US Supported Israeli Government Set To Destroy Palestinian Homes In East Jerusalem

Palestinians ask Obama to press Israel to halt demolitions

Monday, February 23, 2009 - AFP

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — The Palestinian Authority urged the US president on Monday to press Israel to scrap a plan to raze almost 90 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

"We call on President Barack Obama to intervene personally to have this project stopped," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, one of the main aides of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The Palestinian owners of 88 houses in the Silwan neighbourhood have received eviction notices saying that the structures will be destroyed because they were built or expanded without the necessary permits. The move would affect about 1,500 people.

"It is a massacre that Israel will commit in this Holy City," Abed Rabbo told a news conference, calling for "urgent Arab and international action to halt this dangerous project."

He said some of the houses affected by the orders had been built before Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War.

He called for a day-long strike in east Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank to protest against the plan.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups the six Gulf Arab states, backed the call for US intervention to stop what it called these "racist acts that defy human rights and international law." Read On

50,000 People Homeless After U.S.-Supported Violent Rampage In Gaza

Uprooted lives

'The struggle now is to come to terms with what physically happened here.'

By Ewa Jasiewicz - Jabaliya, Gaza
The Palestine Chronicle

Yesterday saw the first canvas tents go up in the Gaza strip to house internally displaced people. The UN estimates 50,000 people have been made homeless due to the bombing and bulldozing of homes and properties by Israeli occupation forces in Israel's 21 day offensive in the Gaza Strip. The displacement is just meters in the case of many families who don't want to move far from their ancestral land, and have opted to move into tents on the site of their destroyed houses.

People have lost more than their homes here. Entire families, living on family land, handed down throughout generations, have had their protection, life's investment, and community networks literally crushed. The Al Eer family, living on land close to the border in 'Izbat 'Abed Rabbu had eleven homes reduced to rubble, and had five members dragged out from under one home. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, medical crews found Ibrahim Mohammed al-'Err, 11; Rakan Mohammed al-'Err, 4; Fidaa' Mohammed al-'Err, 17; Iman Nember al-'Err, 27; and Mohammed Mousa al-'Err, 48 in the early hours of Sunday 18th January. Ibrahim al-Err, standing in the ruins of his home told me his family left their home on January 7th, after being told by Israeli Occupation Forces to get out. The family was told to leave immediately by loudhailers perched on tanks. 'We saw 10s of tanks, they were everywhere, we didn’t even have five minutes, we didn’t have time to take our belongings'. Nasser al-Err, 40, living close by explained, 'My sons left without their shoes, I had 5-6000 Dinars at home – I don’t know where it is or how to reach it. My son is disabled, where will he go?'

The Ajrawi family lost five houses, the Jned family at least four. Naima Ajrami's vulnerable asbestos roofed three bedroom home housed nine people. 'We now live with our family in Falluja.' She gestures to the crushed brick, furniture and pieces of her life behind her and under her feet. 'We built this house ourselves. This is not the first time it's been destroyed; half of it was bulldozed in the invasion of 2005.' She lets her hands fall down, 'I don’t know how we will rebuild it, my husband has no work, I don’t know, we wont be able to rebuild'. Read On

U.S.-Supported Israeli Government Guilty of War Crimes

Jordanian doctors returning from Gaza: 90% of injuries from phosphorus bombs

The Palestinian Information Center
[ 21/01/2009 - 10:57 AM ]

AMMAN, (PIC)-- The Jordanian medical team that returned from the Gaza Strip told a press conference in Amman on Tuesday that 90% of injuries suffered by Palestinians in the Israeli occupation forces' aggression were from the white phosphorus bombs.

Members of the team said that the IOF used internationally banned weapons in the war on Gaza, which earned Israeli leaders a deserved international arbitration for "war crimes".

Norwegian medical experts, who previously worked in Afghanistan and Lebanon and finally in Gaza, asserted that the injuries were the result of non-conventional, internationally banned weapons, the Jordanian doctors underlined.

They added that the Norwegian doctors took samples of the injuries to check them in Norway, and would issue a report and document their findings before providing them as evidence in the trial of the Israeli war criminals.

Jordanian doctors also said they took with them samples of the wounded people's tissues to check them. They added that clinical diagnosis proved that white phosphorus was used in the Israeli attacks, noting that white smoke was seen emanating from the open wounds of the injured persons after being hit with shrapnel of white phosphorus bombs.

Dr. Zuhair Abu Fares, the head of the Jordanian syndicate of doctors, said that his syndicate was going to send a third medical delegation in the required specializations to Gaza including experts in artificial limbs.

The first medical team that returned from Gaza grouped 8 doctors while the second team, which is currently in Gaza, included 24 doctors, a dentist and a paramedic.

An Apology

U.S. -Supported Israeli Government Kills Palestinian Women and Children w/ White Phosphorus Bombs

( more about evil white-phosphorus weapons, like those the U.S. used to slaughter Iraqi people, here, here, and here WARNING! Graphic Photos)


Gaza assault enters third week - Dozens killed since midnight - Death toll nears 1,000

Date: 11 / 01 / 2009 Time: 10:42

Gaza - Ma'an - Five Palestinians were killed in separate strikes near Gaza City and in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp on Sunday evening. Despite a so-called lull in fighting for the delivery of humanitarian aid, Israeli shelling killed two Palestinians in the Ash-Shuja'eiyah neighborhood, which is east of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, two others died in the northern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabaliya, local sources told Ma'an, adding that specifically the Al-Jurn area was hit in the deadly attack.Those three victims were identified as Mus'ab Khader, Husein Abu Sulkltan and 15-year-old Amal A'lush. A number of others were injured.

