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Universal Youth Club for Palestine
Last day of the 2015 World Social Forum ended with a parade through Tunis streets to celebrate Palestine land day. and to show solidarity with Palestinian people. Participants to the event calls it “Land Day rally.” The parade marched through Tunis’ streets to the Palestine embassy .
Universal Youth Club for Palestine (UYC4Pal), Iranian branch, is a social movement comprised mostly of youth found between facebook users.
- Worldwide, there are over 1.39 billion monthly active Facebook users which is a 13 percent increase year over year. (Source: Facebook as of 1/28/15) What this means for you: In case you had any lingering doubts, statistically, Facebook is too big to ignore.
- Taking advantage of this social phenomenon called facebook the founder of UYC4Pal decided to act forming this movement.
UYC4Pal was present at the World Social Forum 2015 celebrated in Tunis from 24-28 March, at Al Manar University Campus where 4398 organizations engaged the participants in its different activities.
Organizations from around the world find this social forum the perfect avenue to bring ideas and discuss solutions for the our world’s problems.
Iran society find itself at the vanguard on the international fight for the liberation of Palestine from the Zionist entity and its youth take active role in this initiative.
The Palestine issue is one of the focal points in the event:
“This situation makes difficult any perspective of fair solution to the Palestinian issue, and gives to Israel all the space to reinforce its hold on the occupied Palestinian territories and its domination in the region.
Beyond the Palestinian issue, it’s the existence of the nation-states themselves that is challenged. Whether it is in Syria or in Libya, there is a major risk to see the definitive explosion of the historical balances that founded those States existence, and to watch the born of autonomous territories on bases of religion or ethnicity, subject to manipulation by the big and regional powers of time.” WSF2015 official page
UYC4Pal was founded last year by a group of Iranian youth that thought on taking advantage of social networks youth participation, said Whaid Mardane in a facebook interview. Knowing that young people spend great part of their life engaged in internet forums and specially social networks like facebook they thought on bringing them together using facebook walls.
Wahid Mardane, one of the representatives of the Iranian branch of UYC4Pal said, that ‘Universal Youth Club for Palestine’ was formed on 2014 with a group of Iranian students found in facebook.
As we speak, this Iranian social network movement has nearly 400 members and the Tunisian group has reached 1000, he said.
Being at the Tunisia World Social Forum was a very great opportunity to meet the youth and invite other groups to participate, hundreds of students signed out for membership for the UYC4Pal at the event.
Palestinian ambassador to Tunisia, Salman Al Harfi greets Reza Barekati, the Iranian representative for Universal Youth Club for Palestine, at Al Manar University during the World Social Forum 2015
Mardane said that facebook is full with youth that supports Palestine so they decided to form UYC4Pal to bring them together and help them organize the strategies to fight for Palestine in the social networks. The UYC4Pal was well received and had resulted very fruitful said Mardane, between the two clubs, more than 1000 participants signed at the event for UYC4Pal membership.
Mardane as one of the members of the Iranian branch of UYC4Pal stated that one of the activities at the event was to enroll new members in the club and participate in the “Land Rally,” an event that follows at the end of the forum. Thousands of Palestinian activists took part on this parade throughout Tunis major streets and finalized at the Palestinian Embassy building.
Some young Palestinian activists from different nationalities decided to make a social network named ” Universal Youth Club for Palestine, this is a social movement that trying to find youth in social networks as facebook to have a unity and awareness regarding Palestine’s plight. Nowadays the youth live in facebook more than in their home and rooms! in this regard we as Iranian branch of this movement were invited and participated in World Social Forum 2015. On the other hand the Tunisian branch of Universal Youth Club for Palestine was formed as to strengthen the Palestinian Youth movement. Our wish is to see other branches of this movement in other countries, the most important of this movement is a total virtual movement and they can form their own clubs if they wish to develop their own activities, but the main emphasis should on absorbing facebook’s youth to use their time on humanity, specially in activities for Palestine in any modern ways they prefer. Whaid Mardane, Iranian activist and representative of UYP4Pal, Iranian branch.
“The International Council’s decision to organize the WSF 2015, again in Tunis (Tunisia) was decided in Casablanca (Morocco), last November. It responds to a wish formulated by regional and international social movements, after evaluating the social impact of the WSF 2013 in Tunisia, they estimated that it was still necessary to; consolidate the dynamics of changes born thanks to the Tunisian revolution and to the democratic movements in the region.
- To deepen the debates held about the liberal model crisis and about the civilization crisis, and to expand the debates about new geopolitical issues, and to promote new alternatives which respect the people rights, and which are based on peace and social justice.” Official World Social Forum webpage.
Human rights groups , non-profit organizations, cultural institutions and a variety of grassroots organizations gather every year at the World Social Forum to present their ideas and discus alternative solutions for the present world problems, “Many organizations, networks and movements participates at the WSF 2015, to make another world possible,” states WSF official website.
Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, and Reza Barekati Iranian-representative of Universal Youth Club for Palestine. Al Manar University during the 2015 World Social Forum. photo/Ali Bagheri
The Iranian branch for UYC4Pal encourages the youth to form their own clubs in their nations of origin to strengthen the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, that is growing rapidly and strong every day around the world said Mardane, stating that the Tunisian branch was formed also and it is growing very fast, he said at the moment the Iranian UYC4Pal facebook official forum has almost 2500 members.
61 people were killed in Friday alone, Saturday 10, the tally is 309 Palestinian killed so far in this 17 days of slaughter. But who is counting right?
Source: Ma’an News Agency
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — 22 Palestinians were killed overnight with at least ten killed just since day break on Saturday as Israeli forces continued their military offensive against the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and land for the twelfth day, Palestinian medical sources said.
The killings follow the deadliest day in the conflict so far, after Israel killed at least 52 Palestinians and injured more than 400 on the first day of their ground invasion of the besieged coastal enclave.
Spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza Ashraf al-Qidra said on Saturday that Israeli forces had “committed a massacre against Palestinian civilians” in the Khan Younis district in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, killing seven.
He identified the victims as 20-year-old Yahya Bassam al-Serri, Muhammad Bassam al-Serri, 17, Mahmoud Ridha Salihiyya, 56, Mustafa Ridha Salihiyya, 21, Wasim Ridha Salihiyya, 15, Muhammad Mustafa Salihiyya, 22, and Ibrahim Jamal Kamal Nasr, 13.
Al-Qidra also said that 27-year-old Raed Walid Laqan was killed in Khan Younis by an Israeli attack on a home belonging to the Tartouri family.
In addition, 30-year-old Said Ali Issa was killed in Juhor Addik neighborhood in the central Gaza Strip near al-Bureij refugee camp.
34-year-old Ahmad Mahmoud Hasan Aziz was killed by an Israeli missile on his home in Abraj al-Nada in the northern Gaza Strip overnight as well.
Saturday morning’s deaths bring the total death toll of 12 days of Israeli military offensive in Gaza to 309 in addition to 2268 injuries, according to al-Qidra.
The spokesman highlighted that Friday was the deadliest day of Israel’s military aggression on Gaza with 52 Palestinians killed as of midnight.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that 71 children, 25 women and 17 elderly people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza as of Friday night.
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip — which it has dubbed “Operation Protective Edge” — in response to rocket fire from the area, which had increased in the weeks before the operation due to a massive Israeli military operation in the West Bank.
10 Palestinians died, more than 130 were injured, and more than 600 Hamas-affiliated individuals were arrested during that operation, which was launched following the disappearance of three Israeli youths in June.
Israel accused Hamas of being behind the disappearance, and in addition to the assault on the West Bank launched nightly airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which has been under a full economic blockade for the last seven years.
Hamas, however, denied the charges, and many have accused Israel of using the subsequent deaths of the three Israeli teenagers as a pretext for a widespread assault on the group.
Economics of the poor and Israel
One step at the time.
Lessons in economy of global systems. This is of course my very personal lesson in economics of the poor. “For a Capitalist System to exist, the slaves masses have to produce the goods and buy them back.
The basic neccesities for humans are food, sleep, sex, entertainment and shelter. When the system keeps those neccesities to a bare minimum, the masses do not live, they merely survive. Now, when the masses stop buying the goods they produce, the system collapse. If the reasons are to boycott the system, the system will respond by making some changes, but if the reasons are political in nature where ideas and ideals clash with the system, the masses as united force can bring the system down. It calls revolution.
Now, I’m not talking of an armed revolution but of a revolution from within the system where the masses start thinking in their behalf and get it of the box.
That is what we are doing now boycotting Israel, the capitalist system that supports Israel can not itself survive if the masses stop buying the goods, first in the settlements, then Israel and finally the corporations that support Israel. We could start big, and start from the corporations but now it is impossible to do that, we need our jobs, so we think. We are programed to our life style of comfort. It is easy to look the world with a magnifying glass and think we are outside, wrong we all part of the mess
But…. One step at the time.
BDS and Academic boycott of Israel institutions, why because Israel is shaping our world Read more…
Time to End Apartheid-Again
Games Over-The world is too comfortable playing the game.
