Roger Waters - "We Shall Overcome"

vodpod.com — "I did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza.To protest the fact that the people of Gaza live in a virtual prison.To protest the fact that a year after the terror attack by Israeli armed forces destroyed most of their homes,hospitals,schools,and other public buildings,they have no possibility to rebuild because their borders are closed." RW

Children in Gaza attempt to set Guinness world record for kite flying

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Thousands of children in the Gaza Strip sought to break the world record for kite flying in a rare moment of respite from the war-battered enclave's daily life

More than 6,000 boys and girls gathered on a sandy beach in northern Gaza to fly more than 3,000 kites, according to the officials of the UN agency that organised the event

Picture: EPA

If the figure is confirmed by Guinness the event will hold the new record for the highest number of kites flown simultaneously - the previous high of 710 kites was reached in northern Germany last year

Picture: EPA

The colourful kites were built as part of activities at the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) summer camps which hosted more than 240,000 children this year.

Picture: EPA

Some of the kites included designs such as the red, green, black and white Palestinian flag

Picture: EPA

The Guinness Book of World Records said it had received an application from Gaza for "most kites flown simultaneously." Guinness was unable to send a judge to the attempt due to travel restrictions into Gaza

Picture: EPA

But the children would be able to break the record even without a judge by verifying the accomplishment in other ways, said Guinness spokeswoman Karolina Theli

Picture: EPA

Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the U.N. agency, said every child at the event had their kite registered in accordance with Guinness protocol, which he said event organizers followed with "military precision"

Picture: EPA

"The symbolism of thousands of children in one of the world's most locked up communities, creating beautiful kites, letting them soar upward, is truly beautiful," he said

Picture: EPA

Many of the children in the Hamas-ruled territory still bear psychological scars from Israel's devastating January offensive where some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including more than 300 children

Picture: EPA

Surfing in Gaza helps to keep tensions of war at bay

James Hider in Gaza City

It is not exactly the surfer’s dream scenario: the sea is flat and discoloured greenish-grey by the vast amounts of sewage seeping into it; the nearby fisherman’s wharf has been reinforced by the rubble of war-smashed buildings. Just beyond the horizon, Israeli gunboats prowl to make sure no one is trying to smuggle in weapons by sea.

But none of this is deterring Gaza’s small but dedicated community of surfers. In their rickety wooden lifeguard shack, Mohammed Abu Jayyab, 35, and Ahmed Abu Hasiera, 29, not only watch over the women swimming in their black robes and headscarves and the boys splashing in groups or the men washing their horses — they also keep a constant eye open for rising waves.

They started surfing a decade ago, inspired by television programmes they had seen about the sport. Ahmed brought back a cheap surfboard from Israel and by trial and error they learnt to ride the waves that rise in winter and high summer. After the Islamist group Hamas won the Palestinian elections in early 2006, Gaza was sealed off from the world and people increasingly turned to the sea for relaxation.

“There’s no other form of entertainment,” said Mohammed, a lean, blue-eyed man with a scrubby beard and baggy surfer shorts. “I feel when I’m surfing I’m free, but only for the moment when I’m riding the wave — then you forget all the other problems around you.”

The two men shared their single beaten-up board for years as the siege tightened and Israel launched deadly raids into Gaza, fighting Hamas and other militant groups firing rockets into southern Israel. Then, two years ago, their story was picked up by an American newspaper and was spotted by an elderly American who had introduced surfing to Israel half a century ago.

Don Paskowitz, a surfer from California, moved to Tel Aviv in 1956 and introduced what was then the eight-year-old Jewish state to the art of riding the waves.

In 2007, aged 86, he was inspired to repeat his mission in the besieged, war-torn slums of Gaza. He took a dozen surfboards down to the huge checkpoint in the fence surrounding the tiny enclave. After a certain amount of haggling, he was allowed to hand over the boards to Mohammed and Ahmed, who had gone to the other side to meet him.

From that moment, a loose organisation called Surfing 4 Peace grew, although because of the strict travel restrictions in and out of Gaza, neither Ahmed or Mohammed has ever been able to meet any of the Israeli surfers involved.

A few years ago, there were only two surfers in Gaza. Now there are at least 20, bobbing out at sea as bemused Gazans look on, some of them sitting in deckchairs by the water’s edge, smoking waterpipes.

Ahmed surfs whenever he can, although the ferocity of the fighting in Israel’s attack last January meant that he had to stay out of the water as Israeli gunboats fired from offshore into Gaza’s densely populated cities.

“Even in the war I’d come and sit and look at the sea. Immediately after the fighting I came back and surfed,” he smiled, recalling the moment in the classic war film Apocalypse Now when an American commander in Vietnam forces his men to surf in the midst of a battle, shouting: “Charlie don’t surf!”

The obvious question, then, was: does Hamas surf? “Hamas guys do surf,” said Ahmed, adding that so did members of Fatah, the rival faction, who fought and lost a bitter battle for control of Gaza in the summer of 2007.

“Americans have a war in Iraq and they play football with Iraqis. We are all Palestinian citizens, there’s no difference in surfing between Hamas and Fatah. In sports, there is no war.”

Where you been, dude?

— Angola’s 1,600 km coastline was thick with troops and peppered with landmines during a 40-year civil war. But after peace came in 2002 Angolans turned their coast, which they say offers world-class waves, into a new frontier for surfing and created a budding tourism industry

— Vietnam held its inaugural surfing contest in 1993 on China Beach, where American forces first landed in 1965. The competition brought together former foes from the Vietnam War

— Cuban surfers made their own surfboards from refrigerator insulation foam until a website, HavanaSurf, was set up to enable surfers from abroad to donate second-hand boards. Authorities remain suspicious; in 1994 a Cuban escaped to Florida on a windsurfing board

— Nachum Shifren wrote Surfing Rabbi: A Kabbalistic Quest for Soul after he became an expert surfer, lifeguard and triathlete, and “found God not in the synagogue, but in the majesty of Jewish mysticism and the vast power of the ocean”

— Australia has four Christian surf churches, where worshippers combine prayer with surfing

Sources: Reuters, Times database

Israeli Ground Forces Push Into Gaza

nytimes.com — Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters advanced into Gaza on Saturday in the first ground action of an offensive against Hamas. “We have just a short while ago launched the second stage,” a spokeswoman for Israel Defense Forces Maj. Avital Leibovich, said in an interview broadcast on CNN.

click here for the whole article including pictures and videos: Israeli Ground Forces Push Into Gaza

Israel kills scores in Gaza air strikes

By Nidal al-Mughrabi Nidal Al-mughrabi

Reuters – Palestinians help a wounded man after Israeli air force attacked Gaza City December 27, 2008. (Suhaib …

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 229 people in one of the bloodiest days for the Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state.

Hamas vowed revenge including suicide bomb attacks in the "cafes and streets" of Israel, as Israeli air strikes continued late into the night. Israel said the offensive would continue as long as necessary and that it may also involve land forces.

Israel said the strikes were in response to almost daily "intolerable" rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants, which intensified after Hamas ended a six-month ceasefire a week ago.

The rockets caused few injuries, but Israeli leaders were under pressure to stop these attacks ahead of a February 10 election which opinion polls show the right-wing opposition Likud party may win. On Saturday, one Israeli man was killed by a rocket fired after the Israeli strikes began.

"There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a televised statement. He later ruled out any new truce with Hamas.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that "it may take time, and each and every one of us must be patient so we can complete the mission."

Israel Radio said Israeli infantry and armored forces had been reinforced along the border with Gaza after the attacks.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said "Palestine has never seen an uglier massacre" and in Damascus, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called for a new Palestinian peoples' uprising against Israel.

"We will not leave our land, we will not raise white flags and we will not kneel except before God," Haniyeh said.

Black smoke billowed over Gaza City, where the dead and wounded lay on the ground after Israel bombed more than 40 security compounds, including two where Hamas was hosting graduation ceremonies for new recruits.

MORE THAN 700 WOUNDED

At the main Gaza City graduation ceremony, uniformed bodies lay in a pile and the wounded writhed in pain. Some rescue workers beat their heads and shouted "God is greatest." One badly wounded man quietly recited verses from the Koran.

More than 700 Palestinians were wounded in all, medics said.

Israel said the operation, dubbed "Solid Lead," targeted "terrorist infrastructure" following days of rocket attacks on southern Israel that caused damage but few injuries. Israeli army officials said Hamas leaders could be targeted.

A series of air strikes were launched after darkness fell. Israel telephoned some Palestinians to warn them their homes were targeted and they should leave to avoid being killed. In at least one instance a home was bombed after the occupants left.

Two Palestinians were killed when a mosque was bombed in Gaza City, Hamas officials and medics said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a leading candidate to become Israel's next prime minister, called for international support against "an extremist Islamist organization ... that is being supported by Iran," Israel's arch-foe.

Israel instructed hundreds of thousands of Israelis living up to 30 km (19 miles) from the Gaza border to remain in "safe areas" indoors in case of retaliatory rocket fire.

Backing Israel, the administration of President George W. Bush, in its final weeks in office, put the onus on Hamas to prevent a further escalation.

"The United States ... holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement. "The ceasefire should be restored immediately."

The United Nations and the European Union, in contrast, simply called for an immediate halt to all violence.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Israeli air campaign was "criminal" and urged world powers to intervene.

Egypt said it would keep trying to restore the truce.

UPRISING CALL

Saturday's death toll was the highest for a single day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1948, when the Jewish state was established.

"I call upon you to carry out a third intifada (uprising)," Hamas leader Meshaal said on Al-Jazeera television. The first Palestinian intifada began in 1987 and the second in 2000 after peace talks failed.

Hamas estimated that at least 100 members of its security forces had been killed, including police chief Tawfiq Jabber and the head of Hamas's security and protection unit, along with at least 15 women and some children.

The Islamist group, which won a 2006 parliamentary election but was shunned by Western powers over its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel, said all of its security compounds in the Gaza Strip were destroyed or seriously damaged.

Aid groups said they feared the Israeli operation could fuel a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished coastal enclave, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, half of them dependent on food aid.

Gaza hospitals said they were running out of medical supplies because of the Israeli-led blockade. Israel said it would let 10 trucks into Gaza with vital medical supplies and flour on Sunday, a Palestinian official said.

Israeli analyst Ron Ben-Yishai said the strike was "shock treatment ... aimed at securing a long-term ceasefire between Hamas and Israel on terms that are favorable to Israel."

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Douglas Hamilton and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Ari Rabinovitch in Tel Aviv and Wafa Amr in Ramallah, Peter Millership in London, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)