> Subject: HELP for campaign for Gaza in Independent today] > > > > > The Independent is trying to launch a campaign to bring the world's > attention to what is happening in Gaza - they need STRONG letters of > support and encouragement for this. Otherwise the momentum will not > build and grow as it must in the coming days. This is front cover of > today's paper: > > http://www.independent.co.uk/ > > (front cover: A People Betrayed By The World) > > The leader article: > > http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article1371992.ece > > > > The main story of today's paper: > > http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1372026.ece > > > > Please if you can take a second to write to : > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] and cc to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > today. > > > > Both leader and main article in full here: > > > > > *Leading article: A brutal siege the world must ignore no longer * > > > *Published: 08 September 2006 * > > Gaza is being slowly strangled. This small strip of land on the eastern > shores of the Mediterranean has been under siege by the Israeli military > for three months. Its 1.5 million inhabitants have been subject to more > than 270 air strikes, numerous ground raids, and a severe artillery > bombardment. Since Gaza's sole power plant was bombed in June, its > people have been forced to survive by candlelight after dark. Hospitals > use electric generators to keep essential services running. The strip's > water mains have been destroyed, causing serious supply problems and > increasing the risk of disease. Bridges have been bombed and checkpoints > closed. No Palestinians are allowed in or out of what has in effect > become a prison. > > This has brought the Palestinian economy to its knees. The majority of > Gazan families have been forced to rely on United Nations food aid. Yet > even support from the outside world for these people has been severely > cut back. When Hamas won the Palestinian elections in January, the > United States and the European Union decided to stop their funding of > the governing institutions of the Palestinian Authority until the > militant organisation renounced violence and accepted Israel's right to > exist. An adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister referred to this > jokingly as "putting the Palestinians on a diet". But the result has > been the complete breakdown of Palestinian society. The civil service, > which supports one-quarter of the population, has been paid no wages in > six months. > > According to the United Nations, $30m-worth of damage has been inflicted > on Gaza since this operation began. But the far graver cost has been in > human life. In July and August, some 251 Palestinians were killed by > Israeli military action, half of them civilians. The dead have included > women, children and the elderly. Hundreds more have been wounded. > > > > And yet while all of this has been going on - the bloodshed, the hunger, > the social collapse - the world has turned away. The international > community has been preoccupied with the worsening situation in Iraq, > Afghanistan or Israel's war with Lebanon. Yet while the people of > Lebanon were able to flee Israel's bombardment, Gazans have had no such > freedom. > > > > The Israeli government claims the purpose of its blockade is to secure > the return of Corporal Gilad Shalit, a soldier kidnapped in June after a > raid by a faction of Hamas. Another objective is, we are told, to > prevent militants firing Qassam rockets across the border into Israeli > towns and villages by militants. Even if we accept this intention, the > methods have been grossly disproportionate. Five Israelis have been > killed by Qassams in the past six years. Does this justify such a lethal > response in Gaza? The operation is also deeply questionable from a > practical perspective. Does the Israeli government truly expect > degrading all Gazans in this fashion to secure the release of Corporal > Shalit? > > > > Ultimately we must accept that the return of the Israeli military to > Gaza is less about stopping rocket attacks, winning the release of > Corporal Shalit, or even removing Hamas, than it is about imposing a > collective punishment on the Palestinian people, in the belief that it > is in the interests of the state of Israel to do so. It is not. The > long-term interest of Israel lies, as it always has, in progress towards > a two-state solution. The great prize is the normalisation of relations > between Palestinians and Israelis. Every day that the people of Gaza are > denied their dignity - every time more innocent Palestinians are killed > by stray Israeli rockets - such a settlement is pushed further away. > > > *'Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now' * > > > *By Patrick Cockburn in Gaza * > > > *Published: 08 September 2006 * > > Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight > that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the > Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored > because the world's attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and > Iraq. > > A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians > imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has > stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the > shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with > hand-thrown nets. > > Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day > by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 > wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr > Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which > is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 > women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction > of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon. > > It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken > captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who > used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, > writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army "has been > rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to describe it - killing > and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately". Gaza has > essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go > at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several > houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 > Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of > olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed. > > Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: "They > even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep." He pointed > sadly to a field, its brown sandy earth churned up by tracks of > bulldozers, where the stumps of trees and broken branches with wilting > leaves lay in heaps. Near by a yellow car was standing on its nose in > the middle of a heap of concrete blocks that had once been a small house. > > His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers > confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they > survived by drinking water from a fish pond. "Snipers took up positions > in the windows and shot at anybody who came near," he said. "They killed > one of my neighbours called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and > just went out to get water." > > Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. > The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell > phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit > by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal. > > But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and > its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published > last month, the West Bank and Gaza face "a year of unprecedented > economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in > 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population." > Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 (£1.06) a day. > > There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People > do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza > industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian > police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police > but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts > removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once > employed thousands. > > "It is the worst year for us since 1948 [when Palestinian refugees first > poured into Gaza]," says Dr Maged Abu-Ramadan, a former ophthalmologist > who is mayor of Gaza City. "Gaza is a jail. Neither people nor goods are > allowed to leave it. People are already starving. They try to live on > bread and falafel and a few tomatoes and cucumbers they grow themselves." > > The few ways that Gazans had of making money have disappeared. Dr > Abu-Ramadan says the Israelis "have destroyed 70 per cent of our orange > groves in order to create security zones." Carnations and strawberries, > two of Gaza's main exports, were thrown away or left to rot. An Israeli > air strike destroyed the electric power station so 55 per cent of power > was lost. Electricity supply is now becoming almost as intermittent as > in Baghdad. > > The Israeli assault over the past two months struck a society already > hit by the withdrawal of EU subsidies after the election of Hamas as the > Palestinian government in March. Israel is withholding taxes owed on > goods entering Gaza. Under US pressure, Arab banks abroad will not > transfer funds to the government. > > Two thirds of people are unemployed and the remaining third who mostly > work for the state are not being paid. Gaza is now by far the poorest > region on the Mediterranean. Per capita annual income is $700, compared > with $20,000 in Israel. Conditions are much worse than in Lebanon where > Hizbollah liberally compensates war victims for loss of their houses. If > Gaza did not have enough troubles this week there were protest strikes > and marches by unpaid soldiers, police and security men. These were > organised by Fatah, the movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud > Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, which lost the election to Hamas in > January. His supporters marched through the streets waving their > Kalashnikovs in the air. "Abu Mazen you are brave," they shouted. "Save > us from this disaster." Sour-looking Hamas gunmen kept a low profile > during the demonstration but the two sides are not far from fighting it > out in the streets. > > The Israeli siege and the European boycott are a collective punishment > of everybody in Gaza. The gunmen are unlikely to be deterred. In a bed > in Shifa Hospital was a sturdy young man called Ala Hejairi with wounds > to his neck, legs, chest and stomach. "I was laying an anti-tank mine > last week in Shajhayeh when I was hit by fire from an Israeli drone," he > said. "I will return to the resistance when I am better. Why should I > worry? If I die I will die a martyr and go to paradise." > > His father, Adel, said he was proud of what his son had done adding that > three of his nephews were already martyrs. He supported the Hamas > government: "Arab and Western countries want to destroy this government > because it is the government of the resistance." > > As the economy collapses there will be many more young men in Gaza > willing to take Ala Hejairi's place. Untrained and ill-armed most will > be killed. But the destruction of Gaza, now under way, will ensure that > no peace is possible in the Middle East for generations to come. > > *The deadly toll* > > * After the kidnap of Cpl Gilad Shalit by Palestinians on 25 June, > Israel launched a massive offensive and blockade of Gaza under the > operation name Summer Rains. > > * The Gaza Strip's 1.3 million inhabitants, 33 per cent of whom live in > refugee camps, have been under attack for 74 days. > > * More than 260 Palestinians, including 64 children and 26 women, have > been killed since 25 June. One in five is a child. One Israeli soldier > has been killed and 26 have been wounded. > > * 1,200 Palestinians have been injured, including up to 60 amputations. > A third of victims brought to hospital are children. > > * Israeli warplanes have launched more than 250 raids on Gaza, hitting > the two power stations and the foreign and Information ministries. > > * At least 120 Palestinian structures including houses, workshops and > greenhouses have been destroyed and 160 damaged by the Israelis. > > * The UN has criticised Israel's bombing, which has caused an estimated > $1.8bn in damage to the electricity grid and leaving more than a million > people without regular access to drinking water. > > * The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says 76 Palestinians, > including 19 children, were killed by Israeli forces in August alone. > Evidence shows at least 53 per cent were not participating in hostilities. > > * In the latest outbreak of violence, three Palestinians were killed > yesterday when Israeli troops raided a West Bank town in search of a > wanted militant. Two of those killed were unarmed, according to witnesses. > > Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight > that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the > Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored > because the world's attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and > Iraq. > > A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians > imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has > stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the > shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with > hand-thrown nets. > > Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day > by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 > wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr > Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which > is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 > women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction > of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon. > > It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken > captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who > used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, > writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army "has been > rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to describe it - killing > and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately". Gaza has > essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go > at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several > houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 > Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of > olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed. > > Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: "They > even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep." He pointed > sadly to a field, its brown sandy earth churned up by tracks of > bulldozers, where the stumps of trees and broken branches with wilting > leaves lay in heaps. Near by a yellow car was standing on its nose in > the middle of a heap of concrete blocks that had once been a small house. > > His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers > confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they > survived by drinking water from a fish pond. "Snipers took up positions > in the windows and shot at anybody who came near," he said. "They killed > one of my neighbours called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and > just went out to get water." > > Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. > The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell > phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit > by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal. > > But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and > its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published > last month, the West Bank and Gaza face "a year of unprecedented > economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in > 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population." > Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 (£1.06) a day. > > There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People > do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza > industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian > police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police > but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts > removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once > employed thousands. > > "It is the worst year for us since 1948 [when Palestinian refugees first > poured into Gaza]," says Dr Maged Abu-Ramadan, a former ophthalmologist > who is mayor of Gaza City. "Gaza is a jail. Neither people nor goods are > allowed to leave it. People are already starving. They try to live on > bread and falafel and a few tomatoes and cucumbers they grow themselves." > > The few ways that Gazans had of making money have disappeared. Dr > Abu-Ramadan says the Israelis "have destroyed 70 per cent of our orange > groves in order to create security zones." Carnations and strawberries, > two of Gaza's main exports, were thrown away or left to rot. An Israeli > air strike destroyed the electric power station so 55 per cent of power > was lost. Electricity supply is now becoming almost as intermittent as > in Baghdad. > > The Israeli assault over the past two months struck a society already > hit by the withdrawal of EU subsidies after the election of Hamas as the > Palestinian government in March. Israel is withholding taxes owed on > goods entering Gaza. Under US pressure, Arab banks abroad will not > transfer funds to the government. > > Two thirds of people are unemployed and the remaining third who mostly > work for the state are not being paid. Gaza is now by far the poorest > region on the Mediterranean. Per capita annual income is $700, compared > with $20,000 in Israel. Conditions are much worse than in Lebanon where > Hizbollah liberally compensates war victims for loss of their houses. If > Gaza did not have enough troubles this week there were protest strikes > and marches by unpaid soldiers, police and security men. These were > organised by Fatah, the movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud > Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, which lost the election to Hamas in > January. His supporters marched through the streets waving their > Kalashnikovs in the air. "Abu Mazen you are brave," they shouted. "Save > us from this disaster." Sour-looking Hamas gunmen kept a low profile > during the demonstration but the two sides are not far from fighting it > out in the streets. > > The Israeli siege and the European boycott are a collective punishment > of everybody in Gaza. The gunmen are unlikely to be deterred. In a bed > in Shifa Hospital was a sturdy young man called Ala Hejairi with wounds > to his neck, legs, chest and stomach. "I was laying an anti-tank mine > last week in Shajhayeh when I was hit by fire from an Israeli drone," he > said. "I will return to the resistance when I am better. Why should I > worry? If I die I will die a martyr and go to paradise." > > His father, Adel, said he was proud of what his son had done adding that > three of his nephews were already martyrs. He supported the Hamas > government: "Arab and Western countries want to destroy this government > because it is the government of the resistance." > > As the economy collapses there will be many more young men in Gaza > willing to take Ala Hejairi's place. Untrained and ill-armed most will > be killed. But the destruction of Gaza, now under way, will ensure that > no peace is possible in the Middle East for generations to come. > > *The deadly toll* > > * After the kidnap of Cpl Gilad Shalit by Palestinians on 25 June, > Israel launched a massive offensive and blockade of Gaza under the > operation name Summer Rains. > > * The Gaza Strip's 1.3 million inhabitants, 33 per cent of whom live in > refugee camps, have been under attack for 74 days. > > * More than 260 Palestinians, including 64 children and 26 women, have > been killed since 25 June. One in five is a child. One Israeli soldier > has been killed and 26 have been wounded. > > * 1,200 Palestinians have been injured, including up to 60 amputations. > A third of victims brought to hospital are children. > > * Israeli warplanes have launched more than 250 raids on Gaza, hitting > the two power stations and the foreign and Information ministries. > > * At least 120 Palestinian structures including houses, workshops and > greenhouses have been destroyed and 160 damaged by the Israelis. > > * The UN has criticised Israel's bombing, which has caused an estimated > $1.8bn in damage to the electricity grid and leaving more than a million > people without regular access to drinking water. > > * The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says 76 Palestinians, > including 19 children, were killed by Israeli forces in August alone. > Evidence shows at least 53 per cent were not participating in hostilities. > > * In the latest outbreak of violence, three Palestinians were killed > yesterday when Israeli troops raided a West Bank town in search of a > wanted militant. Two of those killed were unarmed, according to witnesses. > > >
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