Saturday, December 16, 2006

Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 14

Recently, the democratically elected governments in Thailand and Fiji have been overthrown. The Bush administration and all their supporters say nothing. They do nothing to restore the elected governments. And how do they react to the democratically elected government of Palestine? Well, read on…….

GAZA

We Overcame Our Fear

Yesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the same raid Israel's artillery shelled a residential district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit Hanoun has passed 90 in one week. It is not easy as a mother, sister or wife to watch those you love disappear before your eyes. Perhaps that was what helped me, and 1,500 other women, to overcome our fear and defy the Israeli curfew last Friday - and set about freeing some of our young men who were besieged in a mosque while defending us and our city against the Israeli military machine. We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed. The soldiers were loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except each other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the first barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israel's so-called defence force did not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close friends Ibtissam Yusuf abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

It’s Only Democracy when you elect who we want. - Bush supporters


We Palestinians find ourselves the targets of a systematic siege imposed by the so-called free world. We are being starved and suffocated as a punishment for daring to exercise our democratic right to choose who rules and represents us. Nothing undermines the west's claims to defend freedom and democracy more than what is happening in Palestine.

Jameela al-Shanti is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Hamas. She led a women's protest against the siege of Beit Hanoun last Friday. (This was published last month. - dancewater) Her email:
jameela.shanti@gmail.com


What Is It Like To Have Your Home Demolished: 8 Minute Video:

Israeli Occupation Forces Demolish Palestinian Homes


Today, Rice wants to give more money to Fatah - and promote civil war in Palestine.


More on the apartheid wall in Palestine.


Also on that page, a story about undercover Israeli troops who start firing in Ramallah, and the people caught in the middle.

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