American priest and nun join Palestinian non-violent resistance in Gaza - ISM

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This about the nicest priest and nun story I've heard since the US Civil Rights Movement or Central America in the 80s. (or maybe when this picture was taken). There is something in the air or rather something moving at the grassroots. Public opinion is a very strange animal and it has been hungering for the right international image of the Palestinian struggle. This might be it. A test of the effectiveness of this action will be the streams of insults and innuendo that will rain down on the heads of Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen. DS

Abstract: November 22nd: Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen have moved on to Beit Lahia, in the north of Gaza, where Palestinians have been gathered for the last three days to protect the home of Wael Rajab, a house that took 20 years to build. This is at least the second location in Gaza in the last four days where this particular nonviolent tactic has been employed to prevent home demolition. Fr. Peter said he has been sitting outside the house with many people from the town, including doctors, teachers, and a civil engineer. “It is clear that violence will only lead to more violence,” Fr. Peter said, “but perhaps this nonviolent form of resistance will help to end the vicious cycle.” Palestinians have explained that hundreds of villagers have decided to participate in this action because they feel that since the world community has chosen not to help them, they must help themselves. And they are dedicated. “Even if Israel destroys our homes, we will stay,” said one Palestinian man to Fr. Peter.(...) It is a contravention of the Geneva Convention for armies to fail to make a distinction between unarmed civilians and armed combatants. Israel practices the strategy of telephoning residents of targeted homes shortly before the homes are to be destroyed, giving them just enough time to quickly escape. This practice has been used in over 60 cases within Gaza, despite the fact that any act of collective punishment is a crime under international law.
Contacts in Jabalya: Father Peter - 0546259547, Sister Mary Ellen - 0547947159
Link to ISM webpage

"Human Shields" in the Jerusalem Post

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This article from the rightwing, Israeli, English language Newspaper, Jerusalem Post, gives some of the true flavor of what is going on. I've underlined a few choice phrases. DS
Abstract: Palestinian residents flocked to the home of a Hamas militant Monday to prevent the Israeli army from carrying out an airstrike.(...) The army had no immediate comment on Monday's incident. But military officials have said they do not yet know how to deal with the issue. Fearing militants will continue to exploit civilians as human shields around terror targets in the Gaza Strip, a high-ranking officer said Sunday that the IDF was prepared to launch ground raids into the Palestinian territory to demolish buildings that could not be destroyed in airstrikes.(...) The incident in Beit Lahiya on Sunday was the first time Palestinians have tried to prevent such an air strike and represents, officials said, a change in tactics to try and prevent the IAF missile strikes. "These human shields will not stop us from reaching every target of ours," an IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "If we can't get to the target by air due to the human shields, we will reach it by ground and the Palestinians will pay a heavy price." The officer said that the Air Force as well as the Operations Directorate has not given up using the "phone-call tactic" and would continue to call Palestinians before bombing a civilian area. The IDF might however, he added, change the amount of time it gave the Palestinians to evacuate the area.(...) "Since July, Israel has destroyed 58 houses in the Gaza Strip," said a senior Hamas official. "More than 240 people have been left without a roof." In the last three days alone, eight houses were targeted, as well as two workshops, a library and a charity run by Rasha Rantisi, widow of slain Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. The demolition of the houses has created tremendous pressure on the Hamas-led government, which is being forced to find alternative housing for those who lost their homes. The plight of the new "refugees" is amplified by the fact that most people in the Gaza Strip are afraid to host the fugitives and their families for fear that their houses would also be targeted by the IDF. (emphasis mine) READ IT ALL

Israel Holds Fire as Gazans Rally at House - New York Times

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The Palestinians have chosen the perfect moment to employ the tactic of passive resistance. That this story has reached the front page of the New York Times is proof of that. The Times does all it can to filter news from Israel in contrast to European media and even the Israeli press itself. Most Americans are inured or ignorant of the Palestinian's suffering. After destroying Lebanon, the Israelis are being watched over more closely and with the massacre of Beit Hanun their brutality seems to have finally entered the American conscience. Now, with world watching, it is the time for satyagraha, which is only effective against such a calloused opponent if the world's cameras are running. DS
Abstract: Israel called off an airstrike against the house of a suspected Palestinian militant in Gaza late Saturday, after the inhabitants ignored a telephoned warning and neighbors flocked to the house to prevent the bombing, the military said. On Sunday, hundreds of Palestinians, including the prime minister from the militant faction Hamas, stayed around the house and on its balconies and roof throughout the day. They declared a victory for “popular resistance,” but Israel, under criticism for killing civilians in such strikes, called it another example of Palestinians using civilians to shield military activity. “We see it as a cynical exploitation of our attempt to avoid harm to civilians,” said a spokesman for the Israeli military, who, according to usual practice, spoke on condition of anonymity. “They are using them as human shields.” But Palestinians celebrated it as a possibly potent new defense against air raids that Israel might find difficult to counter. “We are so proud of this national stand,” Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said Sunday while visiting the house, in the town of Jabalya, in northern Gaza. “It’s the first step toward protecting our homes, the homes of our children.” Israel said the house had been used by leaders of a militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees, which was active in firing Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. Last week, a 57-year-old Israeli woman from the nearby Israeli town of Sderot was killed by one of the rockets, and over the weekend, Israel carried out several small-scale operations against militants suspected of being involved in firing them. READ IT ALL

Palestinians Form Human Shields to Stop Israeli Airstrikes - New York Times

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This story is by far the most significant in the Middle East today, and perhaps in years. The Palestinians are for the first time using the Ghandian method of "Satyagraha", often referred to as passive resistance. Ho Chi Minh once said that if Gandhi had been facing the French he would have abandoned nonviolence in a week. What is true of the French is also true of the Israelis, as the similarities between the struggles of the Palestinians and Algerian independence are obvious. Gandhi himself said of the Palestinians on the occasion of the first intifada in 1938, "I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds." If, instead of the intifadas they had spent the years since 1967, sitting in cafeterias singing "we shall overcome", they would have never even have been recognized as a people. This action by the Palestinians at this particular time could change the situation in the entire Middle East drastically, because the Palestinians have chosen a moment when the world's attention and sympathy are finally focused fully on their sufferings due to Israeli excesses. With the Bush administration crippled and the Democratic congress in total confusion on the Middle East, this was the perfect time to change gears. DS
Abstract: Israel called off airstrikes on the homes of two militants Sunday after hundreds of Palestinians crowded around the buildings forming human shields, a new tactic that forced the Israelis to re-evaluate their aerial campaign in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians began to gather around the homes shortly after the Israeli army ordered occupants out of them. Israel routinely issues such warnings before attacking buildings that it says are used to store weapons, saying it wants to avoid casualties. Instead of leaving the buildings, the homeowners remained inside and were quickly joined by crowds of supporters who gathered on balconies, rooftops and in the streets outside. ''Death to Israel. Death to America,'' the crowds chanted. Local mosques and Palestinian TV and radio stations also mobilized supporters. It was the first time Palestinians have formed human shields to prevent an airstrike. The first incident occurred just before midnight at the home of Mohammedweil Baroud, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Baroud oversees rocket attacks on Israel. About two hours later, Mohammed Nawajeh, a Hamas leader in northern Gaza, got a similar call. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas arrived at Baroud's home early Sunday to support the protest. ''We are so proud of this national stand. It's the first step toward protecting our homes, the homes of our children,'' Haniyeh said as he made his way to the roof of the house, decorated during the night with black and green flags symbolizing the Popular Resistance Committees and Hamas groups. ''This strategy was decided by our people. This strategy was decided by our leaders who were here from all the factions ... and so long as this strategy is in the interest of our people we support this strategy,'' Haniyeh said. People loyal to various Palestinian factions -- Hamas, Fatah and the Popular Resistance Committees -- which have often fought against each other, answered calls for help, crossing party and ideological lines to fend off the Israeli airstrikes. ''These Palestinian masses have come to defeat the Zionist swords which are targeting our heads and the heads of our fighters,'' said Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader in northern Gaza. ''Look we are defeating them,'' he added, pointing to Israeli warplanes overhead in the night sky. Redwan Abu Daya, a 16-year-old Fatah supporter who lives near Baroud, said he was ignoring party lines because he felt a duty to protect his neighbor's homes from bombardment. ''I came here because everyone should be here,'' Abu Daya said, while the nearby mosque called on loudspeakers for people to gather at Baroud's home. The army said it called off the nighttime airstrikes because of the large crowds, but vowed to continue to fight the ''terrorist infrastructure.'' It condemned ''the cynical exploitation by the terrorists of uninvolved people as human shields.'' At midday Sunday, crowds continued to protect the targeted homes. READ ALL