By Editor, The Palestine Monitor

Tuesday 13 March 2012- A series of Israeli attacks on the besieged population of the Gaza Strip that began on Friday until today have resulted in the killing of 25 Palestinians, including two 13 and 15 year old boys.

The attacks were initiated by Israel as on Friday afternoon, it broke the fragile truce negotiated by Egypt in October 2011 by firing an F-16 missile directly at a car in the neighborhood of Tal el-Hawa. 44 year old Mahmoud Hanani, who is originally from Nablus and was freed in the October prisoner deal, was immediately killed along with his father-in-law Zuhair Al Qaisi, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Resistance Committee.

The Gaza Strip was rocked with explosions throughout the night, and by Saturday morning, a further ten Palestinians, all from the Islamic Jihad’s armed wing Al-Quds Brigades were killed, bringing the number of casualties to 12. Three of the resistance fighters were killed as they were walking next to the Palestinian Legislative Council building in the neighborhood of As-Shajaiyyeh. A reported 20 people were injured.

Israeli warplanes opened fire at one of the funerals on Saturday, injuring four people. A further five Palestinians were killed in separate air strikes, four of who belong to the Islamic Jihad group, with the fifth identified as 21 year old Mansour Abu Nusaira.

Sunday morning arrived with the murder of two more civilians: 13 year old Ayyoub Asseleya in Jabalia who was torn into pieces, and 52 year old yard keeper Adel El Issi in Gaza City. More than 30 people have been injured by the non-discriminate bombings.

Evening brought about no reprieve for the Palestinians in Gaza, as Israeli air strikes shelled two houses in the Jabaliya refugee camp that were mostly full of women and children, resulting in dozens of injuries. The following day another schoolboy, 15 year old Naef Qarmout was killed near his school in Beit Lahya in northern Gaza. An elderly father and his 30 year old daughter also killed in the same area.

2 resistance fighters were killed on Monday night, bringing the death toll to 25 Palestinians killed and over 100 injuries.

The past five days have been the bloodiest since late October of last year, where Israel claimed 10 Palestinian lives in its targeted assassinations.

Dr Mustafa Barghouti strongly condemned the attacks. “The escalation of violence on Israel’s part must be stopped,” he stated. “It is simply outrageous that the international community has continued to allow Israel to act with impunity. The world must pressure Israel to cease its practice of extra-judicial assassinations, and to hold it accountable to all of its crimes it has committed against the Palestinian people.”

Egypt stepped in to broker yet another ceasefire between the resistance groups and Israel, which will be in effect at 1:00 am Wednesday morning.

The list of Palestinians killed in Gaza is below:

Zuhair Al-Qaisi, 49
Mahmoud Hanani, 44
Yahya Dahshan, 27
Mohammad Haraha, 24
Obeid Al-Gharabli, 22
Hazem Qureqi, 22
Shadi Seqeeli, 27
Fayeq Samir, 28
Motasem Hajjaj, 22
Ahmad Hajjaj, 22
Mohammad Al-Mogari, 25
Mahmoud Al-Ghamri, 26
Husain Barham Hammad, 51
Mansour Abu Nusaira, 21
Mahdi Abu Shweish, 24
Ayyoub Asseyela, 13
Adel El Issi, 52
Hamada Abu Mutlaq, 24
Raafat Abu Eid, 24
Hamadah Salman Abu Mutlaq, 24
Muhammad al-Hasoumi, 65
Faiza al-Hasumi, 30
Naef Qarmout, 15
Bassam al-Ajla, 32
Muhammad Thaher, 25

Article and Image: The Palestine Monitor

By Michael Gillespie, Contributing Editor

Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of martyred 23-year-old Evergreen State College student and International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, killed in Rafah, Gaza, by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozer on March 16, 2003, spoke in Des Moines on December 5.  The Corries are Iowa natives.

Cindy Corrie began her presentation to about 40 people gathered in the Simmerman Lounge at Westminster Presbyterian Church by talking about the family’s Iowa roots and thanking their Iowa friends and supporters.

“Rachel could relate to her Iowa relatives, farmers who worked on the land here, and how her family here might feel if things like she saw happening to Palestinian farmers, orchards destroyed and that sort of thing, were happening to them.  That Iowa connection was really important to Rachel and how she understood Palestine,” said Corrie

“I can’t say enough about the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the support we have received here in Des Moines and across the country.  In many ways, people at AFSC were our mentors early on and they continue to be extremely supportive, and we are very, very appreciative of that.” said Corrie.

“The Des Moines Catholic Worker recently named one of their houses for Rachel, and Craig and I visited the house yesterday.  I was so pleased to learn that their intention is to have it be a respite place for people who do international solidarity work and who need a place to come back to, to reflect and to rejuvenate themselves.  Two of the young people who have been involved in making this happen have spent time in Palestine and in Columbia, so I am really looking forward to staying connected with them,” said Corrie.

Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine is an important issue and one that Americans are increasingly aware of, said Corrie, “and it impacts every one of us, whether we are conscious of that or not.”

Corrie described how she and her husband had learned of their daughter’s death in a call from their son-in-law who, while he and his wife were enjoying their morning coffee, received a call from a friend who had seen and heard the news of Rachel’s death on television.  Rachel’s sister Sarah turned on the TV and, as they spoke, the news broadcast was updated.

