Sorry for the infrequent updates recently, I don't have a lot of time so a more detailed update will appear at a later date.
I am no fan of George Galloway, I suspect his motives and his morals, but in this interview for Sky News (UK), I can't fault him - he speaks the truth, without pulling any punches, making a total fool out of the interviewer in the process. To view the interview, click on the following link (make sure you turn the volume down!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249JaIaubVw
Thanks to Judith for the lead.
Joe McGonagle
Monday, August 21, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Even 3-year-olds are valid military targets (so long as they are not Israeli)
Here are more examples of the deliberate murder of Palestinian children by members of the Israeli Defence Force.
The first took place on October 5th 2004 in the Gaza strip. Imam Al-Hamas was a 13-year-old girl on her way to school, wearing a school uniform and carrying her books in a back pack. As she passed an Israeli observation post, she was fired on. A transcript of radio traffic between the observation post, the local commander, and the operations room is as follows:
Observation post: "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward."
Ops room: "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?"
Observation post: "A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."
[shots fired at Imam]
Observation post: "I think that one of the positions took her out."
Local commander: "I and another soldier are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill. [pause] Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."
Local commander: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."
Links to coverage of this event:
Washington Post
Mindfully.org
The next event is undated. It is an eyewitness account by Chris Hedges, a reporter for the New York Times, recounted during an interview with National Public Radio:
"....over the loudspeaker from an Israeli army Jeep on the other side of the electric fence they were taunting these kids. And these kids started to throw rocks. And most of these kids were 10, 11, 12 years old. And, first of all, the rocks were the size of a fist. They were being hurled towards a Jeep that was armor-plated. I doubt they could even hit the Jeep. And then I watched the soldiers open fire. And it was - I mean, I've seen kids shot in Sarajevo. I mean, snipers would shoot kids in Sarajevo. I've seen death squads kill families in Algeria or El Salvador. But I'd never seen soldiers bait or taunt kids like this and then shoot them for sport. It was--I just--even now, I find it almost inconceivable. And I went back every day, and every day it was the same".
Read a transcript of the interview at Palestine Media watch or listen to the interview at National Public Radio (fast forward 24 minutes into the programme).
The third incident in this blog entry occured in January of this year (2006). 9-year-old Aya al-Astal was killed by Israeli soldiers while wandering close to a fence separating Gaza Strip from Israel. For the full article, visit the Australian Broadcasting Company web site.
I could go on, but the list of child casualties amongst Palestinians is endless and continuing. Your Government wherever you are needs to act to prevent these needless deaths, and curb the Israeli genocidal programme. I can't do that for you - you, the reader needs to bring these facts to light with your local government representative.
Joe McGonagle
The first took place on October 5th 2004 in the Gaza strip. Imam Al-Hamas was a 13-year-old girl on her way to school, wearing a school uniform and carrying her books in a back pack. As she passed an Israeli observation post, she was fired on. A transcript of radio traffic between the observation post, the local commander, and the operations room is as follows:
Observation post: "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward."
Ops room: "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?"
Observation post: "A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."
[shots fired at Imam]
Observation post: "I think that one of the positions took her out."
Local commander: "I and another soldier are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill. [pause] Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."
Local commander: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."
Links to coverage of this event:
Washington Post
Mindfully.org
The next event is undated. It is an eyewitness account by Chris Hedges, a reporter for the New York Times, recounted during an interview with National Public Radio:
"....over the loudspeaker from an Israeli army Jeep on the other side of the electric fence they were taunting these kids. And these kids started to throw rocks. And most of these kids were 10, 11, 12 years old. And, first of all, the rocks were the size of a fist. They were being hurled towards a Jeep that was armor-plated. I doubt they could even hit the Jeep. And then I watched the soldiers open fire. And it was - I mean, I've seen kids shot in Sarajevo. I mean, snipers would shoot kids in Sarajevo. I've seen death squads kill families in Algeria or El Salvador. But I'd never seen soldiers bait or taunt kids like this and then shoot them for sport. It was--I just--even now, I find it almost inconceivable. And I went back every day, and every day it was the same".
Read a transcript of the interview at Palestine Media watch or listen to the interview at National Public Radio (fast forward 24 minutes into the programme).
The third incident in this blog entry occured in January of this year (2006). 9-year-old Aya al-Astal was killed by Israeli soldiers while wandering close to a fence separating Gaza Strip from Israel. For the full article, visit the Australian Broadcasting Company web site.
I could go on, but the list of child casualties amongst Palestinians is endless and continuing. Your Government wherever you are needs to act to prevent these needless deaths, and curb the Israeli genocidal programme. I can't do that for you - you, the reader needs to bring these facts to light with your local government representative.
Joe McGonagle
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
THE SHAME OF BEING AN AMERICAN (or an American poodle state)
"The shame of being an American" is the title of an article written by Paul Craig Roberts, who has been an editor for the Wall Street Journal, Economic advisor to the Reagan administration, and holder of numerous academic positions. His full biography can be viewed here.
The article is a condemnation of Israeli and US policy in the Middle East, and supportive of th eplight of the Palestinians and Lebanese. It has really got the rednecks worked up, many of them accusing him of being a communist, anti-semite, traitor to the American nation, etc. It has also been published on numerous web-sites, most of them concerned with Human Rights, conspiracy theories, and yes, some anti-semitic sites as well. The full article can be read here.
One of his accusations in the article is as follows:
" Indeed, Israel, which has one of the world's largest per capita incomes, is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Many believe that much of this "aid" comes back to AIPAC [American Israeli Public Affairs Committee], which uses it to elect "our" representatives in Congress."
Whatever your position, you can't simply ignore what this man is saying - he is well qualified, and has been involved in US policy decisions in the past. He is the author of several books on the topics of economics and politics which have been well received. I would question if anyone else is better qualified than he is to make such a statement as that above, he seems also to be spot-on in respect of some of his other accusations in the article.
Thanks to Judith Jaafar for the lead.
Joe McGonagle
The article is a condemnation of Israeli and US policy in the Middle East, and supportive of th eplight of the Palestinians and Lebanese. It has really got the rednecks worked up, many of them accusing him of being a communist, anti-semite, traitor to the American nation, etc. It has also been published on numerous web-sites, most of them concerned with Human Rights, conspiracy theories, and yes, some anti-semitic sites as well. The full article can be read here.
One of his accusations in the article is as follows:
" Indeed, Israel, which has one of the world's largest per capita incomes, is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Many believe that much of this "aid" comes back to AIPAC [American Israeli Public Affairs Committee], which uses it to elect "our" representatives in Congress."
Whatever your position, you can't simply ignore what this man is saying - he is well qualified, and has been involved in US policy decisions in the past. He is the author of several books on the topics of economics and politics which have been well received. I would question if anyone else is better qualified than he is to make such a statement as that above, he seems also to be spot-on in respect of some of his other accusations in the article.
Thanks to Judith Jaafar for the lead.
Joe McGonagle
Get out or die (by the way, we won't let you use your vehicles)
In typical NAZI fashion, Israel has dropped leaflets on the Lebanese city of Tyre, telling civilians to leave the area because they are going to bomb the sh*t out of it. In the same leaflet they say that any moving vehicle on the roads in the area will be considered as a military target.
Israel has bombed most, if not all of the bridges and main roads heading North from Tyre. Many of the people currently in Tyre are refugees from other areas of Southern Lebanon. Where are they meant to go, and how are they meant to get there?
The leaflet drop by the Israelis is intended to provide them with an excuse when they kill more civilians - "they were warned that they should leave" they will say, proving that they are after all humanitarian and want to keep civilian deaths to a minimum.
We're not all as stupid as you think, Israel.
Joe McGonagle
Israel has bombed most, if not all of the bridges and main roads heading North from Tyre. Many of the people currently in Tyre are refugees from other areas of Southern Lebanon. Where are they meant to go, and how are they meant to get there?
The leaflet drop by the Israelis is intended to provide them with an excuse when they kill more civilians - "they were warned that they should leave" they will say, proving that they are after all humanitarian and want to keep civilian deaths to a minimum.
We're not all as stupid as you think, Israel.
Joe McGonagle
163 Palestinians killed in Gaza in July - 48% of them civilians
Almost half the fatalities in the Gaza Strip in July were civilians not taking part in the hostilities
In July, the Israeli military killed 163 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 78 of whom (48 percent) were not taking part in the hostilities when they were killed. Thirty-six of the fatalities were minors, and 20 were women. In the West Bank , 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in July. The number of Palestinian fatalities in July was the highest in any month since April 2002.
Of the incidents B'Tselem investigated in Gaza over the past month, the organization has identified three cases in which Israel may have committed grave breaches of the laws of war. A total of 13 Palestinian civilians were killed in these incidents, including 6 minors, the details of which are as follows:
Full details at the B'TSELEM web site.
Don't forget the plight of the Palestinians...
With Israeli action in Lebanon dominating the news, it would be very easy to forget that the Israelis are still commiting atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
I am pleased to note that B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories continues to monitor human rights abuse in the region. Not all Israelis are without a conscience, it would seem.
Joe McGonagle
I am pleased to note that B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories continues to monitor human rights abuse in the region. Not all Israelis are without a conscience, it would seem.
Joe McGonagle
Contact your MP
Not all of our elected representatives agree with Government policy in respect of the Middle East situation. I have been in touch with my local (Labour) MP, Joan Walley, who told me that she wants "to see the UK government call for an immediate cease fire backed up by all the diplomatic efforts that will be needed to secure a way forward" and that she is applying what pressure she is able to.
Thank you Joan, I hope there are more MPs like you. If any other British residents want to contact your own MP, you can do so on-line, just follow the instructions here. Make your message as clear and concise as you can, the wording which I used was as follows:
Thank you Joan, I hope there are more MPs like you. If any other British residents want to contact your own MP, you can do so on-line, just follow the instructions here. Make your message as clear and concise as you can, the wording which I used was as follows:
Subject: Please oppose the Israeli action in Lebanon
Hello Joan,
I am unaware of your position in relation to the Israeli action
in Lebanon, and appeal to you as my MP to take whatever action
you can to oppose the apparent British Government support for the
events now taking place in the Middle East. The actions of our
current Government and also past Governments are a matter of
shame to the British people.
(you should also include your full name and address, and remember, only your local MP is obliged to represent your views!)
Hello Joan,
I am unaware of your position in relation to the Israeli action
in Lebanon, and appeal to you as my MP to take whatever action
you can to oppose the apparent British Government support for the
events now taking place in the Middle East. The actions of our
current Government and also past Governments are a matter of
shame to the British people.
(you should also include your full name and address, and remember, only your local MP is obliged to represent your views!)
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Proportional body-count
These were the figures as a 8th August 2006 (day 28 of the criminal slaughter) according to The Independent (UK national newspaper):
Prisoners of War:
Israeli prisoners (held by Hezbollah) - 2
Lebanese prisoners (held by Israel since this outbreak) - not known.
Killed/ missing, presumed dead:
Israelis: 94
Lebanese: 1,008 (45 % of them children, probably considered by the Israelis as "potential terrorists").
Ratio - 1 Israeli to 10 Lebanese.
Wounded:
Israelis: 1,867
Lebanese: 3,293
Ratio - 5.6 Israeli to 10 Lebanese.
Airborne attacks:
Hezbollah (rockets): 3,000
Israeli (Bombing missions): 8,700
Ratio - 2.9 Israeli bombing missions to every Hezbollah rocket launched.
Note that the Israeli missions may involve multiple bomb deliveries, and that Hezbollah rocket technology is far less accurate than Israeli (US) bombing technology.
Other statistics:
Lebanese bridges destroyed: 146
Lebanese people displaced: 900,000 (including 300,000 potential terrorists)
Rate of rocket attacks by Hezbollah (first week - 90/day) (last week - 169/day)
An increase of 88% - what are the Israelis bombing? - potential terrorists I suppose.
Countries against demanding an immediate ceasefire - USA, UK, Israel.
Countries for demanding an immediate ceasefire (AKA terrorist sympathisers) - the rest of the world.
Joe McGonagle
Prisoners of War:
Israeli prisoners (held by Hezbollah) - 2
Lebanese prisoners (held by Israel since this outbreak) - not known.
Killed/ missing, presumed dead:
Israelis: 94
Lebanese: 1,008 (45 % of them children, probably considered by the Israelis as "potential terrorists").
Ratio - 1 Israeli to 10 Lebanese.
Wounded:
Israelis: 1,867
Lebanese: 3,293
Ratio - 5.6 Israeli to 10 Lebanese.
Airborne attacks:
Hezbollah (rockets): 3,000
Israeli (Bombing missions): 8,700
Ratio - 2.9 Israeli bombing missions to every Hezbollah rocket launched.
Note that the Israeli missions may involve multiple bomb deliveries, and that Hezbollah rocket technology is far less accurate than Israeli (US) bombing technology.
Other statistics:
Lebanese bridges destroyed: 146
Lebanese people displaced: 900,000 (including 300,000 potential terrorists)
Rate of rocket attacks by Hezbollah (first week - 90/day) (last week - 169/day)
An increase of 88% - what are the Israelis bombing? - potential terrorists I suppose.
Countries against demanding an immediate ceasefire - USA, UK, Israel.
Countries for demanding an immediate ceasefire (AKA terrorist sympathisers) - the rest of the world.
Joe McGonagle
Saturday, August 05, 2006
The Poodle Yelps....(did anyone notice?)
The poodle made a speech on 1st August in Los Angeles to the "Los Angeles World Affairs Council", the full text of which is available at the poodle's own web site.
The speech itself is full of woolly references like "a complete renaissance of our strategy" and other meaningless oratory, and nothing of substance. Many of his comments reveal either total cynicsm, a belief in "the power of democracy", total acceptance of the Israeli version of events, and a lack of will to confront the Israeli aggressors.
I comment below on selected extracts from his speech:
"The purpose of the provocation that began the conflict was clear. It was to create chaos, division and bloodshed, to provoke retaliation by Israel that would lead to Arab and Muslim opinion being inflamed, not against those who started the aggression but against those who responded to it".
Stories about the incident which sparked Israel's action vary. My own recollection is that Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. I am now inclined to think that the sequence of events is as follows, based on articles such as those at http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=9401
and at http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/israeli_solders.html
1. Israeli soldiers cross the Lebanese border to make an arrest in a village close by.
2. Inside Lebanese territory, the military convoy is attacked by Hezbollah, killing 8 Israelis and taking two prisoner.
Later, a story surfaces that the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped on Israeli soil, and that a simultaneous rocket attack near a village called Shelomi was launched by Hezbollah as a distraction.
It's not clear-cut, but my gut instinct tells me that the sequence of events is as per 1 and 2 above. The "news" of the Shelomi "rocket attack" did not emerge until some time after the Hezbollah capture (not kidnapping - the Israeli's were on Lebanese territory) of the 2 Israeli soldiers. There were no reports of casuaulties, and I have seen no real details of the supposed rocket attack. It is my opinion that the stotries of the rocket attack and that the Israelis were on Israeli soil were generated by Israel in order to justify the all-out war on Lebanon. If anyone can produce convincing evidence to the contrary, please add it to the comments here - I very much doubt that any convincing evidence will be available.
Given that my opinion is correct, the statement by the poodle above should be a condemnation of Israel.
"We will continue to do all we can to halt the hostilities."
A blatant lie - as of yesterday, US flights carrying ammunition to Israel were still refuelling in the UK.
"we will not win the battle against this global extremism unless we win it at the level of values as much as force, unless we show we are even-handed, fair and just in our application of those values to the world."
Poodles apparently have no concept of "even-handed" or "fair". Oterwise, his statement is correct.
"What are the values that govern the future of the world? Are they those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, division and hatred?"
How much tolerance, freedom, or respect do the Israelis grant the Palestinians? Even poodles have more of each of them (I mean dogs in general, not just British Prime Ministers).
"We committed ourselves to supporting Moderate, Mainstream Islam. In almost pristine form, the battles in Iraq or Afghanistan became battles between the majority of Muslims in either country who wanted democracy and the minority who realise that this rings the death-knell of their ideology."
[The following quote is out-of order, but directly related to my comments below]
"Its [terrorism's] purpose is explicitly to prevent those countries becoming democracies and not "Western style" democracies, any sort of democracy. "
And when the Palestinians used democratic process to elect HAMAS, did the West support the democratic process? No, they withdrew all funding, forcing the Palestinians even deeper into poverty and disarray. Is it any wonder that most Palestinians and their supporters view the West as duplicitous supporters of the oppressive Israeli regime? Are they wrong in this view? I see plenty of evidence that they are exactly right.
"To turn all of this around requires us first to perceive the nature of the struggle we are fighting and secondly to have a realistic strategy to win it. At present we are challenged on both fronts."
This is one of the few statements which I agree with - the West needs to treat Israel just like we treated Croatia. This is probably not what the poodle meant though.
"Suddenly, without warning, Hizbollah who have been continuing to operate in Southern Lebanon for two years in defiance of UN Resolution 1559, cross the UN blue line, kill eight Israeli soldiers and kidnap two more. They then fire rockets indiscriminately at the civilian population in Northern Israel."
Er, can we have a fact check here please? I know that my opinion may be wrong, but what does a poodle base it's opinion on? Who feeds it?
The speech goes on, so does the killing and the oppression. We need a regime change in the UK, the poodle needs to be put down.
Joe McGonagle
The speech itself is full of woolly references like "a complete renaissance of our strategy" and other meaningless oratory, and nothing of substance. Many of his comments reveal either total cynicsm, a belief in "the power of democracy", total acceptance of the Israeli version of events, and a lack of will to confront the Israeli aggressors.
I comment below on selected extracts from his speech:
"The purpose of the provocation that began the conflict was clear. It was to create chaos, division and bloodshed, to provoke retaliation by Israel that would lead to Arab and Muslim opinion being inflamed, not against those who started the aggression but against those who responded to it".
Stories about the incident which sparked Israel's action vary. My own recollection is that Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. I am now inclined to think that the sequence of events is as follows, based on articles such as those at http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=9401
and at http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/israeli_solders.html
1. Israeli soldiers cross the Lebanese border to make an arrest in a village close by.
2. Inside Lebanese territory, the military convoy is attacked by Hezbollah, killing 8 Israelis and taking two prisoner.
Later, a story surfaces that the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped on Israeli soil, and that a simultaneous rocket attack near a village called Shelomi was launched by Hezbollah as a distraction.
It's not clear-cut, but my gut instinct tells me that the sequence of events is as per 1 and 2 above. The "news" of the Shelomi "rocket attack" did not emerge until some time after the Hezbollah capture (not kidnapping - the Israeli's were on Lebanese territory) of the 2 Israeli soldiers. There were no reports of casuaulties, and I have seen no real details of the supposed rocket attack. It is my opinion that the stotries of the rocket attack and that the Israelis were on Israeli soil were generated by Israel in order to justify the all-out war on Lebanon. If anyone can produce convincing evidence to the contrary, please add it to the comments here - I very much doubt that any convincing evidence will be available.
Given that my opinion is correct, the statement by the poodle above should be a condemnation of Israel.
"We will continue to do all we can to halt the hostilities."
A blatant lie - as of yesterday, US flights carrying ammunition to Israel were still refuelling in the UK.
"we will not win the battle against this global extremism unless we win it at the level of values as much as force, unless we show we are even-handed, fair and just in our application of those values to the world."
Poodles apparently have no concept of "even-handed" or "fair". Oterwise, his statement is correct.
"What are the values that govern the future of the world? Are they those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity or those of reaction, division and hatred?"
How much tolerance, freedom, or respect do the Israelis grant the Palestinians? Even poodles have more of each of them (I mean dogs in general, not just British Prime Ministers).
"We committed ourselves to supporting Moderate, Mainstream Islam. In almost pristine form, the battles in Iraq or Afghanistan became battles between the majority of Muslims in either country who wanted democracy and the minority who realise that this rings the death-knell of their ideology."
[The following quote is out-of order, but directly related to my comments below]
"Its [terrorism's] purpose is explicitly to prevent those countries becoming democracies and not "Western style" democracies, any sort of democracy. "
And when the Palestinians used democratic process to elect HAMAS, did the West support the democratic process? No, they withdrew all funding, forcing the Palestinians even deeper into poverty and disarray. Is it any wonder that most Palestinians and their supporters view the West as duplicitous supporters of the oppressive Israeli regime? Are they wrong in this view? I see plenty of evidence that they are exactly right.
"To turn all of this around requires us first to perceive the nature of the struggle we are fighting and secondly to have a realistic strategy to win it. At present we are challenged on both fronts."
This is one of the few statements which I agree with - the West needs to treat Israel just like we treated Croatia. This is probably not what the poodle meant though.
"Suddenly, without warning, Hizbollah who have been continuing to operate in Southern Lebanon for two years in defiance of UN Resolution 1559, cross the UN blue line, kill eight Israeli soldiers and kidnap two more. They then fire rockets indiscriminately at the civilian population in Northern Israel."
Er, can we have a fact check here please? I know that my opinion may be wrong, but what does a poodle base it's opinion on? Who feeds it?
The speech goes on, so does the killing and the oppression. We need a regime change in the UK, the poodle needs to be put down.
Joe McGonagle
More Israeli Quotes
Judith Jaafar, a Lebanese citizen resident in the UK (with family still residing in the Lebanon) kindly sent me the following quotes by Israeli figures:
Some famous quotes from Israeli Prime Ministers regarding the Middle East conflict:
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): " If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp. 121-122.
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return... The old will die and the young will forget."-David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, July 18, 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's "Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet," Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.
"We must expel Arabs and take their places." - David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." - David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, 'What is to be done with the Palestinian population; Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'? Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979; Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet.
"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country." - David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist." - Golda Meir, statement to The Sunday Times, 15 June, 1969.
"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to." - Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.
"This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy." - Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 October 1971
"I have learned that the state of Israel cannot be ruled in our generation without deceit and adventurism." --Moshe Sharett, Israel's first Foreign Minister and later a Prime Minister (p.51 Simha Flapan, "The Birth of Israel", 1987)
"The state of Israel must invent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the methods of provocation and revenge.... And above all, let us hope for a new war with the Arab countries so that we may finally get rid of our troubles and acquire our space." -From the diary of Moshe Sharett, Israeli's first Foreign Minister from 1948-1956, and Prime Minister from 1954-1956.
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25, 1982.
"(The Palestinians) would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." - Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) Yitzhak Shamir in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988
"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...." - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000.
"I would have joined a terrorist organization." - Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha'aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.
"Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories." Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, tells students at Bar Ilan University, From the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.
--
[note from Joe follows]
While it is true that anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish factions have made similar statements against Israel and Judaism, it is important to note that only Israel has the military might and the international support to actually carry out their threats. They also have vulnerable (and captive) populations on which to carry their threats outs.
It is also important to distinguish between someone being anti-Israeli and anti Jewish. Many Jews would actually agree with most, if not all of the sentiments expressed in this blog. Just check the list of names in the open letter from the Canadian Health Professionals earlier in this blog (under the title "Gaza Strip facing starvation and disease") - quite a few of the names appear to be of Jewish extraction. It is of course very difficult for Jewish people to express anti-Israeli views publicly, yet some are brave and honourable enough to do so.
I also wish to add that I am ashamed of the support provided by the British Government over the years to the tyrannical Israeli regime. If Palestine was Kosovo, Poland, or Bosnia, matters would be very different.
Joe McGonagle
Some famous quotes from Israeli Prime Ministers regarding the Middle East conflict:
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): " If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp. 121-122.
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return... The old will die and the young will forget."-David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, July 18, 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's "Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet," Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.
"We must expel Arabs and take their places." - David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." - David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, 'What is to be done with the Palestinian population; Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'? Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979; Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet.
"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country." - David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist." - Golda Meir, statement to The Sunday Times, 15 June, 1969.
"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to." - Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.
"This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy." - Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 October 1971
"I have learned that the state of Israel cannot be ruled in our generation without deceit and adventurism." --Moshe Sharett, Israel's first Foreign Minister and later a Prime Minister (p.51 Simha Flapan, "The Birth of Israel", 1987)
"The state of Israel must invent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the methods of provocation and revenge.... And above all, let us hope for a new war with the Arab countries so that we may finally get rid of our troubles and acquire our space." -From the diary of Moshe Sharett, Israeli's first Foreign Minister from 1948-1956, and Prime Minister from 1954-1956.
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25, 1982.
"(The Palestinians) would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." - Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) Yitzhak Shamir in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988
"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...." - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000.
"I would have joined a terrorist organization." - Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha'aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.
"Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories." Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, tells students at Bar Ilan University, From the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.
--
[note from Joe follows]
While it is true that anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish factions have made similar statements against Israel and Judaism, it is important to note that only Israel has the military might and the international support to actually carry out their threats. They also have vulnerable (and captive) populations on which to carry their threats outs.
It is also important to distinguish between someone being anti-Israeli and anti Jewish. Many Jews would actually agree with most, if not all of the sentiments expressed in this blog. Just check the list of names in the open letter from the Canadian Health Professionals earlier in this blog (under the title "Gaza Strip facing starvation and disease") - quite a few of the names appear to be of Jewish extraction. It is of course very difficult for Jewish people to express anti-Israeli views publicly, yet some are brave and honourable enough to do so.
I also wish to add that I am ashamed of the support provided by the British Government over the years to the tyrannical Israeli regime. If Palestine was Kosovo, Poland, or Bosnia, matters would be very different.
Joe McGonagle
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Israeli abuse of Palestinian children
Source:
Defence for Children International/Palestine Section
"The Israeli intelligence services (Shabak) continually seek to recruit children as informants. A field survey with former child detainees conducted in 2003 by DCI-PS, estimated that 60 per cent of the children interviewed, some of them are as young as 12, were reported to have been tortured or subjected to other forms of coercion or inducement in an attempt to make them cooperate. By
late 2003 in Gaza alone there were on average 40 attempts to recruit minors every month."
Joe McGonagle
Defence for Children International/Palestine Section
"The Israeli intelligence services (Shabak) continually seek to recruit children as informants. A field survey with former child detainees conducted in 2003 by DCI-PS, estimated that 60 per cent of the children interviewed, some of them are as young as 12, were reported to have been tortured or subjected to other forms of coercion or inducement in an attempt to make them cooperate. By
late 2003 in Gaza alone there were on average 40 attempts to recruit minors every month."
Joe McGonagle
Legal definition of a child in Israel
Source:
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network
Israel's Human Rights Behaviour July 2004-July 2005
"According to the Military Order 1500 put in place during the British Mandate period in Palestine, children in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] aged 12 and older can be tried in military courts, and a child over the age of 16 is considered an adult.
Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years.” It must be noted that Israel keeps to the internationally recognised definition of a child among its own citizens but applies a different standard to Palestinian minors in the OPT. "
Joe McGonagle
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network
Israel's Human Rights Behaviour July 2004-July 2005
"According to the Military Order 1500 put in place during the British Mandate period in Palestine, children in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] aged 12 and older can be tried in military courts, and a child over the age of 16 is considered an adult.
Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years.” It must be noted that Israel keeps to the internationally recognised definition of a child among its own citizens but applies a different standard to Palestinian minors in the OPT. "
Joe McGonagle
Israeli Police hold deaf-mute Egyptian teen in custody for four months
Police hold deaf-mute Egyptian teen in custody for four months- by Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Newspaper, 02 December 2004
A deaf-mute 15-year-old boy, apparently an Egyptian citizen, has been held in police custody for the past four months, along with adults, without legal representation or the presence of a social worker - and without the ability to communicate with those in his surroundings.
Full article at this link.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Confusing evidence
WARNING - links in this article include very disturbing images!
I received an article via email from a Lebanese citizen. It comprised 5 photographs with a brief narrative in English and Arabic, but it lacked critical information including the date, time, and location of the incident.
I searched the internet and found that the article was widely available, but only two sites, the BBC web site and the "Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace" (CCMEP) web site carried more detail.
The series of images depict what initially appears to be a routine stop-and-search operation. According to the CCMEP site, this took place on 8th March 2002 in Beit Hannana, Jerusalem. Two men were stopped, one identified only as "Randy", the other as 23-year-old Mahmoud Salah.
The images were reportedly extracted from video footage taken by a local resident.
The images show the Israeli border guards subduing Salah before cutting off all of his clothing except for his underpants. Salah appears to be completely under the control of the border guards, lying face down on the ground with his hands tied behind his back. "Randy" doesn't appear to be subject to the same level of restraint by the guards.
In image 5 at the CCMEP site, one of the guards appears to be restraining Salah's legs, while another one is raising Salah's arms (which are still tied), Salah still face-down on the ground. A third guard stands a few feet away with a pistol pointing at Salah's head.
In the following image, only Salah's body can be seen, a large pool of blood surrounding the area where his head should have been.
The final image shows a "Wheelbarrow" (remote-controlled robot used to defuse or detonate suspected bombs) manipulating unidentifiable material near the body.
On the face of it, it appears to be an unjustified execution, however, according to a police statement, Salah had an explosive device fixed to his chest, out of sight of the camera. This appears to be supported by what I presume is a comment in a pro-Palestinian newspaper (Al-Hayat al-Jadida) which described Salah as a "member of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades". A report attributed to a French news agency states "An anonymous caller from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah group, on Saturday claimed that Salah had been on his way to carry out a suicide bombing in east Jerusalem in the Neve Yaakov Jewish settlement in the area".
This is a good example of some of the difficulties in assessing evidence in the Middle East. Perhaps it is true that Salah was attempting to detonate a bomb, in which case his execution would be justified. On the other hand, we only have an anonymous telephone call and the word of the Israelis that this is the case - I am sure that Mossad (the Israeli intelligence service) are quite capable of telephoning a news agency, and the Israelis have demonstrated their willingness to lie when the occasion suits them, as evidenced by their statement about the 48-hour abeyance of air strikes, for example.
The version of the article which I received (which I am certain was sent in good faith) ommitted the image with the wheelbarrow, which made the sequence appear as a clear-cut example of Israeli brutality. I can find no trace of the video footage from which the stills are reportedly taken - perhaps it did show an explosive device attached to Salah?
With so much propaganda circulating from both sides, it is often impossible to divine the truth of any specific incident. What is beyond doubt is that Israel is denying the Palestinians the opportunity to thrive, and in fact creating an enviroment where infant mortality is increased, poverty is assured, education is disrupted and life expectancy is reduced. These are facts supported by United Nations and other humanitarian agencies. It is a slow form of genocide, perhaps even more cruel than Hitler's "Final Solution". It is also guaranteed to generate support for anti-Israeli elements, even westerners like me are influenced by Israel's obvious lack of humanity.
I should add that I in no way support terrorist acts perpetrated by any group against anyone. Suicide bombing in particular strikes me as a futile act. However any reaction to such atrocities must always be proportionate.
Joe McGonagle
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Where did Israel get their Nuclear Weapons technology?
To find out, click on the title of this post which will take you to an article on the BBC web site.
(Thanks to Dave Clarke for the pointer).
Joe
(Thanks to Dave Clarke for the pointer).
Joe
Email the Poodle.
Oxfam have initiated a petition appealing to Tony Blair (George Bush's poodle) as follows:
"I am deeply alarmed that the situation in the Lebanon, Gaza and Israel continues to deteriorate rapidly.
I am concerned that the British government has yet to use its full influence to bring about an immediate ceasefire, and full compliance with international humanitarian law.
By failing to back the UN and call for an immediate ceasefire the British government has reduced the impact of international calls for an immediate halt to the violence. As such, your current policy risks putting civilian lives at continued risk rather than helping to protect them.
I ask that you take every opportunity available within the international community to push for an immediate ceasefire as a first step to end the suffering, which worsens each day."
I invite all readers to sign the petition - even if it doesn't shift his attitude, it might give him cause for concern at the next general election. Click on the post title "Email the poodle" to add your details to the petition.
Joe McGonagle
"I am deeply alarmed that the situation in the Lebanon, Gaza and Israel continues to deteriorate rapidly.
I am concerned that the British government has yet to use its full influence to bring about an immediate ceasefire, and full compliance with international humanitarian law.
By failing to back the UN and call for an immediate ceasefire the British government has reduced the impact of international calls for an immediate halt to the violence. As such, your current policy risks putting civilian lives at continued risk rather than helping to protect them.
I ask that you take every opportunity available within the international community to push for an immediate ceasefire as a first step to end the suffering, which worsens each day."
I invite all readers to sign the petition - even if it doesn't shift his attitude, it might give him cause for concern at the next general election. Click on the post title "Email the poodle" to add your details to the petition.
Joe McGonagle
Gaza Strip facing starvation and disease.
From the University of Toronto web site:
Canadian Health Professionals
STATEMENT OF CONCERN FOR THE PUBLIC HEALTH SITUATION IN GAZA
July 2006
As Canadian health professionals, we are deeply concerned by the silence of the Canadian government and the Canadian media about the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. We are calling on the Canadian government and the media to truthfully recognize the humanitarian situation and to respond with compassion and effective help.
Even before the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit on June 25, 2006, and even before the election of the Hamas government, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was dire.
* When the settlers left Gaza in August, 2005, the Israeli army left 40 percent of the land covered in millions of tons of rubble, rendering it unusable for cultivation. Israel continued to control all access to Gaza and continued to control water resources.
* After the Hamas government was elected, the Palestinian health system collapsed due to the freeze of tax revenues by Israel and the stoppage of international aid (led by Canada). Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reported at the time that Israel is responsible for the outcome of the collapse of the Palestinian civil society in general and the health system in particular. Specific to Gaza, PHR-I stated that Shifa Hospital, the central hospital in Gaza, has not received (for at least a month) the essential medicines it needs for basic care , such as furosemide (a diuretic medicine that reduces fluid pressure on the lungs and other organs) and erythromycin (broad-spectrum antibiotic). In Shifa Hospital four patients already have died as a result of the reduction in the number of their dialysis treatments from three per week to only two. James Wolfensohn, Special Envoy for Disengagement to the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, stated on March 15, 2006, that the collapse of health services and the education system, which addresses the needs of one million children, would be a total failure for the new government, and would have tragic consequences for the Palestinian people. This should not be permitted under any circumstances.
* Six months before the capture of Cpl. Shalit, PHR-I filed a petition and a request to the Israeli Supreme Court for a temporary injunction to stop the sonic booms, deeming it a collective punishment of the civilian population that particularly traumatized children. The petition was rejected and the sonic booms persist. According to The Guardian Weekly (June 16-22), daily life was violent: 3000 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel over the past five years from Gaza, killing five people; on the other side, Israel dropped 6,000 shells on Gaza since the beginning of April, claiming the lives of elderly farmers, children, and women as well as the family of Huda Ghalia on the Gaza beach; no figures were given about Israeli ground assaults in the same five year period. The June 8th report of MSF-USA, however, reports that Israeli bombing in north Gaza was particularly intense, in one incident killing 45 cows which affected the food supply; MSF continues that bombing since the beginning of the year was so intense in the north that people could not access health-care facilities. Extra-judicial executions and kidnappings by the IDF persisted, and the day before Cpl. Shalit was captured, the IDF kidnapped a Gazan doctor and his brother.
* Before the current offensive, UN aid relief workers were giving daily food rations to 735,000 Gazans, more than half the overcrowded territory’s population of 1.4 million people. 79 percent of households were living under the poverty line and unemployment was 40 percent.(U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, report July 12, 2006)
Since the capture of Cpl. Shalit, the situation is far worse in Gaza because of the destruction of the water, sanitation, food, health, and electricity infrastructure. As of July 8, 2006
* World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that the public health system is facing an unprecedented crisis. WHO estimates that though hospitals and 50 percent of Primary Health Centres have generators, the current stock of fuel will last for a maximum of two weeks. WHO, based on UNRWA’s data related to communicable diseases, stated that the total number of cases of watery and bloody diarrhoea amongst refugees for the last week in June and the first week in July has increased by 163 percent and 140 percent compared to the same period last year (also reported in Defense for Children International-Palestine section). WHO estimates that 23 percent of the essential drug list will be out of stock within one month. WHO is also alarmed by the tightening of restrictions on patients needing to leave Gaza for treatment.
* The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that in June 70 percent of the Gaza population were already unable to cover their daily food needs without assistance. As of 8 July, WFP has 20 days of emergency food stocks to cover its expanded caseload of 220,000. Given the escalating crisis, there are growing numbers of people who now need assistance. WFP believes it is essential that a humanitarian corridor for relief items and personnel remains open to avert a further deterioration in the food security situation at this critical time.
* UNICEF reports that children are living in an environment of extraordinary violence, insecurity and fear. Care givers say children are showing signs of distress and exhaustion, including a 15 percent-20 percent increase in bedwetting, due to shelling and sonic booms.
* The Office of the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that since destruction of the electric plant, the lives of 1.4 million people, almost half of them children, worsened overnight. In the hottest time of the year, most Gaza residents have power for only 6-8 hours/day. In urban areas, water is available between 2-3 hours/day. The water authority has enough chlorine for two months. UNRWA reports that the Water Utility’s daily operation has been cut two thirds, resulting in water shortages and a critical situation at the sewage plants.
* On 19 July the Palestinian Human Rights Centre reports that since 28 June 2006, 115 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza, 550 have been wounded, passage of food, fuel and medicine is denied, six bridges have been destroyed, and transportation and access to medical clinics is disrupted.
According to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions (1977), the onus is on the warring state to protect the civilian population from the impact of military operations. As the occupying power, the State of Israel is bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention Articles 19 and 50 to treat humanely Gaza’s wounded and sick, to protect hospitals, to protect and care for children. Article 55 states that the Occupying Power has the duty to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population. Article 56 states that the Occupying Power has the duty, in cooperation with the national local authorities, to ensure and maintain medical and hospital services, public health and hygiene. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, demand Israel’s immediate compliance with the Geneva Conventions and restoration of Gaza’s infrastructure.
The undersigned Canadian health professionals fear for the lives of Palestinian people. We ask the Canadian Government to demand that Israel fulfil its responsibilities as a signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention and take immediate and effective measures to provide protection of the civilian population in Gaza, to reduce severe risks to public health, and to secure appropriate medical care. We ask our own government for the immediate restoration of Canadian aid to the elected Palestinian government to ensure that water, food, medicine and the necessities of life are immediately available and accessible in Gaza.
Yours faithfully,
(as of July 28, 2006)
Federico Allodi, M.D.
Zalman Amit, Ph.D.
Maria Applewhite, R.N., M.P.H.
Neil Arya, M.D.Past President Physicians for Global Survival,
Rand Askalan, Ph.D., M.D.
George A. Awad, M.D.
Ahmed Bayoymi, M.D.
Warren Bell, BA MD CM CCFP, Past President, Physicians for Global Survival
Saleha Bismilla Acting Family Home Visitor supervisor
Gary Bloch, M.D.
Irene Bond, R.N.
Stephen Connell, M.D.
Minella De Souza, MBBS, FRCPC
James Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D.
Judith Deutsch, M.S.W., R.S.W.
Dale Dewar, M.D., CCFP, FCFP
Irfan Dhalla, M.D.
Farzana Doctor, M.S.W.
Paul Duchastel, M.D. Past President of Association des Medecins de Langue Francaise du Canada
A.F. Elzawi, M.D. cardiologist
Vivien Fellegi, M.D.
Sarah Freke, M.D.
Maha Gabarin, O.D.
Sharon Gazeley, M.D.
Miriam Garfinkle, M.D.
Qais Ghanem, M.D.
R.F. Gindi, M.D.
Louis Girard, M.D.
Frank Guttman, M.D.
Helen Guttman, M.D.
Ted Haines, M.D.
Paul Hamel, Ph.D. Faculty of Medicine University of Toronto & President Science for Peace
Kathy Hardill, RNEC Nurse Practitioner
Fred Harris, M.D.
Sameh Hassan, M.D.
Raed Hawa, M.Sc., M.D.
D.J. Hill, M.D.
Hanna Hinnawi, M.D.
Debbie Honickman, M.D.
Paul Hwang, M.D.
Haresh Kirpalani, M.D., Professor Neonatal Medicine, McMaster U
Tara Kirpan, M.D.
Peggy Lathwell, M.D.
Abby Lippman, Ph.D.
Christie Maccalum, M.D.
Roy Male, M.D.
Debra Mandel, M.Ed., psychotherapist
Vashti Mascoll, Primary care nurse
Gabor Mate, M.D.
Alison Miculan, M.D.
Lois Milne, M.D.
Basem Naser, M.D.
Nancy Olivieri, M.D.
Mario Ostrowski, M.D.
Reem Abdul Qadir, M.S.W. R.S.W.
Clare Pain, M.D.
Michael Potter, M.A. Medical Ethics
Elizabeth Pringle, M.D.
Jane Pritchard, M.D.
F. Rabie, M.D.
Meb Rashid, M.D., CCFP
Manuel Rozental, M.D.
Guillaume Rouselet, Ph.D. Neuroscientist
Nasri J. Sami, MB, FRCSC consultant neurosurgeon
Mounir Samy, M.D. Assoc. Professor of Psychiatry, McGill
Joanna Santa Barbara, M.D. Past President Physicians for Global Survival
Eshrat Sayani, M.D.
Fred Schloessinger, M.A. psychotherapist
Gihad Shabib, M.D., Ass. Professor Ob/Gyn Ottawa U.
Nayana Somaiah, MBBS, CCFP
Tanya Suvendrini Lena, M.D., MPH
Tania Tran, M.D.
Wahida Valiante, M.S.W.
Cheryl Wagner, M.D.
Scott Weinstein, R.N.
Judith Weisman, psychotherapist
Tanya Zakrison, M.D. Chief Surgical Resident, University Health Network
Canadian Health Professionals
STATEMENT OF CONCERN FOR THE PUBLIC HEALTH SITUATION IN GAZA
July 2006
As Canadian health professionals, we are deeply concerned by the silence of the Canadian government and the Canadian media about the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. We are calling on the Canadian government and the media to truthfully recognize the humanitarian situation and to respond with compassion and effective help.
Even before the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit on June 25, 2006, and even before the election of the Hamas government, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was dire.
* When the settlers left Gaza in August, 2005, the Israeli army left 40 percent of the land covered in millions of tons of rubble, rendering it unusable for cultivation. Israel continued to control all access to Gaza and continued to control water resources.
* After the Hamas government was elected, the Palestinian health system collapsed due to the freeze of tax revenues by Israel and the stoppage of international aid (led by Canada). Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reported at the time that Israel is responsible for the outcome of the collapse of the Palestinian civil society in general and the health system in particular. Specific to Gaza, PHR-I stated that Shifa Hospital, the central hospital in Gaza, has not received (for at least a month) the essential medicines it needs for basic care , such as furosemide (a diuretic medicine that reduces fluid pressure on the lungs and other organs) and erythromycin (broad-spectrum antibiotic). In Shifa Hospital four patients already have died as a result of the reduction in the number of their dialysis treatments from three per week to only two. James Wolfensohn, Special Envoy for Disengagement to the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, stated on March 15, 2006, that the collapse of health services and the education system, which addresses the needs of one million children, would be a total failure for the new government, and would have tragic consequences for the Palestinian people. This should not be permitted under any circumstances.
* Six months before the capture of Cpl. Shalit, PHR-I filed a petition and a request to the Israeli Supreme Court for a temporary injunction to stop the sonic booms, deeming it a collective punishment of the civilian population that particularly traumatized children. The petition was rejected and the sonic booms persist. According to The Guardian Weekly (June 16-22), daily life was violent: 3000 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel over the past five years from Gaza, killing five people; on the other side, Israel dropped 6,000 shells on Gaza since the beginning of April, claiming the lives of elderly farmers, children, and women as well as the family of Huda Ghalia on the Gaza beach; no figures were given about Israeli ground assaults in the same five year period. The June 8th report of MSF-USA, however, reports that Israeli bombing in north Gaza was particularly intense, in one incident killing 45 cows which affected the food supply; MSF continues that bombing since the beginning of the year was so intense in the north that people could not access health-care facilities. Extra-judicial executions and kidnappings by the IDF persisted, and the day before Cpl. Shalit was captured, the IDF kidnapped a Gazan doctor and his brother.
* Before the current offensive, UN aid relief workers were giving daily food rations to 735,000 Gazans, more than half the overcrowded territory’s population of 1.4 million people. 79 percent of households were living under the poverty line and unemployment was 40 percent.(U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, report July 12, 2006)
Since the capture of Cpl. Shalit, the situation is far worse in Gaza because of the destruction of the water, sanitation, food, health, and electricity infrastructure. As of July 8, 2006
* World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that the public health system is facing an unprecedented crisis. WHO estimates that though hospitals and 50 percent of Primary Health Centres have generators, the current stock of fuel will last for a maximum of two weeks. WHO, based on UNRWA’s data related to communicable diseases, stated that the total number of cases of watery and bloody diarrhoea amongst refugees for the last week in June and the first week in July has increased by 163 percent and 140 percent compared to the same period last year (also reported in Defense for Children International-Palestine section). WHO estimates that 23 percent of the essential drug list will be out of stock within one month. WHO is also alarmed by the tightening of restrictions on patients needing to leave Gaza for treatment.
* The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that in June 70 percent of the Gaza population were already unable to cover their daily food needs without assistance. As of 8 July, WFP has 20 days of emergency food stocks to cover its expanded caseload of 220,000. Given the escalating crisis, there are growing numbers of people who now need assistance. WFP believes it is essential that a humanitarian corridor for relief items and personnel remains open to avert a further deterioration in the food security situation at this critical time.
* UNICEF reports that children are living in an environment of extraordinary violence, insecurity and fear. Care givers say children are showing signs of distress and exhaustion, including a 15 percent-20 percent increase in bedwetting, due to shelling and sonic booms.
* The Office of the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states that since destruction of the electric plant, the lives of 1.4 million people, almost half of them children, worsened overnight. In the hottest time of the year, most Gaza residents have power for only 6-8 hours/day. In urban areas, water is available between 2-3 hours/day. The water authority has enough chlorine for two months. UNRWA reports that the Water Utility’s daily operation has been cut two thirds, resulting in water shortages and a critical situation at the sewage plants.
* On 19 July the Palestinian Human Rights Centre reports that since 28 June 2006, 115 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza, 550 have been wounded, passage of food, fuel and medicine is denied, six bridges have been destroyed, and transportation and access to medical clinics is disrupted.
According to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions (1977), the onus is on the warring state to protect the civilian population from the impact of military operations. As the occupying power, the State of Israel is bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention Articles 19 and 50 to treat humanely Gaza’s wounded and sick, to protect hospitals, to protect and care for children. Article 55 states that the Occupying Power has the duty to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population. Article 56 states that the Occupying Power has the duty, in cooperation with the national local authorities, to ensure and maintain medical and hospital services, public health and hygiene. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, demand Israel’s immediate compliance with the Geneva Conventions and restoration of Gaza’s infrastructure.
The undersigned Canadian health professionals fear for the lives of Palestinian people. We ask the Canadian Government to demand that Israel fulfil its responsibilities as a signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention and take immediate and effective measures to provide protection of the civilian population in Gaza, to reduce severe risks to public health, and to secure appropriate medical care. We ask our own government for the immediate restoration of Canadian aid to the elected Palestinian government to ensure that water, food, medicine and the necessities of life are immediately available and accessible in Gaza.
Yours faithfully,
(as of July 28, 2006)
Federico Allodi, M.D.
Zalman Amit, Ph.D.
Maria Applewhite, R.N., M.P.H.
Neil Arya, M.D.Past President Physicians for Global Survival,
Rand Askalan, Ph.D., M.D.
George A. Awad, M.D.
Ahmed Bayoymi, M.D.
Warren Bell, BA MD CM CCFP, Past President, Physicians for Global Survival
Saleha Bismilla Acting Family Home Visitor supervisor
Gary Bloch, M.D.
Irene Bond, R.N.
Stephen Connell, M.D.
Minella De Souza, MBBS, FRCPC
James Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D.
Judith Deutsch, M.S.W., R.S.W.
Dale Dewar, M.D., CCFP, FCFP
Irfan Dhalla, M.D.
Farzana Doctor, M.S.W.
Paul Duchastel, M.D. Past President of Association des Medecins de Langue Francaise du Canada
A.F. Elzawi, M.D. cardiologist
Vivien Fellegi, M.D.
Sarah Freke, M.D.
Maha Gabarin, O.D.
Sharon Gazeley, M.D.
Miriam Garfinkle, M.D.
Qais Ghanem, M.D.
R.F. Gindi, M.D.
Louis Girard, M.D.
Frank Guttman, M.D.
Helen Guttman, M.D.
Ted Haines, M.D.
Paul Hamel, Ph.D. Faculty of Medicine University of Toronto & President Science for Peace
Kathy Hardill, RNEC Nurse Practitioner
Fred Harris, M.D.
Sameh Hassan, M.D.
Raed Hawa, M.Sc., M.D.
D.J. Hill, M.D.
Hanna Hinnawi, M.D.
Debbie Honickman, M.D.
Paul Hwang, M.D.
Haresh Kirpalani, M.D., Professor Neonatal Medicine, McMaster U
Tara Kirpan, M.D.
Peggy Lathwell, M.D.
Abby Lippman, Ph.D.
Christie Maccalum, M.D.
Roy Male, M.D.
Debra Mandel, M.Ed., psychotherapist
Vashti Mascoll, Primary care nurse
Gabor Mate, M.D.
Alison Miculan, M.D.
Lois Milne, M.D.
Basem Naser, M.D.
Nancy Olivieri, M.D.
Mario Ostrowski, M.D.
Reem Abdul Qadir, M.S.W. R.S.W.
Clare Pain, M.D.
Michael Potter, M.A. Medical Ethics
Elizabeth Pringle, M.D.
Jane Pritchard, M.D.
F. Rabie, M.D.
Meb Rashid, M.D., CCFP
Manuel Rozental, M.D.
Guillaume Rouselet, Ph.D. Neuroscientist
Nasri J. Sami, MB, FRCSC consultant neurosurgeon
Mounir Samy, M.D. Assoc. Professor of Psychiatry, McGill
Joanna Santa Barbara, M.D. Past President Physicians for Global Survival
Eshrat Sayani, M.D.
Fred Schloessinger, M.A. psychotherapist
Gihad Shabib, M.D., Ass. Professor Ob/Gyn Ottawa U.
Nayana Somaiah, MBBS, CCFP
Tanya Suvendrini Lena, M.D., MPH
Tania Tran, M.D.
Wahida Valiante, M.S.W.
Cheryl Wagner, M.D.
Scott Weinstein, R.N.
Judith Weisman, psychotherapist
Tanya Zakrison, M.D. Chief Surgical Resident, University Health Network
Proportionate response?
From:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/12/mideast/index.html
[Shortly after the abduction of the 2 Israeli soldiers]
"Earlier, Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told Israel's Channel 10, "If the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years.""
From:
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&newsid=92798&ch=0
" 24 July 2006 | 09:44 | FOCUS News Agency
Tel Aviv. Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff General Dan Halutz promised to bomb 10 residential buildings in Beirut for every rocket attack against Israel’s third biggest city of Haifa, Israeli online site Haaretz reports."
It would appear that the Old Testament commandment "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" has been upgraded to "Ten eyes for an eye and ten teeth for a tooth".
I suppose 10:1 is a proportion in strict mathematical terms.
Joe McGonagle
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/12/mideast/index.html
[Shortly after the abduction of the 2 Israeli soldiers]
"Earlier, Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told Israel's Channel 10, "If the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years.""
From:
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&newsid=92798&ch=0
" 24 July 2006 | 09:44 | FOCUS News Agency
Tel Aviv. Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff General Dan Halutz promised to bomb 10 residential buildings in Beirut for every rocket attack against Israel’s third biggest city of Haifa, Israeli online site Haaretz reports."
It would appear that the Old Testament commandment "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" has been upgraded to "Ten eyes for an eye and ten teeth for a tooth".
I suppose 10:1 is a proportion in strict mathematical terms.
Joe McGonagle
Negative comments
The reader may have the impression that I have only received positive comments in response to my blog. In fact, I have had three negative comments, two via a mail list that I am a member of, and one via email.
The one via email was from someone who I expected to be better informed about the history of the Middle East - a Canadian resident with an Honours Degree in History and Political Science. His only counter-argument was that I have an "utter lack of knowledge and understanding about the Holocaust, the Second World War, the history of the Middle East, and modern world problems".
The two critics on the mail-list also had no real counter-argument to any of my points. One simply said that "I disagree with 85/90% of what you have written", while the other one accused me of being anti-semitic and couldn't understand what I meant by the Israeli reaction being "disproportionate".
Well, I wonder if my Canadian critic would accept this link (admittedly biased) as an example of what lies behind the current friction between the Palestinians and the Israelis, or will our esteemed historian dismiss it as "terrorist propoganda"?
Our esteemed historian also found my comparison of Israel to the activities of the WWII NAZIs difficult to stomach - this is a view shared by many, for example;
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742707.html
"Sir Peter Tapsell, a Tory MP, said Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was "colluding" with U.S. President George W. Bush in giving Israel the okay to wage "unlimited war" in Lebanon - a war crime he claimed was "gravely reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter of Warsaw."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/israel_un.html
"In July 2005, Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, called the Gaza Strip “an immense concentration camp” and compared Israelis to Nazis."
http://www.alfredlilienthal.com/sanctions.htm
"WHAT HE [Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal, American-Jewish historian, journalist, and lecturer] SAW MADE HIM HEARTSICK. HE DESCRIBED THE BEGIN GOVERNMENT AS USING "NAZI POLICY" TO RID THE WEST BANK AND EAST JERUSALEM OF PALESTINIANS JUST AS THE NAZIS HAD TRIED TO MAKE EUROPE "JUDEN REIN."[Jew-free]"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3742365.stm
"Israeli Justice Minister Yosef "Tommy" Lapid stunned Cabinet colleagues on Sunday by saying a picture of an elderly Palestinian woman searching through rubble reminded him of his grandmother. Mr Lapid is a Holocaust survivor. His grandmother was not. She died in Auschwitz."
[Lapid denied that he intended to compare Israeli actions with NAZI actions, but whether he intended to or not, the comparison was made].
I could go on, but my point is already made - even some Jewish people (some of them Israeli) agree with my comparison.
Joe McGonagle
The one via email was from someone who I expected to be better informed about the history of the Middle East - a Canadian resident with an Honours Degree in History and Political Science. His only counter-argument was that I have an "utter lack of knowledge and understanding about the Holocaust, the Second World War, the history of the Middle East, and modern world problems".
The two critics on the mail-list also had no real counter-argument to any of my points. One simply said that "I disagree with 85/90% of what you have written", while the other one accused me of being anti-semitic and couldn't understand what I meant by the Israeli reaction being "disproportionate".
Well, I wonder if my Canadian critic would accept this link (admittedly biased) as an example of what lies behind the current friction between the Palestinians and the Israelis, or will our esteemed historian dismiss it as "terrorist propoganda"?
Our esteemed historian also found my comparison of Israel to the activities of the WWII NAZIs difficult to stomach - this is a view shared by many, for example;
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742707.html
"Sir Peter Tapsell, a Tory MP, said Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was "colluding" with U.S. President George W. Bush in giving Israel the okay to wage "unlimited war" in Lebanon - a war crime he claimed was "gravely reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter of Warsaw."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/israel_un.html
"In July 2005, Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, called the Gaza Strip “an immense concentration camp” and compared Israelis to Nazis."
http://www.alfredlilienthal.com/sanctions.htm
"WHAT HE [Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal, American-Jewish historian, journalist, and lecturer] SAW MADE HIM HEARTSICK. HE DESCRIBED THE BEGIN GOVERNMENT AS USING "NAZI POLICY" TO RID THE WEST BANK AND EAST JERUSALEM OF PALESTINIANS JUST AS THE NAZIS HAD TRIED TO MAKE EUROPE "JUDEN REIN."[Jew-free]"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3742365.stm
"Israeli Justice Minister Yosef "Tommy" Lapid stunned Cabinet colleagues on Sunday by saying a picture of an elderly Palestinian woman searching through rubble reminded him of his grandmother. Mr Lapid is a Holocaust survivor. His grandmother was not. She died in Auschwitz."
[Lapid denied that he intended to compare Israeli actions with NAZI actions, but whether he intended to or not, the comparison was made].
I could go on, but my point is already made - even some Jewish people (some of them Israeli) agree with my comparison.
Joe McGonagle
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