domingo, 31 de agosto de 2014

Israel vs Palestina: História de um conflito LIX ( 01 2007 )



A Palestina em 2007 continuou sofrendo as consequências da vitória democrática do Hamas nas eleições parlamentares de janeiro de 2006. Ou melhor, o povo palestino, sobretudo os gazauís, continuaram a ser punidos por terem cumprido seu direito democrático e ter eleito o partido "errado" - ao ver de Israel e Estados Unidos.
Em seguida, por iniciativa de Washington, o Quarteto para o Oriente Médio (EUA, UE, Rússia, ONU) suspendera sua ajuda externa à Palestina, a fim de pressionar o Fatah, levar Mahmoud Abbas ao desespero e dividir para quebrar a OLP (Organização de Libertação da Palestina) de uma vez por todas.
Enquanto isso, no terreno, Israel agia bloqueando militarmente o acesso de mercadorias à Faixa de Gaza. Uma lista interminável de produtos que iam do supérfuo ao indispensável - papel higiênico era um dos produtos "perigosos" impedidos de entrar.
Para obter resultados rápidos à surdina, a Casa Branca primeiro usou seu método preferido que nunca falha, o da chantagem. Para a Autoridade Nacional Palestina receber o mínimo de ajuda financeira estrangeira e pelo menos parte dos impostos a que tinha direito e que há dez meses Israel confiscava, o Fatah foi obrigado a esquecer quem eram seus inimigos reais e combater o que Israel fabricara, quando incentivara o desenvolvimento do Hamas na Faixa de Gaza durante a Primeira Intifada.
Por outro lado, para respaldar suas atividades ilícitas e facilitar sua ingerência na política interna palestina, o Congresso dos EUA aprovou antes do recesso natalino de 2006 uma lei contra o Hamas. O chamado "Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act" repudiava explicitamente o partido, seus afiliados, seus recém-eleitos ministros e deputados.
O objetivo explícito do Act estadunidense era "fortalecer" a Autoridade Nacional Palestina contanto que ficasse sob direção exclusiva do Fatah. O objetivo implícito era dividir os palestinos para Israel poder esbaldar-se.
Conforme esta lei gringa, os Estados Unidos puniriam o recém-vitorioso partido até que "the Hamas-controlled PA (Palestinian Authority) has made demonstrable progress toward purging from its security services individuals with ties to terrorism, dismantling all terrorist infrastructure, and cooperating with Israel’s security services, halting anti-American and anti-Israel incitement, and ensuring democracy and financial transparency.”
Quem cobria o Oriente Médio há tempos sabia que, concretamente, cada vez que um partido palestino se sobressaía no combate à ocupação, aos olhos de Tel Aviv e Washington virava bicho-papão. Yasser Arafat e a OLP, durante a predominância do Fatah, já haviam sido alvo deste veredito simplista e da etiqueta de terrorista. E Arafat acabou pagando sua ânsia por um Estado soberano com uma morte sofrida.
Com o descarte de Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat) e a posição conciliatória e até ambígua de Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) que defendia Mohammed Dahlan na Faixa de Gaza, agora a vez de ser proscrito era do Hamas, "culpado" de ter acabado com os 40 anos de domínio do Fatah na política nacional com apoio popular.
Fora por causa deste "crime" democrático que, atendendo ao comando israelense, desde março de 2006 os Estados Unidos impusera sanções ao partido. Sanções que no terreno geraram o bloqueio que estrangulava os gazauís, mas que ao mesmo tempo legitimava a perseverança do Hamas em combater o verdadeiro responsável pela situação insuportável em que os palestinos se encontravam.

Segundo as Nações Unidas, esta foi (e continua sendo) a primeira vez na História em que sanções eram impostas a um território ocupado, isto é, ao oprimido, em vez de ao invasor que oprimia, humilhava e usurpava terra e água.
Mas este conflito, como se sabe, não respeita nenhuma regra moral e nenhuma lei internacional. Israel é (?) / está (?) intocável.
Um ano após as eleições e dez meses após o início do bloqueio, a Faixa de Gaza já estava vivendo o que a World Food Programme (WFP) da ONU descrevia como crise humanitária.
Pelo menos um quarto da população de 1 milhão e 500 mil habitantes estava vivendo em estado de pobreza e carente de água potável e alimento. Duzentos e vinte mil dependiam diretamente da assistência da WFP, sem a qual ficavam ao Deus dará.
A situação sócio-econômica estava crítica, mas segundo as pesquisas, a precariedade causada pelo bloqueio em vez de diminuir a popularidade do Hamas fizera com que ela aumentasse.
Os palestinos sofriam com esta luta interna, mas estavam divididos porque achavam Abu Mazen fraco e seu braço securitário na Faixa de Gaza, o de Dahlan, pesado demais.
A solução que Israel e os Estados Unidos encontraram de jogar Mahmoud Abbas contra Khaled Meshaal - o Fatah contra o Hamas - e provocar dissensão na OLP para enfraquecê-la ainda mais, foi um golpe baixo que fez com que até membros das Brigadas al-Aqsa, ligadas ao Fatah, se recusassem a entrar na jogada.
Porém, na Faixa de Gaza, o Fatah entregou o poder a um homem violento e controvertido, em quem Abu Ammar não confiara e jamais confiaria nem uma calçada quem dirá a Faixa. Este homem era Mohammed Dahlan, citado acima.

Mohammed Dahlan virou o maior inimigo do recém-eleito primeiro ministro Ismail Haniyeh. Seus policiais, que representavam administrativamente a ANP, receberam armas novinhas dos Estados Unidos via Egito de Hosni Mubarack puxaram briga.
Um dos maiores responsáveis, se não o maior, da guerra fratricida foi ele, Mohammed Dahlan.
No dia 07 de janeiro, em pleno distúrbio, Dahlan organizou uma passeata imensa do Fatah em Gaza e chamou o Hamas de "a bunch of murderers and thieves. We will do everything, I repeat, everything, to protect Fatah activists".
E o Hamas respondeu o chamando de "putschist" (o que era) e o acusando de incitar os palestinos a uma guerra civil.
(Em 2008 o papel proeminente de Dahlan no complô estadunidense para aniquilar o Hamas seria exposto à luz do dia. Até a revista nova-yorquina Vanity Fair (“The Gaza Bombshell,” http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804que era a ele que os Estados Unidos forneciam dinheiro, armas e treinamento militar para que removesse o governo do Hamas eleito democraticamente.)
Contudo, contra os prognósticos e expectativas israelo-gringas, o Hamas resistiu estoicamente ao golpe patrocinado por Washington.
Era difícil saber se Dahlan era movido apenas por ódio do partido adversário e ambição desmesurada ou se era, como diziam e dizem, por traição, pura e simples. Ou seja, por ser espião israelense e só visar benefício próprio e o poder (que pleiteia até hoje perigosamente, de fora da Palestina, em seu fausto auto-exílio nos Emirados Árabes).
Os boatos que ele tivera participação ativa no assassinato de Yasser Arafat já corriam soltos na Faixa. Na Cisjordânia ainda não se falava, mas no final das contas até os membros do Fatah, inclusive Abu Mazen, se mostrariam desconfiados e o considerariam persona non grata. Mas seria bem depois de ele fazer bastante estrago.

Mohammad Dahlan ficou por cima militarmente na Faixa de Gaza graças a uma mãozinha de Israel. Em janeiro de 2007, houve uma quebrinha do bloqueio. Uma supensão relâmpago. Devidamente aautorizada pelo ocupante, e não foi por razões sociais nem humanitárias.
Em cumplicidade com Hosni Mubarack, Ehud Olmert permitu a abertura do Kerem Shalom, barragem de fronteira entre o Egito e a Faixa, durante o tempo suficiente para que um único caminhão passasse. O veículo não estava carregado de leite, água, de nenhum bem de primeira necessidade que os gazauís necessitavam. Sua carga era de 2.000 rifles e as balas necessárias para aguentar semanas de combate contra um oponente precariamente armado.
"Por coincidência", a munição destinada a Dahlan chegou à Faixa ao mesmo tempo que a Casa Branca anunciava que liberaria 84.4 milhões de dólares ao presidente da ANP, Mahmoud Abbas, em Ramallah.
A violência estava garantida e a IDF podia tirar folga relativa durante pelo menos semanas, esperavam.
O Hamas denunciou o envolvimento de Washington no treinamento e financiamento de policiais do Fatah, e seu porta-voz, Ismayil Rawan declarou que "Washington’s intention is to fuel a civil war in the Palestinian arena.”
De fato. Um analista do Grupo International Crisis, Rabbani, confirmou a mesma coisa em outros termos. “It was developed to take on the Executive Force of Hamas. The United States is preparing for the long haul, rather than trying to spark the clashes that Gaza is immediately experiencing. This is not a direct instigation by the Americans, because they are not yet convinced that Fatah are ready to take on Hamas,” butt they are beginning to pump significant amounts of weapons, training and funds in the hope that Fatah will prevail in the eventual conflict.”
Por sua vez a Casa Branca admitiu materialmente seu envolvimento partidário ao enviar a Jericó um grupo de instrutores militares para treinar a guarda presidencial de Abu Mazen a táticas de guerra. A intervenção não podia ser mais oficial do que era. A equipe estava sob as ordens do Tenente General Keith Dayton, coordenador estadunidense oficial de segurança em Israel e na Palestina.
Em uma entrevista em dezembro, o militar gringo não escondera o jogo ao jornal israelense Yehidot Ahronoti: “We are involved in building up the Presidential Guard, instructing it, assisting it to build itself up, and giving them ideas.”  Entretanto, negou oficialmente que este treinamento visasse fomentar o confronto do Fatah contra o Hamas na Faixa de Gaza.

O prelúdio deste conflito interno de 2007 fora no dia 15 de dezembro de 2006 quando Forças de Segurança Nacionais Palestinas, sob as ordens de Mohammed Dahlan, começaram a atirar em uma passeata do Hamas em Ramallah deixando mais de vinte feridos.
Este ataque aconteceu logo depois de tropas do Fatah, sob as ordens de Dahlan, terem tentado assassinar Ismail Haniyeh. Em dezembro as trocas de tiro continuaram, mas piorariam mesmo em 2007. Em janeiro, um mês após a tentativa de assassinato do Primeiro Ministro eleito, a luta fratricida já fizera 33 mortos.
Mahmoud Abbas deu-se conta de ter posto um pé em areia movediça que talvez o engolisse junto com seu país inteiro e deu um passo atrás. Tentou incorporar as Forças de Segurança do Hamas ao aparato da Autroridade Nacional Palestina, mas não contava com a dificuldade maior que era de corrigir outro erro, o de ter nomeado a pessoa errada na Faixa de Gaza.
Enquanto ele tentava apaziguar, Dahlan continuava os estragos e a violência que jurara.
Como o Hamas o conhecia melhor do que Abu Mazen, e por isso sabia que seu objetivo não era o diálogo e sim o confronto, que lhe rendia mais, negou-se à união das Forças militares. Sabia que esta união seria mesmo era um aniquilamento e por isso optou por aumentar sua própria polícia que em pouco tempo dobrou em número de para-militares.
O mês de janeiro foi uma sucessão de tiroteios até Abu Mazen e Khaled Meshaal se encontrarem e concordarem com um cessar fogo bilateral.

Dia a dia, o conflito em janeiro seguiu o seguinte rítmo.
O ano de 2006 terminara com 9 palestinos feridos por compatriotas.
No dia 01 de janeiro,  após uma semana de trégua natalina os confrontos entre as duas facções recomeçaram. As Brigadas al-Qassan, ala militar do Hamas, sequestrou três dirigentes do Fatah e as Brigadas Al-Aqsa, ala militar do Fatah, reagiram sequestrando 10 membros do Hamas.
Trocaram tiros sobretudo no norte da Faixa de Gaza e a população temeu que a escaramuça virasse guerra, pois em Beit Lahiya as al-Qassan lançavam um foguete na casa de um dos líderes da AL-Aqsa.
No dia 02 lançaram um morteiro em um caminhão israelense na barragem de Karni.
No dia 03, voltaram a atirar entre si e cinco palestinos foram mortos nas trocas de tiros. Quatro membros do Fatah, em Khan Younis e Beit Lahiya, e uma passante que se encontrava no lugar errado, na hora errada, em Jabaliya. Dez outros combatentes foram sequestrados. Ao anoitecer, os beligerantes concordaram em acalmar a situação no sul da Faixa. E lançaram um foguete, mas desta vez em Israel. A calma só baixou durante essa noite. No dia seguinte, apesar do apelo à calma, seis mortos jaziam na calçada.
No dia 05 um agente de segurança do Fatah morreu no hospital e um imam que condenou os afrontamentos inter-palestinos em seu sermão de sexta-feira foi baleado.
No dia 07 foi a tal passeata do Fatah provocativa, organizada por Mohammed Dahlan, cujo resultado vimos acima.
Foi depois disso, e dos tiroteios que seguiram, que Abu Mazen resolveu garantir uma trégua de vinte dias a fim de estabelecer um diálogo para constituir um governo de união nacional.
Com este propósito, no dia 22, Mahmoud Abbas e Khaled Meshaal se encontraram em Damasco. Passaram três horas conversando até concordarem sobre a melhor atitude a tomar.
A Faixa acalmou-se momentaneamente, mas na Cisjordânia, membros do Hamas resolveram fazer uma passeata em Nablus para comemorar o aniversário da vitória eleitoral do seu partido e o pior aconteceu. Membros das Brigadas al-Aqsa atiraram, outros das Brigadas Qassam replicaram, uma bala perdida matou um passante.
No mesmo, um militante do Fatah e um do Hamas foram mortos em Gaza.)

