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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Land theft / Settlements and settlers / Movement restriction
Jordan Valley residents challenge Area C restrictions
In defiance of Israeli restrictions, residents mended roads today in the
village of Jiftlik, in the Jordan Valley. The
villagers were objecting to Israeli building and planning rules that
prevent construction and infrastructure improvements in most of
Israeli-controlled Area C, which composes sixty percent of the West
Bank. According to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee,
the residents were joined by the Palestinian Minister of Agriculture,
Ismail Deiq. They repaired roughly one kilometer of roads inside the
town.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262867
MK Ben Ari leads rightist march to Jericho
Dozens of rightists passed through IDF
checkpoints in the West Bank Sunday in what they said was an attempt to
visit an ancient synagogue in Jericho. MK
Michael Ben Ari (National Union), Itamar
Ben-Gvir, and Baruch Marzel led the group, and said many had succeeded
in entering the Palestinian city."The Oslo Accords are dead, and we will
not allow an enemy state to be established here in Israel,"
Ben Ari said of the march.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3852437,00.html
Israel
to triple demolition rate for illegal Bedouin construction
...This year should see 700 illegal structures destroyed and the
deep plowing of 9,000 dunams of land to prevent new construction.
Ibrahim Al-Wakili, who heads the Regional Council of
Unrecognized Villages, warned of an explosive situation if demolition
even doubles ... A
former head of the Regional Council of Unrecognized
Communities, Hussein Al-Rafia, said he intends to petition the High
Court of Justice if the increased enforcement decision is carried out.
"The police and also the Interior Ministry have to understand that
there is a problem of 100,000 residents without [municipal] planning or
recognition and they cannot build their homes in a legal manner."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150664.html
A visit to Huda's preschool at Umm Daraj
This
week we visited in Huda’s preschool at Hashem Al- Daraj
(sometimes known as Umm Daraj). It is located in the Judean desert deep
inside area C of the Oslo accord map ... Huda’s preschool opened some
four years ago and it survived until
now with almost no facilities and no budget. Huda works alone there
with more than 20 children, and receives a monthly salary of $140 from
an NGO in Hebron. In such conditions, all the other preschools that
opened in this Bedouin peripheral area at the same time as Huda’s, had
closed long ago ... If you send us donations designated for Huda’s
preschool, we will use them entirely for that purpose.
http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/a-visit-to-hudas-preschool-at-umm-daraj/
Jerusalem families come out against museum built on
ancestors' grave
Members of prominent
Palestinian families from Jerusalem came out last week in protest
against plans by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a Museum of
Tolerance on top of part of the ancient Mamilla Cemetery where their
ancestors are buried. The initiative includes filing a petition in
Geneva to various United
Nations human rights bodies and to UNESCO, the Paris-based UN agency
responsible for protecting the world's cultural heritage. The petition
was also addressed to the Swiss Government, which is the repository for
the Geneva Conventions.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11085.shtml
Video: Thousands converge on Bil`in, Fayyad among them
More at The Real News
Wonderful report by Lia Tarachansky
on Friday’s Bil’in demo, attended by thousands celebrating the fifth
anniversary of the protest. Note that Salam Fayyad, the P.M. of the
Palestinian Authority, attended the demo and, in English, thanked the
internationals for coming to support Palestinian freedom. A sign of the
movement’s power: the politicians will run to catch up. The same
process can happen in Israel and here too. Unrepresented by their
elected leaders, people who oppose occupation will make great personal
sacrifice to express their views, and public sympathy will surge toward
them.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/thousands-converge-on-bilin-fayyad-among-them.html
Netanyahu: West Bank sites added to national heritage
list
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday
that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in
Bethlehem would both be added to the list of national heritage sites
that the government plans to promote. Speaking at a special cabinet
meeting in the northern town of Tel
Hai, Netanyahu said that rightist religious party Shas persuaded him
add the two sites to the list.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151266.html
Meretz's Oron: Netanyahu blurring Israel's borders
The government's decision to include the
Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb within the list of national
heritage sites has caused uproar in political circles. Meretz
Chairman Chaim Oron slammed the decision Sunday, saying "This is another
attempt to blur the borders between the State of Israel
and the occupied territories. All it needs is a bit of pressure from
the right, and (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu
falls into line. This decision puts Netanyahu's Bar-Ilan declaration
of two states for two peoples in an absurd light."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3852357,00.html
West Bank shrines on Israeli heritage list (AP)
JERUSALEM -- Israel
is adding two key West Bank holy shrines to its list of national
heritage sites, the prime minister said Sunday, staking a claim that
angered Palestinians, who want Israel out of the West Bank.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/21/AR2010022101451.html
Photo: How would you feel if your mother had to get
to work this way?
