Irin, February 24, 2009 - School-children in the Gaza Strip face psychological trauma and lack facilities after schools were badly damaged or destroyed during Israel’s three-week assault on the enclave that began in December.
Primary and secondary schools in Gaza run by the government and the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) report a shortage of drinking water and textbooks for students, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Restrictions on the amount and type of materials being allowed into Gaza by Israeli authorities are hindering the education system.
Many parents and children say they were afraid to return to school after the war. The first attack hit Gaza on a morning while school was in session....
Lack of books
Asma Co-ed Elementary School “A&B”, run by UNRWA, is still waiting for this semester’s textbooks, according to area officer Mohamed Abu Hashem.
“We have been waiting three weeks for paper to print the books to enter Gaza; meanwhile, students are sharing textbooks,” said Abu Hashem. “The main problem is the psychological effects of the war on the children.”
After the war he organised stress-relieving activities for the children, including group therapy session and plays produced by local NGOs, such as the Children’s Theatre Organisation.
“The children are frightened by loud noises and panic when they see an airplane in the sky,” said Abu Hashem.
Some 161 of UNRWA’s 221 schools are running psycho-social support programmes, he said.
The school operates without electricity two to three days a week, and about 1,800 students attend the school in two shifts....
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
European Delegations to Gaza
European Union at UN, February 18, 2009 - EU parliament passes resolution calling for damage assessment in Gaza
Maan News, February 23, 2009 - EU Parliament leader and delegation on fact finding mission to Gaza
Kuwait News, February 24, 2009 - Another European Delegation to Visit Gaza - Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament (EP), will be leading a delegation of EU parliamentarians on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories from Wednesday till Sunday.
The delegation includes 15 EP Members belonging to different political groups, accompanied by officials, assistants and journalists, Morgantini said in a statement here today.
On Thursday, the delegation will go to Gaza Strip accompanied by UNRWA, the United NationS Agency for Palestinian refugees, to visit hospitals, schools and industrial areas in order to collect firsthand information concerning the destructions perpetrated by the Israeli Army and about the real life-conditions of Palestinians in the Strip.
The MEPs will also have meetings with members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and with Human Rights organizations in Gaza.
The Italian MEP said she considers "absolutely vital to bring our solidarity to the civilian population which was under military aggression by air, land and sea, and to witness the situation in Gaza in order to report it back to the European Parliament".
The EP delegation is also expected to visit Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, where they will have meetings with the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and PLC members, with representatives of political and human rights organizations and Israeli and Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank, as well as with Members of the Israeli Knesset.
A delegation of parliamentarians led by EP President Hans-Gert Pottering, visited Gaza on Monday while another EP delegation led by Cypriot MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, who is the chair of the EP Delegation for Relations with the PLC, visited Gaza two weeks ago.
These visits, opine analysts, highlight the importance the EP is giving to the Palestine issue.
Haaretz, February 24, 2009 - Peres: EU Sympathy for Hamas Dimishes Chance for Peace
Maan News, February 23, 2009 - EU Parliament leader and delegation on fact finding mission to Gaza
Kuwait News, February 24, 2009 - Another European Delegation to Visit Gaza - Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament (EP), will be leading a delegation of EU parliamentarians on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories from Wednesday till Sunday.
The delegation includes 15 EP Members belonging to different political groups, accompanied by officials, assistants and journalists, Morgantini said in a statement here today.
On Thursday, the delegation will go to Gaza Strip accompanied by UNRWA, the United NationS Agency for Palestinian refugees, to visit hospitals, schools and industrial areas in order to collect firsthand information concerning the destructions perpetrated by the Israeli Army and about the real life-conditions of Palestinians in the Strip.
The MEPs will also have meetings with members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and with Human Rights organizations in Gaza.
The Italian MEP said she considers "absolutely vital to bring our solidarity to the civilian population which was under military aggression by air, land and sea, and to witness the situation in Gaza in order to report it back to the European Parliament".
