[Editors Note: Published
below is an informative letter to the Byron Bay Echo about the Israeli blockade
of Gaza.
Readers may wish to know that there will be another flotilla attempting to break the blockade of Gaza in May 2011 marking the anniversary of the Mavi Mamara flotilla.
As people may already be aware, this is likely to be an important voyage.
It may be possible to break the blockadefor the forst time if the flotilla gets both Egyptian and International support.
Other people from S-E Qld and Northern NSW may be in the Middle East in May. If so they may wish to join the flotilla.
Keep an eye on Workers Bushtelegraph for details.]
Dear Editor (Byron Bay Echo),
Thank you Claire Vickery for pointing up the “epidemic of injustice” at home and abroad (Letters February 15, ‘Peace and Justice’). A tragically “good” example of this is Israel’s policy of restricting the entry of medicines and spare parts for CAT scans and other medical equipment into Gaza, which suffered hundreds of casualties and devastating damage to hospitals and clinics during Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” military assault in December 2009 . The one power plant was crippled so that 12 hour outages are a fact of daily life; hospitals just have to manage. In addition, the Al-Meezan Centre for Human Rights reports that patients needing medical treatment outside Gaza are blocked by Israeli security forces until they agree to collaborate, to become spies for Israel. People die and babies get born at the border as a result.
Despite the critical shortage of medicines identified by the World Health Organisation, Israel deliberately bombed Gaza’s AL-Qerem Medical Supplies Factory, Jabalya, injuring women and children (February 8, 2011). Ex-US Marine, Kenneth O’Keefe filmed the attack
. I have searched in vain for any mention of this atrocity across mainstream media; the story has been buried. I thought I would find denials/excuses at this pro-Israeli site: http://www.anti-semitism.net/tag/qerem-medical#usage, but none of the comments disputed the veracity of O’Keefe’s posting.
As Claire writes: “Every injustice is an opportunity for us to practice compassion in action, and to learn and grow” (my emphasis).
How about letters to Israel’s ambassador, Yuval Rotem, Byron?
Gareth W R Smith
Tel: (61)2-66858410
MOB: 0422298165The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” – John Kenneth Galbraith.
“Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
“The sleep of reason produces monsters.” Goya
