July 30, 2014

Democracy Now - Palestinian Journalist Mohammed Omer

Lifting the Blockade Isn’t a Hamas Demand — It’s a Human Right

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/29/palestinian_journalist_mohamed_omer_lifting_the


"...AARON MATÉ: Mohammed, we have 30 seconds. The main issue for Hamas is ending the blockade of Gaza. Can you talk about why this is such a critical issue for Gazans who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the siege to be lifted?

MOHAMMED OMER: Remember that this is not a demand by Hamas. This is also a demand by the international community. The U.N. have always called on Israel to lift the blockade, to open the borders and make life possible. To lift the blockade, it’s pretty easy. It’s a pretty easy equation here. Israel will have to open the border. If you remember, in January 2008, when Palestinians knocked down the wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, there was not one single rocket that was fired into Israel. If that indicates to you something, it shows that Palestinians just want open borders, and they want lifting the blockade, and they want to enjoy their life, like the rest of the neighbors. And Israel is not giving the chance for the Palestinians to basically get in and outside of the Gaza Strip.

I’m afraid that we are going to have more radical generations in the Gaza Strip, and I fear the future of Gaza, and I fear the future of the West Bank, and I fear the future of the region, if the international community is not acting now to end the blockade and to end the aggression in Gaza and to make sure that people are safe and secure. There is nowhere safe. There is nowhere secure. We are being bombed constantly by Israeli F-16s and tank shells. And the international community is waiting. We are—the way the international community is dealing with the Gazans is unfortunately as numbers. Now it’s 1,200 people who were killed. That’s only a number. But each one of these numbers is a story. Each one of them is a memory. Each one of them is a whole narrative that we need to understand. We need to see the people. I have been to the cemetery yesterday, where a mother was screaming over the body of her son. And why? Because Israel targeted one of the graveyards, and she was collecting the bones of her own son who was killed some years ago. Imagine, if that’s something that’s happening anywhere in the world, what the reaction of the international community would be. But because it’s in Gaza, there is no reaction..."

June 11, 2014

Thanks for linking the two original posts which mention the WHITE MEN on DU ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025060206#post12

"...I have read too many times here that we need to try to reach out to... Drumroll please...... WHITE MEN! Not our base, and our voters, but we need to reach out to old white males and not say stuff that might make them anxious. Why? Because the board is full of them and some of them think that the nation is not paying attention to their problems ..."

Then in response to another poster ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5060383

"After you old guys are gone the rest of us will make up the new majority ..."

Since then there seems to have been lots of back peddling, but those were the original comments directed at old, white men of DU. Sad that these type of comments will now be acceptable on DU.