Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.
Land Theft and Destruction
Dar El-Hanoun in danger of eviction
The Israeli government is escalating its threats against Arab villages within Israel, and has now started establishing two new cities for Jews-only. The unrecognized village Dar El-Hanoun in Wadi Ara is in danger of eviction. Following these new threats against Arab citizens, the Negev Coexistence Forum and the Committee for Dar El-Hanoun are launching a fund raising campaign for the village.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Israeli Knesset decides not to return confiscated Arab lands
The Knesset endorsed the second and third reading of a resolution allowing the return of confiscated lands to their owners if they weren’t utilized but excluded lands confiscated from Palestinians.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
MKs, pro-settler activists visit Sheikh Jarrah
Jerusalem – Ma'an – A delegation of members of the Knesset's Internal Committee, along with pro-settler campaigners, visited on Tuesday the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, and Palestinian homes taken over by Israeli settlers last summer. Amal Al-Qassam, a Palestinian Jerusalemite, said that the delegation was accompanied by Israeli police. A delegation of Palestinian members of Knesset, headed by Muhammad Barakeh, is expected to visit the neighborhood in a show of solidarity with Palestinians evicted from their homes, Ma'an's correspondent said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
The false sacredness of the 1967 border
The Palestinian submission to US pressure that Israel's large West Bank settlement blocs be annexed to Israel against a fictitious land swap is another vindication of the Israeli belief that facts created are facts accepted. But if West Bank land east of the 1967 border is still contested, so is Israeli land to the west. Hasan Abu Nimah comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Ayalon faces hostile academic crowd in UK
Inside, numerous individual students interrupted the talk, challenging Ayalon’s assertions that the West Bank and East Jerusalem were not Occupied Territory, and that Israel had ‘given up’ a third of its country in its peace deal with Egypt. Before long Ayalon was not able to continue his rehearsed speech, and was forced to contend with a gathering storm of intelligent questions and statements contradicting his evasions and outright lies. At one point a member of the Palestine Society read out a full page of the Goldstone Report dealing with Israel’s deliberate killing of civilians, to thunderousapplause from the audience. Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, sitting in the front row, looked bewildered and embarrassed by his colleague’s unstatesemanlike performance.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Violence and Aggression
IOF warplanes blast Gaza airport
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) escalated their attacks on the Gaza Strip and launched aerial raids on the Gaza international airport east of Rafah city, south of the Strip, at a late hour on Tuesday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Palestinians report aerial strike on Rafah airfield
Palestinian sources in Gaza Strip reported that an Israeli aircraft fired at least three missiles at the Rafah airfield. No injuries were reported. According to the Palestinians, Israeli jets are circling the Strip's skies.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
PA official: Palestinian shot by settler near Nablus
Nablus – Ma'an – An Israeli settler shot a teenage Palestinian south of Nablus on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Amid Kadous, 18, was lightly to moderately injured by a gunshot wound to the leg, according to medics at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. Ghassan Doghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who holds the settlements portfolio for the northern West Bank, said settlers east of the Burin village opened fire directly toward Kadous after clashes broke out near the Barakah settlement. The settlers were planting crops on Palestinian farmland, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli Troops Attack Palestinian Farmers & Internationals in Southern West Bank
Israeli troops fired tear gas at Palestinian famers and their international and Israeli supporters, on Wednesday, at the town of Yatta southern West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
a particularly heinous practice
Aya Kaniuk - mahsanmilim.com - And once in a while they kept hitting him. And then after some time, he couldn’t say how long, they showed him some pictures, and said: Do you know them? And he said, I don’t. And they said, come work with us, Mohammad. And he said, no, I don’t want to. I’m no spy. Let me go. And they hit him again.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Retaliation
Soldier killed in West Bank knife attack
IDF soldier sitting inside jeep near Tapuach Junction stabbed twice in chest by Palestinian; Assailant apprehended after onlooker runs him over with car. Terrorist reportedly served as senior officer in Palestinian security forces.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
DetaineesIOF troops round up 6 Palestinians
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up six Palestinian civilians in the districts of Al-Khalil and Tulkarem in pre dawn raids on Wednesday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Locals: Israeli forces detain workers, erect flying checkpoint
Jericho – Ma'an – Israeli forces detained late on Monday night a group of Palestinian workers in the industrial area near Khan Al-Ahmar, Jericho. According to locals, Israeli forces erected a flying checkpoint at the entrance of the industrial zone and confiscated workers' permits. Those detained were taken to Ma'ale Adummim police station for questioning, they added. Among the workers detained were Muhammad As-Samhury, Muhammad Hmeidan, and Ahmad Hassan.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel Retracts Its Pardon Of Palestinian Fighter In Nablus
enior Palestinian sources reported Tuesday that the Israeli government retracted its full pardon previously issued to a Palestinian fighter from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and decided downgrade it into a partial pardon.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Human Rights/Humanitarian Issues/Siege
Robert Fisk: Gaza's defiant tunnellers head deeper underground
They are the real resistance. They are the lung through which Gaza breathes. True, missiles must pass along their subterranean tracks, Qassam rockets, too, Kalashnikov ammunition, explosives. But by far the greatest burden of the tunnellers of Gaza is the very life-blood of this besieged little pseudo-Islamic statelet: fresh meat, oranges, chocolate, shirts, trousers, toys, cigarettes, wedding dresses, paper, entire motor-cars in four bits, car batteries, even plastic bottle tops. The tunnellers of Gaza are bombed by the Israelis, they die in their own collapsing tunnels – and now they face a new Egyptian wall, even the fear of drowning. Terrorists they may be to the Israelis – the promiscuous use of this word makes it fairly meaningless these days – but heroes they are to the Palestinians of Gaza. Rich ones, too, perhaps.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Gaza's energy crisis continues
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Pressure exerted on the Palestinian Authority by international and regional officials has given Gazans a last minute reprieve, albeit temporary, from plunging into darkness and plummeting temperatures. "The emergency has been temporarily halted after the PA released urgent funds to finance two fuel tankers entering Gaza on Sunday," says Osama Dabou from Gaza's Power Plant authority.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Israel denies NGOs work permits
The Israeli interior ministry has stopped issuing work permits to foreigners working for international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In the last few weeks, NGO staff have been given tourist visas instead, making it virtually impossible for them to carry out their work. The new Israeli policy affects 120 International NGOs, of which many which provide vital developmental and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Many NGO members have said that Israel's actions are illegal because the country is obligated under Geneva and humanitarian law to issue them visas and let them work freely there. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports from Jerusalem. [February 9, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Inside Story - What future for aid organisations in the Occupied Territories?
The Israeli interior ministry has stopped granting work permits to foreigners working for most of the international NGOs operating in the Occupied Territories. Inside Story asks: Why this change in Israeli policy and what will it mean for foreign aid organisations working in the Occupied Territories?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
7 Feb. '10: High Court orders opening of road to Palestinian traffic, but army keeps it closed on the Sabbath and forbids pedestrian use at all times
In October ‘09, the Israeli High Court of Justice nullified the closing of a main road in the area of Beit ‘Awwa, Hebron District, to Palestinian traffic, ruling that the army’s contention that the closing was necessary to protect the settlers living in the area was unlawful. The court gave the army three months to find an alternative solution.
http://www.btselem.org/
Palestinian church leaders call for justice and equality
Blurb: Christian leaders in Palestine make passionate call to the global church to speak and act for justice and equality in Occupied Palestinian Territories.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Donkey shares shelter with Gazan family
d1Gaza Strip, February 10, 2010 (Pal Telegraph)- A Gazan family shares its shelter with a donkey at one of the stores in the main street connecting Khan Younis with Rafah. In front of the store, there is only sewage water and a cart with a donkey. In this place, 10 family members live in 45-square-meter room in sub-human conditions. A Palestine Telegraph reporter went inside the store to see how this family lives, and to tell their story to the world.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Industrial Fuel – Needs Vs. Supply – Jan 10 – Feb 6
http://www.gazagateway.org/
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – Jan 10 – Feb 6
http://www.gazagateway.org/
War Criminals
Goldstone co-author: Hamas fired 'something like two' rockets before Gaza war
A co-author of the Goldstone Gaza report, which accuses both Hamas and Israel of war crimes, claims the Gaza militant group fired only two rockets at Israel prior to last year's winter conflict, according to a new report published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Arab Collaborators
Egypt Detonates Rafah Tunnel
The Egyptian security forces detonated, on Tuesday, a tunnel on the Gaza-Egypt border in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Popular outcry at Egyptian arrest of Palestinian students
The solidarity committee with Palestinian captive in an Egyptian jail Ayman Nofal has strongly condemned the arrest of more than 150 Palestinian students at the hands of the Egyptian authorities.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Mansour: The W. Bank is the victim of the PA-Israeli security coordination
Palestinian MP Mona Mansour asserted that the West Bank was the victim of the PA-Israeli security coordination that badly harmed and humiliated the Palestinian people there.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Political Developments/Diplomacy
PA corruption and sex scandal called Israeli conspiracy
Palestinian Authority not rattled by claims made by former anti-corruption official that senior figures stole millions from public coffers and that sex tape found of Abbas personnel with woman office candidate. 'Israel is trying to ruin president's credibility because he refuses to return to negotiations,' PA claims.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Mashaal: US 'vetoed' Palestinian unity
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Monday accused the US of obstructing efforts to end the rift between his movement and Fatah.
http://www.jpost.com/
'A prescription for civil war'
Abu Abdullah has never been charged with a crime, but he has been arrested by Palestinian security forces so many times in the past two years that he has lost count. He has been arrested at work, in the market, on the street, and, more than once, during violent raids by masked men who burst into his home and seized him in front of his family. Deep in the heart of the Deheishe refugee camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem, Abu Abdullah describes in detail the beatings he has endured in custody, the numerous cold, sleepless nights in cramped and filthy cells, the prolonged periods bound in painful stress positions, and the long hours of aggressive questioning. "The interrogations always begin the same way," Abu Abdullah explains. "They demand to know who I voted for in the last election."
http://english.aljazeera.net/
'Israel may free Palestinian prisoners when peace talks resume'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday told European officials that he would consider releasing Palestinian prisoners when Middle East peace talks resume.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Shalit family to Red Cross: Verify Hamas claims on Gilad's health
The family of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday to request that the organization confirm Hamas is treating Gilad in line with the Geneva Conventions, and that his health and dignity are being maintained.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Other News
Shabak Instructs Lieberman’s Bodyguards Not To Speak In Russian
The Israeli General Security Agency, Shabak, informed the guards of Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, that they will not be allowed to talk to him in Russian and should only use the Hebrew language in their communication with the minister. Lieberman, the former member of the Kach terrorist movement that was outlawed by Israel, is a settler who came for the former Soviet Union and founded the Yisrael Beiteinu party. He heads the party that calls for the “Jewish homeland” in Palestine, and calls for the expulsion of Arabs and Palestinians from the country.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Bronner Watch
The New York Times, Israel and Ethan Bronner, ROBERT JENSEN
The New York Times’ public editor wrestled this week with conflict-of-interest charges sparked by the revelation that Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner’s son had joined the Israeli army. The executive editor of the paper responded with a defense of the paper’s decision to keep Bronner in that position. Although it had the appearance of a spirited exchange, the “debate” was a tired old diversion that keeps us from facing more important questions, not just about the Israel/Palestine conflict but about U.S. journalists’ coverage of the world. As is typical in mainstream journalists’ discussions of journalistic neutrality and objectivity, the focus on an individual obscures more important questions about the institutions for which individuals work and the powerful forces that shape those institutions’ picture of the world.
http://www.counterpunch.org/
If Bronner were reassigned to China, what makes you think is replacement would be better?
If Bronner’s son were a pacifist or if Bronner were childless, would his reporting be appreciably different? If Bronner were reassigned to cover China or Iceland, would his replacement, Jewish or not, be appreciably different? Undoubtedly, the answers are no. But while the camel’s back already has been badly broken for a very long time, Bronner’s son just may be a last straw that exposes the grotesquely skewed US media coverage of the Middle East. Maybe, hopefully, it will be the start of some reactive movement in the opposite direction.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
If they were Muslim it Would be Headline News in the U.S..
Pedophile who chatted with 1,000 girls charged with rape
Avinoam Braverman convicted of multiple sexual offenses against young girls, including rape, sodomy, and indecent acts. According to indictment, he spoke with girls online, sexually harassed them, met with some of them and sexually assaulted them. He allegedly paid one of them NIS 200 'to do everything to me'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
12 teens suspected of raping girl over course of 4 years
Amakim region teenagers detained after social workers tell police they sodomized their neighbor since she was 10. Suspects' parents: They are normal kids.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
The landlord, Ben White
The Jerusalem Post website today carries an "exclusive" interview with two settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The whole piece is an interesting insight into this particular mentality – note, for example, Yuval’s observation that the "Galilee needs to be taken care of – it’s full of Arabs". But there is one particular section worth highlighting...
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Let this be clear: no Palestinian is looking to make Israel feel better
Last week, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad participated in the 10th annual Herzliya Conference on Israeli and regional security. Palestinians from all walks of life had their personal opinions about Fayyad's participation, many of them negative. "The movement is furious," Hatem Abdel Qader reportedly said about Fateh's reaction to Fayyad's participation. People on the street were also less than enthusiastic about their prime minister attending an Israeli conference on security. "I can't believe he would be part of such a conference at this time when the situation is so terrible," said one woman when asked. "I am really surprised."
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
A Palestinian woman enters politics
RAMALLAH - In May 2005 I was elected to be the first woman to join the Sinjel Municipality in the Ramallah district. At that time a new law had been passed which set a minimum quota for women's representation in local councils. The assumption underpinning the law was that women should take part in decision-making processes. So, despite the fact that the idea hadn't yet been widely accepted in many rural communities, women from different economic and cultural backgrounds suddenly found themselves taking part in political life.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Antisemitism without bounds
I found myself named on a website's 'shit list', which lists thousands of 'self-hating and/or Israel-threatening' Jews.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Iraq
Tuesday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 6 Wounded
Candidates hoping to run in March elections despite a ban found themselves left in the cold when an appeals committee rejected all but 37 of their cases. Meanwhile, at least one Iraqi was killed and six more were wounded in light violence.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iraq: 6 al-Qaeda gunmen killed in Makhmour
Six al-Qaeda gunmen were killed and one soldier was wounded on Monday in clashes between Iraqi army and gunmen in south of Makhmour district, an army source said.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=
Iraq oil pipeline sabotaged (AFP)
AFP - A pipeline carrying crude oil to a refinery in Baghdad has been sabotaged only days after going back online following years of being the target of attack, the oil minister said on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Iraq to open 10-15 posts in Jordan as part of worldwide vote (AFP)
AFP - At least 10 polling stations are to open in Jordan for Iraqi expatriates to take part in their country's March 7 election, as part of worldwide out-of-country voting, Iraq's ambassador said on Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Banning beggars in Basra, Iraq 2:06 Report
Feb 9 - Beggars will be banned in Basra for security reasons -- in the run up to March elections. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
http://www.reuters.com/news/
US frees held Iraqi photographer
US troops release an Iraqi freelance photographer held for 17 months without charge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-
Lebanon
Lebanese PM: We'll back Hezbollah if war with Israel breaks out
In BBC interview, Hariri says Israel making a huge mistake by 'threatening' Lebanon, Syria. 'We will stand against Israel. We will stand with our own people,' he says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Lebanese Prime Minister: Israeli 'threat' escalating
The prime minister of Lebanon said on Tuesday he was worried by Israel's "escalating" threats to neighboring Lebanon and Syria.
In an interview with BBC News, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Israeli planes enter Lebanese air space on a regular basis. "We see what's happening on the ground and in our airspace and what's happening all the time during the past two months - every day we have Israeli planes entering Lebanese airspace," Hariri said. "This is something that is escalating, and this is something that is really dangerous."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
U.S. and Other World News
'Waiting for Armageddon'
By turns frightening, fascinating and eye-opening, the documentary "Waiting for Armageddon" offers much to rouse followers of various religious and political stripes. Though the film's structure may hang on the biblically foretold, world-destroying-then-renewing phases of Rapture, Tribulation, Armageddon and Millennium, the piece also serves as an absorbing snapshot of America's highly influential, reportedly 50-million-strong evangelical Christian movement.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
Senate Passes AIPAC's Iran Sanctions Bill in Five Minutes, MJ Rosenberg
Just last week the Senate passed comprehensive sanctions on Iran -- a bill being pushed by AIPAC neocons and the other "usual suspects" -- in record time. It was brought up with only three senators on the floor; there was a five minute debate and it passed by voice vote. Just like that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Rep. Mike Pence: Israel Should Dictate U.S. Policy
A senior member of the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives, talking to the Christian Broadcasting Network about why he unquestioningly supports Israel.
http://www.
Palin: Obama Will Win Again If He Backs Israel and Bombs Iran
Speaking on Fox News, Palin stated, “Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decide to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel–which I would like him to do.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Wingnut MN congresswoman Bachmann is latest to pledge allegiance
I love these confessionals. First it was Mike Pence saying our policy must be in the interest of the people of Israel, then Sarah Palin wearing an Israel flag on her lapel at the tea party convention. Or Joe Biden saying a couple years ago, I’m a Zionist. And now, at a gathering of the neocon hive RJC…
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
How much more evidence does one need?, Stephen Walt
Two and half years ago, two political scientists published a book that said (p. 188): "Anyone who criticizes Israeli actions or says that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over U.S. Middle East policy stands a good chance of getting labeled an anti-Semite. In fact, anyone who says that there is an Israel lobby runs the risk of being charged with anti-Semitism, even though AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents are hardly bashful about describing their influence. ... In effect, the lobby both boasts of its own power and frequently attacks those who call attention to it." Over at The New Republic, Leon Wieseltier has provided the latest example of this all-too-familiar tactic, in the form of an incoherent and unwarranted smear of Andrew Sullivan. Yglesias, Larison, and DeLong offer telling rebuttals.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/
Wiesel: If Ahmadinejad were assassinated, I wouldn't shed a tear
"Ahmadinejad is a danger to the world and pathologically sick," Wiesel said during an interview on Army Radio. "He is dangerous because he openly wants to destroy Israel, meaning, to destroy another six million Jews."
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
During the J Street conference, I criticized Elie Wiesel for delivering a speech to the congregation of the homophobic, Holocaust revisionist Pastor John Hagee, whose conspiratorial prophecies were so extreme John McCain withdrew the preacher’s endorsement. Now, just over three months later, we know why Wiesel hailed Hagee as his "dear pastor." For delivering a single speech to Hagee’s congregation, Wiesel received a check for $500,000 toward his foundation, according to Marita Styrsky, the wife of Christians United for Israel Eastern Regional Director Victor Styrsky (Christians United is Hagee’s lobbying arm). So Wiesel got his money and Hagee got a photo with a Nobel Prize-winning Holocaust survivor. Everybody went home happy.
Israeli-Palestinian peace would neutralize Iran threat
Since the end of World War II the world has been rife with bloody conflicts in which, or after which, entire population groups have been murdered. One could cite the slaughter of millions by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or the horrific tribal war in Rwanda, or the brutality in the former Yugoslavia, or the devastation in southern Sudan. But despite all this, the United Nations decided to devote a special memorial day only to the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Saudi upholds 'sex boast' verdict
A Saudi Arabian court upholds a sentence of five years in jail and 1,000 lashes for a man who boasted on TV of his sex life.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-
www.TheHeadlines.org
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