Israeli students call Barak 'murderer'

Israeli students call Barak 'murderer' http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=82968&sectionid=351020202 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:12:46 GMT

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has cancelled his visit to a university in Tel Aviv after being called a 'murderer' by the students. Barak canceled his visit to Tel Aviv University's Law Department, after a graffiti sprayed on the walls of the building called him a 'murderer', Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported Monday. The incident came after Israel launched a unilateral all-out military offensive against the Gaza Strip, killing at least 1,300 people including women and children. The graffiti was drawn on the entryway to the Law Department ahead of the defense minister's visit. Tel Aviv has been internationally condemned for launching the war on Gaza which eventually failed to achieve even the primary goals set in the beginning of offensive. --------------

Israel accused of war crimes ahead of Ban's visit

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Tuesday 20 January 2009

As the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is set to visit both southern Israel and the devastated Gaza strip, human rights NGO Amnesty International said it was "undeniable" that Israel used illegal white phosphorous bombs.

AFP - Tension eased in Gaza early on Tuesday as a fragile ceasefire entered its third day, with residents struggling to absorb the devastation caused by Israel's deadly 22-day assault on the territory.

As dawn approached, there were no reports of shooting, rockets or any other unrest by either side for the first time since Israel launched its massive assault on December 27.

Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on Sunday and begun pulling back from Gaza City while Hamas and other militant groups kept to a week-long truce.

As some kind of normalcy began to return to the battered enclave, UN chief Ban Ki-moon was to make his first visit to witness first hand the extent of the destruction which left more than 1,300 people dead.

It would also be the first visit by a foreign leader to the impoverished territory since Hamas violently seized power there in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The secretary general was also to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, five kilometres (three miles) from the Gaza border, which has taken the brunt of the rocket fire since 2001.

Some stores raised their metal shutters as Hamas police reappeared on the streets to direct traffic and people dug through the rubble to recover what they could -- clothes, a television, books, tins of food.

Najette Manah, three small children in tow, clutched a box of rice that she found amid the debris of what used to be her home.

"We don't have homes any more. I don't have anything any more," she said.

Statistics released by the Palestinian bureau of statistics showed some 4,100 homes were totally destroyed and 17,000 others damaged in the three-week war.

Despite the devastation, Hamas' armed wing called the war a "divine victory" and vowed to rearm, warning Israel it would face more rocket attacks if it did not withdraw all its forces by next Sunday.

Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades' spokesman Abu Obeida said Hamas lost only 48 fighters, although Israel said it killed more than 500. He also claimed Israel lost "at least 80 soldiers". The army listed 10 killed.

Groups linked to the secular Fatah movement reported 37 combatants killed, Islamic Jihad 34, the Popular Resistance Committees 17 and the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine 13.

Gaza medics said more than 1,300 Palestinians, nearly a third of them children, were killed in the war.

"Our arsenal of rockets has not been affected and we continued to fire them during the war without interruption. We are still able to launch them," Abu Obeida said, adding that efforts to halt arms smuggling into Gaza would also fail.

"Let them do what they want. Bringing in weapons for the resistance and making them is our mission and we know full well how to acquire weapons."

Israel meanwhile again came under fire for using excessive force, with Amnesty International saying it was "undeniable" that Israel had used white phosphorus in crowded civilian areas, contrary to international law.

"We saw streets and alleyways littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus, including still burning wedges," said Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons expert touring Gaza as part of a four-person fact-finding team.

White phosphorus can be used as a smokescreen on an open battlefield but is banned in densely populated areas. Israel has said all the weapons it used in the war are allowed under international law.

At an Arab summit in Kuwait, beleaguered Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas made a renewed appeal for national unity between Hamas and Fatah.

"What is needed and necessary now is that all Palestinians should meet to reach an agreement," Abbas said, calling for the formation of a national unity government to organise fresh presidential and parliamentary elections.

In Qatar last Friday, Hamas for the first time attended a regional summit as a representative of the Palestinians, a political coup that raised fears among Abbas's supporters that the internal rift may be hardening.

At a parallel meeting of the Arab League in Kuwait, Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah called for "practical steps to stabilise the ceasefire" while Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced a billion dollars to rebuild the battered territory.

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My comment:

Israel used the white phosphorus during its terrorist attack on Gaza as they are using the firwork during christmas festival

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UN chief arrives in war-torn Gaza Strip

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Tuesday 20 January 2009

http://www.france24.com/en/20090120-un-chief-ban-ki-moon-arrives-gaza-strip-conflict-israel

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the devastated Gaza Strip Tuesday, in the first visit by an international leader to the coastal strip following Israel's deadly 22-day offensive.

AFP - UN chief Ban Ki-moon paid a first visit to the war-battered Gaza Strip on Tuesday where Israeli troops remain deployed on the third day of a ceasefire.

Hours before the inauguration of US president-elect Barack Obama, the army said a total troop pullout from Gaza was not under discussion.

"For the moment, no one is talking about the total withdrawal of troops," said army spokeswoman Avital Liebovich.

However the ceasefire appeared to be holding.

But Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian farmer in the north of the strip on Tuesday, doctors said.

