UK medics go on hunger strike after being refused entry into Gaza
- Details
- Written by Haroon Siddique, guardian.co.uk, Haroon Siddique, guardian.co.uk,
- Published: 19 May 2009 19 May 2009
- Hits: 3717 3717
• Hammersmith team stuck in Egypt at Rafa crossing since 4 May
• Group on humanitarian mission to set up cardiac hospital unit
Three British medics began a hunger strike in Egypt today to protest against being refused entry into Gaza for a humanitarian mission.
Their aim is to establish a cardiac surgery unit at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which currently has no such facility, and to help train medical students and junior doctors there. But the British medics have been denied access to the Palestinian territory at the Rafah crossing since the beginning of May.
Omar Mangoush, a cardiac surgeon at Hammersmith hospital, in London, told guardian.co.uk he had been to the crossing with his colleagues every day since arriving in Egypt on 4 May, only to be told they did not have permission to enter.
"We are on hunger strike until they let us through," he said. "We'll stay [at the crossing] until they let us in. We want to put pressure on the British embassy. We believe if the British embassy wanted us to do this they could exert pressure [on the Egyptian authorities]."
Mangoush said he had been told by the British embassy that it had received a letter from the Egyptian foreign ministry saying the medics' request for access to Gaza had been "postponed".
But he claimed American aid workers had gained entry to Gaza at their first attempt with the support of the US embassy.
Mangoush named the other British medics on hunger strike as Christopher Burns-Cox, a retired consultant, and Kirsty Wong, a nurse at Hammersmith hospital. Another six people are on hunger strike, including three Belgians, he said.
The cardiac surgeon took a month's holiday from work to take part in the mission for the Manchester-based charity Palestine International Medical Aid (PIMA)
"This is very important for us," he said. "There are loads of people with heart disease [in Gaza]. They can't get here [to Egypt], they can't get to Israel. If it's this hard for us to get to, how difficult is it for the Palestinians to get out?"
PIMA's director, Dr Ahmed Almari, said: "It's unbelievable. They're a group of doctors, they went for education and teaching, to set up a cardiac unit. It's unfair and sad that it is only as a result of a hunger strike that anybody pays attention. There's no reason to stop them from crossing."
Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing largely closed since Hamas won the Gaza elections three years ago. One of the main demands of Hamas has been that all crossings into Gaza should be allowed to reopen permanently. A number of aid groups have said the closure of the crossings is contributing to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Palestinian medical sources reported today that a one-year-old infant died yesterday at a local hospital in Rafah owing to several complications, including pneumonia, as his transfer to a hospital outside of the Gaza Strip was not possible due to the ongoing Israeli siege.
Lieberman's party wants to ban Nakba commemorations: Growing Trend toward Facism
- Details
- Written by Jewish Peace News Jewish Peace News
- Published: 18 May 2009 18 May 2009
- Hits: 4193 4193
On May 14, the annual day for commemorating the Nakba, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinians with the establishment of the state of Israel, Ha'aretz announced the proposal of a new law in Israel banning all commemorations of the Nakba. The law was proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu, the political party of Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman. The proposed legislation threatens three years imprisonment for anyone who commemorates the Nakba. (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085588.html)
Yisrael
Beiteinu's party spokesman is quoted as saying that the law intends "to
strengthen unity in the state of Israel." That statement, and this
proposed law, should set off anti-fascism alarms. In the name of
"unity," here is a proposal to criminalize acts of memory, collective
identity, and cultural and political expression. In the name of
Israel's majority group, this proposal seeks to criminalize memory and
memory-makers, effectively criminalizing the group-identity of Israel's
largest minority population. The very existence of a culture relies on
its memory, which comprises the stories a culture tells about itself.
This law would threaten the existence of Palestinians as a remembering,
culture-producing, history-bearing people, and would prevent the
possibility of Israel becoming a truly pluralistic society where every
group's history can be told. And by forbidding the remembering of the
Nakba, the law aims to erase the 1948 dispossession of Palestinians -
including the
destruction of more than 400 villages, multiple
massacres and the creation of more than 700,00 refugees, and the
confiscation of thousands of acres of land - even as this same
political party's platform threatens another form of dispossession,
that is, removing citizenship from Palestinian citizens (http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/2009/02/growing-trend-toward-fascism.html).
Reports of the proposed law say it will punish anyone who commemorates the Nakba, not just Palestinians. In this way, the proposed law signals other recent developments in Israel, whereby Israeli Jews are being targeted in campaigns aiming to silence their protest, similar to ways in which Palestinians - both inside of Israel and in the occupied Territories - are also targeted for silencing. (For more on this targeting and the recent persecution of the Israeli Jewish group New Profile, see here: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/2009/05/rela-mazali-israels-war-against-youth.html).
The
threat to imprison anyone who commemorates the Nakba is also a reminder
that everyone engaged with the state of Israel has an obligation to
know and remember the Nakba. A good source for information and
commemoration is the Israeli organization "Zochrot," which offers
extensive education on the Nakba, both on their website (http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?lang=english)
and in actual tours of Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948.
Zochrot's "links" page also offers many different sources of
information, maps, and testimonies on the Nakba (http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=379).
Norma Musih of Zochrot writes, "Awareness and recognition of the Nakba
by Jewish-Israeli people, and taking responsibility for this tragedy,
are essential to ending the struggle and starting a process of
reconciliation between the people of Palestine-Israel." (http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=642) As an American Jew, I think it's just as important for Americans, and for Jews, to recognize the tragedy
of the Nakba, so that we, too, can understand what Palestinians have suffered and what is at stake for them in this conflict.
Sarah Anne Minkin
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Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Merkley to Hold Southern Oregon Town Hall, May 26 - May 28
- Details
- Written by Alison Weir Alison Weir
- Published: 18 May 2009 18 May 2009
- Hits: 4174 4174
http://merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=52DE7127-3F41-4364-871A-6E0856DBDA62
--
Alison Weir
Executive Director
If Americans Knew
Cell: (415) 847-1782
office: (202) 631-4060
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
- Edmund Burke
Merkley to Hold Southern Oregon Town Halls
Five Town Halls are Tuesday, May 26 Through Thursday, May 28
May 15, 2009
Portland – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley will hold town halls in Coos, Curry, Jackson, Josephine and Klamath counties in late May.
He will update constituents on his work in Washington, DC and answer their questions about the challenges facing Oregon and America.
“Advocating for Oregonians is my number one responsibility,” Merkley said. “I invite all residents of Southern Oregon to meet me and discuss what we need to do to get our nation back on track.”
Last year, Merkley pledged to hold town halls in each of Oregon’s 36 counties every year. He held his first town hall in his native county, Douglas County. Klamath, Jackson, Josephine, Coos and Curry counties will be his tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth town halls.
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Klamath County.
When:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Where:
OIT College Union Auditorium
3201 Campus Drive
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Jackson County.
When:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
2:30 p.m.
Where:
Southern Oregon University/Rogue Community College Higher
Education Center
101 S. Bartlett Street
Medford, OR 97501
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Josephine County.
When:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
1:00 p.m.
Where:
Anne Basker Auditorium
604 NW 6th Street
Grants Pass, OR 97526
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Coos County.
When:
Thursday, May 28, 2009
9:30 a.m.
Where:
Coos Bay Public Library
525 W. Anderson Street
Coos Bay, OR 97420
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Curry County.
When:
Thursday, May 28, 2009
2:30 p.m.
Where:
Gold Beach City Hall, Council Chambers
29592 Ellensburg Avenue
Gold Beach, OR 97444
US General Builds A Palestinian Army, Warnins about needing Palestinian State
- Details
- Written by Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation
- Published: 15 May 2009 15 May 2009
- Hits: 4274 4274
And in his talk, Gen. Dayton delivered an important warning.
First, the background. For the past three and a half years, Dayton has lived and worked in Jerusalem and across the West Bank, overseeing the creation of three Palestinian battalions of troops, hand-picked in the West Bank, trained at an academy in Jordan, and then deployed in the occupied territory.The three 500-man battalions are intended to grow, to as many as ten battalions. Their mission, he said, is to "create a Palestinian state." Recognizing that many in the WINEP audience were not exactly enamored with the idea of an independent Palestine, Dayton told his audience: "If you don't like the idea of a Palestinian state, you won't like the rest of this talk."
From the detailed description provided by Dayton, it's clear that the Palestinian forces he's enabling could certainly be accused of carrying out the self-policing of the West Bank for the Israelis. Because the West Bank is, after all, occupied by Israel and riddled with illegal settlements besides -- plus beset by a surrounding wall, 600-plus intrusive checkpoints, and a network of Jews-only highways -- the Palestinian troops are utterly at the mercy of the Israelis. Each recruit is vetted by US security forces (i.e, the CIA), then vetted by Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence arm of Israel, and then by Jordan's super-efficient intelligence service, before they begin their training in Jordan. Dayton made it quite clear that the Palestinian units thus trained are primarily deployed against two targets in the West Bank: against criminal gangs, and against Hamas.
So far, they've received $161 million is US funding.
Dayton described how, during the Israeli assault on Gaza last December and January, the West Bank remained quiet -- even though some analysts were predicting an upsurge of sympathy for Hamas, which controls Gaza, along with violence, even a third intifada. "None of these predictions came true," said the general, who added that the Palestinian battalions allowed peaceful demonstrations of solidarity with Hamas, but kept the lid on violent actions. Israel, he said, "kept a low profile," and not a single Palestinian was killed in the West Bank during the three-week carnage in Gaza.
Most of the work he's done, Dayton said, occurred in the West Bank after the June, 2007, Hamas takeover in Gaza. "What we have created are 'new men,'" he added.
Now for the warning. Recognizing that by organizing and training thousands of Palestinian troops, professionally led, he is creating in effect a nationalist army, Dayton warned the 500 or so WINEP listeners that the troops can only be strung along for just so long. "With big expectations, come big risks," said Dayton. "There is perhaps a two-year shelf life on being told that you're creating a state, when you're not." To my ears, at least, his subtle warning is that if concrete progress isn't made toward a Palestinian state, the very troops Dayton is assembling could rebel.
Dayton was responding to a question from Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative former deputy secretary of defense, who now hangs his hat at the neocon-dominated American Enterprise Institute. "How many Palestinians see your people as collaborators?" Wolfowitz asked. In answering Wolfowitz, the general acknowledged that Hamas and its sympathizers accuse the Palestinian battalions of being "enforces of the Israeli occuption." But he stressed that each one of them believes that he is fighting for an independent Palestine. The unstated message: the United States and Israel had better deliver. Thus the two year warning. Which, to me, sounds spot on with the Obama administration's timetable.
One more thing: General Dayton signed up for another stint in the West Bank. And how long did he agree to serve? Yes--two years.
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org
U.S. Senator Kerry: Chances for two-state solution dwindling
- Details
- Written by Haartez and News Agencies Haartez and News Agencies
- Published: 15 May 2009 15 May 2009
- Hits: 4094 4094
U.S. Senator John Kerry told an economic forum on Friday he believed the window of opportunity for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was closing.
"It's closing for a number of reasons - crushed aspirations, demographics, realities on the ground," the Massachusetts Democrat, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.
Kerry's comments came amid mounting international pressure on Israel to accept the two-state solution, a step Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been reluctant to take.
Earlier Friday, Jordan's King Abdullah II used his speech at the forum to push the idea of expanding an Arab initiative for peace with Israel to include the entire Muslim world.
"The Arab peace initiative has offered Israel a place in the neighborhood and more - acceptance by 57 nations, the one-third of the UN members that do not recognize Israel," King Abdullah told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.
"This is true security - security that barriers and armed forces cannot bring," he said.
The king spoke a day after he pressed Netanyahu to immediately commit to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Read more: U.S. Senator Kerry: Chances for two-state solution dwindling