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Break the Siege

PRESS RELEASE Stop the Genocide of Palestinians in Gaza

Gaza is not only starving; it is dying before the eyes of the international community. If the international conspiracy of silence does not come to an end, and if the policy of blaming the victim continues, the 21st Century will witness its first brutal genocide. Thousands of Israeli soldiers are surrounding Gaza in a hermetic manner, shooting and killing any Palestinian trying to escape. The Rafah Crossing, the only exit to the external world, has been closed for two years.

The Gaza Strip has been turned into the largest concentration camp with the largest population of prisoners in the world. Gazans have repeatedly reiterated their view that the international conspiracy of silence towards the genocidal war taking place against them indicates complicity in these war crimes.

As a result of Israel's blockade on most imports and exports and other policies designed to punish Gazans, about 70% of Gaza's workforce is now unemployed or without pay, according to the United Nations, and about 80% of its residents live in grinding poverty. About 1.2 million of them are now dependent for their day-to-day survival on food handouts from U.N. or international agencies, An increasing number of Palestinian families in Gaza are unable to offer their children more than one meager meal a day, often little more than rice and boiled lentils. Fresh fruit and vegetables are beyond the reach of many families. Meat and chicken are impossibly expensive. And fish is unavailable in its markets because the Israeli navy has curtailed the movements of Gaza's fishermen.

It is a violation of international law to collectively punish more than a million people for something they did not do. But Israel has shrugged off the law, has ignored the repeated demands of the U.N. Security Council. Which leaves us with Civil Society organizations, solidarity campaigns and freedom loving people: BREAK THE SIEGE AND STOP THE GENOCIDAL WAR BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

The One Democratic State Group University Teachers’ Association in Palestine Ajras Alawda-Editorial Board Arab Cultural Forum

For Comments +972 599 880608 + 972 599 441766 + 972 599 322636

New Palestine Banner Unfurled on the 27th

MECC's new banner was front and center at the rally of 7,000 in Boston on Oct. 27.

An Alternative to the racist IslamoFascism Campaign

Famous anti-Zionist historian Lenni Brenner crafted a petition campaign calling for an end of arms sales/gifts to both Saudi Arabia and Israel. See it by clicking here.

We Protested the Israel Tribute

Nine banner and sign waving protesters greeted sedans and SUV's rolling into the Gateway Christian Fellowship Church. We were demonstrating against the acolytes of John Hagee's "Christian United for Israel" [so that Israel can be running with blood in a war we provoke]. A big yellow banner had pictures of Abu Ghraib and a dead child being carried through the streets of Gaza with slogans about Iraq and Palestine. One of our signs read "Choose Life, Not the End of the World". Others read "Zionists Bring War to Israel", "No tribute for a Government of Oppression and Apartheid", "Stop Calling for War on Iran" and "Islam is Not the Enemy".

Two groups were in the protest, members of the Middle East Crisis Committee and People of Faith.

Well over a hundred cars pulled into the church lot. That was depressing. Yet, no overt signs of their zealot politics, very few bumper stickers, nothing referring to Israel, no hostility. A fair number of African-Americans. We called to a few who had their window down trying to reminding them of South African apartheid. Only one of them said anything. Most drove shiny late model cars, but some were far less well off.

Two men in suits and earphone came up to us from the church. Uh ohh, here it begins, we thought, but they only tried to hand us little bottles of water. They ignored us when we asked why they wanted to attack Iran.

There was one woman who walked by and started yelling at us, demanding we go into the church to hear the preachers. However, the police talked to her and she quickly left. The police were excellent.

A lot of horn blowing in our favor from people driving by. Also two half-peace signs extended at us. :)

Video upcoming on "The Struggle" TV.

MECC Condemns West Haven
Extremist Meeting

Press release: October 19, 2007

The Middle East Crisis Committee deplores the "Night to Honor Israel" meeting to be held at the Gateway Church in West Haven,CT this Sunday evening October 21, 2007.

Stanley Heller, MECC Chairperson said, "It is a gathering of the extremist group 'Christians United for Israel'. This group insists that Israel make no concessions on land to the Palestinian people, and that Israel engage in a fight to the finish religious war against Muslim countries. CUFI expects and is gladdened by the prospect of imminent war in Israel because it sees that conflict as the beginning of the end of the world.

CONTINUE

Join the Protest at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct 21 at the Gateway Church on Bull Hill Lane (opposite Meadowbrook Court)

See Hillary Laugh Off the Gravel's Charge That She Voted for War with Iran

Former Sen. Mike Gravel gave an impassioned statement and she gives a long laugh before she delivers the usual Lieberman-Bush boilerplate.

Teen crushed by Israeli bulldozer in Gaza

On September 20 a Palestinian teenager met the same fate as Rachel Corrie. He was crushed to death under an Israeli bulldozer. Mahmud Kayed's body was torn to pieces by the army bulldozer. He was not standing still as Rachel did, but he was throwing stones at the mechanical monster, effectively the same kind of symbolic protest. For details from AFP click here.

Report in Chicago Tribune Blows Lid Off "Liberty" Coverup

In a major article in the Chicago Tribune a reporter uncovered testiomony that several US military officers read the Hebrew transcript of conversations between Israeli military controllers and figher jets. They say the conversations show that the controllers knew full well that the "Liberty" was a U.S. ship when they ordered it attacked. The attack that took place during Israel's war on Egypt in 1967 and claimed the lives of 34 U.S. sailors. For the article click here.

Now would be an excellent time to contact you member of Congress and demand that their be a public Congressional investigation of what really happened in 1967.

Report from the Land of Apartheid

MECC Chair Stanley Heller is just back from a Palestine/Israel. His second report was published on August 2 on Counterpunch

The two babies lay nearly side by side in the incubator. One had eyes open, the other shut. It's against medical standards to put more than one child in an incubator, but with only six working incubators in the hospital in Jenin they had to double up. Jenin Hospital, in the north of the West Bank, is the only hospital in the Jenin Governate. It serves 350,00 people with 123 beds.

At the moment the hospital has no working ambulance. At one time it had three. Two were destroyed by Israeli missiles during this uprising. In one the doctor inside, Khalil Sulaiman, was martyred. The last working one suffered a car accident last week and it will take another week to repair it.

The wards were crowded. In the pediatric wing each small room had three beds and not much medical equipment. There is no air conditioning though temperatures in summer are at least in the 80's. Hospital officials said the hospital was getting aid from Europe, but it's been cut off.

CONTINUED

Tear Gassed in Bil'in

By Stanley Heller

The smell of Israeli tear gas is a mix between a charcoal fire and burning garbage. I was afraid of it so I stayed far away and observed the attempt at a demonstration in front of the Separation Wall in Bil'in. However, the brave Israeli soldiers shot over a hundred shells of tear gas so even from 200 yards away the sharply diluted gas filled my nostrils, rasped the throat and, of course, burned my eyes. Of course, it was far worse for the people in the march. Some passed out.

The wall is not concrete in Bil'in. It's made up of rows of razor sharp barbed wire in front of a military access road and a number of 21st century electronic security gadgets. Palestinians hate it even more than the 30 foot high concrete walls as it takes more of their land.

The wall goes by many names "Apartheid Wall", "Separation Wall", "Security Barrier". One could also call it the "Theft Wall" as its main purpose is to steal Palestinian land.

CONTINUED (along with video)

West Bank Misery Tour (published in the New Haven Register)

When I saw the U.S. customs official in Newark International Airport I broke into a smile. I was away from Israel at last. I was away from the checkpoints, away from the settlements and away from the soldiers. I no longer had to have a fanciful story of the tourist sights I visited when I was actually touring the misery of the West Bank.

CONTINUED

Strip Searching

Revolting accounts of humiliation and abuse in the new report by "If Americans Knew" about the decades old Israeli practice of strip searching Palestinians and dissidents. They do it to Israeli Palestinians, to American citizens, to children younger than 7. Read here and watch the video by clicking here.

Recent Headline Stories

September 15 Cut and Run

September 13 Pentagon Will Take Out 1,200 Iranian Targets

August 20 European Union Turns off Gaza Electricty

July 12 Senate Supports Lieberman 97-0

July 6 - Is US Killing 10,000 a Month in Iraq...or is it More?

June 28 - Israelis Kill 11 in Gaza --- Katzav Cops a Plea

June 25 Lieberman Commits War Crime

June 1 Rabbi Uses Bible Story to Justify Carpet Bombing

May 20 Israelis Shoot Dead Fetus

May 2 Whistleblower Vanunu Found Guilty

April 8 Sanctions Working: Another Dialysis Death

March 31 Six Month Old Killed at Checkpoint

March 20 Tanya Reinhart has Died / 80% on Food Aid in Gaza

February 27 Nablus Raped Again

February 19 - Facing MECCA - Uri Avnery

More past headlines