provinceorstate:gaza strip

  • Egyptian government infected by mad Israeli wall disease-
    http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/downloads/other_reports/the-arab-organisation-of-human-rights-in-the-uk-egypt-wall.pdf

    The UK-based Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) confirms that the Egyptian government have started to build a steel wall along the Philadelphia route and that approximately 5.4 kilometres have already been completed under Franco-American-Israeli supervision. This extraordinary wall has no justification whatsoever and will deepen the humanitarian crisis affecting more than 80% of the population of the Gaza Strip who live below the poverty line.

  • PressTV - Palestine Festival of Literature held in Gaza Strip
    http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/25/305425/palestine-festival-of-literature-held-in-gaza-strip

    The Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) was established in 2008 with the aim of supporting life in Palestine, breaking the siege imposed on Palestinians by the Israeli military occupation and strengthening cultural links between Palestine and the rest of the world.

    Since 2008 an annual literary festival has been the center of activities which have brought dozens of influential literary figures from the UK, US and Arab world to teach workshops and perform in free public events. Three main speakers came to Gaza to participate in the Palestine Festival of Literature: Ali abu-Neama, Susan abulhawa, and Lina Attalah.

    Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of the award-winning online publication The Electronic Intifada, established in 2001. Abu- Nimah deplores the role of the Arab countries in lifting the blockade on Gaza. He expected the Gaza blockade to be lifted after Arab revolutions but to no avail.

  • Visit by Egyptian Cleric to Gaza Divides Palestinian Leaders - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/qaradawi-hamas-gaza.html

    Senior Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi has wrapped up his three-day Gaza Strip visit, which has drawn mixed reactions from Palestinian circles. It was the first visit by the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars to the Hamas-run coastal enclave

  • “Newseum” comes under pressure from Israel supporters for honoring Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza
    http://mondoweiss.net/2013/05/supporters-palestinian-journalists.html

    On May 13th, the Newseum in Washington, DC will be holding an event to honor “newspeople who died or were killed in the pursuit of news” in the past year. Among the 84 journalists who died are Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama who were killed in Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip this past winter. Their inclusion in the ceremony has sent parts of the Israel lobby into overdrive as both worked for Al-Aqsa television which is affiliated with Hamas. The neocon think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is threatening pull an annual policy summit out of the venue in protest.

  • Comment prétendre que la Palestine est un désert que seul Israël est capable de fleurir ? Tout simplement en détruisant l’agriculture et la pêche palestinienne : Organizing for Gaza’s land and sea
    http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/organizing-for-gazas-land-and-sea

    Despite UAWC’s efforts, Israel’s restrictions have taken a heavy toll. Between 2007 and 2009, the Gaza Strip’s agricultural workforce fell by 42 per cent even as food insecurity had reached 61 per cent of the population. By November 2011, the Gaza Strip held only 3,097 registered fishers, down from about 10,000 in 2000.

  • Palestinian Film ’Condom Lead’ Nominated for Cannes Award
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/gaza-palestinian-short-film-nominated-cannes.html

    This is the story of Condom Lead, a film parody of the first war on the Gaza Strip in 2008-29, known as Operation Cast Lead. It has been entered into the short-film competition at the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival. This movie is the first from the Gaza Strip to make it to the international competition.

  • Israeli vehicles enter northern Gaza, witnesses say | Maan News Agency
    http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=588203

    GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers crossed into an area of farmland in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, witnesses said.

    Locals told Ma’an that five bulldozers dug up agricultural lands east of Beit Hanoun.

    Saber al-Zaghain, a popular resistance coordinator, told Ma’an that Israel conducted dredging operations on farmland near Beit Hanoun, damaging Palestinian crops.

    “These crops have been planted after the recent Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, and now is the season to harvest them in order to be distributed to the markets,” she said.

    Al-Zaghain called on the international community to protect Gazan farmers during the harvest season.

    An Israeli army spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.

