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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Ethnic Cleansing/Land, Property Theft and Destruction/Settlements
Israel police destroy camp's wastewater network
Ma’an – A state of tension and rage prevailed among the residents in
Shu’fat refugee camp in northern Jerusalem after Israeli bulldozers
destroyed a wastewater network near the entrance of the camp., "The
sludge turned the street into a swamp and obstructed the movement of
schoolchildren, as well as slowed down public and private
transportation," resident Jamil Sanduqa told Ma'an's correspondent.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280570
Outpost
settlers
uproot 30 olive trees east of Qalqiliya
Qalqiliya –
Ma'an – Kafr Qaddum village residents said they woke up to settlers from
the Hifat Gilad outpost of the illegal Qedumin settlement bloc tearing
up some 30 olive trees on private lands.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280690
Settlers
Attack A Palestinian Town In Northern West Bank And Destroy Property And
Trees
A group of Israeli settlers attacked on Thursday the town of Huwara, in
northern West Bank, and destroyed olive trees and property.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58557
JCSER: “In 2008, Israeli
Stripped Residency Rights Of 4672 Palestinians”
The Jerusalem
Center for Social and Economic Rights (JSCER) published a report
revealing that Israel stripped the residency rights of 4672 Palestinians
in 2008 comparing to stripping residency rights of 229 Palestinians in
2007.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58559
Berlanty
Azzam:
Expelled from the West Bank
Amnesty International, 28
April 2010, In 2005 Berlanty Azzam, a young Palestinian woman from Gaza,
travelled to the West Bank to begin a university degree in business
administration and translation at Bethlehem University., In October
2009, just two months away from finishing her degree, Berlanty was
forcibly transferred to Gaza by the Israeli military., Berlanty Azzam
spoke to Amnesty International in Gaza on 2 November 2009, just a few
days after her expulsion from the West Bank:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/expelled-west-bank-2010-04-28
Maysoon
Ahmad
Nabhan Mussa: Israel revokes woman's Jerusalem residency
A
Jerusalem woman has been expelled to the West Bank under Israel law,
Ma'an News Agency reports. Maysoon Ahmad Nabhan Mussa is a resident of
Jerusalem, but she lives in the West Bank with her husband. Thursday,
she was called into Jerusalem's Ministry of the Interior, and ministry
officials confiscated her Jerusalem residency card. Mussa, who works
for Palestinian Authority Intelligence, said she effectively has no ID
now, as Israeli law prohibits Palestinians from obtaining residency
rights for their spouses. Mussa's Jerusalem ID was revoked under the
Israeli "center of life" regulation that stipulates a person's residency
card can be voided if the center of one's life is no longer Jerusalem.
Mussa can potentially gain West Bank residency through PA family
reunification laws, but the PA only releases permits for a portion of
the applications submitted. Mussa says the move is an attempt to excise
Palestinians from Israel. She told Ma'an: “These racist Israeli
practices target Jerusalemits, and they must be stopped."
http://palestinenote.com/cs/blogs/news/archive/2010/04/30/israel-revokes-woman-s-jerusalem-residency.aspx
Jerusalem's
secret
land deals
For years the Greek Orthodox Church has been
criticised for leasing its land in Jerusalem and the West Bank to the
state of Israel. Now, Al Jazeera has been shown documents revealing the
full extent of secret land deals, made by the former Patriarch with a
powerful Israeli settler organisation. The new patriarch says he is
fighting to stop church property becoming Jewish settlements. Al
Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports. April 30, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1G9DRE7eGw&feature=youtube_gdata
Israeli tourism maps annex Palestinian lands - Daoud
Kuttab
Special US envoy George Mitchell has visited the area,
armed with a special letter from President Barack Obama to the
Palestinian president reiterating what seems to have been a US-Israel
understanding that the proximity talks will take place soon. The
Palestinian side is keen this time not to waste time on talking for the
sake of talking, or based on the idea of incremental negotiations.
Palestinians are determined to tackle the issue of borders first and
walk back from that to how to implement the establishment of the
Palestinian state. In meantime the Israeli tourism ministry (in its most
recent maps) has unilaterally annexed Palestine to Israel and has
omitted the existence of many Palestinian communities. While the West
Bank is not marked nor mentioned as the West Bank, it is listed as
Yehuda and Samaria. The Gaza strip, however, is demarcated with the
words “Azza (Gaza) strip.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280563
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott,Sanctions
and
Divestment
Four Injured, Two
Journalists Detained, At The Bil'in Anti Wall Protest
On
Friday Palestinians, Israeli, and International activists marched to the
wall built on the central west Bank village of Bil’in lands.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58564
A Number Of Youth Treated
For The Effects Of Tear Gas Inhalation At The Nil'in Weekly Protest
The
villagers
of Nil'in, central West Bank, organized on Friday their weekly anti
wall protest.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58563
Villagers Organize An Anti
Wall Protest In Al Walaja Village
Villagers along with
international supporters gathered on Friday in Al-Walaja village near
Jerusalem to protest the Israeli wall being built on their lands.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58562
Al Ma''sar
Village Near Bethlehem Protest The Israeli Wall
On Friday
midday the residents of Al Ma’ssara village near the southern West Bank
city of Bethlehem protest the Israeli-built wall on their lands.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58561
Palestinians Defending Their Homes: 5 Minute Video
Around
50 Palestinians and internationals had managed to stop the work of the
bulldozers for several hours in the village of Al Walaja, on 25.04.2010.
- The Israeli soldiers used stun grenades and tear gas canisters
directly at people, as well as pepper spray. One Palestinian got
arrested and several were injured. Once completed the Wall will totally
surround the village.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er1vAJObtzM&feature=player_embedded
Rafah: 1 injured as no-go zone protests continue
Gaza – Ma'an – A Rafah man was injured during a demonstration against
the Israeli-enforced no-go zone along the Gaza-Israel border on
Thursday, as the rallies continue to end in bloodshed. Ziad
As-Sarafandi, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Buffer
Zone in Rafah where the demonstration took place, said Israeli troops
opened fire on the protesters. The live fire injured one man, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280606
Demonstrations, live fire continue in Gaza Buffer
Zone
Less than 24 hours after the fatal shooting of Ahmad Sliman Salem Dib,
over 100 demonstrators gathered in Rafah, Gaza to protest the Buffer
Zone. Marching within 100 meters of the border, the non-violent and
unarmed demonstrators were faced with live fire from the beginning of
the demonstration. As the march progressed, fire was aimed progressively
closer and bullets were shot through a banner held by participants. One
man was lightly injured in the foot.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/04/12185
From UC Berkeley divestment supporters: "We lost the
vote, but won the night."
The ASUC Senate at UC Berkeley fell one vote short of the 14 needed to
override a veto of a bill calling for divestment from two companies,
General Electric and United Technologies, that directly profit off of
human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/from-uc-berkeley-divestment-supporters.html
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb will speak on BDS in Brooklyn
tonite
Rabbi Lynn
Gottlieb--"one of the first eight women to serve as rabbi"--will be
speaking in Brooklyn tonight on Why divestment? 7 o'clock. Here's Brooklyn
for Peace announcement. Co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews
Say No!
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/rabbi-lynn-gottlieb-will-speak-on-bds-in-brooklyn-tonite.html
"Seeds of the new movement": US Campaign Steering
Committee member Sophia Ritchie reports from UC Berkeley
I am here again for another late night ASUC hearing, at my alma mater UC
Berkeley, surrounded by hundreds of students and community members, most
of who are here supporting the overturn of Will Smelko’s veto on SB118.
It is the same place that we met two weeks ago, but this time it’s a
bit more claustrophobic not only because they’ve cut the room in half,
but also everyone’s speaking time.
http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/seeds-of-new-movement-us-campaign.html
Divest - for Israel's sake, Matthew A. Taylor
What on earth will it take to persuade Israel to leave the occupied
territories? Sometimes it seems as if nothing will work. For eight years
now, the Arab Peace Initiative, which early Zionist leaders would have
seen as a dream-come-true, has been collecting dust. Its terms include
two states based on the pre-1967 borders, a mutually agreed-upon
solution to the Palestinian refugee crisis, and normalized diplomatic
relations between Israel and the entire Arab world. What once would have
appeared to many to be Israel's salvation now seems impossible given
Israel's entrenched colonial position in the West Bank and the settlers'
political power.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166422.html
David Hosey: "From Arizona to Palestine --
Documentation, Deportation, and Boycott"
Tell me if this sounds familiar: A new order allows enforcement
officials to stop anyone who "looks illegal" (read: has brown skin) and
demand that they produce documents proving their right to be in a place
they call home. Failure to produce such documents can lead to fines,
jail time, or deportation. Widely seen as a violation of basic rights,
this new order leads to widespread calls for boycott.
http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/david-hosey-from-arizona-to-palestine.html
Caterpillar equipment used in extrajudicial killing
near Hebron
On Monday 26 April 2010, Israeli occupation forces killed a Palestinian
man, Ali Ismael Ali Swaiti, 45, in Beit Awwa in the West Bank district
of Hebron, after demolishing a house while he was inside. Israeli
occupation forces claim that Ali Swaiti had been wanted for several
years.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11240.shtml
Volvo equipment: Israel's weapons to destroy
al-Walaja homes
On 16 April, approximately 100 Palestinian villagers and internationals
walked towards the construction site of Israel's wall in the occupied
West Bank village of al-Walaja, four kilometers northwest of Bethlehem.
Adri Nieuwhof reports for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11236.shtml
Pro-Israel
group
monitoring, intimidating Columbia faculty
A student group at
Columbia called Campus Media Watch, backed by the pro-Israeli media
monitor the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
(CAMERA), recently violated university regulations while urging students
to "report" on allegedly biased utterances by Massad and other
professors, according to faculty members and students. Jared Malsin
reports for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11239.shtml
Comment
/ Israel's choice: Make peace or disappear
The student senate
at Berkeley University in California recently passed a resolution
calling for divestment from Israel. Prof. Judith Butler, the feminist
theoretician, expounded to the enthusiastic audience on her new "Jewish"
vision, which calls for renouncing the State of Israel. In this w ay,
the intellectual elites once again expressed their strong belief in the
theological principle whose basis is opposition to Western culture.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166426.html
Zio-hummus alert: boycott
Richard sent me this (I did not have time to check the info): If you
want to publicise a boycott of anything that might benefit the Israeli
economy, please note the following: The company Sabra Dipping Company,
LLC is selling a huge quantity of hummus, babaganoush, "Moroccan
matbucha" and other middle eastern/Arabic recipes throughout the U.S.A.
through Costco, Ralphs, Vons and many large grocery chains. Currently,
the container of the Sabra brand products says it is made in the USA by
Sabra Dipping Company, LLC out of Astoria, N.Y, although not long ago,
the reference of the manufacturer on the container was Blue and White
Foods, from Astoria, NY. According to the company profile on Sabra’s web
site (sabra.com), the
huge conglomerate Pepsico and major food distributor Strauss-Elite
formed a joint-venture partnership in March 2008 that operates under the
name of Sabra Dipping Company, LLC. According to their web site ( http://www.sabra.com/media/3019/bloomberg%20final.pdf
): "Sabra is also a leading importer of snacks and foods from Israel."
Actually, the Sabra hummus has a good texture, but it is full of
preservatives that permeate the taste of the hummus. An alternative, at
least at Costco, is Waleeds hummus."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/04/zio-hummus-alert-boycott.html
Violence and Aggression
Witnesses:
Israeli
warships fire on Rafah-area fishermen
Gaza – Ma’an –
Gaza – Ma’an – Between 2 and 3am Friday morning fishermen working on the
Rafah coast reported heavy fire at fishing boats out at sea near the
Tel As-Saltan beach. Witnesses reported no injuries and the boats all
returned safely to shore.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280674
Think of Them and Be Scared
Palestinian
Children
in the rural village of at-Tuwani speak of their encounters with
violent Israeli Settlers in the South Hebron Hills
of Occupied Palestine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp9p74_D160&feature=player_embedded
Israeli
Tanks Invade Border Areas Near Central Gaza Strip
Israeli
tanks and bulldozers invaded on Thursday border areas near Al Buraj
refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58554
Detainees
10
affiliates arrested by PA, Hamas says
Bethlehem – Ma'an – In a
statement released on Friday Hamas officials accused Palestinian
Authority police officers of detaining ten party-affiliates from
locations across the West Bank over the past week. The statement said
the detentions were politically-motivated, and demanded a halt to the
practice, saying it only served to deepen mistrust between the parties
and failed to foster an environment amenable to reconciliation.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280661
Israeli
Troops Detain Nine Palestinian Civilians During Invasions In The West
Bank
The Israeli army detained on Thursday nine Palestinian civilians during
dawn invasions targeting a number of West Bank communities.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58556
Israeli
forces
'search for weapons' following Jordan Valley raid
Bethlehem
- Ma'an - Six Palestinians were detained from villages in the Jordan
Valley overnight Thursday, with military officials telling Israeli media
that the men were "wanted" by Israel for questioning. Residents from
the Al-Jiftlik village identified one of the men detained as Nimr
Shabban, taken by a patrol of at least 60 solders who told family that
he would be taken for questioning and returned. Nimr's sisters said he
was the third brother of the family to be taken by Israeli forces in
three months, with brothers Basim and Munir detained in February and
March respectively. Neither has yet returned home, they said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280724
IOF
troops
kidnap Palestinian elderly woman in Al-Khalil
The Israeli
occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped at dawn Thursday an elderly woman
called Halima Shawamra, 58, after storming her house in Dura town,
south of Al-Khalil city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Humanitarian Issues/Human Rights/Restriction
of Movement/Siege
PCHR
Weekly
Report: “Two Killed, 20 Wounded and 45 kidnapped”
Israeli
soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians, wounded 20 residents,
including children, and kidnapped 45 residents in 27 invasions into the
West Bank and four limited invasions into the Gaza Strip, the PCHR
stated in its weekly report for the period between April 22 and April
22, 2010.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58560
Human
rights
organisation: Egypt deliberately targets tunnel workers
The
London based Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) condemned the
Egyptian government for using "lethal force" against the workers in
tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Gaza
Death
Zone, ANN WRIGHT
The Palestinians in the Death Zone called
Gaza are being slaughtered again as Israel and now Egypt kill and
wound more innocent civilians who challenge their illegal siege,
blockade and quarantine. In the past four days, one young Palestinian
man has been killed and two young women and a young man have been
wounded by Israeli snipers as they protested the Israeli bulldozing of
300 meters of Palestinian land into an Israeli “buffer zone.” Four young
Palestinian tunnel workers have been killed by suffocation and 6 injured
as Egypt sprayed a crowd disbursal gas into a tunnel.
http://www.counterpunch.com/wright04302010.html
Zionism is to Blame
Ethiopian
Jews
experience Israeli racism at a very early age
An Israeli
kindergarten in Beir al-Saba' (Beersheba) in southern occupied Palestine
was reported in the Israeli media to segregate Jewish children
of Ethiopian descent from the rest of children.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Price
tag:
Who's to blame for settler violence?
Violent acts against
Palestinians becoming daily routine. Various elements place blame on
police, military, settler leadership, even leftist organizations.
'Public leaders, rabbis need to issue explicit statement and set
legitimate boundaries of struggle,' says former Yesha Council chairman.
Political
Developments/Diplomacy
Report:
Obama
to call summit if Mideast peace talks fail
U.S. President
Barack Obama has told several European leaders that if
Israeli-Palestinian talks remain stalemated into September or October,
he will convene an international summit on achieving Mideast peace,
senior Israeli officials told Haaretz yesterday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166413.html
US gives Abbas private assurances over Israeli
settlements
Exclusive: Americans consider withholding veto protecting Israel at UN
if building goes ahead at Ramat Shlomo. The US has given private
assurances to encourage the Palestinians to join indirect Middle East
peace talks, including an offer to consider allowing UN security council
condemnation of any significant new Israeli settlement activity, the
Guardian has learned.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/29/israel-settlement-building-peace-talks
Leila Khaled calls for dismantling the PA
"Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) politburo member
Laila Khaled called Tuesday for dismantling the Palestinian Authority
"if that body is the cause of Palestinian division." In Damascus, Khaled
said division among Palestinians "is threatening the Palestinian
national project." She said Palestinians "have not struggled throughout
their history for an Authority, but for a homeland for a displaced
people and people under occupation.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/04/leila-khaled.html
Fayyad calls for lifting Gaza siege
Ramallah – Ma'an – Prime Minister of the caretaker government Salam
Fayyad called Thursday for lifting the siege on Gaza. Following talks
with South African foreign affairs chief Ibrahim Ismail Ibrahim in his
office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Fayyad affirmed the necessity
of lifting the siege to enable the Palestinian Authority to begin
rebuilding Gaza by implementing developmental and vital projects similar
to those being accomplished in the West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280588
Israel Concerned: Fayyad becoming more extreme, and
weakening Abu Mazen
The political rivalry between Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad is causing the
latter to become more extreme in his positions against Israel — this is
the concern that was recently raised among various top political
officials in Jerusalem. Israel has discerned of late an intent by
Fayyad to promote the possibility of his becoming Abu Mazen’s heir as PA
chairman in the future, despite the fact that he doesn’t belong to
Fatah. To this end, Fayyad has begun adopting a hard line toward Israel —
despite the expectation that Abu Mazen will soon begin the proximity
talks with Jerusalem.
http://coteret.com/2010/04/30/
israel-hayom-israel-concerned-that-fayyad-becoming-more-extreme-weakening-abu-mazen/
Haniyeh: Fatah delegation to Gaza soon
Gaza – Ma’an – De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday that
a Fatah delegation would soon arrive in Gaza, affirming that contacts
with the rival movement were ongoing. Speaking at a ceremony at the
office of the de facto ministerial council to honor media organizations
working in Gaza, he applauded recent remarks by Turkish officials urging
an end to the siege of Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280612
PA official: Obama to act if Mideast talks derailed
Palestinian official says US envoy George Mitchell handed President
Abbas letter containing US commitment to take steps against Israel, PA
if either side undermines indirect peace talks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3882724,00.html
Lieberman: Proximity talks to renew in 2 weeks
Proximity
talks,
geared at renewing negotiations toward a peace agreement between
Israel and the Palestinians, are expected to launch within two weeks,
Army Radio quoted Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as saying on
Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166301.html
Clinton warns Iran, Syria on threats to Israel (AP)
AP - The Obama administration is warning Iran and Syria that America's
commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable and that they should
understand the consequences of threats to the Jewish state.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100429/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_mideast_clinton
Clinton urges Arab states to do more for Mideast
peace (AFP)
AFP - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on
Thursday urged Arab states to do more to back Israeli-Palestinian peace
moves while warning Syria against arming Lebanon's anti-Israeli
Hezbollah.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100430/pl_afp/usmideastdiplomacy
Arab MKs' Libya trip a path to Mideast peace
Hysteria
gripped the right
wing in the Knesset after an Arab delegation of MKs and dignitaries
visited Libya. The chairman of the Knesset House Committee, Yariv Levin
(Likud), hastened to adopt MK Michael Ben Ari's (National Union) request
to consider denying the MKs parliamentary immunity. MK Zevulun Orlev
