Settlements/Land Theft and Destruction
Israel's continued settlement expansion
Israel has been expanding illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land for decade, and it is now emerging just how far-reaching this policy is. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Jerusalem housing committee is planning to build another 50,000 Jewish homes in occupied East Jerusalem to join the hundreds of thousands already there or in progress. That includes 3,000 housing units in Gilo, 1,500 apartments in Har Homa and another 1,500 in the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev. Thousands more have been planned at Givat Hamatos, and the settlement of Ramot, while hundreds more are in the works in Armon Hanetziv, as well as Neveh Yaakov. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports (12 mar 2010).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Settlers Torch Olive Orchard In Hebron
A group of fundamentalist Jewish settlers burnt on Thursday at night an olive orchard in Safa village, north west of Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Mayor: Israeli settlers uprooted 40 olive trees
Nablus – Ma'an – Israeli settlers uprooted dozens of olive trees in Qaryut, south of Nablus, at dawn on Friday, officials said. The settlers uprooted 40 olive trees in the Al-Batashiyah area of Qaryut, the village's mayor Abdel Nasser Al-Qaryuti told Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Homes and livelihoods gone in an instant
Radia Abu Sbaih, 47, lives with her sister and one niece on family land roughly 700 meters from the "green line" boundary between Israel and Gaza. Until 18 February 2010, they had nearly 600 olive, fruit, date and nut trees, an agricultural cistern, a water well, various vegetables and a house. Theirs was one of three homes demolished by Israeli military bulldozers that day in al-Mossadar, eastern Gaza. Eva Bartlett reports for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
A city that should be shared
One reason for the apparent futility of Palestinian dissent is the Israeli security barrier that bites into the West Bank and runs through chunks of East Jerusalem. It prevents most West Bank Muslims from reaching the city’s holy places and has cleft its Arab districts in two, leaving tens of thousands of Arab residents on the wrong side. Further impeding access, traffic lights flick green only briefly for cars from Palestinian districts while staying green for cars from Jewish settlements for minutes. And Israel’s interior ministry is stripping ever more East Jerusalem Palestinians of residency papers. In 2008 nearly 4,600 lost them, 20 times the previous years’ average.
http://www.economist.com/
Haifa: planned death of a city
In the city of Haifa, Zionist plans to create an Arab-free land through the expulsions of 1948 did not entirely succeed; the nature of the city is still ambiguous despite the deaths and destruction.
http://mondediplo.com/2010/03/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott,
Confrontations, anger in Jerusalem over building (Reuters)
Reuters - Israeli forces sealed off the West Bank and massed riot squads around Jerusalem's Old City and Arab neighborhoods during Muslim weekly prayers on Friday, facing down Palestinian anger over Jewish settlement expansion.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Two Injured, Dozens Suffer Effects Of Tear Gas Inhalation At The Bil’in Weekly
Two civilians were injured as dozens suffered from the effects of tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked the weekly anti wall protest at the village of Bil’in, central West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Al-Ma’sara Village, Southern West Bank, Protest The Israeli Built Wall
Villagers of al-Ma’sara, near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, protested on Friday the Israeli built wall on villagers’ lands.
The people were joined by Israeli and international supporters. The protest kicked off from the village center and headed towards the wall construction site.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Protesters Carry Photos of ISM Activist During Weekly Nil'in Protest One Year On From Injury
Dozens of protesters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation, this Friday, following the weekly demonstration in the central West Bank village of Nil’in, near Ramallah.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Palestinians Demand Entry to Jerusalem without permits during the Holy Week of Easter
Palestinian Christian organizations, figures and many other Palestinians from the Jerusalem and the surrounding area have sent a letter on March 4, to the heads of churches in Jerusalem, demanding them to encourage all Christians in Palestine to enter Jerusalem for the Easter celebrations without applying for permits from the Israeli authorities.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
West Bank rises up in a new 'white' intifada
As Israel cracks down harshly on unarmed protesters, Donald Macintyre meets one Palestinian family whose teenage son has paid a heavy price. Ehab Barghouti would not have been at the demonstration at all if his father Asdal had had his way. Asdal found his son, 14, on the road from their village of Beit Rima and ordered him into the car. "I told him: 'You shouldn't go, you're too young.' He told me: 'I want to resist.' I said: 'Do you want me to see you on TV?'" But when Asdal stopped at a local garage and went in to talk to the mechanic, Ehab made his escape.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Ahmed Moor: Why I am for academic boycott, Ahmed Moor
The boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions has always made me a little uneasy. We all read books by Israeli academics that at their humanist best elucidate and inform, and at their racist worst reveal something about the Zionist zeitgeist. I read Ha’aretz, Ynet and the Jerusalem Post on a daily basis – and communicate pretty regularly with Israelis through email (the majority of whom admittedly, are anti-Zionists). Despite all this, I do support the academic boycott. The issue is very muddy, however.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Harvard Students Rebuke Kramer and the U’s Support
Harvard students put together a coalition of sixteen campus groups calling on the university to terminate Martin Kramer's fellowship for his highly problematic suggestion that humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees be cut to in effect lessen their numbers. Their statement in the student newspaper is an opening shot at a clear institutional double standard.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2010/
On Kramer’s Statements
We write as gravely concerned students and student group leaders representing over 16 groups throughout Harvard University. Our entire constituency can be viewed online.
http://www.thecrimson.com/
A Thousand Candles For Gaza
The Popular Committee Against The Siege on Gaza launched a series of event to mark 1000 days of Israeli siege and blockade on the coastal region. On Thursday the committee started lighting 1000 candles and held a peaceful protest near the Erez (Beit Hanoun) Crossing.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Palestinian Leprechaun
http://latuff2.deviantart.com/
Violence/Aggression and Provocation
Over 13 Honor Killings in Two Months in Palestine
Seven women were killed in the Palestinian territories because of "honor killings” in the first month of the year 2010. These news were released by Palestinian human rights organizations interested in women's issues, but according to my sources, this statistic was falsified and the real number of women who were murdered, only in the cities of Ramallah and Hebron since the beginning of the year 2010 has exceeded 13. The sources confirm that these seven women, who were registered in the statistics of human rights organizations as victims of “honor killing”, were left in public streets and in fields after being killed and there was no chance for the perpetrators to hide the crime.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
Brutalizing Palestinian Children
As an isolated incident, it would be appalling and criminal. As a regular occurrence, it’s state-sponsored terrorism against defenseless children, subjected to barbarism by Israeli soldiers committing crimes against humanity to crush their will for wanting to live free on their own land — what Westerners take for granted; what Palestinians since 1948 haven’t had, and since 1967, under military occupation denying their very humanity.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
Resident Wounded In Israeli Air Strike In Khan Younis
Palestinian medical sources reported on Thursday at night that a resident was wounded when the Israeli Air Force fired missiles at a factory in Al Qarara, north of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Israeli warplanes fire on southern Gaza
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli warplanes opened fire on the southern Gaza Strip early Friday, striking two targets near the Egyptian border. There were no immediate reports of injury in the attack, which an Israeli military spokesman said targeted sites in Rafah and Khan Younis.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Palestinians: Soldiers watched as settlers attacked
Nablus area Palestinians say assaulted by Gilad Farm residents; settlers accuse leftists of 'provocation'; three settlers detained.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Settler Threatens Gun Violence in Sheikh Jarrah
Video "This is precisely the type of chaos, lawlessness and violence one should expect from an out of control nation which countenances the theft of homes lived in by their Palestinian residents for decades."
http://www.richardsilverstein.
