Land Theft and Destruction
Nazzal: Israel to approve 30,000 housing units on occupied land
Ramallah - Ma'an - Israeli authorities aim to approve the construction of a 30,000 housing unit for religious Israelis in the industrial area of Atarot and Qalandiya, after excavating the site, the follow-up director of the popular committee against the wall and settlements said Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Israeli Military Starts To Erect A New Wall Section Near Bethlehem
Israeli troops started, on Tuesday, to build a new section of the Wall at the town of Beit Jala located in southern West Bank near Bethlehem city.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=58099
Israeli troops started, on Tuesday, to build a new section of the Wall at the town of Beit Jala located in southern West Bank near Bethlehem city.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Jerusalem Mayor plans to raze Palestinian homes for tourist park
Jerusalem's mayor yesterday unveiled details of a controversial and long-expected plan to demolish Palestinian homes and make way for an Israeli-sponsored tourist park in a neighbourhood of the city's Arab eastern sector.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
NY Times' Jerusalem property makes it protagonist in Palestine conflict
During an appearance at Vassar College in early February, controversial New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner was asked about the ongoing evictions of Palestinian families from homes in East Jerusalem which Israel occupied in 1967. Israeli courts have ruled that Jewish settlers could take over some Palestinian homes on the grounds that Jews held title to the properties before Israel was established in 1948.
http://electronicintifada.net/
You be the judge
Steven Gutkin, AP: JERUSALEM — Jerusalem’s mayor unveiled a plan Tuesday to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes to make room for a tourist center in one of the disputed city’s most volatile neighborhoods, drawing criticism from Palestinians and the United Nations.
Ethan Bronner, New York Times: JERUSALEM — The mayor of Jerusalem is offering 120 Palestinian families in a jumble of houses scheduled for demolition a deal he believes they can’t refuse: new apartments atop shops and restaurants, a day care center, boutique hotels and a huge park. Tourists and income will flow. It is — as the mayor likes to say — win-win. But as Ziad Kawar, a lawyer representing the families, likes to say, this is Jerusalem, not Zurich. Here there seems only to be win-lose…
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott,
Palestinian Organizer Assaulted at an Israeli Checkpoint
Mahmoud Zwahre of the alMa'sara Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements was detained at the Container Checkpoint near Bethlehem this morning on his way to a meeting in Ramallah. Zwahre was detained after a Border Police officer positioned at the checkpoint recognized him from the weekly demonstrations held in alMa'sara for the past 3.5 years. He was held for almost two hours, during which he was subjected to an aggressive search through his possessions and his car, and then detained in an interrogation room for no apparent reason. In the interrogation room, with no witnesses around, Zwahre was punched, kicked and beaten with a rifle butt by the officer for over 10 minutes. During the rampage, the officer explained that the beating was intended to "teach Mahmoud a lesson", because he recognized him from the demonstrations. He also threatened to order his arrest. Zwahre was eventually released, suffering minor injuries and bruises, and intends to file a complaint against the officer.
http://www.popularstruggle.
Gaza: Students protest against Al-Aqsa raid
Gaza – Ma'an – Thousands of school and university students marched on Gaza City on Tuesday, in condemnation of the recent raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Khalil Al-Hayya, a Palestine Legislative Council deputy, had called on Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza Strip to march in protest against the raid on Islam's third holiest site.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Apartheid Week at AUB highlights Palestinian plight
BEIRUT: When it comes to expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, some Arab states go no further than financial support. In the 62 years since Israel drove thousands of Palestinians from their homes and into exile, there have been sparingly few efforts by nearby countries to institutionalize boycott schemes.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
How would Washington Post respond if soldiers came for a columnist at 2 in the morning because of his writings?, Philip Weiss
Today in the Washington Post Richard Cohen says that Jimmy Carter "waved the bloody shirt of racism" when he said that Israel was practicing apartheid in the Occupied Territories. Cohen is blinding himself and his readers to the harsh conditions of the occupation. Consider Mazin Qumsiyeh an outspoken Palestinian geneticist, author, and activist who is traveling in the U.S. and sent out this report on his family in Beit Sahour, the occupied territories.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Size doesn’t matter …but apartheid does
Every year for the last six years, many cities (43 cities participated last year) around the world join together to coordinate this week, which focuses on the growing campaign of boycotts, divestments and sanctions against the state of Israel. And this year, like every year in the past, pro-Israel apologists respond with campaigns which range from outright offensive to bizarre and puzzling.
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/
Israel Penalizing Nakba Commemoration: One More Step Down the Path of Apartheid
Badil Resource Center 3 March 2010. Photo: Palestinian waving flag at demonstration against occupation in West Bank. The Israeli parliamentary Law Committee has recently approved a law proposal the (“Nakba bill”) that, if passed by the Knesset, would impose economic sanctions on the organizers of Nakba commemorations.
