[van-announce] Updated: Jan 3 rally to End the Siege of Gaza! Protest Israeli War Crimes! (vancouver)

[Harsha]

* updated with Action items, links to articles/photos, talking points, and
endorsers. Please forward widely *


END THE SIEGE ON GAZA! PROTEST ISRAELI WAR CRIMES !

---------------------

Saturday Jan 3 @ 1 pm
Vancouver Art Gallery (Robson side - (corner Hornby)

---------------------

Hundreds came out in the rain, sleet and snow on Monday Dec 29th to show
our solidarity with the people of Gaza. We're mobilizing again for
Saturday Jan 3rd, 1pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Please come out rain,
snow or shine to demonstrate your outrage and our collective humanity in
response to the latest massacre of Palestinians.

*** Article (including 34 photos) from Dec 29th protest:
http://www.straight.com/article-177783/protesters-rally-vancouver-against-israel%3F%3Fs-gaza-attacks

*** Mainstream news from the Province:
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=7832a374-dc9e-4079-9b83-eaa9eff2ae8e

*** Video from Dec 29th protest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TATYHJiLOL4

*** Press TV coverage of Dec 29th:
mms://217.218.67.244/presstv/20081230/OUTPUT_10-03-00-FTP-ZAHRA-VANCOUVER.wmv


At least 300 Palestinians have been killed and over 1400 injured in the
latest Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, while the threat for further
bloodshed still hangs heavily as air strikes continue. This is the single
largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied Gaza in 1967,
many among the dead are civilians and the numbers keeps mounting. The
Israeli state shows no sign of halting its assault anytime soon as they
have begun to amass tanks and ground assault military vehicles on the
border with Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, has stated that,
"the operation will last as long as necessary".

Israel’s latest massacre in Gaza occurs with official US and Canadian
complicity towards Israel’s illegal siege and ongoing sanctions over the
civilian population in Gaza. Over the past two years the Gaza Strip has
been undergoing the daily violence of a wide-ranging humanitarian
catastrophe triggered by severely reduced access to energy, food, and
medicines. In effect, Gaza is the world’s largest open air prison.

Join us in Vancouver as people of conscience to stand in solidarity with
the Palestinian people of Gaza and to demand an end to the siege of Gaza
and Israeli apartheid.


==> TAKE ACTION!!!

1) Email the prime minister, foreign affairs minister, and leaders of the
opposition. Visit:
http://www.cjpme.ca/action_gaza_2008_12.shtml

2) Respond to biased media coverage. Visit
http://letgazabeheard.wordpress.com to send sample emails to the BBC, CNN,
and Fox News regarding their biased coverage and use those template
letters to send to Canadian media outlets.


==> LINKS ON CURRENT SITUATION:

* Photos from Gaza:

http://thephilistine.org/2008/12/27/the-latest-pictures-from-the-bombing-of-gaza/

http://ingaza.wordpress.com/

* Live from Palestine diaries
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/diaries.shtml

* The Gaza Crisis Talking Points by Phyllis Bennis
http://www.zmag.org/zspace/commentaries/3727

* Democracy Now interviews:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/29/israeli_attacks_kill_over_310_in

* Gaza: the logic of colonial power in The Guardian
http://tinyurl.com/8sp9bf

* Israeli Slaughter, International Culpability
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20075

* Gaza massacres must spur us to action by Ali Abunimah:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10055.shtml

* Israel's Wanton Aggression On Gaza
http://countercurrents.org/lendman291208.htm

* Current Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza:
http://www.freegaza.ps/english/index.php?scid=100&id=555&extra=news&type=55


==> TALKING POINTS ABOUT GAZA FROM COALITION AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID

* Gaza is the world's largest open-air prison. 1.5 million residents are
packed into an area 45 km long x 10 km wide, while Israel controls Gaza's
air space and borders. Over 80% of the population are refugees denied
their legal Right to Return to the homes and lands from which they were
expelled in 1948. Israel also illegally restricts Palestinian freedom of
movement into and out of Gaza. For example, in August 2008, Israel denied
three Gazan Fulbright Scholars their basic right to education by having
their American entry visas revoked.

* Gaza has been under complete siege since June 2007, during which time
the 1.5 million people of Gaza have been cut off from sufficient fuel,
food, and medicine. Two weeks ago, the UN reported that Gazans were living
without power for up to 16 hours each day; half of Gaza's population was
receiving water only once a week for a few hours; 80% of the water in Gaza
did not meet World Health Organization standards for drinking; the
unemployment rate had risen to almost 50%; only 23 of 3,900 industrial
enterprises were operational; more than 79% were living below the poverty
line; more than 56% were food insecure; and patients with chronic
illnesses such as cancer or diabetes could not be adequately treated or
cared for. (See:
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_situation_report_2008_12_17_english.pdf)

* Since 2001, fewer than twenty Israelis have been killed by Qassam
rockets. In three days, nearly 400 Gazans have been killed by Israeli
state violence. This is a ratio of 20 Gazan lives for each Israeli life,
with the death toll in Gaza certain to increase. In January 2008, UN
Special Rapporteur John Dugard stated, "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, apartheid or occupation." Israeli and
Palestinian violence can in no way be viewed as symmetrical -- individual
Palestinians have chosen to resist their occupiers with largely
ineffective home-made rockets, while the Israeli state, which boasts the
fourth most powerful military in the world, has responded by collectively
punishing the captive population that it illegally occupies. Under the
Fourth Geneva Convention, collective punishment is a war crime. As the
occupier, the burden is on Israel to end its state violence.

* Israel is an apartheid state. Canada must sever diplomatic ties with
Israel and implement sanctions against it until Israel complies with
international law. UN General Assembly President Father Miguel D'Escoto
Brockmann recently called for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions against Israel, similar to the one that ended apartheid in South
Africa.


==> Organized by various Palestine solidarity groups.
For more information email vancouver.gazaprotest at gmail.com

** ENDORSED BY:
Adala - Arab Justice Committee
Al-Awda - Vancouver
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign
Canadian Arab Federation - National
Canada Palestine Association - Vancouver
Canadians Against War
Canadian Islamic Congress BC
Canadian Muslim Union
Canpalnet
Code Pink Women for Peace (local chapter)
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
Indigenous Action Movement
Jews for a Just Peace - Vancouver
No One Is Illegal-Vancouver
Palestinian Islamic League - Canada
Salaam -Vancouver
Siraat Collective
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - University of British Columbia
StopWar Coalition
Muslim Canadian Federation - Vancouver
Students for a Democratic Society (UBC)
The Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice
Vancouver Socialist Forum
Voice of Palestine - Vancouver