The EP delegation is also expected to visit Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, where they will have meetings with the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and PLC members, with representatives of political and human rights organizations and Israeli and Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank, as well as with Members of the Israeli Knesset.
A delegation of parliamentarians led by EP President Hans-Gert Pottering, visited Gaza on Monday while another EP delegation led by Cypriot MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, who is the chair of the EP Delegation for Relations with the PLC, visited Gaza two weeks ago.
These visits, opine analysts, highlight the importance the EP is giving to the Palestine issue.
Haaretz, February 24, 2009 - Peres: EU Sympathy for Hamas Dimishes Chance for Peace
Report: US to Offer $900 million in Gaza Aid at Next Week's Donor Conference
Al Jazeera English News, February 24, 2009 - The US is set to offer more than $900m to help rebuild Gaza following Israel's military assault on the Palestinian territory, officials say.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, is to formally announce the funding at a donor conference in Egypt next week, one US official told the Reuters news agency on Monday.
The money, which would need to be approved by the US congress, is to be distributed through the UN and other bodies and not via Hamas, the Palestinian group which governs Gaza, said one of the officials, who asked to remain anonymous.
The same official said the pledge was a mix of money already earmarked for the Palestinians and some new funding.
Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera's senior Washington correspondent, said the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, had not moved towards engaging directly with Hamas but had modified some of its language towards dealing with Palestinians in Gaza.
It was prepared to mention Palestinian suffering without directly linking it to the actions of Hamas, our correspondent said.
The US has repeatedly said it will not hold talks with Hamas unless it recognises Israel, renounces violence and recognises previous Palestinian peace agreements.
In December, the administration of George Bush, Obama's predecessor, said it would give $85m to the UN agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria....
Monday, February 23, 2009
Take Action: President Obama to Sanction Israel?
| US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, February 23, 2009 | |||
However, there are growing indications that the Obama Administration is considering sanctioning “If this had happened in our own country, there would be national outrage and an appeal for urgent assistance. We are glad that the Obama administration acted quickly to send much needed funding for this effort but the arbitrary and unreasonable Israeli limitations on food and repair essentials is unacceptable and indefensible. People, innocent children, women and non-combatants, are going without water, food and sanitation, while the things they so desperately need are sitting in trucks at the border, being denied permission to go in.”
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"We Can Offer What We Are" - Novelist, Poet Alice Walker, of Her Intention to Visit Gaza
Code Pink, February 19, 2009 - During the recent ruthless assault on the people of Gaza when so many people were injured or murdered, I lost my own sister; she had been ill for many years. The loss of this one person, whose death was anticipated, was such a blow, that when I considered the losses to the people of Gaza – of mothers, children, fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, and friends, I wondered how the anguish of so much tragic loss could be sustained. Housing, hospitals, nurseries, libraries, schools, were also lost. Surely the blow to the human spirit would be intolerable for many, and there would seem little reason for continuing to live.
Going to Gaza is our opportunity (my partner Garrett Larson’s and mine) to express solidarity with the people there. To demonstrate the concern we feel each day for the suffering endured. To remind the people of Gaza and ourselves that we belong to the same world: the world where grief is not only acknowledged, but shared; where we see injustice and call it by its name; where we see suffering and know the one who stands and sees is also harmed, but not nearly so much as the one who stands and sees and says and does nothing. We can bring our witness, one of life’s strongest gifts, as others have come to our side, witnessing our struggle, when life appeared impossible to bear. When all is lost, or nearly lost, tenderness remains, or could. We can offer what we are.
Alice WALKER
February 19, 2009
You can donate to the Gaza delegation here
New Amnesty Report Calls for Freeze in Arms Sales to Israel in Wake of Gaza War - Amira Hass
Haaretz, February 23, 2009 - More than 20 countries sold Israel weapons and munitions whose use during Operation Cast Lead could constitute war crimes and might pose serious infractions of international law, according to a report to be released by Amnesty International on Monday.
The United States is at the top of the list of arms exporters to Israel, but France, Romania, Bosnia and Serbia are listed as well. Amnesty's report, entitled, "Fueling Conflict: Foreign Arms supplies to Israel/Gaza," details arms sales to Israel between 2004 and 2007, and publishes some of the organization's findings on the use of such weapons against civilians and civilian targets.
"Direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, disproportionate attacks and indiscriminate attacks are war crimes," the report states, describing such attacks during the war in Gaza. The organization recommends that all arms sales to Israel be frozen until "there is no longer a substantial risk that such equipment will be used for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses."
The report further noted that Hamas and other Palestinian groups also used weapons indiscriminately against civilians. Although Amnesty cannot determine the direct supplier of non-homemade weapons (which are manufactured in Iran and Russia), it also calls for a moratorium on weapons sales and shipments to the Palestinians. The report also mentions that the types and quantity of weapons in Hamas' hands are much smaller than those in Israel's possession.
"Even before the three-week conflict, those who armed the two sides will have been aware of the pattern of repeated misuse of weapons by the parties. They must take some responsibility for the violations perpetrated with the weapons they have supplied and should immediately cease further transfers," the report states."
Since 2001, the Unites States has been Israel's main supplier of conventional weapons, the report states. The figures Amnesty obtained show that from 2004 to 2007, the total value of U.S.-supplied arms to Israel stood at some $8.3 billion.
The report also notes that since 2002, Israel has received military and security aid to the tune of $21 billion, of which $19 billion was direct military aid. "Put simply, Israel's military intervention in the Gaza Strip has been equipped to a large extent by U.S.-supplied weapons, munitions and military equipment paid for with U.S. taxpayers' money."
A 10-year agreement, in force until 2017, stipulates that the United States will supply Israel with military aid totaling $30 billion.
"The Obama administration should immediately suspend U.S. military aid to Israel," Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East director, said ahead of the report's release....
See also: Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty Urges Obama (The Guardian, February 23, 2009)
The United States is at the top of the list of arms exporters to Israel, but France, Romania, Bosnia and Serbia are listed as well. Amnesty's report, entitled, "Fueling Conflict: Foreign Arms supplies to Israel/Gaza," details arms sales to Israel between 2004 and 2007, and publishes some of the organization's findings on the use of such weapons against civilians and civilian targets.
"Direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, disproportionate attacks and indiscriminate attacks are war crimes," the report states, describing such attacks during the war in Gaza. The organization recommends that all arms sales to Israel be frozen until "there is no longer a substantial risk that such equipment will be used for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses."
The report further noted that Hamas and other Palestinian groups also used weapons indiscriminately against civilians. Although Amnesty cannot determine the direct supplier of non-homemade weapons (which are manufactured in Iran and Russia), it also calls for a moratorium on weapons sales and shipments to the Palestinians. The report also mentions that the types and quantity of weapons in Hamas' hands are much smaller than those in Israel's possession.
"Even before the three-week conflict, those who armed the two sides will have been aware of the pattern of repeated misuse of weapons by the parties. They must take some responsibility for the violations perpetrated with the weapons they have supplied and should immediately cease further transfers," the report states."
Since 2001, the Unites States has been Israel's main supplier of conventional weapons, the report states. The figures Amnesty obtained show that from 2004 to 2007, the total value of U.S.-supplied arms to Israel stood at some $8.3 billion.
The report also notes that since 2002, Israel has received military and security aid to the tune of $21 billion, of which $19 billion was direct military aid. "Put simply, Israel's military intervention in the Gaza Strip has been equipped to a large extent by U.S.-supplied weapons, munitions and military equipment paid for with U.S. taxpayers' money."
A 10-year agreement, in force until 2017, stipulates that the United States will supply Israel with military aid totaling $30 billion.
"The Obama administration should immediately suspend U.S. military aid to Israel," Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East director, said ahead of the report's release....
See also: Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty Urges Obama (The Guardian, February 23, 2009)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Human Rights Watch to Israel: End Ban on HR Monitors
Human Rights Watch, Press Release, February 22, 2009 - Israel continues to obstruct independent investigations into allegations of laws of war violations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas military forces in Gaza by preventing independent human rights monitors from entering Gaza, Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem said today. After submitting applications for permission to enter via the Erez crossing in January 2009, the groups faced continued delays from the IDF unit reviewing the applications. In February, the IDF told Human Rights Watch that it had rejected its application. The Israeli military denied B'Tselem's first request to enter Gaza and has failed to respond to a second.
"Israel's refusal to allow human rights groups access to Gaza raises a strong suspicion that there are things it doesn't want us to see or the world to know about its military operation there," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "If Israel has nothing to hide, why is it refusing to allow us in?"....
See also the new al-Jazeera program, Focus on Gaza, which this week returned to the village of Khoza'a to learn more about possible war crimes that occurred there. Ayman Mohyeldin, al-Jazeera English correspondent in Gaza, reports. Al-Jazeera English TV, February 20, 2009 - A photograph of her recent pilgrimage to Mecca is now all that remains of Rawhiyya al Najar.
The mother was a Gaza native who had lived her entire life through conflict before it was to end on January 13, aged 37, by what was estimated to be a single shot to the head.
Testimony from eyewitnesses, friends, neighbours and human rights experts about the incident tell the story of how a woman carrying a baby and white flag was shot in broad daylight by an Israeli soldier.
Nasser al Najar, Rawhiyya's husband, still has the bloodstained white flag he says his wife was carrying when she was killed.....
Israel's Gaza Gamble May Blow Up in Everyone's Face - Tony Karon
The National, February 21, 2009 - Hamas took a calculated gamble last November when it escalated its rocket attacks on southern Israel, hoping that the resulting crisis would result in ceasefire terms that finally lifted the crippling economic siege of Gaza. The truce that Egypt believed it had brokered between the two sides last week would have realized that goal, albeit at terrible human cost to Gazans. After weeks of shuttling back and forth to Cairo, Hamas and Israel had agreed to a halt in hostilities – a source of considerable relief to the international community, which was ready to get on with the business of rebuilding Gaza, reconciling the Palestinian factions and looking for new pathways out of the impasse that has frozen the peace process for the past eight years.
Then, at the 11th hour, the Israelis backed out. There could be no Gaza truce, they said, until Hamas agreed to release Corporal Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held prisoner in Gaza since the summer of 2006. President Hosni Mubarak was livid: Shalit’s release was being negotiated by the two sides on a parallel track, and it was expected to come soon after a ceasefire agreement, in exchange for Israel freeing a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
The Israeli retreat is an ill-advised gamble, using the leverage of their chokehold on Gaza to press for the release of a captive whose continued detention is a symbol of humiliation in Israel. But it may be something even more alarming than a reckless roll of the dice: it could be a sign of just how dangerous Israel’s growing domestic political incoherence could become.
Decisions over war and peace remain in the hands of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert until he leaves office in anticipation of a corruption indictment. But it is not only the pall of scandal that clouds Mr Olmert’s legacy: he is viewed in Israel as the architect of two failed military campaigns. Israel did not achieve its objectives either in its invasion of Lebanon in 2006 or in its recent 22-day blasting of Gaza. With rocket and mortar fire from Gaza continuing even now, he has nothing to show for a military campaign that caused Israel considerable diplomatic damage.
Bringing home Cpl Shalit would be a partial redemption in Israeli eyes of a failed prime minister. But Mr Olmert is savvy enough to know that is not going to happen: his government hasn’t even decided just who they’re willing to release to win the soldier’s freedom. And Hamas is in no hurry to indulge Israel’s belated linkage of Cpl Shalit with the ceasefire issue. So Mr Olmert essentially backed out of a truce he wasn’t sure his successors wanted....
But that may be the least of it. Hamas will use the fact that it was ready to meet Israel’s and Egypt’s terms before Israel sabotaged a truce to rally support throughout the region and beyond, turning up the pressure not just on Israel, but also on Egypt – particularly in respect of getting the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza reopened. [See also: Egypt to Open Gaza Border for Three Days - The Kuwait Times, February 22, 2009.]
But if the Gaza crossings remain closed to all but a trickle of humanitarian aid, Hamas could calculate that the arithmetic of crisis breaks in its favour, and again escalate rocket fire out of Gaza. After all, if the Israelis responded with another military campaign jeopardising the lives of Gaza’s civilians, that will only increase the pressure on Israel and its allies and partners....
Tony Karon is a New York-based analyst and journalist who blogs at Rootless Cosmopolitan.
US Congressmen Baird and Ellison: "Israel Must Change Counterproductive Gaza Policies"
The Jerusalem Post, February 21, 2009 - Banning lentils and pasta from Gaza does not help the cause of peace, two visiting congressmen told The Jerusalem Post on Friday morning, after making a rare visit to Gaza the previous day.
When have lentil bombs been going off lately? Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?" asked Rep. Brian Baird (D-Washington).
He and Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) called on Israel to end the economic isolation of Gaza and to open the crossings into the area, which have been closed since Hamas's coup there in June 2007.
Their call came two days after the cabinet agreed to link the full opening of the crossings to the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit, who has been held in Gaza since June 2006.
Ellison said he had taken the efforts to free Schalit to heart and had a copy of his dog tags in his office.
"I have met with his family and prayed for his release. But you know he is not going to get out any faster by inflicting pain and punishment on 1.5 million Palestinians [in Gaza]. It is not going to happen that way," he said.Israel's policy toward Gaza "is not designed for success or to win the release of Gilad Schalit."....
Maj. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, told the Post that lentils and pasta would be allowed into Gaza as of Sunday. Some 100,000 tons of supplies had been allowed into Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead, but the list of items deemed to be essential had not included lentils and pasta, he said. Baird told the Post already on Friday that even if the IDF changed its stance on those two items, the issue was much larger. "Let's not get hung upon lentils and macaroni," he said...
Morocco-Algeria Border Opens Briefly to Allow UK Aid Convoy Through En Route to Gaza
The Viva Palestina aid convoy for Gaza made history today when it was allowed to pass from Morocco into Algeria, through a border that has been closed for 15 years since 1994. The crossing took place peacefully, with a joyous crowd in attendance to cheer the convoy on.
PressTV (Iran) was there and filmed this live coverage:
Follow the convoy from now until its anticipated arrival at the Rafah crossing on March 2 on the Viva Palestina web site.
BBC, February 21, 2009 - The convoy of 99 vehicles, which left from the UK loaded with medicine, food, clothes and toys, crossed into Algeria near the Moroccan town of Oujda.
The frontier was shut in 1994 after Morocco accused Algeria of involvement in an attack on a hotel in Marrakech.
The convoy is due to cross from Egypt to Gaza in early March.
It left London last week, led by British member of parliament George Galloway. Its 5,000-mile route also includes France, Spain, Tunisia, and Libya.
The Gaza Strip is facing a humanitarian crisis following Israel's recent three-week offensive.
Though the Morocco-Algeria crossing was opened for the convoy, there is little sign ordinary people will be able to travel overland between Morocco and Algeria any time soon, the BBC's James Copnall reports from the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have long been poor, and disagreements are currently focused on the disputed territory of the Western Sahara.
Morocco considers the region its own, while Algeria supports the Polisario Front independence movement.
The border closure also has economic consequences, our correspondent says.
According to some estimates, the Maghreb has the lowest rate of internal trade of any region in the world.
Morocco recently asked for the border to be reopened, but Algeria has yet to agree.PressTV (Iran) was there and filmed this live coverage:
Follow the convoy from now until its anticipated arrival at the Rafah crossing on March 2 on the Viva Palestina web site.
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