Just Wondering has Moved

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‘Breakout into Israel’ ahead

Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem January 26, 2008

A SENIOR Hamas official warned yesterday that the next breakout from the Gaza Strip could be into Israel, with 500,000 Palestinians attempting to march towards the towns and villages from which they or their parents fled or were expelled 60 years ago.

“This is not an imaginary scenario and many Palestinians would be prepared to sacrifice their lives,” said Ahmed Youssef, political adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.

Israeli minister Ze’ev Boim said the threat must be taken seriously in light of the successful Hamas breakout into Egyptian territory on Wednesday, adding: “We must learn from what has just happened there.”

Egypt moved last night to end the great Gaza breakout, which had reverberated throughout the region as all sides tried to come to grips with its implications.

Egyptian security forces announced by loudspeaker in towns near the border with the Gaza Strip that it would be closed from 3pm (midnight AEDT), with an unknown number of Palestinians still in Egypt.

Riot police turned water cannon on Palestinians trying to cross into Egypt, despite Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak saying earlier that he would not allow the people of Gaza to starve.

Hamas, riding high on its operational success, sought to parlay it into political gain by seeking Egyptian approval for new border arrangements that would give Hamas for the first time a role in the vital crossing point at Rafah, between Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Israeli security officials said Hamas and other militant groups had already exploited the breach in the border wall to send “numerous” armed men into Sinai with the aim of infiltrating into Israel along the long, largely undefended, border between Sinai and Israel.

The Israeli road running the length of the border was yesterday shut to civilian traffic and the army deployed reinforcements in the area.

The officials said the militants were eager to hit back at Israel for heavy casualties in Israeli attacks in recent weeks and that attacks from Sinai were likely to come within the next two weeks.

Israeli civilians on vacation along Sinai’s Red Sea coast were advised to return to Israel for fear Palestinian militants would try to seize them as hostages.

Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilna’i said yesterday the breakout into Egypt was an opportunity for Israel to rid itself of its responsibility to supply Gaza with electricity and water and to serve as a channel for Gaza’s imports and exports.

“When Gaza is open to the other side we lose responsibility for it,” he said. “We want to disconnect from it.”

Egypt, however, has made it clear it does not want responsibility for the troublesome strip, whose Islamic militants are ideological partners of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. It particularly does not want indirect responsibility for the rockets fired from the strip into Israel.

The crossing point had been closed since Hamas’s seizure of the Gaza Strip last June.

If Mr Mubarak were to allow new border arrangements with Hamas that would permit a free flow of people and goods, it would violate Egypt’s agreement with the international “Quartet” — the US, UN, European Union and Russia — for a border terminal without Hamas involvement and with cameras permitting Israel to monitor the crossing.

However, Mr Mubarak would find it hard, not least for his image in the Arab world, to be seen as party to a renewed siege of the Palestinians.

Israel says it will continue its siege until the rocket firing ceases, with an invasion of Gaza a likelihood if the rocketing does not cease.

Source:

Gazans make new border wall hole

Palestinians have bulldozed down part of the Gaza-Egypt border wall again, hours after Egyptian troops blocked holes recently made by militants.Guards with riot shields stood by and then pulled out of the border areas completely as Palestinians swarmed through the newly-demolished barrier.

Hundreds of thousands have surged into Egypt to buy supplies since the first breaches were made on Wednesday.

Recently Israel tightened a blockade of Gaza, leading to acute shortages there.

Israel imposed the embargo after numerous rocket attacks from Gaza on its southern towns.

The UN has estimated that as much as half of Gaza’s 1.5 million population has crossed the border in defiance of the blockade.

Barbed wire

The large yellow bulldozer was driven to the border from the Gaza side, ploughing headlong into the border fence.

The BBC’s Ian Pannell at the border says Egyptian security forces seem to have given up their efforts to stop the Palestinians streaming through.

People were continuing to ferry essential goods such as petrol and cooking oil back into Gaza, as they have for the past two days, eyewitnesses said.

Egypt had tried to close the border but extra troops failed to stem the crowds.

The Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, said it supported Egypt’s decision to close the border.

