Posts Tagged ‘Hamas’

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U.S. policy in Gaza remains unchanged

January 22, 2010

by Charles Fromm and Ellen Massey, Inter Press Service News

WASHINGTON, Jan 22, 2010 (IPS) – One year ago Thursday, the last Israeli tanks were lumbering out of the Gaza Strip, ending the 22-day Gaza War and leaving in their wake a decimated landscape and population.

A year later, the humanitarian and security situation in the devastated coastal enclave remains dire, yet the Barack Obama administration continues to overlook the crisis in Gaza, an approach which some experts say is an extension of the previous administration’s policy.

This policy has also done little to alleviate what human rights groups warn is a growing humanitarian crisis, plunging the Gaza Strip further into poverty and insecurity.

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Hosni Mubarak joins Israel in blockade of Gaza

January 18, 2010

Jean Shaoul, wsws.org, January 18, 2010

Egypt has intervened forcibly to prevent international aid reaching Gaza, and has implemented new measures aimed at further tightening Israel’s illegal and inhumane blockade.

Israel stopped all but the most essential food and medicine entering Gaza in June 2007. Hamas, the Islamist party which won the parliamentary elections against Fatah in January 2006, took control of Gaza in order to pre-empt a Fatah coup backed by Israel, the US, Jordan and Egypt. Israel has also banned virtually all exports from Gaza.

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Posted in Commentary, Egypt, Gaza, imperialism, Palestine, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Egypt’s new wall threatens Gaza’s lifeline

January 15, 2010
Middle East Online, Jan 13, 2010




Would be 30 meters deep and 10 kilometers long


Cairo’s move to pressure Hamas threatening more humanitarian disasters in Israeli-besieged Gaza.

GAZA CITY – The construction of a new underground wall and recent border clashes have frayed relations between Hamas and Egypt and could threaten Gaza’s main lifeline in Gaza, analysts say.

Citing national security, Egypt is now building an underground iron wall in a new bid to tighten its porous Sinai border with the restive Palestinian territory.

Media reports said it would be 30 meters (100 feet) deep and 10 kilometers (six miles) long.

Since democratically elected Hamas seized total power in Gaza in 2007 it has relied on smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt to provide essential food and products for its Israeli-besieged people.

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The American-Israeli War on Gaza

December 28, 2009
Foreign Policy Journal, December 27, 2009
by Jeremy R. Hammond

An Israeli attack on a U.N. school in Beit Lahiya with white phosphorus munitions on January 17, 2009. Such attacks constitute war crimes under international law. (Photo: Muhammad al-Baba)An Israeli attack on a U.N. school in Beit Lahiya with white phosphorus munitions on January 17, 2009. Such attacks constitute war crimes under international law. (Photo: Muhammad al-Baba)

One year ago today, Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead”, a murderous full-scale military assault on the small, densely populated, and defenseless Gaza Strip. The operation resulted in the massacre of over 1,300 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, including hundreds of children.

This includes only those killed directly by military attacks. The actual casualty figure from Israel’s policies towards Gaza, including the number of deaths attributable to its ongoing siege of the territory, is unknown.

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Posted in Commentary, crime, Gaza, Palestine, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war, war crimes, warmongers, Zionist Israel | 1 Comment »

CIA working with Palestinian security agents

December 18, 2009

US agency co-operating with Palestinian counterparts who allegedly torture Hamas supporters in West Bank

Ian Cobain in Ramallah, The Guardian/UK, Dec 17, 2009

Protesters wave Palestinian flags during a protest in the West Bank.Protesters wave Palestinian flags during a protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank. Photograph: Fadi Arouri/Reuters

Palestinian security agents who have been detaining and allegedly torturing supporters of the Islamist organisation Hamas in the West Bank have been working closely with the CIA, the Guardian has learned.

Less than a year after Barack Obama signed an executive order that prohibited torture and provided for the lawful interrogation of detainees in US custody, evidence is emerging the CIA is co-operating with security agents whose continuing use of torture has been widely documented by human rights groups.

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Finkelstein: International Law And Israeli Propaganda

November 20, 2009

Information Clearing House

Norman Finkelstein Interviewed on Danish TV

“Hamas is not obliged under international law to accept the legitimacy of the state of Israel.”

Video posted November 19, 2009

(Danish is spoken 35 seconds into the video)

Transcript

Norman Finkelstein: Hamas is not obliged under international law to accept the legitimacy of the state of Israel.

If you go back for example 1947 Gandhi said he’ll accept the reality of Pakistan, but he would never accept the legitimacy of the state of Pakistan.

Hamas is not expected to be held to a higher level of diplomacy than Gandhi..

Gandhi said: ‘Pakistan is a reality which I’m forced to accept, but I don’t accept it as legitimate.’ And that’s the same position of Hamas. They said we’ll solve the conflict on the June ’67 border.

Adam Holm: ‘This is what makes Jerusalem unwary of Hamas because they keep saying how can we have a neighbor which doesn’t recognize our legitimacy.

Norman Finkelstein: But you see the problem is; listen to yourself,.. your own language..

You’re just spouting Israeli propaganda..

Why are you saying ‘Jerusalem’?

East Jerusalem is occupied Palestinian territory under international law, that was the ruling of the International Court of Justice since July 2004, and if you look at the Goldstone Report that just came out a month ago, they refer to East-Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory.

But now you’ve given over Jerusalem to the Israelis..

You’re just repeating Israeli propaganda; they have no title under international law to east Jerusalem

Adam Holm: But speaking about my Israeli propaganda, which I’ll refute, but anyway.

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Goldstone to Haaretz: U.S. does not have to protect Israel blindly

November 14, 2009

Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz/Israel, Nov 13, 2009

Judge Richard Goldstone told Haaretz Thursday that President Shimon Peres’ remarks criticizing him were “specious and ill-befitting the head of State of Israel.”

Peres was quoted Wednesday as calling Goldstone “a small man, devoid of any sense of justice, a technocrat with no real understanding of jurisprudence,” who was “on a one-sided mission to hurt Israel.”

In Thursday’s interview by e-mail with Haaretz, Goldstone said: “I am content to be judged by my actions over the course of my career both in terms of my professional judicial career and my voluntary service.”

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Palestinian vote put off, Abbas remains in office

November 14, 2009

(AP)

Khaleej Times Online, 13 November 2009

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who last week said he didn’t want to run for re-election, may get to stay in office without a single ballot being cast.

The Palestinian Election Commission ruled Thursday that January’s scheduled vote should be put off because of opposition from the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and is a rival of Abbas’ Fatah faction.

Abbas raised international concern last week when he declined to run for another term, suggesting he was frustrated over a 10-month stalemate in Israel-Palestinian peacemaking. His departure would have thrown peace efforts into turmoil.

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US Vows to Stand By Israel Over Gaza War Crimes

October 21, 2009
Peres Condemns UN for ‘Spreading Lies’

by Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com, October 21, 2009

In a meeting today with America’s Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, Israeli President Shimon Peres condemned the UN for “spreading lies” in allowing the Goldstone Report’s consideration.

Richard Goldstone

The Goldstone Report details war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas during the January invasion of the Gaza Strip. Rice vowed that the United States would stand by Israel “as a loyal friend” and fight against the report in the UN Security Council.

The UN Human Rights Council formally endorsed the report last week, with the US one of the few nations to vote in opposition to it. It has been referred to the Security Council, but the US is expected to use its veto power to prevent it from going any farther.

The report’s contents are largely the same as those from human rights groups that investigated the conflict, in which over 1,000 Palestinian civilians were slain. Israel has insisted that the author, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, is an “anti-semite” for penning the report, and the government has insisted its backers in the UN are also anti-semites which seeks to see the Jews slaughtered.

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U.N. Body Backs War Crimes Charges on Israel, Hamas

October 17, 2009

By Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service News

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (IPS) – The 47-member Human Rights Council (HRC) approved a resolution Friday endorsing war crimes charges against Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as spelled out in a report by a four-member international fact-finding mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone.

As expected, the United States threw a protective arm around Israel and voted against the resolution, along with some members of the European Union (EU): Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovakia, as well as Ukraine.

“The voting was predictable,” an Asian diplomat told IPS, pointing out that while Western nations voted against the resolution or abstained, most of the developing countries voted in favour.

The vote was 25 in favour, six against, 11 abstentions and five no-shows.

The Geneva-based Council not only endorsed the recommendations of the Goldstone report but also strongly condemned Israeli policies in the occupied territories, including those limiting Palestinian access to their properties and holy sites, particularly in occupied Jerusalem.

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