Examining hard facts: Last winter's siege of Gaza
By Tim King

Human Rights Activist Ewa Jasiewicz witnessed unspeakable things in Gaza before and after Israel's brutal series of assaults in December and January during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead.

This event led to the deaths of more than 1400 people in Gaza, among them several hundred children.

The video from Ewa's speech in Berlin, Germany, features imagery and sound recorded by volunteers in Gaza during Israel's overwhelming military assault on the civilian populace last winter, which included entire neighborhoods, at least one school, and United Nations facilities.

Israel claims the civilians were shielding members of the political group, Hamas. Hamas had fired rockets into Israel as a reprisal, for Israel failing to live up to a political obligation to reopen a Gaza border crossing. Israel's response was the killing of over 1400, the total number of Israeli's killed, including several IDF soldiers from friendly fire, was 14.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the same reasoning to explain their attacks on the school children and UN facilities. They have not had any reasonable excuses to explain why the IDF chose to rain White Phosphorous on the roofs of families, burning people alive in a way that is reminiscent of napalm use during the Vietnam War.

A growing number of Israeli citizens are condemning the attacks on Gaza, and the overall regard of Israel for Palestinians, as the Israeli peace movement gains momentum.

The video shows ambulance drivers being targeted and shot by Israeli soldiers, farmers of Gaza shot while trying to harvest their crops, again by Israeli soldiers, and it discusses Israel's attempts to block relief shipments as they enter the port at Gaza. Israel and Egypt already halt relief supplies at mostly closed Gaza entry points.

Dr. Alan Sabrosky, Ph.D who writes for Salem-News.com, said of the main photo for this story: “Not something you could ever publish or anyone would ever see on our network news, but there it is. And we wonder why they hate us....God weeps.”

We'll publish it Alan, as hard as it is and as much as it makes hearts fill with pain, we will run it. And we will always have the courage to show life as it really is, with your help 'Doc' Sabrosky, and Jeff Gates, Debbie Menon, Karin Friedemann, Alan Hart, Gordon Duff, Daniel Johnson and a long list of other people who write consistently about the Palestinian/Israeli question.

It is so difficult for Americans to imagine how badly things have gone, and they must remind themselves that right is right and wrong is wrong. People require more than what the Gazans have and the clock is ticking.

How can the world allow the madness and murder and starvation, disease? In the video, Ewa talks about PTSD, and cites how there is no “post” here; trauma is part of everyday life in a place that is bombed and rebuilt, bombed and rebuilt.

Slowly and surely, Israel seems intent on killing off the Palestinian population. Ewa Jasiewicz discusses the growing BDS Movement in America and other western nations, that stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions for Palestine. The group advocates a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, “based on the premise that these institutions are complicit in the system of oppression that has denied Palestinians their basic rights guaranteed by international law.”

In other words, as long as Western students are laden with pro-Israeli propaganda, particularly from professors in higher education, the struggle for the people of Palestine and the honest appraisal of Israel on a worldwide level is delayed.

It is not racist to criticize Israel. It is certainly not anti-Semitic; nobody asked any particular group to attack the people of Palestine.

(Source: salem-news.com

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