9th August 2014 | International Solidarity Movement| Occupied Palestine
All over the world, from Cape Town to London, people have taken the streets for Gaza!
Photos: Protests for Gaza Day of Rage around the world
Tag: Gaza
Returning to Beit Hanoun
8th August 2014 | Charlie Andreasson| Gaza, Occupied Palestine
We went back to Beit Hanoun almost two weeks after the Israeli military held us captive in the hospital and shelled it for 13 hours.
It was the second day of the 72 hours ceasefire, and there was far more traffic on the roads and streets than there had been during the last four weeks, and there were far more people visible. Rina Andolini, a British volunteer, and I made out way to the now closed hospital and were immediately recognized by some men outside the gates. Men who when I last saw them was completely exhausted and dressed in their green hospital fatigues.
I gently asked if there was any chance for us to enter to view the devastation again and a key was immediately in one man’s hand, the thick chain was removed, and the door was opened for us.
Everything looked the same since the morning when we finally were able to leave, nothing seemed to have been removed. The glass was still spread out over beds and floors, the grout likewise. However the corridor where we spent the long night now felt desolate. The faces of all the women with their eyes closed were no longer there, the kids on the mattress in front of my feet were gone. Just dirt residue.
Upstairs, however, someone had taken the mattress that was on the bed under the smiling elephant on the wall, a cat was meowing among fallen plaster and shattered glass. But the gaping hole in the wall was still there, and standing in its opening I measured with my eyes the distance from where the tank must have fired the grenade. 30 meters. Not much more.
Right next to the hospital, with just a children’s playground in between, is a cemetery. It was clear that it had been under heavy fire. Remains of projectiles scattered and war dust covered the few gravestones that were still in one piece. In the far end some men were digging. I took a shovel and helped them to uncover the stones two feet under the ground, helping them to lift them up. Another body will be laid there. Close to two thousand bodies have been, and still will be, laid to rest in the ground.
We did not attend the funeral, we went instead into an adjacent mosque. The large chandelier was in the middle of the floor amongst the dirt, dust and, as everywhere else, shattered glass. We went straight through the mosque, there was no need for a door, and met a couple carrying their baby daughter over the ruins of what had once been homes. They invited us into their house, that on the inside looked remarkably intact, but there were no electricity, water or working sanitation. We were served tea by people who barely have anything; they themselves drank nothing and said almost nothing. What was there to be said, that cannot be seen?
Some young men searched through the ruins of what had once been their home. I climbed up and picked up some drinking glasses that miraculously were not broken. There was not much else that could be saved.
Another family stayed not far from there, with a flatbed truck with belongings. They patted me on the shoulder when I carried belongings for them, into an apartment that still needed be cleaned from all the dirt and debris that lay scattered around. But there was no time for it, they could not stay longer where they were. I was given some water, and they asked me to tell what I had seen when I return back home.
But there are no words that can describe all the destruction these people are forced to return to, it must be experienced. And there are no words that can describe the vulnerability and exclusion from the world society these people live in. But perhaps more people will not have to experience this devastation before we understand that depriving people of their human rights cannot contribute to securing the safety of others. And to deny other people their dignity is not worthy of free and enlightened people.
UPDATED: Gaza Calling: All out on Saturday 9 August Day of Rage
6th August 2014 | Call from Palestine | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Updated August 8th:
Help us spread the call from Gaza for a Day of Rage on August 9th. Please help share the following translations via social media:
Arabic, English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
Words alone do not do justice.
Take the streets for Gaza!
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Gaza Calling: All out on Saturday 9 August Day of Rage
Join the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions Movement today. Demand Sanctions on Israel Now.
As we face the full might of Israel’s military arsenal, funded and supplied by the United States and European Union, we call on civil society and people of conscience throughout the world to pressure governments to sanction Israel and implement a comprehensive arms embargo immediately.
Take to the streets on Saturday 9 August with a united demand for sanctions on Israel.
From Gaza under invasion, bombardment, and continuing siege, the horror is beyond words. Medical supplies are exhausted. The death toll has reached 1813 killed (398 children, 207 women, 74 elderly) and 9370 injured (2744 children, 1750 women, 343 elderly). Our hospitals, ambulances, and medical staff are all under attack while on duty. Doctors and paramedics are being killed while evacuating the dead. Our dead are not numbers and statistics to be recounted; they are loved ones, family and friends.
While we have to survive this onslaught, you certainly have the power to help end it the same way you helped overcome Apartheid and other crimes against humanity. Israel is only able to carry out this attack with the unwavering support of governments – this support must end.
This is our third massacre in six years. When not being slaughtered, we remain under siege, an illegal collective punishment of the entire population. Fishermen are shot and killed if they stray beyond a 3 km limit imposed unilaterally by Israel. Farmers are shot harvesting their crops within a border area imposed unilaterally by Israel. Gaza has become the largest open-air prison, a concentration camp since 2006. This time, we want an end to this unprecedented crime against humanity committed with the complicity and support of your own governments!
We are not asking for charity. We are demanding solidarity, because we know that until Israel is isolated and sanctioned, these horrors will be repeated.
Take action this Saturday
- Make boycotts, divestments and sanctions the main message at every protest around the world. Take banners and placards calling for sanction on Israel to every protest. Tweet them using the hashtag #GazaDayofRage. Email us your pictures and action details to GazaDayofRage@gmail.com.
- While news of all the mass protests outside Israel’s embassies around the world have given us hope, after weeks of protests, we urge you to intensify your actions. Occupy Israeli embassies, challenge Israeli officials (and others) supporting the current aggression against Gaza whenever they appear in public and stage sit-in in government buildings.
- Boycott all Israeli products and take action against corporations profiting from Israel’s system of colonialism, occupation and apartheid. March to boycott targets in your city and educate the public about companies complicit in Israel’s ongoing military assault and illegal siege of Gaza.
- Palestinian trade unions are calling on our brothers and sisters in the trade union movement internationally to stop handling goods imported from or exported to Israel. The trade union movement has a proud history of direct action against Apartheid in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions has joined us in the call for direct action to end Israel’s impunity.
From occupied and besieged Gaza
Signed by
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions
General Union of Palestinian Women
University Teachers’ Association in Palestine
Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (Umbrella for 133 orgs)
Medical Democratic Assembly
General Union of Palestine Workers
General Union for Health Services Workers
General Union for Public Services Workers
General Union for Petrochemical and Gas Workers
General Union for Agricultural Workers
Union of Women’s Work Committees
Pal-Cinema (Palestine Cinema Forum)
Youth Herak Movement
Union of Women’s Struggle Committees
Union of Synergies—Women Unit
Union of Palestinian Women Committees
Women’s Studies Society
Working Woman’s Society
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
Gaza BDS Working Group
One Democratic State Group
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions National Committee (BNC)
BNC includes: Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), Palestinian National Institute for NGOs, Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition, Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS), Federation of Independent Trade Unions, General Union of Palestinian Workers, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, General Union of Palestinian Women, Union of Palestinian Farmers, General Union of Palestinian Teachers, General Union of Palestinian Writers, Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE), Union of Professional Associations, General Union of Palestinian Peasants, Union of Public Employees in Palestine-Civil Sector, Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (STW), National Committee for Grassroots Resistance, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba, Civic Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, Coalition for Jerusalem, Union of Palestinian Charitable Organizations, Palestinian Economic Monitor, Union of Youth Activity Centers-Palestine Refugee Camps, Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Initiative
Short stories from Gaza
5th August 2014 | Sarah Algherbawi | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
These are short stories from Gaza, a brief picture of our suffering. Reality is much more painful. The description under each photo consists of facts published on news agencies and social media. For each photo I also wrote a story. Some of the photographed people we have seen on TV, others I know their friends or relatives, and the narrative is mine from my knowledge of their circumstances.
Behind numbers, many stories are hidden and buried!
I was happy, a beautiful bride, preparing for my wedding and a house with my beloved fiancé, my soul mate…I was engaged for 13 months, and supposed to get married in August 2014. He promised to make me happy for the rest of my life…
Now, I’m alone. He never lied. He didn’t have the chance to meet his promised. He was killed.
I was happy with my wedding ring. I couldn’t believe that the woman I have always dreamed of was finally my wife. I even took a picture of the ring and put it as my profile picture on Facebook. I was going to be a daddy – my wife was pregnant when I was killed…
I wish that I could see my son. I wish he knew me. I don’t even know whether the baby is a boy or a girl… but I think he will be a boy and will hold the name of his father, Khaled…
I was a journalist, too. I was killed only for doing my job.
I had a brother. We used to fight too much. Mom had always begged us to stop fighting and making noise. We played together and spent a lot of time with each other. I never thought I would lose him this fast! I loved him very much. I didn’t tell him that. I thought I would have ages to do so…
I only wish I’d had the chance to tell him before he was killed. I can’t understand why he’s gone. He was just a kid like me. He didn’t do anything bad to others!
We witnessed a war. Our parents didn’t allow us to go out and play. We told them that we’re just children – why would they hurt us? We were very bored! We didn’t go out for weeks…
Dad told us to play on the roof. He thought it was a safe place. We had so much fun, before we were killed there.
We had a mom and a dad. They loved us very much. Mom was waiting for the war to end to take us to the market and buy us new uniforms for school and new clothes for Eid. They promised to teach us whatever we wanted, and take care of us until we grew up…
Mom always wished to attend our weddings and see our children…
The war is not over. Eid came, and they were not present. They were killed. We’re alone now. Who will take care of us?
I was pretty. My friends at school used to feel jealous of me. I always felt that I was a princess…
I don’t know what happened. I don’t even understand what they are saying. I heard doctors saying that something called fragments hurt me. I don’t even want to understand. I only want my beautiful face back!
I had a beautiful daughter. I spoiled her and loved her like no father in the world could do…
I always dreamed of her wedding day, how she would look. Would any man on earth love her the way I do?! I asked God to give me health and long age until that moment came…
It never came to my mind that she would die before I did.
They killed my daughter.
They took my soul.
I was scared to death!
UPDATED: Urgent Action alert: Rescue team delivering urgent humanitarian aid to Rafah at risk
4th August 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
UPDATED:
Thanks to all the people who contacted their representatives and the foreign offices of the UK, Sweden, and the USA! The Palestinian human rights defenders, joined by international volunteers, safely delivered mattresses, food, and water to citizens in Rafah today.
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Call your representatives and the foreign offices of the UK, Sweden, and the USA to inform them that citizens of these countries are travelling to Rafah to deliver aid. Demand that Israel cease targeting medical personnel rescue teams and civilians, and immediately provides an evacuation route to transfer humanitarian aid to Rafah and to evacuate patients to other hospitals in Gaza for treatment.
Some contact information is provided below.
Palestinian human rights defenders, joined by international volunteers, are now travelling to western Rafah with a Red Crescent truck to deliver food, mattresses, and water.
“The situation in Rafah cannot continue, people are left with nothing. There is a small window of time, that will dissolve in two hours, and then no one knows what will happen to all the civilians- the families- who need support. That’s why we’re going with mattresses, water, and food, these supplies are desperately needed right now.” Stated Swedish International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteer, Charlie Andreasson.
The group of international volunteers, including Swedish, U.S and UK citizens, are travelling from Jabalya down the Beach Road to western Rafah, with supplies donated by al-Fatiha Global and Project Akhirah.
Arwa Wael, resident of western Rafah, spoke to the ISM and stated that, “thousands of people were forced to leave the eastern side of Rafah travelling to what they thought to be the safer western side, taking shelter in UNRWA schools, in relatives and friends homes. In spite of this, these places were attacked by Israeli warplanes and many people were killed in a very short period of time, including ten members of the Zorad family. Now we are without electricity, without water and without food. Due to the shelling of the Abu Yousef hospital, the patients were evacuated to two clinics, one of which is also in the western part. The clinic doesn’t have a morgue, so ice-cream and vegetable fridges are being used to hold the dead bodies, generators are powering these fridges and are swiftly running out of fuel.”
A press release issued by the Gaza Ministry of Health on August 3rd reports that at least 170 people have been killed and dozens injured in Rafah in recent days. The two maternity hospitals in Rafah, the Kuwaiti Maternity Hospital and the Emirati Red Crescent Maternity Hospital, are not equipped to deal with the large number of wounded and dying people, and there is no safe evacuation route to transfer patients to other hospitals in Gaza for treatment.
Contact:
UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office
MP Philip Hammond
+44 20 7008 1500
020 7219 4055
@foreignoffice
US Department of State
Israel Foreign Service Desk: 202-647-3672
@StateDept
Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Carl Bildt
+46 8 405 10 00
(Plus a load more phone numbers on this page: www.government.se/sb/d/2085)
@carlbildt
@SweMFA