"'The one-sidedness of casualty figures is one measure of disproportion,' says Richard Falk, the UN's human rights envoy for the occupied territories. A total of 14 Israelis have been killed in the fighting, three of them civilians killed by rockets, 11 of them soldiers, four of the latter by 'friendly fire.' Some 50 IDF soldiers were also wounded.
In contrast, 1330 Palestinians have died and 5450 were injured, the overwhelming number of them civilians."
"Hamas' use of unguided missiles fired at Israel would also be a war crime under the conventions."
These are some of the findings published in an article by Conn Hallinan in the Berkeley Daily Planet on February 18, as reported by Jewish Peace News:
Berkeley Daily Planet
Dispatches From The Edge—Gaza: Death's Laboratory
By Conn Hallinan
Wednesday February 18, 2009
It was as if they had stepped on a mine, but there was no shrapnel in the wound. Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before.
—Dr. Erik Fosse, Norwegian cardiologist whoworked in Gaza hospitals during the recent war.
What Dr. Fosse was describing was the effects of a U.S. "focused lethality" weapon that minimalizes explosive damage to structures while inflicting catastrophic wounds on its victims. While the weapon has been used in Iraq, Gaza was the first test of the bomb in a densely populated environment.
The specific weapon—the GBU-39—is a Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) and was developed by the U.S. Air Force, Boeing Corporation, and University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2000. The weapon wraps the high explosives HMX or RDX with a tungsten alloy and other metals like cobalt, nickel or iron, in a carbon fiber/epoxy container. When the bomb explodes, the container evaporates and the tungsten turns into micro-shrapnel that is extremely lethal up to about 60 feet.
Tungsten is inert, so it does not react chemically with the explosive. While a non-inert metal like aluminum would increase the blast, tungsten actually limits the explosion.
Within the weapon's range, however, it is inordinately lethal. According to Norwegian doctor Mad Gilbert, the blast results in multiple amputations and "very severe fractures. The muscles are sort of split from the bones, hanging loose, and you also have quite severe burns."
Those who survive the initial blast quickly succumb to septicemia and organ collapse. "Initially, everything seems in order … but it turns out on operation that dozens of miniature particles can be found in all their organs," says Dr. Jam Brommundt, a German doctor working in Kham Younis, a city in southern Gaza. "It seems to be some sort of explosive or shell that disperses tiny particles … that penetrate all organs, these miniature injuries, you are not able to attack them surgically." According to Brommundt, the particles cause multiple organ failures.
If, by some miracle, victims do survive, they are almost to certain develop rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a particularly deadly cancer that deeply embeds itself into tissue and is almost impossible to treat. A 2005 U.S. Department of health study found that tungsten stimulated RMS cancers even in very low doses. Out of 92 rats tested, 92 developed the cancer.
While DIMEs were originally designed to avoid "collateral" damage generated by standard high explosive bombs, the weapon's lethality and profound long-term toxicity hardly seems like an improvement. And in Gaza, the ordinance was widely used. Al-Shifta alone has seen 100 to 150 such patients.
Was Gaza a test of DIME in urban conditions?
Dr. Gilbert told the Oslo Gardermoen,"There is a strong suspicion I think that Gaza is now being used as a test laboratory for new weapons." Read more....
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Arrests of nonviolent protesters in Jayyous: Please contact your congresspersons
You may remember reading about the village of Jayyous which I visited last June. I wrote about it in July on my other blog. It is in the West Bank, a Palestinian area. The Israeli security barrier there is a road flanked by barbed wire and it was built on Palestinian land, between the village and the olive groves belonging to the village farmers. Israel uprooted many of their hundreds-of-years-old olive trees and took much of the olive orchard. So, in order to get to their fields, the farmers must cross at a checkpoint that is open limited hours. Each day they wait to be recognized by the soldiers. (See photo of the farmers waiting for the soldier to recognize them). The day we visited, they cheered us and asked us to come every day because they got through the checkpoint much faster when we were there.During the past week, Israeli troops have been storming Palestinian towns in the West Bank, arresting large numbers of people and taking them to unknown locations. They have been attacking Jayyous for the past three days, taking over homes and raising the Israeli flag over them. In the latest attack, they arrested 65 young people, herding them into a nearby school and taking many away.
Recently the town has been protesting the planned re-routing of the wall running through their village because it would entail the destruction of more farmland and uprooting of more fruit and olive trees, making the swath of devastation twice as wide as it is now.
All the principles of land and water confiscation, home invasion and denial of basic rights so common to the West Bank exist there. It is important to contact our Members of Congress at (202-224-3121) and the State Department (202-647-3672) to let them know this village we love is under attack for nonviolent resistance to the theft of their land.
Here is an article from Ma'an News Agency describing what is happening:
Recently the town has been protesting the planned re-routing of the wall running through their village because it would entail the destruction of more farmland and uprooting of more fruit and olive trees, making the swath of devastation twice as wide as it is now.
All the principles of land and water confiscation, home invasion and denial of basic rights so common to the West Bank exist there. It is important to contact our Members of Congress at (202-224-3121) and the State Department (202-647-3672) to let them know this village we love is under attack for nonviolent resistance to the theft of their land.
Here is an article from Ma'an News Agency describing what is happening:
Bethlehem – Ma’an – In a third consecutive day of mass arrests Israeli forces stormed the northern West Bank town of Jayyus near Qalqiliya early morning Wednesday and seized 65 Palestinian youth in an ongoing military operation. As of press time Israeli soldiers had declared the town a “Closed Military Area” and prevented local and international journalist from entering. Civilians are being kept under a town curfew and are unable to leave their homes for school or work. Soldiers told the families of those detained that they were “wanted” by Israeli intelligence.
Local sources said several Israeli military vehicles surrounded the town, blocked the main road using earth piles and rocks, and used loudspeakers to announce a curfew and order all the youth of the town to gather for inspection in the local school. Once the youth were gathered Israeli soldiers separated 20 and took them to an unknown location and by noon more than 65 had been detained.
Eyewitnesses said the military activity was concentrated at the Shamasnah neighborhood and the town’s center. They noted that soldiers occupied several homes and raised an Israeli flag on the roofs of several buildings. According to members of the Stop the Wall campaign in the area Israeli troops have occupied ten homes in the village, each with an Israeli flag hoisted on the roof. The homes are described as tall buildings with strategic vantage points across the town. Two of the raided and vandalized homes were that of Jabir Shamasnah and then that of town’s mayor Abu At-Tahir. According to Israeli sources the village was raided in a sweep for illegal weapons. An army spokesperson told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, that forces were operating in the town following a rise in the number of incidents involving the throwing of stones at Israeli vehicles. Eight of those taken were identified as: Sakhr Shamasnah, Jabir Shamasnah, Kamal Shamasnah, Adli Shamasnah, Anwar Aarif, Mahir Aarif, Muhammad Bilal and Hamadah Nimir.
The residents of Jayyus organize a weekly demonstration against the construction of the separation wall on village land. Foreign activists frequently attend the events and Israeli soldiers regularly invade the town and harass its residents following the departure of the foreign activists. Meanwhile, Israeli forces on Wednesday morning apprehended two Palestinian university students from the northern West Bank town of Far’un, south of Tulkarem.Soldiers stormed the town at dawn, ransacking a residential building and seizing two students at the Palestine Technical University. Two of the students detained were identified as 22-year-old Sami Al-Jaroushi, affiliated with Fatah, and 20-year-old Fawzi Qarqur, apparently a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) On Tuesday, 30 Palestinians were arrested from across the West Bank, and on Monday close to 50 were taken. All were deemed “wanted” by Israeli authorities and taken to unknown locations for questioning.
***Updated 13:11 Bethlehem time
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Freedom of the Press - more so in Israel than in the U.S.
from Haaretz, February 13, 2009
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063597.html
an example of the more critical nature of the Israeli press - U.S. newspapers are not usually quite so frank (makes me wonder about the pressures American newspapers face):
Does Zionism legitimize every act of violence?
By Gideon Levy (Israeli columnist)
The Israeli left died in 2000. Since then its corpse has been lying around unburied until finally its death certificate was issued, signed, sealed and delivered on Tuesday. The hangman of 2000 was also the gravedigger of 2009: Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The man who succeeded in spreading the lie about there being no partner has reaped the fruit of his deeds in this election. The funeral was held two days ago.
The Israeli left is dead. For the past nine years it took the name of the peace camp in vain. The Labor Party, Meretz and Kadima had pretensions of speaking in its name, but that was trickery and deceit. Labor and Kadima made two wars and continued to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank; Meretz supported both wars. Peace has been left an orphan. The Israeli voters, who have been misled into thinking that there is no one to talk to and that the only answer to this is force - wars, targeted killings and settlements - have had their say clearly in the election: a closing sale for Labor and Meretz. It was only the force of inertia that gave these parties the few votes they won.
There was no reason for it to be otherwise. After many long years when hardly any protest came from the left, and the city square, the same square that raged after Sabra and Chatila, was silent, this lack of protest has been reflected at the ballot box as well. Lebanon, Gaza, the killed children, cluster bombs, white phosphorus and all the atrocities of occupation - none of this drove the indifferent, cowardly left onto the street. Though ideas of the left have found a toehold in the center and sometimes even on the right, everyone from former prime minister Ariel Sharon to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spoken in a language that once was considered radical. But the voice was the voice of the left while the hands were the hands of the right.
On the fringes of this masked ball existed another left, the marginal left - determined and courageous, but minuscule and not legitimate. The gap between it and the left was supposedly Zionism. Hadash, Gush Shalom and others like them are outside the camp. Why? Because they are "not Zionist."
And what is Zionism nowadays? An archaic and outdated concept born in a different reality... (read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063597.html)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063597.html
an example of the more critical nature of the Israeli press - U.S. newspapers are not usually quite so frank (makes me wonder about the pressures American newspapers face):
Does Zionism legitimize every act of violence?
By Gideon Levy (Israeli columnist)
The Israeli left died in 2000. Since then its corpse has been lying around unburied until finally its death certificate was issued, signed, sealed and delivered on Tuesday. The hangman of 2000 was also the gravedigger of 2009: Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The man who succeeded in spreading the lie about there being no partner has reaped the fruit of his deeds in this election. The funeral was held two days ago.
The Israeli left is dead. For the past nine years it took the name of the peace camp in vain. The Labor Party, Meretz and Kadima had pretensions of speaking in its name, but that was trickery and deceit. Labor and Kadima made two wars and continued to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank; Meretz supported both wars. Peace has been left an orphan. The Israeli voters, who have been misled into thinking that there is no one to talk to and that the only answer to this is force - wars, targeted killings and settlements - have had their say clearly in the election: a closing sale for Labor and Meretz. It was only the force of inertia that gave these parties the few votes they won.
There was no reason for it to be otherwise. After many long years when hardly any protest came from the left, and the city square, the same square that raged after Sabra and Chatila, was silent, this lack of protest has been reflected at the ballot box as well. Lebanon, Gaza, the killed children, cluster bombs, white phosphorus and all the atrocities of occupation - none of this drove the indifferent, cowardly left onto the street. Though ideas of the left have found a toehold in the center and sometimes even on the right, everyone from former prime minister Ariel Sharon to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spoken in a language that once was considered radical. But the voice was the voice of the left while the hands were the hands of the right.
On the fringes of this masked ball existed another left, the marginal left - determined and courageous, but minuscule and not legitimate. The gap between it and the left was supposedly Zionism. Hadash, Gush Shalom and others like them are outside the camp. Why? Because they are "not Zionist."
And what is Zionism nowadays? An archaic and outdated concept born in a different reality... (read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063597.html)
Monday, February 9, 2009
Palestinian Bishops Denied Entry to Gaza
This is the latest alert from the ELCA - take action
Please see the ELCA news story below, describing Palestinian bishops being denied Gaza entry by Israeli authorities and US presiding bishops sending a letter to the Israeli Ambassador in response to the incident.
Following the article are links to press releases from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) and the Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem and the Middle East. In their statements, Bishop Younan and Bishop Dawani reaffirmed their commitment to work for justice and peace, in spite of their treatment at the Gaza crossing.
The Feb. 5 letter from the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, and the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, was sent to Sallai Meridor, ambassador of Israel, in Washington, D.C.
On Feb. 4, the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), and the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem and the Middle East, were part of a delegation of five heads of churches in Jerusalem who traveled to visit Christians in Gaza. Three members of the delegation were allowed to enter Gaza, but Israeli security officials denied entry to Younan and Dawani.
According to an ELCJHL news release, Younan and Dawani were the only Palestinians in the delegation. Both said they had obtained permits from Israeli officials to enter Gaza.
"The purpose of their visit was pastoral -- to visit churches, humanitarian projects of the Middle East Council of Churches and the Al Ahli Hospital, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem," the two U.S. presiding bishops wrote. "We are concerned that they were not allowed freedom of movement into Gaza to carry out their pastoral responsibilities."
"We believe that it is urgent that adequate humanitarian assistance reach the people of Gaza immediately, and we underscore Bishop Dawani's statement that 'most certainly pastoral care is an important factor in such services,'" Hanson and Jefferts Schori wrote.
The presiding bishops wrote that they support their partner bishops and churches in their Christian ministry, and they share their continued commitment to work for peace in the region. Statements from Younan and Dawani, following their denial of entry, reaffirmed their commitments to work for peace in Gaza, the presiding bishops wrote.
"We hope that, having discovered the cause of their denial, you will assure that they will be permitted to enter as soon as possible to offer support and pastoral care to the people they serve," the presiding bishops' letter concluded.
Copies of the letter were sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace.
For information contact:John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.orghttp://www.elca.org/news
ELCJHL press release, 2/4/09: www.elcjhl.org
Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem and the Middle East press release, 2/4/09: www.j-diocese.org
Please see the ELCA news story below, describing Palestinian bishops being denied Gaza entry by Israeli authorities and US presiding bishops sending a letter to the Israeli Ambassador in response to the incident.
Following the article are links to press releases from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) and the Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem and the Middle East. In their statements, Bishop Younan and Bishop Dawani reaffirmed their commitment to work for justice and peace, in spite of their treatment at the Gaza crossing.
- >>>Take Action: Recognizing that this one incident is a part of a much larger crisis, we urge supporters of Middle East peace to continue to reach out to elected officials with the message that Christians care about the welfare of all persons in the region and to this end support a just peace. If you have not already done so, please check to see if your representative signed onto the important letter to the Secretary of State urging aid to Gaza, and if they did so, be sure they know this is deeply appreciated by sending them a short e-mail or making a phone call. They need to know we’re behind them! Go to www.cmep.org to send a thank you to your representative.
ELCA NEWS SERVICEFebruary 5, 2009
ELCA, Episcopal Church Top Leaders Ask Israel about Bishops' Denied Visit 09-036-JB
The Feb. 5 letter from the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, and the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, was sent to Sallai Meridor, ambassador of Israel, in Washington, D.C.
On Feb. 4, the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), and the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem and the Middle East, were part of a delegation of five heads of churches in Jerusalem who traveled to visit Christians in Gaza. Three members of the delegation were allowed to enter Gaza, but Israeli security officials denied entry to Younan and Dawani.
According to an ELCJHL news release, Younan and Dawani were the only Palestinians in the delegation. Both said they had obtained permits from Israeli officials to enter Gaza.
"The purpose of their visit was pastoral -- to visit churches, humanitarian projects of the Middle East Council of Churches and the Al Ahli Hospital, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem," the two U.S. presiding bishops wrote. "We are concerned that they were not allowed freedom of movement into Gaza to carry out their pastoral responsibilities."
"We believe that it is urgent that adequate humanitarian assistance reach the people of Gaza immediately, and we underscore Bishop Dawani's statement that 'most certainly pastoral care is an important factor in such services,'" Hanson and Jefferts Schori wrote.
The presiding bishops wrote that they support their partner bishops and churches in their Christian ministry, and they share their continued commitment to work for peace in the region. Statements from Younan and Dawani, following their denial of entry, reaffirmed their commitments to work for peace in Gaza, the presiding bishops wrote.
"We hope that, having discovered the cause of their denial, you will assure that they will be permitted to enter as soon as possible to offer support and pastoral care to the people they serve," the presiding bishops' letter concluded.
Copies of the letter were sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace.
For information contact:John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.orghttp://www.elca.org/news
ELCJHL press release, 2/4/09: www.elcjhl.org
Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem and the Middle East press release, 2/4/09: www.j-diocese.org
Impact of Conflict on Children
The Impact of the Conflict on Children
123 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 1,487 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000 (through the end of 2008).
From http://www.ifamericansknew.org/ Source: Remember These Children.
“The majority of these [Palestinian] children were killed and injured while going about normal daily activities, such as going to school, playing, shopping, or simply being in their homes. Sixty-four percent of children killed during the first six months of 2003 died as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks, or from indiscriminate fire from Israeli soldiers.”
- Catherine Cook
Source: Remember These Children, a coalition of groups calling for an end to the killing of children and a fair resolution of the conflict, reports that 1,056 Palestinian children and 123 Israeli children were killed between Sep 29, 2000 and early December 2008. (View the complete list of the victims, which was last updated on February 3, 2009.) The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that at least 431 Palestinian children (and no Israeli children) were killed during Israel’s Dec 27, 2008 - Jan 18, 2009 assault on the Gaza strip. This number does not include any killings of Palestinian children in the West Bank, which may have taken place since the beginning of 2009.
123 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 1,487 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000 (through the end of 2008).
From http://www.ifamericansknew.org/ Source: Remember These Children.
“The majority of these [Palestinian] children were killed and injured while going about normal daily activities, such as going to school, playing, shopping, or simply being in their homes. Sixty-four percent of children killed during the first six months of 2003 died as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks, or from indiscriminate fire from Israeli soldiers.”
- Catherine Cook
Source: Remember These Children, a coalition of groups calling for an end to the killing of children and a fair resolution of the conflict, reports that 1,056 Palestinian children and 123 Israeli children were killed between Sep 29, 2000 and early December 2008. (View the complete list of the victims, which was last updated on February 3, 2009.) The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that at least 431 Palestinian children (and no Israeli children) were killed during Israel’s Dec 27, 2008 - Jan 18, 2009 assault on the Gaza strip. This number does not include any killings of Palestinian children in the West Bank, which may have taken place since the beginning of 2009.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Passengers of freighter seized by Israel return home with tales of abuse
First, Some video of Thursday's Israeli attacks on parsley farmers (see February 5 post below).
Sedond, here is the latest news from the Free Gaza movement, which has been sailing to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade which prevents food, medical supplies, fuel and other goods from entering Gaza.
BEIRUT: A group of activists arrested after the Israeli navy seized an aid ship bound for the devastated Gaza Strip were expelled from Israel on Friday, a day after being detained by the military. Fifteen of the Togolese-flagged Tali's crew members were deported back to Lebanon and Syria early on Friday, and three others were preparing to fly to London.
Nine Lebanese and a Palestinian were handed over at the border with Israel to the UN peacekeeping force responsible for monitoring stability in southern Lebanon.
The freed crew told how they were beaten and handcuffed after Israeli gunboats fired on the ship and sailors stormed the vessel, arresting everyone on board. The boat was then towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod where it was searched.
Salam Khodr, an Al-Jazeera journalist who was on board the vessel, said the Israelis had taken the crew's possessions when they were arrested. "The Israeli army confiscated all our videotapes; we were separated from each other, we were blindfolded and handcuffed. They beat some of us; I was beaten," she said. Read more....
Sedond, here is the latest news from the Free Gaza movement, which has been sailing to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade which prevents food, medical supplies, fuel and other goods from entering Gaza.
BEIRUT: A group of activists arrested after the Israeli navy seized an aid ship bound for the devastated Gaza Strip were expelled from Israel on Friday, a day after being detained by the military. Fifteen of the Togolese-flagged Tali's crew members were deported back to Lebanon and Syria early on Friday, and three others were preparing to fly to London.
Nine Lebanese and a Palestinian were handed over at the border with Israel to the UN peacekeeping force responsible for monitoring stability in southern Lebanon.
The freed crew told how they were beaten and handcuffed after Israeli gunboats fired on the ship and sailors stormed the vessel, arresting everyone on board. The boat was then towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod where it was searched.
Salam Khodr, an Al-Jazeera journalist who was on board the vessel, said the Israelis had taken the crew's possessions when they were arrested. "The Israeli army confiscated all our videotapes; we were separated from each other, we were blindfolded and handcuffed. They beat some of us; I was beaten," she said. Read more....
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Today in Gaza - Shooting at Farmers Harvesting Parsley
Shooting at farmers, what gives Israel the right?
Tuesday 3rd February, 2009
Eva Bartlett
(read other stories from Gaza)
See video of the attack by Israeli soldiers on Gazan parsley farmers.
from Gaza, where international human rights observers are accompanying Palestinians and documenting what is happening----
This morning, farmers from Abassan Jadiida (New Abassan), to the east of Khan Younis , the southern region, returned to land they'd been forced off of during and following the war on Gaza. The continual shooting at them by Israeli soldiers while they work the land intensified post-war on Gaza. The Israeli soldiers' shooting was not a new thing, but a resumption of the policy of harassment that Palestinians in the border areas have been enduring for years, a harassment extending to invasions in which agricultural land, chicken farms, and the houses in the region have been targeted, destroyed in many cases.
Today's Abassan farmers wanted to harvest their parsley.
Ismail Abu Taima, whose land was being harvested, explained that over the course of the year he invests about $54,000 in planting, watering and maintenance of the monthly crops. From that investment, if all goes well and crops are harvested throughout the year, he can bring in about $10,000/month, meaning that he can pay off the investment and support the 15 families dependent on the harvest.
The work began shortly after 11 am, with the handful of farmers working swiftly, cutting swathes of tall parsley and bundling it as rapidly as it was cut. These bundles were then loaded onto a waiting donkey cart. The speed of the farmers was impressive, and one realized that were they able to work 'normally' as any farmer in unoccupied areas, they would be very productive. A lone donkey grazed in an area a little closer to the border fence. When asked if this was not dangerous for the donkey, the farmers replied that they had no other choice: with the borders closed, animal feed is starkly absent. The tragedy of having to worry about being shot once again struck me, as it did when harvesting olives or herding sheep with West Bank Palestinians who are routinely attacked by Israeli settlers and by the Israeli army as they try
to work and live on their land. (photo shows farmers loading donkey cart with parsley - demolished farmhouse in the background)
After approximately 2 hours of harvesting, during which the sound of an F-16 overhead was accompanied by Israeli jeeps seen driving along the border area, with at least one stationed directly across from the area in question, Israeli soldiers began firing. At first the shots seemed like warning shots: sharp and intrusive cracks of gunfire. The men kept working, gathering parsley, bunching it, loading it, while the international human rights observers present spread out in a line, to ensure our visibility.
It would have been hard to miss or mistake us, with fluorescent yellow vests and visibly unarmed–our hands were in the air.
Via bullhorn, we re-iterated our presence to the soldiers, informing them we were all unarmed civilians, the farmers were rightfully working their land, the soldiers were being filmed by an Italian film crew. We also informed some of our embassies of the situation: "we are on Palestinian farmland and are being shot at by Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border fence."
For a brief period the shots ceased. Then began anew, again seemingly warning shots, although this time visibly hitting dirt 15 and 20 m from us. Furthest to the south, I heard the whiz of bullets past my ear, though to estimate the proximity would be impossible.
As the cracks of gunfire rang more frequently and louder, the shots closer, those of the farmers who hadn't already hit the ground did so, sprawling flat for cover (photo shows farmer hitting the ground). The international observers continued to stand, brightly visible, hands in the air, bullhorn repeating our message of unarmed presence. The shots continued, from the direction of 3 or 4 visible soldiers on a mound hundreds of metres from us. With my eyeglasses I could make out their shapes, uniforms, the jeep… Certainly with their military equipme
nt they could make out our faces, empty hands, parsley-loaded cart…
There was no mistaking the situation or their intent: pure harassment.
As the farmers tried to leave with their donkey carts, the shots continued. The two carts were eventually able to make it away, down the ruddy lane, a lane eaten by tank and bulldozer tracks from the land invasion weeks before. Some of us accompanied the carts away, out of firing range, then returned. There were still farmers on the land and they needed to evacuate.
As we stood, again arms still raised, still empty-handed, still proclaiming thus, the Israeli soldiers' shooting drew much nearer. Those whizzing rushes were more frequent and undeniably close to my head, our heads. The Italian film crew accompanying us did not stop filming, nor did some of us with video cameras.
We announced our intention to move away, the soldiers shot. We stood still, the soldiers shot. At one point I was certain one of the farmers would be killed, as he had hit the ground again but in his panic seemed to want to jump up and run. I urged him to stay flat, stay down, and with our urging he did. The idea was to move as a group, a mixture of the targeted Palestinian farmers and the brightly-noticeable international accompaniers. And so we did, but the shots continued, rapidly, hitting within metres of our feet, flying within metres of our heads.
I'm amazed no one was killed today, nor that limbs were not lost, maimed.
While we'd been on the land, Ismail Abu Taima had gone to one end, to collect valves from the broken irrigation piping. The pipes themselves had been destroyed by a pre-war on Gaza invasion. "The plants have not been watered since one week before the war," he'd told us. He collected the parts, each valve valuable in a region whose borders are sealed and where replacement parts for everything one could need to replace are unattainable or grossly expensive.
He'd also told us of the chicks in the chicken farm who'd first been dying for want of chicken feed, and then been bulldozed when Israeli soldiers attacked the house and building they were in.
My embassy rang me up, after we'd managed to get away from the firing: "We're told you are being shot at. Can you give us the precise location, and maybe a landmark, some notable building nearby."
I told Heather about the half-demolished house to the south of where we had been, and that we were on Palestinian farmland. After some further questioning, it dawned on her that the shooting was coming from the Israeli side. "How do you know it is Israeli soldiers shooting at you?" she'd asked. I mentioned the 4 jeeps, the soldiers on the mound, the shots from the soldiers on the mound (I didn't have time to go into past experiences with Israeli soldiers in this very area and a little further south, similar experience of farmers being fired upon while we accompanied them.).
Heather asked if the soldiers had stopped firing, to which I told her, 'no, they kept firing when we attempted to move away, hands in the air. They fired as we stood still, hands in the air. " She suggested these were 'warning shots' at which I pointed out that warning shots would generally be in the air or 10s of metres away. These were hitting and whizzing past within metres.
She had no further thoughts at time, but did call back minutes later with Jordie Elms, the Canadian attache in the Tel Aviv office, who informed us that "Israel has declared the 1 km area along the border to be a 'closed military zone'."
When I pointed out that Israel had no legal ability to do such, that this closure is arbitrary and illegal, and that the farmers being kept off of their land or the Palestinians whose homes have been demolished in tandem with this closure had no other options: they needed to work the land, live on it… Jordie had no thoughts. He did, however, add that humanitarian and aid workers need to "know the risk of being in a closed area".
Meaning, apparently, that it is OK with Jordie that Israeli soldiers were firing on unarmed civilians, because Israeli authorities have arbitrarily declared an area out of their jurisdiction (because Israel is "not occupying Gaza" right?!) as a 'closed area'.
Israel's latest massacre of 1,400 Palestinians –most of whom were civilians –aside, Israel's destruction of over 4,000 houses and 17,000 buildings aside, Israel's cutting off and shutting down of the Gaza Strip since Hamas' election aside, life is pretty wretched for the farmers and civilians in the areas flanking the border with Israel. Last week, the young man from Khan Younis who was shot while working on farmland in the "buffer zone" was actually on land near where we accompanied farmers today. Why do Israeli authorities think they have an uncontested right to allow/instruct their soldiers to shoot at Palestinian farmers trying to work their land?
If Israeli authorities recognized Palestinian farmers' need to work the land, Palestinian civilians' right to live in their homes, then they would not have arbitrarily imposed a 1 km ban on existence along the border, from north to south. What gives Israel the right to say that now the previously-imposed 300 m ban on valuable agricultural land next to the order extends to 1 full kilometre, and that this inherently gives Israel the right to have bulldozed 10s of houses in this "buffer zone" and ravaged the farmland with military bulldozers and tanks.
Furthermore, what gives Israel the right to assume these impositions are justifiable, and the right to shoot at farmers continuing to live in and work on their land (as if they had a choice. Recall the size of Gaza, the poverty levels)?
Nothing does.
Photos taken on 3rd February in Abassan:
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/649432150/5a2f56e8e0393fa3fd0dc7f47df33271
Tuesday 3rd February, 2009
Eva Bartlett
(read other stories from Gaza)
See video of the attack by Israeli soldiers on Gazan parsley farmers.
from Gaza, where international human rights observers are accompanying Palestinians and documenting what is happening----
This morning, farmers from Abassan Jadiida (New Abassan), to the east of Khan Younis , the southern region, returned to land they'd been forced off of during and following the war on Gaza. The continual shooting at them by Israeli soldiers while they work the land intensified post-war on Gaza. The Israeli soldiers' shooting was not a new thing, but a resumption of the policy of harassment that Palestinians in the border areas have been enduring for years, a harassment extending to invasions in which agricultural land, chicken farms, and the houses in the region have been targeted, destroyed in many cases.
Today's Abassan farmers wanted to harvest their parsley.
Ismail Abu Taima, whose land was being harvested, explained that over the course of the year he invests about $54,000 in planting, watering and maintenance of the monthly crops. From that investment, if all goes well and crops are harvested throughout the year, he can bring in about $10,000/month, meaning that he can pay off the investment and support the 15 families dependent on the harvest.
The work began shortly after 11 am, with the handful of farmers working swiftly, cutting swathes of tall parsley and bundling it as rapidly as it was cut. These bundles were then loaded onto a waiting donkey cart. The speed of the farmers was impressive, and one realized that were they able to work 'normally' as any farmer in unoccupied areas, they would be very productive. A lone donkey grazed in an area a little closer to the border fence. When asked if this was not dangerous for the donkey, the farmers replied that they had no other choice: with the borders closed, animal feed is starkly absent. The tragedy of having to worry about being shot once again struck me, as it did when harvesting olives or herding sheep with West Bank Palestinians who are routinely attacked by Israeli settlers and by the Israeli army as they try
to work and live on their land. (photo shows farmers loading donkey cart with parsley - demolished farmhouse in the background)After approximately 2 hours of harvesting, during which the sound of an F-16 overhead was accompanied by Israeli jeeps seen driving along the border area, with at least one stationed directly across from the area in question, Israeli soldiers began firing. At first the shots seemed like warning shots: sharp and intrusive cracks of gunfire. The men kept working, gathering parsley, bunching it, loading it, while the international human rights observers present spread out in a line, to ensure our visibility.
It would have been hard to miss or mistake us, with fluorescent yellow vests and visibly unarmed–our hands were in the air.
Via bullhorn, we re-iterated our presence to the soldiers, informing them we were all unarmed civilians, the farmers were rightfully working their land, the soldiers were being filmed by an Italian film crew. We also informed some of our embassies of the situation: "we are on Palestinian farmland and are being shot at by Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border fence."
For a brief period the shots ceased. Then began anew, again seemingly warning shots, although this time visibly hitting dirt 15 and 20 m from us. Furthest to the south, I heard the whiz of bullets past my ear, though to estimate the proximity would be impossible.
As the cracks of gunfire rang more frequently and louder, the shots closer, those of the farmers who hadn't already hit the ground did so, sprawling flat for cover (photo shows farmer hitting the ground). The international observers continued to stand, brightly visible, hands in the air, bullhorn repeating our message of unarmed presence. The shots continued, from the direction of 3 or 4 visible soldiers on a mound hundreds of metres from us. With my eyeglasses I could make out their shapes, uniforms, the jeep… Certainly with their military equipme
nt they could make out our faces, empty hands, parsley-loaded cart…There was no mistaking the situation or their intent: pure harassment.
As the farmers tried to leave with their donkey carts, the shots continued. The two carts were eventually able to make it away, down the ruddy lane, a lane eaten by tank and bulldozer tracks from the land invasion weeks before. Some of us accompanied the carts away, out of firing range, then returned. There were still farmers on the land and they needed to evacuate.
As we stood, again arms still raised, still empty-handed, still proclaiming thus, the Israeli soldiers' shooting drew much nearer. Those whizzing rushes were more frequent and undeniably close to my head, our heads. The Italian film crew accompanying us did not stop filming, nor did some of us with video cameras.
We announced our intention to move away, the soldiers shot. We stood still, the soldiers shot. At one point I was certain one of the farmers would be killed, as he had hit the ground again but in his panic seemed to want to jump up and run. I urged him to stay flat, stay down, and with our urging he did. The idea was to move as a group, a mixture of the targeted Palestinian farmers and the brightly-noticeable international accompaniers. And so we did, but the shots continued, rapidly, hitting within metres of our feet, flying within metres of our heads.
I'm amazed no one was killed today, nor that limbs were not lost, maimed.
While we'd been on the land, Ismail Abu Taima had gone to one end, to collect valves from the broken irrigation piping. The pipes themselves had been destroyed by a pre-war on Gaza invasion. "The plants have not been watered since one week before the war," he'd told us. He collected the parts, each valve valuable in a region whose borders are sealed and where replacement parts for everything one could need to replace are unattainable or grossly expensive.
He'd also told us of the chicks in the chicken farm who'd first been dying for want of chicken feed, and then been bulldozed when Israeli soldiers attacked the house and building they were in.
My embassy rang me up, after we'd managed to get away from the firing: "We're told you are being shot at. Can you give us the precise location, and maybe a landmark, some notable building nearby."
I told Heather about the half-demolished house to the south of where we had been, and that we were on Palestinian farmland. After some further questioning, it dawned on her that the shooting was coming from the Israeli side. "How do you know it is Israeli soldiers shooting at you?" she'd asked. I mentioned the 4 jeeps, the soldiers on the mound, the shots from the soldiers on the mound (I didn't have time to go into past experiences with Israeli soldiers in this very area and a little further south, similar experience of farmers being fired upon while we accompanied them.).
Heather asked if the soldiers had stopped firing, to which I told her, 'no, they kept firing when we attempted to move away, hands in the air. They fired as we stood still, hands in the air. " She suggested these were 'warning shots' at which I pointed out that warning shots would generally be in the air or 10s of metres away. These were hitting and whizzing past within metres.
She had no further thoughts at time, but did call back minutes later with Jordie Elms, the Canadian attache in the Tel Aviv office, who informed us that "Israel has declared the 1 km area along the border to be a 'closed military zone'."
When I pointed out that Israel had no legal ability to do such, that this closure is arbitrary and illegal, and that the farmers being kept off of their land or the Palestinians whose homes have been demolished in tandem with this closure had no other options: they needed to work the land, live on it… Jordie had no thoughts. He did, however, add that humanitarian and aid workers need to "know the risk of being in a closed area".
Meaning, apparently, that it is OK with Jordie that Israeli soldiers were firing on unarmed civilians, because Israeli authorities have arbitrarily declared an area out of their jurisdiction (because Israel is "not occupying Gaza" right?!) as a 'closed area'.
Israel's latest massacre of 1,400 Palestinians –most of whom were civilians –aside, Israel's destruction of over 4,000 houses and 17,000 buildings aside, Israel's cutting off and shutting down of the Gaza Strip since Hamas' election aside, life is pretty wretched for the farmers and civilians in the areas flanking the border with Israel. Last week, the young man from Khan Younis who was shot while working on farmland in the "buffer zone" was actually on land near where we accompanied farmers today. Why do Israeli authorities think they have an uncontested right to allow/instruct their soldiers to shoot at Palestinian farmers trying to work their land?
If Israeli authorities recognized Palestinian farmers' need to work the land, Palestinian civilians' right to live in their homes, then they would not have arbitrarily imposed a 1 km ban on existence along the border, from north to south. What gives Israel the right to say that now the previously-imposed 300 m ban on valuable agricultural land next to the order extends to 1 full kilometre, and that this inherently gives Israel the right to have bulldozed 10s of houses in this "buffer zone" and ravaged the farmland with military bulldozers and tanks.
Furthermore, what gives Israel the right to assume these impositions are justifiable, and the right to shoot at farmers continuing to live in and work on their land (as if they had a choice. Recall the size of Gaza, the poverty levels)?
Nothing does.
Photos taken on 3rd February in Abassan:
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/649432150/5a2f56e8e0393fa3fd0dc7f47df33271
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