With Israeli air strikes targeting the Gaza strip and explosions rocking the Palestinian territory, hundreds of demonstrators gathered yesterday at the intersection of 47th Street and J.C. Nichols Parkway to call for an end to the escalating violence. Brandishing signs condemning Israel actions and chanting for a Free Palestine, the group held vigil for hours as young men waving flags out of car windows cruised through the Plaza. Organized by Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, the Kansas City event was the first of two area rallies. Among the participants was one local man who fears for his own family.
Name: Ahmad Habashi
Ties to Palestine: Habashi, a Kansas City resident, was born in the U.S., but his mother is Jordanian and his father is from Nazareth, in the northern district of Israel.
Anxious and outraged since the rockets started falling: With family still living in Palestinian territory, Habashi says the past week has been marked with uncertainty and fear for Gaza residents' safety. "It's been extremely difficult not knowing what's going on," he said, adding that he's had only sporadic contact with family in the area, and American news outlets aren't covering the conflict adequately.
A call to end the violence: "It's important to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians," Habashi said of his reason for joining the chilly protest. "This needs to end as soon as possible. The world community needs to step in and stop this nonsense."
Chosen slogan: Habashi didn't make the sign himself but was drawn to the placard with American dollars. "It's calling attention to the fact that what Israel is doing is 100 percent supported by the U.S.," he said. "We preach justice for all but we're forgetting someone here."
A challenge for the next administration: Habashi said, with the new president taking office in three weeks, he hopes Barack Obama will make Mideast peace a serious priority.
No easy task to resolve the conflict: "The closer we get to peace," Habashi said sadly, "the farther away we seem."
Another chance to rally: Tomorrow, at 1 p.m., another demonstration will take place in downtown Lawrence. -- Carolyn Szczepanski
Showing 1-22 of 22
This was sad, when I was at this rally people came to tears for our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
Thinks that this blog is absolutely is extremely disgusting and disrespectful. Instead, of bashing Israel, I think everyone on this site should actually LEARN a bit about the problem that is occurring in the middle east. Oh... if you are talking about terroist, why don't you look toward the palestinians who blow themsevles up and kill innocent people (at least israel attempts to kill militants). And if that isn't enough, look at who is funding these people to blow themselves up and places innocents in harms way: THEIR OWN LEADERS and GOVERNMENT!!!
Learn the facts people!!!
.We all know how the state of Israel was founded by terrorist from Europe in the late 1800 and they are just living up to their reputation. For those who write that Israel has the right to defend itself so does the Palestinians. The Palestinians are living on their land and the Israelis are coming from all over the world to create their Jewish state on a land that is not theirs. They say that God has given this promise land. Get real and have some brain. You have the big gun now, but believe it or not your day will come and you will be sorry that you call your self a Jew or a Zionist. You think the nuclear weapons is going to save you, think again because God is much greater than you and your weapons that you get from your daddy Uncle Sam.
Live and let live
I just want to tell Carolyn, Way to go,thank you for this fair article.
And talking about showing the other side of the story like that man said! come on!Finally someone IS talking about the other side of the story! the Palestinian side!
Again Carolyn, keep up the good work.
Peace!
More years ago than I like to think about, our government spent a sizable amount of taxpayer dollars to teach me to comnat terrorism.
There is no real defense against an attacker who is willing to die in the attack. Thus having the ability to stop the desire to attack is paramount. The answer to this is and has always been to make the cost of attack prohibitive.
Unfortunatly that cost is determined in human lives. Hamas is a self proclaimed terrorist organization. Therefore the fight against terrorism should be taken to them with all dispatch and the cost made high enough that the general populace will no longer allow their presence in their midst.
Then and only then will there be "peace" in Gaza. It will never happen because too many media representatives have the "don't fight back and maybe they'll leave us alone" attitude. I say arm your families, dig in and get ready.
Have a nice day Tiehacker
Stop the Massacre of Palestinians in Gaza
www.thomaspainereturns.net
The whole world watches as the Palestinians in Gaza are being massacred. The justification for watching the slaughter is that Israel has the right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks on Israelis. But what of Palestine�s right to defend itself against further incursion by Israeli tactics? The massacres of non-combatant women, children, aid workers, medical staff, United Nation refuge workers etc. are excused away as inevitable and acceptable casualties of war.
If all the nations of the world were to apply these justifications for their military actions, the whole world would become lawless, unsafe and barbaric. It would be a world ruled by bullies. The strongest would dominate and dictate to the rest of the world.
The footprints of the ongoing slaughter in Gaza are all too obvious. America attacks by bombing incessantly and obliterating their opponent�s civilian infrastructure before sending in their invading forces. The Clinton administration did this in Yugoslavia and Bush has done it in Iraq. Today�s Israeli invasion of Gaza follows the American military strategy.
One might ask why a small nation like Israel would dare to defy the Secretary General of the United Nations and almost all civilized nations on the planet by continuing the slaughter. The obvious answer is that Israel has the support of America in this activity. That is, Israel dares its massacre of the Palestinians in Gaza because the Bush administration condones and/or has orchestrated it. But, does Israel have the same support from President-elect Barack Obama?