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/
Hagai El-Ad: Let justice ring in Sheikh Jarrah
This Saturday night (March 6 2010) will witness one of the most important demonstrations in years, in the struggle for human rights and justice here. A struggle against injustice and dispossession, against the Hebronization of East Jerusalem, and against the anti-democratic processes undermining Israeli society. In this struggle, Sheikh Jarrah has already become a symbol. But as in any struggle for justice and equality, that has never been the goal. The goal is justice and equality, human rights and a future that embraces all human beings without distinction. Saturday night’s rally organizers hope to attract thousands and to finally make justice ring in Sheikh Jarrah. If successful, it may gradually become possible — to move beyond symbolism to the true purpose of the already months’ long Sheikh Jarrah struggle: justice.
http://coteret.com/2010/03/03/
Rights group: Israeli forces responsible for settlers' provocation at al-Aqsa
In the early morning of Sunday, 28 February 2010, Israeli forces closed all roads leading to the al-Aqsa Mosque and established barriers at the entrances of the old city of Jerusalem, denying Palestinian civilians access to it. A few hours later, at least 200 Israeli police and security officers entered the yard of the al-Aqsa Mosque and besieged dozens of Palestinian worshippers.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Israel “Annoyed” By Israeli Apartheid Week
The Israeli government expressed rage over the “Israeli apartheid week” which stated on Monday in universities in more than 40 cities around the world, and calls for economic and academic boycott of Israel for its illegal policies in Palestine. In 2004, a group of students started the “Israeli Apartheid Week” campaign in Toronto – Canada, and the event is currently marked by dozens of universities in 58 countries. Several Israeli officials said that they are annoyed by the participation of senior Israeli academics in addition to Israeli artists and other figures. The apartheid week includes screening documentaries about Israel’s apartheid policies and its illegal procedures against the Palestinian people.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Aggression/Violence/Detentions
Israeli army tanks open fire on Gazans
Israeli army tanks opened fire on northern Gaza Strip, killing a Palestinian and wounding another near the town of Beit Lahia, Palestinian sources say.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
As A Military Post Come Under Fire Soldiers Detain Nine Palestinians From Central West Bank
Local sources said that soldiers searched homes the village of Nabi-Saleh and detained five men. Meanwhile other forces attack residents’ homes at Ein Areek camp for Palestinian refugees and detained four men from there. Also in central West Bank, an Israeli military site camp came under fire on Tuesday late at night, Israeli sources reported. The Israeli army told media that the rounds came from a M16 machine gun. The army added those shoots were fired in the air from a nearby Palestinian village. The army accused Israeli right wing groups of the attack adding it may have been an attempt to cause a military retaliation on the Palestinian villagers livening nearby.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
The Israeli Military Detains 19 Civilians During Invasions At West Bank Communities
Nineteen Palestinian civilians were detained by Israeli troops, on Tuesday, during invasions targeting a number of West Bank communities.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Humanitarian Issues/Siege/Human Rights
U.N. Official Condemns Gaza Blockade
GAZA — The senior United Nations official for humanitarian relief took a tour of Gaza on Tuesday, a year after Israel’s war here, and declared keen concern for what he called the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians due to the blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt. “What we are seeing here for the people of Gaza is an existence, not a life,” the official, John Holmes, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, told reporters. He spoke about “the continuing and growing pernicious and negative consequences of this blockade,” saying it was “not just the absence of reconstruction and development” after the war, “but also a situation of development going backwards.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/
IOA blackmailing sick people
Human rights groups condemned the Israeli occupation authority's practice of blackmailing Palestinian patients to recruit them as agents for its intelligence.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
MIDEAST: Picking Pebbles to Live Somehow
GAZA CITY, Mar 2, 2010 (IPS) - They come by the hundreds every day to sand dunes and rubble sites to sift for pebbles, stones and sand that can be used in making concrete blocks. They lean into trash bins across the Strip, and wade through piles of rubbish scavenging for plastics, metals, and any bits worth reselling.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.
Political Developments and Diplomacy
Arab League gives Mideast talks 4-month window (Reuters)
Reuters - Arab League ministers on Wednesday backed a U.S. call for indirect Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, giving a boost to Washington's efforts to revive the moribund peace process.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Abu Rodeina: “Hamas Is Not Invited To Arab Summit”
Nabil Abu Rodeina, Spokesperson to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, stated Tuesday that the Hamas movement has not been invited to the summit of the Arab League in Libya, and that this issue was not one of the topics discussed by president Mahmoud Abbas during his trip to Tripoli.
http://www.imemc.org/index.
Egypt: Israel West Bank heritage list risks peace
Israel's move to add two ancient tombs in the West Bank to its list of national heritage sites is a "threat to peace," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Clinton ready to attend Mideast Quartet meeting (AFP)
AFP - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is ready to go to Moscow for an upcoming meeting of the Middle East Quartet in a bid to encourage Israeli-Palestinian talks, her spokesman said Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Extra-Judicial Assassination
UAE seeks Israeli PM's arrest for murder
Dubai police say they are seeking the arrest of Israel's prime minister and the head of its spy agency over the murder of a top Hamas militant in a hotel room of the Gulf city-state. Police chief Dahi Khalfan said on Tuesday he had issued the demand for the arrest warrants as he was now certain they ordered the Cold War-style hit on Mahmud al-Mabhuh.
http://news.theage.com.au/
Hamas assassination: Debit cards issued by firm with Israeli ties
The Hamas assassination in Dubai involved a number of people who traveled under the stolen identities of Israeli dual nationals. The pre-paid debit cards the alleged assassins used to pay their hotel bills while in Dubai also have connections to Israel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
Inside Story - Who killed Mabhouh?
In the latest fall-out from the assassination of a senior Hamas commader in Dubai, Dubai's police chief has said that individuals suspected of being Israeli - even if they hold foreign passports - will no longer be allowed to enter the United Arab Emirates. What really happened, and will the people responsible for the killing get away with it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Other News
IDF operation canceled due to Facebook status
Soldier updates his friends on social network that a force from his battalion scheduled to arrive in Palestinian village. Judea and Samaria Division commander decides to call off detention operation.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Leftists: Lieberman must quit
Foreign minister urged to resign over latest revelations; MK Oron: Olmert quit over lesser charges.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Palestinian village known for protests sees cultural rebirth (AFP)
AFP - On Fridays they chant slogans and hurl stones at Israeli soldiers, but on Saturdays the youth of this small Palestinian village head into a newly-restored citadel for music practice.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Israel's apartheid doesn't stop at the West Bank
However, since its establishment the state has not kept its promise. It continues to conduct itself like a Zionist occupation regime on every inch of the land. True, the military government has been lifted and "the Arab inhabitants" are usually free to move around in their homeland and even send representatives to the Knesset - but this is the sum total of the equality that was formulated and promised. The alienation between Arabs and Jews can be seen everywhere. It has not arisen solely in the context of the national conflict, but is rather a result of an establishment policy which has expropriated Arabs' lands to build communities "for Jews only" and has pushed the Arab inhabitants into localities under an "ethno-Zionist siege" on all sides.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Nobody here but us chickens, Philip Weiss
This is a complicated story, but it’s important to understand. As I noted yesterday, last year in the wake of the Gaza onslaught and worldwide outrage, the Canadian government replaced the board of of a federally-funded human rights organization called Rights and Democracy that is supposed to operate at arms-length from the government. The staff of the organization recoiled, and the president of the organization keeled over from a heart attack. And Maclean’s reported that Israel was at the heart of the putsch; the goal was to save Israel from criticism.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/03/
Noam Chomsky Rails Against Israel, Again
World-renowned linguist and U.S. foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky addressed an audience of about 500 people at BU last night, lashing out at what he calls Israel’s “escalating policy of apartheid,” which he believes is in some respects worse than the longtime degradation of the nonwhite majority in South Africa.
http://www.bu.edu/today/2010/
Iraq
Suicide blasts kill 33 ahead of Iraq polls (AFP)
AFP - Three suicide bombings, including one carried out by an attacker who rode in an ambulance to hospital before blowing himself up, killed 33 people in central Iraq on Wednesday, just days before nationwide elections.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Tuesday: 4 Iraqis Killed, 12 Wounded
The only city to report casualties, so far, today was Mosul, which saw one Iraqi death. Four other Iraqis were wounded there as well. Meanwhile, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi traveled to Damascus to help mend relations that were damaged when Baghdad blamed Syria for enabling deadly bombings last year. At the same time, Iraq has also improved relations with Kuwait by appointing its first ambassador in 20 years.