(Habayit Hayehudi) suggested that the law be enacted preventing people
who have visited an enemy state over the past seven years from becoming
candidates. In other words, he wants to prevent these MKs from running
for the next Knesset.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166428.html
Jordan's
Abdullah:
Israel playing with fire
King tells foreign envoys
Israel must choose between 'living in a fortress' or reaching peace with
all Arab states by withdrawing from 'occupied Arab lands'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3882943,00.html
Other News
Gaza
family finds Hamas officer living in home
Gaza- Ma’an -A
family apartment was seized and handed over to de facto government
police after its owner temporarily moved out of the home to take care of
her sick father-in law. A’lyia Aweida said she returned to the
apartment on 3 April to collect some belongings, only to find a de facto
government police officer, who she identified only by his initials, RAH,
and his wife living in her home.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280562
Pro-Israel bias 'led to Galloway ban'
A lawyer acting for George Galloway has challenged Canada's ban on the
left-wing MP, claiming the conservative administration didn't like his
anti-war views. Barbara Jackman charged in an Ontario court on
Wednesday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's pro-war government
falsely and unfairly labelled Mr Galloway a terrorist because it didn't
like his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict and Nato's deeply
unpopular occupation of Afghanistan.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/89761
Gaza gets a kick out of revived soccer
Gazans’ favorite professional sport had been in hiatus, stymied by
Palestinian infighting, military clashes and the blocked border, until
an accord between Fatah and Hamas. Now, league play has begun.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/9VLe5xAlzFo/la-fg-
gaza-soccer-20100430,0,7132005.story
Four Brothers Find Success Amid the Rubble of War
With the
never-ending stream of news about Israeli incursions, crushing poverty,
skyrocketing unemployment and scarce health care, success stories
coming out of Gaza may seem an oxymoron. But they are there - you just
have to look a little harder for them. A case in point is the four
Jadallah brothers.
http://www.truthout.org/four-brothers-find-success-amid-rubble-war58894
Analysis/Opinion/Human
Interest
Is the Israel-Palestine Conflict “ripe” for Obama’s
intervention?, Henry Siegman
The second compelling reason
for a quick end to the conflict for all those who advocate it is the
unrestrained expansion of Jewish settlements in the West
Bank, whose undeclared but widely understood goal it is to make
impossible the emergence of a Palestinian state. This outcome would
leave Israel
with the choice of granting Palestinians Israeli citizenship, thus
giving up
its Jewish identity, or ending its democratic character as it enforces a
regime
that denies millions of Palestinians their individual and national
rights-in
effect turning Israel into an apartheid state.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/04/28/
is_the_israel_palestine_conflict_ripe_for_obama_s_intervention
Palestinians seeking unity again: Step by step
NOTHING much remains of Palestine’s Legislative Council, its symbol of
democracy and sovereignty-to-be. In the Gaza Strip, last year’s Israeli
assault reduced the parliament building to rubble. In Ramallah, the
government seat of the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) on the West
Bank, the bigger part of a would-be Palestinian state, Hamas members are
barred from entry and its sessions suspended. Since the rival wings of
the Palestinian national movement set up separate regimes in the summer
of 2007, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president who leads Fatah, the
longer-established secular faction, and Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister
of the Islamist movement, Hamas, have ruled their separate terrains as
rival one-party fiefs more or less by decree.
http://www.economist.com/world/middle-east/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16015435
The
Palestinian
cold war | Jonathan Spyer
The split between Hamas and the
Palestinian Authority is reflective of the foreign influences dominating
the Middle East. Though rarely alluded to by those
engaged in trying to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the
split between the Hamas enclave in Gaza and the West Bank Palestinian
Authority has the increasing look of permanence about it. The divide
reflects regional politics, with each of the rival authorities aligned
with one of the opposing blocs in the cold war that currently dominates
the Middle East.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/30/palestinian-divide-hamas-fatah
Breaking the Middle East impasse, Ali Abunimah
Pretoria, South Africa - A new conventional wisdom is rapidly taking
shape that the United States can resolve the 130-year-old conflict in
Palestine by advancing its own peace plan. Zbigniew Brzezinski and
Stephen Solarz outlined such a plan, and argued that President Obama
could boost its prospects with a "bold gesture" -- a trip, to Jerusalem
and Ramallah in the company of Arab and other leaders to unveil it.
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/95055-breaking-the-middle-east-impasse
Jlem mayor comes to US capital to explain, Screw
Obama and the horse he rode in on, Philip Weis
Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat came to Washington to say there's no settlement
freeze in Jerusalem, so screw you and the horse you rode in on, Obama.
The good thing about this is that the Netanyahu-Obama clash has opened
up more room for sensible mainstream Jewish dudes to question the lobby.
Here is Mike
Isikoff blasting the Israel Project for its blind support of
colonization.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/
jlem-mayor-comes-to-us-capital-to-explain-screw-obama-and-the-horse-he-rode-in-on.html
Is the binational state becoming a realist argument?,
Philip Weiss
Meron Benvenisti in the New York Times-- oh
wait, sorry,
in the Guardian. The Times won't cover this! Note that on
the same day as this sympathetic coverage of Benvenisti's ideas, Steve
Walt challenges American leadership: if the peace process is dead,
as it seems to be, what have liberal policymakers come up with to answer
that fact? The neocons have a clue, of course. They want apartheid, or
amalgamating what's left of Palestine in the West Bank to Jordan thru
Churchillian hocus-pocus.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/is-the-binational-state-becoming-a-realist-argument.html
The Ultimate Israeli Obstacle to Peace with the Palestinians
The
ultimate
Israeli obstacle to any peace accord with the Palestinians appears to
rest with "Israel's Holy Warriors,"[1] the messianic Jewish settlers in
the West Bank, (and previously in settlements in Gaza before
they were torn down by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] in 2005 when
Ariel Sharon unilaterally withdrew from Gaza). "Homesh" was one of the
Jewish settlements demolished (in the West Bank) in that year as part of
the Gaza disengagement and the people resettled elsewhere but, "This
hasn't stopped some messianic Jewish settlers from returning to build
it. Again and again in recent years the IDF has dispatched soldiers to
remove them, but the settlers keep coming back"turning the ruins of
Homesh into a symbol of their spiritual resolve."
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Ultimate-Israeli-Obsta-by-Dave-Lefcourt-100428-552.html
They don't want to go to Israel"Then
Labour
politician Diane Abbot pops up on the JC website with her blog Fighting
for Yemeni Jews. She wants to offer the persecuted Yemeni Jews
sanctuary in the UK. Maybe they would like to go to Israel though? For
some reason Abbot does not consider this obvious option. There is no
mention of Israel in her entire post but then again Abbott thinks Israel
commits war crimes as you can see in the video below in which she
passionately denounces Israel during Operation Cast Lead."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/04/they-dont-want-to-go-to-israel.html
Expulsion and persecution rationalize… expulsion and
persecution, Philip Weiss
Simon Schama in
the Financial Times disputes Shlomo Sand re Jewish identity and says
we're connected to Palestine. Typical of Sand's reviewers, Schama
accuses him of having a political value system (yes, he's an
anti-nationalist) but fails to interrogate his own, more-traditional
political attachment.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/expulsion-and-persecution-rationalize-expulsion-and-persecution.html
Israel’s democratic values: Punish human rights
organizations, not war criminals, Alex Kane
Were you scared by the recent
poll finding that the majority of Israeli Jews have profoundly
anti-democratic attitudes and support restricting human rights groups,
punishing Israeli citizens who call for boycotting the country, and
punishing journalists who expose news that expose immoral actions by the
military? Well then get all the way underneath your covers.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/
israels-democratic-values-punish-human-rights-organizations-not-war-criminals.html
"Mearsheimer: Two-State Solution Dead": Transcript
of Today's Lecture Now Available
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/10418
Joseph Massad reads from the Zionist dictionary, Ali
Gharib
The patent absurdity of much of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict begs for a satirical treatment. On
Wednesday night at Columbia's School of International and Public
Affairs, Professor Joseph Massad answered the call with an incisive and
funny lecture on "the language of Zionism."
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/massad-plays-orwell-with-the-two-state-solution.html
Why Mr. President? Open Letter to Mahmoud Abbas
(This open letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was first
published in Arabic by Ma’an News, Palestine, in early March 2010.)
Since the adoption of the strategy of the “peace of the brave” which
seeks to achieve Palestinian rights through negotiations, Palestinian
officials have never missed an opportunity to raise the demand for the
international community to intervene and ensure respect of its
international law and UN resolutions. And while the Palestinian
leadership had limited its own strategic options in the public relations
battle around the peace negotiations, the demand for enforcement of
international law preserved a certain “logic” in midst of the general
deterioration, in particular the disintegration of the Palestinian
political system.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15917
Insulting the Memory of an Anti-Apartheid Activist,
Vivian Tabar
In recent years, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has announced its plans
to rebuild a section of the Birya forest, located in the Galilee, and to
name it after the late Coretta Scott King, the renowned civil rights and
anti-apartheid activist and wife of Martin Luther King Jr. The Coretta
Scott King Forest is being built as part of ‘Operation Northern
Renewal,’ a $400 million JNF campaign that aims to rebuild its forests
in the North that were destroyed during Israel’s brutal assault on
Lebanon the summer of 2006.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15919
Israel`s dog and pony show
By Sherine Tadros in Middle
East Blog It`s a simple strategy and one Israel uses unapologetically -
creating facts on the ground they call temporary (because in theory they
are still negotiating over these facts) while carrying out actions that
would make a final settlement based on anything other than what they
have already created almost impossible."
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/04/28/israels-dog-and-pony-show
To
Live
and Love in Palestine, Kawther Salam
“To Live and Love in Palestine” is a
literary, musical and cultural evening which will take place on May 7
2010 in the Odeon in Vienna. The event is organized by Society for Austro-Arab
Relations headed by
Mr. Fritz Edlinger. Dr. Sahar Khalifeh,
a famous Palestinian writer and novelist will take part in the event
next to the famous Austrian actor of theater and television, and film
director Karl-Heinz Hackl,
who will read part of his book in German. Musician Marwan Abdo
will perform typical Arab music at the event. At the end of the evening,
a dialogue between Khalifeh and Viola Raheb will be featured.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/04/30/to-live-and-love-in-palestine/
The
South Reduced, By RAMZY BAROUD
I am not good at flying kites.
But during a recent visit to the Olympic Village of Beijing, I felt
compelled to do so. Despite the cold and late hour, there were many kite
runners around me. A salesman insisted that I try my hand before
committing to any purchase, and I did. Once I finalized the purchase of
ten small kites, I shared the one I was already flying one with a most
adorable boy. He thanked me, then asked me not to play with his hair.
Earlier, at Tiananmen Square, I had watched throngs of people giddily
roam the vast expanse, snapping endless photos in front of the Gate of
Heavenly Peace, in the Imperial City and around every monument in the
Square.
http://www.counterpunch.com/baroud04302010.html
Iraq
Thursday: 3 Iraqis Killed, 8 Wounded
Iraq officials are now expecting a ballot recount for Baghdad province
to take two or three weeks, increasing the likelihood of
election-related attacks. At least three Iraqis were killed and eight
were injured in light violence today.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/04/29/thursday-3-iraqis-killed-8-wounded/
Baghdad bombings kill tens of Iraqis
A car bomb parked
next to an alcohol beverages store exploded in Al Shorta Al Rabiia
region, southwestern Baghdad, on Thursday night, Baghdad Operations
Command Qassem Ata told Alsumaria News. The explosion killed three
people and wounded 12 others.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-48500-Baghdad-bombings-kill-tens-of-Iraqis.html
Baghdad vote recount starts Monday: officials (AFP)
AFP
- A manual recount of ballots cast in Baghdad during last month's Iraqi
parliamentary election will begin on Monday and last two weeks, an
electoral official said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100429/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsrecount
New twist in Iraq election crisis: Maliki's enemies
latch onto torture allegations
As the Iraq election process is drawn out by a recount, Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki faces a fresh challenge over allegations of torture on
his watch. He dismissed an HRW report, saying detainees bruised
themselves to fake torture evidence.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/FfqkJqvi4t0/
New-twist-in-Iraq-election-crisis-Maliki-s-enemies-latch-onto-torture-allegations
Mosul in revolt over torture claims at ‘al Maliki’s
secret jail’
Officials in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul
have threatened a campaign of civil disobedience against the government
and the army after allegations of torture and abuse at a secret prison
controlled by the office of the prime minister, Nouri al Maliki.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100428/FOREIGN/704279826/1002
Iraq slams Kuwait for interfering with its airline
(AP)
AP - Iraq's Ministry of Transportation has accused Kuwait of interfering
with its fledgling airline service to London.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_kuwait_airplanes
UN pays out $590 million from Iraqi oil fund (AP)
AP
-
A U.N. panel has approved $590 million in compensation payments for
victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100429/ap_on_re_eu/un_un_iraq_compensation
Saddam's loyalists in Syria blast US (AP)
AP
-
Supporters of Iraq's late dictator Saddam Hussein gathered in Damascus
Thursday to denounce the U.S. "occupation" of Iraq and demand that his
loyalists unite.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria_iraq
Real War Games
Write “war games.” Hit
Google search. In a millisecond untold possibilities appear. I endure a
Charmin toilet paper commercial where a cartoon bear wipes his butt with
the tissues. Then I enter the real game: “You're a young cadet, taking
part in war games, war zones include jeeps, tanks and jets to take cover
behind,” the screen assures me.
http://www.counterpunch.com/landau04292010.html
Lebanon
Sayyed Nasrallah to Al-Rai: Israeli Project Nearing
End
29/04/2010 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed
the goal of the uproar over the alleged Scud Missiles transfer from
Syria to Hezbollah “is to pressure Syria and Hezbollah and to prevent us
as a resistance from defending ourselves.” Sayyed Nasrallah was
speaking during an interview with the Kuwaiti television Al-Rai on
Thursday. “Their campaign has failed because Syria has denied the claim
and Hezbollah traditionally does not comment on such issues,” Sayyed
Nasrallah said. His eminence asked about the implications of such
campaigns on the Israelis on the moral and psychological levels. He
added that “this is in our interest, and all those who support the
resistance have become more reassured because we’ve said that we’ll
defend ourselves and Lebanon and that we’ll strike their infrastructures
if they target ours.”
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=135616&language=en
US
trying to turn Lebanon into 'banana republic' - Hizbullah
BEIRUT:
A
recent visit to the Lebanon-Syria border by a US anti-terrorism team
was part of American attempts to turn Lebanon into a "banana republic,"
Hizbullah MP Nawwaf Moussawi said Thursday. The delegation from the US
State Department's of Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) program visited the
Masnaa border crossing in the Bekaa earlier.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=114377
Hezbollah leader won't confirm or deny Scud claims
(Reuters)
Reuters - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has refused to
confirm or deny Israeli allegations his group has obtained long-range
Scud missiles from Syria.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100429/wl_nm/us_lebanon_hezbollah_scuds
Amnesty calls for retrial of Hezbollah case in Egypt
(AFP)
AFP - Amnesty International on Thursday called for a retrial of 26
defendants convicted in Cairo of working for Lebanon's Hezbollah to
launch attacks in Egypt, criticising the use of an emergency court.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100429/wl_mideast_afp/egypttrialhezbollahlebanonamnesty
Sayyed Nasrallah: Egypt Court Sentences Badge of
Honor
29/04/2010 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan
Nasrallah said that the verdicts in Egypt against the freedom fighters
who were offering support to the resistance in the Gaza Strip are
politicized and unfair. Speaking to the Kuwaiti Al-Rai television to be
broadcast Thursday, Sayyed Nasrallah said that “when those brothers were
arrested in Egypt, we stressed – and I’ve said this personally – that
those are honest resistance fighters, not outlaws, criminals, and
terrorists as the judge described them. They are honest people and their
only crime is that they were supporting their brothers in Gaza and
giving help to the legitimate Palestinian resistance which should be
embraced by everybody. Those men were fulfilling their duty and
everything beside this are mere fabrications to cover the measures that
were taken against them.”
http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=135473&language=en
Support of Resistance in Palestine Committee Condemns
Egypt Court Verdict
29/04/2010 The Support of the Resistance in Palestine Committee issued a
statement in which it condemned the Egyptian court ruling against
Mohamed Mansour (also known as Sami Shehab) and other resistance
activists saying it was “a free favor for the enemy.” The statement
stressed the necessity of a united Arab stance to support the
Palestinian cause and denounced the Egyptian court verdict as
“politicized and aimed at those who have fulfilled their duty to support
Palestine and its besieged people.”
http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=135563&language=en
Scuds or not, south Lebanon increasingly beckons
visitors
WAZZANI, Lebanon: Israeli claims that Hizbullah has obtained Scuds have
revved up fears another war may break out soon. So it might not be the
best time to try to turn the two foes' battlefield, south Lebanon, into a
tourist destination.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=114372
Hezbollah
and
the modern history of Lebanon
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5016
U.S.
and Other World News
Exposing the Christian Right's New Racial Playbook
A diversity summit at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University reveals that
the religious right's survival depends on the black and the brown.
http://www.alternet.org/news/146634/exposing_the_christian_right%27s_new_racial_playbook_
Guantanamo 'child soldier' set for trial
Omar Khadr, known as the 'Child Soldier of Guantanamo Bay', is accused
of killing a US soldier and receiving training from al-Qaeda.
Transferred to the detention camp in Cuba in 2002, aged 15, he is to be
the first detainee tried under the Obama military commission. If
convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. But his defence
lawyers are trying to prove that none of the evidence in the case can be
used because it was tainted. Monica Villamizar has this report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttdwTVrVko4&feature=youtube_gdata
Inside the US prison at Guantanamo Bay
Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar takes a look at the living conditions
inside one of the detention camps at the US military prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Apr 30, 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_xP0l2LNQY&feature=youtube_gdata
Afghans protest after lawmaker's relative is killed
in raid
Shouting 'Death to America,' several hundred take to the streets after
the brother-in-law of Safiya Sedeqi dies in a confrontation with
NATO-Afghan forces. Several hundred people hit the streets Thursday
shouting "Death to America" after NATO and Afghan forces raided a
lawmaker's home in eastern Afghanistan the night before and allegedly
killed the woman's brother-in-law.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/PhurYRIu2EA/la-fg-
afghan-protest-20100430,0,3712688.story
Cairo's zabaleen community want only respect in a
rubbish life
CAIRO: Children stop their game of marbles and
scatter as rubbish-laden trucks trundle up their dusty street, swarming
with flies and grinding dead vermin beneath their wheels.The sight - and
smell - is all too familiar in Zarayib, meaning "the Sties," a
shanty-town in northeast Cairo where the zabaleen make their living by
sifting through garbage in search of anything recyclable.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=114363
Belgian politicians pass veil ban
Members of lower house vote overwhelmingly to ban wearing of full face
veils in public.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/04/2010429195027981564.html |
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