FREE GAZA BLOG

Brussels- May 31 – 2010

The “European Campaign to End the siege on Gaza,” Brussels-based, said that the Israeli side asked the fleet’s coalition, which was assaulted and its ships were seized along side with the arrest of hundreds of peace activists on board, to hand over a list of the aid items which was carried by the fleet under the pretext of “sorting them out”, although the Israeli side has seized ships and everything on board.

The European campaign, one of the founders of fleet’s coalition, warned that the Israeli side is trying to mislead the world on the declaration of his intention to “sort “The aid which was carried by the fleet to bring them to the Gaza Strip, noting that, based on what the fleet carried; the Israeli side will not let in more than ten per cent of the aid that was carried by the fleet, under the allegations of “banned from entering.”

The campaign explained in a statement issued today, that the ships of the fleet also carry more than 10 thousand tons of medical supplies, building materials, timber, 100 prefab houses to shelter tens of thousands of people who lost their homes during the Israeli war on Gaza in early 2009, it also carries 500 electric vehicles for the handicapped, especially since the recent war that left nearly 600 disabled people in Gaza, confirming that most of the humanitarian aid represents essential and humanitarian goods and materials, from which 90% of them are banned from entering according to Israel’s unjust rules.

The “European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza,” demanded pressure to be placed on the Israeli side to let in all humanitarian aid, which was carried by the fleet of “freedom” to the Gaza Strip, stressing the need for international control to include all such aid and not to prevent the entry of any, all goods and materials represent an urgent essential aid for the Palestinians trapped in Gaza.

Cyprus, June 1, 2010, 6:30 am

Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck. They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep. According to the live video from the ship, two have been killed, and 31 injured. Al Jazeera has just confirmed the numbers.

Streaming video shows the Israeli soldiers shooting at civilians, and our last SPOT beacon said, “HELP, we are being contacted by the Israelis.”

We know nothing about the other five boats. Israel says they are taking over the boats.

The coalition of Free Gaza Movement (FG), European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), the Perdana Global Peace Organisation , Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden, and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza appeal to the international community to demand that Israel stop their brutal attack on civilians delivering vitally needed aid to the imprisoned Palestinians of Gaza and permit the ships to continue on their way.

The attack has happened in international waters, 75 miles off the coast of Israel, in direct violation of international law.

Source: Free Gaza.

Even America’s major media can’t duck a crime this grave - attacking and slaughtering up to 20 Gaza Freedom Flotilla activists and injuring dozens more.

New York Times writer Isabel Kershner headlined “At Least 10 Killed as Israel Intercepts Aid Flotilla, saying:

“The Israeli Navy raided a flotilla carrying thousands of tons of supplies for Gaza in international waters on Monday morning….The incident drew widespread international condemnation, with Israeli envoys summoned to explain their country’s actions in several European countries….The killings also coincided with preparations for a planned visit to Washington on Tuesday (June 1) by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Late word is it’s postponed.

The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times carried similar reports, trying, but hardly able to downplay a major crime.

The UK-based Stop the War Coalition called it “Yet another act of Israeli barbarism” in announcing an “emergency demonstration” at 2:00PM near the prime minister’s Downing Street residence, saying spread the word and come.

In Gaza, thousands protested, expressing anger, outrage and sympathy, carrying banners condemning willful crimes, and calling for Arab solidarity. Similar demonstrations turned out in Amman, Cairo, Damascus, Tehran, Ankara, Istanbul, Beirut and other regional cities.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed the Flotilla organizers for inciting the attack, while his deputy, Danny Alalon said they were connected to international terrorist organizations and were trying to smuggle in arms. Weapons were found on board, he claimed.

At a hastily called news conference, sparsely attended, he referred to “the armada of hate and violence in support of the Hamas terror organization,” accusing peaceful activists of a “premeditated and outrageous provocation,” saying “The organizers are well known for their ties with global Jihad, Al Qaeda and Hamas. (Their) intent was violent, their method was violent, and the results were unfortunately violent.”

Shameless lies from a criminal caught red-handed, Haaretz’s Gideon Levy saying:

“The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs (distributing) false information. It embarrassed itself by entering a futile public relations battle….There is nothing to explain, certainly not to a world that will never buy (its) web of explanations, lies and tactics.”

In Washington, of course, they’re echoed along with toned down pious indignation publicly, but privately, assurances of solid US-Israeli relations are affirmed.

On May 31, White House spokesman William Burton said:

“The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained, and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy,” stopping short of condemning crimes too grave to ignore and demanding harsh measures in response to premeditated slaughter.

Much the same from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (a reliable Israeli ally) stating:

“It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place. I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation,” stopping short of demanding it and full accountability.

Saying he “deplored in the strongest terms the killing of civilians,” Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, like his EU counterparts, said it was “indispensable that there be an inquest to ascertain the facts, which are still not clear.”

They’re very clear. Israeli forces planned and executed a premeditated attack against peaceful humanitarian activists, trying to deliver essential to life aid to Gazans under siege - to break Israel’s attempt to suffocate and starve them.

The Wall Street Journal online headlined “More than 10 Dead After Israel Intercepts Gaza Aid Convoy,” saying (like most US media reports) that “An Israeli military spokesman said later in the day that some activists ‘appeared’ to be armed with guns, and fired at the Israeli soldiers, though it wasn’t clear who fired first.”

The activists, in fact, were unarmed civilians, delivering vitally needed humanitarian aid to 1.5 million Gazans, trapped under siege for three years this month. Without provocation, they were maliciously and willfully attacked in international waters by armed Israeli commandos with orders to open fire if the convoy failed to abort its mission.

The best Journal writer Joshua Mitnick could say was “whether the military action was warranted or not (it) threatens to further sully Israel’s international reputation, after a series of recent diplomatic setbacks.”

No mention of the Gaza war, daily West Bank and East Jerusalem incursions, the three-year siege, a 43-year occupation, daily killings, targeted assassinations, homes bulldozed, mass arrests, torture, and Palestinian communities throughout the Territories and in Israel threatened by daily terror.

No mention by European nations either, the EU merely calling for a full inquiry, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner (a staunch Israeli supporter) saying he was “deeply shocked by the ‘tragic’ consequences of Israel’s military operation (against) a humanitarian initiative,” but little else. The same hypocrisy echoed from most European capitals, much like already from Washington.

Turkey’s Communist Party’s press statement, in contrast, said:

“The pirate commandos trained by Israel Naval Forces mounted an operation this morning to capture the flotilla carrying aid to Gaza and slaughtered unarmed civilians in the course of this outrageous operation.”

Calling the attack “barbarous,” it “demanded” immediate deportation of Israel’s diplomatic mission, cancellation of Turkish-Israeli military and other agreements, and Israel held fully accountable for its crime against humanity - its specialty against civilians and nonviolent activists.

Al Jazeera reported that “Thousands of Turkish protesters tried to storm the Israeli consulate in Istanbul soon after the news (shouting) ‘Damn Israel’ as police blocked them.”

It also said Israeli radio confirmed at least 19 were killed and dozens injured, quoting IDF spokeswoman, Avital Leibovich, saying, “This happened in waters outside Israeli territory, but we have the right to defend ourselves,” - the usual response from scoundrels caught red-handed.

Video footage on board the Turkish passenger ship Mavi Marmara showed Israeli commandos opened fire during the assault, activists saying it began immediately after storming on board.

Al Zazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal, on the ship, said “a white surrender flag was raised (and) there was no live fire coming from the passengers.”

The Free Gaza Movement reported that “Under darkness of night, Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck.” No action on board provoked it. It was premeditated, willful slaughter.

The Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement expressed sorrow in denouncing the attack, citing it as further “proof that despite claims to the contrary, Israel never ‘disengaged’ from the Gaza Strip but rather continues to control its borders - land, air and sea….hermetically (cutting off) 1.5 million human beings (from) access to the outside world” and vitally needed humanitarian aid.

Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, claimed “They initiated the violence,” and the IDF insisted it responded when its forces “were attacked with knives, clubs, and even live fire.” Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said soldiers were forced by violent acts to respond with live fire.

They lied.

Viewing the video footage, Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin reported that:

“All the images being shown from the activists on board those ships show clearly that they were civilians and peaceful in nature, with medical (and other humanitarian) supplies on board.”

Other footage showed black-clad commandos descending from helicopters, then immediately opening fire on deck against peaceful activists.

Israeli forces seized the ship and a smaller one, took them to Israel’s port of Ashdod, and censored all information on the assault.