Obama�s silence on the issue of the slaughter can be construed as tacit approval of the Bush policy. Today, he has finally spoken out and was reported in the Guardian News and Media Limited to have said:
The loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern to me, and after January 20, I�m going to have plenty to say about the issue.
Is the issue of ongoing killing of innocent civilians not pressing enough to speak out now? Is this because the lives of the goyim are being taken at a ratio of 100 for each Israeli killed? The casualties on both sides are not acceptable! They need to be stopped now! Were 100 Israelis dying for each Palestinian killed, what would Obama�s response be?
Many of the Arab leaders are maintaining silence about the Israeli targeting of schools, hospitals and UN refuge centres as they slaughter Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This massacre cannot go on. Cowardice will not be rewarded. The quiet ones are slaves to their bully masters. Their nations could be the next targets of Israeli/American aggression, or that of other nations. Hamas leaders have now declared that it is open warfare on Israeli schools, hospitals and refuge points. Whilst it is understandable for Hamas to feel that way, it would be wholly unacceptable for them to carry out their warfare in that manner just because the Israelis have. Then their behaviour would be the same as Israel�s. This war has terrorized the civilians on both sides � it must stop now!
Those responsible for destroying Iraq and spilling blood are now rewarding themselves with the highest civilian honour that can be bestowed by the American government. This just proves yet again that to the victors go the spoils. After Yugoslavia was destroyed by the West, Milosovich, who must have believed that he was trying to defend his own country, was being tried as a war criminal when he conveniently died in a Western prison. Saddam Hussein was tried, convicted and gruesomely executed for being a war criminal. Hussein must have also believed that he was defending his country. Were the vanquished to have been the victors, would Blair, Howard and Bush be tried, convicted and executed for war crimes?
The media has been silenced on the Gaza war. Israel has denied foreign journalists access to the war zone. The New York Times has expressed its concern over this, but Ethan Bronner�s January 7, 2009 article, �Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza,� has clearly been restricted. Reading between the lines, he is declaring that Israel is antagonistic to free speech and the Western press. One Australian journalist for the Seven Television Network claimed that things are so horrendous in Gaza that he would not show pictures or discuss the horrific scenes that he had witnessed.
The BBC has reported that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has finally stated:
This is a humanitarian crisis. This is the darkest moment yet for the Middle East and it affects the whole of the world.
How could it have taken Brown so long to speak out? How could it take Obama so long to object?
Whilst Obama could be viewed as only tacitly complicit in the massacre, this excuse is obscene. Obama is actively responsible for what is occurring. He has spoken publicly on many other issues, yet remained silent on the Gaza slaughter, claiming there is only one president at a time. His latest stance of wait until �after January 20� is even more appalling than his prior silence. In effect, he is saying that the massacre can continue for two more weeks! It can wait because the humanitarian crisis is not important enough to worry about now!
However, Obama has not only tacitly condoned Bush�s approval of the slaughter, he is very actively involved, because Obama has selected Robert Gates as his proposed Secretary of Defence. Gates is Bush�s Secretary of Defence! Bush and Obama are of opposing political parties! To realize the absurdity of this, imagine the outrage if Gordon Brown removed Labour member John Hutton from Secretary of State for Defence from his Labour cabinet and appointed Tory Leader David Cameron to the post! By choosing the opposition party�s Secretary of Defence, Obama is proclaiming that there is not a single Democrat suitable for taking the position, and therefore he must take the opposition�s choice to fill this cabinet position. This means not only does he approve of Bush�s war policies, but that he also intends to continue along the lines of his predecessor.
The growing anger directed at Israel for this ongoing massacre is boiling over. Since there are no strong stances being taken by world leaders to stop this incursion, one shudders to think at the escalation this is inviting. Fury is mounting against Israel, which is putting innocent civilians in Israel and around the world in severe danger.
The political hypocrisy is exposed to the world.
The mounting suffering must stop now!
W.B.W. Light-Rider
January 7th, 2009
Here some facts to show who the real terorists?
Ceasefire (6/19/08 � 12/19/08)
Israel killed 49 Palestinians during the 6-month ceasefire.
NOT A SINGLE ISRAELI WAS KILLED:
November 4, 2008 � Israel Violates Ceasefire and Invades Southern Gaza, Killing 6 Palestinians and Abducting 6 others
Israel Attacks � December 27, 2008:
Over 660 Palestinians Killed and over 2900 Injured.
1/2 of All Dead were Civilians
Over 89 Women and 215 Children Killed
225 Killed & 600 Injured in first 5 Minutes of Israeli Airstrikes
Over 15 Mosques Destroyed
Universities Attacked By Israeli F-16 Fighter Planes
Schools and UN building attacked and destroyed.
Even Hospitals like Al-Shifa hospital was attacked.
Let�s keep it simple, shall we?
The Israelis, unlike the United States, understand that history should be written by the victors and not the media. So, as they march in and eliminate Hamas from the planet they will have the right to record what Hamas actually is...errr was.
Buh bye, Hamas�we will not miss you.
Both sides of this conflict have done terrible things, and both sides have lost innocents. Neither side is the "right" side nor the "wrong" side. Have we not seen identical photos of civilians standing in the shattered walls of their bombed-out homes? Have we not seen Israeli and Palestinian parents alike, fathers and mothers crying and carrying their burned and bloody children to hospitals? Terror has no country. Hatred has no country either. They are ideologies born of the conviction that somehow certain people are more good or less good than other people -- beliefs based on criteria having nothing to do with individual behavior but on superficial characteristics. How crazy is that? The people of Israel and Gaza are the same people but for cultural & religious differences due to thousands of years of history living as various tribes and nations in the Middle East. That's horribly simplistic but absent the political science analysis we have two peoples with more in common than not, blowing the snot out of each other for nothing. It is saddening.
If anyone in Gaza were actually interested in stopping the violence, they'd show it and I would have some sympathy for the palestinians. But they have let themselves be used as the proxy army of Iran & others for my entire lifetime.
"Colonialism" my ass. In the last 50 years there have been countless opportunities to move forward in the peace process with all the international support/oversight one could hope for. However, Palestine prefers to elect guys who wear masks and blow up teenagers in discos.
Real lasting change for Palestine will only happen when the people who keep ending up as "Collateral Damage" are finally fed up enough with the fundamentalists to throw their asses out from the ballot box.
There is an old Arab saying: "He hit me and cried." Think about it, Krisna Best, and others inclined to romanticize "working class internationalism."
Hey Carolyn Szczepanski, great one-sided reporting. Did you challenge any of the protesters about the hundreds of rockets lobbed into Israel by Palestinians? Hamas? Doesn't Israel have the right to live in peace as well? It's a shame that you are no longer a reporter but simply another individual who has succumb to the propaganda of terrorists hell bent on the destruction of Israel, Jews, Christians, and anything remotely American, or should I say anything or anyone not Islamic? Don't you understand that the same people who are lobbing rockets into Israel want you to die too? Wake up fool, they won't stop until we are all slaves to radical Islam. And Krisna Best, you are fucking idiot too.
Those who are firing rockets have the god damned human right to do so. All of you who apologize for white supremacy and colonialism are disgusting. Not all violence is the same. Jews must choose to either bow down to Zionism which ensures they remain the slaves of Israeli bureaucrats, or side with working class internationalism and fight alongside Palestinians.
Until then, I hope they kill as many Israeli settlers and colonialists as possible, just as I would support John Brown who shot and killed Confederate soldiers and slavery sympathizers.
Let's say we work together. EVERY SINGLE DAY, for YEARS, I walk up to you and poke you with my pen. I do this between 15 and 200 times per day. Most times, it is just a poke. Your clothes and skin are covered with ink marks, but it is just a poke. I only poke hard enough to make you bleed every so often. After several YEARS of my doing this to you EVERY DAY, you stand up and punch me. Are you over-reacting? Are you being cruel?
I have been reading a lot about protests like these. Not one single person who is sympathizing with Gaza Palastinians has even mentioned the tens of thousands of DAILY missiles shot into Isreal.
Ya, Israel takes a lot of covert shots, and the media does indeed cover their whine-fest when the big boy Muslim nations lift finger or say a word about what Israel does, but that's fairness in media right?
Anyway- Allah mowjood, and with Allah is the victory. Peace.
If some little squirt wants to covertly take shots at a big boy, there should be no protests or media-covered-whine-fests when the big boy blasts the squirt�s teeth out of the squirt�s melon and leaves him face down ass up in the corner. All this protest and �pen is mightier than the sword� shit fails when the big boy has a kick ass military and a big ass eraser.
Now, Pitch, pull your heads out of your sulk holes and keep the faith. You have lotsa folks rooting for you to make it despite the Tonys of the world who couldn�t fill your cod piece with his bulbous-overstuffed-egomaniacal dome.
Yes, lets stop the killing of innocent civilians. The random firing of rockets by the Gaza strip residents into the cities and schools of Israel territory is criminal. What goes around comes around, you reap what you sow. Israel is doing what it must to stop the rockets from being fired from the Gaza strip into Israel. Would we tolerate here in America the firing of rockets into southern California by displaced in Mexico? I think Israel has shown restraint by calling ahead to the homes of Hamas leaders warning them to get out, as an attack is coming. The so called civilian casualties are suspect propaganda, meant to garner sympathy on the world stage.
I think these people should consider protesting Hamas. They broke the cease-fire, they fire rockets into Israel, they brought this on themselves.
I think these people should consider protesting Hamas. They broke the cease-fire, they fire rockets into Israel, they brought this on themselves.
not all palestinians are like that, t. just like not all "t"s are worthy of being called Trevor.
like
dislike
