12 May 2013 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Israel Violates Lebanese Airspace
IMEMC – Lebanese sources reported Sunday that four Israeli F-16 war jets violated the Lebanese airspace, and circled at law altitude over several cities and towns south of the country. …
Ahrar: “Israel Still Holding Captive 13 Legislators, 2 Ministers”
IMEMC – The Ahrar Center for Detainees’ Studies and Human Rights reported, Saturday, that Israel is still holding captive 13 democratically-elected legislators, and two government ministers. …
Seven Children Injured In Jerusalem
IMEMC – Soldiers Kidnap One Resident Saturday, May 11 2013, Palestinian medical sources reported that seven Palestinian children have been injured by gas bombs and concussion grenades fired by Israel soldiers at elementary schoolchildren in At-Tour town, in occupied East Jerusalem. …
Settlers Attack, Injure A Palestinian Near Nablus
IMEMC – Saturday evening, May 11 2013, Palestinian medical sources reported that a Palestinian man was injured after being attacked by extremist Israeli settlers who invaded the Burin village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. …
Teachers denied access to school near Yatta
5/12/2013 – HEBRON (Ma’an) – Israeli troops on Sunday morning stopped the teaching staff of a Palestinian schoolin Jinbasouth of Hebron in the southern West Bank. Hani Makhamra, a staff member, told Ma’an that an Israeli patrol obstructed the teaching staff near an illegal Israeli outpost Mitzpe Yair on their way to school. They….
Churches denounce Israel violence against Christians
5/12/2013 – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) – Patriarchs and heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem on Sunday released a joint statement denouncing attacks by Israeli police officers on worshipers and pilgrims during Holy Saturday at the Church of Holy Sepulcher. Signatories of the statement highlighted that they saw “awful scenes of the brutal treatment to clerics, average people….
Israeli police, municipal staff deliver demolition orders in Silwan
5/12/2013 – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) – Israeli police escorted staff of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem on Sunday who delivered demolition warrants to four Palestinian families in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem. Ahmad Qarain, an official with the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, said they stormed Silwan and hanged the demolition warrants on the outer doors….
EU threatens to withdraw UNIFIL troops from southern Lebanon
5/12/2013 – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The EU Foreign Affairs Committee has warned the Lebanese prime minister Najib Miqati that the EU would withdraw all peacekeeping UNIFIL troops on the Israeli border if their security cannot be guaranteed. The condition is required by UN resolution 1701 that followed the 2006 Lebanon war. The warning, according to the….
Israel detains ex-prisoner freed in Shalit deal
5/12/2013 – NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday morning detained a former prisoner who was released from jail in a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas in 2011, locals said. Israeli forces took Tahrir Sati al-Qinna, 35, and her brother Saddam, 25, to an unknown location after raiding their village, Kafr Qalil, south of Nablus….
FM: Halting settlements ‘vital’ for talks
5/12/2013 – PANAMA CITY (AFP) — Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said that halting Israeli settlement construction was “vital” to resume long-stalled peace talks. The Israeli government signed off on plans Thursday to build nearly 300 new settler homes near Ramallah, just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ordered a freeze on tenders for new West….
Israel ‘opened diplomatic mission in Gulf’
5/12/2013 – TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — Israel has opened a diplomatic mission in one of the Gulf states, Israeli media quoted a Finance Ministry paper as indicating Saturday. The Haaretz newspaper said the paper, an economic plan for next year, will be submitted for cabinet approval this week. The paper does not specify a country….
Abbas meets Israel opposition leader in Ramallah
5/12/2013 – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — President Abbas met with the leader of Israel’s opposition party in Ramallah on Sunday, Israeli media reported. Abbas and Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich discussed the possibility of moving the peace process forward, with the opposition leader reiterating her support for a two state solution, The Times of Israel reported….
UN praises Qatar role in release of Golan peacekeepers
5/12/2013 – UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — Qatar played a key role negotiating the release of four Filipino peacekeepers seized by Syrian rebels in the UN patrolled Golan Heights ceasefire zone, UN officials and diplomats said Sunday. UN leader Ban Ki-moon praised Qatar’s role as he welcomed the release of the four who had been held for….
League chief says no changes to Arab peace initiative
5/12/2013 – CAIRO (Ma’an) –No amendments have been made to the Arab peace initiative proposed in 2002, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said Sunday. A delegation from the Arab League visited Washington in late April to discuss the initiative with US Secretary of State John Kerry, but no amendments to the proposal were made, Elaraby….
Abbas slams settler attacks, Al-Aqsa violations
5/12/2013 – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday condemned settler attacks on Palestinians and violations at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a statement following a PLO executive meeting said.”We cannot stand idly by and allow such atrocities to continue,” the president said during the meeting.”East Jerusalem is our capital, Al-Aqsa is ours, the….
Gaza ministry: Collaborator campaign a success
5/12/2013 – GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The Hamas government in Gaza on Sunday claimed that a recent campaign to target collaborators with Israel was a success, the interior ministry said. Ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan told a press conference that all collaborators who handed themselves in during a month long amnesty are enjoying the guarantees promised at….
Fayyad: Press freedom essential for Palestinian state
5/12/2013 – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Freedom of the press must be an essential component of the Palestinian state, resigned premier Salam Fayyad said Sunday.” When it comes to freedom of the press, there is nothing called excessive freedom,” Fayyad said while addressing media at a photography awards ceremony in Ramallah.” What we aim to do is….
Israeli defense, finance chiefs wage battle over budget
5/12/2013 – JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel’s security cabinet was to discuss on Sunday proposed cuts in defense spending of over a billion dollars, as public opposition mounts to Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s austerity plans which include tax hikes and cuts to public services. Lapid wants a cut of four billion shekels ($1. 12 billion….
Damascus denies being behind Turkey bombings
5/12/2013 – REYHANLI, Turkey (AFP) — Damascus on Sunday denied accusations it was behind twin car bomb attacks that left at least 46 people dead in a Turkish town near the Syrian border, as Ankara arrested nine people in the probe. Cranes were seen lifting debris from buildings destroyed by Saturday’s blasts in Reyhanli, one of….
NGO: More than 80,000 ‘killed in Syria conflict’
5/12/2013 – BEIRUT (AFP) — More than 80,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since it erupted more than two years ago, a monitoring group said on Sunday. Nearly half of those who died were civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based watchdog said it has documented the killing of around 82,257….
Saudi jails Lebanese man for helping woman to convert
5/12/2013 – RIYADH (AFP) — A Saudi court jailed a Lebanese man for six years and sentenced him to 300 lashes after convicting him of encouraging a Saudi woman to convert to Christianity, local dailies reported Sunday. The same court sentenced a Saudi man convicted in the same case to two years in prison and 200 lashes for….
9 arrested over deadly Turkey bombings
5/12/2013 – REYHANLI, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey said Sunday it had arrested nine people over bombings that killed 46 in a town near the Syrian border and warned Damascus a red line had been crossed. The Syrian government denied involvement in the twin car bombs that sowed death in Reyhanli on Saturday but Ankara said it was holding….
International Solidarity Movement
Askar: a new arrest in the midst of old issues
5/12/2013 – International Solidarity Movement – On Tuesday 7th May, at 2am, Ahmad as-Sars was arrested whilst in his home with family and well wishers gathered to mourn the death of his grandmother the previous day. New Askar refugee camp faces many problems in its right to exist, economy and the support it receives. Despite their daily struggles, hope for the future….
Beit Ommar: steadfastness and non-stop resistance against Israeli occupation
5/12/2013 – International Solidarity Movement – 12th May 2013, Beit Ommar Popular Movement, Beit Ommar, Occupied Palestine – On Friday 10th of April, tens of heavily armed Israeli occupation troops clashed with Beit Ommar’s defenseless youth, armed only with eagerness for freedom. Israeli forces shot countless tear gas canisters towards the young people, other civilians’ homes and shot numerous….
Jalud attacked by settlers again
5/12/2013 – International Solidarity Movement – 12th May 2013, International Solidarity Movement, Jalud, Occupied Palestine, By Nablus Team – At about 11 PM on Sunday, May 5, about 40 illegal Israeli settlers attacked Jalud, west of Salfit, attempting to set fire to two homes with firebombs. Settler attacks on Jalud started two years ago from nearby illegal settlements of Yahyah (first outpost….
occupied Palestinian territory: West Bank settlers clash with Palestinian neighbours
Relief Web 11 May 2013 – Source: Agence France-Presse Country: occupied Palestinian territory 05/11/2013 17:57 GMT BURIN, Palestinian Territories, May 11, 2013 (AFP) – Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the northern West Bank hurled stones at each other on Saturday after the settlers marched into the…
Imran Khan misses, despite early promise
The National 12 May 2013 – Former cricketer seemed to be riding a wave of pent-up frustration among the middle-class youth of Pakistan’s rapidly growing cities – but it was a mistake to think of young Pakistanis as a unified bloc, academic says. Taimur Khan reports
Turks with links to Syria’s intelligence agency arrested for bombings
The National 12 May 2013 – Erdogan talks of trap being laid for Turkey in the twin explosions that killed 46 people in Reyhanli, but Syria denies any involvement. Thomas Seibert reports from Istanbul
Sharif poised for third term as leader of Pakistan
The National 12 May 2013 – After being deposed in 1999, former PM says he is now ready to take on militants and the economy.
Libyans say no to militias
The National 12 May 2013 – New law banning Qaddafi officials from holding positions of power, and the armed men on the streets, are harbingers of what will be a messy struggle for power in Libya. Analysis by Alice Fordham
College choices in the UAE
The National 12 May 2013 – An increasing number of universities are setting up in the UAE, but many still have not attracted local students due to a lack of trust and knowledge about their programmes. Now, a new guide is hoping to change that…
Abu Dhabi to host regional aviation base
The National 12 May 2013 – The move was endorsed by the Cabinet following a request by the International Air Transport Association.
Three UAE citizens held ‘in breach of law’ over Tanzania church bombing
The National 12 May 2013 – The three were arrested along with a Saudi a week ago, in connection with a church bombing in Tanzania.
F1 in Schools: Small error could cause a big upset for Dubai’s Safire
The National 12 May 2013 – Championship hopes of the German International School of Dubai could be scuppered as pupils fall foul of strict rules.
Israel’s AG to draw up guidelines for ‘voluntary’ repatriation of jailed Eritrean, Sudanese migrants
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Tel Aviv authorities raid, shutter businesses run by African migrants
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Settlers divided on West Bank commander: to court or condemn?
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Haifa researcher studying Israeli mushroom as cancer drug
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Border policeman shoots wife, self in apparent murder-suicide
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
In resisting budget cuts, IDF tells state: Reduce security threats, not training
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Spectacular 1,500-year-old mosaic discovered in southern Israel
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Ex-official in State Prosecutor’s Office slams AGs over handling of Lieberman case
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Cabinet to approve budget today, with likely changes due to public outrage
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Major expansion of Israel’s mental health treatment to start in July
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Israel to ease rules of overseas surrogacy
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Burial societies: Treasury’s spin a joke, public will pay tax on graves
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Israeli interrogator accused of torture: Suspects must believe anything goes
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Syrian conflict nears Turkey, threatening to spark ethnic upheaval
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Dangerous skin cancer on rise in Israel, says report
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Israeli beaches make world-wide waves
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Yacimovich to Abbas: Israel, Palestinians must renew peace process now
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Israel’s treasury seeks to tax residents over burial plots as part of new budget
Ha’aretz – 12 May 2013
Rebel commander: Israel, Hezbollah, Iran working with Assad
Jerusalem Post 13 May 2013 – A Syrian opposition commander tells ‘Today’s Zaman’ that Israel is aiding Syrian President Bashar Assad in the destructive Syrian civil war, stating that alleged Israeli airstrikes were to stop rebels, not Hezbollah.
Reporter’s Notebook: ‘Return’ of the 2011 protests
Jerusalem Post 13 May 2013 – There is a familiar vibe that was long past, but little reason for Finance Minister Yair Lapid to worry.
Bieber’s manager outraged by Anne Frank ordeal
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Scott Braun, listed as one of 50 most influential Jews, tells the ‘Post’ Bieber meant no harm, defends his comment.
Security cabinet readies IDF cuts ahead of vote
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Overall 2013-14 spending plan slated to go to cabinet today.
Analysis: IDF cuts could harm Israel’s readiness for war
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Senior defense officials are challenging Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s proposed NIS 4 billion cut to defense budget, saying it would critically damage soldier training programs and plans to buy sophisticated military equipment.
Hawking endorses Iran’s and China’s repression
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – The boycotter’s actions indicates that he endorses the repression practiced by the Iranian mullahs and the Chinese party bosses.
Rabbi apologies for calling MK Lipman ‘wicked’
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Freshman lawmaker merely misguided, says Rabbi Aharon Feldman, Dean of American Rabbinical college.
BGU, JTS team up for joint Israel studies program
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – The joint program, which will be entirely taught in English, was established in collaboration with the American Associates at BGU.
A-G endorses progressive policy for gay parenthood
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Attorney-general agrees to game-changing policy for homosexual parenthood of child born through surrogacy.
Haifa U links West Nile Virus to global warming
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – The Israeli research team was chosen by the European Center, which belongs to the European Union, to lead the research.
A-G working on policy for returning migrants
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – New move would require set text to question migrants wanting to return to country of origin “voluntarily.”
Ben-Gurion U center to study conversions
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – A new research center will study conversion and inter-religious encounters; The project is part of I-CORE.
New digital system provides services to TA residents
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – In new online system, residents can access municipality services, receive personalized updates on the city.
JNF involved in effort to assist S. African farmers
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Post-apartheid reforms gave land to the people – but without proper training, says aid worker.
Compromise and prayer
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – For the first time since they began their campaign for gender equality 24 years ago, police were called in not to arrest the Women of the Wall, but to protect these women’s right to serve God the way they choose.
Obama: The fall
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Barack Obama, already naturally inclined to believe his own loftiness, graciously accepted the kingly crown and proceeded to ride his reelection success to a crushing victory over the GOP at the fiscal cliff.
Hawking, Goldstone and political warfare
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – When renowned physicist Steven Hawking canceled his participation in President Shimon Peres’s annual conference in Jerusalem, he gave the worldwide campaign to delegitimize Israel a major battlefield success.
Menachem Begin: A model for leadership
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Of those who fought for the Jewish state, and then went on to lead it, the two outstanding figures are David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin.
Think About It: Confronting sexual harassment
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – For well over a decade there were rumors of a “senior television personality” who was sexually harassing women co-workers.
The Region: The Israel card has been overplayed
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – The fact is that Syria is wrecked for years to come; Iraq is not in good shape due to internal battles; and Egypt is on the verge of disaster.
Mazal Tov
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – But I’m afraid your newborn is now NIS 85,000 in debt.
‘Families of Marmara victims won’t drop charges’
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Relatives oppose stance that agreement with Israel will waive suits, Turkish newspaper ‘Zaman’ reports.
Border Police office kills wife, self in Bat Yam
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – 28-year-old shoots wife and then takes his own life; woman is an employee of the Israel Prison Service.
Observatory: Syrian war death toll rises to 82,000
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Up to 12,500 people missing after two years of raging Syrian civil war; “vast majority of civilian victims killed by the regime.”
Muhammad Al-Dura: The boy who wasn’t really killed
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Defense Minister formed secret investigative committee that concluded Al-Dura had not been hurt and the video was staged.
Daniella Weiss to organize Shabbat on E1
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Weiss hopes to draw at least 1,000 participants to camp out over the Sabbath in an area near Ma’aleh Adumim.
Steinitz defends Lapid’s plans for budget cuts
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Ex-finance minister calls budget proposal “logical.”
State destroys illegal Beduin outpost for 50th time
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – After bulldozers destroy the village, one Beduin man claims he now lives in the village cemetery, the only structure left standing.
Carter urges EU to label settlements products
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Former US president calls on EU to stand behind condemnation of settlement expansion and label products clearly.
Rabbis Stav, Eliyahu likely chief rabbi candidates
Jerusalem Post 12 May 2013 – Bayit Yehudi prepares to run Rabbi David Stav, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu as candidates for the Chief Rabbi positions.
Israel grounds drone fleet after plane brought down by fault
The Guardian 12 May 2013 – Military investigating problem with Israeli-made high-altitude surveillance aircraft that led to ‘intentional crash’ Israel’s military has grounded a fleet of high-altitude surveillance drones after one brought down over the Mediterranean sea. The military says it intentionally…
No Escape for Palestinian Women Forced into Prostitution
IPS Beit Anisa, a brothel that doubles as a restaurant and “night club” in Ramallah. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS Just down the road from the bubble of privilege and power of the Palestinian Legislative Council is one of Ramallah’s houses of ill repute. There, Palestinian women are being exploited and ruined, with…
Israeli Students Vow to Eradicate Malnutrition
IPS One of the students at the Gymnasia Herzliya School checks on the plastic bottles containing samples of a blue-green algae called Spirulina. Credit: Pierre Klochendler/IPS At the Gymnasia Herzliya School in Tel Aviv, 20 ninth and tenth graders are testing the simplest, cheapest and fastest way to solve the problem of malnutrition…
Prominent youth pro-democracy activist Ahmed Maher detained in Egypt
Uruknet
Despite threats, students to commemorate Nakba at Tel Aviv University
Uruknet
If the Government Does It, It’s “Legal”
Uruknet
Assad’s backers on the left are ignoring reality
Uruknet
When Libyans Die From NATO Airstrikes, It’s Not Benghazi
Uruknet
“Shame, Shame, Shame!” SF Pride Parade Revokes Choice of Bradley Manning as Grand Marshal
Uruknet
The people of Silwad and Deir Jarir resist land theft
Uruknet
Guantánamo is not an anomaly — prisoners in the US are force-fed every day
Uruknet
INSIDE IRAQ TODAY
Uruknet
Syrian Opposition Attempts Consolidation
Uruknet
Review chairman: Clinton didn’t make Benghazi call
Daily Star 12 May 2013 A seasoned diplomat who penned a highly critical report on security at the U.S. consulate in Libya that was attacked last year defended his scathing assessment Sunday but absolved then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Sharif poised to form government after Pakistan poll
Daily Star 12 May 2013 Toppled in a 1999 military coup, jailed and exiled, Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif has made a triumphant election comeback and looks set to form a stable government capable of implementing reforms needed to rescue the fragile economy.
Iran’s cunning Rafsanjani seeks one more shot
Daily Star 12 May 2013 Signs on currency exchange shops in Tehran explained why the doors where temporarily shut: Waiting to see if former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani would seek to reclaim the office.
End of siege fails to dispel Libyan security fears
Daily Star 12 May 2013 Gunmen have ended a siege of Libya’s foreign and justice ministries but the two-week standoff has left many unresolved questions about the government’s ability to impose its authority in the capital, let alone the restive east…
Syrian war death toll rises to 82,000: activists
Daily Star 12 May 2013 At least 82,000 people have been killed and 12,500 others are missing after two years of civil war in Syria, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.
Deadly bombs spark protests in Turkish border city
Daily Star 12 May 2013 Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Turkish city of Antakya on Sunday, a day after bombs killed nearly 50 people in a nearby town as Syria’s civil war spills into the region.
Saudi held after Tanzania bombing freed: ministry
Daily Star 12 May 2013 A Saudi arrested after a deadly attack a week ago killed three people in a packed church in Tanzania has been freed without charge, the government announced on Sunday.
Exit polls: No clear winner in Bulgarian vote
YNet News, 12 May 2013 – ….
Report: Israeli missing in Slovenian river
YNet News, 12 May 2013 – ….
12 hurt at New Orleans Mother’s Day event shooting
YNet News, 12 May 2013 – ….
Pakistan: 6 dead, 46 injured in suicide attack
YNet News, 12 May 2013 – ….
EU warns Syria crisis at ‘breaking point’, increases aid
YNet News, 12 May 2013 – ….
Bibi’s sweet dreams
YNet News, 12 May 2013 – Op-ed: While public is being hit with new tax hikes, Israel’s royal couple does as it pleases ….
War or referendum
YNet News, 12 May 2013 – Op-ed: For some reason, Lapid prefers that a pile of politicians decide where Israel’s permanent borders should be set ….
Jewish settlers expel farmer and his wife from their land
PIC – Guards of a Jewish settlement prevented farmer Nader Subaih and his wife from entering their land in Khader village near to the settlement.
IOF troops storm western Jenin villages, interrogate citizens
PIC – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed five villages to the west of Jenin at noon Sunday and interrogated citizens and broke into shops.
Abbas meets Israeli opposition leader
PIC – PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas met Israel’s opposition leader and the head of Labor party Shelly Yachimovich in Ramallah on Sunday, Hebrew media sources reported.
Occupation extends captive Atiti’s detention only one hour before his release
PIC – Ahrar center for Prisoners’ studies and human rights condemned the extension of the administrative detention of prisoner Abdul-Qader Jabr Atiti on Wednesday for an additional three months.
IOF attack students at al-Tur primary school
PIC – Seven children from al-Tur primary school suffered suffocation and burns, following an attack on the school students by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Saturday.
11thbatch of Saudi medical aid arrives in Gaza
PIC – A new batch of Saudi medical aid arrived in the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, within the Saudi air bridge to transport aid and medical supplies to the Strip.
Occupation refuses to put two detained brothers in the same section
PIC – Israeli prison administration still procrastinates transferring the two detained brothers Hassan and Montaser Karajeh to the same prison section.
IOA to demolish four houses in Silwan
PIC – The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) served four demolition notices in Wadi Hilwa suburb in Silwan town, south of the Aqsa mosque, on Sunday.
OIC condemns construction of new Israeli housing units in WB
PIC – Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Prof. Ekmeleddin Ä°hsanoÄŸlu has condemned the Israeli decision to build 296 new housing units in the West Bank.
Israeli Settler Denies Farmer Entry to His Land
WAFA – 12 May 2013
Quartet Urges Israel to Respect Religious Freedom
WAFA – 12 May 2013
Prisoner to Continue Hunger Strike, says Prisoner Club
WAFA – 12 May 2013
Settlers Drown Palestinian Land with Wastewater near Jerusalem
WAFA – 12 May 2013
Christian Leaders Concerned Over Israeli Measures during Easter
WAFA – 12 May 2013
PEX Report: Al-Quds Index Up in Beginning of Week’s Trading
WAFA – 12 May 2013
Soldiers Arrest 3, including Siblings, in Nablus
WAFA – 12 May 2013
Syria rejects Turkish accusations in deadly bombings
LA Times 12 May 2013 – Turkey has linked Saturday’s attacks, which killed 46, to the Syrian intelligence service. Nine Turks have been arrested. BEIRUT — Syria on Sunday rejected Turkish charges that Damascus was behind a pair of devastating car bomb attacks in southern Turkey that killed 46 people and…
Five killings at Camp Liberty in Iraq: Calculation or despair?
LA Times 11 May 2013 – JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, WASH. — The court-martial of Army Sgt. John Russell concluded Saturday with a military judge asked to decide whether the 14-year Army veteran was deluded by depression and despair as he shot five fellow service members in Iraq, or was executing a…
Two last-minute candidates stir up Iran presidential race
LA Times 11 May 2013 – Ahmadinejad aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, both seen as outside the clerical establishment, submit their names just before the deadline. TEHRAN — The run-up to Iran’s June presidential election took a dramatic turn Saturday with last-minute candidacy announcements by…
Congress speaks with a loud, muddled voice on Syria
LA Times 11 May 2013 – Many lawmakers are demanding a forceful U.S. response to the Syrian civil war, yet are wary of taking any risky military steps. WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein made headlines recently by demanding a forceful U.S. response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons against its population….
Car bombs in Turkey kill at least 42 near Syria border
LA Times 11 May 2013 – The blasts injure more than 140 in the town of Reyhanli, where there has been tension between Turks and Syrian refugees. BEIRUT — At least 42 people were reported dead Saturday in a pair of car bombings in the southern Turkish town of Reyhanli, the…
Cyberattacks on Rise Against U.S. Corporations
New York Times 12 May 2013 – Officials said that the attackers’ aim appeared to be espionage, but sabotage, and that the source seemed to be from the Middle East.
2 Candidates in Iran Draw Strong Reactions
New York Times 12 May 2013 – After Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani registered for the June election, the country’s governing establishment responded with anger.
9 Detained in Bombings on Turkey Border With Syria
New York Times 12 May 2013 – Turkish officials said the nine detained in the bombings that killed 46 people had been linked to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, a claim Syria denies.
Egypt’s Chaos Stirs Musical Revolution
New York Times 11 May 2013 – Egypt’s rising-star rappers predated the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, but the turmoil since has left a huge youth population searching for voices that address issues they care about.
Car Bombings Kill Dozens in Center of Turkish Town Near the Syrian Border
New York Times 11 May 2013 – Officials with Turkey’s government, which has backed the Syrian rebels, said the attackers belonged to a group linked to intelligence services in Syria.
Shemen Oil sells Yam 3 stake to Caspian Drilling
Globes Energy & Water – Azerbaijan’s Caspian Drilling Company will bear 5% of the Yam 3 well’s operating costs.
“I hope we can move more activities to Israel”
Globes Main News – Teva CFO Eyal Desheh: We’ll have to examine the new tax environment.
Chief Scientist: Budget cuts will close programs
Globes Main News – Chief Scientist Avi Hasson: A 40% cut is not streamlining or a change in priorities but means that programs will be closed down.
Defense budget fight reaches decisive battle
Globes Main News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to decide on the defense budget before tomorrow’s cabinet meeting.
Sun: Oil Refineries depresses market
Globes Main News – Oil Refineries fell sharply for the second straight session on investors’ worries about refining margins.
Hamashbir signs deal to sell Better Place electric cars
Globes Main News – The department store will offer electric cars with an unlimited kilometers package for a down payment and 72 monthly payments.
Kfar Saba introduces automatic parking tickets
Globes Macro Economics – Cameras in Kfar Saba will photograph illegally parked cars after just three minutes.
Bennett seeks stronger legislation on business pyramids
Globes Macro Economics – Economy Minister Naftali Bennett: The law is neither brave nor strict enough.
Lapid: Austerity proposals are not final
Globes Macro Economics – Finance Minister Yair Lapid says the middle class has not been singled out, and defends his agreement with the Histadrut.
10,000 demonstrate in Tel Aviv against austerity
Globes Macro Economics – Demonstrators carried Greek flags and placards against Finance Minister Yair Lapid.
Defense budget cut is a bluff
Globes Aerospace & Defense – Every year since 2006, there has been a subsequent addition of between 6% and 10% to the original defense budget.
Advanced Israeli Drone Hijacked by Unknown Hostile Party, Then Destroyed by Israel
Tikun Olam – Israeli Shoval drone hijacked A highly-placed Israeli source elaborates on a partially truthful Ynetnews report that Israel destroyed an advanced Shoval (“Heron”) drone that was on a mission over the sea between Tel Aviv and Netanya. Israel did indeed destroy the drone, one of the most…
Mother’s Day in Seattle features a Nakba exhibit downtown
Mondoweiss – Mothers Against Ethnic Cleansing Nakba Exhibit 2012 Westlake Plaza Seattle Remembering al-Nakba – From the University of Washington exhibit in 2012 Pursuing its motto of “Breaking the Information Blockade” the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign ( SeaMAC ), along with Palestine Solidarity Committee and Voices for Palestine , is…
J14 is back– and still has nothing to say about the occupation
Mondoweiss – Protesters demonstrate against new austerity measures set to be included in the 2013-2014 national budget at a main junction in Tel Aviv May 11, 2013. (Photo:Amir Cohen/Reuters/RT) On Saturday, 10,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv calling for the ouster of Finance Minister Yair…
Another landmark: ‘Boston Globe’ honors Hawking’s boycott as nonviolent effort to pressure Israel
Mondoweiss – Friends have been passing around the amazing editorial in The Boston Globe expressing “respect” for Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott an Israeli conference and honoring the BDS movement. Excerpt: In fact, the decision to withdraw from a conference is a reasonable way to express one’s political…
Exile and the prophetic: Encountering Otto Maduro
Mondoweiss – Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page . When I heard of Otto Maduro’s passing , I remembered our first encounter in 1981. I had…
Opulent 1,500-Year-Old Mosaic Is Unearthed
The Foward Breaking News 12 May 2013 – A magnificent 1,500-year-old mosaic floor has been uncovered by archeologists near Kibbutz Beit Kama in the south, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Sunday. Click here for the rest of the article…
Half of Israelis Back Women of the Wall
The Foward Breaking News 12 May 2013 – The percentage of Israelis who support Women of the Wall, is greater than the percentage who don’t, a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute shows. Click here for the rest of the article…
Benjamin Netanyahu and Wife Sara Reverse Course on $127K Plane Bed
The Foward Breaking News 12 May 2013 – Benjamin Netanyahu is changing his mid-air sleeping arrangements after a public flap over a $127,000 custom-built bedroom for the Israeli prime minister and his wife on a flight to London last month. Click here for the rest of the article…
Orthodox Rabbinic School Sparks Feud With Graduation of First Class of Women
The Forward New 12 May 2013 – The first women to graduate from a groundbreaking Orthodox rabbinical school are being welcomed at synagogues. But others are blasting Yeshivat Maharat for breaking with tradition. Click here for the rest of the article…
Tunisia: Govt Condemns Israeli Aggressions Against Al-Aqsa Mosque
allAfrica.com 12 May 2013 – [Tunis Afrique Presse]Tunis -Tunisia firmly condemns the Israeli belligerent and provocative recurrent behaviour in defiance of the rights of the Palestinian people and all the Muslim peoples, because of “the unprecedented serious Israeli desecration of the esplanade of Al Aqsa Mosque and attacks on Islamic holy…
Violent Clashes
Palestine Solidarity Project 12 May 2013 – On Friday May 10th 2013 clashes broke out in the town of Beit Ommar between the IOF and the people of the village. The violence began because the villagers demonstrated their continued solidarity with the prisoners under administrative detention in Israeli jails. Twenty people were injured…
Soldiers and Settlers Attack Beit Ommar
Palestine Solidarity Project 11 May 2013 – On Friday the 3rd of May 2013, dozens of settlers from the settlement of Keryat Arba attacked Beit Ommar. They accused the villagers of throwing stones at their cars on the main road that conects Jerusalem and Hebron which passes the entrance to the town of…
Syria denies role in Turkey blasts
BBC 12 May 2013 – Syria says it was not behind two car bombs which claimed the lives of 46 people in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli on Saturday.
Afghan protest at Iran ‘shooting’
BBC 12 May 2013 – Afghanistan summons the Iranian ambassador in protest at an alleged fatal shooting of illegal migrants by Iranian border guards.
Lebanese Railways: Searching for a Locomotive
Al-Akhbar News 12 May 2013 – Riyaq train station, (Photo: Jad Khalil) Riyaq train station, (Photo: Jad Khalil) The appointment a few months previously of a new director general for the Railway and Public Transportation Authority, Ziad Nasr, raised more than a few eyebrows. Since the railways were closed in 1976 during…
Israel re-arrests former PFLP prisoner, two others
Al-Akhbar News 12 May 2013 – Israeli troops chase Palestinian demonstrators protesting against the continued theft of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on 10 May 2013. (Photo: AFP – Jaafar Ashtiyeh) Israeli forces on Sunday detained a former prisoner who…
Saudi Arabia beheads convicted killer
Al-Akhbar News 12 May 2013 – Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens on Sunday after he was convicted of killing a relative in the kingdom’s north, the interior ministry said. Awad Rawili stabbed to death Jazaa Rawili, a relative, during an argument, said the statement carried by the official SPA news…
Militiamen bomb two more Benghazi police stations
Al-Akhbar News 12 May 2013 – Two more police stations were attacked in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi in the early hours of Sunday morning, the local council said, after two others were bombed on Friday. The attacks are the latest signs of insecurity in Libya’s second city, birthplace of the NATO-backed…
Saudi jails Lebanese who helped woman convert to Christianity
Al-Akhbar News 12 May 2013 – A Saudi court jailed a Lebanese man for six years and sentenced him to 300 lashes after convicting him of encouraging a Saudi woman to convert to Christianity, Saudi dailies reported Sunday. The same court sentenced a Saudi man convicted in the same case to two…
Turkey detains nine over deadly blasts, blames Syria
Al-Akhbar News 12 May 2013 – Officers and members of the military walk near damaged cars on 12 May 2013 on a street hit by a car bomb explosion which went off one day earlier in Reyhanli, Turkey, just a few kilometers from the main border crossing into Syria. Photo: AFP -…
Syria: Secularism Takes a Backseat in Latakia
Al-Akhbar Politics 11 May 2013 – Free Syrian Army fighters rest in Haresta neighbourhood of Damascus 31 January 2013. (Photo: REUTERS – Goran Tomasevic) Free Syrian Army fighters rest in Haresta neighbourhood of Damascus 31 January 2013. (Photo: REUTERS – Goran Tomasevic) Latakia – News of nearby clashes continues to unsettle the…
Syria denies role in Turkey blasts
BBC 12 May 2013 – Syria says it was not behind two car bombs which claimed the lives of 46 people in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli on Saturday.
Fears grow over deadly new virus
BBC 12 May 2013 – The World Health Organization warns that it appears “increasingly” likely that the new coronavirus can be passed between people in close contact.
Afghan protest at Iran ‘shooting’
BBC 12 May 2013 – Afghanistan summons the Iranian ambassador in protest at an alleged fatal shooting of illegal migrants by Iranian border guards.
Articles
Sheikh Jarrah evictions, Israeli vision of Jerusalem
Lea Frehse and Johanna Wagman, Alternative Information Center 5/12/2013
On 20 May the Israeli High Court will decide whether the Shamasneh family of East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood will lose their home to Israeli settlers. The reasons and methods behind Israel’s eviction of yet another Palestinian family from Sheikh Jarrah are illustrative of the state’s overall policy of dispossession of the Palestinians in Jerusalem and Judaisation of the city.
Nothing is new under the sun of Jerusalem. Sadly, another Palestinian family is threatened with an eviction order issued by an Israeli court. Yet if for some this seems like the umpteenth repetition of a well known scenario, we mustn’t forget that behind these cases are people, real people. In that respect, it remains of crucial importance to talk about them and to tirelessly recall the burden they have to carry, the injustice they are facing.
This time, the case is that of the Shamasneh family. Mohammed Shamasneh, his parents, wife and their children have been living in their home in the western part of Sheikh Jarrah since 1964, when his mother and father moved into what was then a single room.
As the family expanded, the house did also. Until 1967, the family rented their home from the Jordanian government. Five years following the Israeli occupation, their rental contract passed to the Israeli authorities and, more specifically, to the Custodian of Absentee Property, leaving the Shamasneh with no landlord between 1967 and 1972. The rental contract was annual and renewed over time.
Yet suddenly in 2009 the Custodian objected to renewal of the contract…. more.. e-mail
China Addresses the Middle East
Rami G. Khouri, Agence Global 5/11/2013
Only the Chinese government knows why it is moving ahead with a Middle East peace initiative, but we should welcome it and engage with it constructively.
BEIRUT — It might be coincidental timing or just a really bad case of mean spirited in-your-face aggressive Israeli diplomacy: In the same week as China announced a peace plan for the Arab-Israeli conflict and Russia and the United States announced agreement to hold an international conference to try and resolve the Syrian conflict peacefully, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would return to the region later this month to try and re-start Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the Israeli government announced plans to build 300 new settler homes in the Beit-El colony near Ramallah.
The Israeli settlement news is nothing new, but the actions of the three big powers are new and noteworthy. The American, Russian and Chinese initiatives to resolve the Arab-Israeli and Syrian conflicts are as laudatory as they are difficult to achieve, though efforts like this open up new possibilities for collaborative diplomacy through the UN Security Council, which is usually critical for success.
In response, the Israeli government — not a rogue group, but the government of the state that sees itself as the state of all the Jewish people — responds by moving ahead on the settlements-colonies front. This captures the two worst aspects of the current situation: Israeli land annexations and settlements expansion are perhaps the single greatest reason the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has failed for 45 years, and they also reflect the core of the continuing Palestinian condition of occupation, displacement, exile and refugeehood. more.. e-mail
Israel, Iran, and the Nuclear Freight Train
Nick Turse And Tom Engelhardt, Antiwar.com 5/13/2013
Has a weapon ever been invented, no matter how terrible, and not used? The crossbow, the dreadnought, poison gas, the tank, the landmine, chemical weapons, napalm, the B-29, the drone: all had their day and for some that day remains now. Even the most terrible weapon of all, the atomic bomb, that city-buster, that potential civilization-destroyer, was used as soon as it was available. Depending on your historical interpretation, it was either responsible for ending World War II in the Pacific or rushed into action before that war could end. In either case, it launched the atomic age.
During the Cold War, the two superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, relied on a strategy that used to be termed, without irony, “mutual assured destruction” or MAD. Its intent was simple enough: to hold off a planetary holocaust by threatening to commit one. With their massive nuclear arsenals, those two imperial states held each other and everyone else on the planet hostage. Each safely secured more than enough nukes to be able to absorb a “first strike” that would devastate its territory, leaving possibly tens of millions of its citizens dead or wounded, and still return the (dis)favor.
After the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991, nuclear weapons did, too — without going away. The American and Russian arsenals, and the nuclear geography that underlay them, remained in place, just largely unremarked upon. In the meantime, the weaponry itself spread. In those years, the last superpower, which seldom discussed its own arsenal, selectively focused its energies on containing the spread of nuclear weaponry in three nations: the first was Pakistan some part of whose ever-growing nuclear arsenal it feared might fall into the hands of extreme Islamic fundamentalists in a land Washington was in the process of destabilizing via a war in neighboring Afghanistan and a CIA drone campaign in its tribal borderlands; the second was North Korea, a country encouraged in its quest for nuclear weapons by watching the U.S. take down two autocrats, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi, who gave up their nuclear programs prior to U.S. interventions…. more.. e-mail
The Donkey of the Messiah
Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com 5/13/2013
It reminds one of Mark Twain’s oft quoted words: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
By now this has become an intellectual fad. To advocate the two-state solution means that you are ancient, old-fashioned, stale, stodgy, a fossil from a bygone era. Hoisting the flag of the “one-state solution” means that you are young, forward-looking, “cool”.
Actually, this only shows how ideas move in circles. When we declared in early 1949, just after the end of the first Israeli-Arab war, that the only answer to the new situation was the establishment of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel, the “one-state solution” was already old.
The idea of a “bi-national state” was in vogue in the 1930s. Its main advocates were well-meaning intellectuals, many of them luminaries of the new Hebrew University, like Judah Leon Magnes and Martin Buber. They were reinforced by the Hashomer Hatza’ir kibbutz movement, which later became the Mapam party.
It never gained any traction. The Arabs believed that it was a Jewish trick. Bi-nationalism was built on the principle of parity between the two populations in Palestine – 50% Jews, 50% Arabs. Since the Jews at that time were much less than half the population, Arab suspicions were reasonable.
On the Jewish side, the idea looked ridiculous. The very essence of Zionism was to have a state where Jews would be masters of their fate, preferably in all of Palestine.
At the time, no one called it the “one-state solution” because there was already one state – the State of Palestine, ruled by the British. The “solution” was called “the bi-national state” and died, unmourned, in the war of 1948. more.. e-mail
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 visithttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/OccupationNews/join
The New Dark Age 