No Shelter From the Rain for the Children of Gaza

Ken's video shows the raw side of life for the people of Gaza...

Photos and video by Ken O'Keefe for Salem-News.com

(SALEM / GAZA) - Perhaps one of the most infuriating aspects of hasbara is the continual effort to convince the west that everything in Gaza is peachy and fine. Hasbara refers to Israel's public relations efforts to disseminate information about government policies and promote Israel in the face of what they consider negative press. As Wikipedia states, "Others view hasbara as a euphemism for propaganda".

A recent email thread from Israel suggested that Gaza is the home of a fantastic new shopping mall and the scene of endless healthy fun activity.

For some reason they failed to mention the sniper towers, use of illegal weapons, the apartheid walls and the F-16's dropping bombs as recently as five days ago.

This place defines misery; Gaza is the scene of a major series of Israeli war crimes. There is no excuse for the way the United States and other supposedly civilized nations keep funding the monster and ignoring the results.

Ken's video shows the raw side of life for the people of Gaza who deserve every opportunity available to other people.

Imagine living every day of your life in a war zone, surrounded by memories of your loved ones who have been killed, either randomly or collaterally, by Israel's US funded war on humanity.

If Gaza's defending militias fire a rocket at their attackers to avenge the deaths, the Israeli military unleashes an arsenal on Gaza with absolutely no discrimination over targets. And they say, "They want to wipe Israel off the map" when in reality, Israel has all but erased the existence of historic Palestine.

It was long ago and again more recently demonstrated to the people of Gaza that they have no effective military defense against Israel. So, many years ago the Free Palestine movement made and implemented a new approach that involved laying weapons down and taking up non violent protest.

There has not been any kind of measurable payoff for the diminishing of violence and the propaganda machine continues to roar. Some activists think any deviation from this non-violent approach is essential, but others believe a point will soon be reached that involves something else. The US government could intervene, it could take a stand and say 'enough!'.

Ken O'Keefe is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently spoke out about the use of depleted uranium as a "crime against humanity" and the US military using soldiers as "human guinea pigs" with experimental drugs that were directly linked to Gulf War syndrome. He is also a social entrepreneur utilizing direct action marine conservation, he is more widely known for leading the human shield action to Iraq and as a survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara in which he participated in "defending the ship" and "disarming two Israeli Commandos". On January 7, 2004, O'Keefe burned his US passport in protest of "American Imperialism" and called for US troops to immediately withdrawal from Iraq. He replaced his US passport with a "World Passport", subsequently proclaiming himself a "Citizen of the World" with “ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth." Ken is also legal citizen of Ireland and Palestine citizenship. Read Ken O'Keefe's Biography, you can also visit Ken's Ken's Website alohapalestine.com