hospital officials, with five children aged 4 and under among the dead.
The new report, by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was based on eyewitness accounts. It did not give a figure for the number wounded.
"There was no water, no bread, nothing to eat," in the days after the shelling, 13-year-old Ahmed Ibrahim Samouni, whose mother was among those killed, told Reuters. "I got up on my own. I had my wound tied and I got up to get them water from outside, trying to hide from tanks and planes. I went to our neighbors and called on them until I almost fainted. I brought a gallon of water."
Members of the Samouni family said that they were rounded up late Sunday night by Israeli soldiers and ordered to gather for their own safety in a single dwelling in the impoverished Zeitoun district of Gaza city, a Hamas stronghold. The next morning, they said, the building was shelled.
In its report on Friday, the United Nations agency confirmed the family's account, saying that 110 people had been forced into the house on Sunday. "The next day the house was shelled," Allegra Pacheco, an agency spokeswoman, told BBC television, quoting unidentified witnesses.
Only on Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Thursday, did Israel give Red Cross representatives permission to enter Zeitoun, and what the operatives found there chilled them. Four small children in the Samouni household, so weak they could not stand unassisted, cowered next to the corpses of slain mothers, the Red Cross said on Thursday. At least 12 corpses lay on mattresses and three more bodies were found in another house.
Surviving family members said they were sure more people remained buried under the rubble without food or water, and were in danger of dying. Members of B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, told the Washington Post that soldiers with the Israeli Defense Forces were in the neighborhood and aware of the citizens' misery.
"What these family members say consistently is that the I.D.F. was close by," said a spokeswoman for the group. "This wasn't some remote area."
Family members said they had been trying since last Saturday to contact the Red Cross to be evacuated but no help came. At the time, Israeli forces were in the early stages of a ground offensive in Gaza, and relief workers were barred from the area.
Initial accounts by members of the Samouni family said they believed the house in which they gathered had been the target of an air-strike at 6 a.m. Monday. But the Red Cross said Thursday that the building had been "affected by Israeli shelling."
The Zeitoun killings have ignited an international outcry. While Ms. Pacheco said her organization was reserving judgment for now about who was responsible for the 30 reported deaths, the Red Cross issued a rare and sharply critical statement saying it believed "the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded."
Israeli officials said that they were examining all the allegations, that they did not aim at civilians and that they were not certain that the source of fire that killed and wounded the United Nations drivers was Israeli.
"We do our utmost to avoid hitting civilians, and many times we don't fire because we see civilians nearby," said Maj. Avital Leibovich, chief army spokeswoman for the foreign media. "We are holding meetings with U.N. officials to try to work out a mechanism so that their work can go forward."
She said that the army learned of the Red Cross allegations in a media report, and that the committee had not yet presented the evidence of what she called "these very serious allegations" to the army.
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12) Peaceful S.F. protest of Israel's Gaza bombing
Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, January 11, 2009
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/11/MNK6157880.DTL
(01-10) 14:28 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- People of all ages and on both sides of the controversy rallied in San Francisco's Civic Center Saturday to either protest or support Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip.
More than 1,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators and a few hundred pro-Israel demonstrators waved flags and pumped their fists at each other before the pro-Palestinians marched downtown and back to the Civic Center. The pro-Israel demonstrators did not march.
Chanting "Free, free Palestine" and "Stop killing children," the pro-Palestinian group carried banners, waved pictures of bloodied children and clutched white helium balloons representing Palestinians killed in Gaza.
San Francisco police, holding riot helmets, lined the marchers' route and rode motorcycles ahead of the protest, but the demonstrators were peaceful, with no property damage and no arrests.
Many spectators treated it like a show. They took pictures and shot videos as the protesters walked down Market Street, circled back up Mission Street, and then back to Civic Center. Some spectators beat the tops of city garbage cans, like drums, in time to the chants.
"I am not worried at all," said Michael Burkett, general manager of Old Navy on Market Street, as he stood outside the store and watched the marchers go by. "I appreciate that in this country we have freedom of speech."
Pro-Palestinian organizers from a group called answercoalition.org, which sponsored marches across the country on Saturday, including a march on Washington, held hands to form a human chain so they could keep marchers together along the protest route. They wore neon yellow vests.
"We're trying to keep the peace for everyone," said Nabil Fara, who was preventing demonstrators from crossing police tape on Polk Street to approach pro-Israel counter-protesters before the march. Fara said he has friends in Gaza but has not heard from them since the violence began.
Standing behind yellow police tape before the march, protesters from the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups stood across from each other along Polk Street and waved signs in front of San Francisco City Hall.
Motorists honked support for one side or the other as they drove by, and tourists riding red open-air buses gaped.
Mike Harris, of a group called Stand With Us/San Francisco Voice for Israel, said the pro-Israel demonstrators would not march "to ensure their safety" but felt compelled to attend the protest to counter the Answer Coalition's "anti-Israel agenda."
He said the group's purpose was "to ensure Israel's right to exist."
Meanwhile, across the street in Civic Center Park, speaker after speaker tried to keep the pro-Palestinian demonstrators pumped up with chanting and patriotic music.
Grace Shalhoub, a graduate student at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco who said she has family in Lebanon, wept after her speech. She said she came to the protest because "after 9/11, I feel this is my responsibility and duty" to be involved in Middle Eastern politics.
Some of the other protests held around the world on Saturday were far larger and angrier than the protest in San Francisco.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators burned Israeli flags in Sweden and threw shoes at the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland. In central London, three officers were hurt when demonstrators hurled shoes and placards at police outside the Israeli Embassy. One officer was knocked unconscious. Some 180 people were arrested in Paris.
In Norway, police used tear gas to try to disperse at least 1,000 protesters after some hurled bottles, rocks and fired fireworks at officers. Two people were injured and two were taken into custody.
Protesters in Sweden tried to break through sealed-off areas at Israel's embassy in Stockholm after a march through the city by 3,000 to 5,000 people.
More than 60 people were injured during a large demonstration in Algeria's capital on Friday, many by stone throwing, the Interior Ministry said. One journalist was left in a coma.
By contrast, San Francisco's protest had a mellow feel. Homeless people sunned themselves in Civic Center Park, families with young children greeted each other, and the Musicians Action Group, a band that has been appearing at Bay Area protests since the war in Vietnam, played horns, woodwinds and drums as the marchers headed out of the park toward downtown.
At a post-march rally in Civic Center Park, protesters danced to the beat of drums and sang along with Sellassie, a San Francisco performance artist. Some lay on their stomachs and got massages after the two-mile march.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. E-mail Deborah Gage at dgage@sfchronicle.com.
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13) The Sand Creek logic of the Gaza Massacre
Friday, January 9, 2009
By Travis Wilkerson
http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10911
[ALSO CHECK OUT: http://sandcreekmassacre.net/videos/]
Colonial oppressors stick to tried-and-true practices
What is presently happening in Gaza will enter history as one of the worst atrocities committed by the state of Israel against the people of Palestine. It will rank alongside nightmares such as the massacres in Jenin and in Sabra and Shatila. The devastation has been unleashed with the full material and political support of the US government.
Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world. It receives more than $15 million every day from the United States. The F-16 fighter jets and apache helicopters that have rained down thousands of tons of bombs and missiles on Gaza are provided to the Israeli government by the Pentagon. It is inconceivable that the Israeli aggression in Gaza could have taken place without the explicit consent and military support of the U.S. government.
Using numbers alone, the offensive against Gaza is an abject massacre. At the time of this writing, 10 Israelis have died, including three civilians. The Palestinian numbers are constantly rising, but at this moment at least 660 Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of them civilians. Many thousands more have been seriously injured and Gaza is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis on a scale unfamiliar even to many Palestinians. (Since Gaza is one of the most densily populated areas of the world,it is impossible to believe the Israeli's, when tthey claim that they are targeting only 'terrorists' -- every bomb dropped upon Gaza always kills civilians.)
It is interesting to put Gaza in the context of an earlier atrocity.
In November 1864, the worst single massacre of American Indians in western settlement took place in the frozen plains of territorial Colorado southeast of Denver. A regiment of Colorado volunteer cavalry led by Colonel John Chivington attacked without warning a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, who were peacefully camped along the Sand Creek.
The Indians were there both with government treaty and explicit territorial permission. They flew not only a white flag of surrender, but also an American flag over the village. In fact, most of the Indian men of fighting age were off hunting, because they rightly assumed their encampment was safe. Instead, Chivington and his men massacred the entire village.
They killed indiscriminately, butchering equally men, women and children. The soldiers raped several women and decapitated babies before their mothers. They also mutilated the bodies of the victims. Several men fashioned mutilated vaginas into necklaces they wore during their victory parade through the muddy streets of Denver.
Chivington has gone down in infamy. But one thing should be clear: He was doing exactly what the white settlers and their territorial government wanted him to do.
Remember, this was Colorado territory before statehood. The whole of the future state had been given by treaty to the Indians of the region: the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the East and the Utes in the West. The land was theirs, even by the white man's law, plain and simple.
And then white surveyors identified things of value in Colorado. First and foremost, gold was discovered, triggering the initial burst of settlement. Failed miners often turned to agriculture on the fertile plains of Colorado. Later, other resources were discovered and coveted, especially coal.
So how do you take land that isn't yours? You settle that land. You simply take the land you want. And then your army defends the settlers. Of course, that breeds anger and discontent from the population that lives there, with absolute right.
Chivington gives the following defense of butchering the village: First, the Indians were hostile to the settlers, especially in the preceding months. Second, among Indians, it is impossible to distinguish enemy from non-combatant, because the combatants hide among the non-combatants. Third, Indians had killed some white settlers and taken their property. Fourth, Indians didn't respect the "chastity" of women.
Here's how the Rocky Mountain News, the official paper of white settlement, justifies the massacre: "The confessed murderers of the Hungate family-a man and wife and their two little babes, whose scalped and mutilated remains were seen by all our citizens-were 'friendly Indians,' we suppose, in the eyes of these 'high officials.' They fell in the Sand Creek battle."
The accusation-which, incidentally, was false-was that the Indians camped along Sand Creek had killed four settlers. And so Chivington and his men had permission to murder somewhere on the order of 200 Native Americans in retaliation. One settler's life is worth 50 Indian lives, goes the racist logic.
Meanwhile, half a world away and in another century, the Israeli military employs far more sophisticated means as it rains horror upon the dense, squalid reservation known as Gaza.
Israel's defense for all this? Rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. Rocket fire, which, in the years prior to the bombing campaign and invasion, had killed exactly four settlers. Sound familiar?
Israel has undertaken a nearly incomprehensible atrocity against a people already living under inhuman conditions in alleged "self-defense." Using U.S. weapons, Israel has now murdered at least 660 Palestinians. One Israeli life is now worth at least 165 Palestinian lives. How else but through the prism of naked racism can Israeli life be calculated to be hundreds of times more valuable than Palestinian life?
This is the Sand Creek logic of the Gaza Massacre. Except that the numbers have gotten even worse.
Chivington was removed from command, but never punished. This should come as no surprise. In fact, his best friend was the governor and he was doing precisely what the settlers wanted. He was terrorizing the indigenous population to make white settlement easier.
History has been a bit harsher to Chivington, who no longer has a single prominent defender. He is regarded as something between a fool and a monster. There is no longer a single monument in his name, save an abandoned town near the site of the massacre.
Meanwhile, the attack on Gaza has eclipsed even Sand Creek with the scope of its barbarity. On Jan. 6, word came that Israel had murdered dozens of Palestinians cowering in a school in a U.N. refugee camp. Think about that one more time: Israel is now openly bombing targets such as schools, ambulances and health workers, and claiming even that amounts to self-defense.
Palestinians have replaced Indians and the Israeli state has replaced white settlements, but the underlying principles remain the same. The perpetrators wish their violence to be horrific and public. They wish it to be terrifying. If we can't subjugate you, we will simply exterminate you. And let this genocide be a warning to others.
What form of justice is adequate in the face of a crime such as this? What form of recompense for the attempted destruction of an entire people?
Like those who once defended Sand Creek, defenders of the Gaza massacre should be exposed to all for what they are: racist apologists of whole-scale barbarism, aiding and abetting an indefensible, criminal explosion of violence. These defenders include the entire political leadership of the U.S. government. History will not judge them merely as fools.
End the Gaza massacre! Long live Palestine!
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14) Gaza: Canadian Union of Postal Workers calls for boycott
by Denis Lemelin, National President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
January 7th, 2009
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=18088
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/2597
On behalf of the 56,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, I am writing to demand that the Canadian government condemn the military assault on the people of Gaza that the state of Israel commenced on December 26th, 2008.
