Wheat Harvest Met With Live Ammunition in Gaza 'Buffer Zone'

Israeli forces attacked women farmworkers and international human rights activists with heavy gunfire during three days’ wheat harvest in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israel-imposed “buffer zone” illegally claims over 30% of Gaza’s arable farmland. In Khoza’a village, east of Khan Yunis, substantial wheat remains unharvested despite severe poverty and food shortages, as a result of the attacks.'

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Nailed Again: IDF Description of Suspicious Photo It Distributed Is Retracted

On May 31, the IDF Spokesman’s Office distributed a photo of a bearded Muslim man with a knife surrounded by reporters. Daylight was pouring in from a window or door behind the reporters. Offered without context or explanation, the photo played up a classic Orientalist stereotype of violent, fanatical, and even suicidal Muslims determined to kill Jews. It was included in an article based on testimony from anonymous commandos with the following title: "Israeli Navy Commandos: Gaza flotilla activists tried to lynch us."

The IDF apparently told Haaretz that the photo was taken immediately after its Naval commandos raided the Mavi Marmara and other flotilla ships — at least, that’s how Haaretz described the photo based on an IDF source. Yet the raid was conducted under the cover of darkness. How could a photo obviously taken during daytime have portrayed an event that took place during the late evening? Do Muslims have magical powers that allow them to turn night into day? And why were reporters standing around, casually taking photos when commandos were supposedly getting "lynched?" Once again, the IDF’s story was highly suspect.'

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Israel to Deport Irish Ship Activists

One day after Israel stopped another Gaza-bound aid ship as part of its crippling blockade on the impoverished strip, Tel Aviv says it will deport activists abducted on the new vessel.

The Israeli Navy on Saturday intercepted and later seized an Irish aid ship, the Rachel Corrie, which was carrying 1,000 tons of aid for the impoverished people of Gaza.

The ship was later transferred to the port of Ashdod.'

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Israel's Strange Behaviour on Flotilla to Gaza

Amazing the odd tactics Israel has attempted in the last two weeks with regards to the Flotilla coming to Gaza. First they threaten the ministers of the various countries, Turkey, UK, Ireland, Sweden, etc. Telling them to call back their dignitaries. Then they suddenly allow some trucks into Gaza with a little humanitarian aid, to which 4 days later they are using as propaganda, telling the world there is no need for the flotilla because Israel allowed "some" aid into Gaza. Next they get creative, and build their own little flotilla of racist bigot boats, that were decorated pleasure boats with insulting signs, then sailed them past the flotilla in protest. I must admit, that one made me laugh. All the while telling the world the flotilla will not be allowed into Gaza, no way, no how.'

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Israeli War Criminals Plans to Stop Gaza Freedom Flotilla

An Israeli official has said that efforts will be made to stop the Freedom Flotilla, which intends to attempt to break the three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza-bound flotilla of eight ships, which left Turkey on Saturday, is carrying 10,000 tons of supplies, including building materials, which are not allowed into the territory because of the blockade.

Greta Berlin, one of the organizers, said the cargo ships are carrying cement, prefab homes, lumber, window frames, paper for printing school books, children's toys, a full dentist's office, electric wheelchairs, and high-end medical equipment.'

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Israel 'Mulling Reoccupation of Gaza'

With the settlement row still rumbling on, the Israeli army is reportedly preparing several scenarios for a possible reoccupation of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military officials held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a possible full occupation of Gaza, Israel's Maariv daily said on its website.

The officials also mulled over appointing a "military governor" should Israel decide to redeploy its army to the coastal sliver.'

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Gazans Cut Through Egypt's Border Barrier

"Every problem has a solution. The Egyptian steel barrier was a problem but we found a solution," says Mohammed, a grimy-faced Gazan tunnel digger who didn't want to give his real name.

Mohammed, covered in dust and dirt, is in the process of digging a 750m (2,460ft) smuggling tunnel from Gaza into Egypt. He says he's been digging it for 18 months.

As he hauls up a plastic container of sand with an electric winch from the metre-wide tunnel shaft, he says the new underground Egyptian barrier aimed at stopping smuggling is a "joke."

"We just cut through it using high-powered oxygen fuelled blow torches," he says.

The Egyptian government says it began constructing the barrier along the Gaza-Egypt border last year. When finished it is meant to be 11km-long (seven miles), stretching down 18m (59ft) underground.

According to Egypt it is made of bomb-proof, super-strength steel and is costing millions of dollars to build.'

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Brits are Bashing Israel, Envoy Says

Israel's ambassador to the UK has accused the British public of “delegitimizing and demonizing” Israel, saying that they are not aware of Israel's challenges.

