Cleveland Peace Action, 2592 West 14th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113 – peaceactioncleveland.org
Contact: Don Bryant – 216-255-1576 – email.donbryant@gmail.com
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Gaza and Israeli Deaths and Palestinian Human Rights
The recent deaths and violence in Gaza, Palestine and the Negev area of Israel were not initiated by Hamas or Islamic Jihad as described in mainstream news. If we want to lay blame on one entity for the May 4-May 6, 2019 exchange of missiles and bombs, we can site Israel for firing and killing two nonviolent demonstrators on May 3 in the weekly “Great Return March” in Gaza that began in March 2018. The Gaza health ministry reported that the Israeli army has killed 275 pro-democracy demonstrators and wounded 17,000 in the past 14 months of demonstrations at the Gaza – Israel border.
Another reason for the violence is Israel’s 12-year military embargo of the Gaza Strip where 2 million Palestinians live in the world’s largest open-air prison. Israel’s military invasion in 2014 severely damaged Gaza’s already weak infrastructure, prompting the United Nations to warn that the strip would be “uninhabitable” by 2020. Electricity is generated just two hours per day, water systems are tainted with waste, 39% live in poverty, 58% of youth are unemployed, and 80% are reliant on international aid after suffering three military offenses in the Gaza Strip since 2008.
Since Israel’s creation, May 14, 1948, it has steadily conquered or stolen land from the Palestinians. May 15 of that year is known as the Nakba, or catastrophe, by Palestinians. From 1967 through 2017, over 200 Israeli settlements were established in Occupied Palestine (including East Jerusalem) with a population of almost 620,000. Settlements restrict Palestinian human rights beyond the re-appropriation of their land: with checkpoints that limit Palestinian movement; access to farmland near settlements is denied; and the route of a separation barrier placed inside the internationally recognized Palestinian border allows more illegal settlements in Occupied Palestine.
Cleveland Peace Action is backed by international law in its condemnation of Israel’s de facto annexation of Occupied Palestine. Cleveland Peace Action further joins the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement in calling for a military embargo of Israel, which would denounce and end over $3 billion in arms that the U.S. provides to Israel annually.
Cleveland Peace Action joins the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement in calling for a military embargo of Israel, which would denounce and end over $3 Billion in arms the U.S. provides to Israel annually.
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