"The so-called 'Palestinian autonomous areas' are bantustans...restricted entities within the power of the Israeli apartheid system."
   Nelson Mandela
   
   
  Articles
Justice must prevail if European and American claims to civilisation have any meaning at all
Ibrahim Hewitt, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) 5/24/2013
     Israel was established as part of a cynical process of neo-imperialism during and after the First World War.
     In the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, the Israelis have the most compliant of "partners for peace" ready and willing to make huge concessions and yet illegal settlements continue to grow; human rights violations continue apace; and 65 years of occupation and oppression look set to become endless. This tells us all we really need to know about the mindset of Israel and its leaders, and "right or wrong" supporters: they are not interested in peace in any form, and certainly not a peace in which justice is also given to the victims of Israeli aggression over the past half-a-century and more.
     Visiting Interpal's projects in Jordan this week has, as usual, been an eye-opener. No matter how bad you think the situation is, close inspection on the ground reveals it to be worse. Just as in Lebanon, which I visited a month ago, landlords are exploiting refugees - Palestinian and Syrian - at their most vulnerable, charging exorbitant rents for little more than converted animal stores. Trying to imagine the mental turmoil this must cause to someone who has already had to leave their homes with little more than what they can carry is impossible; we can only guess what it must be like, and will probably be far from the reality. Now multiply that by many thousands, indeed millions, and we are faced with a humanitarian catastrophe playing out under our noses.
     US Secretary of State John Kerry, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague and other foreign ministers were also in Amman this week for a meeting of the "Friends of Syria"; little will result from the get-together, no matter how well-intentioned (let's give them the benefit of the doubt) for the simple reason that in international relations right and wrong play second-fiddle to "interests". If it was in America's interests for the war in Syria to be stopped, one way or the other, it would be stopped. The same is true about the incredibly asymmetric conflict in the Holy Land....
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Time for ‘Kerry Peace Plan’
George S. Hishmeh, Arabic Media Internet Network (AMIN) 5/23/2013
     It is anyone’s guess what Secretary of State John Kerry has up his sleeve when he visits the Holy Land for the fourth time this week, among other key stopovers elsewhere in the Middle East. True, his objective is to kick-start peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis, moribund for several years, but what are the chances of success when he has so much on his plate, particularly Syria?
     His focus on resurrecting the peace process has triggered some excitement in this strife-torn region, but not surprisingly everywhere. His first success was to get the Arabs to amend their Arab Peace Initiative, much to the disappointment of some Palestinians, which was launched in 2002 by the 22-member League of Arab States and endorsed thereafter by the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
     However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained mum though his chief negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, welcomed the gesture as “good news”. Even former prime minister Ehud Olmert was quoted as saying that’s “an opportunity that must be seized [since] it’s a very important development.”
     What is more amazing is that Netanyahu has never spelled out his vision for a peace agreement, insisting that his expansionist plans in the West Bank — now accommodating about half a million Israeli colonists — would not stop, even temporarily, while the two parties are pursuing their negotiations. This is why the Palestinians want him to commit himself to a discernible settlement before the talks start.
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Prisoners who starved for art honored by Gaza show
Joe Catron, Gaza City, Electronic Intifada 5/21/2013
     For former Palestinian detainee Abdelfattah Abu Jahil, prison art is a victory.
     “At the beginning, it was really hard,” he said of painting, embroidery and sculpture during his first detention by Israeli forces in 1983. “It wasn’t allowed. We had to keep it hidden from the guards. And we had to smuggle the tools, like beads and threads, to make the art.”
     That changed, he said, when a mass hunger strike forced the Israeli Prison Service to let Palestinian detainees keep and use art supplies.
     “The greatest achievements of the prisoners’ movement were in 1985,” Abu Jahil said. “We went on hunger strike to force the Israelis to allow us to make art, among other things. I myself went on hunger strike for 79 days.”
