poverty and occupation

The beduin village –north of jabalia refugees camp
Thursday 30th of March 31, 2007
Today I visited the camp of the displaced families of the village , accamppanied by the RC Society crisis intervention team , the team consist of , , 2 community health educators , a psychologist and a social worker , the aim of the visit is to evaluate the social , health and psychological different needs of the displaced families, and to plan the right intervention programme later on ,to support the families and to show solidarity with the community.
I met tens of children , as well as some huminatarian aid organizations , I visited the mobile clinic of the union of health work committees , where tens of children received medical check up,for mainly gastroentritis , upper respiratoty infections as well as cut wounds and trauma symptoms
A lot of work need to be done for this community of 5000 population , where poverty , is prevelant , and the population suffers as well as most residents of Gaza , when the local councils budgets are scarce ( half of the PA budget comes from Palestinian government tax revenue, that is hold by Israel ,) and while the westren embargo continues the local councils warned of anticiptated environmental disasters few days prior to the swege system collapse ,this swege blant that shouldnot be so close to this residential area,those people poverty forced them to be in such slum area , they did not have other choice

Life continues in my country , occupation, westren sanctions , no law order , interclasshes, ,paralysed national unity government and cruel poverty that affects the whole population , but is too harsh on women and children

the beduin vilage umnaser disaster

The beduin village –north of jabalia refugees camp
Thursday 30th of March 31, 2007
Today I revisited the camp of the displaced families of the village , with the crisis intervention team of the Red crescent society for Gaza strip , a team consist of , , 2 community health educators , and a psychologist , the aim of the visit is to evaluate the social , health and psychological different needs of the displaced families, and to plan the right intervention programme later on ,to support the families and to show solidarity with the community.
I met tens of children , as well as some huminatarian aid organizations , I visited the mobile clinics of union of health work committees as well as the medical relief committees ,
A lot of work need to be done for this community of 5000 population , where poverty , is prevelant , and the population suffers as well as most residents of Gaza , when the local councils budgets are scarce ( half of the PA budget comes from Palestinian government tax revenue, that is hold by Israel ,) and while the westren embargo continues the local councils warned of anticiptated environmental disasters few days prior to the swege system collapse ,this swege blant that shouldnot be so close to this residential area,those people poverty forced them to be in such slum area , they did not have other choice
Life continues in my country , occupation, no law order , poverty , interclashes ,paralysed national unity government

Devastating Sewage flood hits Umnasr Village -North of Jabalia

This morning, and due to technical defaults, the sewage system of
north area of Gaza has sudenlly collapsed. Sewage water flooded and
gushed into the next lowest level place, a Bedouin community. As an
outcome, 8 at least were killed including mother and 2 children , 60 or more were injured,school children paniced inside their schools , 3000 residents were
evacuated and became homeless, and 400 residential homes were
either destroyed or unsuitable for living due to the unsanitary
sewage water.

This will need urgent relief intervention from all of us, working in the health and huminatarian relief services. I shall be able
to identify the list of needs by tommorrow morning , which will be
complementry to other relief work agencies.

It is usually the poorest of the poor who suffer, living in such a
slum area next to the sewage system treatment reservoir. It is not
choice, it is poverty that forced them to live there, adding more
and more to their daily suffering under the occupation.

In Arabic we have a saying: "the catastrophies do not not come
alone." This incident was the last we need while living under
occupation and facing the daily hardships of the humanitarian
crisis in Gaza.

In solidarity,
Mona ElFarra

Tanya Reinhart by Victoria Britain

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2038868,00.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tanya Reinhart


A versatile Israeli academic, she spoke out against
the conflict with Palestine

Victoria Brittain
Wednesday March 21, 2007
The Guardian


The distinguished Israeli professor of linguistics
Tanya Reinhart, who has died suddenly aged 63, was
even better known for her prolific writing on the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, her searing criticism of
her own country, and her role as an activist,
including her support for an academic boycott of
Israel. She was a woman of immense bravery, and
believed that fierce criticism of Israel "is the best
act of solidarity and compassion with the Jews that
one can have".
She was born in Israel, and brought up in Haifa by her
mother, a communist and single parent. At the Hebrew
University, Jerusalem, she gained a BA in philosophy
and Hebrew literature in 1967 followed by an MA in
philosophy and comparative literature. She was
politically active with both the Communist party and
the Young Communist league.

She went to study in the US, and in 1976 gained a PhD
in linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), where her supervisor was Noam
Chomsky. On hearing of her death, he described her as
an "old and cherished friend" and paid tribute both to
her academic work and the political writing on her own
society, which "drew away the veil that concealed
criminal and outrageous actions and shone a searing
light on the reality that was obscured".

Reinhart taught at Tel Aviv University for more than
20 years, and held a chair as professor of linguistics
and cultural studies. She was a multi-disciplinarian
and also taught and published on art, literature and
media studies. Those who attended her media studies
lectures remember how, amid fierce debate, students'
mindsets and lives were changed by her analysis,
encouraging them to read between the lines of their
country's writers. Her moral indignation flared
quickly, but she was also given to long and patient
discussions with her students.

She taught too at MIT; Columbia University, New York;
the University of Paris; and for 15 years was linked
to the University of Utrecht. Her contribution to
linguistic theory lay in the connection between
meaning and context and the interface between syntax
and systems of sound. Her most recent academic book,
Interface Strategies, was published last year, and she
was on the editorial board of several academic
journals in various linguistic disciplines.

Reaching to other audiences, she was a columnist for
the Israeli paper Yediot Aharnot and for the radical
online magazine, Counterpunch. Her most recent
political book, The Roadmap to Nowhere, was also
published last year.

She came to see parallels with apartheid South Africa,
writing in 2003: "What Israel is doing under Ariel
Sharon far exceeds the crimes of the South Africa's
white regime. It has been taking the form of
systematic ethnic cleansing, which South Africa never
attempted." It was the analogy between Israel and
South Africa's apartheid that she used in justifying
the academic boycott movement of recent years.

With great understatement she commented, also in 2003:
"It is not easy for an Israeli academic to support the
calls for boycott of Israeli academic institutions
these days. Like any other segment of the Israeli
society, the universities are paying the price of
Israel's war against the Palestinians, with severe
budget cuts and deteriorating research conditions. A
freeze of the EU funds would, no doubt, make things
even tougher. It is therefore understandable that the
Israeli academia is mobilising its forces to attack
any such boycott attempt. Understandable, but not
just."

Reinhart's passionate calls for justice for the
Palestinians made her a sought-after speaker
internationally, and last October she gave the Edward
Said Memorial lecture at Adelaide University in
Australia. In her memorable final speech in France,
last December at the Résistances bookshop in Paris,
she roundly denounced the embargo imposed on the
Palestinians since the election of a Hamas government
in January 2006. European countries, including France,
she said, had no right to cut off food supplies to the
Palestinians. "It was not an act of generosity which
Europe could either carry on or not - Europe chose not
to force Israel to respect its obligations under
international law."

She was not only a writer, but also a frontline
activist. Over the years she organised solidarity
campaigns with Palestinian academics at Birzeit
University on the West Bank, and against the Israeli
occupation of Lebanon. Many friends and colleagues
described countless visits with her to the occupied
Palestinian territories, and the demonstrations and
detentions which were part of them. Her like-minded
academic colleagues, Avraham Oz and Ilan Pappe, are
feeling "orphaned" by her sudden death.

Most recently she was active in protests against the
building of the long partition wall and the annexing
of Palestinian land for it. She never tired of taking
visitors to see the reality of lost livelihoods and
unviable lives the wall has created for tens of
thousands of Palestinians literally immured in
villages without land in the latest Israeli scheme to
create facts on the ground and prevent the emergence
of a Palestinian state.

Reinhart was an optimist however, and last October
wrote that "persistent struggle can have an effect,
and can lead governments to act. Such struggle begins
with the Palestinian people, who have withstood years
of brutal oppression, and who, through their spirit of
zumud - sticking to their land - and daily endurance,
organising and resistance, have managed to keep the
Palestinian cause alive, something that not all
oppressed nations have managed to do."

She also believed in the modest role of international
solidarity movements, "that send their people to the
occupied territories and stand in vigils at home,
professors signing boycott petitions, subjecting
themselves to daily harassment, a few courageous
journalists that insist on covering the truth, against
the pressure of acquiescent media and pro-Israel
lobbies. Often this struggle for justice seems futile.
Nevertheless, it has penetrated global consciousness."

In 2006 she was ousted by what she felt to be
bureaucratic harassment from her post at Tel Aviv
University, and with great regret decided to leave
Israel. She died in her sleep in New York, where she
had immediately been offered a teaching post at New
York University. She is survived by her husband, the
Hebrew language poet Aharon Shabtai

· Tanya Reinhart, academic and human rights
campaigner, born 1944; died March 17 2007





_

the ethnic cleansing of Palestine -ILAN PAPPE

Dear all
i just come back from Ireland , promise to come back to you as soon as i finish important work pending issues , till then i highly recommend to you to read Ilan Pappe most interesting book the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine , we need more and more of couregious people to tell the truth and not to keep repeating the zionist media spin STPRIES , about what happened in Palestine 1948,

salam , peAce based on justice for all

Living with uncertainty - thank you Mr. Olmert for making my life difficult and different

Living with uncertainty - thank you Mr. Olmert

Sunday 24th of February
Two months ago I was invited by Trocaire in Ireland to lecture in some places, about the situation for women in conflict areas, and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which relates to womens safety and security. With the Trocaire invitation letter, and through efforts by (Hemocade) Defence of Individuals Rights in Israel, I was promised a travel permit, via Eritz checkpoint, North of Gaza.
10am
Permit was not approved by the Israelis so I unpacked my suitcase. Sondos was let down but not surprised because in Gaza we always expect the worst and we are always forced to accept the abnormalities as the normal pattern of life under occupation.

Monday 25th of February
Sondos went back to school this morning.
9am
I received a call from the Irish embassy telling me to be ready as the permit will be issued any minute.
I was really pleased and hurried up from my work to my apartment, to pack up my suitcase again, and wait for a call from the Irish embassy. I didn’t collect Sondos from school as I didn’t want to let her down if we did not get the permit.

2pm
Sondos is back from school and is happy and excited to know that we may make it to Ireland via the Allenby Bridge crossing on the River Jordan.

4pm
The embassy phoned asking us to hurry up to the border at the Eritz checkpoint.

4.15pm
We arrived at the borders where we are waiting with a few others including international staff, diplomats and patients.
During a very long 4 hours we have been told by the Israelis on the other side of the borders, and through the Palestinian security guards, several times to ‘go home’, ‘you cannot cross today’, ‘come back tomorrow’. In the meantime I received around ten calls from Hamocade and the embassy telling me ‘hold on you will cross today’.
In the end at 7.30 pm, we were allowed to cross from the Palestinian side (Gaza) to Israel.

On my way to the Israeli checkpoint I walked with my daughter and ten sick people, who are in desperate need for further treatment in Israel. We walked through a long cement tube, with cameras looking down on top of our heads and sound from hidden mics giving us instructions. At that moment I recalled the big brother from the ‘1984’ novel and felt in an unrealistic world. I kept walking and before reaching the end of that tube I met tens of Palestinian people of all sorts of ages (children, babies, old women and men) tired exhausted and very sad. I stopped one very old woman limping with her walking sticks and asked her who she was. She said that they had been visiting their sons and daughters in the Israeli jails. I burst loudly into tears. I felt speechless and helpless.
Arriving at the end of this tunnel, one door after another kept opening with red then green lights and we kept receiving instruction from unseen voices. Sondos explained later on to her sister that it is like a riddle or a maze. On arriving at the desk the officer checked our papers and said ‘you cannot cross - it is an expired permit’. I again called the embassy and different calls were made. I eventually passed through
to find a taxi waiting.

On the taxi to Allenby Bridge 8.30pm
Sondos cried with joy, disbelief and surprise to see Occupied Palestine/Israel for the 1st time in her 15 years. It is another world yet only 15 minutes drive from Gaza - two different worlds. Thanks to Trocaire and Hamocade and the embassy.
The car continued to drive, and I tried to reply my daughter showering me with questions. We passed by the sites of the Palestinian villages and towns, that used to be there once upon a time but were ruined and destroyed, and their original inhabitants were forced to leave and made refugees. This was when Israel was founded on the ruins of Palestine with the pretence of land with no people for people with no land (Ben Gurion) - a big myth of the Zionist ideology.
It was also surprising for me to see the size of the Israeli settlements around Jerusalem.

Solution - in one country with two nationalities, when the privileged can give up some of their privileges on behalf of the original Palestinians refugees and the land can be shared by both Palestinians and Israelis in one democratic state - this is the long term strategic solution for the areas stability. When the time comes that Israel realises the immorality of its existence at the expense of others then that is the time when the Palestinians can enjoy the political stability, and law and order, to prove to the world their ability to contribute to the prosperity of the area .

10pm
We arrived in Jericho to find the borders closed so we stayed there overnight.

Tuesday 26th of February
7 am
We left the hotel and went to the Allenby Bridge crossing point. At the Israeli desk I was told by the officer again that my permit had expired as it covered only one day. After more telephone calls by the Irish embassy my papers were stamped.
I found a VIP car waiting for me and, surprised and relieved, I got in. I remembered Mr. Steig Collin from Sweden who stayed with us and worked voluntarily for three weeks at AlAwda hospital. While I was showing him around in Gaza 1999, we were stopped by the soldiers at one of the Israeli military checkpoints. The soldiers asked if we were VIP’s.
Mr. Collin replied, ‘Every human being is a VIP’. So I entered the car and in 5 minutes I was in Jordan. I missed my flight and now I am writing on board the next days flight on my way to Ireland.

Thanks to Mr. Eihud Olmert’s office who organised my permit and let my daughter see the land of Palestine for the first time in her life, this land where her fathers family used to live and work until 1948 - after that they lived in Egypt as refugees .

Seeing Isareli soldiers so close for the first time, my daughters comment was ‘some of them are nice’.
Yes that is true, and they will be even nicer when they stop occupying us and peace and justice prevail.

Tired and exhausted but pleased to be on my way to Ireland - Mona