Tell the Deputy commander of the Israeli Ground Forces what you think of Israeli action in Gaza. Colonel Geva Rapp, head of the ground operations in Gaza Operation Cast Lead, is on a speaker tour in the UK.
Day & Date: Thursday 29th January
Time: 6:00pm (Talk starts at 6:30pm)
Venue: The Jewish London Student Centre in Euston, 163 Euston Road.
Israel admits breaking the ceasefire in November 2008 in an interview on Channel 4 news..
MediaLens has an analysis of bias in the UK media coverage of the Gaza conflict, with suggested actions.
Last week, Jeremy Greenstock, ex-UK ambassador to the UN, implied on the BBC that Hamas was being misrepresented and drew comparisons with Northern Ireland.
My colleagues have introduced Hamas to senior members of Sinn Fein…. This is a regime about which a lot of inaccurate statements are made, particularly by the Israeli and Washington governments. It is not beholden to Iran…. They are not trying to set up a Taliban-style government in Gaza…. They are not intent on the destruction of Israel. That is a rhetorical statement of resistance, not part of their programme.
[The Hamas charter which is often cited as calling for the destruction of Israel] was drawn up by a Hamas-linked imam some years ago and has never been adopted since Hamas was elected as the Palestinian Government in 2006 as part of their political programme…. The tragedy about what is happening is that the cessation of rocket fire on Israel would have been possible if Israel had lived up to its obligations under the June ceasefire to open the crossings, and now the opening of the crossing has to be part of the solution….
I’m afraid the timing of this is very much related to the need for Israeli politicians to defend their populations before elections. Hamas feels exactly the same – it has to keep its electorate with it, by showing it is a resistance movement. There were negotiations going on… before this started. They can [continue] although it is more difficult…. The rockets are being thrown by the Fatah militants, the Al-Aqsa brigades, by Islamic Jihad, by people who are not Hamas. None of this comes out in public. The truth is just not being told about the current situation.
This interview largely went largely unremarked in subsequent media.
Other articles and resources of interest (updated 21 Jan):
Viewers and listeners in the UK might be forgiven for thinking that Sderot and the Israeli settlements near Gaza were subject to daily bombardment during the June-December 2008 ceasefire.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office (PMOH at pmo.gov.il) responds with a standard message referring to the “specter of incessant and indiscriminate rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip” and saying “a truce with Israel was abused by Hamas which persisted in attacking Israeli towns, while also conspiring to upgrade its terrorist capabilities”. However, a 5 November article by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center says (Section 12) says “Hamas, for its part, did not take part in rocket and mortar shell fire and sometimes prevented other organizations from attacking, although it did not confront them directly and massively or [sic] end their continued violations.”
The Israeli military’s own figures show that during the ceasefire, which they call a “lull in the fighting”, rockets and shells continued at only 1% of the previous rate (and of course there were no fatalities) until well after the IDF killed 6 members of Palestinian security forces on November 4. Hamas has always maintained that those that were fired were fired by Islamic Jihad – according to the Channel 4 report this is accepted by Israel. Whatever conditions of fear Israeli settlers may live in, it must be less than that of Gazans, for whom there has been shown to be no safe place and no escape.
The national demonstration on 24 January will begin at the BBC in Portland Place “as a response to the BBC’s largely one-sided coverage of the Gaza massacre, allowing Israeli spokespeople endless opportunities to propagate lies and deception without challenge.”
10,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv on 3 January to demand an end to their government’s attacks. There will be another day of mourning and protest on Saturday 17 January. Gush Shalom also has some suggested media actions.
When the latest attack began on December 27th, demos took off around the country. Many British cities have seen big street demos already, but there’s another round this Saturday (17th).
London – the third Saturday city centre demo in a row – 2pm at Trafalgar Square.
http://www.stopwar.org.uk
Demonstrate to stop the killing of Palestinians and call for a halt to the Israeli bombardment. Stop the War is asking all its local groups outside of London to book coaches or arrange other transport to help make 10th January the biggest demonstration yet seen in this country in the cause of Palestinian freedom.
Assemble in Hyde Park, London on Saturday 10 January. March to the Israeli Embassy in High St Kensington.
Stop the War, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, British Muslim Initiative, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament are also organising continual protests in the next week, culminating in a national demonstration marching to the Israeli Embassy in London on Saturday 10 January.
Celebrate the life and work of libertarian socialist dissident Noam Chomsky on his 80th birthday by adding your tribute here…
Protest Saturday 23rd February 2008, 5-7pm, Opposite No10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London
The Peace Cycle will join the protest on their bikes. Cyclists please join them at 4:45pm in Embankment gardens, by Embankment tube station.
The US government is seeking the death penalty against six men currently held at Guantanamo Bay which it calls “high-value” detainees. Five of the six men charged were held for more than three years in secret CIA custody at unknown locations before being transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006. The CIA has also confirmed that at least one of the men charged was subjected to simulated drowning.
This morning Brian Haw began his four-day sixty-mile walk to Oxford to take part in the ‘Queen and Country’ debate at the Oxford Union
CND expressed concern that the Government’s stake in the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE, formerly AWRE) at Aldermaston is being privatised. Both companies bidding, Fluor Corp and Jacobs Engineering are from the USA. Kate Hudson of CND said “When not only the missiles are leased from the US but the very warheads may now put under the control of American companies, the illusion that Trident is an independent system is shakier than ever”.
Such great attention was paid this week to one of the many documents posted on Wikileaks that the load caused the site to be unavailable. The 2003 operating manual for “Camp Delta” includes among its 238 pages information that some prisoners were to be kept away from Red Cross contact. The Pentagon subsequently asked for the 4MB PDF document to be removed but had less effect than thousands of people following news links. Meanwhile Amnesty has a 13-point plan to close Guantanamo that it wants you and your MP to support.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), leading the fight against forced labour in United States agriculture, is being presented with the 2007 Anti-Slavery Award from Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest international human rights organisation. CIW was founded in 1993, has helped free over a thousand workers held in debt bondage, and is currently calling on Burger King to end sweatshop conditions on US farms. Felicity Lawrence will give CIW the award on 21 November at the TUC in London, where Shahid Malik MP of DFID will also receive 49,480 signatures in the Fight For Freedom campaign on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
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