Latest On Gaza 2014
This post will try to keep up with the latest on the war in Gaza. Updated 05-08-14
Lady Warsi resigns over UK Government stance on Gaza on Twitter
Diaries from Gaza – Electronic Intifada
Data published in a new report from the House of Commons in London states the value of all British military exports to Israel currently being processed comes to £7.9 billion ($12.1 billion).
Death Toll 04-08-14 (morning)
over 1865 Palestinians 9400 injured
67 Israelis (Press TV)
SEANAD EINMANN SPEAKS OUT IN IRISH PARLIAMENT.
“…Israel created Hamas, in order to split Fatah…. I have it on confimerd in the highest level in the foreign ministry in jerusalem…. I believe there should be an expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador. I have delayed in saying this but he has his fingers in his ears all teh time and he just repeats slogans….. I believe the UN should accept full responsibility for the people of Gaza and if that means an international force going in that is fine”
TO GET INVOLVED IN DIRECTION ACTIONS PLEASE VISIT THE LONDON PALESTINE ACTION GROUP FACEBOOK. MANY ACTIONS WERE PLANNED AT THEIR OPEN ACTION PLANNING SESSION ON THE 29th July Tuesday
Britain Admits Selling $12 Billion in Weapons to Israel
Data published in a new report from the House of Commons in London states the value of all British military exports to Israel currently being processed comes to £7.9 billion ($12.1 billion).
“The power plant is finished,” said its director, Mohammed al-Sharif, signalling a new crisis for Gaza’s 1.8 million people, who were already enduring power cuts of more than 20 hours a day.
In this time period, Israel attacked more than 150 sites including Gaza’s only power station and a media center that houses the broadcasting headquarters of Hamas and a number of other Arab satellite news channels.
AMIRA HAAS’s OPINION IN HAARATZ:
Israel’s attack on Gaza is revenge for the Palestinians’ refusal to accept occupation
Guardian article 27-07-14 morning
Death toll rises to more than 1,030 as Unicef says 218 children have been killed, two-thirds of them under the age of 12.
Hamas wants the seven-year siege of Gaza to be lifted, with crossings to both Israel and Egypt opened, plus the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Guardian article 25-07-14 morning
Thursday’s assault on the school – one of the grimmest incidents of the war – occurred at about 2.50pm as the playground was crowded with families waiting to be ferried to safety. According to survivors, one shell landed in the schoolyard followed by several more rounds that hit the upper stories of the building.
Reaping what we have sown in Gaza
AMIRA HAAS 21-07-14
Those who turned Gaza into an internment camp for 1.8 million people should not be surprised when they tunnel underneath the earth.
No Safe Place in Gaza: How Silence Encouraged a Genocide
By Yousef Al-Helou : “ I did not ask to be a Palestinian, I just got lucky.“
International Solidarity Movement article 24-07-14 morning
Ally Cohen, media coordinator for the ISM states, “anyone on the ground in Palestine knows that the Israeli military are constantly releasing completely fabricated information and reports. The only difference in this case, is that we can prove it.”
Guardian article 24-07-14 morning
….Gaza officials said more than 3,000 homes had been destroyed or damaged and 46 schools, 56 mosques and seven hospitals had been hit….
As the death toll on the 16th day of conflict topped 700 – more than 690 Palestinians and 34 Israelis plus one Thai agricultural worker – Pillay told an emergency debate at the UN human rights council (UNHRC) …..
Let it be noted that Hamas is the elected government in Gaza. Some mainstream media suggest that people ‘associated’ with Hamas and indeed members of Hamas are terrorists when in fact they include but are not limited to teachers, police, hospital workers, doctors , administrators and all sorts of civil servants, who are not part of the militant arm of Hamas. This is possibly why we know the difference between how many Israeli soldiers have been killed (32) and civilians (3) but we cannot know such division of the Palestinians because by and large their ability to define themselves has been crushed under the sheer weight of misinformation and supression about their situation. They are all prisoners without the human right to identify themselves.
Lets think for a moment about the injured (4000 Gazans since 08-07-14) and how great services for the disabled must be in Gaza.
More on this point of view at the bottom of this post **
Guardian article 23-07-14 morning
Electronic Intifada endorsed opinion and analysis.
No ceasefire without justice for Gaza
22-07-14
Guardian article 22-07-14 morning
International Business Times article 21-07-14
Cross Posted from Democracy Now 21-07-14
Palestinian Toll Tops 500 After Deadliest Day of Israeli Siege
The Israeli assault on Gaza has seen its bloodiest day so far, bringing the Palestinian death toll to more than 500. More than 100 Palestinians were killed in a 24-hour period between Saturday and Sunday nights. The dead include 72 residents of Shejaiya, one of Gaza’s poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods, where Israeli forces carried out their single worst attack so far. Survivors called the carnage a “massacre,” and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it an “atrocious action.” Eighteen Israeli soldiers have died in Gaza since Thursday, when Israel launched a ground invasion it said was aimed at cutting off tunnels used by Hamas. Thirteen of the soldiers died fighting militants in Shejaiya.
Guardian article 21-07-14 evening
Guardian article 21-07-14 morning
Latest from Active Stills 21-07-14
Latest from Active Stills 20-07-14
Israel Drops Cancer-inducing Bombs on Gazans
Continued **
Each time a publication references Hamas as a ‘terrorist group’ without qualification, and/or qualifies any Gazan death as that of a person with ‘ties to the terrorist group Hamas’ the opportunity for a clearer understanding of the role the main stream media play in nurturing an endemic misinterpretation of any wars between the Palestinians and the Israelis is made apparent.
Whether you agree with Hamas’s policies or laws, they are a government who were fairly elected and who work in a very compromised way due to the siege of Gaza. The Israeli government on the other hand are interestingly never referred to as a terrorist organization.
All governments have militaries of some sort and unless we refer to all of them as terrorists we should refer to none of them as terrorists.
Repetition in the mainstream media insidiously effects our judgement particularly of the Middle East.
Much of the mainstream press are now indicating that is all up to Hamas to stop firing rockets to stop this war. It would be a great deal more truthful and correct to imply that it is all up to Israel to end the siege on Gaza, the occupation in the West Bank and the sanctioned discrimination of the Palestinians living in Israel in their so called ‘democracy’, that would lead to the end of this war and potentially all the wars to come in this region.
Case in point of the sort of the not so subtle bias in main stream reporting in this war is the BBC report 23-07-14. A random headline in the middle of the article in inverted commas to imply a quote although the quote is not qualified – “Hamas accountable” – This article includes an image of the tunnels recently discovered which for the most part are used in Gaza to smuggle in all sorts of goods (including medical supplies, foods and no doubt arms) titles as “terror tunnels’ by the BBC. This obvious sensational titling is in inverted commas but the quote is without qualification. The BBC are clearly one of the trusted allies of the IDF in their consistent PR war against the Palestinians. Please be aware of these subtleties.