Land theft / Settlers
Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa compound
28 Feb 16:55 local time - Seven Palestinians were detained as clashes erupted on Sunday with Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, after storming the site with discord reported throughout the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem. Ma'an's Jerusalem correspondent reported that four right-wing Israelis were allowed access to the Al-Aqsa compound with a police escort. Dozens of Palestinian worshipers spent the night at the site, fearing a takeover during the Jewish holiday of Purim ... Over 200 Israeli soldiers and police surrounded the mosque, using loudspeakers calling on worshipers to evacuate the site, Ma'an's correspondent said. Palestinians responded by using the loudspeakers in the mosque, used to call Muslims to prayer, to urge Palestinians to head to the city.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
13 injured as Israeli police attack Palestinians in Jerusalem's Old City
28 Feb, 11:42 local time ...Eyewitnesses reported that five residents were arrested by the Israeli police forces during the in suite clashes. Earlier on Sunday Israeli soldiers looked down the Al Aqsa Mosque while people are praying inside. Later troops stormed the outer courtyard of the third holiest site for Muslims worldwide and fired tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets injuring at least 13 residents. Later in the day residents from Jerusalem old city gathered outside the Aqsa Mosque in solidarity with worshiper trapped inside. Clashes now are being reported across east Jerusalem
http://imemc.org/index.php?
and the AP version:
Israeli police storm holy site to quell rioter
Israeli police forces stormed a Jerusalem holy site on today to disperse Palestinian protesters hurling rocks at visitors. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police dispersed some 20 masked protesters who were holed up inside the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. There were no injuries and no arrests were made, Rosenfeld said and calm had been restored and some thousand tourists had since visited the site.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Protest continues at Osh Ghrab; met with military aggression
Despite recent storms in the Bethlehem area, protest was held at the site of the former military base of Osh Ghrab, east of the town of Beit Sahour. The protest resulted in a display of force from the Israeli military ... Today’s protest began at 11 a.m. With those in attendance scaling the hill and entering the area of the abandoned buildings. Once they arrived at the summit two Israeli military jeeps entered the area and informed protestors that they had 5 minutes to disperse. The majority of the protestors peacefully complied with this request, with a few members of the crowd remaining to engage the military in civil dialogue, including Dr. Mazin Qumsiya of the Popular Committee to Defend Osh Ghrab, and Palestinian MP, Mustafa Barghouti. Despite this, the Israeli military began to fire concussion grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets at the retreating protesters causing them to flee.
http://imemc.org/index.php?
Hebron Purim parade takes place without hitch
Festive atmosphere along with wintry weather succeed in easing tension. Palestinians watch Purim parade from sidelines, welcome participants with holiday greetings while also acknowledging that situation could be dangerous. 'Hebron will be ours,' shouted intoxicated revelers
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Heritage sites controversy
PA cabinet to meet in Hebron
The Fayyad government is due to hold its weekly cabinet meeting in an office the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday, in protest against Israel's decision to include the Ibrahimi Mosque on a list of Israeli heritage sites. Hebron Governor Hussein Al-Araj said the move from Ramallah to Hebron was a signal Palestinian Authority rejected the Israeli cabinet's decision, highlighting that Israel lacks the sovereignty needed to change Palestinian landmarks on land occupied by Israel in 1967.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Russia slams Israel for adding WB mosques to heritage list
Moscow disapproves of Israel's decision to put two mosques in the West Bank on its national heritage list which would hamper the resumption of peace dialogue, RIA Novosti quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Friday ... 'We have repeatedly said that we are categorically against any steps and actions that foreshadow the outcome of negotiations on a final Palestinian-Israeli settlement, and which cannot but hamper efforts contributing to the resumption of dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis,' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.
http://english.wafa.ps/?
