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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Land theft and
destruction / Ethnic cleansing
GAZA, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Kawkab Jello, a 46-year-old Palestinian
mother, spoke with a broken heart and sadness about her tragedy began
with an Israeli eviction order that expelled her and two of her
daughters from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip in June 2007 ... Since
then, the sad mother has lived away from her husband, who looks after
five girls and one boy, in addition to the children of her eldest
daughter Nisreen deported with her mother and sister. Jello and the two
daughters now live in a single room on the roof of an old Gaza house.
The UN General Assembly’s 1947 Resolution 181 internationalized
Jerusalem as a separate body (a corpus separatum), administered by a UN
Trustee Council, a policy still binding but not followed.
..."There is alienation toward state institutions, harassment of
[Jewish] home owners in new neighborhoods, violence toward public
employees and the police, an increase in Bedouin involvement in crime,
an erosion in the Jewish population's sense of security, a stronger
sense of solidarity with Israeli Arabs and the Palestinian problem,
development of a culture of lawlessness, and significant damage to the
rule of law," the report said. The document also detailed the Bedouins'
socioeconomic situation. About 180,000 Bedouin live in the Negev, of
whom 80,000 live in unrecognized villages.
...Just days
before a scheduled fence-mending visit to Washington by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, I received an email from the Jerusalem
Post that invited me to move to territory that most of the world
considers occupied Arab land. The email, titled "Enhanced financial
assistance for Aliyah to Israel's North in 2010," promised up to $14,000
in cash and numerous other benefits ... A few clicks revealed that the
Golan Heights -- which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war -- is
among the "northern" communities seeking prospective immigrants.
Eight years after it was begun, only 64 percent of the West Bank
security barrier has been completed, according to numbers provided
to The Jerusalem Post by the Defense Ministry on Wednesday. In the last
three years very little progress has been made toward the barrier’s
completion – even though at one point, 2010 was the target year. There
is currently no date set by which the it is expected to be finished.
Israel has started construction on a new section of its West Bank
separation barrier that Palestinian residents say could sound a death
knell for their hamlet. The barrier, running much of the length of the
West Bank, has already disrupted lives in many Palestinian towns and
villages in its path. But it threatens to outright smother Walajeh
Violence /
Aggression / Incursions
An increasing number of complaints of abuse during the interrogation of
Palestinians from the Hebron area can apparently be traced to a
computer program that grades police performance. An investigative
report on the digitization of evil -- ...For the past few months, human
rights groups that are active in the territories have reported an
alarming rise in the number of complaints filed by Palestinians who say
they are being subjected to violence and torture in interrogations. The
testimonies describe appalling beatings, humiliations and threats, along
with the use of techniques - a sack over the head, binding in painful
postures and violent shaking - which were declared illegal by the High
Court of Justice in 1999.
Hebron, July 10, (Pal Telegraph) Israeli occupation forces arrested at
dawn today a number of people after raiding their homes in the camp of
“Arroub” and the village of “Rabood” in the governorate of Hebron, south
of the West Bank ... Another force of Israeli army has also established
checkpoints at the entrance of the village south of the city Karza, and
wreaked havoc on civilians and their vehicles then searched them and
checked their identity cards.
The
Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights reported that Khaled
Barakat, his sons Feras and Ra’aft, and nephew Na’eem, were beaten and
detained on 3 June because they supported Germany in the World Cup match
against Argentina. The family were returning home to Beit Safafa, south
of Jerusalem, from Bethlehem, when an Israeli soldier stopped the car.
The soldier cursed the men as "flies," beat them, sprayed gas in their
faces, and took them to an Israeli police station where he charged them
with resisting a soldier, the report said.
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment
& Sanctions
10
July - Israeli soldiers dragged the remnants of a symbolic wall from
highway 3157 near Al Ma’sara today, halting a popular demonstration.
Yesterday’s protest took place on the sixth anniversary of the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that construction of the
Wall in Palestinian territory is illegal. Written and photographed by
Kara Newhouse.
Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces while demonstrating.
They protest over a spring they claim was expropriated by Jewish
settlers.
9 July, Haitham Al Katib
Hebron, July 10, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) – IOF soldiers attacked today Bait
Omar demonstration and fired gas and sound bombs which injured two
children. Besides they detained an activist and beat a journalist. The
spokesman for the Palestinian solidarity project, Mohammed Ayad Awad,
said that Israeli soldiers injured the children Mohamed Abu Maria, 14,
in his back and Mohammed Awad, 8, in his head by a sound bomb.
Some
250 activists protest against evacuation of Arab families from east
Jerusalem neighborhood. Eyewitnesses say author David Grossman pushed by
police; eight demonstrators detained
Presbyterian leaders are backing a recommendation that the US end aid to
Israel unless the country stops settlement expansions in disputed
Palestinian territories. Delegates of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
voted Friday to support the proposal during the church's general
assembly in Minneapolis. The measure passed with 82% of the vote. (AP)
...With a supine government and a media unwilling to investigate
Israel's criminal acts, getting the message out to the public has been a
real challenge. However, Australian unions look like they might be
changing that.
Detention
...On the 7th of July 2010, five Palestinians from villages throughout
the West Bank stood trial for the involvement in unarmed struggle
against Israel's continued military occupation. Those on trial had been
snatched from their beds in the middle of the night, accused of stone
throwing or participation in an illegal protest and interrogated in
unnamed Israeli military bases . They are the latest to be caught in
Israel's recent wave of repression directed at the popular unarmed
resistance in the West Bank.
The
Islamist movement said PA Preventative Security Service officers
arrested Hamas affiliates in East Jerusalem, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Salfit
and Hebron. Dozens of Hamas supporters have further been summoned by PA
security, particularly in the northern West Bank districts of Nablus
and Tubas to "exert pressure" on the movement, Hamas added.
Shortly after a wave of arrests targeting party leaders in the West
Bank, Hamas said Gaza security forces would reciprocate. Fatah later
said over 100 party officials, leaders, and supports were either
summoned or detained by Hamas forces in the Strip.
A Palestinian prisoner accused of affiliation with Fatah's Al-Aqsa
Brigades' Bethlehem branch was sentenced Friday to two life terms in
addition to 25 years by a military court, a source said. An Israeli
military court convicted Nayef Salem Abayyat for involvement in the
killing of an Israeli woman at the Al-Khader junction south of Bethlehem
in 2002 and that of a Palestinian businessman, reportedly for
collaborating with Israel.
Siege (Gaza and WB) / Humanitarian and human
rights
...A
statement said 588 residents traveled to Egypt and 1054 returned to
Gaza through the southern crossing. Egyptian authorities denied crossing
to 130 residents ... Officials said the Erez pedestrian terminal in
northern Gaza was periodically opened over the same period, allowing 159
residents and internationals to cross into Gaza and 40 to enter Israel.
An expected visit to Gaza by EU parliamentarians will signal the end of
Hamas political isolation and the Israeli imposed blockade, a senior
Hamas government official said Friday.
According to the United Nations more than 7 thousand Palestinians have
restricted access to their lands and hospitals. The International Court
of Justice declared the wall illegal in 2004. For Saeb Erekat, who leads
Palestinian Authority negotiations with Israel, the barrier is "21st
century colonization".
Thousands
of Palestinian travelers and foreign tourists and workers know the
suffering caused by the measures enforced by Israeli border guards
stationed at the Allenby Bridge in Jericho ... the nightmare faced by
nearly all travelers moving between the West Bank and Jordan is solely
on the Israeli side, where guards shout at them, snatch passports, and
the like. One gets the impression that the women -- and they're mostly
women -- are under direct orders to scream at people, making them feel
like fugitives as they race ahead of each other to get their passports
stamped just to escape the prolonged searches and terror.
