Bahar: Assassination of Shelbaya fruit of Abbas-Netanyahu talks - Massive crowds in Shelbaiya's funeral despite tyrannies of PA

Bahar: Assassination of Shelbaya fruit of Abbas-Netanyahu talks

[ 19/09/2010 - 10:06 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the first deputy speaker of the Palestinian legislative council, has charged that the Israeli assassination of Qassam commander Iyad Shelbaya was a fruit of the direct talks between de facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said in a statement on Saturday evening that the crime was a natural result of the "malicious" security coordination between Abbas's authority and the Israeli occupation authority.

Bahar noted in this regard that Abbas's security had facilitated the entry of Israeli occupation forces into Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem to commit the crime.

He hailed the Palestinian masses that took part in Shelbaya's funeral, which, he said, proved the Palestinian people's backing to resistance.

Massive crowds in Shelbaiya's funeral despite tyrannies of PA

[ 18/09/2010 - 02:17 PM ]

TULKAREM, (PIC)-- Despite the repressive acts of the Palestinian Authority and its security apparatuses in the West Bank, more than 15,000 Palestinian citizens and supporters of Hamas marched, after Friday prayers, in the funeral procession of slain Qassam leader Iyad Shelbaiya in Tulkarem city.

The procession turned into a massive angry protest against the PA's security cooperation with the Israeli occupation and could be described as the largest ever in three years because of the ban imposed in the West Bank by the PA on anti-Israel protests in general and Hamas activities in particular.

The angry crowds also chanted slogans in support of Hamas and urging its armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades to avenge the murder of Shelbaiya, the reporter of the Palestinian information center (PIC) said.

The PIC reporter added that the body of martyr Shelbaiya was taken from the hospital of Dr. Thabet to his home in Nur Shams refugee camp before taking him to Abu Bakr Al-Sediq Mosque for funeral prayers that were held after Friday Khutba (sermon).

More than 10,000 citizens at first attended the sermon before about 5,000 others coming from nearby West Bank areas flocked into the mosque to take part in the march, according to the reporter.

Palestinian lawmaker Fathi Al-Qaraawi in a speech ahead of the Friday sermon called on Fatah's authority to stop immediately its security cooperation and direct talks with the Israeli occupation.

Later, preacher Shukri Awad highlighted in his sermon the importance of resisting the occupation as well as the religious ruling against those who conspire against the resistance fighters.

Abu Obeida: Murder of Shelbaya won't pass without punishment

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Israeli-linked organ dealers busted

Via South Lebanon

The biggest health care firm in South Africa has been charged with cooperating with an Israeli-linked organ trafficking syndicate.

The South African government said that the head of the Netcare company and a director of the St. Augustine's Hospital in Durban, Richard Friedland, had been aware of illegal kidney trade at the hospital, but "nevertheless permitted these operations" to take place, South African daily The Times reported on Wednesday.

The police said that wealthy Israelis paid organ dealers between 2001 and 2003, the year when the ring was exposed, the German Press Agency (DPA) reported.

"Israeli citizens in need of kidney transplants would be brought to South Africa for transplants at St. Augustine's Hospital," read the charge sheet.

"They paid kidney suppliers for these operations. [The kidneys] were initially sourced from Israeli citizens, but later Romanian and Brazilian citizens were recruited as their kidneys were obtainable at a much lower cost than those of the Israeli suppliers," it added.

An Israeli middleman, named Ilan Perry, received between USD 97,676 and USD 118,607 to arrange for the operations.

This is while, those who provided the kidneys were paid approximately between USD 6,000 and USD 20,000.

Five notable South African physicians, working in Durban have also been charged in the illegal organ-trafficking case.

The report also said that Netcare is being charged with setting up the syndicate with the assistance of prominent kidney specialist Jeffrey Kallmeyer and Perry.

The report comes as earlier last year, another report surfaced about an Israeli plot to kidnap children and harvest their organs.

According to the report, some 25,000 Ukrainian children had been brought into Israel over the past two years to be used by Israeli medical centers for their "spare parts."

The Israeli military is also accused of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners.

Source

Posted by Jnoubiyeh at 9:31 PM

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France to host PA-Israeli initiative to normalize Israeli relations - Rezqa warns of PA

No To Normalisation

[ 18/09/2010 - 10:26 AM ]

PARIS, (PIC)-- The French Foreign Ministry has revealed a new initiative between the Palestinian Authority and Israel to allegedly teach youth peace and coexistence in an apparent scheme to normalize relations with Israel.

The step comes as Israel ramps up attacks against the Palestinian people and settlement activity in the West Bank, and continues its four-year siege on the Gaza Strip.

22 young Palestinians and Israelis between the ages of 15 and 18 will visit Paris Saturday until Sept. 23 to mark National Peace Day, the French Foreign Ministry said.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said the visit is timed to coincide with National Peace Day on Sept. 21, calling it the first initiative of its kind backed by the PA ministry of education in Ramallah and its counterpart in Israel.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner defended the visit, saying: “Education for peace is a must so we can learn to live together in peace.”

Rezqa warns of PA-Israeli peace initiative in France

[ 18/09/2010 - 05:08 PM ]


GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Yousef Rezqa charged in a statement Saturday that the French-hosted initiative for peace between the ministries of education in Israel and Ramallah in an apparent scheme to naturalize relations with Israel is “shameful”.

The French Foreign Ministry announced Friday that 22 Palestinians and Israelis between the ages of 15 and 18 will stay in Paris until Sept. 23 to mark National Peace Day.

“These schemes give equality to the Palestinian citizen and the Israeli usurper, and work to dilute the image of Palestinian figures and abuse them,” said Rezqa, who is the political advisor for Palestine’s Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haneyya.

“This plan is part of a psychological defeat represented by the Palestinian negotiator,” Rezqa added, warning that such mind games risk easing global acceptance of Israeli occupation.

Naturalization of political relations works against the rights of the Palestinians and is not to their interest, he continued. As colonial powers weaken Arab-Islamic culture and figures to make this abnormal practice acceptable, the Palestinians must “crystallize” a national stand to reject such ideas.



In case you missed it
Three Jewish-mothers........


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Gaza's archaeological treasures under threat

Vias South Lebanon

MEMO - Palestine is rich in ancient relics and important archaeological artefacts; some pre-date the Christian era, others go back as far as the Stone Age. But as with everything else, the Israeli-led siege has left these precious historical relics at the mercy of the Zionist occupational forces. In recent months there has been an increase in the number of attempted thefts of important antiquities from the Gaza Strip and attempts to smuggle the valuable items across the border.

Palestinian police recently detained a group of thieves trying to smuggle ancient relics out of Gaza; the items have now been placed in museums. The protection and sensitive excavation of these relics has been hampered by the illegal siege of Gaza which has prevented the government from developing local archaeological and excavation expertise. Israeli forces have also prevented international scientists and archaeologists from entering the Gaza Strip for any length of time adequate enough to carry out their research.

According to an official from the Museums and Antiquities Department in the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry is trying to take control of all archaeological sites. "There have been a number of restoration projects and excavations of these important sites which have produced important new findings," the spokesman added, "especially from the Stone Age and the Byzantine and Canaanite eras." The Palestinians of today are believed to be descendents of the Canaanites.

Exclusive Pictures

Posted by Jnoubiyeh at 9:29 PM

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Ahmadinejad from Syria: "We Are Able to Defeat Enemy"

Ahmadinejad from Syria: "

18/09/2010 While meeting his Syrian counterpart in Damascus, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory from the Syrian capital on Saturday saying that the resistance is increasing in the region.

"The front of resistance is increasing in the region, (and) the people of the region support the policy" pursued by the Iranian and Syrian governments, Ahmadinejad said.

"We have achieved a great victory because we were able to defeat the enemy plans to change" the political map in the Middle East, the Iranian President told reporters before departing the Syrian capital.

The brief meeting with President Bashar al-Assad took place at Damascus airport in the presence of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
Ahmadinejad and Assad signed a visa-scrapping accord that signaled even closer ties.

An Iranian diplomatic source said earlier on Saturday that during their meeting, Ahmadinejad and Assad reaffirmed their strong ties and "commitment to continue consultations ... in areas of interest."
The pair expressed the need "to raise the level of economic cooperation, particularly in the fields of oil, gas, railways and tourism," according to Syria's official SANA news agency.

They also stressed it was important that Iraqi political groups soon find a way to form a coalition following inconclusive March 7 parliamentary elections to ensure the country's unity, added SANA.

The Iranian president was accompanied by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, the home affairs minister and several advisers.
Following his meeting in Syria, Ahmadinejad is expected to travel to Algeria before heading to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, scheduled to begin Monday.



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Blair's Journey: Questions before Charge by David Halpin FRCS

Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 9:20AM Gilad Atzmon

 Gilad Atzmon: This is an incredible piece by a remarkable human being I admire. Beware, some of the images are hard hard to take...

source: http://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk

Blair's Journey: Questions before Charge by David Halpin FRCS

Saturday, September 18, 2010 

 
Your 'Journey' has been long on miles but absent of humanity, reason and law. 'It can only get better'.  Could it have got any worse?  Your vapour trails have left millions weeping.  One million of those are widows in Iraq, at least 1.2 million humans with their Allah, five million orphans and four million refugees.  We will leave out the blood and the mayhem you have left in Afghanistan, Somalia and the Yemen.  You sprang from each jet with strange eyes ablaze, with more lies and plans for yet more Muslim decimation.  You had been re-fuelled at high altitude by your fellow psychopath Campbell and other 'advisers' like Manning.
You joined the dummy Bush over blood-oozing steaks in April 2002.  The false flag of 9/11 had been repeated by the media megaphones of the UK/US/Israel axis and the absence of a judicial inquiry ensured the 'big lie, oft repeated' sank into irrational, Mammon possessed populations.  All that was modelled in the 'think' tanks with the aim of breaking Iraq, the Arab bastion, for ever.  You, and another three of the mafiosi, Aznar, Barroso and Dubya met for an hour in the Azores 16 March.  Two of these mafiosi have fascist connections.  The capo, Dick Cheney, was home pushing buttons and pulling strings for shocking and awing and burning and blasting.  In your 'book' you wrote that Cheney wanted a wholesale reorganization of the political map of the Middle East after 9/11. The vice president "would have worked through the whole lot, Iraq, Syria, Iran, dealing with all their surrogates in the course of it -- Hezbollah, Hamas, etc,". [ 1]

Click to read more ...

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Largest Land Flotilla Convoy En-Route to Gaza

Al-Manar

19/09/2010 Four months after being injured on board the Mavi Marmara ship, one of the participants of late May's Gaza-bound flotilla on Saturday joined what organizers are calling "the largest flotilla yet."

A large land convoy has begun making its way from around the world to the Gaza Strip.

Kevin Ovenden set sail from Britain Saturday morning along with 30 other activists on a voyage they dubbed "Viva Palestina."

Vehicles were loaded onto ships and are en-route to the el-Arish Port in Egypt where they hope to be allowed to unload and drive into Gaza. "Our mission last time was to take aid in and to highlight the siege," Ovenden told CNN. "That's our mission this time."

Ovenden also denied claims that activists aboard the Mavi Marmara carried weapons that were used against the soldiers during the raid.

"I witnessed the man one meter in front of me being shot in the leg, a man 50 centimeters to the right of me being shot through the abdomen," Ovenden said of the experience.

"Neither of them had anything in their hands. There were no Israeli commandos within the immediate proximity. They were shot from above, so it was simply unfeasible -- in that incident I saw – for anyone to claim they were in fearing for their lives when they rang out those shots," he added.

According to press reports, about 450 vehicles are expected to participate in the land convoy which is organized by former British lawmaker George Galloway

Vehicles are coming from England, Qatar, Kuwait, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. In January, the Egyptians banned Galloway from using their territory for Gaza-bound convoys and accused the former British lawmaker’s organization Viva Palestina of criminal activity.
Galloway, a former British MP and veteran anti-Israel activist, first announced plans for the "Viva Palestina" flotilla in June, shortly after attending the funerals of the Turkish activists killed aboard the Mavi Marmara.

Galloway announced the September 18 launch of the flotilla in an August opinion article he wrote in the British socialist daily the Morning Star.

Galloway states in the article that now that the siege on Gaza is being condemned by the EU, UN, many governments and every major international aid agency, "we are at a moment when pressure can be brought to bear as never before to frustrate Israel's moves to crush the Palestinians."

Aid convoy "Lifeline 5" leaving London for Gaza today

[ 18/09/2010 - 02:41 PM ]

LONDON, (PIC)-- Viva Palestina organization said its fifth aid convoy, Lifeline for Gaza, is expected to move today (Saturday) from central London towards France.

Spokesman for the organization Zaher Al-Berawi said the participants will flock into an area near Big Ben clock tower in London and meet with media reporters before setting off to France where other vehicles carrying humanitarian aid will join in.

Spokesman Berawi added that the participants in the convoy would spend one night in France before heading to Italy and then to Greece, Turkey and Syria.

The spokesman affirmed that upon its arrival in the Syrian city of Latakia, the convoy will be joined by Arab and African participants coming from North Africa, the Gulf states and Jordan and later it would be taken aboard a large ship heading to the Egyptian port of Arish.

He noted that there is no agreement so far with the Egyptian authority on facilitating the entry of the convoy into the Gaza Strip, but there will be contacts with Egypt as soon as it arrives in Syria.

*****************************

George Galloway - Viva Palestina 5 Sendoff - London 18 10 2010

Viva Palestina 5 has set off for Gaza

VivaPalestine5SendoffLondon18102010.avi:

"MrAlexSeymour | September 18, 2010

George Galloway speaking in London this morning at the start of the latest Viva Palestina convoy to attempt the Gaza run.



- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

 Syrian ship sets sail for Gaza via El-Arish

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Off to the “Land of the Free”

Ken O'Keefe

Well after being denied the ability to board my flight to Portland nearly two weeks ago I am now set to depart for the States in less than 24 hours.  I depart looking forward to meeting some great people in the Pacific Northwest and Kansas.  I was originally to give a presentation at the International Eco-Tourism Conference, the largest of its kind in America, but Uncle Sam was busy protecting the homeland so that went by the wayside.

We shall see just how much stock US Homeland Security puts in the Israeli charges that I am an “operative of the Hamas Terror organization” who was going to Gaza to “form and train a commando unit for the Palestinian terror organization.”  If I were Arab you could bank on me going to some torture chamber long ago, but now I will test once again just how much we white folk can get away with. Meanwhile of course our darker skinned brothers and sisters, especially Arabs and Muslims, continue to be treated as sub-humans.

If I do end up “detained” or if God forbid the powers that be attempt to charge me with any acts or planned acts of “terrorism”, I say for the record that it is absolute bullshit.  And since my DNA in the form of my toothbrushes, blood stained clothes and so on have been in the custody of the Israeli’s I would reject any DNA evidence as well.  If I am charged with “terrorism” it is a classic set-up; let me say pre-emptively, if this happens I am being framed.  The last fifteen years of my life have been dedicated to truth, justice and peace and if I am imprisoned it is because of my commitment to the liberation of the Hawaiian, Iraqi, Afghani, Palestinian and in fact all oppressed, occupied and violated peoples.

If I am to be free in the land of the free then I will be meeting people and discussing the ways in which we can affect a better world.  For those who are still oblivious to the way the working class people of America are being used as worthless pawns, how American sons and daughters are being sacrificed in far off lands to make the rich richer, I say to you that they, the powers that be are mocking you.  They are laughing at you and the irony that you would see someone like me as your enemy is enough to make them laugh all the more.  For now, in your manipulated state, you are the tyrants’ best friend and you are anything but patriotic.  But it is not too late, America could be a great country, and I would very much like to see that happen.

In that interest I will be speaking all over the Northwest, whether you are friend or foe I look forward to seeing you and what changes may have occurred in mainland America since I left in 2001.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Gaza man arrested in transit at Cairo airport over links to Hamas

[ 18/09/2010 - 03:32 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Egyptian authorities arrested a Palestinian man six days back in the Cairo International Airport on his return trip from Makkah after performing Umrah in the holy land, sources in Gaza said, adding that police gave no justification for the arrest.

Debabeche had traveled to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah (the smaller pilgrimage) rites this Ramadan after he was given permission to enter Egypt from Gaza en route to Saudi Arabia.

Hamas denounced the arrest, asserting that Egypt should not outlaw Hamas affiliates from entry into Egypt.

30 Palestinian activists from Gaza Strip are currently detained in Egyptian prisons on charges of belonging to Palestinian organizations. Some have spent more than six years there.

“Debabeche is a Palestinian citizen who left to perform the Umrah rites with the knowledge and consent of the Egyptian authorities, so why did they betray him on his return through their land and arrest him?” one Hamas official said in a press statement.

“Supposing Debabeche was a Hamas leader, is there any Egyptian law prohibiting Hamas leaders from entering their land or using it for transit?” he added.

“If the answer is, ‘yes’, Egypt should clearly announce that, and should not arrest people who perform Umrah during their return from Umrah rites,” he went on to say.

Egypt should release Debabeche immediately, the source said, calling on the Saudi government to pressure Egypt to show respect for Muslim pilgrims and worshippers who visit Saudi Arabian holy sites and secure their safe return home.

Egyptian authorities earlier prevented PLC First Deputy Speaker Ahmad Bahar and dozens of other Hamas supporters from traveling outside of the Gaza Strip through Egypt for religious and other reasons.


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We Offer Our Unconditional Jewish Loyalty (video)

September 18, 2010 at 10:24AM Gilad Atzmon

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/we-offer-our-unconditional-jewish-loyalty-video.html


and don't forget the 'Jewish army'...
I am totally convinced that Nazis could have learned a lot from these loyal Jews

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PA's security threatens to cut off tongues of mosque imams in W. Bank

[ 18/09/2010 - 02:56 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- A number of mosque imams and preachers said that the Palestinian Authority's security apparatuses in the West Bank threatened to cut off their tongues if they kept defying minister of religious affairs Mahmoud Al-Habash and refusing to deliver the Friday khutbas (sermons) prepared by him.

They added that these security apparatuses also threatened to cut off their livelihoods in order to force them to deliver Habash's speeches on Fridays.

In a separate incident, 22 Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas Movement, most of them were ex-detainees in Israeli or West Bank jails, were kidnapped lately by the PA's security militias in the cities of Ramallah, Tulkarem, Al-Khalil, Qalqiliya, Jenin and Salfit.

Other citizens recently released from West Bank jails said that the PA's interrogators stepped up their acts of torture against Hamas prisoners, affirming that many of them pass out as a result of long hours of constant beating and sleep deprivation.



River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Sudden baravdo of Lebanon's Chief of Police: "Hey Jamil Assayed, prison is for you and yout ilk..."

Via Friday-Lunch-Club

Remember, this is the Numero Uno of law enforcement,. Bravado after-the-fact ... Assayed is watching TV at home ....! "... We will face you in court and we will carry on with our quest...."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 1:32 PM

Also see:

• Sayyed to Hariri: Criminals around You Must Be Held Accountable
• Jamil Sayyed to Saad Hariri: You Are Your Dad's Killer till You Punish Forgers

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Palestinians in Lebanon commemorate the Sabra and Shatila massacre

The Lebanese Phalangist militia committed the massacre after the Israeli occupation forces encircled the camps, allowed the militiamen in, forced back anyone who tried to get out and lit the way for the militia during the night by firing light bombs.

[ 17/09/2010 - 09:59 PM ]

BEIRUT, (PIC)-- Hundreds of Palestinians, Lebanese and European activists commemorated on Friday the Sabra and Shatila massacre in which thousands of Palestinian refugees were murdered in cold blood.

Activists, dozens of who travelled from Europe to participate in marking the gruesome massacre, marched the streets and visited the victims' graves.

Nawal Abu Rudaina, a survivor of the massacre, said that it was a real catastrophe in which I lost everything I have in life, my whole family.

She added that Sabra and Shatila was one of the biggest massacres committed by Zionists against the Palestinians and it was committed in similar circumstances as those of the Nakba in 1948 as it was committed after a Zionist military victory and by gangs to which the occupation denies any links.

The Lebanese Phalangist militia committed the massacre after the Israeli occupation forces encircled the camps, allowed the militiamen in, forced back anyone who tried to get out and lit the way for the militia during the night by firing light bombs.