Rightists to march in Silwan
Police set for riots in east Jerusalem due to approval of housing units, march led by extremists.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Detainees
Soldiers Kidnap a 9-year-old Child And His Brother
Local sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported Thursday evening that Israeli soldiers kidnapped a 9-year-old child and his 20-year-old brother.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Humanitarian Issues/Human Rights/Siege/Restriction of Movement
UN humanitarian chief criticizes Gaza blockade (AP)
AP - The U.N. humanitarian chief says Israel's blockade of Gaza is not helping its security or weakening Hamas' hold on the territory.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Gaza unplugged: the cost of power cuts in the Strip
Oxfam GB - UK Daily power cuts in Gaza resulting from the Israeli blockade are causing deep disruptions and putting lives at risk.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Israel seals off occupied West Bank
Israel has imposed a full closure of the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank for 48 hours. Ehud Barak, the defence minister, made the move on Friday amid reports about the possibility of fresh protests by Palestinians around the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after Friday prayers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Teachers Not Allowed Into School Isolated Behind The Wall
For the second day, Israeli soldiers prevented on Thursday teachers of the Al Dab’a School, totally isolated behind the Annexation Wall in Qalqilia district, from reaching the school, and demanded them to be searched by special X-Ray equipment.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
War Crimes
Corrie parents to Ma'an: We want accountability
Hanover, NH – Ma’an – Seven years after their daughter, Rachel, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, Craig and Cindy Corrie arrived in Israel's Haifa District Court on Wednesday seeking answers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Corrie's sister to Haaretz: U.S. encouraged family to sue Israel
This is Sarah Corrie Simpson's first visit to Israel. Her younger sister, Rachel Corrie, was killed by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, at the age of 23. Now, the family is suing the state in the Haifa District Court.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
State: IDF not to blame for activist Rachel Corrie's death
The State Prosecutor's Office appealed Thursday to the Haifa District Court to dismiss outright the civil suit filed by U.S. activist Rachel Corrie's family against the Defense Ministry for unspecified compensation for their daughter's death.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
2 troops charged with endangering Palestinian boy
Indictment charges Givati soldiers who fought in Operation Cast Lead with overstepping authority, conduct unbecoming on suspicion they asked nine-year old Palestinian to open bags thought to contain explosives.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Zionism
ISRAEL: Nationalist group urges model Bar Refaeli to marry Jewish, dump Leo DiCaprio
Marzel, a well-known stalwart among Israel's ultra-nationalists, appealed to Refaeli on behalf of an organization named "Lehava." In Hebrew, this means "flame:; it is also the Hebrew acronym for "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land." The organization, according to its Facebook page (in Hebrew) provides assistance to Jewish girls in relationships with non-Jews, especially Arabs. There are other organizations in Israel that specialize in extricating Jewish women from marriages and other relationships with Arabs.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.
A racism outside of language: Israel's apartheid, Saree Makdisi
There was, of course, no way for me to contemplate South African apartheid without contemplating its relevance for understanding the situation in Israel–Palestine today. For anyone who has been to Palestine, the grass-grown wasteland of Fietas looks familiar for good reason: it has its counterpart in every grass-covered ruin of every one of the hundreds of towns and villages in Palestine whose people were driven from their homes in 1948 because a racial logic dictated that they should not live in a space supposedly decreed (by God and the United Nations) to another people; in every wind-swept wasteland of Gaza where many of those same refugees’ homes were once again bulldozed by the Israeli army to clear lines of sight and make room for free-fire zones; and in every corner of occupied East Jerusalem where Israeli bulldozers have deliberately and methodically demolished Palestinian family homes in a vain attempt to maintain the ratio of Jews to non-Jews in the city’s population (72 to 28, if you are interested in the sordid details) that was determined by city planners in the 1970s – and has been sustained ever since by denying Palestinian residents of the city permits to build, bulldozing their homes when they build anyway, and stripping them of their residency status and expelling them from the city whenever possible. 2,162 Palestinian Jerusalemites have suffered this fate since 2003 alone, expelled to the West Bank suburbs and denied the right to return to the city of their birth, while Jewish arrivals from Moldova, London, Melbourne and Brooklyn who have never set eyes on Jerusalem take their place.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/
Why all American Jews should now work to close the Zionist chapter of our history, Philip Weiss
When Shlomo Sand published a landmark book on the intolerant nationalism of Zionism earlier this year, and the urgency of Israel becoming a society of its citizens, the New York Times called him a crackpot. But Sand actually knows Israeli attitudes. As does Ynet, which characterizes a poll of Israeli high school students as reflecting "racism."
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Israel's Arab Helpers
PLO paper reveals leadership bereft of strategy, legitimacy
As US-brokered "indirect" peace talks are set to resume, a paper authored by PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat reveals a Palestinian leadership ready to re-enter negotiations with Israel having already conceded fundamental Palestinian rights and demands. EI's Ali Abunimah analyzes a document he says provides insight into the thought processes of a leadership bereft of strategy and legitimacy.
http://electronicintifada.net/
PA fears East Jerusalem building will make it look weak
The Palestinian Authority will not begin indirect talks with Israel unless construction in the settlements, including in East Jerusalem, is completely frozen, PA President Mahmoud Abbas told the Arab League on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egypt stepping up pressure against Hamas
Cairo has severely toughened its stance on exit permits for Hamas leaders from Gaza and is demanding that Hamas unconditionally sign a reconciliation agreement with Fatah prepared by the Egyptians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egyptian guards seriously wound Ethiopian trying to cross into Israel
Egyptian border guards on Friday shot and seriously wounded an Ethiopian migrant trying to cross illegally into Israel, and arrested seven others, police said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egypt expels hundreds of Palestinians to Gaza
Gaza – Ma'an – Palestinian border officials said Friday that 224 Palestinians were sent back to the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Thursday night. The Palestinians, most of them former medical patients, were sent back via Rafah, the de facto crossings authority officials told Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Politics and Diplomacy
U.S. gave Israel green light for East Jerusalem construction
The apology offered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai recalls the joke about the servant who pinched the king's bottom. En route to the gallows, the servant apologized: He thought it was the queen's bottom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Haniyeh: Freeze negotiations with Israel
Gaza – Ma’an – De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh urged Arab states and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to cut off all direct and indirect negotiations with Israel on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli officials: Indirect talks with PA to begin on schedule
Despite 'embarrassing' announcement on east Jerusalem construction during Biden's visit, Israeli officials say indirect talks with Palestinians under US mediation to start next week.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
US sees no sign Palestinians have pulled out of peace talks (AFP)
AFP - The United States said Thursday it had "nothing to indicate" the Palestinians have withdrawn from indirect talks with Israel over its plans to build 1,600 new homes in disputed east Jerusalem.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
US urges 'prompt' Middle East talks
Palestinians have not pulled out of talks with Israel despite settlement row, US says.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
US and Israel dodge settlement confrontation
During the vice-president's visit, Benjamin Netanyahu presented Joe Biden with a framed certificate but managed to lean on it, shattering the glass.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
What Biden told Netanyahu behind closed doors: "This is starting to get dangerous for us"
People who heard what Biden said were stunned. “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden castigated his interlocutors. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/
Israel puts US on notice
News of Israel's plans to construct new housing in East Jerusalem shocked United States Vice President Joe Biden on his arrival in the country, not least for the explosive timing of the news. The Israeli government claims it was an unfortunate error; more likely it was a stern warning to Washington over Iran - hold Israel back from a strike and there will be consequences. - Victor Kotsev (Mar 12, '10)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/
Jordan king tells Biden Israeli settlements threaten peace (AFP)
AFP - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday told visiting US Vice President Joe Biden that Israel's new settlements plans threaten peace efforts and could lead to more regional violence.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Israeli settlements plan angers archbishop of Canterbury
Dr Rowan Williams adds voice to growing criticism of scheme to build nearly 2,000 homes on occupied territory. The archbishop of Canterbury has waded into the row over Israeli plans to build hundreds of homes on occupied territory, saying the proposals left him feeling "baffled and angry". Rowan Williams told an audience in London that although he believed the Israeli state had a right to exist, he had yet to hear a legal defence of settlement construction. All settlements on occupied territory are illegal under international law.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/
Clinton To Be Key Note Speaker at AIPAC
AIPAC wrote Congress yesterday asking them to urge the administration to close loopholes in enforcement of previous sanctions on international firms working in Iran. While the selection of Senate conferees and AIPAC annual policy conference the week after next might suggest Congress will rush to get a bill on the president's desk, other sources say there may not be such a rush as the administration is moving aggressively to get multilateral sanctions. Hill sources also say that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to be the administration keynote at the AIPAC conference later this month.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/
In case you missed it: Joe Biden: "I am a Zionist"
US Senator Joe Biden, speaks with Shalom TV on Israel and Jewish-related issues in this exclusive interview.
http://www.
Other News
US report accuses Israel of neglecting mosques, churches
Annual State Department human rights survey blames Israel of protecting Jewish holy sites only, leaving Christian, Muslim houses of worship under threat; slams Goldstone Report.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Amnesty International: Palestinian journalists targeted
Amnesty International calls on the Palestinian and Israeli authorities to release all journalists who are being detained for carrying out their legitimate professional activities, amid continuing harassment of media workers in the region.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/
Gaza swimmers hope to make splash at Asia games (AFP)
AFP - In the ramshackle warrens of Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp, four young athletes are plotting to swim their way out of the impoverished territory.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
The Decline of Israel: Interview with Jonathan Cook
In a wide-ranging interview with the New Left Project, Nazareth-based journalist Jonathan Cook describes the increasingly repressive nature of Israeli society and the prospects for a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Kershner's propaganda tales
Notice that official Israeli accounts of such attacks always make it sound that the Palestinian commandos were the ones who shot at the victims when invariably Israeli terrorists are the ones who engage in the rampage: "The woman being honored, Dalal Mughrabi, was the 19-year-old leader of a Palestinian squad that sailed from Lebanon and landed on a beach between Haifa and Tel Aviv. They killed an American photojournalist, hijacked a bus and commandeered another, embarking on a bloody rampage that left 38 Israeli civilians dead, 13 of them children, according to official Israeli figures. Ms. Mughrabi and several other attackers were killed." If Dalal Mughrabi was Isareli, she would have been honored by a statue in the US Capitol.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
The Al-Mabhouh Murder, By RAMZY BAROUD
The killing of Palestinian activist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19, 2010 was clearly a well-planned, violent and sadistic act, committed by Israeli assassins in the supposed safety of a sovereign country. Yes, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a Palestinian activist. We have no reason to believe otherwise. He spent years of his life in Israeli prison – and one year in an Egyptian jail – for his political activism. This, however, gives no credibility to Israel’s accusation that al-Mabhouh was a killer of Israelis. This assertion becomes even more problematic when considering that al-Mabhouh’s assassination was, according to British media, ordered by accused Israeli war criminals and rightwing politicians.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Palestinians Should Now Declare Their Independence, Johann Hari
Could the Israeli government make it any more obvious they have no intention of sharing the Over-Promised Land with its other inhabitants? This week the Obama administration - who give Israel $3bn a year, more than they dole out to any other nation on earth - made a meek and craven request for Israelis to simply have a pause in seizing even more land, and to sit down with the Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with a big concrete slap: the announcement of 1,600 more homes to be built on occupied Palestinian land from which Arabs will be forcibly kept out. He has made it plain he will not loosen his grip by an inch, announcing: "Even if [Palestinian President] Abu Mazen comes along and says he's ready to sign a peace deal on the spot, we will restore settlement construction to its previous levels." No compromise. Never.
http://www.commondreams.org/
An apology worse than the offense, Akiva Eldar
The apology offered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai recalls the joke about the servant who pinched the king's bottom. En route to the gallows, the servant apologized: He thought it was the queen's bottom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
‘Times’ marches forward– and publicizes the ‘Judaization’ of East Jerusalem, Philip Weiss
Yesterday I gave Andrew Sullivan a lot of credit for picking up the latest horrifying news from Sheikh Jarrah’s evictions– settlers singing songs for Baruch Goldstein, the mass murderer from Brooklyn. Well Sullivan was in turn picking up a New York Times post, by Robert Mackey, that duly chronicles the horrors of the segregation/eviction project in East Jerusalem, covers the huge demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah the other day, and even passes along the word "Judaization" of East Jerusalem. Israel is out of control. Throw in Joe Biden’s slap; and I tell you, the mainstream’s going to crack. Then we can fold this website up!
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Israeli press calls Netanyahu ‘insane’; why can’t American press do the honors?, Philip Weiss
The essence of the Israel lobby is that the U.S. has so much power over Israel’s fate that the special interest here must act at all times to preserve the U.S.’s good opinion–or else Israel goes down the tube. That’s the genuine view of foreign relations held inside the lobby. And it is why the American press/establishment, which generally reflects the lobby’s concerns, can’t speak half so directly about the Biden insult as Israelis can.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Steven Gerber: Joe Biden, East Jerusalem and A Divided Israel, Steven Gerber
As has been widely reported in the news this week, during Vice President Biden's trip to Israel, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced plans to build 1600 new homes in East Jerusalem. This has been described by some as a slap in the face by the Israeli Government of the Obama Administration's attempt to restart peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. However, what many commentators have missed is that the row over settlements during Vice President Biden's trip to Israel is not between Israel and the U.S. Rather, it is between different segments in Israeli society and indicative of a deeper problem.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Analysis: Netanyahu outwits Obama again
There is almost certainly worse to come. The Israeli government has laid a series depth charges in the path of the peace process since blunting the idealism of Mr Obama's opening frenzy of diplomacy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Does Israeli really want Peace in Palestine?
Fourteen years ago Clinton visited to Gaza in 1996, when the PLO and Fatah accepted Israel's existence and amended parts of their charter that had aimed at destroying Israel.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Palestinians Should Declare Statehood
March 11, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The unceasing building of settlements on Palestinian land underscores the need for Palestinians to take a more definite action regarding their future and their rightful desire to have their own state. They should declare statehood. While condemning Israel’s decision to build more settlements in east Jerusalem as a move that could “inflame” tensions, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden has told Palestinians that they deserve a “viable” independent state with contiguous territory. At the same time, both French and Spanish officials are reportedly working the conditions that would lead to a European recognition of an independent Palestine.
http://www.
US / Israel: The Special Relationship
To restore national security requires a reappraisal of the U.S.-Israeli “special relationship.” Jeff Gates is A widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide.
http://www.
