Rachel's Words
by Stephen Lendman
Obama leaves no ambiguity where he stands. From public statements, campaign pledges, policy advisors, and war cabinet selections, his positions affirm:
-- one-sided pro-Israeli zealotry;
-- continued Palestinian oppression;
-- no end to the Iraq war and occupation;
-- possibly attacking Iran and/or allying with Israel to do it;
-- pursuing an imperial agenda; targeting Pakistan, Russia and other countries;
-- expanding the size of the military; increasing expenditures for it; and
-- providing Israel annually with billions of dollars; the latest weapons and technology; the same zero interest rate loans Wall Street gets; liberal debt forgiveness; virtually anything Israel requests on the pretext of security, to wage aggressive war, or expand its illegal settlements; and
-- acquiescing and remaining silent after Israel insulted a high UN official by harassing and detaining him, then expelling him from the country.
Last March, Richard Falk replaced John Dugard as the UN Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine. UNHRC is mandated:
-- to promote and protect human rights globally;
-- detect and speak out objectively against violations and violators;
-- "provide a forum for identifying, highlighting and developing responses to today's human rights challenges,
-- act as the principal focal point of human rights research, education, public information, and advocacy activities in the United Nations system," and
-- respect the rights of everyone irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, language, age, or religion "as stipulated in the United Nations Charter."
Navanethem Pillay became Human Rights High Commissioner last July. Richard Falk has regional responsibility for Occupied Palestine. On December 14, he arrived at Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv to perform his assigned duties. He led a three-person mission that intended to visit the West Bank and Gaza, assess conditions on the ground, then report on Israel's compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law.
Israel was informed of his trip, his itinerary, individuals he planned to meet with, and issued visas for himself, a staff security person, and an assistant. Falk had no reason to expect interference, and as he put it: "I would not have made the long journey from California, where I live, had I not been reasonably optimistic about my chances of getting in." Nonetheless, he was denied entry and harassed as follows:
-- despite his UN status, he was put in a holding room with about 20 others experiencing entry problems;
-- then "treated not as a UN representative, but as some sort of security threat, subjected to an inch-by-inch body search and the most meticulous luggage inspection I have ever witnessed;"
-- separated from his two UN companions; they were allowed entry and taken to the airport facility about a mile away;
-- required to put his luggage and cell phone in a room, then taken to a "locked tiny room that smelled of urine and filth;"
-- five other detainees were with him in very cramped, uncomfortable quarters;
-- he was confined there for the next 15 hours, "which amounted to a cram course on the miseries of prison life, including dirty sheets, inedible food and lights that were too bright or darkness controlled from the guard office;"
-- Israel's "obvious intention (was) to teach me, and more significantly, the UN a lesson: there will be no cooperation with those who make strong criticisms of Israel's occupation policy."
Israel accuses Falk of bias for making inflammatory comments about its occupation of Palestine. He rejects the charge and asserts that, like his predecessor John Dugard (whom Israel earlier assailed) he assesses facts and relevant law truthfully. "It is the character of the occupation that gives rise to sharp criticism of Israel's approach," especially its collective punishment of 1.5 million Gazans under siege. Although denied entry and expelled, Falk insists that he'll continue "to use all available means to document the realities of the Israeli occupation" and report as fully and truthfully on them as possible.
He's mandated to assess conditions on the ground, prepare detailed reports on what he finds, keep the UN fully informed, the public worldwide as well, and recommend ways of remediating violations. As an international law expert, he's eminently qualified for the task.
Since assuming his post in May, he's been denied entry into Israel and Occupied Palestine. On August 25, he submitted his first report covering the first half of 2008. He criticized the deteriorating human rights conditions for Palestinians, called Israel's violations grave, singled out the Gaza siege and a crackdown on free expression and peaceful assembly.
Earlier this year, Israel denied a Bishop Desmond Tutu-headed UNHRC mission entry as well. He was delegated to investigate the Israeli occupation force November 2006 Beit Hanoun massacre, an appalling act of mass murder killing 18 civilians (including seven children and six women) and wounding 53 others. The mission had to enter Gaza from the Egyptian side through the Rafah International Crossing Point, but even that way is rarely easy.
Other international delegations have been obstructed as well, including diplomats, humanitarian workers, and journalists. Last November, the IDF stopped an EU one and one other comprised of 20 representatives of international organizations seeking entry into Gaza. Israel is extremely brazen, so far with no world community condemnation of its practices.
As a UN member and signatory to various human rights conventions, it must honor their mandates. Nonetheless, it doesn't as well as much other international law and UN resolutions going back to the 1947 General Assembly Partition Plan (Resolution 181). It divided Palestine 56 - 44% for Israel.
When Arabs were nearly 70% of the population, Jews got most of the fertile land, nearly all urban and rural territory, 400 of over 1000 Palestinian villages, but it wasn't enough. After Israel's 1948 "War of Independence," it secured 78% of Mandatory Palestine, expelled or killed about 800,000 Palestinians, destroyed 531 of their villages, 11 urban neighborhoods, and committed grievous crimes of war and against humanity. They've been documented and included:
-- cold-blooded massacres of civilian men, women, children, the elderly and infirm;
-- destruction of homes, villages and crops;
-- mass instances of rape; and
-- other atrocities on a vast scale;
The State of Israel was born. The US was the first country to recognize it. Palestinians lost 78% of their land, and in 1967 the remainder. They now live under military occupation. It's harsh and cruel. Their rights are ruthlessly denied. They experience daily abuse and neglect. Their refugees aren't able to return. Conditions on the ground are intolerable, and UNHRC is mandated to assess and report on them. Richard Falk, like John Dugard before him, is dedicated to do it.
"Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust"
In July 2007, Falk's used this title for an article, and Israel noticed. He wrote: "it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as 'holocaust'....Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians (in such terms)? I think not."
He condemned Israel's actions in Gaza and referred to subjecting "an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty." He called it "a holocaust-in-the-making" and appealed to world governments and international public opinion "to act urgently to prevent these current genocidal tendencies from culminating in a collective tragedy."
He urged concerted action to spare Gazans "from further pain and suffering." He took umbrage with how America supports Israel and with European governments for having "lent their weight to recent illicit (and overt) efforts to crush Hamas as (the legitimate) Palestinian (government)." He referred to "Israel's impunity under America's geopolitical umbrella," and the immorality of the international community watching Gaza's "ugly spectacle unfold while some of its most influential members actively encourage and assist Israel" in its efforts.
He called Gaza "a cauldron of pain and suffering....with more than half (the population) living in miserable refugee camps," dependent on humanitarian aid, and living under military occupation in spite of the sham 2005 "disengagement." He condemned world leaders for not recognizing the legitimately elected Hamas government, calling it a "terrorist organization" when, in fact, it's not, and failing to recognize how its leaders reached out to Israel in peace, declared a unilateral 18 month ceasefire, did it again for another six months, then ended it in self defense after repeated Israeli violations.
He condemned Israel for being "more determined than ever to foment civil war in Palestine," arm and pit Fatah against Hamas, "make Gazans pay with their well being and lives," crush their will, and maintain separate Gaza and West Bank "destinies."
Israel intends to isolate Gaza, cantonize the West Bank, seize Palestinian land, expand its illegal settlements, and appropriate "the whole of Jerusalem" as its capital by grabbing all areas Palestinians have and expelling them. While talking peace, Israel wages war, won't compromise, doesn't respect international law, commits grievous crimes against humanity, denies "Palestinians their right of self-determination," and treats the entire population as an "enemy" of the State.
"To persist with such an approach under present circumstances is indeed genocidal, and risks destroying an entire Palestinian community...." This prospect sends a "warning of a Palestinian holocaust in the making, and should remind the world of the famous post-Nazi pledge of 'never again.' "
On December 9, 2008 (five days before Falk arrived in Israel), he issued the following statement titled: "Gaza: Silence is not an option." He highlighted the plight of the people, the unacceptable conditions and desperate urgency to act, the cruelty and lawlessness of the blockade, and yet Israel "maintains its Gaza siege in its full fury, allowing only barely enough food and fuel to enter to stave off mass famine and disease."
