Israeli forces arrest Palestinian on his return from testifying to the UN in Geneva

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International Solidarity Movement
Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:11 UTC

Israeli forces arrest Palestinian on his return from testifying to the United Nations in Geneva.

Mohammad Srour was arrested on 20 July 2009 while crossing the Allenby Bridge from Jordan.

Srour and Jonathan Pollack, an Israeli solidarity activist, testified to the United Nations in Geneva on 6 July 2009 about the murder of 2 young men by Israeli forces during a demonstration in Ni'lin.

(Video available: here, download the video: here)

Srour, a member of the Ni'lin Popular Committee Against the Wall, participates in demonstrations that take place against the theft of Ni'lin's land. He and Pollack were witness to the shooting of 2 Ni'lin residents (Arafat Rateb Khawaje and Mohammed Khawaje) on 28 December 2009, during a demonstration in solidarity with Gaza.

"I know full well that I will pay the price for this testimony when I return at Israeli crossing points in my journey of return after this hearing." - Mohammad Srour stated at minute 4 of his testimony to the United Nations

Srour was arrested at the border crossing of the Allenby Bridge and taken to Ofer prison. On Wednesday, he was interrogated by Israeli forces and his lawyer has requested an urgent hearing for Thursday. He will likely be taken to court on Thursday, 23 July 2009 to hear the charges against him.

Background

The West Bank village of Ni'lin has been demonstrating since the Israeli government began for a second time to construct the Wall on village lands in May 2008. To date, Israeli forces have killed 5 residents of Ni'lin and critically injured 1 American solidarity activist. According to local medics who volunteer with the Palestinian Red Crescent, over 450 people have been injured during demonstrations as of April 2009.

Visibly, the violence from Israeli forces dramatically increased during and after the 22-day assault on Gaza that began on 27 December 2008. Israeli forces have killed 3 demonstrators since the beginning of the Gaza assault in Ni'lin. Additionally, the Israeli army has introduced new weapons against demonstrators; using the high-velocity tear gas projectile and a 0.22 calibre live ammunition shot by sniper fire as a means of crowd dispersal.

Additionally, Israeli arrest and intimidation campaigns on the villages that demonstrate against the Wall, have led to the arrests of over 76 Palestinians in Ni'lin alone.

* 5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

* 13 March 2009: Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile. He is currently at Tel Hashomer hospital with uncertain prospects for his recovery.

* 28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008.

* 28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

* 30 July 2008: Yousef Amira (17) was shot in the head with two rubber coated steel bullets. He died in a Ramallah hospital 5 days later on 4 August 2008.

* 29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

In total, 19 people have been killed during demonstrations against the Wall.

In total, 38 people have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition in Ni'lin: 9 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 29 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.

Since May 2008, residents of Ni'lin have been organizing and participating in unarmed demonstrations against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Despite being deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the Occupation continues to build the Wall, further annexing Palestinian land.

Ni'lin will lose approximately 2,500 dunums of agricultural land when construction of the Wall is completed. Israel annexed 40,000 of Ni'lin's 58,000 dunums in 1948. After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the illegal settlements and infrastructure of Kiryat Sefer, Mattityahu and Maccabim were built on village lands and Ni'lin lost another 8,000 dunums. Of the remaining 10,000 dunums, the Occupation will confiscate 2,500 for the Wall and 200 for a tunnel to be built under the segregated settler-only road 446. Ni'lin will be left with 7,300 dunums.

at 9:58 AM 0 comments

Labels: Illegal Occupation, Solidarity, Subjugation

Israel Cuts Palestinian Tragedy From Textbooks

Israel Cuts Palestinian Narrative From Texts
July 22, 2009

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli government will remove references to what Palestinians call the ''catastrophe'' of Israel's creation from textbooks for Arab schoolchildren, the education minister said Wednesday.

The reference to ''al-naqba,'' the Arabic word catastrophe as Palestinians call their defeat and exile in the war over Israel's 1948 creation, was controversially inserted by a dovish education minister for the first time in 2007.

The phrase remains contentious six decades after Israel was founded.

''No other country in the world, in its official curriculum, would treat the fact of its founding as a catastrophe,'' Education Minister Gideon Saar told Israel's parliament on Wednesday.

Israeli Arab lawmaker Hana Sweid accused the government of ''naqba denial.''

''It's a major attack on the identity of the Palestinian Arab citizens of the state of Israel, on their memories and their adherence to their identity,'' he told the Associated Press.

Teachers will be free to discuss the personal and national tragedies that befell Palestinians during the war, said Saar, who represents the hard-line governing Likud Party. But textbooks will be revised to remove the term, he added.

The decision applied to a third-grade textbook for Arab schoolchildren. Jewish textbooks make no mention of the term.

When former education minister Yuli Tamir introduced the term, some hard-line Israelis accused her of making Israel look like it was apologizing for its own existence.

Tamir ''is expressing a sort of political masochist spirit and ... a total lack of national pride,'' Cabinet Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at the time. Lieberman is now foreign minister.

Yossi Sarid, a dovish former education minister, said Saar's decision showed insecurity.

Full article

at 8:24 AM

Labels: Supremacism

Posting Signs at the Sites of Demolished Palestinian Villages

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By Eitan Bronstein
July, 2009

The Zionist collective memory exists in both our cultural and physical space. Many monuments and road signs point out the loss of Jewish soldiers in wars, yet no indication of the destruction of Palestinian life may be found at all on our cultural and geographical landscape. The heavy price paid by the Palestinians -- in lives, in the destruction of hundreds of villages, and by being uprooted from their homes -- receives no public recognition. Demolished Palestinian villages are never commemorated, their names often Hebraicized and bestowed upon the new settlements established in their place. These villages are invisible spots on Israel's landscape; only the obstinate sabra bushes serve as their silent monuments.

Palestinian pain, too, is illegitimate; all expressions of pain are considered hostile and threatening. Israel regards its Arab citizens' grief as a threat to Jewish existence here and now. In past years Palestinian awareness of the political importance of collective memory and public commemoration of the Nakba ("disaster"), in opposition to Israeli Independence Day, has risen and become more visible. Visits to demolished villages now take a more central role in shaping the identity of Palestinian citizens of Israel, yet these are made unobtrusively and without demands that the state officially recognize their suffering.

Zionist collective memory also prevents Jews from acknowledging their part in the destruction, from accepting responsibility and, consequently, from achieving real reconciliation with the Palestinians. The Jewish people have not taken and do not take any action aimed at acknowledging their part in the Palestinians' suffering. Any possibility for such action is immediately rejected out of fear that recognition of injustices committed will oblige the Jews to leave Israel. This paranoia is both derived from the Jewish "victim complex" and reinforces it.

