To CAW Members at Air Canada

We want to thank the thousands of CAW members at Air Canada who attended the more than 30 ratification meetings we held across the country. It was an opportunity to hear loud and clear the many concerns and challenges you are facing in the workplace. Frustration over years of concessions, obscene corporate compensation and bleak predictions for the future has left people stressed and angry. Much outrage was directed at the financial gymnastics of Air Canada that have rewarded Robert Milton, executives and investors but wholly denied hard-working employees their share of the progress.

We also heard that there were a number of communications failures at both the national and local level in keeping you abreast of recent developments in collective bargaining at Air Canada. Many of you also voiced the need to drastically strengthen the connection so that each member, regardless of workplace, job or status, can feel better represented at the bargaining table come this summer when our contract expires (May 31, 2009).

The Bargaining Committee had a difficult decision to make. Economic indicators convinced us that early bargaining may have been a better strategy than gambling on stability in May 2009. Going into negotiations we had a number of objectives to improve job security and the work lives of CAW members. Securing contract work was a key element of our bargaining agenda. We also wanted to offer Air Canada employees at Aeroplan a transition period to decide their future as well as the opportunity to receive additional travel passes from Air Canada. We were able to make improvements in these areas but clearly not enough to satisfy the expectations of our members.

We were concerned about the state of the Air Canada pension plan at a time when many plans are facing huge losses due to the global financial crisis. We were pleased to secure the defined benefit pension plan and made modest improvements to our wages.

Most members across the country had higher expectations than were met by this agreement. You have voted and turned down the contract by a vote of 78%.

While many of the ratification meetings were difficult, one challenge arose with great clarity – that the union not allow Air Canada to continue to bully its workers, cut back services and undermine job security for our members. In the coming weeks, the CAW will be bringing together workplace representatives from across the country where we will strategize on issues facing our members. A list of priorities will be developed after consultation with the membership at a new round of proposal meetings. Your attendance is necessary so your voices can be heard.

We will also be holding strike votes and forming strike committees, so that everyone will be prepared to take on this employer.

We will be highlighting Air Canada’s obvious accountability gap – where the company has been allowed to sell off the profitable sections of the business and leave the core section (and its workers) to flounder. Air Canada employees cannot be expected to bear the brunt of poor executive decisions, as we have in the past.

Again thank you for your tremendous participation during these recent meetings. We will work hard to join with the entire membership to meet your expectations going forward.



In solidarity,


Leslie Dias
President
CAW Local 2002
Ken Lewenza
National President
CAW-Canada

Which Side Are You On?

Israeli assault injures 1.5 million Gazans

By Jonathan Cook

Nazareth -- This week the death toll in Gaza passed the 1,000 mark, after nearly three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza. How is is possible that such an astounding figure could have passed the world's media by?

The reason apparently is that they have been relying on the highly unreliable statistics provided by official Palestinian sources. It appears that the Palestinian health ministry only records as wounded those Gazans who need to stay in hospital because of the severity of their injuries.

That means they only count the more than 4,500 Gazans who have suffered injuries such as severe burns from exploding Israeli phosphorus shells; shrapnel wounds from artillery rounds; broken or lost limbs from aerial bombardment; bullet wounds; physical trauma from falling building debris; and so on.

But in fact there is another, far more reasonable standard for assessing those injured, one that provides the far higher total of 1.5 million Gazans - or every surviving Palestinian in Gaza. The measure I am referring to is the one employed by Israel.

Here is an example of its use. In September 2007, the international media reported that 69 Israeli soldiers had been wounded when Palestinian militants fired a rocket into the Zikim army base near the Gaza Strip. The rocket struck a tent where the soldiers were sleeping.

It is worth noting the details of the attack. Israeli officials related that, of the 69 wounded, 11 had moderate or severe injuries and one was critically injured. A few more had light wounds. The rest, probably 50 or more, were injured in the sense that they were suffering from shock.

So, if we apply the same standard to Gaza, that would mean 1.5 million Gazans have been wounded. Or is there still some doubt about whether the weeks of bombardment of Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth, have left the entire civilian population in a deep, and possibly permanent, state of shock?

*********

Talking of Gaza's civilians, where did they all go? Israel's so-called "war" on Gaza must be the first example in human history of a conflict where there are apparently no civilians. Or, at least, that is the impression being created by the world's leading international bodies, from the World Health Organisation to the United Nations. Instead they refer to a new category of "women and children".

Thus, those 1,000-plus dead Gazans are broken down into percentages defined in terms of "women and children" and the rest. The earliest figures stated that about 25 per cent of Gaza's dead were "women and children", and that has steadily climbed close to the 50 per cent mark since Israel's ground invasion got under way.

The implication - one with which Israel is presumably delighted - is that the rest are Palestinian fighters, or "terrorists" as Israel would prefer us to call them. It also suggests that every man in Gaza over the age of 16 is being defined as a non-civilian - as a combatant and, again by implication, as a terrorist. In short, all Gaza's men are legitimate targets for Israeli attack.

This is not very far from the position recently attributed to Israeli policymakers by the daily Jerusalem Post. The newspaper reported that officials had come to the view that "it would be pointless for Israel to topple Hamas because the population [of Gaza] is Hamas".

On this thinking, Israel is at war with every single man, woman and child in Gaza, which is very much how it looks. Maybe we should be glad that the category of "women and children" is still being recognised - at least, for now.

***********

The myths about the blockade of Gaza are so legion it is almost impossible to disentangle them. But let's try tackling a few.

The first is that the blockade was a necessary response to the election of Hamas.

Tell that to John Wolfensohn, special envoy to the Quartet, comprising the US, UN, Europe and Russia, from May 2005. His job was to oversee the disengagement. Wolfensohn was succeeded by the far less principled Tony Blair, the former British prime minister.

In an interview with the Haaretz newspaper in 2007, Wolfensohn explained why he had resigned a year into his job, in April 2006. Shortly after the disengagement in summer 2005, he said, Israel and the US had violated the understandings made to ensure the border crossings into Gaza remained open after the Jewish settlers left. "Every aspect of that agreement was abrogated," he said.

The economy collapsed as a result, as Gaza's farmers saw their produce rot at the crossings, and unemployment and disillusionment among Gazans rocketed. "Instead of hope, the Palestinians saw that they were put back in prison. And with 50 per cent unemployment, you would have conflict."

It was the closure of the crossings that Wolfensohn believes partly explains Hamas' success in the subsequent elections, in early 2006. So, according to Wolfensohn, Israel's blockade pre-existed Hamas' rise to power and began when Fatah were still the rulers of Gaza.

The second myth is that the blockade was an attempt, if a futile one, to get Hamas to recognise Israel's "right to exist".

Tell that to Dov Weisglass, former prime minister Ariel Sharon's fixer in Washington. It was he who suggested the true goal of the blockade, which Israel intensified immediately following Hamas' electoral triumph. The policy would be "like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die."

In short, according to Weisglass, Israeli policy in Gaza was "collective punishment" inflicted on the civilian population for choosing Hamas - a policy that, should it need pointing out, is a grave violation of international law and a war crime.

The hope, it seems, was that Gazans would, as they sank into abject poverty, manage to summon up the energy to overthrow Hamas. It didn't happen.

The third myth is that the blockade was designed to put pressure on Hamas to end the rocket fire into Israel.

Tell that to Ehud Barak, the defence minister, and Matan Vilnai, his deputy. This pair were plotting an invasion of Gaza throughout the six-month ceasefire with Hamas, and in fact much earlier.

In truth, they ignored every diplomatic overture from Hamas, including offers of indefinite truces, while they invested their energies in the coming ground invasion. In particular they worked on plans, noted in the Israeli media back in spring 2008, to "level" Gaza's civilian neighbourhoods and create "combat zones" from which civilians could be expelled.

One aspect of the blockade that seems to have been overlooked is the way it has been used to "soften up" Gaza, and Hamas, before Israel's attack. For three years Gaza's population has been denied food, medicines and fuel.

Every general knows it is easier to fight an army - or militia - that is cold, tired and hungry. Could there be a better description of the Hamas fighters, as well as those "women and children", currently facing Israel's tanks and warplanes?

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest book is "Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair" (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net

A version of this article appeared in Al-Ahram Weekly (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg), published in Cairo.

Solidarity with Palestine: Crisis Responses and Movement Building

By Kole Kilibarda

As the number of deaths from Israel's carnage in Gaza mounts, more and more people in Canada are being moved to take action. Of course, the question quickly becomes: "What can I do?" Among the countless petitions, creative actions, protests, media alerts, letter writing campaigns, public statements and fundraising drives, how can we make the biggest collective impact on Israeli policies as people living in Canada? How can we build a movement that respects all of our different experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and understandings and at the same time effectively responds to Palestinian calls for solidarity?

Each contribution to stop the killing immediately helps, but as Naomi Klein has recently pointed out in The Nation magazine, there's a way of focusing our energies on a campaign that comes directly from Palestine and that directly addresses Israel's ability to kill with impunity. The fact is that Palestinian students, workers, women's organizations, doctors, professors, teachers, refugees, environmentalists, peasant's groups, and others have already told us what they want us to do: launch boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns against any aspect of Israel's apartheid system.

Thinking About the Day After the Ceasefire

Effectively opposing the carnage in Gaza then means not only calling for a ceasefire or a halt to the bombing. A “ceasefire,” though important to prevent the killing, would still only restore (and potentially worsen) the every-day apartheid reality separating Israelis and Palestinians. A “ceasefire” that provides only guarantees of Israeli security, but doesn't lift the siege on Gaza, or that fails to ensure that those responsible for the war-crimes committed by Israel are brought to justice, would only reward the Israeli military for its on-going violations of international law. It would tell Israel that it's okay to resume the current level of mass killing anytime in the future.

When the current fighting stops, Palestinian refugees – kicked out of their homes in 1948 and now numbering over 5-million – will still be denied the right to return to their homes. After the current fighting stops, Palestinians who have “citizenship” in Israel, will still continue to live as second-class citizens in their own country. They will still be legally prevented from owning land or living in large areas of Israel, marrying who they want, or even enjoying the same citizenship rights and privileges as Jewish Israelis. After the current fighting stops, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will continue facing a brutal military occupation, including arbitrary arrests, torture, killings, detentions, various forms of collective punishment, etc.

The struggle against Israeli apartheid is, therefore, a long-term struggle. If we want to support the Palestinian struggle against this racist regime, we need to commit ourselves to building a Palestine solidarity movement that effectively challenges Israel's apartheid system and that effectively responds to what Palestinians are telling us they expect from supporters. By isolating apartheid Israel, including Israeli government officials, institutions and companies that benefit from the current situation, Israel and its supporters will be given a strong message that violations of basic Palestinian rights will not be tolerated.

No grassroots actions in solidarity with Palestine have worried the Israeli government and its supporters over the years as has the BDS campaign launched by over 170 Palestinian organizations in the summer of 2005. In fact, the Israeli government struck up a high level committee specifically to combat the global “threat” of a solidarity movement opposed to its institutionalized system of racist privilege and domination over indigenous Palestinians. Currently supporters of Israeli policies are working furiously to suppress the 5th annual Israel Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada – though the event will be taking place on campuses across four continents this coming March 2009. Diplomatically, Israeli policy makers are trying furiously to discredit the Durban Review Conference on Racism that is likely to condemn Israel's racist laws.

Unfortunately, for Israel and its supporters, the BDS movement has already reached the UN General Assembly, with the president of this body, Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, calling on civil society to support this campaign as the only moral way forward in ensuring Palestinian rights and dealing with Israeli violations: “More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations.”

What about the Canadian Government?

Many of us are probably really frustrated that the Canadian government, with some power to affect the situation, refuses to hold Israel to account. In fact, as it did during the Lebanon war in the summer of 2006, Ottawa is actively supporting Israel's assault. Canadian companies like Nortel and Bombardier, and smaller military companies like Frontline Robotics and MDA, are all working directly with the Israeli military. Israeli owned firms in Canada like Senstar, a subsidiary of Magal Systems, help outfit Canadian prisons while also developing, testing and producing the surveillance technologies used along Israel's apartheid wall. Mawashi Corp. in Quebec helps develop body armor used by the Israeli Border Police and Army in suppressing Palestinian demonstrations. The majority shareholders of Chapters/Indigo bookstores fund the Heseg Foundation, which gives scholarships to “lone soldiers” to stay in Israel after doing their military service.

Canada also has a free trade agreement with Israel, exchanging over a billion dollars each year with that state in addition to the billions of dollars in direct two-way investments. In 2008, Canada signed a “public security” agreement that commits it to cooperate with Israel on a number of “public safety” issues, although what this entails is hard to specify as there has been virtually no Parliamentary, public or media oversight of the agreement. The benefits of these commercial, military and security links reach only a few people and companies in Canada and Israel. On the other side of these agreements, beyond the glossy investment brochures, countless Palestinians, First Nations people, Afghans, and other racialized groups targeted by both states simply are confronted with newer and more “creative” ways of being killed, of having their lands taken and resources plundered.

Afterall, perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised that Canada refuses to recognize the rights of indigenous Palestinians, when it continues to deny the sovereign rights of indigenous peoples here. In fact, Lawrence Cannon, Canada's current pro-Israeli Foreign Minister, sharpened his teeth in negotiating with other nations when as an MP he helped spearhead repression against the Algonquins of Barriere Lake. Settler-states are like “peas in a pod” and those of us living here and concerned with Palestinian human rights need to be moved to ensure that Canada also respects those same rights when it comes to First Nations struggles for land and self-determination. The movement to boycott and disrupt the 2010 Vancouver Olympics is based on those same principles.

Feeling the Impact of BDS,
Israel Tries to Rebrand Itself

Israel has tried to “rebrand” its image as a highly militarized and racist society in response to the growth of BDS campaigns in recent years. It has done so by trying to portray itself as a hub of innovation and high-tech, telling the world effectively: "You can't afford to boycott us!" However, these innovations rely on Israel's control of Palestinian land, theft of Palestinian resources and suppression of Palestinian rights. Recently the Israeli consulate in Toronto launched a $1-million rebranding campaign to fight off the boycotts by focusing on Israeli contributions to science and technology.

Many of these innovations come from the Israeli state's support for research and development in the military field. Even medical innovations championed in the campaign emerge from an Israeli health system that disproportionately underfunds health care for Palestinian citizens of Israel, a network of research institutes and universities that are complicit in maintaining Israeli apartheid and that actively cooperate in blocking Palestinian researchers from the occupied territories from exercising their academic freedom.

Certainly there's a better way of “innovating” and “testing” new technologies than through the repression of another people. Such “innovations” and “achievements” shouldn't be celebrated. Instead they need to be condemned and boycotted. Interestingly, the white minority regime in South Africa attempted to whitewash its record in the face of a growing BDS campaign in the 1980s through a similar marketing effort that celebrated its supposed “achievements” in science, technology and tourism. The Israeli effort, just as the South African rebranding campaign, is bound to fail so long as Israel's discriminatory policies don't change.

Confronting Global Apartheid:
The Support System for Israeli Apartheid

In South Africa, during the 1970s and 1980s, when Western governments were encouraging “constructive” engagement with the racist white minority regime there, thousands of ordinary people across the world took creative actions to isolate it and companies that did business there. The BDS movement was an important part of the effort to defeat South African apartheid. It was a tool used to educate people outside of South Africa on the situation inside the country and a concrete way of providing support to the real struggles of indigenous South Africans against white supremacy.

Apartheid was in the end defeated by the incredible sacrifices of Black South Africans and of liberation fighters in the surrounding countries. The support from the outside helped change the tone of the international response, making it increasingly harder for governments advocating “constructive engagement” with racists to maintain this position. Unfortunately, in today's South Africa, apartheid continues in many ways in privatized form. Like across much of the world today, South Africans continue to be divided by gated communities, razor wires, surveillance cameras and heavy-handed “security” measures designed to keep the privileged (largely white) few feel “safe” in their islands of luxury and separate ("apart") from racialized majorities cramped into increasingly smaller and more heavily policed urban spaces. This is the neoliberal world that has grown from centuries of free-market capitalism built on the foundations of slavery and colonialism.

The struggle against global apartheid and its local manifestations therefore continues. And it is this context that also needs to be confronted if we are to effectively challenge the support system for Israeli apartheid. BDS has been a tool in the arsenal of activists and community organizers to isolate racist regimes when governments fail to do so. It is certainly not a substitute for the broader struggle against racism, classism and sexism in the world and in our own societies. In the case of Palestine, it is meant as a specific strategy that is being pushed as part of a direct call from Palestine for a specific call for solidarity. If we are committed to a long-term struggle against the system of Israeli apartheid that allows things like the current massacre in Gaza to occur, the BDS call from Palestine will be an important way of connecting our various attempts to put an end to this racist regime. It will also help build broader struggles against a highly unequal and racially stratified world order.

Moving Forward After the Ceasefire:
Ending the Siege, Freeing Palestine

People and groups wanting to stand in solidarity with Palestine during the current crisis should therefore be careful not to simply fall into the trap of only reacting to the latest crisis. We need to work instead toward building a movement that can effectively challenge Israeli apartheid over the long-term. Part of this strategy is lifting the siege on Gaza, another part is imposing BDS on Israel until it recognizes fundamental Palestinian human rights.

These rights are spelled out by Palestinian organizations spearheading the BDS campaign, they include: the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes; the right of Palestinians living in Israel to be treated as equals; and the rights of all Palestinians living under foreign military occupation to be free of the racism, fear, repression and the impunity that are all necessary for Israel to maintain its racist foundations. Calling for an end to occupation, while important, only means we're standing in solidarity with a portion of the Palestinian people. It does nothing to back the struggles and demands of Palestinians living in refugee camps or as nominal “citizens” in an Israeli state that refuses to acknowledge fundamental Palestinian rights.

Along these lines it is necessary not to counterpose our immediate, short-term demands with the longer-term strategy of BDS. Rather BDS provides a tool or mechanism through which to win these demands. For example, it makes little sense to raise a demand like “Lift the Siege of Gaza” without a concrete strategy to make this happen. The best and most effective strategy – as the experience of the Palestine solidarity movement has shown over the last few years – is to concretely cut ties with Israel apartheid in spaces where we have influence.

Every step taken toward isolating Israel for its violations of Palestinian rights, even if symbolic, makes it more likely to win short-term demands such as lifting the siege on Gaza. BDS, in other words, is not a demand. It is rather, a course of action designed to ensure that demands are met. Over the long-term the collective impact of pushing these demands through an effective strategy of BDS will ensure that the broad and inclusive vision of justice that Palestinian social movements continue to struggle for. To maximize its impacts those wishing to stand in solidarity with Palestinians should coordinate their actions with the organizations in Palestine that are spearheading this campaign.

As the crisis in Gaza continues any form of opposition is helpful. Everything from direct action, staying visible on the streets, occupying consulates, constituency offices, etc. needs to continue. Fundraising, teach-ins, etc. education, grassroots media work, etc. are all important for those moved in solidarity with Palestine. Each action has the potential to help. However, to magnify the impact of our grassroots individual or group actions, to ensure that after a successful event or action we don't go home and feel defeated by the latest news on our TV screens or inboxes, it is important to find ways of plugging into an already existing global solidarity movement that is responding directly to the BDS call from Palestine. •

In order to find out more about this campaign please visit some of the following websites:

• Global BDS Movement www.bdsmovement.net
• Stop the Wall Campaign www.stopthewall.org
• Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) www.pacbi.org
• BADIL – Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights www.badil.org
• Ittijah – www.ittijah.org
• Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid www.caiaweb.org
• Tadamon! www.tadamon.ca
• Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights sphr.org
• Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK) www.palestinecampaign.org
• U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation www.endtheoccupation.org

Kole Kilibarda spent ten months in 2004 working in the Balata Refugee Camp near Nablus, Palestine. He is an organizer with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto and can be reached at kole@riseup.net.

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How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

A wounded Palestinian policeman gestures while lying on the ground outside Hamas police headquarters following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.

Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions

The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.

Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza's prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence.

Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion's share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.

In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces. To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after, another 12,000 Israelis settled on the West Bank, further reducing the scope for an independent Palestinian state. Land-grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace.

The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority but a prelude to further Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move undertaken in what was seen, mistakenly in my view, as an Israeli national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on their land.

Israel's settlers were withdrawn but Israeli soldiers continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorise the hapless inhabitants of this prison.

Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only genuine democracy in the Arab world with the possible exception of Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led government. Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.

