Tag: israel/palestine

UN urges Israel halt violations

The UN Human Rights Council has passed a resolution demanding a halt to Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. The Council also decided on dispatching a fact finding mission to Gaza.
Thursday witnessed more bloodshed by Israeli occupation troops, that left 23 Palestinians dead. One Israeli soldier was kiled by a sniper shot. Meanwhile the Palestinian government declared martial law in Gaza, and called up on the Palestinian security forces to join the resistance factions in fighting the Israeli invasion.

Speculative fiction and the IP conflict

Speculative fiction, a sub-genre of science-ficton of fantastic fiction, is generally really about the present than the future. The idea is to represent an alternate history or imagined future that really tells us about the present. I read two examples of this recently, both related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I found quite moving and intriguing recently.

Correction: I originally attributed the second story to Israel Shahak rather than Israel Shamir, its actual author. There’s a big difference — see the link in the comments or the above bios. Mea culpa and thanks for Ethan for taking the time to correct me.

Continue reading Speculative fiction and the IP conflict

Police ban pro-Gaza demo

Police banned a solidarity demo with the Palestinians that had been scheduled today noon in front of the Arab League HQ.
Central Security Forces trucks were all over Tahrir Sq since early morning, and in Ramsis St close to the lawyers’ and journalists’ syndicates. More troops were also stationed behind the Mugama3 near the US embassy. While CSF conscripts mostly remained inside their trucks, Tahrir was swarmed with uniformed and plainclothes police officers, State Security agents, and the paramilitary brigades of criminal thugs whom the police are increasingly depending on to keep “law and order� in the street. There was also a battalion of thugs stationed around the corner of the Egyptian Museum on the side of 3abdel Mon3eim Riyad Sq (I’m sure Western tourists on their way into the museum felt safer and secure with such a lovely sight.)
A handful of activists who showed up early (11:40am) in front of the Arab League HQ were soon surrounded by thugs, plainclothes State Security officers, who ordered them to leave. The activists had formed a delegation that was to get into the Arab League HQ to present a message to its secretariat, denouncing the League’s (as always) weak response to the Israeli attacks.
Mohamed Waked, one of the activists present in the scene, told me the State Security officers intimidated and pushed nine activists inside the HQ, saying they could either get into the League’s building swiftly to meet the assistant secretary general, or get into the prisoners’ trucks. The police was very nervous, and did not want a crowd that can draw more attention of the people in the square. Waked, who was not part of the delegation, said he was pushed by the officers inside against his will. Others included, Kamal Abu 3eita, Mohamed 3abdel Quddos and Ahmad Rami, MB activist at the pharmacists’ syndicate.
The activists were met by Ahmad Bin Hilla, 3amr Moussa’s assistant. They protested their treatment by the police, but Bin Hilla said this was an “Egyptian internal affair� that the League did not want to intervene in. The activists presented him with a statement, denouncing the League’s weak stand and lack of support for the Palestinians. Bin Hilla replied, giving them the expected we-are-doing-our-best diplomatic crap.
Meanwhile, small scattered groups of activists were trying to assemble in Tahrir, but were intimidated by the police, who threatened them with arrest, and were pushing them across the streets to disperse. The activists, mainly socialists and Nasserists from the Karama faction, were exponentially outnumbered by the police, who kept on shoving them all the way from Tahrir Sq to Tal3at Harb sq. The scene was bizarre, and reminded me of the Labor Day demo, where security intimidation against an exponentially outnumbered activists meant run for-your-life kinda situation. After being cornered in Tal3at Harb, around 20 activists decided to head to the Press Syndicate. They were marching in the street, and sometimes running, followed by at least 300 plainclothes security. Whenever any activist stopped walking, even to light a cigarette, battalions of security agents would start pushing him or her to move. The security also kidnapped Wael 3abass in Qasr el-Nil St, and kept him in custody for few minutes, before the rest of the activists assembled and started screaming and shouting till he was released. The same situation happened few minutes later with another activist from the Karama faction who raised Nasser’s poster while walking. The activists decided then if they can’t demonstrate or chant, the least they could do is to raise their hands up with V signs to attract attention of the public, as they ran for refuge at the press syndicate.
It was around 1:15pm that the CSF conscripts were moved to surround the syndicate, but did not bar those who wanted to get in. Under Cairo’s burning July sun, 30 or 40 at best, activists stood with banners denouncing the US, Israel and Mubarak, waiving Palestinian flags, and chanting. They were joined by Kamal Abu 3eita and Mohamed 3abdel Quddos after they were “released� from the Arab League HQ.

9000 to 1

Recent editorials in the New York Times and Washington Post (among others) about how the Palestinians are getting their come-uppance in the current bombing of Gaza are so far removed from any semblance of reality and attempt at neutrality you have to wonder whether these newspapers don’t live in an alternate reality. They’re not even worth linking to, but this is:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lost no time in exploiting Hamas’ capture of an Israeli soldier to justify Israel’s long-planned re-occupation of the Gaza Strip and mass arrest of the Hamas leadership. In his haste, he has inadvertently achieved a rare thing. He has managed to reduce the absurdity of Israel’s position to a known ratio: 9000 to 1.

Nine thousand captured Palestinians languish in Israel’s notorious “security prisons”, including 380 children and 115 women. Every day Israeli troops and Border Police kidnap, interrogate, torture and imprison Palestinians, often by the dozen. The arrest raids never stop, regardless of summits, truces, or cease-fires. It is estimated that 650,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israel since the current occupation began in 1967.

Arrest and incarceration is such a common experience that it has become a virtual rite of passage for Palestinian boys; men go to prison. In the past year we’ve read several reports of pre-teen boys, some as young as 8, approaching Israeli soldiers and asking, even begging, to be arrested.

But God forbid that even one of Israel’s tender teen warriors should be captured in battle, as young Gilat Shalit was. That would be going too far. That would justify blowing up key bridges and destroying the electricity source of two-thirds of the Gaza Strip. Columns of invading tanks and scores of US-supplied jet fighters and combat helicopters would be required to hunt for the missing soldier, and attack the Palestinian Interior Ministry. From top to bottom, little Gaza would be subjected to yet another round of fierce shelling from land, air, and sea. All in a day’s hunt.

I hear that now, after bridges and power stations, they’ve started bombing a university.

Solidarity demo for Gaza

Around 500 demonstrators gathered in front of the Press Syndicate today, to denounce the Israeli military operations in Gaza. The protestors, mostly nationalists and leftists, chanted against Israel’s assault on Gaza, the US support for Tel Aviv, and against the Egyptian Mukhabarrat whose agents are involved in mediations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

(UPDATE: See pictures of the demo by photographers Victoria Hazou and Nasser Nouri. You can also see one by Tara Todras-Whitehill after the jump.)
Continue reading Solidarity demo for Gaza

A blog from Gaza

Excuse Dr. Mona El-Farra’s poor English, her neighborhood is being bombed:

my freind hoda , lives next to the ministry of interior building , in Gaza, that was hit last night with 2 rockets ,the attack occured 2am yesterday,please forgive me about the accuracy , l am starting to lose track of days and nights , and how many times we were attacked , hoda told me that the whole building was shaking ,she went out ,with her pyjamas , all the residents were out in their night wear ,children faces were too pale ,some of them were crying hystiricaly,the fume filled the place , the flat next door were largely damaged(it is the next to the building that was targeted),where a fmily with 6 children live ,there was large fire, the firee brigades used her flat , to put off the fire, the Ministry of interior building was empty during the attack !!!!,the aim was revenge and destroyingof the building ,i live 150 meters from Hoda place , no body is safe no one is immune .what happened with Hoda reminded me with the night when Late president ARafat headquarters in Gaza were attacked , 2 years ago, i live nearby , and too close , that night 37 shelling hit that building,

. . .

how can i let you know what is my personal feelings , during this raids,if iam sleeping my bed shakes tremendously,my dauhgter jumps to my bed,shivering with fear then both of us end up on the floor ,my heart beats go very fast , and i had to pacify my daughter , now she knows we need to pacify eachother , she feels my fear, if iam awake i flinch up and scream loudly , i cannot helpmyself , ok iam a doctor and mature middleaged woman with large experience and an activist too,but with this booming i go hystirical ,after all we are all humans and each have its own threshold ,hearing the sound of breaking windows is frightening too , many tin roofs in the refujee camps colapsed on the heads of families , as a result of this booming ,hospitals received large number of phsychologicaly traumatised children.

From Gaza, with love.

Update: Fikr Shaltoot of Medical Aid for Palestinians is also keeping a blog on what’s happening.

The (Anti-)Palestinian Authority

Professor Joseph Massad wrote an interesting opinion piece in Al-Ahram Weekly, on the social groups–produced by the 1990s Oslo “peace processâ€�–that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo in Palestine, and work hard to undermine the current democratically elected Hamas government. He draws parallels between Hamas’ current position with that of Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973. Continue reading The (Anti-)Palestinian Authority