[van-announce] Sat Jan 17: Surrey Rally to End the Siege on Gaza and Protest Israeli War Crimes!

[Harsha]

SURREY RALLY TO END THE SIEGE ON GAZA & PROTEST ISRAELI WAR CRIMES !

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Saturday, January 17, 2009
1:30pm - 4:00pm
Holland Park, 13428 Old Yale Rd, Surrey
Right Across King George Sky Train Station
On facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=69572879128
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Please come out this Saturday January 17th to join with the diverse
communities in Surrey who are organizing a rally in solidarity with our
sisters and brothers in Gaza. With the ground invasion starting this week
and a growing number of fatalities, our ongoing support for the people of
Palestine - along with millions of other people of conscience worldwide -
is critical.

This rally is being organized by a network of organizations based in
Surrey including Pakistani Canadian Cultural Association, Pakistan Canada
Association, Gateway Islamic Centre, Fijiyan Community Centre, and BC
Muslims Association, with the support of the network of Vancouver-based
Palestine solidarity groups that have organized the past three rallies.

Let us strengthen our resistance from Vancouver to Surrey and demonstrate
our outrage and collective humanity in response to the latest massacre of
Palestinians.

Contact: Tarik Kyani (PCCA) at tariqkiyani at gmail.com


==> TAKE ACTION!!!

The latest crisis is the single largest massacre in Gaza since Israel
illegally occupied Gaza in 1967, many among the dead are civilians and
children and the numbers keeps mounting. 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.

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.


==> FAQ ABOUT CURRENT SITUATION IN GAZA

1) IS ISRAEL STILL OCCUPYING GAZA?

Yes. Despite withdrawing its illegal settlements and army bases from the
Gaza Strip in 2005 it remained the occupying force according to
international law.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Territory, Prof.
John Dugard, stated in 2008: “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."


2) DID HAMAS VIOLATE THE CEASEFIRE?

No. This is an Israeli myth. Hamas respected their side of the ceasefire,
except on those occasions early on when Israel carried out major
offensives against the civilian population in the West Bank. In the last
two months, the Israeli military broke the ceasefire and killed 17
Palestinians.

Furthermore, Israel did not live up to any of its obligations under the
terms of the ceasefire. This included ending the siege and allowing vital
humanitarian aid to resume in Gaza. Rather than the average of 450 trucks
per day being allowed across the border, on the best days only eighty have
been allowed in; with the border remaining hermetically sealed 70% of the
time. Throughout the supposed cease-fire; Gazans have been forced to live
like animals, with a total of 262 dying due to the inaccessibility of
proper medical care. Now after hundreds dead and counting, it is Israel
who refuses to re-enter talks over a cease-fire. They are not intent on
securing peace as they claim; it is more and more clear that they are
seeking regime change – whatever the cost.


3) ISN'T ISRAEL ACTING IN SELF-DEFENCE?

No. Israel has the most powerful military in the Middle East and is the
largest recipient of US military aid in the world. In contrast,
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have lived under military
occupation since 1967 and lack any effective military capabilities.

According to United Nations statistics, from September 2000 to April 2008,
the Israeli military killed 2677 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In the
same period, 11 Israelis were killed by Palestinian home-made rockets. In
November 2008 (the last month of the cease-fire), at least 14 Palestinians
were killed by Israeli military. Not a single Israeli was killed. Over the
last week, the Israeli military has killed over 400 Palestinians and
nearly 2000 are critically injured. Five Israelis have been killed. These
figures make it clear who is really under attack.

But in order to really understand the disastrous situation in the Gaza
Strip we need to look beyond the fatality statistics and understand that
Israel’s targeting of Palestinian civilians has a long history: For over
19 months, Israel has placed the Gaza Strip under complete siege. Food,
medical supplies, fuel and other necessities of life have not been allowed
into the area. Nearly half of the population in Gaza does not have enough
food to meet its basic needs. A total of 262 Palestinians have died
because Israel’s siege prevented them from receiving proper medical
attention. The reality is clear: over 1.5 million Gazans effectively live
in an open-air prison and are now being bombarded by the most powerful
military force in the Middle East. To claim that Israel is acting in
self-defence is simply to engage in blaming the victim and to obscure
where the real culpability lies.


4) ARE ISRAEL'S ACTIONS IN COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL LAW?

No. Israeli indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip constitutes a
grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention to which Israel is a
signatory. The places that Israel has targeted include schools, mosques, a
university that provides education to over 20,000 students, private homes,
densely populated refugee camps, police stations, the Ministry of
Education, Ministry of Justice, the Palestine Legislative Council. All of
these are clearly not military installations, and targeting them is
considered a breach of the Geneva Conventions.

Professor Richard Falk, an authority on international law and the current
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Territory issued a
statement accusing Israel of massive and severe violations of
international law, including collective punishment, targeting civilians
and disproportionate military response. In addition to the destruction
visited on the Gaza Strip. Israel is also blocking aid and supplies from
arriving to the Gaza Strip, leaving the Palestinians in the Strip on the
brink of famine, and the already impoverished hospitals with little
ability to provide heath services.


5) WHAT CAN PEOPLE IN CANADA DO?

First, we need to understand that peace is impossible without justice.
Palestinians must be allowed to live free of occupation and those driven
from their homes and lands in 1948 must be allowed to return. These are
basic human rights and the essential preconditions for peace.

The renowned legal scholar and UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied
Territories, Richard Falk, recently wrote “I call on all Member States [of
the UN], as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United
Nations system, to move on an emergency basis not only to condemn Israel’s
serious violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real
protection for the Palestinian people.”

The Canadian government is doing precisely the opposite. The Canadian
government has not condemned Israel’s clear violation of international law
and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, which is consistent with their
longstanding policy of unconditional support for Israel. There are
historical precedents. In the struggle against South African Apartheid,
the Canadian government placed sanctions on the South African apartheid
regime until it complied with international law. Likewise, the Canadian
government can do the same today and people in Canada must demand that
this happen.


6) WHAT DOES THE UN SAY?

The overwhelming majority of the international community has strongly
condemned the recent Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. In
particular, the United Nations, has strongly condemned the attacks on a
besieged population in Gaza.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed her grave
concern and distress at the enormous loss of life in the escalating
violence in Gaza. She called on Israel’s leaders to uphold International
humanitarian law principles, especially those relating to proportionality
in the use of military force and the prevention of collective punishment
and the targeting of civilians. She also called on Israel to lift the air,
sea and ground blockade it is imposing on the 1.5 million inhabitants of
the Gaza Strip, and to allow humanitarian assistance and independent
outside monitoring.

Richard Falk, United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in the
Occupied Territories:

“The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive
violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva
Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and
in the requirements of the laws of war.”

“I note that Israel’s escalating military assaults have not made Israeli
civilians safer; to the contrary, the one Israeli killed today after the
upsurge of Israeli violence is the first in over a year. Israel has also
ignored recent Hamas diplomatic initiatives to re-establish the truce or
ceasefire since its expiration on December 26.”

“The Israeli airstrikes today, and the catastrophic human toll that they
caused, challenge those countries that have been and remain complicit,
either directly or indirectly, in Israel’s violations of international
law. That complicity includes those countries knowingly providing the
military equipment including warplanes and missiles used in these illegal
attacks, as well as those countries who have supported and participated in
the siege of Gaza that itself has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; UN Humanitarian Chief:

John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian
Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator expressed shock at the living
conditions in the Gaza Strip and deplored the current restrictions on the
flow of humanitarian aid and commercial goods in and out of the area.

“I have been shocked by the grim and miserable things that I have seen and
heard today, which are the result of current restrictions and the
limitations on the number of goods that are being allowed into Gaza.”


7) WHAT ARE SOME TALKING POINTS TO COUNTER MEDIA MISINFORMATION?

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.


8) WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFORMATION?

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

* Israel's righteous fury and its victims in Gaza:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10100.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: Colonial Violence and Flawed Justifications
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/2373

* If Hamas Did Not Exist: Israel Has No Intention of Granting a
Palestinian State by Jennifer Lowenstein
http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein01012009.html

* 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