Waarom een bestand voor Gaza niet genoeg is, aldus Raji Sourani (directeur Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)

Why a Gaza ceasefire isn’t enough

Raji Sourani

The Electronic Intifada

Gaza Strip

3 August 2014

Israeli shelling killed ten Palestinians at a United Nations school on 3 August.
(Ashraf Amra / APA images)

The death and destruction being inflicted on the Gaza Strip is impossible to describe. Sitting here in Gaza, it is hard to even understand what is happening.

Last week, we witnessed another attack on a United Nations compound where civilians were sheltering — 17 dead, 120 injured — and an attack on a market in Shujaiya during the hours of what was supposed to be a ceasefire — 18 dead, nearly 200 injured.

Today in Rafah, Israel shelled another school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, where thousands were sheltering, killing ten. Even the US State Department issued a rare condemnation of Israel, calling the attack “appalling” and “disgraceful.”

This is a nightmare. But it is one we know we cannot wake up from.

Israel’s Gaza Doctrine of illegally targeting densely packed civilian areas and homes is inflicting untold horror.
Israel is deliberately punishing civilians in order to exert political pressure on Hamas. They are collectively punishing the 1.8 million citizens of the Gaza Strip. How else do you explain the statistics?

The most recent figures collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) indicate that 1,817 Palestinians have been killed. Of these, 1,545 — an incredible 85 percent — are civilians: the so-called “protected persons” of international humanitarian law.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced. Ordered to flee, but with nowhere safe to go: UN shelters housing civilians have been repeatedly targeted. The Gaza Strip lies in ruins. The destruction of Shujaiya is difficult to comprehend. Even the power plant has been destroyed. How will our hospitals operate? How will the sewage treatment centers run? How will we access safe water?

Our demands

In the middle of this we want an end to the violence. We want an end to this horror, to this suffering. Too many children have died. War crimes have become our daily reality.
But a ceasefire is not enough.

We demand justice. We demand accountability. We demand to be treated as human beings, to have our inherent human dignity recognized. We demand an end to the closure of the Gaza Strip.

For the last seven years, Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip to a strict closure. By shutting the borders, Israel has slowly suffocated Gaza, subjecting us to a process of deliberate de-development.

Before the current offensive, 65 percent of the population were unpaid or unemployed. Eight-five percent of the population depended on food aid distributed by international organizations. Patients requiring life-saving treatment unavailable in the Gaza Strip were denied permission to leave. They died.

Life under the closure is not life. We cannot go back to this reality. I cannot imagine another seven years. The closure signifies the absence of hope. It means that Gaza’s youth have no future. No jobs. No opportunity to leave. Even when the war comes, we cannot flee.

But the closure is only one half of the reality of the Gaza Strip. The other is the total absence of the rule of law. War crimes are committed with complete impunity. The closure itself is a war crime and it is official policy of the government of Israel.

Beside this there are the constant attacks and the frequent offensives. This is the third major offensive since the closure began. Literally thousands of civilians have been killed. Thousands more homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.

Complete impunity

These war crimes are committed with complete impunity. After Operation Cast Lead — the 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009 offensive — PCHR submitted 490 criminal complaints on behalf of 1,046 victims. In the five years that followed, we received only 44 responses. The Israeli authorities decided that 446 cases didn’t even warrant a reply.
The results?

One soldier was convicted for the theft of a credit card and received a seven-month sentence.
Two soldiers were convicted for using a nine-year-old boy as a human shield. They each received a three-month suspended sentence.

One soldier was convicted for the “misuse of a firearm” in relation to the shooting of a group of civilians carrying white flags, which resulted in the deaths of two women. He was sentenced to 45 days imprisonment.

This is not justice. The impact of these constant war crimes, and the resultant impunity denies our very dignity, our worth as human beings. It says our lives are not sacred. That we don’t count.
Faced with this existence, our demands are not excessive. They are not unrealistic.

We want to be treated as equals. We want to have our rights respected and protected. We ask that international law be applied, equally, to Israel and Palestine, to Israelis and Palestinians. The rule of international law must be adhered to, and all those responsible for its violations must be held to account.

We ask that suspected war crimes be investigated and those responsible prosecuted. Is this unreasonable?

We want an end to the closure. The illegality of Israel’s closure policy is not in doubt. In a rare public statement the International Committee of the Red Cross explicitly stated that Israel’s closure policy constitutes collective punishment in violation of international law. The consequences of the policy are evident in the reality of the Gaza Strip.

We ask that the closure be lifted. We want the opportunity to live a life in dignity. Is this unreasonable?

These are not political demands. They are a demand to be treated as human.

A ceasefire is not enough. It will not end the suffering. It will only move us from the horror of death by bombardment to the horror of death by slow strangulation.

We cannot go back to being prisoners in a cage that Israel rattles when it chooses with brutal destructive offensives.