Gaza’s electricity problems is the last of the concern for the Palestinian people. If you look around, you will see that 25 percent of the population of the world does not have electricity. According to International Energy Agency 1.5 Billion people have no electricity, that is almost half of the world popular, majority of people lit themselves with other elements such: candles, charcoal, petrol, crude oil, and raw fire. Electricity is almost a 21 century invention.
To center our attention on Gaza’s electricity problem is to give Israel what they want, a diversión to the real problem that it is the occupation of Palestine.
Soon we will see the Royal Gulf Kings, coming with their offering-Three Wise Kings Biblical Story- of Petro-dirty-bloody dollars to alleviate Gaza’s electricity problem. Soon, we might also see a resolution calling for Egypt, to Ease, The Rafah Crossing blockade, but we won’t see the real solution, a real call for an end of the occupation. Every one seems to be missing the point.
It is time to call spades as spades and call Israel an Apartheid Entity an illegal usurper, an entity legitimized by British Rich friends in the UN in 1948.
A slowly genocide is taking place in the Land of Palestine; ethnic cleansing is methodically performed in Palestine; “ethnic cleansing, the attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcible displacement of persons belonging to particular ethnic groups. Ethnic cleansing sometimes involves the removal of all physical vestiges of the targeted group through the destruction of monuments, cemeteries, and houses of worship.” Encyclopedia Britannica
Israel is experimenting with its new weapons using Palestinians as a drills targets for its dirty wars, and the world is busy trying to brake Gaza blockade. Isn’t ironic that contingent of people are planing Gaza convoys, in a way to brake Israel Gaza siege? I’m not saying that this is not good, it is great that people show their compassion with the side of the weak. But the time has come to change the name of the game, we can not be using our energy on small battles. The problem is Israel and has to go, there is no other way.
The times has come to call for the dismantling the whole Apartheid Entity of Israel. The Zionist plan is being exposed. People stop being part of the game. The Holocaust was designed. The whole Nazi Party was part of the plan, the Vatican, The Rich Jews; all of them took part, and they have succeed, until the internet came to expose them.
Every one in Palestine fighting for the rights of Palestinians; should be fighting for the returning of the land to its owners and that means, to leave themselves the land taken from Palestinians. Everyone fighting inside of Palestine for the right of refugees, have to start looking for a place to go. All the resident of Palestine that holds an Israel citizenship, that came after the 1918 and 1948 exodus that resulted in the expulsion of a Palestinian family should be going back to their original countries; them and their children. It is just the right thing to do, for the sake of Justice and truth.
There is so much hypocrisy going on in between the Israelis that support Palestine; helping trying to ease the guilt of the occupation. An Israeli fighting shoulder to shoulder with a Palestinian, has only credibility if, he/she is original native of Palestine.
Time to End Apartheid Israel. History has no space for wars of conquest. The European Voyages of Exploration, were a salvage past of the human history. It’s time to evolve and modernize our thoughts.
There is no chosen race, there is no chosen people, there is no promise land, There is only Palestine. Viva Free Palestine.
Day 34 respectively .. Gaza without electricity, every time a few years ago to hear the Palestinian citizen and returns and plans to solve the electricity problem, but discovered it just lies citizen such as injection of anesthesia .. The question remains on the table in front of us .. How long will the world remain silent in front of the siege on Gaza??
Where the Security Council and human rights organizations, I think it’s best to cancel these organizations for their inability to carry its functions to human rights.
Palestinian people die a slow death and no ones lift a finger.
UN independent expert calls for boycott of businesses profiting from Israeli settlements
Posted on October 26, 2012 by Akashna Online News
Posted on UN News Center
Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. UN Photo/Jess Hoffman
A United Nations independent expert Richard Ralk today called on the world body’s General Assembly, as well as civil society, to take action against Israeli and international businesses that are profiting from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“My main recommendation is that the businesses highlighted in the report – as well as the many other businesses that are profiting from the Israeli settlement enterprise – should be boycotted, until they bring their operations into line with international human rights and humanitarian law and standards,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said in a news release issued as he presented a report on his work to the Assembly.
Highlighting the activities of companies such as Caterpillar Incorporated of the United States, Veolia Environment of France, G4S of the United Kingdom, the Dexia Group of Belgium, Ahava of Israel, the Volvo Group of Sweden, the Riwal Holding Group of the Netherlands, Elbit Systems of Israel, Hewlett Packard of the USA, Mehadrin of Israel, Motorola of the USA, Assa Abloy of Sweden, and Cemex of Mexico, the Special Rapporteur noted that a wide range of Israeli and international businesses are involved in the establishment and maintenance of the Israeli settlements.
“All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been established in clear violation of international law,” said Mr. Falk.
“Yet today Israeli settlements control over 40 percent of the West Bank and between 500,000 and 600,000 Israeli citizens are living in Palestinian territory,” he added. “In the last 12 months alone, the settler population has increased by over 15,000 persons.”
He drew the Assembly’s attention to developing international law and standards concerning businesses and human rights, including the UN Global Compact and the UN Guiding Principles on Businesses and Human Rights.
“The principles outlined in the Global Compact are clear,” Mr. Falk said. “Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and ensure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.”
The Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The Guiding Principles, endorsed by the Human Rights Council, provide a global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights linked to business activity.
Mr. Falk also noted guidance developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that points to the prospect of corporate and individual criminal responsibility for violations committed during a situation of armed conflict.
“In short, businesses should not breach international humanitarian law provisions. Nor should they be complicit in any breaches. If they do, they may be subject to criminal or civil liability. And this liability can be extended to individual employees of such businesses,” the Special Rapporteur said in presenting his report.
Mr. Falk noted that he had written to all the businesses mentioned in his report, and that positive responses were received from some of them.
“It is encouraging to be informed that Assa Abloy has moved its Mul-T-Locks factory from the West Bank to Israel, and that the Dexia Group, G4S, and Cemex are looking for ways to bring their operations into line with their commitments under the UN Global Compact,” he added.
Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not United Nations staff, nor are they paid for their work.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue
UN human rights expert speaks out on Israeli ruling on Rachel Corrie verdict
Palestine One Nation Surviving Time
Posted on January 22, 2012 by Marivel Guzman in collaboration with Omar Karem
Palestine Divided by the Wall of Hopelessness?
The Holy Land fighting ancient enemies The Holy Books
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. It was a good land, flowing with milk and honey and inhabited by several tribes of people.- Exo 3:8
Palestine have many enemies, unfortunately!. …and against all the Odds, Palestinians resilience has proved to be stronger than the most powerful forces on the face of the Earth. Even thought that for the last 100 years this ancient holy land has been victim of criminal intent, pillage and murder, she still standing because you can defeat the armies but you can’t defeat a Nation.
The information being distributed in the social networks has been great to raise awareness inside Palestine and around the world, but has not been enough to contra-rest the propaganda being spread for more than 65 years, and certainly not enough to fight the Religious notion that Palestine is the promise Land and the Jews the chosen people.
Sadly there are thousands of Palestinians inside West Bank, and Gaza that live in a state of imaginary peace and comfort and they conform a block designed by the Zionist Entity with years of tricks with military strangulation and social makeup , these Palestinians Citizens have no mood or humor to side with the resistance fighters of the rest of the Palestinians Society, to join their voices with the thinkers, the fighter minds, the displaced in refugee camps,.. they themselves are enemies of the Palestinian Cause, living inside an occupied country where they have their work, they do not suffer to survive, they can travel abroad with ease and their sons and daughters live in shielded comfort zone. Their children don’t see the need to throw rocks, they don’t feel the necessary to voice their anger to the occupier forces, they grew up to their pain and their settle inside the occupation with built tirelessness transformed in apathy, they finally have left the fight to the politicians, which at the same time do nothing other to live the occupation.
Some of the higher ranking politicians in Palestinian Politics were swallowed by this phenomenon and they don’t see it other way, they were also molded to the occupation. They live in an endless planing for the future, where meetings take their full schedule that there is no time to really act as a citizen living in an occupied land. Off course there are the few dissidents minds which mostly are sitting inside Israel, Hamas and PA jails.
According to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and prisoner advocacy groups, there are currently over 6000 Palestinian prisoners, including legislators, in Israeli jails, many of whom have been rounded up without charge or trial. Independent sources put the number of the inmates at 11,000.
The latest arrests are part of an Israeli suppression campaign targeting senior Palestinian figures’ activities.
The crackdown is believed to be aimed at preventing reconciliation between Hamas and its rival Palestinian faction, Fatah. Press TV
It is very sad to recognized millions of Palestinians in the exile think more or less this way, and even the militias are accustomed to fight, they have been mentally trained to die for the land, they become to think that as long as they keep fighting and dying they believe to fulfill their duty as a Muslim and as Palestinians and they are not ready to accept changes that goes against what they grew to live and believe. They are exhausted to try and they keep doing the only thing that “works”…keeping Israel in an endless state of uncomfortably bother, if they kill one “Jew” is a victory even if it mean nothing in the big scale, but Israel uses it as an excuse to kill: The Ratio is 8 to 1.
All the divisions we see in Palestine were engineered in that way, the political factions do not want to let go the little thing they think they have “achieved”. The UN Club-former league of Nations created the facts in the ground to make more believable the division of the land.
There are hundreds of NGO’s around the world that are collecting millions of dollars in Palestine Name or using Palestine Cause but they have become operational businesses, most of the money being used primarily in renting expensive hotels to “Expose the Occupation” and to collect donations, even the real concerned citizens that take part of the convoys that are continuously entering Gaza, they are more and more being attached to the occupation system.
I hate to give any score of victory to the Zionist Entity, but our compassion being used to add more efforts to bring Aid to Gaza and to helping few patients to foreign hospitals for treatment, all being done with good heart but it seems that is not really helping to end the occupation, or stopping the apartheid system, unfortunately we are being sucked to be part of the occupation.
Yesterday I was discussing the situation with Hassan Hammad, he has lived in and out the US for more than 30 years, he lost his Palestinians Identity Card and can not live nor work in Palestine, but can visit. He has completely lost hope on Palestine, according to him Israel control the PA, education, money, road, borders and in simple words, “Israel has created a sense of political Palestinians Participation with the PA, but in reality Israel control everything that is said and done and the little achievement that we have in Palestine is because Israel wanted that way, but if she want she will militarily occupy Ramallah tomorrow, and none can do anything, but Israel does not want to bother again, it is too much hustle ”
I tell him that the situation is different now, that the world is supporting Palestine, than more than 150 countries have recognized Palestine, and again he said. “Where are the 150 country armies, are they defending Palestine or they just talking?”
It is hard to argue against his hopelessness, he have lived the occupation, the curfews, checkpoints, tear gas, jail, bullets, humiliation, his first son died inside her wife womb because the curfew was enforced severely during the first intifada and she needed cesarean to deliver. He has bad memories of Palestine and see a bleak future.
Off course I do not really blame Palestinians, they have been the victims all along, victims that they have forged their mind, living, and misery to fit inside the occupation, I whole blame the Zionist Entity, the Christian loonies and the Elite around the world that have used the “Middle East” conflict to divide the minds and lands of the world in their path of destruction making with this The Stronger Industry men have ever seen. “The War Complex Machine”.
Palestine is One Nation under Siege, The psychological war that Israel wages against her people is more provocative than the physical one. The uncertainty of tomorrow is in every Palestinian mind, they are not allowed to plan a future for themselves, for their children or for their lands.
Israel continual incursions in Gaza air space and overnights raid in West Bank keep the population in an upheaval situation every day. The destruction of Gaza dwellings and the complete disruption of their social life have made Palestinians to look for ways to heal their uncertain condition as a ‘Nation’ under the grip of a military power that have drained the natural resources and the energy of the people of the Holy Land.
The world is changing their view on the Palestine-Israel conflict and every day more and more people around the world are adding their efforts to the global resistance, against the occupation, being virtual activist or International Observer we all are taking part of Palestine struggle, just do not allow to be part of the Apartheid System.
Views articulated by Palestinians in Gaza are more optimists than those in the exile, the hopes for a better tomorrow are stronger than the oppression of the occupation.
Now days in Gaza where the intifada continue until now and the borders between Israeli and Gaza people are closed the numbers of educated people is rising and reaching high levels. Now in Gaza, we have the best computer programmers, best scientists and the most percentage of highly educated people Compared to census thousands of master degrees hundreds of Ph Ds
Youth groups aiming to raise the The level of social awareness: In radio stations, media, news agencies took the obligation to show to the world about our case, which has been covered by the Israel’s media propaganda machine all the time dispersing lies, making itself look as a victim, but now our case, our voices is full of freedom and power, willing from all our hearts to make every one in this world to understand and to know about our rights.
Palestine is a Nation of not a beggar – by Omar Mansour Gaza, Palestine
He could not imagine his son, as a journalist struggling with his pen to write against the corruption that prevents such things as justice, purity and freedom, because the advocates of justice and freedom in and around Gaza have their own law, which prevents others from speaking the truth.
This is the bleak picture cameras can pick up if approached from Gaza borders, and the question arises, what is needed from the Palestinian Gazans to do in order to live their life with dignity, freedom, justice, security and Peace?. Gaza Heart and Mind – by Kamal Sobeh
A Nation Under Siege
Posted on February 22, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
Palestine: A Nation Under Siege
Life is not easy in Gaza, Palestine. Palestinians are in a continuous battle for survival, Physical and Emotionally. Israel makes sure that the population feel unsafe on their persona and their future.
The psychological war that Israel wages against her people is more provocative than the physical one.
Israel continual excursions in Gaza air space and in West Bank keep the population in an upheaval situation every day. The destruction of Gaza dwellings and the complete disruption of their social life have made Palestinians to look for ways to heal their uncertain condition as a ‘Nation’ under the grip of a military power that have drained the natural resources and the energy of the people of the Holy Land.
For more than Six Decades, Palestinians parents have tried to give their children a better future, they have tried to send their children to foreign schools and Universities, or have them married to other Palestinians that have ‘successfully’ established in the ‘Exile’, two main reasons push them to do this:
– To save them from their uncertain future
– Guarantee the future of Palestine.
The seed and future of a Nation reside in every human.
Culture of Palestine.
Anybody that have made it outside of Palestine have the responsibility in their hands to grow as a Nation on the exile and to keep the history of the land from being corrupted, as well as the costumes, and traditional recipes intact.
Every year few Palestinians manage to escape the daily struggle that is living inside a Territory Occupied by a Military Power, specially the people of Gaza where every day more and more try to cross to freedom using what they called Under the Line (illegally crossing from the tunnels). Another modality of human trafficking with their consent but without the authorization of their local Government.
The series of Tunnels that started as illegal corridors to import products, goods and construction material to Gaza, have become part of the official Gazan bureaucracy as Hamas control the import/export of products and they issue permits to dig tunnels.
The people that have escaped through the tunnels have exhausted all the official mechanism such visas, medical care and scholarships as a last resort they use the tunnels to leave, not easy task because they see themselves exposed to the greed of the tunnel operators that take bribes as a payment, after all they are exporting prohibited merchandise. and they encounter another obstacle the handles in Egyptian side that have to be paid as well, and
transported them to the closest Port to take Ships to sail out of Egypt or to the Airport, every step of the way is a risky business for Palestinians as they are not well perceive by the Egyptian authorities, the sentence for being in Egyptian territory is 6 months to a year, step price to paid for trying to get a better future.
“As all of us watched recently on CNN, BBC and Aljazeera news networks, Gaza is being subjected to a new style of holocaust. What the Gazans have to counter the IDF’s state-of-the art high-tech weapons with? They have their right to resist, and they improvise in making their primitive missiles. After all, they are imprisoned by the IDF.
Gazans are denied the necessities of existence. Why? Don’t we campaign for animal protection? Don’t we argue with the Japanese over whaling, don’t we pass laws against foxhunting? Why then ignore what is happening to the millions of refugees from Palestine? They are under attack on daily basis, for demanding the implantations of the UN resolutions that definitely granted them the right to return to their homes. The irony is that the same resolutions gave birth to the State of Israel!”
Dr. Saeb Shaath is a writer, thinker and public speaker on Middle Eastern affairs, and a former diplomat
For the ones hat choose to stay in Palestine or have no other options to leave, life in Palestine is double jeopardy, resisting the occupation inside Palestine is painful, dramatic and sometimes deadly.
The Palestinians that have got out of Palestine on Student Visas or other type of Visa and they have expired them, or simply they got to another country illegally they still face many obstacles that the host countries place on them, their stateless situation make them target of the draconian Immigration Laws that many countries have adopted in the last 15 years, thousand of Palestinians are in Immigration detention facilities around the world, when their Visa expired and their Passport expired they lost their ability to travel, some of them being in infinite detention until their status change, if they have any family or friend that pay for lawyer they have a slim chance to leave those detention camps but for many their only hope is that Palestine Become a state so they can return.
The world is changing their view on the Palestine-Israel conflict and every day more and more people around the world are adding their efforts to the global resistance, against the occupation, being virtual activist or International Observer we all are taking part of Palestine struggle.
May soon all of our brother Palestinians enjoy of freedom of movement and freedom to chose their own destiny as a Free Nation.
Gaza and West Bank As One Nation. Viva Free Palestine.
GAZAN YOUTH’S MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE
Posted by Marivel Guzman
Original posted by Abu Yazan
GAZAN YOUTH’S MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE
F**k Israel! F**k USA! F**k UN!, F**k UNWRA!, F**k Hamas!, F**k Fatah!.
We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community!
We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference. Like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; we want to scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this f*****g situation we live in.
We are like lice between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope, no space for freedom.
Sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land.
Sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes.
Sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions, but cowards in enforcing anything they agreed on.
We are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas, and completely ignored by the rest of the world.
There is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction and frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalizing this energy into something that can challenge the Status Quo and give us some kind of hope.
The final drop that made our hearts tremble with frustration and hopelessness happened on November 30th, when Hamas’ officers came to Sharek Youth Forum, a leading youth organization (http://www.sharek.ps) with their guns, lies and aggressiveness, throwing everybody outside, incarcerating some and prohibiting Sharek from working.
A few days later, demonstrators in front of Sharek were beaten and some incarcerated. We are really living a nightmare inside a nightmare. It is difficult to find words for the pressure we are under.
We barely survived the Operation Cast Lead, where Israel very effectively bombed the shit out of us, destroying thousands of homes and even more lives and dreams.
They did not get rid of Hamas, as they intended, but they sure scared us forever and distributed post traumatic stress syndrome to everybody, as there was nowhere to run.
We are youth with heavy hearts. We carry in ourselves a heaviness so immense that it makes it difficult to us to enjoy the sunset. How to enjoy it when dark clouds paint the horizon and bleak memories run past our eyes every time we close them?
We smile in order to hide the pain. We laugh in order to forget the war.
We hope in order not to commit suicide here and now.
During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to erase us from the face of the earth. During the last years Hamas has been doing all they can to control our thoughts, behavior and aspirations.
We are a generation of young people used to face missiles, carrying what seems to be a impossible mission of living a normal and healthy life, and only barely tolerated by a massive organization that has spread in our society as a malicious cancer disease, causing mayhem and effectively killing all living cells, thoughts and dreams on its way as well as paralyzing people with its terror regime. Not to mention the prison we live in, a prison sustained by a so-called democratic country.
History is repeating itself in its most cruel way and nobody seems to care. We are scared.
Here in Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated, interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed, killed.
We are afraid of living, because every single step we take has to be considered and well-thought, there are limitations everywhere, we cannot move as we want, say what we want, do what we want, sometimes we even cant think what we want because the occupation has occupied our brains and hearts so terrible that it hurts and it makes us want to shed endless tears of frustration and rage!
We do not want to hate, we do not want to feel all of this feelings, we do not want to be victims anymore. ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration!
WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want!
We want three things; We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life and We want peace.
Is that too much to ask?
We are a peace movement consistent of young people in Gaza and supporters elsewhere that will not rest until the truth about Gaza is known by everybody in this whole world and in such a degree that no more silent consent or loud indifference will be accepted.
This is the Gazan youth’s manifesto for change!
We will start by destroying the occupation that surrounds ourselves, we will break free from this mental incarceration and regain our dignity and self respect.
We will carry our heads high even though we will face resistance. We will work day and night in order to change these miserable conditions we are living under.
We will build dreams where we meet walls.
We only hope that you – yes, you reading this statement right now! – can support us. In order to find out how, please write on our wall or contact us directly: freegazayouth@hotmail.com
We want to be free, we want to live, we want peace.
FREE GAZA YOUTH!
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This Manifesto is for the whole apparatus of repression that engulf Gaza, Starting with Israel the Occupier,US the financier,UN the official Solicitor and Signatory of Wars,UNRWA the front of the UN that keeps Gaza under an inhumane welfare system,to Fatah that have forgotten that Gaza is Palestine, and to Hamas ultimately because keeps an invisible gag on the population under the guise of religion righteousness.
If There got to be Freedom in any society, Justice must be the base of the same. Human Rights is an inalienable right of every human being, being Gaza, US, Germany, Lebanon, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba(should not exist),Cuba, China, Iran, Mexico, Congo, Russia..or any place on Earth that humans co-habit under any authority of any type.
The right to disagree, the right to have a different opinion, or different feelings is a right that we all humans have a primordial born right, it calls dissent from the Status Quo, governments of the world dissenters are not criminals, they are free minders that choose their own path, and oppression only make them more aware of the situation that you want to force them to be.
This right is inalienable is part of the human rights that we all must enjoy as a citizen of this Earth.
I m speechless this is what I want to hear. Out with all the rules that bound you in your own mental prisons. Liberation yes, I m 110 % agree with your Manifesto, free, freedom and liberation.
I m sharing your courage. I m sharing your dreams, your hopes, your pains, your deaths, your ideals, your free and open mind.
I wanted to hear the youth speaking, I do no k,ow if will make a difference now, but certainly your message will spread in the world, in the mind of the old and tired souls, tired of their struggles.
It will infuse energy to the resistance, to the old and decrepit bodies that have fought for more than 6 decades without seeing compassion from the world, that have not received justice from the international bodies than have appointed themselves as the saviors of the world, to the peace activists, the justice seekers that are fighting for your land.
I was almost giving up my fight for Gaza, I was getting stiff and tired of yelling, writing, posting, complaining. I thought no one was listening, but I was wrong.
This Manifesto full or courage. rage dissatisfaction and pain have given me hopes again.
I m awake again, your words have giving me the food for the soul that I was missing.
I love you Gaza, I m proud of you, I m with you, in your fight against indifference, against the oppression of your mind, in this fight for your land, for your human rights, for your motherless children, and your childless mothers, I m with you with your olive trees that with one last stand they resist to let go and still embracing the land, I m with you, with your flag, that not being mine, have awaken the fighter on me once more.
I m sharing this word in every wall, available, in the blogs. my channels, everywhere that there is space.
Thanks Gaza youth I love you all…Free Palestine.
Road to Hope convoy stalled at Egyptian border
Posted by Marivel Guzman Via Ken O’keefe Blog
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Road to Hope convoy stalled at Egyptian border
Nov 3, 2010 5:41 PST
Ken O’Keefe
“Egypt has said that they will let us through by sea, the problem with that is the exorbitant expense. What the people of Gaza need is open borders and unhindered delivery of aid and ultimately trade. The R2H Convoy did not budget for an approx. £100,000 ship journey from Libya to Egypt, and why should we when a tourist can travel freely but aid cannot. This extra cost is reducing aid for the people in Gaza”.
Nov 2, 2010
Ken O’Keefe: “We are getting close to confrontation time. When tourists can travel by car freely through Egypt and a humanitarian aid convoy is blocked, it pretty much says it all. The blockade of Gaza is in a word, unacceptable”
The Road to Hope humanitarian aid convoy continues its role in the international community’s collective mission to break the illegal siege of Gaza and deliver desperately needed aid to the people of Palestine in Gaza. The convoy comprises 30 vehicles and 101 humanitarian aid workers. Among them are 8 survivors of the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla, 7 of them were aboard the Mavi Marmara, including Ken O’Keefe who was involved in disarming two Israeli commandos. The convoy has traveled four and a half thousand miles and is currently located at the Libyan / Egyptian border. As it stands the convoy finds itself at a standstill, with direct communication with the outside world being limited, and access to the internet very difficult.
It has always been a central aspect of the Road to Hope convoy that it acts in a non-political, non-confrontational manner. To work with and cooperate with every government in every country through which it traveled. Thus far this approach has rewarded it with exceptional receptions in every nation. All of the North African governments have been extremely accommodating and the people of each nation even more so. We must give special praise to the Libyan government for its constant support; when the convoy have had challenges, including breakdowns of vehicles, the authorities here have provided the means to repair those vehicles and continue our mission.
Ken O’Keefe: “Now we find ourselves in our third day at the Libyan / Egyptian border and we remain hopeful that the land route will be opened to us in the coming days”. The convoy departed from London with the understanding that the land crossing through Egypt had not been closed to it. Convoy leader, Kieran Turner: “One reason for our optimism that we will travel the land route is the fact that the Al Quds convoy, a Libyan convoy also delivering aid to Gaza, is set to travel the land route in the coming days. For several weeks we have hoped to join our convoys and travel together.” However, the convoy is awaiting permission from the Egyptian authorities to pass through Egypt in this way.
Mr. Turner understands that there is a possibility the Egyptian government will deny the convoy the land route, in which case they will have only two acceptable options —
1) To press on via the land border without permission, at which time our only chance of success will be by way of significant international pressure and a reversal of a policy which tacitly supports the illegal siege of Gaza.
2) If the land route is denied the only remaining option is to deliver our aid by sea. This option inherently requires significant increases in the cost of our mission, and importantly, to all subsequent aid missions. The end result of this policy is a reduction in the already limited resources that can be brought to bear for the people of Palestine.
The convoy leadership urge the Egyptian authorities to allow us safe passage to Gaza by land in the coming days, allow the convoy to join the Al Quds convoy, and ultimately increase the “easing” of the blockade which continues to collectively punish the people of Gaza.
Mr. Ken O’Keefe calls on all the supporters of Palestine “to support Road to Hope and the Al Quds convoys by spreading awareness of our missions and encouraging Egyptian cooperation”.
Contacts:
Primary contact: London – Eleanor Merton +44 777 037 6701
Libya / Egypt – Kieran Turner +44 779 22 66 111 (interviews in Libya available if the roaming costs are covered.)
Akashma Online News 