Gaza Lives On

As the people in Gaza commemorate the first anniversary of the war, they remain the only population in the world living under a total siege for more than two and half years. But who are those people?

The Palestinian Cause in 2 Minutes

In the midst of the struggle, and the dust of battle, many people still don't realize what this is all about... It is not only about land and rights...

INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO OPEN RAFAH BORDER

Dont let Gaza die
Global Help Initiative For Palestine
After the massacre of the people of Gaza by the Israeli army thatstarted on December, 27th 2008, the world was moved at the plight ofPalestinians. But Gaza remains closed almost hermetically, humanitarianconvoys accumulate at the border and only a small part is allowed toenter. Similarly, citizens of various countries, including manyPalestinians are stranded in Egypt.We, citizens of the world, oppose this illegal and deadly blockade,tolerated, not to say encouraged by most governments of the world,especially those of USA, Israel, Europe and many of the Arab countries.Once again, it seems that only civil society is able to mobilize todemand the application of the basic rights of people that are echoed ininternational law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(December, 10th 1948).*Therefore, we call any individual or group (association, organisation,party, etc.) to participate, within its means, to establish a permanentsit-in at the border in Rafah, to put pressure on the Egyptian, US,European and Israeli governments, and also on the internationalcommunity, until the definitive opening of the border between Gaza andEgypt, allowing the free movement of goods and people.TO FREE GAZA, TO BREAK THE SIEGE, FOR FREE MOVEMENTALL AT RAFAH , NOW !* Article 13.(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country
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Organisations :
ISM-France
PAz Ahora (Espagne)
Revista Rubra (Portugal)
MSRPP (France)
Forum Palestina (Italia)
AMFP (France)
Viva Palestina (UK)
Association des Palestiniens en France
Collectif des Musulmans de France
Comite St Ouen Solidarite Palestine, France
EMF (Etudiants Musulmans de France)-Nantes, France
Ittijah, France
Resistance Palestine, France
Jordan Society for Human Rights - Jordan
Jordanian Intellectuals For Gaza - Jordan
Global Help Initiative for Palestine (HI), Gaza, Palestine
ISM-Chicago, USA
Pink Code, USA
Convergence des Causes (France)
AssociazioneZaatar – Associazione Ghassan Kanafani (Lucca) - Circolo aziendaleferrovieri del PRC Spartaco Lavagnini di Firenze - Network of ArtistsAgainst War Italia – Associazione ALTRIMONDI, sezione Palestina -Comitato varesino per la Palestina - Sinistra Critica (Varese) –Comitato Provinciale ARCI di Varese.
Friends of Lebanon, United Kingdom
The Peace Cycle, United Kingdom
MPACuk, United Kingdom

Individuals: (16 nationalities)
Nada Kassas,Egypt, Journalist and activist
Iman Badawi, Egypt, Journalist and activist
Kamel Elbasha, Egypt, author and activist
Amal Wahdan, Palestinian Activist and journalist
Julio Rodriguez, (Spain)
Christian Chantegrel, SB (Siege Buster) France
Paki Wieland, Northampton Massachusetts, USA
Northampton Committee to End the War in Iraq
Western Mass Raging Grannies, Code Pink.
Nadine Rosa-Rosso, Belgium, creator of the call to remove Hamas from European terrorist organizations lists
Abdelaziz Chambi - Activist - France

Youssef Girard, Historians, France

Mireille Rumeau, Activist, France
Sandrine Mansour-Merien, France, historian Palestinian refugee
Abdel Salam Saleh - Novelist - Jordan

Saleh abu-Taweeleh - Activist - Jordan

Suleiman Sweiss - Human Rights Activist - Jordan

Laila Zo bi - Activist - Jordan

Mohammad Faraj - Activist – Jordan
Naser abu-Nassar - Activist – Jordan
Ayed Nab a - Director - Jordan

Kamal Khalil - Singer and Composer - Jordan

Mohammad Nasralla - Plastic Artist - Jordan

Kawthar Arar - Journalist - Jordan

Abdul Rahman el-Ja bari - Cartoonist – Jordan
Yahya abu-Safi - Researcher - Jordan

Majed Toubeh - Secretary of Jordanian Journalists Syndicate - Jordan

Mohammad Deebo - Poet and Activist - Syria

Akram Kreishan - Int l Expert in Human Rights - Jordan

Laila Faisal - Activist - Jordan/USA

Mohammad Shareef el-Jayyousi - Journalist – Jordan
Rabea Salhieh - Dental Surgeon - Jordan 

