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Hebron: Israeli Occupation Policies, Palestinian Resistance Strategies
Ahmad Jaradat and Maria Chiara Rioli, Alternative Information Center 11/29/2010
Hebron is an uncommon city, even in Palestine. Walking along the narrow streets of its Casbah (the “Old City”), admiring from a roof the landscape of its white-stone houses and bright, desert hills dotting the whole district, talking to everybody who offers you coffee or tea with mint leaves or kneeling to see through the grating the Cave of the Patriarchs is a privilege reserved to those who choose to overcome the appearance of misery, oppression and violence in order to discover the sparks of humanity and beauty still abounding in a city like Hebron.
Moreover: Hebron's beauty shines brighter and brighter, despite Israel’s efforts and practices of colonization and repression. The French writer Albert Camus wrote that “there is beauty and there are the humiliated. Whatever difficulties the enterprise may present, I should like never to be unfaithful either to the second or the first.” Hebron is still faithful to its beauty and to those who are humiliated each and every day.
Hebron was firstly established some 6000 years ago and when the suq (market) was opened 1500 years ago, it was based on those in Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem and Nablus. The old name of Hebron was Arba, (four) because the city was surrounded by four mountains.
Hebron's importance nowadays is deeply connected to its past, especially with the religious traditions which attribute a powerful symbolic value to this city. Hebron is the place that Ibrahim reached after his travel from Iraq. Here he and his wife Sarah bought a piece of land for their burial. Abraham was the friend of God (khalil in Arabic, hevron in Hebrew), from where the name of the city where he and other Patriarchs were buried comes from. This history transformed Hebron in a holy city for the three monotheist religions and is one of the reasons for its colonization by Jewish settlers. more.. e-mail
Israeli Citizens to Leiden University: Please Do not Hold the 2010 Cleveringa Lecture at the Hebrew University!
Alternative Information Center 11/21/2010
Dear Officials of Leiden University,
We are a group of Israeli citizens. It has recently been brought to our attention that Leiden University had decided to host a special lecture at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University on Thursday 25/11, commemorating a speech by Professor Rudolph Pabus Cleveringa during the Second World War, in which he protested the removal of Jewish faculty members.
The statement issued by Leiden University reads as follows:
"Cleveringa raised his voice right at the onset of the war, notably in regard of the freedom of expression. This is highly appreciated in Israel, all the more as there are still universities abroad trying to boycott Israeli professors and students."
We would like to pay our highest respect to Prof. Cleveringa, for his bold action, taken in the defense of universal principles of human rights. However, as Israeli citizens who care for these principles’ the choice to hold the Cleveringa lecture at the Hebrew University seems completely erroneous to us.
The Hebrew University is not a politically neutral institution. In addition to the incidents mentioned above, the Hebrew University is a constant and willing collaborator with the Israeli Defense Force - a military force over which hover well founded allegations of war crimes, including the bombing and destruction of Palestinian Universities and severe disruption of their academic life, or the bombing of media centers and radio stations. The Hebrew University has been involved in the development of weaponry for use by the Israeli military and in the training of the top military weapons’ researchers. The university even hosts a military base within its Givat Ram campus. All of this does not bode well with the principles of human rights. -- See also: Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within more.. e-mail
Praying hard to make the rain fall
Arieh O’Sullivan, Common Ground News Service 11/25/2010
JERUSALEM - It’s been said that everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.
Well, seven years of drought in the Holy Land has been so bad that it has brought together Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics to offer prayers for rain.
The rainy season should have begun over a month ago, but the skies remain blue on this November afternoon. These devout men believe that now more than ever is the time for divine intervention.
At a spring named Ein Heniya in the Valley of the Ghosts that separates Jerusalem from the Bethlehem hills, the clerics gathered on Thursday afternoon for an unusual prayer session. They decided to put aside their differences and, as followers of one God, united their prayers for the much needed rain.
“Look up, it’s dry, dry,” said Rabbi Menachem Froman, an Orthodox rabbi from the Tekoa settlement near Bethlehem, who has close ties with Palestinian religious leaders.
“Before anything else, to live we need rain. If there isn’t any rain, there won’t be any Jews or Muslims or Christians here.”
“According to our traditions, the Jewish and the Islam, rain is due to the deeds of man, and if we make any step of peace between us, perhaps that will open the treasures of the skies and rain will fall,” Froman told The Media Line.
The spring is located a few hundred meters from an IDF checkpoint, and is sort of a no-man’s land. But its location on the fringes of Israel and the Palestinian Authority have allowed it to serve more as an everyman’s land, where Jews and Arabs can gather away from the watchful eyes of the security forces. more.. e-mail
Corporations found guilty at Russell Tribunal second session
Electronic Intifada: 1 Dec 2010 - On 22 November a jury of international experts announced their verdict that compelling evidence shows corporate complicity in Israeli violations of international law. The verdict followed two full days of presentations in London at the second international session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine from 20 to 21 November.more
WikiLeaks exposes Egypt's duplicity in Gaza siege
Electronic Intifada: 1 Dec 2010 - CAIRO, Egypt (IPS) - More than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables released by online whistle-blower WikiLeaks include statements made behind closed doors that could prove embarrassing for Egypt's government, say analysts.more
Targeting Silwan's children
Electronic Intifada: 1 Dec 2010 - Earlier this year, "Mahmoud" came home to see a letter with his name on it, instructing him to come to the Russian Compound prison facility in Jerusalem. The 15-year-old Palestinian resident of the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem went to the prison with his father, mother and aunt. He was interrogated for seven hours.more
Book review: excavating Palestine's "Hidden Histories"
Electronic Intifada: 1 Dec 2010 - In his new book Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean , Basem Ra'ad unearths new renderings of religious, historical and cultural material and offers readers a direction for thinking about research and activism alike.more
Jaffa Sold to Zionists
Palestine Monitor: 1 Dec 2010 - Ajami is a predominantly Arab district of Jaffa, housing around 8,000 Palestinian Israelis. In May 2009, a plot of land on Etrog Street, hosting the local farmers' market, was sold by the Israel Land Authority to B'emunah, a housing company that deals mainly in developing housing estates for Zionist communities in Israel. Written by Sophie Crowe. The land, originally Palestinian, was deemed “absentee property” by the state after most Arabs fled the city in 1948, and eventually became public land. Tensions have been raised further by the plans of a Zionist learning centre (Yeshiva) in Ajami, combining military service with Torah study. Its students are mostly West Bank settlers, who stay for a two month stretch. Its Rabbi is accused of racism by Arab residents. B'emunah and the yeshiva are now believed to be seeking to buy several hundred apartments together in the area. The purchase of the Etrog plot...more
Gaza/West Bank Unite Through 'Puppet Shoes'
Palestine Monitor: 30 Nov 2010 - Yesterday night, the French-German Cultural Center in Ramallah screened a series of short films produced by youth in refugee camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The screening was held in coordination with venues in Nablus, Gaza City and Amman, Jordan to commemorate International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Written by Charlotte Silver. The programme, entitled “Will We Meet?” had debuted in Jerusalem on June 20, 2010 in honor of World Refugee Day. However, due to the difficulty for most refugees to gain access to Jerusalem, there was a joint decision to screen the series again at a variety of locations in Palestine and Jordan. Phillipe Guiguet Bologne, the director of the French Cultural Center in Ramallah, said, “For us it is important to celebrate refugee day and solidarity day with the work of youth from the camps.” The films are a result of a collaborative project...more
The Victims of Sol Or
Palestine Monitor: 30 Nov 2010 - The Sol Or factory, located in Tulkarem's industrial settlement, has become a killer. The factory produces gas and fuels, which require strict safety regulations, but its owners have neglected them at the cost of their employee's lives. Written by Sophie Crowe. Three people have died from cancer after working in the factory for 10 years, and three from chemical explosions. Due to the toxic nature of the fuels used by the factory's workers, the owners are supposed to provide them with heavy protective masks and clothing. This basic right has been denied Sol Or's labourers with the result that they regularly breathe in the carcinogenic fumes, a reality which led to the deaths of Imad Abu Hesh and Musab Abu Tamam from cancer, at the ages of 39 and 40 respectively. Mohamed Blady, head of the Tulkarem Syndicate of General Institutions Working in Food and Agricultural Industries, describes the catastrophic...more
WikiLeaks: More Israeli Game Theory Warfare?
Palestine Chronicle: 1 Dec 2010 - By Jeff Gates 'The United States is the real victim of WikiLeaks. It's an action aimed at discrediting them.' -- Franco Frattini, Foreign Minister of Italy. The impact of the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables fits the behavior profile of those well versed in game theory warfare. When Israeli mathematician Robert J. Aumann received the 2005 Nobel Prize in economic science for his work on game theory, he conceded, “the entire school of thought that we have developed here in Israel” has turned “Israel into the leading authority in this field.” The candor of this Israeli-American offered a rare insight into an enclave long known for waging war from the shadows. Israel’s most notable success to date was “fixing” the intelligence that induced the U.S. to invade Iraq in pursuit of a geopolitical agenda long sought by Tel Aviv. When waging intelligence wars, timing is often the critical factor for...more
WikiStink
Palestine Chronicle: 1 Dec 2010 - By Susan Abulhawa Over a quarter of a million diplomatic cables, marked – 'secret' , 'confidential', or 'unclassified' – to and from the US State Department have been 'leaked' to the public, presumably by a whistleblower. On the surface, it seems like the sort of thing that restores power to the people. It arms us all with knowledge and reminds those in power that they must answer to the public. Then you pause to think. And that’s when the holes in this narrative become obvious. Although WikiLeaks claims to provide a counter balance to the decades of disinformation served up in heaps by the “old media”, it chose to allow the vetting of these documents by these same outlets. Other highly respected media outlets, like al Jazeera and various independent media, were excluded. I find that odd, for starters. If we take a look at the content of the cables themselves,...more
Cleaning House Essential for Mideast Peace
Palestine Chronicle: 1 Dec 2010 - By George S. Hishmeh – Washington, D.C. Considering that the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have shamefully ran out of original ideas and remain deadlocked on the issue of peace negotiations, it may thus be time for all three to do some house cleaning. Whether this will herald a new and successful approach remains to be seen but certainly dependant on their commitment to fairness and peacemaking in the Middle East. President Barack Obama, who acknowledged that he had received a “shellacking” from the Republicans in the recently concluded mid-term Congressional elections, has invited the Republican leaders to a White House meeting last Tuesday. After this first session, the senior Republican leader announced that they all agree to begin negotiations on the tax cuts, introduced by former President George W. Bush, a sensitive issue, which are due to expire at the end of the year. If Obama continue...more
Wikileaks and the New Global Order
Palestine Chronicle: 30 Nov 2010 - By Jonathan Cook The Wikileaks disclosure this week of confidential cables from United States embassies has been debated chiefly in terms either of the damage to Washington's reputation or of the questions it raises about national security and freedom of the press. The headlines aside, most of the information so far revealed from the 250,000 documents is hardly earth-shattering, even if it often runs starkly counter to the official narrative of the US as the benevolent global policeman, trying to maintain order amid an often unruly rabble of underlings. Is it really surprising that US officials appear to have been trying to spy on senior United Nations staff, and just about everyone else for that matter? Or that Israel has been lobbying strenuously for military action to be taken against Iran? Or even that Saudi Arabia feels threatened by an Iranian nuclear bomb? All of this was already largely understood;...more
Wikileaks: The Tel Aviv Connection
Palestine Chronicle: 30 Nov 2010 - By Jeff Gates What is Tel Aviv to do now that it's known Israelis and pro-Israelis 'fixed' the intelligence that induced the U.S. to war in Iraq? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Con me consistently for six decades and the relationship is over, as is Israel’s credibility as a legitimate nation state. Tel Aviv knows this. But what can the Zionist state do about it? Answer: Wikileaks. Why now? Misdirection. Shine the spotlight on Washington to take it off Tel Aviv. That’s good old-fashioned psy-ops. And challenge the credibility of the U.S. That’s Wikileaks. Any credible forensics would start by asking: to whose benefit? Then look to means, motive and opportunity plus the presence of stable nation-state intelligence inside the U.S. Other than Israel, who else is a credible candidate? Notice how quickly Israel’s role in the peace process vanished from the news....more
Wikileaks: A Surge of Truth
Palestine Chronicle: 30 Nov 2010 - By Gilad Atzmon It is an 'attack on the international community,' said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in reference to the release of 250.000 secret cables by Wikileaks. Clinton is correct; this is indeed a long overdue, necessary attack on an ‘international community’ of war mongers and war criminals. The leaked cables reveal a very gloomy picture of the state of our world current affairs: It unveils a clear dichotomy between the people of the world and our conflict driven political leadership. For most of us, it is plainly clear that Wikileaks is not just an act of pure journalism -- it is also the ultimate form of true democracy: it respects the most sacred liberal principle, namely, ‘the right to know’. The White House has ordered government agencies to tighten their handling of classified documents. But I guess that there is not much they, or anyone else can...more
Articles Archives - December 2010
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