The death of Jawaher Abu-Rahma is a direct result of occupation and the inhumane violence and brutality against the nonviolent demonstrators in Bilin (Editor Palestine Monitor) - 01-jan-2011

January 1, 2011 - Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative and the President of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society stated that the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma is a direct result of occupation and the means of violence and brutality that is inflicted against the demonstrators participating in peaceful and nonviolent demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall and the settlements. It was stated that she suffered from severe respiratory distress which lead to cardiac arrest. The medical teams tirelessly resuscitated her three times, however failed as a result of the severe gas inhalation. Jawaher Abu Rahmah was the sister of Bassem Abu Rahmah who was also killed during a peaceful protest in Bil’in on April 17th, 2010..

Center: Escalation in Israeli violations in Jerusalem (Ma'an News) - 01-jan-2011

January 1, 2011 - Israeli violations of human rights in Jerusalem escalated in December, particularly in the Silwan neighborhood, according to a study by a community center. Throughout the month, 13 Palestinians were detained in Silwan including nine minors, according to a report released Saturday by the Wadi Hilwa Information Center. Six of the minors were detained from their homes, and forces detained three from the streets. Four of the children told the center they were beaten and humiliated by Israeli interrogators and one said he was forced to sign papers in Hebrew without knowing their content...

Report: The Dangerous Road to Education - Palestinian Students Suffer Under Settler Violence, Military Negligence (Operation Dove, Christian Peacemaker Teams) - 01-jan-2011

January 1, 2011 - Since 2001, Israeli settlers from Havat Ma'on have routinely attacked the children on their journey to and from school, but it was not until November 2004 that Israeli authorities established a daily military escort. Despite the Israeli military escort, the children have been victims of violence 104 times between November 2004 and June 2010. The soldiers carrying out the escort have at times failed to protect the children and have frequently arrived late, causing the children to wait, sometimes for hours, before and after school...

Israelis Resist Their Own Arabs (By Mel Frykberg) - 01-jan-2011

January 1, 2011 - A number of recent incidents discriminating against Israel’s Palestinian minority has prompted Israeli Knesset (parliament) members to debate whether Israel is becoming increasingly racist. Ronit Sela from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) has no doubts. "Israel’s democracy is under threat as an increasingly large racist element raises its collective head. A number of racist occurrences have taken place in a climate conducive to racism. This wouldn’t have happened prior to the current right-wing Israeli government," Sela told IPS...

Gaza war victims live in sorrow and silence (By Nasser Najjar) - 01-jan-2011

December 31, 2001 - Al Haddad lost his left eye, fractured his jaw, and suffered from third degree burns on his legs, hands and forehead. He remained in the hospital for four months after the incident. After two years of recovery, Al Haddad is just not returning to complete his studies in the university. His relatives visit him and his aunt brings him homecooked meals. Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 1999, Israeli troops have injured more than 12,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Almost half of this number was a result of the Israeli offensive at the end of 2008....

Bil'in Female Protester in Critical Condition from Tear-Gas inhalation (The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee) - 01-jan-2011

December 31, 2010 - Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 36, was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital after inhaling massive amounts of tear-gas towards protesters in Bil'in earlier today. She is currently in critical condition and is not responding to treatment. Another protester required hospitalization after being hit in the face with a tear-gas projectile shot directly at him. Doctors at the Ramallah hospital are currently fighting for Jawaher Abu Rahmah's life, after an acute deterioration in her condition this evening. Abu Rahmah suffered from severe asphyxiation during today's demonstration in Bil'in as a result of tear-gas inhalation, and was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital. She is currently diagnosed as suffering from poisoning caused by the active ingredient in the tear-gas, and is not responding to treatment. Jawaher Abu Rahmah is the sister of Bassem Abu Rahmah, who was shot dead with a high velocity tear-gas projectile during a demonstration in Bil'in on April 17th, 2009....

Press Release: Witnesses/ Stories to be heard on 2nd Palestine Memorial Week (PRC - The Palestinian Return Centre) - 01-jan-201

December 31, 2010 - The 2nd Palestine Memorial Week in the UK and Europe will take place as planned from 15th to 22nd Jan 2011. A number of events will take place during the week. Events will be held in various cities with galleries, workshops and film screening taking place in universities and public places. So far, more than 26 cities and universities will participate in the event. The key event within the Memorial Week will be an International conference entitled the "The Ongoing Nakba"...

Video: Keep hope alive- The Olive Tree Campaign (The Olive Tree Campaign (OTC)) - 01-jan-20

December 31, 2010 - The Olive Tree Campaign (OTC) seeks to replant olive trees in areas trees have been uprooted and destroyed or in areas where the fields are threatened to be confiscated by the Israeli military Occupation and settlers. Since the year 2001 Israel through its military and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza has uprooted, burnt and destroyed more than 548,000 olive trees that belong to Palestinian farmers and land owners....

Settlers set fire to home as seven Palestinians sleep inside (Samuel Nichols) - 01-jan-2011

December 31, 2010 - In the early morning hours of 29 December 2010, settlers set fire to a family's dwelling in Susiya village. The great majority of Susiya residents live in tents as their historic stone and cave dwellings have been demolished several times over by the Israeli military. Many of the tents now used have been provided by humanitarian organizations and serve as bedrooms, kitchens, storage and sitting areas for the families living in them. The Palestinian village of Susiya is sandwiched between a handful of settlements and outposts, an army base, and an ancient synagogue...

Israel Represses Israelis and Congress Approves 

Stephen Zunes, 12.30.2010

Professor of Politics and Chair of Mid-Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco

When Congress begins denying well-documented cases of government-backed repression of human rights activists in Israel, one wonders how long it will be until the same happens here in the US as well.

Read Post |

Any Respect For International Law
Left In The US Congress?
By Franklin Lamb

Currently, there is only a faint hint that Members of Congress, 83% of whom rely on Israeli lobby or arms industry political action committee money to keep their seats and sinecures, have the gumption to advocate a U.S. policy, consistent with American notions of substantial justice or which upholds Palestinian rights as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Interim Forever!
By Uri Avnery

In practice, it is Netanyahu himself who is holding up the negotiations, because he refuses to freeze the settlements and he demands that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state”. And even if negotiations were resumed, they would soon come up against a wall, because of our government’s attitude towards East Jerusalem and the borders. So what remains? Interim forever!

Rannie Amiri
Right for the Wrong Reasons

Netanyahu to Mubarak: Israel and Egypt must stand united against terrorism

PM reacts to church bombing in Alexandria which killed 21 people; Netanyahu to meet with Egyptian president next week to discuss deadlock in peace process.

Abbas: Latest Palestinian death another Israeli crime against our helpless nation

Woman dies after IDF shoots tear gas at protesters at an anti-separation barrier demonstration in West Bank; PA president expresses condolences to family of protester.

Bil'in protester dies after exposure to tear gas shot by IDF

Abbas: Recognitions will push Israel to peace deal 

Palestinian Authority President says he expects other Latin American and European nations to soon join Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia in recognizing a Palestinian state.

January 2, 2011 - To those who dwell in Palestine and Israel who oppose injustice and are working in solidarity to end Israel’s cruelty, salutations, and greetings to the people of the world who support their struggle. The appalling death yesterday of Jawaher Abu Rahmah from inhalation of tear gas fired by the Israeli Occupation Forces at a peaceful demonstration in Bil’in protesting the apartheid wall and Israeli land theft is an unwelcome beginning to the year... 

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=73528 

January 2, 2011 - The teargas grenades that killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah were most likely made in the USA. So 11 people were arrested by Israeli police as they protested in front of the residence of the US Ambassador to Israel. Demonstrations and vigils were held in many cities and towns around the world. We had a small but meaningful gathering here in Bethlehem last night. The second Palestinian killed by Israeli soldiers was a 21 yea r old Mohammad Djarma shot at a checkpoint with soldiers claiming he did not obey orders. There is a lot that we can all do to end this mindless colonial structure and finally bring peace and justice to this troubled Holy Land. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=73524 

January 2, 2011 - Israel on Sunday extended for six months a ban preventing Palestinians married to Israelis immigrating to the state, the premier's office said in a statement. "The ministerial committee for security affairs decided tonight [Sunday] to extend for six months a text on family unification, which expired December 31," said a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That extension until June 30 denies Palestinians the right to acquire Israeli citizenship or resident status through marriage... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=73532 

Is Israel Using Lethal Tear Gas to Disperse Demonstrations? (Tania Kepler) - 03-jan-2011

January 3, 2011 - Anyone familiar with Palestinian anti-Wall demonstrations knows that Israel’s use of tear gas is a regular occurrence. The Israeli military uses both long and short range powder and gas tear gas canisters as a means of crowd dispersal. On the morning of 1 January, Bil’in village resident Jawaher Abu Rahmah became the first victim of Israel’s liberal tear gas usage, after she inhaled large amounts of the gas that was sprayed at Bil’in village demonstrators by the Israeli military on Friday, 31 December. The 36 year old, whose brother Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed by a tear gas projectile fired at his chest by Israeli soldiers in April 2009, was taken to the hospital following the protest but did not respond to treatment. Some of the tear gas canisters used by the Israeli military are manufactured by the American company Combined Systems Inc., which is based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. The company manufactures a variety of grenades, aerosols, impact munitions, and arms launchers.

Will 2011 see the creation of Palestine? (Khaled Amayreh) - 03-jan-2011

January 3, 2011 - Palestinian Authority (PA) officials in Ramallah are reluctant to give an unequivocal answer to the question of whether 2011 will see the establishment of the state of Palestine. International goodwill is certainly what many Palestinians are pinning their hopes on. However, international goodwill alone won't be enough, especially if Israel resorts to stonewalling and if its guardian-ally, the United States, refuses to rein in Israeli intransigence and unilateralism...

Northern villagers report new settler vandalism (Ma'an News) - 03-jan-2011

January 3, 2011 - Residents of Qusra village in the northern West Bank said settlers were behind a series of car-tire slashing and the slaughter of two sheep in their barn overnight. Locals told head of the village council Hani Ismail they saw at least ten settlers enter a barn in the Nabuh neighborhood early on Monday morning, and when they entered to survey the damage, two of the animals were killed. Ismail told Ma'an that the report came less than 48 hours after residents said car tires were damaged by a group of settlers in the area...

       From Bilin to Tel Aviv, outrage at killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah (Joseph Dana) - 03-jan-2011

January 3, 2011 - "I am in shock, we are in shock," Hamde Abu Rahmah told me as we stood outside the small cemetery in Bilin where 36-year-old Jawaher Abu Rahmah was buried on Saturday. One day earlier, on 31 December, Jawaher was killed after inhaling US-made tear-gas fired by Israeli soldiers at demonstrators in the occupied West Bank village. Jawaher's brother Bassem was killed by Israeli occupation forces in a similar manner in 2009. "We simply did not think that this would happen. We deal with tear-gas on a regular basis but the amount that they used and the strength was something we have not yet seen," continued Hamde, Jawaher's cousin who has reported on and photographed Bilin's regular demonstrations against Israel's wall and occupation since 2008...

       Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan Enters Gaza Strip (Tania Kepler) - 03-jan-2011

January 3, 2011 - The Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan, which set off from New Delhi on 2 December, finally passed into Gaza overland through the Rafa crossing on Monday (3 January). The caravan began in India and passed through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and finally Egypt. In Syria, materials were loaded onto the boat "Salam" (peace in Arabic) and waited at the port of Latakia for final permission to enter the Egyptian port of Al-Arish. According to organizers, the boat carried $1 million worth of medicine, foodstuffs and toys, as well as four buses and 10 power generators for hospitals...

       AIPAC Protests Disclosure of Its Secret Files (Grant Smith) - 03-jan-2011

January 3, 2011 - On Dec. 23, 2010, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee filed a 53-page motion [.pdf] asking Judge Eric Christian to sanction former employee Steven J. Rosen over the illicit possession and release of sensitive internal AIPAC documents. Rosen’s $20 million defamation suit against his former employer seeks compensation for derogatory public statements AIPAC made to justify firing him after he was indicted under the Espionage Act in 2005 and their joint defense agreement collapsed...Whichever path he chooses, Rosen is inadvertently performing an invaluable public service by shedding light on the internal machinations of AIPAC. AIPAC – like Rosen himself in 2009 – may yet escape justice on the basis of contrived legal technicalities or unprecedented judicial contortions. But AIPAC clearly can no longer constrain its former associates, the destiny of other civil suits, or growing public calls for overdue accountability....

03/01/2011

Video - 1.1.11, Tel Aviv demo over Jawaher Abu Rahmah death in Bil’in

Unarmed demonstrators face a difficult struggle
Donald Macintyre - The Independent - "Whatever the medical factors, if any, that may have increased Ms Abu Rahma`s susceptibility to the military`s heavy use of tear gas on Friday, she is the 21st person to have been killed since 2004 in such protests"

IDF says Palestinian`s death at checkpoint caused by `misunderstandings`
Anshel Pfeffer - Haaretz - Man kept approaching soldiers despite verbal warnings and subsequent shot in the thigh

Chile, Paraguay to recognize Palestine`
Press TV - Chile and Paraguay are set to declare Palestine as an independent state based on 1967 borders to continue the move in Latin American countries, a Palestinian Authority (PA) official says

Now it is Palestine`s turn to create facts on the ground
Simon Tisdall - The Guardian - Many predict war in the Middle East, but there is another way: a sovereign independent state should be declared, recognised by the US and the UN

Asia 1 Makes It Into Gaza
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - "The Asia 1 solidarity convoy managed to enter the Gaza Strip late on Sunday at night to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies to the residents of the besieged coastal region"

Interim Forever!
Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "Peace plan? Lieberman? Oh yes. Contrary to everything you thought, Lieberman wants peace, indeed is yearning for peace. So much so that he has spent days and nights working out an entire Peace Plan of his own"

Cable: Israel Planned Another ‘Large Scale War’ in Late 2009
Jason Ditz - AntiWar - Army Chief Vowed Not to Protect Civilians in Next War

Silencing Dissent in the American Jewish Community:
Coalition of Women for Peace--Reminder: It`s tonight! We are really hoping for a lively discussion so bring your questions and thoughts.

Palestinian shot to death at roadblock
Yair Altman--Troops open fire at man approaching IDF force southeast of Nablus with broken glass bottle in his hand, say he refused to stop. Palestinian eyewitnesses: He was unarmed. Army launches investigation into incident [Even if we assume that the IOF explanation is correct, why shoot to kill? why not shoot at the feet? DN]

MKs Call for Boycott of Israeli Rawabi Companies

Monday January 03, 2011 - 15:49

Forty-eight Knesset members have signed a petition calling for the boycott of Israeli companies involved in building the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. Full Story

Israeli newspaper scorns Netanyahu's call for talks

Monday January 03, 2011 - 13:49

The Israeli daily newspaper Maariv today rubbished Israeli PM Netanyahu's statement he is ready to sit down with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas and make peace. Full Story

Niva Lanir

A short anthology of racism in Israel

PA security probes Fatah strongman Dahlan for attempted coup

Recently Fatah activists were questioned on suspicion they had been recruited by Dahlan to form an armed militia to overthrow Abbas.

Fatah bans former Gaza strongman Dahlan from meetings

British Consulate staff suspected of aiding plotters of Hamas rocket attack

Two Palestinians, local employees of the British consulate in Jerusalem, have been indicted on weapons charges in connection to an alleged plot by two Hamas members to attack Teddy Stadium.

Two East Jerusalem residents arrested over Hamas plot to fire rockets into Israeli soccer

Opposition groups urge Jordanian government to sever ties with Israel

Statement comes in the wake of reports that national security chief Uzi Arad met secretly with Jordanian FM in Amman last week.

Netanyahu: Israel agreed to new settlement freeze, but U.S. retracted offer 

PM blames Palestinians for deadlock in peace talks, says U.S. officials due to arrive in Israel to push forward talks on core issues.

Israel: The Next War

By Alain Gresh

Netanyahu, like his predecessors, claims to want peace but he wants the humiliating peace imposed by conquest and based on denial of Palestinian rights. Continue

 URGENT APPEAL: Extrajudicial Killing of Omer Salim Al-Qawasmi by Israeli death squad.

http://www.palestinematters.com/Extrajudicial-Killing-of-Omer-Salim-Al-Qawasmi-by-Israeli-death-squad_Appeal_67.aspx

Cold-blooded Execution»  http://palestinethinktank.com/a-cold-blooded-execution/

Troops of the Israeli occupation war criminals Lt. Col. Guy Hazut, (סא"ל גיא חזות), Major General Avi Mizrahi, (אלוף אבי מזרחי), Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon, (תא"ל. תא"ל אלון ניצן), and Brig. Gen. Yoav “Polly” Mordechai (אלוף יואב (פולי) מרדכי), murdered in cold blood the elderly Palestinian Omar Salim al-Qawasmi, 66, at dawn of [...]

Hamas consults resistance over 'imminent' Israeli threat

Two days of talks stem from Hamas effort to get resistance factions on-board with single strategy, as tensions escalate on Gaza-Israel border.

Daily Israeli Crimes Against Humanity (by Stephen Lendman) - 10-jan-2011

January 10, 2011 - ....US television news ignores these crimes, and rarely ever do even distorted accounts appear in print. When they do, however, they're never fully accurate or candid. Kershner, like other US reporters, highlights Israel's version of events, never hinting that regular outrageous crimes occur, that Israel's occupation and Separation Wall are illegal and that since June 2007 over 1.5 million Gazans are suffocating under siege. Moreover, most important is what's omitted in reports, especially background information on this decades-long conflict, why it continues, and that Washington supplies Israel with billions of dollars annually, the latest weapons and technology, interest-free loans, and virtually anything else Israel requests, even when doing so harms US interests...

Palestinian farmer shot dead by Israeli forces on Gaza border (Ma'an news) - 10-jan-2011

January 10, 2011 - A 65-year-old man who locals said was a farmer was shot dead Monday by Israeli forces east of Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the military was investigating the report. Medics identified the man as Shaban Qarmout...

Israel PM defends hotel razing for settler homes (AFP) - 10-jan-2011

January 10, 2011 -- Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday defended the controversial demolition of a historic Palestinian hotel in east Jerusalem to build new homes for Jewish settlers. "Actions undertaken yesterday at the Shepherd Hotel were conducted by private individuals in accordance with Israeli law," the premier said in a statement, referring to a building in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood which was built in the 1930s. Although the Israeli government "was not involved" in the move, it would never act to ban Jews from buying property anywhere in the city, Netanyahu said...

The myth of “Good Israel” vs. “Bad Israel” (Noam Sheizaf) - 10-jan-201

January 9, 2011 - "What If Israel Ceases to Be a Democracy?" asked the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg a couple of weeks ago. "Am I being apocalyptic? Yes. Am I exaggerating the depth of the problem? I certainly hope so," he added. Well, This week Goldberg got his answer from the Knesset: no, you are not exaggerating. As Roi Maor and Yossi Gurvits write, the decision to form a special committee which will look into the activities of human rights organizations is one big step away from the limited democracy Israel used to be. Where does it all lead? I honestly don’t know. But I wanted to discuss something else....

Video: Israel engulfs an entire West Bank village in tear gas (Joseph Dana) - 10-jan-201

January 9, 2011 - Amid controversy over Israel’s use of tear gas against unarmed demonstrations in the West Bank and the media attention placed on Bil’in’s protest after the killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah, Israel attacked the village of Nabi Saleh with poisonous gas. As soldiers were leaving the village, marking the end of the demonstration, the army covered the entire place with tear gas. Houses, shops and mosques engulfed in the tear gas which killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah. The army was able to do this with a special device called 'the ringo’ which fires 60 rounds of tear gas in about 7 seconds. The footage speaks for itself especially from minute 7:00...

"Humanitarian Minimum -- Israel's Role in Creating Food and Water Insecurity in Gaza (Physicians for Human Rights-Israel) - 10-jan-2011

January 9, 2011 - A report published today by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, "Humanitarian Minimum: Israel’s Role in Creating Food and Water Insecurity in Gaza," examines the effects of the Israeli blockade policy that began in June 2007 on public health in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Cabinet Decision to ease restrictions on selected goods in the wake of the flotilla and subsequent international pressure are not expected to change this situation significantly, as they do not facilitate economic recovery and are based on the assumption that foreign humanitarian aid will continue. The report, which is based on testimonies and interviews with scores of inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and key stakeholders, data from international aid organizations and expert opinions of Israeli and international experts, focuses on the area of nutrition and the state of the water and sewage infrastructures. The report concludes that the "humanitarian minimum" policy Israel has pursued since September of 2007 is significantly harming the health of Gaza residents...

Family of Palestinian man vows to sue Israeli army
Brother-in-law accuses soldiers at checkpoint for making false claims (By Nasouh Nazzal) - 10-jan-2011

January 9, 2011 - The family of Palestinian man Khaldoun Majid Najeeb Al Samoudi, allegedly killed at a checkpoint on Saturday, plan to sue the Israeli army. In an interview with Adli Al Samoudi, the martyr's cousin and brother-in-law told Gulf News that his family will approach all the possible courts to sue the Israeli army. "The Israeli version of the story is wholly false and a mere lie to cover their crime. Khaldoun did not carry anything in his hands or clothes," he said...

“A Family in Gaza”: Two Years Later (by James M. Wall) - 10-jan-2011

A Family in Gaza is a short film made and distributed by Jen Marlowe. It tells the true story of what happened to one family in Gaza, two years ago. Given its theme, it is a remarkably low-keyed film, narrated calmly by Wafaa and Kamal, the parents of the Awajah family of the title. Their young son was among the 1400 Gazans who were killed during Israel’s 23-day assault on Gaza which began December 27, 2008....

Reflections on the Gaza Youth Manifesto (Max Ajl) - 10-jan-201

January 9, 2011 - ....Maybe, but maybe not. To me, the manifesto is important because of what it conveys: frus­tra­tion, and a wish for change. No one writes such a dangerous manifesto just as catharsis, and the way it has moved through the English-reading Pales­tin­ian uni­ver­sity community cannot be read as just an upper-class fad, espe­cially since that community cuts across class and religious lines. I know kids from the camps who have enthused about the document, and religious people from poverty-struck families who have done the same. Frus­tra­tion with the political horizon is not restricted to the rich here, desperate to live debauched lives like their peers in the West. One student writes, "Our feelings of despair, irri­ta­tion and resent­ment are the same" as those who drafted the manifesto, admon­ish­ing them for not making it better. And it will be re-written. The authors have already released a clar­i­fy­ing statement...

Supporting The Refugees’ Right Of Return Is
Saying NO To Israeli Racism
By Ilan Pappe

Lecture by Ilan Pappé at the Stuttgart Conference

Israel Cracks Down on Silwan Community Organizers

Monday January 10, 2011 - 17:02

The past week has seen an increase in Israeli repression towards Palestinian community organizers in Silwan, East Jerusalem. Jawad Siyam has recently been targeted because of his involvement in directing the Wadih Hilweh Information Center as well as his membership in the Neighborhood Popular Committee. Today, for the second time this week, Siyam will stand trial at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. Full Story

Four Detained in Southern West Bank

 Monday January 10, 2011 - 13:47

Israeli troops arrested at least four Palestinians in an overnight raid targeting the town of Dura, south of the West Bank, Ma’an News reported. Full Story

Several shells fired by Palestinian groups into Israel; two foreign workers injure

Monday January 10, 2011 - 07:28

At least six homemade shells were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on Saturday, one of which landed in a kibbutz (farming cooperative) in Sha'ar Hanegev, according to Israeli sources. The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said was targeting a military base. Full Story

Frustration for Gazans at Egypt crossing

Airstrikes hit two sites in Gaza, none injured

Haniyeh urges Arab Summit to discuss Jerusalem

Report: EU diplomats ask for larger role in East Jerusalem

Israeli authorities raze structures in Jerusalem

Israel PM defends hotel razing for settler homes

Frustration for Gazans at Egypt crossing

Arafat's aide: New information on president's death

UN chief 'deplores' demolition of East Jerusalem hotel

Ban Ki-moon says destruction of Shepherd Hotel only serves to heighten tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.

Silwan activists ask EU for protection against Israel's actions

IDF invoked a rare British Mandate-era statute to ban Adnan Jith from Jerusalem, saying he threatens the public order.

EU diplomats say East Jerusalem should be treated as Palestinian capital

Palestinian activist withdraws appeal of order banning him from Jerusalem

IDF general uses 1945 law to bar East J'lem resident from capital

Three rockets fired from Gaza strike Ashkelon region

Rocket attacks mark continuation of escalating violence along the Gaza border in recent weeks; earlier on Monday the IAF bombed two 'terrorist sites' in Gaza.

Akiva Eldar

Netanyahu will deliver a Palestinian state

Merav Michaeli

Israel's racism has finally reached the High Court

Netanyahu: Building on site of East Jerusalem hotel corresponds with Israeli law 

10 January 2011

“It cannot be expected from the State of Israel to forbid Jews from purchasing private property in Jerusalem. There is no democratic country in the world that would impose such a ban on Jews and it cannot be expected that Israel will be the one to do so.”

My advice to Egypt 

Monday, 10 January 2011 14:17

By Khalid Amayreh

The New Year bombing in Alexandria, which killed as many as 25 innocent people, nearly all of them Christian Copts, shocked Egypt and the Arab world. It infuriated Christians and Muslims alike as the criminals crossed the Rubicon in their terrorism, something that many – including myself – never thought would happen.

It is probably too early to determine the identity of the perpetrators, although there are signs indicating that the bombing may have been the work of al-Qaeda, which could indeed carry out the unthinkable. However, it is absolutely vital that any subsequent treatment of terrorism should go beyond the mere identification and punishment of those responsible if it is to be genuinely effective. In this case, it would be insufficient to rely on a security response alone. Egypt must do everything possible to eradicate the environment conducive to terrorism, not just the acts of terror themselves. Read more...

Israel makes too many mistakes for them to be mistakes

Sunday, 09 January 2011 21:10

The brutal killing of an unarmed Palestinian as he lay asleep in his own bed has been "regretted" by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). I am sure that the IDF's statement gives the victim's widow and family some consolation in their period of mourning. At least it would if such occurrences were not depressingly frequent and Israel didn't have a long record of crimes against the rest of humanity which suggest either a history of enlisting extremely incompetent soldiers or a crass disregard for the value of non-Jewish life. Perhaps it's even a mixture of both. Omer Al-Qawasmi may not have been the intended victim of the IDF soldiers who killed him, but the claim that they used silenced weapons and shot to kill without any provocation suggests that the man they were looking for could well have been killed in any case. If so, then Wael Al-Bitar has the killing of Mr. Al-Qawasmi to thank for his subsequent arrest and not summary execution by soldiers possibly still confused over what they had done upstairs "by mistake".

Recent pronouncements by rabbis in Israel condemning Jews who do as much as rent properties to Arabs in the Zionist state, suggest a rise in anti-Arab racism among Israelis. Certainly, the discrimination faced by Israel's Palestinian citizens is ingrained and often backed by law. This should not surprise anyone, for as Israeli society drifts to the political right, statements once regarded as belonging to the minority extreme right-wing appear now to be part of the mainstream. When the illegal American-Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinians as they prayed in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in February 1994, his action was described as "anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli" by Israel's President Ezer Weizman. As reported in the New York Times, "Earlier, Mr. Weizman called the massacre 'the worst thing that has happened to us in the history of Zionism.'" Zionism and its history is, in fact, replete with such massacres and evil acts to the extent that platitudes by Israeli officialdom expressing "regret" at these "mistakes" now carry very little weight at all. Read more...

Mossad chief’s statement removes Iranian nuclear threat (Will the ‘Atlantic’ report it here?)

‘He sleeps with a loaf of bread in his arms’

‘What is this, delusional?’ (the west’s deafening silence on the Judaization of Jerusalem)

Lerner points to anti-Semitic character of new hatred in America

‘LA Times’ brands Manning’s jail conditions at Quantico ‘indefensible’

The lobby has been broken because… Israel isn’t good for the Jews

Why it will be said one day that anti-Zionists had a better grasp on 20th C history than Uri Avnery or Tom Friedman

Dep’t of Homeland Security suggests anti-Semitism may be motive for assassination attempt in Arizona

Remnick takes another step– the occupation is ‘deeply wrong’

Angry Arab says that after Bill Clinton got in, Arabists were ‘eliminated’ from State Dep’t

Ynet: US gov’t believes that Palestinian state would be ‘disaster’ and 2nd Tehran

Amidst ghettoes, camps, and a mural for a mass-murderer, a settler offers his coexistence plan

Hillary Clinton condemns Shepherd Hotel demolition as demonstrators cry, ‘This is stolen land’

Abu Rahma family has become symbol of occupation (and of an authoritarian regime– Gideon Levy)

Barghouti: Ariel U boycott is first step

·  Interview with Palestinian MP Khalid Tafish

·  Audio: Interview With Yonatan Shapira Crew Member Of Jewish Boat To Gaza

·  Interview With Sami Awad On His Role In Little Town Of Bethlehem Movie

 Karen Nakamura – The Question of Agents Provocateurs»

December 6, 2010, the Palestine Think Tank published Mary Rizzo's investigation into the Road to Hope Convoy (RHC) incident: Truth, Justice and Peace nearly sunk as RTH convoy facts emerge
What she found was a thoroughly chaotic situation, which could easily have gone ballistic and did cause a minor international incident. The circumstances raise questions all [...]

Supporting The Refugees’ Right Of Return Is Saying NO To Israeli Racism

Ilan Pappe

Silviacattori.net January 10, 2011 

January 14, 2011 - ... Cast Lead wasn’t a war; Cast Lead was a massacre, a slaughter, anything but a war. And during that massacre, we, people of Gaza, paid from our blood too. Every single Palestinian sacrificed something, someone, it affected us all, from the youngest to the oldest, not only the Resistance. Bombs didn’t make much difference. We never intended to reject the Resistance, and we’re going to repeat it again; we will NEVER reject those who fight for us, for our Palestine, and it was NOT the case in our previous manifesto. Yes we voted for Hamas government. We all did. We were tired of Fatah government’s corruption, wanted a change and hoped Hamas would be that change. That PRECISELY gives us the right to shout our anger at them, because they are responsible of us, responsible of our well-being, our security. Fatah in the West Bank arrests Hamas affiliates, Hamas in Gaza arrests Fatah affiliates, while everywhere in Palestine you can find family members from different factions living united. Yes we denounce our politicians – note that words; POLITICIANS – because their mutual hatred divided them even during the commemoration of the first anniversary of Cast Lead massacre, while a crowd of Palestinians from all factions stood united by martyrdom, grief, and love for Palestine... 

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=73905 

Yvonne Ridley
Tonight We Are All Tunisians

Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution, and how mobile phones helped it happen

The overthrow of Tunisian President Zine Al-Abedine Ben Ali is a sign of political ferment both in Africa and in the Islamic world, fed by economic distress, political repression, and young people with the tools -- including mobile phones and Internet -- to make changes. 

Not if but when (Saleh Al-Naami) - 15-jan-2011

January 14, 2011 - The waiting room at the orthopaedics clinic at Al-Salah Medical Centre in Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in central Gaza was agog with conversation at the beginning of the week as waiting patients wiled away the time debating whether Israel would launch another war against the Gaza Strip or not. Some were confident that it would certainly do so; some couldn't hide their concern; while others countered that Tel Aviv could not possibly launch a more aggressive war than the one at the end of 2008, so there is no need to worry...

Israeli occupation to build a hotel on the ruins of the Qashala cemetery (Palestinian Information Center) - 15-jan-2011

January 14, 2011 - The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) said that the Israeli occupation has started building a hotel on the ruins of the historical Qashala cemetery next to the Grand Mosque in the occupied city of Yaffa. Dozens of graves have been bulldozed after the Israeli occupation antiquities authority dug the graveyard affording no respect for this historical Islamic site. The Qashala cemetery is part of the Barreya cemetery which was used by Muslims during the Mamluk period then during the Ottoman period...

If Bishop Desmond Tutu Is An Anti-Semite
What Hope For The Rest Of Us?
By Imran Garda

When the head of the South African Zionist Federation, David Hersch, initiates an online petition against "The Arch", demanding he be removed as patron of the Holocaust memorial centres in Cape Town and Johannesburg for his "anti-Israel behaviour" and labels his criticism of the policies, (yes, policies) of the state of Israel "morally repugnant" based on "horrific and grotesquely false accusation against the Jewish people", it’s pertinent to provide a brief reminder to Hersch, and anyone who might be swayed, of the man’s credentials

Israeli Bulldozers Do The Talking
By Khaled Amayreh

Despite prior condemnations, Israel is pressing ahead with demolitions as it continues to colonise East Jerusalem and the West Bank, writes Khaled Amayreh 

Palestinians Struggle for Recognition as Tunisia Fights for Change [January 9 – January 15]
January 15, 2011
By MIFTAH

Palestinians continued to urge the international community this week to force Israel into halting its settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian areas. On January 13, President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians had drafted a proposal and are lobbying for a Security Council resolution that would declare Jewish settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace. Abbas even said his people used the same wording as the US Secretary of State to avoid any vetoing by the US.

During a televised speech on the occasion of Fateh's anniversary, Abbas said the Palestinians demanded a new peace plan based on UN Security Council resolutions and the establishment of a Palestinian state along the '67 borders. On January 14, members of the Quartet Committee (the UN, US, EU and Russia) said they would discuss the Middle East situation at the Munich Security Conference in early February. According to the German government, the move was part of an "urgent bid" to renew peace talks.

Full Week in Review    More Week in Reviews

January 15, 2011 - Several years ago, I was researching the cause of death of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces during the first months of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. As I counted up the numbers, I was chilled to discover that the single most frequent cause of death in those beginning months was "gunfire to the head." In the past 10 years Israeli forces have killed at least 255 Palestinian minors by fire to the head, and the number may actually be greater, since in many instances the specific bodily location of the lethal trauma is unlisted. In addition, this statistic does not include the many more Palestinian youngsters shot in the head by Israeli soldiers who survived, in one form or another. Below is a small sampling of those who die..

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=73939

Jewish Orthodox publication openly calls for death camps
Yossi Gurvitz  

Israel punishes top Palestinian prisoners over hunger strike
By MOHAMMED MAR'I  

Tunisian poet Echebbi's words hold warning for tyrants of Arab world
Peter Beaumont  

The US/Israeli Coup in Beirut

By Mike Whitney

The United States and Israel have executed a stealth coup that has precipitated the collapse of Lebanon's unity government. Continue

Israel eyes huge East Jerusalem settlement project

16 January 2011

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat: “I think it’s the time for the US administration to officially hold the Israeli government responsible for the collapse of the peace process.”

Anti Fascism demonstration in Tel Aviv – 15 January 2011

16 January 2011

Video of the Tel Aviv demonstration against rising fascism in Israel held of 15 Jan 2011.

January 16, 2011 - To some residents of the Gaza Strip, the crippling siege which Israel has imposed for over four years means much more than a lack of food, fuel, clothing, work opportunities, and construction material. Gazan families who live along the border between the coastal enclave and Israel face serious dangers on a daily basis. The gunshots and artillery shells fired from the Israeli side reach farther than the no-go zone set by Israeli forces inside the Strip. Muhamm ad Al-Masri lives only 700 meters from the border in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. He says he goes to sleep and wakes up listening to the whizzing of gunshots and the humming of artillery shells... 

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=73980 

Gaza Diary day 24: visiting the Samounis (Max Ajl) - 17-jan-2011

January 17, 2011 - We oscillate here between outrage and willed calm, "maneu­ver­ing between numbness and hyper­sen­si­tiv­ity," as a friend put it. You cannot let the anger carry you off like a riptide. For learning how to do that, we have very good examples, almost everyone around us: every mourner's tent we visit, every young man stonily reciting the details of the last minutes of his brother's life, and especially the Samouni children, who, instead of roiling with justified rage, sing the words of Lutfi Yassini put to music, offer us tea and coffee, and eagerly soak up Adie’s English classes. But that will to calmness becomes self-alien­at­ing when you try to absorb the sentiment behind the graffiti scrawled on the wall of the home of the Samouni family saying, "1 down, 999,999 to go," or the tombstone drawn on the wall with the inscrip­tion: "Arabs, 1948–2009," without cursing or letting any emotion seep out, at least in front of the families...

Seizing the Moment (By Joharah Baker) - 17-jan-2011

January 17, 2011 - Palestinians are in awe of Tunisia at this very moment. So are just about every other Arab people who have long felt the bite of oppressive regimes that exercise their iron fists on their own while bending like rubber to external parties. This is not lost on these regimes, who are currently sitting in quiet fear of upheaval and revolt in their own countries. Fair enough, it should be added, given that Zein Al Abideen bin Ali held his position as Tunisian president for 23 long years before all hell broke loose. For the Palestinians, the concept of revolt against an oppressive power is nothing new. Since the early sixties, the Palestinian revolution has continued, with its ebbs and tides, until today...

A Gaza family's tragedy (Ma'an news) - 17-jan-2011

January 17, 2011 - Nour Salha was 15 years old when he saw an Israeli missile reduce his home to rubble, killing his mother and four siblings. On Jan. 9, 2009, during Israel's Operation Cast Lead, a warplane shelled Nour's home in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. His mother Randa, two brothers Diyaa, 14, and Bahaa, 4, and sisters Rana, 12, and 15-month-old Rula were killed. "When I first heard the boom, I thought it hit an empty area, but I immediately saw our home going down," Nour said...

Gaza: Life and death in the buffer zone (Vera Macht) - 17-jan-2011

January 17, 2011 - Death comes quickly at a place like this. On sunny winter days, when the smell of the night’s rain is still in the air, as if it would have brought some hope for the raped, barren land of Gaza, overrun hundreds of times by Israeli tanks and bulldozers. The land between the foothills of the village of Bait Hanoun and the Israeli border, guarded by watchtowers, soldiers, snipers, helicopters and drones is a land in which death is a regular guest...

17/01/2011

Palestinians going to Security Council despite US opposition
Ma`an News Agency - "The Palestinians have turned down a US request to avoid seeking a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, the chief PLO negotiator said Sunday"

Gaza doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish: `"We saved lives," I told the children. "Your sisters` blood wasn`t wasted```
Rachel Cooke - The Guardian - Two years ago, Israeli shells fell on Dr Abuelaish`s family home in Gaza, killing three of his young daughters and their cousin. The horror was caught live on Israeli TV when the doctor phoned his broadcaster friend. Amazingly, the loss did not embitter Izzeldin Abuelaish. Instead he decided his girls` deaths must not be in vain – and slowly he has turned his family tragedy into a force for peace

New Jerusalem settlement hits peace process
Catrina Stewart - The Independent - "But Israel remains unrepentant, arguing that there is an understanding that Israel will never hand back the Jewish areas in East Jerusalem. ‘In every peace plan put forward over the last two decades, the Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem remained part of Israel in a final status [agreement,’ said Mark Regev, the prime minister`s spokesman. ‘The Palestinians have unfortunately adopted a position where they refuse to engage’"

Ehud Barak splits from Labor Party
Roni Sofer - Ynet - Defense minister filed urgent request with Knesset`s House Committee to discuss his plan to quit party, set up new faction along with four other Labor MKs

Enabling Crimes Against Palestinians - How Canada Subsidizes Illegal Israeli Settlements
Yves Engler - CounterPunch - “The exact amount is not known but it`s safe to assume that millions of Canadian dollars make their way to Israeli settlements every year. In 1997, when it was more of a legal grey area, tax lawyer David Drache claimed that ‘there are hundreds of [Canadian] organizations ... supporting organizations directly or indirectly beyond the Green Line’"

East Jerusalem Resident Expelled from City
Tania Kepler - AIC - "Adnan Geaith, resident of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan and General Secretary of the Fatah party in his area, moved to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday (12 January). The move came in order to avoid arrest by Israeli authorities"

Settlers no longer look to Israel, or its laws
Zvi Bar`el - Haaretz - There, beyond the Green Line, there are norms taking root that render Israeli courts impotent. Over there, the new real estate laws and symbols of the State of Israel are being created. Judea and Samaria, as we have been taught, is here

El Araqib demolished the ninth time
Regional Planning Committee--First Destroy – and then Discuss AppealI am from the Negev

PRESS RELEASE – ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS DESMOND TUTU SLANDERED, CONCERNED SOUTH AFRICANS CIRCULATING PETITION IN DEFENCE OF TUTU
Forwarded by Terry Crawford-Browne--A new petition initiated by concerned South Africans is quickly gathering widespread support nationally and internationally. This petition can be viewed at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/defend-tutu/ . The petition is a pledge of support for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who has recently been the target of slanderous attacks by those who reject his principled and fair-minded stance on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Did pop star Paradis cancel Israel concert over politics?
City Mouse Online and Matan Abramovitch--French singer Vanessa Paradis claims her visit to Israel with husband Johnny Depp was cancelled for professional reasons, but insiders say anti-Israel boycott campaign played a role.

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

Israeli Think-tank says US Aid Should End

Monday January 17, 2011 - 14:18

The influential Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (JIMS) has published a study which argues that financial aid to Israel from the United States is a net loss for the country. Full Story

Nof Zion to Remain in Jewish Hands

Monday January 17, 2011 - 16:47

Israeli supermarket magnate Rami Levy has made a successful bid to take over development of the Nof Zion settlement project being built near the Palestinian neighbourhood of Jabal Al Mukabber in occupied East Jerusalem. Full Story

IOA: The more things change, the more they stay the same…

17 January 2011

IOA Editor: As we said on these pages a few days ago, History doesn’t repeat itself, is simply continues…

Whether Barak stays in the Netanyahu government as the head of Labor, or as the head of a newly-created “Independent” section or, for that matter, altogether retires from government, matters not. [For the latest on this, see Haaretz]…

But all that matters little: with Barak or without him, with Labor or without it, with Kadima or without it, the Israeli government — whether Netanyahu’s, Barak’s, or Livni’s — will continue its mission full force: the colonization of Palestine…}

Jerusalem orders construction halted at site of controversial Sheikh Jarrah hotel

17 January 2011

Attorney Kais Nasser: “Anyone who reads the documentation file can see that the request for a permit was in fact intended to take revenge on the mufti in his grave, 100 years later, for his political positions in the Arab-Jewish conflict… The request for a permit has a political and Zionist agenda.”

IOA Editor: From the Before and After photos, the demolition of this fine example of Jerusalem architecture appears to be a done deal. Yet another bit of Palestinian history erased by Israel.

Charles Glass: Stéphane Hessel – from resistance to indignance

17 January 2011

[Stéphane Hessel] became an ambassador after the war and helped draft the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Awards and honors followed, but he retained the indignation that drove him during the war. In Indignez-Vous!, his defenses of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and of illegal immigrants in France attest to his belief in universal rights. The book’s popularity apparently answered a public need for a voice to articulate popular resentment of ruling-class ruthlessness, police brutality, stark income disparities, banking and political corruption, and victimization of the poor and the immigrant.

Israel eyes huge East Jerusalem settlement project

16 January 2011

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat: “I think it’s the time for the US administration to officially hold the Israeli government responsible for the collapse of the peace process.”

Interpal's letter to Haaretz newspaper

Monday, 17 January 2011 17:00

In response to a report in Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday 12th January that the State of Israel has "blacklisted 163 foreign charities suspected of supporting terrorism", in which Interpal's situation is cited as an example, the Chair of Interpal's Board of Trustees sent the following letter to the Editor. To-date, the letter has not been published. Interpal is therefore publishing this letter as it believes that it is important for its voice to be heard on this matter:

Dear Editor,

I refer to Chaim Levinson’s article "Israel blacklists 163 foreign charities suspected of supporting terrorism" (12 January). Mr. Levinson uses Interpal as his example of a charity from which Israeli organisations are banned from receiving money. He claims that "after a number of investigations on suspicion of serving as a channel for funding for Hamas, Interpal was blacklisted in Israel and is no longer allowed to hold activities" in the country "or transfer funds to Israel". Without defining "activists", he adds that such people "belonging to the organisation will be arrested if they arrive" in Israel. Read more...

Avi Shlaim on the Neo-conservative Middle East War Agenda

Monday, 17 January 2011 16:30

By Stephen J. Sniegoski

A friend of mine, Phil Collier, is an avid student of and sometime writer on Middle East affairs (and a National Master in chess); he informed me that Avi Shlaim has one chapter in his book Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations, headed "Palestine and Iraq", which presents a thesis almost identical to what I have written in The Transparent Cabal. This encouraged me to obtain the book, and Collier's description turns out to be correct. Read more...

Hamas government seeks to rebuild Gaza

Monday, 17 January 2011 15:45

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

The Ministry of Public Works in Gaza has held an exhibition to promote the construction industry in the beleaguered territory. Held in conjunction with the Palestinian Contractors Union the event was part of the international forum for the reconstruction of Gaza. Read more...

Gaza's doctors commemorate colleagues killed by Israel

Monday, 17 January 2011 15:00

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

Doctors in Gaza have commemorated their colleagues who were killed by Israel during "Operation Cast Lead" two years ago. The group staged a protest to mark the anniversary of the Gaza War and the abuses perpetrated by Israel against ambulance crews and medical staff during its assault and invasion in 2008/9. Ambulance crews marched in solidarity with the doctors. Sixteen medical personnel were killed whilst on duty during the Israeli assault; thirty-three health centres were destroyed. Read more...

 Three messages from Tunisia

Monday, 17 January 2011 14:30

It was not that it happened but the manner of Zain al-Abedin Ben Ali's departure from Tunisia which took everyone by surprise. The extraordinary speed, the humiliation and the reactions all told a story. Three momentous messages were delivered from the dictator's toppling in Tunisia; one to the autocracies of the region, the second to their oppressed people and the third to the Western backers of dictatorships. Read more...

While the world watches Tunisia and Lebanon, Israel steals more land

Another American family, this time the Jilanis, will have to grieve without justice over Israeli killing

The worldwide effort to end the Gaza siege will succeed because it is in the spirit of the great civil rights movement 50 years ago

Gaza Two Years Later: There is nothing that tastes as beautiful as reading in the dark

Dominoes

Falk: Tribalism is genocidal; while a diverse religious identity thickens the fibers of global civilization

‘Time’ magazine cover story saying Israel doesn’t care about peace was ‘absolutely’ anti-Semitic, says State Dept official Hanna Rosenthal

‘Peace Now’ says Lieberman is greater threat than Iran

Netanyahu seizes on Tunisian turmoil as yet another pretext for iron wall

Boycott dons fine new western garb– ‘for professional reasons’

Palestinian congressman doesn’t advertise the fact

Israel destroys Bedouin village for… ninth time… (to make way for Jewish tree planting)

Khouri: Tunisia is Gdansk shipyard of ‘80 with Jazeera as megaphone to other Arab countries!

The first fight was, I’m sick of lecturing Arab women on how they dress

Israel’s McCarthyism worse than Tailgunner Joe’s

 Russia backs Palestinian state (AlJazeera.net) - 18-jan-2011

January 18, 2011 - Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has reaffirmed recognition of a Palestinian state, saying Moscow will not change the position adopted by the former Soviet Union when it recognised independence for Palestinians in 1988. Russia's position remains unchanged. Russia made its choice a long time ago," Medvedev said at a news conference in the West Bank city of Jericho on Tuesday. "We supported and will support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem." ...

 
Finland shopping for "battle-tested" Israeli weaponry (Bruno Jäntti and Jimmy Johnson) - 18-jan-2011

Januaty 18, 2011 - Finland's Ministry of Defense has narrowed the field in its competition to provide the Finnish army with mini unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Of the five remaining bidders, four are Israeli firms with deep ties to the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights. In addition, three of the models offered are or have been in active recent use in Israeli military operations in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and south Lebanon. The Finnish army already employs a UAV produced by Israel Aerospace Industries, as well as other "battle-tested" Israeli weapons including anti-armor missiles, artillery munitions, avionics and more....

Democratic for Jews, Jewish for everyone else (Joseph Dana) - 18-jan-2011

January 18, 2011 - ...The incredible mobilization to ’save Israeli democracy’ reinforces the notion that democracy for Jews is in perfect health. The left was attacked, people took to the streets and the system worked. If Lieberman’s desire to investigate leftist NGO’s reaches the next level in the parliament, concerned Jewish citizens will surly take the proper recourse under Israeli law. Democracy for non-Jews in Israel is another story all together. Palestinian, Bedouin and Druze citizens face institutionalized discrimination in all sectors of life from education to building permits. This everyday denial of rights does not spark nearly the same reaction in the general public. In fact , it is seldom discussed on the nightly news and hardly ever do twenty thousand people to march through Tel Aviv in support of minority rights. It is only when Jews are threatened does the population respond with calls that Israeli democracy is under attack. Hours after the democracy march in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, Israel began destroying the Bedouin village of al-Arakib for the 9th time....

 
Displacement risk for Palestinians in East Jerusalem (Ma'an news) - 18-jan-2011

January 18, 2011 - UN agencies and European Union (EU) officials in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) are calling for the implementation of international humanitarian law to protect the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem from forced displacement. UN, Palestinian Authority and EU officials say East Jerusalem is occupied territory, requiring protection of the civilian population by international humanitarian law, a legal framework which prohibits population transfer into and out of the territory. Israel says property transfers in East Jerusalem are private transactions governed by Israeli local municipal law. Today East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967, is governed by Israeli basic law....

 Palestinian teenager killed as Israel troops raid Gaza: medic (AFP) - 18-jan-2011

January 18, 2011 — A Palestinian teenager was killed and two other people were injured on Tuesday as Israeli tanks carried out an operation in northern Gaza, a medical official said. Hamas emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya named the victim as 17-year-old Amjad al-Zaanein, saying he died after being hit by Israeli tank fire near the northern town of Jabaliya. One of the two injured men, who were hit by shrapnel, was said to be in critical condition, he added...

 Authors of Gaza youth manifesto speak to EI (Rami Almeghari writing from occupied Gaza Strip) - 18-jan-2011

January 18, 2011 - ..."We have one message," a member of the group told The Electronic Intifada. "We, the youth of Gaza, who make up sixty percent of Gaza's 1.6 million residents, have increasingly felt repressed in many aspects, starting from the long-standing Israeli occupation of our lands -- particularly the four-year-old Israeli blockade of Gaza -- through the injustice inflicted everywhere by the rulers of Gaza, who we elected four years ago." Abu Yazan clarified "If you are a follower of Hamas, Fatah watches over you, if you are a follower of Fatah, Hamas's security personnel watch over you. If you are granted a fellowship abroad, Israel denies you exit out of the besieged Gaza Strip. In Internet cafes, we sometimes feel watched by Hamas's secret agents who are spread everywhere; we increasingly feel we are silenced and never allowed to speak up."...

18/01/2011

Israel concerned Russia will recognize Palestinian state
Barak Ravid - Haaretz - Nabil Sha`ath told Al-Hayat newspaper that Medvedev would affirm the Soviet Union`s 1988 recognition of a Palestinian state - a recognition that was based on the declaration of independence made by Yassir Arafat that year. Such a move would be significant, particularly since Russia is a member of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators. bz

`European countries may recognize Palestinian state`
Jerusalem Post - "The UN General Assembly may declare a Palestinian state within 1967 borders as early as September," warned Diskin during a meeting of the Knesset`s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to Army Radio.

Amnesty International launches international justice campaign for Gaza conflict victims
AI PUBLIC STATEMENT - With tensions escalating again in Gaza and southern Israel, Amnesty International members and supporters around the world are today launching a campaign to ensure that members of the UN Human Rights Council hear victims` demands for justice ahead of the Council`s March 2011 session.

UK minister condemns latest Israeli settlement project
Ma`an - On Monday, the Israeli municipal office in Jerusalem approved the building of 90 housing units in Talpiot East and another 32 in Pisgat Zeev - for another 122 Israeli settler homes in East Jerusalem. "It`s routine construction, we`re always building in Jerusalem neighborhoods..." bz

Palestinian Political Prisoners Punished for Organizing Hunger Strike in Israeli Prison
Ramona M - IMEMC - Israeli prisons and detention centers holding Palestinians have some of the lowest prison standards in the developed world. Many of the prisoners that were once held in facilities in the West Bank are now held inside Israel, across the Green Line. This violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, which holds that detained persons have the right to remain in occupied territory in all stages of detention, including the serving of sentences if convicted. This is the second hunger strike in recent months. In August 2010, around 7,000 Palestinian prisoners participated in another hunger strike. bz

Al Araqib Residents Expelled To Make Way for Trees
Amit Ramon - Tarabut - They are forbidden to approach what is left of their village. From the cemetery they can observe the bulldozers and other heavy machinery busy leveling their village, erasing any vestige of the human history of that place. Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet Le`Israel) employees are already preparing the ground for planting. bz

We are not loyal - to a government of racists! - report of the Jan.15 demonstration in Tel-Aviv
Adam Keller - gush-shalom.org - (...) a sense of urgency, a sense that it might be the last moment to build a counter-force and try to change the direction of the murky stream.

New era for Israel’s Left
Avraham Burg - Ynet - Say it clearly: Full Jewish-Arab partnership, without any “buts.” Democracy for all citizens. A complete end to the occupation, without any deals and sophisticated formulae, without blocs, and without leftovers. And a truly social economy. Turn your backs to Barak and establish the Labor-Meretz-Hadash coalition.

A separation and an opportunity
Haaretz editorial - The new Atzmaut faction will be the government`s resuscitation machine. But the split in Labor, including the departure of eight Labor MKs from the coalition, holds a big opportunity for the left wing, which until yesterday was hardly represented in the Knesset. A bloc will now form around three banners - social justice, advancing peace and saving democracy. Such a bloc will provide an alternative to the ideology of hatred. Its very existence will force opposition party Kadima, too, to take a firmer position against Netanyahu and his government, and present an alternative to Netanyahu and Barak`s policy of entrenchment and stagnation. bz

Following the storm: Netanyahu is at the mercy of Lieberman
Noam Sheizaf - +972 - In case anyone had any doubts, this government won’t be able to take even the tiniest step towards a peace settlement with the Palestinians. Netanyahu has no room to maneuver: The slightest indication that he is willing to consider concessions, and the rightwing elements in his party would have the government fall. bz

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

 UN and EU Call for Protection of Palestinians in Jerusalem

Tuesday January 18, 2011 - 16:58

According to a report by IRIN, UN agencies and European Union (EU) officials in the occupied Palestine are calling for the implementation of international humanitarian law to protect the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem from forced displacement. Full Story

European countries may recognize Palestinian state – Shin Bet

Tuesday January 18, 2011 - 15:27

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin said on Tuesday that he believed that international recognition of a Palestinian state will spread. Full Story

Interpal Replies to Report on Blacklisting of 163 Foreign Charities

Tuesday January 18, 2011 - 14:51

Interpal has responded in writing to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, published last week, regarding Israel’s ban on 163 foreign charities suspected of ‘supporting terrorism’, the Middle East Monitor revealed on Monday. Full Story

Israeli BDS Group Takes Credit for Vanessa Paradis Cancellation

Tuesday January 18, 2011 - 13:43

Boycott >From Within, Israeli based Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) group, is taking credit for the recent Tel Aviv appearance cancellation of the French pop star, Vanessa Paradis. Full Story

 Russia: Palestine Exists!

18 January 2011

Medvedev: As we did in 1988, Russia still recognizes an independent Palestine. Russian president makes announcement after meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in West Bank; Israeli officials fear recognition will cause a domino effect of other states following Russia’s lead, including China.

Jonathan Cook: Zionist left writes its own obituary

18 January 2011

[Labor's] demise, however, should not be lamented. It has been in terminal decline for decades. What its disappearance may do is free up the political landscape for a real left to emerge in Israel, one less tied to the onerous legacy of Labor Zionism and prepared to collaborate creatively with the Palestinian national movements. That is an outcome not considered in Netanyahu’s scheming.

IOA: Netanyahu, Barak; Barak, Netanyahu – the more things change, the more they stay the same

17 January 2011

IOA Editor: As we said on these pages a few days ago, History doesn’t repeat itself, it simply continues…

In the final analysis, whether Barak stays in the Netanyahu government as the head of Labor, or as the head of a newly-created “Independent” section, or altogether retires from politics matters not. With Barak or without him, with Labor or without it, with Kadima or without it, the Israeli government — whether Netanyahu’s, Barak’s, Livni’s, or others’ — will continue its mission full force: the colonization of Palestine and the slow replacement of one people by another…

January 18, 2011 - The East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan has been the target of Israeli political intimidation. Since the end of December 2010, several prominent community leaders have been arrested and investigated in what members of the Wadi Hilwah Information Center are calling an attempt to quell activism in the cohesive East Jerusalem neighborhood. "In 2010 we saw an increase in the arrest of children and minors, eviction orders and house demolitions. In the start of 2011, we are seeing a very clear targeting of activists here—the local leaders, who are working for empowerment are being targeted," stated Muna Hasan, a coordinator at the Wadi Hilwah Information Center... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74061 

 The economics of occupation in the West Bank (By Dr. Abdel Sattar Qassem) - 19-jan-2011

January 19, 2011 - The Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967 have suffered from an odd economic situation ever since, in stages summarised as follows: 1. The Israeli occupation authorities adopted two main principles until the establishment of the Palestinian Authority: a) The people were not exactly starved, as that would threaten the security of the occupation, but nor were they privileged to have enough to give them self-respect. Their economic well-being fluctuated between two points; the poverty line without ever really going below it, and the level of having enough food, without ever really surpassing it. b) Palestinians' means of production were destroyed, creating a dependence on foreign aid and manual work in Israel. Control of the means of production is to have control of free will. The Israelis kept the people on a cycle of dependency on Israel, PLO funds or donations from Arab countries in order to cripple their political will...

 Racism In Israeli Jewish Schools; “A Dead Arab Is A Good Arab” (Saed Bannoura) - 19-jan-2011

January 19, 2011 - A number of teachers working in Jewish Schools in Israel stated that more instances of racism are reaching alarming levels as more students are expressing their views that exceeded their hatred to Arabs to the level of advocating for killing them. The teachers told Israel’s Yedioth Aharonoth, that they found graffiti written on school walls and even on exam papers. The most "famous" graffiti was "Death To Arabs". One student, in the twelfth grade even wrote "Death to Arabs" on his exam paper...

Gaza Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish Two Years After Israeli Attack that Killed 3 Daughters & Niece: "As Long as I am Breathing, They are with Me. I Will Never Forget" (Democracy Now!) - 19-jan-2011

January 19, 2011 - Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish was a well-known Palestinian gynecologist who spent years working in one of Israeli’s main hospitals. On January 16, 2009, two days before the end of Israel’s brutal 22-day assault on Gaza, his home was shelled twice by Israeli tanks. His three daughters and his niece were killed. He has just written a book about his life called I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. He joins us in our studio for an extended conversation...

Space control and the Israeli occupation (Joseph Dana) - 19-jan-2011

January 19, 2011 - It is often mentioned that Israel’s war against the Palestinian people does not fall under the rubric of truly violent crime because of the absence of large scale killing of Palestinian civilians. Indeed, this point does have weight and the absence of rape as a tool of war in Israel’s arensel strengthens the argument. However, the core aim of Israel’s onslaught on the Palestinians is the control of space. Since the beginning of the Zionist colonization project, Israel has deliberately sought to control space. Beginning with the 1948 war, Israel liquidated Palestinian villages in order to take over their space and not necessarily to kill their inhabitants. Since the 1967 conquest of the West Bank and Gaza, the Zionist mantra of "a land without a people for a people without a land" has proven to be a guiding principle of Israeli conquest of the land...

 Israel's Labor party not to be mourned (Jonathan Cook) - 19-jan-2011

January 19, 2011 - Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister, appears to have driven the final nail in the coffin of the Zionist left with his decision to split from the Labor party and create a new "centrist, Zionist" faction in the Israeli parliament. So far four Members of Parliament, out of a total of 12, have announced they are following him. Moments after Barak's press conference on Monday, the Israeli media suggested that the true architect of the Labor party's split was the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who, according to one of his aides, had planned it like "an elite general staff [military] operation." Netanyahu has pressing reasons for wanting Barak to stay in the most right-wing government in Israel's history. He has provided useful diplomatic cover as Netanyahu has stymied progress in a US-sponsored peace process...

 
Israeli Racism (by Stephen Lendman) - 19-jan-2011

January 19, 2011 - ...Tel Aviv University's Professor Daniel Bar-Tal studied dozens of elementary, middle, and high school texts on grammar, Hebrew literature, history, geography and citizenship. They justify Israel's right to wage humanitarian wars against Arabs who won't accept or acknowledge exclusive Jewish rights, saying: "The early textbooks tended to describe acts of Arabs as hostile, deviant, cruel, immoral, and unfair, with the intention to hurt Jews and to annihilate the State of Israel. Within this frame of reference, Arabs were delegitimized by the use of such labels as 'robbers,' 'bloodthirsty,' and 'killers,' adding that little positive revision occurred through the years with mischaracterizations like tribal, vengeful, exotic, poor, sick, dirty, noisy, colored, and "they burn, murder, destroy, and are easily inflamed." At the same time, Jews are called industrious, brave, and determined to handle difficulties of "improving the country in ways they believe the Arabs are incapable of." Moreover, "(t)his attitude served to justify the return of the Jews, implying that they care enough about the country to turn the swamps and deserts into blossoming farmland; this effectively delegitimizes the Arab claim to the same land."..

Israel trains British Army to operate drones; Amnesty International objects (Occupied Palestine) - 19-jan-2011

January 18, 2011 — Israel is said to have trained the British Army in unmanned aerial vehicles. Amnesty International asserted that British Army personnel have been training in Israel on UAVs deployed in the Gaza Strip. The London-based human rights group said the British Army was learning how to use Israeli UAVs in counter-insurgency operations. "It would seem wholly inappropriate for UK forces to be trained in the use of drones by a country with a track record of applying this technology in grave abuses of people’s human rights," Amnesty director Tim Hancock said...

19/01/2011

Palestinians raise flag at Washington office
Associated Press - Ynet - ""We are proud to see the flag," Areikat said. "It`s about time that this flag that symbolizes the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and statehood is raised in the United States. We hope that this will help in the international efforts to provide recognition for the Palestinian state.""

Israel`s `disobedient women` questioned over illegal trips for Palestinians
Harriet Sherwood - Guardian - "The risks are greater for the Palestinian women, who are likely to face a harsh punishment if discovered illegally in Israel."

Authors of Gaza youth manifesto speak to EI
Rami Almeghari - EI - "The group, which includes three women, are all university graduates. Their "Manifesto for Change" published on Facebook circulated widely on the Internet and was covered by international publications such as The Guardian and The New York Times."

Diskin: Sept. will be ‘boiling point’ for Palestinian ties
REBECCA ANNA STOIL - J-Post - "The security fence, he argued, had actually worsened the situation, creating what he described as “a situation in which illegal Palestinian workers flock around it.”"

A march in Jerusalem
Aluf Benn - Haaretz - "The world is gradually becoming accustomed to the idea that Palestine will join the family of nations this summer." id

UN and EU Call for Protection of Palestinians in Jerusalem
IMEMC - "“Transfer of property and buildings in East Jerusalem should be regulated by the provisions of the fourth Geneva convention,” said Ghassan Khatib."

Barak`s move enrages Arab Labor members
Hassan Shaalan - Ynet - ""This move has direct implications on the Arab sector. It endangers democracy and bolsters the Israeli Right.""

Israeli Arabs earn less than Jews despite working longer hours, data shows
Haim Bior - Haaretz - "The more education a worker has, the greater the discrepancy between average monthly income among Jews and Arabs grows." id

WZO Settlements Division Back With Netanyahu

Wednesday January 19, 2011 - 12:35

The World Zionist Organisation's (WZO) Settlements Division is again under the control of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office after a period of nearly four years with the Agriculture Ministry.
Full Story

Soldiers Kidnap 14 Members Of Fateh, PFLP

Wednesday January 19, 2011 - 11:48

Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Wednesday at dawn more than 14 Palestinian youths, all under the age of 21, apparently for their affiliation with the Fateh movement of President Mahmoud Abbas, and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Full Story

Palestinian Killed, Two Children Wounded In Israeli Bombardment of Northern Gaza

Wednesday January 19, 2011 - 04:19

Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Tuesday evening that one resident was killed and two children were wounded, after the Israeli army bombarded an area in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Full Story

Aisling Byrne: Building a police state in Palestine

19 January 2011

“If we are building a police state — what are we actually doing here?” So asked a European diplomat responding to allegations of torture by the Palestinian security forces. The diplomat might well ask. A police state is not a state. It is a form of larceny: of people’s rights, aspirations and sacrifices, for the personal benefit of an élite. This is not what the world meant when it called for statehood. But a police state is what is being assiduously constructed in Palestine, disguised as state-building and good governance.

Palestinian military prosecutors vow to stop arresting civilians

19 January 2011

The Palestinian military prosecutor’s office will stop detaining civilians, and civilians will no longer be tried by Palestinian military courts, according to a pledge made by senior officials in the Palestinian security establishment to representatives of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.

IOA Editor: For background and political analysis, see Aisling Byrne’s Building a Police State in Palestine.

Israel’s Right Wing Future
By Lawrence Davidson
The process toward an Israeli style Fascism did not begin (as Sternhell believes) with1967 and the taking of the Occupied Territories. It did not even begin in 1917 and the Balfour Declaration. It began with the very inception of Zionism. Continue

Who Lost the Middle East?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
The message from the Mideast has been consistent and clear: When elections are held, or monarchs and autocrats overthrown, the masses will turn to leaders who will pull away from America and stand in solidarity with the Palestinians. Continue

Redevelopment of Gaza begins

Wednesday, 19 January 2011 19:00

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

The Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza has laid a foundation stone to mark the first phase of the extensive reconstruction required in the Gaza Strip. Ismail Haniyeh was attending a special ceremony for the purpose in Tawam, north of Gaza City. Read more...

Shin Bet predicts that several European countries will recognise Palestinian state

Wednesday, 19 January 2011 14:00

The Director of Israel's internal intelligence service, Shin Bet, has said that he believes that several European countries will recognise an independent Palestinian state, joining seven Latin American countries which have declared their recognition of Palestine recently. Yuval Diskin made his remarks during a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on 18 January.

Diskin also predicted that the UN General Assembly will offer recognition to an independent Palestinian state by adopting a resolution to that effect during its next session due to begin in September.

America has to consider its interests in the region with a vision says Fatah

Wednesday, 19 January 2011 12:45

The Fatah movement has called on the US to consider its interests in the Arab world with a vision, asking it to side with international law and international legitimacy instead of siding with Israel, "which moves toward ruining the peace process".

Read more...

UN rights board calls for complete halt on Israeli settlement activity as home demolitions increase across East Jerusalem

Macy Gray criticizes Israeli policy; asks if she should play in Tel Aviv

Citing ‘national security,’ coalition of realists and liberals (Freeman-Zogby-Beinart) call on Obama to condemn settlements

‘Tears of Gaza’ showing tomorrow in L.A.

State Declaration: The Palestinians’ agonizing choices

Through the Looking Glass – Five years in Students for Justice in Palestine

Stories from the Holy Land

Sarah Palin finds an, unh, amen corner in Israel

Now Jennifer Rubin says that ‘J Street’ is anti-Semitic

There is no substitute for seeing it for yourself – Travel to Israel/Palestine with Interfaith Peace Builders in May 2011

‘Goldstone’ becomes a punchline on the Israeli Supreme Court

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and the silence of friends

More on ‘Boycott from Within’

Al-Arakib after the 10th demolition

When the rocket hit our school in Beersheva, I thought of Yossarian

Hasan Afif El-Hasan

PA Institutions Essential to Occupation Infrastructure

Jonathan Cook

Zionist Left Writes Its Own Obituary

Kim Bullimore

'Sumoud' in Palestine: To Exist is to Resist

January 19, 2011 - When you do not distinguish between combatants and unarmed civilians during war, then you deserve to be named a 'terrorist.' It makes no difference what your religion is! That is exactly what happened thousands of miles away and two days before last Christmas, when Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian shepherd in the back and injured two others. A 14 year old suffered a serious head injury and another 19 year old was injured in his hand. The shooting took place in the Northern part of Gaza near the town of Beit Lahia. Israel considered the area a war zone, Palestinians called it home. An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the shooting, adding "The soldiers fired warning shot and aimed at the lower body." Not only was that unprovoked and cold blooded murder, but rather a naked lie by the Israeli spin machine. It took a quick search on the story to find out what the so-called "most moral army" actually did to the 22 year old Palestinian shepherd, Salamah Abu Hashish. My search reveals shocking and inhumane details...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74094

Video : Lebanon tense as Saudi quits talks
AlJazeera.net  

Voices Beyond Walls
Palestinian refugee teens from Gaza and the West bank express themselves through art
Palestine Monitor  

U.K. will not recognize unilateral Palestinian state, official says 

Speaking during Jordan visit, Foreign Office official Alistair Burt says direct talks are the only way to reach a viable two-state solution.

U.S. envoys arrive in Israel in bid to advance peace talks with Palestinians

Obama adviser Dennis Ross and David Hale, deputy to Mideast envoy George Mitchell, will meet with Netanyahu to discuss Israel's security needs in a proposed peace deal.

French foreign minister visits Israel

While in Jerusalem, Michele Alliot-Marie is expected to meet with the parents of the Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier that has been held captive in Gaza since 2006; Shalit is a French citizen.

Minister: Prejudice against Muslims acceptable in Britain

Although some tensions are long-standing, mainstream attitudes darkened after the terrorist attacks in U.S. and U.K. focused attention on the hold that radical Islam may have over some segments of Britain's Muslim population.

Kathleen Christison
Wikileaks Cables on Israel's Gaza Onslaught

Settlers Plant Trees Near Nablus  

Thursday January 20, 2011 - 15:59  

On Thursday a group of settlers planted dozens of trees in the evacuated settlement of Homesh, west of Nablus, near the Palestinian village of Burqa Full Story 

FM Malki Condemns Land Rush in Jerusalem  

Thursday January 20, 2011 - 15:27  

In an interview with Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on Thursday Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki condemned the "land rush" and "Judaization" of Jerusalem, Full Story 

20/01/2011

‘And No One Wants to Know’: Israeli Soldiers on the Occupation
David Shulman - The New York Review of Books - The information was meticulously checked and re-checked for accuracy; there is no mistaking the ring of truth in the reports, which reveal consistent patterns, and thus have a powerful cumulative force. To read them is to see the profound moral corruption of the occupation in all its starkness. They show us ordinary, decent young soldiers, caught up in an impossible situation, sometimes trying desperately to make sense of that situation, but mostly following their orders without question. In a number of cases, those interviewed have clearly been psychologically and spiritually scarred by their participation in horrific events of which they had little understanding at the time.

Dozens Of Palestinians Injured in East Jerusalem Clashes
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - The sources stated that 13 residents, including 4 pregnant women, were wounded in Shu`fat and were moved to a local medical center. Most of the injuries resulted from inhaling gas fired by the army, and rubber-coated bullets.

`Good hit. Alpha.`
Amira Hass - Haaretz - T. asks his audience: "Who knows who Salah Shehadeh is? Salah Shehadeh is the Hamas chief of staff. In 2002 there`s Sheikh Yassin, he`s the spiritual leader, and there`s Salah Shehadeh, the military commander. [The base commander] told me it was Salah Shehadeh, and I said, Great. I have no idea who or what you`re talking about. We made a good hit, `alpha` in air force jargon, and that`s it, we went to bed. The next day, actually the same day, we`re told that the strike killed Salah, his wife, his daughter, his son and others ... That`s the subject. And I fired ...

I get a closeup picture of the health care system and women’s lives in Palestine
Alice Rothchild - Mondoweiss - The incredible fragmentation of care between PMRS, the Ministry of Health, UNRWA (for refugees), and the private sector is staggering. Pregnant patients may get free care at an UNRWA clinic, but stop in at PMRS for a prenatal ultrasound. Labs are done at a variety of locations (with variations in quality) so communication and follow up are problematic. Some of the private care that patients reported is best described as creative and unrelated to general medical practice, but clearly lucrative. -

Hebron Reflexion : They left their mark everywhere
Paulette Schroeder - CPTnet - One week after they had arrested her sons, the military came for the mother. She remained in prison for 26 days. When asked how the soldiers treated her, she said they "used words that no woman should hear." At one point, they ordered her to strip, and then checked her private areas, using a detector on some places of her naked body. She said that if the soldiers did this to a woman in prison, what must her sons be experiencing.

Israel`s Labor party not to be mourned
Jonathan Cook - The Electronic Intifada - But peace failed to materialize, and the settlements` continuing expansion steadily eroded the Palestinians` belief in Israel`s good faith. Labor`s last shot at peace-making was the Camp David summit of 2000. When Barak, as prime minister, failed to reach a final-status agreement with the Palestinians, claiming there was "no partner," he killed off Israel`s fickle peace camp and made his party politically irrelevant again.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reports on ongoing siege of Gaza and anti-democratic onslaught on Israeli Rights Community
Hadas Ziv - Physicians for Human Rights - Dr. Sara Roy of Harvard University, comments: “The greatest and most damaging aspect of Israeli policy has been the transformation of Palestinians in Gaza especially, from a people entitled to, and capable of, national self-determination and developmental change into a group of aid-dependent paupers worthy only of the humanitarian minimum.”

Symbolism isn`t Everything…But it is Something
Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - As for symbols such as the Palestinian flag waving over the PLO mission in Washington DC, I can say this. While most people take the sight of their national flags for granted, we Palestinians have never had this luxury. That is why it is an accomplishment – however symbolic - to see it flying in the US capital even if this has not changed the status quo of the Palestinians vis-à-vis its relationship with the US. If nothing else, it is a reminder that, "yes, we are still here and we are not going anywhere."

Al Araqib Residents Expelled To Make Way for Trees
Hithabrut-Tarrabut - Press release - On Sunday, January 16th, 2011, the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) accompanied by a heavy police presence destroyed the Bedouin village of Al Araqib for the 9th time since its total destruction in July 2010. During the village`s destruction the police forces used large amounts of violent force, including sponge bullets (a police method of crowd dispersal) which injured eleven of the residents, one of them in his eye.

Israeli Settler Right Bullies Rabbi Ascherman, Protesting at His Home
Richard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - This is the same type of hooliganism the Israeli right has used over the years against the activist community. They did the same to Naomi Hazan after Im Tirzu decorated her image with a rhino horn and ridiculed her as a supporter of Hamas and Israeli traitor. And of course, the height of such incitement was in the lead up to Yizhak Rabin’s assassination when the Israeli right massed in downtown Jerusalem baying for the prime minister’s blood. Many will remember the leading politician who, like a Roman emperor at the Coliseum, gave Rabin a thumbs down from a downtown Jerusalem balcony that night: Bibi Netanyahu.

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

·  One foot in, one foot out: A tour of a Palestinian village

·  Israeli forces arrest four children near Hebron

·  Macy Gray slags some boycotters as a—holes, will play Tel Aviv

·  Is boycott working? Ahava products discounted in cheapo promotion

·  NYRB blog: all that can save Israel is the new (non-Zionist) left

·  ‘J Street’ says US should not veto Security Council res condemning settlements

·  Ashrawi in IHT: settlements are ‘a war crime’

·  Avishai: Goldberg ‘misled and hyped’ Americans about Iranian nuke threat

·  UN says demolitions of Palestinian houses in occupation jumped 60 percent, ‘09 to ‘10, keeping pace with settlement boom

·  Lizzy Ratner and Laila El-Haddad discuss The Goldstone Report on GRITtv

January 19, 2011 - Hamza Abu Eid, 17, was at school when he first heard the news that his extended family's seven homes in Lydd -- a mixed but segregated Palestinian and Jewish area of Israel -- were being demolished. When he arrived to his house the morning of 13 December 2010, the rain was pouring and he was greeted by a full force of Israeli police and bulldozers destroying his family's residence and belongings. "The police are continuing to destroy my life," Hamza said as he led me through his family's rubble-covered belongings. It's been approximately a month since the destruction of their homes, but nothing has changed. "I felt so angry, so sad, so crushed, so shocked. It's a horrible thing.".. 

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74080

January 20, 2011 - True, in the military courtroom itself Palestinians are neither shot nor beaten. They are not 'targeted for elimination’ nor even sentenced to death. At least not in the courtroom. But the military court is also the place where all illusions die. And hopes. Because that is where Palestinians learn that injury caused them, is no error, nor misunderstanding, but a matter of policy. That is where they learn that law regarding Palestinians is nothing short of another kind of weapon. One of many. Among the tanks and planes and cluster bombs and checkpoints and Separation Wall and white phosphorus and the IOF spokesman. The military court is the end of ends. The last judgment. The final accusation, a-priori, of Palestinians only because they are Palestinians. And courtroom number 2, where children are put on trial, is the place beyond that end. The place where all the words end. Only two family members are allowed to come to the trial. This is usually the only time they can come and see their son, and they do. Time after time...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74124

Video: Big Ears: 'Largest' secret spy hub uncovered in Israel (RussiaToday) - 21-jan-2011

January 21, 2011 - It's been described as Israel's 'big ears'. A huge facility where it's claimed phone calls and e-mails from all across the Middle East and beyond, can be monitored for intelligence. Hidden from prying eyes for decades in the desert, it's become a focus for investigative journalists.

Clinton Slam Draft Resolution to UN Security Council Condemning Settlements (PNN) - 21-jan-2011

January 21, 2011 - US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, Slammed the Palestinian submitted proposal on Wednesday to the United Nations in an attempt to condemn Israel's settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "We continue to believe strongly that the only way that there will be a resolution of the conflict and a two-state solution that will result in an independent, viable Palestinian state and security for Israel is through a negotiated settlement. Therefore, we don’t see action in the United Nations or any other forum as being helpful in bringing about that desired outcome. "Secretary Clinton told reporters in Washington on Thursday...

Content this week: A police state in Palestine? and more (Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD) - 21-jan-2011

January 21, 2011 - Five Items in this week’s digest: 1)Wikileaks reveals US, Egyptian, Israeli, and Palestinian "cooperation" during Israel’s war crimes in Gaza (and in the case of the US pre-knowledge of the humanitarian crisis that would develop before the attack even commenced). PA officials clearly did not want any demonstrations where confrontation with Israeli soldiers occur (something that is natural in civil popular resistance). 2) The Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) reiterate its firm opposition to any bilateral or multilateral relationships between Palestinian and Israeli academics. 3) Videos of reality of colonial apartheid in Palestine including must-see videos about our activities over Christmas (Come join us next time) and the destruction of a whole village by the Israeli occupation authorities...

Boycott roundup: Ahava products off the shelves, for now (Report, The Electronic Intifada) - 21-jan-2011

January 21, 2011 - Canadian and United Kingdom solidarity activists have scored recent victories towards deshelving cosmetics made in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (CPJME) reported that on 11 January, Canadian retail chain The Bay dropped Ahava products from its stores. Ahava cosmetic products are made from materials from the Dead Sea in the West Bank, assembled in the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem, and are labeled "made in Israel."...

21/01/2011

Report: PA shut down Tunisia rally in Ramallah
Ma`an News Agency "Palestinian Authority security forces in Ramallah shut down a small demonstration in solidarity with the uprising in Tunisia on Wednesday afternoon, the French daily Le Monde reported Thursday. "

Israeli army discharges soldier for shooting Palestinian civilian
Harriet Sherwood - The Guardian "The Israeli military has discharged a soldier for acting "unprofessionally" in shooting dead an unarmed 65-year-old Palestinian man in Hebron earlier this month."

Can the PA tackle corruption?
by Khaled Amayreh - Al-Ahram Weekly "The Palestinian Authority (PA) is preparing to file formal charges against dozens of current and former officials accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars. Critics, however, describe the current campaign as being too little too late, given the rampancy of corruption and the radical -- and destabilising -- work that must be done in order to stem the tide of corruption."

Tunisia echoes in the Arab street
by Dina Ezzat- Al-Ahram Weekly "The surprising success of the Tunisian revolt emboldened many in the Arab world to press for more social and political justice."

FM Malki Condemns Land Rush in Jerusalem
by IMEMC News " Malkim told the newspaper that, "The occupation`s land rush in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem is in full swing, working for the Judaization of many different neighborhoods of the city," he said, naming Sheikh Jarrah, Isawiya and the area near the Damascus Gate."

Settlers Plant Trees Near Nablus
by IMEMC News - "On Thursday a group of settlers planted dozens of trees in the evacuated settlement of Homesh, west of Nablus, near the Palestinian village of Burqa. Homesh was the site of an illegal Israeli settlement evacuated in 2005. Settlers have been trying to move back since that time. "

PCHR Weekly Report: 1 Palestinian civilian killed, 8 wounded by Israeli troops this week
by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies "In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of 13-19 January 2011, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) found that Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian and wounded 4 others in the Gaza Strip. In addition, 4 civilians, including a child and two international human rights observers, were wounded by Israeli forces in the West Bank."

Hamas: Palestinian Authority stopped Gaza medical shipments
By Avi Issacharoff - Haaretz "The Palestinian Authority has stopped delivering medicine to the Gaza Strip, the Hamas government in Gaza said, claiming there is now a serious shortage of medicine there.Hamas Health Minister Bassam Naim said the PA halted drug deliveries to the Strip two weeks ago." ca

How old does a Palestinian need to be to pick strawberries in Israel?
By Chaim Levinson - Haaretz "A Palestinian must be at least 28 years old to pick strawberries in Israel, and to work in a field he must be at least 35, according to set criteria for Palestinians to be issued a work permit in Israel, Haaretz has learned. " ca

‘And No One Wants to Know’: Israeli Soldiers on the Occupation
David Shulman - The New York Review of Books - The information was meticulously checked and re-checked for accuracy; there is no mistaking the ring of truth in the reports, which reveal consistent patterns, and thus have a powerful cumulative force. To read them is to see the profound moral corruption of the occupation in all its starkness. They show us ordinary, decent young soldiers, caught up in an impossible situation, sometimes trying desperately to make sense of that situation, but mostly following their orders without question. In a number of cases, those interviewed have clearly been psychologically and spiritually scarred by their participation in horrific events of which they had little understanding at the time.

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

Quds 5 Solidarity Convoy Allowed Into Gaza

Friday January 21, 2011 - 10:04

The Israeli Authorities allowed on Thursday evening the Al Quds 5 solidarity convoy to enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah Border Terminal, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Full Story

US: Should Recognize State of Palestine In 2011

By MJ Rosenberg

The United States should either lay a plan on the table and demand its implementation, or the Palestinians should declare full independence. Continue

Palestinian families protest at French FM visit in Gaza

Friday, 21 January 2011 17:20

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip came out in protest, throwing eggs and in some cases, shoes, as the French Foreign Minister Michel Alliot-Marie and her entourage visited the besieged region on Friday morning. Read more...

Israeli tribute to Palestinian Authority security support "confirms threat to West Bank Palestinians"

Friday, 21 January 2011 16:45

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has called the tribute paid by the Israeli Defence Minister and the Director of Israel's intelligence service to the Palestinian Authority for its security cooperation with the occupying power "a threat to the people of the occupied West Bank". In a press statement, Hamas said, "The blessings given by Ehud Barak and Yuval Diskin confirm the growing and widespread belief that the main concern of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is the security of the Zionist state and not the defense of citizen's rights as they struggle under Israel's military occupation. Read more...

Direct Palestinian-Israeli meeting predicted

Friday, 21 January 2011 15:50

The resumption of direct meetings between the Palestinians and Israelis has been predicted by Israeli media sources. The talks will be held under American auspices, said Israel Radio.

According to the sources, high-profile Palestinian officials are expected in Israel by the end of this week to meet with the two American envoys, Dennis Ross and George Mitchell. They will study the possibility of resuming the political negotiation process between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Read more...

The tragedy of the two-state solution

Friday, 21 January 2011 14:45

By Dr. Ahmed Tibi

It is fairly obvious that Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is messing around with US President Barack Obama, when on the one hand he declares that he is interested in peace while on the other he is doing his utmost to thwart a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is not the way to deal with Israel's key ally, to the extent that after nearly two years in office Netanyahu is running rings around Obama while encircling Jerusalem with more illegal settlements.

Palestinians are losing hope rapidly about the prospect of establishing a viable independent state due to Netanyahu's demands which are impossible for the Palestinian leadership to accept. He is always ready with another demand - such as the paradoxical requirement for the PLO to recognize Israel as a Jewish state - whenever the process appears to be moving forward. As with previous delays, he takes advantage and gives the go-ahead for yet more settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, ignoring international law, the 2003 Road Map and the weak opposition of his American allies. Read more...

Gas shortage in Gaza

Friday, 21 January 2011 00:40

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

Fuel companies in the Gaza Strip have confirmed that most of the cooking gas filling stations in the territory have closed because of the significant reduction in gas being pumped through by Israel. Those stations still open are now using their reserves, which are likely to run out in two or three days.

The Israeli occupation authorities usually allow around 120 tonnes of cooking gas through daily, but they have reduced the amount significantly. Israel is fully aware that the gas sector in Gaza needs a daily amount of at least 300 tonnes of gas to function normally.

Read more...

New Palestinian refugee camp in Lod following home demolitions

Gaza conversation at Busboys and Poets in D.C., this Sunday

If Obama saw what white phosphorus did to the kids’ rehab room at Al Quds Hospital in Gaza, maybe he would become a decider?

McEwan’s antenna tunes in tired song

British double standard on recognizing Palestine lets Israel off the hook

Ex-Jerusalem pol asks the US ‘to intervene to keep the current Israeli Government from driving off a cliff’

Hunting the neocons

Why did Rahm Emanuel take his family to the occupied Golan last spring?

Don’t single out Israel

Washington wisdom

But she still loves Michelle

ACLU of Washington sues Seattle over I/P transit ads

Spirit of Tunisia is infectious

MSM self-censorship on the Israel issue

‘Israeli occupation as brutal as Nazis” — Elkana, Holocaust survivor

January 21, 2011 - As will be demonstrated, settler attacks continued during this period and were concentrated in the north of the West Bank, especially in the Nablus District. Trees were the most common target, with burnings and land confiscations, especially land close to settlements, which serve the aim of expanding settlements and providing strategic points for attacks on Palestinian residents traveling by road. Several of the attacks were done with full cooperation of the Israeli army and in plain sight of soldiers, who did nothing to prevent the settlers from attacking and burning trees...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74149

January 21, 2011 - Her dropped head, her clasped hands, her sad face continue to haunt me. I ask myself: How anyone could endure this kind of pain, especially a mother. I sat in a stupefied silence as the fifty-six-year-old woman told us about the invasion of her home last October. Soldiers had awakened the family and their relatives next door by banging on the door at 12:00 a.m. They then ordered the families out of their homes, locked the women and young children in the shop next door handcuffed, and blindfolded the men and adolescent boys and told them to stand in front of a shop. In the next twelve hours, the Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinian men accused of killing four settlers. Afterwards soldiers entered the same house although the family had no connection to the killings, shot randomly into the bed, through the blankets, under the bed, into the windows, doors, and table...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74148

January 21, 2011 - It's been described as Israel's 'big ears'. A huge facility where it's claimed phone calls and e-mails from all across the Middle East and beyond can be monitored for intelligence. Hidden from prying eyes for decades in the desert, it's become a focus for investigative journalists.

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74144

The end of Dahlan (Saleh Al-Naami) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - The Palestinians cannot believe the events unfolding in front of their eyes. Mohamed Dahlan, member of Fatah's Central Committee who many believed would be the next Palestinian president because of his strong influence within Fatah (and strong international and regional backing), is about to exit the Palestinian political arena. There is a clear and persistent push by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which is supported by the leadership of the group, namely Dahlan's peers on the Central Committee which is Fatah's most senior leadership body, to ostracise him and strip him not only of his role in the group but of Palestinian political life altogether...

Gaza on the Ground
Let Them Eat Falafel: Israel's So-Called "Easing" of its Siege on Gaza (By Mohammed Omer) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - ...Earlier in 2010, the Israeli Defense Ministry refused to reveal why Israel bans the import of such simple items as coriander, cilantro, sage, jam, chocolate, French fries, dried fruit, fabrics, notebooks, flowerpots and toys—apparently due to the "security reasons" bogeyman—while at the same time allows cinnamon, plastic buckets and combs to enter Gaza. Many Gazans believe that Israeli commercial interests determine which items are permitted into Gaza. As the result of a lawsuit filed by the Israeli human rights group Gisha, Israel finally released three documents outlining its policy for which goods it allows to enter Gaza. Since the release of the documents, and its deadly May 31 attack on the Mavi Marmara, Israel has been under pressure to ease restrictions on Palestinians in Gaza. That is why Abu Eisifan can now buy a kilo of fresh coriander for his falafels for half the price of the tasteless processed type, which used to cost 30 shekels. "I never knew why they wouldn't allow coriander in," he laughs, noting that falafel "can't be a major security threat. Indeed, it's just the simple food of the underdog in Gaza who can't afford meat."...

Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity (Joseph Dana) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - Right wing pundits have often said that Palestinians, when in talks with Israel, would never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The more time that I spend in the West Bank and watch the behavior of the Israeli army towards Palestinians, the more I feel that the statement should be said about the army. The weekly demonstration in Bil’in last Friday is a perfect example....

Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel - Adalah series (by Fire bad tree pretty) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - Since the beginning of the illegal occupation of West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza (the Occupied Palestinian Territories or OPT), over 700,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel.* This is approximately 20 percent of the population of the OPT. Over 40% of the male population of the OPT has been imprisoned. On 30 November 2010, the Israeli authorities held 5741 prisoners and detainees on that day. 4652 were serving sentences, 162 were detained, 3 were detained under legal combatant laws, 719 were detained until the conclusion of legal proceedings, and there were 205 administrative detainees. The data excludes those held on criminal counts...

Gazan dies in Israeli shelling (AlJazeera.net) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - A Palestinian man has been killed and two others injured following an Israeli tank shelling in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources have said. An Israeli military spokesman told the AFP news agency that he had no reports of any Israeli army shooting in the area. However, he added that a mortar shell had been fired from the Gaza Strip on Friday, without causing casualties or damage....

Video: Protesters heckle French minister in Gaza (AlJazeeraEnglish) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - The French foreign minister has been checked by Israeli doctors after reportedly being hit on the head during a stormy visit to Gaza. Palestinian demonstrators mobbed Michele Alliot-Marie's car and at one point it was reportedly pelted with eggs and shoes. They were reacting to reports that she had said the capture by Hamas of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who is also a French national, was a war crime....

The Methodical Shooting of Boys at Work in Gaza by Snipers of the Israeli Occupation Force (David Halpin) -22-jan-2011

January 22, - The deliberate injury of the limbs of 23 boys by high velocity weapons has been logged and described by Defence for Children International – Palestine Branch (DCI-P) since March 2010. Some of the facts have been published in national newspapers. These barbarous acts contravene international and national law but there are no judicial responses. The caring professions see the physical and mental pain of those who suffer and they should be in the vanguard in calling for this great cruelty to cease forthwith. Political leaders have failed to act. The Geneva Conventions Act 1957, which is of central importance in holding war criminals to account in the jurisdiction of the UK, is being emasculated...

Abbas: Failed talks could lead to uprising

President says secret talks with Israel were declined, that statehood will be sought at the UN and that the PA will work political angles to ensure statehood.

 Report: Journalist faces PA court for insulting Abbas

Islamic Jihad slams misquoted remark by French FM

In photos: Israeli detained at south Bethlehem protest

Zahhar: Shalit case sensitive for politics, people

EU 'deplores' Israeli violation of activist rights

Israeli army shuts down West Bank rallies

Gaza births down 6,000 from 2009

Abbas: We will not make unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood

In an interview on Al-Jazeera the PA president warns that if no progress is made by September there could be dangerous repercussions which 'could lead to an Intifada.'

Palestinians to seek UN recognition for independent state in September

Medvedev: As we did in 1988, Russia still recognizes an independent Palestine

Abbas eyes UN appeal for independent state as peace talks stall

UN chief: End irresponsible rhetoric surrounding Israel-Palestinian talks

Ban Ki-moon says Palestinians have right to independent state, Israel has right to live in peace within secure borders.

Recognition: Impossible?

U.K. Opposes Palestine on Same Grounds It Accepts Israel

by Nima Shirazi / January 22nd, 2011 (3)

In recent months, seven South American nations have recognized Palestine “as a free, independent and sovereign state.”

Last week, following similar statements by representatives of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Chile, the Foreign Ministry of Guyana declared that its decision to recognize Palestine was based on “Guyana’s long-standing and unwavering solidarity with, and commitment to, the just and legitimate aspirations of the people of Palestine for the exercise of their right to self-determination and to achieve a homeland of their own, independent, free, prosperous and at peace.” Paraguay and …

Turkel Committee's Conclusions on the Gaza Blockade and Israel's Attacks on the Freedom Flotilla Contradict International Law and the UN Fact-Finding Mission (Free Gaza Team) - 23-jan-2011

January 23, 2011 - Once again, Israel defies international law and all common sense by issuing the first part of their Turkel Committee report, absolving itself from piracy, murder on the high seas and theft. Below is the eloquent response from Adalah, ('Justice’ in Arabic) an independent human rights organization and legal center based in Israel. It works to promote and defend the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living under occupation in the OPT before Israeli courts...

Another young stone-collector is killed in Gaza (Vera Macht) - 23-jan-2011

January 23, 2011 - It had been only eight days since the last innocent was killed. People die here one after another, killed one by one, without consequences, without justice, without an outcry in the media. Innocent civilians trying to make a living amidst the stifling four-year siege. Palestinian civilians, whose lives become only an entry in the statistics: "So that’s what I can do: register it in my notebook. It is registered, and there is an empty line after Shaban’s name. That is for those who they kill tomorrow," wrote the American writer Max Ajl after the farmer Shaban Karmout was killed. It took eight days, and the place was filled. Amjad ElZaaneen was 17 years when he was killed on Tuesday....

The Israeli Gaza flotilla inquiry whitewashes evidence of wrongdoing (Roi Maor) - 23-jan-2011

January 23, 2011 - The Turkel Committee, investigating the legality of Israel’s lethal response to the Gaza Flotilla in May 2010, has published the first part of its conclusions. The omens for the report were not good, and unfortunately, its 248 pages (Hebrew) reinforce the impression that this inquiry was a sham, intended to whitewash any Israeli wrongdoing involved with the incident. This can be gleaned from the report itself, without even having to confront it with any external evidence...

On Hamas (Max Ajl) - 23-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - M. came over and discussed the Hamas government. "They are occupying the culture," he told me. "Our grandparents used to dance Dabka together, boys and girls, now this is forbidden. What is Hamas doing?"... Another friend, A., my most radical friend in Gaza, told me, "I don't like Hamas but I hate the left the most...do you think if we had a good left, if Fateh was not corrupt, anyone would have supported Hamas? At least Hamas is in the camps with the people. The leftists' children study in Europe, they pass easily through Rafah." He was practically yelling when he said this to me, and his fury was clear. He lives with the consequences of the left's failure....

PFLP: On ninth anniversary of Sa'adat's abduction, demand an end to security cooperation with the occupier (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) - 23-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine marked the ninth anniversary of the abduction of its General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat, by the Palestinian Authority security apparatus, releasing a statement denouncing the massive crime that was committed against him and the entire Palestinian nation. Comrade Sa'adat was abducted on January 15, 2002. In the statement, the PFLP condemned the utterly unjustified abduction, and the entire policy of detention, arrest, or kidnapping of Palestinian freedom fighters as a dangerous and damaging policy that comes in the context of security cooperation with the occupation..

E-mail to the California State Bar on the “Who Owns Jerusalem” Hoax (Élise Hendrick) - 23-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - I sent this e-mail today to the California State Bar to ask them a few questions about the supposedly MCLE-approved "Who Owns Jerusalem" lecture by Jacques Gauthier and sponsored by CAMERA and the "David Horowitz Freedom Center" amongst others: Dear Sir or Madam: I recently became aware of an event entitled "Who Owns Jerusalem" and sponsored by the pro-Israel public relations organisation CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), which claims to be approved for 1.5 hours of California MCLE credit. This event is billed as a lecture by a Canadian attorney by the name of Jacques Gauthier, who claims that, contrary to the international legal consensus most clearly enunciated in the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and numerous international instruments, including the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention, that Israel is entitled to full sovereignty over the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory, i.e., the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem...

“Who Owns Jerusalem” – A CAMERA Hoax Approved for MCLE Credit (Élise Hendrick) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - Sometimes the much-maligned Facebook ads have their merits. Last night, I happened upon a Facebook ad offering a course approved by the State Bar of California for credit towards the Bar’s minimum continuing legal education (MCLE) requirements entitled "Who owns Jerusalem?". It turned out to be an advertisement for a "course", sponsored by the "pro"-Israeli PR organisation CAMERA and held by an obscure Canadian lawyer by the name of Jacques Gauthier, claiming that an even more obscure document from 1920 known as the "San Remo Resolution" had vested full legal title to the entirety of Palestine to Israel...

EU Pushed to Get Tougher With Israel (By Mel Frykberg) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - In what could be a seismic shift in international attitudes towards Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem, European diplomats are calling for strong action against Israeli policy in a secret document made public recently. Simultaneously, Palestinian and left-wing Israeli activists have accused Israeli authorities of carrying out illegal witch hunts as activists become a growing target for arrests, detentions, and home invasions...

Druze Leader’s Endorsement Likely to Put Hezbollah Bloc in Power in Lebanon (Jason Ditz) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - Reports coming out of Lebanon today suggest that Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze-dominated Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), is going to back the March 8 political bloc led by Hezbollah, effectively giving them enough seats to form a majority government. The PSP was originally part of outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s March 14 bloc, but after the unity government became basically an independent faction and, as without them the split between the two blocs was 60 seats to 57, the de facto kingmaker with their 11 seat party...

In Israel/Palestine, Occupation Has No Future (by David Zlutnick) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - In the Fall of 2009 I had the privilege of following a delegation of US veterans and war resisters traveling to Israel/Palestine to meet with their Israeli counterparts in an effort to strengthen connections between the US and Israeli anti-militarist movements and to share their experiences of refusing to be part of an occupying army. Made up of members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Courage to Resist, the War Resisters’ League, among other groups, the group—called Dialogues Against Militarism (DAM)—spent a month traversing the Israeli state and the Occupied West Bank meeting with Israelis and Palestinians. As a filmmaker, I was asked to accompany the delegation to document its travels and record their conversations and interviews...

Is Israel an Apartheid State? South African Study Says Yes (Soysauce) - 22-jan-2011

January 22, 2011 - International law defines the crime of apartheid as acts against humanity "committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime." The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa commissioned a study in 2009 to test the hypothesis that Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem constitutes apartheid. The findings concluded: Israel appears clearly to be implementing and sustaining policies intended to maintain its domination over Palestinians in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] and to suppress opposition of any form to those policies. The comparative analyses of South African apartheid practices threaded throughout the analysis of apartheid in this report illuminates, rather than defines, the meaning of apartheid....

23/01/2011

Israel inquiry finds Gaza aid flotilla raid `was legal`
BBC--The raid, in which nine Turkish activists were killed, attracted widespread international condemnation.

Farming in Khoruba valley
Tuwani Team--On Saturday, 22nd of January, Palestinian farmers successfully plowed fields in Khoruba valley, despite heavy harassment by settlers from the nearby settlement of Ma`on.

Israeli Military Arrests Two Young Palestinians
Jean Fallon--A call came for the Hebron Team to come quickly to the street Friday, January 21, 1:30pm. The military had stopped the people going home after Friday prayers at the Mosque. CPT found the people bottled up in the narrow exit tunnel of the Old City. It was an explosive situation. Some of the people had managed to push out into the Plaza where the soldiers were yelling at the people who were yelling back, asking the soldiers to let them return home. Fortunately two CPT-ers from Tuwani joined the Hebron Team in front of six soldiers who had their guns pointed at the crowd. Each of the Team tried to get the soldiers to calm down, to stop yelling, and to let the folks go home. Instead of listening to reason, the soldiers yelled more at the people. They tried to force the people to move back. They put their guns into people`s faces, young or old-anyone trying to sneak by.

HEBRON REFLECTION: They left their mark everywhere
Paulette Schroeder--Her dropped head, her clasped hands, her sad face continue to haunt me. I ask myself: How anyone could endure this kind of pain, especially a mother.

In the line of duty
Gideon Levy--Khalil Givati-Rapp, a medic in the Nahal Brigade, could no longer bear the role society had forced upon him. [for more on IOF suicides see http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x107590] dn

No man`s land in east Jerusalem
Elior Levy--Ynet special: Chaos reigns supreme in Jerusalem neighborhoods situated beyond security fence

French FM backs Palestinian statehood
Elior Levy--French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Saturday that her country does not recognize the legitimacy of West Bank settlements and that Israel must stop building them.

Former U.S. diplomats to Obama: Support UN draft condemning Israeli settlements
Shlomo Shamir--Letter sent by former U.S. senior officials says the time has come to send clear signal to the parties, world that the U.S. will approach the conflict with objectivity and respect for international law.

Boycott the Boycotters [We must show that initiatives as these are misguided]
[forwarded by Scott Kennedy]--By Roz Rothstein and Roberta Seid--Anti-Israel activists are now putting all their energy into their Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign (BDS). Their goal is to portray Israel and Israelis as pariahs that should be excluded from all international spheres—diplomatic, political, economic, social, and cultural.

A fine line between Palestinian remembrance, radicalization
[forwarded by Rupa Shah]--Lee Berthiaume--"I`m so happy when I come to school," responds one 12-year-old in English. Another, however, complains in Arabic through a translator that there was a shortage of textbooks at the beginning of the school year. Then I get an answering I wasn`t expecting. "I don`t care about the school," says one girl. "I want to be in Palestine, my homeland."

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

MK Zoabi: I was not summoned by Turkel Commission

23 January 2011

MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) who was onboard the Marmara making its way to the Gaza Strip said on Sunday she was not summoned to testify by the Turkel Commission. “The commission purposely and intentionally failed to summon the civilian and the only witness to see what happened out of fear her testimony would damage the harmony of the report,” she said.

“The report is a scanty version of the official Israeli version. The report cannot clear Israel’s image as a serial international law breaker,” Zoabi added.

MORE on the Turkel Commission whitewashing Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara

Amira Hass: IDF soldier claims wrong information led to Gaza family’s deaths

23 January 2011

Imad Samouni: I know Hebrew and I told the family not to worry because Jews have better hearts than we do, I worked with them for 10 years. They tied us up… There were 46 of us… “The soldiers passed among us, made our home into their hostel… [The shackles] hurt me terribly and my fingers swelled. A soldier tried to open them but couldn’t, and only made them tighter. My

Wife cried that they hurt me. He brought scissors and cut down to the flesh to open them. My wife cried… And I’m a man, I told them not to cry, and he brought new plastic ties. We stayed that way from Sunday to Monday…

Jonathan Cook: Pilgrims to site where Jesus was baptised risk landmines

22 January 2011

The army declared the River Jordan a closed military zone in 1967 and later laid mines along much of its length to deter “infiltrators” from Jordan, both Palestinian refugees seeking to return to their homes in the West Bank and Arab fighters trying to launch attacks… [T]he Israel director of Roots of Peace, a global advocacy group opposed to landmines, said half a million remained in the Valley. He added that mines could drift from fenced-off areas during storm-floods, putting worshippers at risk if they strayed off marked paths.

·  Gisha: Israeli flotilla inquiry cannot authorize the collective punishment of a civilian population

·  My Khan Yunis

·  Encounters with Israeli cinema

·  If Israel continues to quash nonviolent protest without sanction, Palestinians will ‘conclude that nonviolence is an ineffective path to freedom’

·  Israelis target Macy Gray with racist diatribes after she agrees to play Tel Aviv (and who are the “assholes?”)

·  Crisis in Alabama averted, thanks to the ADL

·  Israeli forces clashes with Palestinians in Silwan and Shufat refugee camp for the third day straight

·  Unbounded joy

·  New Palestinian refugee camp in Lod following home demolitions

January 23, 2011 - Jonathan Pollak ~~~ Yonatan Shapira ~~~ Emily Henochowicz . Named above are three Jewish heroes. There are more, many more, but these three have one thing in common. The first is sitting in an Israeli jail for taking part in a 'bike ride’ against the illegal actions of the Israeli military in Gaza. The second was tasered by Israeli authorities for being a passenger on a humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza. The third lost an e ye while protesting Israel’s attack on a Turkish flotilla to Gaza where 9 passengers were murdered in cold blood. According to Israel, these three individuals are criminals. Also according to Israel, the actual criminals are seen as heroes and are being protected by law. Once again, Israel defies international law and all common sense by issuing the first part of their Turkel Committee report, absolving itself from piracy, murder on the high seas and theft...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74225

January 23, 2011 - The Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, known for his controversial stance advocating the 'transfer' of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, has drafted his own map to "solve" the Israel-Palestine conflict, in which all land taken from the Palestinians by Israeli brute force would be allowed to remain in Israeli hands, leaving Palestinians with several non-contiguous land reservations made up of 13% of their original land, and refugees would be denied their internationally recognized right of return...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74226

January 23, 2011 - The overwhelming impression that emerges from the confidential records of a decade of Middle East peace talks is of the weakness and desperation of Palestinian leaders, the unyielding correctness of Israeli negotiators and the often contemptuous attitude towards the Palestinian side shown by US politicians and officials. It is a picture that graphically illustrates the gradual breakdown of a process now widely believed to have reached a dead end. The documents reveal Palestinian Authority leaders often tipping over into making ingratiating appeals to their Israeli counterparts, as well as US leaders. "I would vote for you," the then senior Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia (also known as Abu Ala), told Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, during talks at the King David hotel in Jerusalem in June 2008, as she was preparing for elections in her Kadima party. Given the choice, Livni shot back, "you don't have much of a dilemma.".. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74219

January 23, 2011 - Despite strong U.S. opposition, a proposed resolution condemning Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank did make it to the UN Security Council. It was not put to a vote and no vote is expected for some time, if ever, because of the probability as things stand of an American veto. But given growing global support for the resolution, there is a case for wondering if President Obama can remain Zionist-like in his own imp licit defiance of international law on Israel’s behalf. Introduced by Lebanon, the resolution states that "Israeli settlements established in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace." ...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74220

Settler attacks in South Hebron Hills (go unreported) (Mairav Zonszein) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 - This morning, while internationals were escorting Palestinian residents of Um al Hir (in South Hebron Hills) to their pasture to graze their herds, settlers assaulted them by throwing stones and hitting them. Apparently they did not go after Palestinians but only the international escorts, who were specifically requested to be there due to recent tensions in the area. One international had a stills camera stolen from him, however managed to hold on to his video camera, with which he filmed what happened. When they went to the police to file a report, the police told them that if he erased all his footage on the video camera, he would return the other camera to him. (This is the type of police behavior one could expect in Mexico, but apparently this has become acceptable practice by Israel in the Wild Wild West Bank.)...

Palestine papers are distortion of truth, say Palestinian officials
Senior PLO leader attacks Palestine papers as 'propaganda game', as Hamas accuses PLO of betraying Palestinian interests (Ian Black, Seumas Milne, and Harriet Sherwood in Ramallah) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 - Palestinian officials today lashed out at the publication of leaked documents revealing a secret agreement to accept Israel's annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in East Jerusalem - one of the most sensitive issues to be resolved in the conflict with Israel. The unprecedented proposal, revealed by al-Jazeera TV and the Guardian, was one of several concessions that have caused shockwaves among Palestinians and across the Arab world. It appears in a cache of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records covering more than a decade of negotiations and which provide an extraordinary and vivid insight into the disintegration of the 20-year peace process. Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a senior PLO leader, attacked al-Jazeera and its Qatari owners over what he called "a distortion of the truth" designed to create confusion. Speaking in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, he called the leak "a propaganda game through the media in order to brainwash Palestinian citizens"...

Total Capitulation (Tariq Ali) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 - Now we know that the capitulation was total, but still the Israeli overlords of the PLO refused to sign a deal and their friends in the press blamed the Palestinians for being too difficult. They wanted Palestine to be crushed before they would agree to underwrite a few moth-eaten protectorates that they would supervise indefinitely. They wanted Hamas destroyed. The PLO agreed. The recent assault on Gaza was carried out with the approval of Abbas and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, not to mention Washington and its EU. The PLO sold out in a literal sense. They were bought with money and treated like servants. There is TV footage of Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton at Camp David playfully tugging at Arafat’s headgear to stop him leaving. All three are laughing. Many PLO supporters in Palestine must be weeping as they watch al-Jazeera and take in the scale of the betrayal and the utter cynicism of their leaders.

This seemingly endless and ugly game of the peace process is now finally over (Karma Nabulsi) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 - It's over. Given the shocking nature, extent and detail of these ghastly revelations from behind the closed doors of the Middle East peace process, the seemingly endless and ugly game is now, finally, over. Not one of the villains on the Palestinian side can survive it. With any luck the sheer horror of this account of how the US and Britain covertly facilitated and even implemented Israeli military expansion – while creating an oligarchy to manage it – might overcome the entrenched interests and venality that have kept the peace process going. A small group of men who have polluted the Palestinian public sphere with their private activities are now exposed...

Gaza Flotilla Massacre: Whitewash Absolves Israel (by Stephen Lendman) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 - Last May 31, Israeli commandos attacked and murdered nine or more activists, injuring dozens in international waters on board the Mavi Marmara mother ship, one of five bringing humanitarian aid to besieged Gazans. An earlier article explained. The UK-based Stop the War Coalition called the attack "Yet another act of Israeli barbarism." Global protests erupted. Haaretz columnist, Gideon Levy, cited Israel’s "propaganda machine….reach(ing) new highs (in distributing) false information….embarrass(ing) itself by entering a futile public relations battle," filled with malicious fiction and deceit. What happened was clear. IDF commandos planned and executed a premeditated attack against unarmed, nonviolent humanitarian activists, trying to break Israel’s illegal blockade to deliver essential aid. Cold-blooded murder resulted...

Documents reveal PA offered Israel "biggest Yerushalayim" in history (Report, The Electronic Intifada) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 - The Al Jazeera network has begun to release documents it secretly obtained that expose dramatic concessions made by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) to the Israeli government and US officials. The leaked files, which Al Jazeera has dubbed "The Palestine Papers," contain more than 1,600 internal documents related to the last decade of peace negotiations. The network has also shared the information with the Guardian newspaper in London. "These documents -- memos, e-mails, maps, minutes from private meetings, accounts of high level exchanges, strategy papers and even power point presentations - date from 1999 to 2010," Al Jazeera stated in its introduction to the report ...

 
Israel threatens to disconnect Gaza's infrastructure (Ma'an news) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday told French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie he was considering disconnecting the Gaza Strip from Israel's electricity and water supplies. The plan was originally proposed by Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in the summer of 2010. He suggested that the European Union help build a power plant, water desalination plant and sewage treatment facility in the Gaza Strip to make it self-sufficient. Ma'an asked officials in Gaza what impact this would have on the coastal enclave.

Israeli panel: Flotilla raid legal (AlJazeera.net) - 24-jan-2011

January 23, 2011 - An Israeli inquiry commission has defended the actions of the country's troops during a deadly raid on a Turkish-led flotilla of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip last year. The core findings were issued in a 300-page report released on Sunday by an Israeli government-appointed panel. Made up of four Israelis and two foreign observers, the panel said Israel did not violate international law...

Reaction to the leaked Palestine papers
Palestinian negotiators have angrily dismissed accounts as lies, fabrications and half truths (Chris McGreal) - 24-jan-2011

January 24, 2011 - As Palestinian negotiators named in the secret accounts of negotiations with Israel angrily dismissed them as lies, fabrications and half truths; there was an equally hostile backlash over their offer to let the Jewish state keep its settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and other concessions. The two leading Palestinian negotiators named in the documents, Saeb Erekat and Ahmed Qureia, reacted furiously to the leaks. Erekat called them a "bunch of lies". Qureia claimed that "many parts of the documents were fabricated, as part of the incitement against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian leadership"...

24/01/2011

Palestinians wait for answers on Israeli war in Gaza
Donald Macintyre - The Independent - Human rights groups demand progress in inquiries over Israel`s conduct in Operation Cast Lead

US was Cheerleader for Massacre - Wikileaks Cables on Israel`s Gaza Onslaught
Kathleen Christison - CounterPunch - "Though the cables often simply rehash Israeli press reporting, providing little new insight into Israel’s attack or the planning behind it, they show with pitiless clarity the U.S. government to be little more than a handmaiden and amanuensis of the Israeli military machine"

Gaza flotilla survivors respond to Turkel Commission report
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News - “Sarah Colbourne, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and who was also onboard the Marvi Marmara when the Israeli Defence Force attacked the boat said: ‘However hard the Israeli Government attempts to rewrite history, they can’t rewrite the truth. The facts are simple; the Marvi Marmara was carrying essential humanitarian aid like baby milk to the besieged people of Gaza. There were no guns or weapons on board […], we were in international waters, when over 300 bullets – or one for every two people on board - rained down on us, killing 9 people and injuring over 50’”

Israeli Settlers` Violence Report: November, December 2010
Ahmad Jaradat - AIC - "As will be demonstrated, settler attacks continued during this period and were concentrated in the north of the West Bank, especially in the Nablus District. Trees were the most common target, with burnings and land confiscations, especially land close to settlements, which serve the aim of expanding settlements and providing strategic points for attacks on Palestinian residents traveling by road. Several of the attacks were done with full cooperation of the Israeli army and in plain sight of soldiers, who did nothing to prevent the settlers from attacking and burning trees"

Palestine papers: Now we know. Israel had a peace partner
Jonathan Freedland - The Guardian - The classified documents show Palestinians willing to go to extreme lengths and Israel holding a firm line on any peace deal

The report is good, the situation is bad
Haaretz Editorial - Israel longs for vision, wisdom and resolution. The Turkel committee has contributed very little in those areas

Macy Gray, Don`t Sing for Apartheid!
Send an email to Macy Gray and her tour managers, urging her not to entertain apartheid!

Israel inquiry finds Gaza aid flotilla raid `was legal`
BBC--The raid, in which nine Turkish activists were killed, attracted widespread international condemnation.

Farming in Khoruba valley
Tuwani Team--On Saturday, 22nd of January, Palestinian farmers successfully plowed fields in Khoruba valley, despite heavy harassment by settlers from the nearby settlement of Ma`on.

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

Newly Leaked Documents Show a Weakened PA Willing to Give up East Jerusalem

Monday January 24, 2011 - 16:24

Documents reveal PA made series of concessions to Israel negotiators; East Jerusalem was offered and rejected since it didn't include settlements in West Bank. Full Story

Settlers Attack Internationals Escorting Palestinians in South Hebron Hills

Monday January 24, 2011 - 15:08

On Sunday, settlers assaulted internationals while they were escorting Palestinians to their pasture to graze their herds in Um al Hir , a Beduoin village in South Hebron Hills. Full Story

14 Year Old Boy Arrested by Israeli Military in Night Raid in Nabi Saleh

Monday January 24, 2011 - 13:46

On Sunday night, the Israeli army raided the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh for the third time in two weeks and arrested a 14 year old boy. Full Story

Libyan delegation promises supply of essential medicines for Gaza

24 January 2011

The Jerusalem 5 convoy arrived in Gaza with ambulances and a truck full of essential drugs and medicines.

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

A delegation accompanying the Libyan Jerusalem 5 convoy has said it is ready to supply the health sector in Gaza with all the essential medicines and medical supplies that are in short supply. Speaking at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on 22 January, a spokesman for the delegation said, "We have been briefed on the reality of the crisis in the private health sector in Gaza and the shortage of medicines and medical supplies; we are ready to meet the shortfall in all of these supplies. Read more...

Palestinians protest against closure of commercial crossing in Gaza

24 January 2011

The protestors called on the international community to apply pressure on Israel

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

Palestinian truck owners demonstrated in response to the Israeli decision to close the Karni crossing permanently at the end of the month. Also known as the Al-Mentar crossing, the Karni crossing is a key commercial crossing point between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.
 
The protestors called on the international community to apply pressure on Israel to open all the crossings and to help bring an end to the illegal siege of Gaza. Protestors also called on the President Mahmoud Abbas and the Legislative Council to investigate these closures and hold those responsible accountable. They urged the international Quartet and the state of Turkey to intervene and prevent, what has been seen as an attempt to tighten the blockade surrounding the Strip. Read more...

Turkel is another nail in Zionism's coffin

24 January 2011

Israel's Turkel Commission has found that Israeli soldiers fired at unarmed civilians on a peace flotilla in "self-defense"

News that Israel's Turkel Commission has found that Israeli soldiers fired at unarmed civilians on a peace flotilla in "self-defense" should come as no surprise. The Zionist state is adept at covering up its many military "mistakes" so why should this decision of the government-appointed commission about the assault and hijacking of the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010 be any different? Anyone who thought that the oft-declared "only democracy in the Middle East" would be interested in seeking justice for the victims of Israel's trigger-happy soldiers really ought to know better. It is just a couple of weeks since an unarmed 65-year old man was shot and killed in his bed in a case of "mistaken identity"; his killer didn't even check his identity before opening fire with fatal consequences. The soldier in question was discharged from the army last week; reports say that he is "unlikely" to face any criminal charges. No great outcry has arisen from the international community about injustice, nor have calls been made for the killer to brought before a court; life goes on, and it looks as if that is what is going to happen with the latest Israeli whitewash. Read more...

The Palestine Papers - "Shocking revelations" on Jerusalem

24 January 2011

Dr. Daud Abdullah

The chief Palestinian negotiator appears disconnected from his own people and his wider Arab and Muslim constituency.

One of the most shocking revelations of The Palestine Papers obtained by Al Jazeera relates to the demographic and territorial concessions that the Palestinian Authority was willing to give on Jerusalem.

The papers show that not only did PA negotiators demonstrate a willingness to accept Israel’s annexation of all the settlements in Jerusalem, except Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa), but that they were also willing to disown parts of the besieged Arab neighbourhoods in the city. Worse still, Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator, displayed clear "flexibility" regarding the sovereignty on the Haram al-Sharif. Read more...

South African government faces challenges to arrest those accused of war crimes

24 January 2011

South African government faces challenges to arrest those accused of war crimes

By Has South Africa joined the United States of America and European countries in providing Israel with "geopolitical insulation"? This question arises against the backdrop of an intense week during which international media attention was focused on whether a senior Israeli politician faced the prospect of being arrested upon her travel to South Africa. It also arises because of a perception that the visit by Tzipi Livni had been planned months ago and would only proceed without hitch if the Pretoria government had given it a green light.

The (now cancelled) visit by Israel's leader of the opposition and former foreign minister led to charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity being laid against Livni before the National Director of Public Prosecutions. This is unprecedented in South African history and presents numerous challenges to the judiciary of the country. Read more...

Palestinian families protest at French FM visit in Gaza

21 January 2011

Palestinian families protest at French FM visit in Gaza

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip came out in protest, throwing eggs and in some cases, shoes, as the French Foreign Minister Michel Alliot-Marie and her entourage visited the besieged region on Friday morning. Read more...

Israeli tribute to Palestinian Authority security support "confirms threat to West Bank Palestinians"

21 January 2011

Islamic Resistance Movement

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has called the tribute paid by the Israeli Defence Minister and the Director of Israel's intelligence service to the Palestinian Authority for its security cooperation with the occupying power "a threat to the people of the occupied West Bank". In a press statement, Hamas said, "The blessings given by Ehud Barak and Yuval Diskin confirm the growing and widespread belief that the main concern of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is the security of the Zionist state and not the defense of citizen's rights as they struggle under Israel's military occupation. Read more...

Direct Palestinian-Israeli meeting predicted

21 January 2011

The resumption of direct meetings between the Palestinians and Israelis has been predicted by Israeli media sources. The talks will be held under American auspices, said Israel Radio.

According to the sources, high-profile Palestinian officials are expected in Israel by the end of this week to meet with the two American envoys, Dennis Ross and George Mitchell. They will study the possibility of resuming the political negotiation process between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

An afternoon in the Jerusalem studio of GOD TV, the Christian Zionist ethnic cleansing network

‘The Palestine Cables’: WikiLeaks exposes Egypt, PA cooperation with Israel during Gaza assault

‘Palestine Papers’ fallout: Fatah protesters attack Al Jazeera while in Gaza ‘anger and disbelief’

More reax on Palestine papers

Israel rejects “the biggest Yerushalayim” while Palestinian negotiators plead ‘what more can I give?’

American intifadah: We shake off the neocons

Israel has taken over from Northern Ireland as a factory of grievances

The stark reality of the ‘Palestine Papers’ points the way forward

Youth activists respond to authoritarian PA crackdown on Tunisia solidarity rally

Brooklyn-Jenin: A call for the remnants of the Israeli-Jewish left

‘LA Times’ showcases Israeli racism

Tear gas inhalation has contributed to four Palestinian deaths (and that’s not counting those maimed/killed by high-velocity canisters)

Saban family tried to give Emanuel over 1/2 a million

Al Jazeera publishes bombshell leak concerning the peace process; ex-CIA official ‘The overwhelming conclusion one draws from this record is that the process for a two-state solution is essentially over’

Report: US will not veto UN resolution condemning settlements

January 24, 2011 - For more than a decade, since the collapse of the Camp David talks in 2000, the mantra of Israeli politics has been: "There is no Palestinian partner for peace." Yesterday, the first of hundreds of leaked confidential Palestinian documents seemed to show that the rejectionists in the peace process have been on the Israeli, not Palestinian, side. The most revealing papers, jointly released by Al Jazeera television and Britain's Guardian newspaper, date from 2008, the most hopeful period in the recent negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. At the time, Ehud Olmert was Israel's prime minister and had publicly committed himself to pursuing an agreement on Palestinian statehood. He was backed by the US administration of George W Bush, which had revived the peace process in late 2007 by hosting the Annapolis conference. In those favourable circumstances, the papers show, Israel spurned a set of major concessions the Palestinian negotiating team offered over the next months on the most sensitive issues in the talks...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74252

January 24, 2011 – This sleepy agricultural village, an hour’s drive northeast from Tel Aviv, feels worlds apart from Israel’s commercial capital. Garbage lines many of the narrow, rutted streets, symptoms of the lower level of government funding bestowed upon the town; unemployed men mill about, complaining that Israel’s policies have hurt the local economy. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s hard-right foreign minister has proposed annexing this and other Arab villa ges to a future Palestinian state. Their inhabitants would be stripped of their Israeli citizenship unless they were willing to leave their land and swear a "loyalty oath" to the state...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74251

January 24, 2011 - Israel's controversial invasion of Gaza deliberately aimed to "cleanse" Palestinian neighbourhoods, former soldiers have alleged, in claims that will reignite the debate over the legality of the three week military campaign two years ago. Israel invaded Gaza at the end of 2008 in a bid to halt rocket attacks from the territory it ceded in 2005. It says it focused on military targets controlled by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, and bitterly countered a 2009 UN report that stated civilians had been deliberately targeted...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74250

January 24, 2011 - News that Israel's Turkel Commission has found that Israeli soldiers fired at unarmed civilians on a peace flotilla in "self-defense" should come as no surprise. The Zionist state is adept at covering up its many military "mistakes" so why should this decision of the government-appointed commission about the assault and hijacking of the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010 be any different? Anyone who thought that the oft-declared "only democracy in the Middle East" would be interested in seeking justice for the victims of Israel's trigger-happy soldiers really ought to know better. It is just a couple of weeks since an unarmed 65-year old man was shot and killed in his bed in a case of "mistaken identity"; his killer didn't even check his identity before opening fire with fatal consequences...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74247

January 24, 2011 - ...This revelation alone is breathtaking, and not in a good way. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat who reportedly at the time laid out the concession as "offering you [Israel] the biggest Yerushalayim in history" maintains the cables are full of falsities and half-truths. Not very many Palestinians are buying it though, largely believing the authenticity of the cables, mostly because the contents, although shocking, are not all surprising. Over the years, the Palestinian leadership and its negotiating team have become weaker and more desperate if you will, with every failed attempt at reaching a deal. The concessions, revealed in detail, show just how frustrated the Palestinians have become. During no time in history did the Palestinians ever fathom conceding so much land to the Israelis in Jerusalem, always maintaining that all of occupied east Jerusalem would one day be the capital of Palestine...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74245

Abbas: I will face Al-Jazeera

President says "Palestine Papers" were forged, contradicting PA officials; says he will "face" Al-Jazeera and counter claims of inappropriate concessions to Israel.

Hamas withdraws authorization of Abbas

Ireland upgrades Palestinian diplomatic status

Why I will not testify - Maureen Murphy

Palestinians give Abbas hero's welcome after he denounces 'Palestine papers'

Palestinians burn Israeli flags and posters of the Emir of Qatar, who approved Al-Jazeera's broadcast of leaked Mideast documents that accuse Abbas of selling out to Israel.

Hamas urges Palestinian refugees to protest over concessions on right of return

A Special Place in Hell / Boycotting Israel, boycotting Macy Gray, and a third option

As I ride the hurtling down-elevator, while my Zionist life flashes before my eyes, I'd like to take a moment and seek a fresh take on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions effort.

Macy Gray asks Facebook fans: Should I boycott Israel?

Possible source of Palestine papers leak

‎Christian Science Monitor - Joshua Mitnick

"I'm 100 percent sure that it's a former disgruntled employed,'' says Gershon Baskin, co director of the Israel Palestinian Center for Research and ...

Video: Defiant Abbas Says He's on 'Right Path'

The Associated Press

The selling of the 'Palestine Papers'‎ - Washington Post
Leaked maps show gaps in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations‎ - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Aljazeera.net - BBC News

CBC.ca

US embassy cables: Israel weighs up Palestinian aid

‎The Guardian

Despite the uncertainty following the recent Palestinian Legislative Council elections and the Israeli Cabinet decision that the GOI will not talk to Hamas, ...

Israel asked Palestinian Authority to kill al-Aqsa commander
The Guardian

Behind the killing, leaked documents from the Palestine papers reveal, lay extensive clandestine collaboration between the Israel's army and secret service ...

Palestinians protest against closure of commercial crossing in Gaza‎ - Middle East Monitor
The al-Madhoun assassination‎ - Aljazeera.net
Egypt: Al Qaeda is growing in Gaza‎ - Fox News (blog)
Foreign Policy - The Palestine Telegraph (blog)

The Guardian

Ireland upgrades status of Palestinian mission to embassy
Ha'aretz

Palestinian protestors waving Palestinian flags during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip on April 21, 2010. Photo by: AP The Israeli assessment is that ...

Ireland upgrades Palestinian mission to embassy‎ - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Ireland upgrades Palestinian diplomatic delegation to a mission‎ - Telegraph.co.uk
Ireland upgrades Palestinian delegation to mission‎ - AFP
Arutz Sheva - Ma'an News Agency

Telegraph.co.uk

Settler leaders unfazed by PA rejection of land swap

‎Jerusalem Post - Tovah Lazaroff

"Palestine Papers" challenge Israeli assumption that any ... It has been widely assumed that any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would ...

Settler leaders unfazed by leaked papers‎ - Ynetnews  

The effective answer to BDS is two states for two peoples

Galus Australis - Philip Mendes

But in doing so, we may implicitly neglect to say the obvious: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complex struggle whose causes vary from the structural ...

Israel's Geographic-Demographic Threat to Identity‎ - RUSI
Israel bashers, indeed‎ - Washington Post (blog)
Dialogue and Deceit‎ - FrontPage Magazine
Arab News - Daily Nation

Galus Australis

Palestine papers: a glossary

‎The Guardian

Plan adopted by Arab League (2000, 2007) offering recognition of Israel in exchange for a return to the 1967 borders and just solution of the Palestinian .

Mother of Bilin martyrs: we will not be stopped (Alex Kane writing from Bilin, occupied West Bank) - 26-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - The village of Bilin in the occupied West Bank was quiet on 12 January 2010, but reminders of the violence that hits the village every Friday during the weekly demonstration against Israel's illegal wall were visible. Posters of Jawaher Abu Rahmah were hung up and taped to signs and walls around the village. It had been nearly two weeks since Jawaher was killed on 1 January 2010 as a result of severe inhalation of tear gas fired by the Israeli military at a demonstration the previous day. In the immediate aftermath of her death, the Israeli military attempted to deflect blame for the killing by spreading misinformation, assisted by the right-wing blogosphere and the Israeli and US media about Jawaher. Israel's propaganda, though, was quickly refuted by eyewitnesses to the death...

Leaks claim Palestinian 'collusion'
Leaked US cables say Palestinian security forces engage in extensive co-operation with their Israeli counterparts. (AlJazeera.net) - 26-jan-2011

January 25, 2011 - The Palestinian security forces engage in extensive co-operation with their Israeli counterparts, according to documents released by the WikiLeaks website. The cables quotes Yuval Diskin, the head of Shabak, Israel's security service, as saying his agency has "friendly, professional and honest" information exchanges with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs the occupied West Bank. The comments, first reported by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Tuesday, were reportedly included in a US note documenting a conversation between Diskin and James Cunningham, the US ambassador to Israel, in January 2010...

Palestine papers: MI6 plan proposed internment – and hotline to Israelis (Seumas Milne and Ian Black) - 26-jan-2011

January 25, 2011 - The Palestinian Authority's security strategy to crush Hamas and other armed groups on the West Bank was originally drawn up by Britain's intelligence service, MI6, leaked papers reveal. The strategy included internment of leaders and activists, closure of radio stations and replacement of imams in mosques – the bulk of which has since been carried out. Two documents drafted by the Secret Intelligence Service in conjunction with other Whitehall departments, which are among the cache given to al-Jazeera TV and shared with the Guardian, are understood to have been passed to Jibril Rajoub, former head of PA security in the West Bank, at the beginning of 2004 by an MI6 officer then based at the British consulate in Jerusalem...

 
Comrade Taher: Al-Jazeera's Palestine Papers reveal Oslo process is nothing more than a road to liquidation (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) - 26-jan-2011

January 25, 2011 - The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said on January 24, 2011 that it must be clear to all that the so-called "peace process" is utterly dead, saying that the Palestine Papers documents released by Al-Jazeera must demonstrate to all that this so-called "peace process" has always been only a means to liquidate the Palestinian cause. Comrade Dr. Maher al-Taher, leader of the PFLP's branch outside Palestine, said that the Front has opposed the Oslo process from the very beginning, saying that these agreements have always undermined the Palestinian national cause. Comrade Taher emphasized that the goal of the Palestinian revolution is to liberate Palestine, and the Oslo process is nothing more than a distraction and a threat of liquidation. He said that even the Authority must officially recognize that the "peace process" is dead - that it has led to no state, no self-determination, no return, and no independence....

If true, it is treason (By Khalid Amayreh) - 26-jan-2011

January 25, 2011 - If al-Jazeera's Sunday night's revelations about the secrets of several years of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are true (and I don't have the slightest doubt that they are) then we can't escape the conclusion that whoever made these startling concessions to the Zionist regime is a traitor. He is a traitor to Palestine, a traitor to its people, a traitor to its martyrs and a traitor to multitudes of political and resistance prisoners languishing behind bars in Israeli jails...

The al-Madhoun assassination
Documents include handwritten notes of 2005 exchange between PA and Israel on plan to kill Palestinian fighter in Gaza. (David Poort) - 26-jan-2011

January 25, 2011 - The Palestinian Authority (PA) has shown operational willingness to co-operate with Israel to kill its own people, the Palestine Papers indicate. Among the documents are notes, handwritten in Arabic, revealing an exchange in 2005 between the PA and Israel on a plan to kill a Palestinian fighter named Hassan al-Madhoun, who lived in the Gaza strip...

Thousands of Palestinians march in Gaza against PA President Abbas

‎Ha'aretz

The protests were sparked by the contested Palestine papers, roughly 1600 documents about a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leaked by Al-Jazeera ...

Video: Defiant Abbas Says He's on 'Right Path'

The Associated Press

PA, Fatah 'can no longer speak' for Palestinians‎ - AFP
Palestine papers: live updates‎ - The Guardian (blog)
ABC Online - The Canadian Press

Globe and Mail

US, Jordan seek resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

The Canadian Press - Bradley Klapper

The talks are a failing effort made even more difficult by this week's release of papers alleging wide-ranging Palestinian concessions to Israel. ...

Israel enraged by Irish upgrade for Palestinian envoy
thejournal.ie

THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT has accused Ireland of a long-time “bias” in the Middle East after it upgraded the status of the Palestinian delegation to Ireland to ...

Ireland upgrades status of Palestinian mission to embassy‎ - Ha'aretz
Republic of Ireland's Palestine upgrade strains Israeli relations‎ - Belfast Telegraph
Israel summons Ambassador over Palestinian envoy upgrade‎ - Irish Times
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - Haveeru Online

Telegraph.co.uk

Israel critics should respect my decision

The Guardian

This shows the pragmatism and common sense of the Palestinian Authority leaders, and gives great hope for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ...

Christian Missionary Kristine Luken Mistaken for Jewish by ...‎ - ABC News
Four Palestinians suspected of killing US tourist‎ - Reuters
THE STUTTGART DECLARATION FOR A ONE STATE SOLUTION IN PALESTINE ...‎ - Intifada Palestine
Broward New Times (blog) - Media Monitors Network

msnbc.com

US embassy cables: Israel weighs up Palestinian aid

‎The Guardian

Despite the uncertainty following the recent Palestinian Legislative Council elections and the Israeli Cabinet decision that the GOI will not talk to Hamas, ...

The Al Jazeera document dump and you

‎The Jewish Journal of Greater L.A. - Douglas M. Bloomfield

Now a leading Washington think tank has unveiled a series of maps detailing proposals for drawing Israeli-Palestinian borders. The central question in all ...

Israel 'upped West Bank home demolitions in 2010': NGO‎ - AFP
Backlash forces Jewish group to cancel West Bank trip‎ - Jerusalem Post
More Palestinian homes razed in 2010‎ - Press TV
People's Daily Online - ICRC (press release)

France24

Tutu to remain holocaust patron

‎Times LIVE

The trustees told Tutu the foundation respected his right to express his "deep concern for human rights issues in the Israel/Palestinian conflict. ...

Medics: Settler kills Palestinian protester (Ma'an newsn) - 27-jan-2011

January 27, 2011 - An Israeli settler killed a young Palestinian protester in the northern West Bank on Thursday, officials said. Medics identified the victim as Ady Maher Qadous, 19. He suffered several gunshots to the chest and died of internal bleeding at Rafidiyeh Hospital in Nablus, they said. Approximately 70 villagers and other locals had marched out toward the illegal Yitzhar settlement and were protesting when a settler opened fire, a Palestinian Authority official said....

Palestine Papers: Don't get mad, Palestinians. Get even (Stuart Littlewood) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - See this embarrassment as your big chance – a God-sent opportunity to sweep away the shameful Palestinian Authority (PA). Take the garbage out and bin it. Then make a fresh start. Bypass Israel and its twisted backers and deal direct with those responsible, the United Nations. Don't think that you are the only ones with traitors in your midst. We too have our quislings. They have given away our sovereignty to the European Union and Brussels, sold off our national assets to foreign corporations and shackled us to the evil US-Israel "axis of greed". They have even abused the trust and loyalty of our troops by committing them to illegal wars that have nothing to do with defense of the realm and everything to do with advancing the crazed ambition of foreign "allies" to get their dirty mitts on other people's resources...

BDS: Focus on Israel’s Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Fast Train (Palestine Monitor) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - While Israel’s planned fast train that connects Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a quick 28 minutes will be welcomed by weary commuters; it spells further land confiscation from villages bordering the ever-irrelevant Green Line. The website WhoProfits.org, has been focusing its pressure and attention on the Italian based construction company, Pizzarotti & Co. since they joined Israel’s development project to build a fast train connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, cutting through Palestinian land...

In the Chaos, Let's Not Forget about Israel (By Joharah Baker) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - As Palestinians bicker over who has sold out and who should step down following the release of the Palestine Papers, another separate but still relevant thought occurred to me the other day as I was crossing the infamous Qalandiya checkpoint on my way home. If there is one constant thread in this insane situation where accusations and conspiracy theories run wild it is that the Israelis have already cemented a system of segregation in place regardless of what scandalous reports or documents are leaked to the public. For Israel, whether the Palestinian leadership is shamed before its people or not is of no concern. For Israel, the Palestinians are right where it wants them. I'm wondering how many people actually contemplate the many divisions Israel has categorized us under...

Nabi Saleh teen arrested, denied due process (Joseph Dana) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - Shackled and drowning in an adult prison uniform, 14 year old Islam Tamimi was brought before a military court this morning for a hearing on his detention. Exhausted and nervous, Tamimi sat before a court room of soldiers. Tamimi was arrested during a night raid in the village of Nabi Saleh early Sunday morning. After soldiers arrested the child, they forced him to stand outside in the cold until 09h00 Sunday morning. Soldiers also repeatedly threatened the child while he was in their custody...

Documents reveal PA-Israel collaboration to target resistance (Report, The Electronic Intifada) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - Details on the growing security cooperation between the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, the United States and the United Kingdom were revealed yesterday, the third day of Al Jazeera network's release of more than 1,600 internal documents and secret correspondence from the last decade of negotiations between the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority and the United States. Al Jazeera also confirmed that the Palestinian Authority was behind -- or assisted Israel in -- extra-judicial executions of high-level political opposition leaders and resistance fighters in the occupied Gaza Strip...

B'Tselem: Israeli home demolitions up in '10 (AFP) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011-- Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank tripled in 2010, figures from an Israeli human rights group showed on Wednesday, with a leap in the number in the Jordan Valley. Annual figures published by B'Tselem showed that Israel demolished 86 homes across the West Bank in 2010, compared with 28 a year earlier. Last year's house demolitions left 472 people homeless, almost half of them children, the figures showed...

The Canadian Zionism Question
A fruitful research avenue for tenured university professors? (By Denis G. Rancourt) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - Israel has no significant economic exchanges with Canada and performs no significant geopolitical service of benefit to Canada; a Canada with virtually no economic ties with the Middle East and a Canada that is a net exporter of oil and gas. Yet, apart from the independent-thinking Bloc Quebecois, it seems that half the time that English Canadian politicians open their mouths it’s to denounce a "new anti-Semitism" that social scientists and statisticians tell us is a media fabrication or to express Israel’s "right to defend itself" or to declare Canada’s "unwavering support for Israel."...

The voice of Muhammad Dababseh (B'Tselem) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - Last August, Musa Abu Hashhash, B'Tselem’s field researcher in the Hebron area, met with Muhammad Dababseh. In all his years with B’Tselem, having met with hundreds of Palestinians injured by Israel’s security forces, he had never encountered such a case. The 21-year-old from Tarqumya could not speak. For three hours, he painstakingly wrote out his testimony of what happened to him four months earlier....

PA stonewalled the Goldstone vote (S. Farhan Mustafa) - 27-jan-2011

January 26, 2011 - On October 2, 2009, the UN Human Rights Council was widely expected to pass a resolution supporting the Goldstone Report, the UN’s probe of war crimes committed during Israel’s war in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009. The Council instead agreed to delay a vote on the report until March 2010, following major reservations expressed by the Palestinian Authority, the United States and Israel. A UNHRC endorsement of the report would have brought Israeli officials one step closer to prosecution before a war crimes tribunal, an event many Palestinians were anxious to see...

The threat of a one-state solution

PA negotiators are increasingly proposing an idea that's met with derision from Israelis, sharp criticism from the US.

David Poort Last Modified: 26 Jan 2011 19:42 GMT

Qurei: "Occupy the crossing"

Top PA negotiator offers to allow Israel to re-occupy the Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.

David Poort Last Modified: 25 Jan 2011 19:34 GMT

Israel and Palestine: Leaks must not poison diplomacy

‎The Economist

THE sadly misnamed Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” is proceeding precisely nowhere. America, its chief mediator for the past three decades, has formally ...

Video: Erekat condemns Palestine Papers

Al Jazeera

Palestine leak and the peace process‎ - The Guardian
The Palestinian people betrayed‎ - Los Angeles Times
Aljazeera.net - Ha'aretz

Fox News

Palestinians preventing Middle East peace deal, says Israeli deputy PM

‎The Guardian

An agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not happen in the next "one or two years", Israel's deputy prime minister said today, ...

A fillip for the peace camp‎ - The Economist (blog)  

The Guardian

Israel reprimands Irish envoy for upgrading Palestinian mission to

‎Ha'aretz - Barak Ravid

Israel's Foreign Ministry ... slanted policy with regards to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. ...

Israel enraged by Irish upgrade for Palestinian envoy‎ - thejournal.ie
Republic of Ireland's Palestine upgrade strains Israeli relations‎ - Belfast Telegraph
Ireland upgrades Palestinian mission to embassy‎ - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Irish Times - Haveeru Online

Telegraph.co.uk

Israel critics should respect my decision

‎The Guardian

This shows the pragmatism and common sense of the Palestinian Authority leaders, and gives great hope for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ...

Ian McEwan says no to boycott call‎ - Jerusalem Post
Ian McEwan responds to pro-Palestinian campaigners‎ - Jewish Chronicle  

The Guardian

Washington Watch: Price of Peace
Jerusalem Post - Douglas Bloomfield

Meanwhile, senior US diplomats are in Israel discussing security needs in the event of a peace agreement. Makovsky briefed top Israeli, Palestinian and ...

Imagining the Border: Options for Resolving the Israeli ...‎ - Canada-Israel Committee
Israeli settlers kill Palestinian in West Bank - witnesses‎ - Reuters Africa
Israeli settlers kill Palestinian teen‎ - Press TV The Guardian - AFP

The Guardian

Tunisia's revolution and Egypt's protests should give Obama pause

‎Washington Post (blog) - Jennifer Rubin

"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not central: Arab affairs reflect the ... Then of course as usual he pivots to the Israeli Palestinian conflict and ...

Video: Mass Egypt Anti-government Protest Planned

The Associated Press

Democracy From Within‎ - The Atlantic
Clinton Urges Restraint, Political Reform in Egypt‎ - Voice of America
Salon - New York Times

The Guardian

Worldview: An old order finally ending

‎Philadelphia Inquirer - Trudy Rubin

Meanwhile, within Israel and Palestine, recent events also signal that old ... Those who've followed the history of Israeli-Palestinian talks were familiar ...

The Arab world's sleeping giant wakes up‎ - Tehran Times
As Arabs protest, US offers assertive support‎ - Ya Libnan
Canada, Qatar clash over Palestine reference‎ - Embassy
Independent - Diamondback Onlin 

Remembering Howard Zinn

27 January 2011

We remember Howard Zinn, our friend and teacher (and among the first members of the IOA Advisory Board), who passed away on 27 January 2010, leaving a formidable legacy. In the words of his friend, Noam Chomsky: “He changed the conscience of a generation. It’s hard to imagine how many young people’s lives were touched by his work and his life.” This writer one of them.

Former head of Israeli intelligence says security coordination with the PA included field operations

27 January 2011

"Without such coordination we couldn't have thwarted major terrorist operations."

The former head of Shabak, the Israeli Intelligence Agency, has praised his country's security coordination the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Ami Ayalon said that "without such coordination we couldn't have thwarted major terrorist operations."

Read more...

EU pledges €300m to Palestinian Authority for 2011

27 January 2011

EU will continue to offer support to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which helps Palestinian refugees.

The European Union has pledged €300m to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to support its general budget and developmental projects during 2011. In addition, the EU will continue to offer support to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which helps Palestinian refugees.

The PA's Minister of Planning and Administrative Development, Ali Al-Jarbawi, made this announcement during the annual consultation between his ministry and the EU. Such consultations provide, stressed the PA, the basis upon which EU aid is based. Read more...

Abunimah on the Palestine Papers: ‘If the US is unable to change its utterly failed policies, it might as well get out of the way’

Latest from Egypt: ‘Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, or an atheist, you will demand your rights!’

Insha’Allah Twitter

Palestine Papers fallout?: Palestinian academics and students stage ‘sit in’ in Palestinian embassy in London demanding ‘right of representation’

State Dep’t says Goldstone report ‘significantly retarded’ efforts to achieve Middle East peace

‘The American gov’t gives our dictators tear gas, but our American friends gave us Facebook!’

New McCarthyism: Brooklyn College fires ass’t prof who dared to speak out for Palestinian self-determination

Israeli-US scenario: Jettison Mubarak and find another servitor

Correcting a slur against Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

‘Anonymous’ hacker group joins the fight in the Middle East

Palestine Papers: The peace process is dead and the Palestinians’ Arab ‘allies’ should shoulder some of the blame

More vindication for Goldstone: British news reports Israeli soldiers were ordered to ‘cleanse’ Gaza neighborhoods during Cast Lead

Breaking: Settlers kill 19-year old Palestinian in West Bank village near Nablus

Macy Gray wants to build bridges, can she help tear down an illegal wall?

Saudi Arabia’s silence may be a good thing

Fear and the Palestine Papers (By Mazin Qumsiyeh) - 28-jan-2011

January 28, 2011 - ... I have a suggestion for the Palestinian authority: try to deal with the issues and do release your own documents instead of trying to shoot the messenger. Take lemons to make lemonade. Help introduce an even stronger resolution at the UN security council (e.g. in support of the Goldstone report or to recognize a Palestinian state along the borders of 1967) or a resolution at the UN General Assembly that calls for expelling Israel from the UN since it has never honored its commitments when it was admitted in 1949. Maybe announce publicly that the Oslo Process was a mistake or at least is now dead (now every idiot knows it was and most of those who are getting salaries from the authority know in their hearts that it was contrary to basic human rights and to basic international law)....

2nd Palestinian shot by settlers (Ma'an news) - 28-jan-2011

January 28, 2011 - Two Palestinians were injured Thursday, by a group of religious Jews locals described as settlers from a nearby area. One man was beaten and the second shot, and said to be "clinically dead." The shooting is the second in as many days. Spokesman for the village Mohammad Awad said that more than 150 settlers from Bat Ayin had descended from the illegal hilltop community and entered the village of Safa early in the morning...

Israel predicts Egypt regime will survive (By Marius Schattner) - 28-jan-2011

January 27, 2011 -- Israel expects that the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will survive pro-democracy protests that have shaken the country over the past three days, government officials and analysts said. The wave of demonstrations throughout Israel's southern neighbour have raised speculation about whether Mubarak will be forced from office, and how the protest movement will affect ties with Cairo. Egypt is one of only two Arab nations, along with Jordan, to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, and is considered a key strategic partner for Israel in the Middle East...

PA undermined accountability for Gaza victims, papers reveal (Report, The Electronic Intifada) - 28-jan-2011

January 27, 2011 - Yesterday Al Jazeera released the final cache of the Palestine Papers, the network's publication of secret documents culled from the last ten years of negotiations between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the United States. Among some of the latest revelations are agreements between all three parties to push the United Nations Human Rights Council to delay a vote on the Goldstone report, the fact-finding probe of alleged war crimes committed during Israel's winter 2008-09 attacks on the Gaza Strip. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the 22-day assault, and more than 5,000 were wounded...

Al-Awda Condemns Betrayal by Unelected Palestinian leadership (Al-Awda) - 28-jan-2011

January 27, 2011 - Palestinians around the world and all their supporters watched in shock, but not total surprise as secret documents, "The Palestine Papers", detailing carefully the years of so called peace negotiations were released by the news network Al-Jazeera during the last few days. While Palestinians are struggling to win back their rights to their homes and lands, some in the unelected leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) were making offers to give away these rights. The documents show that they were willing to give up the rights of seven million Palestinians living in forced exile to return to their homes and lands. They were willing to cede Palestinian control over most of East Jerusalem as well as nearly all the land on the West Bank on which the major Israeli settlements around Jerusalem were illegally built...

Expelling Israel's Arab population?

Israeli negotiators, including Tzipi Livni, proposed "swapping" some of Israel's Arab villages into a Palestinian state.

Gregg Carlstrom Last Modified: 24 Jan 2011 19:59 GMT

28/01/2011

The Palestine Papers and the "Gaza coup"
Ali Abunimah - The Electronic Intifada "As revealing as the Palestine Papers are, clearly there is still much we don`t know. But one thing is certain: the divide and rule tactics used by outside powers, and the willingness of some Palestinians to go along with them, have been debilitating to the Palestinian struggle for freedom."

Rabbis warn Rupert Murdoch: Fox News and Glenn Beck `using` Holocaust
Ed Pilkington - The Guardian Four hundred rabbis, including the leaders of all the main branches of Judaism in the US, have signed an open letter calling on Rupert Murdoch to sanction the head of Fox News and one of the channel`s most famous hosts for frequent inappropriate references to the Nazis and the Holocaust." "

B’Tselem Report Indicates Rise in Home Demolitions in 2010
by Ramona M. - IMEMC and Agencies Demolitions by Israel of Palestinian homes in the West Bank tripled in 2010, figures from an Israeli human rights group showed on Wednesday, with a big increase in demolitions in the Jordan Valley." "

Concerns over Israel inquiry into Gaza flotilla raid
Amnesty International "Amnesty International has questioned the findings of an Israeli inquiry into last year`s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla after it cleared the Israeli armed forces of wrongdoing."

Palestinians say settlers killed teenager
Ynet reporters - Ynet News "Palestinian security officials claim West Bank Jews shot 19 year old in village near Nablus. Settlers: Another blood libel "

Palestinians accuse settlers of torching vehicle
Yair Altman - Ynet "`Eye for an eye – we won’t forget` spray-painted in Hebrew near burned vehicle; small bomb found near Gilad Farm outpost"

Clarion Fund’s New Anti-Iran Film to Star Iranian Fraudster
Eli Clifton - Tikun Olam "I’m ashamed to say that this is a man once employed by the U.S. government as an expert on Islam and the Muslim world. The fact that he’s starring in a new Clarion fund propaganda extravaganza doesn’t surprise me. But that he was sitting in a Pentagon office charting U.S. war policy speaks volumes about our utter failure there during the Bush years."

A federal grand jury in Chicago
By: Maureen Murphy "I have been summoned to appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago on January 25. But I will not testify, even at the risk of being put in jail for contempt of court, because I believe that our most fundamental rights as citizens are at stake."

The real Palestinian concession
Amira Hass - Haaretz - Hamas and the PLO are in the thrall of their false status as two governments whose existence and maintenance have become a goal in itself. Had they not given up on their people as a decisive factor, the two rival forces would have listened to it, and before anything else found a way to end the dual rule.

Gisha on Turkel Commission`s interim conclusions: No Commission of Inquiry Can Authorize Collective Punishment
Gisha - Newsletter - International law permits restricting movement for purposes of security, so long as Israel protects the rights of residents in Gaza to engage in normal life. However, imposing a closure for purposes of punishment is forbidden, as the International Committee of the Red Cross stated in reference to the maritime incident. According to official documents obtained by Gisha under the Freedom of Information Act, Israel prevented the passage of civilian goods such as spices, raw materials and consumer items and even set limitations for the amount of food it would permit residents of Gaza to purcha se. We disagree with the Commission`s conclusion that the restrictions were justified for military or "strategic" reasons.

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

 PCHR Weekly Report: 2 Palestinians killed, 6 wounded by Israeli forces this week

Friday January 28, 2011 - 11:38

In its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for the week of 20-26 January 2011, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that Israeli forces killed a Palestinian at a military checkpoint near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, and a Palestinian civilian was killed and another two were wounded by the explosion of a projectile left by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. Full Story

Video Conference between Jerusalem MPs and MEPs in Brussels

28 January 2011

Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

A ground-breaking video conference took place on Tuesday 25th January at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels, between Members of the European Parliament and the three members of the Palestinian Legislative Council currently seeking refuge in the International Red Cross compound in Jerusalem. Margrette Auken, the Danish MEP and vice-chair of the Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council (DPLC), German MEP Alexandra Thein and Sinn Fein's Northern Ireland MEP Bairbre de Brun, both of whom are also members of the DPLC, took part in the live event. As the PLC members spent their 209th day in the compound, where they have sought refuge against deportation by the Israeli authorities, the campaign to highlight their plight has been stepped up around the world. Read more...

A reconciliation to kill the dream

28 January 2011

For months, the people of Gaza were turned into prisoners under the mercy of Egypt and Israel who sealed all borders.

(Author of Hamas - Unwritten Chapters)

The recent revelations made jointly by Al-Jazeera TV Channel and the Guardian newspaper have vindicated my long held position of opposition to any reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. My position was initially premised upon the fact that the Egyptian-mediated reconciliation efforts were aimed primarily at subjugating Hamas. This subjugation strategy had a long history stretching back to the early 1990s. The latter part of this history is more interesting because it manifested itself in the form of open warfare against Hamas, not just by the Israelis and their US backers but also by a number of Arab regimes as well.

Egypt is burning and most western pundits have no idea why

Clinton statement celebrates ‘civil society’ in Middle East

Jewish settlers in occupation shoot two Palestinian youths, leaving one brain dead

Israeli forces blast peaceful protesters with sewage water in Bil’in today

We live in times where the power is coming to back the people

The road to Jerusalem leads through Tunis and Cairo

Tunisia spirit hits Kentucky

Following the news from Egypt: ‘We are saying enough of this regime! It is a corrupt regime!’

#Jan28: This revolution will not be tweeted?

Washington ‘ecosystem’ on Israel is shifting– Beinart signs on with Walt & Mearsheimer

Brooklyn College’s claim that it fired Petersen-Overton for insufficient credentials doesn’t hold up

‘LA Times’ piece says Erekat, Abbas and Qurei are colonial pawns

Egypt shuts down the internet on eve of protest as the world community gathers

A prayer for Egypt

Biden: see no good, hear no good, speak no good

Amnesty: Israel's flotilla probe a 'whitewash' (Ma'an news) - 29-jan-2011

January 29, 2011 - London-based rights group Amnesty International condemned on Friday the findings of an Israeli inquiry into last year’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla as a "whitewash," saying the Israeli investigating panel failed to account for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals at the hands of Israeli commando forces. The findings of the inquiry, known as the Tirkel Commission, were released on Sunday, and said that Israel's military acted lawfully when they captured the Mavi Mamara on 31 May 2010, killing nine activists on board, and intercepted five other ships...

Israel evacuates envoys' families in Egypt (AFP) - 29-jan-2011

January 29, 2011 - Israel repatriated families of its diplomats in Egypt on Saturday in response to the unprecedented street protests in the Arab state with which it has a 1979 peace deal. "A special aircraft brought back to Israel on Saturday the families of diplomats and other official envoys, as well as about 40 Israelis on private visits to Cairo who wished to leave," said foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. The Israeli ambassador to Egypt remains in the country...

Salah Hamouri: One of Thousands of Israeli Political Prisoners (by Stephen Lendman) - 29-jan-2011

January 29, 2011 - In March 2005, French/Palestinian Hamouri was arrested, tortured and imprisoned for allegedly co-conspiring with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, ultra-Orthodox Shas party's spiritual leader and former Israeli Chief Rabbi. At age 91, he's very much alive as of January 25, 2011, Israel National News saying he recently visited President Shimon Peres "in a 'shiva' call," offering condolences for his wife's recent passing. Based on secret Israeli intelligence, no proof, Hamouri was sentenced to seven years in prison after accepting a plea bargain. Over a two-year period, an Israeli military court convened over 20 times on his case...

Egyptian security: 12 killed in Bedouin skirmish at Gaza border (Ma'an news) - 29-jan-2011

January 29, 2011 - Palestinian sources say 12 people including Bedouins and Egyptian police officers were killed Saturday in clashes in the Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be an attempt by tribes in the region to take control of the swath of land south of the Egypt-Gaza border. Gunshots were heard in the Egyptian city of Rafah as Bedouins attempted to occupy the border with Israel and the Gaza Strip. Rocket-propelled Grenades were fired at Egyptian soldiers, witnesses said, causing the near-total destruction of one home near the border area, and damage to a sector of the Gaza-Egypt border fence...

'Don't take our girls ...'
Jewish-Palestinian couples in Israel face increasing pressure as racism becomes more open. (Mya Guarnieri) - 29-jan-2011

January 29, 2011 - Not long after religious nationalists held a rally in Bat Yam under the banner of "Jewish girls for the Jewish people," a group of rabbis' wives published a letter urging Jewish women not to date Arab men. Jewish-Palestinian couples remain uncommon in Israel. But both the rally and letter point towards the difficulties faced by such couples, even those from liberal backgrounds. Rona, a young professional Jewish woman in her early thirties who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, has kept her relationship with a Palestinian man a secret from most of her relatives for almost four years...

UPDATED URGENT APPEAL - Gaza: Children of the Gravel (Defence for Children International - Palestine Section) - 29-jan-2011

January 28, 2011 - Between 26 March 2010 and 18 January 2011, DCI-Palestine has documented 24 cases of children shot whilst collecting building material or working near the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Due to a severe lack of job opportunities and a shortage of construction material entering Gaza from Israel, hundreds of men and boys scavenge for building gravel and other items amongst the destroyed buildings close to the border fence. The gravel is collected into sacks, loaded onto donkey drawn carts and sold to builders for use in concrete. Children can earn between 30 and 50 shekels (US $8-14) per day which is used to help support their families....

Harassment in Nabi Salih: Intimidation tactics in Israel’s wider strategy of expropriation. (Palestine Monitor) - 29-jan-2011

January 28, 2011 - As a quick Google search for 'Nabi Salih’ will demonstrate, it is clear that intimidation tactics are standard fare from an Israeli military whose presence in the village has increased significantly since 2009. But a more in depth look reveals the wider goal at hand. Palestine Monitor reports. In December 2009, settlers from Halamish seized control of Nabi Salih’s main water supply, a natural spring called Ein Al Kus. That same month, the villagers retaliated by staging unarmed demonstrations, protesting the theft of the well and Israel’s policy of supporting the settlers’ encroachment...

Thousands protest in Jordan for third week (Suha Philip Ma'ayeh) - 29-jan-2011

January 28, 2011 - For the third consecution on Friday, Jordanians poured into the streets after noon prayers to protest against soaring prices and call for a change in government. The Islamist led opposition, professional associations and leftist activists marched yesterday from Al Huesseini Mosque to the capital's centre. They held banners that read "Corruption and normalisation are two faces of the same coin," called for a "national unity government" and called for the prime minister Samir Rifai to step down...

29/01/2011

Daily Liveblog Links to Information on EGYPT UPRISING: Sat Jan 29
from Daily Kos. ao

A Weekly Collection of VIDEOS
Courtesy of Friendly Stranger. ao

Combatants for Peace and ICAHD Launch `Jerusalem Backyard` Street Ad Campaign
After City Hall did a campaign bragging their achievements, Jerusalem activists remind the public of the ugly underbelly of running an undemocratic city. ao

CARTOON: The Giant Has Awakened
From Emad Hajjaj. ao

The Palestine Papers and the "Gaza coup"
Ali Abunimah - The Electronic Intifada "As revealing as the Palestine Papers are, clearly there is still much we don`t know. But one thing is certain: the divide and rule tactics used by outside powers, and the willingness of some Palestinians to go along with them, have been debilitating to the Palestinian struggle for freedom."

Rabbis warn Rupert Murdoch: Fox News and Glenn Beck `using` Holocaust
Ed Pilkington - The Guardian Four hundred rabbis, including the leaders of all the main branches of Judaism in the US, have signed an open letter calling on Rupert Murdoch to sanction the head of Fox News and one of the channel`s most famous hosts for frequent inappropriate references to the Nazis and the Holocaust." "

B’Tselem Report Indicates Rise in Home Demolitions in 2010
by Ramona M. - IMEMC and Agencies Demolitions by Israel of Palestinian homes in the West Bank tripled in 2010, figures from an Israeli human rights group showed on Wednesday, with a big increase in demolitions in the Jordan Valley." "

Concerns over Israel inquiry into Gaza flotilla raid
Amnesty International "Amnesty International has questioned the findings of an Israeli inquiry into last year`s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla after it cleared the Israeli armed forces of wrongdoing."

Palestinians say settlers killed teenager
Ynet reporters - Ynet News "Palestinian security officials claim West Bank Jews shot 19 year old in village near Nablus. Settlers: Another blood libel "

Palestinians accuse settlers of torching vehicle
Yair Altman - Ynet "`Eye for an eye – we won’t forget` spray-painted in Hebrew near burned vehicle; small bomb found near Gilad Farm outpost"

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

Over 100 dead so far during the Egyptian revolution, is the world watching?

Egyptians believe Mubarak instigated looting to show only he can protect them from chaos

The Egyptian revolution threatens an American-imposed order of Arabophobia and false choices

Some brought their children out in the streets, others threw food down to the protesters

As night falls in Egypt families begin looking for missing loved ones

Israel and its American friends want to stop the Egyptian ‘earthquake’

Egypt is burning and most western pundits have no idea why

Following the news from Egypt: ‘We are saying enough of this regime! It is a corrupt regime!’

Clinton statement celebrates ‘civil society’ in Middle East

Jewish settlers in occupation shoot two Palestinian youths, leaving one brain dead

Israeli forces blast peaceful protesters with sewage water in Bil’in today

We live in times where the power is coming to back the people

The road to Jerusalem leads through Tunis and Cairo

Tunisia spirit hits Kentucky

#Jan28: This revolution will not be tweeted?

Palestinian Human Rights Defender Sentenced to Nine Years Imprisonment (Tania Kepler) - 30-jan-2011

January 30, 2011 - Palestinian human rights defender and activist Ameer Makhoul was sentenced to nine years in jail on Sunday, 30 January on charges of spying and contact with a foreign agent. Makhoul, who serves as General Director of Ittijah – The Union of Arab Community-Based Associations and Chairman of the Public Committee for the Protection of Political Freedoms, was arrested on 6 May 2010, by the Israeli General Security Service and police. His original charge also included aiding the enemy (Hezbollah) in time of war, which in Israel includes a penalty of life in prison...

Transformation in the Arab World (Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD) - 30-jan-2011

January 30, 2011 - I first visited Egypt 30 years ago in 1981 to do research for my master's thesis which was later published in my first book "The Bats of Egypt". I visited Egypt twice since then and I recall vividly police abuse of their own people and yet the Egyptians I encountered mocked and joked about dictatorship. We tried at least from a distance to support our Egyptian brothers and sisters as they struggle for freedom. Arabs everywhere (yes even here in occupied Palestine) are talking about a transformation and about revolution. But all such transformations carry pain. Over 200 Egyptians were killed, thousands injured, and there is much destruction. Yet in a nation of 85 million people this is still a relatively peaceful transformation. While dealing with the present is critical we must also at this juncture start to look post dictatorship in the Arab world and plan the future...

Israel + Egypt (+ the US too) coordinating Sinai moves (By Marian Houk) - 30-jan-2011

January 30, 2011 - As far as I know, yesterday and the day before [Friday + Saturday], Israel agreed to authorize the Egyptian military to bring more people into the Sinai," Israeli Brigadier-General Tzvika Foghel said in an interview on Sunday. Foghel, who has served in Israel’s Southern Command where he occasionally is recalled for active duty, said that to his knowledge, this involved some 100 to 150 Egyptian Army personnel. Israel’s agreement was limited, and given only for "a couple of days, during these days [of large-scale and widespread popular protest against Egyptian President Husni Mubarak]," Foghel noted. These exceptional Egyptian military personnel have now deployed all along the border, from Gaza to Eilat, with some stationed near the Egyptian Sinai port of El-Arish, he indicated...

US Ambassador's Bid to Get Falk Sacked (Stuart Littlewood) - 30-jan-2011

January 29, 2011 - Mention Richard Falk and you think of an honourable man who cares deeply about injustice, particularly the trampled rights of Palestinians under the evil jackboot. Mention Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations, and what comes to mind? The BBC reported in December 2008: "During her stint in the Clinton White House, she was described as 'brilliant’ but also 'authoritarian’ and 'brash’. According to the New York Times, she acknowledges 'a certain impatience at times’." She is also said to be "unwilling to consider opinions that differ from her own". Ambassador Rice has just demanded that Falk, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur in the Palestinian territories, step down from his UN position. "In my view, Mr. Falk’s latest commentary [an entry in his blog about the media and 9/11] is so noxious that it should finally be plain to all that he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the UN." ...

Palestinians in Gaza react to Egypt, Tunisia uprisings (Pam Bailey writing from the occupied Gaza Strip) - 30-jan-2011

January 29, 2011 - As news of the uprisings in a growing number of Arab countries spread like wildfire around the world, residents of other countries struggling under their own oppressive governments and soaring unemployment were celebrating on the streets, on Twitter and on Facebook. The occupied Gaza Strip was no exception. "We, as Palestinians, salute the Tunisian people and any Arab nation rising against injustice," said Saber Zanin, coordinator of the Local Initiative Committee for Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. However, perhaps the most excited were the youth of Gaza, who saw the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan as evidence of the latent power of their generation...

30/01/2011

Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in Mideast
Aluf Benn--The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak`s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.

Gaza protests accuse Palestinian Authority of betrayal in talks with Israel Middle East peace envoy
Phoebe Greenwood in Gaza City and Andrew Sparrow--Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters in Gaza have staged a demonstration against the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian Authority dominated by Fatah.

Ian McEwan can`t escape the politics
A response--January 29. 2011--We thank Ian McEwan for responding to our letter (Letters, 24 January), but we, the undersigned, must continue to express our profound disagreement with his decision to accept the Jerusalem prize. Courtesy does not oblige us to respect a decision that fails the Palestinian people by rejecting their call for an international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Israeli state. BDS was launched by over 170 civil society organisations in 2005: after Susan Sontag and Arthur Miller received the prize.

Letters to Emir Kusturica
the French BDS Campaign and the European Platform for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, in three languages, French, English and Serbian:--By performing in Israel as an artist, on the other hand, you are offering your image to this country, and Israel will use your image to polish its own, to prove itself a representative of "civilized" culture and in this way to trivialize its crimes. It is absolutely certain that the state of Israel will view your concert as a form of political support, not merely a cultural event.

Mondoweiss--The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Mondowess--Our heros in Egypt are not waiting for our children to dream

PACBI Newsletter
PACBI--Palestine Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

An Eywitness letter to Macy Gray
Tali Shapiro--Demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories come with a heavy price. Whether its the wounded and dead, or the constant harassment. Nabi Saleh has been subject to military closure, houses sprayed with putrid water (another method of “crowd dispersal”), night raids, arrests of activists (regardless of age), and torture which includes threats, beatings and contorted body positioning.

Daily Liveblog Links to Information on EGYPT UPRISING: Sat Jan 29
from Daily Kos. ao

A Weekly Collection of VIDEOS
Courtesy of Friendly Stranger. ao

For previous articles since 2004 go to respective sections

Ameer Makhoul jailed for nine years 30 January 2011

The Haifa District Court on Sunday sentenced Israeli Arab activist Ameer Makhoul to nine years in prison and another year suspended sentence for charges of spying and contact with a foreign agent from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant organization.

Arab Israelis back Egyptian protestors 29 January 2011

Former Israeli MP Issam Makhoul: “Now, a new Middle East had truly been born. The struggle aims to return the government in these states to their peoples… We are not indifferent to this struggle and we aren’t neutral. We urge the Egyptian people to resist the weak regime, which was associated with American imperialism and its regional interests.”

MERIP: Dead-Enders on the Potomac

29 January 2011

The US will stand by its favored authoritarian Arab states until the bitter end… The reasons for this stance have changed little over the decades since the US became the superpower in the Middle East. Strategic interest number one is the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to the world economy, unimpeded by a rival hegemon or a regional upstart that might raise prices dramatically or deploy the oil weapon to extract political concessions from the West. Number two is the security of Israel. But third … is the stability of satrapies that Washington can trust to safeguard its other interests and initiatives, whether the US-sponsored “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians (and the blockade upon Hamas that Egypt helps to enforce) or the campaign to curtail Islamist movements…

Search Results

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood vs. Al-Qaeda

The Egyptian revolution

No ‘Berlin Moment’ in Egypt

‘Our heroes in Egypt are not waiting for our children to dream…’

How long before American media takes these 5 Egyptian lessons to Israel?

‘Within 24 hours of the assemblyman’s phone call, I was fired’ –Brooklyn College adjunct professor

Wave of settler violence (and a Palestinian is ‘exiled’ for attacking one of them)

Liberalism and religious parties

‘Salon’ says denial is a US belief in the 2SS

Why did ‘New York Magazine’ say that Peretz participates in demonstrations against occupation?

Israelis and friends gird up their loins against the idea that Arabs can vote

‘Muslims, Christians we are all Egyptians’: Scenes from a revolution as told by one eyewitness

Close U.S. ally and new Egyptian VP Soliman ‘keeps the domestic beasts at bay’

The Egyptian revolution threatens an American-imposed order of Arabophobia and false choices

Egyptians believe Mubarak instigated looting to show only he can protect them from chaos

January 30, 2011 - As far as I know, yesterday and the day before [Friday + Saturday], Israel agreed to authorize the Egyptian military to bring more people into the Sinai," Israeli Brigadier-General Tzvika Foghel said in an interview on Sunday. Foghel, who has served in Israel’s Southern Command where he occasionally is recalled for active duty, said that to his knowledge, this involved some 100 to 150 Egyptian Army personnel. Israel’s agreement was limited, and given only for "a couple of days, during these days [of large-scale and widespread popular protest against Egyptian President Husni Mubarak]," Foghel noted. These exceptional Egyptian military personnel have now deployed all along the border, from Gaza to Eilat, with some stationed near the Egyptian Sinai port of El-Arish, he indicated...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=74442

Political Prisoner Ameer Makhoul Update (by Stephen Lendman) - 31-jan-2011

January 31, 2011 - .... Ameer Makhoul is one of many thousands of victims, vilified for being Muslims in a Jewish state. An Israeli citizen, human rights activist, and head of the internationally recognized Ittijah NGO for Palestinian empowerment, he also chairs the Public Committee for the Defence of Political Prisoners within the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee in Israel. Besides championing human rights, he also supports the global BDS movement, what many believe is perhaps the most effective nonviolent tactic against Israeli lawlessness, and another reason for his targeting...

Hope ends here: The children’s court at Ofer Military Prison (By Aya Kaniuk and Tamar Goldschmidt | Translation: Tal Haran.) - 31-jan-2011

January 31, 2011 - "Courtroom number 2. The military court for Palestinian children. Every Monday. On the podium, Judge Sharon Rivlin Ahai. From 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Boy follows boy. One child and then another child. Wearing brown prison garb. Chained feet. Shackled hands, one hand shackled to that of another boy. Some of them are so small that their feet wave in the air when they are seated on the bench."...

Harsh Interrogations of Children Escalate in Nabi Saleh (Joseph Dana) - 31-jan-2011

January 31, 2011 - 14 year old Islam Tamimi was arrested in a night raid on Sunday 23 January 2011 and subjected to psychological torture in order to extract dictated false testimony that will be used to incriminate and prosecute villagers in Nabi Saleh. In an escalation of the repression of unarmed demonstration in the West Bank, 14 year old Islam Tamimi was seized from his home and arrested at 0200 on Sunday 23 January 2011. It was the second time in roughly three weeks that he was taken by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers applied stress position techniques on the 14 year old boy, hoping to force his psychological collapse. The exhausted child was then taken to an unnamed police station where

Revolutionary Middle East Change (by Stephen Lendman) - 31-jan-2011

January 30, 2011 - Democratic Middle East birth pangs may have legs enough to spread regionally, including in Occupied Palestine. Officially launched in Cairo in 1959, the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) offers hope, driven by a commitment for Palestinian liberation. With more than 100 chapters and over 100,000 members, it's organized rallies, political debates, cultural programs, and other initiatives to spread truths about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Perhaps inspired by events across the region, on January 27, its press release headlined, "Palestinian students claim right to participate in shaping our destiny," saying: "….(I)n order to reassert our inalienable rights, (we) claim our right to democratically participate in the shaping of our destiny. We begin a national initiative to campaign for direct elections to the Palestinian National Council (the PLO's legislative body) on the clear understanding that only a reformed national representative institution, that includes all Palestinians, those struggling in the homeland and those struggling in exile, can create a representative Palestinian platform, and restore the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people...

Backlash over firing of pro-Palestinian professor (By Justin Elliott) - 31-jan-2011

January 30, 2011 - A watchdog group that defends academic freedom has now weighed in on the case of a Brooklyn College professor who was fired after complaints from a local politician about his pro-Palestinian views. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) sent off a letter today to the president of Brooklyn College about the case of Kristofer Petersen-Overton, who was fired after he was appointed to teach a course on Middle East politics but before the class had actually started. I detailed the firing, which Brooklyn College maintains was a matter of credentials, here...

Mohamed ElBaradei: Globalist Pied Piper Of The Egyptian Revolt (Paul Joseph Watson) - 31-jan-2011

The revolt in Egypt is an organically driven people-power movement to oust a dictator, restore universal freedoms, and wrestle the country free from the clutches of the US military-industrial complex, but the man now being positioned to form a new government is a pied piper working for the very same globalists and NGO’s that autocrat leader Hosni Mubarak has dutifully served for nearly 30 years....If the Egyptians are successful in toppling Mubarak, only to replace him with ElBaradei, they will have achieved nothing, and the eventual outcome will merely see Egypt remain as a subservient client state of the US military-industrial complex...

31/01/2011

Jan 29 2011, Vigil In solidarity with the Egyptian People

Cyprus Recognizes Independent Palestinian State
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - "Cyprus announced Sunday that it recognizes a Palestinian State in the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Cyprus is the first European Union member country that officially recognizes the Palestinian right to statehood"

Israeli Arabs: We won`t be guinea pigs
Hassan Shaalan - Ynet - Hundreds of sector`s representatives reject Olmert government`s initiative for land exchange in divided Arab towns, say `we were born here and will die here`

The Egyptian masses won`t play ally to Israel
Gideon Levy - Haaretz - As long as the masses in Egypt and in the entire Arab world continue seeing the images of tyranny and violence from the occupied territories, Israel will not be able to be accepted, even it is acceptable to a few regimes

The Hosni Mubarak Fan Club - Neocons, nutballs, and the US government
Justin Raimondo - Antiwar - "The worst dictatorships could prosper, thousands could be tortured and killed – but as long as Israel is served by the course of events, all’s right with the world. That’s what people like McCotter, Elsner, and Hoenlein fervently believe. And the government of Israel agrees with them"

Israeli Court Allows Destruction of Additional Graves in Jerusalem’s Mamilla Cemetery
Tania Kepler - AIC - "The Islamic Mamilla Cemetery is located at the center of West Jerusalem and the city’s municipality would like to use the historic burial ground as the site for a `Museum of Tolerance` sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (a Jewish human rights organization)"

Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in Mideast
Aluf Benn--The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak`s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.

An Arab revolution fueled by methods of the West
Zvi Bar`el--We don`t have to wait for other regimes to fall to understand that the revolution is happening before our very eyes. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will not fall due to demonstrations in Cairo`s Tahrir Square, and Yemen`s ruler will also continue to rule by force. But it`s a revolution of awareness and of the fundamental notions of what the Middle East is. Most importantly, we need a revolution in the way the West views the region.

Gaza protests accuse Palestinian Authority of betrayal in talks with Israel Middle East peace envoy
Phoebe Greenwood in Gaza City and Andrew Sparrow--Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters in Gaza have staged a demonstration against the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian Authority dominated by Fatah.

Israeli Forces Raid Silwan, Attempt to Arrest Adnan Ghaith’s Son

Monday January 31, 2011 - 15:59

Israeli special forces raided homes in Silwan today at dawn, including that of banished al-Bustan Popular Committee member Adnan Ghaith, and attempted to arrest his son. Full Story

Egyptian Protests Affect Efficiency of Underground Gaza Tunnels

Monday January 31, 2011 - 14:03

As underground tunnel trade drops, Gazans report fuel shortages Full Story

Chomsky: Elections Today "Public Relations Extravaganzas."

Video - Noam Chomsky Lecture University Of Tennessee

Chomsky discussed the United States' support of dictatorships in Egypt, Tunisia, Georgia, Jordan and Colombia. Continue

Peres: Israel has great respect for Egyptian president

31 January 2011

President Shimon Peres has not abandoned his old friend Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “We always have had and will have great respect for President Mubaraek. Not everything he did was right, but he did do one thing for which all of us are thankful. He was the peace keeper of the Middle East,” Peres [said].

Amnesty: Palestinian human rights activist jailed in Israel

31 January 2011

Amnesty International: “Ameer Makhoul is well known for his human rights activism on behalf of Palestinians in Israel and those living under Israeli occupation. We fear that this may be the underlying reason for his imprisonment. We are also extremely concerned by allegations that he was tortured and otherwise ill-treated following his arrest on 6 May last year in a dawn police raid on his home in Haifa, by the fact that he was not permitted to see his lawyers for 12 days after his arrest, and by the gag order that prohibited media coverage on the case during this time.”