Le blog de Bert De Belder

De missie van Dr. Najib Ramzi, uitgestuurd door Geneeskunde voor de Derde Wereld naar Gaza, krijgt veel aandacht in de media, op basis van het persbericht dat we rondstuurden. De Standaard kreeg hem aan de lijn in het Shifa-hospitaal in Gaza, en bracht in zijn editie van 13 januari het volgende relaas:

On top of the many 'conventional' war crimes Israel is committing in Gaza, there may well be an extra one: the use of non-conventional weapons. Many reports have already mentioned the use of bombs with cluster ammunition and the use of phosphorous bombs.
But also new, experimantal non-conventional weapons appear to be part of the Israeli terror machine's arsenal.

While Israel is not only impeding any serious humanitarian initiative for Gaza, and is even shooting at aid workers, the Egyptian authorities are slowly but surely opening the border crossing in Rafah. In one direction for Palestinian patients, from Gaza to Egypt, where part of them will be treated by the B-FAST team sent in by the Belgian government.

I just received a mail message from Evelyn Lernout, representative of Oxfam in the West Bank. She just got a phone call fr om the (Union of Health Work Committees) in Gaza. One of the four ambulances of the UHWC was hit during the Israeli shelling on Beit Lahiya on January 3, while trying to evacuate injured people. The driver (shrapnel in the head) and 2 paramedics (in critical condition) were wounded. At the moment of the phone call, both paramedics were in the operating theatre, one lost his right leg,...

News from the health front in Gaza:

Marianne Blume est une amie qui a travaillé pendant de longues années comme prof à Gaza. Elle y a beaucoup d'amis, avec lesquels elle est resté en contact. Pendant les bombardements actuels, elle reçoit régulièrements de mails d'une de ces ex-étudiants, Salma Ahmed, qui est prof de français au Centre Culturel Français à Gaza. Je copie sa dernière lettre à Marianne ci-dessous.

In my mailbox on this New Year's Day, one particular message drew my attention. Not to be mistaken as yet another new year's wish, its subject line said "Happy Holocaust, Gaza". It was the next press statement by Dr. Yousef Mousa of the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza, warning that the history of the holocaust may repeat itself in Gaza. That is, if the international community doesn't move decisively to stop the Israeli terror against the Palestinian population.

Dr Mona Al-Farra of the Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza is a long-time blogger. Her blog's name: From Gaza, with love! She is very saddened to be on a speaking and fund raising tour in the UK right now, when her people in Gaza need her most. But she is posting heart-breaking blogposts.
Today, she writes about a health emergency team in Jabaliya refugee camp being hit by Israeli fire. Yet another violation of international humanitarian law, made in Israel.

George W (voor 'War') Bush, de VS-president die de wereld (en vooral de Irakezen en de Afghanen) meer oorlog bracht, heeft het geweten. Op zijn blitz-afscheidsbezoek aan bezet Irak kreeg de man tijdens zijn pesconferentie een schoen naar het domme hoofd gemikt. Een fikse belediging in de Arabische cultuur, want met een schoenzool trap je in alle vuil. De shoe thrower (een nieuw woord, nadat we al eerder kennis maakten met de shoe bomber) was Muntather Al-Zaidi, een Irakese journalist van het Al-Baghdadiya televisiestation.