5 March, 2011 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Hamas to re-start national unity talks with Fateh
IMEMC – Sunday March 06, 2011 – 01:46, The Hamas party, which won elections in 2006 but was prevented from forming a government in the West Bank, announced Saturday that it is working on an initiative to restore national unity with its main rival party, Fateh.
Palestinian government in Gaza protests closure of main commercial crossing into Israel
IMEMC – Sunday March 06, 2011 – 01:35, The Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip said on Saturday that they may close down the Kerem Shalom crossing from the Gazan side, in protest of Israel’s decision this week to permanently shut down Karni, which is the main commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel.
Israeli military invades village near Jenin
IMEMC – Saturday March 05, 2011 – 15:28, The Israeli military invaded, the village of Ceres, south of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank on Saturday morning. Troops erected a military checkpoint between Ceres and al-Far’a Refugee Camp; and spread out infantry between Krom al-Zaytoun and Ya’bod village.
Injuries reported as soldiers fire on protest
3/6/2011 – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israeli forces violently shut down a demonstration led by women north of Jerusalem on Saturday, organizers said. Border police fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at the protesters marking International Women’s Day at the Qalandiya checkpoint. The event was organized by minister of social affairs Majeda Al-Masri, a leader….
Center: Israel denies British volunteers entry to West Bank
3/5/2011 – NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities on Friday prevented a group of British volunteers from entering the West Bank, a peace group due to host the delegation said. Israeli officers stopped a delegation of 12 Scottish Youth Initiative volunteers on the Jordanian border with the West Bank. The volunteers were interrogated for seven hours before….
Palestinians threaten to close Kerem Shalom crossing
3/6/2011 – GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The administrative board of the Gaza Strip’s Private Transport Association has threatened to shut down Kerem Shalom crossing in protest over Israel’s closure of the bulk goods Karni crossing. Israeli authorities on Wednesday permanently closed the Karni terminal on the Gaza-Israel border, leaving only the southern….
End of division demonstration in Hebron
3/5/2011 – HEBRON (Ma’an) — The democratic and national factions called to participate in an end of division and national unity demonstration in Hebron on Thursday. The demonstrators held Palestinian flags and banners condemning division and calling to reach the national unity. They went through the streets of the central area of Hebron. The national factions….
Abbas: Time has come for Palestine to join UN
3/6/2011 – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas says it is time for Palestine to become a permanent member of the United Nations. At a news conference Saturday with his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera in Ramallah, Abbas urged the Mideast Quartet and international community to take action to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian….
Erekat: Negotiations staff are Palestinians
3/6/2011 – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — All the staff in the Palestine Liberation Organization’s negotiating teams are Palestinian by origin, outgoing chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Friday. On Thursday, Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha’ath told Ma’an the Negotiations Support Unit would be restructured to be funded and run solely by….
Body of Gazan killed in Egypt brought back via tunnel
3/5/2011 – GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The body of a Palestinian man murdered in the Egyptian city of Rafah was returned to the Gaza Strip via a smuggling tunnel on Friday night, local sources said. The body of Adel Madhi, 32, was taken to Abu Yousif An-Najjar Hospital in the Gaza-side of Rafah, a border town….
Ramallah decorated to welcome Chilean president
3/5/2011 – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Streets across Ramallah were decorated with Palestinian and Chilean flags on Saturday to welcome Chilean President Sebasti?ɬ°n Pi?ɬ±era. Palestine’s Ambassador to Chile Mai Al Kaila said President Mahmoud Abbas would give his Chilean counterpart a Star of Palestine, the highest decoration of honor. The presidents will rename…. Related: Chile president arrives in Bethlehem
Israel: Work resumes at Egypt free trade zones
3/5/2011 – JERUSALEM (AFP) — Businesses reopened in Egypt’s Qualifying Industrial Zones, Israeli officials said Saturday, after one month of closure prompted by the country’s revolt against the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak. Egypt and Israel collaborated to establish five QIZs — effectively free-trade zones from which exports to the United States are duty….
