tagged w/ Gaza Strip
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Today, Egypt reopened the Rafah border crossing which lies on its border with Gaza, allowing Palestinians to come through, some for medical reasons, some to be reunited with family and others for business dealings. This is the first time in four years that the border has been opened, and Egypt has indicated that this move is permanent.
The Rafah border crossing was opened at 9:00am local time, and by mid-afternoon, 200 Gazans had gone through.
Israel has criticized the opening of the border, as it fears it will be used to smuggle weapons. However, according to a report in Guysen News International, analysts believe it also has positive aspects. They indicate that Israel will not need to concern itself with supplying Gaza for its basic needs, since Egypt has now become the official portal. Israeli general Giora Eiland added that attempts to break the blockade will now be unnecessary.
The rulings indicate that women, children and men under 18 and over 40 years of age are permitted free passage from Gaza to Egypt; men under 40 will be required to apply for a visa which must be granted by the authorities for entry. A great majority of Gaza's population is under 40. According to a Palestinian official, a total of 23 people were turned away due to Egyptian security concerns.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Egypt breaks siege on Gaza through opening of Rafah border crossing - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-national/egypt-breaks-siege-on-gaza-through-opening-of-rafah-border-crossing#ixzz1Ngn6zVdKToday, Egypt reopened the Rafah border crossing which lies on its border with Gaza,... more
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Palestinians welcome easing of four-year blockade on Gaza Strip, in a move ushered in by Egypt's new leaders.Palestinians welcome easing of four-year blockade on Gaza Strip, in a move ushered in... more
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Gazans were kept under a blockade maintained by Egypt and Israel over Gaza strip in 2007 to weaken Hamas.Gazans were kept under a blockade maintained by Egypt and Israel over Gaza strip in... more
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A kidnapped Italian activist has been found dead in Gaza after he was killed by a radical Islamist group.
It's the first time a foreigner has been killed in the Palestinian territory after being kidnapped.
The Salafist extremists, who claim to be inspired by Al Qaeda, posted a video of Vittorio Arrigoni on YouTube, tied up and blindfolded.
They threatened to kill him by 5pm on Friday, if Hamas did not release a number of Palestinian prisoners including one of the group's leaders.
But a spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said: "The Italian was killed by suffocation and his body was found in a street of the city of Gaza."
Mr Arrigoni was an activist with a pro-Palestinian group called the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and was also working as a blogger and writer.
Mr Arrigoni is the third member of the group to be killed in Gaza: US activist Rachel Corrie died in March 2003 after being crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer and British activist Tom Hurndall died in January 2004, nine months after being shot by an Israeli soldier.
Mr Arrigoni became famous in Italy for his passionate defence of Palestinian rights under Israeli occupation particularly during Operation Cast Lead. His kidnapping was the first in four years in Gaza.
Source: Sky News And RTA kidnapped Italian activist has been found dead in Gaza after he was killed by a... more
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There is a compelling movie called The Diary of Anne Frank that is recommended. It is about a Jewish girl and her family who spent over two years in an attic hiding from Hitler’s goons. Anne Frank survived for much of that time through the generosity of former employees of her father who risked their own lives to bring food to these outcasts.
Like many Jews in Hitler’s Germany, their fate was not uplifting. Anne’s mother, sister, father and friends were betrayed to the powers that be, and with exception of her father, died after being transferred to concentration camps. Her father lived near forty years longer, but can you imagine the memories that tormented him before his physical being expired?
History says that Hitler killed six million Jews while the civilized governments of the West tried to appease him. Were it not for a blunder that lead his armies to attack Russia, and a similar miscalculation by the Japanese in bombing Pearl Harbor (incidents which galvanized support amongst the Allied Powers and led to the fall the Axis Powers), it is possible that Germany would have become Europe’s ruler, and not a partner in what is today the Earth’s most esteemed political union.
The descendants of Jews who experienced the sickness, deprivation, and chaos of World War II are the catalyst for some of today’s stories of injustice. So History has an uncomfortable way of repeating itself, but sometimes the protagonists and the antagonists are different. Jews who were once vilified and murdered are now accomplished political and military forces in at least two parts of the world (Israel and the United States).
The State of Israel which has an umbilical cord tied to the mightiest nation on Earth (the United States) is a de facto sixth permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, and uses its power to intimidate, threaten, kill and deprive the Palestinian people of the basic necessities of life, suffrage, and ownership rights to which every human aspire.
The Jews of Israel are rewriting History in such a way that they have lost the high ground, and are committing crimes as heinous as Hitler's. They blockade and falsely imprison 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians survival depends on those who burrow under the borders of Egypt to risk life and limb to bring in necessities like food. Yet irresponsible publishers print articles intended to support that life in the Gaza Strip is functioning normally. How can life be normal in the Gaza Strip when its people are denied access to the outside world by a cruel and oppressive regime in Israel? Are their lives the lives that human beings are content to live anywhere else on Earth?
Only the foolish could believe that a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is necessary for the security of Israel, a mighty and effective military force in the Middle East, against Hamas, a force weaker than Lebanon, a nation that Israel threatened recently with retaliation if it so much as allow a ship laden with humanitarian good to sail from its ports to the Gaza. Only a fool could believe that Israel is afraid of Hamas when the Jewish state is saber rattling and willing to take on Iran, an enemy with a potent military establishment that dwarfs Hamas. The Gaza Strip is an ambitious dream of Israel for territorial expansion and destruction of Palestinians.
Like Anne Frank, a Palestinian child knows what it is like to be persona non grata. A Palestinian life can be altered dramatically by a decision made in Tel Aviv, or through a powerful Jewish lobby in Washington DC. All that a Palestinian has can be destroyed or taken away by a government in Israel whose actions will only be appeased by the governments of the West. The government of Israel has no legal authority over the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but it dictates the life they live.
There is doubt that the governments of the West and Russia intend to bring about a lasting and permanent peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Were these governments to be interested in a satisfactory and permanent solution to that cinder box they helped to create they would not have appointed Tony Blair as the Special Envoy for the Quartet on the Middle East.
Mr. Blair served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom which is one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. During his time as Prime Minister, Mr. Blair’s esteemed office was consumed by an ineffectual foreign policy, and the nation’s energy was exhausted while assisting President George W. Bush in creating another quagmire for the West in Iraq. Mr. Blair’s appointment to negotiate and facilitate solutions to do away with the stalemate in Palestine establishes that the West is interested in keeping the status quo as it now stands on the ground in the Middle East.
For there to be a cessation of hostility between Israel and the people of Palestine four important and necessary steps must be implemented. First, the West must appoint a respectable and neutral person to Mr. Blair’s position with the authority and understanding that a Palestinian state is to be realized even if it is to be imposed on Israel. Second, the West should move speedily to implement sanctions against Israel and its industries should it continue to encroach on Palestinian lands, and break International Law. Third, humanitarian aid must flow unhindered in the Gaza Strip. Fourth, Palestinians of the Gaza Strip must have free access to the outside world.
Israel will not comply with any condition placed on it as long as it knows that there are no consequences to its actions. None of us will be truly free from the burdens of the Middle East until we solve the problem that was created when the British foisted the idea of a Jewish State on the residents of Palestine that lead to formation of Israel in 1948. The walls that are being built around Israel will not bring peace, freedom or protection from those they consider their erstwhile enemies. Walls are mere fixtures, and over time they become as ineffective as the Great Walls of China, and those that tumbled down in Berlin, for they are too immobile to deal with a dynamic and continuously shifting situation such as life.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once wrote of his experience of Apartheid in South Africa that freedom is indivisible. No one is free until we are all free. The slave owner was not free until his slaves became free for it is true that much of his energies were consumed trying to prevent his slaves from revolting and killing him. The whites of South Africa and the United States were not free until they understood that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights as Thomas Jefferson wrote, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
During Apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States everyone were trapped by a condition of fear. The Jews of Israel and the United States will never be free until the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are treated with the same respect as their Jewish brothers, and the Palestinians too realize their dream of freedom and nationhood. This is a process that Desmond Tutu kindly refers to as transfiguration; the Earth is renewed when goodness reigns supreme as a rite of passage.
