End the Seige in Gaza!

It's been one year since Israel launched a three wk offensive in Gaza that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and destroyed more than 50,000 homes in an effort to stop rocket fire by the Islamic group, Hamas, who is in charge of Gaza. Not only was the response by Israel totally over-the-top, as confirmed by UN Sec. Ban Ki-moon, but Israel also ignored Intl. law and used white phosphorous weapons against civillians in one of the most densely populated areas in the whole world (It is illegal because it basically burns your skin off like napalm).

A year later, what has changed?? Well, 80% of Gazans now surviving on humanitarian handouts from the UN Relief and Works Agency(UNRWA). International doners attempted to give over 4.5 billion dollars to Gaza to help...but Israel has blocked these funds from reaching them and is holding Gaza under seige. According to the UNRWA:
"97% of Gaza's factories have shut down, raising unemployment higher than 43%. With scarce sources of income, many Gazans would probably starve if not for food handouts from the U.N. and other agencies. More than 40,000 Gazans have no electricity; 10,000 have no running water in their homes; and because Israel bans entry of the spare parts needed to run Gaza's sewage-treatment plant, every day 87 million liters of sewage are dumped into the Mediterranean."

So, what does Israel say they want from the Palestinians living in Gaza?? They want the people to overthrow the democratically elected group, Hamas. Ummm....the chances of this happening are VERY slim. Hamas smuggles arms, money and life-saving supplies into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt. They were elected b/c they build schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure for the Palestinian people. Egypt has recently contemplated blocking off these tunnels, the result of which would be disasterous. Hamas has even proposed a deal with Israel in which Hamas would release an important Israeli prisoner in exchange for an end to the seige. Unfort. this probably won't happen as the whole broad end-goal of Israel is genocide for the Palestinians living in Gaza and even the West Bank for the most part.

I find a grim irony in the way that Israel is now engaged in their own ethnic cleansing. Really, have the atrocities of the Holocaust been so quickly and easily forgotten?

Learn more, END THE SEIGE!! http://endthesiege.blogspot.com/