Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Land Theft and Destruction
Despite freeze, hundreds of housing units under construction in isolated settlements
Despite the construction freeze, dozens of settlements in the West Bank are experiencing a building boom, even on the eve of another visit to the region by U.S. envoy George Mitchell to try to restart talks for a final settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Report: Settlement construction booming
Jerusalem - Ma'an/Agencies - Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's professed 10-month settlement freeze, construction in dozens of supposedly frozen areas is booming, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. The Israeli daily Haaretz said reporters toured West Bank settlements on Wednesday and witnessed work being carried out in the Bakran and Ariel industrial zones, as well as the construction of housing at Ariel, Elkana North, Peduel and Kfar Tapuah.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli forces shut down Hebron tree planting
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli authorities banned a group of Palestinians from planting trees near the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday after settlers disrupted their work, organizers said. Dozens of Palestinian residents were planting trees in the Al-Buwiryah area, near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, responding to a call from senior Fatah leaders.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli settlers uproot trees and destroy natural water spring in northern West Bank
Israeli settlers uprooted trees and destroy natural water spring on Thursday that belongs to the villagers of Qarawit Bani Hassan in northern West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Three Palestinians wounded during anti-barrier protests
RAMALLAH, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least three Palestinian demonstrators were injured on Friday during the weekly protests against the barrier that Israel builds in the West Bank, medics and witnesses said. The witnesses said that dozens of Palestinians demonstrated on Friday afternoon in the villages of Ne'lin and Bel'in near Ramallah in the West Bank against the Israeli barrier and clashed with Israeli army soldiers.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Simultaneous Solidarity Marches Held On Northern And Southern Borders Of Gaza Strip
As a group of Israeli peace activists gathered near the Erez crossing on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, 1200 international activists with the 'Gaza Freedom March' held a rally in Cairo to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion of Gaza. The Cairo march was attacked by Egyptian police, injuring several demonstrators.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Bil’in demonstrators call for the end of the Siege of Gaza
Residents of Bil’in gathered today after the noon prayers to demonstrate against the Israeli occupation and the Apartheid Wall on to commemorate the first anniversary of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza. In addition, they celebrated the 45th anniversary of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fatah.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Palestinian Citizens of Israel Protest Outside of Erez Crossing: End Israeli Blockade of Gaza
Over 1,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel and several dozen Jewish Israelis demonstrated this morning outside of the Erez Crossing, demanding an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Organised by the Arab High Monitoring Committee, the demonstration coincided with the one year anniversary of Israel’s military attacks on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in 1,400 deaths and thousands wounded.
http://www.alternativenews.
Candle Lit Vigil Held in Manger Square Bethlehem to Commemorate Gaza
At 4:30 this afternoon residents of Bethlehem and the surrounding towns gathered to commemorate the 1,500 Palestinians that lost their lives this time last year, and stand in solidarity with the residents of Gaza, who continue to live under siege from the Israeli military; a situation that has continued since June 2006. The vigil was held in Manger Square, bordered with The Church of the Nativity to the [south?] and [???] mosque to the [north?]
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Hundreds of activists protest against Gaza blockade
Several hundred people have joined demonstrations on the Israel-Gaza border to protest against the Israeli blockade of the territory.
The demonstrators, who marched to the Erez crossing point from both sides of the border, included dozens of international activists.
The Egyptian authorities have allowed about 80 protesters to cross into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Dozens more, however, scuffled with police in the capital Cairo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Gaza Freedom March, "Internationals in Cairo Set Off on March to Gaza in Protest of Siege"
Some individuals managed to overcome the police barricades and began the march at the meeting point in Tahreer Square in downtown Cairo. They were joined by Egyptians who also wished to denounce the role of their government in sustaining the Gaza siege. The authorities have sought to separate international from the locals. The police is brutally attacking the nonviolent marchers. Many plainclothes police officers have infiltrated the crowds and are violently assaulting them. "I was lifted by the Egyptian police forces and literally tossed over the fence," said Desiree Fairooz, one of the protesters. Marchers are chanting and resisting the attempt to disperse them vowing to remain in the square until they are allowed to go to Gaza. The GFM banner is hanging up high in a tree in the square. Some marchers are bleeding and riot police destroyed their cameras.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Gaza Freedom March activists target Egypt's complicity
It was another eventful day here in Cairo at the inaugural Gaza Freedom March (GFM). On Tuesday night, organizers informed the 1,362-strong delegation that only 100 of them had been selected to travel to Gaza yesterday morning, Wednesday 30 December. After several hours of heated debate with organizers over whether this was an appropriate strategy, the meeting concluded without a consensus.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Leaving Cairo, but taking the struggle with me
Today I leave Cairo after four intense days with the Gaza Freedom March. We did not fulfill our goal of reaching Gaza and being with the Palestinian people there. That was surely painful and disappointing. But that is not the measure of what happened. To talk about the siege of Gaza in the abstract is one thing, but to actually come to Egypt and find that Gaza is harder to visit than a prison is like a bucket of cold water. The Egyptian government may be efficient at few things, but it is highly efficient at maintaining the siege. Buses hired to take all the marchers to Gaza were prevented from showing up. Those who tried to get to Gaza under their own steam were turned back or detained at their hotel in Al Arish. It was very very frustrating. But whatever frustration we felt is one millionth of the frustration of the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza. So perhaps in some way it is better then that we did not get in, because Egypt gave us a small taste of what it serves every day to people in Gaza -- and a small taste of what Egyptians face when they challenge their government's policies.
http://ow.ly/QupW
"Before the Wall I could see the sun" -- Free Israel's Anti-Apartheid Prisoners
A report from the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem, entitled "Israel's Anti-Apartheid Prisoners"
http://endtheoccupationblog.
Gaza Free dom March activists refuse tobe silent!
The Italian delegation of Action for Peace at the Gaza Freedom March walked today in the streets of Cairo with all other delegations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, to call for an end of the siege on Gaza, the end of the Israeli occupation, the respect of international law and human rights. Even though the march was immediately stopped and some activists were injured by the Egyptian police, we succeeded in organizing a sit-in for about 8 hours in the square of the Egyptian Museum, that became today the Gaza Freedom Square. At midnight we gathered again in Tahrir Square to write our solidarity to Gaza with candels on the ground.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Gaza Freedom March: A Day of Preparation
We’ve moved from the Old to the New Testament—from “Let my people go” to “Left Behind!” Woke up this morning sure my choice to stay was the right one, but deeply regretting it anyway. Lisa, who was also offered a seat, and I were talking ourselves into good political reasons to justify why we could have gone, when she got a call. Code Pink and the Steering Committee of the Gaza Freedom March had just issued a statement saying that they’d made a mistake, and that they were no longer supporting the busses going. The busses were loading a few blocks away, we were told the scene was chaotic and Lisa rushed down there to do damage control while I stayed to do the morning briefing.
http://starhawksblog.org/?p=
Not in our name: Americans speak out for Palestine
Yesterday in the US, protests took place to commemorate the devastating conflict in Gaza and demand the siege be lifted. This report is on Russian satellite television (would it appear on mainstream American TV?).
http://antonyloewenstein.com/
Sheikh Jarrah: It's Happening
For a protest to turn into a serious happening, you need two things. First, an injustice so obvious, and so emblematic, that to redress it is to play a kind of historical jujitsu: the force of the grievance pushes more and more people to turn out; and the growing crowd starts to feel that, if they win (and why shouldn't they, when the weight of a silent majority is behind them?), they will have defeated inertia. Second, you need the protest to be so simple, repetitive and doable--so focused on the critical issue of the time--that more and more people join in just for the fun of being right and good, sort of the way they might be going to weekly prayer meeting. Little by little, the protest becomes an enormous political fact. (Think of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.)
http://tpmcafe.
Egypt
Perversion of Islam: Leading Egypt clerics back Gaza tunnel barrier: report (AFP)
AFP - A council of leading Muslim clerics has supported the Egyptian government's construction of an underground barrier along the border with Gaza to impede tunnelling by smugglers, a report said on Friday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
The Egyptian Plans to Thwart the Gaza Freedom March
It is safe to assume that at about the time the Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina announced its plans to enter Gaza, Egypt also made plans, in consultation with their Israeli, American and occasionally Jordanian counterparts.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/
Gaza Freedom March activists target Egypt's complicity
It was another eventful day here in Cairo at the inaugural Gaza Freedom March (GFM). On Tuesday night, organizers informed the 1,362-strong delegation that only 100 of them had been selected to travel to Gaza yesterday morning, Wednesday 30 December. After several hours of heated debate with organizers over whether this was an appropriate strategy, the meeting concluded without a consensus.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Violence and Aggression/Detainees
AT-TUWANI: Israeli settler violence against children
An Israeli settler from the outpost of Havat Ma'on (Hill 833) chased and threw stones at Palestinian schoolchildren from the villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al-Abeed. ImageThe Israeli army exposed the children to this attack by arriving more than 90 minutes late to escort the children to their school in the village of At-Tuwani. The schoolchildren had been waiting for the army escort to arrive for nearly 30 minutes when an Israeli settler came out from a house within Havat Ma'on. The fourteen Palestinian children, ages 6-15, immediately began to move away from the settler, towards their village. Witnesses reported that when the settler saw the children moving away, he charged towards them, hurling stones at the children with a slingshot. He chased them several hundred meters, all the way back to their village. Tareq Ibrahim Abu Jundiyye, a 15-year-old boy from Tuba, spoke about the experience: “The younger kids started crying as we were running away because they were afraid the settler would catch them. I mean, we had to run away. If I had stayed I would have been struck on the head by a rock.”
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Report: 2 Palestinians injured by settlers' stones
Osama and Ziad Suan's car attacked with stones near settlement of Yakir while making its way to Ramallah. Their cousin says relatives hospitalized in serious condition. IDF forces dispatched to area following complaints of stone throwing.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
The Israeli military levels two animal huts near Hebron
The Israeli military leveled on Thursday two animal huts that belong to a Palestinian farmer from Al Baqabra village near Hebron, southern West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Life sentence for PFLP military leader
Jerusalem – Ma’an – An Israeli court in Jerusalem sentenced A’hed Abu Ghulmah, a leader of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to a life term and an additional five years of imprisonment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Abbas's militia kidnaps the widow of a martyr
Abbas's militia kidnapped, on Thursday, the widow of Qassam martyr Ali Allan from the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. She was released after interrogation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
The Israeli military kidnaps 11 civilians from the West Bank
11 Palestinian civilians were kidnapped by Israeli troops on Thursday during pre dawn military invasions targeting a number of west Bank communities.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Humanitarian
Gaza crossings sealed
Gaza - Ma'an - Despite a scheduled opening on Friday, Israeli officials told Palestinian liaison officers in Gaza that all three goods crossings into the Strip would be closed, Raed Fattouh said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
War Crimes
Researchers: US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
The seventy-one-page report, "Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza," provides witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus munitions had on civilians and civilian property in Gaza. Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended in January.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Political Developments
Officials: Netanyahu proposes Egypt peace summit
Israeli officials say plan raised by PM during talks with Mubarak this week. Abbas aide: Region will see important political activity in next two weeks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Abbas: Israel sabotages Palestinian achievements by killing us
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel Thursday of trying to sabotage Palestinian achievements - mainly the enforcement of law and order, stability and security in the West Bank - through its military incursions and killing of Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
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/
Bardawil: Abbas tried to sow discord between Egypt and Hamas in his speech
Dr. Salah al-Bardawil said that the speech made by Abbas was used to sow discord between Egypt and Hamas, reflecting the extent of political bankruptcy reached by Abbas.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Hamas blasts Abbas' speech as "comic"
GAZA, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Hamas movement on Friday slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and described his speech on Thursday to mark the 45 year anniversary for establishing his Fatah party as "comic". Salah al-Bardaweel, a Gaza-based Hamas leader told Xinhua on telephone that what Abbas said in his speech on Thursday night "isa clear evidence of this man's bankruptcy."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Other News
A Remarkable Speech to the United Nations on Occupied Jerusalem by Prof. Walid Khalidi
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Vanunu's courage
Once again the Israeli authorities have shown their disregard for human rights and unremittingly vindictive behaviour towards Mordechai Vanunu (House arrest for Israeli nuclear whistleblower, 30 December). Despite having known of Mordechai's two-year relationship with his Norwegian girlfriend, the authorities chose now, over Christmas (a repeat of what happened two years ago), to once again arrest and detain him and his girlfriend for 24 hours, on the basis that he was mixing with foreigners. Mordechai has been discouraging his many supporters from contacting him. But the authorities have shown little sympathy to his response to their requests that he should keep a much lower profile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make rare visit to Gaza
Four American, Canadian members of Neturei Karta prepare to celebrate Sabbath in Palestinian Territory. 'It's crucial that people of Gaza understand the terrible tragedy here is not in the name of Judaism,' one of them says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Kahane relative released on bail
A teenage relative of the late Kach founder Rabbi Meir Kahane was released on bail Thursday evening, having been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the arson attack on a mosque in the Palestinian village of Yasuf last month. A Judea and Samaria Police spokesman said the youth remains a suspect and that police would continue to investigate his alleged role in the attack. His name was not released because he is a minor.nnThe suspect was released because police did not see a reason to hold him in custody, the spokesman said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
J'lem: Father suspected of beating toddler daughter to death
Two-year-old pays ultimate price for parents' marital troubles; wife leaves house after heated argument, husband believed to strangle their daughter.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
Was Israel's Gaza offensive worth it?, Gideon Levy
Today offers us an ironic conjuncture of commemorations: the fast of the 10th of the Hebrew month of Tevet and the first anniversary of Operation Cast Lead. On the day of the fast, which commemorates the Babylonian siege on Jerusalem, few Israelis are thinking about Gaza, under Israeli blockade for twice the time ancient Jerusalem was besieged. On the anniversary of the attack on Gaza, few people are doing any real soul-searching.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Report from Gaza: One student’s question to the world – ‘Why the Palestinians? Why are we the only ones suffering?’
The question was like an electric shock to the six or so Palestine solidarity activists, including myself, as we were standing inside a classroom at a school in Gaza City. “Why the Palestinians? Why are we the only ones suffering?” asked a Palestinian girl who was probably about nine or ten-years-old. And then the enormity of what the people of Gaza go through every day hit me. Most of us were Americans and one was Canadian, and we were delivering some of the $17,000 in school supplies that Jessica Campbell and Julia Hurley, two members of the Gaza Freedom March student delegation, had brought and raised on their own.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
An Interview with Ilan Pappe; The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, FATMA ELSHHATI, MIHO SEKI and ANTHONY LÖWSTEDT
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Engl. orig. 2006), on the events in 1947-49 that led to the formation of the state of Israel, had just been published in German translation, and he was in Austria to promote it. A few weeks prior to the outbreak of the Gaza war (2008-2009), Pappe answered our questions in such a way that all his points are still as relevant today as they were a year ago. Gaza is still suffocating under a heavy Israeli blockade, East Jerusalem and the West Bank still being invaded by illegal Jewish settlers. It is clearer than ever before that Israel is not defending itself; it is extending itself. The remaining Palestinian pockets of land look like 20th-century South African Bantustans, and worse, like the shrinking and disappearing American Indian reservations of the 19th century.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
With Only 0.4% of AIPAC's Budget...
In 2008, the totl revenues for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)-the leading organization in the United States supporting Israeli occupation and apartheid-amounted to $70,676,421. In that same year, the total revenues for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation-the leading coalition in the United States working to change U.S. policy toward Palestine/Israel to support human rights, international law, and equality-amounted to $276,747, or just 0.39% of AIPAC's revenues.
http://endtheoccupationblog.
Awaiting a miracle from Washington
Khaled Amayreh - Al Ahram Weekly in English "The Palestinian Authority may be seeking renewed talks with Israel even in the absence of an Israeli freeze on settlements."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/
Iraq
Friday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 4 Wounded
Although the New Year’s holiday has tamped down casualty reports from Iraq, other news made the international media. Among them was an independent analysis of civilian deaths and the Iraqi government’s displeasure with the dismissal of a case against Backwater contractors.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Thursday in Iraq: No Reported Casualties
Thanks to the New Year’s holiday, Iraq seemed exceptionally quiet today. No violent attacks were reported; however, other Iraq-related items were in the headlines. Foremost, a U.S. judge dismissed charges against five Blackwater contractors accused of firing upon Iraqi civilians.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraq bomb plotters recruited in US-run prison: police (AFP/File)
AFP/File - Two men on death row for masterminding an Al-Qaeda truck bombing that killed 88 people on June 20 were recruited in a US-run prison camp, a senior Iraqi police commander said on Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Judge tosses Blackwater case, cites gov't missteps (AP)
AP - A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Iraq expresses astonishment over Blackwater (AFP)
AFP - Iraq expressed astonishment over the dropping of charges against Blackwater guards accused of killing 14 civilians in 2007, one of the bloodiest incidents involving a private security firm here.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
A decade after Israeli withdrawal, border villages remain in limbo
CHEBAA // In the far south-east corner of Lebanon, a mishmash of borders, military checkpoints and United Nations peacekeeper observation posts work together to keep unwanted visitors away from this beautiful line of rocky hills where three countries’ borders come together amid the region’s tallest mountains.
http://www.thenational.ae/
U.S. and other world news
Hope, War and Resistance: 2009 in Review
Democracy Now! looks back at 2009, including the Israeli assault on Gaza, Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration, the economic crisis, Goldman Sachs and the AIG bonus scandal, the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, drone attacks on Pakistan, the coup in Honduras, healthcare reform, the release of the Bush administration torture memos, the murder of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, the protests in Iran, the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, Blackwater and other private military contractors, the firing of White House environmental adviser Van Jones, the gay rights movement, the global food crisis, the ongoing occupation of Iraq, the Copenhagen climate summit and the growth of the climate justice movement, plus our exclusive interviews with former jailed activist Jeff “Free” Luers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Barstow, Bolivian President Evo Morales, death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and many more. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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