America and the EU shamelessly joined Israel in ostracising and demonising the Hamas government and in trying to bring it down by withholding tax revenues and foreign aid. A surreal situation thus developed with a significant part of the international community imposing economic sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against the oppressor but against the oppressed.

As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed for their own misfortunes. Israel's propaganda machine persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics and that Islam is incompatible with democracy. But the simple truth is that the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They are no better but they are no worse than any other national group. What they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which to live in freedom and dignity.

Like other radical movements, Hamas began to moderate its political programme following its rise to power. From the ideological rejectionism of its charter, it began to move towards pragmatic accommodation of a two-state solution. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity government that was ready to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel. Israel, however, refused to negotiate with a government that included Hamas.

It continued to play the old game of divide and rule between rival Palestinian factions. In the late 1980s, Israel had supported the nascent Hamas in order to weaken Fatah, the secular nationalist movement led by Yasser Arafat. Now Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah leaders to overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power. Aggressive American neoconservatives participated in the sinister plot to instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in the collapse of the national unity government and in driving Hamas to seize power in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup.

The war unleashed by Israel on Gaza on 27 December was the culmination of a series of clashes and confrontations with the Hamas government. In a broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian people, because the people had elected the party to power.

The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel's terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.

The timing of the war was determined by political expediency. A general election is scheduled for 10 February and, in the lead-up to the election, all the main contenders are looking for an opportunity to prove their toughness. The army top brass had been champing at the bit to deliver a crushing blow to Hamas in order to remove the stain left on their reputation by the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006. Israel's cynical leaders could also count on apathy and impotence of the pro-western Arab regimes and on blind support from President Bush in the twilight of his term in the White House. Bush readily obliged by putting all the blame for the crisis on Hamas, vetoing proposals at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and issuing Israel with a free pass to mount a ground invasion of Gaza.

As always, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little room for doubt as to who is the real victim. This is indeed a conflict between David and Goliath but the Biblical image has been inverted - a small and defenceless Palestinian David faces a heavily armed, merciless and overbearing Israeli Goliath. The resort to brute military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In Hebrew this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and shooting".

To be sure, Hamas is not an entirely innocent party in this conflict. Denied the fruit of its electoral victory and confronted with an unscrupulous adversary, it has resorted to the weapon of the weak - terror. Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad kept launching Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli settlements near the border with Gaza until Egypt brokered a six-month ceasefire last June. The damage caused by these primitive rockets is minimal but the psychological impact is immense, prompting the public to demand protection from its government. Under the circumstances, Israel had the right to act in self-defence but its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves.

In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.
Whatever the numbers, killing civilians is wrong. This rule applies to Israel as much as it does to Hamas, but Israel's entire record is one of unbridled and unremitting brutality towards the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel also maintained the blockade of Gaza after the ceasefire came into force which, in the view of the Hamas leaders, amounted to a violation of the agreement. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp drop in employment opportunities. Officially, 49.1% of the population is unemployed. At the same time, Israel restricted drastically the number of trucks carrying food, fuel, cooking-gas canisters, spare parts for water and sanitation plants, and medical supplies to Gaza. It is difficult to see how starving and freezing the civilians of Gaza could protect the people on the Israeli side of the border. But even if it did, it would still be immoral, a form of collective punishment that is strictly forbidden by international humanitarian law.

The brutality of Israel's soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza, Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel's objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel's forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel's spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.

A wide gap separates the reality of Israel's actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It di d so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel's objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But Israel's insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye for an eyelash. After eight days of bombing, with a death toll of more than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis, the gung-ho cabinet ordered a land invasion of Gaza the consequences of which are incalculable.

No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket attacks from the military wing of Hamas. Despite all the death and destruction that Israel has inflicted on them, they kept up their resistance and they kept firing their rockets. This is a movement that glorifies victimhood and martyrdom. There is simply no military solution to the conflict between the two communities. The problem with Israel's concept of security is that it denies even the most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel to achieve security is not through shooting but through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table: it involves concessions and compromises.

This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.

• Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace.

Up to 257 Palestinian children killed in Gaza: UN - No safe place in crowded enclave, UNICEF official says

By Ibrahim Barzak Karin Laub THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Tiny bodies lying side by side wrapped in white burial shrouds. The cherubic face of a dead preschooler sticking up from the rubble of her home. A man cradling a wounded boy in a chaotic emergency room after Israel shelled a UN school.

Children, who make up more than half of crowded Gaza's 1.4 million people, are the most defenceless victims of the war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli army has unleashed unprecedented force in its campaign against Hamas militants, who have been taking cover among civilians.

A photo of four-year-old Kaukab Al Dayah, just her bloodied head sticking out from the rubble of her home, covered many front pages in the Arab world Wednesday. "This is Israel," read the headline in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The preschooler was killed early Tuesday when an F-16 attacked her family's four-storey home in Gaza City. Four adults also died.
As many as 257 children have been killed and 1,080 wounded, with about a third of the total casualties since Dec. 27, according to UN figures released today.

Hardest on the children is the sense that nowhere is safe and adults can't protect them, said Iyad Sarraj, a psychologist hunkering down in his Gaza City apartment with his four stepchildren, ages three to 17. His 10-year-old, Adam, is terrified during bombing raids and has developed asthma attacks, Sarraj said.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas in response to its repeated rocket attacks on southern Israel, and is doing its utmost to avoid civilian deaths. However, foreign aid officials note that civilians can't escape blockaded Gaza and that bombing crowded areas inevitably leads to civilian casualties. The Israeli military has used tank and artillery shells, as well as large aerial bombs.

In the Shati refugee camp on the Mediterranean, 10 boys were playing football in an alley today when a shell from an Israeli gunboat hit a nearby Hamas prison.

At the sound of the explosion, one of the older boys whistled, a signal to interrupt the game. Several players took cover with their backs pressed against a wall. After a minute or two, the game resumed.

Samih Hilal, 14, said he sneaked out of his grandfather's house against the orders of his worried father. The house was crowded with relatives who fled more dangerous areas, he said, and he couldn't stand being cooped up for so many hours.

"Do you think we are not afraid? Yes, we are. But we have nothing to do but play," Samih said.
Another boy, 13-year-old Yasser, waved toward the unmanned Israeli drones in a defiant gesture, instead of seeking cover during the shelling. "There is nothing we can do. Even if we run away here or there, their shells are faster than us," he said.

Indeed, all of Gaza has become dangerous ground.

Children have been killed in strikes on their houses, while riding in cars with their parents, while playing in the streets, walking to a grocery and even at UN shelters.

Sayed, Mohammed and Raida Abu Aisheh – ages 12, eight and seven – were at home with their parents when they were all killed in an Israeli air strike before dawn Monday. The family had remained in the ground floor apartment of their three-storey building, while the rest of the extended clan sought refuge in the basement from heavy bombardment of nearby Hamas installations.

Those in the basement survived. The children's uncle, Saber Abu Aisheh, 49, searched today through the rubble, a heap of cement blocks, mattresses, scorched furniture and smashed TVs.
He said Israel gave no warning, unlike two years earlier when he received repeated calls from the Israeli military, including on his cellphone, that a nearby house was going to get hit and that he should evacuate.

"What's going on is not a war, it's a mass killing," said Abu Aisheh, still wearing the blood-splattered olive-coloured sweater he wore the night of the air strike.

The Israeli military did not comment when asked why the Abu Aisheh house was targeted.

In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, medics found four young children next to their dead mothers in a house, according to the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross. "They were too weak to stand up on their own," the statement said.

The Red Cross did not say what happened to the children, but noted that the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach the neighbourhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting.

Medic Mohammed Azayzeh said he retrieved the bodies of a man and his two young sons from central Gaza on Wednesday. One of the boys, a one-year-old, was cradled in his father's arms.
In the Jebaliya refugee camp, five sisters from the Balousha family, ages four, eight, 11, 14 and 17, were buried together in white shrouds on Dec. 29. An Israeli air strike on a mosque, presumably a Hamas target, had destroyed their adjacent house. Only their parents and a baby girl survived.

Israel accuses Hamas of cynically exploiting Gaza's civilians and using them as human shields. The military has released video footage showing militants firing mortars from the rooftops of homes and mosques.

"Israel wants to see no harm to the children of Gaza," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. "On the contrary, we would like to see their children and our children grow up without the fear of violence. Until now, Hamas has deliberately prevented that from becoming reality."

Rocket fire from Gaza has disrupted life in Israeli border communities, and with the latest intensified militant attacks, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are in rocket range. Schools are closed and fearful Israeli children rush into bomb shelters at the sound of air raid sirens.

In the ongoing chaos of Gaza, it's difficult to get exact casualty figures. Since Dec. 27, at least 750 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moawiya Hassanain.

Of those, 257 were children, according to the UN's top humanitarian official, John Holmes, citing Health Ministry figures that he called credible and deeply disturbing.

"We are talking about urban war," said Abdel-Rahman Ghandour, the Jordan-based spokesman for UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa. "The density of the population is so high, it's bound to hurt children ... This is a unique conflict, where there is nowhere to go."

Successive generations of Gaza children have grown up with violence, part of the accelerating conflict with Israel. In the late 1980s, many threw stones at Israeli soldiers in a revolt against occupation. In the second uprising, starting in 2000, some were recruited by Hamas as suicide bombers.

Sarraj, the psychologist, said he fears for this generation. Having experienced trauma and their parents' helplessness, they may be more vulnerable to recruitment by militants.

In his Gaza City apartment, Sarraj tries to reassure his own children.

His 14-year-old stepdaughter lost her school, the American International School, to a recent air strike, and a girlfriend was killed in another attack. The family lives in the middle-class Rimal neighbourhood and still has enough fuel to run a generator in the evenings, enabling the children to read.

Yet when the bombings start, he can't distract them. "They are scared," he said. "They run to find the safest place, in the hallway, away from the window."

This Kind of War

Submitted by Justin Podur

• 
  

The current crisis in Gaza began with Israel's breaking the ceasefire with Hamas on November 4, 2008. The five-month ceasefire was unsustainable for two reasons. First and most importantly, because it condemned the Palestinians of Gaza to a slow and wasting death: part of the ceasefire was the continuation of Israel's blockade of Gaza. As part of this blockade, Palestinians could not leave the territory. This included, in high-profile cases, students who had obtained admission and visas to study abroad, but also people who later died because they could not receive treatment for cancers and other medical problems. Remember that the Gaza strip is 360 square kilometers, with 1.5 million people. The people have skills, strong social cohesion, and traditions of hospitality, but the area is not self-sufficient and the economy cannot function without free movement of people and goods in and out. Leave aside that the moral right and legal right of Palestinians to self-defense was denied by the prevention of arms supplies (to even mention this as a possibility is to break a taboo). Every other aspect of life was also disrupted by the blockade. Education was disrupted as Israel refused to allow paper, ink, books, and other supplies in. Health care was disrupted as Israel refused to allow medical supplies. Nutrition and normal child development was disrupted both by the refusal of Israel to allow food supplies, but also by the use of sonic booms, which the Israeli air force uses to frighten the population, and periodic bombing and assassinations.

At this point, Israel is not even allowing Palestinians to leave, so displacement is not the goal, at least for the time being. On the other hand, when body counts rise into the thousands or tens of thousands, Israel might then allow the Palestinians to flee further massacres, and be lauded for its generousness by the international community.

The second reason the ceasefire was unsustainable was deeper. So long as Israel is unwilling to negotiate a political settlement and share the land, with the US on side and with shedding Palestinian blood being a source of political credibility in Israeli society, Palestinians have no choice but to resist. If they are not starved and bombed, they will be more effective at resisting their own displacement and colonization. With each step Israel takes to try to dismantle Palestinian resistance, a genocidal logic advances. Palestinians have been walled in and blockaded. Now they are bombed and invaded. When they have been thrown off their land and into neighbouring countries, they are attacked in those countries, in their refugee camps. Indeed, the people of Gaza are mostly refugees who were thrown off lands in what is now Israel. If they were displaced from Gaza, into Egypt, what would stop Israel from attacking them there? Would being displaced twice offer more protection than being displaced once?

Once the ceasefire ended, Israel was at war. This was a war of choice, and a war it had prepared for extensively on diplomatic and military levels.

The diplomatic scenario was favourable to Israel in several ways. Palestine had been further divided. The West Bank was controlled by Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority collaborates with Israel. The PA is currently maintained in power because the elected Hamas parliamentarians are in either PA or Israeli prisons and because Israeli security forces, as well as the PA, arrest scores of people in the West Bank every week. Gaza was controlled by the elected Hamas leadership. Israel could focus on one enemy and leave the suppression of the Palestinians of the West Bank to the PA. Israel has rounded up hundreds of Palestinian children in the West Bank and shot and killed many demonstrators there in recent weeks, but these violations have become routine and barely register next to the more spectacular massacres of dozens at a time in Gaza. Hizbollah in Lebanon, who in 2006 interrupted a pattern of massacre and strangulation that Israel was conducting in Gaza (“Summer Rains”), have domestic constraints preventing them from intervening, which would bring more thousands of dead to Lebanon in a new Israeli air campaign, against which Hizbollah has no defenses. Egypt has been more co-operative with Israel than ever before, keeping the Rafah crossing sealed and, at the official level, blaming Hamas for bringing the massacres on themselves. According to Hamas, Egypt also told them that Israel was not planning an attack – which gave the Israelis the surprise that helped them to massacre over 200 Palestinians in a single day at the start of their air campaign. As usual, Israel can count on unconditional official US support from all parts of the political spectrum, which seems to be enough to prevent any useful intervention by anyone else in the world. Many progressive governments, including that of Venezuela and Bolivia, have condemned the atrocities, but have not taken any further steps to try to diplomatically isolate Israel or support Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS), which might be part of a strategy that could stop Israel. Street protests have been large, in some parts of the world unprecedentedly so. But without any official political expression, these protests can be dismissed and ignored as the February 15, 2003 protests against the invasion of Iraq were ignored.

On the military level, some basic points. Calling the current conflict a 'war' is more of an analogy than a description, because the word 'war' still evokes the idea of armies meeting on a battlefield and contesting territory. Israel has all of the weapons of war, but it does not really have an opposing army to fight. It can take any territory it wants and easily kill anyone trying to contest it. It can hit, and destroy, any target, anywhere Palestinians live, at will. One compilation by the al-Mezan Centre in Gaza from December 31/08 presented 315 killed (41 children), 939 injured (85 children), and 112 houses, 7 mosques, 38 private industrial and agricultural enterprises, 16 schools, 16 government facilities, 9 charity offices, and 20 security installations. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) figures to December 31/08 were 334 killed (33 children), 966 injured (218 children), 37 homes, 67 security centres, 20 workshops, as well as 40 invasions in the West Bank, killing 3 Palestinians and arresting/kidnapping hundreds more.

Skimming the IMEMC site, here is some of what Israel destroyed since the attack started.

December 27-28/08
-Palestinian Police Headquarters
-Rafah Police Station
-Saraya Security Compound
-Beit Hanoun municipal building
-Rafah governorate offices
-A police jeep in Gaza City
-The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs
-Greenhouses in Alqarrara
-Charity offices throughout Gaza
-A medical storage facility
-A fuel station in Rafah
-A fuel truck in Rafah
-A police station in Gaza City (al-Shujaeyya)
-al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
-Houses in Gaza City and Jabaliya refugee camp
-Hamas's al-Aqsa TV station in Gaza City
-Hamas's Asda' media office in Khan Yunis
-Tunnels in Rafah
-An apartment in Tal-Alhawa in Gaza City
-A car in Nuseirat refugee camp
-The Islamic University in Gaza (several buildings, including the female students' residence)
-A mosque in Jabaliya
-A fishermen's dock at Gaza shore

December 29/08
-A house in Jabaliya (killing 5 sisters, all children).
-A blacksmith workshop in al-Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City
-A house in Khan Younis
-A house in Abasan town
-The Ministry of the Interior in Gaza

December 30/08
-The Ministries Compound
-The Popular Resistance Committees center in Gaza City
-A house in Beit Lahia
-Another fuel truck in northern Gaza
-The UNRWA school in al-Qarara
-Houses in Rafah
-A house in Jabailya
-A sports club in Tal AL Hawa
-A police station in Beit Hanoun
-Bani Suheila City Council
-Training grounds for the Al Qassam Brigades
-The mosque of Omar Bin Al Khattab Mosque in Al Bureij
-Al Khulafa’ Mosque in northern Gaza
-The governor’s office in northern Gaza
-The Ministries Compound in Tal Al Hawa in Gaza completely destroying it (including the Ministry of Finance, Interior, Education)
-A military camp that was previously used by Force 17, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
-A dairy in Gaza City
-A workshop in Beit Lahiya
-Another home in northern Gaza (killing two children)
-The Rafah-Egypt border crossing
-The house of a Fatah leader in al-Mighraqa
-A house in Beit Hanoun (killing two children)
-A house in al-Maghazi refugee camp

December 31/08
-Ambulances in Gaza City (killing a doctor, a driver, and a medic)
-The oxygen refilling plant in Gaza City (used by hospitals in Gaza)

Jan 1/09
-Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza City
-The Ministry of Education in Gaza City
-The Ministry of Justice in Gaza City
-A house in Nuseirat refugee camp
-A workshop in Rafah
-A picnic park in Rafah
-Tunnels in Rafah
-A clinic in Rafah
-A house in al-Maghazi
-Nizar Rayan's home, killing him, his wives, and all of their children (16 people total)

Jan 2-3/09
-An apartment building in al-Qarara
-A house in Jabaliya (killing 2 children)
-A house in al-Boreij refugee camp
-A mosque in Jabaliya
-The American School in Gaza City
-A house in al-Shujaeyya
-A house in Gaza City
-Fishing boats in Gaza City
-A car on the Gaza Valley bridge
-A police station in Gaza
-At least 20 homes in Gaza

Israeli bombing strategy has been to bomb the same targets repeatedly. This means not only more thorough destruction of the infrastructure, but also additional killing of medical personnel and residents who try to help the first round of victims.

Israel's actions are not constrained by the opposing army but by two political considerations: First, how much killing can it do before it begins to face the threat of diplomatic isolation? Disallowing journalists and observers is part of Israel's strategy to deal with this, as it was for the US in Iraq. Israel's ground invasion has been accompanied by a total blackout even of Israeli reporters. Given the intensity of its intelligence and the precision of its weapons, Israel is able to choose the death toll, with some precision. At least some of the current killing is likely designed to push the limits and see how far Israel can go before eliciting any serious reaction.

The second consideration is, can Israeli military casualties be kept low enough that the Israeli public continues to support war? To deal with the latter, Israel uses airpower and artillery to destroy from a distance, and opened its ground invasion at night. Since it has long since dismantled Gaza's electricity infrastructure, its soldiers are the only ones who can see at night through their infrared goggles – Gaza's people, civilians and anyone who might want to try to defend them, are in complete darkness.

Israel's active military is estimated to be some 170,000. With universal conscription, it has some 2.4 million people between 17-49 years old fit for military service and everyone has had some training. Its military budget is 9% of its substantial GDP, totaling some $18.7 billion. It receives about $3 billion per year from the US. It has about 1000 main battle tanks, 1500 lower quality tanks, over 1000 artillery pieces, over 500 warplanes, about 200 helicopters, 13 warships, and 3 submarines. It has the latest unmanned aerial vehicles and can gather very precise intelligence using aerial photography and satellites.

Hamas is mainly a political organization, but it has an armed wing that has the capacity to improvise rockets and explosives and to train fighters with small arms. Hizbollah in Lebanon had some success against Israeli ground forces in 2006 partly because of armaments: they were able to destroy Israeli tanks with anti-tank missiles and fight against Israeli soldiers at night with night-vision goggles. Hamas does not have access to such weaponry. In 2002, when Palestinian fighters defended Jenin from Israeli forces, they improvised some explosions but ran out of ammunition and supplies and were ultimately defeated when Israel leveled the central part of the camp with bulldozers.

Because calling it 'war' is basically metaphorical, the notion of a 'military casualty', as opposed to a civilian death, on the Palestinian side doesn't make much sense. If a soldier or even a militant is killed in battle, he is counted as a military casualty. If that same soldier is killed in his house by a missile from the sky or a shell from kilometres away, he is the victim of an assassination. If his entire family and various other people are killed because they were in his proximity, they are victims of murder. There are other words that can describe it, such as 'collateral damage', but murder is the most accurate, something that would be clear if racism against Palestinians were not so pervasive.

Israel invites us to dehumanize ourselves by estimating how many of its victims were 'militants' and how many 'civilians'. In this game, Israel claims everyone it has killed was a militant and those who were not are victims of the militants because they hide among civilians. The United Nations has accepted the broad parameters of the game, estimating at one point that one fifth of those killed were civilians. The details can then be quibbled over. But no one would accept this game if it were not Palestinians who were being killed. No one tries to divide the victims of Hamas's rockets or, in years past, suicide bombings. No doubt many of these were off-duty soldiers, since Israel has universal conscription. But everyone understands that these were civilians and killing them, a crime (an act of terrorism, no less). Most people understand that subdividing the young victims of a suicide bombing at a cafeteria based on whether they were active duty or reservist soldiers would be a pretty disgusting thing to do. But the same simple logic fails when attempted to extend it to Palestinians at a marketplace or school or hospital or university, all of whom are legitimate targets of murder unless proven otherwise (and Israel allows no one to see the evidence to prove anything in any case).

Though there is some uncertainty about Hamas's military capability, the invasion of Gaza will not likely be a replay of Lebanon 2006. Palestinians might be motivated and have little to lose, but they cannot compete with Israel's weaponry. Indeed, the reason the Israelis were surprised in Lebanon was that they had gotten used to fighting lightly armed and helpless opponents. Israel knows how to occupy Gaza. Before the 2005 'disengagement', their forces operated from fortified settlements and cut Gaza in three parts, blocking the three main north-south roads with armor. They used extensive aerial surveillance and cameras from towers to watch every square inch of Gaza and snipe at people, including children, at will. They came out of their bases in massive armored force and with air support to bulldoze houses and neighbourhoods, after first using artillery and air strikes. Helicopter gunships would make short work of any lightly armed militants, who (unlike Hizbollah) have nothing capable of shooting one down. They can create their own no-go zones and minefields using cluster bombs, making even more of Gaza's tiny area uninhabitable – and making the concentration camp that much more concentrated.

If everything goes Israel's way, as it seems to be going, the next question is how Israel will decide if it has won. It can probably destroy many tunnels and, by occupying the area, silence the rockets. It can probably also conduct house-to-house searches and massacres, and will probably attempt to capture or kill the elected Hamas leadership. Since most countries refuse to recognize Hamas's government and many have accepted Israel's request that it be listed as a terrorist organization, there is nothing protecting these leaders' lives any more than the lives of the people who voted for them (or against them). With its soldiers back in Gaza, Israel will be able to return to its noble project of starving the Palestinian population, this time with an even more destroyed infrastructure and from up close. As Alex de Waal pointed out about Darfur, 'starve' is a transitive verb: it is something one people does to another.

Justin Podur is a Toronto-based writer. He was in Gaza in 2002. His blog is www.killingtrain.com.

Gaza Rally

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_30641.aspx

Conversations with a Zionist

So this random dude decides to message me on facebook and criticize my beliefs on being critical of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This is the extended conversation that took place over a couple of days. I am Bloodred. He is Zev the Zionist. Will update should it continue...

Zev the Zionist: me dear friend, it is obvious that you are not watching the news and cetanly havent visited the gaza for the past month, but, if u were, then u could find out that it is not an occupation any more, and that it is a war between two well organized and equiped armies, so for the next time before you getting your head out of your ass, just check what is going on in reality, and maybe if u were that motivated even perhaps vistied the area right now to show your brave support.

unfortunately my friend your words and knowldge do not have any sense, bc u are here.. and it makes you A no one.please keep w your peaceful life and astay away of issues that you are not well aknowledged with.


Bloodred: Gaza is the worlds largest prison camp. Israel has maintained a blockade causing a humanitarian disaster. That to me reeks of an occupation. Not to mention the fundamental right of return to '48 Palestine is not being addressed.

From the UN General Assembly on Human Rights in OPT:
"Terrorism is a scourge, a serious violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. No attempt is made in the reports to minimize the pain and suffering it causes to victims, their families and the broader community. Palestinians are guilty of terrorizing innocent Israeli civilians by means of suicide bombs and Qassam rockets. Likewise...the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are guilty of terrorizing innocent Palestinian civilians by military incursions, targeted killings and sonic booms that fail to distinguish between military targets and civilians. All these acts must be condemned and have been condemned.

Common sense, however, dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by Al Qaeda, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation. While such acts cannot be justified, they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism,"

"Israel remains the occupying Power in Gaza despite its claim that Gaza is a "hostile territory". This means that its actions must be measured against the standards of international humanitarian law and human rights law. ..."

I have been to the West Bank and seen the attrocities for myself. I have seen the illegal settlements, the illegal check points, the illegal apartheid wall, the illegal refugee camps. I have witnessed first hand the dehumanization of the Palestinian people inside and outside of Israel. Collective punishment is a WAR CRIME!! I WOULD have gone into Gaza had I been allowed to but alas, the mighty state of Israel was preventing any humanitarian aid from getting in.

I am in touch with human rights workers who are on the ground in Gaza right now showing exactly whats going on.So for your infinte wisdom: I am "acknowledged" in this and an attack on one persons human rights is an attack on all of ours. Be it in Israel or colonial occupation here in north america of Indigenous lands. Are you seriously saying the Gazans are well equipped? Fuck man, youre as delusional as you are retarded apparently.


Zev The Zionist: keep living in your pink bubble in your rich fat country, believing that you are actually doing something. if u were fighting against the hamas or the hizballa, then u know that they are very well organized and equipped, we are not fighting ppl with burning bottles my friend. moreover, as being not only ans israeli but an immigrant from azerbajan who escaped armanian/jewish jenocide, witnissed and participated in a war, it is always the children, the women, and the elder, who suffer but that is how it alwys was and will be bc it is the human nature. im not trying to change your point ov view, it that your enthusiasm to enforce yours on others is what made me to respond to your non objective answers. happy new years buddy, eat, sleep, live well.


Bloodred: so because of zionist rhetoric im supposed to condone the butchering of women and children? because terrible things happenned to jews, armenians, and races all over the world were supposed to chalk it up to human nature? are you serious?

ill admit as an individual i am pretty helpless, but the point is to build an international movement to fight military and colonial oppression and violence. hezbollah and hamas were able to gain power because people in those areas have no hope. they presented a tangible resistance to oppressed people. well adjusted, non oppressed people generally dont align themselves with fundamentalists. all blood spilled is on the hands of the zionists. theyre the ones who created the resistance because of their racist apartheid policies.

Its easy to tell people to be objective when you are the one who supports the oppressor. my enthusiasm comes from a desire to confront racism and oppression wherever I see it. Apart from going to Palestine and standing in front of soldiers and settlers who shoot children (which ive done) all i can do is support movements that challenge zionism wherever it manifests. so fuck your "pink bubble" theory. last time I checked...israel was one of the richest countries in the world (mainly due to aid from the US but thats neither here nor there).

