Oh My Palestinian Bothers, Sisters and Children ! – Dr.M.K.Sherwani

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

December,29,2008

–

Oh My Palestinian Bothers, Sisters and Children !

I hate my fate that I am not amongst you ;

In the heaps of the dead with the bodies torn,

The angels escorting your souls to the Paradise .

You are enjoying the fruits of the Celestial Bliss,

Your innocent blood spilled on the earth;

Is cultivating a new crop of the valiant crusaders,

Who will uproot the pillars of the oppression.

Your survivors are still looking around,

For help from the brothers in the name of faith ;

Their people know them as mighty kings and heads,

But they are stupid lackeys of the American Tyrant.

Believe me! I am discerning red clouds over the skies,

“The Doom of the aggressor” is written on them;

The Divine Justice is now making its way,

The worst awaits your brothers – the silent spectators.

—

Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani
All India Muslim Forum, U.P. India
Email: sherwanimk@yahoo.com

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

For Gaza

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Steel angels rain down fire
upon women, children.
Glittering in the madding sun,
they return to Zion.

Are they conscious of what they do?
Do they knowingly purchase death with death?
Death visited upon school children.
Death visited upon the disabled.
Death visited upon the sinner and the righteous.

No. Cold steel and hot chemicals are only tools,
monuments to the malefic of the Western mind.
And so the curse rains down upon the unfortunate,
before blowing across the green line
and engulfing Zion itself.

—

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Anti-Arab Racism, Islamophobia, and the Anti-War Movement

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By Rami El-Amine

Published on: October 01, 2006

Racism against Arabs and Muslims long preceded the 9-11 terrorist attacks and has much of its roots in Western imperialism in the Middle East, especially Israel’s colonization of Palestine. Yet, the escalation that we witness today can be traced to the war on terror launched after 9-11 by Bush and his neoconservative ideologues with the backing of the Democrats. Anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism has helped sell the detentions, wars, gulags, and occupations of US imperialism’s latest and boldest venture into the Middle East and South Asia. In turn, this imperial venture has further inflamed racist views of Arabs and Muslims. What makes this growing racism so frightening is its wide acceptance in US society, particularly by the left. With the latter, it is not as much conscious racism as not doing enough to fight it. Part of this may be due to ambivalence, but it also stems from a lack of a dynamic understanding of Islamism. Broad support gives anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism a sense of legitimacy and respectability that makes building a mass movement that can end the war and occupation of Iraq difficult, if not impossible, since so much of the support for the war is fueled by fear and racism.

We thrash, curse for air
As our strangler declares, look
How violent the Arab
-Haiku for the Head Locked by Zein El-Amine

According to an ABC-Washington Post poll taken in March 2006, a majority of people in the US believe that “Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence,” with 46 percent expressing a negative view of the religion, 7 percent higher than in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The poll also found that 25 percent of people in the US admitted to “harboring prejudice towards” Muslims and Arabs. The institutional effect of this racism is stark. The earnings of Arab and Muslim men working in the US dropped about 10 percent since 9-11, according to a new University of Illinois study. The drop in wages was most dramatic in areas reporting high hate crime rates. Robert Kaestner, co-author of the study said there was “an immediate and significant connection between personal prejudice and economic harm.”

ZIONIST ISRAEL’S CRIMES ARE NOT NEW

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

[By Dr. Mohamed Elmasry] – Dec 30, 2008

The inflicting of war-crime acts and crimes against humanity is not new to the history of Zionist Israel.

Zionism — for those still confused by the relentless media “spin” deliberately clouding the issue — is a neo-fascist ideology based on giving a “birthright” guarantee to Jews anywhere on the planet to settle in Palestine.

Zionists have resorted to any means available to implement this discriminatory and openly racist ideology – including mass killing, terrorism, forced displacement, destruction of property and ethnic cleansing – in their policy of oppressing native Palestinians in every aspect of their day-to-day struggle for survival. Israel’s recent heavy aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza strip is only the latest act designed to accomplish an evil policy designed to inflict death, destruction and misery on the entire population.

The world must be reminded yet again that the artificially created Zionist state of Israel has no constitution. This was not a historical oversight by any means; having a constitution would require the country to define its borders and to state categorically who meets the criteria of citizenship. Thus it has proven convenient for Israel to “postpone” the issue of constitutional legitimacy while its government continually pushes to expand the border regions in order to accommodate more and more illegal Jewish settlements.

Why would Israel bomb a university?