Raji Sourani is the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

Actie-oproep ITUC voor Gaza

ITUC Call to Action on Gaza

31 July 2014

The ITUC is horrified at the rising death toll in Gaza, which is now over 1,200 – the vast majority of them innocent civilians. Destruction of civilian and UN infrastructure in recent days, including schools, hospitals and the territory’s only power plant, will have grave ramifications for the Palestinian population now and long after this latest military operation ceases.

The excessive attacks are unjustifiable, totally disproportionate, and have brought condemnation from even Israel’s closest allies.

Workers and their families are joining the gathering voices around the world which are calling for an immediate negotiated cease-fire and an end to the blockade imprisoning 1.9 million people. We also call on the international community to provide urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, including food, water, medical aid and generators. However, the only way for there to be a lasting peace and mutual understanding between the people of Israel and Palestine is for the occupation and blockade of the Palestinian territories to end.

The ITUC therefore calls on all governments to help broker an immediate, negotiated cease-fire. Attacks on civilians are against international law and we support the UN call for accountability and justice. Therefore, we call for an immediate ban of all transfers of weapons, directly or indirectly.

But it cannot end there. The international community, not just the US and Egypt, must take immediate action to force the parties to the table and conclude a negotiated settlement that ends the occupation and that instils in both sides confidence in security and mutual respect.

The ITUC is also calling on its affiliates worldwide to make urgent contributions to the humanitarian relief initiative launched by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) for Gaza.
 
Zie hierbij van ITF op 14 juli:  ITF helps people of Gaza
Sinds 14 juli is het dodental in Gaza vertienvoudigd; cijfers van PCHR.

Follow the money: wie verdienen aan het Israelische Gaza-offensief?

Follow the money, aldus de klassieke vraag (zeker voor vakbondsactivisten) die vaak helpt te begrijpen waarom gebeurt wat gebeurt. 

Lees Shir Hever van het bekende Alternative Information Center:  Who's Profiting from Israel's Offensive in Gaza?
Shir Hever: Israel continues to reject Hamas's offer of a ten-year ceasefire because it would undermine Israeli arms sales, which reached $7 billion in 2012 -   July 30, 14

Verder hier

Stand with Palestinian workers in Gaza: a call for trade union solidarity

Stand with Palestinian workers in Gaza: a call for trade union solidarity

Posted on July 30, 2014 by The Palestinian trade union movement and the Congress of South African Trade Unions

The Palestinian trade union movement, with support from with support from the Congress of South African Trade Unions and its affiliates, is unanimously calling on trade unions internationally to take immediate action to stop the Israeli massacre in Gaza and hold Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people.

In the two weeks of the latest Israeli military aggression in the Gaza strip, whole families have been wiped out, and over 600 Palestinians have been killed, almost 80% of them civilians and a third of them children. Over 1.8 million Palestinians are trapped in an occupied and besieged small piece of land that Israel has turned into an open-air prison, subject to daily bombardment by Israeli rockets and heavy artillery. For seven years, Palestinians in Gaza have been under a brutal and illegal siege whose purpose is to destroy the conditions of life and break the spirit of the people. The siege and the recurrent bombing have created a humanitarian catastrophe, with critical shortages of water, food, and medical supplies. Freedom of movement, the right to education and access to health services have been extensively denied by the Israeli occupation.

Israel’s goal in this latest aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is to perpetuate the occupation. This year we mark ten years since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the construction of Israel’s wall and its associated regime in the occupied Palestinian West Bank – of settlements, land confiscation, separate roads, permit systems and movement restrictions – is illegal under international law. Yet in ten years the international community has allowed Israel to continue construction on occupied territory and continue its system of occupation, apartheid and colonialism against the Palestinian people.

While governments prevaricate and allow Israel to act with utter impunity, and most of the mainstream media parrots Israel’s Orwellian propaganda, civil society solidarity is the only force that can help stop the ongoing slaughter of our people and send them a message that they are not alone, exactly as effective international solidarity had done in supporting the struggle for freedom in apartheid South Africa. In the face of this international inaction, we, the Palestinian trade unions, call on trade unions around the world to take urgent measures, and in particular to intensify Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, until it complies with international law.

We ask you to consider the following actions:

1. Stop handling goods imported from or exported to Israel,
2. Divest your trade union pension — and other — funds from Israel Bonds as well as from corporations and banks that complicit in Israel’s occupation and human rights violations,
3. Dissociate from Israeli trade unions which are complicit in the occupation
4. Support our call for a military embargo on Israel
5. Share information with your members about the siege and destruction of Gaza and ask your members to boycott Israeli products and to share their knowledge with family, co-workers, and friends.

Today more than ever, solidarity with Palestinians workers and their families in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory is an essential component of progressive, principled trade union politics. Given the complete failure and unwillingness of governments to hold Israel accountable to international law there is widespread recognition that Israel’s occupation must be isolated by the pressure of civil society.

We rely on our brothers and sisters in the trade union movement internationally to continue a proud tradition of international solidarity and to stand with us as you stood with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

Issued by the following Palestinian trade unions:
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions-Gaza
General Union of Palestinian Workers
Union of Professional Associations
Federation of Independent Trade Unions

With the support of:
Congress of South African Trade Unions

http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/stand-with-palestinian-workers-in-gaza-a-call-for-trade-union-solidarity-12404

Teken Avaaz-oproep aan ABP en 5 bedrijven om investeringen in Israelische bezettingsactiviteiten terug te trekken

Aan de CEO's van ABP, HP, Veolia, Barclays, Caterpillar en G4S:

In de nasleep van het verschrikkelijke geweld dat zich voltrekt in Israël-Palestina zijn wij, burgers uit heel de wereld, ernstig bezorgd over de aanhoudende investeringen van uw bedrijven in ondernemingen en projecten die illegale nederzettingen en de onderdrukkende bezetting van het Palestijnse volk financieren. 17 EU-landen hebben onlangs waarschuwingen uitgegeven aan hun burgers tegen zakendoen of investeren in illegale Israëlische nederzettingen. Met het oog op deze juridische overwegingen, heeft u nu de gelegenheid om investeringen terug te trekken en internationale wetgeving te respecteren. Dit is een kans om aan de goede kant van de geschiedenis te gaan staan.

Hier de te tekenen petitie en meer: AVAAZ-Oproep

Australian Unionists Supporting Palestine: ITUC and COSATU add voices to embargo call

ITUC and COSATU add voices to embargo call

18 July 2014, via The Guardian
 
The President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Secretary-General of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have joined with a host of Nobel peace laureates, intellectuals, artists, musicians, journalists, writers, filmmakers, politicians and celebrities to issue this call:

We call on the UN and governments across the world to take immediate steps to implement a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed on South Africa during apartheid. …
Palestinians today need effective solidarity, not charity.

View abridged letter as published in The Guardian >>>
A full version of the letter with all signatories can be read here >>>

From auspalestine

Australian Unionists Supporting Palestine: IFJ President details attacks on journalists in Gaza

IFJ President details attacks on journalists in Gaza

22 July 2014, via Equal Times

End the violation of journalists’ rights in Gaza
by Jim Boumelha, President, International Federation of Journalists

Every conflict has its press victims. Journalists that cover wars know the risks they face: they could be mistaken for combatants; they could get caught in fatal crossfire; or they could walk on a landmine.
But the risks to journalists – local and international – in the current bombings and ground invasion of Gaza has never been greater.

As the relentless bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli army reaches its fifteenth day, the IFJ-affiliate Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) has listed numerous violations, including the deaths of two media workers – Hamed Shibab and Khaled Hamad.

In addition, five journalists have been injured since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge on 8 July 2014, and one car of a media worker has been bombed, as have five media offices.
The air strikes on al-Jawhara Media Tower located in the centre of Gaza City, injured Mohammed Shibat, a photographer with al-Watanya News Agency.

Over 50 journalists were present in the tower at the time of the strikes and the attack was said to have caused severe damage to the offices of several media outlets, including the PJS Gaza offices located in the same tower.

Such attacks seem to be replicating a similar offensive in December 2008 where five media workers were killed and up to 15 seriously injured.

An international fact-finding mission by the IFJ to Gaza in the aftermath of the attack found that Israeli troops had no rules of engagement and often engaged in indiscriminate firing.

The IFJ mission was in no doubt that the military action against journalists and media installations by Israel violated international law, especially the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and journalists in armed conflict zones.

The IFJ called then on the United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to investigate and take actions over the media crisis and the targeting of journalists.

These findings were borne out by substantiated evidence gathered by the mission which suggested that Israel knew or ought to have known that the victims of its attacks were journalists and media installations, which are protected by international law.

Israel had been provided with the coordinates of the media installations which clearly identified their location. Moreover, journalists’ vehicles and offices bore clear “Press” and “TV” markings to identify them to military forces on ground, sea and air.

The protection of civilians, which includes journalists and media workers, is regulated by a large number of international law treaties.

According to the Geneva Convention’s Article 79 Protocol Additional I, if journalists or media personnel become victims of an attack intentionally targeted at them, this constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law.

According to Article 85 Paragraph 5 Protocol Additional I, such a violation of international humanitarian law is regarded as a war crime.

The Rome Statute in Article 8 Paragraph 2 (b) (i) also stipulates responsibility under international criminal law for attacks targeting civilians. Materials and facilities used for practising the journalistic profession are civilian objects according to Article 52 Protocol Additional I, the bombardment of a TV or radio station, even if it is partly used for propaganda, is not reconcilable with international humanitarian law.

According to Article 85 Protocol Additional I, this constitutes a war crime.

The time back in the 1980s when raising a white flag and writing “TV” in masking tape on a vehicle might help keep one safe is long gone.

As the ground invasion by the Israeli army is now under way, the IFJ is concerned that the security situation of journalists in Gaza will worsen without a concerted and unified voice to denounce the violations of journalists’ rights in Gaza and mobilise world opinion for change on the ground.

Article source: Equal Times