A heritage covered up / Gideon Levy
...NIS 400 million, 150 "heritage sites," and one big, old lie: A people without a land came to a land without a people. After more than 100 years of Zionism and over 60 years since the state was declared, Israel still needs to conceal, deny, cover-up and obfuscate to justify its existence ... One must also accept the approach which says that a country and a people are allowed to immortalize their past and their heritage. But a country that covered 416 abandoned Arab villages with Jewish National Fund forests and isn't leaving behind a monument to them - as in the words of the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko about Babi Yar - must finally bestow the entire history upon its citizens, and not just selected and misleading chapters of it.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Tombs and heritage / Adam Keller
...The story of Jakob and Rachel is one of the oldest love stories known to human culture ... When the picture of Rachel's Tomb appeared on stamps published by the British Mandate, nobody opposed it and nobody protested. On the contrary, the British chose this picture especially in order to have a site acceptable to all of His Majesty's subjects in this country, Jews and Arabs alike. Rachel's Tomb had been, for hundreds of years, one of this country's symbols, part of the heritage of all its inhabitants. Some people still remember the days when Jewish and Arab women alike went on pilgrimage to Rachel's Tomb and prayed there, side by side. Rachel's Tomb, that beautiful and modest structure which appeared on stamps and also in various naïve and romantic paintings, no longer exists. Under the rule of the State of Israel it was replaced by an enormous concrete fortification, guarded day and night by a large military force – a threatening enclave penetrating into Palestinian Bethlehem. It is this location, as well as the Cave of the Machpela, that the government of Israel proclaimed to be "National Heritage Sites", which are to be "rebuilt" and "reconstructed" at considerable expense for the state treasury.
http://adam-keller2.blogspot.
Violence / Aggression
IDF officer suspended over shooting on Palestinian car
Force apparently mistook car's passengers for Palestinian who threw firebombs at IDF checkpoint, opened fire in violation of army procedure -- An IDF reserves officer whose soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian car travelling near the West Bank village of Hussan Saturday night has been suspended until the conclusion of a military investigation into the incident. Four members of the same Palestinian family sustained light to moderate injuries in the shooting.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Action: petition
Allow Palestinian farmers to participate in Fairtrade Fortnight
3 PALESTINIAN FARMERS DENIED VISAS BY THE UK GOVERNMENT FOR FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT These farmers, whose olive oil is the only one in the world to carry the Fairtrade mark, have been invited by a UK social enterprise, Zaytoun, and were to be accompanied by a leading British NGO. The shocking refusal to allow those producers from newly certified Fairtrade Cooperatives into the UK to attend events across England, Wales and Scotland, comes exactly one year after this: ...[Gordon] Brown said: "Olive oil production provides an essential part of the West Bank economy. In buying this oil, British shoppers wil be helping the farmers of Palestine to make a living."
http://www.ipetitions.com/
Detention
Jihad affiliate given 7th administrative detention sentence
Israeli authorities handed down on Sunday the seventh consecutive administrative detention sentence to an Islamic Jihad supporter from Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. Relatives of Imad Abu Maria, 30, said he was preparing to leave the Negev prison and while fellow prisoners were bidding him farewell, he was told that his sentence was extended in relation to an undisclosed case. Following Maria's third detention in Israeli custody and his brief release three days earlier, Israeli forces detained him. He has served 36 months of administrative detention (imprisonment without trial or indictment) in total.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Gaza prosecutor wants UK journalist's term extended
A Gaza military prosecutor wants to extend the detention of a British journalist, claiming he poses a security threat, a local government official told The Associated Press on Sunday. Freelance journalist Paul Martin has been held in Gaza since 14 February, the first foreign national to be arrested since Hamas took full control of the territory in 2007. Martin's initial 15-day arrest order expires on Monday. At that time, a prosecutor will ask a court to keep Martin in custody, Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Al-Ghussein told the AP ... Martin was arrested in a Gaza courtroom when he arrived to testify at the trial of a Palestinian who was accused of collaborating with Israel. Martin reportedly interviewed the accused man for a documentary.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
3 Gaza workers detained at Israeli border fence
Three Gaza workers were detained by Israeli forces on Sunday as they attempted to cross over the barbed-wire fence east of Al-Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip. Ma'an's Gaza correspondent said Israeli troops opened fire after they spotted the workers. The three were detained and taken to an unknown location, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
2 Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank
Two Palestinians were detained in the West Bank overnight on Friday, Israeli media reported. An Israeli military spokesman said the two were detained on suspicion of involvement in 'terror activity', and were arrested in the north of Ramallah and east of Nablus. According to the spokesman, the two were taken for security questioning.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Life term for Tulkarem man convicted of treason
A Tulkarem court sentenced a Palestinian man to life imprisonment on Sunday, after he was found guilty of treason and making contact with Israel. The 31-year-old man, identified only by his initials AK, was sentenced in accordance with acticles 111 and 112 of the penal code. The accused can appeal the sentence.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Palestinian Authority ignores court, jails journalist
New York, Feb 26 -- The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to heed a High Court order and release journalist Tariq Abu Zaid immediately. A four-person special military court in Nablus sentenced Abu Zaid, a correspondent who reported on camera for Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV, to 18 months in prison on February 16 on charges of "undermining the status of the authority, and resisting the public policy of the Palestinian Authority," his lawyer, Bassam Karajeh, told CPJ. Karajeh said authorities have not responded to demands that they explain why the journalist was tried in a military court. Abu Zaid has been held at Al-Junied prison in Nablus since he was first arrested in August 2009.
