[RSCT] Gaza, Palestine (& Obama)

Mon Jan 19 07:45:21 CST 2009

Perhaps one of the most volatile, complex, and emotional situations in the world today involves Israel & Gaza. Below are some links to YouTube, articles & other possible resources that give a perspective not covered in the mainstream media.  Also, I hesitated sending this out for fear of being labeled "anti-Semitic." I think it's important to realize that being against Zionist aggression is not being anti-Semitic. In fact, as some links show, many Jews, including many in Israel, oppose what is happening in Gaza.  Monday, Jan 12, Jews in New York City had a protest titled "Not in Our Name." A recent call titled "Jews in Solidarity with Palestine" has received thousands of endorsers.  Please email <jwall5 at igc.org> if you would like me to forward it. (Titled "SIGN for Gaza / Stop U.S./Israeli Genocide") Jim Wallace

-1) Two youtube links showing demonstrations in Israel & Israelis who refuse to fight in Gaza.
-2) "Open Letter to Obama" from Teachers Against Occupation with many "more information" links
-3) Memo to Obama from Uri Averny (link)
-4) "Song for Gaza" link & text by Bill Bigelow
-5) "What You Don’t Know About Gaza" (text & link)

 - - - - - - 

-1a) Thousands of Israelis protest against the war in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc9DN2Oi0-w&feature=related

-1b)Israeli Soldiers Refuse to Fight in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cMs0nai4JQ

 - - - - - - - - - 

-2) Teachers Against Occupation. This blogspot has an "Open Letter" to Barack Obama. Also note the extensive list of links on the right side. 

http://teachersagainstoccupation.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-to-barack-obama.html

 - - - - - - - - - 

-3) A Memo to Obama on Israel

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090112/avnery

by URI AVNERY: Uri Avnery is a veteran of Israel's 1948 war, a former Member of the Knesset, founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement and winner of the 2001 Right Livelihood Award, often called the "alternative Nobel Peace Prize." His book "1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem," which was published in Hebrew soon after the 1948 war and was a bestseller in Israel, has just been translated into English for the first time by Oneworld Publications.

 - - - - - - 

-4) "Song for Gaza" 

"We Will Not Go Down (Song for Gaza)" by Michael Heart: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfhoU66s4Y

<email from Bill Bigelow posted to NYCORE listserv>

"Dear NYCORE friends,

It's often hard to know what to do when a crisis breaks out somewhere in the world and we're in the midst of teaching about other issues. The Israeli war against Palestinians in Gaza has a complicated history, so we may be tempted to avoid dealing with it in class. Ruth Shagoury, a colleague in Portland, shared this powerful YouTube video with me, "We Will Not Go Down (Song for Gaza)" by Michael Heart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfhoU66s4Y

No one song can provide the kind of context that students would need to grasp the issues of a struggle like this, but this song might be one way to alert students to some of the human dimension of the ongoing Israeli invasion and bombing and help students raise some questions. Below are the song's lyrics. (Not included to save space-jw)

On Thursday, Bob Peterson posted two articles on the Rethinking Schools critical teaching list that Hofstra professor Alan Singer had distributed. There was a line in one of those that is one of the most telling quotations I've read about Israeli government objectives in their current and historic treatment of Palestinians. It's from Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.” I suppose that this is the objective of all colonizers vis a vis the colonized.  (The articles are the Avnery & Khalidi-jw.)

If you are teaching about Israel-Palestine issues, and especially about Gaza, please share your experiences.

For peace and justice, Bill Bigelow, bbpdx at aol.com, Rethinking Schools, www.rethinkingschools.org"

 - - - - - 
-5) What You Don’t Know About Gaza
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html

By RASHID KHALIDI: Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html
January 8, 2009 - New York Times
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
What You Don’t Know About Gaza
By RASHID KHALIDI

NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.
The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.

WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East."

"