"Dealing With The Sheriff's Process!"
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008
7:00 pm
Greater Sinai Baptist Church
1243 West Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28208
Join Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network, & Rev. William Barber, Pres., NC NAACP, as we stand together against the horrendous racist treatment Sheriff-Elect Nick Mackey is being subjected to. For more info contact Dwayne Collins at (704) 777-4313 or Joyce Waddell at (704) 549-4777.
Download flyers, click here.
Protesters call for Cheney to be impeached & arrested in Charlotte
by David Dixon, Action Center For Justice, Jan. 31, 2008
Video of the protest at www.OperationImpeachment.org.
Twenty some people protested Dick Cheney when he came to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce to give a speech on Jan. 31. Protesters called for Cheney to be impeached & arrested for war crimes, spying, lying us into wars, torture, war profiteering & other crimes against the people.
Protesters were able to demonstrate right outside the front door of the Chamber. The Republicans & Democratics attending Cheney's speech were met with chants for Cheney's impeachment for war crimes, spying, lying, torture, and other crimes against the people.
Protesters carried an "arrest warrant" with them and loudly called on the many police present to arrest Cheney. The demonstrators proclaimed that they "might have to make a citizens arrest today while Cheney was in town."
There was also a huge orange arrest warrant on display, a huge banner orange banner saying "Impeach Them", a banner reading "Impeach Bush & Cheney", & fuzzy orange peach costumes (for impeachment). Signs also called for Healthcare Not Warfare & to Forclose The War Not People's Homes.
People from Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Winston-Salem, Pinnacle, & Pittsboro took part in the protest.
Local Troops Out Now Coalition member group Action Center For Justice coordinated the protest with CODEPINK-Charlotte, Grassroots Impeachment Movement (GRIM), NC World Can't Wait, as well as activists with Stop Torture Now & Amnesty International organizing and participating.
The Charlotte Observer, WFAE radio, and several TV News stations filmed and/or talked to protesters. AP took a photo which was posted on Yahoo News Photos.
Cheney Urges Quick Action on Tax Rebate Plan
By MITCH WEISS, AP, WRAL.com, Jan. 31, 2008
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Vice President Dick Cheney pressed Thursday for quick action on the president's economic stimulus package, saying it will spur growth and minimize the country's economic downturn.
But he warned that Congressional squabbling over details of a measure designed to jump-start the economy could "slow down or possibly derail the bill altogether."
"Neither is acceptable," Cheney told 150 people during an appearance at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. "President Bush is ready to sign the package into law and get rebate checks into the hands of the American people. The time for action is now."
During his speech, Cheney touched on some of the same themes as the president's final State of the Union address this week: quick action on tax rebates and a continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan to fight the war on terror.
President Bush supports a tax stimulus package passed by the House, Cheney said. The measure includes rebates of $600-$1,200 to taxpayers. Families would also get $300 for each child. The Senate is working on a similar package, but there are differences that need to be worked out before taxpayers are sent checks, he said.
"This is not perfect legislation from the president's perspective, nor is it perfect legislation from the perspective of some Congressional leaders," Cheney said. "The fact is, we worked out a sensible workable bipartisan agreement."
He told the chamber the country rests on a "solid platform" of economic growth because of policies established by President Bush during his eight years in office. The vice president described the economy as being in a downturn - not a crisis - because of falling home values and higher oil prices.
"We must take wise and careful steps to revitalize America's economy. There's not a moment to waste," he said.
He said consumer spending was a key element of the stimulus package because it would "put more money back into the hands of the people."
Cheney predicted the president's package would work because, at $150 billion, it's big enough to have an immediate impact. Provided that President Bush signs the package, Americans could start receiving rebate checks by May.
"We expect the plan to result in an additional 500,000 new jobs before the end of this year," he said. "This is more than speculation. We actually have experience in this department," he said, referring to the president's 2001 tax cuts that sent rebate checks to millions of Americans.
About two-thirds of those receiving checks spent the money right away, he said. As a result, the recession of 2001 turned out to be "short and shallow," Cheney said.
The vice president later told the crowd that U.S. troops must continue their presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said the U.S. troop surge in Iraq is working. He said before the surge, "the nation was in danger of falling into chaos."
Cheney's speech was closed to the public, but outside about a dozen people protested his visit. They held signs and chanted "Impeach Cheney."
Ralph Jannelli, 35, of Charlotte said he wanted to send a message to the vice president. "We have to get out of Iraq," he said. "Too many of our soldiers have been killed. We don't want any more to die."
Video of the protest at www.OperationImpeachment.org. Twenty some people protested Dick Cheney when he came to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce to give a speech on Jan. 31. Protesters called for Cheney to be impeached & arrested for war crimes, spying, lying us into wars, torture, war profiteering & other crimes against the people.
Protesters were able to demonstrate right outside the front door of the Chamber. The Republicans & Democratics attending Cheney's speech were met with chants for Cheney's impeachment for war crimes, spying, lying, torture, and other crimes against the people.
Protesters carried an "arrest warrant" with them and loudly called on the many police present to arrest Cheney. The demonstrators proclaimed that they "might have to make a citizens arrest today while Cheney was in town."
There was also a huge orange arrest warrant on display, a huge banner orange banner saying "Impeach Them", a banner reading "Impeach Bush & Cheney", & fuzzy orange peach costumes (for impeachment). Signs also called for Healthcare Not Warfare & to Forclose The War Not People's Homes.
People from Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Winston-Salem, Pinnacle, & Pittsboro took part in the protest.
Local Troops Out Now Coalition member group Action Center For Justice coordinated the protest with CODEPINK-Charlotte, Grassroots Impeachment Movement (GRIM), NC World Can't Wait, as well as activists with Stop Torture Now & Amnesty International organizing and participating.
The Charlotte Observer, WFAE radio, and several TV News stations filmed and/or talked to protesters. AP took a photo which was posted on Yahoo News Photos.
Cheney Urges Quick Action on Tax Rebate Plan
By MITCH WEISS, AP, WRAL.com, Jan. 31, 2008
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Vice President Dick Cheney pressed Thursday for quick action on the president's economic stimulus package, saying it will spur growth and minimize the country's economic downturn.
But he warned that Congressional squabbling over details of a measure designed to jump-start the economy could "slow down or possibly derail the bill altogether."
"Neither is acceptable," Cheney told 150 people during an appearance at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. "President Bush is ready to sign the package into law and get rebate checks into the hands of the American people. The time for action is now."
During his speech, Cheney touched on some of the same themes as the president's final State of the Union address this week: quick action on tax rebates and a continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan to fight the war on terror.
President Bush supports a tax stimulus package passed by the House, Cheney said. The measure includes rebates of $600-$1,200 to taxpayers. Families would also get $300 for each child. The Senate is working on a similar package, but there are differences that need to be worked out before taxpayers are sent checks, he said.
"This is not perfect legislation from the president's perspective, nor is it perfect legislation from the perspective of some Congressional leaders," Cheney said. "The fact is, we worked out a sensible workable bipartisan agreement."
He told the chamber the country rests on a "solid platform" of economic growth because of policies established by President Bush during his eight years in office. The vice president described the economy as being in a downturn - not a crisis - because of falling home values and higher oil prices.
"We must take wise and careful steps to revitalize America's economy. There's not a moment to waste," he said.
He said consumer spending was a key element of the stimulus package because it would "put more money back into the hands of the people."
Cheney predicted the president's package would work because, at $150 billion, it's big enough to have an immediate impact. Provided that President Bush signs the package, Americans could start receiving rebate checks by May.
"We expect the plan to result in an additional 500,000 new jobs before the end of this year," he said. "This is more than speculation. We actually have experience in this department," he said, referring to the president's 2001 tax cuts that sent rebate checks to millions of Americans.
About two-thirds of those receiving checks spent the money right away, he said. As a result, the recession of 2001 turned out to be "short and shallow," Cheney said.
The vice president later told the crowd that U.S. troops must continue their presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said the U.S. troop surge in Iraq is working. He said before the surge, "the nation was in danger of falling into chaos."
Cheney's speech was closed to the public, but outside about a dozen people protested his visit. They held signs and chanted "Impeach Cheney."
Ralph Jannelli, 35, of Charlotte said he wanted to send a message to the vice president. "We have to get out of Iraq," he said. "Too many of our soldiers have been killed. We don't want any more to die."
Jan. 31 Protest Dick Cheney in Charlotte - Call for Impeachment
Impeach Dick Cheney for War Crimes & Crimes Against The People!
Stop Torture!
Bring The Troops Home Now!
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008
10:00 am
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce
330 S. Tryon St
Charlotte, NC 28202
Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Charlotte Jan. 31 to give a speech at the Charlotte Chamber Of Commerce.
We will be there to demand Dick Cheney be impeached & held accountable for his lies, crimes, and war profiteering.
Bring signs, posters, puppets, friends, family, etc. Spread the word.
Info: Action Center For Justice
www.CharlotteAction.org
operationimpeachment@yahoo.com
Stop Torture!
Bring The Troops Home Now!
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008
10:00 am
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce
330 S. Tryon St
Charlotte, NC 28202
Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Charlotte Jan. 31 to give a speech at the Charlotte Chamber Of Commerce.
We will be there to demand Dick Cheney be impeached & held accountable for his lies, crimes, and war profiteering.
Bring signs, posters, puppets, friends, family, etc. Spread the word.
Info: Action Center For Justice
www.CharlotteAction.org
operationimpeachment@yahoo.com
Cheney to speak at Charlotte Chamber meeting
Charlotte Business Journal, Jan. 24, 2008
Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Charlotte next Thursday to deliver a policy speech at the Charlotte Chamber.
The topic of Cheney's address could not be confirmed. Chamber officials say the business organization was notified today that Cheney would speak in front of the group's board of directors at 11 a.m.
The event, at the chamber's South Tryon Street headquarters, is not open to the public.
****************************
For protest details see www.CharlotteAction.org
Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Charlotte next Thursday to deliver a policy speech at the Charlotte Chamber.
The topic of Cheney's address could not be confirmed. Chamber officials say the business organization was notified today that Cheney would speak in front of the group's board of directors at 11 a.m.
The event, at the chamber's South Tryon Street headquarters, is not open to the public.
****************************
For protest details see www.CharlotteAction.org
Sat., Feb 9 - HKONJ2 - Historic Thousands On Jones St in Raleigh
Plan now to gather with thousands -- perhaps tens of thousands -- of North Carolinians in support of a progressive agenda for the state. The second annual HKonJ -- Historic Thousands on Jones Street in Raleigh -- will be held Saturday, February 9 at Chavis Park, 505 Martin Luther King Blvd., Raleigh beginning at 11:30 a.m., with a march to the State Legislative Building planned for 12:30 p.m.
To carpool from Charlotte, email Action Center For Justice at bringthemonhome@yahoo.com with "Feb 9 rides" as the subject & if you need a ride or can offer a ride & how many you can take.
Download, print out and distribute the flyer to friends, colleagues, and members of organizations you belong to. Download HK_on_J_flyer_2008_-_FINAL_2.pdf
Here's the Fourteen Point agenda. The 2008 rally will include a new agenda item on reducing prosecutorial misconduct and providing justice for all people in the criminal justice system.
Look in the right-hand corner of this web site for the list of links to more than 60 partners in HKonJ. If your organization would like to become an HKonJ partner, an official of the organization will need to write a letter to the NC NAACP saying your organization endorses the 14 points, estimating how many people your organization can bring on Feb. 9th, and how the organization can participate throughout the year to promote the People's Agenda. Please include the name and contact information of your organization's HKonJ People's Coalition Coordinator. The letter should be mailed (not
e-mailed) to Amina Turner, NC NAACP, 114 West Parrish Street, Durham, N.C. 27701.
For more info & video of last year's march see www.hkonj.com.
To carpool from Charlotte, email Action Center For Justice at bringthemonhome@yahoo.com with "Feb 9 rides" as the subject & if you need a ride or can offer a ride & how many you can take.
Download, print out and distribute the flyer to friends, colleagues, and members of organizations you belong to. Download HK_on_J_flyer_2008_-_FINAL_2.pdf
Here's the Fourteen Point agenda. The 2008 rally will include a new agenda item on reducing prosecutorial misconduct and providing justice for all people in the criminal justice system.
Look in the right-hand corner of this web site for the list of links to more than 60 partners in HKonJ. If your organization would like to become an HKonJ partner, an official of the organization will need to write a letter to the NC NAACP saying your organization endorses the 14 points, estimating how many people your organization can bring on Feb. 9th, and how the organization can participate throughout the year to promote the People's Agenda. Please include the name and contact information of your organization's HKonJ People's Coalition Coordinator. The letter should be mailed (not
e-mailed) to Amina Turner, NC NAACP, 114 West Parrish Street, Durham, N.C. 27701.
For more info & video of last year's march see www.hkonj.com.
60,000 foreclosures expected in NC in 2008
North Carolina Faces More Foreclosures
WNCN-TV, Jan. 28, 2008
RALEIGH, N.C. --North Carolina's tough mortgage laws, enacted almost a decade ago, have helped the state weather the foreclosure crisis better than most.
But even with additional laws enacted last year to curb what critics call mortgage industry abuses, North Carolina can expect the number of foreclosures to grow, enveloping not only low-income people, but also middle-income families who bought more house than they could afford.
Some of those in trouble have cleared out their 401(k) plans and are using their credit cards to make house payments, said Louise Mack, who provides free housing counseling through a nonprofit group in Cabarrus County.
"The majority of the people are in mortgages that they should have not gotten in," said Mack, whose organization, Prosperity Unlimited, took 80 new clients facing mortgage delinquency or foreclosure during the last three months of 2007, double the number the year before. "They bought too much house than they could have afforded."
When the General Assembly approved a predatory lending law in 1999, it was hailed as a model for the rest of the country.
The law barred companies that offered certain high-interest mortgages - also called subprime loans for people with bad credit histories - from requiring unreasonably high points and fees.
Borrowers couldn't be penalized for paying off the loan early or be forced to make balloon payments.
The General Assembly expanded that law last year to include mortgages with annual percentage rates that are above certain interest benchmarks but were still too low to be covered by the 1999 law.
Reform advocates attribute the changes as one reason why North Carolina's rate of foreclosure starts actually fell from 2005 to mid-2007, while rates in formerly hot markets such California, Nevada and Florida tripled or more.
"The things we have done have done us well to weather the foreclosure crisis," said Mark Pearce, a deputy state banking commissioner who used to work on predatory lending issues for a Durham nonprofit.
But court records show foreclosure starts ultimately rose 9.4 percent in North Carolina in 2007, and with subprime mortgage defaults causing global financial problems, "North Carolina will not be immune from the national problems," Pearce said.
A new House committee is examining the increase in foreclosures in North Carolina and will consider whether the state needs short-term changes or another batch of tougher regulations.
"Nothing provides more of a ticket to the middle class as homeownership," said Rep. Dan Blue, D-Wake, a committee co-chairman, adding that it's the job of elected officials to create "a climate and an environment so our citizens can prosper."
With the Legislature passing five mortgage-related laws last year alone, some state financial trade groups are cautious. They said they're still trying not only to get a handle on the effect of the 2007 changes, but they're also waiting to see what Congress may do to mitigate the mortgage crisis.
"We're very empathetic and sympathetic to the folks that are in trouble," said Bill Bost, general counsel for the North Carolina Association of Mortgage Professionals, a 600-member group of mortgage brokers and lenders. "Anything related to (changing) foreclosure laws can have an adverse effect on the availability of capital in North Carolina."
But the 2007 laws can't help the people who signed unaffordable adjustable loans in the last couple of years.
Borrowers using popular "2-28" adjustable loans, in which they pay a low "teaser" rate for two years before it is reset at a higher rate, can't afford their new payments, speakers said last week at the first meeting of the House Select Committee on Rising Home Foreclosures.
Pearce projected foreclosure starts will grow an additional 10 percent to 20 percent in North Carolina in 2008, reaching as high as 60,000 starts as the economy slows.
"It's one thing to say it's not as bad here in North Carolina," said Josh Stein, consumer protection division chief for Attorney General Roy Cooper. "But for those 60,000 families who are going to go through a foreclosure in 2008, it is a major problem."
Committee speakers seemed most interested in asking the Legislature when it reconvenes in May to set aside state money to pay for more housing and foreclosure counselors such as Mack, who provide their services largely for free.
Pearce said the Legislature could give temporarily more time for borrowers to challenge a foreclosure in court, especially if it involved certain kinds of subprime or nontraditional loans.
Foreclosures often happen fast before a county of clerk of court. Allowing additional time for the borrower to appeal the foreclosure to a Superior Court judge because the loan originator did something unethical could slow the process, Pearce said.
The Legislature also may want to improve upon 2007 laws regulating companies that collect mortgage payments, said Al Ripley, a lawyer for the North Carolina Justice Center.
Bost said homeownership has expanded in the country because of new lending products that sometimes can be complicated to consumers. But restricting these products further could have an unintended result, he said.
"If a few more people get foreclosed upon, then that's the price we pay for more people owning their own homes," he said. "I think we have to decide what we're willing to pay for more homeownership."
WNCN-TV, Jan. 28, 2008
RALEIGH, N.C. --North Carolina's tough mortgage laws, enacted almost a decade ago, have helped the state weather the foreclosure crisis better than most.
But even with additional laws enacted last year to curb what critics call mortgage industry abuses, North Carolina can expect the number of foreclosures to grow, enveloping not only low-income people, but also middle-income families who bought more house than they could afford.
Some of those in trouble have cleared out their 401(k) plans and are using their credit cards to make house payments, said Louise Mack, who provides free housing counseling through a nonprofit group in Cabarrus County.
"The majority of the people are in mortgages that they should have not gotten in," said Mack, whose organization, Prosperity Unlimited, took 80 new clients facing mortgage delinquency or foreclosure during the last three months of 2007, double the number the year before. "They bought too much house than they could have afforded."
When the General Assembly approved a predatory lending law in 1999, it was hailed as a model for the rest of the country.
The law barred companies that offered certain high-interest mortgages - also called subprime loans for people with bad credit histories - from requiring unreasonably high points and fees.
Borrowers couldn't be penalized for paying off the loan early or be forced to make balloon payments.
The General Assembly expanded that law last year to include mortgages with annual percentage rates that are above certain interest benchmarks but were still too low to be covered by the 1999 law.
Reform advocates attribute the changes as one reason why North Carolina's rate of foreclosure starts actually fell from 2005 to mid-2007, while rates in formerly hot markets such California, Nevada and Florida tripled or more.
"The things we have done have done us well to weather the foreclosure crisis," said Mark Pearce, a deputy state banking commissioner who used to work on predatory lending issues for a Durham nonprofit.
But court records show foreclosure starts ultimately rose 9.4 percent in North Carolina in 2007, and with subprime mortgage defaults causing global financial problems, "North Carolina will not be immune from the national problems," Pearce said.
A new House committee is examining the increase in foreclosures in North Carolina and will consider whether the state needs short-term changes or another batch of tougher regulations.
"Nothing provides more of a ticket to the middle class as homeownership," said Rep. Dan Blue, D-Wake, a committee co-chairman, adding that it's the job of elected officials to create "a climate and an environment so our citizens can prosper."
With the Legislature passing five mortgage-related laws last year alone, some state financial trade groups are cautious. They said they're still trying not only to get a handle on the effect of the 2007 changes, but they're also waiting to see what Congress may do to mitigate the mortgage crisis.
"We're very empathetic and sympathetic to the folks that are in trouble," said Bill Bost, general counsel for the North Carolina Association of Mortgage Professionals, a 600-member group of mortgage brokers and lenders. "Anything related to (changing) foreclosure laws can have an adverse effect on the availability of capital in North Carolina."
But the 2007 laws can't help the people who signed unaffordable adjustable loans in the last couple of years.
Borrowers using popular "2-28" adjustable loans, in which they pay a low "teaser" rate for two years before it is reset at a higher rate, can't afford their new payments, speakers said last week at the first meeting of the House Select Committee on Rising Home Foreclosures.
Pearce projected foreclosure starts will grow an additional 10 percent to 20 percent in North Carolina in 2008, reaching as high as 60,000 starts as the economy slows.
"It's one thing to say it's not as bad here in North Carolina," said Josh Stein, consumer protection division chief for Attorney General Roy Cooper. "But for those 60,000 families who are going to go through a foreclosure in 2008, it is a major problem."
Committee speakers seemed most interested in asking the Legislature when it reconvenes in May to set aside state money to pay for more housing and foreclosure counselors such as Mack, who provide their services largely for free.
Pearce said the Legislature could give temporarily more time for borrowers to challenge a foreclosure in court, especially if it involved certain kinds of subprime or nontraditional loans.
Foreclosures often happen fast before a county of clerk of court. Allowing additional time for the borrower to appeal the foreclosure to a Superior Court judge because the loan originator did something unethical could slow the process, Pearce said.
The Legislature also may want to improve upon 2007 laws regulating companies that collect mortgage payments, said Al Ripley, a lawyer for the North Carolina Justice Center.
Bost said homeownership has expanded in the country because of new lending products that sometimes can be complicated to consumers. But restricting these products further could have an unintended result, he said.
"If a few more people get foreclosed upon, then that's the price we pay for more people owning their own homes," he said. "I think we have to decide what we're willing to pay for more homeownership."
1,200 homes foreclosed on in past month in Charlotte area
Pets Also Victims Of Soaring Foreclosures In Charlotte Area
wsoctv.com, Jan. 21, 2008
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Another, unsettling symptom of the housing crisis -- the Humane Society of the United States is reporting an alarming number of displaced animals. Some are given up by owners who are forced to move out, others are simply abandoned.
Animal shelters -- including Charlotte's --- are quickly filling up.
Pebbles is now a resident of the Humane Society of Charlotte’s shelter. She was found abandoned in a house in Gaston County and is still recovering.
"She was actually in pretty bad condition. She's better now," said Kristi Perman of the Humane Society of Charlotte.
Though they aren't sure about why Pebbles was left behind, the Humane Society of the United States suspects she could have been a victim of the disturbing trend of pets being left behind after foreclosures.
"An animal will literally starve to death. It's a horrible way to die, especially for an animal that's lived as part of a family -- they're sitting there waiting for their family to come home," said Stephanie Shain, an animal care expert.
A report compiled this month for Eyewitness News shows 1,200 Charlotte-area foreclosures over the past month.
In most cases, Eyewitness News was told those families are bringing their animals to shelters, which are already near capacity.
Charlotte's Humane Society took in 1,500 dogs and cats last year. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Control said told us they've accepted 15,000 more.
It’s often an emotional experience for the owners.
"You know they have to move -- where they're moving they can't take their pets. Whether it be a new apartment or townhome,” Perman said. "We get those situations a lot. It's difficult to see sometimes. They really care about their pets -- they just can't take them with them.”
The United States Humane Society says if you're forced to move out of your home and into a rental unit, don't just ask your landlord whether pets are allowed. Get his or her permission in writing to avoid disagreements later and to avoid having to give up your animals.
In North Carolina, animal abandonment is a misdemeanor crime, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
If you're in need of help for your pets, or if you'd like to adopt one of these animals, visit the Humane Society of Charlotte’s Web site.
wsoctv.com, Jan. 21, 2008
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Another, unsettling symptom of the housing crisis -- the Humane Society of the United States is reporting an alarming number of displaced animals. Some are given up by owners who are forced to move out, others are simply abandoned.
Animal shelters -- including Charlotte's --- are quickly filling up.
Pebbles is now a resident of the Humane Society of Charlotte’s shelter. She was found abandoned in a house in Gaston County and is still recovering.
"She was actually in pretty bad condition. She's better now," said Kristi Perman of the Humane Society of Charlotte.
Though they aren't sure about why Pebbles was left behind, the Humane Society of the United States suspects she could have been a victim of the disturbing trend of pets being left behind after foreclosures.
"An animal will literally starve to death. It's a horrible way to die, especially for an animal that's lived as part of a family -- they're sitting there waiting for their family to come home," said Stephanie Shain, an animal care expert.
A report compiled this month for Eyewitness News shows 1,200 Charlotte-area foreclosures over the past month.
In most cases, Eyewitness News was told those families are bringing their animals to shelters, which are already near capacity.
Charlotte's Humane Society took in 1,500 dogs and cats last year. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Control said told us they've accepted 15,000 more.
It’s often an emotional experience for the owners.
"You know they have to move -- where they're moving they can't take their pets. Whether it be a new apartment or townhome,” Perman said. "We get those situations a lot. It's difficult to see sometimes. They really care about their pets -- they just can't take them with them.”
The United States Humane Society says if you're forced to move out of your home and into a rental unit, don't just ask your landlord whether pets are allowed. Get his or her permission in writing to avoid disagreements later and to avoid having to give up your animals.
In North Carolina, animal abandonment is a misdemeanor crime, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
If you're in need of help for your pets, or if you'd like to adopt one of these animals, visit the Humane Society of Charlotte’s Web site.
Immigrant worker defies deportation order, takes sanctuary at church
Church harbors woman facing deportation
By MICHAEL TARM, AP, Jan. 28, 2008
CHICAGO - A Mexican woman says she is "picking up the torch" from another illegal resident who became a symbol for immigration reform when she took shelter in a Chicago church for a year before being deported.
Flor Crisostomo, 28, who paid a smuggler to drive her across the U.S. border in 2000, spurned a deportation order Monday and moved into Adalberto United Methodist Church.
Crisostomo hopes her actions send a message similar to Elvira Arellano, who became a beacon of hope for millions of illegal immigrants and a lightning rod for those who saw her brazen refusal to leave the U.S. as proof of lax enforcement.
Arellano lived in an apartment on the church's upper floor for a year before leaving in August to visit Los Angeles, where immigration authorities arrested her and, within hours, deported her to Mexico.
Adalberto's pastor said no one pressured Crisostomo to take sanctuary at the church, which is in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.
"It's unfortunate we have to do this. This church has other priorities, like helping the poor in this neighborhood," the Rev. Walter Coleman said. "But God didn't give us a choice. When God says do this, we say, 'Yes, sir!'"
Coleman complained that the push for immigration reform has stalled, saying even sympathetic politicians have put the sensitive issue on the back burner.
"So what are we supposed to do?" he said. "Who's moving this movement forward? It's not moving forward."
Crisostomo, who spoke through a translator, said she left Iguala Guerrero, Mexico, after she was unable to find a job that would allow her to buy enough food for her two boys and one girl, ages 9 to 14.
In July 2000 she paid a smuggler to take her across the border and spent three days lost in desert-like conditions before making it to Los Angeles, she said. A month later she arrived in Chicago, where she worked 10 hours a day, six days a week in an IFCO Systems site that made packing materials.
By last year, she earned about $360 a week, sending $300 to her children for food, clothes and school books, she said. To keep her own costs down, she lived with four other women in a two-bedroom Chicago apartment.
"My children's lives improve a lot as a result," she said. "It wasn't luxury. But it meant they could survive."
Immigration authorities raided more than 40 IFCO sites in the U.S. in 2006 and arrested Crisostomo, along with more than 1,100 other people. The Board of Immigration Appeals last year denied Crisostomo's appeal and told her to leave the United States by Monday.
Crisostomo said she didn't know how long she would stay in the church, adding that she would keep busy by lobbying via phone, e-mails and letters on behalf of millions of illegal immigrants. The apartment, which is maintained by the church, includes a bedroom, office area and living room.
Groups opposed to illegal immigration say the case is a direct challenge to federal authorities.
"It will give American citizens a great opportunity to see if Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is good at his word on strict immigration enforcement," said Rosanna Pulido, a spokeswoman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates tougher immigration enforcement.
The move to re-create the same sanctuary situation as Arellano will backfire, Pulido said.
"This tactic is ineffective," she said. "This is creating more outrage, more bad feelings toward our government and toward people who are aiding and abetting illegals."
The judicial process had given Crisostomo more than enough time to comply with U.S. law following her arrest two years ago, the Chicago office of the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement Monday.
"If Ms. Crisostomo does not comply with the immigration judge's order by tonight, she will become an immigration fugitive," the statement said.
But Crisostomo said she believes immigration authorities would not dare storm a house of worship to grab her.
"I hope they don't come for me," she said. "I hope they fear God enough."
___
Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.
By MICHAEL TARM, AP, Jan. 28, 2008
CHICAGO - A Mexican woman says she is "picking up the torch" from another illegal resident who became a symbol for immigration reform when she took shelter in a Chicago church for a year before being deported.
Flor Crisostomo, 28, who paid a smuggler to drive her across the U.S. border in 2000, spurned a deportation order Monday and moved into Adalberto United Methodist Church.
Crisostomo hopes her actions send a message similar to Elvira Arellano, who became a beacon of hope for millions of illegal immigrants and a lightning rod for those who saw her brazen refusal to leave the U.S. as proof of lax enforcement.
Arellano lived in an apartment on the church's upper floor for a year before leaving in August to visit Los Angeles, where immigration authorities arrested her and, within hours, deported her to Mexico.
Adalberto's pastor said no one pressured Crisostomo to take sanctuary at the church, which is in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.
"It's unfortunate we have to do this. This church has other priorities, like helping the poor in this neighborhood," the Rev. Walter Coleman said. "But God didn't give us a choice. When God says do this, we say, 'Yes, sir!'"
Coleman complained that the push for immigration reform has stalled, saying even sympathetic politicians have put the sensitive issue on the back burner.
"So what are we supposed to do?" he said. "Who's moving this movement forward? It's not moving forward."
Crisostomo, who spoke through a translator, said she left Iguala Guerrero, Mexico, after she was unable to find a job that would allow her to buy enough food for her two boys and one girl, ages 9 to 14.
In July 2000 she paid a smuggler to take her across the border and spent three days lost in desert-like conditions before making it to Los Angeles, she said. A month later she arrived in Chicago, where she worked 10 hours a day, six days a week in an IFCO Systems site that made packing materials.
By last year, she earned about $360 a week, sending $300 to her children for food, clothes and school books, she said. To keep her own costs down, she lived with four other women in a two-bedroom Chicago apartment.
"My children's lives improve a lot as a result," she said. "It wasn't luxury. But it meant they could survive."
Immigration authorities raided more than 40 IFCO sites in the U.S. in 2006 and arrested Crisostomo, along with more than 1,100 other people. The Board of Immigration Appeals last year denied Crisostomo's appeal and told her to leave the United States by Monday.
Crisostomo said she didn't know how long she would stay in the church, adding that she would keep busy by lobbying via phone, e-mails and letters on behalf of millions of illegal immigrants. The apartment, which is maintained by the church, includes a bedroom, office area and living room.
Groups opposed to illegal immigration say the case is a direct challenge to federal authorities.
"It will give American citizens a great opportunity to see if Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is good at his word on strict immigration enforcement," said Rosanna Pulido, a spokeswoman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates tougher immigration enforcement.
The move to re-create the same sanctuary situation as Arellano will backfire, Pulido said.
"This tactic is ineffective," she said. "This is creating more outrage, more bad feelings toward our government and toward people who are aiding and abetting illegals."
The judicial process had given Crisostomo more than enough time to comply with U.S. law following her arrest two years ago, the Chicago office of the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement Monday.
"If Ms. Crisostomo does not comply with the immigration judge's order by tonight, she will become an immigration fugitive," the statement said.
But Crisostomo said she believes immigration authorities would not dare storm a house of worship to grab her.
"I hope they don't come for me," she said. "I hope they fear God enough."
___
Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.
5 US soldiers killed in N. Iraq
By KIM GAMEL and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, AP, Jan. 28, 2008
BAGHDAD - In a daring ambush, insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb Monday and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque in increasingly lawless Mosul. Five American soldiers were killed in the explosion — even as Iraqi troops moved into the northern city to challenge al-Qaida in Iraq.
Iraqi reinforcements, along with helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles, converged on Mosul for what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged would be a decisive battle against al-Qaida in its last major urban stronghold.
The attack on the U.S. patrol — the deadliest on American forces since six soldiers perished Jan. 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad — raised the Pentagon's January death count to at least 36.
The toll so far is 56 percent higher than December's 23 U.S. military deaths and marks the first monthly increase since August. But the figures remain well below monthly death tolls of more than 100 last spring.
Tensions in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, have spiked after the explosion last week in an abandoned apartment that authorities say was used to stash insurgents' weapons and bombs. As many as 60 were killed and 200 injured.
The unrest in Mosul stands in sharp relief to a significant decline in bloodshed most elsewhere in Iraq in recent months. The relative calm has been credited to a U.S.-led security crackdown — along with a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a cease-fire order by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for his powerful Mahdi Army militia.
But influential members of al-Sadr's movement said Monday they have urged the anti-U.S. cleric to call off the six-month cease-fire when it expires in February — a move that could jeopardize the security gains.
In Mosul, the attackers struck in the southeastern Sumar neighborhood, a middle-class district popular with former officers in Saddam Hussein's military and now a suspected hotbed for the insurgency.
After the roadside bomb blew apart the American vehicle — killing the five soldiers — gunmen opened fire from a mosque. A fierce gunbattle erupted as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers secured the area, the military said. Iraqi troops entered the mosque but the insurgents had already fled, according to a statement.
"The insurgents are willing to desecrate a place of worship by using it to attack soldiers to further their agenda," said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq.
There was other fighting in the neighborhood. An Iraqi officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said three civilians were wounded and helicopters bombarded buildings in the district, the scene of frequent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Also Monday, insurgents attacked four policemen heading home from work south of Mosul, killing two and wounding the other two, Nineveh provincial police said.
U.S. commanders have described Mosul as the last major Iraqi city with a significant al-Qaida presence, although they have warned that insurgents remain a potent force in rural areas south and northeast of Baghdad.
But the military has said Iraqi security forces will take the lead in the city — a major test of Washington's plans to someday shrink the American force and leave it as backup for Iraqi security forces.
Al-Qaida and its supporters would find themselves without a major base of operations if ousted Mosul, which occupies transport crossroads between Baghdad, Syria and other points. But the fight is expected to be difficult.
Mosul has not seen the groundswell of Sunni anger against al-Qaida that has helped turn the tide against insurgents in Anbar province and other areas.
Monday's attack was the deadliest roadside bombing since Nov. 5, when four soldiers were killed by a blast on their Humvee in the northern Tamim province of which Kirkuk is the capital.
In Shiite areas to the south, some top advisers to the cleric al-Sadr have urged him to drop the cease-fire order on his Mahdi Army when it expires next month. The critics are angry over ongoing campaigns by U.S. and Iraqi forces against so-called rogue fighters who refused to put down their weapons.
Al-Sadr's followers claim the U.S.-Iraqi raids are a pretext to crack down on the wider movement, which has pulled his support for the Washington-backed government.
The maverick cleric announced earlier this month that he would not renew the order unless the Iraqi government purges "criminal gangs" operating within security forces he claims are targeting his followers.
That was a reference to rival Shiite militiamen from the Badr Brigade who have infiltrated security forces participating in the ongoing crackdown against breakaway militia cells the U.S. has said were linked to Iran.
The political commission of al-Sadr's movement — along with some lawmakers and senior officials — said they were urging the cleric to follow through with his threat, pointing to recent raids against the movement in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala.
"We presented a historic opportunity when we froze the (Mahdi) army," Nasser al-Rubaie, leader of the Sadrists in parliament, told reporters. "But they didn't take advantage of it."
The group planned to send a formal message to al-Sadr's main office in the holy city of Najaf, two Sadrist legislators and a member of the political commission told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution.
Al-Sadr's political commission is made up of the movement's most powerful officials, whose opinion often reflects that of the reclusive cleric. But the officials stressed that he retains sole decision-making authority over the militia.
Mahdi Army militiamen fought U.S. troops for much of 2004, and al-Sadr has tirelessly called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
___
Associated Press staff members in Mosul and the News Research Center in New York contributed this report.
of your post here.
BAGHDAD - In a daring ambush, insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb Monday and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque in increasingly lawless Mosul. Five American soldiers were killed in the explosion — even as Iraqi troops moved into the northern city to challenge al-Qaida in Iraq.
Iraqi reinforcements, along with helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles, converged on Mosul for what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged would be a decisive battle against al-Qaida in its last major urban stronghold.
The attack on the U.S. patrol — the deadliest on American forces since six soldiers perished Jan. 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad — raised the Pentagon's January death count to at least 36.
The toll so far is 56 percent higher than December's 23 U.S. military deaths and marks the first monthly increase since August. But the figures remain well below monthly death tolls of more than 100 last spring.
Tensions in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, have spiked after the explosion last week in an abandoned apartment that authorities say was used to stash insurgents' weapons and bombs. As many as 60 were killed and 200 injured.
The unrest in Mosul stands in sharp relief to a significant decline in bloodshed most elsewhere in Iraq in recent months. The relative calm has been credited to a U.S.-led security crackdown — along with a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a cease-fire order by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for his powerful Mahdi Army militia.
But influential members of al-Sadr's movement said Monday they have urged the anti-U.S. cleric to call off the six-month cease-fire when it expires in February — a move that could jeopardize the security gains.
In Mosul, the attackers struck in the southeastern Sumar neighborhood, a middle-class district popular with former officers in Saddam Hussein's military and now a suspected hotbed for the insurgency.
After the roadside bomb blew apart the American vehicle — killing the five soldiers — gunmen opened fire from a mosque. A fierce gunbattle erupted as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers secured the area, the military said. Iraqi troops entered the mosque but the insurgents had already fled, according to a statement.
"The insurgents are willing to desecrate a place of worship by using it to attack soldiers to further their agenda," said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq.
There was other fighting in the neighborhood. An Iraqi officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said three civilians were wounded and helicopters bombarded buildings in the district, the scene of frequent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Also Monday, insurgents attacked four policemen heading home from work south of Mosul, killing two and wounding the other two, Nineveh provincial police said.
U.S. commanders have described Mosul as the last major Iraqi city with a significant al-Qaida presence, although they have warned that insurgents remain a potent force in rural areas south and northeast of Baghdad.
But the military has said Iraqi security forces will take the lead in the city — a major test of Washington's plans to someday shrink the American force and leave it as backup for Iraqi security forces.
Al-Qaida and its supporters would find themselves without a major base of operations if ousted Mosul, which occupies transport crossroads between Baghdad, Syria and other points. But the fight is expected to be difficult.
Mosul has not seen the groundswell of Sunni anger against al-Qaida that has helped turn the tide against insurgents in Anbar province and other areas.
Monday's attack was the deadliest roadside bombing since Nov. 5, when four soldiers were killed by a blast on their Humvee in the northern Tamim province of which Kirkuk is the capital.
In Shiite areas to the south, some top advisers to the cleric al-Sadr have urged him to drop the cease-fire order on his Mahdi Army when it expires next month. The critics are angry over ongoing campaigns by U.S. and Iraqi forces against so-called rogue fighters who refused to put down their weapons.
Al-Sadr's followers claim the U.S.-Iraqi raids are a pretext to crack down on the wider movement, which has pulled his support for the Washington-backed government.
The maverick cleric announced earlier this month that he would not renew the order unless the Iraqi government purges "criminal gangs" operating within security forces he claims are targeting his followers.
That was a reference to rival Shiite militiamen from the Badr Brigade who have infiltrated security forces participating in the ongoing crackdown against breakaway militia cells the U.S. has said were linked to Iran.
The political commission of al-Sadr's movement — along with some lawmakers and senior officials — said they were urging the cleric to follow through with his threat, pointing to recent raids against the movement in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala.
"We presented a historic opportunity when we froze the (Mahdi) army," Nasser al-Rubaie, leader of the Sadrists in parliament, told reporters. "But they didn't take advantage of it."
The group planned to send a formal message to al-Sadr's main office in the holy city of Najaf, two Sadrist legislators and a member of the political commission told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution.
Al-Sadr's political commission is made up of the movement's most powerful officials, whose opinion often reflects that of the reclusive cleric. But the officials stressed that he retains sole decision-making authority over the militia.
Mahdi Army militiamen fought U.S. troops for much of 2004, and al-Sadr has tirelessly called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
___
Associated Press staff members in Mosul and the News Research Center in New York contributed this report.
of your post here.
Israeli Forces Shoot & Kill 15 Year Old Palestinian
Hamas Affirms Time of Israeli Siege Over, Won't Allow People To Be Caged Again
Hamas helps Egypt to reclose Gaza border
By OMAR SINAN, AP, Jan. 28, 2008
RAFAH, Egypt - Hamas militants joined Egyptian forces for a second day Monday in trying to restore control at three breaches in the Gaza border, building a chain-link fence to seal off one opening and directing traffic at two others.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have flooded into Egypt unchecked over the past six days since Hamas militants blasted holes in the border partition. They have been voraciously buying up food, fuel and other goods made scarce by Israeli and Egyptian closures of Gaza's borders.
Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory in June but before the breach, it had no role in policing the border with Egypt. Now the Islamic militant group is hoping that will change now and it is pressing for some kind of future role in border administration.
At a meeting in Cairo, Arab governments were forceful in their opposition to that idea.
Egypt and the foreign ministers of the Arab League have firmly backed the Palestinian Authority led by moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah in its power struggle against rival Hamas. They have called for a return to a 2005 international border monitoring agreement that excluded the Islamist organization entirely.
"They (Hamas) should not interfere. They should just simply get out of the way and allow this to happen," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who heads a rival government in the West Bank, told reporters after returning from Cairo.
In the divided town of Rafah, however, Hamas forces were very much in control.
"There has been continuous and direct cooperation with Egyptian security officials over the last couple of days," said a bearded Hamas security official dressed in blue camouflage and sporting an assault rifle. "They asked us to only allow trucks to enter and not civilian cars to make the operation as orderly as possible."
Traffic was still chaotic on the Egyptian side as more Palestinians poured in to snap up whatever goods they could find.
Food and fuel were in short supply in Gaza since Israel, responding to growing rocket attacks from Gaza, sealed its border days before the militants blasted open the Egyptian frontier further to the south.
The Egyptians deployed about 100 riot police at the two remaining openings Monday.
"Egypt intends to gradually regain control of its border with Gaza and bring the situation back to an acceptable form," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in a message to European countries and the United States.
In Washington, the State Department said it was critical to get the border under control while addressing both the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians in Gaza and Israel's legitimate right to defend itself.
Spokesman Sean McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke on Sunday to Aboul Gheit. He urged a return to an arrangement Rice brokered in 2005, before Hamas seized Gaza, in which the border was controlled by the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and European monitors.
The arrangement collapsed after Hamas forcibly seized control of Gaza from Fatah in June.
"It's a border that needs to be controlled in some form or fashion and that is previously what we had," McCormack told reporters. "You need to get back to a circumstance where it is under control. It's a very difficult situation," he added.
"We think the Egyptians have a role to play in controlling that border and we shall see what role the Palestinian Authority has in it," McCormack said.
For their part, officials from the EU expressed a willingness to resume their monitoring role under the 2005 agreement, but only if it was under Palestinian Authority, rather than Hamas control.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri late Monday called the old arrangement "an international Israeli conspiracy" and warned that the Gazans will not let the border close again.
"Hamas affirms that the time of (Israeli) siege is over, and it will not allow any party to bring back our people to the cage," he said. About Israelis, he said: "Let them come back. They will see death from our people."
Some form of agreement on who controls the border may come on Wednesday, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and a Hamas delegation will hold separate meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo.
In violence Monday, Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian during a clash in Bethlehem that erupted while the soldiers were conducting an arrest raid, Palestinian hospital officials said. The military said soldiers fired at Palestinians throwing firebombs after failing to quell a disturbance with non-lethal methods. The soldiers arrested the local commander of Islamic Jihad.
In Gaza City, meanwhile, 150 young children dressed in white death shrouds marked with the flags of Arab countries marched through the streets calling on the Arab League to lift the blockade on the strip.
"Siegedeath, help Gaza children live a normal life," their banners read.
With much of the Arab world expressing deep sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians, reclosing the borders without some kind of new system allowing the flow of goods and people would be very damaging for the Egyptian government.
Salima al-Masri, a shop owner on the Egyptian side of divided Rafah whose empty shelves attest to the windfall the sudden opening has been to the impoverished border town, said that whatever happens, the border cannot be closed again.
"The only solution for this whole predicament is to announce the reopening of the border crossing and that will get rid of this chaos," she said.
___
Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Ramallah.
Hamas helps Egypt to reclose Gaza border
By OMAR SINAN, AP, Jan. 28, 2008
RAFAH, Egypt - Hamas militants joined Egyptian forces for a second day Monday in trying to restore control at three breaches in the Gaza border, building a chain-link fence to seal off one opening and directing traffic at two others.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have flooded into Egypt unchecked over the past six days since Hamas militants blasted holes in the border partition. They have been voraciously buying up food, fuel and other goods made scarce by Israeli and Egyptian closures of Gaza's borders.
Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory in June but before the breach, it had no role in policing the border with Egypt. Now the Islamic militant group is hoping that will change now and it is pressing for some kind of future role in border administration.
At a meeting in Cairo, Arab governments were forceful in their opposition to that idea.
Egypt and the foreign ministers of the Arab League have firmly backed the Palestinian Authority led by moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah in its power struggle against rival Hamas. They have called for a return to a 2005 international border monitoring agreement that excluded the Islamist organization entirely.
"They (Hamas) should not interfere. They should just simply get out of the way and allow this to happen," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who heads a rival government in the West Bank, told reporters after returning from Cairo.
In the divided town of Rafah, however, Hamas forces were very much in control.
"There has been continuous and direct cooperation with Egyptian security officials over the last couple of days," said a bearded Hamas security official dressed in blue camouflage and sporting an assault rifle. "They asked us to only allow trucks to enter and not civilian cars to make the operation as orderly as possible."
Traffic was still chaotic on the Egyptian side as more Palestinians poured in to snap up whatever goods they could find.
Food and fuel were in short supply in Gaza since Israel, responding to growing rocket attacks from Gaza, sealed its border days before the militants blasted open the Egyptian frontier further to the south.
The Egyptians deployed about 100 riot police at the two remaining openings Monday.
"Egypt intends to gradually regain control of its border with Gaza and bring the situation back to an acceptable form," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in a message to European countries and the United States.
In Washington, the State Department said it was critical to get the border under control while addressing both the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians in Gaza and Israel's legitimate right to defend itself.
Spokesman Sean McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke on Sunday to Aboul Gheit. He urged a return to an arrangement Rice brokered in 2005, before Hamas seized Gaza, in which the border was controlled by the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and European monitors.
The arrangement collapsed after Hamas forcibly seized control of Gaza from Fatah in June.
"It's a border that needs to be controlled in some form or fashion and that is previously what we had," McCormack told reporters. "You need to get back to a circumstance where it is under control. It's a very difficult situation," he added.
"We think the Egyptians have a role to play in controlling that border and we shall see what role the Palestinian Authority has in it," McCormack said.
For their part, officials from the EU expressed a willingness to resume their monitoring role under the 2005 agreement, but only if it was under Palestinian Authority, rather than Hamas control.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri late Monday called the old arrangement "an international Israeli conspiracy" and warned that the Gazans will not let the border close again.
"Hamas affirms that the time of (Israeli) siege is over, and it will not allow any party to bring back our people to the cage," he said. About Israelis, he said: "Let them come back. They will see death from our people."
Some form of agreement on who controls the border may come on Wednesday, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and a Hamas delegation will hold separate meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo.
In violence Monday, Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian during a clash in Bethlehem that erupted while the soldiers were conducting an arrest raid, Palestinian hospital officials said. The military said soldiers fired at Palestinians throwing firebombs after failing to quell a disturbance with non-lethal methods. The soldiers arrested the local commander of Islamic Jihad.
In Gaza City, meanwhile, 150 young children dressed in white death shrouds marked with the flags of Arab countries marched through the streets calling on the Arab League to lift the blockade on the strip.
"Siegedeath, help Gaza children live a normal life," their banners read.
With much of the Arab world expressing deep sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians, reclosing the borders without some kind of new system allowing the flow of goods and people would be very damaging for the Egyptian government.
Salima al-Masri, a shop owner on the Egyptian side of divided Rafah whose empty shelves attest to the windfall the sudden opening has been to the impoverished border town, said that whatever happens, the border cannot be closed again.
"The only solution for this whole predicament is to announce the reopening of the border crossing and that will get rid of this chaos," she said.
___
Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Ramallah.
The Radical Alternative
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jan. 28, 2008
In this age of political discontent, it seems clear that many
Americans who plan to vote are voting for "change".
Just what kind of change is an open question. Will that change
bring the first woman to the Oval Office? Or will it bring a Black man
(or ,to some, a 1/2 Black man?)
Whatever, it is interesting that the nation's punditocracy, the
talking heads who act like verbal sheepdogs of the American fleece, have
almost totally ignored one candidate who can, in her single self,
embody, not just the illusion, but the reality of "change", experience,
a demonstrated stand against the Iraq War, and a life of living female.
I speak, of course, of Cynthia McKinney, the bold, outspoken former congresswoman from Georgia, who spoke out against the Iraq War when it
wasn't popular.
She is running on the Green Party, according to published reports,
but the media has virtually ignored this fact.
Her record of speaking out against the U.S. war machine, the
military-industrial complex, and other issues of concern is head and
shoulders above any of the other candidates running for office, on
either party.
But, without the paid imprimatur of the corporate powers that be, it
can be little more than an insurgent campaign, one kept safely to the
margins of American politics, off the stage, and off the screen.
This is our loss, for the major candidates (or those supported by
the corporate status quo) are, by their very nature, designed to split
the votes of two significant blocs in the Democratic Party, which can
only leave the loser feeling embittered.
Why not a real Black woman as a candidate?
Wouldn't /that/ be a change?
And although all politics is symbolic, McKinney really is a woman of
substance.
She has been politically courageous in many of her stands, which has
made her persona non grata among both Republicans and Democrats.
That's because she's not a corporate candidate. She's proven in her
career as a member of Congress that she won't be bought off. Of who
else running today can the same be said?
People say they want 'change', but do they really?
Many people are terrified of change. They want the safety of the
routine, the comfort of predictability.
That's because many people fear losing their already tenuous grip on
their lifestyle.
But with millions of people facing foreclosure, and with the rest of
the economy on the brink of free-fall, how much safety is apparent?
That's only an economic concern, what about foreign policy?
Foreign policy, for at least the last decade, has been handled (or
should I say, /mishandled?)/ by an array of incompetents who have
succeeded only in making bad situations far worse.
Do people want change, or are they merely claiming that they do?
Cynthia McKinney would certainly represent that, in a way far more
substantial and meaningful than anybody else out there.
Politicians should be far more than paid agents of the wealthy.
They should be far more than millionaires working on behalf of other
millionaires
Why are we not surprised that the U.S. Senate is a millionaires club?
How could such people have an appreciation of working people? What
do they really know about the poor?
Wouldn't Cynthia McKinney be a significant change?
--(c) '08 maj
In this age of political discontent, it seems clear that many
Americans who plan to vote are voting for "change".
Just what kind of change is an open question. Will that change
bring the first woman to the Oval Office? Or will it bring a Black man
(or ,to some, a 1/2 Black man?)
Whatever, it is interesting that the nation's punditocracy, the
talking heads who act like verbal sheepdogs of the American fleece, have
almost totally ignored one candidate who can, in her single self,
embody, not just the illusion, but the reality of "change", experience,
a demonstrated stand against the Iraq War, and a life of living female.
I speak, of course, of Cynthia McKinney, the bold, outspoken former congresswoman from Georgia, who spoke out against the Iraq War when it
wasn't popular.
She is running on the Green Party, according to published reports,
but the media has virtually ignored this fact.
Her record of speaking out against the U.S. war machine, the
military-industrial complex, and other issues of concern is head and
shoulders above any of the other candidates running for office, on
either party.
But, without the paid imprimatur of the corporate powers that be, it
can be little more than an insurgent campaign, one kept safely to the
margins of American politics, off the stage, and off the screen.
This is our loss, for the major candidates (or those supported by
the corporate status quo) are, by their very nature, designed to split
the votes of two significant blocs in the Democratic Party, which can
only leave the loser feeling embittered.
Why not a real Black woman as a candidate?
Wouldn't /that/ be a change?
And although all politics is symbolic, McKinney really is a woman of
substance.
She has been politically courageous in many of her stands, which has
made her persona non grata among both Republicans and Democrats.
That's because she's not a corporate candidate. She's proven in her
career as a member of Congress that she won't be bought off. Of who
else running today can the same be said?
People say they want 'change', but do they really?
Many people are terrified of change. They want the safety of the
routine, the comfort of predictability.
That's because many people fear losing their already tenuous grip on
their lifestyle.
But with millions of people facing foreclosure, and with the rest of
the economy on the brink of free-fall, how much safety is apparent?
That's only an economic concern, what about foreign policy?
Foreign policy, for at least the last decade, has been handled (or
should I say, /mishandled?)/ by an array of incompetents who have
succeeded only in making bad situations far worse.
Do people want change, or are they merely claiming that they do?
Cynthia McKinney would certainly represent that, in a way far more
substantial and meaningful than anybody else out there.
Politicians should be far more than paid agents of the wealthy.
They should be far more than millionaires working on behalf of other
millionaires
Why are we not surprised that the U.S. Senate is a millionaires club?
How could such people have an appreciation of working people? What
do they really know about the poor?
Wouldn't Cynthia McKinney be a significant change?
--(c) '08 maj
Gaza Explodes
By Soumaya Ghannoushi, AlterNet, Jan. 26, 2008
Gaza has exploded. After months of crushing siege, thousands marched to the Rafah border and, defying police bullets, batons, dogs, and water canons, tore the fences behind which they have been caged for months, crossing into Egypt out of the Gazan abyss.
Gaza is a big prison. A wall, electric fences and watchtowers manned by hundreds of armed soldiers make escape almost impossible. Israel's much vaunted disengagement is a fallacy. Gaza is still very much occupied. Even before Hamas was elected into power, the Israeli government not only severely restricted entry from the strip into Israel, but also controlled passage through the border crossing into Egypt and refused to allow the Palestinians to open their airport or seaport.
Two months ago, the Annapolis summit was convened in the US to "kick start the peace process" and "lay the foundation for the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state." A week ago, Bush toured the region from Jerusalem to Riyadh and Sharm el Sheikh loaded with smiles, promises of peace and prosperity, and pledges of "staying engaged."
But for Palestinians, life has grown more unbearable since Bush decided to get "engaged." Since Annapolis, the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israelis has soared by 100 percent. The ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed last year was the most unbalanced ever, at 40:1, up from 30:1 in 2006 and 4:1 from 2000-2005. The total death toll for 2007 stands at 322 Palestinians and eight Israelis. Of the eight, five were soldiers who died while carrying out military operations inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The pretext for these endless killings is the Qassam rockets. But the truth is that the daily incursions, assassinations, and embargo, have proceeded without fail before and after the rockets. The excuses change all the time, but the reality of occupation remains the same.
Since the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Israel has sealed off all its crossings with Gaza with Washington's full backing. It has also exerted enormous pressure on the Egyptians to close the Rafah border, blocking the only point of passage from the beleaguered strip to the outside world.
Gaza is at Israel's mercy. It depends almost totally on it for electricity and fuel, a result of the 38 years of Israel's direct control over of the Strip. This dependence has grown since June 2006, when Israel bombed Gaza's only power station. This was forced to close on Sunday when Israel blocked fuel shipment to the Strip. And, of course, no electricity does not mean dark candlelit nights only; it means no heating in the cold Gazan winter, and, more crucially, no water, with no fuel to pump, treat, or deliver the vital liquid to homes, schools, medical clinics or hospitals.
It is difficult to imagine the depth of Gazans' misery. For months a terrible cloud of stench has been hanging over the tiny coastal strip. The sanitation system is in a state of paralysis. Raw sewage is spilling out on to the streets, homes and fields, and in order to save fuel, the city has stopped collecting garbage - 400 metric tons a day.
The siege has reduced 85 percent of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants to total dependency on food aid, the highest rate anywhere in the world. More than 95 percent of businesses and factories have been forced to close their doors (3,500), leading to the loss of more than 65,000 jobs. For Gazans, border closures mean starvation.
The health system is crippled, with rapidly declining medical supplies, generated by the blockage of international aid. Hospitals are out of funds. 107 types of basic medicines are depleted, 136 supplies, including syringes and tape are stopped at the border, and the number of patients permitted to leave for medical treatment has grounded almost to a halt, leading to tens of deaths.
In this unfolding tragedy, borders and crossings have turned into instruments of collective punishment, Israel's way of crushing the Palestinians and bringing them to their knees.
This week, the US representative to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad intervened to block a draft resolution condemning Israel's immoral and inhumane siege of Gaza. This is hardly surprising. Nearly half of the vetoes cast since the UN came into being were by the US on behalf of Israel. This means granting Israel impunity to do as it pleases whatever the international community may think.
Since 9/11, many in the US have been grappling with the question "why do they hate us?" Enormous amounts of money were and continue to be, pumped into a public diplomacy strategy aimed at improving America's image in the world. But the truth is that a mere glimpse of what goes on in Gaza today, or what went on in Jenin, Rafah, or Beit Hanoun before, is enough to undo the work of years of exchange programs, speaking tours, and PR campaigns. No amount of money, propaganda, or diplomacy can erase the scenes of blood, destruction, and starvation. That is the truth the administration and its hired band of apologists in the US and across the Atlantic are bending backward to conceal from our sights. But try as they may, the people of the region will see America not as it wishes to be seen, but as they experience it first hand: an occupier or an occupier's accomplice.
Soumaya Ghannoushi is an academic and freelance writer. She is a researcher at the University of London.
Gaza has exploded. After months of crushing siege, thousands marched to the Rafah border and, defying police bullets, batons, dogs, and water canons, tore the fences behind which they have been caged for months, crossing into Egypt out of the Gazan abyss.
Gaza is a big prison. A wall, electric fences and watchtowers manned by hundreds of armed soldiers make escape almost impossible. Israel's much vaunted disengagement is a fallacy. Gaza is still very much occupied. Even before Hamas was elected into power, the Israeli government not only severely restricted entry from the strip into Israel, but also controlled passage through the border crossing into Egypt and refused to allow the Palestinians to open their airport or seaport.
Two months ago, the Annapolis summit was convened in the US to "kick start the peace process" and "lay the foundation for the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state." A week ago, Bush toured the region from Jerusalem to Riyadh and Sharm el Sheikh loaded with smiles, promises of peace and prosperity, and pledges of "staying engaged."
But for Palestinians, life has grown more unbearable since Bush decided to get "engaged." Since Annapolis, the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israelis has soared by 100 percent. The ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed last year was the most unbalanced ever, at 40:1, up from 30:1 in 2006 and 4:1 from 2000-2005. The total death toll for 2007 stands at 322 Palestinians and eight Israelis. Of the eight, five were soldiers who died while carrying out military operations inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The pretext for these endless killings is the Qassam rockets. But the truth is that the daily incursions, assassinations, and embargo, have proceeded without fail before and after the rockets. The excuses change all the time, but the reality of occupation remains the same.
Since the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Israel has sealed off all its crossings with Gaza with Washington's full backing. It has also exerted enormous pressure on the Egyptians to close the Rafah border, blocking the only point of passage from the beleaguered strip to the outside world.
Gaza is at Israel's mercy. It depends almost totally on it for electricity and fuel, a result of the 38 years of Israel's direct control over of the Strip. This dependence has grown since June 2006, when Israel bombed Gaza's only power station. This was forced to close on Sunday when Israel blocked fuel shipment to the Strip. And, of course, no electricity does not mean dark candlelit nights only; it means no heating in the cold Gazan winter, and, more crucially, no water, with no fuel to pump, treat, or deliver the vital liquid to homes, schools, medical clinics or hospitals.
It is difficult to imagine the depth of Gazans' misery. For months a terrible cloud of stench has been hanging over the tiny coastal strip. The sanitation system is in a state of paralysis. Raw sewage is spilling out on to the streets, homes and fields, and in order to save fuel, the city has stopped collecting garbage - 400 metric tons a day.
The siege has reduced 85 percent of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants to total dependency on food aid, the highest rate anywhere in the world. More than 95 percent of businesses and factories have been forced to close their doors (3,500), leading to the loss of more than 65,000 jobs. For Gazans, border closures mean starvation.
The health system is crippled, with rapidly declining medical supplies, generated by the blockage of international aid. Hospitals are out of funds. 107 types of basic medicines are depleted, 136 supplies, including syringes and tape are stopped at the border, and the number of patients permitted to leave for medical treatment has grounded almost to a halt, leading to tens of deaths.
In this unfolding tragedy, borders and crossings have turned into instruments of collective punishment, Israel's way of crushing the Palestinians and bringing them to their knees.
This week, the US representative to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad intervened to block a draft resolution condemning Israel's immoral and inhumane siege of Gaza. This is hardly surprising. Nearly half of the vetoes cast since the UN came into being were by the US on behalf of Israel. This means granting Israel impunity to do as it pleases whatever the international community may think.
Since 9/11, many in the US have been grappling with the question "why do they hate us?" Enormous amounts of money were and continue to be, pumped into a public diplomacy strategy aimed at improving America's image in the world. But the truth is that a mere glimpse of what goes on in Gaza today, or what went on in Jenin, Rafah, or Beit Hanoun before, is enough to undo the work of years of exchange programs, speaking tours, and PR campaigns. No amount of money, propaganda, or diplomacy can erase the scenes of blood, destruction, and starvation. That is the truth the administration and its hired band of apologists in the US and across the Atlantic are bending backward to conceal from our sights. But try as they may, the people of the region will see America not as it wishes to be seen, but as they experience it first hand: an occupier or an occupier's accomplice.
Soumaya Ghannoushi is an academic and freelance writer. She is a researcher at the University of London.
UN council slams Israel over Gaza
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Jan. 25, 2008
European nations abstained on a U.N. Human Rights Council vote blasting Israel over the Gaza blockade.
The resolution, adopted by a vote of 30-1 in Geneva, called for "urgent international action to put an immediate end to the grave violations committed by the occupying power, Israel, in the occupied Palestinian territory."
Canada cast the sole opposing vote on the resolution, while 15 other countries abstained. China and Russia both backed the resolution.
Slovenia, speaking for the European Union, said the resolution lacked "an acknowledgment of civilian casualties on both sides."
The Human Rights Council and its predecessor, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, both have been dismissed by Jewish human rights groups as a farce that disproportionately and unfairly targets Israel.
U.S. Ambassador Warren Tichenor said the council had "squandered its credibility" by failing to address continued rocket attacks against Israel.
"Today's actions do nothing to help the Palestinian people, in whose name the supporters of this session claim to act," he said in a statement.
European nations abstained on a U.N. Human Rights Council vote blasting Israel over the Gaza blockade.
The resolution, adopted by a vote of 30-1 in Geneva, called for "urgent international action to put an immediate end to the grave violations committed by the occupying power, Israel, in the occupied Palestinian territory."
Canada cast the sole opposing vote on the resolution, while 15 other countries abstained. China and Russia both backed the resolution.
Slovenia, speaking for the European Union, said the resolution lacked "an acknowledgment of civilian casualties on both sides."
The Human Rights Council and its predecessor, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, both have been dismissed by Jewish human rights groups as a farce that disproportionately and unfairly targets Israel.
U.S. Ambassador Warren Tichenor said the council had "squandered its credibility" by failing to address continued rocket attacks against Israel.
"Today's actions do nothing to help the Palestinian people, in whose name the supporters of this session claim to act," he said in a statement.
Left-wing activists protest Gaza blockade at Erez border crossing
Dozens of buses carrying a thousand leftists arrive at Erez crossing to bring food, humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza Strip and to protest blockade on enclave. MKs from Balad and Hadash, youth from Sderot take partYonat Atlas, Published: 01.26.08, 17:16 / Israel News
More than a thousand left-wing activists made their way to the Erez border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Saturday in order to bring food and medical equipment to the costal enclave.
The activists held a demonstration against the Israeli-imposed blockade on the Strip. Palestinians on the opposite side of the crossing also organized a rally of their own.
Twenty-five buses and around 100 cars arrived at Erez from all over Israel. The activists collected three tons of food and medical supplies during the demonstration. The items will be brought to the Kerem Shalom crossing where, according to the protesters, they will be transferred to Palestinians in Gaza on Monday.
MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) attended the event and called for an end to the blockade and the reopening of border crossings to the Hamas-held enclave.
"The Israeli government holds the responsibility for the humanitarian disaster in Gaza," Zahalka said during the protest. According to the MK, Israel is employing "fascist methods" by preventing food and fuel from reaching the area.
"We'll continue to protest and reveal the war crimes (being carried out) against one and a half million Palestinians in the Strip," he said.
Shir Shodzik, 17, a resident of the battered town of Sderot also took part in the demonstration in order to express her opposition to the Israeli-imposed sanctions. Despite the fact that Shodzik's aunt and cousin were injured in a Qassam rocket attack in Zikim, the teen wanted to express her dissatisfaction with Israeli government policy vis-Ã -vis the Gaza Strip.
"I came to show my identification with the Palestinian people. There is no need for violence or (the use of) force in order to solve this situation," she said.
Shodzik added that she "knows it is absurd that I am taking part in this protest," but explained that it is the path she has chosen.
'We won't be party to this crime'
Left-wing activist Uri Avnery made a speech during the rally in which he said: "Three days ago, a wall fell here, like the Berlin Wall fell, like the separation wall and all walls and fences will fall. But the inhumane closure that has been imposed on one and a half million Gaza residents by our government and by our army in our name – this closure will continue with all its cruelty.
"As Israelis who came here with basic supplies, in our desire to tell the Israeli public and the whole world: We won't be part of this crime. We're ashamed of this siege," Avnery said.
Avnery added that: "Our hearts are with our Palestinian brothers who are demonstrating with us on the other side of the fence. Don't lose hope that one day we will meet without fences and walls, without weapons and violence, as two nations living together in peace, in friendship, in partnership.
"Our hearts are also with our brothers in Sderot. The Qassam threat must be stopped, but it won't be stopped through a policy of an eye for an eye or 100 eyes for one, because this leaves us all blind. It will end when we speak with the other side. Yes, yes, with Hamas," Averny said.
AnnaLynne Kish, an activist from the left-wing New Profile organization also took part in the rally. "We decided to come here as a sign of identification with the Palestinians in Gaza. The closure on the Strip is inhuman and goes against international law. This is an instance of collective punishment.
"We decided to bring food and water to the residents and if only we could bring them electricity – we would do this too," she said.
Another Sderot resident who wised to remain anonymous told Ynet in response to news of the demonstrations that "for seven years we haven't seen one of them in Sderot. They didn't come to (see) us even once after a Qassam barrage.
"Suddenly, they discover that the other side is suffering and come to protest, but what about our suffering? They should stop trying to look so good (in the eyes of others) and return to their strongholds in northern Tel Aviv.
"I invite them to spend a week in Sderot with their children. Then it will be interesting to see if they continue to protest in favor of the Palestinians."
Sharon Roffe-Ofir contributed to this report
Palestinians Keep Gaza Border with Egypt Open
Egypt tries to control chaotic border
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and OMAR SINAN, AP, Jan. 26, 2008
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Egyptian riot police and armored vehicles restricted Gaza motorists to a small border area of Egypt on Saturday, in the second attempt in two days to restore control over the chaotic frontier breached by Hamas militants.
At least 38 members of the Egyptian security forces have been hospitalized, some in critical condition, because of cross-border confrontations, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. The minister complained of "provocations" at the border, a thinly veiled reprimand of Hamas, and said that while Egypt is ready to ease the suffering of Gazans, this should not endanger Egyptian lives.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stuck to his tough conditions for resuming contacts with Gaza's Hamas rulers, dimming prospects for Egypt's proposal to have the two Palestinian rivals come to Cairo for talks on resolving the border crisis.
Earlier, Hamas had accepted Egypt's proposal, and Hamas hardliner Sami Abu Zuhri accused Abbas of trying to bypass Hamas: "His statements are a rejection of the Egyptian initiative."
Abbas insists he will only talk to Hamas if it retreats from its violent June takeover of Gaza, something Hamas is unlikely to do. Abbas renewed his offer of deploying his forces at the Gaza crossings, as a way of ending the closure of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
On the Gaza-Egypt border, traffic of cars and pedestrians remained heavy Saturday, four days after Hamas militants blew down the border wall, sending hundreds of thousands of Gazans rushing into Egypt.
In an attempt to restore some control, Egyptian armored vehicles blocked the main street of the Egyptian border town of Rafah, causing a traffic jam of honking cars filled with Gazans shopping for fuel, food and consumer products.
Earlier Saturday, dozens of riot police formed human chains to block the two passages cut through the breached border, before once again giving up and allowing the cars to cross into the Egyptian side of the divided town. Authorities were making renewed efforts, however, to keep them out of the rest of the country.
Israel, meanwhile, expressed growing concern about the possible influx of Palestinian militants into areas of Egypt that border Israel. The Israeli military announced Saturday that its troops were on heightened alert along the border with Egypt, and that an Israeli road and tourism sites in the area are temporarily closed.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas were to meet in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said the Palestinian leader would ask Olmert to open Israel's crossings with Gaza, closed last week after a spike in rocket attacks. Abbas will tell Olmert "about the readiness of the Palestinian Authority to take responsibility of the Gaza borders," Abu Rdeneh said.
The border breach was engineered by Hamas to pressure Egypt to negotiate new border arrangements. Both Israel and Egypt have kept Gaza largely sealed in the past two years, especially since the violent Hamas takeover of the territory in June.
Egypt faces a dilemma over how to handle the border crisis. If it acts forcefully against the Gazans, it could anger its own people, who sympathize with the Palestinians' plight. But if it does nothing, it risks infiltration by Islamic militants.
Early Saturday, hundreds of Gaza cars crossed into Egypt.
Palestinians and Egyptians bypassed the checkpoints around Rafah, however, via dirt roads. In the coastal town of El Arish, about 20 miles west Gaza, the roadblocks were tighter and police were witnessed telling shopkeepers to close their stores.
Hundreds of cars with Gaza license plates were seen in El Arish on Saturday, many lining up at gas stations. An elderly Gaza man, Saleh Abu Ghosheh, stood in one of the lines, hoping that a gasoline tanker would eventually arrive to refill the station.
Abu Ghosheh said he was worried the tanker would not show, and that he would have wasted precious fuel getting to El Arish. Still, he said, the trip was not in vain. "It's worth it, at least I bought a goat, dairy products and some items for my children," he said.
The traffic flowed in both directions. Many Egyptian cars were seen in Gaza, including a truck carrying $65,000 worth of cheese, candy bars and cleaning supplies for a Gaza City supermarket.
The border breach provided a significant popularity boost to Hamas, which can claim it successfully broke through the closure that has deprived the coastal territory of normal trade and commerce.
Egypt has rejected any suggestion of assuming responsibility for the crowded, impoverished territory — a hot issue in light of comments this week by Israeli officials who said the border breach could relieve Israel of its burdens in Gaza.
Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory in 2005, but it still controls access to Gaza, including Gaza's airspace and coastline. Israel also provides the fuel needed to run Gaza's only power plant. It has recently withheld that fuel, causing severe power outages.
___
Sinan contributed to this report from Rafah, Egypt.
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and OMAR SINAN, AP, Jan. 26, 2008
On the Gaza-Egypt border, traffic of cars and pedestrians remained heavy Saturday, four days after Hamas militants blew down the border wall, sending hundreds of thousands of Gazans rushing into Egypt.
The traffic flowed in both directions. Many Egyptian cars were seen in Gaza, including a truck carrying $65,000 worth of cheese, candy bars and cleaning supplies for a Gaza City supermarket.
The border breach provided a significant popularity boost to Hamas, which can claim it successfully broke through the closure that has deprived the coastal territory of normal trade and commerce.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Egyptian riot police and armored vehicles restricted Gaza motorists to a small border area of Egypt on Saturday, in the second attempt in two days to restore control over the chaotic frontier breached by Hamas militants.
At least 38 members of the Egyptian security forces have been hospitalized, some in critical condition, because of cross-border confrontations, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. The minister complained of "provocations" at the border, a thinly veiled reprimand of Hamas, and said that while Egypt is ready to ease the suffering of Gazans, this should not endanger Egyptian lives.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stuck to his tough conditions for resuming contacts with Gaza's Hamas rulers, dimming prospects for Egypt's proposal to have the two Palestinian rivals come to Cairo for talks on resolving the border crisis.
Earlier, Hamas had accepted Egypt's proposal, and Hamas hardliner Sami Abu Zuhri accused Abbas of trying to bypass Hamas: "His statements are a rejection of the Egyptian initiative."
Abbas insists he will only talk to Hamas if it retreats from its violent June takeover of Gaza, something Hamas is unlikely to do. Abbas renewed his offer of deploying his forces at the Gaza crossings, as a way of ending the closure of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
On the Gaza-Egypt border, traffic of cars and pedestrians remained heavy Saturday, four days after Hamas militants blew down the border wall, sending hundreds of thousands of Gazans rushing into Egypt.
In an attempt to restore some control, Egyptian armored vehicles blocked the main street of the Egyptian border town of Rafah, causing a traffic jam of honking cars filled with Gazans shopping for fuel, food and consumer products.
Earlier Saturday, dozens of riot police formed human chains to block the two passages cut through the breached border, before once again giving up and allowing the cars to cross into the Egyptian side of the divided town. Authorities were making renewed efforts, however, to keep them out of the rest of the country.
Israel, meanwhile, expressed growing concern about the possible influx of Palestinian militants into areas of Egypt that border Israel. The Israeli military announced Saturday that its troops were on heightened alert along the border with Egypt, and that an Israeli road and tourism sites in the area are temporarily closed.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas were to meet in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said the Palestinian leader would ask Olmert to open Israel's crossings with Gaza, closed last week after a spike in rocket attacks. Abbas will tell Olmert "about the readiness of the Palestinian Authority to take responsibility of the Gaza borders," Abu Rdeneh said.
The border breach was engineered by Hamas to pressure Egypt to negotiate new border arrangements. Both Israel and Egypt have kept Gaza largely sealed in the past two years, especially since the violent Hamas takeover of the territory in June.
Egypt faces a dilemma over how to handle the border crisis. If it acts forcefully against the Gazans, it could anger its own people, who sympathize with the Palestinians' plight. But if it does nothing, it risks infiltration by Islamic militants.
Early Saturday, hundreds of Gaza cars crossed into Egypt.
Palestinians and Egyptians bypassed the checkpoints around Rafah, however, via dirt roads. In the coastal town of El Arish, about 20 miles west Gaza, the roadblocks were tighter and police were witnessed telling shopkeepers to close their stores.
Hundreds of cars with Gaza license plates were seen in El Arish on Saturday, many lining up at gas stations. An elderly Gaza man, Saleh Abu Ghosheh, stood in one of the lines, hoping that a gasoline tanker would eventually arrive to refill the station.
Abu Ghosheh said he was worried the tanker would not show, and that he would have wasted precious fuel getting to El Arish. Still, he said, the trip was not in vain. "It's worth it, at least I bought a goat, dairy products and some items for my children," he said.
The traffic flowed in both directions. Many Egyptian cars were seen in Gaza, including a truck carrying $65,000 worth of cheese, candy bars and cleaning supplies for a Gaza City supermarket.
The border breach provided a significant popularity boost to Hamas, which can claim it successfully broke through the closure that has deprived the coastal territory of normal trade and commerce.
Egypt has rejected any suggestion of assuming responsibility for the crowded, impoverished territory — a hot issue in light of comments this week by Israeli officials who said the border breach could relieve Israel of its burdens in Gaza.
Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory in 2005, but it still controls access to Gaza, including Gaza's airspace and coastline. Israel also provides the fuel needed to run Gaza's only power plant. It has recently withheld that fuel, causing severe power outages.
___
Sinan contributed to this report from Rafah, Egypt.
US willing to send troops to Pakistan
By ROBERT BURNS, AP, Jan. 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is willing to send a small number of U.S. combat troops to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency there if Pakistani authorities ask for such help, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.
"We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so," Gates told a news conference.
Gates said the Pakistani government has not requested any additional assistance in the weeks since al-Qaida and affiliated extremists have intensified their fighting inside Pakistan. And he stressed that the United States would respect the Pakistanis' judgment on the utility of American military assistance.
"We're not aware of any proposals that the Pakistanis have made to us at this point," he said. "This is clearly an evolving issue. And what we have tried to communicate to the Pakistanis and essentially what we are saying here is we are prepared to look at a range of cooperation with them in a number of different areas, but at this point it's their nickel, and we await proposals or suggestions from them."
Gates made his remarks not as an announcement but in response to questions from reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference in which he also declined to say whether U.S. combat troops have previously crossed the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan to conduct combat operations.
The question of a U.S. troop presence in Pakistan is highly sensitive, although at times senior U.S. officials have acknowledged various arrangements. In an Associated Press interview in January 2002, for example, Gen. Tommy Franks, who headed the U.S. Central Command at the time, disclosed a deal with Pakistan allowing U.S. troops in Afghanistan to cross the border in pursuit of fugitive extremist leaders.
Gates said Pakistani authorities were understandably taking their time in deciding whether to request more military assistance from the United States. He noted the assassination in Dec. 27 of former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and subsequent fears of increased unrest.
"I think that the emergence of this fairly considerable security challenge in Pakistan has really been brought home to the Pakistani government relatively recently and particularly with the tragic assassination of Mrs. Bhutto," Gates said. "So I think it's not particularly surprising that they have not fully thought through exactly how they intend to proceed and their strategy going forward."
The United States has about 28,000 troops in neighboring Afghanistan, and Gates earlier this month ordered another 3,200 to go this spring to train Afghan forces and to help fight Taliban insurgents.
U.S. intelligence believes al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.
The top American commander in the region, Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, was in Pakistan earlier this week meeting with senior Pakistani officials, including the new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani. Last week Fallon told reporters that Pakistani officials were more willing to seek U.S. assistance.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who appeared at the news conference with Gates, said he did not know whether Fallon had offered or received any new proposals.
Most of the discussion with the Pakistanis thus far has focused on the possibility of U.S. troops being used to train Pakistani forces, Gates said, but he acknowledged that combat operations might also be included.
"You're not talking about significant numbers of U.S. troops for the kinds of things if you're talking about going after al-Qaida in the border area or something like that," Gates said. "So, in my way of thinking, we're talking about a very small number of troops, should that happen. And it's clearly a pretty remote area. But, again, the Pakistani government has to be the judge of this."
Asked more specifically what he meant by a "very small number" of U.S. troops, Gates declined to comment.
Mullen said talks with the Pakistanis are progressing and that the U.S. military stands ready to provide training or combat forces.
"If asked to assist, I think we could do a lot," Mullen said.
For several years the focus of U.S. concern about al-Qaida elements in Pakistan was their support for Taliban extremists who have received training in western Pakistan and then infiltrated into Afghanistan to foment violence. More recently, al-Qaida in Pakistan has posed more of a threat to the Pakistani government, seeking to destabilize the government of a nuclear-armed Muslim nation.
At his news conference, Gates said the concern about al-Qaida goes beyond its threat to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"We are all concerned about the reestablishment of al-Qaida safe havens in the border area," he said. "I think it would be unrealistic to assume that all of the planning that they're doing is focused strictly on Pakistan. So I think that that is a continuing threat to Europe as well as to us."
___
On the Net:
Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is willing to send a small number of U.S. combat troops to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency there if Pakistani authorities ask for such help, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.
"We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so," Gates told a news conference.
Gates said the Pakistani government has not requested any additional assistance in the weeks since al-Qaida and affiliated extremists have intensified their fighting inside Pakistan. And he stressed that the United States would respect the Pakistanis' judgment on the utility of American military assistance.
"We're not aware of any proposals that the Pakistanis have made to us at this point," he said. "This is clearly an evolving issue. And what we have tried to communicate to the Pakistanis and essentially what we are saying here is we are prepared to look at a range of cooperation with them in a number of different areas, but at this point it's their nickel, and we await proposals or suggestions from them."
Gates made his remarks not as an announcement but in response to questions from reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference in which he also declined to say whether U.S. combat troops have previously crossed the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan to conduct combat operations.
The question of a U.S. troop presence in Pakistan is highly sensitive, although at times senior U.S. officials have acknowledged various arrangements. In an Associated Press interview in January 2002, for example, Gen. Tommy Franks, who headed the U.S. Central Command at the time, disclosed a deal with Pakistan allowing U.S. troops in Afghanistan to cross the border in pursuit of fugitive extremist leaders.
Gates said Pakistani authorities were understandably taking their time in deciding whether to request more military assistance from the United States. He noted the assassination in Dec. 27 of former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and subsequent fears of increased unrest.
"I think that the emergence of this fairly considerable security challenge in Pakistan has really been brought home to the Pakistani government relatively recently and particularly with the tragic assassination of Mrs. Bhutto," Gates said. "So I think it's not particularly surprising that they have not fully thought through exactly how they intend to proceed and their strategy going forward."
The United States has about 28,000 troops in neighboring Afghanistan, and Gates earlier this month ordered another 3,200 to go this spring to train Afghan forces and to help fight Taliban insurgents.
U.S. intelligence believes al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.
The top American commander in the region, Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, was in Pakistan earlier this week meeting with senior Pakistani officials, including the new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani. Last week Fallon told reporters that Pakistani officials were more willing to seek U.S. assistance.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who appeared at the news conference with Gates, said he did not know whether Fallon had offered or received any new proposals.
Most of the discussion with the Pakistanis thus far has focused on the possibility of U.S. troops being used to train Pakistani forces, Gates said, but he acknowledged that combat operations might also be included.
"You're not talking about significant numbers of U.S. troops for the kinds of things if you're talking about going after al-Qaida in the border area or something like that," Gates said. "So, in my way of thinking, we're talking about a very small number of troops, should that happen. And it's clearly a pretty remote area. But, again, the Pakistani government has to be the judge of this."
Asked more specifically what he meant by a "very small number" of U.S. troops, Gates declined to comment.
Mullen said talks with the Pakistanis are progressing and that the U.S. military stands ready to provide training or combat forces.
"If asked to assist, I think we could do a lot," Mullen said.
For several years the focus of U.S. concern about al-Qaida elements in Pakistan was their support for Taliban extremists who have received training in western Pakistan and then infiltrated into Afghanistan to foment violence. More recently, al-Qaida in Pakistan has posed more of a threat to the Pakistani government, seeking to destabilize the government of a nuclear-armed Muslim nation.
At his news conference, Gates said the concern about al-Qaida goes beyond its threat to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"We are all concerned about the reestablishment of al-Qaida safe havens in the border area," he said. "I think it would be unrealistic to assume that all of the planning that they're doing is focused strictly on Pakistan. So I think that that is a continuing threat to Europe as well as to us."
___
On the Net:
Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil
LISTING OF DEMONSTRATIONS TO BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA!
Al-Awda, Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Jan. 24, 2008
The following is a partial listing of emergency protests taking place over the next few days in the US, Europe and Australia:
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Saturday January 26, 2:00-3:30 PM, Corner of Tulane and Central S.E.
Anaheim, California: Saturday January 26, 1 PM 512 S. Brookhurst St. Between Orange Ave. & Broadway
Barmen, Germany: Saturday January 26, 11 PM vigil followed rally in Wuppertal, in front of the town hall in Barmen
Berlin, Germany: Wednesday 23 January 5:00 to 7:00 PM, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Boston, Massachusetts: Thursday, January 24, noon Israeli Consulate and Saturday, January 26, noon-1 PM in Harvard Square
Champaign, University of Illinois at Urbana: Tuesday January 22, 11 AM at the Quad
Charlotte, North Carolina: Saturday January 26, 4 PM Forum, Charlotte Energy Solutions, 337 Baldwin Ave; For details email Action Center For Justice at nomorevictims@yahoo.com or see www.CharlotteAction.org.
Chicago, Illinois: Tuesday January 29, 5 PM at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 North Broadway (at benefit for the Friends of the 'Israeli Defense Force'). Initiated by ISM. Call 773-463-0311 for more information.
Cleveland, Ohio: January 26, 2 PM at Cleveland's Market Square at W. 25th & Lorain Avenue, across from the West Side Market - March to West 25th and Franklin
Cologne, Germany: Saturday, January 26, 2 - 4 PM, Domplatte (Cologne Cathedral)
Costa Mesa, California: Friday, January 25, 5-7 PM, vigil at Bristol & Anton
Edinburgh, Scotland: Wednesday January 23, 5:30 PM at the foot of the Mound, Princes Street.
Glasgow, Scotland: Friday January 25, 5:30 PMGeorge Square.
Leicester, England: Thursday 24 January, 5.30 to 6.30 PM The Clock Tower, Town Centre
London, England: Thursday January 24, 6 PM and Saturday January 26, 4 PM Opposite 10 Downing Street, Whitehall.
Melbourne, Australia: Friday January 25 8:00 AM rally at the offices of ABC Radio at Southbank.
Montreal, Canada: Wednesday January 23, 5 PM, Phillips Square, Saint Catherine Street opposite The Bay department store (Metro McGill) and Friday January 25, 2:00 PM
De Maisonneuve Boulevard corner of MacKay Street, Montreal (Metro Guy-Concordia).
New Haven, Conneticut: Friday, January 25, 4:30 to 5:30 PM The Federal Building on Church Street (opposite the flagpole on the Green).
New York, New York: Friday January 25, 3 PM, and Saturday January 26 1 PM - both at the 'Israeli' Embassy, 43rd St. and 2nd Ave.
Paris, France: Wednesday January 23, 5:30 PM at the Palais de l'Elysee.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Friday, January 25 12 noon, press conference and vigil in front of the Israeli Consulate (15th & Locust) and Saturday, January 26 assemble at 12 noon to march from 5th and Market Sts. to the Israeli Consulate (15th & Locust)
Phoenix, Arizona: January 26, 6:30 PM Downtown Tempe, at the corner of Mill Ave and University Drive.
St. Paul, Minnesota: Friday January 25, 4:15-5:30 P.M., Corner of Summit and Snelling Aves
San Diego, California: Friday January 25, 3:00 - 5:30 PM downtown corner of Broadway and Front Street (infront of Federal Building)
San Francisco, California: Friday, January 25, 4-6 PM, Israeli Consulate, 456 Montgomery St. (near California).
Santa Barbara, California Friday 25 January, 11 AM - 1 PM at UC Santa Barbara in front of Arbor Area
Seattle, Washington: Friday January 25 4 PM, Westlake Park, 4th & Pine streets.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota: Saturday January 26, 12 Noon at 12th & Phillips
Strasbourg, France: Saturday 26 January, 5 to 6 PM, Place Kleber
Swansea, Wales: Saturday January 26, 12 PM, City Centre of Swansea Front of the Castel
Toronto, Canada: Friday January 25, 5 PM Israeli Consulate at 180 Bloor St. West
Vienna, Austria: Saturday, January 26, 2 - 4 PM at the Pestsäule/Graben
Washington DC: Friday January 25, 4 PM at the Israeli Embassy, 3514 International Dr. N.W.
If you are planning your own protest for Gaza, please write to info@al-awda.org so we can post information about your action on our website http://al-awda.org . To donate to Al-Awda, PRRC, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions.
BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA!
DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls on its chapters, supporting organizations and individuals to organize to break the silence about the ongoing Israeli war crimes being committed against Palestinians in Gaza. Organize street actions and protests, and community meetings and delegations to religious leaders and educators. Call and write the media and
your congressional representatives.
People of the world watch in horror as the racist state of Israel, with the support and encouragement of the US government, engages in a genocidal project to eliminate the indigenous Arab people of Palestine.
The world community has denounced the government of 'Israel' for using its military for the purpose of collectively punishing the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, a clear war crime and violation of the 4th Geneva Conventions. The only power plant in Gaza was shut down today leaving the 1.5 million inhabitants without electricity, water, or any functional medical facilities.
Palestinians continue to endure starvation, aerial bombings, US CIA interventions, and Israeli army brutality. This murderous endeavor has caused the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians and the already fragile economy of Gaza has been decimated.
NO FOOD, NO WATER, NO BREAD!
We appeal to all people living in the US:
SPEAK OUT TO DEMAND ONCE AND FOR ALL AN END TO THE SIEGE OF GAZA AND THE OCCUPATION OF ALL OF PALESTINE!
ORGANIZE STREET ACTIONS AND PROTESTS, CALL AND WRITE THE MEDIA AND YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES.
ORGANIZE COMMUNITY MEETINGS AND DELEGATIONS TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND EDUCATORS.
DONATE TO HELP THE PEOPLE IN GAZA!
For information to contact your congressional representatives, go to
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home
For writing to the media, go to http://newslink.org for contact information.
To make a donation to help the people in the Gaza Strip go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions. Please indicate that your donation is for the GAZA EMERGENCY FUND.
BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA!
DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org
The following is a partial listing of emergency protests taking place over the next few days in the US, Europe and Australia:
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Saturday January 26, 2:00-3:30 PM, Corner of Tulane and Central S.E.
Anaheim, California: Saturday January 26, 1 PM 512 S. Brookhurst St. Between Orange Ave. & Broadway
Barmen, Germany: Saturday January 26, 11 PM vigil followed rally in Wuppertal, in front of the town hall in Barmen
Berlin, Germany: Wednesday 23 January 5:00 to 7:00 PM, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Boston, Massachusetts: Thursday, January 24, noon Israeli Consulate and Saturday, January 26, noon-1 PM in Harvard Square
Champaign, University of Illinois at Urbana: Tuesday January 22, 11 AM at the Quad
Charlotte, North Carolina: Saturday January 26, 4 PM Forum, Charlotte Energy Solutions, 337 Baldwin Ave; For details email Action Center For Justice at nomorevictims@yahoo.com or see www.CharlotteAction.org.
Chicago, Illinois: Tuesday January 29, 5 PM at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 North Broadway (at benefit for the Friends of the 'Israeli Defense Force'). Initiated by ISM. Call 773-463-0311 for more information.
Cleveland, Ohio: January 26, 2 PM at Cleveland's Market Square at W. 25th & Lorain Avenue, across from the West Side Market - March to West 25th and Franklin
Cologne, Germany: Saturday, January 26, 2 - 4 PM, Domplatte (Cologne Cathedral)
Costa Mesa, California: Friday, January 25, 5-7 PM, vigil at Bristol & Anton
Edinburgh, Scotland: Wednesday January 23, 5:30 PM at the foot of the Mound, Princes Street.
Glasgow, Scotland: Friday January 25, 5:30 PMGeorge Square.
Leicester, England: Thursday 24 January, 5.30 to 6.30 PM The Clock Tower, Town Centre
London, England: Thursday January 24, 6 PM and Saturday January 26, 4 PM Opposite 10 Downing Street, Whitehall.
Melbourne, Australia: Friday January 25 8:00 AM rally at the offices of ABC Radio at Southbank.
Montreal, Canada: Wednesday January 23, 5 PM, Phillips Square, Saint Catherine Street opposite The Bay department store (Metro McGill) and Friday January 25, 2:00 PM
De Maisonneuve Boulevard corner of MacKay Street, Montreal (Metro Guy-Concordia).
New Haven, Conneticut: Friday, January 25, 4:30 to 5:30 PM The Federal Building on Church Street (opposite the flagpole on the Green).
New York, New York: Friday January 25, 3 PM, and Saturday January 26 1 PM - both at the 'Israeli' Embassy, 43rd St. and 2nd Ave.
Paris, France: Wednesday January 23, 5:30 PM at the Palais de l'Elysee.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Friday, January 25 12 noon, press conference and vigil in front of the Israeli Consulate (15th & Locust) and Saturday, January 26 assemble at 12 noon to march from 5th and Market Sts. to the Israeli Consulate (15th & Locust)
Phoenix, Arizona: January 26, 6:30 PM Downtown Tempe, at the corner of Mill Ave and University Drive.
St. Paul, Minnesota: Friday January 25, 4:15-5:30 P.M., Corner of Summit and Snelling Aves
San Diego, California: Friday January 25, 3:00 - 5:30 PM downtown corner of Broadway and Front Street (infront of Federal Building)
San Francisco, California: Friday, January 25, 4-6 PM, Israeli Consulate, 456 Montgomery St. (near California).
Santa Barbara, California Friday 25 January, 11 AM - 1 PM at UC Santa Barbara in front of Arbor Area
Seattle, Washington: Friday January 25 4 PM, Westlake Park, 4th & Pine streets.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota: Saturday January 26, 12 Noon at 12th & Phillips
Strasbourg, France: Saturday 26 January, 5 to 6 PM, Place Kleber
Swansea, Wales: Saturday January 26, 12 PM, City Centre of Swansea Front of the Castel
Toronto, Canada: Friday January 25, 5 PM Israeli Consulate at 180 Bloor St. West
Vienna, Austria: Saturday, January 26, 2 - 4 PM at the Pestsäule/Graben
Washington DC: Friday January 25, 4 PM at the Israeli Embassy, 3514 International Dr. N.W.
If you are planning your own protest for Gaza, please write to info@al-awda.org so we can post information about your action on our website http://al-awda.org . To donate to Al-Awda, PRRC, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions.
BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA!
DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls on its chapters, supporting organizations and individuals to organize to break the silence about the ongoing Israeli war crimes being committed against Palestinians in Gaza. Organize street actions and protests, and community meetings and delegations to religious leaders and educators. Call and write the media and
your congressional representatives.
People of the world watch in horror as the racist state of Israel, with the support and encouragement of the US government, engages in a genocidal project to eliminate the indigenous Arab people of Palestine.
The world community has denounced the government of 'Israel' for using its military for the purpose of collectively punishing the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, a clear war crime and violation of the 4th Geneva Conventions. The only power plant in Gaza was shut down today leaving the 1.5 million inhabitants without electricity, water, or any functional medical facilities.
Palestinians continue to endure starvation, aerial bombings, US CIA interventions, and Israeli army brutality. This murderous endeavor has caused the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians and the already fragile economy of Gaza has been decimated.
NO FOOD, NO WATER, NO BREAD!
We appeal to all people living in the US:
SPEAK OUT TO DEMAND ONCE AND FOR ALL AN END TO THE SIEGE OF GAZA AND THE OCCUPATION OF ALL OF PALESTINE!
ORGANIZE STREET ACTIONS AND PROTESTS, CALL AND WRITE THE MEDIA AND YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES.
ORGANIZE COMMUNITY MEETINGS AND DELEGATIONS TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND EDUCATORS.
DONATE TO HELP THE PEOPLE IN GAZA!
For information to contact your congressional representatives, go to
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home
For writing to the media, go to http://newslink.org for contact information.
To make a donation to help the people in the Gaza Strip go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions. Please indicate that your donation is for the GAZA EMERGENCY FUND.
BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA!
DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org
GAZA: AN ISRAELI CALL FOR URGENT ACTION
We, the Israeli organizations signed below, deplore the decision by the Israeli government to cut off vital supplies of electricity and fuel (and therefore water, since the pumps cannot work), as well as essential foodstuffs, medicines and other humanitarian supplies to the civilian population of Gaza. Such an action constitutes a clear and unequivocal crime against humanity.
Prof. John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, called the Israeli government’s actions “serious war crimes” for which its political and military officials should be prosecuted and punished. The killing of more than 40 civilians this past week violates, he said, “the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law that military action must distinguish between military targets and civilian targets.” Indeed, the very legal framework invoked by the Israeli government to carry out this illegal and immoral act – declaring Gaza a “hostile entity” within a “conflict short of war” – has absolutely no standing in international law.
We call on the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to lead the Security Council to a decisive decision to end the siege on Gaza when it meets in emergency session on Wednesday.
We call on the governments of the world, and in particular the American government and the European Parliament, to censure Israel’s actions and, in light of recent attempts to revive the diplomatic process, to end all attacks on civilians, including the continuing demolition of Palestinian homes at an alarming rate.
We call upon the Jews of the world in whose name the Israeli government purports to speak, and upon their rabbis and communal leaders in particular, to speak out unequivocally against this offense to the very moral core of Jewish values.
And we call upon the peoples of the world to let their officials and leaders know of their repudiation of this cruel, illegal and immoral act – an act that stands out in its cruelty even in an already oppressive Israeli Occupation.
We condemns attacks on all civilians, and we acknowledge the suffering of the residents of Sderot. Still, those attacks do not justify the massive disproportionality of Israeli sanctions over a million and half civilians of Gaza, in particular in light of Israel’s oppressive 40 year occupation. Such violations of international law by a government are especially egregious and must be denounced and punished if the very system of human rights and international law is to be preserved.
The Israeli government’s decision to punish Gaza’s civilian population, with all the human suffering that entails, constitutes State Terrorism against innocent people. Only when Israeli policy-makers are held accountable for their actions and international law upheld will a just peace be possible in the Middle East.
The Alternative Information Center * Bat Tsafon * Gush Shalom * The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) * Physicians for Human Rights * Coalition of Women for Peace
Prof. John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, called the Israeli government’s actions “serious war crimes” for which its political and military officials should be prosecuted and punished. The killing of more than 40 civilians this past week violates, he said, “the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law that military action must distinguish between military targets and civilian targets.” Indeed, the very legal framework invoked by the Israeli government to carry out this illegal and immoral act – declaring Gaza a “hostile entity” within a “conflict short of war” – has absolutely no standing in international law.
We call on the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to lead the Security Council to a decisive decision to end the siege on Gaza when it meets in emergency session on Wednesday.
We call on the governments of the world, and in particular the American government and the European Parliament, to censure Israel’s actions and, in light of recent attempts to revive the diplomatic process, to end all attacks on civilians, including the continuing demolition of Palestinian homes at an alarming rate.
We call upon the Jews of the world in whose name the Israeli government purports to speak, and upon their rabbis and communal leaders in particular, to speak out unequivocally against this offense to the very moral core of Jewish values.
And we call upon the peoples of the world to let their officials and leaders know of their repudiation of this cruel, illegal and immoral act – an act that stands out in its cruelty even in an already oppressive Israeli Occupation.
We condemns attacks on all civilians, and we acknowledge the suffering of the residents of Sderot. Still, those attacks do not justify the massive disproportionality of Israeli sanctions over a million and half civilians of Gaza, in particular in light of Israel’s oppressive 40 year occupation. Such violations of international law by a government are especially egregious and must be denounced and punished if the very system of human rights and international law is to be preserved.
The Israeli government’s decision to punish Gaza’s civilian population, with all the human suffering that entails, constitutes State Terrorism against innocent people. Only when Israeli policy-makers are held accountable for their actions and international law upheld will a just peace be possible in the Middle East.
The Alternative Information Center * Bat Tsafon * Gush Shalom * The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) * Physicians for Human Rights * Coalition of Women for Peace
Gazans knock down border, flee to Egypt
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, AP, Jan. 23, 2008
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of Palestinians on foot and donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.
The border breach was a dramatic protest against the closure of the impoverished Palestinian territory imposed last week by Israel.
Jubilant men and women crossed unhindered by border controls over toppled corrugated metal along sections of the barrier, carrying goats, chickens and crates of Coca-Cola. Some brought back televisions, car tires and cigarettes and one man even bought a motorcycle. Vendors sold soft drinks and baked goods to the crowds.
They were stocking up on goods made scarce by the Israeli blockade and within hours, shops on the Egyptian side of Rafah had run out of most of their wares. The border fence had divided the Rafah into two halves, one on the Egyptian side and one in southern Gazan.
Ibrahim Abu Taha, 45, a Palestinian father of seven, was in the Egyptian section of Rafah with his two brothers and $185 in his pocket.
"We want to buy food. We want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese," Abu Taha said, adding that he would also get some cheap Egyptian cigarettes. He said he could get the food in Gaza, but at three times the price.
Police from the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action and imposed no border controls on those who crossed.
"Freedom is good. We need no border after today," said unemployed 29-year-old Mohammed Abu Ghazal.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told reporters in Cairo his border guards originally had forced the Gazans back on Tuesday when they tried to cross.
"But today, a great number of them came back because the Palestinians in Gaza are starving due to the Israeli siege," he said.
No starvation has been reported in Gaza. But many of the 1.5 million residents have faced critical shortages of electricity, fuel and other supplies over months because Gaza has been virtually sealed since Hamas seized control of the territory by force from the rival Fatah faction in June.
"I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons," Mubarak said.
Egypt has largely kept its border with Gaza closed since the Hamas takeover amid concerns of a spillover of Hamas-style militancy into Egypt. But the government is under public pressure to help the impoverished Gazans.
The collapse of the border, although likely temporary, is a boon to Hamas. It briefly eases the international blockade of Gaza and gives the Islamic militants possible leverage in demanding new border arrangements.
At the same time, it will likely raise tensions between Egypt and Israel, which fears militants and weapons will flood Gaza in growing numbers.
Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal said from Syria that Hamas was willing to work out a new border arrangement with Egypt and the rival Fatah, led by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In Gaza, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for an urgent meeting with Egypt and Fatah to work out a new shared arrangement for Gaza's border crossings and suggested that Hamas would be prepared to cede some control to the Abbas government in the West Bank.
"We don't want to be the only ones in control of these matters," Haniyeh said.
But Hamas' position was swiftly denounced by Abbas' government. Ashraf Ajrami, a Cabinet minister, said Haniyeh's call for participation was meant to sidestep Abbas' demand that Hamas return all of Gaza to his control.
"Everything Haniyeh is saying is simply to exploit this situation to win political gains. ... It is a part of the problem, not the solution," Ajrami said.
Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in June, routing pro-Fatah security forces. Israel and Egypt sealed their border crossings with the coastal territory in response, and Abbas established another government in the West Bank. The two bitter rivals have not had formal contact since.
Israel and the West imposed an aid boycott on the Palestinian government after Hamas won a parliamentary election and set up a government in early 2006. The sanctions have cut off roughly half of the estimated $1 billion in foreign aid and tax transfers from Israel. Since June, the West has been supporting Abbas and Gaza has received little direct foreign aid beyond the existing programs for Palestinian refugees there.
Israel expressed concern that militants and weapons might be entering Gaza from Egypt amid the chaos, and said Egypt is responsible for restoring order.
Israel also is in a difficult situation. It cannot be seen as criticizing Egypt too strongly for fear of alienating one of the few Arab countries it has a peace treaty with.
"Israel has no forces in Gaza or Egypt, and the Egyptians control the border, and therefore it is the responsibility of Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly according to the signed agreements," said Arye Mekel, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry.
"We expect the Egyptians to solve the problem," he added. "Obviously we are worried about the situation. It could potentially allow anybody to enter."
In Egyptian Rafah, a market stall selling pistols and ammunition clips for Kalashnikov assault rifles had no customers Wednesday. Weapons are generally brought into Gaza through smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
An off-duty Hamas policeman, who only gave his first name as Abdel Rahman, said there was no need to buy weapons from Egypt.
"You can buy weapons in Gaza, guns and RPGs," he said, adding that they were easier to find than Coca-Cola.
Palestinians have broken through the Egypt border several times since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and stopped patrolling the border. But none of the previous breaches approached the scale of Wednesday's destruction, which demolished two-thirds of the seven-mile partition.
The border fence was erected by Israel after the outbreak of a second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
The destruction of the wall began before dawn Wednesday, when Palestinian gunmen began using land mines to blow holes in the border partition that divides Rafah, witnesses said. There were 17 explosions in all, Hamas security officials said.
At first, Hamas and Egyptian security officers prevented people from getting through, witnesses said. But by morning thousands of Gazans had massed at the border and overwhelmed police began letting people cross.
Most Egyptian security and police were later pulled out from the immediate vicinity of the border, Egyptian security officials said.
In Washington, White House press secretary Dana Perino blamed Hamas for the chaos in Gaza and said the instability was "very troubling" for Israel.
"It is Hamas' actions of lobbing upwards of 150 rockets a day into their territory that has caused the blockade — has caused Israel to implement the blockade," Perino said. "Hamas is not in control of the situation, they are not governing well, and the people of the — the Palestinian people are starting to realize that they do have a choice," she added.
"The Palestinians living in Gaza are living under chaos because of Hamas, and the blame has to be placed fully at their feet."
Wednesday's chaotic scenes came almost a week after Israel imposed a tight closure on Gaza, backed by Egypt, in response to a spike in Gaza rocket attacks on Israeli border towns.
Pictures of children marching with candles and people lining up at closed bakeries in a blacked-out Gaza City evoked urgent appeals from governments, aid agencies and the U.N. for an end to the closure.
Israel maintained that Hamas was creating an artificial crisis but nonetheless eased the closure slightly on Tuesday, transferring fuel to restart Gaza's only power plant, and also sent in some cooking gas, food and medicine.
Israel has pledged to continue limited shipments because of concerns about a possible humanitarian crisis, but Israeli defense officials said Wednesday there would be no new shipments for the time being.
"We don't want a humanitarian crisis, but the Hamas government who is responsible for the launching of rockets into Israel had to be weakened by all means," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday on a visit to Paris.
The rocket fire by Gaza militants has sent residents in Israeli border communities scrambling for shelter several times a day. The rockets have traumatized many area residents and killed 12 Israelis in six years. The attacks have persisted despite the closure.
_____
Associated Press reporters Sarah El Deeb and Ashraf Sweilam contributed to this report from Gaza City and Rafah, Egypt.
Note: average speed and range depend on rider's weight, terrain & tire pressure.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of Palestinians on foot and donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.
The border breach was a dramatic protest against the closure of the impoverished Palestinian territory imposed last week by Israel.
Jubilant men and women crossed unhindered by border controls over toppled corrugated metal along sections of the barrier, carrying goats, chickens and crates of Coca-Cola. Some brought back televisions, car tires and cigarettes and one man even bought a motorcycle. Vendors sold soft drinks and baked goods to the crowds.
They were stocking up on goods made scarce by the Israeli blockade and within hours, shops on the Egyptian side of Rafah had run out of most of their wares. The border fence had divided the Rafah into two halves, one on the Egyptian side and one in southern Gazan.
Ibrahim Abu Taha, 45, a Palestinian father of seven, was in the Egyptian section of Rafah with his two brothers and $185 in his pocket.
"We want to buy food. We want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese," Abu Taha said, adding that he would also get some cheap Egyptian cigarettes. He said he could get the food in Gaza, but at three times the price.
Police from the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action and imposed no border controls on those who crossed.
"Freedom is good. We need no border after today," said unemployed 29-year-old Mohammed Abu Ghazal.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told reporters in Cairo his border guards originally had forced the Gazans back on Tuesday when they tried to cross.
"But today, a great number of them came back because the Palestinians in Gaza are starving due to the Israeli siege," he said.
No starvation has been reported in Gaza. But many of the 1.5 million residents have faced critical shortages of electricity, fuel and other supplies over months because Gaza has been virtually sealed since Hamas seized control of the territory by force from the rival Fatah faction in June.
"I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons," Mubarak said.
Egypt has largely kept its border with Gaza closed since the Hamas takeover amid concerns of a spillover of Hamas-style militancy into Egypt. But the government is under public pressure to help the impoverished Gazans.
The collapse of the border, although likely temporary, is a boon to Hamas. It briefly eases the international blockade of Gaza and gives the Islamic militants possible leverage in demanding new border arrangements.
At the same time, it will likely raise tensions between Egypt and Israel, which fears militants and weapons will flood Gaza in growing numbers.
Hamas supreme leader Khaled Mashaal said from Syria that Hamas was willing to work out a new border arrangement with Egypt and the rival Fatah, led by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In Gaza, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for an urgent meeting with Egypt and Fatah to work out a new shared arrangement for Gaza's border crossings and suggested that Hamas would be prepared to cede some control to the Abbas government in the West Bank.
"We don't want to be the only ones in control of these matters," Haniyeh said.
But Hamas' position was swiftly denounced by Abbas' government. Ashraf Ajrami, a Cabinet minister, said Haniyeh's call for participation was meant to sidestep Abbas' demand that Hamas return all of Gaza to his control.
"Everything Haniyeh is saying is simply to exploit this situation to win political gains. ... It is a part of the problem, not the solution," Ajrami said.
Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in June, routing pro-Fatah security forces. Israel and Egypt sealed their border crossings with the coastal territory in response, and Abbas established another government in the West Bank. The two bitter rivals have not had formal contact since.
Israel and the West imposed an aid boycott on the Palestinian government after Hamas won a parliamentary election and set up a government in early 2006. The sanctions have cut off roughly half of the estimated $1 billion in foreign aid and tax transfers from Israel. Since June, the West has been supporting Abbas and Gaza has received little direct foreign aid beyond the existing programs for Palestinian refugees there.
Israel expressed concern that militants and weapons might be entering Gaza from Egypt amid the chaos, and said Egypt is responsible for restoring order.
Israel also is in a difficult situation. It cannot be seen as criticizing Egypt too strongly for fear of alienating one of the few Arab countries it has a peace treaty with.
"Israel has no forces in Gaza or Egypt, and the Egyptians control the border, and therefore it is the responsibility of Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly according to the signed agreements," said Arye Mekel, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry.
"We expect the Egyptians to solve the problem," he added. "Obviously we are worried about the situation. It could potentially allow anybody to enter."
In Egyptian Rafah, a market stall selling pistols and ammunition clips for Kalashnikov assault rifles had no customers Wednesday. Weapons are generally brought into Gaza through smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
An off-duty Hamas policeman, who only gave his first name as Abdel Rahman, said there was no need to buy weapons from Egypt.
"You can buy weapons in Gaza, guns and RPGs," he said, adding that they were easier to find than Coca-Cola.
Palestinians have broken through the Egypt border several times since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and stopped patrolling the border. But none of the previous breaches approached the scale of Wednesday's destruction, which demolished two-thirds of the seven-mile partition.
The border fence was erected by Israel after the outbreak of a second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
The destruction of the wall began before dawn Wednesday, when Palestinian gunmen began using land mines to blow holes in the border partition that divides Rafah, witnesses said. There were 17 explosions in all, Hamas security officials said.
At first, Hamas and Egyptian security officers prevented people from getting through, witnesses said. But by morning thousands of Gazans had massed at the border and overwhelmed police began letting people cross.
Most Egyptian security and police were later pulled out from the immediate vicinity of the border, Egyptian security officials said.
In Washington, White House press secretary Dana Perino blamed Hamas for the chaos in Gaza and said the instability was "very troubling" for Israel.
"It is Hamas' actions of lobbing upwards of 150 rockets a day into their territory that has caused the blockade — has caused Israel to implement the blockade," Perino said. "Hamas is not in control of the situation, they are not governing well, and the people of the — the Palestinian people are starting to realize that they do have a choice," she added.
"The Palestinians living in Gaza are living under chaos because of Hamas, and the blame has to be placed fully at their feet."
Wednesday's chaotic scenes came almost a week after Israel imposed a tight closure on Gaza, backed by Egypt, in response to a spike in Gaza rocket attacks on Israeli border towns.
Pictures of children marching with candles and people lining up at closed bakeries in a blacked-out Gaza City evoked urgent appeals from governments, aid agencies and the U.N. for an end to the closure.
Israel maintained that Hamas was creating an artificial crisis but nonetheless eased the closure slightly on Tuesday, transferring fuel to restart Gaza's only power plant, and also sent in some cooking gas, food and medicine.
Israel has pledged to continue limited shipments because of concerns about a possible humanitarian crisis, but Israeli defense officials said Wednesday there would be no new shipments for the time being.
"We don't want a humanitarian crisis, but the Hamas government who is responsible for the launching of rockets into Israel had to be weakened by all means," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday on a visit to Paris.
The rocket fire by Gaza militants has sent residents in Israeli border communities scrambling for shelter several times a day. The rockets have traumatized many area residents and killed 12 Israelis in six years. The attacks have persisted despite the closure.
_____
Associated Press reporters Sarah El Deeb and Ashraf Sweilam contributed to this report from Gaza City and Rafah, Egypt.
Note: average speed and range depend on rider's weight, terrain & tire pressure.
Jan. 26 Forum: EMERGENCY - End the Illegal Siege of Gaza NOW!
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave
Charlotte, NC 28204
Donate to support our work, info at http://charlotteaction
More actions across the U.S. & Internationally, see:
Al-Awda | ANSWER Coalition | U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation | United For Peace & Justice
Al-Awda | ANSWER Coalition | U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation | United For Peace & Justice
End the Siege on the People of Gaza
Call for a Comprehensive Ceasefire, End US Military Aid to Israel
Sat., Jan 26 Forum in Charlotte, NC at 4pm at Charlotte Energy Solutions, 337 Baldwin Ave. Info: nomorevictims@yahoo.com or www.CharlotteAction.org.
Israel is continuing to escalate its attacks on Gaza , killing more than 40 Palestinians just this past week and wounding scores more, and has placed the already besieged territory under complete lockdown. That is eliminating what little access the population had to food, fuel, clean water and ever-more-urgent medical services. By Sunday Gaza 's only power generator was shut down because of a lack of fuel; hospitals are starting to be affected and Palestinian medical officials have reported that five gravely ill patients have died.
Israel's announcement, under international pressure, that it would allow one day's worth of fuel to restart Gaza's only power generating plant does not mean an end to the crisis; Gaza will remain desperate as Israel continues to use access to vitally needed fuel and other goods as a weapon of occupation to impose collective punishment on the entire population of Gaza. The conditions inGaza have become desperate, and international solidarity organizations in London, Rome and elsewhere around the world are mobilizing to demand an end to the siege of Gaza in protests on January 26. That same day Israeli peace groups are organizing an emergency convoy to try to break the siege.
Israel's increasing attacks on Gaza -- the economic blockade and military assaults -- are not in response to the rocket attacks from Gaza. The Israeli attacks, and Israel's continuing occupation-through-siege of Gaza, are the reason for the rocket fire in the first place. But even if the Israeli attacks were in response to Gaza rockets, such a response would still be illegal (collective punishment is always illegal), disproportionate, and ultimately futile.
U.S. military support bolsters Israel's occupation and enables the current escalating punishment. The U.S. must stop all military aid to Israel, and demand that Israel end its collective punishment and indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population of Gaza. Further, the U.S. must push for a comprehensive ceasefire that covers all the occupied Palestinian territories. Otherwise, the U.S. will continue to be vilified for its support of collective punishment and attacks on civilians, U.S. citizens will be seen by the rest of the world as complicit in major human rights violations, and any future talks about "peace" will be viewed as providing continuing support for an Israeli-imposed military settlement.
TAKE ACTION:
Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at 202-647-7209. Demand:
* An immediate end to the assault on Gaza, and the opening of its border crossings to people and goods.
* A comprehensive ceasefire that covers all territories and all parties to the conflict.
* An end to U.S. military aid to Israel. Oppose the new $30 billion military aid package to Israel by clicking here.
Call your national as well as your local media:
* Demand coverage of what's going on in the Occupied Palestinian territories. This is particularly important since the Israeli lock-down of Gaza has resulted in very little news emerging of the most recent attacks.
* Write a letter to the editor in response to an article in your paper using the talking points in this action alert.
For media contact information, click here.
If your group has consultative status at the United Nations, call the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:
* Demand that the UN hold Israel, as a member state, accountable for its human rights violations.
* Protest the Secretary-General's statement of January 17, 2008, repeated on January 18, in which he demanded an "immediate halt" to Palestinian rocket and sniper fire from Gaza, but only urged "maximum restraint" from the Israeli occupation forces assaulting Gaza. In both statements he "reminds all parties of their obligation to comply with international humanitarian law and not to endanger civilians," without acknowledging the different obligations between an occupied population and an occupying power already violating numerous UN resolutions that demand an end to the occupation itself.
Contact: Office of the Secretary General, Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar at
nambiar@un.org or 1-212-963-8922.
Find out about the January 26 convoy that will try to break the siege of Gaza with food and medicine: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1200266785
Sat., Jan 26 Forum in Charlotte, NC at 4pm at Charlotte Energy Solutions, 337 Baldwin Ave. Info: nomorevictims@yahoo.com or www.CharlotteAction.org.
Israel is continuing to escalate its attacks on Gaza , killing more than 40 Palestinians just this past week and wounding scores more, and has placed the already besieged territory under complete lockdown. That is eliminating what little access the population had to food, fuel, clean water and ever-more-urgent medical services. By Sunday Gaza 's only power generator was shut down because of a lack of fuel; hospitals are starting to be affected and Palestinian medical officials have reported that five gravely ill patients have died.
Israel's announcement, under international pressure, that it would allow one day's worth of fuel to restart Gaza's only power generating plant does not mean an end to the crisis; Gaza will remain desperate as Israel continues to use access to vitally needed fuel and other goods as a weapon of occupation to impose collective punishment on the entire population of Gaza. The conditions inGaza have become desperate, and international solidarity organizations in London, Rome and elsewhere around the world are mobilizing to demand an end to the siege of Gaza in protests on January 26. That same day Israeli peace groups are organizing an emergency convoy to try to break the siege.
Israel's increasing attacks on Gaza -- the economic blockade and military assaults -- are not in response to the rocket attacks from Gaza. The Israeli attacks, and Israel's continuing occupation-through-siege of Gaza, are the reason for the rocket fire in the first place. But even if the Israeli attacks were in response to Gaza rockets, such a response would still be illegal (collective punishment is always illegal), disproportionate, and ultimately futile.
