[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] How dare Israel attack priceless Gaza folk art rockets?

A good comment from L. King deserves its own post. I expanded it.

---

I would like to add my voice to condemn the senseless slaughter of innocent Palestinian rocket launchers and projectiles in Gaza. These priceless home made artifacts representing the finest of locally produced folk art, with contributions by similar artists in Syria and Iran, are the heart and soul of Palestinian culture, and it breaks our hearts to see them destroyed in so callous and wanton a manner. The firing of mortars and missiles represents the apogee and perigee of indigenous performance art, cruelly interrupted by the criminal operators of the Iron Dome system who daily prevent these national treasures from reaching their target audience.

These priceless folk-art objects, which include such historic variants as the venerable Qassam, the M-75, the K-130 and others, are protected by the 1954 Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed conflict, which states "The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect cultural property situated within their own territory as well as within the territory of other High Contracting Parties by refraining from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for its protection for purposes which are likely to expose it to destruction or damage in the event of armed conflict; and by refraining from any act of hostility, directed against such property." Clearly these objects, lovingly crafted by artists often in their own homes, are immune from being attacked, and any attempts to deliberately destroy them violate international law.

Beyond the invaluable art objects, the world must protect the performance art that Gaza artisans have created. Some of these show an object being hurled through space and time, eventually and beautifully destroying itself together with much of the target audience. This is a powerful symbolic statement of hope and friendship, reaching out across borders to show our shared humanity. Stopping it deprives both the artist and the audience of this unique experience. The Israeli system ("Iron Dome") that intercepts the objects midway through their performance is abhorrent and must be condemned.

This performance art is the penultimate example of Palestinian Arab expression, second only to our world-famous martyrdom operations that we are continuing to refine and improve to reach the largest audience possible, as our brothers did in spectacular performances in New York, Washington, London and Madrid.

Even beyond that, the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage protects important monuments and buildings. The Zionist aggressor has been targeting our unique, intricate tunnel and bunker system underneath Gaza and extending to Egypt and Israel itself, a gesture of fraternal love. These monuments to Palestinian determination and artistry cannot and must not be attacked,

Please contact your congressman or elected representative (in Gaza and most countries in the Arab world select the nearest possible facsimile) to make your feelings known on this horrible crime which violates untold numbers of UN resolutions and the Geneva Conventions which protects innocent munitions from what clearly is an unprovoked attack on the rights of Palestinians to resist negotiating peace with their Israeli neighbours.

In Solidarity, Umm Fouhl U.

--
Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 7/11/2014 04:00:00 PM