Protest against Israel's war on Gaza draws in crowds
This posting has these items:
1) Evening Standard: Rabbi stands on top of double-decker bus in west London as part of pro-Palestine protest against ‘Israeli aggression’;
2) LabourList: Douglas Alexander on Gaza conflict, Shadow Foreign Secretary sees case of both sides;
3) Turkish Weekly: Hundreds protest against Israeli policies in London;
4) Al Arabiya: Britain ‘extremely concerned’ by Gaza deaths, says Hague, not Cameron;
5) Huffington Post: BBC Dragged Into Israel Information War Over Mythbusting #GazaUnderAttack Video;
Protest: a rabbi stands on top of a double decker bus in Kensington High Street. Photos from Twitter/@EAli1 and @ImaniAmrani
Rabbi stands on top of double-decker bus in west London as part of pro-Palestine protest against ‘Israeli aggression’
By Rachel Blundy, London Evening Standard
July 11, 2014
A rabbi stood on top of a double-decker bus in west London today as part of a pro-Palestinian protest against “Israeli aggression” in the Middle East.
Demonstrators brought traffic to a standstill outside the Israeli Embassy near Kensington High Street during a protest against what they see as Israel’s increasingly violent treatment of the Palestinian people.
The rabbi held a banner which read: “Judaism rejects the Zionist state and condemns its criminal siege and occupation”.
It followed a similar demonstration last weekend in which campaigners staged a die-in protest outside the Embassy.
In a statement posted online this week, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which staged protests across the country, called on people to “oppose Israeli aggression”.
It said: “This isn’t about rockets from Gaza. It’s about Israel fighting to maintain its control over Palestinian lives, and Palestinian land.
“It’s about Israel feeling able to commit war crimes with complete impunity.”
Today Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press forward with a broad military offensive in the Gaza Strip as the death toll from the recent four-day-old conflict rose above 100.
He said: “I will end it when our goals are realised. And the overriding goal is to restore the peace and quiet.”
At least 106 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, including 21 today.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 600 rockets at Israel but there have been no deaths on the Israeli side, according to reports.
Tensions between the two countries have been building following the killing of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdair on July 1, which some have described as a ‘revenge attack’ after the murder of three Israeli teenagers, who were abducted and killed in the West Bank.
Glyn Secker of JfJfP speaking outside the Israeli embassy, Photo 11 July 2014 by Guy Corbishley
Douglas Alexander on Gaza conflict
LabourList
July 12, 2014
Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander has made a statement on the worsening situation in Gaza. Alexander criticises both militants in Gaza, condemning the firing of rockets into Israel, and the Israeli airstrikes, saying it fuels further extremism and that the “humiliation of Palestinians leads only to further suffering”.
Read his full statement:
“The spiral of violence that has engulfed Gaza, southern Israel and the West Bank is bringing untold suffering to innocent people.
“I condemn the firing of rockets into Israel by Gaza based militants. No government on earth would tolerate such attacks on its citizens but the rapidly growing number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes risks fuelling yet more extremism and conflict.
“The life of a Palestinian child is worth no less than the life of an Israeli child. Every life is equal, irrespective of religion or nationality. A spiral of violence that reinforces the insecurity of Israelis and the humiliation of Palestinians leads only to further suffering.
“This is a time and this is a crisis that demands not revenge, but statesmanship motivated by justice.
“All sides have a responsibility to respect in full the November 2012 cease fire and to address the underlying causes of conflict and instability in Gaza and the region.
“The people of Israel have the right to live without constant fear for their security, just as the people of Gaza also have the right to live in peace.
“The UK Government must now work with international allies to encourage restraint, dialogue and efforts towards peace at this time of great and grave danger.”
JfJfP joins the protest against Israel’s siege of and attack on Gaza, London, July 11, 2014.
Hundreds protest against Israeli policies in London
Turkish Weekly
July 07, 2014
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered near the Israeli embassy in London on Saturday to protest against Israeli crackdowns on Palestinians.
Around 600 pro-Palestine protesters stood on High Street Kensington in West London and chanted slogans including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Free, free Palestine.”
Some protesters managed to evade the police lines, blocked the main road and staged a die-in. They lay on the floor to signify dead Palestinians.
“We always get people out on the streets when Gaza is attacked,” Sam Dathi, national officer for the “Stop the War coalition” — a U.K. anti-war organization — told the Anadolu Agency.
“Israel attacking the Palestinians seems like an annual occurrence now, all they need is an excuse,” he said.
Hugh Jaeger from the U.K.-based activist group Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said, “Israel’s response to the murder of the three teenagers is grossly disproportionate and violent.”
“Israel breaks international law by attacking women and children and destroying homes. This cannot continue,” he added.
Traffic is stopped in High St. Kensington by the London demonstration against Israel’s attack on Gaza on July 11. Photo by Sumy Sadurni.
Hundreds of people from across the capital came to join the demonstration. Two Turkish students wrapped in Turkish flags were seen amongst the demonstrators.
Eighteen-year-old Furkan Akyuz said, “We’re here to support our Palestinian brothers, we want Israel to end the occupation.”
Abdullah Ercan, student, stressed the support the Palestinian cause receives from Turkish people.
“There is a lot of solidarity with Palestine from the Turkish people, this only increased after what happened on the Mavi Marmara,” he said.
Israeli commandos killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American national on May 22, 2010 aboard Mavi Marmara — a Turkish-flagged vessel in a Gaza-bound flotilla challenging the Israeli naval blockade of the Palestinian enclave.
Also in attendance were “Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism,” a Jewish group critical of Israel’s policies.
Traffic was temporarily drawn to a halt when protesters occupied the main road, but police pushed the protesters to move to allow traffic through. Drivers honked their horns in support of the protesters whilst others took Palestinian flags and placards and hung them from their windows.
The demonstration concluded peacefully and police made no arrests.
Since the settlers’ disappearance, Israeli forces have launched a wide-scale arrest campaign in the West Bank, detaining over 500 Palestinians, including lawmakers and former government officials — as well as a barrage of air strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Protest outside Israeli embassy, July 11, 2014. Photo by Guy Corbishley
Britain ‘extremely concerned’ by Gaza deaths
By AFP / Al Arabiya
July 12, 2014
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Saturday he was “extremely concerned” about the loss of life in Gaza, where five days of Israeli air strikes have killed more than 120 Palestinians.
“Extremely concerned about humanitarian situation and loss of life in Gaza. Speaking to President Abbas today,” Hague said on Twitter.
The Foreign Office confirmed the tweet and said that a fuller statement would be issued later.
Hague’s statement represents a departure from the British government stance so far which has unequivocally backed Israel’s right to launch air strikes in response to rocket attacks by Hamas militants based in Gaza.
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday spoke to Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu to show “staunch support” and “underlined Israel’s right to defend itself from them”, his Downing Street office said.
Israel has vowed no let up in its air campaign to halt the rocket attacks, while a defiant Hamas has rejected international calls to halt hostilities, insisting Israel must act first.
Diplomatic efforts to stop the violence have also seen US President Barack Obama telephoning Netanyahu and Washington offering to use its relationships in the Middle East to bring about a return to calm.
Despite international concern, truce efforts have been unsuccessful, according to Egypt, which has been key in mediating previous ceasefires between Hamas and Israel.
BBC Dragged Into Israel Information War Over Mythbusting #GazaUnderAttack Video
By Jack Sommers, Huffington Post
July 09, 2014
The BBC has found itself in the middle of a bitter information war, after it ran a video claiming images shared across social media purportedly showing death and destruction caused by Israel in Gaza were fake.
In an extreme reaction to the piece, perhaps predictable for an issue as contentious as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the broadcaster was accused of conspiring with the Jewish state to underplay the damage its military is inflicting.
Overnight, Israel began a bombardment of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, in which at least 23 were killed, potentially kicking off a lengthy offensive against Hamas militants whose rockets have been striking into the country.
This followed days of airstrikes against the territory and rocket fire against Israel.
Before last night’s attacks, the BBC broadcast a video pointing out that images appearing under #GazaUnderAttack were old or from violence in other country, including Iraq and Syria.
The segment warned social media users to try and verify images before sharing them.
One Tweeter claimed to have submitted a formal complaint, criticising the piece for not stating how many images were fake or which were genuine.
he BBC piece said “some” accurate images were being shared under the #gazaunderattack hashtag but added “some” were not genuine.
#gazaunderattack has been tweeted hundreds of thousands of times in recent days.
A powerful reaction resulted – on social media, fittingly – which accused the BBC of favouring Israel in its coverage – though those on the other side of the debate also came to its defence.
Some were angry that the piece did not extend to images shared under the #israelunderattack hashtag, which purported to show the affect rocket attacks on the country were having.
One person wrote on Facebook “We will not forget” how the BBC “has taken the side” of Israel.
Another wrote: “(We) don’t need you biased bbc to tells us what is happening”.
Another simply wrote: “BBC = Israeli Army.”
Others posted graphic images which, they said, did show was happening in Gaza.
[Two tweets with ‘graphic images’]
Claims that fake images are circulated online to overstate the scale of destruction are not new in the Middle East and the issue is now a major battleground of the information war there.
An image that shows dead children was circulated in November 2012, during Israel’s “Pillar Of Defence” military operation in Gaza.
But it was revealed to have been taken in Syria in that country’s brutal civil war.
Speaking on the BBC’s Gaza segment, Abdirahim Saeed, of BBC Arabic, said: “This misuse of pictures on social media is not particularly unique to this particular hashtag.
“We’ve seen this before in Syria, in Iraq, and you’ve got to keep an eye on who you’re following, [and ask yourself] where did this picture come from?”
But the BBC has itself fallen fall of foul of distributing fake images of conflict in Gaza in the past.
In November 2012, its then-correspondent there Jon Donnison retweeted an image of an injured child on a hospital bed that purported to be from Gaza but turned out to also have been taken in Syria.
He tweeted his apologies when this was pointed out to him.
Hadar Sela, editor of the BBC Watch website, which seeks to “monitor the BBC’s coverage of Israel for accuracy and impartiality” and has previously accused it of “sailing very close to the age-old wind of stereotypical antisemitic motifs of Jewish power and control over governments”, told HuffPost UK that the BBC Trending segment made an important point about news and pictures delivered on social media.
She said: “If this item has contributed to enhancing the public’s awareness of the fact that information appearing in any medium – and in particular fast-moving social media platforms – is not always 100% reliable and may be aimed at advancing a particular political agenda, that can only be a good thing.
“Unfortunately, such awareness is also necessary with regard to much of the BBC’s own content.”
In a statement, a BBC spokesman told HuffPost UK: “Our report made it clear that the attacks and casualties were real but also drew attention to the wider issue of accuracy that is by no means unique to this hashtag.
“Our research showed that many of the most heavily shared images circulating in the week up to 7th July 2014 were from several years ago or were pictures that were not taken in Gaza but in different countries.
“We show evidence of this in our video report.
“We looked at #GazaUnderAttack because it has had 823,000 tweets in 30 days while #IsraelUnderattack had 3000 in the same period. BBC Trending examines popular trends on social media.
“Both sides of the story have been reported extensively on BBC News.”
Note
For Information about protests see Palestine Solidarity Campaign