an armada of aid vessels to set sail on masse from Cyprus with urgent humanitarian aid; the last ship that tried got rammed, but if there are dozens upon dozens of vessels, some will surely get through; Cyprus is close by so could reach Gaza quickly. Before I make a fool of myself & try to contact GG, what do people think ?
I understand your passion Micky, it's struck me in the same way. I'm not sure who's organising these things, but the site I linked to earlier http://www.gphrc.org/main.html regularly sends people out to the area, so they might be able to help.
Olmert Brags About Embarrassing Rice in UN Gaza Vote
"The Security Council resolution passed on Friday calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza was a source of embarrassment for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who helped prepare it but ultimately was ordered to back down from voting for it and abstain, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday.
Rice did not end up voting for Resolution 1860, thanks to a phone conversation Olmert held with US President George Bush shortly before the vote, the prime minister told a meeting of local authority heads in Ashkelon as part of a visit to the South.
Upon receiving word that the US was planning to vote in favor of the resolution - viewed by Israel as impractical and failing to address its security concerns - Olmert demanded to get Bush on the phone, and refused to back down after being told that the president was delivering a lecture in Philadelphia. Bush interrupted his lecture to answer Olmert's call, the premier said.
America could not vote in favor of such a resolution, Olmert told Bush. Soon afterwards, Rice abstained when votes were counted at the UN.
This is Israeli propaganda as far as I'm concerned... What better lie to tell your people than that you've got the American President at your beck and call?
There are reports that two Iranian ships full of aid have been stopped just a few kilometres from Gaza by Israeli war ships, and that another attempt from Cyprus had to turn back because of engine trouble.
It just so happens that there are several Russian & Turkish war ships just off the coast of Syria holding a joint exercise; now if only they could be persuaded to escort aid ships !
NINE Israeli human rights groups united on Wednesday to call for Israel's top leaders to face a war crimes investigation over their apparent disregard for international law.
The groups, which came together under the umbrella name Clear and Present Danger, say in a letter to top Israeli politicians and military officers that Operation Cast Lead "constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of warfare and raises the suspicion, which we ask be investigated, of the commission of war crimes."
The groups, including B'Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din and Physicians For Human Rights, warned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Israel Defence Forces chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi that "the responsibility of the state of Israel is clear and beyond doubt.
"After the fighting ends, the time will come for those responsible for the violations to face the consequences," it observed.
Israel's ongoing blitz of Gaza has now killed over 1,000 and wounded 5,000.
Medical staff confirm that the majority of dead or injured are civilians.
The human rights activists observe that the unrelenting assault has left thousands of civilians homeless with nowhere to flee, caused the health-care system to collapse and deprived many of electricity and running water.
The collapse of the water and sewage systems in Gaza could trigger an outbreak of infectious diseases at any time.
They called on the government to open an escape route for Gaza's civilians, provide immediate medical treatment for all the sick and wounded and improve access for rescue personnel, who have been prevented from reaching areas where fighting has taken place.
There have been at least six instances of Israeli soldiers firing on medical crews, resulting in 12 deaths and 17 wounded.
The groups have documented 15 cases of the Israeli military firing on medical facilities.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor responded: "Freedom of expression in Israel is just that - freedom to express any opinion, even if it is not based on any solid evidence and even if it is tainted with political bias."
International solidarity activists left Cyprus for Gaza on Wednesday in a renewed bid to deliver about five tons of donated food and medical supplies to the occupied territory after rough weather and engine trouble forced them to abort their initial attempt on Monday.
Free Gaza group organisers replaced a faulty generator on their 66-foot Greek-flagged vessel and set sail from Larnaca port with 21 passengers.
Gerald Kaufman MP compares Israel to the Nazis & accuses them of exploiting Holocaust
Sir Gerald, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist, told MPs: "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town ... a German soldier shot her dead in her bed.
"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.
"The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians."
He said the claim that large numbers of the Palestinian victims were militants "was the reply of the Nazi" and added: "I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants."
The Manchester Gorton MP acknowledged that Hamas was a "deeply nasty organisation" but it was democratically elected and "is the only game in town".
Refusing to hold talks with Hamas was a "culpable error from which dreadful consequences have followed", he said.
Calling for an arms embargo, he said: "It is time for our government to make clear to the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are unacceptable and to impose a total arms ban on Israel."
Sir Gerald added: "It is time for peace - but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is Israel's real goal but which is impossible for them to achieve.
"They are not simply war criminals, they are fools."
I say to the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who is not in his place, that the international community is not impotent, but merely feigns impotence as an excuse for its failure to carry out its duties. Although the Minister's words were more robust, he essentially masked the same inaction as the languid and complacent Foreign Secretary, who performed in front of us on Monday.
Compare and contrast British diplomacy on the subject that we are discussing with our response to Zimbabwe or, more particularly, the Russian conflict with Georgia. The Foreign Secretary was everywhere then, lecturing the Russians on what they must do. He even flew to Kiev, stood on the dividing line, and told Russia what the international community required of it.
On Gaza, our Ministers boast of writing a UN resolution, which has been completely ignored. I would be embarrassed to say that I was the author of a resolution—which passed, not with international consensus, as the Minister claimed, but with the abstention of the United States, the only vote that mattered—if it were then ignored and the Government had no intention of doing anything to make its terms effective. That is what we have.
The Foreign Secretary says that he does not want what he calls gesture politics, which were supported widely in the House today, such as an arms embargo, recalling ambassadors and requiring the withdrawal of Israeli ambassadors, because he does not want to isolate Israel. However, he and the Government were at the forefront of those who isolated the elected Government of Palestine, which was Hamas. They do not like to talk about it now. They prefer to talk about President Abbas, who illegally occupies the presidential seat in Ramallah. They refuse to acknowledge that the Palestinian people voted for Hamas.
I have never been a supporter of Hamas. Like the noble and right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Sir Gerald Kaufman), I was, all my life, a supporter and friend of the late President Arafat. The Israeli attitude to President Arafat and Fatah when they were in power was exactly the same as their attitude to the Palestinian Administration of Hamas. Israel drowned Arafat's Administration in blood through a policy of assassination, settlement, wall-building and economic embargo. The British Government wholeheartedly supported the embargo on Gaza to punish the Palestinian people for voting for a Hamas Administration.
The Government's double standards in this affair are so brazen that people outside are boiling with rage. If that is not so clear in this building, people outside are furious. The danger of radicalisation, especially of the Muslim youth in this country, is clear and present. The Government are always looking for some cleric to whom to refuse a visa, or some Islamic organisation to proscribe to try to curb radicalisation. How radical does the Minister believe that British Muslims feel now, as they watch on the news the bombing of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the slaughter of children that has been adumbrated here today? The Government's policy of tackling extremism and radicalisation has been set back by their complacency and ineffectual policy on Gaza, especially when compared with their militancy on subjects such as Russia and Georgia.
I do not have time to say all that I have to say, but I want to say something to those who have been boasting about going to Sderot. I am amazed at how many Members of Parliament have been to Sderot. Did any of them see the ruins of the Palestinian villages on which Sderot is built or the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from Sderot and the south of Israel? Did any of them know that the refugee camps of Gaza are filled with the people who used to live in the villages on which Sderot is built?
This did not start on 27 December. With respect to Dr. Starkey, who made a great speech, it did not even start in 1967, when Sderot and other places were cleared. It started in this building, when Arthur Balfour, on behalf of one people, promised a second people the land that belonged to a third people. We are the authors of this tragedy.
Everything that has flowed has flowed as a result of that declaration. For that reason, if for no other, the British Foreign Office needs to pull its finger out and stand up and be counted, alongside the British people demonstrating on the streets of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and elsewhere. Let us see some urgency from the Minister. Action speaks louder than words. So far, we have had no action from this Government at all.
Widening the struggle: George Galloway GEORGE GALLOWAY argues that the time has come to step up the struggle to achieve justice for Palestinians.
As I write, the death toll in Gaza is approaching 1,000, nearly 400 of them confirmed as children. I dread to think what the figure will be by the time you read this.
What is happening in Palestine is murder on a mass scale, perpetrated by one of the most powerful states in the world with the backing of US, Britain and its allies. I say what is happening in Palestine for a significant reason - Gaza is part of Palestine.
No-one should fall for the subtle tricks in the mainstream media which has so badly let us down and mangled the truth. I can think of no better time for the Morning Star to expand in print and online.
The corporate media gives the impression that there is this strange place called Gaza full of people called "militants" and "ruled" by Hamas.
But this is an attack on Palestine - all of Palestine and every Palestinian. Do not let them demonise the Gaza Strip or split it politically from the West Bank. There have been no rockets fired from the West Bank, but Israel has still killed 25 Palestinians there in recent months.
The attack on Gaza has already called forth a huge feeling of solidarity in Britain and the world. It has united Muslim and non-Muslim in huge demonstrations and other events. Now, it has to become a mass movement of practical and political solidarity.
We must not allow the Muslim community to feel intimidated by the kinds of Islamophobic smears they've faced that claim that any among them who raises the plight of the Palestinians is somehow an "extremist" or supporter of terrorism.
Nor should we allow the public mood and incipient movement to be derailed by a concerted attempt to smear it as anti-semitic. Among the loudest voices calling for isolating Israel are those of Jews.
I have just left the House of Commons chamber, where Gerald Kaufman has made one of the greatest speeches that I've heard there. He said that his grandmother had been shot in her bed by the nazis. She had not died so that her death could be used to justify the atrocities in Gaza, he said.
Leaders of the Catholic church have called Gaza a gigantic "concentration camp." The highest United Nations officials are calling for an investigation into the war crimes in blowing up schools, universities and callously inflicting suffering on civilians.
The Labour government's response to the onslaught on Gaza has been a disgrace. For three days it refused to call for any cessation of hostilities. Now it calls for a ceasefire, but on Israel's terms, which mean the annihilation of the legitimate Palestinian resistance.
Remember this - Israel broke the ceasefire on November 4 when it attacked Hamas, the government of the Palestinian authority which was elected by the Palestinian people in the only democratic vote in the Arab world.
These are basic arguments which must be popularised throughout the movement. Matters are at a turning point. In my estimation, the dynamic that was apparent within the Stop the War movement in 2002 has resurfaced.
We're not yet on the vast scale of February 15 2003, but the movement is on an upswing. There are other differences too.
There is, in my view, a higher understanding of the nature of zionism and of imperialism. There is also a greater sense of strategic debate in the movement.
That is why I want to end this column with some thoughts about how we might go forward:
Public protests are important. They keep our movement visible and, believe me, the pictures reach Palestine.
Pressure must be brought to bear on every elected representative and everyone in public life in Britain to speak out firmly for the Palestinian people and for official action against Israel, which UN officials want investigated for war crimes.
No person of conscience bought South African goods during apartheid. Today, Israel, its produce and manufactured goods should also be shunned. The call to boycott Israel is growing and Jewish supporters of the Palestinians are among the most vocal. Where does your MP or councillor stand?
It is time to flood the people of Palestine with practical aid. I am pulling together other individuals and groups to organise a convoy from Britain to Gaza led by fire engines donated by the Fire Brigades Union. Your mosque, community group, trade union, church, etc can sponsor it or provide a lorry, two drivers, costs and fill it with things which the people of Gaza need.
Through these steps, we can build political support for Palestine here and get aid over there. And, whenever you are called upon to vote in elections in Britain, remember to ask those who want your support: "What did you do when the bombs fell on the people of Gaza?"
The call for an aid convoy from Britain to Gaza is meeting with huge enthusiasm - Stop the War, the British Muslim Initiative and many others are coming on board.
I hope that it can provide a political focus to spur on a vast aid effort and a movement of political solidarity.
In the 1930s, working-class people across Europe rallied to aid the people of republican Spain, who faced the bombing of towns and the massacre of civilians by the forces of jackbooted General Franco.
The cry then was "Aidez l'Espagne!" The call today should be: "Viva Palestina!"
George Galloway is Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.
Great find, Luke. I've been hoping to hear some word from the great man. Goes to show that despite the loss of his wife, he continues to pay attention to recent events.
(I haven't listened yet, but they're very next on my list.)
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