[FairfieldLife] Facts you should know about the fighting in Gaza
Facts you should know about the fighting in Gaza By Joyce Chediac on August 19, 2014 Since Israel began a military offensive in Gaza on July 8, some 2,000 Palestinians and 68 Israelis have been killed. What is going on? Why is it important to you? Fiction: Israel was exercising its “legitimate right of self-defense” in bombing Gaza. Fact: Israel has no such “right” under international law. But the Palestinians do have a legal right to resist occupation. Israel claims self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which says that states have a right to self-defense if attacked by another state. But Gaza isn’t a foreign state. It has been occupied by Israel since 1967, and 80 percent of its residents are refugees that were forced out of Israeli invaded land in 1948. Israel controls the land, sea and air borders of Gaza, the civil population registry, and the tax and revenue system. So Israel is bound by other laws. The 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention and its protocols, call Israel’s occupation forced upon the West Bank and Gaza a “belligerency,” or state of war. According to these laws, the people of Gaza have the legal right to “fight against colonial domination and alien occupation in the exercise of their right to self-determination.” Fiction: Hamas is a terrorist organization and international outlaw. Fact: Israel disregarded Hamas, the Palestinian peoples’ elected choice, and then used state terrorism to try to get them out of office. Hamas is one of many political, social, military, professional and charitable organizations in Palestinian society. It had enough popular support to win a parliamentary election in 2006 — an election which was called “free and fair” by U.S. former President Jimmy Carter and other election observers. The U.S. and Israeli governments did not like the Palestinian people’s choice, so they declared economic and military war on Hamas and Gaza. Borders were sealed, and Gaza and its people were blockaded for eight years. Since that 2006 election, Israel has waged three wars on Gaza: in 2008, 2012 and now in 2014. Military measures taken by Hamas and other organizations in Gaza have been to defend the people against this constant Israeli aggression. Fiction: Hamas started the current war by firing rockets into Israel. Fact: For 17 months Hamas fired no rockets, while Israel repeatedly violated ceasefires and then attacked full force. After a November 2012 ceasefire agreement ended eight days of Israeli attacks, not one rocket was fired into Israel from Gaza until Israel broke the ceasefire in February 2013. Since then, according to the Jerusalem Fund, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., “Palestinian launches have been rare and sporadic and occurred almost always after successive instances of Israeli cease-fire violations.” (blog.thejerusalemfund.org, Feb. 5) The Centre for Research on Globalization reports that of the rockets fired from Gaza in 2013, “none … came from the Hamas government themselves, despite the widespread violations from Israeli forces.” (July 28) Hamas did not fire any rockets from November 2012 until June 30, 2014, after an Israeli plane struck Gaza. Israel could easily end the rocket strikes by stopping its attacks, lifting the blockade and letting the Palestinian people have their rights. Fiction: Gaza rockets purposely target civilians. Fact: Israel claims “pinpoint precision” for its weapons, yet its bombs hit schools, mosques, hospitals and ambulances and demolished whole neighborhoods. These are war crimes. Gaza rockets have killed two Israelis. Rather than purposely targeting civilians, their low-tech, mostly homemade rockets are hard to aim. Most military analysts regard these rockets as harassment rather than a serious threat to Israel. The fighters in Gaza would gladly trade their homemade rockets for the laser-guided Cruise and Tomahawk missiles that the U.S. gives to Israel. Israel claims that its high-tech weaponry can target with pinpoint precision. Yet according to the U.N., Israeli planes, ships, tanks and bombs have killed 1,948 Palestinians — 1,402 of them civilians, including 456 children. Some 9,806 Gazans have been wounded. Israel has destroyed Gaza’s industrial sector along with whole neighborhoods, mosques, hospitals and 11,000 homes, devastating the infrastructure and creating a dire economic, humanitarian and public health crisis. Israel took out Gaza’s only power plant. This has drastically reduced the pumping of water to homes and the treatment of sewage, both of which require electricity. The lack of refrigeration has also severely affected food production. Bakeries can barely bake bread. Fiction: Israel struck because Hamas kidnapped and then killed three Israeli teens on the West Bank. Fact: Israel used the
Re: [FairfieldLife] Facts you should know about the fighting in Gaza
Israel’s quick embrace of an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire early Tuesday was a sign of its reticence to launch a ground invasion of Gaza and turn this into a full-scale war... '8 things you need to know about the Gaza-Israel conflict' http://www.jta.org/2014/07/15/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-gaza-israel-conflict Hamas or its military wing is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union, Egypt, Australia, Japan, and is banned in Jordan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas On 8/21/2014 1:38 AM, eustace10679 wrote: Facts you should know about the fighting in Gaza By Joyce Chediac on August 19, 2014 Since Israel began a military offensive in Gaza on July 8, some 2,000 Palestinians and 68 Israelis have been killed. What is going on? Why is it important to you? Fiction: Israel was exercising its “legitimate right of self-defense” in bombing Gaza. Fact: Israel has no such “right” under international law. But the Palestinians do have a legal right to resist occupation. Israel claims self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which says that states have a right to self-defense if attacked by another state. But Gaza isn’t a foreign state. It has been occupied by Israel since 1967, and 80 percent of its residents are refugees that were forced out of Israeli invaded land in 1948. Israel controls the land, sea and air borders of Gaza, the civil population registry, and the tax and revenue system. So Israel is bound by other laws. The 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention and its protocols, call Israel’s occupation forced upon the West Bank and Gaza a “belligerency,” or state of war. According to these laws, the people of Gaza have the legal right to “fight against colonial domination and alien occupation in the exercise of their right to self-determination.” Fiction: Hamas is a terrorist organization and international outlaw. Fact: Israel disregarded Hamas, the Palestinian peoples’ elected choice, and then used state terrorism to try to get them out of office. Hamas is one of many political, social, military, professional and charitable organizations in Palestinian society. It had enough popular support to win a parliamentary election in 2006 — an election which was called “free and fair” by U.S. former President Jimmy Carter and other election observers. The U.S. and Israeli governments did not like the Palestinian people’s choice, so they declared economic and military war on Hamas and Gaza. Borders were sealed, and Gaza and its people were blockaded for eight years. Since that 2006 election, Israel has waged three wars on Gaza: in 2008, 2012 and now in 2014. Military measures taken by Hamas and other organizations in Gaza have been to defend the people against this constant Israeli aggression. Fiction: Hamas started the current war by firing rockets into Israel. Fact: For 17 months Hamas fired no rockets, while Israel repeatedly violated ceasefires and then attacked full force. After a November 2012 ceasefire agreement ended eight days of Israeli attacks, not one rocket was fired into Israel from Gaza until Israel broke the ceasefire in February 2013. Since then, according to the Jerusalem Fund, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., “Palestinian launches have been rare and sporadic and occurred almost always after successive instances of Israeli cease-fire violations.” (blog.thejerusalemfund.org, Feb. 5) The Centre for Research on Globalization reports that of the rockets fired from Gaza in 2013, “none … came from the Hamas government themselves, despite the widespread violations from Israeli forces.” (July 28) Hamas did not fire any rockets from November 2012 until June 30, 2014, after an Israeli plane struck Gaza. Israel could easily end the rocket strikes by stopping its attacks, lifting the blockade and letting the Palestinian people have their rights. Fiction: Gaza rockets purposely target civilians. Fact: Israel claims “pinpoint precision” for its weapons, yet its bombs hit schools, mosques, hospitals and ambulances and demolished whole neighborhoods. These are war crimes. Gaza rockets have killed two Israelis. Rather than purposely targeting civilians, their low-tech, mostly homemade rockets are hard to aim. Most military analysts regard these rockets as harassment rather than a serious threat to Israel. The fighters in Gaza would gladly trade their homemade rockets for the laser-guided Cruise and Tomahawk missiles that the U.S. gives to Israel. Israel claims that its high-tech weaponry can target with pinpoint precision. Yet according to the U.N., Israeli planes, ships, tanks and bombs have killed 1,948 Palestinians — 1,402 of them civilians, including 456 children. Some 9,806 Gazans have been
