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repulsewarrior
Deputy
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1972
Location: Canada
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New aid boat sets sights on Gaza mission
By Stefanos Evripidou
HOUSE PRESIDENT Marios Garoyian yesterday gave his support to the latest effort by the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) to send a boat filled with humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
The FGM along with the Volunteer Doctors of Cyprus tried last month to take urgent medical aid to the Palestinians during Israel’s offensive against the tiny strip using the sea route from Larnaca.
This ended in disaster on December 30 when the Israeli navy rammed the 60ft SS Dignity three times, destroying much of the vessel and forcing the group to divert to Lebanon instead.
Human rights activists vowed to try again to reach out to Palestinians in Gaza, who face severe medical shortages and little respite from the Israeli ground and air offensive which has seen hundreds of civilians, many women and children, killed as a result.
The Dignity suffered extensive damage from the collision with Israeli vessels and will need at least a month of repairs. For the next trip, the FGM will be using the Greek-flagged Arion.
The next team to try and breach the blockade of Gaza will include two Greek parliamentarians, Sophia Sacorafa and Thodoris Dritsas, doctors from Greece, France and the US, journalists from the international media and five FGM members.
The team met with Garoyian yesterday who expressed his support and wish that their effort will be successful.
The House President said the mission was a purely humanitarian effort which sent the message to the international community that the killing of innocent children and unarmed civilians could not be tolerated.
Garoyian also sent a message to “Israeli friends that this boat going to Gaza does not carry guns, terrorists or anything that could be considered an offensive weapon.
“This boat will take solidarity to Palestinians and the message that humanity does not leave the population of Gaza abandoned,” as well as carrying medicines to victims of the Israeli offensive.
The House President is due to have a meeting with the Israeli Ambassador to Nicosia tomorrow.
A Free Gaza co-ordinator, Vangelis Pissias, said: “We are going to Gaza again because we must go, because this area of the Mediterranean, the land of Palestine, once again has become a theatre of war. We will carry humanitarian aid, but in parallel we consider this as an action which rejects the logic of war and of violence.”
Pissias said around 30 people were taking part in the mission. Ten from Greece, while the remainder are British, American, French and a member of the Israeli Parliament. They are expected to leave this evening or tomorrow morning. Pissias said around 100 Israeli navy vessels were lined along the Gaza coastline.
Meanwhile, AKEL spokesman Andros Kyprianou yesterday condemned the continued attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza. The fact that the victims were mainly civilians, and mostly children, was an insult to humanity, he said.
“This offensive is not just against Hamas. Today most of the victims are children – about 300 – and non-combatants and it is an affront to humanity to allow the murder of innocent children for the sake of political or other expediencies,” he stressed.
A delegation from the ruling communist party left Cyprus yesterday for a series of meetings with parties and organisations in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Kyprianou said the delegation would carry the message that the war in Gaza must end.
AKEL’s Euro MP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides joined eight other MEPs on a trip to Rafah via Cairo yesterday. The purpose of the mission, according to a press release issued by Triantafyllides’ office, is to examine on site the humanitarian crisis in the area.
The delegation is due to leave Cairo today to return to Strasbourg in time to brief the European Parliament about the situation in Gaza.
In a rare display of solidarity, the youth groups of government partners, AKEL, DIKO and EDEK gathered yesterday at Eleftheria Square in Nicosia to demonstrate against the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Speakers condemned attacks against the civilian population and called for an end to the military operation.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008 |
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repulsewarrior
Deputy
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1972
Location: Canada
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Aid ship leaves Cyprus for Gaza
The Associated PressPublished: February 4, 2009
NICOSIA, Cyprus: A Cyprus port official says a cargo ship carrying activists and supplies from Lebanon to Gaza is on its way to the Palestinian territory after a stopover in Cyprus.
Larnaca Port Manager Pampis Vassiliou said the Togo-flagged "Tali" carrying about 60 tons of medicine and food as well as eight activists and journalists left Cyprus for Gaza Wednesday morning after an overnight stopover at the port.
The ship is trying to reach Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade. Organizers said the trip has not been cleared by Israeli authorities, who have turned back similar aid boats trying to reach Gaza.
The blockade on Gaza was imposed after Hamas militants took over the impoverished Palestinian territory by force in 2007. |
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repulsewarrior
Deputy
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1972
Location: Canada
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Children paid heavy price in Gaza conflict
Published: March 09, 2009
GAZA, March 9 (UPI) -- The head of the U.N. Children's Fund said Monday the recent Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza resulted in a heavy price being paid by children.
Ann Veneman, UNICEF executive director, on Monday concluded a weeklong trip to Israel and Gaza. Veneman said more than 400 children died in Gaza and in southern Israel during the Israeli military campaign targeting Hamas, the United Nations reported.
During the fact-finding mission, Veneman visited the West Bank, southern Israel and Gaza to see firsthand the burden imposed on children in the region during the conflict. The United Nations estimated that on top of the hundreds of children who died, more than 1,700 were injured during the hostilities.
"Children are the innocent victims of conflict," Veneman said in a statement.
"Schools have been damaged, homes lost and many children carry physical and psychological wounds."
© 2009 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form. |
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repulsewarrior
Deputy
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1972
Location: Canada
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| “This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. “President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.” |
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| The latest from www.freegaza.org reports that the humanitarian vessel Spirit of Humanity has been attacked and boarded by the Israelis 23 miles off the coast of Gaza. Former US Congresswoman and Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney is among the 21 human rights workers taken prisoner off the ship. |
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2009/06/30/cynthia-mckinney-reportedly-taken-captive-by-israeli-navy/ |
the responses are telling...
find the link, persons on board...interesting. |
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repulsewarrior
Deputy
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1972
Location: Canada
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| I'm standing in what remains of Taysir Sadia Yaseen's olive grove, looking up at a 12ft-high wire fence. It arrived in 2000 when the Israeli army, without any notice, bulldozed a trench on this rocky, precipitous hillside and erected it on his land, declaring it part of a "security buffer zone". He points to the Israeli settlement that the fence protects. It resembles a suburban dormitory town, like something out of The Truman Show, only fortified and on a hilltop. It is encircled by twice the area of land and served by a new road, exclusively for the use of Israeli settlers and prohibited to Palestinians. This road in turn is guarded by another, military, road with routine patrols – we can hear army trucks whizzing by – and, finally, the fence. |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/13/farming-in-palestine
...not to mention how the oil rights from ocean exploration have been usurped over the years, since 1967... |
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repulsewarrior
Deputy
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1972
Location: Canada
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Pillay told the 47-member council that she supported the report's recommendations, including its call for urgent action to counter impunity - meaning that Israel and Hamas must investigate and prosecute those who committed war crimes.
The 575-page report concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields, and destroyed civilian infrastructure during its Dec. 27-Jan. 18 incursion into the Gaza Strip to root out Palestinian rocket squads.
... Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said "holding war criminals accountable and respect for human rights are not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be built."
The report accused Palestinian armed groups including Hamas of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through rocket attacks on southern Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121045.html |
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repulsewarrior
Deputy
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 1972
Location: Canada
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"My parents were part of the historic movement in which there is a heavy dose of redemption and messianism," says Pachnik. "They thought they were coming back to the land of the Bible, without being aware that there were people here. The biggest sin of the first generation of settlers was not the return to Judea and Samaria; the return to the land of our forefathers is not a sin. We returned to a place to which we have a historic belonging. The story of the People of Israel has much more to do with Gush Etzion than with Tel Aviv. But the big mistake for which we are now paying the price is that we did not dare, we did not agree, we were unable to look around and say: there are other people here. You have to know how to live with them and how to accept them."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144264.html |
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Not all settlers and Palestinians want each other to disappear
By Linoy Bar-Gefen and Meron Rapoport |
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