No dia 23, um grupo da resistência palestina explodiu um pedaço do muro fronteiriço e milhares de gazauís aproveitaram para ir abastecer-se no lado egípcio da cidade de Rafah. A pé, de carro, de carroça, famílias inteiras atravessaram para fazer compras dos produtos bloqueados na Faixa, e em poucos minutos os supermercados, padarias e mercearias da cidade estavam com todas as prateleiras vazias. Os comerciantes não esperavam tantos compradores em um só dia.
A notícia espalhou-se como fogo no feno e muitos gazauís desceram do norte como puderam e percorreram até quarenta quilômetros até El Arish, no Egito, para comprar o indispensável.
"I have bought everything I need for the house for months. I have bought food and even two gallons of diesel for my car," disse um deles.
O Hamas não assumiu a responsabilidade do buraco no muro, mas seus militantes entraram em controle do local em um piscar de olhos do lado fronteiriço da Faixa. Os guardas egípcios ficaram do lado de lá, de olho, mas sem intervir no que não achavam ser problema deles.
As compras eram todas vistoriadas pelo Hamas, que confiscou sete revólveres. Enquanto isso, ouviu-se 17 novas explosões de madrugada para fazer outros buracos no muro em outras partes de Rafah. No total, demoliram dois terços dos 12 quilômetros de muro, até com bulldozer "emprestados".
O Hamas não protagonizou o levante, mas o apoiou, dizendo que "Blowing up the border wall with Egypt is a reflection of the catastrophic situation which the Palestinian people in Gaza are living through due to the blockade."
Ehud Olmert e Hosni Mubarack certamente não contavam com essa reviravolta e esse "jeitinho" palestino de contornar o bloqueio.
Em Tel Aviv estavam preocupados e Arye Mekel, porta-voz do Ministério das Relações Exteriores de Israel, contou outra lorota: "Israel has no forces in Gaza or Egypt, and the Egyptians control the border, and therefore it is the responsibility of Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly according to the signed agreements. We expect the Egyptians to solve the problem. Obviously we are worried about the situation. It could potentially allow anybody to enter."
Na verdade, estavam mesmo preocupados era que a Faixa fosse reabastecida, pois na semana anterior Israel reforçara a barragem econômica com o apoio tácito do Egito que mantinha a fronteira trancada.
Mas as ONGs de Direitos Humanos alertavam tanto a mídia internacional para a crise humanitária causada pelo bloqueio que Israel acabou "permitindo" a entrada de uma carga de combustível e óleo de cozinha. Uma gota no oceano de carência da Faixa. Faltava eletricidade, água potável, combustível e víveres de primeira necessidade. O que autorizaram foi uma gotinha de víveres, entretanto, a propaganda funcionou como Israel queria e permitiu que os Estados Unidos continuassem a apoiar este bloqueio que nos olhos da opinião pública ocidental era e é invisível.
O fato é que desde junho de 2006 a Faixa estava totalmente cortada do mundo e os gazauís sobre/viviam na maior prisão do planeta. Jamais visto.
E a privação só fazia aumentar o nervosismo. O dia 26 começou como se a trégua nunca tivesse existido. Houve combates em várias cidades e no final do dia, sete militantes do Hamas estavam mortos, cinco do Fatah, três civis, e 24 membros do Hamas haviam sido capturados pelo Fatah na Cisjordânia.
Na noite do dia 27 um militante do Hamas e um civil foram mortos por um ataque de morteiro à residência do Ministro das Relações Exteriores do Hamas, Mahmoud Zahar. E dois militantes do Fatah foram mortos em confrontos perto da Universidade Islâmica de Gaza.
Tiros de morteiro, tiroteios, carros explodidos, e no final do dia, seis famílias choravam a perda de entes queridos. Dentre eles, dois civis, inclusive um menino de 12 anos. Um militante do Hamas ferido na véspera também morreu em Beit Lahiya durante a tarde.
No dia 28 foi a vez de um militante do Hamas e um civil de 45 anos perderem a vida.
No dia 29, um agente de segurança do Hamas foi morto de manhã em Gaza, outro na frente da mesquita de Khan Yunis, e três passantes. E assim por diante.

No mesmo dia 29 houve uma súbita volta no tempo que pegou os israelenses desprevenidos. O Jihad e as Brigadas al-Aqsa resolveram atacar o verdadeiro inimigo. Enfim, acabou dando errado e o alvo foi civil, que a seus olhos, também representavam os horrores pelos quais passavam porque eram considerados cúmplices passivos do governo que elegiam.
Nesse dia, Muhammad Faisal al-Saqsaq, um rapaz de 21 anos, originário de Beit Lahia, esgueirou-se entre as redes da IDF, saiu da Faixa, pegou carona com Yossi Waltinky, um coronel da IDF aposentado. Este suspeitou de sua vestimenta, agasalho fechado, e deu o alarme logo depois de deixar o rapaz em um posto de gasolina na cidade israelense de Eilat. Do posto Muhammad dirigiu-se a uma padaria do subúrbio norte e sete minutos após o telefonema do Coronel para a polícia, o bomba-suicida explodiu levando consigo os dois donos do comércio e um funcionário. Cinco fregueses sofreram ferimentos leves.
Muhammad combatera em Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, e perdera seu melhor amigo e sua filhinha. Seu irmão era um resistente influente, do Jihad, mas ele era das Brigadas al-Aqsa, ambos grupos ligados ao Fatah. A padaria não era seu destino final, parou lá apenas para tomar café. Puxou o detonador quando viu policiais israelenses se aproximarem, e saltou a padaria pelos ares.
A casa de sua família foi demolida no dia seguinte, como é a praxe da IDF, em represália. Fazia meses que os atentados suicidas haviam parado.
Ao reivindicar o atentado, Khaled al-Batch, do Jihad, disse que era uma resposta lógica "aos crimes contínuos do inimigo sionista".
Os israelenses divulgaram a notícia em altos brados e a condenação internacional foi imediata. Afinal, três, dois, um morto israelense vale bastante. Mais do que o dobro, o décuplo, o céntuplo, de um palestino assassinado pela IDF ou por um invasor/colono. Convencido disso, Ehud Olmert prometeu vingança.
Esta veio em forma de vários bombardeios do sul da Faixa de Gaza. Com os danos materiais e humanos de sempre. Mas tudo bem, nenhum israelense sofreu nada.
Voltando ao atentado, por que foi em Eilat, uma estação balneária?
Porque dois meses antes a cidade sediara um congresso governamental de promoção desta destinação aos agentes de viagem. Daí a irritação de Ehud Olmert. A explosão era ruim para o comércio. E foi por isso que ela aconteceu: "Na Faixa estávamos privados até de pesca em nossas águas territoriais, não podemos ir à praia nem na área autorizada porque corremos o risco de ser explodidos por bombas ou minas, e os israelenses organizam turismo balneário do lado?!" Disse um resistente indignado.
(Desde então, este resistente entendeu como os demais que embora Israel só ouvisse a voz da violência - que aplicam na Palestina com a mão pesada sem levarem nenhuma palmada da tal Comunidade Internacional - era só a violência homeopática  da resistência que era condenada internacionalmente e era só sua imagem que piorava. Ele também aderiu à resistência pacífica, também por questões humanas. A resistência através do boicote e outras mais. Acessível a eles e a nós.)

Trocando em miúdos, em janeiro de 2007 a Faixa de Gaza vivia em sobressalto, mas desta vez, por causa de concidadãos e não por causa direta dos ocupantes.
I took my daughter to kindergarten this morning and couldn’t pass because of the roadblocks. All the shops are closed and the streets are empty. Every house in Gaza is listening only to the news reports and the gunfire,” disse então Nabil Diab, relações públicas do Crescente Vermelho em Gaza.
De repente, o divide ut regnes estava funcionando a todo vapor.
"The children used to play ‘Palestinians versus Israelis’; now they play ‘Fatah versus Hamas’,” disse o pai de dois meninos.
O Centro de Direitos Humanos Al-Mezan, em Gaza, documentou a morte de 63 palestinos de ambos os lados e mais de 300 feridos.
Ora, Gaza é uma das cidades mais densamente populadas do planeta e os combates aconteciam nas ruas. Daí o alto número de vítimas civis. Inclusive crianças. Oito morreram com bala perdida e trinta foram feridas do mesmo jeito.
Fazia sete anos que os gazauís combatiam os invasores civis e militares israelenses e 60 anos que enfrentavam desapropriação, exterminação e êxodo sem que o moral desmoronasse. Esta era a primeira vez desde a Naqba que as mulheres pareciam realmente preocupadas. Pareciam ser as únicas que entendiam o que este conflito interno representava. Uma mãe de família falou desolada:  "If this fighting continues, we will destroy ourselves.”
Era justamente o que Israel e os Estados Unidos queriam. O conflito interno ainda duraria, como previsto.


PALESTINIAN PAPERS
Proposta de Mahmoud Abbas:
http://thepalestinepapers.com/files/767.PDF




Resistência à barreira israelense em Bil'in
E na ausência da mídia estrangeira, a IDF se esbalda
em Bil'in e na Cisjordânia inteira

"If Arafat were alive..." one hears this phrase increasingly often in conversations with Palestinians, and also cith israelis and foreigners.
"If Arafat were alive, whatés happening now in Gaza wouldn't be happening..."
"If Arafat were alive, we would have somebody to talk with..."
"If Arafat were alive, islamic funamentalism would not have won among the Palestinians and would have lost some forece in the neighboring countries!"
In the meantime, the unanswered wuestions come up again: How dit Yasser Arafat die? Was he murdered? If so, who murdered him?
On the way back from Arafat's funeral in 2004, I ran into Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Knesset. I asked him if he believed that Arafat was murdered. Zahalka, a doctor of pharmacology, answered "Yes!" without hesitation. That was my feeling, too. But a hunch is not proof. It is only a product of intuition, common sense and experience.
Recently we got a kind of confirmation. Just before he died, Uri Dan, who had been Ariel Sharon's loyal mouthpiece for almost 50 years, published a book in France. It includes a report of a conversation Sharon told him about, with President (George W.) Bush. Sharon asked for permission to kill Arafat and Bush gave it to him, with the proviso that it must be done undetectably. When Dan asked Sharon whether it had been carried out, Sharon answered: "It's better not to talk about that." Dan took this as confirmation.
The secret services of many countries have poisons that are all but undetectable. The Mossad tried to kill Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader, in broad daylight on a main Amman thoroughfare. He was saved only when the Israeli government was compelled to provide the antidote to the poison it had used...
Is there proof that Arafat was murdered by Israeli or other agents? No, there is none. This week I again ran into MK Zahalka, and both of us concluded that the suspicion is growing stronger, together with the conviction that Arafat's absence is felt now more than ever.
If Arafat were alive, there would be a clear address for negotiations with the Palestinian people.
The claimed absence of such an address serves the Israeli government as the official pretext for its refusal  to start peace negotiations. Every time Condoleezza Rice or another of Bush's parrots talks about the need to "restart the dialog" (don't mention "negotiations") for "the final status" or "the permanent settlement" (don't mention "peace"), that is the response of Tsipi Livni, Ehud Olmert & Co.
Dialog? With whom? No use to talk with Mahmoud Abbas, because he is unable to impose his will on the Palestinian people. He is no second Arafat. He has no power. And we couldn't possibly talk with the Hamas government, because it belongs to Bush's "axis of evil". So what do you want, Condi dear?
Tsipi Livni, Condi's new buddy, goes further: at the convocation of the billionaires' cabal in Davos she warned Abbas publicly not to strike a "compromise with terrorists". A timely warning. Desperate to create a credible Palestinian address, Abbas had just flown to Damascus to meet Mashal. Thus, by the way, he has admitted publicly that nothing can be done without the Hamas leader, who has become a kind of Palestinian super-president.
Livni recognized the danger at once and rushed to torpedo the mission. No dialog with a Palestinian unity government, much as there is no dialog with Abbas or Hamas. That Ok, Condi honey?
...In war, that makes sense. A split between your enemies is a gift to you. In World War I, the German general staff sent Lenin back to Russia in the famous sealed wagon, hoping to create a split between Russia and her British and French allies. In the 1948 war, we were saved because the armies of Egypt and Jordan were more interested in competing with each other than in fighting us. In the 80s, the Israeli army sent officers to North Iraq in order to help Mustafa Barzani to tear the Kurdish region away from Saddam's country.
That is a good strategy in war, which states have followed since the beginning of history. In this respect, Israel is no exception. The question is: is this also a good strategy when one wants to achieve peace?
IF - "IF" in capital letters - the government of Israel desired peace, it would adopt the opposite strategy.
But is this good for Israel? It is good for the continuation of the war against the Palestinians, for annexation and the building of settlements. It is not good for the termination of the historic conflict with the Palestinians, the ending of the occupation and the laying down of arms.
There is no chance of making peace with Mahmoud Abbas, nor would it have any value, without the full support of Hamas. But even a Fatah-Hamas partnership would not be broad enough to ensure a peaceful future for Israel. It would need the support of the whole Arab world.
There lies the immense importance of the "Arab Peace Initiative", the Arab League proposal that was adopted by the 2002 Beirut summit conference. Only a united Palestinian leadership, which enjoys the backing of the entire Arab world, can carry out such a revolutionary historic undertaking. Not only should we not object to it, but we should in fact demand it.
The terms of the Arab initiative are the same as those already set out by Yasser Arafat in the 70s: a Palestinian state side by side with Israel, whose border is the Green Line and whose capital is East Jerusalem; the dismantling of the settlements; an "agreed upon" solution of the refugee problem. Unofficially Arafat agreed to swaps of territory that would enable some of the settlements located near the Green Line to remain in place. There is practically no Palestinian, and indeed no Arab, who would agree to less. It would leave the Palestinians a mere 22% of historic Palestine.
This can be achieved, provided the Palestinian people are united and the Arab world is united. That means the agreement of Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and also Iran, which is of course not Arab.
Therefore, if one wants peace, one will not rejoice in face of the bloodshed in Gaza and the Lebanon. We have nothing to laugh about when Arab hits Arab. Woe to such laughter.
And, of course, if Arafat were alive, everything would be much, much easier."
Uri Avnery, 27/01/2007

Reservista da IDF, forças israelenses de ocupação,
Shovrim Shtika - Breaking the Silence 


sábado, 30 de agosto de 2014

Rogue State of Israel XLI : Licenced to Lie Cheat Kill?


Operation Protective Edge stopped, but Gazans are still imprisoned, Israeli Occupation of Palestine continues, and Jewish colonies and the wall grow in the West Bank everyday: this illegal and unjust status quo must end.

A Operação Protective Edge parou,  mas os gazauís continuam prisioneiros e Israel continua ocupando a Palestina e aumentando os muros e as colônias: este status quo ilegal e injusto tem de terminar.


Só três dos cinco postos fronteiriços entre Israel e a Faixa de Gaza foram abertos. O sexto, de Rafah, que dá para o Egito também continua fechado. Foi a maneira que os israelenses encontraram de impedir o fluxo de pessoas e de bens de primeira necessidade com a cumplicidade do ditador egípcio. O general Sissi vai ter de ser pressionado pela Liga Árabe pra tomar vergonha na cara. Aí ver-se-á se ele valoriza mais a aliança com Israel e os EUA do que com os vizinhos. Mas por enquanto, respaldado pela Arábia Saudita, continua sob as ordens de Tel Aviv. Os facistas se entendem bem entre si.
Não é fácil transitar mantimentos para centenas de milhares de pessoas e os israelenses estão dificultando o máximo possível. E estão aproveitando o lucro no transporte e na venda (!) de muitos produtos. Matam, destroem, e ainda lucram. Israel é mesmo um concentrado das taras dos Estados Unidos, temperadas com os princípios de supremacia racial nazista. Israel é uma vergonha para o mundo e sobretudo para os judeus de boa índole, como os jovens israelenses e o grande maestro nas vídeos.

Young Jewish voice for the end of Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Maestro Daniel Baremboim: A musical path to peace
Daniel Baremboim em Ramallah

"We have seen, over and over again ceasefires dissipate in the dust of renewed bombings. Here are three basic human rights which must not be neglected if there is to be any hope for a just and sustainable peace.
The newly brokered truce between Israel and the Palestinians will be meaningless if it is not built solidly upon human rights, which must be at the heart of any attempt to stop the cycle of war crimes and other gross violations recurring incessantly. Without such a foundation, Palestinians and Israelis will continue to suffer.
The right to life 
In 50 days of conflict, more than 2,100 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians. Nearly 500 of them were children. Many, perhaps most, of them were killed unlawfully, in attacks that violated international humanitarian law (the laws of war). Israel has levelled houses and bombed and shelled built up residential areas, apparently targeting militants, as though civilian lives and homes were irrelevant. At the same time, of the 70 killed on the Israeli side, six have been civilians, including one child. These civilians were killed by Palestinian armed groups firing indiscriminate rockets and other weapons into civilian areas, in violation of the laws of war.
The right to freedom of movement and an adequate standard of living 
If we want to understand this conflict we have to look at its background. For years Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, controlling the goods allowed to enter or leave the strip. After 2007 when Hamas gained control the Israeli blockade tightened to the point that it amounted to collective punishment. Enough has been allowed through for the Gazans to survive - but only just.
The 1.8 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza suffer shortages in fuel and electricity; at least a third are without clean water because Israel has blocked entry of sufficient fuel and the spare parts to repair damaged sewage works. Fishermen are restricted to a three-mile zone (widening it is one of the measures mentioned in the terms of the ceasefire) and there have been heavy restrictions on the import of raw materials and cement. There are also bans on the export of farming produce.
Israeli restrictions on movement have meant that even Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip have often been prevented from leaving. Some 80 percent of the population is now dependant on barely sufficient humanitarian aid. The blockade MUST be lifted and the passage of necessities and people allowed.
Justice for war crimes committed by both sides during the conflict 
This is not only important for Gaza and Israel but also for the world. In this age of conflict, where the principle that civilians must be spared is at best callously disregarded and all too often deliberately flouted, we cannot allow the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to go unpunished.
During the latest conflict Israel did not allow Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch into Gaza; let us see if delegations from international human rights organisations are allowed to enter now that a truce is underway.
In July, the UN Human Rights Council set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. The purpose of this commission's investigation is to end impunity and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. The commissioners should have the resources of experts, including military ones, and be allowed to go everywhere and see everything.
If they had been implemented, the recommendations of the UN Fact-Finding Mission set up in the wake of the 2009 Gaza conflict might have prevented further unlawful killings and destruction in Gaza. When will international leaders learn sidelining human rights cannot bring about a just, sustainable peace?
Let the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 after the horrors and genocide of the Second World War, still move us. In its preamble it said: "Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind."
The whole system of international justice set up in the decades after World War II will become a dead letter if people's consciences are no longer outraged by the crimes committed in wartime as in peace. If violations of the laws of war are accepted by an international community which prefers to sweep the past under the carpet, in every war civilians will remain the first target and the next war in Gaza/Israel may well come soon and be even more deadly. It is now the time to put human rights at the heart of any peacemaking process."
Philip Luther is  Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. 



As the world turns its head, Israel police "target" Palestinian activists in the West Bank
Enquanto o mundo vira a cara, polícia israelense prende ativistas palestinos aos montes, na Cisjordânia

Mainstream canadian media too misrepresent Israel's Operation Protective Edge
A "grande" mídia canadense também distorce a verdade sobre Israel  
  

Freedom for Palestine Org : Gaza names Project
Prominent Israeli, Palestinians, Jews, Cristians, Hindus, Muslins and others stand for Palestine in this video with Jonathan Demme, Gloria Steinem, Ken Loach, Tony Kushner, Diana Buttu, Chuck D, Eve Ensler, Brian Eno, Roger Waters, Mira Nair, Wallace Shawn, Naomi Klein, Mira Nair, Raj Patel, Noura Erakat and many others. 

"After 50 days, the war is over. Hallelujah.
On the Israeli side: 71 dead, among them 66 soldiers, 1 child.
On the Palestinian side: 2,143 dead, 577 of them children, 263 women, 102 elderly. 11,230 injured. 10,800 buildings destroyed. 8,000 partially destroyed. About 40,000 damaged homes. Among the damaged buildings: 277 schools, 10 hospitals, 70 mosques, 2 churches. Also, 12 West Bank demonstrators, mostly children, who were shot.
So what was it all about? The honest answer is: About nothing....
...For Hamas, the aim was clear and simple: Lift the blockade on Gaza.
For Israel there was none. Binyamin Netanyahu defined his aim as "Calm in return for Calm". But we had that before it all started.
Some of his cabinet colleagues demanded to "go to the end" and occupy the entire strip. The army command objected, and one cannot fight a war against the wishes of the army command. So everyone stood around waiting for Godot.
What brought about the final ceasefire agreement?
Both sides were exhausted. On the Israeli side, the feather that broke the camel's back was the plight of the settlement around the Gaza Strip, called the "Gaza envelope". Under the unceasing barrage of short-range rockets and – even worse – mortar shells that cost next to nothing, the inhabitants, mostly kibbutz members, started to move quitetly to safer regions.
That was almost sacrilege. One of the founding myths of Israel was that in the 1948 war, in which the state was born, Arab villagers and townspeople ran away when they were shot at, while our settlements stood firm even in the midst of hell...
... Life in the "envelope" became impossible. Sirens sounded several times within the hour, and everybody had 15 seconds to find shelter. The clamor for evacuation became open and loud. Hundreds of families moved away. The myth was abandoned and the government was compelled to organize a mass movement. That did not look like victory.
The Palestinian side underwent a terrible ordeal. About 500 thousand people had to leave their homes. Whole families found shelter in UN buildings, several families in a room or in a corner of the courtyard, without electricity and with very little water, mothers with 6, 7 or 8 children.
(Imagine what that means: A family, poor or wealthy, has to leave its home within minutes, unable to take anything, no clothes, no money, no family albums, just to gather the children and run, while behind them the home collapses. A whole life's work and memories destroyed in seconds. The young men were long gone, living in secret underground tunnels, preparing for the crucial fight.)
It is almost a wonder that under these conditions, the Hamas government and command structure did function. Orders passed from hidden leaders to hidden cells, contacts were maintained with leaders abroad and between different organizations, while spy drones circled overhead and killed any civil leader or commander who showed his face.
After the action to kill the Hamas military Commander in Chief, Mohammad Deif (which succeeded or failed, we don't know), Hamas started to shoot the informers without whom such actions are impossible. (In my days as a junior terrorist, we did the same.)
But with all their remarkable ingenuity, Hamas could not go on forever. Their large stocks of rockets and mortar shells were being depleted. They also needed an end.
The result? Clearly a draw. But, as I have said before, if a small resistance organization achieves a draw against one of the mightiest military machines in the world, it has cause to celebrate – as it indeed did, last Monday, the 50th day of the War for Nothing.
What did the two sides lose?
The Palestinians sustained huge material losses. Thousand of homes were destroyed in order to break their spirit, some with some slim pretext, others without any. In the last days, the Air Force systematically brought down the luxurious high-rise buildings in the center of Gaza.
Palestinian human losses were also enormous. Israelis did not shed any tears.
On the Israeli side, human and material losses where comparatively light. Economic losses were significant, but bearable. It is the unseen losses that count.
The delegitimization of Israel throughout the world is accelerating. Millions of people have seen the daily pictures coming out of Gaza, and, consciously or unconsciously, their image of Israel has changed. For many, the brave little country has turned into a brutal monster...
...One tends to overlook the most dangerous aspect. A huge mass of hatred has been created in Gaza. How many of the children we saw running with their mothers from their homes will become the "terrorists" of tomorrow?
Millions of children throughout the Arab world have seen the pictures beamed daily into their homes by Aljazeera, and become bitter haters of Israel. Aljazeera is a world power. While its English-language edition tried to be [it was] moderate, the Arab edition had no brakes - hour after hour its reports showed the heartbreaking pictures from Gaza, the children killed, the homes destroyed.
On the other side, the generations-old enmity of Arab governments towards Israel has been broken. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and all the Gulf States (except Qatar) are openly collaborating now with Israel.
Can this bear political fruit in the future? It could, if our government were really interested in peace.
In Israel itself, fascism, vile and unmistakable, has raised its ugly head. "Death to the Arabs" and "Death to the Leftists" have become legitimate battle-cries. Some of this foul wave will hopefully recede, but some may remain and become a regular feature.
Netanyahu's personal fortunes are clouded. During the war his popularity ratings rose sharply. Now they are in a free fall. It is not enough to make speeches about victory. Victory must be seen. If possible, without a microscope.
War is a matter of power. The reality created on the battlefield is generally reflected in the political results. If the battle ends in a draw, the political result will also be a draw.
Celebrating a similar triumph long ago, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, remarked: “Another such victory and we will be lost!”"
Uri Avnery, 30 august

This year, let's divest from Hewlett Pacckard

sexta-feira, 29 de agosto de 2014

Rogue State of Israel XL : Licenced to Lie Cheat Kill?


Operation Protective Edge stopped, but Gaza is still a crowded needy prison, the Occupation and the settlements in the West Bank continue and must end.
A Operação Protective Edge parou,  mas Gaza ainda é uma prisão carente e superlotada, as colônias na Cisjordânia se expandem e a Ocupação persiste, e tem de terminar.

Basic Information / Informação básica 
Interview in Danmark (2010)

Documentário Journeyman: Are Israeli guilty of Apartheid? (trailer 3')
Documentário: Road Map to Apartheid (short version 8')

"On August 25 Israel hit a 13-storey residential tower that housed at least 70 families, striking with five missiles over an hour. Israel could have destroyed the entire building with one missile in a few minutes, if it wanted to; after all it wiped out an entire neighbourhood in less than one hour on July 29.  Israel's deliberate choice to slowly decompose the tower was psychological torture to its residents, to punish them and submit them. It is this same strategy of protraction that Israel used during the uncountable ceasefires and humanitarian lulls it declared during its war on Gaza. 
Ceasefire make-believe
On July 8, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge with the accusation that Hamas was responsible for the death of three Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Israel bombed and shelled the entire Gaza Strip for over a week, killing at least 182 civilians and destroying 1660 civilian buildings.
On July 15, Israel and Egypt came with a unilateral ceasefire proposal omitting most of the Palestinian people's demands. The resistance was not involved in formulating the terms, revealing Egypt's bias as an unfair mediator. Hence the proposal was rightfully rejected. Both Israel and Egypt expected this outcome and tried to corner the Palestinian resistance and the unity government that was negotiating on its behalf.
With the rejection of the ceasefire, Israel claimed in front of a biased international community that it had fulfilled its commitment to restrain itself.
A day later, Hamas and Islamic Jihad offered the Israeli government a 10-year truce with ten basic conditions centred around lifting of the illegal blockade and the release of Palestinian prisoners part of the Gilat prisoners' swap in the West Bank that were re-arrested by Israel.
The demands of the Palestinian resistance were realistic, humanitarian in nature and in accordance with international law. Israel rejected the proposal, mobilised 72,000 reserves and invaded the Gaza Strip with tanks and a new narrative: The goal of the invasion was to destroy the cross-border tunnels.
The Israeli ground invasion that lasted two weeks was a strategic defeat. Entire neighbourhoods were levelled to the ground, water and power plants were hit, civilians were used as human shields, UN schools where displaced families sought refuge were shelled, whole families were massacred. The Israeli crimes were horrendous to the extent that the UN called for an investigation into possible Israeli "war crimes" and crimes against humanity.    
Militarily, Israel was expected to be the stronger party with its warplanes, nuclear heads and tanks. But in its first face-to-face confrontation with the resistance since 2008, Israel was surprised by fierce well-prepared freedom fighters, who were ready to protect their land at any cost. Suddenly, Israel's top field commanders of the Golani brigade were killed and its world-renowned Merkava tanks blown to pieces. Israel's loss was so substantial that it had to apply the Hannibal directive and kill its own combatants rather than have them abducted. The warning sirens in Israel's major cities disrupted the citizens' daily lives, reminding them that occupation comes with a price.
On July 18, Abu Obaida, the spokesperson of the Qassam Brigades, stated that despite Israel's advanced weapons, supported by aerial and navy attacks, its army can hardly advance on the ground as its troops remained on the outskirts of the strip.    
Destroying livelihoods
Two humanitarian lulls took place as Israel's senseless slaughter cost the lives of 2,000 Palestinians. International outrage filled the streets of hundreds of capitals around the world, denouncing Israel as the perpetrator and the murderer of children running on the beach. Almost every European capital witnessed protests urging their governments to support Gaza at a time that the EU adopted a resolution condemning the firing of rockets from Gaza and called for the disarming of Hamas as Israel has the right to defend itself.
On August 1, the US and UN announced an agreed 72-hour ceasefire, while giving Israel carte blanche to proceed in its ground offensive. But even with these beneficial terms, Israel could not contain itself and destroyed more homes and civilian buildings while supposedly trying to demolish tunnels. However, it turned out that Israel was actually "hannibaling" one of its own soldiers, and killing more than 130 Palestinians with him.
Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was heading the negotiation table, willing to accept less than what the Palestinians demanded and deserved. More ironic was the fact that the PA was overseeing talks regarding the resistance, a term unfamiliar to them for over three decades. The Palestinian Authority is too blind to see that Oslo has been buried in the Gaza carnage.
As Israel was protracting the talks, and the absence of a real mediator, Mohamed Deif, Qassam Brigades Chief Commander, stated on July 29 that if the siege is not lifted, the Palestinian negotiation team should return home.
On August 5, all Israeli soldiers withdrew at the start of a 72-hour ceasefire. Five days later, as Israel didn't refrain from bombing and killing, another Egyptian proposal for a 72-hour ceasefire was agreed upon.
In an unexpected game changer on August 8, Abu Obaida ordered the Palestinian delegation to leave Egypt as Israel was protracting the talks and killing more Palestinians. For the first time, it was the oppressed that dictated when and how to negotiate. A Palestinian seaport and an airport were among the demands to provide Palestinians in Gaza a secure and dignified passageway independent of Israel and Egypt.
On August 13, the ceasefire was extended for another 120 hours. By then it was clear that Netanyahu had failed to achieve his political objectives and the image he created before embarking on his aggression had collapsed.
In the periods between each ceasefire, Israel was no longer attacking military targets. Instead it was hitting the livelihood of Palestinians. Factories, food centres, agricultural land and water supplies were being destroyed, with the idea to "starve" the Palestinians into submission. Many residential buildings were also struck down, slowly but surely. The Israelis perhaps hoped that delivering this collective punishment would break the Palestinian people and push them to revolt against the resistance.
But as an open-ended ceasefire was reached on August 26, Israel triumphed as the military victor over Gaza's apocalyptic destruction. And yet it lost the war it fought to readjust politics and break the Palestinian resistance and unity government.
All Palestinian resistance factions are aware that the role of armed resistance is to survive all Israeli attempts to destroy them and their call to the right of return for all of Palestine. Their continuing existence after three deadly Israeli wars and hundreds of assassinated Palestinian resistance members is a victory. Hamas' objective was never to kill a large number of Israelis but to expose the injustice of Zionism. An oppressed people's objective is to disturb the occupier's sense of normalcy and its commitment to obliterate those it occupies.
The only military and strategic objective Israel achieved was to reinforce its image as a colonial entity. On the Palestinian side, armed resilience and resistance are still present. Israel will now have to cooperate with the unity government, which includes Hamas. This shows that Islamic parties have reached a certain level of political maturity with regard to power sharing.  
And even though Palestinians can claim the moral and political victory in this war, they had to sign the ceasefire agreement with their blood. 
And as Palestinians persevere in the face of ethnic cleansing, home demolitions, murders of children, white phosphorus bombs, racism, and humiliation, Israel needs to understand that its incremental destruction strategy is failing".
Hanine Hassan is a Palestinian PhD candidate at Columbia University. Her research focuses on the long-term effects of humiliation as a tool of oppression by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.


Operation Protective Edge: Is there a winner?

"No peace without mine"

quinta-feira, 28 de agosto de 2014

Rogue State of Israel XXXIX : Licenced to Lie Cheat Kill?


"Our cause is universal, our cause is righteous, we have the law, we have the morality, we have the support of the millions of people and we have a hell of a nation here, steadfasting, resisting, resilient and staying on their land". 
"Nossa causa é universal, nossa causa é justa, temos a lei, temos a moral em nosso favor, temos o apoio de milhões de pessoas e temos uma grande nação aqui, avançando, resistindo, aguentando firme em sua terra".
Porta-voz da OLP. PLO spokersperson, Husam Zomlot.  

Gaza ceasefire deal: 2012 Bis
Acordo de Cessar-fogo: 2012 Bis?

Os gazauís começaram o longo processo de balanço emocional e material de suas vidas, casas e comércios na quarta-feira após 50 dias de destruição e derramamento de sangue.
O número de mortos palestinos até agora (muitos se encontram em estado crítico) é de 2.139. Mais de 70% de civis, incluindo 490 crianças. O número de feridos é de 11.000, incluindo mais de 3.000 crianças.
500 mil gazauís estão desabrigados.
O número de mortos israelenses é de 70 pessoas. 64 soldados e seis civis, incluindo 1 criança.
O comissário geral do UNRWA fez um apelo de emergência de US$295 milhões para começar a reconstrução. Israel não desembolsa nem um tostão.
Farei uma análise da situação quando Ismail Hanyeh, líder do Hamas na Faixa de Gaza, sair do emaranhado de túneis onde ainda se encontrava até esta manhã.


Gazans began the long process of picking up the pieces of shattered lives and homes on Wednesday after 50 days of bloodshed and destruction.
Palestinian death toll until today is 2,139 people. Around 75% of civilians. Including 490 children. 
Palestinians wounded, more than 11,000. Including more than 3,000 children.
Gaza residents homeless, 500,000. 
Israeli death toll is 70 people. 64 soldiers and 6 civilians. Including 1 children.
Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA Commissioner-General, appealed for US$295 million of international aid towards Gaza's recovery operations. "During a week when children sould have been starting their new school year, they [Gazan children] are instead facing prolonged insecurity, fear and suffering. To make matters worse, the extensive destruction caused by the conflict means that many Palestinians will have no home to return to once hostilities have ended. Many will face a harsh winter in emergency shelters".


"After 50 days of warfare in which a terror organisation killed dozens of soldiers and civilians, destroyed the daily routine [and] placed the country in a state of economic distress... we could have expected much more than an announcement of a ceasefiore. We coould have expected the prime minister to go to the president's residence and inform him of his decision to resign his post", wrote Shimon Shiffer in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's right-wing biggest-selling newspaper.
"What Netanyahu and his colleagues have brought down down on Israel, in a conflict between the region's strongest army and an organization numbering 10,000, is not just a defeat. It's a downfall," wrote Amir Oren in the Haaretz.
As a matter of fact, the only thing that is clear so far is that Hamas came out of this Israeli slaughtering strenghtened. But if the occupation doesn't end, Israel will be the big winner after all its crimes.

Gaza: The Damage is beyond imagination

Ismail Hanyieh, líder do Hamas na Faixa de Gaza, saiu dos túneis e fez discurso
 

Apartheid Adventures  II


quarta-feira, 27 de agosto de 2014

Rogue State of Israel XXXVIII : BOYCOTT to end the Occupation



Com o cessar-fogo decretado e publicado no blog de ontem (e voltarei ao assunto com detalhes), enquanto digiro e me informo nos bastidores, resolvi focar o blog de hoje no boicote que vai ajudar os palestinos a alcançar a liberdade de uma vez por todas. Pois o Hamas "ganhou" a batalha de Gaza, mas ainda falta muito para os palestinos ganharem a guerra e a liberdade.
Várias "personalidades" internacionais de todos os ramaos já aderiram ao BDS - Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Roger Maters, Sinead O'Connor, Stephen Hawking, Eric Cantona - mas eu escolhi começar minha campanha de hoje com uma pessoa por quem tenho um respeito imaculado: o cineasta britânico Ken Loach.
Ken Loach é uma das poucas pessoas realmente morais que conheço. Um homem íntegro, firme e honesto em qualquer circunstância e com qualquer pessoa. Um homem com sólidos e altos valores sócio-humanos e que os manteve da juventude até a vida adulta sem traí-los nunca. Um homem que corresponde às suas próprias expectativas e às alheias. Um homem que passaria (passou) necessidade mas jamais comprometeria seus princípios ou prejudicaria outrem. Um homem que nunca decepciona. Ken Loach é um homem realmente bom, um ser exemplar, realmente humano. Sua obra em si espelha sua grandeza.  
Pois bem, nesta semana no Festival de Cinema de Sarayevo, Ken Loach fez um apelo internacional para o boicote de eventos culturais (em todos os domínios - artístico e acadêmico) e esportivos que envolvam Israel.
Ao entregar o prêmio da Fundação Katrin Cartlidge a dois documentaristas palestinos - Abdel Salam Shehadeh and Ashraf mashharawi - por seu documentário sobre Gaza, Ken disse: "Precisamos de cineastas assim para contar histórias da qual participam a fim de podermos entender o conflito", e acrescentou, "Israel tem de virar um Estado pária!"
Conte comigo, Ken. Concordo com você plenamente.

Why should a Texan [or anyone else for that matter] boycott Israel?

With the Gaza ceasefire in place - which I updated yesterday and will develop later - today I chose to focus on the boycott, which is the only way (besides putting pressure on our polititians) to help the Palestinians to free themselves from Israeli occupation.
Many people are already committed to spreading the word of BDS, but I chose a very special person to open this campaign today - the British film-maker Ken Loach.
Ken Loach is one of a few really moral persons I know. A man of integrity, firm and honest in his moral. An upright man who has solid and worthy ethical social-human standards and has stuck to them from youth to adulthood without failure. A man who lives up to his own expectations and to others'. A man who would rather be in need [and has been] than compromise his principles or wrong another person. He is trustworthy, a man who never disappoints you. Ken Loach is a Good Man, really, a real human.
Speaking at the Sarajevo film festival this week, Ken Loach has just called for a boycott of all cultural (Art and Academia) and sporting events supported by the Israeli state or with Israeli participation, and condemned the support offered to Israel by the US and UK.
When he presented the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation award to two documentary-makers from Gaza - Abdel Salam Shehadeh and Ashraf Mashharawi - he said "We need these film-makers to tell these stories because they are absolutely central to our understanding of the conflict", and added, "Israel must become a pariah state!"
I hear you, Ken, and agree with you a hundred per cent.

The case for Cultural, Economical and Academic Boycott of Israel
with introduction by Ken Loach


"The morning after Lailat al-Qadr, the death toll in Gaza was approaching its first thousand.Al-Qadr — the night before the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan — is believed to be the night when the Quran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad. I spent this special night [the last day of Ramadan] with friends in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah after participanting in the “48K March” for Gaza.The march began in Ramallah and went to Qalandiya checkpoint. What began as a peaceful event with families bringing their children and even babies in strollers, ended with young Palestinians with gunshot wounds being rushed in ambulances to the local hospital.Qalandiya crossing was fortified and air-tight, and the Israeli soldiers stationed on top were shooting live ammunition at the crowd.As the ambulances were speeding through the crowd, I couldn’t help but wonder why there is no hospital between Qalandiya and Ramallah, a good distance which includes the municipalities of Jerusalem, al-Bireh and Ramallah.The following night I was scheduled to leave Palestine to return to the United States. But Israeli forces sealed all the roads from Ramallah to Jerusalem for the night, and they were likely to be sealed the following day as well.At the crack of dawn, when things had quietened down, my friend Samer drove me to a checkpoint that he suspected would be open. It was open, albeit for Israelis only, and from there I made my way back to Jerusalem.That evening, as I was preparing to leave for Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, people around me were trying to calm me down. “Don’t aggravate them, cooperate and they will be nice,” they said. “Why go through all this unnecessary inconvenience?”They were talking about the “Smiling Gestapo,” Israeli security officers at Tel Aviv airport that go by the squeaky clean name of the Airport Security Division.
Non-cooperation and resistance
Listening to this, I was reminded of Jewish communities under the Nazi regime who believed that if they cooperated and showed they were good citizens then all would be well. But the road from cooperation to the concentration camps and then the gas chambers was a direct one. The policies of racist discrimination and humiliation at Ben Gurion airport, and the policies of ethnic cleansing and murder of Palestinians in Gaza, emanate from the same Zionist ideology.
As we have seen over the past seven decades, cooperation and laying low do not make things ok.
Cooperation with the Israeli authorities might lead to short-term relief but it also validates Israel’s “right” to terrorize and humiliate Palestinians with our consent, “we” being all people of conscience. Whether we are Palestinian or not, the call of the hour is non-cooperation and resistance against injustice.
Today, Israel and its supporters lay the blame for the violence in Gaza on Hamas. But Israel did not start its assaults on the Gaza Strip when Hamas was established in the late 1980s. Israel began attacking Gaza when the Strip was populated with the first generation refugees in the early 1950s.
Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, are not faced with an option to resist and be killed or live in peace. They are presented with the options of being killed standing up and fighting or being killed sleeping in their beds.
Gaza is being punished because Gaza is a constant reminder to Israel and the world of the original sin of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the creation of a so-called Jewish state. Even though Palestinian resistance has never presented a military threat to Israel, it has always been portrayed as an existential threat to the state.
Moshe Dayan, the famed Israeli general with the eyepatch, described this in a speech in April 1956. He spoke in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, an Israeli settlement on the boundary of the Gaza Strip where Israeli tanks park each time there is a ground invasion of Gaza.
“Beyond the furrow of this border, there surges a sea of hatred and revenge,” Dayan said then. Ironically, when six months later Israel had occupied Gaza and my father was appointed its military governor, he said that he saw “no hatred or desire for vengeance but a people eager to live and work together for a better future.”
Still, today, Israeli commanders and politicians say pretty much the same: Israel is destined to live by the sword and must strike Gaza whenever possible. Never mind the fact that Palestinians have never posed a military challenge, much less a threat to Israel.
After all, Palestinians have never possessed as much as a tank, a warship or a fighter jet, not to say a regular army.
So why the fear? Why the constant, six-decade-long campaign against Gaza? Because Palestinians in Gaza, more so than anywhere else, pose a threat to Israel’s legitimacy.
Israel is an illegitimate creation brought about by a union between racism and colonialism. The refugees who make up the majority of the population in the Gaza Strip are a constant reminder of this.
They are a reminder of the crime of ethnic cleansing upon which Israel was established. The poverty, lack of resources and lack of freedom stand in stark contrast to the abundance, freedom and power that exist in Israel and that rightfully belongs to Palestinians.
Generous offer
Back at Ben Gurion airport that night, I was told that if I cooperate and plead with the shift supervisor it would make the security screening go faster. When I declined this generous offer, I was told they “did not like my attitude.”
They proceeded to paste a sticker with the same bar code on my luggage and give me the same treatment Palestinians receive.
As I write these words, the number of Palestinians murdered by Israel in Gaza has exceeded two thousand. Ending the insufferable, brutal and racist regime that was created by the Zionists in Palestine is the call of our time.
Criticizing Palestinian resistance is unconscionable. Israel must be subjected to boycott, divestment and sanctions. Israeli diplomats must be sent home in shame. Israeli leaders, and Israeli commanders traveling abroad, must fear prosecution.
And these measures are to be combined with disobedience, non-cooperation and uncompromising resistance. This and only this will show mothers, fathers and children in Gaza that the world cares and that “never again” is more than an empty promise".



Reuben Bard-Rosenberg: The Palestine solidarity movement must remain intolerant of anti-Semitism - but the claim that anti-Semitism is a dominant or generalised feature needs to be exposed as the falsehood that it is.

Cientista Stephen Hawking
também boicota Israel

Desmond Tutu's plea to people of Israel: "Liberate yourselves by liberating Palestine!" 
Desmond Tutu's warning to the world: "Those who continue to do business or deal with Israel in any field are doing the people of Israel and Palestine a disservice.
The reason these tools - boycott, divestment and sanctions - ultimately proved effective [in ending the Apartheid in South Africa] was because they had a critical mass of support, both inside and outsiden the country. The kind of support we have witnessed across the world in recent weeks, in respect of Palestine and, I hope, shall continue and increase.
My plea to the people of Israel is to see beyond the momento, to see beyhond the anger to see a world in which Israel and Palestine can coexist - a world in which mutual dignity and respect reign".

Apartheid Adventures  I

Apelo de Desmond Tutu a Israel: "Libertem-se libertando a Palestina"!
Aviso de Desmond Tutu ao mundo: "Quem continuar a negociar ou lidar com Israel em qualquer que seja o plano [socio-cultural-esportivo-econômico] estará prejudicando Israel e a Palestina.
O porquê de estes mecanismos - boicote, desinvestimento e sanções - terem surtido efeito [para acabar o Apartheid na África do Sul] foi o apoio massisso dentro e fora do país. O tipo de apoio que estamos presenciando no mundo em relação à Palestina, e que, espero, continue e aumente.
Meu apelo ao povo de Israel é que olhe para a frente além do momento e além da raiva para ver um mundo onde Israel e Palestina coexistam - um mundo no qual a dignidade e o respeito mútuo reinem".
21/08/2014

Football in Palestine - Futebol na Palestina

Ocorrência quase diária na Cisjordânia, um colono que atropela um menino palestino brincando na rua.
Almost daily occurence in the West Bank, a rogue-settler runs over a Palestinian boy  

Meninos cisjordanianos cantam pelo direito à vida, à liberdade e à soberania 
em sua pátria Palestina: On This World
E em Gaza, seus primos que sobreviveram tentam continuar a viver