To bomb or not to bomb...

FAD

NATO, which is a mixed-salad,
was  created to bomb Communism, but
  now it bombs the Muslims , only to defend them.

Recently,
the USA has handed over the command
of the Libyan-invasion, into the care of NATO .

For those of us , who came from another planet,
I hereby inform them that :
NATO was founded by the USA
The USA is the back-bone of the NATO
The USA is the main financier of the NATO
The USA is by far the biggest member in the NATO
Because of the USA , all NATO members have even to speak English.
Finally,  the commander in chief of the NATO ,
is always a  US-General ......


This means today , 
that if , or when, anything goes wrong,
the NATO shall be blamed........ (and not the USA.)


Eng. Moustafa  RoosenbloomDouble-agent-but-for-one-employer

Posted by Tlaxcala at 3:45 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Hamas confirms support for Syria's people and leadership

[ 02/04/2011 - 03:08 PM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Hamas has said in a statement on Saturday that it stands by both the leadership and people of Syria, praising Syria's leadership and people for siding with the movement to resist the Israeli occupation throughout the years.

”The leadership and people of Syria have stood with the Palestinians' resistance movement and rights and embraced and supported the Palestinian resistance forces, especially Hamas, in the darkest and most difficult of times,” the statement reads. ”It has taken great risks and challenges and has been steadfast throughout pressures in order to remain committed to resistance in the region, supporting Palestine and its people and its resistance in particular.”

”What is happening now is an internal affair concerning the people of Syria,” Hamas declared. ”But Hamas, based on its principle of respect for the will and aspirations of the Arab and Islamic people, hopes the current situation will pass with the aspirations and the wishes of the Syrian people achieved and Syria's stability and internal cohesion preserved.”

• In case you missed it: Mishaal responds to Qaradawi

According to the Palestinian IDIOT Hamas should have supported Rifaat Al-assad, Khaddam, Hariri, and Syriam "Muslim" Brother's thugs, in stead of supporting the "Slaughter of the Syrian People"

He, Khara anf their Zionist Master, Molly, would like to see another IRAQ in Syria, a dream that shall never come true.

No surprise, on February 13, 2008, the bastard dropped Memri's BOMBSHELL about Bush's strangest Syrian bedfellow, at center of suspicion in Hezbollah leader's car bombing,

[Shawkat, by delivering the goods on the assassination of America's "Most Wanted" Mugniyah, has ensured that he will now receive the protection of the Bush White House in the current UN investigation of car bombings in Lebanon, most notably that of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri."], he posted

About two years ago he preyed that the The Pace of the US/Syrian Dance is Set to Quicken Soon
that Hamas is feeling the heat from Syria, and advised hamas leader to look for another shelter

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Nuhad Mashnooq: "My boss & benefactor will not come back to power as long as Hezbollah retains its arsenal!"

Via FLC

"Mashnooq also said that the conditions that facilitated the nomination of Najib Miqati, are not there anymore, alluding to the unrest in Syria. He proposed a new government composed of 'technocrats' (whatever that means in the Lebanese context)... On Iran, Mashnooq said that its regime was, contrary to the Saudi one, a dictatorship bent on organizing and arming religious terrorist cells bent on implementing its agenda everywhere in the Muslim world..."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 9:20 AM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

PA prisoner goes on two weeks of hunger strike

[ 02/04/2011 - 02:32 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Friday marked two weeks since Abdul-Hakeem Suleiman Hamdan, 37, has gone on hunger strike as he demands his release from the prisons of the Palestinian Authority security services.

Hamdan has been detained by the PA's preventative security agency in Tulkarem for the past 87 days, his family told the Palestinian Information Center, amid fears that he has been treated poorly.

He was arrested two years back for three months by the same security agency in another incident, and he has since suffered from varicose veins after being tortured and tied up awkardly, his family added. They warn his health condition could worsen as he continues the hunger strike.

They called on rights groups to intervene and help release Hamdan, and they hold there is no legal grounds for keeping him detained.

Abbas's militias have detained 70 supporters of Hamas in the West Bank over the past month of March.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

"..You have to look at the big picture. Mistakes will happen.."

Via FLC

(Reuters) - "At least 10 rebels were killed by a coalition air strike on Friday, fighters at the scene said on Saturday, in an increasingly chaotic battle with Muammar Gaddafi's forces over the oil town of Brega.

With the more experienced and better organized rebel army locked in combat with Gaddafi's forces, hundreds of young, inexperienced volunteers could be seen fleeing east toward Ajdabiyah, after coming under heavy mortar and machinegun fire.... Rebel fighters at the scene said as many as 14 people may have died in the bombing, which they said happened around 10 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Friday.

But at the rebel headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi, spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told Reuters that the rebel leadership still wanted and needed allied air strikes.

