Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Land Theft and Settlements
ARIJ Report On Increased Israeli Violations Against Palestinian Homes in Jerusalem
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), reported that the Israeli occupation increased its violations against the Palestinians and in Jerusalem by forcing them out of their homes, internally displacing them and demolishing their homes.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Settlers 'attack unfinished house' near Nablus
Nablus- Ma’an – Israeli settlers destroyed construction materials in an under-constructions Palestinian house in the West Bank village of Burin, south of Nablus, on Thursday, local sources said. Residents told Ma’an that Israelis from the militant settlement of Bracha destroyed hundreds of cement blocks and other materials in the house, which is owned by Burceli Abul Aziz Eid, 30.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Gazans rally near Israeli border to mark war anniversary
GAZA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Tens of Palestinians rallied near Gaza's northern borders with Israel on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in the coastal enclave. The demonstrators, including the homeless and international activists, stopped away from an Israeli army watching tower. They waved Palestinian flags and banners slamming the offensive. They also carried posters slamming the international community for failing to press Israel to lift its closure on the territory to allow construction materials in.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Statement from Desmond Tutu on Bil’in activist Abdallah Abu Rahma
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
The Jailing of Jamal Juma
I remember the day I first met Jamal Juma. He was speaking at a United Nations conference in 2003 about the damage being done by Israel's Wall. The audience was shocked: Many had heard that Israel had started carving a Wall in the West Bank in 2002, but they had no idea it could already be seen from outer space. Yet this articulate, handsome Palestinian used facts and visual evidence to show how the Wall was expropriating yet more Palestinian land and separating Palestinian communities from each other.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Another 12 days of arrest for Jamal Juma'
Today, 24 December, Jamal Jum`a underwent a hearing before a military judge at Moskobiyya Detention Center, in Jerusalem. Although Jamal's interrogation over eight days apparently has finished, the judge granted the Israeli police and intelligence agency's request to extend his detention for 12 more days of "investigation" before a scheduled second hearing.
http://stopthewall.org/
US Cutting Gaza lifeline news fortifies Dec 31 Freedom March
Anne Wright, former U.S. Army Reserve and diplomat who resigned in opposition to the war on Iraq, explains in her article US Cutting Gaza Lifeline that the march participants "will take back to their countries the stories of spirit and survival of the people of Gaza and will return home committed to force their governments to stop these inhuman actions against the people of Gaza."
http://www.examiner.com/x-
An Outrageous and Pathetic Weapon Against BDS: Stop Instrumentalizing Anti-Semitism!
Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney .Every time the State of Israel is confronted with substantial international criticism for its political behavior and its violations of basic international standards, it counter-attacks by using the infamous tool of accusations of anti-Semitism. One remembers the campaign on anti-Semitism launched by Ariel Sharon and his friends throughout the world, Jews and non-Jews, after the murder of Muhammad al-Dura in Gaza in September 2000, in order to create a diversion (in the very words of Roger Cukierman, then chairman of the French Jewish umbrella organization—CRIF) and to transform the victim into a victimizer and the victimizer into a victim: for more than two years, western media “exposed” the anti-Semitism of the critics of Israel instead of denouncing the massacres committed by the Israeli military in Gaza and the West Bank.
http://alternativenews.org/
PA seizes $13,000 in settlement-made goods
Ramallah – Ma’an – The Palestinian Authority (PA) said on Thursday that it seized 50,000 shekels (13,155 US dollars) worth of products made in illegal West Bank settlements. Ministry of National Economy staff seized the products, a statement said. It was not specified what type of products were confiscated.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Audio: "For us, olive trees are a matter of resistance"
Planting olive trees is a matter of resistance for the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (or APN), a non-profit organization based in Amman, Jordan. The organization began in 2003 with the goal of replanting one million trees on Palestinian land. By 2008, they achieved this goal and now hope to plant one million more trees in Palestine. They began organizing in 2001 against the wall being proposed by the Israeli government. Since 2002 the illegal construction of the wall has resulted in the confiscation thousands of dunams (a dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters) of Palestinian land, uprooting olive trees as well. APN was initiated by volunteers brought together under the slogan, "They uproot one, we replant ten."
http://electronicintifada.net/
Violence and Aggression/Detainees
Settlers attempt to destroy Christmas tree following Palestinian celebration in Sheikh Jarrah
On Wednesday 23 December at 11.30pm, as every other night, settlers began to circulate in the street between the occupied Gawi house and the half-occupied al-Kurd house in Sheikh Jarrah. After about an hour of general harassment of the Palestinian families living in the neighbourhood since 1956, the settlers increased their aggression and started throwing fruit at the people who sat in front of the Kurd family house to protect it from further invasions. Two settlers started making graffiti and sprayed over Palestinian flags painted on the wall of the al-Kurd backyard, while the rest pushed and cursed the Palestinians and internationals, who verbally tried to make them stop. A solidarity activist filming the episode was spray-painted in the face numerous times. Three border policemen stood next by and watched without interfering for the whole duration of the attack.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/
IOF soldiers round up more Palestinians, level petrol station
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up six Palestinians at dawn Monday in three West Bank districts and demolished a petrol station in Nablus. Local sources reported that the IOF soldiers detained two Palestinians in each of Nablus, Jericho and Al-Khalil while they roamed the streets of Jenin but without arrests.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
IOF Detains a Palestinian from Al-Jalzon Camp
December 24, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) - At today dawn Israeli occupation forces detained Mohammad Al-Wawi, 19, from Al-Jalzon Camp, in north of Ramallah. Mostafa Al-Wawi, the detainee brother, said: "Israeli occupation forces raided our house at 3 a.m. and arrested my brother Mohammad" Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces Israeli raid the West Bank governorates daily. They invade the citizens' houses; they arrest them and transferred them to investigation centers.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Illegal Palestinian alien employed as yeshiva guard
Police arrested three illegal aliens in large yeshiva in Petah Tikva, one of whom was employed as security guard. Contractor who hired them also detained. Yeshiva management claims had not knowledge workers were Palestinian.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Israeli Racism
'Our kids can’t live with Arabs’
Dozens of parents protest plan to move hostel for disabled children to Arab neighborhood.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Humanitarian Issues//Siege/War on Gaza
Gaza resident dies as tunnel collapses
Gaza – Ma’an – A Palestinian was killed on Thursday morning when a smuggling tunnel collapsed underneath the Gaza-Egypt border, officials said. The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency services director, Muawiyah Hassanein said that the body of 40-year-old Salah Alwan arrived at a hospital after he suffocated inside the collapsed tunnel in the city of Rafah.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Inside Story - The world has failed Gaza: Report - 23 Dec 2009
Israeli policy and global inaction are directly responsible for poverty in the Gaza strip, according to a new report from sixteen humanitarian and human rights groups. The report urges the EU to suspend relations with israel unless they stop the blockade, that it claims has impaired reconstruction and sharply increased poverty. Inside story, with guests discusses the details.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of stunting, underweight, and overweight among Palestinian school adolescents (13-15 years) in two major governorates in the West Bank
There is little information about height and weight status of Palestinian adolescents. The objective of this paper was to assess the prevalence of stunting, underweight, and overweight/obesity among Palestinian school adolescents (13-15 years) and associated sociodemographic factors in 2 major governorates in the West Bank.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
West Bank shepherds fear for their flocks
According to the Christian tradition, shepherds were the first to visit the infant Christ. These days, about 12,000 families still rely on herding in the West Bank. The United Nations is warning that their livelihood is under threat, because of drought and Israeli restrictions on their movements. A flock of sheep and some scrawny goats huddle in a rough stone enclosure on a barren hillside south of Hebron. They belong to Mohammed Abu Ali and his wife Fatima, and their family. They live in a cave next to the sheep pen. Fatima says the animals are all they have.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Gaza ID Keeps Palestinian Woman From West Bank
This Christmas Israel says it will allow hundreds of Gazan Christians, who want to worship at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to travel to the West Bank. Among those who hope to go is a young Christian woman, who was forcibly returned to Gaza from Bethlehem by Israeli authorities. A human rights group says there are 25,000 Palestinians like her living in fear in the West Bank because they have a Gaza ID.
http://www.npr.org/templates/
Photos: Rafah Iron Wall
Here are few new photos from "Rafah Iron Wall" project, which is being built by the Egyptian authorities on their side of Gaza borders.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Eyes Wide Shut
2009The Year in [12] Pictures, from the New York Times/International Herald Tribune. You might be particularly interested in the first of the pictures: "January." What does it tell Palestinians in Gaza? I’m sure it was awful for those in the picture, but the question remains: Why is it first? Are there pictures elsewhere of Palestinians in Gaza during the fighting? No. Later, for balance, a Palestinian in Jericho, holding a child. A healthy living child.
http://global.nytimes.com/?iht
FEATURE: "I want the siege to be lifted": Tent life after Gaza war
Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza_(dpa) _ The tent city in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya looked gloomy on this grey and rainy December day. Small children, barefoot and dirty, play in a cold pool of rain water in the centre of the camp in the al-Atatra neighbourhood, as their older siblings come "home" from the badly damaged nearby school to the NGO tents in which they spent the past year. One year after last winter's war, hundreds of Palestinian families still live in tents, according to the United Nations.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Gaza amputee girl struggles to live on after war
GAZA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Every morning, Jamila Al Habbash gets up early to get dressed for school, puts on her artificial limbs and walks to school on crutches. The 15-year-old girl lost her legs a year ago, when an unmanned Israeli drone dropped a missile at the roof of her house in eastern Gaza city. The rocket also killed her sister and a cousin when they were playing.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Gaza Continues To Fall Victim By The IDF’s Use Of DU/EU Weapons
Babies_copyUK, December 24, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) - Whenever I try to break away from talking about the deeply disturbing use of American and Israeli WMD's both during the Lebanon conflict in 2006 and in Gaza during Cast Lead in 2008/9 I find myself being haunted by more gut-wrenching stories coming out of the strip.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
The Gaza Strip: still suffering from a 23-day war and the ongoing siege
Gaza, December 22, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)One year has passed since Israel’s cruel 23-day war on the 1.5 million people of the Gaza. 1,400 people were brutally killed and tens of thousands were seriously wounded. It was 23 days that violated Palestinian human rights and put justice further out of reach. It was a war that utilized ‘state of the art’ phosphorous missiles to achieve levels of suffering and destruction that had not been seen in a generation. Tens of thousands of Gazans were made homeless and schools and hospitals were directly targeted.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Letters: Palestinian children suffer amid the ruins
Last year it was the terror of bombs, now it is the desolation of a future destroyed (Childhood in ruins, G2, 17 December). The physical injuries suffered by the people of Gaza are healing, to varying degrees, but, as the internationally respected Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) reports, the psychological damage remains as raw as ever. The siege of Gaza continues, denying the citizens not just daily necessities, but the means to rebuild their shattered infrastructure and, in particular, their houses.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Postwar Gaza: Scars frozen, Mideast at an impasse (AP)
AP - Gaza's scars have been frozen in place since Israel waged war a year ago to subdue Hamas and stop rockets from hitting its towns. Entire neighborhoods still lie in rubble, and traumatized residents can't rebuild their lives.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
A call for video from Gaza, please spread the word show Birthright Israel what life under seige is like: Birthright Israel, call for film submissions
http://www.birthrightisrael.
Gaza underground on schedule to beat Egypt's wall
RAFAH // Ismail Atallah could not hide his disgust. With both hands he squeezed an imaginary throat in front of him.
Image“This is what they are trying to do,” he said. “They want to strangle us. The blood of 1.5 million people means nothing to the Egyptians.” Mr Atallah, 45, an unemployed labourer, was condemning a steel wall that Egypt is constructing on its side of the Rafah border to Gaza. The construction will see a wall some 40 centimetres thick and 25 metres deep erected across the entire 10 kilometre border of Gaza and Egypt in an effort to block the hundreds of smuggling tunnels that run under it.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Palestinians Retaliate
Israeli settler killed in West Bank
An Israeli settler has been shot dead when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in the West Bank, medics and police said. The man in his 40s was found shot in the head in a bullet-riddled car on the road between the Jewish settlements of Einav and Shavei Shomron in the northern West Bank on Thursday, the head of Magen David Adom emergency services told AFP news agency. He died of his wounds shortly after the attack, he said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Refugees
Palestinians in Jordan struggle with inequality
The closure of the Gaza Strip is tight enough to make life difficult for residents, but fences and checkpoints don’t prevent viruses from passing through, as became apparent earlier this month. Despite predictions that the closure of Gaza might protect it from exposure to the Swine Flu, the virus was identified in the Gaza Strip two weeks ago, and already some 185 people have been diagnosed as infected, 13 of whom have died.
http://antonyloewenstein.com/
Education helps young refugees in Jordan cope with exile and the past
AMMAN, Jordan, December 23 (UNHCR) – Omar* endured some hard and painful lessons about life at an early age. Now, the 13-year-old refugee is learning positive things at a school in the Jordanian capital, Amman, three years after fleeing Iraq with his five siblings.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Arabs in the Service of Israel
Egypt refuses entry to Gaza convoy (AFP)
AFP - A Gaza-bound aid convoy in Jordan led by British MP George Galloway will not be allowed into Egypt through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba -- the most direct route -- Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Political Developments
Israelis seek arrest of Hamas leaders abroad (AFP)
AFP - A group of Israelis wounded in Palestinian rocket attacks during this year's Gaza war have asked a Belgian court to issue war crimes arrest warrants against Hamas leaders, they said on Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Report: Hamas agrees to deport 123 prisoners in Shalit deal
Hamas yet to formally respond to Israeli swap offer, but Lebanese daily quotes Palestinian sources as saying prominent prisoners have given their consent to Jerusalem's demand to deport 97 of them to Gaza, 20 to Qatar and the rest to Europe.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Hamas: Response to Israel count-offer by next week (AP)
AP - A senior Hamas official says the group will respond by next week to Israel's latest counteroffer on swapping Palestinian prisoners for a captured Israeli soldier.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Prisoners' families say deportation better than nothing
Bethlehem/Gaza – Ma’an – Rumors of a prisoner release are notoriously hard on families of the detained. As the back-and-forth between Israel and Gaza factions continues at a heated pace, Ma’an spoke with the wives and children of some of Palestine’s most prominent detainees.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli minister: Barghouthi must be freed with or without Shalit
Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israel should release imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, with or with out a prisoner exchange deal, Israel’s Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Wednesday. “I call to release Marwan Barghouthi not in the deal with Hamas … these are two entirely different issues,” he told a news conference in East Jerusalem’s American Colony hotel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel threatens another large-scale Gaza war
Israel has threatened another massive war against the Gaza Strip as the impoverished enclave continues to suffer in the aftermath of the devastating January offensive. Israeli planes have been dropping thousands of leaflets across Gaza, warning Palestinians against cooperating with the resistance fighters based in the coastal sliver.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.
Six Kadima Legislators To Defect From Party
Israeli Television, Channel 1, reported on Wednesday at night that six Knesset members of the Kdaima Party, headed opposition leader by Tzipi Livni, signed their initials on an agreement with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to defect from Kadima and join government coalition.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Other News
Israeli laws
It is clear to me that many American liberals don't know much about the nature of the Israeli state and its laws. Recently, after my talk at U Mass, a young college student approached me and introduced himself. He told me that he was raised to admire Israel by his parent but that he felt ashamed listening to my talk because he had no idea that Israel "has done all that". Here is a sample: "While the current law prohibits public display of leavened products for the purpose of sale, the amended version would omit the word"public."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
U.S. official blasts Israel envoy's 'unfortunate' J-Street remarks
Remarks by Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, against the liberal Jewish lobby J Street were "most unfortunate" according to Hannah Rosenthal, head of the U.S. administration's Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Empire - What future for 'Greater Israel'? - 23 Dec 09 - Part 1
The Middle East 'peace process' is seriously deadlocked. Israel is determined to press ahead with the expansion of settlements. Palestinians refuse to accept anything less than their total freeze, but they are divided on the best way forward - diplomacy or resistance. The diplomatic vacuum leads to more unilateral policies and radicalisation. So how can the international community help? Is a two-state solution still possible, or one state or no state?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Empire - What future for 'Greater Israel'? - 23 Dec 09 - Part 2
The Middle East 'peace process' is seriously deadlocked. Israel is determined to press ahead with the expansion of settlements. Palestinians refuse to accept anything less than their total freeze, but they are divided on the best way forward - diplomacy or resistance. The diplomatic vacuum leads to more unilateral policies and radicalisation. So how can the international community help? Is a two-state solution still possible, or one state or no state?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Pre-draft teens pledge loyalty to Torah, not army
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- About 200 teens soon to be drafted into the Israeli army sent a letter to the defense minister saying their loyalty to the Torah comes before military orders. "We are students before enlistment in the IDF, who want to join the army and fight for the security of the people of Israel in their land," read the letter, which was sent to Ehud Barak on Thursday and published in The Jerusalem Post. "We consider utilizing the army for political ends and for warfare against Jews an existential danger and a destruction of the military, especially when it includes a severe transgression of the mitzvah of settling the land [of Israel]. "We pledge that our loyalty to the Torah precedes any law or order, and therefore we will refuse to execute any order that contradicts the Torah, and will not take part in the evacuation of any outpost or settlement in the land of Israel, and thus also guarding the true values of the IDF."
http://jta.org/news/article/
Christmas
Christmas 'under siege' in Bethlehem - 24 Dec 09
As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, owners of tourism shops in Bethlehem aren't seeing the booming business they'd expect this time of year. Nour Odeh reports on how Israel's illegal occupation may be keeping the West Bank's tourism industry from thriving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Gaza's Christians look to tunnels for scant holiday cheer
GAZA CITY - This year Santa had to ditch his sleigh in Egypt and crawl through a smuggling tunnel to bring a little Christmas joy to the Gaza Strip. "Some of these gifts came from Egypt through the tunnels because the crossings were closed," Emad Barakat, a Gaza City gift shop owner said, pointing to rows of chocolate Santas. "They've been selling well." Israel and Egypt have imposed a strict blockade on Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, preventing all but vital goods from reaching the territory where the vast majority of people rely on foreign aid.
http://news.asiaoneou.com/
Christmas gloom, prayers for peace in Holy Land (AP)
AP - The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land delivered Christmas wishes Thursday for peace in the Middle East — and prayed for the day when Palestinians would no longer be confined by Israeli barriers.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Israel Hijacks West Bank Christmas
The Israeli occupation forces are hijacking the spirit of Christmas in the occupied West Bank, restricting tourists' movement and portraying Bethlehem as unsafe war zone. When tourists see the wall, they think they are going into a war zone," Adnan Suboh, who owns a souvenir shop in Bethlehem market, told the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, December 23, referring to the Israeli separation wall.
http://jnoubiyeh.blogspot.com/
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, very low tourist turnout
Families, church officials and government figures marked on Thursday the start of the Christmas festivities in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Peace high on Gazans’ Christmas wish list
GAZA CITY // Father Jorge Hernandez was busy and distracted. Yesterday was the third day he had spent composing his Christmas sermon, and he hadn’t finished it yet. Image“Good intentions are the foundation for hope,” the Latin Catholic priest said his message would be. “Hope is something we have to pray for in Gaza, where we celebrate Christmas with mixed feelings, remembering the war last year.” Father Jorge, an Argentinian, was appointed in May to lead Gaza’s small Catholic congregation of a few hundred and was not here during the war. But he can still see, he said, the “psychological impact”.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Merry Christmas Bethlehem
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
The anguish of the murderous occupiers: the liberal Zionism of Eric Alterman, As`ad Abukhalil
Since I came to this country, I have always believed that the worst Zionists in the US are the liberal Zionists--because they are so bad and don't even know it. They are bad and yet they think they are good. Right-wing Zionists in the US are blatantly racists and are bigoted toward Arabs and Muslims and make no bone about it. Not the case with liberal Zionists. Take this guy, Eric Alterman: I have mentioned him before. He is callous and insensitive toward the Palestinians but yet have a very high opinion of himself as a sensitive liberal when all his writings on the Palestinians and Arabs in general drip with racism and contempt for the natives. And I can tell you this: whenever I read in any article the use of the word "anguish" I know immediately what I will get. As in: "Israeli anguish is also front and center."This word is used always to imply that the suffering of the oppressed and occupied matches the suffering of the murderous occupiers because when they kill (as in the movie Waltz with War Crimes) they sometimes spend sleepless nights and that you therefore should show sympathy for the killers because the killing business sometimes distress them. And then this Alterman guy argues that the lives of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation in the West Bank is not bad. His evidence? A reporter for the occupiers in Haaretz. What is the difference between this contention by Alterman and those white supremacist writers in the 19th century who argued that slaves are content and that they should be left in their conditions of slavery. But then again: what do you expect from somebody who seeks the moral voice in the writings of Amos Oz, who more than anybody else in contemporary Zionist writings popularized the dehumanization of the Palestinian people? Amos Oz who never met a war (including the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 and the recent war on Gaza) by Israel that he did not endorse: although he usually comes out towards the end of every war to say, that Israel has rightly killed enough Arabs and now may stop. That is considered by Alterman and by other Zionist advocates of Israeli supremacy as a moral stance. [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Turning off the lights
'Another of Ben-Gurion's stupidities, "a light unto the nations," from the days of the raids on Qibya in 1953 and the Gaza Strip, became over the years an extinguishing of the lights so no one would see and no one would know. In short, Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, who provided legal advice to the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, was invited to teach law at Tel Aviv University while the real work of "a light unto the nations" was done by the Jewish judge Richard Goldstone.'
http://www.haaretz.co.il/
Qalandiya's Horrors
Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate to cross Qalandiya checkpoint. I do not hide my hate. Why should I? This is an Israeli crossing between what is now a de facto border between the West Bank city of Ramallah and occupied Jerusalem. This abominable edifice, this ugly iron, barbed-wired and army-manned structure has caused me (and a countless number of others) uncountable episodes of anguish, anger and frustration. However, I am lucky to have a venue to voice my experiences and frustrations, which I will give myself full liberty to do.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
Zionism is racism, even when it comes to noise
"The sounds of Jewish music around the area of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron may be loud, but not beyond the legal noise limit, according to the Environmental Protection Ministry. Not so the sounds of Arab worship, however: according to Hevron Jewish community spokesman David Wilder, the same tests found the speakers used to broadcast the daily prayers of the Muslim muezzin exceeded the legal limits."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Relax, Holy Father. Viva Palestina and George Galloway are doing the job for you
Dignitaries, emissaries, human rights delegations, fact-finding trippers… they come and go, but Gaza's suffering continues and day by day gets worse, thanks to the corrupted leadership of the international community who are the scandal of our age.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
The Story of One Palestinian Family: Displaced, Dispossessed, Separated
Mohammad Alsaafin is a Palestinian refugee, from the village of Fallujah which lies in what is now Israel. He has never visited the village; his grandparents were exiled from there in 1949, a year after the founding of Israel, and took refuge in Gaza. Mohammad and his father were both born in the Khan Younis refugee camp--his father while Gaza was still occupied by Egypt, and he in 1988, just a month after the outbreak of the first intifada. Mohammad's family emigrated to the United Kingdom when he was only two, where his father eventually received his PhD. The entire family became British citizens and continued to live in the UK until 2004, when they decided to relocate to Ramallah, in the West Bank, so Mohammad and his three siblings could forge stronger ties to their homeland. As foreign passport holders, they assumed their freedom of movement would be relatively easy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Salon, Huffington Post and Daily Kos hotbeds of anti-Semitism!
Or so claims what Alternet’s Josh Holland calls a “ridiculous” new study by the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs. Holland writes...
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/
Jeff Gates: Zionist dominance in the Obama presidency
Be not deceived by Barack Hussein Obama's middle name or by the fact that he spent several childhood years in Indonesia. His political career is a product of a Westside Chicago Ashkenazi network with roots that trace directly back to organized crime of the 1920s. Top fundraiser Penny Pritzker traces her family lineage to grandfather Abe and great-grandfather Nicholas who served as lawyers for organized crime. She declined a nomination as Secretary of Commerce in the Obama Cabinet, a post typically offered top fundraisers. Her confirmation hearings could have proved a political embarrassment by reminding us of the suspect origins of "our" latest president.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
Iraq
Provincial councillor among 15 dead in Iraq attack (AFP)
AFP - Fifteen people, including a provincial councillor, were killed and 70 wounded in a twin bomb attack in Hilla, south of Baghdad, an Iraqi security source said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Dozens killed in Iraq blasts
Three explosions targeting Shias in Hilla and Baghdad cause more than 30 deaths.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
World Digest: Shiites, Christians killed in bombings in Iraq
Bomb attacks targeted Iraqi Christians and Shiite Muslims on Wednesday, killing at least eight people and wounding 48 ahead of religious observances that will take place under heavy guard. Insurgents have routinely targeted Shiites and Christians in an attempt to undermine the country's security gains and its Shiite-dominated government. Security forces have voiced concern in recent days that Christmas gatherings and Shiite Ashura holiday observances two days later would draw large-scale attacks.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
5 killed, would-be suicide bomber captured in Baghdad
Four policemen and a civilian was killed and three people wounded in separate attacks, while Iraqi security forces arrested a would-be suicide bomber in Baghdad, Iraqi security forces said Wednesday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Iraqi general assassinated
Senior Iraqi army officer has been shot dead in front of his home west of Baghdad, an interior ministry official said on Wednesay.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Wednesday: 23 Iraqis Killed, 66 Wounded
Attacks targeting Christians and Shi’ites left dozens dead or wounded in the days leading to important holidays for both groups. Christmas occurs on Friday, while Ashura begins at sunset on Saturday. At least 23 Iraqis were killed and 66 more were wounded across the country in these and other attacks.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraqi trade officials jailed for corruption (Reuters)
Reuters - An Iraqi court has jailed three senior officials for corruption at the Trade Ministry, where millions of dollars were embezzled from one of the world's biggest food rationing schemes.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Iraqi Crisis Report: Kurdish Town Swept by Day of Rioting
Hundreds take to the streets in violent protest against poor standard of public services.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Lebanon
Hasan Nasrallah by Carlos Latuff
http://latuff2.deviantart.com/
Sayyed Nasrallah Slams Democracies Changing Laws to Suit Israel
24/12/2009 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah criticized on Wednesday Western "deep-rooted" so-called democracies that change their whole judicial systems just to suit the Israeli enemy and prevent the arrest of Israeli officials accused of committing war crimes against the Palestinian people. Speaking during the seventh Ashoura night at the Sayyed al-Shouhadaa' compound in Beirut's southern suburb, Sayyed Nasrallah regretted that Britain is prepared to simply change its judicial system to suit Israel and its interests.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Hard Line on Hezbollah Clashes with Political Reality
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman visited Washington last week, for his first visit with President Barack Obama. The meeting was a quick one, tucked in amongst the myriad of domestic issues that are demanding Obama’s attention.
http://original.antiwar.com/
U.S. and other world news
The Nation: Immigration Agents Holding US Residents in Unlisted, Unmarked Facilities
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is holding an untold number of people in secretively maintained detention facilities all over the United States. That’s according to an explosive report that’s the cover story of the latest issue of The Nation magazine. They also report that ICE agents regularly impersonate civilians and rely on other illegal tricks to arrest longtime US residents who have no criminal history. We speak with the author of the two-part investigation, Jacqueline Stevens.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Israel not interested in peace: Syria's Assad (Reuters)
Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that peace talks with Israel had been stalled because Israel was not interested in achieving peace.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Egypt security plans for ElBaradei
The above letter, published by Wael Abbas, is a State Security document giving instructions all the way back in March 2009 to monitor the phone lines of Mohammed ElBaradei, his family, and his wife’s family as part of a comprehensive surveillance plan. As Zeinobia points out the authenticity of the document is to be verified, and Abbas has not disclosed his source (the concern here being, is Abbas cautious enough about being manipulated?) Of course this document sounds entirely plausible, I am sure ElBaradei and his family have been under close watch for a while. One recent estimate puts 5% of Egyptians under the payroll of security services or the military in some respect, I am sure some of that manpower is being directed against the potential threat against the regime that ElBaradei represents.
http://arabist.net/archives/
Images of US puppets in the Middle East
"King Abdullah II, popularly perceived in the West as being among the most enlightened Middle East leaders." Now this statement by Slackman in the article requires further elaboration and explanation. He is right of course that the Jordanian king enjoys an image of a supporter of democracy and human rights in the West. But there is no mystery there at all. His father enjoyed that image while his regime was cracking down brutally in the 1950s and 1960s, and while he was massacring Palestinians in Black September. In fact, if you go back to the 1960s and look at official US rhetoric on the Middle East during the Cold War, you will find that US predicated its support for some of the most brutal dictators, like the Shah or King Faysal or Shaykh Shakhbut of Abu Dhabi or Sultan Sa`id bin Taymur or the Jordanian king, in the name of "freedom". So this is not new. The labels that the US (and its submissive unquestioning mainstream media) accords to dictators around the region is based on two criteria only (and they are related): 1) the extent to which those regimes please Israel and its interests; 2) the extent to which those regimes follow US dictates. Look at Libya: the tone and textures of articles about the Libyan regime changed markedly only because he changed his foreign policy, but not else. If the Syrian regime were to sign a peace treaty with Israel tomorrow, the New York Times will carry a front page article about the reformist agenda of Bashshar. And this hypocrisy in US media coverage explains why most Arabs who consume Western media have no respect for the journalistic standards of those media. I can go on on this but you get the point.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Amman Journal: Jordanians Can Take a Joke, Comics Find
When North American comedians poked fun at the local practice of marrying a cousin and tweaked Palestinians as being skilled stone throwers, everyone laughed, and laughed hard.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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