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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines ~ |
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Land theft / Settlements
Witnesses: Israeli forces forbid farmers from accessing their land
Israeli forces prohibited local farmers from the village of Safa, near Hebron, from accessing their land on Saturday. Dozens
of villagers, accompanied by international and Israeli solidarity
groups, were en route to assist plowing the land of the Sleibi and
Thalji families, when they were stopped by Israeli soldiers and told
that the area was now a closed military zone, witnesses reported. Muhammad
Ayyad Awad, spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Project, said that
Israeli forces attacked a number of the internationals present, and
threw sound munitions and tear-gas canisters to disperse them from the
area. Muhammad Khalid Ibrahim Abu Dayeh, 19, was detained and led to an
unknown destination, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257899
Bethlehemite lives in cave to save land from confiscation
Abdul-Fattah Abed Rabbo has lived in a cave adjacent to his
agricultural land for the last ten years, in the village of Walaja,
west of Bethlehem, to protect his land from being annexed by nearby
Israeli settlements.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257990
Audio (with transcript): Some Palestinian workers face jail for jobs
By Lourdes Garcia-Navarro. The Palestinian minister of economy tells NPR that in the next few
months it will become illegal for Palestinians to work in Israel's West
Bank settlements. Palestinians who flout the new rule will be jailed
and or fined. It's the next phase of plan currently underway to boycott
settlement products. But thousands of Palestinians earn their
livelihood in settlements, many of them in construction.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123155944&ft=1&f=1001
Violence / Aggression
Israeli police detain settler, seize weapon in Sheikh Jarrah
Jerusalem - Israeli police detained an Israeli settler and
confiscated his weapon after he attacked a member of the Al-Ghawi
family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday
evening. Maysoon Al-Ghawi told Ma'an: "Children were playing in
the area when a settler came, showed off his weapon, and tried to shoot
people who intervene – including police. He was detained and police
confiscated his weapon."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258141
10 women, 15 children wounded after soldiers fired gas bombs into Palestinian home
Palestinian medical sources reported on Friday at night that 10 women
and 15 children were hospitalized suffering severe effects of tear gas
inhalation after Israeli soldiers fired gas bombs into the lower floor
of a house in Nabi Saleh village, near the central West Bank city of
Ramallah. Local residents rushed to the house and managed to rescue the wounded
women and children after pulling them through the windows of the gassed
home.
http://imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57818
Locals: Israeli forces storm Surif overnight
Israeli forces stormed the southern West Bank town of Surif northwest
of Hebron on Saturday night and conducted house to house inspections,
local sources told Ma'an. Sources said a an Israeli military patrol was
sweeping the area by the separation wall near Surif, when it came under
fire. The raid was carried out in response to the shots, and Surif was
searched to find those responsible, the sources said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257957
Last two suspects in West Bank mosque arson released to house arrest
The Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court on Sunday released
to house arrest the final two suspects who were being held by police
for their alleged involvement in the torching of a West Bank mosque in
December. Tzvi Sukkot and Shlomo Gelberd - both residents of West Bank
settlements - were arrested more than two weeks ago along with five
other suspects - four of them teenagers. The other suspects were
released from custody shortly after their arrest. Sukkot and Gelberd were released without charges, but ordered to
remain under house arrest for 60 days pending results of the
investigation against them.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146422.html
Activism / Solidarity
Israel closes case of US activist hurt during West Bank protest (AP)
The Justice Ministry announced on Sunday that
indictments would [not] be handed down in the case of an American activist
who was seriously wounded last year in a violent West Bank
demonstration.
Tristan Anderson of Oakland, California, was struck in the head by
a tear gas canister during a protest in the West Bank village of Ni`lin
last March ... Ron Roman said Sunday that a police investigation
showed there was no criminal intent in harming the 38-year-old
Anderson, who was left comatose. Hospital representatives would not comment on his condition Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146420.html
Protest held at Egypt embassy in Paris
The Sheikh Yassin coalition organized a protest outside the Egyptian
embassy in Paris on Saturday, demanding that Egypt stop building an
underground steel barrier on the border with the Gaza Strip,
Hamas-affiliated media reported ... A French human rights activist, Nelly Labushi, delivered a speech
through a loudspeaker calling on the Egyptian government to stop
building the wall, and to open the Rafah crossing, its sole terminal
with the besieged coastal enclave.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258102
Video: Tai Chi for peace at Umm Al-Khair
A second report from Eyal Shani of The Southern Way
about his Tai Chi activities in Umm al-Kheir. The importance of these
Tai Chi lessons for the children and young people living in the two
clusters of Umm al-Kheir that suffer the most from their closeness to
Carmel settlement, cannot be overstated. Watch the Video attached.
http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/
Italian surgeons perform open heart surgery in Jerusalem
A four member team of surgeons and nurses from Messa, Italy completed a
Palestine Children's Relief Fund mission to provide life-saving open
heart surgery for babies from the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday. This
was the second mission to Palestine in 2010 in pediatric cardiac
surgery and part of the ongoing PCRF program to build the only
congenital heart program to serve the children from the occupied
territories.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257975
Extra-judicial assassinations
Dubai narrows down seven suspects in murder of Hamas official
Dubai Police said Sunday that at least seven
individuals were involved in the murder of a Hamas official in a local
hotel last week, and would not rule out the possibility that the
Israeli spy agency Mossad had a hand in the attack ... The hit squad that assassinated top Hamas commander
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room injected him with a drug
that induced a heart attack, London newspaper The Times reported on
Sunday ... Hamas has publicly blamed Israel for the
assassination, which occurred only three days after the first ever
visit to the Arab Emirates by an Israeli minister. Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of the group's leaders and
co-founders, claimed Saturday in an interview with Al-Jazeera
television that the killers entered Dubai on forged passports as part
of the entourage of Uzi Landau, the infrastructure minister, who was
attending a regional conference on renewable energy.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146385.html
Hamas threatens: We can reach Israelis abroad
On heels of
assassination of senior Hamas figure al-Mabhouh in Dubai, Islamist
group says will send team to emirate to probe killing. Al-Zahar: Israel
knows we can strike any time, anywhere
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3841782,00.html
Assassinated Al Mabhouh traveled to UAE without bodyguards
Mahmoud al Mabhouh was without his bodyguards when he was murdered in
his Dubai hotel room, having travelled to the Emirates under his real
name, officials in Hamas’s Syrian headquarters revealed yesterday.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100131/FOREIGN/701309828/1133/rss
Gaza shows subdued reaction to killing of leader
RAMALLAH // Although it has promised revenge for the killing of one of
its senior leaders, it is not at all clear that Hamas has any interest
in heightening tensions with Israel for the moment, at least not in
Gaza. There, in fact, reaction to the killing of Mahmoud al
Mabhouh has been noticeably subdued. A fragile truce since last year’s
Israeli offensive just about holds, and Hamas has been careful to
prevent militants from other factions from firing rockets across the
border. Since the news of the killing in a Dubai hotel came
out on Friday, Hamas officials in Gaza have kept a low profile, content
to let the Syrian leadership of the movement take the lead.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100131/FOREIGN/701309844/1011
Drones and death: the Israeli connection / Ed Kinane
...Recently – by Googling “Israeli drones” – I learned that Israel
pioneered the drone and that Israel purveys that cutting edge weaponry
throughout the world. As far back as 1982 Israel used drones against
Syria. In the early nineties Israeli drones were used in the Kosovo
campaign. Israeli drones invade the skies over Lebanon and patrol
occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza. Israeli drones reportedly can
reach Iran ... Among the wide range of weapon systems deployed in and over Gaza,
drones accounted for the deaths of at least 87 civilians, many of them
children ... Because the drone cameras provide live footage of the strike, and since
such footage is archived, the circumstances under which the killings
occur are well documented. Such evidence needs to be presented to
domestic or international war crimes tribunals. Problem is, just as
Israel refused to cooperate with the UN’s Goldstone investigation, it
refuses to release the footage.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/01/drones-and-death-the-israeli-connection/
Humanitarian issues / Blockade
PCHR investigates Gaza power crisis
Responding to the recent fuel crisis in Gaza, and a week-long exchange
of accusations and buck passing by local actors, the Palestinian Center
for Human Rights (PCHR) conducted investigations into the reality of
the situation in a report released Thursday. On 20 November 2009, the EU stopped providing funds required to cover
the cost of purchasing the industrial fuel necessary to operate the
Gaza Power Plant, the report said, these funds, estimated at 50 million
shekels (13.4 million US dollars) per month, were part of the financial
aid that the EU committed to provide to the Palestinian Authority (PA)....
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257567
Over 11,000 Gazans treated outside the Strip
The number of patients from Gaza who have received medical treatment
outside of the besieged Strip has reached 11,608, according to the
Ramallah-based Ministry of Health spokesman Omar An-Nasser on Sunday. An-Nasser
said that Hamas estimates of 5,151 patients were incorrect, adding that
"Hamas has ignored the number of patients whom it prevented from leave
the Strip for medical treatment. The Hamas government prevented 52
[from traveling], while Israeli authorities prevented 150."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258083
Israel opens one Gaza crossing, limited fuel supplies allowed
... Between 90 and 100 truckloads of commercial merchandise and
humanitarian aid will enter through Gaza's southern border crossing,
including two trucks of fuel, Fattouh said. Additionally, two trucks of cut carnations and one truck of Gaza
strawberries will exit also via Kerem Shalom for export. According to
the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, since 10
December 2009, 39 truckloads exited Gaza, including 15 truckloads of
cut flowers (1,674,840 stems) and 24 truckloads of strawberries (41
tonnes). Prior to this, there had not been any exports from Gaza since
27 April 2009.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257928
Egypt uncovers 3 tunnels along Gaza border
Egypt commandeered three tunnels for smuggling motorcycles, cars tools
and paint into the Gaza Strip on Sunday. Security
sources told Ma'an that two tunnels were uncovered in the Salah Ad-Din
border area, where motorcycles and paint were found. Egyptian
forces also found another tunnel near the Al-Sarsouriya area, a site
that was already under extra scrutiny. Security officials said they
were planning to demolish the tunnels and sell the goods at auction.
Security sources explained that these areas were not included in the
plan to build an underground steel wall, which was first exposed by the
Israeli press. They said these areas were not usually used for
smuggling.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258105
War crimes
Netanyahu leaning toward probe into alleged Gaza war crimes
PM wants inquiry but defense ministry and IDF blocking investigation into deliberate targeting of civilians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146337.html
Deputy army chief: Goldstone report a Trojan horse
IDF deputy chief of staff, Major-General Benny Gantz, said Sunday that the Goldstone report on Operation Cast Lead
in Gaza was "a Trojan horse taking advantage of a legal speculum that
will eventually harm us". Speaking at the 10th annual Herzliya
Conference, Gantz said, "Our
moral soundness is clear after dozens of investigations and
interrogations..."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3842252,00.html
Detention / Deportation
Israel seeks to deport East Jerusalem man for spending too many years in US
By Amira Hass. The Interior Ministry is demanding that a Palestinian
resident of East Jerusalem be deported for having spent too many years
in the United States. Elias Khayyo - who holds no foreign citizenship -
has been detained for three weeks at Givon incarceration facility in
Ramle with other people deemed illegal residents and slated for
deportation. Khayyo, 41, was born in East Jerusalem and currently resides in the
Christian Quarter of the Old City, where his parents also live. He says
he has no relatives in America, nor a home, property or employment
there.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146336.html
Hamas: PA security detained 3 affiliates
Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of detaining
three of the movement's affiliates in the West Bank, a statement said
on Sunday. The three were detained in Ramallah, central West Bank,
Tulkarem to the north, and Hebron, in the south, the statement read.
Among the detainees was son of Hamas lawmaker Muhammad Badr from
Hebron, whose father is in Israeli custody, Hamas wrote.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257963
Politics / Diplomacy
King Abdullah of Jordan: "We will not be a new occupation in Palestine"
King Abdullah of Jordan stated Saturday that the whole world would pay
the price of failed peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and
added that his country will not accept any role as an occupying power
in Palestine.
http://imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57822
Abbas: We don't want guarantees
President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in London on Friday that his
government was not interested in US guarantees and denied reports that
Arab ministers exerted pressure on him in Washington to resume
negotiations with Israel. "The US continued to contact us and
the Israelis, and they intended to give what they call 'guarantees,'
but we said frankly that we didn’t want guarantees," Abbas added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257927
Abbas considers indirect talks with Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on
Saturday that he was considering the U.S. proposal to start indirect
talks with Israel. Abbas was referring to a proposal made by U.S. Mideast envoy,
George Mitchell, who suggested that negotiations between Israel and the
PA would take place in the format of proximity talks, similar to the
indirect negotiations that Israel held with Syria under Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146224.html
PA: Israel offered 'territories for negotiations'
Israel has agreed to hand over additional West Bank areas to the Palestinians
as a trust-building measure, Palestinians sources said Sunday morning
when referring to US special envoy George Mitchell's efforts to resume
peace talks between the Jewish state and the Palestinian Authority.The claim has not been confirmed by Israeli officials.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3841945,00.html
Turkey PM: Israel should mull future without us as ally
..."Israel should give some thought to what it would be
like to lose a friend like Turkey in the future," Erodegan told
Euronews, regarding his thoughts on the recent tensions between the two
Mediterranean countries. "The way they recently treated our ambassador has no place in
international politics," said Erdogan, referring to a recent diplomatic
incident in which Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned the
envoy and treated him with deliberate disrespect.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146414.html
Berlusconi to Haaretz: Israel's settlement policy is unwise
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives in Israel Monday for a three-day visit ... Berlusconi will be accompanied on his trip by eight
Italian cabinet ministers who will for the first time participate in a
joint cabinet meeting ... "Israel's settlement policy could be an obstacle to
peace. I would like to say to the people and government of Israel, as a
friend, with my hand on my heart, that persisting with this policy is a
mistake...At the same time, what happened in Gaza should prompt
some thought. It is not possible to evacuate communities to [then] face
burned synagogues, acts of destruction, and inter-Palestinian violence
and missiles being shot into Israeli territory."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146341.html
First female Palestinian governor envisions change
...When asked what she plans to bring to Ramallah, the Palestinian
capital, [Dr. Leila] Ghannam answered with a general political
statement. "Ramallah is the political and economic capital today, but
our eyes are on Jerusalem – it is our eternal capital," she said. The
new governor is also critical of the IDF, which she says continues to
"invade" Palestinian cities. She is skeptical of the recent removal of
West Bank checkpoints, as part of an Israeli attempt to ease
restrictions on the Palestinians.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3842196,00.html
PPP: Hamas placing Gazans under house arrest
The Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) on Saturday criticized the de
facto government for the restrictions it has placed on the freedom of
movement of Palestinians in and out of Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257942
10 Fatah leaders in Nablus resign
Ten leaders of Fatah handed over their official resignation to the
movement's Central Committee on Saturday, citing their "inability to
work under a monopoly of regulatory decisions, without the
implementation of the Revolutionary Council's resolutions."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257895
Other news
Female journalists demand union representation
Dozens of female journalists from Gaza rallied on Sunday in front of
the office of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate in Gaza City,
demanding that membership be opened up to women.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258084
Qaradawi unfazed over 'malicious' campaign by Palestinian gov't
DOHA: Noted Islamic scholar Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi says he is unruffled
by the 'malicious' campaign waged by the Palestinian Authority against
him. Talking to reporters yesterday, he said the photograph recently
displayed in Ramallah publicly showing him with a prominent Jewish
religious figure was that of a Jewish religious leader who was from a
movement which opposed the formation of Israel.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&
subsection=Qatar+News&month=January2010&file=Local_News2010013164921.xml
PCHR concerned over violence at PFLP rally in Gaza
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) expressed deep concern
over attacks by police officers on a number of participants in a
festival organized by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) on Friday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258093
Israeli woman suspected of trying to smuggle Palestinians into Israel
An Israeli woman is suspected of trying to smuggle 10 illegal aliens
into Israel Sunday through the Hizma Checkpoint east of Jerusalem. A
military police officer stationed at the checkpoint whose suspicion was
aroused by the woman's vehicle, decided to stop the car and check it,
despite the fact that the female driver, an Israeli woman in her 40s
residing in one of the neighboring communities, was well known to the
soldiers.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3842286,00.html
Israel: Army detains Palestinian with explosives
A Palestinian was detained east of Nablus on Saturday evening for
carrying six pipe bombs, Israeli media reported on Sunday. According
to the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonot, Israeli forces at the checkpoint
stopped the suspect because of "his abnormal behavior." An
Israeli military spokesman said that the six pipe bombs were "detonated
in a controlled manner," and that the suspect is currently in
questioning.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257930
Guards shoot [Israeli] driver at Ramallah checkpoint
Israeli guards opened fire on an Israeli citizen driving a tank truck
near Ramallah on Sunday, seriously injuring him, Israeli and
Palestinian sources said. Ma'an's Ramallah correspondent
reported that forces believed the man driving an Israeli-plated vehicle
was Palestinian, and they opened fire when he refused to slow down. The
truck, a fuel tanker, ran over several cars during the incident. He was
fleeing Palestinians who threw stones at the vehicle, according to our
correspondent, who was reporting from the scene.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=258121
Paper and String: Michael Morpego's West Bank book
Published in November, The Kites Are Flying! is set in a small town in
the West Bank and tells the story of a western television reporter who
strikes up a friendship with an eight-year-old Palestinian shepherd.
The town has recently been divided by Israel’s massive security barrier
and it quickly becomes clear that the region’s problems have had a
devastating affect on the kite-flying boy, who has stopped speaking
entirely.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100131/ART/701309992/1093/art
Mosaic / Glen Johnson
...This is the city of Jericho in the West Bank. Ear-marked as the
future Palestinian state’s tourism Mecca, the city displays numerous
contradictions: a gondola, glamorous hotels and a casino are offset by
run-down buildings, rubbish covered streets, and 10% unemployment.
Tourism ventures sit neglected, while the nearby Dead Sea’s beaches are
crammed. One such venture is the Jericho Mosaic Center,
established and financed by the Italian Cooperation in collaboration
with the Palestinian Department of Antiquities in 2000. The center aims
to conserve, raise awareness of, and train Palestinians in mosaic
handcrafts, while showing Palestine’s history and cultural heritage to
tourists.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=257049
Knesset panel to weigh expansion of rabbinical court powers
The Knesset Ministerial Committee for Legislation is
scheduled to convene tomorrow to pass a controversial bill to expand
the authority of rabbinical courts to rule on financial and civil
disputes based on Jewish law. Supporters of the bill said diverting
more cases to rabbinical courts could clear the backlog of cases in the
state judicial system.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146338.html
Analysis / Opinion
In the West Bank's stony hills, Palestine is slowly dying / Robert Fisk
Area C doesn't sound very ominous. A land of stone-sprinkled grey hills
and soft green valleys, it's part of the wreckage of the equally
wrecked Oslo Agreement, accounting for 60 per cent of the
Israeli-occupied West Bank that was eventually supposed to be handed
over to its Palestinian inhabitants. But look at the statistics and
leaf through the pile of demolition orders lying on the table in front
of Abed Kasab, head of the village council in Jiftlik, and it all looks
like ethnic cleansing via bureaucracy. Perverse might be the word for
the paperwork involved. Obscene appear to be the results.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/in-the-west-banks-stony-hills-palestine-is-slowly-dying-1883669.html
Why does the US turn a blind eye to Israeli bulldozers? / Robert Fisk
"Palestine" is no more. Call it a "peace process" or a "road map";
blame it on Barack Obama's weakness, his pathetic, childish admission –
like an optimistic doctor returning a sick child to its parents without
hope of recovery – that a Middle East peace was "more difficult" to
reach than he imagined. But the dream of a "two-state"
Israeli-Palestinian solution, a security-drenched but noble settlement
to decades of warfare between Israelis and Palestinians is as good as
dead.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-
why-does-the-us-turn-a-blind-eye-to-israeli-bulldozers-1883670.html
Israel has no legitimacy, period / Khalid Amayreh
Recent statements by Palestinian Islamic leader Professor Aziz Duweik
about the possibility of amending or even abandoning some clauses in
Hamas’s charter have elicited a plethora of reactions in occupied
Palestine and abroad ...To begin with, the so-called Hamas’s
charter was not a “Quran” or a religiously-binding constitution that
must be followed meticulously. Nor was it an immutable ideological
constant that any deviation from it would consign the deviator to
hellfire for eternity. In fact, the
charter was no more than a hastily-formulated mobilizing document
issued in the beginning of the first intifada in 1988 for the purpose
of recruiting and encouraging people to resist the Israeli occupation.
Therefore, the charter should not be viewed as especially sacred or misconstrued as an inviolable covenant.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
The kangaroo / Uri Avnery
...Here comes the most powerful leader in the world and says: I was
wrong. I did not understand. I have failed. For a whole year I have not
achieved any progress at all towards a solution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Look how honest I am! Look how ready I am
to admit mistakes! That is chutzpah. That is chutzpah, because a whole year was lost
due to this “mistake”, a whole year in which 1.5 million human beings
in Gaza, men, women and children, have been suffering utter
destitution, many of them without sufficient food, many of them without
shelter in the cold and in rain. A whole year in which more than a
hundred Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem were demolished while new
Jewish housing projects sprang up at a crazy pace. A whole year in
which settlements in the West Bank were enlarged, apartheid roads were
built and pogroms, under the “price tag” slogan, were carried out.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1264898263/
Israeli left needs to wake up before it's too late / Gideon Levy
...From now on, settlers and Israeli society will know
that they can go as wild as they want: Even if someone dares charge
them - another will arise who will know how to extricate them from
trouble and penalty. In contrast, left-wing protesters are orphans.
They have no public or parliamentary support. Protesters against
disengagement and pogromists in Palestinian villages know they will be
cleared, while leftist protesters are abandoned to their fate ... We can continue to remain silent and know that
silence means collaboration. But when the left wakes up it will be too
late. In fact, it is already too late. Meretz is dead, Labor is dying,
Kadima is nonexistent, Peace Now is still deliberating over whether to
petition against the pardon, and the right is freely celebrating and
going wild. Eyes right: wake up and learn from its methods and the way
it fights. In Israeli society, there is apparently no other way.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146350.html
United we stand / Meron Benvenisti
Do Israelis and Palestinians belong to one divided
society, or to two separate societies in a situation of forced
proximity as a result of a temporary occupation? This is a crucial
question. The answer depends on the historical-political-ethnic
evaluation of the pre-1967 period, and on one's perception of the
entire Jewish-Palestinian encounter since the beginning of the Zionist
enterprise. It has profound ramifications for understanding the present
situation in Israel/Palestine.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145896.html
Film review: A thunderous absence / Yitzhak Laor
... Absence is a common word in Palestinian discourse,
poetry, life. The abandoned home, the field from which you were
expelled, the place that awaits your return - all of it speaks of
absence (ghiab, in Arabic). It's a term that recurs in Darwish's
poetry, and not only in his exquisite book "Why Did You Leave the Horse
Alone?" Director Nasri Hajjaj constructs his film "As the Poet Said" ("Kama
Qal a-Shai'r") around Darwish's absence as the distilled essence of the
absence in his poetry.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145991.html
Robert Fisk's World: Israel can no longer ignore the existence of the first Holocaust
While Israelis commemorated the second Holocaust of the 20th century
this week, I was in the Gulbenkian library in Jerusalem, holding the
printed and handwritten records of the victims of the century's first
Holocaust. It was a strange sensation. The Armenians were not
participating in Israel's official ceremonies to remember the six
million Jewish dead, murdered by the Germans between 1939 and 1945,
perhaps because Israel officially refuses to acknowledge that Armenia's
million and a half dead of 1915-1923 were victims of a Turkish
Holocaust. Israeli-Turkish diplomatic and military relations are more
important than genocide. Or were.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fiskrsquos-world-
israel-can-no-longer-ignore-the-existence-of-the-first-holocaust-1883686.html
Iraq
Saturday: 5 Iraqis killed, 41 wounded
Excerpt: An increase in violence targeting Shi’ite pilgrims added to today’s casualty figures. At least five Iraqis were killed and 41 more were wounded
in sectarian and other assaults. Hundreds of thousands of Shi’ites are
now traveling to Karbala for Arbaeen observances. Many are on foot,
making them more vulnerable; however, the worst attack that occurred
was against security personnel in Samarra. Meanwhile, a second
prominent Iraqi leader is now threatening to declare a boycott of
upcoming elections and perhaps throw the entire country into disarray.
Also, the Islamic State in Iraq claimed responsibility for a blast at a crime lab on Tuesday.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/01/30/saturday-5-iraqis-killed-41-wounded/
Other Mideast
Call to bar Filipino workers from going to Gulf
MANILA // A group of Philippine congressmen and women are calling on
the country's government to bar domestic workers from going to the
Middle East and Gulf states, claiming they are being treated “as
nothing more than modern-day slaves”. More than one million Filipinos,
mostly poorly educated women, work in the Middle East and Gulf states
as domestic helpers.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100131/FOREIGN/701309832/1002/rss
Not in the US press: Muhammad Ali Zahrah / As`ad AbuKhalil
31 Jan - You will not read that Israeli occupation troops today invaded Lebanese
territory and kidnapped a shepherd. His name is name is Muhammad `Ali
Zahrah, 17.
[End]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/01/not-in-us-press-muhammad-ali-zahrah.html
Yemen rebels say they accept truce terms
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's Shi'ite northern rebels accept the
government's terms for a ceasefire, their leader said on Saturday, but
there was no immediate response from the authorities ... "In order to avoid ... the annihilation of civilians, we reiterate our
acceptance of the five points" for a ceasefire, rebel leader
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in an audio recording posted on the
Internet. "The ball is now in the court of the other side."
Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, has been battling the intermittent revolt since 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/30/
AR2010013001019.html?nav=hcmoduletmv
Jordan arrests militants linked to attack on Israeli envoy
A Jordanian security official said on Sunday that
authorities have arrested dozens of Muslim militants in connection with
a failed bomb attack on Israeli diplomats last month. Since the attack authorities have detained dozens of suspects in a
police crackdown, most of whom are Salafists - militants who seek to
revive strict Muslim doctrine dating back to the era of the 6th Century
Prophet Muhammad.
He said the crackdown was continuing across Jordan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146403.html
Another unsung death on the Nile
Struggling to make ends meet, Samir Asar took his life, torn between
his new wife and his parents. For them his loss is catastrophic. But it
is just one of many in Egypt's desperately poor delta area. He hanged himself in a room above a
donkey stall. He lived there with his new wife; he will not know the
child she carries inside her; never again will he work the summer
fields, walk home along the canal at dusk with his brother.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/mideastemail/
la-fg-delta-death30-2010jan30,0,4569060.story
Poetry: O camel! my camel! / Chris Wright
Why the Arab world is re-embracing the poetry of the desert - Nabati style
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/01/31/o_camel_my_camel/
U.S, other world news
US official: Hezbollah arms flow may signal plans for war with Israel
The U.S. is concerned that the continued flow of arms
to the Hezbollah militant organization could prompt a war between
Israel and Lebanon, State Department official Jeff Feltman said in
remarks published Sunday by the London-based Al-Hayat daily.
Feltman, who serves as Assistant Secretary of U.S. State
Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told the daily that the
U.S. had no evidence of any Israeli plan to attack its northern
neighbor.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146410.html
Obama adviser: US and Israel working very closely on Iran
Israel and the United States are closely conferring
about the Iranian nuclear program, U.S. National Security Adviser Jim
Jones said in an interview published on Sunday, calling Israel's
conduct "responsible".
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146427.html
Report: US accelerating missile defenses in Persian Gulf
Officials tell New
York Times deployment of antimissile systems in at least four Persian
Gulf countries, special ships off Iranian coast intended to forestall
any Iranian escalation of its confrontation with West if new set of
sanctions imposed. 'There is certainly an element of calming the
Israelis as well,' one of them says
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3841794,00.html
US speeding up arms sales, defenses with Gulf allies
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- The Obama administration is quietly working with Saudi Arabia
and other Persian Gulf allies to speed up arms sales and rapidly
upgrade defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a
bid to thwart future military attacks by Iran, according to former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern government officials.
The initiatives, including a U.S.-backed plan to triple the size of a
10,000-man protection force in Saudi Arabia, are part of a broader push....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/30/AR2010013001477.html
The evidence of Witness 69: Blair has shown himself more a fool than a liar / Patrick Cockburn
The most revealing thing about the former PM's evidence was how little he understood about the situation on the ground
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/
the-evidence-of-witness-69-blair-has-shown-himself-more-a-fool-than-a-liar-1884347.html
Storm passes for Palestinian professor caught in Obama's election spotlight
...After
it was revealed that Mr Obama had credited Mr Khalidi with
educating him about the Middle East during their many talks, John
McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, and Sarah Palin, his
running mate, were quick to attack the academic. He was called a
“terrorist professor” by the right-wing media. More than a year
later, the name Rashid Khalidi is still used as shorthand by those
conservative commentators who think Mr Obama is a secret, foreign-born
Muslim who should be denied the presidency. “It wasn’t a lot of fun.
But I kept my head down and kept quiet and that was obviously the right
thing to do. I said to The Washington Post
at one point, when they tried to get me to comment, ‘I’m just going to
wait for this idiot wind to blow over’ and that’s the best thing I
could have said."
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100131/FOREIGN/701309876/1002/rss
US citizen in CIA's crosshairs
The agency builds a case for putting Anwar al Awlaki, linked to the Ft.
Hood shootings and Christmas bomb attempt, on its hit list. The
complications involved are a window into a secretive process. The CIA
sequence for a Predator strike ends with a missile but begins with a
memo. Usually no more than two or three pages long, it bears the name
of a suspected terrorist, the latest intelligence on his activities,
and a case for why he should be added to a list of people the agency is
trying to kill.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-cia-awlaki31-2010jan31,0,1263556.story |
| For further information contact Shadi Fadda |
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