Dan Sisken sent
along this photo from a report by the World Bank
on gender/economic implications of the wall. He writes, Not much info
on Atef Safadi, the photographer. Here’s his photo page on a photosite called
"Elsewhere." Photo is titled, Ramadan – women cross over the wall.
From last November. Safadi also has some stuff on the NYT site.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/how-would-you-feel-if-your-mother-had-to-do-this-to-get-to-work.html
Checkpoint misery epitomizes a Mideast divide (AP)
...The separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank slices
through several of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, making Qalandia the
only way for 60,000 taxpaying residents to reach their city. They too
must line up along with tens of thousands of West Bank residents
to enter Israel for work — provided they are patient, have permits, and
don't arouse suspicion.
For five days, an Associated Press reporter waited with them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_mideast_checkpoint_diaries
TA rally: Settlement freeze not enforced
Hundreds of people gathered outside the
Tel Aviv Cinematheque Saturday evening in protest of the fact that
construction in the West Bank settlements has not been completely
halted despite the government's decision
on a 10-month construction moratorium. During the rally
Labor Knesset Member Eitan Cabel criticized
his fellow party members for not demanding that the building freeze be
enforced, calling them "junkies of governance".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851948,00.html
"Settlers' conduct will be their ruin"
The
incident in
which two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured Wednesday by
settlers in Yitzhar sparked uproar in the army which refuses to wane
down. An IDF official told Ynet, "The disgraceful conduct of some of
the settlers who hurt IDF forces and disrupted routine activity may one
day be the ruin of them."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851524,00.html
State on illegal outpost: Delay in relocating settlers
About eight months ago Defense Minister Ehud Barak
approved the construction of 50 homes in the Adam settlement for
settlers relocated
from Migron, as part of the program for relocating the illegal outpost.
However, it became apparent Wednesday that the Defense Ministry is not
keeping to schedule.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850873,00.html
PA official: Settlers damage cars, assault doctor
near Nablus
Israeli settlers smashed windshields of cars driving along the
Nablus-Jenin road in the northern West Bank on Sunday, and assaulted a
doctor, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan
Daghlas, who holds the area's settlements portfolio, told Ma'an that
dozens of settlers "hurled stones on the As-Seela road, near Homesh,
totally shattering the windshields of Palestinian cars." ohammed Saleh
Salem, a Palestinian doctor, was injured during the episode and his car
was extensively damaged, Daghlas said. "Attacks
by settlers on Palestinians in the Nablus district continue, almost
every day," Daghlas added
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=263119
Settlers
use Molotov cocktails on Palestinian family house
On the outskirts of the village of Asira is a fine new house – a work
in progress. Jamal and Nahla Ahmad have saved up to build it for their
young family, Ayman, Mohammed, Malak and Zena ... But on the hill behind
their house a row of red-roofed houses marks the
edge of the illegal settlement of Yizhar. In the last few months the
settlers have come down the hill, and attacked the Ahmad family home:
breaking windows, trying to wrench out safety grills, lighting a fire
on the front steps, with the family inside the house. They have used
Molotov cocktails and CS gas; they shout threats and they mark their
territory with graffiti stars of David. Jamal is a driver and is often
away from home. Nahla and the children are afraid.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=38392
Violence / Aggression
Troops attack a Sunday Mass with tear gas at Beit
Sahour city
(with video) Israeli troops fired tear gas and
concussion grenades on Sunday
midday at [an outdoor] Mass held by residents of Beit Sahour city,
southern West
Bank. Residents from Beit Sahour along with international supporters had
gathered
at the evacuated military base of Ush Grhab east of the city. People
held banners demanding the halt of the Israeli renewed work at the site
and called for the end of settlement activity around their city.
http://imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=58014
Shelling injures 5 in northern Gaza
Five Palestinians were injured and structural damage was
sustained when Israeli forces opened fire at a target north of Beit
Lahiya, northern Gaza, on Sunday ... Witnesses said the shelling
targeted Palestinian workers at the evacuated Israeli settlement of
Gush Katif in northern Gaza ... Three Palestinians were injured when
Israeli helicopters fired on a
group of fighters near the central Gaza military base Kissufim
following reports of clashes in the area early Saturday morning.
Additionally,
on Thursday, Israeli forces entered deep into the Gaza Strip during
day-long clashes, witnesses reported and the military confirmed. Four
tanks and a bulldozer penetrated 900 meters in the Al-Maghazi refugee
camp area and demolished two homes.The violence coincides with
increased Israeli activity inside the Gaza
borders, with the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs reporting five separate penetrations where Israeli military
equipment "conducted land leveling operations."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=263035
Israel military: Exchange of gunfire near Bethlehem
The Israeli military said it opened fire on Palestinian gunmen in a
speeding car who attacked a military patrol west of Bethlehem on
Saturday night. A military spokesman told Ma’an that the
Palestinians opened fire on the patrol and attemped to run over
soldiers near the Gush Etzion settlement block. The Israeli personnel
returned fire and pursued the car, which managed to escape, the
military also said. Palestinians in the village of Hussan, west
of Bethlehem, reported that Israeli soldiers opened fire at men driving
a stolen car, injuring three of them. The the men managed to escape,
residents said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262931
Security developments in the Hebron area
Israeli forces intervened in a number of incidents in the Hebron area
on Saturday, including the detention of Palestinians and the
prohibiting of access to agricultural land, and reportedly withdrew
from a military base. The following report does not include the shooting
by Israeli forces of two Palestinians in Yatta. Click here for a detailed account of that
incident....
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262876
Israeli forces storm Fatah offices in Nablus
Israeli forces stormed offices belonging to Fatah in the northern West
Bank village of Beit Imrin, west of Nablus, on Sunday morning, party
sources told Ma'an. Israeli soldiers attempted to break into the office
by forcing down the main doors, and were unable to, the sources said.
Forces
reportedly set light to a poster of the late President Yasser Arafat
which was hanging on the main doors, the sources added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262955
Israeli patrol enters Tulkarem-area village
Israeli forces entered the village of Bal`a, east of Tulkarem, and
deployed its troops in residential neighborhoods on Sunday, witnesses
said. Soldiers conducted searched homes and stores in the neighborhood
and checked locals' ID cards, witnesses said. No arrests were
reported. An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that following an
initial inquiry, the army is not familiar with the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=263120
Retaliation
Soldier lightly wounded in explosion at Gaza fence
A
Golani soldier was lightly wounded
Thursday morning when an explosive device was detonated by the Gaza
Strip security fence near Kibbutz Kisufim. The
incident occurred as IDF forces
patrolled the eastern side of the fence. The device was apparently
detonated by remote control. After the explosion, soldiers scoured the
area and found another device which had not exploded. IDF
sources noted that the threat of such devices in the Gaza Strip was
common.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851380,00.html
Palestinian teen caught with bombs
A 16-year-old
Palestinian boy was detained
Thursday at the Gilboa crossing at the northern entrance to Jenin,
after a routine search uncovered two improvised pipe bombs in his
possession. Nobody was hurt in the incident and the bombs were
neutralized by police sappers. The teenager was taken in for
interrogation ... On Wednesday, a Border Guard
force uncovered
four pipe bombs hidden in the possessions of a Palestinian teen in the
same area. The teen was detained at a roadblock near Jenin.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851406,00.html
Son of Palestinian peace activists admits to
attempted terror attack
The son of a prominent Palestinian peace activist
confessed Thursday he participated in an attempted terror attack
against Israel Defense Forces last month which was documented with a
camera belonging to Human rights organization B'Tselem. On January 21
Israel security forces arrested three West Bank
Palestinians suspected of involvement with terrorist activity, one of
whom was Mohanned Abu-Awwad, 21, whose father, Khaled Abu-Awwad, serves
as the General Manager of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families
Forum.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150793.html
Detention
Hamas: PA detained 12 supporters across the West Bank
Hamas on Sunday accused the Palestinian Authority Security Services of
detaining 12 of the movement's supporters across the West Bank,
including a prominent leader in Nablus. Mustapha Ash-Shunnar,
49, a lecturer at Nablus' An-Najah University, was detained as he left
a wedding party in the city, Hamas said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262977
Blockade / Siege
Gaza:
Treading on shards / Sarah Roy
"Do you know what it's
like living in Gaza?" a friend of mine asked. "It is like walking on
broken glass tearing at your feet." ... Lands previously irrigated
are now dry, while effluent from sewage
seeps into the groundwater and the sea, making much of the land
unusable. Many attempts by Gazan farmers to replant over the past year
have failed because of the depletion and contamination of the water and
the high level of nitrates in the soil. Gaza's agricultural sector has
been further undermined by the buffer zone imposed by Israel on Gaza's
northern and eastern perimeters (and by Egypt on Gaza's southern
border), which contains some of the Strip's most fertile land ...
Approximately 30-40 percent of
Gaza's total agricultural land is contained in the buffer zone. This
has effectively forced the collapse of Gaza's agricultural sector.
These profound distortions in Gaza's economy and society will--even
under the best of conditions--take decades to reverse.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100301/roy/print
One Gaza crossing opened for limited export
Israeli
authorities
opened the Kerem Shalom crossing into the southern Gaza
Strip on Sunday, said Palestinian border crossings official Raed
Fattouh. Between 77 and 87 truckloads of humanitarian aid and
commercial goods
were schedelued for transfer into Gaza through Kerem Shalom, as well as
limited quantities of domestic gas and industrial fuel, he said. The UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said,
despite an increase in the import of cooking gas into the coastal
enclave, this represents only 49 percent of the weekly needs of gas
(1,400 tones), as estimated by the Gas Station Owners Association ...
Additionally, three trucks of cut carnations will be exported through
the same terminal.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262975
Extra-judicial killings
Report:
PM approved Dubai assassination in early January
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized in early
January the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh,
according to a report published in the Sunday Times. Based on
information obtained from "sources with knowledge of
Mossad," the paper reported that Netanyahu gave Mossad chief Meir Dagan
the green light for the Dubai operation during a meeting at the
Midrasha - the intelligence agency's headquarters, in the northern
suburbs of Tel Aviv.