Chile president arrives in Bethlehem
3/5/2011 – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Chilean President Sebastian Pinera arrived in Bethlehem late Saturday to meet with residents of Aida, one of the occupied West Bank’s largest refugee camps. Pinera also placed a wreath on a memorial statue in Beit Jala’s Chile Square, where he expressed his happiness to be in the…. Related: Chile president: Non-violence will free Palestine and Ramallah decorated to welcome Chilean president
Chile president: Non-violence will free Palestine
3/5/2011 – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Sebastian Pinera is proud to be the first Chilean president to visit the occupied Palestinian territories. He says the relationship between the two countries — Chile recognizes Palestine as an independent state — could not be stronger. Pinera is also proud of the Palestinian Authority, especially its embrace of non-violence in facing the…. Related: Chile president arrives in Bethlehem and Ramallah decorated to welcome Chilean president
In photos: Debating the role of religion in education
3/5/2011 – MaanImages / Jenny Baboun – A conference on religious education in Palestine gets underway in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The conference brought together religious education teachers in Palestine, religious authorities, policy and decision makers in Palestinian education and educators under the title, “How can religious education inspire moral courage and leadership in Palestinian youth….
2,000 turkeys diagnosed with bird flu near Jenin
3/5/2011 – JENIN (Ma’an) — A flock of 2,000 turkeys has been diagnosed with the H5N1 “bird flu” virus in the northern West Bank village of Silat Al-Harithiya near Jenin, government officials said. The veterinary department of the Palestinian Authority Agriculture Ministry said it had managed to prevent an epidemic. Director of the department in Jenin….
Saudi shares recover after minister’s assurances
3/5/2011 – RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – The Saudi stock market, the largest Arab bourse, began the week’s trading up on Saturday after shedding 15 percent of its value last week, as fears of uprisings spreading shook Arab financial markets. The recovery came after Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said in a televised interview that the Saudi….
Libyan opposition meets as deadly clashes rage
3/5/2011 – BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) – The Libyan opposition fighting to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi announced its first formal meeting Saturday as it counted its dead from fighting for a key oil town and clashes raged in a city near the capital. Gadhafi loyalists rained tank shells and machine gun fire on Zawiyah, 60 kilometers west of Tripoli, as….
Obama hails ‘winds of freedom’ in Arab world
3/5/2011 – MIAMI (Ma’an) — President Barack Obama on Friday described uprisings across the Arab world as “winds of freedom,” The Associated Press reported. Obama said the revolutions offered a “huge opportunity” to the US at a Democratic fundraiser in Miami, the report said. He added that the forces responsible for ousting Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak….
Gadhafi ‘still boosted by millions of oil dollars’
3/5/2011 – LONDON (AFP) — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s crumbling regime is still being boosted by millions of dollars of crude export revenues despite Western sanctions, the Financial Times reported Saturday. The business newspaper, citing a senior Western oil official and traders, said that payments for oil exports were finding their way back to Libya’….
‘2 dead, church torched’ in Egypt sectarian clash
3/5/2011 – CAIRO (AFP) — Two men were killed during clashes in Egypt between Muslims and Christians, which also saw Muslims set fire to a church in the village of Sol, south of Cairo, a security official said on Saturday.” Two people were killed, and the Shahedain church set on fire in clashes between two families,” the official….
Saudi interior ministry says protests illegal
3/5/2011 – RIYADH (AFP) — Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said on Saturday that protests are illegal, amid various calls for demonstrations demanding change in the ultra-conservative kingdom, state media said.” Regulations in the kingdom forbid categorically all sorts of demonstrations, marches and sit-ins. . . as they contradict Islamic Sharia law and the values and traditions of Saudi….
Libyan rebels continue westward drive
3/5/2011 – BIN JAWAD, Libya (AFP) — Libyan opposition rebels on Saturday advanced further west along the Mediterranean coast to Bin Jawad, inching closer towards Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, an AFP reporter said….
Pro-Gadhafi tanks ‘fire on houses in Zawiyah’
3/5/2011 – BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) — Tanks manned by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Saturday fired on houses when they launched a fresh assault on the town of Zawiyah, near the capital, witnesses said….
Saudi shares bounce back from unrest fears
3/5/2011 – RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — The Saudi stock market, the largest Arab bourse, rebounded on Saturday after shedding 15 percent of its value last week, as fears of uprisings spreading shook regional financial markets. The Tadawul All-Share Index, or TASI, closed 7. 26 percent stronger on Saturday, hitting 5,706. 9 points, after ending Thursday 3. 9….
Egypt ex-interior minister denies criminal charges
3/5/2011 – CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt’s once feared former interior minister Habib al-Adly pleaded not guilty to corruption charges on Saturday, in the first trial of a member of ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Standing in the dock and dressed in white prison clothes, Adly denied accusations of money laundering and unlawful acquisition of….
Council declares itself Libya’s sole representative
3/5/2011 – BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) — The self-declared national council established by Libyan rebels fighting to overthrow ruler Moammar Gadhafi on Saturday declared itself the sole representative of the country….
Gadhafi forces accused of ‘massacre’ in Zawiyah
3/5/2011 – BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) — Forces loyal to embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were accused by a doctor of perpetrating a “massacre” during a heavy assault Saturday on the key town of Zawiyah….
Israeli warplanes raid Gaza
AlJazeera 5 Mar 2011 – Raids on northern and central Gaza Strip as well as Gaza City cause damages but no injuries.
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ( 24 Feb. 02 Mar. 2011)
Palestinian Center for Human Rights
PLO Negotiations Support Unit survives leaks
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – The EU-funded unit, rumored to have been dismantled, has been providing PLo negotiators with legal and technical advice.
Freedom of self-hatred
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Some Western countries intuitively understand that when freedom of speech becomes freedom of incitement, things have gone too far; Israel, on the other hand, has no idea where the boundaries lie.
Congressman: US must keep Muslim Brothers from Egypt gov’t
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Exclusive: House Middle East subcommittee chairman blasts Obama administration for not taking a tougher line on Hezbollah in Lebanon, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Abbas calls for full Palestinian membership in the UN
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – J’lem official: Palestinian state without negotiations is “pipe dream”; PA president calls for measures to “force Israel to end occupation.”
Giuliani: US should’ve backed Iranian, not Egyptian revolt
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – “America’s mayor” says Palestinians need to control terror, corruption before statehood; slams Obama’s handling of Mideast unrest.
Ramallah fashion show draws condemnation from Hamas
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Event featuring designs of famous Italian designer of Palestinian descent dubbed “immoral and corrupt” by radical Palestinian groups.
Gas supply resumes after computer glitch is fixed
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Israel Electric Corporation continues use of polluting fuel, diesel oil but expected to return to natural gas.
Computer glitch stopping natural gas supply fixed
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Israel Electric Corporation continues use of polluting fuel, diesel oil but expected to return to natural gas.
Obama: Israel shouldn’t be afraid of changes in Mideast
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Speaking to Jewish donors in Miami, US president says forces emerging in Egypt should be naturally aligned with Israel.
Technical problem causes natural gas supply cut off
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – With no gas flowing from Egypt, Gilad Erdan was forced to approve Israel Electric Corporation’s use of polluting fuel, diesel oil.
Man found shot to death in Ramle; J’lem woman stabbed
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – 31-year-old found shot dead after apparent dispute; Woman stabbed four times in back in suspected home invasion robbery.
Abbas: We will reject plan with any provisional borders
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – PA president says he hasn’t been notified of PM’s new plan; Likud MK expects future state will include Jordan Valley, settlements, J’lem.
Iranian ships have re-entered Red Sea from Suez Canal
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Iranian naval commander says ships’ passage shows that Israel “and other enemies could not take any actions against us whatsoever.”
Police arrest man for stabbing J’lem resident four times
Jeruslalem Post 5 Mar 2011 – Victim treated for wounds will likely survive-police; suspect, from east J’lem, demanded money from the woman before attack.
Obama: Israel will ultimately benefit from recent Egypt uprising
Ha’aretz – New York Times quotes U.S. president as saying that people should not fear changes taking place in the Middle East, says forces building in Egypt are forces that should align with U.S. and Israel.
‘Construction in West Bank settlements quadrupled since end of temporary freeze’
Ha’aretz – According to data by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, settlers began building over 114 houses during the 10-month settlement freeze, and began construction of over 427 houses since October 2010.
Abbas: Palestinian state must become permanent member of UN
Ha’aretz – PA president reiterates his opposition to an Israeli peace initiative for a Palestinian state with temporary borders.
Hamas announces initiative to regain national unity with Fatah
Ha’aretz – Although Hamas and Fatah have historically been at odds, the Islamist party’s leadership believe that a united front is needed to keep the unrest that has swept the region at bay.
Report: Egypt-Israel economic ties have been restored
Ha’aretz – Israelis worry that the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could erode the countries’ landmark 1979 peace accord and other subsequent agreements.
Israel cut off from natural gas supply due to technical problem
Ha’aretz – Israel has only two sources of gas: Egypt, via EMG, and the Mary-B field, via the Tethys Sea consortium; gas supplies to be renewed late Saturday night.
Accells company: We are not exporting internet technology to Iran
Ha’aretz – Statement comes in response to various recent reports that the company was connected to a foreign company with ties to developing nations.
Army arrests mentally disabled girl near Bethlehem
5 Mar 2011 – West bank, (Pal Telegraph)- Israeli army captured yesterday evening a Palestinian girl form Beit Fajjar in Bethlehem city, claiming that she attempted to stab an Israeli soldiers near Atsioun crossroad in the south of the city.
Palestinian woman injured in Silwan clashes
5 Mar 2011 – West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)- A Palestinian woman was seriously injured during violent clashes erupted yesterday in the occupied Jerusalem city of Silwan; no arrests were reported.
Israeli forces raid Jenin area
5 Mar 2011 – West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)- Israeli occupation forces stormed Saturday morning several houses in Sirees village near the West Bank city of Jenin and erected a military checkpoint between the village and Al-Farea refugee camp.
Israeli warplanes raid Gaza City: witnesses
Uruknet March 5, 2011 — Israeli warplanes launched four raids on Gaza City late Saturday, witnesses and security services reported, after a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. During the assault, an Israeli F-16 fired a missile at a target in the city’s Zeitoun district, but there were no casualties, said the sources. An Israeli army…
Center: Israel denies British volunteers entry to West Bank
Uruknet March 5, 2011 – Israeli authorities on Friday prevented a group of British volunteers from entering the West Bank, a peace group due to host the delegation said. Israeli officers stopped a delegation of 12 Scottish Youth Initiative volunteers on the Jordanian border with the West Bank. The volunteers were interrogated for seven hours before Israeli officials denied them…
This Is What Complicity Looks Like: Palestine and the Silencing Campaign on Campus
Uruknet March 5, 2011 – The campaign to silence Palestine solidarity reaches its annual crescendo during Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). As IAW 2011 approaches, we need to prepare for another round of silencing. This means assessing the silencing campaign and the experience of standing up for free expression over the last few years. The ongoing campaign to silence Palestine solidarity…
Pressure for Change Continues in Egypt: PM Resigns And Constitutional Amendments Are Announced, But Some Protestors Have Disappeared or Been Convicted by Military Courts
Uruknet March 5, 2011 – In the three weeks since I last wrote about Egypt, following the fall of the dictator Hosni Mubarak and the assumption of control by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, a key question I asked at the time has, at least partly, been answered. That question was: “whether enough people will stay out on…
Pushing for a Palestinian Tahrir
Uruknet March 5, 2011 – On a cool January evening at the height of Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, Najwan Berekdar and a few friends were sitting at a smoky caf?© in Ramallah, puffing on water pipes and strategising. “We were talking about what’s happening in Tunisia, and we decided, maybe this is the momentum – we should use it,” Berekdar remembers…
3 March 2011: 17 years after Goldstein massacre, Hebron city center paralyzed
Uruknet March 4, 2011- Zlikhah Muhtasab, 49, is one of the few Palestinians still living on Shuhada Street in the center of Hebron. The street, one of Hebron ‘s main thoroughfares, links the north and south of the city and passes by the major markets, the Old City , the Tomb of the Patriarchs and al-Haram al-Ibrahimi, and Israeli settlement compounds….
Libya probes missing Lebanon cleric
The National 6 Mar 2011 – Uprising in Libya may solve mystery of missing Lebanese Shia cleric who disappeared almost 30 years ago.
