Hamas has right to resist occupation and military aggression.

On Tuesday last the Israeli propaganda machine targeted the Western media with all of its might. Taken back by the  international reactions to their military bombardment and continuing blockade of Gaza. The Israel politicos were advised by their hired US public relations gofers to hit the phones and tour the worlds TV studios and newspapers editorial offices.

Israeli spokespersons appeared on British TV screens speaking with English home counties accents, whilst in the US these apologists for murder had a home town US drawl. The purpose being to display to the viewers that the Israelis are just like them; and engaged in the same war on terror as their own governments. So far the general public is having none of it, but there has been a subtle change in the mass media’s coverage. For example the London Guardian down graded its coverage on Wednesday, relegating the news from Gaza to the bottom of its front page. Despite the Israeli attacks continuing overnight and creating more dead and injured in the process. To down ground the story just when pressure on the Israelis is needed tells one all you need to know about the great English liberal conscience.

The western media has also upgraded it coverage from within Israel, and it is now giving major coverage to the rockets the Gazan resistance movement is firing into Israel proper. As if there is any comparison between the occasional rocket and the current full scale Israeli military onslaught against the Gazan Palestinians. 

According to the latest figures the Israeli armed forces has 500,000 men and women under arms, Hamas has approx. 600-6000. Israel 3,501 tanks, Hamas 0. Combat aircraft, Israel 393, Hamas 0. Israeli defense budget, 9.5 Bn, Hamas total annual funding, 50 million for civilian and military projects. Israeli dead since bombardment began, military 0 civilians 5, Palestinian total, 408 dead, 44% of whom were women and children. 

It is impossible not to believe this attack on Gaza is a war crime, due to the fact that Israel continues to occupy Palestinian territory and its total lack of proportionality. As to the rockets that have been fired from Gaza, a small Palestinian enclave, the borders of which Hamas has no control over. During the six months of the Hamas-Israeli ceasefire, not a single Israeli was killed by a rocket fired from within Gaza, thus making a nonsense of the Israeli pretext for the bombardment. But even if they had been and as tragic as this would have been for the individuals concerned and their families. Hamas and the Palestinian people under international law have every right to oppose by all means the Israel occupation of the West Bank and its closure of all crossing points into Gaza. The United Nations Charter is very clear on this, it states.

(UN Charter art. 51) (6). The right to resist finds application within the framework of the right of legitimate defense because "a state which forcibly subjugates a people to colonial or alien domination is committing an unlawful act as defined by international law, and the subject people, in the exercise of its inherent right of self-defense, may fight to defend and attain its right to self-determination."(7) 

The way the western media are reporting this story is an absolute disgrace, not once to my knowledge have they began a report from the Israel-Palestinian (Gaza) border by telling there readers, listeners, and viewers that the Israeli government is refusing to allow them access to Gaza to report accurately and their exclusion amounts to nothing less than Israeli censorship of the Western media. If and when the western media report this, it is always as an after thought. If the Israelis continue to make it impossible for western journalists to do their jobs properly, they should refuse to report from within Israel, there should be no further reporting from Israeli cities hit by rockets fired from within Gaza. If the Israeli government wish to censor the Western media, that media should censor out the Israelis until they see reason. Myself I have stopped watching BBC, Sky and ITV news and rely on Al Jazeera TV. [English]

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SATURDAY 3 JANUARY 2009

NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AND RALLY

HANDS OFF GAZA: STOP THE BOMBING: FREE PALESTINE

Assemble 12:30pm Along Embankment, by Embankment tube station, LONDON WC2 - Nearest tube Embankment or Charing Cross

Join us to call for an end to the killing and an end to the siege of the people of Gaza!

Please contact the PSC office if you can help on the day: info@palestinecampaign.org or call 02077006192

Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Box BM PSA
London
WC1N 3XX
Tel:   020 7700 6192
Fax:  020 7609 7779
Email: info@palestinecampaign.org
Web: www.palestinecampaign.org