Read More:http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/nations-that-lose-high-ground.htmlThere is a compelling movie called The Diary of Anne Frank that is recommended. It is... more
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In Gaza, an unspoken rule bans women from riding bicycles after they have hit puberty. But last Saturday, one young Palestinian woman decided to defy the taboo, sparking smiles - and a few threats - from fellow Gaza residents.
In a spur of the moment decision, 28-year-old Palestinian journalist Asmaa Alghoul decided to join three of her friends .....In Gaza, an unspoken rule bans women from riding bicycles after they have hit puberty.... more
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An Egyptian woman sends a candid and heartfelt letter to the resident of Gaza to urge them to stop being victims and blaming Israel for all their woes.An Egyptian woman sends a candid and heartfelt letter to the resident of Gaza to urge... more
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The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed three resolutions condemning Israel over its policies in occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, but the United States has voted against them all.The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed three resolutions condemning Israel... more
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According to Palestinian medical officials and witnesses, at least 11 people have been injured in an Israeli air strike at an airport in southern Gaza. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Palestinian protester Mohammad Qadus was shot and killed by Israeli troops in Nablus. 17-year-old protester Osaid Qadus was also killed after being shot in the head.According to Palestinian medical officials and witnesses, at least 11 people have been... more
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The Israeli cabinet has backed a bill that, if passed, will jail senior officials from the countrys peace-related organizations should they fail to meet tough new registration conditions.The Israeli cabinet has backed a bill that, if passed, will jail senior officials from... more
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Israels blockade of Gaza has been in place for almost three years.
Building on existing closures and restrictions, the blockade means the delay or denial of a broad range of items food, industrial, educational, medical deemed "non-essential" for a population largely unable to be self-sufficient at the end of decades of occupation. The blockade prevents access by sea, land and air, effectively closing off a population of 1.5 million Palestinians from the outside world.
This short film examines what the blockade means for the people of Gaza, as they struggle to rebuild their lives over a year after Operation Cast Lead.Israels blockade of Gaza has been in place for almost three years.
Building on... more
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Israeli forces have raided a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, arresting at least 40 people. In a separate incident, Israeli military officials raided offices of Stop the Wall, a human-rights group that campaigns against the construction of the West Bank separation barrier.Israeli forces have raided a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, arresting at... more
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Further doubts have been cast on Israel’s challenge against criticism about it’s invasion of Gaza last year, after it emerged this past week that a bomb was defused at a Gaza flour mill that Israel had officially said did not come under attack. The El Badr flour mill is the only one in Gaza, and the Goldstone Report, commissioned by the United Nations, says its destruction "was carried out for the purpose of denying sustenance to the civilian population."Further doubts have been cast on Israel’s challenge against criticism about... more
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A high-ranking officer in the Israeli military has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives during last year's war in Gaza.A high-ranking officer in the Israeli military has acknowledged for the first time... more
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One year after Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, former OC Southern Command for the Israeli Defense Force’s Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samia says that another war with Hamas is practically inevitable and will take place in the near future.One year after Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, former OC Southern Command for... more
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WASHINGTON -- While Palestinian Christians in the West Bank celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem, Palestinians in Gaza, no matter their religious affiliation or political bent, are suffering in squalor and growing ignorance. Thousands are trying to flee.
Gaza has never been a prosperous enclave; the 140-square-mile territory has always been a poor, dependent state. But for Hamas, the radical Islamic terrorist group that seized control of Gaza in 2007, the long-term pursuit of a political impossibility trumps even the slightest concern for the welfare of the group's 1.5 million "constituents."
Residents of the Palestinian territories have been subjects of foreign states - Turkey, Great Britain, Jordan and then Israel - for half a millennium. But all the while, during both prosperous and desperate times, Palestinians have struggled to ensure that they educate their children. As a result, Palestinians have been among the best educated people in the world. Literacy rates, even for girls, have hovered around 99 percent. By comparison, in Iran, perhaps the Palestinians' biggest defenders now, and Israel's greatest enemy, UNICEF reports that only 77 percent of the population can read and write. Even Israel's literacy rate is lower: 97.1 percent.
But now, for the first time in the modern era, Gazans as young as 9, 10, 11 are being put to work in ever larger numbers, forgoing school. "Learning achievement has declined along with primary school enrollment," UNICEF reports.
Much of the world blames Israel. During its invasion of Gaza last January, Israeli troops damaged or destroyed nearly half of the territory's schools along with much of the remaining infrastructure. The condemnation of Israel, much of it justified for the assault's brutality, continues to this day in the United Nations and elsewhere.
Still, most of the people behind the continuing reproval take little note of Hamas' own campaign of terror in the previous months, lobbing hundreds of missiles toward Israeli population centers. No matter. That's a debate for another day. The point is, a year has passed.
What political concessions has Hamas offered that might have enabled it to make repairs, improve the lot of its people? None. So, poverty and malnutrition are growing so fast that these pernicious blights are reaching epidemic status. The United Nations reported this fall that one in five Gazans now live in what it called "abject poverty." That is why many parents are no longer sending their children to school. They need the pennies their children can earn at menial jobs to buy food.
Their chieftains don't seem to care. I have interviewed the leaders of Hamas many times over the years, and all of them offered one consistent refrain, time and time again: We are patient. Our resistance will continue as long as it takes - even centuries - until we reach our goal, full control of Palestine.
Of course, that includes the state of Israel. One of them, Ismail Abu Shenab, now deceased, once told me: "There are plenty of open areas in the United States that could absorb the Jews." Even Shenaeb, zealot that he was, must have known that nothing like that was going to happen even in his grandchildren's lifetimes - if ever. But he and all his colleagues, then and now, pursued that ludicrous goal in exclusion of all else, and now it is leading to the social destruction of their own people.
Israel and Egypt have locked the gates to Gaza. Israel's closure is more understandable than Egypt's, given that Cairo pretends to be the Palestinian's greatest friend and protector. In any case, it's impossible to know just how many Gazans endorse Hamas' chimerical, single-minded, objective.
The majority of Gazans I have met want to live peaceful lives and provide for their children. Sure, all of them would love to turn the clock back to 1967, before Israel won control of Gaza. That's why most of them still choose to live in decades-old refugee caWASHINGTON -- While Palestinian Christians in the West Bank celebrate Christmas in... more
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America's leading human rights organization has accused Israel and its supporters of an "organized campaign" of false allegations and misinformation in an attempt to discredit the group over its reports of war crimes in Gaza. The campaign against Human Rights Watch has included accusations that the group's reports on the Jewish state are written by "anti-Israel ideologues" and that it has sought funds from Saudi Arabia.America's leading human rights organization has accused Israel and its supporters... more
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A senior U.N. official said this past week that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza made homeless by Israel’s invasion nine months ago face a cold and rainy winter unless Israel allows building supplies in.A senior U.N. official said this past week that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza made... more
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Religion plays a large part in Israel's claims to the land it lies on and Palestinian hopes for statehood.
The King's Torah is the title of a book written by Yitzhak Shapira, an Israeli Rabbi living in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, and it is complicating an already seemingly intractable political conflict.
The book offers a theological backing to Jews killing those perceived to be violating Jewish commandments or threatening the Jewish nation.
Are such calls harmless or do they drive official policy and manipulate the masses?
And what about Palestinian extremist rhetoric, what harm does it cause?
We discuss religious extremism among the occupier and the occupied, and the damage done to peace prospects.
Inside Story discusses with guests Lamis Andoni, a Middle East analyst, Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, from Rabbis for human rights, and Gerald Steinberg, a chair of political studies and director of the conflict resolution program at Bar Ilan University.
This episode of Inside Story aired on Wednesday, November 11, 2009.Religion plays a large part in Israel's claims to the land it lies on and... more
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