Muslim graveyard vandalized
Dozens of Jewish worshippers desecrated a Muslim cemetery in a Palestinian village near Arial on Friday. Noaf, a resident of a nearby village, said that the worshippers arrived at the cemetery escorted by soldiers. "Several of them entered a nearby Muslim cemetery, broke tombstones, and wrote things on them such as "Death to Arabs". I don't know exactly how many tombstones were desecrated. We were under curfew during their worship time, and they came and did this," he said. Rabbi Arik Asherman, head of Rabbis for Human Rights, denounced the incident. "As rabbis, we protest this desecration and are reminded of our pain when such acts are committed against us." The IDF also said that an official complaint was sent to the worshippers' leaders.
Olmert to Assad: Israel willing to withdraw from Golan Heights
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently relayed a secret message to Syrian President Bashar Assad saying Israel knew what the price of peace was and would be willing to pay it, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday. According to the report, Olmert told the Syrian leader Israel would return the Golan in exchange for a comprehensive peace agreement and the severing of Damascus' alliance with Iran and terror groups in the region. A senior official in Jerusalem was quoted by the newspaper as saying that Assad has yet to respond to Israel's offer. It was further reported that during a phone conversation with US President George W. Bush last month, Olmert said he had decided to look into the possibility of renewing negotiations with Syria. Bush, the report said, gave the go-ahead and said the United States would not stand in Israel's way.
Syria denies reports of Israeli peace offer
Syrian officials in London rejected on Friday morning reports that Israel had invited the country to enter into peace negotiations. Quoting the Qatari newspaper Al Sharq, Israeli radio reported a London-based Syrian diplomat as indicating that after purportedly suffering a defeat in the latest war in Lebanon, Israel is incapable of functioning as a real partner in any immediate peace negations. The diplomat did indicate, however, that Syria is willing to renew peace talks with the Israeli administration.
Forty years later, searching for truth about the Liberty
Forty years ago this week, I was asked to investigate the heaviest attack on an American ship since World War II. As senior legal counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry it was my job to help uncover the truth regarding Israel's June 8th 1967 bombing of the USS Liberty. Israel claimed it was an accident. Yet I know from personal conversations with the late Admiral Isaac C. Kidd -- president of the Court of Inquiry -- that President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of "mistaken identity." The ensuing cover-up has haunted us for forty years. What does it imply for our national security, not to mention our ability to honestly broker peace in the Middle East, when we cannot question Israel's actions – even when they kill Americans?
Jeffrey St Clair: Israel's attack on the USS Liberty, revisited
Why would the US government participate so enthusiastically in the cover-up of a war crime against its own sailors? In Assault on the Liberty, a first-hand account by James Ennes Jr., McNamara's version of events is proven to be as big a sham as his concurrent lies about Vietnam. Ennes's book created a media storm when it was first published by Random House in 1980, including (predictably) charges that Ennes was a liar and an anti-Semite. Still, the book sold more than 40,000 copies, but was eventually allowed to go out of print. Now Ennes has published an updated version, which incorporates much new evidence that the Israeli attack was deliberate and that the US government went to extraordinary lengths to disguise the truth. Now, 35 years later, Ennes warns that the bloodbath on board the Liberty and its aftermath should serve as a tragic cautionary tale about the continuing ties between the US government and the government of Israel.
Detained Palestinian judge continues his hunger strike
For the sixth day, Sheikh Abdullah Harb, from Jenin, chief judge of the Jenin Appeal Court, continued his hunger strike against his detention in the Al Jalama Israeli detention facility. Sheikh Harb was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers stationed at a military roadblock and was imprisoned and interrogated under inhuman conditions. The Society reported that the abductions of Sheikh Harb is considered a direct Israeli attack against one of the religious and legal symbols of the Palestinian people, and demanded the Red Cross to interfere in order to release him.
Uri Avnery: Those 40 bad years
IT IS enough to see what the occupation has done to the Jewish religion. In my childhood I was taught at home that Judaism was a humane religion, a "light unto the Gentiles". Judaism means to loathe violence, to value the spiritual above the powerful, to turn an enemy into a friend. A Jew is allowed to defend himself - "If somebody comes to kill you, kill him first", as the Talmudic injunction goes - but not as a lover of violence and the intoxication of power. What has remained of that? The former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel and the spiritual leader of the settlers and the entire religious Zionist camp decreed in a letter to the Prime Minister that it is impermissible to have compassion with the civilian population of Gaza if that imperils Israeli soldiers. What is the connection between this "religious" view and the God who (in Genesis 18) promised not to destroy Sodom if 10 righteous people could be found there? [Note to Avnery: what about the preceding 20 years?]
Israeli army invades several area in the West Bank on Friday morning
The operations began with the invasion of Jenin City in the northern part of the West Bank on Friday morning. In same operation, Israeli forces also invaded Jenin refugee camp and Kufr Dan village, near Nablus City . In a separate operation in the Jordan Valley , the Israeli army invaded Ezbidat village.
Israeli army attacks nonviolent protestors at Bil'in
As with every week, local residents were joined a number of international activists in their demonstration, the main theme of which this week was to mark the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As they have on previous occasions, the Israeli military established roadblocks and checkpoints on the path of the demonstration and showered protestors with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets before they even reached the Wall. Seven people, including a child and a British activist identified only as Alice were injured in the attack. As a result of excessive use of tear gas [those canisters are hot!], several olive groves caught fire and a number of trees were damaged.
Israeli army attacks nonviolent protestors at Umm Salamoneh
Residents carried out their weekly demonstration against land confiscation and the construction of the illegal wall that will isolate the village from its rightfully owned agricultural land. After Friday prayers, the demonstrators marched towards the land scheduled for confiscation. On their way, the group was stopped by soldiers, who beat both protestors and journalists covering the action. Eyewitness told IMEMC that a military force surrounded the demonstrators on all sides, preventing them from either moving forward or returning to the village. After a brief scuffle which saw five Israeli activists kidnapped, the organizers decided to bring the demonstration to a close.
EU, donors weigh expanded aid plan for Palestinians
One proposal under EU consideration calls for expanding the existing Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) to pay a portion of the Palestinian Authority's arrears to private Palestinian contractors, diplomats said. Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad has already begun talks with other Western donors and the World Bank about the possibility of restoring budget support needed to keep the Palestinian Authority and its ministries running longer-term. Advocates see the financial moves as part of a broader shift in strategy that could address Arab calls for the United States and the EU to ease sanctions before trying to jumpstart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab League. Some Israeli officials decry what they see as a policy shift, endorsed by the United States, that will reduce pressure on Hamas to formally recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous interim peace deals with the Jewish state.
Israeli troops kill Palestinian hunter in West Bank raid
Israel Defense Forces troops shot dead an armed Palestinian and wounded another Friday night near the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said, adding that the wounded man escaped. Residents of the village of Tufah, west of Hebron, said the men were local hunters out looking for game in the dark. They were not known to be connected to any militant groups. Medics said the dead youth was aged 17, while the other man, who was in moderate condition, was 25.
Disputed Hebron house emerges as latest flashpoint in divided West Bank city
When 14 Jewish families moved into a Palestinian house in Hebron - a sacred West Bank city and traditional burial site of biblical patriarch Abraham - Israel vowed to kick them out. But three months later, they're still there. The scene highlights the Israeli government's inability to carry through with its electoral pledge to begin removing West Bank settlers, who are becoming increasingly bold in the face of failed peacemaking.
'We will isolate them'
British academics' desire to boycott Israeli universities this week provoked the threat of legal action and counter-boycotts. Will it produce a fully-fledged international crisis? Already About 2,000 American scholars - including at least nine Nobel laureates - have vowed to stay away from any event from which Israelis are excluded. Alan Dershowitz, the prominent lawyer and Harvard law professor, says he has mustered a team of 100 high-profile lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic to "devastate and bankrupt" anyone acting against Israeli universities.
Israeli court ruling: No Gaza students in Israel
Students from the Gaza Strip were denied the right to enroll in Israeli universities by a decision of the Israeli High Court of Justice this week. The case of Wisam Madhoon, a Gaza resident who wanted to study environmental science at Tel Aviv University, was brought by Gisha, an Israeli non-profit organization for freedom of movement of Palestinians. The court ruled in favor of the Israeli state, claiming that Gaza residents have no inherent right to study in Israel and that security and diplomatic issues are main reasons for barring them from higher education. "In Israel, people are angry over the British demand for an academic boycott, but Israel itself is in fact academically boycotting Palestinians," said Madhoon.
Gaza power plant still hobbled nearly a year after attack
Nearly a year after an Israeli airstrike, Gaza's power plant cannot yet resume full operation to supply vitally-needed electricity to one of the most densely populated areas on earth - just as demand is about to peak during the hot summer months. International sanctions and Israeli restrictions are to blame for the Palestinian inability to restore the plant to its full former capacity. Donors are also now paying some $8 million a month for fuel, purchased from Israel, to operate the Gaza power plant at what, today, is only half-capacity, he said.
Palestinian released from Virginia jail
A Palestinian man behind bars for nearly four years was released from jail Friday on orders from a federal judge who ruled that the government had taken too long to deport him. Majed Talat Hajbeh, a Palestinian by birth and raised in Jordan, was arrested and detained in 2003 in a sweep of suspected immigration violators. The government tried to deport him to Jordan, where he was convicted in absentia in 1999 of plotting the bombings of an American school and other targets. The Jordanian government later overturned his co-defendant's convictions, but Hajbeh's stands because he has never returned to Jordan. The deportation order was suspended because of evidence that he would face torture in Jordan. U.S. officials have been searching for another country where he could live freely with his family.
Targeted killing won't bring peace – by Mustapha Barghouti
Israel applies no death penalty, except against Palestinians living under Israeli military government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There, suspected opponents of Israel's occupation are routinely executed without charge, judge or jury. Innocents who happen to be in the vicinity of Israel's "target" just as often suffer summary execution. For decades, Israel murdered Palestinian leaders abroad. Israel claimed to target those guilty of committing or planning acts of violence. In reality, Palestinian political leaders, poets, journalists and other professionals and artists were also killed. Since September 2000, more than 400 Palestinians have been murdered in extrajudicial executions. Nearly half were innocent bystanders and at least 44 were children. These extrajudicial executions are war crimes.
Let's get acquainted with occupation – by Ariel Rubenstein
Every citizen should be enlisted for one day every year to fulfill the functions of the occupation, each in accordance with his or her ability. Let one stand at a checkpoint and let another be a clerk at the Interior Ministry in East Jerusalem. Those who can should assist in arresting wanted persons in the middle of the night in a village near Nablus. Those who are creative should build the separation fence. Anyone could fire at those wretched people searching for metal in the rubble of evacuated Dugit in the Gaza Strip. The youngsters from the Saturday-night brawls at the nightclubs should conduct stone-throwing battles with Palestinian children close to the roads. The soft-hearted should guard detainees during Shin Bet interrogations. All occupation assignments should be visible to us all and we should experience them from up close. . . When the day comes let no Israeli tell the Master of the Universe or his conscience: "I didn't know."
Fresh assault on Lebanon camp
The new military offensive on Friday followed sporadic clashes during the night, with Lebanese authorities saying that the group sought to target UN peacekeeping forces in the country. The Lebanese army assault, which targeted buildings occupied by the group for the past 20 days, began around 8am (0500 GMT) and was continuing at a steady pace. The Fatah al-Islam fighters replied with automatic gunfire and anti-tank rockets.
Exam respite for refugee children
Unicef and UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, have helped to move children from the nearby Beddawi refugee camp to schools in the Tripoli area by bus to take their exams. The relief agencies began running buses on June 2 so the students could go back to school for the first time since fighting began on May 20. As a direct result of the conflict, children from both the Beddawi and Nahr al-Bared camps have missed almost two weeks of school at a very critical time in their academic calendar. Senior students are due to write their baccalaureate exams in order to qualify for university while, for younger students, the "Brevet" exam is mandatory before pursuing secondary school education.
Looking back on 40 years of occupation – by Chris Hedges
The Israeli lobby in the United States is captive to the far right of Israeli politics. It exerts influence not on behalf of the Jewish state but an ideological strain within Israel that believes it can crush Palestinian aspirations through force. The self-defeating policies of the Bush administration are mirrored in the self-defeating policies championed by the hard-right administration of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. It is not in Israel's interest - or our own - to continue to fuel increased Palestinian strife and rising militancy. Economic sanctions and an arms ban against Israel are our last hope. These were the tools that toppled the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Bonded in resistance to the 'barrier'
As it physically divides hundreds of Arab and Jewish communities along its 456-mile route, Israel's separation barrier is ending countless personal relationships that have developed between the two peoples. Lawsuits and protests by Israeli and Palestinian activists have failed to slow construction of the cement and chain-link barrier, and a number of communities have turned instead to each other to prevent their impending division.
The occupation is stressing Israel, too
As the 40th anniversary of the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967 approaches, the accumulated ills of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, coupled with the devastation wrought by neoliberal economic policy, have brought the country to its worst crisis of governability. While the economy is booming and Israel's international standing remains high thanks to 9/11, since last summer's Lebanon war most Israelis feel like passengers stranded on a rudderless ship.
A life in legal limbo – Leila el-Haddad
Um Nael is one of more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian ministry of civil affairs, who await a family reunion ID card, or hawia. The hawia is issued by the Israeli military to residents of the occupied territories. The Palestinian borders were sealed immediately after the 1967 war and a door-to-door population census was conducted. Cards were issued to only those Palestinians who were in residence and added to the population registry. Millions of others who were abroad - studying, working, or visiting family, were immediately excluded. Since 2000, Israel has frozen all family reunification ID requests and visitor's permits and has not permitted additions to the Palestinian Population Registry, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians like Um Nael stranded.
Tortured by the Palestinian police
Wisam and three of his relatives were interrogated by Palestinian police after a dispute with the mayor of their village. They were badly beaten. Over the last few years, Palestinians have lost trust in their police force and the judiciary. Many of their complaints have never been answered. A recent report by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights shows that the number of violations against citizens has doubled in 2006. Sixty-eight incidents of torture have been reported during the first quarter of 2007 alone, suggesting an alarming rise on the previous year. Wisam's case may not change immediately change methods of interrogation in Palestinian police stations. But human-rights organisations say the fact that action was taken in Wisam's case is a step in the right direction.
The checkpoint women of Israel
Banai agrees the government has a duty to defend its people against terrorism. Her own daughter was injured in a terrorist attack in Kfar Saba four years ago. But she cautions: "I see the looks of the young man at the checkpoints when his father is being humiliated, or he himself, or any woman. His eyes say, 'Give me a bomb and I will blow us all up.' " The women forced the military to install water taps and shaded areas at some checkpoints. Their intervention sometimes makes it easier for Palestinians to get where they want to go. Banai says she sometimes worries "if we are not actually collaborating with the army, making it all appear more human. No improvements can change the nature of the checkpoints. Israeli checkpoints on the West Bank are a violation of human rights. When you prohibit a Palestinian from seeing his dying grandmother, it doesn't much matter if you say it with a smile, or if you shout at him. "I don't want the checkpoints changed," she says. "I want them gone."
My silk road – a memoir by Tania Tamari Nasir
Palestinian culture - From the sitting room in our family home in Birzeit, I sit to write this personal memoir - something of my experience with Palestinian embroidery, my own "silk road" so to speak. Exquisite carpets, colourful embroidered cushions, and family portraits and mementos surround me. It was in such a room, my grandmother's sewing room, that my passion for colour and design, for texture and embroidery began. The details came later, but the seeds were sewn as my little hands delved into that drawer of my grandmother's cupboard, in Jaffa by the sea. My visits to Jaffa were brutally severed by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. My grandparents fled the horrors of war as refugees to Egypt, and my family remained in Ramallah.
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