Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Land/Property Theft and Destruction
Israeli bulldozers destroy agricultural land near settlement
Hebron – Ma'an – Israeli troops bulldozed four dunums of agricultural lands in Safa village north of Hebron Tuesday night, following an effort by Palestinian farmers to plant olive trees in the valley near Beit Ummar.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Jewish settlers burn Palestinian property, IOF damage land and detain citizens
Jewish armed settlers wreaked havoc in the village of Ematin, Qalqilia district, in a pre dawn raid on Thursday that complemented their sabotage acts in the same village over the past two weeks.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Palestinians say settlers torched cars
Umm a-Tin residents say Gilad Farm Jews set fire to four of their vehicles, army did not intervene. 'This proves that security forces are supporting settlers,' one resident says.
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Mohammad Othman and Jamal Juma’ freed from Israeli detention thanks in part to international pressure
After almost four months in Israeli custody without charge, nearly half that time spent in the legally dubious administrative detention, Mohammad Othman left the prison walls behind, taking his first free steps in months, before crossing Israel’s wall, heading home.
“I’m still in shock about being free, but am so happy and relieved,” the youth coordinator from the Stop the Wall campaign told me on the phone while riding with his brother to see his family in the West Bank for the first time in months. “We were constantly under surveillance in the jail; the Israelis were always trying to get information to incriminate us with. I was in a cell with other people, but couldn’t trust talking politics with anyone.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Free Abdallah Abu Rahmah
On the night of International Human Right Day, Thursday December 10th, at 2am, Abdallah Abu Rahmah was arrested from his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Seven military jeeps surrounded his house, and Israeli soldiers broke the door, extracted Abdallah from his bed, and, after briefly allowing him to say goodbye to his wife Majida and their three children — seven year-old Luma, five year-old Lian and eight month-old baby Laith, they blindfolded him and took him into custody.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Ni’ilin Activist’s Home Raided
At approximately 1:30 am three military jeeps and over a dozen soldiers invaded the village of Ni’ilin and surrounded the home of elementary school teacher and organizer Mohammed Amirah. Two officers and a handful of soldiers than entered Amirah’s home, carefully went through his family’s belongings and questioned him about his family, occupation and phone numbers.
After about an hour in Amirah’s residence, the soldiers have left, and headed out of the village. In the past week the army has staged night-raids into Ni’ilin every single day with no exception, and tonight’s raid follows the arrest of three prominent Ni’ilin activists last night.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
136 tones of settlement products seized in Ramallah
Hebron – Ma’an – Palestinian customs officials confiscated and destroyed approximately 136 tons of materials used to manufacture asphalt en route from an illegal Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday. Haitham Zein, an official for the public relations department for Palestinian customs said 94 tons of asphalt and 43 tons of base for tarmacking roads were confiscated in separate raids.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Difficult Times in Nil’in
The Israeli military invaded Nil’in village at approximately 1am on Wednedsay the 13th. Three jeeps and approximately 15 soldiers came from the check point via road 446 to the house of activist Mohammad Ameera. According to Ameera, two commanders and a group of soldiers entered his home, checked out his house and asked him general questions about his family and work for an hour. His children were awoken and frightened when the soldiers invaded their home. After questioning him they went below Ameera’s house to investigate the residence of a worker that Ameera rests to. This is the first time the military has come to Ameera’s home. This house raid happened just one day after the arrest of three members of the Nilin Popular Committee Against the Wall.
http://josephdana.com/2010/01/
Settling into Sheikh Jarrah, Andrew Kadi
On this beautiful and sunny day, a group of us were going on a tour of various areas, including East Jerusalem, with an acquaintance as our tour guide. As the tour wound down, I realized we were entering Sheikh Jarrah. Noting what I’d seen the day before and the demonstration 3 days before, I thought to myself "Wow Sheikh Jarrah finally seems calm." The group I was with stopped to talk to the Palestinians in a makeshift tent sitting on the al-Kurd family’s property. Within the same property is Nabeel al-Kurd’s actual house, recently taken over by Israeli settlers using a court order. The juxtaposition of the al-Kurd family’s tent next to their own house stolen from them really affected me.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Bono: Don't cross Palestine's picket line
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel to Bono: Your appearance in Israel would lend to its well-oiled campaign to whitewash all the above grave violations of international law and basic human rights through "re-branding" itself as a liberal nation enjoying membership in the Western club of democracies.
http://electronicintifada.net/
For Israel, a reckoning, John Pilger
A new global movement is challenging Israel's violations of international law with the same strategies that were used against apartheid.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
Crushed under Israel`s boot
NEVE GORDON - Mail Guardian Online - But in the past five years Palestinians from scores of villages such as Bil`in and Jayyous have developed new forms of pro-peace resistance that have attracted the attention of the international community. Even Prime Minister Salam Fayyad recently called upon his constituents to adopt similar strategies. Israel, in turn, decided to find a way to end the protests once and for all and has begun a well-orchestrated campaign that targets the local leaders of such resistance.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
A tear for Anne Frank in Cairo
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
In support of Aparthied
'Our Israel': My Exchange with House Minority Leader John Boehner
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Aggression/Violence/Detainees
Witnesses: Israel performs Gaza incursion
Gaza - Ma’an - Residents near the Sufa border, southern Gaza, reported that an Israeli military incursion was undertaken late Wednesday night. Witnesses said Israeli forces entered close to the border, opened artillery fire while F16 warplanes were sighted above the skies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Three injured as soldiers attack farmers in southern West Bank
Two farmers and a child were injured on Wednesday at dawn when Israeli troops attacked villagers from Safa, southern West Bank, as they protested the destruction of their land. Local sources said that military bulldozers started to uproot trees and destroy a farm land that belongs to villagers from Safa on Tuesday night.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Female students of Madama school subject to constant harassment from Israeli army
Israeli Occupation Forces entered the northern West Bank village of Madama last night, damaging 5 houses and terrifying residents. The military has upped their presence in Madama in recent weeks, with the harassment of female students on their way to school becoming commonplace, and the creation of a new roadblock separating hundreds of farmers from their land.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
IOF troops detain son, daughter of Nablus municipality member
IOF arrested Suhaib, 23, and Safa'a Al-Masri, 20, the offspring of Nablus municipal council member Khulud Al-Masri while returning from medical treatment in Jordan on Tuesday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Testimony: Testimony: Israel arrests wounded man at Erez Crossing
My son Ahmad, 19, was injured on 9 January 2009 by fragments of missiles that were fired by an unmanned aerial vehicle and landed next to our house, east of Khan Yunis, in New ‘Abasan. He was taken to Egypt, where he was treated for seven months. When he got back to the Strip, his doctors referred him to Germany for treatment. To do that, he had to go to the German embassy in Tel Aviv, and he couldn’t get a permit to enter Israel.
http://www.btselem.org/
Al-Quds University lecturer detained
Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli forces detained Al-Quds University lecturer and Fatah affiliate Sa'eed Yaqin, according to the detainee's wife and witnesses. The detention took place in the Jerusalem village of Beit Duqu, north-west Jerusalem. "A large number of Israeli solders broke into our home at dawn, forces us out, and thoroughly searched it," said Yaqin's wife.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
The Israeli military kidnap two civilians as they crossing borders into the West Bank
Two Palestinian civilians from the same family were kidnapped by the Israeli military on Wednesday at dawn as they were crossing the borders between Jordan and the West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Detainee loses eye; Hamas demands investigation
Gaza/Jenin – Ma’an – A Palestinian detainee was severely injured after being attacked at an Israeli detention centre, Salem, near Jenin in the northern West Bank, Hamas said in a statement on Thursday. The statement, issued by Hamas' detainees' committee said Huthayfa Zyara, from Nablus, lost an eye after he was beaten by an Israeli intelligence officer.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Egypt's Humanitarian War against Gazans
Fatwa bans work in Gaza Strip tunnels
At the request of the Palestinian Authority, an Islamic scholar published a fatwa on Tuesday banning Muslims from digging or working in tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Egypt performs extensive tunnel raid; three injured in clashes
Al-Arish – Ma’an – Three Egyptian soldiers were injured on Thursday following clashes with smugglers in the border town of Rafah as forces conducted extensive raids, Egyptian security sources said. A total of four warehouses were seized during the operation, in addition to three tunnels, sources said, adding that large quantities of goods were confiscated.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Egypt to build 23 watchtowers along borders with Gaza
The Egyptian authorities are planning to construct 23 watchtowers supplied with bullet proof glass windows and electronic devices along the borders with Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Inside Story - Israel wall: Security or apartheid? - 12 Jan 2010
Israel's government has approved plans for the construction of a barrier along its border with Egypt in a bid to stop illegal entry, particularly by militants. The latest Israeli move could divert some of the attention caused by the Egyptian plan to build a wall. Israel believes this is the best option to protect its borders with Egypt. The other option would be to amend the EgyptianIsraeli peace treaty to allow for more Egyptian border troops to be deployed. Can fences and walls provide the security a nation seeks and where does it leave genuine asylum seekers from Africa?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
The Iron Dome, JONATHAN COOK
Israel unveiled “Iron Dome” last week, a missile-defence system that is designed to strike a knock-out blow against short-range rockets of the variety fired into Israel by Hamas and Hizbullah. In the short term, Iron Dome is supposed to herald the demise of the rocket threat to Israeli communities near Gaza four years after Hamas won the Palestinian elections.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Tense relations with Egypt threaten Hamas' Gaza lifeline
GAZA CITY: The construction of a new underground wall and recent border clashes have frayed relations between Hamas and Egypt and could threaten the Islamist movement's main lifeline in Gaza, analysts say. Since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007 it has relied on smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt to defy Israeli sanctions and its leaders have used frequent trips to Cairo to escape international isolation.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
British Minister: Kettling of Gaza "morally indefensible"
Responding to comparison's made by Jeremy Corbyn MP of Israel's policy towards Gaza and the UK police tactic of "kettling" protestors via mass detentions, Bryant stated that it was "morally indefensible to 'kettle' the Palestinian people." Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip since the summer of 2007, preventing freedom of movement for the Palestinian people and allowing the delivery of only the most basic of humanitarian goods. Reconstruction materials, desperately needed in the wake of a conflict that damaged or destroyed 50,000 homes, have largely been prevented from entering the territory.
http://www.english.
U.S. Franciscan detained on Cairo street while on march to Gaza
Franciscan Father Louis Vitale’s recent travel to the West Bank and Cairo was not a journey for the fainthearted. He was tear gassed outside a Palestinian olive grove and detained on the streets of Cairo, Egypt, by a large police force. He went without food for a few days in solidarity with residents of the Gaza Strip who do not have enough to eat because of Israel’s ongoing blockade, and he offered energy bars and water to weary Egyptian cops who surrounded him and some of the 1,362 people from 42 nations who were in the Egyptian capital for a Gaza freedom march Dec. 31.
http://www.catholic-sf.org/
Human Rights/Siege/Discrimination/
People & Power - One Law for All?
People & Power investigates whether Israeli Arabs are regularly the victims of legal double standards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Amira Hass / Israel restricts Palestinian lawyers' access to West Bank detainees
Israel is prohibiting Palestinian lawyers and the relatives of Palestinian detainees from reaching a military tribunal via the Beitunia checkpoint west of Ramallah. The prohibition, which has been in effect for the past three days, means that Israeli police are requiring Palestinians to use the Qalandiyah crossing 20 kilometers away, where they must produce an entry permit to Israel - which can take weeks to obtain - if they want to enter an Israeli military tribunal that is on West Bank land. The court lies 300 meters south of the Beitunia roadblock, and was built on land that is part of Beitunia.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israeli Arab leader: Don’t treat us like enemies
Head of Higher Arab Monitoring Committee asks for meeting with President Peres following Sheikh Raed Salah's nine-month prison sentence, in order to protest State's 'ongoing attack' against Arab public's leaders.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Education under Attack in Gaza
On December 28th 2008 mid-term examinations had been scheduled to take place at the University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS) in Gaza. When the day arrived, however, the University College's rooms, which usually cater for 8000 students, were void of any life. This was the second day of operation Cast Lead. The University remained closed and examinations were postponed. Concentration, patience and motivation; the three pillars to learning were the main targets of operation Cast Lead as it sought to instill a sense of danger in every spot in Gaza. Operation Cast Lead wholly demolished or rendered unusable several educational facilities across the Strip. Amongst these facilities were 280 kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, the American International School, the library of the Al Aqsa University and the laboratory of the Islamic University. Many other educational facilities were shot at causing facades to become tarnished with indelible war stains and windows to shatter in a deliberate attempt to undermine education.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Israel's Prohibitions and 'Enemy Alien' Contacts, Stephen Lendman
Adalah is the legal center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel advocating on their behalf in a nation affording rights only to Jews. In September 2009, its report titled "Prohibited Protest" exposed how Israel's law enforcement authorities restricted free expression protests against Operation Cast Lead. It shows how police, the State Prosecutor's Office, General Security Services (GSS or Shabak), the courts, and even academic institutions used or supported arrests and imprisonments to stop Israeli Arabs and supportive Jews from protesting against the war.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
