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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Land theft / Destruction / Settlements
Greece must intervene in sale of land to Israel,
delegation says
A delegation of Palestinian Orthodox Christians called on the Greek
government to take appropriate action against the Greek Orthodox
Patriarch Theophilios III for leasing church land to Israeli officials
and called for the deal to be nullified. The delegation returned from
Greece on Friday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254514
Palestinian
olive grove destroyed in the night
Christian Peacemaker Team 15 Jan - In the
afternoon of 14 January Palestinians discovered that a family
owned olive grove in Khoruba valley had been recently destroyed. Twenty
mature olive trees were broken at their trunks. The family believes
that Israeli settlers from the Ma’on settlement and Havot Ma’on outpost
are responsible for the vandalism.
A Palestinian farmer informed internationals who documented the
destruction that this was the fifth time since 1997 that settlers have
destroyed the olive trees in this grove.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10691
Military bulldozers create third entrance to illegal
Nablus settlement
Israeli bulldozers began overturning land to make way for a third
entrance to the illegal settlement of Shavi Shamron in the West Bank
city of Nablus on Saturday, according to Ghassan Daghlas, Palestinian
official responsible for the settlement file in the West Bank. "A
number of Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by dozens of workers, began
bulldozing several dunums of farmland confiscated by the Israeli army
to open a third entrance to the settlement," Daghlas said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254529
Network
of road gates tightens its stranglehold on Shufa village
15
Jan - The village of Shufa continues to struggle with restricted road
access
and no electricity grid connection, as a new road gate is established
at the entrance to the village ... The increasing number of road gates
in the region contribute to
slowly creeping network of apartheid roads and restriction of movement
for Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Shufa village has been split in half and isolated by roadblocks and
apartheid roads.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10667
Violence
Teenager attacked by settlers in Sheikh Jarrah
A Palestinian teenage girl was attacked by settlers on Saturday evening
in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. Amina
Nashashibi, 16, was pulled by the hair and beaten whilst attending a
demonstration in the area, Ma'an's reporter said. Settlers verbally
attacked demonstrators. The reporter said Israeli police were present
at the scene.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254569
Israeli tanks shell Beit Hanoun
Israeli tanks operating near the northern Gaza border near Beit Hanoun
targeted civilian properties with heavy artillery fire, witnesses said
late Friday night. Eyewitnesses said tanks were spotted at the
border, and noted a heavier than usual weaponry used by the forces.
They said the fire hit civilian homes on the outskirts of the town,
causing material damages but no injuries. Families said the louder than
usual tank fire terrified their children.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254417
Militant groups claim attack on Gaza tower
The
Al-Aqsa Brigades and the Imad Mughaniyah group, armed wings of
Fatah, and the Abu Al-Qumans military council, claimed responsibility
on Friday for an attack against the largest transmission tower west of
the Erez border crossing, northern Gaza ... According to the statement
the tower was hit directly. Residents told
Ma'an that loud explosions were heard near the Erez crossing, but that
the cause was unknown.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254383
Solidarity / Activism
Israeli
forces invade Bil'in following Friday demonstration, shoot live
ammunition
Eight demonstrators were injured today in Bil’in
along with dozens who
suffered tear-gas inhalation during a regular Friday protest against
the Wall and subsequent army invasion into the village. The army used
live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas grenades and
canisters against the unarmed crowd.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10709
Night raids and arrests of West Bank popular leaders
continue
15 Jan - In the early hours of the morning, dozens of soldiers invaded
the village of alMaasara – a site of weekly peaceful demonstrations for
over three years – and surrounded the houses of Popular Committee
members Mohammed Barjiya and Mahmoud Zwahre. Both Barjiya and Zwahre
were warned about that repercussions will follow if they do not stop
organizing protests in the village. Zwahre was even threatened that a
child may end up dead.
http://www.popularstruggle.org/content/night-raids-and-arrests-west-bank-popular-leaders-continue
Fatah members join anti-wall protests; Sha'ath
injured
Anti-wall
rallies continued Friday in Palestinian villages affected by
Israel's separation wall, seeing at least ten injured including members
of the Fatah party who were out at two sites showing support for
villagers. In addition to the weekly protests in Bil'in,
Na'lin and Al-Ma'asara, an anti-wall protest was staged in the
Jerusalem-area village of Nabi Salaeh, northwest of the holy city.
Fatah leaders Tawfiq At-Tirawui and Mahmoud Al-A’lul, both members of
the party's Central Committee, participated in the event.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254368
Hebron:
Israeli military targets Palestinian children for searches and
detention
15 Jan Christian
Peacemaker Team Hebron In
the last month, the Israeli military has been detaining children for
extended lengths of time in the Old City, and at times appearing to be
“practicing” soldiery by randomly selecting boys off the street and
searching them. In one incident, a fifteen-year-old neighbor of the
Hebron team was cutting a rope on a package of materials in his
father’s shop when soldiers saw him. They grabbed him, blindfolded him,
and led him off to their military gate at another checkpoint close to a
settlement. The father followed the soldiers, pleading for his son,
trying to explain why the son needed to use a knife.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10668
Anti-solidarity
Canada cuts funding to anti-Israel groups
VANCOUVER
– The Canadian government has recently decided to cut back or entirely
withdraw the funding to organizations that encourage a boycott of
Israel or Israeli products, including pro-Palestinian and Christian
groups. One such organization is the Kairos welfare agency, which lost
$7 million – half of its annual budget. Kairos is a social apparatus
serving 11 Catholic and Protestant groups and churches promoting the
"liberation theology" within the Canadian legal and educational
establishments.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3834666,00.html
Canada redirects funding for UN relief agency
Is
Canada pulling the plug on the UN's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA),
which provides education, health and other social services in 59
Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East? Will UNRWA's Canadian
funding be diverted instead to training Palestinian police forces and
building courthouses and prisons? That's certainly what was suggested
on Wednesday by Treasury Minister Vic Toews in both the Jerusalem Post
and a news release from B'nai Brith Canada.
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/750917--canada-redirects-funding-for-un-relief-agency
Detention
Grassroots
activist Wa'el al-Faqeeh to stand trial January 19
Political prisoner Wa’el Al-Faqeeh has been detained without charge by
Israeli authorities for over a month, and is now facing trial in Salim
military court on the 19th of January. The abduction of Al-Faqeeh from
his home, along with 4 other activists in the Nablus region, marked the
beginning of the recent surge in Israel’s targeting of leaders of
Palestinian popular resistance.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10594
Women prisoners smuggle letters detailing harsh
conditions
The Palestinian Detainees' Society said on Saturday that 34 women
detainees await news on a prisoner swap deal, having contacted the
society by smuggling letters. The women prisoners wrote of the
poor living conditions inside Israeli jails, where they are punished
arbitrarily. The detainees further wrote of not having access to hot
water, not being given blankets, cramped cells and poor electricity.
The cells in particular lack decent access the light and fresh air. The
facilities are outdoors, the women wrote, and lack privacy. [End]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254554
13 leftists detained in East Jerusalem rally.
Thirteen leftist activists, including the director of the Association
for Civil Rights in Israel, Hagai Elad, were detained Friday in a rally
in east Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarah neighborhood. About 70 Arab and Jewish
leftists took part in the weekly protest to demonstrate against the
Jewish takeover of homes in the neighborhood. The signs held up by
protestors included "Jews and Arabs against evictions"
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3834974,00.html
Hamas: PA forces detained 15 across West Bank
Hamas accused the PA security forces on Friday of
arrested 15 members of the Islamic movement, in a statement. "Security
forces arrested one of its affiliates from Qalqiliya, one from Nablus,
one from Hebron, three from Tubas and nine from Tulkarem" [End]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254441
Israel releases 5 detained from Balata refugee camp
Israeli
authorities released five Palestinians detained in Israeli
prisons on Saturday, all from the Balata Refugee Camp in eastern Nablus.
Abdul
Rahman Abu Jneid was amongst those released, having served 26 months in
several different Israeli prisons. He commented on poor living
conditions within the jails and the prison administration's neglect of
detainees' needs, adding that prisoners are punished arbitrarily to
force them into confessions
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254544
Blockade / Gaza war aftermath
Seven Palestinians injured Saturday in blaze in Gaza
smuggling tunnel
Witnesses said the fire broke out in a
tunnel used to smuggle fuel after a fuel leak. Rescue
teams, firefighters and ambulances arrived at the scene and pulled out
the seven casualties. They were admitted to a hospital in the border
town of Rafah, where medics said three were in critical condition.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142957.html
Newspaper: Egypt will fortify its security system
around the wall
GAZA, (PIC)-- An Egyptian newspaper revealed that the Egyptian
authorities intend to make its security system around the steel wall
more complicated through building observation towers, installing
sensors and surveillance cameras to prevent any attempt to smuggle
anything into the Gaza Strip. Al-Shorouq newspaper on Saturday quoted
informed sources as saying that in the northern part of this security
system, there will be 10 observation towers overlooking the sea guarded
by gunboats.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Report: Egypt further fortifies borders with Gaza,
this time at sea
Egypt is building a small sea port for
patrol boats monitoring the
country's border with Gaza in an effort to further block the
Palestinian enclave's access to smuggling routes, Reuters reported
Friday. "The new anchorage will enhance the work of the
Egyptian patrol boats on the sea border with Gaza and prevent any
attempts of smuggling by sea," Reuters quoted an Egyptian security
source in North Sinai as saying. The anchorage, according to
the report, will be 10 meters deep and 25 meters long, and used to moor
border patrol boats charged with ensuring Palestinian fishing boats
stay in Gazan coastal waters. Egypt has said it believes the boats are
being used to carry out smuggling operations, though there have never
been reports of such incidents.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254314
Delegation of EU lawmakers enters Gaza
European Members of Parliament arrived in Gaza on Friday via the Rafah
crossing to assess the situation in the besieged Strip in the aftermath
of Operation Cast Lead, Israel's assault on Gaza last winter. "A
delegation of 55 EU parliamentarians are on a two-day visit, during
which they will tour areas destroyed by Israel's war," the de facto
Committee to End the Siege said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254349
British lawmaker says Gaza blockade 'evil' (AP)
Gerald Kaufman leads visit to Gaza,
says Israeli officials should be tried for war crimes
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3834966,00.html
Italian organization builds new waste station in Gaza
The
Gaza Municipality, in conjunction with the International Italian
organization of Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), have begun the
construction of a waste station inside the Al-Yarmuk landfill site west
of Gaza City, which will eliminate up to 90% of its refuse. "Improving
the living conditions in the Palestinian territories and stopping the
leakage of waste into the water and soil, which causes contamination
and pollution [are the aims of the project]," said COOPI
representatives.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=252708
Gush Shalom weekly ad in Haaretz
HAITI-GAZA
In far-away Haiti / A terrible disaster / Has occurred. / Within a few
hours / An Israeli aid mission / Was organized. /
In near-by Gaza / Hundreds of houses / Lie in ruins. / The inhabitants
do not ask / For an aid mission. /
Only that the / Israeli government / Stops preventing / Building
materials / From coming in.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/weekly_ad/1263522116/
Freedom of the press
Detention of top Ma`an journalist condemned
As Israeli authorities prepared to expel Ma'an News Agency's chief
English editor later this week, media rights groups have blasted his
ongoing detention as an assault on freedom of the press. Jared Malsin
was originally scheduled to be deported without a hearing
on Thursday morning. Protests by US authorities in Tel Aviv resulted in
a temporary reversal, and an injunction filed by Ma'an delayed the
expulsion until at least Sunday ... court documents indicated that
Malsin's detention was directly related
to his work at the news agency, quoting airport officials as noting
that he authored articles "inside the territories," among them some
which "criticized the State of Israel."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254148
IFJ condemns 'this intolerable violation of press
freedom'
The
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Friday called on
Israeli authorities to revoke the deportation order served on the chief
English editor of Ma'an News Agency ... "We condemn this intolerable
violation of press freedom," said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary.
"The ban of entry in this case appears to be a reprisal measure for the
journalist's independent reporting and that is unacceptable." The IFJ
represents over 600,000 journalists in 125 countries, the largest union
of media professionals worldwide
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254382
Political developments
Fayyad denies EU to cut aid to PA it talks remain
derailed
Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad denied that the EU has threatened
to decrease the amount of aid given to the Palestinian Authority if no
new developments are achieved in the peace process, he told Ma'an's
reporter in Hebron on Saturday. "I have no idea about this issue at
all," Fayyad said. Diplomatic
EU sources in Paris said on Friday that the EU will not maintain its
current level of support for the PA in 2010, if there are no
developments in the peace process.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254518
Report: Mitchell brings no guarantees for Abbas
French sources
tell Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that US has refused to provide Palestinian
president with guarantees he demanded for renewal of talks, including
total freeze of settlements, because they lack Israel's approval
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3835044,00.html
Mash`al asks for meeting with `Abbas to end division
Head
of the Hamas politburo Khalid Mash'al asked Egyptian leadership to
prepare President Mahmoud Abbas for a bilateral meeting in an effort to
end division, he told reporters following a speech in a Beirut
conference Friday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254396
Hamas, Islamic Jihad: No truce with Israel
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, declared on Friday that no suspension of
hostilities has been agreed upon with Israel. Senior
Hamas leader Ayman Taha said "there is no agreement for a truce [with
Israel]. No one has offered us an agreement to consult on," during a
telephone interview with Ma'an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254378
Kafarna: The PA betrayed Sa'adat and comrades
GAZA, (PIC)-- Nasser Kafarna, the member of the PFLP political bureau,
has accused the PA leadership of betraying Ahmad Sa’adat, the
secretary-general of the PFLP, who is detained in Israeli jails, and
the Palestinian prisoners for agreeing to go to negotiations with the
Israelis without first releasing those captives.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Israel and Turkey
Turkish human rights group seeks to prosecute Barak
for alleged Gaza war crimes
An Islamic human rights
group on Friday petitioned a
prosecutor to start legal proceedings against Defense Minister Ehud
Barak for alleged crimes committed against Palestinians during the Gaza
war.
The demand came two days before the Defense Minister is scheduled
to visit Turkey, where he is expected to try and mend strained
relations following last year's war in Gaza and an Israeli official's
humiliation of the Turkish ambassador.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142933.html
Fools
in the driver's seat / Doron Rosenblum
If we were dealing with a seasoned and cunning prime
minister like Ariel Sharon, we might have thought that the grotesque
appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister was a brilliant
and sophisticated move designed to position the man as the government's
lightning rod, the person who makes the prime minister seem like a
glowing light of responsibility and moderation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142898.html
"Kill another Turk..." / Uri Avnery
Turkish television aired a rather primitive series, in which Mossad
operatives kidnap Turkish children and hide them in the Israeli
embassy. Valiant Turkish agents free the children and kill the evil
ambassador. One can ignore such an obnoxious story altogether or
protest mildly. But our illustrious Foreign Minister thought that this
was the right occasion to demonstrate to all and sundry that we are no
longer abject ghetto Jews who take everything lying down, but proud,
upright Jews of a new breed. So the Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny
Ayalon, summoned the Turkish ambassador to the Foreign Office in
Jerusalem for a carefully staged exhibition of national pride.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/01/kill-another-turk%E2%80%A6/
Other news
Palestinian artist paints 1400 'White Phosphorus'
works of art
By Iqbal Tamimi. ...The
exhibition was held at Rashad El-Shawa Centre in Gaza, where 1400
paintings in white and black were exhibited hanging free like the
phantoms of all the people who were the victims of the last Israeli
aggression on Gaza. The number of paintings was the same number of the
innocent people who were killed by the Israeli offensive on Gaza last
year, the attack that left many children disabled, badly burned and
disfigured by the white phosphorus bombs used by the Israeli army.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=36689
Israel
is due, and ill-prepared, for a major earthquake
In Israel the last destructive earthquake, with a
magnitude of 6.2 on the Richter scale, occurred in 1927. Its epicenter
was the Dead Sea, and its effects were felt in Jerusalem, Nablus,
Jericho, Ramle and Tiberias, resulting in 500 deaths and injuries to
700. An earthquake in 1837 killed 5,000 people. According to the Jewish
historian Josephus Flavius, in 31 B.C.E., 30,000 people lost their
lives in an earthquake. On average, a destructive earthquake takes
place in Israel once every 80 years...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142886.html
Shalit 'ill-omened' tank taken out of service
The
tank
termed an "ill omen" from which soldier Gilad Shalit was
captured from, and in which two Israeli soldiers were killed in 2006
has been taken out of service by the Israeli army. Following
Shalit's capture, the Siman 3 tank remained in service but broke down
in 2007 after it was bombed by Palestinian fighters. The tank was
repaired and sent back to the Gaza Strip. During Operation Cast Lead,
on 8 January 2009, a soldier was killed inside the tank by a
Palestinian sniper.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254480
Graphic novel revisits 'forgotten' Gaza killings
(Reuters)
(Reuters) Comic book meets
investigative journalism in
"Footnotes in Gaza", a graphic novel by Joe Sacco that focuses on two
days in Gaza in 1956 when Palestinians said hundreds of civilians were
killed by Israeli forces. Sacco and his researchers found almost nothing
written in
English about the episodes, despite UN estimates at the time putting
the death toll at nearly 400 -- 275 in Khan Younis on November 3 and
111 in nearby Rafah on November 12.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3830102,00.html
Enas Muthaffar: Simply put, I'm a filmmaker
In the first of a series dedicated to Palestinian film, Ma’an
interviews Palestinian filmmaker Enas Muthaffar, who, in addition to
making several short films and documentaries, has worked as assistant
director on several Palestinian films, including Paradise Now and Salt
of this Sea.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254488
Analysis / Opinion
Israel declares war on peace NGOs / Jerrold Kessel
and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM
– One year after the devastating attack on Hamas in Gaza a new wave of
reports castigating Israel for war crimes has emerged. Now, Israel is
fighting back with a report on the reports, picking on international
NGOs such as Amnesty, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Trocaire, Finn Church Aid,
Diakonia and Cordaid.
http://original.antiwar.com/kessel-klohendler/2010/01/14/israel-declares-war-on-peace-ngos-2/
Al Jazeera Focus: What the Gaza war meant for Israel
/ Orly Halpernl
...
Now, one year since Operation Cast Lead, not only have the so-called
red lines for what you can do to your enemy moved dangerously forward,
but so have the lines of what the government can do its own people.
Israeli polls and surveys reveal that Israeli society and government
are less tolerant than ever of views that oppose the government stance,
which is held by the mainstream. Last month the Association of Civil
Rights in Israel (ACRI) revealed an alarming trend in its annual survey
on the protection of human rights in Israel and the Occupied
Territories - the conditioning of rights. "The realisation of the
entire spectrum of rights is now more than ever dependent on what we
say or believe, what ethnic group we belong to, how much money we have,
and more," says the ACRI.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/gazaoneyearon/2010/2010/01/201011392050370701.html
Chomsky/Abunimah (the left and Zionism)
Here is an exchange at KPFA in California
between Noam Chomsky and Ali Abunimah and Jeff Blankfort touching on
BDS and the Israel lobby. Actually, Chomsky declined to engage with
Abunimah and Blankfort, so host Khalil Bendidb interviewed Chomsky on
an earlier show, then on this show he asked Abunimah and Blankfort to
respond.
I find it somewhat uncomfortable. Chomsky is a giant, and Abunimah
and Blankfort are friends of this site, and there is a sense of a torch
being passed here, or of the older left not being suited for the new
conversation about Israel/Palestine. Chomsky is defensive and a little
brittle here; at his worst moment, he compares BDS to breaking a store
window during the Vietnam War upheaval.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/chomskyabunimah-the-left-and-zionism.html
Many strings attached / Saleh Al-Naami
The
majority of Palestinians believe that restarting talks with Israel at
present would be detrimental to their future -- ..."Restarting talks
between Israel and the PA will have several negative
effects on several tracks," a leading Hamas member who wished to remain
anonymous told Al-Ahram Weekly. "These include the prisoner
exchange deal between Israel and Hamas; the future of national dialogue
and ending internal Palestinian divisions; and the probability of
another war by Israel against the Gaza Strip."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/981/re1.htm
Haiti Gaza / Philip Weiss
I’m moved by the American response to the Haiti disaster, by the sense
of connection Americans are expressing to Haitians across traditional
barriers of class, race, nation, and geography. Is this the Obama
effect? Yes. Would the three network anchors have rushed across seas to
Haiti under such circumstances 3 or 5 years ago? No; the U.S. is making
progress, multiculturalism has won. So what about the Palestinians?
Why, a year ago, didn’t the American anchors race across seas to join
them in Gaza as US-purchased munitions were used against those
defenseless people? Why didn’t they provide up-close stories about the
voices in the rubble and the torn-apart families?
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/i-know-its-not-the-same-but.html
Iraq
UPDATE: Thursday: 33 Iraqis killed, 127 wounded
At least 33 Iraqis were killed and 127 more were wounded in
today’s attacks ... Twenty-seven people were killed and as many as 111 were wounded during an apparently coordinated
bomb attack in the holy city of Najaf. A car bomb blew up on a
street that leads to the Imam Ali Shrine, and then two more blasts
occurred at a nearby market. A bomb in Baquba left two
dead and 10 wounded at a market.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/01/14/thursday-21-iraqis-killed-54-wounded/
Iraq arrests Qaeda chief tied to 2003 blast at UN HQ
(AFP)
The
Iraqi army said on Saturday it had detained a suspected Al-Qaeda leader
implicated in the 2003 bombing of the UN's Baghdad headquarters which
killed 22 people. Ali Hussein Alwan al-Azawi, nicknamed Abu Imad,
suspected of being a top commander in Al-Qaeda front organisation the
Islamic State in Iraq, was captured in an operation in the capital,
Baghdad military command spokesman Qassem Atta told a news conference.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100116/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestunqaeda
Lebanon
Report: Israel reassures Lebanon before IDF exercises
Just days after
defense minister's threat to Beirut, Israel clarifies that troop
deployment along northern border is for exercise, not incursion into
Lebanon. Arab paper reports US warns Beirut: If Hezbollah obtains STA
missiles, may not be able to prevent Israeli response
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3834842,00.html
Jordan
Israel experts check Jordan embassy after bomb
attack (AFP)
AMMAN (AFP) – Israeli security experts paid a visit to Jordan on Friday
to evaluate risks of any attacks against the Jewish state's Amman
embassy a day after a bomb attack on a convoy from the mission ...The
minister said however that the delegation was "in no way involved in
the ongoing investigation which is totally in the hands of the
Jordanian authorities."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100115/wl_mideast_afp/mideastbombjordanisrael
Yemen
Yemen says airstrike kills al-Qaida military chief
(AP)
SAN`A,
Yemen – Yemeni warplanes struck outside a desert village near the
border with Saudi Arabia on Friday, killing six al-Qaida operatives,
including the group's top military leader in the country, security
officials said. The military chief, who escaped a government attack
targeting him last month, was one of Yemen's most-wanted militants and
had plotted to assassinate the U.S. ambassador.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_al_qaida_8
The Empire discovers Yemen / Philip Giraldi
It was another one of those Orwellian moments that have occurred so
frequently over the past eight years. On January 4th Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton announced that "… we see global
implications from the war in Yemen and the ongoing efforts by al-Qaeda
in Yemen to use it as a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the
region." ... The White House’s identification of a new enemy was good
news
for those who had become concerned that the war on terror, now called
overseas contingency operations, was not expanding quickly enough.
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/01/13/the-empire-discovers-yemen/
Yemen 'must resist foreign forces'
A
group of Muslim leaders have said Yemenis have a religious duty to
resist foreign military intervention in the country ... Mohamed
Vall, Al Jazeera's
correspondent in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, said that the religious
leaders' decision to oppose any military intervention would carry great
weight in the country.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/2010114112755274699.html
YEMEN: Southern rural areas forced to rely on trucked-in
water
SANAA,
14 January 2010 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of residents in rural areas
of Beidha, Taiz and Dhalea governorates in Yemen’s southern highlands
have run out of water, and are having to have it trucked in, according
to government officials. The water they normally rely
on - rainwater harvested in catchment tanks or ponds during the rainy
(summer) season - has run dry.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87733
Egypt
Egypt's Brotherhood gets new leader
Egypt's
main
opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has named Muhammad Badie
as its new leader following the resignation of Muhammad Akef ... The
Brotherhood is officially banned but controls a fifth of seats in the
Egyptian parliament after it fielded independent candidates in the last
general elections in 2005. Badie told reporters that the Brotherhood
rejected violence and aimed to achieve gradual reforms.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2010/01/2010116123052219712.html
Egypt police bar activists from town after Copt
deaths
CAIRO: Police on Friday barred 20
activists from a tense town in southern Egypt where Muslim gunmen
killed six Coptic Christians earlier this month, a senior security
official said. The group, which included bloggers and political
activists, planned to meet and express solidarity with victims’
families, said the official, who did not want to be identified. The
activists were put on the next train back to Cairo, he said
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=110730
Other
Normal life in Port-au-Prince / James North
The
news
coverage of the Haitian earthquake is understandably showing
people who are stunned and in agony. But before the disaster,
Port-au-Prince was a very different place — poor, certainly, but
incredibly busy. Everyone was working at something, from dawn into the
night ... Over the past few days, certain mainstream commentators
have shown more
than their usual foolishness to trying to explain why Haiti is so
poor. We will have more to say here at this site about this in the
days to come. But for now we can at least safely conclude that Haiti
is not poor because Haitians are lazy, or do not value education.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/normal-life-in-port-au-prince.html
NPR hearts racial profiling
"
I was listening to NPR this morning and NPR correspondent Deborah Amos
sounded oh-so-enthusiastic about racial profiling. Here is the
description of the interview .
The transcript isn't yet up, but the audio is. Ben Gurion International
Airport in Israel has a reputation for excellent security. Rafi Ron was
the airport's chief of security but since the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, he's been a consultant to Logan International Airport in
Boston. Ron talks to Deborah Amos about whether Israel uses racial
profiling to screen passengers — a practice that's generally off limits
to federal law enforcement in the United States.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/01/npr-hearts-israeli-racial-profiling.html |
| For further information contact Shadi Fadda |
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