[WSF-Discuss] Fw: [GazaFriends] Media Release: International witnesses speak out from Gaza on Israeli atrocities

[Peter Waterman]

As a British Jew raised on films of Nazi collective punishment of 
recalcitrant civilian populations, and of the armed Warsaw Ghetto 
Uprising, I am appalled at what the Israelis are now doing right now in 
Gaza, as well as to Palestine more generally.

Some time ago I sponsored a slogan on the Wall, 'When Germans did this 
to Jews, they were called Nazis'.

It seems there is no limit to which the militarised, expansionist and
racist Israeli state will not go to demonstrate the truth of this.

In the case of both the Nazis and the Israelis, we witness the fatal
complicity of Western Liberal Democracies (even during WW2, Britain knew 
of the Death Camps but refused to bomb the railway lines leading to them).

It is therefore essential that we mobilise in as many communities, in as 
many places, and through as many websites as possible, to both
condemn and take action against these atrocities.

I mean with specific and sole condemnation of the acts of what is,
after all, an illegal regime of occupation. And one that has flouted UN 
decisions against Israeli occupation for over a half-century.

Israel arrogates to itself the tokens of racial and military superiority 
to perpetrate these gross violations of human rights, adding to such 
Nazi tokens those of the 'free world', 'the international community'.

If Israel acts against subject populations in the manner of America in 
Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, of Russia in Afghanistant, Georgia and 
Chechnia, of France, Britain and Holland in their defiant colonies, then 
this can in no way be justified by reference to the acts of military 
resistance - terroristic or provocative as they might be judged.

I would like to propose that at the World Social Forum, Belem, Brazil, 
in one month's time, there be a demonstration devoted precisely and 
solely to this issue. And that the customary Assembly of Social 
Movements go beyond listing this atrocity amongst others but give it 
separate attention.

All additonal or alternative proposals welcome!

Peter Waterman
Lima/The Hauge


kolya abramsky wrote:
> 
> 
> --- On Sat, 27/12/08, Ewa Jasiewicz (freelance) <freelance at mailworks.org> wrote:
> 
>> From: Ewa Jasiewicz (freelance) <freelance at mailworks.org>
>> Subject: [GazaFriends] Media Release: International witnesses speak out from Gaza on Israeli atrocities
>> To: GazaFriends at lists.riseup.net
>> Date: Saturday, 27 December, 2008, 4:42 PM
>> Please fwd widely:
>>
>> For Immediate Release
>>
>> International Witnesses speak out from Gaza
>>
>>  27th December 2008, Gaza, Palestine -  Human Rights
>> Defenders
>> from Lebanon, the UK, Poland, Canada, Spain, Italy and
>> Australia are present in Gaza and are witnessing and
>> documenting
>> the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.
>> Due to Israel's policy of denying access to
>> international media,
>> human rights defenders and aid agencies to the
>> Occupied Gaza Strip, many of these Human Rights Defenders
>> arrived
>> in Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement's boats.
>>
>> FGM boats have broken Israel's siege of Gaza five times
>> in the
>> past four months.
>> "At the time of the attacks I was on Omar Mukhtar
>> street and
>> witnessed a last rocket hit the street 150 meters away
>> where
>> crowds had already gathered to try to extract the dead
>> bodies.
>> Ambulances, trucks, cars - anything that can move is
>> bringing
>> injured to
>> the hospitals. Hospitals have had to evacuate sick patients
>> to
>> make room for the injured. I have been told that there is
>> not
>> enough room in the morgues for the bodies and that there is
>> a
>> great lack of blood in the bloodbanks. I have just learned
>> that
>> among the civilians killed today was the mother of my good
>> friends in Jabalya camp." - Eva Bartlett (Canada)
>> International
>> Solidarity Movement
>> "Israeli missles tore through a children's
>> playground and busy
>> market in Diere Balah, we saw the aftermath - many were
>> injured
>> and some reportedly killed. Every Hospital in the Gaza
>> strip is
>> already overwhelmed with injured people and does not have
>> the
>> medicine or the capacity to treat them. Israel is
>> committing
>> crimes against humanity, it is violating international and
>> human
>> rights law, ignoring the United Nations and planning even
>> bigger
>> attacks. The world must act now and intensify the calls for
>> Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel;
>> governments
>> need to move beyond words of condemnation into an active
>> and
>> immediate
>> restraint of Israel and a lifting of the siege of
>> Gaza" - Ewa
>> Jasiewicz
>> (Polish and British) Free Gaza Movment
>> "The morgue at the Shifa hospital has no more room for
>> dead
>> bodies, so bodies and body parts are strewn all over the
>> hospital." - Dr. Haidar Eid, (Palestinian, South
>> African)
>> Professor of Social and Cultural
>> Studies, Al Aqsa University Gaza
>> "The bombs began to fall just as the children were on
>> the streets
>> walking back from school. I went out onto the stairs and a
>> terrified 5
>> year old girl ran sobbing into my arms."- Sharon Lock
>> (Australian) International Solidarity Movement
>> "This is incredibly sad. This massacre is not going to
>> bring
>> security for the State of Israel or allow it to be part of
>> the
>> Middle East. Now
>> calls of revenge are everywhere." Dr Eyad Sarraj -
>> President of
>> the Gaza
>> Community Mental Health Centre
>> "As I speak they have just hit a building 200 metres
>> away. There
>> is smoke everywhere. This morning I went to the building
>> close to
>> where I
>> live in Rafah that had been hit. Two bulldozers were
>> immediately
>> attempting to clear the rubble. They thought they had found
>> all
>> the
>> bodies. As we arrived one more was found."  Jenny
>> Linnel
>> (British) International Solidarity Movement
>> "The home I am staying in is across from the
>> preventive security
>> compound. All the glass of the house shattered. The home
>> has been
>> severely damaged. Due to the siege there is no glass or
>> building
>> materials to repair this damage. One little boy in our
>> house
>> fainted. An
>> eight year little boy was trembling on the ground for an
>> hour. In
>> front of our house we found the bodies of two little girls
>> under
>> a car,
>> completely burnt. They were coming home from school. This
>> is more
>> than just collective punishment. We are being treated like
>> laboratory animals. I have lived through the Israeli
>> bombardment
>> of Beirut and the Israel's message is the same in Gaza
>> as it was
>> in Beirut- The killing of civilians. There was just another
>> explosion outside!" Natalie Abu Eid (Lebanon)
>> International
>> Solidarity Movement
>> Human Rights Defenders in Gaza:
>> Dr. Eyad Sarraj (Arabic and English) -+972 599400424
>> Ewa Jasiewicz, Free Gaza Co-Ordinator in Gaza (Polish,
>> Arabic,
>> and
>> English) - +972 59 8700497
>> Dr. Haider Eid (English and Arabic)  - + 972 59 9441766
>> Sharon Lock (English) - +972 59 8826513
>> Vittorio Arrigoni (Italian) - +972 59 8378945
>> Fida Qishta (English and Arabic) +972 599681669
>> Jenny Linnel (English) - +972 59 87653777
>> Natalie Abu Shakra (Arabic and English) 0598336 328
>> For more information on the Free Gaza Movment (FGM) or the
>> International
>> Solidarity Movement (ISM) contact in the West Bank:
>> Adam Taylor (ISM) - 972 59 8503948
>> Lubna Masarwa (FGM)- 972 50 5633044
> 
> 
>       
> 
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