"We did not know"

a beginners guide to the
Israeli/Palestine conflict

Al Jazeera obtained this account from a Palestinian father whose seven-month-old child has just been killed in the conflict.

The United Nations has called for an independent investigation after a third UN school has been has been hit by an Israeli strike, killing 40 people and injuring 45. It's the third strike on a UN school in the last 24 hours, as Al Jazeera's Roza Ibragimova reports.

Comment from submitter: "Shapira is an ex Israeli Air Force Captain that is now a human rights activist. This interview must be viewed and heard word for word by all especially Muslims and Jews to create fairness in the world and to move ahead and change our mindsets. Being Muslim and human I believe that this man has a message of unity that is fair to all and we all need to gather together to find a non violent solution to change the situation. There is strength in numbers and words not violence."

In the 12 days of Israel's war on Gaza, the shelling of a United Nations school on Tuesday has been the most shocking incident. More than 40 people were killed. Israel claims the school was a legitimate target because rockets were fired from it. But the UN has vehemently denied those claims. Al Jazeera is the only international news channel with correspondents on both sides of the border. Ayman Mohyeldin visited what's left of the school, and the families now in mourning.

Palestinian medical sources say 21 of their staff have been killed during Israels military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Victims of one strike in Gaza City were forced to wait four hours for assistance after medics were forced to abandon their vehicles and walk 2km to reach them. Imran Khan reports.

It's a tough job as it is, but for the paramedics and ambulance drivers of Gaza right now it's impossible. Hundreds of health workers are risking their lives on a daily basis in order to save others. Sherine Tadros has spent a day with some of them. This is her exclusive report.

Day and night, from the 27th December, it was like watching the Nazis in action but with all the power of modern warfare being unleashed on a densely-populated open prison called Gaza, then you switch from Al Jazeera to the BBC and it was if you were dreaming the whole thing.

It never occurred to me that children in one country could have less value than children in another. Had twenty children been murdered in Scotland, the world would have reported it at length and in depth. Every news broadcast in every country would have been dominated by the heart-rending news of the Scottish child massacre. In the space of these three weeks, 430 children died in Gaza in what was described as targeted strikes. A Gaza mother asked how can the world stand by and let this happen. 70 years ago, Jewish mothers in Nazi Germany were asking the self same question.

I am ashamed to belong to the same species as the Israelis responsible for these atrocities.

Jimmy Powdrell Campbell

News/Awareness

STUC recommends BDS against Israel

Following the STUC delegation's visit to Palestine in March, the General Council of the Scottish Trade Union Congress passed, on 22nd April, a landmark resolution recommending Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.

War On Want statement on Gaza

On Saturday 27 December 2008, Israel commenced a brutal assault on Gaza. The attack, which lasted nearly four weeks, has left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and thousands more injured. The United Nations has called for a war crimes investigation after Israel knowingly shelled a building where over 100 Palestinian civilians had taken shelter. The International Committee of the Red Cross has accused Israel of breaching the Geneva Conventions in preventing ambulances from rescuing civilians wounded by Israeli bombing.

This attack marked the culmination of a policy of collective punishment and killing practised by Israel against the people of Gaza over the past 18 months. Israel has imposed an illegal state of siege on Gaza and created a devastating humanitarian crisis for the 1.5 million people trapped there. The root cause of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is Israel's illegal occupation, which has raised poverty among ordinary Palestinians to the levels of sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the international community has ignored international law with respect to Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people. By rewarding Israeli aggression with economic preferences, the UK government and other EU member states have given the green light to Israel's campaign of illegal violence.

The British government's support for Israel makes it complicit in this crime. As governments around the world condemn Israel's actions, the British government refuses to condemn Israel for its attack on Gaza. The UK government supported the US block on a draft UN resolution submitted four days after the attacks began which "strongly condemns all military attacks and the excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by Israel, the occupying power, which have led to the death and injury of scores of innocent Palestinian civilians, including women and children." The resolution calls for "an immediate ceasefire and for its full respect by both sides."

Action on Gaza

Israel's latest attack on the people of Gaza is a war crime, made possible only through the financial, military and diplomatic support Israel receives from Western states. The UK government has licensed the sale of millions of pounds worth of arms to Israel, including key components for F-16 fighter jets. The former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw previously admitted that military equipment licensed by the British government could be used in attacks on Palestinian civilians. F-16 fighter jets have been deployed against civilian populations in the current assault on Gaza.

The European Union has been seeking to upgrade political and economic relations with the state of Israel, including the possible integration of Israel into the European single market. Despite a public call from Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to EU leaders not to reward Israel for its continuing disregard of international law, the EU Council of Ministers had voted to proceed with the upgrade.

In December 2008, the European Parliament agreed to postpone its vote on the EU-Israel upgrade. According to MEPs, this decision was in response to pressure from civil society. Following a call from parliamentarians, aid agencies and other civil society organisations across Europe to halt the upgrade of political and economic relations with Israel in protest over its assault on the Palestinian people, the EU has now suspended the upgrade process. War on Want welcomes this move but it is now up to the EU to ensure that the process is stopped all together.

War on Want calls on the British government to place sanctions on the Israeli government by ending the trading of arms with Israel. War on Wants also demands that the process of upgrading the EU-Israel relations is completely halted, and that the EU-Israel Association Agreement is suspended. (Article 2 of the Agreement makes Israel's trading preferences conditional upon respect for human rights.)

There will never be a just peace in Palestine if Israel is allowed to flout international law with impunity. War on Want calls for an immediate end to Israel's blockade on Gaza, and an end to its occupation and aggression against the Palestinian people.

Please send a letter urging your MP to call on the Foreign Secretary to end the arms trade with Israel and press for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association agreement.

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