Shadi Fadda brings us all the headlines related to Palestine and more news from around the internet for today.Land Theft and Destruction And The So Called "Freeze"
LRC: “14 Homes Demolished In Jerusalem In November”
The Land Research Center (LRC) of the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem reported that the Israeli authorities conducted 187 against Jerusalem in November, and demolished 14 Palestinians homes in addition to issuing orders to demolish 170 homes.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Settlers say will fight freeze with all their might
Yesha Council chairman expresses reservations over remark made by deputy settlement head that temporary construction halt needed to combat Iranian threat. 'There is no justification for this,' he says. Samaria Settlers' Committee: We don’t buy PM's excuses for racist decision.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
The Interview Ha’aretz Doesn’t Want You To See
Rehaviya Berman conducted an interview with Ali Abunimah, for Ha’aretz, a few weeks ago. The Interview was never published. Berman decided to publish it on his blog [Hebrew] and I decided to translate it, for your reading pleasure:
http://pulsemedia.org/2009/12/
Budrus - Trailer
This is the kind of story that offers some inspiring relief to the seemingly relentless bad news about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The new documentary “Budrus” follows an unlikely alliance between feuding Palestinian groups and between Palestinians and Israelis, forged in the interest of saving a village through nonviolent protest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Palestinians boycott Israeli settlement goods
The Palestinians on Tuesday announced a boycott of Israeli products made in the West Bank, stepping up their campaign against Israeli settlements. Economics Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said the Western-backed Palestinian government already has confiscated $1 million worth of products, including foods, cosmetics and hardware, and the goal is to eliminate all settlement-made goods from Palestinian store shelves next year.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/
Israeli business leaders delegation gets a New York welcome
New York City human rights advocates caught the Israel Business Leaders Delegation to the United States by surprise this morning with a noisy protest outside their “breakfast reception amidst the Leviev jewelry collection” at the Leviev store on Madison Avenue. Groups worldwide have conducted a successful campaign for the boycott of Leviev’s companies due to their involvement in Israeli settlement construction in violation of international law, and human rights abuses in the diamond industry in Angola.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Excuse me, Geek Squad? My Motorola phone seems to be supporting apartheid!
Not only is the international campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions to end Israeli occupation and apartheid growing, it's also getting more creative! Our spoof of the new commercial for Motorola's 'Droid' phone is making the internet rounds, as is this great video of US Campaign member group New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI) doing some Moto-oriented guerrilla theater at a Best Buy store.
http://endtheoccupationblog.
From the Gaza Freedom March Organizers: "International Participation in December 31 Gaza Freedom March Tops 1,000 As Registration Closes"
Over 1,000 delegates from 42 countries have signed up to participate in the December 31 Gaza Freedom March that will mark the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion and call for an end to the siege that has brought 1.5 million people to the edge of disaster.
http://endtheoccupationblog.
Detainees
Woman detainee kept in isolation for insulting prison guard
Gaza – Ma’an – A woman Palestinian prisoner has been kept in solitary confinement following a verbal incident with an Israeli prison guard, the Hussam prisoners association said on Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Hamas: PA detained 11 members
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Hamas said on Tuesday that the Fatah-backed Palestinian Authority forces arrested 11 members of the Islamic movement in the West Bank in the past two days.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Al Maqt, A Detainee Behind Bars Since 24 Years
Former detainee, specialist in Detainees’ Affairs, Abdul-Nasser Farawna, stated that detainee Sidqi Al Maqt, from the Golan heights, is hoping a prisoner-swap deal would free him after 25 years in captivity and oppression in Israeli prisons.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Humanitarian/Human Rights/Siege
Arab MKs: Bill approving admission committees racist
Ministerial committee's decision to allow Galilee and Negev communities to filter future residents evokes angry responses. Arab whose petition on matter was accepted by High Court tells Ynet, 'In the end we will all live inside walls'.
Palestinian Police Obstruct Travel of Patients Receive Medical Treatment in Hospitals outside Gaza: Call on Gaza Government to Immediately Cancel Such Measures
Sick Palestinian at the Erez Crossing in Gaza.The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns external travel restrictions imposed on the population of the Gaza Strip. These restrictions also apply to patients seeking medical treatment unavailable in the Gaza Strip. PCHR calls upon the Government in Gaza to remove all travel restrictions imposed, in particular the obligation to obtain permission from the Ministry of Interior in Gaza; these obligations contradict the provisions of the Palestinian Basic Law and international standards related to the freedom of movement.
http://www.alternativenews.
