A UK Socialist's blog

‘As a Human Being, I Beg’: Doctors Say Cease-Fire in Gaza Only Way to Save Countless Lives

Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Trauma surgeons treat an injured man after Israeli bombardment, at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 21, 2023  (Photo: Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)

Fresh demands for a major increase in humanitarian aid and an end to the bombing came as Gaza’s only cancer hospital shut down due to a lack of fuel.

As the World Health Organization warns of an “imminent public health catastrophe” in Gaza amid Israeli attacks on medical workers and infrastructure, doctors and other frontline medics said Wednesday that only an immediate cease-fire would give them a fighting chance to save countless lives.

Responding Wednesday to the shutdown of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital—Gaza’s only cancer treatment center—due to lack of fuel and damage from Israeli airstrikes, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “no words can describe our concern for the patients who have just lost the only possibility to receive lifesaving cancer treatment or palliative care.”

Tedros added: “I urge and I plead—for full medical and fuel aid access NOW! The more we wait, the more we put these fragile lives at risk.”

The WHO chief’s plea came a day after Christian Lindmeier, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based United Nations agency, warned that “an imminent public health catastrophe… looms with the mass displacement, the overcrowding, the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said Tuesday that “child deaths due to dehydration, particularly infant deaths due to dehydration, are a growing threat.”

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called Gaza a “graveyard” for children, more than 3,600 of whom have been killed by Israeli bombardment, with another 1,000 minors reported missing, according to Palestinian and other officials.

Israeli forces have attacked numerous hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and medical workers, including the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital and al-Hilu Hospital. The Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that the bombardment that damaged al-Hilu “endangers the lives of women in the maternity wards and medical staff.”

According to an “urgent call for protecting healthcare workers in Gaza” published Tuesday in the British medical journal The Lancet, Israeli forces have attacked 57 medical facilities since launching the war on Gaza on October 7, killing 73 workers—including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and others—as of October 24. Sixteen of the medical personnel were killed while on duty.

As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza exacts a heavy toll on overwhelmed medical workers and infrastructure in the besieged strip, frontline medics like Dr. Noureddein al-Khateeb—a 38-year-old resident doctor in the emergency department at the Nasser Medical Center in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis—say they are living “in a constant state of threat and fear.”

“It’s constant fear on top of the exhaustion we’re experiencing,” al-Khateeb toldThe New Humanitarian on Wednesday. “But one shouldn’t think of that too much. I can’t. If I do, I won’t get any work done.”

Al-Khateeb added that “we’re also afraid for our families’ safety, but what can we do?”

Dr. Mohamed Abu Mousa, a radiologist at Nasser, said one of the few trips he’s made outside the hospital since Israeli bombardment began was to bury his 7-year-old son after he was killed in an October 15 Israeli airstrike on their family home.

“We don’t have the luxury of pausing to grieve,” he told The New Humanitarian. “The heartache is immense, but the wounded are endless. We have to keep going.”

Conditions are dire inside Gaza’s hospitals, which are running out of or low on fuel, medicines, equipment, and other essential services and supplies.

“We’re operating on children without anesthetics,” Léo Cans, who heads the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) mission in Palestine, toldCNN Tuesday. “We don’t have morphine for them.”

On Wednesday, MSF international president Dr. Christos Christou said in a video published on social media that “we’ve seen and heard the stories of the hell being unleashed on Gaza” as “helpless people are being subjected to horrific bombing” and “families have nowhere to run or hide.”

Christou continued:

So many people need help. What medical staff can do is just a drop in the ocean compared to the immense needs. Our teams working in Gaza are exhausted and terrified. Our staff tell us that pregnant women can’t get to hospitals to deliver. People are stuck under the rubble of shelled-out buildings. Children are having limbs amputated while lying on the floor.

“An immediate cease-fire is the only way the people of Gaza can find safety and the essential aid they urgently need,” Christou asserted. “The bombing, the all-out assault, needs to stop now… As a human being, I beg—stop the bombing and allow people in Gaza to live.”

The Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday afternoon that at least 8,796 Palestinians—including nearly 2,300 women and over 3,600 children—have been killed in Israeli attacks, while around 23,000 other people have been injured.

Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common

Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘As a Human Being, I Beg’: Doctors Say Cease-Fire in Gaza Only Way to Save Countless Lives

To Earn Back My Vote, Biden Must Stop Supporting Genocide in Gaza

Zionist president Joe Biden. 27 July 2021 image by Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz. Original public domain image from Flickr
Zionist president Joe Biden. 27 July 2021 image by Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz. Original public domain image from Flickr

Original article by SETH MORRISON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

We cannot vote for the re-election of a U.S. president who enables Israel’s campaign of mass starvation, bombardment, and murder of Palestinian civilians.

As an anti-Zionist Jew and a lifelong Democrat, I have signed a public statement that bluntly declares, “We will not vote for Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential elections if he continues to support Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide of the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.”

In signing this statement, I join with over 1,000 Arab, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and allied U.S. voters who have signed the statement to express our disgust with the horrifying policies being embraced by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. As the statement goes on to say, “We cannot vote for the re-election of a U.S. president who enables Israel’s campaign of mass starvation, bombardment, and murder of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” Please check it out and join me in signing.

Biden’s actions in blindly supporting Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide, along with the plan to give Israel another $14 BILLION in military aid, are the last straw.

In addition to always having voted for Democrats, I have also volunteered for and donated money to many Democratic campaigns. In primary campaigns, I have focused my support on brave candidates like Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush. I have done so, not only because of their support for Palestinian rights, but for their overall progressive positions on many issues that I am concerned about. But all too often, I have had to bite my tongue and vote for a Democrat as the least worst candidate in a general election. However, enough is enough. The administration has gone too far by failing to protect Palestinian civilians from a continuing genocide. It is now time to step up and tell the Democratic Party that nominating Biden and Harris for 2024 is both a losing strategy and an act of great immorality.

I too mourn for the many civilians who have been killed in Israel and Gaza, and I demand that all war crimes be vigorously prosecuted. As my late mother often said, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” yet too many elected leaders ignore Israel’s brutality while condemning the Palestinian victims. Indeed history is clear that for the last 75 years, Israel has been exempted from responsibility for its frequent violations of Palestinian rights, as it uses lethal violence to confiscate Palestinian land and hand it over to Israeli Jews.

We know that Hillary Clinton lost because many Democrats didn’t come out and vote. Biden and Harris won because many of us progressives held our noses and voted for them as the only alternative to former President Donald Trump. However, Biden’s actions in blindly supporting Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide, along with the plan to give Israel another $14 BILLION in military aid, are the last straw.

While elected officials like Biden, Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Nancy Pelosi spout Zionist talking points, many Americans are demanding an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. In a recent Data for Progress poll, 80% of Democrats and 66% of likely voters want the president to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. A CBS News poll showed that 53% of Democrats oppose sending more weapons to Israel, and 70% support U.S. aid to Gaza.

America’s elected leaders supported apartheid South Africa’s crimes for far too long, and the same can now be said about today’s Democrats as they continue to ignore Israel’s crimes. It is time for all Democratic voters to make it clear that only a significant change in Biden’s approach to Palestine can enable him to earn our votes in 2024. Please join me and over 500 other voters who have declared that we cannot vote for Biden in 2024 if he continues to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Original article by SETH MORRISON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingTo Earn Back My Vote, Biden Must Stop Supporting Genocide in Gaza

Just Stop Oil supporters refuse to cooperate as 40 arrested

Just Stop Oil protest London 1 Nov 2023. Image: Just Stop Oil.
Just Stop Oil protest London 1 Nov 2023. Image: Just Stop Oil.

Just Stop Oil supporters from the Midlands and East of England began marching on Cromwell Road in West London today. After approximately 10 minutes, Metropolitan Police officers arrived on the scene and called for backup, demanding that protestors leave the road. Within the next 22 minutes, approximately 40 of the marchers were arrested under Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023.

Slow marching with Just Stop Oil today Rachel White 53, a mental health worker from Rochford said:

“I have tried standing as a candidate for the Green Party, I have tried signing petitions, writing to MP’s, attending COP 26, but nothing’s changed. In fact it’s gotten worse, and so I can no longer be a bystander. I want my granddaughter and grandson to know I tried to do something. I want them to know their grandmother was not complicit with the crimes of this government.”

“MPs are well informed and they know that the scale of suffering that has begun is an unprecedented crime against humanity, and that the suffering will only worsen if we do not stop oil & gas emissions, yet they’ve just green-lit Rosebank, which will emit more carbon into the atmosphere than 28 whole countries.”

Rebecca Narracott, 46, a teacher from Norwich said:

“I have three brilliant teenagers who I want to see grow and thrive in a healthy and safe world, but on our current trajectory, this will not be their reality. I am taking action this week because I am privileged enough to be able to, therefore it is my moral obligation to at least try.”

“I am speaking out against our morally bankrupt and broken system of politics and governance; people have power and we must use our voices and bodies to say ‘not in our name.’ It’s time to take to the streets, join us on a slow-march, sign up at juststopoil.org.”

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil supporters refuse to cooperate as 40 arrested

BP accused of putting ‘profit before people and planet’ as fossil fuel investments revealed

Extinction Rebellion protests at BP
Extinction Rebellion protests at BP. Banner reads big profits before planet

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/11/bp-accused-of-putting-profit-before-people-and-planet-as-fossil-fuel-investments-revealed/

The energy giant BP has been accused of prioritising its profits over people and the planet after making £2.7 billion in profit over the last quarter, while investing £2 billion in fossil fuels.

Leading think tank IPPR said now was a time when energy companies should be urgently responding to climate change, but instead BP has “doubled down on its oil and gas business to reap enormous profits.”

For every £1 BP spent on low carbon investments in the last quarter, they invested £11 in fossil fuels it was revealed. And since the energy price shock began two years ago, BP has put nine times more into fossil fuels as renewables.

BP also completed more than £14.8 billion of buybacks from surplus cash flow whilst announcing a new round of share buybacks, which will transfer £1.2 billion to shareholders.

“It’s clear that oil and gas companies are prioritising their shareholders at the expense of the transition to clean energy, so the UK government must now take the reins by investing in renewables,” said Joseph Evans, IPPR researcher.

Although BP’s profits have actually fallen on last year, when the oil company saw mega earnings following the rise in oil prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, £2.7 billion profit between July and September remains extremely high as organisations ask why ordinary people are still facing high energy bills.

“The government has had countless opportunities to bring down our bills and emissions. Instead, all we’ve had are weakened green policies and massive tax breaks for oil and gas giants,” Friends of the Earth responded.

…

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/11/bp-accused-of-putting-profit-before-people-and-planet-as-fossil-fuel-investments-revealed/

Continue ReadingBP accused of putting ‘profit before people and planet’ as fossil fuel investments revealed

‘A Clear-Cut War Crime’: Outrage Grows as Israel Again Bombs Gaza Refugee Camp

Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Palestinians examine the destruction in the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s largest refugee camp on November 1, 2023. (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

“The U.S. government cannot keep funding these atrocities,” said U.S. Rep. Cori Bush. “There must be a cease-fire now.”

The Israeli military bombed Gaza’s largest refugee camp for the second consecutive day on Wednesday as humanitarian groups and lawmakers called the series of attacks a blatant war crime and slammed the U.S. government for enabling such atrocities.

Wednesday’s attack reportedly killed and wounded “a number of” people at the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp, where hundreds were killed or injured roughly 24 hours earlier in bombings by the Israeli military.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) asserted that Tuesday’s strikes were aimed at a “tunnel complex” where a senior Hamas commander, Ibrahim Biari, was purportedly hiding. The IDF said the airstrikes killed Biari but denied intentionally bombing the camp’s buildings, more than a dozen of which were leveled in the attack.

“I was waiting in line to buy bread when suddenly and without any prior warning seven to eight missiles fell,” said one eyewitness. “There were seven to eight huge holes in the ground, full of killed people, body parts all over the place. It felt like the end of the world.”

A Doctors Without Borders nurse in Gaza said that after Tuesday’s strikes, “young children arrived at the hospital with deep wounds and severe burns.”

“They came without their families,” the nurse added. “Many were screaming and asking for their parents. I stayed with them until we could find a place, as the hospital was full with patients.”

Asked about the civilians who were killed in the Tuesday strikes, an IDF spokesperson told CNN that “this is the tragedy of war” and that the Israeli military instructed people in the area to “move south.”

Hamas denied the claim that one of its commanders was in the area targeted by the Israeli military.

Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, argued Tuesday that Israel’s assault on Gaza’s largest refugee camp “is a clear-cut war crime.”

“It shows wanton disregard for the legal obligation to minimize civilian harm in targeting military objectives. It is the latest of many such attacks by the IDF,” Konyndyk wrote. “This in turn underscores that Netanyahu is making a mockery of Biden’s repeated pleas to follow the laws of war—without any acknowledgment of that reality by the U.S. This leaves a cease-fire as the only viable path to civilian protection.”

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who is leading a congressional resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, also denounced the refugee camp bombing as a war crime and said that “this unspeakable violence must end.”

“The U.S. government cannot keep funding these atrocities,” Bush added. “There must be a cease-fire now.”

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) similarly criticized the Biden administration and Congress for backing Israel as it carries out massive crimes against humanity.

“Make no mistake: these human rights abuses are being carried out with U.S. weapons, U.S. funding, and with ‘no red lines,'” Omar wrote on social media. “And now we are set to vote on an additional $14 billion with no restrictions or conditions. The United States Congress should not fund violations of U.S. and international law.”

Israeli forces have killed at least 8,800 people in Gaza since October 7, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel.

The nation’s relentless bombing campaign and siege have fueled a massive humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, displacing more than a million people, imperiling the enclave’s healthcare system, and decimating much of the territory’s civilian infrastructure—including communication and internet services.

The United Nations and human rights organizations have accused Israeli forces of committing grave war crimes in Gaza, including collective punishment, forcible transfer, and genocide.

The wave of airstrikes that hit Jabalia on Wednesday marked at least the sixth time Israel has bombed the camp since October 7, according toAl Jazeera.

“This is just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza where the fighting has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences,” United Nations emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said of the Jabalia attack on Wednesday. “Meanwhile, the world seems unable, or unwilling, to act. This cannot go on.”

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based legal charity, said in a statement Wednesday that the Jabalia strikes “should overwhelmingly signal to the U.K. Government and Labour Party that they must now call for an immediate cease-fire.”

“We urge the U.K. Government and Labour Party to urgently revise their position in light of the Jabalia mass killing, and clearly place the future preservation of civilian life as its highest objective,” the group added.

Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

ICC Prosecutor: Israel May Be Committing War Crime by ‘Impeding’ Gaza Aid

An Isolated US Backs Israeli Atrocities in Gaza

‘Abu Ghraib 2.0’: IDF Torture Videos Spark Renewed Calls to End US Military Aid to Israel

Israel wants either an apartheid state or an ethnic cleansing process, both crimes under international law

Bolivia severs ties with Israel over crimes against humanity

The Savagery of the War Against the Palestinian People

Continue Reading‘A Clear-Cut War Crime’: Outrage Grows as Israel Again Bombs Gaza Refugee Camp