“On the screen, running across the bottom, were the words, ‘Rachel Corrie of Olympia, Washington, killed in the Gaza Strip.’  That was how our family learned that our lives had changed in an irrevocable way,” said Corrie.

“Rachel was many things.  She was a writer, a poet, and artist, a sister, a daughter.  And she had dreams.  In 1990, in her 5th grade year book, she wrote that the wanted to be a lawyer, a dancer, an actor, a mother, a wife, a children’s author, a distance runner, a poet, a pianist, a pet store owner, an astronaut, an environmental and humanitarian activist, a psychiatrist, a ballet teacher, and the first woman president,” said Corrie.

“Rachel grew up in Olympia, Washington, where Craig and I now live.  It’s a beautiful place with mountains and water, forests and rain, salmon and coffee, and Rachel loved all those things. … The world tugged at Rachel. Her response to 9/11 was to become very involved in the peace movement in our community where she focused on some of the negative aspects of the U.S. war on terrorism, the war in Afghanistan, and the U.S. Patriot Act.  In April 2002, she led an effort to create a flock of doves for Olympia’s Earth Day tribute, which is called the Procession of the Species, which honors all life.  After she celebrated, she wrote, ‘I danced down the street with 40 people, from the age of seven to 70, dressed as doves.  In a lot of ways, the procession is a values statement.  I am happy to see a peace message included in that. I think it’s important for people who oppose war and oppression to speak about who we are as a community.  We are not outside.  I think it’s important that human rights and resistance to oppression be included in the way we define ourselves as a community,’” said Corrie.

“Work, study, and people in Olympia led Rachel to Palestine and Israel.  She wrote, ‘Why do I want to go?  I’ve been organizing in Olympia for a little over a year on antiwar and global justice issues, and at some point it started to feel like this work is missing a solid connection to the people who are most immediately impacted by U.S. foreign policy.  I have this underlying need to go a place and meet people who are on the other end of the portion of my tax money that goes to fund the U.S. and other militaries,’” said Corrie.

“After studying and saving, Rachel left Olympia in January 2003 and made her way to Beit Sahour … to train with the International Solidarity Movement.  This is a Palestinian led movement that engages Israelis and Internationals in nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.  There are only two stipulations for being involved in the ISM.  One must believe in freedom for the Palestinian people, and one must agree to use only nonviolent forms of resistance.  Rachel chose to go to Rafah, which is at the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt.  She knew that it was a very isolated place with possibly the greatest need in all of the Occupied Territories,” said Corrie.

“When she got there, she wrote to us, ‘I couldn’t even have believed that a place like this existed, but even more, can you believe there are children here? Forget the fear – they tell me that at night – Forget the fear.  I am ashamed that I am afraid for my own body and dying anonymously inside a house in one of the most populous places on earth, where children die as martyrs of the Occupation, which we pay for, quietly, without ever knowing their names.  We need more people.  I love all of you, Rachel,’” said Corrie, quoting from one of her daughter’s messages.

Corrie said there were two IDF Caterpillar bulldozers on the scene as well as an armored personnel carrier the day Rachel was killed.  In each bulldozer were two soldiers, the driver and a commander who is supposed to act as second set of eyes.  Seven International eye witnesses were present, said Corrie.

“It is documented in U.S. Senate testimony that President Bush personally telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to request a thorough, credible, and transparent investigation in Rachel’s case, and that he was given personal assurances by the prime minister that there would be one.  In May 2003, the Israeli military’s Advocate General’s office closed the case, however, concluding that the two soldiers in the bulldozer didn’t see her.  Seven International witnesses say she was visible.  No charges were brought.  The Israeli government declined to release its report of the investigation to the U.S. government,” said Corrie.

Corrie noted that several U.S. State Department officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, Larry Wilkerson, have said that the Israeli investigation was not thorough, credible, or transparent.  Despite U.S. laws and regulations governing arms exports and financing that could be used to force Israel to conduct a credible investigation, the Israeli government, the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, has stonewalled all requests by the U.S. Department of State for a thorough, credible, and transparent investigation of Rachel Corrie’s death.

On the advice of U.S. officials, the Corrie family filed a civil suit in Israel in 2005.  During the trial, which is scheduled to conclude in April 2012, the Israeli government has withheld evidence, including video of the incident which has been aired on Israeli television.

“There have been 14 hearings, 22 testimonies, and over 2,000 pages of recorded court transcripts.  And we have had all of those translated into English from Hebrew in order to know what has been said,” said Corrie.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized a security certificate that prevented the Corries from seeing some of the IDF personnel who testified from behind a screen.

“We weren’t able to see the driver or the commander of the bulldozer.  It was very disappointing,” said Corrie, who noted that the driver of the bulldozer testified that he could not remember the time of day, morning, noon, or evening, that he drove his bulldozer over her daughter.

“We did not hear any remorse; indifference was the way it came across to us,” said Corrie.

The family made four trips to Haifa, Israel, for the trial, spending nearly seven months in Israel during the testimony period of the proceedings.

We were struck by the lead investigator’s failure to look for evidence, failure to secure evidence, failure to resolve conflicting evidence, and failure to turn evidence over to the court, said Corrie.

It appeared, said Corrie, that the investigating team set out with the intention of exonerating the IDF.

“It was really clear that that was their goal, rather than to impartially determine what actually happened on March 16, 2003,” said Corrie.

