Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Settlements/Land Theft and Destruction
Witnesses: Settlers bulldoze land for settlement expansion
Salfit - Ma’an - Accompanied by soldiers, Israeli settlers driving bulldozers destroyed the Neweitef Al-Majur spring, the central water source for residents of the nearby West Bank town of Qarawat Bani Hassan on Thursday, locals reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel’s East Jerusalem Linked Settlement Expansion, Stephen Lendman
On February 1, 2009, the International Solidarity Movement reported that Israel continues its E 1 area homes and infrastructure work that includes linking its Ma’ale Adummim settlement with East Jerusalem and other settlements around it. It said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, while in office, promised to expand E 1 development — the land northeast of Jerusalem, west of Ma’ale Adummim comprising about 12 square kilometers, all of it illegally annexed.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
‘Israeli Settlements Killing Two-State Solution’, Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendle
JERUSALEM — In the absence of any progress towards peace between Israelis and Palestinians, leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) are adopting a reasonable approach as a way of building up international pressure on Israel to get it back to the negotiating table.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Egypt has a 'Wall of Shame' & a 'pyramid of honor' ...
http://friday-lunch-club.
Press release: Protesters are being brutalized in Tahir Square right now – 500+ protesters violently forced into pens, others barricaded in their hotels
Members of the Gaza Freedom March are being forcibly detained in hotels around town (Lotus, Liala) as well as violently forced into pens in Tahir Square by Egyptian police and additional security forces. Reports of police brutality are flooding a delegate legal hotline faster than the legal support team can answer the calls. The reports span from women being kicked, beaten to the ground and dragged into pens, at least one confirmed account of broken ribs, and many left bloody. The assault is ongoing, legal team and other spokespeople can be reached at the Nile Hotel or by contacting the phone numbers listed above.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Update from protests in Gaza and at the Erez checkpoint
All along the idea for the Gaza Freedom March was that there would be a march inside Gaza once the delegation arrived, and a concurrent march to the Erez checkpoint on the Israeli side of the checkpoint. Although most of the Gaza Freedom March delegation did not go to Gaza from Cairo, the marches still took place. The photo above is the from the Erez checkpoint, and here is a report we just received about the Gaza march...
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Protests held against Gaza siege
Activists, both from Gaza and abroad, have held demonstrations on either side of an Israeli border crossing to the Palestinian territory, protesting against its continued siege by Israel. Hundreds of protesters gathered around the Erez crossing on Thursday, to denounce the blockade that has caused immense suffering to those living in Gaza.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
Cairo meets the movement, with tears and chaos and exaltation, Philip Weiss
Today the Gaza Freedom March fragmented slightly when in the face of stern opposition from their fellows about 80 people headed off to Gaza on buses, the rest staying in Cairo. But wait, weren’t you trying to go to Gaza? Yes, but it has been quite a drama. How to state this clearly…
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Galloway: I refuse any kind of coordination with Israel
George Galloway stated that he had received two weeks ago an Egyptian letter demanding that he obtains an Israeli approval before allowing the Lifeline 3 convoy to pass into the Gaza Strip.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Gaza Freedom March
We are in the Middle East, seeking a nonviolent solution to the blockade of Gaza. Free Gaza actions are occurring all over Cairo, and so the police, who are often in riot gear, have had a busy day—they show up wherever we go. They are incredibly young, maybe 18 or 19. Typically, they surround us with moveable steel fences, which they line up behind and they watch us with what seems to be curiosity, not malice. However, their innocent appearance doesn't mean they won't become aggressive; police today were very rough with several Spanish protesters. As internationals, though, we have great protection not enjoyed by locals. Some Egyptians have joined in these protests, and we find their courage astounding.
http://www.zcommunications.
The Entire World Demands: Freedom for Gaza!
It is already possible to attribute one achievement to the Gaza Freedom March: the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million inhabitants have come out of the forgotten world. Since the massacre committed by the Israeli military, one year ago, it is as if the land had swallowed up Gaza. No one spoke about the horrific blockade which transformed Gaza into the world’s largest prison, or the human suffering that bordered on a humanitarian crisis, or the lack of food, water and medicines, and principally about Gaza’s disconnect from the West Bank. From the moment that Israeli war planes stopped their bombings and the massive barrages of artillery stopped falling, Gaza ceased to interest the world, as if the blockade is normal for the women, men, children and elderly that populate the area.
http://www.alternativenews.
Israeli Arab MK: Barak enjoys classical music and killing Gaza children
Some 1,000 people, among them all of Israel's Arab MKs and community leaders, gathered Thursday at the Israeli side of the Gaza border to express solidarity with the residents of Gaza, one year after Israel's offensive there. MK Taleb A-Sana relayed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's message to the Israeli side via a mobile phone.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Join the rally to free Jamal and the anti-Wall prisoners!
December 31st, 2009-- January 4 is date of Jamal’s court hearing. The gathering outside the court will remind Israeli authorities that we will not sit silently while they attempt to repress those who are speaking out against the Wall. Join the rally outside the Russian Compound, Jerusalem on 4 January 2010 at 9 am!
http://stopthewall.org/
Take action now for Jamal and the anti-Wall prisoners!
December 31st, 2009-- Wondering how you can you support the release of Jamal Juma’, Mohammad Othman, Abdallah Abu Rahma and the other anti-Wall prisoners? Starting this New Year’s Eve, Stop the Wall will be collecting photos from across the world to use at Jamal’s January 4th trial. We are also asking you to continue your letter writing, this time to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs.
http://stopthewall.org/
Release Abdallah Abu Rahmah and other leaders and members of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements
Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a leader of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was arrested at his home during a military operation in Ramallah by the Israeli Army on December 10. FFIPP interns and members of faculty delegations know Abdallah Abu Rahmah well. For the past two years, he has received our students and faculty at his home in Bil’in and has taken them to see the Separation Wall on the village’s land.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/
As world's attention turns to Gaza, apartheid, settlements, and crack down on nonviolent resistance in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
One year since Israel unleashed "Operation Cast Lead," Israel's 22-day assault against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, injured thousands more, and destroyed billions of dollars of Palestinian civilian infrastructure, the world's attention is once again falling on Gaza as more than 1300 Gaza Freedom Marchers continue to make headlines in Cairo...with good reason.
http://endtheoccupationblog.
3 (More) Things You Can Do For Justice and Accountability for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
Yesterday, we issued an action alert with five things you can do to support the Gaza Freedom March, including contacting the State Department, joining a solidarity action, and using our resources to take action in the media and with Congress. But as the Gaza Freedom March steering committee says, "the march itself is not supposed to be only a symbolic gesture, but rather a part of a series of events which will lead to the end of the siege, once and for all." Here are some more ideas for action you can take to hold the U.S., Israel, and corporate actors accountable for the destruction they have wrought in the Gaza Strip:
http://endtheoccupationblog.
Breaking Palestine's peaceful protest, Neve Gordon
"Why," I have often been asked, "haven't the Palestinians established a peace movement like the Israeli Peace Now?" The question itself is problematic, being based on many erroneous assumptions, such as the notion that there is symmetry between the two sides and that Peace Now has been a politically effective movement. Most important, though, is the false supposition that Palestinians have indeed failed to create a pro-peace popular movement.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/
Blogging beneath the bombs: An interview with Sharyn Lock
Activist Sharyn Lock sailed to Gaza on the first "Break the Siege" boat with the Free Gaza Movement in 2008. During Israel's winter attacks last year, Lock documented the invasion on her blog "Tales to Tell." Her writing has recently been published in the short book Gaza: Beneath the Bombs. The Electronic Intifada contributor Arwa Aburawa interviewed lock about her experience in Gaza.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Violence and Aggression/Detainees
Witnesses: Soldiers assault cab driver, mock beard
Bethlehem – Ma’an – A Jerusalemite cab driver was stopped at the Bethlehem DCO on Thursday by soldiers who audibly mocked his beard, witnesses told Ma'an. The man, 37-year-old Nasser Muhammad Aton from Sur Baher, was beaten with rifle butts at the top of the Beit Jala hill where the Israeli District Coordination Office stands.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli jails holding 7,500 Palestinians: ministry (AFP)
AFP - At least 7,500 Palestinians were being held in Israeli jails and detention facilities at the end of 2009, the Palestinian Authority said on Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Humanitarian/Human Rights/Siege
Tadamun: IOF killed 1,594 Palestinians in 2009
The international Tadamun (solidarity) institution for human rights has said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) had killed 1,594 Palestinians in 2009 including 473 children and 126 women.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
UN expert repeats call for threat of sanctions against Israel over Gaza blockade
29 December 2009 – The United Nations independent expert on Palestinian rights has again called for a threat of economic sanctions against Israel to force it to lift its blockade of Gaza, which is preventing the return to a normal life for 1.5 million residents after the devastating Israeli offensive a year ago. “Obviously Israel does not respond to language of diplomacy, which has encouraged the lifting of the blockade and so what I am suggesting is that it has to be reinforced by a threat of adverse economic consequences for Israel,” Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, told UN Radio.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/
US military engineers supervise building of the wall of death
CAIRO, (PIC)-- A senior Egyptian engineer told the PIC on condition of anonymity that the wall is fully supervised by American military engineers, adding that the blueprints of the wall were prepared about six months ago and its construction started three months ago amid tight security. He affirmed that there is a huge main pipe extending 10 kilometers from the sea in the west toward the east and branching into other perforated pipes directed towards the Palestinian side, where it will be used to pump salt water directly from the sea into the branch pipes planted in the ground in order to cause cracks and landslides leading to the destruction of Gaza tunnels.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egypt's Gaza wall months from completion - Israel
Cairo has played down the scope of the dig on the 14-km (8-mile)-long frontier but Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers condemn it as a "wall of death" that could seal an Israeli-led blockade by smothering smuggler tunnels from the Egyptian Sinai.
http://af.reuters.com/article/
Photostory: Egypt further encaging Gaza
With and the Egyptian government's new underground wall and the closure of the Rafah crossing -- Gaza's sole exit to the outside world -- Egypt's complicity shines more than ever. The following are exclusive images of Egyptian authorities building the new underground wall on the border with Gaza.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Italian organizations: The steel wall makes Egypt equal to Israel
Italian human rights organizations and dignitaries warned that the steel of wall being built on the Palestinian-Egyptian borders would equalize Egypt with Israel in its blockade on the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Gaza sees more newborns of malformation
GAZA, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Um Hamza, a 22-year-old pregnant woman, from Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, woke up at night numerous times during the 22-day Israeli war which ended on Jan. 18, sniffing the smell of gas.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Has Israel forgotten the “reason” for Gaza’s closure?
Gisha - Gaza Gateway - Israel has justified its 3.5 year closure of Rafah Crossing and 2.5 year closure of Gaza’s other crossings as “sanctions” designed to pressure the Hamas regime, especially to release Shalit. While Gisha and other human rights groups have criticized the closure as unlawful collective punishment – irrespective of its “goals” – Israeli officials have insisted that closing Gaza’s crossings nearly hermetically is not only permissible but is also effective in achieving political objectives.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Gaza One Year Later
Gaza's war of words - 28 December 2009 - part 1
A year has passed since Israel's 22 day war on Gaza, but the war of words continues. Both sides have sophisticated media strategies, and as the message is ever more muddied, distilling the truth becomes yet more difficult. Al-Jazeera looks at how the War of words between Israel and Hamas is waged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Gaza's War of Words - 28 December 2009 Part 2
A year has passed since Israel's 22 day war on Gaza, but the war of words continues. Both sides have sophisticated media strategies, and as the message is ever more muddied, distilling the truth becomes yet more difficult. An Original Al-Jazeera Documentary looks at how the War of words between Israel and Hamas is waged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Gaza offensive: Israeli war crimes are in little doubt, Jonathan Cook
NAZARETH // The debate reverberating in the human rights community one year after Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip is not about whether Israel committed war crimes during its attack last winter, but whether and how its political and military leaders can ever be brought to book. The problems were highlighted this month when an arrest warrant was issued in Britain for Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister during the war, after it was mistakenly believed she was visiting.
http://www.jkcook.net/
In Gaza, New Year Reopens Wounds of the Old, Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY — For many survivors of the last Israeli war on Gaza, time has not healed their wounds, physical or emotional. Amal Samouni, 10, still suffers vision problems in her right eye. The shrapnel remaining in her head causes her constant pain and she is unable to concentrate at school.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Truth cast in lead
Michael Sfard - Ynet - Cast Lead was our second war of independence. In the first, we liberated ourselves from two thousand years of living under the control of others. In the second, we liberated ourselves from the ropes of Jewish heritage and morality that have been binding us for years. We no longer have to comply with the prohibition of killing the righteous with the wicked. We are exempted from remembering the lessons of being an occupied people without rights. The unavoidable insights of those who have been silenced have been erased and substituted with attitudes reserved for sub-humans.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Political Developments
Report: US pressing Israel not to free Barghouti
London-based al-Hayat newspaper says Americans fear release of senior prisoner will increase Hamas popularity, undermine Abbas.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Hamas says foiled Shalit rescue attempt
Internal security chief in Gaza says Palestinian cell helping Shin Bet to find kidnapped soldier arrested.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Hamas says Israeli demands 'impossible'
Movement's representatives from Gaza leave Damascus following discussions, plan to reject latest Israeli offer on prisoner swap. 'We are under the impression that Israel is not interested in a deal,' Hamas source tells Ynet, stressing talks will continue.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Arab League chief: More UN, less U.S. in Mideast peace bids
CAIRO - The United Nations must play a bigger role in trying to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the United States should not be the only mediator, according to the head of the Arab League.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Other News
Rabbi Kahane's relative suspected of torching mosque
Judea and Samaria Police arrest member of former Kach chairman's family suspicion of setting fire to Yasuf house of prayer about three weeks ago. Palestinian official expresses satisfaction with arrest, says hopes Israel 'will judge him severely'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Mazuz's farewell decision: Will 'Jenin, Jenin' director be indicted?
Before he steps down late next month, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is expected to decide on a case likely to again provoke considerable debate on freedom of expression - whether actor and director Mohammed Bakri should be indicted for his controversial film "Jenin, Jenin."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Bethlehem Christians boycott Greek Patriarch over land sales
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Thirteen Greek Orthodox Christian leaders met in Bethlehem Wednesday and voted unanimously to boycott the reception of the denomination’s Patriarch Theophilos III for the 6 January Christmas celebrations. Officials and scouts affiliated with the groups under the 13 and those they represent will not receive the Patriarch at the Mar Elias Monastery or meet him at the entrance to Bethlehem at Israel’s Checkpoint 300 for his procession to the Nativity Church.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamyleh reports from Nazareth on the first structure from the early Roman period to be unearthed in that part of the world.Ancient home found in Nazareth - 29 Dec 09
Archaeologists in the old city of Nazareth in Israel have discovered what they claim may have been a home dating back to the era of Jesus Christ. Christ is believed to have spent his early childhood there.
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
On Gaza Drivers, Rumours and Egypt's Steel Wall, Ramzy Baroud
Those pesky taxi drivers of Gaza are always circulating rumours. One story that made the rounds during the first Palestinian uprising in 1987 claimed that an Arab army crossed the Sinai desert to save Palestinians from the daily killings and protracted state of siege which caused untold suffering for civilians. The army in question would change from time to time, but the focus inevitably returned to Egypt. The rumour of an Egyptian military intervention persevered through the years, and it registered deeply in Palestinian psyche, especially among those living in Gaza.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
‘The two-state solution is starting to look impractical’, Jonathan Cook
NAZARETH // The biggest effect for Israel’s 1.3 million Palestinian citizens of its assault on Gaza last winter has been to smash any remaining illusions that there is a future for the minority in a Jewish state, the community’s leaders have agreed. They say that minority voters have almost completely abandoned Zionist parties, even left-wing ones, believing that none is really interested in a peaceful solution to the country’s conflict with the Palestinians.
http://www.jkcook.net/
Flashpoints has Gaza covered – from 1956 to today
Today’s Flashpoints features great interviews with Hedy Epstein from Cairo on the Gaza Freedom March, and Joe Sacco on his important new book Footnotes in Gaza, which deals with Israeli massacres in Rafah and Khan Younis in 1956 (read an excerpt here). In the interviews Epstein explains why she didn’t get on the bus to go to Gaza, and Sacco discusses his intentions behind the book, how he recreated a story that is now over 50 years old, and his thoughts on how the mainstream media treats the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Give it a listen.http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
There is no deluxe occupation
The barring of Palestinians from Route 443 was one of the ugliest aspects of a deluxe occupation. Real security cannot be achieved by roadblocks, fences and separate roads, but only by a fair peace accord that will bring an end to the occupation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Rattling the Cage: A taboo question for Israelis, Larry Derfner
There's a question we Israelis won't ask ourselves about the Palestinians, especially not about Gaza. The question is taboo. Not only won't anyone ask it out loud, but very, very few people will dare ask it in the privacy of their own minds. However, I think it's time we start asking it, privately and in public. If we don't, I think there's going to be Operation Cast Lead II, then Operation Cast Lead III, and each one is going to be worse than the last, and the consequences for Palestinians and Israelis are going to be unimaginable.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
A New Year For Gaza Or A Repeat Of The Old?
UK, December 31, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) - As we remember the victims of Gaza we have to ask ourselves have we seen the end to the Israeli atrocities or will the 2010 show the same old business as usual? As it stands at the moment the Israeli military is still flexing its enormous might with repeated air strikes using fighters, helicopter gunships and the dreaded drones.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Happy New Year Palestine, Happy new year humanity!
When Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine great poet was asked in one of the most difficult period in Palestine history, what Palestinians can do now, his immediate answer was to grow up hope. For more than 70 years, Palestinians move from war to war, from occupation to occupation, from exile to exile, from siege to siege yet they continue to hope. Hope and resistance are interacted, one resists because one hopes, and because one hopes one resists.
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.
AIPAC Celebrates 47th Birthday in Court
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) enters its 47th year of existence battling to extricate itself from two highly damaging civil court cases. The more recent is Steven J. Rosen’s defamation suit against AIPAC, which has now entered its most critical phase.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraq
Deadly bomb attacks in two Iraqis cities overshadowed the news that a British hostage was released after two and half years in captivity. At least 41 were killed and 138 more were wounded in those explosions and in other violence across the country. Also, Iraq sent a memo to Iran protesting Iranian forces at the Fakka oil field.
http://original.antiwar.com/
U.S. and other world news
2009 in Perspective: Glenn Greenwald on the Five Wars US Is Fighting in Muslim Countries
As 2009 comes to a close, today we begin by taking a step back and putting this year of war in perspective. Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald discusses US foreign policy, including the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, drone strikes on Pakistan, cruise missile attacks on Yemen, operations in Somalia, the ongoing operation in Iraq, and much more.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Afghans condemn US for 10 'civilian deaths':
"Obama! Obama! Take your soldiers out of Afghanistan!" the protesters chanted, wearing blue headbands with the words: "Stop killing us!"
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Afghans protest civilian deaths - 31 Dec 2009
The streets of Kabul have been flooded with protesters, angry at the number of civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces in the country. The protests were triggered by an ISAF air raid, that killed ten Afghans, including schoolchildren, in Kunar Province, close to the Pakistani border. Western forces in Afghanistan face a huge PR problem, as the troops get less popular with every civilian death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Jordan jails man for 10 years over 'honour killing'
A Jordanian court sentenced a 61-year-old man to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after convicting him of killing his teenage daughter last year to "defend his honor," a judicial official said."In 2008, the 17-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by a group of men, who are currently on trial," the official said."But the father suspected that his daughter was involved in a sexual relationship.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Senior cleric tells Iran's opposition leaders to either repent or face death
Hundreds of thousands of government supporters took to Iran's streets on Wednesday in a show of force against the opposition, with a senior cleric telling their leaders to repent or be declared enemies of God and face death.Just hours later, state news agency IRNA reported that top opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had fled the capital fearing for their lives.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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