An Israeli army spokesman said she could not confirm the report that the man had been killed near the town of Jabailya by shots fired by troops close to Gaza's border with Israel.

And two Palestinian children died in Gaza City when an Israeli shell they had been playing with exploded, doctors said.

Israel launched its massive assault on December 27 and started to pull out gradually from the territory on Sunday as Hamas and other militant groups pledged a week-long ceasefire.

With an air of normalcy returning, Ban entered the strip mid-morning to witness the extent of the destruction which killed more than 1,300 people, including some 400 children, and wounded at least 5,300 others.

It was the first visit by a foreign leader to the impoverished territory since Hamas, an Islamist group boycotted by the West as a terror outfit, violently seized power in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The secretary general was to tour a UN-run school hit by an Israeli bombardment, Palestinian sources said.

Following his visit to Gaza, the UN chief was due to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, five kilometres (three miles) from the Gaza border, that has taken the brunt of Palestinian rocket fire since 2000.

Gazans say the tide of global hope that has surged with Obama's election victory has not washed over the Gaza Strip.

"Obama won't bring my husband back to life," said Leila Khalil. "He was martyred and left me with six children to feed on my own. And Obama won't repair our house that was damaged in the (air) raids."

For Khalil, Obama, who was to be inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States later om Tuesday, will not alter the historically pro-Israel US policy on the Middle East.

"No one cares about us," she said. "If we can't even count on Arab presidents, what can we hope for from an American president when they've always supported Israel?"

The Palestinian bureau of statistics reported 4,100 homes totally destroyed and 17,000 others damaged in Israel's deadliest ever assault on Gaza.

Despite the devastation, Hamas called the war a "divine victory" and vowed to rearm, warning Israel it would face more rocket attacks if it did not withdraw all forces by Sunday.

In Kuwait, an Arab summit was concluded on Tuesday with aid pledges to help rebuild the Gaza Strip, but without a specific fund or political unity on the Gaza war.

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah called for "practical steps to stabilise the ceasefire," while Saudi King Abdullah pledged one billion dollars to rebuild the battered territory.

Abbas, the beleaguered Palestinian president, made a renewed appeal on Monday for national unity between Hamas and his secular Fatah.

The rebuilding of Gaza looks set to become another battleground with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warning that Israel did not want Hamas to take control of reconstruction.

"Israel believes that the reconstruction process must be led by international organisations in cooperation with the UN, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority," he told visiting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

His foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, also warned that Israel will not open Gaza's border crossings without progress on the fate of an Israeli soldier who has been held hostage in the enclave for nearly three years.

Hamas has demanded that Israel open the coastal strip's borders and the European Union, along with key nations in Europe, have also urged Israel to open the crossings to help secure a lasting ceasefire.

Israel considers Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement that is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state, a terror organisation.
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UN chief wants full investigation into school bombings

Tuesday 20 January 2009
http://www.france24.com/en/20090120-un-ban-ki-moon-gaza-israel-palestinian-territories-school-bombings

AFP - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for those responsible for the bombing of UN-run buildings and schools in Gaza to be held accountable following Israel's 22-day war on Hamas.

"It is an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack on the United Nations," Ban said, speaking outside the still-smouldering main UN compound in Gaza City that was bombed during the war.

"There must be a full investigation, a full explanation to make sure it never happens again. There should be accountability through a proper judiciary system," he said.

Ban, describing the scenes in post-war Gaza "heartbreaking," became the first world leader to visit the enclave since Israel halted the deadliest offensive it has ever launched on the Palestinian territory, which has been ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since June 2007.

The UN compound where he spoke was hit by Israeli shells on January 15, setting a warehouse alight, burning tonnes of badly needed food aid and sending a massive column of black smoke into the air above Gaza City for hours.

Another four UN buildings -- schools where Gazans were sheltering from the fighting -- were struck by Israel in the course of the fighting. More than 40 people were killed in one such attack, according to medics and UN officials.

"I'm just appalled. I'm not able to decribe how I'm feeling, having seen this site of the bombing of the United Nations compound. Everyone is now smelling, this morning, still, it is still burning," Ban said.

"I have protested many times and today I am protesting again in the strongest terms and condemning it. I have asked for a full investigation and to make those responsible people accountable."

Ban went on to accuse Israel of using "excessive force" in the conflict, but he also condemned Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel, calling it "completely unacceptable."

Israel has said it made very effort to prevent the deaths of civilians and said it was fired upon from inside or near each of the UN sites in question, a charge often disputed by UN workers.

After touring the scenes of devastation left by the three-week-long campaign in which Israel pummelled the territory with air strikes and tanks shells and destroyed thousands of houses, Ban said he had seen "heart-breaking scenes."

The UN chief said a "massive international effort" would be required to resolve the Middle East conflict and create a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel, saying he was "more determined than ever to see this achieved."

More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, nearly a third of them children, according to Palestinian medics. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed over the same period.

UK: MP makes Israeli troops Nazi link

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/7834487.stm Sir Gerald Kaufman is standing by his comments A prominent Jewish MP has compared the actions of Israeli troops with Nazis who forced his family to flee Poland. Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP for Gorton in Manchester, drew the parallel during a Commons debate on the Gaza conflict. Some members of the Jewish community - including his fellow MPs - have questioned the comments. Louise Ellman MP, of the Labour Friends of Israel group, said the "dreadful" war in Gaza was not comparable to German actions in World War II. Sir Gerald, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist, told MPs: "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town .. a German soldier shot her dead in her bed. "My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza." We had an IRA bomb in Manchester which destroyed much of the centre - we didn't send troops over to Belfast to murder 1,000 Catholics Sir Gerald Kaufman "The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians." Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip have passed 1,000, medical sources in Gaza say, but Israel has continued to resist international calls for a ceasefire. The Israeli government says the action is necessary to prevent Hamas rocket attacks into southern Israel. Labour MP Louise Ellman said: "The Nazis were about rounding up and exterminating people because of their origins. "What we're witnessing in Gaza is a dreadful war and the Israelis are trying to stop Hamas continuing to launch rockets from Gaza, targeting and killing and murdering Israeli citizens." But speaking to the BBC on Friday, Sir Gerald said he was standing by his comments. "We had an IRA bomb in Manchester which destroyed much of the centre - we didn't send troops over to Belfast to murder 1,000 Catholics." Sir Gerald said he had been a long-term supporter of Israel and has personally known many of its prime ministers. But he added: "I am not going to stand by and keep silent when the Israeli troops - with a dreadful government sending them there - kill large numbers of innocent people with no useful result at the end of it all." --------------------------------

The Independent: British Jews attacked for pro-Gaza solidarity

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-jews-attacked-for-progaza-solidarity-1418909.html
By Emily Dugan
Sunday, 18 January 2009

British Jews have been attacked for expressing support for Palestinians suffering under Israeli military strikes in Gaza. Police confirmed yesterday that they have provided protection to a number of people believed to be victims of UK-based Zionist extremists angered by expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.

Israel's assault on Gaza has prompted a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Britain, with more than 150 incidents reported by the Community Security Trust (CST), an organisation for the protection of Jews. But the past two weeks have also seen aggression within the Jewish community towards those sympathetic to the plight of Gaza.

Rabbi Elchenon Beck, 39, was among six rabbis expressing support for Gaza's Palestinians who were set upon by a gang of what they allege were Zionists while walking back from opposing rallies outside the Israeli Embassy on 6 January. "They were shouting and pushed someone to the floor, so we called the police," Rabbi Beck said. "All the time they are trying to intimidate us, but we get used to it."

Rabbi Aharon Cohen, a Palestinian sympathiser and member of the anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta, had his letter box destroyed by a powerful firework after attending the peace march in Manchester this month.

Mark Gardner, of the CST, said it had not kept records of attacks within the Jewish community, but condemned those using the situation in Israel to justify violence in Britain.

"There's passionate political debate," he said, "but what's vitally important is that it does not spill over so that we become participants in a war by proxy."

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Israel calls a halt to its assault on Gaza

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Actually Israeli did not finish its aggression completely till the time I am doing this post.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/17/israel-halts-gaza-assault

Israel called a halt to its bombardment of Gaza last night after winning American and European pledges of support to shut down the Hamas weapons supply pipeline.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, in effect declared Hamas was broken, saying that its power is diminishing. "The conditions have been created that our aims, as declared, were attained fully, and beyond," he said in a televised address. "The campaign has proven Israel's power and strengthened its deterrence."

But Hamas said it would keep fighting for as long as Israeli troops remained in Gaza. "A unilateral ceasefire does not mean ending the aggression and ending the siege," a spokesman said. "These constitute acts of war, so this will not mean an end to resistance."

Israel's security cabinet backed Olmert's proposal for what he called a unilateral ceasefire, effective from midnight last night, that would end three weeks of bombardment by air, sea and land that has claimed the lives of about 1,200 Palestinians, a third of them children and young people.

Olmert declared that the operation had achieved its primary goals of curbing Hamas rocket fire into Israel - although it has failed to stop it completely, with 20 missiles fired into Israel on Friday alone - and securing Egypt's border with Gaza to end weapons smuggling into the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli defence officials said the invading forces would remain inside Gaza for several more days before beginning their pullout. Hamas said it would keep attacking as long as thousands of Israeli soldiers and tanks continued to occupy swaths of the Palestinian enclave.

Of Hamas, Olmert said: "If they continue shooting, we will act to protect our citizens." He said Hamas had been "badly hit" by the assault on Gaza, and described it as a proxy of Iran.

Olmert also addressed Gazans, saying that Israel does not hate them but launched the assault in order to protect Israeli children. "We feel the pain of every Palestinian child," he said. "Any shout of pain." Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, last night welcomed the ceasefire, saying it would be a "huge relief" and adding that too many lives had already been lost. He also called on Hamas to put an end to rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said on Saturday he was relieved that Israel had called an end to hostilities. "This should be the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza," he said.

Egypt has called a summit of world leaders in Sharm al-Sheikh today to discuss Gaza's future. It was reported that Gordon Brown would attend, along with the French and German leaders, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the UN secretary general. But Olmert is not expected to be there.

The killing continued in the hours before the meeting, with the United Nations refugee agency for Palestinians calling for a war crimes investigation after Israeli forces killed two children when they shelled a school being used as a refugee centre in northern Gaza.

Israel's decision to halt the assault came after an agreement with the US for American intelligence and equipment to help prevent Hamas smuggling weapons into Gaza through tunnels.

Europe has also offered assistance in monitoring weapons shipments from countries such as Iran. With that deal in place, it appears that Israel decided it did not need to make the concessions demanded by Hamas for a ceasefire, particularly the lifting of the economic blockade of Gaza.

Britain has offered naval resources to help stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza, Brown said. The prime minister said he was also prepared to help ensure proper protection and monitoring of crossings into the enclave.

But last night Egypt's foreign minister dismissed a US-Israeli agreement aimed at cutting off weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip, raising questions about how effective it would be in preventing arms from reaching Hamas. The US and Israel can "do what they wish with regard to the sea or any other country in Africa, but when it comes to Egyptian land, we are not bound by anything except the safety and national security of the Egyptian people", Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters.

The Israeli ceasefire also came after the exiled head of Hamas's political wing, Khaled Meshaal, told Arab leaders that the Islamist movement would not accept any ceasefire which did not provide for a full Israeli pullout and the opening of Gaza's borders. The unilateral move is also apparently intended to end the fighting before Barack Obama is sworn in as US president this week.

Ahead of the security cabinet meeting, Israel kept up its bombardment, killing two boys sheltering at a UN school and severing their mother's legs. At least five people died in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Yesterday the UN called for a war crimes investigation, saying that it had provided GPS co-ordinates and other details of the school to the Israeli military to protect civilians sheltering there.

"When you have a direct hit of a UN school, you have to have an investigation," said the UN spokesman, Christopher Gunness.

A demonstration in London against Israeli attacks on Gaza ended in violence last night after protesters looted and damaged shops. Scotland Yard said it was investigating the damage.

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Nowhere to Run to, Nowhere to Hide The UN in Israel's Crosshairs

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By RANNIE AMIRI

History will record Israel’s onslaught in Gaza as noteworthy not only for the wide destruction of institutions of state and civil society, but for the deliberate targeting of the United Nations and the refugees it aided and sheltered. And it certainly would not be the first time Israel has done so.

On Jan. 15, in its most brazen act yet, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) shelled the Gaza headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Words Agency (UNRWA), the primary body responsible for feeding and assisting Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and beyond. At the time of the attack, the compound housed more than 700 civilians seeking shelter from the war and its warehouses stored thousands of pounds of critical, and desperately needed, food and humanitarian supplies.

Even more sinister was the weapon employed: White Phosphorus (WP).

WP is known to cause severe, deep, and difficult to treat burns when it comes in contact with skin. Despite denials by the IDF, there is evidence of its use in Gaza and reports detailing significant burn injuries to civilians as a result. Its use as a weapon is a flagrant violation of international law and the UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

WP bombs and shells are classified as incendiary devices and the structures they hit continue burn for long periods since the fires they cause are not extinguished by conventional means (water, fire extinguishers, etc).

As food, fuel and other supplies went up in flames at the headquarters—a location well-known to the Israelis who were given its precise GPS coordinates—UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness aptly remarked, “What more stark symbolism do you need?”

Indeed, the sordid history and pattern of Israel’s intentional targeting of UN compounds and schools in Lebanon and Gaza is ripe with symbolism, as is the usual flurry of contradictory excuses, apologies and justifications that predictably follow.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak deemed this most recent attack a “grave mistake” while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it was justified because missiles were allegedly launched there.

This very same sequence of events has been played out time and time again: a UN facility targeting refugees Israel helped create is shelled, a subsequent apology, excuse, and justification issued (usually that it was being used by ‘militants’), then little to no evidence substantiating the attack presented.

The following all share in this tragic history; where the innocent were massacred, and the assumption that the humanitarian auspices of the UN could protect non-combatants from Israeli shelling, shattered.

Qana, 1996

The year was 1996 and Israel was only six weeks away from upcoming elections (sound familiar?). Prime Minister Shimon Peres was expecting a stiff challenge from Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu. At the time, Israel was occupying southern Lebanon. Along with its proxy militia, the South Lebanese Army, they continued to fruitlessly battle Hezbollah despite their repeated failure to eradicate the group’s resistance. What Israel really needed to do, and has done prior to all its military adventures, was provoke the enemy enough to elicit a significant response. That response would then be used as pretext for initiating an all-out assault.

It came on March 30 when an Israeli gunship fired on two men, both civilians, working on a water tower in Yater, Lebanon, killing both. Hezbollah retaliated by firing missiles into northern Israel. Then, when a teenager died after a roadside bomb exploded in the village of Barashit and Hezbollah again responded with rockets, Peres had what he needed. Under the pretense of stopping the attacks and protecting the country’s northern border, “Operation Grapes of Wrath” was launched on April 11.

It didn’t take long before Israel committed its first wartime atrocity. On April 18, a UN compound in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, where more than 800 civilians had sought refuge, was shelled. One hundred and six civilians were massacred.

Peres said, “We did not know that several hundred people were concentrated in that camp. It came to us as a bitter surprise.” The military claimed it was due to “incorrect targeting based on erroneous data.” That was hard to believe, however, considering they had long been made aware of the compound’s location. In fact, a UNIFIL soldier filmed a drone and helicopters flying above the facility at the time of the attack. Tired allegations that Hezbollah fighters were using civilians as ‘human shields’ also fell flat.

A UN investigation concluded that: “The pattern of impacts is inconsistent with a normal overshooting of the declared target (the mortar site) … as suggested by the Israeli forces; during the shelling, there was a perceptible shift in the weight of fire from the mortar site to the United Nations compound”; and it was “unlikely that the shelling of the United Nations compound was the result of gross technical and/or procedural errors.”

The investigation conducted by Amnesty International succinctly stated: “The IDF intentionally attacked the UN compound … The IDF have failed to substantiate their claim that the attack was a mistake.”

The shifting explanations and excuses the Israelis had offered were solely for appeasing the international community. They knew their real message had been delivered.

Jabaliya, 2009

The assault on Gaza, dubbed “Operation Cast Lead” is almost into itsfourth week. It was on Jan. 6, though, that the single largest loss of life since the beginning of the campaign occurred. Not surprisingly, it was another UN facility that was targeted. This time it was the Al-Fakhura girls school located in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City. Two-hundred eighty families had taken refuge there, numbering 1,674 people. Most came from the town of Beit Lahiya to the north after being ordered to evacuate by the IDF.

Despite the school flying the distinctive UN flag and its location by GPS coordinates known, Israeli tank shells struck the school, spraying shrapnel inside and outside the building. Forty-six people were killed (including 20 children) and 55 wounded. Paramedics and eyewitnesses reported seeing “limbs and meat” in the street afterward.

As with Qana, the same justifications for the attack—conducted “according to procedures”—were put forth by the Israelis and just as quickly refuted.

It was alleged that Hamas fighters were operating out of the school. John Ging, director of the UNRWA in Gaza vehemently denied this, saying all people taking shelter there had been thoroughly vetted and there were “…no military people inside the school; it is fully controlled.”

The Israelis then decided to release footage of the purported “militant gunfire” coming from the school. But not only did the footage date back to 2007, it was of a different school, in a different city! (and not run by the UN).

It was ultimately acknowledged that no shooting came from there. According to Gunness:

“In briefings senior officers conducted for foreign diplomats, they admitted the shelling to which IDF forces in Jabaliya were responding did not originate from the school” (Haaretz, 11 Jan 2009).

Many different and often contradictory stories have since been issued by the Israelis. As before, the underlining message had been effectively delivered.

Other UN schools – Al-Shouka, Asma

Al-Shouka school in Rafah and Asma primary school in Gaza City were also bombed by the Israelis in “Operation Cast Lead”. At Asma, three cousins were killed among the 400 people housed there who had fled fighting to the north.

So what were the Qana and Jabaliya massacres and the deliberate attack on Gaza’s UN headquarters meant to illustrate?

It is that not only sympathizers, but any civilian located in remote proximity to Israel’s enemies will be targeted. In addition, retribution will not only be exacted against the UN in general for the countless resolutions it has levied against Israel, but against the UNRWA specifically for the body’s assistance and advocacy on behalf of Palestinians. All are extensions of the doctrine of collective punishment, but with a particularly ominous message for civilians:

There is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. There is not an institution or organization on earth that will be able to protect you from us.

Rannie Amiri is an independent commentator on the Arab and Islamic worlds. He may be reached at: rbamiri at yahoo dot com.

http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri01162009.html

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Killed by Israel, Eaten by Dogs

==================================== Killed by Israel, Eaten by Dogs

By Ola Attallah, IOL Correspondent http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1231760488574&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout

Nearly 300 children have fallen victim to the ongoing Israeli onslaught. (Reuters) GAZA CITY - "Oh, God! I have never seen such a terrible scene," cried Kayed Abu Aukal. The emergency doctor could not believe himself seeing the remains of what was days back Shahd, a full-fleshed 4-year-old Palestinian girl. She died when an Israeli shell was fired at the backyard of her home in the Jabalya refugee camp northern Gaza strip, where she was playing. When her parents attempted to rush to the rescue of their kid, who fell to the ground amid a pool of her blood, rains of Israeli bullets kept them a distance. For the next five days Shahd's which was left lying in the open left for dogs to tear out. "The dogs did leave one single part of the poor baby's body intact," said a tearful Abu Aukal. Gaza... New Sabra and Shatila Israel Blocks Gaza Rescue Efforts: ICRC "We have seen heart-breaking scenes over the past 18 days. We picked up children whose bodies were torn or burnt, but nothing like this." For five days Shahd's brother, Matar, and cousin, Mohamed, tried in vain to reach her body. They were fired at by the Israeli occupation forces every time. Seeing the body of the little angel torn to piece by the assaulting dogs, the two made one final attempt, and it was their last. They were showered by Israeli bullets before they could reach Shahd's body, joining a long list of more than 920 Palestinians killed by Israel since December 27. Deliberate Omran Zayda, a young neighbor, said the Israelis knew very well what they were doing. "They chased her family and prevented them from reaching to her body, knowing that the dogs would eat it," he said. "They are not just killing our children, they are intentionally doing so in the most heinous and inhuman ways." Zayda said words, and even cameras, can not describe the horrific scene. "You can never imagine what the dogs have done to her innocent body," he said, fighting back his tears. Many Palestinians insist Shahd was not the first or only such case. In Jabalya, when Abd Rabu's family was trying to bury three of its dead, the Israeli forces started firing at them, witnesses said. They then released their dogs at the bodies, deserted by mourners who sought shelter from the Israeli gunfire, they added. "What happened was awful and unthinkable," Saad Abd Rabu, the deceased uncle, told IOL. "Our sons died before our eyes and we were even prevented from burying them," he cried. "The Israelis just released their dogs at their bodies, as even they have not done enough." -----------------------------------------

Israel’s righteous fury and its victims in Gaza

http://ilanpappe.com/?p=82

Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 2 January 2009

My visit back home to the Galilee coincided with the genocidal Israeli attack on Gaza. The state, through its media and with the help of its academia, broadcasted one unanimous voice — even louder than the one heard during the criminal attack against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israel is engulfed once more with righteous fury that translates into destructive policies in the Gaza Strip. This appalling self-justification for the inhumanity and impunity is not just annoying, it is a subject worth dwelling on, if one wants to understand the international immunity for the massacre that rages on in Gaza.

It is based first and foremost on sheer lies transmitted with a newspeak reminiscent of darker days in 1930s Europe. Every half an hour a news bulletin on the radio and television describes the victims of Gaza as terrorists and Israel’s massive killings of them as an act of self-defense. Israel presents itself to its own people as the righteous victim that defends itself against a great evil. The academic world is recruited to explain how demonic and monstrous is the Palestinian struggle, if it is led by Hamas. These are the same scholars who demonized the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an earlier era and delegitimized his Fatah movement during the second Palestinian intifada.

But the lies and distorted representations are not the worst part of it. It is the direct attack on the last vestiges of humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people that is most enraging. The Palestinians in Israel have shown their solidarity with the people of Gaza and are now branded as a fifth column in the Jewish state; their right to remain in their homeland cast as doubtful given their lack of support for the Israeli aggression. Those among them who agree — wrongly, in my opinion — to appear in the local media are interrogated, and not interviewed, as if they were inmates in the Shin Bet’s prison. Their appearance is prefaced and followed by humiliating racist remarks and they are met with accusations of being a fifth column, an irrational and fanatical people. And yet this is not the basest practice. There are a few Palestinian children from the occupied territories treated for cancer in Israeli hospitals. God knows what price their families have paid for them to be admitted there. The Israel Radio daily goes to the hospital to demand the poor parents tell the Israeli audience how right Israel is in its attack and how evil is Hamas in its defense.

There are no boundaries to the hypocrisy that a righteous fury produces. The discourse of the generals and the politicians is moving erratically between self-compliments of the humanity the army displays in its “surgical” operations on the one hand, and the need to destroy Gaza for once and for all, in a humane way of course, on the other.

This righteous fury is a constant phenomenon in the Israeli, and before that Zionist, dispossession of Palestine. Every act whether it was ethnic cleansing, occupation, massacre or destruction was always portrayed as morally just and as a pure act of self-defense reluctantly perpetrated by Israel in its war against the worst kind of human beings. In his excellent volume The Returns of Zionism: Myths, Politics and Scholarship in Israel, Gabi Piterberg explores the ideological origins and historical progression of this righteous fury. Today in Israel, from Left to Right, from Likud to Kadima, from the academia to the media, one can hear this righteous fury of a state that is more busy than any other state in the world in destroying and dispossessing an indigenous population.

It is crucial to explore the ideological origins of this attitude and derive the necessary political conclusions form its prevalence. This righteous fury shields the society and politicians in Israel from any external rebuke or criticism. But far worse, it is translated always into destructive policies against the Palestinians. With no internal mechanism of criticism and no external pressure, every Palestinian becomes a potential target of this fury. Given the firepower of the Jewish state it can inevitably only end in more massive killings, massacres and ethnic cleansing.

The self-righteousness is a powerful act of self-denial and justification. It explains why the Israeli Jewish society would not be moved by words of wisdom, logical persuasion or diplomatic dialogue. And if one does not want to endorse violence as the means of opposing it, there is only one way forward: challenging head-on this righteousness as an evil ideology meant to cover human atrocities. Another name for this ideology is Zionism and an international rebuke for Zionism, not just for particular Israeli policies, is the only way of countering this self-righteousness. We have to try and explain not only to the world, but also to the Israelis themselves, that Zionism is an ideology that endorses ethnic cleansing, occupation and now massive massacres. What is needed now is not just a condemnation of the present massacre but also delegitimization of the ideology that produced that policy and justifies it morally and politically. Let us hope that significant voices in the world will tell the Jewish state that this ideology and the overall conduct of the state are intolerable and unacceptable and as long as they persist, Israel will be boycotted and subject to sanctions.

But I am not naive. I know that even the killing of hundreds of innocent Palestinians would not be enough to produce such a shift in the Western public opinion; it is even more unlikely that the crimes committed in Gaza would move the European governments to change their policy towards Palestine.

And yet, we cannot allow 2009 to be just another year, less significant than 2008, the commemorative year of the Nakba, that did not fulfill the great hopes we all had for its potential to dramatically transform the Western world’s attitude to Palestine and the Palestinians.

It seems that even the most horrendous crimes, such as the genocide in Gaza, are treated as discrete events, unconnected to anything that happened in the past and not associated with any ideology or system. In this new year, we have to try to realign the public opinion to the history of Palestine and to the evils of the Zionist ideology as the best means of both explaining genocidal operations such as the current one in Gaza and as a way of pre-empting worse things to come.

Academically, this has already been done. Our main challenge is to find an efficient to explain the connection between the Zionist ideology and the past policies of destruction, to the present crisis. It may be easier to do it while, under the most terrible circumstances, the world’s attention is directed to Palestine once more. It would be even more difficult at times when the situation seems to be “calmer” and less dramatic. In such “relaxed” moments, the short attention span of the Western media would marginalize once more the Palestinian tragedy and neglect it either because of horrific genocides in Africa or the economic crisis and ecological doomsday scenarios in the rest of the world. While the Western media is not likely to be interested in any historical stockpiling, it is only through a historical evaluation that the magnitude of the crimes committed against the Palestinian people throughout the past 60 years can be exposed. Therefore, it is the role of an activist academia and an alternative media to insist on this historical context. These agents should not scoff from educating the public opinion and hopefully even influence the more conscientious politicians to view events in a wider historical perspective.

Similarly, we may be able to find the popular, as distinct from the high brow academic, way of explaining clearly that Israel’s policy — in the last 60 years — stems from a racist hegemonic ideology called Zionism, shielded by endless layers of righteous fury. Despite the predictable accusation of anti-Semitism and what have you, it is time to associate in the public mind the Zionist ideology with the by now familiar historical landmarks of the land: the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the oppression of the Palestinians in Israel during the days of the military rule, the brutal occupation of the West Bank and now the massacre of Gaza. Very much as the Apartheid ideology explained the oppressive policies of the South African government, this ideology — in its most consensual and simplistic variety — allowed all the Israeli governments in the past and the present to dehumanize the Palestinians wherever they are and strive to destroy them. The means altered from period to period, from location to location, as did the narrative covering up these atrocities. But there is a clear pattern that cannot only be discussed in the academic ivory towers, but has to be part of the political discourse on the contemporary reality in Palestine today.

Some of us, namely those committed to justice and peace in Palestine, unwittingly evade this debate by focusing, and this is understandable, on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) — the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Struggling against the criminal policies there is an urgent mission. But this should not convey the message that the powers that be in the West adopted gladly by a cue from Israel, that Palestine is only in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and that the Palestinians are only the people living in those territories. We should expand the representation of Palestine geographically and demographically by telling the historical narrative of the events in 1948 and ever since and demand equal human and civil rights to all the people who live, or used to live, in what today is Israel and the OPT.

By connecting the Zionist ideology and the policies of the past with the present atrocities, we will be able to provide a clear and logical explanation for the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions. Challenging by nonviolent means a self-righteous ideological state that allows itself, aided by a mute world, to dispossess and destroy the indigenous people of Palestine, is a just and moral cause. It is also an effective way of galvanizing the public opinion not only against the present genocidal policies in Gaza, but hopefully one that would prevent future atrocities. But more importantly than anything else it will puncture the balloon of self-righteous fury that suffocates the Palestinians every times it inflates. It will help end the Western immunity to Israel’s impunity. Without that immunity, one hopes more and more people in Israel will begin to see the real nature of the crimes committed in their name and their fury would be directed against those who trapped them and the Palestinians in this unnecessary cycle of bloodshed and violence.

Ilan Pappe is chair in the Department of History at the University of Exeter.

Israel Is Committing War Crimes - article from The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123154826952369919.html Hamas's violations are no justification for Israel's actions. Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes. Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel's acts. The United Nations charter preserved the customary right of a state to retaliate against an "armed attack" from another state. The right has evolved to cover nonstate actors operating beyond the borders of the state claiming self-defense, and arguably would apply to Hamas. However, an armed attack involves serious violations of the peace. Minor border skirmishes are common, and if all were considered armed attacks, states could easily exploit them -- as surrounding facts are often murky and unverifiable -- to launch wars of aggression. That is exactly what Israel seems to be currently attempting. Israel had not suffered an "armed attack" immediately prior to its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Since firing the first Kassam rocket into Israel in 2002, Hamas and other Palestinian groups have loosed thousands of rockets and mortar shells into Israel, causing about two dozen Israeli deaths and widespread fear. As indiscriminate attacks on civilians, these were war crimes. During roughly the same period, Israeli forces killed about 2,700 Palestinians in Gaza by targeted killings, aerial bombings, in raids, etc., according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. But on June 19, 2008, Hamas and Israel commenced a six-month truce. Neither side complied perfectly. Israel refused to substantially ease the suffocating siege of Gaza imposed in June 2007. Hamas permitted sporadic rocket fire -- typically after Israel killed or seized Hamas members in the West Bank, where the truce did not apply. Either one or no Israelis were killed (reports differ) by rockets in the half year leading up to the current attack. Israel then broke the truce on Nov. 4, raiding the Gaza Strip and killing a Palestinian. Hamas retaliated with rocket fire; Israel then killed five more Palestinians. In the following days, Hamas continued rocket fire -- yet still no Israelis died. Israel cannot claim self-defense against this escalation, because it was provoked by Israel's own violation. An armed attack that is not justified by self-defense is a war of aggression. Under the Nuremberg Principles affirmed by U.N. Resolution 95, aggression is a crime against peace. Israel has also failed to adequately discriminate between military and nonmilitary targets. Israel's American-made F-16s and Apache helicopters have destroyed mosques, the education and justice ministries, a university, prisons, courts and police stations. These institutions were part of Gaza's civilian infrastructure. And when nonmilitary institutions are targeted, civilians die. Many killed in the last week were young police recruits with no military roles. Civilian employees in the Hamas-led government deserve the protections of international law like all others. Hamas's ideology -- which employees may or may not share -- is abhorrent, but civilized nations do not kill people merely for what they think. Deliberate attacks on civilians that lack strict military necessity are war crimes. Israel's current violations of international law extend a long pattern of abuse of the rights of Gaza Palestinians. Eighty percent of Gaza's 1.5 million residents are Palestinian refugees who were forced from their homes or fled in fear of Jewish terrorist attacks in 1948. For 60 years, Israel has denied the internationally recognized rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes -- because they are not Jews. Although Israel withdrew its settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, it continues to tightly regulate Gaza's coast, airspace and borders. Thus, Israel remains an occupying power with a legal duty to protect Gaza's civilian population. But Israel's 18-month siege of the Gaza Strip preceding the current crisis violated this obligation egregiously. It brought economic activity to a near standstill, left children hungry and malnourished, and denied Palestinian students opportunities to study abroad. Israel should be held accountable for its crimes, and the U.S. should stop abetting it with unconditional military and diplomatic support. Mr. Bisharat is a professor at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. -----------------------------------------

Petition to British PM about Sanctions on Israel because of Massacre in Gaza - British Citizens only

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You must be a British citizen to sign this petition to the PM to start sanctions against Israel. Please forward to anyone who qualifies.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Israel-Sanctions/


More details from petition creator

Israeli must be punished for its failure to adhere to the Geneva convention concerning the collective punishment of the citizens of Gaza. Israeli tactics are cruel, malicious and demonstrate that Israel is not interested in the peace process or a Palestinian State. They are creating the ideal breeding ground for extremism, sabotaging peace efforts and squandering the good will they have been given.

Show all signatories

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UN chief condemns Israeli shelling of UN compound

A Unitet Nations worker is seen as smoke billows from Israeli bombardment at the United Nations headquarters in Gaza City, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Witnesses and U.N. officials said that Israeli shells struck the United Nations headquarters in Gaza City.The U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has expressed 'strong protest and outrage' to Israel over the shelling of the compound. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

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JERUSALEM – The U.N. chief says he has expressed "strong protest and outrage" to Israel over the shelling of a United Nations compound in Gaza City.

Ban Ki-moon is demanding an investigation into Thursday's shelling. He says Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has told him it was a "grave mistake."

Israeli shells damaged the international organization's headquarters in Gaza City, according to witnesses and U.N. officials. U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness says at least three people were wounded.

Israel launched an offensive against Hamas in Gaza on Dec. 27.

From Yahoo news.

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Smoke and fire are seen during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009. Israeli tanks shelled downtown Gaza City on Thursday and ground troops thrust deep into a crowded neighborhood for the first time, sending terrified residents fleeing for cover and ratcheting up the pressure on Gaza's Hamas rulers to accept a proposed cease-fire to end a devastating Israeli offensive. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

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Israeli artillery shells explode over Gaza City. A wing of a hospital in Gaza City has caught fire after it was hit in an Israeli strike, (AFP/Mohammed Abed)

This is a white phosphorus bomb which is prohibited inside civilian areas or when civilians are suspected

But Israel supported by USA is above any human or UN laws

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Testing new weapons on the same old victims....

A bag of floor and cooking oil, if you survive....the killings. (Modern) wounds that shall kill the victim, but.....10 days later. After that one has asked himself "How worse could it get ," We hear today that Israel is testing a multitude of new weaponry and new annunciations in its adventure into Gazza. I am sure that the weapon's-factories shall reimburse to Israel the price of all those weapons if the results would be satisfactory . Otherwise , the Pentagon shall pay for it all provided they get a copy of the result-reports. And to be honest and fair , the surviving-parents of those victims shall get a bag of floor , 3 litters of cooking oil and a copy of Bush's Road Map .... from the same Pentagon. In the meantime laboratory rabbits and white-mouses are spared because the Gazza-population is for real !!! Sherlock Hommos Weapons-evaluation-tester 14.01.09 ----------------------------------------