Mondoweiss: NPR report on West Bank expulsion order makes horror a she-said/she-said story

From Mondoweiss: "NPR report on West Bank expulsion order makes horror a she-said/she-said debating point" Here's a bit but I recommend you read the whole post.

... nowhere does Garcia-Navarro grapple with the terrible inhumanity of a regime that has kept other people stateless for 60 years, depriving them not just of civil but human rights. A military occupation that arbitrarily defines the legitimate owners of a land as "infiltrators" is unspeakable. Why is "our" U.S. government paying for the illegal expulsions?

To do Garcia-Navarro justice, the on-air report gives details curiously absent from the transcript, but holes nevertheless remain. NPR’s transcript changes many terms and the order of the actual Garcia-Navarro report that aired this morning.

I've included choice bits of the actual broadcast that were not included in the online transcript of the story below. Why were they removed? They smooth over the ugly facts of the original broadcast. I guess we should also ask Lourdes Garcia-Navarro about the alterations.

THE VEIL OF NORMALIZATION

Philip Rizk writes:- "At the police station this past week a few uniformed men returned my things to me. They pretended they had caught they had caught the thief who had stolen my things, he was locked away now, they laughed. The frenzy of my release has finally passed, things are meant to return to normal at this stage. But in Gaza- the reality of which had driven me to the street that Friday- nothing has changed.
...
"It is the mundane that reminds me of my abduction. Today on the bus i reset the settings of my ipod as they used to be after some employee of the Egyptian state security forces erased its content. I can’t express enough my gratitude to all those around me- far and near- who reached out, cooked a meal for my family, set up a site calling for my release, held a sign in the cold, brought me my class readings, uttered a prayer, welcomed me home. And these acts and voices somehow pulled me out of that cell and rescued me from beneath my shackles. But the voices for these others cry out into the void. Why are there not more, why can they not draw to freedom the bodies that deserve more than i do. Release them, release the bodies of those now in cells here calling out for their release, and release the ones so longing to breathe beyond the bounds of fear and death.

"I realized today that i too had forgotten Gaza. In these past days in the elation of freedom i forgot why i had marched, i forgot why i am- to live for the other. That other is still as is, kept from life and the gatekeeper retains her position at the gate and the world looks on.

"This cannot go on. No."

FREE PHILIP RIZK II

Philip Rizk's friend and fellow journalist, Ben White, has a Guardian CiF column today: Abducted in Egypt

Via the Facebook group for Philip:

Event: 2nd Free Philip Rizk Protest at the Egypt Embassy, Washington DC
"Make noise for Phil!"
What: Protest
Host: Support and Prayer for the Safe Release of Philip Rizk
Start Time: Friday, February 13 at 11:30am
End Time: Friday, February 13 at 1:00pm
Where: 3521 International Ct. Nw

To see more details and RSVP, follow this link.

OBAMA ON GAZA

Finally, at long last Dear Leader has spoken on Gaza

Now we must extend a hand of opportunity to those who seek peace. As part of a lasting cease-fire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime, with the international and Palestinian Authority participating.

Why not a helping hand without these conditions? What the fuck is an appropriate monitoring regime? Everyone knows that the PA is a lackey of the Israelis. Why not include all Palestinians in Gaza at the table?

Further excellent comments can be found at Left I.

GAZA TODAY

Sameh Habeeb, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza City, has a worthwhile blog:
Gaza Today Gaza Strip, the Untold Story. Check it out. He wrote yesterday

Eight international journalists will arrive in Gaza Tuesday, traveling via Egypt, with the mission to fact-find and record first-hand Israeli violations against the people of the Gaza Strip.

Secretary General of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate Na’eem At-Tubasi confirmed Sunday that delegation, including Arab, French, Norwegian and Italian reporters, is en route to Gaza. The delegation will be followed by an investigating committee from the International Journalist Federation, which will arrive next week.

I'll be following his story.

Thanks to Bob Feldman for the link.

REMINDER: March in Burlington Against Attacks on Gaza this Saturday - forward widely

JOIN BREAD and PUPPET AT THE GAZA PROTEST ...

Meet Saturday, January 17th, 11:30 AM in front of City Hall to gear up for a demonstration and march beginning at noon. Help carry huge, striking Bread & Puppet banners and figures.

Arrive at noon for the march and demonstration.

Join Vermonters and people around the world to protest the occupation and bombings of Gaza, which have killed over 750 Palestinians and injured over 3100 (as of January 9) [now over 1,000 fatalities!]. Hospitals in Gaza have little to no medical supplies and they are overflowing with victims of this humanitarian crisis. Food and water are in extremely short supply due to the blockade Israel has imposed on the people of Gaza. The United States government is complicit in this brutality, supplying military aid to Israel and endorsing Israel's actions. The bombings and killings must end! End the violent blockade and occupation of Gaza immediately!

DEMANDS
- Israel must end the occupation and bombing of Gaza immediately,
- Stop the violence in the Middle East and end the embargo on Gaza
immediately
- The US government must end all military aid to Israel
- Israel must observe international law
- We demand that Senator Leahy, Senator Sanders, and Rep. Welch
denounce the occupation and bombing of Gaza

Sponsors: Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel,
International Socialist Organization, American Friends Service
Committee, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Iraq
Vets against the War, Pax Christi Burlington, Peace and Justice Center

For more information contact S'ra at sra@riseup.net or 324-3073

EYEWITNESS IN GAZA

GISHA Legal Center for Freedom of Movement

Testimony received from a parent of three children and resident of Gaza City

The situation is very hard today. I heard something from a friend that simply gives me no peace – about two families who are fighting over the identity of someone who is lying in the hospital. Since it is impossible to identify the wounded person because his face is very badly hurt, one family claims that he is their nephew and the other family says that he is their cousin. They are fighting about it because they realize that if this is not their relative, that means that their relative is dead.

I can see all of Beit Lahiya from the roof and it’s all going up in flames. There is a very big cloud over the entire northern area. Gaza is packed like a can of sardines, everything is small and crowded. People don’t understand this.

You could die anywhere in Gaza today – at home, in the street. Every place in Gaza is under attack. There is no safe place. This is what Hamas is telling people: why should you die at home? Come out and fight and at least you’ll die while defending Gaza and your home. Who can say no to such a thing?

There is no bread. I called all the bakeries in Gaza and I didn’t find even one where I could buy pitas for my children. In the end I stood in line for half an hour and got cookies. Even that was being rationed – only 1 kilo and no more. I can’t even get pitas for my children.

I’m telling you – I’m willing to come and help in Israel, in Sderot. What they are going through hurts us too but give us a chance. Just give us a chance. Don’t use our children in order to change the political reality. Do you understand that I – someone who has a respectable job and livelihood – burnt my hands while trying to heat water for my children on an open fire! My hands got burnt! Gaza is one big graveyard.

Unfuckingbelievable!

Here are other testimonies received by Israeli human rights groups.

LEFT BEHIND?

I just heard Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesperson in Gaza, describe the situation in their compound on today’s BBC Radio 4 News at One. Three white phosphorus shells have landed there. 700 Gazans have taken refuge in the compound. He was particularly concerned about the effects of these incendiary shells on the five fuel tanks in the compound. “Words cannot discribe’ the situation, says Mr Gunnes. Richard Seymour (lenin) believes that Israel is doing everything to force the UN to abandon Gaza.

Much more importantly, it is a message to the UN to pull out. Bear in mind that UN staff have already had to suspend operations because of the risk posed by the IDF. Other aid agencies such as the Red Cross have also had to suspend crucial activities after attacks by the IDF. Eventually, the UN might well be forced to withdraw its staff entirely if it can't guarantee their safety. At that point, the UN and its few millions and scant food and supplies, will no longer be available to the civilian population. This terrorised and starving population will soon be almost completely alone.

"PIPELINE OF BLOOD"

The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place.

Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest.

They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts. Whatever happened to the not-so-good old days of Salah Shahadeh? When we liquidated him in July 2002, we also killed 15 women and children. At least back then, moral qualms were raised for a moment.

Here lie their bodies, row upon row, some of them tiny. Our hearts have turned hard and our eyes have become dull. All of Israel has worn military fatigues, uniforms that are opaque and stained with blood and which enable us to carry out any crime. Even our leading intellectuals fail to speak out on what havoc we have wreaked. Amos Oz urges: "Cease-fire now." David Grossman writes: "Hold your fire. Stop." Meir Shalev wants "a punitive operation." And not one word about our moral image, which has been horribly distorted.

The suffering in the south renders everything kosher, as if the horrible suffering in Gaza pales in comparison. Everyone is hungry for revenge, and that hunger is excused by the need for "deterrence," after it was already proved that the killing and the destruction in Lebanon did not achieve it....

It is doubtful whether Hamas will be cut down to size as a result of this wretched war. Yet, the face of the state has been cut down to size, as have civilian elites who are apathetic and scared. The "peace camp," if it ever existed, has been cut down to size. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz authorized the Ghayan killing, regardless of the cost. Haim Oron, the leader of the "new left-wing movement," supported the launch of this foolish war.

