EXTRA: UN: Israel admits rocket fire was not from within school

[DogPoundPup]

Source: The Earth Times

Jerusalem - Israel told foreign diplomats Wednesday that Palestinian militants had not fired rockets from within a United Nations' school, a UN official said. Israeli military officials said on Tuesday that militants had fired rockets from within the school, and that attack provoked Israeli artillery fire which landed near the school and killed more than 40 Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp, many of whom were seeking refuge from fighting.

"The Israeli army is briefing diplomats privately that the militant fire from Jablia yesterday did not come from inside the UNRWA school compound, but from the outside," said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief Works Agency, which aids Palestinian refugees.

Gunness said the claim was a "major allegation against a neutral UN development agency" which "within a day turns out to be completely baseless."

UNRWA's Gaza director, John Ging, had said earlier that to the best of his knowledge no rockets were fired from within the school. An Israeli military spokesman declined comment.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/249400,extra-un-israel-admits-rocket-fire-was-not-from-within-school.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

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[Poll_Blind]

2. In the videos section is a great piece by Cenk from The Young Turks about this (LINK)

Right here.

  If you haven't seen this yet, take just a few minutes and watch the piece. Cenk, as usual, nails it.

PB

[DogPoundPup]

3. I understand and I will watch it, meanwhile on MSM, both Dems and Repub mouthpieces

interviewed are repeating the fact the U.S. supports Israel.

Even after the host of the show runs a clip of the Norwegian Dr. claiming this insanity has to end (Israel killing innocents) and Drs. working non-stop to help thes4e suffering souls.

This is madness!!!

[Poll_Blind]

5. The situation is so bad sometimes just raising the consciousness of others about...

...what's going on is the best you can do to affect change at that moment. Yes, it sucks. But don't ever forget that a change, a real change, is build on bricks of understanding. Never underestimate your role in raising that level of consciousness when so many are so woefully ignorant of even the basic facts of the matter.

:fistbump:

PB

[jaysunb]

4. Most people already knew this....

:evilfrown:

[DCKit]

6. Not "knew" but certainly suspected.

As usual, the excuse will be "Teh Fog of War."

[Jefferson23]

7. I don't believe the Israeli government gives a damn at all.

[OakCliffDem]

9. Israelis don't see collateral damage at all. They only see what is in their gun sights

The rest is irrelevant.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Gaza is a concentration camp, says the Vatican

Gaza Strip is a concentration camp, says Vatican

From correspondents in Rome | January 08, 2009
Article from: Agence France-Presse

THE Gaza Strip has been turned into a "concentration camp" by two weeks of Israeli bombardments, said a senior Vatican official.

Cardinal Renato Martino, the Vatican's justice and peace minister, was quoted by the online Italian daily Il Sussidiario.

"Let's look at the conditions in Gaza: these increasingly resemble a big concentration camp," said Cardinal Martino.

Cardinal Martino said it was in neither parties interest to carry on fighting and urged both to show more willingness to hold peace talks.

"If they can't come to an agreement, then someone else should do it (for them). The world cannot sit back and watch without doing anything.

"We Christians are not the only ones to call this land 'holy', Jews and Muslims do so too. The fact that this land is the scene of bloodshed seems a great tragedy," he added.

Israel's offensive on Gaza has killed almost 700 Palestinians, including 220 children, and injured 3000 since December 27, according to Gaza medics.

Aid agencies have declared a total humanitarian crisis in Gaza, owing to the ailing stocks of basic food, water and medical supplies.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24886733-12377,00.html

Same story, different news organizations, Reuters and BBC:

Vatican cardinal calls Gaza "big concentration camp"

Wed Jan 7, 2009 8:38pm GMT

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's point man for justice and peace issues on Wednesday issued the Vatican's toughest criticism of Israel since the latest Mideast crisis began, calling Gaza a "big concentration camp."

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, made his comments in an interview in the Italian online newspaper Il Sussidiario.net.

"Defenceless populations are always the ones who pay. Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp," Martino, whose informal title is Vatican "justice minister," was quoted as saying.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE5066OA20090107

Vatican deplores Gaza situation

The Pope's justice minister, Cardinal Renato Martino, has sharply criticised Israel's actions and likened the Gaza Strip to a "big concentration camp".

Correspondents say his words mark the Vatican's toughest comments since Israel began its offensive with intensive air attacks 12 days ago.

He accused both sides of only thinking of their own interests while innocent people paid the price.

Pope Benedict XVI has already called for an end to the conflict.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7817019.stm

[Jefferson23]

12. Wow, at the choice of words..."concentration camp"

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Israel will simply accuse the Catholics of being against them, use it raise funds

[McCamy Taylor]

14. This is HUGE news. It needs its own thread. Probably several threads.

Expect pro-Israelis to remind us of Pope Ratzinger's Nazi past. Expect a bunch of Catholics to have second thoughts on Israel. Oh my! Here come the Holy Wars!

[awoke_in_2003]

19. Who better to know what a concentration camp is...

then an ex-Nazi youth. Pot calling kettle black kinda thing.

[IndianaGreen]

20. Except that the comment was made by an Italian Cardinal, not the former Hitlerjundgen

Here is a story of then Archbisshop Renato Martino prior to his being elevated to Cardinal:

August 29, 2003

High prelate of the Vatican visited memorial mural of the Holocaust

Archbishop Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, prayed over the tomb of Primate Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, in the Buenos Aires' Cathedral. Later, at the Argentine Catholic University, Martino delivered a lecture on the rights of the human person.

On Tuesday, 26 August 2003, the President of the Vatican Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Archbishop Renato Martino, visited the memorial Mural to the Holocaust Victims, installed inside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires.

In the course of his short visit to Argentina, the prelate of the Holy See decided to visit the only memorial in the world dedicated to those murdered during the Shoah located in a Christian temple.

Accompanied by Baruch Tenembaum, President of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, a non governmental organization which promoted the installation of the Mural, Monsignor Martino praised the enormous symbolical value of the piece of art -an impressive silver frame of 1,80 x 1,20 meters in which rests of books of prayers found in the ruins of the concentration camps are exhibited- inaugurated in 1997 by the former Primate of Argentina, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino (1923-1998).

http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?en/press/high-prelate-vatican-visited.963.htm

[Arctic Dave]

10. I'm beginning to think that this was all done to try to get Iran to

retaliate against isreal and thus giving isreal an exscuse to instagate an attack on Iran.

[subsuelo]

15. It's difficult to not suspect plans to instigate a wider conflict

However I think this still all boils down to hatred and vengeance. They're just ruthlessly bombing away at each other, with one side of course much more heavily armed.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[DissedByBush]

17. "did not come from inside the UNRWA school compound, but from the outside"

The Geneva Convention states that parties shall ensure that protected areas like schools are placed as far away as possible from military targets. Hamas is splitting hairs if they fired from outside since they violated the Geneva Convention anyway. But that's how their PR machine works. They place their launchers so that Israel will hopefully kill innocents, then get it on the news.

[Alamuti Lotus]

18. Rotten murderers AND liars too? What a stretch..