Gaza+protest,+10h00,+Adderley+St,+Cape+Town,+26+January+2008


 * Cape Town Anti-War Coalition Press Statement, 19 January 2008**

=The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition will hold a protest at 10am in Adderley Street, Cape Town, on 26th January 2008.=

This has been declared as an International Day of Action to End the Siege on Gaza.

All are welcome to attend.

Activists are invited to an Anti-War meeting on Wednesday 23rd January 2008 at Community House, Salt River at 5:30pm to plan the action and to discuss what we can do about the situation in Kenya.

The siege of Gaza has seen Israel blocking desperately ill Palestinians from accessing medical treatment and escalating its military attacks on Gaza. About 75 Palestinians, including children, have died in recent weeks because Israel prevented them from leaving Gaza for medical treatment.

Israel's illegal, brutal siege of Gaza is tightening, restricting fuel and electricity, and preventing even medical supplies, food, essential construction materials and paper for UN schoolbooks from entering Gaza. With lethal military strikes being launched on Gaza, and Ehud Barak has warned that an Israeli invasion of Gaza is nearing.

Miri Weingarten from the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said ' Israel intends and wishes to punish the general population in Gaza, and they're not hiding it -- in fact, they've stated it clearly.'

Dr Ahmed Abu Tawahineh, deputy director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, has pointed out that since last June, only a hundred patients have been allowed out of Gaza to seek treatment - less than 10 per cent of the more than 1,000 applicants.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported harrowing scenes of: 'a two-and-a-half-year-old boy, Ahmed Samut from Khan Yunis, and a nine-and-a-half-year-old girl, Sausan Jaafari, of Rafah, as they entered the Erez crossing alone, after being torn from the arms of their weeping parents. The two children have heart conditions and need urgent surgery to save their lives...The parents of the two children, both fathers and mothers, were not permitted by the Israel Defense Forces' coordination and liaison administration to accompany their children to this critical surgery. They are "denied entry" to Israel. The fact that Sausan's parents had accompanied her to previous operations at Wolfson did not change the evil decree. It is indeed a decree of unparalleled evil. Only the elderly uncle of one of the children was allowed to go with them.' **http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943343.html**.

Collective punishment is being inflicted upon the Palestinians for voting for a government against the wishes of Israel, the US and the EU.

Call on the British government to end its collusion with these policies, which are imprisoning Gazans and attempting to destroy their lives by limiting access to food, electricity, clean water supplies and medical treatment.

The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition demands that the ANC government act to immediately lift the siege of Gaza.


 * For comment call 072 5036625 or 082 2020617**

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