Olfat Jaser - King Hussien Cancer Foundation - Jordan

Ra ed Abdel Haq - Tourist Guide – Jordan
Amina Abu-Hamdia - Activist -Jordan/USA
Sari Hanafi, Liban, Professor, Beirut American University
Asim Ghani, Pakistan, journalist
Saad Javed Khan, Pakistan
Khaled Amayreh, Palestine, Journalist
AfafDajani, Palestine, RASED president, Palestinian Ass. for HumanRights-jerusalem office and President of Ass. for women and children
Dr Haidar Eid, Gaza, Palestine
Asma Qwaider, Gaza, Palestine, Palestine Forum
Adnan el-Sabbah - Writer - Palestine

Amani Abu shaaban - Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Laila Harbe – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Naila Gergawe – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Nebal Erhem – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Mohmmed Jabber – Artist - Gaza – Palestine
Ismail Hefene – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Mohammed Haj - Artist - Gaza – Palestine
Abdullah Roze - Artist - Gaza – Palestine
Amani Abu hamda - Artist - Gaza – Palestine
Nahel Mhana – Designer - Gaza – Palestine
Enas Jaber - Artist - Gaza – Palestine
Ola Sakallah – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Eman Aby shamlla - Teacher - Gaza – Palestine
Dalia Taha – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Saleh Sahuon – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Rania Shawa – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Zaher Akeila – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Hanaa Sahaw – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Ahamed Morad - Doctor - Gaza – Palestine
Maysaa Abu Shaaban – Doctor - Gaza – Palestine
Mohamed Abu Randan – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Khalel Khodare – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Majed Khodare – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Rame Mohana – Judge - Gaza – Palestine
Saad Mohana – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Ishaq Mohana – Judge - Gaza – Palestine
Mazen Sesalem – Judge - Gaza – Palestine
Tagred Khodare – Journalist - Gaza – Palestine
Jamal Lolo – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Khaled Lolo – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Batol Shorafa – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Mahmmod Moshtaha – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Deima Redece – Engineer - Gaza – Palestine
Mohammed Thalthene – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Asaad Yazje – Accountant - Gaza – Palestine
Somaia Qwaider - Coordinator - Gaza – Palestine
Raheane Dalol - Coordinator assistant - Gaza – Palestine
Heba Sharef - Designer - Gaza – Palestine
Mohammed Madhoon - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Anour Shekh - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Mohammed Yosef - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Abed allah Zaalan - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Saady Hamed - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Abed rahem Hamed - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Mahmod Madhoon - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Mohamed Esmaial - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Doaa Eaila - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Fatema Hasham - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Anor Qeshawie - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Maha Balata - Student - Gaza – Palestine
Abdalla el-Harkan - Financial Manager - Saudi Arabia
George Galloway, Member of Parliament (UK)
Yvonne Ridley, Journalist and Author, UK.
Andrew J Silvera, Action4Palestine, UKLynn Wilson, Global Help Initiative for Palestine, UK
Dr Mohamed Abassi, United Kingdom
Laura Abraham, Cofounder & Director The Peace Cycle, (UK

Members of Viva Palestina, drivers to Gaza, entitled to Palestinian Passport :
Mrs Nafisa Saeed, Y. Manvra, R. Raja,
Akram Janua, Nusarrat Janjua, Sofia Janjua, X Janjua, Shereen Bhorat, MouradAbib (Algerian Relief), David Joner, Kevin Ovenden, Tahir Gorji, KieranTurner, Safraz Patel, Ruhel Mial, Bisharet Ali, Asad Iqbal, HusseinSaleam, Shahed Miah (Solihull), Faruk Shaikh (Gloucester), Ahmed Nisar,Ahmed Riaz, Alaa Mousa, Samir Ali, Abdullam Khan, Zabar Khan, AbdurRahman Motara (Gloucester), Mansur Sadaq, Cheikh Zahir, Zarina Bhatia,Alan Morton, Mahmood Hussain, Mohamed Khan, Nasima Ali, Carole Swords,Arif Bagasi,
Mahjabeen Bhatti psychotherapist, Canada
Emanuele Vitali, Domenico De Filippis, Germano Monti (Italia)
Hedy Epstein (Deutschland))
Tinet Elmgren, Comic artist, Germany
Edith Lutz, Dr Phil. Germany
Lesley A. Esteves, Deputy Editor, Outlook Traveller Getaways, New Delhi, India
Prof.MassimoDe Santi (Presidente CIEP - Comitato Internazionale di Educazione perla Pace) - Patti Cirino - Federico Giusti (Pisa) - Enrica Palmieri(docente Accademia Nazionale di Danza (Roma) - Alessandra Festini -Alessandra Fava - Edvino Ugolini (Trieste) - Gabriella Macucci (Siena)- Maria Grazia Campari (Milano) - Lea Melandri - Claudio Ortale(capogruppo PRC Municipio 19 – Roma) - Francesco Bravetti (Roma) - Ettore Davoli (Roma) - Nello Acampora (Circolo PRC Campobasso) -Andrea Montella - Paola Baiocchi - Elena Montella - Elia De Pasquale
Enquires and endorsements please contact: IntMorb@Googlemail.com

