RAMALLAH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protestors backed by International Solidarity Movement (ISM) clashed on Friday in several West Bank villages during anti- settlement and wall protests. The demonstrations erupted in the villages of Ne'lein, west of Ramallah and al-Ma'sara near Bethlehem. Israeli soldiers dispersed the demonstrators by force, said the witnesses. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters at dozens of Palestinian and foreign demonstrators. Medics said two demonstrators were hurt, in addition to dozens inhaled tear gas.
International Solidarity Movement activists Bridget Chappell and Ryan Olander are raging through Europe! Speaking in cities across Europe about their experiences and observations from their time working with the ISM on the ground in occupied Palestine, their mission is to spread the message of worldwide, popular resistance to the Israeli occupation and incite others to action through direct action, boycott and solidarity with the Palestinian people. Schedule:
CO Shir Regev has returned to prison for the third time. He was sentenced on 14 July to 34 days of imprisonment, which he is serving in Military Prison no. 6 near Athlit.
Aid flotillas / convoys
Egypt's Red Crescent Society continued unloading supplies from a Libyan-sponsored aid ship originally destined for Gaza, Egyptian media reported Saturday. The society began the process of unloading the estimated 2,000 tons of aid aboard The Hope on Thursday, preparing it for transport to Gaza by land, the online news site Egypt News reported ... Egyptian officials told the news site that the aid will go through Israeli checkpoints before entering Gaza. Charity officials on board the Hope said some of its representatives will accompany the aid, but that its delegation will not include the nine pro-Palestinian activists who had traveled on the ship itself, Egypt News reported.
Two new members were appointed to Israel's internal investigation of a deadly raid by Israeli forces on a Gaza-bound aid boat, Israeli media reported on Friday. The committee, headed by former Israeli Court Justice Ya'akov Tirkel and initially only three members plus two observers, has steadily been handed an expanded mandate, stemming from demands made by Tirkel himself and from a court case filed by rights groups in Israel. The latest additions, reported by Israel's Channel 2 News on Friday, were academic and career diplomat Reuven Merhav, 76, and Professor of Law Miguel Deutsch, 55.
IARA LEE/CULTURES OF RESISTANCE—In the immediate aftermath of the massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31st, 2010, while journalists and activists were detained and isolated from the world, the Israeli government was quick to unleash their own version of events. Like the physical assault on the boat, the Israeli media assault was also reckless, clumsy, malicious, and dangerous. They were cynical enough to understand that first impressions in the mainstream American media are what count, and with this in mind they began to frantically hurl the word “terrorist” in reference to both the victims of their attack, as well as one of the main organizers of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the Turkish NGO IHH. It is a curious thing that few people asked the Israeli government why they would release “terrorists” that they had in their custody, and even fewer asked for (or received) solid evidence to support this claim.
Ever since the Israeli raid on a Turkish group's boat filled with aid for the Gaza Strip, there has been a lot of attempts in the press, following Israel's lead, to label the Turkish humanitarian group IHH a supporter of "terrorism." The latest salvo comes from a New York Times article about the Turkish group having "extensive connections with Turkey’s political elite." ... It looks like the reporters on this story didn't do their homework. Numerous news outlets have noted that the German organization, which shares the Turkish group’s initials, is not connected to the Turkish group that co-sponsored the aid flotilla, meaning that Germany did not ban the Turkish group over "terrorist" ties.
Sixty lawyers from 25 countries gathered in Istanbul to discuss their legal defense of activists on board the Freedom Flotilla ... The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, known as IHH, said lawyers agreed on a "road map" for their legal defense in the lawsuits, a statement read. The lawyers told reporters at the Akgun Hotel that they will be working for the legal rights of victims from 36 countries, including Israel, as well as those on board Mavi Marmara, which Israeli forces raided, killing nine participants.
The Turkish activist organization IHH that organized a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza in May announced on Saturday that the group will continue efforts to bring supplies to Gaza, not only by sea, but "land convoys will head for Gaza" as well, Channel 2 reported.
Gaza, July 17, (Pal Telegraph) The Secretary-General of a Relief Foundation of South Africa, Dr. Walid Al-Saadi, revealed the current processing of the biggest convoy of relief emanating from South Africa to the Gaza Strip after the next month of Ramadan, in order to help the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza and break the siege imposed since more than four years.
Gaza, July 15, (Pal Telegraph) A women’s Mauritanian delegation started moving to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, on a trip organized by the National Rabat to Support the Palestinian people. Heading the delegation, is the Senator of Islamic Party "Tawasol", as a part of a campaign called "the solidarity of Mauritanian women with their Palestinian counterparts." The delegation is carrying aid to children and women of the besieged Gaza Strip ... The Women's Mauritanian delegation will enter Gaza through the Egyptian Rafah crossing point in the next few days, according to the site of Sahara Media Mauritania.
The Siege (Gaza and West Bank) / Restriction of movement / Humanitarian and human rights
A senior coordination office representative in Gaza told Ma'an on Friday that Israel would begin permitting the entry of small motor vehicles into the Strip starting as early as Monday. Office director Maher Abu Al-Auf said he was informed of the decision on Friday morning, adding that both new and old models of vehicles would be permitted entry.
Since 2006, car imports have been limited to the prohibitively expensive models available from the smuggling tunnel trade.
Among the goods brought into Gaza on Thursday, officials said, were pebble aggregates to be used for expanding the Kerem Shalom crossing facilities. The expansion comes in line with Israeli announcements that under the new terms of the siege on Gaza, crossings facilities would be upgraded. Aid groups have questioned the expansion of the southernmost Kerem Shalom crossing, when the bulk goods terminal at Karni in the north is used only twice a week. Before the siege began, Karni was the principal transport terminal for bringing goods into Gaza, bringing in some 10,000 truckloads a month.
A delegation of nine Malaysian doctors arrived in Gaza Friday via the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border. The doctors were received by the Palestinian Red Crescent. The medical delegation was the second to arrive in two days: a team of Indonesian medics arrived through the same crossing on Thursday.
Gisha reports that there has been a moderate rise in the volume of trucks entering Gaza and an increase in imports of consumer goods, but that this volume still falls way below pre-embargo days, and isn’t sufficient to meet the daily needs of Gaza’s 1.5 million civilians. During the week after Jun. 20, 695 trucks of goods entered Gaza. This compares with 2,400 per week prior to the closure, and meets only 30 percent of Palestinian needs. Over the past three years 2,328 trucks entered Gaza on a monthly basis compared with 10,400 trucks monthly prior to the blockade.
Palestinian lawmaker Jamal Al-Khudari sent a letter to EU chief Catherine Ashton stating that Israel has not attempted to end its four-year blockade of Gaza, he told journalists Saturday. The letter was sent ahead of Ashton’s scheduled visit to the Strip on Sunday. Speaking to journalists in Gaza, the head of the local popular committee against the siege said Israel is trying to mislead the international community by claiming it has eased its blockade, and expressed concern that officials have accepted the claim.
Under siege for over three years, Gaza's humanitarian crisis continues unabated, Israel's bogus easing doing little to relieve it, including a serious electricity shortage ... Besides earlier attacks, Cast Lead severely damaged Gaza's sole power plant, putting it on the verge of collapse, exacerbated by inadequate industrial diesel supplies and the destruction of power lines supplying electricity from Israel and Egypt. As a result, Gaza experiences outages of up to 12 hours a day, severely disrupting "normal functioning of humanitarian infrastructure, including health and education institutions and water and sewage systems, as well as the agricultural sector." In addition, faulty generators at times kill or injure users, an untenable situation because of Israeli attacks and siege, in violation of international law. Chronology of Gaza's Electricity Crisis:
from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Hebron, July 17, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) erected today two military checkpoints in Dora in south of Hebron city, in the West Bank ...at Al-Kharsa and Al-Fwar crossroads in south of Hebron, security sources said.
