News
International Middle East Media Center
Several Palestinians wounded in Hebron clashes
IMEMC – Wednesday April 14, 2010 – 03:22, Three Palestinians were wounded by rubber-coated bullets fired by the army at a group of Palestinian protesters on Tuesday, while several other residents received medical treatment after inhaling gas fired by the soldiers in Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Israeli settlers pay a provocative visit to a village near Tulkarem
IMEMC – Tuesday April 13, 2010 – 18:15, Israeli settlers invaded the village of Kherbit El-Hamam near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Tuesday.
Clashes Reported After Army, Settlers Invade Nablus
IMEMC – Tuesday April 13, 2010 – 11:04, Local sources reported that clashes took place between dozens of youths and Israeli soldiers and settlers invaded Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank; no injuries were reported.
Fighter Killed, Three Wounded In Israeli Bombardment In Central Gaza
IMEMC – Tuesday April 13, 2010 – 10:40, Palestinian medical sources reported that one fighter was killed and three were wounded during clashes that took place after the Israeli forces invaded an area east of Al Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza.
Army Invades Bil’in
IMEMC – Tuesday April 13, 2010 – 08:51, Israeli soldiers invaded early Tuesday morning the village of Bil’in, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and broke into the home of a 16-year-old youth in order to kidnap him.
Gaza: Clash with Israeli force kills 2 fighters
4/13/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Two fighters were killed and two others injured in clashes with Israeli forces near the Al-Bureij refugee camp following an Israeli military incursion into the Strip early Tuesday. Medical sources at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah initially confirmed one dead and two injured, as eyewitnesses said Israeli artillery vehicles shelled the area while helicopters opened machine gun fire. Until late in the morning, ambulances were unable to access the area to evacuate the injured, medics confirmed. By 2:30pm, however, medics reached the area and identified two slain fighters. Islamic Jihad’s militant wing the Al-Quds Brigades said fighters with the units were involved in fierce clashes with an Israeli military force which attempted to cross the border. The group said its combatants hit their targets directly.
Report: Israel destroys Bedouin tents, huts
4/13/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli police and Israel Land Authority officials destroyed dozens of tents and huts belonging to Bedouin families in the Negev, the Association for the Support and Defense of Bedouins’ Rights in Israel said. The demolitions were carried on the families’ lands in the Al-Arakib and Tawil Abu Jarwal area, the association said, adding that eviction orders were stuck on additional dwellings.” Such criminal acts are perpetrated again and again by the state authorities, roughly and without qualms, despite the ongoing judicial proceedings aimed at proving the Bedouin citizens’ ownership rights,” a statement read. The families concerned had filed ownership claims with the Interior Ministry decades ago prior and they are in possession of documents substantiating the claim, the association added.” The authorities’ acts are intended to dispossess the owners of their lands and pass them on the Jewish National Fund.
Clashes reported in Beit Ummar
4/13/2010 – Hebron – Ma’an – Discord erupted between Israeli forces and students in Beit Ummar, northern Hebron, on Tuesday, who rallied in protest of settler assaults against local farmers. According to Palestine Solidarity Project spokesman Muhammad Ayyad Awad said clashes broke out near the Karmi Zur settlement, when settlers fired in the air and threatened a farmer, Ahmad Abu Hashem into leaving his land near the settlement. Awad added that three students were injured in the incident by rubber bullets, when Israeli forces used riot dispersal means to break-up the gatherers. An Israeli military spokesman said “a group of 20 Palestinian rioters gathered [in the area], burning flags and hurling rocks. Security forces responded by using riot dispersal means.”However, the representative said “A civilian security officer did fire warnings shots, during the riot [not before].”
Settler military guard sparks anger in Nablus
4/13/2010 – Nablus – Ma’an – Responding to a military presence, Palestinian children in the Balata area of Nablus burned tires and threw rocks as armed soldiers escorted a group of 600 settlers on a visit to Joseph’s Tomb, security sources said. The visit lasted between 10pm Monday and 6am Tuesday morning, with Israeli soldiers standing guard over the area for the duration of the visit, blocking roads and intimidating residents. Additional Israeli military presence was noted by Palestinian security sources, who said soldiers were charged with the installation of a generator for the tomb. Children from the area and the nearby Balata refugee camp gathered near the tomb watching troops shut-down the area and observed the installation of equipment in the residential neighborhood. Antagonized by the obtrusive visit, children threw stones and lit fires.
Nativity Church deportees applaud PA aid
4/13/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Jihad Ja’ara, a Nativity Church deportee, on Tuesday expressed gratitude to the Palestinian Authority for assisting he and his fellow exiles in Europe after suffering for years without financial means to pay rent and other needs. In an interview, Ja’ara, who also serves as a spokesman for the deportees, said the PA stepped in after Italy stopped paying compensation for the former militants, none of whom are permitted to work due to the terms of Europe’s agreement with Israel. Ja’ara thanked President Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad for “standing by the Nativity Church exiles,” and expressed particular thanks to chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Major-Gen. Majed Faraj for their “continued efforts on behalf of the deportees.”
Palestinian poet Nahid Ar-Rayyis dies in Gaza
4/13/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Palestinian poet and former Justice Minister Nahid Ar-Rayyis died in Gaza on Tuesday, aged 73, after being hospitalized for deteriorating health. Known for his poetry depicting Palestinian political struggle, Ar-Rayyis was appointed deputy of the Palestinian Legislative Council under the leadership of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 1996. Ar-Rayyis was born in Gaza in 1937, and graduated from the University of Cairo in 1958. He volunteered with the PLO’s armed group and was later a leader in Beirut. Upon his return to Gaza, he was appointed adviser to the Supreme Court, then PLC deputy. Later, Ar-Rayyis was appointed Minister of Justice. In addition to writing poetry, such as Songs to Palestinians cities, Ar-Rayyis was a published literary critic, authoring Palestine in the Critical Period. Hamas and its parliamentary bloc extended its condolences to Ar-Rayyis’ family, and mourn his passing.
Single Gaza crossing open
4/13/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli authorities opened the southernmost Gaza crossing, Kerem Shalom, on Tuesday, for the transfer of limited aid and commercial goods into Gaza, Palestinian officials said. Raed Fattouh, the Palestinian liaison official in Gaza, said he expected Israeli crossings officials to permit the transport of93 to 103 truckloads of goods including two truckloads for the Gaza Power Authority and one truckload for the Palestinian Telecommunications company. Limited quantities of domestic gas and industrial diesel will be delivered through the same crossing, Fattouh said. [end]
PCHR condemns Gaza ‘honor killing’
4/13/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – The death of a Beit Lahiya woman, said by police to have been a criminal matter, killed to “maintain family honor,” a Palestine Center for Human Rights report said Tuesday. At approximately 11:50 on Monday, the body of Sherin Khamis Zayed (Al-Attar), 32, was brought to Martyr Kamal Udwan Hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya, having sustained a number of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to a PCHR field follow-up. A police report at the time said the woman – identified as married with children and 34 years old – was killed when armed men broke into her home in As-Salatin and opened fire. Police noted that an investigation had been opened. The chief of police in Beit Lahiya, Sameh Al-Sultan, told a PCHR fieldworker that the investigation lead to the arrest of a number of the victim’s relatives, including her father. The father told police that five masked gunmen raided his house on Monday morning and pulled his daughter outside the house and opened fired at her.
Hamas: PA responsible for Israeli expulsion orders
4/13/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil condemned Israel’s military order threatening to deport Palestinians living the West Bank which came into effect on Tuesday, and said the Palestinian Authority bore responsibility for the latest mandate. In a statement, Al-Bardawil said “no one has the right to make decisions on where Palestinians should live, for it is their legislative right to live in any part of Palestine.”The Hamas leader described the Israeli military orders as “criminal and humiliating,” adding that it reflects Israel’s policy to continually deport Palestinians from their land, “reminding us of the 1948 tragedy. What is required of Palestinians is to strongly reject these orders.”Al-Bardawil called on the international community and human rights groups to oppose the military decrees, and pressure Israel to halt “this crime against the Palestinians.”
Israel army: 4 targeted in Gaza were heavily armed
4/13/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel’s military said the bodies of two “heavily armed” Islamic Jihad operatives were found in the Gaza Strip late Tuesday, hours after they were killed in clashes near the Al-Bureij refugee camp.” The IDF found explosive devices, assault rifles, hand grenades and additional weaponry on the bodies,” the army announced in a statement that accompanied a photo of weapons it said were found at the scene. Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said its fighters were involved in fierce clashes with an Israeli military force that hadattempted to cross the border. The group said its combatants hit their targets directly, while Israel denied that its forces were injured. Medics at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah initially confirmed one dead and two injured, after witnesses said Israeli vehicles shelled the area while helicopters opened machine-gun fire.
Damascus: Mash’al, Moussa talk unity
4/13/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Head of Hamas’ politburo Khalid Mash’al met with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Mash’al’s Damascus office Monday, where the two discussed a list of obstacles preventing Palestinian reconciliation. Hamas officials in Gaza said Mash’al told Moussa that an American veto was the central issue in reconciliation, noting Palestinians – and certainly Hamas – were for Palestinian political unity in the face of continued Israeli occupation. Moussa laid out possible mechanisms of Arab League support to foster unity, and bring acceptable conditions to all parties so a strong Palestinian agreement could be achieved, while Mash’al said solid Arab League support for the Egyptian unity initiative would help overcome division.
EU contributes to PA state building
4/13/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – A number of EU projects since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, have assisted the Palestinian Authority in laying the foundations for a future, sovereign Palestinian state. EU funding has assisted in development of Palestinian civil institutions, and has supported the private sector in providing employment for recent graduates. However, its support is not merely financial; the EU has provided workshops, equipment and training in order for institutions and employees to offer the highest quality services to Palestinians. Experts and specialists in various fields were trained by the EU to impart their experiences and contribute to Palestinian state-building. The Palestinian economy has also benefited from EU funding, which has supported a number of small and large projects aimed at creating economic stability.
Gaza gov’t: Water experts didn’t visit Israel
4/13/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Gaza’s de facto government on Tuesday denied a report by Israel’s Army Radio that a delegation of engineers and wastewater specialists from Gaza secretly visited Israel in February. According to Army Radio, a visit was coordinated between officials in Gaza and Israel’s Civil Administration, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of the Interior under a project training engineers to treat wastewater and turn it into potable drinking water. The group reportedly went on a tour of the Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion. The reported visit came a month before a UN-sponsored project for the rehabilitation and expansion of wastewater treatment facilities in Gaza was set to begin. In early March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded that Israel allow construction materials into Gaza for the project. The request was approved and supplies were sent in during the last week of March.
Fatah to appoint gov’t spokesman to ruling body
4/13/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Fatah’s Central Committee recommended the appointment of Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh to the party’s highest governing body during a meeting of the committee on Sunday in Ramallah. Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul told the Ma’an Radio network that the recommendation was pending approval from the party’s Revolutionary Council, the second highest body within Fatah. If the appointment is approved, it would be the third and final selected member for the committee, whose 19 elected members were voted in by the general membership at the Sixth Fatah Conference in Bethlehem in August 2009. Since the elections the committee requested the appointment of Gaza natives Sakher Bseisso and Zakaria Al-Agha. It is not clear whether the appointment would necessitate that Abu Rudaineh resign from his position as presidential spokesman.
Gaza militants fire on Israelis after IDF foils attack at border
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – No Israelis hurt, while Palestinians report 3 dead; Israel bombs Gaza targets overnight.
Barak: IDF has its eyes on all threats, near and far
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Following reports that Hezbollah has armed itself with Scuds, Defense Minister warns stability in North at risk.
U.S. Group to Join International Aid Flotilla to Gaza
Uruknet April 13, 2010 – The Free Palestine Movement announced plans to participate in an international initiative that will send at least eight cargo and passenger vessels to the Gaza Strip next month. Backed by activists in 30 countries and organized by groups in Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Sweden, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the European Union as well as the…
Ahmadinejad calls on Obama to improve ties with Iran
Uruknet April 13, 2010 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday the Islamic state would respond positively if the United States changed its policy towards Tehran. In remarks that could indicate a shift of attitude, Ahmadinejad said he was “drafting a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama”…”Acknowledging Iran will benefit both sides. As far as Iran is concerned, we are…
Grassroots organizer targeted by PA, Israeli forces
Uruknet April 13, 2010 – Mousa Abu Maria, father of a newborn baby and co-coordinator of the grassroots Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP) in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Ommar, was used to the sound of boots running on the ground and surrounding his home in the middle of the night. Awakened once again at 2:00am on Tuesday, 6 April,…
JCESR:”New Israeli Decision, As Dangerous As the Nakba of 1948″
Uruknet April 13, 2010 – The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JSCER) issued a press release slamming the Israeli decision to expel thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, and stated that this decision is part of Israel’s demographic violations against the Palestinians, and is not less dangerous that the Nakba of 1948 when Israel expelled thousands of Palestinians…
Commemorating one holocaust while effecting another
Uruknet April 13, 2010 – …Of course, Jews, like anyone else, have a legitimate right to commemorate the Jewish victims of the Second World War, but they have absolutely no right to manipulate the memory of Hitler’s victims in order to torment and commit a virtual holocaust against another people, the Palestinians. In fact, doing so, using the memory of Jews…
Palestinian killed, three others wounded during Israeli attacks on Bureij camp
Uruknet April 13, 2010 – One Palestinian resistance fighter was killed and three others sustained different injuries during Israeli aerial and artillery attacks at dawn Tuesday on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, the director of ambulance and emergency unit in the health ministry, told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that the ambulances managed to evacuate…
What Kind of Palestinian State in 2011?
Uruknet April 12, 2010 – In December 2007, the Palestinian National Authority (PA), in close consultation with donor states and institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, proposed the Palestinian Reform and Development Plan (PRDP), a program based on “rebuilding the Palestinian national institutions” and “developing the Palestinian public and private sectors.”To augment this plan, the PA further…
Confronting the Occupation: Haiti, Neo-liberalism, and the US Occupation
Uruknet April 12, 2010 – The three-month marker for the earthquake that devastated Haiti is now upon us. The significance of this marker is not one determined by the Haitian people, but rather by the enemies of the Haitian people and peoples’ movements throughout the world. According to Milton Friedman and the intellectual guru’s of neo-liberalism there are critical timelines and…
Genocidal in Effect, If Not IntentMartin Kramer, Harvard and the Eugenics of Zion
Uruknet April 12, 2010 – People were outraged when Martin Kramer’s support for measures to limit the births of “superfluous young men” among Palestinians in Gaza was circulated in the US recently. Kramer, Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and lately a Visiting Scholar at Harvard, had made the remarks in a presentation at the annual Herzliya Conference in…
Action is essential to prevent another round of ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
Uruknet April 12, 2010 – An ominous political storm is gathering across Palestine and the Middle East following the announcement of an Israeli military order due to come into effect this week. The order will pave the way for the expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank on the pretext that they are “infiltrators” or “illegal” residents….
Israel resorts to more Gestapo-like measures in West Bank
Uruknet April 12, 2010 – The Israeli occupation army has introduced a set of draconian measures in the West Bank aimed at uprooting more Palestinians from their ancestral homeland as well as suppressing prospective Palestinian protests against the enduring Israeli military occupation and apartheid. The new measures are meant to enable the Israeli military occupation authorities to deport, or expel, thousands…
Anat Kam: I stole IDF documents to expose West Bank war crimes
Uruknet April 12, 2010 – Classified documents reveal that the Israel Defense Forces had committed war crimes in the West Bank, Anat Kam, the former soldier indicted for espionage over an alleged theft of top secret material, told the court earlier in the year, according to police documents released allowed for publication Monday at the request of Haaretz. In the newly…
The injured continue to suffer in Gaza
13 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 13, (Pal Telegraph) Thousands across Gaza live with severe injuries: youth war amputees, mothers severely burned by phosphorus bombs, countless Palestinians coping with physiological wounds, all injuries stemming from the disaster wrought on Gaza by the Israeli military assault in the winter of 2008/2009. And war injuries remain a consistent reality in 2010. “Every night, even last night,…
Body of a second fighter found in Al Bureij refugee camp
13 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 13, (Pal Telegraph) Medical crews found the body of a fighter killed after clashes erupted between insurgents and the occupation forces, which has moved to a limited extent at dawn today in the Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip, not yet identified. According to Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, director of ambulance and emergency sectors in Al Shefa hospital, that…
Al Dameer Condemns the Israeli Military Orders Aimed at Deporting Palestinians in the West Bank
13 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 13, (Pal telegraph) Al Dameer Association for Human Rights seriously condemns the new Israeli military orders that will come into effect on Tuesday 13 April 2010. These new military orders enable Israel to capture or deport every Palestinian resident in the occupied West Bank that does not have a permit issued by the Israeli authorities The new Israeli…
Rumors about Gazan technical delegation’s secret visit to Israel
13 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 13, (Pal telegraph) The Israeli army’s radio revealed today that a technical delegation from the Gaza Strip, visited a few weeks ago Israel as part of a mission there to benefit from Israeli expertise in wastewater treatment. Revealing that “this delegation included technicians and engineers who visited Israel about two and a half months where they toured the…
Gazans of the west bank fear second “Nakba”
13 Apr 2010 – April 13, West bank, (Pal Telegraph) Gazans living in the west bank are expressing their fear towards the mass deportation order that the Israeli military issued which aims to deport thousands of citizens under the pretext of ‘illegal’ presence in the West Bank. The order, revealed by the Israeli newspaper “Ha’aretz” yesterday, involves the deportation of thousands of citizens who…
Israel breaks into Hebron and sets up checkpoints
13 Apr 2010 – West Bank, April 13, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided on Tuesday several neighborhoods in Hebron in the West Bank, no detention were reported. In the early morning the IOF supported with military jeeps raided Ras Al-Jora, Beer Al-Mahjar , Wad Abu Ktila and Halhoul areas in Hebron. According to security sources, the Israeli occupation forces roamed the…
Palestinian killed, 3 injured in Gaza border clashes
13 Apr 2010 – Gaza, April 13, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) – A Palestinian fighter was killed and at least another three were injured Tuesday morning in clashes with Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip. A statement by the Islamic Jihad movement said the fighter, 23-year-old Marwan Al-Jadba, was a member of its military wing and was killed when a group of fighters was…
Peres: Syria has supplied scuds to Hizbollah’
The National 13 Apr 2010 – Israeli President Shimon Peres accuses Syria of supplying Scud missiles to the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah while publicly talking peace.
NO-SHOW NETANYAHU AND THE NUCLEAR SUMMIT
Palestine Note 13 Apr 2010 – ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER’S DECISION TO FOREGO OBAMA’S NUCLEAR SECURITY MEETING CHARACTERISTIC OF HIS ‘ISOLATIONIST FOREIGN POLICY’ Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week that he would not be attending US President Barack Obama’s nuclear security…
‘Accidental filmmakers’: B’Tselem arms Palestinians with cameras
Palestine Note 13 Apr 2010 – Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has distributed some 150 video cameras to young people in the West Bank and Gaza over the past three years, Time Magazine ‘s Don Duncan reports. Yoav Gross, director of the…
Arab-Israeli reporting team takes top honors in UN competition
Palestine Note 13 Apr 2010 – The Jerusalem Post ‘s Ruth Eglash and the Jordan Times ‘ Hani Hazaimeh won first prize in the X-Cultural Reporting Competition , the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) reports. The King Hussein Bridge links Jordan and Israel…
The think tank AIPAC built: The Washington institute for Near East policy
Palestine Note 13 Apr 2010 – Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard had an excellent piece in Foreign Policy this weekend which alluded to the fact that the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP or “The Washington Institute”), often featured on PBS…
A ‘pentagon papers’ scandal rocks the Middle East
Palestine Note 13 Apr 2010 – As last week’s Wikileaks Iraq video release aptly demonstrates, it’s a journalist’s duty to ferret out lies and cover-ups by state institutions – and a whistleblower’s duty to get information out. It’s often the whistleblowers who…
Loewenstein is ‘a different kind of Jew’
Palestine Note 13 Apr 2010 – Radio documentary “A Different Kind of Jew” follows author Antony Loewenstein as he chronicles the events of the December 2009 Gaza Freedom March in Cairo, its implication for Loewenstein as a Jew, and the wider themes…
Lebanon’s Chief Banker Calls for Single Currency for Arab World
The Media Line 12 Apr 2010 – Governor of the Bank of Lebanon says unified currency would boost intra regional trade Lebanon’s top banker has called for a single unified Arab currency in use across the Middle East to help boost regional economy…
Egypt: Pressure Both Iran and Israel on Nuclear Programs
The Media Line 12 Apr 2010 – Egypt is calling for the international community to pressure Israel as well as Iran concerning the two nations’ nuclear programs. In Washington for President Obama’s nuclear summit, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told PBS Newshour…
World Bank Calls on Israel to Ease West Bank Movement
The Media Line 12 Apr 2010 – The World Bank has again called on Israel to make movement for Palestinians in the West Bank easier and to boost Palestinian economic links to east Jerusalem. In a statement, the Bank argued that the sustainability…
Israeli Army, Terrorists Clash on Gaza Border
The Media Line 12 Apr 2010 – Israeli army troops opened fire at a group of Palestinian men seen planting explosives along the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip early Tuesday morning. Four Palestinians died in the incident, according to Palestinian medical…
Palestinian fighter killed in Gaza
AlJazeera 13 Apr 2010 – Israeli military say Islamic Jihad fighters were planting explosives near border.
Palestinian PM blasts Israel ID law
AlJazeera 13 Apr 2010 – Salam Fayyad says move that could expel tens of thousands from West Bank homes is “illegal”.
Settler Violence Report, January-February 2010
Alternative Information Center – Thursday, 01 April 2010, Hebron and South of West Bank – On 9 January, approximately 30 settlers—some of them armed— coming from the Bat Ayin settlement, north-west of Bait Ommar, attacked a group of farmers from…
IDF foils attack at Gaza border; Palestinians report 3 dead
PNN – Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Shin Bet says Israeli reporter in leaked papers case is ‘fugitive felon’
PNN – Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Police mull Olmert ‘wanted’ posters
Jeruslalem Post 14 Apr 2010 – Consider probe into anti-Olmert ads posted in TA, J’lem.
Will Israeli tour guides be allowed to lead tours to PA?
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – The IDF may lift restrictions on Israeli tour guides, allowing them to lead groups to Palestinian destinations such as Bethlehem.
Israeli Arab writer to Beirut
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – High Court orders state to allow author Ala Hlehel to accept prize in Lebanon.
Peres in Paris: ‘Syria is two-faced’
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – Discusses Iran, Syria and peace negotiations with French PM.
Israelis urged to leave Sinai
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – Cell believed to be en-route to Sinai to kidnap Israeli for Hamas
‘Nuke terror greatest threat’
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – Meridor to tell US summit risk of the threat materializing increasing.
Holyland suspects’ remands extended
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – Judge: Bribery has penetrated gov’t, remands not linked to Olmert.
Barak warns of Lebanon escalation
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – Defense minister responds to reports that Syria has transferred Scuds to Hizbullah.
‘Iran to go nuclear within month’
Jeruslalem Post 13 Apr 2010 – Energy official warns no country will contemplate strike on Teheran.
TALAKI Park in Lebanon: Bringing Together Lebanese, Palestinian Residents
WAFA 13 Apr 2010 – BEIRUT April 13, 2010 (WAFA)- With funds from US Agency of International Development Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI), CHF International in Lebanon built and equipped a seaside park
IMF: Macroeconomic, Fiscal framework for West Bank, Gaza
WAFA 13 Apr 2010 – MADRID, April 13, 2010 (WAFA)- Economic growth in 2009 picked up significantly in the West Bank, but conditions in Gaza remain difficult, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its fifth
Barkat Wants to Renew Razing Orders in East Jerusalem
WAFA 13 Apr 2010 – TEL AVIV, April 13, 2010 (WAFA)- Israeli Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat demanded recently that the city’s police force renew the razing of illegal structures in east Jerusalem on which demolition orders
Court Lets Israeli Palestinian Visit Beirut despite Opposition from Netanyahu
WAFA 13 Apr 2010 – TEL AVIV, April 13, 2010 (WAFA)-The Israeli High Court on Tuesday granted permission for Israeli Palestinian writer Ala Halihal to visit Beirut, despite opposition from Prime Minister Benjamin
PCHR Concerned by Gaza Power Plant Forced to Shut Down
WAFA 13 Apr 2010 – GAZA, April 13, 2010 (WAFA)- The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) expressed, today, grave concern over the ongoing deterioration of the humanitarian conditions of the civilian population
Al-Maqsese: A new transfer threatens Palestinians
WAFA 13 Apr 2010 – JERUSALEM, April 13, 2010 (WAFA)- Al-Maqdese appealed on all concerned parties to take immediate action immediately to fight the new dangerous Israeli military order number (1650), which classifies
Shaath: Latest Israeli Order Contradicts Bilateral Agreements
WAFA 13 Apr 2010 – RAMALLAH, April 13, 2010 (WAFA)- Member of Fateh’s Central Committee and International Relations Delegate, Dr. Nabil Shaath, said, yesterday, that the latest Israeli military order to expel
MIDEAST: Gazans Gassed by Silent Killer
IPS GAZA CITY, Apr 13 (IPS) – “You feel very sleepy and dizzy. You put your head down and all you want to do is sleep. Everything feels very peaceful, you are not even aware what is happening and if there is no immediate intervention you are dead within minutes,” Enaam…
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Woman Killed By Unknown Persons in Beit Lahia to “Maintain Family Honor”
PCHR 12 Apr 2010 – Field Update On Monday, 12 April 2010, Sherin Zayed (al-‘Attar), from Beit Lahia town in the northern the Gaza Strip, was killed allegedly to “maintain family honor.”….
International Solidarity Movement
IDF order will enable mass deportation from West Bank
4/11/2010 – International Solidarity Movement – Amira Hass, Ha’aretz – A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years. When the order comes into effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians will automatically become criminal offenders liable to be severely punished. Given the security authorities’ actions over the past decade, the first Palestinians likely to be targeted under the new rules will be those whose ID cards bear home addresses in the Gaza Strip — people born in Gaza and their West Bank-born children — or those born in the West Bank or abroad who for various reasons lost their residency status. Also likely to be targeted are foreign-born spouses of Palestinians.
Deputy PM: Israel hasn’t been ‘ambushed’ at nuclear summit
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Dan Meridor: We are operating in an atmosphere of cooperation.
‘Palestinians growing less dependent on international aid’
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Palestinian PM: If Israel lifts blockade of Gaza, Palestinians’ need for aid would drop by $500 million a year.
Want to delegitimize Israel? Be careful who you mess with
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Delegitimization – the new buzzword of pro-Israel activists -has become a major rallying point for the American Jewish community and is the up-and-coming cause for Jewish organizations.
Poll: Most U.S. Jews approve of Obama’s approach to Israel
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Annual survey shows 73% see president’s policies as positive, but many doubt Mideast solution.
PA Minister: All goods made in settlements are illegitimate
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Dr. Hasan Abu-Libdeh reiterates PA goal to rid Palestinian cities and markets of settlement goods.
Iran: We will join ‘world nuclear club’ within a month
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Iran news agency: Construction of nuclear power plant and 40 megawatt research reactor 70% finished.
Hungary’s anti-Semitic far right party squeezed out of government
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Jobbik party’s campaign blamed Jews and Gypsies for Hungary’s ills, gained unprecedented support.
Syria is shipping Scud missiles to Hezbollah
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – U.S. postpones appointment of ambassador to Damascus ‘until further notice.’
Sarkozy: Israel strike against Iran would be disastrous
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – U.S. official: China agrees to support new Iran sanctions; Russia: Sanctions shouldn’t harms Iranians.
Medvedev: Israeli strike on Iran could spark global catastrophe
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Russian president Medvedev says supports Iran sanctions that would not hurt the Iranian people.
Band revives Warsaw Ghetto fighter’s poetry
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Israelis to perform poems of Wladyslaw Szlengel, known for satirising the Nazi regime, as well as wealthy Jews.
Israel warned of plans to kidnap national in Sinai
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – The Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Tuesday warned all Israelis currently visiting Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to leave immediately, citing a concrete threat that terrorists were planning to kidnap Israeli nationals and smuggle them to the Gaza Strip. …
Remand extended for two additional suspects in Holyland affair
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – The remand of two men involved in what has become known as the “Holyland affair” was extended on Tuesday by the Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court. …
Olmert: I deny any connection to ‘Holyland’ bribery affair
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied Saturday that he had any connection to the alleged bribery scheme involving the “Holyland” residence project in Jerusalem, which was promoted during Olmert’s decade-long tenure as the city’s mayor, Channel 2 news reported. …
Former Olmert aide held on corruption charges
Ha’aretz 13 Apr 2010 – Uri Messer, a former close confidant and attorney of former prime minister Ehud Olmert, was arrested on Tuesday, along with five others, over alleged bribery and fraud charges in connection to major construction projects, according to details that emerged after a court allowed the publication of the arrest on Wednesday. …
Obama: Israel should sign NPT
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – American president lauds leaders who took part in Washington nuke summit, says world safer as result of conference; responding to question, Obama says all nations should sign Non-Proliferation Treaty, including Israel
ElBaradei: Israeli occupation only understands force
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – Former IAEA chief expresses support for Palestinian resistance, calls Gaza ‘world’s biggest jail’
Security official: Abduction rumors unconfirmed
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – Unusual terror warning issued Tuesday meant to urge Israelis to locate their relatives in Sinai, Head of Counter-Terrorism Bureau says; for time being, no confirmation of abduction despite rumors, but new intelligence shows terror cell ready for action
Meridor: Israel’s 2 nuke reactors are safe
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – Minister representing Israel in US nuclear convention tells Ynet event not turning into quarrel between Israel and Muslims; Israel has two nuclear reactors and operates them in an orderly manner, he says
Peres: Syria playing double game
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – Syria talking about peace while handing over Scud missiles to Hezbollah, president tells French PM
Anti-terror bureau: Immediate terror threat in Sinai
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – Counter-Terrorism Bureau issues unusually harsh warning, urges Israelis in Sinai to leave Egypt immediately in light of ‘substantive intelligence information’ about serious abduction plot
Gates: Iran at least year away from nukes
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – US secretary of defense dismisses Iran’s claims that it will be joining nuclear club within a month, says ‘I don’t believe it’; meanwhile, nations gathered at Washington pledge to block non-states actors from obtaining nukes
Med water conference fails due to Israel-Arab row
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – Israeli, Arab delegates disagree over ‘territories’ wording. Jordan: Talks failure casts doubt on future of Mediterranean Union
Holyland Judge: Bribery reached government
YNet News 13 Apr 2010 – Judge in Holyland affair extends remand of suspect, says bribery case one of worst in Israel’s history
Palestinian Information Center
Commemorating one holocaust while effecting another
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – This is the holocaust-carnival season in Israel, using the tragic events of World War II to blackmail the world, and divert attention from Israel’s ongoing holocaust against the Palestinian people.
IOA to demolish 20 Palestinian homes in Silwan to build public park
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – The Israeli-controlled municipality of Jerusalem has asked the police department to allow demolition of 20 Palestinian homes in Silwan suburb in order to build a public park on their ruins.
Assad calls for Arab, international moves to check IOA decision
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has called for immediate Arab and international moves to check the IOA policy of racial cleansing against the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Resheq warns IOA of persisting in repressive measures against prisoners
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – Political bureau member of Hamas movement Ezzet Al-Resheq warned the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) of persisting in repressive measures against Arab and Palestinian prisoners in its jails.
Palestinians in Europe preparing for their 8th conference in Berlin
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – The Palestinians in Europe are making preparations for holding their eighth annual conference that will kick off within weeks in Berlin and highlight the issue of prisoners and the right of return.
Bardawil warns PA of involving in forced migration of Palestinians
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil warned the Palestinian authority and its unconstitutional government of any kind of participation in Israeli plans to force Palestinians to leave their homes in the West Bank.
Israeli plan to seize Palestinian land east of Jerusalem’s Old City
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – Jerusalem center for social and economic rights reported that Jewish settlement institutions plan to seize a Palestinian land located to the east of the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.
Palestinian killed, three others wounded during Israeli attacks on Bureij camp
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – One Palestinian resistance fighter was killed and three others sustained different injuries during Israeli aerial and artillery attacks on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
Qaddoumi: Resistance only solution to the Palestine cause
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – Farouq Al-Qaddoumi has said following a meeting with Syrian foreign minister Farouq Al-Shara’a on Monday that resistance is the only solution to the Palestine problem.
Israeli intelligence employs new method to extract information
PIC 13 Apr 2010 – The Israeli intelligence contacted a number of Palestinian citizens in Gaza under the guise of a research center in order to explore their views on issues related to sensitive security information.
Case involving military documents roils Israel
LA Times 14 Apr 2010 – Anat Kam is accused of secretly copying 2,000 military documents during her service as a soldier and of passing some of them to a journalist. The case has also opened a debate on press freedom. Is Anat Kam an Israeli hero or a traitor?
China insists it has not changed its stand on Iran’s nuclear program
LA Times 14 Apr 2010 – The statement came after U.S. officials said Beijing was more open to sanctions on Tehran. China insisted Tuesday that it has not shifted its approach on Iran’s nuclear program, despite White House claims on Monday that Beijing had become more open to sanctions on Tehran.
China agrees to pursue new sanctions against Iran
LA Times 12 Apr 2010 – Chinese President Hu Jintao meets with Obama before the start of an international security summit in Washington. Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed in a face-to-face meeting with President Obama on Monday to pursue new economic sanctions against Iran, but stopped short of committing his government’s support for the additional strictures aimed at persuading Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Israeli Troops Kill 2 Militants in Gaza
New York Times 13 Apr 2010 – A militant was shot and killed and two others were wounded as they tried to plant explosives near the border boundary, an Israeli spokesman said.
Ahmadinejad Asks U.N. to Investigate 9/11
New York Times 13 Apr 2010 – Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said last month that the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 were “a big fabrication,” wrote to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on Tuesday to ask him to open an investigation into the the attacks.
Checkpoints
Palestine Monitor – 17 Dec 2010 – “The right to freedom of movement provides that people are entitled to move freely within the borders of the state, to leave any country and to return to their country.” Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 12 of the International Covenant…
A serious newspaper should not confuse Jews and Zionists
Mondoweiss – 13 Apr 2010 – The Toronto Globe and Mail ran a story yesterday on a Middle East conference at York University that upset the Israel lobby because it considered binational visions of Israel/Palestine’s future. The scholar and author Yakov Rabkin responded to the piece in this letter. (Not sure if…
We should support Israel because — er, well, they have pretty soldiers
Mondoweiss – 13 Apr 2010 – It must have been hell to be a leading southern editor during segregation. You would have known that it was profoundly wrong, but it was your people whose ox was being gored, your friends, your tribe. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen has a piece about a…
The nuclear paradox
Mondoweiss – 13 Apr 2010 – Here’s how President Obama states the nuclear paradox : The risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up. Here’s how I define it: Hypothetical nuclear threats provoke more fear than real nuclear threats. Nowhere is…
Propagandistic anti-Semitism report raises The Linkage Issue
Mondoweiss – 13 Apr 2010 – The Tel Aviv University/Stephen Roth Institute’s newly released study on anti-Semitism in 2009 is getting loads of media attention. Among the many outlets that have reported its findings are the AP, CNN, and Haaretz. “Anti-Semitic incidents Doubled Last Year,” blared the AP headline. Sponsored by the…
Settler Violence Report, January-February 2010
Alternative Information Center – 13 Apr 2010 – Thursday, 01 April 2010, Hebron and South of West Bank – On 9 January, approximately 30 settlers—some of them armed— coming from the Bat Ayin settlement, north-west of Bait Ommar, attacked a group of farmers from the village working the land in the area of Wadi…
Articles
Why are American taxpayers subsidizing the violent actions of Israeli settlers in the heart of a Palestinian city?
Chippy Dee, Desert Peace4/13/2010
“We’ll make a pastrami sandwich of them. We’ll insert a strip of Jewish settlement, in between the Palestinians, and then another strip of Jewish settlement, right across the West Bank, so that in 25 years time, neither the United Nations nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart.”– Ariel Sharon to a British journalist at Israel’s National Press Club in 1973
On March 24th, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews Say No, and Brooklyn for Peace sponsored a meeting held at the GLBT Center in Greenwich Village. The subject of the meeting was put in the form of a question: Why are American taxpayers subsidizing the violent actions of Israeli settlers in the heart of a Palestinian city? The city referred to is Hebron, but the same situation exists in other parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Money raised through 5013C (non-profits) allows organizations that fund illegal settlements to raise millions of dollars from American donors, which is tax deductible to the donors, thereby encouraging giving. Since 2001 there has been over $190 million transferred from American non-profits to settlements (see following link, quoted by JVP). These American contributors are changing the political reality in the area by facilitating the taking of land for Jews-only housing and contributing to the misery that has become part of Palestinian life on the West Bank in an effort to drive the Palestinians out.
The Hebron Fund, a non-profit in New York, supports the violent Jewish colony in Hebron that has turned the lives of the 150,000 Palestinian residents into a living hell. The Israeli human rights group, B’tselem, calls the Hebron colony an ongoing war crime.
The first speaker was Adam Horowitz, co-editor of Mondoweiss.net. He said that Mondoweiss has been covering the issue of this fundraising in the US since 2008. He became interested in the subject when he read an article about an event that had just taken place on the West Bank. The Israeli military evacuated 250 religious Jews from the Ar-Rajbi House which had become known as the “House of Contention” in Hebron. Rather than fight the Israeli military, the Jewish colonists attacked Palestinians. — See also:American 501(c)(3) Foundations That Directly Support Illegal Settlements (PDF)more..e-mail
Richard Falk: ‘I believe that Hamas should be treated as a political actor’
Middle East Monitor (MEMO)4/9/2010
Richard Falk is the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. In 2001 Falk served on a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Inquiry Commission for the Palestinian territories with John Duggard. He is also an American Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University with a long and distinguished career in academics, politics and law. He recently gave this exclusive and revealing interview to the Middle East Monitor’s Dr Hanan Chehata.
HC: Following your appointment as UN Rapporteur to the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2008 you traveled to Israel in order to begin your investigations. Can you tell us a little more about how you were received by Israel?
RF: I was denied entry and expelled at Ben Gurion Airport when I tried to enter Israel for the purpose of carrying out my duties as UN Special Rapporteur. These duties consist mainly of reporting on Israeli compliance with human rights obligations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and include duties of compliance with respect to international humanitarian law. Israeli authorities confined me for more than 15 hours in a detention cell with five other detainees before putting me on a plane. I was given no explanation beyond that my expulsion order came from the Israeli Foreign Ministry that had objected to my appointment from the outset. As my itinerary on the West Bank had been previously submitted to the Israeli embassy in Geneva, and as visas had been granted to the two UN employees assisting me on the mission, it seems clear that Israel wanted to have the incident at the airport rather than tell me in advance that I would be denied entry. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN officials did object to the Israeli refusal to allow me to do my job as Special Rapporteur. It should be pointed out that the UN Charter in Article 2(2) requires Members to cooperate with the UN in carrying out its functions, and that this duty is reinforced by an international treaty outlining this duty of cooperation.
HC: You were denied entry into the OPT. Have you been allowed at any point to enter the territory? If not, how have you been able to do your job?….more..e-mail
Israel’s ‘crisis of legitimacy’
Jared Malsin, Ma’an News Agency4/13/2010
I know something about how Israel’s security forces treat journalists they view as hostile. In January, I was held for over a week in a dingy detention center at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport before being deported.
Before I was detained, I was interrogated in a spare, windowless office in the airport about news articles I had authored in my two and a half years working in the occupied West Bank for the Palestinian news agency Ma’an.
At one point, the security officer, a woman with piercing blue eyes who never identified herself, paged through the contacts in my cell phones, demanding that I provide information about sources, colleagues, and friends whose numbers I had stored. I refused.
She set the phones down on her desk and I, without thinking, reached for them. She stopped me. “In this office, you have no rights,” the interrogator explained. I didn’t see the phones, like the rest of my possessions, until I was expelled to New York eight days later.
So it’s natural that I’ve been following and investigating for weeks the case of Anat Kamm, the Israeli journalist and former soldier who has been under secret house arrest for months over allegations she leaked military documents, and Uri Blau, the reporter who reportedly used those papers to expose a West Bank assassinations program that violates even Israel’s own laws.
Like me, Blau, a reporter for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, also finds himself unable to return to Israel.
I’m not Israeli, and Blau’s situation is different and, in important ways, much more severe than mine. But I believe I can empathize, on some basic level, with the Kafkaesque turn his life has taken.more..e-mail
Grassroots organizer targeted by PA, Israeli forces
Electronic Intifada: 13 Apr 2010 – Mousa Abu Maria, co-coordinator of the grassroots Palestine Solidarity Project in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Ommar, was used to the sound of boots running on the ground and surrounding his home in the middle of the night. But when Abu Maria looked outside the window this time, it wasn’t Israeli forces shouting at him to come outside. Nora Barrows-Friedman reports for The Electronic Intifada.
Film review: Surreal struggle in Michel Khleifi’s “Zindeeq”
Electronic Intifada: 13 Apr 2010 – Michel Khleifi, the celebrated director of Wedding in Galilee , turns the camera inward in his 2009 feature film, Zindeeq (the meanings of which include “atheist” or “freethinker”), featured at the opening of the annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival this Friday. It is Khleifi’s first feature film in 14 years; his most recent film was the 2003 documentary he filmed in collaboration with Eyal Sivan, Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel . The Electronic Intifada’s Maureen Clare Murphy reviews.
Journalist threatened with extradition, arrest by Mossad
Electronic Intifada: 13 Apr 2010 – An Israeli journalist who went into hiding after writing a series of reports showing lawbreaking approved by Israeli army commanders faces a lengthy jail term for espionage if caught, as Israeli security services warned at the weekend they would “remove the gloves” to track him down. Jonathan Cook reports.
Belgian bank financing Israeli settlements
Electronic Intifada: 13 Apr 2010 – BRUSSELS (IPS) – Dexia, a major Belgian-French bank, is continuing to finance Israeli authorities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories almost a year after it indicated that it would cease providing loans to illegal settlements. In May 2009, Dexia promised that it would not lend any fresh money to councils representing Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
affecting and affected
In Gaza: 11 Apr 2010 – Abu Basel (right) is one of the long-termers, having served over 20 years as a medic in Gaza. “Who will take care of people if not us? Someone has to do this work. Without medics, who will care for the injured? Everyone has something to contribute,” he replied to the question ‘why do you do such dangerous work?’ Dangerous work. Being a medic hardly seems dangerous…anywhere else. But in a place like Palestine, medics have to contend with more than tending to the injured or bringing in the dead. They have to be aware of Israeli soldiers’ shooting, shelling from Apaches, F-16s, tanks, the sea…of being detained at military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank or during Israeli invasions into Gaza. Having spoken with Abu Basel many times during and after the Israeli massacre of Gaza last year, I thought I’d heard most of his horror stories. He is a…
Barghouthi to OECD’s members: don’t approve Israel’s membership!
Palestine Monitor: 13 Apr 2010 – ” These new military amendments adopted by Israel to an order that dates back to 1969, represent a very dangerous measure from the perspectives of both content and timing”. With these words during yesterday’s press conference Dr Mustafa Barghouthi condemned the new military order issued by Israeli authorities, which demands that all residents of the West Bank including those who were born there obtain an Israeli issued permit. “Entering the area “unlawfully” means somebody who is in the area without any order issued by the military governor of the area” underlined lawyer Raja Shahadeh, who explained the legal issues connected with the definition of “infiltrator”. Under new amendments the term implies “that the person who has been accused of being an “infiltrator” is automatically considered guilty and must prove his innocence”. Dr Barghouthi, who compared the military orders to the laws in effect preventing Palestinians from returning to their lands…
Spooked Wild In The Jordan Valley
Palestine Monitor: 13 Apr 2010 – Nobody can deny it: the Jordan Valley is one of the most beautiful places of the West Bank, except for the people who live in it. Classified as Area C, Israeli occupation forces have imposed harsh restrictions on building and movement. Inhabitants, like the Bedouins of Al-Hadidiyeh, have become hunted on their own lands, spooked like wild animals. Written and photographed by FLV. For generations, long before the 1967 war that led to the occupation of the West Bank, the Bedouins of Al-Hadidiyeh let their sheep graze on their land, in the north of the Jordan Valley. These shepherds are very poor and have almost no food. But they do not complain, since this has always been the nature of their lives as shepherds in the Jordan Valley. They only want one thing: to be left alone. This desire was a reality for many decades. Under the British mandate in…
Mossad Operation Threatened against Reporter
Palestine Chronicle: 13 Apr 2010 – By Jonathan Cook – Nazareth An Israeli journalist who went into hiding after writing a series of reports showing lawbreaking approved by Israeli army commanders faces a lengthy jail term for espionage if caught, as Israeli security services warned at the weekend they would ‘remove the gloves’ to track him down. The Shin Bet, Israel’s secret police, said it was treating Uri Blau, a reporter with the liberal Haaretz daily newspaper who has gone underground in London, as a “fugitive felon” and that a warrant for his arrest had been issued. Options being considered are an extradition request to the British authorities or, if that fails, a secret operation by Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, to smuggle him back, according to Maariv, a right-wing newspaper. It was revealed yesterday that Mr Blau’s informant, Anat Kamm, 23, a former conscript soldier who copied hundreds of classified documents during her military service, had…more
The U.N. Partition Plan and Arab ‘Catastrophe’
Palestine Chronicle: 13 Apr 2010 – By Jeremy R. Hammond The following is excerpted from The Rejection of Arab Self-Determination: The Struggle for Palestine and the Roots of the Arab-Israeli Crisis, by Jeremy R. Hammond. Click here . In 1947, Great Britain, unable to reconcile its conflicting obligations to both Jews and Arabs, requested that the United Nations take up the question of Palestine. In May, the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was created by a General Assembly resolution. UNSCOP’s purpose was to investigate the situation in Palestine and “submit such proposals as it may consider appropriate for the solution of the problem of Palestine”. At the time, the U.N. consisted of 55 members, including Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. Palestine by then remained the only one of the formerly Mandated Territories not to become an independent state. No representatives from any Arab nations, however, were included in UNSCOP.[1] Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia…more
Deport the Palestinians to Where They Came From — Israel
Palestine Chronicle: 12 Apr 2010 – By Ahmed Amr It was bound to happen. The Israelis have decided to opt for outright ethnic cleansing. As of April 13, 2010 – the Israelis military will be accorded the power to deport any Palestinian or any foreigner in the West Bank if their papers ‘aren’t in order.’ The IDF has already made it clear that the order will not apply to Israeli citizens in the West Bank – you know – the illegal Jewish settlers. In fact, if you are Mongolian and can produce a faded newspaper clip announcing your grandfather’s bar mitzvah – that will be sufficient documentation to acquire immediate Israeli citizenship and get a red carpet reception when you relocate to the occupied territories. They’ll even provide you with subsidized housing if you take them up on the offer. However, if you happen to be of the Palestinian persuasion, the IDF won’t worry if you’re…more
The New Dark Age 