A new documented war crime.

28 April 2010 - A Palestinian youth, Ahmad Sliman Salem Dib, aged 19, died at Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after he was injured by Israeli fire while attending a demonstration near the border to protest the imposition of “no-go” zones by Israeli armed forces.

In the following video a group of Palestinians and internationals are seen walking from the Ash-Shaj'iya neighborhood, east of Gaza, toward the Israeli border fence. The youths reach a distance of a few dozen meters from the border, facing an Israeli military post. A soldier is seen near the post, observing events. None of the protesters are armed.

According to B'Tselem, the video shows a group of youths, some of them throwing stones at the military post. There is a sound of one shot. The injured youth is seen evacuated to receive medical treatment. He died later of his wounds. A previous shot, which was fired approximately 10 minutes earlier, was not captured on tape. The video was edited for length, B'Tselem noted.

Source: Ma'an News

Making an American 'Impenetrable Underground Wall' the Laughing Stock of the World-Leave It to the People of Gaza

Illustration By Carlos Latuff

By Ann Wright* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

No doubt at the instigation of the Israeli government, the Obama administration has authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to design a vertical underground wall under the border between Egypt and Gaza.

In March, 2009 the United States provided the government of Egypt with $32 million in March, 2009 for electronic surveillance and other security devices to prevent the movement of food, merchandise and weapons into Gaza. Now details are emerging about an underground steel wall that wil be 6-7 miles long and extend 55 feet straight down into the desert sand.

The steel wall will be made of super-strength steel put together in a jigsaw puzzle fashion. It will be bomb proof and can not be cut or melted. It will be "impenetrable," and reportedly will take 18 months to construct.

The steel wall is intended to cut the tunnels that go between Gaza and Egypt.

The tunnels are the lifelines for Gaza since the international community agreed to a blockade of Gaza to collectively punish the citizens of Gaza for their having elected in Parliamentary elections in 2006 sufficient Hamas Parliamentarians that Hamas became the government of Gaza. The United States and other western countries have placed Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations.

The underground steel wall is intended to strengthen international governmental efforts to imprison and starve the people of Gaza into submission so they will throw out the Hamas government.

Just as the steel walls of the US Army Corps of Engineers at the base of the levees of New Orleans were unable to contain Hurricane Katrina, the US Army Corps of Engineers' underground steel walls that will attempt to build an underground cage of Gaza will not be able to contain the survival spirit of the people of Gaza.

America's super technology will again be laughed at by the world, as young men dedicated to the survival of their people, will again outwit technology by digging deeper, and most likely penetrating the "impenetrable" in some novel, simple, low-tech way.

I have been to Gaza 3 times this year following the 22-day Israeli military attack on Gaza that killed 1,440, wounded 5,000, left 50,000 homeless and destroyed much of the infrastructure of Gaza. The disproportionate use of force and targeting of the civilian population by the Israeli military is considered by international law and human rights experts as as violations of the Geneva conventions.

When our governments participate in illegal actions, it is up to the citizens of the world to take action. On December 31, 2009, 1,400 international citizens from 42 countries will march in Gaza with 50,000 Gazans in the Gaza Freedom March to end the siege of Gaza. They will take back to their countries the stories of spirit and survival of the pople of Gaza and will return home committed to force their governments to stop these inhuman actions against the people of Gaza.

Just as American smart bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq have not conquered the spirit of Aghans and Iraqis, America's underground walls in Gaza will never conquer the courage of those who are fighting for the survival of their families.

One more time, the American government and the Obama administration has been an active participant in the continued inhumane treatment of the people of Gaza and should be held accountable, along with Israel and Egypt for violations of human rights of the people of Gaza.

* Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in as a US diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience" . Her March 19, 2003 letter of resignation can be read here.

The drooping Israeli flags were as numerous, unmoving, and lifeless in the desert heat as the Israeli police and military conscripts blocking people from their basic rights. One of those young Israeli conscripts at the "immigration window", obviously not enjoying her work and trying to make it as hard as possible for Palestinians and visitors, asked do I have another passport.. yes... here it is a US passport. She kept my Palestinian document (called a passport but really not a passport and issued only via approval by Israeli officials) and asked gruffly "Istana" (=wait) and "roh henak" (go there).

But on the window nearby for Palestinians from Jerusalem (blue ID card) there was an even more problematic women: a lunatic Israeli who was literally screaming at the top of her lungs to the line of Palestinians who tried to figure out what to do to get her to calm down and process their documents. We wait, some for one hour some for four or more (and some are denied entry to their own homeland). Mine was a tolerable 3 hours until they called my name; this I think relate to having US Citizenship and thus pushing us around is thought to make us decide not to stay or even visit. The wait gave me time to chat with fellow travelers/sufferers and to begin to jot these notes and reflect on the day's progress and to think about other things.

The day had started at 4:30 AM in Amman and we were lined up in cars at the Jordanian side of the border at about 6 AM as the morning sun rose strong over the hills in this lowest place on earth near the dead sea. Swarming hungry flies got thicker as the line of cars inched its way amid the restless children and smoking drivers.

Our Amman driver (Hanna) was an old veteran at this and simply let his tape recorder play the songs of George Wasuf , songs that seem to defy reality of the crossing point to the hell of the occupied territories. Lyrics of "Lissa Elhaya 7ilwa" (Life is still beautiful) and "life is short, the fortune is fate". Hanna is a Palestinian Christian who has not been back to Palestine since 1967 when he as a child and his family were in Jordan as Israeli strolled through the West Bank and then prevented those who were abroad from returning. He has four children. He was not shy to express his dismay at how Palestine was invaded (by British and Zionist colonial powers), betrayed (by Arab leaders), ignored (by the rest of the world), and maligned (in Zionist controlled media). But he has retained rays of hope as he talks about his children who did find jobs, about his dream of visiting Beit Lahem...

After the checks on the Jordan side, we are loaded onto crowded buses and then move to the Bridge area and wait in a line of buses. Images flash before my mind: a girl with torn shoes, a newborn being shielded from the flies by a vigilant mother, a women with a patch on her eye, a man on crutches, pilgrims coming back from Saudi Arabia carrying "holy water". Most are very poor but there are a few wealthier folks (some zipped us by in the VIP shuttles).

The hardest parts were from 6 AM when we got into the Jordan bridge to 2:30 PM when we were still languishing at the Israeli terminal. Hundreds of Palestinians, more than 70% women and children wait patiently to be bossed around. We witness acts of Israeli insensitivity (e.g. when the young conscript demands children be lifted for her to see them rather than simply lean over the look at them), we witness small acts of treachery (e.g. a Palestinian man cutting in front of old women and children), but we witness more acts of compassion and kindness (offering drinks, food, helping each other with luggage etc).

In between periods of waiting, there are periods of frantic dash to get luggage load it onto one or another bus. I missed two buses as I decided I was not in such a rush and I should help others get onto it. In going from Amman to Beit Sahour, we passed through the following areas of authority (each with checkpoints): Jordanian, Israeli, Palestinian, Israeli, then Palestinian again (the latter four are to pass from the Jericho ghetto/reservation to the Bethlehem Ghetto/reservation). The 11 hour ordeal for what should be a two hour trip is rather exhausting. Maybe they aught to make it an olympic marathon sport!

The apartheid system here is mean and people are being forced to worry more about their food than their freedom (of course they are directly related). But the apartheid system is not sustainable and even Israelis know it. It is the manner of its demise that we should start discussing (e.g. changing the concepts of nationalism to concepts of citizenship and equality). These are things I began to discuss and I find many interested. The conversations are fascinating, the people eminently interested (as well as complex). A friend who just spent the summer here wrote "the situation is so inhumane...How do we bring awareness to what occupation does to the lives of people..How do we get folks to to get it..this in the year 2008--it should not be allowed for one group of people to lawfully be able to murder, maim, torture, demolish homes, confiscate lands...Among the things we witnessed; we sat with the families in Sheik Jarrah.. once again, how can it be that settlers can come and kick the familes out of their homes ..and then arrest the owner..how can it be that Israel can just demolish the Al Kurd home in front of their eyes and those of the community family... then to impose such high taxes..that are nearly impossible for anyone to pay.. It reminds me of the gentrifcation happening in US cities where African Americans and the poor are being pushed out of their homes. I have so much respect for the ISM volunteers and others who are steadfast with the families...yes, a human shield...We saw so much oppression,children so defiant..after visiting a sibling in prison, or daughter not able to see her father for seven years --because he lives in Gaza and she lives in the West Bank..this is Bullshit!"

I do have to watch that I do nor waste time on negative thoughts. I did wonder briefly if people like Palestinian "negotiator" Saeb Erekat goes through the border hassles or cares about the suffering of ordinary Palestinians. I did wonder briefly about many in the "left" in the US who offer lip service to the suffering Palestinians while unwilling to really challenge the Israel lobby grip on US foreign policy. I wondered about Israeli transcripts some younger than my son who rule over millions of what they consider children of a lesser God at best or subhuman at worst. I wondered about collaborators and profiteers. I have to quickly shake off these negative thoughts to focus on actions since reality is far more interesting and there is far more goodness around as well as possibilities for good work (already I witnessed several acts of selfless giving). There are other things. I am glad that a child at the barber shop in Beit Sahour getting his first haircut seem to take more of my thought. A discussion of what to do with too many grapes in the garden far more interesting. Talk about actions to reduce solid waste and recycling far more exciting. Talk about what to with the liberated hill Ush Ghrab that is still under threat in Beit Sahour (see IMEMC video of the chronicle of this struggle and the inspiring message of resistance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZaFwi6WBo )...

So "joyful participation in the sorrows of this world" work is plentiful; come visit us. As we say in Arabic: Ahlan wa sahlan.

Indeed the George Wasuf song is correct that "Life is still beautiful".

PS: thanks to the hundreds among you who have written personal letters to me about this move. My apologies if I did not answer everyone personally. I am trying to catch up.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org

By Jeff Halper

The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own "moderate" political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking a siege imposed on them by an Arab government in collaboration with Israel.

We, the peoples of the world, should take great pride and encouragement in this quintessentially civil society refusal to accept subjugation, to abandon their fate to governments, including their own, for whom the lives of ordinary people are simply grist for their political charades - Annapolis and its subsequent "peace process" being but the last cynical expression. For the Palestinians represent far more than just themselves. Their refusal to submit to the dictates of governments, or to governments' lack of interest in the well-being of people in general, reflects the desire of billions of oppressed people for identity, freedom, a decent life and actualization of their collective and individual rights and potentials. Most of the oppressed, the "wretched of the earth" as Franz Fanon called them a half-century ago, are too preoccupied with the daunting daily struggle for survival to organize and resist. Others do resist in a myriad of ways, but are most often repressed by their own political and economic "leaders," disappearing anonymously from view. In a few cases they have managed to mount effective resistance to oppression, even to prevail - though the billions spent on "counterinsurgency" warfare by the US, Europe, Russia, Israel and many "developing" nations augur ill for peoples attempting to overthrow oppressive regimes.

In this the Palestinians stand at the forefront, in the front lines of peoples' insistence everywhere that their rights, well-being and fundamental values as human beings be respected by governments. And they do so (and I write this as an Israeli with great sorrow and shame) against one of the world's strongest and most ruthless military powers - a power that has dispossessed them from 85% of their land, which is trying to transform its occupation into a permanent regime of apartheid, which has spent decades impoverishing and disenfranchising them; the fourth largest nuclear power which nevertheless casts itself as the victim. Not only have the Palestinians experienced the dehumanization all oppressed and colonized peoples experience, not only have they been made into the embodiment of the rich and powerful's greatest fear, evil "terrorists" who may tear down their privileged "civilization," but they have been turned into guinea pigs. Israel is able to gain an edge in the counterinsurgency industry and win entree into the heart of the American military/hi tech complex by turning the Occupied Territories into a laboratory for the development of fiendish weaponry and tactics intended for use against people.

And yet the Palestinian people - and in particular those who remain sumud, steadfast, in Palestine - continue not only to resist but to surprise and confound its would-be Israeli master at every turn. Despite unlimited control, a complete monopoly over the use of force, utter callousness and a vaunted Shin Beit, Israel's military intelligence, Palestinians vote as they want, resist, carry on their daily lives with dignity - and blow huge holes in the walls and policies constructed in order to imprison and defeat them.

All this is not on the minds of those desperate people who surged into Egypt today. They may not have the "Big Picture." Yet they deserve the respect and gratefulness of every person who cherishes a better world based on human rights and dignity, a world that is inclusive. As an Israeli Jew, I have been saddened and mortified that my own people, after all they have experienced, cannot see what they are doing to others. But on a larger scale, not as an Israeli Jew but as a human being, I take heart in the Palestinians' active refusal to be ground under a global system that is producing unimaginable wealth and power for a few at the expense of the growing ranks of the wretched.

I am not a Palestinian; I am not one of the oppressed. I only hope I can use my privilege in an effective way in order to redeem the gift the people of Gaza have given all of us: the realization that the people do have power and can prevail even in the face of overwhelming power. We may each express our responsibility towards the people of Gaza in whatever way most suits us, but as the privileged we must do something. We owe the Palestinians and the Palestinians writ large at least that.

(Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - ICAHD).