During the Q&A, Craig Corrie responded to The Independent Monitor’s questions about the co-operation the family has received from the Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Israel during the Bush and the Obama administrations.

Corrie noted that the family was able to establish contact with Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson early on and has maintained contact with various DoS and embassy officials over the years.

Corrie described a memorable moment during one meeting with high-level officials.

“One of those people who was a special envoy to Jerusalem said, ‘I want to tell you that I’ve gained great respect for the ISM and the members of the ISM who I’ve met while I was in Jerusalem,’ and nobody [in the room seemed shocked by the observation.] They’re all nodding their heads!  So, a lot of times, when we’re talking, these people agree with us – but it doesn’t change policy,” said Corrie.

“There has been a lot of support in one way, in trying to do this lawsuit, OK?  But on the other hand, the head of a state gave a promise to our state, promising a credible and transparent investigation.  As a father, I can’t enforce that.  And as heads of state, they’re not enforcing it,” said Craig Corrie.

“And we’re sending them $30 billion anyway, so there is a lot of frustration,” said Cindy Corrie, noting that members of the Corrie family have visited the Washington office of every member of the U.S. Congress to provide information about Rachel and the need for a thorough, credible, and transparent investigation of her death.

“Of course, there are new people there now and we may have to start over,” said Cindy Corrie.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners transferred to Rafah ahead of the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The first phase of the prisoner swap between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement is under way.

Palestinian inmates were transferred to Rafah, on the Egyptian border, ahead of the release of the Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit.

A convoy of vehicles left the Israeli Katsiout prison in Naqab, near the Egyptian border, before dawn on Tuesday. Vehicles carrying female prisoners also left HaSharon Prison in central Israel

The swap, in which a total of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners are to be released in two phases, began a day after Israel’s supreme court rejected appeals to halt the deal.

Relatives of Israelis killed by some of the Palestinians set to be released had urged the court to intervene, but it ruled against them, saying the matter was a political decision outside its domain.

The actual release process was expected to begin with Shalit being handed over to either a Red Cross representative or an Egyptian official in Gaza who will confirm to Israel that he is alive and well.

Israel will then release 27 women prisoners after which Shalit will cross into Egyptian Sinai.

Shalit, now 25, was captured in June 2006 by fighters who crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas.

After his return, Shalit will be flown by helicopter to an air base in Israel where he will be greeted by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, other leaders and close family. Later he will be flown to his home in northern Israel.

Palestinian celebrations

Hamas has declared Tuesday a national holiday and erected a giant podium in Gaza City’s Al-Katiba Park, where it plans to transport the prisoners after they cross into the Palestinian enclave from Egypt.

Ismail Haniya, the prime minister, and members of the de facto Hamas government in Gaza, leaders of other factions, relatives and tens of thousands of onlookers were expected to welcome the prisoners.

But not everyone will be celebrating. More than 4,000 Palestinian “security prisoners” will remain in Israeli jails.

A short walk from the park, relatives have set a up a tent in solidarity with prisoners who began a hunger strike on September 27, because Israel dropped some of their privileges, such as the opportunity to study for an academic degree.

Three days of celebrations were planned across the occupied West Bank, with President Mahmoud Abbas welcoming returning prisoners.

Of the first tranche, 297 will be released into Gaza and 117 will return the West Bank, including 15 to East Jerusalem.

Another 40 Palestinians will be exiled overseas to countries which so far include Turkey, Syria and Qatar, Hamas officials said.

The vast majority of the prisoners to be freed are members of Hamas. But Hamas included a few dozen fighters of its rival, Fatah, in its list of prisoners it demanded that Israel free in exchange for Shalit

A Hamas official who spoke to Al Jazeera on Monday declared that the swap agreement was a “victory” for all Palestinians, regardless of party affiliation; and that the group negotiated for the release of prisoners from all parties.

A recent poll by the Yediot Aharonot daily showed that eight out of ten Israelis support the swap.

Al Jazeera’s Cal Perry, reporting from Jerusalem, said security had been raised across Israel ahead of the swap amid massive media coverage.

“This is a huge story, a historic story for the Israeli media,” he said. ”There will be helicopters in the air, there will be cameras around this country as you’ve never seen … with reporters spread across the country”.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has said that the prisoner swap marks a positive step towards peace.

“The recent announcement of the exchange of prisoners is welcome, it is a positive movement for peace,” he said.

Article and photo courtesy Al Jazeera English online

By William Pfaff

Most Americans would likely agree that the main shock delivered to Americans and the American government by the 9/11 attacks was that of vulnerability. Another such shock is impending. It is the national vulnerability that will be revealed this month by the American veto of a Palestinian demand for full United Nations membership.

During the century and a half preceding 9/11, Americans enjoyed national and individual invulnerability to devastating foreign attack, unlike the people of any other major nation. Much has been made in recent years of how nuclear dread lay over the land in the 1950s. My own experience was that even the Cuban Missile Crisis was not what it subsequently was made out to have been. I am sure that the people actually making decisions in Washington quaked in their boots and prayed, which is why nothing happened. The menace was on the one hand so great that there was nothing to do about it (crouching under a table or possession of a shovel notwithstanding), but on the other hand no one in power was so stupid as to initiate a nuclear attack.

The American conviction of national invulnerability marched on. The Vietnam outcome threatened it, but it was easy for Americans, especially those who were not in authority, to say well, yes, but of course we could have won if we had really wanted to use our power.

