Israel

[501]

June 20th, 2010 10:30 PM
Protesters prevent unloading of Israeli ship


 
Aleta Ballinger-Dickerson, 9, of Davis raises her sign in protest against the Israeli Zim shipping line at the Port of Oakland on Sunday.
 1 of 1
By David R. Baker / San Francisco Chronicle

OAKLAND -- Hundreds of demonstrators, gathering at the Port of Oakland before dawn, prevented the unloading of an Israeli cargo ship.

The demonstrators, demanding an end to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, picketed at Berth 58, where a ship from Israel's Zim shipping line is scheduled to dock later today. The day shift of longshoremen agreed not to cross the picket line.

International pressure to end the Gaza closure has increased since Israeli commandos stormed a flotilla of ships attempting to run the blockade on May 31, killing nine people. Last week, Israeli officials announced that they would loosen but not lift the blockade, allowing more goods to enter the impoverished area.

"Our view is that the state of Israel can not engage in acts of piracy and kill people on the high seas and still think their cargo can go anywhere in the world," said Richard Becker, an organizer with ANSWER, one of many peace and labor groups involved in Sunday's action.

Becker estimated that 600 to 700 people joined the demonstration, many of them arriving at 5:30 a.m. Oakland police, who estimated the crowd at 500 people, reported no arrests.

The demonstrators want to block the unloading of the Zim ship for a full day. After convincing the day shift of longshoreman to honor the picket line, the demonstrators dispersed around 10 a.m., Becker said. The ship is scheduled to arrive in mid-afternoon, and the demonstrators plan to gather again around 4:30 p.m. and re-establish their picket line before the evening shift of longshoremen arrives at 6 p.m.

[501]

June 20th, 2010 11:35 PM
Germany condemns Israel's refusal to allow minister into Gaza
Israel's decision to block entry to German development aid minister into Gaza Strip receives condemnation from minister, considered friend of Israel. Israel is not making it easy for its friends to explain why it behaves the way it does, says minister in conversation with Ynet
By Gil Yaron / Ynetnews

Germany condemned on Sunday Israel's decision to deny entry to German Development Aid Minister Dirk Niebel into the Gaza Strip, calling it a "grave mistake."

Niebel, in Israel, asked to enter the coastal enclave during his current visit. Talks between Berlin and Jerusalem spanned the entire weekend.

In an interview Saturday night with German television station ZDF, Niebel said that he hopes to visit the German-funded water purification plant located in the Gaza Strip. He expressed his outrage over Israel's decision, saying that if the country aimed to garner support for its new policy on Gaza, it would first have to ensure increased transparency and cooperation.

Sometimes Israel does not make it easy for its friends to explain why it behaves the way it does, he said.

Niebel, a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), added that Israel's decision to ease the blockade on Gaza is insufficient and that it must maintain its commitments, saying that Israel must be clear on how it will cooperate with its international friends in the future.

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Sunday morning that the German parliament intends to issue a cross-party statement calling on Israel to allow international aid into the Gaza Strip via the sea. According to the report, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the rest of the coalition parties are in support of the move, as are the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

True friend angered and disappointed

Dirk Niebel is considered one of Israel's most valiant friends in Germany. However, Jerusalem's refusal to allow him into the Gaza Strip drew harsh criticism from him. In a conversation with Ynet, Niebel said that German aid to the Palestinian Authority stands at about 42 million euro a year. According to him, 90% of the wells in Gaza are polluted, and 80,000 cubic meters of untreated runoff flows into the Mediterranean everyday.

He told Ynet that half of German aid to the Palestinians is earmarked for electricity payments in the Gaza Strip, and, as the person in charge of this, he must check up on German taxpayers' money.

Niebel noted that while many abroad are claiming that there is no point in speaking with Israel, the Germans sought to show that cooperation and dialogue achieve better results than conflict.

Niebel said that Israel's decision was personally disappointing to him as a good friend of Israel.

He said that he had planned on entering the Gaza Strip to use it as a platform to unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks on Israel. He noted that he had no intention to meet with Hamas, but rather to ignore and criticize the group. Niebel said that Israel's stance on allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip damage's Israel's credibility.

Though his visit to Sderot has been canceled, Niebel was careful to note that there is no crisis in relations between Berlin and Jerusalem.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said in response that Israel's policy for the past three years has been not to allow high-ranking politicians into the Gaza Strip.

"This is not a personal decision against Niebel, who is a wanted guest. The project he wishes to promote is also important and positive in our eyes. Hamas uses such visits in a manipulative fashion in order to show that its diplomatic isolation in the international arena has been broken," said Palmor.

"If the Germans only wanted to promote a water purification plant, what would a visit to Gaza help? If there are problems, they have to speak with us. If they wanted to know what is happening with their taxpayers' money, Germany could send a clerk or an office manager, not a politician, and we would not deny him entry. If we were to let Niebel enter, how could we say 'no' to ministers from other countries?"

[501]

"I’m going to plead guilty 100 times over, because until the hour the U.S. pulls its
forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and
Yemen and in Pakistan, and stops the occupation of Muslim lands, and
stops killing the Muslims, and stops reporting the Muslims to its
government, we will be attacking US, and I plead guilty to that."
– would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad

Not to Mention
"I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations ... in
Gaza Strip, somebody has to go and live with the family whose
house is bulldozed by the Israeli bulldozer." – Shahzad

"Americans are asking 'Why do they hate us?' They hate what they see right
here in this chamber: a democratically elected government ... they hate our
freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom
to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."
– George W. Bush, September 21, 2001

[501]

June 10th, 2010 9:59 AM
Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn't about security


 
Mentally and physically disabled Lebanese and Palestinians carry Palestinian flags and banners in Arabic that read:" yes for the support, no to the blockade," as they protest in support of similarly disabled people in Gaza and against last week's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound international flotilla, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon
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By Sheera Frenkel / McClatchy

JERUSALEM — As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.

Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.

Last week, after Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers on a Turkish-organized Gaza aid flotilla, Israel again said its aim was to stop the flow of terrorist arms into Gaza.

However, in response to a lawsuit by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, the Israeli government explained the blockade as an exercise of the right of economic warfare.

"A country has the right to decide that it chooses not to engage in economic relations or to give economic assistance to the other party to the conflict, or that it wishes to operate using 'economic warfare,'" the government said.

McClatchy obtained the government's written statement from Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, which sued the government for information about the blockade. The Israeli high court upheld the suit, and the government delivered its statement earlier this year.

Sari Bashi, the director of Gisha, said the documents prove that Israel isn't imposing its blockade for its stated reasons, but rather as collective punishment for the Palestinian population of Gaza. Gisha focuses on Palestinian rights.

(A State Department spokesman, who wasn't authorized to speak for the record, said he hadn't seen the documents in question.)

The Israeli government took an additional step Wednesday and said the economic warfare is intended to achieve a political goal. A government spokesman, who couldn't be named as a matter of policy, told McClatchy that authorities will continue to ease the blockade but "could not lift the embargo altogether as long as Hamas remains in control" of Gaza.

President Barack Obama, after receiving Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, said the situation in Gaza is "unsustainable." He pledged an additional $400 million in aid for housing, school construction and roads to improve daily life for Palestinians — of which at least $30 million is earmarked for Gaza.

Israel's blockade of Gaza includes a complex and ever-changing list of goods that are allowed in. Items such as cement or metal are barred because they can be used for military purposes, Israeli officials say.

According to figures published by Gisha in coordination with the United Nations, Israel allows in 25 percent of the goods it had permitted into Gaza before the Hamas takeover. In the years prior to the closure, Israel allowed an average of 10,400 trucks to enter Gaza with goods each month. Israel now allows approximately 2,500 trucks a month.

The figures show that Israel also has limited the goods allowed to enter Gaza to 40 types of items, while before June 2007 approximately 4,000 types of goods were listed as entering Gaza.

Israel expanded its list slightly Wednesday to include soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy, said Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh, who coordinates the flow of goods into Gaza with Israel.

"I think Israel wants to defuse international pressure," said Fattouh. "They want to show people that they are allowing things into Gaza."

It was the first tangible step taken by Israel in the wake of the unprecedented international criticism it's faced over the blockade following last week's Israeli raid on the high seas.

While there have been mounting calls for an investigation into the manner in which Israel intercepted the flotilla, world leaders have also called for Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza.

At his meeting with Abbas, Obama said the Security Council had called for a "credible, transparent investigation that met international standards." He added: "And we meant what we said. That's what we expect."

He also called for an easing of Israel's blockade. "It seems to us that there should be ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments, rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then, in a piecemeal way, allowing things into Gaza," he told reporters.

Egypt, which controls much of Gaza's southern border, reopened the Rafah crossing this week in response to international pressure to lift the blockade.

Egypt has long been considered Israel's partner in enforcing the blockade, but Egyptian Foreign Minister Hossam Zaki said the Rafah crossing will remain open indefinitely for Gazans with special permits. In the past, the border has been opened sporadically.

Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, said the international community is seeking an "urgent and fundamental change" in Israel's policy regarding Gaza rather than a piecemeal approach.

"A modest expansion of the restrictive list of goods allowed into Gaza falls well short of what is needed. We need a fundamental change and an opening of crossings for commercial goods," he said.

Hamas officials said that they were "disappointed" by Israel's announcement, and that the goods fell far short of what was actually needed.

"They will send the first course. We are waiting for the main course," Palestinian Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said in Ramallah, specifying that construction materials were the item that Gazans need most. Many Palestinians have been unable to build their homes in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, Israel's punishing offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009.

Israel said the cement and other construction goods could be used to build bunkers and other military installations.

Some of those goods already come into Gaza via the smuggling tunnels that connect it to Egypt.

[501]

[Israel expanded its list slightly Wednesday to include soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy, said Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh, who coordinates the flow of goods into Gaza with Israel.]

Israel expanded its list slightly Wednesday to include soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy, said Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh, who coordinates the flow of goods into Gaza with Israel.

Dear Lord! Punishing a population of civilians for a terrorist group's actions. I use the items listed daily in my home. 

[Poe]

[Israel expanded its list slightly Wednesday to include soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy, said Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh, who coordinates the flow of goods into Gaza with Israel.]

Israel expanded its list slightly Wednesday to include soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy, said Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh, who coordinates the flow of goods into Gaza with Israel.

Dear Lord! Punishing a population of civilians for a terrorist group's actions. I use the items listed daily in my home. 

If it were only that.  How about taking people's land and then calling them terrorists for fighting to get it back?  They moved Arabs out of their homes, homes their families had owned for generations and generations and moved these Balkan Jews into them with their only justification being their fucking bible.  Make no mistake though, that justification was nothing more than a guise.  The Israelis aren't religious zealots like the Muslims, they are just opportunistic criminals.

[Rick]

[PISS ON ISRAEL]

PISS ON ISRAEL.

[RIVERS]

[PISS ON ISRAEL]

PISS ON ISRAEL.

Until they 'unblock'; "SPAM"?---I will despise them.