War Crimes
Gaza: 75 Deformed Babies Caused by the War
Gaza, January 14, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Recent scientific analyses have shown that the war was a direct cause of the increasing numbers of birth defects, miscarriages and cancer in the Gaza Strip. A report by Conscience Organisation for Human Rights concerning the environmental and health dangers resulting from the bombardment and invasion revealed that incidents of children born with deformities have risen markedly in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Political Developments
Abbas says will reject U.S. pressure for talks
* Abbas sticks by terms for resumption of negotiations
* Says pressure for talks without settlement halt "unjust"
* Abbas due to meet U.S. envoy on Thursday
http://www.alertnet.org/
Israel fears Turkey's "shift towards Iran"
JERUSALEM, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Israel is concerned that for more than a year Turkey has been moving closer to Iran, an unnamed official in Israeli Prime Minister's Office told Xinhua on Wednesday. However, some analysts argue that the deterioration of the bilateral relations is much of a result of Israel's military campaign in and around Gaza exactly one year ago and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, instead of the Iran element.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Other News
Catholic Bishops Criticize Israel on Palestinians
JERUSALEM (AP) -- A high-level delegation of Roman Catholic bishops from North America and Europe has criticized Israeli polices in east Jerusalem and called for more contacts between ordinary Israelis and Palestinians. The group says violence, insecurity, home demolitions, the route of Israel's West Bank separation barrier and other policies threaten peace prospects.
http://www.nytimes.com/
US Internal Revenue Commissioner pledges to look into `charities` supporting West Bank settlers
AOL News/US Newswire - Until now, the US income tax authorities took vigorous action against Muslim charities accused of "supporting terrorists", but no action against extreme-right groups registered as charities and funneling vast tax-free sums to West Bank settlers.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
IDF officer to protesters: you are traitors; I am here to defend settlers (video)
A report from Friday Channel 10 news shows how a peaceful Palestinian demonstration – it’s the reporters who call it peaceful, not me – is met with tear gas, rubber bullets and the occasional beating of demonstrators from the hand of IDF soldiers. Later on, a group of masked settlers arrive and start throwing rocks on the Palestinian demonstrators. The army does nothing. When some Jewish left-wing protesters ask the officer present why doesn’t he stop the settler, the officer responds: “I am here to protect them, not you or the Palestinians… unlike you, I am not a traitor to my country.”
http://www.promisedlandblog.
Israeli Islamist leader gets nine months for assault (AFP)
AFP - A court has sentenced hardline Israeli Islamist leader Raed Salah to nine months in prison for assaulting a police officer, a spokesman for his movement said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Israel to expel Palestinian-American journalist (AP)
AP - Security officials say a Palestinian-American journalist has been detained at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport and will be expelled.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Ma`an News Agency editor Jared Malsin facing imminent deporation
Ma`an - Malsin, an American citizen, was detained upon arrival at Israel`s Ben Gurion Airport. Israeli security agents have prevented him from taking calls, and lied to concerned US consular staff, initially denying that he was being held. He is slated for deportation at 6:05 am on Thursday, 14 January.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Comptroller: Israel losing PR battle in Arabic to Al-Jazeera
The Israeli government is failing to connect with the country's Arabic speakers, who have been excluded from its public relations strategy to the advantage of Israel's enemies, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss warned in a report released Wednesday.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
Zionist youth say they face financial ruin
World Zionist youth movements are facing a financial crisis which could lead to their imminent collapse, leaders of all major such movements told the Knesset this week in a plea for government intervention. If this happens, "hundreds of thousands of Jewish youth will lose their only significant link to the State of Israel and to their Jewish identity," a coalition of chairpersons from Habonim Dror, Hashomar Hatzair, World Bnei Akiva, Maccabi World Union and other movements wrote to the Knesset.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israeli polygamist suspected of enslavement, rape
Police arrest Goel Ratzon, reported to have 89 children from 32 women who call themselves his wives. Authorities say arrest made possible by human trafficking law, complainant who came forward last year.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Suspected sex offender escapes extradition to US
Israeli Supreme Court refuses to extradite Abraham Mondrowitz, suspected of sexually abusing minors 25 years ago.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
A second Gaza war around the corner?
Israel's recent aggressions look ominously like the 4 November 2008 attack on Gaza, which killed six persons and shattered the four-month-long truce meticulously respected by Hamas. Predictably, Hamas and other factions retaliated for that Israeli provocation and then Israel used their response to justify its massacre of 1,400 people in Gaza this time last year. Hasan Abu Nimah comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/
The United States, Israel and the retreat of freedom
A new report by Freedom House, a US-government funded think tank, suggests US interference around the world makes countries less free. Despite this, it calls for even more US intervention. The report's approach also provides a stark example of the abyss liberal thinking has fallen into when it comes to ignoring Israel's systematic abuses and presenting the country as an idealized democracy. EI's Ali Abunimah comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/
A U.S. ‘charade’ in peace effort, Miko Peled
The Palestinian national struggle continues to be largely ignored by the Obama administration. Our new president has failed to bring a new approach. As has been the case for the last 40 years, Palestinian attempts to settle the conflict through diplomacy are ignored or downplayed. When violence erupts, Palestinians are blamed and labeled terrorists. The United States maintains the charade that peace in Israel/Palestine is a priority and every new administration promises to bring the much-promised peace to the region only to fall into the same pattern of inaction and excuse-making. Israel and the U.S. are pursuing a course seemingly calculated to reduce Palestinians to a state of hopelessness.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/
No entry for Arabs, Avirama Golan
Anyone observing Israel these days - and the hazing to which the Turkish ambassador was subjected is only the latest example - sees the neighborhood bully. Anyone who cares about self-preservation will stay away from this hard-hearted, dull-witted madman whose sole guiding principle is "national honor" - or in other words, sowing strife and dissension that undermines the state's interests.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Shocking Video Aired on Israeli Channel 10 now with Subtitles, from ibn Ezra by Joseph Dana
A couple of days ago, I posted a video clip from Channel 10 news here in Israel about a recent protest in Nebi Salah, West Bank. I have been trying to hard code the video with English subtitles that Didi Remez graciously provided to no avail. So I am posting Didi’s subtitles below the video. By the way, if you have not been to Didi’s site, you are missing out on one of the best sites on Israel available in English.
http://josephdana.com/2010/01/
What hope for Hebron? | Seth Freedman
"The situation is getting worse here," says Zleikha Muhtaseb, the principal of a Palestinian kindergarten in Hebron's old city. "After the intifada calmed down, we thought things were improving, but now it's getting worse again: roadblocks are increasing, soldiers are attacking Palestinians at checkpoints, and the settlers are becoming more violent. Day and night the settlers threaten [local Palestinians], throwing stones and trying to burn their property, in order to put more and more pressure on them."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Arab Papers on Apology: Israel Only Understands Turkish
14/01/2010 The Arab press did not hide its elation over Israel’s apology to Turkey over its diplomatic faux pas. The Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar called the Turkish Prime Minister “Sultan Erdogan” in its main headline. It continued on to quip: “Israel understands only Turkish: the apology was on the same scale as the humiliation.” “The threat was effective. The Israelis quickly got on their knees and made a move in proportionate to the humiliation they committed,” wrote the Lebanese paper. “They sent a letter of apology from Ayalon himself to President Gul after being pressured by Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The most important thing state in the letter: ‘I apologize for the manner in which Israel behaved. I did not mean to humiliate the ambassador…’
http://almanar.com.lb/
Getting to the root of the conflict, Alice Rothchild
On January 11, the delegation I’m traveling with visited with Mohammed Jaradat of the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. He speaks in a deep, resonant voice and has sparkling olive green eyes that twinkle as he presents. He explains to the delegation that today 2/3 of Palestinians are refugees, mostly from 1948, and some from 1967. The more than seven million displaced Palestinians constitute the world’s largest and longest standing case of forced displacement; thus any political solution must include a solution to the refugee crisis as well as other well known issues.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/
Academic freedom, CampusWatch goes after Columbia’s Rashid Khalidi and PARC
Is space One answer is that academic McCarthyite group CampusWatch is, unfortunately, still in business. In fact, they just published yet another hopefully meaningless attack on the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) and keynote speaker at their October conference, the preeminent Middle East scholar (and famously, former-friend-of-Obama) Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University’s Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies. Why do they want PARC to stop receiving funding from the Department of Education? Because in his speech at a conference on Palestine, Khalidi criticized Israel, and worse, criticized Campus Watch! Comical, yes. Imagine, one of the country’s most respected Middle East scholars having the audacity to criticize Israel and CampusWatch at a conference called “Palestine: What We Know.”
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/
Hebron: Little More than a Dream, Amina Waheed
It is called the “City of Patriarchs.” Regarded as a holy site for Muslims, Jews and Christians, Hebron exists today within a schizophrenic state between Palestinians and Jewish settlers. It lingers, as its tragic present eats away at the remnants of a gilded past. Upon entering Hebron’s old city, I could not help but compare it to that of Jerusalem. It’s like walking through a depressing, deflated version of Jerusalem’s lively, tourist haven. There are similarities: old men chatting in huddles, drinking tea and strumming their prayer beads, looking on as shopkeepers welcome us in to buy their wares. For the most part, though, it exists in striking contrast to that of its Jerusalem counterpart. Nearly a ghost-town, Hebron has been stripped of its splendor, broken down to reveal the less than modest living of Khalilis [Hebron's native population]. While Jerusalem’s Old City has light bouncing off the storefronts’ colorful array of jewelry and ceramics, the light in Hebron resembles the chaotic collection of flickering tube lights reminiscent of a doctor’s office. Even the sunlight is oppressed from entering; sifting in through the wire nets the underground Palestinian city is forced to put up to protect it from the trash Israeli settlers throw down from their homes up above.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
Two Visits to Hebron, Rabbi Brian
A week ago I moved to Jerusalem for the next five months. Over this period of time I hope to share ocassional posts about my experience here. This is the first. In November 2008, I organized a tour of Hebron with Shovrim Shtika (Soldiers Breaking the Silence) that challenged my core beliefs. On Monday I visited Hebron again this time joining a Health Human Rights Project delegation. On my first visit over a year ago, we walked down Shuhadeh Street and saw the deserted part of the Old City of Hebron, with a line of Palestinians stores that were forcibly closed by the Israeli military. This area of the city, that once bustled with life and was home home to 30,000 Palestinians, was now almost a ghost town. The streets were empty, the stores were bolted shut, many with Jewish stars and other graffiti smeared in black paint on the metal doors. In some of the houses that were still occupied children peered at us from a porch totally enclosed by a metal grate to protect them against objects hurled at them by the settlers.
http://rabbibrian.wordpress.
An Odyssey for Justice, Ramzy Baroud
The recent actions of people from around the world in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza have arguably represented the closest manifestation of international solidarity since the International Brigades against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. A bold assertion? Admittedly, I may not be as in tune with reality as I should be. Born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where most refugees felt that no one cared about their plight, it was easy to believe that nothing could possibly break away from the ever tenuous and redundant stances by Arab and other countries — whose acts of solidarity went no further than hollow words of condemnation. The recent noble stances by activists from all over the world therefore seem like an unprecedented act of solidarity which, dare I believe, indicates the direct mass involvement of civil society as a real party in the ongoing Palestinian struggle for political and human rights.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Ismail Zayid – My Personal Story of Dispossession and Suffering
I was born in 1933, in the village of Beit Nuba in Palestine, where I was brought up and lived happily with family and friends. The village of Beit Nuba had existed for thousands of years, as historic records show. However, Israeli wars of aggression and war crimes made its recent history painful and tragic. In May 1948, the Israeli army launched an attack to occupy the villages of Imwas [Emmaus], Yalu and Beit Nuba, but failed to conquer these villages. Elsewhere, in Palestine, the Zionist terrorist gangs and the Israeli army were committing massacres against the predominantly unarmed Palestinian people and conducted their long-planned campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their homeland. There was one day, out of many during that conflict, that left painful sights in my life. It was on July 10, 1948 that Israeli army troops, led by Yitzhak Rabin, occupied the Palestinian cities of Lydda and Ramleh. Rabin and his officers proceeded to drive these 50 – 60,000 civilian inhabitants of these two cities away from their homes in terror, with low-flying airplanes over their heads shooting the occasional person and forcing them to run. The sight of the terror-stricken, hungry and thirsty men, women and children fleeing in terror in the midday sun of the hot summer, having run approximately twenty-five kilometres to the village of Beit Nuba, where I, a 15 year old boy, saw them with my own eyes, is a sight not to be forgotten.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
A People's Cartoon History of Gaza, PAUL de ROOIJ
The launch of a new book by Joe Sacco is a major event, and with considerable expectation a crowd recently gathered in London to hear the great Maltese-American cartoonist and author discuss his latest book: Footnotes in Gaza. [1] Sacco spent seven years researching and drawing about two sordid events that took place in November 1956 when Israeli forces invaded Gaza as part of the joint British-French attack against Egypt. The Israeli army conducted two massacres where hundreds of Palestinians were murdered, and Sacco set out to collate the oral histories of the Palestinians who witnessed or were the victims of the events. Sacco engaged in a detailed investigative work finding the witnesses who could credibly recollect what happened, sifted through the accounts to eliminate the factual inconsistencies due to the deteriorated memories, and then spent four years bringing these histories to life in his inimitable style. The book doesn’t only focus on the past, but the present is also very much part of his account; in present day Gaza giant armoured bulldozers flatten houses in Rafah and where the ongoing siege affects everybody's lives. Sacco says: "… the past and the present cannot be so easily disentangled; they are part of a remorseless continuum…"
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Karameh Means Dignity for Palestinians, Daoud Kuttab
Although the Arabic word Karmeh simply means dignity, it has become an expression that has many more usages and meanings. Karameh is also a Jordan Valley town in the Shuna'a district which witnessed a fierce battle against the Israelis. The date was March 21, 1968 and the Israeli army was trying to stem attacks by Palestinian fedayeen coming across the Jordan river into areas occupied by Israel. In its attempts to curtail the guerrilla attacks, the Israelis decided to launch a cross border attack only to be rebuffed by brave Palestinian fighters as well as members of the Jordanian army. After the battle King Hussein is quoted as saying we are all fedayyen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Iraq
Wednesday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 12 Wounded
At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 12 others were wounded in the latest violence. Baghdad, meanwhile, remains under a security crackdown. Seven people were killed and six others were wounded during a suicide truck bombing at a police station in Saqlawiya. A vehicle ban is in place. A bomb in Abu Ghraib killed one civilian and injured two others.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Ba'ath saga haunts Iraq's future | Ranj Alaaldin
De-Ba'athification is derailing the national reconciliation process, but Sunnis will not necessarily choose to boycott elections. The Iraqi government is treading a fine line after its Accountability and Justice commission (also known as the "de-Ba'athification" commission) moved to bar a prominent Sunni politician, Salah al-Mutlaq, and 14 others from contesting the national elections in March because of their ties with the outlawed Ba'ath party.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
More candidates may be banned from Iraqi elections (McClatchy Newspapers)
McClatchy Newspapers - BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials met late into the night Wednesday to determine how many candidates should be barred from running in the March elections after a panel determined that they had ties to Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Iraq sentences 11 to death for government bombings (AP)
AP - A Baghdad court on Thursday sentenced 11 Iraqis to death for their roles in the first of a series of audacious attacks last year to target government buildings in the heart of the city.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Lebanon
Bomb in Hizbullah stronghold wounds 3 schoolchildren
KFAR FILA: A bomb apparently meant for a Hizbullah figure went off Wednesday in a southern Lebanese stronghold of the Shiite group, wounding his daughter and son and another student while they were waiting for their school bus. Security officials said the bomb exploded at around 7:30 am at the entrance of an apartment building in the village of Kfar Fila.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Analysts say resignations show tribunal losing political support
BEIRUT: The resignation of registrar David Tolbert will rock the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's standing, and his exit reflects the political forces snowballing to stifle the tribunal's work, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday. The tribunal announced on Tuesday that Tolbert, who arrived at the court late last August, was leaving his post in order to become president of the International Center for Transitional Justice.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Lebanese speaker renews call for abolishing political sectarianism
BEIRUT, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri renewed Wednesday calling for abolishing political sectarianism, although he said this "national goal" cannot be achieved within 20 years. "The ninth article of the constitution states that the parliament should form a committee to eliminate political sectarianism," said Berri in a press conference in the Parliament House in Beirut.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
A Black Panther in Beirut, DANIEL DRENNAN
In Oakland, California in the late 1960s, Emory Douglas, minister of culture for the Black Panther Party, was responsible for the manifestation of Voice in his community, and represented the hope for revolution among the marginalized and Voiceless.
In Lebanon, some 40 years later, he is to pay a visit.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Why we will never make peace with "Israel"
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Arab and other world news
Obama will seek additional $33 billion for wars
Obama will seek additional $33 billion for warsThe Obama administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department next year, The Associated Press has learned.
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/
GOP Congressman wants to deport every Iranian
The National Iranian American Council is on high alert after a South Carolina Congressman announced this week that he will introduce legislation which would require the deportation of all Iranians living in America.
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/
Congressman seeking to bar Iranians from US
The STEP Act, a bill that was originally presented in 2003, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar citizens of Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Never Mind the Facts, Let’s Have a War... ,Finian Cunningham
A missile test-fired by Iran last week was reported on the BBC World Service as being “capable of striking Israel”. The choice of words was not unusual. On previous occasions when Iran has test-fired a long-range rocket, the BBC and other western news media dutifully inform us that the said device is “capable of striking Israel”. The well-worn phrase is so reliably heard in these news bulletins that its use betrays a coded script. The not-too subliminal implications are that Iran is: a) a hostile state; b) doing something illegal in test-firing a long-range missile; and c) gearing up to deliver on its alleged threat to wipe out the state of Israel. Within hours of these reports last week, the US government weighed in with the pious accusation that the test-firing “undermines Iran’s claims of peaceful intentions”.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
Horror in Haiti as up to 100,000 die in quake
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: The Haitian prime minister Wednesday warned the death toll may top 100,000 in a calamitous earthquake which left streets strewn with corpses and thousands missing in a scene of utter carnage. Most hospitals collapsed, destroyed schools were full of dead and the cries of trapped victims escaped from crushed buildings in the center of the capital Port-au-Prince.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Want to help Haiti? Just send a text
Group's like Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti and the Red Cross are offering services in which you can donate $5 or $10 for Haiti relief efforts just by sending a text message from your cellphone. But watch out for scams.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
Blackwater in Somalia?
Reuters reports a spokesperson from the Islamist Al-Shabaab group in Somalia claiming that the US mercenary group Blackwater/Xe Services is in Somalia, is recruiting and is planning a series of spectacular terrorist attacks against civilians to discredit his movement in Mogadishu.
http://english.pravda.ru/
The Myth of Muslim Conquest, PATRICK HAENNI and SAMI AMGHAR
A question worries Europe: is Islam inherently expansionist and out to conquer the world? Yes, say those Swiss who voted against the construction of minarets. They see this expansionism underpinned by a desire for political control, sometimes imputed to the nature of Islamic ideology (pro-birth, proselytising, invasive), sometimes to the tactics of its main players (the Islamists and their agendas). Yussuf al-Qaradawi, a well-known moderate Sunni cleric, seemed to endorse this in his Al Jazeera broadcast of December 6, “Sharia and life,” on the Swiss referendum. He confirmed that conquest would happen and that all humans would be united by the word of God.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
www.TheHeadlines.org
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment