Petition in support of call by United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D'escoto Brockmann for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/IJAN_Brockmann_BDS/?e
Amnesty International: Gaza reduced to bare survival
The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is having ever more serious consequences on its population. In the past month the supply of humanitarian aid and basic necessities to Gaza has been reduced from a trickle to an intermittent drip. The blockade has become tighter than ever since the breakdown of a five-and-a-half-month ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants on 5 November.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/gaza-reduced-bare-survival-20081205
Roadblocks and checkpoints in West Bank-Occupied Palestine
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/12/05/roadblocks-and-checkpoints-in-west-bank-occupied-palestine/
Israel bans West Bank Palestinians from prayer at Al-Aqsa
Israeli authorities imposed new restrictions on the entry of worshipers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday in expectation of "troubles" following the evacuation of a settler-occupied house in Hebron on Thursday. Israel's Army Radio said that the commander of Israeli police in Jerusalem, Aharon Franco, announced the order to prevent worshipers from the West Bank from praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33739
Six injured in Bil'in and Al-Ma'sara protests; demonstrators march in solidarity with Hebronites
Six protesters were injured after demonstration marches in the villages of Bil'in and Al-Ma'sara were assaulted by Israeli soldiers during their weekly march in protest against aggressive Israeli policies on Friday. In Al-Ma'asra spokesperson for the People's Committee Against The Walll Mohammed Breijieh said in a statement that this week's protest was an act in solidarity with the people of Hebron. In his speech to the demonstrators Breijeh called what Israeli soldiers and settlers are doing in Hebron the "biggest proof of the barbaric attacks and plans to displace Palestinian people from their own lands."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33748
Al-Jazeera Video: The unpeaceful history of the 'House of Peace'-4 Dec 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EV35m8E1OA
Video: Jewish settlers shoot Palestinian men following Hebron evictions
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem releases graphic footage of shooting after yesterday's forced evictions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/dec/05/hebron-settlers-shooting-israel-palestinians
Jewish settlers in Hebron shoot Palestinian men
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has released graphic video footage showing settlers fighting with Palestinians in Hebron and shooting two men at close range in the hours after a settler house was evacuated by police yesterday. The film, recorded by a Palestinian resident in Hebron, shows settlers attacking his house, which was in a valley close to the three-storey building where dozens of settlers were evicted by Israeli riot police. In the hours after the eviction, Jewish settlers rioted in Hebron, throwing stones at police and Palestinians and setting fire to Palestinian trees and attacking Palestinian homes. Most of the violence took place between the evicted house and the nearby hardline Jewish settlement of Kirya Arba.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/05/hebron-settlers-shooting-israel-palestinians
Palestinians: Father, son seriously injured by settlers' gunshots
Palestinian sources in Hebron have reported that two Palestinians –a father and his son – were seriously injured from gunshots fired by settlers. The two were evacuated to the Palestinian hospital in the city. According to the report, one of the neighbors was also injured by gunshots, but his situation was unclear. Earlier, another Palestinian was injured by settlers' gunshots in the same area.[end]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3633650,00.html
Hebron colonists attack Palestinians after eviction
Mobs of colonists rampaged through the Occupied West Bank on Thursday after Israeli police enforced an eviction order of settlers squatting illegally in a Palestinian house. Rabid colonists set fire to Palestinian homes and fields, fired weapons, hurled rocks, clashed with security forces and carried out other forms of vandalism.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98266
Jews storm Palestinian home in Hebron
Palestinian residing near Federman Farm outpost says rightists set fire to his fields in protest of disputed house eviction. 'I fear it will end in disaster,' he says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3633763,00.html
Heeding No Authority, Israeli Settler Youth Rampage in Hebron
Time.com-A militant new generation of West Bank settlers is unwilling to heed its elders or the Israeli state, and is willing to use violence against the state and Palestinian civilians.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081205/wl_time/08599186461600
Settlers riot through Hebron following eviction from Rajabi house: 17 Palestinians injured, one in critical condition
Hebron, 4th November-A Palestinian man is in critical condition after being shot in the stomach as settlers continue to riot through Hebron. At least seventeen Palestinians have been taken to hospital injured as settlers set fire to several Palestinian homes. Four were injured as settlers opened fire into Palestinian houses.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/12/04/settlers-riot-through-hebron-following-eviction-from
-rajabi-house-17-palestinians-injured-one-in-critical-condition/
Settlers riot across Palestine as part of 'price-tag' campaign following eviction of settlers from Rajabi house, Hebron
UPDATE: Settlers are attacking Palestinian residents and property around the West Bank in a coordinated outbreak of aggression following the eviction of settlers from the occupied Rajabi house in Hebron. Attacks against Palestinians have been reported from Turmas'ayya, Burin, Huwarra, Beit Iba, Azzoun, al-Funduq, Assira-al-Qabliya and Susiya, as well as the mass settler riots in Hebron.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/12/04/settlers-riot-across-palestine-as-part-of-price-tag
-campaign-following-eviction-of-settlers-from-rajabi-house-hebron/
ANALYSIS /No other word than 'pogrom' for settler acts in Hebron
An innocent Palestinian family, numbering close to 20 people. All of them women and children, save for three men. Surrounding them are a few dozen masked Jews seeking to lynch them. A pogrom. This isn't a play on words or a double meaning. It is a pogrom in the worst sense of the word. First the masked men set fire to their laundry in the front yard and then they tried to set fire to one of the rooms in the house. The women cry for help, "Allahu Akhbar." Yet the neighbors are too scared to approach the house, frightened of the security guards from Kiryat Arba who have sealed off the home and who are cursing the journalists who wish to document the events unfolding there.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043795.html
IDF declares Hebron area closed military zone after settler rampage
The Israel Defense Forces declared the area surrounding Hebron a closed military zone on Thursday after settlers rampaged through Palestinian neighborhoods in the West Bank city. The settlers, who opened fire on Palestinians and vandalized their property, were responding to the evacuation by Israeli security forces of a disputed house in Hebron earlier in the day.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043612.html
Hebron clash tests Israeli ability to remove outposts
Israeli police removed 250 Jewish settlers from a Palestinian building in the West Bank city, ending weeks of tension between the military and the emerging right-wing fringe movement.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1205/p25s09-wome.html
30 arrested for blocking roads around Jerusalem
Twenty teenagers were arrested on Thursday for blocking the western entrance to Jerusalem during a violent protest against the evacuation of Hebron's Beit Hashalom, police said. Later, at least 10 more protesters were arrested for blocking the capital's Sderot Herzl and other main thoroughfares in the city.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1227702438209&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israeli settlers in war with the Palestinians in Hebron
Palestinian sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported on Thursday that extremist Israeli settlers carried out a series of violent attacks against the residents and set on fire a number of homes, cars and olive trees.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57909
Evacuation of Pogrom House in Hebron – a meager half job
The removal of the Hebron settlers' House of Pogrom is too little and too late. This house should have been evacuated weeks ago, instead of letting it become a focus of riots and pogroms, indiscriminate attacks on and torching of Palestinian homes, desecration of mosques and Muslim cemeteries. The evacuation of one house is far from enough. It was Defence Minster Ehud Barak, in his speech on the Rabin Square a month ago, who defined the concentrations of violent and racist settlers as cancer growths – but did not draw the obvious conclusions.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1228412048
DFLP slams the ongoing settler attacks in Hebron, calls of the Security Council to intervene
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) slammed the ongoing settler attacks carried against the Palestinian residents in the West Bank, especially in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and called on the Security Council to intervene.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57907
Russia calls on Israel to lift blockade
American officials sided with the Israelis at an emergency Security Council session where the protests of Libya, one of 10 rotating members of the Security Council, fell on deaf ears. The Russians used more explicit language in calling for an end to the blockade than they have at past gatherings.
http://jta.org/news/article/2008/12/04/1001352/russia-calls-on-israel-to-lift-blockade
Hamas to Abbas: Release our fighters from jails to bridle settlers' attacks
The Hamas Movement on Friday asked PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to release Palestinian resistance fighters from his jails in the West Bank in order to defend Palestinian citizens in Al-Khalil.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Jamal Dajani: West Bank Stories
Since their eviction, settlers have torched fields, olive groves and yards in Hebron and nearby villages. They also opened fire on Palestinians, wounding three. Violence has also spread to areas around Nablus and Ramallah. In Bittin, north of Ramallah, settlers broke into a home and vandalized Palestinian property, and in several other West Bank villages, anti-Muslim graffiti was sprayed on mosque walls.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamal-dajani/west-bank-stories_b_148696.html
U.S. warns nationals against traveling to Jerusalem amid Hebron tensions
U.S. citizens and staff workers at its embassy in Tel Aviv received an advisory on Friday to avoid traveling to Jerusalem in the wake of Thursday's evacuation of a Jewish squatters from a disputed house in the West Bank town of Hebron. The government is also advising Americans to refrain from driving on the main highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Highway 1, due to heavy traffic delays and "ongoing police activity."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043975.html
Angry Arab on NYT's coverage of settler violence
On the violent rampages of Israeli occupation settlers in Hebron. Notice that the New York Times put on its front page a picture which is intended to show the Hebron attackers as victims. And notice that they chose a woman and child to depict in order to evoke sympathy. This is standard for the New York Times. And under the above picture the New York Times put this caption: " Jewish settlers rampaged Thursday on the roofs of Palestinian homes in Hebron, responding in fury to the forced eviction of settlers from a disputed building." Zi onist violence is always "in response"--i.e., it never begins on its own and it always is in "retaliation," no matter how savage and how cruel and how massive. From setting Palestinian houses on fire to the attempt to destroy Lebanon in successive invasions and wars. Always, in response. And then look at this language: " Young settlers then rampaged through Palestinian fields and neighborhoods, setting olive trees on fire and trashing houses."The New York Times can't help itself: it almost said: Young and handsome settlers, the pioneers of Zionism, then rampaged....etc. The rampage is is a footnote to the New York Times story. If this was in reverse: if Arab residents in Morocco or Yemen were rampaging through Jewish neighborhoods would you doubt that US Congress would hold special hearings and meetings, and the UN Security Council would hold a special session?I have no doubt. No doubt whatever.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2008/12/on-violent-rampages-of-israeli.html
Settlers plan 'Jewish Pride' march
NAZARETH //Extremist settler groups involved in violent confrontations with Palestinians in the centre of Hebron have chosen their next battleground, this time outside the West Bank. A far-right group know as the Jewish National Front, closely associated with the Hebron settlers, is preparing to march through one of the main Arab towns in northern Israel. The march, approved by the Supreme Court in October, is scheduled to take place on Dec 15, the group announced this week.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081205/FOREIGN/289673161/1135
Abbas reimburses Palestinian after settlers steal horse
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Fatah members reimbursed a Palestinian resident of Al-Khader, near Bethlehem, for a horse stolen by Israeli settlers. Ibrahim Salah had previously appealed to Abbas, through Ma'an News Agency, to compensate him for a horse stolen by settlers one week before. Salah has been attacked repeatedly by settlers while working on his land adjacent to the Israeli constructed separation wall and an illegal settlement in his village. Salah also filed a complaint with Israeli police at the Israeli settlement of Gush Atzion, but it was ignored, despite the presence of witnesses, who saw the settlers stealing the horse and fleeing the scene, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33730
Barak orders destruction of Jerusalem terrorists' homes
Central Command chief instructed to raze homes of east Jerusalem residents who plowed into pedestrians with bulldozers in two separate attacks in capital. Families have week to appeal decision.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3633790,00.html
Blowing Away Palestinians with Remote Control Guns
This video from Ha'aretz shows the Israeli terrorist females in action using latest Israeli war crime weapons against Gazans-"The Seer Shoots"
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/12/05/blowing-away-palestinians-with-remote-control-guns/
Inside Gaza
The daily struggle with hunger and malnutrition.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7766509.stm
Gaza needs action, not words
Karen AbuZayd: The noble spirit of the universal declaration of human rights is betrayed by a lack of help for Gaza.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/05/israel-gaza-human-rights
OPT: Arab League calls for international effort to lift siege on Gaza Strip
The Arab League called on the international community Thursday to work on efforts to lift the Israeli imposed siege on the Gaza Strip.
The League's Secretariat said in a press release that it was very concerned over the siege in Gaza which prevented supplies and aid relief missions from reaching people there. The League also criticized Israeli attempts to prevent the Libyan aid ship "Al-Marwa" from reaching Gaza, saying the UNSC was responsible for humanitarian crisis in the strip through continuing the blind-eye police over Israeli violations against Palestinians.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/CJAL-7LZRT5?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
First Arab charity to break Gaza siege with $2m shipment of cancer medicine
The Free Gaza Movement announced a joint mission with Qatar Charity, a Qatar based relief organization, to sail from Larnaca Port to Gaza with $2 million dollars worth of cancer medicine this Saturday, December 6th at 4:30pm.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57910
Arab group to attempt Gaza voyage, deliver cancer meds
The Free Gaza Movement announced a joint mission with Qatar Charity, a Qatar-based relief organisation, to sail from the Larnaca Port in Cyprus to the Gaza Strip with US $2 million worth of cancer medication this Saturday. "Through this precedent setting voyage, Qatar Charity will become the first Arab organization to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza," the Free Gaza Movement said in a statement sent to Ma'an. The group has successfully challenged the siege on three previous occasions this year, landing missions in Gaza in August, October and November 2008. The Free Gaza ships were the first to dock at Gaza's port in over 41 years.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33744
Libyan aid ship docks at Greek port; still plans to reach Gaza Strip
The Libyan ship blocked from docking at Gaza's port this week will try again after picking up new passengers from Greece, where the boat docked in Crete overnight, according to a statement sent to Ma'an. A group called the Palestinian Brotherhood Association said that the Libyan ship landed in the port of Crete to pick up more foreign solidarity activists and travel back to the Gaza Strip, this time hoping to actually make landfall.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33737
Larijani slams Arab indifference to Gaza
Some 70 percent of Gaza has experienced lengthy power outages as Israel cut off fuel supplies to the strip's only power plant.
Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani says Israel has committed brazen acts of 'modern barbarism and inhumanity' in the Gaza Strip.
Larijani said on Friday that the Israeli-imposed siege against over 1.5 million Gazans indicates that barbarism still exists in modern times. "Israelis believe themselves to be advocates of human rights, and yet they have stripped innocent Gazans of food, fuel, electricity, medicine and other essential supplies," the Majlis speaker added.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail. aspx?id=77523§ionid=351020101
Ship Intifada and pilgrim lottery
Her suitcase is still on the sofa by the front door to her home in the eastern quarter of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip. Attaf Al-Sumuh, 47, still hasn't lost hope that she can perform the pilgrimage this year, even though this year's pilgrims from the world over are already in Mecca. Al-Sumuh can't accept the fact that political quibbling between the Ramallah and Gaza governments might mean that she won't be able to perform this religious duty she's anxiously been anticipating. She was supposed to perform the pilgrimage with her brother Akram, and says that she had sworn to perform it when she was cured from the illness she had suffered for three years, and registered with the Ministry of Religious Endowments under the Ismail Haniyeh government. "I can't believe this is happening, that I might not be able to perform the pilgrimage rituals due to differences between the political organisations," she told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This is madness."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/925/re1.htm
EU: Israeli government must "stop considering itself above the law and start respecting it"
The European Parliament (EP) suspended its vote on whether or not to upgrade EU-Israel relations on Wednesday in the wake of increasing unrest around Israeli settlement building policies and the continued Gaza siege.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33729
Arab states slam Israel's human rights record at UN forum
Israel drew fire regarding its human rights record on Thursday at a United Nations forum where its neighbors accused it of committing systematic violations against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043999.html
Bottom of the bottom
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has strongly denounced a recent conference on the plight of Palestinian refugees held in the Syrian capital, Damascus, organised by a coalition of factions and figures dedicated to the right of return, which according to organisers--amongst them Hamas--is the heart and soul of the Palestinian problem. The conference asserted the centrality of the right of return and warned Palestinian, regional and international players that any resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict not including the repatriation of millions of uprooted refugees to their original homes and villages in what is now called Israel would be strongly rejected by the Palestinian people.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/925/re3.htm
A PLO of Shame, By Khalid Amayreh
Today, the PLO is a house of shame and ill-repute. It is an organization that has allowed itself to be used as a tool of repression against the very people it claims to be serving. It is an organization that gives treason and national apostasy a legitimate face and an acceptable façade. It is an entity whose behavior and conduct constitute the exact anti-thesis of the authentic PLO of the past which, more or less, represented the national Palestinian consensus. Indeed, free-minded Palestinians, who won't be intimidated by big sticks or bribed by the carrots into joining the chorus of lies of the neo-Oslo gang, have the right to ask whether it is morally right to give loyalty to an organization whose leaders are saying aloud that Israel is not the enemy and occupier and that both Israelis and Palestinians have one enemy, it is Islam and Hamas?
http://palestinianpundit. blogspot.com/2008/12/plo-of-shame.html
Palestinians' Rift Prevents Gazans From Traveling to Mecca
That government, the Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah, has been arresting Hamas activists across the West Bank as its security officials, newly trained by Jordan and sponsored by the United States, increase their activity there. It has also taken over Hamas charities and shopping malls in the West Bank cities of Hebron and Nablus, replacing their executives with loyalists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html
Tense Egypt-Hamas relations take a turn for the worse
AFP-Already tense relations between Egypt and Hamas have soured after Cairo for the first time openly accused the Islamists of torpedoing Palestinian reconciliation talks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081204/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictpalestinianegyp tdiplomacy
Telling it as it is
Unless the Palestinians can speak effectively with one voice, the world won't listen, though Palestine is the core problem, writes Mustafa Barghouti*
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/925/op23.htm
Israeli reporter: Hamas stronger after siege
Amira Hass breaks Israeli ban on journalists entering Gaza, tells stories of Palestinians living under siege. PACIFICA – Award-winning Israeli journalist Amira Hass said that the Israeli blockade on Gaza has strengthened the position of Hamas in the Strip, Democracy Now! reported Tuesday.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=29065
Kidnapped At Gunpoint And Deported By Israeli Forces: And She Will Return
"I was held in the women`s compound in the men`s prison at Ramle that held people with visa violations. So I`m assuming I was there for being in Israel without a visa-pretty ridiculous given I was forced to go to Israel at gunpoint against my will. Israel deported me against my will back to America. I wanted to go to London or Cypress, but my requests were ignored. My belongings were not returned to me-my cell phone, my three notebooks, my keys to the apartment! "
http://www.countercurrents. org/fleming041208.htm
Spy tactics
Israel's attempts to take advantage of the destitution it creates include bribing Palestinians to spy on Palestinians. Those who refuse starve or die, writes Saleh Al-Naami.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/925/re8.htm
Apartheid Must Not Be Tolerated or Promoted
Advertising finances a magazine's publication. The higher the readership, the higher the cost to place an ad on its pages; evidently, the higher the readership, the higher the exposure for the advertiser. So, imagine the potential of The Smithsonian at over seven million readers, according to its web site. Now imagine a full page color advertisement in the December issue, proclaiming, "You'll love Israel from the first "Shalom," its history, unpolluted beaches, and so on.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14447
Share Space, Defy the Wall
Arabs and Jews were separated for decades before the separation wall was built in the West Bank and around Gaza. When former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat travelled to Israel in 1977, he declared before the Knesset (parliament) that such separation can only bring devastation and alienation to Arabs and Jews alike. He came to meet the Israelis in their homes to challenge their fears.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14449
Gaza aid groups recycle border wall rubble for water and housing projects
When Palestinian militants knocked down a Gaza border wall, engineer Ashraf al-Sadoun saw an opportunity-the rubble could be recycled to complete a Red Cross infrastructure project, a rainwater runoff ditch.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043980.html
Tales from within: An eye on Nablus Balata Refugee Camp
As you walk through the old city of Nablus the vibrancy of the bustling markets is an inescapable feature. As you walk through the cobble stoned streets, you encounter a collage of sights and smells. The pungent aroma from the spice shops followed by the sweet smell of Knaffe is a riot for the olfactory senses. Frenetic activity on the streets is contrasted by the nonchalance of shopkeepers. People, young and old are welcoming and one is filled with a sense of warmth walking through the narrow winding streets that are a photographers delight. Everything seems effortless and the pulse of the town is set at a comfortable pace. Life appears normal. However, further scrutiny would reveal that normality in this town has been an ephemeral feature. The old city of Nablus has experienced more incursions during the second intifada than most other West Bank cities or residential areas. The city being one of the former strongholds of the second intifada experienced heavy battles on its streets and parts of the old city has been re-built numerous times after being bulldozed and bombarded.
http://www.palestinemonitor. org/spip/spip.php?article713
Obama's Palestinian friend
No one stopped Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University professor of Modern Arab Studies, at Ben-Gurion airport. Having just landed after the long flight from New York, the professor was anticipating the traditional reception from airport security personnel reserved for visitors with "suspicious" names. To his surprise, he entered the airport like anyone else, with no problems or delays. Perhaps word had gotten around at Ben-Gurion that he was the Palestinian friend of United States President-elect Barack Obama.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn. jhtml?itemNo=1043689
Obama's victory and what it means to us
Besides restoring my faith in humanity, Barak Obama's victory made me think of one thing: the first Palestinian Prime Minister in a post-Zionist, secular, democratic state in Palestine/Israel. This may sound strange coming from an Israeli living in America, but just as Obama is good for black and white Americans, a Palestinian prime minister in a secular democracy will be good for Israelis as well as Palestinians. If it can happen in the US it can happen in the Holy Land. Miko Peled comments for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10005.shtml
Khomeini of Palestine
In this BBC report, I saw some quotes used from a former member of the Al-Aqsa brigades whose given name was "Khomeini." Not surprisingly the young man's age was given as 29., It takes me back to when I was working in Beirut in '78. So many of the Palestinians were euphoric about the downfall of the (strongly pro-Israeli) Shah. Yasser Arafat incorporated the theme of "Today, Tehran, tomorrow Jerusalem!" into all his rhetoric... Small surprise that this young mans parents--like, I'm guessing, many others in the Muslim world--gave their son the name of Khomeini., 1978 was also the year of the Camp David agreements. I remember that one mother in heavily Shiite South Lebanon gave birth to triplets, and the family were so optimistic about the prospects of regionwide peace after the accords were signed that they named the babies "Carter", "Begin", and "Sadat.", H'mmm. I wonder whether those guys are still walking around with the monickers they were given that year?, (I find it significant that Khomeini Abu Amera, 29, of Jenin never judged it necessary to change his name even during the extremely bloody eight-year war between Iran and Iraq.) [end]
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003248.html
Former foe a celebrity in Damascus
"I kissed the General" said one woman who met Lebanese Christian leader General Michel Aoun at one of the churches of Damascus on Wednesday. "I was pulled away, leaving him wondering-waiting-for another kiss!" she told Gulf News.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Syria/10264803.html
Aoun uses Syrian stage to accuse UN of coddling Israel
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun accused the United Nations on Thursday of "covering up all harms committed by Israel against the Palestinian people," adding that the world body "resolves world problems based on the will of great powers." "The United Nations has always failed to condemn Israel due to the veto right.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=2&article_id=98265
Lebanon's Hezbollah says sure to win legislative polls
Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah said on Thursday it was sure of victory in next year's legislative elections but would still seek to form a national unity government with anti-Syrian rivals. "We want to make it clear from now that we will want to establish a national unity government" with the Sunni-led coalition that is backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Nawaf al Mussawi, a top Hezbollah official, told AFP.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jv54-m6HjnAhFiVxKeOVuDs6zf0A
Thursday: 2 US Soldiers, 96 Iraqis Killed; 171 Iraqis Wounded
Excerpt: At least 96 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 171 were wounded in today's attack. Two U.S. soldiers were killed during a suicide bombing as well. A significant bombing occurred in Fallujah, while mass graves continue to be found in Diyala province. Meanwhile, U.S. President Bush welcomed the news that the Iraqi council gave their final approval to a U.S.-Iraqi security agreemen. Also, Azerbaijani troops formally handed over their operations to Iraqi troops during a ceremony ending their mission in Iraq.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13854
Iraqis wounded by Cyprus landmine
Five Iraqis, including a child, are injured by a landmine while attempting to cross into Cyprus from the north.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7767196.stm
Falluja school bombing buries students
Two suicide bombers on Thursday simultaneously struck the Iraqi city of Falluja, destroying a school and killing at least 15 people--including some of the students--an Interior Ministry official said.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/CJAL-7LZT9R?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Iraq's Maliki Faces Challenge Over Power Grab
The acrimonious exchanges between Maliki and the Kurds are rooted in the economic and territorial ambitions of both parties, and they threaten to widen the broadening Arab-Kurd schism. Maliki's recent call to amend the constitution to beef up the central government's powers at the expense of Iraq's 18 provinces did not spare the semiautonomous three-province Kurdish region in the north.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1863762, 00.html?xid=rss-world
Sadr Movement Seeks Its Way As Others Gain Power in Iraq
BAGHDAD--The followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr once were powerful enough to do battle against the U.S. military, play kingmaker in choosing Iraq's prime minister and declare themselves the true defenders of the country's Shiite majority.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/%7Er/wp-dyn/rss/world/mideast/index_xml/%7E3/mZiYkvBQ0vg
/AR2008120404371.html
Prisoners occupy Iraqis' minds as Eid approaches
Iraqis will soon mark the Eid –al-Adha, or feast of the sacrifice, with a long holiday, starting Monday. But there will be very little for them to celebrate. As the Eid comes, the best present an Iraqi family can hope for is the release of a loved one from the scores of prisons the U.S. and the Iraqi government have constructed across the country. A look at major headlines of Baghdad newspapers in the past few days shows the scale of this humanitarian traged.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-12-04\kurd.htm
Baghdad mayor dreams big in former rebel bastion
AFP-When Saber al-Essawy, the mayor of Baghdad, looks out across the crumbling concrete tenements and cratered streets of Baghdad's largest slum he envisions decades of neglect melting away, money flooding in and the gardens blooming.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081205/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestconstructionbaghdad
Blackwater Guards Could Get 30 Years In Jail For Massacre
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is readying indictments that could send Blackwater Worldwide guards to prison for at least 30 years for their involvement in the deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting of Iraqi civilians, people close to the case said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/05/blackwater-guards-could-g_n_148659.html
Iraqis supporting family abroad
BBC News is interested in hearing about your experiences, for a forthcoming series on remittances. Migrant workers and expatriates have been sending part of their wages to their families back home for years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7765086.stm
Warehoused Asian workers in Iraq will be sent home
BAGHDAD — Asian men who've been living in warehouses near the Baghdad airport while awaiting promised jobs with a military subcontractor now are in line to be sent home, and they're still not sure how they'll be paid for their time in Iraq.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/57096.html
Review: 'House of Saddam'
HBO's miniseries about Saddam Hussein, starring Igal Naor as the Iraqi leader, is an above-average if not essential docudrama.
It is a wide world, I know, and there are surely people in it more receptive than myself to the idea of a four-hour miniseries about Saddam Hussein. That seems a long time to spend with the man. ( John Adams got eight-plus hours earlier this year, but he was a Great American and lived to be 90.) And there is Steven Soderbergh's upcoming 257-minute Che Guevara biopic , but that has Benicio Del Toro in it, at least, and a big-screen budget. " House of Saddam ," which begins Sunday on HBO, is above average as docudramas go, but as docudramas go, "above average" is still something short of essential.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/475473607/la-et-houseofsaddam5-2008
dec05,0, 3049209.story
A Loud Silence
That's the response from the "antiwar" wing of the Democratic party to Obama's Iraq sellout.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13857
Christie's takes disputed earrings off auction block
The auction house has removed the ancient jewelry, which is claimed by Iraq, from a Monday sale to cooperate with an investigation into whether they were stolen from Iraq.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1205/p25s12-wome.html
Freeing the minds behind the bars of Lebanon's most notorious prison
In a large room hazy with cigarette smoke, 45 actors and musicians wait for their play director, Zeina Daccache, to arrive and begin rehearsals. Painted on the wall is a quote from Abraham Lincoln, "I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice." There is nothing particularly remarkable about such a scenario.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=1&article_id=98254
'Lebanese-American tortured in UAE after Washington-backed arrest'
An American of Lebanese descent was tortured in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after Washington requested his arrest, a leading US civil rights group said Wednesday. American Naji Hamdan was released from state security custody after months of detention and moved to a regular prison in Abu Dhabi.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=2&article_id=98258
Obama Plans Speech In Islamic Capital
WASHINGTON--President-elect Barack Obama's aides say he is considering making a major foreign policy speech from an Islamic capital during his first 100 days in office. So where should he do it?The list of Islamic world capitals is long, and includes the obvious--Riyadh, Kuwait City, Islamabad--and the not-so-obvious--Male (the Maldives), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Some wise-guys have even suggested Dearborn, Mich., as a possibility.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/politics/04web-cooper.html?_r=2
Bush to highlight Mideast approach in speech
AFP-US President George W. Bush on Friday will trumpet his "consequential" Middle East peace successes but shy from advising his successor in a speech about the region, the White House said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081204/pl_afp/mideastusbushspeech
Pogrom in Hebron?NYT ignores...
Haaretz's Ami Issacharoff had some striking reporting of the rampage militant Israeli settlers in Hebron went on through the Palestinian parts of the city yesterday, after the IDF evicted some of their fellow-settlers from a Palestinian-owned building, as per Israeli High Court order. Issacharoff unabshedly described what happened during the rampage as "a pogrom". He wrote about the enraged settler civilians attacking with stones and flames a Palestinian family home in which 20 family members--17 of them women and children--cowered in terror. And as the pogromists attacked, people described as "security guards from Kiryat Arba" stood round the house preventing the Palestinians' neighbors from coming to their aid.
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003250.html
Israel 'has faith in team Obama'
"Obama is surrounding himself with people who we know-from Hillary Clinton, to Rahm Emanuel, to James Jones. There is no reason to panic," the Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post.
http://www.presstv.com/detail. aspx?id=77528§ionid=351020101
Friday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 7 Wounded
Excerpt: Violence tapered off dramatically for the prayer day. At least six Iraqis were killed and another seven more were wounded. Many journalists take the day off for prayers. Meanwhile, Gen. Ray Odierno told U.S. troops to expect new rules of engagement with the passage of the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement. Also, Iraq's Oil Ministry reassured foreign oil companies that Iraq is now safe enough for investment.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13862
Tape recorder bomb kills teenage sisters in Iraq
AFP-Three teenage girls were killed in Iraq on Friday, two of them sisters, when one of them found a tape recorder wired with explosives and brought it inside their house, security officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081205/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestdiyala
Obama Doesn't Plan to End Occupation of Iraq
The New York Times is reporting about an "apparent evolution" in president-elect Barack Obama's thinking on Iraq, citing his recent statements about his plan to keep a "residual force" in the country and his pledge to "listen to the recommendations of my commanders" as Obama prepares to assume actual command of US forces. "At the Pentagon and the military headquarters in Iraq, the response to the statements this week from Mr. Obama and his national security team has been akin to the senior officer corps' letting out its collective breath," the Times reported. "[T]the words sounded to them like the new president would take a measured approach on the question of troop levels."
http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill12052008.html
Campaign Promises on Ending the War in Iraq Now Muted
"I said that I would remove our combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, with the understanding that it might be necessary — likely to be necessary — to maintain a residual force to provide potential training, logistical support, to protect our civilians in Iraq," Mr. Obama said this week as he introduced his national security team.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/politics/04military.html
I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq
After my return from Iraq, I began to write about my experiences because I felt obliged, as a military officer, not only to point out the broken wheel but to try to fix it. When I submitted the manuscript of my book about my Iraq experiences to the Defense Department for a standard review to ensure that it did not contain classified information, I got a nasty shock. Pentagon officials delayed the review past the first printing date and then redacted an extraordinary amount of unclassified material--including passages copied verbatim from the Army's unclassified Field Manual on interrogations and material vibrantly displayed on the Army's own Web site. I sued, first to get the review completed and later to appeal the redactions. Apparently, some members of the military command are not only unconvinced by the arguments against torture; they don't even want the public to hear them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802242_2.html
The Shocking Story of Ali al-Marri
In brighter times, before a fog of fear descended on the United States, and the discourse of decent men and women was coarsened by an acceptance of the use of torture as a "no-brainer," it would have been inconceivable that an American could have been held for seven years without charge or trial on the US mainland, in a state of solitary confinement so debilitating that he is said to be suffering from "severe damage to his mental and emotional well-being.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21383.htm
Boston's new mosque again under attack
Starting in 2003, the Boston Herald , the local Fox channel, and a Zionist group called the David Project attempted to prevent the completion of the mosque by accusing it of anti-Semitism and ties to terrorism. Now, after a libel suit, mediation, and a period of quiet during which the mosque opened, David Bernstein and the Boston Phoenix have renewed the attack with a series of error-filled articles, including the original accusations as well as a charge of racism. Response to the attack by interfaith leaders and the imams of two predominantly African-American mosques:
http://thephoenix.com/Bo ston/News/73192-Building-a-dialog/?rel=inf
http://thephoenix.com/boston/topic/Menino-Mosque/
Mosque ban criminalizes Muslims: Italian groups
Italy's Muslim leaders and opposition groups expressed outrage on Thursday over a proposal by the anti-immigration party of Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni to freeze the building of new mosques in an effort to curb terrorism. The Northern League, the main ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, suggested the ban after two men were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of planning attacks in and near the northern city of Milan, but groups slammed the call as prejudice.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/12/05/61430.html
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