Campaign: End the Siege on Gaza

[sister herb]

Statement, End the Siege, 10 November 2007

On 25 October, a Palestinian patient died at Erez crossing while awaiting being allowed to cross to an Israeli hospital. A week ago, a woman died in Gaza hospital with her newly born baby, while awaiting a permit to be transferred to Israel for medical treatment.

These are not the first victims, and will certainly not be the last should the current situation continue to prevail.

Last week, the operation rooms in Gaza's main hospital were shut down due to the lack of medical gases, which were not allowed in by Israel. Today Israel does not allow except 12 basic items to enter Gaza, out of over 9,000 commodities. From soap to coffee, from water to soft drinks, from fuel to gas, from computers to spare parts, from cement to raw materials for industry, all and hundreds of other items are not allowed into Gaza today.

The Israeli cabinet declared Gaza a hostile entity, and has declared its intentions to further intensify the collective punishment by cutting the electricity power and entry of fuel products. Banks in Israel are also threatening to cut off all financial cooperation with Palestinian banks in Gaza.

Given all this, we have adopted the initiative of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme to launch the Palestinian-International Campaign for Breaking the Siege on Gaza, which has been intensified lately by the strict siege imposed on the Gaza Strip since June 2007.

The aim of this humanitarian, non-partisan campaign is to put pressure on the Israeli government to lift the siege imposed on the population of Gaza. By raising the awareness of the international community on the deteriorating living conditions resulting from the siege, we aim at mobilizing the efforts of the various international community organizations and governments to stop the boycott of Gaza. We call for the implementation of the recent European Parliament resolution calling on the Israeli government to end the siege.

We need the support of all people who believe in justice all over the world, to contribute to the success of this campaign. We also call upon all Palestinians, whether in Gaza, West Bank, inside the green line, or anywhere else in the Diaspora to support our efforts and join our activities. It is a genuine call to rescue people, not governments or political parties. It is time to put aside any partisan conflicts and unite people in the pursuit of freedom, justice, and peace. We particularly call upon Jews whose history of trauma, discrimination and suffering should guide them to stand up today against the suffering of others.

Planned activities of the campaign

The campaign is planned to take place from November 2007 until the siege is broken. We will hold a press conference to announce the launching of the campaign.

Media and information technology methods will be our main tools to lobby supporters and contributors from around the world.

The first major event of the campaign will be organizing an international symposium entitled "Breaking the Siege on Gaza: Together for a United Front for Peace" in Gaza.

Full statement: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9090.shtml

 

[hambaAllah]

:salam2:


No wonder i haven't seen 4 of my friends/students from Gaza for the past one week .. :tti_sister: May Allah Subhana Wata3ala show his mercy and keep all the Palestinians safe and strong , through these trials and tests....Ameen Ya Rabbal 3Alameen

 

[sister herb]

Does Israel Feel Safer Tonight? - The Latest Victim of Siege
Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice

November 17, 2007

"Twenty-one-year-old Sabri Al Kurdi [Nael al Kurdi] became the most recent medical patient to die while waiting to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment this week. Al-Kurdi, who suffered from cancer, was denied permission from Israeli authorities to travel to Egypt for, where he was to be treated. Al-Kurdi was one of numerous patents to be denied or delayed by Israeli authorities for "security reasons."

Source: http://arabwomanprogressivevoice.blogspot.com/2007/11/do-israelis-feel-safer-tonight.html

----------------------

Other victims before him were for example mother of seven children and 6-month-old baby, both in Gaza without permit to reach medical care in cause of "security reasons".

I just wonder does Israel feel safer now when it denies sick and helpless people to travel for seeking treatment? If those victims of siege have been so danger for they "security", how danger are then those whose are still alive? Don´t those walls and fences, strong army and nuclear warheads give them any kind of protection at all???

 

[Aapa]

Salaam my pious sister,

Yes they are scared of Muslims.. the blood of a Muslim ..is more dangerous to them than a nukehead.
But here I go again..where are the Muslims? Where are our brothers and sisters who could write letters and make noise and boycott..
I am thankful to Allah subhana talla that you are here. You keep me connected.
I have a couple of friends on youtube who work hard.
and I want to give you a personal thanks...thanks to your enegry you have got me on a letter writing campaign...
We must never give up..for Victory belongs to Allah subhana talla and Allah alone.

 

[sister herb]

Two more Gaza patients die due to siege
[ 25/11/2007 - 04:47 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- A Palestinian woman died of cancer in central Gaza Strip on Sunday after being barred from traveling abroad for treatment due to the Israeli closure of crossings and tight siege imposed on the Strip.

Medical sources said that Mona Nofal, 35, who is mother of four children, was the 20th victim of the siege over the past two weeks after another man died early Sunday in Khan Younis, south of the Strip.

A relative of Nofal said that she received a number of chemo doses in Israeli hospitals but she was recently barred from entering the 1948 occupied lands due to the siege, which cause her condition to deteriorate until she died.

Earlier today Abdul Qader Abu Amer, 46, was pronounced dead at dawn Sunday after his heart condition worsened.

A relative said that Abu Amer is married and has six sons and two daughters, who could not see him for six months.

He explained that Abu Amer headed to Egypt last May and underwent a surgery but could not return to Gaza due to the closure of the Rafah crossing.

Abu Amer refused to return via the Israeli-controlled Oja crossing fearing the IOF might detain him, the relative said, explaining that after he ran out of money he decided two days ago to return via a tunnel but due to the difficult passage for a man in his condition he died two days after arrival.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/...lFOfUp/UfqucukzanUKUWV3LmQgKlzkHreRlegFjpt0Q=

 

[Aapa]

Salaam,

Sister please tell me what you think we need to do to help our brothers and sisters. Give us a list of what is important. I will do at least one thing to assist you in your efforts. InshaAllah.

 

[sister herb]

Salaam alaykum;

I am now creating international charity campaing as for helping people in Palestine, specially families. I will let you and everybody who likes to know how to help when it is ready. 1 or 2 weeks more...

:shymuslima1:

 

[Aapa]

Salaam,

I will be waiting.

 

[Masria]

I look forward to your charity details and will support this any way I can.

 

[sister herb]

ACTION ALERT: A Call From Gaza Asking For Your Help To End The Siege
November 29, 2007

By News Editor Delinda C. Hanley and Managing Editor Janet McMahon

Today—the 60th anniversary of the passage by the U.N. General Assembly of the nonbinding resolution partitioning Palestine—is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We’ve been hearing speeches about peace all week from politicians—but talk, as we’ve learned, is cheap. We’ve seen photos of Gazans demonstrating in the streets against the Annapolis conference, to which the elected government of Palestine was not invited, but with few reporters in Gaza Americans aren’t getting the entire picture.

Yesterday our Gaza correspondent, Mohammed Omer, called us to discuss a story idea for the next issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Speaking on his cell phone from the office of a taxi cab company in Gaza City, Mohammed told us that he’d have to spend the night in Gaza City because there were no taxis available to take him home to Rafah.When we put him on speaker phone, we could hear the two other men in the office—Imad, the owner of Imad Taxis, and Mahmoud, who works for the municipalities department—ask who he was talking to. When Mohammed explained that he was speaking with his editors in Washington, DC, the floodgates opened. Our correspondent proceeded to translate what two everyday Gazans want the outside world to know. Their words were spontaneous, unpolished, and spoken from their hearts. It’s extremely urgent that Americans listen and respond.

Israel has kept Gaza’s borders sealed since June, when Palestine effectively was divided between Hamas-ruled Gaza and the Fatah-ruled West Bank. But since January 2006, when free and fair elections resulted in a Hamas parliamentary majority, Gaza’s borders have only rarely been opened. That means 1.5 million men, women and children are trapped there.

The owner of Imad Taxis told us that, because of the closure, if one of his cabs breaks down there are no spare parts to fix it. "Drivers can’t work," he said. "Gas is getting very expensive. I can’t even pay my telephone bills, so soon customers can’t call to book a taxi."

Mahmoud chimed in: "We’ve run out of everything. After every Israeli attack something more is ruined. Electrical poles, wires, water pipes, and we can’t replace them. Why are we being punished? What is our crime? Is it because we were born Palestinian?

"We can’t fix generators or even keep them running," he continued. "When there is no electricity we can’t distribute water. We’ve run out of chlorine to clean the water. It’s full of bacteria. A water heater used to cost 10 shekels, but now it costs 40 or 50 shekels—if you can find one. So we don’t have hot water for bathing. Our sewage system has collapsed. There’s no power to pump sewage out and no chemicals to clean it. Look at the garbage in the streets. There is no fuel for the trucks to come to haul it away."

"Israel is only allowing basic food supplies into Gaza: sugar, rice, flour, and oil," Imad told us. "Every day my little girl asks me to bring home a chocolate bar. I can’t find any in Gaza. I disappoint her every night. We can’t even buy Arabic coffee. There are no razors, no shaving materials. We’ll all have to grow beards. [Laughter] There isn’t stone, not even cement, to make headstones for graves. We’re using pieces of metal to write names on graves. We can’t buy diapers. Gazans are starting to smoke molokhiya [a green leaf vegetable] because we can’t buy cigarettes. We can’t buy shoes and soon we’ll have to make them from tires. There is no printing paper."

Their words overlap as they tumble out—we can no longer tell who is saying what.

"You can’t find jackets, wool clothes, underwear, or even socks for winter in the shops.

"Medical supplies in hospitals are exhausted. There’s no oxygen; drugs aren’t available. We cannot find the basic needs for life.

"For God’s sake open the border."

Mahmoud tells us: "My son has had a visa to study in the United States since last year. He was admitted to San Francisco State. He speaks good English. He has high grades—'everything. Last year he missed going because the border was closed. He'’s ready to travel today. He'’s missing a second year. If my son doesn'’t have a future where will he go? Hamas is begging him to join its militia, but he doesn'’t want to. He’'s volunteering for [psychiatrist and peace activist] Dr. Eyad al-Sarraj’s International Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza. Help prevent our children from becoming extremists. They'’re so hopeless they could find al-Qaeda. We want them educated. Don’t punish our children."

"History will never forget. Israel and America are creating hatred in Gaza. The whole table will collapse if Gaza is excluded from the peace talks. Who is responsible for us? The U.N.? The European Union? We are not beggars. We are hard workers, educated, intelligent. We need our international human rights. We want to live like anyone in the world.

"We hope you can get our message out. Please open the borders and end this siege."

Call or write your local editors and radio talk show hosts, and contact your elected representatives in Washington, DC.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-1414
White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111
Fax: (202) 456-2461
E-mail:

E-mail Vice President Dick Cheney: [email protected]>

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Department of State
Washington, DC 20520
State Department Public Information Line:
(202) 647-6575

Any Senator
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3121

Any Representative
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3121
E-mail Congress: visit the Web site <www.congress.org> for contact information.

The Israeli Embassy, Washington, DC
(202) 364-5500

The Israeli Embassy, Canada
(613) 567 6450

For more information about this issue or to subscribe to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs visit our Web site <http://www.wrmea.com/>. This 26-year-old publication has the largest circulation of any magazine of its kind, and is sent to both public and university libraries and bookstores in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. For a free sample copy call (202) 939-6050.

Source: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m38752&hd=&size=1&l=e

 

[lostlilly07]

Yeah something has to been done and Insha'allah I will write letters to my senator and congressmen or women. I am tired of being angry and not doing anything. I need to stand at the front line.

 

[alkathiri]

[yt]D-j-0vE_RLQ&feature[/yt]

 

[sister herb]

Salam alaykum

we are they sisters and brothers. It is our duty to broke the siege.

PLC chairmanship calls on freedom loving people to lift the siege on Gaza
[ 04/12/2007 - 10:22 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The PLC chairmanship on Tuesday called on the Arab and Muslim countries along with freedom loving people in the world to intervene and lift the siege on the Palestinian people.

Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting PLC speaker, said in a press release that the Palestinians in Gaza were facing tight Israeli siege that affected all aspects of life in the Strip.

He noted that seriously ill Palestinians are falling dead on daily basis as a result of this siege that blocks their travel abroad for treatment.

The acting speaker thanked all those exerting efforts toward that end, and called on the Palestinian people to unite their ranks in face of such an "oppressive siege".

In a related development, a 37-year-old Palestinian man died on Monday of kidney failure after being barred from traveling outside the Strip for treatment.

Medical sources said that the death of Ismail Al-Gharabli raised to 29 the number of victims of the siege over a period of one month.

Dr. Basem Naim, the health minister in the PA caretaker government in Gaza, had warned that seriously ill Palestinians in the Strip included 450 cancer, 400 kidney failure and 450 heart patients.

Meanwhile, Mustafa Al-Jamal said that his son Yeyha, 53, was suffering lung cancer but was barred from entering 1948 occupied lands for treatment by the IOF command.

He said that his son had received treatment at an Israeli hospital earlier this year but was denied permit by the IOF to complete his therapy, and added that his son's condition was worsening daily.

Jamal appealed to the human rights organizations to step in and ask for his son's treatment before it is too late.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/...823+W+SoSyScZKF21bHF++csEqoZWq+/JkZBPD1D9sAQ=