Im not going to enforce my views on anyone. once presented with the truth any rational person is going to realise that all the zionist, imperial lobbying that gets done is simply there to cover up the racist policies of the state of israel. international pressure worked to eliminate racist apartheid south africa and it will work for racist apartheid israel.


Zev the Zionist: listne man, i dont know what are u smoking but the last time i checked my ppl and the arabs are the same race, semites, therefore the separation is due to ideological reasons and not racial. zionism was created bc jews needed to live in a country without beeing presecuded, since jews and arabs fought sonce biblical times, i think that your ass should stay out of this, plz dont write me back anymore, since your views dont interest us.. i wish u could go back to gaza for my intellegent and brave friend, to meet myself and my brigade from the other side.


Bloodred: Jews and Arabs have NOT fought since Biblical times. There are numerous reports of both religions acting cooperatively in times of persectution. Palestinians provided many safe havens for Jews in times of persecution. This is Zionist rhetoric you are spouting in an attempt to justify the colonization of Judea and Sumeria and ethnically cleanse the land of people who had been there for generations. Now, people who have absolutely NO geneological ties can claim citizenship in Israel strictly because of adherence to a religion, but someone who grew up in Jaffa and now lives 20 miles from where they lived cant return home.

You can argue semantics all you want. It doesn't change the fact that Israel is practicing forced segregation (apartheid) and collective punishment (war crime) on Arabs. Palestinians should be afforded the right of return just as Jews should be able to live in peace wherever they settled. So because Europe persecuted Jews in the early 20th century its ok to do the same to the Palestinians right? Not to mention the racism Palestinian Israelis deal with on a regular basis inside Israel proper.

Wow..you've got guns. Id love to see how well Israel does without the support of the US. This whole "might makes right" is archaic, inhumane and neolithic. Because youve got guns its OK to shoot women and children. Because you've got Tanks its ok to blockade food and medical supplies. And the Israelis wonder why the attacks keep happening. And

Your "brigades" are full of 18 year olds who have been brainwashed and wouldnt know how to think independently if they were afforded the right.

So whatever, you can choose to support murder and the breaking of international law because you buy into this ideology. And you can also choose to have your family in Beer Sheva live in constant fear of rockets. Until basic human rights are observed, and collective punishment ends, there will be conflict.I should have known this would degrade into an "I know people with guns and I will shoot you" argument. I am dealing with a zionist.

Zev the Zionist: 1. ppl in our army are rated higher when they show better ability to make decisions themselves, it appeares from your words u didnt know that

2. jews were persecuted for 2000+ yrs, having no country

3. they still are persecuded

4. for your knowledge, these mother fuckers carry their kids, wives and neightbours with them, as human shields, so that israel would look bad when trying to kill them, plus they get 15 min alert ahead before being attacked by our forces.

5. israel paid forever for their fucking electricity and water6. the right of return was made up be jews to secure other jews and not anyone else7. jews and arabs did fight since biblical times (and lived and peace for a while when it was in both sides interest) mention that jews were always been the underdog

it seems that you are the brain washed one my friend, i dont really understand your ignorant passion, but you are redicilously funny. i must admit that from your writings u are not aweare of a lot of things, behind the news, tv, and even what ppl say on the street in gaza, bc after all their mass majority is ignorant as well. i know it is fraustrating to live when your neighbour's grass and turkey is greener and fatter, but it is not israel's duty to keeps these fucks happy (althought it always did more than everybody else will do).

i was born in a shaid country, and know what a shaid soul is, you would never understand, bc it is not your fight, not in your childhood or blood.


Bloodred: Human shields? Kind of like the Israeli Occupation Force does?

http://www.btselem.org/english/Human_Shields/20060720_Human_Shields_in_Beit_Hanun.aspThe

rocket attacks will stop when the occupation ends. It's really quite simple. Political zionism is a scourge on the Jewish people and I'm glad I work with Jews who are disgusted by the Zionist occupation of Palestine.

The right of return is a fundamental human right "made up" by the United Nations to prevent ethnic cleansing. 700,000 Palestinians left their homes to avoid the fighting and because of rumours of torture and killing. They have the right to return home. Theyre the ones who have actually lived there and can show an actual bloodline dating back hundreds of years. Not an ashekenazi who emmigrated from Germany to Brooklyn.

Israel has continued on a rampant path of colonization in the West Bank, systematically taking the higher ground and securing water resources. Imposing collective punishment on people who have been ripped from their homes.

Again...because Jews were persecuted and oppressed, it gives them the right to do it to others? Thats some seriously backwards thinking dude.

Fighting Imperial agression is the job of anyone with a sense of justice. Home or abroad, opression takes many forms and its the duty of those who feel no human has the right to oppress another to stand up and confront it. In fifty years people will look on Zionism the same way they look on Nazism; in disgust.

The mass majority is ignorant? Ill gladly have a society based on the majority than your proposed one on the wrong side of a barell of a gun. What you speak of is nothing short of facism my friend. Didnt we learn anything from Hitler? And you zionists seem to be so proud of your so called democracy.

And just so you know, according to the United Nations, Israel, as the occupying power IS responsible for providing humanitarian aid (like water and electricity) because theyre the ones who control it. Its international law. Look it up.

The proverbial Grass and Turkey's got greener and fatter on cheap Arab labour pre first intifada....but you were barely a pup so Im sure you dont remember.

From the UN: The test for determining whether a territory is occupied under international law is effective control, and not the permanent physical presence of the occupying Power's military forces in the territory in question.

Judged by this test it is clear that Israel remains the occupying Power as technological developments have made it possible for Israel to assert control over the people of Gaza without a permanent military presence. Israel's effective control is demonstrated by the following factors:

(a) (a) Substantial control of Gaza's six land crossings: the Erez crossing is effectively closed to Palestinians wishing to cross to Israel or the West Bank. The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which is regulated by the Agreement on Movement and Access entered into between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on 15 November 2005 (brokered by the United States, the European Union and the international community's envoy for the Israeli disengagement from Gaza), has been closed by Israel for lengthy periods since June 2006. The main crossing for goods at Karni is strictly controlled by Israel and since June 2006 this crossing too has been largely closed, with disastrous consequences for the Palestinian economy;

(b) Control through military incursions, rocket attacks and sonic booms: sections of Gaza have been declared "no-go" zones in which residents will be shot if they enter;

(c) Complete control of Gaza's airspace and territorial waters;

(d) Control of the Palestinian Population Registry: the definition of who is "Palestinian" and who is a resident of Gaza and the West Bank is controlled by the Israeli military. Even when the Rafah crossing is open, only holders of Palestinian identity cards can enter Gaza through the crossing; therefore control over the Palestinian Population Registry is also control over who may enter and leave Gaza. Since 2000, with few exceptions, Israel has not permitted additions to the Palestinian Population Registry.

The fact that Gaza remains occupied territory means that Israel's actions towards Gaza must be measured against the standards of international humanitarian law.