Iraq is not today really perceived by public opinion as a defeat, only as mistake, muddle and incompetence, and, besides, our troops will (supposedly) be gone by 2012, and what’s past will be past.

In Kabul, Gen. David Petraeus in 2009 promised Barack Obama and the nation that the United States Army could be relied upon for victory in 2010. Now Petraeus has left the army to pursue higher aspirations. Christopher Edley Jr., a member of the Obama presidential transition team and dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkrley, said that the team deemed the President-elect, with no military experience, vulnerable to official blackmail on national security and retroactive Bush administration justice issues, and so advised him to do whatever military and security officials proposed. Public confidence in President Obama on Middle Eastern issues may not be high today, while confidence in the Republicans seems even lower, but few Americans feel vulnerable to Middle Eastern risk. Least of all do they feel threatened by Israel’s actions.

This is likely to prove a serious mistake. National vulnerability has returned. A State Department official has confirmed that the United States intends to veto the expected Palestinian demand for U.N. Security Council recognition as a member state. The U.S. Congress, moreover, under pressure from Israel’s American friends, has declared that it will then cut off funding for the Palestinian Authority.

Egypt and the Arab governments will be angry, but the Arabs have been angry before with the invulnerable United States, and nothing has come of it—except for the 9/11 attacks and a war “on terror” that has gone on for a decade.

Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence and former ambassador to the U.S., has rather desperately been trying to warn America. He has published his warning in articles in The Washington Post and The New York Times, and circulated it on the Web. He writes that, if Washington vetoes the Palestinian petition, “American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region.”

A veto will provoke uproar among Muslims everywhere. Everyone already knows this, but the Obama administration ignores it.

Al-Faisal indirectly forecasts that, in the case of a veto, the American “special relationship” with Saudi Arabia will come to an end, and says that the Saudis will “adopt a far more independent and assertive foreign policy”—as Turkey already has done, one notes. The Saudi kingdom would oppose the American-supported Maliki government in Iraq, refuse to open an embassy there, and possibly end its support for American policy in Afghanistan and Yemen.

Al-Faisal also says that Saudi Arabia, by far the largest supporter of the Palestinian Authority, would be unable to give the Palestinians all of the financial aid and religious and political legitimacy that they would need to deal with Israel in such changed circumstances. He notes that, in recent polls, 70 percent of Palestinians anticipate a new intifada if they are vetoed at the U.N.

He warns that the region and the nations principally involved are far better served by continuing cooperation and good will between longstanding allies Saudi Arabia and the United States, and that “Saudi Arabia is willing and able to chart a new and divergent course if America fails to act justly with regard to Palestine.”

The American nation and economy, and its relations with nations far beyond the Middle East, are deeply vulnerable to the political catastrophe against which al-Faisal warns.

However, what al-Faisal does not say is that the U.S. is the only nation to possess the strength and opportunity to act preemptively to solve this crisis. Israel now is incapable of rescuing itself because of its quasi-permanent internal political deadlock.

President Obama could spectacularly reverse policy and save the day. He could declare that the U.S. will vote in support of Palestine’s full membership in the U.N. It will use all of the means at its disposal to support Israeli withdrawal of illegal settlements from territory designated as part of the Palestinian state in the 1948 U.N. partition of Mandate Palestine. It will do all in its power to impose the solution that everyone—including realistic Israelis and the Palestinians—understand to be the inevitable, permanent and just solution of this problem.

The world would be dazzled. Barack Obama’s place in history would be assured.

Article courtesy William Pfaff and Truthdig

By Stephanie Nebehay

Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a U.N. body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate U.N. probe into Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.

The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year’s raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.

A panel of five independent U.N. rights experts reporting to the U.N. Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”

The four-year blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the enclave of fundamental rights, they said.

“In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognize the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel’s closure policy toward Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians,” they said in a joint statement.

An earlier fact-finding mission named by the same U.N. forum to investigate the flotilla incident also found in a report last September that the blockade violated international law. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the blockade violates the Geneva Conventions.

Israel says its Gaza blockade is a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea.

The four-man panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer found Israel had used unreasonable force in dealing with what it called “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers.”

Turkey has downgraded ties with Israel over the incident.

Richard Falk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday’s statement, said the Palmer report’s conclusions were influenced by a desire to salve Turkish-Israeli ties.

“The Palmer report was aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey. It is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law,” he said in the statement.

About one-third of Gaza’s arable land and 85 percent of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures, said Olivier De Schutter, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, another of the five.

At least two-thirds of Gazan households lack secure access to food, he said. “People are forced to make unacceptable trade-offs, often having to choose between food or medicine or water for their families.”

The other three experts were the U.N. special rapporteurs on physical and mental health; extreme poverty and human rights; and access to water and sanitation.

Article courtesy Reuters – Photo courtesy Gulf News

By Ahmed Moor

Israel is under pressure. The decline of American influence in the Middle East has combined with the Arab revolutions, Turkey’s regional ascendancy and the Palestinians’ statehood bid at the UN, to erode its global position.

Additionally, an increased awareness of Israeli apartheid around the world has worked to undermine the historically sufficient “security” argument used to justify the occupation of Palestine. It has been a short 20 years since the theatrical Arafat-Clinton-Rabin lawn party, and Israel has already traversed most of the distance to comprehensive global isolation.