Canada must also call for a cessation of the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza, which has resulted in the collective punishment of the entire Gaza population.
Canada must also address the root cause of the violence: Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Israel's current actions are totally out of proportion with any notion of self-defense. Israel's actions are resulting in the massacre of people in Gaza.
Israel's action will not bring peace to the region. They will result in Israel being less secure.
Professor Richard Falk, the UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied territories, has characterized the Israeli offensive as containing "...severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regards to the obligations of an occupying power and in the requirements of the laws of
war."
CUPW strongly urges the Canadian government to condemn the serious violations of humanitarian and international law by the state of Israel.
The Israeli Government's siege and military incursions into Gaza are not isolated events. It is a direct result of Israel's ongoing occupation of Palestine and the refusal of the Israeli government to abide by numerous United Nations security council resolutions.
Therefore, as a longer term strategy, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is asking your government to adopt a program of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and complies with international law, including the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
Yours truly,
Denis Lemelin
National President
cc.
Michael Ignatieff, Liberal Leader
Jack Layton, NDP Leader
Gilles Duceppe, Bloc Quebecois Leader
Ken Georgetti, Canadian Labor Congress
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15) Oakland Education Association Condemns Israeli Assault On Gaza And Role Of US Government
by Oakland Education Association
Wednesday Jan 7th, 2009 5:35 PM
http://www.oaklandea.org
The Oakland Education Association which represents the teachers in Oakland, California has passed a strong resolution protesting the Israeli attack on the people of Gaza and the role of the US in supporting these assaults.
Oakland Education Association Condemns Israeli Assault On Gaza And Role Of US Government
The OEA unreservedly condemn the murderous Israeli assault on Gaza, their deliberate targeting of the civilian population, including schools and hospitals, and Israels ongoing collective punishment of the Palestinian people which has been carried out with the strong support of the U.S. government. We support the Right to Return and call for the establishment of a bi-national secular state in Israel-Palestine. In line with this motion, we encourage teachers to open their classrooms to discussion and teaching on the crisis in Gaza.
Oakland Education Association
http://www.oaklandea.org
272 E 12th St
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16) Gaza medics face war's carnage, horrors daily
'What can you do? ... I want to smash my head against a wall,' a medic says
updated 3:27 p.m. PT, Sat., Jan. 10, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28594770/
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The medics who brave Israel's assault on Gaza have come under fire from tanks and faced days-long delays in getting to the scene of attacks, sometimes finding animals gnawing at corpses when they finally reach the dead and wounded.
Few are more exposed to the carnage of Israel's two-week military offensive than Gaza's medics, who number around 400 including volunteers. They work long hours, get little sleep and risk their lives daily. Many have lost friends and family, but the overwhelming workload leaves no time to process what they've seen.
Awaiting coordination with Israel often delays access to the injured, medics said. Some reported finding people stranded in their homes for days, or bodies lying in the streets uncollected.
"Disgusting is not the word," said Shawki Saleh, 24, a volunteer medic at Kamal Adwan hospital. "If it's not a dog, it's rats around the bodies. ... I've been doing this volunteer work for two years but I never imagined I'd see this. Who knows how many people are still under the rubble. We were carrying them out screaming."
In one long workday, medic Haitham Adgheir carried five corpses, saw six more at a Gaza hospital, and his medical convoy took Israeli tank fire that showered a driver with glass.
"My mind is like a video of body parts and injured people," said Adgheir, 33.
Fighting erupts
Israel launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Dec. 27 and sent in ground troops a week later in an attempt to halt years of Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel. More than 800 Palestinians have been killed, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinians medical officials. Thirteen Israelis have also been killed.
Israel says it targets only Hamas sites, but has hit mosques and apartment buildings throughout the crowded seaside territory. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields and launching attacks from schools, mosques and homes.
Since the fighting began, 21 Palestinian medical staff have been killed, 30 have been injured and 11 ambulances have been damaged, according to the World Health Organization.
The International Committee of the Red Cross made a rare public criticism of Israel this week, saying there were "unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach the injured. And Gaza staff say soldiers sometimes fire on ambulance crews.
Earlier this week, after waiting four days for coordination, ambulance crews entered the Zeitoun neighborhood and found at least 12 bodies and four small surviving children next to their dead mothers, the Red Cross has said.
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