ISRAEL SHOULD READ WIKI

Ignored UN Security Council Resolution 780
~or~
Why Israel Should Read Wiki

wikiEthnic cleansing is a euphemism referring to the persecution through imprisonment, expulsion, or killing of members of an ethnic minority by a local majority to achieve ethnic homogeneity in majority-controlled territory.[1]

The term ethnic cleansing has been variously defined. In the words of Andrew Bell-Fialkoff:

[E]thnic cleansing [...] defies easy definition. At one end it is virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration and population exchange while at the other it merges with deportation and genocide. At the most general level, however, ethnic cleansing can be understood as the expulsion of a population from a given territory.[3]

The official United Nations definition of ethnic cleansing is "rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group"[4]

However, ethnic cleansing rarely aims at complete ethnic homogeneity. The common practice is the removal of stigmatized ethnic groups, and thus can be defined as "the forcible removal of an ethnically defined population from a given territory", occupying the middle part of a somewhat fuzzy continuum between nonviolent pressured ethnic emigration and genocide.[5]

A similar term with the same intent was used by the Nazi administration in Germany under Adolf Hitler.(Netanyahu) When an area under Nazi (Israeli) control had its entire Jewish (Palestinian) population removed, whether by driving the population out (To Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, rest of the world), by deportation to Concentration Camps (Israeli Jails and Refugee Camps), and/or murder, the area was declared judenrein, (lit. "Jew Clean"): "cleansed of Jews". (Judaization of Jerusalem=Palestinain Free Zone)(cf. racial hygiene).

Flash forward to the Judaization of Jerusalem in 2009, Ethnic cleansing is “In Progress” every day, house evictions, home demolitions, expulsion, murder, removal by force, it’s ALL in use today, by the “Jewish Only State” of Israel. More:

Ethnic cleansing as a military and political tactic
The purpose of ethnic cleansing is to remove the conditions for potential and actual opposition, (IN PROGRESS) whether political, guerrilla or military,(IN PROGRESS) by physically removing any potentially or actually hostile ethnic communities.(IN PROGRESS) Although it has sometimes been motivated by a doctrine that claim an ethnic group is literally "unclean" (Jews then, Palestinains now) more usually it has been a rational (if brutal) way of ensuring that total control can be asserted over an area.(BINGO!)

Israel guilty of Crimes Against Humanity:

There is no formal legal definition of ethnic cleansing.[23] However, ethnic cleansing in the broad sense - the forcible deportation of a population - is defined as a crime against humanity under the statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

The UN Commission of Experts (established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780) held that the practices associated with ethnic cleansing "constitute crimes against humanity and can be assimilated to specific war crimes. Furthermore ... such acts could also fall within the meaning of the Genocide Convention." The UN General Assembly condemned "ethnic cleansing" and racial hatred in a 1992 resolution.[26]

SOME EXAMPLES LISTED IN WIKI ARE:

1. The Palestinian exodus, in which the substantial majority of Arab Palestinians (approximately 700,000) in the areas of British Mandate of Palestine that became part of Israel fled or were forced to leave in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

2. The creation of the apartheid system in South Africa, which began in 1948 but reached full flower in the 1960s and 1970s, involved some ethnic cleansing, including the separation of blacks, Coloureds, and whites into separate residential areas and private spheres. The government created Bantustans, which involved forced removals of non-white populations to reserved lands.[71][72] The governing minority forced relocation of the majority to different areas, as well as restricting their movement

3. After the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and Act of Settlement in 1652, the whole post-war Cromwellian settlement of Ireland has been characterised by historians such as Mark Levene and Alan Axelrod as ethnic cleansing, in that it sought to remove Irish Catholics from the eastern part of the country, others such as the historical writer Tim Pat Coogan have describe the actions of Cromwell and his subordinates as genocide.[30]

Israel should read wiki, and the world should enforce UN Security Council Resolution 708……….now!

"Witness Our Fear~Oh The Horror" (On Que)

Ivan Lewis, the British Foreign Minister is visiting Israel and Palestine. He wants to see the separation wall and the home evictions in East Jerusalem first hand.

Of course, as expected, Israel will be taking him to Sderot in order to parade out the old rusty home made rockets they have treasured and saved for this purpose. In addition a few (Alive and Well) families will be brought forward in order to wail in misery as they view the old rusty rockets. (In sharp contrast to the 1400 DEAD mostly civilians including 400 DEAD children in Gaza) But I digress... The visit to Sderot is to remind Lewis that "Israel is always the victim" Something tells me they are going to have a hard sell, what with Lewis witnessing first hand the contrast of those home made rockets in the pristine Israeli neighbourhoods (on former Palestinian land) to the total genocidal destruction in Palestine. No comparison.

More "irony" on those rockets after this:

British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East Ivan Lewis began a four-day visit to Palestine and Israel on Monday, which will include a tour of the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya.

Lewis will also visit areas of East Jerusalem where Israel has recently demolished houses and evicted Palestinians from their homes.I believe that it is imperative to come out and see the situation on the ground first-hand,” Lewis said at the start of his visit.

The minister will also visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot to see the effect of projectiles formerly fired from Gaza. (Que the performance of a lifetime)

“The UK has long made our opposition to settlements clear,” he said, “and we press the Israel government at the highest level continually on the importance of fulfilling its roadmap commitments: Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including the natural growth" source

Now about those rockets. I came across this little piece (below) of evidence that supports what I said earlier. Those small homemade old rusty rockets are pure gold to Israel, an actual "thing" they can hold up to the world as their excuse for an attempt at annihilating an entire population who are locked in a fishbowl with no escape. Using white phosphorous and DIME missiles. Well, that argument falls a wee bit short as is noted in the below snippet from an Israeli blog. You see those rockets are sought after "garden ornaments"

There is something slightly creepy about using Qassam rockets as garden art.

Turning a murderous instrument with your name on it into a community showpiece is a way of taking ownership of it, laughing at it even. Your rockets don’t scare us. They’re just garden art now. We’re still here. And you keep missing the target.

(Smell the fear........)MORE:

Zvika did seem to think the rocket parts were a little bit funny. He held them up for my camera with the same good cheer as a fisherman who just caught a seven pound bass.

Check out the nice photos HERE and get a load of how tiny they are, great garden art though! And here's more visual eye candy for you,compare this to Gaza. Note: all photos are of real quassam rockets in Israel, the text is added by yours truly:

Israelis fight over ownership of new garden ornament:

4th of July celebration gets out of hand in Israel:

Now where did that rocket go, it was here just a minute ago, darn tiny things are so hard to find:

IDF stand guard in effort to thwart any "toe stubbing" of the public:

And this:
Only Israel could imagine they could counter the images the world has seen in Gaza with those tiny old rusty garden ornaments. So yeah, I'll bet Lewis will see the performance of a lifetime, one deserving of an Oscar.

BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL VICTORIES

16-08-2009,11:18

The international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel has won several important victories in recent months. At this summer's trade union conferences in Britain, BDS activists have made significant progress.

While the campaign has been building momentum in unions globally since the 2005 Palestinian call for BDS, Israel's winter invasion of Gaza has spurned several trade unions and union federations in Britain and Ireland to pass motions more explicitly in favor of BDS. Several are calling for BDS for the first time.

Tom Hickey, a member of the University and College Union's (UCU) national executive committee, said, "The question of the moral rightness or wrongness [of BDS against Israel] has effectively already been decided."

Although the Trade Union Congress (the British union federation) has not yet passed a BDS motion, affiliated unions have begun taking up the Palestinian call themselves. So far this summer, the public sector union PCS, the UCU and the Fire Brigades Union have all passed strong motions explicitly calling for a general policy of boycott of Israeli goods, divestment from Israeli companies and government sanctions against the state.

Unions such as public sector union UNISON, the National Union of Teachers, USDAW and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have this summer passed softer motions calling for elements of BDS. These are usually calls for a boycott of settlement goods, or for the government to suspend arms sales to Israel. The CWU and others have condemned the infamous 13 January 2008 statement of the Israeli trade union federation in support of Israel's invasion of Gaza, which read: "The Histadrut recognizes the urgent need for the State of Israel to operate against the command and control centers of the organizational terror network ..."

In April, the independent Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) for the first time voted to endorse a report recommending "boycott and disinvest from Israeli companies" and a "call for sanctions against Israel" at their annual delegates' congress.

This decision was not arrived at overnight. STUC Assistant Secretary Mary Senior said, "it was very important we carefully considered the issue." A motion passed at the 2007 congress called on the leadership to "explore the merits of the calls" for BDS. In February-March of this year, Senior participated in an official STUC delegation to Palestine. It was this visit that formed the basis of the report recommending BDS.

