The H1N1 Swine Flu virus knows no borders,has no boundaries, and has absolutely no respect for religious or cultural traditions.

This year at the annual Hajj to Mecca,  Four foreign pilgrims have died of swine flu, the Saudi Health Ministry announced on Saturday.

The Saudi Arabia Health Ministry  said none of the four foreign victims had been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, as has been recommended by The Health Ministry.

An official statement released by the ministry said all had underlying health problems, including cancer and respiratory illness, AFP news agency reported.

Three of the victims died in Medina and one in Mecca.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=128688&d=22&m=11&y=200Over

The BBC is reporting that….up to three million Muslims from around the world take part in the holy pilgrimage every year, but health officials have expressed fears that it could provide a breeding ground for the virus.

Authorities had tried to prepare for any outbreaks by installing thermal cameras at airports and sea terminals, deploying 15,000 additional health workers and ensuring hundreds of extra beds were available.

The Hajj (Arabic: حج‎ Ḥaǧǧ) is a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is currently the largest annual pilgrimage in the world,^[1] and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a moral obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so. The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to Allah (God).^[2] The pilgrimage occurs from the 7th to 13th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajj)

The Health Minister has reported that there are 16 other people that have been diagnosed with swine flu and four remain in hospital in “critical condition”.

He added 12 others had recovered following treatment.

The Saudi government has recommended the elderly, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases and children skip the Hajj this year.

The Saudi government has said all pilgrims need a certificate of vaccination before they can apply for a visa.

This is real people, and this disease is spreading worldwide,at a rapid pace.

I encourage everyone to get a H1N1 swine flu shot as soon as you can.The reports of any side effects are exaggerated, and will cause millions of people to perish from the lack of the vaccine.

Any paranoia surrounding any alledged complications from the shot are totally unsubstantiated, and if those people out there insist on not receiving the vaccine, then we as a society should only expect more mounting mass casualties from the swine flu, as exhibited this weekend, unfortunately in Mecca.

If it can happen in Mecca, it can happen anywhere.

Please everyone, wash your hands, and go get the shot.

To follow the full story, click on the links for my sources below…

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDApMAhUln5jw-ffhzIZCh0I_-bgD9C41MJ00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8372378.stm

http://www.saudiembassy.net/latest_news/news11210903.aspx

(Rafah – Infopalestina: Konvoi kemanusiaan dari Eropa, “Miles of Smiles”, berhasil memasuki Jalur Gaza Rabu malam (11/11) melalui gerbang perlintasan Rafah, setelah berjam-jam menunggu di tengah kegembiraan para aktivis perdamaian yang telah menapakkan kaki mereka di tanah Gaza setelah perjalanan berat yang berlangsung lebih dari sebulan).

Ironis memang, ketika rakyat Gaza dalam pemilu yang demokratis telah memilih Hamas sebagai wakil mereka, wakil yang dalam pemilu mendapatkan/memiliki legitimasi dan memperjuangkan hak- hak mereka di depan para penjajah Israel, tapi mereka harus di hukum karena pilihan mereka memilih Hamas sebagai pilihan mereka.
Ini lah wajah para pendusta para penebar paham demokrasi di dunia ini, ketika pilihan warga Gaza tidak sesuai dengan apa yang mereka inginkan, dunia barat dengan standar gandanya secara langsung maupun tidak langsung ikut memboikot dan memblokade Gaza. Dan jadilah Gaza sebagai penjara terbesar pada saat ini.
Hamas secara demokratis dalam pemilu telah berhasil merebut suara mayoritas warga palestina dan berhasil mendapatkan kepercayaan, dengan suara mayoritas mereka mnjadi wakil rakyat palestina di parlemen, ini adalah wujud dari aspirasi rakyat palestina, tidak hanya di Gaza tapi juga Tepi Barat, dengan menolak hasil pemilu yang demokratis yang di menangkan Hamas, kita sama saja mendikte keinginan rakyat palestina untuk memilih wakil – wakil mereka yang mereka percaya untuk menjalankan roda pemerintahan yang bersih dan terpercaya.
Otoritas palestina dan para petinggi – petinggi Fatah terkenal dengan perilaku korupnya dan rakyat palestina pun tentu sudah muak dengan mereka, dan rakyat palestina dalam pemilu kemarin telah menghukum dengan tidak memberikan suara untuk mereka dan mencabut hak mereka untuk menjalankan roda pemerintahan, ini adalah cermin dari mayoritas rakyat palestina untuk melakukan perubahan didalam negeri mereka, dan mereka memilih Hamas sebagai wakil yang mereka percaya.
Lalu mengapa Negara – Negara barat menolak pilihan mayoritas rakyat palestina, apa kah mereka ingin memaksakan keinginan mereka yang tidak sesuai dengan realitas yang terjadi di sana, atau karena Hamas tidak dapat mereka tundukan sesuai dengan kepentingan penjajah Israel, sekali lagi ini adalah wajah munafik Negara Negara barat yang berteriak tentang demokrasi tapi mereka sendiri yang menginjak – injak prinsip demokrasi tersebut.
Warga Gaza kini dihukum karena pilihan mereka, pilihan hati nurani mereka, pilihan yang sesuai dengan keinginan dan jiwa mereka. Hukuman terhadap mereka sangat lah tidak masuk akal dan menganggu nilai-nilai kemanusian, bila blokade ini tidak segera di akhiri, maka terlihat sudah bahwa prinsip – prinsip demokrasi, sejatinya tidak pernah ada di tanah palestina, yang ada hanya sebuah pemaksaan – pemaksaan yang dilakukan Negara – Negara barat terhadap warga Gaza/ Palestina yang lemah.
Sudah saat nya blokade di hentikan, sudah saatnya pintu – pintu perbatasan di buka untuk masuknya bantuan – bantuan yang diperlukan oleh warga Gaza akibat agresi jahat Israel dan blokade ekonomi yang di lakukan Negara penjajah tersebut. Sudah waktunya warga Gaza mengukir senyum di wajah dan hatinya dan sudah sewajarnya mereka pun diberi hak untuk memilih sesuai dengan pilihan mereka. Dan sudah seharusnya dunia mengakui dan menjamin hak – hak mereka untuk hidup.

(Ahmed Kurdi, Menteri Sosial dan Tenaga Kerja Palestina mengatakan, “Konvoi ‘Miles of Smiles’ ini benar-benar layak untuk menyandang nama ini.” Dia menambahkan, “Konvoi itu bertolak dari Eropa untuk sampai pada saat ini di Jalur Gaza membawa banyak pesan kemanusiaan; terutama bagi para penyandang cacat yang diakibatkan oleh agresi Zionis tidak di Jalur Gaza, yang meninggalkan ratusan anak-anak, kaum perempuan, orang tua dan para penyandang cacat”).

Konvoi kemanusian dari eropa membawa pesan moral kepada semua warga dunia yang punya hati nurani. Untuk mu Wahai para pemimpin Negara – Negara arab, pemimpin – pemimpin Negara muslim, berjuanglah untuk terus memperjuangkan hak – hak warga Gaza yang dilanggar, karena mereka adalah saudara seiman kita, saudara sesama muslim, katakan kepada dunia bahwa sudah cukup blokade terhadap Gaza, yang melahirkan penderitaan yang berkepanjangan, cukup sudah …Blokade harus segera dihentikan…

Wallahualam.

Map of Gaza Strip

by smteixeirapoit

Palestinians have created hundreds of tunnels under the Gaza Strip-Egypt border to circumvent the Israeli blockade. In the border town of Rafah, Palestinians secure employment in these tunnels, smuggling goods such as food, livestock, appliances, and electronics. The work in the tunnels is not only dirty, but also dangerous. Sometimes, Israel bombs the tunnels or the tunnels collapse. Oftentimes, workers are buried alive.

One might question: Why would Palestinians choose to work in these conditions? In the Gaza Strip, the unemployment rate is around 80 percent. Palestinians with few employment opportunities – even young children – decide to work in the tunnels because of the financial appeal. For instance, some children earn up to $100 per day working in the tunnels.

Smuggling Tunnel in Rafah *** Photograph Courtesy of Marius Arnesen

Dr. Iyad Saraj, a child psychologist in the Gaza Strip, explains: “There is a pushing factor for the children, pushing them out in the streets because the house is so deprived. And there is a pulling factor in the tunnel business or any business to tell them, ‘You can make some money there.’ So the children are entangled into this cycle.”

Robert Merton identified a disjuncture between goals and the legitimate means to achieve goals in modern society. When people experience this disjuncture, they respond in various ways: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion. For example, although Palestinians accept the goal of making money, some cannot work in the formal economy because of the high unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip. As a result, some innovate by working in the smuggling tunnels so that they can become financially sustainable.

Read More

“Robert K. Merton” By Piotr Sztompka

Bombs Falling/Nowhere To Go is set in Gaza – I take a neutral political position on Israel/Palastine and honour all civilian victims of war.

Bombs Falling/Nowhere To Go

A Gaza Bombing Sound Collage

Bombs Falling/Nowhere To Go – (4:01)
Music by David Archer. (Unauthorized) text by Jawad Harb

Download mp3
(right click – save target as)

Lyrics/Notes

On January 14/ 09  I read an article entitled The Bombs Came Today – There Is Nowhere to Go  written by Jawad Harb who lives with his family in Rafah, Gaza and was there during the bombing.  As any parent -  any feeling person – would be, I was horrified at this harshest of realities and stunned by the powerful writing of a parent in an anguish of fear and concern over their children’s safety.

I had to react to what was happening but I was not certain how to go about it. Not wanting to let that stop me, I began to work with the vague idea of a sound collage involving my usual sounds plus some found sound effects from around the web.

Once I had a few loops and sound ideas going, it occurred to me that the actual words of  Jawad Harb  himself would express what I was searching for far better than I ever could. After realizing that my first choice of having Harb read them himself over the phone was not likely to happen – I tried reading and chanting the words myself.  Bad idea. My voice had no place in this sound.  A few days earlier, I had stumbled on a browser based news reader that actually reads HTML text aloud with a Microsoft Sam style computer voice.  I thought I had my solution but the voice sounded all wrong. I surfed around the net for a while and tried several other text readers of various types until I finally pieced together a workable version using a female Asian/Indian sounding voice and managed to record it.

It’s weird but sometimes, given the power of the words as written, the computer voice actually seems to carry human feeling and on at least one occasion it sounds as if the speakers voice is breaking with emotion.

