Montreal, August 20, 2010 - The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is encouraging Canadians to send mail to Gaza aboard a Canadian boat to be sent there in the fall under the humanitarian Canada Boat to Gaza project. The Israeli government is currently preventing other countries' postal services and the Palestinian Postal Service from dealing with each other directly. It announced on July 20 that it would not allow international postal service to Gaza. Gazans have been without international mail since then. So far, Canada Post has failed to find an alternative route to deliver Canadian mail to Gaza, which is surrounded by a 40-foot iron wall with only three entry points, two controlled by Israel and a third by Egypt.

The union's statement has drawn considerable response from the public. According to union sources, 80 to 90 percent of the comments support the union's position. However, in an August 19 article, the Toronto Sun -long hostile to Canada's unions - implied that CUPW's position contradicted its campaign to insist that national postal services, rather than private companies, be the ones to handle international mail. CUPW President Denis Lemelin disagrees, saying "we are still defending public mail services. This boat...

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The Palestinians have been the greatest victims of a half a century of Israeli terror. In fact, Israel carved its state out of Palestine through a deliberate policy of mass terror against the Palestinians. It was the method by which they drove 800,000 of them from their homes, businesses and farms. In his book The Revolt(10), former Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, boasts about his role in the massacre of the 254 Palestinians at Deir Yassin. (Most of the victims were elderly men, women and children who remained in the Israeli-occupied village) In his book, Begin points out that Deir Yassin and other massacres caused panic among the residents, causing them to flee in terror from their homes. This intentional mass terror enabled the Zionists to take control of Palestine. And, it should be noted that the refugees are still not permitted to return home after more than half a century!

What did the Zionist terrorists actually do at Deir Yassin and at other villages that caused the Palestinian people to flee in fear? A Red Cross doctor, Jacques de Reynier, chief representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jerusalem gave a shocking account of the massacre in his...

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When he came to Washington a few months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was touting the multiplex cinemas and shopping malls that have supposedly sprouted up in the West Bank as evidence of the "economic renaissance" going on there. There is no such economic renaissance -- it is a mirage promoted by Israel and its collaborators -- under the rubric of "economic peace." In fact, in large parts of the West Bank, people are poorer even than in Gaza, which is saying something given the wretched poverty and unemployment in Gaza. (1)

Now, Israel's supporters have leapt on a minor story -- the opening of a shopping "mall" in Gaza -- to perform a similar hasbara trick: 'there is no poverty in Gaza, no siege, no hunger, no malnutrition. (2) Just look at them, they are living better than we do!' I have seen such messages on many right-wing and pro-Israel sites.

Israel's Ynet reported:

“While Hamas continues to demand a full lifting of the blockade, the Gaza market seems to be doing alright. Gaza Mall, the first ever shopping center in the Strip was opened last Saturday with masses storming the new attraction.

The two-floor compound, each stretching over...

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Gaza, July 26, (Pal Telegraph) The International Committee to break the siege on Gaza and support Palestine, is preparing to launch a media campaign to mobilize international support for lifting the blockade and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people.

The campaign aims to raise funds to provide the necessary materials and basic needs to the people of Gaza.

The Committee said In a statement issued to the press today, that it aims to raise funds through some satellite channels and at the same time spread news and info on the development project of the Committee to gain some Alliance.

It indicated that it is seeking to recall the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza because of blockade, and to educate the viewer on how to support the Palestinian cause in general specially the siege of Gaza and open communication with them.

It is expected to be launched during the campaign on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and Sunday (between 29-7 and even 1-82010), for two hours a day from 8-10 pm.

Aimed at Arab and European countries, including personnel and humanitarian institutions and decision makers.

Many media outlets have agreed on helping this campaign, in addition to many personalities who...

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TEHRAN (FNA)- An Iranian parliamentary delegation is due to travel to Gaza via Egypt on Tuesday to help the oppressed Palestinian people who have been suffering an Israeli-imposed siege for more than three years.

"All facilities and tools have been prepared by Iran for the trip of the MPs to Gaza and we have sent all the documents demanded by the Egyptians and we have given them all the working records of the four MPs who are due to be dispatched to Gaza," Mahmoud Ahmadi Biqash who heads the four-member delegation told FNA.

Ahmadi Biqash said that the other Iranian MPs who will accompany him in the visit to Gaza are Avaz Heidarpour, Parviz Sorouri and Shobayb Jouyjari.