He called this action "flagrant and (a) massive violation of international humanitarian law" under Geneva and other human rights conventions. He said it's long past time for talk. "The UN is obligated to respond under these conditions." World governments are complicit for going along or remaining silent. The "UN (and) international society (are obligated to discharge) their fundamental moral and legal duty to render protection to the Palestinian people." Israel ruthlessly prevents them.
Little wonder Falk, or others with these views, are persona non grata at the least or targeted for something far worse, including assassination. Israel is unyielding in its position, yet officials like Falk and human rights activists speak out and act, even at the risk of their safety and well-being.
What to Expect From Obama
A new administration is taking shape. Nearly all of its top officials have been announced. In less than a month, it will assume office, so how will it address Occupied Palestine? Negligently and with disdain from the man James Petras calls "America's First Jewish President," Barack Obama, in quoting a prominent Chicago Jew, a former congressman, federal judge, Clinton White House Counsel, and early Obama supporter - Abner Mikvner.
Obama has been carefully groomed and vetted for his job, surrounded by pro-Israeli zealots, transformed into a committed "Israel-Firster," well-indocrinated, funded and considered safe. As Petras states:
"By the end of the 1990s, Obama was firmly embedded in the liberal Zionist Democratic Party network and through it he teamed up with two key Zionist figures who were crucial to his presidential campaign: David Axelrod," a long-time Chicago political strategist, and "Obama's chief (one) since 2002 and the chief architect and tactician of his presidential campaign in 2008; Bettylu Salzman, daughter of Phillip Klutznick (now deceased), a billionaire real estate developer, slumlord, zealous Israel-Firster," and Jimmy Carter's Commerce Secretary from 1980 - 1981.
Chicagoan Penny Pritzker (of the wealthy Pritzker Hyatt Hotels family) was Obama's main fund fundraiser. Called by some the most powerful woman in America, she's certainly notable, one of the richest, an influential American Jew, and staunchly pro-Israel as is her family.
She had a sordid involvement in subprime mortgage lending, made millions by defrauding the poor, was one of Obama's Transitional Economic Advisory Board members, and Warren Buffett calls her the person to call when you want something done. She'll have a seat at the table in the new administration behind the scenes, her preferred role in business and politics.
Other figures will be active and prominent, Dennis Ross for one. He was Director of the State Department's Policy Planning office under GHW Bush, after which he became Clinton's Special Middle East Coordinator. He's also a co-founder of the AIPAC-backed Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), an extremist pro-Israeli front group with prominent American Jews in it like Ross (on his mother's side) who remains a consultant. WINIP's Board of Advisors is a who's who rogues gallery with names like Richard Pearle, Alexander Haig, George Shultz, James Woolsey, Lawrence Eagleburger, and others.
Petras calls Ross "a virulent Zionist advocate of Israel's ultra-militaristic policies, including an armed preemptive attack on Iranian nuclear and military installations. Ross is an unconditional supporter of the Israeli starvation siege of the 1.5 million (Gazans) and fully backed Israel's savage air attacks against civilian targets in Lebanon." His closeness to Obama signals a continued pro-Israeli hardline agenda, no letup in the persecution of Palestinians, and the possibility of an even greater regional war. So far no official announcement of his role has been made, but he'll be prominent either publicly or behind the scenes.
Various positions mentioned include Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs (number three behind Clinton), Deputy Secretary of State, Deputy National Security Advisor, or Special Middle East Envoy. In recent months, Ross has been affiliated with the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center that was founded in 2007 by former senators George Mitchell, Howard Baker, Tom Daschle and Bob Dole. It presents itself as centrist, but, in fact, on key issues is militant and hard line, especially on the Middle East. It advocates coercing Iran to surrender its sovereignty, knuckle under to Washington, or be unilaterally attacked if it won't, and gets its advice from "two leading Iran experts:"
-- Michael Rubin of the right wing American Enterprise Institute, a former Giuliani advisor, closely allied to Bush neocons; and
-- Ken Katzman of the Congressional Research Service, a Middle East specialist who's ideologically allied with the right and no friend of Iran.
They, Ross and others produced the 2008 report: "Meeting the Challenge: US Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Development." It argues that Iran's commercial program, contrary to available evidence, aims to develop nuclear weapons and threatens "US and global security, regional stability, and the international nonproliferation regime." In stark contrast, the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate refuted this claim and stated that Iran has no current nuclear weapons program. Washington ideologues like Ross dismiss it, press their case for war, recommend a major military presence in the Gulf, and pressuring Russia to cease efforts to aid the Islamic Republic.
He's also current chairman of The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI), another pro-Israeli front group that includes past and present prominent Israeli government officials in its membership as well as influential American Jews. During his Clinton years, he was hostile to Iraq and Iran, advocated war, and subverted all efforts for an equitable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A noted Arab said about him: "In the 1990s, the "perception always was that Dennis (Ross) started from the Israeli bottom line, that he listened to what Israel wanted, and then tried to sell it to the Arabs....He was never looked at....as a trusted world figure or honest broker." All along he flacked for Israel, and ideologically he's closely aligned with Republican neocons and their permanent war agenda.
According to the Jewish publication, Ynetnews.com, he may not become Middle East Envoy with Colin Powell now considered a "serious option" for the job. That is, if he wants it and if Hillary Clinton will accept a notable figure like him circumventing her and reporting directly to Obama. Another possible candidate, besides Ross, is Daniel Kurtzer, former US ambassador to Israel and Egypt, and in other Middle East posts, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. He now has a Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs chair in Middle East Studies.
On December 14, Barak Ravid wrote in Haaretz that "Obama (will) base his Middle East policy on (an) army of envoys," and he named four possibilities - Dennis Ross most prominently, Colin Powell, Dan Kurtzer, and Martin Indyk.
He suggested that besides a Middle East Envoy, others would be appointed to:
-- Iraq to work with the government; the puppet one, that is, to assure America's permanent occupation, total control over state policy, and unchallenged regional influence;
-- Iran to open dialogue and "participate in international discussions on an incentive package;" in fact, for the government to cease its legal commercial nuclear development, surrender to America's will, and become a vassal state or risk possible attack and mass destruction;
-- Afghanistan and Pakistan "to stabilize the security situation;" in fact, a major effort may be undertaken to destabilize it as part of a broader agenda to stoke violence, increase Washington's presence in the region, double US forces in Afghanistan to 60,000 or more according to recent reports, and "Balkanize" each country, Iraq and possibly Syria into separate autonomous states; and
-- North Korea "to watch over denuclearization and the lifting of international sanctions;" in fact, plans for North Korea include ending its nuclear program, lessening the country's ability to defend itself, bringing it into the US orbit, and making it subservient to America's will.
Martin Indyk
He's a lobbyist and very much a pro-Israeli zealot. He's also a former US ambassador to Israel, the only foreign-born one (to a London Jewish family), an Assistant Secretary of State for Near East affairs in the Clinton administration, and currently a senior foreign policy fellow and head of the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
In the early 1980s, he began his Washington career as deputy director of research for AIPAC. In 1985, he co-founded WINEP (described above). In the November-December 2000 issue of New Left Review, Edward Said said this about him:
"On the eve of Clinton's inauguration in January 1993, it was announced that Indyk - an Australian national of Jewish origin, born in London - had been sworn in as an American citizen at the express command of the President-elect, overriding all normal procedures in an act of peremptory executive privilege, to allow him to be parachuted immediately into the National Security Council, with responsibility for the Middle East. What had Indyk been or done to merit such extraordinary favour? He had been head of (WINEP) that lobbies for Israel in tandem with AIPAC."
Said added that the consensus in Washington that Israel is a model democracy "is virtually impregnable." If there's ever a sign of slippage, in pours a phalanx of Zionist lobbyists like Indyk. They constitute an ideological pro-Israeli trump card along with Congress, especially the Senate. Virtually "the entire (body) can be marshalled in a matter of hours into signing a letter to the President on Israel's behalf."
Regarding Hillary Clinton at the time, Said said that no one better "exemplifies the sway of AIPAC better." She "outdoes even the most right-wing Zionists in fervour for Israel in her avid clawing for power in New York" and will stoop at nothing to get it. She's Machiavellian and very dangerous.
So is Indyk (Dennis Ross and others) in service to Israel. At WINEP in 1993, he outlined his notion of dual Iran and Iraq containment, and it became policy under Clinton. It postulated that outlier Middle East states be "contained," isolated, and threatened to weaken them politically, economically, and perhaps militarily.
For Iraq, it recommended continued sanctions, an economic embargo, and if "Saddam's regime crosses clearly drawn lines of appropriate behavior, particularly with regard to its weapons of mass destruction programs and its threats to other countries, the United States should punish it severely."
A more flexible approach was taken on Iran, saying that its "geopolitical importance is greater than Iraq's and the challenge it represents is more complex. Given (America's) military presence (in the region), Iran does not currently pose a threat of military aggression, but its long-term policies could destabilize the region."
The report accused Iran of opposing the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process," promoting Islamic militancy, supporting terrorism and subversion, and seeking nuclear weapons. Rather than war, it recommended "a more nuanced approach," but if Iran initiated a "special provocation....clear retaliatory measures" would be called for.
Targeting Iraq and Iran benefits Israel by weakening or eliminating its two main regional rivals. Iraq is now neutralized, not Iran, but harsh sanctions against it are in place. Pro-Israeli zealots, like Indyk and Ross, want them tightened. They also support war to destroy the country's nuclear infrastructure and much of its military capacity.
This is Obama's team with others on it, like Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates, as belligerent. It suggests that peace in the Middle East is a nonstarter; the occupation of Iraq and Palestine will continue; Iran may be targeted; Pakistan as well; the war in Afghanistan will be expanded; imperial adventurism will be stressed; so will permanent war and homeland repression; and human rights advocates like Richard Falk will be sorely tested in their jobs.
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Tuesday, December 23
Obama v. Richard Falk on Israel and Occupied Palestine
Monday, December 22
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines December 22, 2008 ~
Israel kicks off global PR campaign to recruit support for Gaza raids
(22 Dec; includes video of Hamas leaders, Gazan preparation for defense) Israel is kicking off a public relations campaign with the intention of widening a basis for international support of a military offensive on the Gaza Strip. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has instructed Israeli representatives abroad to begin diplomatic efforts focused on members of the United Nations Security Council and European states. The foreign minister told Israeli delegates to the UN to file an official complaint with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and the Security Council stating that Israel would not remain apathetic to the continued firing of rockets from Gaza, adding that it will do everything necessary to protect its citizens.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas accepts 24-hour ceasefire to allow food aid into Gaza
GAZA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- An Islamic Hamas movement spokesman announced on Monday that Hamas and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip accepted a 24-hour ceasefire with Israel to allow Egyptian food aids into Gaza. Ayman Taha, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that the Palestinian factions had accepted the 24-hour truce with Israel "to allow several trucks loaded with food into Gaza through Rafah border crossing." Meanwhile, the London-based al-Hayat newspaper of Saudi Arabia quoted Egyptian sources as saying that Cairo has asked Hamas to accept a cessation of rocket attacks on Israel for 24 hours. The sources told the Saudi daily that Egypt wants to send around 80 truckloads of food and fuel aids to the Gaza population through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing on the border between Egypt and Israel.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Hamas says holding fire in Gaza at Egypt's request
GAZA, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Palestinian armed factions in the Gaza Strip are observing a 24-hour halt to rocket fire against Israel at the request of Egyptian mediators, a senior official of the ruling Islamist Hamas group said on Monday. Ayman Taha said the brief ceasefire went into effect on Sunday evening. He said Hamas mighty consider a longer truce if Israel were to reciprocate by ceasing all military attacks in Gaza and lifting an embargo on the impoverished territory.
http://africa.reuters.com/
Report says Egypt forestalled major Gaza invasion
(22 Dec) Egypt secured a pledge from Israel not to launch a major invasion of the Gaza Strip for up to two weeks after the end of a six-month ceasefire, an Israeli website reported on Monday. The Independent Israeli Hebrew news website Inyan Merkazi "Central Issues" says Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asked Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to promise to restrain the Israeli military in order to allow time to renegotiate the truce, which expired on Friday. The report also says the United States pressed Israel to agree to the Egyptian demand. A second report in the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi said Egypt reinitiated talks aimed at restoring the truce. According to this account and to the report in Inyan Merkazi, Egyptian officials have been discussing a renewed truce with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, not the Hamas government in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Ynet: 2 more Qassams land in western Negev
(22 Dec) None injured as rocket tally for Monday rises to three, FM Livni concerned situation deteriorating. At Egypt's request Hamas discussing possibility of 24-hour ceasefire, but attacks from Gaza continue
http://www.ynetnews.com/
MK Hasson: Evacuate Gaza Palestinians to stop rocket fire
(22 Dec) The Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip from which rockets are being fired at Israel should be evacuated, Kadima MK Yisrael Hasson said Monday. "We knew how to evacuate 27 settlements in the Gaza Strip with sensitivity and firmness, so there's no reason we wouldn't be able to evacuate seven areas in Gaza with the same sensitivity and firmness, in order to stop the terror attacks on residents of the South," he said. "Internal migrations won't only take place in Israel," he added.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Palestinian armed groups threaten renewed bombing inside Israel in event of Gaza invasion
(22 Dec) Palestinian armed groups threatened on Monday to resume bombing attacks inside Israel in the event of a major Israeli invasion in Gaza or assassination of Palestinian leaders. On Sunday, the two frontrunners in the Israeli general election, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip. While the leaders of Palestinian armed groups said they are taking Israel's threats seriously, political leaders in Gaza dismissed the Israeli pronouncements as election season rhetoric.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Palestinian representative to Arab League: Israel responsible for collapse of Gaza truce
(21 Dec) Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Mohammad Subeih said that efforts to resume talks regarding the Egyptian-brokered truce were aborted by Israel. Subeih said Israel contributed to the collapse of the truce in Gaza by continuing military action in the West Bank, which was not included in the ceasefire. He said 22 Palestinians were killed and over a hundred injured in the West Bank over the course of six months of truce. The Israeli violations included confiscating lands, isolating Jerusalem, attacking its holy sites and the construction of the Wall all show that Israel is not serious in achieving peace," he said.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Hundreds protest in Hebron in solidarity with Gaza
(22 Dec) The Youth Social Center and the Awada (return) Generation Group, organized on Sunday evening a protest in al-Far'a refugee camp, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Khalid Mansour, a resident of the camp and a social activist, delivered a short speech saluting the residents who gathered in solidarity with Gaza, and said that the Palestinians, all over the world, are one nation facing one enemy, the "Zionist occupation".
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians protest in Lebanon in solidarity with Gaza
(22 Dec) Lebanese cities and villages on Sunday held massive protests in solidarity with the residents of the besieged Gaza Strip, and in protest to the ongoing Israeli attacks and invasions into the impoverished region. The protest was called for by the secretary-general of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party, Hasan Nasrallah.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Gazans with residencies abroad and students protest Egyptian complicity in siege
(21 Dec) During a sit-in yesterday at the Egyptian Embassy in Gaza City, protesters held banners demanding that the Rafah crossing be opened for passengers. "Hundreds of people are stranded trying to return from work abroad or to their families outside, while so many of us were accepted into scholastic programs but we cannot reach them," a student said...Now there are entire families who have not seen each other for years. Those working in the Arab and Gulf countries, in particular, need to come home to Gaza to see their families. While there are some wives and children in Saudi Arabia, for example, waiting for their husbands and fathers to return from visits to other family".
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Gazans condemn Israeli Ofer prison violence, call it step in chain of Israeli aggression
(22 Dec) Palestinian politicians and leaders of factions and human rights societies gathered in front of the Red Cross Headquarters in Gaza City to condemn the Ofer detention center attacks and affirm Palestinian commitment to resisting Israeli aggression. The regular sit-in is organized by the Wa'id Society for Prisoners' Families. Hamas-affiliated lawmaker Mushir Al-Masri told protesters that prisoners are a top priority for this party, saying Hamas is open to all possibilities for securing the release of prisoners.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Aid ship leaves Gaza with five Palestinians on board
(21 Dec) An aid ship that defied an Israeli naval blockade to sail to Gaza on Friday left Gaza on Sunday night carrying five Palestinians who had been stranded in Gaza. Two envoys from a Qatari charity also came on the ship, along with international and Israeli activists, and an Israeli journalist. A Palestinian anti-siege activist, Amjad Ash-Shaw, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that three of those who arrived on the ship chose to stay in Gaza. He also praised the Qataris as the "first Arab delegation that could arrive in Gaza aboard a ship."
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Jordan's activists delay aid ship voyage to Gaza
AMMAN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's activists announced Sunday that its aid boat trip to Gaza has been postponed until next month due to logistical hurdles, local daily The Jordan Times reported on Monday. Activists had previously said a ship carrying nearly two tons of medicine destined for Gaza would set sail from the Red Sea port city of Aqaba on Dec. 25. But the organizers could not find a suitable maritime company to carry out the voyage in time, forcing them to postpone the journey
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Israeli airstrike injures two Palestinians in Gaza City; fighters fire at Israeli forces from southern Gaza
(22 Dec) Two Palestinians were slightly injured when an Israeli F16 fighter jet fired a missile at a barracks belonging to the Hamas-allied police in the east of Gaza City, witnesses said. An Israeli military spokesperson had no information about the strike. Meanwhile Hamas' armed wing the Al-Qassam Brigades claimed to have shot at an Israeli soldier in a watchtower along the Gaza-Israel border, south of the Kissufim military base, east of the city of Khan Younis. The same military spokesperson said maintenance workers came under fire at the Kissufim base. No one was injured....
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Palestinian woman injured in Israeli shelling of Gaza
(22 Dec) Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Sunday night that a woman was wounded after the Israeli Army fired a surface-to-surface missile at a group of fighters east of Gaza city. Medical sources at Kamal Adwan hospital reported that the Palestinian woman suffered mild-to-moderate wounds. On Sunday evening, Israeli military helicopters shelled Tal Qleibo area, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip; damage was reported, but no injuries.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
More missile strikes, more victims
(22 Dec) By Eva Bartlett. Salah Oukal, 46 years old, had gone outside to collect herbs for dinner, harvesting in the dark as the power was out again. It was just before 9pm and he was watering the trees next to his home in Jabaliya, when the missile struck, killing him instantly. A second missile followed immediately but did not explode. Oukal's family spent the next hour searching without success for the father of seven and the family's sole provider. Only with the headlights of an ambulance was Oukal's dismembered body finally retrieved. The ground-to-ground missile fired from the Israeli side of Gaza's eastern border injured an additional three residents, including Oukal's son Ahmed, seven years old, who suffered rocket shrapnel wounds to his hand and head. Israeli authorities claimed that the missile was a response to rockets being fired from the area. However, Oukal's family and neighbors report all had been quiet.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Israel says Apache helicopter came under fire before attack
(22 Dec) An Israeli [American-made] Apache helicopter came under fire from Palestinian fighters while before it fired on the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday night, the Israeli military said. The military said the helicopter fired back at the fighters, who were also preparing to launch homemade projectiles. Mua'waiyah Hassanein, the Ministry of Health's director of Ambulance and Emergency Services said that four Palestinians were injured in a strike on the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza city. One of the injured was a child. The airstrike was one event in a day of continued violence in Gaza....
http://www.maannews.net/en/
PFLP fighters fire two homemade projectiles at Kfar Azza
(22 Dec) The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, claimed responsibility on Sunday evening for firing two homemade projectiles from Gaza at the Israeli border town of Kfar Azza. The group said in a statement that even if Israel begins a policy of targeted assassinations, it would not be stopped from shelling Israeli targets.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Gazan man killed as tunnel collapses under border with Egypt
(22 Dec) A Palestinian man, 22-year-old Mousa Issa Abbas was killed on Monday as a tunnel collapsed underneath the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Medical sources at Abu Yousif an-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah confirmed the death. Abbas was reportedly delivering goods to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Palestinian warns of risk of Gaza water shortage
(22 Dec, AP) The head of the Palestinian Water Authority says seawater and sewage are polluting Gaza's drinking water and putting the coastal strip at risk of water shortages and waterborne diseases like cholera. Shaddad al-Attili made the warning at a water conference in Jordan on Monday. Officials from countries around the Mediterranean attended the conference to discuss projects such as a proposed conveyance canal between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea to help save the rapidly evaporating desert sea.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Gaza near to collapse as Israel tightens grip
(22 Dec) Israel's blockade of Gaza is pushing the territory to the brink of collapse and fuelling the growth of a black money market controlled by Hamas, the World Bank warned yesterday. As tit-for-tat attacks across the Gaza border began to intensify following the end of a six-month truce on Friday, the World Bank said that an acute cash shortage in Gaza was playing into Hamas's hands. The militant Islamists, who took control of Gaza in June 2007 following violent street clashes with their more secular rival, Fatah, have large stashes of shekels which they have been selling on the black market at a premium because of the cash shortage.There is also a worry that Hamas, with its dominant militant and bureaucratic control of Gaza, will begin to replace the shekel with US dollars, which are more easily obtained, to smuggle through the tunnels from Egypt in the south.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Israeli blockade 'forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food'
(21 Dec) UN fears irreversible damage is being done in Gaza as new statistics reveal the level of deprivation -- Figures released last week by the UN Relief and Works Agency reveal that the economic blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza in July last year has had a devastating impact on the local population. The figures collected by the UN agency show that 51.8% - an "unprecedentedly high" number of Gaza's 1.5 million population - are now living below the poverty line.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
'In Gaza, all dreams and hopes are gone'
(21 Dec) Ameera Ahmad, 25, gave birth to daughter Layan six months ago. Here, she tells of life under siege and of her struggle to bring up a child after 18 months of Israeli blockade
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
From Beirut to Gaza: Siege as an Israeli policy
(21 Dec) By Lubna Massarwa.During my time in Gaza, I was reminded of Sheikh Said in East Jerusalem, of the village of Nu'aman, and in general of all the Palestinians that Israel imprisons between checkpoints and walls. The siege on Gaza is part of an overall offensive policy that Israel implements also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
http://www.alternativenews.
Strangling Gaza to near death while pretending to be the victim
(21 Dec) By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem. No one is enthusiastic about the latest escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, except perhaps the warmongers in Tel Aviv and the American-backed Arab and Palestinian traitors who would do anything and go to any extent to please their masters in Washington, D.C. In Israel, the Gaza Strip is becoming the central election issue in a country deeply menaced by political and religious extremism. Israeli political leaders from right and left are already promising the Jewish public that they will destroy Gaza and murder untold thousands of poor Gazans if only they are elected in the 10 February polls.
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/
B'Tselem: Ofra an illegal outpost
(22 Dec) A report released by the B'Tselem human rights group on Monday states that the settlement of Ofra, located northeast of Jerusalem, is in fact an illegal outpost which must be evicted under the stipulations of the Sasson Report.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
B'Tselem: 33-year-old settlement as illegal as any outpost
(22 Dec) The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem released a report on Monday concluding that the legal status of the 33-year-old Israeli settlement Ofra is identical to that of any so-called "unauthorized outpost" in the West Bank. Using data obtained from the Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli force occupying the West Bank, B'Tselem found that 58% of Ofra is built on land owned privately by Palestinians. The Israeli state differentiates between more than 130 sanctioned settlements, including Ofra, and dozens of "outposts." B'Tselem's argument is that all such settlements are illegal under international law, and even violate Israel's own criteria. Israeli government decisions and high court resolutions prohibit building settlements on private Palestinian land. Ofra, located between the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus, was first built in 1975 and is home to some 3,000 Israeli Jewish settlers.
In February 2006 the Israeli military evacuated one so-called "unauthorized outpost," Amona, located in Ofra's backyard. Hundreds were injured when throngs of settlers confronted the Israeli military.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
B'Tselem Publications December 2008: Ofra - an illegal outpost
Summary report with map, photo, link to full report
http://www.btselem.org/
Settlers attack Palestinian home in Hebron
(21 Dec) Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian house in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday evening, the latest in a series of attacks in the city. Nedal Fareed Al-Awawi, a resident of Hebron's settler-occupied Old City issued an appeal to international human rights organizations to protect him and his family. Al-Awawi says Israeli police were present at the time of Sunday's attack, but made no arrests. "'I saw that settler attack on you, you should file a complaint. Be careful of settlers tonight,'" Al-Awawi says the police told him. Al-Awawi's home still smells of smoke from the riots over two weeks ago. During the rampage, one room of the house was completely burned, and the house's electricity and water connections destroyed. He says settlers assaulted him when he was installing a new water tank on the roof of his home, and destroyed the new tank as well.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Not all US olim are extremists
(18 Dec) By David Forman. Having recently returned from a lecture tour in the United States, most of the Jewish audiences I addressed had the impression that virtually all new Jewish immigrants to Israel from America were religious extremists. Obviously, this is a skewed perception based on the reportage of the news networks. Unfortunately however, religious settlers like former Americans Daniella Weiss and Baruch Marzel, ever-willing to talk to anyone from the international press, have become the face of American Jewish immigration to the country - they, with their shameless pontifications about Israeli police and army carrying out pogroms against the settlers. Meanwhile, it is they who encourage the mini-pogroms that their compatriots perpetrate against Palestinians.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
West Bank settler eviction offers warning, hope
(21 Dec) HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israel's swift eviction of Jewish zealots from one of the most volatile West Bank flashpoints offers encouragement to people both inside and outside Israel who hope it is still possible to uproot settlers to make room for a Palestinian state. But the shooting and arson attacks by settlers on Palestinians following the eviction were a reminder of how quickly the West Bank could plunge into violence, taking down any hopes of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. An increasingly alienated minority of the 280,000 Jews who have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured it from Jordan in 1967 is taking matters into their own hands.
http://www.google.com/
Israeli troops detain three men from Ni'lin, destroy property in village
(22 Dec) Local sources said Israeli troops invaded the village Monday before dawn and saw dozens of military vehicles along with a bulldozer. The jeeps fired rubber bullets and tear gas as they toured the village. Eyewitnesses reported that troops broke into the house of Ibrahim Mustafa Amira and his brothers Sami and Ahmad. Soldiers broke several windows in the home and opened fire at the water tanks above the home. Before leaving troops detained Ibrahim Amira, a university student, as well as Mahmoud Dahoud and Muhammad Zarul Amira.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli troops seize at least ten Palestinians in West Bank raids
(22 Dec) Israeli forces seized at least ten Palestinians on Monday morning during raids in the West Bank, the Israeli military confirmed. According to the military, three were arrested in the city of Jenin and seven from the city of Nablus. The Israeli military asserted the detainees were "wanted." The Palestinian security forces said that three others, not mentioned in the military account, were taken from their homes near the Israeli separation wall in the town of Zeita, north of the city of Tulkarem.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
New Israeli crossings hurt Palestinian trade
(21 Dec) JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A new network of crossing points for Palestinian goods, built into Israel's barrier in and around the occupied West Bank, may hurt exports, not facilitate them as Israel claims, the World Bank said on Monday. Israel will require all Palestinian commercial traffic to move through these crossing points once the barrier, made up of concrete walls and wire fences, is completed, the international lending agency said in a report. Contrary to Israeli assertions that the crossings will allow the Israeli army to ease the movement of people and goods within the West Bank, the World Bank said internal restrictions have only increased and the new system has the potential to become "another serious constraint to Palestinian businesses."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/
Stop the Wall: "Our struggle will continue until the Wall is torn down!"
(20 Dec) By Mohammed Othman - Jayyous 19-12-2008 - To view the Stop The Wall website click here -- A massive demonstration against the Wall was held in Jayyous on December 19, with about 700 people, mostly youth, protesting against the new path of the Wall that will permanently confiscate nearly 6,000 dunums of village land. The demonstration, which lasted for nearly five hours, resulted in several injuries to villagers, international solidarity activists, and four soldiers.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
PA security forces in Nablus arrest prominent Hamas leader thought to have been dead since 2002
(22 Dec) Sources in the security forces in the West Bank city of Nablus told Ma'an they detained 36-year-old Rajab Ash-Sharif from Shweitra Street in western Nablus after two months of preparation. In 2002 Hamas' armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed that Ash-Sharif was killed by Israeli forces during an incursion in Nablus' Old City. His body was never found. The PA security services now claim they have been hunting for Ash-Sharif since 2004.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Fatah youth say Hamas arrested leaders in Gaza
(22 Dec) The Fatah youth organization Shabibah alleges that Hamas-allied forces in the Gaza Strip detained some of the group's leaders in the Gaza Strip on Friday. In a statement the youth movement claimed the Hamas-run government launched an arrest campaign that culminated in the detention of leader Aadel Jum'ah, and a raid on the home of leader Nadiya Ad-Dalou.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Abbas: Hamas' abuse of religion for political end is unacceptable
(21 Dec, DPA) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Russia, strongly criticized the radical Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday, saying the organization's "abuse of religion for political ends" was unacceptable, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. Speaking in Grozny, the capital city of the Chechen Republic in Russia, Abbas said that extremists were to blame for Islam receiving so little respect in the world at present. In reality, terrorists have no relationship with religion, he declared.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Abbas and Medvedev to meet in Moscow today
(22 Dec) Abbas is visiting Russia at the invitation of President Medvedev. Abbas was in Grozny on Sunday for a meeting with Chechen President, Ramzan Kadyrov. Although this will be Abbas' 16th visit to Russia in the past decade, this will be his first meeting with President Medvedev. Many analysts are calling this current visit 'a farewell', because Abbas' office will expire on January 9 and general elections are to be held in Palestine.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Russian FM lauds President Abbas' efforts on Palestinian unity
MOSCOW, Dec 22 (KUNA) -- Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lauded here Monday efforts by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to bring his countrymen together.
Lavrov said in a joint news conference with Abbas that Russian would support the Palestinian President's efforts for unity, hoping that regional countries such as Egypt would continue to help Palestinians on this aspect.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/
Palestinians unhappy with Abbas' frequent absences
(21 Dec, AP) RAMALLAH, West Bank: In four years as Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas has traveled to the far corners of the earth, but never set foot in the West Bank's largest city, Hebron. Ordinary Palestinians have long grumbled about their leader's trips abroad, some taken during times of intense crisis, such as last year's fierce internal fighting that led to the takeover of Gaza by the Islamic militant Hamas.
