[Peace-discuss] Article and letter in this morning's NG

Sun Jul 27 10:08:04 EDT 2014

Thanks to Niloofar for her invaluable contribution to this morning's paper, and to Mort Brussel for his timely letter. I link to the letter, and paste Niloo's article below.

Since the mainstream media won't do it, it's up to us to inform our fellow citizens

DG

http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/2014-07-27/gazas-misery-not-being-reported.html
During Israel's
recent assault on Gaza, President Barack Obama, Congress and the American media
have been sounding off the mantra of "Israel's right to defend
itself" against rockets from Gaza — a self-evident right, if Israel were
indeed the innocent victim of a military aggression, and not its perpetrator.
The right to
self-defense actually belongs to the Palestinians, who, as the indigenous
population of Palestine, have been subjected to ethnic cleansing since 1947-8.
This project will continue unless the U.S. stops vetoing U.N. Security Council
resolutions against Israel's illegal actions — so far, 42 such vetoes.
As of July 25,
Israel's bombing campaign and the more recent addition of a ground offensive
have killed 800 and seriously wounded 5,500 Palestinians — 80 percent being
unarmed civilians, including 200 children. The Israeli government and the Obama
administration have been explaining away the high civilian casualty by accusing
Hamas of using civilians as human shields, and placing their military
installations among civilians.
They know well,
though, that having the world's highest population density, Gaza cannot afford
its refugee and local populations residential neighborhoods. Moreover, as
Israeli journalist Amira Hass writes, Israel itself has its military
headquarters in civilian areas.
There is ample
evidence to confirm that Israel's political and military strategists are not
just after militant Islamists and their military installations, but use their
war machine to instill terror in the hearts and minds of children and adults
trapped in these killing fields.
Norwegian
physician Dr. Mads Gilbert, who has been treating the injured in Gaza,
describes the extreme damage that Israel's U.S.-made dense inert metal
explosives — DIME — inflict on their victims:
"People are
torn apart. I mean, they're split at their mid-level. They lose their arms and
legs, and they're killed. They're charcoaled by the burns, if they are hit by
these DIME explosives," he said.
In addition, the
Israeli army, which boasts of the precision of its targeting, has killed many
civilians who could not have been mistaken as militants: Nine young men were
torn into pieces and 15 more wounded as they were watching a World Cup game in
a beachfront cafe on July 9. On July 16, four small children who were playing
on the beach were killed by two rounds of bombing. The civilians, who had taken
refuge in a U.N. school, were denied time to leave before the school was
bombed, killing tens.
All this is
nothing but terrorism, and America is its financier and sponsor.
Besides loss of
life and severe injuries, the destruction of the remaining infrastructure from
Israel's bombings during the winter of 2008-09 and the one-week assault in 2012
will further harm the health and the ability of Gazans to make a living. People
have irrevocably lost the use of 60 percent of their agricultural land. The
vast majority of their chicken coops, their only flour mill, water tanks and
sewage-treatment facilities are targeted and destroyed; so is most of their
electricity-generating capacity.
The harsh
maritime, aerial and ground blockade that Israeli leaders have maintained over
Gaza since 2007 has made it next to impossible for the people to acquire the
needed material to fix damages to the infrastructure.
In addition, the
blockade has been depriving the Gazans of the nutrition they need to sustain
themselves. Gisha, an Israeli human-rights organization, has documented that in
2008, Israeli health experts had calculated that in order to prevent
malnutrition, 170 truckloads of food should be allowed into Gaza — less than
half the number of trucks entering Gaza with foodstuff before the siege. The
Israeli officials have lowered this minimum to 67, doubled the number of trucks
filled with empty-nutrient foods, and have drastically reduced the amount of
milk, fruits and vegetables allowed into Gaza.
A Red Cross
report leaked in 2008 concluded that "chronic malnutrition is on a
steadily rising trend and micro-nutrient deficiencies are of great
concern."
Before the start
of the current military campaign, 80 percent of Gazans were dependent on
humanitarian aid to survive. Given this dire situation, it shouldn't be hard to
understand the level of anger and hatred toward Israeli policymakers.
Now Hamas is
being blamed for rejecting the cease-fire "plan," drafted by Egypt's
military rulers without input from Hamas. Hamas correctly maintains that a
brief cease-fire and return to the status quo is meaningless. They point to the
cease-fire of November 2012, which was to lead to the easing of the Gaza siege
but was ignored by Israel with the usual impunity.
This time, Hamas
says, they will only accept a cease-fire based on the recognition of the
short-term demands of Palestinians. Among those are the permanent lifting of
the Israeli blockade, the extension of the small zone imposed on Gaza
fishermen, placing international forces at Gaza's borders with Israel and
Egypt, and non-interference of Israel in the formation and workings of the
Palestinian unity government, which has the blessing of the Quartet (representatives
of the U.N., U.S., EU and Russia).
Without due
pressure, Israeli policy-makers will not accept these conditions, which are
within the framework of international law and past consensus. The key to the
success of this first step toward a just peace between Palestinians and
Israelis is the U.S., which is still unwilling to be an honest broker.
This situation
leaves Americans with only one ethical option: To persist in our demand that
our government end its unconditional and destructive support of Israel, and/or
to join the boycott, divestment and sanction campaign until Israeli Jews decide
to join the international community and live in peace with their Palestinian
cousins.
In the meantime,
we have no right to deny the right of Palestinians to resist the siege and the
occupation through whatever means that are still at their disposal.
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