"At this point you're probably wondering what this post has to do with anything...You know, I don't know what tipped me off; a faint memory perhaps, but as soon as I got it in my head and did a quick Google search, my paranoia was confirmed: Yes To Carrots is an Israeli company."
From KABOBfest with thanks to Marcy
Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Letter from Gaza
Dear Friends,
The Israeli bombardment in its 20th day is the heaviest and most destructive that complicates the ongoing humanitarian operation.
The Israeli Military operation and bombardment is 400 meters a way from PMRS head office in Gaza; this will threat the lives of PMRS teams and jeopardize their efforts in emergency response , our teams might be forced to look for alternatives or move to safer places to continue their efforts.
UNRWA head offices and store houses including fuel main supply were targeted during the last few hours; the main building was hit, and it is on fire now. UNRWA the most important organization that leads the humanitarian work is forced to completely stop its operation in Gaza.
People living in this neighborhood are trapped in their homes (like Tal ALhawa neighborhood) with aid organizations and emergency health teams are unable to access these communities.
We all must work to ensure the protection of civilians in gaza and
maintain humanitarian efforts at this difficult time of the War .
Regards
Jihad
Quality Health Care For All
JIHAD MASHAL
Director General
Palestinian Medical Relief Society
Al-Bireh , PMRS Building
P.O.Box 572
Ramallah
Palestine
The Israeli bombardment in its 20th day is the heaviest and most destructive that complicates the ongoing humanitarian operation.
The Israeli Military operation and bombardment is 400 meters a way from PMRS head office in Gaza; this will threat the lives of PMRS teams and jeopardize their efforts in emergency response , our teams might be forced to look for alternatives or move to safer places to continue their efforts.
UNRWA head offices and store houses including fuel main supply were targeted during the last few hours; the main building was hit, and it is on fire now. UNRWA the most important organization that leads the humanitarian work is forced to completely stop its operation in Gaza.
People living in this neighborhood are trapped in their homes (like Tal ALhawa neighborhood) with aid organizations and emergency health teams are unable to access these communities.
We all must work to ensure the protection of civilians in gaza and
maintain humanitarian efforts at this difficult time of the War .
Regards
Jihad
Quality Health Care For All
JIHAD MASHAL
Director General
Palestinian Medical Relief Society
Al-Bireh , PMRS Building
P.O.Box 572
Ramallah
Palestine
Nepal
All Nepal Peasants' Federation lodges strong protest against Israeli inhuman killing of Palestinian people condemning the military attack on Gaza and calls upon to stop immediately all acts of aggression, blockade of all types and inflicting suffering upon innocent civilian population.
ANPFa believes that military attack can never be a solution of the problem. The slaughter resumed after a brief truce only fuels further the conflict and it quashes hopes of peace for Palestinian people.
We also call upon the conflicting parties to sit on peaceful dialogue and solve the problems politically.
We hereby call on the international community to immediately deploy an international peace-keeping force bringing an end to the attack, protect innocent civilians and alleviate the escalating inhuman crisis in Gaza.
We urge the international community to press for immediate resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine based on the Arab Peace Initiative as the only way of bringing peace in the region.
Balram Banskota
Deputy Secretary General
All Napal mPeasants' Federation
------------------------------
Balram Banskota
Deputy Secretry General
All Nepal Pesants' Federation
Mobile: 
+977 9851018248
Phone: +977 1 4288404
P. O. Box. 273, Lalitpur, Nepal
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Silent academics
"Then there are the academics, the deans and teachers and researchers. Why are they silent as they watch a university bombed and hear the Association of University Teachers in Gaza plea for help? Are British universities now, as Terry Eagleton believes, no more than "intellectual Tescos, churning out a commodity known as graduates rather than greengroceries"?" (Thanks Adeem)
Boycott Egypt?