Biden in Israel
The virulent anti-Americanism of the Israeli government, underscored by its recent very loud slap in the face of the Vice President of the United States, is nothing new. Yet many are shocked – shocked! – at Israel’s behavior. The official spin out of Tel Aviv is that the announcement of more settlement-building — at the very moment when Biden was pleading with his good friend “Bibi” to cease and desist – is all due to a single minister in a very fractious cabinet: yet Netanyahu and indeed the entire Israeli government supports this move to throw more Palestinians off their land and build exclusively Jewish settlements.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Biden visit exposed Israeli settler truths | Daniel Levy
This week the US saw Netanyahu's government in all its glorious stubborness – providing a clarity the peace process badly needs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Global insight: Israel's dysfunctional coalition
If there were a prize for abysmal political timing, a little-known Israeli government body called the Jerusalem district planning and construction committee would surely be a hot favourite to win the trophy.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
How Bibi lost a best friend | Aluf Benn
Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has a bad habit: when things appear to be moving in the right direction for him, he stumbles upon some stupid political landmine, raising doubts about his leadership and credibility.A series of blunders had ruined his first term in the 1990s, and on his way back to power Netanyahu promised that he had changed. For a year, he stayed away from trouble, avoiding unscripted public remarks, giving no interviews, and being attentive to other politicians' needs and interests. But this week, he did it again, ruining the visit of American vice president Joe Biden with an official announcement of a plan to build 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighbourhood of East Jerusalem – despite a well-known American opposition to Israeli settlement expansion. Netanyahu apparently didn't know in advance about the interior ministry's decision, taken by mid-level planning and zoning bureaucrats. But it was according to his government's policy, and he should have and could have taken steps to avoid such unpleasant surprises. His failure to do so portrays him as a hopeless schlemiel, just like "old Bibi" from the previous term.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
In case you missed it: Criminal State A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism
With ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan poised to expand to Iran and Pakistan, it is time to take a closer look at how conflicts are catalyzed—by way of deception.
http://www.
Second annual Ann Arbor Palestine film fest opens with "Pomegranates and Myrrh"
The second annual Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival opened on 10 March 2010 at the Michigan Theater with hundreds of attendees for Najwa Najjar's Pomegranates and Myrrh. The film festival showcases films about Palestine and by Palestinian directors. Educating through the screen arts, the film festival amplifies the voice of the Palestinian people as a nation and diaspora by bringing films to the fore that would not otherwise be seen.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Iraq
Thursday: 4 Iraqis Killed, 18 Wounded
Updated at 7:12 p.m. EST, Mar. 11, 2010 Some election results were released today amid allegations of fraud by one of the major parties. At least four Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded in various attacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department blamed the Iraqi government for human rights abuses, including the murder of Iraqi civilians. Also, Prime Minister Maliki underwent minor surgery.
http://original.antiwar.com/
3 policemen killed in attack in western Iraq
Three policemen were killed in a bomb explosion followed by gunfire in a village in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Tuesday, a provincial police source said.
http://english.people.com.cn/
Inside Iraq - Iraqi hopes pinned on election
Millions of Iraqis are pinning their hopes on the country's elections, but will their hopes be dashed as in the past?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Maliki, Allawi ahead in Iraq count
State of Law coalition leads in Najaf and Babil and Iraqiya in Diyala and Salah al-Din.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Arab neighbors cast a wary eye on Iraq election results
With the first Iraq election results coming in, Middle East countries are watching close and gauging what the vote means for their influence on the oil-rich state.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
UN envoy: No indication of widespread fraud in Iraq election
In his first interview since the Iraq election, Ad Melkert said that while the UN is looking into individual complaints including missing voter names and tampering with election data, there doesn't appear to be widespread fraud.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
The Listening Post - The Iraqi elections
Plus, the proposal for a new Journalists Protection Law and the controversial google case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Images of Iraq’s Election
http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-
UN sanctions on Iraq still in force
Iraq is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, and yet it suffers from a dismal economy with an unemployment rate of up to 18 per cent. The country's economy slipped under Saddam Hussein's long rule and nose-dived further in the anarchic years that followed the US-led invasion in 2003. But even now, despite much optimism over a stable democratic future in Iraq, several UN trade sanctions applied in the early 1990's during Hussein's reign - are still in effect. And they are costing the country tens of billions of dollars in lost trade every year. AL Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey reports from Baghdad. [March 12, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Inside Iraq - Can Iraq move forward?
The election campaign is over but the horse-trading will continue for months to come; will candidates remember their promises? Can Iraq move forward?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Lebanon
Not in the New York Times
Two Israeli occupation tanks just penetrated in Lebanese territory. If two Hizbullah fighters penetrated into Israeli territory, the secretary-general of the UN would have convened the UN Security Council.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Al-Jazeera airs unseen 1983 footage of abducted IDF soldiers
The Al-Jazeera news network on Thursday released footage of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted by Palestinian militants during the first war in Lebanon. This is the first time the footage has ever been aired.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Biden calls for Hizbullah disarmament during Tel Aviv University talk
US Vice President Joe Biden stressed Thursday during a speech in Israel that his country would pursue its efforts to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 to stop arms flow to Hizbullah and strip the party of its weapons, while also calling for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to start without delay. "Weapons constituting danger equally against Israeli and Lebanese civilians.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Lebanese border security body 'intimidated top lawyer'
BEIRUT // A high-profile group of international human rights organisations are accusing the Lebanese government of harassing a prominent civil society lawyer after officials seized his passport last week, forcing the intervention of the interior ministry to get the documents returned.
http://www.thenational.ae/
U.S. and Other World News
US: Europe biased against Muslims
The annual report of US State Department on human rights has warned of increasing concern that discrimination against Muslims was on the rise in Europe. The human rights report for 2009 cited Switzerland's ban on the construction of minarets on mosques enacted in November, as well as continued bans or restrictions on head scarves and burqa worn by Muslims in France, Germany and the Netherlands. The report said: "Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has been an increasing concern."
http://english.aljazeera.net/
The amazing true story of Zeitoun
Abdulrahman Zeitoun is the real-life hero of Dave Eggers's new book. In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina he paddled from house to house in a canoe, offering help to his neighbours. For his trouble, he was arrested as a suspected terrorist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
US occupation forces kills 4 civilians
An American helicopter attacked two houses after shots were reportedly fired at US soldiers searching for Taliban militants. Four civilians, including two children aged 11 and 15. were killed in the shootout.
http://www.thenews.pl/
More Afghan Civilians Killed By US, NATO Forces Than Insurgents During Operation Moshtarak
According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, U.S. and Allied forces have killed and injured more civilians than have the insurgents during Operation Moshtarak. Incredibly, the Pentagon continues to insist that this operation “protects the people.”
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
U.S. sees Gulf support in Western push for Iran sanctions
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that leading Gulf states appeared ready to use their clout to lobby China to support sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The Nuclear Double Standard
Israel have nuclear power, but not Iran? asks Charles Pena
http://original.antiwar.com/
Egypt must halt execution of man accused of murder
Amnesty International has made an urgent personal appeal to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to prevent the execution of a man who is believed to have been wrongly convicted of murder. The organisation fears that Atef Rohyum Abd El Al Rohyum is at imminent risk of being hanged as he has now been moved from al-Qeta prison, Giza, to Isti’naf prison in Cairo, where executions take place. Jihan Mohammed Ali, a woman convicted of murder in the same case, was executed in al-Kanater prison, northeast of Cairo, on 10 March. Her family were given no prior notification of her execution.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/
www.TheHeadlines.org
Israel's continued settlement expansion
Israel has been expanding illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land for decade, and it is now emerging just how far-reaching this policy is. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Jerusalem housing committee is planning to build another 50,000 Jewish homes in occupied East Jerusalem to join the hundreds of thousands already there or in progress. That includes 3,000 housing units in Gilo, 1,500 apartments in Har Homa and another 1,500 in the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev. Thousands more have been planned at Givat Hamatos, and the settlement of Ramot, while hundreds more are in the works in Armon Hanetziv, as well as Neveh Yaakov. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports (12 mar 2010).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Settlers Torch Olive Orchard In Hebron
A group of fundamentalist Jewish settlers burnt on Thursday at night an olive orchard in Safa village, north west of Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Mayor: Israeli settlers uprooted 40 olive trees
Nablus – Ma'an – Israeli settlers uprooted dozens of olive trees in Qaryut, south of Nablus, at dawn on Friday, officials said. The settlers uprooted 40 olive trees in the Al-Batashiyah area of Qaryut, the village's mayor Abdel Nasser Al-Qaryuti told Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Homes and livelihoods gone in an instant
Radia Abu Sbaih, 47, lives with her sister and one niece on family land roughly 700 meters from the "green line" boundary between Israel and Gaza. Until 18 February 2010, they had nearly 600 olive, fruit, date and nut trees, an agricultural cistern, a water well, various vegetables and a house. Theirs was one of three homes demolished by Israeli military bulldozers that day in al-Mossadar, eastern Gaza. Eva Bartlett reports for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
A city that should be shared
One reason for the apparent futility of Palestinian dissent is the Israeli security barrier that bites into the West Bank and runs through chunks of East Jerusalem. It prevents most West Bank Muslims from reaching the city’s holy places and has cleft its Arab districts in two, leaving tens of thousands of Arab residents on the wrong side. Further impeding access, traffic lights flick green only briefly for cars from Palestinian districts while staying green for cars from Jewish settlements for minutes. And Israel’s interior ministry is stripping ever more East Jerusalem Palestinians of residency papers. In 2008 nearly 4,600 lost them, 20 times the previous years’ average.
http://www.economist.com/
Haifa: planned death of a city
In the city of Haifa, Zionist plans to create an Arab-free land through the expulsions of 1948 did not entirely succeed; the nature of the city is still ambiguous despite the deaths and destruction.
http://mondediplo.com/2010/03/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott,
Confrontations, anger in Jerusalem over building (Reuters)
Reuters - Israeli forces sealed off the West Bank and massed riot squads around Jerusalem's Old City and Arab neighborhoods during Muslim weekly prayers on Friday, facing down Palestinian anger over Jewish settlement expansion.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Two Injured, Dozens Suffer Effects Of Tear Gas Inhalation At The Bil’in Weekly
Two civilians were injured as dozens suffered from the effects of tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked the weekly anti wall protest at the village of Bil’in, central West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Al-Ma’sara Village, Southern West Bank, Protest The Israeli Built Wall
Villagers of al-Ma’sara, near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, protested on Friday the Israeli built wall on villagers’ lands.
The people were joined by Israeli and international supporters. The protest kicked off from the village center and headed towards the wall construction site.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Protesters Carry Photos of ISM Activist During Weekly Nil'in Protest One Year On From Injury
Dozens of protesters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation, this Friday, following the weekly demonstration in the central West Bank village of Nil’in, near Ramallah.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Palestinians Demand Entry to Jerusalem without permits during the Holy Week of Easter
Palestinian Christian organizations, figures and many other Palestinians from the Jerusalem and the surrounding area have sent a letter on March 4, to the heads of churches in Jerusalem, demanding them to encourage all Christians in Palestine to enter Jerusalem for the Easter celebrations without applying for permits from the Israeli authorities.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
West Bank rises up in a new 'white' intifada
As Israel cracks down harshly on unarmed protesters, Donald Macintyre meets one Palestinian family whose teenage son has paid a heavy price. Ehab Barghouti would not have been at the demonstration at all if his father Asdal had had his way. Asdal found his son, 14, on the road from their village of Beit Rima and ordered him into the car. "I told him: 'You shouldn't go, you're too young.' He told me: 'I want to resist.' I said: 'Do you want me to see you on TV?'" But when Asdal stopped at a local garage and went in to talk to the mechanic, Ehab made his escape.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Ahmed Moor: Why I am for academic boycott, Ahmed Moor
The boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions has always made me a little uneasy. We all read books by Israeli academics that at their humanist best elucidate and inform, and at their racist worst reveal something about the Zionist zeitgeist. I read Ha’aretz, Ynet and the Jerusalem Post on a daily basis – and communicate pretty regularly with Israelis through email (the majority of whom admittedly, are anti-Zionists). Despite all this, I do support the academic boycott. The issue is very muddy, however.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Harvard Students Rebuke Kramer and the U’s Support
Harvard students put together a coalition of sixteen campus groups calling on the university to terminate Martin Kramer's fellowship for his highly problematic suggestion that humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees be cut to in effect lessen their numbers. Their statement in the student newspaper is an opening shot at a clear institutional double standard.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2010/
On Kramer’s Statements
We write as gravely concerned students and student group leaders representing over 16 groups throughout Harvard University. Our entire constituency can be viewed online.
http://www.thecrimson.com/
A Thousand Candles For Gaza
The Popular Committee Against The Siege on Gaza launched a series of event to mark 1000 days of Israeli siege and blockade on the coastal region. On Thursday the committee started lighting 1000 candles and held a peaceful protest near the Erez (Beit Hanoun) Crossing.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Palestinian Leprechaun
http://latuff2.deviantart.com/
Violence/Aggression and Provocation
Over 13 Honor Killings in Two Months in Palestine
Seven women were killed in the Palestinian territories because of "honor killings” in the first month of the year 2010. These news were released by Palestinian human rights organizations interested in women's issues, but according to my sources, this statistic was falsified and the real number of women who were murdered, only in the cities of Ramallah and Hebron since the beginning of the year 2010 has exceeded 13. The sources confirm that these seven women, who were registered in the statistics of human rights organizations as victims of “honor killing”, were left in public streets and in fields after being killed and there was no chance for the perpetrators to hide the crime.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
Brutalizing Palestinian Children
As an isolated incident, it would be appalling and criminal. As a regular occurrence, it’s state-sponsored terrorism against defenseless children, subjected to barbarism by Israeli soldiers committing crimes against humanity to crush their will for wanting to live free on their own land — what Westerners take for granted; what Palestinians since 1948 haven’t had, and since 1967, under military occupation denying their very humanity.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
Resident Wounded In Israeli Air Strike In Khan Younis
Palestinian medical sources reported on Thursday at night that a resident was wounded when the Israeli Air Force fired missiles at a factory in Al Qarara, north of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Israeli warplanes fire on southern Gaza
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli warplanes opened fire on the southern Gaza Strip early Friday, striking two targets near the Egyptian border. There were no immediate reports of injury in the attack, which an Israeli military spokesman said targeted sites in Rafah and Khan Younis.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Palestinians: Soldiers watched as settlers attacked
Nablus area Palestinians say assaulted by Gilad Farm residents; settlers accuse leftists of 'provocation'; three settlers detained.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Settler Threatens Gun Violence in Sheikh Jarrah
Video "This is precisely the type of chaos, lawlessness and violence one should expect from an out of control nation which countenances the theft of homes lived in by their Palestinian residents for decades."
http://www.richardsilverstein.
Rightists to march in Silwan
Police set for riots in east Jerusalem due to approval of housing units, march led by extremists.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Detainees
Soldiers Kidnap a 9-year-old Child And His Brother
Local sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported Thursday evening that Israeli soldiers kidnapped a 9-year-old child and his 20-year-old brother.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Humanitarian Issues/Human Rights/Siege/Restriction of Movement
UN humanitarian chief criticizes Gaza blockade (AP)
AP - The U.N. humanitarian chief says Israel's blockade of Gaza is not helping its security or weakening Hamas' hold on the territory.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Gaza unplugged: the cost of power cuts in the Strip
Oxfam GB - UK Daily power cuts in Gaza resulting from the Israeli blockade are causing deep disruptions and putting lives at risk.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Israel seals off occupied West Bank
Israel has imposed a full closure of the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank for 48 hours. Ehud Barak, the defence minister, made the move on Friday amid reports about the possibility of fresh protests by Palestinians around the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after Friday prayers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Teachers Not Allowed Into School Isolated Behind The Wall
For the second day, Israeli soldiers prevented on Thursday teachers of the Al Dab’a School, totally isolated behind the Annexation Wall in Qalqilia district, from reaching the school, and demanded them to be searched by special X-Ray equipment.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
War Crimes
Corrie parents to Ma'an: We want accountability
Hanover, NH – Ma’an – Seven years after their daughter, Rachel, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, Craig and Cindy Corrie arrived in Israel's Haifa District Court on Wednesday seeking answers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Corrie's sister to Haaretz: U.S. encouraged family to sue Israel
This is Sarah Corrie Simpson's first visit to Israel. Her younger sister, Rachel Corrie, was killed by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, at the age of 23. Now, the family is suing the state in the Haifa District Court.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
State: IDF not to blame for activist Rachel Corrie's death
The State Prosecutor's Office appealed Thursday to the Haifa District Court to dismiss outright the civil suit filed by U.S. activist Rachel Corrie's family against the Defense Ministry for unspecified compensation for their daughter's death.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
2 troops charged with endangering Palestinian boy
Indictment charges Givati soldiers who fought in Operation Cast Lead with overstepping authority, conduct unbecoming on suspicion they asked nine-year old Palestinian to open bags thought to contain explosives.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Zionism
ISRAEL: Nationalist group urges model Bar Refaeli to marry Jewish, dump Leo DiCaprio
Marzel, a well-known stalwart among Israel's ultra-nationalists, appealed to Refaeli on behalf of an organization named "Lehava." In Hebrew, this means "flame:; it is also the Hebrew acronym for "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land." The organization, according to its Facebook page (in Hebrew) provides assistance to Jewish girls in relationships with non-Jews, especially Arabs. There are other organizations in Israel that specialize in extricating Jewish women from marriages and other relationships with Arabs.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.
A racism outside of language: Israel's apartheid, Saree Makdisi
There was, of course, no way for me to contemplate South African apartheid without contemplating its relevance for understanding the situation in Israel–Palestine today. For anyone who has been to Palestine, the grass-grown wasteland of Fietas looks familiar for good reason: it has its counterpart in every grass-covered ruin of every one of the hundreds of towns and villages in Palestine whose people were driven from their homes in 1948 because a racial logic dictated that they should not live in a space supposedly decreed (by God and the United Nations) to another people; in every wind-swept wasteland of Gaza where many of those same refugees’ homes were once again bulldozed by the Israeli army to clear lines of sight and make room for free-fire zones; and in every corner of occupied East Jerusalem where Israeli bulldozers have deliberately and methodically demolished Palestinian family homes in a vain attempt to maintain the ratio of Jews to non-Jews in the city’s population (72 to 28, if you are interested in the sordid details) that was determined by city planners in the 1970s – and has been sustained ever since by denying Palestinian residents of the city permits to build, bulldozing their homes when they build anyway, and stripping them of their residency status and expelling them from the city whenever possible. 2,162 Palestinian Jerusalemites have suffered this fate since 2003 alone, expelled to the West Bank suburbs and denied the right to return to the city of their birth, while Jewish arrivals from Moldova, London, Melbourne and Brooklyn who have never set eyes on Jerusalem take their place.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/
Why all American Jews should now work to close the Zionist chapter of our history, Philip Weiss
When Shlomo Sand published a landmark book on the intolerant nationalism of Zionism earlier this year, and the urgency of Israel becoming a society of its citizens, the New York Times called him a crackpot. But Sand actually knows Israeli attitudes. As does Ynet, which characterizes a poll of Israeli high school students as reflecting "racism."
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Israel's Arab Helpers
PLO paper reveals leadership bereft of strategy, legitimacy
As US-brokered "indirect" peace talks are set to resume, a paper authored by PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat reveals a Palestinian leadership ready to re-enter negotiations with Israel having already conceded fundamental Palestinian rights and demands. EI's Ali Abunimah analyzes a document he says provides insight into the thought processes of a leadership bereft of strategy and legitimacy.
http://electronicintifada.net/
PA fears East Jerusalem building will make it look weak
The Palestinian Authority will not begin indirect talks with Israel unless construction in the settlements, including in East Jerusalem, is completely frozen, PA President Mahmoud Abbas told the Arab League on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egypt stepping up pressure against Hamas
Cairo has severely toughened its stance on exit permits for Hamas leaders from Gaza and is demanding that Hamas unconditionally sign a reconciliation agreement with Fatah prepared by the Egyptians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egyptian guards seriously wound Ethiopian trying to cross into Israel
Egyptian border guards on Friday shot and seriously wounded an Ethiopian migrant trying to cross illegally into Israel, and arrested seven others, police said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egypt expels hundreds of Palestinians to Gaza
Gaza – Ma'an – Palestinian border officials said Friday that 224 Palestinians were sent back to the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Thursday night. The Palestinians, most of them former medical patients, were sent back via Rafah, the de facto crossings authority officials told Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Politics and Diplomacy
U.S. gave Israel green light for East Jerusalem construction
The apology offered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai recalls the joke about the servant who pinched the king's bottom. En route to the gallows, the servant apologized: He thought it was the queen's bottom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Haniyeh: Freeze negotiations with Israel
Gaza – Ma’an – De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh urged Arab states and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to cut off all direct and indirect negotiations with Israel on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli officials: Indirect talks with PA to begin on schedule
Despite 'embarrassing' announcement on east Jerusalem construction during Biden's visit, Israeli officials say indirect talks with Palestinians under US mediation to start next week.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
US sees no sign Palestinians have pulled out of peace talks (AFP)
AFP - The United States said Thursday it had "nothing to indicate" the Palestinians have withdrawn from indirect talks with Israel over its plans to build 1,600 new homes in disputed east Jerusalem.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
US urges 'prompt' Middle East talks
Palestinians have not pulled out of talks with Israel despite settlement row, US says.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
US and Israel dodge settlement confrontation
During the vice-president's visit, Benjamin Netanyahu presented Joe Biden with a framed certificate but managed to lean on it, shattering the glass.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
What Biden told Netanyahu behind closed doors: "This is starting to get dangerous for us"
People who heard what Biden said were stunned. “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden castigated his interlocutors. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/
Israel puts US on notice
News of Israel's plans to construct new housing in East Jerusalem shocked United States Vice President Joe Biden on his arrival in the country, not least for the explosive timing of the news. The Israeli government claims it was an unfortunate error; more likely it was a stern warning to Washington over Iran - hold Israel back from a strike and there will be consequences. - Victor Kotsev (Mar 12, '10)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/
Jordan king tells Biden Israeli settlements threaten peace (AFP)
AFP - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday told visiting US Vice President Joe Biden that Israel's new settlements plans threaten peace efforts and could lead to more regional violence.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Israeli settlements plan angers archbishop of Canterbury
Dr Rowan Williams adds voice to growing criticism of scheme to build nearly 2,000 homes on occupied territory. The archbishop of Canterbury has waded into the row over Israeli plans to build hundreds of homes on occupied territory, saying the proposals left him feeling "baffled and angry". Rowan Williams told an audience in London that although he believed the Israeli state had a right to exist, he had yet to hear a legal defence of settlement construction. All settlements on occupied territory are illegal under international law.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/
Clinton To Be Key Note Speaker at AIPAC
AIPAC wrote Congress yesterday asking them to urge the administration to close loopholes in enforcement of previous sanctions on international firms working in Iran. While the selection of Senate conferees and AIPAC annual policy conference the week after next might suggest Congress will rush to get a bill on the president's desk, other sources say there may not be such a rush as the administration is moving aggressively to get multilateral sanctions. Hill sources also say that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to be the administration keynote at the AIPAC conference later this month.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/
In case you missed it: Joe Biden: "I am a Zionist"
US Senator Joe Biden, speaks with Shalom TV on Israel and Jewish-related issues in this exclusive interview.
http://www.
Other News
US report accuses Israel of neglecting mosques, churches
Annual State Department human rights survey blames Israel of protecting Jewish holy sites only, leaving Christian, Muslim houses of worship under threat; slams Goldstone Report.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Amnesty International: Palestinian journalists targeted
Amnesty International calls on the Palestinian and Israeli authorities to release all journalists who are being detained for carrying out their legitimate professional activities, amid continuing harassment of media workers in the region.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/
Gaza swimmers hope to make splash at Asia games (AFP)
AFP - In the ramshackle warrens of Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp, four young athletes are plotting to swim their way out of the impoverished territory.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
The Decline of Israel: Interview with Jonathan Cook
In a wide-ranging interview with the New Left Project, Nazareth-based journalist Jonathan Cook describes the increasingly repressive nature of Israeli society and the prospects for a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Kershner's propaganda tales
Notice that official Israeli accounts of such attacks always make it sound that the Palestinian commandos were the ones who shot at the victims when invariably Israeli terrorists are the ones who engage in the rampage: "The woman being honored, Dalal Mughrabi, was the 19-year-old leader of a Palestinian squad that sailed from Lebanon and landed on a beach between Haifa and Tel Aviv. They killed an American photojournalist, hijacked a bus and commandeered another, embarking on a bloody rampage that left 38 Israeli civilians dead, 13 of them children, according to official Israeli figures. Ms. Mughrabi and several other attackers were killed." If Dalal Mughrabi was Isareli, she would have been honored by a statue in the US Capitol.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
The Al-Mabhouh Murder, By RAMZY BAROUD
The killing of Palestinian activist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19, 2010 was clearly a well-planned, violent and sadistic act, committed by Israeli assassins in the supposed safety of a sovereign country. Yes, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a Palestinian activist. We have no reason to believe otherwise. He spent years of his life in Israeli prison – and one year in an Egyptian jail – for his political activism. This, however, gives no credibility to Israel’s accusation that al-Mabhouh was a killer of Israelis. This assertion becomes even more problematic when considering that al-Mabhouh’s assassination was, according to British media, ordered by accused Israeli war criminals and rightwing politicians.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Palestinians Should Now Declare Their Independence, Johann Hari
Could the Israeli government make it any more obvious they have no intention of sharing the Over-Promised Land with its other inhabitants? This week the Obama administration - who give Israel $3bn a year, more than they dole out to any other nation on earth - made a meek and craven request for Israelis to simply have a pause in seizing even more land, and to sit down with the Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with a big concrete slap: the announcement of 1,600 more homes to be built on occupied Palestinian land from which Arabs will be forcibly kept out. He has made it plain he will not loosen his grip by an inch, announcing: "Even if [Palestinian President] Abu Mazen comes along and says he's ready to sign a peace deal on the spot, we will restore settlement construction to its previous levels." No compromise. Never.
http://www.commondreams.org/
An apology worse than the offense, Akiva Eldar
The apology offered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai recalls the joke about the servant who pinched the king's bottom. En route to the gallows, the servant apologized: He thought it was the queen's bottom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
‘Times’ marches forward– and publicizes the ‘Judaization’ of East Jerusalem, Philip Weiss
Yesterday I gave Andrew Sullivan a lot of credit for picking up the latest horrifying news from Sheikh Jarrah’s evictions– settlers singing songs for Baruch Goldstein, the mass murderer from Brooklyn. Well Sullivan was in turn picking up a New York Times post, by Robert Mackey, that duly chronicles the horrors of the segregation/eviction project in East Jerusalem, covers the huge demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah the other day, and even passes along the word "Judaization" of East Jerusalem. Israel is out of control. Throw in Joe Biden’s slap; and I tell you, the mainstream’s going to crack. Then we can fold this website up!
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Israeli press calls Netanyahu ‘insane’; why can’t American press do the honors?, Philip Weiss
The essence of the Israel lobby is that the U.S. has so much power over Israel’s fate that the special interest here must act at all times to preserve the U.S.’s good opinion–or else Israel goes down the tube. That’s the genuine view of foreign relations held inside the lobby. And it is why the American press/establishment, which generally reflects the lobby’s concerns, can’t speak half so directly about the Biden insult as Israelis can.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Steven Gerber: Joe Biden, East Jerusalem and A Divided Israel, Steven Gerber
As has been widely reported in the news this week, during Vice President Biden's trip to Israel, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced plans to build 1600 new homes in East Jerusalem. This has been described by some as a slap in the face by the Israeli Government of the Obama Administration's attempt to restart peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. However, what many commentators have missed is that the row over settlements during Vice President Biden's trip to Israel is not between Israel and the U.S. Rather, it is between different segments in Israeli society and indicative of a deeper problem.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Analysis: Netanyahu outwits Obama again
There is almost certainly worse to come. The Israeli government has laid a series depth charges in the path of the peace process since blunting the idealism of Mr Obama's opening frenzy of diplomacy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Does Israeli really want Peace in Palestine?
Fourteen years ago Clinton visited to Gaza in 1996, when the PLO and Fatah accepted Israel's existence and amended parts of their charter that had aimed at destroying Israel.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Palestinians Should Declare Statehood
March 11, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The unceasing building of settlements on Palestinian land underscores the need for Palestinians to take a more definite action regarding their future and their rightful desire to have their own state. They should declare statehood. While condemning Israel’s decision to build more settlements in east Jerusalem as a move that could “inflame” tensions, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden has told Palestinians that they deserve a “viable” independent state with contiguous territory. At the same time, both French and Spanish officials are reportedly working the conditions that would lead to a European recognition of an independent Palestine.
http://www.
US / Israel: The Special Relationship
To restore national security requires a reappraisal of the U.S.-Israeli “special relationship.” Jeff Gates is A widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide.
http://www.
Biden in Israel
The virulent anti-Americanism of the Israeli government, underscored by its recent very loud slap in the face of the Vice President of the United States, is nothing new. Yet many are shocked – shocked! – at Israel’s behavior. The official spin out of Tel Aviv is that the announcement of more settlement-building — at the very moment when Biden was pleading with his good friend “Bibi” to cease and desist – is all due to a single minister in a very fractious cabinet: yet Netanyahu and indeed the entire Israeli government supports this move to throw more Palestinians off their land and build exclusively Jewish settlements.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Biden visit exposed Israeli settler truths | Daniel Levy
This week the US saw Netanyahu's government in all its glorious stubborness – providing a clarity the peace process badly needs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Global insight: Israel's dysfunctional coalition
If there were a prize for abysmal political timing, a little-known Israeli government body called the Jerusalem district planning and construction committee would surely be a hot favourite to win the trophy.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
How Bibi lost a best friend | Aluf Benn
Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has a bad habit: when things appear to be moving in the right direction for him, he stumbles upon some stupid political landmine, raising doubts about his leadership and credibility.A series of blunders had ruined his first term in the 1990s, and on his way back to power Netanyahu promised that he had changed. For a year, he stayed away from trouble, avoiding unscripted public remarks, giving no interviews, and being attentive to other politicians' needs and interests. But this week, he did it again, ruining the visit of American vice president Joe Biden with an official announcement of a plan to build 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighbourhood of East Jerusalem – despite a well-known American opposition to Israeli settlement expansion. Netanyahu apparently didn't know in advance about the interior ministry's decision, taken by mid-level planning and zoning bureaucrats. But it was according to his government's policy, and he should have and could have taken steps to avoid such unpleasant surprises. His failure to do so portrays him as a hopeless schlemiel, just like "old Bibi" from the previous term.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
In case you missed it: Criminal State A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism
With ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan poised to expand to Iran and Pakistan, it is time to take a closer look at how conflicts are catalyzed—by way of deception.
http://www.
Second annual Ann Arbor Palestine film fest opens with "Pomegranates and Myrrh"
The second annual Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival opened on 10 March 2010 at the Michigan Theater with hundreds of attendees for Najwa Najjar's Pomegranates and Myrrh. The film festival showcases films about Palestine and by Palestinian directors. Educating through the screen arts, the film festival amplifies the voice of the Palestinian people as a nation and diaspora by bringing films to the fore that would not otherwise be seen.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Iraq
Thursday: 4 Iraqis Killed, 18 Wounded
Updated at 7:12 p.m. EST, Mar. 11, 2010 Some election results were released today amid allegations of fraud by one of the major parties. At least four Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded in various attacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department blamed the Iraqi government for human rights abuses, including the murder of Iraqi civilians. Also, Prime Minister Maliki underwent minor surgery.
http://original.antiwar.com/
3 policemen killed in attack in western Iraq
Three policemen were killed in a bomb explosion followed by gunfire in a village in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Tuesday, a provincial police source said.
http://english.people.com.cn/
Inside Iraq - Iraqi hopes pinned on election
Millions of Iraqis are pinning their hopes on the country's elections, but will their hopes be dashed as in the past?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Maliki, Allawi ahead in Iraq count
State of Law coalition leads in Najaf and Babil and Iraqiya in Diyala and Salah al-Din.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Arab neighbors cast a wary eye on Iraq election results
With the first Iraq election results coming in, Middle East countries are watching close and gauging what the vote means for their influence on the oil-rich state.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
UN envoy: No indication of widespread fraud in Iraq election
In his first interview since the Iraq election, Ad Melkert said that while the UN is looking into individual complaints including missing voter names and tampering with election data, there doesn't appear to be widespread fraud.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
The Listening Post - The Iraqi elections
Plus, the proposal for a new Journalists Protection Law and the controversial google case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Images of Iraq’s Election
http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-
UN sanctions on Iraq still in force
Iraq is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, and yet it suffers from a dismal economy with an unemployment rate of up to 18 per cent. The country's economy slipped under Saddam Hussein's long rule and nose-dived further in the anarchic years that followed the US-led invasion in 2003. But even now, despite much optimism over a stable democratic future in Iraq, several UN trade sanctions applied in the early 1990's during Hussein's reign - are still in effect. And they are costing the country tens of billions of dollars in lost trade every year. AL Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey reports from Baghdad. [March 12, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Inside Iraq - Can Iraq move forward?
The election campaign is over but the horse-trading will continue for months to come; will candidates remember their promises? Can Iraq move forward?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Lebanon
Not in the New York Times
Two Israeli occupation tanks just penetrated in Lebanese territory. If two Hizbullah fighters penetrated into Israeli territory, the secretary-general of the UN would have convened the UN Security Council.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Al-Jazeera airs unseen 1983 footage of abducted IDF soldiers
The Al-Jazeera news network on Thursday released footage of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted by Palestinian militants during the first war in Lebanon. This is the first time the footage has ever been aired.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Biden calls for Hizbullah disarmament during Tel Aviv University talk
US Vice President Joe Biden stressed Thursday during a speech in Israel that his country would pursue its efforts to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 to stop arms flow to Hizbullah and strip the party of its weapons, while also calling for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to start without delay. "Weapons constituting danger equally against Israeli and Lebanese civilians.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Lebanese border security body 'intimidated top lawyer'
BEIRUT // A high-profile group of international human rights organisations are accusing the Lebanese government of harassing a prominent civil society lawyer after officials seized his passport last week, forcing the intervention of the interior ministry to get the documents returned.
http://www.thenational.ae/
U.S. and Other World News
US: Europe biased against Muslims
The annual report of US State Department on human rights has warned of increasing concern that discrimination against Muslims was on the rise in Europe. The human rights report for 2009 cited Switzerland's ban on the construction of minarets on mosques enacted in November, as well as continued bans or restrictions on head scarves and burqa worn by Muslims in France, Germany and the Netherlands. The report said: "Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has been an increasing concern."
http://english.aljazeera.net/
The amazing true story of Zeitoun
Abdulrahman Zeitoun is the real-life hero of Dave Eggers's new book. In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina he paddled from house to house in a canoe, offering help to his neighbours. For his trouble, he was arrested as a suspected terrorist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
US occupation forces kills 4 civilians
An American helicopter attacked two houses after shots were reportedly fired at US soldiers searching for Taliban militants. Four civilians, including two children aged 11 and 15. were killed in the shootout.
http://www.thenews.pl/
More Afghan Civilians Killed By US, NATO Forces Than Insurgents During Operation Moshtarak
According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, U.S. and Allied forces have killed and injured more civilians than have the insurgents during Operation Moshtarak. Incredibly, the Pentagon continues to insist that this operation “protects the people.”
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
U.S. sees Gulf support in Western push for Iran sanctions
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that leading Gulf states appeared ready to use their clout to lobby China to support sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The Nuclear Double Standard
Israel have nuclear power, but not Iran? asks Charles Pena
http://original.antiwar.com/
Egypt must halt execution of man accused of murder
Amnesty International has made an urgent personal appeal to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to prevent the execution of a man who is believed to have been wrongly convicted of murder. The organisation fears that Atef Rohyum Abd El Al Rohyum is at imminent risk of being hanged as he has now been moved from al-Qeta prison, Giza, to Isti’naf prison in Cairo, where executions take place. Jihan Mohammed Ali, a woman convicted of murder in the same case, was executed in al-Kanater prison, northeast of Cairo, on 10 March. Her family were given no prior notification of her execution.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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