NEWS FROM PALESTINE
NO WATER IN GAZA OR PARTS OF WEST BANK FOR
A WEEK
NO EUROPEAN, ENGLISH,IRISH, OR USA NEWSPAPERS HAVE
REPORTED THIS
HA'ARETZ HAS RUN AN OPINION COLUMN.
There may be an alternative, water independence.
After the disengagement, there were stories about a
desalinization plant purchased by the EU and sitting in
warehouses in Italy awaiting delivery.
Apparently there had been a disallowance by Israel during
the time before the disengagement about whether it should
be sited in Gaza or further north.
After the disengagement, Israel wanted to tax the import
of the plant.
Is it still sitting in warehouses waiting for delivery?
Can it be run on natural gas?
Can it make enough potable water to recharge the aquifer?
Is the EU still willing to deliver?
............................................................................................Most
of Israel`s water is stolen from the
Palestinians...........................................In
international law Israel is still the "Occupying
Power" in Gaza and is obliged to maintain essential
supplies and services.
Not to do so would constitute a major war crime.
This discussion is therefore totally
academic...........................................Israel
controls the sea off Gaza, and the sky above it and,
through its deal with Egypt, uses their troops to control
the Western border.Israel is therefore still viewed in
international law as the "Occupying Power". -
this means that any move on Israel`s part to cut off
essential supplies and services is a grave war
crime...................................I don`t think
DESERVE is the proper term. I think that as long as Israel
maintains its blockade of Gaza it has an OBLIGATION to
provide the water. Until Israels blockade of Gazas
airport, ports and land crossings is lifted "bottled
water" or "water from Egypt" are simply
not options. Of course if you don`t mind seeing children
dying of thirst and dehydration on TV, then by all means
go ahead and cut off the water, you noble, generous
people, who are respected around the world for your high
ethical and moral
standards.....................................................................Israel
should completely stop taking any and all water out of
the GAZA aquifur. The Palestinians can then use their own
water without having to buy it from the people who stole
it in the first place. The Aquifer is in Palestinian
territories. Actually, Israel should quit using any and
all water which originates under Palestinian territories.
Israel wastes water, and has almost completely deleted
the reserves that existed in Palestine....................................To
deny water to the Palestinians in GAZA, while controlling
their borders and prohibiting them from taking the water
from their own aquifers, would be genocide plain and
simple. Supporters of this or any similar option
demonstrate clearly how the Germans could have done the
things they did. Fortunately, I truly do not believe
that Israelis or their government would do such a thing.
Truly. If ever they did, however, their close
relationship with the US, whose citizens mistakingly
believe Israel is the only victim of the conflict, would
come to a crashing brutal end.
Citizens Marooned at Egypy/Palestine
crossing:
On Monday, the government of PA Prime Minister Salam
Fayad in the West Bank said it supported the idea of
allowing the travelers to enter Gaza through Kerem
Shalom, as a one-time solution to a humanitarian crisis.
Information Minister Riyad Malki said the vast majority
of the travelers were willing to undergo the Israeli
security checks at the crossing, just to be able to go
home. Malki said about 280 of those near the border had
fled Gaza during the Hamas takeover and did not want to
return.
Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader of Gaza, said Monday
that Hamas would not agree to the rerouting the travelers
through Kerem Shalom.
"We will not give the Israeli occupation this card
to increase the pressure on our people," he said.
"The border must remain Palestinian-Egyptian
only."
Tony Blair's first
favour to Israel?
BG plan to pump gas
to Israel an act of theft
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article1832315.ece
From The Times May 24, 2007
by Sonia Verma in Jerusalem and Steve Hawkes
The militant Hamas movement has launched a stinging
attack on BG Group and vowed to block a potential £2
billion deal being brokered by the company to supply
Palestinian gas to Israel.
The Islamist group told The Times that any agreement
would be equivalent to a modern-day Balfour
Declaration the British Government statement
that formally approved the creation of an Israeli
homeland in 1917.
Ziad Thatha, the Hamas economic minister in the
Palestinian Government, said: BG Group is an
embarrassment to the Palestinian people.
When a company sells Palestinian gas to the Zionist
occupation, it is similar to acts of theft the Israelis
are practising against our land every day.
The comments threaten to overshadow key negotiations BG
Group hoped would lead to the development of the Gaza
Marine gas field it discovered seven years ago. Talks
over a 15-year contract are due to begin next week and
the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was keen to conclude
a deal as soon as possible.
The Gaza Marine field is Palestines only sovereign
natural resource and its development could generate £500
million for the Palestinian economy in royalties from BG
Group. The gas would meet 10 per cent of Israels
annual energy requirements. BG Group said that its
priority was thrashing out a deal acceptable to the
Israeli and Palestinian authorities. We need a
bilateral agreement for this project to get across the
line, a spokesman said.
However, Hamas controls a majority of the seats in the
Palestinian Government. The more moderate Fatah Party
reiterated yesterday that it wanted guarantees over how
cash payments would be made before signing off any deal.
Mohammad Mustafa, the economic adviser to Mahmoud Abbas,
the Palestinian President, said: We hope that we
will reach an understanding and remaining obstacles will
be overcome.
BG Group had been negotiating to pump gas from the field,
which holds 1 trillion cubic feet of reserves, to Egypt before
Tony Blair urged the company to give Israel a second
chance last summer {...} (COMMENT: British Gas
likely to resume talks on Gaza coast reserves.
BG has a joint franchise in the Gaza Marine gas field off
the Gaza coast, which contains some 37 billion cubic
meters of gas, with the Palestinian Authority, which has
a 10 percent stake, and CCC (3" percent), which is
owned by the Lebanese Khoury family.Arik Silverman,
Milwaukee, USA
..........................................................................................................................................
Open letter to Ismael Haniyeh
By Robert Thompson
Jun 19, 2007, 11:59
Dear Prime Minister, You and your colleagues have had to suffer
greatly since you, together with your Muslim and
Christian allies, won the elections last year, even
though they were held under enemy occupation by invaders
who have come from all around the world to steal your
homes and lands.
It is sad that Mahmoud Abbas and
the Fatah ever fell into the trap of accepting the
confidence trick known as the "Oslo Agreement",
and they have never recovered their freedom ever since
that terrible failure to recognise how this craftily
continued all the evil intentions of the
invaders. The enemies who have occupied your
lands still want no more nor less than to complete
the ethnic cleansing of all the territories which they
have conquered, whether in 1948 or in 1967.
I, like many others here in Europe,
hope that one day (although we recognise that it will
probably not be very soon) justice will return to the
Holy Land as a first step towards a fair and durable
peace, whereby all the people of Palestine and of the
rest of the Near and Middle East will be able to return
to their ancestral homes. Your enemies are already saying that you will,
if you manage durably to take control of the Gaza Strip,
go against the teachings of the Qur'an by
discriminating against those of the inhabitants who are
non-Muslim. However, your personal
history appears to make it more likely that you will
follow the precedents set by Islamic traditions, and it
seems only fair to give you the benefit of any doubt
unless and until you should disappoint us.
Please do not forget the support which so many of us are
willing to give you and your allies in your constant and
unceasing struggle against the illegal occupation of
Palestine, and continue to act with justice and humanity
towards every single inhabitant of the territories which
you can control. In the meantime, please be reassured that you
and all your people will remain in the thoughts and
prayers of every decent person around the world, even as
the forces of evil under the leadership of the Neocons /
Zionists continue to do everything that they can to
destroy you all.
Yours sincerely, Robert Thompson
© Copyright 2007 by
AxisofLogic.com
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS:
More Druze refuseniks despite Israeli threats
Friday
July 06, 2007 23:45 by
IMEMC Staff saed at imemc
dot org
Despite the repeated threats and actual
punishments against Arab Druze refuseniks in Israel,
more Druze youngmen are rejecting military service in
the Israel army and confirmed their belonging to
their Arab nationality, and to the Palestinian
people.
The youth are rejecting to be part of
an army which is occupying Palestine and Arab
territories, and reject to be part of the killings and
assaults carried by this army.
Waleed Jafar, one of the Druze refuseniks said
that the youth do not want to be related to this army
which is killing and conducting terrorist attacks
against the Palestinian people in the occupied
territories, and added that he was arrested and
imprisoned two times for rejecting the military service.
Even if I spend my whole life in prison, I will
not be a soldier who carries a gun against his own
people, Jafar said, We are part of the
Palestinian nation; we will not be part of the
armys killing machine.
A report prepared and published by the Free Druze
Movement, which is one of the movements against
compulsory military service, stated that it held several
meetings with Druze people in the country, and in Jordan,
and decided that they will not be part of the Israeli
army.
The report also revealed that there is an increasing
number of Druze young men, aged 18-25, who are rejecting
the military service, and that currently there are 40
young men in Israeli prisons for rejecting to serve in
the army.
Sami Mhanna, member of the Free Druze Movement, said
that Israel always tried to separate the Druze people
from the Arabs and the Palestinians, and added that
Israel always tried to make the Druze sector isolated
from the rest of the Arabs and tried to give the
impression that the Druze people are supporting Israel
and its policies.
Saqer Naffa, 19, spent 80 days in prison for
rejecting the military service. He said that when he was
in the 11 grade at school, he started received forms from
the army in order to fill them and join the military.
When he was in his twelfth grade, he received direct
order to be recruited but he refused and went to an
Israeli police station where he told them that he will
not join the army, and that he will not be part of the
military which occupies his own nation.
He added that he is an Arab, and will not fight
against the Arabs, and will not be part of this army
which occupied Palestine, and kills the people.
One of the officers tried to talk him out of his
decision, and told him that the Druze are not
Arabs, and that they should serve Israel.
Naffa stated that his imprisonment made him more
determined to reject the military service and that now
there are more than fifty young Druze men who are
rejecting this service.
He added that it is true that the number of young
Druze men who are rejecting the military service
its relatively small, but more are becoming aware
of this issue.
Another resident, Suleiman Daghmash, spent four years
in prison for rejecting the military service, and now his
two sons Faleh and Najd are also rejecting the military
service, and Najd was imprisoned for three months.
Daghmash, a senior member of the Druze Movement, said
that it is a crime to force a person to kill his
own people, and added that this is a considered
an Israeli conspiracy against the Druze.
Several groups in the Druze sector are currently
active against the compulsory military service, and are
conducting social events in order to strengthen the
cultural and historical roots of the Druze nation.
Lawyer, Said Naffa, one of the main
activists in this field, stated that the compulsory
service must be revoked, especially since it is forcing a
nation to fight against its own people.
Translated & Edited by Saed bannoura - IMEMC
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