Geography Archives: Middle East

  The morgues of Gaza’s hospitals are overflowing.  The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa hospital morgue.  Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in.  Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, […]

I am working under the voices of fire, Israeli warplanes. . . .  I still breathe, take some pictures everyday. — artist Shareef Sarhan, January 12, 2009 As Israel’s vicious attack claims more lives, Gaza’s infrastructure now lies in shambles, including the handful of nonprofit venues that made cultural life possible.  Even before the invasion, […]

Introduction by Lincoln Shlensky Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, in an audio/video interview (also transcribed) with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, breaks down the responsibility for the current war in Gaza and clarifies the definition of “terror” as a term that should be applied both to Hamas and Israel.  Based on Israeli Ministry of Defense statistics […]

16 January 2009 Meeting in Pittsburgh, January 15 and 16, UE‘s General Executive Board adopted a statement condemning the current war in the Gaza Strip.  The union’s national leadership body reiterated the position adopted by delegates to UE’s 70th Convention in 2007, which called for “replacing the lopsided pro-Israel policy of the U.S. with a […]

Thursday, January 15, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO — A group of nine activists — Palestinian, anti-Zionist Jewish, and immigrant rights activists — blocked the entrance of the Israeli Consulate beginning at 8:30am today, in nonviolent protest of Israeli apartheid and its current attacks on Gaza.  The activists chained themselves together using handcuffs and locks, locked the […]

Calm down folks and listen to my story, OK? You need to understand that I live with an absolutely impossible woman.  All I ever wanted was to live in peace and harmony with her.  I was willing to share and share alike. So I let her build us a beautiful house, under my direction.  I […]

“Egypt is playing a tawdry role in the current agony of the Palestinians; but it is not new, sadly.” — Dennis Brutus Remembering Egypt  Solitary I walked the sands beside the Pyramids hot soil beneath my feet: ageless the cloudless skies aeons above invisible stars: men laboured in dusty rags parched reeds wilted in shallows […]

Wednesday, January 14, 2009, Los Angeles Click to enlarge. Photos by Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times Early this morning, Jewish activists, in a historic first in Los Angeles, chained themselves to the entrance of the Israeli Consulate and blocked the driveway to the parking structure, blocking all traffic in and out of the building.  “We sent […]

Numerous protests against Israel’s apartheid and massacres in Gaza have been held in South Africa.  One of the targets has been the Egyptian regime’s role in the siege of Gaza. — Ed. Memorandum To President Hosni Mubarak, president of the Arab Republic of Egypt 9 January 2009 We who have gathered today outside the Egyptian […]

We the undersigned are all of Jewish origin.  When we see the dead and bloodied bodies of young children, the cutting off of water, electricity and food, we are reminded of the siege of the Warsaw Ghetto.  When Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, talked of putting Gazans “on a […]

On 10 January 2009, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine* issued an “Urgent Call to Greek People: Block the Shipment of US Arms to Israel through Greek Ports.”   It reported that the U.S. Navy was planning to ship 3,000 tons of ammunition by merchant ship from the Greek port Astakos to the […]

The photographs below were all taken inside the Gaza Strip during the Israeli invasion, from 26th December 2008 to now.  Many of the photographs were taken by the Palestinian coordinator of the International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza.  She has titled her photographs: “Gaza Terrorists.” “In the end we will remember not the […]

Sir Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab): In congratulating my right hon. Friend [David Miliband] on steering resolution 1860 through the United Nations Security Council, may I ask him what the international reaction would be if Hamas had slaughtered nearly 900 Israelis and subjected nearly 1.5 million Israelis to degradation and deprivation?  Is it not an […]

Press TV CCTV TeleSur

On January 10, 2009, thousands of people in the Bay Area protested the US-supported attack by Israel on the people of Gaza at a rally and march in San Francisco.  Trade unionists including leaders of the Oakland Education Association and ILWU Local 10 and a leader of the California Peace and Freedom party condemned the […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, We are writing this letter to urge you to contribute to a special fund established by the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) to help with the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.  All funds sent to the PGFTU GAZA AID will go to basic survival needs — food, medicine, rudimentary […]

A headline on the front page of the New York Times today asserts: “Israelis United on Gaza War Even as Censure Rises Abroad” (Ethan Bronner, 13 January 2009).  The article goes on to claim that “antiwar rallies here have struggled to draw 1,000 participants” (emphasis added).  To be sure, the very first antiwar rally in […]

  “Soldiers Refuse to Serve in Gaza, Tel-Aviv Protest, 8-1-2009,” Social TV, 11 January 2009 Social TV is an Israeli initiative for independent media and public education for social change.

Pro-Israel Rally for Attacking Gaza, New York City, 11.01.09 Cf. Max Blumenthal, “Pro-Israel Rally Attended by Big-Time NY Dems Descends into Calls for ‘Wiping Out’ Palestinians,” AlterNet, 13 January 2009. Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and contributor to The Nation, Al Jazeera English, Salon.com, AlterNet, the Huffington Post, and the […]

Listening to the feelings expressed by Muslims around the world, one perceives an emotion of anger and revolt mixed with a deep sense of helplessness.  The current massacres are but a confirmation of the well known: the “international community” does not really care about the Palestinians, and it is as if the state of Israel, […]