Most of the other sound effects came from The Freesound Project, except the explosions, which are actually from a recording of the bombing of Baghdad.

Although the Gaza bombings and the experience of Jawad Harb and his family are the source and catalyst for this project, I hope it can serve as a memorial to all innocent war victims anywhere, anytime and a reminder to the aggressors that the real victims of war are always, always children.

Here is the original text. 

GAZA (January 13, 2009, 6:15 p.m) – The leaflets came yesterday, telling us our neighbourhood would be attacked. The whole population of the area is terrified. We have nowhere to go. My neighbour checked at the UNRWA shelter but it was full. Overflowing. There is nowhere to go. We waited to be bombed. My children have seen the dead bodies of children on television. They cry, they are crying now, they are terrified. When will this end? There was screaming. It is dark and cold but most of us are still outside. My family is outside next to the house. We are terrified to go inside.

The bombs came today. It was terrifying. We have nowhere to run. There was an air strike every five minutes. Thick black smoke 100m-150m away from us. People were scared, ran outside of their houses and gathered together in the street. 300-350 people in the street. The street was the safest place. If our house is bombed, we’ll get trapped and die like the people we saw on television.

It is quiet for 20 minutes now but we don’t know if it will start again. What if it is just a short break? We can’t take the risk. My children are shivering. It is getting so cold. Some neighbours went back inside, but they are staying on the first floor, next to the door so they can run outside. We don’t know what will come next. This is the closest it has come to our house. The neighbourhood next to ours was bombed. What do we do? We don’t know. We have nowhere to go. Nowhere to go.

Update:

Bombs Falling/Nowhere To Go became international in nature in a rapid and ineveitable way as it was being assembled and could not exist at all were it not for that fact.

The words – and to be honest, the entire emotional content -  are from Gaza.

 But I truly believe that same emotional content could be from anywhere. 

The voice – though computer generated with an Indo/Asian accent –  is meant to be anyone and indeed becomes the voice of a Universal Motherhood as well as fear, love and acceptance, anger and courage. That fear, love, acceptance, anger and courage all belong to Jawad Harb, his family and neighbours and all those who have lived and died these same ways.

 The first sound – the bass drum –  is the impossible violence of what can be –  but will not be altered from it’s white hot, black heart of despair and anger and hatred and destruction.

The guitar is the onlooker, alternately relentless and hesitant, charging forward and pulling back,  but determined, for once, to stand witness to the truth.

 The child’s cry is from a train station in North America and by its very sound represents something we all know in our hearts.

The air raid sirens are from Israel and are the voices of warning coming from all those who have experienced the history of terrible violence and oppression.

 There is an unknown Turkish man reading poetry way back in the mix toward the end. He represents the voices of people that no longer have names and will never be heard.

Then the awful, terrible sound of explosions – lifted from a YouTube  copy of CNN’s live coverage of the bombing of Baghdad - like  murderous, demonic laughter ripping darkness into your soul, stealing fire from heath and heart and blazing hatred and anger, hatred and anger, hatred and anger across the sky and the flesh and the bones of innocent children. Deafening, hideous, sickening thunder and lightning  torn from humanity’s darkest recesses, dripping bloody, putrid venom and poison onto everything that means anything to anyone.

The bottom end of the piano is the rock of the earth, the heat of technology and science, mankind through our collective history, evolution and religion, and the hope and hopelessness of time moving on. The high end of the piano represents the tears of the witnesses, the sorrow, the sadness, the pain of knowing, the guilt and remorse and the anger at helplessness in the face of such an storm, such an onslaught.

And it’s when I go back and listen, when it’s late and I’m alone and my ability to resist is at it’s lowest, and the acceptance and the understanding of why the wolf must tear at the throat of the deer stares back at me from the mirror,  I ask myself  ”how can such things as this come to be?” And I fear that as I say those words out loud, someone else will say to me “How dare you presume to create such a thing, you who know nothing of this.”

Ma’an News reports that the Egyptian government will be opening the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for a few days to allow limited movement of people to and from the Strip. The news agency also reports that Israel continues the closure of two of the three Gaza crossings with which it is adjacent, allowing only limited movement of humanitarian aid through the remaining Kerem Shalom crossing.

Such behavior constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as was claimed in the recent Goldstone Report. It also contradicts John Ging’s recent call for the immediate end to the blockade of Gaza, as well as President Obama’s statement to this effect in late January of this year.

Warga Gaza kecanduan tablet penghilang rasa sakit.

Selama enam pekan Abu Ahmad seperti hidup di dunia lain. Bukan di daerah tempat tinggalnya, sebuah distrik di Jalur Gaza yang pernah diserbu Israel Januari lalu. Satu wilayah yang pernah dihujani bom fosfor putih yang bisa melelehkan kulit hingga tulang.

Dengan Tramadol, lelaki 45 tahun ini dapat melupakan ia seorang pengangguran yang kerjanya hanya duduk sambil minum teh atau kopi. Ia juga khilaf terhadap istri dan sepuluh anaknya yang hidup dengan bantuan kemanusiaan. “Ketika saya menenggaknya, saya merasa sangat nyaman,” kata mantan sopir ini Selasa lalu.

Tramadol adalah jenis pil pembunuh rasa sakit dengan akibat seperti narkotik. Dengan satu tablet berdosis 200 miligram, pemakainya dapat tidur seharian. Bahkan seorang pengguna mengaku tubuhnya seperti dibungkus selimut tapi menggigil.

Abu Ahmad mengenal pil iblis itu melalui seorang temannya. Dari sekadar untuk menghilangkan depresi dan pusing memikirkan kesulitan hidup, perlahan namun pasti ia menjadi pecandu. Mulanya cuma satu tablet sehari, lantas tiga atau empat dan puncaknya bisa menghabiskan delapan Tramadol  berdosis 800 miligram. Padahal pabrik obat memperingatkan maksimal penggunaan Tramadol tidak boleh lebih dari 300 miligram per hari.

Ia mengaku sulit melepaskan diri dari Tramadol. Cuma itu yang membuat sakit kepala dan sekujur tubuhnya hilang. Ia bahkan harus ke kamar mandi saban sepuluh menit dengan tubuh berkeringat. Berat tubuhnya merosot menjadi 58 kilogram dari sebelumnya 85 kilo. “Anda minum satu pil dan tentu akan merasa lebih baik,” ujarnya.

Harga satu strip berisi sepuluh tablet Tramadol sekitar 3,40 pound. Barang haram yang masuk melalui perbatasan Rafah ini mudah diperoleh di toko-toko obat. Bahkan banyak dijual di jalan-jalan. Beberapa di antara mereka memakai pil ini untuk meningkatkan kemampaun seks.

Menurut Hasan Shaban Ziyada, ahli kejiwaan dari Program Kesehatan Mental Masyarakat Gaza (GCMHP), banyaknya pecandu Tramadol lantaran situasi sulit akibat blokade Israel, perpecahan Hamas dan Fatah, serta perang Januari lalu.

Isolasi yang berlangsung sejak Hamas menguasai Gaza pertengahan Juni 2007 membuat pasokan bahan makanan, obat-obatan, air, listrik, bahan bakar, dan barang lainnya kian menipis. Sebanyak 45 persen dari sekitar 1,5 juta penduduk tanpa kerjaan.

Generasi muda juga menjadi sasaran empuk Tramadol, seperti pengalaman Muhammad, mahasiswa berusia 21 tahun. Ia menjadi pelanggan tetap setelah gagal dalam ujian SMA tiga tahun lalu. Ia bisa minum dosis 1.000 miligram tiap hari. Kerjanya hanya main komputer semalaman dan tidur seharian. “Kamu berada di dunia lain. Bahkan ketika orang lain mengomel, kamu tidak marah,” katanya. Karena kebiasaan buruk itu, ia diusir dari rumah keluarganya di utara Gaza.

Meski sudah membaik, situasi sulit yang masih berlangsung di Gaza bisa membuat Abu Ahmad kembali ketagihan pil setan itu.” Jika kamu punya anak tapi tidak memiliki pekerjaan untuk memberikan apa yang mereka perlukan, kami tidak bisa tidur,” katanya.

Independent/NZ Herald/Faisal Assegaf

Meninggalkan ibu dan pekerjaan demi suami.

Setelah cemas menunggu sekitar sejam, Rabu pekan lalu, Muhammad Warda pun bertemu calon istrinya di Kota Rafah, Jalur Gaza. May, 23 tahun, muncul dari dalam terorowngan dengan abaya dan jilbab kotor oleh debu dan pasir. “Saya terkejut. Saya benar-benar sedih karena ia harus melalui cobaan berat ini demi saya,” kata pemuda 26 tahun ini.

Keduanya bertunangan pada satu malam di bulan Juli. Lewat Internet dan kamera web, sepuluh anggota keluarga Muhammad berkumpul di depan komputer, harta paling berharga yang mereka miliki. “Kenapa wajahmu memerah?” tanya May kepada Muhammad yang salah tingkah. Setelah ditanya orang tua masing-masing, mereka setuju menikah sambil tersenyum satu sama lain.

Perlu empat hari bagi May dari Ramallah, Tepi Barat, untuk bertemu sang pujaan hati yang tinggal di Kota Gaza. Terpaksa ia yang pergi lantaran Muhammad tidak memperoleh izin Israel untuk keluar dari Gaza. May, anak semata wayang, terpaksa meninggalkan ibunya sendirian setelah ayahnya wafat sebulan sebelum ia berangkat.

Bersama ibunya dari Ramallah, keduanya naik taksi menuju Yordania. Kemudian ke perbatasan Rafah di Mesir. Di sanalah mereka berpisah. May pun tidak tahu kapan bisa berjumpa ibunya. Untuk sampai ke Gaza, May harus membayar US$ 1.500 kepada pemilik terowongan.

Terowongan memang menjadi satu-satunyajalan bagi lalu-lintas orang dan barang keluar-masuk Jalur Gaza. Situasi ini terjadi lantaran Israel menutup perbatasan darat, laut, dan udara sebagai balasan atas berkuasanya Hamas di Gaza.

Tapi risiko yang ditempuh May amat besar. Nyawanya bisa terancam kalau terowongan runtuh atau Israel menggempur lewat serangan udara. Kadang, orang-orang Mesir berupaya menutup terowongan dengan melemparkan granat gas.

Kini pengantin baru itu hidup menderita di rumah keluarga Muhammad. Mereka menempati satu ruangan dengan kasur yang kalau malam menjadi tempat tidur sedangkan siang sebagai sofa. Kondisi kian parah karena Muhammad menganggur.

Sebelum Hamas menguasai Jalur Gaza sejak pertengahan Juni 2007, ia bekerja sebagai pengawal bagi pejabat Fatah yang mendominasi Tepi Barat. Sekarang, ia cuma mendapatkan US$ 25 saban bulan karena kesetiannya terhadap organisasi yang dipimpin Mahmud Abbad itu. “Saya berutang US$ 4.000 dan tidak tahu apakah saya bisa melunasi,” kata Muhammad.

Sedikit penyesalan tampak di wajah May. Ia juga kehilangan pekerjaan di sebuah butik di Ramallah. “Cinta memang kejam. Tapi saya tidak menyangka akan seburuk ini,” ujarnya. Bahkan, May belum sempat jalan-jalan menyaksikan Laut Tengah. Padahal jaraknya cuma 20 menit dengan taksi. Ongkos sedolar memang berat buat Muhammad dan May.

Demi cinta, orang sering berbuat apa saja tanpa sadar risiko yang bakal diterima.

Der Spiegel/Faisal Assegaf

She left her mother and job for her husband.

After waiting for about an hour, Wednesday last week, Muhammad Warda finally met his wife in Rafah, Gaza Strip. May, 23 year-old, rose from a tunnel with her abaya and scarf full of dust and sand. “I was shocked. I felt so bad that she had gone through this ordeal for me,” the 26-year-old guy said.

The spouse engaged in an evening last July. Through Internet and webcam, ten family members of Muhammad were sitting in front of their most prized possession, a computer. “Why are you so red?” asked May to the nervous Muhammad. After asking by their parents, they agreed to wed and smiled at each other.

It took four days for May to travel from Ramallah, West Bank, to meet his lover who lives in Gaza City. She had to go because Muhammad couldn’t get permission from Israeli authority. May, the only daughter in her family, left her mother alone after her father passed away a month before her leaving.

With her mother she took a taxi to Jordan and then traveled to border area in Rafah, Egypt. She separated with her mother in there. May has acknowledged that she would never know when she can meet her mother. She has to pay for US$ 1,500 to be smuggled through a tunnel into Gaza.

The secret tunnels have become the only way of traffic for people and goods in-out Gaza Strip. This situation caused by Israeli blockade on its ground, air, and sea borders as response for Hamas domination in Gaza.

May has faced a quiet big risk. Her life threaten to death if the tunnel collapsed or striked by Israeli missiles. Sometimes, Egyptian try to shut down the tunnels by throwing gas grenade.

The new bride recently lives in Muhammad’s family house. They stay in a room with a mattress becomes bed at night and sofa at the daytime. Their condition becomes worse because Muhammad unemployed.

Before Hamas took Gaza in the mid of June 2007, he worked as a bodyguard for Fatah leaders that dominated West Bank. Now he gets only US$ 25 per month for his loyalty on the organization led by Mahmud Abbas. “I have US$ 4,000 in debts and I don’t know how I am going to pay it back,” said Muhammad.

May expressed her little regret. She lost her job she had in a boutique in Ramallah. “Love is cruel. But I didn’t expect it to be this bad,” she said. May still hasn’t seen the Mediterranean, although the sea is only a short 20 minute drive away from her parents in law. Cost a dollar for the journey is too heavy for Muhammad and May.

For love, people often do everything without realize the risk will be faced.

Der Spiegel/Faisal Assegaf

A  politicaltheatrics.org  articles

The Rafah Border Crossing is an international border crossing built by the Israeli and Egyptian governments after the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty and 1982 Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. It was managed by the Israel Airports Authority until it was evacuated on 11 September 2005 as part of Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan.

The border has been closed by Israel on 86% of days due to “security reasons”.It is not opened for the export of goods and in June 2007, it was closed entirely after the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip.

President Hosni Mubarak said in December,during a televised address, that the Rafah border crossing will remain closed until the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas regains control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas.

“We in Egypt are not going to contribute to perpetuating the rift [between Hamas and the PA] by opening the Rafah crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and EU observers in violation of the 2005 deal,” he said

Hamas,the democratically elected authority in Gaza,will not be disengaging themselves from the strip anytime soon nor will they relinquish their positions in order to pacify the Mubarak and Mahmoud Abbas.
Recent news has cast the ultimate shadow of doubt over Abbas, soley due to his modus vivendi: giving in to Israel by postponing a vote on the UN Goldstone report which accuses Israel of crime against humanity during Operation Cast Lead.

Over 1,400 Palestinians, at least one-third of them being women and children, were massacred in the December-January conflict, when Israel attacked the 2-mile Gaza strip.

Goldstone’s 575-page report was critical of Israeli troops for “targeting and terrorising civilians”, which has caused outrage amongst Israel supports inside and outside the state. Of its 31 chapters, only one related to alleged crimes by Palestinian fighters.

During Operation Cast Lead the Egyptian consulate in Aden, Yemen was stormed by protestors and In Cairo, several thousand Egyptians marched through the downtown area on December 31st, chanting phrases such as, “Off to Gaza we go, martyrs by the million,”  “Where is the Egyptian army?” and “Shame on you Mubarak”.

According to Voice of America one of the protesters with “tears in his eyes”, said:

“Egypt should open its border to help its Palestinian brothers, the injured, the sick.”

He went on to say that he could not sit back and watch television reports of the violence and remain calm,thus he wanted to join his brethren in solidarity.

Unfortunately the world-wide protests,from Jordan to the Philippines, against Israel and the stoic Arab regimes were not enough to stop the massacre.
Even after Egypt stood by watching the inhumane genocide against the Palestinians the Rafah border is still up, barring Palestinians from crossing over.

In February, as Palestinian teens stood between the border and the southern Gaza strip, Egypt said they would not tolerate Palestinians “infiltrating the country” from the Gaza Strip.

“Anyone who breaches the border will have their legs broken,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency on public television.

The Egyptian regime has become sickeningly Pharaonic,reminding me of orthodox religious scripture; The captivating story of Moses and the Pharaoh.
As the Prophet Moses called on the Pharaoh to release his people from enslavement and captivity the Pharaoh would scoff at the Prophet, telling him that he shall never let his people go.

Now that the massacre in Gaza is over we are witness to heart-breaking silence,wherein the Arab populace has become voiceless – rejecting their duty to defend their brothers and sisters across the border.
Inhibited by a regime which has grown more and more fascist as the years waltz on I can understand their fear of speaking out but what I have yet to understand and come to terms with is their deadening stillness.

The Egyptians are so close to Gaza they can feel their quivering breaths on their cheeks and during December they could hear the Palestinians screaming during the assault on the strip.
During the aftermath they could smell the putrid stench of innocent flesh that was burned by Israel’s white phosphorous shells and the smoke that billowed from Gaza moved across the same Egyptian sky.

Egyptians need to unite as one people against their totalitarian government and with their steady hands,dismantle it.
For the passed 28 years Egyptians have been under the  ”state of emergency” law which followed Ex-President Sadat’s death – under this asinine law Mubarak’s regime has the right to imprison individuals for any period of time, and for virtually no reason, thus keeping them in prisons without trials for any period.

The time to defend one another is now,as Al Aqsa cries out for assistance and as Palestinians force their fingers through the Rafah border in search of help.

Egyptian men have a duty to defend their brothers and sisters across the border  just as they would their own family members, and there is no more time to waste.
We either react as one community in battling our tyrants or we fall as one people due to our cowardice.

Egypt & Palestine fight many of the same evils (e.g Israel) but until they form an uprising against their dictators or occupying regimes then nothing shall be done.
The third intifada will happen,but it will not happen on its own.

Until it does we should take the path that Moses took and demand the release of our people,and the dismantlement of the Rafah border.

The Pharaoh has been allotted enough time in terrorizing the Egyptian and Palestinian people.

So,until he breaks and until he yields we demand that he let our people go.

http://politicaltheatrics.org/2009/10/03/mubaraklet-our-people-go/

the headline on the united nations website reads: “un mission finds evidence of war crimes by both sides in gaza conflict.” here is the news brief in full and if you want to read the full 575-page report download this pdf file:

The United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict at the start of this year has found evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

“We came to the conclusion, on the basis of the facts we found, that there was strong evidence to establish that numerous serious violations of international law, both humanitarian law and human rights law, were committed by Israel during the military operations in Gaza,” the head of the mission, Justice Richard Goldstone, told a press briefing today.

“The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly, in some respects, crimes against humanity, were committed by the Israel Defense Force (IDF).”

“There’s no question that the firing of rockets and mortars [by armed groups from Gaza] was deliberate and calculated to cause loss of life and injury to civilians and damage to civilian structures. The mission found that these actions also amount to serious war crimes and also possibly crimes against humanity,” he said.

The 575-page report by the four-person mission was released today, ahead of its presentation to the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva on 29 September.

“The mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons and as such give rise to individual criminal responsibility,” the report’s executive summary said. “It also finds that the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians is a violation of the right to life.”

It went on to criticize the “deliberate and systematic policy on the part of the Israeli armed forces to target industrial sites and water installations,” and the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields.

On the objectives and strategy of Israel’s military operation, the mission concluded that military planners deliberately followed a doctrine which involved “the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations.”

On the firing of mortars from Gaza, the mission concluded that they were indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against a civilian population and “would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity.” It added that their apparent intention of spreading terror among the Israeli civilian population was a violation of international law.

The report recommended that the Security Council should require Israel to take steps to launch appropriate independent investigations into the alleged crimes committed, in conformity with international standards, and report back on these investigations within six months.

It further called on the Security Council to appoint a committee of experts to monitor the proceedings taken by the Israeli Government. If these did not take place, or were not independent and in conformity with international standards, the report called for the Security Council to refer the situation in Gaza to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It also called on the Security Council to require the committee of experts to perform a similar role with regard to the relevant Palestinian authorities.

At today’s briefing, Justice Goldstone said the mission had investigated 36 incidents that took place during the Israeli operation in Gaza, which he said did not relate to decisions taken in the heat of battle, but to deliberate policies that were adopted and decisions that were taken.

As an example, he described one such incident: a mortar attack on a mosque in Gaza during a religious service, which killed 15 members of the congregation and injured many others. Justice Goldstone said that even if allegations that the mosque was used as sanctuary by military groups and that weapons were stored there were true, there was still “no justification under international humanitarian law to mortar the mosque during a service,” because it could have been attacked during the night, when it was not being used by civilians.

