Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.Theft/Destruction of Land & Resources
Report on Israeli settlement in the occupied territories Jan - Feb 2010
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Israel is Stealing Palestinian Water
Recent reports have highlighted the acute water shortage facing Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank and Bethlehem in particular - and noted that the average Israeli settler consumes six times more water than the average Palestinian. This is despite the latter's rights to the sources as the original owner of the land, albeit an owner who is denied access by the Israeli military occupation. Water use by colonial settlers includes filling and topping-up their swimming pools as well as garden sprinklers for immaculate lawns.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.
IDF estimates apartheid wall to be completed in 2020
Army largely satisfied with fence around West Bank that will bring new decade low in number of forces deployed in territories. Soldiers in compulsory service will be given time for training and number of reservists will be reduced. Fears of terrorist infiltrations near Mount Hebron.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
IOF soldiers arrest American activist, demolish home in Negev & tent in OJ
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested an American activist and two Palestinian citizens in Bilin village, Ramallah district, at dawn Wednesday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Israeli Settlers and Military Occupy the Area of Oush Grab in the Bethlehem District
Graffiti spray painted by Israeli settlers in the “Peace Park” at Oush Grab, built by Palestinians.Fear, hope and now again fear. This is how some inhabitants of Beit Sahour and several villages in the Bethlehem district describe what is happening these days. On 2 February, early in the morning, soldiers and a bulldozer came to the area of Oush Grab, in the Beit Sahour municipality, Bethlehem district, and began to demolish the buildings which were part of an Israeli military base. Some journalists and activists gathered there: the governor of Bethlehem came and spoke with the soldiers, asking what was happening. The soldiers replied that they were demolishing the buildings. In the same area settlers plan to erect the new colony of Shdema.
http://www.alternativenews.
Sifting Fact from Fiction in the Holy Land
It's been said of Israel that the country fabricates "the facts on the ground" by constructing Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land, and then making claims to the land in the name of God and/or the Ottoman Empire. But when Palestinians today talk about "facts on the ground" they are referring to something else entirely. They are asking (pleading) for objectivity. They want our conclusions (and their sovereign boundaries) to be drawn from the visible evidence and decades-old international law. Apparently, politics yoked to Zionist policies can murky the otherwise clearly stated laws on human rights and land occupation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Bilin, three arrested in night raid: Ibrahim Abed El Fatah Bornat, Hamde Abu Rahmah and an international journalism
At 3 am 26 soldiers entered the village of Bilin on foot to arrest Ibrahim Abed El Fatah Bornat. On their way to Ibrahim’s house, the soldiers ran into Ashraf Abu Rahmah. A gun was pointed to his head, his hands cuffed behind his back and a cloth attached to his mouth to prevent him from alarming people. Ashraf was distanced from the scene and left in the dark, guarded by soldiers while Ibrahim was arrested and taken away.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
Gathering to rebuild Gawi tent creates air of solidarity and support in the face of police repression and settler violence
50 Israeli and international supporters gathered today in Sheikh Jarrah to help Palestinian residents rebuild the Gawi family tent after it was demolished by police earlier in the day. The event, called by neighborhood residents and ISM activists, created a sense of support, solidarity and community in the face of high tension and repression by authorities.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
International activists accompany Gazan farmers
Farmers form the villages of Faraheen and Khuza’a , near Gaza’s second biggest city of Khan Younis, reported to the ISM that routine ’sweeps’ which Israelis carry out along the the border , disrupted the sowing of the wheat in the last few days available after the recent rainfall. Twice a month Israeli’s enter the Gazan side of the electrified border fence to ensure that they are no explosive devices left by the Palestinian resistance in the 50 meter belt.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
From PinkTank: "A British MP makes the case against Ahava"
Dr. Phillis Starkey, a British MP, made a speech on January 27 regarding the fraudulent labeling of Israeli settlement products. One section of his speech focused on one of our old favorites, Ahava cosmetics.
http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/from-pinktank-british-mp-makes-case.html
Israeli Occupation Supportive Companies to Boycott, Stephen Lendman
In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global BDS movement for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees. Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions and civil society actions condemned Israel's lawlessness; its crimes of war and against humanity; occupation; discriminatory policies; illegal home demolitions, land seizures and settlements; oppression of a civilian population; the Separation Wall; the Gaza siege; and preemptive imperial wars.
http://jnoubiyeh.blogspot.com/http://endtheoccupationblog.
Israeli Occupation Supportive Companies to Boycott, Stephen Lendman
In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global BDS movement for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees. Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions and civil society actions condemned Israel's lawlessness; its crimes of war and against humanity; occupation; discriminatory policies; illegal home demolitions, land seizures and settlements; oppression of a civilian population; the Separation Wall; the Gaza siege; and preemptive imperial wars.
Mustafa Barghouthi Nominated for 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
“I have pleasure in nominating Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. I am inspired by the life and work of Dr. Barghouthi whose commitment to nonviolence, in his personal and public life, is truly in the Ghandian spirit", stated in her letter to the Nobel Committe, Maired Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Co-founder of the Peace People (Northern Ireland). Mairead Maguire today announced her nomination of Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Violence and Aggression
Israeli jets 'strike Gaza targets'
Palestinian witnesses say tunnels hit a day after two bombs wash up on Israel's shore.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Israeli troops wound two Palestinians including child in West Bank and Gaza
Clashes between the IOF and Palestinians on Monday led to the injury of two citizens including a 10-year-old child in the West Bank village of Ni’lin and east of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
IOF troops storm home of MP, threaten to demolish six homes in Al-Khalil
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the home of MP Hatem Qufaisha in Al-Khalil city in a pre dawn raid on Wednesday and told him to report for interrogation later in the morning.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
PRCS: We were the target of 455 Israeli attacks in 2009
The Palestinian red crescent society (PRCS) announced on Tuesday that its medical teams were the targets of 455 Israeli attacks in 2009 including shooting and physical assaults.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Al Mezan Condemns the IOF Attacks against Palestinian Fishermen
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalated its attacks against Palestinian fishermen. Today, Tuesday 2 February 2010, IOF naval vessels opened heavy fire at fishermen boats, followed them to the beach, and torn their fishing nets in the sea.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Retaliation
Militants pledge to float more bombs toward Israel (AP)
AP - Palestinian militants said Tuesday they had launched a large number of floating explosives into the Mediterranean Sea to avenge the death of a top Hamas commander, a day after two bomb-laden barrels washed up on Israel's coastline.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Detainees
Ex-prisoner Fidda: Palestinian female captives experience harsh incarceration
Liberated prisoner Majeda Fidda has said that Palestinian prisoners in IOA jails are experiencing harsh incarceration conditions and deliberate medical neglect.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Arab Collaborators
Egyptian authorities detain 150 Palestinian students
The Egyptian security authorities are detaining 150 Palestinian students in their jails all of them from the Gaza Strip despite studying in Egyptian universities, students residing in Cairo said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egypt police kill Sudanese migrant at Israel border
ISMAILIA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Egyptian border guards shot dead an unarmed Sudanese migrant as he tried to flee into Israel during a shootout with people traffickers at the Israeli border on Tuesday, a security source said.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Egyptian journalist suspended for visiting Israel
Journalists union suspends 'October' editor for three months after he says he visited Israel more than 25 times; another editor warned for receiving Israeli ambassador at her house.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
The Jordanian Hashemite School for the training and production of Terrorists
"But Mr. Balawi’s relatives say that he was detained after he volunteered to go to Gaza to treat Palestinians wounded during Israel’s offensive last winter, and that he emerged profoundly affected by his three days in Jordanian custody."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Revolting picture: Fayyad & war criminal Ehud Barak shake hands (to celebrate the slaughter in Gaza?)
http://palestinianpundit.
Report: Lebanese officer suspected of spying for Israel
Security officials tell Kuwait paper Lebanese army arrested colonel who had access to sensitive information, allege he headed network of spies on Israel's behalf.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Human Rights/Humanitarian Issues/Siege
Worker killed in smuggling tunnel collapse at Rafah
Gaza – Ma'an – A smuggling tunnel underneath the Egypt-Rafah border collapsed killing a young man from Jabaliya on Wednesday, bringing to three the number of tunnel-related deaths already in 2010. Muawiya Hassanein, director of ambulance and emergency service in Gaza Strip hospitals, identified the young man as 21-year-old Mahrous An-Nathir. He was evacuated to Abu Yousif An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah where he was pronounced dead.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel Owes Over NIS 8.3 Billion to Palestinian Workers from the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Palestinian construction workers build apartments in the Jewish settlement Gilo, on land captured in 1967 and annexed to Jerusalem.The State of Israel owes more than NIS 8.3 billion (including interest) to Palestinian workers from the Occupied Palestinian Territories who worked in Israel. This money was deducted from the Palestinian workers’ salaries for social benefits they did not receive. This is the conclusion of detailed research conducted by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) and Kav LaOved.
http://www.alternativenews.
escaping in Gaza
Many in Gaza ask me, ‘which is better, the (occupied) West Bank or Gaza?’ Not giving in to the devisive efforts of external forces and politicians, I answer that both are Palestine –it’s all Palestine– and both have their beauties and intense hardships.
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/
Egypt's Bedouins Raise Tension at Israel and Gaza Border (Time.com)
Time.com - Smuggling goods into Gaza to beat the Israeli blockade has been lucrative for the long-marginalized tribes of Sinai. Egypt's move to cut off the tunnels could provoke a violent response.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Trigger Happy on the Light Switch
What’s it like to spend at least one-third, if not the whole day, without electricity? One and a half million people have been living like that for over a week in what is just the latest chapter in the ongoing electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip. If there is a common theme that persists throughout this saga, it is the perpetual, imposed sense of “living on the edge“.
http://www.gazagateway.org/
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – Jan 3 – Jan 30
http://www.gazagateway.org/
Industrial Fuel – Needs Vs. Supply – Jan 3 – Jan 30
http://www.gazagateway.org/
War Criminals and their Enablers
Amnesty International: Latest Israeli response to Gaza investigations totally inadequate
Israel’s latest response to the UN on its investigations into alleged violations of international law by its forces in Gaza a year ago is totally inadequate, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Crucial questions about the conduct of attacks in which hundreds of civilians were killed and thousands were made homeless are not credibly addressed in Israel’s update to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “The investigations undertaken by Israel fail to meet international standards of independence, impartiality, transparency, promptness and effectiveness,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/
Attorney Sfard: Israeli police investigation of shooting of Tristan Anderson “gravely negligent”
Yesterday’s announcement by the Israeli Ministry of Justice not to indict anyone in the March 2009 shooting and critically injuring of American activist Tristan Anderson at a non-violent demonstration in the West Bank village of Ni’ilin was based on a “gravely negligent” investigation by the Israeli police, says Israeli attorney Michel Sfard, who represents Tristan and his family. “We were notified two weeks ago that Israel decided to close this case, and our subsequent study of the investigation file led us to call this press conference,” noted Sfard, who met with local and international journalists in Jerusalem at the office of the Alternative Information Center (AIC).
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
As Goldstone deadline approaches, Israeli impunity continues
from US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation by DavidThree months after the U.S. Congress voted in favor of Israeli impunity by condemning the Goldstone Report with H.Res. 867--and just a few days before the deadline set by Judge Goldstone for independent investigations of the accusations of the report by all parties involved--Israel continues to avoid real accountability for its violations of international law and Palestinian human rights during last year's assault on the Gaza Strip.
http://endtheoccupationblog.
Exclusive: Israeli commander: 'We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza'
A high-ranking officer has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives in order to minimise military casualties during last year's Gaza war, The Independent can reveal.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Report: UN to submit pacifying response to Israel's Gaza report
The paper United Nations intends to submit a conciliatory rejoinder to Israel's report responding to allegations of war crimes during its war with Gaza spelled out in the report composed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, U.S. sources said on Wednesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Berlusconi to Knesset: Goldstone tried to incriminate you
At end of official visit to Israel, Italian prime minister speaks at plenary session: We will fight every instance of anti-Semitism. Knesset Speaker Rivlin welcomes guest, asks him to wake Europe up to Iranian threat.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Refugees
Petition aims for deeper connection with Palestinians
Marwan, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon's Bourj al-Shemali camp, dropped out of school in the sixth grade because his family couldn't afford the fees. But even if he had stayed, it wouldn't have brightened his career prospects: Palestinians are barred from working in all but the most menial professions. "As a Palestinian in Lebanon I study and pay fees, then I can't work," Marwan says.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Refugee Youth: Living in Israel’s Punch Line, Hajr Al-Ali for MIFTAH
“We wish to study in high school, to study all over the world; we wish to be queens, to be princesses; We wish to live in a free Palestine, to dream of freedom in Palestine; and (we wish) to have a house under the sea!” Plastered on poster paper with a black sharpie in the Palestinian Children’s Center, these wishes are the second thing that struck me upon entering the Jalazone refugee camp. The first, was the number of kids roaming around. They’re everywhere - playing football in the streets, chasing each other with sticks through narrow alleyways in a game of cops and robbers, people watching from doorways and stone steps leading onto dirt roads, or following visitors such as myself around with a keen curiosity.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
Non-ID Palestinians lack even basic rights of refugees
SIDON: While education, marriage and freedom of movement, may be basic rights for most people, thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are denied essential human rights because in the eyes of the Lebanese government and of the rest of the world they simply do not exist: they are non-ID Palestinians. “As if the hardship we face as Palestinian refugees is not enough. I cannot leave the camp and I cannot work because I have no legal status. I cannot even guarantee that Lebanese security forces won’t arrest me because I have no proof of my existence,” said 65-year-old Abu Mohammad Omar, a refugee at the southern camp of Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest and most volatile Palestinian gathering.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Political Developments/Diplomacy
Palestinian PM attends Israel forum
The Palestinian prime minister has met the Israeli defence minister in a public discussion at a conference in the Israeli town of Herzliya. Salam Fayyad and Ehud Barak's discussion on Tuesday was one of the highlights of the four-day conference entitled "The balance of Israel's security". The conference, which started on Sunday, is being attended mainly by Israeli officials to discuss politics and the state of the Israeli nation. At the beginning of the discussion, Barak said there was a "whole spectrum of threats at the horizon". Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from the conference, said the annual Herzliya meeting has gained a reputation as being used as a platform for new policies to be aired.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Hamas criticizes Fayyad's participation in Herzilya conference
Gaza – Ma'an – Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri condemned caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's participation in a Herzilya conference which began on Tuesday. "The Palestinian Authority’s cooperation with Israel reached a political level and this is a serious indicator that this national side has connected its projects with Israeli interests and policies," the spokesman said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Fayyad: Israel building inside our state
Palestinian prime minister addresses Herzliya Conference despite death threats, says Palestinians planning to establish independent state by 2011. Defense Minister Barak speaks before him, says 'Israel has a silent majority for peace, which leans to the right at the polling stations'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Fayyad to Barak: Israel must show that it is rolling back occupation
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Defense Minister Ehud Barak made a rare joint appearance at the Herzliya Conference on Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Netanyahu to Hamas: Shalit deal is up to you
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Tuesday that Hamas is the main obstacle to a prisoner swap involving captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Kadima, Likud MKs against 2-state solution
Despite Netanyahu's support of Palestinian state, Likud MKs show up for first meeting of new Knesset lobby whose main objective is to fight PM's policy. Kadima lawmakers also attend event.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Spanish FM: How could Lieberman work with EU?
Silvio Berlusconi wants to add Israel to European Union, but Moratinos has his doubts: 'Can anyone imagine Lieberman working under foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton?'
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Obama puts pressure on… Palestinians!, Bruce Wolman
More evidence (in Haaretz: "Mitchell to Abbas: No more excuses, renew Mideast talks") that Obama and Mitchell have no problem squeezing the Palestinians to make up for their own political problems and weakness. Having taken on Netanyahu and lost, they compensate for their failure by pressuring the weakest party to give in. A right-wing French government, no less, points out to the Americans their unreasonableness towards Palestinian President Abbas
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Ehud Barak Calls Endless Occupation Apartheid
It's been three years since Jimmy Carter was demonized as anti-semitic for writing that if Israel maintained the occupation without giving Palestinians full rights, it would become an apartheid state. And now Israel's hawkish Defense Minister -- and most highly decorated soldier -- agrees. Speaking at a conference outside Tel Aviv, Barak said, if "millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Hamas deputy: Israel press reports on Dubai killing 'far from truth'
Hamas' deputy political bureau chief told Syrian television on Tuesday that Israeli media reports are exaggerating details of the recent Dubai killing of one of the Islamist group's most active operatives.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Ambition: Huckabee says Palestinians should be ‘content’ with Gaza
The issue is not should there be two states– sure– but should those two states be on the same piece of land. Certainly the Palestinians have Gaza, but they don’t seem to be content… The Israelis have always made accommodations for people who aren’t Jewish….[Though they must set limits on the number of] people who dilute the reality of this being a Jewish state, I understand that… Israel is a refuge for Jewish people, and it is an unapologetically-chartered Jewish state… Over this last year, this [Obama] administration has seemingly put all the pressure on the Israelis, none on the Palestinians.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Other News
Palestinians reject incitement against Qaradawi
The vast majority of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and across the Green Line (Israel) have strongly rejected calls by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) to denounce prominent Islamic scholar Sheikh Dr. Yousuf al-Qaradawi for speaking up against suspected collusion between Israel and the PA leadership against Hamas.
http://www.ptimes.org/main/
14,000 Gazans apply for posts as security service employees
Gaza – Ma'an – More than 14,000 young men and women applied for jobs with the de facto government security services during the last hiring call, interior ministry spokesman Ihab Al-Ghussein announced Wednesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Article on her hard drive about Palestinian dispossession spelled deportation
The Harvard Law Record reports on another disturbing deportation by Israel of an American after she landed at Ben-Gurion airport. Harvard Law student Hebah Ismail, an American of Egyptian descent, wears a hijab and was planning to do research on land disputes involving Bedouin citizens of Israel, along with another instructor and student at Harvard Law School. At Ben Gurion she was stopped and questioned, maybe because of the hijab. Ultimately an officer took her aside.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
Gaza - In pictures
http://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/
The Israeli Whitewash, George S. Hishmeh – Washington
Much as the world has responded marvelously and generously to relieve Haitians after their devastating earthquake last month, the opposite has been true about the impoverished Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have been under an increasingly tighter siege since the Israeli blitz a little over a year ago. The Obama administration has committed $300 million to help in rebuilding the heavily demolished area, now home to more than 1.5 million Palestinians, many of them refugees from nearby towns in what is now Israel. The United Nations has also raised $4.5 billion to help in the restoring the heavily demolished area but, to date, neither the American nor the U.N. funds have been spent there because of the tight Israeli blockade which is also enforced by the Egyptians on their border with the once Israeli-occupied Strip.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Judith Miller (seemingly) expresses her admiration of Isareli murders
"The strike was vintage Mossad—precise, without fingerprints, and deniable, the kind of operation in which Dagan has specialized since becoming chief of the spy agency seven years ago." As is known, Miller won the Booker prize AND the Nobel prize for peace for locating Iraqi WMDs. She has been rewarded in her career with a spot on...Fox News' media panel. You can't get more prestigious than than in US journalism.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Here is another admission of Israeli political (and propaganda) exploitation of the Holocaust
"Yet it is imperative to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is not only in order to deal with Holocaust deniers but also to stress the state of Israel's importance for the continued existence of the Jewish people."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
50 years after North Carolina lunchcounter sit-in, Times calls West Bank protests ‘theatrical… spectacle’, Philip Weiss
Here’s the video accompanying Isabel Kershner’s piece on the West Bank protests last week in the Times. It’s billed: "The Spectacle of West Bank Protests… With a stalled peace process, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters [no mention of Israelis and internationals] clash violently each Friday. The skirmishes are a combination of desperate activism and staged theater." In the video, the narrator, evidently Jaron Gilinsky, who I’m sure is Arab-American (sorry; Jewish irony), says that Jonathan Pollak "claims" to have suffered brain hemmorhages from tear gas cartridges and presents a Palestinian hit in the kidney area by a rubber bullet as play-acting his injury. It calls the protests "theatrical… spectacle." Disgraceful. Remember that these are protests against violent occupation and separate roadways and land confiscation, worse than Jim Crow conditions. Note that on his website Gilinsky, who is based in Jerusalem, questions the non-violence of the protests.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/Palestine's impossible dream | Yousef Munayyer
Lavish, unrealistic plans for Palestinian development are a dangerous alternative to the struggle for independence. Recently I received a very impressive full-colour booklet printed on expensive paper advertising a development project. The ambitious plan is to build a new Palestinian city, "Rawabi", in the West Bank. The glossy images inside are not of the Palestine I know. The bulldozers are not demolishing homes, they are breaking ground to make room for the new city. Suited, Palestinian elites appear in lush boardrooms with international partners. The white, symmetrical buildings, typical of hilltop Israeli settlements, are instead part of the scale-model of the future development.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
it’s happened: all the energy in journalism has now moved to the internet, Philip Weiss
This week I realized that the internet has won; the famous tipping point has occurred, and people (sorry; that is journalese for "everyone I know") are getting their information off the web, not from print publications. My completely-subjective evidence: –I bought the Times the other day for two important stories, the State of the Union speech and Steve Jobs’s announcement of his new Ipad. It lies unopened. I already absorbed what I had to absorb about both stories, didn’t get to it.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Prof. Aeyal Gross: Could it be the end of Israeli democracy?
When I published my “Killing the Messenger” article on International Human Rights Day, I described, so it appears, not only things that had happened by then, but also things that have gotten worse over the weeks since. A letter from human rights groups to the Israeli prime minister described a chain of attacks on HR organizations. The arrests of demonstrators in Sheikh Jarrah and the attack on the New Israel Fund are two important and recent developments in this context. The arrests continued even though the courts have repeatedly stated that the protest vigils held there are legal and require no permit. The arrests of demonstrators gained some media attention after ACRI Executive Director Hagai El-Ad was arrested too, though the point was not, as El-Ad remarked, the fact that he was placed in custody. These arrests cannot be dissociated from the attacks against human rights organizations, on which I elaborated in a previous article. Again, they go after the messenger. We should pay attention to the way these attacks make the focus of discussion shift from the wrongdoing in Sheikh Jarrah to issues such as freedom of expression and protest, important as they may be, though in this case it seems that protests against the attempts to deny the freedom of expression draw attention to the issue at hand.
http://coteret.com/2010/02/02/
Obama must choose between Peace and The "Special Relationship"
"If Obama takes action to achieve justice for the Palestinians and regain the trust of Arabs and Muslims, he will incur the wrath of the Israel lobby and its allies in Congress. If he continues to allow Israel to dictate peace terms while it takes over more and more Palestinian land, he will reinforce the image of America as the protector of an oppressor nation and increase the danger of extremist violence. Obama surely knows which is the right choice. He needs only the courage to make it."
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/
Iraq
Iraqi pilgrims killed in Karbala
More than a dozen Shia Muslims left dead after two bomb blasts during Arbaeen rites.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Tuesday: 2 Iraqis Killed, 7 Wounded
At least two Iraqis were killed and seven more were wounded in light violence. Meanwhile, a former minister under Tony Blair, Claire Short, called Blair a liar and further accused him of stifling discussion leading up to the war. Also, Parliamentary Deputy Adil Badrawi called for a "serious dialogue" between the U.S. and Iran to prevent a regional war.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Barred Iraq candidates allowed to stand: official (AFP)
AFP - Around 500 candidates barred from Iraq's March 7 general election for alleged links to executed dictator Saddam Hussein will be allowed to stand, an electoral official told AFP on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Riz Khan - Iraq: Reopening sectarian wounds?
Riz speaks with Saleh al-Mutlaq, one of Iraq's most prominent Sunni politicians and one of those candidates barred from running in the upcoming general election.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
The Iraqi oil conundrum
Dreams nurtured in the United States that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would be quickly followed by oil revenues flowing into the coffers of US-based companies have long turned sour. Now, even the involvement of China has failed to get the black gold flowing.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/
Iraq war inquiry 'exceeds expectations'
John Cooper, a human rights lawyer, gives his view on Britain's latest public inquiry into the Iraq war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Lebanon
Netanyahu accuses Lebanon over Hezbollah forces (AFP)
AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused Lebanon of allowing Hezbollah to develop its military force by smuggling weapons in violation of a UN resolution.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Zionist kidnappers
This is the Lebanese boy who was kidnapped and beaten by Israeli occupiers. They said that their experts told them he looked like Ahmad Jibril. Muhammad Abu Zahrah: his name is not famous in the Western press.
U.S. and Other World News
With Blair-Bush Lies, Muslims Died
For 100 years the Arab and Muslim world have known that when it comes to European and American imperialistic designs on the Middle East there are two separate universes with separate political, economic, racial, and legal standards. With self assured arrogance, hypocrisy, and double standards western powers reserved the "right of might" to inflict devastating invasions, occupations, mass murders, ethnic cleansing and the Anti-Jewish cleansing of Europe by gifting a land, without ownership or right, to European Jews who proceeded to emulate European colonialism to attack and ethnically cleanse an innocent people from their land. Israel was born by England's illegal gifting of a foreign land and subsequently immorally supported by the United States at the expense of a hapless population living under the most dire and brutal of occupations.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Iran indicates openness to UN-backed uranium processing plan
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has said that his government is ready to send the bulk of its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing in exchange for nuclear fuel rods. In an interview with Iranian state television, he also said that Tehran has the capacity to enrich its own uranium if the shipped supply is not returned. Last year Tehran in effect turned down the proposal to hand over its uranium supply in exchange for nuclear fuel. The US says Iran should inform the International Atomic Energy Agency if it is ready to now take the deal. Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Neocon: Obama can save presidency by bombing Iran
"Here is an idea for Barack Obama to salvage his tottering administration by taking a step that protects the United States and its allies," begins neoconservative scholar Daniel Pipes. "He needs a dramatic gesture to change the public perception of him as a light-weight, bumbling ideologue, preferably in an arena where the stakes are high, where he can take charge, and where he can trump expectations." Any guesses? "Such an opportunity does exist," Pipes writes. "Obama can give orders for the U.S. military to destroy Iran’s nuclear-weapon capacity."
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/
Pakistan detainees cry torture
The five American Muslims detained in December of last year in Pakistan on suspicion of 'terrorist' activity, are now claiming that they have been tortured by the US FBI and Pakistani police. The men have been accused of plotting attacks against Pakistani targets and of collaborating with Al Qaeda to fight US forces. They appeared before a closed court on Tuesday, but secretly smuggled out a note appealing for help. Al Jazeera's Owen Fay reports. [February 2, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Land sinking as Dead Sea shrinks
The Dead Sea in Jordan is shrinking at an alarming rate - a development that has led to the creation of some 3,000 sinkholes along the sea's coasts. The sea has shrunk by a third since the 1960s when its major water source - the River Jordan - was diverted for upstream projects in Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. But for many people, the projects have backfired and the farmers who work near the sea say the once verdant and fertile land has become increasingly barren. Al Jazeera's Nisreen el Shamayleh reports from the village of Ghor Al Haditha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Inside Story - The future of the Gulf's work force
The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) is hosting its 15th annual conference under the title "Education and the Requirements of the GCC Labour Market". Inside Story looks at the future of the Gulf region's labour market and its impact on the social and economic stability of the region. Is substituting foreign workers with locals feasible?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
www.TheHeadlines.org
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