Arab solidarity with the people of Palestine is growing amid the ongoing military bombardments by Israel. These attacks are supported by the United States Government.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
STOP ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL
SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
Statement from the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI)
Note: Join today's (Dec. 30) Demonstration in Solidarity With The People of Gaza at West Warren and Chase in Dearborn, MI, Beginning at 4:00pm
December 30, 2008
The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) condemns the U.S.-backed Israeli terrorist bombings in Gaza, which have resulted in the mass murder of over 350 Palestinians and the serious wounding of thousands more. We join the angry, growing worldwide protests of these latest Israeli war crimes.
We condemn the U.S. complicity in the siege and bombings of Gaza and demand an immediate halt to ALL United States military and other aid to the outlaw state of Israel. The Zionist state is the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world and is Washington’s outpost in the Middle East. Every single one of the bombs rained down on the people of Gaza, every single fighter jet and helicopter, every piece of artillery and ammunition, is bought and paid for by the United States – stolen from working peoples’ tax dollars.
We demand that President-elect Barack Obama end his silence on the terror attacks and condemn Israel’s actions immediately. The millions of people who elected Obama did so in large part because they want peace and an end to endless war and militarism. The murderous onslaught against the people of Gaza requires the voicing of yeah or nay – to remain silent is to condone Israel’s barbaric genocide against the Palestinian people.
We demand an immediate end to the 18-month genocidal siege of Gaza by the Israeli military and its U.S. suppliers and overlords. The people of Gaza have been struggling to survive with insufficient food, power and a damaged and depleted healthcare system. The world has condemned this siege as an Israeli crime against humanity.
The siege and the bombings are U.S.-Israeli war crimes. Without billions in yearly U.S. aid Israel could not bomb the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, cut off their electricity and kick them out of their homes. Here in Detroit and throughout the U.S., the same U.S. government lets banks foreclose on workers’ homes while bosses lay off thousands of workers and millions live in fear of imminent destitution.
We demand the immediate cessation of the genocidal bombing campaigns by Israel against the people of Gaza. We stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza, the Hamas government, and all Palestinian people against U.S. imperialism and Israel.
We demand that U.S. aid to Israel be cut to zero and that this money be used instead for reparations for the Palestinian people, to ensure their right to return, and for homes, jobs, health care and education for working people in the U.S.
Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI)Phone: 313-680-5508
Website: http://www.mecawi.org
Israeli vessel hits Gaza-bound boat
Dignity was carrying aid for Gaza's beleaguered
health care system
A small boat, damaged as it tried to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, has arrived in the Lebanese port of Tyre.
The Dignity started taking on water after it was hit by an Israeli naval vessel as it approached the Israeli coast with its cargo of medical aid.
The Free Gaza Movement, which organised the attempt to reach the territory , said their boat was "rammed" and shots were fired when at least four Israeli vessels confronted them in international waters.
Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, denied there had been any shooting but said that the ships had made "physical contact".
He said that the crew of the Dignity had failed to respond to Israeli naval radio contact.
'Rammed'
Elize Ernshire, one of the activists onboard the boat, told Al Jazeera by telephone that the boat was rammed twice from the front and then once from the side.
"It has destroyed the front of the boat and the roof ... and has left the cabin, the wheelhouse quite destroyed," she said.
" ... [W]e were threatened directly by the Israeli navy that if we continued on our course towards Gaza they would attack us again."
Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, said that the incident was nothing more than a "propoganda stunt".
"Israel would never have done anything against international law, that is inconceivable," he told Al Jazeera.
"These people just want a headline, they don't really want to help the people of Gaza, if they wanted to help the people of Gaza they would be asking Hamas why they initiated the violence."
Several small boats have arrived in the Gaza Strip carrying international activists and medical aid since August in defiance of the Israeli siege.
Ernshire said that the incident would not stop the movement trying again to take aid to the impoverished territory.
"The majority of passenger here are determined, once we reach Lebanon, to keep continuing to organise such boats as these, to reach the people of Gaza," she said.
Gaza's health system is struggling to cope with the casualties from four consecutive days of aerial bombardment by Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships.
Shortages
Hospitals were already facing shortages of medicines and other medical products due to the Israeli siege imposed after the Hamas government seized full control of the territory in 2007.
As well as more than three tonnes of aid, the Dignity was carrying three doctors to help treat the more than 1,600 wounded in recent days.
Avital Leibovitz, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said that humanitarian aid was being allowed into the Gaza Strip and the medical supplies on the boat would not have made much impact on the humanitarian situation.
"Lets not talk about a blockade because it does not exist, the humanitarian corridor is active, alive and working," she told Al Jazeera.
"There are a numerous number of trucks enetring Gaza with food and medicine according to the requests of the aid organisations."
Three Al Jazeera journalists were among the 15 people onboard the boat.
"Al Jazeera holds Israel responsible for the safety of the Al Jazeera journalists and everyone on board the Dignity," Wadah Khanfar, director general of the Al Jazeera network said in a statement.
"Al Jazeera's presence on the boat is to cover the expedition for news and journalistic purposes. We are deeply concerned for the safety and well being of our journalists."
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Violence at Gaza protest in Yemen
Protests have been held across the Middle East against the four-day-Israeli air attack on Gaza
Demonstrators in the Yemeni port city of Aden have broken into the Egyptian consulate in a protest against Cairo's response to Israel's offensive against Gaza, a security official has said.
The protesters, who were mostly students from the University of Aden, "vandalised furniture before they were removed peacefully from the building", the official said on Tuesday, asking not to be identified.
Another security official said three staff members were inside the building at the time but they were unhurt.
The official said one protester was wounded when a consular guard opened fire and that the protesters retaliated by setting fire to two consular vehicles.
More than 20 demonstrators were arrested.
Protests have been held across the Middle East against the four-day-Israeli air attack on Gaza, which has killed at least 360 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,600.
Many Arabs have accused Cairo of giving the green light to Israel's assault after Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, hosted Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, for talks just two days before the launch of the onslaught.
Rafah closure
In the absence of Israeli embassies in most Arab capitals, Egyptian diplomatic missions have been a particular focus of the demonstrations.
Demonstrators in Beirut, Lebanon - angry over Egypt's response to Israel's raids on Gaza - attacked the Egyptian embassy, throwing stones before police used tear gas to disperse them.
Protests have also been held outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
Egypt has come under heavy criticism from Arab and Muslim countries over its refusal to re-open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip at Rafah over the past year, thereby aiding Israel's blockade of the territory.
Mubarak announced on Egyptian television on Tuesday that the Rafah crossing will not be fully re-opened until Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, regains authority in the territory.
"We will not deepen the division and that breach [among the Palestinians] by opening Rafah border crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and the European Union monitors," he said, making reference to a 2005 agreement over the border.
Jakarta rally
Thousands have also rallied in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, to voice their opposition to the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Demonstrators waved Palestinian and Indonesian flags while some carried banners with slogans such as "Move Israel outside Palestine land".
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation and many Indonesians have been staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause.
The protest coincided with a condemnation of the raids by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president.
"I have sent a letter to the secretary-general of United Nations as well as to the UN security council condemning the Israeli military attacks and urging swift action to resolve the conflict," Yudhoyono said.
"The security council must formally meet and issue a resolution to force Israel to end all attacks, so that Israeli and Palestinian can continue the peace process."
Jakarta has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
Source: Agencies
Hamas vows to hit Israel harder
The warning from Hamas's armed wing came after Israel said its assault could last "weeks"
The armed wing of Hamas has vowed to send rockets deeper into Israel than ever before if the latter continued its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
"We tell the leaders of the enemy - if you continue with your assault, we will hit with our rockets further than the cities we have hit so far," a masked spokesman for Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in televised comments on Tuesday.
"If you think that Hamas and al-Qassam will be crushed, we will rise up from the rubble," the spokesman said.
The Hamas announcement followed Israeli warning that the onslaught in the Gaza Strip could last for "weeks".
More than 360 people have been killed, including at least 61 women and children, in four consecutive days of Israeli bombardment and local hospitals are saying they are unable to cope with any more casualties.
Civilians and security guards were among the dead in the latest raids on Tuesday, Palestinian medical workers said.
Israel said there would be no let up until the threat of Palestinian rockets attacks from the Gaza Strip had been removed.
"There is no room for a ceasefire," Meir Sheetrit, Israel's interior minister, said.
"The government is determined to remove the threat of [rocket] fire on the south.
"Therefore the Israeli army must not stop the operation before breaking the will of Palestinians, of Hamas, to continue to fire at Israel."
Four Israeli citizens have been killed by missiles fired from Palestinian positions since the offensive began on Saturday.
Military preparations
The Israeli army has been massing infantry and armoured forces along the border amid increasing fears that a ground invasion is planned.
Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, said the military "has made preparations for some long weeks of action".
On Monday, areas of the border were declared "closed military zones" and thousands of reservists have been called up by the Israeli military.
"The ground forces are ready," Avital Leibovitz, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said on Tuesday.
"The option exists. It is possible that we will apply it but for the moment we are only hitting from the air and the sea."
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza Strip, said that the confirmation that naval vessels were now launching attacks was a further widening of the offensive.
"We undertsand they are targeting buildings and various other targets throughout Gaza," he said.
Mohyeldin said that a ground offensive would worsen the humanitarian situation for Gazans.
"A ground offensive will mean urban warfare, close proximity fighting from street-to-street ... Gaza is so densely-populated that ultimately in that kind of operation the civilian population will find themselves caught in the middle," he said.
More than 1,600 Palestinians have already been wounded in the assault and hospital are running out medicines and other products needed to treat them.
Ceasefire call
Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, has added his voice to calls for an end to the violence.
"All this must stop," Ban told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York.
"Both Israel and Hamas must halt their acts of violence and take all necessary measures to avoid civilian casualties. A ceasefire must be declared immediately. They must also curb their inflammatory rhetoric."
Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the Israel military was was being "as surgical as it can be", while Hamas rocket attacks indiscriminately targeted civilians.
"We have been hitting Hamas command-and-control, Hamas military structures ... our target is not the innocent people of Gaza, it is only the Hamas military machine," he said.
"Our feeling towards the people of Gaza is not hostility, we see them as victims of the terrible Hamas Taliban-type regime, just as the people of southern Israel are victims."
Support for Israel came from the US, with the White House saying Hamas must halt cross-border rocket fire.
"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire," Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman said.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Gaza strikes challenge for Obama
By Tom Ackerman in Washington DC
The violence in Gaza will be one of Obama's top challenges when he takes office
While the Gaza Strip erupted at the weekend Barack Obama remained in holiday mode in Hawaii, sticking to his regular gym routine and otherwise relaxing.
The military action comes just three weeks before Obama is sworn in as president and poses a great challenge for a man who has promised to work for Middle East peace from his first day in office.
But although the president-elect has received briefings on the situation, David Axelrod, Obama’s top political adviser, said it would be inappropriate for the incoming chief executive to comment while George Bush is still president.
Nevertheless, he said Obama stood by his defence of Israeli actions when he visited the southern town of Sderot last July, a frequent target of Hamas rockets.
"He said then that when bombs are raining down on your citizens there is an urge to respond and act to put an end to that," Axelrod told CBS talkshow Face the Nation on Sunday.
"That's what he said then, and that’s what he believes."
He said Obama planned to work closely with Israel which he said was Washington's "most important ally in the region".
"They're a great ally of ours... And that is a fundamental principle from which he'll work. But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace, and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that."
Alliance
Like Bush, Obama has ruled out talks with Hamas for its refusal to recognise Israel.
During his White House campaign, Obama pledged to further cement the US-Israeli alliance saying he would "always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself in the United Nations and around the world".
Even so, critics of US Middle East policy say Obama ought to express more empathy for the Palestinians' situation.
Michael Hudson, professor of international relations at Georgetown University said that by backing Israel's position the US was opening itself up to attack.
"If you're identified with an Israel that is bombing indiscriminately and disproportionately, this is really good for Osama Bin laden, it's good for extremists all across the region and I fear that Americans as well as Israelis will now suffer," he told Al Jazeera.
In contrast to the incumbent president, Obama has pledged to take an active personal role in peace efforts early in his administration.
How long those efforts are waylaid by the ongoing fighting, however, is a question no one can yet answer.
Source: Al Jazeera
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