Boycott

"Former leader Mahathir Mohamad has also called for a global boycott of the US dollar and US products.
...
More than 2,000 Muslim restaurants in Malaysia have said they would remove Coca-Cola from their menus from Friday. "

The energy of war

"The decision to speed up negotiations with British Gas (BG Group) coincided, chronologically, with the planning of the invasion of Gaza initiated in June. It would appear that Israel was anxious to reach an agreement with the BG Group prior to the invasion, which was already in an advanced planning stage."
...

"The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law."

War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields
by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, January 8, 2009
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11680

Gaza siege

Excellent blog on Gaza

http://gazasiege.org/

The time for resistance

"At the moment, and in the midst of the aggression, it is hard to make sense of the current situation or make future predictions. It's hard to come to grips with the numbers and the extent of our losses. It's hard even to remember a time when basic necessities such as food, water, warmth and daylight weren't a luxury. At this point, bare human instinct is at work -- the need to protect your loved ones, the need to ensure shelter and the instinct of fight or flight. We have fled for too long, Gaza is our last refuge and our home after we were displaced from what is now called Israel. All this happened 60 years ago. What more could they want? We have nowhere left to go. They have disregarded every single international law there is. Now is the time to defend ourselves, now is the time for resistance."

Safa Joudeh writing from Gaza

The UN will forget

"For a second straight day, Israel said it suspended its Gaza military operation for three hours to allow in humanitarian supplies. Shortly before the pause took effect, however, the UN said one of its aid trucks came under Israeli fire, killing the driver."

We will not forget

"On 6 January, the Israeli authorities allowed a brief testimony of an Israeli army officer in Gaza to be aired on public radio: “The situation in Gaza is grim; we see women and children carrying white flags looking for food, it will take years to rehabilitate [Gaza]”, he said."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=82259

We will not forget

"The ICRC reported finding four starving toddlers next to the bodies of their dead mothers in one of the houses. The children were apparently too weak to stand. One man was found barely alive. Twelve bodies were found laid out on mattresses in the same house. "

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45333

Klein cut

Naomi Klein calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel (Thanks Marcy)

TNI

The Transnational Institute has a number of very good articles on Gaza, and also very good links.

The Merchant of Venice

"And Israeli citizens might ponder the following words from Shakespeare (in The Merchant of Venice), which I have slightly altered:

"I am a Palestinian. Hath not a Palestinian eyes? Hath not a Palestinian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Jew is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that … the villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.""

Tariq Ali in the Guardian

Electronic Intifada

Marcy reminded me yesterday that the best source on Palestine news in general and Gaza in particular is Electronic Intifada

La Via Palestina

Solidarity Letter and Call

To Stop the War in Gaza

The end of 2008 showed a new wave of violence against humanity with the Israeli war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip. The attack by Israel occupation forces starting on the 27^th of December– under the pretext of a war against Hammas - have already killed hundreds of Palestinians and injured thousands peoples, many of them are women and children.

The war in the Gaza strip is destroying houses, schools, hospitals and also Palestinian farmland. Palestinian people in the Gaza strip are currently facing a lack of medicines, water, accommodation and food. Meanwhile, Palestinian farmers are not able to produce their own food. The situation is getting more tragic day by day.

In our fight for human rights and against war, our international peasant's movement condemns the brutal military strikes by Israel. La Via Campesina sees this war as an act of extreme violence against humanity that must be ended immediately.

La Via Campesina as an international solidarity movement of peasants, small farmers, landless and indigenous peoples would like to express our deep concern and solidarity with the Palestinian farmers and Palestinian people who suffer death and suffering in this war. We call Via Campesina members and others progressive and solidarity movements to take maximum efforts to end the war and give support to the Palestinian Farmers and all peoples in Palestine in their plea for

1. The organization of marches of solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand the world to intervene to stop Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people.
2. To expedite the provision of financial support and in-kind for the benefit of the Gaza Strip.

(see the Palestinian Farmers Union letter attached).

Let’s join hands and fight to end the war and violence in Palestine.

Globalize hope – Globalize Struggle

In Solidarity,

Henry Saragih

General Coordinator of La Via Campesina

Badael-Alternatives

In Al Akhbar today (and after an absence of 2 weeks) the new issue of Badeal-Alternatives. My editorial: The Heroes of Gaza. Rana Hayek: Gaza's health in the hands of the invadors. And Sumac is this weeks plant in "The World of Plants".

Blogging from Gaza

"Day 13 of Israeli War On Gaza
Death toll 770, injured 3200 and most of them Civilians

By: Sameh A. Habeeb

Dear Editors, Journalists and Friends,
I have got three calls from anonymous persons stop blogging or I would be killed. Yet, I would keep on this track. Some of you do wonder how I send news in such conditions. I really suffer a lot to send you this update due to lack of power. I go around 4 kilo meters a day in this cruel war where I charge my laptop battery to be able to send this work! This is very risky since shells rain down and drones hover over me! I will keep this up."

Blogging from Gaza

Angry

Just a reminder that the best blogging on Gaza is by As`ad on Angry Arab

Adeem: I had a house in Gaza

Adeem is from Gaza. She has not been able to return for 4 years because of the siege. A couple of days ago, she sent this email (I post with her permission):

"The pictures i have attached with this email , are for the house where i was born 27 years ago during the Israeli war in Lebanon in 1982. It is my maternal grandparents house which was built in 1965. This house holds the memories of many generations , starting from my mother , my uncles and aunts who were born and raised there, followed by my older cousins who were born in 1970s , then comes me and the cousins who were born in 80s and 90s. the house was a target for Israeli fascist bombs yesterday . "

Today Adeem sent me this email:

"my mind , my soul are in Gaza . yesterday my cousin and his wife were killed by an Israeli Missile and another cousin who went to rescue them is in coma now.. I only wish that those who r still alive will be safe and i will be able to see them soon , especially my father whom i haven't seen in 4 years , whom he didn't come to my wedding due to the siege. i am married for almost a year now and my dad still doesn't know my husband , does this happen to a lot of people these days, is it a trend? or it only happens to Gazans under siege???"

...

P.S find attached an old photo for the house before the fascists bombed it ."

Mini me

"There is a deep affinity between the United States and Israel. I'm not talking about the Israel Lobby, which concentrates its influence in Washington. Or the connections between neoconservatives and the Israeli right wing. Or the rhapsodizing of fundamentalist Christians, who embrace Israel as part of their scenario for the Apocalypse. The affinity runs deeper: We are both settler states.
...
But the early American Zionists and their successors were considerably harsher toward the Native Americans, who were pushed further and further west, an expulsion as tragic as the Palestinian nakba of 1948. America, like Israel, believed in the "redemption of the land…by settling it." And today, after some backsliding in the redemption department, the reservations of Indian Country, with their limited sovereignty, represent our own two-state solution.

The settlers of North America got away with murder. If there had been a United Nations in the 19th century or an international media catering to an international audience, perhaps Native Americans could have enlisted some allies in their struggle. They largely fought alone.

Not so the Palestinians. The whole world is watching (and blogging). Israel has been pounding away at the Gaza Strip for nearly two weeks. It began a ground assault this past weekend. The UN has condemned the violence and the resulting humanitarian disaster. International diplomats have called for a ceasefire"

John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus

Gaza Beirut update

I have received this from B. in Beirut

"Day 11th in Gaza

Tuesday 6th: Israel realizes the failure of the land invasion in Gaza and decides to strike an UNRWA school this morning killing more than 135 civilians in one day, most of them were children. Of course, as children became a major target for Israel to make any achievements. Venezuela has decided to expel its ambassador after the massacres done in Gaza on daily basis. Mauritania and Jordan are discussing the possibility of cutting its relationships with Israel. On the other hand, the European Union and France are defending "Israel's right to attack Gaza". Shame on Humanity!

On Wednesday the 7th, a group of protesters will gather at Esqua, downtown, at 2:30pm to walk towards the EU building in Beirut to tell them that PALESTINIANS have the right to resist and exist. And at 4:00pm, a group of students are protesting at Starbucks, Verdun, to protest its policies of funding the "state of Israel" through its CEO. Another protest is being organized in Saida at 12:30pm. And also one in Mar Elias refugee camp at 5:00pm.

Most of the Arab countries have decided to make this Friday the national day of solidarity with Gaza and to express the Arab anger on the "Israeli" massacres. I will update you once Lebanon announces the type of action and its details.

Hope you can join us tomorrow,"

Boycott!

"Ontario's largest university workers' union is proposing a ban on Israeli academics teaching in the province's universities, in a move that echoes previous attempts to boycott goods and services from the Jewish state.

The resolution, proposed by CUPE's Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee, is in protest against a Dec. 29 bombing that damaged the Islamic University in Gaza.

"In response to an appeal from the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, we are ready to say Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general," said Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario." (Thanks Muna)

Carlos Latuff cartoons

WUFYS

Carlos Latuff's statement:

I'd like to beg all viewers to spread this image anywhere, as a way to expose Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. Use it on t-shirts, posters, banners. Reproduce it in zines, papers, magazines, and make it visible everywhere. Here is the high-resolution version for printing purposes: [link]

Thank you in the name of every suffering Palestinian.