As we exited through the sleek, spiked turnstile at the Erez Crossing from Israel, I quickly realized we’d entered another world. Instead of the robotic scanners, conveyor belts and digital display boards on the Israeli side, we were now greeted by porters offering rickety wooden trolleys andbroken wheelchairs as luggage carts. Warmed by the porters’ eager help, we lugged our cases of TV gear to a decidedly lower tech, makeshift border, administered by the Hamas-run authorities ... We went to Gaza to see for ourselves what life was like for people living under the austere conditions.
Political developments / Diplomacy
Hamas has submitted a proposal to Cairo to overcome the stalled national conciliation process, Egyptian press reported Friday. In an interview with Egyptian daily newspaper Ash-Shorouk, Hamas leader Mahmoud Az-Zahhar outlined the proposal to form two central election committees, the first formed of judges and independent leaders, and the second formed from the security forces. The committees would select candidates to stand for election from both Hamas and Fatah, and from other parties. Az-Zahhar added that the proposal is in its initial phase because Fatah has yet to respond.
Hamas and Fatah representatives held a meeting on Wednesday night in Beirut to discuss reconciliation, with news outlets reporting the meeting lasted long into the night. The meeting was meant to push forward a unity deal, stalled since Hamas refused to sign a unity document brokered by Egypt, which the Islamist party seeks to amend.
Palestinian lawmakers and party officials gathered outside the Palestinian Legislative Council headquarters in Ramallah to protest the Palestinian Authority's deferral of local elections originally scheduled for Saturday. PLC member Qais Abed Al-Karim, who heads the legislative body's social affairs committee, said the PA's decision was "illegitimate and contradicts Palestinian Basic Laws and the urgent need to put an end to the deterioration of the pillars of Palestinian community caused by the West Bank-Gaza division."
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinian leadership said Saturday it wants "clarity" regarding the US position on Israeli settlements and Jerusalem before moving to direct peace talks ... The Palestinians have long demanded a complete freeze of Israeli settlements ahead of face-to-face peace talks and accused Israel of undermining the process by approving new settler homes in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians view as their capital.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel must agree to the idea of a third party guarding the borders of a future Palestinian state before direct peace talks can begin. In an interview published on Saturday, Abbas said Israel must also agree in principle to an equitable land swap that would compensate the Palestinians for West Bank land absorbed by Jewish settlements in any peace deal. The remarks were the clearest statement yet of what Abbas wants from Israel before he agrees to move to face-to-face negotiations that Washington wants the sides to begin.
...Erekat explained that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) would like to see multinational forces in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip "to provide protection for the Palestinian people under and through the United Nations." The report had said that President Abbas requested the NATO to deploy forces in the West Bank to overcome Israeli security restrictions that complicate efforts to create a Palestinian statehood.
Palestinian president, special US envoy George Mitchell discuss jumpstarting direct talks with Israel. Ahead of Netanyahu-Mubarak meeting scheduled for Sunday, Ynet learns Israel will be asked to take several confidence-building steps with Palestinians
The United States, Egypt and Hamas have held advanced talks to allow former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter to visit the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Mesryoon reported on Saturday. According to the unconfirmed report, the two former presidents will discuss a number of issues with Hamas leaders, including a prisoner swap deal to free captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
to make Gaza an independent entity, spokesmen said Friday. The comments followed a press report issued earlier in the day, which alleged that Lieberman planned to lift the four-year siege on Gaza, while hermetically sealing its borders with Israel, in a move to gain international recognition that Israel has ended its occupation of the Strip. Israel's continued presence on Gaza's land and sea borders as well as airspace, prevented the international community from recognizing an end to the occupation when Israel withdrew its settlements from Gaza in 2005, coupled with the maintained military presence along the Israeli-declared buffer area, which extends 300 meters inside Gaza territory and is regularly patrolled by Israeli forces. Spokesman Ahmad Assaf said Fatah sould not recognize or deal with “such occupational schemes,” adding that as occupying power, Israel has full responsibility towards the population of Gaza, as it does for the West Bank population.
