[WSF-Discuss] Fw: [GazaFriends] Media Release: International witnesses speak out from Gaza on Israeli atrocities

[kolya abramsky]

--- On Sat, 27/12/08, Ewa Jasiewicz (freelance) <freelance at mailworks.org> wrote:

> From: Ewa Jasiewicz (freelance) <freelance at mailworks.org>
> Subject: [GazaFriends] Media Release: International witnesses speak out from Gaza on Israeli atrocities
> To: GazaFriends at lists.riseup.net
> Date: Saturday, 27 December, 2008, 4:42 PM
> Please fwd widely:
> 
> For Immediate Release
> 
> International Witnesses speak out from Gaza
> 
>  27th December 2008, Gaza, Palestine -  Human Rights
> Defenders
> from Lebanon, the UK, Poland, Canada, Spain, Italy and
> Australia are present in Gaza and are witnessing and
> documenting
> the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.
> Due to Israel's policy of denying access to
> international media,
> human rights defenders and aid agencies to the
> Occupied Gaza Strip, many of these Human Rights Defenders
> arrived
> in Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement's boats.
> 
> FGM boats have broken Israel's siege of Gaza five times
> in the
> past four months.
> "At the time of the attacks I was on Omar Mukhtar
> street and
> witnessed a last rocket hit the street 150 meters away
> where
> crowds had already gathered to try to extract the dead
> bodies.
> Ambulances, trucks, cars - anything that can move is
> bringing
> injured to
> the hospitals. Hospitals have had to evacuate sick patients
> to
> make room for the injured. I have been told that there is
> not
> enough room in the morgues for the bodies and that there is
> a
> great lack of blood in the bloodbanks. I have just learned
> that
> among the civilians killed today was the mother of my good
> friends in Jabalya camp." - Eva Bartlett (Canada)
> International
> Solidarity Movement
> "Israeli missles tore through a children's
> playground and busy
> market in Diere Balah, we saw the aftermath - many were
> injured
> and some reportedly killed. Every Hospital in the Gaza
> strip is
> already overwhelmed with injured people and does not have
> the
> medicine or the capacity to treat them. Israel is
> committing
> crimes against humanity, it is violating international and
> human
> rights law, ignoring the United Nations and planning even
> bigger
> attacks. The world must act now and intensify the calls for
> Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel;
> governments
> need to move beyond words of condemnation into an active
> and
> immediate
> restraint of Israel and a lifting of the siege of
> Gaza" - Ewa
> Jasiewicz
> (Polish and British) Free Gaza Movment
> "The morgue at the Shifa hospital has no more room for
> dead
> bodies, so bodies and body parts are strewn all over the
> hospital." - Dr. Haidar Eid, (Palestinian, South
> African)
> Professor of Social and Cultural
> Studies, Al Aqsa University Gaza
> "The bombs began to fall just as the children were on
> the streets
> walking back from school. I went out onto the stairs and a
> terrified 5
> year old girl ran sobbing into my arms."- Sharon Lock
> (Australian) International Solidarity Movement
> "This is incredibly sad. This massacre is not going to
> bring
> security for the State of Israel or allow it to be part of
> the
> Middle East. Now
> calls of revenge are everywhere." Dr Eyad Sarraj -
> President of
> the Gaza
> Community Mental Health Centre
> "As I speak they have just hit a building 200 metres
> away. There
> is smoke everywhere. This morning I went to the building
> close to
> where I
> live in Rafah that had been hit. Two bulldozers were
> immediately
> attempting to clear the rubble. They thought they had found
> all
> the
> bodies. As we arrived one more was found."  Jenny
> Linnel
> (British) International Solidarity Movement
> "The home I am staying in is across from the
> preventive security
> compound. All the glass of the house shattered. The home
> has been
> severely damaged. Due to the siege there is no glass or
> building
> materials to repair this damage. One little boy in our
> house
> fainted. An
> eight year little boy was trembling on the ground for an
> hour. In
> front of our house we found the bodies of two little girls
> under
> a car,
> completely burnt. They were coming home from school. This
> is more
> than just collective punishment. We are being treated like
> laboratory animals. I have lived through the Israeli
> bombardment
> of Beirut and the Israel's message is the same in Gaza
> as it was
> in Beirut- The killing of civilians. There was just another
> explosion outside!" Natalie Abu Eid (Lebanon)
> International
> Solidarity Movement
> Human Rights Defenders in Gaza:
> Dr. Eyad Sarraj (Arabic and English) -+972 599400424
> Ewa Jasiewicz, Free Gaza Co-Ordinator in Gaza (Polish,
> Arabic,
> and
> English) - +972 59 8700497
> Dr. Haider Eid (English and Arabic)  - + 972 59 9441766
> Sharon Lock (English) - +972 59 8826513
> Vittorio Arrigoni (Italian) - +972 59 8378945
> Fida Qishta (English and Arabic) +972 599681669
> Jenny Linnel (English) - +972 59 87653777
> Natalie Abu Shakra (Arabic and English) 0598336 328
> For more information on the Free Gaza Movment (FGM) or the
> International
> Solidarity Movement (ISM) contact in the West Bank:
> Adam Taylor (ISM) - 972 59 8503948
> Lubna Masarwa (FGM)- 972 50 5633044