Wednesday, November 26

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 24, 2008 ~

Israeli army demolishes Palestinian house in East Jerusalem 'without warning'
The Israeli military demolished a Palestinian house in the town of Al-Ezariya, in East Jerusalem on Monday morning, witnesses and international observers said. The 130 square meter house was owned by Muhamad Mahmoud Mizia'ro. Fieldworkers with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) learned in interviews with the family that the house was completed in 2007. The house was already fully furnished and the 11 person family was preparing to move in.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33481

Al-Kurd Family Patriarch Dies, Future of Family Residence in East Jerusalem Unknown
Mohammed al-Kurd, also known as abu-Kamal, patriarch of the al-Kurd family, died on 23 November, only a few weeks after his family was forcefully evicted from their home in East Jerusalem (photo by the AIC, 2008). This morning at just after midnight Mohammed al-Kurd, also known as abu-Kamal, died. Abu-Kamal, a 1948 refugee from Jaffa, left behind his wife Fawzieh al-Kurd (umm-Kamal), five children and their families.
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1423/494/

A Dire life Zone Still Clings to Hope
Following Israeli raids that killed around 15 Palestinians within one week, many rockets were fired into Israel in a reprisal of Israeli's provocation. As usual Israel started to blame Palestinians despite it was the one who initiated with violence again. The Israeli assault was an obvious breach of an agreed calm held with Palestinian fighting groups 5 months ago. It has provoked some Palestinians to fire some light rockets into Israel. Afterwards, Israel started a new phase of collective punishment and began more violent prevocational measures against 1.5 million people.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57790

Israeli army attacks children's demonstration in Ni'lin
On November 20th at 1pm a demonstration for the children of Ni'lin against the construction of the illegal annexation wall gathered in the centre of the village. The demonstration was organised to mark the Universal Children's Day. The children of Ni'lin had made signs saying "no to the wall" and "we will never forget what you did to Yousef and Ahmed". The last, referring to 10 year old Ahmed Mousa, who was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers at close range with live ammunition earlier this year close to the construction site of the annexation wall outside of Ni'lin. Yousef Amaira, 17, was killed as the Israeli army shot him twice in the head with rubber-coated steel bullets as they attacked Ahmed's funeral.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/23/israeli-army-attacks-childrens-demonstration-in-ni%e2%80%99lin/

Three people injured as Israeli forces attack demonstration against Homesh settlement

Three people were injured near Homesh settlement on Friday 21st November, when Israeli military force fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a non-violent demonstration. For the second week in a row, approximately 100 Palestinians from the villages of Burqa, Sebastiya, Beit Imreen, Talluza, Deir Sharaf and Silat adh Dhahr, as well as international activists, were stopped by more than 40 Israeli soldiers and police as they marched towards the evacuated settlement. Israeli military forces had blocked the road with coils of razor wire, behind which soldiers and police lined up with weapons readied, despite the clearly non-violent nature of the demonstration.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/23/three-people-injured-as-israeli-forces-attack-demonstration-against
-homesh-settlement/


Six people injured as Israeli forces attack Ni'lin prayer demonstration
On Friday 21st of November a prayer demonstration was held in Ni'lin. During the demonstration 6 people were injured including one international activist who was shot by a teargas canister in his arm. Other demonstrators suffered by gas inhalation and rubber coated steal bullets. During the prayer, two jeeps parked out in the fields close to the site where the prayer was being held. As the demonstrators tried to enter the field on their way to the construction site, the army directly started firing teargas and rubber coated steal bullets in attempt to hit peoples bodies.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/23/six-people-injured-as-israeli-forces-attack-nilin-prayer-demonstration/

Settler rustlers steal farmer's horse
Israeli horse rustlers have deprived a West Bank Palestinian farmer of his livelihood. "While I was busy with one of my daughter's engagements, settlers from the Efrat settlement came and stole my 1,600 dollar [USD] horse. This horse is my only means of income and I use it to plow people's land," Ibrahim Suleiman Muhammad Salah, a 45-year-old Palestinian farmer from Al-Khadr explained.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33483

Israeli activists video police headbutting woman
An Israeli human rights group on Monday released a video showing a helmeted Israeli policeman headbutting a Palestinian woman who was protesting against the demolition of homes in Arab East Jerusalem three weeks ago. The group, B'Tselem, said the incident was filmed by one of its researchers during Israel's Nov. 5 demolition of homes built by Palestinians without permission from the Jerusalem Municipality.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LO136974.htm

Soldiers invade Burqa demanding fingerprints on unknown Hebrew documents
On 8th November 2008, at 1:15am, more than 20 Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Burqa, near Nablus, throwing over 100 sound bombs throughout the area. The soldiers entered fifteen houses in the village, forcing villagers at gunpoint to fingerprint mysterious documents written in Hebrew.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/23/soldiers-invade-burqa-demanding-fingerprints-on-unknown
-hebrew-documents/


American woman from San Jose, CA, among 18 abducted at gunpoint in Gaza
Darlene Wallach, a human rights observer from San Jose, California, is among eighteen persons abducted off the coast of Gaza on November 18, 2008. The others are fellow human rights observers Andrew Muncie of Scotland and Vittorio Arrigoni of Italy, as well as fifteen Palestinian fishermen. All eighteen were fishing in Gaza waters in zones authorized for Palestinian fisherman by the Oslo agreements of 1993 and 1994. They were abducted at gunpoint by Israeli frogmen and taken to Israel, along with the fishing boats.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/11/22/american-woman-from-san-jose-ca-among-18-abducted-at-gunpoint
-in-gaza/


Hamas government in Gaza seeks to bypass PA on death penalty

GAZA-The Hamas government is planning to send Gaza's High Court of Justice the petitions of families calling on the government to impose death sentences on people convicted of murdering their kin or of being accessories to their murder.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040248.html

Israeli forces seize young man in Bethlehem
Israeli forces detained a young man in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Monday, even as the man was on his way to report to Israeli authorities. The man, 21-year-old Ali Moussa Nawawrah, had been summoned to the Israeli detention center in the settlement Etzion, his family said. Nawawrah was headed there when he was arrested. During the arrest, Israeli vehicles surrounded Nawawrah in the Jabal Al-Mawaleh neighborhood of Bethlehem. Israeli forces raided Nawawrah's house a few days ago and delivered a letter calling on him to surrender.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33479

Israeli forces seize three Gazans in Tulkarem

Israeli forces seized three young Palestinian men, all of whom were originally from the Gaza Strip, from their house near the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Monday morning. A Palestinian security source reported the names of detainees as follows: Ramzi Dahrouj, Ahmad Al-Loh and Mansour Al-Kanshan. They were arrested in the village of Izbat Al-Jarad, east of Tulkarem.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33477

IOA refuses to release prisoner after court found her innocent
The father of Palestinian prisoner Isra' Amarne has urged Arab and international legal societies to pressure the IOA to release her after court found her innocent but the IOA retained her behind bars.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

120 Palestinians abducted since Israel's decision to release Fatah inmates
The ministry of prisoners affairs said that Israel had kidnapped more than 120 Palestinians since it announced its intention to release 250 Fatah prisoners.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

The slow death of Gaza
It has been two weeks since Israel imposed a complete closure of Gaza, after months when its crossings have been open only for the most minimal of humanitarian supplies. Now it is even worse: two weeks without United Nations food trucks for the 80% of the population entirely dependent on food aid, and no medical supplies or drugs for Gaza's ailing hospitals. No fuel (paid for by the EU) for Gaza's electricity plant, and no fuel for the generators during the long blackouts. Last Monday morning, 33 trucks of food for UN distribution were finally let in – a few days of few supplies for very few, but as the UN asks, then what?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/24/israelandthepalestinians-humanrights

Egypt bolsters Gaza border force as Palestinians demonstrate
AFP-Egypt on Monday sent 400 police to bolster security at its Rafah border terminal with the Gaza Strip amid demonstrations by Palestinians calling for the crossing to be opened.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081124/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaegyptdemo

Palestinians line up for dwindling cash in Gaza
AP-Local banks in Gaza, under pressure from Israeli sanctions, are running out of cash and desperate Palestinians lined up at branches Monday hoping to pull money out of frozen accounts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

Naim: 180 patients threatened with death if power went off

Dr. Basem Naim, the health minister in the PA caretaker government, has warned that 180 Palestinian patients were threatened with death if electric current was off their life-saving equipment.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

'Lives at Risk' from Gaza Fuel Cuts
Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if Israel continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points. Hunger and death have been the only consequences for Gazans following the Israeli blockage imposed on Gaza strip. Patients at the largest hospital in Gaza could die if Israel continues to prevent fuel and essential supplies to the territory, doctors at Shifa hospital in Gaza City said.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=64859&language=en

Hamas-run ministry says Alshifa hospital runs out of cooking gas

The Hamas-run health ministry announced on Sunday that cooking gas the Alshifa hospital, one of the largest Gaza hospitals, has run out due to the continued Israeli closure of the coastal territory for three weeks now.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57776

Gaza's hospitals struggle to save lives amid Israeli siege
Over the past two weeks, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have faced a sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation as Israel further tightened its closure of the border crossings. Virtually no food, medicine or other vital supplies have been allowed in to the territory that is home to 1.5 million people. The impact of the siege is most directly observed in Gaza's health sector. Despite desperately needed medication, equipment, supplies, and spare parts, doctors continue to try to save lives and look after their patients at the European Gaza Hospital, one of territory's largest medical centers.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57774

Meshaal chastises Arabs for silence on Gaza
The exiled political chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement on Sunday slammed Arab and Islamic states for keeping silent over Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. "What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a tragedy. Shame on those who stay silent on the criminal blockade that has been imposed on Gaza.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=97946

Foreign journalists seek access to Gaza

The board of the Foreign Press Association (FPA) is expected today to petition the High Court of Justice against the Israeli government's decision two weeks ago to prohibit the entry of journalists and association members into the Gaza Strip. While the government has prevented foreign journalists from entering the area for these past two weeks, Israeli journalists have been barred from Gaza for two years. Last week, the FPA released an open letter protesting the closure, which ran in news outlets across the world including The New York Times.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040245.html

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Where is the media outrage over Gaza?
Four cheers for the feisty Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of our special Middle East envoy, Tony Blair. But what exactly is he doing?Desperately searching for his legacy I suppose, like the weapons of mass destruction hidden in the sands somewhere, waiting to be unearthed.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/yasmin-alibhaibrown-where
-is-the-media-outrage-over-gaza-1032227.html


Open Gaza to media coverage
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was among those who lent their voices to the international protest against Israel's tightening siege on the Gaza Strip. This past weekend, the heads of the world's most important media organizations joined the group, protesting in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert against the closure of the Strip to international journalists.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article705

International media heads call for end to Gaza media blackout

In a strongly-worded letter to the Israeli Prime Minister, the heads of the world's major media organizations have called on the Israeli state to end its two-week long blackout on media from the Gaza Strip. Israel closed the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza to the media when the state began a new attack in violation of the ceasefire agreement with Palestinian armed factions.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57781

Gaza: Moving Beyond Political Activism
As conditions in the Gaza strip approach a catastrophic level of deprivation, the world media, and in particular the U.S. media, remain largely silent. The United Nations, whose truckloads of food and medical supplies continue to be denied entry into Gaza by Israel, appears to be one of the few international voices of dissent concerning the collective punishment of 1.5 million human beings. This, despite the fact that more than 50% of the population in Gaza is comprised of children under the age of 15.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/gaza-moving-beyond-political-activism/

Akram Awad-The Siege on Gaza: We Share the Blame

As an international community, we all share the responsibility for the ongoing brutal siege on Gaza, and not until we utilise all possible means of peaceful and nonviolent resistance shall we hope for a close end of that siege. There is not much to say about the Holocaust of Gaza's people-assuming that the reader has at least followed the media coverage of what is happening in the traumatised Strip. It comes as no surprise that Gazan's have resorted to euthanasia to end the lives of thousands of newly hatched chicks, for even Gazan birds would prefer dying with honour over being victims of starvation. There is nothing exceptional about Gazans keeping their children alive with animal feeds, because even those who know the least about Gaza are aware that this is only one of the means used by its people to save the whole region from a definite explosion. The only shocking aspect of the whole current scene is that as much as Gazans are trying to convince their children that this life has at least some goodness that makes it worth clinging to, as much as the world strives to disprove such theories, and establish in the minds of those children that this life and world deserve no more than the curse of Gaza.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/24/akram-awad-the-siege-on-gaza-we-share-the-blame/

Abbas gives Hamas end-of-year deadline for talks

AFP-Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Monday gave the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza an end-of-year deadline to resume dialogue with his leadership or face snap elections.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081124/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianpolitics

Hamas' Meshal denounces Abbas' peace ads in Israeli newspapers

DAMASCUS, Syria-Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal yesterday denounced Hebrew-language newspaper ads outlining a proposed Arab peace deal that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas published in Israeli papers. Meshal, in a speech at the opening session of a Palestinian conference, did not mention Abbas by name but suggested he was a "merchant" selling Palestinians' rights.
"Our people's legitimate rights are not goods to be marketed, and national leaders are not merchants who announce their goods through paid ads in Israeli newspapers," said Meshal.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040247.html

Hamas accuses Abbas of locking its leaders in Gaza

A Hamas leader on Monday accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of working to keep the leaders of the Islamic movement locked in the Gaza Strip. "Abbas doesn't want to open the Rafah crossing point, to prevent Hamas leaders from leaving and coming to the Gaza Strip," Mahmoud Zahar told a press conference at his house in Gaza city, referring to the crossing point with Egypt.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/24/content_10406566.htm

Abbas: Not One Issue Resolved in Mideast Talks
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hit out at US-backed Middle East peace talks on Sunday on the eve of a White House meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush, saying that not one issue has been resolved. He also pledged to call snap presidential and parliamentary elections in the New Year if there is no agreement with the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza to end the rift in Palestinian ranks. "So far we have not reached agreement on a single question--every issue remains up for discussion," Abbas told a key decision-making body of the Palestine Liberation Organization under whose auspices the year-old negotiations with Israel are being held.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=64885&language=en

Israeli NSC: Stop PA elections at any cost
The Palestinian Authority elections should be prevented at any cost, even if it means a confrontation with the US, an official Israeli report suggests.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=76317&sectionid=351020202

Abbas made Palestinian state head
The Palestinian Authority's central council has voted to appoint Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian state president. It is a symbolic title, as a Palestinian state has not yet been formed. The position has been vacant since Yasser Arafat's death in 2004. The militant group Hamas rejected the move, saying the power to elect the state president rested with the people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7745122.stm

Hamas: Abbas's speech in PLO meeting lacks political protocol
Hamas Movement said on Sunday that the speech of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas before the PLO's central council lacked political etiquette, and did not befit a Palestinian president.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

We talk or go to polls, Abbas tells Hamas

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who is facing a growing challenge from Hamas to the legitimacy of his rule, threatened yesterday to call elections unless the Islamic militant group agreed to a reconciliation with his Fatah movement.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/we-talk-or-go-to-polls-abbas-tells-hamas-
1032216.html


Palestinians: "Clinton, would continue a lack of US evenhandedness in refereeing the Israeli-Palestine dispute..."
Amjad Atallah, who formerly served as a legal adviser for the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with the Israelis, said the prospective Clinton nomination is being watched warily in the Arab world, given her unstinting support for Israel in recent years and hawkish comments on Iran. Some worry that her selection is a possible indicator that Obama may not be as aggressive as Palestinians hope in pushing for a peace deal."Nobody has a negative opinion of Senator Clinton, except maybe that her opinions are closer to the neoconservatives than they might wish," Atallah said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/22/AR2008112201999_pf.html

An Israeli-Palestinian agreement: Forget about it

I've been a Palestinian firster for most of my professional life. I believe that the Palestinian issue is the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the key to regional peace, and the sine qua non for preserving Israel as a Jewish democratic state. These arguments remain valid. What's changed is that a conflict-ending agreement between Israelis and Palestinians may no longer be possible. I choose my words carefully here. Varying kinds of accommodations cease fires, informal cooperation and temporary arrangements may still be possible. But an agreement now or perhaps for the foreseeable future that revolves conclusively the four core issues (borders, Jerusalem, refugees and security) isn't.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1226404813509

Scowcroft Protégés on Obama's Radar
The relationship between the president-elect and the Republican heavyweight suggests that Mr. Scowcroft's views, which place a premium on an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, might hold sway in the Obama White House....He also endorsed Mr. Obama's call for diplomatic engagement with Iran... Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was deputy national-security adviser under Mr. Scowcroft in the George H.W. Bush administration, is almost certain to be retained by Mr. Obama, according to aides to the president-elect. Richard Haass, a Scowcroft protégé and former State Department official, could be tapped for a senior National Security Council, State Department or intelligence position. Mr. Haass currently runs the Council on Foreign Relations. Other prominent Republicans with close ties to Mr. Obama--including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who endorsed the Democrat in the final days of the campaign, and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--share Mr. Scowcroft's philosophy..."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122747548224451435.html

Rice: Peace deal delayed due to political situation in Israel

Bush, Olmert to meet in Washington Monday to discuss Iranian nuclear program, Israel-PA peace talks. PM aide: He wants to leave process in best possible shape.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3627512,00.html

Olmert to Rice: West talking to Hamas

PM tells US secretary of state Israel plans to continue moving peace process forward in accordance with Annapolis summit guidelines after Obama takes office. Sides agree to stress importance of safeguarding Israel's interests to new administration.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3627962,00.html

US official calls for end to Israeli occupation
General James Jones, the US State Department Security Advisor for Israel-Palestine, has called for a NATO (North American Treaty Organization) force to be deployed in the West Bank to replace the 40-year long Israeli occupation.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57780

At the eleventh hour
If January 20 2009, the date of Barack Obama's inauguration as US president, is too long to wait to tackle the global financial crisis, the next president's foreign policy advisers are having similar thoughts about the Middle East peace talks. The omens were never good, but the very least that could be said of the talks between Israel's outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was they had not collapsed. Now, not even that is certain.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/24/israeli-palestinian-talks-obama-olmert

Observance of the lawless
The morning news show on Israel Radio opened with a sensational item: Our reporter has learned that personnel of the international force in Hebron have been leaking to the Palestinians information about Israel Defense Forces and Jewish settler activity in the town. That afternoon, Meir Sheetrit, at the time justice minister in the Likud-led government (and now interior minister) paid a visit to the old quarter of Hebron. "This scandal should teach us that it is impossible to trust the United Nations," thundered Sheetrit to reporters. However, the observer force in Hebron is not subordinate to the UN at all, and does not report to any international institution. (Later in the day the Foreign Ministry issued a statement that the "leaking" charges were unfounded.)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039971.html

The Clans of Gaza take on the men of Hamas-Part 2

Not far from the scenes of reunion stands the house of Rafik al-Masri, who combines his daytime post as a professor of sociology with the rather more archaic role as an elder of the al-Masri clan. A distinguished looking man of 50 years, he wears a thin moustache and an easy smile. The imposing nose and high forehead give him an air of thoughtful authority, and his deliberate manner of speech betrays the long years he spent studying the works of neo-Marxist German sociologists such as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/92443b48-b83b-11dd-ac6d-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

IDF: Retaking Gaza will cost Israel NIS 17 million a day
Reoccupation of part of the Gaza Strip, should the government agree to it, will cost NIS 17 million per day, according to the Israel Defense Forces. That sum would only be enough to cover the immediate humanitarian needs of the Palestinian population that would be under the control of Israel, the IDF said during a recent defense establishment discussion of the options regarding the Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040251.html

Israeli Parties Adopt Obama's Campaigning Tools, Minus Message of Change

Likud, along with other Israeli political parties, are investing heavily in online campaigns this election season. Inspired by the US President Elect Barack Obama's successful employment of online tools to mobilize supporters and financing, several Israeli political parties are clamoring to establish an online presence in their campaigns toward the February 2009 national elections. Meretz ( http://www.myparty.org.il/main-branch/en/), the Left Zionist party that polls predict will all but disappear in February, has hired two of Obama's campaign consultants, David Fenton and Tom Mazzei, to advise it on developing an internet campaign.
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1425/104/

Sami Jamil Jadallah-Time to Outsource

I do not know about you, but I am very sick and tired of hearing, reading, listening and talking about Fatah and Hamas. I am sick and tired of hearing, reading, listening and talking about Mishaal, Haniyah, Syiam, Abbas, Qurai, Saeb, Abed-Rabu, Azzam, Qadoomi and all of those who really screwed up every thing for the last 45 years and claim to represent the Palestinian.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/11/23/sami-jamil-jadallah-time-to-outsource/

Syria Hosts Forum on Palestinians' Right of Return

An Arab and international forum on the Palestinians' right of return opened in Damascus on Sunday with the participation of political and intellectual personalities from 54 Arab and foreign countries. The two-day conference is aimed at establishing the Palestinian refugees' right of return as a firm Palestinian and Arab principle, refusing any bargaining or trade-off, and rejecting settlement and alternative homeland projects, the official SANA news agency reported.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=64890&language=en

Right of return congress kicks off in Syria
Palestine has been plagued with a racist, colonialist invasion that usurped its lands and displaced its people and turned them into refugees, Dr. Talal Naji PFLP-GC assistant secretary general said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

A Funny Thing Happened to Me on My Way to the Damascus Conference
Today, November 23rd, I was slated to give remarks in Damascus, Syria at a Conference being held to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, sadly, the 60th year that the Palestinian people have been denied their Right of Return enshrined in that Universal Declaration. But a funny thing happened to me while at the Atlanta airport on my way to the Conference: I was not allowed to exit the country.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/a-funny-thing-happened-to-me-on-my-way-to-the-damascus-conference/

Court gives state another year to abandon 'discriminatory' budget system

High Court slams government for not implementing February 2006 ruling ordering cancelation of education budget allocation system that it says discriminates against Arab population.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3627506,00.html

Israel jails eight Jewish neo-Nazis

An Israeli court jailed eight Jewish teenagers on Sunday for carrying out neo-Nazi attacks in a case that sparked revulsion in a state that was a haven for Jews after the Holocaust. Tel Aviv District Court Judge Zvi Gurfinkel sentenced the teenagers, aged 16 to 19, to between one and seven years in prison for a "shocking and horrifying" year-long spree of attacks that targeted foreign workers, ultra-Orthodox Jews and homeless men. The court said the group also planned to attack Arabs. The eight teenagers were immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union and court documents cited social adjustment difficulties as a factor behind their involvement in the gang, which posted pro-Adolf Hitler video clips on the Internet.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LN503118.htm

NY resident: We'll stay in Hebron till the end

Settlers living in Hebron's disputed house pledge nonviolence, but warn forcible eviction will meet fierce resistance. Among those who moved into building recently are Brooklyn residents Nahum and Revital Almagor, their 15-year-old daughter.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3627274,00.html

Israel, settlers reach outpost compromise

JERUSALEM: Israel's government and West Bank settlers say they've reached a compromise to avoid the immediate evacuation of an unauthorized West Bank outpost. Court documents submitted Monday by the government say the outpost of Migron will be moved to a different site. But the government says it will take time to plan and build a new place for the settlers, and in the meantime they will remain in place. The process could take years.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/24/news/ML-Israel-Settlement.php

Settler leader: Hebron evacuation will be met with force greater than Amona

Daniela Weiss, a prominent settler leader and former head of the Kedumim council, said on Monday that activists would resist attempts to evacuate Hebron's House of Contention with force much greater than ever used in the past.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040507.html

Palestinian police to soon enter Bethlehem
Barak confirms PA police officers to assume security responsibilities in West Bank city by Christmas Day, but overall responsibilities to remain Israel's.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3627524,00.html

Eye care on West Bank a 'huge task' for doctor
DUBAI //When Dr Ali Dabbagh, a Dubai-based ophthalmologist, set off for the Palestinian Territories to launch the West Bank's first mobile eye clinic, he knew he had a job on his hands but hoped he could make a difference. After six weeks tending to patients and preparing the groundwork for the clinic, the size of the challenge he had set himself was beginning to sink in.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081124/NATIONAL/747291533/-1/NEWS

Eyes Wide Shut
The day before yesterday, two documents appeared side by side in Haaretz: a giant advertisement from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the results of a public opinion poll. The proximity was accidental, but to the point. The PLO ad sets out the details of the 2002 Saudi peace offer, decorated with the colorful flags of the 22 Arab and the 35 other Muslim countries which have endorsed the offer. The public opinion poll predicts a landslide victory for Likud, which opposes every single word of the Saudi proposal.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/eyes-wide-shut/

A Palestinian action plan to combat Israeli racism
In October 2008 the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) published a strategic position paper for the upcoming Durban Review Conference, which will be held from 20-24 April 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. At the Conference, attending nations will assess the progress made toward the Program of Action adopted at the 2001 World Conference against Racism, which called for end racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. However, Western governments have repeatedly sidelined efforts to bring the case of the systematic violation of the rights the Palestinian people forward in the Durban review process.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9987.shtml

Leeds University referendum threatens to silence Palestinian activists
Leeds University Union agreed last week, by a vote of 12 to 11, to send a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus. The motion, shrouded in the language of combating anti-Semitism, is a reversal of a motion passed two years ago which gave Palestinian activists at Leeds University the rights enjoyed by their counterparts throughout the country. If passed, organizations which have an anti-Zionist platform, such as the Socialist Workers Party and the Palestine Solidarity Group, will be prevented from receiving funding from the union and prevented from holding many of their events.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9986.shtml

Poetry for Palestine

Spoken word artist Suheir Hammad speaks on poetry as political resistance and on post 9/11 United States.
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2841

Art director on Waltz with Bashir

David Polonsky, art director of animated film Waltz with Bashir talks about how the movie was made. The film is an attempt by director Ari Folman to bear witness to an atrocity committed during his stint in the Israeli army in 1982.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7744136.stm

Book review: Abdel Bari Atwan's "Country of Words"
A Country of Words: from the Refugee Camps to the Front Page is a remarkable Palestinian memoir, exceptional because of its abundance of compassion, humor and humility. Its author is Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic-language daily al-Quds al-Arabi who also wrote The Secret History of al-Qa'ida. Individuals have their own lives and create their own narratives, and for Atwan, his story begins in Palestine. Atef Alshaer reviews for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9954.shtml

Sunday: 11 Iraqis Killed, 37 Wounded
At least 11 Iraqis were killed and another 37 more were wounded in the latest attacks. Eight of the dead were from the discovery of a mass grave in Babel province. No Coalition deaths were reported, but U.S. military officials reported that Kurdish authorities purchased arms from Bulgaria, worrying officials in Baghdad. Meanwhile, debate on the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement continues amidst protests in Baghdad even as U.S. officials criticized Syria during a security meeting in Damascus.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13804

Baghdad roadside bombing kills 13 government employees

A roadside bomb killed 13 female employees in Iraq's Trade Ministry and wounded several other people in eastern Baghdad on Monday, police said.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10262237.html

U.S. Would Control Profits from Iraqi Oil Exports Under Agreement
The terms of the agreement effectively allow the U.S. to continue to control billions of dollars of proceeds from the sale of exported Iraqi oil held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It also contains numerous loopholes that could allow the continuing long-term presence of U.S. military forces and would effectively maintain U.S. jurisdiction over crimes committed by American soldiers.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21301.htm

Vote on US-Iraq pact set for Wednesday after stormy debate
"The debate has finished and the vote will take place on Wednesday," speaker Mahmud Mashhadani said after a seven-hour session on Saturday during which about 40 MPs expressed their views.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Vote_on_US_Iraq_pact_set_for_Wednes_11222008.html

Iraq told: Keep US troops or face martial law
Iraq's defense minister Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jassim threatened to declare a state of emergency if Iraq's parliament refused to sign an accord allowing US troops to stay in the country for three more years.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Emergency_rule_eyed_if_Iraqis_fail_1123.html

Iraq's neighbors discuss security cooperation
AP-A top U.S. official in Syria said Sunday that militants driven out of Iraq continue to pose a threat and urged Iraq's neighbors not to tolerate them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081123/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria_iraq_s_neighbors

U.S. alone critical of Syria at Iraq conference
The United States stood alone at a conference on Sunday in accusing host Syria of sheltering militants attacking Iraq, while other countries adopted a more conciliatory tone, delegates said. No other state present at the conference on security for Iraq joined Washington in its open criticism, weeks after a U.S. raid on Syria that targeted suspected militants linked to al Qaeda, they told Reuters.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LN578225.htm

Syria says Iraq's border control is neighbors' joint responsibility
Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Majid said here on Sunday that Iraq's border control was a joint responsibility for its neighbors which should boost security cooperation and coordination. Abdul Majid made the remarks in an opening speech at the third meeting of the Security Cooperation and Coordination Committee for Iraq's Neighboring Countries.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/23/content_10401002.htm

Rape's vast toll in Iraq war remains largely ignored

Many rape victims have escaped to Jordan but still don't have access to treatment and counseling.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1124/p07s01-wome.html

Father murdered, wife and daughter jailed: killers call the shots in Iraq's justice system

Nour al-Houda al-Maliki woke one night in March to the cracks of the bullets that killed her father as he lay sleeping, six feet from her. She saw four masked men. One she knew as a member of the Mahdi army, the feared clan that ruthlessly calls the shots throughout her south Baghdad neighbourhood. Overcome by fear, the 21-year-old still managed to take her mother to the nearby Rashid police station the next day to report her father's murder and identify at least one killer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/24/iraq-baghdad-law-order-justice

Iraq: Saddam Hussein-era officials face new trial
AP-Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali," and another close aide to the dictator who represented him abroad appeared in court Sunday accused of orchestrating the bloody repression of Shiite riots after the 1999 assassination of the father of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081123/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_trial

Iraqi court acquits legislator for making trip to Israel

An Iraqi court on Monday acquitted a legislator on Monday whom the government had prosecuted for making a trip to Israel, ruling that his visit was not actually against Iraqi law, the defense lawyer said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040551.html

From war to where?
The resettlement of Iraqis to the US is unimpressive – but it looks good compared with the pitiful number in the UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/23/immigration-iraq

Jennifer Utz: Iraqi refugees to government's return offer: "No, thanks."

Since 2003, one in five Iraqis has been displaced. Two million of them have fled to neighboring countries, mainly Jordan and Syria.
Hoping to lure them home (and perhaps also present the image of a more stable and successful post-surge Iraq) the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has taken to desperate measures.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-utz/iraqi-refugees-to-governm_b_145895.html

Pollard's wife sees golden opportunity to secure his release

Esther Pollard sends emotional letter to PM Olmert, urges him to bring up her husband's release in upcoming meeting with President Bush; after more than 20 years in prison, time is right to free Jonathan, she says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3626923,00.html

Bring on the Victims! Condemn the Fighters!

We know in some detail of the willing and gratuitous support, which tens of millions of American citizens have bestowed on the White House and Congressional perpetrators of crimes against humanity. The Clinton Administration was freely re-elected in 1996 after deliberately imposing a starvation embargo on Iraq and mounting a relentless, unopposed bombing campaign on that devastated country for four straight years, leading to the documented deaths of over 500,000 children and countless more vulnerable adults. The majority of US citizens re-elected Bush after he launched wars which caused the deaths of over a million Iraqi civilians, scores of thousands of Afghanis, thousands of Pakistanis, and after he gave full support to Israel's murderous attacks on Palestinian civilians and the blockade of vital food, water and fuel to the occupied territories, not to mention the frequent bombing of Lebanon and Syria, which culminated, during Bush's second term, in the horrific Israeli bombing campaign of Lebanese cities and villages killing thousands of civilians.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21306.htm

This posting made possible by:
www.TheHeadlines.org
Share:

0 Have Your Say!:

Post a Comment