What every American Needs to Know About Israel/Palestine

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What every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine

US Interests
a.. US Interests and Israel/Palestine - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/
b.. U.S. Middle East Policy - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/policy. html
c.. Pressure Groups on US Middle East Policy - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/lobby. html
d.. Israeli Spying on the United States - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/spy. html
e.. The USS Liberty - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/ussliber ty.html
f.. Neoconservatives - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/neocons. html
g.. War on Iran? Is Iran Next? - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/iran. html
h.. Israel-Palestine and the 2008 US Election - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ us_ints/2008. html

History
a.. A Synopsis of the Israel/Palestine Conflict - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/
b.. The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/origin. html
c.. Maps of Israel and Palestine - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/maps. html#settlements Historic Palestine
UN Partition of Palestine
1948 Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Strip
Refugees and Depopulated Villages
1967 and Occupation
Annexation of Jerusalem
Israeli Settlements on Palestinian Land
d.. Refugees and Ethnic Cleansing - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/refugees .html
e.. A Jewish State - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/jewish_ state.html
f.. The History of Israel’s Sacred Terrorism Terrorism in Israel and Palestine - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/terroris m.html
g.. The Prevalence of Torture - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/prevtort ure.html
h.. Religion in the Holy Land - The conflict in the Middle East is not a religious conflict - http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ history/religion .html
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _

http://www.ifameric ansknew.org/ stats/settlement s.html
Israeli Settlements on Palestinian Land
Israel currently has 121 Jewish-only settlements and 106 ‘outposts’ on confiscated Palestinian land.
Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land.



“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

- Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949

Source: According to Peace Now's report, "Aerial Survey Settlements Summary 2006," there are 121 official Israeli settlements. According to their report, Periodic Report, May-October 2007 there are at least 106 outposts and more than 50 of them have been built since March 2001.

A Child From Gaza

By Khaled Fayyad

I feel dizzy and its hard for me to walk.

I am in pain and hurt all over.

I could only hear the screams of my friends

As the bombs fall on our playground.

I see their bodies

Lying about me

Torn and lifeless;

I call their names,

They do not answer;

I touch them,

They do not move.

I shake them,

They do not stir.

I am afraid.

I run looking for my sister

I find her amongst the rubble,

Her beautiful face scares me

I do understand

Its is scarred and bloodied

And covered with dust.

Where is her hand

Which she used to hold me with?

Why do her eyes stare at me but not blink?

Why can she not call my name?

Why can she not talk to me?

Why can she not smile?

Why can she not breathe?

I do not understand.

I want to go home.

I do not like school any more

I want to go home

Home to my mom!

Mom where are you?

Why are you not here?

My hands and legs hurt

My face is covered with blood.

My uniform is torn and dirty

I am cold

I do not know what to do

I am all alone

Frightened and hungry.

I cannot play anymore

My school is gone

My playground lies in rubble

My sister cannot help me if I fall

She lost her hand

and does not want to move.

My friends are all gone

I don't want to play any more.

I do not understand

I am little boy

I am only a child!

I run home

Many people are there

They all look at me with tears in their eyes

Why are they not smiling?

I thought my home was here

Where did it go?

Did the same thing that happened to my school

Happen to my home?

It is gone

My bed is broken and I have no pillow

I have no blanket

I cannot find my only toy

My coloring pens are not there

I cannot draw any more!

I am in pain

Cold and hungry.

My legs, my arms hurt

My face is cut

Mom

Where are you?

People tell me she is gone

The bombs took her away

They came from the sky….

I thought God lives there

Did He send them to take my mom?

Why?

I thought God loved me too!

Why would He take her from me?

Who will tuck me in

Who will hold me in their arms

Who will wash my face?

Who will feed me

who will love me?

Mom, mom, where are you?

I call her crying.

I am afraid

I need you

I want you

I hurt and I am in pain.

I hear her but cannot find her

The bombs took her away

But her voice stayed here.

I wish they would take me

I want to be with her

She is my only mom

She loves me and I love her too!

I do not understand

I am little boy

Without school and books

Without a playground,

With a sister who cannot blink

Because they took away her hand.

I am only a child from Gaza

My home is gone

My only mom is gone

People look at me and cry

I look at the sky

Crying

I ask God

Why?