"You have to look at the big picture. Mistakes will happen. We are trying to get rid of Gaddafi and there will be casualties, although of course it does not make us happy."..."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 9:01 AM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

IOF kidnap shepherd, take his cattle in Tubas

[ 02/04/2011 - 02:23 PM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped a Palestinian shepherd from Tamun village in the West Bank district of Tubas and confiscated his cattle.

Local sources said the IOF kidnapped a shepherd called Ghazi Bisharat, 19, at the pretext he was herding his cattle near an Israeli settlement in Tubas.

The troops handcuffed and blindfolded the villager before taking him to an unknown destination, eyewitnesses said.

The IOF also kidnapped on Friday morning a Palestinian villager who was protecting his land from Jewish settlers

The Hebrew radio did not mention that the villager was defending his land, but claimed that he used a shovel to attack a settler from Netzer outpost in Gush Ezion settlement area.

The radio added that the incident happened when a fight broke out between settlers and Palestinians over the ownership of a piece of land currently cultivated by the settlers.

In a separate incident, Jewish settlers at noon Friday savagely attacked Palestinian farmers in Al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem city.

Eyewitnesses told a reporter for the Palestinian information center (PIC) that hand fighting took place between the farmers and trespassing Jewish settlers as the formers were trying to defend their agricultural lands.

They added that Israeli troops came to the scene and attacked the Palestinian farmers with batons injuring some of them. One farmer was taken to an unknown destination by the troops.

Another group of Israeli settlers from Deboya settlement on Friday set fire to bowers used by Palestinian storekeepers as shades on Al-Shalala street in Al-Khalil city.

Firefighters of the municipal council in Al-Khalil extinguished the fire and prevented it from extending to nearby stores.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Egyptian workers face US-backed counter-revolution

By Bill Van Auken

WSWS Monday, Mar 28, 2011 The promulgation this week in Egypt of a decree banning strikes and protests has laid bare the real character of the military-controlled regime that succeeded the US-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak.

According to AhramOnline, the decree:

“criminalizes strikes, protests, demonstrations and sit-ins that interrupt private or state-owned businesses or affect the economy in any way. The decree-law also assigns severe punishments to those who call for or incite action, with the maximum sentence one year in prison and fines of up to half a million pounds [US-$84,000].”

In other words, the regime is attempting to outlaw and criminalize the very methods used by millions of Egyptians to oppose Mubarak and—after 18 days of mass demonstrations—drive him from power on February 11.

Moreover, the decree is meant above all to set the legal framework to violently suppress the heroic struggles of the Egyptian working class, whose mass strikes continued to escalate during the four years preceding last month’s protests in Tahrir Square.

In the wake of Mubarak’s downfall, workers throughout the country have sought to press their demands for increased wages, the right to employment, full democratic rights and the sacking of managers and union bureaucrats who served the dictatorship.

In recent weeks railway workers, pharmacists, doctors, store clerks, media workers, pensioners and even the police have staged strikes, protests and sit-ins that would be criminal offenses under the new law. Just days before the announcement of the decree, over 1,000 temporary contract workers at the Suez petroleum company, Petrojet, staged a mass sit-in to protest layoffs and demand their right to be treated as full-time employees.

The working class has interpreted the successful ouster of a dictator who had ruled the country for 30 years as a victory that should bring with it the satisfaction of their just demands.

“We really had hopes that the new government will support us and look into our demands,” Ali Fotouh, a driver in the public transportation system told AhramOnline. “We expected them to say we have all of your legal demands on our desks and there is a timeline of a month or two within which they will be achieved…This is not fair, why don’t you solve our demands so we don’t go on strike. The tone reminds me of the old days of Mubarak, threats and oppression used by the regime.”

Mubarak’s successors, organized in the Supreme Armed Forces Council headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who served as the dictator’s defense minister for two decades, have drawn a diametrically opposite conclusion. The military command is bound inseparably to Egypt’s corrupt wealthy elite of which it is a part. It sees the fall of the dictator as a signal that the regime must be consolidated around the massive security apparatus that remains firmly in place, while utilizing the services of bourgeois “opposition” elements, ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to figures like Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Mousa, to provide it with a democratic fig-leaf.

In the past few weeks, the counterrevolutionary aims and methods of the regime headed by Field Marshal Tantawi have become ever more open and increasingly directed at quelling the struggles of the working class.

On March 9, armed troops and plainclothes thugs wielding metal pipes, clubs and electric cables violently cleared Cairo’s Tahrir Square, beating up demonstrators who had been there since January 28. Hundreds were dragged to a make-shift detention camp where they were tortured with electric shocks, beaten and subjected to sexual abuse.

Similar violence was used to disperse Coptic Christians demonstrating outside the state television and radio building in Cairo over the burning of a church. There is mounting evidence that the regime is deliberately stoking sectarian divisions in a bid to divert social struggles.