http://cpj.org/2010/02/
War crimes
UN General Assembly urges further Gaza war investigations (Reuters)
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The General Assembly on Friday demanded credible Israeli and Palestinian investigations into U.N. allegations of war crimes in last year's Gaza war, reflecting concerns that the probes so far have fallen short. The United Nations' 192-nation assembly of member states approved the nonbinding Arab-drafted resolution with 98 votes in favor, seven against and 31 abstentions. Some 56 nations did not participate in the vote. The Palestinian Authority's permanent observer to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, blamed a massive snowstorm that closed down schools and many businesses in New York for the poor attendance at the time of the vote.
http://www.reuters.com/
Extra-judicial killings
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was sedated before being suffocated
By Hugh Tomlinson, Dubai -- ...The results of a toxicology report released today show that the Hamas commander was paralysed by an injection of succinylcholine, a fast-acting muscle relaxant. He was then suffocated with a pillow ... The drug does not induce loss of consciousness or anaesthesia, meaning that al-Mabhouh would have been conscious but unable to struggle as he was suffocated ... Dubai police also said that they would soon name a new suspect in the case, bringing the total number of named agents to 27.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Dubai has DNA, fingerprint evidence of Dubai assassins; Israeli-American finance company provided killers' credit cards
Several interesting developments in the Dubai assassination investigation ... Clayton Swisher writes a strong post arguing the case for U.S. involvement in the investigation as financial dealings here enabled the killing. Turns out, a former officer in an elite IDF unit runs a financial services firm, Payoneer, in the U.S. and he arranged for the credit cards used fraudulently by the killers ... Haaretz reports the strange news that the Mossad apparently photoshopped the passport photos of the agents ... I find this report, written by Haaretz’s military correspondent (and someone likely to have Mossad sources and a vested interest in showcasing them), dubious in some ways.
http://www.richardsilverstein.
Israeli spy 'sourced details for passports in Dublin'
An Israeli spy based in Dublin is suspected of supplying information for the forged Irish passports used by the team of assassins who murdered a Hamas commander in Dubai. And details of more fake Irish passports used in the assassination of a Hamas official are expected to be given to the Irish Ambassador in Dubai today.Ambassador Ciaran Madden will meet with officials from the United Arab Emirates, who have confirmed that more fake Irish passport numbers had been identified.
http://www.independent.ie/
Australia abandons Israel in UN vote
AUSTRALIA has softened its traditionally staunch support for Israel in the United Nations but denied it was linked to tensions over the country's apparent use of forged Australian passports in an assassination in Dubai. At a vote in the UN General Assembly - where Australia has been one of Israel's strongest supporters - the government abstained from a resolution demanding that Israel and the Palestinians investigate possible war crimes during the assault on Gaza that Israel began in December 2008. Three months ago, Australia voted against a similar resolution which sought to endorse the Goldstone report ... One Department of Foreign Affairs source told the Herald there was no doubt the decision to abstain was intended as a sign to Israel not to take Australian support for granted.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.
Ben-Eliezer: Dubai hit not a failure
Despite the ambiguity in Israel over who killed Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Sunday that "the Mabhouh assassination was not a failure. I don't know who did it, I am addressing the results." On an Army Radio broadcast, the industry, trade and labor minister said, "I don't know if it was us or not us." Ben-Eliezer said the assassination brought with it deterrence
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Blockade
Fuel pumped into Gaza despite closure
Israeli authorities permitted the transfer of fuel through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian border crossings official Raed Fattouh said. Limited quantities of cooking gas and industrial fuel were delivered through the border crossing, despite its closure by Israeli authorities for the duration of the Jewish holiday Purim, Fattouh said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
New York Times watch
*****US media and Israeli military all in the family / Alison Weir
Recent exposés revealing that Ethan Bronner, the New York Times Israel-Palestine bureau chief, has a son in the Israeli military have caused a storm of controversy that continues to swirl and generate further revelations ... As it turns out, Bronner's ties to the Israeli military are not the rarity one might expect ... For a great many of the reporters and editors determining what Americans learn about Israel-Palestine, Israel is family. Jonathan Cook, a British journalist based in Nazareth, writes of a recent meeting with a Jerusalem based bureau chief, who explained: "… Bronner's situation is 'the rule, not the exception. I can think of a dozen foreign bureau chiefs, responsible for covering both Israel and the Palestinians, who have served in the Israeli army, and another dozen who like Bronner have kids in the Israeli army." ... Apparently, intimate ties to Israel are among the many open secrets in the region that are hidden from the American public. If, as the news media insist, these ties present no problem or even, as the Times' Keller insists, enhance the journalists' work, why do the news agencies consistently refuse to admit them? The answer is not complicated. While Israel may be family for these journalists and editors, for the vast majority of Americans, Israel is a foreign country. In survey after survey, Americans say they don't wish to "take sides" on this conflict. In other words, the American public wants full, unfiltered, unslanted coverage.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
Other news
War of words: Israel attacks Palestinian rhetoric (Reuters)
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Concerned that its image abroad is suffering, Israel is going on the offensive to show that Palestinians, not Israelis, are responsible for perpetuating the region's cycle of violence. With the peace process at a standstill since its war in Gaza a year ago, Israel is trying to paint the Palestinian Authority as the source of incitement to violence -- a violation of Palestinian obligations under peace agreements ... In January, Israel's Center for Near East Research stepped up the anti-incitement campaign with the launch of a monthly "Incitement Report." Aimed at Western legislators, it chronicles language its writers say encourages violence ... Palestinians say rhetoric from their side about guns or bloodshed is nothing compared with the physical subjugation and humiliation they suffer at the hands of Israeli occupation troops manning West Bank checkpoints and armed patrols. Real incitement isn't just words, they say, it is actions.
http://www.reuters.com/
Israel court to hear Citizenship Law challenge
The Israeli High Court of Justice will soon hear a challenge to a law which prohibits Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from bringing in spouses from the occupied territories and countries deemed 'enemy states' by the Israeli government. A petition was filed in 2007 by Adalah, the legal center for the Palestinian minority in Israel, and other human rights groups, contesting the Citizenship Law.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
YWCA in Ramallah sustains damage caused by heavy rains
The ground floor of the Young Women's Christian Association headquarters in Ramallah was destroyed in Saturday as a result of heavy rains throughout the governorate. Rainfall led to a deluge in the old well in the headquarters, causing structural damage to the building's walls, uprooting trees, and devastating the ground floor. Officials estimated the damage caused at 70,000 US dollars.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Heavy rain causes flash flooding in Nablus
Heavy downpours in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday have caused one meter flash flooding in the area, locals said. In some villages in the governorate, floods exceeded one meter, with no injuries reported as a result of the deluge.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Building the first 'Palestinian settlement'
The slick 3D animation shows the planned town looks very much like an Israeli settlement, except for the mosques -- ...the bulldozers are here and building is now under way in what will be the biggest construction project in modern Palestinian history. Rawabi, which actually means "hills" in Arabic, will be the first purpose-built Palestinian city. The developers say it will eventually house more than 40,000 people, and will take more than five years to build.It's costing more than US$700m (£458m) most of which has been invested by the Qatari government.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Palestinian cafe owner faces threats for 'no uniforms' policy / Tim King
(HAIFA / SALEM) - In spite of all the hardship, Palestinians living in Israel and the occupied territories find ways to survive. Sometimes, amidst the political and ethnic tension and fear, they even find ways to live well. This may be a fair description for a restaurant/cafe in Haifa called 'Azad' ... In Arabic, Azad means 'The Free Person' or simply, 'freedom'. "This is a very peaceful place which allows people of all races or religions to enter ... In fact, Azad's is so resolved to having a peaceful atmosphere, that the place has a policy banning people in military uniforms.
http://www.salem-news.com/
Analysis / Opinion / Human interest
For Israel, defiance comes at the cost of legitimacy / Henry Siegman
The Middle East peace process and its quest for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict that got under way nearly 20 years ago with the Oslo accords has undergone two fundamental transformations. It is now on the brink of a third ... The disappearance of the two-state solution is triggering a third transformation, which is turning Israel from a democracy into an apartheid state ... At first, the collapse of the assumptions on which hopes for a fair and just resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict rested triggered much despair. But that despair has begun to turn to anger, and options for resolving the conflict, previously dismissed by the international community as unrealistic, are being looked at anew. That anger is also spawning a new global challenge to Israel’s legitimacy.
http://www.israeli-occupation.
Once seemingly impregnable, Hamas shows signs of vulnerability (Washington Post)
Struggling to maintain its strength in the West Bank amid a crackdown by Israel and Palestinian police and suffering after the assassination of one of its top leaders, Hamas has sustained another blow with news that the son of one its founders had been spying on it for Israel ... Shin Bet's high-level penetration of Hamas, if true, is a "catastrophe for Hamas," said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Al Azhar University in Gaza. It is not clear whether the report will cause Hamas to target other suspected informants or if the movement's leaders will simply regard it an isolated incident, Abusada said ... The news of Yousef's spying was no less painful for his family.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Hamas U.
(with photos) By Thanassis Cambanis. GAZA - The first sign that this is a different place from the Western universities it resembles comes when a bell rings in the library. Quickly the students on odd-numbered floors - all men - gather their books and file into the stairwells. Women file in to take their turn. In keeping with a puritanical interpretation of Islamic law, men and women aren’t allowed to study together, so they switch floors every two hours. They lounge in separate student unions and eat in separate cafeterias. At intervals during the day, the call to prayer sounds from the minarets of the campus mosque, and classes come to a halt.Their strict observance might sound extreme, but the Islamic University is no fringe institution: It’s the top university in Gaza. The majority of students here study secular topics; not all of them are even religious.
http://www.boston.com/
Sleepless in Gaza . . . and Jerusalem
On March 1st - this coming Monday-the premier episode of a 90 part series, "Sleepless in Gaza...and Jerusalem" will be launched on YouTube. It will be a video diary about four young Palestinian women, Muslim and Christian, two living in Gaza and two in Arab Jerusalem/West Bank. PINA TV Production camera crews will be covering Ashira Ramadan, a broadcast journalist based in Jerusalem; Ashira's friend in Gaza, the documentary film maker Nagham Mohanna; Donna Maria Mattas, a 17 year-old student at the Holy Family school in Gaza who dreams of growing up to be a journalist, and Ala' Khayo Mkari who works with Caritas in Jerusalem. The intention of this series is neither rant nor rhetoric. It is rather an opportunity for all of us, who do not live in Gaza, occupied Arab Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, to grasp how these four young Palestinian women live out their daily lives
http://arabinform.org/news/
Yasmin opens the Braille Little Oxford Dictionary
One of our Villages Group’s strongest connections is with Yasmin Gebara, a very special young woman from the village of Salem near Nablus. Yasmin is blind from birth. A younger brother, Muhammad, is also blind. In September 2004, Yasmin’s father Saael, a taxi driver, was killed in cold blood by Yehoshua Elitzur, from the nearby Itamar settlement. Elitzur was sentenced in an Israeli court for eight years, but then fully exploited the pro-settler leniency of the Israeli justice system who let him go home before reporting to jail, and has probably escaped the country without serving a single day. In the meanwhile, Yasmin’s Mother Muna was left on her own with six children in the ages 9-18. We started to visit Yasmin’s family regularly after Saael’s murder.
http://villagesgroup.