Posting signs at destroyed Palestinian villages is part of a larger effort to bring civil and national equality to the country. Physically marking these villages and holding public discussions on the Palestinian Nakba may encourage a more ethical discourse and reveal both the victims and the initiators of the hardships. The act of making the destroyed villages visible is intended to set in motion a process of catharsis within the Jewish public, as well as serve as an expression of humanity.

Though mainly symbolic, posting signs is an act fundamentally connected to the past, as it constitutes recognition of the moral debt that is owed for the injustices committed in the creation of the Jewish state. The catastrophe that occurred to the Palestinians with the destruction of more than 400 of their villages demands some kind of consideration on the part of the historical victors. Simply erecting a sign that tells the story of a demolished village with dignity is recognition of the wrongs committed and the tragedy.

A sign's existence has both aesthetic and material character. It cannot be ignored on the landscape. It is a physical monument, giving its viewer a new, more critical perspective on the reality in which he or she lives. As long as razed Palestinian villages remain uncommemorated on the Israeli landscape, their existence in the past and their destruction is repressed. Each new sign will change the experience of driving down Israel's roads and walking on its paths. Signs erected over the ruins of Palestinian villages will represent a challenge to written history inscribed on the landscape.

Signs posted at demolished villages will invoke the question of a Law of Return for Palestinian refugees. The signs will place the question of the Palestinians' right to return on the public agenda by testifying to that which existed here, to that which cannot be ignored forever. Jewish recognition of the ongoing refugee problem and determined striving towards an agreement on the issue of return are keys to real reconciliation between the two peoples. Without a fair solution to the problem of return, the conflict can never be resolved.

Posting signs at villages integrates the past, present and future and between the ethical, aesthetic, and political. This is taking action upon the landscape in the hope of rediscovering and remodeling it, creating a renewed landscape that will reveal the traces of what has refused to be wiped out, in spite of so many efforts. In a more just society, the politics of landscape oblige society to morally account for its past wrongdoings, an obligation whose visual expression must be exposed in the light of day.

We are a group of Israelis who aim to raise awareness to the tragedy and suffering of the Palestinian people, particularly among the Jewish population of Israel. Posting signs at demolished Palestinian villages is one way to advance this goal, but is only one element of an expansive effort to commemorate the Nakba in Hebrew. Calling attention to the Nakba in Hebrew -- at schools, universities, and in other public arenas -- should be an objective of all who desire mutual recognition and peace between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. At a time when the word "mahsom" (roadblock) is so ubiquitous that young Palestinians are unaware that it's a term belonging to the occupation, let alone a word in Hebrew, it is appropriate that Israelis think and speak of the Nakba as a way to begin to understand Palestinian suffering.

In addition to posting signs, we also suggest creating children's games on the subject of the Nakba, organizing study tours of villages that were destroyed (including training tour guides for this purpose), manufacturing maps that include these villages, creating a database and documentation of the demolished villages, and organizing exhibitions, among many other possibilities. This will all be carried out in clear and simple Hebrew.

Highest priority for posting signs will be on public spaces such as Canada Park (built on the ruins of Emaus, Yalu, and Beit Nuba, which were destroyed in the 1967 war), in cities (such as on Ibn Gvirol Street in Tel Aviv, which borders Sumeil), and by major roads, mainly in locations where remnants of the destruction still exist today.

We seek to apply ourselves to these challenges: to commemorate and talk about the Nakba in Hebrew so that our language will be more peaceful and just; to witness what was wiped off the face of the earth in order to understand our neighbors' pain and loss; to acknowledge the Palestinian catastrophes of 1948 and 1967 and, thereby, attempt to mold a peace-seeking Jewish-Israeli consciousness.

---

Source: http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/index.php?id=343

About the author

http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=8243&lg=en

at 8:22 PM

Labels: Ethnic Cleansing, Illegal Occupation

Israelis 'Chained Pregnant Prisoners to Beds'

Israelis 'Chained Pregnant Prisoners to Beds':

"In a new report sponsored by the United Nations, a Palestinian human rights group slams Israeli treatment of female prisoners, saying pregnant women are often shackled on their way to hospitals to give birth."



Women report abuses in Israeli jails

By: Vita Bekker
July 16. 2009
Source: The National

TEL AVIV // A Palestinian human rights group yesterday lambasted Israel’s treatment of female Palestinian prisoners, saying they are beaten during their arrests, their education and visitation rights are violated and those who are pregnant are shackled before and after they give birth.

The report by the Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, which was sponsored by the United Nations and based on dozens of interviews with current and former female inmates in Israeli jails, condemned Israel for providing them poor access to health care, education and family visits and said the country’s prisons and detention centres were ill-suited for women.

Addameer slammed Israel’s treatment of pregnant prisoners, saying their hands and feet are often shackled with metal chains when they are transferred to hospitals to give birth. The women are frequently chained to their beds until they enter the delivery rooms and once again afterwards, the group said.

Moreover, pregnant inmates or women accompanied by children under the age of two do not enjoy preferential treatment in terms of diet or living space, Addameer added.

Many female prisoners develop health problems, including skin diseases, anaemia, asthma, prolonged stomach aches and joint and back pains, because they have little access to natural sunlight, balanced diets, protein-rich foods and ventilation, according to the report. Furthermore, the restricted gynaecological health care leads to infections for many of them.

According to Addameer, most of the prisoners were subjected to some form of “mental pressure and torture” during their arrests, typically made during the night at their homes. Furthermore, Israeli interrogators use beatings, insults, threats, sexual harassment and humiliation to coerce the women to make confessions, the group added.

Esra Amarneh, a 23-year-old university student from the Deheishe refugee camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, recalled being beaten along with her father during her arrest on a snowy night in February of last year and later humiliated by her interrogators.

In her testimony to Addameer, Ms Amarneh, who stayed in prison for 10 months, described how she was taken to a special room for strip searching, where female guards threatened to bring in a male soldier to force her to take off her clothes after she refused to undress. When she finally stripped naked, the women guards carried out a body search “and touched me all over my body including intimate parts”, she said.

Ms Amarneh said that a fellow prisoner, who was 16 at the time, scrambled to cover herself with clothes when she was being strip searched in a room where the bathroom was being used by a male guard, who suddenly swung open the door and rapidly walked out.

Ms Amarneh, in an e-mailed reply to questions, recalled being detained in a cell full of insects, with no heating and only wet blankets to protect her from the winter cold, and being shackled in chains on her way to the health clinics or the courtroom.

