oh rafah. aching rafah. aching of refugees aching of tumbled houses bicycles severed from tank-warped tires and aching of bullet riddled homes all homes worm-eaten by bullets and then impregnated through bullet holes by birds.
Read the journal entry of peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was living in Rafah when she was crushed to death by an Israeli-operated bulldozer while defending one of the many homes that have been destroyed by the Israeli military in Rafah. Read more about "oh rafah, aching rafah" - A poem from the journal of Rachel Corrie
When I saw the images of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. troops in Abu Ghraib, I felt as though I had already visually experienced it in the visceral work of American artist Leon Golub. Similar to what I sensed when first seeing the now infamous Abu Ghraib photographs, the even more recent images of house demolitions and death in Rafah incited an all too familiar feeling of dread — the feeling that we have seen this all before, and how horrible are we for letting it happen again. Read more about Pictures of war: Conflicts and dates may change, but the imagery and inhumanity stay the same
Since Rachel Corrie died in Rafah over a year ago, Rafah has held a special place in the hearts of Olympia residents who have been attempting to forge a sister city relationship with the besieged city. On May 18, the Olympia Rafah Sister City Project [ORSCP] sponsored a demonstration in support of the people in Rafah. About 35 people gathered at rush hour on Percival Landing to protest the latest destruction and show solidarity with the Palestinian people. The current deadly incursion in Rafah has hit many people here hard. Read more about Outrage in Olympia as Sister City is Attacked
Since the beginning of May 2004, Israel has dramatically increased its program of structural and ethnic cleansing of Rafah. While Israel claims that its military operations in Rafah are motivated by “security reasons”, numerous reports from human rights organisations paint a picture of arbitrary shootings of residents, including children, and nightly firing at border homes from Israeli watchtowers. EI co-founder Nigel Parry examines the various claims Israel has made about the ongoing “Operation Rainbow” and attempts to uncover some of the realities behind Israel’s distortions of what is happening in Rafah. Read more about Key Israeli distortions about "Operation Rainbow" in Rafah
“The deadly operation launched by Ariel Sharon this week in Rafah, the southernmost city of the crowded and occupied Gaza Strip, is picturesquely code-named ‘Operation Rainbow.’ Dressing up a murderous assault on unarmed civilians with an ancient symbol of glittering hope is obscene. One hue never present in any rainbow is black. But that’s the shade I’d like to focus on in this essay and call for action.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani suggests a simple symbolic protest to encourage thought, inspire discussion, and nurture solidarity in the face of escalating carnage in Gaza and Iraq. Read more about Black is for mourning, to say "we're not conforming," to war crimes in the Middle East
Ali Abunimah, Nigel Parry and Michael F. Brown18 May 2004
The Electronic Intifada urges all concerned people to contact international and government officials to demand immediate action to halt Israel’s assault on Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. Israel is in the process of committing major war crimes with total impunity. The United States continues to give a green light to Israeli war crimes. In recent days, Secretary of State Colin Powell half-heartedly criticized the destruction in Gaza. Today, however, as the atrocities continue in Rafah, President Bush declared in a major address to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC that Israel “has every right to defend itself from terror.” Bush made no criticism whatsoever of the Israeli attack on Rafah. Read more about Urgent: Protest Israeli war crimes against civilians in Rafah; Gaza
The American news media have been largely eyeless in Gaza (save for Molly Moore did write a moving though haunting piece about Rafah for the Washington Post of May 16). According to UNRWA 1,100 Palestinians were made homeless in the first 10 days of May. Has that appeared in your local newspaper? Can you imagine the hue and cry if Palestinians somehow had the capacity to force 1,100 Israelis out of their homes in Ashkelon just a touch north of Gaza? The story would lead the newspapers — as it should — even if Palestinians said they were simply moving back to the land they were pushed out of more than 50 years ago. The point to make to the newspapers, and to CNN, is that both Israeli and Palestinian suffering should be covered. All too often, Palestinian casualties are ignored or downplayed. Read more about Speak out now for Rafah
The Palestinians are suffering, in the words of the UN Relief and Works Agency, the “effect of a terrible natural disaster”, but one that has been created by people and politics. A manmade catastrophe where a power imbalance, maintained and exaggerated by Western governments lies at the heart of mass impoverishment and dehumanisation of an entire people. Palestine is a microcosm of everything going on in the world today. Nick Dearden is Campaigns Officer at UK anti-poverty charity War on Want, examines the state of affairs in Palestine. Read more about Palestine: the end of their dreams
The Israeli, and pro-Israeli, media have made a great deal of noise about the recent Palestinian operations in the occupied Gaza Strip whereby eleven Israeli soldiers were killed in two separate attacks on armored personnel carriers. With very few exceptions in the Israeli and pro-Israeli media these operations have been deliberately misrepresented as some sort of “terrorist” attacks, a cynical propaganda ploy designed to discredit the Palestinian legal right to resist occupation. While there is no universally accepted definition of precisely what constitutes “terrorism”, there are particular factors that are generally accepted in most definitions as constituent elements of “terrorism”. Read more about Palestine: Legitimate Armed Resistance vs. Terrorism
At this very moment, Israel army bulldozers are razing dozens of homes in the Rafah refugee camp in retaliation for the deaths of five Israeli soldiers. The Israeli cabinet authorized the army to demolish hundreds of Palestinian houses at Rafah, so as to create a “sterile” zone hundreds of meters wide. Jeff Halper argues that Israel will not know peace and security, the Palestinians will not know freedom, America will not know security and find its place in the world until the Israeli occupation ends. Read more about Israel's "state terrorism" in Gaza
