|
|
|||
|
Navigation User login Who's online There are currently 3 users and 20 guests online.
Online users
Support OlyBlog OlyBlog is run by volunteers who care about Olympia. If you like what we're doing, make a donation: OlyBlog is powered by:
Who's new
 |
Submitted by Rick on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 3:23pm.
Jan 23 2008 - 11:19am [via omjp] The Rachel Corrie Foundation invites all who are concerned about the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip to participate in the two vigils this week sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Some signs will be provided and participants are also encouraged to bring their own. Some suggested signs: The People of Gaza are Under Attack, End the Siege of Gaza, Stop War Crimes Against Palestinians, Our Brothers and Sisters in Rafah are Dying.
Wednesday Vigil
Friday Vigil About the crisis: Over the weekend Israel turned off the Gaza Power Plant which supplies power to the 1.5 million residents of the crowded Gaza Strip. Today they turned it back on, but there continues to be a dire shortage of fuel due to the blockade enforced by Israel. In addition, forty residents of Gaza have been killed in the last week. From Eyad El Sarraj, the director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, sent on Jan. 20: Israeli military establishment decided to stop power supply and fuel to Gaza. Since Thursday, food and humanitarian aid are not allowed in. Very soon life will come to a standstill. Water will not be pumped for a even drink. My step son is on ventilator for asthma every night. What will happen to him when our generator is not running any more? What will happen to hospitals, vaccines and blood banks? What will happen to patients on dialysis machines, and to babies in incubators? Before it is dark and when there is no communication with the world, I want to tell you that current Israeli policy of squeezing on has the aim of pushing Egypt to open its borders with Gaza and bring the situation to prior 1967. Israel will then close its borders with Gaza, separates the Strip from the West bank and destroys the peace proposals of one state or two states. In short Israel is fulfilling the Sharon unilateral withdrawal strategy. If Egypt fails to open its borders with Gaza, Israel will push us through Rafah towards the Sinai desert. Wait for the exodus.
Eyad El Sarraj From the Palestine Centre for Human Rights: At approximately 8:00pm on Sunday, 20 January, the Gaza Strip power plant ran out of fuel and shut down, plunging the Gaza Strip into darkness. The closure of the Gaza power plant, in addition to Israel's continued, tightened siege on the Gaza Strip, will have a catastrophic effect on the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, who are already suffering chronic shortages of fuel, medicine and some basic food stuffs. The director of Gaza's main hospital, al-Shifa, describes the current situation as "potentially disastrous." Israel is manufacturing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip that is seriously deteriorating every aspect of civilian life. To date, 45 patients have died as a direct result of Israeli Occupying Force (IOF) closure and siege of the Gaza Strip. According to the Director of al-Shifa Hospital Dr. Hassan Khalaf, patients' lives continue to be at stake, including the lives of 30 premature babies in al-Shifa Hospital, who will die immediately if there is a power cut at the hospital. Gaza's second major hospital, the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, has now suspended all major surgical operations. Meanwhile, all crossings from Gaza to the outside world remain sealed to Palestinians. The Gaza Strip requires 230-250 megawatts of electricity a day to operate at full capacity. On Friday, 18 January, and again on Sunday, 20 January, the IOF prevented a vital daily delivery of fuel from passing through the Nahal Oz Crossing, including industrial diesel used to fuel the power plant. The power plant is now completely closed. This closure of Gaza's only power plant has drastically reduced electricity output across the Gaza Strip by 65 megawatts. Civilians across Gaza City and the central Gaza Strip are totally dependent on the power plant. The closure of the power plant will severely impact civilian lives across the Gaza Strip. In addition to the dangerous shortage of electricity that threatens the lives of critically ill patients in all of Gaza's' hospitals, chronic shortages of petrol and diesel and gas for domestic use have led to panic buying before gas stations in Gaza are forced to close completely. Civilians are also suffering widespread shortages of bread, due to lack of electricity to power the ovens at bakeries across Gaza. PCHR condemns the catastrophic humanitarian crisis that is being manufactured by the IOF as collective punishment to the entire population of the Gaza Strip, and calls upon the international community to put immediate pressure on the government of Israel to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. The Centre appeals to the international community to act upon their legal and moral responsibilities to ensure the basic human rights of the citizens of the Gaza Strip are protected. The Centre reiterates that Palestinian civilians are protected from collective punishment under international human rights law, and international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their legal and moral obligations under Article 1 of the Convention and ensure Israel's respect for the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. PCHR believes that the conspiracy of silence practiced by the international community has encouraged Israel to act as if it is above the law and encourages Israel to violate international human rights and humanitarian law. http://www.pchrgaza.org/ |
OlyBlog.net OlyBlog is devoted to hyperlocal news and discussion specifically about Olympia, Washington. Contributors to OlyBlog are citizen journalists who care about their community and are tired of corporate media. If you'd like to contribute, please register for an account. Here is a list of local news beats that need to be covered. You can post your news as a personal blog entry, and it will be reviewed (and possibly edited) for promotion to the front page. You can also send news via email. All members of OlyBlog agree to abide by our comment and fair use policies. If you are frustrated about something said in a comment thread, go here. Now playing at: 
Latest Classified Ads Upcoming events
 
|
|
|
OlyBlog is a site for news and discussion about Olympia, Washington. |
|||
Umm...
Submitted by security_six on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 4:59pm.While I cannot agree with cutting off humanitarian supplies, I have to question the lack of power. This from The Seattle Times
"Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Meckel said the Gaza Strip continues to receive 70 percent of its electricity supply directly from Israel, which would not be affected, and an additional 5 percent from Egypt."
If this is true, then 75% of their power is not being affected, and Hamas is staging the blackouts as a political tool. I think there is plenty of power for critical systems, and probably some leftover for non critical systems.
"It's okay to be armed"
security_six's social contract
Something to Remember
Submitted by Ehver Green on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 5:13pm.Many of the announcements from OMJP are one-sided and not very objective. You could make an issue out of each and everyone of them for sure. Arguments for days. But it rarely accomplishes anything because both sides come in with guns-a-blazin'. Once you start here you have nowhere to go but down.
If you know the truth, from both sides of the struggle, through media reports, then what do you really know?
More just wondering
Submitted by security_six on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 5:17pm.I have heard reports from two sides in this issue, and cannot make a decision on who is right. I am not claiming to know "the truth" but held in my hands a different story than what Rick was presenting here on behalf of OMJP. With any kind of luck I may get more info.
Personally, I think even the 5% of power from Egypt would probably keep the hospitals going at some level.
"It's okay to be armed"
security_six's social contract
As far as OMJP goes Rick is
Submitted by Merwyn Haskett on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 5:23pm.I am of the belief that the OMJP posts don't always give the full story. At the same time I wouldn't automatically assume that a Nation's spokesperson (that is, someone authorized to speak on behalf of a Nation in regards to questionable action it has taken) is necessarily telling it straight either.
Agreed
Submitted by security_six on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 5:25pm.There must be some middle ground here though. Hamas says they don't have the ability to make power. Israel says Gaza has 75% of their power untouched. Somewhere, there is a light (pun intended)
"It's okay to be armed"
security_six's social contract
hmmm
Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 5:22pm.