Surf’s Up
It’s become almost common knowledge that on any given day, anywhere from 40-50 million liters of untreated or partially treated sewage flow from Gaza’s sewage treatment plants into the Mediterranean Sea, and an additional 20 million liters seep into the ground, threatening other water sources. The treatment plants, due to crossings policies blocking supply of fuel and spare parts, intermittent electricity supply, and years of de-development, are struggling to treat 70 million liters of sewage produced by Gaza’s 1.5 million residents each day. In September, the UN and other international agencies warned that the sewage threatens the environmental health of both Gaza and Israel.
http://www.gazagateway.org/
Refugees
Peace must begin with the plight of Palestine's refugees | Karen AbuZayd
Sixty years ago today the United Nations general assembly voted into existence a temporary body known as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA's task was to deal with the humanitarian consequences of the dispossession of some three-quarters of a million Palestine refugees forced by the 1948 Middle East war to abandon their homes and flee their ancestral lands. Just two decades later, the six-day war generated another spasm of violence and forced displacement, culminating in the occupation of Palestinian territory. Today, anguished exile remains the lot of Palestinians and Palestine refugees. The occupation of Palestinian land persists, there is no Palestinian state, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms to which Palestinians are entitled under international law do not exist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Palestinian refugees surviving, not living
Hassan Rhayyel has been trapped in a cramped refugee camp in south Lebanon for 61 years, ever since he fled Palestine with his family after the creation of Israel.He was 12 then and full of hope that within two days the family would return home.But that hope has dimmed for Rhayyel, who raised eight children in a tiny two-room flat in Burj el-Shemali, one of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Rights group: End abuse of stateless individuals
Lebanon should move to end the "flagrant contradictions" in its application of laws to help a generation of stateless individuals regain their dignity, civil society officials said Monday.Launching the report, "Invisible Citizens: Legal Study on Statelessness in Lebanon," representatives from the non-governmental organization Frontiers Ruwad Association (FRA).
said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Political Developments
Hamas to reap prisoner swap reward
Less than a year ago, Hamas was cowering under an Israeli military onslaught that pulverised much of its political and military infrastructure.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
PNA rejects Netanyahu's statement over resuming settlement after ten months
RAMALLAH, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority(PNA) rejected Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent statement that settlement activities would be resumed after ten months. "His words prove that he is not serious about freezing the settlements and reaching a permanent solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts," said Nabil Abu Rdeineh, spokesman of the Palestinian presidency.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
EU mulls Jerusalem divide - 8 Dec 09
Jerusalem is sacred to three religions and central to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. European Union ministers have gathered this week in Brussels to discuss a Swedish proposal that calls for the division of Jerusalem in order to serve as capitals of both Israel and a future Palestinian state. The Israeli government has denounced the proposal, calling it a "dangerous" threat to peace efforts, but Palestinians need all the political support they can get to keep alive the dream of East Jerusalem as their capital. Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from the disputed city.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Key US lawmaker chides EU over Jerusalem
AFP, Published: Monday December 7, 2009, European Union members should join "responsible nations" in opposing any plan to recognize Arab east Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state, a key US lawmaker said Monday., "Any move to divide Jerusalem would undermine our ally Israel, deal a blow to religious freedom, and undercut the cause of peace," said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/
Other News
Turkey PM: Israel can't bomb Gaza then hold drill in Turkey
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday during his trip to the United States, that Israel cannot fly Gaza and then have its air force participate in a drill over Turkish land.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Report: Netanyahu okays Israel-Egypt border wall
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the construction of a wall along the border between Israel and Egypt, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel official: religious law must become binding
JERUSALEM -- Israel's justice minister said religious law must become binding in Israel, causing a stir Tuesday that reflects the divide between the secular and religious communities in the Jewish state. Yaakov Neeman, an observant Jew, told a rabbinical conference on Monday that the Bible contains "a complete solution to all the things we are dealing with."
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/
3 arrested for 2008 stabbing attack
Police say three Jewish teens admitted to stabbing man in Meah Shearim because he was Arab.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Palestinian 'terrorist' takes aim at Sasha Baron Cohen
A Palestinian grocer from Bethlehem filed suit against Comedian Sasha Baron Cohen on Monday, for the sum total of $115 million in libel damages over his film Bruno, which is equlal to half the amount the movie's gross box office earnings.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
First Miss Palestine beauty pageant to be held in West Bank
The first Miss Palestine will be held on December 26 in the West Bank, the beauty pageant organizers said on Monday. There will be 58 young women participating in the region's first pageant, including 26 Arab-Israelis and 32 beauties from the West Bank. There are no contestants from the isolated Gaza Strip. The goal of the contest is to change the misconceptions of Palestinians as a people as opposed to the political understanding of the region.
http://en.rian.ru/world/
Sheikh Beitawi slams PA for hosting beauty contest for Palestinian girls in WB
Sheikh Hamed Al-Beitawi, the head of the association of Palestinian scholars, strongly denounced the Palestinian Authority (PA) for sponsoring a beauty pageant for Palestinian girls in the West Bank.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
Akiva Eldar / Israel may have frozen settlements, but does it want peace?, Akiva Eldar
On the eve of signing the settlement construction freeze order, Avigdor Lieberman told reporters that the settlements had never been an obstacle to peace. The proof, the foreign minister explained, is that the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria did not stop Egypt and Jordan from signing peace agreements with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The US cash behind extremist settlers | Andrew Kadi and Aaron Levitt
The Hebron Fund is raising vast sums for Israeli settlements that violate the Geneva convention, with little scrutiny. Last month, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organisation called the Hebron Fund, which supports Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied city of Hebron, held a fundraiser at the New York Mets' stadium, Citi Field.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Fourth Estate in the Service of Power: Media Coverage of the Middle East
"Over the same 3-year period since August 1, 2006, however, Rich has never addressed issues related to Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands, let alone how these are directly abetted by US policies. There are occasional references to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the situation in Lebanon, but these are all incidental to whatever matter he discusses. To take but one example, Rich has written a total of 7 articles[12] where "Hamas" comes up, over his entire tenure as a Times op-ed columnist since 1994. In each of these 7 references, he brandishes Hamas as a group deserving to be targeted in the "war on terror" or else views a presumed association with Hamas as evidence of fanaticism and evil intentions, betraying a highly skewed perception of what Hamas is about or realistically capable of doing.[13] Nicholas Kristof is as reticent as Frank Rich when it comes to Israel, the Palestinians, and other Arabs nearby. His sympathies for the victims of political repression are easily aroused if these victims are in China or Darfur, but not if they are in Israel or in any of the nearby autocratic regimes allied with the US (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan). The full scope of Kristof's writing can be grasped by reading his blog, where he expands on his twice-weekly columns, adding thoughts he cannot always squeeze into an 800-word text.[14] There is a "tag list" in the main page of the blog, which tallies the number of times he has written about a particular topic. By my last check (August 31, 2009), "Darfur" tops his list (with a count of 111), followed by "Africa" (with 79), and then "China" (with 68). "Iraq" is about two-third down the list (with a count of 21), and "Israel" is the very last entry (with 14). These numbers reflect Kristof's priorities, or else his ability to write without intimidation and self-censorship. Of the 14 entries about Israel, about half are on the situation in Gaza and several of the remaining half are fending off attacks by irate readers for his presumed anti-Israel bias -- attacks that are far more virulent and numerous, proportionally, than others Kristof receives because of his writing on other topics -- which is also revealing about the audience Kristof attracts and caters to."
http://www.zcommunications.
The Choice for Israel: Civil War for Peace or the End of Zionism?
I have been writing about what must happen in America if there is to be more than a snowball’s chance in hell of peace on the basis of an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians. (The main point I’ve been making is that unless and until enough Americans are made aware of the truth of history, no American president will have the space to break the Zionist lobby’s stranglehold on Congress). In this article, with thanks to an analysis by Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell, I’m looking at what must happen in Israel if the countdown to catastrophe is to be stopped.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
Decrypting the Palestinian Political Crisis: Old Strategies against New Enemies
The explanations given by Israel to justify the onslaught on Gaza in last December were confused. The goals advanced by military and political Israeli apparatus varied, depending either on the person speaking or on the moment in which they were stated: from overthrowing the Hamas-led government and annihilating the movement, to putting an end to the launching of Hamas rockets from the Strip, to destroying Hamas’s military capabilities, to stopping the smuggling into Gaza, and so on.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
Israel's Settlement Beast
It's a mildly comforting scene for Palestinians to see Jewish settlers clash with the Israeli government. In Palestinian terms this is a battle between bad and really bad and it brings us a smidgen of delight when we see the two sides butt heads. Of course, this is an infantile sentiment, given that in the larger picture of things, their bickering really has nothing to do with us. Nonetheless, it is strangely satisfying.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
What the U.S. Elite Really Thinks About Israel, By JEFFREY BLANKFORT
The Council on Foreign Relations is always near the top of the Left's list of bogeymen that stand accused of pulling the strings of US foreign policy. It is right up there with the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission, right? Wrong. If that was the case, those arguing that US support for Israel is based on it being a "strategic asset" will have a hard time explaining a Pew Research Center survey on America's Place in the World, taken of 642 CFR members between October 2 and November 16. The Pew poll not only reveals that the overwhelming majority, two-thirds of the members of this elite foreign policy institution, believes that the United States has gone overboard in favoring Israel, it doesn't consider Israel to have have much importance to the US in the first place.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Israeli pressure must be resisted - Ghassan Khatib
The council of European foreign ministers is currently debating a draft resolution drawn up by Sweden, holder of the rotating EU presidency, which is supposed to specify EU positions on different aspects of the Middle East conflict.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Jews Against Zionism
They're numerous, outspoken, and range from secular to orthodox to one group calling itself "True Torah Jews Against Zionism."They believe that "traditional" Jews don't support Zionism, an ideology they call "contrary to Jewish law and beliefs and the teachings of the Holy Torah."
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Iraq
5 blasts hit Baghdad, more than 105 killed
Five explosions hit Baghdad scattered in Dora, Palestine Street, Al Rasafi Market, Al Mansour District and Al Nahda region. More than 105 are killed and more than 310 wounded in death toll reports by Iraq’s Interior Ministry. Explosions were consequent, it added. At least 15 people were killed.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/
Monday: 19 Iraqis Killed, 56 Wounded
While Shi’ites observed the Eid al-Ghadeer holiday, one Shi’ite school in Sadr City suffered a tragic attack. At least 19 Iraqis were killed and 56 more were wounded there and across the country. The bombing comes just as Iraqi officials are hoping to pin down a date in late February for national elections. Full details were not revealed, but Parliament approved a new elections law late yesterday after Sunni and Kurdish objections were apparently resolved.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Accused SEALs arraigned, vow to defend charges (AP)
AP - Two Navy SEALs accused in the mistreatment of an Iraqi suspect in the 2004 slayings of four U.S. contractors were arraigned in military court Monday, and one SEAL said he was gratified by support from the public and some members of Congress.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Lebanon
An Nahar: US to embarrass Lebanon by setting impossible conditions for $100 million in military aid
"An Nahar Sources: The US administration is trying to embarrass Lebanon by setting impossible conditions before granting $100 million in military aid . One of the conditions is disarming Hezbollah"
http://friday-lunch-club.
Washington's New Lebanon Policy: A Christmas Guide
Beirut: Lebanon’s first Sunday morning in December was cold, cloudy and rainy as this politically exhausted country’s’ new Prime Minister, Saad Eddine Hariri, donned a gray track suit, with matching Nike running shoes and joined hundreds of pro-Hezbollah runners, two dreamy Jordanian princesses and 33,000 others from 73 countries as well as all 18 Lebanese confessions for the annual ‘friendship first, competition second’, 42 km Beirut Marathon. Despite the weather, the atmosphere was warm as Christmas decorations were being hung with care across Lebanon in Christian, Shia, Sunni and Druze neighborhoods. Saad, telling race watchers on the sidewalks, “I know I won’t win but I want to participate anyway. We have to bring Lebanese together, and sport is a very important event that can bring them together actually passed on the 42 km course in favor of the 10 km event—but then, how many politicians anywhere, used to the good life, can even run two km these days.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
U.S. and Other World News
Netanyahu: Syria drops key precondition for peace talks with Israel
The Syrian government is no longer demanding an Israeli commitment to withdraw from the Golan Heights as a precondition for resuming peace negotiations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers at the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
On peace with Syria, Israeli politicians only talk the talk
The ritual "track dance" is in full swing: the Syrian track first - no, the Palestinian track first. A future scholar researching the history of the main contacts between Israel, Syria and the Palestinians starting in the 1990s will discover a marvelous cyclical pattern: Whenever the Palestinian track reached a dead end or a breakthrough beckoned, the Israelis began talking about the Syrian track, and vice versa.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Gitmo ’suicide’ trio had rags stuffed down throats: report
The US military has long maintained that the deaths of three detainees at Guantanamo Bay in one night in 2006 were suicides, but to the authors of an exhaustive report on the incident, it looks like anything but. One question that the authors of a report (PDF) from the Seton Hall University Law School have is just how -- and why -- three people who hanged themselves would have managed to stuff rags down their throats before they died. Another question is why neither the guards on duty nor the paramedics who showed up were interviewed; or, for that matter, why the paramedics who showed up didn't even ask the guards what had happened.
http://rawstory.com/2009/12/
The Taliban - Al Qaeda Schism
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen argued in Senate Testimony Wednesday that the 30,000-troop increase is necessary to prevent the Taliban from giving new safe havens to al Qaeda terrorists.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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