America, Israel and Palestine: Cause and Effect

(Written by Jeffrey Blankfort)

Dear Readers:

Many of you may not be aware of the ongoing television campaign, "America, Israel and Palestine: Cause and Effect," begun by Fred Shepherd, Executive Director of Global Information Services, that is now in its third year and reaching more viewers every day. These films on nationwide public access television stations (PATS) are providing hundreds of thousands of people across the country with an accurate view of the Israel-Palestine conflict that one will not see on network television or PBS. Unlike PBS television, these 19 films (with 30 hours of content) cannot be censored by PATS in your communities.

Major films such as "Palestine Is Still The Issue," "Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land," "The Loss of Liberty," "The Killing Zone," "Right of Return, " "Edward Said: On Orientalism," "Interview: Ilan Pappe," "Refuseniks," (and soon to be included, "The Israel Lobby Debate ," and many more--19 films with roughly 30 hours of content) are being aired nationwide every month . All films come with authorization from the producers which allows for unlimited broadcasting on PATS.

The newest film in the series, "The Israel Lobby Debate," that took place in San Francisco on February 22, 2007 is just being completed. Participants in the debate were: Dr. Hatem Bazian, Dr. Steve Niva and Dr. Stephen Zunes, and myself with Khalil Bendib as moderator. This debate was both unique and historical while addressing issues that, as we know, are seldom discussed.

It is time that we look for new activities to promote the Palestinian cause beyond those in the choir who need no further convincing and one way is to get these important films in front of the larger public. To learn how easy and effective this campaign is and how you can get these films televised in your area, contact Fred Shepherd, Global Information Services at 336 Bon Air Center #441, Greenbrae, CA 94904 415-459-8738 altencon@aol.com www.palkqed.com.

<>Additional information is available from Fred, such as synopses of the films, finding the PATS, and endorsement from John Pilger, Council for the National Interest (CNI), Washington Rept. on the Middle East (WRMEA) , Henry Norr, End the Occupation and myself, among others.

Please participate and forward this information to others who you think may be willing to join the nationwide network of sponsors. This is a classic example of "thinking globally and acting locally."

Jeff
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DNC urged to sack Jimmy Carter

Six former U.S. ambassadors, all Republicans, urged the Democratic Party to strip former President Jimmy Carter of an honorary position.

The letter mailed Wednesday to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean calls for Carter's removal from his position as honorary chairman of Democrats Abroad, because of statements Carter made about Hamas.

The letter, sent under the auspices of the Republican Jewish Coalition, refers to a June 19 speech by Carter in Ireland. In the speech, the ex-president "castigated our government and the governments of Israel and the European Union for withholding direct aid to Hamas leaders in the Palestinian Authority," according to the letter.

Carter told the audience that the isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority was "criminal," despite the fact that Hamas was designated as a terrorist organization during the Clinton administration and it is illegal for the United States to give it assistance.

In response to the ambassadors' letter, the DNC pointed to a statement by Dean last year in which he distanced himself from Carter.

Amaya Smith, Dean's spokeswoman, said, "The Democratic Party, led by our strong congressional leadership, has demonstrated unwavering support for Israel and its security needs during this time of great uncertainty. Meanwhile Republicans can't change the fact that their leadership encouraged its members – 164 who did – to vote against aid to Israel."

That number of Republicans voted against a measure this week that included $2.4 billion in aid to Israel.
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Kiss of death for Fatah?

Palestinians take cover as shots are fired by the Israeli military


Good-bye Hamas, hello Al-Qaeda, despairs Saleh Al-Naami **

Muhannad, eight, was obviously tense, as if he were sitting on hot coals. His father was throwing sticks into the fire that had been lit under the pot on the stove. For this child, there was reason to wait, for his father had finally agreed to boil the ears of corn he had gathered from a nearby field after scrounging enough kindling to boil them. His father, Abdul-Rahman bin Awdeh, is 44 and a trader of livestock who lives in the Birket Al-Wiz area west of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza. He had to ration their meager gas, using it only once a day to cook lunch for his family of 11.

Abdul-Rahman, like the overwhelming majority of the Gaza Strip's population, fears that Israel will carry out its threats to halt the provision of gas and fuel to Gaza following Hamas's assertion of control. He thus limits the use of gas to only necessary and pressing needs. Many Palestinian families, whether in the countryside, refugee camps, or even in large cities, have returned to using kindling for cooking, not only for fear that the gas supplies will be cut off in the future, but also because a large percentage of these families don't have the money to buy gas. This is a consequence of the persistent deterioration of the economic situation due to the continuing siege that has grown tighter since Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip and given that civil servants have not received their salaries for months.

Nidal Abu Sameha, 26, is the driver of a taxi that transports passengers between Gaza city and the central Gaza Strip. He did not attempt to conceal his intense annoyance, for with the exception of myself, last Saturday morning he couldn't find any passengers to take from Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza to Gaza City despite his route past the Al-Bureij and Al-Nuseirat refugee camps. As he tried to straighten his long, thick, wind-blown hair, he said, "this profession has become unbearable. Because of the deteriorating economic situation and the civil servants not receiving their salaries, people don't leave their areas and, in turn, we don't find passengers. What a miserable situation!"

One of the manifestations of the declining economic situation in the Gaza Strip is the low purchasing power of people here. Ibrahim Al-Ashi, 52, and Jamal Abid, 49, own two shops next to each other in the Al-Zawiya market, the largest market in Gaza City. They spend much of their time debating the expected scenarios for the Gaza Strip following the Hamas takeover, and their debates are only interrupted by a rare customer or by the call to prayer from a nearby mosque. In the past, it was difficult to move in this market between sunrise and sunset due to the crowds of shoppers.

The deteriorating economic circumstances have also affected health services in Gaza. Jamal Qandil, secretary of the Al-Salah Al-Tibbi medical grouping in Al-Maghazi, and which includes a number of specialised clinics, confirms that there is a decline in the number of patients. He points to the difficult economic situation that has limited the number having plastic surgery or getting braces in the group's dental clinics, procedures that are costly.

Yet even the wealthy in Gaza have been affected by the continuous siege imposed and tightened by Israel. Mohamed Enshas, 43, who lives in the Al-Rimal Al-Janubi neighbourhood mainly inhabited by the city's wealthy families, was disappointed last Saturday afternoon when he went to Amu Emad's fruit store. With the exception of watermelon and cantaloupe, he couldn't find anything to purchase. The other fruit had run out the previous day, and after Israel closed the Karni commercial crossing, no fruit had made its way into Gaza.

Yet the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are not only facing economic pressures. Recently Israel again invaded northern and eastern Gaza. It also resumed assassinations of activists in the Palestinian resistance movements.

Ahmed Al-Masri, 59, made a fateful decision. After 30 years abroad in the Arab Gulf, he returned to Gaza to live the rest of his life with his wife. Seeking peace and quiet and a good standard of living, he bought a five- dunam plot of land in the countryside on the eastern border of Al-Qarara village in central Gaza. Amid stunning natural beauty he built a grand villa. Yet to Al-Masri's surprise, and despite the gorgeous view, there was no calm. This area has recently been subjected to continuous invasions by the occupation army. Al-Masri has not lost hope and does not grant these invasions his attention as he talks with his guests in his garden. On his living room wall is a picture of the premier of the de facto government Ismail Hanyieh in his red kaffiyeh.

The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have finally fallen victim to the power struggle between the emergency government the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered to be formed, and which is led by Salam Fayyad, and the acting government led by Haniyeh. Perhaps the manifestation of this war most shocking to Palestinians is the decision of the emergency government to not recognise the passports issued in the Gaza Strip, whether those being issued for the first time or those that are being renewed.

Mohamed Al-Naimi, 24, a student in the Islamic University who resides with his family in Saudi Arabia, is very worried, not only because the Rafah border crossing is closed, but because even if it is re-opened he won't be able to travel. His passport has expired and he cannot get a new one. What makes matters even more complicated for this young man is that he must be present in Saudi Arabia within a month in order to renew his residency with the Saudi authorities.

Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli media has been intent on proving that everyone from Abu Mazen to the American administration and Israel have agreed on a work mechanism for subverting the Hamas experience in Gaza and returning control to Abu Mazen. According to the plan referred to in Israeli papers, Israel and the emergency government led by Fayyad are bent on creating two different economic and security environments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Israel will release Palestinian taxes and transfer them to Abu Mazen, who will spend them on increasing the "comfort" of Palestinians in the West Bank only. Meanwhile, economic pressure on the Gaza Strip will continue in order to convince the Palestinian public to mobilise against the Hamas leadership and force it to accept Abu Mazen's conditions for talking with it -- apologising for taking control of the Palestinian Authority's institutions and returning them to it.

Minister of Youth and Sports in the emergency government Ashraf Al-Agrami, insisted to Al-Ahram Weekly that such a plan exists. Yet General Ephraim Sneh, the Israeli deputy minister of defence, who is considered the go- between for the Israeli government and the cabinet of Abu Mazen, confirmed last Sunday morning in Hebrew on Israeli radio that there is in fact an American-Israeli agreement with Abu Mazen to create the circumstances that will drive people in Gaza to mobilise against Hamas. The Palestinian public, a large sector of which relies on Israeli media as a source of information, tends to believe the Israeli narrative.

Palestinians spend a lot of time debating and commenting on what the Israeli media says, and those close to Abu Mazen don't seem capable of crushing such talk. Those who follow public opinion programmes on local Palestinian radio stations know that a large percentage of the Palestinian public has grown to consider Abu Mazen a part of the mechanism of siege. A listener commented on Abu Mazen's call for Palestinians to support him and his government by saying, "Abu Mazen wants us to support him and he is collaborating in placing this siege upon us. He's like a person who has killed his parents and then wants mercy because he's an orphan!"

Israeli intellectual and military elites stress the inevitability of the failure of the use of economic and military pressures to cow the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Former head of Israeli Military Intelligence Shlomo Gazit said that experience indicated that, "the more pressure placed on the Palestinian people to disengage from Hamas, the more we will get a completely opposite result, whereby support for Hamas will increase among the Palestinian public."

In an article published 25 June, in Maarif, Gazit scoffed at the bet on Abu Mazen and Fatah, saying, "history has turned its back on Abu Mazen and the Fatah movement and they no longer deserve any Israeli investment." He recommended that his government attempt to hold a dialogue with Hamas, which he argues has the support of the majority of the Palestinian public. Shlomo Ilder, the Gaza Strip correspondent for Israeli television Channel 10, authoritatively asserts that with Israel and the American administration embracing Abu Mazen, the Palestinian people will surely stand by Hamas. Ilder, author of the book Gaza is Like Death, adds that the majority of the Palestinian public views the recent events as an Israeli-American plan implemented in coordination with Mohamed Dahlan to overthrow the Hamas government that won a crushing majority in the legislative elections. Danny Rubinstein, commentator on Palestinian affairs for Haaretz, warns that economic and security pressures on the Palestinians will lead to "more terrifying nightmares" than the Israeli government and the West can imagine. Rubinstein asserts that, "if we succeed in uprooting Hamas, we will certainly gain Al-Qaeda
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Steady Course to Apartheid

Our governments have failed us. Unless we, the people worldwide, can mobilize grassroots opposition to the Israeli-US-European Occupation, a new apartheid regime, in the Holy Land no less, will soon emerge before our very eyes.

By Jeff Halper

For all the attention and hysteria the latest events in Gaza have generated since the Hamas “takeover,” for Israel they represent nothing but a minor blip in its inexorable drive towards its own unilateral “solution:” apartheid. Israel’s end-game, explicit and unruffled by the recent turmoil on the ground, is clear. It is laid out in detail in the Convergence Plan” Olmert presented to a joint session of the American Congress in May, 2006, based on Sharon’s plan of “cantonization.” With minor adjustments, it constitutes the plan Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is quietly advancing with the help of Condoleezza Rice, and it is accepted in its entirety by Ehud Barak, the newly-elected leader of the Labor Party, who played a key role in its formulation.

