Dear friends,
Please take a few minutes on Monday to call the Egyptian embassy in your country to demand the Rafah border be opened!
Since June 13, when International Movement to Open the Rafah Border members set their sit-in at the Rafah Gate, we witnessed the Egyptian authorities’ collaboration in the Gaza siege enforced by the Israeli government with the US an international community support.
Even after the Viva Palestina folks and some aid got into Gaza, the plight of the people waiting to get out or into Gaza has not changed,
Please call the Egyptian embassy Monday, July 20. Please spread this call far and wide. It will make a difference to so many Palestinians, And for those who can, come and join us at the Rafah Gate. Come and witness these tragedies at the border.
Below details of Egyptian embassies in 40 countries
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"Why we will not stop sending boats to gaza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
These seven photos from the BBC clearly show why the Free Gaza movement will continue to send boats. The Palestinians of Gaza do not want handouts from the world. They want their freedom and they want the right to rebuild their shattered economy, shattered because Israel bombed them into the 18th century with the help of American money and support.
This "Silence of Shame" from the Americans, all of us, constitutes a willingness to participate in Israeli war crimes. It is up to us to contact our representatives, the President of the U.S., and our media to express our outrage over the slow-motion genocide of 1.5 million civilians in Gaza, enabled because we pay for it.
The world is beginning to see what Israel does. Supporting our voyages means that Palestinians in Gaza will have a route to the outside world that is not controlled by Israel or by their proxy, Egypt. It means they don't have to pay Israel or Egypt for supplies coming in, and they can export strawberries and flowers the way they once did, before Israel cruelly took everything away from them.
Sixty-one years of being refugees; forty-one years of depending on the international community... when will we say NO MORE to Israel.
"Could Israel be making these DU Weapons and what are the implications?
Palestine, (Pal Telegraph) Most DU weapons manufactured in the United States show a distinct difference between conventional weapons and those that contain DU and other toxic elements such as Tungsten etc. The warhead clearly shows the Rod with a Sabot sitting just below the point. It must be clearly understood that despite any re classification that may have taken place by the US Government these truly are nuclear related weapons. You can clearly see that the Israel's IMI is manufacturing weapons that are almost identical to the US weapons that are displayed in the left hand picture above.
I believe that the international community should be asking the question of Israel. What is the current status of your nuclear capability?
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"Muzzling press freedom in Palestine
The recent decision by the Ramallah-based regime to close down the al-Jazeera offices in the West Bank illustrates the vulnerability and utter stupidity of the American-backed and Israeli-tolerated junta.
The decision came a day after Fatah Secretary-General Farouk Kaddoumi appeared on al-Jazeera, accusing Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas and his aide, former Gaza strong man Muhammed Dahlan, of complicity in poisoning the late Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat. Justifying the decision, PA officials accused al Jazeera of bias, incitement and fostering division within the Palestinian community.
In fact, al-Jazeera didn’t go beyond transmitting Kaddumi’s impromptu news conference as other TV networks and news agencies did. Hence, it is amply clear that the draconian measure against al Jazeera by the nominally autonomous Ramallah regime was a classical instance of shooting the messenger because one doesn’t like the message. Non the less, the decision seems to be consistent with the overall mindset of the Ramallah regime.
This is a regime that constantly violates the basic human rights and civil liberties of the Palestinian people. It is a regime that rounds up thousands of “non-conformist” Palestinians and incarcerates them for prolonged periods of time without charge or trial. It is a regime that nearly explicitly allows physical and psychological torture throughout its notorious jails and detention centers. This brutal modus operandi is so rampant that many detainees would rather be in Israeli custody than being hosted in the dungeons of the “national” Palestinian Authority.
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"Women, elderly, children and the ill are part of the makeup of the thousands in Israeli prisons
Nablus / PNN – Among the approximately 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, 360 are children. Another portion is made up of women.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society confirmed today that the occupation authorities have arrested hundreds of thousands of children, women, youth and the elderly since 1967. Since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, 850 women have been arrested. Fifty three remain.
According to statistics of the PPS there are now 9,550 Palestinians and Arabs distributed throughout Israeli detention and interrogation centers and jails. Among them are 332 people who have spent more than 15 years in captivity. There are three Palestinians who have been imprisoned more than 30 years. Twelve people have been in for over 25 years and 106 for more than 20.
According to the Prisoner Society there are approximately 360 children in Damon, Ofar and Megiddo prisons among others. The number has increased this year. At the end of 2008 there were 338 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons but since January 190 were arrested. Many of those children were released, but not all. Children are often not tried or charged with any crime yet they are not held in the limbo known as Administrative Detention.
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"IOA rounded up 380 Palestinians, 4 Egyptians in June and Torture Continues
PIC - The Ministry for Prisoners' affairs stated in a recent report that throughout the month of June the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) continued a campaign of kidnappings in all parts of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. They seized more than 380 Palestinians, as well as four Egyptians in the Negev region on the grounds that they had crossed the Egyptian-Palestinian boundaries and entered a military zone. That is in addition to hundreds of workers kidnapped from inside the Green Line.
Riyad al-Ashqar, the director of the information office of the Ministry, clarified that last month marked a major escalation by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) against Palestinian fishermen. Gunboats abducted 16 Palestinian fishermen and took them to the port of Ashdod for questioning on matters related to the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. They are pressured to become informants in exchange for permission to return to fishing.
He added that the occupation kidnapped, in an unprecedented incident, the first of its kind, an infant, Muhammad Musa (4 years old), at the pretext that he had been throwing stones at police cars. A total of more than 31 children were abducted, including three children under the age of 12 from the village of Hizma, to the northeast of Jerusalem.
He also pointed out that the occupation kidnapped three women. One of them, Nahed Talib Farhat of Ramallah, was tortured after being kidnapped at the Atara checkpoint north of Ramallah.
She was attacked and beaten by soldiers, dragged on the ground, trodden underfoot, and blindfolded and handcuffed before being transported to prison. Not only that; the house of a deputy in the Legislative Council, Dr. Mariam Saleh, was broken into and searched. Her son Salah was kidnapped, after being assaulted and beaten, along with his brother, Abdullah, and his mobile phone was confiscated along with some documents.
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"Are Israeli courts staffed by Nazi judges?
Just as anti-Semitism became official policy in Germany in the mid 1930s, it is seems hostility toward Arabs, including Israel’s own 1.5 million Palestinian citizens, is becoming a de facto official policy of the Israeli state.
This ominous orientation is being constantly promoted by a number of manifestly racist cabinet ministers and Knesset members who declare openly that their aim is to make everyone in Israel "submit to the Jewish nature of the state."
The brash racism is now permeating through the entire apparatus of the Jewish state, from the police, to the justice system, to the army, to the educational system and, of course, the media.
Last week, Israeli courts showed off their racist credentials when two Israeli settlers, a murderer and a would-be murderer were acquitted of murdering a Palestinian and seriously wounding two others.
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Watch: Palestinian saved Israeli children
