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:
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,
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, a formely 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"]
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 an end to the occupation and siege of Palestine we are helping to bring an end to terror, we are helping to 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,
on behalf of Cyprus IndyMedia Collective,
imc-cyprus-AT-lists.indymedia.org

Petros is also a member of the global indymedia editorial group.
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How to help:

Please write to the global indymedia editorial group and tell us what you think and feel about our current editorial policy blocking news from Gaza. Send your letters here:
www-features-AT-lists.indymedia.org

You can see the public archives of our frustrated and unproductive debates here:
lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/www-features

Related:
lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-communication/2009-January/0111-wk.html
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