Daylight Robbery : Palestinian Home Occupied in Jerusalem

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Last Tuesday morning at around 9.30am, a group of settlers surrounded the al-Kurd family home in Sheikh Jarrah and took over a section of the house.
Fifteen to twenty settlers, accompanied by private armed security and Israeli police forces, entered an extension of the Palestinian house,

A Palestinian boy from a Kurd family, who were evicted from their house last week, is held by his father as UNRWA commissioner Karen AbuZayd (not seen) talks to the press in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Thursday

 

and started clearing it of the familys belongings. The family was not present in this section of the house in compliance with a previous court order. However, local sources reported that the settlers also attempted, on several occasions, to gain entry to the inhabited part of the house.
One Palestinian resident, Khamis al-Gawi, was arrested shortly after the settlers arrived, and is still being held at a local police station. Two international activists, American and Swedish nationals, who were filming the settlers taking over the house were also arrested by the police and their video cameras confiscated.

December 12, 2009 Posted by Elias | Human rights, Israel, Israeli Occupation, Israeli settlements, NEWS & POLITICS, Palestine, Video | Daylight Robbery, Israel, Israeli settlers, Jerusalem, Palestinian Home Occupied, Palestinians, Sheikh Jarrah |

(Excellent) Pat Lang: "Our war in Iraq is now cited as an example of the success of the COIN theory. In fact nothing of the sort occurred in Iraq..."

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Col. Lang skeptical of COIN, has this great critic at SST

"... Successes:

* The British suppression of the “Malayan Emergency” was probably the greatest success of the counterinsurgents....There were never more than a few hundred of them. The British succeeded in suppressing this revolt but what did this successful effort gain them? It was enormously expensive and success was followed by British withdrawal from Malaya and the creation of an independent Malaysia completely dominated by the Malay ethnic adversaries of the overseas Chinese...

* Kenya and Cyprus were both gripped by revolts by the Kikuyu and Greek populations respectively. In both cases, RW campaigns based on terrorism were fought to a standstill by the British only to be followed by political decisions on the part of the British government to abandon these countries and allow the ascent to power of the former leaders of the insurgencies, Kenyatta and Makarios respectively.

* In Latin America, where I participated in several COIN efforts, the Kennedy created “Alliance for Progress” sought to defeat local insurgencies inspired and led by cadres from Castro’s Cuba. These countries were particularly good targets for communist inspired RW because the political and economic structures of the Central American and Andean states were so clearly unfair and un-democratic that local populations of underfed Indians and peasants could be easily proselytized in the process of RW. In many cases in Latin America the low level economic development efforts of the civil and military arms of the US Government met with considerable success. Villagers were protected from the insurgents, local (village) economies were improved. Medical treatment was provided to those who had never known it. Nevertheless, the “Alliance for Progress” can not be considered a strategic success. Why? The local elites in all these countries quickly perceived the COIN campaign as a threat to their political privilege and wealth in land and simply refused to institute the reforms sponsored by the alliance. Much the same thing happened in various parts of Africa and Southwest Asia where it was attempted.

Failures:

* The American war in Vietnam is a typical example of failure of the COIN theory. The massive communist led Viet Minh independence movement was a classic example of RW in all its components taken to its ultimate development in the creation of a regular army for the insurgent movement under the sponsorship of its Chinese communist ally. The United States participated in the French COIN effort against the Viet Minh and then became the sponsor of the post-colonial government left behind by the French on their departure. Contrary to popular legend (I served there for two years) the initial approach of the United States to the situation in South Vietnam was pure COIN right out of the Ft. Bragg School. Populations of villagers were protected, the South Vietnamese armed forces were developed, village militias were created for self defense, good government was preached to the Diem government in Saigon. Economic development was fostered. It was only when the government of North Vietnam decided that these methods were a serious bar to their eventual success in RW in the South and brought its regular army into South Vietnam in 1964 that US forces escalated their own deployment to the conventional war level. This was a necessary step if the eradication of the South Vietnamese government and the US COIN effort was to be avoided. There followed three years of conventional warfare between US and North Vietnamese forces. This warfare was largely conducted outside populated areas. COIN efforts continued during this period but took second place to the need to defeat or at least seriously weaken North Vietnam’s army. In 1967 it was judged that this had been accomplished and COIN was once again made the centerpiece of American efforts in Vietnam. To accomplish this, a fully integrated civil/military COIN structure was created under the combined military command in Vietnam. This was called “Civil Operations, Revolutionary Development Support.” (CORDS) I worked in this program for a year. (1968-1969) This effort had virtually unlimited money, ten thousand advisers in every aspect of Vietnamese civil society, business and government function and a massive coalition and south Vietnamese conventional force standing by to protect the population and the counterinsurgents of CORDS while they did their work. This COIN program was largely successful. A handover to the South Vietnamese forces was devised in the form of the “Vietnamization Program” and US forces were withdrawn in “trenches” (slices) over a couple of years. Following the Christmas, 1972 renewed bombing effort over North Vietnam (caused by North Vietnamese intransigence in Geneva) a ceasefire was reached and for two years there was quiet in South Vietnam with the South Vietnamese government holding much of the country. It was only after some minor incident on the world stage caused a revulsion in the American press and public against any further involvement in Vietnam that the US Congress passed a law forbidding any further aid to South Vietnam that the North Vietnamese decided to use their fine army to over run the country in a conventional war. Lesson – You can win the COIN war and still be defeated conventionally or politically at home.

* The French war in Algeria is another example of COIN success followed by political defeat and withdrawal. After a prolonged struggle, the French security force had largely defeated the Algerian native guerrillas of the Front National de Liberation(FLN). This struggle had been waged with all the aspects of classic COIN doctrine. The revolt had started in 1955. By 1960 the French Army, police and their Algerian allies had largely won the fight. As in Vietnam, two years then passed in relative quiet. In 1962 De Gaulle was elected president of France with a political vision that required independence for Algeria. That negated all the struggle and success of the COIN war. Failure once again at the strategic level.

* Our war in Iraq is now cited as an example of the success of the COIN theory and its methods. In fact nothing of the sort occurred in Iraq. Remember – COIN = political reform + economic development + counter-guerilla operations. We have not brought on political reform in Iraq. What we have done is re-arrange the “players” in such a way that the formerly downtrodden Shia Arabs are now the masters. This has in no way reduced the potential for inter-communal armed struggle. We did not defeat the insurgents in counter guerrilla operations. What we did was bring more troops into the Baghdad area to enforce the separation of the ethno-sectarian communities while at the same time using traditional methods of “divide and conquer” to split off enough insurgents to form an effective force to use against Al-Qa’ida in Iraq and others whom we disapproved of. This is not counterinsurgency!!!

Conclusion

COIN is a badly flawed instrument of statecraft: Why?

- The locals ultimately own the country being fought over. If they do not want the “reforms” you desire, they will resist you as we have been resisted in Iraq and Afghanistan. McChrystal’s strategy paper severely criticized Karzai’s government. Will that disapproval harden into a decision to act to find a better government or will we simply undercut Afghan central government and become the actual government?

- Such COIN wars are expensive, long drawn out affairs that are deeply debilitating for the foreign counterinsurgent power. Reserves of money, soldiers and national will are not endless. Ultimately, the body politic of the counterinsurgent foreign power turns against the war and then all that has occurred has been a waste.

- COIN theory is predicated on the ability of the counterinsurgents to change the mentality of the “protected” (read controlled) population. The sad truth is that most people do not want to be deprived of their ancestral ways and will fight to protect them. “Hearts and Minds” is an empty propagandist’s phrase.

- In the end the foreign counterinsurgent is embarked on a war that is not his own war. For him, the COIN war will always be a limited war, fought for a limited time with limited resources. For the insurgent, the war is total war. They have no where to escape to after a tour of duty. The psychological difference is massive.

- For the counterinsurgent the commitment of forces must necessarily be much larger than for the insurgents. The counterinsurgent seeks to protect massive areas, hundreds of built up areas and millions of people. The insurgent can pick his targets. The difference in force requirements is crippling to the counterinsurgents.

What should we do?

- Hold the cities as bases to prevent a recognized Taliban government until some satisfactory (to us) deal is made among the Afghans.

- Participate in international economic development projects for Afghanistan.

- Conduct effective clandestine HUMINT out of the city bases against international jihadi elements.

- Turn the tribes against the jihadi elements.

- Continue to hunt and kill/capture dangerous jihadis,

How long might you have to follow this program? It might be a long time but that would be sustainable. A full-blown COIN campaign in Afghanistan is not politically sustainable."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 6:16 PM

Iraq gets a new constitution.....

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the new-faces of Iraq

The Iraqi parliament has just agreed on the new constitution.

Now  , the division is set along the lines of faith

along the lines of sect and along the ethnic lines.

There are now :

three ethnic-Iraqs

and 2 sectarian-Iraq

and five regional-Iraqs

and 7 recognised minorities.

Thank you George Bush , thank you Wolfowitz and Richard Perle !!

Mission accomplished .....indeed .

We have had once one Iraq.....and now there are three !!

I remember the previous constitution

that never did mentioned the ethnic identities

nor was the religious belonging a matter of relevance... ..

The President was a secular-Sunni

with a Christian-vice- president

and a Shiaa-second- vice-President

not because of their religion but because of their talents....

There was one Party , which has had some Short-comings,

but this party was modern,secular and republican.....

Don't you remember it ??............. it was there until 2003...

and the Iraqi President was an ex-revolutionary,

anti-imperialist who build Churches and protected the Synagogues.

Funny !!

today that same parliament includes :

- war lords

- religious scholars (fanatic or not)

- tribal lords

- Mafiosos

- CIA stooges

- smugglers and common criminals, seeking immunity

- run-away-bankers

- mercenary-captains

The previous Parliament has not perfect ,

but at least those , above figures, were excluded.

If you ask me ,

I would say that George Bush fooled us

and that President Saddam is a dead Hero !!!

As they say in old western-cowboys- movies :
"They hanged the wrong man "

Sherlock Hommos
a Nostalgic-realist

Posted by Тлакскала at 7:54 PM 

Labels: Baath, Bush, MissionAccomplished, secular

What is Jerusalem?

What is Jerusalem?

By Ibrahim Alloush

What is Jerusalem?

While in the USA, an Arab or a Muslim may hear many an American protest: “… but the Christians have the Vatican, and the Muslims have Mecca; so why can’t the Jews have Jerusalem?!” The implied condemnation in that rhetorical question naturally turns Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and supporters of the Palestinian cause everywhere into contemptible fanatic poachers, “anti-semitic” to be sure, who are conspiring with the rest of the world to deny Judaism a holy center of faith of its own!

By extension, the following question is also frequently posed: “Why are Arabs and Muslims so incensed that the Jews are digging for the Temple of Solomon beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock?!” Read: what do you have to hide? Are you afraid that the Temple of Solomon would be found, practically proving that those Arab Islamic and Christian holy places were built on stolen Jewish property by “an Arab occupation”? Let them dig for their long-lost temple for goodness sake, and if they find nothing, what do you have to lose?!

Mind you, the excavation has delved so deeply and extensively underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque, reaching the pre-Hebrew Canaanite Epoch, dating back several millennia, still without hitting any Temple of Solomon or even a shred of Jewishness!

More importantly, the earth beneath the structure of Al-Aqsa Mosque has been so disemboweled, which made the grounds beneath it so shaky, a somewhat powerful underground explosion or an earthquake would probably bring the Holy Muslim edifice down altogether like a crumbling house of cards.

very where what the real purpose of the digging is. The massive underground network of tunnels, inroads, and state-sponsored synagogues is simply meant to physically undermine Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock; that is, it is meant to usurp the Arab identity of Jerusalem, and to make Jewish history out of nothing at all!

Consequently, contrary to what may seem at the surface, those issues are not purely about religion as much as they are about the identity of the land and whether it’s Arab or not. For archaeological and religious issues here are nothing but thin veneer for a vexing contemporary and worldly question: Is Jerusalem, and by extension Palestine, Arab or Jewish? Whose birthright is it? And, hence, who gets to keep it and rule over it? THAT is the crux of the matter that secularly-minded individuals in the West and the East gloss over when they gloat or grumble about “fanatics on both sides” killing each other over slabs of earth and stone.

For example, in the movie The Kingdom of Heaven (2005) by Ridley Scott, that many mistook for an atypically pro-Arab picture, the hero Balian of Ibelin (Actor Orlando Bloom) wonders before the invader community of Crusaders in Jerusalem as it braces for the impending Arab attack: “What is Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?… The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim… All have claim!”

So, if no one has claim, certainly the Arabs don’t! And if all have claim, certainly the Arabs can’t claim that Jerusalem is Arab, can they? In the end, we’re talking about the question of who wields political power here, and about the need to justify the presence of invaders in Palestine, as rulers, not as pilgrims passing through for example. Certainly we are not talking about freedom of worship here (which was guaranteed under Muslim rule in the life of Jerusalem more than any other). We are talking about falsifying history to rationalize foreign occupations. If Arabs are an occupation, then they shouldn’t complain about another which replaced them, especially if it allegedly predated them.

But after more than six decades of Zionist occupation, no Jewish Temple was ever found, and if there ever was one in Palestine, who is to say it used to lie exactly where Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are today?! Never mind that alleged Jewish archaeological remnants in the land have been extremely scarce and suspect. Never mind that even according to the Torah the Canaanites existed in Palestine long before, during, and after the Hebrews allegedly came through. Never mind the fact that the Canaanites descended upon the land from the Arabian Peninsula and that their tongue is an ancient Arabic one. After all, this is not some abstruse academic debate on history.

Yet when some claim that Palestine belongs to no one, we have to insist that it has been Arab since time immemorial, in the face of all transient foreign occupations, and that we have the historical and cultural ties to prove it, including Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Palestine is not a land without an identity any more than it is a land without a people. Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians and Palestine belongs to the Arabs just like Le Seine belongs to the French and Shanghai to the Chinese. Furthermore, when those who tell us that Jerusalem belongs to no one and to all declare their own countries as belonging to no one and to all, we promise to solemnly consider their propositions for Jerusalem seriously.

p>Setting questions of history and identity aside, the point remains that Jerusalem in modern times has become the locus of festering political contradictions at many levels. For the Arabs, Jerusalem stands as a symbol of Arab defeat before Western colonialism. For Palestinians under occupation and in the diaspora, Jerusalem represents the essence of the conflict with the Zionist movement over the right of ownership to the land here and now. For the Islamic World, Jerusalem signifies another crusader incursion at the cultural and religious levels. Finally, for anti-imperialists worldwide, Jerusalem pertains to the liberation struggle against Zionism and imperialism on the very front where that two-headed monster has thrown all of its colossal might. Although Jerusalem might mean more of this and less of that to different people, there is no question whatsoever that the demise of “Israel” and the liberation of Palestine will mark a watershed in human history, as it will help spell the end of the imperialist order everywhere.

