Al Jazeera English TV: Reflections of War

Al Jazeera English, February 14, 2009 - The two correspondents who did the lion's share of reporting from Gaza for Al Jazeera English during the war tell their stories, reflecting on what it was like to report from a war zone that happened upon them, without warning. These two thoughtful, articulate, totally professional, and very young journalists -- 29-year-old Ayman Mohalyeldin, an American whose mother is Palestinian and father is Egyptian and whom Gideon Levy of Haaretz called My hero of the Gaza War, and Shirene Tadros are inspiring to watch.

The show is in four parts.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:

For more shows from Al Jazeera English,use the links in the Resources section of this web site.

Swedish Photojournalist Creates Panorama View of Destroyed Gaza Village, Juhor ad-Dik

Destruction of a Village - War Criminality in Gaza

[Panorama view of destruction available at the link.]

Juhor ad-Dik was a small farming village south east of Gaza City. During the 23-day Israeli offensive into Gaza from December 27 2008 to January 17 2009 more than 1200 Palestinians were killed and more than 5000 injured. Most sources say that more then half of them was civilians, women and children.

4,000 residential buildings have been bombed to rubble and 16,000 other houses have been damaged during the conflict.

The Palestinian economy has lost at least $1.6 billion. The targets for the Israeli army have been schools, university buildings, hospitals, mosques, roads, bridges, power lines, water pipes and the sewage system. Andreas Lunde is a video photographer at ABC Nyheder Norway.

In Gaza Town [Khoza'a], a Bitter Aftermath

Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2009 - She was the strongest among them, the natural leader. So when the shelling stopped and the Israeli soldiers announced through loudspeakers that all residents should come out of their homes and head for the center of town, neighbors turned to Rawhiya Najar for guidance.

Emptying the cupboards of sheets and tablecloths -- anything white -- she led a procession of 20 women and children into the streets holding a white flag in each hand, residents say. The group had made it perhaps 200 yards when a soldier stepped out from a door down the street and shot Najar in the head, multiple witnesses say. Her body lay in the street for 12 hours, villagers and doctors say.

Weeks after Israel declared a unilateral end to its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the aftermath still burns in Khozaa, a farm town of 11,000 in the south of the territory. Chunks of white phosphorus still lie scattered throughout neighborhoods, buried in dirt and sand; when excavated, they immediately ignite and spew noxious smoke that smells vaguely of garlic.

As the International Criminal Court weighs a war crimes investigation of the Gaza offensive, the experience of Khozaa could be a key part in the evidence. It was here that Israeli troops staged a series of incursions from Jan. 11 to 13, facing off against local militant fighters and leaving a trail of accusations and recriminations in their wake....

Surviving in Gaza's Newest Refugee Camps

Photo: Maan Images

Maan News, February 14, 2009 - ....Thousands of Palestinians lost their homes during the war in Gaza, and many now live in encampments like this one, set up by the UN, Red Cross, and local charities. The camps have names like Freedom, Dignity, and Steadfastness. Yet the ideals signaled in their names is betrayed by the miserable conditions in the camps themselves. All of the camps are manifestations of the aftermath of the Israeli war.

In Al-Karamah (Dignity, in English), Palestinian civil defense crews came this week to hose down the dust in order to make the camp livable. Left with little else to do, the children in camp played in the water as it came out of the hoses.

Sheikh Saleh Ma’ruf the spokesman for one of the camps north the Gaza Strip said that another new camp is housing 600 Palestinians at the Ummar Bin Al-Khattab School in the town of Beit Lahiya. At 11am on Wednesday, Ma’an’s correspondent visited the camp, finding it in poor conditions. The relief agency running the camp had not arranged for any food that morning to feed the children in the camp.

“There are many pregnant women in the camp where they stay next to their kids and husbands during the day and go to sleep at their relatives’ houses at night,” Sheikh Ma’ruf said....

Through the Actions of Its Navy, Without Notice, Israel Reduces Fishing Limit Off Gaza Coast from 6 Miles to 3

Maan News, February 14, 2009 - Israel has tightened the fishing limit off the coast of Gaza from six miles to just three miles, the Palestinian agriculture minister in Gaza said on Saturday.

According to Agriculture Minister Mohammad Al-Agha, the Israeli Navy has enforced the restrictions since the end of the three-week assault on Gaza in January, firing on fishing boats that approach the three-mile boundary.

Israel has enforced a six-mile limit since October 2006. The Olso peace agreement guarantees Palestinians the right to fish out to 20 nautical miles from Gaza.

Al-Agha said that Israeli gunboats opened fire on Gazan fishermen on Saturday morning, damaging one boat and forcing fishermen to abandon their nets at sea when they fled the Israeli fire.

“The Ministry of Agriculture complained to concerned sides that there are no limits that could prevent farmers and fishermen from making money to survive,” he said, adding that a proposed truce should allow Palestinian life and labor to continue in all walks of life, including the fishing industry.

Al-Agha also said that Gaza’s agricultural sector suffered a half billion dollars in losses, calling for the victims to be compensated and infrastructure rebuilt.

Students Angered by Gaza Revive Sit-ins

The Guardian, February 14, 2009 - A new wave of student activism sparked by events in Gaza has seen dozens of university buildings occupied in Britain, with some of the UK's top educational establishments agreeing to set up scholarships for Palestinians or disinvest in arms companies linked to Israel.

Though the assault on the territory ended three weeks ago, lingering anger over the attack has prompted students to stage sit-ins at 21 universities, many organised via blogs, Facebook and text messages.

Students at Glasgow and Manchester are refusing to leave the buildings until their demands are met, after similar occupations at other universities provided tangible results in what is being seen as a new era of highly organised student activism.

Katan Alder, 22, one of 50 Manchester University protesters who have occupied a university building for nine days, said students were abandoning diplomatic tactics in favour of direct action.

"There is a new level of anger among students that we haven't seen before," he said. "There is definitely a new confidence among students who are beginning to realise that if they want to achieve anything simple negotiation won't work, our actions have to escalate."

Students at Goldsmiths, University of London, ended their occupation yesterday after their demand - two scholarships for students from Palestine's al-Quds university - was met. The students campaigned for a year without success, but their demands were met within 24 hours after they occupied Deptford town hall, which houses the university management offices, said James Heywood, 21.

"We were getting ignored and patronised, so when we saw what was happening at other universities we took direct action," he said....

Edinburgh University Under Occupation for Gaza

Edinburgh Occupation, Friday February 13, 2009- It’s been a fantastic 4th day here inside and outside George Square Lecture Theatre. After a slow morning we set up for our first teach-in. Tony Gorman of the Middle East department came to talk to the occupying students and passers-by about the history of Gaza preceding the recent conflict. At the same time we had a visit from Kathy Jenkins, another university lecturer, who participated in the UC Berkeley anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s.

At the same time, non-university supporters of the sit-in gathered outside GST and began singing solidarity songs for Gaza. We then had various speakers, including a Palestinian recently arrived from Gaza and several occupation participants, who communicated the university’s latest statement to the crowd.

IDF Probe Suggests Its Destruction of Gaza Homes is Indefensible

Haaretz, February 15, 2009 - Israel Defense Forces investigations into last month's offensive in the Gaza Strip indicate the army could face significant difficulties justifying the scale of destruction of civilian homes during the fighting. A military source involved in the investigation told Haaretz, "It's clear to us that in a small portion of the combat sectors immeasurable damage was caused, and that is very difficult to justify from a legal perspective, particularly if such justifications are called for in legal proceedings with international organizations."

In the course of fighting, the IDF destroyed hundreds of houses in different sectors, and Palestinian sources estimate several thousands of houses suffered damage. Some of the homes were struck as a result of aerial strikes, others during ground fighting in densely-built urban areas.

Still others were damaged by bulldozers or in controlled explosions according to the orders of battalion and brigade commanders on the ground. However, those making the decisions were often not the brigade commanders themselves, but support staff such as operational commanders....

Retired US Colonel Ann Wright on Her Recent Visit to Gaza as Part of Code Pink

Gaza Diary, Day 2 (February 9, 2009)

Interview by Laura Flanders on GRITtv (February 10, 2009)



Opinion: The Israeli Smashing of Gaza and International Silence (February 13, 2009)

Higher Education Chronicle: War of Words on Investment in Israel

Higher Education Chronicle, February 13, 2009 - A pro-Palestinian student group and Hampshire College disagreed Thursday as to whether the Massachusetts institution’s withdrawal of investments from an index fund represented a rebuke of Israel, and a major first for the divestment movement. Any hope that this might stay a quiet campus disagreement — probably a slim hope given the topics involved — has evaporated with dueling press releases, media coverage from the Middle East and the entry of Alan M. Dershowitz into the dispute.

Dershowitz, a Harvard University law professor and well known supporter of Israel, threatened to unleash a campaign against the college, and issue a call for donors to withhold contributions, unless Hampshire resolves any ambiguities and clearly states that it rejects student efforts to divest from the Jewish state. “What they have to do is make it impossible for the students to plausibly be able to declare victory,” said Dershowitz, whose son went to Hampshire.

“They want me on their side, they want the anti-Israel students on their side, they want everybody on their side. But unfortunately the divestment campaign is a zero-sum game. Both sides can’t win, and Hampshire let the anti-Israel students win and they will pay a heavy price for that. Unless they withdraw it, they withdraw it and they make it clear they have rejected these efforts to divest from Israel.”

The students dominated the headlines on Thursday when, in a press release, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter hailed Hampshire as “the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” The student group celebrated having successfully pressured the college to divest from six companies with connections to Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hampshire officials acknowledge they initiated a review of the specific State Street fund in question in response to a petition from Students for Justice in Palestine. However, Hampshire maintains that it transferred assets to another fund after finding much broader violations of its policy on socially responsible investing, including unfair labor policies, environmental abuse, military weapons manufacturing and unsafe workplace settings. In all, Hampshire says it found more than 200 companies in the fund that fell short of its standards. “[T]he decision expressly did not pertain to a political movement or single out businesses active in a specific region or country,” the college’s statement says.....