Justice Goldstone added that the report reflected the unanimous view of the mission’s four members.

The other members of the team are Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science at the University of London; Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and former Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders; and retired Colonel Desmond Travers, member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI).

of course, i have a huge problem with the notion that there are two sides as reported in this document. you have the fourth most powerful military in the world against an inadequately armed palestinian resistance–the disparity with respect to casualties in the savaging of gaza tells that story quite well. angry arab offered an important observation on this report in response to an article in the economist this week:

I was rather most disappointed with this article about Judge Goldstone’s report on Israeli war crimes. It was not typical of the Economist’s coverage of the Middle East. As if the reporter was pained by the findings. Look at this sentence: “Unlike Syria, say, Israel is a democracy that claims to live by the rule of law. It needs to make its case by moral force as well as by force of arms.” Clear propaganda. But I like how Goldstone’s daughter defended her father: “Mr Goldstone’s daughter, Nicole, who lived in Israel for many years but now lives in Canada, vigorously defended her father’s report in an interview on the army radio. “If it hadn’t been for him, the report would have been even harsher,” she said, speaking in Hebrew.”

richard falk offers his analysis of the report as well as the zionist entity’s response to it thus far:

Richard Goldstone, former judge of South Aftica’s Constitutional Court, the first prosecutor at The Hague on behalf of the International Criminal Court for Former Yugolavia, and anti-apartheid campaigner reports that he was most reluctant to take on the job of chairing the UN fact-finding mission charged with investigating allegations of war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas during the three week Gaza War of last winter.

Goldstone explains that his reluctance was due to the issue being “deeply charged and politically loaded,” and was overcome because he and his fellow commissioners were “professionals committed to an objective, fact-based investigation,” adding that “above all, I accepted because I believe deeply in the rule of law and the laws of war,” as well as the duty to protect civilians to the extent possible in combat zones. The four-person fact-finding mission was composed of widely respected and highly qualified individuals, including the distinguished international law scholar, Christine Chinkin, a professor at the London School of Economics. Undoubtedly adding complexity to Goldstone’s decision is the fact that he is Jewish, with deep emotional and family ties to Israel and Zionism, bonds solidified by his long association with several organizations active in Israel.

Despite the impeccable credentials of the commission members, and the worldwide reputation of Richard Goldstone as a person of integrity and political balance, Israel refused cooperation from the outset. It did not even allow the UN undertaking to enter Israel or the Palestinian Territories, forcing reliance on the Egyptian government to facilitate entry at Rafah to Gaza. As Uri Avnery observes, however much Israel may attack the commission report as one-sided and unfair, the only plausible explanation of its refusal to cooperate with fact-finding and taking the opportunity to tell its side of the story was that it had nothing to tell that could hope to overcome the overwhelming evidence of the Israeli failure to carry out its attacks on Gaza last winter in accordance with the international law of war. No credible international commission could reach any set of conclusions other than those reached by the Goldstone Report on the central allegations.

In substantive respects the Goldstone Report adds nothing new. Its main contribution is to confirm widely reported and analyzed Israeli military practices during the Gaza War. There had been several reliable reports already issued, condemning Israel’s tactics as violations of the laws of war and international humanitarian law, including by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and a variety of respected Israeli human rights groups. Journalists and senior United Nations civil servants had reached similar conclusions.

Perhaps, most damning of all the material available before the Goldstone Report was the publication of a document entitled “Breaking the Silence,” containing commentaries by thirty members of the Israel Defense Forces who had taken part in Operation Cast Lead (the Israeli official name for the Gaza War). These soldiers spoke movingly about the loose rules of engagement issued by their commanders that explains why so little care was taken to avoid civilian casualties. The sense emerges from what these IDF soldiers who were in no sense critical of Israel or even of the Gaza War as such, that Israeli policy emerged out of a combination of efforts ‘to teach the people of Gaza a lesson for their support of Hamas’ and to keep IDF casualties as close to zero as possible even if meant massive death and destruction for innocent Palestinians.

Given this background of a prior international consensus on the unlawfulness of Operation Cast Lead, we must first wonder why this massive report of 575 pages has been greeted with such alarm by Israel and given so much attention in the world media. It added little to what was previously known. Arguably, it was more sensitive to Israel’s contentions that Hamas was guilty of war crimes by firing rockets into its territory than earlier reports had been. And in many ways the Goldstone Report endorses the misleading main line of the Israeli narrative by assuming that Israel was acting in self-defense against a terrorist adversary. The report focuses its criticism on Israel’s excessive and indiscriminate uses of force. It does this by examining the evidence surrounding a series of incidents involving attacks on civilians and non-military targets. The report also does draw attention to the unlawful blockade that has restricted the flow of food, fuel, and medical supplies to subsistence levels in Gaza before, during, and since Operation Cast Lead. Such a blockade is a flagrant instance of collective punishment, explicitly prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention setting forth the legal duties of an occupying power.

All along Israel had rejected international criticism of its conduct of military operations in the Gaza War, claiming that the IDF was the most moral fighting force on the face of the earth. The IDF conducted some nominal investigations of alleged unlawful behavior that consistently vindicated the military tactics relied upon and steadfastly promised to protect any Israeli military officer or political leader internationally accused of war crimes. In view of this extensive background of confirmed allegation and angry Israeli rejection, why has the Goldstone Report been treated in Tel Aviv as a bombshell that is deeply threatening to Israel’s stature as a sovereign state?

Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, calling the report “a mockery of history” that “fails to distinguish the aggressor and a state exercising the right of self-defense,” insisting that it “legitimizes terrorist activity, the pursuit of murder and death.” More commonly Israel’s zealous defenders condemned the report as one-sided, biased, reaching foregone conclusions, and emanating from the supposedly bastion of anti-Israeli attitudes at the UN’s Human Rights Council. This line of response to any criticism of Israel’s behavior in occupied Palestine, especially if it comes from the UN or human rights NGOs is to cry “foul play!” and avoid any real look at the substance of the charges. It is an example of what I call ‘the politics of deflection,’ attempting to shift the attention of an audience away from the message to the messenger. The more damning the criticism, the more ferocious the response. From this perspective, the Goldstone Report obviously hit the bullseye!

Considered more carefully, there are some good reasons for Israel’s panicked reaction to this damning report. First, it does come with the backing of an eminent international personality who cannot credibly be accused of anti-Israel bias, making it harder to deflect attention from the findings no matter how loud the screaming of ‘foul play.’ Any fair reading of the report would show that it was balanced, was eminently mindful of Israel’s arguments relating to security, and indeed gave Israel the benefit of the doubt on some key issues.

Secondly, the unsurprising findings are coupled with strong recommendations that do go well beyond previous reports. Two are likely causing the Israeli leadership great worry: the report recommends strongly that if Israel and Hamas do not themselves within six months engage in an investigation and followup action meeting international standards of objectivity with respect to these violations of the law of war, then the Security Council should be brought into the picture, being encouraged to consider referring the whole issue of Israeli and Hamas accountability to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Even if Israel is spared this indignity by the diplomatic muscle of the United States, and possibly some European governments, the negative public relations implications of a failure to abide by this report could be severe.

Thirdly, whatever happens in the UN System, and at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the weight of the report will be felt by world public opinion. Ever since the Gaza War the solidity of Jewish support for Israel has been fraying at the edges, and this will likely now fray much further. More globally, a very robust boycott and divestment movement was gaining momentum ever since the Gaza War, and the Goldstone Report can only lend added support to such initiatives. There is a growing sense around the world that the only chance for the Palestinians to achieve some kind of just peace depends on the outcome over the symbols of legitimacy, what I have called the Legitimacy War. Increasingly, the Palestinians have been winning this second non-military war. Such a war fought on a global political battlefield is what eventually and unexpectedly undermined the apartheid regime in South Africa, and has become much more threatening to the Israeli sense of security than has armed Palestinian resistance.

A fourth reason for Israeli worry stemming from the report, is the green light given to national courts throughout the world to enforce international criminal law against Israelis suspects should they travel abroad and be detained for prosecution or extradition in some third country. Such individuals could be charged with war crimes arising from their involvement in the Gaza War. The report in this way encourages somewhat controversial reliance on what is known among lawyers as ‘universal jurisdiction,’ that is, the authority of courts in any country to detain for extradition or to prosecute individuals for violations of international criminal law regardless of where the alleged offenses took place.

Reaction in the Israeli media reveals that Israeli citizens are already anxious about being apprehended during foreign travel. As one law commentator put it in the Israeli press, “From now on, not only soldiers should be careful when they travel abroad, but also ministers and legal advisers.” It is well to recall that Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions calls on states throughout the world “to respect and ensure respect” for international humanitarian law “in all circumstances.” Remembering the efforts in 1998 of several European courts to prosecute Augusto Pinochet for crimes committed while he was head of state in Chile, is a reminder that national courts can be used to prosecute political and military leaders for crimes committed elsewhere than in the territory of the prosecuting state.

Of course, Israel will fight back. It has already launched a media and diplomatic blitz designed to portray the report as so one-sided as to be unworthy of serious attention. The United States Government has already disappointingly appeared to endorse this view, and repudiate the central recommendation in the Goldstone Report that the Security Council be assigned the task of implementing its findings. The American Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, evidently told a closed session of the Security Council on September 16, just a day after the report was issued, that “[w]e have serious concerns about many recommendations in the report.” Elaborating on this, Ambassador Rice indicated that the UN Human Rights Council, which has no implementing authority, is the only proper venue for any action to be taken on the basis of the report. The initial struggle will likely be whether to follow the recommendation of the report to have the Security Council refer the issues of accountability to the International Criminal Court, which could be blocked by a veto from the United States or other permanent members.

There are reasons to applaud the forthrightness and comprehensiveness of the report, its care, and scrupulous willingness to conclude that both Israel and Hamas seem responsible for behavior that appears to constitute war crimes, if not crimes against humanity. Although Israel has succeeded in having the issue of one-sidedness focus on fairness to Israel, there are also some reasons to insist that the report falls short of Palestinian hopes.

For one thing, the report takes for granted, the dubious proposition that Israel was entitled to act against Gaza in self-defense, thereby excluding inquiry into whether crimes against the peace in the form of aggression had taken place by the launching of the attack. In this respect, the report takes no notice of the temporary ceasefire that had cut the rocket fire directed at Israel practically to zero in the months preceding the attacks, nor of Hamas’ repeated efforts to extend the ceasefire indefinitely provided Israel lifted its unlawful blockade of Gaza.

Further it was Israel that had seemed to provoke the breakdown of the ceasefire when it launched a lethal attack on Hamas militants in Gaza on November 4, 2008. Israel disregarded this seemingly available diplomatic alternative to war to achieve security on its borders. Recourse to war, even if the facts justify self-defense, is according to international law, a last resort. By ignoring Israel’s initiation of a one-sided war the Goldstone Report accepts the dubious central premise of Operation Cast Lead, and avoids making a finding of aggression.

and here is sherine tadros’ al jazeera report from gaza about the findings in which she asks the most important question of all: what happens next?:

indeed what to do next? well it is quite the no brainer that the war criminals responsible for this latest savagery from the zionist entity should be tried for war crimes. in an article in ha’aretz the context of goldstone’s report–and his own frame of reference in relation to his judicial philosophy comes from war crimes tribunals from world war ii:

Judge Richard Goldstone, the head of a United Nations commission that this week charged Israel with committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip during its offensive there last winter, believes bringing war criminals to justice stems from the lessons of the Holocaust, according to a lecture he delivered in Israel in 2000.

Goldstone spoke about the subject at Jerusalem’s Yakar: Center for Tradition and Creativity, at a lecture attended by former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak. The Israeli jurist introduced Goldstone as “a dear friend” with “very deep ties to Israel.” Goldstone, in turn, said Barak was his hero and inspiration.

In the lecture, concerning international efforts to bring war criminals to justice, Goldstone said the Holocaust has shaped legal protocol on war, adding that it was “the worst war crime in the world.”

He also said the perception of war crimes against humanity should resonate differently to Jewish ears, in light of how the Holocaust shaped conventions relevant to the subject.

Goldstone added that as a jurist, he viewed the Holocaust as a unique occurrence because of how it affected judicial protocol on war, as well as international and humanitarian judicial approaches.

The laws that had been in place before the Holocaust were not equipped to deal with crimes of the Holocaust’s scale and therefore sought to define a new crime, which they labeled a crime against humanity, he said.

These crimes were so great, he explained, they went beyond their direct victims or the countries in which they were perpetrated, to harm humanity as a whole. This definition, he said, meant that perpetrators were to be prosecuted anywhere, by any country.

This rational, he went on to say, constituted the basis for the concept of universal jurisdiction, which is being applied by some countries where Israel Defense Forces officers are charged for alleged violations during their command in the West Bank and Gaza.

The formative event of the universal jurisdiction concept, Goldstone told listeners, was the trial that Israel gave the high-ranking Nazi officer Adolf Eichman in 1961.

The international tribunals that judged Serbian war criminals for their actions in Bosnia, and the establishment of tribunals to review the actions of perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide – in which South Africa-born Goldstone served as chief prosecutor – also relied on lessons drawn from the Holocaust, he said at the lecture.

He noted that no similar courts were set up to look into the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia in the ’70s or Saddam Hussein’s acts against Iraqi Kurds.

The first time such tribunals were set up were for Bosnia, Goldtone said, because this was the first time after the Holocaust that such occurrences happened in “Europe’s backyard.” The war in Bosnia led to the formation of tribunals on crimes against humanity, he said, because European men with “blue eyes and light skin” again carried out actions similar to those observed in the Holocaust.

Israel, he added, was one of the first countries to support the formation of permanent court of law for crimes against humanity – a proposal that came up following the successful performance of the special tribunals on Bosnia.

However, that changed, he said, after Egypt insisted at the Rome conference that the mandate of this permanent court include occupied territories. This prompted Israel to join the six other countries that voted against the formation of the International Court of Justice, including the United States, China and Libya.

of course the united states’ response was typical in spite of all that is said about goldstone and his allegiances to the zionist entity and the lessons of the nazi holocaust listed above:

After several days of reticence, the Obama administration said Friday that a United Nations report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza was unfair to Israel and did not take adequate account of “deplorable” actions by the militant group Hamas in the conflict last winter.

The report, issued by a commission led by a South African judge, Richard Goldstone, said Israel had used disproportionate force in Gaza, resulting in the death of about 1,400 civilians.

It also described the firing of rockets by Hamas at Israeli towns and villages as a war crime.

The Israeli government quickly rejected the findings of the report. But the United States waited several days before speaking out.

“Although the report addresses all sides of the conflict, its overwhelming focus is on the actions of Israel,” a State Department spokesman, Ian C. Kelly, said.

could this be because zionist thomas friedman now has obama’s ear? regardless, the reaction to this report should not only be war crimes tribunals, but also sanctions. if only there would be a credible leader in power somewhere on this planet to lead the way on this…

here are two inspiring rap songs showing solidarity with palestinians and against colonialism, imperialism and military occupation more generally. the first comes from the palestine education project and the second from rebel diaz:

also check out this interview between minister of information jr and mutulu olugbala, otherwise known to the world as m1 of dead prez in the san francisco bay view news:

M1: See, we going in backwards order. I was in Cairo before we went to Scandinavia, so I want to correct you on that. But we will go straight there in this conversation. What happened before we went on our last trip to Scandinavia, I took a trip into the so-called Middle East, which actually was a term that was created: “the Middle East.” It wasn’t real at all.

M.O.I. JR: What’s the original name, or what is some of the indigenous names for that area? Africa, right?

M1: Yeah, it’s Africa. That’s Northern Africa. Right now, today, they would say that Egypt is Arab. And if anything, it is Arab colonized, of course. But it is definitely Africa. Even that area just above it, where we are talking about, the Middle East, which was basically named that by Henry Kissinger. He gave “the Middle East” the name “the Middle East.” So I was basically in that area.

I started out in Cairo to meet up with an organization called “Existence is Resistance” with Sister Nancy, Fatima and Brotha Aamon. They were hooked up underneath this caravan that was led by a man named George Galloway. What we ended up doing was trying to mount some form of resistance to the Israeli brand of imperialism that was putting a chokehold onto Gaza. So what I ended up doing was joining this caravan, which was making its second attempt to go from Cairo into Gaza, and penetrate the border and stop the siege against the Palestinian people.

So I was informed about this mission by a group of Palestinian organizers, activists and revolutionaries inside the U.S. Like I said, some of the names like Nancy Mansour, Shadia Mansour and other cultural artists who had performed and raised money to support the end of the oppression of the imperialist siege that was happening against the people of the Gaza Strip.

So after doing this work with other cultural artists like Rebel Diaz and Immortal Technique, I was invited to go and take a trip and help to bring some of those resources that had been amassed through donations and whatever people were able to give. I was asked to go and be a part of a caravan that would deliver it. So that is how I ended up in Cairo which became a huge…I mean I journaled it.

Anybody who wants to know where to get it, go to dead prez.com and there’s some other sites like Globalgrind.com (blockreportradio.com and sfbayview.com) that carried the blog or report that I had written, and I had even done some reports back with some of my colleagues in New York who were on the trip with me, like Councilman Charles Barron, a former Black Panther, political leader, activist on the New York City scene, representative of East New York, who was also on the trip as well and, like everybody knows, Cynthia McKinney, who has been developing a relationship to expose the Israeli genocide, which is really what it is, against Palestinian people. And as a courageous fighter in these times, and I am so impressed and so motivated by her spirit in that time too. So those are some of the people that I have been able to report back about. I’m going to continue to report, like we are reporting now, and I could go on, man.

M.O.I. JR: It’s not too many Black people that have made it from the United States, I should say from our Movement, and that are representatives of our Movement that have went to Gaza and spoke on it. Can you speak a little bit about what did you see?

M1: From the border, from Rafa, I was able to see the Israeli controlled Egyptian police who enforced the embargo against Gaza. I saw them form a chain link fence around the border itself, just so that the people who were on the outside of the border who belong inside Palestine, who were the brothers and sisters and daughters, mothers and fathers of people who were in there that had been trapped since the siege locked down the borders, who haven’t been able to get into their homes for months.

They were outside banging on the gates as our bus drove in, and the police formed a chain linked fence to stop them from entering with us as we were entering the immigration zone. As we were able to break through immigration, there were 200 people who were a part of this caravan, the caravan that would bring the resources that was led by Parliament member George Galloway in England, who, like I said previously, led one mission like this one previous to the one I was on, in which 20 or so people had broken through the border to help with some relief as well.

So my first look onto Gaza was welcoming faces, happy faces, joy, jubilant people who knew we were there and had been waiting for days, and who wouldn’t give up hope, just the way we wouldn’t give up hope that we could break through the border and be able to break bread and have a meeting with our comrades on the other side.

So as soon as we got in, I saw of course families reuniting, but I was also able to see the government in action, the government of Hamas was present. I was able to see how those forces are, in leadership. And how that happened, and how our buses were led to the hotel which is the place where we would sit down for the 24 hours that we were allowed to be in there.

As the next day opened, I was able to see a lot of the Israeli destruction from the F-16 Expander Missiles and bombs full of depleted uranium that they drop on the people, that will obviously have long term effects on the Gaza community. I was able to see bombed masjids, or mosques. I was able to see bombed out school buildings, elementary school buildings and government offices.

We were able to be brought into a world of a direct threat from imperialist American-made missiles. It was saddening. It was terrifying. It reminded me much of the communities that we live in – dilapidated Brownsville and the forgotten nooks and crannies in South Central Los Angeles or in Ohio, in Cleveland, or in Kensington in Philadelphia. It felt like the same oppression with the more ever-nearing threat of a bomb exploding in the name of imperialism right in front of your eyes.

The walls were tattooed or muraled with graffiti, with Arafat insignias. You know the support from other organizations, not only Hamas, who was the leadership there, but Fatah who is also the Palestinian representative of the West Bank and other parts of Palestine, who also want to see a freedom for the Palestinian people.

Even people who had been bombed out of their homes, I still saw hope in their eyes. I saw beautiful people. I saw beautiful architecture or what once was architecture, a great coastline with beautiful beaches where even though they had been living in war torn, bombed out areas for the last months of their life with no income or outgoing supplies like gas and food and clothes and the basic needs which we were attempting to bring, they were still able to be resilient.

So that’s some of what I was able to see in Gaza. Like I said, it was because of the pressure of the Egyptian government and Israel in collusion, we were only granted 24 hours to be inside that border and to do the work that we had done, which was to bring the numerous wheelchairs and buckets and school supplies or whatever we could bring with our hands across the border to assist some people who are under the same attack and have the same enemy that I have.

Don’t miss M1’s “24 hours in Gaza.” And get ready for his historic speaking tour Sept. 23-29, “From the Ghetto to Gaza” – seven events in seven days in East and West Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Sonoma, San Jose and Santa Cruz to benefit BlockReportRadio.com and SFBayView.com. Contact Minister of Information JR at blockreportradio[at]gmail.com or the SF Bay View at (415) 671-0789 for more information. Learn more about M-1 and dead prez and their latest album, “Pulse of the People,” at www.deadprez.com and www.myspace.com/m1rbg.

i like fasting for ramadan. in fact, i like fasting in general. i used to fast a couple of times a year for an entire week (though not without water and tea) to detox. and in either case the fact of being hungry, of being conscious of what your body feels and that your stomach is empty, i have always found to be a tremendously useful thing for so many reasons. it makes people realize how much they constantly over-consume, eating when they are not even hungry, because they are bored, etc. it also makes you realize what many people experience as a fact of life: not having enough to eat, of being hungry because there is no more food. in the best cases people use this time to reflect and to do something to help those less fortunate. i keep reading about and seeing news reports of the desperate situation in gaza (and, of course, this is true in so much of the world) during ramadan. and it disturbs me when i see jordanians running around, partying, shopping, enjoying the globized excesses of capitalism while others are suffering. i wonder how many of these rich people are actually doing something to help others. i wonder how many of these people are sharing their 20 different dishes that the stuff themselves with at iftar to others who are less fortunate (including their maids who are doing all the cooking and cleaning in the first place, often while fasting, too). and i do not just mean now because it’s ramadan (as americans do one day a year on thanksgiving). i mean all the time. every day.

so here is some food for thought for those of you who stuff yourselves and shop til you drop as if that is the spirit of ramadan…ayman mohyeldin reported on al jazeera about the difficult situation during ramadan for palestinians in gaza:

and here is an article from ma’an news about being a perpetual refugee–from palestine to iraq to palestine again:

is a Palestinian who fled Iraq to the Gaza Strip in 2008; he has one daughter living in Jordan with her husband while the rest remain in Iraq.

While staring at his family’s photo, Barhoum told Ma’an how worried he was about them.

Barhoum was a major in the Palestinian Liberation Army in Iraq. He was compelled to leave Iraq after being threatened several times by militiamen who gave him two choices; leaving Iraq, or being killed. He said armed gunmen with the militias would open fire at his home from all directions on a nightly basis to help him make his choice.

According to Barhoum, the only grudge the armed groups bore him was his affiliation to the Arab Liberation Front, and that he belonged to the Sunni sect.

While in Iraq, Barhoum and his family lived in the Ad-Doura neighborhood, which was home to a mix of religious, sects and nationalities including Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Kurds, Turks, Palestinians, and Syrians. After the US invasion of Iraq, everything changed, he said. The Shiite neighbors’ children, who Barhoum said he practically raised himself and who used to call him “uncle Abu Ali”, began to threaten to kill him if he didn’t leave the country. When at one time the neighborhood showed him respect for the time he spent in Israeli jails, following the war he said there was no more goodwill.

Now Barhoum only wants to bring his wife and children into Gaza with him. “But, there is no way to do that as they don’t have Palestinian IDs,” he lamented.

“When I was compelled to flee Iraq, I was also listed as wanted by the Syrians, and banned from entering Egypt. I managed to flee and stay in the Sinai Peninsula for more than a year until I was able to sneak into the Gaza Strip through a smuggling tunnel in Rafah, the city where I was born. I came back to the same room UNRWA gave my family in 1967; there were only a few changes made by brother while I was abroad.”

Barhoum told his story this week in Gaza when the Iraqi-Palestinian Brotherhood Society organized a Ramadan dinner for families forced to leave Iraq after the US invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein and his government. The dinner was held at the Gaza City beach, and Barhoum was joined by dozens of others, mostly men, forced to flee yet another country where they sought refuge.

and from ma’an on the lack of school supplies in gaza:

School started fifteen days ago in Gaza but schoolchildren remain without books or pencils, as high prices prevent most parents from purchasing necessary goods.

The only stationary in Gaza comes from the Rafah-area smuggling tunnels, and the cost of smuggling keeps prices too high for average families. Israeli crossings authorities have refused to allow paper and pencils into the Strip.

A request for supplies for school and special foodstuffs for Ramadan were denied by Israeli authorities. Shop owners say truckloads of the goods are stranded in warehouses in Israel.

The Israeli army earlier agreed to allow 100-180 truckloads of stationary and school supplies into Gaza two weeks before the beginning of the school year, but no action was taken on the promise, and supplies continue to sit in warehouses.

Gaza’s chamber of commerce head Gaza Maher At-Taba apologized to residents for the high prices. He said the law of supply and demand was the sole factor in the exorbitant prices of school books, and said once Israel allows more supplies in the prices should go down.

Merchants are forced to pay for the costs of storing goods in warehouses when Israeli officials refuse their entry into the Strip. This cost will also be reflected in the goods when and if they do enter the area.

Traders remain skeptical over whether the supplies will ever be let in.

The de facto ministry of education appealed urgently to the United Nations and International organizations, asking that they pressure Israel to allow stationary into Gaza.

or eva bartlett’s article in electronic intifada about zionist terrorist colonists targeting farmers and fishermen in gaza:

On 4 September, 14-year-old Ghazi al-Zaneen from Beit Hanoun was killed when an Israeli soldier shot him in the head. Along with his father, uncles and some of his siblings, the youth had gone to collect figs on their land east of Beit Hanoun. Although it is near the border with Israel, the farmland where al-Zaneen was killed is still more than 500 meters away.

“They had driven to the land and were walking in the area. Ghazi got up on the rubble of a house to look further. Then the Israelis started shooting heavily. Everyone lay on the ground. When the shooting stopped, they got up to run away and realized that Ghazi had been shot in the head,” said his aunt.

Maher al-Zaneen, Ghazi’s father, testified to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights that Israeli soldiers continued to fire as he carried the injured boy to the car. Ghazi al-Zaneen succumbed to his critical head injuries the following day.

The day after his death, Ghazi’s mother sat surrounded by female relatives and friends. She asked, “How would mothers in your country feel if their sons were killed like this? Don’t your politicians care that Israel is killing our children?”

Israeli authorities reportedly claimed that “suspicious Palestinians approached the fence” and troops responded by “firing into the air.” But the shot to Ghazi al-Zaneen’s head and the two bullet holes in Maher al-Zaneen’s car suggest otherwise.

Since the end of Israel’s three-week winter invasion of Gaza during which approximately 1,500 Palestinians were killed, nine more Palestinian civilians have been killed at sea or on the strip’s border regions. This includes four minors and one mentally disabled adult. Another 30 Palestinians, including eight minors, have been wounded by Israeli shooting and shelling, including by the use of “flechette” dart-bombs on civilian areas.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, roughly one third of Gaza’s agricultural land lies within the Israel’s unilaterally-imposed “no go zone,” or “buffer zone.” This band of land stretching south to north along Gaza’s borders to Israel was established in late 2000 during the second Palestinian intifada. Initially set at 150 meters, it has varied over time. At one point, it was nearly two kilometers in the north and one kilometer in the east. At present, Israeli authorities say 300 meters along the border are “off limits” and those found within the area risk being shot at by Israeli soldiers.

or bartlett’s other recent electronic intifada piece about zionist terrorist colonists holding goods at the border in order to deprive palestinians:

Abu Abed can’t make a profit, and although 54 years old, he still has not married. “I can’t pay my rent, I can’t afford a wedding.”

His shop, roughly 3 meters by 4 meters, costs him more than $3,500 a year in rent alone.

His wares are laid out on tables on a busy pedestrian street in the Saha market area in Gaza City. The goods, plastic toys and running shoes imported from China, were brought in via the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, at a high price.

One large bag of grain filled with the cheaply made toys cost $30 to purchase, but the tunnel trip added another $70 to Abu Abed’s expenditures. “I can make maybe $20 when I sell these toys, but that will take two or three months.”

Now that the month of Ramadan is under way, festive decorations and toys are among his stock. Yet with unemployment in Gaza hovering near 50 percent, and searing poverty at 80 percent, few can afford the luxury of such items, at now grossly inflated prices.

“That toy is 20 shekels,” Abed says pointing to a plastic toy. “It should only cost maybe five or six shekels. People don’t want to buy it.” But if Abu Abed wants to break even, he cannot sell the toy for less than 20 shekels.

For Ghazi Attab, a fruit vendor in Saha market, regular crossing procedures couldn’t come quickly enough. He estimates that 30 percent of his produce is spoiled due to long hours in the sun waiting for Israeli clearance to enter Gaza.

“The Israelis don’t allow the fruit to enter Gaza right away. It sits at the crossings for five or six hours under the sun,” he said, pointing to a box of rotted mangos.

Hazem, father of four, has a store in a different region of Saha. The shelves are stocked with shampoo, hair and skin creams, cosmetics, toothpaste, cleaning products and other everyday items. All of his stock was brought through the tunnels, at a high price.

Before the Israeli siege on Gaza, Hazem used to import goods via Israeli crossings.

or the way in which the siege is affecting palestinian education as indicated in this irin report:

Some 1,200 students at al-Karmel High School for boys in Gaza City returned to class on 25 August without history and English textbooks, or notebooks and pens — all unavailable on the local market.

Severe damage to the school, caused during the 23-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which ended on 18 January, has yet to be repaired. Al-Karmel’s principal, Majed Yasin, has had to cover scores of broken windows with plastic sheeting.

“The entire west side of the school was damaged adjacent to Abbas police station which was targeted on 27 December,” said Yasin. “We have yet to repair the $65,000-worth of damage, since glass and other building materials are still unavailable.”

Educational institutions across Gaza are still reeling from the effects of the Israeli offensive, compounded by the more than two-year-long Israeli blockade (tightened after Hamas seized power in June 2007), according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

At least 280 schools out of 641 in Gaza were damaged and 18 destroyed during the military operation. None have been rebuilt or repaired to date due to continued restrictions on the entry of construction materials, OCHA reported.

At the start of the new school year, all 387 government-run primary and secondary schools serving 240,000 students — and 33 private sector schools serving 17,000 students — lack essential education materials, according to the education ministry in Gaza.

“The war had, and continues to have, a severely negative impact on the entire education system,” Yousef Ibrahim, deputy education minister in Gaza, said. “About 15,000 students from government schools have been transferred to other schools for second shifts, significantly shortening class time.”

He said the damaged schools lacked toilets and water and electricity networks; their classrooms were overcrowded, and they also suffered from shortages of basic items such as desks, doors, chairs and ink for printing.

or finally, as people go shopping for eid, maybe they can think about the struggle to get new shoes in gaza as this anera video documents:

sa7tein

Germany is assisting with a deal on I$raeli soldier Shalit being held by the Palestinian national liberation organization Hamas, but there is no breakthrough in the negotiations.(1)

On the other hand, Egypt announced today it is letting limited Ramadan traffic through Rafah to undertake the Muslim holidays in Mecca.(2)

Gordon Brown expresses optimism on Mideast peace.(3) However, diplomatic optimism has been ongoing since at least 1991 and the issues of Iraq occupation, occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem etc. are all still the same. The travel of the Elders diplomatic group to I$rael has not brought any deal.(4)

Back in the real world, I$raeli troops on the border of Gaza shot one Palestinian dead and wounded another Monday and then wounded another one Tuesday.(5) MIM fails to see why there are U.S. visas for Netanyahu and Barak while I$raeli troops can just go up to the border of Gaza and start firing.

I’m making self-criticism for not paying close enough attention to Mideast news. I’m just another lazy Amerikan.

Notes:
1. http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLP255227
2. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221544
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/25/barack-obama-middle-east-peace
4. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0825/p06s12-wome.html
5. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221581 ;
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221304

a few weeks ago there was a very important post on kabobfest entitled “stop saying free gaza.” it began like this:

Gaza is not a different country than Palestine; its plight is not isolated from that of the West Bank, Palestinian-Israelis, or Palestinian refugees in the Diaspora. So stop changing your banners and placards from “Free Palestine” and “End Apartheid” to “Free Gaza.”

Palestinians and their supporters alike have fallen in a simple trap set in the sideshow of Israel’s Attack on Gaza earlier this year. Israel has consistently tried to separate segments of the Palestinian society and find ways to foster distrust among them.

you should read the whole post, but it ended like this:

So, next time you carry a “Free Gaza” sign, think. Are you taking the side of one of the segments Israel forced? Has the rest of Palestine been freed? How much of the story are new solidarity recruits learning from you pushing this new branding campaign? What are you going to do next time Israel commits a massacre in different city? Are you going to print new placards? What if the city name is hard to pronounce?

Talk about Gaza as only the latest example of Israel’s atrocities, not as if it’s a separate conflict. Soon it will be a year (seemingly eternity) without Israel attacking Gaza, the border with Egypt get’s opened and food flows, What will be your slogan for the cause du jour?

Unless we keep our eyes on Israel’s apartheid, Israel’s racism, and colonialism, we will not be able to drive a successful strategy. Israel will keep playing and toying with us with its distraction tactics, and we will happily follow without realizing the impact our emotional and myopic acts have on the larger picture.

i think it is important not to separate gaza from any other part of the struggle to free palestine. the struggle is the same. it is anti-colonial. it is about refugees and their right of return. period. but the struggle in gaza looks different to the outside world. and so they carry the banner of free gaza. this is why palestinians got together and released a statement critiquing norman finkelstein’s march on gaza, the thrust of which is as follows:

1- The statement fails to give any political context to this abstract siege, avoiding to even condemn Israel’s military occupation! The siege is not just about suffering and humanitarian needs. It is about occupation and denial of Palestinians refugees in Gaza , as well as everywhere else, their fundamental right to return. That is also illegal. 80 per cent of Gazans are refugees who were ethnically cleansed in 1948.

2) We feel that the statement ostensibly addresses internationals and urges them to perform this non-violent act in solidarity with Palestinians under siege in Gaza, but it also lectures us, indirectly, about non-violence. Obviously, no Palestinians have been involved in writing it!

3) Everyone who wants to breach the Erez checkpoint from the Gaza side, as this purports to do, must first enter Gaza ! And how do they plan to do that? Egypt , the most important local collaborator with the siege will have none of that.

4) The statement ignores THE most effective non-violent means of resistance to date: BDS! This intentional omission and focus on Gandhi non-violence as a “new” form of resistance that must be taught to us smacks of naiveté and presumptuous colonial pompousness. Forms of resistance are not mutually exclusive. The writers of the statement could have supported the growing BDS campaign in parallel to endorsing this idea of a non-violent march.

5) Such a march must be first explicitly led by the Palestinians in Gaza, as represented by political forces and other civil society organs, and second explicitly advocated by Palestinians. Before organizing international brigades of Gandhian activists to come to Gaza to march “alongside the people of Gaza,” how about asking us Palestinians in Gaza what we want!

6) Palestinians in Gaza as referred to twice as “the people of Gaza,” further entrenching the Israeli division of the Palestinians into THE Palestinians, meaning those in the West Bank, Israeli Arabs, some abstract refugees, and “the people of Gaza .” Jerusalemites are, of course, Israelis with some special problems! The people in Gaza are only indirectly referred to as part of the Palestinian people. Again, no people, no right to self determination. Only a humanitarian issue.

We, therefore, will endorse the statement only if these serious concerns are taken into consideration.

Signed by:

The One Democratic State Group

Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel

Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Information

Friends for the Visually Impaired

Al-Aqsa University-Academic Cooperation Dept.

while gaza is not separate from the rest of palestine nor is its struggle for justice different, it is important to understand the different context in which colonization and ethnic cleansing occur in gaza. here is a recent video from journalist jordan flaherty and lily keber that gives some idea to the ongoing siege there:

because it has now been three years since the zionist entity’s siege on gaza began, the united nations ocha office recently released a report documenting how this extreme form of ethnic cleansing is affecting palestinians in gaza. a summary of the report reads in part (and full summary can be read here):

Following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Israel has imposed an unprecedented blockade on all border crossings in and out of the Gaza Strip. The blockade has ‘locked in’ 1.5 million people in what is one of the most densely populated areas on earth, triggering a protracted human dignity crisis with negative humanitarian consequences. At the heart of this crisis is the degradation in the living conditions of the population, caused by the erosion of livelihoods and the gradual decline in the state of infrastructure, and the quality of vital services in the areas of health, water and sanitation, and education.

The blockade, now in its third year, has taken place alongside recurrent cycles of violence and human rights violations, stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Hamas’s rule over Gaza. The denial of Palestinians’ right to leave Gaza, or to move freely to the West Bank, particularly when their lives, physical integrity, or basic freedoms are under threat, is another key component of the current human dignity crisis. This denial had a devastating impact during Israel’s “Cast Lead” military offensive, launched on 27 December 2008, contributing to the significant loss of civilian life and the large number of seriously injured and traumatized people as a result.

The three week-long Israeli offensive also involved the widespread destruction of homes, infrastructure and productive assets. The ongoing restrictions on the movement of people and goods to and from Gaza through the crossings has limited the ability of all relevant actors to address the immense needs and challenges that emerged as a result of the most recent military offensive.

Over the past three months, Israel has allowed entry into Gaza of a small number of truckloads carrying goods previously prevented from entering, including limited construction, water, sanitation and education materials. While these are welcome steps, their actual impact when compared to the current level of needs in Gaza remains negligible.

This blockade has been characterized by the UN’s most senior humanitarian official, John Holmes, as a form of collective punishment on the entire Gazan population. The UN, the ICRC, many states and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly urged the Government of Israel to remove the restrictions on Gaza’s borders; to allow free access to agricultural areas within Gaza, and to allow unrestricted fishing in Gaza’s territorial waters. These are the urgent first steps needed to start the reconstruction of homes and infrastructure, the revival of the economy and the restoration of human dignity in Gaza.

and it has been just over six months since the intensity of the zionist savagery ended, and yet, of course, the zionists controlling the prison that is gaza have made it impossible to remove rubble and to rebuild, as sherine tadros reported on al jazeera a couple of weeks ago:

a story from irin news this week illustrates just one of the many palestinian casualties of this siege:

Arafat Hamdona, 20, has been confined to the cancer unit of As-Shifa, Gaza’s primary hospital, since he was diagnosed with maxillary skin tumours in June 2008. Red lesions protrude from his face, his features are distorted and his eyes swollen shut.

In April, Arafat was permitted to travel to Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem where he received three series of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment. He was scheduled to return for further treatment, but has not been granted permission by the Israeli authorities to leave Gaza.

“He is only given pain killers,” said Arafat’s father, Faraj Hamdona, explaining that that is all As-Shifa has to offer.

According to a July 2009 report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Jerusalem, Gaza doctors and nurses do not have the medical equipment to respond to the health needs of the 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip.

Medical equipment is often broken, lacking spare parts, or outdated.

WHO attributes the dismal state of Gaza’s healthcare system to the Israeli blockade of the territory, tightened in June 2007 after Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the West, seized control. The poor organization of maintenance services in Gaza compounds the problem, reports WHO.

and the medical issues are compounded by the problems related to the imposed malnutrition according to a recent electronic intifada article by eva bartlett:

According to the UN and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the trickle of goods entering Gaza now is just a quarter of that prior to the siege, the majority of which is limited to basic food aid items. The aid-dependent families have moved from a balanced diet to one consisting mainly of sugar and carbohydrates, lacking in vitamins and proteins.

The World Health Organization (WHO) cites an increase in growth-stunting malnourishment, now at over 10 percent of children, attributed to a chronic lack of protein, iron, and essential vitamins. The WHO further warns of increasing anemia rates: 65 percent among children below 12 months of age, and 35 percent among pregnant women.

The United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and Gaza’s Ard al-Insan center for nutrition, among various bodies, note the link between malnutrition and a deficiency of protein and vegetables in the diet.

An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) June 2009 report notes that the effects of a restricted diet also include “difficulty in fighting off infections, fatigue and a reduced capacity to learn.” The ICRC warns of the long-term ramifications on Gaza’s malnourished children.

while the zionist entity and its american collaborators are chiefly responsible for this siege, the regime in egypt is also responsible for collective punishment of palestinians. kabobfest had another important post on the ways in which egypt profits from the siege on gaza:

As The president of Egypt tours the States talking about many issues including the Palestinian question. And I’m getting into my second month of my visit to Gaza and cannot deny the sad effects of the siege on Gaza. Most aspects of life in Gaza have been negatively affected by this unfair siege. The price of food especially, vegetables and fruits have now surpassed prices in the United States, same thing for clothing, shoes and electronics. While the cost of living in Gaza soared due to the sanction and limitations on the movement of goods, wages and salaries are nowhere near the States. Yes, there are tunnels in Gaza, and they smuggle all sort of things through these tunnels. Items as large as fridges and as small as birthday candles flow through the tunnels to Gaza. But those tunnels only can bring so much and smuggling isn’t the cheapest way to supply a market. Thirty to Forty dollars is the charge to smuggle a bag of goods. While the people of Gaza struggle, the two Palestinian governments watch from the sidelines but claim to be there for the people. The guys in Ramallah help their people in Gaza and the guys in Gaza take care of their own, while the common man is left with nothing. In the meantime the Arab and Muslim nations stand by the people of Gaza but have done little to break the siege. This post does not come easy, in fact this subject I hope to be wrong on. Egyptians have led the fight to break the siege on Gaza but from where I stand the blockade is helping the Egyptian government on so many levels, here is how:

Economically: Goods in Gaza mainly come from Egypt and since Palestinians do not have many choices because the Israelis allow only humanitarian goods into the Strip (flour, sugar, milk, rice…etc.). That leaves plenty of needed material that has a market in Gaza. Items like fans, shirts, razors, shampoo, appliances, certain medications, cookies, potato chips, pencils and school bags, chairs, kitchen ware…etc. In the past these goods used to be imported from various countries such as China and India. Thanks to the embargo, Egypt now is the main supplier of these goods; Egyptian factories are now earning plenty of cash as they provide the needed goods. Egyptian businesses are also making a profit by playing the broker role between the Palestinian buyers and the international vendors. There are those who move the goods to Rafah and those who push it through the tunnels to the Palestinian on the other end. Did I also mention that all those transactions are paid in cash?

It’s Good for Business: If a Palestinian wants to leave Gaza the can be smuggles through a tunnel for the bargain price of two to three hundred dollars. But there is another way. A two thousand dollar pay off to an Egyptian General through his Palestinian front man and you’re on VIP list to get through the gate at the Rafah crossing; even if the crossing point is closed, one will be allowed into the land of milk and honey. This travel clearance even overrides a Hamas veto because they cannot risk angering the Egyptians. I guess this is sort of like the American service offered in select airport for busy travelers where they can skip long security lines by using the express lane for a fee. This is funny because when a Palestinians pointed out this corruption to an Egyptian official, the official suggested he too take advantage of it. Politically, the mess in Gaze serves as a model for not choosing the Islamist oriented policies. For sometime Egypt has tried to convince its people that Islamists are bad for business and bad for regional stability. But most of those arguments fell flat until the Hamas takeover in Gaza in June 2007. Obviously many parties have an interest in seeing Hamas fail to make the point “We might be bad, but they are worse”. Also by playing the broker between the Palestinaina Authority on the West Bank, Hamas in Gaza and Israel, Egypt gains regional credit for their active role in promoting “peace” and Arab unity.

and here is one of the many ways in which egypt’s complicity bears responsibility for palestinians in gaza who are forced to use tunnels to bring in much needed goods for their survival. ayman mohyeldin’s report on al jaeera highlights this complicity and the problem of the zionist-egyptian siege:

although there has not yet been enough significant international outcry over the complicity of egypt and the u.s. with respect to war crimes committed in gaza, there has been ongoing and persistent writing and reporting on the zionist entity’s role in those war crimes, the most recent of which is human rights watch’s report documenting how zionist terrorist colonist soldiers murdered palestinians carrying white flags. the report is important, because it is yet another piece of evidence, but at the same time it is problematic given the 1,400 murders the zionist entity committed in gaza. what is a bit more promising is the news that in zionist colonists who also hold south african citizenship are going to be prosecuted for committing war crimes in gaza:

Two South African organizations have called for 70 South Africans to be prosecuted for involvement in war crimes allegedly committed by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December and January.

The Palestinian Solidarity Alliance and the Media Review Network are also urging the immediate arrest of IDF Lt.-Col. David Benjamin, who is in South Africa attending the Limmud-SA educational conference this week.

The two NGOs are listed as complainants in an affidavit, called the Gaza Docket, which was handed last week to the South African National Prosecuting Authority and the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigation.

It is supported by approximately 3,500 pages of evidence, including some submitted by Human Rights Watch on the “brutal military onslaught on Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force.”

Some 70 South Africans are listed in the affidavit for prosecution as they had served in the Israeli army. Their names are withheld due to the fact that they are suspects. It is unclear if these people served in the IDF during Cast Lead and whether they retain their South African citizenship.

such reports and developments are clearly a threat to the zionist entity as jonathan cook reveals in an article in electronic intifada:

In a bid to staunch the flow of damaging evidence of war crimes committed during Israel’s winter assault on Gaza, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to clamp down on human rights groups, both in Israel and abroad.

It has begun by targeting one of the world’s leading rights organizations, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), as well as a local group of dissident army veterans, Breaking the Silence, which last month published the testimonies of 26 combat soldiers who served in Gaza.

Additionally, according to the Israeli media, the government is planning a “much more aggressive stance” towards human rights groups working to help the Palestinians.

Officials have questioned the sources of funding received by the organizations and threatened legislation to ban support from foreign governments, particularly in Europe.

Breaking the Silence and other Israeli activists have responded by accusing the government of a “witch hunt” designed to intimidate them and starve them of the funds needed to pursue their investigations.

“This is a very dangerous step,” said Mikhael Mannekin, one of the directors of Breaking the Silence. “Israel is moving in a very anti-democratic direction.”

The campaign is reported to be the brainchild of the far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, currently facing corruption charges, but has the backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Early last month, Lieberman used a press conference to accuse non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, of replacing diplomats in setting the international community’s agenda in relation to Israel. He also threatened reforms to curb the groups’ influence.

A week later, Netanyahu’s office weighed in against Human Rights Watch, heavily criticizing the organization for its recent fund-raising activities in Saudi Arabia.

HRW has pointed out that it only accepts private donations, and has not accepted Saudi government funds, but Israeli officials say all Saudi money is tainted and will compromise HRW’s impartiality as a human rights watchdog in its treatment of Israel.

what i haven’t seen a full report on, including implications of ongoing war crimes, another to add to the list is the ongoing assault on palestinian farmers who live and farm the land near the ever-expanding “buffer zone” where zionist terrorist colonists use palestinian people for their target practice. sherine tadros report on al jazeera last month documented this:

but the farmers keep farming the land as yet another form of resistance in a space where so few options for resistance exist. likewise, this video which i keep meaning to post is a moving story about one of the rappers from the group palestinian rapperz (p.r.) whose father was murdered by palestinian terrorist colonists. here is casey kauffman’s report on al jazeera:

The president of Egypt arrived in the United $tates to praise Obama on the Mideast, just for a speech. While the U.S. Government attacks Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mubarak said Obama has: “‘removed all doubts about the United States in the Muslim world.’”(1)

Although Mubarak called for acceleration of peace talks, he also called for patience. His strategy is to start with the final status talks and work out details later, the approach that Olmert attempted to some degree. Mubarak is also fighting against chickenshit ideas floated at the 2000 meetings of Arafat and Barak with Clinton, namely to accept temporary borders and go ahead with a Palestinian state.

MIM notes Mubarak’s comments with Jewish leaders in Washington. The press also noted his son Gamal’s positioning to succeed his father, who is 81.

As Mubarak meets with Obama the press is still playing with the issue of new settlements in the West Bank. Already discussed in the Clinton years, the I$raelis never stopped “natural growth” or even non-contiguous growth of settlements. To say permission for new settlements is restricted only means that existing settlements fill out further. BBC has just reported that despite rhetoric, settlements have actually increased, quite a nasty little feat for the population-challenged I$rael.(2)

Mubarak has self-interest in delaying the process in the Mideast as follows. He opposes pluralism within Egypt, because of opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic organizations. Thus, he opposes interim agreements to open the Rafah crossing for the blockaded Palestinians of Gaza.

He attempts to bargain for position for Abbas to control the crossings and take over from Hamas, which won the last election among Palestinians in 2006. Mubarak hopes to calm the Arab people by reaching the final status agreement first while keeping the lid on Gazans, while hiding behind I$raeli demands.

The trouble is that Mubarak’s approach wastes perfectly good political crises. Mubarak should reach an accommodation with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and Shia radicals. We believe all these forces will prioritize the Palestinian struggle if asked and agree not to take up armed struggle against Egypt in an interim agreement, including no armed pickets or closures of shops. The interim agreement should cover the period until a final status agreement.

The Pope and leading economists of the United $tates oppose the dollar bubble and likewise, Mubarak should allow the Muslims peaceful agitation against U.$. economic exploitation. If the Muslims attack his regime, Mubarak can always close the crossings again. In the meantime, the international united front can also act to protect aid to the Egyptian government, except in the case that the United $tates in fiscal austerity moves cuts I$raeli aid proportionately even more.

As for having Germany negotiate the Schalit deal, it only makes sense if Germany can deliver on Rafah. The trouble with going to Germany is it means that Egypt intends to leave the Palestinians with less leverage in their bargaining with I$rael. There is no reason I$rael should enter into final status negotiations with Palestinians under blockade. Egypt should get out from under I$rael’s demands one way or another. Without doing so, Egypt creates a situation where radicals will surely impede whatever Abbas comes up with.

Nonetheless, if the negotiations end up in German hands, the timing of struggle will be off. The trial in Iran of opposition figures and the dynamics there will be affected.
[P.S. after this article, an I$raeli paper reported that there is only a German advisor involved, not that Germany will literally take over the Cairo negotiations if they break down.]

MIM agrees with Dennis Ross about almost nothing, but we agree with how we cannot put off all questions until some Final Conjuncture, the way the Trotskyists always advised. Speaking of the Oslo peace process Ross nurtured, he said, “by never holding either side accountable, by never being prepared to disrupt the process and put it on hold, we contributed to an environment in which commitments were rarely taken seriously by either side, knowing there would never be any real consequence. In the future, there must be a consequence for nonperformance — and to have real meaning, it must be publicly seen.” [boldface mine](3)

More than once, Ross took the blame for a grasstips approach: “We focused far too much on the leaders and negotiators and far too little on the publics on each side.”(4) We are in a position where the leaders have not delivered, but the U.$. media cheats at cards, and allows the rulers to slide with deadlines. Nonetheless, the U.$. media shall certainly fail in blocking the truth.

Notes:
1. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBv.h8Ylw5nc
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8208315.stm
3. Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), p. 771.
4. Ibid., p. 770.