Friday, January 16, 2009

GAZA: ACTION NEEDED NOW!

First, something quick, easy & important Just In from a friend in Scandanavia--

Please go here to sign this petition for peace in Gaza:

here

For a report on some of Avaaz's other campaigns so far, see: here

With the death toll in Gaza growing hourly, silence is complicity. It is imperative for concerned citizens to demand that their governments take immediate action in order to stop Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.

CALL/FAX US/ISRAEL OFFICIALS on or two on this list...or as many as you can manage in peace...here GET CREATIVE, visit specific influential Rabbis, Priests, Ministers, Iman's in person...Go to specific legislators' offices where possible. Bring white roses for peace or find another PEACEFUL, non-violent way to express your prayerful plea.

Here are some Peace Actions/Petitions in General for PRes. Elect Obama:
here

here

Write your representative today and demand:

1. That Israeli war criminals be brought before the International Criminal Court or a Special Tribunal for war crimes committed in Gaza. (Remind your representative that the investigation, prosecution or extradition of those responsible for war crimes is an obligation of all high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions.)
2. That in response to Israel's severe breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, your state terminate all favorable trade agreements and economic relations with Israel, including the EU Association Agreement which is conditional upon adherence to human rights and democratic principles.
3. That your state cut all diplomatic ties with Israel.
The current events in Gaza were predicated and advocated for by Israeli Professor Arnon Soffer, Head of the IDF's National Defense College. Professor Soffer spelled out the desired results of Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza in an interview with the Jerusalem Post (24 May 2004):
Jerusalem Post: How will the region look the day after unilateral separation?
...First of all.... Instead of entering Gaza like we did last week. We will tell the Palestinians that if a single missile is fired over the fence, we will fire 10 in response. And women and children will be killed, and houses will be destroyed. After the fifth such incident, Palestinian mothers won't allow their husbands to shoot Kassams, because they will know what's waiting for them.
Second of all, when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day...If we don't kill, we will cease to exist…Unilateral separation doesn't guarantee "peace" - it guarantees a Zionist-Jewish state with an overwhelming majority of Jews...
Jerusalem Post: Voluntary transfer?
Arnon Soffer: Yes. And Gaza is going to be such a disaster that it will be beyond our capacity to help. There will have to be large-scale international aid. The US will have to pressure Egypt to cede land.
More recently Matan Vilnai, Deputy Defense Minister of Israel, told Army Radio during "Operation Hot Winter" (29 February 2008):
They will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.
In the days fallowing this statement, 107 Palestinians were killed by targeted air-strikes and incursions into the Gaza Strip, including 26 children. The international comunity failed to take action. This inaction, fallowed by Eroupean declerations of intentions to upgrade their trade agreements with Israel, served as a green light for the current atrocities.
Reserve Colonel Yoav Gal, an Israeli Air Force pilot, told Army Radio during "Operation Cast Lead" (11 January 2009):
I believe that it should have been even stronger! Dresden! Dresden! The extermination of a city! After all, we're told that the face of war has changed. No longer is it the advancing of tanks or an organized military. […] It is a whole nation, from the old lady to the child, this is the military. It is a nation fighting a war. I am calling them a nation, even though I don't see them as one. It is a nation fighting a nation. Civilians fighting civilians. I'm telling you that we […] must know […] that stones will not be thrown at us! I am not talking about rockets - not even a stone will be thrown at us. Because we're Jews.[…] I want the Arabs of Gaza to flee to Egypt. This is what I want. I want to destroy the city, not necessarily the people living within it.
In order to end Israel´s impunity we call on civil society to support the Palestinian campaign for an international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
Signatories,
The One Democratic State Group - Gaza
University Teacher Association in Palestine - Gaza
Arab Cultural Forum - Gaza
Endorsed by,
Popular Committees Against the Wall and Settlements - West Bank
http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117&Itemid=1
Thank you for you continued support,

Iyad Burnat- Head of Popular Commitee in Bilin
Head of Friends of Freedom and Justice in Bilin

Email- ffj.bilin@yahoo.com
Mobile- (00972) (0) 547847942
Office- (00972) (2) 2489129
Fax- (00972) (2) 2489129

here

7 comments:

CN said...

Close to an end? Don't count on it - even when the words sound like music - keep the pressure on for a long, long time...

Call on ALL parties to work extremely hard for peace and away from revenge...

Just in...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

CN said...

REMEMBER to KEEP CHECKING for Sameh's Reports...
Last reported was for Thursday, Day #20 of Israel's War on Gaza...

http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/

CN said...

http://itakethevow.com/

CN said...

What did you find in the fields today, you who ...Have (you)wandered so far away? I found a wind-flower, small and frail, and a crocus cup like a holy grail; I found a hill that was clad in gorse, a new-built nest, and a streamlet’s source; I saw a star and a moonlit tree; I listened…I think God spoke to me.

– Hilda Rostron, excerpted in the Heron Dance 2009 Calendar

A reminder to all of us who are able to enjoy the necessary nurture of the natural world...and to do all we can to help save it for others to enjoy as well!

CN said...

See "A Dangerous Luxury" for Food for Thought on The Hague & the International Criminal Court...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,601258,00.html

Also, although right now I see daily that Israel is the most willing to sacrifice fair journalism, there are of course plenty of other times when others, including Hamas, have been diligent with propaganda as well...

CN said...

International Committee of the Red Cross Press release
15-01-2009

Geneva/Jerusalem (ICRC) – As a result of intensifying fighting in Gaza today, a number of medical and humanitarian aid facilities have been shelled.

The Al-Quds Hospital run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Gaza City was hit by explosions and fire broke out, putting at risk the lives of around 100 patients and the medical staff caring for them.

"It is unacceptable that wounded people receiving treatment in hospitals are put at risk," said Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who just completed a three-day visit to the area that included a stop at Shifa Hospital in Gaza. He insisted that all parties to the conflict must comply with international humanitarian law. During meetings held in Tel Aviv this morning with Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Mr Kellenberger insisted once again that the rules of international humanitarian law oblige the parties to a conflict to spare civilians and to protect medical personnel and medical facilities at all times. He requested systematic access to all parts of Gaza for humanitarian assistance, especially medical assistance.

"The hospital suffered at least one direct hit this morning, and all the patients had to be moved in panic to the ground floor," said Bashar Morad, director of Palestine Red Crescent emergency medical services. The second floor of the building immediately caught fire. The hospital's pharmacy was also partly damaged. Fire brigade trucks, escorted by ICRC teams, rushed to the scene and managed to put out the fire.

Medical and humanitarian facilities are becoming more and more exposed to the effects of the fighting. "These recent developments are particularly alarming in that the Gaza hospitals are already overcrowded and overstretched, and the number of casualties is growing," said Mr Kellenberger.

The ICRC president received commitments from Foreign Minister Livni and Defence Minister Barak that everything possible will be done to facilitate the ICRC's humanitarian work on the ground. Mr Kellenberger stressed the importance of granting the ICRC access to all persons detained, including to the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

One of the two Palestine Red Crescent warehouses in Gaza was shelled this morning and set ablaze. The warehouse was full of relief items. The ICRC arranged for the safe passage of fire brigade trucks to the warehouse and to the UNRWA compound, also hit this morning.

CN said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynWjYHP91gA&feature=related