Israeli analysts were right in their assessments of the consequences of the revolution in Egypt. In that country, most people are sensitive to the Palestinian point of view. Many of them believe that Zionism, which is Jewish nationalism in historical Palestine, is only the most recent iteration of European colonialism.

They are unsympathetic to the argument that it was necessary to ethnically cleanse Palestine in order to establish Israel. Moreover, they believe apartheid – the system by which Israel governs the Occupied Territories - is an atrocity.

For decades an imperious Egyptian dictatorship worked to protect Israel from popular opinion in Egypt. Its primary inducement was American money – about $2bn of it annually. But the revolution capsized Hosni Mubarak’s American jackboot and today Israel is forced to confront the irrepressible Egyptian call for Palestinian freedom.

Now Hosni Mubarak is on trial and the Egyptian-Israeli relationship is being similarly scrutinised. The Israeli ambassador’s recent flight from Cairo is a reasonable indication of where the relationship stands today. It is also probably a forward indicator.

History blindsided the Israelis in February; there was nothing they could do to preserve their strongman in Cairo. With Turkey, however, Israel’s political leadership worked with bizarre zealousness to undermine a reliable ally. By orchestrating a series of moves that showcased Israel’s contempt for Turkish lives, pride, property and humanitarian concerns, Tel Aviv succeeded in poisoning the only normal relationship it had with a Muslim-majority country.

Significantly, this occurred as Turkey sought to play a greater leadership role in the region.

Ignoring all the signals

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled in 2009 – during Israel’s war on Gaza, which killed 1,400 Palestinians – that Israeli attacks on civilians would not be tolerated. The following year, Israeli commandos killed eight unarmed Turkish civilians and an American on international waters. The Turkish response was to demand an apology and compensation for the victims’ families. The Israelis refused, further incensing the Turkish leadership.

The relationship between the two countries worsened in recent weeks with the leak of a UN report on the flotilla. The report had been pushed by the Americans, who sought to use it as a vehicle for mending Ankara’s relationship with Tel Aviv. Significantly, it was to have been published after the Israelis apologised for the deaths of eight of the nine civilians (Obama has not asked Netanyahu to apologise for killing the American teenager).

Absent the apology, however, the report appeared to absolve Israel of its responsibility for the deaths, even going so far as to justify its illegal maritime siege of the Gaza Strip. The Turks reacted angrily and instructed the Israeli ambassador to return to Tel Aviv. The Israeli diplomatic mission was formally downgraded, and Turkey suspended all military ties between the two countries. Ankara also announced that Turkish naval vessels would accompany the next humanitarian mission to Gaza. The move is a direct challenge to de facto Israeli control of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Tel Aviv’s serial miscalculations vis-a-vis Ankara can be attributed to a myopic analytical scope.

The Israelis failed to successfully interpret macro-level developments in Europe and their impact on Turkey’s regional alignment; the advantages of joining the European Union have steadily declined as the financial crisis has grown more severe.

Simultaneously, the prospect of playing a regional leadership role has grown to outweigh the bit-player role Europe seemed to offer. NATO, of which Turkey is a member, has decreased in strength and influence, permitting the Turkish leadership to exercise greater national autonomy.

It is understandable, then, that the Israelis have reacted to an insistent Turkey with bewilderment. Historically, US influence in both Ankara and Cairo insulated the Israelis from the consequences of their boastful and bellicose self-regard.

Today, however, hegemonic decline means that for the first time in decades Washington cannot rescue Israel’s leaders from their own bad decisions. That reality continues to go unrecognised in Israel, where the leadership persists in making bad decisions.

Last week, for instance, Israeli Major General Eyal Eisenberg threatened the region with “all-out total war“ and the “possibility of weapons of mass destruction being used“ (Israel is the only country in the region with nuclear armaments). More recently, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested that Israel ought to arm and support PKK terrorists in Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians are taking action on their own behalf.

The Palestinian observer delegation at the United Nations formally submitted its bid for statehood this week – a move that has long been anticipated by observers. The Americans, who still enjoy defending Israeli belligerence, have promised a veto. Despite that, the vote will result in greater Israeli isolation internationally due to widespread recognition that apartheid is wrong.

Most indications suggest that Israel’s increased global isolation will continue apace. The new Egyptian leadership – no matter who it is comprised of – will continue to object to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. An increasingly assertive Turkey will not be mollified by American entreaties and will continue to apply pressure on behalf of the Palestinians, who will pursue their right to freedom through international forums.

Indeed, the only way for Israel to gain acceptance in the broader Middle East is by ending the occupation. But that is a decision the Israelis don’t appear ready to make.

Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American freelance journalist based in Cairo. He was born in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

Article courtesy English Al Jazeera.net

By PCHR

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the report of the Panel of Inquiry (Palmer Committee) established by the UN Secretary-General to investigate the attack on Mavi Marmara, one of the ships of the Freedom Flotilla, while it was in international waters and headed to the Gaza Strip, carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza’s civilian population. PCHR believes that the Committee prioritized political considerations over the rule of international law and the rights of victims, while legitimizing the policy of collective punishment represented in the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.

According to unofficial excerpts published by New York Times on 01 September 2011, the report concludes that the naval blockade of Gaza is legal as a matter of international law. Consequently, it does not demand Israel to apologize for the crime it committed against human rights defenders who were attempting to transfer humanitarian aid to Gaza, which left 9 civilians dead and injured at least 50 others. The report considers that Israel used excessive force against the Freedom Flotilla, and urges it to compensate families of the victims. PCHR believes that the recommendations of the report do not commensurate with the crimes it addresses. Forensic medical reports have indicated that the majority of victims were shot several times from short ranges. PCHR reiterates that the attack against Mavi Marmara is a hideous crime, in which excessive and lethal force was used, killing and wounding dozens of international civilian solidarity activists on board on the Freedom Flotilla.

PCHR believes that the Panel of Inquiry, established by UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon on 02 August 2010, which started its mission on 10 August 2010, is purely political, and consequently, its conclusions are purely political. It is not expected to provide legal opinions, like when it claims that the blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza is legal as a matter of international law. The Panel was comprised of Mr. Geoffrey Palmer, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, as Chairman; Alvaro Uribe, former Columbian President, as Vice-Chairman; the Israeli Joseph Itzhar, as a member; and the Turkish Sűleyman özdem Sanberk, as a member. Several civil society groups in Columbia and Latin America accuse the Panel’s Vice-Chairman, Alvaro Uribe, of perpetrating serious human rights violations in his country over several years.

PCHR further believes that the Panel of Inquiry lacks professionalism as its conclusions contradict various legal opinions issued by many international legal experts and UN bodies concerned with human right and international humanitarian law, which have all considered that the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip is illegal and constitutes a form of collective punishment, prohibited under Article 33 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. It is also a war crime, the recurrence of which must be prevented by all parties, including the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention. PCHR views the mobility of international humanitarian organizations and human right defenders is logical to break the illegal blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since mid 2007, when Israel imposed a total siege and closed all border crossings of the Gaza Strip after Gaza International Airport had been completely destroyed in 2000.

In light of the above, PCHR condemns the initial findings concluded by Palmer Committee, which contradict the position of the international community towards the blockade impose on the Gaza Strip, particularly international reports addressing the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Gaza Strip, including, inter alia, reports of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. The findings of the report of Palmer Committee are also in contradiction with the Goldstone Report prepared by the Inquiry Mission on Gaza Conflict established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009, which considered the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip illegal. They are further in contrast with the legal opinion issued by the ICRC, a preeminent organization for interpreting international humanitarian law, which indicated that the closure policy constitutes a form of collective punishment against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, and an explicit violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.

Accordingly:

1- PCHR totally rejects the findings of the report of Palmer Committee considering it is politicized and disregards for the international law. PCHR calls upon all international organizations to condemn the report, and not to deal with the findings that contradict with international law and human rights standards.

2- PCHR emphasizes that this report will bring more pains and suffering for 1.6 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip under an illegal siege that violates the international humanitarian law and human rights law.

3- Reiterates that the blockade is illegal as it constitutes a violation of international law, as confirmed by the UN bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council, reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories, reports of the ICRC and reports of international human rights organizations, including the International Federation for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

4- PCHR calls upon the international community to intensify efforts to stop the policy of collective punishment against the population of the Gaza Strip and lift the blockade that has been imposed for the past five years.

5- PCHR calls for opening an international criminal investigation into this crime based on the available legal evidence and documents, including the forensic medical reports of victims.

6- PCHR supports the move of the Government of Turkey to the International Court of Justice, as the highest international judicial body to consider this crime, and reminds of its Advisory Opinion on the wall in the West Bank issued in July 2004, which considered the siege imposed on the Occupied Palestinian Territory a form of collective punishment prohibited under the international law. PCHR calls upon all States and international organizations to support the Turkish move in this regard.

Article courtesy Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Israel continues attacks on the captive civilian population of Gaza

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) Press Release

In the early morning of Thursday, 25 August 2011, two Palestinian civilians were killed and 25 others, including 11 children and 7 women, were wounded as Israeli warplanes bombarded a sports club in a densely-populated area in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia.

The attack resulted extensive damages to dozens of neighboring houses and facilities. On Wednesday, 24 August 2011, an elderly farmer and a worker were killed and four civilians were wounded, while three other persons are missing inside a tunnel at the Egyptian border due to an Israeli air strike against the tunnels. These crimes are part of the Israeli military escalation against the Gaza Strip, which started on Thursday 08 August 2011. As a result of such escalation, 17 Palestinians were killed, including two children, and 14 others were wounded by shrapnel and dozens were injured to glass fragments because of attacks. Besides, civilian properties were damaged as a result. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is gravely concerned over increasing casualties resulting from the Israeli excessive use of force and targeting civilian facilities that are located in densely-populated areas, which reflects disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians and property.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 00:05 on Thursday, 25 August 2011, Israeli warplanes launched a missile on al-Salama Sports Club near Beit Lahia project’s market in the northern Gaza Strip. The attack resulted in the full destruction of the 3-storey building; the first floor includes a gym, the second floor includes the administration offices and a multi-use hall, while the third one includes a football and volleyball field established on a 1,000-square-meter area. Additionally, two Palestinian civilians were killed due to the attack, as they were in the garden of an adjacent house belonging to Abdul Rahman Mohammed al-Masri in the northwestern side of the club. The victims are: Salama Abdul Rahman al-Masri, 18, the son of the house’s owner, who died immediately; and Alaa ‘Adnan Mohammed al-Jakhbeer, 22, from Jabalya, who was accompanying al-Masri. Al-Jakhbeer suffered from a hemorrhage in the pelvis because of shrapnel and was transferred to the hospital, but he died two hours later. Additionally, 25 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children and seven women, sustained wounds and bruises due to the falling of smashed glass and stones at them. Moreover, extensive damages were caused to al-Huda Children Complex in Beit Lahia to the north of the club. The Complex established on an area of 1600 square meters consists of a kindergarten and a primary school. Dozens of houses surrounding the Club, three stores and three vehicles were damaged.

On Wednesday, 24 August, IOF killed an elderly famer, Isma’il Nemr Ammoum, 62, from al-Buriej refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. His body was torn apart and had not been found until the evening. Ammoum’s body was transported to al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where he was identified. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, Ammoum was working in a farm belonging to al-Khaldi family in the northeast of al-Buriej refugee camp when he was targeted by a missile from an Israeli warplane.

In another crime, at approximately 23:30, the Israeli warplanes launched a missile on al-Brazil neighborhood in the south of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, targeting a tunnel in the area. As a result, a worker, Hisham ‘Adnan Abdul Razeq Abu Harb, 20, from al-Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah, was killed. Besides, another four persons were wounded, three of whom are workers and the fourth is a member of the National Security Forces. The wounded were transported to Martyr Mohammed Yusef al-Najjar Hospital in the town, where their wounds were described as moderate. The Palestinian Civil Defense declared that three workers were missing in the atragted tunnel.

PCHR condemns IOF’s crimes against the Palestinian civilians, and:

1- Stresses that targeting houses, densely-populated areas and civilian targets reflects IOF’s disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, and warns of more escalation of crimes against Palestinian civilians and their property in light of statements and threats launched by Israeli political and military leaders, which will bring about more victims in the Gaza Strip;

2- Points out that crimes committed by IOF constitute acts of reprisal and collective punishment in violation of Article 33 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War; and

3- Believes that the failure of the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to effectively act to stop crimes committed by IOF serves to encourage Israel and IOF to commit more crimes against Palestinian civilians and their property. The legal protection provided by the United States to Israel, and deliberate obstruction of the application of international humanitarian law, in addition to the conspiracy of silence practiced by European States towards crimes committed against Palestinian civilians do not only place Israel above the international humanitarian law, but also encourage it to unrestrictedly commit more crimes against Palestinian civilians.

By Alison Weir

He looks at the camera with bright eyes and the beginning of a smile, wearing a miniature dark blue zipper sweatshirt, the cuffs folded up a bit to make it fit.

I can imagine his mother dressing him that morning, making sure he would be warm enough. I wonder if she’s the one who took the picture. Someone has written on the photo “kisses.”

It’s not a formal picture. He’s outside on a sunny day. It looks like he was probably moving when the picture was snapped; his arms seem to be swinging a little. As with most almost two-year-olds, I suspect it was hard to get him to stay still long enough for a photo.

It’s a happy picture, the kind that makes you smile; perhaps it reminds you of funny, energetic little children you know or remember.

Until you see the next picture. It was taken on his second birthday. His name was Islam Quraiqe.

Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The small body is charred, ripped apart; internal organs are pouring out.

He had been riding with his father and uncle on a motorcycle in Gaza when the missile hit them. His 29-year-old father, a member of the Palestinian resistance, and 32-year-old uncle physician were also killed. Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured.

The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli sitting in front of a video screen and operating one of the many drones that periodically fly over Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a fishbowl. The operators are usually female, the preferred group for this kind of desk job.

The drones, which look like small, pilotless jets, are equipped with precision-guided missiles.

Those operating them receive real-time video feeds from sensors located on the drone: a color nose camera, a TV lens, an infrared camera for low light and night, and a synthetic radar for looking through smoke, clouds, or haze. The cameras produce full-motion video as well as still-frame radar images.

Numerous articles extol the virtues of Israeli drones. An Aug. 17 article by David Rodman reports: “The Israel Air Force (IAF) has a rich history of employing unmanned aerial vehicles in battle with excellent results.” Rodman crows that, with the possible exception of the United States, “Israel is the country most closely identified with [drone] operations in the post-World War II period.”

Islam was the second 2-year-old to be killed by Israeli forces in two days.

The first was killed by an Israeli “precision” rocket the day before. The boy’s name was Malek Sha’at. His father was also killed. The only picture available online is of a small shrouded body.

An article at WorldNetDaily.com by reporter Aaron Klein proclaims that Israeli weapons are “capable of taking out stationary and moving targets with minimal collateral damage.”

Perhaps Klein is right. Two years of life is decidedly minimal. Intolerably so.

Context

During this period (Aug. 18-20, 2011) Israeli forces killed approximately 15 Palestinians, including at least one other child, a 13-year-old, and injured about 60, nine of them children. Gazan resistance forces killed one Israeli and injured about 20. Gazan hospitals, hard hit by the years-long Israeli siege, report that they have run out of 150 medicines and 160 types of medical equipment.

The Israeli assaults were allegedly triggered by attacks, by unknown gunmen on the Egyptian border with Israel, that killed eight Israelis on Thursday, Aug. 18. Israeli forces killed the attackers in Eilat, also shooting dead, according to the BBC, five Egyptian policemen. The Israeli defense minister told Egypt afterward that “Israel regrets the deaths.”

There is no evidence connecting Gazan resistance groups to the attack, and they have denied responsibility for it. Hamas and all the armed factions in Gaza had maintained a unilateral de facto ceasefire since 2009. A handful of small groups, however, have refused to abide by the ceasefire.

Groups in Egypt have periodically taken actions opposing Israel. Egyptian authorities say they have identified three of the attackers, who appear to have been based in the Sinai, there are reports that Israeli intelligence warned of the attack ahead of time, and there is mounting information suggesting that the attackers may have been Egyptian, not Gazan.

While many reports describe the Israeli actions as retaliatory, Israeli attacks on Gaza occur regularly and were already ongoing before the Eilat attack.

Two days earlier, on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed a 29-year-old Palestinian man in the morning, and Israeli ground soldiers killed a disabled teenager later in the day. The youth was shot more than 10 times, mostly in the head. On Wednesday night there were more Israeli air attacks throughout Gaza. (The Los Angeles Times called this a period of “relative calm.”)

Some analysts suggest that the recent Israeli escalation against Gaza may have been prompted, at least in part, by Netanyahu’s desire to deflect energy from the massive social protests that have been enveloping Israel recently.

The death toll among Gazans and Israelis has been notably disproportionate. In Israel’s December-January 2008-2009 “Cast Lead” assault, Israeli forces killed approximately 1,387 Gazans, while resistance forces killed nine Israelis. In the preceding year, Israeli forces killed 713 Gazans, while Gazan resistance fighters killed eight Israelis. Between Cast Lead and the end of July 2011, Israeli forces killed approximately 200 Gazans, while Palestinian resistance groups killed approximately five Israelis.

Most of Gaza’s residents are refugee families who were forcibly pushed out by Israel in its 1947-49 founding war, in which non-Jews, who originally made up over 70 percent of the inhabitants, were expelled.

In violation of international law, they have been prohibited from returning to their homes and have lived under crippling Israeli occupation for decades. Palestinian land is continually confiscated by Israel for Jewish-only use. A popular uprising against Israeli occupation began in the fall of 2000.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Aug. 21: “Those who operate against us will be decapitated.” That night at least 100 Israeli military vehicles stormed into the West Bank city of Hebron, closing the city off for hours and rounding up more than 50 Palestinians, including several academics and members of charitable associations.

On Saturday, Aug. 20, Israeli Aerospace Industries proudly unveiled its latest drone, known as the GHOST, which the company announced “is at the forefront of technology thanks to years of experience and knowledge acquired in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Israel partisan and author David Rodman reports that Israeli drones “played a substantial part” in Israel’s 1982 Lebanon War (in which Israeli forces killed at least 17,825 Lebanese, compared to approximately 368 Israelis killed by the Lebanese resistance) and that their use in what he acknowledges in profound understatement were “asymmetric conflicts” — the 2006 Second Lebanon War (Israeli forces killed at least 1,125 Lebanese, almost all civilians, a third of them children; Lebanese resistance forces killed 164 Israelis, almost three-quarters of them soldiers) and the Cast Lead operation – “sparked renewed global interest in Israeli drone operations.”

Rodman states: “In terms of the technological sophistication of its UAV force, Israel is unquestionably well ahead of the pack. Only the United States is in the same league.”

Article and photo courtesy Alison Weir

Last night, 19 August, more than a dozen Israeli air strikes hit the Gaza Strip, bringing the total killed since Thursday to 15 and approximately 50 injured. Among the killed are three children, ages two, five and 13.

On Friday night an Israeli warplane hit a civilian car, killing a family of three, including a Gazan doctor and his five-year old son.

The spokesperson for Emergency in Gaza, Adham Abu Salmiya told media that Israel is using new kinds of weapons in its most recent attack on the confined coastal enclave. Doctors are reporting that they have seen an increase in amputations and new kinds of injuries.

Maha Elbanna, a Palestinian-American journalist based in Gaza City, told The Palestine Monitor in a phone interview that the images of the wounded are particularly gruesome.

“There is a picture of a teenage girl with shrapnel cuts in her face that are very deep, like I’ve never seen before. I have seen shrapnel wounds before and these are very strange,” Elbanna said.

On Saturday morning, while speaking to The Palestine Monitor, Elbanna said she could hear F16’s flying overhead.

“There is so much damage across Gaza—in the north, south and in Gaza City,” said Elbanna, who also works for the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

“When I came into the office this morning, most of the building was broken.”

Israel’s most recent onslaught came after eight Israelis were killed in an attack in the south of Israel. The Israeli Ministry of Defense, mirrored closely by Israeli media reports, was quick to claim the source of the attacks was the Gaza Strip. However, as of yet, no evidence has emerged to support this claim.

“So far there is no evidence that anyone in Gaza is responsible for what happened,” Elbanna stressed.

Neither Hamas or the Popular Resistance Committees have claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attacks. Five members of the PRC’s have been murdered in the last two days.

While Israel is claiming to be targeting military bases, its victims are largely civilian.

“This is a campaign that is turning into a massacre and civilian areas are targeted,” Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said.

Spokesperson Abu Salmiya said that Israeli missiles struck a concrete factory, gravely injuring two civilians.

Dr. Barghouthi and doctors from PMRS in the Gaza Strip call upon the international community to demand that Israel cease its indiscriminate attack on the people of Gaza.

Article courtesy Palestine Monitor