http://original.antiwar.com/
Nouri al-Maliki most popular candidate as Iraq general election looms
Prime minister's coalition cannot win majority in new parliament without post-election coalition help. Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister who has led Iraq through four chaotic and unpopular years, is expected to top the poll in Sunday's general election, although the horse-trading that would follow poses a threat to his possible second term as leader. Maliki's coalition has consistently performed best in polls taken by Iraqi political groups and the US embassy in Baghdad. But it cannot win a majority of the new parliament's 352 seats without one of two post-election coalitions, both of whom say they will not countenance him being renominated as prime minister.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Iraqi candidate locked in election limbo over Baath row (AFP)
AFP - Sitting in his living room, Iskander Witwit opens a dossier with documents he says exonerate him of the charges against him: that he is a supporter of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Women take prominent role in Iraqi vote (AP)
AP - The minute Friday prayers are over, a crowd of women worshippers clothed in long black cloaks swarm around parliament member Maha al-Douri, peppering her with questions and requests. She is their access to power.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
A look at women lawmakers in Iraq, rest of world (AP)
AP - Women make up a quarter of Iraq's lawmakers and will have at least 25 percent of the next parliament as well. A look at how the number of female Iraqi lawmakers compares to other countries with a single house or the lower legislative house.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Iraq: Shiite cleric faces warrant over 2003 murder
BAGHDAD — In a surprise move ahead of weekend elections, Iraq's highest judicial body has renewed an arrest warrant against an anti-U.S. Shiite leader for the murder of a moderate cleric nearly seven years ago, a senior government official and a spokesman for the leader said Tuesday. Muqtada al-Sadr, who heads one of the major Shiite parties competing against Iraq's Shiite prime minister, is believed to have been living in neighboring Iran for the past two years. He is not thought to be planning to return to Iraq any time soon, although a rumor has been circulating among supporters that he wanted to make an appearance in Iraq before Sunday's parliamentary vote. U.S. officials blamed al-Sadr for the April 10, 2003, assassination of Shiite cleric Majid al-Khoie, who was slain after returning to the holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad in hopes of winning support for the Americans from Shiite clergy.
http://www.google.com/
Uproar Before Iraqi Elections
The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has denied that the decision to purge hundreds of candidates from the election was aimed at the minority Sunni population despite evidence that witch hunt is being extended. “It’s not true that it targeted Sunnis,” said Mr Maliki in Baghdad. “The decision will not at all affect the Sunni turnout for the election. The decision was made because some of those were blatantly propagating Baath Party ideas.” He said that most of those banned were Shia, though in fact all the important politicians blacklisted are Sunni.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Lebanon
Aoun: If Israel Decides to Launch War, It Will Lose
02/03/2010 The head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun said on Tuesday that his bloc wasn't consulted in forming the dialogue table committee although it has the right to voice its opinion. "We want to be represented by a Greek Catholic, Elias Skaff, instead of Michel Pharaon," Aoun told reporters following his parliamentary bloc's weekly meeting. Commenting on the March 14 bloc's call for the participation of representatives from the Arab League in the dialogue, Aoun wondered whether Lebanese have not become adults yet. "We recognize our interest and we don't want any foreign participation at the national dialogue table," he pointed out.
http://almanar.com.lb/
U.S. and other world news
Egyptian opposition grows against government's Gaza barrier
CAIRO (IPS) - Activists and opposition groups are stepping up pressure on the Egyptian government to stop constructing a barrier along the border with the Gaza Strip. Officials say the barrier will prevent cross-border smuggling, but critics say it will seal the fate of the people on the Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/
That was a war council in Damascus
The three-party meeting that took place in Damascus on Friday gathering the Syrian president Bashar al Assad, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was a war council to devise counterattack plans and assign tasks in the event of an Israeli offensive on one or all parties, wrote Abdelbari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds al Arabi.
http://www.thenational.ae/
Assad: Syria's Ties to Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas "Not on the Table"
03/03/2010 Syrian President Bashar Assad told former senior White House officials two weeks ago that U.S. policy in the Middle East has been wrong for the past decade and has created a vacuum that has been filled by other countries, meaning Iran and Turkey. Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, who served on the National Security Council during the Clinton and Bush administrations, said Tuesday on their Web site that Assad told them Iran's rise has not come at Syria's expense because all three countries have improved their regional strategic standing.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Hizbullah MP demands strict security measures for foreigners
BEIRUT: Security must be stepped up for all foreigners entering Lebanon as they could be secret agents like those who murdered a top Hamas militant in Dubai, a Hizbullah lawmaker said on Tuesday. "We must tighten foreign passport control at the airport and elsewhere in the country," Hizbullah MP Nawaf Moussawi told AFP.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Assad: U.S.'s misguided Mideast policy empowered Iran
Syrian President Bashar Assad told former senior White House officials two weeks ago that U.S. policy in the Middle East has been wrong for the past decade and has created a vacuum that has been filled by other countries, meaning Iran and Turkey.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
A Religion Divided Against Itself
Muslims are numerous but powerless. Divisions among Muslims, especially between Sunni and Shi’ites, have consigned the Muslim Middle East to almost a century of Western control. Muslims cannot even play together. The Islamic Solidarity Games, a regional version of the Olympics, which were to be held in April in Iran, have been cancelled, because the Iranians and the Arabs cannot agree on whether to call the body of water that separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
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www.TheHeadlines.org
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