The sources also said that the Mossad hit squad trained for the Dubai
mission by secretly rehearsing in a Tel Aviv hotel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151245.html
Report: Dubai assassin used real German passport
German officials investigating the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud
Al-Mabhouh in Dubai have found that one of the suspected assassins
carried a genuine German passport, the German magazine Der Spiegel
reported on Saturday. Der Spiegel said German intelligence agents found
that in June 2009 an
Israeli man identifying himself as Michael Bodenheimer - a name listed
by police as a member of the hit squad - approached immigration
officials in Cologne with the pre-World War II address of his
grandparents. Bodenheimer acquired German citizenship on the basis of
this information. After Dubal police listed his name on the
11-member assassination team, a US-born Israeli man also named Michael
Bodenheimer said he was a victim of identity theft.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262919
Irish FM to ask Lieberman for clarifications on Dubai
operation
During his scheduled visit to Brussels next week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will
be asked to explain how the hit squad behind the assassination
of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai obtained forged
British and Irish passports. Irish Foreign Minister Michael
Martin said Saturday that he would discuss the matter with Lieberman on
Monday ... Martin said he planned to further
discuss the matter at his meeting with 26 other EU foreign ministers
next week.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851966,00.html
Senior official: Everyone uses similar methods in war
on terror
International criticism over the
assassination of senior Hamas man Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai is
unwarranted, as other states use similar methods in their war on
terrorists, a senior official in Jerusalem said late Thursday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851492,00.html
Top EU offical: Dubai hit may harm ties with Israel
A
senior EU diplomat said on Sunday that Israel's
suspected role in the slaying of a Hamas militant in Dubai and the
killers' alleged use of forged EU passports will harm Israel's
relations with the European bloc ... The EU diplomat spoke
on condition of anonymity due
to the sensitive topic on Sunday, a day before the EU's 27 foreign
ministers are due to meet in Brussels. Israel's Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman will also be in Brussels to see EU foreign policy
chief Catherine Ashton, among others.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151260.html
Meir Dagan: the mastermind behind Mossad's secret
war
...few believe that Mossad will give up the secret war it has long
waged against Israel’s enemies. Mossad has had a reputation for
ruthlessness since it hunted down the Black September terrorists who
massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Time and
again its vengeful arm has reached out across the Arab world and into
Europe, too, smiting enemies. Under Dagan’s leadership, such operations
have increased.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7034933.ece
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment &
Sanctions
Scandinavian financial institutions drop Elbit due to
BDS pressure
19 Feb - Despite Israel's oppressive
tactics against it, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
movement has marked additional victories with many institutional
investors divesting from or blacklisting Israeli military contractor
Elbit Systems. One of the largest Dutch pension funds told The
Electronic Intifada today that it is selling off its shares in Elbit ...
A crucial role was played by
the Palestinian Stop the Wall Campaign in convincing the Norwegian
State Pension Fund to divest from Elbit Systems last September. In
response, Israel detained campaign activist Mohammad Othman after he
returned from a trip to Norway where he met Minister of Finance Kristin
Halvorsen. Subject to office raids and its activists arrested, Stop the
Wall has become a key target of Israeli attempts to suppress the
nonviolent movement BDS.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11084.shtml
Israeli ballet disrupted briefly during Vermont
performance
Friday night in Burlington. Protesters
included the
great Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli who served in the IDF. Message:
"Sponsored by Apartheid Israel." The video was taken down from youtube
on one pretext or another. It’s up at vimeo. Related post: Touring Israeli ballet
company has no Palestinian dancers
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/
israeli-ballet-disrupted-briefly-during-vermont-performance.html
Political developments / Diplomacy
EU
initiative: Recognition of Palestinian state by next year
French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his
Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos are promoting an initiative by
which the European Union would recognize a Palestinian state in 18
months, even before negotiations for a permanent settlement between
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are concluded. According to senior
European diplomats and senior Israeli
officials, Israel has relayed its opposition to the initiative -
warning that it would undermine any chance of a successful peace
process.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151219.html
3 PA governors return to Gaza via Rafah crossing
Three Palestinian Authority-appointed governors in the Gaza Strip
returned to the coastal enclave via the Rafah crossing with Egypt on
Thursday, for the first time since Hamas' takeover in June 2007, one of
the governors said on Saturday. fOsama Al-Farra, governor of
Khan Younes, Muhammad Al-Qudwa, governor of Gaza City, Zuhdi Al-Qudwa
governor of Rafah, as well as Major General Fatima Al-Birnawi crossed
into Gaza as a result of efforts to achieve national reconciliation,
Al-Farra said in a statement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262953
PA offical: Talks could resume in March
A
US effort to break the deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations
toward a peace deal could come to fruition by mid-March with the start
of indirect talks, Palestinian officials said on Saturday. Arab
states are now joining the US and European countries in attempting to
bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. Officials say these
efforts have intensified since President Mahmoud Abbas announced he
will not negotiate until Israel stops expanding settlements in the West
Bank. In the meantime Abbas has been seeking clarification on a US offer
to
mediate in “proximity talks” wherein special envoy George Mitchell
would shuttle between the two sides.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262905
Ashrawi: Hamas' demands unrealistic
Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO)
Executive Committee, said no one is capable of offering Hamas the
changes it says are prerequisites for the movement's ratification of
the Egyptian-sponsored unity deal, on Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=262869
Other news
Israel angered by Uzi, menorah sculpture in Spain
A
display by a Spanish artist including a
candelabrum growing out of the barrel of an Uzi sub-machinegun and a
sculpture of a haredi figure standing on a priest, who kneels on a
prostrate Muslim, has drawn fire from the Foreign Ministry.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3850893,00.html
Government to discuss bill to ease restrictions on
egg donation
Bill states individual born of non-Jewish woman's egg must undergo
conversion later in life in order to be considered Jewish
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151222.html
Scientists irate after top education official
questions evolution
The Education Ministry's chief scientist sparked a
furor among environmental activists and scholars Saturday with remarks
questioning the reliability of evolution and global warming theory. The
comments from Dr. Gavriel Avital, the latest in a series of written and
oral statements casting doubts on the fundamental tenets of modern
science, led several environmentalists to call for his dismissal.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151223.html
Analysis / Opinion
For NYT's public editor, Bronner's a tarbaby / Ira
Glunts
Today, Clark Hoyt, the public editor of the NY Times, devotes his column to reaction to his suggestion
that his newspaper reassign Jerusalem correspondent Ethan Bronner due
to a conflict of interest relating to his son’s enlistment in the IDF.
The column will appear in the print version of the newspaper and a
longer version will be on the Web. I learned about this the other day
when an associate of Hoyt
contacted me about including a letter I had written in Hoyt’s public
editor column. I was actually quite surprised that the Times would
consider publishing this letter, which I was sure was outside the
boundaries of what the editors would accept as “legitimate criticism” of
their star writer.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/02/hoyt-on-bronner-the-saga-continues.html
Dubious in Dubai / Uri Avnery
...THE PROBLEM is that the Mossad in Israel acts like an independent
fiefdom that ignores the vital long-term political and strategic
interests of Israel, enjoying the automatic backing of an irresponsible
prime minister. It is, as the English expression goes, a “loose cannon”
– the cannon of a ship of yore which has broken free of its mountings
and is rolling around the deck, crushing to death any unfortunate
sailor who happens to get in its way ... The Dubai affair is reinforcing
the image of Israel as a bully
state, a rogue nation that treats world public opinion with contempt, a
country that conducts gang warfare, that sends mafia-like death squads
abroad, a pariah nation to be avoided by right-minded people. Was this
worthwhile?
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1266678809/
Israeli media first to report Haitian organ theft
rumor / Jillian C. York
There is considerable
speculation following the removal of Lady Jenny Tonge on 14 February
from her position as health critic for the Liberal Democratic Party in
the UK's House of Lords following her statement calling for an inquiry
into claims that the Israeli military stole organs during its relief
work in Haiti last month. The question I pose is not whether Tonge was
wrong in her claims to The Jewish Chronicle (which I would argue
she was), but where the claims originated in the first place ... On
20 January, the Israeli
news site YNet published a piece entitled, "'Israelis Stealing Organs
in Haiti,'" the title of which has since been changed (Yitzhak
Benhorin, "Anti-Semitic video against Israel team in Haiti,"
previously titled "'Israelis Stealing Organs in Haiti'") ... this
is a case of media irresponsibility resulting in real-world
repercussions.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11086.shtml
Sexual
assault punished differently among religious, secular Jews / Gideon
Levy
Religious Zionism presents: a show of arrogance. For
about three years, they kept their dirty laundry at home, but now they
have been so kind as to display it for everyone to see. The fact that
in the State of Israel there is an alternative law enforcement system
such as the Takana forum, which investigates and metes out punishment
only to religious Zionists, is intolerable. The fact that this system
is run by the heads of a movement that in vain regulates to itself what
is morally, ethically and culturally permissible is another sign of its
arrogance.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151233.html
An
openly segregated policy / Sefi Rachlevsky
...Not only is there no such thing as a "Somali woman"
who has fewer rights than any other woman, there's no such thing as an
"ultra-Orthodox youth." This youngster's country has no right to choose
for him, label him "religious" or "ultra-Orthodox" and abandon him in a
state-supported, segregationist rabbinical education system. There
he will be taught that a Jew killing a Gentile
should not be punished by his fellow men, and that if this youth
expresses his sexual identity by sleeping with another man, this will
be punishable by death.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151231.html
Iraq, other Mideast
Saturday: 6 Iraqis killed, 2 wounded
Excerpt: "Only" six Iraqis were killed and two more were
wounded on a very quiet day of attacks. Iraqis are still
concerned over the fallout of a candidate blacklist that could nullify
the legitimacy of the elections. Some Iraqis face a long jail term if
they choose to criticize the elections through vandalism. A day after
the National Dialogue Front
unsurprisingly pulled out of elections, the National Council for Tribes
of Iraq
has withdrawn
as well. Although there has been no call for a general boycott by Sunni
voters,
the development could call the legitimacy of the election into question.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/02/20/saturday-3-iraqis-killed/
"light attack planes' -- my potato / As`ad AbuKhalil
"The
United States is reported ready to provide light attack aircraft
to the Lebanese army and to establish an elite Special Forces unit, a
major step toward boosting the military's now-feeble firepower."
Let me translate for you. The US will not give Lebanon any weapons that
can be effective against Israeli aggression, but is willing to give
Lebanon weapons that can be effective against demonstrators, rebels and
the Palestinian refugee camps.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/02/light-attack-planes-my-potato.html
Lebanon criticizes Israeli tree-cutting
In letters to Ban Ki-moon and the council circulated Thursday,
Lebanon's UN Ambassador Nawaf Salam said an Israeli tractor with a
special blade mounted on a hoist reached over a fence on January 7 and
cut branches from a tree growing in Lebanese territory. The tree was on
the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border town of Kafr
Kila-Marjuyun, he said. The tractor was accompanied by an Israeli
military patrol, Salam said. "My government considers the ... act to be
a clear violation of my country's sovereignty," he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851526,00.html
Saudi to grant women court access
Saudi Arabia could soon allow women lawyers to appear in court to
argue cases for the first time. Mohammed
al-Issa, the justice minister, said the government is drafting a
new law to permit female lawyers to argue family-related cases,
including divorce and child custody.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/201022117114465818.html
U.S. and other world news
Uproar in France over Muslim 'kosher' burgers
Local Quick fast
food chain starts using halal meat only, slaughtered according to
Sharia law, in eight of its branches located in large Muslim population
centers. French officials protest step, warn of cultural isolationism,
discrimination
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851543,00.html
Some T-shirts are illegal in France
"Zeyneb D., élève de 3ème au collège Claude Bernard de
Villefranche-sur-Saône (69400), est victime d’une exclusion de 3 jours
pour avoir osé porter en classe un tee-shirt "Palestine libre!"."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/02/some-t-shirts-are-illegal-in-france.html
Vancouver 2010: The IOC, Canada, and Apartheid / Kim
Peterson
The Winter Olympics is taking place in the unceded territory of the
Skwxwú7mesh, Xwméthkwyiem and Tsleil-Waututh peoples – what has been
colonially designated Vancouver – and the unceded territory of the
St’at’imc people – Whistler. Israel has sent an ice dancing pair to the
Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Of Vancouver, the Israeli Consul-General, Amir Gissin, gushed, “We find
a Zionist, warm, loving community for whom Israel is a second home.”
Zionist communities in Canada? Why not? Canada is an apartheid country
just as Israel is. The First Nations have been pushed onto small
reserves. Canada is based on the dispossession of the Indigenous
population as is Israel.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/vancouver-2010-the-ioc-israel-canada-and-apartheid/ |
| For further information contact Shadi Fadda |
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