The Flotilla, with 700 activists, left Cyprus at 3:00PM (1200 GMT) Sunday, on the last leg of their journey, heading for Gaza, hoping to arrive by daylight. Six hours after departure, three Israeli missile boats left Haifa to interdict it, according to reporters on board before being ordered to turn off their cell phones.

The convoy hoped to break the siege and deliver over 10,000 tons of vitally needed aid, including food, medicines, educational, construction, and other materials. Israel warned it would intercept and abort the mission, giving no details except to say ships would be seized, then taken to Ashdod.

A May 31 Gaza Freedom March.org press release called for a “global response to killings on the Freedom Flotilla,” saying:

“We, Gaza based Palestinian Civil Society Organizations and international activists, call on the international community and civil society to pressure their governments and Israel to cease the abductions and killings….against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla….and begin a global response to hold Israel accountable for the murder of foreign civilians at sea and illegal piracy of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.”

“We, from Gaza, call on you to demonstrate and support the courageous men and women on the Flotilla and join the many now murdered on a humanitarian aid mission. We insist on severance of diplomatic ties with Israel, trials for war crimes and the international protection of the civilians of Gaza. We call on you to join the growing international boycott, divestment and sanction campaign of a country proving again” to be an international outlaw. “Join a growing critical mass around the world with a commitment to the day when Palestinian are entitled to the same rights as (all) other people, when the siege is lifted, the occupation over and the 6 million Palestinian refugees are finally granted justice.”

Stand in solidarity for their freedom in peace, and demand nothing less, including full accountability for Israeli officials responsible for high crimes of war and against humanity.

On board the Flottilla are over 700 activists from 40 countries, including 35 politicians and a Nobel Peace laureate, Mairead McGuire, who protesting with Bil’in village activists against Israel’s Separation Wall, in April 2007, was shot and injured with a rubber bullet, then tear-gassed, overcome, and had to be taken by stretcher to an ambulance.

Again, she and 700 others risked their lives to deliver vitally needed aid. In solidarity, people of conscience everywhere must support them and demand full accountability for the latest Israeli crimes too grave to ignore.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Please bare with us and take a look at the following image gallery that clearly shows the resembelance between what the nazis have done to the Jews in Europe and what the same Jews are doing nowadays to the Palestinian People.

Click the Slideshow to see or just wait for the next image.

You can also click the individual images below to see a larger image.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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By Shashank Bengali and Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers

IZBIT ABED RABBO, Gaza Strip — It was just after noon on Friday and time for the weekly communal prayer on a day when many Gazans needed divine guidance, but there was no place to pray.

To see more images about some of the mosques that have been erazed by the Israel forces, please clik here.

Where the three-story Salahadin mosque once stood in this northern Gaza village, there’s only a mountain of rubble. Residents said that Israeli soldiers demolished the mosque, using dynamite and a bulldozer, two weeks ago during their war on the militant Islamic group Hamas.

So at prayer time in Izbit Abed Rabbo, the first Friday since both Israel and Hamas declared cease-fires, several dozen male worshippers gathered in a sandy clearing near the wreckage of the mosque. Some men laid down mats; others took off their jackets and spread them in the dirt. A few men sat with their knees in the sand and their heads bowed, listening to the sermon.

“My dears, we have to be patient. We have to have some faith in Allah,” said the imam, Mohammed Hamad. “Our prophets before us faced many struggles, and they were patient. We will wait for the compensation from God.”

Israel says its forces crippled Hamas militants and their infrastructure, but they also did staggering damage to places that mark the everyday lives of Gaza’s 1.5 million people. More than 1,300 Gazans, as well as 13 Israelis, died in the conflict.

Salahadin, where Hamad has been the imam for about 15 years, was one of 23 mosques that Palestinian officials say were damaged or destroyed in the offensive, along with 25 schools and hospitals, 1,500 factories and commercial structures and several thousand homes and apartment buildings. On Friday, under threatening skies, many Gazans had no choice but to pray outdoors.

Israel says that Hamas uses civilians as shields, and military officials have released video of weapons stored in mosques.

Residents said that militants didn’t use the Salahadin mosque, however, and that Israeli tactics did the gravest harm to civilians.

Much of Izbit Abed Rabbo, a quiet farming enclave north of Gaza City, was leveled when Israeli tanks and infantry forces rolled through about two weeks ago, residents said. Down the street from the mosque, multi-story homes are in ruins, vehicles crushed and stray possessions, such as shoes and clothing, lie half-trampled in the sand.

Hamad said that gathering for the Friday prayer showed that the village would recover.

“Our prophet Mohammed said that all the earth is for Muslims, so we pray even though the Israelis demolished our mosque,” Hamad said after the sermon. “We are not praying for the mosque walls; we are praying for Allah.”

Many worshippers were returning to the village for the first time since fleeing the Israeli invasion and confronting hard memories.

Said Jalala, a 46-year-old university professor, lost his oldest son in March, when Israeli forces launched a brief incursion that killed nearly 100 Palestinians. This time, Jalala said, Israeli soldiers invaded his home and held him and eight other men hostage for 12 hours, moving them from house to house as warplanes circled overhead, occasionally firing into the surrounding neighborhoods.

One strike left a hole in the side of his three-story, custom-designed home. But he was struck by the devastation of the mosque, where he’d prayed for more than a decade.

“They had a mission this time to destroy mosques, I think,” Jalala said. “Even areas they didn’t enter, they destroyed mosques.”

“They didn’t destroy Hamas; they destroyed the people,” said Hussein al Hawajari, whose 57-year-old mother was killed on the first day of the war when shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike hit her as she walked to the market.

“The children are Hamas? The tree is Hamas? The mosques are Hamas? The animals are Hamas?”

The U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Mission Statement:

Responding to the call of Palestinian civil society to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement against Israel, we are a U.S. campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):

“In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions;

Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

[For more information: http://www.pacbi.org/campaign_statement.htm]

PACBI and the entire movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (representing the overwhelming majority among Palestinian civil society parties, unions, networks and organizations) emphasize fundamental Palestinian rights, sanctioned by international law and universal human rights principles that ought to be respected by Israel to end the boycott. We struggle to achieve an end to Israel’s three-tiered injustice and oppression: 1) occupation and colonization in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory; 2) denial of the refugees’ rights, paramount among which is their right to return to their homes of origin, as per UN General Assembly Resolution 194; and 3) the system of racial discrimination, or apartheid, to which Palestinian (all non-Jewish) citizens of Israel are subjected to.

The principles guiding the PACBI campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI). We believe it is time to take a public, principled stance in support of equality, self-determination, human rights (including the right to education), and true democracy, especially in light of the censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large. There can be no academic freedom in Israel/Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.

If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign. [See information below.]

Urgent Appeal:

We are also responding to the Open Letter to International Academic Institutions from the Right to Education campaign at Birzeit University in Palestine (January 17, 2009), calling on the international academic community, unions and students “to show support and solidarity with the people of Gaza by calling upon their respective governments to impose immediate boycott, divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel.”

Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing massacres–from Deir Yassin (1948 ) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006)—which demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state which will not end its violations of international law without international pressure. As academics working in the U.S., we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society.

This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the non-academic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches, and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Endorsement:

As educators and scholars of conscience in the United States, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing scholasticide and to support the non-violent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.

If you wish to endorse this call for an academic and cultural boycott, please email us at: uscom4acbi [at] gmail.com. If you are willing to indicate your support publicly, please send us your name and institutional/organizational affiliation (for identification purposes only).

For more information on actions suggested by the boycott campaign, please join one of the discussion groups linked on the top right-hand corner of this website.

Actions you can take:

Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by engaging in the following actions. We aim at the full implementation of all these steps. However, recognizing that different actions may be feasible and appropriate under the many different academic and political circumstances that pertain in US institutions, we urge our colleagues to undertake as many of the following initiatives as possible:

1. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support;

2. Encourage your university and college administrations to institute funding for scholarship sand fellowships for Palestinian students;

3. Request your administration/president to issue a public statement censuring Israeli destruction of and interference with Palestinian schools and universities, archives and research centers, both in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine.

4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;

5. Organize teach-ins or similar events with campus and community organizations at which the campaign for the economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel can be fully and openly discussed;

6. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;

7. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;

8. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions, and place pressure on your own institution to suspend all ties with Israeli universities, including collaborative projects, study abroad, funding and exchanges.

Gaza residents returning to their homes in Zeitun neighborhood find their houses covered with slogans such as ‘Death to Arabs,’ and ‘One down, 999,999 to go.’

Some of the graffiti was written on the ruins of the homes of the al-Samuni family, who lost dozens of its members during the Israeli offensive war on Gaza.

‘Palestinian doctors would not have been able to handle a tumor this size,’ American specialist says after operating on 4-year-old boy at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. American doctors careful to stay away from politics, but one of them says regarding Israeli blockade, ‘It’s inhumane … to not allow them to even have basic medical care’

Doctors from the United States who rushed to the Gaza Strip to help the war wounded quickly learned that their challenge went beyond treating shrapnel injuries.

The eight American specialists found themselves operating on patients who had fallen victim to the 20-month-border closure that had crippled Gaza’s health care system even before Israel’s offensive against Gaza.

On Tuesday, the team removed a kidney tumor the size of a honeydew melon from a 4-year-old boy, Abdullah Shawwa, in a five-hour emergency surgery at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. The tumor was advanced and without quick intervention, Abdullah would likely have died, said Dr. Ismail Mehr, an anesthesiologist from Hornell, New York. Doctors in Gaza didn’t have the expertise to operate on him and Abdullah’s father had been unable to get him transferred quickly to Israel or Egypt.

Even after the surgery, Abdullah’s prognosis is uncertain. He’ll need followup treatment, including advanced chemotherapy or radiation, which are not available in Gaza. But it’s been difficult for Gaza patients to get out, ever since Israel and Egypt closed the borders in response to the violent Hamas takeover of the territory in June 2007.The closure also dealt a further blow to Gaza’s underdeveloped health care system, which lacks sophisticated equipment and key specialists. Hospitals often operate on generators because of disrupted power supplies, and spare parts for some machines are unavailable.

Britain’s commercial terrestrial broadcasters this evening went ahead with a humanitarian aid appeal for Gaza, despite Sky News joining the BBC in refusing to screen it.

The 2009 massacre in Gaza

Pressure mounted on the BBC throughout the day to back down on its decision to reject the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group of humanitarian charities including Oxfam, Save the Children and the Red Cross, but it resisted, saying to broadcast the film risked compromising its impartiality.

To watch the appeal, please click here

The BBC confirmed it had received 15,500 complaints over its decision, while its own staff and broadcasting unions joined in the criticism.

The two-minute appeal, which featured a professional voiceover on top of images of the recent conflict in Gaza, aired first on ITV1 at 6.25pm, just before the channel’s main evening news. It was due to be followed by Channel Five at 7.25pm and Channel 4 at 7.50pm.

Before the appeal aired on ITV1, a continuity announcer warned: “Viewers might find some images distressing.”

At the beginning of the film, the voiceover said: “This is not about the rights and wrongs of the conflict, these people simply need your help.”

However, Sky News this morning joined the BBC in refusing to show the film. “The absolute impartiality of our output is fundamental to Sky News and its journalism,” the head of Sky News, John Ryley, said.

“That is why, after very careful consideration, we have concluded that broadcasting an appeal for Gaza at this time is incompatible with our role in providing balanced and objective reporting of this continuing situation to our audiences in the UK and around the world.”

The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, ruled out a change of policy, saying the corporation had a duty to cover the issue in a “balanced, objective way”.

“Of course, everyone is struck by the human consequences of what has happened,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme. “And we will, I promise you, continue to report that as fully and as compassionately as we can. But we are going to do it in a way where we can hold it up to scrutiny. It’s our job as journalists.”

He denied his “arm had been twisted” by pro-Israeli lobbyists and said the BBC would continue to cover the humanitarian dimension of a “complicated and deeply contentious story”.

However, he conceded that one of the BBC’s initial objections to the DEC appeal – that delivering aid to victims would be difficult – had “diminished” as a barrier.

Most of the hostile reaction from critics of the decision was directed towards the publicly funded BBC. The Stop the War Coalition said there would be a “collective return” of television licences at protests outside Broadcasting House in London and other BBC centres around the country.

A statement from the coalition said that a number of its supporters had already informed them that they had written to the BBC saying they had cancelled their direct debit for their television licence.

The BBC was also condemned by the general secretaries of broadcasting unions the National Union of Journalists and Bectu, who branded the decision not to screen the appeal as “cowardly.”

In a joint letter, Jeremy Dear and Gerry Morrissey – who together represent thousands of BBC staff – said the move risked being seen as “politically motivated”.

“The humanitarian crisis, in which innocent children are suffering, is likely to be prolonged as a result of the corporation’s decision,” they said.

“The justifications given for the decision … appear to us cowardly and in danger of being seen as politically motivated and biased in favour of Israel.

“We, above all, understand the BBC’s need to maintain editorial impartiality and we also understand the pressure journalists and the BBC come under from those who accuse the BBC of bias in reporting the Middle East.

“That said, we agree with those senior BBC journalists who say this is a decision taken as a result of timidity by BBC management in the face of such pressures.

“Far from avoiding the compromise of the BBC’s impartiality, this move has breached those same BBC rules by showing a bias in favour of Israel at the expense of 1.5 million Palestinian civilians suffering an acute humanitarian crisis.”

The two men asked why Israel was being treated differently when the BBC broadcast a DEC appeal about the Burmese cyclone in May 2008 despite it being an ongoing news story.

“Our members feel this makes the BBC appear pro-Israeli and indifferent to the plight of the victims of this conflict,” they said. “How can airing such an appeal risk compromising the BBC’s impartiality? We believe the BBC’s decision not to show the appeal is wrong and we urge you to reconsider.”

Meanwhile, the BBC is facing a growing revolt from its own journalists, with sources reporting “widespread disgust” within its newsrooms. However, BBC staff have said they have been told they face the sack if they speak out on the issue.

Sources said there was “fury” at the BBC News morning meeting today about the decision, with news editors saying they had not been consulted on the move to not show the appeal.

“Feelings are running extremely high and there is widespread disgust at the BBC’s top management,” one BBC News source said. “There is widespread anger and frustration at the BBC’s refusal to allow people to speak out about it.”

Members of the NUJ at London’s Television Centre are expected to tomorrow pass a resolution condemning the BBC’s decision.

Sources within the BBC have questioned whether its internal Balen report into its Middle East coverage, which the corporation has refused to publish, has influenced its decision on the DEC appeal. An appeal to the House of Lords to force the BBC to publish the report is currently ongoing.

The prime minister’s spokesman insisted the government was not going to “second-guess” a decision that was the BBC’s to make. However, he added: “Clearly we support the appeal.” An advert highlighting the DEC appeal was later placed on the Downing Street website.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an elected body representing Jewish people in the UK, said they would reserve judgment on the appeal until they had seen it.

A spokesman said the organisation did not object in principle to the concept of a Gaza appeal but added that its view would depend on how the plea was executed.

“It’s unreasonable to make a judgment about an appeal that no one has seen,” he said. “It could be 100% reasonable and extremely important or it could be 100% unreasonable and biased – it could go either way.”

The criticism of the BBC comes as more light has been shed on how the BBC reached its decision. The Guardian understands that Thompson consulted members of the BBC’s appeals advisory committee, made up of representatives from NGOs and international charities, who raised concerns about the delivery of aid. He also held a meeting with six senior BBC executives, including deputy director Mark Byford, who voted unanimously to veto the appeal.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousand more injured as Israel continues to assault the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza — the majority of them children and refugees — from the air, sea and sky.

Palestinian firemen try to extinguish a fire following an Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 27 December 2008.

On 27 December, Israel began its bombardment on Gaza and then on 3 January began its ground offensive. At the end of 8 January in Gaza, at least 763 Gazans had been killed, including more than 200 children, and more than 3,000 injured since 27 December, according to Al Jazeera.

Israel claims that it is targeting Hamas armed fighters and infrastructure, ostensibly in response to the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel. However, field investigations by the Gaza-based human rights organization Al Mezanshow that United Nations-administered schools, mosques, universities, emergency medical crews, private homes and other civilian objects have all been in Israel’s sights.

Among those killed on the first day of bombing, when more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on the tiny coastal enclave, included police officers who were attending a graduation ceremony, school children heading home after a day of study, and other Gazans killed without warning as they were conducting their normal business.

Entire families have been wiped out during the air strikes and shelling, including that of Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan who was extrajudicially executed along with his family in their home in a Gaza refugee camp. More than 40 were killed on 6 January when Israeli forces shelled the United Nations-administered Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp, where families who had been displaced by the bombing were seeking shelter. The UN has demanded an independent investigation and its spokespersons assert that GPS coordinates of all UN locations were given to Israel to prevent such an atrocity. Israel recanted its claim that resistance fighters released fire on Israeli soldiers from the school, which has been categorically denied by UN officials.

The death toll will most likely rise as corpses are recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings and the critically injured die of their wounds. The International Committee of the Red Cross has protested Israeli forces preventing them from evacuating casualties. Many will likely die because Gaza’s hospitals — already chronically short of medicines and supplies due to the Israeli siege — are unable to cope with the scale of the catastrophe. Medical workers face grave danger as they respond to the sites of Israeli strikes; according to the World Health Organization, as of 8 January, 21 medical workers had been killed and more than 30 injured since 27 December.

The bloody operation in Gaza comes after the expiration of a six-month-long ceasefire between Israel and resistance groups in Gaza, including Hamas. Israel had broken the ceasefire on 4 November, when it extrajudicially executed six Palestinians in Gaza whom it said was digging tunnels to Israel. During the five previous months of the ceasefire, Hamas had refrained from firing rockets and prevented other groups from doing so. However, Israel failed to ease the nearly two-year-long embargo on the Gaza Strip that has crippled economic life and brought the area to the brink of a humanitarian crisis — one of Israel’s obligations under the ceasefire.

Instead, in Israel, where the fate of the Gaza Strip has become part of politicking as the country gears up for an election, leaders blamed Hamas for the carnage and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cynically appealed, “to the people of Gaza, you are not our enemy.” While the other three members of the so-called International Quartet for Middle East Peace criticized what they called Israel’s “excessive” use of force, the US refrained from doing so. White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe stated from Texas, where President George W. Bush was presently vacationing: “Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop.”

The ongoing assault on Gaza is the largest Israeli military operation in the territory occupied during the 1967 War. Although Israel unilaterally withdrew its illegal settler population from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it remained the occupying power as it controlled the borders, sea and airspace, as well as the population registry, and regularly carried out sonic booms over the area, terrorizing the population. Israeli forces have also frequently carried out extrajudicial executions of Palestinian activists in Gaza, killing scores of bystanders as well.

Gaza hospitals were unable to cope with the situation as Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip for a year and a half has prevented the importing of medical supplies and equipment. As the morgues filled to capacity, corpses lined the hallways of Gaza hospitals. Hospitals were forced to turn away many of the injured due to the lack of space and supplies.

The massive air strikes came after a food crisis broke out in Gaza, as Israel’s banning of imports into the Strip have depleted stocks of flour and cooking gas, causing some bakeries — the few still in operation — to resort to baking bread made out of animal feed. On 18 December, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) was forced to stop its food aid delivery to 750,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip. Though it briefly resumed services in January 2009 after a “humanitarian corridor” was established, and a daily three-hour ceasefire was declared, the United Nations announced it was ceasing all services after Israeli forces targeted and killed a UN aid worker and wounded others on 8 January.

Israel’s measures of collective punishment on the Gaza Strip are resulting in “the breakdown of an entire society,” according to economist Sara Roy, who asks in a commentary published recently by The London Review of Books, “How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel?”

The devastating attack on Gaza was described as “willful killing” by leading Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations, and therefore constitute “a war crime.” The organizations stated: “Both the time and location of these attacks also indicate a malicious intent to inflict as many casualties as possible with many of the police stations located in civilian population centers and the time of the attacks coinciding with the end of the school day resulting in the deaths of numerous children.”

The assault was met with loud calls for a boycott of Israel, including a boycott appeal from by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, which stated on the day of the massacres: “Israel seems intent to mark the end of its 60th year of existence the same way it has established itself — perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 1948, the majority of the indigenous Palestinian people were ethnically cleansed from their homes and land, partly through massacres like Deir Yassin; today, the Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are refugees, do not even have the choice to seek refuge elsewhere. Incarcerated behind ghetto walls and brought to the brink of starvation by the siege, they are easy targets for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing.”

And while government leaders and the US president-elect remain resoundingly silent over the ongoing massacres in Gaza (with the exception of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, which removed Israel’s ambassador from the country), millions of people around the world have taken to the streets to express their solidarity with Palestinians under siege. Analysts say that Arab regimes seen as being in collusion or supporting the siege and massacres, such as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, will not be unscathed by the popular anger towards these policies.