- ARTICLE news http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/2534 2009-01-15T10:16:40+01:00 Summary of Editorials from the Hebrew Press (Israel Government Press Office) Yediot Aharonot commends German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for standing by Israel in the face of growing anti-Israel sentiment in Germany due - inter alia - to Operation Cast Lead. The Jerusalem Post ponders the banning of two Arab parties by the Knesset Central Elections Committee, and reflects that while totalitarian regimes are prone to banning political parties, democracies seldom do. The editor feels, however, that our polity should not shy away from making tough decisions to protect the system from those who would destabilize it. Ma'ariv says that the Central Election Committee's decision to disqualify two Israeli Arab parties - Balad and Ra'am-Ta'al - was "an expression of weakness, a lack of self-confidence and irrational fear". The author denies that disqualifying the two parties was a case of a democracy defending itself: "Democracies are entitled to defend themselves against their enemies, including enemies of the state that undermine its very existence. A list that seeks to peacefully persuade Israeli citizens to shelve the concept of the country as a Jewish national state and replace it with a different concept, that of a state of all its citizens, does not fall under any of these". The paper asserts, "Even if the High Court of Justice saves Israeli democracy from itself, the Central Elections Committee's decision will remain as a mark of shame". Yisrael Hayom refers to the disputed version of events regarding Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent phone conversation with US President George Bush about the US position on UN Security Council Resolution #1860 and suggests that, "To tell the truth, Olmert has surprised us in this war: He hasn't made many mistakes until his strange appearance in Ashkelon on Monday", in which he publicly discussed the matter. The author avers that Israel suffered a diplomatic defeat when the US chose not to cast its veto: "And guess what? The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister are now fighting over this failure". Haaretz criticizes politicians who are calling to exploit Israel's advantage to bring about Hamas' complete, humiliating defeat and argues that Israel must think about the day after. The editor calls on the government to "seek a cease-fire as soon as possible, accelerate the diplomatic talks with Egypt about security arrangements and resume the talks about kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, whose plight seems to have been pushed aside during the operation". Here you can find some other links: <a href="http://www.haaretz.com">Haaretz</a> <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com">Yediot Aharonot</a> <a href="http://www.nrg.co.il">Maariv</a> <a href="http://www.globes.co.il">Globes</a> <a href="http://www.jpost.com">Jerusalem Post</a> <a href="http://www.israelhayom.co.il">Yisrael Hayom</a> <a href="http://www.hazofe.co.il">Hazofe</a> - ARTICLE news http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/2478 2009-04-20T10:17:49+02:00 Text-messages from Moh the Gazan in Gaza

The collected SMS-messages from Moh the Gazan during the war in december and january 2009 in Gaza, a young translator and friend of our reporter Neil van der Linden.

<h2>8/1 evening</h2> Imagine a five months baby burned and killed and left in the middle of the street for 4 days then dogs came to eat both legs. It was more than enough for me to see this baby helpless and dead. I don’t blame Israel because international community is stand still so I will blame the EU, UN and all human rights organisations around the world. Another 3 years old boy was killed on the 6 of Jan and you know what? 3 years ago he was born at the same date to leave his twin sister Salma alone and to leave his father and mother alone after five years they spent trying to bring them to life. It’s so fucking hard and noone of you knows any thing about the pure agony because you cant smell the burned flesh and you cant see the details of these bodies and you cant hear the sad tone of the broken words coming out hardly of people’s mouths. If you want to know more watch Al Jazeera international today 11 PM Gaza time in which Alberto Arcia Spanish activist has many stories to tell alive. Moh the Gazan. <hr /> <h2>7/1 midnight</h2> In fact it is cheap to send a text or two but I don’t have a deal with the cell company and I am trying to send to as much as I could and about dates and time. Sometimes I send text and it reaches you late because of the coverage and network so sometimes it takes so much time sending it. <hr /> <h2>7/1 Late afternoon.