Israel has demanded Egypt take action, as it is worried about arms smuggling.

But the latest incident is a humiliating setback for Cairo, which must now decide how to respond, our correspondent says.

Egypt may now have to consider talks with Hamas, which it has previously ruled out, he adds.

The new breach came hours after Egyptian security forces had begun to stop Palestinians from entering their country while at the same time allowing people back into Gaza.

Riot police armed with electric batons attempted to seal the breach, while water cannons were aimed above the heads of the jostling crowd after some Palestinians threw stones.

Live shots were also fired from both sides.

Egyptian border guards meanwhile began placing piles of barbed wire and chain-link fences along the border in an attempt to re-seal it.

Hamas, the Islamist movement which seized control of Gaza in June, has said it supports Egypt’s decision to close the border and denied any involvement in the new breach.

But unless the group agrees to help police the border, it will be very difficult to keep it closed, our correspondent says.The move by the Egyptian authorities came only hours after the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, urged them to secure the border with Gaza.

Later, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki promised it would “go back as normal”.

Heightened alert

Israel has stepped up its security since the border fence was destroyed, with citizens warned against travelling to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.

Israeli officials said police were on increased alert because of warnings about infiltration and fears that militants will acquire more weapons in Egypt.

Overnight on Thursday, the Israeli military carried out two air strikes near the border, killing four suspected Hamas militants.

The commander of the Islamist movement’s military wing in Rafah, Mohammed Abu Harb, was killed along with another senior militant when Israeli missiles hit their jeep in the town, Palestinian medics said.

Another two died two hours earlier in an Israeli air strike on a truck in southern Rafah.

Source:

POWER TO THE (PALESTINIAN) PEOPLE!

This was sent to me as an e-mail from Sam Bahour who is a Palestinian/American from Palestine. Thanks Sam for sending this to me and Thanks Jeff for the stand you are taking. I wish there were more people like the two of you. Chet

Jeff Halper

January 23, 2008

The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own “moderate” political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking a siege imposed on them by an Arab government in collaboration with Israel.

We, the peoples of the world, should take great pride and encouragement in this quintessentially civil society refusal to accept subjugation, to abandon their fate to governments, including their own, for whom the lives of ordinary people are simply grist for their political charades – Annapolis and its subsequent “peace process” being but the last cynical expression. For the Palestinians represent far more than just themselves. Their refusal to submit to the dictates of governments, or to governments’ lack of interest in the well-being of people in general, reflects the desire of billions of oppressed people for identity, freedom, a decent life and actualization of their collective and individual rights and potentials. Most of the oppressed, the “wretched of the earth” as Franz Fanon called them a half-century ago, are too preoccupied with the daunting daily struggle for survival to organize and resist. Others do resist in a myriad of ways, but are most often repressed by their own political and economic “leaders,” disappearing anonymously from view. In a few cases they have managed to mount effective resistance to oppression, even to prevail – though the billions spent on “counterinsurgency” warfare by the US, Europe, Russia, Israel and many “developing” nations augur ill for peoples attempting to overthrow oppressive regimes.

In this the Palestinians stand at the forefront, in the front lines of peoples’ insistence everywhere that their rights, well-being and fundamental values as human beings be respected by governments. And they do so (and I write this as an Israeli with great sorrow and shame) against one of the world’s strongest and most ruthless military powers – a power that has dispossessed them from 85% of their land, which is trying to transform its occupation into a permanent regime of apartheid, which has spent decades impoverishing and disenfranchising them; the fourth largest nuclear power which nevertheless casts itself as the victim. Not only have the Palestinians experienced the dehumanization all oppressed and colonized peoples experience, not only have they been made into the embodiment of the rich and powerful’s greatest fear, evil “terrorists” who may tear down their privileged “civilization,” but they have been turned into guinea pigs. Israel is able to gain an edge in the counterinsurgency industry and win entree into the heart of the American military/hi tech complex by turning the Occupied Territories into a laboratory for the development of fiendish weaponry and tactics intended for use against people.

And yet the Palestinian people – and in particular those who remain sumud, steadfast, in Palestine – continue not only to resist but to surprise and confound its would-be Israeli master at every turn. Despite unlimited control, a complete monopoly over the use of force, utter callousness and a vaunted Shin Beit, Israel’s military intelligence, Palestinians vote as they want, resist, carry on their daily lives with dignity – and blow huge holes in the walls and policies constructed in order to imprison and defeat them.

All this is not on the minds of those desperate people who surged into Egypt today. They may not have the “Big Picture.” Yet they deserve the respect and gratefulness of every person who cherishes a better world based on human rights and dignity, a world that is inclusive. As an Israeli Jew, I have been saddened and mortified that my own people, after all they have experienced, cannot see what they are doing to others. But on a larger scale, not as an Israeli Jew but as a human being, I take heart in the Palestinians’ active refusal to be ground under a global system that is producing unimaginable wealth and power for a few at the expense of the growing ranks of the wretched.

I am not a Palestinian; I am not one of the oppressed. I only hope I can use my privilege in an effective way in order to redeem the gift the people of Gaza have given all of us: the realization that the people do have power and can prevail even in the face of overwhelming power. We may each express our responsibility towards the people of Gaza in whatever way most suits us, but as the privileged we must do something. We owe the Palestinians and the Palestinians writ large at least that.

(Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).

Palestinians break out from Gaza seige - 23 Jan 07

Palestinians have poured into the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing through holes blown along the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland reports from Gaza, where, due to the border breach, she is joined by Amr el-Kahky, Al Jazeera’s Cairo correspondent.

Humanitarian impact of Israel’s blockade of Gaza - 21 Jan 08

Gaza’s 1.5 million residents are struggling to cope without electricity and other basic necessities on the fourth day of an Israeli blockade.

Hospitals have begun to run short of fuel for generators, and sewage has spilled out onto the streets.

Jacky Rowland reports.

Gazans flood into Egypt

Palestinians have poured into the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing through holes blown by explosions along the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

The scenes came on the sixth day of a blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel and backed by Egypt, in response to a spike in rocket attacks on Israeli border towns.

Before dawn on Wednesday, Palestinian fighters set off at least 15 explosions on the wall running through Rafah separating the two territories, Hamas security forces said.

The security forces later closed most holes, but left two open to allow the flow of human traffic.

Amr El-Kahky, Al Jazeera’s correspondent, reporting from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, said that Egyptian security forces did not take any action over the entry of Palestinians.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, later said he had ordered his troops to allow Palestinians to cross into Egypt because they were starving.

“I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons,” he said. No confrontation

El-Kahky said: “Those crossing over have thanked Egypt for not confronting them. Many have bought with them containers for much needed fuel.

“They have also been told by the Hamas leadership in Gaza that they should respect Egyptian security forces, get what they need, and return to Gaza.”

Al Jazeera correspondent Samir Omar said all shops in Rafah were open on Wednesday morning to enable Palestinians to buy food and medicines.

Omar said quoting witnesses that some Palestinians came only to stock up on basic necessities, but others might stay back in Rafah for some time to meet their relatives stranded in the Egyptian city of Arish.

On foot, in cars or riding donkey carts, the Palestinians went on a massive shopping spree, buying cigarettes, plastic bottles of fuel, and other items that have become scarce and expensive.
Israel expressed concern that fighters and weapons might be entering Gaza amid the chaos, and said responsibility for restoring order lay with Egypt.

Terminal stormed

The previous day, dozens of Hamas protesters had stormed the Rafah crossing, demanding that the terminal be opened to ease the blockade imposed on the territory by Israel.

Several protesters were wounded as Egyptian police opened fire in the air and used batons and water cannons to push them back.

Palestinians had complained that Gaza was under siege from both Israel and neighbouring Arabs.
Um Ahmad, a Palestinian woman demonstrating at the Rafah crossing, told Al Jazeera: “The Arabs should be united with us and not against us.

“This is an appeal to all the Arabs. They should help us lift the blockade, they should stand with us.”

Sparring at UN

Also on Tuesday, Israeli and Palestinian envoys traded accusations in the UN Security Council as the 15-nation body met to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Riyad Mansour, the permanent Palestinian observer to the UN, described the situation as “absolutely untenable”.

He said: “The Israeli policy of brinkmanship is creating a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, heightening fears and tensions, inciting, provoking and fuelling the vicious and dreaded cycle of violence.”

Gilad Cohen, the Israeli envoy, rejected Mansour’s accusation that Israel was acting in violation of international law.

He said: “It is the duty of all states to ensure the right to life and safety of its people, especially from vicious acts of violence and terrorism.”Libya, the council chair this month, submitted a draft that would call on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza and ensure “unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people”. However, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN, said the draft in its current form was “unacceptable” because “it does not talk about the rocket attacks on innocent Israelis.”

Talks to continue

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said on Tuesday that he would not pull out of peace talks with Israel because of the Gaza situation.

“Halting contacts with Israel is useless,” he said in his first comment since the latest round of Israel-Hamas fighting erupted last week.

“On the contrary, we should intensify our contacts and our meetings to stop the suffering of our people.”

Abbas also renewed his criticism of rocket fire against Israel from Gaza.

He said: “It is not the people who fire these rockets. We have condemned these futile launchings in the past and we continue to do so. They must stop.”

For her part, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said on Tuesday that US officials had spoken to their Israeli counterparts “about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold”.

Israeli officials were receptive, she said.Rice blames Hamas for the situation in Gaza.
Arye Mekel, a spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, pledged that the humanitarian shipments would go on.

“We will continue [on Wednesday] and the coming days to deliver more aid to Gaza until all promised supplies get across,” he said.

Fuel supplies

On the ground, two lorries carrying cooking gas and three with diesel for generators passed through Israel’s Nahal Oz border crossing, east of Gaza City, early on Tuesday.

It marked the first time supplies had entered Gaza since late on Thursday, when Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, ordered the territory sealed off in response to rocket fire.
Gaza City was plunged into darkness after its only power plant was shut down on Sunday, as fuel supplies dried up under the Israeli blockade.

But with Israel allowing limited supply, electricity was back in most of Gaza City by Tuesday afternoon.

Israeli tankers brought in 700,000 litres of fuel, enough to provide electricity to Gaza City for two days.

The Israeli defence ministry ruled late on Tuesday that 250,000 litres of diesel fuel could be transferred into Gaza daily.

However, the crossings would remain closed to other goods and people until further notice.

Israel has maintained all along that Hamas created an artificial crisis.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

From Gaza City, a challenge for peace

January 22, 2008
The Boston Globe

IN BETWEEN the daily power outages of 10 to 12 hours in our lifeless city, I took an interest in reading online Jeff Jacoby’s Jan. 16 op-ed “Death of the Bush doctrine.” There never was a “Bush doctrine” for the Palestinian issue, and there never will bemore stories like this.

Whether President Bush’s administration, or any other, cares to believe it, the only doctrine that can mitigate Israel’s occupation and provide a path for Palestinians and Israelis to emerge from this bloody conflict is that of international humanitarian law. Ignoring this basic global reference point is costing US taxpayers millions of dollars a day in supporting Israel and providing humanitarian support for us, the people living (or trying to) with the boot of Israeli military occupation on our necks.

I was surprised to read such a seasoned and supposedly well-informed columnist end his piece by asking, “To what fresh hell will Bush’s diplomacy lead?” I am currently living in the hell Jacoby speaks of - not the one created only during and after Bush’s recent visit to the region, but the one that is characterized by more than 40 nonstop years of Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip.

I challenge the United States to wield its influence to get Israel to try the only thing that it has refused to try to date to end the conflict: to immediately end the Israeli occupation without any preconditions and without holding my life and future hostage to some final-status solution yet to be negotiated.

MAHA MEHANN
AAl-Rimal, Gaza City

Soldiers assault and arrest B’Tselem worker in Hebron

20 Jan. 08:

Soldiers assaulted and arrested Issa ‘Amro, a B’Tselem fieldworker, in Hebron yesterday. ‘Amro was arrested while filming a disturbance by settlers in the Wadi Hsein neighborhood in East Hebron.

Yesterday evening (January 19), a group of settlers began throwing stones at a Palestinian home and trying to forcefully enter it. Although a large force of soldiers and police were present, they did nothing to protect the Palestinians and remove the settlers. Two B’Tselem workers were filming the incident from across the street, where they stood along with a number of Palestinians and international activists. The commander of the Shimshon battalion, a lieutenant colonel, came up to ‘Amro and demanded that he stop filming.

A group of settler women then gathered around the B’Tselem workers and two of them tried to grab ‘Amro’s camera. A number of soldiers joined in the fray, beat ‘Amro and then arrested him.

They then took him to an army jeep and beat him again. Later, B’Tselem was told that ‘Amro was arrested on suspicion of attacking the soldiers.

B’Tselem says it has several video tapes documenting the incident, which prove that ‘Amro was the one assaulted by the soldiers. The organization is preparing to file complaints to the police on the assault and the false arrest.

B’Tselem notes that lately, there has been a rise in assaults by soldiers on B’Tselem workers filming violent settlers in Hebron. The assaulting soldiers usually claim that the act of filming is a provocation in itself. While government and military officials endlessly reiterate the importance of human rights organizations in Israel, this appears to be mere lip service when it comes to the attitude of security forces towards human rights defenders in Hebron. These statements appear to serve as a guise for a policy of systematically harassing human rights defenders.

Source:

Worldwide anger over Gaza plight

The Arab League and European Union have led worldwide calls for Israel to end its four-day blockade of the Gaza Strip that has caused untold suffering to more than a million people.

After an emergency meeting in Cairo on Monday, delegates from the 22 Arab states called on the UN “to carry out an international inquiry into Israeli crimes”.

In a statement, the Arab League described the Gaza Strip as “a disaster area” and appealed to the international community to provide the Palestinian people with necessary assistance.

Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general, told Al Jazeera that what was happening in Gaza was a “war crime”.

He also urged the international quartet - made up of the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States - to put pressure on Israel.

“This is not terrorism as Israel is claiming,” Moussa said.

“The real problem is the Israeli military occupation. And, Israel as an occupying nation has a responsibility to protect the rights of the people of the occupied land.”

The 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference supported the calls for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

‘Collective punishment’

The criticism of Benita Ferrero Waldner, EU external relations commissioner, was also strong as she accused Israel of carrying out “collective punishment” of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.

The EU commissioner warned that neither the closure of Gaza’s border nor the deadly air raids and incursions of the past week would bring Israel security from rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups.

“Only a credible political agreement this year … can turn Palestinians away from violence,” she said.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, phoned Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, on Monday to stress “the need to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people”.

He also warned “of the deteriorating humanitarian situation resulting from the blockade imposed on the [Gaza] Strip by Israel.”

The Hamas movement, which took full control of Gaza last June, has called on other nations to put pressure on Egypt to open its Rafah crossing with the territory to let in desperately needed supplies.

“We have one demand and that is the opening of the Rafah crossing and the breaking of the siege,” Ismail Haniya, Hamas leader, said.

Peace talks ‘a mockery’

Syria said Israel’s actions made a mockery of the relaunched peace talks with the Palestinian government led by Mahmoud Abbas, the president.

“Talk of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians flies in the face of the green light being given to the attacks and blockade,” a foreign ministry statement said.

Neighbouring Lebanon called on Western powers to end their silence over Israel’s military action against Gaza which has killed at least 37 people in the past week.

“Israel is profiting from the international silence … to unleash its rage against the inhabitants of Gaza,” Fuad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, said.

People gathered across the occupied Palestinian territories as well as in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, to protest against the blockade.

“Oh Arabs, where is your compassion? They are slaughtering our people in Gaza,” chanted hundreds of demonstrators in the Ein al-Helweh camp.

In Amman, about 2,500 people marched from the headquarters of Jordan’s main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), to the parliament building in the city centre.

“Bush [US president], Olmert, you are despicable. Our blood is not cheap,” chanted the protesters.

Thousands of university students also protested in Algiers, Algeria’s capital.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies