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EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #MV SAOIRSE The Irish ship that was to be part of the aid flotilla sailing to the Gaza Strip has been damaged while docked at a Turkish port. The Irish Ship to Gaza group says the ship has suffered “extensive” damage. It was preparing to meet up with an Italian ship and sail to Gaza today but propeller damage caused by an “act of sabotage” meant it could have sank in the open sea, according to activists on board.
2. #WINNING There was more success for Team Ireland at the Special Olympics in Athens, Greece yesterday as it increased its medal haul to 34. There were medals in bowling, gymnastics, and equestrian events. Team Ireland now has 10 gold, 19 silver, and 5 bronze medals.
3. #GREECE More protests are expected on the streets of Athens today as the Greek parliament prepares for another crucial vote on austerity measures. Having agreed to €28 billion worth of cuts to satisfy the EU and IMF yesterday, today the parliament will vote on how to implement the measures over the next five years with decisions to be made on where cuts will be made.
4. #CENSUS The first results from this year’s census will be released today with the population expected to have risen to its highest level in 150 years according to the Irish Times. Despite increased emigration, the population is expected to hit somewhere between 4.4 and 4.5 million. But this would be less than half the growth expected before the economic crash, RTÉ adds.
5. #BOUNDARIES The number of TDs in Ireland could be cut by as much as 20 when a boundary commission is set up to redraw constituencies based on the new census data. The government committed to reducing the number of TDs serving in the Dáil in the programme for government.
6. #APPLE Tech giant Apple is to increase its workforce in Ireland by offering 350 new jobs at a new office in Cork city centre, the Irish Examiner reports. The company has had a major presence in Cork since 1981 and already employs more than 3,000 people in Ireland.
7. #SIGN OF THE TIMES The iconic tourist signpost in Ballyvaughan, Co Clare looks set to be reinstated after the county council said it would hold a special meeting to have the sign put back and given state-protected status, according to the Irish Examiner (print edition). The move has been described as a “victory for people power”.
8. #FACE-DIET Parents are more concerned about their children’s Facebook habits than their diet or lifestyle according to a new survey. More than 1,500 parents in the UK were surveyed with the findings showing that 43 per cent of parents were concerned about the influence of social media on their children while just 28 per cent were worried about them having a healthy diet.
9. #OUCH A mother-in-law’s rather cutting advice to her stepson’s bride-to-be has gone viral. In an email, Carolyn Bourne warned her future daughter-in-law about her “lack of grace” and said that the behaviour of Heidi Withers was “staggering in its uncouthness and lack of grace,” according to The Telegraph.
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Disgraceful act of war by israel against citizens and Irish property in attacking Irish Gaza Flotilla ship ‘Saoirse’ while in port – Israeli embassy Ambassador should be summoned and rebuked by irish Government immediately and some of his staff sent home.
Isreali’s have no home, they stole land from Palestine
Ireland and other countrys should be ashamed of themselves 4 not standing up to a so called civilised country, who inprisions millions in(gettos), and steals the lands( ectnic cleansing) because of religion. Giving there aweful history u would b the last to do it, yet the world r cowards towards them. shame. It must stop. How can this evil “country” continue to b able to break all international laws and human rights…
Well Johnny, they do say that bullies are more often than not the victims of bullying themselves – doing only what they know. In the case of Israel it could be argued that their reason for such aggression is a direct result of the thousands of years of aggression inflicted upon them. That’s not to say I agree with Israel – in fact far from it. I think Israel should get out of the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Southern Lebanon.
John McCullough’s comment above is a little misleading though. Jews have been present in Israel since the time of the Pharaohs. In the last years of the 19th century many Jews were forced to move to Palestine. Still others, such as Balfour, then dictated Palestine would be a Jewish homeland. If you were a Jew back then faced with persecution and/or death by remaining where you lived or moving to Palestine, I’m sure you too would have chosen Palestine. Was there a choice for those early settlers – yes, but not much of a choice.
I could be wrong on exact time line, but it is Palestine which was taken by Jew’s in the 40s by( terrorism) they can talk huh. They think the land was giving to them by god that’s( religious fundamentalism) and totally untrue.. God didn’t give land to” any” group or religion.The truth is the Palestinians are being ectnicy cleansed as we speak and it’s because of US politics
I think you are wrong there on the timeline. Certainly after WWII Jews flocked to Palestine in the hundreds of thousands. However, Jews were living in Israel long before Arabs inhabited the area – since before the Pharaohs in fact. During the Roman Empire and after the period of the crusades and the Islamic Caliphate most Jews left Palestine for Europe, though some chose to remain on in Palestine where they were given many freedoms under the Islamic Caliphate. Those that fled to Europe were later persecuted by their new European masters and many were forced again to flee (from Spain 1492, from Portugal 1497, from France 1182, 1306, 1321, 1394, from England 1290, from Germany 1348, 1510, 1551, from Lithuania 1445, 1495, etc.). Many of these resettled in Palestine, particularly the Spanish Jews (see Gilbert 2005). In the second half of the 1700s Eastern European Perushim settled in Palestine (see Barnai 1992). These two waves of Jews added to the small but definitely present Jewish community in Palestine which at that time was sparsely populated. The first wave of “modern” Jewish immigration to Palestine (fleeing from pogroms in Eastern Europe) added to those previous waves and to the pre-existing population in an era known as the First Aliyah which commenced in 1881. This saw over 30,000 Jews migrate to Palestine. The second “modern” wave, or the Second Aliyah (1904-1914), saw some 40,000 Jews migrate to Israel due to the Kishinev Pogrom. The Third and Fourth Aliyahs were completed by 1929 and saw a further 100,000 Jews arrive in Palestine. The Fifth Aliyah (1929-1939) saw a further 250,000 Jews migrate to Palestine due to the rise of Nazism in Europe. Countries around the world, including Ireland, turned Jews away who were fleeing the holocaust. The result was the organisation of the Aliyah Bet which saw the British arrest and detain 50,000 Jews at the borders to Palestine, c. 2,000 drowned at sea but only a few thousand made it into Palestine. By 1945 Jews comprised 1/3 of the population of Palestine (which included the West Bank, though not Gaza which was Egyptian at that time). A UK withdrew from Palestine in 1947 and in November the UN drew up plans for a 2-state solution with Jerusalem to become an International city. The Jews accepted the plan but the Arabs rejected it. The day after Israel declared independence it was attacked by 4 Arab states, an attack which ultimately ended in israeli victory. Between that victory in 1948 and the 1970s up to 1,000,000 Jews from Arab countries who suffered persecution arrived in Israel, together with another million Jews from Europe who had lost everything. Since then Israel has been wracked by civil war, wars with neighbours, and intifadas, etc.
If we look at the Jewish population figures from the Arab state, taking only a few into account as the list would be too long to display: In 1948 Algeria had 140,000 Jews – these were stripped of citizenship upon Algerian independence and expelled and hence the majority fled to Israel. Today there are no Jews in Algeria. In 1948 Egypt had 80,000 Jews who were also subsequently expelled. Today there are 100 Jews in Egypt. Morocco had 265,000 Jews in 1948, today there are 3,000 although no official policy of expulsion occurred in Morocco. In 1948 there were 38,000 Jews living in Libya. Due to a series of pogroms and the forced removal of Jewish property over 30,000 of these fled Libya. In Iraq in 1948 there were 140,000 Jews. In that year the Iraqi government passed laws which forbade Zionist activities, forbade all Jews from engaging in banking and finance, dismissed Jews from railways, the post office, telegraphs. By 1951 121,000 of these Jews had been forced out of Iraq, and today there are currently less than 100 Jews in Iraq.
And yes, it is true that the Palestinians are today being ethnically cleansed. While the Jews have suffered appalling treatment at the hands of pretty much everyone where they have lived, it is still not an excuse for what they are doing to the Palestinians.
Fair enough Brian i knew they where the at the time of the pharohs and have been persicuted ever since and you have givin a hell of alot more info on the subject you know your stuff, but your last comment is the the one that captures the real issue and sums it up .I totally agree with u on that..
Jews and arabs lived in peaceful co-existence in Palestine until after WW2 when shiploads of jews started to arrive illegally in this British colony from other countries. Jewish terrorist -The Haganah then started attacking the ruling establishment until eventually the English virtually threw their hands in the air and just left leaving a power vacuun which the jews then occupied. The Palestinians were then forcibly removed from an area which was their homeland and the state of Israel came into being.
Extremely sad that a people that suffered so badly have come straight back and ethnically cleansed an area and continue to marginalise and ghetto-ise these people .Palestinians are 2nd class people in Israel and are treated as such.The modern State of Israel is to the Palestinians what Germany was in the 30-40′s for those of the Jewish faith -all that are missing are the Death camps-This is extremely sad. No lessons have been learnt.
“Jews and arabs lived in peaceful co-existence in Palestine until after WW2″ – what about the 1920 anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem, the 1921 Jaffa riots, the 1929 Hebron-Safed riots, the 1933 Palestine riots, or the 1936-39 Arab Revolt? I’m not disagreeing with the idea that what the Israeli state is currently engaged in is wrong. But there are too many misconceptions out there regarding what has or has not happened in Palestine.
Bear in mind that Palestine proper includes all of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, all of Israel and Jordan. Jordan was separated from the remainder of Palestine with the River Jordan marking the boundary. This entity became known as Transjordan (“across the Jordan”). When Israel was established in 1948 Jordan immediately annexed the west bank of the River Jordan – hence the name West Bank.
When New York Times’ Ethan Bronner came through the Erez crossing into the Gaza Strip this week, he expected something completely different.
This was not his first visit to the Strip. During the past three and a half years, Bronner, who heads the newspaper’s Jerusalem bureau, visited the Palestinian enclave on several occasions.
During Operation Cast Lead he stayed in Gaza for two weeks and his visits usually last more than a day, as the border crossing closes at 3 pm.
Trade
Gaza starts exporting tomatoes / Tani Goldstein
Palestinian farmers to sell cherry tomatoes to Israeli company Agrexco, which will market them in Europe
Like other journalists who do not carry Israeli passports – Bronner, who received the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for a series of investigative reports about terrorist organization al-Qaeda – has no trouble getting into the Strip. The Erez Crossing is open six days a week and no one gave him a hard time.
With the spotlight diverted from Gaza in recent months, Bronner found himself travelling to other destinations. He spent a long time in Egypt and went to Bahrain to cover the uprisings in the Arab world.
When he arrived in Gaza this week, Bronner wrote, he was surprised to discover that on the eve of the second Gaza-bound aid flotilla – conditions in the Strip were much better than he had expected.
Shortage in four-wheel drive cars
The first thing that caught Bronner’s attention were the “thousands of new cars plying the roads.” Israel allows the import of a 20 cars a week, but according to the New York Times reporter, “That does not meet the need.
“Hundreds of BMWs, pickup trucks and other vehicles have arrived in recent months from Libya, driven through Egypt and sold via the unmonitored tunnels,” he said.
Gaza resident Yossef Nazal noted that “even red sports cars can be seen roaming around the Strip, not to mention motorcycles, especially three-wheeled motorcycles, which have become the latest fashion.”
It turns out that unlike three or four years ago, when people speak about shortage, they don’t mean herbs, but rather four-wheel vehicles – one of the few items Israel does not allow into the Strip.
But cars are not the only indicator that things are better than they used to be. In his article, Bronner noted that “two luxury hotels are opening in Gaza this month,” one of which is owned by Palestinian billionaire Munib al Masri.
“A second shopping mall — with escalators imported from Israel — will open next month,” he writes, adding that “Hundreds of homes and two dozen schools” are also scheduled to be built in the upcoming year, in addition to a three-story wedding hall.
Omar Ghraib, a blogger from Gaza, writes that in order to comprehend the change that has been taking place in the Strip, it’s enough to look at the butcher stalls in the market.
Local Gazans can buy Egyptian poultry, which is smuggled through the tunnels, for $1 per kilo, but most of them fear diseases and therefore opt for Israeli chickens, which are sold for $1-$2 per kilo or the more prestigious home-grown poultry, which are sold for $2-$3 per kilo.
In his article, Bronner confirms that most consumer goods still originate in Israel, and that “the siege on goods is now 60% to 70% over.”
Some 350 trucks are allowed to pass through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, which has become the main transit hub for goods originating from Israel. However in practice, the number only reaches 250 because of one simple, yet surprising reason – there isn’t enough demand.
Import-export business
As part of the rise in living standards, Gaza merchants focus on importing more luxury goods such as tropical fish, bicycles, camping gear and plasma TVs, which come straight from Israel.
Once a week, some 70 Gaza traders travel to Israel to look for potential merchandise to import.
Even the export market, albeit still in small quantities, has boomed recently with strawberries, flowers, potatoes and cherry tomatoes being sold to Jordan and the Persian Gulf states. Gaza tradesmen now plan to resume exports of Furniture and textiles to the West Bank, as was done four years ago.
Despite the encouraging picture, Bronner notes that Israel still bans cement, steel and other construction material from entering the Strip “because they are worried that such supplies can be used by Hamas for bunkers and bombs.
“So in recent months, tunnels under the southern border that were used to bring in consumer goods have become almost fully devoted to smuggling in building materials,” Bronner explains.
“Sacks of cement and piles of gravel, Turkish in origin and bought legally in Egypt, are smuggled through the hundreds of tunnels in double shifts, day and night, totaling some 3,000 tons a day. Since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian security authorities no longer stop the smugglers. Streets are being paved and buildings constructed,” he notes.
“What we don’t get from Israel, we get through the tunnels, says Daud Harb, a merchant from the Strip, adding that the only thing currently missing in Gaza is freedom.
‘Relative freedom if Hamas not provoked’
The Gazan summer is in full swing and the beaches, just like in Tel Aviv, are swarming with bathers. Families with children and hijab-clad women dip into the cool waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
On the warm evenings, people sit at coffee shops and internet cafes that are becoming abundant. One hand grasps the water-pipe while the other is typing status updates on Facebook. In the background, large screens are broadcasting live soccer matches from the English and Spanish Leagues.
The summer is also the official wedding season in Gaza, but young couples will have to wait another two weeks due to a ban imposed by Hamas, in order to prevent noise during high school matriculation exams.
For the same reason motorcyclists are not allowed to roam through the streets past 10 pm.
After all, Gaza 2011 is Hamas-ruled. The society has become more conservative, mosques have increased in number, Islamic education is fervently applied to daily life both formally and informally, and almost all media outlets have an Islamic nature.
“Sure, we have some crazy laws, like women can’t drive motorcycles, sing provocative songs, giggle on the beach or smoke water pipes in public areas,” says Ahmed Nazal, a resident of Rimal neighborhood, the Gazan equivalent of Ramat Aviv.
“But if you don’t provoke Hamas, you can live here pretty freely,” he adds.
Bronner also notes that “Hamas’s control of Gaza appears firmer than ever, and the looser tunnel patrols in Egypt mean greater access to weapons as well. But opinion surveys show that its more secular rival, Fatah, is more popular.”
This, the Jerusalem bureau chief notes, “may explain why an attempt at political unity with Fatah is moving slowly: Hamas leaders here are likely to lose their jobs.”
Despite the improved image, Gaza is a far cry from being the Manhattan of the Middle East. While the economy did report a 15.2$ growth according to the International Monetary Fund, Ghraib notes that thousands of houses that were destroyed during Operation Cast Lead have yet to be rebuilt.
Frequent blackouts are also not an unusual phenomenon, some of them lasting between 6 and 8 hours daily.
Bronner finds it difficult to assess the condition of the 1.6 million people living in the Gaza Strip.
“There are issues of where to draw the baseline and — often — what motivates the discussion. It has never been among the world’s poorest places. There is near universal literacy and relatively low infant mortality, and health conditions remain better than across much of the developing world,” he notes.
Either way, the low emigration rates from Gaza indicate that despite the hardships, the congestion and the feeling of living under a siege, the locals still love Gaza and are willing to struggle in order to stay there.
Turkish Port?? Or Greek Port?? The flotilla activists don’t know where it was damaged?? Hhhhnmmm Very strange.
Hate for them to sail to the wrong destination. ie Syria.
I’m glad that Hogan will now be able to bring his “balls” to Gaza and that the so called “starving” children there will be able to play with his balls.
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