Also, Israeli warplanes shelled the home of Mohammad Dahlan in the Ar-Remal neighborhood of Gaza City. Jets also hit the home of Shadi Abu Labad in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. Earlier SundaySome 30 Gazans have been killed since midnight Sunday and nearly 100 injured, apparently by newly used weaponry that set fires to both the people and buildings targeted.

Israel had not previously used white phosphorous bombs during the Gaza offensive, but by Sunday residents and experts were reporting widespread damage by the weapon, which is not illegal, in the Ghuza’a and Abasan villages east of Khan Younis. Medical sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said most of the morning’s casualties had been women and children. Read On

U.S. Government Endorses Mass Slaughter In Gaza....

From Reuters:
WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voiced strong support on Thursday for Israel's battle against Hamas militants in Gaza, while urging a ceasefire that would prevent Hamas from launching any more rockets into Israel.

The chamber agreed on a voice vote to the non-binding resolution co-sponsored by Democratic and Republican party leaders in the chamber.

"When we pass this resolution, the United States Senate will strengthen our historic bond with the state of Israel, by reaffirming Israel's inalienable right to defend against attacks from Gaza, as well as our support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said before the vote.

Noting that Israel was bent on halting Hamas rocket fire into its southern towns, Reid said: "I ask any of my colleagues to imagine that happening here in the United States. Rockets and mortars coming from Toronto in Canada, into Buffalo New York. How would we as a country react?"

Co-sponsor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican said before the vote: "The Israelis ... are responding exactly the same way we would."

The House was expected to pass a similar resolution.

The Senate resolution encourages President George W. Bush "to work actively to support a durable, enforceable and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible that prevents Hamas from retaining or rebuilding the capability to launch rockets or mortars against Israel," Reid said.

It also expresses an "unwavering" commitment to Israel's welfare and recognizes its right to act in self defense to protect citizens against acts of terrorism, he said. "It allows for the long-term improvement of daily living conditions of the ordinary people of Gaza," he said.

Palestinians faced even grimmer conditions in Gaza on Thursday after a U.N. aid agency halted work, saying its staff was at risk from Israeli forces after two drivers were killed.

The reported Palestinian death toll in the 13-day-old conflict topped 700. At least 11 Israelis have been killed, eight of them soldiers, including four hit by "friendly fire."


( Once again the hypocritical, schizophrenic U.S. government simultaneously supports and condemns terrorism, not to mention, completely ignores the possibility that Israel's seige on Gaza and decades long oppression of Palestinian people may be provoking rocket attacks. )

________________

......Meanwhile, People Around The World Stand With Palestinians Against Israeli Atrocities

March For Gaza In Chicago Draws Thousands
Protests In Lebanon, Syria Against Gaza Offensive
50,000 In Cairo, Egypt Rally Against Israel
Spain: 100,000 Urge Israel to 'Stop Gaza Massacre'
Irish Protests Against Israeli Attacks On Gaza Escalate
Thousands Rally In World Capitals To Protest Against Gaza War
Tens of Thousands March Against Israel In France
San Francisco Streets See 10,000 Rally For Gaza
Venezuelans Protest Israeli Military Actions Against Gaza
Jewish women protest in Toronto’s Israeli Consulate
New Zealanders protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza
Multi-cultural rally protests fighting in Gaza
Protesters in Charleston Rally Against Israel's Actions in Gaza

Bulldozing People

All over the headlines this morning is horrific news about a Palestinian who went on a rampage and killed people with a bulldozer.

I'm wondering why horrific news about Israelis discriminately bulldozing thousands of peoples' homes doesn't make the headlines. Here's more on that subject from Amnesty International and from Human Rights Watch.

Since 1967, over 18,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed by Israelis compared to 0 (zero) Israeli homes destroyed by Palestinians. View the source for that statement and other important information about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict here: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

MIDEAST: The Anniversary Is Over, the Agony Is Not

By Mohammed Omer

RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza, May 19 (IPS) - Holding up an old copper key, Yousef al-Hums settles down to retell the story of his eviction from what was once his home, and now is Israel. Because only the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel is over, the occupation of home of which al-Hums still keeps a key is not.

What was to Israel the creation of their nation is to Palestinians al-Nakba, meaning the catastrophe, of eviction from their homes and homeland. From that event now, it's 60 years, and counting.

Palestinian children do not learn of that event from history books, but from people like al-Hums. "We cannot return to our homes today," he tells his sons and about 50 of his grandchildren gathered around him, with the key raised. "But you are going to return to your grandfather's home in Yebna village."

That the home or the village does not exist any more only adds to the emotion around the upheld key. "Every day I pray that when I die I am buried on my land in Yebna," he says. "Those were the most beautiful days of my life. Everyone in our village supported every other."

Al-Hums got married in 1947 at age 15. And then in May 1948 it all changed.

"It was about 2am. We all had to run after we heard that the Haganah (a Jewish force at the time) had invaded our village." Like others, he fled with his wife to Gaza, the only exit route left. He barely survived, he said, and showed scars on his hand he said came from an attack by a British helicopter backing the Jewish forces.

Today, home is the Yebna refugee camp in Gaza, where he lives with his two wives, seven sons and the many grandchildren.

He has been back to the real Yebna twice, the first time in 1976 and the second in 2000. By the second visit, he said, nothing was left of the farm as he had known it. "They took away everything and all is destroyed," he said. Read On