A Killing Week
by C. L . Cook
 The week's end of Israel's week-long military assault against Gaza is credited with at least twenty killed Palestinians, women and children mostly.
The IDF mayhem includes: strikes on a hospital; targeted attacks against journalists; the use of weapons that incur indiscriminate casualties; and, the destruction of at least one Mosque.
One Reuters photographer is dead and two colleagues are
wounded following a strike against their clearly marked vehicle
Wednesday in Gaza.
Fadel Shana was filming a tank near the Wadi Gaza
Bridge when its turret turned his way and fired. He was killed by a
specialized kind of tank shell called a flechette. That is the name
given the thousands of razor sharp, barbed darts that explode from the
shell while it's still in flight. The resulting carnage is complete,
the bodies of those nearest detonation reduced to small pieces of flesh.
International
organizations have lobbied to have the flechette banned, their use by
Israel against the civilian population of Gaza adding intensity to
those calls. But the flechette is not the only heinous tactic being
employed against the citizens of the encircled enclave. Israel has
again stopped the flow of diesel oil and food and medicines. The Gaza Health Ministry has put out an appeal
to their colleagues around the world, saying Wafa hospital, as well as
suffering shelling earlier in the week, has now run out of anesthetic
nitrous oxide, the gas used in serious surgeries. Surgeries cancelled
for lack of anesthetic may be academic, as hospital electricity supplies too are
uncertain.
This week's attacks are for the greater part not
news for the greater number in North America. What little news does
reach 'The Fortress' is bled, so to speak, of its cogent context, leaving
most viewers and readers baffled.
Israel's attack makes perfect sense however
within the context of last September's move by the Olmert
administration to rebrand Gaza an "Enemy Entity"
in toto, a terse admission none in Gaza would be safe from Israel;
collectively Gazans would live imprisoned and collectively they would
be punished.
Though international condemnation is near
universal its volume lacks urgency. In some cases Israeli policy,
clearly and undeniably in conflict with the laws and norms of nations,
is actually supported. While Europe rarely more than whispers objection
to the outrages daily inflicted on the Palestinian people as a whole,
Canada's Conservative party, as led by Stephen Harper, actually applauds.
Harper
famously stepped up as the first among nation heads to support
Israel's declaration of siege against Hamas following that party's
election win in 2006.
Harper also pledged support to Israel, even as its airforce bombed Lebanon, indiscriminately killing hundreds of civilians including vacationing Canadian citizens. The IDF also targeted the country's infrastructure and seeded its southern reaches with another indiscriminate anti-personnel weapon: millions of cluster bomb bomblets.
Canadian minister for public safety, Stockwell Day signed a public security cooperation agreement
in the form of a 'Declaration of Intent' with his Israeli counterpart
last month, effusing as he did so the virtues and great example of
democracy in practice Canada's great friend Israel embodied. Prime Minister Harper it seems is intent on drawing Canada closer to Israel, both in policy and method.
In the meanwhile, the body count continues to climb, as Israel and its friends continue to deny the obvious enactment of the [H]olocaust, or Shoah promised Gaza not so long ago by Israel's number two defense minister.
[Below is a press release I received today via e:mail. - lex]
From the Ministry of Health in Gaza: Press Release
On the 16th of April El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital and its premises in the besieged Gaza has been targeted by the Israeli tanks for the second time. The attack resulted in a clear damage to the hospital buildings and infrastructure and premises and left massive damage to the departments, windows and caused complete outage of power and water.
The attack has even caused damage to the cable of the only generator in the hospital putting in a great danger to the life of the paralyzed and coma patients who need constant medical and nursing attention and frequent suctioning. Furthermore, all patients and a staff are in a state of shock due to the relentless in the vicinity and inside the hospital. Many shrapnels and bullets even penetrated into the patients rooms in every section of the hospital.
Based on these tragic events we would like to reaffirm the following:
1- El Wafa hospital strongly condemns this inhumane attack which has put the lives of our patients and staff in a real danger.
2- On the light of poverty, shortage of fuel, strict siege on Gaza our hospital has been the lung through which our disabled clients breath and it has been the only place where cases of spinal cord and head injury are treated.
3- This is the second time where the hospital buildings and infrastructure has been attacked as the first time was in February 2002 when two of our nursing staff were shot dead by Israeli military forces while positioning one of the spinal cord patients inside room No (214).
NB: Since the beginning of the attack we have been in constant contact with international organizations especially the International Red Cross Society.
4- During the attack we have had a complete shut down of water and electricity.
5- The operation theater of the hospital has stopped completely as a result of the Israeli military attack.
6- At the end we ask the international community, the human rights organizations, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Red Cross Society to save no efforts to put an end to this repeated Israeli military aggression on civilians and health institutes, patients and staff.
El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital Gaza
16-4-2008
This press release was forwarded to me by Sarah Price, who has many contacts in Gaza and regularly travels there. I am requesting that you please forward this information as widely as possible. Thank you.
Hajja Romi
Edmonton Small Press Association (ESPA)
P.O. Box 75086 RPO
Edmonton, Alberta
T6E 6K1 Canada
780-434-9236
http://www.edmontonsmallpress.org
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18332213920
5th Annual Fair Trade Fair & Film Festival
May 17, Noon-6pm @ Strathcona Baptist Church Gymnasium
See the links above for more info!
End Global Hunger - click here every day!
http://www.thehungersite.com
http://www.freerice.com
|
