Tag: Gaza

An open letter to President Obama from the Free Gaza Movement

Free Gaza Movement

3 June 2009

Dear President Obama,

Tomorrow you travel to Egypt to give one of the most important speeches of your presidency. With the words you deliver you have said that you want to “reset” U.S. relations with the Muslim world and create a fundamental change for the better. We sincerely wish you well. But you have also said that “part of being a good friend is being honest.” Let’s be honest.

Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian land and the United States’ unquestioned financial, military and political support for Israel is at the heart of the negative perceptions and bitter anger that many Arabs and Muslims have of the United States. Tomorrow, we hope to hear from you a commitment to aligning U.S. policy in the Middle East with U.N. Resolutions and international law.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives everyone the right to freely enter and exit one’s own country. You will exercise this right when you arrive in Egypt tomorrow and then return to the United States. This is a right that Palestinians–particularly those trapped in Gaza–are routinely denied.

Over 200 Palestinian medical patients in Gaza, many critically ill, are unable to seek adequate treatment because Israeli authorities regularly deny Palestinian patients the right to travel abroad to receive the medical treatment that is not available in Gaza; at the same time import of many medicines and medical equipment into Gaza is prevented by Israel.

Over 700 Palestinian students in Gaza, many with scholarships, are unable to attend their universities abroad because Israel regularly denies them this right.

Thousands of Palestinians abroad are unable to visit their families because Israel will not allow them to re-enter their own country.

When you arrive in Egypt you will travel to your accommodations in a car maintained with spare parts banned to Palestinians, powered by gasoline denied to the people of Gaza. You will use electric lights that do not often work in Gaza, because Israel blocks the fuel needed to run Gaza’s electrical grid. You may enjoy a cup of coffee or tea during your visit – commodities Israel will not allow into Gaza.

The truth is that Israel lets in less than 20% of the ordinary supplies needed in Gaza, and allows no reconstruction materials whatsoever to enter. As a consequence over 95% of all industries have collapsed, creating massive unemployment and poverty. The purpose of the Israeli blockade is to punish and break an entire people. Collective punishment is strictly prohibited under international law, yet it remains Israel’s primary policy in regards to the Palestinian people.

On June 25th, the Free Gaza Movement sets sail on our eighth voyage to challenge the brutal Israeli blockade of Gaza. Though we have been threatened and our ships rammed by the Israeli navy, we will not be deterred. We sail in the spirit of the Freedom Riders who, in the year you were born, risked their lives so that African-Americans could travel freely in the United States. We sail in the spirit of international cooperation that helped create the United Nations, in the spirit of the international civil resistance that overcame Apartheid.

President Obama, you have based your political career on what you call the “audacity of hope” – the faith that each of us, individually and collectively, can change things for the better. But faith without action is dead. We too believe in hope, but from our experience we know that hope alone will not change the world. Like you, we know that the price and promise of our mutual humanity demands that each of us treat one another with dignity and respect, and that all of us strive to insure that our sisters and brothers around the world are free to make of their lives what they will, and pursue their full measure of happiness.

Mister President, you led the fight in the U.S. Senate to insure that aid was actually delivered to people after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. A man-made disaster continues to devastate the people of Gaza; due to Israel’s ongoing hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip over 80% of the population there require food assistance just in order to survive. We hope your speech tomorrow in Egypt is successful but, at a minimum, you must use your privilege to demand and secure open access to Gaza for all international humanitarian, reconstruction, and developmental supplies. Words matter, but words are not enough.

We in the Free Gaza Movement will sail to Gaza again and again and again, in vigorous unarmed resistance, until the Israeli blockade is forever shattered and the Palestinian people have free access to the rest of the world.

Please recognize that the fact that we even have to ask (let alone risk our lives) to be allowed to provide food to the hungry, medicine to the sick, and shelter to the homeless is in itself an obscenity. We look forward to hearing from you an uncompromising commitment for the immediate end of the criminal siege of Gaza, as well as an assurance that respect for the human rights, dignity and equality of the Palestinian people will be at the core of your administration’s policy toward the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Sincerely Yours,
The Free Gaza Movement Board of Directors

Huwaida Arraf, JD
Greta Berlin
Eliza Ernshire
Derek Graham
Fathi Jaouadi
Ramzi Kysia

Health Day for Gazan fishermen

ISM Gaza | Fishing Under Fire

3 June 2009

The Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, has organized a day of free medical treatment for the Gazan fishermen at the offices of the Tawfiq Cooperative of Fishermen – Gaza Strip. The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC) provided the doctors, nurses and the medicines.