Focus on Gaza - The Blockade

In this week's show we look at how the Israeli blockade continues to hinder life in Gaza.

We have an interview with George Galloway and feature a new campaign by an Israeli anti-blockade group.

Plus we follow one fishermen as he tries to provide food for his family.

Aid convoy enters Gaza Strip

Galloway said he was "overwhelmed with happiness" to arrive in Gaza [AFP] A British convoy carrying medical relief for the impoverished residents of the Gaza Strip has crossed into the territory from Egypt. Gazans cheered and waved Palestinian flags as the convoy finally entered the territory through the Rafah border crossing on Monday, after being stranded on the  Egyptian side of the border for two days. "The group was stopped at the border for various reasons, there were various negotiations going on over what would be let through the border; how many people, how much humanitarian aid," Al Jazeera's Todd Baer, reporting from the Rafah crossing, said. "After an 8,000km journey, nearly one month on the road and a day and a half on the Egyptitan side of the Rafah border, the Lifeline for Gaxa convoy finally made it into the Gaza Strip. It was a remarkable scene." In depth Analysis and features from after the war The convoy is led by George Galloway, a British member of parliament. "Galloway has been heavily criticised and there were a lot of sceptics saying this could simply not be done. Today, George Galloway and 300 volunteers who gave up a month of their lives to help the people of Gaza proved all of them wrong," Baer said. The passage of the convoy through Egypt had been controversial. The convoy was pelted with stones and vandalised in the Egyptian town of El-Arish, 45km south of the Rafah border crossing, before being cleared to enter Gaza. 'Overwhelmed with happiness' As he entered Gaza, Galloway said he was "overwhelmed with happiness".   "I have entered Palestine many times but the most emotional of these is after the 22-day genocidal aggression against the Palestinian people," he said.    Galloway said that he planned to meet "the heroes of Palestine's  resistance, the government of Palestine, the people of Palestine". The convoy comprising 110 vehicles has brought aid supplies valued at $1.4m. Israel's Gaza offensive, which it said was aimed at stopping rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian fighters, devastated the Gaza Strip. More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed in the assault which ended in January. Israel and Egypt have sealed Gaza off from all but limited humanitarian aid since Hamas seized full control of the territory in June 2007 after pushing out forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the West Bank-based Palestinian president.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Focus on Gaza - Policing Gaza

Focus on Gaza offers a rare look at what life is like for ordinary people inside the Gaza Strip. In this episode: It has been two months since Israel's war on Gaza began with a devastating air strike on a police academy. Lauren Taylor reports from Gaza on the impact of that strike on the affected families and on the job of policing itself. Also, host Imran Garda talks to Usama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, about attempts at Palestinian reconciliation. And, in the first of our weekly glimpses into family life in Gaza, we catch up with the incredible story of the Samouni children. 

part 1


part 2

Gazan children psychologically damaged after war

Aid agencies say the psychological effects of the Israeli offensive on Gaza have been heavy, particularly on children.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull talks to one nine year old boy about his experiences and how he is dealing with them now

Israel 'evicts Jerusalem families'

More than 1,500 people could be left homeless by the threatened demolitions [AFP] More than 1,500 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem could be made homeless after Israel told them their homes are illegal and are to be demolished. "The owners of 80 houses in the al-Bustan neighbourhood have received eviction notices saying that the structures will be destroyed because they are illegal," Hatem Abdel Kader, an official responsible for Jerusalem affairs in the Palestinian government, said. Kader said that several of the houses served with demolition orders had been built before the 1967 war, when Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan, but that numerous extensions have been built since. "The [Jerusalem] municipality used this as a pretext to issue the demolition orders despite appeals by the residents," he said. No comment was immediately available from the city authorities. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital and has annexed the Arab east of the city, but under international law east Jerusalem is considered to be occupied and has not been recognised by world powers as the Israeli capital. According to B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation, Israeli authorities have demolished about 350 houses in east Jerusalem since 2004, saying that they were built without permits.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Focus on Gaza: A Crime of War?

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Human rights investigators continue to look into allegations that Israeli soldiers may have committed crimes of war during their Gaza military campaign. As the first Focus on Gaza A Crime of War...

Human rights investigators continue to look into allegations that Israeli soldiers may have committed crimes of war during their Gaza military campaign.

As the first Focus on Gaza A Crime of War? looks at the story of an alleged war crime that occurred during the war in the small village of Khuzaa, half a kilometre from the Israeli border.

Ayman Mohyeldin speaks with village residents who tell the story of a Gazan woman who was killed with a single shot to the head while waving a white flag as she led children to safety.

ONCE YOU SEE WHAT TRULY HAPPENED IN GAZA, IT WILL CHANGE YOU FOREVER

ONCE YOU SEE WHAT TRULY HAPPENED IN GAZA, IT WILL CHANGE YOU FOREVER

February 20, 2009 at 8:47 am (Gaza, Genocide, International Solidarity, Israel, Palestine, War Crimes)

By Medea Benjamin

When I traveled to Gaza last week, everywhere I went, a photo haunted me. I saw it in a brochure called “Gaza will not die” that Hamas gives out to visitors at the border crossing. A poster-sized version was posted outside a makeshift memorial at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. And now that I am back home, the image comes to me when I look at children playing in the park, when I glance at the school across the street, when I go to sleep at night.

It is a photo of a young Palestinian girl who is literally buried alive in the rubble from a bomb blast, with just her head protruding from the ruins. Her eyes are closed, her mouth partially open, as if she were in a deep sleep. Dried blood covers her lips, her cheeks, her hair. Someone with a glove is reaching down to touch her forehead, showing one final gesture of kindness in the midst of such inhumanity.

What was this little girl’s name, I wonder. How old was she? Was she sleeping when the bomb hit her home? Did she die a quick death or a slow, agonizing one? Where are her parents, her siblings? How are they faring?

Of the 1,330 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military during the 22-day invasion of Gaza, 437 were children. Let me repeat that: 437 children — each as beautiful and precious as our own.

As a Jew, an American and a mother, I felt compelled to witness, firsthand, what my people and my taxdollars had done during this invasion. Visiting Gaza filled me with unbearable sadness. Unlike the primitive weapons of Hamas, the Israelis had so many sophisticated ways to murder, maim and destroy-unmanned drones, F-16s dropping “smart bombs” that miss, Apache helicopters launching missiles, tanks firing from the ground, ships shelling Gaza from the sea. So many horrific weapons stamped with Made in the USA. While Hamas’ attacks on Israeli villages are deplorable, Israel’s disproportionate response is unconscionable, with 1,330 Palestinians dead vs. 13 Israelis.

If the invasion was designed to destroy Hamas, it failed miserably. Not only is Hamas still in control, but it retains much popular support. If the invasion was designed as a form of collective punishment, it succeeded, leaving behind a trail of grieving mothers, angry fathers and traumatized children.

To get a sense of the devastation, check out a slide show circulating on the internet called Gaza: Massacre of Children (www.aztlan.net/gaza/gaza_massacre_of_children.php). It should be required viewing for all who supported this invasion of Gaza. Babies charred like shish-kebabs. Limbs chopped off. Features melted from white phosphorus. Faces crying out in pain, gripped by fear, overcome by grief.

Anyone who can view the slides and still repeat the mantra that “Israel has the right to self-defense” or “Hamas brought this upon its own people,” or worse yet, “the Israeli military didn’t go far enough,” does a horrible disservice not only to the Palestinian people, but to humanity.

Compassion, the greatest virtue in all major religions, is the basic human emotion prompted by the suffering of others, and it triggers a desire to alleviate that suffering. True compassion is not circumscribed by one’s faith or the nationality of those suffering. It crosses borders; it speaks a universal language; it shares a common spirituality. Those who have suffered themselves, such as Holocaust victims, are supposed to have the deepest well of compassion.