According to Addameer, Ms Amarneh’s experience is typical of many of the female inmates. Their numbers have risen significantly since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, soaring to a peak of 120 women in 2004 from just five inmates four years earlier. In the past eight years, more than 700 women were detained by Israel, which currently holds about 65 Palestinian female inmates.

Most the prisoners are young, with 56 per cent of the female inmates in 2007 and 2008 between the ages of 20 and 30 at the time of their arrest, while 13 per cent were under 18.

Using tactics such as hunger strikes since 2000, the women have managed to ameliorate their detention conditions, including by convincing the prison administration to liaise with them through a representative and gaining access to a small library and study room at one of the two Israeli prisons in which they are held. But the women still face myriad hurdles in fighting for their rights, Addameer said.

Like Ms Amarneh, about a fifth of the Palestinian women detained were university students at the time of their arrest. But most of them, and the majority of the women who have not yet started higher education programmes, are not allowed to pursue their studies by enrolling in distance learning courses at a Palestinian university.

The report said Israel only allows inmates sentenced for five years or more – which account for about a third of the female prisoners – to sign up for such courses.

Addameer accused Israel in the report of violating the visitation rights of many women. According to data collected by the group in mid-2008, about 60 per cent of the inmates had at least one family member who was not allowed to visit them. Furthermore, women inmates whose husbands are also in prison face months of delays before being permitted visits.

Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

“Israel” and the Nutbar Factor: Have “Israel” and its supporters gone over the edge?

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July 22, 2009

{Israeli political calculations} by Khaldun Ghrayibeh- The Newspaper newspaper-Kuwiat

by Justin Raimondo, July 22, 2009, source

As Israel defies the U.S. on settlement policies and its continuing mistreatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, a recent poll shows the American public is undergoing a significant shift in its historically pro-Israel views:

“According to the survey of 800 registered voters, which was conducted June 9-11 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, those who believe Israel is committed to peace has dropped to 46 percent this month from 66 percent last December. The poll found that some 49 percent of American voters call themselves supporters of Israel, down from 69 percent last September, and only about 44 percent of voters believe the United States should support Israel – down from 71 percent a year ago.”

What is the reason for this dramatic drop in support for the Jewish state? After all, the Israeli government and its American amen corner spend a lot of money – a lot of it our own tax dollars coming back to haunt us – in pursuit of the good will of the American people. They do this because they know the U.S. is Israel’s lifeline and that what is essentially a settler colony could not exist for very long if taken off U.S. life support, i.e., if the billions in aid given each year were ended or even significantly reduced. Yet, in spite of this, Israel’s approval ratings are plummeting, fast – and the reason is an exponential expansion of what I call the nutbar factor in Israeli society.

Here’s a good and quite recent example, reported in the excellent Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz:

“The Pope and the cardinals of the Vatican help organize tours of Auschwitz for Hezbollah members to teach them how to wipe out Jews, according to a booklet being distributed to Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

“Officials encouraging the booklet’s distribution include senior officers, such as Lt. Col. Tamir Shalom, the commander of the Nahshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade.

“The booklet was published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, in cooperation with the chief rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu, and has been distributed for the past few months.”

No, the booklet is not entitled “The Protocols of the Elders of the Vatican,” but it could be: “On Either Side of the Border” purports to be the testimony of “a Hezbollah officer who spied for Israel.” Inside is a greeting from an extremist rabbi “in the name of the Nahshon Brigade.” Thousands of copies were distributed to IDF soldiers, until the pamphlet was spotlighted by Ha’aretz.

This “spy,” who formerly went by the name Ibrahim and now calls himself Avi, claims Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was part of a delegation that journeyed to Italy, France, and Poland, alongside representatives of the Vatican. Apparently the pope was otherwise engaged, or he would no doubt have joined the Hezbollah chief, but, in any case, according to Ibrahim/Avi, “We knew [the pope] identified with Hezbollah’s struggle.” Yes, those Hezbollah fighters who drove the Israelis out of Lebanon were really altar boys wearing keffiyehs.

Oh, but I’ve saved the best part for last, because, you see, the endpoint of Hezbollah’s hegira was none other than Auschwitz. Ibrahim/Avi avers:

“We came to the camps. We saw the trains, the platforms, the piles of eyeglasses and clothes. … We came to learn. … Our escort spoke as he was taught. We quickly explained to him: Every real Arab, deep inside, is kind of a fan of the Nazis.”

What a fiendishly clever public relations strategy on the part of Hezbollah: telling the world they’re Nazis. That’s the ticket! No wonder Israel’s poll numbers are going down!

Quite naturally, the public exposure of this loony propaganda has led to disavowals on all fronts. An IDF spokesman claimed, “The book was received as a donation and distributed in good faith to the soldiers. After we were alerted to the sensitivity of its content, distribution was immediately halted.”

Translation: We thought we could get away with it.

A spokesman for the publisher, the Orthodox Union in America, also passed the buck, claiming their Israeli office was responsible for the pamphlet, and they knew nothing about it.

Translation: We thought we could get away with it.

Yes, but why did they think that? After all, “On Either Side of the Border” is so obviously nuts that one would think its author would be laughed off the stage in any semi-rational society. Yet, according to one IDF officer, this crazy conspiracy theory is “widely believed” by his fellow conscripts – and, I would contend, this gullibility reflects the growing craziness of Israeli society in a broader sense.

Surely, Israel’s defenders will reply, this is an “isolated incident.” Yet it seems this is not the first such “isolated incident” that had the IDF funneling the demented rantings of Israeli extremists to the ranks.

One contributing factor to the sheer savagery of the most recent Israeli “incursion” into Gaza was no doubt a publication issued by the IDF rabbinate that opined:

“When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. ‘A la guerre comme a la guerre.’”

Then, too, the IDF high command disavowed the material, “reprimanded” officers who facilitated its wide distribution, and claimed that – yes, you guessed right – it was an “isolated incident.”

If the Obama administration is wondering why the Netanyahu government – with the support of most Israelis — is openly disdaining his Middle East peace initiative, then they ought to review the propaganda put out by the U.S.-funded IDF rabbinate, such as the following, as reported by Ha’aretz:

“[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it.”

A Palestinian state? Not if the Israelis can help it. It might have been possible a few years ago, before Israeli society began to really go off the rails. However, these days, such views aren’t extremist – they’re mainstream. And, what’s more, they’re being propagated and reinforced by an Israeli military machine that is funded by the U.S. taxpayer. By the way, I didn’t know the IDF has an official rabbinate, but the Ha’aretz story enlightened me on that score. How many Americans know their tax dollars are going to fund religious fundamentalists in the Middle East?

Imagine if that happened in this country, and the U.S. Army was funding and promoting Christian fundamentalism in the ranks – why, you’d never hear the end of it, and, what’s more, the Anti-Defamation League and allied organizations would emit the loudest expressions of outrage.

Well, yes, but you can’t condemn a whole society on account of the fringy frothings of a few extremists – right? True, but the problem is that it isn’t just a few extremists: it’s a whole lot of them, arguably the overwhelming majority of Israelis, who, after all, voted for the current ultra-rightist government. Look who they elected to the position of prime minister – and “Bibi” Netanyahu is perhaps one of the more moderate leading figures in the current government. Consider that a man who longs to deport all Arabs from the sacred soil of Israel and who would like nothing better than to nuke Tehran is the foreign minister.

To come up with an analogous situation, what did the U.S. and the Europeans do when confronted with an Austrian government that included the relatively benign Joerg Haider, who merely advocated withdrawing government subsidies from immigrants and restricting their entry into the country? They established a diplomatic cordon sanitaire around Vienna and refused to deal with the Austrians. Yet Avigdor Lieberman, an open racist and former bouncer who once proposed that Israel should bomb the Aswan dam, is greeted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her European counterparts as if he were a normal, decent human being.

I have longed warned that Israel’s ostensible commitment to traditional Jewish values of openness, democracy, and respect for the dignity of all persons could not long withstand the requirements of maintaining what is essentially a religious-racial caste system. Israel, a settler colony that exists on account of its ability to drive out the indigenous Palestinians and keep them out, is of necessity the Sparta of the Middle East (there is no Athens). Militarism, by its very nature, makes a mockery of democracy and is the mortal enemy of liberty. It was only a matter of time before this inner contradiction was resolved in favor of creatures like Lieberman, whose rise is a barometer of the ongoing corruption of Israeli society – an indicator of a collective madness.

Speaking of craziness, this generalized derangement in the ranks of the pro-Israel forces extends, it seems, to this country, where George Gilder has just written a book called The Israel Test. The book’s theme, as Matt Yglesias dryly notes, is “somewhat unusual in that it hinges in part on what chapter three dubs ‘The Tale of the Bell Curve,’ in other words the innate genetic superiority of the Chosen People relative to the goyim. He offers some intriguing examples to illustrate this point beyond the familiar fact that Jews win lots of Nobel Prizes and are good at chess. For example: ‘Yes, there is a religious component in anti-Semitism, but there is also a political and economic element, reflected in the objective anti-Semitism of Karl Marx, Noam Chomsky, Friedrich Engels, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, and other Jewish leftist leaders who above all abhor capitalism. Jews, amazingly, excel so readily in all intellectual fields that they outperform all rivals even in the arena of anti-Semitism.’”

Yes, according to Gilder, those crafty Jews are so damned smart that they’ve even cornered the market on anti-Semitism!

The irony that one of Israel’s most ardent defenders is now using arguments based on theories of genetic superiority may be lost on that country’s knee-jerk defenders at this point: fanatics usually lack a sense of irony.

This has got to be the absolute looniest thesis ever advanced by a “serious” author. In his quest to rationalize the history of our government’s unconditional support for Israel, no matter the cruelty and injustice of their actions, Gilder claims that support for the Jewish state is a “test” of our willingness to defend liberty – and, indeed, ourselves – against the Islamist threat to conquer the world and establish a global caliphate.

The idea that we must support the Israelis on account of their alleged genetic superiority over Arabs may seem like an “out of the box” opinion, and it certainly is in the U.S., but I wonder if it isn’t right in line with Israeli opinion, which, after all, lionizes Lieberman and has elected the most belligerent – and anti-American – government in its history. The rhetoric of Lieberman and his party, which the other “mainstream” politicians and parties rushed to emulate, routinely depicts Israeli Arabs as a fifth column.

What we are witnessing in Israel today is the degeneration of a once liberal democracy into a militaristic theocracy, one armed with nuclear weapons – and quite conceivably willing to use them against those they consider less than fully human. And if that doesn’t scare us into cutting them off – financially, at the very least – then we ought to prepare ourselves for the consequences. Because it isn’t going to be pretty…

The links are found in the original source

Posted in Caricature, Politics Tagged article, Caricature, Hezbollah, Israeli crimes, Israeli government, Israeli mentality, Israeli policies, palestine, Palestinians, Politics

Nazi Israel Bans Books

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Israel takes lesson from Hitler.....again. Israel has surely learned a great many lessons from the Nazis'. Such as how to ethnically cleanse people they don't like, steal land, create a Theocracy based on a Racist Ideology and fire up their Cult Members to kill without remorse or humanity. And today we see another similarity, they are banning books. Nazi-=Zionist

Two days ago Mariam Kassis, a resident of the village of Mi'ilya - near Ma'alot in the north of the country - returned from a visit to Amman. When she sent her bags through the x-ray machine at the border crossing between Israel and Jordan, the Israeli customs inspectors spent time checking a dozen volumes that she bought for her father in the Jordanian capital, all from the series "Qawlun ala Qawl" ("Saying on a Saying"), written by Arab radio personality Hasan Karmi.

The series of books written by Karmi are in effect transcripts of selected conversations from an international radio program that he presented on the BBC Arabic service in the 1950s.

"People used to call this program from all over the world and the listeners conducted discussions with the moderator about literature, art, songs, folklore and anecdotes," Kassis explained yesterday, still upset by the incident at the border crossing. "My father has had the series of volumes for several years, so I read them and he read them and we enjoyed it. Before my trip to Jordan he asked me to buy a copy of the seriesas a gift for my brother, who is planning to visit here from the United States."

But then, said Kassis, "one of the border inspectors checked the books, passed them through the X-ray machine, flipped through the pages to see if I had smuggled anything - and handed them over for perusal to one of the customs officials. He doesn't know how to read Arabic, he doesn't speak Arabic and he didn't understand what kind of books I wanted to take home with me. He only decided that I couldn't bring them into Israel. When I asked him why, he replied that this was a type of 'trading with the enemy,' because the books were published in Beirut, and that Israeli law forbids it. I tried to explain to him with a smile what kind of books they were, but I'm an Arab woman - so he and his friends didn't believe me."

A customs official declared the books a "confiscated asset."

"I'm an attorney and I know when an asset is confiscated: Only when there's a criminal procedure and confiscating it is meant to ensure that a monetary debt is covered," she said. "All my pleas were in vain."