The situation of Palestinian fishermen is critical because of the siege imposed by Israel and Egypt. According to the Oslo accords the Palestinian fishermen were allowed to fish up to 20 n. miles from the coast, but these limits were gradually reduced by the Israeli Navy to 12, then 6 and now after the recent massacres, to 3 n. miles. In fact the Palestinian fishermen are facing attacks by the Israeli Navy even a few meters from the coast. Since the declaration of the “ceasefire” there has been at least 5 fishermen wounded in the sea, 5 more reportedly injured on the shore, 40 abductions of fishermen, 17 “confiscations” of fishing boats, dozens of fishing boats damaged, fishing equipment stolen, lost during the attacks, or damaged. So practically the Palestinian fishermen are not allowed to practice their profession. In the meantime the price of fuel is getting higher every day, because of the siege. Subsequently the Palestinian fishermen are financially ruined and cannot afford to pay for their health care and have to wait for initiatives like the one organized by the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza and the UPMRC. `

Soldier who killed UK peace activist deemed ineligible for parole

Hanan Greenberg | YNet News

2 June 2009

Israel Defense Forces soldier Taysir Hayb, who was convicted of the manslaughter of British peace activist Tom Hurndall in Gaza in 2003, will remain in jail despite having served two-thirds of his sentence, which should have made him eligible for parole.

Hurndall was shot in the head during a demonstration in Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Military Prosecution stated Tuesday that it objected to Hayb’s early release for fears it might exacerbate tensions between Israel’s and the UK.

After serving five-and-a-half years of his sentence, Hayb told a committee headed by Jaffa Military Court President Colonel Rachel Tevet-Vizel that “I did not come from a criminal organization; I came from a military background. I am not a criminal and I want to complete my jail term, get engaged and build a home and a future.”

During the hearing Hayb’s attorney, Idan Pesach, presented the rehabilitation regimen his client followed in prison. “The convict has made significant progress,” the lawyer told the committee. “He has undergone a major change in the way he talks and in how he handles different situations. I am certain he will be able to become an upstanding citizen once he’s released.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Sharon Zgagi-Pinchas, for the prosecution, told the committee she was opposed to releasing Hayb at this juncture. “We are talking about a prisoner who opened fire on a peace activist despite being in no danger,” she said, adding that the soldier’s early release may exacerbate tentions between Jerusalem and London.

The committee members determined that Hayb will serve the remainder of his sentence, particularly due to the severity of the offenses he was convicted of. They said they also based the decision on the IDF’s values and moral code, with the purpose of conveying a message to Israeli soldiers regarding “lines that cannot be crossed.”

Open letter from Gaza to the government and people of Spain

30 May 2009

We write to you as Palestinians from Gaza to express our dismay at the proposal of the Spanish parliament to restrict the universal jurisdiction of Spain, particularly with regard to breaches of international humanitarian law. The proposal called for the existing legislation to be modified so that cases may only be pursued if they involve Spanish victims or if the accused is present on Spanish soil.

At approximately midnight on 22 July 2002, an Israeli Air Force fighter jet dropped a 2,000 lb bomb on the densely populated Daraj neighborhood of Gaza city. The main target of the attack was the family home of Salah Shehada, Commander of the military wing of Hamas. The bomb killed Shehada and an additional seventeen civilians, including his wife, his daughter, eight children (including a 2-month old baby), two elderly men, and two women. In addition, seventy seven people were injured, eleven houses were completely destroyed and thirty two houses damaged, leaving many families homeless.

The Government of the State of Israel confirmed that it was fully aware that Shehada’s wife and daughter “[w]ere close to him during the implementation of the assassination … and there was no way out of conducting the operation despite their presence1.” The practice of wanton willful killing of civilians exemplified in this extra-judicial assassination is not an isolated incident. It is one instance in an ongoing, comprehensive policy targeting us the civilian Palestinians of the Gaza strip and systematically denying us our rights to movement, work, medical care, study, livelihood and increasingly life itself.

In spite of Israel’s alleged unilateral withdrawal from the Strip, it still maintains a permanent military presence in Gaza’s territorial waters and controls the movement of people and goods onto the strip by land, air or water in addition to movement within the strip through targeting anyone entering the “no go” zone designated by the Israeli military. Israel also continues to control Gaza’s population registry. Yet, Israel claims that it is no longer the occupying power in the Gaza strip and uses this excuse in addition to the results of 2006 democratic election to intensify it’s policy of siege and lethal attacks on us, Gaza’s civilians.

On the 29th of February 2008 Matan Vilnai, Deputy Defense Minister of the State of Israel, threatened us with a bigger Shoah (holocaust) and lived up to his word. During the following Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip conducted in February 2008 dubbed as “Operation Hot Winter” The Israeli Occupation Forces killed 107 Palestinians including 64 children. The European Union, including Spain, not only refrained from taking action against the State of Israel for its policy of systematic mass murder, but announced its intent to upgrade its relations with the State of Israel. This announcement was the green light Israel needed to continue and escalate its policies, resulting in January 2009 assault on besieged Gaza.

The 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, 80 per cent of whom are refugees expelled from their homes by Zionist forces in 1948, were subjected to 22 days of relentless Israeli state terror, whereby Israeli warplanes, in a repeat of what happened at Al-Darraj on 22.July.2002, systematically targeted civilian areas, reducing whole neighborhoods and vital civilian infrastructure to rubble, including several run by the UN, where civilians were taking shelter. International human rights organizations are now calling for a war crimes investigation into Israel’s military assault on Gaza in which the Israeli Occupation Forces killed 1,440 Palestinians of whom 431 were children, and injured 5380.

One ray of hope for us in this time was the decision of Judge Fernando Andreu of the Spanish Audencia Nacional (National Court) to continue the investigation into the events surrounding the al-Daraj bombing of July 2002. We consider this decision a manifestation of Europe’s promise and commitment to the principle of “never again” to stand by in silence while ethnic cleansing is taking place. We have hope that it will serve as a deterrent to other would be war criminals.

If the Spanish parliament’s resolution calling on the government to limit Spain’s universal jurisdiction mechanisms is accepted, it will lead to continued impunity for war criminals and complicity with future war crimes including the ongoing collective punishment and genocide directed against us, the civilian population of the Gaza strip.

Signed by:

-The One Democratic State Group – Gaza
-University Teachers’ Association in Palestine – Gaza
-Palestinian Student’s Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
-Arab Cultural Forum – Gaza
-Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Information Society
-Society Friends for Rehabilitation of Visually Impaired

Spanish translation:

Carta abierta desde Gaza al gobierno y la población de España,

Os escribimos con consternación debido a la propuesta del Congreso de los diputados para restringir vuestra jurisdicción universal. En particular en lo que se refiere a las violaciones del Derecho Internacional Humanitario. La propuesta de modificación pretende conseguir que se actúe solo en casos en los que haya víctimas españolas o los acusados se encuentren en suelo español.

En la medianoche del 22 de Julio de 2002, un caza de combate de la Fuerza Aérea Israelí lanzó una bomba de casi dos toneladas sobre el barrio de Al Daraj, en la ciudad de Gaza. El objetivo principal de dicho ataque era la casa de Salah Sehadeh, Comandante del brazo armado de Hamas. La bomba le asesinó a él, a su guardaespaldas y a 14 civiles, incluyendo a su mujer, ocho niños (uno de ellos era un bebé de dos meses), dos ancianos y dos mujeres. Además alrededor de 150 civiles resultaron heridos, ocho casas fueron destruidas, nueve más resultaron dañadas y otras 21 sufrieron daños considerables, lo que derivó en dejar a decenas de familias sin hogar.

Los oficiales del ejército de ocupación israelí han reconocido que decidieron lanzar la bomba a sabiendas de que Sehadeh se encontraba junto a su mujer y su familia, asesinándola intencionalmente. La decisión de atacar fue tomada asumiendo que al menos 10 civiles morirían junto a él. La práctica de asesinatos selectivos, ejemplificada a través de este caso de ejecución extrajudicial no es de ninguna manera una práctica aislada. Es parte de una política en marcha que señala como objetivo al conjunto de los civiles de Gaza y niega sistemáticamente el derecho a la libertad de movimientos, trabajo, tratamiento medico, estudio, vida digna y, cada vez más, el derecho a la vida en su conjunto.

Pese a la supuesta retirada unilateral israelí de la Franja de Gaza, aún se mantiene una presencia militar constante en sus aguas territoriales, se restringe el movimiento de ciudadanos y bienes desde y hacia la Franja. También existe una zona de no-acceso dentro del territorio, decidida por el ejército israelí. Israel controla el censo de población. Y aún así Israel asegura que no es la potencia ocupante y utiliza esta excusa, junto al resultado de las elecciones de 2006 para mantener su bloqueo y ataque continuado contra nosotros, los civiles de Gaza.
El 29 de Febrero de 2008, Matan Vilnai, Vice-Ministro de Defensa del Estado de Israel nos amenazó con un “holocausto” aún mayor y cumplió su palabra. A lo largo del siguiente ataque militar contra la Franja de Gaza, desarrollado el mismo 2008, bajo la denominación “invierno caliente”, el ejército israelí asesino a 107 palestinos, entre ellos 64 niños. La Unión Europea, incluyendo a España, no solo no movió un dedo contra las actividades de Israel y su política de asesinatos masivos sino que anunció que elevaría sus relaciones con el Estado de Israel. Este anuncio constituyó la luz verde que Israel buscaba para continuar e incrementar su castigo contra Gaza, como pudimos observar los pasados meses de diciembre y enero

El millón y medio de palestinos de la Gaza asediada, el 80% de los cuales son refugiados expulsados de sus hogares por las milicias sionistas en 1948, han sido sometidos a 22 días de terror ininterrumpido en los que los aviones y tanques israelíes repitiendo a escala masiva lo que ya había sucedido en Julio de 2002 en el barrio de Al Darraj. Destruyeron sistemáticamente todo tipo de instalaciones civiles, reduciendo a escombros barrios enteros e incluso instalaciones de la Media Luna Roja y las Naciones Unidas donde miles de civiles buscaban refugio. Diversas organizaciones internacionales investigan la comisión de crímenes de Guerra durante un ataque que ha asesinado a 1440 palestinos, entre los cuales había 431 niños, y ha herido a otros 5380.

La decisión del Juez Andreu, miembro de la Audiencia Nacional, de continuar con la investigación de los hechos alrededor del bombardeo de Al-Darraj en Julio de 2002 era para nosotros un rayo de esperanza. La considerábamos una manifestación europea del “nunca más” al silencio frente a la limpieza étnica. Esperábamos que esto sirviera para evitar que los crímenes de Guerra se repitan y continúen impunes.

Si la resolución del Congreso de los Diputados que le pide al Gobierno que limite la jurisdicción universal se aprueba finalmente, incrementará la impunidad de los criminales de Guerra y cubrirá de complicidad con los crímenes de guerra a quienes la han impulsado y la aprueben

Firmado por:

-Grupo para un Estado único y democrático. Franja de Gaza.
– Asociación de Profesores de Universidad de Palestina. Franja de Gaza.
-Campaña de Estudiantes Universitarios por el Boicot académico al Estado de Israel.
– Forum Cultural árabe – Gaza
– Banco Al-Qud para la cultura y la información.
-Sociedad de rehabilitación de los deficientes visuales de la Franja de Gaza.

Spanish organizations oppose a resolution that could end Spain’s universal jurisdiction

In support of Universal Jurisdiction

The social organizations, solidarity groups, development NGOs and human rights associations, as well as persons of the academic and legal sphere, listed below:

WE EXPRESS our opposition to the approval by the Spanish Congress of Deputies of the Resolution that limits the exercise of the universal penal jurisdiction by the Spanish courts and restricts their jurisdiction to the cases in which those presumed responsible are found in Spain or to the fact that there are victims of Spanish nationality.

WE RECALL, once again, that as a signatory of the Geneva Agreements of 1949 on Humanitarian International Law and the Additional Protocol I to these Agreements, related to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts, Spain is obliged to maintain the universal jurisdiction principle within its legislation in order to judge those responsible for war crimes. Because of this, we consider this resolution a clear disregard of the conventional obligations assumed by the Spanish State. In relation to other international crimes as crimes against humanity or genocide, defined by International Law, on the extent that it prevents them from being prosecuted, its approval also implies an act of concealment. Consequently, the decision will also evidently limit the rights of the victims.

WE REQUEST that the Government not continue with the reform of Article 23.4 of the Organic Law of the Judicial Power which could prejudice ongoing causes. We believe that the Spanish Government is obliged to prefer the fulfilment of its international commitments
and the defence of human rights over contingent national interests and economic or political pressures.

Manifesto signed by:

ACSUR – Las Segovias, Adriana Ortiz Martínez, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Al Quds Málaga, Alberto Arce, director de documentales y activista por Palestina, Alliance for Freedom and Dignity de España, Angeles Diez Rodríguez, Profesora Contratada Doctor, Facultad de CC. Políticas y Sociología de la UCM, Antonio Segura, abogado, Asociación Cultura, Paz y Solidaridad Haydée Santamaría, Asociación de Solidaridad de los trabajadores y trabajadoras de los países empobrecidos, Sotermun, Asociación Elcàlam – Comité de defensa de los derechos humanos en el Magreb, Asociación Hispano Palestina Jerusalén, Asociación Paz Ahora, Asociación Paz con Dignidad, Associacio Cultura, Pau i Solidaritat Haydée Santamaría de Catalunya, Bárbara Azaola Piazza, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Carla Canal Rosich, Barcelona, Carmen Pérez González, Profesora de Derecho Internacional Público, Univ. Carlos III Madrid, CIEMEN, Barcelona, Comisión Española de Ayuda al refugiado – CEAR, Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe – CSCA, Ester Jiménez de Cisneros Puig, FEDERACIÓN DE ASOCIACIONES DE DEFENSA Y PROMOCIÓN DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS-ESPAÑA: Asociación para las Naciones Unidas en España (ANUE), Asociación para la Defensa de la Libertad Religiosa (ADLR), Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado (CEAR), Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya (IDHC), Instituto de Estudios Políticos para América Latina y África (IEPALA), Justicia y Paz, Liga Española Pro Derechos Humanos, Movimiento por la Paz – (MPDL), Paz y Cooperación, Mundubat, UNESCO Etxea, Plataforma de Mujeres Artistas contra la Violencia de Género, Coordinadora Estatal de Asociaciones Solidarias con el Sáhara (CEAS-Sáhara), Asociacion Española para el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (AEDIDH). Ferran Izquierdo Brichs, Profesor de Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, François Houtart. Profesor Emérito Universidad de Lovaina, Bélgica, Fundación CEAR, Fundación IEPALA, Fundación Mundubat, Gemma Casal Fité, CCDR – Universitat de Lleida, Grupo de ONG por Palestina, Ignacio Álvarez Ossorio, Profesor del Área de Estudios árabes e islámicos, Universidad de Alicante, Ignacio Castien, Profesor Contratado Doctor, Facultad de CC. Políticas y Sociología UCM, Instituto de Estudios sobre Conflictos y Acción Humanitaria IECAH, International Jewish Antizionist Network – IJAN,Irene Fernández Molina, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Isaías Barreñada Bajo, miembro de la junta directiva de ACSUR, Izquierda Unida, Joan Coma i Roura, José Abu-Tarbush, Profesor de la Universidad de La Laguna, Juana Moreno Nieto, Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IESA-CSIC), Laura Camargo Fernández Profesora Universitat de les Illes Balears, Lidón Soriano Segarra (Profesora Universidad Camilo José Cela. Madrid, Manuela Piazza Manuello, Marc Agramunt Mayà, Setem, Maria Jose Lera, Profesora Titular Universidad de Sevilla, premio Clara Campoamor 2009, Marta Godinho Marques de Carvalho, Marta Ter Ferrer, Lliga dels Drets dels Pobles, Mercè Adrové Ariño, Mujeres por la Paz y Acción Solidaria con Palestina – canarias, Najaty S. Jabary, Nieves Ortega García, Profesora Asociada de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Palestinarekin Elkartasuna, Pamplona – Iruña, Pascual Serrano, periodista, Pedro Azaola Rodríguez- Espina, médico, Pierre Galand, Presidente del European Co-ordinating Committee of NGOs on the Question of Palestine, Pilar Salamanca, Plataforma 2015 y más, Plataforma de solidaridad con el pueblo palestino de Ibiza, Plataforma de Solidaridad con Palestina de Sevilla, Plataforma Solidaria con Palestina – Valladolid, Rafael Escudero Alday, Profesor Titular de Derecho, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Rafaél González Fernández Profesor Titular Facultad de CC. Políticas y Sociología de la UCM, Red de Jóvenes Palestinos, Red Solidaria contra la Ocupación de Palestina, Santiago Alba Rico, escritor y filósofo, Sergio García Arcos, Sodepau, Sodepaz – Valladolid, Sodepaz, Taula per Palestina, Illes Balears, Unión Sindical Obrera – USO, Willy Meyer Pleite, eurodiputado de Izquierda Unida, Xarxa d’Enllaç amb Palestina