Syrian president says other countries 'can play supportive role, not alternative one' in mediation in Israel-Syria peace talks
US military aid to Israel
A US-backed rocket shield is on track to protect Israeli towns against rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, a senior State Department official said Friday. The Iron Dome system is being promoted by the Obama administration as the latest example of expanded military cooperation between the United States and Israel. President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $205 million to accelerate development of the system, about half its total cost.
An expanded security aid package would allow Israel to reach tough decisions in its peace talks with the Palestinians, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Andrew J. Shapiro said Friday, adding that Washington planned to provide Israel with its most extensive security aid package in history.
Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro told a Washington audience Friday that “preserving Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge” is his top priority ... The US Foreign Military Financing budget, $5 billion annually, is distributed among 70 countries. Shapiro said that 60 percent of this budget, $3 billion, is allocated to Israel. This year, congress granted Obama’s administration the largest request ever made for Israeli military funding. An additional $205 million was given to Israel to develop an “Iron Dome” to defend itself against short-range rockets this year.
Other news
Delegation: We can't enforce human rights in territories we don't control. -- Israel argued this week that a major human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, did not apply to its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, because those areas were outside the country’s national boundaries, even as it defended its record on that score before the covenant’s monitoring body in Geneva.
Palestinian Muslims attend the yearly pilgrimage draw in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Tulkarem on 14 July 2010. Saudi Arabia has quotas for each country on the number of nationals allowed to travel for the Hajj pilgrimage, which follows the fasting month of Ramadan. Across the world, Muslims put their names up for the draw in order to participate.
Analysis / Opinion
While the rest of the world talks about a peace process, and while President Barack Obama raises false hopes of a resolution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, Israel is working frantically to create irreversible facts in occupied East Jerusalem as well as across the West Bank.
No, Jerusalem is not a unified city: Jewish Jerusalemites never venture into the east side and Palestinian Jerusalemites rarely set foot in the west side. The school systems are separate and far from equal; public transportation is entirely segregated; one would be hard pressed to find commercial ties or cultural exchanges across the east-west divide. Indeed, the story of Jerusalem is a tale of two cities. But Israeli politicians have long ago found out that the truth cannot do as much for their careers as intoxicating myths.
Resistance is not a band of armed men hell-bent on wreaking havoc. It is not a cell of terrorists scheming ways to detonate buildings. True resistance is a culture. It is a collective retort to oppression. Understanding the real nature of resistance, however, is not easy. No newsbite could be thorough enough to explain why people, as a people, resist.
...Looking back, the Obama grovelling started in that famous Cairo reach-out-to-the-Muslim-world speech, when he referred to the Palestinian "relocation" of 1948 (as if the Palestinian Arabs got up one morning on the birth of Israel and decided that they all wanted to go on holiday to Lebanon) ... Middle East peace? Further colonisation of Arab land? Crisis in southern Lebanon? The continued siege of Gaza? Forget it. Think of mid-term elections. Remember the fate of Nasr and Guy. And grovel.
When I was first elected to the Knesset [in 1967], I was appalled at what I found. I discovered that, with rare exceptions, the intellectual level of the debates was close to zero ... In comparison to the present Knesset, that Knesset now looks like Plato’s Academy. What frightened me more than anything else was the readiness of members to enact irresponsible laws for the sake of fleeting popularity, especially at times of mass hysteria.
I am hastening to call for this boycott because I want to earn a footnote in Jewish history: He tried, Canute-like, to stand against the wave of fascism that engulfed the Zionist project.
Kristof presents a patronizing and misinformed view of the history of the Palestinian struggle against Israel’s policies of land grab and occupation ... There are several reasons why they do not need to hear the Kristof line from us. The main reason, and one wonders whether Kristof is at all informed on this issue, is the fact that inspirational non-violent Palestinian campaigns against Israel’s policies have been around for years, and these campaigns have been initiated and led by…Palestinians! ... Another inspiring Palestinian campaign was the May 1988 tax revolt in Beit Sahour, under the most American of slogans, “No Taxation without Representation”. The revolt, a courageous act of non-violent Resistance, was brutally crushed by Israel. Residents were beaten, detained without trial, households were raided and their content was confiscated (Israel’s way of collecting tax…). The goods, including children’s toys, were auctioned off in Israel.
What would Herzl have said about the dangling sword of deportation? His answer would surprise you ... After a long public struggle, a committee established by the government to decide the fate of non-Israeli children living among us has made its recommendation.
25 MKs have proposed legislation aimed at outlawing Israeli organizations involved in universal jurisdiction activity - if passed, the bill would endanger Israeli democracy ... The recent attacks are spearheaded by such organizations as NGO Monitor, Israel Academia Monitor and Im Tirtzu, but they apparently enjoy the backing of the government and of many right-wing Knesset members. They constitute a new phenomenon in Israel - civil-society organizations whose main activity is to attack other organizations. Their efforts go beyond the normal give-and-take of democratic discourse, and seems to be directed at halting human-rights advocacy and having the HROs legislated out of existence.
Sydney Levy, Director of Campaigns for Jewish Voice for Peace, discusses his organization’s fight for Palestinian equality rather than a specific state solution, the very simple problem at the core of the Israel/Palestine conflict: land theft, how MuzzleWatch.com brings attention to silenced critics of Israel, the campaign to pressure mutual funds into divesting from Israeli companies and why Israel’s oft-noted status as the sole Middle East democracy is in question.
Washington - The computer literacy for the blind program at the Hebron branch of Al-Quds Open University has been honored this week by the Washington, DC-basedJerusalem Fund. ... The goal is to help the students with special needs in the university learn basic computing skills and bring them up to par with their classmates. Recognizing the need, The Jerusalem Fund extended a grant to Al-Quds Open University to install new computers equipped with specialized assistive tools and programs
Iraq
Excerpt: At least seven Iraqis were killed and nine more were wounded in prayer day attacks. Prime Minister Barham Salih, of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, said the government has talked with Iran about ending shelling in the region. Also, a fire ignited by an electrical short killed 28 people, including many foreigners, in Suleimaniyah.
LONDON (AFP) – More than 100 Iraqis who claim they were tortured and abused by British forces after the invasion of Iraq won a key legal battle in London on Friday in their bid to force a public inquiry. Lawyers for the Iraqis said they had "incontrovertible" evidence the detainees were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by British soldiers that included hooding, electric shocks and sexual abuse.
Lebanon
Shiite group's leader Hassan Nasrallah says Israel has complete control over Lebanon's telecommunications sector, calls for execution of convicted spies 'the soonest possible'
Other Mideast
WASHINGTON — An Iranian opposition group has won a round in its long legal fight to get the US State Department to stop classifying it as a terrorist organization. A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the State Department to reconsider its decision to keep the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran on its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Most non-Muslims do not think of Saudi Arabia as a potential holiday destination, but there are signs that international tourism to the kingdom is slowly gaining traction among niche travel groups ... a specialist historical, archaeological and cultural tour operator in the UK, The Traveller, started organising tours to Saudi Arabia in 2008, acquiring the visas for its groups through a local operator ... The tours include visits to Riyadh, Jeddah, the holy city of Medina, forts, mosques and a number of ancient sites.
U.S. and other world news
NEW YORK // Ever been accused of ranking among the Taliban or al Qa'eda and found your way onto the UN Security Council’s watch list? Don’t worry. You can now protest your innocence by sending one simple e-mail to ombudsperson@un.org. The Security Council body responsible for keeping the list of those linked to the extremist groups – and subjecting them to asset freezes and travel bans – has appointed the Canadian judge, Kimberly Prost, to launch an appeals process.
A transatlantic visa row means this week's world championships in the UK may not feature one of the favourites ... What began as a single piece of British red tape has since descended into an angry debate across the Atlantic over Native American citizenship
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