A Poem For The Latest Dead In Gaza
I read the news today oh boy
about a Gazan on the strip
They blew his brains out in a car
He didn't know they let a missile rip
A crowd of people stood amazed
to see a body set ablaze
There was nobody there to know
If he was Hamas or PLO
Sorry, John Lennon. I wanted to adapt "A Day in the Life" to Gaza life and start the song with a missile attack by a F-16 given gratis using my tax dollars. I couldn't hear the screams, probably because I was so busy screaming at pictures of carnage from the preceding day's news.
I'm going to take the week end off from futile screen viewing. I've got laryngitis and my tear ducts are currently on loan to my wife who is renouncing motherhood for sisterhood. So the innocents and gallants of Gaza are on their own for a few days. But before I send you the latest news of Israeli war crimes, I thought I'd type out a poem by Williams Stafford that I am dedicating to those valiant members of the Israeli Luftwaffe who kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza/Guernica without my permission or approval.
If there is a hell, it will be a screening room where eyes can't close, attention can't drift and the projectionist keeps replaying videos of the war criminals' acts of murder. But don't worry. My God--formerly known as Yahweh (as in, Have it Your Way) has received Christ. So the show only lasts two hours--albeit in eternity--before reincarnation as a Palestinian who will spend his whole brief life resisting the urge to throw rocks, bottles or anything else within easy reach at Israelis so that he can finally get off the wheel of vengeance and be born as, who knows, a Buddhist monk or a whirling dervish. When offered rebirth as an Israeli, I hope the Palestinian war crimes victim chooses more wisely than to be a smug victor. I hope he, too, chooses safron or Sufi robes.
Do I sound angry? I meant to show you a shot of the missile-mangled Palestinian car. Want to bet that the owner had just finished paying it off? You might say, sardonic shades of Hitchcock, the festivities got a little out of hand and he had to be carried away.
SOME REMARKS WHEN RICHARD HUGO CAME
Some war, I bomb their towns from five
miles high, the flower of smoke and fire
so far there is no sound. No cry
disturbs the calm through which we fly.
Some day, a quiet day, I watch
a grassy field in wind, the waves
forever bounding past and gone.
Friends call: I Cannot look away--
And my life had already happened:
Some save-up feeling caught, held on,
and shook me. Long-legged grass raced out;
a film inside my head unwound.
The bodies I had killed began to scream.
--William Stafford, The Way It Is, Graywolf Press, 1995, p. 164
Israeli forces kill at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza incursion
Report, PCHR, 27 June 2007
A member of the al-Qassam Brigades inspects a car that was targeted in an Israeli air strike on Gaza, 27 June 2007. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, 27 June 2007, IOF conducted two incursions into the town of Khuza'a to the east of Khan Yunis and into Sheja'eya Quarter in the eastern part of Gaza City. Up to the publication of this report, these incursions resulted in the death of 11 Palestinians. Among those killed are six civilians, including two children and two brothers. In addition, 50 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been injured. In the afternoon, IOF withdrew from Sheja'eya, leaving behind considerable destruction. The incursion into Khuza'a continued at the time of publication. In light of this escalation and the persistence of IOF military operations, PCHR is concerned over the falling of additional civilian victims. It is noted that this escalation coincides with the continued hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip imposed two weeks ago, thus threatening to cause a humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximatel y 15:30 on 27 June 2007, IOF armored vehicles, supported by military aircraft, moved nearly 1.5 kilometers into the town of Khuza'a to the east of Khan Yunis. IOF troops stormed a number of residential houses in Abu Reida neighborhood in the town; and transformed many of these homes into military outposts and held residents as hostages. Palestinian resistance activists confronted the IOF troops. Sporadic clashes continued till time of publication. These clashes resulted in the killing of two resistance activists and the injury of two others. The activists killed are:
Deya Mohammad Abu Daqqa (24), killed by a bullet to the chest.
Husam Abdallah Abu To'ema (24) killed by a bullet to the head.
IOF is calling upon all males aged 15-50 to come out of their homes and gather in one of the town squares.
At approximately 5:00 on 27 June 2007, IOF armored vehicles, supported by military aircraft, moved into Sheja'eya Quarter in the eastern part of Gaza City. IOF fired a shell at two civilians, killing them instantly:
Nafez Mahmoud Hilles (27).
Ahmad Ayyad Hilles (16).
Ten civilians, including a child, a girl, and an elderly man, were injured by indiscriminate IOF shelling and fire against civilian houses.
At approximately 7:30, an IOF plane committed an extra-judicial execution by hitting a civilian vehicle in Baghdad Street in Sheja'eya. The driver, Ra'ed Amin Abu Fannouna, was killed instantly. He was a member of Al-Quds Battalions, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
Using disproportionate force, IOF killed four civilians in Sheja'eya at approximately 11:30. Among the civilians were a child and two brothers. IOF fired a shell at a group of four civilians standing in front of the house of Sa'id Jundeya in El-Muntar Street in Sheja'eya. The shell fell in the middle of the group and killed them instantly. The victims are:
Izzedeen Sa'id Jundeya (14).
Hazem Eyad Jundeya (23).
Yusef Kamal El-Manasra (18).
Sami Kamal El-Manasra (28).
In the afternoon, Shifa Hospital announced the death of a resistance activist, Anan Abdel Aziz El-Ar'eer (24), of wounds sustained in the morning. In addition, IOF fired a tank shell at a group of resistance activists, killing one of them instantly: Yousef Khalil Juha (22).
In addition, to the 10 injured civilians mentioned above, another 40 wounded from Sheja'eya were admitted to Gaza City hospitals. Most of the injured are unarmed civilians injured by IOF indiscriminate shelling of civilian houses.
In the afternoon, IOF ended the incursion into Sheja'eya and withdrew to the Gaza Strip border, leaving behind considerable destruction in civilian houses, property, and agricultural areas.
In light of this IOF escalation, PCHR:
Condemns these crimes that are a continuation of Israeli war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), which reflect indifference and negligence towards civilian lives. The Centre views these actions as a form of collective punishment and reprisals that violate Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949).
Points to the fact that IOF do not respect the principles of necessity and proportionality when employing its lethal military capabilities in civilian areas, causing additional casualties among the civilian population.
Condemns the IOF policy of extra-judicial executions against Palestinian activists, and stresses that this policy increases tension in the area and threatens the lives of Palestinian civilians.
Calls upon the international community to intervene immediately to stop these crimes; and calls upon the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their responsibility under Article 1 of the Convention to ensure that it is respected under all circumstances. In addition, the Centre calls upon the High Contracting Parties to fulfill their responsibilities under Article 146 of the Convention to prosecute persons suspected of committing serious violations of the Convention, and the responsibilities under Article 147 of the Convention stipulating the protection of civilians in occupied
about a Gazan on the strip
They blew his brains out in a car
He didn't know they let a missile rip
A crowd of people stood amazed
to see a body set ablaze
There was nobody there to know
If he was Hamas or PLO
Sorry, John Lennon. I wanted to adapt "A Day in the Life" to Gaza life and start the song with a missile attack by a F-16 given gratis using my tax dollars. I couldn't hear the screams, probably because I was so busy screaming at pictures of carnage from the preceding day's news.
I'm going to take the week end off from futile screen viewing. I've got laryngitis and my tear ducts are currently on loan to my wife who is renouncing motherhood for sisterhood. So the innocents and gallants of Gaza are on their own for a few days. But before I send you the latest news of Israeli war crimes, I thought I'd type out a poem by Williams Stafford that I am dedicating to those valiant members of the Israeli Luftwaffe who kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza/Guernica without my permission or approval.
If there is a hell, it will be a screening room where eyes can't close, attention can't drift and the projectionist keeps replaying videos of the war criminals' acts of murder. But don't worry. My God--formerly known as Yahweh (as in, Have it Your Way) has received Christ. So the show only lasts two hours--albeit in eternity--before reincarnation as a Palestinian who will spend his whole brief life resisting the urge to throw rocks, bottles or anything else within easy reach at Israelis so that he can finally get off the wheel of vengeance and be born as, who knows, a Buddhist monk or a whirling dervish. When offered rebirth as an Israeli, I hope the Palestinian war crimes victim chooses more wisely than to be a smug victor. I hope he, too, chooses safron or Sufi robes.
Do I sound angry? I meant to show you a shot of the missile-mangled Palestinian car. Want to bet that the owner had just finished paying it off? You might say, sardonic shades of Hitchcock, the festivities got a little out of hand and he had to be carried away.
SOME REMARKS WHEN RICHARD HUGO CAME
Some war, I bomb their towns from five
miles high, the flower of smoke and fire
so far there is no sound. No cry
disturbs the calm through which we fly.
Some day, a quiet day, I watch
a grassy field in wind, the waves
forever bounding past and gone.
Friends call: I Cannot look away--
And my life had already happened:
Some save-up feeling caught, held on,
and shook me. Long-legged grass raced out;
a film inside my head unwound.
The bodies I had killed began to scream.
--William Stafford, The Way It Is, Graywolf Press, 1995, p. 164
Israeli forces kill at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza incursion
Report, PCHR, 27 June 2007
A member of the al-Qassam Brigades inspects a car that was targeted in an Israeli air strike on Gaza, 27 June 2007. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, 27 June 2007, IOF conducted two incursions into the town of Khuza'a to the east of Khan Yunis and into Sheja'eya Quarter in the eastern part of Gaza City. Up to the publication of this report, these incursions resulted in the death of 11 Palestinians. Among those killed are six civilians, including two children and two brothers. In addition, 50 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been injured. In the afternoon, IOF withdrew from Sheja'eya, leaving behind considerable destruction. The incursion into Khuza'a continued at the time of publication. In light of this escalation and the persistence of IOF military operations, PCHR is concerned over the falling of additional civilian victims. It is noted that this escalation coincides with the continued hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip imposed two weeks ago, thus threatening to cause a humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximatel y 15:30 on 27 June 2007, IOF armored vehicles, supported by military aircraft, moved nearly 1.5 kilometers into the town of Khuza'a to the east of Khan Yunis. IOF troops stormed a number of residential houses in Abu Reida neighborhood in the town; and transformed many of these homes into military outposts and held residents as hostages. Palestinian resistance activists confronted the IOF troops. Sporadic clashes continued till time of publication. These clashes resulted in the killing of two resistance activists and the injury of two others. The activists killed are:
Deya Mohammad Abu Daqqa (24), killed by a bullet to the chest.
Husam Abdallah Abu To'ema (24) killed by a bullet to the head.
IOF is calling upon all males aged 15-50 to come out of their homes and gather in one of the town squares.
At approximately 5:00 on 27 June 2007, IOF armored vehicles, supported by military aircraft, moved into Sheja'eya Quarter in the eastern part of Gaza City. IOF fired a shell at two civilians, killing them instantly:
Nafez Mahmoud Hilles (27).
Ahmad Ayyad Hilles (16).
Ten civilians, including a child, a girl, and an elderly man, were injured by indiscriminate IOF shelling and fire against civilian houses.
At approximately 7:30, an IOF plane committed an extra-judicial execution by hitting a civilian vehicle in Baghdad Street in Sheja'eya. The driver, Ra'ed Amin Abu Fannouna, was killed instantly. He was a member of Al-Quds Battalions, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
Using disproportionate force, IOF killed four civilians in Sheja'eya at approximately 11:30. Among the civilians were a child and two brothers. IOF fired a shell at a group of four civilians standing in front of the house of Sa'id Jundeya in El-Muntar Street in Sheja'eya. The shell fell in the middle of the group and killed them instantly. The victims are:
Izzedeen Sa'id Jundeya (14).
Hazem Eyad Jundeya (23).
Yusef Kamal El-Manasra (18).
Sami Kamal El-Manasra (28).
In the afternoon, Shifa Hospital announced the death of a resistance activist, Anan Abdel Aziz El-Ar'eer (24), of wounds sustained in the morning. In addition, IOF fired a tank shell at a group of resistance activists, killing one of them instantly: Yousef Khalil Juha (22).
In addition, to the 10 injured civilians mentioned above, another 40 wounded from Sheja'eya were admitted to Gaza City hospitals. Most of the injured are unarmed civilians injured by IOF indiscriminate shelling of civilian houses.
In the afternoon, IOF ended the incursion into Sheja'eya and withdrew to the Gaza Strip border, leaving behind considerable destruction in civilian houses, property, and agricultural areas.
In light of this IOF escalation, PCHR:
Condemns these crimes that are a continuation of Israeli war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), which reflect indifference and negligence towards civilian lives. The Centre views these actions as a form of collective punishment and reprisals that violate Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949).
Points to the fact that IOF do not respect the principles of necessity and proportionality when employing its lethal military capabilities in civilian areas, causing additional casualties among the civilian population.
Condemns the IOF policy of extra-judicial executions against Palestinian activists, and stresses that this policy increases tension in the area and threatens the lives of Palestinian civilians.
Calls upon the international community to intervene immediately to stop these crimes; and calls upon the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their responsibility under Article 1 of the Convention to ensure that it is respected under all circumstances. In addition, the Centre calls upon the High Contracting Parties to fulfill their responsibilities under Article 146 of the Convention to prosecute persons suspected of committing serious violations of the Convention, and the responsibilities under Article 147 of the Convention stipulating the protection of civilians in occupied
posted by David Federman @ 10:03 AM
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