From Gaza we say: the outcome of our battle depends on you

The Electronic Intifada Gaza Strip 5 September 2014

“Now, our battle to hold Israel accountable for its fresh war crimes and crimes against humanity has begun,” say Gaza civil society groups.

Anne Paq ActiveStills

From the ruins of our towns and cities in Gaza, we send our heartfelt appreciation to all those who stood with us and mobilized during the latest Israeli massacre.

In the occupied West Bank, Israel has embarked on one of its largest illegal land grabs in decades by confiscating another 1,000 acres of Palestinian land to expand its illegal colonies.

Now, our battle to hold Israel accountable for its fresh war crimes and crimes against humanity has begun. The outcome of this battle to end Israeli impunity will determine whether Israel’s latest assault will be yet another stage in Israel’s “incremental genocide” of Palestinians or the turning point that will bring an end to Israel’s status as an entity above the law – the world’s dangerous pariah. The outcome of this battle depends on you.

Two months after its 2008–2009 massacre in Gaza, Israel’s prize was an upgrade in trade relations with the European Union. By 2012, western powers in cooperation with the UN Secretary General had effectively prevented all investigation by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel committed during the attack.

During the most recent massacre, on 2 August 2014, three days after the occupation forces bombed the designated UN humanitarian shelter in Jabaliya refugee camp, killing 20 civilians and wounding at least 150 people as they slept, the US Congress approved $225 million in additional military aid to Israel. The following day, the occupation forces bombed another UN shelter in Rafah killing ten civilians and injuring dozens.

Also during the massacre, Germany sold Israel an attack submarine with nuclear capability, and the United Kingdom refused to freeze its arms sales to Israel. These and other forms of criminal complicity from world governments and official bodies pave the way for Israel’s ongoing genocidal attacks. It is up to people of conscience and all those who seek peace with justice worldwide to make sure this complicity ends now.

We urge you to stand with the Palestinian people in its entirety and to demand that Israel be held accountable for the war crimes and crimes against humanity it has committed and continues to commit against the Palestinian people everywhere.

We urge you to intensify boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns to further isolate Israel economically, militarily, academically and culturally.

Intensify BDS against Israel in all fields, including by taking the following actions:

  • Working to have arrest warrants issued against Israeli war criminals and for them to be tried before your courts.

  • Pressuring governments to impose a comprehensive military embargo on Israel.

  • Pressuring governments to suspend all free trade and bilateral agreements with Israel until it complies with international law.

  • Building effective direct action against Israel and Israeli companies, such as the inspiring Block the Boat actions that prevented Israeli ships from unloading in California and Seattle, and the occupations of Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems’ factories in the UK and Australia.

  • Working within trade unions to raise awareness about Israel’s regime of oppression and engaging in effective BDS measures such as stopping handling of Israeli goods, divesting trade union funds from Israel and complicit companies, and boycotting complicit Israel trade unions. The trade union movement has a proud history of successful campaigning against apartheid in South Africa, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions has joined Palestinian trade unions in calling for trade union action to end Israel’s impunity.

  • Holding to account those corporations and retailers that support and profit from Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid, including by boycotting their products and taking creative and direct action. The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) has suggested a list of corporate criminals to target.

The majority of the world’s people are waking up to the reality of Israel’s rogue regime of oppression and racism. For the rest of what is supposed to be the UN’s International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, demand an end to Israel’s criminal impunity. Stand with Gaza, and act for freedom, justice and peace in Palestine.

Issued by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) and the following Gaza organizations/unions:

  • Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions
  • University Teachers’ Association in Palestine
  • Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (umbrella for 133 orgs)
  • Medical Democratic Assembly
  • General Union of Palestine Workers
  • General Union for Health Services Workers
  • General Union for Public Services Workers
  • General Union for Petrochemical and Gas Workers
  • General Union for Agricultural Workers
  • Union of Women’s Work Committees
  • Pal-Cinema (Palestine Cinema Forum)
  • Herak Youth Movement
  • Union of Women’s Struggle Committees
  • Union of Synergies–Women’s Unit
  • Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees
  • Women’s Studies Society
  • Working Women’s Society
  • Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
  • Gaza BDS Working Group
  • One Democratic State Group

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Comments

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jane zacher, u.s.a. and jew for Palestine replied on

Thanks, got my orders, and have posted on Facebook which has a link for students in my class. I will wait and look for more directions - PALESTINE WILL BE FREE, BECAUSE IT'S UP TO ME!

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Shlomo Shunn replied on

I'm re-reading "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."

Israel's hasbarists hate to admit it, but there are many similarities between then and now. One is that both Adolf and Bibi blamed others for "forcing" their respective countries to do what they had, in fact, planned all along. They also both knew/know the importance of appearing to be "legitimate" in the world's eyes.

The world today ignores Israel's crimes just like it did Germany's in the 1930-40s. The difference is that now there is the Internet and iPhones, thus no excuse for "Good Jews" to say they didn't know what was going on.

When rumors that Jews were being abused surfaced, the world figured it was an internal issue for Germany...a sovereign country. Plus many in Deutschland were brainwashed to see Jews as sub-humans...just like Israelis today are taught that Arabs are untermenschen.

If you google pictures of Warsaw post-destruction by Stroop's troops they look a lot like Gaza today.

The Jewish State seems to be saying: "Now we know why Germany did what it did. It couldn't let its ministers be killed with impunity. It HAD to respond with Kristallnacht. And if innocent juden got killed, well, it the guilty shouldn't have hid among women and children."

Germany justified its aggression by saying Teutons had suffered grievously in the past...which they had. Germany lost about a THIRD of its people during the Thirty Years War. Later there was the horrific Versailles Treaty. Thus, the Aryan State did what the Jewish State does via the Holocaust: passes on pain with impunity.

The world couldn't believe rich, cultured Germany (home to philosophers and musicians) could commit war crimes. Few today can believe the more openly-documented murders by Israel. Normal people find it hard to admit that bullied people can become brutes in turn.

Israelis are doing unto Arabs what the Third Reich did unto Jews from 1933-42. Hasbarists hate that to be pointed out.

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Peter Loeb replied on

To Schlomo Shunn:

This is an excellent comment on a topic with many more intricate and complex
factors. To wit:

1. Israel covers up the fact that some of the prime collaborators with the Nazis
were Jews, namely the "Council of Elders" or "Judenrat". If the Nazi's wanted
to liquidate all children in a ghetto under 12 years, these mostly Zionist Jews
collected them and with their lunchboxes sent them to their inevitable deaths.
(The Nazis concluded that these children were not "productive" etc.)

2. Imagine if the US had backed the Third Reich as "allies". (Many corporations
did such as Xerox, Ford etc.) There are many reasons why this did not happen
and there is much analysis of why. Of course, World War Two would have
had a different outcome.

3. Sad to say,"Few today can believe...." is incorrect. Many today give Israel
a pass on its murders, massacres, land grabs, extermination policies etc.
The "many" include most of those in power in the West.

4. In the US it is now election time. I have joined a party of ONE (me) and refuse
to vote for (= support) any candidate or party which supports Israel. I cannot
in good conscience vote for those who give aid and comfort to the likes of
Netanyahu and his Zionist supporters. Many others are critical of Israel but who
is refusing them their vote? No, we are told, vote for the candidate/party who
tortures its slaves less instead of the one who tortures them more!

----Peter Loeb, Boston, MA USA

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Gypsy Roberts replied on

Peter, if we may, I'd like us to be a "Party of Two", for that is my prerequisite in a candidate as well: No votes in support of Zionism. It's also important that we email these candidates and let them know WHY we're not supporting them. Perhaps one of these days we Americans will wise up to the fact that there is political life beyond the Democrat and Republican parties.
A few days ago, I received a rather alarmed phone call from the campaign of a candidate in the neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race in my state. "Why aren't you voting for ___________?" I was asked. "Because she has a photo of an Israeli flag on her Facebook page!" was my reply. Maybe in the future, it'll give her some food for thought.
And I have a sad story to tell my fellow EI readers. When the U.S. Congress took its five-week taxpayer-funded vacation, I called my U.S. Representative, a Mr. Dan Kildee (D, Flint Township, MI) whose home office espouses that he will meet with any constituent. Apparently not me, however, because I spent several weeks and countless hours preparing my presentation on why he should cease his support for Israel, only to be told less than 24 hours before our scheduled meeting that he was unable to "accommodate" me. No reasons nor apologies were given, and nope, sorry, he can't reschedule, Ma'am, he's due back in Washington. And yes: he knew the nature of my wish to meet with him. I suspect he realized I was far more well-versed on the subject than he and wouldn't be able to put up a decent "defense", because he's just another bought-and-paid-for whore for Zionism.
Our best bets during the coming elections are the Libertarian and Green Parties. (One takes away from Republican votes, and the other from the Democrats.) The two mainstream parties HATE this, which is why it works just fine for me.

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Peter Loeb replied on

Last week I went to an organizational meeting of BDS here in Boston. It was
a few blocks away. As younger people came in the circle of folding chairs was
widened. I sat on an old sofa very close to the ground. After about an hour there
was a break. I tried to get up and on my old legs could not move. There were
many tries and no success. While others spoke of "action" around the city
I was stuck in my chair. A nice young man helped me up. I can write, I can
analyze...I have no Facebook, no tweeter, no smartphone, no "cell", no TV.
(I have a radio.) I can do what I can do in my way for the movement. I still
have a brain. I think. I can bring experience. Within my physical limitations,
I can contribute. My days of protests and marching are behind me. Like
the late Gabriel Kolko, I have certain reservations about the role of
civil disobaedience (See THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY:
AN ANALYSIS OF PURPOSE AND POWER , epilogue "Reason and Radicalism".

Does the statement on the right of return from the UN qualify as "international
law?" It was passed by the General Assembly, not the Security Council
and in any case would not be enforceable. For that it would have to be
referred to "Chapter VII" of the UN Charter with no veto where further action
would be required. Correct me if this is an incorrect interpretation. The
"Bureau on Inalienable Palestinian Rights" of the General Assembly has
consistently issued strong condemnations of the "land grab" to which you refer. "PAL" (its abbreviation in UN-speak) has strongly criticized the UN Security
Council for its failure to take action. No Security Action was forthcoming.

Onward for BDS!

---Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA

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THOMASWADAMS replied on

It is time to call a spade a spade: Israel, as a colony, is a constant source of violence and conflict. It is not an ex-colony, nor is it an accepted part of the world for many. It is a territory in the Middle East under Western occupation, which possesses no political legitimacy now, nor can it ever acquire such legitimacy in the future because it has no raison d’être and cannot create one.

Instead, Israel’s policy has always been to create faits accomplis, conquests that have been consolidated with the aid of its constituent Western states in Europe and North America. To date, this policy has never been effectively challenged, and so it continues in the same vein. Israel can carry on creating more and more faits accomplis, perpetuating its status as an ever-expanding occupation with vastly superior military strength. But if it loses the West’s support, it will no longer have the means to defend itself, having nothing that could preserve its existence, nor the raw materials to sustain itself. It could use atomic weapons, but this does not in any sense bolster the legitimacy of the Western implant.8

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Billy Jiggles replied on

Pretending that Israel is just a "colony" or a "settlement" might play well in certain extremist circles, but noone with any real brain cells would that take seriously. You might as well claim that the US is just a colony. The Palestinian people and their supporters would benefit far more by recognizing the obvious existence of Israel as a nation, instead of pretending that if you close your eyes long enough then Israel will just wither away. People in that neighborhood have been closing their eyes for the last 60 years and it has accomplished zilch.

Not only does Israel have a vastly superior military force, but it is at the forefront of biotechnology, programming, medicine, genomics and many other fields. It is certainly not reliant on Western aid, which contributes a small percentage to its annual budget.

Your claim that Israel has no reason to exist is laughable - who declared you to be the primary judge of another country's reason to exist. What reason to exist does any country have? What is the raizon de etre of Egypt, Morocco, or Chile?

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Peter Loeb replied on

Well said Mr. Adams.

I object to such terms as "The Palestinian Conflict". I would prefer "The
Zionist Conquest" Or perhaps "The Israeli Invasion of Palestine". Your
perceptive comment explains why.

Israel will not lose the West's support. From a diplomatic perspective covering
the last 30 years (ending at the present Administration which is a repeat
of previous ones of both US parties and worse) see Naseer H. Aruri's
THE DISHONEST BROKER...

For a key analysis of US history (since the US Civil War) see Gabriel Kolko's
MAIN CURRENTS IN MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY especially
Chapter 4 but other as well. Kolko addresses the character of US
immigrant work force (as opposed to European) and in other Chapters
the functioning of power.

----Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA

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Yesh Prabhu replied on

I am quite astonished to see that the writer of this article has blamed the Western nations and the UN Secretary General for preventing the ICC from investigating Israel’s war crimes. Not a word about Abbas’ role in stopping the ICC investigation. “By 2012, western powers in cooperation with the UN Secretary General had effectively prevented all investigation by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel committed during the attack,” this article states. The International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has said that the ICC did not take any action regarding Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians because Abbas has not yet signed the Rome Statute, even though Palestine is now eligible to do so. It was not pressure from the Western nations or from Ban Ki Moon that prevented ICC investigation, but Abbas’ failure to sign the Rome Statute and then to request the ICC to investigate Israel’s actions in the Gaza War. I have read dozens of articles, all blaming the USA and the EU, but never mentioning the fact that it was Abbas who intervened in the matter of the Goldstone report and asked the UN to delay the investigation. He has neither signed the Rome Statue, nor requested the ICC to initiate an investigation of Israel's atrocities in the Gaza War. I think Abbas must be thoroughly investigated to find out why he is obstructing justice for the Palestinians, and why he is acting more like an Israeli Mossad agent, and less like a representative of the Palestinians. Has he been bribed by either the USA or by Israel, or by both, to not sign the Rome Statute? How else can one explain his lack of action and bizarre behavior?
Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania

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Kalyan Banerjee replied on

It is a pity that those who faced the worst ever persecution in human history has taken up the same to persecute the Palestinians. Worst, the big brothers are looking the other way. We need to expose the duplicity. This is one of the right fora in that direction.