Thursday, January 15, 2009

Gaza from the shutters of Sameh..






Add Sameh Habeeb on facebook and get first hand information of Israeli war on Gaza. He said his life is in danger, that he is receiving threatening calls. We must support him and tell the offenders that the world is watching.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Blogger friend from Gaza

http://gazatoday.blogspot.com/

.. Take the siege away

… Other side of the story

This is not my title, it’s the title given by Sameh Habeeb, a Palestinian.

I request all the influential people of the media and show biz to come up and take the due advantage of their capability and communicate to the world about the grave atrocities acts of barbarism done by the Israeli army on the civilian population of Palestine.

The claim of Israel, when they say that the civilian population is getting killed because they are being used as shield by the hamas is totally untrue. These are nothing, but white lies. Recently a school, where terrified civilians were cramped up together to protect themselves from the constant attacks, was bombed – many died and many more got injured to the hilt of being practically dead. The justification given by Israel was that Hamas men were firing from in front of the school gate – they even came up with a picture of the ‘shooters’, which of course was later confessed to be more than a year old. When the lie behind the picture became known, the Israelis changed their story to say that the hamas was firing from inside the school – which also was untrue, since as per the UN records there were no armed men / terrorists, but only civilian population of mostly women and children.

This is only one such example friends. There are many – and you really don’t have to try too hard to find out. Israel is clearly violating international law in broad day light, and if we, as an international nation do not oppose to it, then shame on us.

To give Indians more reasons, I would like to inform that even Gandhi opposed to the idea of Palestine belonging to the Jews. However, this time I don’t want to quarrel about whom the place belongs to – because at this very hour as you are reading this very post, innocent people in Palestine are dying. We need to do whatever we can to help them. I wish I were a journalist and I could bring this up much more powerfully in the media. Or even a lecturer at a college so that I have a huge audience to talk with. But alas, I am nothing but a regular office goer. However, I would like to do what ever little I can in my capacity, and I need your support.

I want to arrange a peace demonstration in front of Israel Embassy in New Delhi on a Saturday (say, 24th Jan 2009). I am not urging you to take a political/historical stand and form an opinion on the issue of ownership (that can be handled once the bloodshed is over). What is important now is to voice against war on civilians. Accepting the gross unfairness about the war should not be difficult for you, and hence your participation should be justified for yourself. I request you to spread the word around and volunteer to come and show our support and concern towards world peace and peace to Palestine.

You can email me at deepshikha_baisya@yahoo.co.in about your interest to join and I will take it forward. We need you at this hour of distress – we will get together make banners, print posters and come up in as many numbers as possible to demonstrate our opposition to the hurt caused to civilian populations.

I request you again to please come forward, because I cannot do this alone – unless we have a decently big group, the news will not reach where it should. I am dependent on your support for this.

You can email me or write in the comment section and I will get back to you.

Lets get together and Oppose the Israel War on Gaza.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Unwelcome Fireworks

It has been more than 60 years now since the start of the Israel Palestine Conflict.
What I write below is my understanding of the situation, and hence is up for discussions and debate.
If I may permit myself to simplify history and bring out the beginning of the conflict, then it eventually will boil down to the time Nazi's were executing the 'ethnic cleansing' process, compelling the Jews to escape out of Germany in search of a new home, Palestine. Why Palestine? It was because of Jerusalem - which is also the most holy place for Jews. ( If we rewind some more, then I would say Britain played smart -- in 1916 it convinced Arabs to revolt against the Ottoman Empire and then, in 1917 a British Foreign Minister, Lord Arthur Balfour issued a declaration supporting the establishment of 'a Jewish national home in Palestine'. Palestine then was inclusive of what Israel is now.) After world war 2, with support from UN, Israelis occupied a large portion of the land of the Arabs and called it Israel -- even when Jews were a minority population there, they were given majority of the land. (Israelis (Jews) most often got special consideration because of the horrendous crimes committed against them during the reign of Hitler). Hence after the partition and proclamation of Israel in 1948, what was left of the Palestine was essentially the Gaza strip and the west banks and a totally dissatisfied and cheated Arab population who clearly rejected the partition of Palestine and the existence of Israel. In addition to this, the other issues include the internationalization of Jerusalem - which was promised by UN but never really done and also driving out the Palestinians from Israel into refugee camps (there are thousands of Palestinians who have been born, grown up and died/killed in refugee camps).

Have more to write on this.. will continue in the next post soon.