I’ve been waiting for word from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency as to the true impact of airstrikes on civilians in Gaza. That word came today from UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness who told AFP that they belief at least 25% of those killed thus far have been civilians and that the number might be much higher.

Meanwhile, it’s looking likely that Hamas may now be using hospitals and mosques for cover and may even have started using civilian areas from which to launch rocket attacks. Such tactics are altogether disgusting, as Israeli retaliation against such targets, which will no doubt produce civilian casualties, plays right into Hamas’ warped sense of accomplishment.

December 31, 2008 11 Comments

1983, side one, track three – the now immortal words of a then cult band trapped on vinyl – “…nothing changes on New Year’s Day”.

Paul Hewson, better known to most as Bono, perhaps said more than he knew at the time. But he was right, nothing does.

When I was young I laboured under the impression that New Year’s Day was symbolic of promise, of second chances, of course corrections, of learning from mistakes. As an adult I’ve come to view New Year’s celebrations as a weak hurrah – another year survived.

No matter how you want to remember it, and no matter the homage’s that will plague television screens today and tomorrow, 2008 has been a year of death.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Palestine, DR Congo, South Ossetia, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Bolivia, Burma – just to name a select few, and leaving out the inclusion of entire regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa. There are dozens more, of course, but you get the point.

In 2008 the world faced the biggest financial crisis in history since the onset of the Great Depression, but despite it the business of war didn’t flinch. That, in itself, speaks volumes. But as copious amounts of alcohol are consumed in celebration this evening, that fact will be lost on billions.

Make no mistake, there are those that bitterly condemn me for bringing such things to light, claiming that I should, for at least a day, allow the world’s problems to wash over me. Unfortunately, that is not how I am built.

I take no pleasure in it. It is not the representation of some morbid fascination with all things dour and negative. It is simply the truth. And it is, I fear, something that has become too easy to ignore for the sake of what many deem their personal sanity.

The world is not divided by lines as if a map. The ground on which you walk is connected to the very same ground on which others perish thousands of miles away. And no matter how distant you might be, the reverberations produced by such events span the globe whole. For we are no different in design. There isn’t one of us that, unless by unfortunate circumstance, does not possess two arms and two legs, two eyes and two ears. No matter our colour or creed, we are exactly the same in form and function. We are all born, we all require the same sustenance to survive, we are all frail, we all fear, and we are all mortal.

It is claimed that there are some that are wiser or more intelligent than others, but the truth is that I have seen no sign of that during my life. Stupidity reigns in many forms, even in the most educated and refined of vessels. Even the greatest of individuals possess faults, and therefore are left open to attack and scrutiny no matter their intentions or convictions. And so a status quo of ignorance dominates because anything outside of the box is deemed an affront to those who do not have the ability to comprehend it.

It’s now New Year’s Day in Gaza. There will be no celebrations. Only the continuance of Israeli bombs being dropped and rockets fired into Israel by Hamas.

Side one, track three.

*Updated: @ 2:19 PM, PST.

December 31, 2008 34 Comments

Some 400 people have been killed by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) in the northeast of Uganda in recent days, including 45 people in a Catholic Church in Doruma on the weekend, according to Ugandan authorities. It’s no secret that the leader of the LRA, Joseph Kony, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, so claims by LRA spokesman David Nekorach Matsanga that the murders were committed by LRA defectors that have joined the Ugandan army are tenuous at best.

Over the years the LRA have been guilty of kidnapping thousands of children to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves.

December 30, 2008 11 Comments

As many of you are aware, the death of innocent children in areas of conflict is something that angers me to no end. I don’t care what side their parents happen to be on, if they’re on ‘a side’ at all, the murder of innocent children is murder – plain and simple.

Ignorant individuals claim without reserve that Hamas is to blame for the death of civilians given their proximity to them and that the Israeli military takes every measure possible to ensure that collateral damage is kept to a minimum. Of course, Hamas does not have an air force, nor a conventional army, and is limited to a 139 square mile strip of land that is one of the most densely populated on earth. Common sense therefore dictates that if you’re going to bomb a mosque within that area that there is going to be collateral damage. Any idiot can see that as plain as their hand in front of them.

So when the Israeli air force bombed the Imad Aqil mosque in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza last night, it was not the only building destroyed. The attack also collapsed nearby shops and the house of the Balousha family. Inside of that house, which was reduced to rubble when the mosque was bombed, were seven girls sleeping. Five of them were killed instantly.

Tahrir Balousha was 17. Ikram Balousha was 15. Samer Balousha was 13. Dina Balousha was 8. Jawahar Balousha was 4.

One of the surviving two sisters, 16-year-old Imam, was pulled from the rubble. Her parents, who were asleep in another room with their 1-year-old and 12-day-old infant, awoke to find themselves covered in bricks and concrete blocks. All of them sustained injuries. Anwar Balousha, the girl’s father, himself suffering from significant injuries to his head and arms, was turned away at the hospital because of overcrowding.

This is not the act of a dignified nor just nation that possesses a military capacity that so far exceeds those with whom they are at odds as to stupefy. Those who defend the current Israeli bombing of Gaza have the blood of innocents to justify as well, and spare me the logic that it is an unfortunate but necessary reality to ensure the protection of Israeli lives. Since Operation Cast Lead began, 4 Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza. In the two decades preceding it, 20 have been killed. The civilian death toll due to this current aggression will result in far more than 20 dead Gazans, and yet much of the world has the audacity to claim it justifiable.

Sitting at a nearby house in a mourning tent, still suffering from his injuries, Anwar Balousha commented…

“If the dead here were Israelis, you would see the whole world condemning and responding. But why is no one condemning this action? Aren’t we human beings?”

No, Mr. Balousha, you are not. No to those who pontificate a world away on the lopsided price of life or supply the Israelis with the ordinance used to bomb the mosque which destroyed your house and family. To them you are just an animal.

December 30, 2008 50 Comments

Jason Ditz, who runs Antiwar’s news section, made an interesting point in an update today regarding the media, its access to what is transpiring in Gaza, and Israel’s attempts to control information online…

“Across the world, mainstream journalists are expressing increasing disquiet at the way the Israeli government is trying to manage international coverage of its war on the Gaza Strip. Journalists have been barred not just from the strip itself, but the government is now prohibiting journalists from going to parts of Israel near the Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Press Association is petitioning the Israeli Supreme Court to overturn the ban, which is limiting the ability of media outlets to cover the attacks, and forces them to rely on second and third hand reports from Israeli military and Hamas spokesmen regarding the situation on the ground.

As the media struggles to get up-to-date information, television news coverage is narrow, and often relies on interviews with Israeli government officials explaining why the killings are righteous and legitimate expressions of democracy and freedom, more and more people are turning to online news sites for their war coverage.

The Israeli military has therefore announced that online media and the blogosphere are another warzone for the military to manage. To that end, the military is launching its own Youtube channel to bring the viewing public footage of “precision bombing operations” in the strip.”

Ditz sources the news section with a multitude of links, so please visit the update directly to view them.

December 30, 2008 12 Comments