11. Start thinking of ways to boycott Egypt. Their dictator Mubarak is a full partner to war crimes. By international law people being massacred have a right to flee and become refugees. Mubarak’s troops maintain the Rafah-Egypt wall and shoot and Palestinians who try to break it down. Stay away from Egypt. You can see the pyramids some other time.
http://www.counterpunch.org/heller01132009.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/
In the Lancet
The Lancet (one of the most respected medical journal in the world ) has published this article . (Thanks Muna)
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60013-1/fulltext?_eventId=login
http://www.thelancet.com/
Health and human rights in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza
The Lancet 9.1.2009
Palestine is split geographically into the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Gaza is the most densely populated area on earth: after first being crippled by blockade of its borders since 2007, Gaza is currently being bombed by the Israeli armed forces.1
Unlike Gaza, the West Bank does not threaten Israel with missiles, but nevertheless suffers widespread erosions of human rights which we witnessed on a fact-finding tour in November, 2008.
Restriction of movement due to the separation barrier and checkpoints, combined with the need for travel permits, delay access to hospitals for both patients and health workers. We saw 33-week-old triplets delayed for over 5 h while awaiting permits and finally transferred without their parents, and heard of hospital workers' commuting times increasing from 30 min to more than 2·5 h after the closure to them of nearby checkpoints. At the medical schools we heard of the immense difficulties staff and students face as a result of the paralysing restrictions on travel between institutions in the Occupied Territories.
The total blockade of Gaza meant our entry there was denied, as it has been for humanitarian workers and essential food, energy, and medical supplies since the closure of the border in early November. We heard from Physicians for Human Rights—Israel, of the reduction in exit permits being granted for treatment outside Gaza, and of the practice of denying exit to some patients unless they collaborate with the security service in intelligence gathering.2
We saw how the Palestinians' opportunities to make a living are being eroded, both by illegal Israeli settlements on their farmland and by discrimination against their industry.
Violence continues at all levels: we spoke with schoolchildren, injured in stone-throwing attacks by Israeli children occurring while Israeli soldiers looked on. Children as young as 12 years are prosecuted in the Israeli military courts. The most common charge against children in the military courts is for stone-throwing, which under military law carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.3
Our experience in the West Bank caused us grave concerns, which have been realised more rapidly and deva-statingly than any of us could have anticipated, in the current dispro-portionate attacks by Israeli forces on Gaza. Our personal insight into this includes the attack by the Israeli navy on the boat Dignity when underway to provide emergency health care to Gaza, and which was carrying a member of our tour group.4
This report is for our colleagues around the world who might be unaware of the deliberate erosion of human rights in both the West Bank and Gaza. We suggest that, in view of the failure of other measures to influence those in power, serious consideration be given to targeted academic and trade boycotts.
We declare that we have no conflict of interest.
References
1 Falk R. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967. http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/061f1f4fbdecffe5852574d60065b4ba!OpenDocument . (accessed Dec 8, 2008).
2 Physicians for Human Rights—Israel. Holding health to ransom: GSS interrogation and extortion of Palestinian patients at Erez crossing. http://www.phr.org.il/phr/files/articlefile_1217866249125.pdf . (accessed Jan 5, 2009).
3 Defence for Children International. Palestinian child political prisoners: semi annual report 2007. http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=605&CategoryId=2 . (accessed Dec 8, 2008).
4 Tran M. Israel accused of ramming Gaza aid boat. The Guardian Dec 30, 2008. (accessed Jan 4, 2009).
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Boycott scare
I must say the boycott appears to make some impact: this comes from a publication of the food industry:
"Starbucks and McDonald’s were forced to refute a text message claiming that the companies planned to donate a week’s worth of profits to the Israeli army. The text message was forwarded throughout Singapore and also appeared in Europe, the U.S., India, several Arab countries, and on Facebook."
"Starbucks and McDonald’s were forced to refute a text message claiming that the companies planned to donate a week’s worth of profits to the Israeli army. The text message was forwarded throughout Singapore and also appeared in Europe, the U.S., India, several Arab countries, and on Facebook."
