Land theft and destruction/Ethnic cleansing
Israel brings down Palestinians' tents
The international community has made repeated calls for an end to Israeli demolitions. Israel has leveled tents used by Palestinians as their homes in the northern West Bank in defiance of global calls for halting the destruction of Palestinian shelters.
Israeli soldiers entered al-Farisiya village on Monday morning and ordered the residents away before knocking the structures down, the Ma'an news agency reported. Tel Aviv said the military knocked down nine agricultural structures because they were put up without permits. Last week, Israel destroyed one Palestinian home and two unfinished houses along with parts of a factory in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Israel intends to destroy new part of historical Maman Allah cemetery
The Aqsa foundation for endowment and heritage said that the Israeli occupation authority intends to build a compound of courts on another part of Maman Allah cemetery near Al-Khalil Gate.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Palestinians in Jerusalem feeling abandoned
With the specter of more housing demolitions and the Judaification of East Jerusalem, leaders are looking for help where they can.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Seventeen year old from Bil’in arrested in night raid
Last night the Israeli army carried out a night raid in the West Bank village of Bil’in and arrested a seventeen year old boy. At least 12 Israeli army jeeps entered the village at approximately 1.30 in the morning. Soldiers from two of the jeeps then closed off the house of Ahmed Abdul Fatah Durnat, 17, who was arrested during the course of the 40 minute raid.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
IOF create security zone to shut out the weekly protest in Wadi Rahal
July 18th, 2010-- The demonstrators were caught off-guard when the Israeli Occupation Forces sealed of the Wall and prevented the demonstrators from approaching the regular site of picketing. This was the first time since the beginning of the weekly protests in Wadi Rahal that the Occupation Forces shut off the area as a “security zone” and banned people from entering Israel.
http://stopthewall.org/
Weekly march in Al-Ma’sara commemorates Khaled Al-Azzeh
July 18th, 2010-- The coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign in al Ma’sara delivered a speech honoring Khaled al-Azzeh for his achievements in resisting the apartheid systems of the Israeli Occupation. Has spoke about his commitment to the Palestinian cause and confirmed that the popular resistance will continue to follow the path of Khaled al-Azzeh.
http://stopthewall.org/
Conscientious objector Yonatan Shapira questioned by Shin Bet, Amira Hass
Non-active Israel Air Force pilot who authored the "pilots' letter" of 2003, signed by 27 IAF pilots who said they would refuse to fly over the occupied territories
http://www.haaretz.com/print-
Olympia Food Co-op removes Israeli goods from shelves; first US store to institute boycott
Olympia, WA– The Olympia Food Co-op Board of Directors has decided to boycott Israeli goods at their two locations in Olympia, Washington. At a July 15th meeting packed with Co-op members, the Board reached this consensus. The Co-op becomes the first US grocery store to publicly join the international grassroots movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) on Israel for its human rights abuses. Co-op board member Rob Richards explained, “My hope is that by being the first in the US to adopt the boycott we act as a catalyst for other co-ops to join in. Each additional organizational entity that joins may have a very small effect on the big picture, but drop by drop fills the tub.”
http://www.olympiabds.org/
9,000 activists and 35 media organizations to participate in Freedom Flotilla 2
The European campaign to end the Siege on Gaza announced Monday that Freedom Flotilla 2 will be delayed until late September or early October due to expansion in participation from European countries.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Justice For The Abu Rahmahs?
The Israeli army has finally decided to open an investigation into the April 2009 killing of an unarmed, peaceful Palestinian protester in the West Bank village of Bil'in. The announcement came days after the Israeli government's expansion of the Gaza flotilla inquiry into a full-fledged government commission, while a separate ruling has been passed to allow consumer goods into Gaza.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Violence and Aggression
Settler attacks increase in Tel Rumeida
Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have increased over the past few days in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Al Khalil (Hebron). On Sat. July 17, Mohammed, a shopkeeper, was approached by twelve Israeli settlers near his shop by the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Without provocation, two of the settlers grabbed Mohammed and a third punched him in the face, forcing him to the ground, according to Mohammed. When the ambulance arrived to take Mohammed to the hospital, the military refused. After some discussions between the soldiers and the border police, who witnessed the event, a military ambulance arrived, checked Mohammed’s medical status, and transported him to the waiting Palestinian ambulance. Although he was not in need for further hospitalization, Mohammed’s left chin and the area around his left eye were black and blue and swollen.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/
IOF breaks into Hebron, no arrests reported
Hebron, July 20, (Pal Telegraph) Three militant patrols raided Today the village of “Kharsa” southern town of Dura in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Eyewitnesses said that the officers of the Israeli intelligence were roaming the streets of the village and stopped at a number of citizens and workers in the street which being renovated and paved which connects Hebron villages with other southern towns. The roaming of Israeli intelligence was described as “provocative”, and raised doubts and suspicions among the citizens, specially when they were asking questions and inquiries about the working in the street and the nature of the region.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Detainees
Israeli court imprisons Palestinian child
The Israeli military court in Ofer on Tuesday sentenced a 12-year-old Palestinian boy to one week imprisonment term along with 125 dollars fine, local sources said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Israel extends administrative detention of Nablus man
Nablus - Ma'an - Israeli authorities renewed the administrative detention of Reda Khaled for a further three months Monday, a prisoners affairs representative said. Maysar Atyani said Khaled, from a refugee camp near Nablus, was arrested in December 2008 but has spent seven years in Israeli prisons on-and-off.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Ahrar denounces IOF arrest of Palestinian woman
Ahrar center for prisoners' studies and human rights has denounced the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for arresting a 57-year-old Palestinian woman in her house in Tulkarem at dawn Monday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
The Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Humanitarian and Human Rights/Restriction of Movement
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – June 20 – July 17
http://www.gazagateway.org/
UNRWA: Israeli blockade stalls construction
Gaza – Ma'an – Israel has not let in sufficient construction material under its new siege conditions, and current levels are not even enough to complete limited UNRWA housing projects, agency director John Ging said. Speaking at the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City alongside independent Palestinian lawmaker and head of the popular committee against the siege Jamal Al-Khudari, Ging for the first time criticized the new import policy adopted by Israel for Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Assad, Davutoglu want to 'end blockade'
Syrian president, Turkish FM discuss peace talks between Israel and Palestinians, Syria.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Palestinians in Gaza denied PA passports
Amid all the obstacles preventing Palestinians in Gaza from traveling outside the besieged territory, Nidal Abdo faces an additional one. He needs a passport and despite five attempts to obtain one, he has so far failed. Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada.
Israel shuts down Allenby Bridge overnight
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli authorities closed down the Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Monday evening for the second day, officials said. Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Ash-Sheikh said Israel was "responsible for what happens at the crossings, and the disruption of civilians and increasing their suffering."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
Children are just Israel's latest victims | Mya Guarnieri
Michelle is the 14-year-old daughter of undocumented migrant labourers from the Philippines. In fluent Hebrew, she sums up the inhumanity of Israel's plans to deport the children of foreign workers. "It's like they're taking sheep and packing them," she says. While Michelle will probably be naturalised, Israel is set to expel scores of minors, along with their families, to their parents' country of origin. The criteria that determine who will get residency are rigid and arbitrary. Because of tight age restrictions and an even smaller window to get one's paperwork turned in (parents will have just three weeks to submit documents that might be impossible to obtain) many children will be left out in the cold.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Said Hillis, 60, has kept bees since he was a boy. Until the Israeli attacks changed his business. Until 2009 Hillis' farm had hundreds of trees, and more than 10,000 chickens. "It was all destroyed during the Israeli attacks," Hillis says.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Political/Other Developments
Report: Mubarak rejects Netanyahu's 'peace map'
Israeli official tells Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that during Cairo meeting on Sunday Egyptian president recommended Israeli PM revise map in accordance with Palestinian demand for state within 1967 borders.
