http://popular-resistance.
Mazin Qumsiyeh
PS: We had lots of volunteers working at our nascent Palestine Museum of Natural History and we took our first official field trips with 8-10 volunteers in each field trip. We focus on studying areas in danger from the wall and colonial Israeli settlements.
Child lost his eyesight after Israeli shelling. The father was killed a week later!
A rocket fell near us Tuesday in Beit Sahour. From the way it
broke-up, we think it was one of the "iron dome" missiles
that missed its mark (this happens to some 70-80% of
missiles that are supposed to intercept Palestinian home-
made rockets from Gaza). The owner of the house said of
the significant damage: "we are with Gaza and continue to
be". Wars bring out the worse in people and the best in
people. Israeli devastation of Gaza is facing against heroism
of resilience and resistance of Palestinians and an awakening
of conscience of millions. Every hour we hear stories and
listen to dignified resilient voices from Gaza in the face of
incredible devastation. Medics who continue to operate even
as their colleagues and relatives are killed. Remaining family
members who lost everything but promise to rebuild and
fight back until freedom. Municipal workers trying to avert a
catastrophe and keep bombed sewage and water lines open
and separate. Neighbors helping each other. Resistance
fighters coming back from the front lines to help dig for
civilian corpses buried under the rubble. A child consoling
her little brother after all their family has been wiped out.
People taking care of each other and giving all of us lessons
in how we can keep our humanity. Messages from Gaza say
to us "we survive, we are fine, how about you? How are
you?" Gaza has become like the pH meter in my lab, a good
barometer of change in the medium. How are we, the
medium of humanity doing and where are we heading?
Palestinian Civil society organizations and public figures are
calling on the world to demand the opening of the Rafah
crossing between the Gaza Strip and
Israel has developed a doctrine of slowly increasing attacks
on civilians to give them a chance to supposedly stop the
resistance (an impossible task). The three stages used in the
past four weeks included: first stage) used in the first week
of the shelling of Gaza included Israeli forces giving warning
to some of the people to leave their houses before they
flattened them with shells (a form of ethnic cleansing never-
the-less). Second stage) clearing neighborhoods with a
blanket statement in media to evacuate whole
neighborhoods, then flattening them (also ethnic cleansing),
third stage) no warning just blanket and random shelling
increasing civilian deaths. Overlapping stage two and three
was also the shelling of hospitals and schools and the power
station (targeting infrastructure, mostly without notice
given). Having exhausted these three stages which obviously
were well planned, Israeli leaders announced victory and
moved on. The only gain was to bank account of those who
profit from wars (companies like Elbit Systems). This helps
sales of weapons (depleting stocks which have to be bought
back and the US taxpayers pay for these). People die but
some people get to be even more rich.
On the bright side (if there is any), this adventure
accelerated the inevitable decline of the racist genocidal
state of Israel. The resistance is strengthened because people
saw that Israel could not advance one or two kilometers into
Gaza without casualties of its soldiers who are paranoid
about being captured or killed (even killed by Israeli forces
to prevent them from being captured. Many committed
suicide or injured themselves to leave the battle field. In
1967, Israeli armies advanced and conquered hundreds of
kilometers without any opposition from supposed "Arab
armies". The land conquered per hour was literally the time
it took infantry to walk across the landscape (no opposition).
Israel, Jordan and Egypt did not fight or even plan to fight.
And they had supplies and open borders. Here a
concentration camp (the enclave of Gaza) giving Israel a real
fight and Israeli mighty army is bloodied and confused and
wining about tunnels (well yes, the Vietcong also used
tunnels because everything above ground was instantly
scorched by imperial US forces). So many lies were
uncovered that many observers have started to believe
Hamas and other resistance groups more than they believe
anything that the Western Mainstream Media and
Netanyahu and his puppets have to say. Mr. Netanyahu
came in front of the Israeli public and lied yet again. Israel
acknowledged some 50 soldiers killed but most Israelis
know the number is at least three times as high. Many Israeli
families acknowledge money is being given to them to
refrain from mentioning the killing of their children at the
borders of Gaza. One Israeli leak suggested some 130-150
Israeli soldiers killed (closer to a number released by Hamas
resistance). But the ceasefire declared by the UN (the only
one declared by the UN and agreed to by the two parties)
was broken by Israeli forces after they encountered some
resistance fighters in their advance to Rafa and two Israeli
soldiers were killed and the area was bombed burying a
third soldier with the resistance fighters on spot. The Israeli
government version of this was a fabrication (soldiers were
attacked, one was kidnapped etc). Hamas's version of what
might have happened was more believable (they lost contact
with soldiers defending the field East of Rafah and they
presume them dead). Belatedly the Israeli version changed
and they were forced t accept a version closer to what the
Palestinians said. But this is of little consolation to
Palestinians including children massacred with the excuse
that Hamas broke the cease fire. Now there is talk in Cairo to
give Israel what it could not achieve by military means:
impunity from crimes, pacification of the natives while
maintaining colonization and injustice.
But people are moving. The above call and other like it are
followed by actions. There si widening boycotts of everything
Israeli and people are mobilizing aid convoys to Gaza (three
trucks from my own town of Beit Sahour will leave in the
next two days and this is just one of hundreds of such
efforts). Yet this is still not enough. 400,000 Palestinians
are now dislocated and for nearly half of them, their homes
have been destroyed. Billions of dollars are needed to
rebuild. Every bit helps though and actions speak louder
than words. As we help Gaza Palestinians on a humanitarian
level, we must also ensure accountability and to prevent
more Israeli crimes. To do that we need BDS, we need ICC,
we need coordination and joint action.
Names of Palestinians murdered by the colonial fascist
Israeli forces (they are not numbers or even names, they are
people with their stories and their rights violated and robbed
of their lives by a war machine empowered by human
silence) http://www.imemc.org/article/68429
I have many friends/colleagues in Gaza and all where
affected by the ongoing horrors, more than half of them had
family members killed (see for example story of family
members of our colleague Dr Mona El Farra below), and one
was killed herself with two of her children.
Being calmly rational about dead children feels like a very
particular form of madness. Whatever else journalistic
objectivity is, it surely cannot be the elimination of human
Israeli Vets Speak Out: What Really Goes On In Gaza
Starvation, shooting at kids, casual violence—former IDF
soldiers reveal the abuses by the Israeli military in
Photographer is killed as he videotapes attacks on
ambulances
here is the same incident from another photographer who
survived this war crime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-d5crde4vg
A very excellent example of an article putting the context out
that is ignored by Zionist dominated western media. We
should all learn to write like that and to focus our energy on
media.
Who profits from the war on Gaza
Over 100 Middle East Studies Scholars and Librarians Call
for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions
Boycott Israel: here is research on 60 companies to
boycott/picket etc.
Dr. Mads Gilbert makes a moving speech upon his return to
Norway from Gaza
Norman Finkelstein" The word is out, Israel is a lunatic state
Stay Human
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Professor, Bethlehem University
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Occupied Palestine
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