[Marxism] The continuing crimes against Gaza

[Dennis Brasky]

>                The Rape of Gaza
>
> *By Roane Carey*
>
> *June 02, 2009 "The Nation<http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/440067/the_rape_of_gaza>"
> -- How* would you feel if you found out that an American school, paid for
> with your tax dollars, was bombed and completely destroyed by a US ally?
> This happened in Gaza just a few months ago, during Israel's now-infamous
> Operation Cast Lead.
>
> I've been touring Gaza for the past three days as part of a Code Pink<http://www.codepinkalert.org/>delegation, and the concrete rubble and twisted rebar of the American
> International School in Gaza is just one of the many horrifying images we've
> seen on this trip. The school, which taught American progressive values to
> Palestinian kids in grades K-12, was bombed by US-supplied Israeli F-16s in
> early January. The Israelis claimed, without supplying evidence, that Hamas
> fighters had fired rockets from the school. Now several hundred kids have
> not only lost the school they dearly loved; they have been given a very
> different lesson in American values, one no doubt unintended by the school's
> founders and teachers.
>
> The people of Gaza suffered immensely from the Israeli assault, which not
> only killed some 1,400 and injured 5,000 but destroyed or heavily damaged
> mosques, schools, hospitals, universities, and industrial and other business
> establishments, in addition to thousands of private homes. Dr. Marwan
> Sultan, who practices at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, told me his
> hospital was so damaged they had to send all patients to al-Shifa Hospital
> in Gaza City--which was itself damaged. The bombing of one school in Beit
> Lahiya killed about forty kids and injured a hundred, Sultan told me. He saw
> scenes of death and mutilation that still give him nightmares. Thousands are
> living in tent cities all over the Strip, and the entire population of Gaza
> is being strangled to this day by a blockade that is choking off any
> possibility of reconstruction or recovery.
>
> Make no mistake about it: the blockade, directly enforced by Israel and
> Egypt but conspired in by their superpower patron in Washington, is a
> continuing act of war against an entire civilian population of 1.5 million,
> a form of collective punishment and a crime against humanity. John Ging,
> director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
> (UNRWA), which officially invited Code Pink to come to Gaza, told our
> delegation that billions in aid had been promised in the wake of Israel's
> massacre, but so far nothing had arrived. Our delegation, he said, is the
> first concrete action of solidarity with an oppressed, long-suffering
> population. Four months after a devastating conflict, he added, the siege
> continues. "The first thing we need to see is the opening up of crossing
> points and an end to collective punishment because of the political failures
> and security problems created by a few." It's a matter of life and death, he
> said, "and we're running out of time.... The people of Gaza are asking for
> help, justice and the rule of law."
>
> Code Pink--whose organizers, I might add, have done a fabulous job in
> arranging this tour--is urging Obama to break the siege himself by visiting
> Gaza on his Middle East tour. That's not likely to happen, of course, but
> the least he could do is demand an end to the blockade. He's more likely to
> do so if Americans put on the pressure. Readers: it's your turn.
>
> *Roane Carey, managing editor at The Nation, was the editor of The New
> Intifada (Verso) and, with Jonathan Shainin, The Other Israel: Voices of
> Refusal and Dissent (New Press). *
> © 2009 The Nation
> http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22756.htm
>
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
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