Give me back my mom.

He does not answer me

I am all alone

I hurt

I am hungry and cold.

I am only a child from Gaza ,

I want my mom,

I want my toy.


source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/A_child_from_Gaza.html#

Gaza Residents Hunker Down - LA Times

Gaza City Residents Hunker Down

Monday 05 January 2009

»

by: Richard Boudreaux and Rushdi abu Alouf, The Los Angeles Times

Damage to a home caused by a Hamas rocket in the Israeli border town of Sderot.
Damage to a home caused by a Hamas rocket in the Israeli border town of Sderot. Israel says it will continue the current military operation in Gaza until the rocket attacks on Israel stop. (Photo: Rina Castelnuovo / The New York Times)
Five civilians die when shells hit a market, while most residents stay indoors to avoid Israeli shelling. "Anyone who survives this wave, it will be like they were born again," said one man.

Gaza City and Jerusalem - As Israeli forces closed in on Gaza City, Mohammed Barbari joined the scramble by its most intrepid residents Sunday for dwindling supplies of food they would need while hunkering down at home.

The first explosion tore through the central Firas Market at 11:30 a.m. as he approached from adjacent Palestine Square. Unable to turn his yellow Volkswagen Golf around in traffic, he kept driving toward the hail of shrapnel and the screams of scattering shoppers.

Trapped on Omar Mokhtar Street, which bisects the sprawling complex, Barbari felt a second blast shake his car and shatter its back right window.

He saw a man lying in the street with both legs severed.

"God protect us!" the 31-year-old father of five recalled thinking.

Medical workers said two Israeli tank shells struck the market a minute apart, killing five Palestinian civilians.

An additional 40 wounded people were bundled into private cars for a harrowing drive to the city's Shifa Hospital, which has been overwhelmed by victims of Israel's offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israeli leaders say the ground assault they began late Saturday, after eight days of airstrikes, is meant as a lesson to Hamas: The Jewish state does not shrink from confronting its enemies; it fully intends to halt the militant group's near-daily rocket fire at southern Israeli communities.

But to Gaza's 1.5 million residents, the advance of thousands of troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships carries a different message: No place in the densely populated 140-square-mile enclave, about one-third the size of Los Angeles city, is safe.

The ground fighting has imposed not only mortal danger, but also a new level of hardship on a people who already were suffering from shortages of electricity, water, cooking gas and other basic supplies amid an Israeli blockade.

"Anyone who survives this wave, it will be like they were born again," said Mahmoud Musa, 55, a first-grade teacher in Deir al Balah.

As the front line moved ever closer, ambulance sirens wailed and the sky filled with smoke. With nowhere to flee, most of the city's 400,000 residents huddled indoors.

Firas Market, normally jammed at midday, held only about 100 shoppers at the time of the shelling, a factor in the relatively low casualty toll.

Afterward, the market's few functioning shops promptly closed. The city's streets emptied, save for long lines of people outside the few bakeries with enough flour and generator fuel to make bread.

Medical workers said 18 civilians were killed in Gaza on Sunday by Israeli shelling and airstrikes. Israel insisted that it was hitting Hamas targets and was not aware of any shelling in Gaza City.

The civilian toll is likely to rise, along with international protests, as the offensive puts Israeli soldiers, Hamas fighters and civilians in ever closer proximity. Military analysts say Israel's leaders and commanders fully considered that risk before launching the assault.

"The guiding principle behind the ... operation is ... we are moving in with full force, shooting everything we have, including artillery," Alex Fishman, an Israeli military affairs correspondent, wrote Sunday in the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "We'll pay the international price later for the collateral damage and the anticipated civilian casualties."

Many in Gaza said they felt helpless because Israel had so far resisted calls for a cease-fire and an easing of its crippling blockade on the territory.

"The world knows we are running out of everything, and no one moves a finger," said Ahmed Dalloul, who was cooking over a trash fire on the balcony of his Gaza City apartment. "Let them feel what we feel. Let the whole silent, unfair world suffer as we suffer."

Sewage is spilling into Gaza's streets and more than half a million residents have no water supply after bombardments destroyed electricity lines, shutting down pumping stations, officials said. The phone company said 90% of Gaza's cellular service is down.

