Students for Justice in Palestine at University of Maryland

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260181012111&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Dec 7, 2009 19:55 | Updated Dec 8, 2009 8:01 One of the UK's most prestigious universities is set to "twin" with the Islamic University of Gaza after its student union voted in favor of the move. The London School of Economics (LSE) is set to link up with the Gaza institution after the student union passed a motion - 161 students voted in favor and 131 against - calling for the twinning. The motion was put forward by the school's Palestine Society and called "To twin this union with the Islamic University of Gaza to show solidarity with the students there who have had their campus bombed and their colleagues killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces." The motion also calls for a room in the new student union building to be named after a Palestinian student killed by the "Israel Occupation Forces." The motion relied on an array of sources from organizati...

Finally! A step in the right direction! From AlJazeera - Rights council adopts Gaza report At least 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during Israel's three-week war on Gaza [EPA] The UN human rights council has endorsed the Goldstone report on Israel's war on Gaza, which accuses the military of using disproportionate force as well as laying charges of war crimes on Israeli occupation forces and Hamas. The council's resolution adopting the report was passed in Geneva by 25 votes to six with 11 countries abstaining and five declining to vote. The inquiry, lead by Justice Richard Goldstone, calls on Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, to monitor whether Israel and Hamas conduct credible investigations into the conflict which took place last winter. Should the two sides fail to do so, it calls on the UN Security Council to refer the allegations to the International Criminal Court. Hamas 'thankful' The Palestinian Authority had initially agreed to defer a...

A horrifying story from Gaza. From Haaretz - Family who lost 29 members in Gaza war: We envy the dead By Amira Hass Tags: Amira Hass Richard Goldstone visited the Gaza City neighborhood of Zaytoun in late June to tour the compound of the extended Samouni family, the subject of coverage here in recent weeks ("'I fed him like a baby bird,'" September 17; "Death in the Samouni compound," September 25). Twenty-nine members of the family, all of them civilians, were killed in the Israel Defense Force's winter assault - 21 during the shelling of a house where IDF soldiers had gathered some 100 members of the family a day earlier. Salah Samouni and the owner of the house that was shelled - Wael Samouni - took Goldstone around the farming neighborhood, showing him its devastated homes and uprooted orchards. In a telephone conversation this week, Salah described how he had shown Goldstone a picture of his father, Talal, among the 21 killed in the house. He told t...

From CNN Israel out of NATO event because of Gaza, Turkish official says ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkey excluded Israel from a planned NATO military exercise partly because of Turkey's criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive nearly a year ago, Turkey's foreign minister told CNN on Sunday. The Turkish government decided to change the list of participating countries and exclude Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces. As a result, the NATO exercise was effectively scrapped, although a U.S. embassy representative said it was only postponed. Asked why Turkey excluded Israel from the exercise, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, "We hope that the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track. And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well. But in the existing situation, of course, we are criticizing this approach, [the] Israeli approach." Earlier, the Turkish foreign ministry said "a...

From BBc Israel 'understated' Gaza deaths A new report says more civilians were killed in Gaza than Israel admits An Israeli human rights group says many more Palestinian civilians were killed in the Israeli military's campaign in Gaza than the army admits. B'Tselem said detailed research with careful cross-checking showed 1,387 Palestinians died, over half of them civilians and 252 of them children. This contradicts an Israeli army report stating fewer than 300 civilians died in fighting in December and January. Israel launched the assault to halt rocket attacks from Hamas-run Gaza. The overall B'Tselem total broadly tallies with the official Palestinian death toll and the findings of other non-governmental organisations, although the proportion of civilians it identifies is lower. ...

Absolutely beautiful story! From ElectronicIntifada - - Eman Mohammed writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 17 August 2009 Newlyweds Rana and Mahmoud al-Zourby at their home in the Gaza Strip. (Eman Mohammed) They say that all is fair in love and war. In Gaza, love and war have come together in a bittersweet union. Rana, 26, like many women around the world, dreamed of walking down the aisle in a white dress and veil. But her marriage to Mahmoud is extraordinary in many ways as life is these days in Gaza. On the rehearsal morning about a week before their planned wedding, Mahmoud, 21, got dressed with the help of his younger brother, then sat smiling in the corner as he waited for Rana to come visit to write out invitation cards. Before Israel's winter invasion of Gaza, it was easy for Mahmoud to recognize Rana from the mere...

New Report - "Red Lines Crossed: Destruction of Gaza''s Infrastructure" The report describes how Israel deliberately brought Gaza's humanitarian infrastructure to the brink of collapse in advance of Operation Cast Lead via its policy of closure and limitations on the entrance of inputs for the water, sewage and electricity systems. From Gisha : an Israeli not-for-profit organization, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents. Gisha promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.

Gaza's cars barely running Eva Bartlett, The Electronic Intifada, 3 August 2009 Even though six months have passed since Israel's brutal three-week bombardment of Gaza, Saleh, like many other Palestinians, has not been able to repair the damage. "I can't replace the windows and doors in my house; they were broken during the war. For the most part you can't find them in Gaza, and if they've been brought in through the tunnels then they're far too expensive."Facing the debt of an unpaid car part, needed insurance, and daily expenses, the driver is considering other ways of making money. "Maybe I'll have to sell my wife's only jewelry to pay the bills. Maybe I'll have to sell our refrigerator and television. That might bring 700 shekels [less than $200]." From Electronic Intifada - - - so who exactly suffers the most from this occupation? is it hamas? no. fatah? no. it is all the innocent Palestinian civilians who have limited acces...

