Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 35/2008 (21 – 27 August 2008)
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reporting period (21 – 27 August 2008): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 9 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children, and an Israeli human rights defender in Ne’lin village near Ramallah the West Bank. IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall. IOF also used a liquid with a disgusting smell against the demonstrators. Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 53 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these incursions, IOF arrested 48 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children. Since the beginning of the year, 1,837 Palestinian civilians have been arrested by IOF in the West Bank…

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Two U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
Xinhua
Two U.S. soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday. A U.S. soldier was killed when insurgents attacked his patrol with improvised explosive device in eastern Baghdad at approximately 11:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Thursday, a military statement said. Separately, a second soldier died at a U.S. medical facility in Baghdad after being wounded by small arms attack on Wednesday during a foot patrol in northern Baghdad, another military statement said…

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Joe Biden: Russia, China, India: “The Real War”
Obama’s running mate presents the strategic plan for the next administration
Umberto Pascali
On Aug 27 2008 at the Democratic Convention in Denver, Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Biden presented the plan for the real war, the war against China, Russia. He repeated the key points pushed by Zbigniew Brzezinski in his obsessive determination to go to the final clash with Russia and Asia. For Biden, The greates mistake of the Bush administration was its failure “to face the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, China and India’s great powers”. What was the “consequence of this neglect”? “Russia challenging… Georgia’s freedom.” The Obama-Biden administration will repair those criminal mistakes… Barack and I will end that neglect. We will hold Russia accountable.” The wars of the Bush administration were, so to speak the wrong ones. The new administration will unchain the real war. The war to confront the emergence of Russia, China, India. The war, the real war will have to be waged in Afghanistan/Pakistan – exactly the area where it will be more disruptive for the feared Russia, China India challenge…

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Variations on a Verb…
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues – Reflections in a sealed bottle…
…The Arabic language is a very powerful language. It is rich, varied, deep and bears multi layered meanings and symbols. And it is one of the most difficult languages to “master”. Content yourself with a few words here and there, and you will be making a total fool out of yourself…Mastering the Arabs means mastering their Language. And no foreigner has been managed that, not even your Lawrence of Arabia nor your Isabelle Eberhart, neither your Glubb Pashas…They were all eventually subdued…one way or another. The Arabic language is a captivating one. It contains a combination of deep passion and at the same time a high logicality to it. It is both highly poetic and rational. And the non-semitic mind is incapable of experiencing both at the same time…

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The Farce continues
Khalid Amayreh
Despite babbling about “staying the course” and “keeping the process going,” Condoleezza Rice’s latest visit to Israel/occupied Palestine was a belated tacit acknowledgement of the failure of the Bush administration’s approach toward the Palestinian issue. Indeed, despite numerous visits to West Jerusalem and Ramallah, which cost American taxpayers millions of dollars, it can be said without exaggeration that Rice’s achievements amounted to a fat zero. Rice had wanted to achieve her boss’s vision of seeing two states in historical Palestine, Israel and a vaguely-defined Palestinian entity, living side by side in peace. However, after nearly eight years of hectic diplomacy, unfulfilled promises and unrealized hopes, that goal is now as illusive as ever…

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Chalabi aide arrested on suspicion of Baghdad bombings
Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim | McClatchy Newspapers
U.S. forces have arrested a deputy of Ahmad Chalabi, who was once the Bush administration’s favorite Iraqi politician, and implicated him in bombings that killed Americans and Iraqis, Chalabi and Iraqi government officials said Thursday. The U.S. military alleged that the arrested official was working with the “highest echelons” of the Iranian “special groups” criminals, referring to what the U.S. military says are Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq…

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Iraq’s Sadr extends suspension of Mahdi Army activities indefinitely
Xinhua
Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Thursday that the suspension of his militia activities would continue indefinitely. “The suspension of Mahdi Army will continue indefinitely, and anyone breaches this order will not be considered a member of this group,” Sadr said in a statement obtained by Xinhua. “We have a cultural program named the al-Mumahdoon, and everyone should abide by it and whoever disagree would be out of the Army,” the statement said…

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Tongue of Flame: A Speech Presaging Endless War
Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque
…What will he and Barack do to hold the Russians “accountable”? And accountable for what? For acting precisely as the bipartisan foreign policy establishment of the United States has acted for decades: using military power to achieve political ends and “project dominance” to protect “national interests” as defined by the ruling clique? And in this case — unlike, oh, say, the Americans in Iraq or Somalia or Panama or Lebanon or Vietnam, etc. — the Russians were provoked into action when their soldiers (lawfully stationed in South Ossetia with UN sanction, just like the American troops at the enormous Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo) were assaulted and killed, along with numerous innocent civilians, in a sneak attack by Georgian forces armed and trained by Washington. What would an American administration have done in such a case? It would have laid waste to Tbilisi, as was done in Baghdad, Fallujah, Belgrade…

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Syracuse Doctor Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Helping Iraqi People Heads to Appeals Court August 28 in New York City
UN Observer
Oral arguments in the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir and the Help the Needy charity will be heard at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City on August 28th, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, New York. Almost five and a half years to the day that he became the first and only U.S. citizen jailed for resisting U.S. economic sanctions against the people of Iraq, Dr Rafil Dhafir, a Syracuse oncologist who helped raise almost $5 million in humanitarian supplies for the Iraqi people, will have his appeal heard at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City…

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New DAMN weapons
Imad Khadduri, Free Iraq
…A deadly new weapon that is beginning to show up on the streets of Iraq, the improvised rocket-assisted mortar, or IRAM, may be technologically crude and inaccurate in its aim, but its potential for death and destruction is so great that soldiers on combat operations around Baghdad conduct daily patrols to disrupt any attempt to plant the devices. … IRAM thus has joined IED (improvised explosive device), VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) and EFP (explosively formed penetrator) as the latest acronym in the arsenal for Shi’ite extremists battling U.S. forces in the Baghdad area. In essence, the IRAM is a flying IED…

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Sistani’s role and the pressure on Maliki to reject the agreement
Roads to Iraq
A bit different version of “journalists meet Sistani” on Al-Fatehoon than the one reported on LAtimes. Al-Fatehoon says that in the meeting Sistani spoke Persian and his son Mohammed Ridha translated to Arabic. According to news site source [a journalist present in the meeting], it seemed that Sistani spoke few words and short sentences but the translation was longer than what Sistani spoke. Mohammed Ridha used political words and phrases like an experienced politician…

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Top Iraqi official detained at Baghdad airport
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, AP
U.S. forces arrested a top Shiite official in Iraq’s government as he stepped off a plane in Baghdad, a political ally said Thursday, and a U.S. military intelligence official linked the man to a June bombing that killed four Americans and six Iraqis. Ali al-Lami’s arrest raised fresh concerns about Iranian and Shiite militia influence in the top ranks of Iraq’s leadership…
Al-Lami’s detention could also further discredit attempts by the Shiite-led government to keep top supporters of Saddam Hussein out of senior government jobs. Al-Lami was in charge of that task, as head of a committee that screens former Baath party members…

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Ex-Halliburton Subsidiary Accused of Human Trafficking in Iraq
AP
Defense contractor KBR Inc. and a Jordanian subcontractor are accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. The suit alleges 12 Nepali men were being transported to Iraq against their will when they were killed in an insurgent attack. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by an attack survivor and family members of victims claims subcontractor Daoud & Partners recruited the men in Nepal to work in hotels and restaurants in Jordan…

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Narratives Under Siege (19): “I still cannot farm my own land”
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
New Abasan village in South Eastern Gaza looks, and feels, almost haunted. Every third or fourth house is a mound of rubble, or else has been partially destroyed, and the village streets are dusty and devoid of life. Many local Palestinians have been driven out of New Abasan by relentless Israeli incursions into the village. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have bulldozed huge tracts of land in and around New Abasan, and demolished dozens of local houses. Beyond the village itself are hundred more donumms of rich agricultural farmland (a donumm is the equivalent of 1,000 square metres) lying near Gaza’s eastern border with Israel…

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Maliki picks a date with destiny
Sami Moubayed, Asia Times
…under Maliki, the militias – mainly Shi’ite – have grown all the more stronger. He has walked a tightrope between Washington and Tehran, but with the Bush administration reaching the final months of its tenure at the White House he seems to have chosen sides. There is no longer any sense in obeying the Americans, Maliki reckons, especially as they were asking him to do things he cannot deliver, like rapprochement with Sunnis and the signing of the controversial pact with the Americans – which Iraqis call the “Treaty of Dishonor”. As a result, he has cuddled up further to the Iranians and relaxed security in Baghdad, to reset the situation ablaze. The last thing the Americans want in the last months of the Bush administration is a civil war in Iraq. He is telling the Americans, “It’s either me or violence.” … Maliki is unable to strike a balance between national and sectarian affiliations, nor can he please the international community, the US or the Arab world. Only the Iranians still seem firmly supportive of the premier…

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Israeli settlers set fire to workshop under construction in Nablus
Palestinian Information Center (PIC)
Palestinian eyewitnesses reported that Israeli settlers stormed Thursday morning the Burin town, south of Nablus, and set fire to lumber used in the construction of a workshop which led to the burning of all pieces of wood. The eyewitnesses added that the settlers cut the workshop’s water pipe before their withdrawal, but the Nablus fire department rushed to the scene and extinguished the fire. They said that those Israeli assailants might have come from the nearby settlements of Bracha or Yitzhar whose settlers are notorious for waging attacks on Arab villages…

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Asian alliance snubs Russian plea for support
Today Zaman
Russia’s hopes of international support for its actions in Georgia were dealt a sharp blow Thursday, when an Asian security alliance denounced the use of force and called for respect for every country’s territorial integrity. A joint declaration from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, deepens Russia’s international isolation over its military action, which was blasted in the West for being disproportionate. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had appealed to the alliance — which consists of Russia, China, and four Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — for unanimous support of Russia’s response to Georgia’s “aggression.”…

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Russia plans to raise navy presence in Syria-diplomat
Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters
The Russian navy will make more use of Syrian ports as part of increased military presence in the Mediterranean, a Russian diplomat said on Wednesday. The announcement comes as tensions rise between Moscow and the West over Russia’s role in Georgia. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad backed Russia’s recent offensive on Georgia in support of a separatist province during a visit to Russia last week. “Our Navy presence in the Mediterranean will increase. Russian vessels will be visiting Syria and other friendly ports more frequently,” Igor Belyaev, the Russian charge d’affaires, told reporters in the Syrian capital…

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Sistani: “Register to vote, darn it”
Arablink
Ayatollah Sistani issued a statement that said people should register with the Electoral Commission to vote in the provincial council elections. The newspaper Azzaman notes this with only the following additional comments: (1) The Commission has said recently that only 1.5 million people have registered, out of 13 million eligible voters (an earlier article in AlHayat quoted an independent source as putting the estimated number of people having registered at one million. (This would be in the neighborhood of 10% of eligible voters) (2) An informed source said the ratio of eligible voters that have registered in Najaf, home of Sistani and the Shiite hierarchy, is only around 5%…

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PA security agency refuses to heed court order to free journalist
From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
A Palestinian security agency holding a Hebron journalist in detention for criticizing the American-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) regime in Ramallah has refused to heed a court order to release him, his family said Thursday. A Ramallah court has ruled that the continued internment of Awadh Rajoub was unlawful and that he ought to be set free immediately…

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SS FREE GAZA & SS LIBERTY TO LEAVE FOR CYPRUS WITH PALESTINIANS ON-BOARD
FreeGaza.org
After having shattered the Israeli blockade of Gaza earlier this week, the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty will depart Gaza for Cyprus at 2pm today. Several Palestinians who have previously been denied exit visas by Israel will join international human rights workers on the journey. Among the Palestinians leaving are Saed Mosleh, age 10, of Beit Hanoon, Gaza. Saed lost his leg due to an Israeli tank shell and is leaving Gaza with his father to seek medical treatment. Also on board are the Darwish family, who will finally be reunited with their relatives in Cyprus…

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