Recent Israeli films are less political
With Scandar Copti's and Yaron Shani's "Ajami," Israel has just landed its third consecutive foreign-language Oscar nomination. That's a feat few other countries -- including global cinema powerhouses like France and Spain -- have pulled off ... A startlingly dramatic and touchingly human work from one Palestinian and one Israeli filmmaker, "Ajami" tells the story of warring Arab families in the working-class Israel port town of Jaffa, using multiple points of view and an intoxicating mix of genres. "Ajami" is a crime thriller, cultural biography and family drama all rolled into one, a film that manages to expose subtle layers of character while still weaving a tight narrative ... But more than the many things the movie is, perhaps more significant is what it isn't: a topical film.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
Iraq, other Mideast
Saturday: 1 Iraqi killed, 8 wounded
Excerpt: Light violence left at least one dead and eight wounded across Iraq. In one case the number of wounded is unknown, but at least three casualties were counted. U.S. forces also accidentally killed a tribal leader’s son. Meanwhile, voters are heavily divided ahead of the elections, but some Iraqis can still find humor in the colorful campaigns styles of some candidates. Also, the Accountability and Justice Commission will release evidence they used to bar candidates.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Family slain amid election terror in Iraq
The slaughter of the al-Kaabi family last week horrified Iraqis who had prayed that the parliamentary elections next Sunday would be free from political violence ... Relatives said the only crime committed by Hussein, a guard for a wealthy farmer, was to have been hanging posters for Entifadh Qanbar, a candidate standing for the Shi’ite Iraqi National Alliance (INA).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Egypt lifts ban on gas to Israel (BBC)
The supreme court in Egypt has overturned an earlier ruling by a lower court that banned gas sales to Israel ... Egypt's gas trade with Israel is controversial, as many Egyptians are opposed to links between the two countries - despite a 1979 peace deal. Some opposition figures in Egypt are against the sale of gas to Israel because they disagree with its policies towards the Palestinians.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Khamenei tells top Palestinian militants resistance is key (AFP)
TEHRAN — Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Palestinian militant chiefs on Saturday that sustained resistance was the key to liberating their land. "Palestine, surely and definitely, will be freed by sustained resistance from the people of Palestine and by maintaining unity among jihadist groups," Khamenei said. He met with Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah, and the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) Ahmed Jibril, all of whom live in exile.
http://www.google.com/
Ahmadinejad once again fails to call for annihilation of Israel / Juan Cole
I saw Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN Friday afternoon. Oren said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had called for the annihilation of Israel, and was therefore speaking of genocide. It is dreary to see this constant drumbeat of dishonest propaganda. Whatever one thinks of Ahmadinejad or the Iranian regime, one should not misrepresent their statements, since that will lead to bad policy-making.
http://www.campaigniran.org/
U.S.
Helping Jews by helping Palestinians
As news of Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza headlined the nightly newscasts and daily newspapers last winter, two Jews and two Palestinians in the United States who had toiled to fund a micro-financing venture in the West Bank found themselves in a tricky situation. But the seven ordinary Palestinians who have relied on micro-loans to launch small businesses in the West Bank could breathe a sigh of relief that cool heads prevailed, and there was no stopping last February's launch of LendforPeace.org - a culmination of efforts by the four Ivy Leaguers to make a difference in an area where diplomats and generals have failed to do so.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Four Gitmo prisoners released to Albania, Spain / Andy Worthington
On Wednesday, four prisoners were released from Guantánamo: an Egyptian, a Libyan and a Tunisian arrived in Albania, and a Palestinian arrived in Spain. All four had been cleared by military review boards at Guantánamo under the Bush administration, and had then been cleared by President Obama’s interagency Task Force, but, like dozens of prisoners in Guantánamo, they could not be repatriated because of fears that they would be tortured if returned to their home countries, or because they were effectively stateless.
http://original.antiwar.com/
--
www.TheHeadlines.org
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment