FOR GAZA – ANOTHER DAY OF "HUMAN WRONGS"

From: Andrew Silvera

FOR GAZA – ANOTHER DAY OF 'HUMAN WRONGS'

Please avail yourself to yesterday's contribution of the UK Press coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

"This year we've already had our first exercise in demonising Israel for its treatment of Bethlehem with the graffiti artist Banksy enjoying extensive coverage for his trip to decorate the security barrier near the town with his work. The message of Banksy's work and the coverage it has generated is the same: oppressive Israel has snuffed the life out of the town where the Prince of Peace was born. Herod's spirit lives on, even as the spirit of Christmas is struggling to survive.

The truth is very different. The parlous position of Palestinian Christians, indeed the difficult position of most Christians across the Arab world, is a consequence not of Israeli aggression but of growing Islamist influence. Israel goes out of its way to honour sites and traditions sacred to other faiths while the radicals who are driving Palestinian politics seek to create an Islamist state in which other faiths, if they survive at all, do so with the explicit subject status of dhimmis. But when it comes to Israel's position in these matters it's still a case of O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see them lie."

Michael Gove - Comment section
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article3029299.ece,

If that were in any way true, I doubt very much that this would be happening:

Bethlehem Campaign 2007

Please visit http://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns.asp?d=y&id=149 for more information.

- Please ask your MP to sign the EDM below:

BETHLEHEM AND BANKSY

03.12.2007

Kaufman, Gerald

That this House welcomes the decoration of the illegal Israeli wall strangling Bethlehem by the graffiti artist Banksy; and points out that his satirical depiction of the oppressive burdens on the inhabitants of the Holy City and the remainder of the occupied West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip, including poverty, deprivation and mass unemployment, inflicted by harsh Israeli occupation, is a far more accurate illustration of life in the Holy Land today than the smug travel posters for Israel issued by the present Israeli government.

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=34583&SESSION=891

Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Box BM PSA
London
WC1N 3XX

Email: info@palestinecampaign.org

Tel: 020 7700 6192
Fax: 020 7609 7779
Web: http://www.palestinecampaign.org

But what really urges me to question the validity of Mr Gove's comments, is just having logged these two recent articles:

Palestinian Mayors Lobby for Christian Support

Nathan Guttman -Jewish FORWARD-

"The message that the mayors carried was one of Palestinian unity, denying any tension between Christians and Muslims despite recent flare-ups of violence in the West Bank and Gaza. "We as Christians and Muslims live under the same culture," Nasser said. "The only way to differentiate us is to follow us on Friday or Sunday and see where we go to pray.""

Bethlehem's mayor, Victor Hanna Jubrail Batarseh, said that the recent rise to power of Hamas, the Islamic movement, has not been a danger to the Christian minority, though he did say that "at the end, we want to see a secular Palestinian state." http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=23448

Coexistence in Gaza

Mohammed Omer, The Electronic Intifada

GAZA CITY, November 27, 2007 (IPS) - As Sunday dawns in Gaza City the traditional Islamic call to prayer mingles melodically with church bells.

Side by side, mosque and church doors swing open, welcoming the faithful. Greetings are eagerly exchanged.

Monsignor Manuel Musallam, head of Gaza's Roman Catholic community, corrects the misconception. "If Christians emigrate," he states resolutely, "It's not because of Muslims. It is because we suffer from Israeli siege. We seek a life of freedom. A life different from the life of the dogs we are currently forced to live." All rights reserved, IPS - Inter Press Service (2007).

Link: http://www. electronicintifada.net/v2/article9126.shtml

Now I don't know about you but personally I feel that – and it was borne out again yesterday with the tank incursion of the Gaza Strip – that the Israeli response to the firing of the crude Qassam missiles, is wholly disproportionate; that the British Government's attitude regards Israeli actions is a bit of a damp squid (to say the very least) and would rather something more akin to;

Egypt: Israel Settlement Drive Could "Kill Peace Process"-AFP
Nasdaq Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:14 AM PST

CAIRO (AFP)--Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned Israel on Monday its decision to extend a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem could "kill the peace process."

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20071210%5cACQDJON200712101305DOWJONESDJONLINE000500.htm& http://tinyurl.com/3y3aj9

But what's also grating me, that our Press (and our government for that matter) are making the UK, wholly complicit regards Israeli violations of International Law and that their coverage of the Gaza Strip, Bethlehem and all of the OPT's, is an insult to anyone with reasonable intelligence but worst of all, considering again that this is supposed to be the UN Human Rights week, that our silence, is tantamount to signing a death warrant to all those innocents on hospital and medical treatment waiting lists in Gaza!

Anyway, I'm writing to the Times…. times" < letters@the-times.co.uk>,"

http://www.freegaza.ps/