  • Erdoğan says will travel to Gaza after Washington visit

    http://www.todayszaman.com/news-312206-erdogan-says-will-travel-to-gaza-after-washington-visit.htm

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said a long-awaited visit to the Gaza Strip will take place after he travels to Washington, D.C., in mid-May for talks with President Barack Obama.
    “I think it will take place after the US visit,” Erdoğan told journalists en route to Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday evening, when he was asked about the planned trip to Gaza. The prime minister had earlier said he planned to visit the Hamas-run territory in April. Erdoğan and Obama are set to meet in Washington on May 16.

  • Gaza Cancer Rates on Rise
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/cancer-rates-soar-gaza-war.html

    Dr. Khalid Thabet, head of the Oncology Department at the government-run Shifa Hospital, said in a meeting with Al-Monitor that he expects the rate of cancer patients to double over the next five years in the Gaza Strip, due to the uranium used by Israel in its attacks against the Gaza Strip during the 2008-2009 war.
    While Israel denied in Jan. 2009 that it had used depleted uranium in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, an investigation by French NGO Action of Civilians for Nuclear Disarmament (ACDN) shortly after the war found the use of depleted uranium “highly probable.”

    "After several months of investigation carried out in close liaison with the people concerned and with the help of Jean-François Fechino, a consultant on diffuse pollution and an expert accredited to the UN Environment Program (UNEP). ACDN ... produced a 33-page report concluding that the presence of dozens of tonnes of Depleted Uranium (perhaps as much as 75 tonnes) in the soil and subsoil of Gaza is highly probable.

    “In April 2009, a four-person mission including Jean-François Fechino went to Gaza under the auspices of the Arab Commission for Human Rights. The samples of earth and dust that they brought back from Gaza were then analysed by a specialist laboratory, which found in them elements of depleted uranium (which is radioactive, carcinogenic, teratogenic), particles of cesium (which is radioactive and carcinogenic), asbestos dust (which is carcinogenic), volatile organic compounds (VOCs, which are fine particles which endanger health, especially the health of children, asthmatics and old people), phosphates (from oxidation of white phosphorus), tungsten (which is carcinogenic), copper, aluminium oxide (which is carcinogenic), and thorium oxide (ThO2, which is radioactive).”

  • Hamas law promotes gender segregation in Gaza schools | Reuters

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/01/us-palestinians-hamas-schools-idUSBRE93009920130401

    (Reuters) - New rules from the Education Ministry of the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip will bar men from teaching at girls’ schools and mandate separate classes for boys and girls from the age of nine.

    The law, published on Monday, would go into effect next school year and applies throughout the coastal enclave, including in private, Christian-led and United Nations schools.

    #palestine #education #gaza

  • Controversial Sunni theologian to visit Gaza
    Haaretz Daily Newspaper

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/controversial-sunni-theologian-to-visit-gaza.premium-1.509499

    One of the leading scholars of Sunni Islam, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, will visit the Gaza Strip in early May, according to the Hamas religious affairs minister.

    The minister, Ismail Radwan says recently he met Qaradawi in Qatar and invited him to visit Gaza on behalf of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Qaradawi promised to do so, he says.

    Qaradawi, 87, the Egyptian-born founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, left Egypt for Qatar in the 1960s to escape persecution. He is the chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and well-known in the Arab world from his regular appearances on Al Jazeera television.

    Among the most senior Sunni figures to rule in favor of suicide attacks, he has changed his stance since the crisis began in Syria and has been accused of representing Qatari and Western policies.

  • ’What Palestinians Said Was Israeli Aggression’: The Death of Omar al-Masharawi
    http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/03/12/what-palestinians-said-was-israeli-aggression-the-death-of-omar-al-masharawi

    A new report from the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights (3/6/13) tallies the extent of the death and destruction from Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip last November. The fighting, which lasted about a week, killed over 174 Palestinians in Gaza, including 22 children and 13 women. Six Israelis were killed.

    But the headlines generated by the report focused on one child in Gaza, 11-month-old Omar al-Masharawi, and the claim that he was not killed by Israelis, as was originally reported.
     
    The UN report recounts plenty of incidents. Among them:
    –On 19 November, a father, his 12-year-old daughter, and his 19-year-old son were allegedly killed by a drone missile while collecting spearmint in a farm adjacent to their house in Ahmad Yassin Street, north of Gaza City.
    –On 20 November, two 16-year-old boys were killed, allegedly by a drone missile, while hunting birds in an open area located approximately 700 meters away from the fence, east of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Relatives of the victims reported that the IDF did not grant access to the ambulances to retrieve the bodies for at least five hours.
    –On 18 November, an Israeli air strike without prior warning hit a three-story house belonging to the Al-Dalou family in Al-Nasser neighborhood, central Gaza City. The airstrike killed 12 people, five of whom were children and four were women.
    –The IDF targeted residential buildings and properties during the last few days of the crisis, with some reports estimating that a total of 382 residences were destroyed or sustained severe damages due to Israeli attacks.
    –During the crisis the IDF attacked several media offices and journalists in Gaza City. Such attacks killed two cameramen traveling in a car marked as a press vehicle, and injured at least eight journalists.

    But the stories we are seeing now are about a death that might not be attributed to Israeli violence. “UN Ties Gaza Baby’s Death to Palestinians” was the headline of a New York Times piece (3/12/13). An Associated Press report (3/11/13) is headlined “UN: Palestinian Militants Likely Killed Gaza Baby.” That piece referred to the photo of Omar’s body being held his father, BBC cameraman Jihad al-Masharawi, as “an image that became a symbol of what Palestinians said was Israeli aggression.”

    Of course what Palestinians “said was Israeli aggression” was actually Israeli aggression, as the death toll and the UN report would indicate. But the AP article is instructive; of the report’s 18 paragraphs, 12 are about the dispute over Omar;...

  • IPS – Gaza Women Suffer on ‘Their’ Day | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/gaza-women-suffer-on-their-day

    “In Gaza we don’t lead normal lives, we just cope, and adapt to our abnormal lives under siege and occupation,” says Dr. Mona El-Farra, a physician and a long-time human rights and women’s rights activist in the Gaza Strip. On International Women’s Day, when many of the world’s women are fighting for workplace equality and an end to domestic violence, Farra and the majority of Gaza’s women fight for the most basic of rights.

  • « Chavez remembered in Gaza vigil »
    http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/5427-chavez-remembered-in-gaza-vigil

    EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

    Hugo Chavez, you will remain in our hearts. This is the message conveyed by Palestinians from all walks of life in the Gaza Strip as they expressed their sorrow and solidarity with the Venezuelan President who died this week. He supported the Arabs and Palestinian cause and took a “firm and heroic” stance on the issue.

    Palestinians expressed their grief and held a vigil in Unknown Soldier’s Square in the centre of Gaza City when they heard the news of Chavez’s death. They said that he was the embodiment of a true president, as he supported the rights of the oppressed all over the world as well as the Palestinian cause more than Arab leaders have done.

    Those paying their respects to the late president held up pictures and placards saying, “Rest in peace, you were faithful and fought for us, and we will continue until our cause is victorious.”

    They called on the Arab leaders and the free world to adopt the same stance as Hugo Chavez in the struggle for justice. His legacy will live on.

    #Gaza #Palestine #Chavez

  • Israeli-Palestinian tensions could ultimately spark a major confrontation - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
    http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/israeli-palestinian-tensions-could-ultimately-spark-a-major-confrontation.p

    At this stage, the possibility of a “third intifada” exists mainly in the Israeli media and in the dreams of senior Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip. The media and Gaza are also the only two places in which the term “intifada” is even being invoked; the leadership of the Palestinian Authority usually avoids its use. Nor is there much talk of a third intifada on the ground − neither on the streets of Palestinian cities nor in the villages and refugee camps. For the time being, the events give the impression of being a limited flare-up − a peak as compared to events of the previous months, but not yet constituting the sort of critical mass necessary to foment a prolonged, high-intensity confrontation.

    At the moment, it appears that the common interest − or a partial one, at least − of both the PA and Israel will help subdue the present tension. The real problem lies in the longer term, owing to a mounting accumulation of disturbing events. The hunger strike by the Palestinian prisoners, and even the death of security prisoner Arafat Jaradat last Saturday, may not have provided the spark for a truly serious explosion. But at some point, in the year ahead, depending on the deployment of the troops on the ground and the nature of the specific trigger that is pulled, it definitely could happen.

    Some 20,000 people attended Jaradat’s funeral in his village, Sa’ir, near Hebron, on Monday. A few thousand more people took part in similar demonstrations, held then and on the day before, mainly in the southern section of the West Bank, but on a lesser scale in the northern area as well. At the same time, though, only a few thousand took part in the confrontations that erupted after the funeral − far fewer than in similar situations from the previous intifadas.

  • What a ’period of calm’ looks like in the Occupied Territories (Infographie)

    Three months have passed since the ceasefire that brought an end to Israel’s eight-day attack on the Gaza Strip known as Operation “Pillar of Defence”. This infographic depicts the number of attacks on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military during this three-month period, as well as the number of Palestinian attacks emanating from Gaza. Since late November, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have averaged over one a day, everyday. These include shootings by troops positioned along the border fence, attacks on fishermen working off the Gaza coast, and incursions by the Israeli army.

    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/2013220152044327694.html

    On va sans doute plus entendre parler de la roquette lancée aujourd’hui depuis Gaza que des attaques israéliennes qui ont débuté dès le lendemain du cessez-le-feu et étaient quasi-quotidiennes. http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/02/26/une-roquette-tiree-de-gaza-s-ecrase-sur-le-sur-d-israel_1838786_3218.html

  • On plante, ils arrachent (au bulldozer), on replante

    We Grow, They Bulldoze, We Re-Plant
    http://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/index-of-countries-on-the-security-council-agenda/israel-palestine-and-the-occupied-territories/land-and-settlement-issues/52264-we-grow-they-bulldoze-we-re-plant.html?itemid=id#38340

    We Grow, They Bulldoze, We Re-Plant
    ( Security Council and Israel/Palestine )

    Palestinians are calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. The boycott action follows a growing number of initiatives from the Gaza Strip that asks Palestinian supporters to replace aid donations with boycott action. The boycott action is two-fold. It calls for the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 242, which requests the withdrawal of occupation forces from the Gaza Strip. It simultaneously raises awareness of how Israeli settlements benefit from the oppression of Palestinian farmers. Israeli authorities prohibit Palestinians from accessing the 300 metres flanking the Gaza-Israel border. In reality, the Israeli army regularly attacks Palestinians up to two kilometres from the border in some areas, rendering more than 35 percent of Gaza’s farmland off-limits. As part of this campaign, Palestinians are planting trees in these border regions, despite knowing that sooner or later, they will be destroyed by Israeli forces.

    #palestine #israël #occupation

  • Une lettre de l’écrivain israélien David Grossman publiée sur le site de B’Tselem.

    Letter from David Grossman, 5 Dec. 2012 | B’Tselem
    http://www.btselem.org/btselem-newsletter/136338

    Dear Friends,

    We in Israel are facing a real crisis. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank appears unending while the Gaza Strip grows more isolated and impoverished. The recent fighting in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, with millions of civilians on both sides paying such a heavy price, only emphasized how far we are from negotiations to resolve this situation. More than four million Palestinians live without the basic rights we in Israel take for granted. While they live only a few miles away, they are separated from us by physical obstacles as well as mental barriers of fear and prejudice.

    In this reality, it is inspiring to see the work of groups like B’Tselem – Israelis who share my conviction that protecting human rights is both necessary and possible. B’Tselem has championed human rights for decades, developing powerful ways to turn research into advocacy and action. And I am grateful for their work.

    If you are like me, you go to B’Tselem to receive reliable information and thoughtful analysis on the human rights situation in the Occupied Territories. It is information compiled by Israelis committed to universal values of justice who also care deeply about Israeli democracy and share your concern for Israel’s future. Their information fuels profound and necessary discussions on television talk shows, in newspaper columns and at dinner tables and coffee shops across Israel – and challenges our policymakers in the corridors of power.

    B’Tselem is not afraid to be bold – from distributing cameras to Palestinians living near the most militant settlements to demonstrating why sections of the Separation Barrier must be dismantled. B’Tselem does not shy away from the issues our politicians prefer to ignore. This is a lesson for us all – it is not simply about politics or timing. It is about human equality, about ending violence, promoting dignity for all people and giving our neighbors freedom and respect.

    The fact that the occupation has continued for forty five years is infuriating and outrageous. I personally do not understand how a country can regard itself as a democracy while maintaining a prolonged regime of occupation, repression and discrimination with no apparent intention of ending it. Sadly, we cannot end the enormous injustice that is the occupation in the near future. B’Tselem holds fast to the vision of an end to the occupation and works toward this goal. It also addresses the injustices, big and small, the localized abuses and the arbitrariness that disguise and justify themselves with countless methods and excuses. All of this B’Tselem exposes and battles against tirelessly.

    B’Tselem’s work is a real source of pride and I hope you will join me in supporting their efforts to ensure the dignity of all human beings. Their work gives us cause for hope, that in spite of so many obstacles, Israelis and Palestinians can build a better future.

    Sincerely,

    David Grossman

  • Hamas: Egypt destroying Gaza smuggling tunnels by flooding them - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-egypt-destroying-gaza-smuggling-tunnels-by-flooding-them.premium-1.50

    On its website, Hamas quotes both the owner of a tunnel and an Egyptian security official as saying that Egypt is reinforcing its troops on the border with the Gaza Strip, and that it has halted smuggling through most of the tunnels.

    The Egyptian army also has begun flooding the tunnels that were rebuilt after Israel destroyed them during Operation Pillar of Defense, the sources quoted by Hamas said.

  • Hamas: Egypt destroying Gaza smuggling tunnels by flooding them - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-egypt-destroying-gaza-smuggling-tunnels-by-flooding-them.premium-1.50

    On its website, Hamas quotes both the owner of a tunnel and an Egyptian security official as saying that Egypt is reinforcing its troops on the border with the Gaza Strip, and that it has halted smuggling through most of the tunnels.

    The Egyptian army also has begun flooding the tunnels that were rebuilt after Israel destroyed them during Operation Pillar of Defense, the sources quoted by Hamas said.

    • L’Egypte inonde des tunnels conduisant à Gaza
      par Nidal al-Mughrabi
      http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/monde/20130213.REU7281/l-egypte-inonde-des-tunnels-conduisant-a-gaza.html

      GAZA (Reuters) - Les forces armées égyptiennes ont inondé plusieurs tunnels de contrebande rejoignant la bande de Gaza sous contrôle palestinien, dans le but de les fermer, ont déclaré les autorités égyptiennes et palestiniennes.

      Le réseau de tunnels est essentiel à la vie de Gaza, permettant l’importation d’environ 30% de tous les biens atteignant la bande de territoire enclavée et soumise à un blocus israélien depuis plus de sept ans.

      Des reporters de Reuters ont vu qu’un tunnel servant à faire entrer sur le territoire du gravier et du ciment a subitement été rempli d’eau dimanche, obligeant les travailleurs à l’évacuer à la hâte.

    • Egypt floods Gaza lifeline tunnels
      http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/egypt-floods-gaza-lifeline-tunnels

      While Gaza’s rulers have been reluctant to criticize Mursi in public, ordinary Gazans are slightly more vocal.

      “Egyptian measures against tunnels have worsened since the election of Mursi. Our Hamas brothers thought he would open up Gaza. I guess they were wrong,” said a tunnel owner, who identified himself only as Ayed, fearing reprisal.

      “Perhaps 150 or 200 tunnels have been shut since the Sinai attack. This is the Mursi era,” he added.

      Dozens of tunnels had been destroyed since last August following the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers in a militant attack near the Gaza fence.

      Cairo said some of the gunmen had crossed into Egypt via the tunnels - a charge denied by Palestinians - and ordered an immediate crackdown.

  • The Occupation Returns to Center Stage — FMEP

    http://fmep.org/reports/archive/vol.-22/no.-6/the-occupation-returns-to-center-stage

    By Geoffrey Aronson
    November-December 2012 Settlement Report

    Military and diplomatic confrontation between Israel and Palestinians in the waning days of 2012 have drawn renewed international attention to the conflict. Israel’s limited assault on the Gaza Strip and the UN General Assembly’s overwhelming November 29 vote supporting Palestine’s admission as a non-member observer state catapulted the issue to the international center stage and prompted calls for a renewed diplomatic effort led by the United States.

  • Full text: Abbas speech to UN General Assembly

    November 30, 2012 by occupiedpalestine 0 Comments

    196453_345x230[1]
    Maan News Agency | Nov 30, 2012

    New York
    Nov. 29, 2012

    Mr. President of the General Assembly,
    Your Excellency Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
    Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Palestine comes today to the United Nations General Assembly at a time when it is still tending to its wounds and still burying its beloved martyrs of children, women and men who have fallen victim to the latest Israeli aggression, still searching for remnants of life amid the ruins of homes destroyed by Israeli bombs on the Gaza Strip, wiping out entire families, their men, women and children murdered along with their dreams, their hopes, their future and their longing to live an ordinary life and to live in freedom and peace.

    Palestine comes today to the General Assembly because it believes in peace and because its people, as proven in past days, are in desperate need of it.

    Palestine comes today to this prestigious international forum, representative and protector of international legitimacy, reaffirming our conviction that the international community now stands before the last chance to save the two-State solution.

    Palestine comes to you today at a defining moment regionally and internationally, in order to reaffirm its presence and to try to protect the possibilities and the foundations of a just peace that is deeply hoped for in our region.

    Mr. President,
    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    The Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip has confirmed once again the urgent and pressing need to end the Israeli occupation and for our people to gain their freedom and independence. This aggression also confirms the Israeli Government’s adherence to the policy of occupation, brute force and war, which in turn obliges the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people and towards peace.

    This is why we are here today.

    I say with great pain and sorrow … there was certainly no one in the world that required that tens of Palestinian children lose their lives in order to reaffirm the above-mentioned facts. There was no need for thousands of deadly raids and tons of explosives for the world to be reminded that there is an occupation that must come to an end and that there are a people that must be liberated. And, there was no need for a new, devastating war in order for us to be aware of the absence of peace.

    This is why we are here today.

    Mr. President,
    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    The Palestinian people, who miraculously recovered from the ashes of Al-Nakba of 1948, which was intended to extinguish their being and to expel them in order to uproot and erase their presence, which was rooted in the depths of their land and depths of history. In those dark days, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were torn from their homes and displaced within and outside of their homeland, thrown from their beautiful, embracing, prosperous country to refugee camps in one of the most dreadful campaigns of ethnic cleansing and dispossession in modern history. In those dark days, our people had looked to the United Nations as a beacon of hope and appealed for ending the injustice and for achieving justice and peace, the realization of our rights, and our people still believe in this and continue to wait.

    This is why we are here today.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    In the course of our long national struggle, our people have always strived to ensure harmony and conformity between the goals and means of their struggle and international law and spirit of the era in accordance with prevailing realities and changes. And, our people always have strived not to lose their humanity, their highest, deeply-held moral values and their innovative abilities for survival, steadfastness, creativity and hope, despite the horrors that befell them and continue to befall them today as a consequence of Al-Nakba and its horrors.

    Despite the enormity and weight of this task, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and the constant leader of their revolution and struggle, has consistently strived to achieve this harmony and conformity.

    When the Palestine National Council decided in 1988 to pursue the Palestinian peace initiative and adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was based on resolution 181 (II) (29 November 1947), adopted by your august body, it was in fact undertaking, under the leadership of the late President Yasser Arafat, a historic, difficult and courageous decision that defined the requirements for a historic reconciliation that would turn the page on war, aggression and occupation.

    This was not an easy matter. Yet, we had the courage and sense of high responsibility to make the right decision to protect the higher national interests of our people and to confirm our adherence to international legitimacy, and it was a decision which in that same year was welcomed, supported and blessed by this high body that is meeting today.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    We have heard and you too have heard specifically over the past months the incessant flood of Israeli threats in response to our peaceful, political and diplomatic endeavor for Palestine to acquire non-member observer status in the United Nations. And, you have surely witnessed how some of these threats have been carried out in a barbaric and horrific manner, just days ago in the Gaza Strip.

    We have not heard one word from any Israeli official expressing any sincere concern to save the peace process. On the contrary, our people have witnessed, and continue to witness, an unprecedented intensification of military assaults, the blockade, settlement activities and ethnic cleansing, particularly in Occupied East Jerusalem, and mass arrests, attacks by settlers and other practices by which this Israeli occupation is becoming synonymous with an apartheid system of colonial occupation, which institutionalizes the plague of racism and entrenches hatred and incitement.

    What permits the Israeli Government to blatantly continue with its aggressive policies and the perpetration of war crimes stems from its conviction that it is above the international law and that it has immunity from accountability and consequences. This belief, unfortunately, is bolstered by the failure by some to condemn and demand the cessation of its violations and crimes and by positions that equate the victim and the executioner.

    The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: Enough of aggression, settlements and occupation.

    This is why we are here now.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a State established years ago, and that is Israel; rather we came to affirm the legitimacy of the State that must now achieve its independence, and that is Palestine. We did not come here to add further complications to the peace process, which Israel’s policies have thrown into the intensive care unit; rather we came to launch a final serious attempt to achieve peace. Our endeavor is not aimed at terminating what remains of the negotiations process, which has lost its objective and credibility, but rather aimed at trying to breathe new life into the negotiations and at setting a solid foundation for it based on the terms of reference of the relevant international resolutions in order for the negotiations to succeed.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    On behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, I say: We will not give up, we will not tire, and our determination will not wane and we will continue to strive to achieve a just peace.

    However, above all and after all, I affirm that our people will not relinquish their inalienable national rights, as defined by United Nations resolutions. And our people cling to the right to defend themselves against aggression and occupation and they will continue their popular, peaceful resistance and their epic steadfastness, and will continue to build on their land. And, they will end the division and strengthen their national unity. We will accept no less than the independence of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on all the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, to live in peace and security alongside the State of Israel, and a solution for the refugee issue on the basis of resolution 194 (III), as per the operative part of the Arab Peace Initiative. I don’t think that is terrorism that we are pursuing in the United Nations.

    Yet, we must repeat here once again our warning: the window of opportunity is narrowing and time is quickly running out. The rope of patience is shortening and hope is withering. The innocent lives that have been taken by Israeli bombs – more than 168 martyrs, mostly children and women, including 12 members of one family, the Dalou family, in Gaza – are a painful reminder to the world that this racist, colonial occupation is making the two-State solution and the prospect for realizing peace a very difficult choice, if not impossible.

    It is time for action and the moment to move forward.

    This is why we are here today.

    Mr. President,
    Ladies and Gentleman,

    The world is being asked today to answer a specific question that we have offered repeatedly: Is there a surplus people in our region? Tell us. The world must say it. Are we a surplus people, or is there a state which is missing which must be embodied on its land, which is Palestine. The world is being asked to undertake a significant step in the process of rectifying the unprecedented historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people since Al-Nakba of 1948.

    Every voice among you supporting our endeavor today is a most valuable voice of courage, and every State that grants support today to Palestine’s request for non-member observer State status is affirming its principled and moral support for freedom and the rights of peoples and international law and peace.

    Your support for our endeavor today will send a promising message – to millions of Palestinians on the land of Palestine, in the refugee camps both in the homeland and the Diaspora, and to the prisoners struggling for freedom in Israel’s prisons – that justice is possible and that there is a reason to be hopeful and that the peoples of the world do not accept the continuation of the occupation.

    This is why we are here today.

    Your support for our endeavor today will give a reason for hope to a people besieged by a racist, colonial occupation. Failure that almost amounts to complicity in Israel’s aggression and in a state of paralysis that some are striving to impose on the international community. Your support, ladies and gentlemen, will confirm to our people that they are not alone and their adherence to international law is never going to be a losing proposition.

    In our endeavor today to acquire non-member State status for Palestine in the United Nations, we reaffirm that Palestine will always adhere to and respect the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations and international humanitarian law, uphold equality, guarantee civil liberties, uphold the rule of law, promote democracy and pluralism, and uphold and protect the rights of women. This is what we are pledging today.

    As we promised our friends and our brothers and sisters, we will continue to consult with them upon the approval of your esteemed body of our request to upgrade Palestine’s status. We will act responsibly and positively in our next steps, and we will to work to strengthen cooperation with the countries and peoples of the world for the sake of a just peace.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181 (II), which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two States and became the birth certificate for Israel.

    Sixty-five years later and on the same day, which your esteemed body has designated as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the General Assembly stands before a moral duty, which it must not hesitate to undertake, and stands before a historic duty, which cannot endure further delay, and before a practical duty to salvage the chances for peace, which is urgent and cannot be postponed.

    Mr. President,
    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    The United Nations General Assembly is called upon today to issue the birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine. This is why, in specific, we are here today. It is our hope, ladies and gentlemen, our hope in God and in you.

    Thank you, and peace be upon you.

  • Gaza woman dies of wounds from Israeli airstrike | Maan News Agency
    http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=542319

    Published today (updated) 26/11/2012 21:30

    GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A Palestinian woman died on Monday from wounds sustained in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, medics said.

    Sabah al-Sakafi, in her 30s, was wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City during the eight-day war that ended Wednesday with a ceasefire.

    She was transferred to an Egyptian hospital where she died on Monday, medics told Ma’an.

    Also Monday, Ahmad Ali Masharawi died of wounds sustained in an Israeli strike that killed two of his relatives on the first day of Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

    Masharawi sustained major burns when an Israeli missile hit his garden in Gaza City on Nov. 14, killing 11-month-old Omar and 19-year-old Hiba, who was pregnant with twins.

    BBC correspondent Paul Danahar wrote on Twitter that Ahmad Masharawi had been trying to carry Omar to safety when the house was hit engulfing them both in flames.

    Ahmad’s brother,and Omar’s father, is BBC employee Jihad Masharawi, whose image cradling his dead son became a symbol of the conflict.

    https://twitter.com/pdanahar/status/272982147898417152

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20466027

  • “It’s mostly punishment…” (Le Monde diplomatique)
    http://mondediplo.com/openpage/it-s-mostly-punishment

    The testimonies by Israeli veterans that follow are taken from 145 collected by the nongovernmental organization Breaking the Silence and published in Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies From the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010. Those in the book represent every division in the IDF and all locations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Source: Le Monde diplomatique