Saturday, January 10, 2009

[ePalestine] Gaza update...some context and SHOUT!

Dear friends,  

The death toll continues...
Still no foreign media inside Gaza...
Local media were targeted, a Palestinian journalist was killed and a media center attacked...
More chemical munitions, much more, dropped on Gaza today...
The UN Security Council Resolution 1860  passed yesterday fell on deaf ears, and on more dead children's bodies...

Instead of listing articles tonight, I would like to provide a resource for all of you who, like myself, are facing this total media blackout and belligerent Israeli campaign of war propaganda and misinformation.  As the Israeli media chorus continue to try and frame the entire issue as related to an ending of a cease fire, we would all be well advised to use the words of someone this same killing machine murdered in cold blood several years ago -- Rachel Corrie.

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In the words of Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old American college student who was murdered in Rafah [Gaza Strip] by the Israeli Occupation Forces on March 16, 2003: 

“…Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I'm witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I'm really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel.  Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world…So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.”  


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ACTION : May I suggest reading the above passage in public events and calling in to talk radio and noting Rachel's story?  Ask people to visit the Rachel Corrie Memorial Website  . Rachel gave her life to stop what we are witnessing today.  Maybe her words can penetrate the outrageous lies and misinformation which Israel is trying to use to justify mass killing!

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SHOUT!

This is something I wrote a few years back and my younger daughter Nadine and I read aloud to win an award which was donated to help a 13-yr old boy get medical treatment . Nadine recalled it today, so I share it with you all.  It is as relevant as ever.  I read the verses and Nadine yelled SHOUT!

World Health Organization Writing Competition titled:
"40 words on 40 years of violence in oPt"

SHOUT!
By Sam Bahour 

A military occupation, turned lifestyle.  SHOUT! 

Checkpoints, settlements, walls, fences, assassinations, firing tanks. SHOUT! 

Innocent children falling -- torn apart, before tearing apart their families. SHOUT! 

History, fact, law, hope -- all victims. SHOUT! 

End this man-made madness now! SHOUT! 

-- September 14, 2007 

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Israel Condemns Vatican’s ‘Concentration Camp’ Remarks 

"Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp,”   Cardinal Renato Martino, the president of the Council for Justice and Peace, said in an interview published Wednesday in an online publication. 



Dear George, WAR IS NOT PEACE,
Sam

P.S.  If you would like to post a comment on my Ha'aretz aticle go to either of these links and use talkback/comment at end of article: Ha'aretz  or Talking Points Memo .



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