Ida Bakar
It must be heartening for the letter writer ‘Hamas to blame for
Israeli raids’ http://www.malaysia
, that his thoughts are echoed by none other than President Bush himself
http://news.
insight on the affair that I am compelled to let the facts get in the way
of a good ‘Israeli defence’ story.
This war did not start on the 27th December 2008.
Despite the unilateral Israeli ‘disengagement’ from Gaza in
September 2005, according to an Israeli Human Rights group B’Tselem
“…Israel continued to control the air and sea space, movement
between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (also via neighbouring
countries), the population registry, family unification, and the crossing
of goods to and from Gaza…On 28 June, Israel bombed the
electric-power station. Since then, residents of the Gaza Strip have
relied completely on Israel for their electricity.”
http://www.btselem.
In addition to direct killing of civilians since the disengagement –
IDF soldiers taking pot-shots at unarmed Gazans, children included –
the population is further traumatised by sonic booms from low flying
military planes; so much so Physicians for Human Rights Israel has
petitioned against this extreme violation of human rights.
http://www.phr.
.
Following a free and fair election in which Hamas was elected to power,
the people of Gaza were collectively punished by Israeli siege which, in
the last 18 months have starved the population of food and denied access
to medical care.
The Israeli military occupation denies the Palestinians the very basic of
human dignity as reported by the International Committee of the Red Cross
way back in 2007.
http://www.icrc.
Israel blockade of Gaza has resulted in malnutrition amongst the 1.5
million population of the occupied land
http://www.independ
.
The Israeli army has continued to deny ICRC emergency medical team into
Gaza
http://www.icrc.
despite the dire humanitarian situation.
So, for the letter writer to compare the Gaza-Israeli situation with
relationship between Malaysia and Thailand or Singapore is missing the
point all together. Malaysia’s army is not occupying those
countries.
The letter writer stated that Hamas has refused to sign cease-fire
agreement. This, again, is a fib as Hamas and Israel signed up to an
Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on 19th June 2008
http://www.cbsnews.
Unfortunately, while the world was in euphoria after Obama’s
election to the American presidency, on the 5th November 2008 Israel
launched an incursion into Gaza killing seven Palestinians. This
effectively ended the ceasefire and Hamas’ rockets flew in
retaliation
http://www.independ
.
The letter also called for Hamas to stop attacking Israel. What about the
Israeli stranglehold on Gaza? When the rockets stop and Gaza
infrastructure further destroyed, not to mention the five thousand already
dead (as opposed to four Israeli civilians), will Israel allow some
dignity for the Palestinians? Will Israeli talk with Hamas? Efraim Halevy,
former Mossad chief certainly think so
http://online.
.
After all, Hamas was elected into office by the Palestinians of Gaza.
Gaza and the West Bank are under illegal Israeli military occupation.
These Palestinians are denied their basic human rights to dignified lives.
History has shown time and again that occupation and oppression will be
resisted. Think of the wars of independence from colonial rule. Think of
East Timor and Tibet. As Malaysians we fought the Japanese occupation, we
aimed to be free of British colonial rule however ‘benign and
benevolent’ it was.
The Palestinians of Gaza do not have sophisticated weaponry to fight the
Israeli military might. The Israelis do not want a viable Palestinian
state and continues to trample on their dignity. Read the testimonies from
Gaza via B’Tselem here
http://www.btselem.
.
Gaza is akin to a prison camp, what choice these Palestinians have?
The 500 or so who protested at the US embassy recently are joined by
hundreds of thousands more in the capitals around the world, European
capitals included.
I humbly urged the letter writer to read beyond the up-the-minute news
bulletin. All the links above are from Israeli and ‘western’
organisations websites. I have chosen them so as not be accused of being a
“one sided affair to discredit anything related to the US and
Israel” as stated in the letter.
List of on-line references
B’Tselem – Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in
Occupied Territories
http://www.btselem.
http://www.btselem.
http://www.btselem.
Physician for Human Right Israel
http://www.phr.
International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.icrc.
http://www.icrc.
BBC news
http://news.
CBS news
http://www.cbsnews.
Wall Street Journal
http://online.
The Independent Newspaper
http://www.independ
http://www.independ
Ida Bakar
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