Demonstration against Israeli attack in York

With just a few hours notice around 150 demonstrators attended a protest in York over the Israeli attack on the peace flotilla, which resulted in the deaths of at least 10 peace activists, quite likely many more.

Israel attacks unarmed humanitarian flotilla in international waters

I could not believe the news when I woke up this morning.  Earlier this morning Israeli troops boarded the international aid flotilla to Gaza.  So far it is reported 16 peace activists are dead.  Even for Israeli this is a new low.

This action is in direct violation of international law.  An unarmed ship attacked in international waters.

Many of the activists were Turkish, and the Turkish government have strongly condemned the attack, saying they:

"strongly condemn[ed] these inhumane practices of Israel"

I would hope other governments will now not sit on the fence and strongly condemn the actions of Israel.  If this was any other country there would be international outrage at a unarmed ship being attacked with its passengers being killed in international waters.

One Year on from Operation Cast Lead: Greens call for Justice for War Crimes in Gaza

With a deafening silence coming from the 3 main parties about the appalling situation in Gaza, I am proud to be a member of a party which gives a damn:

One Year on from Operation Cast Lead: Greens call for Justice for War Crimes in Gaza

The 6th January marked the 1st anniversary of the Israeli airforce bombing of al-Fakhora school in Jabaliya refugee Camp in Gaza. The assault was part of ‘Operation Cast Lead’ which included airstrikes and a land invasion of the Gaza Strip killing more than 1,300 Gazans, including more than 300 children over the course of 22 days. Caroline Lucas MEP and Green Party parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion added: “One year on from the bombardment, we demand justice for the war crimes committed on the people of Gaza. “Israel must be subject to the Geneva Convention concerning the rights of individuals and communities, in the same way that other states are.. The resort to ‘collective punishment’ in defiance of those requirements is completely unacceptable. While we condemn the actions of the Israeli Defence Force, we also condemn the Hamas qassam rocket attacks: Greens firmly believe that there cannot be a resolution based on the use of violence.”

Phelim Mac Cafferty joint International Coordinator of the Green Party stated: “One year on from the start of Operation Cast Lead, it is clear that the Israeli Defence Force believes it can act with impunity, committing what the UN described as war crimes in the bombing of the United Nations school in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp.[1] Over 40 died in the attack on the school which was packed with hundreds of people who had been ordered out of their homes with Israeli Defence Force leaflet drops and loudspeakers, in what the UN described a 'complete absence of accountability.' The Israeli action has been completely counterproductive to the prospects for peace.
“Throughout Operation Cast Lead: --Israel refused to act on the instructions of the UN Council which requested that it stop its bombardment; --The explicitly illegal bombing of built-up areas with white phosphorous was wide spread; --Such significant damage was caused to the infrastructure of Gaza, that Green MEPs, Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas, wrote to the Israeli Ambassador to the UK calling on the Israeli Government to refund the EU for its investment in the Gazan infrastructure. “Gaza is a country where the poverty rate stands at 76% and the unemployment rate at 45%.[2] Geographically, it’s about the size of the Isle of Man except with a population of 1.5million where over half are aged under 15. Phelim concluded: “The Green Party demands an immediate lifting of the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel which has caused a humanitarian crisis with food, fuel and medicine being blocked now since June 2007.[3] There is no military solution to the Middle East conflict. Peace is the common need of all people in the region but will only be sustained when there is justice felt by both Palestine and Israel.”

[1]http://www.palestinecampaign.org/files/4MayGltrtoSCBrd.pdf
[2]http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_weekly_briefing_note_2008_11_25_english.pdf
[3]Israel has issued a written list of goods banned from import into Gaza. The list, which has baffled UN officials, includes spices, kitchenware, glassware, yarn and paper. John Ging, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, The Washington Post 15 November 2008 said:

Viva Palestina convoy crosses in to Gaza

You will be pleased to hear that the Viva Palestina convoy has finally passed through the Rafah crossing into Gaza.



The convoy of nearly 200 vehicles, which started their journey at the beginning of December has had every possible obsticle and diversion thrown in its path by Egypt and Israel. The activists deserve our upmost thanks for taking this long and at times dangerous journey. They have not only helped deliver much needed aid to the people of Gaza but helped remind people that the blockade imposed by Israel is still in place.

Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur stated last month that 'two urgent priorities must be stressed on this dismal anniversary: first, Israel 's allies must demand, with a commitment reinforced by a credible threat of economic sanctions, that Israel immediately end its illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. Second, the Goldstone Report's recommendations, having confirmed the commission of war crimes possibly amounting to Crimes Against Humanity, by Israel and Hamas, must be fully and swiftly implemented.'

Convoy to Gaza at crisis point

The following is from Viva Palestina convoy:

To all friends of Palestine

Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish.

This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official was regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza.

He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port.

We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid.

The Egyptian authorities have by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point.

We are now calling upon all friends of palestine to mount protests in person where possible, but by any means available to Egyptian representatives, consulates and Embassy's and demand that the convoy are allowed a safe passage into Gaza tomorrow!


Kevin Ovenden
Viva Palestina Convoy Leader

Follow the York contingent at http://twitter.com/yorktogaza and http://www.yorktogaza.blogspot.com/

and the main Viva Palestina feed at http://www.twitter.com/viva_palestina and http://vivapalestina.org/

URGENT ISRAELI NAVY BLOCK VIVA PALESTINA AID CONVOY

The following is from the Irish4Palestine blog:

URGENT ISRAELI NAVY BLOCK VIVA PALESTINA AID CONVOY
I just got am urgent report from the Derry to Gaza team on the Viva Palestina convoy in Syria with the latest developments which are not very good for the Convoy or Gaza:

The boats were loaded with aid today and ready to leave for AL Arish, the plan was that we would meet them there, as we would fly to Al Arish and arrive before the boats.

However, the update is that the Israelis have just announced that they will be performing military operations in these waters and therefore the aid has no way of passing through these waters. So there is no point getting flights to Al Arish tomorrow as the aid wont be arriving. Of course, it now seems highly unlikely that we will get to the Rafah crossing between the 3rd and 6th when Egypt said the gates would be open to us. The Convoy is now brought to a total standstill. The Israelis have pulled a very dirty tactic here if what we are hearing is true. For now this is all we are hearing. More updates when we get them.

Derry to Gaza Team

International Aid Convoy Members on Hunger Strike

The following is taken from the Viva Palestina website:

27th December 2009
Members of the Viva Palestina international aid convoy to Gaza will begin a hunger strike at 11.25 am today (27 th) in protest at the Egyptian government's refusal to allow the convoy entry onto its soil.

Diplomatic negotiations are also taking place between the Turkish and Egyptian governments over the convoy's entry to Egypt. IHH, Turkey's main humanitarian aid agency, has 63 vehicles travelling on the convoy.

The Syrian government has also provided aid and vehicles, as has the government of Malaysia. More than 400 people from 17 countries are travelling on the 150 vehicle convoy, which is taking medical, humanitarian and educational aid to Gaza.

The convoy departed London on 6 December and have travelled nearly 3,000 miles across Europe and the Middle East. However, the convoy and its cargo of aid is now stopped in the Jordanian port town of Aqaba, having been denied entry into Egypt.

British MP, George Galloway , who is travelling with the convoy, said: 'Israel has kept Gaza under siege for three-and-half years against international law. It has not allowed aid or rebuilding materials in following its attack on Gaza earlier this year. Our convoy is determined to break the siege and take in urgently needed supplies Spirits are high in our camp in Aqaba, and we are going nowhere except to Gaza.'

It was at 11.25 am on December 27 2008, that Israel dropped its first bombs on the besieged population of Gaza. Three weeks later, following a sustained air, land and sea assault, more than 1,400 Palestinians had been killed.

The Viva Palestina hunger strikers will consume only liquids until the convoy is allowed entry into Egypt.

Convoy members will also mark the first anniversary of the beginning of Israel's Operation Cast Lead by holding a march through Aqaba, jointly with the Jordanians. In the evening, more than 1,400 candles will be lit for a vigil.

The convoy has been jointly organised by the charity Viva Palestina and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign , the UK's largest organisation campaigning for solidarity with the Palestinian people.

You can also follow the York contingent of the convoy at http://yorktogaza.blogspot.com/

Conference passes motion on Gaza

The following emergency motion was passed on the last day of conference:

5. Support for students

Item 4 of the Green Party Core Values states: "Electoral politics is not the only way to achieve change in society, and we will use a variety of methods to help effect change, providing these methods do not conflict with our other core principles."

In this spirit, and in recognition of the value of Non-Violent Direct Action, conference pledges its support to the students occupying University buildings across the country, and fully endorses their campaign to demand that universities divest both from the arms trade and other organisations which directly or indirectly have financially contributed to the military and economic oppression of the people of Gaza. Furthermore, conference condemns any universities taking disciplinary action against the occupying students who are exercising their right to protest; these students, as stakeholders in their University, have a valid right to demand that their university is investing funds ethically.

Conference thus calls for the following action to be taken: International committee and the International Coordinator to pledge support for the student campaign, and also to back our MEPs' call for an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, in particular in light of recent revelations in the press about Israeli actions in Gaza.

The BBC uses the argument of 'Impartiality' again

As reported in the Guardian today, the BBC has once again use the argument of 'impartiality' to justify its decision not to broadcast a radio version of Carol Churchill's play 'Seven Jewish Children'. This comes just a few months after the BBC's appalling decision not to screen the DEC Gaza appeal.

Why does this argument of impartiality only get used when relating to criticism of Israel. I doubt the BBC would have a problem with impartiality if they received a similar piece of work relating to Burma, Tibet or Zimbabwe.

Caroline Lucas in Palestine

The following is an extract from Caroline's blog, which she is regularly posting to while in Palestine from 25th Feb - 1st March:

We were met by staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), who were to be our guides for the rest of the day. As we drove into Gaza City, the scale of the destruction quickly became apparent. Whole neighbourhoods have been flattened, the concrete walls and floors of collapsed houses jutting out at impossible angles. The human cost of such devastation is almost unimaginable.

Yet one of the things that shocked me too was evidence of the deliberate targeting of Gaza’s industrial areas. Dynamite had been used to blow up enterprises like flour mills, a cement packing operation, even an ice-cream factory. And where tanks and bulldozers had failed to fully destroy the contents of buildings, fires were set alight to do the job instead.

Please take time to visit Caroline's blog to read about her experiences in Gaza.

DEC petition

Unfortunately it took a while for Downing Street to approve this
petition. It is however still not too late for the PM to call on the
BBC to change its mind:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/decgaza/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to call on the BBC to
broadcast the DEC Gaza appeal.

The BBC has broadcast appeals from the Disasters Emergency Committee
since 1963. In a rare breach of the agreement it has decided not to
broadcast DEC's Gaza Appeal.

We urge the Prime Minister to call on the BBC to reverse its decision.

Tony Benn on the BBC

Please forward this video on. Tony Benn takes full advantage of his interview with the BBC to continuously plug the DEC Gaza appeal.



Donate to the DEC Gaza appeal at www.dec.org.uk