Gaza Massacres: The Time Is Now
An Important Message Below from Anna Baltzer
Anna She is a very knowledgable speaker on the issue of Israel & Palestine.
Her DVD, which I very highly recommend, is titled:
“Life in Occupied Palestine:
Eyewitness Stories & Photographs”
Her book is titled:
“Witness In Palestine:
A Jewish American Woman In The Occupied Territories”
You can buy Anna’s book or DVD at her web site: www.annainthemiddleeast.com
Anna Baltzer
Here is what Anna has to say about what Israel is doing to the people of Gaza.
Please, everyone, stop what you’re doing. This is not just any report from Palestine, but the worst in my lifetime, the worst in 40 years. At this moment, Israel is raining bombs down on Gaza, an enclosed tiny area that is home to 1.5 million men, women, and children, most of them innocent civilians. This space is tightly sealed by Israel, which constantly denies Gazans electricity, food, medicine, and the ability to leave. Gaza is one big prison being bombed from above. The death toll is up to 428 in the past 7 days. That’s more than the number of Israelis killed in the last 7 years. This is what I would call a massacre.
Yes, more Palestinians killed in 7 days than Israelis in 7 years, and yet no comments from President Bush or President-elect Obama. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice places blame solely on Hamas for holding Gazans "hostage," as if Israel’s actions were beyond judgment. Would Rice ever respond to a Palestinian attack on Israelis by blaming the Israeli government for holding its citizens hostage with their army’s violence?
I am writing you from Jordan. I arrived the day after the attacks began. The day before they began, my friend and colleague Hannah had asked me to deliver a book of poetry to her friend Summer in Gaza, hoping I’d manage to make it on a Free Gaza boat. Since then, these boats bringing unarmed witnesses to Gaza (www.freegaza.org) have been attacked in international waters, and Summer’s house has been blown to pieces, her brother almost died under the rubble, and her father desperately needs an operation but the hospitals are overflowing. In every home or shop I enter in Jordan, people are huddled watching the stories unfold: a family killed in their home, a university destroyed, a pharmacy blown to pieces, countless bloody babies screaming or worse, silent.
I wonder if people in the US are also seeing the bodies and faces or, as I fear, only some rubble and angry Gazans. The day after attacks began, Israel’s largest newspaper Yediot Aharonot covered almost the entire front page with the words, "500,000 Israelis Under Attack!" In smaller font, one could learn that in addition to 1 Israeli, 225 Palestinians had also been killed. It was surreal. Consider where you are getting your news, and what is not being told to you.
For example, the stated purpose of the attack is to drive out Hamas, i.e. to kill anyone in Hamas and scare the rest into turning against Hamas. Not only does this tactic not work (brutality fosters violence), but it clearly fits the definition of terrorism: unlawful violence intended to frighten or coerce a people or government in order to achieve a political or ideological agenda. Israel is operating as a terrorist state in the true sense of the word.
Hamas is also a terrorist organization by this definition, so it would be easy to simplify the conflict as "an endless cycle of violence" were there no historical context. But there is a context, and there are alternatives: Let us remember that Hamas was elected after an intentional shift away from violence towards a mainstream political agenda. Hamas stopped its attacks and began offering the Palestinian people an alternative to the corruption of Fatah. Hamas was democratically elected and immediately strangled by a US-led boycott, preventing the government from functioning. Hamas continued to hold to its one-sided ceasefire (totaling almost 2 years), meanwhile the US and Israel began to train and arm the opposition government, Fatah, which they preferred. In response to plans for a coup in Gaza (anti-democratic takeover by the US-supported opposition government), Hamas secured its control (again, democratically-elected whether or not we like them) over Gaza, and continues to offer Israel an indefinite ceasefire–no more violent attacks, period–if Israel simply complies with international law. The Arab League (comprised of 22 Arab nation members) has offered the same. These offers are dismissed by Israel and silenced in the US media. Israel says it has tried everything else, but it has not tried the most obvious: complying with international law and accepting repeated offers for a peaceful resolution.
As events unfold in Gaza neither the media nor the people are silent here in Jordan, where people refuse to go on as if nothing were happening to their brothers and sisters (sometimes literally—more than 60% of Jordan’s population is Palestinian refugees). Just one day after attacks began, the king of Jordan gave blood to send to Gaza and inspired hundreds of others to do the same (meanwhile President Bush was on vacation in Texas). Spontaneous demonstrations have erupted at least twice here in the capitol today, and thousands are protesting in various major cities around the Middle East and around the world.
Please, wherever you are, do something. Write a letter to the editor. Get a large group to inundate your congressperson at once. Protest! There are demonstrations being organized around the US. If there isn’t one happening near you, then do what I would do: buy a poster-board and large marker and write something on it ("Gazans Are People Too," "Massacre in Gaza: Silence is Complicity," "Our Weapons Are Killing Palestinian Children," or anything you can think of). Go outside and stand on a busy corner with it. Force others to confront the reality. Talk to people, invite them to join you. People around the world are empowered enough to take to the streets; we have no excuse not to. The time is now.
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Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service, is touring the United States with her acclaimed presentation and book describing her experiences documenting human rights abuses in the West Bank and supporting Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance to the Occupation.
Providing photographic documentation and critical information often misrepresented or ignored in the Western media, Anna’s presentation covers checkpoints, settlements, demonstrations, Israeli activism, the 1948 war & refugees, censorship, the Separation Wall, and more. For further information about Anna’s work and tour, please visit: www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com
FACT SHEET
Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos
Facts, Sources, and Ways You Can Help
FACTS:
Killed in the conflict in 2007:
373 Palestinians - 13 Jewish Israelis
In 2006:
633 Palestinians - 31 Jewish Israelis
Since September 2000:
4497 Palestinians - 1030 Jewish Israelis
[MEPC Oct 2007: www.mepc.org/resources/mrates.asp
Checkpoints:
Barriers manned by Israeli soldiers &/or border police used to monitor &/or prevent Palestinian movement. Most checkpoints are not on the Green Line (between Israel & the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territories [OPT]), but mainly between Palestinian towns & villages, hindering teachers, doctors, farmers, schoolchildren, etc. Most checkpoints are closed overnight, blocking sick or pregnant villagers from getting to the hospital in emergencies.
Roadblocks:
Concrete barriers or earth mounds to prevent Palestinians from using their vehicles on their roads— housing & transport within the OPT are segregated—disabling the Palestinian economy & civilian movement.
Settlements:
Jewish-only colonies on internationally-recognized Palestinian land.
- There are currently about 500,000 settlers living illegally on Palestinian land (275,000 in the West Bank & 225,000 in East Jerusalem). In 2005, 8,000 settlers were evacuated from Gaza, while 13,000 new settlers moved into new or expanding settlements in the West Bank & East Jerusalem [B’tselem].
- International law prohibits an occupying power from transferring citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory [Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49]. Yet Israel spends more than $400 million/year encouraging Jewish citizens & businesses to move from Israel into the OPT by offering financial benefits such as government tax breaks & real estate subsidies [Mother Jones magazine].
- 80% of settlers say they came primarily for economic benefits & would be willing to leave the OPT if offered compensation [Peace Now: Settlement Watch]. The remaining 20% are known as ideological settlers, many of them armed & protected with impunity even after killing Palestinians or poisoning animals & fields.
The Wall:
- … will separate 34.4% of Palestinians from each other or their land, and Israel will annex approximately 15% of the West Bank, including 60-80% of the region’s most fertile land and water resources [UN OCHA].
- >80% of the Wall doesn’t touch the Green Line, rather it weaves through the West Bank, trapping 274,000 Palestinians between the Wall & the 1967 border, & completely surrounding >50 communities [UN OCHA].
- >1,000,000 Palestinian fruiting trees have been uprooted for the Wall & other expansion [MIFTAH].
Imprisonment:
- About 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners are being held in Israeli prisons; roughly 10% are administrative detainees, meaning they can be held without charge or trial, indefinitely. About 40% of adult male Palestinians in the OPT have spent time in Israeli detention [Mandela Institute for Human Rights].
- Torture, brutalization, & humiliation of Palestinian prisoners are widespread & systematic [Amnesty Int’l].
Recommended: Read the 1973 UN International Convention on Apartheid. In short, “apartheid” is defined as systematic oppression, segregation, & discrimination to maintain domination by one racial group—‘demographic group,’ in Israeli parlance—over another, as through denial of basic human rights & freedoms, including the right to work, education, movement, & nationality; torture or inhuman treatment; arbitrary arrest & illegal imprisonment; & “any measures designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves & ghettos,… the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group… or to members thereof”
Israel is the highest recipient of US foreign aid—$5 billion/year = $15 million/day! (IfAmericansKnew.org)—& the only country not held accountable for how its aid is spent, even though it has violated more UN Resolutions than Iraq, Iran, or any other country in the UN. As Americans, it is our right & responsibility to speak out against violations of human rights & international law carried out with our own tax dollars. (See back for ideas on taking action.)
LITTLE KNOWN HISTORY about the origins of the Occupation & conflict:
1870 - 7,000 Jews in Palestine (2% of population). Large-scale Zionist immigration begins in early 20th century.
1930-40s - Jews fleeing Nazis seek haven in Palestine. By 1946, land ownership is 92% Palestinian, 8% Jewish.
1947 - UN Partition Plan proposes 54% of land for a Jewish state, provided it doesn’t harm the native population.
1947-49 – Zionist forces expel >750,000 Palestinians (75% of the native population), to achieve the Jewish majority necessary for a Jewish state. Halfway through the expulsions, surrounding Arab countries invade. Israel triumphs over 78% of historic Palestine & refuses return of Palestinian refugees, who total about 6 million today.
1967 - Israel occupies all remaining Palestinian lands in Six-Day War. The Occupation has continued for >40 years.
1994 - First Palestinian suicide bomber. Palestinian resistance, mostly nonviolent, sometimes violent, continues.
SOURCES of Facts and More Information:
AIC, Alternative Information Center: www.alternativenews.org
Amnesty International, International Human Rights Protection: www.amnesty.org
B’tselem, Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: www.btselem.org
Badil, Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights: www.badil.org
Breaking the Silence: Testimonies of former Israeli soldiers: www.breakingthesilence.org.il
Electronic Intifada, Leading Palestinian Portal for News and Analysis: www.electronicintifada.net
Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc: www.gush-shalom.org/english
Ha’aretz, Left-Mainstream Israeli Daily Newspaper: www.haaretz.com
ICAHD, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: www.icahd.org
If Americans Knew, What Every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine: www.ifamericansknew.org
Mandela, Institute for Human Rights: www.mandela-palestine.org
MIFTAH, Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue & Democracy: www.miftah.org
Palestine Monitor, News from Palestinian Civil Society: www.palestinemonitor.org
Palestine Remembered, al-Nakba 1948 : www.palestineremembered.com
Passia, Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs: www.passia.org
Settlement Watch, a project of Peace Now: www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=51
Stop the Wall, by PENGON (Palestinian Environmental NGO Network): www.stopthewall.org
UN OCHA, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: www.reliefweb.int/hic-opt
Recommended reading on the history of the conflict (by Jewish & Palestinian scholars):
- Tanya Reinhart, Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, NY: Seven Stories Press, 2002.
- Just about anything by Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, or Norman Finkelstein on the subject.
SILENCE IS COMPLICITY. What can YOU do to help bring peace & justice to the people of Palestine & Israel?
