Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Deep Sea Diving in Israel
I was back in work yesterday for the first time since the New Year where I engaged in the usual customary water-cooler chats of "How was your New Year?" and "Good Christmas?"
During one of these little chit-chats I got a reply of "Yeh it was great, was away in southern Israel for New Year, just got back on Sunday (4 Jan)." It was said so casually I was caught slightly off-guard. After I responded with a "oh right" and a nod, I replied, "Did you say you were in southern Israel?"
"Yeh deep-sea diving in Eilat, was lovely," he said.
Could you not hear anything?
"Not a peep, had a wonderful time," he answered.
Didn't really know what to say after that. After googling Eilat as soon as he was away from his desk I realised my ignorance and discovered the town was quite a distance away from Gaza and the conflict. Still found it quite remarkable just along the border from where Palestinians are being bombed 24/7, er make that 21/7, western tourists still flock to Israel's plush areas to soak up the sea.
During one of these little chit-chats I got a reply of "Yeh it was great, was away in southern Israel for New Year, just got back on Sunday (4 Jan)." It was said so casually I was caught slightly off-guard. After I responded with a "oh right" and a nod, I replied, "Did you say you were in southern Israel?"
"Yeh deep-sea diving in Eilat, was lovely," he said.
Could you not hear anything?
"Not a peep, had a wonderful time," he answered.
Didn't really know what to say after that. After googling Eilat as soon as he was away from his desk I realised my ignorance and discovered the town was quite a distance away from Gaza and the conflict. Still found it quite remarkable just along the border from where Palestinians are being bombed 24/7, er make that 21/7, western tourists still flock to Israel's plush areas to soak up the sea.
Gaza's soap opera obsession
The Palestinian photo-journalist Mohammed Omer, based in the Gazan Rafah refugee camp, writes on how before the current conflict the holy month of Ramadan had brought Gazans together in their droves for a soap opera obsession (electricity permitting).
Published in the Washington Report on Middle-East Affairs, '“Bab Al Harra,” Gaza’s Ramadan Addiction' gives a stark reminder of what life has been like for Gazans living under the Israeli siege. But Omer's article reflects how Gazans gathered together for the "nostalgic soap opera...a comforting reminder of traditional family values, normalcy and principles."
Published in the Washington Report on Middle-East Affairs, '“Bab Al Harra,” Gaza’s Ramadan Addiction' gives a stark reminder of what life has been like for Gazans living under the Israeli siege. But Omer's article reflects how Gazans gathered together for the "nostalgic soap opera...a comforting reminder of traditional family values, normalcy and principles."
"Each night after dinner—electricity permitting—families sit down together and travel back in time to a period where life flowed easily, separation walls didn’t exist, men were gentlemen and their wives exquisite. Gazans who live in homes or neighborhoods without television or electricity gathered in cafés providing large TV monitors to watch the nightly installment, while quietly smoking waterpipes and drinking tea."
This article provides an uplifting testament to families living in hardship, yet it is also incredibly sad to read with regard to current events.
Gaza UN school bombing raises questions of war crimes
The bombing of a United Nations school yesterday had all the hallmarks of the same old excuses emanating from the Israeli army. Forty civilian dead from the raid yet the IDF insists significant fire from was coming from the area.
In the 2006 Lebanon war, when over 1000 civilians were killed, villages and civilian buildings were destroyed in their droves, where again and again it was insisted 'we were responding to enemy fire'. Now we are presented with yet another tragic example of how Arab lives have yet again become 'collateral damage'.
The UN Charter of Human Rights decrees that antagonists in a conflict much take significant measures to ensure that they distinguish between militants and civilians. Again is clearly not been the case. As in 2006, Israel may very well (although they won't) have significant questions to answer with regard to war crimes.
Robert Fisk points out in the Independent today:
"What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre.
"And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night's butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive.
"What happened was not just shameful. It was a disgrace. Would war crime be too strong a description? For that is what we would call this atrocity if it had been committed by Hamas. So a war crime, I'm afraid, it was."
The killing will undoubtedly go on for a few more days or weeks until it becomes diplomatically impossible for it to continue. A select few journalists and NGOs will write reports proclaiming Israel's questionable conduct during this time. Their words will fall on deaf ears until the next conflict against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria.....Iran.
In the 2006 Lebanon war, when over 1000 civilians were killed, villages and civilian buildings were destroyed in their droves, where again and again it was insisted 'we were responding to enemy fire'. Now we are presented with yet another tragic example of how Arab lives have yet again become 'collateral damage'.
The UN Charter of Human Rights decrees that antagonists in a conflict much take significant measures to ensure that they distinguish between militants and civilians. Again is clearly not been the case. As in 2006, Israel may very well (although they won't) have significant questions to answer with regard to war crimes.
Robert Fisk points out in the Independent today:
"What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre.
"And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night's butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive.