Commission on Status of Women Takes Action on Resolutions on Climate Change, Gender Dimensions of HIV/AIDS, Assistance to Palestinian Women
Relief Web 5 Mar 2011 – Source: UN Economic and Social Council
Commemorate Land Day 2011 by Joining the Global BDS Day of Action 30 March
Stop The Wall – The BDS National Committee (BNC) is calling on you to unite in your different capacities and struggles to join the Global BDS Day of Action on Land Day, 30 March 2011, in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s right to self determination on their ancestral land. [
Biweekly Repression Update
Stop The Wall – This update contains exerts from testimony gathered by STW from a Bil’in resident shot with live ammunition during the February 18 demonstration. Over this period, one person was seriously injured and others were also hurt during weekly demonstrations. The number of arrests sky rocketed, with a total of 29 people, predominately youth, were arrested by Occupation forces.
Abbas: Time for Palestine in UN
YNet News – In joint press conference with Chilean counterpart, Palestinian president….
Iran joins women’s rights panel
YNet News – (Video) Just days after publicly suspending Libya from Human Rights Council, UN….
Likud ministers support anti-Bibi campaign
YNet News – Settlers get permission to use quotes by Likud members in campaign meant to….
IDF bombs Gaza Strip targets
YNet News – Amid continued Qassam fire directed at Israel, the IDF on Saturday attacked targets across the Gaza Strip. Eye witnesses said some of the posts were completely destroyed. …….
Settler campaign: ‘Build, Bibi, build!’
YNet News – Settlers are slated to launch a large-scale campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday under the banner “Build, Bibi, build!,” Ynet learned. …….
PA censors TV show poking fun at Gaddafi
YNet News – Amid calls for freedom of expression across the Arab world, authorities in the West Bank ordered an episode of a popular satirical show poking fun at Libyan leader …….
Obama: Israel may benefit from Arab uprisings
YNet News – WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama claimed on Friday that America “can’t be na?Øve” about the situation in the Middle East, stressing that Israel may benefit from the …….
Palestinian Information Center
Israel wants to navigate post-Mubarak Egypt according to Zionist compass
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – It is amply clear that Israel is extremely worried about the direction that Arab revolutions might take with regard to the apartheid entity, especially its ethnic-cleansing designs.
Hamas condemns accelerated Aqsa Mosque conversion drilling
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – Hamas has strongly condemned Israeli drilling operations on the historical Umayyad palaces running along the Aqsa Mosque as a “blatant infringement on the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people.”
Settlers attack Palestinian villagers
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – Jewish settlers attacked on Saturday villagers of the Irak Burin south of Nablus city and tried to storm their village but were repelled by its inhabitants, local sources said.
Rights group calls on UN after crippling Gaza crossing closure
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – The Sawasya Center for Human Rights has called on the United Nations to intervene after Israeli Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Tal Russo has decided to close the Mintar crossing in the Gaza Strip.
PRC asks new Egyptian gov’t to lift the siege on Gaza
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – The Popular Resistance Committees and its armed wing have called on the new Egyptian government led by Essam Sharaf to immediately lift the “strangling” siege on the Gaza Strip.
General strike on Land Day
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – The Arab higher follow up committee in 1948 occupied Palestine has declared that a general and comprehensive strike would be observed on the 35th anniversary of the Land Day.
IOF turn O. Jerusalem into closed military zone
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – The Israeli occupation forces on Friday turned the occupied city of Jerusalem into a closed military zone and intensified their presence in the Old City and at the entrances to the Aqsa Mosque.
Egyptian prosecution to finalize probe into corrupt gas deal with Israel
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution is finalizing investigations with former minister of petroleum after complaints filed against him for wasting public funds in oil export deals.
Israel arrests mentally ill woman from Beit Fajjar
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – Israeli occupation forces arrested Friday evening a Palestinian young woman from Beit Fajjar north of Al-Khalil for allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier.
Israel pondering means of protecting its soldiers from prosecution abroad
PIC 5 Mar 2011 – An Israeli think tank has been formed to discuss new ways to protect Israeli officers and soldiers from prosecution abroad for crimes against Palestinians.
Libyan battle over Zawiya becomes a test of will
LA Times 5 Mar 2011 – Moammar Kadafi’s forces launched a predawn assault, rebels report, but a spokesman says that the opposition fighters pushed the regime’s commandos out of the city by day’s end. Supplies are running low and ‘it is an unequal fight,’ he adds. Rebel fighters appeared to repel…
All’s quiet on the Israel-Lebanon front
LA Times 5 Mar 2011 – The volatile frontier separating the nations has been unusually calm since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Experts say both sides are fearful that the price of the next conflict would be too high to bear. Something unusual is happening along Israel’s border with…
U.S. tacks toward king amid Bahrain turmoil
LA Times 5 Mar 2011 – While demonstrators denounce the monarchy’s reform offers as a sham, U.S. officials are praising the king of the Persian Gulf island nation, and have taken a lead role in pushing for negotiations. Despite its eagerness to show support for protesters across the Middle East, the…
Women Seek to Maintain a Role in Rebuilding Egypt
New York Times 5 Mar 2011 – The revolution included women, who upended traditional expectations of behavior. The challenge now, activists say, is to make sure they maintain their involvement.
Construction in settlements has quadrupled since the end of the temporary ‘freeze’
Mondoweiss – and other news from Today in Palestine: Land, property, resources theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing Construction in West Bank settlements quadrupled since end of temporary freeze Haaretz 5 Mar — According to data by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, settlers began building over 114 houses during…
Palestine is MIA in NYT hail to the Arab protesters
Mondoweiss – The New York Times record of protests across the Middle East ignores the nonviolent protests that have been going on for years in Palestine. But this is the heading: Middle East Protests: A Country-by-Country Look The latest reports from Times correspondents along with social media updates…
Harvard gives stage to Steve Walt and Porter Speakman to talk about Christian Zionism
Mondoweiss – On Monday at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Porter Speakman Jr. will screen his film, “With God on our Side,” an examination of the theology of Christian Zionism, then after the film he and Steve Walt will have a conversation about it. Per Speakman: “Christian Zionism…
Netanyahu breaks the seal on the discussion of a ‘binational state’
Mondoweiss – Take a look at this in Haaretz : Netanyahu has warned in recent days during closed meetings that “a binational state would be disastrous for Israel,” and therefore it is necessary to undertake a political move that will remove this threat. The fact that Netanyahu addressed the…
A Dutch company helping to build the wall seeks to evade responsibility
Mondoweiss – On a recent visit to Ramallah, I heard a fascinating tale about two entrepreneurial brothers and how they are trying to evade prosecution for aiding Israeli apartheid. Doron Livnat is the director of Riwal, a Dutch company that supplied cranes used in building the 650-kilometre wall…
Pam Geller Named to Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Hall of Fame
Tikun Olam – Pam Geller huffs and puffs on FoxNews The Southern Poverty Law Center comes a bit late to the game in understanding the power and danger of anti-Muslim hate. But they’ve made great strides by naming Pam Geller’s Stop the Islamization of America as an official hate…
Lessons from the Egyptian revolution
Palestine Monitor – The rush and tumult of events makes it hard, sometimes, to draw the most important general conclusions from their significance. This said, the revolutionary tidal wave, which began in Tunisia and Algeria, reached its crest in Egypt and is currently sweeping other countries such as Libya…
Bibi Set to Name Amidror National Security Advisor
Tikun Olam – National security advisor candidate, Yaakov Amidror (Maya Levin/JINI No sooner did the Bibi-Yvet show give us the public defenestration of Uzi Arad, whose appointment to be Israel’s next ambassador to Britain was confirmed and rejected all in leaked news stories within a single week, than Bibi…
Woman Marching Towards the Qalandiya Checkpoint. Picture Credit: PSCC
Popular Struggle Coordination Committee – Hundreds of Palestinian woman marched towards the main checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah, the Qalandiya checkpoint. Soldiers attacked the demonstration with sound bombs and tear gas.
Hundreds Mark International Woman’s in Qalandiya
Popular Struggle Coordination Committee – Hundreds of Palestinian woman marched towards the main checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah, the Qalandiya checkpoint. Soldiers attacked the demonstration with sound bombs and tear gas.
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
WSWS – The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute http://www.wsws.org/wsws/dd-formmailer/dd-formmailer.php to this regular feature.
Warning: Boycott Israel success brings ‘Boycott Arab goods’ smear
Sabbah report 5 Mar 2011 – Stuart Littlewood reports on a cheap disinformation ploy employed lately by Israeli “cyber warriors” unhinged by the success of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the Jewish apartheid state.
Britain cherry-picks which war criminals to prosecute and where to impose no-fly zones
Sabbah report 5 Mar 2011 – Stuart Littlewood highlights the incredible, blatant hypocrisy of the British government, foremost Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague, who are applying one standard to the criminal Libyan regime of Mu’ammar Gaddafi while going out of their way to protect and justify the crimes…
(en) Anarkismo.net: The Libyan People’s Committees should be the foundation of a new life, not just an interim measure by Jos?É Antonio Guti?Érrez D. (ca, it)
A-infos 5 Mar 2011 – Interview with Mazen Kamalmaz —— The struggle of the Libyan people, as part of the wave of popular rebellions spreading like fire in all of the Arab world, is taking a really dramatic turn, with the people advancing their struggle against a regime bent on staying…
Articles
Why is Israel aid exempt?
MJ Rosenberg, Al Jazeera3/5/2011
As US fiscal conservatives cut food programmes for poor children, military aid for Israel is left untouched.
Once upon a time, social security was considered the “third rail” of American politics. The “third rail” is the train track that carries the high-voltage power; touching it means instant death.
The “third rail” metaphor has for decades been applied to social security, a government program so popular with the American public that proposing any changes in it would mean political death to the politician.
No more. Although social security is as popular as ever, politicians routinely propose changes in the program — including privatisation and means testing. While the proposals usually go nowhere, and rightly so, the politicians who support them live to fight another day. Today, with those massive deficits and the astronomical national debt, not even social security is sacrosanct.
Few, if any, government programs are.
But US aid to Israel is. In fact, the $3bn Israel aid package is the new third rail of American politics: touch it and die. It is also the one program that liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans and tea partiers all agree should not sustain even a dollar in cuts.
Actually, that is something of a mis-statement. These various parties and factions do not agree that the $3bn Israel aid package is sacred. They just say that they do because a powerful lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), makes clear to them that touching the aid package will mean big trouble for them in the next election. more.. e-mail
Arabs challenge Israeli hasbara
Ramzy Baroud, Ma’an News Agency3/5/2011
When the Libyan people took on their reviled dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, Israeli officials seemed puzzled by the alarming and unprecedented trend of popular awakenings in the Arab world.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has claimed that these awakenings are only proof of the ‘weakening’ of the Arabs — even at a time when international consensus points to the opposite conclusion.
According to Israeli daily, Haaretz, Lieberman has claimed, “the Arab world is becoming increasingly weakened.”
Worried perhaps that all rational analyses will show how Israel’s decades-long aggression has been a major contributing factor to instability in Middle East, Lieberman decided to dismiss the notion altogether. “Whoever thinks that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is part of the problems in the Middle East is trying to escape reality,” he said.
It must be a strange ‘reality’ which Lieberman subscribes to, but he isn’t the only Israeli official that sees the world through such tainted logic.
While Lieberman has settled on the realization that “it is clear to everyone…that the greatest danger they are facing is not Zionism, but rather Hamas and Jihad,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed into a different direction involving Iran and post-Mubarak Egypt.
Addressing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, Netanyahu labored desperately to link some imagined Iranian designs into the future of Egypt…. more.. e-mail
Denying Nazi-Zionist Collusion
Alison Weir, CounterPunch3/4/2011
McClatchy, the Sacramento Bee, Darrell Steinberg and Islamaphobia
In an inversion of journalistic ethics, the Sacramento Bee reported on opposition to an event before and after it took place, but didn’t cover the event itself.
It featured an entire report on accusations against a flier, but didn’t include a response from the flier’s authors.
It printed claims by powerful local figures that the flier was “an outrageous lie,” but refused to print information showing that the flier’s statements were factual.
Its headline about the allegedly offensive flier emphasized a Muslim connection, even though there was virtually no Muslim connection to the flier.
It neglected to report that one of those attacking the flier had previously attempted to use his official position to prevent the event at which the flier was distributed from taking place.
And finally, the Bee’s parent company, McClatchy, one of the nation’s largest newspaper chains, then sent out the Bee’s deficient story about a flier nation-wide, also emphasizing a (largely non-existent) Muslim connection in its headline, which then appeared on newspaper websites in Florida, Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, Alaska, and elsewhere, generating anti-Muslim comments. more.. e-mail
Lessons from the Egyptian revolution
Palestine Monitor: 5 Mar 2011 – The rush and tumult of events makes it hard, sometimes, to draw the most important general conclusions from their significance. This said, the revolutionary tidal wave, which began in Tunisia and Algeria, reached its crest in Egypt and is currently sweeping other countries such as Libya and Bahrain, offers a unique opportunity to watch how people can reshape history as they reconstruct their fates and futures. It also offers a rare scientific window to observe the birth of the new from the old and to study a moment of qualitative transformation that culminated from a long process of quantitative accumulation and that manifests the dialectical laws of social dynamics with utmost clarity. What happened in Tunisia and then in Egypt, and what will certainly follow in other places, cannot be produced or fabricated by a political party, movement or force, domestic or otherwise. The uprisings are the product of a…more
The Rush for Libya’s Fossil Waters
Palestine Chronicle: 5 Mar 2011 – By Fidel Castro When at just 27 years old Qaddafi, colonel in the Libyan army, inspired by his Egyptian colleague Abdel Nasser, overthrew King Idris I in 1969, he applied important revolutionary measures such as agrarian reform and the nationalization of oil. The growing incomes were dedicated to economic and social development, particularly education and health services for the reduced Libyan population living in the immense desert territory with very little available farm land. Beneath that desert was an immense deep ocean of fossil waters. I had the impression, when I learned about an experimental farming area, that this would be more beneficial in the future than oil. Religion, preached with the fervour that characterizes the Muslim peoples, was helping in part to balance the strong tribal tendency that still survives in that Arab country. The Libyan revolutionaries drew up and applied their own ideas in regards to the legal…more
Britain Cherry-picks which War Criminals to Prosecute
Palestine Chronicle: 5 Mar 2011 – By Stuart Littlewood After maintaining a deafening silence about Israel’s atrocities against civilians, Britain suddenly wants a ‘day of reckoning’ for war criminals — as long as they are Libyan. While protestors’ attempts to oust Gaddafi and his circle, the UK’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Peter Gooderham, called on the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Libya to take whatever steps were necessary “to ensure that those responsible for the awful human rights violations that are currently occurring in Libya are held to account”. He said the Libyan Government was trying to stop the world seeing what was happening. “We are appalled by the levels of violence… The use of military force against civilians and the attacks on funeral processions have caused deep anger throughout the country and across the world… We join the High Commissioner in calling for an international inquiry into the violence… The…more
On the Challenging Road of Revolution
Palestine Chronicle: 5 Mar 2011 – By Mohannad El-Khairy If the 2011 Arab Revolution highlights anything, it is the Arab masses’ refusal to accept their disenfranchisement at the expense of the ruling corprotocracy, the corporate-political class that continues to aggrandize itself through the stability of economic capitalism. This North-South divide, with its innately built-in disengagement between the masses on one hand and the elites on the other, is seldom reported in the mainstream media. The broadcast channels emphasize the use of social media as an important tool to organize on the ground and communicate information to the rest of the world, and whilst most rave about the “class-less” nature of the Egyptian revolution in particular, little has been mentioned of the potential “neo-liberalization” of Arab societies and economies, which would impose another more implicit form of corporate dictatorships throughout the region. Battles Won, But War Just Begun The new world order that George Bush Sr. famously…more
Sinking Israel on Wrong Side of History
Palestine Chronicle: 5 Mar 2011 – By Uri Avnery Of all the memorable phrases uttered by Barack Obama in the last two years, the one that stuck in my mind more than any other appeared in his historic speech in Cairo in the early days of his term. He warned the nations not to place themselves “on the wrong side of history.” It seems that the Arab nations took heed of this advice more than he might have anticipated. In the last few weeks they jumped from the wrong to the right side of history. And what a jump it was! Our government, however, is moving in the opposite direction. It is determined, so it seems, to get as far away from the right side as possible. We are in a cul-de-sac. And it lies in the nature of culs-de-sac that the deeper in you get, the further you have to go back when the time…more
More material available from Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel – www.vtjp.org
To subscribe, please write to OccupationNews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OccupationNews/join
The New Dark Age 
Leave a comment