Union calls for "End to Bloodshed in Gaza"

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Written by United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)

Published: 22 January 2009 22 January 2009

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United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) General Executive Board Calls for End to Bloodshed in Gaza
16 January, 2009

Meeting in Pittsburgh January 15 and 16, UE’s General Executive Board adopted a statement condemning the current war in the Gaza Strip. The union’s national leadership body reiterated the position adopted by delegates to UE’s 70th Convention in 2007, which called for "replacing the lopsided pro-Israel policy of the U.S. with a good faith, even-handed effort to achieve lasting peace between Israel and Palestine based on full justice and mutual respect." The GEB called on the incoming Obama administration to move quickly to initiate such a new policy.
Statement on the Conflict in Gaza

We are appalled by the rising death toll and human suffering that have resulted over the past few weeks from the worsening conflict between Israel and Palestine, in particular Israel's military assault on Gaza. While we in no way condone the provocative and senseless firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas, the Israeli response shows a complete disrespect for human life and violates all standards of international law. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, and of those, more that 300 are children. Close to 5,000 have been wounded already, as the fighing continues.

In a scathing statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which carefully avoids taking sides in conflicts, has accused the Israeli army of failing to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded and to recover the bodies of those killed in the fighting, many of whom are women and children.

Even before the current military offensive began in late December, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was dire. Gazans live in poverty with one of the highest population densities in the world – 1.4 million people crowded into a territory just 25 miles long and approximately 5 miles wide. Malnutrition is widespread, and conditions have been made worse over the past three years by Israel’s economic blockade causing severe shortages of food, medical supplies, heating and cooking oil and other essentials. Many Gaza civilians have lost access to safe drinking water and to electricity, in the recent fighting. The Vatican said in recent days that the conditions in Gaza “increasingly resemble a big concentration camp.”

Delegates to UE's 70th Convention in September 2007 adopted a resolution on the need for change in U.S. foreign policy. On the Israel-Palestine conflict, it called for "replacing the lopsided pro-Israel policy of the U.S. with a good faith, even-handed effort to achieve lasting peace between Israel and Palestine based on full justice and mutual respect." The resolution said that the current "one-sided" U.S. policy "perpetuates injustice, instability, and the threat of war," and pointed out that, "U.S. aid to Israel far exceeds that of any other country, although Israel is by far the richest country receiving U.S. aid."

We agree with the January 2 statement issued by U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), a leading labor voice for peace with which UE is affiliated, which said in part:

    "The U.S. government supplied Israel with the military means to carry out this attack and has generously underwritten the Israeli government and military with tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars. Our government’s failure to condemn this latest action makes it complicit. The economic crisis which daily deepens in the U.S. requires that we seriously reorient our foreign policy and stop spending hard earned taxpayer dollars on proxy wars and reinvest the needed resources right here at home… We urge all parties to agree to an immediate cease fire and seek peaceful and lasting solutions. Recent history demonstrates that bombings, rocket attacks, blockades and military invasions won’t provide the best road to peace and security for the peoples of the region. Quite the contrary, such actions perpetuate the cycle of death, destruction, fear and heightened insecurity among the people of all countries, including us here in the U.S…”

Senzeni Zokwana, president of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM, with which UE is affiliated) and president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa, issued a statement for the ICEM that calls on all parties to address the serious humanitarian needs in Gaza. “There must be the immediate opening of border crossings to ensure that the people of Gaza are supplied with food, water, fuel and medical treatment. The Israeli blockade of Gaza must be immediately lifted and full, unimpeded and urgent access for medical teams allowed.”

UE reiterates its position in favor of peace, security, justice and mutual respect for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. We add our voice to the many voices calling for an immediate end to the killing and the suffering. We call on the new Obama administration to immediately inaugurate a new U.S. policy that addresses the needs and aspirations of the Palestinians as well as of Israelis, and that will bring about true peace on the basis of human rights principles.

UE General Executive Board

January 16, 2009
http://www.ueunion.org/ueactionupdates.html?news=451

UNRWA Operational Update

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Written by UNRWA UNRWA

Published: 22 January 2009 22 January 2009

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UNRWA Operational Update 19 January Health Centres Today, all 17 health centres were open, with the exception of Beit Hanoun, which will open tomorrow.  Yesterday, 15 out of 17 health centres provided 14,892 medical consultations. Food Distribution Today, 9 of 10 food distributions centres were opened (reopened Zeitun and Sabra). 2233 families collected their rations. On average during normal operations, UNRWA provides rations to 20,000 people/day. Shelters There are currently 29,421 people in UNRWA shelters, down from 46,234 yesterday (a decrease of 16,813). Overall, there has been a reduction of 33% from the peak of 50,000 people on 17 January. Six shelters were closed due to people leaving. Delivery of bread, tinned meat, water and NFIs continued to the shelters as needed. Access Yesterday, UNRWA received 59.5 trucks via Kerem Shalom. A total of 98 truckloads entered (of the planned 116) due to overload at the crossing. Today, 133 truckloads are due to cross Kerem Shalom (113 for international organizations including 60 for UNRWA and 10 ICRC ambulances). The remainder comprises 10 to cross from Egypt and 10 private trucks.  Yesterday, 38 truckloads of flour, grains and wheat entered via the conveyer belt, of the scheduled 60, reportedly due to collection issues on the Gaza side. Nahal Oz – 500,000 litres was pumped into depot on Israeli side today; 450,000 litres was delivered to the power plant. 95,000 litres of solar received by private sector to re-supply hospitals.  Nahal Oz is operating at limited capacity due to lack of electricity (and the limited electricity that can be produced by the generator). UNRWA will look into solutions. Damages to UNRWA installations A total of 53 installations were damaged or destroyed including 37 schools (6 of which are being used as emergency shelters), six health centres, and two warehouses.

Aid still not reaching Gaza five days after ceasefire.

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Written by Mercy Corps Mercy Corps

Published: 22 January 2009 22 January 2009

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This message from Mercy Corps:

The ceasefire has not yet resulted in greater access for humanitarian supplies or aid workers into Gaza,

according to our staff there.

And estimates of what it will cost to repair Gaza's infrastructure range up to $2 billion.

Up to 200 still missing under Gaza's rubble

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Written by Erin Cunningham, The Electronic Intifada Erin Cunningham, The Electronic Intifada

Published: 21 January 2009 21 January 2009

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GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - A pillow, a belt, a child's school bag and pages of a torn copy of the Quran lie in the wreckage of the al-Daa family home in al-Zeitoun, a neighborhood of Gaza City. Twenty-four members of the family were killed when an F-16 fighter jet dropped a bomb on their house. Nine bodies still lie under what is now just a massive pancake of concrete, metal wires and death.

"There were no Hamas fighters here," said Zohair al-Raay, a neighbor of the al-Daa family. "Where are the weapons? Where are the missiles? The al-Daa family had nothing to do with that."

Eyad al-Daa, father of 32, was found clutching three small children in the stairwell.

As the ceasefire continues to hold, the sheer scale of the destruction in the Gaza Strip is finally emerging. The deadly, three-week assault by Israel has been devastating.

Generations of families are vanished, and entire villages now destroyed. Many of the dead are still buried beneath the rubble, their neighbors and relatives left with no way to retrieve them.

In one of the most harrowing incidents, 35 members of the Samuni family were killed in al-Zeitoun by an F-16. The surviving members dug the bodies out on Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire.

At least 5,000 houses have been destroyed and 20,000 buildings damaged throughout the strip, according to local officials. The Gaza Strip is just 40 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide.

Twenty mosques and 16 ministry offices were destroyed, with at least 200 million dollars worth of damage to local infrastructure. The face of the al-Quds Hospital is scorched from tank fire, and Gaza City is still without power.

On Tuesday, in the northern Gaza City neighborhood of al-Attatra, almost entirely demolished and laced with tank treads, the body of a 94-year-old woman was pulled from the wreckage by her son. The Israeli army shot and killed her, he says, before they brought the house down, again with an F-16.

"What did she have to do with rockets being fired into Israel?" he asked. The family had been looking for her for days.

Such stories are commonplace in Gaza since Israel unleashed its deadly war on the territory on 27 December.

More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in the past three weeks, a third of them children, according to both Gaza health officials and the United Nations. Some 5,500 people have been injured.

According to the civil defense force in Gaza, which has been tasked with helping pull bodies from the debris, there are still up to 200 persons missing in the northern areas of Gaza. They are presumed dead.

"This is the worst violence we have seen since the Nakba," says 75-year-old Ibrahim Mohamed Hindi of al-Zeitoun, using the Arabic word for "catastrophe" to refer to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the creation of Israel in 1948.

What is also alarming is the apparent vicious nature of the destruction, locals are saying.

Khamis Mohamed al-Atar and several other members of his family were forcibly removed from their home in al-Attatra and taken to a prison in the Negev for 15 days while Israeli soldiers occupied the house, which sits on a hill overlooking Gaza City, the strip's major population center.

"One soldier brought me outside and another came out and asked the first one where the rest of my family was," Mohamed al-Atar said. "Then he suggested to the soldier that they bring us all outside, line us up against the wall and shoot us. He said they didn't care which houses had people in them. I thought they were going to kill us all."

When Mohamed al-Atar returned, he found the body of his son left rotting among the family's now decimated orange groves. He had been shot.

The inside of their house was smeared with graffiti in Hebrew. The Star of David, an icon of both the Jewish faith and the Israeli state, was spray-painted on the hallways. The toilets had been blasted with grenades, and the floor was blanketed with Israeli food wrappers and bullet shells.

In a farming area near Beit Hanoun cows lie dead across an entire field, some ripped open by shrapnel and others simply crushed by tanks. The corpses of donkeys, horses, goats and chickens line the streets.

"This is my family's livelihood," said Youssef, 18, of his farm's slaughtered animals. "And now it's gone. Who would take the time to kill cows in this war?"

In the same area, residents found a type of weapon that sends a throng of nails as far as the size of a football field in each direction, according to an Amnesty International representative investigating its use in Gaza.

A resident, father of an ambulance driver killed by a drone missile on 5 January, pointed to nails lodged in the side of his house. He said the Israeli army used the weapon on them during his son's funeral procession.

"I don't have any feelings any more," said Mohamed Hindi. "The Israelis have managed to destroy everything. Even our emotions."

All rights reserved, IPS - Inter Press Service (2009). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden. Jim Lobe in Washington contributed to this article.