Attacks/Eyewitness reports/Testimonials/
Weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory 15 - 21 Jan 2009
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Three Palestinians hurt in Egypt-Gaza tunnel collapse
AFP - Three Palestinians were injured when a tunnel used by smugglers collapsed on the border between Egypt and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official said on Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailyne
Israel accused of executing parents in front of children in Gaza
One nine-year-old boy said his father had been shot dead in front of him despite surrendering to Israeli soldiers with his hands in the air. Another youngster described witnessing the deaths of his mother, three brothers and uncle after the house they were in was shelled. He said his mother and one of his siblings had been killed instantly, while the others bled to death over a period of days. A psychiatrist treating children in the village of Zeitoun on the outskirts of Gaza City, where the alleged incidents took place, described the deaths as a "massacre". Rawya Borno, a Jordanian doctor, said civilians, including children, were rounded up and killed by Israeli troops.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Palestinian girls tell grim stories of survival
Tragedy saved the life of 13-year-old Dalal Abu Aisha. The Palestinian girl was not at home when an Israeli bomb destroyed her family's apartment in Gaza's Beach refugee camp, killing her father, mother, two brothers and a sister. Dalal had been at her aunt's house, paying a condolence call. Her cousin, a young girl, had been killed a day earlier by tank shells that exploded in the city's main square.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Gaza father finds out child survived
The BBC's Christian Fraser went in search of the father of an injured child he saw in an Egyptian hospital during hostilities and tracked him down in Northern Gaza. Four year old Samar Abed Rabbo was wounded by Israeli troops, according to her family. The Israeli army says it is investigating the claim.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
VIDEO: Gaza girl's grief
Jan. 22 - A 13-year-old girl whose parents and three siblings were killed by an Israeli bomb has returned to what's left of her home in Gaza. Dalal Abu Aisha collected a few belongings from the rubble and the family cat. Her cousin was also killed by two tank shells as she shopped in the city's main square.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Child casualties
A bereaved family in Gaza shares its pain.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-
Video: Gaza villages Wiped off the map
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Al-Jazeera Video: Mosques not spared in Gaza war - 23 Jan 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Al-Jazeera Video: Gaza in Ruins: A news special
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Israel destroyed 41 mosques in Gaza, says ministry
Israel destroyed 41 Mosques during its 23-day assault on the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs in the de facto government reported on Friday. The ministry reports that the 16 Mosques were destroyed in Gaza City, and 19 in the area north of Gaza City. Some of the Mosques were shelled while they were full of worshipers at prayer.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Physicians for Human Rights reps enter Gaza
Aid workers say 'we are here to help the locals and relieve the humanitarian crisis,' claim 'many families were simply wiped out during IDF offensive'.
No Home to Return to in Gaza
When members of the Sultan family ran from their home as an Israeli tank shelled its northern wall, there was no time to shut the front door. There was also no need.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Naazish YarKhan: American Doctors Prepare to Depart for Gaza
Lombard, IL - Nine American and four Canadian doctors are preparing to depart on a 10-day mission to bring desperately needed medical assistance to Palestinians living in Gaza. The group is sponsored by the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA; www.ammgaza.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Alarm spreads over use of lethal new weapons
Eighteen-year-old Mona al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the UN school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in once she realized it was gone -- completely severed by the weapon that hit her. Mona is one of the many patients among the 5,500 injured that have international and Palestinian doctors baffled by the type of weaponry used in the Israeli operation.
http://electronicintifada.net/
On white skin it would have looked totally unacceptable
http://jewssansfrontieres.
Pictures of the devastation in Gaza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-
Israel names justice minister to fight war crime charges
AFP - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has put the justice minister in charge of defending Israel against charges of war crimes during its 22-day Gaza assault, a government source said Friday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Censor bans identifying IDF officers involved in Gaza operation
The Military Censor is applying strict restrictions preventing the media from identifying officers who participated in the Gaza Strip fighting and information about them that may be used in legal proceedings against them abroad. There is growing concern at the Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Justice that Israeli officers will be singled out in a massive wave of suits for alleged human rights violations.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
UN human rights official: Gaza evokes memories of Warsaw Ghetto
There is evidence that Israel committed war crimes during its 22-day campaign in the Gaza Strip and there should be an independent inquiry, UN investigator Richard Falk said Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Cornering of Civilians Unprecedented, Says UN Official
Israel's refusal to allow civilians any exit route from Gaza as its defence forces rained bombs down on schools and houses appears unprecedented in modern warfare, a United Nations investigator has said. Richard Falk, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, described the sealing off of the Gaza Strip in order to ensure that nobody could flee it as "a distinct, new and sinister war crime. "
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.
Charges filed by international attorneys against 15 Israeli officials
Palestinian and international efforts continue to institute legal proceedings for the prosecution of Israeli officials in the commission of war crimes. Although Israeli forces are involved in thousands of cases, local experts such as the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights believe that the recent major attacks on the Gaza Strip will successfully prosecuted.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
The aftermath
Brigade commander: Hamas will draw lessons, grow stronger
Colonel Yigal Slovik could not provide a clear answer as to whether Operation Cast Lead finally brought security to the residents of south Israel, but he did say that his brigade was prepared to reenter Gaza immediately if needed..."
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Fatah armed group: We will respond to Israeli attacks if they continue
Palestinian resistance group, al-Aqsa brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, announced on Tuesday that they are willing to respond to the Israeli violations of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
http://imemc.org/article/58582
Hamas calls for Palestinian reconciliation
AP - Hamas called Thursday for reconciliation with supporters of rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but insisted on pursuing "resistance" against Israel.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Hamas to compensate families of Gaza victims
Spokesman says organization will pay 4,000 euros to owners of houses destroyed in IDF operation in Gaza, 1,000 euros to families of each Palestinian killed and 5000 euros for each person wounded.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Backlash begins as Israel split over success of war in Gaza
A day after the last of their country's soldiers pulled out of the Gaza, Israelis are increasingly asking themselves just what they were fighting for. The offensive enjoyed massive popular support while under way, but with the guns silent, scathing criticism is emerging from both the Left and the Right about the lack of any clear achievement, other than a huge Palestinian death toll and the damage to Israel's international reputation.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Al-Jazeera Video: Traders rebuild their tunnels in Gaza - 22 Jan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Hamas delegates in Cairo Sunday
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV, reported on Thursday that delegates of the Hamas movement are slated to arrive in Cairo on Sunday for talks with Egyptian officials on ceasefire, the opening of border terminals in the Gaza Strip and several other related issues.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Most Gazans support ceasefire with Israel
Most Palestinians in Gaza are pleased that both Hamas and Israel's unilateral ceasefires are holding, according to the results of a survey published on Thursday. Eight in 10 Gazans say the national priority should be reconciling the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s competing factions while only about 10 percent chose resistance against the occupation.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli mom: Let my kids out of Gaza
Israeli woman married to Palestinian who was killed in Gaza pleads to reunite with three of her children, still living in Strip.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
POLL: Do you think the West should lift its boycott on political contact with the Palestinian Hamas movement?
http://www.irishtimes.com/
Palestinian leaders: The resistance assumed its role on behalf of the nation
Palestinian religious and national leaders stated in a popular conference held Tuesday in occupied Jerusalem that the Palestinian resistance had assumed its role valiantly on behalf of the Islamic and Arab Nation during its defense of its people against the Israeli aggression.
http://www.palestine-info.co.u
The collaborators
Haykal Unveils Plot to "Dissolve" Hamas Resistance
Egyptian prominent journalist Mohamad Hassanein Haykal said that the next stage would witness an attempt to dissolve the Palestinian Resistance movement of Hamas through the "weapon" of the re-construction of the Gaza Strip following the Israeli 23-day aggression. In a program broadcasted by Al-Jazeera, Haykal said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would play the major role in the next stage in which a status-quo would be imposed on Arabs "who didn't play any role in ending the Israeli aggression."
http://www.almanar.com.lb/
PLO: Hamas exploiting blood spilled in Gaza
Aide to Abbas says PA will not allow Hamas to turn Gaza into a 'separatist entity' following IDF op.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3660595,00.html
Hamas has widened Palestinian divide - Abbas aide
Hamas has widened the divide among Palestinians by setting bolder terms for unity talks with Fatah rivals after Israel's attack on Gaza, an aide to the Palestinian president said on Thursday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LM241773.htm
Hamas says Fatah taking revenge in West Bank
Ramallah, West Bank -- Hundreds of Hamas supporters, including journalists, university students and Muslim leaders, have been beaten, arrested and tortured across the West Bank as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas takes revenge on Hamas for its crackdown on his Fatah supporters in Gaza, Hamas activists say.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/23/MN3215FAUD.DTL
Palestinian prime minister stresses need for unity
Israel's offensive in Gaza is likely to reflect itself strongly in relations between the two parts of occupied Palestinian territory.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090122/FOREIGN/720951123/1002/rss
Qurei urges reconciliation among Palestinians, while lashing out at Hamas
Senior Fatah leader Ahmad Qurei called on Friday for national reconciliation among Palestinians in the wake of the Israeli war on Gaza, but once again blamed Hamas for causing the current split in Palestinian politics.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35214
Fatah fears Gaza conflict has put Hamas in the ascendancy
The Islamic movement Hamas is taking over from Fatah, the party created by Yasser Arafat, as the main Palestinian national organisation as a result of the war in Gaza, says a leading Fatah militant. "We have moved into the era of Hamas which is now much stronger than it was," said Husam Kadr, a veteran Fatah leader in the West Bank city of Nablus, recently released after five-and-a-half years in Israeli prisons.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/fatah-fears-gaza-conflict-has-put-hamas-in-the-ascendancy-1513430.html
With war over, Fatah members say Hamas sees them as the real danger
Israel's operation in Gaza may have ended, but the internal Palestinian fighting is still going strong. According to a Fatah source, Hamas operatives have thus far killed 10 Fatah members and wounded hundreds, fearing that Fatah might try to undermine Hamas' rule in the territory.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057961.html
Sources: Egyptian Security interrogates wounded Palestinians on homemade shells, arms smuggling
A number of injured Palestinians who received treatment in Egyptian hospitals and returned to Gaza said that the Egyptian Security interrogated some of them and demanded them to reveal information on the locations of manufacturing homemade shells and the means resistance is using to smuggle arms into the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58595
Jordan's Intelligence Chief Sacked: New Policy Toward Hamas?
The regime's tolerance of these demonstrations apparently angered Cairo, whose officials accused Dahabi of being responsible for the "Hamasization" of the Jordanian street. President Abbas was also not pleased with the outpouring of Jordanian public support for Hamas or with the protesters' allegation of his collaboration with Israel. ...by sacking Dahabi, the king sent a clear message that he wanted the GID to focus on its original mission: confronting internal and external threats to Jordanian national security. Sabbag argued that the king sought to limit the political role of the GID, which had grown since 1996 due to the weakness of other state institutions.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2995
The vision thing
Cursed with exceptional self-regard, Abbas has always shown disinterest in the opinions of others. From the moment he convinced himself of the sincerity of Bush's visions, which put the onus on the Palestinians to prove they qualify for membership in the human race and are worthy of being spoken to by Tsipi Livni and Condoleezza Rice, there was no turning back. Henceforth the Palestinian security forces would point their weapons exclusively at their own people, and only Saeb Erakat would be aimed at Israel. At the United Nations, once a primary arena for the Palestinian struggle, Abbas's emissary Riad Mansour was too busy drafting a resolution declaring Hamas a terrorist entity to deal with more trivial Palestinian concerns. It was simply impossible to steer Abbas towards a change of course, let alone a national dialogue that could produce a genuine strategy.
http://thenational.ae/article/20090123/REVIEW/759141570/1008
Israeli collaborators
Was it Abu Nidal who once observed that Fatah is a collection of collaborators and traitors with a few patriots spread in between? I thought so because I saw a fanatic right-winger (who heads the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Fascism and Revisionist Zionism) on TV and he was yelling about the plight of Fatah collaborators in Gaza. He kept saying: they are beating them and mistreating them. He was foaming at the mouth and toes.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/israeli-collaborators.html
A new puppet president of PA?
I saw an interview with Nasir Al-Qidwah (former PLO representative at UN and nephew of `Arafat--may his grave deepen). Qidwah as put in that position by his uncle, who even made him head of the Union of Palestinian students when he was a student. Dahlan's advocate, Gizelle Khuri, conducted the interview. It was clear to me that he will be running as Saudi Arabia's candidate for PA's puppet president.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-puppet-president-of-pa.html
House of Saud
The recent surprise speech by Saudi King only reveals the deep divisions in the Saudi royal family. A large number of the princes (even in so-called "liberal" factions, like the sons of Prince Talal) are religious fanatic who look at the US and the West from the Wahhabi perspective of Ibn Baz. In fact, I am noting a certain irony. You look at American Zionist websites, and now they carry translations of Saudi clumnists in the mouthpiece of Prince Salman. Yet, they are unaware that those same Saudi propaganda outlets continue to vomit anti-Semitic trash. The other day, I heard a preacher engaging in "prayer" in a Saudi-owned network: it was the classic anti-Semitic stuff. But that should not be surprising at all. Israel and Zionists never EVER had a problem in making alliances with anti-Semitics provided those anti-Semities do what Israel tell them. Anwar Sadat is the best example: this is an unrepentant anti-Semitic Nazi who became a key ally for Zionists (and for Jimmy Carter, who has yet another boring and ill-informed book out). King Abdullah, Prince Muqrin, and Prince Saud lead one Saudi faction, and Prince Bandar seems to be leading the Sudayri faction now.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/house-of-saud_22.html
The Crisis in Gaza
Barghouti is in a sense a reserve card for Fatah. Mahmoud Abbas has already burnt his cards to a great degree. He doesn't have any credibility anymore, but appears as a servile man, a secondary pawn in this regional game. He is not popular even within Fatah, so it is clear that Fatah will be in need of another leading figure immediately or very soon, and Barghouti would be an alternative. But since he is in jail, his fate much depends on Israel-and on Washington, to be sure. Now, to know how Barghouti would behave if ever he was liberated from jail is hard to tell. The main problem is what kind of relation he would have with the US and their number one Palestinian stooge Muhammad Dahlan. Dahlan and Barghouti were in electoral alliance in the January 2006 election. Does it mean that they will maintain a collaboration and form a cohesive dominant team in the post-Abbas Fatah, or will they be in competition? It remains to be seen.
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet183.html
Druze, Bedouin diplomats wage PR war
Reda Mansour, Ismail Khaldi defend Gaza op to CNN, Berkley faculty, and Muslim protestors in US.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3660722,00.html
Palestinian Authority welcomes new US peace envoy
AFP - The Palestinian Authority and Israel welcomed Friday the appointment of former senator George Mitchell as the new US envoy to the Middle East.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090123/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianisraelusmitchelldiplomacy
U.S. interference
Noam Chomsky: Obama's Stance on Gaza Crisis "Approximately the Bush Position"
In a visit to the State Department Thursday, President Obama made his first substantive comments on the Middle East conflict since Israel's attack on Gaza. Obama first mentioned his commitment to Israel's security, without affirming his commitment to Palestinian security. He condemned Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns, but didn't criticize the U.S.-backed Israeli bombings of densely-populated Gaza. But in a departure from the Bush administration, Obama acknowledged Palestinian suffering and said Gaza's borders should be opened to aid. We speak with MIT professor, Noam Chomsky.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/23/noam_chomsky_obamas_stance_on_gaza
Hamas: Obama does not represent change
Hamas says President Barack Obama's position toward the Palestinians does not represent change and will lead to the same mistakes as his predecessor.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057946.html
Islamic Jihad: Obama will cover up Israel's crimes
The Islamic Jihad movement said on Friday that US President Barak Obama's speech the previous day was "not surprising." In a statement the movement said: "We are aware that the new American presidency is with Zionism and will never be separated from it because they are working for the same goal. America is always the lawyer for Israel and defends their presence in the Palestinian territory and covers their crimes against Palestinians." The movement pointed to Obama's reference to Israel's "right to defend itself" and said that proposed peace negotiations are merely a cover for more crimes against Palestinians. Islamic Jihad urged Arabs and Muslims to reconsider their views towards the US. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35223
Obama picks George Mitchell as Mideast envoy 'to make Gaza truce last'
United States President Barack Obama on Thursday named former Sen. George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy, saying one of his key tasks would be ensuring that the cease-fire in Gaza lasts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057919.html
Zionist propaganda and George Mitchell
Typical of Zionist propaganda is their promotion of a Zionist candidate for high office. They tend to promote that candidate by saying that he/she is "fair" and "even-handed". And then naive or dumb Arabs start parroting what has been said about that person by Zionists. The other day I heard a Zionist on TV saying that Arabs and Israelis welcome the appointment of George Mitchell. This man has a long history of Zionist advocacy and a long record of votes for Israeli wars, and has vomited many speeches before AIPAC.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/zionist-propaganda-and-george-mitchell.html
Obama and...Indyk: I told you so, damn it
Well, it took two longs days before Obama dispelled any notions of a change in US Middle East policy. For some reasons, many Arabs and many American leftists I know (you know yourselves) have wanted to believe so bad that Obama will deviate from the Zionist path of US foreign policy.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-andindyk-i-told-you-so-damn-it.html
Obama acts fast on Mideast, but substance familiar
U.S. President Barack Obama has taken the Middle East by surprise with the speed of his diplomacy but his first statement on the conflict between Arabs and Israelis was strikingly similar to old U.S. policies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLN411876
Did Obama Set-up Mitchell to Fail in the Middle East?
In naming George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East, President Obama unfortunately made statements indicating no departure from the failing policies of previous administrations. In particular Obama emphasized Israel's right to "defend itself", never once mentioned things like the occupation or International law, attacked Hamas (a duly elected movement that represents a significant portion of the Palestinian people), supported the strangulation of Gaza, demanded no resistance from an occupied people, and supported the Israeli occupiers in their violence that most recently killed over 400 children.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14730
Olmert to Clinton: Israel will do all it can to prevent Gaza smuggling
Shortly after Hilary Clinton officially took the helm at the U.S. State Department on Thursday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed that Israel would do everything it could to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057898.html
Obama urges Israel, Hamas to keep peace in Gaza
AP - President Barack Obama is calling on Israel and Hamas to take steps aimed at ensuring that the cease-fire that's in place in Gaza will endure. Weighing in on the conflict for the first time following his inauguration, Obama said that going forward, Hamas must end rocket fire at Israel, and Israel must "complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza." Although those steps were taken this week, low-level violence has marred the fragile cease-fire.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_gaza
Clinton calls Palestinian leader on Mideast peace
AFP - New US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised to work toward a "durable peace" in the Middle East in a first telephone call Thursday with the Palestinian president, a spokesman said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090122/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianuspeaceclinton
Obama urges Israel to open Gaza borders
The plea came in a speech that signalled the new US administration's shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would "actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians" in the wake of this month's Gaza war.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7cf745dc-e8ce-11dd-a4d0-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Tearing up the US's Middle East playbook
If US President Barack Obama is to have any positive impact on the cycle of destruction and death in Gaza, he must be able to understand the experience of the people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabaliya as much as he does the experience of the Israelis in the town of Sderot who endure Hamas' rockets.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KA24Ak02.html
Israeli officials: Obama a true friend
Following historic day in Washington, officials in Jerusalem say they are not concerned about incoming US president, expect Israel to remain America's "strategic, intimate partner' during Obama era.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3659548,00.html
How AIPAC Makes Friends
Sellers is beginning his second term as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives this month, and he credits AIPAC with helping him acquire some of the skills and contacts that assisted him in his successful bid to become a state lawmaker.
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/national_news/how_aipac_makes_friends/10093
Hamas has widened Palestinian divide - Abbas aide
Hamas has widened the divide among Palestinians by setting bolder terms for unity talks with Fatah rivals after Israel's attack on Gaza, an aide to the Palestinian president said on Thursday.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Hamas says Fatah taking revenge in West Bank
Ramallah, West Bank -- Hundreds of Hamas supporters, including journalists, university students and Muslim leaders, have been beaten, arrested and tortured across the West Bank as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas takes revenge on Hamas for its crackdown on his Fatah supporters in Gaza, Hamas activists say.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
Palestinian prime minister stresses need for unity
Israel's offensive in Gaza is likely to reflect itself strongly in relations between the two parts of occupied Palestinian territory.
http://www.thenational.ae/
Qurei urges reconciliation among Palestinians, while lashing out at Hamas
Senior Fatah leader Ahmad Qurei called on Friday for national reconciliation among Palestinians in the wake of the Israeli war on Gaza, but once again blamed Hamas for causing the current split in Palestinian politics.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Fatah fears Gaza conflict has put Hamas in the ascendancy
The Islamic movement Hamas is taking over from Fatah, the party created by Yasser Arafat, as the main Palestinian national organisation as a result of the war in Gaza, says a leading Fatah militant. "We have moved into the era of Hamas which is now much stronger than it was," said Husam Kadr, a veteran Fatah leader in the West Bank city of Nablus, recently released after five-and-a-half years in Israeli prisons.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
With war over, Fatah members say Hamas sees them as the real danger
Israel's operation in Gaza may have ended, but the internal Palestinian fighting is still going strong. According to a Fatah source, Hamas operatives have thus far killed 10 Fatah members and wounded hundreds, fearing that Fatah might try to undermine Hamas' rule in the territory.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Sources: Egyptian Security interrogates wounded Palestinians on homemade shells, arms smuggling
A number of injured Palestinians who received treatment in Egyptian hospitals and returned to Gaza said that the Egyptian Security interrogated some of them and demanded them to reveal information on the locations of manufacturing homemade shells and the means resistance is using to smuggle arms into the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Jordan's Intelligence Chief Sacked: New Policy Toward Hamas?
The regime's tolerance of these demonstrations apparently angered Cairo, whose officials accused Dahabi of being responsible for the "Hamasization" of the Jordanian street. President Abbas was also not pleased with the outpouring of Jordanian public support for Hamas or with the protesters' allegation of his collaboration with Israel. ...by sacking Dahabi, the king sent a clear message that he wanted the GID to focus on its original mission: confronting internal and external threats to Jordanian national security. Sabbag argued that the king sought to limit the political role of the GID, which had grown since 1996 due to the weakness of other state institutions.
http://www.
The vision thing
Cursed with exceptional self-regard, Abbas has always shown disinterest in the opinions of others. From the moment he convinced himself of the sincerity of Bush's visions, which put the onus on the Palestinians to prove they qualify for membership in the human race and are worthy of being spoken to by Tsipi Livni and Condoleezza Rice, there was no turning back. Henceforth the Palestinian security forces would point their weapons exclusively at their own people, and only Saeb Erakat would be aimed at Israel. At the United Nations, once a primary arena for the Palestinian struggle, Abbas's emissary Riad Mansour was too busy drafting a resolution declaring Hamas a terrorist entity to deal with more trivial Palestinian concerns. It was simply impossible to steer Abbas towards a change of course, let alone a national dialogue that could produce a genuine strategy.
http://thenational.ae/article/
Israeli collaborators
Was it Abu Nidal who once observed that Fatah is a collection of collaborators and traitors with a few patriots spread in between? I thought so because I saw a fanatic right-winger (who heads the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Fascism and Revisionist Zionism) on TV and he was yelling about the plight of Fatah collaborators in Gaza. He kept saying: they are beating them and mistreating them. He was foaming at the mouth and toes.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
A new puppet president of PA?
I saw an interview with Nasir Al-Qidwah (former PLO representative at UN and nephew of `Arafat--may his grave deepen). Qidwah as put in that position by his uncle, who even made him head of the Union of Palestinian students when he was a student. Dahlan's advocate, Gizelle Khuri, conducted the interview. It was clear to me that he will be running as Saudi Arabia's candidate for PA's puppet president.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
House of Saud
The recent surprise speech by Saudi King only reveals the deep divisions in the Saudi royal family. A large number of the princes (even in so-called "liberal" factions, like the sons of Prince Talal) are religious fanatic who look at the US and the West from the Wahhabi perspective of Ibn Baz. In fact, I am noting a certain irony. You look at American Zionist websites, and now they carry translations of Saudi clumnists in the mouthpiece of Prince Salman. Yet, they are unaware that those same Saudi propaganda outlets continue to vomit anti-Semitic trash. The other day, I heard a preacher engaging in "prayer" in a Saudi-owned network: it was the classic anti-Semitic stuff. But that should not be surprising at all. Israel and Zionists never EVER had a problem in making alliances with anti-Semitics provided those anti-Semities do what Israel tell them. Anwar Sadat is the best example: this is an unrepentant anti-Semitic Nazi who became a key ally for Zionists (and for Jimmy Carter, who has yet another boring and ill-informed book out). King Abdullah, Prince Muqrin, and Prince Saud lead one Saudi faction, and Prince Bandar seems to be leading the Sudayri faction now.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
The Crisis in Gaza
Barghouti is in a sense a reserve card for Fatah. Mahmoud Abbas has already burnt his cards to a great degree. He doesn't have any credibility anymore, but appears as a servile man, a secondary pawn in this regional game. He is not popular even within Fatah, so it is clear that Fatah will be in need of another leading figure immediately or very soon, and Barghouti would be an alternative. But since he is in jail, his fate much depends on Israel-and on Washington, to be sure. Now, to know how Barghouti would behave if ever he was liberated from jail is hard to tell. The main problem is what kind of relation he would have with the US and their number one Palestinian stooge Muhammad Dahlan. Dahlan and Barghouti were in electoral alliance in the January 2006 election. Does it mean that they will maintain a collaboration and form a cohesive dominant team in the post-Abbas Fatah, or will they be in competition? It remains to be seen.
http://www.socialistproject.
Druze, Bedouin diplomats wage PR war
Reda Mansour, Ismail Khaldi defend Gaza op to CNN, Berkley faculty, and Muslim protestors in US.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Palestinian Authority welcomes new US peace envoy
AFP - The Palestinian Authority and Israel welcomed Friday the appointment of former senator George Mitchell as the new US envoy to the Middle East.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
U.S. interference
Noam Chomsky: Obama's Stance on Gaza Crisis "Approximately the Bush Position"
In a visit to the State Department Thursday, President Obama made his first substantive comments on the Middle East conflict since Israel's attack on Gaza. Obama first mentioned his commitment to Israel's security, without affirming his commitment to Palestinian security. He condemned Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns, but didn't criticize the U.S.-backed Israeli bombings of densely-populated Gaza. But in a departure from the Bush administration, Obama acknowledged Palestinian suffering and said Gaza's borders should be opened to aid. We speak with MIT professor, Noam Chomsky.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Hamas: Obama does not represent change
Hamas says President Barack Obama's position toward the Palestinians does not represent change and will lead to the same mistakes as his predecessor.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Islamic Jihad: Obama will cover up Israel's crimes
The Islamic Jihad movement said on Friday that US President Barak Obama's speech the previous day was "not surprising." In a statement the movement said: "We are aware that the new American presidency is with Zionism and will never be separated from it because they are working for the same goal. America is always the lawyer for Israel and defends their presence in the Palestinian territory and covers their crimes against Palestinians." The movement pointed to Obama's reference to Israel's "right to defend itself" and said that proposed peace negotiations are merely a cover for more crimes against Palestinians. Islamic Jihad urged Arabs and Muslims to reconsider their views towards the US. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Obama picks George Mitchell as Mideast envoy 'to make Gaza truce last'
United States President Barack Obama on Thursday named former Sen. George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy, saying one of his key tasks would be ensuring that the cease-fire in Gaza lasts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Zionist propaganda and George Mitchell
Typical of Zionist propaganda is their promotion of a Zionist candidate for high office. They tend to promote that candidate by saying that he/she is "fair" and "even-handed". And then naive or dumb Arabs start parroting what has been said about that person by Zionists. The other day I heard a Zionist on TV saying that Arabs and Israelis welcome the appointment of George Mitchell. This man has a long history of Zionist advocacy and a long record of votes for Israeli wars, and has vomited many speeches before AIPAC.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Obama and...Indyk: I told you so, damn it
Well, it took two longs days before Obama dispelled any notions of a change in US Middle East policy. For some reasons, many Arabs and many American leftists I know (you know yourselves) have wanted to believe so bad that Obama will deviate from the Zionist path of US foreign policy.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Obama acts fast on Mideast, but substance familiar
U.S. President Barack Obama has taken the Middle East by surprise with the speed of his diplomacy but his first statement on the conflict between Arabs and Israelis was strikingly similar to old U.S. policies.
http://www.reuters.com/
Did Obama Set-up Mitchell to Fail in the Middle East?
In naming George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East, President Obama unfortunately made statements indicating no departure from the failing policies of previous administrations. In particular Obama emphasized Israel's right to "defend itself", never once mentioned things like the occupation or International law, attacked Hamas (a duly elected movement that represents a significant portion of the Palestinian people), supported the strangulation of Gaza, demanded no resistance from an occupied people, and supported the Israeli occupiers in their violence that most recently killed over 400 children.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Olmert to Clinton: Israel will do all it can to prevent Gaza smuggling
Shortly after Hilary Clinton officially took the helm at the U.S. State Department on Thursday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed that Israel would do everything it could to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Obama urges Israel, Hamas to keep peace in Gaza
AP - President Barack Obama is calling on Israel and Hamas to take steps aimed at ensuring that the cease-fire that's in place in Gaza will endure. Weighing in on the conflict for the first time following his inauguration, Obama said that going forward, Hamas must end rocket fire at Israel, and Israel must "complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza." Although those steps were taken this week, low-level violence has marred the fragile cease-fire.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Clinton calls Palestinian leader on Mideast peace
AFP - New US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised to work toward a "durable peace" in the Middle East in a first telephone call Thursday with the Palestinian president, a spokesman said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Obama urges Israel to open Gaza borders
The plea came in a speech that signalled the new US administration's shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would "actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians" in the wake of this month's Gaza war.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
Tearing up the US's Middle East playbook
If US President Barack Obama is to have any positive impact on the cycle of destruction and death in Gaza, he must be able to understand the experience of the people in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabaliya as much as he does the experience of the Israelis in the town of Sderot who endure Hamas' rockets.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/
Israeli officials: Obama a true friend
Following historic day in Washington, officials in Jerusalem say they are not concerned about incoming US president, expect Israel to remain America's "strategic, intimate partner' during Obama era.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
How AIPAC Makes Friends
Sellers is beginning his second term as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives this month, and he credits AIPAC with helping him acquire some of the skills and contacts that assisted him in his successful bid to become a state lawmaker.
http://www.jewishtimes.com/
BBC refuses airtime to Gaza aid appeal
The BBC has refused to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella group for 13 aid charities, launched its appeal yesterday saying the devastation in Gaza was "so huge British aid agencies were compelled to act".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Borderless Journalism in Gaza
They are, essentially, ceding reporting of the region (and much of the world) to others. Ironically, in the long run, given the U.S. networks' track record in recent years, that may be a good thing—if these alternatives become more available to the average American. For the moment, BBC America is seen on some cable systems, CNN-I cannot be viewed inside the U.S., and, with a few localized exceptions, Al Jazeera English is only available streamed online via Livestation and YouTube.
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_
'A Lot of the Gaza Story Is Being Left Out'
Excerpt: ROME -- The war of words continues in Gaza, in spite of the ceasefire. Nancy Snow, propaganda expert, talks to IPS about information spin strategies and whether we, the public, have learned any lessons from Iraq.
http://www.antiwar.com/
Blogs, YouTube: the new battleground of Gaza conflict
Both sides used the Internet to rally supporters and shape public opinion.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/
Chutzpah
Oslo parties demand censure of envoy who likened Gaza op to Holocaust
A Norwegian diplomat who this week sent out an email equating Israel's Gaza invasion to the Holocaust has prompted several political parties in Oslo to demand the kingdom's foreign ministry publicly denounce the letter.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Solidarity
Clashes after 2,500 Palestinians protest in Hebron for Gaza
Six Palestinians were arrested and dozens chocked on tear gas when Israeli forces cracked down on a massive Hamas-led demonstration in Hebron solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Some 2,500 protesters turned out for the demonstration, which began after firday prayer, leaving the Wasayah mosque in the Abu Sneineh neighborhood. The identities of the six arrestees were not determined. Last Friday, Israeli forces shot dead a teenage protester in Hebron at another demonstration in solidarity with Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
US academics: join us in boycott call
As educators and scholars of conscience in the United States, we fully support the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel's ongoing scholasticide and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions. The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI) outline their mission statement.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Oxford students hold sit-in to demand university condemns Gaza op
More than 80 students on Thursday took over one of Oxford University's buildings to demand the university releases a statement condemning Israel's recent offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
ISM London issues declaration supporting student occupations
ISM London offers support and solidarity to the numerous student occupations and sit-ins around the UK in recent weeks. This response to the most recent Israeli onslaught on Gaza has been one of the most important initiatives in the movement. Generating pressure on our higher education establishments to take a stand against Israel and the war crimes it commits is vital. We stand in solidarity with the many Palestinians, students, activists, academics and members of the public who are now being more and more vocal about the boycott of Israel as a means of both exerting international pressure on the Israeli apartheid system, and standing in solidarity with the resistant Palestinian people.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/
Catalunya cancels Shoah memorial ceremony over Gaza op
Barcelona pulls public service marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day in protest of Israeli offensive in Strip. 'Marking the Jewish Holocaust while a Palestinian Holocaust is taking place is not right,' says official.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Sport stars protest the Gaza conflict
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Why has Ben Affleck suddenly become a great actor in my eyes?
"Affleck was railing about the Israeli invasion of Gaza. And, thanks to his special access, he said he has already registered his concerns with the highest echelons of the Obama administration. He said he gave White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel an earful about Israel at a private dinner the night before."
http://voices.washingtonpost.
Counter-rally for Gaza Overwhelms Israel Supporters in Austin
At the steps of the University of Texas Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Austin, supporters of Gaza organized a counter-rally today that surrounded, foiled and ultimately overwhelmed a pro-Israel demonstration supporting the Gaza siege.Though pro-Gaza events in Austin have drawn crowds of a few dozen over the past month, today's event drew hundreds.
http://www.zcommunications.
Bikers back Palestinians
KUANTAN: Residents in Pahang showed support and sympathy for Palestinians during a drive to collect donations for the Palestinian Fund organised by Mercy Malaysia.
http://thestar.com.my/metro/
Global Protests Continue for Third Straight Week
For the third week in a row, hundreds of thousands of people from around the world took to the streets to show their solidarity with the people of Gaza, and to express their outrage at the Israeli massacre.
http://stopthewall.org/
Joanna Blythman: why I'm boycotting Israeli produce
If you're not in the habit of checking the country of origin on fruit and vegetables to minimise food miles, you may not have noticed just how much Israeli produce is in our shops and supermarkets. At the moment, there are piles of new potatoes (though it's hard to see why anyone with a scrap of environmental awareness would buy these when our indigenous main crop spuds are still firm and abundant), and that's just for starters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
West Bank/Israel and other news
Israeli court backs waste water line through Islamic cemetery
Jerusalem – Ma'an – Israel's High Court says a water company can extend a waste line through a historic Islamic cemetery at the entrance of Ramla. The decision rejected a petition filed by the Al-Aqsa Foundation, according to its lawyers. The foundation had argued that the line's construction should stop long enough for an alternative route to be agreed upon, insisting that workers stop digging in the cemetery until new plans could be arranged.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli troops overrun village near Ramallah
Israeli troops overran a village near the northern West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday at dawn, witnesses said. Ma'an's correspondent also reported that more than 30 Israeli military vehicles overran Ni'lin village from ever entrance, although residents were not sure why. Ni'lin is home to some of the more vocal protests against Israel's separation barrier, where residents demonstrate after Friday prayers on a weekly basis. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Palestinian man stoned by Israeli soldiers in Hebron
A 61-year-old Palestinian man was treated for wounds on Thursday after Israeli soldiers reportedly threw stones at him in the center of the West Bank city of Hebron. Hospital officials said Zuheir Abed –Al-Mu'ti Abu Menshar arrived in the emergency room bleeding from his face. His condition was described as moderate, and he was discharged.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Arab MK barred from entering Gaza
The Israeli government barred a member of its own parliament from entering Gaza on Friday. Talib As-Sana, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset told Ma'an that he had been denied permission to enter Gaza, where he intended to survey the damage from the three-week Israeli onslaught. "This shows that Israel wants to cover things and prevent me from being a witness for their crimes, adding that the Israeli authorities do not want to reveal the demolition of houses, schools and institutions," said As-Sana. As-Sana said that he has asked Egypt for permission to enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, but he is waiting for a reply.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Jaffa residents bemoan relatives killed in Gaza
Operation Cast Lead emphasizes Arab residents of central city's conflict between Israeli citizenship and pain over losing loved ones in Gaza. 'Expression of solidarity should not be reason to attack us,' says principal of school erecting mourners tent for victims.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
The Israeli military kidnaps three civilians from Nablus City
Palestinian sources reported that Israeli troops invaded the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday and kidnapped three civilians. Local sources said that the Israeli forces attacked and searched homes in Nablus city and the nearby Balata refugee camp. Troops then kidnapped three men and took them to unknown location. Witnesses identified the three civilians as Yasser Mana', age 20, Tarik Al Ka'bi and Mohamed Abu Ziton. [end]
http://imemc.org/article/58580
Constant displacement for Palestinian-Iraqi refugees
DAMASCUS (IRIN) - The start of 2009 offers little hope to the residents of al-Tanf, a refugee camp on the Syrian-Iraqi border housing more than 700 Palestinians who had fled persecution in Iraq. No country has given any concrete pledge to take any of the refugees for resettlement in 2009, leaving them to battle the cold desert weather this winter with more despair than ever. The refugees say that despite visits from foreign delegations, resettlements have been few and far between since the camp opened in May 2006.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Analysis/Op-ed
POLITICS: Hamas Fights on Uneven Battlefield
In the 1967 movie classic the "Battle of Algiers", which recreated Algeria's war of independence against France, a handcuffed and shackled insurgent leader, Ben M'Hidi, is brought before a group of highly-partisan French journalists for intense interrogation.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.
Here's what the Histadrut had to say about Israel's crimes against humanity in Gaza: The Histadrut would have preferred that the current situation had not developed this way. Israel embarked on operation "Cast Lead" after acting with great restraint for many years towards unbearable constant terror attacks from Gaza and making every diplomatic attempt to avoid confrontation. Israel agreed to a "state of calm", while Hamas exploited the agreement to build up its forces and rearm. Not only did Hamas rearm itself, but it terminated the calm by launching up to 80 rockets a day at Israeli civilians. By this time, Israel had no choice but to respond to the repeated attacks and aggression as an act of justifiable self-defense. . .
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Midnight, By Mourid Barghouti, trans Radwa Ashour
Every exiled writer must carry the sorrows of a spoiled history. But Palestinian authors now labour under an extra curse. They stand in danger of becoming – as individual voices – inaudible on every front. No one who backs the occupiers' case in this most polarising of disputes wants to hear the testimony of the dispossessed. In this conflict, literature has utterly failed to open minds or build bridges. As for sympathisers with the 60-year ordeal of a people stripped of both land and past, they usually crave the fire and fury of political rhetoric. Anger soothes, but true art may only sharpen pain.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Deadly Gas in Gaza
As the ongoing massacre in Gaza accomplishes nothing more than a rising toll of over a thousand dead and five thousand injured Palestinians, world leaders scramble like head-less chickens to find ways to achieve a cease-fire, instead of stripping the Apartheid State of Israel (ASI) from its membership at the UN and declaring it an outlaw state.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Israel's Lies, Henry Siegman
Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas's capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n02/
LRB contributors react to events in Gaza
For three weeks barbarism has been on show before a universal public, which has watched, judged and with few exceptions rejected Israel's use of armed terror against the one and a half million inhabitants blockaded since 2006 in the Gaza Strip. Never have the official justifications for invasion been more patently refuted by the combination of camera and arithmetic; or the newspeak of 'military targets' by the images of bloodstained children and burning schools. Thirteen dead on one side, 1360 on the other: it isn't hard to work out which side is the victim. There is not much more to be said about Israel's appalling operation in Gaza.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/web/15/
Ignoring the roots of conflict
My uncle, aunt and cousins in Gaza have not showered for more than two weeks now. I make a point of this because Samuel Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as "Joe the Plumber" who was propelled into the limelight for questioning then US President-elect Barack Obama, has become a so-called "war correspondent" in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Talking to The Guardian from his new beat, he spoke with sympathy about how difficult life must be for Sderot's residents. "The people of Sderot can't do normal things day to day, like get soap in their eyes in the shower, for fear a rocket might come in. I'm sure they're taking quick showers. I know I would." Dalila Mehdawi comments for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Sharpeville 1960, Gaza 2009
The horror of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa was challenged with a sustained campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions initiated in 1958 and given new urgency in 1960 after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. Similarly, the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions has been gathering momentum since 2005. Gaza 2009, like Sharpeville 1960, cannot be ignored: it demands a response from all who believe in a common humanity. Dr. Haidar Eid in Gaza City comments for EI.
http://electronicintifada.net/
The Holocaust, Viewed Not From Then but From the Here and Now
The [German] farmers and villagers who had watched the prisoners go by afterward mostly claimed they knew nothing about it. Times change. Some of the children of those farmers and villagers recall on videotaped interviews the endless lines of walking dead. It was impossible not to see what was plainly in front of them. Along these lines, the constant television broadcasts during the conference of grieving parents and wounded children in Gaza reminded a few conferees of the emotions stirred up by video testimonies of Holocaust survivors (there are dozens of these in the museum), and the comparison made several scholars uneasy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
Standing with the Aggressor, Yet Again
This week marks the 90th anniversary of the Versailles Treaty. It was in January, 1919, exactly 90 years ago, that the World War I victors – the United States, Britain, France and Italy – began drawing up the map of the current Middle East at the Paris conference. And creating much of the mess that you see today in the region, especially in the Holy Land.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Palestine and Sweden's Third States Responsibility
In view of upcoming political decisions and donor conferences planned for the rebuilding of Gaza, We would like to bring your attention to the needs expressed on the ground. Sweden needs to take its third states responsibility within International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and demand accountability from conflicting parties that violated IHL.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Breaking Gaza's Will: Israel's Enduring Fantasy
My three-year-old son Sammy walked into my room uninvited as I sorted through another batch of fresh photos from Gaza. I was looking for a specific image, one that would humanise Palestinians as living, breathing human beings, neither masked nor mutilated. But to no avail. All the photos I received spoke of the reality that is Gaza today - homes, schools and civilian infrastructure bombed beyond description. All the faces were either of dead or dying people.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Gendzier: Palestine 1948/2009
A look at the documentary record for 1948 reveals interesting background to current events in Gaza.
http://www.zcommunications.
International Law and Israel's War on Gaza
When the Oslo Document was originally presented by the Israeli government to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations in the Fall of 1992, it was rejected by the Delegation because it obviously constituted a bantustan. This document carried out Menachem Begin's disingenuous misinterpretation of the Camp David Accords--expressly rejected by U.S. President Jimmy Carter--that all they called for was autonomy for the people and not for the land too.
http://www.zcommunications.
SATIRE: Vacation To Israel Canceled Due To History Of Israel
HOBOKEN, NJ—With only three weeks to go before embarking on a much-anticipated vacation to Israel, 34-year-old Jeff Kaufmann made the difficult decision to cancel his trip yesterday, citing unfavorable exchange rates and the entirety of the Jewish nation's 60-year existence. "I'd been looking forward to this for months, but hotel prices started going up, things got kind of crazy at work, and also Israel's whole history is basically a decades-long horror show of ethnic violence, harsh reprisals, and geopolitical madness." Kaufmann said. "The Negev Desert is supposed to be amazing, but on the other hand, ever since its founding in 1948, Israel has been spinning downward in a chaotic spiral of fear, hatred, and death. So it's a tough call." Kaufmann added that he hopes the Arab and Jewish peoples will be able to put aside a century of bloodshed before his travel voucher expires in June.
http://www.theonion.com/
U.S.
Obama Orders Closure of Guantanamo Prison, Interrogations Must Follow Army Field Manual
In a break from the Bush administration, President Barack Obama yesterday ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year, the immediate closure of secret overseas CIA prisons and for all agencies, including the CIA to abide by the Army Field Manual's acceptable interrogation tactics. Obama also nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001. We speak with Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center For Constitutional Rights.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Obama spy chief choice: U.S. intel should try to work with Iran
President Barack Obama's choice for spy chief, Dennis Blair, said Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies should seek ways of working with Iran on issues of mutual interest, underscoring the new administration's interest in engagement with elements in the Islamic state.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Iraq
Thursday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 3 Wounded
http://www.antiwar.com/
Gunmen kill Sunni family of 8 in Iraq, say officials
Gunmen killed eight members of a Sunni family and kidnapped two others in an area northeast of Baghdad where Shiite militiamen still operate, officials said on Friday.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/
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