Palestinians Are People Too

TPM: Mereka yang bersalah perlu dihukum

PUTRAJAYA 22 Jan. – Timbalan Presiden UMNO, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak menyerahkan kepada pihak berkuasa untuk mengambil tindakan terhadap pemimpin dan ahli parti yang terlibat dengan politik wang.
Najib yang juga Timbalan Perdana Menteri berkata, mereka yang didapati bersalah seharusnya dihukum berdasarkan undang-undang walaupun UMNO mempunyai Lembaga Disiplin...

Ulasan: Bila BN tidak lagi memerintah negara kita, kita yakin tidak lagi ada penyalahgunaan kuasa dan sifar rasuah maka keadilan merata. Rakyat masih sayangkah dengan BN/UMNO setelah kita mengnali keburukannya sejak merdeka? Bersamalah menggerakkan perubahan ke arah Malaysia baru.

Rakyat Malaysia ketagih gula

KUALA LUMPUR 22 Jan. – Rakyat Malaysia secara puratanya mengambil 25 sudu teh atau 125 gram gula sehari.
Jumlah itu bersamaan dengan 3.75 kilogram atau 750 sudu teh sebulan.
Hasil kajian itu tahun lalu, Kementerian Kesihatan merumuskan kira-kira 95 peratus rakyat di negara ini dikategorikan sebagai penghidap masalah ketagihan gula dalam pemakanan seharian.
Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna, Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad (gambar) berkata, corak pengambilan itu juga secara tidak langsung menjadikan rakyat Malaysia sebagai pengguna gula yang paling tinggi di Asia Tenggara.
‘‘Masalah ketagihan gula ini dikatakan turut menjadi punca masalah penyakit diabetes yang dihidapi 3.6 juta orang di negara ini.
‘‘Bukan itu sahaja, gula juga menjadi punca 62 peratus wanita serta 48 peratus lelaki di negara ini menghidap obesiti iaitu masalah kegemukan melampau,’’ katanya ketika dihubungi hari ini…
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Ketagihan gula tahap serius
KUALA LUMPUR 27 Jan. - Rakyat negara ini tidak menyedari pada setiap hari mereka mengambil gula dari pagi hingga malam.

Pengambilan gula itu dilakukan secara sedar atau tidak sedar menerusi tabiat makan dan minum yang 'mewajibkan' rasa manis.

Pegawai diet dari Hospital Kuala Lumpur, L. Mageswary berkata, mereka bersarapan dengan teh tarik dan kuih-muih yang manis seolah-olah satu kemestian dalam menu.

Katanya, bagi makanan tengah hari dan malam pula, mereka mengambil minuman ringan, teh O, air sirap bandung dan bubur kacang yang menyamai lima sudu teh gula.

''Hakikatnya, semua makanan tersebut menggunakan susu pekat manis dan bukan susu berkalori rendah. Ia mempunyai kandungan gula tinggi," katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia di sini hari ini.

Beliau mengulas mengenai senario ketagihan gula di kalangan rakyat negara ini.

Utusan Malaysia baru-baru ini melaporkan, hasil kajian tahun lalu mendapati rakyat Malaysia secara puratanya mengambil 25 sudu teh atau 125 gram gula sehari. Jumlah itu bersamaan dengan 3.75 kilogram atau 750 sudu teh sebulan.

Hasil kajian itu, Kementerian Kesihatan merumuskan, kira-kira 95 peratus rakyat di negara ini dikategorikan sebagai penghidap masalah ketagihan gula dalam pemakanan seharian.

Mageswary berkata, menerusi pemerhatiannya dalam kerja harian, kebanyakan pesakit kencing manis telah memilih antara teh tarik dan sirap manis berkrim dalam rutin pemakanan mereka sebelum itu.

Sementara itu, pakar pemakanan dari Hospital Pantai Mutiara, Pulau Pinang, Evelyn Chieng menyifatkan ketagihan rakyat Malaysia terhadap gula sebagai serius.

Beliau berkata, ini berikutan rata-ratanya mereka memilih untuk membeli makanan yang disediakan oleh penjaja.

Jelasnya, penjaja tidak akan teragak-agak menggunakan gula dengan banyak agar makanan lebih manis sekali gus lazat atau menyelerakan.

''Di pasaran, penjaja misalnya menjual makanan kegemaran rakyat negara ini termasuk kuih nyonya dan teh tarik yang sangat manis," katanya.

Ditanya mengenai kajian serta pemerhatian terhadap penggunaan gula secara berlebihan oleh rakyat negara ini, beliau berkata, usaha tersebut belum pernah dijalankan setakat ini.

Bagaimanapun, beliau tidak menolak kemungkinan Institut Kencing Manis Negara (NADI) pernah menjalankan kajian seumpama itu untuk memantau senario ketagihan gula oleh rakyat negara ini.

Ulasan: Dua benda berwarna putih yang kita belikan untuk keluarga kita adalah sebenarnya RACUN. Hidup lebih sihat tanpa GULA dan GARAM. Rasa membawa masalah kepada kesihatan kita.

Alarm Spreads Over Use of Lethal New Weapons

Erin Cunningham, The Electronic Intifada, 22 January 2009

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Eighteen-year-old Mona al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the United Nations school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in once she realized it was gone -- completely severed by the weapon that hit her.

Mona is one of the many patients among the 5,500 injured that have international and Palestinian doctors baffled by the type of weaponry used in the Israeli operation. High-profile human rights organizations like Amnesty International are accusing Israel of war crimes.

Mona's doctors at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital found no shrapnel in her leg, and it looked as though it had been "sliced right off with a knife."

"We are not sure exactly what type of weapon can manage to do that immediately and so cleanly," said Dr. Sobhi Skaik, consultant surgeon general at al-Shifa hospital. "What is happening is frightening. It's possible the Israeli army was using Gaza to experiment militarily."

Both international organizations and human rights groups, including the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have condemned Israel's use of unconventional weapons in civilian areas of the Gaza Strip.

Amnesty International's chief researcher for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Donatella Rovera, told IPS in Beit Lahiya that Israel's use of white phosphorus and other "area weapons" on civilian populations amounted to war crimes.

"The kind of weapons used and the manner in which they were used indicates prima facie evidence of war crimes," she said.

Israel announced Wednesday it would be launching its own probe into reported use of white phosphorus, but has so far refused to comment further.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, said it would look into a claim made by the ambassadors of a number of Arab nations that Israel used depleted uranium in its recent attacks on Gaza.

Local doctors say a number of both widespread and unusual injuries may indicate that new types of weapons were used on the Gaza population during the war. Health officials are seeing wounds they have never seen before, or at least not on such a massive scale.

"There has been a significant loss of life here in Gaza for reasons that are unexplainable medically," said Dr. Skaik.

Mona's injury is characteristic of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). DIMEs are munitions that, packed with tungsten powder, produce an intense explosion at about the level of the knee, with signs of severe heat at the point of amputation.

"If you ask a patient how it happened, how their leg was removed, they won't know," Dr. Skaik said. "They'll say that a rocket or missile exploded and took only their lower limbs off."

Once in the body, tungsten is both difficult to detect and extremely carcinogenic, and can produce an aggressive form of cancer, according to both military experts.

Dr. Skaik says the al-Shifa hospital alone has seen between 100 to 150 patients with this type of injury. Over 50 patients at al-Shifa had two or more limbs severed, he says.

But because Gaza's hospitals are so poorly equipped, it has been nearly impossible so far to test properly for the substances and count accurately how many wounded Palestinians may have been hit with this weapon.

The Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert who worked at al-Shifa hospital during the siege confirmed to journalists that the injuries were aligned with those produced by DIME explosives.

Human rights groups say Israel used the weapon for the first time in Lebanon in 2006.

What is worrying health officials even more, however, is that some of the patients' organs are being ruptured with little or no sign of a shrapnel entry point.

This is something they have never seen before, they say, and also something they do not know how to treat.

"Normal shrapnel has a clear path, with both an entry and an exit point," said Dr. Mohamed al-Ron, another surgeon at al-Shifa hospital.

"But someone's entire abdomen will be ripped open, and only after searching will we find a miniscule hole in the skin. Then we will find small black dots all over the organ, but we don't know what they are."

It is an indication, he continued, that whatever is entering the body is exploding and doing the damage once it is inside. Multiple organs will fail, and will continue to fail even after surgery removes any shrapnel.

"We are consulting with international colleagues, and they are confirming that there is something unusual going on with these cases," said Dr. Skaik.

"We have seen plenty of nails, of metal shrapnel and foreign metallic parts, but there was never violence of this character or something that continued to damage even after the parts of the weapon were removed. What is being intentionally created is a population of handicapped people."

Some of the injuries, including multiple organ failure, mutilation and severed limbs, are so debilitating that Dr. Karim Hosni, an Egyptian doctor volunteering at the al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, says he wishes he could just end his patients' misery.

"Sometimes I wish my patients would just die," he said. "Their injuries are so horrifying, that I know they will now have to lead terrible and painful lives."

Comment: SILENCE IS COMPLICITY.

Worse Than an Earthquake

by Kathy Kelly

January 21, 2009

Rafah—Traffic on Sea Street, a major thoroughfare alongside Gaza’s coastline, includes horses, donkeys pulling carts, cyclists, pedestrians, trucks and cars, mostly older models. Overhead, in stark contrast to the street below, Israel’s ultra modern unmanned surveillance planes criss-cross the skies. F16s and helicopters can also be heard. Remnants of their deliveries, the casings of missiles, bombs and shells used during the past three weeks of Israeli attacks, are scattered on the ground.

Workers have cleared most of the roads. Now, they are removing massive piles of wreckage and debris, much as people do following an earthquake.

“Yet, all the world helps after an earthquake,” said a doctor at the Shifaa hospital in Gaza. “We feel very frustrated,” he continued. “The West, Europe and the U.S., watched this killing go on for 22 days, as though they were watching a movie, watching the killing of women and children without doing anything to stop it. I was expecting to die at any moment. I held my babies and expected to die. There was no safe place in Gaza.”

He and his colleagues are visibly exhausted, following weeks of work in the Intensive Care and Emergency Room departments at a hospital that received many more patients than they could help. “Patients died on the floor of the operating room because we had only six operating rooms,” said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan, M.D, an ICU doctor who grew up in Chicago. “And really we don’t know enough about the kinds of weapons that have been used against Gaza.”

In 15 years of practice, Dr. Abuhassan says he never saw burns like those he saw here. The burns, blackish in color, reached deep into the muscles and bones. Even after treatment was begun, the blackish color returned.

Two of the patients were sent to Egypt because they were in such critical condition. They died in Egypt. But when autopsies were done, reports showed that the cause of death was poisoning from elements of white phosphorous that had entered their systems, causing cardiac arrests.

In Gaza City, The Burn Unit’s harried director, a plastic surgeon and an expert in treating burns, told us that after encountering cases they’d never seen before, doctors at the center performed a biopsy on a patient they believed may have suffered chemical burns and sent the sample to a lab in Egypt. The results showed elements of white phosphorous in the tissue.

The doctor was interrupted by a phone call from a farmer who wanted to know whether it was safe to eat the oranges he was collecting from groves that had been uprooted and bombed during the Israeli invasion. The caller said the oranges had an offensive odor and that when the workers picked them up their hands became itchy.

Audrey Stewart had just spent the morning with Gazan farmers in Tufaa, a village near the border between Gaza and Israel. Israeli soldiers had first evacuated people, then dynamited the houses, then used bulldozers to clear the land, uprooting the orange tree groves. Many people, including children, were picking through the rubble, salvaging belongings and trying to collect oranges. At one point, people began shouting at Audrey, warning her that she was standing next to an unexploded rocket.

The doctor put his head in his hands, after listening to Audrey’s report. “I told them to wash everything very carefully. But these are new situations. Really, I don’t know how to respond,” he said.

Yet he spoke passionately about what he knew regarding families that had been burned or crushed to death when their homes were bombed. “Were their babies a danger to anyone?” he asked us.

“They are lying to us about democracy and Western values,” he continued, his voice shaking. “If we were sheep and goats, they would be more willing to help us.”

Dr. Saeed Abuhassan was bidding farewell to the doctors he’d worked with in Gaza. He was returning to his work in the United Arab Emirates. But before leaving, he paused to give us a word of advice. “You know, the most important thing you can tell people in your country is that U.S. people paid for many of the weapons used to kill people in Gaza,” said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan. “And this, also, is why it’s worse than an earthquake.”

Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) She and Audrey Stewart have been in Gaza for the past six days.

In Gaza, Love is the Strongest Weapon

Kathy Kelly writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 21 January 2009

18 January 2009

Late last night, a text message notified us that the Israeli government was very close to declaring that they would stop attacking Gaza for one day. Shortly before midnight, we heard huge explosions, four in a row. Till now, that was the last attack. Israeli drones flew overhead all night long, but residents of Rafah were finally able to get eight hours of sleep uninterrupted by F-16s and Apache helicopters attacking them.

Audrey Stewart, a human rights worker, and I stayed with Abu Yusif and his family, all of whom had fled their home closer to the border and were staying in a home loaned by Abu Yusif's brother-in-law, who is out of the country.

The family arose this morning after a comparatively restful slumber.

For the first time in three weeks, they weren't attacked by bombs throughout the night. This morning, while his wife Umm Yusif prepared breakfast, Abu Yusif and the children nestled together, on a mat, lining the wall. Abu Yusif had a son under each arm, while the youngest son playfully circled his siblings and then fell into his father's lap. Umm Yusif prepared a mixture of date preserves and pine nuts, served with warm bread, cheese and spices. Her daughter smiled in contentment, while her nephew, her husband and a close family friend talked about the news.

The family isn't confident that Israel's attacks will end, nor can they know what Hamas will choose to do, but today residents of Rafah were able to at least begin assessing the damage. Abu Yusif and his son took us to their home very close to the border. The house is still standing; he'll need to repair broken windows and doors, but he is better off than many of his neighbors whose houses are now piles of rubble.

Very near his home are the remnants of tunnels that are now unusable. A few dozen people picked through the rubble, salvaging wood for fuel.

Young boys carried pieces of wood in remnants of plastic formerly used to cover tomato plants. An older man told me he is afraid to carry even a piece of wood. Pointing upward, he explained that the unmanned surveillance planes circle the skies all day. If it appeared that he was carrying a rocket instead of a piece of wood, he might be targeted for assassination.

Sitting around an ash can fire, those who had maintained the tunnels tell us that they dream of freedom: freedom of movement and basic human rights. Every person can dream, but human beings in Palestine can't dream of anything else but freedom, to sleep without bombing and to live without suffering from extreme stress. Fida, who translates for us, tells me she has a terrible headache very day, from the stress. She feels worse at night. Her little sister is so terrified that she can't walk a step without help from her mother and sister.

She says that if Israel opens the border there won't be any need for the tunnels. If borders don't open, people will rebuild the tunnels.

Hussein tells us about a doctor who worked in an Israeli hospital. The doctor is a Palestinian who lived in Rafah. The Israeli hospital where he works is about 100 meters from where we sat. Last week, the Israelis destroyed his home and killed his children. He lost his children and his home, but he still works in the Israeli hospital.

One man, a teacher, says he hasn't had one day without sorrow. He listens to the children he teaches tell many stories about how their homes were destroyed. He hopes his own child and other children like him can live like other children in the world. He hopes his son, his only child, will have a better life.

"Show the world we are friendly and we don't love war," he tells us. "Israel forces us to live under these forces. The war is not only against Palestinians in Gaza. It is against all Palestinians. They want us to leave this land, but we can't leave it. They don't want us to wake up safe."

All of the men speaking with us had to leave their homes and find other places to live.

The drones still fly overhead, promising the possibility of further attack. If Hamas is accused of breaking the ceasefire, the people will pay. Many of these residents who live near the border also fear that if they do anything, even carry a stick, the drones overhead will spot them and mistake them for someone carrying a rocket and they will be attacked again.

Abu Yusif examines the damage done to his house. He tries to fix a broken water heater. His sons collect a bag of clothing so that everyone in the family can change clothes for the first time in three weeks. Maybe, just maybe, they'll have another night of sleep. And, an even more distant dream, perhaps they'll return to their homes in peace.

19 January 2009

Dr. Atallah, a physician in Gaza, invited us to meet him in his home in Gaza City, just a few blocks away from al-Shifa Hospital.

Early this morning, he and his family returned to their home after having fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City had become so fierce that they feared for their lives. "Believe me, when I would drive from the hospital to the place where my family was staying, I prayed all the way," said Dr. Atallah, "because the Israelis would shoot anyone on the roads at night."

Dr. Atallah has been practicing medicine as a general surgeon all of his adult life. Now, at age 61, he says he has never seen such terrible and ugly wounds as he saw during the past three weeks when he and a surgical team tried to help numerous patients with broken limbs, shrapnel wounds and severe burns. Neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons, orthopedic and general surgeons worked together on patients, as a team, trying to save them, but there were many whose lives they couldn't save. He described patients with shrapnel wounds in their eyes, faces, chests and abdomens, patients whose legs were amputated above the lower limbs. Most, he said, were civilians.

"These are strange ways of destroying the human body," said Dr. Atallah. "Please, come tomorrow to the burn unit, and you will see patients suffering from the use of white phosphorous."

Dr. Atallah said that he began to understand the extent of the trauma and danger by listening to the stories of wounded and injured patients.

"Some were sitting in their houses when a tank bomb hit them. They didn't know what happened to them," said Dr. Atallah. "Survivors would reach the hospital after many of their relatives had been killed."

Patients from Beit Lahia told him that an extended family of 25 persons had been attacked while inside their home. When relatives came to help them, Israeli snipers shot eight of them. Many of the wounded were left to die. Ambulances and Red Cross relief workers weren't allowed to enter the area.

