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January 1, 2010 – For months international, Israeli, and Palestinian activists have been planning the Gaza Freedom March. Organizers hoped an international delegation of 1300 activists from around the world would break the siege on Gaza by marching through Gaza to the northern border and through the Erez crossing, join the Israeli march. The Real News attended the Israeli side of the protest, and though the Egyptian government prevented the activists from entering Gaza, hundreds gathered to raise awareness of the desperate situation in Gaza a year after Operation Cast Lead. [transcript and TheREALnews here »»]

Le groupe Codepink dans la délégation canadienne vers Gaza

:: Video for the Canada/Quebec delegation (sous-titré en français)

By Mel Frykberg, Sept. 16, 2009 – Copyright© IPS-Inter Press Service.

RAMALLAH, Sep 16 (IPS) – The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that Gaza’s access to safe supply of drinking water could cease at any time. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says outbreaks of disease could be triggered as a consequence.

... During Israel’s bombardment of Gaza during the December-January war, the strip’s already degraded infrastructure was heavily targeted.

... Javier Cordoba, the ICRC water and habitation coordinator who is supervising Red Cross reconstruction efforts in Gaza says the situation is very fragile. “A lack of construction material and parts has led to a de-development of the water infrastructure, which could collapse at any minute,” Cordoba told IPS.

The population of Gaza is submitted to an Israeli and Egyptian blockade.
     / La population de Gaza est soumise à un blocus israélien et égyptien.

Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories
Israeli authorities must authorize access to the Gaza Strip !

The International Federation for Human Rights denounces the Israeli decision to deny its representatives access to Gaza.

May 22, a delegation from Quebec was blocked when they attempted to enter Gaza from the Israeli border; though they were invited by a UN agency. May 26, delegations of 66 people —mosty from Canada, but also from New York and Cairo— were able to enter Gaza from the Egyptian border! Here is their messagd… – Michael Lessard (Quebec City Collective for peace)

Report from Cairo, Tuesday, May 26 :

We have some great news to report!!! The day started out with a 3am call from one of our delegations in Al Arish saying that secret police had contacted them at 2pm to intimidate them and say they would not get into Gaza. We, in Cairo, told them to go on to the border and see what happens. [...]

Source: AFP, posted on Yahoo News

GENEVA (AFP) – The World Health Organisation on Friday called on Israel to immediately lift an aid and fuel blockade of the Gaza Strip saying it was causing a “serious shortage of medicines and medical supplies.”

The WHO’s annual World Health Assembly taking place in Geneva this week passed a resolution demanding that Israel “facilitate the transit and entry of medicine and medical equipment to the occupied Palestinian territory.”

And it said it wanted Israel to reverse policies that had “led to the prevailing dire health conditions and severe food and fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip.”

Earlier this month, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel to end the blockade on aid and fuel to the 1.5 million inhabitants of the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Life in the enclave, he said, remains “extremely difficult” three months after the end of an Israeli offensive targeted at Gaza’s rulers, Islamic movement Hamas.

Source des info: www.ochaopt.org (English, Arabe, Hebrew)

   Selon les Nations unies, le blocus qu’Israël impose, à l’ensemble de la population civile de la bande de Gaza en Palestine, a des effets humanitaires néfastes et bloque ses interventions humanitaires. Medecins sans frontière déclarait le 25 novembre dernier : « Presque tous les points de passage commerciaux de la bande de Gaza ont été totalement fermés, limitant drastiquement l’approvisionnement alimentaire et médical ». Même des rapporteurs de l’ONU se font bloquer l’entrée par l’armée israélienne.

Le 18 décembre dernier, le blocus israélien a forcé l’UNRWA, l’agence onusienne responsable d’aider les personnes réfugiées au Proche-Orient, de cesser sa distribution de nourriture. Imaginez, 750,000 personnes réfugiées à Gaza dépendent de la nourriture distribuée par l’UNRWA ! [...]

   En acceptant que le sous-secrétaire d’État William Burns négocie avec l’Iran, chose interdite avant juillet 2008, le président Bush aurait mis en colère une partie de son administration, notamment le vice-président Dick Cheney. Pendant ce temps…
— le Congrès discute d’imposer un blocus considéré un acte de guerre par les experts,
— la marine se pratique à combattre l’Iran,
— Israël menace d’attaquer unilatéralement si l’Iran n’obéit pas
— et les néo-conservateurs proposent à leurs partisans d’attaquer l’Iran avant l’arrivée d’un nouveau président.

   Ces événements semblent pousser les États-Unis vers un conflit alors que même le Pentagone estime qu’une attaque serait trop imprévisible et coûteuse. Le président, pour sa part, offre actuellement des signes de retenue. Avec les rumeurs qui circulent et les menaces lancées par des membres du Congrès, les citoyens sont en droit de se demander ce qui se passe réellement. Des néo-conservateurs ont déclaré leurs intentions, mais voici d’abord l’actualité de ce conflit selon des faits vérifiables.

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research November 28, 2007

Editors have a mantra, do not look back, move on, write what is current. But sometimes looking back is vital. Those who ignore even the recent past are doomed to understand nothing, sink deeper into quagmires – and bleat again : ‘Why do they hate us’ ?

Looking through material for the book that has been far too long in the making, I found a copy of a letter which I sent to a prominent (UK) Member of Parliament. It is dated November 1993 and clarifies for ever why the invaders were never going to be greeted with ‘sweets and flowers’.

Meridian Hotel, Baghdad, 4th November 1993.
As you know, when I was here in April/May 1992, I thought things could get no worse. Yet in July this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations note in a Report: ”...with deep regret”, all the: “pre-famine indicators being in place”. Further that an appreciable proportion of the population now had less calorific intake than the most famine stricken parts of Africa. That was July. This is apocalypse. This is an internationally sponsored genocide. :: read on >>

[also visit our section about Sanctions or blockades]

Mayors for Peace, with 1,698 city members around the world, is actively campaigning to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.

Le 6 août est l’anniversaire de deux crimes contre l’Humanité
• le lancement d’une bombe atomique sur Hiroshima (1945)
• et l’imposition de sanctions économiques inhumaines contre le peuple irakien ayant causé la mort prématurée d’au moins 1 million d’êtres humains (1990-2003).

August 6th the anniversary of two crimes against Humanity
• the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (1945)
• and the imposition of inhuman economic sanctions against the people of Iraq which caused the premature death of at least 1 million human beings (1991-2003)

[dossier sur ce blocus / info on this blockade: Siriel-Média ou/or VitW (en anglais)]

Rappelons-nous de ces deux crimes contre l’humanité
Let us remember these two crimes against humanity

- Michaël Lessard, Siriel-Media

This was the most glaring scandal of all
UN sanctions destroyed Iraq but no one will be tried for the crime

Alain Gresh, in The Guardian, Friday August 19, 2005.