UN vote overwhelmingly supports Goldstone report

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Thalif Deen, The Electronic Intifada, 6 November 2009

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A 575-page blistering report by Justice Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes in Gaza last winter is refusing to die despite an aggressive Israeli smear campaign to kill it.

The report, which was favorably voted by the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, received overwhelming support Thursday in the 192-member General Assembly.

The vote was 114 in favor and 18 against, with 44 abstentions.

The 18 countries that voted against the resolution included the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Israel.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, singled out Ireland, one of the few Western nations to vote for the resolution, for "supporting" it.

He also noted that a "sizable number of European nations" abstained on the resolution.

Among the abstentions were Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Denmark and Greece.

"The General Assembly sent a powerful message," he told reporters, adding that if Israelis do not comply, "We will go after them."

The Assembly requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report within three months on the implementation of the resolution.

Among other things, the resolution calls upon both the Israelis and the Palestinians to undertake independent investigations of their own on the serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws during the 22-day conflict in Gaza.

Still, Mansour said he rejects any equation of the "occupying power's aggression and crimes with actions committed in response by the Palestinian side."

"We wish to clearly reaffirm that there is absolutely no symmetry or proportionality between the occupier and the occupied," he added.

US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff rejected the Goldstone report as "deeply flawed" and "unbalanced."

He said the United States was fully committed to a two-state solution -- Israel and Palestine -- and will do nothing to hinder it.

Last month, the 15-member Security Council debated the report but refused to take a vote primarily because of the opposition by the United States, a veto-wielding member of the Council.

In Geneva, the Human Rights Council endorsed the report last month by a vote of 25 in favor, six against, 11 abstentions and five no-shows.

The report was also the subject of a vote Tuesday by the US House of Representatives, traditionally sympathetic towards Israel. That vote, condemning the report, was 344 in favor and 36 against.

Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Palestine Studies, told IPS the importance of the Goldstone report is evident given the amount of effort Israel, the United States and their allies are investing in trying to bury it.

She said irrespective of the strength or weakness of the General Assembly resolution, the report is important because of its very existence.

Not only does it provide an authoritative basis for Palestinians seeking reparations and accountability, but it also puts the world on notice that international law must be upheld and impunity must end, she said.

"It's simply not going to go away," said Hijab.

The report, authored by a four-member international fact-finding mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, details war crimes charges against both Israel and Hamas.

The mission, and specifically Goldstone, has been politically smeared by pro-Israeli groups in the United States.

The UN mission recommended that the Security Council require Israel to report to it, within the next six months, on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to the violations cited in the report.

During the ruthless military operation, codenamed "Operation Cast Lead," the Israelis destroyed houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings.

The number of Palestinians killed during the conflict is estimated at between 1,387 and 1,417, mostly civilians, compared with four Israeli fatal casualties in southern Israel and nine soldiers killed during fighting, four of whom died as a result of friendly fire.

The report also recommended that the Security Council set up its own body of independent experts to report to it on the progress of the Israeli investigations and prosecutions.

"If the expert's reports do not indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceedings are taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court," the report recommended.

Hijab told IPS the Goldstone report has already had an impact on the Israeli-Palestinian scene.

"It will ensure that henceforth the Israeli state as well as Palestinian armed groups are more careful about the use of force," she said.

In addition, she said, the initial misguided attempt by the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to "postpone" consideration has strengthened the hand of political parties and civil society in setting limits on how far the PA/PLO can go in their alliance with the US and its erosion of Palestinian human rights.

In short, the Goldstone report has been significant before it even reached the General Assembly, and it continues to be discussed the world over, Hijab declared.

All rights reserved, IPS - Inter Press Service (2009). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.

"A Liberated Lame Duck"

"A Liberated Lame Duck"

WINEP, here

".... He is particularly upset with the Arab states for not backing him in the Gaza war aftermath. He knew the U.N. report would be a detour from peacemaking, but his Arab allies did not seem to care. In his speech Thursday, Mr. Abbas accused Hamas of "destructive" practices, making it clear he thinks the group is more concerned with their own ideological agenda than with the Palestinian cause.

Mr. Abbas also seems to feel that he has no partner in the Israeli government. .......also seems to believe the Obama administration boxed him in, first insisting on an absolute freeze and, once Mr. Abbas had no choice but to go along with this approach, backed off, leaving him politically exposed.....

Nonetheless, Mr. Abbas has not yet resigned, and he could change his mind. The outcome seems to be in the hands of Hamas, who will view Mr. Abbas's statement as the sign of his personal defeat and a vindication of their own path. If Hamas reverses course and agrees to participate in elections in January as originally favored by Mr. Abbas, Hamas could force the president to make good on his promise. But Hamas may not take the initiative. Their popularity is low and they have opposed elections. Mr. Abbas could remain president indefinitely.

Not having to face the voters could be a strength for Mr. Abbas, rather than a weakness. His Israeli counterpart, Ehud Olmert found being a lame duck liberating. While Mr. Olmert announced his decision to resign last summer, he continued in office for another eight months and used the time to nearly reach a peace accord with Mr. Abbas. Indeed, he conditioned Israelis to the idea that they would have to yield most of the West Bank and even agree to compromises on Jerusalem. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Abbas adopts the Olmert paradigm. Indeed, he might be able to do more to advance peace on his way out than he would by remaining in office."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 4:31 PM

Egypt's Next Unelected President?

The Ascendancy of Gamal Mubarak

Egypt's Next Unelected President?

By RANNIE AMIRI

It is always amusing to see how authoritarian regimes endow themselves with the trappings of democracy – a party, parliament, “elections” – as if they somehow confer legitimacy to otherwise undemocratic governance. In Egypt, the 28-year rule of U.S.-backed president Hosni Mubarak is a good illustration. Although Mubarak claimed election victory in 2005 and his “National Democratic Party” (NDP) holds a majority in parliament, since assuming power in 1981, his government has been most notable for political intimidation of opponents, suppression of dissent, and silencing any and all who dare challenge his authority.

Egypt indeed has become the epitome of a police state. Mubarak has never ruled a day without the powers bequeathed to him by Emergency Law. Instituted immediately after Anwar Sadat’s assassination, these wide-sweeping measures allow his State Security forces to arrest any person without warrant; indefinitely detain any citizen without charge; try civilians in military court; censor the media; restrict political organizations’ freedom of assembly; and tightly curb what the media is permitted to broadcast or publish – all powers of which Mubarak has taken full advantage. Egypt’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is officially banned and its members routinely arrested, jailed and tortured under its mandates.

Questions about Mubarak’s potential successor – a subject normally off-limits to public or media speculation – came to a head this week when the NDP held its annual party conference (in direct violation of Egypt’s constitution, Mubarak has never appointed a vice president). Would he announce his intention to seek re-election in 2011 or would his 46-year-old son Gamal, widely believed to be his political heir apparent, declare his own candidacy?

Before answering, it is prudent to recall how Hosni Mubarak behaved during the country’s first direct, multi-candidate presidential election in 2005.

Amidst charges of vote-rigging (the government predictably prohibited outside election monitors), Mubarak won 88 percent of the vote, while his main challenger, Ayman Nour and his Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party came in a distant second, garnering a mere seven percent.

Recognizing, however, that Nour had the potential of posing a significant challenge to Gamal in a future election, he was thrown in jail on trumped-up forgery charges shortly thereafter. After being tortured for four years, Nour was finally released in rapidly declining health this February (only to be attacked a few months later when a man on a motorcycle ignited a flammable substance near his face, burning his head. Nour blamed regime elements for the incident).

Gamal Mubarak currently heads the powerful policy committee of the NDP, and his hour long address to party members could have doubled as a stump speech. But in the end, neither he nor his father would state their intentions for 2011.

It should be understood that simply positing that Hosni Mubarak may be paving the way for his son to succeed him comes with its perils. In 2001, Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, one of Egypt’s prominent political dissidents, was sentenced to seven years in prison 2001 for alleging Mubarak with doing just that (he was later acquitted in 2003). Ibrahim wrote in 2007:

“Like other autocrats with declining legitimacy, Mubarak is trying to tighten his grip on power. His family is grooming 44-year-old Gamal to succeed his father. Any real or potential competitors, especially ones with charisma and name recognition, are to be defamed, jailed, driven from the country or otherwise eliminated.”

Since his release, Nour has organized a coalition of opposition groups comprised of leftists, liberals and Islamists, calling itself The Egyptian Campaign Against Presidential Succession; all are united in opposing Gamal’s apparent ascension to the presidency.

It only took a week after the announcement of this coalition’s formation before State Security forces raided Nour’s offices and assaulted party members gathered there.

Other names for the 2011 presidency beside Gamal being floated include Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohammad ElBaradei, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, and current director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Services Omar Suleiman.

But in Egypt, where the political infrastructure is so intertwined with the state security apparatus, there will never be open and fair elections, despite the senior Mubarak’s proclamation they would be “clean and free.” The only realistic possibilities outside himself are Suleiman, or most likely, Gamal.

Just as with King Abdullah of Jordan, Bashar Assad of Syria, and the current grooming of Libya’s Saif Ghaddafi, it will be a dictator’s son who assumes power; a “candidacy” endorsed by Washington, and one in which the Egyptian people, regrettably, will have very little say.

Rannie Amiri is an independent Middle East commentator. He may be reached at: rbamiri AT yahoo DOT com.

"Get us rid of Erdogan" says WINEP to the Turkish army ...

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WINEP's David Schenker does not trust Turkey anymore! Unless the Military (Turkish that is) sends Erdogan packing to comfort Israel.... ! Here

"The European Union has long debated the merits of Turkish EU membership. But now, nearly a decade after Islamists took the reins of power in Ankara, the central question is no longer whether Turkey should be integrated into Europe's economic and political structure, but rather whether Turkey should remain a part of the Western defense structure.

Recent developments suggest that while Turkey's military leadership remains committed to the state's secular, Western orientation and the defining principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the civilian Islamist government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) seems to have different ideas. Ankara is increasingly pursuing illiberal policies at home, for instance by attacking independent media, while aligning itself with militant, anti-western Middle East regimes abroad.

The latest demonstration of Ankara's political shift was its cancellation last month of Israel's long-standing participation in NATO military exercises in Turkey. Even worse, on the same day Israel was disinvited, Turkey announced imminent military exercises with Syria, a member of the U.S. list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism."....

Ankara is simultaneously moving closer to the mullocracy in Tehran, even though the Islamic Republic is undermining stability in Afghanistan and Iraq by providing insurgents in both countries with explosives that are killing NATO and U.S. soldiers. The Iranian regime is also threatening to annihilate Israel,...

While Ankara's politics have changed, the military's pro-Western disposition reportedly has not. But over the past decade, the dynamics between the politicians and the general staff have been transformed. For better or worse, Western pressures have compelled the Turkish military to remain in the barracks (get them out NOW!), and refrain from interfering in political developments. Today, the Turkish military can do little but watch as the secular, democratic, pro-Western republic established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the early 1900s is undermined.

While it's still too early to write Turkey out of NATO, in the not so distant future, the alliance will reach a decision point. In 2014, NATO's next generation fighter plane, the Joint Strike Fighter, will be delivered. Given the direction of Turkish politics, serious questions must be asked about whether the Islamist government in Ankara can be trusted with the highly advanced technology.

It's time that NATO start thinking about a worst case scenario in Turkey. ......... absent a remarkable turnaround, it would appear that the West is losing Turkey. Should this occur, it would constitute the most dramatic development in the region since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 3:08 PM

Obama's Mid-East Mess

Broken Pledges

Obama's Mid-East Mess

By FRANKLIN LAMB

On November 4, 2009, the 30th anniversary of the student takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini gave a speech which is being much discussed in Washington DC.

The source of some of the angst at the While House and the State Department according to Congressional sources was that “the speech suggests that the Iranian government may be doing what it’s done many times over the past seven years. Which is to say that Iran may appear to agree, then hedge, then disagree, then appear to agree again somewhat, then pull back again, then ask for more time to consider details of the proposal, then finally present a counter-proposal, then say it wants cooperation but has serious doubts about the reliability of the other side and then say it will never give up on its rights, and on and on its goes.”

While omitting Iran’s take on recent events, some on Capitol Hill wondered if Iran’s Wali al Fique (supreme leader) was playing to his base or was using the speech to communicate directly and seriously with the Obama administration. Presumably he was doing both.

Aytollalh’s Khameni’s words were pointed and clear. He declared that Tehran may reject any talks backed by Washington because it is not to be trusted. He acknowledged that the US wanted to negotiate with Tehran “but its talks were full of threats … Every time they have a smile on their face, they are hiding a dagger behind their back. … Iran will not be fooled by the superficial conciliatory tone of the United States…This new American president repeatedly sent us oral and written messages to come and change the page -- to come and cooperate in solving the problems of the world. We said we will not pre-judge. We will see their action and see what they do about the change…But in the past eight months what we have seen is contradictory to what they say. They are telling us to negotiate, but alongside the negotiation there is a threat that if the negotiation does not bear the desired results, then we will do this and we will do that…We do not want any negotiations, the result of which is pre-determined by the United States," he said, adding that Tehran will always pursue its "scientific and technological rights and freedom,” and does not want a “sheep and wolf relation” with those with “ill-intentions” against Iran.

“Why don’t the Iranians trust us on the nuclear issue?” asked a staff member the House Foreign Affairs committee, who conceded he had not read the widely reported speech but he added that “ Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on 11/2/09 in Marrakech that the U.N. nuclear deal could not be altered so it is unclear what is left to negotiate about.”

Some American analysts have argued that Iran is quite right to be suspicious of US intensions and have identified a pattern of recent events that undermine the credibility of the Obama administration since the president’s June “open hand-clenched fist” speech in Cairo. A pattern that Iran’s leadership no doubt analyzes as it recalls, and resolves not to continue the half century of Arab-Muslim gullibility when it comes to American and Western promises and inducements.

Some recent examples come to mind:

• Clinton’s flip-flop on US demands for an Israeli settlement freeze and her throwing in the towel on the Obama administration assertion that Zionist settlement construction must stop. Her “Israel’s has made unprecedented concessions” statement was an obscenity to the ears of Palestinians and to much of the world including Iran. And it led to the 11/05/09 announcement by Mahmoud Abass that he would not seek reelection as President of the Palestinian Authority. All the White House could do was send its spokesman, Robert Gibbs, to the press room to praise Abass as a “true partner for the United States and Israel.”

• The October 21, 2009, “Juniper Cobra 10” launching of the largest ever joint US-Israel military maneuvers employing more than 1000 military personnel and 17 U.S. warships clearly aimed at threatening Iran which is to be targeted by Arrow, Patriot and Aegis missiles in case of conflict. This was coupled by the obtuse comment of a US naval commander that the US navy will defend Israeli occupied Haifa as if it were San Diego.

• The Obama administration has conspicuously refused to put the "Jundallah" (God's soldiers) group on the US State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations while keeping Lebanon’s Waad and Jihad al Binna constructions companies on the T list alongside Lebanon’s senior Shia cleric, Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.

• In May 2009, “Jundallah” claimed responsibility for the killing of civilians in a mosque in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province. Last month, a Jundallah suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iran-supported gathering which was meant to foster closer community relations between Sunnis and Shi'ites in the area. What confidence can Iran’s leaders have in an Obama administration that continues the Bush-Cheney never-ending war on terror with its wrongheaded logic of "my enemy's enemy is my friend?

• What message does this week’s House Congressional Resolution on the Goldstone Report send to Tehran and the World?

By a margin of 344-36, the US House of Representative quickly passed HR 867, an Israeli lobby resolution, crafted by AIPAC and staff members of Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that condemned the UN Goldstone report which has now been endorsed by the UN General Assembly with a vote of 114 to 18. The Goldstone Report now moves to the UN Security Council and perhaps the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
But according to the US House of Representatives and the vicious attack by the Anti-Defamation League hate group and its Director, Abe Foxman, the Report on wars crimes committed by Israel and Hamas is “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.” Many in Congress, who are strong advocates of an American Israel-centric foreign policy, vie with one another to demonstrate obeisance to Israel, not America. They urged President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton "to strongly and unequivocally oppose any discussion of the report or action on its findings in any international setting”, despite the fact that Judge Goldstone exposed many errors in Congressional criticism of the UN Report.

Ignoring Goldstone’s rebuttal to Israeli lobby attacks on the UN Report, Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer proclaimed:"I think the UN Goldstone report is unbalanced, and unfair, and inaccurate," yet he refused to offer any facts to support his broadside attack while adding that “the UN is totally biased against Israel, which is as careful a government as there is in terms of prosecuting its own defense officials.” Hoyer and his colleagues apparently do not credit the work of B’tselem, who the day before the rushed passage of HR 867 documented that as of 11/04/09 not one Israeli government investigation has been opened regarding Israel's policy during “Cast Lead” with respect to the selection of targets, the open-fire orders given to soldiers, the legality of the weapons used, the balance between injury to civilians and military advantage. Additionally, more than half of 23 cases of Palestinians being killed while holding white flags and all the cases where Gazans were used as human shields were exposed by B’tselem not the Israeli military, whose position, like Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen, is that these crimes did not happen despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen are pillars of the fake US Congressional Human Rights Caucus, founded in l983 which in its quarter century of self congratulatory investigations of Human Rights abuses has yet to find a single human rights abuse by Israel, irrespective of any murders, slaughtering of innocents, home demolitions, political incarcerations, religious bigotry, illegal use of American weapons, illegal siege of Gaza, and serial invasions of Lebanon, and the continuing theft of Syria’s Golan heights. Over the past few years the CHRC has become an Iran-bashing forum for all manner of Zionist zealots and kooks spreading falsehoods and defamations against Islam and the Islamic Republic.

According to Ros-Lehtinen, "The Goldstone Report illustrates the anti-freedom, anti-Israel bias which deeply pervades the UN system, and it does not deserve consideration or legitimacy from responsible nations. Israel took every reasonable measure to minimize the risk of civilian casualties. It is clear that Israel had every right and duty to defend its citizens from the onslaught of rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas and other militants in Gaza,"

Both Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen could have been deterred by the White House from creating this latest anti-Arab, anti-Islam House Resolution but they were given a green light by the Obama administration to push their screed. Obama joined in condemning the Goldstones Report and not much appears to be left of his pledge to break from the past and open a new chapter of civility with Iran.

Human Rights Watch which had urged lawmakers not to back the resolution, said that "Instead of denouncing the Goldstone report, the US Congress should urge Israel and Hamas to break the cycle of abuse and impunity, which for too long has fueled hatred and hindered efforts at peace.”

One can hardly expect Iran to believe that these US policy makers should be taken seriously or have any interest to advance their country’s interests rather than Israel’s.Questions of credibility rest more at the door of Barack Obama’s White House that at Iran’s Shura and Majlis.

U.S. Mid-East policy clearly in disarray, from Iran to Palestine. Time is running out if Obama’s claimed vision of dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and equality does not collapse into complete derision and caricature.

Franklin Lamb is Director of the Washington DC-Beirut Lebanon based Sabra Shatila Foundation. He can be reached at fplamb@sabrashatila.org.

Maqdisi society exposes Israeli plan to demolish more Palestinian homes in O.J.

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[ 06/11/2009 - 08:35 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Maqdisi society said on Thursday that it possesses an important document revealing the intention of the Israeli occupation authority to demolish 40 Palestinian homes in the occupied city of Jerusalem by the year end.

In a statement it issued in this regard, and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, the society pointed out that the document includes a list of names and locations of the homes that would be demolished, adding that the four Palestinian homes that were demolished last week in the city’s suburbs of Beit Haninan, Sur Baher and Al-Thawry were part of the list.

However, the society explained that all the homes that are on the list were populated, and that demolishing them would turn tens of Palestinian Jerusalemite families homeless.

Nevertheless, the society suggested the establishment of a legal body comprising experts, engineers, and architects that should immediately start making detailed plans for all Palestinian suburbs but stressed that a strong Arab and international role must be introduced in support of the Palestinian Jerusalemites.

Furthermore, the society invited Arab and Muslim businessmen and investors to invest in the property market in the city, and to establish an Arab-Muslim fund that would finance the construction of housing projects and give easy loans for administrative expenses.

Hundreds of Palestinian homes have been demolished in the city by the IOA, and thousands of Palestinian Jerusalemites have been forced out of their homes over the past few years as part of the Israeli policy to change the demographic structure in the city in favor of Jewish settlers.

"Charismatic Dahlan ..."

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Replacing the "bear-hug" boy, in YNETnews, here

"... Despite estimates that Abbas will not deliver on his threat and will eventually seek reelection, several names have been mentioned in connection to a possible successor. The most high-flying candidate mentioned is Mohammad Dahlan, who in the wake of the Fatah convention is seen as the most prominent figure in the Fatah movement's central committee.

Dahlan enjoys growing support from extensive public sectors and also among the veteran leadership, which at this time is out of the decision-making loop. He is perceived as the most charismatic and worthy figure for leading Fatah.

However, Dahlan's problem is the personal campaign managed against him by Hamas and media outlets associated with it. By engaging in an intensive character assassination effort, they turned him into a highly controversial figure...."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 10:58 AM

Gaza students organize for justice

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Bianca Zammit, The Electronic Intifada, 6 November 2009



The Justice Makers hold a workshop for law students at al-Azhar University. (Bianca Zammit)
In order to find sustainable alternatives to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict a new group calling itself the Justice Makers has been formed across the law departments in Palestinian universities. Two of the founders, Mohammed Eliwa and Yousef al-Nouri, are both fourth-year law students from al-Azhar University in Gaza. "The Justice Makers is about finding new ways within the international justice system to forward our case," al-Nouri explained. "We have had enough of this conflict and we study law because it is the only way of regaining our rights," stated Eliwa.

Both Eliwa and al-Nouri are refugees. Eliwa's parents fled for their lives from the village of Beer al-Sabe and al-Nouri's parents fled from al-Jura during the 1948 Nakba, or the dispossession of historic Palestine. Beer al-Sabe and al-Jura were depopulated and destroyed by Zionist militias and now form part of the cities of Beersheba and Ashkelon, respectively. Although both villages lie only few kilometers from Gaza, neither Eliwa nor al-Nouri have ever visited them as like all other Palestinians in Gaza, they are prohibited from entering Israel. Both of them dream of someday returning to their parents' villages.

Eliwa and al-Nouri believe that the Palestinian struggle has been mostly misunderstood by Western countries. Since 1948 many events have occurred and indeed this is a complex conflict but its roots are easily traced. "If we threw stones in the past, this was because there were injustices. Why would we have thrown stones otherwise? We are a peaceful people and whoever is working for peace knows this well," stated al-Nouri.

Eliwa and al-Nouri are not alone in this pursuit. Most law students at al-Azhar explain that they are studying law because they want to look for practical and tangible ways of seeking justice for Palestine. Working in this arena the Justice Makers are benefiting from the current momentum and have started to provide workshops in international law. "We train ourselves and then each other," said Noha Nassar, another founding member. Nassar is in her third year and she has already started training first- and second-year students. "Students are very motivated and excited to work in this field; sometimes we have problems finding space where to give training because we have so many workshops getting started. People are determined to work for justice and to find new ways of bringing those responsible for war crimes to court."

Recently lawyers based in the UK have been working on the concept of universal jurisdiction, which allows a country to prosecute against crimes which were committed by non-nationals in a different country. In such a situation the lawyer would obtain an arrest warrant from the court and the individuals suspected of war crimes would be taken into custody if they attempted to enter the UK. The Justice Makers believe such actions are a step in the right direction and are following events closely.

The Justice Makers are currently networking with various law departments outside of Gaza. Due to the ongoing siege, they have been forced to rely on video conferencing and telephone calls in order to contact Palestinian universities in the West Bank. They are also looking to form supportive networks with other law departments across the globe. Al-Nouri explained: "Our mandate is to work for justice. We will not settle for anything less than our full rights. We look forward to working with any lawyers who are also involved in such an effort."

Discussing their agenda, Eliwa immediately clarified that the Justice Makers include Muslims and Christians and that Jews are welcome to join. "Zionism is our enemy. The current conflict is not about religion, but about land." Al-Nouri added, "This problem will not stop with the passing of time. We need to work."

Eliwa said that "Justice is blind to one's religion, race, gender or culture. Even though Israel has been repeatedly privileged and far too many concessions have been made in its regards, we believe that the facts are on the table and in front of the justice system, the Palestinian cause will be eventually successful. We do not want any more violence and we want our rights to be respected. They have been trampled on [for] far too long. I am a Palestinian refugee from Beer al-Sabe. I believe it is my right to return to my homeland, the one I have been banished from for the past 61 years. No Palestinian will ever forget their rights no matter how many generations will pass."

The Justice Makers can be reached on the following emails: m7amed_gentleman AT hotmail DOT com in Arabic or engle2005 AT hotmail DOT com in English.

Bianca Zammit is a human rights activist and a member of the International Solidarity Movement in Gaza.

Equal Rights for serial killers, and for their victims???

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Posted by realistic bird under Caricature, Politics Tags: Caricature, Israeli crimes, Israeli policies, land theft, palestine, Palestinian future, Palestinian rights, Politics, Zionism

by Umayyah Jiha

by Nahida Izzat, Palestinian think tank

Can anyone see some ethical flaws with that?

I have no authority to talk in the name of all Palestinians, but I have previously stated that I DO NOT wish the zionist murderers, those of whom were directly or indirectly involved in massacres, theft of land, subjugation and oppression, to remain in Palestine after its liberation from the occupier, except of course for the very few good people amongst them – as no soul should carry the liability of another.

I reiterate, I do not wish the invader, occupier and criminal racists to stay in Palestine, the land that they have incessantly raped, destroyed and disfigured, nor do I desire them to be my neighbours.

They have shown no respect, no appreciation, and no love to this land or to her people.

They do not deserve to live there.

Many of our supporters freak out upon hearing this declaration of mine, they think that I am becoming an uncaring person, or turning into a radical hardliner; and some curiously and attentively listen, then, timidly and modestly, try to understand.

I will try here to elucidate by asking some simple questions, as to why I think it is unreasonable to make the premises of a JUST SOLUTION dependent upon our acceptance –as Palestinians, of giving the right of permanent residency and equal rights of citizenship to all zionist Jewish occupiers in our stolen land of Palestine.

Here are my questions:

• Why do our supporters, progressives who advocate a one state solution, keep asking us – Palestinians – to share our land with those who acquired it by theft, military force and murder?

• Would you share your home with the armed robber who came to steal from you?

• Should a thief get to enjoy the same rights of ownership to materials and assets that he acquired by armed robbery, as the person who was robbed?

• Should a colonialist imperialist occupier regime, who keeps hold of countries by terrorizing the indigenous population and perpetrating endless scores of bloodshed, not be severely sanctioned as legislated wisely by International Law?

• Should the USA decide to move a few tens of millions of its citizens to Iraq or Afghanistan, confiscate Iraqi lands, give it to those colonizers, then demands that those citizens have equal rights with Iraqis or Afghanis; should we support the equal rights of those colonizers?

• Should the Algerians have waited for the French occupiers to be magnanimous enough to give them “equal rights”?

• Would Algeria be to the Algerians today, had they not fought for the liberation of their country against colonial France?

• Under International Law; is an occupying entity entitled to ANY rights whatsoever?

• Why defend the “right” of the barbaric occupier – who has been engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide for over six decades, to stay in Palestine after its liberation, and this while keeping land and houses, villages, archaeological treasures, churches and mosques, libraries, they’ve forcibly stolen at gun point?

• Why imagine that it is unrealistic to return the stolen land and property to its legitimate owners while ignoring its mode of acquisition by zionists?

• Why instead of defending the right Palestinians to get ALL their country back; including: homes, orchards and land, supporters ask the victims to keep on giving, by the supposition that returning back stolen property creates “another injustice” to the OCCUPIER?

• Why are we – Palestinians – continuously pressed to accept this scurrilous logic, by our supporters?

• Are people so naïve that they don’t realize that doing so, invariably corresponds in fact to… a full support – quasi unconditional, of the zionist thieves and their ideological core which deems colonising Palestine as a “Divine and historical right” for the Jewish people ?

• What does the notion of Justice, social responsibility, fair dealing mean if we are to equate criminals with victims in terms of rights to ownership of stolen property?

My logic is simple:

Supporting “equal rights” in which the occupier gets the privilege of staying in the land they’ve looted and destroyed, while keeping hold of the estate of absentees, would mean a grave violation of the fundamentals of ethical foundations of human social interaction.

The message it gives: bullies, criminals, thieves are allowed to get away with MURDER. literally!

It is a carte blanche for bullies to do what they like, steal, kill, colonize, rape, oppress, torture…

Advocating “equal rights” between the criminal and victim, in which the criminal escapes punishment for his crimes, gets to keep stolen lands, while being rewarded by enjoying the fruits of his aggression in terms of total participation in decision and law making in the land he abused, is an assassination of the concept of justice, on which peaceful Civilization is built and needs to prosper.

Furthermore, I reiterate; any future decision on the status of ILLEGAL COLONIZERS in Palestine should be a PALESTINIAN DECISION; they, and ONLY they, can choose whether to allow their tormentors to stay or not.

Equal Rights for serial killers, and for their victims???

LINK

Via Haaretz, here (original in Arabic, here)

" A senior Lebanese defense source said Friday that militants allied with Al-Qaida are working in collaboration with Israel against Hezbollah, A-Sharq al-Awsat reported on Friday

According to the official, the Lebanon-based Al-Fatah al-Islam fired a Katyusha rocket at northern Israel last month precisely so that the finger of responsibility could be pointed at Hezbollah.

This is not the first claim from within Lebanon regarding collaboration. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman last month suggested that Israel had arranged for collaborators in his country to fire Katyusha rockets at the Galilee earlier this week, in a bid to keep tensions high in the area.

According to the Lebanese newspaper A-Sapir (yup...), Israel's declarations that it would not cease its intelligence activities on Lebanese territories validate Suleiman's accusations.

A panel of inquiry established by the Lebanese Army found that the rockets, fired from Houla in southern Lebanon, were launched from the home of the village's mayor. The mayor was not present in his home, according to the panel, and has no connection to the rocket."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 7:10 AM

How Zionist Lobby Stooges in Congress Brought Shame to their Institution

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By Alan Hart

As expected, the U.S. House of Representatives voted, on Tuesday 3 November, by 344 votes to 36, to urge the Obama administration to oppose endorsement of the Goldstone Report. But for those who are interested in truth and justice, not to mention democracy, the highlight of what passed for debate was the two-minute contribution of Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic Party’s representative for Ohio’s 10^th district (and a starter candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2004 an 2008).

His statement was a damning indictment of 344 of his colleagues. The following is the full text of it (my emphasis added).

Today we journey from Operation Cast Lead to Operation Cast Doubt. Almost as serious as committing war crimes is covering up war crimes, pretending that war crimes were never committed and did not exist.
Because behind every such deception is the nullification of humanity, the destruction of human dignity, the annihilation of the human spirit, the triumph of Orwellian thinking, the eternal prison of the dark heart of the totalitarian.

The resolution before us today, which would reject all attempts of the Goldstone Report to fix responsibility of all parties to war crimes, including both Hamas and Israel, may as well be called the “Down is Up, Night is Day, Wrong is Right” resolution.

Because if this Congress votes to condemn a report it has not read, concerning events it has totally ignored, about violations of law of which it is unaware, it will have brought shame to this great institution.
How can we ever expect there to be peace in the Middle East if we tacitly approve of violations of international law and international human rights, if we look the other way, or if we close our eyes to the heartbreak of people on both sides by white-washing a legitimate investigation?

How can we protect the people of Israel from existential threats if we hold no concern for the protection of the Palestinians, for their physical security, their right to land, their right to their own homes, their right to water, their right to sustenance, their right to freedom of movement, their right to the human security of jobs, education and health care?

We will have peace only when the plight of both Palestinians and Israelis is brought before this House and given equal consideration in recognition of that principle that all people on this planet have a right to survive and thrive, and it is our responsibility, our duty to see that no individual, no group, no people are barred from this humble human claim.

See and hear Kucinich delivering that statement on


http://pulsemedia.org/2009/11/04/rep-dennis-kucinich-blasts-operation-cast-doubt/

The only slight quarrel I have with it is the possible implication that it’s the first time Zionism’s stooges in Congress have brought shame upon the institution. They’ve been doing that with knee-jerk and monotonous regularity since the creation of Greater Israel, by a war of aggression not self-defence, in 1967.

Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and a specialist on the Middle East. He’s the author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews

November 5, 2009 Posted by Elias

Israeli soldiers, settlers violate Palestinian women's rights

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Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 6 November 2009



Women and children bear specific consequences of the Israeli occupation. (Rami Swidan/MaanImages)

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Palestinian women continue to suffer abuse and denial of basic human rights at the hands of Israeli settlers and soldiers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

This is in flagrant violation of Israel's obligations as a signatory to the UN Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW is the first international human rights treaty devoted to the rights of women.

According to the Convention, discrimination against women represents a violation of the principles of equality and human dignity, and is considered an obstacle to the participation of women, on an equal footing with men, in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their country.

The Convention obliges all state parties to take appropriate measures, legislative and non-legislative, to prohibit all forms of discrimination against women.

Israel is a state party to CEDAW which it ratified in 1991. The Palestinian Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) in Ramallah recently released a report entitled "Submission to the Field Mission of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories."

In the report WCLAC says women and children bear specific consequences of the Israeli occupation.

"The Israeli occupation impacts on the lives of Palestinian women at every juncture. From sexual harassment and assault, discriminatory treatment of Palestinian female prisoners to being forced to give birth at Israeli checkpoints," Dima Nashashibi from WCLAC told IPS.

Palestinian women have regularly been attacked and assaulted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank where they are often the only persons at home during the day as men are at work.

The women and their children have been shoved, stoned and shot at or have had tear gas canisters thrown into their homes while Israeli soldiers looked on and did nothing to stop the settlers.

"I couldn't run. My pregnancy was too far advanced and there was nowhere to hide," Amna Salman Rabaye, 31, from the Bedouin village of al-Tuwani in the southern West Bank told IPS.

Rabaye was seven months pregnant at the time and was grazing her sheep when a security guard from the adjacent illegal Israeli settlement of Ma'on assaulted her.

"We saw a group of masked Israeli settlers armed with sticks and chains heading towards us. The younger shepherds ran and managed to escape leaving me with the flock of sheep," Rabaye told IPS.

"It was physically impossible for me to run and I also didn't want the settlers to kill or steal my sheep. The security guard pushed me over." Fortunately Rabaye didn't miscarry.

Giving birth in the occupied territories can be a deadly game of Russian Roulette. "We are continuing to have cases of Palestinian women being forced to give birth at Israeli checkpoints," says Mutasem Awad from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Ramallah

"Sometimes the women don't have the necessary Israeli permits to pass through while at other times they are delayed for hours leading to the death of newborns," Awad told IPS.

Even if the women are able to reach local health centers the doctors employed there are not always available to give the women the necessary attention due to Israel's strict limitations on Palestinian movement.

The more than 600 Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks, which cripple Palestinian movement in the West Bank, have also adversely affected the education of female students.

Female students in this conservative society, in greater numbers than males, prefer to stay at home to avoid being harassed and humiliated or exposed to attack at the checkpoints.

Palestinian women and children in occupied East Jerusalem have also been subjected to home evictions and violence by Israeli security forces and settlers as well as threats of sexual assault.

"My daughter was assaulted by Israeli soldiers and police when they evicted us from our homes and threw us on to the streets," Nadia Hanoun told IPS.

The Hanouns, and a number of other Palestinian families, have been forced to live in tents outside their homes in East Jerusalem to make way for Israeli settlers who claim that the Hanoun's and other Palestinian homes belong to them.

According to CEDAW it is the responsibility of the state and the Israeli occupation forces to prevent and punish such acts of violence and ensure reparations. This is not being done.

All rights reserved, IPS - Inter Press Service (2009). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.

Abbas Produces a Dubious Twist

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Posted by realistic bird under Caricature, Politics Tags: Abbas, Caricature, elections, Hamas, Israeli policies, PA authority, palestine, Palestinians, Politics, US

{Mr. Abbas, there is just a little concession left..!!} by Naser Al Ja'fari-Al Arabs today newspaper-Jordan

Analysis by Mel Frykberg

RAMALLAH, Nov 6 (IPS) – U.S. and Israeli failure to take either Palestinian rights or Israeli settlement expansion seriously has placed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) in an untenable situation, which could seriously damage peace prospects.

On Thursday night Abbas announced his resignation in Ramallah. He expressed his frustration at the inability of the U.S. administration to pressure Israel to cease settlement building in the Palestinian territories, a Palestinian precondition for resuming negotiations with the Israelis.

The PA leader’s statement caused serious alarm in both Israeli and U.S. circles, as he is regarded as the most moderate Palestinian leader.

Abbas’s Fatah movement is strongly divided over a successor. And in the background lurks the PA’s arch enemy, the Gaza-based Islamic resistance organisation Hamas, which many Western countries refuse to deal with.

While the international community backs the PA, many Palestinians see Abbas as an Israeli and U.S. stooge. They argue that he has put the interests of the Palestinians second to the geopolitical and strategic interests of Israel and its unquestioning benefactor, the U.S.

“The American administration has vacillated over pressuring the Israelis to cease settlement building, and appears to have gone back on its promise to enforce this as a precondition for continued negotiations,” says Dr Samir Awad from Birzeit University near Ramallah.

“This has weakend the PA to the point where it is now confused and desperate,” Awad tells IPS.

Realising that even a compliant and over-compromising Palestinian leader has his limits, both the Israelis and the U.S. have gone into damage control in a bid to woo Abbas back and persuade him to reconsider his decision.

As rumours of Abbas’s impending decision began to circulate in the Israeli media on Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres immediately called Abbas and asked him to stay on.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, reprimanded by several Arab leaders over her recent statement lauding Israel over its alleged “decision to limit settlement expansion” which then forced her to backtrack, appealed to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to persuade Abbas to change his mind.

But whether Abbas will really resign or whether he is just using a possible resignation to pressure Israel and particularly the U.S. remains open to question.

“There is a strong possibility that if the Americans offer Abbas a way out, and recommit to international resolutions in regard to the occupied Palestinian territories, Abbas will withdraw his resignation,” says Awad.

“The language in his statement on Thursday left this possibility open. Furthermore, he has hinted at resignation before as a political bargaining tool. He earlier accepted the resignation of his prime minister Salam Fayyad only to reappoint him. He also initially backed the Goldstone report, then withdrew his support before the anger of the Palestinian public again forced him to support it,” added Awad.

Abbas might well be calling a bluff. But his weak position and poor standing amongst both the Palestinian public and various Palestinian political parties has left him in a position where taking pot-shots in the dark has increasingly become a strategy.

He recently tried to call Hamas’s bluff by announcing that Palestinian general elections would be held in January with or without a unity deal with Hamas or their approval.

This was an attempt to either pressure the Islamic movement into joining a unity government, or sidelining them to make them look like spoilers for refusing to take part in elections. It didn’t work.

Fathi Hammad, Hamas’s de facto interior minister, responded immediately by saying that his ministry would prevent any elections from taking place in Gaza as they had been unilaterally announced by the PA without consulting other factions.

The Islamic movement further stated that anybody involved in the elections would face legal consequences.

“The Americans helped weaken Abbas by asking him and the Egyptians, who have acted as mediators between the two Palestinian factions, two weeks ago to stop the unity talks,” Awad told IPS.

“They threatened that any unity government which included Hamas would see U.S. aid withdrawn.”

This has left Abbas and his PA looking incompetent in that not only do they appear unable to control the Palestinian territories, they are not even able to hold elections there. Under this scenario many sceptics are doubting that the January elections will take place.

So disillusioned has the PA become, that chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat stated on Wednesday that the alternative left for Palestinians may be to “refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals. It is very serious. This is the moment of truth for us.”

This would be anathema to Israel, as the demographic balance in favour of the Palestinians would see the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

“The Palestinians are not going anywhere. We are here in the West Bank, Gaza and we represent a sizeable minority in Israel proper,” says Awad. “Israel has to consider its options.”

Shin Bet ties with Israeli terrorist revealed

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Posted by realistic bird under Politics Tags: Politics, news, Israeli terrorist, Israeli security service

Fri, 06 Nov 2009, Press TV

A suspected serial killer has been working for Israel’s general security service as a source of information on ultra-right elements, Israeli media reveal.

Yaakov (Jack) Teitel, suspected of committing a series of terror attacks over the past 12 years, had been contacted by the Shin Bet to spy on the extreme right-wing elements, Yedioth Ahronoth daily revealed Friday.

A report published by the Israeli paper noted the cooperation between the general security service and Teitel did not last more than several months as they did not yield much.

Shin Bet officials contacted Teitel in order to use him as a source of information, after he had already been suspected of involvement in the 1997 murder of two Palestinians, the report added.

The Israeli spy agency confirmed that it had been in touch with Teitel, an American immigrant, for several months.

“Yaakov Teitel was handled by the Shin Bet even after his interrogation in the year 2000,” the agency said in a statement.

“As part of our inspection of him and in light of his ties with extreme right-wing elements, we held several meetings with him, which did not yield a thing, and immediately afterwards the ties were cut.”

On Sunday, it was confirmed that the 35-year-old Teitel had been arrested for allegedly carrying out a series of acts of terror inside Israel over the past few years.

Teitel’s suspicions of being behind the murder of two Palestinians is topped by those of assaulting secular historian Professor Ze’ev Sternhell and a teen from a messianic (pro-Jesus Jewish) family in Ariel, placing explosives as well as the murder of two traffic police officers.

Abbas’s speech vague, unconvincing, clearly mourns the futile peace process

Hamas: Abbas’s speech clearly mourns the futile peace process
[ 06/11/2009 - 02:23 PM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement has said on Thursday that the speech of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas was plain and clear-cut announcement of the failure of the "peace process" which he and his Fatah faction have been wagering on for almost two decades.

In a statement the movement issued on Abbs’s speech, Hamas stressed that as dramatic change must be introduced to correct the political path that Abbas and his team had led, and that no one should insist on that path anymore because it proved to be harmful and destroying to the Palestinian national cause.

The Movement also stressed that obvious American bias in favor of “Israel” at the expense of the Palestinian national rights calls on all Palestinian parties to consolidate their ranks and to build the national stand based on the Palestinian national interests and not on the conditions of the Quartet Committee.

Furthermore, Hamas underlined that national responsibility requires telling the Palestinian people the truth that the "peaceful settlement" option was nothing but an illusion, adding that no time should be wasted in pursing that path, and that the resistance path must be adopted and respected, and that all forms of security coordination with the Israeli occupation must be halted.

In addition, Hamas highlighted the need to rebuild the PLO on national basis as was agreed upon in the Cairo declaration in 2005, and that a new Palestinian national authority that would properly handle the Palestinian national affairs must be created.

As far as Abbas’s decision that he wasn’t interested in contesting the presidential elections, Hamas stressed, “the issue is not whether or not Abbas would run for presidential post … this is a personal choice because the Palestinian issue was and would remain bigger and more important than all Palestinian leaders”.

Hamas also called on Abbas and the Fatah faction to “sincerely” go to the national reconciliation, to organize the Palestinian internal affairs, to restore Palestinian unity, and not to unilaterally call and go for presidential and legislative elections before achieving the national reconciliation.


Nazzal: Abbas’s speech vague, unconvincing

[ 06/11/2009 - 04:23 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Mohammed Nazzal, the member of Hamas’s political bureau, has described Thursday the speech of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas as “vague”, “uncomforting”, and “unconvincing”, adding that the coming days would reveal Abbas’s real intentions.

“This is not the first time Abbas threatens to resign… he had threatened to resign five years ago, and he used to reiterate this statement as a kind of threat”, asserted Nazzal in an interview with the Quds satellite TV channel.

He also refuted Abbas’s accusations to Hamas, saying, “It is the wrong strategy of Abbas that led the Palestinian people to deadlock and foiled our efforts to achieve the national reconciliation, however, we would relentlessly strive to achieve it”.

Nazzal also shrugged off Abbas’s claims that he (Abbas) was correct when he adjourned the voting on the crucial Goldstone report in the UNHRC, underlining it was Abbas who asked his envoy to the UN to withdraw the report but he was compelled to retable it again before the UN body after the overwhelming anger in the Palestinian and Arab arenas that was generated by the withdrawal decision.

For his part, Maher Al-Tahir, member of the political bureau of PFLP, seconded Nazzal’s remarks and described Abbas’s speech as clear confession that his political option had failed.

“Based on the tangible and concrete facts that the political experience of Abbas has produced, he decided not to contest the elections; because he finally realized that Israel wants to liquidate the Palestinian issue and it wasn’t interested in peace with full and clear political support from the United States, which was also the same conviction of the late PA chief and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the Camp David summit in the year 2000”, Tahir underlined in an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel.

Moreover, Tahir pointed out, “since the inking of the ill-fated Oslo agreement in 1993, the PFLP warned that the agreement would not retrieve the legal rights of the Palestinian people, and that the Israeli occupation government wasn’t interested in peace, in addition to the fact that the United States wasn’t a honest broker for peace but, in fact, it was and still is against the Palestinian national interests”.