The Israeli election was in full swing while was I visiting Gaza. As I looked out on the ruins of schools, playgrounds, homes, mosques and clinics, I recalled the words of Benjamin Netanyahu, “No matter how strong the blows that Hamas received from Israel, it’s not enough.” As I talked to distraught mothers whose children were on life support in a bombed hospital, I thought of the “moderate” woman in the race, Tzipi Livni, who vowed that she would not negotiate with Hamas, insisted that “terror must be fought with force and lots of force” and warned that “if by ending the operation we have yet to achieve deterrence, we will continue until they get the message.”

“The message,” I can report, has been received. It is a message that Israel is run by war criminals, that the lives of Palestinians mean nothing to them. Even more chilling is the pro-war message sent by the Israeli people with their votes for Netanyahu, Livni and anti-Arab racist Avigdor Lieberman.

How tragic that nation born out of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust has become a nation that supports the slaughter of Palestinians.

Here in the U.S., Congress ignored the suffering of the Palestinians and pledged its unwavering support for the Israeli state. All but five members out of 535 voted for a resolution justifying the invasion, falsely holding Hamas solely responsible for breaking the ceasefire and praising Israel for facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza at a time when food supplies were rotting at the closed borders.

One glimmer of hope we found among people in Gaza was the Obama administration. Many were upset that Obama did not speak out during the invasion and that peace envoy George Mitchell, on his first trip to the Middle East, did not visit Gaza or even Syria. But they felt that Mitchell was a good choice and Obama, if given the space by the American people, could play a positive role.

Who can provide that space for Obama? Who can respond to the call for justice from the Palestinian people? Who can counter AIPAC, the powerful lobby that supports Israeli aggression?

An organized, mobilized, coordinated grassroots movement is the critical counterforce, and within that movement, those who have a particularly powerful voice are American Jews. We have the beginnings of a such a counterforce within the American Jewish community. Across the United States, Jews joined marches, sit-ins, die-ins, even chained themselves to Israeli consulates in protest. Jewish groups like J Street and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom lobby for a diplomatic solution. Tikkun organizes for a Jewish spiritual renewal grounded in social justice. The Middle East Children’s Alliance and Madre send humanitarian aid to Palestine. Women in Black hold compelling weekly vigils. American Jews for a Just Peace plants olive trees on the West Bank. Jewish Voice for Peace promotes divestment from corporations that profit from occupation. Jews Against the Occupation calls for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

We need greater coordination among these groups and within the broader movement. And we need more people and more sustained involvement, especially Jewish Americans. In loving memory of our ancestors and for the future of our-and Palestinian-children, more American Jews should speak out and reach out. As Sholom Schwartzbard, a member of Jews Against the Occupation, explained at a New York City protest, “We know from our own history what being sealed behind barbed wire and checkpoints is like, and we know that ‘Never Again’ means not anyone, not anywhere — or it means nothing at all.”

On March 7, I will return to Gaza with a large international delegation, bringing aid but more importantly, pressuring the Israeli, U.S. and Egyptian governments to open the borders and lift the siege. Many members of the delegation are Jews. We will travel in the spirit of tikkun olam, repairing the world, but with a heavy sense of responsibility, shame and yes, compassion. We will never be able to bring back to life the little girl buried in the rubble. But we can-and will–hold her in our hearts as we bring a message from America and a growing number of American Jews: To Gaza, With Love.

For information about joining the trip to Gaza, contact gaza.codepink@gmail.com.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK:Women for Peace.

© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

Source

Gaza women struggle in aftermath of Israeli war

Following Israel's war on Gaza, many women are struggling to come to terms with the deaths of their husbands and children.

Al Jazeera's Mike Kirsch hears their stories of survival, and reports on the challenges they face as they try to rebuild their lives.

Gaza shakes American Arab and Muslim youth

Yasmin Qureshi, The Electronic Intifada, 6 February 2009

A Gaza solidarity demonstration in San Francisco, US, 10 January 2009. (Sharat Lin)

The most recent assault on Gaza has been an awakening for American Arab and Muslim youth. The attacks came at the most festive holiday season of the year. Instead of celebrating, many young American Arab and Muslim teenagers and kids spent their time protesting on the streets as they watched disturbing and devastating images streaming into their living rooms and onto their computers.

This is a new generation of youth: a generation that grew up witnessing gross violations of US civil liberties, under the shadow of the Patriot Act. They grew up watching Iraq and Afghanistan being destroyed by US military weapons; they saw citizens of countries of their ancestors tortured and humiliated. They have not forgotten Israel's unjustified attack on Lebanon only two years ago. Many youth have profound attachments to the lands that their parents or great-grandparents came from, and where many still have family.

"We were very young when [the 11 September 2001 attacks] happened. We grew up under Bush's presidency and witnessed our community being marginalized. We were often questioned about our religion and culture. This brought many of us closer and we started organizing awareness events on campus," said Billal Asghar, a senior global studies and health science major at San Jose State University.

The Arab and Muslim communities were largely quiet the first few years after the 11 September 2001 attacks. Some stayed away from political activism and limited their social activities to the mosque. A conscious decision was made to focus on Islam and Muslim issues within the US and stay away from speaking up against the atrocities being committed in countries where their family roots are.

Today Arab and Muslim youth in the US are increasingly visible as they stand up against injustice. A 22-year-old University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) student, Yasmine Alkhatib's family migrated from Iraq when she was five. She organized Palestinian events to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the dispossession of the Palestinian homeland in 1947-48, last year. "Growing up in America, which preaches virtue and justice, I always felt that I could express my views and opinions about the way the world works," she said. "When we see war crimes being committed by Israel on women and children or our rights being vandalized in the United States, we feel incensed and consider it our duty to fight against it," she continued.

Karimah Al-Helew, a student leader at San Jose State University and one of the organizers of the protests in San Jose, has traveled to the West Bank four times. "I know what it means to live under an illegal occupation. I can see that my tax dollars are going to support the poverty that has suffocated my family there," she said. Her father, who passed away a year ago, is Palestinian. Her mother is from Cuba. Speaking in Spanish at an immigrant rights rally in San Jose last month she said, "I am not speaking as a Palestinian or Cuban or American, I am speaking as a human being; you only have to be human to understand what is just."

Raunaq Khodaai, who was born in India and is a mathematics major at Mission College Santa Clara said that a class on Modern History of Europe a year ago motivated her to become politically active. "As I started reading more I felt that the Palestinians have been suffering for the longest time post-World War II," she said.

The unbalanced reporting by the mainstream media on the Iraq war and Israel-Palestine has lead to new, innovative ways of information gathering for the youth. Their sources of information are alternative media like Democracy Now!, YouTube or blogs, as well as social networking applications like instant messaging and Facebook.

"We are web savvy and like to search for other perspectives online," said Khodaai. At a time when Israel banned the media from entering Gaza, these channels of communication were used effectively to broadcast the personal horror stories and images coming out of Gaza. "Facebook became a news stand when the war broke out. The quickest way to get the word out for a rally would be to simply change your [Facebook] status," said Al-Helew.

In California's Bay Area, some of these students joined hands with African Americans to protest against the shooting of Oscar Grant, an unarmed black youth, by a police officer in Oakland. "The struggle for justice and equal rights in occupied Palestine is no different from what the African Americans struggled for in this country," said Laila Khatib, a 2008 San Francisco State University graduate. "Racism witnessed against Arabs throughout the recent election campaign is still fresh in my mind," she added.

Arab and Muslim youth have become more and more organized during the past couple of years. They realize that to become part of the "American story" it is important to participate in the local community and be involved in the political process. Their struggles for civil liberties and justice are their "American story."

Their participation in electing the first African American president of the US has given them new hope. Arab and Muslim student groups mobilized youth to register and vote. "After seeing the election results of 2004, we wanted to make sure Republicans do not win this time," said Asghar. "There is new excitement about bringing change bottom-up. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine have invoked a lot of passion and energy as well as dismay at US foreign policy. People are tired of these wars and can see what they have done to our economy," added Asghar.

Yasmin Qureshi is a Bay Area, California activist involved in South Asian and Palestinian issues. She is a member of The Free Gaza Movement, South Bay Mobilization and Friends of South Asia. She was one of the organizers of the Mumbai peace vigil in San Francisco and worked closely with youth to organize protests in San Jose against the Gaza attacks.

Israeli army 'used human shields in Gaza war'

While Israel is going to the polls, the story of how their army conducted its war on Gaza is slowly being pieced together.

Two Gaza residents have told al Jazeera that they were used as human shields by the army - a military tactic that is specifically forbidden by Israeli law.

The Israeli army denies the allegations.

Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from Gaza.

Gaza is no Warsaw Ghetto

OPINION: CRISIS IN GAZA
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/crisisingaza/2009/02/20092191518941246.html

 By Mark LeVine, Middle East historian


The Gaza-Warsaw comparison was inevitable, especially after the war started [GALLO/GETTY]
Within days of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, critics of the war, on blogs and in the mainstream media, began to compare the situation of Palestinians in Gaza to that of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War.

In the last few years comparisons between the Israeli occupation and apartheid in South Africa had become increasingly acceptable around the world, including in Israel.

However, the carnage caused by Israel's latest war has apparently rendered the apartheid comparison too weak to evoke the full horror of what Palestinians have suffered.

Israelis have suffered as well, but the levels of death and destruction on each side is so mind-numbingly lopsided - at least 1,300 versus 13 dead - that simply juxtaposing them seems almost nonsensical. The Gaza-Warsaw comparisons have not just been made, predictably, by Hamas leaders such as Mahmoud al-Zahar.
They have also been made by Arabs and Muslims around the world, by anti-war movements in Europe and the US, on the opinion pages of major US newspapers, by  Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Rapporteur, by Jewish members of the British parliament, and even by some American Jewish and Israeli critics of the war.

Images from Gaza have been juxtaposed next to images from the Warsaw Ghetto, with the aim of demonstrating the similarities between the two.

Evoking memories
It was inevitable that the Gaza-Warsaw comparison would be made, especially once the war started. It is so difficult to get the mainstream media in the West, and particularly in the US, to pay attention to the suffering of Palestinians, that many seem to have concluded that only the most powerful comparisons will get peoples' attention.
There are, indeed, disturbing similarities between the two situations.


 
Pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto have been shown next to those of Gaza [GALLO/GETTY] The Warsaw Ghetto was composed of Jews forced out of their homes and herded into one small section of the city.

Gaza is composed largely of refugees and their descendents, most of whom were forced to flee their homes during the 1948 war.

Like the Ghetto, in the last decade the Gaza Strip has been surrounded by a barrier that has literally imprisoned 1.5 million in a territory that has become one of the most densely populated in the world.

Once the war started, Gazan civilians were trapped within a war zone, while Israel - crucially, with Egyptian help - had full command of the territory in and around Gaza. This situation prompted comparisons with the absolute Nazi control of the Ghetto and its surrounding area during the uprising.

Increasing restrictions on food, water and medical supplies by the Israeli military, and severe levels of malnutrition and unemployment  "evoked" memories of the Nazi's slow strangulation of the Ghetto, as Richard Falk described it.
Even the tunnels of Gaza have been compared to those used by Jews to smuggle food and other essential goods into the Ghetto from the "Aryan side".

Psychological harm
These comparisons reflect an intolerable situation that is not just a humanitarian disaster, but has included the systematic commission of war crimes, and through them, crimes against humanity. The fact that the situation in Gaza has existed for decades has deepened the suffering, and the level of culpability.



Indeed, the UN has reported that 50 per cent of Gaza's children have become so scarred by the occupation and siege that they have no will to live. An occupation that causes this level of psychological harm warrants not just the world's condemnation, but the prosecution of those responsible for administering this state of affairs. But thank God, Gaza is not the Warsaw Ghetto. Even after the latest war, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank remain rooted to the soil, not buried beneath it.
Hamas's Mahmoud al-Zahar has described Israel's attack on Gaza as "total war". This language is clearly intended to link Israel's actions in Gaza to genocide, and particularly Germany's total war against the Jews during the Second World War, in their effect if not their intention.
If such a comparison has merits, the Gaza-Warsaw comparison would similarly hold true, giving the accusations of a Palestinian Holocaust merit.

The February 29, 2008 warning by Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, that Palestinians risked "bringing an even bigger Shoah" (the Hebrew word for Holocaust) upon themselves if they did not stop firing Qassam rockets into Israel, reveals that Israeli officials are well aware of the magnitude of the suffering they have inflicted on the people of Gaza.

Defining genocide
Yet, however horrific the situation in Gaza, it does not meet the definition of genocide used by the main bodies that prosecute such crimes, such as the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice.

All of these bodies define genocide as involving the intention to bring about the "physical-biological destruction" of a large enough share of an "entire human group" (national, ethnic, racial or religious) as to put the group's continued physical existence in jeopardy.

The Warsaw Ghetto was used by the Nazis to confine Jews into the smallest possible space, eventually in preparation for their ultimate extermination - which became official Nazi policy within a year of the ghetto's creation.

Out of an initial population of over 400,000 Jews, 100,000 had died of disease and starvation by the time the uprising began in 1943. To be comparable, by 2007 over 300,000 Gazans would have to have died from similar causes.

Ultimately, more than 300,000 Jews were shipped to the Treblinka extermination camp and murdered. At most, only about 200 Jews survived the uprising.

Ninety-eight per cent of Warsaw's Jews perished. More broadly, about 63 per cent of Europe's pre-war Jewish population were killed during the Holocaust.
The roughly 6,500 Gazans killed by Israel since it unilaterally withdrew its soldiers and settlers in 2005 equals 0.4 per cent of the population of the Strip.
In comparison, upwards of 75 per cent of Rwanda's Tutsi population, about 800,000 people, were murdered during the 100 days of genocide in 1994. Over 200,000 Bosnian Muslims (10 per cent of the pre-war Muslim population) were killed by Serbs between 1993 and 1995.

The Gazan death toll would have to be more than 20 times greater to approach Bosnia, 175 times more to approach Rwanda.

Historical context

Pointing out that the suffering endured by Gazans is not comparable in scope to the Holocaust or other well-known genocides, does not diminish it. However, it is crucial to provide accurate historical context to the current conflict, for two reasons.



If Gaza is today's Warsaw, then Palestinians have no hope [GALLO/GETTY] Firstly, the use of highly charged historical comparisons that do not hold up to scrutiny unnecessarily weakens the Palestinian case against the occupation.

In a propaganda war in which Palestinians have always struggled to compete, handing Israel's supporters the gift of inaccurate or exaggerated comparisons does not help this struggle, particularly not in Israel and the US, the two most important battlegrounds in this conflict.

To cite just one example, Israel and its supporters still use the exaggerated casualty figures of the early days of the 2002 siege of Jenin - hundreds were claimed to have been massacred, "only" 56 people were ultimately found to have died - to support their argument that Palestinians "lie" about the human toll of Israeli attacks.

When the argument is shifted from the basic illegality and intolerability of the occupation to an argument over numbers in which Palestinians seem to overstate their case, Israel has created more room to continue the occupation.

Egyptian complicity

It also has to be recognised that the sealing of Gaza has occurred with the complicity of Egypt. While Israel remains the de jure occupying power of the Gaza Strip, the Gaza-Egypt border has remained closed or open depending on the wishes of the Egyptian government - something Israeli officials regularly point out, and millions of protesters against Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, across the Arab world affirm.

Egypt allowed the crossing to remain open for several days when Hamas blew up part of the wall in January 2008. It has since kept it largely sealed despite the dire humanitarian situation, putting its relationship with Israel - and more importantly, with the US - ahead of the welfare of Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Indeed, the collusion of Israel's neighbour, Egypt, and its biggest patron, the US, in ghettoizing Gaza creates a triangular network of responsibility that has no parallel with the Nazi control over Warsaw, and Poland more broadly.

The second and more important reason for developing a more accurate historical model for Gaza is that comparing Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto diminishes Palestinian agency.

If Gaza is today's Warsaw, then Palestinians have no hope. There is no solution, no new strategies worth considering besides nihilistic violence that invites a far more deadly response.

Such a view, which has long characterised Hamas's worldview, limits if not closes the horizons of political action by Palestinians, making it harder to come up with more creative strategies to resist and even transcend the occupation.

Ultimately, it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the inertia of hopeless violence produces ever more intense responses.

Politicide, not genocide

After visiting Gaza in 2003, Oona King, a Jewish British politician, compared Gaza and Warsaw, explaining that they are "the same in nature but not extent".

However, it is impossible to separate the extent of Nazi policies in and surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto from the nature of the ghetto, since each determined and reinforced the other.

The Warsaw Ghetto was essentially a holding pen for livestock headed for slaughter.
The Gaza ghetto is a "concentration camp" - as Cardinal Renato Martino, the Vatican's justice and peace minister, termed it - intended to force Palestinians to accept a rump state with a few trappings of sovereignty, bisected by huge Jewish settlement blocs, severed from East Jerusalem, and without hope for returning anything but a miniscule percentage of refugees to their homeland.

This intolerable situation was labelled by the late Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling as politicide. Its goal is clearly to make the creation of a viable Palestinian state all but impossible to achieve.

But Gaza in 2009 is not Warsaw in 1943. It is worth remembering that the Jewish uprising did little if anything to stop the Holocaust.

The Gaza ghetto has its own historical roots and therefore the possibility of a different trajectory and, hopefully, a more positive denouement than did Warsaw.

Only with a clear and objective understanding of the roots, nature and purpose of the Gaza ghetto, and of the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza more broadly, can a different and more positive ending to the Palestinian - and Israeli - narratives be written.

Mark LeVine is a professor of Middle East history at the University of California, Irvine, and is the author of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam and the soon to be published An Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989.