Timestamp of My Life..

http://ramallahonline.com

Ramallah, 05-01-09: Mustafa Barghouthi, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, called this morning on the international press for an un-biased media coverage on the recent attacks on the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 545 Palestinians in a week.

Today, holidays are over, “and the international press has now to look behind the ‘Israeli truth’ presented on the mainstream media, and the constant Israeli discourse claiming for self-defence and the un-intentional killing of civilians”, he said.

“It is needed to highlight the deep causes of the massacres and the media they are going to face a choice of whether or not to accept the story that Israel has repeated over and over again”, Dr. Barghouthi emphasized, presenting some counter arguments to challenge the Israeli narratives:

1. ‘Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005 ’. The occupation of the Strip has not only remained after 2005, it has intensified. Though there were no longer settlers and soldiers on the ground, Israel controlled the borders, the airspace and the waterways of the Strip and has laid a heavy siege to Gaza for nearly two years. Now Israel is bringing back full-ground occupation of Gaza.

2. ‘Palestinians are responsible for the Cease Fire’s Failure’. Israel has not respected the terms of the cease-fire from the very beginning: The siege of the Gaza Strip was never lifted, and the region remained a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the entirety of the cease-fire. During the last year of Annapolis and the truce, Israelis killed 546 people, of which 76 children and 2/3 in Gaza.

3. ‘You cannot compare Israeli violence to Palestinian violence’ . This assertion is true, but not in the way that Israeli spokespeople try to spin it. They are already more than 545 dead and 2,650 injured, of which among 40% of civilians. In this same period, 5 Israelis have died, and over a dozen have been injured. Before the Israeli latest attacks on Gaza, no single Israeli was killed by the missiles.

4. ‘We are targeting Hamas, civilians are their fault’ . For over a week, Israelis have strafed the Gaza Strip in over 500 unhindered missions with thousands of tons of explosives. They have fired upon Gaza by sea and now have moved soldiers into the most densely populated region of the world. They claim to ‘warn’ Palestinians by dropping leaflets from airplanes but fail to mention that there is no place to flee the fighting. There are 7,000 people/ square mile. Israeli calls the dead of children “collateral damage”.

5. ‘There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza’. Though this has been repeated by Israeli spokespeople, they have yet to produce a single credible organization who agrees on the assumption. Dozens of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid organizations have asserted the fact there was a crisis prior to the attack, and since is better defined a humanitarian catastrophe.

6. ‘Every country would act the same way’ . Countries would indeed protect its civilians from attack; and many may use the same overwhelming force. However, no other country is responsible for brutally occupying another against international law for over four decades. The cause of all violence is occupation.

Israel says it want to stop missiles but still, they refused talks for a renewed cease-fire and are rather expanding full military occupation.

For a week now, attacks have increased without any serious intervention the international community, and despite the millions of citizens around the world who gathered in solidarity with the Gazans, calling on their governments to act. On the day of the visit of Nicolas Sarkozy in the Region, and on the edge of the new Czech Presidency of the EU, Mustafa Barghouthi calls on the International community governments to take actions now. “ It is now time to end the massacre, time for Israel to stop its aggression on Palestinian civilians, and time for the International Community to take its responsibilities and condemn the Israeli bloodbath and impose a ceasefire,” said Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi.