Shadi Fadda brings us the latest news and more from around the Internet as it relates to Palestine and the Middle East.
Land theft & destruction / Settlements and the so-called 'freeze'
Lawless settlers are an inseparable part of Israel / Gideon Levy
The dogs of Shiloh run about, excited. Barking loudly, they try to chase after the long convoy of security vehicles passing the doghouses. But they aren't going anywhere: They're collared to long iron chains. No sight could better illustrate the futile journey of the inspectors and police officers through the West Bank this week.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
IDF task force looks for ways to end soldier insubordination / Amos Harel
Israel Defense Forces officers are worried by the possibility of large-scale refusal to obey orders should the army be tasked with evacuating illegal settlement outposts ... The Education Corps has therefore set up a task force whose goal is to devise educational activities that could help dissuade soldiers from disobeying orders.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
EU consults Quartet over Israeli settler credit plan
(AFP) The European Union expressed concern Friday about the Israeli premier's plans to grant credits to some West Bank settlers, and is consulting its partners in the Middle East Quartet about the move. "Coordination with the Quartet I think is called for in view of the serious nature of such a move," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Tax-exempt terror: the US cash behind extremist settlers
By Yanif Reich. Settlers are not some magical force of nature, of unknown origin, impossible to contain. They are a state-sponsored movement to drive out Palestinians from their ancestral homeland and move Jews to the newly created space. It is a movement that consumes occupied and stolen Palestinian land purely because the government of Israel, with the fourth most powerful army in the world, allows them to. That is, settlers exist in Palestine at the behest of the Israeli government that funds them, defends them from international pressure (with unconditional US acquiescence), and uses its military to protect them. They also exist because US tax-exempt organizations give them millions of dollars each year to further their agenda of ethnic cleansing.
http://www.hybridstates.com/
Showdown looms over West Bank construction curb
(AP) ELON MOREH, West Bank — From this Jewish settlement in the West Bank, calls are mounting for Israeli soldiers to cross a sacred line and defy orders to enforce a slowdown of Israeli construction on lands claimed by the Palestinians ... Though still on the fringes, the call to defiance points to the dilemma Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces in trying to mollify the Obama administration and draw the Palestinians back to peace talks by curtailing new settlement building in the West Bank for 10 months. The Palestinians have not been lured. For them, the real issue is the half million Jewish settlers already living in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, their expanding towns and villages eating away at the Palestinian dream of an independent state.
http://www.google.com/
Notes from Area C / The right to return to the caves / Amira Hass
This is a story of return, the return of Palestinians to their land in Area C. Just over a month ago, on November 8, two out of 15 families returned to Khirbet Bir al-Idd, in south Mount Hebron. By yesterday their number had reached eight. "Everyone waited to see if they would kill us before they decided whether to return," joked Ismail I'dra, 63, as he worked energetically to clean up one of the caves that serve as homes to residents the village. Indeed, less than two weeks ago, I'dra, too, was afraid to enter the area on his own, with his tractor laden with feed for his flock; he preferred to be accompanied by activist Ezra Nawi of Ta'ayush (an Arab-Jewish anti-occupation movement).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Violence / Aggression
Medics: Israeli fire kills Gaza man
Israeli shelling killed a Palestinian civilian in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, a medical official said. The victim was identified as Sami Shihadah Abu Khousah, 47. Muawiyah Hassanein, de facto Health Ministry director of ambulance and emergency services, told Ma'an that Khousah suffered blood loss after he was struck by Israeli artillery east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza ... Palestinian eyewitnesses reported clashes in the area where Khousah was injured. They said Palestinian fighters exchanged fire with the Israeli military, which fired artillery shells.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
PFLP wing: Fierce clashes near Beit Hanoun
The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for firing a rocket-propelled grenade at Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said in a statement to Ma'an that a fierce clash erupted east of Beit Hanoun when Israeli forces heavily returned fire. Both sides exchanged machine-gun fire, the wing said... An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was not aware of that incident, but confirmed the military's involvement in separate clashes in central Gaza that medics say left one Palestinian dead. On Wednesday, Israeli tanks and a bulldozer operated in Palestinian territory near the city of Khan Younis in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Mosque arson / 'Price tag'
Settlers burn Koran in mosque attack as reprisal for Israel's freeze on expansion
James Hider in Yasuf, West Bank, 12 Dec -- In the corner of the mosque a pile of ashes on a scorched carpet is all that remains of 100 holy books, Korans and copies of the Hadith — sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. On the tiled porch outside, the vandals left their calling card, a graffiti message in Hebrew that reads: “Price tag — greetings from Effi”. Some time around dawn yesterday, according to Israeli police and Palestinian officials, Jewish extremists crept into Yasuf and desecrated the village mosque ... Such an inflammatory move as yesterday’s vandalism marked a dangerous new escalation ... The residents of Yasuf, a village of old stone houses only a mile from the Jewish settlement of Kfar Tapuach, learnt of the attack when they went to their prayers in a small hall next to the main mosque, which is used for big festivities and holidays in the Muslim calendar. From there they smelt burning and rushed around to discover the slogan left by the dawn visitors.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Settler rabbi condemns mosque arson
The illegal Israeli settlement of Teqoa's chief rabbi condemned his fellow settlers for allegedly setting a mosque on fire early Friday morning in the northern West Bank village of Yasouf. "This is just insanity, blasphemy, an insult to Judaism before Islam," Rabbi Menachem Froman told Ma'an over the phone. "What [these] settlers did does not represent the settlers, nor Jews," Froman added. The rabbi vowed that a large group of Israeli settlers, including himself, would help the Palestinian village rebuild its mosque as penitence for "the crime that was committed by the settlers." Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi, Shlomo Amar, will issue his own denunciation on Sunday, Fromer said. Amar had intended to condemn the arson on Friday, but was apparently unable to do so by sundown Friday evening, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Abbas slams 'brutal' settlers for attack on West Bank mosque
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday said that Israel must rein in settlers' 'brutal' actions, after assailants vandalized a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf, torching furniture and spraying Nazi slogans in Hebrew on the premises. The torching of the mosque in Yasuf is a despicable crime, and the settlers are behaving with brutality," said Abbas, who called the act a violation of religious freedom ... Defense Minister Ehud Barak earlier on Friday condemned the vandalization of the West Bank mosque, allegedly at the hands of settlers protesting Israel's temporary freeze on settlement construction ... The U.S. State Department also denounced the attack on Friday, saying, "We condemn this attack in the strongest terms and call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Muslims call for global intervention over torched mosque
The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC,) which comprises 57 Muslim states, condemned the recent torching of a West Bank mosque and urged the international community to intervene in the affair. In an official statement, the organization condemned the "burning of Qurans and racist slogans" painted on the mosque's walls, characterizing the incident as a blatant attack on holy sites.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Peres: Bring extremists who torched West Bank mosque to justice
President Shimon Peres urged officials on Saturday to do everything in their power to bring to justice the people who vandalized a mosque in a West Bank village, in an attack that he said was contrary to Israel's fundamental values ... Peres added: "It can't be that an extremist group endangers the status of Israel as a state that abides laws and respects religions."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Al-Habbash calls mosque arson 'war crime'
Palestinian Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash visited the mosque set on fire allegedly by settlers early Friday morning in the northern West Bank village of Yasouf, and described the incident as a “war crime” in a statement issued on Saturday following his visit. The minister further asserted that the arsonists necessitated prosecution and punishment in international courts, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
2 US Jewish groups condemn settler attack on mosque
By Philip Weiss. Yesterday the Orthodox Union condemned an attack by Jewish colonists on a mosque near Nablus in the West Bank, and said it is "beyond the pale." Yesterday, the ADL also condemned the vandalism. "That Jewish extremists may have used such despicable methods to express political opposition is beyond the pale. We join with Israel’s political, military and religious leadership in condemning this disgraceful assault." A good start. Don’t expect ADL to change its focus, though.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Nonviolent resistance
One injured by live ammunition at weekly protest in Ni‘lin
More than 150 residents of Ni‘lin, international and Israeli activists attended today’s weekly Friday protest against the Wall... When the demonstrators reached the gate and started climbing the Wall, a small number of soldiers arrived in a jeep and started shooting large quantities of tear gas canisters into the crowd. After the crowd dispersed, clashes erupted between the soldiers and the village youth, with soldiers using live ammunition against the demonstrators. Simultaneously, the main entrance to the village was blocked by Israeli forces, preventing everybody from both entering and leaving the village. After about one hour, a large number of soldiers entered the village’s land from two sides and started chasing the demonstrators towards the village, using large quantities of live ammunition. One protester (27 years old) was shot just above the knee and was taken to Ramallah hospital immediately. He is currently undergoing treatment and his situation is stable. The demonstration ended half hour after this incident.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/
Bil‘in residents call for release of the village's prisoners in weekly Friday demonstration
(includes video) 11 Dec - Approximately 150 Palestinian, international and Israeli activists gathered in Bil‘in today, marking the 22nd anniversary of the start of the First Intifada and calling for the release of the village’s prisoners arrested for their involvement in the non-violent demonstrations against the Wall and settlements built on land stolen from Bil‘in.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/
21 left-wing activists arrested in violent East Jerusalem clashes
Six Israel Police officers were lightly wounded and 21 left-wing activists were arrested Friday during a demonstration that turned violent in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. The demonstrators were protesting the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes. The protesters on Friday marched from the city center to Sheikh Jarrah, where police said they tried to enter a home that is partly occupied by Jews before being stopped. Police were instructed to disperse the demonstration, but the protesters refused to leave. Police then used force and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Detention
Prisoners ministry calls for pressuring IOA to allow winter clothes to prisoners
Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the ministry's spokesman, said in a press release on Saturday that those 760 prisoners have been deprived of family visits for more than 30 months. The IOA only allowed winter clothes for those prisoners twice, he said, adding that the ban was doubling the suffering of those prisoners in the harsh winter weather especially in desert prisons. The IOA does not provide clothes to those captives and compels them to secure their needs either through their relatives or at the prison's canteen, where the prices are very high, Ashqar said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Detainee dies in de facto government custody
A prisoner has died in the custody of Gaza's de facto government, medics announced Friday. The detainee was identified as Farid Abu Shahma from Khan Younis. A spokesman for Gaza's Interior Ministry, Ihab Al-Ghussein, said "he was ill and he died of complications from a circulatory condition." Al-Ghussein denied that the detainee was tortured, insisting that "we do not practice torture at all. Furthermore, the deceased was under the custody of the judiciary until recently."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Hamas: PA forces arrest 10 party members
The Hamas movement on Saturday accused Palestinian Authority security forces of arresting 10 of its supporters in the West Bank over the past 48 hours. The Islamic movement added in a statement that the affiliates were detained in the Nablus, Hebron, Qalqiliya and Ramallah districts.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Political arrests in West Bank stepped up due to anniversary of Hamas's inception
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Movement of Hamas said Friday that Mahmoud Abbas’s militias stepped up the campaign of political arrests and summonses against its cadres in the West Bank in an attempt to prevent any activity to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of its inception. In a press statement to the Palestinian information center (PIC), Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri said that Abbas alleges that Hamas is part of the Palestinian people, but he deals with it as an illegal organization through preventing it from organizing any event, arresting its cadres and closing its institutions.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Prisoner exchange deal
Barghouthi expects to be released in Shalit deal
Jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti hopes to be released in the near future. In an interview to CNN, Barghouti said, "I am part of the list that Hamas is negotiating over, and I have high hopes and expectations to be released in this deal." Barghouti answered CNN's questions from his Hadarim prison cell via his attorney Khader Shkirat.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Lieberman deputy: I'll fight any Shalit deal that frees Barghouti
Stas Misezhnikov, who holds the tourism portfolio and is the top party deputy to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, said he will oppose any prisoner swap with Hamas involving captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit if the deal requires freeing convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti. Speaking to a town-hall style gathering in Rishon Letzion on Saturday, Misezhnikov said the release of Barghouti should be a "red line" that Jerusalem must insist on its talks with Hamas.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egyptian collaboration with Israel
Egyptians, with US assistance, building wall underground at Gaza
11 Dec - Egyptian officials yesterday confirmed that Cairo is covertly constructing an underground steel barrier along the border with Gaza to cut smuggling into the Strip. When completed in 18 months' time, the impenetrable and indestructible wall will be 10-11km in length and will extend 18-30m below the surface along the 13km-long border. Four kilometres have, reportedly, been completed north of the town of Rafah ... If the flow of goods is impaired or interdicted, the 1.5 million Gazans would be reduced to reliance on the ration package containing flour, pulses and tea distributed by UN agencies ... US army engineers have designed the wall, modelled on structures used to reinforce levees in hurricane-prone New Orleans. US firms have manufactured its sections, which fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
http://www.commondreams.org/
Outdoing the Kafkaesque: Egypt's new US-designed underground Gaza wall
By Ann El Khoury. Just when you thought things could not become more Kafkaesque comes apparent confirmation that the US-backed Egyptian government is building an underground steel barrier designed to cut off one of the few lifelines sustaining the Gaza Ghetto, the tunnel economy. The BBC reports that the huge underground wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long, will extend 18 metres below the surface and will take 18 months to complete. The project has been shrouded in secrecy with no official confirmation from the Egyptian government, but it is understood that the design is commissioned by US army engineers, at the behest of Israel, Ann Wright surmises. The 'impenetrable' barrier is made of super-strength steel manufactured in the US, according to the BBC. It will likely not succeed in halting all smuggling but will force Palestinians to dig deeper. Conditions are worsening in this nightmare siege.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
'Egypt denies anti-smuggling wall'
Egypt has denied accusations that it is building an underground steel barrier along its border with the Gaza Strip in order to seal off smuggling tunnels, Al-Jazeera reported on Friday. While eyewitnesses in Rafah, near the border, recounted sighting bulldozers, sophisticated equipment and workers inserting long slabs of steel into the ground in the border area, sources in Egypt told the Arab news agency that any construction work in the area was routine and conducted for maintenance purposes. However, Hamas confirmed on Friday evening that Egypt was indeed building such a barrier.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Two Palestinians wounded in Egyptian explosion of one of the tunnels
GAZA, (PIC)-- Two Palestinian citizens were wounded on Saturday night when the Egyptian security forces blasted a tunnel that they were working in, medical sources reported. They told the PIC reporter that a big explosion rocked the so-called tunnels area south of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, which damaged a tunnel used to smuggle goods from Egypt into the Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egyptians uncover car-smuggling tunnel
Al-Arish – Ma’an – Egyptian authorities on Saturday stormed a smuggling tunnel used to transport cars into the besieged Gaza Strip, according to Egyptian security sources ... The tunnel was found on a farm 300 meters from the border, they said. The sources added that authorities seized another tunnel used for trafficking cars 18 months, with a 2.5-meter diameter, facilitating the transfer of 30 Hundai Vernas. Security sources they have discovered nearly 1,300 tunnels, of which 450 were raided by Egypt this year.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Egyptians find tunnels, Americans tour border
Egyptian authorities took over three smuggling tunnels on the border between Gaza and Egypt on Thursday. Egyptian security sources told Ma’an that “one of the tunnels was seized inside an Egyptian smuggler’s home in the Salah Ad-Din area on the border. No goods were seized." Two other tunnels were discovered in an empty plot of land without finding any goods there, either. No one was arrested.
Meanwhile, an American military delegation visited the border area on Thursday, among them three military figures including Walid Naser, a Lebanese-American officer who during his monthly visit supervised the network of tunnel sensors.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Other Gaza blockade news
UN builds mud brick homes for homeless Gazans
A Palestinian man made homeless by last winter's Gaza war was the first to receive an UN-funded mud brick home on Saturday, the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza reported. Aid officials say they're reverting to ancient building techniques because Israel won't allow concrete and other construction materials into Gaza. The UN hopes to build around 120 mud brick homes for dozens of Gaza families in the next few months, said John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. Each house costs about $10,000 and takes three months to build.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Gaza students head to Egypt
Palestinian students from Gaza crossed into Egypt on Thursday, the Palestine Embassy in Cairo announced Friday. In a statement, the embassy said 70 freshman studying in various Egyptian institutes and universities crossed into Gaza on Thursday, as well as 12 patients, after coordination with Egyptian authorities.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel seals Gaza borders
Israeli forces decided on to close all goods crossing points into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a Palestinian official said. Borders official Raed Fattouh said he was told all three main crossing points for food, fuel, and all other goods would be shut. The crossings have not been open on Fridays since August, though they are scheduled to transfer goods six days a week. They are closed on Saturdays.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
ReliefWeb: Swine flu claims six lives in Gaza in five days
Gaza_(dpa) _ A 56-year-old Palestinian woman from the Gaza Strip died on Thursday in a Gaza hospital of swine flu, doctors in the Hamas-run ministry of health in the salient said. Her death brings to six the number of Gazans who have died of the disease in the past six days. Another 25 people are known to be infected with the virus, amid a shortage of vaccinations in Gaza hospitals, the ministry said. The ministry said the latest fatality had previously suffered from a heart failure and a severe lung infection. A doctor, three women, a child and a man had died over the past five days. The ministry called on Arab and foreign countries to urgently send the needed vaccinations to Gaza
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Excellent article:
Gaza one year on: the aftermath of a tragedy
To mark the anniversary of the offensive which left hundreds of innocent civilians dead, Donald MacIntyre revisits the scene of one of the most horrifying conflicts of our time -- ... Unlike Mousa, who also lost his parents, and Khamiz, Hilmi saw the bodies not only of his father Talal and his mother Rahme but also of his wife Maha, age 20, and their only son, six-month-old Mohammed, among the 21 killed in the shelling of the warehouse in which they had been ordered by Israeli troops to gather. It still bothers Hilmi that he has no pictures of any of them; they were burnt when the family home was fired on the day before. Now Hilmi mainly potters round the house, set amid devastated orchards and chicken coops in the southern Gaza City district of Zeitoun.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
In Gaza: pulse
Flu season is here, and it’s going around. As I nurse a light case of it, through that haze of a throbbing head, congestion, and fever, I realize that am grateful for a number of things: -that I have a roof and walls, without craters from shelling, without leaks through bomb-cracked walls, with blankets and adequate protection from the cold nights -that I have the money to go to a pharmacy and buy meds -that it is only the flu, not a serious or chronic illness and that there are some light medications available, as opposed to desperately needed medicines and treatments which are denied Palestinians in Gaza under the siege
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
London school twins with Gaza university
The London School of Economics and Political Science has voted to twin its student union with the Islamic University of Gaza, according to the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Hamas MPs and officials hold videoconference with Scottish counterparts
GAZA, (PIC)-- A number of Palestinian lawmakers and officials on Saturday held a video conference with their Scottish counterparts in Gaza city and briefed them on the humanitarian situation in the Strip. The Scottish delegation included a number of ministers, lawmakers, and heads of municipal councils and civil society institutions in addition to academics and dignitaries.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Israel expresses anger at new Palestine food labels
Labels will soon show whether food from the West Bank, such as strawberries, dates and olives, comes from Palestinian farms or Israeli settlements, to give buyers a clearer choice. Goods will specify “produce of the West Bank (Israeli settlement produce)” or “produce of the West Bank (Palestinian produce)”. The Government has decided that produce from Israeli settlements may not be labelled “produce of Israel” because the area is not within the state’s internationally recognised boundaries. Traders labelling goods from the occupied territories as Israeli produce also face possible enforcement action for breaching EU legislation. The move immediately provoked a diplomatic spat with Yigal Palmor, the Israeli foreign affairs spokesman.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Christian Palestinian leaders call for Church boycott in Karios document
Today, prominent Christian Palestinian leaders are releasing a historical Kairos Palestine Document, calling on churches around the world "to say a word of truth and to take a position of truth with regard to Israel's occupation of Palestinian land." Unambiguously endorsing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as one of the key nonviolent forms of solidarity that international faith-based organizations are urged to adopt, the document affirms: "We see boycott and disinvestment as tools of justice, peace and security ..." Kairos is an ancient Greek term meaning the right or opportune moment. The Kairos Palestine Document is inspired by the liberation theology, especially in South Africa where a similar document was issued at a crucial time in the struggle against apartheid.
http://electronicintifada.net/
A Moment of Truth - full text
A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering - Introduction We, a group of Christian Palestinians, after prayer, reflection and an exchange of opinion, cry out from within the suffering in our country, under the Israeli occupation, with a cry of hope in the absence of all hope, a cry full of prayer and faith in a God ever vigilant, in God’s divine providence for all the inhabitants of this land. Inspired by the mystery of God's love for all, the mystery of God’s divine presence in the history of all peoples and, in a particular way, in the history of our country, we proclaim our word based on our Christian faith and our sense of Palestinian belonging – a word of faith, hope and love. Why now? Because today we have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the Palestinian people. The decision-makers content themselves with managing the crisis rather than committing themselves to the serious task of finding a way to resolve it. The hearts of the faithful are filled with pain and with questioning:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Boycott Committee applauds Christian call for sanctions
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) applauded prominent Christian Palestinian leaders on Friday after they released a document calling on churches around the world "to say a word of truth and to take a position of truth with regard to Israel's occupation of Palestinian land." ...
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Where will boycott show up next?
Stories about boycotts of goods produced in Israeli settlements have been popping up all over the place recently. Here's just a few examples. Yesterday, we let you know about an article on Ahava at CNNMoney. CNN refused to say whether there is an official boycott of Ahava in the United States--something which our supporters were quick to correct them on--but did mention other boycott campaigns as well as the controversy surrounding Oxfam's decision to drop Kristin Davis as a spokesperson because of her role as spokesperson for Ahava ... Keep track of exciting developments in media coverage of the BDS movement by clicking here. Don't
just read about BDS, though--find out how you can get involved by clicking here.
http://endtheoccupationblog.
Political news
Palestinians tell Israel: We won't accept interim deals
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Saturday that the foundation for peace and stability in the Middle East remains "the establishment of a Palestinian state on all territories occupied in 1967, chief among them East Jerusalem." ... The conference comes in the wake of a series of declarations made by Fatah officials, according to which the movement has taken a strategic decision to launch a third intifada. Fatah is calling on Palestinians to stage wide-scale, grassroots demonstrations in the West Bank against settlements and the separation fence, though the party insists that Palestinians are not to undertake armed struggle.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas leader slams 'weak' PA negotiations
Hamas politburo member Khalil Al-Haya on Saturday accused the Palestinian Authority of allowing further land confiscation by pursuing “weak” negotiations with Israel rather than resistance.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Reconciliation process remains stalled
Palestinian officials told Ma’an efforts to restart dialogue between Palestinian rivals and other factions to sign the Egyptian proposal have failed so far. Except for the suggestion by the reconciliation committee to hold dialogue between factions on one explanation for the reservations on the Egyptian proposal, no progress has been made, according to Iyad As-Sarraj, secretary-general of the reconciliation committee.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli racism and discrimination
'A horrifying demographic problem'
A wave of recent studies from academics both sides of the wall have revealed ingrained racism in Israeli schools. Books authorised by the ministry of education habitually use geography, history, language and other methods to instil negative perceptions of Arabs and Palestinians ... Both Adwan and Peled have closely studied representation of Palestinians in a wide range of children’s texts, with similar conclusions. “We could not find one picture of an Arab human being,” Peled reflects sadly, “they are all of types. They are presented as primitive terrorists, farmers who reject modernity. They are not people.”
http://www.palestinemonitor.
The promised land
Poverty, juvenile crime, drug and alcohol use, and suicide are all rampant among Ethiopians in Israel today - By Vered Lee. ...It is commonly said that for Ethiopians, the very transition from a faltering African state to a modern Western society like Israel automatically amounts to a step up. But this notion completely disregards the numerous Ethiopians for whom coming to Israel has meant both a step backward and a decline in social standing.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israeli Druze face deepening identity crisis
Two years ago, clashes erupted between police and residents of the Druze village of Peki'in in the Galilee. The police were there to arrest suspects in the torching of a cellular antenna in the Jewish Peki'in Hahadasha neighborhood. Two days of violent tumult left 40 people injured and caused lasting damage to the village's tourism industry ... "These are the reactions of young people who don't know what to do with themselves," Amer said. "There's no housing, no employment and there's a sense of emptiness ... So people say: 'They took the lands, at least we'll keep our honor.'" This situation is similar to crises affecting conservative communities everywhere, but in Druze society there are exacerbating factors: being a minority wherever they are (in Israel, there are about 100,000 registered Druze citizens), being closed off to the possibility of new members, a feeling of persecution, and the relative geographic isolation of the Druze villages. In Israel, they are also a minority within the Arab minority.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Other news
Hamas celebrates its 22nd anniversary in Gaza
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip on Friday began celebrations marking the Islamist movement's 22nd anniversary with parades and the unveiling of a huge mural depicting rockets targeting Israel. Hundreds of people riding camels, horses and motorcycles took part in processions from the north and the east of the besieged Palestinian territory to converge on the house of Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Israel soldier says dad kept slain Egyptians' belongings
An Israeli soldier said his father, who fought in the 1967 Six-Day War as a paratrooper, kept documents pertaining to Egyptian forces killed during the war, Hebrew-language media reported Saturday. The documents, published in several Israeli newspapers, did not mention how or where the Egyptian soldiers were killed, however it is thought that their personal belongings relate to the massacre of 250 Egyptian prisoners of war by the Israeli Shakid Unit in 1967.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
'National service is yet another channel funneling money to Haredim'
Most of the ultra-Orthodox Israelis who chose to volunteer for national service in lieu of obligatory military service carried out their duties at yeshivas and other religious organizations instead of other civil arenas, data presented to the Knesset reveals ... "A situation has arisen where some of the yeshiva students are in on the scam, reporting that they had enlisted to national service, and essentially get money from the state for studying at a yeshiva," said MK Yohanan Plesner of Kadima who brought the information before the Knesset.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
In reverse, ex-Zionist leader helping Israelis go Down Under
Months after quitting her post as executive director of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Lorraine Abraham was in Israel last week in her new capacity as co-owner of a company assisting Israelis who wish to relocate to Australia.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Opinion / Analysis
The 'illegal settlement myth' myth
Commentary has an article by David M. Phillips, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law, under the title “The Illegal-Settlements Myth.” Sound familiar? “Settlements may be unwise, but they're not illegal” and “the territories are disputed, not occupied” are two Hasbara clichés that Zionists repeat tirelessly, failing to convince the saner part of the world, but further convincing themselves and their followers. Zionists seem to believe that legality is something that is decided by article writers or by pundits on their blogs. Not so.
http://www.alternativenews.
'Peace, but on condition that... / Zvi Bar'el
"Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace," by Avi Shlaim, Vintage (paperback), 768 pages, $19 "I fear the day when we have to sit face to face and conduct negotiations." This statement could have been the motto of quite a few Israeli governments - including, of course, Benjamin Netanyahu's current one, even though it announces the desire to negotiate directly with Bashar Assad or Mahmoud Abbas on a daily basis. In fact, however, it was coined by Levi Eshkol, Israel's third prime minister, in response to reports of then-foreign minister Abba Eban's meeting with Jordan's King Hussein at the London home of Dr. Emanuel Herbert (the king's Jewish physician) on May 3, 1968.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Divided loyalties in Nablus / Alan Johnston
The deep division between the Hamas and Fatah parties is not only confined to the Palestinian political arena. It often comes much closer to home, dividing families. Ahmad and Hamid know how that feels. They are brothers, and both rising figures in their local political scene. But one is climbing the ranks of Fatah, and the other, Hamas. The great Palestinian party political fault line runs through the home they share.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Why Muslims 'hate democracy' / Ramzi Baroud
...the collective targeting of small or large Muslim communities in Western countries, and the deliberate abuse and degradation of Muslim individuals and Islamic symbols (from the Holy Quran to the Prophet Muhammed) has also never ceased. Bizarrely, most of these actions have been done through "democratic" channels and justified in the name of democracy, on the basis of upholding the principles of secularism and Western values. Many thoughts come to mind here; all unreservedly angry. I remember when the word "democracy" used to resonate so loudly among Arabs and Muslims around the world. The more they were denied it, the more they yearned for it.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli resentment grows on trees / Seth Freedman
6 Dec - The Jewish National Fund has donated 3,000 trees to a Palestinian housing project – much to the fury of its traditional supporters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Finally ... nudity in the West Bank / Khalid Amayreh
In a brazen disregard for Muslim (and Christian) sensibilities, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is reportedly allowing a westernized group of women to organize a beauty queen contest in Ramallah later this month. In the pageant contest, scantly clad young women will display their naked bodies in front of a selectively-invited audience.
http://desertpeace.wordpress.
Audio: Scott Horton interviews Ellen Cantarow
Ellen Cantarow, author of the article “Living by the Gate From Hell” at TomDispatch.com, discusses the Israeli barrier wall’s effective annexation of Palestinian territory, the change in West Bank Jewish settlements from temporary trailers to elaborate housing developments, agricultural gates operated by Israel that control when Palestinians can access their own land, how Palestinians are denied a right of return while foreign descendants of Jews can claim citizenship and how a partial West Bank/Galilee land swap would rid Israel of a large part of its Arab population.
http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/
Ultra-Zionism seems to foster Islamophobia
John Mearsheimer has said that the more pressure is put on the Israel lobby, the more it must resort to smashmouth tactics. Two recent examples: –Daniel Gordis, a leader of a thinktank in Israel, tells a Connecticut synagogue that the west is in a war with Islam, though it’s politically-correct to deny this reality. Jeffrey Goldberg does a "racist-uncle" post on the arrests of US Muslims in Pakistan.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Jews sans frontières: Dehumanizing Jews at Harry's Place
They are so stupid it's breathtaking sometimes. Harry's Place has had a few articles by the anti-zionists' favourite zionist, Jonathan Hoffman, but this latest is priceless. It is assumed that it was Jewish settlers that torched a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf. Under the headline "Sub Humans Commit An Appalling Crime", Jonathan Hoffman tries on his new moderate mask. Reading the whole post which is mercifully short we see by the end of it just what leads Hoffman to so despise the perpetrators: "The culprits must be found, tried and punished according to the law. Whoever they are, their agenda is to wreck the coalition led by Prime Minister Netanyahu. If this appalling crime goes unpunished then they may well succeed." So that's what's less than human: trying to to wreck a coalition of semi and overt fascists.
http://jewssansfrontieres.
Book review: Islam's Passion tale
After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam, by Lesley Hazleton. Drawing heavily on the translated works of the ninth-century Islamic historian Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (though the book's full bibliography runs to eight pages ), Hazleton serves up a stirring tale propelled by ambition and naivete, rectitude and resentment, intrigue, venality, treachery, homicide and, ultimately, an act of self-sacrifice that has generated centuries of mourning and seething acrimony.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Iraq
Photo: This is war, any war, any side
[on the front page of the Wall St Journal Thursday] A husband's pain: Majid Hassan, 37, weeps over his wife's coffin before her burial in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/
Friday: 1 Marine, 8 Iraqis killed, 26 Iraqis wounded
Excerpt: At least eight Iraqis were killed and 26 more were wounded in prayer day attacks. U.S. Defense Secretary Gates met with Iraqi officials and U.S. servicemembers during his trip through Iraq. Also, the Department of Defense announced the Tuesday death of a U.S. Marine from unknown causes. U.S. Defense Secretary Gates met with Iraqi officials and U.S. servicemembers during his trip through Iraq. Six Iraqis were killed and 21 were wounded in two blasts south of Baghdad. The first bomb was detonated at a shop in Yusufiya. When first responders arrived, a second explosion left more casualties. In Baghdad, gunmen seriously wounded a police officer during an attack in the Zayouna district. An Iraqi soldier is in critical condition after gunmen attacked him in Kirkuk. Police in Huwaiyja arrested 12 suspects. One of the suspects allegedly killed himself after confessing. A raid on Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey left three Turkish soldiers wounded
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraq awards contract for giant field
Iraq has awarded a contract for one of the world’s biggest oilfields to a partnership of Russia’s Lukoil and Norway’s StatoilHydro, and struck several other deals to boost its crude output by millions of barrels per day (bpd).
http://www.thenational.ae/
Iraq oil capacity 'to reach 12m barrels per day'
Iraq's oil capacity could reach 12 million barrels per day (bpd) in six years, the country's oil minister says. Hussein al-Shahristani told reporters in Baghdad that oil producers would not necessarily operate at full capacity, but would take into account demand. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has a capacity of 12.5m bpd.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Iraqi-American Christians blast US policies in Iraq
At a forum featuring a senior State Department official, Iraqi-American Christians blasted the U.S. government for policies they said have devastated Iraq's minorities.
http://www.freep.com/article/
Tony Blair admits: I would have invaded Iraq anyway
Tony Blair has said he would have invaded Iraq even without evidence of weapons of mass destruction and would have found a way to justify the war to parliament and the public.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/
Lebanon and Syria
Report: US pressing Israel to withdraw from Ghajar
Official tells Al-Hayat withdrawal from disputed areas can 'remove Hezbollah's pretext for bearing arms' -- Unconfirmed reports published earlier this week said the IDF would withdraw from northern Ghajar by the end of January. Last month, a Lebanese newspaper reported that Israel "is prepared to withdraw from the village within a matter of hours."
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Ghajar residents protest over planned Israeli withdrawal
Residents of a village located on the border between Lebanon and Israel staged an all-day demonstration Friday to protest the division of the village in the wake of ongoing international efforts to secure the withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces soldiers from the Lebanese part of the town. The secretary for the town's council, Hussein Khatib, also read a statement in which he stressed that Ghajar was Syrian ... Like the 18,000 Druze in the Golan Heights, Ghajar residents were Syrians when Israel occupied the region. But unlike the Druze, the villagers - who are members of the Alawite Islamic minority - accepted Israeli nationality when the Golan was annexed in 1981.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Ghajar residents: Prepared for death, not division
Some 1,800 residents of village on Lebanese border protest unconfirmed reports of plans to hand over northern part of village to UNIFIL control. 'Berlin Wall already fell, and no similar wall will be erected here,' they say
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Lebanon pressing US to deliver military aid
President Michel Suleiman will urge delivery of promised weapons during trip to Washington; appeal part of effort to develop national defense strategy
http://www.ynetnews.com/
IDF simulates missile attacks, war against Syria and Hezbollah
The Israel Defense Forces carried out two extensive drills this week, simulating war and national emergency situation. Both drills were two-day affairs for which dozens of reserve officers were mobilized and included scenarios in which ballistic missiles with conventional and nonconventional warheads landed in Israeli cities ... One drill with live munitions took place on the Golan Heights and involved tank, artillery, sappers and Israel Air Force combat aircraft and helicopters.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Syria rejects Israel as global 'blood diamond' monitor
Syria on Friday asked the UN General Assembly to delete any mention of Israel's role as leader of global efforts to end the trade in "blood diamonds" that stoke guerrilla wars. The state was chosen to oversee a new plan for the unlawful trade's elimination last month ... After a recess, the General Assembly reconvened, and the Syrian amendment was defeated 90-6, with 18 abstentions. Iran and North Korea joined Syria and some Arab nations in voting against Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
U.S. and other world news
10 Israeli UAVs headed for Afghanistan
Ten new Israeli-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will debut in Afghanistan in the coming weeks, after the Israel Aerospace Industries made the first delivery of the Heron UAV to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on Thursday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Sentencing delayed for US Muslim linked to Hamas charity
(AP) An Arizona man facing prison time for lying to authorities in a terrorism-funding investigation could have been a big help to authorities because of his past involvement with a Muslim charity that aided Hamas, an FBI agent testified Friday. Other testimony, from relatives and other supporters, portrayed Akram Musa Abdallah as a community pillar and family leader who worked to help people and build bridges between faiths.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Mr President, war is not peace / Norman Solomon
...In Afghanistan, after 30 years under the murderous twin shadows of poverty and war, the only lifeline is peace. From President Obama, we hear that peace is the ultimate goal. But "peace" is a fixture on a strategic horizon that keeps moving as the military keeps marching ... President Obama accepted the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize while delivering — to the world as it is — a pro-war speech. The context instantly turned the speech’s insights into flackery for more war.
http://original.antiwar.com/
www.TheHeadlines.org
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment