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An Open Letter to All Feminists
: Support Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Women
Western feminists talk about honor killings and the misogyny
of Islam, but hypocritically ignore the legal violence of military
occupation.
The situation in Gaza has been
worsening for years
Health facilities in the Gaza Strip have become
extremely fragile. Once the current crisis passes and
is off the media's agenda, the situation will continue to worsen.
Water Authority:
Israel must act to avoid humanitarian crisis
Israel must carry out measures to reduce water use in
order to prevent a humanitarian crisis, the General
Secretary of the National Water Authority Professor
Uri Shani said during a speech at the authority's fifth
annual conference on Wednesday.
Israeli ground attack in N Gaza
Israeli forces invaded on ground into the northern Gaza Strip
at dawn Wednesday, arresting seven Palestinians. The target
was the northeastern town of Beit Hanoun, already under
heavy siege.
Three Palestinians killed in
separate incidents in Gaza
Three Palestinians have been reportedly killed in separate
incidents in the Gaza Strip, medics and media sources reported.
Israeli settlers attack shepherds near Hebron
A group of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds
from Towani village, south of the southern West Bank
city of Hebron on Thursday.
Israeli forces seize teenager from
his home in Bethlehem
Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Bethlehem
on Wednesday morning and seized a Palestinian teenager
after damaging the furniture in his family's house. The
young man's grandfather visited Ma'an office in Bethlehem
and explained that more than ten Israeli military vehicles
besieged the family's house at As-Saf neighborhood.
He said the soldiers completely destroyed the family's
furniture before arresting his grandson 17-year-old
Abed Al-Hraimi.
Palestinian security forces 'detain five
Hamas members' in the West Bank
The Palestinian security services affiliated to the West
Bank-based Palestinian Authority seized five Hamas
members on Tuesday evening, Hamas statement said.
Israeli forces detain three Palestinians near Nablus
Israeli forces seized three Palestinians from the northern West
Bank village of Sarra, west of the city of Nablus, at midnight on
Tuesday, local sources said. Witnesses said that several Israeli
military vehicles stormed the village and ransacked several
houses before arresting 19-year-old Amin Kayid, 20-year-old
Qays Abu Turab, and 19-year-old Tariq Abu Turab.
Israeli forces raid Qaffin, near Tulkarem
Israeli forces raided the northern West Bank town of Qaffin
in north of the West Bank city of Tulkarem, violently searching
several houses for "wanted" Palestinian activists.
Israeli troops attack villages in southern W.B and
demolish at least four homes
On Wednesday, Israeli troops using military bulldozers
stormed Um-Nizel, and Briet villages located to the south
of Hebron city in the southern part of the West Bank and
demolished four homes.
Israel orders army to use lethal fire against
Palestinians protesting illegal wall
Israeli media sources reported on Wednesday that the Israeli
government has given new orders to the army, which allow
troops to use live rounds at Palestinian protesters near the
illegal wall surrounding the city of Jerusalem.
American ISM Volunteer Beaten
and Arrested in Israel
Blake Murphy, an American activist working with the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the West Bank,
was beaten and arrested by Israeli army and police forces on
March 14, 2008. He now faces a series of evidently false
charges from the Israeli authorities due to his work
supporting non-violent resistance to the occupation in
Palestine and is due to be deported to the United States
in the immediate future. While in custody Blake has had
many of his legal rights abused by the Israeli authorities.
Blake was arrested during the weekly demonstration in the
village of Bi'lin, where the separation wall annexes much of
the Palestinian village's land. Blake was picked out of the
demonstration by the Israeli forces, violently assaulted,
with pepper spray put in his eyes before being taken off
and subsequently arrested. For a video of Blake Murphy's
arrest see:
Israeli bulldozer destroys one-room
house near Jenin
Israeli forces demolished a one-room house on
Wednesday in the northern West Bank village of Barta'a
Ash-Sharqiyya in southern Jenin district under the pretext
that it was built without license.
CPT: "Army demolishes 11 structures in Hebron"
The Christian Peace Maker Teams (CPT), stationed in the
southern West Bank city of Hebron, issued a report on
Wednesday revealing that the Israeli military demolished
11 Palestinian structures in several villages in the Hebron area.
Hamas prime minister lays out conditions
for truce with Israel
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is publicly calling
for a truce with Israel, but says a number of conditions
must be attached to any ceasefire.
Fatah delegates to leave Yemen
without Hamas deal
Yemeni-brokered talks on reconciliation between Hamas
and Fatah have failed and Fatah negotiators are returning
to the West Bank without a deal, aides to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday.
