Thursday, November 27

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 27, 2008 ~

Palestinian lawyers challenge Jerusalem settlement plans
Two Arab-Israeli civil rights organizations announced plans on Thursday to challenge the Israeli government's "Regional Masterplan for Jerusalem." The groups claim the plan permits the city's municipality to expand Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory. The Jerusalem Masterplan 2000 was introduced in September 2004, when it was roundly criticized for its exclusion of Palestinian input.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33556

From fast death to slow death: Palestinian refugees from Iraq trapped on the Syria-Iraq border
Having fled killings, kidnappings, torture, and death threats, about 3,000 Palestinian refugees from Iraq are currently stranded in three camps along the border between Syria and Iraq. Denied asylum and refugee rights, they are extremely vulnerable in poorly situated camps. The Syrian government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are both open to third country resettlement on humanitarian grounds and on the basis of individual choice. Therefore, the challenge now lies with both traditional and emerging resettlement countries, in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to accept these Palestinian refugees from Iraq for resettlement, allowing the inhospitable camps to be closed.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7LS56K?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Human rights groups file appeal against Ehud Barak over the confiscation of Palestinian fishing boats

Ramallah, Occupied West Bank: On November 25, 2008, Al-Mazan, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) have filed a legal appeal against Ehud Barak and the commander of the Israeli Navy.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/27/human-rights-groups-file-appeal-against-ehud-barak-over
-the-confiscation-of-palestinian-fishing-boats/


Israelis kill Palestinian woman on Annapolis anniversary-English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiDautb7WKU

IOF troops fire at children, IOA demolish two homes in O. Jerusalem
The Israeli occupation troops on Wednesday fired intermittently at a group of children near the northern Gaza Strip crossing of Beit Hanun (Erez).
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Settlers write racist epithets on Palestinian ambulances

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian ambulances in the West Bank village of Dier Esteyah on Wednesday, according to witnesses.
Red Crescent ambulances were parked in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday when settlers wrote provocative slogans, such as "Death to Arabs" and others, according to the Red Crescent.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33523

Teens vandalize Palestinian property in Hebron
Jewish youths smash windows, puncture tires, spray graffiti in Palestinian neighborhood in Hebron. Border Guard vehicle also damaged. Meanwhile, court rejects appeal to ban extreme rightist Noam Federman's entrance to West Bank.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3628789,00.html

Israeli forces detain citizens from Tulkarem refugee camp and Al-Jarad village

Israeli forces detained citizens from the Tulkarem refugee camp and nearby Al-Jarad village on Thursday morning and took them to an unknown location. Palestinian security sources said Israeli soldiers broke into the camp amid heavy firing to arrest 21-year-old Omar Abd Al-Qader Nasrallah.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33538

Israeli forces declare Tulkarem a closed military zone

The Israeli army declared Tulkarem, a city in the northern West Bank, a closed military zone on Thursday and reinforced the temporary military checkpoints at the entrances to the city. Several Israeli armored vehicles were stationed around Tulkarem and local sources reported tightened security procedures throughout the district.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33553

Israel faces choice between extremist settlers, upholding rule of law
The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and future stability in the Middle East could hinge on Hebron, a little town in the southern Occupied West Bank, 30 kilometers south of Occupied Jerusalem. Thousands of Israeli Army soldiers were put on high alert over the weekend as 20,000 Israeli settlers from across the Occupied West Bank descended on Hebron.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=98025

Barak: Attacks carried out by settlers against the soldiers jeopardize state authority
Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, visited on Wednesday the southern West Bank city of Hebron as tension is gradually increasing between Israeli soldiers and settlers as the settlers refuse to evacuate a Palestinian home in the city.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57822

Human Rights Report No.382
Date of incident: November 25th – 26th, 2008
Time of incident: Unknown
Place: Deir Istiya, Salfit District
Witness/es: Residents of Deir Istiya, IWPS and MPT volunteers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
http://www.iwps-pal.org/en/articles/article.php?id=1202

Human Rights Report No. 383

Date of incident: November 25th – 26th, 2008
Time of incident: Unknown
Place: Deir Istiya, Haris and Kifl Haris, Salfit District
Witness/es: Residents of Deir Istiya, Haris and Kifl Haris, IWPS and MPT volunteers
Contact details: IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved – we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you might need to begin action.
http://www.iwps-pal.org/en/articles/article.php?id=1203

