[Imc-beirut] Global IndyMedia is still locked in a blackout on Feature articles about Palestine and Gaza

[Petros Evdokas]

Global IndyMedia is still locked in a blackout on Feature articles about
Palestine and Gaza.


The mechanized slaughter against the people of Gaza has entered a "third
phase", in military terms. It is a replica of the Nazi operation to
liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto.

For the second night in a row Israeli Special Forces entered the City of
Gaza backed up by tanks, helicopters and artillery strikes from cannons
on land and sea, amid a continuous bombing from military aircraft -
weapons all supplied by the United States.

They were successfully repelled by self-organized people's militia
fighting to defend their homes and families, armed with everything from
sticks and stones to homemade rockets and light personal arms.

Necessity, despair and creativity have generated new forms of urban
guerilla tactics: storefronts are "decorated" with mannequins dressed up
as guerillas to draw and lure the attackers; deserted buildings on the
outskirts of Gaza are booby-trapped by creating air-seals on doors and
windows and leaving the cooking gas supply open.

But global indymedia is silent on all these developments, even though
*everyone* on earth who is involved in the Liberation movement and the
movements for Peace and Justice are keenly interested in receiving these
news from dependable Movement sources like global indymedia.


Hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe demonstrated during
the weekend of Jan. 9 to Jan. 11 in solidarity with the Palestinian
people. Our opponents in Corporate and State media, reported on all
these demonstrations - even while interjecting their own lies and
distortions:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1111203/Cities-world-platform-hundreds-thousands-protesters-Gaza-fighting.html

But global indymedia is silent on all these developments. Our editorial
group is still reporting only demonstrations from more than ten days
ago, while it maintains a BLOCK on publishing new Feature articles on Gaza.


The international scene is festering with unprecedented events:
o~ A delegation from the European Parliament visited Gaza on Sunday. The
group of Representatives coordinated their visit with the Governments
and security forces of Egypt and Israel. They were forced to leave
running for their lives when Israel began bombing the area they were
visiting in Rafah.
o~ The Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon has just
announced a visit to the Middle East, hoping to bring about a ceasefire.
This has never happened before. He's been on the phone constantly with
world politicians and significant Government "players" for days now
without effect and so he is embarking on a trip today to visit Egypt,
Jordan, Israel, Palestine's West Bank, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait
in desperate efforts to find a way to a ceasefire.

The revolutionary Government of Venezuela expelled the Israeli
Ambassador and his staff from their country, in protest to the
atrocities being committed against the defenseless people of Palestine.
This act of international solidarity was echoed by the Government of
Jordan which recalled its Ambassador to Israel back home.

But global indymedia is silent on all these developments, even though
they have a tremendous impact not only on the lives of hundreds of
thousands of people, but also a tremendous impact on how the Movement
builds up its moral arsenal and forms its political positions.


War crimes committed in Gaza by Israel are being investigated by the
United Nations and other global and regional agencies and institutions:
o~ these include the use of phosphorus bombs against human beings;
o~ using experimental US weapons designed to rip apart people with Dense
Inert Metal Explosives (DIME);
o~ herding people in houses and then bombing them;
o~ starving an entire population and engaging in collective punishment;
all of these actions are banned by the Geneva Convention.

Global indymedia is silent on all these developments.

Knowing that establishment media are censoring and/or under-reporting
these news, we become almost partners in crime when we are aware of
massacres and war crimes and yet remain silent about them - while we
have in our hands the ability to publish these news and information on a
global platform.


Liberation Movement figures of global stature such as Sub-Commandante
Marcos (Zapatistas), Russel Means (Independent Republic of the Lakotah
People), and many other prominent figures have issued statements on the
situation like this one,
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/01/subcomandante-marcos-on-gaza.html
which global indymedia is not reporting.


When we knowingly abandon people who are struggling to survive and
protect their loved ones, when we are silent with what we know, we
increase their despair, erode the morale of the survivors and destroy
their faith in the Movement. This results in generalized and unfocused
hatred, leading to idiotic tactics coming out of Gaza like rocket
strikes launched at random targets against communities in Israel,
leading to occasional injuries and a handful of deaths. However tiny
those numbers of deaths are compared to the large scale systematic
slaughter of innocents by US and Israeli war-machine, those victims are
still lives that could have been and should have been saved.

Everyone who is involved in the Movement knows that people who
experience true dependable alliances and real, tangible Solidarity,
never engage in desperate acts of random violence. But our Palestinian
friends, lovers, comrades, neighbours keep experiencing a betrayal not
only from all major international and regional forces, but from the
progressive and radical community as well.

Global indymedia's silence is an additional slap in the face of already
bleeding and starved friends - will this abandonment lead to more
despair and more confused desperate acts of random violence by some
Palestinians? Yes. Without doubt.

In this context, there is great wisdom in a statement by Zikit, an
active member of the Israel imc editorial group, who wrote that "The
only solution in my mind is ...putting an end to the occupation, and
stopping the siege (military, economically and diplomatically) on Gaza.
That's the only way to secure people, be they palestinians, israelies,
jews or arabs." He wrote that this would involve "a complete stop ...of
guerilla terror as much as state terror... [at] the source]":
[here, under the Comment titled "and i searched your comment"]
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/12/918368.shtml


Global indymedia can contribute to reducing idiotic and random acts of
violence by the defenders in Palestine, by sticking to our mission. By
following Zikit's advice. When we pursue and end to the occupation and
siege of Palestine we help to bring an end to terror, we help secure
people of all ethnic and religious identities "...be they Palestinians,
Israelies, Jews or Arabs."

But global indymedia is silent on all these things. Not by accident, but
by a conscious policy. By editorial decisions binding our process
through BLOCKS on this kind of journalism.

Please help us reverse this situation. On all fronts.

Petros Evdokas,
member of Cyprus IndyMedia Collective
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~