Egypt mediating in truce efforts
between Hamas and Israel
Head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's political-security
bureau, Amos Gilad, stated on Wednesday that Israel
and Egypt are conducting intensive negotiations in an
attempt to achieve a long-term truce deal with Hamas
in the Gaza Strip.
U.S. May Relent on Hamas Role in Talks
WASHINGTON —After ruling out talks with Hamas, the
militant Islamist group, the Bush administration is using
Egypt as an intermediary to open a channel between Israel
and representatives of the group, in what some diplomats
say could be a softening of the American stance.
Hamas spokesman: PLO is no longer representative
of the Palestinian people
Spokesman of the ruling Hamas in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri,
stated on Thursday that his party is still considering the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), not to be the
representative of the Palestinian people.
Principle agreement would put
Egypt in charge of Gaza power
Under deal, Cairo would set up new power line from
Sinai Peninsula town of Arish to the Strip.
Hamas vows to share Gaza if Haniya reinstated PM
Hamas' number two Mussa Abu Marzuk said on Wednesday
the Islamists would share control of the Gaza Strip if Hamas'
Ismail Haniya was reappointed prime minister by Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas.
Abu Marzuk said Hamas would accept a "return to the
situation which existed before June 13 including a return
of the government of Ismail Haniya in its capacity as a
government of national unity."
New settlement construction will
strangle Beit Safafa
A spokesman from the District Committee for Planning
and Housing revealed that 2,200 additional housing units
for the East Jerusalem settlement Giv'at HaMatos had
been approved two weeks ago. These make up the first
phase of the planned 4,000 housing units that will be
constructed with the aim of encircling the village of Beit
Safafa with a settlement belt.
Olmert Defiant on Settlements
Ehud Olmert has said that Israel will not stop building on
occupied land in and around Jerusalem, defying US
criticism and sparking protests from Palestinians during
renewed negotiations. The Israeli prime minister said his
government would continue to build hundreds of new
apartments in Har Homa in east Jerusalem.
Leftist students protest against Lieberman's
visit to Haifa University
Dozens of Arab and Israeli students of different leftist
parties in Haifa University protested against a visit
conducted by Avigdor Lieberman to the university
campus on Wednesday. One Arab student was injured
after extremist right wingers attacks the protesters.
Mossawa Center releases racism report
detailing over 169 cases
The Mossawa Center released its annual racism report at
a press conference in Nazareth today, detailing 169
incidences of racism against Arab minority of Israel,
including the killings of Arab citizens. In preparation for
the report, Mossawa staff examined and detailed hundreds
of reports of racism, in particular cases against Arab citizens.
The report also deals with incidences of racism against refugees,
labor immigrants and Jewish immigrants, especially Ethiopians.
Rights group accuses airport
authority of 'discrimination'
Israel's airline security faced a legal challenge Wednesday from
a civil rights group charging that its practice of ethnic profiling
is racist because it singles out Arabs for tougher treatment.
Yesha rabbinical council chief: Don't
rent houses to Arabs
The chairman of the Yesha rabbinical council and chief
rabbi of Kiryat Arba, Rabbi Dov Lior, on Wednesday
issued a halakhic ruling stating that it is forbidden by
Jewish law to employ Arabs or rent homes to them.
Any new war with Israel
'will be much more violent'
Soon after the American destroyer USS Cole was deployed
off Lebanon's shore in late February 28 to "preserve political
stability," a group of young men gathered in the Southern
agricultural town of Qana to voice their fears. "Everyone
feels there is a war coming," said university student Salman
Ismael, 22, "especially after the killing of [senior Hizbullah
commander] Imad Mughniyeh.
Former interim Palestinian president
questioned over cell phone smuggling: Israel
A top aide caught at a border crossing with 3,000 illicit
cellphones in his car is probably the last thing Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas needs, as his approval rating
is sinking over stalled peace talks with Israel.
Ruling Palestine: Gaza Under Hamas
The latest report from the International Crisis Group,
analyses the situation in the Strip today and explores
the options facing Israel, the Palestinians and the
international community. Though difficult, a different
way forward is imaginable: a mutual ceasefire in Gaza;
a credible international effort to prevent arms smuggling
from Egypt into Gaza; and an opening of Gaza's border
crossings to alleviate Palestinian suffering. At the same time,
efforts toward intra-Palestinian reconciliation are needed.
Women of the Underworld:
On Being Thrown Out of Israel
What stays with me most from the last few days is the
kindness of women. Just ordinary women, caught in
bad circumstances, being nice to one another. I've spent
a lot of the last week being searched, questioned, detained,
jailed, and ultimately denied entry and deported from the
State of Israel–that land which I had been raised to believe
would always be the ultimate refuge for anyone born Jewish.
But not, apparently, for me.
Rachel Corrie's case for justice
As their plane touched down in Tel Aviv recently,
Cindy and Craig Corrie marked five years since their
daughter's death. On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23,
was crushed to death beneath an armored Israeli bulldozer.
The Corries are a short distance from Gaza, where Rachel
was killed, and where in the past few weeks, an Israeli
military incursion killed over 100 Palestinians. Tom
Wright and Therese Saliba comment.
CARE West Bank and Gaza is Helping
Palestinians in the Water Sector
The water well in Al-Nazleh Al-Wusta village, near Jenin,
has been operating since 1963, but it was rehabilitated
only once in 2005 when CARE stepped in. A new pump
station was installed that runs on electricity instead of
diesel fuel. The new engine costs less to operate compared
to the old engine, runs without breaking down, and is good
for the environment. Abu Faisal has been managing the
water well for the last 28 years, and now he can see a big
difference. He describes the situation like this: "before the
new pump was installed, we were using a diesel engine
which was expensive to operate and it kept breaking
down, and not only that - whatever revenue we made
from selling water to farmers, we spent it on running cost."
McCain promotes Mideast peace talks but
avoids sit-down with Palestinians
SDEROT, Israel — With the Republican presidential
nomination virtually assured at home, Sen. John McCain
sought to demonstrate his diplomatic acumen in the
Middle East on Wednesday by promoting Israeli talks
with moderate Palestinian leaders as the best route to peace.
John McCain: Israel's enemies threaten us all
The success of Hamas and Hizbollah in the Middle East
is not only a danger for Israel, but also a threat to US
national interests, said John McCain, the US Republican
presidential candidate.
McCain: Iranian threat to
U.S. linked to Hamas aid
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee:
Premature Iraq withdrawal would increase Iranian influence.
Abed Rabu: McCain statements approve
the occupation of Jerusalem
Yasser Abed Rabu, the General Secretary of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Wednesday
- condemned the statement made by U.S. Republican
presidential candidate John McCain, in which he supported
calls to make Jerusalem Israel's capital.
Washington Post Says Jewish Advocates
Demand that Obama Show 'Fealty to Israel'
The story continues: supporters of Israel are rising
against Obama, there is a major push this week to
destroy his candidacy.
US warns Palestinian Americans
of delays in Israel
Israeli authorities may question Palestinian Americans
on arrival in Israel and require them to obtain a Palestinian
Authority travel documents, the US State Department said
on Wednesday. The comments drew quick criticism from
an Arab American group that argued the Bush
administration was acquiescing in Israel's treatment
of Palestinian Americans as second-class US citizens.
Iraq to 'control' information
Associated Press president Tom Curley says his news
organization does not buy the government's argument
that one of its photographers arrested in Iraq was
working on behalf of the enemy, and he alleged the
US is rounding up journalists in an attempt to
control information.
Bush Says Iraq War Was Worth It
President Bush says he has no doubts about launching
the unpopular war in Iraq despite the ``high cost in
lives and treasure,'' arguing that retreat now would
embolden Iran and provide al-Qaida with money for
weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States.
At least 17 border guards killed in
violence in south Iraq
Police said Wednesday 17 border guards have been shot
dead by gunmen in different areas in the southern Iraqi
city of Basra. The killings occurred over the last 24 hours.
'Female bomber' kills six in Iraq
A woman suicide bomber has killed six people at a
bus station in Balad Ruz in Diyala province, Iraqi police say.
Majority of Americans view Iraq war as failure
Americans offered a much more negative view of the
Iraq war than President George Bush's verdict on its fifth
anniversary today. - A poll published today found 54% of
Americans viewed the war as a "total failure" or
"mostly a failure".
Cheney again links Iraq invasion to 9/11 attacks
Vice President Dick Cheney told soldiers in Iraq that the
9/11 attacks spurred the decision to invade Iraq.
Cheney On Two-Thirds Of The American Public
Opposing The Iraq War: "So?"
Video: ABC's Good Morning America aired an interview
with Vice President Cheney on the war. During the
segment, Cheney flatly told White House correspondent
Martha Raddatz that he doesn't care about the American
public's views on the war.
Iraq murder charge for US marine
A US marine has been charged with murdering an
unarmed detainee in Iraq, the US military said.
In Firefighters' Glee at U.S. Deaths,
Insurgency Blooms
"The Americans, yes, they do good things, but only
to enhance their reputation. They are occupiers.
We want them to leave."
It has been a war of lies from the start. All governments
lie in wartime but American and British propaganda in Iraq
over the past five years has been more untruthful than in
any conflict since the First World War. The outcome has
been an official picture of Iraq akin to fantasy and an
inability to learn from mistakes because of a refusal to
admit that any occurred. Yet the war began with just such
a mistake. Five years ago, on the evening of 19 March 2003,
President George Bush appeared on American television to
say that military action had started against Iraq.
Iraq: Five Years After the Conquest:
A peaceful Palm Sunday in the shadow of war
On Sunday, I spoke at an event organized by a coalition
of peace groups marking the fifth anniversary of the
invasion of Iraq. Being the reclusive writer type, I don't
really get much of a kick out of speaking in front of an
audience. However, in this case, aside from the somber
occasion, it was the kind of event I didn't at all mind doing:
no fuss, no muss, all I had to do was walk a few blocks to
the Unitarian Universalist church over on Franklin Street.
Feature: Five years after war, Iraqi
families living trauma of displacement
"When the war broke out five years ago, my husband and
I thought after it gets over, we could spend the rest of our
lives like those in a Gulf or an European country. Now I
ended up a lonely and displaced widow," said Um Waleed
just before the fifth anniversary of the devastating
U.S.-led invasion.
'We live in a nightmare. Death and carnage
is everywhere' Ali, Baghdad resident
In a shy, soft voice Ali tells me how he had been
standing with a friend in Karrada when a bomb went
off at the side of the road. "I heard an explosion very close
by," he says. "I saw smoke and chaos and people screaming.
I saw my friend Hassan, who was running and carrying a
child who had lost an arm. I saw a nice-looking girl - the
Karrada girls, you know how beautiful they are. She was
dead. And I saw a girl who had only one eye.
Will Progressives Stand With Them?:
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Since the US bombing of Afghanistan in 2001, the Bush
Administration has resurrected the hackneyed colonial
notion that its military intervention is intended to save
Muslim women from their oppressive societies. As Laura
Bush said, "The fight against terrorism is also a fight for
the rights and dignity of women." Few Middle Eastern
women believe her: the line is really intended for people
in the US.
Ex-chief weapons inspector
slams Iraq war as 'tragedy'
LONDON (AFP) - Hans Blix, the former chief UN weapons
inspector, slammed the Iraq war as a "tragedy" and blamed
it on leaders ignoring the facts, in a comment piece published
Thursday. Writing in The Guardian on the five-year
anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Blix, who
clashed with Washington in the run-up to the Iraq war,
described the war as "a tragedy -- for Iraq, for the US, for
the UN, for truth and human dignity."
Why Did the US Invade Iraq?
So why, exactly, did the US invade Iraq five years
ago this week? The official reasons – the threat posed
to the US and its allies by Saddam Hussein's alleged
programs of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and
the possibility that he would pass along those arms to
al-Qaeda – have long since been discarded by the
overwhelming weight of the evidence, or, more precisely,
the lack of evidence that such a threat ever existed.
Bush keeps talking about Iraq, but
no one can understand what he says
US President George W. Bush's comments on the fifth
anniversary of his war in Iraq have been completely
expected - and wholly inadequate. He has accentuated
the positives, which are precious few and of dubious
long-term survivability, but either ignored the negatives
or blamed them on the people he installed to run the
country he destroyed. The American people are out
hundreds of billions of dollars, on the hook for trillions
more, and still their representatives in Baghdad have
almost no friends outside the "Green Zone" built
around gaudy palaces erected by Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi people have lost hundreds of thousands of their
sons and daughters, recent security gains show no sign of
permanence, and their capital - except, of course, for the
"Green Zone" - still gets power for only about a third of the day.
The looting of Iraq: Robbing the cradle
of civilization, five years later
Among the many unintended and unforeseen
consequences of the U.S. occupation of Iraq that began
five years ago this week was the wholesale looting of
Iraq's museums and archaeological sites. Iraq has been
called the cradle of civilization. Starting with the
Sumerian civilization, which more than 5,000 years ago
produced what may be the world's first examples of
writing and math, the area centered on the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers and known as Mesopotamia has been
home to a succession of cultures -- Akkadian, Babylonian
and Assyrian. Many believe southern Iraq was the site of
the biblical Garden of Eden. But within weeks of the first
American airstrike, the cradle of civilization had been
robbed. Baghdad's National Museum of Iraq, among
the globe's premier repositories of antiquities, was
ransacked over the course of a week in April 2003.
Statues were dragged down the steps, artifacts six
millennia old were carried off in plastic bags. American
soldiers were not dispatched to protect the museum until
the thieves were long gone.
http://consortiumnews.com/2008
Iraq War as War Crime (Part Two)
http://www.consortiumnews.com
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