The massacre lasted for 62 hours; children, women and men were killed mercilessly, young women were raped by a militia which was trained, armed and sent in by the Israeli occupation forces.

Twenty eight years after the massacre the victims are still waiting for justice.

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Taliban, please come back…

Posted on September 19, 2010 by rehmat1|

On July 27, 2009 – BBC reported the ‘Israel-Firster’ former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urging the Karzai government in Kabul to negotiate with ‘moderate’ members of Taliban to bring stability to the country.

On July 31, 2010 – BBC reported that a great majority of the residents of Helmand province want Taliban to govern them.

On Saturday, Aghans are being put on to the latest Western charade of “bringing democracy” where it doesn’t exist – except among the love ones. Taliban, as expected, has urged Afghans to boycott the electoral charade which is meant to extent the Western puppet Karzai’s rule.

Anyone, who is not brainwashed by the Zionist media lies, can understand why the vast majority of Afghans prefer Taliban’s somewhat ‘uncivilized’ rule over the West’s ‘civilized’ occupation?
The US, NATO and their ‘willing collaborators’ have brought very little economic benefits at the cost of huge social sufferings and hundreds of thousands of death of innocent civilian population at the hands of both the occupation forces and the Taliban and other resistance militias.

According to the UN, more than 1,250 civilians were killed in the first half of 2010 – a year-on-year increase of 30 per cent, which made it the deadliest six-month period of the war. More and more Afghans now believe that NATO forces are not the solution to the violence but the source of violence. The majority of Afghans believe that that if NATO were to leave and the Taliban take charge again, there would be no more IEDs, no more fighting and no more civilian dead.

Taliban on their part want all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan and let the Afghans decide what kind of government they would like – the current corrupt and pro-West secluralist one or an independent and Shari’ah-governed one similar to the neighboring Iran.

The western claim of staying in Afghanistan to avoid the country becoming a nest of Al-Qaeda – is as much bogus as their claim that Osama Bin Laden is still alive.

Ben Obama in his September 11, 2010 message repeated the lie “America is not at War with Islam” while he wages war in at least seven Muslim-majority countries – Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Palestine – mostly for the benefit of the Zionist entity. Under the influence of Zionist Lobby, Ben Obama is also threatening other Muslim countries – Islamic Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey – even though none of those countries has called for Israel’s “wipe off the map”.

British-born journalist, Yvonne Ridley, wrote that Afghanistan was no occupied to liberate Afghan women, but to destroy the Islamic fabric of the Afghan nation.

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Carter in New Book: Obama Turned Back on Settlement Freeze

Carter in New Book: Obama Turned Back on Settlement Freeze

18. Sep, 2010 

The former U.S. president also criticizes Bill Clinton, writing that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank was especially rapid under his administration.

By The Associated Press and Haaretz Service

In his new book, former United States president Jimmy Carter criticizes President Barack Obama over his policy on Israel’s settlement freeze, writing that the President has backed away from his initial commitment to a complete halt to building in West Bank settlements.

The Associated Press purchased a copy of Carter’s book, White House Diary, on Friday, ahead of its release Monday.

Carter also criticizes fellow Democrat and former president Bill Clinton over his policy on Israel settlement expansion, writing that settlement building was especially rapid during Clinton’s administration.

This past week, the newspaper Asharq Al Awsat reported that the Obama administration has suggested Israel extend the current moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements, which is set to expire on September 26, for an additional three months.

The expiration date for the settlement freeze has loomed over the recently re-launched direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians have threatened to walk away from the talks if the freeze is not extended.

On Thursday, the European Union called on Israel to extend the settlement freeze in light of the peace talks which began this month.

“The European Union deems it indispensable that both parties observe calm and restraint and refrain from actions that could affect negatively the progress of the negotiation,” the group stated following a meeting in Brussels. “In this regard, it recalls that settlements are illegal under international law and, with a view to ensure that these talks continue in a constructive manner, calls for an extension of the moratorium decided by Israel.”

The former president’s views on Israel have caused controversy in the past, such as when he likened Israeli policy in the West Bank to apartheid South Africa in his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”.

Source: Haaretz.com

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