Flitters and flutters... and quite big kicks

The baby's movements have crept up on me quite suddenly. I thought I was feeling little flutters...kind of like someone accidentally brushing your arm with something very soft... from about 13 weeks. But I had to concentrate hard to feel them. And in retrospect, it may have been all in my head. Then, about 10 days ago there were some flitter flutters, a bit stronger than what I'd thought I'd felt before. It happened every so often, but I still wasn't sure...

Towards Christmas day, they were getting stronger and stronger, and every so often there was a little tap from the inside. Like a baby bird trying to tap out of its egg shell. And then there was the goldfish movement. These were like a goldfish turning circles in my tummmy, round and round and round... And felt a little unpleasant... Nice, obviously because it's the baby, but... Still a bit weird. Over Christmas weekend, the baby got quite excited and started properly booting me every now and then. Turns out the baby likes snow, sledging and hanging out in grandma/grandpa's house watching TV. Sometimes making me jump with surprise when thoughts of baby had momentarily dropped out of my mind. Maybe 4-5 times a day, there would be a small football match in my lower abdomen, interspersed by little bubbly flutters of position changing and wriggling.

So yesterday I was getting on with my revision for finals (urgh) and the kicking continued. Every now and then, I'd put a hand down to see if I could feel the kicks from outside... but no... still too soft. But last night, lying in bed, I had another feel and I could definitely feel them. I got Nick to come and feel and he definitely felt them. He'd tell me when the baby kicked, and he was right every time... So exciting! I've been able to feel the baby for a while and have been getting used to it - but this was really exciting for both of us... Partly cause it's a bit more real for Nick now, but also because our wee baby was actually having some kind of impact on the outside world, and partly cause I was a bit worried it was all in my head... Yay for kicks!

Bubbles...

It's all about bubble baths. I can't get enough of them. It's getting ridiculous. My lovely husband comes home from work and knows where to find me without even shouting around the house...



Pre-pregnancy I restricted myself to a maximum of one a week to save on hot water for climate change/energy bill reasons. But now... I can't keep myself out of the bathtub.

It's amazing. There actually may not be anything better than a proper good soak with some decent bubble bath. Since I've been pregnant my body hurts all over most of the time, enough to make me cry some days. The only thing that made this any better has been the bath.

I now fantasise about bubble bathing products day and night. Got an awesome bottle of bubble bath from my mum for my birthday at the end of October which has long gone... Boo - it's smelled great and was really soft. Had to nip out and buy a bottle of cheap bubbles to keep me going last weekend - not so lovely, but good bubble volumes. And I'm actually ridiculously excited about getting to Lush on Monday to buy some bathtime treats.

Another weird pregnancy thing is that my skin has started to hurt, get really dry and peel. This hasn't been something I've ever experienced before, but apparently it's quite common in pregnancy. Trying to fend it off with some good body lotion. And there's the fear of the dreaded stretch marks... Arhg. I have some cocoa butter which I'm using fairly religiously in the vain hope it might work. Any tips welcome!

So suggestions for body creams/butters/lotions and bubble baths/salts/bombs very very welcome. And if Santa wants to put one or two wee treats in my stocking...

Baby Belly - 13 weeks and 6 days

Last week I accidentally caught a glimpse of myself side on in the mirror in a public bathroom... Wow. There was curvature. Interesting.

A week later (now 13 weeks and 6 days), and there are definitely certain things I can't wear anymore. There have certainly been some bemused colleagues pointing in my direction... My wonderful mother turned up this week and helped me find some ace maternity jeans and work trousers.

Still not sure I definitely look pregnant, and worried that I'm just looking a bit fat. Unless you know me particularly well and that I normally have a flat tum and have lost 5.5kg since getting pregnant!

Otherwise, this week has been pretty good. Have only puked a couple of times, which is another gradual improvement. ALthough the vomiting does seem to be getting more forceful when it does happen. Was actually sick in my mum's car this week! Good work. Still really really fussy about my food and prefer things that have no flavour at all... Still getting very dizzy, especially first thing in the morning. Have nearly fainted a few times when standing up for a while, and my consultant now forces me to sit down during bedside teaching. This is embarrassing, but necessary. Guess my blood pressure's going down.

So what's the bub up to? Well apparently, it's now 8cm long. Makes lots of funny faces and if you prod my tummy it does a sucking reflex cause it thinks it's time to breastfeed.

We found out the sex of the baby last Friday and I'll be writing a new post on this soon... Also coming soon, more on our plans for a home birth - all very exciting!

Shooting Your Own Roots

So... Here's the wee roots of my own that I've been busy shooting over the past 13 weeks.

It's the oldest cliché, but pregnancy is actually the most amazing miracle. It's such a wonderful idea. God could have planned a number of other, simpler, more straightforward way of replacing the population... Babies could be left in cabbage patches or be delivered by storks. People could just pop up fully grown, magically appearing from nowhere, able to care for themselves, resilient, independent.

But instead, they grow inside other people?!

What a privilege to get to grow a little person inside yourself. To watch it grow and develop, stretch your skin, start to move around... and then to help if out into the world, where you will need to care for and protect it if it's to survive beyond day one.

What a magical way of creating new life. You couldn't think up this kind of fairy story if you tried.

Boaz

It isn't all about food. I do other things. Today I was sitting at my kitchen table, minding my own business. I was eating bran flakes (improved with flaked almonds and linseeds) and drinking a cup of herbal tea. I was perusing jobs in Scotland that I might like to apply for someday.

The phone rang. It was the hosting coordinator for a local organisation called The Boaz Trust. They try to find hosts for destitute asylum seekers; to keep them off the streets and offer the care and attention that our ruthless government can't seem to afford them.

Nick and I have been talking about using our newly acquired spare room to host someone who needs a roof over their head for some time. We met with the hosting coordinator from Boaz, who explained what was involved - as much or as little as we liked really. You can offer to host someone for months at a time, weeks at a time or on an emergency short-term basis until some more permanent accomodation can be provided for them. Who are these people and why do they need hosted? The answer to this question is best explained by Boaz themselves:

Two out of every three asylum seekers, who flee persecution in their home countries due to civil war or for political or ethnic reasons, are refused sanctuary in the UK by the Home Office. Unable to prove their stories, they are forced onto the streets with no means of support and no right to work.

They are told to go back to their home countries, yet some cannot get the necessary travel documents, or there is simply no safe route back to their country due to conflicts or political turmoil. Many more fear persecution, torture, or even death if they return to the countries they fled from, preferring to live a life of destitution in the UK.

Furthermore, cuts in legal aid have led to many solicitors giving up immigration work meaning that some asylum seekers are unrepresented at their hearings and many struggle to make appeals and fresh claims with no support.

The Independent Asylum Commission estimates that there are 284,500 refused asylum seekers nationwide. Manchester was one of the top three dispersal towns for asylum seekers entering the country in 2007, and many remain once their asylum claims are turned down. Indeed, several thousand refused asylum seekers are known to live in the city.

Many have nowhere to go and have no choice but to sleep rough on the streets. With no national insurance number they cannot even access government funded homeless hostels. These people become like “living ghosts”, hidden from society with no means of survival. Physical and mental illness are common, particularly for those with a history of torture and abuse.

This sounded like a problem we wanted to help solve. Our spare room is a real blessing to us, allowing us to have guests to stay more comfortably than in our old flat (one bedroom and a kitchen/lounge!), but we don't have guests every weekend and it's empty pretty much every weekday. We wanted to give ourselves the summer to settle into our new house, but told Boaz we'd be available to host on an emergency basis from the end of August.

So later today we are receiving our first guest - a lady from the Congo. I'm not sure how things will work out - will we eat together? Will she speak any English? Will she understand my French? Will she be comfortable in our home? Will it be weird having a random stranger living with us? I'm excited about finding out the answers to these questions. A lot of people have told me they couldn't cope with hosting asylum seekers like this. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm naive, but I just believe that if I have the means to help someone out, I have a moral duty to do so. I'll let you know how it goes.

Pear and Almond Tart for Esther

I have spent a lovely weekend catching up with an old friend. I haven't seen Esther for nearly two years, but she is one of those friends with whom you can pick up where you left off within minutes and be laughing together, weeding the garden together, rolling pastry, chopping tomatoes, drinking beer...



Food was a feature of the weekend. We both love great local, organic produce; especially since our Est's a Cumbrian farm girl. We ate pumpkin with deep-fried polenta and sage, pasta with tomato and basil sauce and a pear and almond tart. As promised to Esther, here is the recipe for the pear and almond tart - not one for which I can claim credit. This goes to Thomasina Miers and is from her great book, 'Cook' which was a birthday present from two other great friends. I love the taste of pears with lemon and bay leaves - an unexpectedly fabulous combo. We left out the blackberries cause it was 'too much'. I saved the syrup from the poaching process; Esther thinks it would be great over ice cream. I've been making variations on this tart all summer; it's especially good with plums soaked in brandy. It tends to be a bit runny if you serve it straight out of the oven and i find it benefits from sitting, cooling and solidifying for a while.

Pear and Almond Tart

Pastry
250g plain flour
25g icing sugar or caster sugar
125g butter
2 egg yolks

For the Frangipane:
175g ground almonds
175g sugar
175g butter
1 egg plus 1 yolk

For the pears:
200g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
1 bay leaf
grated zest of 1 lemon
5 pears, peeled, cored and quartered.
1 punnet of blackberries (optional)
dash of brandy (optional)

Whizz the pastry ingredients in a food processor, then add enough water, bit by bit, until the dough just comes together into a ball. Turn out onto a clean surface and bring together, wrapping the dough in clingfilm. Pat down in a flat circular shape and leave in the fridge to rest for 30 mins. Roll out to fit a 24cm pie dish (Esther says: nice and thin!) Bake blind in a preheated oven 180C/350F/Gas4 and leave to cool.

Place the almonds, butter and sugar into a food processor and whizz briefly. Then add the egg. Combine and set the frangipane mixture aside.

Bring 200ml of water to the boil in a saucepan and add the sugar. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved, then add the vanilla pod, bay leaf and lemon zest. Add the pears and poach for 10 minutes (roughly! mine took a lot longer than this), then drain and slice thinly. Do what you wish with the poaching liquid, but it's not required from here on in.

Spread the frangipane over the base of the pastry case and arrange the pears on top in overlapping fans. Sprinkle with blackberries (if using) and a dash of brandy. Bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed up, golden and beautiful.

Norwegian Tofu Salad

Whilst I was gathering my thoughts for a blog post on my epic bus journey and reflecting on sustainable transport, I invented myself a tofu salad. There is nothing Norwegian about this salad in any way. Other than the fact that the recipe was requested by my friend Matt, who lives in Norway. Not even he's Norwegian. But there we go. Things aren't always what they seem.

Leftover wholegrain rice is the best to make this recipe with - basmati just won't cut it. I used a really nutty organic wholegrain that is almost like pearl barley in texture, and it worked really well.

Norwegian Tofu Salad

Serves 2

Marinade:
100g Tofu, the squidgy uncooked kind (I'm guessing at the quantity cause my scales are broken, so feel free to adjust this if it doesn't look like enough).
3 tablespoons Sesame oil
1 tablespoon Soya sauce
1 cm Fresh ginger root cut into matchsticks or grated
2 cloves Garlic
2 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder

Small portion of wholegrain rice, cooked.

Salad leaves such as rocket, lettuce, celery leaves.
6 radishes
Half a cucumber
3 spring onions

Lime juice
Linseeds or sesame seeds (optional)


Cut the tofu into 1/2cm cubed pieces, place into a shallow dish and add all the other ingredients. Leave to marinade, turning occasionally, for as long as you can (at least 30 mins).



After this time, place the tofu and marinade in a medium-sized pan over a medium heat. Let it fry until nice and brown. Add the rice and turn it over in the mixture so that it gets a good coating of oil (sesame oil is really good for you!). Set aside while you make the rest of the salad.





Wash the leaves, tear them up and pile on one side of a plate. Slice the radishes and spring onions really thinly. Cut the cucumber into thin matchsticks. Arrange them on top of the leaves. My salad came with some nice vegetable flowers that I decorated with. Fun. Squeeze some lime juice over the top; it cuts through the sesame oil really nicely.

Now pile the rice and tofu mixture on the other half of the plate.
I threw some linseeds over the whole plate for added health benefit. Sesame seeds would work nicely too.

Eat. Goes nicely with some Chinese beer.

Setting Out

I'm off to Italy tonight for 10 days, and I'm packing a my bag. A few sundresses, a bikini, some suncreme. 3 books ('The Quiet American', John Simpson's first autobiography and 'Heat' by George Monbiot). 6 balls of yarn. 2 sets of knitting needles. An mp3 player. Some herbal sleeping tablets. A sleeping bag. A pillow.

Random collection of stuff? That's because my holiday begins with a 35-hour coach journey from Manchester to Florence, via London, Paris and Milan. And ends in the reverse order. Craziness.

The reason? To limit my impact on the environment. Totally daft? Probably. As I sit there on the coach counting down the hours, shifting in my tiny allocation of space and losing hours of sleep... I dread to think how many flights will be jetting off from airports all over the world.

What's the point? Well... I guess I just couldn't live with myself if I booked a short haul flight from Manchester to Florence after trying to convince the world to become a more climate-friendly place. So maybe the reason is entirely selfish; I'd quite like to preserve my own integrity and self-righteousness. That and the fact that I'm not sure I can look future generations in the eye and tell them that I was quite happy to emit 476kg of carbon dioxide on a return journey to Italy, just for the heck of it...

So wish me luck. Wish that I don't end up sitting next to someone who is oversized for the seat they are trying to fit into, who snores and spits crumbs of food all over me for 35 hours. Wish that I don't have someone in the seat in front of me reclining into my lap. Wish that coach travel will prove to be a pleasurable experience and something that I can recommend to you all, in the hope that I might convince you that it's not so bad... And that it's bearable as the most environmentally sustainable form of medium-distance transport we have...

And while you're at it... wish for the safety of two of my friends who are currently en route from Leeds to Sierra Leone in order to carry out their medical electives without hurting a world they seek to heal.

Beet Revival

When I was wee, beetroot was a weird thing that my grandparents used to put on their plates at lunchtime, alongside slices of ham and heaps of potato salad. I regarded it with more than suspicion. Peering into the pot of deeply dark pinky purple fluid, vinegarry fumes floating up to my nostrils, knowing that there were lumps of... something... floating in there, didn't seem right. And when they were rolled out onto the plate and their deep colour faded to hot pants pink as it melded into the mayonnaise of the potato salad and stained all it came into contact with... Well, I was not impressed. Was it supposed to be a vegetable? This didn't seem like food. But never being allowed to dismiss a food without sampling it, I was coaxed into trying it. he bright colour and its strange earthy taste simply didn't match up. The only things in my life that were edible and that electric shade of bright pink came in plastic wrappers and were sweeter than sweet.

But how times change. Several varieties of local beetroot are available to me these days... They don't come in that pot that my gran and grandpa had. They are pulled from the earth, and come to me in brown paper bags, all earthy and round. Washing the mud off, they become gradually more pink, and them more so as you peel off the outer skin... until your hands are stained a ridiculous red colour and leave you feeling like a joyful child finger painting at liberty.

I made my most recent batch of beets into a yummy ukranian stew, with lots of other fresh and yummy winter veg. The colour of the stew is enough hearten a dull late winter's evening. Here's the recipe. By the way, the cup thing - now i Know cups are daunting to British cooks - I just literally use a cup measure because I can't be bothered to mess about converting everything to grams. And, actually, it is easier.

UKRANIAN BEET AND BEAN STEW
From 'Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favourites' - I added the chilli for kick.

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 cups sliced onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 cups water
3 cups sliced cabbage
1 cup sliced carrots
3 cups chopped potatoes
4 cups peeled cubed raw beetroot (i used 2 big fat beetroots)
2 cans chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
2 tablespoons vinegar - preferably cider vinegar or white wine
1/2 tsp salt
1 can of kidney beans, drained
2 tsp dried crushed chillis or more if you like it hot
Black pepper to taste

Saute onions and celery on a medium heat, stirring continuously for 4-5 mins, until browned. Add 1 cup of water, cover, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and carrots, stir well and simmer, covered for 5 mins. Add the remaining 2 cups of water, the potatoes, beets, tomatoes, caraway seeds, dried chillis vinegar, and salt, bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 35 mins, until the beets are tender. Add the beans. Add pepper to taste. Serve with chunky homemade bread and a dollop of yoghurt. Hungry Boy likes it with pasta.

Reports from The Ground

I am sitting in disbelief, wondering how to eat my evening meal after reading this report from a volunteer currently riding with Palestinian ambulances in Gaza. After reading it, I checked the BBC website to see what they were reporting on Gaza today. Nothing like this. Nothing about medics being killed, hospitals being bombed, families being locked in buildings and shelled... certainly nothing about the 80% of emergency calls that Israel are refusing the Red Crescent ambulances permission to attend... This is their front page story today, as usual, even the headline frames this as regrettable but justifiable military action against terrorists. The report from this volunteer is tragic... What makes it worse is that she says that she has been contacted by the BBC for reports... what have they done with them?

This is from http://talestotell.wordpress.com I will post it here to make it easier to read, but do visit this blog for more stories from the ground.

Jabalia 4 Jan 6pm - 5 Jan 5pm

6pm: To Al Awda hospital, run by the Union of Health Work Committees. It normally has a 50 bed capacity but has been stretched to 75. E and Mo interview Ala’a, the medic from Jabalia RC who was injured when Arafa was killed yesterday.

The story goes as follows:

It was about 8.30 am Saturday morning in Jabalia. Five teenagers found themselves under shell attack and tried to get away. Three escaped. One, Tha’er, 19, had his foot blown off. His friend Ali, also 19, tried to pick him up and carry him to safety, but was shot in the head and killed. It took 75- 90 minutes before a Jabalia Red Crescent ambulance could reach them. Medic Arafa, 35, and Ala’a, 22, carried Tha’er to the ambulance, and then went back for Ali’s body. As they closed the van door, they were shelled.

Ala’a says “I felt nothing - just that I was flying in the air and then falling.” Other ambulances evacuated all. Arafa, who was married with 5 children, had a severe chest wound with most of one lung gone and only survived 2 hours. Ali’s head was blown off. Ala’a is now in hospital with severe shrapnel wounds all over, especially chest and legs. Tha’er survived but also now has several lacerations to back and body from shrapel.

Arafa was a teacher for the UN, gave medic training, and volunteered as a medic after being one professionally earlier.

7pm: We arrange to sleep in shifts at Al-Awda hospital. V and I crash. E, A and M hitch a ride with the first RC ambulance that turns up, out to Karmel Adwan hospital, the Red Crescent’s second new base since evacuating their centre. The base is a few blankets in a corridor, but there is tea sometimes.

11pm: E comes back to sleep, V and I ride with O’s ambulance to Karmel Adwan. O has a scarf wrapped round his knee, he was shot there some years ago and has pain in cold weather. I talking A and Mo into going to back to rest, but fail to convince EJ. The night turns out to be quiet. Unfortunately, I soon understand this is because a) a lot of Jabalia people have run away, and b) Israel is not letting the ambulances collected most of the wounded that do call for help.

2pm: we collect a woman in labour. Back at the hospital, I chat to Om, who is a nurse but volunteers at the Al-Assyria Centre that the Union of Health Work Committees runs. Also to M, in a hospital bed. He is 23, six months married, and made the mistake of standing next to the Jabalia mosque that was bombed two days ago. He is now recovering from abdominal surgery.

Everyone has naps in the ambulances. EJ and I are being called hourly by the BBC to contribute to news bulletins, “live from Gaza”.

5am: we hear that there has been a threat to bomb Al Wafa hospital which I understand is a centre for the disabled.

7.15am: we collect a man seriously injured by rocket explosion from a house in Sikha St, Jabalia; I doubt he has more than minutes to live, but he is still alive when we reach the hospital.

Injured woman having panic attack9am: we collect a woman whose home has just been shelled, she is having a panic attack and I am not clear on her injuries. Back at the hospital people are loudly grieving for two recent dead. These may be the nearly dead man my ambulance collected and another I saw arrive, both horribly mangled by rockets and the now-familiar grey colour.

9.30: we hear that Beit Hanoun is almost completely occupied by the Israeli army, as is the nearby small town Zahra which commands the north/south road. The north (us) and the south (F, G, and OJ in Rafah) may now be cut off from each other. We check in by phone, making contingency plans.

10am: Mo’s sister calls to tell him his village of Khosa is being shelled; the farmland in the centre which is surrounded by housing. “There’s nothing there, just people’s homes.” he tells us. He says there are now Israeli tanks in the Attatta and Shaimah areas of Beit Lahia. This is 1km inside the border, and 2km away from us at Jabalia. He says tank invasions used to take main roads, but he expects this time they will do what they did in February; bring in bulldozers and go directly through the houses.

He tells us that today Palestinian phones are receiving recorded messages from the army, saying “To the innocent civilians: our war is not with you, but with Hamas. If they don’t stop launching rockets, you are all going to be in danger.”

11.50 Call to near Gaza beach, turns out to be a mistake. Instead we pick up a family with two little children who are evacuating, sat on the side of the road, worn out from carrying bags. We passed Beit Lahia UNRWA school earlier, it is filling up with refugee families. Like Naher El Bared all over again.

Boy in bread queue collapses

Boy in break queue collapses
N draws my attention to one more extremely crowded bread queue, and then we discover a young teenage boy in the queue has collapsed from exhaustion; the medics treat him to the extent they can.

4pm: F calls to say they’ve heard Al Awda hospital has been shelled. I ring EJ. She says a structure immediately beside it received two shells; one person was injured, the man who lent her his jacket last night. He has shrapnel to the head and she says he isn’t looking too good. A apparently caught the shelling on his camera. We wonder if we should head back there to be again with Jabalia RC instead of Gaza city RC. But Gaza city lost 3 of their medics yesterday.

Latest:

There have been two separate reports about Israeli attacks on funeral tents. We are trying to confirm deaths and injuries for one. The second of the funerals attacked was medic Arafa’s yesterday afternoon; 5 people were injured.

We have also had reports that in the Zaytoun area two days ago, Israeli soliders rounded up a group of people into two houses; women and children into one, men into the other, where they were kept for two days. Then this morning at 11am Israeli forces shelled the houses. We have heard the number of deaths as between 7 and 20. One was a seven year old boy whose father was interviewed on TV while holding his body. We are trying to find out further details. It is getting very hard to keep up with this insanity.

We asked the Jabalia Red Crescent admin person how much of the emergency calls Israel is not letting them go to. These are in areas where co-ordination must be made with the invading forces via the Red Cross to enter. He said they are not being allowed to attend to about 80% of the calls from the north, covering the Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia area.

Shall I repeat that?
80%.
Eight of ten people calling for help are being prevented from receiving it.

Attacks on Hospitals and Medics in Gaza

I received the following press release today from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM:
----------------
2pm, Al-Awda hospital, Jabaliya, Gaza: The al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza has been damaged by two Israeli shells.

Spanish Human Rights Activist Alberto Arce said;

"Two consecutive shells just landed in the busy car park 15 meters from the entrance to the emergency room of the Al Awda hospital. The entrance of the emrgency rooml was damaged. At the time of the shelling Ambulances were bringing in the wounded that keep pouring in. Medical teams and facilities are being targeted. Nowhere is safe" Alberto Arce (Spain) – International Solidarity Movement

This attack on the hospital come the day after four medics were killed by the Israeli military as they attempted to rescue injured people. Six Palestinian medical personnel have now been killed by Israeli attacks.

On December 31st, medic Mohammed Abu Hassera was killed on the spot as his ambulance was shelled while trying to access the wounded. Dr Ihab Al Mathoon, who was also on the ambulance, died in hospital a few hours later. Yesterday, 4th January, Yaser Shbeir, Raf'at Al-A'kluk, Arafa Hani 'Abdul Dayem and Anes Fadel Na'im were killed when Israeli shells targeted the ambulances they worked in.

"Israel has continued to violate international conventions by attacking medical personnel. They are massacring the people of Gaza. With the swelling number of civilian casualties, Israel must ensure that medical assistance is available. Instead, they are intentionally targeting the medical teams that are meant to be protected by the Geneva Conventions. Israel's disregard for international law must be confronted by the international community." – Vittorio Arrigoni (Italy) – International Solidarity Movement

International Solidarity Movement activists are accompanying ambulances in Gaza. They were, and will continue, working with medical personnel during the Israeli Occupation Forces' ground invasion into northern Gaza.

Please Contact:

Jabaliya
Alberto Arce Spain - (Spanish) - +972 59 8786094
Ewa Jasiewicz - Poland/Britain (Polish, English and Arabic) + 447749421576
Vittorio Arrigoni - Italy (Italian) - +973 59 8378945
Eva Bartlett - Canada (English) - +972 59 8836308
Sharon Lock - Australia (English) - +972 59 8826513

In Gaza City and Rafah

Dr. Haider Eid - South Africa (English and Arabic) - + 972 59 9441766
Fida Qishta - Palestine (English and Arabic) +972 599681669
Jenny Linnel - Britain (English) - +972 59 8765377
Natalie Abu Shakra - Lebanon (Arabic and English) +972 59 8336 328


For More General Information, Please Contact:

Adam Taylor - ISM media office in Ramallah - +972 598 503 948

For blogs from inside Gaza see:

www.ingaza.wordpress.com

www.talestotell.wordpress.com

www.palsolidarity.org

Protests Against Attacks on Gaza - Manchester - 3rd Jan, 2009

Thanks to James Chan for the photographs.

Photos From Gaza

Today I protested with about 4,000 other people in Manchester. We shouted until we were hoarse. I took my camera without the memory card, so I will refrain from posting about the protest until I have some copies of my friend's pics to put up.

I've deliberated for a while about whether to post these photos. I got them from a friend of a friend who posted them on facebook to let the world see what is happening in Gaza. These are not nice images, and we do not see them in the mainstream media. But I feel they should be seen.

Moments of Gaza

I'd like to share a post from another blog with you. It's from Moments of Gaza - eyewitness accounts of life in Gaza - have a read. This post is from Professor Said Abdelwahed.

What Gaza looks like on Jan. 1st, 2009?
Death is everywhere in Gaza. Sorrow and sadness is the address of the new year 2009. There is a smell of blood and carnage! Every minutes witnesses new bad news; bangs, bombings, missile hissing, collapses, devastation, Israeli drones, Apaches and other choppers, F16s, land shakes under us; destruction everywhere, dead bodies, mutilated parts, crying children and mothers searching for their kids and husbands; no one knows where to go or where to hide! No safe haven under the Israeli attack. Even civil society establishments were targeted; the ministry of justice, the ministry of education, the ministry of culture have been destroyed! Mosques were badly hit with six of it became something of the past. Dozens of the homes around those mosques were devastated and shattered; people dies and injured. Until today, the first of January 2009, more than two thousands were injured and more than 420 have been killed in the attack. This number included more than fifty children.

Today, more than 20 air raids were executed on Gaza city only! The latest of the attacks destroyed a four floor building killing at least 15 people in Jabalia refugee camp! As I am dispatching this message, 5 floors building has been demolished in Sheikh Radwan to the north of Gaza city, by an Israeli warplane minutes ago! I cannot follow up with the news of bombing with a third large explosion right now!

Prof. Abdelwahed
Department of English
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Al-Azhar University of Gaza

I Read the News Today

It's the seventh morning of the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Last night I heard that the UK and US have vetoed a UN resolution calling on Israel to end its use of force. Much as I would prefer to bury my head in the sand and pretend that it isn't happening, it's probably time I checked the headlines. If they will tell me the full story, that is.



The frontpage of The Guardian Website has a small section dedicated to Israel vs. Palestinians, and their lead story is 'Israeli bomb kills Hamas leader', reminding us that this offensive is necessary and is reaching its well-justified aim. Just when you think you can trust a newspaper... At least they mentioned that two of Nizar Rayan's wives and four of his children were also killed in the attack. The article then quickly reports the death toll - now more than 400 (Palestinians that is), but is unable to reassure us that these two were 'wicked' people who deserved it. The prime minister, Ehud Olmert, travelled to Be'er Sheva, a city in the Negev hit by Palestinian rockets for the first time this week, but gave no hint as to whether a ground operation was imminent.

"I very much hope that we will succeed in reaching our goals as quickly as possible," he said. "We have not declared war on the residents of Gaza. I reiterate that we will treat the population with silk gloves but will apply an iron fist to Hamas."

Silk gloves?? Even the Guardian doubts this:

Despite his words, there is concern about civilian casualties, believed to number at least 60, as well as the humanitarian crisis.

60? Of 400 dead Palestinians only 60 are civilians?? Really?? They provide no source for this figure, but it can't possibly be right.

But the newspaper does reassure us that the sites bombed yesterday were worthwhile - the justice ministry and parliament building in Gaza city, more smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border (what could they be smuggling? weapons? or maybe food? medical supplies?), the houses in Norther Gaza (just so we know they're within ranging of firing into Israel) of three more Hamas militants, and another group called the Popular Resistance Committees. At least the reporting cannot be accused of being biased, however, they do then go on to tell us that Palestinian militants fired 20 rockets into Israel (without casualties). The picture we are supposed to take away from reading this article is clear. Oddly, there is nothing in this, the main report from The Guardian this morning, about diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation. Nothing about UK and US vetoes on a UN resolution. Maybe I dreamed that I heard this...

My trawl through the day's media can only get worse from here on... The BBC News Homepage leads with a story on the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Their frontpage headline on the situation in Gaza reads 'Israel braced for Hamas response: Israel tightens security as Hamas calls a "day of wrath" in protest at Israel's bombing of Gaza, now entering a seventh day'. Again, the myth of equal opposing forces is propagated by our publicly funded news agency. I'm going in to read the article. More of the same. Applause for Israel on successfully killing Hamas leader, both sides have ignored international call for ceasefire... but my favourite line:

'Israel says its air campaign, provoked by Palestinian rocket attacks, has been going according to plan.'

Good job they put in that middle bit, just in case we forgot that the Palestinians brought this on themselves. They report four Israelis have been killed by rockets since Saturday. 400 Palestinians are dead, at least 100 of them are civilians, according to the UN. I check the UN News Centre to see if I can verify this, but find nothing. They don't mention that of 20 civilians killed last night, 11 were children and 9 were women. They briefly mention that the UK and US vetoed a draft UN resolution put forward by Egypt and Libya on the grounds that it made no mention of Hamas rocket attacks against Israel.