</h2> If any of you know any TV channel tell them to contact Ramattan press agency and you can ask them about the paramedic who was shot the leg at 13 30 while trying to get a dead body and the material is free. The medic said that he still expects Israel to respect his humanitarian job and you know what? Fuck the Geneva conventions and screw UN because although people were shot and killed while respecting the laws were supposed to protect them, these laws are killing people and all what people hear is a press conference and a press release. I want to salute all Gazans who are still convinced that this world will wake up and act and people are still believing that these organisations could do something to help them but for me, I hope that sooner they will be ashamed of every moment they spent thinking about their own safety before thinking our safety. Truce is a big lie but we keep building sandcastles although we know its going to vanish with the next wave. Moh the Gazan, <hr /> <h2>7/1 afternoon</h2> More than 45 civilians were killed yesterday to rest in peace or at least that’s the theme of burying people but just after that Israeli snipers started to shoot and maybe that was their polite way to ask the traumatised people to leave the graveyards and people could not spend some last intimate moments with their beloved ones. All of that happened just ten minutes before the so called ceasefire that would last for three hours to allow some aid and supplies to get in but that’s not true as the main problem is not a humanitarian problem that it’s the way that Israelis are trying to show by allowing some few trucks to fee more than one and a half million but after 4 PM people will die again and they will not even enjoy the wheat and oil which will be distributed by the UN and then will be killed once more likely in front of these UN facilities. I cried so much when I saw the overwhelming faces of people and all that I demand now is not wheat but peace for me and Gaza. Moh the Gazan. <hr /> <h2>6/1 evening</h2> More than 80% of the Gazans are refugees who were forced to leave their home lands in 1948 and now they had to leave their houses and lands for the second time hoping that the UN schools would be safe asking me if they are safe at the time that Israeli tanks have shelled a nearby school and around 45 people who were all civilians were killed and I don’t know if I should tell them the truth or not but I think that they know now they are not safe in an international facility which was hit many times around the years nad we remember that in Lebanon in 1996. I don’t know what to write anymore because I feel like these texts are not even closer to the reality that you should all see smell breath. Do you have any idea how harsh it is for one to survive that alone? We don’t know how much lives should be taken in order to stop all that madness. Justice is all what we are asking for international conferences but with or w<a href="http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/..">*</a> <a href="http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/..">*</a> are left alone all the time facing killing machines which are the only speakers here at the time we are only turning into figures and numbers and those people will end up as numbers in international conferences. <hr /> <h2>6/1 afternoon</h2> Am heading to the North now so I won’t be able to text and I will text whenever I reach Gaza. Love you all. Moh the Gazan. <hr /> <h2>6/1</h2> Now I’m in Gaza City so I can likely text. I could not SMS yesterday as there was no net coverage. Anyway it was such a day. I will SMS you the texts as I wrote them and send them tomorrow. Moh the Gazan. Arafa was one of five medics who were directly targeted while evacuating casualties. He was shelled and killed trying to save lives at the time that Israeli tanks, F 16 fighters are taking lives. Arafa was one of the medics that I had the chance to meet in the Red Crescent Centre in Jabalia but now he is gone. Yet his friends are solid as rock trying to collect the shredded parts of memories they have and wishing themselves best of luck. Tens of shrapnelles have violated the body of another medic [who] was with him and when I went to see him in the hospital doctors told me that they didn’t even tell him that Arafa d ied. This is the pure and official Israel attitude toward the Geneva conventions and human right laws. If this didnt stop now it will never stop and I dont know how much lives should be taken in order to stop all that madness. Justice is all what we are asking for international conferences but with or with out Geneva or UN, Gazans know that they will be left alone. They had targeted Al Awda hospital we are in and they targeted the car garage and it was only 15 metres away from me and after 3 minutes they have targeted again but all are ok except some minor injuries and glass crash and now no one could reach the medical supplies centre of the hospital and now no one no one no one is safe. Moh the Gazan. <hr /> <h2>4/1 1 PM</h2> I can’t imagine what will happen if we lost Jawwal’s network and all what I’m thinking about is people in winter with no power or water and completely blocked and isolated even in their own houses and neighbourhoods. What will happen when Israeli tanks bomb and attack civilians and destroy their buildings and leave them with nothing? How will they at least call the ambulance or anybody? What will happen if someone lost a family member or a friend? How could they communicate? I have a very heavey headache thinking of all these scenario’s and I just hope if I could quit but it’s out of my hands yet. You all can do something and say no and help people here. A 16 years old girl that I died from heart attack after she had a heavy asthma attack after they attacked a place near her house and she died and all know that you don’t die that way from asthma, I feel completely shocked for her death because I know her as a little young girl and I understand that no one of you cares. <hr /> <h2>4/1 2009-01-04</h2> Was trapped with medics in the Red Crescent and coordinating with the international Red Cross to get us out of here. I’m fine now ;-) Jawwal company which is the only cell carrier in the Gaza strip will stop working any time due to the power shortage. Wish if I have an Orange sim card or anything like that. Moh the Gazan. <hr /> <h2>3/1 2009</h2> I am in the Jabalia Red Crescent Society and pieces of shells could reach here and people are evacuating and it’s just scary and the shelling didn’t stop. Just an hour ago before the dawn prayer they attacked a mosque and killed eleven people and injured fifty and in many places ambulances can’t reach the injured. <hr /> ++ 29/12 Hey thanks so much for trying Neil, I’m fine I guess but the situation is worse than ever and no one is safe after they have targeted the Islamic university and some mosques. They had run many medical major operation with no pain killer. Thanks so much and have a good time. Moh the Gazan. <hr /> <h2>30/12</h2> I’m really sorry Neil but I really can’t check my email because of the power cut most of the time but I will do my best and check my email as east as I c <hr /> <h2>31/12</h2> I don’t have time to live another year and I don’t have time to make a long term plan as much as I wish if I could live for another day free of obsession for fear and blood. This will be such a night in which many had to start and go on alone without their beloved ones. Yet they will try to move on. Gaza is bl[….] <a href="http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/..">*</a>if this text could give a voice of bombing. Our beloved who left us lonely are now in peace but we are the ones who will never forget their last moments under the destroyed houses and twisted metal, our beloved ones are asking all of you to be just fair and to take your human responsibilities. We want to REST in PEACE not to RUST IN ONE PIECE. I wish if I could wake up to find that all of that was an ugly nightmare. Bless all of us and our beloved ones dead or alive and the beloved of our beloved. Happy new year day for us. Moh the Gazan. <hr /> <h2>29/2 2008</h2> It’s harsh to be left alone oh dear audiences I’m here on the stage, I’m here acting to please you but then you will leave me alone on that lifeless zone, you laugh and reach even orgasm watching me playing my every day’s choreography, I dance and step on my feelings, step on my humanity, I’ve crushed my own entity then. Here I’m left alone even death died but I’m still here suffering and dying every single moment. I wish if I have only a fan of my own. <hr /> <h2>2/3 2008</h2> The streets are almost empty and most people are indoors shops are generally closed. I am on my way to Gaza City now which is very risky but it’s much better than staying home. I realised a very important thing that when you are lonely people would simply leave, yes you need them to stay because you need them beside you but you can not force them to stay. When you are alone you will miss every one so badly but the truth is that no one is even thinking of you… ---- <h2>21/3 2008</h2> Hope is nothing but a rumour that we should believe in and live for, yet we know that hope is just a pain killer that doctors of life keep prescribing for us. There is no one in this world who would help another because there are no conflicts of interests. For me I just want a life to come to the end I won’t wish or hope any more. No wonder why this world is full of wars and disasters because no one cares But I care but you know what? I don’t give a shit. ---- <h2>7/4 2008</h2> Only in Gaza you will find that every one is waiting for everything and no one has a single penny to buy anything and even if you have some money to buy something from somewhere you will be so surprised because you will go to every single where trying to find something and you will be lucky to get one thing which is nothing. Generally people, cars and everything are lining up in long long lines and they know that they will get almost nothing: and nothing will ever reach any one and everything is trying so hard to scrubble and climb the rough vertical sharp peak of the land of nowhere ;-) - ARTICLE film http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/2483 2009-01-15T10:17:59+01:00 10-1-9 Moh the Gazan Finally Moh the Gazan succeed in going to an internetcafé in Gaza and sent this mail. Neil Begin forwarded message: Dearest Neil i really want to thank you so much for giving me a voice here, and i promis you that every single word is tru, and nothing is made up and me and Alberto have loads of photos and videos supporting these crimes we believe that there is a new Sabra and Shatella in Gaza mainly in Al Attatra in the Beit Lahia and Al Zaitoun in which Israel is preventing ambulances and medical supplies to reach there.... you all can do something you all can say no and you all can at least start saying no for all what is going on you find your own way, you all are invited to imagin and to put yourselves in those people's situation... Moh The Gazan... maartje nevejan http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/176 ARTICLE news http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/2477 2009-01-15T10:18:55+01:00 09-01-09 Our thoughts are with the people who do not have a voice in Gaza. We think it is awful that no journalists are allowed. Since freedom of speech,is our core buisness Check the following blogs for latest news in Gaza: <a href="http://ingaza.wordpress.com">ingaza</a> <a href="http://gazatoday.blogspot.com">gazatoday</a> <a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org">global voices</a> - ARTICLE news http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/2462 2009-01-15T10:19:41+01:00 6-1-2009 about Gaza So here we are, in icy Amsterdam and we are stunned again, as we were a few years ago when the war in Iraq started, that now hundreds of people are killed and again the Media make us believe it is a cleaner war than it is. Journalists want to go in to Gaza, but it is impossible to go there. War censorship. We feel that the Israeli side of this conflict is well covered, but the Palestinian side is not. Couscousglobal wants to encourage people to speak whose voices are not heard. Because an enemy is is someone whose story you haven't yet heard. From our friends of Global voices we collected some blog journalists reporting from Gaza: M writes at Moments of Gaza: Today was a ground offensive. […] Many civilians died in the bombing of areas at the edges of Gaza city. Electricity and water are still major problems for all Gazans. I am still operating a generator to be able to write those messages in minutes! Mobile phones are paralyzed and land telephones are static or distorted and other times, it is clear! An air raid nearby minutes back; we do not know where it was but it was so frightening. They hit a nearby building! Its three building away from me; there are casualties! Israeli aircrafts are throwing down lighting bombs or perhaps it they are lights for military purposes. Israel intercepted Al-Aqsa satellite channel several times. They broadcasted anti-Hamas material. I will be back if could! Natalie Abou Shakra, a Lebanese activist, also blogs at Moments of Gaza: they're using new weaponry … very frightening… as it goes through the air… you hear it very close to you… it's going to come, it's going to kill me, now now now… that's what you think of… it's terrifying… i admit not to care… i have gotten used to the old weaponry… now i have to get used to this one too… i cannot describe in words to you the extent of its terror… like a rocket being projected onto you… and the sound… the sound of a plane in the air coming towards you… magnifying its sound the closer it gets… then it passes above our heads… we are all on the floor Laila El-Haddad, whose parents are in Gaza, blogs at Raising Yousuf and Noor: We've heard about the flyers the Israeli army is littering Gaza with - telling people Hamas is to blame for their woes, not their f-16s and cluster bombs. Now, they have taken to robo-calling the citizens of Gaza a la Hilary Clinton, at all times of the night and day. My father has received a number of calls – including one as we finished another CNN interview, and we were on skype. He tried to put the phone on speaker for me. The rough translations: “urgent message: warning to the citizens of Gaza. Hamas is using you as human shields. Do not listen to them. Hamas has abandoned you and are hiding in their shelters. Give up now…” He hung up in disgust, not wanting to hear the rest. The army has also been calling people to let them know their houses will be targeted. People have stopped answering their phones now, and do not take calls from unknown numbers from fear. Sharon is an activist who blogs at Tales to Tell, and like many of the international activists in Gaza, is doing what she can to assist ambulance workers: 7.30: Ambulances called out. We are unable to pass a huge crater in the road into which a car has already nosedived. Taking the long way round, we collect a man in traditional dress, in his 60s, from what seems to be his family farm. He is bleeding from the face and very frightened. On the way to Karmel Adwan hospital a particularly close explosion rocks the van. I mustn’t have jumped enough, because the driver mimes “did you hear that?” to me. I am beginning to realise Palestinians are fond of rhetorical questions, such as “how do you find Gaza at the moment?” […] 10.55: We leave Al Shifa to head back to the Jabalia Centre. There is coffee. Mo makes a coffee sandwich, which is just weird. There is a pause in the calls. Hassan asks me about my book, “Nature Cure”; I explain it is about an ecologist’s route out of depression. “People get depressed in the West?” he asks in surprise. Understanding how implausible that must sound right now, I say that many people get caught up in a life that mainly holds work and buying stuff, and without some sort of meaning - religion, or the dream of your land being free, or something like that, people can get very lost. “Actually Israel is trying to force us into a meaningless life like this,” he says. “Like, sometimes I feel that all that really matters to me right now is a kilo of gas. I built a stove for my family and I feel like I did something amazing.” In another post she tells us: We asked the Jabalia Red Crescent admin person how much of the emergency calls Israel is not letting them go to. These are in areas where co-ordination must be made with the invading forces via the Red Cross to enter. He said they are not being allowed to attend to about 80% of the calls from the north, covering the Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia area. Shall I repeat that? 80%. Eight of ten people calling for help are being prevented from receiving it. Canadian activist, Eva Bartlett, blogs at In Gaza: The numbers slaughtered and injured are so high now – 521 and 3,000 as of this morning, Gaza time — that sitting next to a dead or dying person is becoming normal. The stain of blood on the ambulance stretcher pools next to my coat, the medic warning me my coat may be dirtied. What does it matter? The stain doesn’t revolt me as it would have, did, one week ago. Death fills the air, the streets in Gaza, and I cannot stress that this is no exaggeration. Back in Gaza city briefly, after a day and night again with the medics, I’ll try to summarize, though there is too much to tell, too much incoming news, and it’s too hard to reach people, even those just a kilometer away. Before dropping me off, the medics had gone to different gas stations, searching for gas for the ambulances. Two stations, no luck. Some at a final source fills their tanks. The absence of gas is critical. So is the absence of bread, which goes on, the lines longer than ever yet. A text tells me (at this point I have to rely on news from phone and text messages, when reception is available) that the UN says 13,000 have been displaced since these attacks, that 20% of the dead are women and children, 70 % are without drinking water. There are many more facts to sober one drunk on apathy, but I can’t source or share them now. Safa Joudeh writes at Lamentations-Gaza: Israel has come into our homes, is fighting us in our streets and is expressing its brutality against us in full force. How do we react? All Palestinian factions have united and are out facing the enemy, using all the military capabilities that they collectively have. Although these capabilities are incomparable to the military strength exerted by Israel, yet it has made us more certain than ever that Palestinians will fight to the very end to protect their own. It has shown us that resistance, courage and love are an integral part of the Palestinian identity that will never change despite all the hardships we endure. It has given us a moral boost, which comes at a time when we need it most. […] It's hard even to remember a time when basic necessities such as food, water, warmth and daylight weren't a luxury. At this point, bare human instinct is at work, the need to protect your loved ones, the need to ensure shelter and the instinct of fight or flight. We have fled for too long, Gaza is our last refuge and our home after we were displaced from what is now called Israel. All this happened but 60 years ago. What more could they want? We have nowhere left to go. Now is a time when all forms of resistance are legitimate. They have disregarded every single international law there is. So now is the time to fight. RafahKid makes a plea: Please…before everyone in Gaza is dead…perhaps try to understand that Hamas is a symptom….not a cause….the Occupation is the cause….the lack of a settlement for the forcible removal of people from their land….this is the cause…Hamas is a symptom….and the US doesn't like governments it doesn't choose. No electricity…no outgoing calls. Darkness and it's raining fire. The children are screaming. Mutasharrid (‘homeless person’ or ‘vagrant’) is in Khan Younis, and is angry: سُئلت بالأمس عن المساعدات إن كانت تدخل إلى غزة فعلا أو هو “حكي جرايد” وإمتنعت عن الرد لأن الجواب واضح كوضوح صوت غارة الـF16 هذه اللحظة - ما علينا ، المساعدات دخلت إلى غزة وربما بأعداد كبيرة في أول أيام وتوقفت منذ يومين بحجة بدء العملية البرية ، لكن .. لمَ يُعوّل كثيرا على هذا الأمر ؟ ، أقصد كيف نجح الإعلام بتصوير قضية غزة على أنها قضية كيان محاصر جائع يبحث عن طعام ومساعدات “إنسانية” لا تليق بكلاب ! عندما سألته لصديقي قال لي ” العرب كشخص يطلق النار على كلب ويرمي له بقطعة لحم ! “ غزة لا تبحث عن إسبرين لجرحها الراعف يا أصدقاء ، غزة لا تبحث عن ضمادة بالية لنزيفها المستمر ، ما يؤلم غزة بل يقتلها أكثر من الصواريخ هو أصواتهم ، أصوات كل شخص يرتدي بدلة رسمية وربطة عنق ويتحدث عن غزة ، تودّ لو تصرخ بوجههم قبل الطائرات : توقفوا .. صوتكم جارح وألعن حِدّة من صمتكم ، فإصمتوا .. رحمة بنا ، إصمتوا قليلا .. I was asked yesterday whether the aid to Gaza was really getting in or if it was “newspaper talk”. I refused to respond because the answer is clear, as clear as the sound of F16 strike right now: never mind, the aid got into Gaza, maybe in great quantities in the first days, but stopped two days ago on the pretext of the ground operation, however, that did not count for much! I mean, how have the media succeeded in presenting the case of Gaza as one of a hungry person under siege, searching for food and “humanitarian” aid not worthy of dogs?! When I asked my friend he said, “The Arabs are like a person firing on a dog and throwing it a piece of meat!” Gaza is not searching for an aspirin for its bloody wound, my friends, Gaza is not searching for a bandage for its continuous bleeding. What hurts Gaza, indeed kills it more than rockets, are their voices: the voice of every person wearing a suit and tie speaking about Gaza. You wish you could scream in their faces, before the aircraft, “Stop! Your voice is wounding and is damned sharper than your silence, so stay silent… Have mercy on us, stay silent a little while…” Exiled (المنفي) says simply: I am off till the end of this Massacre Pray 4 us A blog called Harm to civilians during the fighting in Gaza and Southern Israel has been set up by Israeli human rights groups to document events that are not being covered by the media. maartje nevejan http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/176 ARTICLE news http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/2492 2009-01-15T10:20:32+01:00 In Gaza, the schools are dying too A new word emerged from the carnage in Gaza this week: "scholasticide"– the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of educationdear to Palestinian society, as the ministry of education was bombed,the infrastructure of teaching destroyed, and schools across the Gazastrip targeted for attack by the air, sea and ground offensives."Learn, baby, learn" was a slogan of the black rights movement inAmerica's ghettoes a generation ago, but it also epitomises the ideaof education as the central pillar of Palestinian identity – atraditional premium on schooling steeled by occupation, and somethingthe Israelis "cannot abide and seek to destroy", according to DrKarma Nabulsi, who teaches politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. "Weknew before, and see more clearly now than ever, that Israel isseeking to annihilate an educated Palestine," she says.The Palestinians are among the most thoroughly educated people in theworld. Fo! r decades, Palestinian society – both at home in the WestBank and Gaza, and scattered in the diaspora – has put a singularemphasis on learning. After the expulsions of 1948 and after the 1967occupation, waves of refugees created an influential Palestinianintelligentsia and a marked presence in the disciplines of medicineand engineering across the Arab world, Europe and the Americas."Education is the most important thing – it is part of the familylife, part of your identity and part of the rebellion," says Nabulsi."Everyone knows this, and in a refugee camp like Gaza, every childknows that in those same schooldesks sat your parents and yourgrandparents, whose tradition they carry on."Schooling and university studies are the fabric of life despite, notbecause of, circumstances: every university in the occupiedterritories has been closed down at some point by Israeli forces, manyof them regularly. However, the closures and arrests of students (morethan 300 at Birzeit universit! y in Ramallah, says Nabulsi) onlystrengthens the desire to bec! ome educated.In the current offensive, Israel began attacking Gaza's educationalinstitutions immediately. On only the second and third day of airattacks last week, Israeli planes wreaked severe damage in directstrikes on Gaza's Islamic University. The main buildings weredevastated, destroying administrative records, and, of course, endingstudies. The Ministry of Education has been hit twice by direct hitsfrom the air.The Saturday of the ground invasion was the day on which most studentsin Gaza sit their end-of-year examinations. In the majority of cases,these had to be abandoned, and it remains unclear whether they can orwill be sat again. Other schools were also attacked – most notoriouslythe UN establishment in the Jabaliya refugee camp where at least 40people were massacred on Tuesday.On Sunday, another Israeli air strike destroyed the pinnacle ofPalestinian schooling, the elite and private American InternationalSchool, to which the children of business and other leaders! went,among them Fulbright scholars unable to take up their places in theUnited States because of the Israeli blockade. Ironically, the sameschool was attacked last year by a group called the Holy JihadBrigades, and has been repeatedly vandalised for its association withwestern-style education.The school was founded in 2000 to offer a "progressive" (and fullyco-educational) American-style curriculum, taught in English, fromkindergarten to sixth form, and was said by the Israelis to have beenthe site, or near the site, from which a rocket was fired. A nightwatchman was killed in the destruction of the building.The chairman of its board of trustees, Iyad Saraj, says: "This is themost distinguished and advanced school in Gaza, if not in Gaza and theWest Bank. I cannot swear there was no rocket fired, but if there was,you don't destroy a whole school." He adds: "This is the destructionof civilisation."The school has no connection to the US government, Saraj says, andmany of the! 250 who graduate from it each year go on to USuniversities. "They are ! very good, highly educated open-mindedstudents who can really be future leaders of Palestine."Young Palestinians playing in Daniel Barenboim's celebrated East-WestDivan Orchestra – which this week again brings Palestinian and Israelimusicians together to play a prestigious concert in Vienna – say thatmusic schools in their communities and refugee camps are "not justeducating young people, but helping them understand their identity",as Nabeel Abboud Ashkar, a violinist based in Nazareth, puts it,adding: "And the Israelis are not necessarily happy with that."Ramzi Aburedwan, who runs the Al-Kamandjati classical music school inRamallah, argues: "What the Israelis are doing is killing the lives ofthe people. Bring music, and you bring life. The children who playedhere were suddenly interested in their future".In a recent lecture, Nabulsi at St Edmund Hall recalled the traditionof learning in Palestinian history, and the recurrent character of theteacher as an icon in Palestinia! n literature. "The role and power ofeducation in an occupied society is enormous. Education positspossibilities, opens horizons. Freedom of thought contrasts sharplywith the apartheid wall, the shackling checkpoints, the chokingprisons," she said.This week, following the bombing of schools in Gaza, she says: "Thesystematic destruction of Palestinian education by Israel hascountered that tradition since the occupation of 1967," citing "thecalculated, wholesale looting of the Palestinian Research Centre inBeirut during the 1982 war and the destruction of all thosemanuscripts and archived history.""Now in Gaza," she says, "we see the policy more clearly than ever –this 'scholasticide'. The Israelis know nothing about who we reallyare, while we study and study them. But deep down they know howimportant education is to the Palestinian tradition and thePalestinian revolution. They cannot abide it and have to destroy it." - ARTICLE news http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/2494 2009-01-15T10:21:15+01:00 BBC Gaza News about Gaza: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7814490.stm">"cutting pasting the BBC baby"</a> maartje nevejan http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/176 ARTICLE news