At one point, Israel announced a lull in the fighting, but then bombed the Palestine Square, near the municipal offices. Four people came to the hospital, severely injured. "We couldn't save them," said Dr. Atallah. "Seven others were injured, and they survived."

"In Gaza City, all of the important buildings necessary for maintaining a city have been bombed," said Dr. Atallah. "From ministries to civilian police stations, all have been destroyed. Some were Hamas buildings, but not all."

We had just walked through the area where the buildings housing ministries of justice, education and culture were completely destroyed. Driving into Gaza City we saw mosques, factories, houses and schools reduced to rubble. We asked Dr. Atallah to tell us why, in his opinion, the Israelis had attacked Gaza so fiercely.

He believes that the attacks are essentially irrational but that a main cause for the timing and the magnitude of these attacks is that certain Israeli candidates for upcoming elections want to assure the Israeli public that they are willing to use military force to ensure security for Israelis.

"Palestinians all the time pay the taxes in blood," said Dr. Atallah.

"One of the worst aspects of this war," says Dr. Atallah, "is the lack of respect for the United Nations. Three UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestine refugees] schools were bombed. In Jabaliya, more than 45 people were killed at a UN school; F-16s bombed UNRWA supplies and stores."

"In al-Shifa Hospital, we saw plumes of smoke for day and night. All Gaza, every day, was covered with smoke and chemicals. We don't know how it affects the health."

"Yes, 'rocklets' did go out," says Dr. Atallah, referring to Hamas rockets fired into Israeli towns, "and we felt sympathy for any Israelis hurt by the rocklets. But, if someone hurts you with a pin, you don't cut off his head. You ask why the person tried to prick you with a pin. Consider that people here are trapped in a prison and there is a shortage of everything. No one can repair anything. People wanted borders opened so that goods could come and go. After six months of closed borders, people are frustrated. Now, one side declares a ceasefire, they say nothing about opening the borders, nothing about withdrawal, and yet they want NATO to help tighten the siege."

"I hope [US] President Obama will be much better than George Bush concerning these things," said Dr. Atallah. "Human beings that have such a strong army should be civilized and not behave like a terrorist group. Fanatics can be expected to use terror, but a democratic state shouldn't use fallacious statements as an excuse for massive killing. A state which does this should be brought before an International Court of Justice."

"And yet," he said, "we must experiment with ways of love. We are trying, with Jewish people ... by feelings and actions. We need to succeed. We need to live together. We are trying to be in good relations with all the partners, all the views."

"The strongest weapon all over the world is love," says Dr. Atallah, adding that he has always believed this and has said this to his colleagues, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, throughout his career. He recalled declaring this same belief at the Eretz border crossing, shortly after the Israelis launched "Operation Cast Lead" on 27 December 2008. He had been among the 200 Christians in Gaza who were chosen (800 had applied) to cross the border and celebrate the Orthodox Christmas holiday with family members in the West Bank. When the attacks began, he ended his holiday and hurried to the border, knowing he must return to his work and his family. At the border crossing, he greeted soldiers, "Merry Christmas." Soldiers answered, "Do you have weapons?" "Yes," Dr. Atallah replied, "I have the strongest weapon of all, the weapon of love."

Kathy Kelly co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence and can be reached at kathy @vcnv.org.
http://vcnv.org/the-strongest-weapon-of-all

SPRM sasar rasuah sifar

PUTRAJAYA 21 Jan. - Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) akan memastikan sistem kerja dan prosedur yang diguna pakai oleh sektor awam serta swasta kini bebas daripada gejala rasuah.
Timbalan Ketua Pesuruhjaya II (Bahagian Pencegahan) SPRM, Datuk Zakaria Jaffar berkata, langkah itu akan dilakukan melalui Bahagian Pemeriksaan dan Perundingan yang berperanan meneliti dan memeriksa sistem prosedur kerja di kedua-dua sektor berkenaan.
Beliau berkata, langkah itu sejajar dengan usaha kerajaan untuk melahirkan modal insan yang mempunyai integriti dan berhemah…

Ulasan: Walaupun SPRM masih lagi di bawah PM seperti BPR sebelumnya? Indonesia telah meletakkan suruhanjaya pencegah rasuahnya (nama asal ialah Komisi Pembenterasan Korupsi, Pengerusinya Antasari Azhar) di bawah parliamennya. Jauh betul jiran kita meninggalkan kita. Rakyat terus melihat dan akan jadi hakim di dalam pilihan raya nanti.

Obama janji baiki hubungan dengan dunia Islam

WASHINGTON 21 Jan. – Presiden Barack Obama berjanji untuk memperbaiki hubungan Amerika Syarikat (AS) dengan dunia Islam dalam ucapan sulungnya selepas mengangkat sumpah jawatan semalam.
Beliau berjanji untuk membuka lembaran baru dalam perhubungan dengan dunia Islam berikutan ketegangan yang menyusuli serangan 11 September 2001 di AS serta perang di Iraq dan Afghanistan semasa pentadbiran Presiden George W. Bush.
“Kepada dunia Islam, kami mahukan arah tuju baru, berdasarkan kepentingan bersama dan sikap saling menghormati,” kata Obama semalam.
Obama, seorang penganut Kristian, menghabiskan sebahagian zaman kanak-kanaknya di Indonesia selepas ibunya, Ann Dunham berkahwin dengan seorang lelaki Indonesia beragama Islam, Lolo Soetoro.
“Kepada mereka yang memegang kuasa menerusi rasuah dan penipuan dan menyekat suara penentang, ketahuilah sejarah tidak akan menyebelahi anda.
“Namun kami akan menghulurkan bantuan jika anda bersedia untuk melepaskan cengkaman,” kata Presiden kulit hitam pertama AS itu…

Ulasan: Harapan yang tinggi menggunung. Warga dunia akan menjadi saksi apakah yang bakal di laksanakan AS untuk menjadikan dunia ini aman selepas ini. Jangan marah bila kasut terbang menjadi hadiah persaraannya nanti kalau yang sebaliknya berlaku. Benarkan cogan katanya ‘Change We Can Believe in’ sewaktu berkempen dulu? Obama sudah berjanji. Sekarang masa untuk mengotakannya.

Boikot: AS tidak setuju

KUALA LUMPUR 21 Jan. - Amerika Syarikat (AS) berpendapat tindakan dan kempen memboikot barangan keluaran negara itu bertentangan dengan konsep perdagangan dua halanya dengan Malaysia.
Duta Amerika Syarikat (AS) ke Malaysia, James R. Keith berkata, hubungan perdagangan dua hala antara Malaysia dengan AS selama ini menghasilkan nilai perdagangan yang memberangsangkan.
"Kejayaan ini pastinya mahu diteruskan oleh syarikat-syarikat AS yang membuat banyak pelaburan di negara ini.
"Saya tidak setuju sama sekali dengan cadangan bekas Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad supaya rakyat negara ini memboikot produk AS kerana tiada satu pun produk yang benar-benar berasal dari sesebuah negara," katanya...

Ulasan: Negara sombong tapi mahu berniaga dengan negara tertindas sepatutnya tinggalkan kesombongan. Boikotlah sebelum keluarga kita di bom seperti di Gaza.

PBB pilih ketua siasat keganasan

GENEVA 21 Jan. – Bekas Presiden Ireland, Mary Robinson dan pemenang Hadiah Keamanan Nobel 2008, Martti Ahtisaari termasuk dalam senarai pendek calon untuk mengetuai siasatan Pertubuhan Bangsa- Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) mengenai keganasan Israel di Genting Gaza.
Menurut satu sumber PBB semalam, bekas ketua Agensi Bantuan dan Perkhidmatan PBB bagi pelarian Palestin (UNRWA), Peter Hansen dari Denmark juga telah disenaraikan sebagai calon.
Robinson merupakan Pesuruhjaya Tinggi PBB bagi Hak Asasi Manusia sehingga 2002 manakala Ahtisaari, seorang bekas Presiden Finland, terkenal sebagai perunding damai antarabangsa yang sangat berpengalaman…

Ulasan: Warga dunia harap dilakukan siasatan dengan teliti dan seterusnya ambil tindakan undang-undang seadilnya.

Imej BN ketinggalan zaman - Khir Toyo

KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Jan (Hrkh) - "Setelah hampir 30 tahun menggunakan imej dan pendekatan yang sama, nyata ia telah agak ketinggalan zaman."
Demikian pendapat ahli majlis tertinggi Umno Dato' Seri Khir Toyo dalam memperkatakan punca kekalahan parti itu di Kuala Terengganu baru-baru ini.
Katanya imej sedia ada Barisan Nasional (BN) sama ada dari segi pendekatan kempen, slogan mahu pun imej-imej poster dan baju harus diberi nafas baru…
&
Umno sudah hilang faktor penarik - Muhyiddin
MANAMA (Bahrain), 20 Jan - Memberikan analisis secara terus terang mengenai kelemahan Umno berikutan kekalahan Barisan Nasional (BN) pada pilihan raya kecil Parlimen Kuala Terengganu, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin berkata parti itu telah kehilangan faktor "penarik" untuk menarik rakyat kepada parti tunjang komponen BN itu. Iklan
Menurut laporan Bernama, Naib Presiden Umno itu berkata faktor itu perlu dibawa kembali kerana dengan memiliki faktor penarik itu bermakna rakyat akan tertarik dan memberikan perhatian terhadap perkara baru dan menarik yang disampaikan oleh parti itu…

Ulasan: Tidak hina kita hilang selamanya BN dan UMNO serta parti berdasarkan kaum kerana perjuangan mereka sudah lama tamat tempoh. Perjuangan kini untuk menjadikan Malaysia sebuah negara yang adil, bebas dan sifar rasuah.

Tindakan tegas jika sorok gula
PUTRAJAYA 21 Jan. – Kerajaan akan mengambil tindakan tegas terhadap pihak yang cuba menyorok bekalan gula dengan tujuan mengaut keuntungan berlebihan.
Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna, Datuk Shahrir Abd. Samad berkata, bahan keperluan itu di pasaran mencukupi dan negara tidak berhadapan dengan masalah bekalan…

Ulasan: Dapatkah penguatkuasa menangkap peniaga yang engkar itu? Dapatkah penguatkuasa tidak makan rasuah?

Govt orders its directors not to attend Perak state-level meetings

By SYLVIA LOOI (Wednesday January 21, 2009).

IPOH: All Federal Government directors of departments and agencies in Perak are banned from attending state-level meetings with immediate effect.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also said that, with immediate effect, federal agencies would only consider recommendations of Federal Village Development and Security Committees.

He said the move was to cut off the village committee appointed by the Pakatan Rakyat state government from access to Federal agencies.

“We will not hesitate to take disciplinary actions against federal agency directors if they attended meetings,” he told reporters after chairing the State Federal Action Council meeting here yesterday.

Zahid said agencies like the Drainage and Irrigation Department, Public Works Department, Health Department, Agriculture Department and the police were exempted from the ruling.

Noting that the Federal government only recognised the Federal Village Committees, their recommendations were therefore be considered legal.

“We do not recognise the recommendations of the Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK),” he added.

Zahid said that among the issues that required the recommendations of federal committee were scholarship applications and entries into institutes of higher learning.

Zahid said the 28 Barisan Nasional elected representatives in the state would be given special allocations to assist the people in their constituencies.

“The allocation will be given out whenever there are incidents of fire, flood or thunderstorm in their constituencies,” he said.

However, he declined to reveal the amount allocated for each constituency.

Comment from received email: Zionist Israel have no respect for Democracy and refuse to recognise democratically, convincingly elected HAMAS Government, refused to cooperate, imposed blockade... Similar case happening in Perak?

Why Israel Won't Survive

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 19 January 2009

The merciless Israeli bombardment of Gaza has stopped -- for now -- but the death toll keeps rising as more bodies are pulled from carpet- bombed neighborhoods.

What Israel perpetrated in Gaza, starting at 11:30am on 27 December 2008, will remain forever engraved in history and memory. Tel al-Hawa, Hayy al-Zeitoun, Khuzaa and other sites of Israeli massacres will join a long mournful list that includes Deir Yasin, Qibya, Kufr Qasim, Sabra and Shatila, Qana, and Jenin.

Once again, Israel demonstrated that it possesses the power and the lack of moral restraint necessary to commit atrocities against a population of destitute refugees it has caged and starved.

The dehumanization and demonization of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims has escalated to the point where Israel can with full self- righteousness bomb their homes, places of worship, schools, universities, factories, fishing boats, police stations -- in short everything that sustains civilized and orderly life -- and claim it is conducting a war against terrorism.

Yet paradoxically, it is Israel as a Zionist state, not Palestine or the Palestinian people, that cannot survive this attempted genocide.

Israel's "war" was not about rockets -- they served the same role in its narrative as the non-existent weapons of mass destruction did as the pretext for the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Israel's real goals were to restore its "deterrence" fatally damaged after its 2006 defeat in Lebanon (translation: its ability to massacre and terrorize entire populations into submission) and to destroy any Palestinian resistance to total Israeli-Jewish control over historic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

With Hamas and other resistance factions removed or fatally weakened, Israel hoped the way would be clear to sign a "peace" deal with chief Palestinian collaborator Mahmoud Abbas to manage Palestinians on Israel's behalf until they could be forced out once and for all.

The US-backed "moderate" dictatorships and absolute monarchies led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia supported the Israeli plan hoping to demonstrate to their own people that resistance -- whether against Israel or their own bankrupt regimes -- was futile.

To win, Israel had to break Palestinian resistance. It failed. On the contrary, it galvanized and unified Palestinians like never before. All factions united and fought heroically for 23 days. According to well-informed and credible sources Israel did little harm to the modest but determined military capacity of the resistance. So instead Israel did what it does best: it massacred civilians in the hope that the population would turn against those fighting the occupier.

Israel not only unified the resistance factions in Gaza; its brutality rallied all Palestinians and Arabs.

It is often claimed that Arab regimes whip up anti-Israel anger to distract their populations from their own failings. Actually, Israel, the US and subservient Arab regimes tried everything -- especially demonizing Iran and inciting sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims -- to distract their populations from Palestine.

All this failed as millions of people across the region marched in support of Palestinian resistance, and the Arab regimes who hoped to benefit from the slaughter in Gaza have been exposed as partners in the Israeli atrocities. In popular esteem, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions earned their place alongside Hizballah as effective bulwarks against Israeli and Western colonialism.

If there was ever a moment when the peoples of the region would accept Israel as a Zionist state in their midst, that has passed forever.

But anyone surveying the catastrophe in Gaza -- the mass destruction, the death toll of more than 100 Palestinians for every Israeli, the thousands of sadistic injuries -- would surely conclude that Palestinians could never overcome Israel and resistance is a delusion at best.

True, in terms of ability to murder and destroy, Israel is unmatched. But Israel's problem is not, as its propaganda insists, "terrorism" to be defeated by sufficient application of high explosives. Its problem is legitimacy, or rather a profound and irreversible lack of it. Israel simply cannot bomb its way to legitimacy.

Israel was founded as a "Jewish state" through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine's non-Jewish majority Arab population. It has been maintained in existence only through Western support and constant use of violence to prevent the surviving indigenous population from exercising political rights within the country, or returning from forced exile.

Despite this, today, 50 percent of the people living under Israeli rule in historic Palestine (Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip) are Palestinians, not Jews. And their numbers are growing rapidly. Like Nationalists in Northern Ireland or non-whites in South Africa, Palestinians will never recognize the "right" of a settler-colonial society to maintain an ethnocractic state at their expense through violence, repression and racism.

For years, the goal of the so-called peace process was to normalize Israel as a "Jewish state" and gain Palestinians' blessing for their own dispossession and subjugation. When this failed, Israel tried "disengagement" in Gaza -- essentially a ruse to convince the rest of the world that the 1.5 million Palestinians caged in there should no longer be counted as part of the population. They were in Israel's definition a "hostile entity."

In his notorious May 2004 interview with The Jerusalem Post, Arnon Soffer, an architect of the 2005 disengagement explained that the approach "doesn't guarantee 'peace,' it guarantees a Jewish- Zionist state with an overwhelming majority of Jews." Soffer predicted that in the future "when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful."

He was unambiguous about what Israel would have to do to maintain thisstatus quo: "If we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day." Soffer hoped that eventually, Palestinians would give up and leave Gaza altogether.

Through their resistance, steadfastness and sacrifice, Palestinians in Gaza have defeated this policy and reasserted that they are an inseparable part of Palestine, its people, its history and its future.

Israel is not the first settler-colonial entity to find itself in this position. When F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid president, came to office in 1989, his generals calculated that solely with the overwhelming military force at their disposal, they could keep the regime in power for at least a decade. The casualties, however, would have run into hundreds of thousands, and South Africa would face ever greater isolation. Confronted with this reality, de Klerk took the decision to begin an orderly dismantling of apartheid.

What choice will Israel make? In the absence of any political and moral legitimacy the only arguments it has left are bullets and bombs. Left to its own devices Israel will certainly keep trying -- as it has for sixty years -- to massacre Palestinians into submission. Israel's achievement has been to make South Africa's apartheid leaders look wise, restrained and humane by comparison.

But what prevented South Africa's white supremacist government from escalating their own violence to Israeli levels of cruelty and audacity was not that they had greater scruples than the Zionist regime. It was recognition that they alone could not stand against a global anti-apartheid movement that was in solidarity with the internal resistance.

Israel's "military deterrent" has now been repeatedly discredited as a means to force Palestinians and other Arabs to accept Zionist supremacy as inevitable and permanent. Now, the other pillar of Israeli power -- Western support and complicity -- is starting to crack. We must do all we can to push it over.

Israel began its massacres with full support from its Western "friends." Then something amazing happened. Despite the official statements of support, despite the media censorship, despite the slick Israeli hasbara (propaganda) campaign, there was a massive, unprecedented public mobilization in Europe and even in North America expressing outrage and disgust.

Gaza will likely be seen as the turning point when Israeli propaganda lost its power to mystify, silence and intimidate as it has for so long. Even the Nazi Holocaust, long deployed by Zionists to silence Israel's critics, is becoming a liability; once unimaginable comparisons are now routinely heard. Jewish and Palestinian academics likened Israel's actions in Gaza to the Nazi massacre in the Warsaw Ghetto. A Vatican cardinal referred to Gaza as a "giant concentration camp." UK Member of Parliament Gerald Kaufman, once a staunch Zionist, told the House of Commons, "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow, [Poland]. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed." Kaufman continued, "my grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza." He denounced the Israeli military spokesperson' s justifications as the words "of a Nazi."

It wasn't only such statements, but the enormous demonstrations, the nonviolent direct actions, and the unprecedented expressions of support for boycott, divestment and sanctions from major trade unions in Italy, Canada and New Zealand. An all-party group of city councillors in Birmingham, Europe's second largest municipal government, urged the UK government to follow suit. Salma Yaqoub of the RESPECT Party explained that "One of the factors that helped bring an end to the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa was international pressure for economic, sporting and cultural boycotts. It is time that Israel started to feel similar pressure from world opinion."

Israel, its true nature as failed, brutal colonial project laid bare in Gaza, is extremely vulnerable to such a campaign. Little noticed amidst the carnage in Gaza, Israel took another momentous step towards formal apartheid when the Knesset elections committee voted to ban Arab parties from participating in upcoming elections. Zionism, an ideology of racial supremacy, extremism and hate, is a dying project, in retreat and failing to find new recruits. With enough pressure, and relatively quickly, Israelis too would likely produce their own de Klerk ready to negotiate a way out. Every new massacre makes it harder, but a de-zionized, decolonized, reintegrated Palestine affording equal rights to all who live in it, regardless of religion or ethnicity, and return for refugees is not a utopian dream.

It is within reach, in our lifetimes. But it is far from inevitable. We can be sure that Western and Arab governments will continue to support Israeli apartheid and Palestinian collaboration under the guise of the "peace process" unless decisively challenged. Israeli massacres will continue and escalate until the nightmare of an Israeli- style "peace" -- apartheid and further ethnic cleansing -- is fulfilled.

The mobilizations of the past three weeks showed that a different world is possible and within our grasp if we support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Although they will never get to see it, that world would be a fitting memorial for all of Israel's victims.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).

Harga minyak kekal – Shahrir

ALOR STAR 20 Jan. – Harga runcit petrol dan diesel tidak akan diturunkan dalam masa terdekat ini, kata Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna, Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad…
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Harga gula naik bulan depan?
BUKIT MERTAJAM 20 Jan. – Pengumuman kenaikan harga gula awal bulan depan dijangka tidak membebankan pengguna kerana ia dilakukan secara berperingkat.
“Kita belum putuskan sama ada kekal atau naikkan harga. Sama ada naik harga dengan peratus yang kecil atau besar, ia akan dilakukan berperingkat-peringkat,’’ kata Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad.
Menurut Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna itu, harga pasaran gula pada masa ini ialah RM1.45 sekilogram…

Ulasan: Ini saja tugas Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna? Kebanyakkannya berat sebelah. Eloklah di pisahkan menjadi dua kementerian yang berasingan kerana setakat ini tidak nampak membela pengguna tetapi banyak membela businessmen.

Padang jarak padang terkukur

JABALIYA 20 Jan. - Kemusnahan yang berlaku di Genting Gaza akibat bedilan Israel selama lebih tiga minggu, digambarkan sebagai sepuluh kali lebih dahsyat daripada gempa bumi.
Rumah, kilang dan pohon zaitun yang dahulunya berdiri tegak di sebuah kawasan di pekan utara Gaza ini habis musnah dan kini hanya tinggal timbunan runtuhan.
"Kemusnahan ini sepuluh kali lebih dahsyat daripada apa yang berlaku selepas gempa bumi," kata seorang jurutera, Ashraf Faraj, 42.
Tidak ada sebuah pun bangunan yang masih berdiri sejauh beberapa ratus meter di kawasan perumahan Qirem dan Abed Rabbo di pekan ini,.
Jabaliya adalah antara kawasan pertama yang dicerobohi oleh tentera Israel yang membedil wilayah ini selama 22 hari dalam usaha untuk menumpaskan pejuang Hamas.
Seorang ahli perniagaan, Mohammad Hassan yang berumur 52 tahun tidak dapat menahan sebak apabila melihat kemusnahan di depan matanya.
Beliau telah kehilangan segala-gala termasuk rumahnya, depot tempat beliau menyimpan barang serta hotel yang dibinanya sebagai tempat penginapan untuk pelanggan.
"Mengapa mereka memusnahkan segala-galanya," rintih Mohammad yang lebih dikenali sebagai Abu Rami, tokoh popular di wilayah miskin ini.
Anggaran pertama oleh penaksir bebas menunjukkan, aset bernilai hampir AS$2 bilion (RM7 bilion) hancur musnah di Gaza, termasuk 4,100 rumah, 1,500 kilang dan bengkel, 20 masjid, 31 pejabat keselamatan dan 10 saluran bekalan air atau kumbahan.
Kebanyakan penduduk Gaza seperti Mohammad menjadi bingung melihat kemusnahan begitu meluas dan berkata, mereka tidak tahu bagaimana hendak memulakan kerja pembersihan…
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Bantuan berbilion dolar diperlukan
NEW YORK 20 Jan. - Bantuan kemanusiaan berjumlah ratusan juta dolar diperlukan segera untuk membantu 1.4 juta penduduk di Genting Gaza manakala berbilion-bilion dolar diperlukan bagi membina semula bangunan dan infrastruktur yang musnah di wilayah Palestin itu.
Ketua agensi kemanusiaan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB), John Holmes berkata, sesetengah kawasan kediaman hampir ranap sama sekali dan banyak rumah hanya tinggal timbunan runtuhan.
Air kumbahan mengalir di jalan raya dan bom yang masih hidup juga menimbulkan ancaman besar kepada penduduk, katanya semalam.
Walaupun bekalan air paip dapat dipulihkan kepada 100,000 penduduk kelmarin, namun 400,000 penduduk lagi masih tidak mendapat air bersih dan bekalan elektrik hanya disalurkan tidak sampai setengah hari, menurut pegawai kanan PBB itu.
Sejumlah 100,000 penduduk hilang tempat tinggal dan keperluan untuk bekalan makanan serta rawatan perubatan amat besar.
"Mungkin tidak jelas siapa sebenarnya yang memenangi konflik ini, kalau pun konsep tersebut membawa apa-apa makna di Gaza tetapi saya fikir adalah nyata siapa yang menjadi mangsa dan mereka adalah penduduk awam di Gaza dan sebilangan kecil penduduk awam di selatan Israel," kata Holmes kepada wartawan di ibu pejabat PBB di sini.
Menurut angka korban terbaru Kementerian Kesihatan Palestin, seramai 1,314 orang termasuk 416 kanak-kanak dan 106 wanita terkorban di Gaza manakala 5,320 lagi termasuk 1,855 kanak-kanak dan 795 wanita cedera.
Setiausaha Agung PBB, Ban Ki-moon memberitahu wartawan di pusat peranginan Sharm el-Sheikh, Mesir kelmarin, beliau akan menghantar satu pasukan PBB untuk mentaksirkan keperluan kemanusiaan penduduk di Gaza. - AP

Ulasan: Janganlah kita biasanya sewaktu berkuasa membuat kerosakan di muka bumi, sesudah Allah memperbaikinya. Apakah alasan yang akan di kemukakan nanti di depan Allah?

‘Friends of Humanity’ Details Israeli Destruction of 27 Mosques in Gaza

VIENNA, Austria January 20, (FOH)— Israel has deliberately bombed houses of worship in Gaza Strip with rockets and heavy bombs, on those of worshipers in some cases, under the Israeli comprehensive war against Gaza Strip.

The Names and the Locations of Demolished Mosques

In the following statistics we document the names and the locations of 27 mosques that have been destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces since the starting of the war against Gaza on the 27th of December 2008.

I. The Masjid of the Martyr Imad Aqel in Jabaliya camp for Palestinian refugees in north Gaza, the bombing of the mosque by the Israeli warplanes on Dec. 28, 2008 resulted in the collapse of an adjacent house, causing the death of 5 sisters from

one family and injuries of number of citizens who are living nearby.

II. Masjid Al-Saraya was completely destroyed on Dec. 28, 2008 through the air bombing of Al-Saraya governmental compound in the center of Gaza city.

III. The Israeli warplanes have targeted Majid Al-Abbas and the neighboring Al-Abbas police station in Gaza city on Dec. 28, 2008 that resulted in substantial damage.

IV. Masjid Al-Shifaa Mosque was bombed by air Dec. 28, 2008, inside the mosque were a lot of a relatives of ill persons and four of them were killed. The mosque is located near Al-Shifaa medical complex in Gaza city. The bombing created a state of confusion among the medical staff and teams who are working in the hospital, deepening the difficulties in the hospital after being subjected to significant damage by fragments of missiles and pieces of stones and cement. Israeli missiles turned the mosque to a pile of rubble. The two rockets that directly struck the dome of the mosque resulted in two large holes, the stones and the columns of the mosque scattered and spread out in adjacent roads, houses, and shops causing a lot of damage.

V. Masjid Abu Bakr Al-Sideeq is located in Beit Hanoun town in the far north of Gaza Strip, the Israeli warplanes have fired several missiles towards the mosque on Dec. 29, 2008 causing complete destruction. The dead and injured had been recovered from under the rubble.

VI. On Dec. 29, 2008 the Israeli warplanes bombed Masjid Ezz Al-Dien Al-Qassam martyr mosque in Abasan / Khan-Younis in south of Gaza Strip destroying it completely. The Israeli authorities did not mention any reason for this bombing.

VII. On Dec. 29, 2008: Bombing of Masjid Al-Ribat in Rafah resulted in seven 7 dead 3 of them are children.

VIII. Masjid Al-Abrar” in Rafah was bombed on Dec. 29, 2009 and again on Jan. 15, 2009. The mosque has been completely destroyed.

IX. On Dec. 29, 2008 the Israeli warplanes have bombed Masjid Riad Al-Saaliheen mosque in the north of the Gaza Strip.

X. Around 3:00 AM at Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008, at dawn, the occupation warplanes bombed Masjid Al-Faruq Omar bin Al-Khatab in Al-Breij camp in the center of Gaza Strip destroying it completely.

XI. Masjid Abu Hanifa Nu’man located in Tal Alhawa south of Gaza city, was targeted with four missiles on Dec. 31, 2008, resulting in destroying it completely, the injuries of five women, and damage in a large number of adjacent houses.

XII. On Jan. 1, 2009 the occupation forces fired a rocket that caused damage to Masjid Khalil Al-Rahman in the Abasan area east of Khan Younis.

XIII. On Jan. 1, 2009 an Israeli bombing has targeted Masjid Al-Nasr, an ancient mosque in Beit Hanoun town in the north of Gaza Strip resulting in its destruction. The mosque was built in A.D. 736.

XIV. On Jan. 2, 2009 the Israeli warplanes targeted Masjid Al-Khulafa’ Al-Rashideen” in Jabaliya camp for Palestinian refugees in the north of Gaza Strip, the Israeli forces fired several rockets towards the mosque and destroyed it, and resulted in injuring several Palestinians and damage in several neighboring houses.

XV. On Jan. 2, 2009 the Israeli forces bombed Masjid Omar Bin Abdel Aziz in Beit Hanoun resulting in enormous damage in its buildings.

XVI. On Jan. 2, 2009 the Israeli jet warplanes type F-16 bombed the mosque of the Martyr Ibrahim Al-Maqadmah in Beit Lahia town far north of Gaza with a large bomb weighting 500 kg when tens of worshiper were performing the prayers, resulting in a massacre with 16 people killed and dozens injured.

XVII. The Israeli warplanes at the dawn on Jan. 6, 2009 bombed Masjid Hasan Al-Banna in Al-Zaitoon neighborhood north of Gaza Strip resulting in destroying it completely. The bombing resulted in the injuries of several persons and the burning of a number of neighboring houses.

XVIII. At 9:00 PM on Jan. 7, 2009 Israeli warplanes bombed Masjid Al-Taqwa in Al-Shiekh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza city, and re-bombed it four hours later, resulting in the killing of 4 Palestinian civilians, the injuries of others, and resulted in the destruction of the mosque that was composed of four floors and the damage of about 10 neighboring houses.

XIX. About 11:50 AM on Jan. 7, 2009 Israeli warplanes bombed Masjid Al-Noor Al-Mohammed located in AL-Jala’ street in Gaza city, causing complete destruction to the mosque, killing and injuring several Palestinians, and in damage to neighboring houses.

XX. On Jan. 7, 2009 at about 2:00 A.M., the Israeli warplanes bombed the police center in Bani Saheela east of Khan-Younis, resulting in destroying it and damage in the neighboring buildings including Masjid Hamza, with no injuries.

XXI. On Jan. 8, 2009 the Israeli forces fired artillery shells towards the houses of the citizens and Masjid Ibad Al-Rahman in Wadi Al-Salqa village.

XXII. Occupation forces destroyed Masjid Al-Ribat in Khan-Younis on Jan. 9, 2009.

XXIII. On Jan. 10, 2009 Israeli warplanes bombed Masjid Al-Ssafa in Al-Breij camp resulting in partial destruction.

XXIV. On Jan. 11, 2009 at 3:00 AM, the Israeli warplanes of type F16 have bombed with many missiles “Dar Al-Fadeela” mosque that follows the house of virtue orphans which includes elementary private school, the college of Dar Al-Da’wa for human sciences, and a computer center. That is located in Taha Hussein street in Khirbit Al-Adas neighborhood north-east of Rafah. This causes the complete destruction of the house Dar Al-Fadeela.

XXV. Masjid Bilal bin Rabah in Rafah south of Gaza was destroyed completely in the first week of the war against Gaza, the photos of the destruction of this mosque were displayed in a lot of media around the globe.

XXVI. Masjid Al-Salateen in Jabaliya was targeted by a bombing on Jan. 14, 2009.

XXVII. On Dec. 28, 2008 Masjid Al-Estiqamah in Rafah city was significantly damaged as a result of bombing in adjacent areas by Israeli warplanes. The mosque is located in a densely populated residential area causing the damage in tens of neighboring houses.

It is regrettable that a lot of other mosques have also been badly affected but with less degree, during the bombing of neighboring houses and civilian institutions by Israeli occupation forces.

Also the demolishing of many of places of prayer those are located inside the buildings of ministries, associations, sports clubs, civilian police centers, and other civilian institutions that the Israeli forces had bombed and destroyed.

The Roles of Mosques in Gaza

The mosques in Islamic religion are characterized with high sanctity, and are considered as houses of God since they are places of worship for Muslims, and can be affected and its role can not be undermined in any case. The Muslims are racing to contribute in building and maintaining mosques. The Muslims consider any one who is preventing the praying in mosques is performing a deep injustice and oppression towards them and their religion. Thus anyone can imagine the level of anger caused for Muslims as a result of bombing, demolishing and destroying of mosques by the Israeli occupation forces in addition to the killing of worshippers in many cases during prayer.

The mosques have contributed in special roles in Gaza Strip under the occupation and the siege against the people, especially in social welfare field and the distribution of relief materials.

The mosques have formed important places for the people of Gaza to meet, announcing about their social occasions and holding these occasions in mosques, reconciliation and solving social problems is done in mosques also.

In addition to the religious education that is performed in mosques, the school students are also receiving strengthening courses in different regular school subjects.

The mosques of Gaza Strip are located in densely populated areas, and people are rushing to rent houses or to build them beside mosques.

Israeli Occupation and Mosques Violations

The leadership of the occupation forces has performed prior publicity against the mosques in Gaza Strip a prelude to its destruction. They claimed that the mosques are strongholds for the members of the Palestinian resistance, but the inspection of the resulting effects caused by mosques destruction and the witnesses are all confirming that the claims of the Israeli authorities are totally false and unfounded.

The violation and profanation of these rogue forces against mosques in Gaza Strip is considered as clear indicator that the Israeli occupation consider itself above all international humanitarian laws and conventions and do not obey them as a result of the infinite and unlimited support it receives from USA and some countries from the Europe Union.

We mention here news containing a declaration from the Israeli army on Jan. 11, 2009 regarding the bombing of mosques in Gaza Strip: The Israeli spokeswoman Avital Leibovich declared on Monday, that the government has demanded the army to eliminate and destroy the infrastructure of Hamas movement that the movement was able to build during the last two years.

Leibovich said, during the third phase of the military operation in Gaza strip the Israeli army will target hundreds of ammunition and explosives stores and Grad rockets that are hidden in mosques and other places, pointing that the Israeli army will enter a new stage in which it will continue the achieving of the major goals, and reaching stable and safe condition for the state of Israel.

The Israeli warplanes did not hesitate in bombing the places of worship with heavy bombs claiming that members from Palestinian resistance are hiding in the mosques with their weapons, but none of those resistance members was killed after the bombing of the mosques, but the achieved goals were demolishing the mosques and killing the innocent citizens who hide in the mosques believing that they are safe shelters.

The Organization Position Regarding the Demolishing of Mosques by the Occupation

“Friends of Humanity” condemns the Israeli attacks against the civilians, houses of worship, and the civilian places through bombing them by artillery shells and missiles from warplanes. And considers the targeting of mosques and other civilian places from the occupation forces as dangerous indicator and huge violation for the sanctity of mosques, places of worship, and civilian institutions. It is not strange to the occupation forces who are committing war crimes against the Palestinian people on daily basis, by using its warplanes and heavy weapons to target children, women, elderly, and safe houses in its war against the Palestinians.

What the occupation is doing today is fully compatible with what his militia has done in the Palestinian territories inside the green line in the forties of the last century when it has demolished thousands of mosques and places of worship, and such operations are very similar to the acts of the rogue Serbian militia during its war against the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the nineties of the last century and the demolishing of houses of worship there.

The crimes of mosques demolishing are not approved by any legislation or any religion or any law, and the places of worship must be avoided. The demolishing of mosques in Gaza represents evidence and proof for the non-validity of the occupation claims that the occupation is respecting the freedom of religion and worship.

Israel is bearing the complete responsibility for the Palestinian civilians in all conditions and situations, according to the rules of the international law that the presence of an armed resistance do not justify in any way the usage of that excessive force.

The organization warns from the killing and injuring of more victims from the Palestinian civilians and the additional targeting of houses of worship and other civilian places according to the Israeli threats issued from the highest political and military levels in the Israeli government in expanding the military operations against Gaza residents and the expansion in targeting the houses of worship.

The demands of the Friends of Humanity

Friends of Humanity International views the Israeli military operations against the civilians and civilian institutions in Gaza Strip with a greatly concern:

I. Stress on the necessity for the cease of bombing and demolishing houses of worship, and considers the claims of the occupation leadership regarding the existence of members from the Palestinian resistance inside the mosques to be flimsy, since who are resorting to mosques are the women, children and the elderly as a result of bombing of their houses.

II. The organization calls for the protection of mosques, houses of worship and sanctities. And the necessity for supporting the Palestinian people and standing beside him in its confrontation against the occupation aggression, and emphasizes on the right of the Palestinian people in exercising their natural right of worship.

III. Stress that these deliberate crimes are war crimes resulted from the Israeli war against the occupied Palestinian territories reflects contempt of those forces to lives of Palestinian civilians and their holy places, considering it as reprisal operations and unjust punishment against the Palestinians contradicting with the article number 33 in the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949 regarding the protection of civilian persons during the wars.

IV. Call all peoples of living consciences to do effective and hard work aiming to stop these crimes. And renew its demands to the contracting parties to the 4th Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations contained in the first article in the convention in which they are committed to respect the convention in all cases, also respecting the obligations in the article 146 of the convention by the prosecution of the defendants accused of committing big breaches in the convention, noting that these violations are considered war crimes according the article 147 of the 4th Geneva Convention for the protection of the civilians, and according to the 1st additional protocol of the convention to ensure the right of protection for Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories.

Souce: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/20/18564875.php

Comment: Gaza War - Israel's Unethical War. Thus, another war, another defeat. Palestinians will surely make it, God's willing.

Gaza War : Another War, Another Defeat

Another War, Another Defeat

The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not in making Israel more secure.

By John J. Mearsheimer
Professor of political science at the University of Chicago and coauthor of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.

Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Don’t believe it. Israel has foolishly started another war it cannot win.

The campaign in Gaza is said to have two objectives: 1) to put an end to the rockets and mortars that Palestinians have been firing into southern Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005; 2) to restore Israel’s deterrent, which was said to be diminished by the Lebanon fiasco, by Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and by its inability to halt Iran’s nuclear program.

But these are not the real goals of Operation Cast Lead. The actual purpose is connected to Israel’s long-term vision of how it intends to live with millions of Palestinians in its midst. It is part of a broader strategic goal: the creation of a “Greater Israel.” Specifically, Israel’s leaders remain determined to control all of what used to be known as Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful of disconnected and economically crippled enclaves, one of which is Gaza. Israel would control the borders around them, movement between them, the air above and the water below them.

The key to achieving this is to inflict massive pain on the Palestinians so that they come to accept the fact that they are a defeated people and that Israel will be largely responsible for controlling their future. This strategy, which was first articulated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s and has heavily influenced Israeli policy since 1948, is commonly referred to as the “Iron Wall.”

What has been happening in Gaza is fully consistent with this strategy.

Let’s begin with Israel’s decision to withdraw from Gaza in 2005. The conventional wisdom is that Israel was serious about making peace with the Palestinians and that its leaders hoped the exit from Gaza would be a major step toward creating a viable Palestinian state. According to the New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman, Israel was giving the Palestinians an opportunity to “build a decent mini-state there—a Dubai on the Mediterranean,” and if they did so, it would “fundamentally reshape the Israeli debate about whether the Palestinians can be handed most of the West Bank.”

This is pure fiction. Even before Hamas came to power, the Israelis intended to create an open-air prison for the Palestinians in Gaza and inflict great pain on them until they complied with Israel’s wishes. Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s closest adviser at the time, candidly stated that the disengagement from Gaza was aimed at halting the peace process, not encouraging it. He described the disengagement as “formaldehyde that’s necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.” Moreover, he emphasized that the withdrawal “places the Palestinians under tremendous pressure. It forces them into a corner where they hate to be.”

Arnon Soffer, a prominent Israeli demographer who also advised Sharon, elaborated on what that pressure would look like. “When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.”

In January 2006, five months after the Israelis pulled their settlers out of Gaza, Hamas won a decisive victory over Fatah in the Palestinian legislative elections. This meant trouble for Israel’s strategy because Hamas was democratically elected, well organized, not corrupt like Fatah, and unwilling to accept Israel’s existence. Israel responded by ratcheting up economic pressure on the Palestinians, but it did not work. In fact, the situation took another turn for the worse in March 2007, when Fatah and Hamas came together to form a national unity government. Hamas’s stature and political power were growing, and Israel’s divide-and-conquer strategy was unraveling.

To make matters worse, the national unity government began pushing for a long-term ceasefire. The Palestinians would end all missile attacks on Israel if the Israelis would stop arresting and assassinating Palestinians and end their economic stranglehold, opening the border crossings into Gaza.

Israel rejected that offer and with American backing set out to foment a civil war between Fatah and Hamas that would wreck the national unity government and put Fatah in charge. The plan backfired when Hamas drove Fatah out of Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge there and the more pliant Fatah in control of the West Bank. Israel then tightened the screws on the blockade around Gaza, causing even greater hardship and suffering among the Palestinians living there.

Hamas responded by continuing to fire rockets and mortars into Israel, while emphasizing that they still sought a long-term ceasefire, perhaps lasting ten years or more. This was not a noble gesture on Hamas’s part: they sought a ceasefire because the balance of power heavily favored Israel. The Israelis had no interest in a ceasefire and merely intensified the economic pressure on Gaza. But in the late spring of 2008, pressure from Israelis living under the rocket attacks led the government to agree to a six-month ceasefire starting on June 19. That agreement, which formally ended on Dec. 19, immediately preceded the present war, which began on Dec. 27.

The official Israeli position blames Hamas for undermining the ceasefire. This view is widely accepted in the United States, but it is not true. Israeli leaders disliked the ceasefire from the start, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to begin preparing for the present war while the ceasefire was being negotiated in June 2008. Furthermore, Dan Gillerman, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, reports that Jerusalem began to prepare the propaganda campaign to sell the present war months before the conflict began. For its part, Hamas drastically reduced the number of missile attacks during the first five months of the ceasefire. A total of two rockets were fired into Israel during September and October, none by Hamas.

How did Israel behave during this same period? It continued arresting and assassinating Palestinians on the West Bank, and it continued the deadly blockade that was slowly strangling Gaza. Then on Nov. 4, as Americans voted for a new president, Israel attacked a tunnel inside Gaza and killed six Palestinians. It was the first major violation of the ceasefire, and the Palestinians— who had been “careful to maintain the ceasefire,” according to Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center—responded by resuming rocket attacks. The calm that had prevailed since June vanished as Israel ratcheted up the blockade and its attacks into Gaza and the Palestinians hurled more rockets at Israel. It is worth noting that not a single Israeli was killed by Palestinian missiles between Nov. 4 and the launching of the war on Dec. 27.

As the violence increased, Hamas made clear that it had no interest in extending the ceasefire beyond Dec. 19, which is hardly surprising, since it had not worked as intended. In mid-December, however, Hamas informed Israel that it was still willing to negotiate a long-term ceasefire if it included an end to the arrests and assassinations as well as the lifting of the blockade. But the Israelis, having used the ceasefire to prepare for war against Hamas, rejected this overture. The bombing of Gaza commenced eight days after the failed ceasefire formally ended.

If Israel wanted to stop missile attacks from Gaza, it could have done so by arranging a long-term ceasefire with Hamas. And if Israel were genuinely interested in creating a viable Palestinian state, it could have worked with the national unity government to implement a meaningful ceasefire and change Hamas’s thinking about a two-state solution. But Israel has a different agenda: it is determined to employ the Iron Wall strategy to get the Palestinians in Gaza to accept their fate as hapless subjects of a Greater Israel.

This brutal policy is clearly reflected in Israel’s conduct of the Gaza War. Israel and its supporters claim that the IDF is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, in some cases taking risks that put Israeli soldiers in jeopardy. Hardly. One reason to doubt these claims is that Israel refuses to allow reporters into the war zone: it does not want the world to see what its soldiers and bombs are doing inside Gaza. At the same time, Israel has launched a massive propaganda campaign to put a positive spin on the horror stories that do emerge.

The best evidence, however, that Israel is deliberately seeking to punish the broader population in Gaza is the death and destruction the IDF has wrought on that small piece of real estate. Israel has killed over 1,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 4,000. Over half of the casualties are civilians, and many are children. The IDF’s opening salvo on Dec. 27 took place as children were leaving school, and one of its primary targets that day was a large group of graduating police cadets, who hardly qualified as terrorists. In what Ehud Barak called “an all-out war against Hamas,” Israel has targeted a university, schools, mosques, homes, apartment buildings, government offices, and even ambulances. A senior Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, explained the logic behind Israel’s expansive target set: “There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel.” In other words, everyone is a terrorist and everything is a legitimate target.

Israelis tend to be blunt, and they occasionally say what they are really doing. After the IDF killed 40 Palestinian civilians in a UN school on Jan. 6, Ha’aretz reported that “senior officers admit that the IDF has been using enormous firepower.” One officer explained, “For us, being cautious means being aggressive. From the minute we entered, we’ve acted like we’re at war. That creates enormous damage on the ground … I just hope those who have fled the area of Gaza City in which we are operating will describe the shock.”

One might accept that Israel is waging “a cruel, all-out war against 1.5 million Palestinian civilians,” as Ha’aretz put it in an editorial, but argue that it will eventually achieve its war aims and the rest of the world will quickly forget the horrors inflicted on the people of Gaza.

This is wishful thinking. For starters, Israel is unlikely to stop the rocket fire for any appreciable period of time unless it agrees to open Gaza’s borders and stop arresting and killing Palestinians. Israelis talk about cutting off the supply of rockets and mortars into Gaza, but weapons will continue to come in via secret tunnels and ships that sneak through Israel’s naval blockade. It will also be impossible to police all of the goods sent into Gaza through legitimate channels.

Israel could try to conquer all of Gaza and lock the place down. That would probably stop the rocket attacks if Israel deployed a large enough force. But then the IDF would be bogged down in a costly occupation against a deeply hostile population. They would eventually have to leave, and the rocket fire would resume. And if Israel fails to stop the rocket fire and keep it stopped, as seems likely, its deterrent will be diminished, not strengthened.

More importantly, there is little reason to think that the Israelis can beat Hamas into submission and get the Palestinians to live quietly in a handful of Bantustans inside Greater Israel. Israel has been humiliating, torturing, and killing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories since 1967 and has not come close to cowing them. Indeed, Hamas’s reaction to Israel’s brutality seems to lend credence to Nietzsche’s remark that what does not kill you makes you stronger.

But even if the unexpected happens and the Palestinians cave, Israel would still lose because it will become an apartheid state. As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently said, Israel will “face a South African-style struggle” if the Palestinians do not get a viable state of their own. “As soon as that happens,” he argued, “the state of Israel is finished.” Yet Olmert has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and create a viable Palestinian state, relying instead on the Iron Wall strategy to deal with the Palestinians.

There is also little chance that people around the world who follow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will soon forget the appalling punishment that Israel is meting out in Gaza. The destruction is just too obvious to miss, and too many people—especially in the Arab and Islamic world—care about the Palestinians’ fate. Moreover, discourse about this longstanding conflict has undergone a sea change in the West in recent years, and many of us who were once wholly sympathetic to Israel now see that the Israelis are the victimizers and the Palestinians are the victims. What is happening in Gaza will accelerate that changing picture of the conflict and long be seen as a dark stain on Israel’s reputation.

The bottom line is that no matter what happens on the battlefield, Israel cannot win its war in Gaza. In fact, it is pursuing a strategy—with lots of help from its so-called friends in the Diaspora—that is placing its long-term future at risk.

Bush bids farewell with clemency

In one of his final acts as president, George W Bush has commuted the prison sentences of two US border patrol agents who shot an unarmed Mexican man.
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in jail respectively for the 2005 shooting of a drug smuggler at the border.
The sentences were widely criticised as unduly harsh. The pair are now due to be freed in March.
The decision was welcomed in Congress both by Democrats and Republicans…(BBC, 19 January 2009).

Comment: But who will pardon George W Bush for causing mischief on this very earth in front of more than 1 billion of us, using the military might to flatten the civilization causing death, harm and hardship to the people of helpless Iraq and Afghanistan? The might should ever be to uphold right.

Tiga penjenayah ditembak mati

KAJANG 19 Jan. – Tiga penjenayah paling dikehendaki termasuk ketua geng Ronau kerana terlibat dalam banyak kes samun, pecah rumah dan rogol, ditembak mati berdekatan plaza tol Sungai Ramal di sini awal pagi ini…

Ulasan: Apalah guna hidup melakukan jenayah dan menyusahkan orang lain. Sayangkan nyawa dan jagalah maruah diri. Carilah rezeki yang halal.

Sebarkan suara umat Islam perjuangkan persefahaman
KUALA LUMPUR 19 Jan. - Raja Nazrin Shah bertitah, suara umat Islam yang memperjuangkan persefahaman, saling menghormati dan mempunyai sikap yang baik perlu disebar serta diutamakan.
Raja Muda Perak bertitah, tindakan itu adalah jalan penyelesaian terbaik bagi menangani masalah ketakutan dan curiga terhadap orang Islam di dunia Barat.
''Kita perlu bersama-sama untuk menghapuskan pandangan palsu terhadap orang Islam dan usaha menyatupadukan mereka dengan masyarakat dunia perlu dilaksanakan.
''Menyatupadukan umat Islam dengan masyarakat dunia bukan setakat mempromosikankepelbagaian budaya tetapi juga dari segi keadilan dan hak asasi manusia,'' titah baginda…

Ulasan: Mari bersama-sama berdakwah untuk menyelamatkan manusia dari neraka dan di kurniakan nikmat abadi masuk syurga Allah di akhirat.

Israel Uses Gazans as Human Shields

14 January 2009, 08:11

Israeli invading troops are using armless civilians in the Gaza Strip as human shields to protect them against attacks from Palestinian resistance fighters.

"It's standard practice for Israeli soldiers to go into a house, lock up the family in a room on the ground floor and use the rest of the house as a military base, as a sniper's position," Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International 's investigator in Israel, told The Guardian on Tuesday, January 13.

"That is the absolute textbook case of human shields."

Last week, Amnesty accused Israel of using civilians as human shields in its nearly three-week onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed more than 971, half of them women and children.

Rovera said this is not the first time that Israel has used Palestinian civilians as human shields.



"It has been practiced by the Israeli army for many years and they are doing it again in Gaza now."

In several well-documented cases, Israeli troops forced Palestinian civilians, at gunpoint, to go before them into buildings from which they feared attack.

They also use Palestinians to drive out wanted Palestinian resistance fighters by making them approach their homes first and asking them to surrender.

In 2005, Israel's Supreme Court banned the military's practice of using Palestinian civilians as human shields in arrest raids.

The use of human shields in conflict is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions which clearly states that they "shall not be used to...shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations."

War Crimes

Amnesty's Rovera also accused Israeli troops of committing war crimes by using weapons which cause huge fatalities among the 1.6 million population of Gaza.

"There has been reckless and disproportionate and in some cases indiscriminate use of force," she said.

"There has been the use of weaponry that shouldn't be used in densely populated areas because it's known that it will cause civilian fatalities and casualties," added the investigator.

"They have extremely sophisticated missiles that can be guided to a moving car and they choose to use other weapons or decide to drop a bomb on a house knowing that there were women and children inside.

"These are very, very clear breaches of international law."

The Human Right Watch has accused Israel of using white-phosphorus, a chemical that burns away human flesh to the bone, in shelling Gaza.

The 1980 Third Convention on Conventional Weapons bans the use of white phosphorus as a weapon, even against military targets situated within population centers.

John Ging, director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, called Tuesday for a full investigation into reports of Israel's use of illegal weapons in its 18-day offensive.


He also appealed for the international community to provide protection for civilians in Gaza as mandated by the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

"All the people, the first thing they say to me and the last thing they say to me is 'Please, we need protection, nowhere is safe'," he told reporters in Geneva via an audio link from an UNRWA distribution center after visiting shelters and clinics.

"And they're right, nowhere is safe."

EXTRA: BBC video; Israeli Soldiers using Palestinians as Human Shields
Source: IslamOnline