| | | Palestine Symphony: From Turkey with Love
Dear Readers,
On December 27, 2008, Israeli began its one-sided war on the isolated and besieged Gaza Strip. The Palestinian people in Gaza, although fell in the thousands, exhibited legendary resistance and courage; their steadfastness in the face of that brutality, which continues until this day, deserves to be honored, and always remembered.
Some wonderful independent Turkish musicians from Istanbul have attempted to do just that: remembering Gaza and Palestine through this very beautiful Palestine Symphony, which comes in four part.
Please click HERE to listen to part one, and please remember Gaza and Palestine in every possible act of solidarity.
http://www.symphonyturk.com/?php=ps
The Palestine Chronicle Team | | Letter from an Author: Needing a Palestinian Artist My name is Theresa Heine and I am a published children's author. I have written a picture book text, Aisha's Kite, which is set in Gaza and is the story of Aisha, who finds hope in a kite she makes out of rubbish. It is based on an incident, when the UN organized a kite flying on Gaza beach to successfully break the record in the Guinness Book of Records two years ago. A publisher is interested in the story, but insists it should be illustrated by a Palestinian artist. If anyone has interest in this project, I would be really happy to hear from you. My email address is: theresamheine@t-online.de. Thank you Theresa Heine | | | IN THIS ISSUE | | Featured Article: Two Years after the Massacre: End International Complicity, Intensify BDS, by BDS National Committee | | Selected Articles: The latest from Jonathan Cook, Ramzy Baroud (Editorial), Uri Avnery, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Haidar Eid, Ahmed Yousef, John Whitbeck, Rob Yassin-Kassab and more .. | | Latest News: Netanyahu's idea of peace, Mavi Marmara back home, Mossad to come clean and more .. | | | | FEATURED ARTICLE | ![]() | End International Complicity, Intensify BDS | | | ![]() | ![]() | | Without paying a price, Israel is very likely to continue on the path of massacres. | | | By BDS National Committee (BNC)
On the morning of 27 December 2008 Israeli forces initiated a 23-day military offensive against the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip killing more than 1400 and injuring over 5000 Palestinians, predominantly civilians and refugees since 1948. Two years have passed and those responsible for the atrocities committed have not yet been held accountable. The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) calls on conscientious people and organizations around the world to step up efforts to end Israel's long record of impunity through boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) until international law and Palestinian rights are upheld.
The UN Goldstone report -- endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council, UN General Assembly, European Parliament, Arab League, among others -- found serious evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated mainly by Israel against the occupied Palestinian population in Gaza. The findings of the Mission confirmed earlier investigations conducted by independent Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations. The Goldstone report called for credible and independent investigation and prosecution of those responsible, and for reparations for the victims. It called upon the United Nations and its members to activate international judicial mechanisms, should domestic measures fail to meet the required international standards. In the two years since Israel's "Operation Cast Lead", no effective judicial investigations have been conducted into the conflict, and Israel has refused to cooperate with the UN Fact Finding Mission. Referring to "structural flaws" in the so-called Israeli justice system, the Goldstone report concluded that Israel cannot be trusted to administer justice according to international standards [1]. In such situations, international law demands recourse to international judicial mechanisms. States blatantly shielding Israel from international legal scrutiny, chiefly the US and some European governments, have thwarted Palestinian recourse to international justice mechanisms, highlighting the need more than ever for intensifying the global BDS movement's efforts to end Israel's impunity and Western complicity in perpetuating it.
Violations of international law continue to this day, inter alia, through the continuing Israeli-imposed illegal siege of the Gaza Strip. Israel's ongoing blockade of essential foods, construction supplies, as well as access to health and educational services is not only immoral; it is a severe form of collective punishment, a war crime that is strictly prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is inducing mass poverty, water contamination, environmental collapse, chronic diseases, economic devastation, and hundreds of deaths. This medieval, patently illegal siege, in its fourth year, against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza has been squarely condemned by leading legal experts, including UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the oPt, Prof. Richard Falk, who described it as constituting "slow genocide." This is but a continuation of Israel's brutal oppression of the Palestinian people, including their mass expulsion from their homes during the Nakba in 1948, military rule, occupation and colonization of their land, apartheid, and persistent denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands and to receive reparations, as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
Following the massacre of humanitarian relief workers and activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010, Israel announced that it would "ease" the siege of Gaza. However, as a recent report [2] by a coalition of leading humanitarian organizations concluded, "Israel has done just enough to ease the pressure on itself from the international community, but far too little to ease the restrictions on the daily lives of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza."
Cast Lead marked a turning point in public opinion reminiscent of the international reaction to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in apartheid South Africa. Support for BDS has been growing at a spectacular rate around the world. Governments are finding it harder to justify policies that treat Israel as if it were above international law. Israel is increasingly seen as a pariah state. On the occasion of the second anniversary of Israel's brutal aggression on Gaza, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee calls on:
- People of conscience around the world to intensify BDS efforts to hold Israel accountable and pressure their governments to immediately suspend arms trade with Israel, implement trade sanctions, and bring to justice all Israeli officials and military personnel who took the decision and/or implemented Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
- Civil society organizations -- including faith based groups, universities, trade unions, women's associations, student groups, academic and professional associations, etc. -- to boycott Israeli goods and complicit institutions and to divest their own investment and pension funds of all stock in Israeli and international companies that are complicit in maintaining Israel's occupation, apartheid and violation of international law.
- Governments to respect their obligation to provide access to justice for the Palestinian victims via the United Nations and in domestic and international courts, and to impose pressure, including sanctions, on Israel to immediately end its illegal siege of the occupied Gaza Strip and to cease its policies of colonialism and apartheid that oppress the Palestinian people.
Without paying a price, Israel is very likely to continue on the path of massacres, forcible displacement, and construction of colonial settlements on occupied Palestinian land. On the second anniversary of the Gaza massacre, nothing can be more effective than creatively and persistently spreading and deepening BDS campaigns to hold Israel accountable. This is the shortest and most reliable path to justice, freedom, equal rights and sustainable peace.
- Contact the BDS National Committee (BNC) at: info@BDSmovement.net, and visit: www.BDSmovement.net.
Notes:
[1] Goldstone Report, paragraph 1756
[2] Dashed Hopes, Crisis Action November 2010 | If you like this article, please consider making a contribution to the Palestine Chronicle.
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| | SELECTED ARTICLES | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ![]() | Gaza: Two Years after the Horror | ![]() | By Haidar Eid This week marks the second anniversary of the horror inflicted on the people of the Gaza Strip. Nothing has ch..... | | ![]() | | | | | | ![]() | Cast Lead - A Poem | ![]() | By Helen Aouad Groups of gulls holding fast to an old
sea while bangs undo their sky must ask themselves:
<..... | | ![]() | | | |
| LATEST NEWS
| ![]() | Netanyahu Proposal 'Unacceptable' | Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has suggested that an "interim agreement" with the Palestinians could be a solution to reaching a comprehensive peace accord in the Middle East.
But the Palestinians shrugged off the idea, insisting instead on an overall agreement that would take into account the fate of refugees and the thorny issue of Jerusalem.
"There could be a situation in which talks with the Palestinians hit a brick wall over the issues of Jerusalem and the right of return [of refugees], and in that case the result would be an interim agreement," Netanyahu said in an interview on Channel 10 private television.
"It certainly is a possibility."
"But if the Palestinians accept a demilitarised state and renounce de facto to the right of return, I'll go all the way and I think that the majority of the country [Israel] will follow me."
It was the first time Netanyahu said there could be an alternative path in peace talks to the US-brokered talks that stalled after Israel refused to extend a partial West Bank building freeze on September 26.
Netanyahu said he recognised that the Palestinians would not agree to enter talks over an interim agreement but that it might be where the talks would end up.
"If ahead of time we will tell [the Palestinians] let's [work on an interim deal] it is not certain that they will agree so easily, but it could be the outcome of a diplomatic initiative," he said.
Netanyahu said in the event the Palestinians agreed to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, he would be willing to jeopardise coalition agreements to pursue a peace deal.
"If the Palestinians will recognise a Jewish state ... I tell you here and now I will go all the way with this, no coalitional consideration will stop me ... Not in reaching the agreement and not in presenting it to the people and the majority of the people will support me," he said.
Netanyahu's suggestion was brushed aside by a spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.
"For the Palestinians, any suggestion of reaching an interim agreement is unacceptable because it omits Jerusalem and the issue of refugees," Nabil Abu Rudeina, Abbas' aide, said.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, also dismissed Netanyahu's suggestion, saying "interim solutions are rejected part and parcel".
"It's now time for final solutions that include Jerusalem, refugees, borders, security, settlements, water and the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails".
In Washington, a US state department spokesman said the government was working hard to reach a peace deal. "Our position is clear: we remain hard at work with the parties to achieve a framework agreement on all the core issues," Mark Toner, a spokesman, said in response to Netanyahu's comments.
Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began in Washington on September 2 but stalled when a partial 10-month freeze on Israeli settlement building expired on September 26.
The Palestinians refused to resume negotiations without a new moratorium and the US admitted on December 7 that it had failed to convince Israel to renew the building curbs.
Palestinian negotiators have emphasised a set of alternatives to new talks, including seeking recognition of a Palestinian state along the borders that existed in 1967, before the Six Day War.
(Agencies via Aljazeera English) | | |
| | | | The Palestine Chronicle is an independent online newspaper that provides daily news, commentary, features, book reviews, photos, art, etc, on a variety of subjects, focusing mostly on Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East region. Click HERE to learn more. And HERE to support the Palestine Chronicle.
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