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Dr. Akram Habeeb writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 29 December 2008

The Islamic University of Gaza, February 2007. (Wesam Saleh/MaanImages)

As a Fulbright scholar and professor of American literature at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), I have always preferred to keep silent about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I always felt that it was my mission to preach love and peaceful coexistence. However, Israel’s massive offensive against the Gaza Strip has spurred me to speak out.

Last night, during the second night of Israel’s unprecedented attack on Gaza, I was awakened by the deafening sound of intensive bombardment. When I learned that Israel had bombed my university with American-made F-16s, I realized that its “target bank” had gone bankrupt. Of course Israeli politicians and generals would claim that IUG is a Hamas stronghold and that it preaches terrorism.

Israeli Slaughter, International Culpability: Gaza massacre points to urgent need for viable sanctions

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Dan Freeman-Maloy

There is every reason to be outraged. But despite the severity of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, we have little right to act surprised. Whatever else can be said, Israel has made it abundantly clear that until its actions are met with credible international sanctions, it will subject Palestinians (and very likely others in the region) to massive, recurring waves of violence.

This was clear when the Obama-Biden campaign helped to lay the political foundation for this assault. It was clear when, amidst threats of such an operation and ongoing colonization in the West Bank, the European Union voted to upgrade relations with Israel earlier this month. For those of us in Canada, it has been clear as the Harper government has sharpened its alignment with Israel in the absence of any sustained parliamentary opposition.

Israel Targets Gaza Mosques

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By  Ola Attallah, IOL Correspondent

Several mosques were flatted in the Israeli strikes. GAZA CITY — Mosques across the Gaza Strip have become the latest target of the Israeli military juggernaut, unleashed against the impoverished coastal enclave since Saturday. “As if it was not enough for them to kill our people and children, the Israelis are also destroying the houses of Allah,” Abu Khalid, a Gaza resident, told IslamOnline.net. Two people were killed and scores wounded when Israeli warplanes attacked a mosque near Abu Khalid’s house in western Gaza. “We heard a big boom and saw a black cloud of smoke billowing into the sky,” he recalled. “We went out to see what happened and were dumbfounded to see the mosque razed to the ground.” Israeli warplanes blitzed a mosque in Jabaliya early Monday. Five girls of the same family, including a 14 month-old toddler, were killed overnight when Israeli war jets pounded a mosque near their home in the northern town of Jabaliya. A third mosque in the southern town of Khan Younis was also flattened after Israeli aircraft bombed it out. The massive Israeli bombardment of targets in Gaza has killed at least 345 people, including 57 civilians, according to medics and UN figures. At least 27 of the dead are children.

‘Israel Has Lost Its Right To Exist’

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

By: Jim Kirwan on: 29.12.2008 [11:42 ]

‘Israel Has Lost Its Right To Exist’

From Jim Kirwan
12-28-8

My thoughts as well – because no legitimate ‘state’ could consider remaining outside the community of nations, for over fifty years, while using the barbaric savagery that Zionist Israel has chosen to pursue, against the original occupants of the now blood-soaked nation that was once called Palestine. Zionist Isreal ‘must be dismantled’ to keep the world from coming apart.

Khaled Amayreh: My brief Response to Zionist disinformation

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

My brief Response to Zionist disinformation

Khaled Amayreh

29 December, 2008 Zionist Hasbara operatives have been claiming that the current Israeli genocidal onslaught in Gaza is a “war against Hamas” and that it was only necessitated by the firing of Palestinian rockets on Israel. This is a big lie. Read the following: “Hamas had repeatedly said it was willing and ready to stop “all” firing of projectiles from Gaza if only Israel would lift the deadly blockade. And Israel repeatedly said “No.” Israel has been saying ad nauseam that it ended its occupation of Gaza. Well, why does Israel then retain its control of Gaza skies, Gaza shores, Gaza sea, Gaza border crossings (even with Egypt). Why does Israel retain its control of Gaza life? Why? Hence, the issue of firing “rockets” on Israel (they are homemade projectiles that make more noise than damage), should be viewed largely as a red herring. Effectively, Israel has been giving Palestinians in Gaza either of two choices, to die of starvation as a result of the blockade or be exterminated by the Israeli war machine.

Gaza: The Untold Story

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Monday, December 29, 2008

~

Conquerors came and went, and Gaza stood where it still stands today.

By Ramzy Baroud

December 29 2008, “Information Clearinghouse” — – It’s incomprehensible that a region such as the Gaza Strip, so rich with history, so saturated with defiance, can be reduced to a few blurbs, sound bites and reductionist assumptions, convenient but deceptive, vacant of any relevant meaning, or even true analytical value.

The fact is that there is more to the Gaza Strip than 1.5 million hungry Palestinians, who are supposedly paying the price for Hamas’s militancy, or Israel’s ‘collective punishment’ whichever way the media decide to brand the problem.

More importantly, Gaza’s existence since time immemorial must not be juxtaposed with its proximity to Israel, failure or success in ‘providing’ a tiny Israeli town – itself built on conquered land that was seen only 60 years ago as part of the Gaza province – with its need for security. It’s this very expectation that made the killing and wounding of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza a price worth paying, in the callous eyes of many.

At least 30 children killed in Gaza Strip, Israeli spokesperson says they are legitimate target

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

At least 30 children killed in Gaza Strip, Israeli spokesperson says they are legitimate target

PNN

Three Palestinian children from the Balosha family, of five who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, are seen in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.

December 29, 2008Gaza / PNN – Not only are children in the Gaza Strip losing their parents, missing food, medicines and school, they are being killed. Israeli forces took the lives of at least 30 children in Gaza since air attacks began on Saturday. A statement issued by the Global Movement for the Defense of Children says its initial reports indicate that another 150 children are injured. The first children hit en masse were during struck during the beginning of the attacks when they were leaving school. Dozens of school children were raced to area hospitals in Gaza City on Saturday. Among the children killed are the sisters in Jabaliya yesterday and the eight year old boy today in Khan Younis. The British university movement to boycott Israel wrote in their petition, “‘Children,’ says an Israeli spokeswoman, ‘are legitimate targets because if they inhabit a house allegedly being used to manufacture home-made rockets to fire into Israel, they are ‘terrorists’ themselves.'”

Israeli occupation holocaust in Gaza reaps 360 lives and 1700 wounded

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Complete families have been wiped out
Israeli occupation holocaust in Gaza reaps 360 lives and 1700 wounded

Palestinian Information Center

December 29, 2008 GAZA, (PIC)– Death toll resulting from the Israeli occupation holocaust in the Gaza Strip, at dawn Tuesday, has reached 360, and the number of wounded rose to more than 1700, Palestinian sources confirmed. Israeli occupation warplanes, at dawn Tuesday, have launched airstrikes against the government buildings killing ten people and wounding tens others. Israeli occupation warplanes intensified their bombardment of the west of Gaza City targeting sports and government facilities. A huge number of bombs were dropped on the targets in three minutes. Eyewitnesses said that an F16 fired about 20 rockets on the ministries complex in the western part of Gaza City, al-Shams sports club, naval police headquarters and the headquarters of the defunct preventive security.

Egypt and Israel violate refugee laws – report

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

December 13, 2008, 15:39

Illegal immigration is not a problem unique to any country. What is unique is how some countries, such as Egypt and Israel, choose to deal with it. US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently turned its spotlight on Egyptian and Israeli immigration tactics in a 90-page report entitled Sinai Perils.

The report claims that Egypt and Israel have responded to African migration across the Sinai border with policies that violate fundamental rights. The gravest violations are the rights to seek asylum and the right to life.

Death without trial

Reports of migrants trickling across the Sinai border date back to 2004, but by 2007 the flow became a flood.

In June 2007, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met about this influx of Africans into Israel. On July 1, Olmert publicly said that an agreement on “ways to deal with infiltration into Israel” had been reached.

Within three days, Egyptian border police shot and critically wounded a Sudanese man.

Two weeks later, Hadja Abbas Haroun was killed. Seven-months pregnant, Haroun fled Darfur with her husband and daughter. Haroun’s husband, Sadiq, told Al Jeezera that border police shot his wife in the head at close range.

Thereafter, the death toll continued rising and the death list includes children.

‘Israeli air strikes represent massive violations of international law’

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams

December 29, 2008, 8:45

The Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Convention, both in regard to the obligations of an occupying power and in the requirements of the laws of war.

Those violations include:

Collective punishment – the entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.

Targeting civilians – the air strikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East.

Disproportionate military response – the air strikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza’s elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.

FLASHBACK: Resistance to Israeli occupation – a right?

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Diakonia

Posted November 10, 2006 Palestinians are a people under occupation who has the right to self-determination under the UN Charter, the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations from 1970, and Article 1 of both the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The right to self-determination Palestinians possess a specific history in an identifiable territory, a distinct culture, and a will and capability to gain self-governance. The right to self-determination was acknowledged by the international community in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947, and recently by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its Advisory Opinion on the Wall (section 118). The ICJ stated that: “…construction, along with measures taken previously, thus severely impedes the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self‑determination, and is therefore a breach of Israel’s obligation to respect that right” (section 122). To the UN General Assembly website and Resolution 181 Read more about the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Wall Read more about the Wall