The siege of Gaza started in June 2007 when Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip. This was supported by the governments of Egypt and the US.

The blockade consists of a land blockade along Gaza's borders with Egypt and Israel and a sea blockade. It immediately followed the 2006-2007 economic sanctions against the Palestinian National Authority following the election of Hamas to the Palestinian government.

The blockade has attracted criticism from many Human Rights organizations. September 2009 UN fact-finding...

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As Israeli soldiers we hang our heads in shame over last year's attack on Gaza's civilian population. Dialogue, not war, is needed



By Arik Diamant and David Zonsheine



February 17, 2010 "http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/15/hamas-gaza-israel-palestinians"
>The Guardian" -- The Israeli media marked the one-year anniversary
of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War"
>Operation Cast Lead, the war on http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gaza"
>Gaza, almost as a celebration. The operation is recognised almost unanimously in http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/israel"
>Israel as a military triumph, a combat victory over one of Israel's deadliest enemies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/hamas"
>Hamas.

As combat soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), we have serious doubts about this conclusion,
primarily because hardly any combat against Hamas took place during the operation. As soon as the operation started, Hamas went underground.

Most casualties were inflicted on Palestinians by http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2009/jan/03/israelandthepalestinians"
>air strikes, artillery fire, and snipers from afar. Combat victory? Shooting fish in a barrel is more like it. Operation Cast Lead consisted essentially
of bombing one of the most crowded places on earth, striking civilian targets such as homes, schools and mosques, and ultimately leaving a trail of more
than 1,300 casualties, mostly civilians, over 300 of whom were children. As soldiers of the IDF reserves, we bow our heads in shame against this hideous
attack http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/gaza-human-shields-claim"
>on a civilian population.

As for the goals of the operation,...

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Deliberate Attacks against the Civilian Population

Factual Findings narrated by Ross Vachon

Factual and Legal findings narrated by Noam Chomsky

Live Testimonies relevant to the Goldstone Report's Findings



The video also contains live testimonies of Khalid, Kawthar and Samar Abd Rabbo before the UN Fact Finding Mission headed by Justice
Richard Goldstone. For more information on this video, please go to http://www.goldstonefacts.org"
>www.goldstonefacts.org  

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Originally published on February 06, 2010
-- At a town hall meeting in Tampa, Florida on 28 January, President Obama explained what in his view had to happen if there is to be a two-state solution which would see Israel and the Palestinians living side by side in peace and security. He said, “Both sides are going to have to make concessions”.

My own view is that Israel’s still on-going colonization of the occupied West Bank has destroyed the prospect of a two-state solution on any basis the Palestinians could accept. But for the sake of discussion I’ll pretend that is not necessarily so.

Israel is not required to make concessions. Israel is required to accept and implement UN Security Council resolutions which call for an end to its occupation and, more generally, to cease regarding itself as being exceptional (because of the suffering of the Jews in times past) and therefore above and beyond international law.

The Palestinians made the concession necessary from their side long ago.

There were three related reasons why Yasser Arafat and his mainstream PLO leadership colleagues decided that they had got to compromise with Israel if their Palestinian people were ever to obtain a minimum but just about...

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On December 27, 2008, Israel launched an Assault on the Gaza Strip. The attack of Dec. 27 caused the deadliest one-day death toll in 60 years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Over 3 weeks, 1,417 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed

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"Better than any other book, This Time We Went Too Far shows how the massive destruction visited on Gaza was not an accidental
byproduct of the Israeli invasion but its barely concealed objective." — Raja Shehadeh, author, Palestinian Walks

face="Times New Roman">Posted February 03, 2010



For the Palestinians who live in the narrow coastal strip of Gaza, the December 2008 Israeli invasion was a nightmare of unimaginable
proportions: in the 22-day-long action 1,400 Gazans were killed, several hundred on the first day alone. More than 6,000 homes were destroyed or badly
damaged. The cost of the destruction and disruption of economic life, in one of the worlds poorest areas, is estimated at more than $3 billion.



And yet, while nothing should diminish recognition of Palestinian suffering through these frightful days, it is possible something
redemptive will emerge from the tragedy of Gaza. For, as Norman Finkelstein details, in a concise work that melds cold anger with cool analysis, the profound
injustice of the Israeli assault has been widely recognized by organizations impossible to brand as partial or extremist.



Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN investigation headed by Richard Goldstone, in documenting Israel's use of indiscriminate
and intentional force against the civilian population during the invasion (100 Palestinians died...

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