Israel denies presenting Egypt with map of Palestinian state
London-based newspaper quoted an Israeli source on Tuesday as saying that the Egyptian leader had rejected PM's outline for a final settlement.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/
Nablus – Ma’an – The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denied reports issued by the Hamas-affiliated Paldf website on Monday which alleged a strain in relations between the party and the PA. The site quoted "informed sources" describing a sit-in held Saturday in protest of the postponement of local elections as an event where "sharp differences erupted" between PFLP and PA officials in Nablus, saying the leftist party "harshly criticized and cursed the PA president, Mahmud Abbas, because of his obedience to Fatah."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/
International troops bound for West Bank?
JERUSALEM, July 19 (Xinhua) -- A report in a Jordanian newspaper suggesting the Palestinians want to see an international force deployed along the borders of any future Palestinian state has sent ripples around the diplomatic world over the weekend. The newspaper Al-Ghad quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying that he will enter direct peace talks with Israel if the Israelis accept in principle the deployment of foreign troops around the borders of what are presently referred to by the international community as the occupied territories.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
'South Africa to reinstate Israel envoy, after recalled over Gaza flotilla'
Government reiterates call for international probe and end to Gaza siege, but says ambassador needed to monitor developments in Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/
Other News
Demands for release of nuclear whistleblower as Israel holds Vanunu in solitary confinement
Amnesty International is calling for Vanunu’s immediate release and his brother, Meir, contacted the Sunday Herald to express fears over Vanunu’s wellbeing after being the first person to visit him in seven weeks.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/
Netanyahu, Lieberman try to mend fences in conversion-bill crisis
After announcing he had no intention of quitting coalition, Lieberman harshly criticized Netanyahu and Likud for the way they treated his party.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-
'Mossad agents' expelled from Mauritius
Israeli men arrested upon arrival on island by officers claiming they came to spy on Dubai citizens.
Pearlman supporters clash with cops
Police say protestors backing 'Jewish terrorist' gathered illegally outside court hearing his case.
Meridor: Loyalty oath will only make Israeli Arabs more extreme
Likud minister objects to proposed amendment which would require prospective citizens to swear allegiance to 'Jewish democratic state.'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/
Greek hotels kick out unruly Israeli teens
Three groups of Israeli teens facing IDF enlistment get expelled from various hotels in island of Ios after getting drunk, causing damage to property. Israel's consul in Athens says such cases cause great damage to country's image.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Gaza opens first mall, Israelis say its a rich new target to strike
The website mocked Gaza by saying that Gaza has now a new big commercial mall that includes all kinds of shops whether for clothing, food, tools, appliances or other stuff saying now they know that Gaza not only contains weaponry but a new mall too, this Israel website is very widely spread among the Israeli public. Some made fun of Hamas’s ministers who were present at the opening, others lashed at Haneen Zoubi, Knesset Arab member, and said that she should move to Gaza and open a shop in that mall since she supports Gaza, while others made fun of the shops and their merchandises saying Gaza’s mall sells bombs and rockets, other Israeli hoped that mall will keep Hamas busy referring to the exaggerated claims of rockets falling on Israel daily. A very interesting opinion was shared with an Israeli saying: “ Good, let them open new malls for us to have new rich targets to strike with out warplanes, they will lose everything.”
http://www.paltelegraph.com/
Parole for Israeli soldier who killed UK activist (AFP)
AFP - An Israeli soldier jailed for killing a British activist in the Gaza Strip will be released after serving six-and-a-half years of an eight-year sentence, media reported on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Palestinian gets 14 years for raping UNICEF volunteer
Norwegian tourist, 60, falls victim to brutal rape by 20-year old man, two of his friends in east Jerusalem.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
There is a difference between rape and lying, not surprising that Zionists don't know the difference: ISRAEL: Arab man convicted of rape after posing as Jew to seduce woman
In a ruling that could strike fear in the hearts of cads everywhere, a Jerusalem court has ruled that lying to a woman to get her into bed is a form of rape. Sabbar Kashur, 30, an Arab resident of Jerusalem, pretended to be a Jewish bachelor looking for a relationship. He met a Jewish woman and they went to a nearby building to have consensual sex, according the account in the Haaretz newspaper. He split before she'd finished putting her clothes back on.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.
Convicted Hamas murderer: Shalit swap deal won't increase terror, Akiva Eldar
If a study by an imprisoned Hamas leader is right, a deal to release Shalit shouldn't lead to more abductions of Israelis.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-
Hamas threatens legal action against Iranian news agency
GAZA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The deposed Hamas government in the Gaza Strip on Monday vowed to take a legal action against an Iranian news agency for reporting "false" news saying Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya was going to reshuffle government in the Gaza Strip. "We deny the information and the names that Fars News Agency mentioned in its report," Hamas Government Media Office said in a statement sent to the press. The report, which detailed the reshuffle and mentioned the names of the ministers who would be replaced or join the government, "was no more than a rumor that caused political and professional embarrassment" to some ministers, the statement said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Gaza women defy Hamas shisha ban
On Sunday, plain-clothes agents patrolled beachside cafés enforcing the edict. However, some Gazan women are still smoking. The BBC's Hamada Abu Qamar met Jihad, a veiled woman in her twenties, who was enjoying her shisha at sunset.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Proposal to Turn Palestinian Sufferings and Struggles into School Curriculum
KUALA LUMPUR, 19 JULY, 2010: A senator today proposed that the sufferings and struggles of the Palestinian people be turned into part of the curriculum in Malaysian schools. Senator Datuk Dr Firdaus Abdullah said the curriculum on Palestine could be included into the General Knowledge or History subjects. He said this was as part of the commitment that could be continued by the future generation to be together with the international community in championing the rights of the Palestinians to set up an independent and sovereign nation. "For example, at the primary school stage, we just inform basic things and at the secondary level, we adopt a deeper approach," he said when debating the motion to criticize the cruel attack by the Israeli troops on the Freedom Flotilla convoy bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, at the Dewan Negara sitting today.
http://malaysiandigest.com/
Gaza’s Ancient Treasures Buried
Palestinian Territory (TML) - Parts of an ancient archeological house built for a wealthy family during the era of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250 to 1517) were discovered in the Old City of Gaza last week. A few months before that finding, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities discovered about 1300 gold coins on the Egyptian-Palestinian border in the southern Gaza Strip. The oldest piece dates back to around 330 B.C. Jars, pots, gold and silver items and household appliances were also discovered. More Bronze historical coins were recently discovered at a different site, Tel Rafah, set to be revealed by the ministry in the coming weeks. The number of archaeological findings has increased recently in the Gaza Strip, once a transit point for many ancient trade caravans on the way between Asia and Africa, or various civilizations across the Levant.
http://www.allheadlinenews.
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Analysis: 'Groundhog Day' for MidEast peace process, Ben Wedeman
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- For some, it may have felt like the diplomatic equivalent of Groundhog Day. Officials, in Cairo, Egypt for another round of talks in the never-ending Middle East peace process. Despite a spate of rumors about his failing health, Sunday Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had a busy schedule. First, he met with U.S. Mideast Envoy George Mitchell, then Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and finally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, the meeting between Mubarak and Netanyahu was scheduled to last four hours. Not bad for the 82-year-old Egyptian leader. In any event, the meeting was brief.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/
Israeli right embracing one-state?, Ali Abunimah
There has been a strong revival in recent years of support among Palestinians for a one-state solution guaranteeing equal rights to Palestinians and Israeli Jews throughout historic Palestine. One might expect that any support for a single state among Israeli Jews would come from the far left, and in fact this is where the most prominent Israeli Jewish champions of the idea are found, although in small numbers. Recently, proposals to grant Israeli citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank, including the right to vote for the knesset, have emerged from a surprising direction: Right-wing stalwarts such as knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin, and former defence minister Moshe Arens, both from the Likud party of Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Fighting racism through sports
Comprised of four women and three men between the ages of 18 and 27, a Palestinian football team was organized to participate in the Anti-Racism World Cup in Belfast, Ireland. Jillian Kestler-D'Amours reports for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Why Israel is leaning on Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to nudge peace process
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a staple of Mideast politics for more than 30 years, hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Cairo this weekend amid rising concerns about Mubarak's health.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/
Hagai El-Ad: Democracy Be Damned
July 13th 2010, the day in which the Knesset revoked the parliamentary privileges of an elected member of parliament through a public humiliation spectacle, represents a black day for Israeli democracy. The stars of this anti-democracy fest, MKs Yariv Levin, Michael Ben Ari, and Anastasia Michaeli, believed that they were shaming MK Hanin Zoabi, that they might realize their wish of expelling her from the Knesset to Gaza or, even better, to Iran. But the actual victims of this public humiliation were the diminishing trappings of democracy in Israel. It was the Knesset itself, not Zoabi, which was shamed. It is not MK Zoabi who is being expelled, but rather the hope for full civil equality of all Israeli citizens under the accepted ground rules of democracy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Nargila ban distracts attention from ethnic cleansing, Matthew Taylor
The New York Times, blazing beacon of Palestinian women's rights, broke an important story yesterday front and center on its website: Hamas bans Nargila ("water pipes") in public, specifically targeting woman. As Glatzer would say, once again the NYT is "spinning one for the ladies in the house tonight." This time the groove is: Islamic governments are oppressing women in Gaza and around the Arab world (whereas Israel is the land of women's rights, gay rights, etc.)
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/
A Video from Outside Hebron, NICHOLAS KRISTOF
Here’s my latest video, from near the southern Hebron Hills, from my recent trip to the Middle East. I try to make the argument that while we can disagree about details, about history, about solutions, a starting point is simply an acknowledgment that Israel’s West Bank policy is profoundly unfair. But somehow I imagine that there will be disagreement about that as well — and go ahead and record your disagreements here.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.
US voters can demand Palestine's freedom
It is only a matter of time before voters of conscience make it clear that elected policy-makers who collaborate in America's unconditional partnership with Israel will be exposed as shameful; and make it clear to policy-makers that such shameful behavior is unsustainable because collaborators in injustice will be ejected from office by the people. Cynthia McKinney comments on the growing grassroots boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Qualitative Military Edge — another name for US-backed Israeli brutality, Paul Woodward
On October 15, 2008, just three weeks before the US presidential election, George Bush signed into law the Naval Vessel Transfer Act which had been sponsored by one of Israel’s most loyal supporters in the US Congress, Rep. Howard Berman. The new law, which from its title might have been assumed to relate primarily to the sale of ships from the US Navy to foreign governments, actually had a much more important purpose: to place every American president under a legal obligation to ensure that Israel maintains its military dominance over the Middle East.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/
60 years ago, first Defense Sec’y said ‘Zionist pressure’ endangered US security, all the way to Afghanistan, Philip Weiss
I've kept dropping hints about this. It's time to post some excerpts about the birth of Israel from the Forrestal Diaries-- by James V. Forrestal, the first U.S. Secretary of Defense. Forrestal is famous of course for tragedy: Not long after these thoughts were set down, Forrestal was sacked by Truman in March 1949 and died two months later, apparently jumping from a high floor of the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he was being treated for depression. My introduction. 1, know your narrator: James Forrestal was a serious man to the point of humorless, rigid/repressed, intelligent, selfmade.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/
Slandering the Good Guys: Some Basic Facts About IHH, Iara Lee
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. Despite the fact that several courageous journalists both in the US and abroad thoroughly debunked the Israeli account of what happened (this includes deliberately doctored footage along with the libelous accusations of links to terrorism), the damage was done.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
An Open Letter to All Who Support Shalit’s Family, Yossi Schwartz
If the price for the release of one thousand Palestinian political prisoners is an Israeli soldier who was part of the criminal siege of Gaza, then so be it. You understand that the Israeli government is responsible for the fact that Shalit is still a prisoner because Netanyahu’s government refuses to release the Palestinian prisoners that Hamas demands. You are willing to exchange Shalit because in your eyes the life of one Israeli is more valuable than the lives of one thousand Palestinians. As long as you hold to this racist outlook, you remain prisoners of the Israeli state. All 11,000 political Palestinian prisoners should be released, because they belong to a nation struggling against the oppression that you are part of.
http://dissidentvoice.org/
Israeli group gives young Palestinians their first taste of the beach
Mohammed Shawasha has spent his life in a West Bank village just 37 miles from the sea, but he has never been there. So when the opportunity to spend a day on the Mediterranean coast arose for the 12-year-old Palestinian, he jumped at it. From hilltops across the landlocked West Bank, Palestinians can see the sea, but they can't get there because of Israeli restrictions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Obama's Costly Appeasement of Israelis, George S. Hishmeh –Washington, D.C.
It was a session replete with superlatives when the assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs, Andrew J. Shapiro, spelled out in unprecedented detail the Obama administration’s approach to U.S.-Israel security cooperation, reassuring the Israelis of “preserving (their country’s) qualitative military edge.” The crowded event, held at the Brookings Saban Center founded by a wealthy Egyptian-Jew, seemed to serve as an obvious attempt by the administration to reassure Israelis that President Barack Obama, whose popularity in Israel is very low (about 10 percent), means well in his lethargic bid to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Inside the Israeli Knesset, URI AVNERY
WHEN I was first elected to the Knesset, I was appalled at what I found. I discovered that, with rare exceptions, the intellectual level of the debates was close to zero. They consisted mainly of strings of clichés of the most commonplace variety. During most of the debates, the plenum was almost empty. Most participants spoke vulgar Hebrew. When voting, many members had no idea what they were voting for or against, they just followed the party whip. That was 1967, when the Knesset included members like Levy Eshkol and Pinchas Sapir, David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan, Menachem Begin and Yohanan Bader, Meir Yaari and Yaakov Chazan, for whom today's streets, highroads and neighborhoods are named. In comparison to the present Knesset, that Knesset now looks like Plato’s Academy.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Watch the Trailer for Julian Schnabel’s Miral
It stars Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto as a Palestinian who becomes politicized, thanks to love and against her father's wishes. Intense. And with Tom Waits.
http://nymag.com/daily/
Iraq
Monday: 1 British Contractor, 10 Iraqis Killed; 29 Iraqis Wounded
An attack in northern Iraq killed one Briton and as many as three other foreign nationals. At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 29 more were wounded in that attack and other violence across the country. Meanwhile, Ayad Allawi outlined his plans for the new government should he become the next prime minister. He also met with Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr during a trip to Damascus.
http://original.antiwar.com/
9 wounded , senior Iraqi official escapes attack in Baghdad bombings
BAGHDAD, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were wounded in bomb attacks in Baghdad on Monday, including twin bomb explosions targeting an Iraqi deputy minister who escaped unhurt, an Interior Ministry source said. Two roadside bombs went off coordinately near the convoy of Mahdi Dhamad, a deputy of Iraqi agriculture minister, while passing the Gailani Intersection in downtown Baghdad in the morning, wounding one of his bodyguards and four civilians, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Sunni Awakening resolute in face of Iraq bombing
A suicide bomber on Sunday killed at least 43 in an attack on members of the Sunni Awakening, which helped turned the tide against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Iraqis are concerned Al Qaeda could regain ground as the US pulls out its combat troops next month.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/
U.S. bears responsibility for disorder in Iraq: Shiite cleric
DAMASCUS, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al- Sadr said Monday the United States is responsible for the disorder in Iraq. Al-Sadr made the remarks at a press conference held in Damascus, where he stressed his support for the formation of an Iraqi unified national government representing all Iraqi people. The U.S. troops in Iraq currently stand at 77,500, the lowest since the 2003 invasion and less than half of the peak level of 165,000 during the "surge."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Sadr urges Iraqi political progress
Shia leader meets Allawi in Syria for talks on negotiating formation of new government.
http://english.aljazeera.net//
Allawi pulls out of talks with al Sadr
Ayad Allawi, the narrow winner of the Iraqi elections, pulled out of a weekend trip to Syria during which he had been expected to hold talks with the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
http://www.thenational.ae/
Allawi, Sadr hold talks on forming Iraqi govt (AFP)
AFP - Two figures at the centre of drawn-out efforts to form a new Iraqi government, former premier Iyad Allawi and radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, met in Syria's capital on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Iraqi football official: federation offices raided
BAGHDAD — A member of the Iraqi Football Association says men in military-style uniforms have raided the organization's offices and displayed arrest warrants for some of its officials. The official said Monday that the men drove Humvees in Sunday's raid, which caused the association to suspend work in the offices and delay all tournaments and matches until further notice.
http://www.google.com/
US Marine officer in Haditha case leaves service (AP)
AP - A Camp Pendleton Marine officer who was accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis by a squad in the town of Haditha has left the service.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
'No-one to turn to'
Iraqi asylum seeker forcibly deported from the UK is not finding life easy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
Iraq inquiry: Saddam posed very limited threat to UK, ex-MI5 chief says
Eliza Manningham-Buller tells Chilcot inquiry that Iraq invasion radicalised part of a generation of Muslims and increased terrorist threat to Britain. The former MI5 director general Eliza Manningham-Buller today delivered a withering assessment of the case for war against Iraq, saying it had significantly increased the terrorist threat to Britian. Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Manningham-Buller said the threat posed by Saddam Hussein before the US-led invasion in 2003 was low.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/
Lebanon
The Silent Palestinian Refugee Crisis
Lebanon, which has long placed severe restrictions on the Palestinians in the country, may finally give them the rights they deserve.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
Ghanem: Work permits retain refugee status for Palestinians
BEIRUT: Head of the Administration and Justice parliamentary committee, MP Robert Ghanem, said work permits will preserve the refugee status of Palestinians in Lebanon. The West Bekaa MP spoke to reporters on Monday after chairing a meeting for the committee at the Parliament.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Hamas organizes its first group wedding in Lebanon
SIDON: Fifty Palestinian couples were married on Sunday, during a mass wedding organized by Hamas in the southern coastal city of Sidon. "Our Joy Will Be Complete When We Return," was the motto for the wedding held at the Rafik Hariri Stadium, in the presence of Hamas officials and the head of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, Hassan Abu Zeid.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Druze gathering urges support for Palestinian members
BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said Monday the Druze community in Israel should reject compulsory military service in the Israeli army. Jumblatt spoke to a delegation of Druze sheikhs from Palestine, who visited him at his residence in the Beirut district of Clemanceau.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
Analyst: Israel’s Next War Could Be Lebanon, Jim Lobe
While speculation over a possible Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities intensifies, at least one influential analyst is calling on Washington to focus more on the likelihood of a new war breaking out between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and how to prevent or contain it. In his eight-page “Contingency Planning Memorandum” released last week by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), retired U.S. ambassador Daniel Kurtzer argued that Israel was more likely than Hezbollah to initiative hostilities and that it could “also use a conflict with Hezbollah as the catalyst and cover for an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
http://original.antiwar.com/
Iran
Iran calls for 'more fair' world body than UN
Iran's parliament speaker charges UN with prompting the emergence of terrorism in 'dangerous and organized framework.'
http://www.haaretz.com/news/
'Israel convinces US with Credible military plan on Iran'
Have Israel’s efforts to convince the US to threaten Iran with a credible military option paid off? According to recent media reports, the answer might be yes.
http://www.jpost.com/
Israel re-arms ready for war with Iran
Israel has successfully re-armed its air force with long-range F-151 and F-161 strike aircraft, supported by an upgraded fleet of tanker aircraft.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
Sources: Amiri Told CIA Iran Has No Nuclear Bomb Program, Gareth Porter
Contrary to a news media narrative that Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri has provided intelligence on covert Iranian nuclear weapons work, CIA sources familiar with the Amiri case say he told his CIA handlers that there is no such Iranian nuclear weapons program, according to a former CIA officer. Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official, told IPS that his sources are CIA officials with direct knowledge of the entire Amiri operation.
http://original.antiwar.com/
U.S. and other World News
Baha Mousa inquiry: Commander accused of lying
Counsel for Iraqi civilian who died in British custody questions evidence given by officer in charge. The commanding officer of the regiment in whose custody an Iraqi civilian died was accused today of misleading an official public inquiry about what he knew of the treatment meted out by his soldiers. Colonel Jorge Mendonca of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (1QLR) said he saw nothing out of the ordinary when he checked on hotel worker Baha Mousa and a number of other Iraqi civilians after their arrest in Basra, southern Iraq, in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
US spy network 'bloated'
An investigation by The Washington Post has revealed that America's intelligence system has grown so large since the September 11 attacks, that determining its effectiveness is "impossible". Buildings have been cropping up across the country to house new government workers and contractors, yet the newspaper says the sprawling network is so massive and so secretive that nobody knows how much it costs, or how many agencies are doing the same work. Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Zawahiri slams Arab leaders as 'Zionists' in new tape (AFP)
AFP - Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri slammed Arab leaders as "Zionists" who are helping Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip, in his first message since December posted online Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Riz Khan - Afghanistan: Cash and corruption
Just 12 months before US forces are to begin withdrawing, what hope is there for progress in Afghanistan? We speak with Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan finance minister and presidential candidate, about what it will take to turn the country around and how much longer Afghanistan can cunt on international support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Colonial Feminism Among House Muslims
First, she argues “Some have tried to present the ban as a matter of Islam vs. the West. It is not. First, Islam is not monolithic. It, like other major religions, has strains and sects.” One wonders what Islam’s diversity has anything to do with the anti-Islamic motivation behind the French ban on veils. Had France passed a law against wearing yermulkes, it would have been anti-Jewish regardless of strains and sects within Judaism. Had France passed a law against wearing crucifixes, it would’ve been anti-Christian regardless of strains and sects within Christianity. Granted, there are different interpretations within Islam that range from requiring the woman to cover her body completely (as in Saudi Arabia, for example), to requiring covering only the hair, to not requiring any hijab whatsoever per more liberal interpretations. But the variety of opinions within Islam doesn’t make a ban on an expression of some Muslim women’s faith any less of an anti-Islamic law.
http://ikhras.com/?p=405
Booming beauty industry unveiled in Saudi
While their faces might be invisible in most public places, Saudi Arabia's female citizens spend more on hair and cosmetics per capita than almost any other women in the Middle East.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
Hopes and Prospects, By Noam Chomsky, Johann Hari
Chomsky is trying to rescue crimes from the memory-hole. He explains that Ronald Reagan – the great hero of the US right – was a great champion of jihadism. It was Reagan who encouraged Pakistan simultaneously to become fundamentalist, and acquire nuclear weapons.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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