Gaza: The Killing Zone

Published 15 Sept, 2008, Updated 14 Jan,2009

life in Gaza is a constant gauntlet of Israeli sniper fire, military rockets and army bulldozers. No one is safe. In light of the escalating tensions, we're bringing back one our most moving documentaries, a hard-hitting expose of life in the Occupied territories. We speak to the children caught in the crossfire and find out the true cost of Israel's targeted assassinations policy.

A little boy screams in agony. There’s shrapnel in his eye, leg, stomach and feet. He was playing in the street outside his house when an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at the car of a Hamas member. Ten minutes later, the helicopter returned and fired two more bombs at the decimated car, spraying the surrounding district with sharp metal darts. Makmoud was just 1 of 47 people injured in the attack. Four others were killed. 

The feeling in Gaza is that the West accepts this type of action. It doesn’t matter how much so called ‘collateral damage’ it causes. Whichever side kills last says it is a response to the one before. In the grim calculus of this conflict, around three Palestinians die for every Israeli killed. It’s an equation that keeps old hatreds fresh. 

Israel’s hardline policy may only be aimed at militants but it’s the civilians who end up paying the price. 12 year old Huda Darwish was sitting in her classroom when a stray bullet from an Israeli sniper hit her. After three weeks in a coma, she is finally waking up. Her relatives’ joy quickly vanishes when they realise that the bullet has left her blind. The reality of her shattered life suddenly hits her. “I want to die. Why did this happen to me?” she asks. Her family have no answers. 

We visit Huda’s school in Rafah to see how the accident could possibly have happened. The school is run by the United Nations on a big open site not easy to miss. But an Israeli military position is situated just 500 metres away. As we enter her classroom, a shell explodes nearby. The children flee terrified under their desks. One girl is so traumatised she is in a state of shock. Their teacher says that this happens all the time.

Almost every day, Israeli troops leave their base in Rafah to bulldoze Palestinian houses. “This is a combat area,” explains Colonel Pinky Zoaret. He says he needs to destroy the houses to deny the terrorists cover. But most of the houses belong to ordinary Palestinians. Thousands have lost their homes. And there’s no compensation for the dispossessed. “I can’t sleep,” confides resident Doctor Sameer. “I smoke about 40 to 50 cigarettes a night.” All his life savings are in his house but he knows he could lose it at any time.

Those who try and stop the violence can end up paying with their lives. Rachel Corrie was one of them. She brought the Palestinians’ plight to the world’s attention when she died, crushed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to protect a building. The IDF maintain that she died because of her own irresponsible and illegal behaviour. But eye witnesses tell a different story. “The driver could clearly see she was there,” states her friend. “But instead of stopping, he continued forward.”

Months later, there are more high profile killings in Gaza. British photographer Tom Hurndall was shot trying to rescue a six year old girl who was stuck out in gunfire. Then cameraman James Miller was killed by Israeli fire. “James died because we trusted them to behave like a civilised army. We knew they could see that we weren’t armed and that we were carrying a white flag. We trusted them not to kill us under those circumstances and they shot James anyway,” states his colleague Saira Shah. 

Gaza still remains a killing zone. 

Courtesy : journeymanpictures 

A report by Sandra Jordan for Channel 4's Dispatches and Unreported World

Publisher: Journeyman Location London, UK Copyright:MBC

Media Analysis of US Coverage of Arab-Israeli Conflict

Like most Americans, Alison Weir, the editor of a small-town newspaper in California, knew very little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, other than what she had gleaned from the evening news or newspaper headlines. As a journalist, her attention was on issues much closer to home. Neither a muslim nor a jew, she nevertheless became more curious about the topic of the Palestinian uprising. And as she researched it, she became increasingly suspicious that the American media were not telling us the whole story. Months later, she traveled to the occupied territories as an independent journalist to find out for herself what the U.S. media seemed to be omitting.

Three months after returning from Palestine, Alison Weir quit her job and founded If Americans Knew, an organization dedicated to quantifying the ways in which the American media was misinforming the public about the conflict. Ms. Weir explains her group's methodology, analyzes the data, and reports on the key findings.

9 arrested in New York rally on Gaza

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:17:49 GMT |  PressTV.ir

Protesters in New York

At least nine people have been arrested in the United States in a demonstration against the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Seven police officers have also been injured in the Sunday afternoon rally in New York City, the police department said in a statement.

Since Israel launched an all-out war against people in Gaza on December 27, at least 900 Palestinians have been killed and some 4,000 others are reported wounded.

Witnesses said that the rally on Manhattan's West Side began peacefully, but confrontations between police and protesters broke out finally.

"The police pushed us out onto the avenue, and as we were walking down the avenue ... they charged with horses on the sidewalks and they charged with their own bodies and pushed in, and a riot started," Steve Sherman, coordinator of security for United for Peace and Justice and a demonstrator at the rally told CNN.

Backed by Washington, Tel Aviv continues it all out war on Gaza, paying no attention to the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to the conflict.

All UN Security Council members except the US voted for the resolution on Friday.

The US had vetoed three other resolutions condemning the Israeli acts since the beginning of Tel Aviv's onslaught on Gaza.

The United States has so far vetoed over 40 anti-Israeli resolutions sought by the council since 1972.

Meanwhile in Europe, more than 250,000 Spanish people held the largest pro-Palestinian rally to show their anger over the Israeli bloodshed.

Italy, Greece, and Belgium were among other European countries that joined people around the world to denounce the attacks. 

 

Open Letter to Barack Hussein Obama, President-elect of the United States of America

January 1, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

I did not vote for you in the Presidential Election because I am Malaysian.But I consider myself one of your constituents because what you do or say will affect me and my country as well.

I welcome your promise for change. Certainly your country, the United States of America needs a lot of changes. That is because America and Americans have become the most hated people in the world. Even Europeans dislike your arrogance. Yet you were once admired and liked because you freed a lot of countries from conquest and subjugation.

It is the custom on New Year's day for people to make resolutions. You must have listed your good resolutions already. But may I politely suggest that you also resolve to do the following in pursuit of Change.

1) Stop killing people. The United States is too fond of killing people in order to achieve its objectives. You call it war, but today's wars are not about professional soldiers fighting and killing each other. It is about killing people, ordinary innocent people by the hundreds of thousands. Whole countries will be devastated.

War is primitive, the cavemen's way of dealing with a problem. Stop your arms build up and your planning for future wars.

2) Stop indiscriminate support of Israeli killers with your money and your weapons. The planes and the bombs killing the people of Gaza are from you.

3) Stop applying sanctions against countries which cannot do the same against you.

In Iraq your sanctions killed 500,000 children through depriving them of medicine and food. Others were born deformed. What have you achieved with this cruelty? Nothing except the hatred of the victims and right-thinking people.

4) Stop your scientists and researchers from inventing new and more diabolical weapons to kill more people more efficiently.

5) Stop your arms manufacturers from producing them. Stop your sales of arms to the world. It is blood money that you earn. It is un-Christian.

6) Stop trying to democratize all the countries of the world. Democracy may work for the United States but it does not always work for other countries.

Don't kill people because they are not democratic. Your crusade to democratize countries has killed more people than the authoritarian Governments which you overthrew. And you have not succeeded anyway.

7) Stop the casinos which you call financial institutions. Stop hedge funds, derivatives and currency trading. Stop banks from lending non-existent money by the billions.

Regulate and supervise your banks. Jail the miscreants who made profits from abusing the system.

8) Sign the Kyoto Protocol and other international agreements.

9) Show respect for the United Nations.

I have many other resolutions for change which I think you should consider and undertake. But I think you have enough on your plate for this 2009th year of the Christian Era.

If you can do only a few of what I suggest, you will be remembered by the world as a great leader. Then the United States will again be the most admired nation. Your embassies will be able to take down the high fences and razor-wire coils that surround them.

May I wish you a Happy New Year and a great Presidency.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad

(Former Prime Minister of Malaysia)

Israel pounds Gaza for second day

By Nidal al-Mughrabi | Reuters | Sunday, December 28, 2008

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched air strikes on Gaza for a second day on Sunday, piling pressure on Hamas after killing more than 270 people in one of the bloodiest days in 60 years of conflict between the Palestinians and the Jewish state.

Dozens of Israeli armored vehicles massed along the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion and the U.N. Security Council called early on Sunday for a halt to the violence.

Israeli military affairs commentators said the Israeli offensive did not appear to be aimed at retaking the Gaza Strip or destroying the territory's Hamas government -- ambitious goals that could prove difficult and politically risky to achieve ahead of Israel's February 10 parliamentary election.

Instead, they said, Israel -- after an air bombardment on Saturday -- wanted to strengthen its deterrence power and force Hamas into a new truce that would lead to a long-term halt to cross-border rocket salvoes.

Israel said its warplanes carried out about 100 strikes on Saturday and that Palestinian militants had fired some 70 rockets at the Jewish state, killing one Israeli man.[read more]

VIDEO : 27th December 2008 - International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers witness the devastation caused as over 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air-strikes

FROM INDIA WITH CAPATI!

WHY DO WE DEPEND ON US ?

The Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much.
Also Japan exports far more than it imports.
Has an annual trade surplus of over $100 billion, yet
Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little.
Also US import more than it exports.
Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion.
Yet, the American economy is considered strong and
trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend?
They borrow from Japan , China , and even India .
Virtually others save for the US to spend.

Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars.
India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over
$50 billions in US securities.

China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities.

Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions.
Result:

The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world.
So, as the world saves for the US , Americans spend
freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for
the US economy to work, the countries have to remit $180 billion every
quarter that is $2 billion a day to the US !

Otherwise the US economy would go for a sick.
So will the global economy.

The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less.
A Chinese economist asked a neat question.

Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US?
The US has invested in China less than half of what
China has invested in US.

The same is the case with India .. We have invested in
US over $50 billion.
But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India

Why the world is after US?
The secret lies in the American spending, that they
hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their
future income.That the US spends is what makes it attractive to
export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year afteR
year

The result:

The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth.
By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has
habituated the world to feed on US consumption.
But as the US needs money to finance its consumption,
the world provides the money.

It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the
customer keeps buying from his shop. The customer will not buy; the
shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him.

The US is like the lucky customer.

And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.

Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financer?

Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak.
Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend,
so they do not Grow.

To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself.
Reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers.
Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even
with taxes, do they?).

Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about
three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan ,
has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?
A nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just
spend, but borrow and spend.

Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist
in the US, told that don't wastefully save.
Start spending, on imported cars and, seriously, even
on cosmetics! This will put all nations on a growth curve.
'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.

Before you follow this neo economics, get some fools
to save so that you can borrow from them and spend.
This is what US has successfully done in last few
decade.

Written by Dr Jagdish Bhagwati an economist
- share your thought

Doctors Without Borders Press Released. : 2008 'Top Ten' humanitarian crises

Somalia's Humanitarian Catastrophe Worsens

Beyond the International Spotlight, Critical Health Needs in Myanmar Remain Unmet

Health Crisis Sweeps Zimbabwe as Violence and Economic Collapse Spread

Civilians Trapped as War Rages in Eastern Congo

Millions of Malnourished Children Left Untreated Despite Advances in
Lifesaving Nutritional Therapies

Critical Need of Assistance in Ethiopia's Somali Region

Civilians Killed and Forced to Flee as Fighting Intensifies in Northwestern Pakistan

No End in Sight to Violence and Suffering in Sudan

Iraqi Civilians in Urgent Need of Assistance

HIV/TB Co-Infection Poses Health Battle on Two Fronts

Plundering the Congo & The Destabilization of Congo

Wayne Madsen: Congo has fallen prey to a lot of people that want to loot its natural resources. Ethnic divisions are being stoked by client states of the US who arm both sides.

Bush's Final F.U. - a host of last-minute regulations

With president-elect Barack Obama already taking command of the financial crisis, it's tempting to think that regime change in America is a done deal. But if George Bush has his way, the country will be ruled by his slash-and-burn ideology for a long time to come.

"It's what we've seen for Bush's whole tenure, only accelerated," says Gary Bass, executive director of the nonpartisan group OMB Watch. "They're using regulation to cement their deregulatory mind-set, which puts corporate interests above public interests." . . . . [what are these regulations - read more]

"It's going to be very challenging for Obama," says Bass. "Is he going to want to look forward and begin changing the way government works? Or is he going to look back and fix the problems left by Bush? Either way, it's a tough call."

Anwar Ibrahim on YouTube with Riz Khan.

Anwar Ibrahim [present leader of opposition and MP of Malaysia] talk about the opposition, the coming shadow cabinet, the economics, press freedom and foreign direct investment.

Mahathir on YouTube with Riz Khan

Mahathir justifying his identity as a Malay, being a political critic, relating Abdullah Badawi's highandedness his opinion on ISA and the US.

The "Universal Declaration" of "Human Rights".

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the "Universal Declaration" of Human Rights.

This animation brings all 30 articles to life using different techniques, from pen and ink to digital animation.

Today marks the 60th Anniversary of the "Universal Declaration" of "Human Rights" (UDHR). In commemoration, human rights organizations are using YouTube to inform citizens about the significance of the UDHR and the human rights violations that still plague our society.

RPK & two others on Aljazeera.

Dec 3 – Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin said tonight that 99% of the rumours he reports on his website eventually turn out to be true.

Defending himself from a caller on a special interview with Riz Khan on satellite television station Al Jazeera who asked why he persisted in writing about rumours, he said time and time again he had been proven right with his stories. . . read more

Mumbai Attacks - Democracynow.org discussion.

Toll From Deadly, Coordinated Mumbai Attacks Tops 170, Two Top Indian Officials Resign, Tensions Rise Between India and Pakistan

Bank eat bank: Bailout encourages mergers

Banks are reportedly using their bailout money to buy up smaller banks instead of helping homeowners

Report: US Uses Aid to Promote Non-Humanitarian Goals

The Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA) Humanitarian Response Index 2008 measures how effectively the world's 23 largest donors deliver aid. The United States ranked 15th in overall effectiveness and only 13th in the level of generosity measured by the size of its economy.

But it ranked near the bottom, 22nd, when it came to adherence to principles and guidelines established by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to ensure that political considerations don't exclude worthy recipients of aid.

DARA's findings reflect what it called the United States' use of humanitarian assistance to achieve military or political goals in eight crisis zones the group studied, including Afghanistan, Colombia and the Palestinian territories. . . read more

G20 Summit started an ideological war?

Can socialist planning work?

With economic crisis sweeping the globe, many people are asking if there is a better way to organise society. Kate Connelly and Esme Choonara explain how a planned socialist economy might work.

Planning does exist under capitalism – but it takes place within individual firms rather than across society as a whole.

Capitalism is also extremely undemocratic. Even in the parts of the world where we get to vote for parliamentary representatives, we have no control over most economic decisions that shape our lives.

Because production isn't tied to what people need, crises occur where companies find that their products can't be sold. Karl Marx explained that capitalism is the first economic system where you can have a crisis of overproduction, rather than a crisis of scarcity.

Socialist planning is about completely different priorities – producing for need, not for profit. It is impossible to determine what those needs are without extending democracy and involving the mass of the population in decision-making. . . . read more

The G-20 Summit: A Vote of Confidence for Capitalism?

The global financial crisis has produced a wide array of critics, but no pairing has been stranger than what you might call the capitalism-in-crisis coalition. Anti-government ideologues on the right and anti-business activists on the left are both arguing that capitalism is under threat, though from very different forces. The right-wingers fear that federal market intervention is just the tip of a socialist spear, while the left-wingers gleefully declare that the crisis is proof of capitalism's inherent failure. . . . . read more

G20 outcome

G20 Summit ends with action plan



G20 leaders have a nice dinner, but do not deal with how to make financial institutions serve the public

US Presidential Election 2008 – the First Casualty

A voter hotline set up by CNN to monitor polling problems received 56,000 calls, 22,000 of them being complaints. The most common problems concerned voter registration, absentee ballots going astray and voting machine malfunctions.

With the stakes high, there were reports of dirty tricks and legal battles, as well as what is now customary chaos at American polling stations. Voter intimidation, faulty machines, late poll openings, missing ballot papers and even the rain brought problems.

Police in Philadelphia were called to a polling booth where two members of the black power group the Black Panthers guarded the door, one of them armed with a knight stick, intimidating voters. One of the men was told to leave.

The voter who called the police said that one of the men told him: "A black man is going to win the election. We're tired of white supremacy."

Observers elsewhere in Pennsylvania complained of "pandemonium" where Republican poll watchers, whose job is to monitor the integrity of the voting, were apparently removed from polling sites in direct violation of a recent state court ruling.

In Virginia both Republicans and Democrats launched lawsuits. John McCain's campaign demanded a 10 day extension to the counting of absentee ballots to ensure all overseas military ballots are counted. A judge rejected Democrat calls for more voting machines to cope with higher turnout in black areas.

In several states, election officials ruled that anyone in line when the polls close would be allowed to vote, causing the counts to drag on for hours.

Democratic voters in Toledo, Ohio, reported receiving automated robocalls designed to keep them at home. The calls warned that voting lines were long and that they could express their preference using their telephone key pad instead.

In Florida, where officials have fought to escape their reputation as an international laughing stock after the Bush-Gore recount debacle eight years ago, there were still problems, with papers rejected by the counting machines when voters failed to fill in details on the reverse of their ballots.

Electoral officials were unable to set up a polling station at a church in Tallahassee, the state capital, because they couldn't wake up the pastor. A sheriff's deputy had to drive up to his house and blast his car siren to wake him up.

There was also evidence of voter fraud. Tampa resident Michael Baccich, 57, was one of several voters who arrived to vote only to be told that he had already cast an absentee ballot.

Voters in Cuyahoga County, Ohio were only given half a ballot paper, causing their votes to be void. New voting machines also went down in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Cleveland, Ohio. In New Hampshire the State Republican Committee went to court complaining that their poll workers were kept away from new voter registration tables, making it impossible for them to check that people were properly registered.

A blast of rain sweeping up the East coast disrupted voting in Virginia and North Carolina, key election bellwethers. In Chesapeake County, Virginia, voters drenched in the squall were asked to dry off first after their optical vote scanner was unable to read damp ballot papers.

Thousands had their wet papers quarantined in separate bins while they dried out before officials scanned them in again.

In Kansas City, Missouri, officials were operating for several hours with the wrong set of registration papers making it difficult to check whether voters had the right to cast their ballots.

Eight years after he left the White House and seven months after she abandoned her own presidential bid, Bill and Hillary Clinton remained at the eye of the storm. Mrs Clinton attracted complaints for conducting an interview within feet of the polling booths, a violation of election law that bans electioneering 100 feet of voter booths.

Extracted from Telegraph