‘Tears of Gaza’ is a documentary film by Vibeke Lokkeberg.
The true face of the Israeli colonial state is seen through the eyes of three children living in the besieged enclave: Amira (left), Yehya and Rasmia.
“Lest we forget, lest our tears dry or outrage subside, and lest our hearts heal before Palestine is free, I hope this film will be shown throughout the world,” says Palestinian activist Susan Abulhawa.
A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all supporters of Kia Ora Gaza.
Special thanks to all donors whose generosity of spirit fuels our Gaza Appeal.
Kia Ora Gaza sends you our very best wishes for the Festive Season.
Unless something big happens, there won’t be any activity on our website until the end of the holiday break on 16 January.
Grant Morgan, editor of kiaoragaza.net
Tags: Info
by Radhika Sainath
Notes from Behind the Blockade
20 December 2011
I made the long journey out of Gaza last week. I must say, though I will miss the dozens of people who invited me into their homes, shared their stories, cooked me lunch, put up with my bad Arabic, boiled me countless glasses of rosemary tea and served me thick black coffee in petite rimless cups, I could not get out of there fast enough.
Gaza is not a pleasant place to be. The Israeli occupation smothers and suffocates, it makes one highly attuned to one’s surroundings in unnatural ways, or ways that were once natural but should no longer be.
Deserters from Syria's army who have joined rebel forces
by Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel
Israeli daily paper Haaretz
21 December 2011
article abridged
More than 10,000 soldiers have deserted the Syrian army, sources say, with as many as half the conscripts not reporting in the last three call-ups.
According to Western intelligence agencies, even though the top brass is still loyal to President Bashar Assad, lower-level officers are deserting in large numbers, and in some cases, whole units have deserted en masse.
300,000 Hamas supporters gather in Gaza City on 14 December 2011 to mark the Islamist movement's 24th anniversary
by Phoebe Greenwood in Gaza City
18 December 2011
article abridged
Hamas has confirmed that it will shift tactics away from violent attacks on Israel as part of a rapprochement with the Palestinian Authority.
A spokesman for the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, told the Guardian that the Islamic party, which has controlled Gaza for the past five years, was shifting its emphasis from armed struggle to non-violent resistance.
“Violence is no longer the primary option but if Israel pushes us, we reserve the right to defend ourselves with force,” said the spokesman, Taher al-Nounu. On this understanding, he said, all Palestinian factions operating in the Gaza Strip have agreed to halt the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel.
David Shearer, seen in 1992 in Somalia, has two decades of experience as a humanitarian aid worker, including a long stint in Palestine
by Derek Cheng
17 December 2011
“He jumped up, violently jumped up, and dashed out the door,” says Mark McNeill, a friend who was with Labour leader David Shearer when Shearer was told his wife Anuschka Meyer was being held at gunpoint.
An Egyptian boy stands above a gate reading "safe journey" near the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip
by Ma’an News Agency in Gaza City
17 December 2011
The Egyptian revolution has opened a new chapter for Gazans wishing to travel out of the blockaded strip, crossings officials say.
The southern Rafah crossing to Egypt — the only exit point for Palestinians that is not closed by Israel’s blockade – is unrecognizable from its dire past while Hosni Mubarak was in power, Gaza’s director of borders and crossings Mahir Abu Sabha told Ma’an.
“Ten years ago, the situation was so bad that students and businessmen in Gaza vowed never to come back if they could reach Egypt by the Rafah crossing,” he said.
“Everything has changed thanks to the revolution in Egypt.”
by Palestinian Information Centre (PIC) in Amman, Jordan
15 December 2011
article abridged and re-edited
Delegates from 15 countries attended a meeting in Amman called by the preparatory committee for the worldwide rally to support occupied Jerusalem.
The attendees discussed ways of organising a global rally on 30 March for Jerusalem to demand an end to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the holy city’s indigenous people.
The rally will include popular marches in three Arab countries bordering occupied Palestine. Three others will take place inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The meeting intends to organise marches concurrently in other parts of the world.
Zaher Berawi, a committee member responsible for organisation, told PIC that the rally would be the largest in the history of pro-Palestine demonstrations.
“This popular rally will be a milestone in the history of the conflict with the occupation,” he said.
15 December 2011
Gabriel Piterberg noted in his masterful 2008 book The Returns of Zionism: Myths, Politics and Scholarship in Israel that the “achievements of the comparative study of settler colonialism have been at once scholarly and political,” that the young field “creates a language that amounts to a transformative alternative to the way in which these settler societies narrate themselves in their own words.”
by Michael S. Schmidt in Baghdad
The New York Times
14 December 2011
One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America’s time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.