U.S. military support bolsters Israel's occupation and enables the current escalating punishment. The U.S. must stop all military aid to Israel, and demand that Israel end its collective punishment and indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population of Gaza. Further, the U.S. must push for a comprehensive ceasefire that covers all the occupied Palestinian territories. Otherwise, the U.S. will continue to be vilified for its support of collective punishment and attacks on civilians, U.S. citizens will be seen by the rest of the world as complicit in major human rights violations, and any future talks about "peace" will be viewed as providing continuing support for an Israeli-imposed military settlement.
TAKE ACTION:
Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at 202-647-7209. Demand:
* An immediate end to the assault on Gaza, and the opening of its border crossings to people and goods.
* A comprehensive ceasefire that covers all territories and all parties to the conflict.
* An end to U.S. military aid to Israel. Oppose the new $30 billion military aid package to Israel by clicking here.
Call your national as well as your local media:
* Demand coverage of what's going on in the Occupied Palestinian territories. This is particularly important since the Israeli lock-down of Gaza has resulted in very little news emerging of the most recent attacks.
* Write a letter to the editor in response to an article in your paper using the talking points in this action alert.
For media contact information, click here.
If your group has consultative status at the United Nations, call the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:
* Demand that the UN hold Israel, as a member state, accountable for its human rights violations.
* Protest the Secretary-General's statement of January 17, 2008, repeated on January 18, in which he demanded an "immediate halt" to Palestinian rocket and sniper fire from Gaza, but only urged "maximum restraint" from the Israeli occupation forces assaulting Gaza. In both statements he "reminds all parties of their obligation to comply with international humanitarian law and not to endanger civilians," without acknowledging the different obligations between an occupied population and an occupying power already violating numerous UN resolutions that demand an end to the occupation itself.
Contact: Office of the Secretary General, Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar at
nambiar@un.org or 1-212-963-8922.
Find out about the January 26 convoy that will try to break the siege of Gaza with food and medicine: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1200266785
Israel causing humanitarian crisis in Gaza
Action Center For Justice calls for an immediate end to the illegal, immoral, and inhuman blockade of Gaza NOW!!!
Israel eases blockade; Gaza lights on
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, AP, Jan. 22, 2008
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel sent fuel to Gaza's power plant on Tuesday, easing its five-day blockade of the Palestinian territory amid growing international concern about a humanitarian crisis.
The U.S. warned Israel not to add to the hardship for ordinary Palestinians but blamed the problem on Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers. Israel imposed the siege in response to increasing rocket attacks on its border communities by Gaza militants.
Despite the easing of the closure, Palestinian militants fired 19 rockets toward Israel on Tuesday, the military said, up from just two on Monday.
The lights were back on in most of Gaza City by Tuesday afternoon after a blackout that lasted almost two days. But Gazans still vented their anger.
Hundreds of Hamas supporters briefly broke through the Gaza-Egypt border and clashed with Egyptian riot police who fired in the air, injuring 70 people on both sides. The protesters hurled insults at Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, calling him a coward.
Israel and Egypt have banned most crossings in and out of Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in June. Egypt has kept its border closed, tacitly supporting Israel's blockade out of fear of a spillover of Hamas-style militancy to its territory.
Israeli tanker trucks were pumping in 185,000 gallons of fuel, enough to provide electricity to Gaza City for two days. Other trucks delivered cooking gas and medicine.
Still, Gaza gas stations remained closed, and few cars were seen on the streets because of fuel shortages.
Throughout the closure, which cut power to a third of Gaza's 1.5 million people, hospitals kept running on generators. But most bakeries shut down, and long lines formed at those that were open. A shipment of cooking gas sent in by Israel on Tuesday sold out in an hour.
Gaza City baker Haj Salman, 68, who uses wood to run his oven, did a booming business. Customers lined up to have homemade bread dough baked in his oven.
One of those waiting for his bread was 22-year-old Sami Othman, whose father, a taxi driver, has been idled by the fuel shortage. Othman said he felt the people of Gaza were being squeezed by the confrontation between Hamas and the rival Fatah.
"They are using us for fuel for their internal fighting and political conflicts," he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni blamed Hamas.
"I am not among those who care whether this or that group fired a rocket," she told the annual Herzliya Conference on security. "Hamas has control of the territory, and Hamas is responsible."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration has spoken to Israeli officials "about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold." Israeli officials were receptive, she said, adding that she too blames Hamas for the situation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross called for Israel to lift the blockade and prevent a collapse of health and sanitary services.
"Deliveries of essential humanitarian goods must be secured in the long run to prevent more hardship and to avoid the collapse of the already fragile infrastructure," said spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the shipments would go on.
"We will continue tomorrow and the coming days to deliver more aid to Gaza until all promised supplies get across," he said.
Despite the blockade, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will not pull out of peace talks. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised President Bush to try to complete a peace accord this year.
"Halting contacts with Israel is useless," Abbas said in his first comment since the latest round of Israel-Hamas fighting erupted last week. "On the contrary, we should intensify our contacts and our meetings to stop the suffering of our people."
Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, is not a party to the talks.
Abbas offered to have his rival West Bank government take control of the Palestinian side of Gaza crossings. Israel's refusal to deal with Hamas officials contributed to its decision to severely restrict the flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza after Hamas won parliament elections in 2006.
Israel's deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, told The Associated Press the plan was not practical.
"It's a great idea, but they (the Palestinians) can't implement it," he said. Rice said Tuesday the proposal is worth studying.
With the U.N. Security Council due to debate the Gaza situation, Israel's U.N. ambassador Dan Gillerman told The Associated Press that Israel has no intention of harming civilians.
Gillerman, who was attending the Herzliya security conference, said he hoped "common sense will prevail among the Security Council members." And he complained that the Security Council has not convened to discuss the daily rocket barrages at Israel from Gaza, instead waiting until Israel took action to stop them.
____
Associated Press writers Steven Gutkin in Herzliya, Israel, and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Israel eases blockade; Gaza lights on
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, AP, Jan. 22, 2008
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel sent fuel to Gaza's power plant on Tuesday, easing its five-day blockade of the Palestinian territory amid growing international concern about a humanitarian crisis.
The U.S. warned Israel not to add to the hardship for ordinary Palestinians but blamed the problem on Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers. Israel imposed the siege in response to increasing rocket attacks on its border communities by Gaza militants.
Despite the easing of the closure, Palestinian militants fired 19 rockets toward Israel on Tuesday, the military said, up from just two on Monday.
The lights were back on in most of Gaza City by Tuesday afternoon after a blackout that lasted almost two days. But Gazans still vented their anger.
Hundreds of Hamas supporters briefly broke through the Gaza-Egypt border and clashed with Egyptian riot police who fired in the air, injuring 70 people on both sides. The protesters hurled insults at Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, calling him a coward.
Israel and Egypt have banned most crossings in and out of Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in June. Egypt has kept its border closed, tacitly supporting Israel's blockade out of fear of a spillover of Hamas-style militancy to its territory.
Israeli tanker trucks were pumping in 185,000 gallons of fuel, enough to provide electricity to Gaza City for two days. Other trucks delivered cooking gas and medicine.
Still, Gaza gas stations remained closed, and few cars were seen on the streets because of fuel shortages.
Throughout the closure, which cut power to a third of Gaza's 1.5 million people, hospitals kept running on generators. But most bakeries shut down, and long lines formed at those that were open. A shipment of cooking gas sent in by Israel on Tuesday sold out in an hour.
Gaza City baker Haj Salman, 68, who uses wood to run his oven, did a booming business. Customers lined up to have homemade bread dough baked in his oven.
One of those waiting for his bread was 22-year-old Sami Othman, whose father, a taxi driver, has been idled by the fuel shortage. Othman said he felt the people of Gaza were being squeezed by the confrontation between Hamas and the rival Fatah.
"They are using us for fuel for their internal fighting and political conflicts," he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni blamed Hamas.
"I am not among those who care whether this or that group fired a rocket," she told the annual Herzliya Conference on security. "Hamas has control of the territory, and Hamas is responsible."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration has spoken to Israeli officials "about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold." Israeli officials were receptive, she said, adding that she too blames Hamas for the situation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross called for Israel to lift the blockade and prevent a collapse of health and sanitary services.
"Deliveries of essential humanitarian goods must be secured in the long run to prevent more hardship and to avoid the collapse of the already fragile infrastructure," said spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the shipments would go on.
"We will continue tomorrow and the coming days to deliver more aid to Gaza until all promised supplies get across," he said.
Despite the blockade, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will not pull out of peace talks. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised President Bush to try to complete a peace accord this year.
"Halting contacts with Israel is useless," Abbas said in his first comment since the latest round of Israel-Hamas fighting erupted last week. "On the contrary, we should intensify our contacts and our meetings to stop the suffering of our people."
Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, is not a party to the talks.
Abbas offered to have his rival West Bank government take control of the Palestinian side of Gaza crossings. Israel's refusal to deal with Hamas officials contributed to its decision to severely restrict the flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza after Hamas won parliament elections in 2006.
Israel's deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, told The Associated Press the plan was not practical.
"It's a great idea, but they (the Palestinians) can't implement it," he said. Rice said Tuesday the proposal is worth studying.
With the U.N. Security Council due to debate the Gaza situation, Israel's U.N. ambassador Dan Gillerman told The Associated Press that Israel has no intention of harming civilians.
Gillerman, who was attending the Herzliya security conference, said he hoped "common sense will prevail among the Security Council members." And he complained that the Security Council has not convened to discuss the daily rocket barrages at Israel from Gaza, instead waiting until Israel took action to stop them.
____
Associated Press writers Steven Gutkin in Herzliya, Israel, and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Rights org: Gaza situation potentially disastrous
Report, PCHR, Electronic Intifada, Jan. 21, 2008
At approximately 8:00pm on Sunday, 20 January, the Gaza Strip power plant ran out of fuel and shut down, plunging the Gaza Strip into darkness. The closure of the Gaza power plant, in addition to Israel's continued, tightened siege on the Gaza Strip, will have a catastrophic effect on the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, who are already suffering chronic shortages of fuel, medicine and some basic food stuffs. The director of Gaza's main hospital, al-Shifa, describes the current situation as "potentially disastrous."
Israel is manufacturing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip that is seriously deteriorating every aspect of civilian life. To date, 45 patients have died as a direct result of Israeli Occupying Force (IOF) closure and siege of the Gaza Strip. According to the Director of al-Shifa Hospital Dr. Hassan Khalaf, patients' lives continue to be at stake, including the lives of 30 premature babies in al-Shifa Hospital, who will die immediately if there is a power cut at the hospital. Gaza's second major hospital, the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, has now suspended all major surgical operations.
Meanwhile, all crossings from Gaza to the outside world remain sealed to Palestinians.
The Gaza Strip requires 230-250 megawatts of electricity a day to operate at full capacity. On Friday, 18 January, and again on Sunday, 20 January, the IOF prevented a vital daily delivery of fuel from passing through the Nahal Oz Crossing, including industrial diesel used to fuel the power plant. The power plant is now completely closed. This closure of Gaza's only power plant has drastically reduced electricity output across the Gaza Strip by 65 megawatts. Civilians across Gaza City and the central Gaza Strip are totally dependent on the power plant. The closure of the power plant will severely impact civilian lives across the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the dangerous shortage of electricity that threatens the lives of critically ill patients in all of Gaza's' hospitals, chronic shortages of petrol and diesel and gas for domestic use have led to panic buying before gas stations in Gaza are forced to close completely. Civilians are also suffering widespread shortages of bread, due to lack of electricity to power the ovens at bakeries across Gaza.
PCHR condemns the catastrophic humanitarian crisis that is being manufactured by the IOF as collective punishment to the entire population of the Gaza Strip, and calls upon the international community to put immediate pressure on the government of Israel to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. The Centre appeals to the international community to act upon their legal and moral responsibilities to ensure the basic human rights of the citizens of the Gaza Strip are protected.
The Centre reiterates that Palestinian civilians are protected from collective punishment under international human rights law, and international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their legal and moral obligations under Article 1 of the Convention and ensure Israel's respect for the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. PCHR believes that the conspiracy of silence practiced by the international community has encouraged Israel to act as if it is above the law and encourages Israel to violate international human rights and humanitarian law.
At approximately 8:00pm on Sunday, 20 January, the Gaza Strip power plant ran out of fuel and shut down, plunging the Gaza Strip into darkness. The closure of the Gaza power plant, in addition to Israel's continued, tightened siege on the Gaza Strip, will have a catastrophic effect on the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, who are already suffering chronic shortages of fuel, medicine and some basic food stuffs. The director of Gaza's main hospital, al-Shifa, describes the current situation as "potentially disastrous."
Israel is manufacturing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip that is seriously deteriorating every aspect of civilian life. To date, 45 patients have died as a direct result of Israeli Occupying Force (IOF) closure and siege of the Gaza Strip. According to the Director of al-Shifa Hospital Dr. Hassan Khalaf, patients' lives continue to be at stake, including the lives of 30 premature babies in al-Shifa Hospital, who will die immediately if there is a power cut at the hospital. Gaza's second major hospital, the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, has now suspended all major surgical operations.
Meanwhile, all crossings from Gaza to the outside world remain sealed to Palestinians.
The Gaza Strip requires 230-250 megawatts of electricity a day to operate at full capacity. On Friday, 18 January, and again on Sunday, 20 January, the IOF prevented a vital daily delivery of fuel from passing through the Nahal Oz Crossing, including industrial diesel used to fuel the power plant. The power plant is now completely closed. This closure of Gaza's only power plant has drastically reduced electricity output across the Gaza Strip by 65 megawatts. Civilians across Gaza City and the central Gaza Strip are totally dependent on the power plant. The closure of the power plant will severely impact civilian lives across the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the dangerous shortage of electricity that threatens the lives of critically ill patients in all of Gaza's' hospitals, chronic shortages of petrol and diesel and gas for domestic use have led to panic buying before gas stations in Gaza are forced to close completely. Civilians are also suffering widespread shortages of bread, due to lack of electricity to power the ovens at bakeries across Gaza.
PCHR condemns the catastrophic humanitarian crisis that is being manufactured by the IOF as collective punishment to the entire population of the Gaza Strip, and calls upon the international community to put immediate pressure on the government of Israel to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. The Centre appeals to the international community to act upon their legal and moral responsibilities to ensure the basic human rights of the citizens of the Gaza Strip are protected.
The Centre reiterates that Palestinian civilians are protected from collective punishment under international human rights law, and international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their legal and moral obligations under Article 1 of the Convention and ensure Israel's respect for the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. PCHR believes that the conspiracy of silence practiced by the international community has encouraged Israel to act as if it is above the law and encourages Israel to violate international human rights and humanitarian law.
New armored truck sees first Iraq death
AP, Jan. 22, 2008
BAGHDAD - A soldier killed over the weekend south of Baghdad was the first American casualty in a roadside bomb attack on a newly introduced, heavily armored vehicle, a military spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The V-shaped hull of the huge MRAP — Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected — truck is designed to deflect blasts from roadside bombs, a weapon that has killed more American soldiers than any other tactic used by Sunni insurgents and militia fighters in Iraq.
The soldier who died Saturday was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP vehicle. Three crew members tucked inside the cabin were wounded. The vehicle rolled over after the blast and it was not clear how the gunner died — from wounds in the explosion or in the subsequent roll-over.
Maj. Alayne P. Conway, deputy spokeswoman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said the attack and the death were under investigation.
There now are more than 1,500 of the costly vehicles in service in Iraq and the Pentagon is working to get at least 12,000 more, using $21 billion provided by Congress. MRAPs cost between $500,000 and $1 million, depending on their size and how they are equipped.
The sophisticated vehicles are being built and put into service in a bid to provide soldiers and Marines more protection than is offered by armored Humvees, which have flat bottoms that absorb the shock waves from a blast. The bottom of an MRAP also is 36 inches above the ground, while Humvees sit much closer to the roadway.
BAGHDAD - A soldier killed over the weekend south of Baghdad was the first American casualty in a roadside bomb attack on a newly introduced, heavily armored vehicle, a military spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The V-shaped hull of the huge MRAP — Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected — truck is designed to deflect blasts from roadside bombs, a weapon that has killed more American soldiers than any other tactic used by Sunni insurgents and militia fighters in Iraq.
The soldier who died Saturday was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP vehicle. Three crew members tucked inside the cabin were wounded. The vehicle rolled over after the blast and it was not clear how the gunner died — from wounds in the explosion or in the subsequent roll-over.
Maj. Alayne P. Conway, deputy spokeswoman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said the attack and the death were under investigation.
There now are more than 1,500 of the costly vehicles in service in Iraq and the Pentagon is working to get at least 12,000 more, using $21 billion provided by Congress. MRAPs cost between $500,000 and $1 million, depending on their size and how they are equipped.
The sophisticated vehicles are being built and put into service in a bid to provide soldiers and Marines more protection than is offered by armored Humvees, which have flat bottoms that absorb the shock waves from a blast. The bottom of an MRAP also is 36 inches above the ground, while Humvees sit much closer to the roadway.
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