Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel
“CUTTIN
THE GRASS” Again in GAZA
“CUTTING THE
GRASS”
is a
racist term used by the Israeli security establishment as a way to “manage”
Palestinian resistance by periodically launching limited attacks on Gaza to kill
numbers of fighters, degrade to ability of Hamas and other armed factions to
confront the occupation and to demonstrate Israeli military technology and
“deterrence.” It is a strategy for limiting, rather than ending the conflict.
Short VIDEO here
SATURDAY,
July 26
11:30am-1pm
Roxbury
Crossing
(Near Roxbury
Community College)
“LET GAZA
LIVE”
Stop the
Bombing!
End the
Blockade!
There
are news reports of a possible temporary cease-fire agreement in
the making; however, this standout will take place anyway, since ending the
siege/blockade of Gaza remains the central political and humanitarian
demand.
Israel has created a massive humanitarian disaster in
Gaza. At least 800 Palestinians have
been killed and thousands more injured. According to the UN, three-quarters of
the dead are civilians, including hundreds of children and women. Tens of
thousands have been made homeless.
Yet our Congress has unanimously passed resolutions
blaming only the victims and calling
the firing of ineffective mortars and rockets from Gaza “an unprovoked attack”
on Israel. This ignores decades of Israeli Occupation and a brutal 8-year
Israeli siege of Gaza that has left 1.8 million Palestinians penned up and
blockaded in an area only slightly larger than the city of Boston, with no place
to run, no place to hide from Israeli bombs.
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE - and Senators Markey and Warren - to say that this is
unacceptable! Israel must be held accountable and our government should stop
supplying the $billions, the planes and the bombs it is using to destroy Gaza.
TELL THE US STATE DEPT to demand the bombing stop and the Israeli blockade of
Gaza ended!
Congressional Switchboard: (202)
224-3121
(Find
your Member of Congress at
US State Department: (202) 647-3672
* *
* *
FRIDAY,
July 25
5:30pm,
Copley Square
As the U.S.-made
bombs fall on Gaza, indiscriminately killing Palestinians, many of them
children, the death toll has reached over 800. The UN estimates the casualties
to be overwhelmingly civilian, including scores of women and children, as Israel
has now launched a ground attack of tanks and troops against the tiny Gaza Strip
– to supplement its ongoing slaughter from the air and sea.
We heed the Urgent call from Gaza civil society: Act now!
“We Palestinians
trapped inside the bloodied and besieged Gaza Strip call on conscientious people
all over the world to act, protest and intensify the boycotts, divestments and
sanctions against Israel until it ends this murderous attack on our people and
is held to account.”
We call
for:
An End to the
Bombings and Killings
An End to U.S. aid
to Israel
Support for the
Palestinian call for BDS
“The
heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza’s hospitals are working 12-24hrs
shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment [at] all in
Shifa for the last four months); they care, triage, try to understand the
incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing,
not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS! Now, once more treated
like animals by ‘the most moral army in the world [sic]… “And as I write these
words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but useless tears of pain
and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening! And then, just now, the
orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again: salvos
of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the
sickening drones (Arabic ’Zennanis’, the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches.
So much made and paid in and by US. “Mr. Obama - do you have a heart?
More
ISRAEL
PROVOKED THIS WAR
Israel’s
assault on Gaza, as pointed out by analyst Nathan Thrall in the New York Times,
was not triggered by Hamas’ rockets directed at Israel but by Israel’s
determination to bring down the Palestinian unity government that was formed in
early June, even though that government was committed to honoring all of the
conditions imposed by the international community for recognition of its
legitimacy. More
The
most vile op-ed you will read about Gaza
When
your op-ed’s first sentence reads “Let’s state the obvious: No one likes to see
dead children,” you should step away from the keyboard, take a look in the
closest mirror and think long and hard about exactly the argument you’re about
to make. Otherwise, you may end up with an execrable screed like the one New York University law professor
Thane Rosenbaum published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Rosenbaum
argues that the adult residents of Gaza are not innocent civilians, as even
Israeli leaders (sometimes begrudgingly) admit, but part of a “citizen army.”
More
U.S.
politicians and policymakers continue to back a brutal military campaign whose
primary purpose is not to defend Israel but rather to protect its longstanding
effort to colonize the West Bank. America
Is Complicit In Israel’s War Crimes… every member of the House and
Senate--including progressives like Senator Elizabeth Warren--knows that voting for those
supposedly "pro-Israel" resolutions is the smart political move. They understand
that even the slightest display of independent thinking on these issues could
leave them vulnerable to a well-funded opponent the next time they're up for
re-election. At a minimum, they'll have to answer a flood of angry phone calls
and letters, and, on top of that, they are likely to be blackballed by some of
their Congressional colleagues. The safer course is to mouth the same tired
litanies about alleged "shared values" between Israel and the U.S. and wait till
the crisis dies down. And people wonder why no one respects Congress anymore.
More
America
Is Complicit In Israel’s War Crimes
Since
1948, when Israel was created after expelling hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians from their homes, the U.S. has given Israel $112 billion. That makes Israel the
largest cumulative recipient of American aid. The vast majority of it comes in
the form of military aid to beef up the Israeli army, one of the most powerful
forces in the world. U.S. military aid makes up about a quarter of the Israeli
military budget. And a quarter of American military aid is allowed to be spent
on Israel’s own defense industry, a unique concession no other country receives.
In recent years, the U.S. has given Israel $3.1 billion in military aid and
weaponry in the form of F16s, Hellfire missiles, and assault rifles, now being
used to kill Palestinian civilians. In addition, the U.S. funds Israeli missile
defense systems like the much-praised Iron Dome, which shoots rockets fired from
Gaza out of the sky. In the midst of Israel’s attack, a Senate committee passed
a bill that would give Israel an additional $620 million for missile defense,
including $350 million for Iron Dome. More
U.S.
Senate Sets $225 Million for Israel's Iron Dome in Emergency Bill
U.S.
Senate Democrats included $225 million for Israel's Iron Dome rocket
interception system in an emergency funding bill on Tuesday that also cut $1
billion from President Barack Obama's request for $3.7 billion to deal with
thousands of undocumented child immigrants. "Israel is an essential American
ally and needs these assets to defend itself," said Maryland Democratic Senator
Barbara Mikulski, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a
statement. More
As Much
of the World Frowns on Israel, Americans Hold Out Support
A
2013 Pew poll found vastly more unfavorable feelings toward Israel outside than
within the United States, which registered a 27 percent unfavorable view of
Israel and a 57 percent favorable view. In contrast, 44 percent of people in Britain had an unfavorable view of Israel. Unfavorable views
of Israel were held by 62 percent in Germany, 65 percent in France, 66 percent in China and in the 80 percent to 90 percent range in Arab and
Muslim countries.
More
But, despite this, polls indicate that a majority believes the US should take no side in
this conflict; and support for Israel is becoming more partisan in the US, with Democrats much less
sympathetic than Republicans.
Israel’s
Crumbling Media War
For
the first time, perhaps, Americans are witnessing the suffering of Palestinian
people in the establishment press. Even while the framework of “Blame Hamas”
dominates mainstream media coverage, the humanity of Palestinian people is
cracking through the decades-long, well established façade of pro-Israeli
propaganda. And how can it not? When the actual experience of journalists
contradicts the propaganda narrative, if they have a heart or a brain, they
cannot help but see Zionist propaganda for what it is. This is possibly why
Israel kept out foreign journalists during the 2008 Cast Lead operation.
More
Reaping
What We Have Sown In Gaza
Those who rejected Fatah and Yasser Arafat’s peace proposal for two states have now been given Haniyeh, Hamas and BDS. Those who turned Gaza into an internment and punishment camp for 1.8 million human beings should not be surprised that they tunnel underneath the earth. Those who sow trangling, siege and isolation reap rocket fire. Those who have, for 47 years, indiscriminately crossed the Green Line, expropriating land and constantly harming civilians in raids, shootings and settlements – what right do they have to roll their eyes and speak of Palestinian terror against civilians? More
Those who rejected Fatah and Yasser Arafat’s peace proposal for two states have now been given Haniyeh, Hamas and BDS. Those who turned Gaza into an internment and punishment camp for 1.8 million human beings should not be surprised that they tunnel underneath the earth. Those who sow trangling, siege and isolation reap rocket fire. Those who have, for 47 years, indiscriminately crossed the Green Line, expropriating land and constantly harming civilians in raids, shootings and settlements – what right do they have to roll their eyes and speak of Palestinian terror against civilians? More
IS
HAMAS WINNING?
Despite
the pounding Gaza is getting, Hamas seems to have gotten the issue of lifting
the siege on the table, as even the US keeps saying that the “underlying issues”
must be dealt with, and even when the EU is scolding Hamas, they are also calling Israel’s acts “criminal.”
More
Some
Israeli reservists refuse to serve in Gaza
To
us, the current military operation and the way militarization affects Israeli
society are inseparable. In Israel, war is not merely politics by other means —
it replaces politics. Israel is no longer able to think about a solution to a
political conflict except in terms of physical might; no wonder it is prone to
never-ending cycles of mortal violence. And when the cannons fire, no criticism
may be heard. More
Gaza
continues to be legally occupied territory:
While
Israel has argued that it ceased occupying Gaza in 2005 when it unilaterally
redeployed its troops outside of Gaza and withdrew its settlers from Gaza, Gaza
continues to be occupied in accordance with international law and in the views
of the international community, including the U.S.[i], the EU, and the U.N.[ii]. Israel’s continued responsibility as the occupying power
in Gaza results from several factors. First, Israel continues to exert
effective control over Gaza including control of the borders, airspace,
waterways, population registry, currency, the movement of people, trade,
electrical supply, water supply, and more. Second, Israel maintains and exerts a
right to conduct regular military operations in Gaza, giving it effective
military control over the territory. Under international law[iii], effective control is the key measures of occupation.
More
Since 2005, when
Israel decided to remove its settlers and troops from inside Gaza, in order to
maintain its siege from outside and strengthen its colonization of the West
Bank, there have been almost continuous restrictions on the entry of food and other humanitarian
necessities. Israeli politicians joked, in the infamous words of Dov Weissglass, chief aide to
former Israeli President Ariel Sharon: “the idea is to put the
Palestinians on a diet but not to make them die of hunger… It's like an
appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't
die…"
Israel’s
Incremental Genocide in the Gaza Ghetto
The
present genocidal wave has, like all the previous ones, also a more immediate
background. It has been born out of an attempt to foil the Palestinian decision
to form a unity government [4] that even the United States could not
object to… Ever since June 1967, Israel searched for a way to keep the
territories it occupied that year without incorporating their indigenous
Palestinian population into its rights-bearing citizenry. All the while it
participated in a “peace process” charade to cover up or buy time for its
unilateral colonization policies on the ground. With the decades, Israel
differentiated between areas it wished to control directly and those it would
manage indirectly, with the aim in the long run of downsizing the Palestinian
population to a minimum with, among other means, ethnic cleansing and economic
and geographic strangulation. More
Israel controls two
out of three sides of Gaza on the land and its naval patrols maintain a sea
blockade; Israel’s (and US) ally Egypt keeps the third land side mostly closed
and in any case honors the agreement with Israel to limit Rafah access to foot
traffic alone. So all goods coming in and out of Gaza are controlled by
Israel.
Whenever a
temporary truce was negotiated (and scrupulously maintained by Hamas), the
pattern has been for Israel to renege on the terms and break the ceasefire with
fresh attacks when it deemed them useful. And contrary to the Israeli claims
that this was “to protect its citizens,” the pattern reveals that the most
dangerous time for Israeli civilians is when Israel is launching an attack on
Gaza.
Reigniting Violence:
How Do Ceasefires End?
…we found that
this pattern -- in which Israel is more likely than Palestine to kill first
after a conflict pause -- becomes more pronounced for longer conflict pauses.
Indeed, of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel
unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the
14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days…
Thus, a
systematic pattern does exist: it is overwhelmingly Israel, not Palestine, that
kills first following a lull. Indeed, it is virtually always Israel that kills
first after a lull lasting more than a week. More
The continuing
crisis in Iraq has been driven from the headlines as the nation’s attention has
shifted to the slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza but the imminent
danger of a new U.S. war in Iraq remains. Sunni forces led by the militant group
Islamic State (IS) 
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