Radwan: Marini's statement best proof of the mistaken policy of isolating Hamas

PIC

[ 21/11/2009 - 05:00 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Ismail Radwan, one of Hamas's political leaders, has said that the statement by French Senator Philip Marini that called for ending the political boycott of Hamas was an indication that Hamas could not be sidestepped.

He told the PIC on Saturday that Marini's statement underlined that the policy of isolating, besieging and marginalizing Hamas was not of any use.

Radwan asked the European Union (EU) to get rid of its "oppressive conditions (for dealing with Hamas) and to deal with the de facto situation that was chosen and elected by the Palestinian people".

All international parties are called upon to deal with Hamas if they want to deal with the Palestine cause, the Hamas leader said, describing his Movement as the "real gate" of the Palestinian question.

Marini had told the Jazeera.net website that Hamas was representing a de facto authority in the Gaza Strip and dealing with the Movement was essential for those who wish to contribute to inter-Palestinian reconciliation, which in turn is a pre-condition for resumption of any serious settlement process between Israel and the Palestinians.

He criticized the EU boycott of Hamas, which he described as a major Palestinian faction, adding that Hamas could not be isolated forever.

The Senator noted that Paris always condemned the Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and was still refusing to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

VIDEO: Norman Finkelstein interviewed by pro-Zionist host Adam Holm on Danish TV re Israel and international law

Link

November 22, 2009 -

English is spoken 35 seconds into the video

Prisoner’s center for studies: Israel uses excessive force against detainees

Link

[ 21/11/2009 - 04:44 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The prisoners’ center for studies said Saturday that the Israeli prisons authority (IPA) commits serious violations of human rights and international law regarding the use of excessive force against Palestinian prisoners, which may sometimes cause deaths, during detention and interrogation.

The center explained that there have been a large number of Palestinian prisoners killed by Israeli jailers as a result of the use of excessive force.

It added that according to sworn testimonies of prisoners in Israeli jails, the IPA deliberately uses force to suppress them, citing as an example the events that happened in Negev prison in 22/10/2007 when Masada military unit attacked the detainees using tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at close range which led to the death of prisoner Mohamed Al-Ashqar.

One of the prisoners told the center that Israeli troops of the Nahshon military unit used by Israel to suppress prisoners in its jails physically attacked detainee Yakoub Al-Rimawi as he was being transferred to an Israeli court in chains, resulting in the loss of one of his eyes.

For his part, director of the center Ra’fat Hamdona said that dozens of incidents which led to deaths among prisoners happened to them while they were handcuffed and shackled without posing any danger or threat to Israeli troops or jailers.

Hamdona called on all institutions concerned with the issue of prisoners to support the center to file lawsuits locally and internationally against the Israeli occupation authority and to support the families of prisoners through pressuring Israel to release them.

HASS: What does Israel have against a Palestinian stadium?

Link

November 21, 2009

PHOTO: David Silverman/Getty Images Palestinians play soccer by Israel’s Separation Barrier in the West Bank town of Abu Dis June 2006


by Amira Hass - Haaretz - 20 November 2009
A friendly game between an Arab soccer team and a Palestinian team was supposed to inaugurate the new stadium being built in the eastern part of Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, at the end of the year. “Supposed to” because the Civil Administration, an arm of the Defense Ministry, has ordered that the work be halted and is threatening demolition.
FIFA, the international soccer federation, financed the stadium as part of a larger program to promote Palestinian soccer. The stadium covers 11 dunams (2.75 acres) and will hold 8,000 seats. An Israeli contractor, in partnership with a Dutch company and a Palestinian subcontractor, constructed the field.
In October 2008, when the field was ready, FIFA president Joseph Blatter and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad laid the cornerstone for the stadium. The governments of France and Germany are paying for the construction of stands. The outer wall, the lighting and the scoreboard are being financed by the Al-Bireh municipality, which owns the land and within whose jurisdiction the stadium is located.
In 1973, the municipality submitted for the approval of the IDF a detailed plan for the area where the stadium is now located. It received final approval from Israel’s National Planning and Building Council and Supreme Planning Council in 1981. Nevertheless, on October 11 of this year, Israeli soldiers and representatives of the Civil Administration showed up at the site. They arrived via the neighboring Jewish settlement of Psagot, which overlooks Palestinian neighborhoods and was built on Al-Bireh land. They delivered a stop-work order from the administration to one of the workers (whose name was handwritten, in Hebrew, on it).
On November 1, the municipality received a “final” stop-work order – addressed anonymously to “the holder,” from “the Supreme Planning Council’s building inspection subcommittee,” and issued by “Assaf.”

The document claims that work on the stadium’s stands is being carried out “without a license,” and contains other standard admonitions: “You were given an opportunity to appear before the inspection subcommittee to state your case. The subcommittee has concluded that the aforementioned work was carried out without proper permission … You are hereby obligated, in accordance with section …. of the 1966 City, Village and Buildings Planning Law, to cease activity upon and use of said land, and to raze the building … and to restore the location to its previous state within 7 days … If you do not act as required, all legal means will be taken against you, including demolition of the structure and any means required to restore the situation to its prior state, at your expense.”
A German source has told Haaretz: “This could become a major diplomatic issue between Germany and Israel. Just imagine: A German-financed project being torn down. It would definitely be a political scandal.”
Blots on the landscape
Why is the Civil Administration concerned with a soccer stadium located within Al-Bireh’s municipal boundaries, which the IDF itself approved nearly 30 years ago?
It emerges that some of the land in question, which the municipality designated for a school and other public buildings in the early 1970s, had the misfortune to later be defined as being in Area C (see box). Amid the 11,000 dunams (2,750 acres) that fall within the city’s bounds, there are several such Area C “blotches” – for the most part, in areas close to where the settlements of Psagot and Beit El, as well as IDF and Civil Administration bases, were built, on the lands of Al-Bireh and Ramallah. The headquarters of Jawal (the Palestinian cell-phone company) is located in Area C, as is the house of Dr. Samih Al-Abed, who heads the Palestinian team at the territory and border negotiation committee. Even part of the residence of PA President Mahmoud Abbas is in Area C.
The Al-Bireh municipality has not, however, received any maps from Israel demarcating the exact location of the parts of the town defined as Area C. Their location has been surmised, based on the tabu (Land Registry) documents submitted to the municipality, as per the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement: The lots for which the Civil Administration did not submit documents to the city are understood to belong to Area C. But Area C is not a planning designation, per se.
“[It is] a political designation, which was supposed to be temporary – to last just 18 months,” explained Al-Abed, an architect and city planner, and a former senior official in the Palestinian Planning Ministry.
“It is unjust, unreasonable and unfair to have to request and to wait for an Israeli license to build within the blotches of Area C that are within approved and recognized municipal areas,” he said this week, pointing out that, “It is Al-Bireh that provides all services to the citizenry, including those bits of Area C that are in the municipal area: cleaning, garbage collection, maintenance, renovations, construction.”
Musa Jwayyed, the Al-Bireh city engineer, says that over the years, various structures have been built in areas within the municipal borders that are apparently part of Area C, and that the city has also carried out the necessary infrastructure work in those areas, including preparation of a sewerage network, and the paving of roads and sidewalks – without requesting licenses from the Civil Administration.
Jwayyed: “Al-Bireh has another 18,000 dunams [4,500 acres] outside the municipal boundaries. Settlements sit on some of them, and the rest are private lands or our own land reserves. There I know I must have Israeli approval and coordination: such as for the renovation of the slaughterhouse, for reaching the municipal garbage-disposal site, for construction of a water-purification plant. But the stadium is located within the municipal boundaries that the IDF approved.”
The question is: Why, all of a sudden, more than three years after construction of the entire project began and 10 months after construction of the stands started, has the Civil Administration decided to halt the work?
Ziv Nishri, the Israeli contractor who built the field, said in a telephone conversation: “The army knew about the project because it’s impossible to do anything without the Civil Administration’s approval. FIFA is the body dealing with the foreign minister. Without the umbrella of the Foreign Ministry, the army and the Civil Administration, nothing would be happening here.”
When Nishri heard about the stop-work order this week, he was very surprised. “The plans for the stands are at least two years old. Even before we started on the project, I had the general plans for the stands, because we designed the field to fit them.”
Officials at Al-Bireh city hall see a connection between the stop-work order, and the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table as long as Israel does not freeze construction in the settlements, as well as the recent announcement by Prime Minister Fayyad of the planned consolidation of various Palestinian state institutions. The officials and local activists agree with Samih al-Abed when he says: “This is a typical kind of Israeli pressure, which means: ‘Either you go back to negotiations or we’ll punish you. We’ll do whatever we can to upset your lives.’”
The coordinator of government activities in the territories responded to Haaretz: “Recently, there have been meetings and discussions between representatives of the Civil Administration and Palestinians at the very highest level, with the goal of resolving the issue of the construction of the Al-Bireh stadium. This has been in the wake of the official measures taken against the construction that was undertaken without the proper permits and in an illegal location. The Civil Administration is working with the civil-affairs ministry of the Palestinian Authority to prepare and submit an amendment to the existing zoning plan, and following that, the possibility of a permit, in principal, for the continuation of construction will be considered.”

PLANNED TRIBUTE TO OUTLAWED TERRORIST LEADER IN ISRAELI PARLIAMENT

Link

November 21, 2009 at 9:31 am (Extremism, Israel, zionism)

Tribute to terror leader Kahane planned by Israeli legislators
Jonathan Cook

A plan by right-wing legislators in Israel to commemorate the anniversary this month of the death of Meir Kahane, whose banned anti-Arab movement is classified as a terrorist organization, risks further damaging the prospects for talks between Israel and the Palestinians, US officials have warned.

A move to stage the commemoration in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, is being led by Michael Ben-Ari, who was elected this year and is the first self-declared former member of Kahane’s party, Kach, to become a legislator since the movement was banned 15 years ago.

The US Embassy, in Tel Aviv, has sent a series of e-mails to Reuven Rivlin, the parliamentary speaker, asking that he intervene to block the event.

According to US officials, pressure is being exerted on behalf of George Mitchell, the US President Barack Obama’s envoy to the region, who is concerned that it will add to his troubles as Israeli and Palestinian leaders clash over a possible move by the Palestinians to issue a unilateral declaration of statehood.

Some Israeli legislators have warned that Ben-Ari and his supporters are gaining a stronger foothold in parliament, in an indication of the country’s increasing lurch rightwards.

“Ben-Ari and the advisers he has brought with him are unabashed representatives for Kach and Kahane’s ideas,” said Ahmed Tibi, an Arab legislator and the deputy speaker. “What we have is in effect a terrorist cell in the parliament.”

Kahane, a US rabbi who emigrated to Israel in the early 1970s, advocated the expulsion of all Arabs from “Greater Israel,” an area that the far right believes encompasses not only Israel but also the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and parts of neighboring Arab states.

Kahane was elected to parliament in 1984 but was barred from standing again four years later. He was assassinated by an Egyptian-American in New York in November 1990.

In 1994 Kach was declared a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States after Baruch Goldstein, a supporter, went on an armed rampage through the Ibrahimi mosque in the Palestinian city of Hebron, killing 29 worshippers and injuring 150.

Despite the ban, Kach is still active in many West Bank settlements, especially in and around Hebron, where shrines to Kahane and Goldstein regularly attract large numbers of devotees.

Ben-Ari, one of four members of the National Union elected to the 120-seat parliament, has included as his parliamentary advisers two former Kach activists, Baruch Marzel and Itimar Ben Gvir, who are leaders of the far-right Jewish National Front. Ben-Ari has never disavowed his support for Kahane, telling The Jerusalem Post newspaper this month that Kahane “dedicated his whole life to Israel … He was a great man and a great leader.”

This month Ben-Ari was the voice on an advertisement on the Israeli radio station Reshet Bet to promote a public memorial service for Kahane held by his family. It was also reported that for the first time posters had been placed in many central areas of Jerusalem publicizing the event and declaring “We all know now — Meir Kahane was right.”

The United States has expressed more concern, however, at a commemoration being planned in parliament.

Michael Perlstein, the second secretary at the US Embassy, is reported to have e-mailed Rivlin several times, asking whether the commemoration was likely to be approved. According to e-mails leaked to the Israeli media, he added: “This is something Senator Mitchell and his team are following with some concern.”

An embassy spokesman reiterated those concerns last week: “To stir up controversy at the same time that we are trying to get people back to the [negotiating] table, is not productive of that effort. It is only natural that Senator Mitchell would be paying attention to that — and the US government as well.”

Rivlin has reassured the United States that he has refused Ben-Ari permission to stage a commemoration but has also admitted that it would be difficult for him to stop a “stunt” by Kahane supporters in the chamber.

“We are talking about a provocation,” Rivlin told the Haaretz newspaper. “The man [Kahane] and his outlawed movement cannot be separated. This is an attempt to bring the Kach movement into the Knesset through the back door.”

Last week, Ben-Ari appealed against the speaker’s decision to the House Committee, which rules on issues of parliamentary procedure. Rivlin has said he will abide by the committee’s decision.

Its chairman, Yariv Levine of the ruling Likud Party, said he was not happy with Rivlin’s refusal and is reported to be working with the speaker and Ben-Ari to find a solution.

Ben-Ari responded angrily to the US concern: “I was elected to the Knesset by citizens of the independent state of Israel. The flagrant involvement of Mitchell has crossed a red line and it testifies to the bowed head of the Knesset speaker that is turning the Knesset into a dish rag.”

Ben-Ari is probably not the only former member of Kach in parliament. Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister and leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, the third largest in parliament, is believed to have joined Kach when he first arrived in Israel in the 1970s. His membership was revealed in February by Yossi Dayan, the movement’s former secretary general.

Last week Ben-Ari had to cancel a trip to the United States, his first overseas visit, after he was refused a US visa. He had intended to speak to American Jewish groups to encourage emigration to Israel.

To date, the only authorized parliamentary commemorations are for Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister assassinated by a right-wing Jew in 1995, and for Rehavam Zeevi, a former general and leader of a far-right anti-Arab party, who was assassinated by Palestinian gunmen in 2001.

Source

Jerusalemites, foreign activists march in protest against IOA demolition policy

Link

[ 21/11/2009 - 03:00 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Tens of Jerusalemites and foreign activists marched in the streets of occupied Jerusalem to protest the Israeli occupation authority's (IOA) policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied holy city.

The march was organized on Friday in a show of solidarity with the families of Ghawi and Hanun who lost their homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The participants, who headed to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood amidst intensified Israeli military presence, carried placards demanding an end to the IOA policy of demolition, displacement and forced expulsion of the indigenous inhabitants of the holy city.

They also called for ending the IOA settlement drive and ejecting families from their homes, and denounced in this respect the Jewish settlers' forced seizure of the homes of Ghawi and Hanun and demanded their immediate evacuation of the two homes.

CAMERA DISTORTS THE PICTURE

Link

November 21, 2009 at 7:45 am (Associate Post, Extremism, Hasbara, Israel, Palestine, zionist harassment)

Zionist propaganda body seeks volunteers to distort Wikipedia input on Middle East

by Khalid Amayreh

A Zionist hasbara (propaganda) body based in North America is trying to recruit “volunteers” whose main job is to distort the input of the internet’s most visited websites in Israel’s favor.

Propaganda efforts are reportedly focused on popular sites such as Wikipedia, the huge on-line encyclopedia which can be edited by anyone

CAMERA, which calls itself a “committee for accuracy in Middle East reporting in America,” already has a team of dozens of paid Jewish propagandists who regularly and often scandalously distort basic data pertaining to such themes as Israeli apartheid, Zionism and its ideological similarity to Nazism, Israeli state terror and ill-treatment of Palestinians as well as other issues related to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Recently CAMERA sent a circular to potential Zionist propagandists, asking them to help ensure a pro-Israeli bias in the internet.

“The idea behind Wikipedia is that if thousands of well-meaning and informed volunteers collaborate on an online encyclopedia, the result would be more accurate, up-to-date and inclusive than any print encyclopedia could possibly be.”

The circular went on: “CAMERA seeks 10 volunteers to help us keep Israel-related entries on Wikipedia from becoming tainted by anti-Israel editors. All it takes to be an effective volunteer is a basic comfort level with computers. Call or email me, and I will train you on how to become a volunteer Wikipedia editor.”

Reputed for its notoriously mendacious and inaccurate input, CAMERA has consistently sought to exonerate the Israeli occupation forces of war crimes committed against innocent civilians especially in the Gaza Strip.

Acting as a propaganda mouthpiece for the Israeli occupation army, the group, relying on questionable and often concocted statements by Israeli army spokespersons, argued on many occasions that the widespread killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army occurred by mistake and that measures were often taken to minimize civilian casualties.

Earlier this year, the Israeli army carried out a virtually genocidal onslaught against the nearly totally unprotected Gaza Strip, killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilians, including hundreds of children.

Moreover, a sustained aerial bombing by the Israeli air force destroyed more than six thousand Palestinian homes and hundreds of public buildings including more than a hundred mosques.

CAMERA, whose staff includes former Israeli Shine Beth’ officials, attacked the recently-published Goldstone report, accusing the former South African Judge, who is Jewish, of reporting “inaccurate information.”

The Goldstone report, based on meticulously authenticated data obtained first-hand testimonies from victims, accused the Israeli forces of knowingly and deliberately committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 21-day onslaught.

The data contained in the Goldstone report were corroborated by testimonies made by Israeli soldiers who took part in the winter onslaught.

Israel, apparently fearing international condemnation, had refused to cooperate with the Goldstone commission.

Report: The Palestinian society is still young

Link

[ 21/11/2009 - 08:02 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- A report issued Friday by the Palestinian central bureau of statistics said that the age structure of the Palestinian society in general and children in particular indicates that this society is still young, where the children under age 18 constitute 49.4 percent of the total population.

The report, which was issued on the occasion of the world children’s day, also stated that according to data collected from a survey of the Palestinian household expenditure and consumption conducted in 2007, the poverty rate among poor families, who have children, reached 59.3 percent and 47.2 percent for childless families.

It added that the percentage of male and female students who dropped out of school in the basic education (elementary stage) was 1.6 percent and in secondary education was 6.5 percent.
The results of the labor force survey 2009 (second quarter) showed that the percentage of employed children, whether paid or unpaid, amounted to 32,000 children which comprises 3.9% of the total number of children in the age group 10-17 years, the report noted.

Jew Convicted of Murdering 5 People Flees to Israel and Later Becomes Obama’s Guest at the White House

Link

Published November 21, 2009

An article appearing in a recent online edition of the Jewish Forward lays out perfectly the criminal syndicate that is Israel and how any Jew anywhere, convicted even of multiple murders, can not only flee there and be safe, but even be invited to the White House later.

Begin Forward article–

In his lively introduction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the recent General Assembly in Washington, Leonid Nevzlin reminded the audience just how unexpected and unusual a role this was for him.

“There was a time not so long ago when I couldn’t even imagine standing here in this place, in this country, only blocks from the decision-making capital of the world, with this responsibility,” Nevzlin said, describing his life as a businessman and apathetic Jew in Moscow before he made aliyah in 2003 and became a heavyweight among Jewish philanthropists.

His prominent speech — which earned him a standing ovation by the collected leadership of the American Jewish federation world — was the privilege given to him as international chairman of the yearly gathering and its major sponsor. And though the exact figure has not been disclosed, organizers of the G.A. have told the Forward that his money played a significant part in making the three-day event happen. Nevzlin’s charity, NADAV, was also conspicuous as one of the main organizers of the conference’s many forums and workshops.

The speech represented a crowning moment of what has been a complete rebranding effort by Nevzlin, 50, erasing his past as a Russian oligarch who just narrowly escaped jail, convicted in absentia last year in a Moscow courtroom to life in prison for ordering the murder of five people. A recent article about him in Forbes magazine — which estimated his wealth in 2004 to be $2 billion — was headlined, “The One Who Got Away.”

Israel, which has refused repeated attempts to extradite him to Russia, has helped greatly in this transformation. He has become an important philanthropist there, using his charity to fund projects that promote “Jewish peoplehood” and to gain influence and respectability in the process. This past September, he made a donation of $6 million to establish the Museum of the Jewish People, a new iteration of Beit Hatfutsot, Tel Aviv’s Diaspora Museum.

Now, with a very visible onstage handshake with the Israeli prime minister and a visit with President Obama at the White House as one of 50 invited guests during the G.A., Nevzlin is effectively positioning himself to become a philanthropic force in the United States, as well.

According to Dede Feinberg, co-chair of this year’s G.A. and former president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Nevzlin’s problems with the Russian authorities were not an issue in granting him the chairmanship. “I did not know about it. And it was only after the G.A. that I asked,” Feinberg said. “And I learned that he was completely exonerated by courts in Israel. I said, okay, good enough for me.” Feinberg was referring to Israeli courts’ refusal to extradite Nevzlin.

The only hint in Nevzlin’s speech that he has a past that still hounds him was his mention of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the onetime head of the Yukos oil company, who is now sitting in a Siberian jail, serving a nine-year prison sentence. Nevzlin was Khodorkovsky’s deputy, and together with him he held the controlling shares in Yukos, a multibillion-dollar enterprise that made them both very rich and powerful in the 1990s.

In October 2003, Khodorkovsky was arrested for tax evasion and fraud, accused of embezzling $25 billion. He and his supporters, however, have blamed Vladimir Putin for inventing the charges as a way of breaking up the influential business empire. Khodorkovsky was then the richest man in Russia, and he made no secret of his political ambitions, funding opposition parties and democracy efforts.

The same month that Khodorkovsky was arrested, Nevzlin entered Israel on a tourist visa and began his self-imposed exile.

“My friend Khodorkovsky never came to terms with his Jewish identity, and that’s one of the reasons why Putin and his henchman have gotten him and many others behind the barbed wire of the modern-day Gulag,” Nevzlin told the G.A. in his speech.

Though he had been involved in reviving Jewish life in the former Soviet Union, it’s clear that Nevzlin immigrated to Israel not only because, as he put it in his speech, “it was time for me to join the Jewish people,” but also because he was escaping the fate that his friend and business partner had met. Nevzlin and his representatives did not return calls for comment on this story.

Not long after Nevzlin left, the Russian authorities charged him with a whole range of criminal offenses. He was said to have contracted out Yukos’s head of security — who is now serving a 24-year jail sentence and has denied both Nevzlin’s guilt and his own — to kill individuals who were getting in the way of Yukos’s business dealings. Among the dead were Valentina Korneyeva, a Moscow businesswoman who owned a building in central Moscow that Yukos’s holding firm, Menatap, wanted to buy, and Vladimir Petukhov, mayor of Nefteyugansk, where Yukos’s largest production unit was based.

Twice the Russian authorities tried to extradite Nevzlin, but both times Israel’s State Attorney’s Office denied the request, citing insufficient evidence. In 2006, the argument even reached Israel’s High Court of Justice, which concurred with the State Attorney’s Office.

Last summer, Russian courts tried and convicted Nevzlin in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison. Earlier this year, in response to an appeal, they upheld the verdict and ordered him to pay 5.5 million rubles, about $235,000, in compensation to the victims and their families.

Nevzlin has maintained that all the accusations against him are baseless, politically motivated fictions invented by Putin and his circle. The Russian authorities have continued to pursue Nevzlin’s extradition, even demanding that the United States, where he now travels frequently, hand him over. But his visit to the White House with Jewish leaders offers strong proof that he has been given a de facto exoneration by America’s government. The White House confirmed his visit and his meeting with Obama on November 9, but not whether he was vetted by the state department or any other government agency.

Meanwhile, his life in Israel has revolved largely around his philanthropic efforts. He set up an institute on Eastern European and Russian Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has funded many projects through his charity, NADAV— named after himself and two other Yukos shareholders, Vladimir Dubov and Mikhail Brudno. Run by his daughter, it tries to confront what Nevzlin said in his G.A. speech was the biggest threat facing the Jewish world: “A failure to articulate a single, global Jewish identity.”

In addition to donating heavily to, and leading, the renewal of Israel’s Diaspora Museum, Nevzlin is on the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the board of trustees of Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal.

Misha Galperin, executive vice president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, said he was responsible for the marriage between Nevzlin and the Jewish Federations of North America, organizers of the G.A. He thinks that Nevzlin’s appearance at the gathering marks his entrance on the American Jewish scene. “Many people were quite taken with him,” Galperin said.

Asked if Nevzlin’s past had been an issue, Galperin bristled and wondered whether one would ask the same question of Natan Sharansky, the new head of the Jewish Agency for Israel who was accused by the Soviet Union of being a CIA agent and sentenced to 13 years in jail. “The two cases have absolutely the same validity,” Galperin said, “none.”

–end of Forward piece

Once again, the organically-criminal nature of the Jewish state is unmasked. One can just imagine the shrieking that would take place if someone convicted of murder in Israel–absentia or not–were to flee to another country and that country refused to extradite the criminal back to Israel for justice. Furthermore, the fact that Nevzlin–A MAN CONVICTED OF ORDERING THE MURDERS OF 5 PEOPLE–was treated as a guest in the White House by the president himself shows just who is running things in Washington.

More than this though, the most notable thing is the complete absence of outrage from the Jewish community. Much like their moral silence when it came to other infamous individuals such as Bernie Madoff and the organ harvesting rabbis, so too do American Jews obviously have no problem with one of their most powerful and important organizations associating with a convicted murderer, the attitude apparently one of “The victims were Gentiles, so what’s the BFD?”

And people still wonder why there is this thing known as “Islamic terrorism” when criminals such as this are free to come and go as they please and when American leaders are so willing to consort with men whose hands are covered with innocent blood?

(c) 2009 Mark Glenn

nomorewarsforisrael@gmail.com

Hammad: Blocking firing of rockets after unanimous endorsement of all factions

Link

[ 21/11/2009 - 03:14 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Fathi Hammad, the interior minister in Gaza Strip, has said that his ministry would not block firing of resistance rockets at Israeli targets unless all Palestinian factions unanimously endorsed such a step.

He told a press meeting organized by the Palestinian media forum on Saturday that the Hebrew media's talk about launching a new offensive on the Gaza Strip was farfetched and fell in line with the psychological warfare.

The minister also said that the Hamas leadership was imposing a media blackout on all statements regarding the prisoners' exchange deal, adding that such a blackout was an essential part in the negotiations.

Shifting to the internal issues, Hammad noted that his ministry managed to continue with its work despite the martyrdom of 350 of its cadres and the destruction of more than 60 of its premises in the latest Israel war on the Strip.

He denied presence of any political prisoner in Gaza, adding that only prisoners awaiting trial for criminal charges were in jail.

The minister asked the journalists to visit the house of former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza to see for themselves that no security elements were occupying it.

He finally said that his ministry had formed a human rights unit that monitors the work of the ministry.

AMERICA, HOME OF THE (INSERT WORD HERE)

Link

November 20, 2009 at 9:56 am (Activism, Associate Post, Corrupt Politics, Democracy)

Intro by Chippy DeeThis was a dark day for this country – a very strong defender of the people, Lynne Stewart, entered prison – a lawyer and activist. Charles Barron accompanied her. It was one of the saddest sights I’ve seen. Before entering she told the crowd of about 200 that she loved them and then said today was the anniversary of the execution of Joe Hill and reminded us of some of his final words – “Don’t mourn. Organize.” This may be just the beginning.

Terror Trial Lawyer Begins Prison SentenceSurrounded by supporters, disbarred civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart surrendered to U.S. marshals Thursday to begin her prison sentence.On Tuesday, a federal appeals court judge upheld her conviction and ordered the 70-year-old to begin serving her 28-month sentence.

Stewart was found guilty in 2005 of helping a client who was convicted in a plot to blow up city landmarks to communicate with fellow extremists.

Before heading to prison, a defiant Stewart said she was in good spirits.

“It’s very hard to feel downhearted today. I know there will be other day’s but I can take whatever they dish out. I am part of a movement, I am part of a left movement a mass movement and I am not going to back off ever,” Stewart said.

The judge who ruled on the case is deciding whether to change her sentence after an appeals court suggested it may be too lenient.

Click HERE to see video

PHOTO ESSAY ~~ LYNNE STEWART, AMERICA’S NEWEST POLITICAL PRISONER

November 21, 2009 at 9:06 am (Activism, Associate Post, Current Affairs, Photography)

TURNING HERSELF IN TO FEDERAL MARSHALS

Photos © by Bud Korotzer

Also read THIS report by Stephen Lendman

PALESTINIAN ‘PRESIDENT’ STEPS DOWN WHILE HIS NATION MOURNS ITS OLIVE TREES

LINK

November 21, 2009 at 10:26 am (Corrupt Politics, Fatah, Israel, Occupied West Bank, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, zionist harassment)

Apathy, as Mahmoud Abbas abandons an irrelevant presidency
By Daoud Kuttab

A political leader’s decision not to seek re-election usually triggers fervent discussion about potential heirs. Yet, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ withdrawal from the presidential election scheduled for January 24, 2010, has produced nothing of the kind in Palestine – not because of a dearth of leadership or a reluctance to mention possible successors, but because the presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has become irrelevant.

Abbas’ withdrawal comes at a time when Palestinian frustration with the political process has rendered suspect the entire rationale behind the PA, established in the mid-1990s, following the Oslo Accords. The main component of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) agreement with Israel was a five-year interim period during which talks were expected to lead to an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Sixteen years later, it has become clear that the Israelis have made no effort to come to terms with Palestinian national aspirations – and that no effective effort has been made to convince them. The number of illegal Jewish settlers in Palestinian areas has doubled, leaving Palestinians increasingly convinced that negotiations are a waste of time. Many recall the preferred strategy of the former Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir: “I would have conducted negotiations on autonomy for 10 years, and in the meantime we would have reached a half-million people in the West Bank.”

Initially, the five-year interim agreement called for the election of a Palestinian Legislative Council and an executive leader whom the Israelis wanted to call a “chairman,” spurning the word “president.” Because Arabic makes no distinction between chairman and president, the Israelis accepted use of the Arabic word rayyes in the official English text.

Palestinian refugees in exile and other Palestinians living in the diaspora were not allowed to vote. East Jerusalem Palestinians were allowed to vote only at the post office or at booths outside the city limits.

Abbas’ withdrawal merely confirms the obvious. Another such election in the near future, including the one set for January, is unlikely to occur, mainly owing to the continuing rift between the PLO and the Hamas Movement, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Hamas participated in the 2006 legislative elections, which followed Israel’s military withdrawal from Gaza. But for years Hamas and other radical Palestinian groups have rejected the Oslo process, on the grounds that free elections under Israeli occupation would be absurd. Hamas has the power to stymie the vote and has indicated that it would do so.

Moreover, Abbas has not given up his positions as head of the PLO and leader of its biggest faction, Fatah, which remains in control in the West Bank. Abbas cannot resign from his post for the foreseeable future, lest the Hamas-backed speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council take over. At the same time, no PLO official is likely to seek the presidency without Abbas’ approval, which he will withhold until a new mechanism for ending the occupation is found.

The PLO will likely gain much from Abbas’ decision, because it de-emphasizes the status of the PA president and raises the profile of his post as chairman of the PLO’s executive committee. That shift, in turn, clears the way for a generational change in leadership – and, more importantly, a transition to post-Oslo politics.

The PLO’s old guard – men like Yasser Arafat and Abbas, who led the liberation organization from exile and returned home with the Oslo Accords – have dominated the Palestinian political landscape up to now. After they depart the scene, Palestinian leaders who were born under occupation and spent time in Israeli prisons will most likely fill the vacuum.

The most prominent such figure is Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the student movement at Bir Zeit University in the 1980s and one of the main organizers of the First Intifada, resulting in his deportation by Israel in the late 1980s. In 2002, he was arrested and sentenced to a long prison term on charges that he led the Second Intifada, which had begun two years earlier, and ordered some of its military attacks.

Despite being imprisoned, Barghouti was recently elected to Fatah’s central council, and a number of others who spent time in Israeli prisons will join him. One is Jibril Rajoub, imprisoned for 19 years and deported in the First Intifada, only to return to lead one of the security services after the PA was established. Another is Mahmoud Dahlan, also an ex-prisoner and former security official, although the loss of Gaza to Hamas, for which many Palestinians hold him partly responsible, has dimmed his leadership prospects.

Finally, there is Nasser al-Qudwa, the former PLO representative to the United Nations. Qudwa is a dark-horse candidate to succeed Abbas – a possible compromise figure who has never been directly involved in security or military activities. For many Palestinians, Qudwa, a soft-spoken, multi-lingual nationalist (and Arafat’s nephew), presents an acceptable face for Palestine both locally and internationally.

The coming months will reveal whether we are, indeed, witnessing the dawn of the post-Oslo era in Palestinian politics, and whether a new leader, with new supporters, will be required to revive the Palestinian cause. Whoever emerges on top will have to present an effective strategy to end four decades of military occupation and bring about a truly independent state that a majority of Palestinians can embrace.

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Mourning uprooted olive trees in West Bank villages

By Gideon Levy

The old tractor sputtered up the hill, its engine seemingly about to expire, but its big wheels bumping across the rocky terrain. We stood in the back, swaying wildly, holding on for dear life. On the hilltop loomed the big antenna of the settlement of Yitzhar, whose houses lay on the other side of the hill. The very knowledge of their presence inspired dread. It was a glorious sunny day, the spectacular valley sprawling below. The houses of the Palestinian village of Burin lie in this valley, which lies between two hills: on one stands Yitzhar; on the other, Har Bracha, outside Nablus.

Burin is caught between a rock and hard place, between Har Bracha and Yitzhar. We have visited Burin often, most recently after settlers burned down some of its homes. Settlers once stole a horse from a villager, torched fields, demolished a home in the village and uprooted olive trees. We have frequently documented the uprooting of olive trees: Less than a month ago, in this space, we told the story of the beautiful vineyard belonging to the agriculture teacher Mohammed Abu Awad from the village of Mureir, whose 300 trees were felled by intruders – probably from the illegal outpost of Adei Ad – using buzz saws.

Here, clues left by the criminals suggest that they used handsaws and ripped out the crowns of the trees with their hands, one crown after another, one branch after another, rending and wounding the trees. In Mureir, the agriculture teacher wrapped the stumps in sacks, giving them the look of figures in shrouds. Here, in Burin, the stumps remain where they were hurled on the ground, stacks of dead wood, branches withering, until finally the farmer will use them as firewood to heat the village’s clay ovens, the tabuns.

But the feeling is the same, the affront is the same and so is the grief. In October, the farmer Abu Awad said about the ruins of his vineyard in Mureir: “What must you feel if you plant and tend and then it’s all cut down? What must I feel? If I had been there, I’d have told them, cut off my hands, but don’t cut down my trees – What did the tree do to them, for them to treat it like this?” (Haaretz Magazine, October 16)

And now the farmer Ibrahim Imran tells us in Burin: “These trees are like my children.” Hands or children, the grief of those who tend their olive groves is searing and deeply moving. The inability of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and of the officers of the Israel Police to protect the groves of these farmers, to protect their property and their honor, is the inability of all of us.

We stood on the rear fender of the tractor as it clambered its way up the hill. Standing with us was Ruth Kedar, an activist from Machsom Watch, which monitors checkpoints, and Yesh Din (Volunteers for Human Rights). She has crisscrossed the territories in her private car for years, documenting wrongs and injustice. Her husband, retired colonel Paul Kedar, is also active in Yesh Din. It’s worth lingering over his riveting biography: Paul Kedar comes from a Revisionist family; his father was one of Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s secretaries. He himself was one of the founders of the Israel Air Force and later served as air attache in Paris during the period of the Sinai Campaign. He has been in the Mossad and served as consul general in New York, among other state posts. He was a friend of Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres. He too now devotes his time to documenting the occupation and struggling against its abuses. The Kedars, now in their eighties, will soon receive the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and deservedly so.

Above the noise of the tractor, one of the Palestinian farmers tells us that he heard that his neighbor, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, from Yitzhar, has permitted the killing of all non-Jews. Indeed, Shapira, head of the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva in Yitzhar (named for the biblical Joseph), recently published a book, “The King’s Torah,” in which he states that it is permissible to kill every gentile who constitutes a threat to the Jewish people, even if he is a child or an infant.

When Imran arrived to work his land early Thursday morning, he was appalled. It was, he says, “the height of frustration,” and adds: “After God, I rely only on my olive trees. These trees are no less than 70 years old. My great-great-grandfather planted them.”

Imran called everyone he could think of – the District Coordinations Offices, the International Red Cross, B’Tselem and Yesh Din – and also filed a complaint with the Israel Police at Ariel. Investigators came to the grove and took fingerprints, he says, but he has yet to receive confirmation of having submitted a report. Yesh Din is now handling his complaint.

An IDF jeep suddenly arrives to see what’s going on – just the kind of jeep that rarely shows up when the settlers go on a rampage.

A spokesman for the Shai (Samaria-Judea) District of the police stated in response: “On November 12, a resident of Burin complained that he noticed that 90 olive trees on his land had been chopped down. The damage was documented by the criminal investigations department at the site, and trackers scoured the area to find footprints. Testimonies were taken from two locals: the owner of the land and his worker. The police are conducting additional investigative activities, among them locating suspects and witnesses. The Samaria District police are also operating on the intelligence plane.”

Source

Israeli forces shoot at Gaza bird-catchers, farmers

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Eva Bartlett, The Electronic Intifada, 20 November 2009

On 15 November at 8:30am, a number of young men went as usual to the land near Gaza's northern border with Israel planning to catch birds. Amjad Hassanain, 27, was among the bird-catchers hunting near the border fence when Israeli soldiers began shooting.

The shots which missed the other bird-catchers hit Hassanain, grazing his shoulder. Cameraman Abdul Rahman Hussain, filming in the vicinity, reports having seen the group of bird-catches head north.

"We were near the former Israeli settlement of Doghit," said Hussain, referring to the area northwest of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

"I had gone to the border area to photograph a young bird-catcher. We were about 400 meters from the border fence, but when we heard the shooting, we moved back to around one kilometer."

According to Hussain, the other men had to carry the wounded Hassanain one kilometer from the site of injury, then transferred him to a motorcycle and finally to a car.

"He was covered in blood, I couldn't tell where he was hit," said Hussain.

There to document the work of bird-catchers, Hussain was surprised by the shooting.

"They always go there to catch birds. They put their nets close to the fence in order to catch as many as possible." Like the bird-catchers, Hussain believed the Israeli soldiers along the border were familiar enough with the bird catching activity that they wouldn't shoot.

Two hours later, Mahmoud Mohammed Shawish Zaneen and seven other farmers took a break from their work plowing land east of Beit Hanoun.

"We had three tractors with us. We'd been working since 8am, planting wheat. At first we worked about 450 meters from the border fence, but later we were 700 meters away," he explained.

The farmers had paused to drink tea when Israeli soldiers began shooting.

Zaneen added, "The tractors were stopped and we were sitting on them. There were about seven Israeli soldiers, on foot. They shot the other tractors and then shot mine. They didn't give us any warning, just started shooting."

The bullet which pierced Zaneen's left calf continued into his right calf.

Since the end of last winter's Israeli invasion of Gaza, at least nine Palestinians have been killed, and another more than 34 injured, by Israeli shooting and shelling in the border areas in Gaza's north and east.

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian human rights advocate and freelancer who arrived in Gaza in November 2008 on the third Free Gaza Movement boat. She has been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement and documenting Israel's ongoing attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. During Israel's recent assault on Gaza, she and other ISM volunteers accompanied ambulances and documenting the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

This is Zionism: Transfer the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict

Poll: Transfer Tops Solutions to Arab-Israeli Problem

Reported: 22:06 PM - Nov/19/09

(IsraelNN.com) Transfer of Arabs from the Palestinian Authority to actual Arab countries was the most popular solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, according to a poll this week by Israel National News. Of the more than 6,400 people surveyed, 53.2 said 'Transfer of Palestinians to another Arab country' when asked, "What's the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?"

The "two-states for two peoples" solution being pushed by the United States and the international community received 30.8 percent support, while the idea of giving Palestinians Jordanian citizenship was approved by 14.5 percent. Maintaining the status quo received 1.3 percent of the vote.
To take the latest poll and see results of other surveys, go to the Arutz Sheva/IsraelNationalNews.com home page and scroll/page down below "More Headlines."

Halaika: Israeli plans to destroy the Aqsa Mosque in final stages

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[ 20/11/2009 - 08:59 PM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Palestinian MP Sameera Al-Halaika of Hamas’s parliamentary bloc in the PLC has warned Friday that the Israeli schemes to destroy the Aqsa Mosque were in their final stages, adding that the Arab and Muslim silence sends the wrong message to the IOA.

She also deplored the “state of death” that engulfs the Arab and Muslim world and the clear indifference they demonstrated towards the holy Muslim shrine, explaining that the organized Israeli ethnic cleansing program of the Arab and Muslim presence in the occupied city of Jerusalem was going on unopposed and reached the final stages.

In this regard, the legislator called on the Arab and Muslim nations and officials to end their inexplicable silence and urged them to sincerely stand beside their Muslim and Arab brothers in occupied Jerusalem who, according to Halaika, face monstrous cancer that works day and night to diminish the Palestinian presence in the city either through demolishing their homes or through confiscating and canceling of their residency IDs among other illegal practices with the aim to change the demography of the city in favor of the Jews.

Halaika’s remarks came after the Aqsa foundation for heritage and endowment exposed new Israeli excavations, including two tunnels and two elevators near the western part of the Mosque in order to link Al-Magharba gate with Al-Buraq plaza, and to make storming the Mosque an easy job.