     Their success allowed art by detainees to flourish, he explained. “After the [Israeli Prison Service] allowed prisoners to make art, we were able to ask our families to send supplies, or buy them from the small shops in the prisons.”
     Today, Abu Jahil, who was finally released from his fourth detention in 2002, continues to make art about detainees and the prisoners’ movement in Gaza. Permanent collection
     Drawing a stipend for his work from the Palestinian ministry of prisoners’ affairs, he now produces much of it for a permanent exhibition of prison art hosted by the ministry.
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US moves toward full Iran trade embargo
Jim Lobe, Asia Times 5/23/2013
     WASHINGTON - The US Congress moved closer on Wednesday to imposing a full trade embargo against Iran and pledged its support to Israel if it felt compelled to attack Tehran's nuclear program in self-defense. The senate voted 99-0 to adopt a resolution that urged President Barack Obama to fully enforce existing economic sanctions against Iran and to "provide diplomatic, military and economic support" to Israel "in its defense of its territory, people and existence".
     Washington, it said, should support Israel "in accordance with United States law and the constitutional responsibility of congress to authorize the use of military force" if Israel "is compelled to take military action in legitimate self-defense against Iran's nuclear weapons program."
     The measure also re-affirmed the official policy of the Obama administration that it would take whatever action necessary to "prevent" Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
     At the same time, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Republican-led House of Representatives unanimously approved new sanctions legislation that, if passed into law, would blacklist foreign countries or companies that fail to reduce their oil imports from Iran to virtually nil within 180 days.
     The same bill would expand the current blacklisting of companies that do business with Iran's financial sector to include those engaged in the country's automotive and mining sectors, as well.
     In perhaps its most controversial section, the bill also eliminates President Obama's ability to waive most sanctions for national-interest or national-security reasons.
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Sexuality and gender taboos challenged by Haifa project
Electronic Intifada: 24 May 2013 - “Singing Sexuality” aims to create safe space to raise tough questions within Palestinian society.
"This time they destroyed everything": Uprooted Bedouins face more evictions
Electronic Intifada: 24 May 2013 - Israel will soon put a plan to forcibly displace up to 40,000 Palestinian Bedouins on its statute books.
Why aren't Israeli F-16s over Beirut headline news?
Electronic Intifada: 24 May 2013 - When Israel claims to shoot down a drone, it is front-page news; when Israel invades Lebanese airspace, it is unreported.
Haj Sami Sadeq and the struggle for Al Aqaba
Palestine Monitor: 28 Jan 2013 -   Al Aqaba is a small Palestinian village located in the northern Jordan Valley, home to around 300 residents. Since 1999 Haj Sami Sadeq has been the mayor of this town, facing a constant struggle...
Nearly ten years after store closures, old city of Hebron still suffering
Palestine Monitor: 28 Jan 2013 -   This report is the second in a new Palestine Monitor series on life in the Old City of Hebron (known in Arabic as Khalil). The Palestine Monitor will publish one report a week on...
Old Masters and the Masters of War: Guernica – Gaza
Palestine Chronicle: 23 May 2013 - By Vacy Vlazna The Israeli military occupation is not only an external experience of ubiquitous soldiers, guns, teargas, tanks, F16s , Apache helicopters, warships, checkpoints, prisons, it is a virulent pathogen that infects and debilitates the psyches and bodies of its living hosts – the men, women and children of Palestine contaminating every precious instant of their lives from the first breath to death. The omnipresence of Israeli aggression is strikingly conveyed in internationally acclaimed Gazan artist, Mohammed Al Hawajri’s new exhibition, Guernica – Gaza 2010-2013, featuring 28 extraordinary artworks which present the Israeli reign of terror invading the artistic vision of certain Old Masters. I was sent images of Al Hawajri’s paintings via Facebook and his creativity astonished me. I am neither art connoisseur nor critic, but I’d like to share, from an activist perspective, how the incompatible juxtaposition of Old Masters, and the Israeli masters of war can expand...
Iran: How to Rig an Election
Palestine Chronicle: 23 May 2013 - By Jamal Kanj The election landscape in Iran is becoming increasingly clear. According to state-run Press TV, a whopping 686 candidates registered to run in the presidential poll. However, only eight men remain on the ballot for the first round on June 14 after candidates were vetted by the Guardian Council, which consists of 12 members – half of whom were appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Most are seen as loyalists to Khamenei, while those rejected included former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a close aide to outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Testing the waters before the Guardian Council’s decision, Iran’s national deputy police commander Esmael Moghaddam sounded a warning last week in the Shargh newspaper for Mashaei to stop challenging the Supreme Leader by claiming to take orders from a higher authority – namely Al Mahdi, the 12th Shi’ite Imam. There was also an...
Video: Protest Against G4S Outside Israel’s Ofer Prison
Palestine Chronicle: 22 May 2013 - British-Danish security firm G4S has been severely criticized for its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories and in prisons and detention centers in Israel, including those housing children and “administrative detainees” held without charge or trial. On 17 April Palestinian organizations called for action against G4S for its role in Israeli prisons where Palestinian political prisoners from the occupied territories are held in contravention of international law. The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre in London published Michael Deas’s report on the call and invited G4S to respond. G4S submitted an update with old statements that does not address the criticism of the provision of services to prisons in Israel. Meanwhile, about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners bellow out their ill-treatment in a mass hunger strike. For more information click here .
Syria as a Game-Changer: US Political Impotence in the Middle East
Palestine Chronicle: 22 May 2013 - By Ramzy Baroud In an article published May 15, 2013, American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote, “Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be doing about the civil war in Syria.” Those limitations are palpable in both language and action. A political and military vacuum created by past US failures and forced retreats after the Iraq war made it possible for countries like Russia to reemerge on the scene as an effective player. It is most telling that over two years after the Syrian uprising-turned bloody civil war, the US continues to curb its involvement by indirectly assisting anti-Bashar al-Assad regime opposition forces, through its Arab allies and Turkey. Even its political discourse is indecisive and often times inconsistent. Concurrently, Russia’s position remains unswerving and constantly...
Tales in a Kabul Restaurant
Palestine Chronicle: 21 May 2013 - By Kathy Kelly – Kabul Since 2009, Voices for Creative Nonviolence has maintained a grim record we call the “The Afghan Atrocities Update” which gives the dates, locations, numbers and names of Afghan civilians killed by NATO forces.  Even with details culled from news reports, these data can’t help but merge into one large statistic, something about terrible pain that’s worth caring about but that is happening very far away. It’s one thing to chronicle sparse details about these U.S. led NATO attacks. It’s quite another to sit across from Afghan men as they try, having broken down in tears, to regain sufficient composure to finish telling us their stories.  Last night, at a restaurant in Kabul, I and two friends from the Afghan Peace Volunteers met with five Pashtun men from Afghanistan’s northern and eastern provinces. The men had agreed to tell us about their experiences living in areas...
Will the Jordanian Parliament Expel the Israeli Ambassador from Amman?
Palestine Chronicle: 21 May 2013 - By Ali Younes – Amman A large majority of Jordanian Members of Parliament (MPs) voted last week to pass a resolution to force the government to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman over Israeli settlers attacks and attempts to occupy the Islamic holy site Al Aqasa Mosque in Jerusalem. The resolution was sponsored by MP Yehiya Al Suad and was passed by a majority of 89 votes, enough to topple the government of Prime MinisterAbdullah Nsour from power if he declined to act on it. Although the resolution is not binding, the MPs however can force a vote of no confidence against his government and bring it down if the government did not expel the ambassador. On the surface this sounds like a very serious hard politics and democracy in action by the MPs. But according to many Jordanian analysts and experts I talked to here in Amman, this whole...

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