With tears in her eyes Kassis ended her trip to Jordan and returned embittered to her home village.

"I'm determined to get those books and I have no intention of giving in. I plan to fight to have the books returned to me. It's not because they cost me $100 and not because there's anything in them that I haven't read. It's a matter of principle," she said yesterday.source

It's a matter of "equality"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by irish4palestine at 12:16 PM 0 comments Links to this post

A Palestinian Play in NY: Blame the Wolf - Monday Night at 7pm

A Palestinian Play in NY: Blame the Wolf - Monday Night at 7pm

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY "Perhaps the most extraordinary encounter of our trip [to Palestine, August 2002] took place in Alrowwad, when we spent a couple of hours talking with the kids... They were remarkable children, beautiful, serious, curious about us, angry about what they see as worldwide neglect of their people, astonishingly aware of the injustice of their situation but lacking anything that sounded like self-pity. They were, rather, unbelievably ambitious."

-- Playwrights Tony Kushner, Naomi Wallace, Betty Shamieh,

Kia Corthron, Robert O'Hara and Lisa Schlesinger

American Theatre, July/August 2003

BLAME THE WOLF

Performed by Alrowwad Palestinian Youth Theatre from Bethlehem


Monday July 27th @ 7pm - One Night Only!
Atlantic Theater Company - Linda Gross Theater
336 West 20th Street, New York City


Opening with a reading of Caryl Churchill’s
8-minute play
SEVEN JEWISH CHILDREN: A Play for Gaza
featuring
Tony Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning actress.
Kathleen Chalfant


$25, $10 students/seniors/low income (no one turned away)
Tickets can be reserved by email: NYCTheaterTour2009@gmail.com


A play for children and adults, performed by Palestinian youth from Aida Refugee Camp, Blame the Wolf is a sequel to Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf is arrested and all those who have struggled with him are invited to testify. The three little pigs are there, Hansel and Gretel, the goats… the trial begins. But as the story unfolds, we find out the goats are not so sure about their accusations against the wolf— it seems he actually saved Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s claws. As the trial continues we see stereotypes fill the court, even from the jury who has never heard of a “good” wolf. The wolf is “bad” by nature, surely he ate the grandmother. But why don't we allow the wolf to tell his own story?

posted by annie at 3:55 PM

Six months of the Obama administration

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21 July 2009

Six months ago yesterday, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44^th president of the United States.

The election of Obama represented a popular repudiation of the Bush administration and its domestic and foreign policies. The principal slogan of Obama—“change you can believe in”—struck a chord with a population fed up with eight years of war and single-minded focus on the interests of the corporate elite.

Obama’s persona and individual history symbolized, for broad sections of the working class and youth, this desire for change. The fact that Obama would be the first African-American president was seen by many as reason to believe he would instinctively sympathize with the poor and oppressed. In any case, it was thought, he would be very different from what had come before.

What evaluation can be made in light of six months’ experience? The facts speak for themselves. On every critical issue, Obama—presiding over substantial Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress—has continued the basic policy of his predecessor.

Military policy

The direction of the administration on military policy was signaled early on. On January 23, three days after his inauguration, Obama ordered missile strikes by unmanned Predator drones on a location inside Pakistan, killing 18 people. With this initial blood on his hands, Obama proceeded apace.

The war in Afghanistan is now definitively “Obama’s war.” Under his watch, the US has set in motion a doubling of its forces, from 32,000 to 68,000, and is presently carrying out a major operation to wipe out popular opposition in the south. At least 30 US soldiers and 25 NATO troops have died so far this month, making July the deadliest month to date for occupation forces.

With Obama, however, the operation has become the “AfPak” war. US missile strikes within Pakistan, often killing dozens of Pakistani civilians, have become a regular occurrence. The administration has pressured Pakistan to carry out its own offensive in its northwestern territories, resulting in hundreds of thousands of refugees and massive causalities.

The occupation of Iraq continues. The drawback of US forces from the cities does not herald an end to US military involvement in the country. Some 130,000 troops remain in what amounts to permanent military bases outside the cities, and the administration has begun the process of relabeling troops as “advisors.” In the event that the fragile political situation breaks down, the US military will intervene with full force.

Economic and social policy

On domestic policy, Obama’s overriding concern has been to defend the wealth of the most powerful sections of the corporate and financial elite. Through cash injections, subsidies and loan programs, trillions have been handed out to the banks and financial institutions, with no strings attached. The administration has opposed any real constraints on executive pay or bonuses.

Utilizing the government handouts, the largest banks reported massive profits in the second quarter of 2009, including $3.44 billion for Goldman Sachs and $2.7 billion for JPMorgan Chase. The banks plan on handing out record bonuses this year to their executives and traders.

The very institutions that precipitated the economic crisis through their speculation and looting operations are doing better than ever. This is not an accident. It is the intended outcome of the policy carried out by the Obama administration.

Many auto workers looked to Obama for positive change. Instead, the administration has forced through massive cuts in wages and benefits, along with the destruction of tens of thousands of jobs. Obama has shepherded General Motors and Chrysler through bankruptcy court, where the two companies left billions in unwanted liabilities behind, including health care obligations to tens of thousands of retirees.

The administration is carrying out a similar policy in relation to state and local governments, refusing to give them the type of loans made available to the banks. The largest state in the country, California, is on the verge of economic meltdown, and the state government is seizing on the crisis as an opportunity to gut education, welfare and other social programs. Similar draconian measures are being implemented throughout the country.

As for the Obama’s principal domestic initiative—health care “reform”—the administration’s proposals are driven by the desire of corporations to slash their employee health care costs and are tailored to the demands of the major players in the health care industry—particularly the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Health care “reform” has been shifted from providing decent care for all to cutting costs. Obama insists that reducing health care expenditures is imperative for lowering the budget deficit and restoring the economy, even as he declares he will do “whatever it takes” to bail out the banks.

If a bill on health care eventually passes, it will require workers to pay more for inadequate health insurance and rationed care. This “expanded coverage” will be used as a pretext for slashing federal health care programs, particularly Medicare.

Like everything else, health care is being restructured as a more openly class-based system. Workers will have to choose between their health and their other needs, while the rich are afforded the best treatment money can buy.

The outcome of the administration’s policies to deal with the economic crisis is a massive redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top.

Democratic rights

On all essentials, the Obama administration has continued the antidemocratic policies of its predecessor. It has invoked “state secrets” to block court cases challenging torture and domestic spying. The administration reversed a promise to release photos showing US torture of detainees. It has continued the military tribunals and indicated it plans to adopt a policy of indefinite detention for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Obama has repeatedly insisted that there will be no prosecution of any of the crimes carried out by the Bush administration. This means no one will be held accountable and that the crimes will continue.

* * *

The outcome of the 2008 elections is an object lesson on the failure of American democracy. These elections produced an outcome that is diametrically opposed to the aspirations of the voters who cast ballots for the victor.

It is not possible, through the existing political system, to effect a change in government policy. The basic reason is that the political institutions and parties are the unvarnished instruments of class rule. The financial elite exercises absolute control over every aspect of political life.

What is perhaps most remarkable is the fact that the Obama administration barely makes an effort to conceal its class character. It seems to assume that Obama’s persona by itself is sufficient to quell opposition. To the extent that the administration’s attention is focused on the Democratic Party and its periphery—the assorted coterie of “left” publications and organizations—this evaluation is correct.

However, there has already been a significant fall in Obama’s poll ratings, including substantial declines on the economy and health care. According to the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, Obama’s overall approval ratings have dropped below 60 percent for the first time. We suspect that public unease is, in fact, far broader and deeper than these figures yet indicate.

Here, Lincoln’s famous aphorism is appropriate: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

Public disenchantment and anger are being driven by the objective impact of the economic crisis, the consequences of Obama’s wars, and the ever more glaring contradiction between the popular sentiments to which he appealed to get elected and the social interests that he serves. To the extent that the American people feel they have been taken for a ride and played for suckers, the mass opposition will be that much more intense.

The administration has yet to reckon with the independent intervention of the American working class. When this class movement does develop, it will seek new channels independent of and in opposition to the entire political and social system.

Joe Kishore

Hezbollah: Weakened... Defeated and in retreat!

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Bloomberg, here

"....A decline in support for Iran’s clients may facilitate President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy in two ways: by giving Syria an incentive to move closer to the U.S., and by encouraging American allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt to push Hamas (NOT happening) toward a unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that would hold peace talks with Israel. ....

The turmoil in Iran may help the U.S. improve relations with Syria, which has a defense cooperation agreement with Iran and has been a conduit for Iranian arms to Hezbollah, said Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

Iran’s Lebanese protégé, Hezbollah, has been weakened by a June 7 election defeat at the hands of the country’s pro-Western coalition. Shiite religious parties in Iraq also lost support in January’s local elections, although the winner of that vote, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Dawa party, is also Shiite- dominated and has ties with Iran. ....."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 7:07 AM

Israeli officer promotes war crimes at Harvard

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Maryam Monalisa Gharavi and Dr. Anat Matar, The Electronic Intifada, 22 July 2009

On 9 July Harvard University's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) invited Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, former Israeli military legal adviser, to their online Humanitarian Law and Policy Forum. The stated aim was to bring "objective" discussion to the principle of distinction in international humanitarian law, or what the forum organizers called "combat in civilian population centers and the failure of fighters to distinguish themselves from the civilian population."

Although billed as a lecturer in the Law Faculty at Tel Aviv University -- and therefore as a detached humanitarian law analyst -- Colonel Sharvit-Baruch was in fact deeply involved in Israel's three-week onslaught in Gaza in December and January, that counted its 1,505th victim found under rubble earlier this month. With the devastating operation condemned and mourned worldwide, many asked why a ranking member of an occupying army that flouts its legal obligations should herself receive safe havens at two major universities.

What troubled many of the 200 or so participants who "attended" the talk via a virtual chatroom was that Sharvit-Baruch was cut off from public or legal scrutiny as she relayed her PowerPoint presentation. Questions were posed by the moderators, sanitized of any critical content. Yet the indisputable fact is that the army for which Sharvit-Baruch worked has been accused by all major human rights organizations of committing war crimes in Gaza. Some wondered why Sharvit-Baruch was being given the opportunity to offer a carefully prepared presentation unchallenged in an academic setting, rather than giving testimony to a tribunal or inquiry such as that being conducted Judge Richard Goldstone, the South African jurist heading an independent fact-finding mission into human rights violations during Israel's attack at the request of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Since the event organizers did not ask pointed questions about Colonel Sharvit-Baruch's actual role in Gaza, it is worth doing so here. As head of the International Law department (ILD) at the Israeli Military Advocate General's office, Sharvit-Baruch is known for green-lighting the bombing of a police graduation ceremony in Gaza that killed dozens of civil policemen. This was no ordinary airstrike. It was premised on a legal sleight-of-hand: that even traffic cops in Gaza could be considered "legitimate targets" under international law. In a conversation with conscripts at a military prep academy in Israel, school director Danny Zamir noted, "I was terribly surprised by the enthusiasm surrounding the killing of the Gaza traffic police on the first day of the operation. They took out 180 traffic cops. As a pilot, I would have questioned that."

Further, the Israeli army used heavy artillery and white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas of Gaza, against the UNRWA's headquarters and a UN school in Beit Lahiya. As reported by Judge Goldstone, Gazans trying to relay their civilian status were also hit. Even though the Israeli military tried several times to deny its use, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on white phosphorous use in Gaza quotes an unnamed Israeli official: "at least one month before [white phosphorus] was used a legal team had been consulted on the implications." HRW found that "in violation of the laws of war, the [Israeli army] generally failed to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm" and "used white phosphorus in an indiscriminate manner causing civilian death and injury."

Such reckless disregard for the lives of civilians and pathological cover-ups of military operations are recognized by many Israelis within the system itself. According to one Israeli jurist speaking to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the ILD is considered "more militant than any other legal agency in Israel, and willing to adopt the most flexible interpretations of the law in order to justify the [Israel army's] actions." Although the ILD personnel "are now very proud of their influence upon the combat" in Gaza, human rights groups have stated that "residents weren't advised then as to which places were safe, and the roads by which they fled were bombed and turned into death traps."

One of the most indelible perspectives about Israel's legal gymnastics to justify its actions comes from Colonel Sharvit-Baruch's predecessor, Daniel Reisner. "What is being done today is a revision of international law," Reisner has said, "and if you do something long enough, the world will accept it. All of international law is built on that an act which is forbidden today can become permissible, if enough states do it." In expressing how the ILD moves forward by turning back the pages of legal jurisdiction, Reisner says, "We invented the doctrine of the preemptive pinpoint strike, we had to promote it, and in the beginning there were protrusions which made it difficult to fit it easily into the mold of legality. Eight years later, it's in the middle of the realm of legitimacy."

Sharvit-Baruch herself explained her vision of international law at a presentation for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: "International law is developed according to practices. It changes based on what is happening in the field. These laws must be based on precedents, what already exists. There is flexibility in every law." By this law of flexibility, the more aberrations of international law a state can legitimize, the more hoary actions it can continue to execute and justify.

Since the attack on Gaza, numerous testimonies of Israeli soldiers published in Israel, have corroborated the accounts of Palestinian witnesses and human rights organizations that serious war crimes were endemic.

Despite the blunt admissions of Israeli soldiers widely published in the Israeli press, it was clear from her calm presentation that Sharvit-Baruch and her cohort live in their own rhetorical universe where even language is assaulted. In the Colonel's own terminology, non-existent vocabulary in international law such as "capacity builders" and "revolving doors" is coined to pass over accepted terms such as "civilians" and "non-combatants." Like the US government's "torture memo" authors -- who in contrast to Israel's were not uniformed ranking members of the army -- the Israeli military attempted to reclassify a "civilian" in a manner making it easier to strip them of protections provided by international humanitarian law. "Architecture of words," said one participant

Despite all this, by her own standards, Sharvit-Baruch and her team could not be faulted for their efficiency: in Gaza, banning all media from entering; assaulting the population with air missiles, sniper ground troops, and white phosphorus; condemning all criticism of military actions as contrary to state security; keeping a chin above the law; attaining a teaching position at Tel Aviv University and finally a prestigious opportunity to address Harvard students and faculty.

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature with a Secondary Field in Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University. Her three-part film Inessential (2008) about the siege of Gaza screened at the Townhouse Gallery of Art in Cairo, Boston Palestine Film Festival, and Providence Palestine Film Festival.

Dr. Anat Matar is a senior lecturer of philosophy at Tel Aviv University and head of the Israeli Association for the Palestinian Prisoners.

Celebrating absurdity in Nablus

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Sousan Hammad writing from Nablus, occupied West Bank, Live from Palestine, 22 July 2009




While Palestinians in Gaza remain under a brutal siege, appointed PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad eats a piece of the world's biggest knafeh in Nablus, 18 July 2009. (Mustafa Abu Dayeh/MaanImages)

It was a portentous day in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. Over 100,000 Palestinians from Haifa, Jerusalem, Jenin and more gathered in the city on Saturday to celebrate the making of a Guinness World Record: the largest plate of kanafeh, a popular red-haired pastry made with lots of sugar and goat cheese.

Weighing in at 1,350 kg (2,976 lbs), the kanafeh was cooked in a custom-made dish and comprised of 600 kg (1,322 lbs) of cheese, 300 kg (661 lbs) of sugar, and six tins of cooking fat. To do this, Nablus entrepreneur Muhannad al-Rabi, who oversaw the project, raised $15,000 through private donors and businesses. The spectacle was said to be organized to promote Nablus' economy and, essentially, to celebrate the closing of the Huwarra checkpoint -- notorious for its volatile atmosphere and violent Israeli soldiers -- which now gives Palestinians relative freedom of movement into and out of Nablus.

As the horde of spectators pushed and elbowed their way to get to the front action of the rite in al-Shuhada (Martyrs) square, Salam Fayyad, the appointed Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister, arrived in a caravan of armored cars with bodyguards for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Like bride and groom in a wedding ceremony, al-Rabi cut from the monstrous plate of kanafeh and handed Fayyad the first piece.

A local resident shook his head in disbelief. "It's unbelievable. Even Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] never traveled with such an entourage as Fayyad's. It's a lavish greeting I've never seen before," said Tareq Touqan.

Responding to the closure of the checkpoint as an "improved economic and security situation" in Nablus, the US-backed Fayyad, who previously worked for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said, "Today Nablus became not only famous as a producer of kanafeh, but also as producer of hope for all of Palestine."

Fayyad's visit to Nablus came just days after The New York Times reporter, Ethan Bronner, wrote a front-page article calling the opening of a cinema in Nablus a "sign of hope emerging in the West Bank," yet failing to mention how the PA is becoming more tyrannical on the streets, imposing new laws by the day. A young woman from Nablus, who wished to remain anonymous, said Fayyad's visit was nothing more than a "shameful public display of opportunism" and called the kanafeh celebration an expensive, unnecessary public relations stunt.

Days prior to the Nablus event, rumors spread that 10 keys were going to be hidden inside the kanafeh and whoever found the keys would walk away with a new car. To add madness to an already absurd situation people dug through the kanafeh like hungry cannibals, throwing the kanafeh on the ground in search for the supposed prize. Thirty minutes later, the plate was stripped of the pastry and not a single key was found.

Palestinians traditionally serve kanafeh at celebrations. The festive frenzy in Nablus provided a marked contrast with the situation in Gaza. There, 80 percent of the 1.5 million population have been reduced to dependency on UN food handouts as a result of an internationally-backed Israeli blockade imposed ever since Hamas won legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in January 2006. In recent months, the World Health Organization and UNICEF have warned of an alarming rise in indicators of malnutrition in Gaza, including stunting, wasting and underweight children and high rates of anemia among children and pregnant women.

After the kanafeh's disappearance, a few young men from the crowd climbed on the metal plate, which was 75 meters long and two meters wide, and began to dance to the dabke music that came from nearby speakers. The young men maneuvered up and down the plate, which looked like a mini-catwalk, as if it were a runway show. Later at night, at the scene of the rite in Martyr's Square, there were no people around, but the city looked like it had been ravaged by a tornado: streets littered with chunks of kanafeh, plastic cups, and soda cans. Hope, it seems, was left behind on the streets of Nablus.

Sousan Hammad is a journalist based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She can be reached at sousan D O T hammad A T gmail D O T com.

VIDEO: "Operation in Afghanistan is rooted in Israel"

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Iinterview

by Karen Kwiatkowski
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Global Research, July 22, 2009

The real reason why the U.S. continues its presence in Afghanistan is Iran the country which is an annoyance for Israel, said Karen Kwiatkowski, a writer and former U.S. Air Force officer.

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Global Research Articles by Karen Kwiatkowski

Aoun: Let No One Talk to Us about Resistance's Arms Anymore!

Aoun: Let No One Talk to Us about Resistance's Arms Anymore!
Readers Number : 59

22/07/2009 The head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun expressed on Wednesday a strong resentment at the comments made by the Western countries over the latest incidents in South Lebanon, especially their claims that the Lebanese people are violating the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.

Speaking to reporters following his weekly bloc's meeting, Aoun retorted to those "concerned" by the latest incidents in the South. "We live in a constant concern because of the Israeli practices and the practices of Israel's supporters in the world as well as the practices of the United Nations," Aoun said, regretting that the international organization seems to be unable to even impose the implementation of its resolutions.

"We are very concerned over Israel's behaviors. We are also concerned over a world that violates our rights and voices dismay over the presence of a weapons cache in our country, but fails to see the fully equipped Israeli planes that fly in our airspace," he added. "Our entire arsenal cannot be compared to the weapons being given to Israel," he said.

"From now on, let no one speak to us about the Resistance's weapons arsenal. Enough with this insolence," Aoun added. He called on the Lebanese people to "unite" against what the international community was trying to impose on Lebanon.

"What do the United States and Europe want from us? They do not have the right to control us just because they are major powers," Aoun said.

On Israel's call for the amendment of Resolution 1701, Aoun said UNIFIL should "first deploy on both sides of the border, create a buffer zone and stop (Israeli) violations of our land, before thinking of changing its rules of engagement."

"The Lebanese army has the sole authority to enter people's homes if necessary," he said.

Turning to the internal crisis and the cabinet formation process, Aoun called on the parliamentary majority to once have self-respect and to form the government in our homeland. "Whoever is forming the cabinet is anonymous and unknown," he said, adding that the concerned people with the cabinet formation process were unfortunately dependent on the outside.

The Free Patriotic Movement leader concluded by expressing hope that all those concerned with the cabinet formation process could become conscious of the seriousness of their job and return to the conscience in order to accelerate the process.

Blast injures dozens at Dahlan family wedding

Contibuted By Lucia

lu said...

UP, the press over here has just published a while ago that there has been a bomb attack on Mahmud Dahlan's wedding (Dahlan's nephew). 60 wounded, 20 of them seriously, the nephew among them. I did not see the news in english yet, but it seems to me that this might have been perpetrated by fatah guys resented with Dahlan. I see no purpose for Hamas going after the nephew. Hamas police has arrested three persons linked to the attack.

6:54 AM, July 22, 2009

lu said...

Ynet brings it: Gaza: Dozens hurt in Dahlan family wedding

7:04 AM, July 22, 2009

lu said...

Dahlan's press also talks about it Suspects held in Gaza Fatah wedding blast

7:19 AM, July 22, 2009

Comment:

Lucia

I agree with you, Hamas has nothing to do with it, I can't imagine Hamas doing such crime. Dahlan's family was within hamas reach since 2 years especially during the war on Gaza, so why now??

In such, incidents, I used to say: who is the benficiary?

Who would benfit from turning Dahlan from a War criminal, a killer who conspired to Arafat, into a victim?? Not Hamas, and Not even Fatah opposition. So far no group has clamed responsibility for the attack.

Blast injures dozens at Dahlan family wedding

Posted: 22-07-2009 , 09:28 GMT

An explosion at the wedding ceremony of Mahmoud Dahlan Tuesday night in the Southern Gazan city of Khan Younis left at least 60 Palestinians wounded, Palestinian paramedics said.Palestinian medical sources said the wounded were evacuated to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis following the explosion.

Witnesses said a grenade or explosive charge detonated just before midnight at the wedding of the nephew of former Palestinian Authority security chief Mohammad Dahlan. The explosion took place as Dahlan, an officer in the Preventive Security Service, was stepping on the state.

Palestinian police in Gaza, which belong to Hamas, launched an investigation into the explosion, tough Fatah officials have accused Hamas members of undertaking the attack.

Responding to the accusation, a Hamas security source told Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aronoth, “Hamas has nothing to do with this.”

Ihabal Ghissin, spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry, blamed the exposition on a percussion grenade that caused a stage collapse. He added that fireworks and torches, which are illegal in Gaza, were also used and could have played a role in the explosion.

Mohammad Dalhna was the former Fatah member in charge of the Gaza Palestinian Authority security. He has been at odds with Hamas for years. In June 2007, Hamas expelled his forces in fighting that left Hamas in control of the Gaza strip.

Ariel Goldring

• Bomb blast rocks Fatah security chief's family wedding
• Palestinian gunmen attack a wedding in Gaza, dozens injured
• Mideast: Bomb explodes at Fatah wedding party

OKUN: A Jewish state – or Jewish values?

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by Tema Okun

Mondoweiss
20 July 2009

EDITOR’S COMMENT: Every now and then one reads something that touches the heart and leaves a lasting impression. This is a plea to people so caught up in their own world view that they have lost sight of humanity – forgotten that by and large people everywhere just want to live their lives in peace, enjoy the fruits of this earth and share them with loved ones and their neighbours. Tema Okun speaks to the essence of who we are as people and appeals to the very best in us. Her words are directed to her own Jewish community, but they are equally potent and necessary for all of us to contemplate because we are all guilty for what the Palestinians have suffered. And not just the Palestinians – although theirs is the longest running brutal oppression of an entire population – but all peoples who are being cruelly mistreated, violated and condemned for reasons that ought to shame us every waking moment. How much more violence do we need to see, read and hear before we say “enough”, before we really mean “never again”?

Please read Tema’s eloquent plea and then send it to others and encourage them to pass it on further. We have no time to lose as the poisonous brew of racism bubbles over threatening to contaminate everything we hold dear. It is not the war on terror that we ought to be worried about, but the war on humanity. – SK

On April 16, 2009, North Carolina Peace Action presented their annual Peacemaker Award to Tom Stern and Tema Okun, here at the podium, for their work with ICAHD-USA.* photo © Jerry Markatos

I am a Jew. I am a religious Jew. I am an anti-Zionist Jew. I realize that to make this last claim is to risk that you will stop reading, as often any claim of anti-Zionism brings with it a label of traitor, anti-Semite, self-hating Jew. I hope, however, that you will give me the benefit of the doubt, at least for the few minutes that it will take you to read what I have to say. Read More…

BURSTON: The painful cost to Israel of its settler adventure

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by Bradley Burston

Haaretz
20 July 2009

As friction between the Obama administration and Israel mounts over Washington’s repeated calls for a freeze on settlement construction, anxious supporters of Israel’s West Bank settlement enterprise ask one question with ever greater urgency and frequency: Why should settlers have to pay the price for peace between Israel and the Palestinians?

The question is intended to be rhetorical, meant to dismiss and deflect pressure to curb expansion of West Bank enclaves. But in a real sense, it is precisely the question of the moment. Why, in fact, should settlers be made to pay the price for peace? The answer, in short: Because of what the settlement movement has cost us, cost Israel. And because of what it is costing Israel now. Read More…