Nobody is coming to the rescue - of Gaza or even of the remnants of humanity and Israeli democracy. The statesmen, the jurists, the poets, the authors, academe, and the news media - pitch black over the abyss. When the time comes for reckoning, we will need to remember the damage this war did to Israel: The blood pipeline it laid has been completed.

The above linked quote is from an opinion piece - not in the New York Times, not from National Public Radio (I would venture to say you'd not read it in any of the major media in America or Britain) - but written by Gideon Levy in Haaretz, an Israeli newpaper.

SADLY, THE GROUND INVASION HAS BEGUN

Israeli troops cross border into Gaza

Richard Seymour reports on today's protest in London. 10,000 in Amsterdam.



Photo courtesy Indymedia NL.
There were other protests today around the world.

HAPPY WAR, CHRISTMAS IS OVER

(Thanks to Lenin's Tomb.)

OBAMA ON THE SIEGE OF GAZA

"No comment."

SUPPORT ISRAELI CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY THERESIENSTADT

CHRIS HEDGES Israel's 'Crime Against Humanity'

Gaza now spends 12 hours a day without power, which can be a death sentence to the severely ill in hospitals. There are few drugs and little medicine, including no cancer or cystic fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators but often lack fuel. Medical equipment, including one of Gaza’s three CT scanners, has been destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff cannot control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized care, including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis, have died. Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because they were denied proper medical care, several spent their final hours at Israeli crossing points where they were refused entry into Israel. The statistics gathered on children—half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 17—are increasingly grim. About 45 percent of children in Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack of fruit and vegetables, and 18 percent have stunted growth.

ATTACK 'LIKELY'

Panel warns biological attack likely by 2013

WASHINGTON—The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.

"Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing," states the report, obtained by The Associated Press.

Left I on the News is excellent in tearing apart news stories and thinks this one's a lot of hokum.

"Likely"? That's not a scientific term, but according to another report, the opening sentence of the summary says such an attack "is more likely than not," which says there's at least a 51% chance of such an attack.

Talk about blatant fear-mongering. My guess is these sensational stories sell a certain mind-set to the public, when they're not being trampled to death at mall entrances ('tis the season to patriotically spend).

Edger at the OOIBC writes

Boo! The boogeymen are out to get you.

This story is all over the left blogs today, and most of what I read is people lapping it up as easily and thoughtlessly as the 26 percenters lapped up all of Bush's years of Rovian manipulations, and using it as justification for "pragmatic" hide their heads in the sand denial of Barack Obama's obvious militarist tendencies and full intentions to continue the war on terror memes and determination to militarily dominate the earth while blaming the blowback on "terrists" on behalf of the corporatocracy that rules America.

Today NPR featured this story in its news, too. Along with coverage about "India's 9/11" over the holiday weekend, was the story of this report. ("Report: WMD Attack Inevitable Before 2013"). WMD? WTF! Haven't the media pushed this before?

Before that NPR Day-to-Day segment came an afternoon staple on our local NPR station: The Story, which talked about what happened in Mumbai and then lead into a story told by a man who'd been on a plane hijacked by PLO sympathisers back in the 1970s ("A Tourist and Terrorists").

He talks with Dick Gordon about what it was like to find himself in the middle of an international terrorist incident long before the world was so familiar with terrorism.

These kinds of programs just put terrorist=damn Arabs/Palestinians in peoples' minds. Whether it's intentional, I don't know, but it makes me question media's pushing a particular narrative - that of fear - more and more.

POETIC JUSTICE?

ISRAELI zionists have got a taste of their favourite toy, the bulldozer. In the linked story and video, the Israeli authorities labeled the man a 'terrorist,' (how typical) and the Guardian wrote that he had a 'criminal' record.

Archbishop Tutu Banned for Criticism of Israel

Muzzle Watch Archbishop Tutu barred by U. of St Thomas because of criticism of Israel 3 October 2007 -

Rumors have been circulating for some time that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was banned by the University of St Thomas in Minnesota because of statements he made that some consider anti-Semitic. Now it’s official: winning the Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t protect you from charges of anti-Semitism if you criticize Israeli human rights violations. Neither, apparently, does being one of the most compelling voices for social justice in the world today, or even getting an honorary degree from and giving the commencement address at Brandeis.

Read all of Archbishop Tutu barred by U. of St Thomas because of criticism of Israel

Queer protest against Israeli Independence Day

From Orthodox Anarchist (an interesting blog I've discovered via Anglican Resistance) - A group of queer activists painted pink the memorial canon in Jersualem’s “Davidka” square, and added the graffiti “Lesbians against arms” (which in Hebrew also translates as “Lesbians against dicks”). This act is meant as a protest against the occupation of Palestine and social gaps in Israel.