And this week the regime imposed constitutional amendments drawn up by a commission appointed by the Supreme Armed Forces Command and approved in a hastily convened referendum. While the new interim rules leave open when and how elections will ultimately be organized, they maintain firmly in place the state of emergency through which Egypt has been ruled ever since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 and continue the absolute powers granted to the presidency that formed the constitutional underpinning of the Mubarak regime.

The developments in Egypt, together with the bloody repression in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria and now the unleashing of an imperialist war in Libya, make it clear that the “Arab Spring” has drawn to a close. They have demolished any basis for illusions that peaceful protest and the toppling of one or another hated dictator can, in and of themselves, bring about genuine democratic and social transformation, or that the aspirations of the workers and the oppressed can be realized under the tutelage of bourgeois parties and politicians.

The ouster of Mubarak was an undoubted victory and a demonstration of the immense social power of the Egyptian working class. Mubarak, the military, the Egyptian ruling elite and the regime’s principal patrons in Washington were unable to impose their “orderly transition” that would have left the dictator in power to directly fashion the regime that would succeed him. They were forced to make a humiliating tactical retreat in the face of the mass movement of strikes and protests that gripped Egypt.

Yet the principal issues that gave rise to these mass struggles remain unresolved; the revolution that began on January 25 remains uncompleted. The removal of Mubarak was only its very first step.

The conditions of mass unemployment, particularly for younger Egyptians, remain unchanged, as do living standards that have fallen woefully behind rising costs of basic necessities. The chasm between the tens of millions living in poverty and a wealthy elite that, in alliance with foreign capital, has looted the country’s economy remains just as wide as ever. And the worsening of social conditions brought on by the world capitalist crisis continues.

And the military, which formed the bedrock of Mubarak’s regime, remains firmly in power, backed to the hilt by Washington. It was not merely a coincidence that the decree banning strikes and protests was announced on the same day that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Cairo to praise the “constructive role” of the Egyptian military in maintaining “stability” and to promise to continue funneling billions of dollars in US aid to back its counterrevolutionary operations.

The gains won by the mass struggles of the Egyptian people against the Mubarak regime are threatened. They can be defended and carried forward only by means of a new political strategy based upon the mobilization of the working class in the struggle to overthrow the military regime that represents the interests of Egyptian and foreign capital and replace it with a workers’ government.

The Egyptian events have verified once again Trotsky’s Theory of Permanent Revolution, which established that the struggle for basic demands of democratic rights and equality can be realized only on the basis of a socialist program and the struggle for power by the working class.

While the Egyptian events have demonstrated the immense power of the working class, they have also proven the indispensability of a conscious revolutionary socialist leadership.

The lack of such a leadership and of a clear revolutionary perspective has allowed the Egyptian bourgeoisie, backed by imperialism, to turn the situation to its advantage, exploiting the class divisions within the broad movement that coalesced around Tahrir Square and basing itself on more privileged layers that have no desire to see the revolution go beyond the removal of Mubarak.

The class character of the struggle unfolding in Egypt is emerging ever more clearly. A new leadership is needed to explain that the democratic and social demands of the Egyptian workers and oppressed can only be realized through the implementation of socialist policies, and that the victory of the revolution in Egypt requires an international strategy capable of uniting Egyptian workers with the international working class in a struggle to defeat the Arab bourgeoisie, the Zionist regime in Israel and US and European imperialism.

This requires the building of a new party in the working class, a section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, to fight for this perspective and thereby arm the Egyptian working class politically for the intense class battles that are to come.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israel plans to seize a million sq meters of Negev land

[ 02/04/2011 - 09:27 AM ]

THE NEGEV, (PIC)-- Israel has planned to confiscate a million square meters of Palestinian and Arab land in the Negev desert, occupied in 1948, on the anniversary of Land Day which fell two days ago, the president of the council of regional villages of the Negev, Ibrahim al-Waqili warned.

The plan falls under the recommendations made by the Israeli Goldberg committee which was formed in 2008 headed by retired judge Eliezer Goldberg.

”The disclosure of these plans on the anniversary of Land Day will only increase our determination to continue to struggle. There will be no bargains or concessions on the land. We have paid the tax of blood and have given martyrs to preserve our existence,” said Waqili.

He added that Israeli occupation authorities have sights set to settle 300,000 Jews in the Negev within the next ten years and wants to accelerate the implementation of the said recommendations.

Israel considers the recommendations a project to settle the conflict and organize housing in 45 unrecognized Arab villages where nearly 120,000 people live. Israel wants to seize a million square meters of land and turn it into state property and demolish nearly 30,000 homes and pay compensation over the land, reserving only 200 thousand square meters for the Arabs.

Waqili told Al-Jazeera.net that his council has rejected the recommendations and has refused to bargain the land.

He said that steadfastness would be the best response to thwart the plan.

Israel has begun implementing a plan targeting individual farms in the Negev and has set up nearly 70 farms across thousands of square meters.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Global actions mark Palestine's Land Day

Report, The Electronic Intifada, 2 April 2011

Protesters in Lydd commemorate the 35th annual Land Day. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)

Direct actions, rallies and protests took place across Palestine and in numerous cities across the world on 30 March to commemorate the 35th annual Land Day, an important day of remembrance for six Palestinians with Israeli citizenship gunned down by Israeli forces in 1976 during a general strike in protest of expanded land confiscation inside the state.

In addition to the six killed, hundreds were arrested, imprisoned and injured during the general strike and protests after the Israeli government announced plans to expropriate more land for Jewish-only settlements. Since then, annual events have been held to honor those killed while highlighting the struggle for Palestinian land rights inside Israel, the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, and across the global refugee diaspora.

Many events incorporated boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) strategies and direct actions, as the ongoing Palestinian-led call for BDS grows in worldwide response to Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing practices. According to the BDS movement website, more than 60 cities across the globe commemorated Land Day by engaging in BDS actions.

Al-Araqib

Correspondents with The Electronic Intifada attended Land Day events in the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Naqab (Negev) desert, which has been demolished 20 times since July 2010 by the Israeli government in collaboration with the Jewish National Fund (JNF) (Keren Kayemet LeIsrael in Hebrew). After dispossessing the people of al-Araqib, the JNF plans to plant a forest on the village's land.

Approximately 1,000 persons attended the rally in al-Araqib, which featured speeches by Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) including Ahmed Tibi, Taleb al-Saneh, and Jamal Zahalka, as well as leading figures of the Palestinian community in Israel such as Sheikh Raed Salah. Salah said that Palestinian citizens of the state will continue to resist Israeli policies of dispossession.

Sheikh Siyah al-Toury, head of the Popular Committee to Defend al-Araqib, thanked the lawmakers and Knesset members in attendance "despite being battled at the Knesset by members of one of the most racist parliaments in the history of Israel," the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) reported ("Thousands Mark Land Day In The Negev," 30 March 2011).

Several women leaders spoke as well, addressing the role of women in the ongoing struggle for Palestinian land rights across the region.

Arrabe and Sakhnin

Thousands marched in the northern Galilee cities of Arabbe and nearby Sakhnin, commemorating Land Day and denouncing Israeli governmental policies of racism and discrimination.

Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Mohammed Zeidan, chair of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee said during the protest that "Israel is regressing into dangerous directions in its treatment of its Arab citizens" ("Israeli Arabs decry state 'regression' as thousands march on Land Day," 30 March 2011).

Lydd

A massive Land Day protest was held in Lydd, on Tuesday, 29 March, as approximately 1,500 Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrated against repression and discrimination in the city.

Protesters "raised Palestinian flags, carried signs reading 'Enough with the Ethnic Cleansing' and burned pictures of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman," Haaretz reported ("Some 1,500 Israeli Arabs take part in Land Day protest in Lod," 29 March 2011).

Protests have been held every Tuesday evening since the December 2010 demolition of seven Palestinian homes by Israeli forces.

West Bank

Land Day events took place across cities, towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, including Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarem. Ma'an news reported that teachers across the West Bank including East Jerusalem "devoted their first class Wednesday to the history of Land Day, and the Palestinian struggle to prevent land confiscations" ("Palestinians commemorate Land Day," 30 March 2011).

Palestinians and international solidarity activists planted trees in the village of Husan, near Bethlehem. More than 50 people gathered to plant trees on village land that abuts the illegal Bittar Illit settlement, and were immediately surrounded by the Israeli military, according to the Alternative Information Center (AIC) ("Palestinians Commemorate the 35th anniversary of Land Day," 31 March 2011).

Gaza

University students marking Land Day marched in Gaza City, but the protest was "broken up" by Hamas security forces, according to a report by Agence France Presse ("Israeli Arabs, Bedouins protest discrimination," 30 March 2011).

United States

In the US, Land Day commemorations occurred in the form of direct actions in support of boycott, divestment and sanctions while activists challenged the land confiscation policies of the JNF.

San Francisco

Activists with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) and American Muslims for Palestine in the San Francisco Bay Area held a protest outside the offices of the Internal Revenue Service in downtown San Francisco, demanding that the IRS withdraw charitable status of the JNF.

Protesters delivered a letter to the IRS that stated in part, "The JNF is neither a charitable nor an environmental organization and therefore does not qualify for tax-exempt status ... This mandate alone warrants the revocation of the JNF's tax-exempt status because it forms the basis for the JNF's discriminatory and racially motivated land-use restrictions that undermine the human and civil rights of indigenous Palestinians" ("Report Back: Jewish Activists Deliver Letter of Protest to IRS addressing racially motivated actions by non-profit Jewish National Fund," 30 March 2011).

New York City

Land Day commemorative events took place in several areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn, where solidarity activists staged protests in support of the boycott of Israeli products.

Activists with Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel and Code Pink held a rally outside a Ricky's department store in Brooklyn, where Israeli settlement-made Ahava cosmetics are sold ("Report Back: New York City Ahava Action," 1 April 2011).

On 26 March, activists led a "flash-mob" dancing routine at Grand Central Station in lower Manhattan, where participants sang "Don't stop boycottin'" to the tune of Journey's "Don't stop believin'" ("BDS Flash Mob in Grand Central Station, NYC," 26 March 2011).

Seattle

Activists in Seattle, Washington, staged a protest outside a Trader Joe's supermarket and urged the company to de-shelve Israeli-made Sabra and Tribe hummus brands, as well as other Israeli products. A photo montage was posted of the protest.

Chicago

Dancing and singing in front of "The Bean" sculpture, social justice activists held a "flash-mob" action in downtown Chicago on 30 March. Participants sang "BDS" to the tune of "ABC" by the Jackson 5 as part of the global BDS day of action on Land Day.

Joy Ellison, an activist with Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago (PSG) stated in a press release that "[i]n the lyrics to our song, we sing 'apartheid and ethnic cleansing go on in Palestine every day, but without the help of you and your money, the occupation will go away.' While the struggle to end Israel's apartheid policies is not an easy one, it's true that we in the United States can support justice and peace by refusing to support companies and institutions that support Israel and its occupation of Palestine" ("Chicago Activists Mark Palestinian Land Day with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Flash-Mob," 31 March 2011).

The flash-mob was also held earlier in the day, outside of the Chicago Cultural Center, home of the Chicago Sister Cities International office. PSG stated that for the last two years, activists "have pressured the city of Chicago to end its relationship with its Israeli sister city, Petach Tikva."

"Petach Tikva, an officially segregated city, is the first Jewish-only settlement in historic Palestine and the site of the primary detention center where Israeli forces abuse and torture Palestinian political prisoners. Human Rights group Amnesty International dubbed Petach Tikva 'Israel's Guantanamo,'" the press release added.

A video of the flash-mob action at The Bean can be viewed on YouTube.

Italy

A group of young Palestinians in Rome, Italy, protested outside the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) mission office on Land Day with a list of demands directed at the Palestinian Authority (PA).

As part of the global call to action issued by the Palestinian Youth Network (PYN) on Land Day, the youth in Rome demanded that the PLO be restructured to include all sectors of Palestinian society, including diasporic communities, and that democratic elections be held guaranteeing one person-one vote representation of all members.

The PYN statement added: "All of these demands are not our end goals but rather first steps to strengthen the Palestinian popular movement against occupation, apartheid and the Zionist colonization of our homeland" ("Land Day: March 30, 2011").

Meanwhile, activists with the Rome Palestine Solidarity Network planted olive trees in various locations in the city in commemoration of Land Day. The March 30th BDS Day of Action website reported that four olive trees were planted "on the very land where some years ago the JNF, together with the Municipality of Rome, had planted trees" ("Report Back: Rome," 1 April 2011).

An olive tree was planted at the Colosseum, and another was planted next to a monument honoring American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza strip in 2003.

UK

Solidarity activists held a civil disobedience protest inside the head office of the Veolia corporation in London on Land Day, demanding that the company stop providing services to illegal settlement colonies in the occupied West Bank.

Veolia is a French-owned transportation and urban planning corporation that has several contracts with the Israeli government to provide services to West Bank settlements.

The UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) reported that activists "handed a letter to a Veolia spokesperson explaining and specifying why Veolia's actions in aiding Israel's occupation constitute grave breaches of humanitarian and international laws. At the same time a protestor gave the spokesperson an oral summary of the contents of the letter" ("Protestors Pay A Visit To Veolia's London HQ On Palestine Land Day," 30 March 2011).

A video of the action was posted to YouTube.

Other boycott actions took place in Norway and in France, where activists held a "flash-mob" action in support of boycotts in front of the Eiffel tower ("Report Back: Flashmob in Paris "PalMob"," 1 April 2011).

BDS activists in Montreal, Canada, are holding a protest on 2 April to intensify their call for boycott and demand that Israel cease policies of apartheid against Palestinians ("Montreal (Quebec) action this Saturday," 1 April 2011).

Global anti-Zionist activists challenge the JNF on Land Day

Meanwhile, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) launched a campaign on Land Day to stop JNF land confiscation and appropriation activities. In a press release, IJAN urged solidarity activists to incorporate strategic challenges to the JNF in their boycott and solidarity work ("Join the international campaign to Stop the Jewish National Fund," 27 March 2011).

"Land Day 2011 will welcome the launch of internationally coordinated campaigns to challenge the JNF-KKL," IJAN stated. "As part of the global movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle, and until such time as the State of Israel respects and implements international law, the Palestinian BDS National Committee and many other organizations call on global civil society to join in a campaign to challenge the JNF."

IJAN posted an international call to stop the JNF at: www.stopthejnf.org/callforaction.html.

National Lawyers Gathering to Prosecute Figures Conspiring Against Lebanon in July 2006 War

Local Editor

The Lebanese National Lawyers Gathering, which includes representatives from the March 8 forces, will be holding a meeting on Thursday April 7, 2011 in which the gathering would follow up the mechanism in prosecuting some Lebanese political figures, who Wikileaks revealed to scheme conspiracies against the resistance during the July 2006 "Israeli" aggression on Lebanon.

In this context, Hizbullah Legal Affairs official, Ibrahim Awada, referred to that the gathering met two weeks ago in the Popular Conference Center in Beirut, where they discussed the Wikileaks revelations, and the conspiracies schemed against the Lebanese people during the July 2006 war, where "Israeli" crimes were committed in most of the Lebanese territories.

In an interview with Al Intiqad online newspaper, Awada confirmed that the gathering meets on a regular monthly basis to discuss national and professional issues within the National Bar association. He added the gathering considered the incitement to murder in July 2006, represents a crime against the country; and it should be prosecuted by article 273 of the Lebanese Penal Code.

Awada said this comes with what is related to assaulting the state's foreign security, and the enemy's will to commit more crimes against civilians and Lebanese territories, especially that among the figures that conspired against the resistance, there was who requested a Lebanese occupation. Awada clarified that tens of citizens who were highly harmed during the July aggression, filed lawsuits through the gathering against the Lebanese conspiring figures. He confirmed that the lawsuits to be raised will be personal, especially for those who lost their relatives, homes and facilities during the war.

Hizbullah Legal Affairs official stated that among the proposed lawsuits, there is one, according to article 278 of the Lebanese law, which seeks the prosecution of former Acting Interior Minister, Ahmad Fatfat; because of the Marjayoun barrack incident, in which Fatfat ordered to have the enemy troops presented with tea.

Ibrahim Awada affirmed that the General responsible for the Marjayoun incident should also be prosecuted. Furthermore, Awada said that prosecuting these people is not only a matter related to the Lebanese, for also foreigners who were harmed by the aggression and the conspiracies can also seek prosecution of those conspiring with the enemy.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Syria's 'Muslim Brotherhood': "No need for Western intervention in Syria..."

Via FLC

ISTANBUL—"Syria's Muslim Brotherhood said Friday that they support Western military intervention in Libya, but see no need for similar action in their own country. Libyan President Moammar "Gadhafi was killing his own people. There was no other option" than to impose a no-fly zone and act to protect civilians, the movement's political chief, Mohamed Tayfur, said in an interview. 

In Syria, by contrast, "this is an internal problem. We believe it can be solved as brothers and that it would be easy to solve this problem internally," Mr. Tayfur said. Mr.

Tayfur and the movement's general secretary, Riad Al-Shaqfa, were just the latest Arab Islamist leaders to make the trek to Turkey since uprisings began to roil the region earlier this year....  

The two men said repeatedly that they didn't believe Syrian President Bashir Assad would carry through with promised reforms and predicted that protests would continue...."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 4:16 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Egyptians Rally in Cairo to ’Save Revolution’

الآلاف من المصريين يتظاهرون في جمعة الانقاذ
 "بدون "الإخوان المسلمين"

Tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square Friday, issuing calls to "save the revolution" that ousted president Hosni Mubarak and to rid of the country of the old regime.

The Youth Coalition Movement, an umbrella grouping those who launched the uprising against Mubarak, called this week for a new demonstration to demand judgment of the corrupt and those who fired live rounds on protesters. The young pro-democracy activists also want the country's institutions purged of members of the former ruling National Democratic Party as well as the restitution of "the millions stolen from the people".

Protesters chanted "The people want to purify the country" and "Marshal, Marshal, legitimacy stems from Tahrir." They were referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces who is de facto head of state since 18 days of popular protests forced Mubarak to resigned on February 11.

Friday's weekly Muslim prayers in Tahrir Square were attended by 15,000 people, according to state news agency MENA, but in the afternoon twice as many protesters thronged the central Cairo plaza.

Egyptian courts have forbidden several former ministers, politicians and businessmen from leaving the country, as well as freezing their assets pending the findings of an enquiry into corruption and embezzlement.

Mubarak and his family were bound by the same restrictions in February.
Nevertheless, pro-democracy activists say they fear a return to the past and the "confiscation" of the revolution.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Dozens injured during weekly anti-wall demonstrations

[ 01/04/2011 - 10:46 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Dozens of Palestinian anti-wall demonstrators suffered breathing difficulties as a result of inhaling teargas during the weekly anti-wall demonstrations in the villages of Bilin, al-Ma’sara, Kasra and Aboud which took place after the Friday prayers.

In al-Ma’sara village to the south of Bethlehem dozens suffered breathing difficulties when protesters made their way from the Zawahra school towards the annexation wall and the IOF responded by firing teargas canisters in abundance.

In Bilin, near Ramallah, protesters chanted slogans calling for national unity, Palestinian rights, resisting occupation and release of all captives. The IOF troops responded by firing teargas injuring dozens of protesters who suffered breathing problems and at least three protestors suffered eye-problems.

In the same context IOF troops assaulted a number of residents of the village of Kasra to the south west of Nablus who performed the Friday prayer in their fields which are threatened with confiscation by the occupation.

Local sources said thousands of residents of the village held the Friday prayers at fields belonging to the villagers and threatened with confiscation and that the IOF troops assaulted a number of them and stopped others from reaching the fields.

In the village of Aboud to the north of Ramallah the IOF troops assaulted activists who held an olive tree planting activity to mark Land Day. The troops harassed the activists trying to stop them from continuing with their activity and they uprooted some of the saplings which the activists planted.

Meanwhile, violent confrontations broke out Friday evening in the Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan, to the south of the Aqsa Mosque where local sources said that IOF troops fired dozens of teargas canisters , but no casualties were reported.

The IOF troops had earlier arrested two Palestinian children in Silwan after the Friday prayers.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

'Rebel' Finance Minister: Qatar will buy our oil with "any kind of arms we can get to..."

Via FLC

"Conspiracy theorists, you probably called this one. The rebels in Benghazi say they’ve reached a deal to send oil abroad in exchange for guns to keep their revolution going. Only it looks like an act of desperation. The rebels’ de facto finance minister, Ali Tarhouni, tells the Associated Press that Qatar will buy oil “currently in storage” in southeastern areas of the country that the rebels hold. What will they buy with the Gulf state’s cash? “Any kind of arms that we can get to,” Tarhouni tells the wire. “We have a list of the arms we need and we’re trying some different fronts to buy them.” That’s a relief for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who urged lawmakers that “someone else” needs to train and arm the rebels — anyone but U.S. troops. But practically everything about the deal makes it seem improbable. Start with the oil itself. Moammar Gadhafi’s loyalists routed the rebels this week, meaning Qatar would be crazy to believe they’d have a guaranteed supply of oil from people who might lose their hold on oil supplies at any time. Then rebels lack clear routes to get the oil to Qatar, by truck and ship. If that wasn’t enough, the U.N. still has oil sanctions on Libya, making the purchase arguably illegal — and possibly opening up visiting tankers to NATO navies. Then there are difficulties with handing the rebels weapons. As Gates testified on Thursday, it’s not enough to give them rifles and artillery or armored vehicles. Someone’s got to teach them how to use the gear — and that’s going to take a lot of training. Nathan Hughes writes at the U.S. Naval Institute’s blog that the rebels are such an incompetent force (“rag-tag rabble,” he says), that they’re unlikely to keep whatever arms they get secure. “[T]he weapons they have broken out of Libyan military stockpiles will be proliferated around the region and popping up in conflicts from North Africa to Yemen for years to come,” he predicts.

It might be a moot point. On Friday, the continued rebel losses in the field led the chief of the opposition’s interim governing council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, to spell out terms for a ceasefire. If loyalist forces pull out of rebel held cities, they’ll agree to lay down their weapons. That would be one way tobring the war to a close. On the other hand, not everything looks bleak for the rebels. A different report found that they “appeared to have more communication equipment such as radios and satellite phones, and were working in more organized units.” (You don’t think…) But if they think all they need is guns from Qatar, all they’re likely to get is weaponry they won’t know how to operate, in exchange for a fire sale on their most valuable natural resource."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 3:49 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Abu Arafa: Jerusalem is a time-bomb that could cause entire region to erupt

[ 01/04/2011 - 08:59 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Khalid Abu Arafa, the former minister of the Jerusalem affairs, has described Thursday Jerusalem as a time-bomb that could cause the entire region to erupt.

In an interview with the PIC from his sit-in tent in Jerusalem, Abu Arafa said that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad know very well that forming a new Palestinian government before ending the political rift in the Palestinian arena is like building a house without foundations.

He also urged both Fatah and Hamas Movements to seriously discuss restoring Palestinian unity and achieving national reconciliations, saying that direct dialogue between Palestinian factions is the shortest route to achieve such noble goal.

As far as the Israeli crimes against the occupied city of Jerusalem, Abu Arafa said that what the Israeli occupation authorities were doing in the occupied city indicates that it was flip-flopping and it completely lost the compass.

"The Israeli occupation was well-aware of the state of disgruntlement engulfing the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem due to the Israeli practices against them, and they also know that Jerusalem is a time-bomb that could explode the entire region if detonated," he stressed.

• IOA planning to expropriate 662 Palestinian dunums in OJ
• Occupation seek to settle more Jewish families in East Jerusalem

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Archbishop Desmond Tutu supports divestment campaign, mock wall

Via A4P

April 2, 2011

No More Deaths – No Mas Muertes -  30 March 2011

Dear University of Arizona Community,

I am writing today to express my wholehearted support of the students in No Más Muertes/No More Deaths humanitarian/ migrant-rights group and their institutional statement advocating divestment or business severance from the Caterpillar and Motorola corporations.  

I appreciate their insistence for your school to terminate this relationship on the grounds of these companies providing military-style technology and assistance to U.S. forces committing systematic abuses in Arizona and nationwide.  I also think it is important that the students are highlighting these same companies that provide similar technology and assistance for Israel to use in its illegal military occupation and settlement of Palestinian lands.

When an immigrant is criminalized in Arizona or elsewhere in the U.S. for not having the right papers as he tries to make a living, I stand with him.  When a Palestinian man stands for hours at an Israeli military checkpoint in order to get to his job and make a living, I stand with him.  And I ask you to stand with me, with them, as the students are at the threshold of a new movement that seeks justice by withdrawing support for injustice.

I am not speaking from an ivory tower.  Degradation and humiliation of innocent people harassed over their “legal” status and documentation was prevalent throughout the reign of Apartheid. We lived it—police waking an individual up in the middle of the night and hauling him/her off to jail for not having his/her documents on hand while s/he slept.  The fact that they were in his/her nightstand near the bed was not good enough.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who, through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. 

 Students played a leading role in that struggle, and I write this letter with a special indebtedness to and earnest gratitude for your school, the University of Arizona, for its role in advocating equality in South Africa and promoting corporate ethical and social responsibility to end complicity in Apartheid.

The same issue of equality is what motivates the students’ divestment movement today, linking the issues of immigrant/indigenous rights in the U.S. and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.  The movement students are leading in Arizona to better the conditions there and in Palestine is politically refreshing and should be an inspiration to us all.

It was with immense joy that I learned of the massive mock apartheid wall the students erected through your campus to bring these issues to the forefront.  The students cleverly label their mock border wall “Concrete Connections” to symbolize the intersection of interests that guide U.S. policy in militarized Arizona and in Israeli-occupied Palestine.

I was reminded of how similarly touched I was when I visited American campuses like yours in the 1980s and saw students creating mock shanty towns and demonstrating in the baking sun to protest the brutal conditions of Apartheid.  Is my hope that the creative action by the students will inspire a new movement of mock walls dividing campuses across the U.S. to show how the militarized border not only runs along Arizona and the Southwestern region but everywhere in the United States where communities of immigrants, indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities are raided, abused or exploited.  Such demonstrations can also show that in every corner of the United States sits the potential to help end the Israeli occupation by withdrawing U.S. funding and support which makes it possible.

The abuses faced by people in Arizona and in Palestine are real, and no person should be offended by principled, morally consistent, non-violent acts to oppose them.  It is no more wrong to call out the U.S. governments—at the federal and Arizona state levels—for their abuses in Arizona and throughout the country than it was to call out the Apartheid regime for its abuses.  Nor is it wrong to single out Israel for its abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory as it was to single out the Apartheid regime for its abuses.

I am writing to tell you that, despite what detractors may allege, the students are on the right track and are doing the right thing.  They are doing the moral thing.  They are doing that which is incumbent on them as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings.

With these truths and principles in mind, I join with the students in No Más Muertes and implore your school to divest any form of business investment, whether stocks, bonds, or other business agreements, from companies such as Caterpillar and Motorola, as a symbolic gesture of non-participation in conditions and practices that are abominable.  To those who wrongly accuse us of unfairness or harm done to them by this call for divestment, I suggest, with humility, that the harm suffered from being confronted with opinions that challenge one’s own pales in comparison to the harm done by living a life under occupation and daily denial of basic rights and dignity.

It is not with rancor that we criticize the Israeli and U.S./AZ governments, but with hope, a hope that a better future can be made for both Israelis and Palestinians—for migrant, indigenous, and all peoples regardless of immigration status; a future in which both the violence of the occupier and the resulting violent resistance of the occupied come to an end, and where one people need not rule over another, engendering suffering, humiliation, and retaliation. True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute, including national citizenship.  Students are helping to pave that path to a just peace and they deserve your support.  I encourage you to stand firm on the side of what is right.

God bless you.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (Cape Town, South Africa)

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian