News
International Middle East Media Center
Israeli occupation government to increase structure demolitions
IMEMC – 19 Jul 2010 – Monday July 19, 2010 – 16:13, The Israeli government has ordered the Civil Administration to increase enforcement against what it believes to be illegal construction in area C of the West Bank.
Israel looks for ‘legal’ way to unused land in East Jerusalem
IMEMC – 19 Jul 2010 – Monday July 19, 2010 – 16:10, Depending on a future court ruling, city leadership would have a way to take properties belonging to individuals who moved to enemy states or the Palestinian territories
Lieberman fields interest in Gaza plan
IMEMC – 19 Jul 2010 – Monday July 19, 2010 – 15:54, The Israeli Foreign Minister has been fielding good press from his plan for a second disengagement of Gaza and plans to expand its infrastructure
Egypt Decides To Deny Entry To Jordanian Aid Convoy
IMEMC – 19 Jul 2010 – Monday July 19, 2010 – 04:30, The Egyptian Authorities prevented the “Ansar 1” Jordanian aid convoy from entering Egypt while on their way to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Haniyya Invites Qaddafi To Visit Gaza
IMEMC – 19 Jul 2010 – Monday July 19, 2010 – 03:27, Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya, invited the Libyan President, Moammar Qaddafi, to visit the Gaza Strip in order to participate in breaking the siege on Gaza, and to observe the humanitarian crisis.
Israel continues Jordan Valley demolitions
7/20/2010 – Tubas – Ma’an – Israel’s Civil Administration began demolishing over 20 farmer’s sheds in the Al-Farisiya area in the northern Jordan Valley on Monday morning, officials said. Director of the Save the Jordan Valley campaign Fathi Khdeirat described the demolitions as an “Israeli policy of collective displacement, aimed at expanding settlement outposts in the northern Jordan Valley….
Report: Israel may seize East Jerusalem property
7/19/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel’s attorney general has informed the country’s High Court that the state plans to apply its laws on so-called abandoned properties to property in East Jerusalem, Israeli media reported Monday. Yehuda Weinstein’s proposal would”legally” take over thousands of acres and buildings belonging to people who moved to “enemy states” during the 1948….
Early release for soldier who killed British activist
7/19/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an – An Israeli soldier convicted of shooting dead a British peace activist has been granted an early release from prison, the Israeli press reported Monday. A military committee accepted Taysir Hayb’s appeal, and he will be free in one month, the Israeli news site Ynet reported Monday. Hayb shot Tom Hurndall, who died aged….
Israeli flees scene of car crash in Hebron
7/19/2010 – Hebron – Ma’an – Palestinian Authority security sources said an Israeli driver, believed to be a resident of an illegal West Bank settlement, fled the scene of a crash Monday after colliding with a Palestinian car on a bypass road near Hebron. Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics said Mustafa Daraghma, from Jenin in the northern West Bank, was injured in the crash…. Related: Eleven year old Palestinian boy run over by Israeli settler
Report: Army may lift ban on Israelis entering Area A
7/19/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – The Israeli army is considering revoking a ban on Israelis entering West Bank cities that are under Palestinian Authority control, Israeli media reported Monday. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the decision to lift the entry ban would be considered in view of significant improvement in security and in Israel’s coordination with….
Libyan aid to enter Gaza as 2 terminals open
7/19/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli authorities announced Monday that two crossings into Gaza would be partially open for the transfer of goods, Palestinian border officials said. Liaison official Raed Fattouh said approximately 150 truckloads of aid, including two carrying equipment and iron rods for the Energy Authority, would be allowed through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern….
Report: Druze sheikhs in Israel to visit Lebanon
7/19/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – A delegation of Druze sheikhs arrived in Lebanon Sunday night to attend a conference organized by Lebanese Druze leadership, Lebanese media reported. The delegation, comprising 52 sheikhs from Israel, has not been given permission from Israeli authorities to enter Lebanon, the news site Now Lebanon reported. The sheikhs arrived in Amman at….
Israeli forces detain Hebron resident
7/19/2010 – Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli forces detained a resident from the Beit Ummar village in northern Hebron overnight Sunday. Palestine Solidarity Project spokesman Mohammad Awad said forces raided the house of Sufyan Zaki Odeh Bahar, 34, and detained him. Bahar was released by Israeli authorities 40 days ago following a 26-month detention, the spokesman said. An….
Israel extends administrative detention of Nablus man
7/19/2010 – Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli authorities renewed the administrative detention of Reda Khaled for a further three months Monday, a prisoners affairs representative said. Maysar Atyani said Khaled, from a refugee camp near Nablus, was arrested in December 2008 but has spent seven years in Israeli prisons on-and-off. The longest period the father of five has spent….
Jihad, PFLP claim mortar attack in Gaza
7/19/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Islamic Jihad’s military wing said its fighters fired five mortar shells toward an Israeli force east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight. The Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement that fighters aimed the mortars at an Israeli force near the As-Sureij Gate east of Al-Qarara along the border with Israel….
Shin Bet arrests ’Hamas cell’ over policeman killing
7/19/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Israel’s security services revealed Monday that it recently detained members of an alleged Hamas military wing suspected of involvement in the shooting death of an Israeli police officer last month. The Shin Bet made the announcement after a gag order on the case was lifted, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. According to….
Haniyeh invites Gaddafi to visit Gaza
7/20/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Gaza-based premier Ismail Haniyeh has invited Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to visit the Strip, after meeting with a Libyan delegation on Sunday. The invitation was put forward as Haniyeh met with Libyan charity officials who were originally scheduled to arrive at Gaza City’s port to deliver humanitarian aid. The ship’s captain diverted to….
Former EU chief says Gaza siege immoral, ineffective
7/20/2010 – Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Former EU commissioner Chris Patten, currently visiting Gaza, said Monday the EU must act independently of the US and slammed Israel’s “medieval siege” on the Strip.”The default European position should not be to wait to find out what the Americans are going to do, and if the Americans don’t do anything….
Blair: Direct talks to boost confidence
7/20/2010 – Ramallah – Ma’an – The recent wave of diplomatic activity aims to build Palestinian confidence that negotiations are serious and to give the international community the tangible guarantees it needs to ensure such talks will be fruitful, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair told Ma’an over the weekend. US mediator George Mitchell and EU foreign policy chief Catherine….
Tulkarm governor meets European delegation
7/19/2010 – Tulkarem – Ma’an – Tulkarm’s governor met a delegation of European peace activists in his office Monday. Governor Talal Dweikat noted the importance of internationals seeing firsthand the reality of the occupation, and affirmed the necessity of recognizing Palestinian rights to an independent state, releasing political prisoners, and allowing refugees to return for a lasting and stable….
Gaza, West Bank to announce exam results jointly
7/19/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – Results of the General Secondary Exams, or Tawjihi, will be announced jointly in the West bank and the Gaza Strip no later than this weekend, Gaza’s education minister said Monday. Ahmad Asquol said the ministry is awaiting agreement with its Ramallah counterpart to confirm the release date. Grades are being reviewed and double-checked….
PA police detain fugitive
7/19/2010 – Tulkarem – Ma’an – Palestinian Authority police say they have arrested man who owes 238,000 shekels (more than $61,000). The resident of Attil village in the West Bank district of Tulkarm was arrested Monday and will be transferred to prison, a police report said….
Monetary Authority: 50 million shekels enter Gaza
7/19/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – The Palestinian monetary authority transferred 50 million shekels ($12. 9 million) into Gaza’s banks to replace 30 million shekels of damaged banknotes in the Strip. In a statement Monday, the authority said the money will allow staff salaries to be paid, and added that a special effort was ongoing to transfer the money….
Umrah pilgrims begin journey from Gaza to Mecca
7/19/2010 – Gaza – Ma’an – The first group of Gaza pilgrims heading for Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah will leave the Strip on Monday, after resolving passport issues, officials said. The Gaza and Palestinian Authority Ministries of Endowment and Religious Affairs jointly announced Sunday that approximately 230 Gaza residents will be heading to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage….
Summer camp opens in Hebron
7/19/2010 – Hebron – Ma’an – The Mercy and Charity Assembly opened the fifth Hebron summer camp on Saturday. The camp, run in collaboration with the National Foundation of Summer Camp Clubs, will run until the end of July in Ein Sarah. The assembly’s president, Kamela As-Sayyed, said the camps entertain Palestinian children during the summer….
Trade official condemns factory worker death
7/19/2010 – Salfit – Ma’an – Trade Unions Federation President Mahmoud Al-Barr has condemned the death of a Palestinian factory worker. Hamid Shafiq Salama, died on the job a Ramallah factory. His funeral will be held in his hometown of Salfit. Al-Barr called on Palestinian businesses to fulfill health and safety regulations to protect Palestinian workers….
The real Netanyahu?
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – WATCH: ‘Hit them hard,’ says Israeli PM in new video New York – It is a video that, if given consideration at high levels of government, could shake up the Obama administration’s push for renewed Palestinian-Israeli…
Netanyahu makes u-turn, blocks loyalty oath vote
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – Washington — Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has postponed the Knesset vote on a proposed bill requiring prospective citizens to swear a loyalty to a “Jewish democratic state,” Haaretz reported Monday. Deputy PM and Cabinet minister…
Jaffa residents protest ‘Jews-only’ housing complex
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – Washington — Palestinian-Israeli residents of Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood gathered Sunday to protest a new housing plan meant exclusively for “Zionist Jews,” the Jerusalem Post reported . The protests come two days before the Israeli High Court will…
Israeli soldier who killed British activist to get early release
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – New York – An Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter for shooting to death British peace activist Thomas Hurndall in Gaza in 2003 will be released from prison early next month, it emerged on Monday. International Solidarity…
Hamas, Fatah coordinate to release exam results together
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – Washington — Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank are coordinating to simultaneously release results for the “Tawjihi,” the high school exam equivalent to the SAT in the US, Ma’an News…
Israel says Palestinians behind June roadside shooting captured
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – Washington — Israel’s Shin Bet security agency says it has apprehended the shooters, allegedly part of a “Hamas cell,” behind the June 14 killing of an Israeli police officer in the occupied West Bank city of…
Noam Sheizaf: In terms of the one state solution, we’re still in the ‚Äò70s
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – By Jared Malsin New York — An Israeli journalist quipped this weekend that Noam Sheizaf’s article, “Endgame ,” about right-wing Israelis who support a one-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli impasse, is “one of those articles…
Report: Israeli soldiers, officers interrogated for Cast Lead crimes
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – Washington — The Israeli army’s internal police have interrogated more than 550 officers and soldiers concerning actions taken during the 2008-2009 “Cast Last” offensive against Gaza, columnist Max Blumenthal reported Monday. A Gaza mosque destroyed during…
Report: Army may allow Israeli visits to West Bank Area A
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – Washington — The Israeli army may permit Jewish Israelis to visit Area A in the West Bank, Haaretz reported Monday. An Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of Jericho. The city itself falls within Area A, giving…
Israel razes West Bank structures
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – ‘Policy of collective displacement’ seen in Jordan Valley New York – Israeli bulldozers demolished some 20 Palestinian-owned farm buildings in the northern Jordan Valley on Monday. Fathi Khdeirat, of the Save the Jordan Valley Campaign, told…
Hamas invites Gaddafi to Gaza
Palestine Note 19 Jul 2010 – Washington – Following meetings with a Libyan delegation delivering aid to Gaza on Sunday, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has extended an invitation to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to visit the besieged coastal enclave, Ma’an News Agency…
US ‘offers help’ to bin Ladens
AlJazeera 19 Jul 2010 – Son of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden says US ready to help relatives held in Iran.
Israeli ‘loyalty oath’ approved
AlJazeera 19 Jul 2010 – Cabinet okays proposal requiring all citizens to swear allegiance to a “Jewish state”.
Netanyahu Calls High Levels of Popular American Support for Israel Absurd
PNN – On a visit to a home in the settlement of Ofra in the West Bank Benjamin Netanyahu makes a series of unguarded admissions about his first term as prime minister.The Prime Minister…
The Israeli Army may repeal travel restrictions for Israelis visiting Area A
PNN – The army is discussing the current ban on Israeli entry to Palestinian-controlled cities in the West Bank in an effort to aid the Palestinian economy and weaken Hamas.The army may reestablish legal…
UNRWA Chief Operations Officer updates Kibbutz on Gaza
PNN – PNN — Ashkelon — Last week John Ging, UNRWA Chief Operations Officer, spoke at Kibbutz Zikim about the status in Gaza, progress and failure and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in detail.The Zikim Kibbutz…
Israel mulls takeover of property abandoned during al-Nakbah and the 1967 war
PNN – Should the Supreme Court agree, ownership of houses abandoned by refugees and those displaced by military aggression will pass to Israel.Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein informed the Supreme Court recently of the state’s…
Civil Administration to destroy ‘illegal constructions’ in the West Bank
PNN – The Israeli government has ordered the Civil Administration to increase enforcement against what it believes to be illegal construction in area C of the West Bank. There are six areas in the…
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (07-14 July 2010)
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Jabotinsky’s plot to kill Hitler
Jeruslalem Post 20 Jul 2010 – Claim appears in diary of controversial British colonel, published this week in Israel.
Why Jerusalem matters
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Capital city justifies Israel’s existence as a nation.
Syria bans Islamic veils in universities
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Secular regime cracks down on conservative Islam.
Shin Bet, IDF arrest Hamas cell
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Terrorists responsible for killing policeman Sofer in Hebron Hills.
Second suspect arrested in Pearlman case
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – 25-year-old J’lem resident suspected of steal weapons from IDF bases.
The Zionist Imam
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Opposition to Israel is an offense against Allah.
Ashton meets with Schalits
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Calls for Gilad’s release and and end to the “suffering” in Gaza.
Hamas men arrested for fatal June attack
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – One police officer killed, two wounded, in South Hebron Hills ambush.
Shin Bet, IDF arrests Hamas cell
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Terrorists responsible for killing policeman Sofer in Hebron Hills.
Lieberman slams gov’t’s behavior
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Israel Beiteinu head says party won’t leave coalition, demands respect.
Bill and Hillary Clinton: Nervous wrecks
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Preparing for Chelsea’s wedding is “so emotional.”
‘Kadima won’t save PM from Lieberman’
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Netanyahu, FM settle differences in good, positive atmosphere.
Kadima: We won’t save PM from Lieberman
Jeruslalem Post 19 Jul 2010 – Netanyahu, foreign minister expected to settle differences today.
International Solidarity Movement
The resistance continues in protests across Palestine
7/19/2010 – International Solidarity Movement – Al Ma’sara, Friday 16 July – On the anniversary of the French Revolution, the theme of the protest in Al Ma’sara on Friday was the destruction of the prison in which Israel holds Palestinians captive, redolent of the French storming of the Bastille in 1789. Around 50 demonstrators, both Palestinians and internationals, marched towards the main….
IDF soldier who shot British peace activist to be released from jail
7/19/2010 – International Solidarity Movement – Ha’aretz – A former IDF soldier who was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2003 shooting death of British peace activist Thomas Hurndall in the Gaza Strip will be released early from prison next month. Taysir-al-Heib was sentenced in 2005 to eight years in prison for manslaughter as well as obstruction of justice and giving false….
Seventeen year old from Bil’in arrested in night raid
7/19/2010 – International Solidarity Movement – Last night the Israeli army carried out a night raid in the West Bank villageof Bil’in and arrested a seventeen year old boy. At least 12 Israeli army jeeps entered the village at approximately 1. 30 in the morning. Soldiers from two of the jeeps then closed off the house of Ahmed Abdul Fatah Durnat….
Eleven year old Palestinian boy run over by Israeli settler
7/19/2010 – International Solidarity Movement – Eleven year old Palestinian boy run over byIsraeli settler in Hebron – Tel Rumeida, HEBRON: An eleven year old Palestinian boy was run over by an Israeli settler inHebron last night, and had to be immediately hospitalized. An eyewitness said that a motorcyclist hit the boy,Abdallah Hasan Al-Muhtaseb, on Al-Sahla street in Tel Rumeida. The witness estimated that the settler was driving at 80 kilometers per hour…. Related: Israeli flees scene of car crash in Hebron
Dozens commemorate Tisha B’Av with family of Gilad Shalit
Ha’aretz – 150 people visit Shalit family protest tent, read from Book of Lamentations; Chief Rabbi Metzger leads prayer for the captive soldier.
Two killed in car-truck head-on collision
Ha’aretz – Another young woman was seriously injured in the accident near Ramat Yishai; Police surmise that the car swerved out of its lane.
Shin Bet arrests man for involvement with alleged Jewish terrorist
Ha’aretz – Jerusalem resident David Sitbon was arrested on Sunday on suspicions of stealing weapons and ammunition; Shin Bet says Sitbon was involved in activities of alleged Jewish terrorist Chaim Pearlman.
Lieberman: No coalition crisis, we won’t quit
Ha’aretz – Foreign Minister, speaking at a press conference, says there is a fierce disagreement among Israel’s politicians on two subjects: legislation and the budget.
Sephardi chief rabbi: I didn’t urge ultra-Orthodox to quit coalition over conversion bill
Ha’aretz – Sephardi chief rabbi Shlomo Amar said Reform Jews are using Israel’s sensitive political situation to blackmail Netanyahu.
Woman found dead hours after telling police she feared her ex would kill her
Ha’aretz – Police detain the 24-year-old man, who they suspect stabbed Almo Masarat in front of their 3-year-old son.
Syrian President, Turkish FM jointly call for end to Gaza siege
Ha’aretz – After meeting in Damascus, Assad and Davutoglu emphasize importance of reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions.
VIDEO / Iron Dome missile defense system aces final test run
Ha’aretz – Defense establishment and manufacturer pleased with dome’s ability to intercept simultaneous rocket salvos from different directions.
IDF soldier who shot British peace activist to be released from jail
Ha’aretz – IDF committee cuts sentence of former soldier Taysir Heib who was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2003 death of British peace activist Thomas Hurndall in the Gaza Strip.
Alleged Mossad agent fights extradition to Germany
Ha’aretz – Uri Brodsky, suspected of involvement in Hamas chief killing in Dubai, appeals Polish court decision that he be extradited to Germany., The Israeli Druze leaders, mostly sheikhs and religious leaders…
EU foreign policy chief visits Shalit family, urges Hamas to free captive IDF soldier
Ha’aretz – Ashton spoke as she began the third day of a three-day tour of Gaza, Israel and the West Bank.
Shin Bet: We’ve caught Hamas cell behind murder of Israeli policeman
Ha’aretz – Yehoshua ‘Shuki’ Sofer was shot dead in June in attack on his vehicle in southern Hebron Hills.
Senior UN diplomat: Israel needs recognizable, capable envoy now more than ever
Ha’aretz – The next session of the UN General Assembly, which opens in September, will “almost certainly be unpleasant for Israel,” a senior UN diplomat tells Haaretz.
Turkish hackers steal personal details of tens of thousands of Israelis
Ha’aretz – In the wake of Gaza flotilla raid, hackers in Turkey have disclosed personal details of tens of thousands of Israelis, blogger reveals.
Israel detains 2 Palestinians in WB
19 Jul 2010 – West Bank, July 19, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) — Israeli occupation forces detained today two Palestinians after raiding their houses in the West Bank. Israeli occupation forces raided the house of Sofian Baher, 34, in Bait Omar village in north of Hebron city, and then detained him. Baher was released 4o days ago after spending 2 and a half years in…
IOF raids Bethlehem, no detentions reported
19 Jul 2010 – Bethlehem, July 19, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) — Israeli occupation forces raided today number of neighborhoods in the city of Bethlehem in the south of the occupied West Bank, no detentions were reported. Israeli occupation forces raided the area of Berak Soliman and prevented the Palestinian police from moving in the area to do its duties, local sources said. Israeli occupation…
Gaza family struggles to survive in a tent
Uruknet July 19, 2010 – The few dozen metres of fraying blue tarpaulin and dirt-stained canvas that define the Awaja family’s living space can’t keep out the cold in winter, or the dust and heat in summer. And when a strong wind blows at night, the shelter caves in on the six children sleeping inside…
Bombshell Report: 550 IDF Officers And Soldiers Interrogated About Possible War Crimes In Gaza
Uruknet July 19, 2010 – On July 18, a bombshell report appeared in the Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot. The article, which has only been published in Hebrew and was buried on page 8 as a small news item, stated that 550 officers and soldiers who participated in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip in late 2008 and early 2009 have…
Report: Mubarek terminally ill
Uruknet July 19, 2010 – European and US intelligence agencies believe Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek is terminally ill, The Washington Times reported Monday. An unnamed source from a Central European intelligence service told the newspaper that his agency believes Mubarek will be dead within a year. A senior US security official said “We know he is dying.” Egypt is an…
Israel : Man convicted of rape for consensual sex with woman but told her he was Jewish
Uruknet July 19, 2010 – A court sentenced a resident of East Jerusalem who lied to a young woman and told her that he was Jewish in order to have sexual relations with her to a year in a half of prison time. “Protect the public from such criminals.”… The prosecution representative, Adv. Daniel Vittman, argued that Kashour had indeed…
Gaza’s bee industry stung by Israeli attacks
Uruknet July 19, 2010 – Sa’id Hillis, 60, has kept bees since he was a boy. Until the Israeli attacks changed his business. Sa’id has 20 dunams (a dunam is 1000 square metres) farmland in Sheyjayee, east of Gaza city and roughly 400 metres from the Green Line border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Until 2009 the farm had…
Obama could exploit Israeli strike on Iran to end relations with the Jewish state
Uruknet July 19, 2010 – A new report claims that the United States could cut its strategic alliance with Israel in the event of the Jewish state mounting a strike against Iran. This would represent the first real threat to Israel’s existence since 1973. The report, entitled “How the US benefited from its alliance with Israel”, states that US President…
Israel’s Separation Wall: A Health Hazard
Uruknet July 19, 2010 – In July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled the Separation Wall illegal, saying its route inside the West Bank, and associated gate and permit system, violated Israel’s obligations under international law, ordering the completed sections dismantled, and “all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto” repealed or rendered “ineffective forthwith.” The ICJ also mandated…
Demands for release of nuclear whistleblower as Israel holds Vanunu in solitary confinement
Uruknet July 18, 2010 – There were demands last night for the release from prison of the man known as the Israeli nuclear whistleblower after it emerged he was being held in solitary confinement in the same section of prison as some of Israel’s most notorious criminals. Mordechai Vanunu, who spent 18 years in jail for revealing details of Israel’s…
EU calls for opening Gaza borders
Uruknet July 18, 2010 – Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has said Gaza’s borders must open to enable the territory’s battered economy to recover. “The position of the EU is very clear. We want to see the opportunity for people to be able to move around freely, to see goods not only coming in to Gaza but…
West Bank water worries
Uruknet July 18, 2010 – The worst place to be in the West Bank in terms of water and sanitation facilities is an Israeli-controlled stretch of land known as Area C, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) is technically responsible for water services, but simply unable to deliver. Cara Flowers, an officer with the Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Group (EWASH),…
Barghouthi: 100 settlement units underway in Beit Jala
Uruknet July 18, 2010 – Israel recently began construction on 100 new settlement units in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem, Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi announced Sunday. The latest settlement construction is underway on Palestinian land in the towns of Beit Jala and Al-Walaja, as US Middle East envoy visits the region for the latest round of indirect talks…
Syria bans face veils at universities
The National 19 Jul 2010 – The secular nation has banned the face-covering niqab from the country’s public and private universities, after it’s recent rise in popularity.
Hamas fraud suspect fights extradition
The National 19 Jul 2010 – An Israeli held in Poland for suspected involvement in the killing of a Hamas chief in Dubai appeals against his planned extradition to Germany.
AIC Upgrades Website Infrastructure
Alternative Information Center – The Alternative Information Center (AIC) is currently upgrading its website infrastructure. We will be back online by Tuesday 22 June 2010.
Olympia Food Co-op Removes Israeli Goods from Shelves
WAFA – OLYMPIA, WA, July 19, 2010 (WAFA)- The Olympia Food Co-op Board of Directors has decided to boycott Israeli goods at their two locations in Olympia, Washington. At a July 15th meeting packed
Israel Arrests Palestinians Allegedly Responsible for Shooting Policeman
WAFA – TEL AVIV, July 19, 2010 (WAFA)- Officials from Israel’s Shin Bet security service said Monday that the agency recently apprehended several members of the Hamas military wing believed to be behind the
Haaretz: Shin Bet Arrests Suspect of Jewish Terrorist Acts
WAFA – TEL AVIV, July 19, 2010 (WAFA)- The Shin Bet arrested, Sunday, an Israli Jerusalem resident suspected of involvement in the activities of right-wing extremist Chaim Pearlman, who was arrested last
US must drop ‘cowboy’ logic to talk with Iran
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Allawi, Sadr meet in Syria to resolve Iraqi government impasse
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Lieberman plays down row with Netanyahu
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Iran’s speaker says international bodies instruments of US
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Israel arrests Hamas cell accused of deadly shooting
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Sudanese security service brutally suppressing dissent – Amnesty report
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Druze gathering urges support for Palestinian members
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Haaretz predicts Lebanon crisis after STL report
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
Hariri and Assad hold third round of talks in Damascus
Daily Star 19 Jul 2010
CCTV and police abuse of power | Nicola Cutcher
The Guardian 19 Jul 2010 – Investigations into the London Gaza protests last year have called into question how CCTV evidence is being used by police Last week there was a slight tipping of the justice scales in relation to the London…
Why Israel keeps moving to the right | Carlo Strenger
The Guardian 19 Jul 2010 – Israel’s growing distrust of the external world reflects a sense of existential threat and deep anxiety about its viability Israel has been sliding into ever greater isolation in the few last years and this process has…
Syria: UNRWA and Mexico offer refugee children joy and hope
Relief Web 19 Jul 2010 – Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
MIDEAST: Israel’s Next War Could Be Lebanon: Analyst
IPS While speculation over a possible Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities intensifies, at least one influential analyst here is calling on Washington to focus more on the likelihood of a new war breaking out between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and how to prevent or contain it.
Bees Get Stung by Israel
IPS Sa’id Hillis, 60, has kept bees since he was a boy. Until the Israeli attacks changed his business.
IOF create security zone to shut out the weekly protest in Wadi Rahal
Stop The Wall – The demonstrators were caught off-guard when the Israeli Occupation Forces sealed of the Wall and prevented the demonstrators from approaching the regular site of picketing. This was the first time since the beginning of the weekly protests in Wadi Rahal that the Occupation Forces shut off the area as a “security zone” and banned people from entering Israel. [
Gaza family struggles to survive in a tent
YNet News – Family of eight one of families left homeless after Operation Cast Lead in Gaza….
Work on Egypt border fence won’t start till November
YNet News – Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser slams defense establishment’s delays in start of….
‘Mossad agent’ fights extradition to Germany
YNet News – Uri Brodsky, wanted for alleged involvement in Hamas figure’s assassination in….
Ahmadinejad brands Iran’s enemies ‘idiots’
YNet News – Islamic Republic’s president says sanctions will not make his country abandon….
Hamas cell behind policeman’s death detained
YNet News – Cell’s members suspected of opening fire at patrol car south of Hebron, leaving….
Shalits ask Ashton to pressure Hamas for son’s release
YNet News – Day after she returns from visit to Gaza Strip, EU foreign affairs chief meets….
Another suspect in ‘Jewish terrorist’ affair detained
YNet News – Shin Bet arrests 25-year-old Jerusalem man suspected of stealing weapons,….
Iran exploiting loopholes in sanctions via Germany
YNet News – Western sources tell Wall Street Journal how small Iranian bank in Germany has….
Netanyahu, Lieberman meet in ‘high spirits’
YNet News – In an effort to calm mounting tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman met Monday night at the Prime Minister’s Residence in …….
Assad, Davutoglu want to ‘end blockade’
YNet News – Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Damascus on Monday, and the two called for “additional, reinforced efforts” at ending …….
Palestinian gets 14 years for raping UNICEF volunteer
YNet News – A 20-year-old Palestinian was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday after being convicted of rape, sodomy, indecent attack and robbery against a 60-year-old Norwegian …….
Iron Dome passes final tests
YNet News – Final testing on the Iron Dome missile defense system was completed Monday, but a schedule of its deployment, beginning in November, shows the IDF is not planning on …….
Palestinian Information Center
9,000 activists and 35 media organizations to participate in Freedom Flotilla 2
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – The European campaign to end the Siege on Gaza announced Monday that Freedom Flotilla 2 will be delayed until late September or early October due to expansion in participation from European countries.
Egyptian authorities refuse entry of Jordanian solidarity convoy
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – Jordanian security men blocked members of the popular solidarity convoy Ansar-1 form entering Aqaba port to go on board a ferry heading to Egyptian port of Nuweibi en route to Gaza Strip.
Shabak claims arresting commando cell
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – The Israeli general intelligence apparatus the Shabak has claimed that a four-member commando cell affiliated with the Hamas movement was arrested in Al-Khalil last month.
Dangerous Israeli plan to change Buraq Square holy sites revealed
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – The Islamic Christian Commission in Support of Jerusalem and Holy Sites revealed evidence on a comprehensive Israeli plan to change holy sites in Buraq Sqare south-west of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Rezka: Guarantees cover for direct negotiations
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – Dr. Yousef Rezka said that the Arab talk about written guarantees as a precondition for direct negotiations with the IOA is a scanty Arab cover for such talks.
Palestinian worker killed in electric shock in Rafah tunnel
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – A Palestinian worker was killed Monday morning by an electric shock inside a tunnel on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, medical sources said.
Ahrar denounces IOF arrest of Palestinian woman
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies and human rights has denounced the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for arresting a 57-year-old Palestinian woman in her house in Tulkarem at dawn Monday.
Haneyya calls for granting refugees in Lebanon all civil rights
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – Ismail Haneyya called for granting the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon all civil rights, stressing that there is no contradiction between rejecting attempts to resettle them and giving them rights.
Barghouthi: Israel started to build 100 settlement units in Beit Jala and Walaja
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – Mustafa Al-Barghouthi revealed that the Israeli occupation authority started days ago to build 100 settlement units on Palestinian lands in Beit Jala town and Walaja village near Bethlehem.
Israeli female soldier confesses to her involvement in killing Palestinian child
PIC 19 Jul 2010 – An Israeli female soldier admitted in a TV show that she helped once its comrades to kill a Palestinian child in cold blood, but she did not disclose when and where the crime took place.
U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon deny acting timidly
LA Times 20 Jul 2010 – Clashes between troops and villagers near the Israel border have sparked a debate about the role of the United Nations troops, with some accusing Hezbollah of trying to cow the international force. Clashes between troops and villagers near the Israel border have sparked a debate about the role of the United Nations troops, with some accusing Hezbollah of trying to cow the international force.
Justice For The Abu Rahmahs?
Palestine Monitor – The Israeli army has finally decided to open an investigation into the April 2009 killing of an unarmed, peaceful Palestinian protester in the West Bank village of Bil’in. The announcement came days after the Israeli government’s expansion of the Gaza flotilla inquiry into a full-fledged government…
Beit Ummar: One Journalist Arrested, Two Injured
Palestine Monitor – Israeli soldiers arrested one journalist and injured two others at Beit Ummar’s Saturday protest calling for access to village land and the dismantling of nearby settlements. Beit Ummar is a Palestinian town located 11 kilometers northwest of Hebron. In the last years, the local Popular Commitee…
Olympia Food Co-op removes Israeli products from shelves
Mondoweiss – From an Olympia BDS press release : The Olympia Food Co-op Board of Directors has decided to boycott Israeli goods at their two locations in Olympia, Washington. At a July 15th meeting packed with Co-op members, the Board reached this consensus. The Co-op becomes the first US…
Israeli Shabak interrogates Israeli activist over BDS & Bil’in protests
Mondoweiss – A month ago Phil posted on an event here in New York discussing Jewish perspectives on BDS . One the speakers that night was Yonatan Shapira, who spoke in favor of boycott. Shapira recently returned to Israel and sent this update. Translation by Dena Shunra. I moved…
Hebron settler on motorbike rams 11-year-old Palestinian boy and soldiers kill Gaza mom who goes into ‚Äòbuffer zone’ to fetch her two-year-old
Mondoweiss – And other news from Today in Palestine: Land theft and destruction/Ethnic cleansing Barghouthi: 100 Settlement Units Underway in Beit Jala Israel recently began construction on 100 new settlement units in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem, Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi announced Sunday. The latest settlement…
60 years ago, first Defense Sec’y said ‚ÄòZionist pressure’ endangered US security, all the way to Afghanistan
Mondoweiss – I’ve kept dropping hints about this. It’s time to post some excerpts about the birth of Israel from the Forrestal Diaries— by James V. Forrestal , the first U.S. Secretary of Defense. Forrestal is famous of course for tragedy: Not long after these thoughts were set down,…
Neocon front orgs
Mondoweiss – Speaking about the new Emergency Committee for Israel that is pushing war with Iran and is getting a ton of attention on CNN and MSNBC (Bill Kristol’s behind it), I missed this from Eli Clifton at Lobelog last week, a shrewd catch that historians will some…
Israel extends administrative detention of Nablus man
Sabr – Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli authorities renewed the administrative detention of Reda Khaled for a further three months Monday, a prisoners affairs representative said. Maysar Atyani said Khaled, from a refugee camp near Nablus, was arrested in December 2008 but has spent seven years in Israeli…
Ahrar denounces IOF arrest of Palestinian woman
Sabr – [ 19/07/2010 – 05:05 PM ] NABLUS, ( PIC )— Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies and human rights has denounced the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for arresting a 57-year-old Palestinian woman in her house in Tulkarem at dawn Monday. Fouad Al-Khafsh, the center’s director, said that a big…
Shin Bet arrests ‘Hamas cell’ over policeman killing
Sabr – Bethlehem – Ma’an /Agencies – Israel’s security services revealed Monday that it recently detained members of an alleged Hamas military wing suspected of involvement in the shooting death of an Israeli police officer last month. The Shin Bet made the announcement after a gag order on…
PFLP warns: Saadat facing slow death in Israeli jails
Sabr – [ 19/07/2010 – 08:42 AM ] RAMALLAH, ( PIC )— The popular front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has warned that its detained secretary general Ahmed Saadat was facing slow death in Israeli isolation cells. The PFLP in a statement on Sunday said that the Israeli occupation…
US must drop Iran ‘cowboy logic’
BBC – The US must stop using “cowboy logic” if it wants dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme, the Iranian president says.
Syria bans veils at universities
BBC – Female students wearing a full face veil will be barred from Syrian university campuses, the country’s minister of higher education says.
Bibi Unmasked
Antiwar.com – In 2001, Bibi Netanyahu paid a condolence call on a group of Israeli settlers in the village of Ofra, widows whose husbands had been killed in the Intifada: the videotaped conversation has just been leaked, and broadcast by Israel’s Channel 10, and it is a blockbuster….
(en) Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle expand faster than the number of Israeli AAtW activists…
A-infos – The join non violent struggle against the separation fence, transfer, and other occupation atrocities expand. It include struggles of the Bedouins of the south of Israeli 1948 borders. It occur also in the central regions of Israel in Dahmash (near Ramla-Lod) and in Jaffa (annexed to…
Articles
IOF Escalating its Attacks on Civilians Collecting Rubble
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights 7/15/2010
Al Mezan Condemns IOF Escalating its Attacks on Civilians Collecting Rubble, 27 Injured; 10 Children, since the Beginning of 2010
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) increased its attacks on Palestinian civilians who collect the rubble of the destroyed buildings and roads near the border fence between Gaza and Israel. Since the start of 2010, 27 persons have been injured; including ten children. Eight of the 27 were injured in July alone. The number of persons injured in 2010 has tripled since 2009 during which nine persons were injured.
According to Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights’ documentation, the IOF, which is positioned at the border fence, regularly opens fire on Palestinian civilians who collect rubble. Some of the attacks have occurred close to the border fence, while many other attacks occurred when civilians were as far as 800 meters from it. On many occasions, the IOF also opened fire on these civilians more than once during the same day. The IOF attacks have become a daily reality for these civilians.
Dozens of Palestinian civilians, including children, collect and remove rubble and gravel from structures located along the border fence inside what the IOF has declared as a “security buffer zone”. In effect, this zone extends up to one kilometer inside the Gaza Strip. The IOF claims it goes as deep as 300 meters. The collected rubble is sold to the brick factories which recycle it into bricks, or people to use for construction. Since last year’s offensive on Gaza, this has been the only source of construction materials needed for making bricks and concrete for construction that is available in the Gaza Strip, which suffers from acute shortage of materials due to the Israeli siege. Al Mezan has documented the following violations against Palestinians who were collecting the rubble during the five day period from 10 to 15 July…. more.. e-mail
The Netanyahu video
Jonathan Cook, Ma’an News Agency 7/19/2010
There is one video Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, must be praying never gets posted on YouTube with English subtitles. To date, the 10-minute segment has been broadcast only in Hebrew on Israel’s Channel 10.
Its contents, however, threaten to gravely embarrass not only Netanyahu but also the US administration of Barack Obama.
The film was shot, apparently without Netanyahu’s knowledge, nine years ago, when the government of Ariel Sharon had started re-invading the main cities of the West Bank to crush Palestinian resistance in the early stages of the second intifada.
At the time Netanyahu had taken a short break from politics but was soon to join Sharon’s government as finance minister.
On a visit to the settlement of Ofra in the West Bank to pay condolences to the family of a man killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, he makes a series of unguarded admissions about his first period as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999.
Seated on a sofa in the house, he tells the family that he deceived the US president of the time, Bill Clinton, into believing he was helping implement the Oslo accords, the US-sponsored peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, by making minor withdrawals from the West Bank while actually entrenching the occupation. He boasts that he thereby destroyed the Oslo process.
He dismisses the US as “easily moved to the right direction” and calls high levels of popular American support for Israel “absurd.”
He also suggests that, far from being defensive, Israel’s harsh military repression of the Palestinian uprising was designed chiefly to crush the Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat so that it could be made more pliable for Israeli diktats. — See also: Video and English transcript more.. e-mail
Justice from Israel? With one hand she giveth
Michael Carpenter, Ma’an News Agency 7/18/2010
The Israeli army finally decided to open an investigation into the 2009 killing of an unarmed, peaceful Palestinian protester in the West Bank village of Bil’in.
The announcement came fast on the heels of the Israeli government’s decision to expand its modest inquiry into the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla into a full-fledged government commission, a concession that itself followed the decision to modify the Gaza blockade to allow consumer goods into the besieged territory.
Do these uncharacteristic gestures signify a new trend? What lies behind Israel’s new-found responsiveness to criticism of its Palestinian policies? I went to Bil’in to discover how a small village forced the hand of the Israeli military.
Every Friday, armed with banners and cameras, flanked by activists from Israel and around the world, the people of Bil’in march peacefully to the gate of the separation barrier that cuts them off from their land and repeat their demand: tear down the wall. Fifteen months ago, on Friday 17 April 2009, an Israeli soldier fired a teargas cannon horizontally at close range into the chest of Bassem Abu Rahmah. Bassem collapsed to the ground and died almost immediately.
Because of the known lethal impact of teargas cannons, horizontal firing is prohibited by the military. Instead, the army requires that the crowd-control device be launched into the air so that it arcs down onto its targets. Bassem’s death was documented on video from close up.
Despite the video and photographic record, the Israeli military refused to see or hear any evidence other than the testimony of its soldiers. The army quickly determined its soldiers had acted properly, the protest had been violent, and Bassem’s death was an accident. Fifteen months later, however, Israel’s Military Advocate General opened an investigation into the killing. What changed? more.. e-mail
US voters can demand Palestine’s freedom
Electronic Intifada: 19 Jul 2010 – It is only a matter of time before voters of conscience make it clear that elected policy-makers who collaborate in America’s unconditional partnership with Israel will be exposed as shameful; and make it clear to policy-makers that such shameful behavior is unsustainable because collaborators in injustice will be ejected from office by the people. Cynthia McKinney comments on the growing grassroots boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for The Electronic Intifada.more
Gaza’s bee industry stung by Israeli attacks
Electronic Intifada: 19 Jul 2010 – GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) – Said Hillis, 60, has kept bees since he was a boy. Until the Israeli attacks changed his business. Until 2009 Hillis’ farm had hundreds of trees, and more than 10,000 chickens. “It was all destroyed during the Israeli attacks,” Hillis says.more
Fighting racism through sports
Electronic Intifada: 19 Jul 2010 – Comprised of four women and three men between the ages of 18 and 27, a Palestinian football team was organized to participate in the Anti-Racism World Cup in Belfast, Ireland. Jillian Kestler-D’Amours reports for The Electronic Intifada.more
Palestinians in Gaza denied PA passports
Electronic Intifada: 19 Jul 2010 – Amid all the obstacles preventing Palestinians in Gaza from traveling outside the besieged territory, Nidal Abdo faces an additional one. He needs a passport and despite five attempts to obtain one, he has so far failed. Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada.more
Tough times for Gaza travel agent
Electronic Intifada: 18 Jul 2010 – “Shurafa Tourist and Travel Company has been operating in Gaza since 1952,” Nabil Shurafa, general manager of the company, says proudly. This historical background is significant, as much for understanding the many and various forms of movement restrictions with which Shurafa Travel has had to deal during Gaza’s 43 year occupation as for providing a rationale for how and why Shurafa remains open under the current restrictions.more
Palestinians suffer as Israeli government ignores its own court
Electronic Intifada: 18 Jul 2010 – The Israeli government is facing legal action for contempt over its refusal to implement a high court ruling that it end a policy of awarding preferential budgets to Jewish communities, including settlements, rather than much poorer Palestinian Arab towns and villages inside Israel. Jonathan Cook reports.more
Justice For The Abu Rahmahs?
Palestine Monitor: 19 Jul 2010 – The Israeli army has finally decided to open an investigation into the April 2009 killing of an unarmed, peaceful Palestinian protester in the West Bank village of Bil’in. The announcement came days after the Israeli government’s expansion of the Gaza flotilla inquiry into a full-fledged government commission, while a separate ruling has been passed to allow consumer goods into Gaza. So what lies behind Israel’s new-found responsiveness to criticism of its Palestinian policies? Michael Carpenter went to Bil’in to discover how a small village forced the hand of the Israeli military. Photo: Lazar Simeonov Bassem ‘Pheel’ Abu Rahmah leading a demonstration Every Friday, armed with banners, cameras and activists from around the world, the people of Bil’in march peacefully to the separation barrier which cuts them off from their land. They repeat a singular demand: The Wall must fall. 15 months ago, on Friday 17 April 2009, an Israeli soldier…more
Beit Ummar: One Journalist Arrested, Two Injured
Palestine Monitor: 19 Jul 2010 – Israeli soldiers arrested one journalist and injured two others at Beit Ummar’s Saturday protest calling for access to village land and the dismantling of nearby settlements. Beit Ummar is a Palestinian town located 11 kilometers northwest of Hebron. In the last years, the local Popular Commitee has organised weekly protests against the Israeli occupation and the theft of the agricultural land. All photos by Kara Newhouse. / A teenager places Palestinian flags in the barbed wire fence that separates Palestinian fields from the Karmei Tsur settlement. Israel has built six illegal settlements on land confiscated from Beit Ummar. / Since 2006, Israel has annexed 600 dunums of the Beit Ummar’s land, requiring farmers to obtain security permits to visit and cultivate their fields. The villagers refuse to acquiesce to this demand. / An Israeli soldier emerges from a grove of plum trees to demand that villagers leave the land they own, calling it…more
Barghouthi: 100 Settlement Units Underway in Beit Jala
Palestine Monitor: 18 Jul 2010 – Israel recently began construction on 100 new settlement units in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem, Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi announced Sunday. The latest settlement construction is underway on Palestinian land in the towns of Beit Jala and Al-Walaja, as US Middle East envoy visits the region for the latest round of indirect talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Barghouthi said. He said Israeli authorities began overturning land and surrounding it with barbed wires, which he said was an attempt to thwart Palestinian land owners from protesting the confiscation. He said the work began secretly to avoid ” the exposure of the Netanyahu government’s false claims of freezing settlement construction.” Israel announced it would halt settlement expansion and building in the West Bank. However, a report issued by the Islamic Christian Commission for Support of Jerusalem and the Holy Places in May alleged that Israel plans to expand its Jerusalem…more
Open Letter to John Lydon: ‘Rise’ against Racism
Palestine Chronicle: 19 Jul 2010 – Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine, July.18.2010 Dear John Lydon, We are academics and students from Gaza representing more than 10 academic institutions therein. Our parents and grandparents are refugees who were expelled from their homes by the nascent Israeli army in the 1948 Nakba. We have since lived in the ghetto of the Gaza Strip refugee camps, like the more than 6 million Palestinian refugees all round the world. They still have their keys locked up in their closets and will pass them on to their children. UN resolution 194 guarantees our right to return our villages. Many of us have lost our fathers, some of us have lost our mothers, and some of us lost both in the last Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza. In recent times we have been living in what has come to be a festering sore on humanity’s conscience‚Äîthe brutal, hermetic, medieval siege that Israel…more
Vanishing Jaffa: The Forgotten History of Andromeda
Palestine Chronicle: 18 Jul 2010 – By Seraj Assi On June 14, 2010, hundreds of Orthodox Jewish protestors took to the streets in Jaffa to riot against what they see as a “desecration of Jewish grave sites” in the luxury housing project in Jaffa, known as the Andromeda Hill. Reporting the event, the Israeli media turned it religious-secular Jewish conflict, or in simple words, a Jewish-Jewish conflict. Long before this latest clash exploded, Andromeda Hill was a stage of open conflict between the Arab population of Jaffa and the state of Israel. Jaffa’s Arabs have long protested the project, but their voice is never heard. The Israeli media reports the event as if the Arab population of Jaffa, the real victims of the Andromeda project, does not exist. The history of Andromeda is now viewed through the distorting prism of this single event. The real narrative – the dispossession, the disempowerment, the unrelenting daily grind of…more
No Help from Washington
Palestine Chronicle: 18 Jul 2010 – By Nicola Nasser Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) officials in the government of Mohamed Abbas often complain they spend more time negotiating with American rather than Israeli governments. This has been particularly true of late. Since Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza nearly a year and half ago, Palestinian officials have discontinued all direct talks with the Israelis and have been talking to the Americans. US presidential envoy George Mitchell has been closely engaged in the region since May 2010, but his efforts have not proved fruitful. The Palestinians have had no more luck with the Americans than with the Israelis. They have been consistently asked to accept US-Israeli peace terms that spell disaster and capitulation. Apart from exhausting the Palestinians, and making them edge closer to further concessions, nothing of substance has emerged from talks with either the Americans or the Israelis. The Americans have sold the Palestinians false hopes, giving…more
A Parliamentary Mob
Palestine Chronicle: 18 Jul 2010 – By Uri Avnery — Israel When I was first elected to the Knesset, I was appalled at what I found. I discovered that, with rare exceptions, the intellectual level of the debates was close to zero. They consisted mainly of strings of clich?©s of the most commonplace variety. During most of the debates, the plenum was almost empty. Most participants spoke vulgar Hebrew. When voting, many members had no idea what they were voting for or against, they just followed the party whip. That was 1967, when the Knesset included members like Levy Eshkol and Pinchas Sapir, David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan, Menachem Begin and Yohanan Bader, Meir Yaari and Yaakov Chazan, for whom today streets, highroads and neighborhoods are named. In comparison to the present Knesset, that Knesset now looks like Plato’s Academy. What frightened me more than anything else was the readiness of members to enact irresponsible laws…more
Gaza’s Electricity Crisis
Palestine Chronicle: 18 Jul 2010 – By Stephen Lendman Under siege for over three years, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis continues unabated, Israel’s bogus easing doing little to relieve it, including a serious electricity shortage, what the Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement addressed in a May report titled, “Electricity Shortage in Gaza: Who Turned Out the Lights?” Besides earlier attacks, Cast Lead severely damaged Gaza’s sole power plant, putting it on the verge of collapse, exacerbated by inadequate industrial diesel supplies and the destruction of power lines supplying electricity from Israel and Egypt. As a result, Gaza experiences outages of up to 12 hours a day, severely disrupting “normal functioning of humanitarian infrastructure, including health and education institutions and water and sewage systems, as well as the agricultural sector.” In addition, faulty generators at times kill or injure users, an untenable situation because of Israeli attacks and siege, in violation of international law. Chronology of Gaza’s…more
An Open Letter to All Who Support Shalit’s Family
Dissident Voice: 19 Jul 2010 – If the price for the release of one thousand Palestinian political prisoners is an Israeli soldier who was part of the criminal siege of Gaza, then so be it. You understand that the Israeli government is responsible for the fact that Shalit is still a prisoner because Netanyahu’s government refuses to release the Palestinian prisoners that Hamas demands. You are willing to exchange Shalit because in your eyes the life of one Israeli is more valuable than the lives of one thousand Palestinians. As long as you hold to this racist outlook, you remain prisoners of the Israeli state. All 11,000 political Palestinian prisoners should be released, because they belong to a nation struggling against the oppression that you are part of. What you do not understand is that the Israeli state is responsible for the criminal siege of Gaza, where 1.5 million people are living in a huge open-air…more
Exclusive Intifada Interview with Ken O’Keefe: “Israel Executed People in International Waters”
Intifada-Palestine: 19 Jul 2010 – Ken O’Keefe (born July 21, 1969) is an American born activist who renounced his US citizenship on March 1, 2001. He has since acquired Irish, Hawaiian and Palestinian citizenship. On January 7, 2004, O’Keefe burned his US passport in protest of “American Imperialism” and called for US troops to immediately withdrawal from Iraq. He replaced his US passport with a World Citizen Passport, proclaiming “ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth.” He is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently spoke out about the use of depleted uranium as a “crime against humanity” and the US military using soldiers as “human guinea pigs” (with experimental drugs that were directly linked to Gulf War syndrome). He is also a social entrepreneur utilising direct action marine conservation in which he pioneered endangered Green Sea Turtle rescues in Hawaii. But he is more…more
BBC HARDTALK With kenneth O’Keefe
Intifada-Palestine: 19 Jul 2010 – Ken O’Keefe (left) As a US Marine on the USS Ponce – Mediterranean summer 1990 An articulate and angry Kenneth O’Keefe, in a pretty intense interview, with BBC. He was on the MV Mavi Marmara ship carrying aid to Gaza, when Israeli commandos raided the ship, killing nine peace activists onboard and wounding several. Kenneth claims he helped disarm the Israeli commandos. He starts of at the very outset by stating, “Palestinians are killed everyday by Israelis and we never hear about it in the Media.” A classic BBC HARDTALK, every bit worth watching. Part 1 of 3 Part 2 of 3 Part 3 of 3 Excerpt of Kenneth O’Keefe Biography — Source: Kenneth Website — World Citizen — Ken O’Keefe Biography I was born in July of 1969, I have worked as an entrepreneur, marine conservationist, and Human Rights Activist. Born in California, I renounced my American citizenship on…more
GORDON DUFF: America’s Tarnished Military Partnership With Israel
MyCatBirdSeat.com: 19 Jul 2010 – OUR UNREPORTED ”COLD WAR” WITH ISRAEL 9/11 was like Pearl Harbor to America, uniting many, awakening bitter skepticism in a few. Where Pearl Harbor began America’s official role in crushing the Fascist juggernaut that threatened to dominate the world, 9/11 had quite the opposite effect. America’s response to 9/11 was oppression at home and a tirade of frenzied phobic reactions around the world. No American institution suffered more than the military. The team of Cheney and Rumsfeld, together since the disastrous Nixon years, began a process of purging America’s military of talent and leadership, instead building a force to serve a sinister agenda of religious heresy and extremist politics. Nearly a decade later, it isn’t the economic collapse or the discredited military adventures that have now embittered a military leadership infrastructure that now sees itself as duped, dishonored and discarded. A number of factors can be attributed, the proverbial “straw that…more
Are We Replaying Iraq…In Iran?
MyCatBirdSeat.com: 19 Jul 2010 – By Lawrence Davidson — Robert Gates — On July 15, 2010 Time Magazine carried an article entitled, “An Attack on Iran : Back on the Table . ”According to the piece, the point man for this growing belligerency is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. It is to be noted that when the same Robert Gates served the infamous George W. Bush (the year was 2008), he actually helped talk that president out of attacking Iran. At the time we were bogged down in Iraq and so yet another war in the Middle East was, according to Gates, “the last thing we need.” Now it is 2010 and we are bogged down in Afghanistan. No matter, Mr. Gates appears to have changed his mind. Or perhaps, he has been instructed to do so. “I don’t think we’re prepared to even talk about a nuclear Iran….We do not accept the idea of…more
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