By Soozy Duncan, The Indypendent, 3 September 2009

With what seems like more buildings collapsed than standing, 5,686 miles does not begin to measure the distance between New York City and Jabalia, Gaza. Only two miles from the Israeli border, the town and its enormous refugee camp were destroyed by Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” in December and January. Now children, excited at seeing the buses drive past, run barefoot from the tents they’ve been living in for the past six months, tents probably not unlike the ones their grandparents or great-grandparents lived in when they first fled their homes and came to Gaza in 1948. Some elders shake their heads — it’s not the first time outsiders have come to see the devastation, but life has yet to change.

[Read the report]

By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth

17 September 2009

Israeli peace activists are planning to ratchet up their campaign against groups in the United States that raise money for settlers by highlighting how tax exemptions are helping to fund the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Gush Shalom, a small peace group that advocates Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories, is preparing to send details to the US tax authorities questioning the charitable status of several organizations.

Adam Keller, a spokesman, said these operations’ tax-exempt status meant that “settlement expansion is effectively being subsidized out of the pockets of the US taxpayer and government”.

The campaign is designed to increase pressure on Barack Obama, the US president, to demand action from Israel on his repeated calls – so far largely ignored – to end settlement building. Last week, Israel announced plans to build 455 new homes in West Bank settlements and 500 apartments in East Jerusalem.

Mr Obama is expected to unveil a Middle East peace plan this month.

[Read the report]

A NEW BOOKLET BY “BREAKING THE SILENCE”:

“You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them.”

Fifty-four testimonies of Israeli combat soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead reveal gaps between the reports given by the army following January’s events; the needless destruction of houses; firing phosphorous in populated areas and an atmosphere that encouraged shooting anywhere.

[Read more / Download the booklet (.pdf)]

h/t: Norman Finkelstein: UN Inquiry Finds Israel “Punished and Terrorized” Palestinian Civilians, Committed War Crimes During Gaza Assault

One soldier after another, literally—I wish listeners would just bring up the report. It’s called “Breaking the Silence.” And then, under—enter under the search mechanism, just enter the word “insane.”

[…]

It was a massacre in Gaza. And you don’t really see that, because they’re measuring everything against what they call the laws of war. But you’re applying laws of war to a massacre. There was no war there.

h/t Sam Bahour who writes:

Strength to every Hebron mother — Palestinian ones to remain sane and steadfast, and Israeli ones to wake up and get themselves and their children out of a war crime situation.