Letter from Gaza
JIHAD MASHAL
Palestinian Medical Relief Society Dear Friends,
The continued Israeli military operation has entered its 17th day of its continued aggression, devastating the public health system and the cost or the civilian population intensified. In the last 24 hours there were a total of 34 Palestinians martyrs and 40 injured - 42% were women and children-Totals as of 12 January (14:30PM), 912 Palestinians martyred and 3740 injured (MOH report).
The images and the testimonies that comes from Gaza provide evidences that Israel is using white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip (Gaza Strip has 3806 Inh / KM2 as a whole one of the most populated areas of the world , Jabalia Refugee
Camp is approximately 1 / KM2 inhabited by 110000people only !!!!!!).These images show significant resemblance with those gathered and verified in the July and August conflict in 2006 in Lebanon. Attached you will find a report on this issue. We wish that some of you
forward it to institutions, organizations or networks that follow on investigating this matter.
In addition to our ongoing emergency work ,PMRS team started distributing first aid kits , to journalists who are working around the clock bringing vivid images of the ongoing human suffering, and to emergency workers who are working to repair electricity lines which
were destroyed by the air strike and bombing , besides sustaining water supply .This comes as a necessary step to provide them with materials and training that they can use themselves in life saving conditions.
We will try to keep you informed.
Warm Regards
JIHAD MASHAL
Director General
Palestinian Medical Relief Society
Quality Health Care For All
Al-Bireh , PMRS Building
P.O.Box 572
Ramallah
Palestine
Like in Lebanon in 2006, Israel targets schools
"A new word emerged from the carnage in Gaza this week: "scholasticide"– the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of education dear to Palestinian society, as the ministry of education was bombed, the infrastructure of teaching destroyed, and schools across the Gaza strip targeted for attack by the air, sea and ground offensives.
Learn, baby, learn" was a slogan of the black rights movement in America's ghettoes a generation ago, but it also epitomises the idea of education as the central pillar of Palestinian identity – a traditional premium on schooling steeled by occupation, and something the Israelis "cannot abide… and seek to destroy", according to Dr Karma Nabulsi, who teaches politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. "We knew before, and see more clearly now than ever, that Israel is seeking to annihilate an educated Palestine," she says."
Many bloggers have posted this very good article from the Guardian. I'm not sure how many remembered to say that this is exactly what Israel did during its war on Lebanon in 2006, when it systematically destroyed the Mabarrat Schools, all 50 of them. Education is also very central to the lives of the Shi'a of Lebanon, who, unlike the other Lebanese sects, were deprived of education for a long time. The Mabarrat schools are run by the people around Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who is often described as the most "enlightened Shi'a cleric". In the 1980's Fadlallah was the target of a car bomb assassination attempt widely attributed to the CIA, which resulted in a very large number of collateral euphemisms (I remember 100 or so, but I'm not sure). He was never on very good terms with Hizbullah as he is a marja` (reference) but Hizbullah follow Khomeini as a marja`. I asked about the difference and I was told that Fadlallah is more "materialistic" while Khomeini is more mystical. I can believe that: while Khomeini is famous for having said "economics is for donkeys" (an Iranian acquaintance once told me it was a slogan painted on banners in Teheran), the Fadlallah "group" (jama`a) run a big restaurant and several gas stations called "al aytam", the proceeds of which are used to fund the schools for the orphans. The Mabarrat schools system is excellent, and has a unique mix of westernized-Islamic-Arabic education. The students always rank very high in the official Lebanese exams. In 2006, nearly all the schools were razed to the groundwhen the was ended in August, but they still started the school year as usual, in makeshift buildings. For many people in South lebanon and in the Southern suburbs of Beirut, the Mabarrat are their only chance to go to a decent school, and their only hope for a better future.
Learn, baby, learn" was a slogan of the black rights movement in America's ghettoes a generation ago, but it also epitomises the idea of education as the central pillar of Palestinian identity – a traditional premium on schooling steeled by occupation, and something the Israelis "cannot abide… and seek to destroy", according to Dr Karma Nabulsi, who teaches politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. "We knew before, and see more clearly now than ever, that Israel is seeking to annihilate an educated Palestine," she says."
Many bloggers have posted this very good article from the Guardian. I'm not sure how many remembered to say that this is exactly what Israel did during its war on Lebanon in 2006, when it systematically destroyed the Mabarrat Schools, all 50 of them. Education is also very central to the lives of the Shi'a of Lebanon, who, unlike the other Lebanese sects, were deprived of education for a long time. The Mabarrat schools are run by the people around Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who is often described as the most "enlightened Shi'a cleric". In the 1980's Fadlallah was the target of a car bomb assassination attempt widely attributed to the CIA, which resulted in a very large number of collateral euphemisms (I remember 100 or so, but I'm not sure). He was never on very good terms with Hizbullah as he is a marja` (reference) but Hizbullah follow Khomeini as a marja`. I asked about the difference and I was told that Fadlallah is more "materialistic" while Khomeini is more mystical. I can believe that: while Khomeini is famous for having said "economics is for donkeys" (an Iranian acquaintance once told me it was a slogan painted on banners in Teheran), the Fadlallah "group" (jama`a) run a big restaurant and several gas stations called "al aytam", the proceeds of which are used to fund the schools for the orphans. The Mabarrat schools system is excellent, and has a unique mix of westernized-Islamic-Arabic education. The students always rank very high in the official Lebanese exams. In 2006, nearly all the schools were razed to the groundwhen the was ended in August, but they still started the school year as usual, in makeshift buildings. For many people in South lebanon and in the Southern suburbs of Beirut, the Mabarrat are their only chance to go to a decent school, and their only hope for a better future.
Lies? No way!
"Meanwhile, as FPIF contributor Ira Chernus reports, a lively debate is taking place in the Israeli intelligence community over a report that their military intelligence service lied about the willingness of Palestinian leaders to negotiate a peace deal." All of the suffering in Gaza - indeed, all of the suffering endured by Palestinians under Israeli occupation for the last eight years - could have been avoided if Israel had negotiated a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat when it had the chance, in 2001," he writes in Did Israeli Intelligence Lie? "The official Israeli position is that there was no chance, 'no partner for peace.' That's what Israeli leaders heard from their Military Intelligence (MI) service in 2000, after the failure of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David. Arafat scuttled those talks, MI told the leaders, because he was planning to set off a new round of violence, a second intifada. Now former top officials of MI say the whole story, painting Arafat as a terrorist out to destroy Israel, was an intentional fiction.""
World Beat, Foreign Policy in Focus
World Beat, Foreign Policy in Focus
Arabia felix?
""We dream of meat," Mahdi, a 32-year-old farmer who grows mostly the intoxicating plant qat, said shortly before the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha when people usually feast on lamb or beef.
...
Some families are said to be feeding qat leaves to their children to suppress their hunger pangs. Many Yemenis regularly chew qat in the afternoons to get a mild high, but it has no nutritional value.
...
...
Some families are said to be feeding qat leaves to their children to suppress their hunger pangs. Many Yemenis regularly chew qat in the afternoons to get a mild high, but it has no nutritional value.
...
Four decades ago, Yemen could feed itself, with millennia-old terraced farms working off wells and rainwater, often channeled through aqueducts. Since then, however, the population has increased more than fivefold, and population growth remains an extremely high 3 percent. The country now imports 90 percent of its wheat and all its rice.
For the past 20 years, the government has been funding the imports — and buying the loyalty of powerful tribes — with the nation's modest oil reserves, which provide about three quarters of the budget.
But the oil is running out. In 2007, Yemen pumped out 317,000 barrels per day, down from 400,000 in 2005. Economists estimate that within five years, oil revenue will no longer be enough to pay government salaries.
Water is also running out, as farmers dig deeper and deeper wells, depleting already low ground water."
This IHT article is my first non-Gaza post in a long while. Not that it is any happier.
Zapatistas!
"Maybe our thinking is very simple, and we're lacking the nuances and annotations that are always so necessary in analyses, but to the Zapatistas it looks like there's a professional army murdering a defenseless population.
Who from below and to the left can remain silent?
Is it useful to say something? Do our cries stop even one bomb? Does our word save the life of even one Palestinian?
We think that yes, it is useful. Maybe we don't stop a bomb and our word won't turn into an armored shield so that that 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters "IMI" or "Israeli Military Industry" etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world and perhaps first it's heard as a murmur, then out loud, and then a scream that they hear in Gaza.
We don't know about you, but we Zapatistas from the EZLN, we know how important it is, in the middle of destruction and death, to hear some words of encouragement." (Thanks Marcy)
Who from below and to the left can remain silent?
Is it useful to say something? Do our cries stop even one bomb? Does our word save the life of even one Palestinian?
We think that yes, it is useful. Maybe we don't stop a bomb and our word won't turn into an armored shield so that that 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters "IMI" or "Israeli Military Industry" etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world and perhaps first it's heard as a murmur, then out loud, and then a scream that they hear in Gaza.
We don't know about you, but we Zapatistas from the EZLN, we know how important it is, in the middle of destruction and death, to hear some words of encouragement." (Thanks Marcy)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Mazen Kerbaj's blog
Check out Mazen Kerbaj's blog for copyrightless drawings about Gaza. Mazen is one of the most talented artists around. And he plays the trumpet.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Open letter
"Now, more than ever, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, BNC, calls upon international civil society not just to protest and condemn in diverse forms Israel’s massacre in Gaza, but also to join and intensify the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel to end its impunity and to hold it accountable for its persistent violation of international law and Palestinian rights. Without sustained, effective pressure by people of conscience the world over, Israel will continue with its gradual, rolling acts of genocide against the Palestinians, burying any prospects for a just peace under the blood and rubble of Gaza, Nablus and Jerusalem.
We urge our fellow academics to not only support this statement in theory, but also in practice by pushing for academic boycott on your campuses as you return to classes this week. Supporting the human rights of Palestinians is not anti-Semitic; it is about human rights: Palestinian human rights. If this were any other captive population besieged for seven days with US-made materiel, we would be outraged and acting. So we are asking you to act now. It is our tax dollars at work that enables this massacre to take place. Let us work for justice, for consistency. Let us make apartheid, in all its forms, only present in history books."
Rania and Marcy in a strong call for American academics to support Gaza. We need one of these for Arab academics.
We urge our fellow academics to not only support this statement in theory, but also in practice by pushing for academic boycott on your campuses as you return to classes this week. Supporting the human rights of Palestinians is not anti-Semitic; it is about human rights: Palestinian human rights. If this were any other captive population besieged for seven days with US-made materiel, we would be outraged and acting. So we are asking you to act now. It is our tax dollars at work that enables this massacre to take place. Let us work for justice, for consistency. Let us make apartheid, in all its forms, only present in history books."
Rania and Marcy in a strong call for American academics to support Gaza. We need one of these for Arab academics.
Body on the line
Dear Marcy names the Gaza martyrs one by one. Marcy's blog is one of the best on the crisis and provides aggregated information and analysis on a daily basis.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Canadians post a strong message
"On behalf of the 56,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, I am writing to demand that the Canadian government condemn the military assault on the people of Gaza that the state of Israel commenced on December 26th, 2008.
Canada must also call for a cessation of the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza, which has resulted in the collective punishment of the entire Gaza population.
Canada must also address the root cause of the violence: Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories."
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/2597
Canada must also call for a cessation of the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza, which has resulted in the collective punishment of the entire Gaza population.
Canada must also address the root cause of the violence: Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories."
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/
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