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Israelis assault award winning journalist Mel Frykberg, Electronic Intifada 6/29/2008
GAZA CITY (IPS) - Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, and joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, was strip-searched at gunpoint, assaulted and abused by Israeli security officials at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday as he tried to return home to Gaza.
Omer, a resident of Rafah in the south of Gaza, and previous recipient of the New America Media’s Best Youth Voice award several years ago, was returning from London where he had just collected his Gellhorn Prize, and from several European capitals where he had speaking engagements, including a meeting with Greek parliamentarians.
Omer’s trip was sponsored by The Washington Report, and the Dutch embassy in Tel Aviv was responsible for coordinating Omer’s travel plans and his security permit to leave Gaza with Israeli officials.
Israel controls the borders of Gaza and severely restricts the entrance and exit of Gazans allegedly on grounds of security. Human rights organizations accuse the Israelis of using security as a pretext to apply collective punishment indiscriminately. more.. e-mail
Sound bombs and tear gas at nonviolent demonstration in Sarra
International Womens’ Peace Service 6/29/2008
On Saturday 28th June, IWPS volunteers joined Palestinians and other internationals in the village of Sarra for a demonstration against Israels policies of land confiscation and closure.
The village is located in the Nablus district of the West Bank and has a population of`3000. In 2002 the Israelis cut off the villages access to the main road from Qalqilya to Nablus by building an earth mound at the entrance to the village. Now unable to cross the road, many of the village farmers cannot reach their olive trees. The road closure also means that what used to be a 15 minute journey to Qalqilya now takes 2 hours as the villagers have to travel to Nablus and cross through various checkpoints. Even to get to Nablus the journey now takes 30 minutes where it used to take only 7 minutes.
The demonstration began at around 3pm with around 200 villagers and internationals walking down to the road block where an army jeep was already waiting. The demonstrators climbed on to the earth mound with an anti-apartheid banner and began chanting resistance songs, while some tried to remove the earth mound using spades. Another five military jeeps and armoured personnel carriers then arrived. After only a few minutes the soldiers threw a sound bomb directly in front of the anti-apartheid banner which was being carried by young boys, this was quickly followed by tear gas, despite the fact that the protest was non-violent. When the demonstration regrouped on the earth mound several youths from the village dressed in traditional Palestinian costumes performed the Dabka, a traditional Palestinian dance. more.. e-mail
Tactics that ended apartheid in S. Africa can end it in Israel
Bill Fletcher, Jr, Electronic Intifada 6/29/2008
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict often inspires a sense of powerlessness. What can average Americans do to bring an end to this decades-old conflict when our leaders have failed so miserably?
And what good is speaking out about Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land as the primary obstacle to peace when even former President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu are condemned for their criticism of Israeli policies?
This month in San Jose, California, average Americans will have the opportunity to take a stand for peace and justice in the Middle East. The Presbyterian Church US’s General Assembly began Saturday and runs through Sunday at the San Jose Convention Center. At the meeting, which takes place once every two years, delegates will make policy decisions for the 2.3 million-member denomination.
They will consider corporate engagement, up to divestment, with companies that profit from the obstacles to a just peace in Israel and Palestine. The church is considering approaches to Caterpillar, ITT Industries, Motorola and United Technologies. more.. e-mail
Sarkozy’s Ambition in the Middle East
Randa Takieddine, MIFTAH 6/28/2008
The visit by French President Nicholas Sarkozy to Jerusalem and Bethlehem proves that France has not changed its policy vis--vis the Middle East conflict. It proves that the fundamental principles that differentiate it from the US policy remain intact, with an insistence that Jerusalem should be the capital of two states, that a Palestinian state should be established, the Israeli settlement activity halted, and the obstacles before the Palestinian people removed.
However, what has changed with Sarkozy involves form, and not content. There is also the huge ambition to secure a role in terms of a Middle East settlement. The form involved a message of affection to the Jewish people and Israel, and the use of Biblical passages in his address to the Knesset. In this speech, Sarkozy said that his grandfather was Jewish and was unable to use the word "Germany" because of the Holocaust. Sarkozy said that after everything that had happened, the German and French peoples reconciled, affirming the inevitability of coexistence between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples in two states. more.. e-mail
Palestinian Conference in Berlin Falls Flat
Michael Scott Moore, MIFTAH 6/28/2008
Everyone agreed on Tuesday that the Palestinians need help. And dozens of nations agreed in Berlin to donate money. But the Palestinians still don’t have a state, and the Middle East is still a powderkeg.
A major, slightly disorganized 40-nation conference in Berlin arrived at a slightly underwhelming agreement on Tuesday, hoping to budge the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians forward. The glamorous but dull-sounding "Berlin Conference in Support of Palestinian Civil Security" squeezed promises of money and equipment to buck up Palestinian judicial and police infrastructure to the tune of 156 million ($242.7 million) from the international community over the next three years.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was there, along with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Middle East Quartet’s special envoy. They raised 30 million more than expected. The idea was to strengthen Palestinian law and order, on the assumption that peace will be impossible without security in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. more.. e-mail
Are bodies that monitor corruption…. corrupt too?
Iqbal Tamimi, Palestine Think Tank 6/28/2008
I was looking for information for some research about international corruption. I found Israel is almost always classified with European countries, while the Palestinian authority is classified with Middle Eastern countries, even though both are occupying the same geographical area.
Such classification does not appear on a personal blog so that one might consider such deviation is due to a person’s lack of knowledge of geography, but such information happens to appear even on the websites of reputable organizations including … guess what? The website that monitors and reports on International corruption, like TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL.
Transparency International is busy keeping an eye on everyone to find how corrupt organizations or countries are, but they had no time to do their homework to classify Israel and the Palestinian authorities under the same geographical classification. -- See also: Transparency International more.. e-mail
Israeli forces harvest British seeds of violence in Palestine
Jake Norris, Palestine News Network 6/29/2008
The military moves into a Palestinian village, demolishing whole areas of housing as a way of collectively punishing inhabitants accused of harbouring "terrorists." Villagers are arrested without explanation and taken to military prisons, while others are forced to ride on the front of trains to test the tracks for mines.
This description could easily be mistaken for one of the daily raids carried out by the occupying Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.In fact, it is an example of the tactics employed by British soldiers during the Palestinian Thawra Al Kubra (Great Revolt) of 1936-1939.
In Nablus alone, the last week has seen Israeli forces carrying out a number of invasions of the city, with two Palestinians assassinated on Tuesday and two more detained at dawn on Thursday. Meanwhile, some 70 years previously, British Mandate forces were employing exactly the same methods to control the Great Revolt, with Nablus once again suffering heavily as one of the centres of the resistance. more.. e-mail
Israeli Settlement Activity Surges Despite Peace Talks
Dion Nissenbaum, MIFTAH 6/28/2008
Blue and yellow signs advertising new homes pepper the narrow West Bank roads that wind up to gated hilltop Jewish settlements.
"A new stage is on its way," boasts one billboard promoting a dozen homes being built in this small Israeli settlement not far from Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital.
As construction workers press ahead with work on these modest townhouses, telephone salesmen dismiss any concerns that Israel’s pledge to restrict settlement construction in the West Bank could halt the building.
"We have all the permits we need," said Alon, a salesman for the new homes who fielded a call from McClatchy but didn’t give his last name. "All of our projects can continue."
In the six months since President Bush launched his late-term diplomatic initiative at Annapolis, Md., Israel has dramatically accelerated the construction of homes on land that’s central to any peace deal with the Palestinians.
In the 11 months before the Annapolis summit, Israel sought bids to build fewer than 100 homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel took from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, according to Israeli government figures. Since Annapolis, Israel has asked companies to start building more than 1,700 homes, a 1,600 percent increase. more.. e-mail
Mona (a Jerusalemite) tells about the silent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land
Palestine Think Tank 6/28/2008
This is the story of all Palestinians -
Message from Mona (a Jerusalemit:
Dear Friends and Family,
I am writing to share a little about what is happening in my life lately.As most of you know, I have been in Jerusalem since March 18 with Ramzi who at the time had barely turned 5 months.We left Habib and made the sacrifice to be apart for the coming 4 months for the sake of preserving my Jerusalem ID, to keep my residency status.I know this might sound strange, but as a Palestinian who has lived her whole life in Jerusalem, and despite the fact that my family has lived in Jerusalem and Palestine for centuries, according to the Israeli law, Palestinians living in Jerusalem are only residents but not necessarily permanent residents, and therefore are at risk all the time of losing their residency rights.
For the past 3 years, I have been married to Habib, a Palestinian by blood but an American by citizenship, because Habib’s Jerusalem residency was revoked in 2004- although Habib was born in Jerusalem, and has lived there until his adult life. Anyways, now it was my turn to renew my entry visa to “Israel” (yes, I needed a visa in my own country)- I met with a lawyer who asked for a substantial amount to help me renew my entry visa, which would preserve my residency until the next time I have to renew (a maximum of 3 years), but this time the Israelis refused to renew it and instead told me that since I made the decision to marry an “American”, who can’t reside in Jerusalem... more.. e-mail
Is Riad Hamad’s case as dead as his body??
Adib Kawar, Palestine Think Tank 6/28/2008
92 years after the martyrdom of his grandfather for the cause of Arab nationalism, a man was killed for devoting his efforts to his people, the Arabs of the Middle East. He was hanged in slightly different manner by the new colonialists of Palestine. Riad was born in Beirut in a Lebanese family; his grandfather, Omar Hamad, was hanged by the Ottoman Turkish ruler of what is now Syria and Lebanon, because he was an Arab nationalist who struggled for the liberation of the Arab homeland and its unity. Hamad, the grandfather, and his comrades resisted the Ottoman occupation of most of the Arab homeland. He was among 14 others who were hanged in Martyrs Square in Beirut and 23 were killed in Martyrs Square in Damascus by the Ottoman Ruler of this Turkish occupied Arab land, Jamal Pasha known Al-Jazzar (The Butcher).
The Martyrs’ Statue, on which Riad’s name should be engraved besides that of his grandfather.
Riad inherited the struggling resistance sprit of his Arab nationalism from his grandfather, Omar, and when he emigrated to the U.S. he carried with him this spirit and ideas. Riad the Lebanese by birth, and now American by nationality, still kept his spirit and conviction and started his fight for the pan Arab cause of occupied Palestine and its displaced indigenous Arab population, and concentrated on the welfare of the unfortunate Palestinian children scattered throughout occupied Palestine and its Arab surroundings. more.. e-mail
A chilly experience - Confronting the reality in Hebron through Breaking the Silence tour
Anne Paq, International Middle East Media Center News 6/28/2008
The tour of Hebron and its settlements, organized by the organization "Breaking the Silence" was once again disrupted by a group of settlers on Friday, 27 of June. "Breaking the Silence" is an organization made of discharged Israeli soldiers who work to expose the reality of the occupation in the Palestinian territories.
Even before the start of the tour, the organizer warned the group that it was not certain that the tour could proceed as planned. In the previous visit, the settlers attacked the group and threw some boiling liquid to the group, injuring one Spanish photographer. He also asked the participants not to answer to settlers’ provocations no matter what happens.
At the first stop in Kyriat Arba settlement, located next to Hebron, a whole groupe of settlers, including children, were obviously waiting for the bus of Breaking the Silence. They quickly surrounded us and started to shout and prevented the organizer, Yehuda, to move around. The police intervened but let the settlers continue their show. One of the settlers had a loudspeaker blasting that made the tour guide comments impossible to hear. more.. e-mail
Historical memory fades as quickly as last weeks news
Kristen Ess, Palestine News Network 6/28/2008
The Israeli press is continuing to place the onus of the "breach in calm" on Islamic Jihad’s armed resistance wing. Saraya Al Quds launched projectiles from the Gaza Strip after Israeli forces assassinated two people in the northern West Bank, including its leader.
However that was not the breach in ’calm.’ Israeli forces shot a Palestinian farmer in the Gaza Strip the day before the West Bank assassinations.
Today Yediot Ahranot, an Israeli news service, wrote that Islamic Jihad cannot seem to understand that the ’calm’ does not extend to the West Bank, therefore they breached the ’calm.’ On the day of the Israeli assassinations in the West Bank and the Palestinian projectile launches in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz printed a similar story; at least blaming Saraya Al Quds for breaching the ’calm,’ when only the day before Israeli forces opened fire on a Palestinian farmer in the Gaza Strip. more.. e-mail
Doha unravelling
Lucy Fielder, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
As political wrangles play out on the streets, the brief accord hatched in Doha is in danger, reports from Beirut Click to view caption A Sunni fighter responds to a source of fire during clashes in Bab Al-Tebbaneh neighbourhood in the northern Lebanese port city of TripoliUnresolved disputes and sectarian rancour have bubbled to the surface in Lebanon this week, jeopardising the brief respite provided by the Doha agreement to end the 18-month political crisis. Having filled a six-month presidential void by the election of Michel Suleiman on 25 May, the country may be on the brink of yet another political vacuum. Lebanon’s leaders have returned to what they do best -- squabbling over cabinet seats and jockeying for position.
In a possible taste of things to come in the event of a breakdown, clashes broke out in the northern city of Tripoli between Sunni anti-Syrian government supporters in Bab Al-Tebbaneh and supporters of the opposition in Alawis. At least nine people were killed and 50 injured.
Sectarian fighting between the two areas has been common for years, but exacerbated when the country polarised between the pro-Western ruling faction and their opponents three years ago. Security incidents have been frequent over the past couple of weeks, and last week, at least three people were killed in clashes in the eastern Bekaa Valley, also an area with mixed Sunni-Shia pockets. more.. e-mail
The past as prelude? Negotiating the Palestinian refugee issue
Rex Brynen,
Chatham House, ReliefWeb 6/26/2008
Summary points:
The question of Palestinian refugees has long been one of the most difficult issues in dispute in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. With the onset of renewed peace talks following the Annapolis summit of November 2007, it is once again an issue that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators must address.
The two sides are in a worse position to resolve the issue than they were during the last rounds of permanent status negotiations in 2000–01. The political weakness of the Israeli and Palestinian governments is compounded by heightened mistrust between the two societies, as well as by a hardening of Israeli public attitudes against even the symbolic return of any refugees to Israeli territory.
There is now a substantial accumulated body of work on the Palestinian refugee issue to guide and inform negotiators and policy-makers. This includes past official negotiations among the key parties, wider discussions among regional states and the international donor community, unofficial and Track II initiatives and a considerable body of technical analysis. more.. e-mail
Taking a cue from Israel
Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
Fatah’s change of tune is better late than never.
Despite continued blame-casting, Hamas and Fatah are getting themselves ready for Arab-mediated reconciliation talks aimed at restoring Palestinian national unity and ending the year-long rift between the two largest political factions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
No concrete date has been designated for the intensive talks, but reliable sources in the Gaza Strip have intimated that Egypt is about to extend the invitations to both Hamas and Fatah for the resumption of the inter-Palestinian dialogue. The sources said the commencement of the talks was only a matter of days or one week at the maximum.
Efforts to end the enduring crisis between Fatah and Hamas acquired a new momentum recently when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced his willingness to restart reconciliation talks with Hamas without any preconditions. Hamas welcomed the announcement, made on 6 June, saying it was willing and ready to sit down with Fatah any time and in any place to end the long-standing rift between the two sides. more.. e-mail
Relief or calm before the storm?
Saleh Al-Naami, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
Though Israel’s motives aren’t clear, its inability to cow Hamas is.
Rihab, 39, wasn’t able to convince her husband Saleh Abu Samha, 42, to buy curtains last Friday in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, where they reside. Abu Samha told Al-Ahram Weekly that the logic he was working by in denying his wife’s request was that the price of curtains, like all other goods, is incredibly high because of the siege. He argued that they should wait until a comprehensive truce is reached so that goods can be imported in a natural manner at lower prices.
Many people in the Gaza Strip are working by the same logic as Abu Samha. Jamal Hamid, 45, is a civil servant, and says that throughout the siege he has been unable to buy clothes for his six children because of the insanely high prices. He hopes that he will be able to purchase clothing as soon as the commercial crossings fully open, and prices return to their normal levels. more.. e-mail
Preferring Hamas and Hezbollah
Zvi Bar''el, Ha’aretz 6/29/2008
it is impossible not to be impressed by the skilled work that we have witnessed in recent weeks. A German mediator ran between Israel and Hezbollah; an Egyptian mediator came and went between Hamas and the government of Israel. A taboo subject was broken and oaths evaporated. It appears that the official agreement between Israel and Hezbollah on how prisoners and captives will be exchanged will be signed today. An agreement on a package deal for the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit is also on the verge of being concluded (verbally) - and in both these deals public opinion is fully involved. The Internet and television are full of views on the deals, T-shirts are being printed with photos of the abducted soldiers, rallies are held, Shalit’s book is being sold, stickers are stuck on motorbikes and public service announcements...
...But the closeness, which is very focused and therefore highly effective, distorts the background from which it emerged. First of all, it distorts the fact that Israel is negotiating with groups and not states. The Palestinian Authority, like the Lebanese government, had nothing to do with these negotiations. They watched from afar how those groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, are taking onto themselves the authority of states and holding negotiations that are not only about the release of prisoners. Every such negotiation has diplomatic and political aspects. After all, if only Hezbollah. not the government in Beirut, can gain the release of Lebanese prisoners, and if only Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian factions have the power to bring about the collapse of Israel’s policy of sanctions and opening the crossings into the Gaza Strip - what’s left for the state above them to do. more.. e-mail
Citizenship law makes Israel an apartheid state
Amos Schocken, Palestine Monitor 6/28/2008
The [Israeli] government’s decision last week to extend the validity of the Citizenship Law (Temporary Order), for another year, is evidence that the legal barriers preventing severe discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens and harm to their civil rights have been removed.
This extension is the eighth since the law was first passed in 2003, and it shows just how naive Justice Edmond Levy’s position was when he refused to join in the 2006 decision by five judges from the High Court of Justice, who stated that the law was unconstitutional, that it contravened the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom, and that it must be removed from the law books. Levy explained his refusal by saying that he saw no need to intervene because only two months remained until the law expired. However, at the end of the two months, the law was extended by a year, and now they want to extend it for yet another year.
Had Levy known that the law’s limited validity was nothing but a deception aimed at preparing a discriminatory and unconstitutional law, there is no doubt he would have joined the five justices’ majority opinion that it was unconstitutional and should be removed. We must hope that the High Court of Justice, when it rules on the new petition submitted against the law after it was extended in 2006, will take into account that the term "temporary provision," which both the government and Knesset take pains to stress, is a deception. We are talking about, in effect, a permanent law. more.. e-mail
Israel’s dead end
Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
Zionist dreams of clearing "Greater Israel" of all Palestinians continue to be played out via insidious and violent means, but they won’t be realised, writes In 1895, Theodor Herzl, Zionism’s chief prophet, confided in his diary that he did not favour sharing Palestine with the natives. Better, he wrote, to "try to spirit the penniless [Palestinian] population across the border by denying it any employment in our own country... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
He was proposing a programme of Palestinian emigration enforced through a policy of strict separation between Jewish immigrants and the indigenous population. In simple terms, he hoped that, once Zionist organisations had bought up large areas of Palestine and owned the main sectors of the economy, Palestinians could be made to leave by denying them rights to work the land or labour in the Jewish-run economy. His vision was one of transfer, or ethnic cleansing, through ethnic separation.
Herzl was suggesting that two possible Zionist solutions to the problem of a Palestinian majority living in Palestine -- separation and transfer -- were not necessarily alternatives but rather could be mutually reinforcing. Not only that: he believed, if they were used together, the process of ethnic cleansing could be made to appear voluntary, the choice of the victims. It may be that this was both his most enduring legacy and his major innovation to settler colonialism. more.. e-mail
A village fighting for survival
International Womens’ Peace Service 6/22/2008
This week IWPS volunteers visited the small village of Al Aqaba in the Jordan Valley. The village falls into Area C as designated under the Oslo Agreement, so is under full Israeli administrative and security control. The existence of the village is under threat as the Israeli government have issued demolition orders on 73% of its buildings and have banned the construction of any more buildings in the village. It is thought that the Israeli government wants to use the land belonging to the village to expand existing military training bases that currently surround the village. Approximately 700 people have left the village as a result of Israeli activities in the area leaving a current population of 295.
Following Israels occupation of Al Aqaba in 1967, three military training bases were established in the immediate vicinity of the village. One base has been evacuated as a result of a legal challenge by the village, but two remain. The military uses helicopters, tanks, heavy vehicles and live ammunition in the immediate vicinity of the village. To date 50 people have been killed or injured during Israeli training exercises on the land farmed by villagers and a number of livestock have been killed. more.. e-mail
So as not to be an apartheid state
Amos Schocken, Ha’aretz 6/27/2008
The government’s decision last week to extend the validity of the Citizenship Law (Temporary Order), for another year, is evidence that the legal barriers preventing severe discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens and harm to their civil rights have been removed.
This extension is the eighth since the law was first passed in 2003, and it shows just how naive Justice Edmond Levy’s position was when he refused to join in the 2006 decision by five judges from the High Court of Justice, who stated that the law was unconstitutional, that it contravened the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom, and that it must be removed from the law books. Levy explained his refusal by saying that he saw no need to intervene because only two months remained until the law expired. However, at the end of the two months, the law was extended by a year, and now they want to extend it for yet another year.
Had Levy known that the law’s limited validity was nothing but a deception aimed at preparing a discriminatory and unconstitutional law, there is no doubt he would have joined the five justices’ majority opinion that it was unconstitutional and should be removed. We must hope that the High Court of Justice, when it rules on the new petition submitted against the law after it was extended in 2006, will take into account that the term "temporary provision," which both the government and Knesset take pains to stress, is a deception. We are talking about, in effect, a permanent law. more.. e-mail
The bridge and the wall
Meron Benvenisti, Ha’aretz 6/27/2008
The Strings Bridge, inaugurated two days ago in a giant, spectacular and expensive extravaganza, was not drafted for its modest task, but rather for its aesthetic and symbolic value. After all, those who decided to bridge the modest height difference between Romema and Zion Valley via a quarter-billion-shekel monument did not seriously consider a plan that would cost one-tenth of this.
The planner of this monument (calling it a "bridge" is a lame excuse) defined its purpose very well: This is a "landmark: a city’s symbol of identity or myth." And indeed, the different opinions about its significance - "secular symbolism," or perhaps the profile of "David’s harp, or a shofar" - its appropriateness to the crowded and neglected urban landscape, financial and other considerations, divert attention from the "landmark" site and its significance for Jerusalem’s urban fabric.
Santiago Calatrava’s monument was put here because this is, on the face of it, the city’s entrance, so it is in fact a gate, not a bridge. But this gate was built at a time when its city already had fled. more.. e-mail
Dramatic pause
Hassan Nafaa, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
While the relief of eased regional tensions is welcome, signs point to an unprecedented upheaval and possible catastrophe ahead.
Recent weeks have brought a series of unexpected and exciting developments that may just form a turning point in the mode of interactions this region has experienced for so long. Suddenly, after sharp and intensifying polarisations that seemed at times to be propelling the region towards an immanent inferno, the blackened skies have begun to clear, the roar of thunder and flashes of lightening have receded, and one can sniff a freshness in the air as though a new dawn were at hand. Since Lebanon has always served as the riverbed in which regional parties have poured their tensions and refuse, it has naturally become a kind of finely tuned meteorological testing station capable of detecting subtle shifts in regional temperatures, shifts in the direction of winds and even seismological vibrations indicative of benign tremors or impending quakes and volcanic eruptions.
It was no coincidence that the dormant Lebanese volcano should awake again within a few months of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. After the US accomplished its immediate aim of toppling the regime and when it became clear to all that it had come to Iraq to stay and that it was not so much interested in Iraq per se but in Iraq as a staging post for executing its plans for redrawing the regional map to suit its post-11 September global enterprise, other world powers, including those that had previously opposed the American invasion and occupation, soon caved in to Washington’s will and ambitions and signalled their readiness to cooperate. No observer of events at the time could escape the conclusion that Washington would soon turn its sights on other regimes and forces hostile to its Middle Eastern policies and that the next phase would naturally require: first, the disarmament of Hizbullah, which could not be accomplished until Syria was ousted from Lebanon; second, giving Israel the go-ahead to destroy Palestinian resistance factions and, if necessary, to eliminate Yasser Arafat; and third and most importantly, slaying the regional serpent, Iran. more.. e-mail
What kind of Palestine?
Javier Solana, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
Security and the rule of law must be the cornerstones of a fledgling Palestinian state, writes Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have now been talking to each other for more than six months, since the peace process was re-launched at Annapolis in November 2007, with the stated aim of reaching agreement on a Palestinian state before this year is out. The final status issues of borders, Jerusalem and refugees are back on the agenda and the outlines of a two-state solution are visible. There have been recently some encouraging signals: Egypt has mediated a truce between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, there are signs of inter- Palestinian dialogue and there appears to be movement on the Israeli-Syrian track. We have to grasp the opportunity for peace.
Comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic goal of the European Union and resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict on the basis of a two-state solution is the key to achieving this. Europe wants, and needs, to see the creation of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. For this, the foundations and the structures of a Palestinian state have to be created and this is where the European Union is playing a distinctive role. It is leading international efforts to assist the Palestinians with their state-building efforts under a major strategy adopted by the EU last year. An important part of this strategy is devoted to developing security and the rule of law, which are the cornerstones of the fledgling Palestinian state and the theme of a large international conference of foreign ministers hosted in Berlin on 24 June. This conference aims to secure the finance needed to implement a civil police and criminal justice package over the coming year as part of the international community’s efforts to help the Palestinians with their Reform and Development Plan. more.. e-mail
Nonie Darwish and the al-Bureij massacre
Jim Holstun, Electronic Intifada 6/26/2008
StandWithUs is a Zionist advocacy group in Los Angeles. It concentrates on US colleges and universities, offering fellowships, book donations, lectures, training and hands-on activism. I first heard about the group in 2005, after its Executive Director, Roz Rothstein, wrote my university’s president, provost and Arts and Sciences dean to warn them that I was teaching courses in Palestinian culture. She passed along some hysterical libels from anonymous community members (not my students), gave a detailed critique of my syllabuses, encouraged them to investigate me and two other colleagues, and helpfully suggested a few questions they might want to ask.
StandWithUs manages an impressive stable of Zionist speakers, including several who are Arabs, Muslims, or ex-Muslims: Brigitte Gabriel, Ishmael Khaldi, Walid Shoebat, Khaled Abu Toameh, and Nonie Darwish. Darwish, born an Egyptian Muslim, now an American Evangelical Christian, is one of the most energetic. She manages the website Arabs for Israel and has appeared on FOX News, on the website Frontpage Magazine, and in the film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. She is also the author of Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror. Penguin Books publishes it under its Sentinel imprint -- a special line of conservative titles. Since her book’s publication in 2006, Darwish has toured extensively, speaking primarily at colleges and universities. more.. e-mail
You Dont Mess With the Racism
Remi Kanazi, Middle East Online 6/26/2008
What we are to believe by watching this film is that if everyone would just stop hating, Israelis and Palestinians could effortlessly live together in harmony. But hate has little to do with a conflict rooted in a peoples desire for basic human rights and an end to oppression.
I love Adam Sandler. From Billy Madison to Happy Gilmore to the Chanukah Song, the predecessor of the Superbad generation has effortlessly conquered the domain of slapstick comedy and inappropriate jokes. But damn you Scuba Steve! If youre going to propagate misinformation about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, do it quietlyor at least in your non-comedic life.
You Dont Mess With the Zohan, Sandlers new flick, takes Hollywood chicanery and stereotypes that denigrate Arabs to an unprecedented levelsurpassing hit flicks like the Kingdom, the Siege, and every Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris movie that came before it. I group Zohan with other shamelessly racist action movies because a film should at least be minutely funny to be categorized as a comedy. For the Sandler diehards and hilarity-loving skeptics, I should clearly state: using race and prejudices to engender laughter is not the problem. Mel Brooks and the creators of South Park exploit stereotypes far beyond anything Sandler has ever done, but unlike Zohan, I dont think insidious propaganda and underlying racism drive their comedy. After all, if this hebetudinous clunker was just comedy, Sandler and company wouldnt have, as the New York Times reported, sought out Arab actors to give the movie legitimacy. Their search was successful and a few token Arabs showed their presence to innocuously inform the public that it is okay to vilify the crazy towel-headed terrorists once again. more.. e-mail
Israel, EU and the US disregard international law
Adri Nieuwhof, Electronic Intifada 6/26/2008
After the announcement of the Israeli government to put out new tenders for construction in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement expressing his deep concern, stating that "the government of Israel’s continued construction in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory is contrary to international law and to its commitments under the Road Map and the Annapolis process."The shameless Israeli expansion of its illegal settlements also caught the attention of the Arab League.Representatives of the UN’s Arab bloc met on 12 June at UN headquarters in New York for a final discussion on a proposal for the UN Security Council calling to halt the expansion of illegal West Bank settlements.
In the 12 months before the US-sponsored Annapolis conference last November, the Israeli government invited tenders for the construction of "only" 138 housing units in settlements. However, as demonstrated by the table below, in the six months since, Israel has put out 11 tenders for the construction of the staggering number of 1,731 settler housing units.
[List of Israeli tenders for housing in Jerusalem and West Bank, December 2007 to June 2008.]
Israel further demonstrated its determination to transfer part of its population to the occupied territory in open violation of international law on 13 June when the Regional Committee for Construction and Planning approved the construction of 1,300 homes for settlers in Ramat Schlomo near Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Ramat Schlomo currently has 2,000 housing units. more.. e-mail
Witnessing ’horrendous humiliation’ put former head of state on anti-Israel path
Cnaan Liphshiz, Ha’aretz 6/27/2008
NIJMEGEN, NETHERLANDS - The emotion in Andreas van Agt’s voice as he lambastes Israel’s behavior seems puzzling for a man of his status. It’s especially intriguing considering that this blue-eyed professed idealist is an astute statesman who presided as the Dutch prime minister for five years until 1982. "My involvement in the Middle East is certainly unusual," Van Agt confessed in an interview with Haaretz about Israel at his home in Nijmegen. Currently, Van Agt is writing a book about the Israeli-Arab conflict. He recently launched an info site about the subject, in which he accuses Israel of racism and violating international law.
He speaks at controversial solidarity events alongside Hamas officials, lamenting the Dutch government’s boycott of the Islamist organization branded by numerous governments as terrorist. He is also outspoken in accusing Israel of state-terror. "Some say my demeanor owes to my advanced age; that I’m not fully in my right mind anymore," says the 77-year-old with a snicker, sitting under an outdated portrait of the Queen in his taupe-colored den. more.. e-mail
Obama’s Palestinian problem
Hamid Dabashi, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
In his 4 June speech to the American Israeli Political Action Committee, Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama betrayed the hopes that had been invested in him, writes The evening of Tuesday 3 June 2008 will go down in history as one of the most electrifying moments in American political culture -- changing the normative landscape of its racial imaginary beyond anything anticipated before, and only dreamt of in a euphoric moment of myth almost half a century ago when the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his prophetic "I have a dream" speech.
The historic air of expectation was so voluminous that night that CNN and MSNBC were happily competing in their sharp wits and technological wherewithal as to which one could cut thicker into the historic forays and call Senator Barack Obama the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party before the other. The jigsaw puzzle of boxes and colours and numbers and statistics on the bottoms of their screens competed for attention with their anchors and pundits and their excited words and wide-eyed amazement at the momentous occasion: History in the making.
Even the AIPAC-seasoned and marinated Wolf Blitzer of CNN had to concede his championing for Golda Clinton Meir to the historic moment and let the events roar, as the delegate count got closer and closer for Obama to clench the nomination for the Democratic Party ("he only needs 12 more, 11 more, 8 more, . . ."); while at the same time not even the sharp-shooting wit of Keith Olberman of MSNBC could keep pace with the enormity of the occasion. more.. e-mail
Twilight Zone / Karmel’s happy campers
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz 6/26/2008
The water is the same but the children are not. Diving into the pool is just as daring and dangerous as it used to be, the water just as stagnant, the pool just as spectacular, but now there are fish. Many fish, mainly fingerlings, dart about, as many as 20,000 according to Anan al-Mahani, a fisherman from the village who breeds them.
The vast, ancient pool, built generations ago to store water, which becomes a pitiful day camp for the children of Karmel in the summer, has now also become a fish pond. Exactly eight years ago, photographer Miki Kratsman and I happened on this place by chance. Kratsmans series of photos won him acclaim. Back then, in the July 7, 2000 issue of Haaretz Magazine, I wrote: "Our hearts skip a beat: The sight is hallucinatory. The children stand atop the walls, at least 10 meters high, which surround the terrifying reservoir, and leap out into space. The bottom seems to be covered with grass. Only when the children land on the green carpet does it become apparent that this is not a lawn, but water, covered with a thick layer of green scum. When they rise from the depths, black bubbles surround their ascending heads, and their bodies are covered with a layer of green slime. Seen from above, the sight of their dark heads poking through the green is very strange. The risky jump, the stench, the filthy water; this is summer camp for the children of Karmel, an ancient Palestinian village in the Hebron hills. more.. e-mail
Hamas and Hizballah gain, almost hand in hand
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani, Electronic Intifada 6/26/2008
CAIRO (IPS) - Hizballah’s dramatic seizure of Beirut last month stunned observers and dealt a heavy blow to Washington’s Lebanese allies. In Cairo, analysts compared the episode to last year’s takeover of the Gaza Strip by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, noting that both actions were pre-emptive -- rather than offensive -- in nature.
"Both instances were legitimate cases of self-defense," Magdi Hussein, political analyst and head of Egypt’s frozen Socialist Labour Party, told IPS. "Neither Hamas nor Hizballah was trying to seize political authority -- they were merely reacting to aggression against them."
On 7 May, Hizballah -- along with allied Shia movement Amal -- seized control of the Lebanese capital, blocking highways and occupying strategic areas. Fighters associated with Lebanon’s 14 March movement, Hizballah’s chief political rival, were easily routed.
After three days of clashes that left scores dead, Hizballah and its allies returned control of the city to the Lebanese army.
he US, along with most of the western media, depicted Hizballah’s temporary seizure of the capital as a "coup d’etat". On 14 May, the US House of Representatives tabled a bill condemning the resistance group’s "illegitimate assault on the sovereign government of Lebanon. more.. e-mail
Palestine is illegal
Sumia Ibrahim writing from occupied Palestine, Electronic Intifada 6/26/2008
The young, dark-haired woman behind the glass stamped the American passport in front of her. "Welcome to Israel," she said cheerily. The line in front of me receded quickly as passport after passport was stamped, and traveler after traveler admitted entry. I made my way to the desk and slid my passport under the glass.
"Hello," I said smiling. After over a 15-hour flight from Philadelphia, US, which included a two-and-a-half-hour layover in Barcelona where I was searched and questioned, and where my bags were carefully examined by hand, I was anxious to breathe fresh air and catch up on sleep. Given the fact that I was extensively questioned and searched by Israeli airline security in Barcelona, I expected to undergo minimal additional security measures at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, if any. The woman scrutinized my passport, which held a red sticker placed by Israeli security in Barcelona, and called over another airport official. "Come with me," this woman said, leading me to a nearby seating room. Rows of people waiting for their passports to be stamped stared at me as I walked by. Most of them, American and European Jews, would have no trouble entering. It’s quite a different story for an Arab American. more.. e-mail
Beyond the truce
Dina Ezzat, Al-Ahram Weekly 6/26/2008
With the newborn Hamas-Israel truce looking fragile, officials scramble to make progress on phase two issues. The fate of the Egyptian-sponsored truce struck earlier this month between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza is already in question. Over the past 48 hours, Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza exchanged accusations of truce violations as Israeli aggression on Islamic resistance groups in the West Bank -- yet to be included in the truce -- prompted rocket attacks Tuesday evening on the western Negev. Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered crossings linking Gaza to Israel closed. According to the terms of the truce these crossings were supposed to be opened as of 8am Wednesday.
Informed Egyptian officials who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly Wednesday morning on condition of anonymity said that Egypt was "very disturbed" by current developments and that General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman -- the architect of the truce -- is already in direct contact with both sides to make sure that the situation does not escalate. Egypt, officials say, is determined to bolster the truce that took months to negotiate. more.. e-mail
Ayoon wa Azan (He Never Says that he Guarantees Peace)
Jihad El-khazen, MIFTAH 6/26/2008
President Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshaal have at least one point in common. They do not want reconciliation to be solely restricted to Fatah and Hamas. Instead, they seek a Palestinian reconciliation with the participation of all Palestinian sides and an Arab blessing.
A few days ago, I conveyed the stance of Hamas’ politburo chief following the meeting we had in Damascus. Today, I will report some of what I heard Abu Mazen say during the dinner we had the following day in Amman. The dinner was hosted by Palestinian Ambassador Atallah Khairi and attended by a number of the President’s aides and other friends, including Basel Akl and Nabil Abu Rudaina.
Abu Mazen denied any consultations prior to launching the reconciliation initiative. The PLO’s Executive Committee met for three days and agreed on the formula it announced. Condoleezza Rice called the next day to ask him about it; he read the initiative text to her. Then the State Department voiced its support for the initiative. more.. e-mail
Denied the Right to Go Home
Zeina Ashrawi Hutchison, Palestine Think Tank 6/26/2008
A Palestinian woman’s story - Zeina Shrawi Hutchison is Hanan Ashrawi’s daughter.
I am Palestinian - born and raised - and my Palestinian roots go back centuries. No one can change that even if they tell me that Jerusalem, my birth place, is not Palestine, even if they tell me that Palestine doesn’t exist, even if they takeaway all my papers and deny me entry to my own home, even if they humiliate me and take away my rights. I AM PALESTINIAN.
Name: ZeinaEmile Sam’an Ashrawi; Date of Birth: July 30, 1981; Ethnicity: Arab. This is what was written on my Jerusalem ID card. An ID card to a Palestinian is muchmore than just a piece of paper; it is my only legal documented relationship to Palestine. Born in Jerusalem, I was given a Jerusalem ID card (the blue ID), an Israeli Travel Document and a Jordanian Passport stamped ’Palestinian’ (I have no legal rights in Jordan). I do not have an Israeli Passport, a Palestinian Passport or an American Passport. more.. e-mail
Land confiscation continues in Tammun, Jordan Valley
International Womens’ Peace Service 6/23/2008
On Wednesday, the 18th of June 2008 residents of Tammun and Khirbet ’Atuf, Tubas district, accompanied by international solidarity and peace activists gathered in a protest action at a trench that imposes an artificial border between Khirbet ’Atuf and the illegal Israeli settlement of BegaOt. This 30km long trench prevents the residents of the region from accessing hundreds of dunums of their land behind it.
The municipality of Tammun has recently received a letter from the Israeli Ministry of Defense, informing them that 356 dunums of the Tammun land will be confiscated for the purpose of establishing a new military base in the area. The letter reads that the landowners will be allowed time to prove their ownership by the year 2012. Yet, the title deeds for 95000 dunums of land, amounting to 75% of the land belonging to the Tammun municipality, have not stopped the Occupation confiscating the land for three illegal settlements and three military bases built in the area since 1967. more.. e-mail
Beit Sahour reclaims military base site
Nora Barrows-Friedman, Electronic Intifada 6/24/2008
USH GHRAB, West Bank (IPS) - East of Beit Sahour in Ush Ghrab, the tree line stops and the bronze, rocky desert begins. In a flat clearing on this hilltop, a small, abandoned military post is being slowly transformed from an assorted collection of cement-grey barracks into a virtual oasis for the region’s children, families and tourists.
A former watchtower now has bright flowers painted on the roof; what was once a stark administrative office is now painted blue and pink, with a sign above the entrance reading "The Nest Cafe" in red block letters.
The revitalization of this remote area is important, local activists say, not just to reclaim land used in the past to control and intimidate the people of Beit Sahour, but also to pre-empt a possible land steal by radical Israeli settlers. Palestinians have come here with international activists, bringing with them paintbrushes and hand tools, to spark a new kind of protest movement against illegal settlement expansion. The protest is rooted in community and creativity rather than explosive confrontation. more.. e-mail
Occupation by Bureaucracy
Saree Makdisi, MIFTAH 6/25/2008
A cease-fire went into effect in Gaza last week, offering some respite from the violence that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and five Israelis in recent months. It will do nothing, however, to address the underlying cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Intermittent spectacular violence may draw the world’s attention to the occupied Palestinian territories, but our obsession with violence actually distracts us from the real nature of Israel’s occupation, which is its smothering bureaucratic control of everyday Palestinian life.
This is an occupation ultimately enforced by tanks and bombs, and through the omnipresent threat, if not application, of violence. But its primary instruments are application forms, residency permits, population registries and title deeds. On its own, no cease-fire will relieve the beleaguered Palestinians.
Gaza is virtually cut off from the outside world by Israeli power. Elsewhere, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the ongoing Israeli occupation comprehensively infuses all the normally banal activities of Palestinians’ everyday lives: applying for permission to access one’s own land; applying for what Israel regards as the privilege - rather than the right - of living with one’s spouse and children; applying for permission to drive one’s car; to dig a well; to visit relatives in the next town; to visit Jerusalem; to go to work; to school; to university; to hospital. There is hardly any dimension of everyday life in Palestine that is not minutely managed by Israeli military or bureaucratic personnel. more.. e-mail
Surrounded on All Sides and Living in Fear
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 6/25/2008
Israeli settlers from the settlements of Yizhar and Bracha attacked the Palestinian village of Bureen and its lands on Thursday, May 19, burning huge amounts of farmland and entering the village to attack residents with stones.The settlers, including children, teenagers, and adults, burned olive groves as they moved into the village.
"These settlers are dangerous; they are aggressive and extremist," said Bureen resident Jalal Imran (38).
During the attack Thursday a 63-year-old Palestinian woman was assaulted by the settlers, sustaining wounds that required hospitalization.The settlers also set fire to olive groves spanning the width of the mountain.When Israeli soldiers reached the village they prevented the residents from trying to put out the fires for two hours. Residents said the soldiers were only there to protect the settlers and not the Palestinian people.
Imran said events like this happen one to two times a year. Other residents commented on the fact that they have never done anything to provoke the settlers. Imran said, "We are a peaceful, simple people. Many of us are farmers. We have no weapons. So why do they attack us?" more.. e-mail
Recycling love, weaving hope
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 6/25/2008
A visit to the Al-Basma Special Education Center for Youth and Young Adults in Beit Sahour
Mr. Abdullah Awwad pushes open the gate to the Al-Basma Special Education Center for Youth and Young Adults in Beit Sahour, and is soon greeted inside by a cheerful chorus shouting "Marhaba," looking up from their projects with broad smiles. Mr. Awwad passionately returns all the greetings, making his way into each room to encourage the diligent craftsmanship of the workers.
Mr. Awwad and a small group of people began the Al-Basma Center in 1988, in order to provide care for the developmentally challenged in and around Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, and Beit Jala. The center, which now cares for thirty children and adults between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five, has been in its present facilities for eight years.
Mr. Abdullah Awwad is the director, and one of the founders, of the Al-Basma Center in Beit Sahour
"We started from scratch," Mr. Awwad said. "In the beginning, we had only one small room, and we sat on the floor because we had no tables or chairs. But where there is a will, there is always a way. And we had a will to serve." more.. e-mail
Israeli forces broke calm in Gaza by shooting farmer on Monday, not Saraya Al Quds
Kristen Ess, Palestine News Network 6/25/2008
It is being reported in the Israeli media that Saraya Al Quds, who claimed responsibility for launching projectiles from the Gaza Strip at Sderot last night, "broke the calm."
Others are reporting that it was justified after Israeli forces assassinated the northern West Bank’s leader of the Islamic Jihad-linked armed resistance wing, in addition to a fourth year student at Nablus’ An Najah University.
But what is not being reported is that on Monday Israeli forces opened fire on a farmer in Gaza who was working in his fields, critically injuring him. That was the "break in the calm."
The Hamas government in Gaza is calling for a preservation of the "calm" regardless of anything that has happened, while Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday night that the crossings in the Strip would not be reopened due to the projectile launches.
However, earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the Rafah Crossing would not be opened at all until the Israeli soldier captured while invading the southern Gaza Strip in June 2006 was released. more.. e-mail
Slippery-Slope Ceasefire
Joharah Baker, MIFTAH 6/25/2008
No ceasefire can ever hold if it is constantly being nudged towards the edge of a precipice. For the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, designed to sustain for six months, it has taken less than a week for its walls to crack, contaminating the shaky calm enjoyed by the people of Gaza for five glorious days.
While no one could possibly be surprised that a ceasefire between the two arch enemies would hold as long as the core issues dividing them are not addressed, it is worth questioning Israel’s intentions in first, agreeing to the tahdi’ah and then sabotaging it soon after.
In the early morning hours of June 23, Israeli army troops raided a student dormitory in Nablus, shooting in cold blood two young men, Iyad Khanfar 24 and Tareq Abu Ghali 23. The later was reportedly a commander of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad while Khanfar was a fourth year student at Nablus’ Al Najah University. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli troops stormed into the apartment where the two men lived and riddled them with bullets. Both Abu Ghali and Khanfar were unarmed at the time. more.. e-mail
Crossing the Line focuses on Gaza’s hospitals
Podcast, Crossing the Line, Electronic Intifada 6/24/2008
This week on Crossing The Line: Since the Israeli siege on Gaza began in June 2007, 184 critical care patients have died waiting for travel permits from Israel to leave the Gaza Strip and receive urgent medical treatment. Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are facing acute shortages of medical equipment and supplies, as well as important medicines such as drugs to treat cancer patients, insulin and anesthesia. Crossing The Line contributing producer and investigative journalist Nora Barrows-Friedman speaks to host Naji Ali on the crisis facing Gaza’s hospitals.
Also this week, the Israeli army imposed a ban on West Bank residents from traveling to the Dead Sea after Israelis who manage the popular vacation site complained that mixed groups are bad for business. Melanie Takefam, International Media Coordinator of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, speaks to Ali about the Israeli decision that discriminates against Palestinians from the occupied territories. more.. e-mail
Zochrot Hosts ''Right of Return'' Conference in Tel Aviv
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 6/24/2008
People gathered from many backgrounds yesterday in Tel Aviv to discuss the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees, and to hear discussions about the practicalities of implementing this right.
Panel members and speakers ranged from artists, to philosophers, to architects, both Israeli and Palestinian. The audience was also diverse, consisting of activists and reporters from Palestine, Israel and the international community.
The conference was organized by Zochrot - meaning "remembering" - an Israeli organization dedicated to raising awareness about the Palestinian Nakba among the Jewish population of Israel. Among the aims of Zochrot is the "Right of Return" of Palestinian refugees.
The meeting opened with an address from a representative of Zochrot, who discussed the importance of the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees. Zochrot asserts that the Right of Return is a "moral and political basis for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. more.. e-mail
Israel training to attack Iran
Peter Hirschberg, Electronic Intifada 6/25/2008
JERUSALEM, (IPS) - Israeli defense experts were not surprised by a New York Times report over the weekend that the Israeli air force had recently conducted what appeared to be a rehearsal for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Israel, the experts say, has never taken the military option off the table and they therefore expect the air force to be training for a strike in Iran. "It is logical that the army is training for an Iranian mission," says Efraim Inbar, head of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies near Tel Aviv. "We are preparing for it. The air force is in charge of this file."
Over 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighter jets, as well as helicopters and refueling tankers, took part in the exercise over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in early June, according to The New York Times. Quoting unnamed US officials, the report said that the helicopters and tankers covered 1,400 kilometers, approximately the distance between Israel and Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. more.. e-mail
No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI, Palestine Monitor 6/22/2008
A report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) published this morning reveals the widespread phenomenon of violence against bound Palestinian detainees by IDF soldiers and the almost absolute indifference of the IDF, the Ministry of Defense and the Knesset towards the existence of this phenomenon and the need to take action in order to eradicate it completely.
The report titled "No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees" focuses on a large number of incidents of violence against detainees after they had been arrested, bound, and no longer present a danger to the soldiers. Abuse occurs at various junctions - immediately following arrest, in the vehicle transporting the detainees, and during the time they are held in IDF military camps prior to their transfer to interrogation and detention facilities. At times abusive practices involve dogs that are employed by the military forces during arrest operations and transported in vehicles along with Palestinian detainees. On certain occasions, the ill treatment of Palestinian detainees is highly violent resulting in serious injury. At other times, abuse manifests itself in a routine of beating, degradation and additional abuse. Minors, who must be granted special protection under both Israeli and International Law, are also victims of abuse. The soldiers who carry out arrests do not treat minors with special care and at times - as revealed by various testimonies - exploit their weakness. more.. e-mail
’To place a flower on the grave after 60 years’
Jack Khoury, Ha’aretz 6/23/2008
Salwa Salaam-Kubati will celebrate her 60th birthday at the end of next month. As a birthday gift, she would like one wish to come true: to be able to visit the grave of her father, in what was once a Christian cemetery in the village of Malul. On the ruins of the village, next to Nazareth, the Israel Defense Forces set up a military base.
Kubati, who is a social worker for the city of Nazareth, never had the chance to know her father, Fares Salaam, nor has she ever visited his grave. A train engineeer during the time of the British Mandate, Salaam was murdered in 1948, while her mother was pregnant with her.
"On March 24, 1948, my father was on his way to work in Haifa in a bus from Nazareth," says Kubati, as she takes a picture of her father from her purse, the only memento she has of him. "When the bus was near Kiryat Tivon, Jews opened fire at it. My dad and one other passenger were killed and several people were wounded."
"My mother was near the end of her pregnancy, and I am sure that as a fetus in the womb I felt that trauma and heard her screams when they brought the body to our home," she says. Her father was buried in the Christian cemetery of his village, "close to the grave of my cousin who had been killed a few months prior to that," she adds. more.. e-mail
Stolen days in Israel
Stolen Words Stolen Days blog, International Solidarity Movement 6/23/2008
I never anticipated these problems. I asked so many people, so many questions. When I entered Israel I thought I might be questioned because of my name but not what ended up happening. When I approached the non-Israel passport stand, the woman asked me my father’s name, probably because I was born in Iran that questions started coming. When I said Mohammad Reza I was pretty sure I would be questioned further. She asked me my grandfather’s name, I didn’t know, I didn’t have relations with him. She told me to stand on the side of the counter. I waited. Then I was taken to an office to be questioned. They asked me why I was coming there, where I was coming from, what I was doing there, who I knew here, how I knew them, did I have family here, what I studied, where I studied, my contact info, my friends’ contact info. Then I was asked to wait in this room. I was then questioned again, this time more aggressively. The woman again asked me the same questions, asked me about my flights, then she saw my papers, some of my papers were about volunteering in Nablus. The woman accused me of lying, saying I wanted to volunteer instead of sight see or visit friends. She wanted me to log into my email so she could go through it because she didn’t believe me and said since I emailed my friend that she wanted to see. I refused, saying I couldn’t “as an American.” This meant nothing here.
You mean nothing here. This was then followed by her taking my papers then me waiting more. Then I was taken to find my bag, they then went through all my things, x-rayed them, wiped them down for explosives, everything. They kept questioning me, the same questions, different people. Emptied my bags, excavated them. I was padded down, or frisked as well. They also x-rayed my jacket and shoes. Then after this humiliation I was made to wait again. I was told I wasn’t getting into Israel. I asked them why and the woman said that I lied, when I asked what I lied about she just told me to sit in the room. There’s a high arrogance about them. As if I was being let into the Garden of Eden or something. They are also extremely ignorant. For people with such official positions, I feel they barely had a high school degree. The women at the passport counters just looked like housewives. It is like a military state, where everyone has to run it, with no training except to intimidate and be aggressive. My mistake is to assume good, being naïve, being honest and open. more.. e-mail
A window into Gaza
Simon Allison, Asia Times 6/24/2008
JERUSALEM - Sometimes, the devil’s in the details. And sometimes, when the Israeli security forces make you practice shot put in an X-ray machine rather than cross into Gaza, the smallest details are all there is to work with.
Erez border crossing, a modern steel and glass construction, a jewel set in the northern part of the long, grey concrete wall between Israel and Gaza, is the principal Israeli crossing point for people going to and from Gaza, and has been closed for more than a year. On Sunday, it opened for business again, as part of Israel’s ceasefire agreement last Thursday with Hamas, reached after several months of three-way talks between Israeli officials, Palestinian delegations and Egyptian mediators.
But the crossing is not open for much business. The list of people given permission to leave Israel from this point is very select: diplomats, humanitarian aid workers, and journalists who have been through the 15-day screening process to receive an Israeli press card. I was not among this distinguished company, but I thought I would try my luck anyway, along with a couple of other journalists without the necessary paperwork, or the patience to wait more than two weeks for the right document. more.. e-mail
Nobodys Perfect but they are Still Human
Yasmin Abou-Amer, MIFTAH 6/23/2008
This weekend, I spent a lot of time travelling around Palestine, which inevitably meant having to cross through many of the Israeli-manned checkpoints scattered throughout the West Bank.I was travelling on public transport, sharing the bus with predominantly Palestinians.Being a British citizen, however, means that, unlike the Palestinians, I do not have to get down and walk through the checkpoint terminals.The Qalandia checkpoint, serving as a border between the West Bank town of Ramallah and Jerusalem, is perhaps one of the most glaring examples of the separative manner of the Israeli army.
Once the bus arrives at the checkpoint, any Palestinians who have a permit to travel to Jerusalem or possess a Jerusalem ID but are under 60 years of age, must alight from the bus and walk through hostile and uninviting metal turnstiles whereby the soldiers sitting behind the reinforced glass windows check the validity of their passes. Of course, this could easily be done if all the passengers remained on the bus.Certainly, the Israelis offer the timeless pretext of security reason for having to ask Palestinians to leave the bus and go through the terminal.However, it is actually purely for political reasons; surely if security is that much of an issue, everybody, regardless of their nationality or age, would be required to get off the bus.After all, terrorism is surely not confined to Palestinians under the age of 65, in possession of a Jerusalem ID or a travel permit.If security was truly the priority, every person on the bus would get down to go through the terminal and have their luggage scanned. more.. e-mail
All Quiet on the Gaza Front
Uri Avnery, MIFTAH 6/23/2008
AND SUDDENLY: quiet. No Qassams. No mortar shells. The tanks are not rolling. The aircraft are not bombing.
In Sderot, sighs of relief. Children venture out. Inhabitants who have exiled themselves to other towns return home.
And the reaction? An outburst of jubilation? Dancing in the streets? Applause for the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, who at long last have come to their senses?
Not at all. The expression on the nation’s face is a grimace of disgust. What kind of thing is that? Where is our victorious army?
The people of Sderot are really angry. OK, so there are no Qassams, but this was supposed to happen only after the army had entered Gaza and wiped it out.
Haaretz headed its front page with the mendacious headline: "Israel pays with deeds - and gets promises".
"It’s fragile," Ehud Olmert soothes us, it can come to an end any minute. And the other Ehud, Barak, who pushed for the cease-fire, has an excuse: we have to go through the motions before starting the Big Operation in Gaza. For the sake of Israeli and international public opinion. more.. e-mail
Breathing Space
Safwat Kahlout, MIFTAH 6/23/2008
Ever since Hamas won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections in 2006, Palestinians have been paying the price for practicing democracy.
From the beginning, the international community refused to deal with the result of the elections and preferred to treat them as an atonal interlude in the international political symphony. Instead of engaging Hamas, the international community imposed the three well-known Quartet conditions that Hamas, for equally well-worn reasons, rejected.
Accordingly, international financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority stopped and along with it ended the salaries of state employees. Public sector employee salaries are the engine of the Palestinian economy and as they ended, others felt the knock-on effect and unemployment and poverty rose.
At the time it was felt that that was as bad as it was going to get, but after Hamas ousted Fateh-affiliated security forces in Gaza, people here discovered that it could get a whole lot worse. more.. e-mail
Divide and Conquer
Ghassan Khatib, MIFTAH 6/23/2008
The ceasefire agreement that was reached between Israel and the Hamas leadership through Egyptian mediation and that has been observed successfully by the two parties since Thursday marks a very significant development with potentially far reaching consequences.
The fact of the agreement spurned a lot of contradicting reactions and analysis mainly because Israel has always expressed a principled position that it will not deal with "terrorists". Secondly, on previous occasions the several ceasefire arrangements that were reached in the past under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority were always unilateral and were never recognized or even acknowledged by Israel.
Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of the agreement is thus the fact that Israel was able to reach such an agreement with Hamas over Gaza-related issues while it hasn’t been possible to reach any kind of agreement on anything with the PA over West Bank-related issues. That includes political issues that are being negotiated between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Chief Negotiator Ahmed Qureia on the Palestinian side and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on the Israeli, with extensive mediation from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It also includes the practical day-to-day economic and security issues that are being dealt with by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, with extensive mediation and facilitation by the Quartet’s envoy Tony Blair. more.. e-mail
Our vision for peace in the Middle East
Miguel Angel Moratinos, Daily Star 6/24/2008
I just returned from accompanying His Majesty the King of Spain on his tour of several Gulf countries, and I was recently in Lebanon for the election of its new president. I also just made a brief visit to Syria. The week before, I had traveled to Egypt and also to Israel, where I spoke with the Israelis and the Palestinians.
In all of these places, I have been able to confirm my impression that in this spring of 2008, the Middle East has entered a new phase, when, for the first time in a long time, our reasons for hope can prevail over the shadows that - let us not forget - still hang over the peoples of this region. Everything seems to indicate that we are witnessing the birth of a new paradigm.
A string of major advances has occurred these days. Lebanon has elected, by consensus, President Michel Sleiman, and I believe that he is a figure capable, with the help of all the other political forces, of bringing the Lebanese people together around a common project. The agreement was reached in Doha, resulting from the successful Arab mediation presided over by Qatar and the Arab League, with a European role, as well, especially on the part of Spain, France, and Italy. more.. e-mail
On Humiliation, and Gazas Dying Children
Ramzy Baroud, Middle East Online 6/23/2008
A six-year-old Palestinian girl from Gaza was killed by Israeli fire on 12 June. "Medics say the girl was decapitated by a [tank] shell," Associated Press (AP) reported the next day. The Israeli military said the soldiers opened fire in retaliation against "militants launching rockets into Israel". AP dispassionately elaborated that, "Gaza militants fire rockets and mortars into Israel almost daily." The story of a few lines ended with another corroboration of the claims made by the Israeli military: "The shelling occurred near the border where militants fired 30 rockets into Israel on Tuesday."
This is not another tirade about dehumanising media reporting in which the death of innocent Palestinians is so often blamed, one way or another, on the "militants". Neither is the evoking of this freshest tragedy -- the child victim is later named Hadeel Al-Smeiri -- intended to underscore the daily crimes committed by the Israeli military against Palestinians in the occupied territories, crimes that largely go unnoticed, buried in the not-so-important news items, nor to accentuate cold-hearted assertion that the Palestinians are to blame for forcing Israel to carry out such tragic "acts of retaliation". more.. e-mail
Burnt land policy, the language of settlers with Palestinian villages
Amin Abu Warda, Nablus, Translated & Edited by Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 6/21/2008
Black burn spots covered vast areas of farmlands that be