Ambassador Ron Prosor told The Times that there was a discrepancy between the British government's treatment of Israel and the position adopted by members of the public, media, and universities.

“Sometimes we feel people from the outside are pointing fingers at us instead of giving us a big hug, which is what we need in this region,” the Israeli envoy said.'

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One Killed, 16 Injured, One Critically, During Land Day Protests In The Gaza Strip

One Palestinian child was killed, 16 others injured, one critically when Israeli troops opened fire at Land Day protests at deferent locations in the Gaza Strip.

In one of the Protests people gathered at the Israeli-bulit wall near the International airport in Rafah city, southern Gaza Strip. Troops opened fire at civilians killing 15 year old Mohamed Al Faramawi.

At the same time another protest marking land day started at Khan Younis town, south east of The Gaza Strip.

People reached the buffer zone at the borders with Israel. Soldiers stationed at the borders opened fire at protesters injuring 16 civilians. Among those injured was nine year old Ra'ed Abu Namous; he was critically injured when a live round hit him in the head, Medical sources reported.'

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Truth and Consequences in the Gaza Invasion

Public outrage at the Gaza invasion did not come out of the blue but rather marked the nadir of a curve plotting a steady decline in support for Israel. As polling data of Americans and Europeans, both Gentiles and Jews, suggest, the public has become increasingly critical of Israeli policy over the past decade. The horrific images of death and destruction broadcast around the world during and after the invasion accelerated this development. “The increased and brutal frequency of war in this volatile region has shifted international opinion,” the British Financial Times editorialized one year later, “reminding Israel it is not above the law. Israel can no longer dictate the terms of debate.”

One poll registering the fallout from the Gaza attack in the United States found that American voters calling themselves supporters of Israel plummeted from 69 per cent before the attack to 49 per cent in June 2009, while voters believing that the U.S. should support Israel dropped from 69 per cent to 44 per cent. Consumed by hate, emboldened by self-righteousness, and confident that it could control or intimidate public opinion, Israel carried on in Gaza as if it could get away with mass murder in broad daylight. But while official Western support for Israel held firm, the carnage set off an unprecedented wave of popular outrage throughout the world. Whether it was because the assault came on the heels of the devastation Israel wrought in Lebanon, or because of Israel’s relentless persecution of the people of Gaza, or because of the sheer cowardice of the assault, the Gaza invasion appeared to mark a turning point in public opinion reminiscent of the international reaction to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in apartheid South Africa.'

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'Israel Violates International Law With EU Complicity'

Things are worsening for Israel from moral and legal perspectives. In fact, one year after the Goldstone Report on its ‘war crimes’ during its war on Gaza and amidst growing suspicions of its direct responsibility in the assassination of a Palestinian leader in Dubai, an international court has now concluded that Israel is violating international law with Europe’s complicity.

The European Union (EU) is an accomplice of Israel in its proven violations of international law, as it legitimised Israeli actions in the Palestinian occupied territories and provided support to it, according to the findings of the Russel Tribunal on Palestine (RTP), which met in Barcelona March 1-3.

The Tribunal concluded that Israel has committed and continues to commit violations of international law, while the EU and its member states have breached this law and failed to take measures against Israeli violations and identify remedies.'

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Harvard Fellow Calls For Genocidal Measure To Curb Palestinian Births

A fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Martin Kramer, has called for “the West” to take measures to curb the births of Palestinians, a proposal that appears to meet the international legal definition of a call for genocide.

Kramer proposed that the number of Palestinian children born in the Gaza Strip should be deliberately curbed, and alleged that this would “happen faster if the West stops providing pro-natal subsidies to Palestinians with refugee status".'

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Goldstone Facts-The Real Story Behind Israel's Invasion of Gaza

Israeli Warplanes Target Gaza Airport

Israeli warplanes have launched an overnight attack on the southern Gaza Strip, pounding an international airport in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

The air strike came Tuesday night when Israeli F-16 fighter jets targeted the Yasser Arafat International Airport in Dahaniya, Rafah.

Locals said the warplanes fired five missiles into the facility, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.'

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Egypt to Seal Sea Border with Gaza

Egypt is to close its sea border to the Gaza-bound supplies as it reinforces the restrictions against the passage of sustenance into the strip.

Cairo has ordered a port to be built at its maritime border with the Gaza Strip, a security official was quoted by AFP as saying. The security boats there would then "prevent all future attempts to smuggle Palestinian contraband," he added.

The surveillance multiplies the restrictions Cairo has placed along the terrestrial border at a time when the coastal sliver of 1.5-million population continues to suffer from an all-out Israeli-imposed blockade which has deprived it of its basic necessities for almost three years.'

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