Doc's Talk: The Free Gaza Movement's Objectives and Key Players

Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Free Gaza Movement's Objectives and Key Players

Discoverthenetworks

The Free Gaza Movement (FGM) consists of a coalition of groups and individuals seeking to “break the siege of Gaza” and “raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip.” These are references to the continuing naval blockade of Gaza that Israel put into effect in June 2007, in the wake of a relentless barrage of terror attacks originating in Gaza and directed against towns in southern Israel. (Some of the rockets also originated from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.) Among FGM's more notable group members and supporters are the International Solidarity Movement, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), Viva Palestina, and the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions. FGM's individual activists hail from numerous countries and represent various religious backgrounds. They include, among many others:

* Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate
* Huwaida Arraf, founder of the International Solidarity Movement
* Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who converted to Islam in 2003 and stood for election in the UK as a member of George Galloway's RESPECT Party
*

William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, founders of the Weather Underground
*

Jodie Evans, the founder and leader of Code Pink: Women for Peace
*

Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera reporter and a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, where he was held as an "enemy combatant." The U.S. government accused al-Hajj of having delivered $473,000 to Al-Haramain, a Saudi "charity" with ties to al Qaeda. Al-Hajj's lawyer admitted that his client had met with Osama bin Laden's "Deputy in Sudan," Mamdouh Mahmoud Salim, who was implicated in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
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Renee Bowyer, an Australian writer who justified the kidnappings of two Israeli soldiers on grounds that they were acts "directed specifically against a … military regime which has caused so much bloodshed in Gaza and … in the West Bank as well"
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Caoimhe Butterly, who opposed sanctions against the Taliban after 9/11, and who was one numerous foreign activists who showed solidarity with Yasser Arafat in the latter's besieged compound in April 2002. She also spent a year trying to disrupt Israeli counter-terrorism activities, and she worked with Zapatista anarchists in Mexico.
*

Darlene Wallach, a Jewish member of the International Solidarity Movement who once said: "I don't see how Israel is any different to [sic] Nazism during World War II ... There is nothing that the Palestinians do that in any regard I can condemn. I cannot condemn suicide bombings."

In FGM's reading of history:

* Israel's creation in 1948 was a "catastrophe" for the Arab world, causing "the overwhelming majority of Palestinians" to be "forcibly evicted from their ancestral homeland";
* Israel continues, "[i]n contravention of International law, human rights, and basic principles of morality ... to deny these refugees and their descendants their right to return home";
* the very existence of a Jewish state is the result of a grave "historic injustice";
* the “illegal appropriation of Palestinian land, home and heritage is at the heart of the Middle East conflict";
* Israel is guilty of "land theft" and an "ongoing ethnic cleansing that has squeezed Palestinians in the West Bank into ghettos and bantustans surrounded by 27-foot walls, sniper towers, and military guards"; and
* Gaza is essentially an "open-air prison" with an "impoverished and overcrowded population."

Among FGM’s foremost demands are the following:

* “Israel must withdraw its military presence from all territories occupied since June 5, 1967 and revoke all legislation, regulations, directives and practices that apply differently to different populations living in those territories.”
* “Israel must demolish all barriers built to restrict passage in all territories occupied by Israel since June 5, 1967.”
* “[A]ll Palestinian refugees and exiles and their heirs [must be permitted] to return to their homes in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories; to recover their properties; and to receive compensation for damage, dispossession and unlawful use of such property.”

First and foremost, FGM seeks to draw attention to Israel’s alleged human-rights transgressions by publicizing the blockade that Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Tracing the Roots of the Israeli Blockade:

As of mid-2005, some 8,500 Jews were living in Israeli settlements located in the Gaza Strip. These Jews were law-abiding, productive citizens who had created a horticulture industry that employed approximately 12,000 Palestinians and accounted for 10% of Gaza's entire gross national product. But they were under nearly constant attack from Hamas, which had, along with other terrorists who resented the Jews' presence in Gaza, already launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks against southern Israeli towns since 2001. In an effort to forge a peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbors, Israel decided to try a “land-for-peace” approach -- dismantling all its Gaza settlements and forcibly relocating their inhabitants. This relocation process cost Israel nearly $900 million; it was begun in August 2005 and was completed on September 12.

Several days before the relocation process had even begun, however, the founders and political leaders of Hamas publicly announced that their organization's attacks against Israeli targets would continue even after Israel's impending withdrawal from Gaza. Mahmoud al Zahar, the most senior Hamas member in Gaza, made the following remarks:

* “We do not and will not recognize a state called Israel. Israel has no right to any inch of Palestinian land. This is an important issue. Our position stems from our religious convictions. This is a holy land. It is not the property of the Palestinians or the Arabs. This land is the property of all Muslims in all parts of the world.”
* “Let Israel die.”
* “We will enter the settlements and sully the dignity of Israel with our feet. We will stand on the ruins of the Israeli settlements and tell our people we have prevailed.”

These assertions were followed by a renewed wave of Arab violence and terrorism led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. As the last Israeli Defense Forces personnel left Gaza, the Palestinians began torching the synagogues Israel had abandoned. In addition, they blew up the Egypt-Gaza border wall and immediately brought massive quantities of heavy weaponry into Gaza.

Most significantly, Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks continued to rain down on southern Israeli villages, which the assailants vowed to transform into "ghost town[s]." Between August 15, 2005 and January 25, 2006, Gaza terrorists launched, on average, slightly more than 15 attacks per month.

Then, in elections that were held on January 25, 2006, Hamas took control of the Palestinian government when its party members won a majority of parliamentary seats. Formally assuming power on March 29, the newly installed Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, pledged to confront "Israeli aggression against the people." The new 24-member Hamas Cabinet included 14 ministers who had previously served time in Israeli prisons.

After Hamas's electoral victory, Gaza terrorists stepped up their activity. From January 25, 2006 through June 14, 2007, they launched an average of 102 rocket and mortar attacks per month—an increase of nearly 700%. On May 21, 2007, Hamas official Nizhar Riyah declared that “Hamas is determined to wipe Israel off the map and replace it with the state of Palestine.” He vowed to persevere “until the last Jew is expelled” from "all of Palestine."

On June 14, 2007, Hamas forces consolidated their control over much of Gaza when its military men overpowered rival Fatah fighters, forcing them to abandon their posts. Hamas soon controlled almost all of Gaza City. This development left the Palestinian territories divided, with the West Bank run by Fatah, and Gaza run by Hamas, which continued to deny Israel's right to exist.

In an effort to prevent Hamas from acquiring additional rockets or other explosives fom Iran and other allies abroad, Israel imposed a naval blockade designed to permit the import of humanitarian supplies and other basic necessities, but no weapons of war. Despite the blockade, Gaza's rocket and mortar attacks against Israel not only continued but actually increased in their frequency. Between June 14, 2007 and June 16, 2008, these attacks occurred at an average rate of 361 per month.

All told, between January 2001 and December 2008, Hamas-affiliated terrorists in Gaza fired some 8,165 rockets and mortars at civilian communities in southern Israel.

FGM's Efforts to "Break the Siege":

In August 2008, FGM initiated a "Free Gaza" campaign whereby it periodically dispatched flotillas of ships loaded with humanitarian supplies destined for Gaza. The first of these flotillas consisted of two Free Gaza ships that set sail from Cyprus to Gaza, where they docked and symbolically "broke" the Israeli “siege” when the passengers disembarked. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh welcomed the FGM visitors, meeting with most of the entourage and granting its prime organizer, Jeff Halper, honorary Palestinian citizenship. Afterwards, Halper acknowledged: "This trip wasn't humanitarian; it was political." For further information about this and subsequent FGM voyages, view the Free Gaza Movement profile.

A key affiliate of FGM is the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief, a Turkish group bearing the acronym IHH. Ostensibly a peace and human-rights organization, IHH has longstanding ties to Hamas, al Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood. In May 2010, IHH collaborated with FGM to organize a six-ship flotilla bound for Gaza. Over the next several days, Israel issued warnings that the ships would not be permitted to dock in Gaza without first submitting to an inspection of their cargoes. But when the crews of the vessels refused to comply, Israeli commandos intercepted the flotilla in the early morning hours of May 31. The IHH-affiliated activists on one of the ships (the Mavi Marmara) responded violently to the commandos when they rappelled onto the vessel's deck from a helicopter, attacking the commandos with knives, clubs, steel pipes, and stun grenades. In the melee that ensued, nine activists were killed and seven Israeli soldiers were wounded.

Soon after the foregoing incident, the Israeli government revealed that among the 600-plus people aboard the Mavi Marmara were some 40 Turkish jihadis who had instigated the violence. For example, three of the four Turks who were killed in the confrontation had previously declared their readiness to become martyrs. "I am going to be a martyr. I dreamed about it," 39-year-old Ali Haider Banjinin (from Kurdistan) told his family just before joining the flotilla. Another casualty was 61-year-old Ibrahim Bilgen, whose brother-in-law subsequently stated that "martyrdom suited him very much. Allah gave him a death he desired." A third Turkish casualty, Ali Akbar Yertilmis, had "dreamt of becoming a martyr," according to a friend.

On June 6, 2010, the Israeli Defense Force revealed that five of the Mavi Marmara's passengers were known to have terrorist ties:

* Fatimah Mahmadi (born 1979) is a U.S. resident of Iranian origin and an active member of the organization Viva Palestina, which is believed to be a funder of Hamas; she attempted to smuggle forbidden electronic components into the Gaza Strip.
* Ken O’Keefe (born 1969), an American and British citizen, is a radical anti-Israel activist and operative of Hamas. He attempted to enter Gaza in order to form and train a commando unit for that organization.
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Hassan Iynasi (born 1982), is a Turkish citizen and an activist with a Turkish charity that is known for providing financial support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.
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Hussein Urosh, a Turkish citizen and IHH activist, was headed to Gaza in order to assist in smuggling Al-Qaeda operatives via Turkey into the Strip.
*

Ahmad Umimon (born 1959), is a French citizen of Moroccan origin and a Hamas operative.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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