The delegation met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, trade unionists and civil society groups in the occupied West Bank and in Israel. Almost all of the representatives were asked their opinion on BDS.

The report criticized the Israeli trade union federation, stating "At no time did Histadrut acknowledge that the West Bank is occupied" -- an occupation that delegation members witnessed first hand.

The report ultimately concluded "there was strong support for BDS amongst Palestinian trade unions and civic society."

Senior believes this report was vital, and that if the vote had been held two years earlier, it might not have passed. "It was important to have ... the consultation and the delegation. That helped to bring all of our affiliates on board," she said.

Not So Fast.......enter thug David Miliband:

Miliband said he would dispatch Ivan Lewis to dissuade union leaders from the boycott. Lewis is the new foreign office minister for the Middle East, and is also a member and former vice-chair of the lobbying group, Labor Friends of Israel.

Sorry David, the UNIONS are not buying it:

Union activists have been less than impressed. UCU's Blackwell stated that the British government "should do more to enforce human rights and to put pressure on Israel to comply with international law." The STUC replied the following day with its own statement, rejecting Miliband's remarks: "The UK Government is out of step with the views of workers on this matter." STUC's Senior added that the organization was "very surprised he would say that."

Martial Kurtz, Campaigns and Events Officer of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said, "We are not all that worried about Lewis or Miliband going around trying to stop this ... BDS is well on its way and their response smacks of desperation." source

South Africa To Punish Israel?

Human rights groups around the world have been attempting to bring war crimes charges against Israel. Using Lawfare and International laws, there have so far been many suits filed, but Israel's powerful lobbyists and control over foreign governments have so far succeeded in having charges dismissed. The case in Spain looked good, then Israel worked its magic at top levels of the government and soon the poor Judge was forced to drop the case. Additionally the American AIPAC spy case fell the same way, with all involved going free and a strong message sent to Israel that it is "OK" to spy on America. Well, perhaps South Africa will withstand the Zionists reach and ultimately be the one who stands up to the war criminals. A state known to have suffered apartheid akin to the Palestinians, they now are free to govern themselves and forge their own future. Should South Africa succeed, how prophetic would that be, given it's history..........

South Africa crack fighting unit, the National Prosecuting Authority, has been urged to prosecute people suspected of war crimes in Gaza. The call was made by the Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (PSA) and the Media Review Network (MRN).

The two organizations handed the NPA a file of about 3500 pages, which they said indicated prima facie evidence that “South African citizens and/or residents are implicated in the commissions of these crimes”.

The organizations brought their application under a South African law, which gives effect to the Rome Statute.

It makes the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity a legal obligation. It covers South Africans and anyone who sets foot in SA alleged to have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.

The evidence includes a recent report by the Human Science Research Council which found Israel’s policies in occupied Palestinian territory to “fit the definition of apartheid” in international law. Apartheid has been deemed a crime against humanity.

Sinn Fein's MacLochlainn Calls for Prosecution of IDF Commanders

Just noticed this in my email. Sinn Fein calls for International Tribunal for the Prosecution of IDF commanders for inflicting "genocidal" war crimes against the people of Gaza.

Israeli war criminals must be prosecuted-MacLochlainn

Sinn Féin Councillor Gerry MacLochlainn, who recently visited Gaza as part of the European Convoy of Hope, has called for the establishment of an International Tribunal for the prosecution of Israeli Army commanders for genocidal war crimes against the Palestinian people after thirty Israeli soldiers exposed outrageous and criminal targeting of civilians in the Gaza strip during Israel’s invasion in December 2008 and January 2009.

Gerry MacLochlainn said, “This isn’t the first time that soldiers have come forward and exposed the outrageous and criminal activities of the Israeli army. Time and again the Israeli army has been exposed for its human rights abuses yet the international community fails to act."

“Today’s report, from thirty of Israel’s own soldiers, highlights the callous and indiscriminate targeting of Palestinian civilians during the invasion of December 2008 and January 2009. This includes commanders urging soldiers to shoot first and worry later about sorting civilians from combatants."

“This must not be allowed to go unchecked. There must be an international inquiry and we need to see prosecutions of the genocidal war criminals entrenched in the Israeli regime. There must be consequences for the actions of the Israeli Government and its army – and these should include the introduction of economic sanctions against Israel.

“Israel’s practice of conscripting recruits and forcing them to serve in occupied Palestinian territories needs to come to an end along with the policy of locking up conscientious objectors who refuse to serve in the army."

“It is vital that the international community must ensure that soldiers involved in the publication of today’s report are protected from reprisals from the Israeli military.”ENDS

GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK

Egypt is to burn up all the accumulated aid for Gaza that has sat at the border to rot because Israel won't allow it to be delivered to the people who need it.The way I see it, Israel and Egypt owe every single person who donated money, food, clothing or any type of aid. Some one should take a worldwide class action law suit against the two countries for the cost of the aid they will now destroy! If they can't deliver, they should give the world our money back.

Egyptian authorities on Friday said they planned to destroy a large amount of accumulated humanitarian aid bound for Palestinians in Gaza.

The aid expired at the Al-Ouja border crossing between Israel and Egypt while authorities awaited Israel's permission to transfer it through, they said.

The type of aid being transferred is regulated for certain crossing points, and the one for the expired shipment of 680 kg of peanuts, agricultural pesticides and medicine, was designated through one of the Israeli crossings into Gaza.

However Israel never allowed the aid to enter its country and it expired. Authorities said they would set it ablaze in the city of Al-Sheikh Zayed to dispose of it. source

MASSIVE FAIL~Jewish Lobby FAILS to Oust Robinson

CONFIRMED: Ok to compare Gaza to Holocaust. Yes, the American Jewish Lobby Groups are, at this moment, in the process of ripping out their own eyeballs in order to stuff them into their ears to stop the horrible sound of "FAILURE" from entering. GAZA=HOLOCAUST Two reports below:

Calif. professor's Gaza e-mail cleared by panel

On Wednesday, he was notified that a faculty committee had found no "probable cause" to undertake a full investigation of complaints filed against him related to e-mail messages he sent to his students in which he compared Israelis and Nazis. Further, he was notified that the administration at the University of California at Santa Barbara had accepted the faculty members' analysis, and that the case was over -- without his ever having faced formal charges before a disciplinary committee.

Supporters of Robinson, a tenured professor of sociology, agreed with those findings. But they said that grievances filed over e-mail messages sent in January should have been seen immediately as baseless, and that allowing the case to linger for months endangered the academic freedom of Robinson and others.

The case has attracted attention far beyond Santa Barbara, with the American Association of University Professors last month calling on the university to "pause" its inquiries because of the academic freedom issues involved. Cary Nelson, national president of the AAUP, said Wednesday night that "although I am pleased that the Robinson case has been closed, I am also concerned that unnecessary investigations of faculty exercising their academic freedom are having a serious chilling effect on our more vulnerable or less courageous colleagues."

The dispute dates to an e-mail message that Robinson sent to the approximately 80 students in January in a course about sociology and globalization. The e-mail contained an article criticizing the Israeli military's actions in Gaza. Part of the e-mail was an assemblage of photos from Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews and from Israel's actions in Gaza. Students were invited to look at the "parallel images." A message from Robinson argued that Gaza would be like "Israel's Warsaw."

In February, the Anti-Defamation League's Santa Barbara office wrote to Robinson to protest the e-mail and to urge him to repudiate it. "While your writings are protected by the First Amendment and academic freedom, we rely upon our rights to say that your comparisons of Nazis and Israelis were offensive, ahistorical and have crossed the line well beyond legitimate criticism of Israel," the letter said. It went on to say that the "tone and extreme views" in his e-mail were "intimidating to students," and that using his university e-mail to send "material that appears unrelated to" his course violated university standards for faculty members.

(Hmmmmmm, so freedom of speech only applies to Israel and it's hasbara)

Following that letter, two students in the course dropped the class and filed complaints against Robinson. One student wrote that she felt "nauseous" upon reading the e-mail, and felt it was inappropriate. A second student complaint accusing Robinson of being unprofessional -- also from a student who dropped the course after receiving the e-mail -- said that Robinson has "clearly stated his anti-Semitic political views in this e-mail."

(I'll bet dollars to doughnuts these "two" students are most likely members of THIS groups no doubt)

The position of Robinson and his supporters has been that Israel's conduct in Gaza was in every way appropriate as a topic for discussion in a class on global issues, and that the complaints filed against him were a simple case of students (and some pro-Israel groups) disagreeing with Robinson's analysis. Robinson could not be reached Wednesday, but last month he told Inside Higher Ed that the charges against him were "absolutely absurd." He noted that he is Jewish and said that he abhors anti-Semitism, and that his academic freedom is being violated by the university taking seriously charges that link his e-mail criticisms of Israel's government with anti-Semitism. "This is all because I have criticized the policies of the State of Israel."

Stand With Us, a pro-Israel group that has been organizing petition drives to back the idea of a full investigation of Robinson, issued a statement Wednesday night questioning the university's decision. link

This bears repeating all day long:
GAZA=HOLOCAUST
GAZA=HOLOCAUST
GAZA=HOLOCAUST
GAZA=HOLOCAUST
GAZA=HOLOCAUST
GAZA=HOLOCAUST
GAZA=HOLOCAUST
Until their collective heads explode

LIVE, FROM GAZA~IT'S WAR CRIMES TV

It appears the UN team who are now investigating the ZOF "Zionist Occupying Force" war crimes will be screening the hearings live. My first reaction was "Wooooo Whoooo" but then common sense and my spidy hairs began to tingle, always a bad sign. I wonder why this is? Why they would want to publicly air information that surely would piss off the Zionist Entity to the nth degree. The answer is one of three things. Either this is some sort of a larger picture to publicly humiliate Israel so as to give Obama some ammunition (excuse the pun) to use in order to force them into making peace. Or....the two bad options would be that this Team has already excluded any claims on various grounds, and they want to appear open and above board by listing the alleged crimes and then refuting them one by one. Or lastly, they found crimes were committed but are somehow unable to charge Israel and airing them publically is meant to mollify Gazans and the world. I vote #3 but hope I'm wrong, but what say you good people? Here's the report:

UN's Gaza war crimes probe to screen hearings live

The United Nations team which is investigating alleged war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead, last January, announced on Wednesday that it would broadcast the hearings it plans to hold with Palestinian and Israeli victims live.

The team, led by veteran war crimes investigator Richard Goldstone, will hold the hearings in Gaza City on Sunday and Monday, UN officials said. (I hope there is live online streaming!!!)

Spokeswoman Doune Porter said that the hearings would be broadcast and the media would be allowed to view them from a separate room.

She said Wednesday that the team also would hold hearings in Geneva on July 6-7 under the same conditions. LINK

Israel Opens Crossings? Nah, They're Just Kidding

Zionist Government says crossings to be opened for aid to enter Palestine, not so fast though, Zionist Racists protest and block crossings. How convenient

Israeli demonstrators blocked the roads leading to the border crossings into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning in a protest demanding the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

According to the website of the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot, the demonstrators blocked roads leading to the Karni, Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings.

The demonstrators are apparently objecting to their government’s policy of allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where Palestinian militiamen have been holding Shalit prisoner since 2006. source

Israel Needs More Drugs~Hallucinating Again

They are hallucinating again, will someone please help them? I started a Prozac donation site for Israel, but it's not enough. We need boat loads.

Barak: There is neither hunger nor crisis in Gaza

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the cabinet on Sunday that he felt that there was no crisis in the Gaza Strip.

"There is no hunger or crisis in Gaza," he said during a security briefing. "More supplies pass through the border crossings today than did during some points of the last cease-fire. Only sensitive materials or construction materials are not transferred in." link

Well, beg to differ with you Mr. Adolf Eichmann, the "hope" convoy just returned and guess what? The hospital needs a tube for their scanner so sick and injured people can be saved. They also need paper, the doctors had to go from using regular A-4 paper like the rest of the world, down to using A-6, which they can hardly read because the patients notes are so small. And why are they not allowed proper parts for the Kidney Dialysis machines? Because they can only give people 2 hours of Dialysis, hence they are going around poisoned, but you like that don't you Mr. Eichmann? So, Mr. Eichmann, why are these things not allowed? When is paper a dangerous weapon. Are you afraid that HAMAS will make paper planes and fly them into Isra-hell? Or that you will somehow die from a massive paper cut somehow created and instigated by HAMAS?

Zionist Nazi asshat terrorists punishing an entire population.

Another Witness to Israeli Genocide

Scottish parliamentarians witness Israeli devastation in Gaza
By Hamed Chapman

The convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on Palestine has returned from a mercy trip to Gaza speaking of the horrendous devastation wreaked during Israel’s latest massacre of more than 1,400 Palestinians. “The devastation in Gaza is absolutely shocking. The extent of the destruction of Gaza families and homes is unbelievable,” Labour member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Pauline McNeill said. “Every single person we met pleaded with us to do what we could to lift the Israeli siege on their country,” she said.

The Labour MSP from Glasgow Kelvin led a delegation to Gaza to deliver the first trenche of medical aid from Scotland after spending 14 days of negotiations with Egyptian Authorities to open Rafeh crossing. She also visited Lebanon in the aftermath of Israel’s latest invasion in 2006. “The fact that we have seen some of the devastation on our TV screens is the only thing that prepares you for the entry into the north of Gaza where the Israeli defence forces aimed the majority of their fire power. Thousands of family homes were raised to the ground by the constant bombing,” said McNeill, who is Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Culture Europe and Constitutional Affairs in the Scottish Parliament.

She told The Muslim News that they spent hours talking to families just sitting in their tents donated by the Rotary Club with nothing to do. “Some of the children were reading their lessons. As you go around speaking everyone joins in as they want you to hear their stories. We saw one family of 8 children in one small tent. There were 90 families in this camp with only 30 tents. There is no sanitation and so they are all at risk of disease,” she said.

The Scottish delegation included members of Glasgow Central Mosque, Sid Khan, Shalim Mohammed and Shamim Ahmed, who helped collect ten of thousands of pounds in an emergency appeal for aid that was largely spent on desperately needed medical supplies. A second aid consignment of Scottish aid led by Denis Rutovitz, Chair of Edinburgh Direct Aid (EDA), also made its way towards Gaza with the assistance of the Egyptian Red Crescent after being flown to Cairo.
McNeill spoke of the scant aid getting through, including basic food or rice and bean arriving, while they were there. “The UNWRA tent across the way is only for show as they get no assistance from UNWRA as the Palestinians do not have refugee status. These Palestinians are internally displaced persons and it is shocking to learn they don’t benefit directly from the international efforts. The Government have given families $5000 but what can you do with that,” she said.

The vivid picture she painted was of temporary shelters being created on the rubble of the destroyed homes. “We were told of a woman who sleeps with her children in her brother’s home but during the day she lives on the streets so as not to intrude on her brother’s life. We were shown pictures of dead children buried under the rubble of the collapsed buildings; pictures of screaming children hurt and burned in the blasts,” the MSP said. “Many injured people do not get the rehabilitation assistance they need as they are short of walking sticks, wheel chairs and any type of basic medical equipment that any health service needs to attend to wounded people.”

“Most people think that Gaza borders are open after the war and that aid is flooding in; it is not. The opening of the crossings is sporadic and the aid is not enough. There is a desperate need for drugs for cancer and heart diseases,” McNeill said. She said the delegation met with Minister of Health, Dr Basem, who said that many countries are donating but not the right kind of aid. “There is no real co-ordination of their needs. He confirms that aid is stockpiling outside Gaza and it is not free flowing. The Siege is as bad as ever – hundreds have died waiting to get out of Gaza to hospitals outside the strip,” she said.

Scottish aid being flown in amounts to some seven tonnes of medicines such as antibiotics, vitamins and food supplements for children and expectant mothers. Other items include sutures, syringes and needles, surgical gloves, dressings and many different types of medical and surgical consumables. Almost all are intended for primary care centres and will be donated to the Palestine Medical Relief Society’s clinics.

“We visited about 6 orphanages where the representatives of Scotland’s largest Mosque, Glasgow Central Mosque, gifted money to the children and the families who helped to look after them. Many would not accept the gift as they said it was enough that we had come and that they wanted to preserve their dignity,” McNeill said. “We had gone to Gaza to show the support for the people and to ensure Scotland was seen as part of the collective efforts.”

McNeill, who has been an MSP since 1997, has been involved in seeking justice for the Palestinians since her student days. She was a strident opponent of the Iraq war and has also spoken out against US and Israeli threats against Iran.

“The siege on Gaza must be lifted. Not a single brick has been replaced after the war.
"No reconstruction work has started. The rubble has not even been cleared. If we forget about Gaza perhaps we may begin to see rocket firing again as that tends to get the world’s attention,” she said.

“Palestinians will tell you themselves that it is a political solution which is needed and not an aid strategy. Whilst we are waiting on that dream we cannot stand for any blockage of the international efforts to bring humanitarian assistance,” said the MSP, who is also helping to coordinate a 100 truck convoy, dubbed the European Convoy of Hope link