Colonialism and Foreign Occupation. The Right to Resist Occupation and Fight for Freedom

NGO Forum, World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa, August 27-Sept 1, 2001

Declaration:

95. Colonialism represents one of the most serious violations of national sovereignty of states and breach of international law, and in almost all colonial territories serious crimes against humanity were committed by colonial powers.

96. Foreign occupation creates an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a wide range of systemic and gross violations of human rights and freedoms, including dispossession, displacement and denial of their right to self determination and women of occupied territories are subjected to rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and other forms of violence against women.

97. Acknowledging that a foreign occupation which imposes an alien domination and subjugation with the denial of territorial integrity amounts to colonialism (according to the principles of the ‘Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples’ of the UN General Assembly 1960) and denies the fundamental rights of self determination, independence and freedom of the people under occupation. It also creates an environment in which the occupied people are exposed to a wide range of systematic and gross violations of human rights and freedom. We extend our solidarity to the struggles for self – determination for people of Palestine, West Sumatra, Aceh-Sumatra, Bougainville, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, North Cyprus, and other states and indigenous communities including the Kurdish people, the indigenous people in the north east of India and in the north east of Sri Lanka, in Tibet, Kashmir, Bhutan, Mindanao and the non independent countries of the Caribbean, like Puerto Rico and recognize the situation of other people living under foreign occupation in different parts of the world.

Watered-Down UN Security Council Resolution Stands on the Backs of the People of Gaza

There is no safe place in Gaza. A statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reads: “This war is unique in the way that the civilians have no place to go and no place to hide.” On Saturday evening, one week after the launch of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s ground operation began and civilian casualties increased rapidly. The UN grimly reports that one-third of the over 850 dead and 3300 injured were children. Entire families were buried under the rubble of houses that were hit, and starving children were later found sitting next to their dead parents and other corpses.

Israel’s War Crimes and “Change we can believe in”

Once again, Israel is in the midst of murder and wanton destruction in Palestine. Gaza, after being starved of food, shelter, medical supplies and electricity, is again the stage for mass murder, the likes of which would normally elicit cries of protest the world over. However, the warped zeitgeist that currently pollutes reactions to Israeli violence has led to the usual commentaries of moral equivalency. The fact that the Palestinians had abided by the ceasefire agreement since the Fatah Hamas conflict in June 2007, but Israel broke it on November 5th this year is never mentioned in mainstream media. The same selective reporting was dominant during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006 as Israel unleashed carnage and destruction upon a defenseless civilian population. What makes Israel immune to prosecution for crimes that are broadcast live on TV? Millions are bearing witness, millions are protesting in all corners of the world but we are left with the official judgment that Israel is only reacting to threats to its national security. After turning the Gaza strip in to the world’s largest open air prison for 1.4 million souls and bleeding the inmates dry, unleashing a multibillion dollar military onslaught is now officially, in the western media, legitimate self defense. And all because the Palestinian people actually had the temerity to vote for Hamas instead of the Israeli controlled Fatah party. Democracy in action in the “only democracy in the Middle East”.

The Inalienable Right to Resist Israeli Occupation( UN charter 51)

By KIM PETERSEN

Israeli Jews are massacring Palestinians again. Zionists are pinning the blame on the elected representative of the Palestinians: Hamas.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni demonized the Palestinian movement: “Hamas is a terrorist organization and nobody is immune.”

Complicitly, the Whitehouse blamed Hamas, as did Canada’s government. Government officials in the US, Canada, and Europe spoke the same lame phrase, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” as if the slaughter being carried out by a world military power against a starving population could be construed as some kind of defense. Israel, the world’s most frequently cited violator of international law, a racist state, an occupation state built through violence and slow-motion genocide is being acknowledged as having the right to defend its criminality. This is preposterous; there is no right of an occupation regime to defend its occupation. Palestine, however, has a right to resist occupation!

Israel´s Strategy in Gaza:”create as much mutilation as possible to terrorise the civilian population”

 

Concerns about Israel’s use of non-conventional and experimental weapons in the Gaza Strip are growing, with evasive comments from spokesmen and reluctance to allow independent journalists inside the tiny enclave only fuelling speculation.

 

The most prominent controversy is over the use of shells containing white phosphorus, which causes horrific burns when it comes into contact with skin. Under international law, phosphorus is allowed as a smokescreen to protect soldiers but treated as a chemical weapon when used against civilians.

 

The Israeli army maintains that it is using only weapons authorised in international law, though human rights groups have severely criticised Israel for firing phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza.

 

But there might be other unconventional weapons Israel is using out of sight of the watching world.

 

One such munition may be Dime, or dense inert metal explosive, a weapon recently developed by the US army to create a powerful and lethal blast over a small area.

Nobody likes thieves

Israeli war crimes.

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? 

 

True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? And then it claims it is the eternal victim?

 

Nobody likes thieves. And why is it that every time one places an article which places in question the policy of Tel Aviv, that an army of cyber hackers appears, sending viruses to forums and news sites which “dare” to claim that Israel is not in the right? Is this freedom of speech? Is this freedom of expression?

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time there was an open and free and fair debate about the entire Middle East question and let us launch this debate, once and for all.

 

For a start, nobody is being anti-Semitic in bringing into question the policies defended by Tel Aviv, the more so because the word “Semitic” refers to the languages spoken in the Middle East region, including Arabic, and therefore any such accusation is as ludicrous as it is inaccurate, so let this be the end to the “anti-Semitic” accusation once and for all.

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time Israel ’s sheer hypocrisy and idiotic stupidity were outed, once and for all. How can this country claim any right and reason is on its side when it is flouting international law with every second that passes? The United Nations Organization set out a very clear definition as to what Israel is and the territory that Israel occupies today has nothing whatsoever to do with the area constituted by international law, therefore Israel is in violation of international law while it occupies territories that do not belong to it. Israel is a thief. Nobody likes thieves.

 

No occupation, no problem

No occupation, no problem. Why is it that Israel does not understand the simple precept that it has no right whatsoever to occupy lands which do not belong to it? Giving up the Gaza strip does not equate the building of colonies on the West Bank .

 

Nobody likes thieves. Until Israel moves back to the territories designated as “Israel” when the country was set up, carved out of Palestinian lands by an international community shocked by Nazi humanitarian crimes against this ethnic group, among many others (who mentions the Negro holocaust – slavery – for instance, in which tens of millions of Negroes were slaughtered?) how can it expect to claim the moral high ground? No occupation, no problem.

And regarding “atrocities”, so long as Israeli forces slaughter 250 children in two weeks, any claims that Israeli civilians are victims to Hamas rockets must surely fall on deaf ears. And what are the Palestinians supposed to do? Sit back, watch their lands be taken over, place their hands on their hearts and sing “Hallelujah”? No occupation, no problem. Nobody likes thieves.

 

War crimes

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights declared on Friday that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza . War crimes were already committed in Palestinian territories and in the Lebanon by Israeli forces, without the international community raising an eyelid. Yet these days, practically everyone outside Israel agrees that enough is enough. The sad thing is that Israel ’s policies give rise to those who claim that Hitler was right and to who question why the Jews have been thrown out of everywhere, practically, during the last five thousand years of history.

Of course war crimes were committed by Israelis in Gaza . Bombing a UN school for a start is called what? Self-defence? And 250 children in ten days? Is this what Tel Aviv calls an Act of God? Or Yahweh?

 

The way forward

Israel exists, period. But Israel means the original boundaries drawn up by the UNO. Until Israel respects the norms of international law, it cannot claim full rights as a member of the international community. Firstly, Israel must leave the lands it occupies illegally. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Secondly, the international community has to decide upon the status of Jerusalem. It does not belong to Jews, or Arabs. It belongs to everyone. Therefore why not constitute an international city there, set up the UNHQ in Jerusalem and make it an international forum for debate?

As we see, the solution is perfectly simple. Until then, there will be problems. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

  

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http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

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Enough. It’s time for a boycott to Israel

It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa. In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era”. The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions was born.

Watch the Body of a carbonized Child in Gaza

  

The Gaza Ghetto Uprising

 

In Gaza as in Iraq, the US public is being lied to while US taxpayers and US power is wasted to support aggression. Vanity Fair reported on the scheme to topple Hamas concocted by Eliot Abrams (a Zionist in the Bush administration) that was “part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs” that ended up strengthening Hamas. And by contrast to PR strategies, the former head of the Israeli intelligence services admitted in Israeli papers that Israel could have stopped Palestinian retaliatory home-made rockets long ago by lifting its siege of Gaza (a condition of the cease fire between Hamas and Israel agreed to but rarely implemented) but that Israel had a more strategic issue: to try a different way to topple the duly elected Hamas government.

But what else are we not being told about Gaza? Over 70% of the 1.5 million Palestinians in this besieged tiny strip of arid land are refugees. When Obama visited Sderot in the Negev, he should have also visited Gaza where he would have met with the original residents of Najd which was renamed Sderot after its destruction and settlement by European Jews. In Gaza he could have met with refugees from many of the 530 villages and towns ethnically cleansed. To aid the exodus, in the six weeks that preceded declaring Israel a state, 33 massacres were committed by Jewish forces like the Haganah, Irgun, and Stern (forerunners of the Israeli army that is attacking Gaza today). The Palestinian Nakba or catastrophe of destruction and ethnic cleansing marks our history like the genocides of WWII marks European history. The nascent state expanded by force to encompass 78% of Palestine (50% more than it was allocated).

Huge Israeli Airstrike Caught On Tape

This is what the Palestinians Fighters Said about the IDF offensive

Israel Proves “It’s Weaker than a Spider’s Web”

After 17 days of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, Israel failed to achieve its announced goal, which is “to stop the rocket attacks fired from the Strip into the Israeli settlements”, and the Palestinian resistance groups have continued to rain the occupied territories with tens of rockets putting the Israeli government in an embarrassing situation before the entire world.

Nobody likes thieves!

 

Israeli war crimes.

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? 

 

True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? And then it claims it is the eternal victim?

 

Nobody likes thieves. And why is it that every time one places an article which places in question the policy of Tel Aviv, that an army of cyber hackers appears, sending viruses to forums and news sites which “dare” to claim that Israel is not in the right? Is this freedom of speech? Is this freedom of expression?

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time there was an open and free and fair debate about the entire Middle East question and let us launch this debate, once and for all.

 

For a start, nobody is being anti-Semitic in bringing into question the policies defended by Tel Aviv, the more so because the word “Semitic” refers to the languages spoken in the Middle East region, including Arabic, and therefore any such accusation is as ludicrous as it is inaccurate, so let this be the end to the “anti-Semitic” accusation once and for all.

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time Israel ’s sheer hypocrisy and idiotic stupidity were outed, once and for all. How can this country claim any right and reason is on its side when it is flouting international law with every second that passes? The United Nations Organization set out a very clear definition as to what Israel is and the territory that Israel occupies today has nothing whatsoever to do with the area constituted by international law, therefore Israel is in violation of international law while it occupies territories that do not belong to it. Israel is a thief. Nobody likes thieves.

 

No occupation, no problem

No occupation, no problem. Why is it that Israel does not understand the simple precept that it has no right whatsoever to occupy lands which do not belong to it? Giving up the Gaza strip does not equate the building of colonies on the West Bank .

 

Nobody likes thieves. Until Israel moves back to the territories designated as “Israel” when the country was set up, carved out of Palestinian lands by an international community shocked by Nazi humanitarian crimes against this ethnic group, among many others (who mentions the Negro holocaust – slavery – for instance, in which tens of millions of Negroes were slaughtered?) how can it expect to claim the moral high ground? No occupation, no problem.

And regarding “atrocities”, so long as Israeli forces slaughter 250 children in two weeks, any claims that Israeli civilians are victims to Hamas rockets must surely fall on deaf ears. And what are the Palestinians supposed to do? Sit back, watch their lands be taken over, place their hands on their hearts and sing “Hallelujah”? No occupation, no problem. Nobody likes thieves.

 

War crimes

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights declared on Friday that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza . War crimes were already committed in Palestinian territories and in the Lebanon by Israeli forces, without the international community raising an eyelid. Yet these days, practically everyone outside Israel agrees that enough is enough. The sad thing is that Israel ’s policies give rise to those who claim that Hitler was right and to who question why the Jews have been thrown out of everywhere, practically, during the last five thousand years of history.

Of course war crimes were committed by Israelis in Gaza . Bombing a UN school for a start is called what? Self-defence? And 250 children in ten days? Is this what Tel Aviv calls an Act of God? Or Yahweh?

 

The way forward

Israel exists, period. But Israel means the original boundaries drawn up by the UNO. Until Israel respects the norms of international law, it cannot claim full rights as a member of the international community. Firstly, Israel must leave the lands it occupies illegally. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Secondly, the international community has to decide upon the status of Jerusalem. It does not belong to Jews, or Arabs. It belongs to everyone. Therefore why not constitute an international city there, set up the UNHQ in Jerusalem and make it an international forum for debate?

As we see, the solution is perfectly simple. Until then, there will be problems. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

 

 

 

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IDF facing hard resistence and Heavy losses in Gaza City.

Ron Paul holds US liable for Gazans death

Republican congressman Ron Paul says the US is aiding and abetting Israel in Gaza through its financial and military support for Tel Aviv.

“The weapons being used to kill so many Palestinians are American weapons, and American funds, essentially, are being used for this,” said the congressman Friday.

Blueprint for Gaza attack was long planned

As Israel rejected the terms of the proposed United Nations ceasefire at the weekend, Israeli military analysts were speculating on the nature of the next stage of the attack on Gaza, or the “third phase” of the fighting as it is being referred to.

Israel targets TV station in Gaza

Why Palestinians fight Israel

Gaza resists IDF invasion. IDF facing heavy losses

Arms exports to Israel from EU worth €200m. They are killing children in Gaza!

 

CET EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – European Union member states authorised the export of €200 million in arms exports to Israel in 2007, the latest figures from Brussels disclose, with France far and away the Jewish state’s biggest European weapons supplier. According to the EU’s 2008 report on arms export licences, published in December for the 2007 calendar year and consolidating the accounts that member states must annually submit, 18 member states authorised a total of 1,018 such licences to Israel worth €199,409,348.

The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields. More info..

 

The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. 

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline. 

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority. 

Gaza: The Preparation to Broader Middle East War Financed with your tax money!!