"What happened was not just shameful. It was a disgrace. Would war crime be too strong a description? For that is what we would call this atrocity if it had been committed by Hamas. So a war crime, I'm afraid, it was."
The killing will undoubtedly go on for a few more days or weeks until it becomes diplomatically impossible for it to continue. A select few journalists and NGOs will write reports proclaiming Israel's questionable conduct during this time. Their words will fall on deaf ears until the next conflict against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria.....Iran.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Johann Hari on a new "war on pirates"
The Independent columnist Johann Hari has an interesting piece in the Huffington Post about the misconceptions of the new swathe of 'pirates' in Somalia we've been hearing about over the past few months.
In what could be viewed as a bit of a parallel to the fear-mongering borne out of the "war on terror", Hari points out that western ships have been exploiting Somalia of one of its greatest exports; seafood.
"We have destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea-life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia's unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving."
Sounds all too familiar and reminiscent of the plundering of another continent.
"Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn't act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world's oil supply, we begin to shriek about "evil." If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gun-boats to root out Somalia's criminals."
Hari's words, inentionally or not, read to me like a series of parrallels with the disaster of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Bush administration projects false fears regarding the perceived threat of Saddam and his regime which provides the caveat to further exploit their resources. Then we expected Iraqis to "stand passively on their beaches (well, deserts)" while we swarmed in under false pretenses, surprised when we weren't greeted as liberators following ten years of severe UN sanctions crippled its people, to punish the ever-changing faces of their criminals.
In what could be viewed as a bit of a parallel to the fear-mongering borne out of the "war on terror", Hari points out that western ships have been exploiting Somalia of one of its greatest exports; seafood.
"We have destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea-life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia's unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving."
Sounds all too familiar and reminiscent of the plundering of another continent.
"Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn't act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world's oil supply, we begin to shriek about "evil." If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gun-boats to root out Somalia's criminals."
Hari's words, inentionally or not, read to me like a series of parrallels with the disaster of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Bush administration projects false fears regarding the perceived threat of Saddam and his regime which provides the caveat to further exploit their resources. Then we expected Iraqis to "stand passively on their beaches (well, deserts)" while we swarmed in under false pretenses, surprised when we weren't greeted as liberators following ten years of severe UN sanctions crippled its people, to punish the ever-changing faces of their criminals.
Monday, 5 January 2009
Dennis Pennis talking to BBC about Gaza
Got a pleasant surprise on Saturday when I turned on BBC News 24 to see the comedian Paul Kaye being interviewed about Gaza.
At first I feared another celebrity sound bite urging "peace" and "why can't we all just get along" when their are far more insightful people out there without a "name".
But Kaye, famous for his brilliant 'Dennis Pennis' character, lives near the Israeli-Gaza border and spoke of his families' fear living through Hamas rocket attacks.
The comedian has apparently been angry at anti-Israeli bias in the UK press, and wished to be interviewed in response to comments by another comedian, Alexei Sayle, who was part of the demonstrations in London.
Sayle told the BBC Israel's response was "massively disproportionate" and although the two countries had a complicated history, the answer was simple.
He said: "Stop killing people, stop killing children and then start thinking about the little things after that."
Kaye contended that the situation was just as "terrifying" for Israelis under Hamas fire.
I felt Kaye gave a pretty honest and balanced interview, and although I don't entirely agree with him that the situation is the same for civilians on both sides.
He also quite rightly added that the dispute can and will only be settled through dialogue, and not violence.
Was quite a bizarre thing to wake up to when the last time I saw him was as Mike Strutter on MTV2.
The video is at the bottom of this news page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7809656.stm
At first I feared another celebrity sound bite urging "peace" and "why can't we all just get along" when their are far more insightful people out there without a "name".
But Kaye, famous for his brilliant 'Dennis Pennis' character, lives near the Israeli-Gaza border and spoke of his families' fear living through Hamas rocket attacks.
The comedian has apparently been angry at anti-Israeli bias in the UK press, and wished to be interviewed in response to comments by another comedian, Alexei Sayle, who was part of the demonstrations in London.
Sayle told the BBC Israel's response was "massively disproportionate" and although the two countries had a complicated history, the answer was simple.
He said: "Stop killing people, stop killing children and then start thinking about the little things after that."
Kaye contended that the situation was just as "terrifying" for Israelis under Hamas fire.
I felt Kaye gave a pretty honest and balanced interview, and although I don't entirely agree with him that the situation is the same for civilians on both sides.
He also quite rightly added that the dispute can and will only be settled through dialogue, and not violence.
Was quite a bizarre thing to wake up to when the last time I saw him was as Mike Strutter on MTV2.
The video is at the bottom of this news page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7809656.stm
Israel "planned Gaza attacks for months"
The prominent US academic Norman Finkelstein has rejected claims that Hamas started the current conflict. He says the Israeli's had themselves repeatedly violated the ceasefire and had planned their current attacks for months.
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