Reports,
expertises, analysis: One year after
the Israeli attack on Gaza strip
Video
message from Dr. Mariam Saleh, Member
of Palestinian Legislative Council,
Westbank/Palestine on the occassion
of the event "Gaza 2010 - reports,
expertises, analysis: One year after
the Israeli attack on Gaza strip
When:
Saturday, January 16, 2010, 5pm Where: Albert-Schweitzer-Haus,
Schwarzspanierstrasse 13, 1090 Vienna
- Austria
Panelists will be:
Prof. Helga Baumgarten –
Writer, political scientist, University
of Birzeit/Ramallah Hadeel Ghazzawi – Nutrionist,
University of Vienna MSP Pauline McNeill - Member
of Scottish Parliament, member of
a delegation to Gaza, Glasgow Dr. Muneer Deeb – Chairperson
of PalMed Germany, Surgeon, Kassel
Hospital Erwin Lanc – Former Austrian
Home Secretary, Honorary President
of the International Institute for
Peace, Vienna
Live connections, interviews and video
messages from the Gaza strip and the
West Bank (inter alia Maryam Saleh
– Palestinian parliamentary deputy)
One year after the massive Israeli
attack, the Gaza strip seems to have
been totally forgotten by the media.
The world’s interest concentrated
just for three weeks on the devastating
strike that now seems to have degenerated
into a mere anecdote of a war, which
has been lasting for years. But even
during the height of the conflict,
the news gave just some glimpses into
the situation in Gaza. In a stereotyped
way two warring parties were presented:
Israel on the one side and Hamas on
the other; the suffering population
of Gaza caught in between, giving
rise to an unfortunate collateral
damage amounting to 1,400 killed Palestinians.
The abbreviated portrayal of the background
to and the causes of the war, the
ahistorical analysis, the set of stereotyped
comments and the helpless statements
on the ongoing war that most European
media and diplomatic and political
decision-makers brought forward, were
the best proof of a thorough lack
of understanding of the historical
linkages behind the Middle East conflict.
The European Union as such and the
leading individual states ignored
the flagrant breaches of international
law and took in many cases over the
argumentation of the Israeli government.
Even when the "defensive war"
hit UN-buildings, key decision-makers
kept silent. The UN in its capacity
as internationally recognized organization
was checkmated and kept watching without
lifting a finger even when the Israeli
army perpetrated "targeted attacks
on civil employees and institutions
of the United Nations" (UN-Report
May 5 2009). The published and unpublished
UN reports on massive Israeli infringements
of international law caused such a
massive diplomatic pressure that UN
experts like the renowned lawyer Goldstone
found themselves being discredited
as biased observers.
The war that had been ongoing for
more than 60 years – only interrupted
by more or less long lasting cease
fires – was reduced during these
three weeks by politicians, the media
and the wider public to Hamas´
poll win in 2006, the need for recognition
of Israel's right to exist and the
firing of Kassam rockets on two Israeli
border towns.
How is the situation in the Gaza strip
now that one year has passed since
the Israeli attacks, and almost four
years since the undeclared political
and economic embargo started? How
does the population earn its living
in the cut off, demolished and not
yet reconstructed Gaza strip? Why
was the tragic routine, which one
witnesses after each war consisting
of international support, reconstruction,
care for the disabled and medical
emergency relief systematically phased
out in the Gaza strip?
Where are the international NGOs,
the doctors, politicians, journalists
and experts that after each war take
care of providing assistance in situ
and to give an account of the situation
in the field?
Gaza – the "biggest open-air
prison on earth" is apparently
also deprived of visits. However,
as European NGO we have wished to
undertake our best efforts to invite
the persons concerned here to Vienna
so as to force open - to a certain
extent - the extralegal blockade against
the Gazean and Palestinian population.
One year after the attacks and four
years after the undeclared sanctions
against the Gaza strip Dar al Janub
– Union for antiracism and peace
policy and the Coordination Forum
in support of Palestine in cooperation
with the Society for Austrian-Arab
relationship invites experts, scientists
and politicians to a panel discussion
to Vienna: "Gaza 2010 –
Reports, expertises, analysis: One
year after the Israeli attack on Gaza
strip".
Organized
by : Dar al Janub – Union
for antiracism and peace policy and
the Coordination Forum in support
of Palestine
In
cooperation with the Society for Austrian-Arab
relationship
