Overcoming the Walls of our Time

What is happening in the Middle East should be of primary concern to us all. We have violence, religion, land grabs, nuclear power, politics, imperialism, siege, cruelty, war, and hope. The outcome of the Palestinian situation will affect every person on the planet because it will mean the difference between real democracy and peace, or sham democracy and violent imperialism – perhaps for us all. We are witness to a pan-governmental crisis of morality.

The South American continent, against all the plotting, bribery, violence, civil wars and massacres instigated by Western powers (for Western read US and its puppets), has lately risen to the principle of liberation and equality. It has at last resisted the ‘savage justice of the Europeans’ (Adam Smith) and created a revival of indigenous culture and language, the gaining of land rights and human rights. Many South American countries have in the last few years fought and won the battle against ruinous poverty and political repression. They have embraced for themselves the notion that the first beneficiaries of the development of a country’s resources should be the people of that country, and the West doesn’t like it one bit.

The continuing disenfranchisement and repression of Palestinian people is a continuum of Western oppression and as in South America, Cuba and Haiti it is being strongly resisted. Why else should a concrete annexation wall be built by Israel, dwarfing the Berlin wall in scale and length? If such a wall was for security reasons it would follow the border and be impregnable, but it is built to annex valuable Palestinian land and water resources.

Gaza is under siege because the game plan is to crush the spirit, the culture and the rights of the people entombed within it. Sewing thread is on the list of banned items to Gaza. Whilst it is clear that sewing thread is not an intrinsic ingredient to bomb making – it becomes clear that the traditional crafts of Palestinians are a threat both culturally and psychologically. Suffocating the culture of Palestinians is part of the long term plan to force the people into mute insignificance in their own land. It has been tried before – in Tibet, in Wales, in the New World. It may work for a while, but the determination of the oppressed should not be underestimated.

Twenty-one widely respected agencies including Save the Children, the UN, Red Cross, Amnesty International and Oxfam have issued a report condemning the injustices inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli state. This report is part of a sea change in world public opinion. There is a growing trend of international opposition to Israel’s apartheid policies:

· 116 governments have already recognised Palestine as a sovereign state

· The Methodist Church in Britain has recently decided to divest from Israeli companies operating in the West Bank

· Unions in Belgium, Spain, France, Norway, England and Australia are backing the Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign

· Peaceful aid convoys ride a wave of public opposition to Israel’s collective punishment of the Geneva Convention protected populations in Gaza.

· Numbers of Jews protesting inside Israel and around the globe are increasing. Jewish protests inside Israel are often prevented or put down by internal security forces.

Israel is facing the existential threat of de-legitimization. Israel’s far right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is so worried about the state’s loss of legitimacy that he has started a global media campaign to improve Israel’s shattered image. It will be media spin and cannot do much more than character assassinate anyone who opposes current Israeli policies. Widening circles of people will be tagged as ‘terrorist supporters’ and Islamic extremists, the peace and justice movements among them.

Israel is now inflicting with determination a terrible pain - employing state force against even mild forms of dissent. Peaceful protests against the annexation wall are being broken up with shock grenades, teargas beatings, shootings, and killings. Intimidatory arrests are often followed by torture, even of children, and long prison sentences. More than 10,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons, many without fair trials. This increasing reliance of force rather than legitimacy is reminiscent of the dying days of white rule in apartheid South Africa.

Gaza has emerged as the centre-piece of all that is wrong with the attitude of Israel and its western allies. In 2006 an election certified as free and fair by international observers was won by Hamas . This attempt at non US backed democracy was swiftly punished and the siege was announced. The tiny area of Gaza, already home to 1.5 million refugees from previous conflicts, was sealed off from the world. All exports and imports are currently banned and the entire population is imprisoned and almost permanently under fire. Talk of an ease to the blockade is a lie. Gazans continue to live under cruel devastation conditions, a fact confirmed by John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinians have held fast to their beliefs in justice and freedom. Not for them the fate of second class citizens living under apartheid laws. The free people of the world have come to their aid and a series of peaceful land and sea convoys have challenged the siege of Gaza. In May 2010 the Freedom Flotilla was attacked under cover of darkness. Nine civilians were killed. Some were executed by close range shots to the head. Others were riddled with bullets. Dozens more were injured. The Israeli commandos who committed these atrocities received public praise and state medals from their Prime Minister.

But the world convoys continue bringing aid and hope, and even more importantly reconnect the imprisoned ones with the outside world which they are forbidden to enter.

Now is the time for good people everywhere to find a voice. Peace and justice groups are stepping up their efforts, their campaigns and their protests. Now is the time to contact your MP, your representatives, your government and remind them of their responsibility to justice under the UN HRC Resolution calling for the Immediate Lifting of Gaza Siege. Now is the time to MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Full text of the UN Resolution http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sc9940.doc.htm

Dashed Hopes – The full report http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/conflict_disasters/downloads/dashed-hopes-continuation-gaza-blockade-301110-en.pdf

You can take Action:

Find your MP here http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/ and write to them asking why the Government should NOT want to recognise Palestine as a Sovereign State

Support or join a convoy taking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Go to www.vivapalestina.org and click on your country and find out more.

To call in question the society you “live” in, you must first be capable of calling yourself in question

We have come to the time of year when many childhood memories of Santa Claus are evoked and Christians are reminded of the birth of a Son. Some will celebrate the re-birth of a Sun as the low point of the winter solstice is passed and the days at last grow longer. Others will give presents just because it’s so good to give, and as they decorate trees and festoon their rooms with boughs of holly and the like, the pagan origins of this festival will be forgotten. Forgotten too will be the people in present day Bethlehem in their struggle for justice and security.

In 1948, many refugees from areas captured by Israeli forces fled to the Bethlehem area of what is now known as the West Bank, primarily settling in what were to become official refugee camps. This influx of refugees significantly transformed Bethlehem's Christian majority into a Muslim one.

The population of Bethlehem today is composed of Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Muslims and Christians have been living together peacefully for generations and they share one fundamental violation of human rights. Both Muslim and Christian Palestinians have no right to move freely in and out of their own town.

Today Bethlehem is surrounded by an 8 metre high separation wall, dwarfing the Berlin Wall which stood at a mere 3.65 metres. Built by the Israeli occupation forces it has been condemned by the International Court of Justice who found that "the construction of the wall, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law". In other words the wall is illegal, yet it exists, and grows.

No-one can enter Bethlehem without going through one of the 69 military checkpoints and showing their ID’s and necessary permits. Border guards tend to make up the rules as they go along and checkpoints can be closed without warning. If Jesus had been born in Bethlehem today the 3 wise men would have had to queue like cattle for several hours to get through a checkpoint, had their hands scanned, been searched, and quite possibly turned away as the gold, frankincense and myrrh they carried would be highly questionable.

Should the labouring mother of a present day Jesus require assistance in her childbirth, she would find that obtaining medical treatment is particularly problematic for pregnant Palestinian women about to give birth as the delivery date is largely unpredictable. Often Palestinians are only allowed to travel on foot - not by car - and they have to use old and unmaintained roads. The checkpoints are only open by day, so a night time problem has to wait. The permits given are only valid for one or two days, therefore the women must constantly renew their permits, and as a consequence, in some instances, mothers have entered labor and given birth at checkpoints because they did not have up-to-date permits. Between the years 2000 and 2006, more than 68 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints. Of these, 35 women miscarried, and five died in childbirth.

In the Bethlehem area alone there are 19 illegal settlements taking valuable land from local Palestinian families and choking communities. The wall isolates 25% of Palestinian agricultural land and the farmers have to obtain permits on a daily basis and pass through checkpoints to access their own fields. A modern shepherd watching the stars as portent to a famous birth would have either had his land confiscated, or might possibly have to wait until morning to obtain a permit to cross into Bethlehem.

87% of Bethlehem’s land has been taken by Israeli occupation forces which forces Palestinians to live in cramped conditions. In some places the wall is built so close to buildings that the windows are blocked and daylight cannot enter the rooms. The wall has cut people off from their shops and their precious land and olive trees; busy roads have become dead ends. Bethlehem was once a thriving, bustling town, now one in five people are unemployed. If Jesus was born in Bethlehem today the innkeeper would be struggling to keep his business going. There would be plenty of room at the inn.

People of good conscience can help restore justice to Bethlehem in many ways.

1. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign is a call from Palestinians to consumers to stop buying goods made in the Occupied Territories. Often clothing and food products are labeled ‘made in Israel’ when they are not. www.bigcampaign.org lists some organizations you should avoid whilst out shopping.

2. Buy real Palestinian products here at www.palestineonlinestore.com and help enable the fragile infrastructure and jobs

3. Talk about it. Palestine is the news. Look beyond your usual news providers and interrogate the internet for differing points of view. It is only by constantly re-evaluating what you know that justice can be won.

Oh little town of Bethlehem, Imprisoned now you lie.

Above thy deep and silent grief, Surveillance drones now fly.

Full words can be found at http://www.leedspsc.org.uk/?p=546

The people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders.

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same anywhere. “ – Herman Goering

COEXIST has been a little quiet of late because I have been driving in a convoy of humanitarian aid to Gaza with Viva Palestina. Full details on the blog (www.pippabartolotti.blogspot.com). I have witnessed for myself the level of terror and oppression being daily forced upon the besieged Palestinians, millions of whom are scattered in refugee camps across the Middle East, millions of whom are patiently and peacefully resisting the combined forces of the US, Israel and the EU to form an orderly queue, give up ownership to their houses and farms from which they were driven in 1948, and accept the perpetual fate of being a barricaded third class citizen in their own land.

In January 2006, in a remarkable act of courageous civil disobedience, the people of Gaza had a free and fair democratic election and voted in the Hamas government. For this their punishment has been continual and unrelenting.

In December – January 2008-9, just after Hamas had offered a ‘cessation of aggression’, a merciless attack was carried out upon the civilians of Gaza in order to inflict terrible pain. 1,600 Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered and 5,000 wounded. Israel had no right to fire even one single bullet into the Gaza Strip at that time. 13 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Since then all crossing points into Gaza have been sealed. Food supplies are inadequate and intermittent, clean water is delivered every 3 days or so, there are 5000 demolished houses and 15000 damaged ones yet absolutely no building materials are allowed through the blockade. The sewerage pours raw into the Mediterranean Sea because of bomb damage to the treatment works and no means to repair it. There are no spare parts, the ambulances which escaped direct targeting in the Israeli attack are mostly out of order. The majority of commercial bakeries in Gaza – 30 out of 47 – have had to close because they have run out of cooking gas. Medicines , fuel, and the means to maintain the small amount of infrastructure still standing are smuggled in through the tunnels at Rafah or brought in by organisations like Viva Palestina who are continually trying to break the blockade by sending convoys of humanitarian aid. www.vivapalestina.org

The great Noam Chomsky in his book Hopes and Prospects ISBN 978-0-241-14475-6 suggests that this pain and suffering is inflicted – not to reduce the threat of Hamas forces – but to eliminate the threat of political settlement.

A siege is an act of war. I have witnessed the daily patrol of Israeli submarines across the Gazan horizon, the incessant patrolling of Israeli warships in Gazan fishing waters. International law gives these people 22 nautical miles of territorial rights, Israel gives them a few hundred yards or they are blown out of the water. Sizable fields of natural gas have been discovered in Gazan territorial waters. It is reasonable to suppose that these resources which could be a major source of income for Gaza are shortly to be appropriated by Israel, with full US consent.

I have heard the daily overhead roar of low flying Israeli fighter jets, seen the fear in men’s faces, and the weekly tally of dead farmers and their children working near the border, used by Israel as target practice. www.pchrgaza.org A young man in Gaza said to me “Life in Gaza is dangerous and scary. We have to fight for hope”.

But don’t think of the Israeli government as the culprit. The UN has declared the siege of Gaza illegal, but no government is prepared to step up to the mark and defy the combined power of the international ruling classes in order to end the suffering of these people. The US and Israel operate in tandem (albeit with the weak and grovelling acquiescence of the British and the EU). Israel relies crucially on the US for military, economic, diplomatic and ideological support. It will proceed as far as the US allows. Israel’s criminal actions are US criminal actions. If Gaza falls, who will be next?

Sara Roy, a leading specialist on Gaza states:

“Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into aid-dependent paupers. …Livelihoods, homes and public infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed on a scale that even the Israeli Defence Forces admitted was indefensible. In Gaza today there is no private sector to speak of and no industry. 80% of Gaza’s agricultural crops are destroyed and Israel continues to snipe at farmers attempting to plant and tend fields near the border. Most productive activity has been extinguished.”

http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/Articles/Analysis/tabid/75/newsid395/3179/The-economy-of-Gaza/Default.aspx

What is the hope for the people of Gaza? I have to inform you that this is entirely in your hands. Look beyond the sophisticated propaganda machine and enlighten yourself:

How many Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails? - At least 10,000. The majority of whom are on 99 year sentences http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/resources/fact-sheets/646-health-conditions-of-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails

What date did the last Israeli bulldozer entered Gaza to destroy homes? - Monday 1^st November 2010 http://www.presstv.ir/detail/149264.html

If Gaza Falls http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node/1762