Tonight Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent “socialist” and potential 2016 presidential candidate, addressed a New York City panel on “The Climate Crisis: Which Way Out?” before the People’s Climate March tomorrow.
But thanks to audience members incensed over Sander’s votes and statements in support of Israel’s summer military offensive against the Gaza Strip, which killed over 2,150 Palestinians, things didn’t go exactly as planned.
GAZA, PALESTINE, November 30 – Isra Almodallal, spokeswoman for the Palestinian government in Gaza, addresses a rally in Palestine Square (al-Saha). The event is part of a global “Day of Rage” against the Prawer-Begin Plan, a proposal in the Israeli Knesset that would displace tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from dozens of villages in the Naqab/Negev region. (Photo by Joe Catron)
GAZA, PALESTINE, November 30 – Isra Almodallal, spokeswoman for the Palestinian government in Gaza, addresses a rally in Palestine Square (al-Saha). The event is part of a global “Day of Rage” against the Prawer-Begin Plan, a proposal in the Israeli Knesset that would displace tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from dozens of villages in the Naqab/Negev region. (Photo by Joe Catron)
GAZA, PALESTINE, November 30 – An Intifada Youth Coalition activist waves the organization’s banner from a sound truck during a rally in Palestine Square (al-Saha). The event is part of a global “Day of Rage” against the Prawer-Begin Plan, a proposal in the Israeli Knesset that would displace tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from dozens of villages in the Naqab/Negev region. (Photo by Joe Catron)
GAZA, PALESTINE, November 30 – An Intifada Youth Coalition activist waves the organization’s banner from a sound truck during a rally in Palestine Square (al-Saha). The event is part of a global “Day of Rage” against the Prawer-Begin Plan, a proposal in the Israeli Knesset that would displace tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from dozens of villages in the Naqab/Negev region. (Photo by Joe Catron)
GAZA, PALESTINE, November 30 – Majed Abusalama, spokesman for the Intifada Youth Coalition, addresses a rally in Palestine Square (al-Saha). The event is part of a global “Day of Rage” against the Prawer-Begin Plan, a proposal in the Israeli Knesset that would displace tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from dozens of villages in the Naqab/Negev region. (Photo by Joe Catron)
GAZA, PALESTINE, November 30 – Majed Abusalama, spokesman for the Intifada Youth Coalition, addresses a rally in Palestine Square (al-Saha). The event is part of a global “Day of Rage” against the Prawer-Begin Plan, a proposal in the Israeli Knesset that would displace tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from dozens of villages in the Naqab/Negev region. (Photo by Joe Catron)
(Image by BDS Movement: bdsmovement.net)
The Hussam Association, a Gaza, Palestine-based society of current and former Palestinian detainees, e-mailed this statement calling for legal action against British-Danish security firm G4S, which holds contracts in Israeli prisons and checkpoints.
حسام تطالب بمقاضاة شركة G4s البريطانية
طالبت جمعية الأسرى والمحررين “حسام” الهيئات والمنظمات الحقوقية المحلية والدولية بالعمل علي مقاضاة شركة G4S البريطانية ، والتي تشرف على منظومات أمن سجون الاحتلال الصهيوني التي يقبع فيها الأسرى الفلسطينيين والعرب .
وأكدت الجمعية على أنها ستعمد في المستقبل القريب إلى توجيه نداءات إلى المؤسسات الحقوقية الدولية والجهات الرسمية في دول عربية وأوروبية لمطالبتهم باتخاذ الإجراءات اللازمة لتقديم مسؤولي هذه الشركة للقضاء الدولي بسبب تورطها في ارتكاب جرائم حرب وجرائم ضد الإنسانية بحق الأسرى الفلسطينيين .
وقالت الجمعية بأنها ستتعاون مع بعض المؤسسات الحقوقية المحلية والدولية لفضح هذه الشركة وزيادة الوعي المحلي والدولي عن تورطها في تعذيب الأسرى الفلسطينيين عبر تزويدها للإحتلال بأنظمة أمن وغرف مراقبة مركزية في سجون النقب ومجدو والدامون وريمون وغيرها من السجون الإسرائيلية التي تضم خلف أسوارها أكثر من 5000 أسير فلسطيني من الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة والقدس والأراضي المحتلة عام 1948 .
وأضافت الجمعية بأن الشركة قامت أيضا بتركيب أنظمة دفاع على الجدران المحيطة بسجن “عوفر” بالضفة الغربية ، كما أنها تدير غرفة التحكم المركزية للمجمع الذي يضم محكمة عوفر العسكرية التي تحاكم المعتقلين الفلسطينيين من الضفة الغربية يوميا بأحكام قاسية وتعسفية .
وأكدت الجمعية بأن الشركة المذكورة توفر أنظمة أمن مرافق الاحتجاز والاستجواب في العديد من مراكز التحقيق والاعتقال الإسرائيلية، حيث يواجه الأسرى الفلسطينيين عادة في هذه المراكز مختلف أساليب التحقيق التي ترتكز علي أشكال تعذيب جسدي ونفسي شديدة القسوة الأمر الذي أدى إلي استشهاد العشرات من الأسرى الفلسطينيين منذ بداية الإحتلال .
Khalil S. Shaheen, Head of the Economic Unit at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, talks about the Gaza economy under the siege, how the occupation and the siege affect directly the economy, and therefore the development of the oppressed Palestinian people, denying them the right to develop and have normal lives as human beings.
Hundreds rallied at Palestine Square (al-Saha) Wednesday evening, then marched west on Omar al-Mukhtar Street towards the Square of the Unknown Soldier (al-Jundi), to protest the military-installed Egyptian government’s killings of hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in Cairo earlier.
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Families and supporters of Palestinians detained by Israel held a weekly sit-in in the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office Monday morning. Israel has agreed to release 26 veteran prisoners, including 14 from the Gaza Strip, as part of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority in Washington, DC.
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Families and supporters of Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israel held a weekly sit-in in the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Gaza Strip headquarters Monday morning.
(Photo: Joe Catron)
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Thousands of Palestinians marched and rallied in Gaza this morning.
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The events marked Nakba Day, an annual protest of the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinians driven from lands now claimed by Israel in 1948.
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In a statement, the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights said:
Of the 11.4 million Palestinians worldwide, 66% are forcible displaced, (refugees and internally displaced people) and over half live in the Shatat (forced exile). Instead of an event relegated to history, the Nakba continues into its 65th year – the central source for the annual increase of these displacement statistics.
In the past year, for example, Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid have targeted the indigenous presence of Palestinians particularly in Jerusalem, Area C of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip Buffer Zone and the Naqab. On 6 May 2013, Israel approved the Prawer Plan, which threatens to forcibly displace up to 70,000 Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab. On the same day, Israel issued 11 home demolition orders in Deir Nidham village near Ramallah, which, if carried out, will make 40 Palestinians homeless. On large and small scales, the displacement of the ongoing Nakba repeats the original crime and tragedy producing Palestinian refugees and Internally Displaced Persons annually.
Ongoing forcible displacement targets Palestinians residing on both sides of the Green Line: in the 1967 occupied territory and on the Israeli side of the “1949 Armistice Line”, as well as those living in enforced exile. Nevertheless, the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their struggle to end the systematic violations of their human rights, political and national rights, and to practice their right of return.
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Gaza’s Centre for Political and Development Studies (with which the author/photographer has worked on several projects, including The Prisoners’ Diaries), said in a statement released by e-mail:
David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister and one of its founders was quoted as saying: “The old will die and the young will forget,” yet time has proven him wrong. The young generation of the descendants of Palestinian refugees is still clinging to the glimpse of hope of return. One can notice this by asking one of the many kids playing in the alleys of Palestine’s many refugee camps about his/her original village. They will respond with the names of villages and cities from which their parents and grandparents were expelled. “Yibna, Qastina, Breer, Aqer, Yaffa, Joura, Majdal, Swafeer, Barwqa, Zarnouqa, Beer Alsaba, and Lod,” they would respond.
Israel marks the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 as its “Day of Independence”. This contradicts the basic historical facts about what happened and is still happening in Palestine. Ethnically cleansing 531 Palestinian villages, towns and cities is never “independence”. It is a crime on a great scale that was committed against the real owners of the land, Palestinians, in a time of weakness.
Any negotiated settlement that does not guarantee the right of return will not last long. No force can prevent a refugee from returning home.
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The right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, with compensation for their losses, remains a goal of every Palestinian faction, as well as a demand of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
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Versions of this post previously appeared on the Alternative Information Center and Mondoweiss.
During Israel’s November attacks on the Gaza Strip, the Real News Network reporter in the video, Yousef Al-Helou, told Ceasefire Magazine’s Alessandra Bajec:
Tuesday’s attacks killing the three journalists were a direct attempt to silence the truth, to prevent those cameramen from reporting the atrocities committed by Israel. Attacking the media is not something new to us in Gaza. We have lost numerous colleagues during the 2008-2009 war. Even in ‘quiet times’, cameramen have been killed in Israeli tanks shelling while they were filming.
These attacks are aimed at scaring journalists, for example we are now afraid to report from the border areas. But believe me, at the same time, we are even more determined to continue our mission to expose these crimes. Before being journalists, we are humans. When you see small bodies of children torn into pieces or burnt to death, we have a responsibility to report what’s happening.
Please sign petitions condemning the Newseum’s exclusion of journalists in deference to the protests of their killers. Members of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at George Mason University have posted one; the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has another. Also feel free to tell the Newseum what you think of its cowardice directly.
And if you’re anywhere near Washington, DC, please consider joining a protest, again organized by SAIA members, outside the Newseum on Saturday.
Greek Orthodox Christians marked the beginning of Easter Sunday with a four-hour midnight service in Gaza’s 1,606-year-old Church of Saint Porphyrius last night.
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On Friday, Israeli occupation authorities turned “dozens” of church members back from the Beit Hanoun checkpoint, despite their permits to spend Easter in the West Bank.
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Those who reached Jerusalem faced “a battle camp scenario,” Hanna Amireh, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee and head of the Presidential Committee on Church Affairs, told the AFP.
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“It is not only that Israel has isolated our occupied capital from the rest of our country – forcing our people to apply for special military permits to access their families and holy places for religious occasions – but even Palestinians from Jerusalem were beaten when trying to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” Amireh said. “Even praying has become an act of resistance for Palestinians.”
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Under attack in Jerusalem and siege in Gaza, the Holy Fire ceremony proceeded, as a flame believed to be miraculously produced in Church of the Holy Sepulchre was quickly spread to Greek Orthodox and other Eastern Christian believers across the world.
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This year Roman Catholics in Gaza celebrated Easter according to the Orthodox calendar as a show of Christian unity, and many whose service at Holy Family Church had ended earlier joined the gathering at Saint Porphyrius.
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The event culminated with a spirited rally and fireworks display in the church’s courtyard at midnight, but continued for several hours into the early morning.
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Joe Catron 