The Levant could be the starting point of a major international conflict with global ramifications and which could quickly spin out of control. Such a conflict could even involve the use of Israeli or American nuclear weapons against Iran and Syria. Syria has additionally declared that it is preparing for an inevitable war with Israel despite the fact that it believes that the chances of a war in 2008 are slim.

In the scenario of a war against Iran, the reaction of Syria will be pivotal. Damascus plays a central role and how it acts and reacts will have a definitive impact on Israeli military strategy in regards to Iran. It is in this context that Israel, the U.S. and the E.U., with the help of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, have been attempting to undermine and ultimately destroy the alliance between Syria and Iran. This is part of a geo-strategic stride to foreclose the possibility of a Mediterranean battle-front that might emerge in the Levant as a result of an attack on Iran.

The casus belli for an Israeli attack or a joint Israeli-U.S. attack, possibly involving NATO, against Syria or against both Syria and Iran could use the pretext of any form of retaliation by Hezbollah against Israel for the assassination in Damascus of one of its leaders, Imad Fayez Mughniyeh. 

Hezbollah has joined Iranian officials in saying that the U.S. military is incapable of starting another war in the Middle East by launching attacks on Iran and Syria. [1] Israeli officials have also renewed calls for peace by openly mentioning that Tel Aviv is willing to return the Golan Heights back to the Syrians, while there have been strong political noises against the move in Israel. [2] 

Tel Aviv is simultaneously part of a U.S. endeavour that claims Syria has a secret nuclear program aided by North Korea. [3] Strategic efforts, with strong links to war preparations, have also started with the aim of bringing temporary calm to the Palestinian Territories as part of the same track of events in the Levant.

Redrawing the Arab-Israeli Conflict as an Iranian-Israeli Conflict to justify War

Momentum is being built up against Iran in a list of growing, and more frequent, accusations against Tehran.

Vatican: Gaza “big concentration camp”

The representative of Pope Benedict XVI for matters of justice and peace, issues the toughest criticism by the Vatican against Israel.

On Wednesday, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace voiced the Holy See’s strongest criticism since the latest Mideast crisis began, calling Gaza a “big concentration camp”, Reuters reported.

Martino made the statement while speaking in an interview with the Italian online newspaper Il Sussidiario.net.

“Defenseless populations are always the ones who pay. Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp”, Martino, (his informal title in the Vatican is “justice minister”) said.

This comes at a time when the Pope has not openly criticized Israel and has only made several general appeals for an end to the violence in Gaza.

The face of war on terror-WARNING

 

This page contains pictures of children killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza

 

This is not a war!

It is a massacre by the 4th  strongest military power on earth on a defenseless population.

 

More Children Killed In Israel’s Attack On Gaza

Al Jazeera Video Report From Gaza -  Broadcast January 06, 2009

Palestinian children are increasingly among the dead as the Gaza death toll continues to rise.

One man has lost his entire family – including children, wife, parents and cousins – after a single attack.

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Israeli atrocities in Gaza: a political impasse and moral collapse

The premeditated slaughter yesterday of innocent men, women and children sheltering in the UN-run al-Fakhora school in Gaza is a war crime for which the Israeli government and military general staff are directly responsible. As atrocity piles on atrocity, it is clear that the Israeli military is using Hamas’s rocket attacks as the pretext for terrorising and subjugating the entire Palestinian population.

The Bloodbath in Gaza: Separating the truth from the hype

“Bandits with planes …
came through the sky
to kill children
and the blood of children ran through the streets without fuss,
like children’s blood.” (Pablo Neruda)

In a rare moment of honesty, the New York Times divulged the real motive behind the bombardment and invasion of Gaza. In Ethan Bronner’s article, “Israel Weighs Goal: Ending Hamas Rule, Rocket fire, or Both”, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said, “We need to reach a situation in which we do not allow Hamas to govern. That is the most important thing. If the war ends in a draw, as expected, and Israel refrains from reoccupying Gaza, Hamas will gain diplomatic recognition…No matter what you call it, Hamas will obtain legitimacy.”

VIDEO: Media bias about the Israeli – Palestine conflict EXPOSED!

A carefully researched and documented video production:

Media Disinformation regarding the Israeli-Palestine Conflict

click to view

Videos from Inside Gaza City- Freelancers broke the Israeli Media Blockade

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http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel?commentpage=13&commentposted=1
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872982
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872776
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/gaza-israel-media
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

CNN Finally Confirms Israel Broke Ceasefire First

Click to view

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KntmpoRXFX

The Monstrosity of War

Civilian deaths increase as Israel moves deeper into Gaza. (Photo: Abid Katib / Getty Images Europe)

“Foreseen for so many years: these evils, this monstrous violence, these massive agonies: no easier to bear.”
-Robinson Jeffers, American poet

    Agence France-Presse reports that the first person killed when the Israeli military began to enter Gaza on Saturday was a Palestinian child.

    On Sunday, a Palestinian woman and her four children were blown to pieces when Israeli warplanes bombed their home. They are among the 521 victims (at the time of this writing) of the ongoing air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip by a 9,000 strong force, which the Israeli government has launched on one of the most densely populated tracts of land in the world, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, half of them under 17 years of age.

    ”The ground invasion was preceded by large scale artillery shelling from around 4 P.M., intended to ’soften’ the targets as artillery batteries deployed along the Strip in recent days began bombarding Hamas targets and open areas near the border,” Israel’s Haaretz newspaper wrote of the onslaught. “Hundreds of shells were fired, including cluster bombs aimed at open areas.”

Foundation: UN must set up tribunal to prosecute Israeli war criminals

SHAH ALAM, Jan 6 (Bernama) — The United Nations (UN) should set up an international tribunal to prosecute Israeli war criminals, Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW) trustee Tunku Sofiah Jewa said today.

She noted the time was ripe for the UN General Assembly to seriously consider estabilishing an international criminal tribunal for Israel (ICTI), in view of the recent Israeli atrocities against Palestine.

Tunku Sofia said this would be in line with a call by Prof Francis A. Boyle, a noted international jurist, to establish the ICTI.

“Until an ICTI is established by the UN General Assembly, neither the overwhelming grief and protestations of the survivors of the massacre nor the criticisms and condemnations of the street demonstrators and delegates at the UN would mean anything to Israel,” she said in her comments posted through the trustee corner of KLFCW blog at http://www.criminalisewar.com/blog/.

Francis has been making impassioned pleas to various governments after the 2002 Israeli Jenin massacre, that an ICTI be established by the UN General Assembly as a “subsidiary organ” under Article 22 of the UN Charter.

Article 22 of the UN Charter states the UN General Assembly may establish such subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions. According to Francis, the purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute suspected Israeli war criminals for offences against the Lebanese and the Palestinians.

He said this would emulate what the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) did for victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic regime throughout the Balkans.

It is understood that the establishment of ICTI would, among others, provide some degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/12/israel.gaza/index.htmlhttp://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872822

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml

http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab

http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza

http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews

http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel?commentpage=13&commentposted=1

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872982

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872776

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/gaza-israel-media

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

Israel and the neocons supported Hamas to power. This is what they dont tell you!!

Posted in Uncategorized on January 11, 2009 by

The United States bears much of the blame for the ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and nearby parts of Israel. Indeed, were it not for misguided Israeli and American policies, Hamas would not be in control of the territory in the first place.

Israel initially encouraged the rise of the Palestinian Islamist movement as a counter to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the secular coalition composed of Fatah and various leftist and other nationalist movements. Beginning in the early 1980s, with generous funding from the U.S.-backed family dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, the antecedents of Hamas began to emerge through the establishment of schools, health care clinics, social service organizations and other entities that stressed an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, which up to that point had not been very common among the Palestinian population. The hope was that if people spent more time praying in mosques, they would be less prone to enlist in left-wing nationalist movements challenging the Israeli occupation.

From Guernica to Gaza: The History of Terror Bombing Victims

History’s terror bombings. This article reviews some of the most infamous:

– Guernica – 1937;

– the London Blitz – 1940 – 41;

– Dresden – 1945;

– Tokyo – 1945;

– Hiroshima and Nagasaki – 1945;

– North Korea – 1950 – 53;

– Southeast Asia – 1964 – 73;

– Iraq – 1991 to the present;

– Serbia/Kosovo – 1999;

– Afghanistan – 2001 to the present; 

– Lebanon – 1982 and 2006; and

– Gaza – 2008 – 09.

Strategic bombing involves destroying an adversary’s economic and military ability to wage war. It targets its war making capacity and related infrastructure. Terror bombing is another matter. It’s against civilians to break their morale, cause panic, weaken an enemy’s will to fight, and inflict mass casualties and punishment.

Nobody likes thieves

Israeli war crimes.

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? 

 

True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? And then it claims it is the eternal victim?

 

Nobody likes thieves. And why is it that every time one places an article which places in question the policy of Tel Aviv, that an army of cyber hackers appears, sending viruses to forums and news sites which “dare” to claim that Israel is not in the right? Is this freedom of speech? Is this freedom of expression?

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time there was an open and free and fair debate about the entire Middle East question and let us launch this debate, once and for all.

 

For a start, nobody is being anti-Semitic in bringing into question the policies defended by Tel Aviv, the more so because the word “Semitic” refers to the languages spoken in the Middle East region, including Arabic, and therefore any such accusation is as ludicrous as it is inaccurate, so let this be the end to the “anti-Semitic” accusation once and for all.

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time Israel ’s sheer hypocrisy and idiotic stupidity were outed, once and for all. How can this country claim any right and reason is on its side when it is flouting international law with every second that passes? The United Nations Organization set out a very clear definition as to what Israel is and the territory that Israel occupies today has nothing whatsoever to do with the area constituted by international law, therefore Israel is in violation of international law while it occupies territories that do not belong to it. Israel is a thief. Nobody likes thieves.

 

No occupation, no problem

No occupation, no problem. Why is it that Israel does not understand the simple precept that it has no right whatsoever to occupy lands which do not belong to it? Giving up the Gaza strip does not equate the building of colonies on the West Bank .

 

Nobody likes thieves. Until Israel moves back to the territories designated as “Israel” when the country was set up, carved out of Palestinian lands by an international community shocked by Nazi humanitarian crimes against this ethnic group, among many others (who mentions the Negro holocaust – slavery – for instance, in which tens of millions of Negroes were slaughtered?) how can it expect to claim the moral high ground? No occupation, no problem.

And regarding “atrocities”, so long as Israeli forces slaughter 250 children in two weeks, any claims that Israeli civilians are victims to Hamas rockets must surely fall on deaf ears. And what are the Palestinians supposed to do? Sit back, watch their lands be taken over, place their hands on their hearts and sing “Hallelujah”? No occupation, no problem. Nobody likes thieves.

 

War crimes

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights declared on Friday that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza . War crimes were already committed in Palestinian territories and in the Lebanon by Israeli forces, without the international community raising an eyelid. Yet these days, practically everyone outside Israel agrees that enough is enough. The sad thing is that Israel ’s policies give rise to those who claim that Hitler was right and to who question why the Jews have been thrown out of everywhere, practically, during the last five thousand years of history.

Of course war crimes were committed by Israelis in Gaza . Bombing a UN school for a start is called what? Self-defence? And 250 children in ten days? Is this what Tel Aviv calls an Act of God? Or Yahweh?

 

The way forward

Israel exists, period. But Israel means the original boundaries drawn up by the UNO. Until Israel respects the norms of international law, it cannot claim full rights as a member of the international community. Firstly, Israel must leave the lands it occupies illegally. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Secondly, the international community has to decide upon the status of Jerusalem. It does not belong to Jews, or Arabs. It belongs to everyone. Therefore why not constitute an international city there, set up the UNHQ in Jerusalem and make it an international forum for debate?

As we see, the solution is perfectly simple. Until then, there will be problems. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

 

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/12/israel.gaza/index.htmlhttp://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872822

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml

http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab

http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza

http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews

http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel?commentpage=13&commentposted=1

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872982

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872776

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/gaza-israel-media

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

 

 

Israeli war crimes. Nobody likes thieves

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? 

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? And then it claims it is the eternal victim?

 

Nobody likes thieves. And why is it that every time one places an article which places in question the policy of Tel Aviv, that an army of cyber hackers appears, sending viruses to forums and news sites which “dare” to claim that Israel is not in the right? Is this freedom of speech? Is this freedom of expression?

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time there was an open and free and fair debate about the entire Middle East question and let us use Pravda (“truth” in Russian) to launch this debate, once and for all.

For a start, nobody is being anti-Semitic in bringing into question the policies defended by Tel Aviv, the more so because the word “Semitic” refers to the languages spoken in the Middle East region, including Arabic, and therefore any such accusation is as ludicrous as it is inaccurate, so let this be the end to the “anti-Semitic” accusation once and for all.

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time Israel ’s sheer hypocrisy and idiotic stupidity were outed, once and for all. How can this country claim any right and reason is on its side when it is flouting international law with every second that passes? The United Nations Organization set out a very clear definition as to what Israel is and the territory that Israel occupies today has nothing whatsoever to do with the area constituted by international law, therefore Israel is in violation of international law while it occupies territories that do not belong to it. Israel is a thief. Nobody likes thieves.

 

No occupation, no problem

No occupation, no problem. Why is it that Israel does not understand the simple precept that it has no right whatsoever to occupy lands which do not belong to it? Giving up the Gaza strip does not equate the building of colonies on the West Bank .

 

Nobody likes thieves. Until Israel moves back to the territories designated as “Israel” when the country was set up, carved out of Palestinian lands by an international community shocked by Nazi humanitarian crimes against this ethnic group, among many others (who mentions the Negro holocaust – slavery – for instance, in which tens of millions of Negroes were slaughtered?) how can it expect to claim the moral high ground? No occupation, no problem.

And regarding “atrocities”, so long as Israeli forces slaughter 250 children in two weeks, any claims that Israeli civilians are victims to Hamas rockets must surely fall on deaf ears. And what are the Palestinians supposed to do? Sit back, watch their lands be taken over, place their hands on their hearts and sing “Hallelujah”? No occupation, no problem. Nobody likes thieves.

 

War crimes

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights declared on Friday that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza . War crimes were already committed in Palestinian territories and in the Lebanon by Israeli forces, without the international community raising an eyelid. Yet these days, practically everyone outside Israel agrees that enough is enough. The sad thing is that Israel ’s policies give rise to those who claim that Hitler was right and to who question why the Jews have been thrown out of everywhere, practically, during the last five thousand years of history.

Of course war crimes were committed by Israelis in Gaza . Bombing a UN school for a start is called what? Self-defence? And 250 children in ten days? Is this what Tel Aviv calls an Act of God? Or Yahweh?

 

The way forward

Israel exists, period. But Israel means the original boundaries drawn up by the UNO. Until Israel respects the norms of international law, it cannot claim full rights as a member of the international community. Firstly, Israel must leave the lands it occupies illegally. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Secondly, the international community has to decide upon the status of Jerusalem. It does not belong to Jews, or Arabs. It belongs to everyone. Therefore why not constitute an international city there, set up the UNHQ in Jerusalem and make it an international forum for debate?

As we see, the solution is perfectly simple. Until then, there will be problems. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/12/israel.gaza/index.html

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872822

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml

http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab

http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza

http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews

http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel?commentpage=13&commentposted=1

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

The Palestinian People Will Never Surrender (video)

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/12/israel.gaza/index.html
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872822
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542
http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml
http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab
http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza
http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews
http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel?commentpage=13&commentposted=1
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

In Defense of Humanity: Let Gaza Live

We don’t see the images.  They are neatly censored from our view in this country.  But everywhere else around the world the carnage that is Gaza is being seen and the people are revolted by what they see.

They see dead babies, decapitated bodies, defenseless relief workers killed.  Maimed men, makeshift morgues, mortified mothers.

They see exploding white phosphorus shells, cluster bombs, depleted uranium munitions.

They see what is reportedly the world’s fourth most powerful military using all of its power against a defenseless people.

In fact, they are witnesses to 15 days of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

They see Hugo Chavez expel Venezuela’s Israeli Ambassador and they see lawmakers in Ecuador condemn Israel’s actions, calling for an investigation into Israel’s crimes against humanity. 

And despite the obvious facts of an Israeli-sponsored terror campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, a piece of territory roughly twice the size of the District of Columbia, they see the U.S. Congress support a resolution totally supporting Israel, even though Israel is in violation of U.S. and international law.

They see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, swaggering in insult to black America by initially refusing to seat Roland Burris from Illinois in the Senate, yet that same Reid cowers before the pro-Israel lobby, and they wonder why.

And sadly, they see the U.S. President-elect, who roared onto the scene like a lion, remain as quiet as a lamb in the face of the utter inhumanity of Israel’s actions, and they wonder why.

And then, they see us.  Gathered here in front of the White House, reaffirming our own humanity.  The tears of the Palestinians roll down our cheeks, even as we bury our own victims of police murder.

A new day is coming in U.S. politics.  We will use the power of our vote to change U.S. policy.  We will no longer check our values at the door and support politicians and political parties that fail to deliver.

Not one more bomb to Israel.

In defense of humanity, we will not give up and we will win.

 

 

Shelled family recounts Gaza horror

Ahmed Samouni survived the shelling of his Zeitoun home,

but lost his mother and four brothers

Ahmed Samouni, who was left for days amidst the dead bodies of his mother and four brothers, witnessed what many are calling a massacre.

The horror that the 16-year-old has seen is hard for him to put into words, but the effects are written all over his face.

In video

 

Al Jazeera speaks to the shelling victims

“It was the third missile I remember. The other ones had killed my elder brother and injured people, they kept bleeding. But the third missile, that killed them all,” he said in between sobs.

“My brother was bleeding so much and right in front of my eyes he died. My other brother Ismail, he also bled to death.

“My mum and my youngest brother, they are gone. Four brothers and my mother, dead. May God give them peace.”

On January 7, paramedics finally brought the dead and injured to hospital, after they had spent four days trapped in their home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood.

‘Israeli shelling’

Alert: How the US and Israel Planned the Massacres in Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza and A Devastating Greater War. The New Order by the psychopaths in Washington and Tel Aviv

 

“Hegemony is as old as Mankind…” -Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. National Security Advisor

The term “New Middle East” was introduced to the world in June 2006 in Tel Aviv by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (who was credited by the Western media for coining the term) in replacement of the older and more imposing term, the “Greater Middle East.” 

This shift in foreign policy phraseology coincided with the inauguration of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil Terminal in the Eastern Mediterranean. The term and conceptualization of the “New Middle East,” was subsequently heralded by the U.S. Secretary of State and the Israeli Prime Minister at the height of  the Anglo-American sponsored Israeli siege of Lebanon. Prime Minister Olmert and Secretary Rice had informed the international media that a project for a “New Middle East” was being launched from Lebanon.

 

This announcement was a confirmation of an Anglo-American-Israeli “military roadmap” in the Middle East. This project, which has been in the  planning stages for several years, consists in creating an arc of instability, chaos, and violence extending from Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria to Iraq, the Persian Gulf, Iran, and the borders of NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan.

 

The “New Middle East” project was introduced publicly by Washington and Tel Aviv with the expectation that Lebanon would be the pressure point for realigning the whole Middle East and thereby unleashing the forces of “constructive chaos.” This “constructive chaos” –which generates conditions of violence and warfare throughout the region– would in turn be used so that the United States, Britain, and Israel could redraw the map of the Middle East in accordance with their geo-strategic needs and objectives.

 

New Middle East Map

Secretary Condoleezza Rice stated during a press conference that “[w]hat we’re seeing here [in regards to the destruction of Lebanon and the Israeli attacks on Lebanon], in a sense, is the growing—the ‘birth pangs’—of a ‘New Middle East’ and whatever we do we [meaning the United States] have to be certain that we’re pushing forward to the New Middle East [and] not going back to the old one.”¹ Secretary Rice was immediately criticized for her statements both within Lebanon and internationally for expressing indifference to the suffering of an entire nation, which was being bombed  indiscriminately by the Israeli Air Force.

 

The Anglo-American Military Roadmap in the Middle East and Central Asia 

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s speech on the “New Middle East” had set the stage. The Israeli attacks on Lebanon –which had been fully endorsed by Washington and London– have further compromised and validated the existence of the geo-strategic objectives of the United States, Britain, and Israel. According to Professor Mark Levine the “neo-liberal globalizers and neo-conservatives, and ultimately the Bush Administration, would latch on to creative destruction as a way of describing the process by which they hoped to create their new world orders,” and that “creative destruction [in] the United States was, in the words of neo-conservative philosopher and Bush adviser Michael Ledeen, ‘an awesome revolutionary force’ for (…) creative destruction…”²

Israeli war crimes. Nobody likes thieves

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? 

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? And then it claims it is the eternal victim?

 

Nobody likes thieves. And why is it that every time one places an article which places in question the policy of Tel Aviv, that an army of cyber hackers appears, sending viruses to forums and news sites which “dare” to claim that Israel is not in the right? Is this freedom of speech? Is this freedom of expression?

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time there was an open and free and fair debate about the entire Middle East question and let us use Pravda (“truth” in Russian) to launch this debate, once and for all.

For a start, nobody is being anti-Semitic in bringing into question the policies defended by Tel Aviv, the more so because the word “Semitic” refers to the languages spoken in the Middle East region, including Arabic, and therefore any such accusation is as ludicrous as it is inaccurate, so let this be the end to the “anti-Semitic” accusation once and for all.

 

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time Israel ’s sheer hypocrisy and idiotic stupidity were outed, once and for all. How can this country claim any right and reason is on its side when it is flouting international law with every second that passes? The United Nations Organization set out a very clear definition as to what Israel is and the territory that Israel occupies today has nothing whatsoever to do with the area constituted by international law, therefore Israel is in violation of international law while it occupies territories that do not belong to it. Israel is a thief. Nobody likes thieves.

 

No occupation, no problem

No occupation, no problem. Why is it that Israel does not understand the simple precept that it has no right whatsoever to occupy lands which do not belong to it? Giving up the Gaza strip does not equate the building of colonies on the West Bank .

 

Nobody likes thieves. Until Israel moves back to the territories designated as “Israel” when the country was set up, carved out of Palestinian lands by an international community shocked by Nazi humanitarian crimes against this ethnic group, among many others (who mentions the Negro holocaust – slavery – for instance, in which tens of millions of Negroes were slaughtered?) how can it expect to claim the moral high ground? No occupation, no problem.

And regarding “atrocities”, so long as Israeli forces slaughter 250 children in two weeks, any claims that Israeli civilians are victims to Hamas rockets must surely fall on deaf ears. And what are the Palestinians supposed to do? Sit back, watch their lands be taken over, place their hands on their hearts and sing “Hallelujah”? No occupation, no problem. Nobody likes thieves.

 

War crimes

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights declared on Friday that war crimes may have been committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza . War crimes were already committed in Palestinian territories and in the Lebanon by Israeli forces, without the international community raising an eyelid. Yet these days, practically everyone outside Israel agrees that enough is enough. The sad thing is that Israel ’s policies give rise to those who claim that Hitler was right and to who question why the Jews have been thrown out of everywhere, practically, during the last five thousand years of history.

Of course war crimes were committed by Israelis in Gaza . Bombing a UN school for a start is called what? Self-defence? And 250 children in ten days? Is this what Tel Aviv calls an Act of God? Or Yahweh?

 

The way forward

Israel exists, period. But Israel means the original boundaries drawn up by the UNO. Until Israel respects the norms of international law, it cannot claim full rights as a member of the international community. Firstly, Israel must leave the lands it occupies illegally. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

Secondly, the international community has to decide upon the status of Jerusalem. It does not belong to Jews, or Arabs. It belongs to everyone. Therefore why not constitute an international city there, set up the UNHQ in Jerusalem and make it an international forum for debate?

As we see, the solution is perfectly simple. Until then, there will be problems. Nobody likes thieves. No occupation, no problem.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/12/israel.gaza/index.html

 

 

 

 

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872822

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml

http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab

http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza

http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews

http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel?commentpage=13&commentposted=1

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2303147.svd

 

 

Enough. It’s time for a boycott to Israel. The people of the world shall save the children of Gaza!

 

 

Enda vägen till varaktig fred: Totalt återlämnande av de ockuperade områdena i Palestina till FN- godkända gränser!

 

Israel har genom att bomba skolor där civila sökte skydd, en dansk fältsjukhus och otaliga civila bostäder och nu senast bomba Gaza stad med stridflyg och tungartilleri med otaliga civila offer öppnar dörren för alla slags vedergällningar mot sin egen befolkning. Det betyder att våldets spiral kommer att fortsätta och de barn som ser det kommer att bli framtidens krigare på båda sidor. Om det hade varit vilken annan stat som helst som hade gjort sig skyldiga till detta skulle hela världssamfundet varit beredd att bomba förbrytaren. Varför ingenting händer i detta fall är ett klart tecken på hyckleriet i den officiella diskursen om terrorism, mänskliga rättigheter, ”skurkstater” och ”Ondskans Axel”. Allt detta blir en tom prat när man bombar en hel stad utan att någon höjer rösten. Inte de vanliga röster i alla fall som fördömde skarpt Ryssland, Serbien och andra när de utförde operationer i samma riktning.

Enough. It’s time for a boycott to Israel! The people of the world shall stop the massacre!

 

 

The best way to end the bloody occupation is to target Israel with the kind of movement that ended apartheid in South Africa

Israeli war crimes. Nobody likes thieves

Nobody likes thieves. It is about time people started calling a spade a spade. True, Jews were incinerated in ovens in Nazi Germany (so they say six million of them, or however many) in 12 years. 26 million Soviet citizens died in 4 years. True, Hamas fired rockets at Jewish settlements set up on the former homes of Palestinians, taken away from them by Israelis. True, Israeli civilians were killed in the process. But how many innocent civilians has Israel massacred? 

Images of the Gaza conflict

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Arms exports to Israel from EU worth €200m

CET EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – European Union member states authorised the export of €200 million in arms exports to Israel in 2007, the latest figures from Brussels disclose, with France far and away the Jewish state’s biggest European weapons supplier. According to the EU’s 2008 report on arms export licences, published in December for the 2007 calendar year and consolidating the accounts that member states must annually submit, 18 member states authorised a total of 1,018 such licences to Israel worth €199,409,348.

Criticism of Israel’s war crimes mounts

NAZARETH.  Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave’s civilian population.

The petitions – over attacks on medical personnel and the shelling of United Nations schools in Gaza – follow statements by senior Israeli commanders that they have been using heavy firepower to protect soldiers during their advance on built-up areas. “We are very violent,” one told Israeli media.

There is also growing evidence that Israeli forces have been firing phosphorus shells over densely populated areas in a move that risks violating international law by inflicting burns on civilians.

The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, called the events in Gaza a “new Nakba”, referring to the catastrophe that dispossessed the Palestinians in 1948. The Palestinian Authority revealed that it was planning to seek the prosecution of Israel’s leaders for war crimes in the international courts.

The legal challenges follow a wave of Israeli attacks on schools, universities, mosques, hospitals and ambulances in the past few days. The army claims the attacks are justified because the sites are being used by Hamas fighters.

A petition to the Israeli courts was announced on Wednesday by Taleb al Sanaa, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, over the shelling on Tuesday of a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp that killed at least 40 Palestinians sheltering there.

UN officials, noting that they had passed on the school’s GPS co-ordinates to Israel and that it was clearly marked with a UN flag, insisted that only civilians had sought refuge at the school. The UN has demanded an investigation.

Mr al Sanaa said the petition would name the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and Ehud Barak, the defence minister, as the responsible parties. “Israel needs to decide whether it wants to be a terrorist organisation like Hamas or respect international law,” he said.

A further petition has been launched by eight Israeli human rights groups, demanding that Israel’s Supreme Court ban the army from targeting ambulances and medical personnel.

The petition cites a large number of cases in which Israel has fired on ambulances, arguing that as a result medics have been unable to treat the wounded or transport them to hospital.

Palestinian medics said 21 of their staff have been killed by Israeli fire and many more wounded, according to reports on Al Jazeera TV. The Al Durra hospital in Gaza City was hit on Tuesday, and a day later three mobile clinics run by a Danish charity, DanChurchAid, were destroyed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross dropped its usual diplomatic language this week in denouncing Israel’s refusal to allow medical teams to tend the wounded.

During a three-hour pause in the fighting on Wednesday rescuers managed to reach the Zaytoun neighbourhood, south-east of Gaza City, that was extensively bombed at the start of the week.

Four children were found close to starvation alongside 15 bodies, including those of their mothers. Many other civilians were found dead in the area, and others are believed still to be in hiding. Israeli tanks were stationed nearby the destroyed buildings during the whole period.

Pierre Wettach, a Red Cross spokesman, called Israel’s delay in allowing a medical evacuation “shocking” and “unacceptable”. He added: “The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded.”

Physicians for Human Rights in Israel added its voice, criticising the Israeli authorities for repeatedly ignoring requests to move seriously wounded civilians.

The UN suspended its aid operations on Thursday after two of its drivers were killed and others wounded by Israeli fire directed at one of its relief convoys during another three-hour ceasefire.

John Ging, head of the UN relief agency in Gaza, said: “They were co-ordinating their movements with the Israelis, as they always do, only to find themselves being fired at from the ground troops.”

Palestinian sources and international observers warned that the death toll among civilians is rising rapidly as Israel’s ground invasion pushes deeper into Gaza.

Al Haq, a Palestinian legal rights group, warned that 80 per cent of the more than 750 Palestinians killed in the fighting so far have been civilians. According to figures cited by the World Health Organisation, at least 40 per cent have been children. Another 3,000 Gazans have been wounded.

Israeli commanders were reported in the Israeli media to be unsurprised by the heavy toll on civilians of their latest actions, saying their priority was to protect soldiers.

“For us, being cautious means being aggressive,” one told the Haaretz newspaper. “From the minute we entered, we’ve acted like we’re at war. That creates enormous damage on the ground.”

The newspaper said the government had taken into account the likely high number of Palestinian civilian casualties when it approved the ground operation a week ago.

Another soldier, identified as Lt Col Amir, told Israeli TV on Wednesday: “We are very violent. We are not shying away from any method of preventing casualties among our troops.”

Among the dubious tactics the army appears to be resorting to is use of white phosphorus shells, which burn intensely on exposure to air creating the firework-type explosions characteristic of Israel’s shelling of Gaza.

Although the shells produce dense clouds of smoke to cover military operations, they also cause severe burns on contact with skin.

Photographs of pale blue artillery shells lined up by tanks stationed on the edge of Gaza have been identified as American-made phosphorus munitions. Neil Gibson, a missiles expert for Jane’s, told the London Times that the shells were an “improved model” that burned for up to 10 minutes.

Although such shells are allowed when used solely as a smoke screen, they are banned as a chemical weapon if used as an anti-personnel munition. Palestinian and international medics in Gaza have reported large numbers of burns victims with injuries difficult to treat.  

Yesterday, Amnesty International also accused Israeli soldiers of using Palestinian civilians as human shields – a charge Israel has repeatedly levelled against Hamas.

Malcolm Smart, a spokesman, said: “Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground-floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position.”

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel.

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml

http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab

http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza

http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews

http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields worth 4 Billions US dollar

The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. 

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.

 

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

 

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21,  2007). 

The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).

 

The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.

 

The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine’s gas reserves could be much larger. 

Map 1

Map 2

Who Owns the Gas Fields

The issue of sovereignty over Gaza’s gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine. 

The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza’s offshore gas reserves. 

British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields.

 

The election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 was a major turning point. Palestine’s sovereignty over the offshore gas fields was challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. Sharon stated unequivocally that “Israel would never buy gas from Palestine” intimating that Gaza’s offshore gas reserves belong to Israel. 

In 2003, Ariel Sharon, vetoed an initial deal, which would allow British Gas to supply Israel with natural gas from Gaza’s offshore wells. (The Independent, August 19, 2003)

 

The election victory of Hamas in 2006 was conducive to the demise of the Palestinian Authority, which became confined to the West Bank, under the proxy regime of Mahmoud Abbas.  

In 2006, British Gas “was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt.” (Times, May, 23, 2007). According to reports, British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on behalf of Israel with a view to shunting the agreement with Egypt. 

The following year, in May 2007, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert  “to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority.” The proposed contract was for $4 billion, with profits of the order of $2 billion of which one billion was to go the Palestinians.

 

Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An Israeli team of negotiators was set up by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a deal with the BG Group, bypassing both the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority: 

 

“Israeli defence authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and services and insist that no money go to the Hamas-controlled Government.” (Ibid, emphasis added)

 

The objective was essentially to nullify the contract signed in 1999 between the BG Group and the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat. 

Under the proposed 2007 agreement with BG, Palestinian gas from Gaza’s offshore wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon, thereby transferring control over the sale of the natural gas to Israel. 

The deal fell through. The negotiations were suspended:

 

 ”Mossad Chief Meir Dagan opposed the transaction on security grounds, that the proceeds would fund terror”. (Member of Knesset Gilad Erdan, Address to the Knesset on “The Intention of Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Purchase Gas from the Palestinians When Payment Will Serve Hamas,” March 1, 2006, quoted in Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, Does the Prospective Purchase of British Gas from Gaza’s Coastal Waters Threaten Israel’s National Security?  Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, October 2007)

 

Israel’s intent was to foreclose the possibility that royalties be paid to the Palestinians. In December 2007, The BG Group withdrew from the negotiations with Israel and in January 2008 they closed their office in Israel.(BG website).

 

Invasion Plan on The Drawing Board

The invasion plan of the Gaza Strip under “Operation Cast Lead” was set in motion in June 2008, according to Israeli military sources: 

“Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago [June or before June] , even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”(Barak Ravid, Operation “Cast Lead”: Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)

 

That very same month, the Israeli authorities contacted British Gas, with a view to resuming crucial negotiations pertaining to the purchase of Gaza’s natural gas:  

“Both Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler agreed to inform BG of Israel’s wish to renew the talks.

 

The sources added that BG has not yet officially responded to Israel’s request, but that company executives would probably come to Israel in a few weeks to hold talks with government officials.” (Globes online- Israel’s Business Arena, June 23, 2008)

 

The decision to speed up negotiations with British Gas (BG Group) coincided, chronologically, with the planning of the invasion of Gaza initiated in June. It would appear that Israel was anxious to reach an agreement with the BG Group prior to the invasion, which was already in an advanced planning stage.

 

Moreover, these negotiations with British Gas were conducted by the Ehud Olmert government with the knowledge that a military invasion was on the drawing board. In all likelihood, a new “post war” political-territorial arrangement for the Gaza strip was also being contemplated by the Israeli government.

 

In fact, negotiations between British Gas and Israeli officials were ongoing in October 2008, 2-3 months prior to the commencement of the bombings on December 27th.  

In November 2008, the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Infrastructures instructed Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to enter into negotiations with British Gas, on the purchase of natural gas from the BG’s offshore concession in Gaza. (Globes, November 13, 2008)

 

“Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler wrote to IEC CEO Amos Lasker recently, informing him of the government’s decision to allow negotiations to go forward, in line with the framework proposal it approved earlier this year.

 

The IEC board, headed by chairman Moti Friedman, approved the principles of the framework proposal a few weeks ago. The talks with BG Group will begin once the board approves the exemption from a tender.” (Globes Nov. 13, 2008)

 

Gaza and Energy Geopolitics 

The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law.

What can we expect in the wake of the invasion?

What is the intent of Israel with regard to Palestine’s Natural Gas reserves? 

A new territorial arrangement, with the stationing of Israeli and/or “peacekeeping” troops?  

The militarization of the entire Gaza coastline, which is strategic for Israel? 

The outright confiscation of Palestinian gas fields and the unilateral declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza’s maritime areas?  

If this were to occur, the Gaza gas fields would be integrated into Israel’s offshore installations, which are contiguous to those of the Gaza Strip. (See Map 1 above). 

These various offshore installations are also linked up to Israel’s energy transport corridor, extending from the port of Eilat, which is an oil pipeline terminal, on the Red Sea to the seaport – pipeline terminal at Ashkelon, and northwards to Haifa, and eventually linking up through a proposed Israeli-Turkish pipeline with the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

 

Ceyhan is the terminal of the Baku, Tblisi Ceyhan Trans Caspian pipeline. “What is envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel’s Tipline.” (See Michel Chossudovsky, The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil, Global Research, July 23, 2006)

 

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542

http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml

http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab

http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza

http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews

http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

 

 

 

 

Hamas Says Its Fighters Ambushed Israeli Forces

Click HERE to view photos of the conflict  GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen in a suburb of Gaza City Sunday in one of the fiercest ground battles so far as Israel’s military inched toward Gaza’s population centers and residents braced for an expansion of the offensive. The fighting in the Sheikh Ajleen neighborhood erupted before dawn as Israeli infantrymen and tanks advanced toward Gaza City and its approximately 400,000 residents, Palestinian witnesses said. Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad said they ambushed the Israelis, leading to some of the heaviest fighting since Israel sent ground forces into the coastal territory on Jan. 3. Meanwhile, the Red Cross said Sunday that it would stop escorting Palestinian ambulances in the Gaza Strip after one of its ambulances was fired upon Saturday. Israel launched its offensive against Hamas on Dec. 27 in an attempt to halt years of rocket fire from Gaza at Israeli towns. Gaza health officials have counted more than 820 Palestinians dead and say at least half are civilians. Thirteen Israelis have died, three of them civilians. “Israel is nearing the goals which it set itself, but more patience, determination and effort is still demanded,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said ahead of his government’s weekly meeting Sunday. The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate cease-fire Thursday, but Olmert said Israel “never agreed that anyone would decide for us if it is permissible to strike at those who send bombs against our kindergartens and schools.” Hamas, the Islamic group whose government controls Gaza but is not recognized internationally, likewise has ignored the U.N. resolution, complaining that it was not consulted. Israeli defense officials say they are prepared for a third stage of their offensive, in which ground troops would push further into Gaza, but are waiting for approval from the government. Israel dropped leaflets on Gaza Saturday warning of a wider offensive. The first phase was a massive aerial bombardment, and the second saw ground forces enter Gaza, seize open areas used to fire rockets and surround Gaza City. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because military plans have not been made public, said the army also has a contingency plan for a fourth phase – the full reoccupation of Gaza and toppling of Hamas. “We are safe, but we don’t know for how long,” said Khamis Alawi, 44, who huddled with his wife and six children in their kitchen overnight. He said bullets riddled his walls and several came in through the windows. Hamas militants launched a barrage of rockets at the Israeli city of Beersheba, causing damage but no casualties. Hamas has been hard-hit by the Israeli offensive, but continues to fire rockets from inside Palestinian residential areas, paralyzing much of southern Israel. Open areas in northern Gaza from which militants once launched many of their rockets are now in Israeli hands. Israeli warplanes bombed targets along the Egypt-Gaza frontier near the town of Rafah on Sunday, shattering windows at the border terminal. The area is riddled by tunnels used to smuggle weapons and supplies into Gaza, and has been repeatedly bombed throughout the Israeli offensive. Israel has said many of the Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza are due to Hamas’ use of civilian areas as hiding places and staging grounds for attacks. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces fired phosphorus shells early Sunday at Khouza, a village near the border, setting a row of houses on fire. Hospital official Dr. Yusuf Abu Rish said a woman was killed and more than 100 injured, most suffering from gas inhalation and burns. Israeli military spokesman Capt. Guy Spigelman denied those claims. One of the main uses of phosphorous shells is to create smoke and mask ground forces, which is legal under international law, but the chemical can be harmful if used in densely populated areas. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal made a fiery speech on Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, describing the Israeli assault as a “holocaust.” Still, Hamas teams were in Cairo to discuss a cease-fire proposed by Egypt. Israel wants a guarantee that any cease-fire would end Hamas rocket fire and weapons smuggling from Egypt. Hamas is demanding that Israel open Gaza’s blockaded border crossings. Israel is unlikely to agree to that condition because it would hand Hamas a victory and allow the group to strengthen its hold on the territory it violently seized in June 2007. Struggling to keep peace efforts alive, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Israel and Hamas to agree to a truce. The Red Cross said it would stop escorting Palestinian ambulances after coming under fire Saturday during a three-hour lull declared by Israel to allow aid groups to their work in the besieged area. Red Cross spokesman Iyad Nasr said his organization was still investigating the source of the fire. Israeli forces have targeted several ambulances during the offensive, and in the past has accused Hamas of hiding militants inside ambulances. The Red Cross escorts are meant to provide extra protection to Palestinian ambulances and guarantee that all occupants are civilians. The U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees resumed its operations after suspending them because of Israeli attacks on its convoys. U.N. Relief and Works Agency spokesman Christopher Gunness said nine aid convoys were planned Sunday, but that the Israeli military had to “stand up and deliver” on its promises to allow aid to reach Gaza civilians. One of the deadliest single incidents since the offensive began was an Israeli strike near a U.N. school Tuesday that Gaza health officials said killed 39 Palestinians. On Sunday, Israeli defense officials said an investigation by the military concluded that an Israeli mortar shell missed its target and hit near the school. The Israeli investigation concluded that troops fired three mortar shells at Hamas militants who had just launched a rocket, the officials said. Two shells hit the target, but a third missed by about 30 yards, striking near the school and killing bystanders. The Israeli military believes the number of casualties was inflated by Hamas. The defense officials spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity because the investigation has not been made public, and there was no official comment from the military. http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_2304841.svd http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=3561&a=872542 http://www.metro.se/se/article/2009/01/09/14/1240-45/index.xml http://www.metro.se/se/article/tt/2009/01/11/usamoobama/index.xml http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4161981.ab http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/search.jsp?query=Gaza http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4157331.ab http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/artikel_2294131.svd http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/11/israel.gaza/index.html

More Israeli Massacres as Gaza Bravely Resists Occupation, Palestinians said they kill 12 IDFs Soldiers.

On the 15th day of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Israel continued its bloody attacks in a bid to break the resistance’s will in the Strip.

Israel Excessively Uses White Phosphorus Shells on Gaza

On the sixteenth day of Israel’s war on Gaza, fighters jets, vessels and tanks continued to pound the Gaza strip overnight into Sunday.
More houses have been targeted, more civilians have fell martyrs and injured in this day’s excessive use of internationally prohibited white phosphorus shells.
Palestinian medics said at least four Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded early Sunday. Doctors said burn wounds were caused by banned white phosphorous shells, with Israel denying the charge. Exposure to white phosphorus may cause burns and irritation, liver, kidney, heart, lung, or bone damage, and death.
Indications that white phosphorous is being used in Gaza follow the sighting of thick white smoke in the sky above the Palestinian territory.