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But what about Darfur? 01.20.2008 |www.rafahtoday.org Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:39:41 -0800 From: charlesmglassmail2003 [at] yahoo.com Dear Charlie, No electricity, people are going hungry, no bread, and no medicine and lots of things that are missing. people are out in the streets now calling for the world to end the starvation and siege. it might be that people's only option is to break out the borderline and go to Egypt and get food. It's scary here. no bread, no water at home where I am. I have some leftovers biscuits from two days ago. but my laptop batteries will be flat soon. I will find a new agency from those who have electricity generators to recharge my laptop and keep online, if you don't hear from me this is why. Again, I fear Israeli warplanes will bomb the people in the streets. people are in lines trying to find bread. I never seen this in all my 23 years life! Mohammed "The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything." Albert Einstein  Dutch FM says Israel unfairly singled out for criticism by UN Last update - 04:16 22/01/2008 | Haaretz By Cnaan Liphshiz , Haaretz Correspondent Visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told Haaretz Monday that the singling out of Israel for criticism in international forums was unfair. "It is not acceptable to focus on Israel time after time, while other countries like Sudan do not receive any reference whatsoever at the United Nations Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly in New York," Verhagen said in an interview. "I would like to set the record straight on Israel." Interviewed in his suite at Jerusalem's King David Hotel, the Dutch foreign minister said he has pursued "a more internationally balanced approach" to Israel and has conditioned Dutch support for resolutions criticizing Israel upon condemnations for Hamas' actions. Describing himself as a friend of Israel who feels "a close personal attachment" to its people, Verhagen added he did not always see eye to eye with Jerusalem. "Friends can speak freely about concerns and differences. In my talk with [Foreign Minister Tzipi] Livni I mentioned the need to observe human rights and dismantle outposts," he said. Verhagen also said he believes that the people of Gaza "should not be collectively punished" and that "choking all economic activity there would only radicalize them and create more attacks on both sides. "In my meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni I discussed the possibility of reopening the borders so the export of agricultural export could take place." Asked whether the Netherlands' support for private business initiatives in Gaza, mainly in agriculture, would help Hamas, the minister said: "Hamas concerns me. It's important Palestinian civilians realize that we recognize the difficult situation in Gaza, and that we want to help." Supporting agriculture, he said, is one of the ways of doing so. A member of the ruling Christian Democratic Appeal party, the minister said his cabinet "would never negotiate with Hamas for as long as it calls for the destruction of Israel and as long as it doesn't give up on violence as a tool." Although some of the CDA's coalition partners have called for opening ties to Hamas, Verhagen said the Netherlands "should never give a veneer of legitimacy to the shelling of civilians and blowing up of buses - and this is the opinion of both the government and the majority of the Dutch parliament." As for Israel's image in Europe, he said, "there is still mistrust on the part of few of my European colleagues but the implementation of Israel's obligations in the U.S. road map for peace, such as halting the expansion of settlements and dismantling outposts, would make a big difference in this respect." As part of his visit to the region, Verhagen will also travel to Syria. "By participating in the Annapolis peace summit, Syria made a choice to belong to the negotiations. It cannot at the same time participate in anti-Israel events, and I will make this absolutely clear to the Syrians," he said. Turning to Dutch internal issues, the foreign minister noted that his government was bracing itself for the screening of a provocative, anti-Islam film by right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders. "Freedom of speech doesn't give anyone the right to insult people," Verhagen said, noting there were concerns of a violent response to the film, similar to the riots which followed the publication of cartoons of Mohammed by a Danish newspaper two years ago. "Clearly, our embassies abroad have to prepare for such concerns," he said. "If the government's position is not in line with the film we will make it explicit that we don't agree with it. We hope that our partners in the peace process will consider our opinions, and not the opinions of one person named Wilders." DEATH AND DARKNESS IN GAZA, PEOPLE ARE DYING, HELP US! 01.20.2008 | http://www.freegaza.ps/ freegaza.ps@gmail.com A humanitarian crisis is underway as the Gaza Strip's only power plant began to shut down on Sunday, and the tiny coastal territory entered its third full day without shipments of vital food and fuel supplies due to Israel's punitive sanctions.  The Gaza Strip's power plant has completely shut down on Sunday because it no longer has the fuel needed to keep running. One of the plant's two electricity-generating turbines had already shut down by noon. This will drastically reduce output to 25 or 30 megawatts, down from the 65 megawatts the plant produces under normal conditions. By Sunday evening the plant will shut down completely, leaving large swaths of the Gaza Strip in darkness. Omar Kittaneh, the head of the Palestine Energy Authority in Ramallah, confirmed that by tonight, the one remaining operating turbine will be powered down, and the Gaza power plant will no longer be generating any electricity at all. “We have asked the Israeli government to reverse its decision and to supply fuel to operate the power plant”, Dr. Kittaneh said. “We have talked to the Israeli humanitarian coordination in their Ministry of Energy [National Infrastructure]. We say this is totally Israel’s responsibility, and that reducing the fuel supplies until the plant had to shut down will affect not only the electrical system but the water supply, and the entire infrastructure in Gaza – everything.” After months of increasingly harsh sanctions, Israel imposed a total closure on the Strip's border crossings, even preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Israeli government says the closure is punishment for an ongoing barrage of Palestinian homemade projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip. "Famine" 180 fuel stations have shut down after Gaza residents to buy gas for cooking. A Palestinian economist Hasan Abu Ramadan said the current humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip will be deepened by the blockade on fuel and food supplies. He warned that Gaza Strip could go from a situation of deep poverty to all out famine, disease, and malnutrition. Abu Ramadan said that more than 80% of the Strip's 1.5 million residents have been surviving with the help of food aid from international organizations such as UNRWA for Palestinian refugees. International condemnation Most international actors in the region believe there already is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, the Undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs John Holmes, who said at a press conference at UNHQ in New York on Friday that "This kind of action against the people in Gaza cannot be justified, even by those rocket attacks". UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed particular concern, in a statement issued later on Friday through his spokesperson, about the "decision by Israel to close the crossing points in between Gaza and Israel used for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Such action cuts off the population from much-needed fuel supplies used to pump water and generate electricity to homes and hospitals". The UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied territories, John Dugard, also issued a much sharper statement on Friday, saying that Israel must have foreseen the loss of life and injury to many nearby civilians when it targeted the Ministry of Interior building in Gaza City. This, and the killings of other Palestinians during the week, plus the closures, "raise very serious questions about Israel's respect for international law and its Commitment to the peace process", Dugard said. He said it violates the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention, and one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law: that military action must distinguish between military targets and civilian targets. Source: Maan Gaza City Goes Dark After Power Cut 01.20.2008 | Associated Press By IBRAHIM BARZAK – 4 hours ago GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza City was plunged into darkness Sunday after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel that powers its only electrical plant in retaliation for persistent rocket attacks by Gaza militants. The power cut sent already beleaguered Gazans to stock up on food and batteries in anticipation of dark, cold days ahead. Gaza officials warned the move would cause a health catastrophe while a U.N. agency and human rights groups condemned Israel. "We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. Four hours after the blackout, Hamas claimed that five patients died because of the cutoff of electricity in hospitals. The claim could not be confirmed. Late Sunday, Israel carried out two airstrikes in Gaza City, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli military confirmed both attacks in which a militant linked to Islamic Jihad was killed. Israel justified the fuel cutoff because of continuous rocket attacks by Gaza militants. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Meckel said the Gaza Strip continues to receive 70 percent of its electricity supply directly from Israel, which would not be affected, and another 5 percent from Egypt. The blackout "is a Hamas ploy to pretend there is some kind of crisis to attract international sympathy," Meckel told The Associated Press. Late Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to Israel to lift the blockade, said Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Abbas effectively rules only the West Bank after Hamas expelled his forces from Gaza last June. The exiled leader of Hamas appealed to Abbas and Arab leaders, asking them to forget their differences and help the beleaguered Gazans. "All Arab leaders, exercise real pressure to stop this Zionist crime ... take up your role and responsibility," Khaled Mashaal told Al-Jazeera satellite TV in a live interview from Syria, where he lives in exile. "We are not asking you to wage a military war against Israel ... but just stand with us in pride and honor." Officials from the ruling Islamic militant group Hamas shut down the plant just before 8 p.m. and Gaza City went dark, Gaza Energy Authority head Kanan Obeid said. TV crews and reporters were invited to witness the shutdown. Minutes later, residents started a candlelight march as a protest. Live Associated Press TV pictures showed dots of light moving slowly up a darkened main street. Israel has blockaded Gaza for seven months, since the Islamic militant Hamas overran the territory, allowing up until now only basic food items and humanitarian supplies into Gaza. That changed Thursday when Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered all crossings into Gaza closed because of a spike in rocket barrages, cutting off fuel supplies. Several weeks ago, Israel reduced the fuel supply as a pressure tactic. A defiant Hamas said its attacks on Israel would not cease because of the sanctions. "We will not raise the white flag, and we will not surrender, " Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Sunday. The regular fuel shipment from Israel did not arrive Sunday because the fuel terminal was closed, and the power plant has almost no reserves, said Rafik Maliha, director of the power plant. The U.N. organization in charge of Palestinian refugees warned the blockade would drastically affect hospitals, sewage treatment and water facilities. "The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. The British group Oxfam called Israel's cutoff "ineffective as well as unlawful." Gisha, an Israeli group that has fought the fuel cutbacks in Israel's Supreme Court, said: "Punishing Gaza's 1.5 million civilians does not stop the rocket fire. It only creates an impossible 'balance' of human suffering on both sides of the border." Israeli Cabinet minister Zeev Boim said that rather than condemning Israel, the U.N. should condemn Palestinian militants for firing rocket barrages at Israel. "I don't hear the U.N.'s voice," Boim said. Meanwhile, Gaza City residents were busy buying up batteries and candles, as well as basic foods such as rice, flour and cooking oil, said grocery store owner Sami Mousa. More would be doing the same, he said, but "the problem is that the people don't have the money to buy." Bakeries stopped operating because they had neither power nor flour, bakers said. The Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees threatened to break the blockade by crashing through the border with Egypt "by force." There were no signs of panic, as Gazans have been living with fuel cutbacks, power outages and shortages since Islamic Hamas militants overran the seaside territory in June, triggering international sanctions. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but many see Israel as still responsible, since it controls most land, sea and air access to the territory. Alon Ben-David, military analyst for Israel's Channel 10 TV, said Israel could not maintain the blockade for more than a few days. "Israel understands that a humanitarian crisis is developing here," he said. Four rockets exploded in Israel throughout the day, a significant drop from the level of last week. The military said since last Tuesday, the start of the escalation, more than 200 rockets and mortars hit Israel. There have been no serious injuries over the past week, but residents of the Israeli towns have been traumatized by months of daily salvos. Addressing the annual Herzliya Conference on security, the Israeli military commander, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said his forces have exacted "a heavy toll" from the militants, but he acknowledged a solution to the rocket fire is not near. "Even if it takes time, the goal will be achieved," he pledged. Associated Press Writer Steven Gutkin in Jerusalem contributed to this report. Gaza plunged into darkness as Israeli fuel blockade takes effect * Blackouts as only power plant is forced to shut * Policy directly linked to rocket attacks, says Israel 01.21.2008 | The Guardian By Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem Parts of Gaza were pitched into darkness last night after its only power plant was shut down following a move by Israel to halt fuel shipments under its new closure of the small, overcrowded strip of land. As fuel supplies ran out, the plant was shut down. Earlier, queues formed on the streets and at petrol stations and warehouses selling cooking gas as the shortages began to take effect. Blackouts have stretched to 12 hours a day in recent weeks. The closure came after a week of the most intense conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza for more than a year. Nearly 40 Palestinians have been killed in the past week, at least 10 of them civilians. From Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, appealed to Arab leaders and his rival, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to forget their differences and help the Gazans: "All Arab leaders, exercise real pressure to stop this Zionist crime ... Take up your role and responsibility. We are not asking you to wage a military war against Israel ... but just stand with us in pride and honour." Mashaal said he had been in contact with some Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to see if they would pressure Israel. He had asked Egypt to provide fuel for the Gaza plant. Over the weekend Palestinian militants drastically reduced the number of makeshift rockets they fired into Israel. Israeli officials accused Palestinians of exaggerating the fuel crisis and said the blame lay with the militants. There was swift condemnation of Israel yesterday from Israeli and western human rights groups and from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Rafik Maliha, the director of the power plant, said the last fuel shipment had arrived on Thursday. The plant was built to provide 140 megawatts of electricity but has never operated at that level. At best, officials at the plant say it could produce 80MW. But early last week, before the closure was imposed, it was down to 45MW, enough to provide less than a fifth of the demand from Gaza's 1.5 million people. The rest of the electricity is bought from Israel and Egypt. Israeli officials said the policy was directly linked to the rocket attacks. "If they stop the rockets today, everything would go back to normal," said Arye Mekel, a foreign ministry spokesman. SHARE THIS POST:     |
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