Sure, there is no official siege on Bethlehem, Hebron or Ramallah, and
for the most part, West Bank kids sleep without the images of carnage
burnt into the memories, and in some cases, the bodies of Gaza’s
children. But West Bank kids have their own bitter reminders of
occupation: raids and curfews, tear gas grenades that come crashing
through bedroom windows, and soldiers—sometimes not much older than
kids, themselves—who stop them from reaching their schools, hospitals,
family members and friends. They are imprisoned as much as their parents
by a system of checkpoints that prevents them from something as simple
as ever visiting the sea, less than 20 miles away.
While many Gazans live in poverty, one Gazan refugee has used the
illegal network of tunnels which enable goods to be smuggled into Gaza
to build a millionaire's empire ... Abu Nafez was born in a refugee camp
in the southern Gazan town of Rafah, right on the border with Egypt ...
[His] lavish home is the fruit of Abu Nafez's labours. But the tunnels
business has almost disappeared in the wake of Israel's decision to ease
its blockade of Gaza ... For all his riches, Abu Nafez has never
legally left Gaza in his entire life. Once, he says, he managed to get
across to Egypt by his own means but he was arrested.
Israel’s
prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, says the Gaza blockade is about
preventing weapons-smuggling. Here’s why it’s not ... So what is the
blockade about? Chiefly, it’s about hampering the Hamas government by
impeding Gaza’s economy.
Aid ships
Israel will hold on to the six ships from the
international flotilla that sought to break Israel’s blockade of
the Gaza Strip, at least until it completes its investigation into a
deadly raid on one vessel, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Israel
towed the boats to port days after naval commandos stormed the ships,
killing nine Turkish activists. The investigation, led by a retired
Supreme Court justice, Yaakov Turkel, is expected to take months.
“Nothing will be done with these ships until after the Turkel inquiry
because they might want to inspect them,” said Shlomo Dror, a ministry
spokesman.
10
July 18:16 - A Libyan aid ship will head to Gaza’s port in the coming
hours and will not be diverted, Palestinian Legislative Council member
Jamal Al-Khudari and Palestinian Knesset member Ahmad Tibi said
Saturday.
10 July 16:23 - A Libyan ship carrying aid to Gaza has altered course
and is now scheduled to dock in Egypt, reports said Saturday. Israeli
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman agreed with his Greek and Moldovan
counterparts that the ship, which departed from a Greek port and carries
a Moldovan flag, will dock at Al-Arish port, the Israeli news site Ynet
reported.
Following
intense Israeli diplomatic efforts, Greek shipping agent for Libyan
vessel carrying '2,000 tons of food, medications' for Strip's residents
says its documents indicate its destination is El-Arish Port -- Earlier
Saturday the Greek foreign ministry had said it was in contact with
Israeli diplomats about the aid ship. Israel in turn said its intense
diplomatic efforts with Moldova and Egypt had succeeded in keeping the
ship from trying to break the Israeli naval blockade of the impoverished
Palestinian territory.
Journey
of vessel commissioned by Gaddafi charity organization expected to take
up to 80 hours. Ship to carry 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies,
including sacks of rice and sugar, corn oil and olive paste. 'If we
cannot deliver the aid, we will let (Israel) deliver it,' says head
volunteer
WASHINGTON
– Israel warned the United Nations on Friday evening that it would not
let a Libyan aid ship planning to sail to Gaza break the blockade
imposed on the Strip.
In interview with Army Radio, MK Ahmed Tibi confirms he gave organizers
of Libyan aid ship a list of items needed by Gaza's residents.
War crimes
On 17 January 2009 the bombs had already fallen relentlessly on Gaza for
three weeks ... It was in this context that the "citizens'
decommissioning" of EDO MBM/ITT took place ... The arms manufacturer
EDO/ITT has been based in Brighton since 1946 ... the company's primary
business is the manufacture of weapons systems such as bomb release
mechanisms and bomb racks. Crucially, this includes the manufacture of
the VER-2 Zero Retention Force Arming Unit for the Israeli Air Force's
F16 war planes.
Refugees
A coalition of Lebanese political parties will soon
present a two-part draft law on Palestinian refugees’ rights to work and
buy health insurance, the Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat reports. The
March 14 coalition’s draft bill will not tackle the issue of Palestinian
ownership of property rights, as the issue is being discussed by
Lebanon’s parliamentary administration and justice committee, the daily
reported.
Politics / Diplomacy
Israel has criticised Britain's ambassador to Lebanon
for eulogising a recently deceased Lebanese cleric said to have
inspired Hezbollah. Frances Guy wrote on her personal blog that Grand
Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah was a "decent man" who rated among
the people she most admired.
Palestinian news agency WAFA says US president telephoned Palestinian
leader, briefed him on meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. According
to Abbas' spokesman, Obama vowed to exert every effort to help establish
independent state
The American people have gotten used to the Barack Obama soft sell, the
casual sit-down interview with a popular television anchor that is
designed to bring the president into the country's living rooms, let him
open up a bit. The Israelis are just now finding this out.
Israel
wants talks that are "loose, without a framework or timeline, and with
no guarantees," PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said
Friday. Speaking on Palestine TV, Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian
Authority told the US that it would not enter direct talks until Israel
commits to a settlement halt and abides by other requirements for
negotiations.
A Palestinian delegation of independent faction leaders completed talks
in Damascus on Friday, leaving for Cairo in a bid to reach a unity deal
between the rival Fatah and Hamas parties. The delegation included
Palestinian tycoon and chief of the Palestinian National Coalition of
independent leaders Munib Al-Masri, Mustafa Barghouti, the
secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, Hanna Nasser
and Hani Al-Masri.
President Assad asks Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter to mediate new
peace negotiations, Jerusalem officials believe move was spurred by
severe US sanctions on Iran. Ayalon: Talks must begin without
preconditions
(Reuters) Iran's chief nuclear negotiator suggested in a letter to the
European Union's foreign affairs chief this week that talks could be
held as soon as September on issues including Tehran's atomic program.
Other news
About 2.51 million of the population lives in the West Bank and
1.54 million in the Gaza Strip, PCBS said in a report issued ahead of
the World Population Day which falls on July 11, adding there are 2.06
million males and 1.99 million females. The city of Hebron is the
highest populated area in the West Bank, as the report said some 600,000
people live there ... The report also revealed that the Palestinian
territories have a young population, as people aged under 14 constitute
41.3 percent of the total population.
Over 250 buses of Palestinians living in Israel will arrive at the
Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem on Saturday for a festival.
Sheikh
Jarrah activists say police humiliated them on way to rally, with
officers saying they 'hate Arabs' ... On Thursday Nasser Rawi, who was
evicted by court order from his house in Sheikh Jarrah for the benefit
of a Jewish family, arrived at the rally with local activist Yotam Wolf
... Rawi said he would come show his support for the Shalit family on
another occasion. "The whole issue of Gilad Shalit is a humanitarian
issue; but after being attacked like this, we were too emotionally
stressed and had to leave
Amital, who founded the Meimad movement, supported a land swap with the
Palestinians in return for a peace agreement.
Rabbis
instruct followers to abstain from food, drink on Sunday over
evacuation of graves in Jaffa. Protests to be significantly reduced
after Jerusalem motorcyclist injured by trash bin
A Gaza Strip resident has been reporting to Israel on the movements of
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, according toHamas media reports
from the weekend. The reports came as Hamas' two-month amnesty period
for collaborators who turn themselves in drew to an end.
The Gaza Strip's Hamas
rulers say they have blocked what would have been the first shipment of
outside newspapers to the territory in three years. The Israeli military
said it was set to begin allowing 10,000 copies of three [Fatah-linked]
Palestinian dailies from the West Bank and Jerusalem into Gaza
yesterday. Hamas said it had blocked the delivery because it was not
properly co-ordinated. An observer said Hamas will not allow the
newspapers in until President Mahmoud Abbas lets Hamas-linked newspapers
into his West Bank stronghold.
New York, July 9 - The Committee to Protect
Journalists today called on authorities in Gaza to allow three pro-Fatah
Palestinian papers published in the West Bank to be allowed entry into
the territory. The newspapers say they were told they had to sign an
agreement stating they would not criticize the government before they’d
be allowed to distribute in Gaza ... Hasan Abu Hashisha, the director of
the Hamas Information Office, told CPJ that Hamas did not request such a
document. "It is not true," he said. He added that authorities in
Gaza ask for all Palestinian publications to be printed and distributed
in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Analysis /
Opinion / Human interest
A popular colloquial expression in Hebrew regards the futility of
“selling ice to an Eskimo”. Perhaps the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof
should take note. In a recent blog entry, Kristof wrote that “Israeli
civil society promotes democratic values in Palestinian communities”,
and that “…the weekly Sheikh Jarrah protests in East Jerusalem, in which
Israeli Jews play a major role, offer a useful model of peaceful
protest”. Unfortunately, Kristof presents a patronizing and misinformed
view of the history of the Palestinian struggle against Israel’s
policies of land grab and occupation.
Among
the regimes in the Western world, Israel stands out with certain
characteristics that generally do not indicate a strong democratic
system. Its parliament is paralyzed, the opposition is nonexistent, and
contempt for the law is becoming more pronounced. This not only refers
to the unrest caused by the ultra-Orthodox, but also to something much
more dangerous, the unrest caused by the settlers.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, whose influence is growing,
defied a recent ruling of the secular Supreme Court. A domestic Israeli
conflict is brewing over the Ultra-Orthodox, whose men refrain from
military service and generally choose state-subsidized study over
employment.
Some of the nuttiest American religious leaders today (and in the past)
have latched on to one form or another of Christian Zionism. These days
Reverend John Hagee (pastor of a mega church with thousands of members
in San Antonio) is a leading Far Right Evangelical and ardent fan of
Israeli expansion into the disputed West Bank.
One of the
pleasures of reading the New York Times is learning to recognize
different writers’ structural biases. I don’t really know Jim Rutenberg
or Mike McIntire, but I’ve been reading Ethan Bronner’s work for years
now. His work is tendentiously pro-Zionist; he’s the commensurate
‘hugger and wrestler’ with Israel. Somewhat pitifully, I think he might
find the characterization complimentary. For me, the recent
article about the tax-deductibility of Jewish settlement and terror
funding became an exercise in rooting out the Bronner. His deft (not
really) elisions and subtle positive markers weave Zionist hasbara into a
piece that ought to be constitutionally resistant to it. It’s really
remarkable
A fascinating historical debate is taking place in the Be’er Sheva
District Court. Judge Sarah Dovrat has to decide between conflicting
opinions she received from two professors, Ruth Kark of Hebrew
University and Oren Yiftachel of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The
immediate question under consideration is fairly limited: A Bedouin
citizen named Nuri el-Okbi is demanding 820 dunams of land in the
northern Negev, which he claims his family held for generations until
the state stole it in 1951. The judge’s willingness to peruse quotations
from ancient travel books, yellowing maps and other historical
documents bring up a fundamental question: Who does this country belong
to?
AT THIS moment,
two sit-ins are taking place in Jerusalem, two kilometers apart. In
West Jerusalem, the Shalit family is sitting in a protest tent in front
of the Prime Minister’s residence, swearing to remain there until the
return of their son. In East Jerusalem, three members of the Palestinian
parliament are holed up in the building of the International Red
Cross. The word that connects the two is: Hamas.
Over dinner in Bethlehem, this week, I
mentioned to my brother in law how Israel has strategically succeeded in
cutting off the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. While agreeing with me,
he told me of what a senior Israeli officer once told him shortly after
the beginning of the Oslo process. The Israeli official said that
Palestinians shouldn’t celebrate too much the withdrawal of Israel from
Bethlehem. Before too long, Palestinians in Bethlehem will need to have a
visa to enter Jerusalem.
If there are Palestinian textbooks on the failure of the Camp David
talks with Israel in 2000, they ought to carry diagrams illustrating the
use of smoke-and-mirrors tactics. In this case, the confusing burst of
smoke used by the Israeli side to such spectacular effect was the
"generous offer" made by then Israeli prime minster, Ehud Barak – a now
mythically impressive peace proposal which Palestinian president Yasser
Arafat, it is claimed, both stubbornly and stupidly refused.
Like earlier governments, the Netanhayu regime denies them - its key
portfolios openly hostile, extremists in them endorsing schemes to
collectively expel them to a future undefined Palestinian state, either
outside Greater Israel or in isolated cantons, surrounded by hostile
Jewish settlements, incrementally stealing their land. In the past year,
discriminatory legislation institutionalized inequality, political
delegitimization, and incitement against them. Also, their needs and
rights have gone unaddressed, including violent racist incidents, at
times involving killings.
Op-ed:
Dancing troops in Hebron show world young people under IDF uniforms
Israeli domination and the right wing government's unwillingness to
compromise are the biggest problems confronting the Palestinians. But
there are two other big problems. The first is the present disunity
between secular Palestine National Authority (PNA) / Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO), Fatah in the West Bank and Islamist Hamas
in Gaza ... The second big problem for the Palestinians is the lack of
unity and purpose in the Arab world. Israel has worked to split the
Palestinians. The US has worked to split the Arabs - or rather to
reunite them within Washington's superpower sphere of influence, a
process that seems to be succeeding so far.
No Israeli words can speak as loudly as the action of a large-scale
pull-out from illegal West Bank settlements
In light of this fact, it’s difficult to credibly sustain the argument
that Arab terrorism is spawned by Islam’s alleged promotion of violence
and antipathy toward American culture or by a “natural” Arab
anti-Semitism - Thaddeus Russell, The Daily Beast
In 1988, a photographer in the West Bank
snapped a photo of a scrawny 8-year-old with tears in his eyes, hurling a
rock at an Israeli tank. The photo symbolized the rage and frustration
of the intifada. More than 20 years later, that boy, Ramzi Hussein
Aburedwan, has grown up to become a philanthropic musician.
Iraq
Excerpt: Attacks in the capital abated today, but one significant attack
in western Baghdad left numerous casualties. At least six Iraqis were
killed and 27 more were wounded there and in other towns just north of
the capital. Iraqiya party leader, Ayad Allawi, said that negotiations
between the political parties are in their final stages and hopes that
the new government will be formed in August.
On
the day that Britain remembered the 7 July attacks that killed 52
people, the same number of Iraqis died in a series of attacks against
Shia pilgrims across Baghdad. If we extrapolate from the lowest estimate
of Iraqi civilian deaths since 2003 – 96,872 according to Iraq Body
Count – then Iraq has endured 9/11 more than 32 times, or 7/7 more than
1,800 times in the last seven years.
BAGHDAD
- As Maha al-Douri waits for her second term in parliament, she is
caught between conflicting public perceptions. To some, she is a hero to
the poor and oppressed; to others, she is an anti-American Shi'ite
hardliner. Douri may be the most popular and powerful woman in Iraqi
politics, based on this year's election results.
Lebanon
Hezbollah
responded for the first time Saturday to information revealed by Israel
on its stronghold in the southern Lebanese village of Al-Khiam. Sources
from the organization told the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the
Israeli reports were a "fabrication" and that the state seemed to be
laying the groundwork for some kind of move against Hezbollah.
I might have guessed it. CNN has fired one of its senior Middle East
editors, Octavia Nasr, for publishing a twitter – or twatter in this
case, I suppose – extolling Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein
Fadlallah of Lebanon, calling him "one of Hizbollah's giants whom I
respect a lot". Well, he wasn't Hizbollah's man, but no matter. He was
definitely a giant. A man of immense learning and jurisprudence, a
believer in women's rights, a hater of "honour crimes", a critic of the
theocratic system of government in Iran, a ...
Qabrikha, south Lebanon - ...The UN Security Council is expected to
convene Friday at the request of France to discuss rising tensions in
the past two months between the peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, and
residents of southern Lebanese villages. The southerners accuse the
French UNIFIL contingent in particular of exceeding its mandate and
“snooping” on Hezbollah in their villages.
(Reuters) The
Lebanese army will send an additional brigade to the south of the
country after several skirmishes between UN peacekeepers and villagers
inflamed tensions near the border with Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3917520,00.html
The head
of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has made a public
appeal for co-operation from the local community after
recent confrontations between angry residents and his troops.
Other Mideast
Egyptians should see their Arabic heritage as a source of pride, even if
they don't see themselves as wholly Arab -- Studies on modern Egyptian
DNA support the view that neither Egyptian Muslims nor Copts are Arab.
All the invasions that Egypt has experienced over millennia, including
the Arab invasion, do not seem to account for more than 15% of modern
Egyptians' ancestry. So Egyptians are not genetically Arabs, but they
may be so culturally and linguistically.
Nasr
Abu Zaid was a brave and honest scholar disgracefully persecuted for
his attempts to read the Quran historically
CAIRO //Protests against Egypt’s security services
continued last night more than one month after a young Egyptian man died
under disputed circumstances while in police custody. In cities
throughout Egypt, silent demonstrators dressed in black and formed
extended columns across bridges and waterfronts in quiet protests over
the death last month of Khalid Said, a 28-year-old businessman, in the
coastal city of Alexandria.
(AP) A
fatwa by the UAE's General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments
declares that the now-famous blast from the plastic vuvuzela is not
permitted in the Gulf country if it exceeds 100 decibels - about the
sound of a passing train. It says the typical vuvuzela blast is up to
127 decibels.
AMMAN
(AFP) A married 36-year-old woman in Jordan was stabbed to death by two
of her brothers over a suspected extra-marital affair, a police source
said on Saturday.
...In India, where the tension between traditional and modern mores
reverberates throughout society, Ms. Pathak’s death comes amid an
apparent resurgence of so-called honor killings against couples who
breach Hindu marriage traditions.
U.S. and other world news
The precise compilation of western casualties contrasts with almost
criminal neglect in tracking the numbers of Afghan civilians killed
since 2001 ... The US defence department maintains documentation on US
military personnel only, while the British ministry of defence "does not
maintain records that would enable a definitive number of civilian
fatalities to be recorded"
The psychologists, Major John Leso and Col. Larry James, are accused of
helping perpetrate the abuse and torture of prisoners in violation of
standards of professional conduct. We speak with Dr. Steven Reisner, a
New York psychologist who filed one of the complaints.[includes rush
transcript]
(AP) A
survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that an overwhelming
82 percent of French respondents support a ban. The poll found 71
percent support in Germany, 62 percent in Britain and 59 percent in
Spain. In the United States, 28 percent of those questioned said they
would approve a ban.
LONDON (AFP) – The government has said it is to
suspend anti-terror legislation allowing people to be searched by police
without good reason after European judges ruled it was unlawful.
BRUSSELS
– An international court on Thursday ordered Britain to hold off on
extraditing four terrorism suspects to the United States, saying it must
show that life terms without parole in maximum security prisons would
not violate Europe's human rights charter.
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