Gazans have limited access to proper medical supplies because of an Israel-led blockade on the Hamas-controlled region, and equipment now in use is often broken or outdated, the World Health Organization said Thursday. While some medicines are allowed in for humanitarian reasons, importing spare parts or new medical devices into Gaza is limited, a WHO official said. Also, the UN agency said, well-meant donations are not helping. "The main issue here about the blockade is that it undermines the supply system as a whole," Mahmoud Daher, the head of WHO's office in Gaza, told a news conference in Jerusalem. During Israel's punishing three-week offensive in Gaza in December and January, aimed at stopping daily rocket attacks, two health care facilities were destroyed and others damaged, but the WHO said health care has since returned to prewar levels. More than 1,100 Palestinians were killed and thousands wounded during the Israeli operation. From Haaretz - - How does pre...

“Breaking the Silence”, a group of courageous former combat soldiers, published a report comprising the testimonies of 30 Gaza War fighters. A hard-hitting report about actions that may be considered war crimes. The generals went automatically into denial mode. Why don’t the soldiers disclose their identity, they asked innocently. Why do they obscure their faces in the video testimonies? Why do they hide their names and units? How can we be sure that they are not actors reading a text prepared for them by the enemies of Israel? How do we know that this organization is not manipulated by foreigners, who finance their actions? And anyhow, how do we know that they are not lying out of spite? One can answer with a Hebrew adage: “It has the feel of Truth”. Anyone who has ever been a combat soldier in war, whatever war, recognizes at once the truth in these reports. Each of them has met a soldier who is not ready to return home without an X on his gun showing that he killed ...

Last March, poet, novelist and feminist Alice Walker joined a delegation organized by Code Pink, to travel to the Gaza Strip just weeks after the 22-day Israeli bombardment and invasion. Walker, globally acclaimed for her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple, had also traveled to Rwanda, Eastern Congo and other places where she witnessed cruel and barbaric behavior that left her speechless. "Rolling into Gaza I had a feeling of homecoming. There is a flavor to the ghetto. To the Bantustan. To the "rez." To the "colored section." In some ways it is surprisingly comforting. Because consciousness is comforting . Everyone you see has an awareness of struggle, of resistance, just as you do. The man driving the donkey cart. The woman selling vegetables. The young person arranging rugs on the sidewalk or flowers in a vase." We pass a hospital, bombed and gutted by fire. If one is not safe in a hospital, when one is already sick and afraid, wh...

" Four-year-old Samar Abed Rabbu lost her two sisters during Israel's offensive in Gaza last December and January. "She has had two operations so far," said physiotherapist Pierre Van Lierde. "One in Gaza and one here in Brussels. But the bullets are lodged too deeply. It's too dangerous to remove them and at least one of them is embedded in her spinal cord." The family alleged that Israeli soldiers had opened fire at close range - as they lined up outside the house and while Samar's grandmother waved a white flag. When the war ended we travelled to Jabaliya, northern Gaza, to find Samar's father. He told us that Samar's two sisters - Soad, 7, and Amel, 2 - had been killed in the assault. We brought him news that his only surviving daughter was now paralysed. " -From BBC

Taken from Davey D's Hip Hop Corner : "Why should Black people in America be concerned about political happenings in far off places like Iran or Palestine when we have problems here at home? M-1 gave us a history lesson and reminded us that the Black struggle has always been international from the days of Paul Robeson to Malcolm X wanting to take our case before the United Nations to Martin Luther King dealing with Vietnam on up to the foreign aid that came to help us when we went through Katrina. M-1 goes into detail about why Black folks had better be concerned about international struggles. He lets us know that our struggle at home would’ve been seriously hindered if we weren’t internationally connected . He also encouraged us to see our selves as part of a larger movement without borders." Videos links here and here

"Among the 54 testimonies are stories revealing the use of "accepted practices," the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms, the destruction of private property, and most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions. The booklet compiles the testimonies of about 30 reserve and regular combat soldiers from various units that participated in the fighting. The testimonies demonstrate that the soldiers were not given directives stating the goal of the operation and, as one soldier testifies, "there was not much said about the issue of innocent civilians." Many soldiers said that they fought without seeing "the enemy before their eyes." "You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them," one o...

Many of those who vehemently support the Zionist ideology of Israel like to make claims that the Palestinian people are used as human shields by Hamas. Interestingly enough, it is true that Palestinians are being used as human shields, but not by the Hamas, but in fact by Israeli soldiers themselves. The "defenders of democracy" and "freedom fighters" for the Israeli goverment, are not all too surprisingly, responsible for the same allegation they use to smear Palestinian resistence. Here is an excerpt from the article whose link is below: More than two dozen Israeli soldiers who fought in the Gaza war say the military forced Palestinians to serve as human shields and used reckless firepower that caused needless deaths, according to a report released Wednesday. The Israeli military scoffed at the report, calling it defamation. The testimonies of 26 soldiers who participated in the war early this year were collected by Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli...