Land theft / Settlements and settlers / Movement restriction
Jordan Valley residents challenge Area C restrictions
In defiance of Israeli restrictions, residents mended roads today in the village of Jiftlik, in the Jordan Valley. The villagers were objecting to Israeli building and planning rules that prevent construction and infrastructure improvements in most of Israeli-controlled Area C, which composes sixty percent of the West Bank. According to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, the residents were joined by the Palestinian Minister of Agriculture, Ismail Deiq. They repaired roughly one kilometer of roads inside the town.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
MK Ben Ari leads rightist march to Jericho
Dozens of rightists passed through IDF checkpoints in the West Bank Sunday in what they said was an attempt to visit an ancient synagogue in Jericho. MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union), Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Baruch Marzel led the group, and said many had succeeded in entering the Palestinian city."The Oslo Accords are dead, and we will not allow an enemy state to be established here in Israel," Ben Ari said of the march.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Israel to triple demolition rate for illegal Bedouin construction
...This year should see 700 illegal structures destroyed and the deep plowing of 9,000 dunams of land to prevent new construction. Ibrahim Al-Wakili, who heads the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages, warned of an explosive situation if demolition even doubles ... A former head of the Regional Council of Unrecognized Communities, Hussein Al-Rafia, said he intends to petition the High Court of Justice if the increased enforcement decision is carried out. "The police and also the Interior Ministry have to understand that there is a problem of 100,000 residents without [municipal] planning or recognition and they cannot build their homes in a legal manner."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
A visit to Huda's preschool at Umm Daraj
This week we visited in Huda’s preschool at Hashem Al- Daraj (sometimes known as Umm Daraj). It is located in the Judean desert deep inside area C of the Oslo accord map ... Huda’s preschool opened some four years ago and it survived until now with almost no facilities and no budget. Huda works alone there with more than 20 children, and receives a monthly salary of $140 from an NGO in Hebron. In such conditions, all the other preschools that opened in this Bedouin peripheral area at the same time as Huda’s, had closed long ago ... If you send us donations designated for Huda’s preschool, we will use them entirely for that purpose.
http://villagesgroup.
Jerusalem families come out against museum built on ancestors' grave
Members of prominent Palestinian families from Jerusalem came out last week in protest against plans by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a Museum of Tolerance on top of part of the ancient Mamilla Cemetery where their ancestors are buried. The initiative includes filing a petition in Geneva to various United Nations human rights bodies and to UNESCO, the Paris-based UN agency responsible for protecting the world's cultural heritage. The petition was also addressed to the Swiss Government, which is the repository for the Geneva Conventions.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Video: Thousands converge on Bil`in, Fayyad among them
More at The Real News Wonderful report by Lia Tarachansky on Friday’s Bil’in demo, attended by thousands celebrating the fifth anniversary of the protest. Note that Salam Fayyad, the P.M. of the Palestinian Authority, attended the demo and, in English, thanked the internationals for coming to support Palestinian freedom. A sign of the movement’s power: the politicians will run to catch up. The same process can happen in Israel and here too. Unrepresented by their elected leaders, people who oppose occupation will make great personal sacrifice to express their views, and public sympathy will surge toward them.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Netanyahu: West Bank sites added to national heritage list
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem would both be added to the list of national heritage sites that the government plans to promote. Speaking at a special cabinet meeting in the northern town of Tel Hai, Netanyahu said that rightist religious party Shas persuaded him add the two sites to the list.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Meretz's Oron: Netanyahu blurring Israel's borders
The government's decision to include the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb within the list of national heritage sites has caused uproar in political circles. Meretz Chairman Chaim Oron slammed the decision Sunday, saying "This is another attempt to blur the borders between the State of Israel and the occupied territories. All it needs is a bit of pressure from the right, and (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu falls into line. This decision puts Netanyahu's Bar-Ilan declaration of two states for two peoples in an absurd light."
http://www.ynetnews.com/
West Bank shrines on Israeli heritage list (AP)
JERUSALEM -- Israel is adding two key West Bank holy shrines to its list of national heritage sites, the prime minister said Sunday, staking a claim that angered Palestinians, who want Israel out of the West Bank.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Photo: How would you feel if your mother had to get to work this way?
Dan Sisken sent along this photo from a report by the World Bank on gender/economic implications of the wall. He writes, Not much info on Atef Safadi, the photographer. Here’s his photo page on a photosite called "Elsewhere." Photo is titled, Ramadan – women cross over the wall. From last November. Safadi also has some stuff on the NYT site.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Checkpoint misery epitomizes a Mideast divide (AP)
...The separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank slices through several of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, making Qalandia the only way for 60,000 taxpaying residents to reach their city. They too must line up along with tens of thousands of West Bank residents to enter Israel for work — provided they are patient, have permits, and don't arouse suspicion.
For five days, an Associated Press reporter waited with them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
TA rally: Settlement freeze not enforced
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Tel Aviv Cinematheque Saturday evening in protest of the fact that construction in the West Bank settlements has not been completely halted despite the government's decision on a 10-month construction moratorium. During the rally Labor Knesset Member Eitan Cabel criticized his fellow party members for not demanding that the building freeze be enforced, calling them "junkies of governance".
http://www.ynetnews.com/
"Settlers' conduct will be their ruin"
The incident in which two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured Wednesday by settlers in Yitzhar sparked uproar in the army which refuses to wane down. An IDF official told Ynet, "The disgraceful conduct of some of the settlers who hurt IDF forces and disrupted routine activity may one day be the ruin of them."
http://www.ynetnews.com/
State on illegal outpost: Delay in relocating settlers
About eight months ago Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the construction of 50 homes in the Adam settlement for settlers relocated from Migron, as part of the program for relocating the illegal outpost. However, it became apparent Wednesday that the Defense Ministry is not keeping to schedule.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
PA official: Settlers damage cars, assault doctor near Nablus
Israeli settlers smashed windshields of cars driving along the Nablus-Jenin road in the northern West Bank on Sunday, and assaulted a doctor, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan Daghlas, who holds the area's settlements portfolio, told Ma'an that dozens of settlers "hurled stones on the As-Seela road, near Homesh, totally shattering the windshields of Palestinian cars." ohammed Saleh Salem, a Palestinian doctor, was injured during the episode and his car was extensively damaged, Daghlas said. "Attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the Nablus district continue, almost every day," Daghlas added
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Settlers use Molotov cocktails on Palestinian family house
On the outskirts of the village of Asira is a fine new house – a work in progress. Jamal and Nahla Ahmad have saved up to build it for their young family, Ayman, Mohammed, Malak and Zena ... But on the hill behind their house a row of red-roofed houses marks the edge of the illegal settlement of Yizhar. In the last few months the settlers have come down the hill, and attacked the Ahmad family home: breaking windows, trying to wrench out safety grills, lighting a fire on the front steps, with the family inside the house. They have used Molotov cocktails and CS gas; they shout threats and they mark their territory with graffiti stars of David. Jamal is a driver and is often away from home. Nahla and the children are afraid.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_
Violence / Aggression
Troops attack a Sunday Mass with tear gas at Beit Sahour city
(with video) Israeli troops fired tear gas and concussion grenades on Sunday midday at [an outdoor] Mass held by residents of Beit Sahour city, southern West Bank. Residents from Beit Sahour along with international supporters had gathered at the evacuated military base of Ush Grhab east of the city. People held banners demanding the halt of the Israeli renewed work at the site and called for the end of settlement activity around their city.
http://imemc.org/index.php?
Shelling injures 5 in northern Gaza
Five Palestinians were injured and structural damage was sustained when Israeli forces opened fire at a target north of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, on Sunday ... Witnesses said the shelling targeted Palestinian workers at the evacuated Israeli settlement of Gush Katif in northern Gaza ... Three Palestinians were injured when Israeli helicopters fired on a group of fighters near the central Gaza military base Kissufim following reports of clashes in the area early Saturday morning. Additionally, on Thursday, Israeli forces entered deep into the Gaza Strip during day-long clashes, witnesses reported and the military confirmed. Four tanks and a bulldozer penetrated 900 meters in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp area and demolished two homes.The violence coincides with increased Israeli activity inside the Gaza borders, with the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting five separate penetrations where Israeli military equipment "conducted land leveling operations."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israel military: Exchange of gunfire near Bethlehem
The Israeli military said it opened fire on Palestinian gunmen in a speeding car who attacked a military patrol west of Bethlehem on Saturday night. A military spokesman told Ma’an that the Palestinians opened fire on the patrol and attemped to run over soldiers near the Gush Etzion settlement block. The Israeli personnel returned fire and pursued the car, which managed to escape, the military also said. Palestinians in the village of Hussan, west of Bethlehem, reported that Israeli soldiers opened fire at men driving a stolen car, injuring three of them. The the men managed to escape, residents said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Security developments in the Hebron area
Israeli forces intervened in a number of incidents in the Hebron area on Saturday, including the detention of Palestinians and the prohibiting of access to agricultural land, and reportedly withdrew from a military base. The following report does not include the shooting by Israeli forces of two Palestinians in Yatta. Click here for a detailed account of that incident....
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli forces storm Fatah offices in Nablus
Israeli forces stormed offices belonging to Fatah in the northern West Bank village of Beit Imrin, west of Nablus, on Sunday morning, party sources told Ma'an. Israeli soldiers attempted to break into the office by forcing down the main doors, and were unable to, the sources said. Forces reportedly set light to a poster of the late President Yasser Arafat which was hanging on the main doors, the sources added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli patrol enters Tulkarem-area village
Israeli forces entered the village of Bal`a, east of Tulkarem, and deployed its troops in residential neighborhoods on Sunday, witnesses said. Soldiers conducted searched homes and stores in the neighborhood and checked locals' ID cards, witnesses said. No arrests were reported. An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that following an initial inquiry, the army is not familiar with the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Retaliation
Soldier lightly wounded in explosion at Gaza fence
A Golani soldier was lightly wounded Thursday morning when an explosive device was detonated by the Gaza Strip security fence near Kibbutz Kisufim. The incident occurred as IDF forces patrolled the eastern side of the fence. The device was apparently detonated by remote control. After the explosion, soldiers scoured the area and found another device which had not exploded. IDF sources noted that the threat of such devices in the Gaza Strip was common.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Palestinian teen caught with bombs
A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was detained Thursday at the Gilboa crossing at the northern entrance to Jenin, after a routine search uncovered two improvised pipe bombs in his possession. Nobody was hurt in the incident and the bombs were neutralized by police sappers. The teenager was taken in for interrogation ... On Wednesday, a Border Guard force uncovered four pipe bombs hidden in the possessions of a Palestinian teen in the same area. The teen was detained at a roadblock near Jenin.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Son of Palestinian peace activists admits to attempted terror attack
The son of a prominent Palestinian peace activist confessed Thursday he participated in an attempted terror attack against Israel Defense Forces last month which was documented with a camera belonging to Human rights organization B'Tselem. On January 21 Israel security forces arrested three West Bank Palestinians suspected of involvement with terrorist activity, one of whom was Mohanned Abu-Awwad, 21, whose father, Khaled Abu-Awwad, serves as the General Manager of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Detention
Hamas: PA detained 12 supporters across the West Bank
Hamas on Sunday accused the Palestinian Authority Security Services of detaining 12 of the movement's supporters across the West Bank, including a prominent leader in Nablus. Mustapha Ash-Shunnar, 49, a lecturer at Nablus' An-Najah University, was detained as he left a wedding party in the city, Hamas said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Blockade / Siege
Gaza: Treading on shards / Sarah Roy
"Do you know what it's like living in Gaza?" a friend of mine asked. "It is like walking on broken glass tearing at your feet." ... Lands previously irrigated are now dry, while effluent from sewage seeps into the groundwater and the sea, making much of the land unusable. Many attempts by Gazan farmers to replant over the past year have failed because of the depletion and contamination of the water and the high level of nitrates in the soil. Gaza's agricultural sector has been further undermined by the buffer zone imposed by Israel on Gaza's northern and eastern perimeters (and by Egypt on Gaza's southern border), which contains some of the Strip's most fertile land ... Approximately 30-40 percent of Gaza's total agricultural land is contained in the buffer zone. This has effectively forced the collapse of Gaza's agricultural sector. These profound distortions in Gaza's economy and society will--even under the best of conditions--take decades to reverse. http://www.thenation.com/doc/
One Gaza crossing opened for limited export
Israeli authorities opened the Kerem Shalom crossing into the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, said Palestinian border crossings official Raed Fattouh. Between 77 and 87 truckloads of humanitarian aid and commercial goods were schedelued for transfer into Gaza through Kerem Shalom, as well as limited quantities of domestic gas and industrial fuel, he said. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, despite an increase in the import of cooking gas into the coastal enclave, this represents only 49 percent of the weekly needs of gas (1,400 tones), as estimated by the Gas Station Owners Association ... Additionally, three trucks of cut carnations will be exported through the same terminal.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Extra-judicial killings
Report: PM approved Dubai assassination in early JanuaryPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized in early January the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, according to a report published in the Sunday Times. Based on information obtained from "sources with knowledge of Mossad," the paper reported that Netanyahu gave Mossad chief Meir Dagan the green light for the Dubai operation during a meeting at the Midrasha - the intelligence agency's headquarters, in the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv. The sources also said that the Mossad hit squad trained for the Dubai mission by secretly rehearsing in a Tel Aviv hotel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Report: Dubai assassin used real German passport
German officials investigating the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai have found that one of the suspected assassins carried a genuine German passport, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Der Spiegel said German intelligence agents found that in June 2009 an Israeli man identifying himself as Michael Bodenheimer - a name listed by police as a member of the hit squad - approached immigration officials in Cologne with the pre-World War II address of his grandparents. Bodenheimer acquired German citizenship on the basis of this information. After Dubal police listed his name on the 11-member assassination team, a US-born Israeli man also named Michael Bodenheimer said he was a victim of identity theft.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Irish FM to ask Lieberman for clarifications on Dubai operation
During his scheduled visit to Brussels next week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will be asked to explain how the hit squad behind the assassination of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai obtained forged British and Irish passports. Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin said Saturday that he would discuss the matter with Lieberman on Monday ... Martin said he planned to further discuss the matter at his meeting with 26 other EU foreign ministers next week.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Senior official: Everyone uses similar methods in war on terror
International criticism over the assassination of senior Hamas man Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai is unwarranted, as other states use similar methods in their war on terrorists, a senior official in Jerusalem said late Thursday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Top EU offical: Dubai hit may harm ties with Israel
A senior EU diplomat said on Sunday that Israel's suspected role in the slaying of a Hamas militant in Dubai and the killers' alleged use of forged EU passports will harm Israel's relations with the European bloc ... The EU diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive topic on Sunday, a day before the EU's 27 foreign ministers are due to meet in Brussels. Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will also be in Brussels to see EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, among others.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Meir Dagan: the mastermind behind Mossad's secret war
...few believe that Mossad will give up the secret war it has long waged against Israel’s enemies. Mossad has had a reputation for ruthlessness since it hunted down the Black September terrorists who massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Time and again its vengeful arm has reached out across the Arab world and into Europe, too, smiting enemies. Under Dagan’s leadership, such operations have increased.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
Scandinavian financial institutions drop Elbit due to BDS pressure
19 Feb - Despite Israel's oppressive tactics against it, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement has marked additional victories with many institutional investors divesting from or blacklisting Israeli military contractor Elbit Systems. One of the largest Dutch pension funds told The Electronic Intifada today that it is selling off its shares in Elbit ... A crucial role was played by the Palestinian Stop the Wall Campaign in convincing the Norwegian State Pension Fund to divest from Elbit Systems last September. In response, Israel detained campaign activist Mohammad Othman after he returned from a trip to Norway where he met Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen. Subject to office raids and its activists arrested, Stop the Wall has become a key target of Israeli attempts to suppress the nonviolent movement BDS.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Israeli ballet disrupted briefly during Vermont performance
Friday night in Burlington. Protesters included the great Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli who served in the IDF. Message: "Sponsored by Apartheid Israel." The video was taken down from youtube on one pretext or another. It’s up at vimeo. Related post: Touring Israeli ballet company has no Palestinian dancers
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Political developments / Diplomacy
EU initiative: Recognition of Palestinian state by next year
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos are promoting an initiative by which the European Union would recognize a Palestinian state in 18 months, even before negotiations for a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are concluded. According to senior European diplomats and senior Israeli officials, Israel has relayed its opposition to the initiative - warning that it would undermine any chance of a successful peace process.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
3 PA governors return to Gaza via Rafah crossing
Three Palestinian Authority-appointed governors in the Gaza Strip returned to the coastal enclave via the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Thursday, for the first time since Hamas' takeover in June 2007, one of the governors said on Saturday. fOsama Al-Farra, governor of Khan Younes, Muhammad Al-Qudwa, governor of Gaza City, Zuhdi Al-Qudwa governor of Rafah, as well as Major General Fatima Al-Birnawi crossed into Gaza as a result of efforts to achieve national reconciliation, Al-Farra said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
PA offical: Talks could resume in March
A US effort to break the deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations toward a peace deal could come to fruition by mid-March with the start of indirect talks, Palestinian officials said on Saturday. Arab states are now joining the US and European countries in attempting to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. Officials say these efforts have intensified since President Mahmoud Abbas announced he will not negotiate until Israel stops expanding settlements in the West Bank. In the meantime Abbas has been seeking clarification on a US offer to mediate in “proximity talks” wherein special envoy George Mitchell would shuttle between the two sides.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Ashrawi: Hamas' demands unrealistic
Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee, said no one is capable of offering Hamas the changes it says are prerequisites for the movement's ratification of the Egyptian-sponsored unity deal, on Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Other news
Israel angered by Uzi, menorah sculpture in Spain
A display by a Spanish artist including a candelabrum growing out of the barrel of an Uzi sub-machinegun and a sculpture of a haredi figure standing on a priest, who kneels on a prostrate Muslim, has drawn fire from the Foreign Ministry.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Government to discuss bill to ease restrictions on egg donation
Bill states individual born of non-Jewish woman's egg must undergo conversion later in life in order to be considered Jewish
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Scientists irate after top education official questions evolution
The Education Ministry's chief scientist sparked a furor among environmental activists and scholars Saturday with remarks questioning the reliability of evolution and global warming theory. The comments from Dr. Gavriel Avital, the latest in a series of written and oral statements casting doubts on the fundamental tenets of modern science, led several environmentalists to call for his dismissal.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Analysis / Opinion
For NYT's public editor, Bronner's a tarbaby / Ira Glunts
Today, Clark Hoyt, the public editor of the NY Times, devotes his column to reaction to his suggestion that his newspaper reassign Jerusalem correspondent Ethan Bronner due to a conflict of interest relating to his son’s enlistment in the IDF. The column will appear in the print version of the newspaper and a longer version will be on the Web. I learned about this the other day when an associate of Hoyt contacted me about including a letter I had written in Hoyt’s public editor column. I was actually quite surprised that the Times would consider publishing this letter, which I was sure was outside the boundaries of what the editors would accept as “legitimate criticism” of their star writer.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
Dubious in Dubai / Uri Avnery
...THE PROBLEM is that the Mossad in Israel acts like an independent fiefdom that ignores the vital long-term political and strategic interests of Israel, enjoying the automatic backing of an irresponsible prime minister. It is, as the English expression goes, a “loose cannon” – the cannon of a ship of yore which has broken free of its mountings and is rolling around the deck, crushing to death any unfortunate sailor who happens to get in its way ... The Dubai affair is reinforcing the image of Israel as a bully state, a rogue nation that treats world public opinion with contempt, a country that conducts gang warfare, that sends mafia-like death squads abroad, a pariah nation to be avoided by right-minded people. Was this worthwhile?
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/
Israeli media first to report Haitian organ theft rumor / Jillian C. York
There is considerable speculation following the removal of Lady Jenny Tonge on 14 February from her position as health critic for the Liberal Democratic Party in the UK's House of Lords following her statement calling for an inquiry into claims that the Israeli military stole organs during its relief work in Haiti last month. The question I pose is not whether Tonge was wrong in her claims to The Jewish Chronicle (which I would argue she was), but where the claims originated in the first place ... On 20 January, the Israeli news site YNet published a piece entitled, "'Israelis Stealing Organs in Haiti,'" the title of which has since been changed (Yitzhak Benhorin, "Anti-Semitic video against Israel team in Haiti," previously titled "'Israelis Stealing Organs in Haiti'") ... this is a case of media irresponsibility resulting in real-world repercussions.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Sexual assault punished differently among religious, secular Jews / Gideon Levy
Religious Zionism presents: a show of arrogance. For about three years, they kept their dirty laundry at home, but now they have been so kind as to display it for everyone to see. The fact that in the State of Israel there is an alternative law enforcement system such as the Takana forum, which investigates and metes out punishment only to religious Zionists, is intolerable. The fact that this system is run by the heads of a movement that in vain regulates to itself what is morally, ethically and culturally permissible is another sign of its arrogance.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
An openly segregated policy / Sefi Rachlevsky
...Not only is there no such thing as a "Somali woman" who has fewer rights than any other woman, there's no such thing as an "ultra-Orthodox youth." This youngster's country has no right to choose for him, label him "religious" or "ultra-Orthodox" and abandon him in a state-supported, segregationist rabbinical education system. There he will be taught that a Jew killing a Gentile should not be punished by his fellow men, and that if this youth expresses his sexual identity by sleeping with another man, this will be punishable by death.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Iraq, other Mideast
Saturday: 6 Iraqis killed, 2 wounded
Excerpt: "Only" six Iraqis were killed and two more were wounded on a very quiet day of attacks. Iraqis are still concerned over the fallout of a candidate blacklist that could nullify the legitimacy of the elections. Some Iraqis face a long jail term if they choose to criticize the elections through vandalism. A day after the National Dialogue Front unsurprisingly pulled out of elections, the National Council for Tribes of Iraq has withdrawn as well. Although there has been no call for a general boycott by Sunni voters, the development could call the legitimacy of the election into question.
http://original.antiwar.com/
"light attack planes' -- my potato / As`ad AbuKhalil
"The United States is reported ready to provide light attack aircraft to the Lebanese army and to establish an elite Special Forces unit, a major step toward boosting the military's now-feeble firepower." Let me translate for you. The US will not give Lebanon any weapons that can be effective against Israeli aggression, but is willing to give Lebanon weapons that can be effective against demonstrators, rebels and the Palestinian refugee camps.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Lebanon criticizes Israeli tree-cutting
In letters to Ban Ki-moon and the council circulated Thursday, Lebanon's UN Ambassador Nawaf Salam said an Israeli tractor with a special blade mounted on a hoist reached over a fence on January 7 and cut branches from a tree growing in Lebanese territory. The tree was on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border town of Kafr Kila-Marjuyun, he said. The tractor was accompanied by an Israeli military patrol, Salam said. "My government considers the ... act to be a clear violation of my country's sovereignty," he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Saudi to grant women court access
Saudi Arabia could soon allow women lawyers to appear in court to argue cases for the first time. Mohammed al-Issa, the justice minister, said the government is drafting a new law to permit female lawyers to argue family-related cases, including divorce and child custody.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
U.S. and other world news
Uproar in France over Muslim 'kosher' burgers
Local Quick fast food chain starts using halal meat only, slaughtered according to Sharia law, in eight of its branches located in large Muslim population centers. French officials protest step, warn of cultural isolationism, discrimination
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Some T-shirts are illegal in France
"Zeyneb D., élève de 3ème au collège Claude Bernard de Villefranche-sur-Saône (69400), est victime d’une exclusion de 3 jours pour avoir osé porter en classe un tee-shirt "Palestine libre!"."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Vancouver 2010: The IOC, Canada, and Apartheid / Kim Peterson
The Winter Olympics is taking place in the unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh, Xwméthkwyiem and Tsleil-Waututh peoples – what has been colonially designated Vancouver – and the unceded territory of the St’at’imc people – Whistler. Israel has sent an ice dancing pair to the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Of Vancouver, the Israeli Consul-General, Amir Gissin, gushed, “We find a Zionist, warm, loving community for whom Israel is a second home.” Zionist communities in Canada? Why not? Canada is an apartheid country just as Israel is. The First Nations have been pushed onto small reserves. Canada is based on the dispossession of the Indigenous population as is Israel.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
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www.TheHeadlines.org
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