The Israeli plan for apartheid is as follows:

(1) Creating a truncated Palestinian “state” comprised of four disconnected cantons, three in the West Bank and Gaza. By annexing its major settlement blocs defined by the Wall, Israel thereby expands onto 85% of the country, leaving the Palestinians confined to impoverished enclaves on the remaining 15% of the land. In such a “two-state solution” Israel would control the borders, external and internal Palestinian movement, the “Greater” Jerusalem area, all the water resources, the air space, the communications sphere and even the Palestinian state’s foreign policy. Such a Bantustan would have no genuine sovereignty or viable economy – but would have to accept all the traumatized and impoverished Palestinian refugees.

(2) If this fails, primarily because Israel cannot find the quisling Palestinian leader who would sign off on a Bantustan, Plan B – the Livni-Rice plan – calls for the unilateral declaration by the US of a “provisional” Palestinian state with no fixed borders, no meaningful sovereignty and no viable economy, squeezed between the Wall, Israel’s eastern “demographic” border incorporating the settlement blocs, and the Jordan Valley, Israel’s eastern “security” border. The Palestinians would thus be left in the limbo of a “provisional” state indefinitely – or until they agree to a Bantustan – all in conformity to the parameters of the "Road Map".

Period. Regardless of the “peace initiative” of the moment – the Road Map, the Saudi initiative, the summit at Sharm el-sheikh, the appointment of a Middle East envoy – all these plans will have to conform to one of these alternatives or be doomed to irrelevance.

What happens in Gaza, then (tellingly nicknamed “Hamastan,” the Palestinian cantons of the West Bank now dubbed “Fatahland”), is therefore irrelevant to Israel, since Gaza represents nothing more than a tiny part of the tiny Palestinian Bantustan (about 8%). Whether Gaza would have been “quieted” after the Israeli disengagement as Sharon had planned, exporting cheap labor into Israel and perhaps enjoying limited economic growth, whether it was merely isolated and impoverished due to US and Israeli sanctions after the Hamas election victory or whether, as happened, it explodes, nothing will hamper Israel’s ceaseless process of consolidating its hold on the West Bank. Sooner or later, in the Israeli-American plan, Gaza will fall into place.

Not only are the Palestinians irrelevant, in Israel’s view, but the Hamas “takeover” is actually a positive development, since it furthers the apartheid process. A key reason why Palestinians voted for Hamas was the perception that it would resist pressures to accept a Bantustan better than the weak, vacillating Fatah movement, which was seen as little more than Israel’s policeman in the Territories. Israel, the US and a complicit Europe is thus seen as trying to isolate precisely those who truly resist the Occupation while “strengthening” Abbas and the “moderates” – “moderate” defined as those willing to pacify the Palestinians without securing their fundamental right to a sovereign and viable state of their own. The American-sponsored program of arming Fatah against its own people, complete with “lending” them an American general (Dayton), only confirms these suspicions, especially if they make Abbas dependent upon outside forces for his survival.

Israel and the US are doing in microcosm in Palestine what the US is doing throughout the Muslim world, forcing the Palestinians to choose between two unacceptable options: either the prospects of an apartheid regime which is all the “moderates” can deliver or continued resistance to occupation and apartheid under Hamas at the price of international isolation and an unwanted process of Islamization. Where are the true liberators who can deliver a viable Palestinian state while recognizing – though standing up to – Israel? Where are the progressive leaders who represent the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people? Where are the “strong” leaders that Bush claims are lacking on the Palestinian side? Either dead, the victims of a 30-year campaign on the part of Israel to eliminate any effective Palestinian leader, or languishing in refugee camps or in exile, or in prison. If Marwan Bargouti and the prisoners of all the factions who produced the Prisoners’ Document, the only viable peace plan that has any chance of success, were free and allowed to lead their people, the Israel/Palestine conflict could be resolved tomorrow.

What is lacking, of course, is good faith. The will among governments to stand up for Palestinian rights and against Israeli apartheid is totally lacking. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz (21.6.07) noted the cynicism underlying the recent Olmert-Bush meeting. “Olmert reached an understanding with Bush during his visit to Washington that it is necessary to support Abbas,” a senior political source in Jerusalem said. “The decision to aid Abbas was made despite skepticism about his chances for success, in view of past experience. Olmert and Bush agreed they must not allow the impression that Abbas failed because Israel or the U.S. failed him.”

Israel is not going to bolster Abbas – unless he becomes the collaborator Israel is looking for, which he won’t. Olmert has already announced that there will be no final status negotiations in the foreseeable future. So neither the Saudi Initiative nor the Sharm meeting will lead to genuine negotiations. The US, with its moribund Road Map, will not facilitate the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and Europe will not act independently to do so, even in its own interest. The Palestinians, for their part, are powerless to achieve a viable state on their own and will continue to be beaten and blamed for their own incarceration and resistance.

Our governments have failed us. Unless we, the people worldwide, can mobilize grassroots opposition to the Israeli-US-European Occupation, a new apartheid regime, in the Holy Land no less, will soon emerge before our very eyes. Its only when the people lead that our “leaders” will even contemplate doing the right thing.

(Arabic Media Internet Network – www.amin.org,
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New Project: Compiling Zionist Lies

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." - Aldous Huxley

Compiling Zionist mendacity, lies and distortions is by necessity a work in
progress. It obviously can be rather lengthy since the lies and mendacity
of those who either participated in or still participate in the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine goes back for 100 years. I listed below 50 common
lies and a link to page with data that debunk them (as a beginning to prompt
more). Please send me your contributions/additions whether in other lies
not mentioned here or in further quotes and data on the listed lies. Email
contributions to qumsi001@hotmail.com Suggested use for the data as it
accumulates is a handy place for finding info for sending to chat rooms,
listserves, editors, politicians and others who could benefit from knowing
the factual response to the myths. Zionist lies are leading us all
(including us US Citizens) into more wars, mayhem and economic destruction.

50 Sample Lies (answers and real data at
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/liesandtruths/

* Arabs in Israel are treated equal. Variant, Israel is a Democracy.
* Arabs only understand the language of force.
* Barak Made a generous offer at Camp David, Arafat rejected it and went
back and started a bloody intifada.
* Ben Gurion (who became Israel's first Prime Minister) and Zionist
leadership before 1948 war had no intention to drive the native Palestinians
out.
* Boycotts and Divestment are immoral and anti-Semitic.
* Christians should support Israel because of the promised land/Bible
issues.
* Iran's President is a Jew-hating, Holocaust-denying, Islamo-fascist who
stated he will "wipe Israel off the map".
* Islam is intent on taking over the world.
* Israel accidentally attacked the USS Liberty in International waters
because it was mistaken for an Egyptian ship.
* Israel Demolishes Homes for security.
* Israel does not torture Palestinian Prisoners in violation of the Geneva
Conventions.
* Israel is beneficial to US interests in the Middle East.
* Israel is not an apartheid state.
* Israel made the desert bloom/Palestine was destitute.
* Israel only imprisons those responsible for terrorism.
* Israel seeks peace with Syria.
* Israel takes great care not to harm civilians and never targets
them/Israeli army most ethical army.
* Israel was trying to save Arab Jews
* Israeli academics are generally liberals who support human rights.
* Israel has centrality in Jewish life manifest by the creed developed and
advocated by Zionists "Am Yisrael Chai" meaning the People of Israel (=the
Jews) live.
* Israel had a positive influence on world affairs.
* Land was purchased, Palestinians were not ethnically cleansed.
* Zionists teach peace and democracy, Palestinian Society teaches hate.
* Jerusalem "reunification" let people be treated equal regardless of
religion/variant: Israel is not judaicizing Jerusalem/Freedom of religion.
* Jews of Iraq and Arab Countries were persecuted and expelled.
* Jihad and Mujahideen refers to violence against infidels/non-muslims.
* Media has been biased against Israel.
* Mohammed Al-Durra was killed by Palestinians or killed in "cross-fire".
* Muslims cannot assimilate in Western countries.
* Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land.
* Palestinians and other Arabs largely rejoiced after 9/11 attacks.
* Palestinians don't use nonviolent resistance but instead blow themselves
up with innocent civilians.
* Palestinians send their kids to be killed for propaganda purposes.
* Palestinians want/ed to drive Jews and Israel into the sea.
* Rachel Corrie was accidentally killed while protecting the house of
terrorist.
* The "security barrier" Israel is building si not a land grab and is about
Security.
* The 1967 war was a defensive war by Israel against enemies who wanted to
destroy it.
* The Deir Yassin Massacre (one of hundreds committed duing the ethnic
cleansing of 1947-1949) was committed by rogue elements and not mainstream
Zionists.
* The Interational Solidarity Movement support violence.
* The lies and distortions about the Lavon affair
* The massacre of Sabra and Shatila in 1982 in Lebanon was not the
responsibility of the Israelis.
* The people of the West Bank benefited from Israeli rule.
* The Road map is an international effort for peace in the Middle East and
Palestinians reject it.
* The US is an "honest broker".
* There was an Exchange of population, Jews came from Arab Countries to
Israel in exchange Arabs left Israel.
* Tiny Israel fended off large Arab armies in 1948.
* Zionism represent Jews or at least mainstream Judaism.
* Zionism was a response to anti-Semitism.
* Zionists believe in and allow free speech.
• Zionists did not push for the war on Iraq and the conflict with Iran is
also about US security not Zionist perceived self-interest

answers and real data at http://www.qumsiyeh.org/liesandtruths/
Again, please send me additional material for this work in progress
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Shameful humanitarian tragedy at Rafah

LUISA MORGANTINI MEP
Vice President of the European Parliament


Shameful humanitarian tragedy at Rafah -
Thousands of Palestinians stuck without
humanitarian assistance

Rome

"While Israel carries on with its criminal air raids on the Gaza Strip,
which have killed 14 people and injured about 50 people in the last two
days, and Hamas persists with the rocket bombardments on Sderot,
fortunately without victims, another shameful tragedy is taking place
at Rafah", declared Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European
Parliament.

"4000 Palestinians: elderly and ill people, children, women and men are
currently stuck at the Rafah border crossing, the southern border of the
Gaza strip with Egypt. They are waiting under the burning sun, 42 C°
degrees, without money and with scarce water and food ".

These 4000 people do not receive any humanitarian aid, any assistance
from international organizations or from the Egyptian government.

The hygienic and logistical situation is completely improper, especially
considering that in the group there are a lot of ill people, who are coming
back from Egyptian Hospitals, trying to go back to their homes.

Those who can afford it spend their nights in very expensive hotels, others
are completely abandoned and they have not even the means to buy
medicines.

After Israel's withdrawal from the Strip in September 2005, the border was
controlled by the Palestinian National Authority with the support of about
70 European observers.

Since June 2006, when the Israeli soldier, Ghilad Shalit, was kidnapped in
Gaza, Israel has authorized the opening of the border for only 74 days out
of 365.

After the recent inter-Palestinian clashes, that have resulted in victory
for Hamas in Gaza, Israel has decided to make the crisis even worse,
through indiscriminate raids on the Strip and through the closure of the
border crossing both for people and commercial goods.

"This situation has to stop, but Egypt declares itself ready to re-open the
borders - the only way out to the rest of the world for the million and a
half Palestinians living in Gaza -only when the Europeans in charge of
supervision return.

Thus, completely ignoring, just like Israel or the international community,
that there are thousands of people who live in desperate conditions for the
last two weeks".

"I call on the European Union and the whole international community not to
stay static in front of the Palestinian population which has been wounded
for the hundredth time. I call on them to put pressure on the Israeli
government instead, to immediately re-open all the border crossing points at
the Gaza Strip, in which Palestinian civilians are arbitrarily and
unilaterally imprisoned and forced to survive with no food, nor water and
with a health service on the verge of collapse.

Finally, I believe that the endorsement of this appeal by the new elected
Special Envoy of the Quartet, Tony Blair, would be a significant signal, a
first step to give credibility to his role towards the Palestinian and Arab
population, sceptical to the neutrality of one of the main promoters of the
Iraqi disaster and strong supporter of an aggressive US foreign policy."

"The solution to the Palestinian tragedy, which is not just a humanitarian
matter, lies in the end of the Israeli military occupation; nevertheless we
must act now on daily living conditions", Luisa Morgantini concludes.

Further info Luisa Morgantini 0039 348 39 21 465
or Office in Brussels 0032 22 84 91 51 or Francesca Cutarelli +3906 69950217
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