Israel Tries to Stop Breaking the Silence

http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1102793. html

Last update - 17:22 26/07/2009
Group that exposed 'IDF crimes' in Gaza slams Israel bid to choke off its funds
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

An organization that alleged Israeli troops used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza accused the Foreign Ministry on Sunday of "endangering democracy," following a Haaretz report that the ministry had asked the Netherlands to freeze funds to the group. Acting on instructions from the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands, Harry Knei-Tal, met last week with the director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and complained about the Dutch embassy's funding of Breaking the Silence. The group said Sunday that the ministry and the establishment were conducting a "witch hunt...only a part of which was exposed in the Haaretz report," that it claimed was testimony to the "erosion of democratic culture in the State of Israel."
Breaking the Silence added: "The attempts to silence voices from Israeli civil society are dangerous. As opposed to reports, the IDF has never denied the [validity of the] testimonies and it and the foreign ministry's virulent reaction... only strengthens the position of the testifying soldiers, who are not willing to be exposed." "It looks like the ministry draws ideas from shady regimes, in which those who point out internal failures are considered traitors." In the meeting last week between Knei-Tal and the director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the Israeli ambassador suggested that the Netherlands' funding of the organization should be terminated, according to a source. "The Dutch taxpayer's money could be better used to promote peace and human rights," the source quoted Knei-Tal as saying. According to sources familiar with the situation, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen - considered one of Israel's staunchest supporters in the European Union - did not know that the embassy in Tel Aviv was funding Breaking the Silence. He learned about it after the organization' s funding sources were published in an article in The Jerusalem Post. Sources say Verhagen reproached senior figures in the Dutch Foreign Ministry upon learning this and gave instructions to launch an internal investigation on the matter. It showed that the embassy in Israel gave Breaking the Silence 19,995 euros to help put together its 2009 report, which discusses Operation Cast Lead and was released earlier this month. Had this figure been five euros higher, it would have required approval from The Hague. The director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry told the Israeli ambassador that in light of the probe, funding for Breaking the Silence would be reevaluated because of the political sensitivities of the issues covered by the organization. Breaking the Silence, which was founded by Israel Defense Forces veterans, has collected what it says are damning testimonies from soldiers who took part in the January offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The report contains almost 30 anonymous testimonies. An Israeli diplomat said that in the meeting last week, Knei-Tal said Israel was a democratic country and that such funds should go to places without democracy. Breaking the Silence was a legal and legitimate organization, he said, according to sources, but its funding by the Dutch was unreasonable "in light of the political sensitivities. " According to a senior Israeli official: "A friendly government cannot fund opposition bodies. We are not a third world country." The director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry said Spain had also funded Breaking the Silence. A diplomat in Jerusalem said Breaking the Silence had also been funded by the British government. Israel has not yet approached Spain or Britain on the matter.

12 and 13 Year Olds Arrested for Throwing Stones at the Wall

Why we have to keep demonstrating and fighting for real change:

www.dci-pal.org

[RAMALLAH, 22 January 2009] – Seven children from Toura al-Gharbeiah village (Jenin Governorate) were arrested on Tuesday by the Israeli authorities; they are currently detained in Salim detention and interrogation centre, in the north of the West Bank. Two of the children are only 12 years old; two are 13; another two are aged 15; and the seventh is 17.
A DCI-Palestine lawyer yesterday visited the children. According to information collected by the lawyer, between midnight and 4:00am on Tuesday 20 January, the Israeli intelligence, police and army entered Toura al-Gharbeiah village and arrested the seven children from their respective homes.
The children were then assembled in a public building in the village, and interrogated there. They were alleged to have thrown stones at the Wall and were intimidated into confessing. The eldest, Murad (17), was accused of possessing weapons, but he denied the allegation. Murad told the DCi-Palestine lawyer what happened on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after midnight, Murad was watching television at home when he heard noise outside. He got up to look through the window and saw four jeeps belonging to the Israeli police guards.
Less than a minute later, someone knocked and Murad opened the door. An Israeli police officer, accompanied by two soldiers, asked Murad his name and told him “Do not try to escape, the house is surrounded”. He asked him to wake up other family members.
After the rest of the family was up, the soldiers took Murad outside, laid him on the ground, tied his hands behind his back with plastic cords, and blindfolded him. Murad lay on the ground for half an hour while the soldiers searched the house. Then, they walked him to the military jeep. While they were walking, a soldier started beating him on the face and hands. Murad reported that one of his fingers started to swell as a result of the beating.
They shoved him into the jeep, and drove for 20 minutes. Then Murad was taken out of the jeep and brought to a billiards room. He was still in the village. His blindfold was removed and an interrogator told him that they had found weapons in his house. He pressured Murad to confess to owning them; all the while screaming at him and threatening him. The interrogation went on for 40 minutes. Murad did not confess.
When the interrogation was over, Murad was blindfolded again, and left in the room until 9:00am. ... During that time, he heard the voices of other young detainees, including his brother Bashir (15). Some of the children were crying.
At 9:00am Murad was transferred to Salim detention and interrogation centre. During the journey, a soldier was sitting beside him shouting at him and insulting him; he felt very scared.
After being interrogated in the billiards room in the village, the children were transferred to Salim detention and interrogation centre, near Jenin. When the DCI-Palestine lawyer met them on Wednesday, 21 January, the children had already confessed, under duress, to throwing stones at the Wall. Murad had still not confessed.
DCI-Palestine and their partners Addameer believe that such young children are particularly vulnerable to abuse in the Israeli military justice system and should be released immediately, all the more so, in light of the trivial nature of the alleged offence. The children's lawyer has requested a hearing today, Thursday 22 January, in order to ask the military judge for the release of the young children.

The children are:
Morad Q. (17)
Bashir Q. (15)
Osaid Q. (12)
Subhi A. H. (12)
Amer Q. (13)
Mohammad A. (13)
Emad A. (15)

At the end of December 2008, there were 342 Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons and detention/interrogation centres, including 7 girls, and 5 administrative detainees. The December 2008 figures reveal the highest reported numbers of child detainees in 2008. In addition, on 17 January, DCI-Palestine issued a statement expressing concern that numbers of children arrested by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank has doubled in the first two weeks of January.

"Only Democracy in the Middle East" Shoots an Unarmed Protestor

Fatal shooting at West Bank protest

A Palestinian has been shot dead and several others wounded after Israeli security forces opened fire during a protest in the West Bank against Israel's war in Gaza.
The man died after being shot in the head when clashes broke in the West Bank town of Hebron on Friday, medics and witnesses said.
Israeli soldiers had opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets after youths throwing stones had apparently tried to march towards the Israeli-controlled area of the city, witnesses said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/

"The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." Dr Martin Luther King Jr

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." Dr Martin Luther King Jr

CALL the Israeli Government (numbers below) and demand that it immediately STOP attackingthe civilian population of Gaza and STOP using violence to prevent humanrights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

For more information, please contact:(Cyprus) Lubna Masarwa, +357 97 625 828 (Cyprus) Mary Hughes, +357 99 081 767 (Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +972 598 700 497 freelance@mailworks.org

(Mediterranean Sea, 15 January 2009) - The Israeli navy today threatenedto kill unarmed civilians aboard a mercy ship on its way to delivermedical supplies and doctors to besieged Gaza. The Free Gaza Movement ship, SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, left Cyprus Wednesday morning carrying doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and parliamentarians. The ship also carried over a ton of desperately needed medicines donated by the European Campaign to Break the Siege, intended for overwhelmed hospitals in the Gaza Strip. At the request of the ship’s organizers the passenger list and manifest were publicly released, and Cypriot authorities searched the boat prior to its departure in order to certify that it only carried humanitarian items. The organizers also sent an official notification to the Israeli government of their intent tobreak through the blockade of Gaza.
At roughly 3am UST (1am GMT), in international waters 100 miles off thecoast of Gaza, at least five Israeli gunboats surrounded the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY and began recklessly cutting in front of the slow-moving civiliancraft. The Israeli warships radioed the SPIRIT, demanding that the ship turn around or they would open fire and “shoot.” When asked if the Israeli navy was acknowledging that they intended to commit a war crime by deliberately firing on unarmed civilians, the warships replied that they were prepared to use “any means” to stop the ship. An earlier attempt by Free Gaza to deliver doctors and medical supplies ended on 30 December when Israeli gunboats deliberately and repeatedly rammed the DIGNITY, almost sinking that ship. Rather than endanger thelives of its passengers, the SPIRIT is now returning to Cyprus. Israel's reckless and shocking threats against an unarmed ship on amission of mercy are a violation of both international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that "the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes."

Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office:+972 2670 5354 or +972 5 0620 3264 mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence:+972 3697 5339 or +972 50629 8148 mediasar@mod.gov.il
The Israeli Navy Spokesperson:+ 972 5 781 86248

###The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza inAugust 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the portin 41 years. Since August, four more voyages were successful, takingParliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries to witnessthe effects of Israel's draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza.http://www.FreeGaza.org

Over 1000 Dead People in Gaza

This age is a knife, kings are butchers; justice hath taken wings and fled.In this completely dark night of falsehood the truth is never seen to rise.- Guru Nanak Sahib


It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest.
The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.- Harold Pinter

If the UK Were Gaza

• There would be roughly 34,194 dead and 137,846 injured.
• Our tiny Island would be surrounded by checkpoints, walls, fences and no man's land, we wouldn't be allowed to get out.
• Our fishing industry would have collapsed, as would most of our economy- 41 million of us would be living in poverty- that is on less than 32p per day.
• In the past 14 days the houses of Parliament, the Department of Education, local Government buildings would have been destroyed during air raids. Our police force and associated infrastructure would have been all but decimated a week and a half ago.
• Over 80,000 people would have been forced from thier homes. Our children wouldn't have slept in 14 nights.
• Our hospitals would be running out of blood, anaesthesia, bandages, syringes after having to treat 137,846 injured people in 15 days.
• Our army would be attempting to defend us using home made armaments.
• Our neighbours in France and Ireland would be ignoring our plight and not allowing in supplies of food and medicine. There would be no end in sight.

The world would be blaming us for reacting to a year of enforced starvation with home made rockets. They would be saying that all of this was our fault for breaking a ceasefire agreement that our enemy never, ever stuck to in the first place. Infact 205 of us were killed in an airstrike 5 months into the ceasefire. But we were meant to ignore that and carry on suffering malnutrition, water shortages and powercuts without a murmur of protest.

Shame on us all for allowing this to happen.
Shame.

What's Moral About Destitution?

I've started doing some voluntary English teaching again....as always ESOL classes are fully subscribed and the lists of people waiting to get the chance to learn are never ending. I've not been directly involved in Asylum "issues" since I started my new job....I'd almost forgotten how depressing the situation is.
The number of "failed asylum seekers" who are being made destitute and abandoned by mainstream services is reaching crisis point. The number of children being made destitute by our Government's policies are on the increase. The amazing Joseph Rowntree Trust have recently published a report on this found here.
An Iranian man who was a regular at the centre I'm volunteering at recently took "voluntary repatriation"- his experiences here being so difficult he decided to risk going back. He hasn't been seen or heard of since. It drives me insane with anger that for all the blather (good Yorkshire word!) we get from this Government about the human rights abuses in Iran and the undemocratic actions in Zimbabwe- these make up most of the people who are being forced either into return or destitution (ie no money, no right to work, no access to education, health care, housing or social services).
A friend of a friend who works for the Home Office recently told me that the reasons for sending certain nationalities back are often based on a political quota system. For example- with Zimbabweans, the government wanted the pressure of looking after refugees to fall squarely on the shoulders of other African countries- the theory being that this would push them towards pressuring Mugabe. As much as I am sickened by what's happened in Zimbabwe- I am even more sickened by my Govs. cynical use of vulnerable people's lives to make a political point. People who have experienced God only knows what being made destitute in one of the richest countries of the world.

Do something!

Oxfam's Poverty in the UK campaign.
Volunteer with the refugee council.
Student (and young people's) Action for Refugees
More info about people being forced into destitution.

Free Gaza Movement Announces Postal Service to Gaza

Date : 09-05-2008

In August 2008 the Free Gaza Movement shattered the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip by peacefully sailing from Cyprus to Gaza and back again. It was the first time in over forty years that international ships docked in Gaza Port, and the first time in over sixty years that Palestinians freely entered and exited their own country.

On September 22nd the Free Gaza Movement will return to Gaza to demonstrate that the sea lanes between Gaza and the rest of the world have been permanently opened, and we're going to take the mail with us!

Currently, all mail sent to Palestinians from abroad must first be delivered to Israel. Mail is regularly blocked by Israel and prevented from being delivered to the people of Gaza. We believe that the mail must go through, so we're going to take it in ourselves. The Free Gaza Movement is announcing two programs for delivering mail to Gaza: Family & Friends, and Letters from the World.

FAMILY & FRIENDS PROGRAM If you have family or friends in Gaza and would like to send them a letter, then please place the letter in an unsealed envelope, and address the envelope in both Arabic and English. Place this envelope in a larger envelope and mail it to:

Family & Friends Mail to Gaza

Free Gaza Movement

P.O. Box 5341 Beverly Hills,

CA 90209-5341

USA

Please DO NOT send money, checks, packages, or valuable items. We CANNOT accept money, valuables, or packages - only letters.

LETTERS FROM THE WORLD PROGRAM If you do not know anyone in Gaza, but would like to get to know someone, we want to help you try and find a pen pal. This program is available to people of all ages and from all places in the world. We would especially like to encourage schools to participate in the Letters from the World Program. Place your letter in an unsealed envelope, and address the envelope to the type of person you would like it to be delivered to (for example: "For an 8-year-old girl," or "For a male high school student," "For a teacher," "For a fishermen," etc...). Please include your email address if possible. Place the envelope in a larger envelope and mail it to:

Letters from the World

Free Gaza Movement

P.O. Box 5341

Beverly Hills, CA 90209-5341

USA

Belated In Memoriam for Mahmoud Darwish

I wasn't going to write anything to mark the passing of yet another great Palestinian thinker..how could I put into words the enormity of his passing? I keep coming back to it though, his poetry being such a regular part of my life. Aside from his story being such a quintessential Palestinian story- moving from country to country, constantly having to defend his identity- his words held such power, I can't imagine what a future without his honest commentary will be like. He had the ability to cut to the heart- to distill into words the pure anger of living with injustice or verses of such delicate beauty they take my breath away.
I've posted his words on this blog before- infact the post that is looked at most often is one of his poems- Lessons from the Karma Sutra. I'm pretty sure that browsers aren't expecting a piece of poetry when they navigate to that post- I like to think i'm introducing a few more people to the genius that is Darwish.

Ummi (My Mother) By Mahmoud Darwish

I long for my mother's bread

My mother's coffee

Her touch

Childhood memories grow up in me

Day after day

I must be worth my life

At the hour of my death

Worth the tears of my mother

And if I come back one day

Take me as a veil to your eyelashes

Cover my bones with the grass

Blessed by your footsteps

Bind us together

with a lock of your hair

With a thread that trails from the back of your

dress

I might become immortal

Become a god

If I touch the depths of your heart

If I come back

Use me as wood to feed your fire

As the clothesline on the roof of your house

Without your blessing

I am too weak to stand

I am old

Give me back the star maps of childhood

So that I

Along with the swallows

Can chart the path

Back to your waiting nest

Lazy Blogger

It's aaaages since i last posted. In fact i've moved house TWICE in the meantime. I could ramble on about how stressful it all was but as, overall, the move has been a success and has resulted in general feelings of contentment, I won't.
Instead, i'll be a lazy blogger and post a list:

10 Things That Are on My Mind

1. Free Gaza broke the shameful blockade and reached Gaza, Huuuraaay!
2. One of the boats is attempting to leave Gaza tomorrow with several Gazan University students on board- I pray they manage to leave Gaza as safely as they arrived.
3. The Banana, walnut and date bread in the oven smells truely amazing.
3a. I forgot to put the dates in.
4. Work work work. In a good way.
5. I wonder what's in the box my mum and dad brought over for me today? I can't open it for another 20 days.
6. Will my new colleagues think i'm wierd if i decide to fast with them even though I'm not muslim?
7. Will family X from Algeria win thier asylum appeal? What will we all do if they don't?
8. I've started knitting a cardigan even though I'd decided to knit only small things, but the wool was a bargain so.....
9. Will it ever stop raining? Will my Lobelia survive the high winds? (This might count as two).
10. I want to go to Palestine for the olive harvest- www.palsolidarity.org - but can't take the time off work (as I've only just started). This will be the first harvest i've missed in 5 years. I miss the smell of Beit Lahem, the sounds of Al Quds, the welcome of Nablus and the mountains around Al Walajeh.