Surely, Jerusalem is not a substitute for Palestine. It’s just the mascot of the cause of Palestinian liberation. Neither are Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock a substitute for Jerusalem. They are but its crowing jewels along with all the other Arab Muslim and Christian Holy places in the city. The southwestern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the alleged “wailing wall”, what we call in Arabic “Al-Buraq Wall”, is definitely not a substitute for Al-Aqsa Mosque either. Therefore, it’s no wonder on the eve of the 1967 occupation of the eastern sector of the city, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, that Moshe Dayan, an overtly a-religious former “Israeli” Minister of Defense, led a bunch of rabbis to pray at Al-Buraq Wall. He understood the significance of that wall to be more than religious, for it condenses the fragments of the Arab-Zionist struggle into one bloc, literally.

To highlight the connection delineated above, it should be pointed out that the whole of Jerusalem and vicinity today, not only Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is being subjected to a process of forced Judaization. The infamous “Wall of Separation” meandering through the West Bank has actually separated Jerusalem from the West Bank and subdivided Arabs within the city into three semi-isolated cantons. The Wall has severed the city from Arab villages in its vicinity, and has cut off Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from the Old Town where Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock lie. In the meantime, hundreds of Jerusalemites get their identity cards withdrawn by Zionist occupation authorities every year. Dozens of Arab houses are either confiscated or demolished, while locations are given Hebrew names instead of Arab ones, for example “Har Homa” for Mount Abu Ghnaim.

In the meantime, Zionist settlement and construction in the city continues to expand and grow at the expense of the Arabs, as it has since the first half of the 20th century. As a result, Arab Christians have effectively been evacuated from Jerusalem, with only a few thousands left. Now the Zionists are working on thinning out Arab Muslims. This is why preserving the Arab identity of the city requires all concerned to support Jerusalemites remain steadfast in their city, at least until liberation comes.


Source: Star.com
Dr Ibrahim Alloush is a Professor of Economics at Zaitounah University in Jordan.
He contributed this article to The Star

December 12, 2009 Posted by Elias |

An insult to cinematography.....

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Each clown....... ..has some rights....

There was a lot of tumult

about one Dutch Parliamentarian ( Geert Wilders)

who produced a short-film called "FITNA"

some have found this film as an insult to Islam,

I did not find it as insult to Islam

I only have found this film rather as

an insult  to cinematography

and to the real film-making .

If what Mr. Geert Wilder has  made  is called a " film "

then you may expect an Oscar for my video-holidays- film , next year.

Or the Seventh-Art is no more an Art !!

Or Banality has gained any value !!

Or the Zionists have reached the Dutch-Parliament !!

Or the Western world has ran out of cinematographic- talents !!

Or any combination of the above....... ..

Sherlock Hommos
Film Director and Film critic

Posted by Тлакскала at 7:57 PM

Labels: Fitna, Wilders

This is what the Only Democracy in the Middle East Looks Like

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This Friday, International Human Rights Day was marked for the first time in Israel. In Tel-Aviv, some 5000 people marched in a general human-rights march. It was a quiet event that was covered very favorably and widely by the press.

What wasn’t being covered by the press? The second March to Sheikh Jarrah, which ended up with 24 arrests and one demonstrator in the hospital.

Putting Sheik Jarrah in Context

In 1875- Ottoman times- the Committee of the Sephardic Ethnic Group bought these lands. There was a small Jewish community living there until they gradually started fleeing, during the violence, in the area, during the 1920’s and 30’s and up until 1948. From 1948 to 1967, the land was under Jordanian control. At that time, 28 Palestinian refugee families were given lodging on this land by the Jordanian government, under the condition that they give up their UNRWA benefits and pay symbolic rent, for three years, by which time the houses will be passed under their names. The last part never happened.


In 1972 the Committee of the Sephardic Ethnic Group and the Committee of Israel’s Kneset made sure to register their ownership over the land in Israel’s Land Administration, with documents from the 19th century. In 1982, the committees sued the residents for rent. The residents wouldn’t accept the committees’ ownership and refused to pay rent.

In 1997, after years of law suits and resident evacuations, the residents began suing for ownership of the houses. It has been acknowledged by the court, in 2006, that there are problems with the committees’ registration, but the registration hasn’t been canceled.

At this point the houses are owned by a settler organization by the name of “Shimon Estate International”, who’s intent is to destroy the houses in the Palestinian neighborhood, and rebuild the land with Jewish institutions, yeshivas and homes. In order to achieve this goal, border police is brought in, doors get kicked in, windows get smashed, the Palestinian residents are violently evicted and within an hour Jewish settlers come in, throw the Palestinians’ property into the yard and stick a flag on the roof of the house. This is what colonization looks like. This is what ethnic cleansing looks like.

Testimony of a March
We were the two cars that came straight from the weekly Bil’in demonstration. We were late for the march, so we parked next to the colonized house in Sheikh Jarrah, where police and border police were already stationed in huge amounts, and walked towards the marchers, to meet them half way and walk back. We were around 150 and there were at least 3 police cars “securing” the march (this also means the march is legal). As we walked on the sidewalks of the main roads of Jerusalem, we were jeered at, cursed and even watered on from windows:

When we reached the neighborhood we entered the yard of the al-Kurd family home and filled it. The Palestinian kids were sitting on the fence of the house, cheering with us and some came in with us. Between 7-13 border police and regular police were standing on the porch and the settlers were peeking at us from the doorway. Some of the demonstrated chose to speak to the soldiers, while the rest chanted “stop the expulsions”, “stop the occupation” and other classics. I stood on the porch, where I was face to face with the soldiers. Personally I have nothing to say to them.

One of the demonstrators pulled down a string of Israeli flags, and started towards the gate of the yard, where a settler with a motorcycle helmet appeared and grabbed the flags from her hand. He went and stood on a chair behind the soldiers and started waving the flags and yelling at us. We decided to ignore him and continued chanting. A representative of the neighborhood Palestinians thanked us all for coming and we continued the chanting.

I happened to be next to Rabbi Ascherman’s (Rabbis or Human Rights) assistant, at the time, and heard a conversation between her and one of the residents, who weren’t evicted, yet. He told her he had overheard the police talking and that they are planning to evacuate another house, within the next two days. He pleaded to her:

You have to do something, next time, it’s me, or my neighbors!

This is what a desperate man looks like.
At this point, another demonstrator pulled the remaining string of flags off the wall. Within less than a second the border police and police started herding us out, hitting and grabbing and pushing and pulling. People were falling and they continued trampling us. In the case of one woman, who just couldn’t get up, we spread our arms and legs around her, in an attempt to stop the police from trampling on, until someone managed to pick her up. We finally managed to get outside, when I noticed one of the demonstrators, running to one of the police cars and yelling:

Don’t let them out!

The police had already made their first arrest and this person was in their vehicle. We all ran to the car and blocked the border police from all sides. One of the children was standing right in front of me, and as the border patrol man started pushing us back I grabbed him to me and yelled for the soldier to calm down. I could see their second detainee, a friend, his eyes red and his head hanging down. The put him in the car, shut the doors and the car started moving, with people clinging to its hood. It didn’t get far and the officers came back out and started beating the protesters on the car. I saw one protester loose his glasses, while a border patrol man shook him and shoved him violently, and managed to find the remains of them, for him, in the midst of all this mess. They move the car back into the street and there was a short ease from the police, when one of them yelled that this was an illegal gathering. That’s when the demonstration against the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah turned into the demonstration of our right to demonstrate.

Another friend started yelling into the megaphone that he’s just come back from Bil’in, and he couldn’t believe that he’d have so much to fear, demonstrating inside Israel. He was seized by three police men, who bent him every which way and carried him to the al-Kurd family home, which from an illegal outpost has now turned into police head quarters. Scared for my friends safety, I climbed the house fence to try to see what’s happening. An officer yelled at me to get off the fence, which I did. I followed him and demanded he tell me why my friend is in the house and got no answer. I continued following him, and he went to the squad car, where my other friend, who was beaten before was still sitting. My friend was begging for water, through the glass, so I took a bottle of water out of my bag and tried to get the officer’s attention. Nothing. He just wouldn’t respond to me. The demonstrator next to me, just happened to be the activists’ lawyer, so he took the bottle from me, but didn’t make it on time, and the car sped away with three detainees.

At this point all hell broke loose and the border police and police forces started violently herding us up the street. One by one people were tackled and arrested. Mostly people who dared assert their freedom. Anyone who spoke directly to the police about their violence and injustice, as they were beating us. The brutality of their language was astonishing:

The one with the megaphone! Fold her for me!  [An officer and a gentleman.]

As a bunch of officers were walking towards us, I was walking backwards and one of the veteran activists happened to be by my side. He didn’t say a word, just crossed his hands over his chest and looked them straight in the eyes. All of a sudden, another officer appeared from the sea of border patrol and pointed at him:

Him! I want him! Bring him to me!

My friend was grabbed and within seconds disappeared inside a jumble of officers. I witnessed 3 more arrests. No one lay a hand on these rabid servants of the state. This is what law and order looks like.
About 50 of us stayed at the outskirts of the neighborhood. Legal and media phone calls were being made, trying to see if our friends were under arrest or just detained and who exactly was arrested. As night fell, more and more settler families passed by. Leisurely strolling in their fur coats and hats, while police lights rotate red and blue in the background. I tried to talk to an officer to let me through, to get my car, but he claimed the area is now closed, as 2 bearded men passed right by us. This is what simple logic looks like.
When the last jail van with our friends inside passed by, we all arranged in our cars and each one left back home (some stayed the night in Sheikh Jarrah). News started coming in, of our friends. Who was taken where? And what their charges were. One of our friends was admitted to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder.

The Media and the March
In the car, I heard the 6 o’clock news:

Leftists activists rioted in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, six police officers were lightly injured and treated on sight.

The mainstream media didn’t bother coming to this march. After all, who cares about a few “Arabs” (never Palestinian), being kicked out of their homes, right? I was astonished to see how we do all the dirty work for them. As we were waiting on the outskirts of the neighborhood, one of our friends made calls to all the major networks, and they came by cab and took the tapes we had to offer them.
Interestingly enough, not one of the articles mentioned our wounded, but the six lightly wounded soldiers are always in the sub-header. All articles, but one state that a “confrontation developed”, as if this was a natural occurrence. Many of the articles give the police’s statement, that we tried to enter the house, which is a complete lie, and never even give one demonstrator’s eye witness account. In none of the articles is true context given about Sheikh Jarrah and why we were even there, in the first place. In most cases the background that is given is deceiving:

People of the left and Arab demonstrator came to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem to demonstrate in front of houses where Jews live. [Yediot Acharonot]

The protesters on Friday marched from the city center to Sheikh Jarrah, where police said they tried to enter a home that is partly occupied by Jews before being stopped. [Ha’aretz]

Reading Yediot, you may possibly think that leftists and “Arabs” (who aren’t Palestinians because there’s no such thing) have it in for Jews. Reading Ha’aretz doesn’t help much in understanding the situation, because it’s confusing that the house is “partly‘ occupied by Jews. What doesn’t that even mean?
Without actually being there, without knowing the context, with only hearsay to report with, our press marginalizes us, demonizes us and confuses the public, leaving one falsity as fact: The police is there to keep the peace. This is what our watch dogs look like.

Testimony of a Courthouse Protest

The following evening, over 50 of us got down to the court in Jerusalem, to express support for our fellow demonstrators. The first thing to strike me as odd was the fact that they only let family members in. The court of law is to be open to the public. But this was to be only the first in some strange twists and turns. The presiding judge wasn’t very interested in getting the show on the road, and although present, just wouldn’t begin the hearing. The lawyers filed a paper, demanding that he begin, as detainees have a right to be heard by a judge within 24 hours of their arrest. The judge just didn’t care.

Outside, we chanted as loud as possible, people brought extra coats and a huge pot of soup. Every once in a while news from the lawyers came out. The internationals were to be deported (which is completely illegal), some of the detainees were to be held in custody until due process (which could take months), they won’t be allowed into Jerusalem (which is where some of them live). All kinds of creative ideas were brought up by the judge and prosecution. This is what justice looks like.

Some time around midnight, we were told the first six are to be released. It would take about an hour of chanting and we were slowly joined by a group of counter-protestors, who jeered, cursed, pulled out a switch blade and threatened some of the women with rape, just for laughs and bravado. The police saw it fitting to get a little aggressive, when we shook one of the automatic roadblocks (which we would later cross anyway, as our people started coming out). Joined by the first six, we continued chanting for another 3 hours ( fortunately, the jolly counter protest, yelling “death to the Arabs” was gone after about two hours). We stood outside the courthouse for a total of 8 and a half hours, until all our friends were in our arms. This is what democracy looks like.

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS CAMPAIGN TO ISOLATE ISRAEL

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December 13, 2009 at 4:27 pm (Associate Post, Israel, Occupation, Palestine)
Palestinian Christians Urge Israel Isolation

By Khalid Amayreh

“Apartheid can’t be wrong in South Africa and right in occupied Palestine,” Kassis told IOL.

BETHLEHEM — Christian religious and community leaders in occupied Palestine have launched an ecumenical campaign aimed at enlisting Christians around the world to help end the Israeli military occupation.”This document is the Christian Palestinians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine,” says the 15-page document.
“We, Palestinian Christians, declare in this historic document that the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity and that any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed and a call to justice and equality among peoples.”
Initiators, who include leaders of major churches in the Holy Land, said they had been working on the document for over a year.
“We have not encountered any real opposition to the document,” Rifat Kassis, the main spokesman of the initiative, told IslamOnline.net.
He expects as many as 32 Christian institutions, 200 community leaders as well as thousands of intellectuals and intelligentsia to sign the document, themed Kairos Paletine-2009: A Moment of Truth-A word of Truth, Hope, and Love from the Heart of Palestinian suffering.
“In fact, all religious leaders are backing the initiative wholeheartedly. Even some evangelical leaders are endorsing the document.”
Palestinian Christian leaders say the situation in occupied Palestine has reached “the moment of truth,” or Kairos as the concept is called in Christian theological lexicon.
“The decision-makers content themselves with managing the crisis rather than committing themselves to the serious task of finding a way to resolve it,” says the document.
“The problem is not just a political one. It is a policy in which human beings are destroyed, and this must be of concern to the Church.”

Ugly Reality

The document describes an extremely ugly reality in occupied Palestine under the yoke of the Israeli occupation.
It lists the various numerous disastrous effects of the occupation on Palestinian daily lives, including the separation wall, continued Jewish settlement expansion and the daily humiliation of Palestinians at military checkpoints.
“Religious liberty is severely restricted; the freedom of access to the holy places is denied under the pretext of security,” it says.
“Jerusalem and its holy places are out of bounds for many Christians and Muslims from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
“Even Jerusalemites face restrictions during the religious feasts. Some of our Arab clergy are regularly barred from entering Jerusalem.”
Israel captured and occupied Al-Quds in the six-day 1967 war, then annexed it in a move not recognized by the world community or UN resolutions.
The city is home to some of the holiest Christian worship places including the ancient Jerusalem Church and Greek Orthodox Church.
Al-Quds is also home to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which includes Islam’s third holiest shrine Al-Aqsa Mosque, and represents the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Since its occupation, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinian inhabitants of Al-Quds out, including systematic demolition of their homes.
“The shrinking number of Christians, particularly in Palestine, is one of the dangerous consequences, both of this conflict, and of the local international paralysis and failure to find a comprehensive solution to the problem,” says the document.
“Thus the land is deprived of its most important and richest resource-educated youth.”

World Support

The document is being symbolically signed by dozens of Christian leaders in the West Bank, Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) and the rest of occupied Palestine.
The symbolic signing, which started on Friday, December 11, will last for a few weeks.
Then special emissaries, mostly clergymen, will carry the landmark document to churches in Europe and North America for endorsement and adoption.
Initiators said they hoped that the document would raise the conscience of Christians in the West and around the world to end the Palestinian plight.
Some church leaders have described it as an impassioned appeal or an SOS to Christians worldwide to stand on the side of justice in Palestine.
“We are a peaceable people, we are not terrorists if only because we are the victims of terror, we love freedom, we love justice, we love our country, we love our Jerusalem and we insist on living with human dignity,” says Archbishop Atallah Hanna, a prominent leader of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and one of the initiators.
“This is why we feel Christians worldwide have a paramount religious and human duty to stand on our side. This is a moral and human responsibility that Churches and Christians in general must not flinch from pursuing.”
Kassis, the spokesman, said local Christian leaders had been coordinating the initiative with the World Council of churches and other Christian bodies around the world.
“Ultimately, we hope that Christian institutions, including churches around the world, will endorse this document and act on it the same way churches related to the anti-apartheid South African regime back in 1985,” he told IOL.
In 1985, a group of black South African theologians based predominantly in the black townships of Soweto issued a theological statement challenging the churches’ response to the vicious policies of the apartheid regime.
The Kairos Document evoked strong reactions and furious debates world-wide.
“In the final analysis, apartheid can’t be wrong in South Africa and right in occupied Palestine,” says Kassis.
Archbishop Hanna, an outspoken critic of Israeli occupation and apartheid, believes the unbearable situation in occupied Palestine must come to an end.
“Everything has a beginning and an end. The Israeli occupation must have an end, and the end must come now.”





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Mazin Qumsayeh …..
Full text of the Kairos Palestine Document:
In English
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Kairos Palestine_En.pdf
In Arabic
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Kairos Palestine_Ar.pdf
Auf Deutsch
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Kairos Palestine_Ger.pdf
En français
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Kairos Palestine_Fr.pdf
For the list of signatories:
http://kairospalestine.ps/?q=node/2
Churches in the Middle East: solidarity and witness for peace:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3113
Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
=====================
And From Ecumenical News International (Switzerland); www.eni.ch
Israeli occupation a ’sin against God’, say Palestinian Christian leaders
Jerusalem (ENI). Palestinian Christian leaders have issued a call for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, which they described as, “a sin against God and against humanity,” and have appealed for support from the world’s churches.
“The injustice against the Palestinian people, which is the Israeli occupation, is an evil that must be resisted,” the Christian leaders said in a document that was almost two years in the making. “Resistance is a right and a duty for the Christian. But it is resistance with love as its logic,” they said. “It is thus a creative resistance, for it must find human ways that engage the humanity of the enemy.”
The initiators of the statement, made public at an 11 December meeting in Bethlehem, have referred to the text as the “Kairos Palestine” document. “Kairos” is a Greek word used in the Bible for a God-given time of challenge, grace and opportunity.
The organizers said that their statement echoes the Kairos document that South African churches issued in the mid-1980s, and which helped galvanise churches and the wider public in a concerted effort that eventually led to the end of apartheid.
“It is a call to the international community worldwide to look at the plight of the Palestinians and put pressure on Israel to conform to international law,” spokesperson and coordinator Rifat Kassis told Ecumenical News International.
“Despite the talk about peace and the peace process conducted for 17 years, nothing has happened and the situation continues deteriorating,” Kassis said. “It is the right time for a more ethical perspective on the conflict, and that should come from religious leaders.”
The full title of the document is, “A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering”.
Signatories include the former leader of the Roman Catholic Church in the region, Latin Patriarch emeritus Michel Sabbah; the Lutheran bishop of Jerusalem Munib Younan; and Archbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
“The aim is to free both peoples [Israelis and Palestinians] from extremist positions of the different Israeli governments, bringing both to justice and reconciliation,” the Palestinian Christian leaders stated. “In this spirit and with this dedication, we will eventually reach the longed-for resolution to our problems, as indeed happened in South Africa and with many other liberation movements in the world.”
The signatories accused Israel of “disregard of international law and international resolutions”. Issues faced by Palestinians, they said, included the “separation wall” that cuts through Palestinian territories, Israeli settlements and “daily humiliation” at military checkpoints.
Rejecting Israeli justification for Israel’s actions being in self-defence, the Palestinian Christian leaders said, “There would be no resistance, no fear and no insecurity” if there were no occupation.
“The Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity,” the Palestinian Christian leaders stated, “because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God. It distorts the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier, just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation.”
The initiative brought together leaders of most Palestinian Christian denominations and prominent Christian theologians, said Kassis.
The Geneva-based World Council of Churches helped facilitate the formation of the document, which also addresses churches worldwide including WCC members who may have differing views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The signatories, acknowledging that they are small in number, said their message was, “great and important” not only to Christians but also to Muslims and Jews. To their Muslim neighbours, they sent a “message of love and of living together,” while at the same time urging them to reject fanaticism and extremism. They also called on the world to reject uninformed views of Muslims so that they were not, “stereotyped as the enemy nor caricatured as terrorists”. To their Jewish neighbours, the signatories affirmed the possibility of a shared life despite past struggles.
The Christian leaders condemned all forms of racism including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and called on Christians world wide to, “say a word of truth and to take a position of truth with regard to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land”.
The writers also urged churches around the world, “not to offer a theological cover up for the injustice we suffer, for the sin of the occupation imposed on us”.
Kairos Palestine document: www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Kairos%20Palestine_En.pdf
Kairos Palestine website: www.kairospalestine.ps

LasVegas, Jerusalem and Venice.

Link

 All this in the USA !!.......... ........

 
Recently the city of Las Vegas has replicated

practically most of the ancient city of Venice

This way an American tourist could visit Venice

without leaving the USA.

Also there is a copy of the Eiffel Tower

in Las Vegas , too......... .......

What if the City of Las Vegas would copy

the Old-Jerusalem- City ??

And in that case ,

they could also rebuild the Temple Of Salomon

which is not in Jerusalem today......

and was never found neither .

Instead of the ethnic-cleansing

of the original Palestinian citizens of the real Jerusalem ,

the Jewish Tourists could visit a 100% copy of Jerusalem

and even go and live there , if they so wish.

And out of nostalgia for occupation and for discrimination and for evictions

and for check-points and for prisons and for deprivations ,

I am sure that Hollywood could provide some actors dressed as Arabs

and the Jewish-tourist could shoot on them , or demolish their houses ,

or drive a Bulldozer over their graves...... .

also they could undress them at some check-points.

Solutions for the Middle East are plenty !!

one should only use his (or her)

creative-imaginatio n

Eng. Moustafa  Roosenbloom
Manager of New-Jerusalem- Resort , Las Vegas

PS :

There is a huge architectural problem !!

there are no Jewish Monuments in today's Jerusalem

to be copied in Las Vegas....... ..

but all the other sadist games could be copied .

Posted by Тлакскала at 8:00 PM

Labels: Jerusalem, LasVegas, Temple Salomon

Bardawil: The reconciliation committee’s ideas on resuming talks still unclear

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[ 13/12/2009 - 06:23 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman for Hamas parliamentary bloc, said Sunday that all the ideas suggested by the independent reconciliation committee on the resumption of the national dialog between the Palestinian rivals are still ambiguous.

“So far the mechanisms of the committee are not clear yet, and it has not answered the question about the situation if Hamas and Fatah failed to reach a consensus, so the ideas of this committee are still vague,” Bardawil underlined.

“We are committed to the success of reconciliation and we believe that this success comes from within the reconciliation itself, where it should have clear points and not hidden failure factors,” he added.

For his part, senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan reaffirmed his Movement’s keenness on restoring national unity and maintaining the Palestinian constants and the option of resistance.

In a press statement, Radwan said that Hamas wants the national unity in order to strengthen the internal front in the face of the Israeli occupation and its Judaization policies in occupied Jerusalem and to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.

In another context, the Movement of Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah faction of escalating political arrest campaigns against its cadres to prevent any attempt to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of its inception.

In a statement, Hamas deplored the silence of Arab parties, Palestinian factions and human rights organizations towards the PA violations committed against it in the West Bank.

Hamas underscored that the crimes of the PA and Fatah against it belie Mahmoud Abbas’s alleged willingness for the reconciliation and confirms his persistence in eliminating its cadres in the West Bank in order to serve his own partisan interests.