- Over 6000 (six thousand) Palestinian refugees from Gaza,
including children, babies, pregnant women, the sick, the elderly, and
unarmed civilians have been stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah
border of Gaza for over one month now.
-
- Stranded in the scorching heat, they are without adequate
shelter, food, or money with which to solicit help because the Zionist
Israeli military regime decided to close the border passage between Gaza
and Egypt. The Zionists had earlier built an enormous wall between Gaza
and Egypt, destroying hundreds of Palestinian homes without notice in the
process. The wall is a wall that is too high to be scaled, and those now
trapped on the other side of it are being denied by Zionists reentry into
Gaza. The Palestinians of Gaza cannot go home. (1)
-
- In addition to this sadistic and prolonged torture of
the innocent, according to Gush Shalom, (Gush Shalom is a Jewish peace
movement- true Judaism is opposed to Zionism) "services of Western
Union and DHL in the Gaza Strip were discontinued under Israeli and American
pressure, making it impossible for families to send money to their trapped
relatives." On July 2, 2007, Gush Shalom sent "a strong protest
to Prime Minster Olmert and Defence Minister Barak, and also a letter to
representatives of the European Union. (2) (3)
-
- Stranded now in what former Palestinian Prime Minister
Ismail Haniya describes as "appalling conditions," the death
toll of the tormented has begun. Twenty-eight have died. In what should
be causing flags of great concern to be raised, the EU personnel who monitor
the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt are being sent home because
it appears the border is going to remain closed. Chillingly, one must quickly
ask if this is tantamount to removing potential foreign witnesses from
a scene where a plan of torture and murder by the deliberate acts of withholding
food and water from a civilian population could be underway. (4) (5)
-
- Many of the Palestinian refugees now stranded at the
closed border had simply been in Egypt seeking medical treatment, while
others had fled the fighting that recently took place in Gaza. The recent
fighting was carried out by the Zionists in what they referred to as "routine
operations." The "routine operations" took place after Zionist
tanks, aircraft, and military bulldozers left Israeli boundaries, crossed
over the Gaza borders and then entered the Gaza refugee camps where they
killed eleven, wounded dozens more and further demolished Palestinian homes
and property. It should be noted that this is not a "war" between
two militaries. It is a completely unbalanced slaughter of civilians. The
incursions are Zionist-Israeli foreign military strikes taking place within
Palestinian lands, and the military attacks have been against what has
historically been a largely unarmed, unheard, and unprotected civilian
population of Palestinians. The Zionist military has been portrayed via
controlled mainstream media as victims, while the largely unarmed civilians
have been portrayed as "terrorists" if they even attempt to protect
themselves in their own land from the tanks. (6)
-
- Among those wounded in the latest "routine operations"
by the Zionist military aggression into Gaza refugee camps, were children
and a young documentary news cameraman for the Al-Aqsa TV satellite channel.
The cameraman, Imad Ghanem, 21,who was filming footage of rescue efforts,
was gunned down by a tank as he filmed, and then several more shots were
fired into him as he lay helpless on the ground next to his camera. Only
one side of this military occupation in Gaza has tanks. Both of the young
man's legs were later amputated. Although Israel claims it does not intentionally
fire upon news media members who are gathering footage of Israeli military
activities within refugee camps, other reporters also claimed to have been
fired upon during this military incursion, as well. (7) (8) (9)
-
- Having completely cut Gaza off from the rest of the world
and even from 6000 of her own Gaza citizens, the Zionists have also blocked
all import and export routes. Food and other supplies cannot get through
to the Palestinian refugees stranded outside of Gaza, nor can supplies
get through to the Palestinians being held as prisoners in their own homes
in Gaza by the Zionists. The money is no longer flowing. Businesses are
closed. Many refugees are homeless as a result of continued Zionist destruction
of Palestinian property. But, none of this has been enough for Zionist
Israel. Now, just out of the world's sight and behind those tall, ugly,
Zionist walls that no one can see over, the Palestinians are being deliberately
starved.
-
- I contacted Palestinian journalist, Mohammed Omer who
writes for The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and asked him how
bad the food situation was for the Palestinians in Gaza at this time.
- "I just talked to a man," Mohammed replied,
"he said that he has nothing to feed his kids and his family. He made
it clear that things are so bad for him and his five children now due to
food shortages, he goes to get bones of cows in the market."
-
- The desperate family apparently boils the bones in water,
but other than this they have no food.
-
- "He has no money!" Mohammed said. "It's
very bad here!"
-
- According to an article written by Palestinian journalist
Khalid Amayreh, "Israel, which is shamelessly telling the world that
it has ended its occupation of Gaza, is still in tight control of the Rafah
crossing, effectively turning the entire Gaza Strip into the world's largest
concentration camp." (10)
-
- As stated in the brief clip of the documentary, The Wall
of Hate, (produced during or before 2004), which focused on the enormous
walls that Israel has been building within and around Palestinian lands,
"If the international community cannot stop Israel's apartheid wall
and the destruction of people and their livelihood, then humanity is at
stake." (11)
-
- Humanity is now at stake.
-
- Zionist Israel, which is a military/political war-state
funded by billions of US tax dollars, has been deliberately taking life,
limb and land away from the Palestinians for over sixty years now. It is
a war machine that is bringing humanity to a disastrous point of no return.
Americans need to act immediately to block any further funding of Zionist
fanatical terrorism, and most importantly, we need to demand instead that
immediate humanitarian supplies and an immediate money flow be restored
to the Palestinian refugees living within all concentration camps of Zionist
Israel.
-
- The entire world should demand that the 6000 stranded
refugees receive immediate humanitarian supplies as well as entry back
into their own homes in Gaza. Their reentry will be into the concentration
camp of Gaza, but that is all they have. It is better than standing at
the border and dying under the sun of exposure, dehydration and starvation.
And then, immediately, we, the world, need to come together as human beings
and liberate all of the Palestinians-all of the world-from Zionism. We
need to liberate the Palestinians from their state of torture and despair.
- We need to liberate the Palestinians from starvation
and from the concentration camps, the same as we once liberated the Jews
and other minorities from similar torture. The long list of crimes against
humanity and war crimes carried out by Zionist Israel must end immediately.
-
- We, the entire world, need to confront the disgraceful
and horrifying truth that is now before us. We have inadvertently permitted
and supported the ongoing torment of the Palestinian Semites for sixty
years by the cruel hands of a barbaric political state that is not a "Semitic"
state at all, and which further has no heart, no decency, no Constitution,
no "democracy," and no willingness to abide by any laws whatsoever.
-
- It has no business occupying Palestine. (12) (13)
-
- * * * * * * * * *
-
- Mary Sparrowdancer is a writer and the author a bestselling
book, The Love Song, the special edition of which will be published soon.
www.sparrowdancer.com . You can reach me here, but please know that I block
any sort of messages that are not humanitarian, peaceful and respectful.
mary@sparrowdancer.com
-
- * * * * * * * * *
-
- Cited References.
-
- 1. Gush Shalom. 6000 People Stuck at Rafah Crossing.
(7/9/2007)
- http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/press_releases/
1183810197/
-
- 2. Website of photojournalist, Mohammed Omer, in Rafah.
The Wall. (Scroll down.) Warning: Graphic images of daily life and reality
as it is in Palestine. (7/5/2007)
- http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/06/july_06_reports.htm
-
- 3.The Wall.
- http://www.gaza.ch/AFTER/prison.html
-
- 4.Ismail Haniya, statement, stranded refugees. (7/5/2007)
- http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=15665§ionid=351020202
-
- 5. Arab Monitor; Tragedy for Palestinians. (7/5/2007)
- http://www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=19705&lang=en
-
- 6.The Muslim News, Israeli attacks in Gaza kill 11 Palestinians.
(7/5/2007)
- http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=12981
-
- 7MSNBC, 12-Year-old among 11 killed by Israeli forces.
(7/7/2007)
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19448682/
-
- 8. Graphic video footage of cameraman being repeatedly
shot. (7/7/2007)
- http://video.google.com/videoplay? docid=-5351572126624222854&q
- =cameraman+shot +legs&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=
- 0&type=search&plindex=0
-
- 9. Committee to Protect Journalists, News Alert, Cameraman
shot by Israeli forces while covering Gaza clashes. (7/8/2007).
- http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/mideast/gaza06july07na.html
-
- 10. Khalid Amayreh, Rafah Crossing Nightmare. (7/8/2007)
- http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/07/03/
p18026
-
- 11. The Wall of Hate - 2004(?) Film clip. 7/9/2007
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=55016975077626941&q=rafah
+wall&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4
-
- 12. Speak up and protest. Please remember when you write
that this is not about Jews. It is about Zionist fanatics who are posing
as both Jews and Christians. As provided by Gush Shalom - Key email addresses
found here for those who speak from the heart for peace.
- http://toibillboard.info/addresss.rtf
-
- 13. Graphic - Cameraman down who lost both legs. (7/9/2007)
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conten
- t/photo/2007/07/07/ PH2007070700365.html
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