| Idyllic |
06-11-2010 06:33 AM |
Interesting info I just stumbled on. (No, I do not imply anything with that statement) This quoted material has IDF written all over it (and it is apparent how many of you feel about the IDF), I wasn't there so I can't confirm or deny it's validity, but I find it interesting to read, as well the next story after this one which talks about the planned summer celebrations for the Palestinian/Gazan children in which there appears to have been attacks by hamas (as per this story) in an attempt to thwart the celebrations. These issues surrounding the tyrannical ideologies of hamas are what I am looking at and for. Nothing I am saying here, or in my prior posts, states that I justify the suffering of any peoples, especially innocent citizens caught between the power hungry and self-righteousness of both parties involved this war. I am merely trying to understand the mentalities involved in such intense hatred, and I still keep coming back to base intolerance in many religious/ideological views. I am not being specific here or exclusive as all religious/ideological views that would incite the destruction of other human-beings based on ones own personal beliefs where violence is justified as a means to an end, is to me, anti-humane, tyrannous and the root of all mankind’s most atrocious forms of corruption.
Quote:
Report "No humanitarian aid on "humanitarian" MAvi Marmara ship"
The European-Israeli Missing Peace organization claims that IDF Spokesman confirms that IDF has found only personal effects and no humanitarian aid of any kind on the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, that was boarded by Shayetet 13. Below is the full text of their press release and accompanying documentation.
Press release Jerusalem June 9 2010
Turkish Ship Mavi Marmara did not have any humanitarian cargo aboard
ATTACHED FULL MP REPORT ABOUT THE CARGO OF THE "HUMANITARIAN FLOTILLA"
A member of our Missing Peace team who was yesterday at the Tzrifin IDF base where part of the cargo of the Free Gaza ships is stored, reported the following to our office,
She confirmed that the head of the logistics department of the Israeli Defense Ministry informed those present, that there was no humanitarian aid (cargo) on the Mavi Marmara. The logistics department is in charge with unloading and repacking the humanitarian aid. She said that only money and personal belongings were found on the ship. Attached you will find a full report with a breakdown of the cargo found on the flotilla ships. The information in this report is confirmed by an Israeli official.
Confirmation details can be obtained at our office untill 12.00 PM and from tomorrow 7.30 AM Israeli time
Yochanan Visser Director Missing Peace Office
Missing Peace (beta) | Temporary website for Missing Peace
Humanitarian aid on the Flotilla
On June 7 2010 the Israeli Defense Ministry gave a tour for the media at the Tzrifin army base. A member of Missing Peace joined the tour which was dealing with the humanitarian aid found on one of the flotilla ships. The Defense Ministry has unloaded and stored the cargo of the ships on this army base after Hamas refused to allow the goods into Gaza
In this report we like to focus on the humanitarian aid issue. This is something that seems to have gotten "lost" in the midst of the discussions about the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish Ship were nine people were killed in a fight between a terrorist militia of the Turkish IHH and the IDF.
The tour at Tzrifin: Participating in the tour were many local journalists, as well as foreign journalists such as FOX news Walla, and Swiss Radio.
After a security briefing the journalists got into their cars and drove in a convoy deep into the army base. Once they had parked and gotten out of the cars they faced a huge open area with lots of objects and equipment on the right side. On the left side was a huge closed storage area. The journalists were briefed by the head of the Logistical Department from the Defense Ministry, who is in charge of the flotilla cargo. As of June 7 all the equipment and things stored in Tzrifin were from only from one of the flotilla ships, named "Defne Y". Meanwhile the unloading of the other ships has been almost completed.
The Defense Ministry spokesman told the reporters that the Ashdod port is under jurisdiction of the Defense Ministry. At the time they had unloaded 1 out of 3 flotilla ships, and loaded 45 trucks with humanitarian aid
Of these trucks, 8 were sent to the Kerem Shalom crossing, and the rest of the trucks were unloaded in Tzrifin. At the Kerem Shalom crossing they unloaded 300 electric wheel-chairs. Through this crossing 80-100 trucks transfer humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on a daily basis. The cargo with the wheel-chairs is waiting to be picked up by whoever is taking responsibility for it. So far no one claims responsibility and it's still waiting in storage
The normal modus operandi is that COGAT is in touch with the Palestinian Authority Civil Committee, which sits in Gaza, and with various international organizations (UN, Red Cross etc.). Those organizations coordinate who will pick up the aid. If for example the aid is for special humanitarian aid projects of the UNRWA, then UNRWA representatives are responsible for going to the crossing and picking up the aid. If it's for private PA businesses, then the PA is responsible for the picking up of the goods. Israel, the PA and International organizations are in constant contact and cooperation.
The Aid
Among the aid are: electric wheel chairs, medical equipment (medicines, hospital equipment: beds and mattresses [60 tons]), clothing, carpets, toys, school bags, playground equipment, cement, iron, and other construction materials.
A breakdown of the cargo found on the ships shows that of the six ships of the flotilla only three had humanitarian aid aboard:
Gaza ship: building materials, cement, iron – The ship has not been fully unloaded.
Sofi ship: building materials, iron
Defne Y ship: clothing, humanitarian aid (roughly 40 trucks worth), and games, building materials, wheelchairs.
The "Marmara": carried only passengers and their personal belongings. Many passengers carried large sums of money on their body. There was no Humanitarian aid on this ship.
The other two ships did not carry humanitarian aid as well
The humanitarian aid on all the ships was not packaged and not placed on the ship in an organized way, as one would expect from an organized humanitarian aid cargo. Everything was in individual units thrown on to a pile on the ships. This was not only unsafe, but it also caused a lot of damage to the objects, since the weight crushed a lot of things and since a lot of the things were just thrown on board. To deal with the cargo on the ships, here are the stages that it must undergo by Israel:
1. Israel scans all the cargo and sifts out the humanitarian aid. The aid is then placed on trucks.
2. The aid goes through x-ray machines to see that everything is indeed safe.
3. Since nothing was packaged and organized, Israel did this.
This entire procedure costs a lot of time and a lot of money.
The handling of the aid
When asked how many tons of aid was on all the ships, the spokesman said they don't know yet, since the only way one can weigh something is, if it's packaged, compressed and sealed. He showed a stack of wood boxes with labels and said that this was done by Israel and if all the aid would have been like this then they could have easily weighed it all and said how many tons of aid there is.
In regards to the story about the electric wheel-chairs, Hamas claims that Israel took out all the wheel-chair batteries so that they can't be used by the people. The spokesman said that first of all, Hamas can't know what Israel is doing because they are not allowing the aid into the Strip. Secondly, one needs to take out the batteries from the wheel chairs because if they are stored for a long time in the heat with the batteries, the batteries get ruined. He then took the journalists to the inside storage space, which is kept cool. There all the batteries were neatly placed in boxes all lined up. He said that the minute they will get a green light from Gaza, Israel can transfer everything into the Strip. Then the batteries will be transferred together with the chairs.
The batteries for the electric wheel chairs are gel batteries. Hamas says that Israel does not allow the entry of batteries into the Gaza Strip. Asked what the problem is with batteries the spokesman said the problem is not with gel but with liquid batteries. This is because 1 liter of this battery liquid can produce 50 kilos of nitroglycerin which is an active ingredient in the manufacture of explosives, specifically dynamite.
Expired and worn goods
Medicine: Out of the 400 tons of humanitarian aid on the ship only about 4 tons was medicine and medical equipment. A Japanese reporter who visits Gaza regularly, said that what is needed in Gaza is hospital/medical equipment and medicine. He said that if the flotilla would have been really concerned about what is needed in Gaza, they would have made sure to send more medical things. Furthermore, most of the medicine was expired. Medicines were shown whose expiration date was Sept. 2009. The medicines were stored in a separate cooled in-door storage space.
Clothing and shoes: most of the clothes and shoes were so worn that they cannot be used. Many of the shoes had holes and the shoe soles were half broken; many of the clothes were torn. They were private donations and were just thrown on to the ship.
Only 1/3 of the ship's cargo was new equipment.
Cement and other construction materials: all the construction materials on the ships are waiting for project approvals in the Gaza Strip. The minute a specific humanitarian project is approved the construction material is allowed into the Strip. For example 151 housing units of the UNRWA have been approved and construction material will be transferred for it.
Hamas rejects the Humanitarian Aid
Hamas has rejected the transfer of the humanitarian aid from the flotilla into the Gaza Strip. The first reason is that it does not want it to pass through Israel. The second reason is that it says it is waiting for Turkey to decide for who the aid was meant. The third reason is that they want to have everything found on the ships.
Politics and not humanitarian action
Israel is in contact with the PA and with International authorities and is waiting to hear from them how to proceed. Yesterday the Japanese reporter was in Gaza to find out exactly who these international authorities are. He spoke with the PA civil-committee about this issue. They said that it is the responsibility of UNRWA. Then he called UNRWA and he was told that they are not in contact with Israel and that it is not in their power to decide, but that it is the responsibility of UNSCO.
UNRWA also said that they received a message from Hamas telling them that they should not allow any humanitarian aid from the flotilla to enter the Gaza Strip. UNSCO also said that they are not in charge of the flotilla aid. They said that UNRWA deals with it, when confronted with the UNRWA reference to them, the man on the phone laughed and said this is not the case.
Next was COGAT, they first refused to give specific names and said "you can imagine who these international authorities are". When pressed they said they are in touch with UNRWA, the Red Cross and "other powerful players such as the USA", The COGAT official did not want to get more specific because he did not want to blame any particular organization until things are sorted out. The International Red Cross in Gaza told that they have their own projects and bring in their own aid.
They said they have nothing to do with the flotilla. When asked if they have met with Hamas about the flotilla, IRC said that they have had discussions with Hamas who told them not to accept any of the aid. Hamas declared that they have conditions that they want to have met before allowing the humanitarian aid to enter the Strip.
The Japanese journalist, who is personally familiar with Gaza and with Hamas, said that this whole incident has turned from a humanitarian into a political issue. He said that if there is a real need for humanitarian aid in Gaza then everyone would work quickly to allow the entry of the aid into the Strip. Furthermore he said that if in Africa they need food, no one waits to deliver it.
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source: Middle East Analysis
Quote:
Gaza's boys and girls come out to play
The UN summer games offer the blockaded territory's children a rare chance of fun. But a terrifying warning from hardliners has cast a shadow over this year's event
By Donald Macintyre in Gaza City
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Palestinian children at last year's UN summer games in Gaza
Palestinian children at last year's UN summer games in Gaza
London 2012 it isn't. But on Sunday a relay of 50 schoolchildren bearing an Olympic-style torch will start from Deir el Balah Elementary Boy's School in central Gaza on the 17km road journey along the Mediterranean coast to the UN compound in Gaza City. There, they will light a flame, less to commemorate the notorious white phosphorus bombardment which razed the main warehouse here during Israel's military offensive in January 2009, than to herald the start of something altogether more cheerful: the fourth annual summer games.
Throughout the summer a total of 250,000 children will be brought together every day – girls and boys in separate groups in deference to Gaza's traditionally conservative culture – for a fortnight by the UN Refugee agency UNRWA for something that John Ging, its Gaza Operations Director, points out is all-too rare in Gaza: "a moment of childhood and happiness".
The children of all ages will enjoy diverse supervised activities including drama, traditional dances like Dabka, swimming, sandcastle building, bouncy castles, volleyball, football, painting and origami. Having last year won a certified Guinness World Record for the most people flying kites at one time, the children will next month attempt another: the largest number – probably more than 6,000 – to bounce basketballs simultaneously.
A few days after a gang of around 25 masked and armed men scorched and vandalised one of 35 camps being prepared for the games, John Ging, Operations Director of UNRWA here, was visited by three 15-year-old girls from Rimal Preparatory School. All three were appalled at the attack which wrought some $20,000 worth of damage and included delivery of an ominously menacing message for Mr Ging himself. The girls' appeal was simple: please don't cancel the games because of what happened.
Mr Ging was touched – and quick to reassure them. Having devised the games four years ago, he told the girls he was not about to abandon them now. As one of the girls, Amani Sansour, later explained in articulate English: "When we met Mr John he told us he will never stop the project. We are very happy that the summer games will not be stopped. It's a big chance for children to have fun and happiness in their lives, and their human rights. They can practise their hobbies and do things like swimming. This is especially good for girls who can't go to swim together without their parents, according to the traditional culture here. Life is very hard here for boys and girls but harder for girls."
For Amani the extremists who carried out the May attack on the beach site south of Gaza City "don't work for our interests. They want us to stay at home". Her friend, Sawsan Kamel, agreed. "They are a minority," she said. "They don't represent our opinions." And for a third, Fatima Said – who having thought the games were only suitable for young children, changed her mind after hearing a talk about the range of activities – "what is important is that this year the games will not only be for refugees", the families of those who fled or were forced out of their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war and are UNRWA's direct responsibility, "but as open to as many people as they possibly can be".
With the world belatedly waking up to the impact of the three-year economic blockade of Gaza after last week's lethal commando raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla, the summer games may seem like a footnote. But for UNRWA, both their undoubted importance to Gaza's parents and children, and the obstacles on the way to Sunday's launch, flow from the unique conditions of the Strip.
Mr Ging said after last month's attack that he would not be intimidated into forsaking the "huge responsibility to children that are suffering physically and psychologically in very difficult circumstances to provide them with a high quality recreation programme over the summer".
And he leaves no doubt as to what he means by the circumstances: "Blockade, occupation, no legitimate economy, a black market economy which is getting stronger and stronger, no prospect of getting a job." Not to mention undrinkable tap water, malfunctioning sewage and a ban on building materials which stops UNRWA constructing the 100 schools needed to end a near-universal two shift system in the existing ones. Circumstances which, he says, "cumulatively are quite unbearable for the entire population".
Ostensibly, it was exactly because girls like the three from Rimal prep would be taking part that the attack was launched in the first place. The attackers, who arrived at around 2.30am at the beachside camp south of Gaza City, handcuffed and hit the security guard Ibrahim Eliwa; took his mobile phone and ID card; and made him kneel with his face forward while they burned 20 plastic water tanks and slashed thousands of square feet of plastic and canvas sheeting.
When, before leaving, they tucked an envelope into Mr Eliwa's jacket pocket, it contained not only the ID card but a letter addressed to Mr Ging and two of his senior Palestinian staff declaring in Arabic: "We were shocked when we heard about establishing beach locations for girls at the age of puberty and adolescence aiming to attack Muslims' honour and morality. You have to know that we will give away our blood and life but we won't let this happen and will not let you malicious people beat us. So you either leave your plans or wait for your destiny." Just to reinforce the point, the gang also left three bullets behind for Mr Ging.
Mr Eliwa says the men were dressed in black, had radios, and were armed with AK-47s. He said he told the – Hamas-run – police that he thought the attackers were from Hamas. But whoever they were, it seems that Hamas security personnel, who at night mount a series of efficient checkpoints across the Strip, did not prevent their free passage to the camp. The Hamas de facto government condemned the attack publicly and police arrested an unspecified number of men for questioning, but have announced that anyone has been subsequently charged. However, there have been no repeats of the attack.
Major Ayman al Batniji, the police spokesman, claimed there were a number of groups capable of carrying it out. Acknowledging that "we have never witnessed any violations of Islamic law or custom" in the UN summer games. "So far we cannot point the finger at Hamas or any other faction," he said. And why had the police prevented civil society activists and members of the public subsequently protesting the attack from reaching the camp? "It was a political decision, not a police decision," the policeman explained. "Sometimes the police have to carry out political decisions they oppose."
In fact, the attack may also testify – however chillingly – to the popularity of the games. As a well organised, secular alternative, the summer games attract a much bigger attendance than parallel camps run by Hamas itself, that include Koranic instruction and military-style exercises.
Which may be why the oversubscribed UN games – Mr Ging says he could accommodate another 100,000 children if he had the funding – have been strongly, if verbally, attacked by some prominent Hamas figures, though not by the de facto government, which Mr Ging says has been "very careful" not to violate UNRWA's integrity. But Mr Ging has long argued that extremist trends in Gaza are the product of Gaza's isolation, "born of, but not justified by" circumstances that are "a breeding ground for a mindset which is negative, despairing, destructive, increasingly intolerant and will be more and more violent".
Which is why UNRWA schools teach "that there is no justification for violence and intolerance", seeks to instil shared universal values: respect, discipline, open-mindedness, tolerance and the understanding it is "illegal and wrong in every dimension" to fire rockets; and tries to elevate Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King, as icons of the fight for human rights through "responsible behaviour".
Mr Ging acknowledges that some in Gaza "disagree with us on this". But he is convinced that the overwhelming "silent majority" of Gaza parents do not, and instead share those core universal values "that define us as civilised".
The flood of support to UNRWA from parents wanting the games to go ahead suggests he is right.
Mr Ging argues the message from Gaza is not only the misery and hardship inflicted by "the collective sanction of an innocent population" important though that is. It is also that "all is not bad here, all is not negative". For him the collective basketball dribbling and kite flying is a symbol of something bigger.
"There's a great future if we can turn the potential in a positive direction... the kids here are hugely talented and each world record achieved in these very difficult circumstances is evidence of that. So let's change the circumstances and let a thousand flowers bloom. Invest in these very talented kids and you won't be disappointed by the product."
UNRWA asked The Independent to change the names of the Rimal girls because of the sensitivities of their situation
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source: Gaza's boys and girls come out to play - Middle East, World - The Independent |