IOF troops round 23 West Bankers, seriously wound teen

Israeli occupation forces at dawn Thursday detained 23 Palestinian citizens in various West Bank areas and wounded a teenager in Qalandia refugee camp, occupied Jerusalem, during a raid on Wednesday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

First Prison Term for Yuval Oron-Ofir Who Refused to Serve in the Israeli Military

19 year old Yuval Oron-Ofir, was sentenced on 24 November to 14 days in military prison for his refusal to serve in the Israeli military. Dear Friends, Yuval Oron-Ofir, a signatory of the 2008 high school seniors refusal letter. ( http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46805270728), was sentenced on Monday, 24 Nov., to 14 days in military prison for his refusal to serve in the Israeli military. Yuval is 19 years of age. He lives in the Arab-Jewish village of Neve shalom /Wahat al-Salaam. He has spent the past few years in high school, where he majored in History and Theatre, and after graduation volunteered for a year's civilian service, living in a commune in Yavne.
http://www.alternativenews.org/content/view/1432/104/

Haaretz report reveals army received official written orders to assassinate Palestinian fighters
An investigative report prepared by Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, revealed that the Israeli army, under direct and official orders, carried executions against "wanted" Palestinian fighters otherwise described as "a ticking bomb" even in cases where the soldiers were able to apprehend the fighters, the Arabs48 news website reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57821

New system has soldiers in virtual battleground killing militants from a distance

The Israel Defense Forces has found a way to target Gaza Strip militants from kilometers away, with just three pushes of a button.
It may look like a video game, but it's actually a new system called "The Seer Shoots," which has entered operation in recent days on the Gaza Strip border.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041292.html

Gov't anti siege committee asks for expediting Arab relief convoys

The caretaker government's anti siege committee asked the Arab foreign ministers to expedite implementing their decision and send immediate relief convoys via Rafah crossing to the beleaguered Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Arab foreign ministers decide to dispatch instant food supplies, medicines to Gaza

CAIRO, Nov 26 (KUNA)--The Arab foreign ministers, who held a session in camera on Wednesday, decided to dispatch food supplies, medicines and medical equipment to Gaza immediately.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/TUJA-7LS96S?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Humanitarian appeal for Palestinians launched

UN humanitarian agencies working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have appealed for 460 million dollars to fund their relief programmes. These programmes are responding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in parts of the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli blockade has caused a rapid and significant increase in poverty and unemployment over the past year. Allegra Pacheco, deputy head of the UN humanitarian coordination office in the Occupied Territory says this money is just a band aid.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7LRSQJ?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Palestinian patients agonize in Gaza hospitals due to Israeli siege
The PA health ministry has warned on Wednesday that thousands of blood units, plasma, and vaccines could be damaged if electricity wasn't restored immediately to hospitals of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Gazans 'struggling' to feed their children-UN

UN officials slammed as inadequate limited basic supplies Israel allowed into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, saying the closures of recent weeks were forcing the territory's population to live from hand to mouth. The UN Relief and Works Agency, which distributes food rations to half of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million population.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=98042


Bread is Missing in Gaza
Abu-Samir Nafei is desperate. The father of seven toured Gaza City for hours trying to buy bread for his hungry children back home.
"I sought every single bakery around, and in each time the answer is the same: 'sorry no bread'," he told IslamOnline.net. "It was like searching for a hidden treasure." Bread has become something of a rarity in the impoverished Gaza Strip, home to 1.6 million, under Israel's stifling blockade of fuel, power and food supplies.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14424

Gazan bakers cope under siege

Israel's 17-month siege, tightened over the past three weeks, has forced Palestinians to find other ways to meet their basic needs. Because Israel has closed border crossings into Gaza, the 1.5 million residents lack many essential supplies including food, medicines, fuel, cooking gas, and now, electricity. Rami Almeghari writes from the Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9996.shtml

Israel lets in Gaza food but not enough says UN
AFP-Israel reopened its border crossings with Gaza to basic supplies on Wednesday but UN officials complained that the repeated closures of recent weeks were forcing the territory's population to live from hand to mouth.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081126/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgaza

Short on fuel, Gazans use car batteries to restart power plant
Power returned to large parts of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Wednesday when Palestinian workers figured out a way to use car batteries to help restart the territory's sole power plant.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041275.html

Foreign press issues plea to reopen Gaza crossing

TEL AVIV, Israel: The Israeli government has offered no plausible explanation for its unprecedented ban on international journalists entering the Gaza Strip, representatives of the foreign media said at a news conference Thursday.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/27/news/ML-Israel-Journalists-Banned.php

Suffering of Gazan women increases with Israeli siege
25 November, women worldwide celebrate the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, that had been officially adopted by the UN in 1999, as part of the effort exerted to eliminate violence against women, and to urge countries to take actions necessary to ensure women's enjoyment of necessary protection.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9994.shtml

China calls on Israel to allow humanitarian supplies in Gaza

The Chinese ambassador at the United Nations, Tchangh Ya Sui, called on Israel Wednesday to allow humanitarian supplies in Gaza, as Gaza's crossings remain closed for more than two weeks now.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57812

DEWAN RAKYAT: MPs cross the divide to support Palestinians
BACKBENCHERS of both sides stood as one in an unprecedented show of solidarity yesterday as they asked that the house be adjourned to debate a motion on the Palestine situation. The motion to adjourn the house was moved by Dr Mohd Puad Zakarshi (BN-Batu Pahat) after Question Time ended at 11.30am to discuss the blockade of the Gaza strip by Israel. Puad called on Malaysia to use its influence in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to highlight the oppression of the Palestinians and the need for the issue to be debated at at the United Nations.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/National/2412844/Article/index_html

Blair expresses concern about humanitarian situation in Gaza
Quartet envoy Tony Blair expressed his concern about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the obstacles placed in the way of pilgrims who want to go to Makkah for Hajj.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Another Gaza industry collapses; hotels and restaurants forced to close

Hotel and restaurant owners in Gaza are preparing to close their businesses after weeks of fuel shortages put the already fragile industry on its last legs. The collapse of the sector, expected in "days or hours" according to a representative of a coalition of restaurant and hotel owners Salah Abu Hasira, follows the close of more than 3,000 factories, flower mills, bakeries, construction and export companies. The tourism and restaurant industry, serving Gazans and international aid and activist groups, will soon shut down after gas and electricity outages have made operations impossible. Hasira called on the international community and the United Nations to intervene and put an end the human crisis in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33547

Erekat verbally attacks Moallem, disturbs meeting of Arab foreign ministers
PA official Saeb Erekat traded verbal altercations with Syrian foreign minister Walid Al-Moallem during the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers held Wednesday in Cairo.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/

Hamas Leaders Abroad Question Group's Iron Grip on Gaza
Internal Hamas correspondence intercepted by the Palestinian Authority and obtained by Haaretz reveals a deep divide between the organization's leadership abroad and its West Bank leadership, on the one hand, and the Gaza leadership on the other. In the documents, the leadership abroad says it does not want "to control Gaza completely while losing the West Bank."
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=18250&CategoryId=5

Bid to ease Palestinian divide
Arab leaders push reconciliation and call for an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/11/20081126135842377185.html

Settlers to be evicted from contested house
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says a group of Jewish settlers will be forced out of a disputed house in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron if they refuse to leave on their own. A statement from Barak's office said if necessary, "the state and the rule of law will have to evacuate them."
Settlers moved in to the house last year after claiming they bought it from a Palestinian. The Palestinian denies the claim and Israeli authorities have not recognized the sale as legal. Israel's Supreme Court ordered the house evacuated last week.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/26/news/ML-Israel-Hebron.php

Deported Nativity Church militants seek return to West Bank
Palestinians deported to the Gaza Strip for their involvement in the Nativity Church takeover in May 2002 want to return to the West Bank, according to statements made at press conference on Thursday. The 26 "Nativity Church deportees" in Gaza appealed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "end our suffering" after being exiled for the past six years.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33546

Palestinian factional power struggle may bar pilgrims from visiting Mecca
The ongoing power struggle between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and Hamas' government in Gaza may prevent several thousand Palestinian Muslims from the Gaza Strip from fulfilling their religious obligation of visiting Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The pilgrimage dispute is connected to the Gaza authorities' insistence that all pilgrims leaving the Strip register for the trip in Gaza, not in Ramallah.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041320.html

Palestinian factional power struggle may bar pilgrims from visiting Mecca

The ongoing power struggle between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and Hamas' government in Gaza may prevent several thousand Palestinian Muslims from the Gaza Strip from fulfilling their religious obligation of visiting Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041320.html

Olmert to be charged-Israeli television
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to be charged in one of the corruption cases over which he has faced police questioning, Israeli broadcast media reported on Wednesday. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz "notified Ehud Olmert that he wants to meet him in order to press charges in the Rishon Tours case," public radio reported.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=98026

Livni aide: Olmert must leave office now

Following attorney general's decision to file indictment against prime minister in Rishon Tours affair, Kadima chairwoman calls for urgent faction meeting. Aide to Livni says Olmert should let her be appointed prime minister now.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3629336,00.html

The Arab peace initiative: Why now?
The Arab Peace Initiative (API), proposed in March 2002 by all 22 members of the Arab League, offered a definitive end to the Arab-Israeli conflict, full recognition for the State of Israel, and the establishment of normal relations and mutual guarantees of future security. In exchange, the API asked for full Israeli withdrawal from lands occupied in June 1967, including Syrian and Lebanese territories, a just settlement to the Palestinian refugee problem 'to be agreed upon' in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194, and the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7LS8Z2?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Arab ministers won't side with Fatah or Hamas
Arab foreign ministers steered clear of taking sides between Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas on Thursday following a late-night meeting to review the state of Middle East peace talks since the U.S. presidential election and the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/27/60935.html

Czechan president "adopts" Palestinian refugee child
Czechan President Ramdan Kadyrov will fly a disabled Palestinian child out of Gaza for treatment in Europe, according to the NOVOSTI Russian news agency on Wednesday. "The child was wounded in a car accident eight years ago, which led to a problem in his midriff and he was paralyzed and kept in Hospital for eight years," a presidential aide told Ma'an on Wednesday. Though he has been home for the past two years, he needs an electric device to breathe. Due to the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, family members are concerned that a fuel crisis could disrupt his breathing, and are therefore elated by the Czechan president's decision, sources said.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33530

Hamas denies receiving Israeli prisoner exchange offer
A Hamas official on Tuesday denied receiving new Israeli offer to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier the Islamic movement holds. "The reports that Israel softened its stance regarding the prisoner exchange were trial balloons," said Osama al-Muzni, the Hamas official entitled to speak about the stalled process. Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported earlier on Tuesday that the Jewish state agreed to release 220 prisoners out of 350 Palestinians that Hamas insists to be freed in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a Corporal Hamas captured in 2006 near the Gaza Strip.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/25/content_10411283.htm

GALLUP Opinion Briefing: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
http://www.gallup.com/poll/112408/Opinion-Briefing-IsraeliPalestinian-Conflict.aspx

Pope to make rare visit to Israel and PA in May
Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in May 2009 after accepting an invitation by President Shimon Peres. The Vatican and Israel are said, thus, to hopefully end the high tension of recent months between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people over the initiative of canonizing Pope Pius XII.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041322.html

Advertising firms censor signs for fear of vandalism

Livni is not the only one to have her picture censored in recent months from billboards in the capital. Pictures of women who ran for a spot on the city council, election slogans that were considered too blunt, and even photographs of children who are not wearing skullcaps failed to get approved for billboards.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041359.html

Palestinian advert has mixed response
While some Arab newspapers yesterday published a Palestinian advertisement promoting peace with Israel, many others refused to do so because it "smacks of normalisation", as it carries Israel's flag.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10262817.html

Just a stone's throw from the Cave of the Patriarchs
The controversy over the evacuation of the House of Contention in Hebron is being conducted according to a script where the ending is known in advance. The only surprise is that the story's banality can arouse such emotion. Everyone involved is simply playing the same standard roles in a drama that has been running for years. The High Court of Justice makes an unclear ruling, the settlers divide up between the moderates who declare they will not be dragged into violence and the extremists who threaten a violent response; thus they enjoy the best of both worlds. The left denounces those who repudiate the rule of law and expect others to do their work, and the "responsible authorities" search for a compromise and try to put off the confrontation in the name of aspirations for unity and conciliation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041344.html

A Palestinian is Leviev's Partner in Dubai
As Lev Leviev's diamonds went on sale in Dubai's newly opened Atlantis hotel in the Levant jewelry store, owned by Palestinian-Moroccan Arif Bin Khadra, Adalah-NY released a letter today in Arabic and English from the West Bank villages of Bil'in and Jayyous imploring the Khadra family to end their relative's partnership with Leviev. The Israeli billionaire's companies are building settlements on the villages' land. The September 27 letter from Bil'in and Jayyous said that Arif Bin Khadra's Dubai business partnership with Leviev "betrays the Palestinian cause and is an insult to the sacrifices and pain of our people."
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14421

This is Gaza, By Amira Hass
If it's not the power getting cut, leaving entire neighborhoods in darkness, then it's the water not reaching the top floors or the cooking gas running out. If you have an electric generator, some small part of it is bound to be broken and unfixable, because even before the hermetic three-week siege, Israel prohibited bringing in any spare parts for cars, machines and household electric appliances.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041345.html

Holocaust; Not Again but in Gaza
The state of Israel was allegedly established to give world Jewry, in general, and "holocaust surviving" European Jews, in specific, a safe homeland. But the international humanitarian cry of "Holocaust, never again" has become so blind and so disillusioned that it has been, for the last sixty years, perpetrating the same thing it is trying to prevent, namely another holocaust, against another nation; the Palestinian Arabs. The holocaust was perpetrated in Europe against Jewish Europeans by Christian Europeans. Arabs, who, for generations, received persecuted European Jews with hospitality, harbored and protected them, should not be made to pay their heartland, Palestine, for the sins of Europeans. Palestinians had never sinned against true Jews, but when Zionist militant Jews attack Palestinians, destroy their towns, massacre their families, forcefully evict hundreds of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes, and usurp their lands to build their terrorist Israeli state, Palestinians had no choice but to defend themselves with whatever means available to them.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=18246&CategoryId=5

Holding Gaza hostage
As Al-Ahram Weekly went to press Wednesday Arab foreign ministers were convening for an extraordinary meeting against the backdrop of an explosive humanitarian crisis in Gaza where 1.5 million Palestinians are suffering the effects of Israel's 22-day long blockade.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/924/fr1.htm

'Our family has died'

The apartment in the town of Dura, south of Hebron, is spacious, but Osama Rasras lives there alone. His home is as elegant as it is empty. In the room he shared with his wife, the bed is made and covered with a blue bedspread on which a few books are lying. The children's room is empty, too; only a plastic model tractor evokes its former occupants. The kitchen is spotless and shining, as are the other rooms: All are immaculately clean, all are deserted. Osama has learned to cook, clean and launder by himself.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041620.html

The Gaza salvation
Hope is eternal, but so too appears the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, writes Ramzy Baroud* When Gaza's electricity is in working order, most Palestinians in the impoverished and overcrowded Strip huddle around their television screens. It's neither "American Idol" nor "Dancing with the Stars" that brings them together. It's the news. Gazans' relationship to news media is both complex and unique. Like most Palestinians everywhere, they intently watch and listen to news broadcasts the world over, with the hope that salvation will arrive in the form of a news bulletin. Evidently, salvation is yet to be aired.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/924/op12.htm

The struggle is not over: Remembering Mohammed al-Kurd

The saying that a man's home is his castle goes back to the 1500s. Whether it is a mansion or a mud hut, a home to which you can retreat and be safe is a basic human need. But since 2001, Abu Kamel (Mohammed al-Kurd), his wife and five children were forced to fight every day for the right to stay in the East Jerusalem home his family had lived in for decades. And although the Jewish settlers who tried to push them out--literally--didn't put a gun to his head and pull the trigger, they might as well have.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9993.shtml

Reflecting on a visit to Palestine

Laura Ashfield, a WLU student, shares her experiences engaging in the culture and conflicts of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. On Thursday, November 20, students and staff gathered in the Grad Pub for an intimate talk with Laura Ashfield, a fifth-year global studies student who spoke of her experience spending six weeks in Palestine this past summer, a journey that took her all over Israel and Palestine including the West Bank and Gaza.
http://www.cordweekly.com/cordweekly/news?news_id=2287

Nobody's perfect-Interview with the Spokesman of the Jewish Community of Hebron

David Wilder is the spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron. For 10 years, he has been living wedged in Beit Hadassah, within the Arab souq of Hebron, with his wife Ora and their seven children. At fifty-four years old, he is a charismatic and controversial character, the spokesman of a community that Ha'aretz defined 'the hooligans of Israel'. To him, living in Hebron is 'both a duty and a privilege'. Through the windows of his house, he says, he finds his motivation, 'spiritual beauty but also all the work that has still to be done'. Outside the windows, are 160,000 Palestinians.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article708

Zionism, the United States, and Hegemony in the Middle East

Professor James Petras has written another book — Zionism, Militarism, and the Decline OF US Power — probing deeper into what he contends is a Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) that has infiltrated and largely usurped US foreign policy even using the US military for its ends in the Middle East. Petras fills his book with lots of evidence backed by sound rationales. Petras's thesis is that Israel — and not Big Oil — was behind the push to invade and occupy Iraq. That has already happened. What concerns Petras now is the push by the ZPC to have the United States again breach international law and launch an attack against Iran.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/zionism-the-united-states-and-hegemony-in-the-middle-east/

Reham Alhelsi-You Harvest What You Plant: Debunking the myth of "Palestinian Hate"

Last week a friend of mine told me that she'd been invited to a debate at her University about the "Palestinian Mickey Mouse" Farfour, which is a Hamas-created children's show that was broadcast on the Al-Quds TV in Gaza. The show was accused of conveying messages of hate by Israel, the US and a number of European countries. I never saw the show, but I remember the storm that was created because of it on a number of American and European networks. I remember also reading that there was some sort of mistranslation of what was being said on the show, which in a way had lead to the misinterpretations, and that none of these networks attacking the show "bothered to get independent verification of the translation"(1). This reminded me of the several occasions where I was confronted with questions about the Palestinian textbooks, and that they were breeding and spreading hate and Anti-Semitism. When the second Intifada began in 2000, I was already in Germany to start my higher studies there.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/26/reham-alhelsi-you-harvest-what-you-plant-debunking-the-myth
-of-palestinian-hate/


Video, Latuff on Hate Speech

http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/26/video-latuff-on-hate-speech/

Wednesday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 24 Wounded
Excerpt: At least six Iraqis were killed and 24 more were wounded in the latest attacks. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, Parliament delayed voting on a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement until tomorrow, and Kurdish officials announced their first solo oil exports. Also, Russia lodged a complaint after a U.S. military vehicle slammed into a Russian diplomatic car in Baghdad.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13817

4 killed, wounded by roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad

BAGHDAD /Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi soldier was killed and three more were wounded on Thursday in a roadside bomb explosion in northern Baghdad, a police source said. "An explosive charge was detonated this morning targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in al-Qahera neighborhood in northern Baghdad, killing a soldier and injuring three," the source told [...]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103760

Iraq allows U.S. forces to stay through 2011

Reporting from Baghdad--Iraqi lawmakers today approved a pact allowing U.S. forces to stay in the country through 2011 after winning support from skeptics by promising a public referendum on the plan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq28-2008nov28,0,3564357.story

Iraqi Parliament Approves US Pact with Simple Majority

The Iraqi parliament on Thursday approved by a simple majority a controversial military pact that will authorize the presence of US occupation troops in Iraq for another three years, during a televised session. The accord has drawn fire from certain quarters, including followers of the Muslim cleric Sayed Moqtada al-Sadr, who reject any agreement with the United States and who protested at the accord in Baghdad on Friday. As the voting on the pact began several Sadrist MPs pounded tables in a bid to hinder the vote, chanting "Yes, yes to Iraq... No, no, to the occupation".
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=65486&language=en

US withholds English translation of pact
US officials speaking on condition of anonymity revealed that key parts of US-Iraq pact could be lost in translation. They clarified that US President Georges Bush Administration has withheld the official English translation of the agreement to suppress a public dispute with the Iraqis until after the parliamentary vote." "There are a number of areas in here where they have agreement on the same wording but different understandings about what the words mean," said one US official.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-25013-US-withholds-English-translation-of-pact.html

Iraqi Parliament seeks more compromise on security pact
McClatchy Newspapers-BAGHDAD — Iraq's Parliament postponed a pivotal vote on a U.S.-Iraq security agreement on Wednesday while key lawmakers sought compromises that would appease an alliance of Sunni parties.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081126/wl_mcclatchy/3110366

US: Potential female bombers in Iraq surrender
AP-Eighteen young women purportedly belonging to a suicide bombing network in northern Iraq surrendered to U.S. forces on Wednesday, a top U.S. commander said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_female_bombers

US: Mass grave with 23 bodies found in Iraq

AP-The U.S. military says a mass grave containing 23 bodies has been found in Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_mass_grave

This is no sop. It is a vote to end the occupation of Iraq
Jonathan Steele: The total defeat of the US plan to install a supine ally in the Middle East is likely to be confirmed today in Baghdad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/27/iraq-us-foreign-policy

Aide: Iraqi government rejects Sunni pact demands

AP-An aide to Iraq's prime minister says the government's Shiite bloc has rejected two conditions set by mostly Sunni lawmakers for their support of a security pact with the United States.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

US Troops Rammed Russian Diplomats' Car in Iraq

US occupation troops "intentionally" rammed a car transporting Russian diplomatic personnel in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a Russian foreign ministry official told ITAR-TASS news agency on Wednesday. The incident took place as a column of US armored personnel carriers (APCs) was passing a column of three armored cars carrying Russian diplomats and their bodyguards, the official was quoted as saying. "Suddenly the lead APC sharply maneuvered and, passing our second and third cars in the far left lane, caught up with the lead car and intentionally struck it, trying to push it off the road," he said.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=65301&language=en

Migration experts sound alarm on Iraqi refugees
Migration experts from the European Union have sounded a stern warning about the "deteriorating situation" of the "vast majority" of Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan. "An increasing number [of Iraqi refugees are] in need of assistance," the report of an EU fact finding mission to Jordan and Syria concludes.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=98024

An adequate legal framework to guarantee the protection of Iraqi women and ensure their rights
Baghdad, 26 November 2008 – On the International Day on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Staffan de Mistura called for the urgent establishment of a national legal framework guaranteeing the protection of women in Iraq. "The situation of women in some parts of the country after years of conflict is very unsatisfactory."
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7LRP5L?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Violence against women in Iraq continues unpunished-UN
BAGHDAD /Aswat al-Iraq: The representative of the UN secretary general for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, on Wednesday said that violence against women continues unabated in some parts of Iraq, according to a UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) statement.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103759

Verdict Against Holy Land Charity Could Have a Chilling Effect on the Muslim Community
On Monday afternoon, a jury in Dallas, Texas found five Palestinian men guilty of more than 100 charges in the nation's largest terrorism financing trial since 9/11. But was this case about prosecuting terrorism, or the Bush administration's "war on terror?"
Prosecutors never argued that the charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, or any of its officials were ever involved in violence, either through funding it or directly participating in it. Instead, they told the jury that the charity sent money to schools, hospitals and social welfare programs that were controlled by Hamas, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department since 1995.
http://www.alternet.org/story/108740/

Hamas: We have nothing to do with Holy Land Society
Hamas has categorically denied any link with the Holy Land Society that was convicted in the US for financing Hamas, and described the sentence against it as "oppressive and unjust". A statement by Hamas underlined that the Movement limited its struggle against the Zionist occupation to the occupied Palestinian lands and never targeted the US.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/

POLITICS-US: Right-Wing Lobby Group Loses Its Angel
The right-wing U.S. advocacy group Freedom's Watch is reportedly shutting down as its main funder, Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, becomes one of the high-profile casualties of the global economic downturn. Freedom's Watch, which according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, has scheduled huge staff layoffs for the end of December, was one of the most prominent advocacy groups aligned with the Republican Party. Adelson contributed over 30 million dollars to Freedom's Watch in 2007 and 2008, but has had to cut back on his philanthropy as his net worth--estimated at 36 billion dollars in 2007--shrunk by 13 billion dollars.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44873

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www.TheHeadlines.org
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