NEWS DIGEST: What is Barbaric Mr. Obama?
Maisoon ميسون
ISRAEL HAS BROKEN THE 72 hour CEASE FIRE AND HAS NOW SAID it will ATTACK AL SHIFA HOSPITAL THAT HAS BEEN EVACUATED DUE TO ISRAELI THREATS
“To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight back), because they are wronged; and verily, God is most powerful for their aid; (They are) those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right, (for no cause) except that they say, our Lord is God”. (22:39-40)
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WE PALESTINIANS ONLY HAVE OUR RELIGIOUS FAITH AND OUR RIGHT TO EXIST
OVER 1900HOLOCAUSTED Gazans still counting- remember there are still bodies that have not been recovered from the destruction of buildings/homes, many unaccounted for.
Over 423 children that is 1/3rd of dead victims
More than 250 are women, 374 elderly
Over 61 Entire Families murdered
OVER 9390 Injured, MAIMED, Loss of Limbs
6150 homes destroyed
300,000 displaced
Schools destroyed, more mosques targeted, Hospitals, Courthouses,
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Sister Rania is one of my most favourite Palestinian political analysts who is a frequent guest on Press TV. She is astute, intelligent, articulate, spares no punches and stands up for Justice with a sincere passion and honesty. God bless you Rania. For those of you with facebook, which I do not have, please share this video far and wide.
Mr.Obama, What Is Barbaric?'
Video - Rania Masri Speech:
http://greenresistance.wordpress.com/
The talk I gave at the Texas protest this past Saturday has received great support – more than 900 Facebook shares and counting, including more than 500 from my own Facebook page (Post).
The talk is available :
What is barbaric, Mr. Obama?
by Rania Masri [http://greenresistance.wordpress.com / twitter: @rania_masri ]
August 2, 2014
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Yesterday [August 1], the Obama administration said that the capture of an invading Israeli soldier by the Palestinian Resistance was – and I quote – a “barbaric action.”
It seems President Obama and his administration consider the abduction of an invading soldier from an occupying army to be ‘barbaric’ but the massacre of more than 1600 Palestinians in their neighborhoods, in their homes, in their schools, in their hospitals, in their playgrounds, on their beaches is not barbaric.
We need to tell Mr. Obama what barbaric is.
Barbaric is the Israeli killing of more than 70 families in Gaza. More than 70 Palestinian families have been lost.
Barbaric is that 300,000 children in Gaza have lost either their home or a loved one.
Barbaric is that hospitals are targeted. Six out of nine hospitals in Gaza are closed and Israel is threatening to attack the rest.
Barbaric is that entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, labeled what one journalist called ‘apocalyptic.’
Barbaric is that we have 500,000 missiles dropped on an area smaller than 260 km2 (100 square miles).
Barbaric is that it has been the Zionist policy to destroy the economy in Gaza. That is why they bombed the electric power plant, that is why they are bombing the wastewater infrastructure, that is why yesterday they destroyed an ice cream factory.
Barbaric is the siege imposed on Gaza since 2005 and the fencing off of Gaza since 1995. Barbaric is that the objective of this siege is deliberately to destroy the economy of Palestinians in Gaza, to cripple them, to break them. That, Mr. Obama, is barbarism.
Barbaric, Mr. Obama, is what is coming out of Israel right now – which is open calls for the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This is what is written in Israeli newspapers. The current Deput y Prime Minister who calls for that against the Palestinians in Gaza. [Note, he says, “We must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages —destroying all the infrastructure, including roads and water.”]
But none of this is new for us Palestinians. We have seen it before. We have seen it before. We are not surprised. I wish we were. But none of the things that have happened against us in Gaza or in Ramallah or in Quds [Jerusalem] are new.
Barbaric, Mr. Obama, is Zionism. Golda Meir, Israel’s 4th Prime Minister, said, there is ‘no such as a Palestinian people.’ Barbaric is to deny our identity and to deny our existence.
Barbaric is what Menachem Begin, another Israeli PM, said in 1949 when he called Palestinians “beasts walking on two legs.”
Barbaric is what historian Benny Morris says, a historian who recognizes that every single israeli village and Israeli town is built on a Palestinian village and a Palestinian town and yet he justifies this genocide and this ethnic cleansing and he recently called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. That is barbaric.
Barbaric is what the Israeli Offensive Forces are calling for. They have said very specifically that officers have been given legal advice that allows them – and I quote – to target “large numbers of civilian casualties.” And this statement was not released in 2014; this statement was from 2009.
Barbaric is Netanyahu says when he says we must hit them – “Not just one blow, but blows that are so painful that the price will be too heavy to be borne.” And he said that in 2012. That is barbaric.
Barbaric is when they asked Netanyahu what will they say when we destroy their villages, Netanyahu said, “the world won’t say a thing. The world will say we’re defending [ourselves].”
President Obama has said, and I quote, “innocent civilians caught in the crossfire have to weigh on our conscience. We have to do more.”
Well I appeal to you, Mr. Obama, don’t do more. Because when he does more, he gives more weapons and he gives millions of our money to the Israeli war machine. No, Mr. Obama, if this is how the deaths of our families weighs on your conscience, then please don’t do more.
We need to recognize that the crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza over the past 27 days are not new. The crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza since the siege in 2005 are not new. They began in 1948.
We need to recognize what barbaric is. Barbaric is racism. Barbaric is defining Palestinians as a ‘demographic threat.’ A demographic threat and therefore considering that Palestinian existence is a threat to Israeli survival. Our existence is a threat to their survival. which means that the mere fact that we exist is justification for them to kill us. That is barbaric. That is racism. That is Zionism. And that is what we must end.
We are here, together to say, we demand an arms embargo on the state of Israel. We demand an arms embargo on the state of Israel.
We are here to say we demand the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice: take the Israeli war criminals to justice for the crime of genocide.
We demand an end to the occupation. And we demand an end to racism.
We stand with the Foreign Minister of Finland who said that sanctions against Israel must be on the table.
We stand with the governments of Latin American – from Ecuador, to El Salvador, to Bolivia, to Brazil, to Venezuela, to Chile, to Peru, to Cuba who expelled their ambassadors from Israel. We stand with the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who said Israel is a “terrorist state.”
And I have to say this. We not only stand with Palestinian families – with their women and their children – but we have to stand with the Palestinian Resistance. If we say that an occupied population has the right to defend itself – which is what an occupied population has the right to do – then we stand with the Palestinian Resistance. We stand with the Palestinian Resistance.
And if we are opposed to racism against Palestinians, then we need to be opposed to racism against anyone, anywhere. Which means, Mr. Obama, we are opposed to your drone warfare. We are opposed to your drone warfare. Mr. Obama, we are opposed to your immigrant policies that separates families in Texas and elsewhere in the United States. We are opposed to discrimination against African-Americans and Latino-Americans and all of the people of color. We say this as Palestinians, we say this as human rights activists: an end to the privatization of prisons in this country, an end to the drone warfare, an end to everything that is barbaric. That is what we say.
And we make a pledge. We make a pledge, right here, today. In the name of the Palestinians, who are the most resilient people I have ever known, who are standing, and who have been standing since 1948, we pledge to them, that when the bombs stop – and they will stop — we will remember our anger today, we will remember our tears today, and we will not be broken. So long as Palestinians are surviving, and they are surviving, so long as they are resilient – and by God we are resilient, we will notbe broken and we will organize. That means each of you here is to make a pledge, to stand and be organized in support of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement. Make it your personal pledge to be organized in Dallas, in Houston, in Austin, wherever you come from in Texas, to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
[end of the video]
We will break down the walls of Apartheid. We will end the horrors of occupation and siege. We will dismantle segregation in all its forms. We will connect our struggles. And we will teach resistance. Make that your pledge!
A View from Gaza: We Have Lost So Many That We Love
GAZA STRIP - It’s been three days since Israel’s deadly attack on my cousin’s home and I still haven’t been able to go to Khan Younis to mourn with my surviving family. The Israeli bombing is ongoing and it’s difficult and very dangerous to travel 18 miles from where I’m living and working in Gaza City. Today Israel announced a ceasefire and I wanted to go to Khan Younis. But we have learned we cannot trust these ceasefires and one of my cousins called and begged, “Please don’t come, no where is safe, and you don’t need to take the risk.”
There is no safe place in Gaza. I’ve said it many times before in writing, in interviews, because it is the frightening reality for us. Many families have been erased and everyone in Gaza is wondering when it will be their turn. Between 60, to 65 families have been wiped out completely. My family is no different from any other in the Gaza Strip. Part of my family has been erased. We are always wondering, “Who will be next?”
Here is the story of my family, just one among many stories in Gaza:
At 2:30a.m. on Friday, August 1, my family received a first “warning” bomb on the roof of their house while they slept. They jumped up, woke the children, and told everyone to run outside. The family lived in a four-story apartment building. Three to four minutes after the first bomb, a second larger bomb hit the building. Part of the family was outside running into the street, but part of the family was still in the building when the second Israeli bomb hit.
My cousin’s son Emad was trying to bring the children together to move them to a safer place when a third rocket hit them in the street and killed them all where they stood. There were body parts everywhere, most of them children. This series of attacks killed nine members of my family:
- Abed Almalek Abed Al Salam El-Farra, 64 years
- Osamah Abed Almalek El-Farra, 34 years
- Awatef A'ez Eldeen El-Farra, 29 years
- Emad El-Farra, 28 years
- Mohamad Mahmoud El-Farra, 12 years
- Nadeen Mahmoud El-Farra, 9 years
- Yara Abed Al Salam El-Farra, 8 years
- Abed Al Rahaman El-Farra, 8 years
- Lujain Basem El-Farra, 4 years
Also, ten more people were injured in this bombing, among them one family member, Afaf, who was pregnant and miscarried her baby.
The night my relatives were killed was one of the worst nights throughout Gaza. No one could sleep because the bombing was everywhere. At 4 a.m. I opened Facebook and saw that a post about Abed Almalek and some of his children and grandchildren being killed. I immediately called my cousin Mahmoud in Khan Younis and when he answered the phone, he was weeping. Mahmoud is a headmaster at the UN school in that area, taking care of refugees and he confirmed the news. It was a shocking painful moment, but this is Gaza. You find yourself supporting someone because they lost their loved ones and suddenly you find that same person supporting you in your loss. And later we both support others in their loss. It’s like a circle.
It’s tragic and sad for our family and for everyone in Gaza. Abed Almalek was one of the father figures in our family. We are a family of refugees who were driven into Gaza when our land was taken by Israelis in 1948. Abed was a businessman who owned a home painting and decorating shop.
Israel is killing and destroying homes, schools, infrastructure—everything. When Germany bombed London during World War 2, the English built bomb shelters under London Underground stations to protect civilians. Even with shelters, the English evacuated hundreds of thousands of children from any area that might be targeted, even sending thousands of children overseas for safety. But in Gaza’s case, where can our children go? Where can our people go? We are not safe at home and not safe in United Nations facilities. We are targeted by the Israeli military just because we are Palestinian. Our Israeli attackers are cowards because they target civilians and especially children. They are trying to kill the future of our people by targeting the next generations.
But I’m very proud of the people in Gaza. Despite all of the pain and violence, people are coming together, supporting one another, sharing whatever they have. It’s an issue of survival. Israel’s attacks are aimed at killing us as individuals, as a country and as a cause. So I get up every morning because it is my duty to my community and because I know others are doing their duty to keep me and my country and my cause alive.
I don’t want condolences on a personal level. This is a tragedy for everyone in the Gaza Strip and for every Palestinian. I want people to take a stand and take action to stop these war crimes.
Mona El-Farra
Dr. Mona El-Farra, Director of Gaza Projects for the Middle East Children's Alliance, is a physician by training and a human rights and women’s rights activist by practice in the occupied Gaza Strip. She was born in Khan Younis, Gaza and has dedicated herself to developing community based programs that aim to improve health quality and link health services with cultural and recreation services all over the Gaza Strip. Dr. El-Farra is also the Health Chair of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society of the Gaza Strip and a member of the Union of Health Work Committees. Dr. El-Farra has a son and two daughters.
One-fourth of Gaza’s population displaced by Israel’s violence
‘..“United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s condemnation of the given Palestinian right to resist an occupying power is unacceptable,” Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said at the press briefing.
“Ki-moon equals between an occupier and the occupied, the oppressed and the oppressor, and therefore he plays down the Palestinian people’s right to defend themselves,” he added……………..’
Mass displacement
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza continue to be displaced.
“I have been told by the International Committee of the Red Cross that my house will be shelled by Israel,” Muhammad al-Rifai, a 62-year-old resident of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, told The Electronic Intifada on Friday.
Al-Rifai is father to six daughters and a son, and a grandfather of several children. Many of them live in the same cinderblock home. A few days ago, al-Rifai received a phone call from the Israeli army warning him to leave his house ahead of an imminent airstrike.
Thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli airstrikes and shelling. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that “up to 25 percent of Gaza’s population may now be forcibly displaced, of whom 270,000 are hosted in UNRWA shelters alone.”
In many of those strikes, families were inside their homes and were killed or injured. In the Maghazi refugee camp alone, three houses were shelled with people inside. The latest attack came on Saturday morning, when Israel shelled a house belonging to the Qandil family, killing three.
As of 30 July, at least 76 families had lost three or more members in a single Israeli strike, according to UN figures.
University targeted………………’
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Israel attacks my university — with bombs and lies
http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-attacks-my-university-bombs-and lies/13697?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifada+%28Electronic+Intifada%29
On Saturday, the Israeli military boasted of bombing a “weapons development center” at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG).
I teach journalism at this university. The section of the campus where I work is close to the administrative department, the target of Israel’s dawn attack.
That department hosts teaching staff belonging to all colleges of the university: medicine, literature, engineering, commerce and others. It does not have a “weapons development center.”
Contrary to what Israel claims, Gaza universities do not have departments dedicated to military research or training. This is in contrast to Israeli universities which play an integral role in the military occupation and weapons development and have actively promoted the onslaught in Gaza.
The attack on IUG, as well as the Israeli occupation forces invasion of Birzeit University in the West Bank in June, was condemned by the American Studies Association executive committee. The American Studies Association voted in favor of an academic boycott of Israel last year, sparking a debate within the organization and in the mainstream media about the tactic.
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Why Israel Lies
Why Israel Lies
By Chris Hedges
The Big Lie feeds the two reactions Israel seeks to elicit-racism among its supporters and terror among its victims.
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NDTV reports from Rafah in South Gaza - horrific video and interviews with the people living and working there.
"Nothing Short Of A Massacre":
NDTV Report From Rafah in South Gaza
NDTV Report From Rafah in South Gaza
Video
The targets are young children, women, entire families, even a UN shelter.
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The War On Gaza Is A War On Truth
By Richard Sudan
We have a responsibility at home to get rid of governments and so-called leaders who declare themselves as loyal Zionists.
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U.S. Condemns, Enables Israel's 'Appalling' GazaSlaughter
By Brett Wilkins
Ultimately, the American people are complicit in Israel's crimes against humanity. America counts a racist, fortified, paranoid and aggressive state as one of its best friends in the world.
UK Activists In Standoff After Occupying Factory Supplying IDF Drone Engines
"The question shouldn't be when are we going to leave, the question should be when is this company going to leave, and when is this government going to stop supporting Israel in it's crimes against the Palestinian people."
A group of UK activists is engaged in a standoff with local law enforcement after having shut down a drone engine factory that they say supplies the Israel Defense Forces.
The group London Palestine Action chained the factory gates shut and chained themselves to the roof of the UAV Engines Limited factory in Shenstone, England, around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, saying they have enough food to stay a week.
The group London Palestine Action chained the factory gates shut and chained themselves to the roof of the UAV Engines Limited factory in Shenstone, England, around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, saying they have enough food to stay a week.
"Elbit Systems markets its drone technology as 'battle tested', a sickening boast that their drones have been proven to be effective at killing Palestinians."
—Sara Cooper, Teacher & Activist
—Sara Cooper, Teacher & Activist
UAV Engines Limited is a subsidiary of the Israel defense systems company Elbit. The company's stock recently reached a four-year high after climbing 6.1 percent between July 8 and 29, in the midst of Israel's latest attack on Gaza.
"Elbit Systems markets its drone technology as 'battle tested', a sickening boast that their drones have been proven to be effective at killing Palestinians," said Sara Cooper, 26, a teacher from south London.
"We're not the ones who are violating any laws," London Palestine Action member Ewa Jasiewicz shouted from the rooftop through a megaphone. "It's this factory that is engaged in criminal activity. The question shouldn't be when are we going to leave, the question should be when is this company going to leave, and when is this government going to stop supporting Israel in it's crimes against the Palestinian people."
The Staffordshire police arrived on the scene around 5:20 a.m., shut down access to the road and issued a statement saying that "Officers are in attendance to ensure the protest remains peaceful and safe and we are working closely with the business and the protestors. As a result of this activity we have cordoned off Lynn Lane."
Jasiewicz warned police that removal of one of the group's banners could result in one activist's neck being broken, as the banner was tied to it.
She said 7 of the 9 activists have lived in Palestine, and recounted personal stories of seeing Israel's war crimes firsthand.
She said 7 of the 9 activists have lived in Palestine, and recounted personal stories of seeing Israel's war crimes firsthand.
The group is calling for the factory to be shutdown, and for an end to UK support for Israel generally.
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Important note on barcodes
Stories and images have been doing the rounds on social media sites claiming that Israel has changed its barcode from 729 to 871 (or other numbers like 500) in order to fool people looking out for the 729 barcode.
What appears to be happening is that 871 is the Dutch barcode (and 500 is the UK one) and Israeli products are being sold by Dutch and UK (and even Irish)-based companies. To take a concrete example, in the case of Tesco ‘meat free mince’, Tesco is a UK-based company so the barcode is 500, even though the product inside is manufactured and packaged in Israel. What is important for barcode purposes is where the company who sells the goods are registered, NOT where the contents of the goods are produced, manufactured or packaged.
A country can’t simply change its barcode assignation because it feels like it, it doesn’t work like that and barcode assignation is a complicated and regulated international process.
This is just another reason to always look for the country of origin of a product and not rely solely on barcodes. Similarly, some things that may be made in a third country are sold by Israeli-registered companies with the 729 barcode, even though they may say (eg) ‘Made in Taiwan’ on the packaging. These should be boycotted too