Doctors at Shifa Hospital said its generators barely have enough fuel to last through the week and run the machines that keep 30 infants and 40 other patients alive in the ICU.

Like the doctors, nearly everyone in Gaza is scrounging for scarce fuel.

Determined to find a distraction, teenagers Abdul Aziz Bulan and Karim Ali begged cash from their neighbors in Deir al Balah. They bought enough generator fuel to power the television set in Ali's parents house for Sunday's Spanish league soccer match between Barcelona and Majorca.

Abu Alouf is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Ahmed Burai in Deir al Balah contributed to this report.

Sign a Petition! Please!

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As of Friday morning, more than 360,000 petitions have been sent!
Please add your voice to the thousands who are demanding: Stop the massacre in Gaza!

Please help get the word out - pass this message along, post it on local bulleting boards & Indymedia,

Sign the Petition Online Now - http://www.iacenter.org/gazapetition

Join the ONLINE PETITION initiated by Ramsey Clark - sign on and send the message to President Bush, President-Elect Obama, VP Cheney, VP-Elect Biden, Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of State designate Clinton, Congressional leaders, the U.N. Secretary General, Security Council, the Israeli President, Prime Minister and cabinet, and members of the world media appealing for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza

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Urgent Appeal for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza!

To: President George W. Bush, President-Elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton, Vice President Richard Cheney, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Congressional leaders, U.N. Secretary General Ban, U.N. General Assembly President d'Escoto-Brockmann, members of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. member states, the President, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Opposition leader of Israel, and Major media representatives:

For 60 years, Israel has persecuted the Palestinian people with impunity in defiance of United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Security Council Resolutions, orders of the International Court of Justice, International Law and fundamental human rights.

Throughout the years, Israel has proclaimed itself the victim as it grew richer, more powerful and more violent, while

URGENT! The International Action Center is mobilizing for demonstrations across the U.S. to stop the attack on Gaza, and we are networking with activists across the globe who are taking to the streets against U.S./Israeli war crimes. To view a roundup of the growing number of international actions, see: http://www.iacenter.org/palestine/gazademos123108. Please consider making an emergency donation at http://www.iacenter.org/donate to help with the costs of organizing and mobilizing. NYC: Gaza Massacre: Emergency Demonstration - Sat. Jan. 3, 1 pm, Times Square Emergency Demo in Boston, Sat, Jan 3: Stop the US/Israeli Attack on Gaza! LA event Friday at 4:30 pm at the Israeli Consulate at 6380 Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles Solidarity with heroic Gaza: Statement from the International Action Center - Dec. 27, 2008 / also en Español Video: Support for Gaza! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4hejAqOUMY&feature=channel_page

Palestinians were abused, impoverished, divided and demeaned.

A consistent tactic of Israel through all the years has been to divide Palestinians against their most effective organizations. Through most of the recent years Israel has attacked Fatah. Now it is Hamas that Israel attacks. But there is only one Palestinian people and there can be only one Palestinian State. This has been the guiding principle of the PLO. Israel's policy has always been to destroy the possibility of a Palestinian State. Its criminal assault on Hamas is in truth Israel's continuing assault on the possibility of a Palestinian State: divide and conquer.

Now in the waning days of the disastrous Bush Administration, the government of Israel with its Prime Minister under criminal indictment, is testing whether world opinion will permit it to escalate its isolation and impoverishment of Palestine and selective and systematic assassination of Palestinian leadership in Gaza to a genocidal, indiscriminate assault and invasion of Palestinian Gaza, knowing full well its acts will inflame passions throughout the Middle East and Arab and Muslim worlds risking conflict of disastrous magnitude in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, even between India and Pakistan.

Beyond crushing Gaza's capacity to resist and imposing its final solution on Palestinians, Israel is seeking confrontation that will lead to war with the U.S., the European Union, and NATO fighting for Israel against Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan to impair their ability to prevent expansion of Israel's domination of the region while the "only one President at a time" the U.S. has, George W. Bush, will support Israel, finding all fault with Gaza.

In these dangerous and difficult days and hours the undersigned call upon the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, NATO members, and European countries independently, the governments of Asia, foremost China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, the nations of Africa, and the Americas to demand an immediate ceasefire throughout Israel and Palestine and the assurance of peace. All borders to Gaza, Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, must be opened for humanitarian relief and a complete arms and trade embargo on Israel until it fully complies with all the requirements of permanent peace.

We call upon all the people, the ultimate power in every nation when organized and energized, to take to the streets where they live and demand that their governments do all in their power to cause Israel to stop its war of aggression against Palestine and for all parties to pursue peace and for Israel, the U.S. and other nations who have provided material support for Israel's aggression to be held accountable for the deaths, injuries and damage Israel has inflicted.

We call upon governments and humanitarian agencies to provide all needed emergency relief to Palestine - medical care, food, humanitarian supplies, shelter; and on all the media that truly seeks peace, justice and respect for the equal dignity of every child, woman and man on earth to headline the demand that Israel stop its aggression immediately. All parties must engage in continuous negotiation with all Palestinians until a one state solution is agreed or the state of Palestine as mandated not later than October 1948 in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947) is created, fully implemented, and Palestine thrives.

Sincerely,

Initiated and signed by
Ramsey Clark, winner, 2008 U.N.Human Rights Award and Founder, International Action Center

Add your signature to this letter now - go to http://www.iacenter.org/gazapetition

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Mercy Corps Responds to Gaza Crisis

December 29, 2008

Country: West Bank/Gaza

Topic: Emergencies

A Palestinian boy walks over a destroyed Hamas security building after Israeli missile strikes against Hamas security compounds in Gaza City on Saturday. Photo: Ali Ali/epa/Corbis

Mercy Corps plans to ship four tons worth of rice, canned tuna, dates and soy oil into Gaza to alleviate humanitarian needs stemming from recent conflict.

Mercy Corps has already purchased the provisions from a Jerusalem distributor, and is negotiating with Israeli officials to gain access to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Israel. We expect distributions to begin Monday.

Your donation to our Gaza Crisis Fund will help us expand distributions of humanitarian relief items for families besieged by the military action in Gaza.

Mercy Corps is monitoring evolving humanitarian needs in the embattled Gaza Strip as our programs there — which offer psychosocial assistance to children and provide vulnerable residents with short-term jobs such as sewing hospital linens and baking for kindergartens — are on hold as Israel continues its military offensive.

The Red Cross calls the humanitarian situation in Gaza "alarming," with rapidly rising commodities prices and "chaotic" scenes at hospitals. The UN reports long lines at functioning bakeries and power outages up to 16 hours throughout the territory.

Even before the military action, Mercy Corps programs were struggling to operate because of Israel's frequent closure of the Gazan border, which led to fuel rationing and electricity and water shortages.

For example, our program that employs out-of-work Gazans to sew gowns and linens for local hospitals has slowed due to a lack of electricity to run the sewing machines. Staff are also paying two to two-and-a-half times more for fabric that's of a lower quality than was available before the closure.

Mercy Corps currently offers members of the most vulnerable Gazan families short-term jobs in clothesmaking, food production, and education. Our presence in Gaza dates to 2005, when we distributed much-needed medical supplies, food packages, cooking fuel, and kitchenware to families affected by border closures.

Our programs also offer recreational activities to children to help them deal with conflict-related trauma, build self-esteem and interactive skills. We also reach Gazans through our Middle East youth exchange program, Global Youth Connection, which connects hundreds of Palestinian youth in Gaza and the West Bank with their U.S. peers at high schools in the American Northwest.

Make a gift to our Gaza Crisis Fund >

Assalaamu Alaykum, This is a statement just released by the Permanent Committee for Islaamic Research and Verdicts : on the Palestinian crisis. If there is good in the translation then it is from Allaah, and if there are mistakes then it is from me and the shaytaan; and your advise would be appreciated inshaAllaah.


All perfect praise is for Allaah The Lord of All that exists, and may His blessings and good mention be upon the best of His Prophets and Messengers; our Prophet Muhammad, and also his family and his companions and those who follow them upon good; upto the Last Day.
To Proceed:
The Permanent Committee for Islaamic Research and Verdicts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has followed – with all sorrow and pain- what has occurred, and is still going on against our Muslim brethren in Palestine – and specifically in Gaza. That which is [actions] of oppression, and killing of children, and women and old people! And [it is] transgression on that which is sacred [innocent], and the destruction of infrastructure and institutions, and the terrorizing of innocent people. And there is no doubt that this is a crime and oppression on the rights of the Palestinian nation.

And at this sorrowful event; it is an obligation on the Muslims to be with their Palestinian brethren, and to help and aid them, and to make an effort to lift the oppression against them – through any means which is of their reach – so as to actualize the Islamic bond, and the ties of 'Eeman.
Allaah The Exalted said:
"The believers are indeed brothers [in Islâmic religion]." (Al-Hujuraat: 10)

And He The Most Mighty, The Most Majestic said:
"The believers, men and women, are Auliyâ' (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) of one another…" (At-Tawba : 71)

And The Prophet (sallahAllaahu alayhi wasallam) said :
"The believer to another believer is like the structure [like a wall] ; each part strengthens the other,' and then he co-enjoined his fingers." (Agreed upon)

And he (may Allaah's blessings and good mention be upon him) also said:
"The example of the believers in their relationship, and their love, and their having mercy upon each other ; is like the example of one body part to the rest of the body; if one part is affected then the whole body complains of fever and pain." (Agreed upon)

And he (may Allaah's blessings and good mention be upon him) also said:
"The Muslim is the brother of another Muslim; he does not oppress him, nor does he deceive him, nor does he give him up to the enemy, nor does he look down on him." (Narrated by Muslim)

And help comprises of many things –according to the ability, and depending on the situations – whether it is intellectually or physical [things], or whether it is from the general Muslims through wealth, and food, and medicine, and clothing, and other things. Or whether it is from the Islamic Arab nations through making it easy and possible that the aid reaches them, and by taking a sincere position in regards to their [the Palestinian Muslims] matter, and by supporting their case in the gatherings, and seminars, and the international conferences: And all of these are from the ways of co-operation upon good and piety – which is something that is ordered- in the statement of The Exalted :
"Help you one another in virtue, righteousness and piety…" (Al-Maaida : 2)

And also from those ways is: to direct sincere advice to them [the Muslims in Palestine], and to direct them to that which is of good and of benefit to them. And from the greatest of those is to make du'aa for them -at all times – so that their tribulation is lifted, and their affliction is raised, and that their situation is rectified, and that their statements and actions become good.

Upon this, we also advise our Muslim brethren in Palestine to have fear of Allaah – The Exalted- and to return to Him, just as we advise them to be united; upon the truth, and to leave off divisions and splitting up, and not to give a chance to the enemy – who has taken advantage of it – and will continue to use it in enmity and oppression.
And we also encourage and emphasize our brethren to take the causes which will lead to lifting the oppression directed at their land – while having complete sincerity to Allaah The Exalted – in [those and all other] actions, and to seek His pleasure, and to seek His assistance – through righteous actions, and prayers, and consulting the scholars and people of wisdom; in all their matters – indeed that is a way of being facilitated [to that which is good] and establishment.

Just as we call on to the intellectuals in the world and the international meetings; to have an open look at this catastrophe – with a look of insight, intellect, and equality – so that the Palestinian community can be given its rights. And so that the oppression be lifted from it: such that they live in a honourable life. And at the same time we thank all -the nations and individuals- who have initiated in aiding and helping them.

We ask Allaah by His Beautiful Names and His Lofty Attributes; that He lifts the despair on this Ummah, and that He strengthens its religion, and to raise its statement, and to aid His allies, and to disgrace His enemies -and to return back their plots against themselves- and to save the Muslims from their evil, Indeed He is the Patron, and the One who is Most Able of all that. And may His blessings and good mention be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and also his family and his companions and those who follow them upon good; upto the Last Day.

His eminence; the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia,
President of the Council of Senior Scholars,
Shaykh 'Abdul-'Azeez Ibn 'Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaykh.
Member of Permanent Committee for Islaamic Research and Verdicts .

Translation by Abu Waheeda As-Salafi
5th Muharram 1429.

Source : The Madeenah Journal
http://www.al- madina.com/ node/89303

Note : As you can see this call is of no way an announcement of violence or terrorism. Rather it is a sincere advise to all those involved – in their respective- categories.

And InshaAllaah it will be followed by our next article – in this series – of the Palestinian affair; by an article exposing the cause of the problem, and those who endorse it, and the solution.

Please forward to all.