http://www.iht.com/articles/
PA to distribute aid to poor after Italian donation
(21 Dec) Social allowances will be disbursed by the Palestinian Authority beginning on Monday after a donation from the Italian government, the Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs, Mahmoud Habash, announced on Sunday. Social allowances will not reach the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli blockade. Israel refuses to allow banks to transfer funds to their branches in Gaza. Habash said the Palestinian Authority is working with the European Union to overcome this problem. Italy made the donation through PEGASE, the European mechanism that channels aid to the Palestinian Authority. The Italian contribution was intended for 47,000 needy families, who will receive 1000 Israeli shekels each.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Palestinian government forced to save birthplace of Christ as monks squabble over restoration
(20 Dec) When they wash the grotto's marbled altar and guard its silver lamps, they are watching over the cradle of the Christian world: the exact spot where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born. Yet despite this sacred trust, a ten-year row between the different sects that manage the church has forced the Palestinian government's Muslim leaders to intervene to prevent the basilica's ancient lead roof from collapsing on its mosaic floors.Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian national authority, has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a decree that the church must be repaired.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Dina Hamdan on The Lemon Tree
(21 Dec) While so much attention has been given to the Israeli animated film "Waltz with Bashir", which was hailed as a brave account of Israel's complicity in the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982, another Israeli film, "The Lemon Tree", deals with the Israeli-Palestinian issue on a different, and perhaps, more profound level.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
2008 marks record-breaking year for returning Israeli citizens
(22 Dec) The number of returning citizens has increased by a record-breaking 95-percent this year and is, for the first time in Israel's history, higher by 50 percent of the number of new immigrants, according to the Absorption Ministry's annual statistical roundup for 2008 which was released Sunday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Facts @ a glance
(21 Dec) The full-scale Israeli occupation of Palestine began in 1967 after the Six Day War. This ongoing Israeli military occupation has severely affected every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank and Gaza, and has resulted in millions of Palestinians being forced to live as refugees throughout the Middle East, and around the rest of the world. The Palestine Monitor offers an overview of the main issues related to the occupation of Palestine, providing brief data and up-to-date statistics. The key facts are gathered here. For more information please refer to specific factsheets in column at left.
http://www.palestinemonitor.
Video: UN and Israel apartheid
(22 Dec) President of UN General Assembly urges Israel to be recognized as an Apartheid State
http://www.zcommunications.
History according to Bibi
(22 Dec) By Brian Whitaker. Benjamin Netanyahu, hoping to become Israel's next prime minister, has never been one to knowingly undersell his political thoughts. Here he is in Paris, declaring that Iran is the "greatest historical challenge" the world faces.We have never had a situation in the history of the world in which a radical regime with a retrograde ideology and apparently no inhibitions on the use of force will get access to the weapons of mass death. Er, really? What about the Soviet Union? China? And didn't Hitler have a "retrograde ideology" and a penchant for "mass death"?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Bush's parting gift to Israel
(20 Dec) In accepting that it must rely on a US shield, Israel may have answered the Middle East's biggest question of 2008: will it launch a go-it-alone strike against Iran's presumed nuclear weapons program? Notes Jonathan Cook.
http://www.middle-east-online.
Celebrities further dissociate from settlement financier
Press release, Adalah-NY, 21 Dec 2008 -- Thirty human rights carolers braved the cold and ice on 20 December to serenade Manhattan's holiday shoppers with a call, for the second year, to boycott the jewelry store and companies of Israeli settlement-builder and diamond mogul Lev Leviev. Leviev's Madison Avenue store has been the site of 12 protests since it opened in mid-November 2007, and protests against his businesses have spread to London, Dubai and the West Bank villages where he is building settlements. Additionally, during the past year the UN children's agency UNICEF and the Oxfam coalition have renounced Leviev, major Hollywood stars have distanced themselves from him, and the governments of United Kingdom and Dubai are under pressure to boycott Leviev's businesses.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Walt: The evidence is piling up that American leaders are turning away from the [Israel] lobby
(21 Dec) What is happening, I hope, is a redefinition of what it means to be "pro-Israel." Thoughtful people are beginning to realize that uncritical support for the Jewish state isn't "pro-Israel," because it has encouraged policies that threaten Israel's long-term future. Similarly, critics of certain Israeli policies like Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinki, Avraham Burg, and John and myself aren't "anti-Israel"--they simply think that the "special relationship" is no longer good for either country (if it ever was), and that a normal relationship would be better for both.
http://www.philipweiss.org/
Sunday: 2 GIs, 7 Iraqis killed; 4 Iraqis wounded
(21 Dec) Excerpt: At least seven Iraqis were killed and four more were wounded in the latest attacks. Meanwhile a U.S. soldier died of non-combat related injuries. A Marine died in a non-combat related incident as well..
http://www.antiwar.com/
We have 15 thousand detainees - US commander
(20 Dec) BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq said that the forces currently have around 15 thousand detainees in Iraq, including 160 Arab citizens, explaining that releasing 100 Iraqi detainees on Saturday is the last dispatch before transferring the rest of them to the Iraqi authorities.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=
Iraqi shoe thrower: I'd do it again
(21 Dec) The Iraqi journalist who shocked the world by throwing his shoes at the US president reportedly says he would do it again if given the opportunity. "In a letter to Iraqi prime minister, Muntadhar al-Zaidi has only apologized to Nuri al-Maliki himself," Fardanews reported, citing comments by an Iraqi source familiar with the case.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Iraq shoe-thrower Muntazer al-Zaidi to go on trial at end of month
(22 Dec) The Iraqi journalist thrust to instant fame when he threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush will go on trial this month on charges that carry up to 15 years in jail. Investigating judge Dhiya al-Kenani rejected new allegations by the journalist's family that he had been tortured in custody that were levelled after a brother was allowed a first prison visit.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Shoe-assault served Bush well, some US citizens say
(20 Dec) San Francisco: US President George Bush deserved the shoes-assault by Iraqi journalist, some US citizens told Gulf News. "A number of shoes should be hurled at him, equivalent to the number of deaths he has caused since the start of the Iraq's war in 2003," said Luci, a female cashier at one of Walgreens stores in San Francisco city.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/
Jail that veil
(20 Dec) So, a Muslim woman is jailed by a US judge for refusing to remove her hijab in court. Apparently, this particular judge has a preoccupation with disciplining Muslim women who wear the hijab in his courtroom...The woman in question was merely asserting her rights in a secular state, yet I have an almost clairvoyant sense that someone, somewhere, will already be preparing a 'secular' defense of the judge's actions.
http://leninology.blogspot.
Further Updates on the Case of Muntather Al-Zaidi
On December 14th, Iraqi journalist Muntather Al-Zaidi threw his shoes at American president George W. Bush, and with them a huge insult in Iraqi tradition. On the ninth day since Muntather's arrest, we'd like to provide you with some updates on the case and the reactions it has spurred around the globe.
Friday there was a soccer game between two famous Iraqi teams. Tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens who attended the match chanted Muntather's name, calling him a hero. They shouted that, Sunni and Shi'i, they wanted him to be released.
The sight and the sound showed the power behind their words, and watching impressed me deeply with the strength of these men's demand for Muntather's release.
Also at Al-Anbar University, hundreds of students marched out of classes and into the streets calling for the release of "Muntather Al-Iraqi". American forces tried to stop them by shooting into the air. The students stopped in front of them and began throwing stones at the soldiers.
Muntather's family organized a sit-in in front of one gate of the Green Zone in Baghdad, and many Iraqis have joined them. A few members of the Iraqi Parliament were present as well. Iraqi security forces ended the sit-in using force, and they prevented Al-Baghdadiya, the television channel for which Al-Zaidi works, from documenting what happened there.
In London and Manchester, Iraqis living in Britain along with other British activists protested Muntather's incarceration and called for his immediate release.
Many news media are still providing updates and following the case, and many of these have been surprised by the way in which the Iraqi government is dealing with the situation. They cite similar cases in which eggs or tomatoes have been thrown as a form of protest, and none of these have been considered such a serious crime. They are asking why this one should be taken so much more seriously, especially since Muntather's actions enjoyed widespread public support and targeted a man responsible for what is widely understood as an ongoing illegal military occupation.
If you have not yet done so, please sign this petition demanding Muntather's release and forward this information to anyone you know who might be interested.
An Update about Muntather's court case:
The judge has rejected the defense's request to release Muntather on bail, refusing to change the way the case is classified under Iraqi law.
The leader of Munthather's Iraqi team of lawyers, Mr. Hashim Al-Futyan, was surprised by the government's decision to refer Muntather's case to be tried in the criminal court that Ambassador Paul Bremer established at the beginning of the occupation in 2003.
Regarding what the defense was seeking, but did not achieve:
They wanted to change the legal classification of Muntather's case to be considered under law no. 227, which would mean it would be considered in the misdemeanor court instead of the higher criminal court. Their next step is to appeal the case based on the belief that the government is discriminating against Muntather for political reasons.
The Iraqi Federation of Lawyers said that what Muntather did reflects the deep frustration resulting from the abuse of Iraq citizens during the US occupation of Iraq during the past years, a time in which journalists have been and continue to be among the professions which have been most targeted and persecuted.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 136 journalists and 51 media workers have been killed in Iraq since 2003, making it the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history.
Muntather's brother has stated that the family believes the letter allegedly written by Muntather to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki asking for a pardon and apologizing for his "big and ugly act" is either an outright forgery or was coerced by torture.
Regarding the fate of the shoes:
The government investigators claim that they tried to find out if there was a weapon hidden in Muntather's shoes. In the process of this "investigation", they claim, both shoes were cut into pieces. So the material evidence is gone - and with it two powerful symbols - but the court case continues.
Regarding Muntather's health condition:
After Muntather was tortured he was taken to an American hospital - originally an Iraqi hospital now occupied by American forces - and treated there. He has many injuries, one of them related to trauma he suffered when he was struck many times on his eye while in the custody of Iraqi security forces.
In other related events:
In Iraq, protests continue, and many Iraqi groups from across the society continue to call for Munthather's release.
An Egyptian man has offered his daughter (who is currenty a college student) in marriage to Muntather (with his daughter's permission), and has offered to cover all marriage expenses.
In Amman, Jordan, a comedy based on the shoe-throwing incident will be presented beginning on December 21.
Najlaa Al-Nashi is Direct Aid Iraq's Middle East Coordinator, organizing medical care and advocating for her fellow Iraqi refugees in Amman, Jordan.
Sphere: Related ContentHurl a shoe at Israeli officials
A friend asked me if I "have the addresses of high officials in the Israeli government to send "old shoes" to as a symbol about how she feel about the illegal, abusive, mistreatment of the Palestinian people whom the land rightfully belongs to."
I didn't have them, so, I asked around, and thanks to Steve, he gave me the hint to check the Knesset website and found most of what I'm looking for beside links to others Israeli official websites.
So, here is a comprehensive list of Israeli government members, officials and Knesset members. (Few I could not find, like criminals Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu. Therefore, if you have them or more as well updates for other email addresses of below mentioned official and other, please contact me).
Without more delay, here is the list I got. Please fire them with your old shoes:
Shimon Peres: president@president.gov.il
Ehud Olmert - Prime Minister - eulmert@knesset.gov.il
Ehud Barak - Deputy Prime Minister , Minister of Defense - minister@mod.gov.il
Tzipi Livni - Acting Prime Minister , Minister of Foreign Affairs - zlivni@knesset.gov.il
Abraham Dicter - Minister of Internal Security - adichter@knesset.gov.il
Ariel Atias - Minister of Communications - aatias@knesset.gov.il
Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer - Minister of National Infrastructure - binyaminb@knesset.gov.il
Eli Aflalo - Minister of Immigrant Absorption - eaflalo@knesset.gov.il
Eliyahu Yishai - Deputy Prime Minister , Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor - eyishay@knesset.gov.il
Gideon Ezra - Minister of Environmental Protection - gezra@knesset.gov.il
Isaac Herzog - Minister of Welfare and Social Services, Minister of the Diaspora, Society, and Fight Against Antisemitism - iherzog@knesset.gov.il
Jacob Edery - Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galil - yedri@knesset.gov.il
Meir Sheetrit - Minister of Internal Affairs - mshitrit@knesset.gov.il
Raleb Majadele - Minister of Science, Culture, and Sport - gmagadla@knesset.gov.il
Ruhama Avraham Balila - Minister of Tourism - ravraham@knesset.gov.il
Shalom Simhon - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development - ssimhon@knesset.gov.il
Shaul Mofaz - Deputy Prime Minister , Minister of Transportation and Road Safety - shaulm@knesset.gov.il
Ze'ev Boim - Minister of Housing and Construction - zaevb@knesset.gov.il
Haim Ramon - Vice Prime Minister - ChaimR@knesset.gov.il
Rafi Eitan - Minister of Pensioner Affairs - reitanhantman@knesset.gov.il
Ronnie Bar-On - Minister of Finance - rbaron@knesset.gov.il
Yacov Ben Yizri - Minister of Health - ybenyizri@knesset.gov.il
Yitzhak Cohen - Minister of Religious Services - izchakec@knesset.gov.il
Yuli Tamir - Minister of Education - ytamir@knesset.gov.il
Majalli Whbee - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs - mwahaba@knesset.gov.il
Matan Vilnai - Deputy Minister of Defense - matanv@knesset.gov.il
Meshulam Nahari - Minister Without Portfolio - mnahari@knesset.gov.il
Daniel Friedmann - Minister of Justice - ?
Benjamin Netanyahu - bnetanyahu@knesset.gov.il
Prime Minister Office: http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/
Ehud Olmert - Prime Minister - pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Or use this form: http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/
Raanan Dinur - Director General Of the Prime Minister's Office - pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Ovad Yehezkel - Government Secretary - pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Ya'akov Galanti - Head of Communications Division and Media Adviser to the Prime Minister - pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Shalom Tourgeman - Foreign Policy Adviser for Prime Minister - MEDINI@IT.PMO.GOV.IL
Amnon Ben-Ami - Deputy Director General - amnon.benami@it.pmo.gov.il
Tzahi Gavrieli - Personal Assistant to the Prime Minister - TzahiG@it.pmo.gov.il
Shlomit Barnea Farago - Legal Adviser - legal@pmo.gov.il
Joseph Strauss - Accountant - J.strauss@it.pmo.gov.il
Marit Danon - Director of the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women - women@it.pmo.gov.il
Uzi Keren - Adviser to the Prime Minister (Settlement Affairs) - Uzi.Keren@it.pmo.gov.il
Hagar Biran - Advisor to the Prime Minister for Liaison with the Knesset - hagar.biran@it.pmo.gov.il
Ruti Avramovitz - Pubilc affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister - pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Ofer Levy - Adviser to the prime minister for official visits and special events - PMO.HEB@it.pmo.gov.il
Yael Nachmias - Head of the Division for policy Implementation - Yael.Nachmias@it.pmo.gov.il
Gavriel Golan - Adviser to the Prime Minister for Planning and Development - pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Mark Regev - International Media Adviser to the Prime Minister - Gali.Cohen@it.pmo.gov.il
Rachael Risby-Raz - Diaspora Affairs Adviser - risbyraz@it.pmo.gov.il
Gal Alon - Adviser for Strategic Development - gal.alon@it.pmo.gov.il
Julia Braya - Adviser to the Prime Minister for the Russian Languge Media - pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Edna Halbani - Director of International Visits - edna@it.pmo.gov.il
Vered Swid - Adviser to the Prime Minister (Social Affairs) - Vered.Swid@it.pmo.gov.il
Avi Widerman - Adviser to the Prime Minister - aviw@it.pmo.gov.il
David Baker - Senior Foreign Press Coordinator - david.baker@it.pmo.gov.il
Yehiel Nizri - Director of the Prime Minister's Bureau (Central Region) - yehiel_nizri@walla.co.il
Avigdor Liberman: aliberman@knesset.gov.il
Ami Ayalon: aaylon@knesset.gov.il
Amir Peretz: aperetz@knesset.gov.il
Abraham Hirchson: ahirshson@knesset.gov.il
Alex Miller: amiller@knesset.gov.il
Amira Dotan: adotan@knesset.gov.il
Amnon Cohen: amncohen@knesset.gov.il
Arieh Eldad: aeldad@knesset.gov.il
Avishay Braverman: abraverman@knesset.gov.il
Avraham Michaeli: amichaeli@knesset.gov.il
Avraham Ravitz: aravitz@knesset.gov.il
Avshalom Vilan: avilan@knesset.gov.il
Benyamin Elon: belon@knesset.gov.il
Chaim Amsellem: eamsalem@knesset.gov.il
Chaim Oron: horon@knesset.gov.il
Colette Avital: avitalk@knesset.gov.il
Dalia Itzik: yor@knesset.gov.il
David Azoulay: dazulay@knesset.gov.il
David Rotem: drotem@knesset.gov.il
David Tal: davidt@knesset.gov.il
Dov Khenin: dhanin@knesset.gov.il
Effie Eitam: efye@knesset.gov.il
Eitan Cabel: ecabel@knesset.gov.il
Elhanan Glazer: eglazer@knesset.gov.il
Eliahu Gabbay: egabai@knesset.gov.il
Esterina Tartman: etertman@knesset.gov.il
Gideon Sa'ar: gsaar@knesset.gov.il
Gilad Erdan: gerdan@knesset.gov.il
Haim Katz: hkatz@knesset.gov.il
Isaac Ben-Israel: itzik@knesset.gov.il
Israel Hasson: ahason@knesset.gov.il
Itshac Galantee: ygalanti@knesset.gov.il
Izhak Ziv: yziv@knesset.gov.il
Lia Shemtov: lshemtov@knesset.gov.il
Limor Livnat: llivnat@knesset.gov.il
Marina Solodkin: msolodkin@knesset.gov.il
Mazor Bahyna: mazorb@knesset.gov.il
Meir Porush: mporush@knesset.gov.il
Menahem Ben-Sasson: mbensason@knesset.gov.il
Michael Eitan: meitan@knesset.gov.il
Michael Melchior: melchiorm@knesset.gov.il
Moshe Kahlon: mcachlon@knesset.gov.il
Moshe Gafni: mgafni@knesset.gov.il
Moshe Sharoni: msharoni@knesset.gov.il
Nissan Slomiansky: nslomianski@knesset.gov.il
Nissim Zeev: nzeev@knesset.gov.il
Ophir Pines-Paz: pinespaz@knesset.gov.il
Otniel Schneller: oschneller@knesset.gov.il
Ran Cohen: rancohen@knesset.gov.il
Reuven Rivlin: rrivlin@knesset.gov.il
Robert Ilatov: rilatov@knesset.gov.il
Ronit Tirosh: rtirosh@knesset.gov.il
Sara Marom Shalev: smarom@knesset.gov.il
Shachiv Shnaan: shanans@knesset.gov.il
Shai Hermesh: shermesh@knesset.gov.il
Shelly Yacimovich: syechimovich@knesset.gov.il
Shlomo (Neguse) Molla: smolla@knesset.gov.il
Shmuel Halpert: shmuelh@knesset.gov.il
Silvan Shalom: sshalom@knesset.gov.il
Sofa Landver: slandver@knesset.gov.il
Stas Misezhnikov: smiseznikov@knesset.gov.il
Tzachi Hanegbi: zhanegbi@knesset.gov.il
Tzvia Greenfield: tzviag@knesset.gov.il
Uri Maklev: umaklev@knesset.gov.il
Uri Yehuda Ariel: uria@knesset.gov.il
Yakov Litzman: ylitzman@knesset.gov.il
Yakov Margi: ymargi@knesset.gov.il
Yisrael Katz: yiskatz@knesset.gov.il
Yitzhak Aharonovitch: iaharon@knesset.gov.il
Yitzhak Levy: ithakl@knesset.gov.il
Yitzhak Vaknin: yvaknin@knesset.gov.il
Yoel Hasson: yhasson@knesset.gov.il
Yohanan Plesner: yohananplesner@knesset.gov.il
Yoram Marciano: ymarziano@knesset.gov.il
Yosef Shagal: yshagal@knesset.gov.il
Yuli-Yoel Edelstein: yedelstein@knesset.gov.il
Yuval Steinitz: ysteinitz@knesset.gov.il
Zahava Gal-On: zgalon@knesset.gov.il
Zeev Elkin: Zelkin@knesset.gov.il
Zevulun Orlev: zorlev@knesset.gov.il
Zvi Hendel: zhendel@knesset.gov.il
Occupied Palestine: News and Articles December 21
Livni vows to topple Hamas
Al Jazeera 12/22/2008
The leading candidates to become Israel’s next prime minister say they will remove the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip. Tzipi Livni, currently the Israeli foreign minister, said on Sunday that her primary goal if she wins the February election is to overthrow Hamas. "The Hamas government in Gaza must be toppled, the means to do this mustbe military, economic and diplomatic,’’ she said. "Whenever they shoot at Israel, Israel must respond. " Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud party leader and Livni’s main rival, made similiar statements. "In the long-term, we will have to topple the Hamas regime," he said. "In the short-term. . . there are a wide range of possibilities, from doing nothing to doing everything, meaning to conquer Gaza. "Netanyahu was speaking as he visited a house in Sderot in southern Israel which was hit by a rocket on Sunday.
Al-Aqsa Brigades fire projectiles from Gaza in response to killing of fighter
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Gaza – Ma’an – The Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, claimed responsibility on Sunday for firing five homemade projectiles from Gaza at the Israeli towns of Ashkelon, Sderot and Sa’d Kibutz. The group said in a statement that two projectiles were launched at Sderot, two at Askelon and one landed in the main square at Israeli Kibutz of Sa’d. In a statement the organization said the homemade rockets were “natural retaliation” for Israel’s killing on Saturday of Ali Hijazi, a local leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in northern Gaza. The statement asserted that the shelling was natural retaliation for Israeli atrocities in the Gaza strip, which culminated with assassination of the group’s leader Ali Hijazi. Twenty-five-year-old Hijazi was killed by an Israeli artillery shell.
Settlers attack Palestinian house in Hebron
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian house in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday evening, the latest in a series of attacks in the city. Nedal Fareed Al-Awawi, a resident of Hebron’s settler-occupied Old City issued an appeal to international human rights organizations to protect him and his family. He told Ma’an, “My home that is adjacent to the illegal Israeli outpost of Avraham Avinu, and is repeatedly attacked by the Israeli settlers. I fear for my children’s lives because of these vindictive attacks against me after the evacuation from the Ar- Rajabi building. ”Settlers rampaged through Hebron on 4 December when Israeli police and soldiers evicted 250 hard-line settlers from a house belonging to the Ar-Rajabi family. Al-Awawi home was one of the buildings set on fire by the enraged settlers.
Anti-Muhammad graffiti on Jaffa mosque
Ali Waked, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Muslim worshippers who arrive at religious site Sunday morning discover writings spray-painted on its doors reading ’Muhammad is a pig’ and ’Death to Arabs’. Islamic Movement leader: Incitement against Muslims and Arabs continues - Muslims harassed in Jaffa: Worshippers who arrived Sunday morning at a mosque near the Jaffa Port discovered graffiti on its doors with the words "Muhammad is a pig" and "Death to the Arabs". Representatives of the Islamic Movement in Jaffa filed a complaint with the police. Sheikh Ahmed Abu Ajawa, head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch in Jaffa, told Ynet that the incident was "a continuation of the incitement against Muslims and Arabs, in which senior politicians take part. "He added that "the miserable and un-deterring punishments against those who carried out similar offenses only encourage their repetition. "
Sheikh Jarrah protest camp demolished by Israeli forces yet again - Two internationals taken by police
International Solidarity Movement 12/21/2008
Jerusalem Region - Photos - Israeli forces have again demolished the protest tent established in Sheikh Jarrah, Occupied East Jerusalem, built on Palestinian private property in support of the evicted al-Kurd family and the 18 Palestinian families who currently face eviction from the neighbourhood. Two international solidarity activists, one British and one Austrian, who had been staying in the tent, were detained by Israeli police and taken to the local police station for their details to be taken. They were released three hours later. Israeli forces arrived at the site of the protest camp at around mid-day and began to dismantle the tent despite the protests of Sheikh Jarrah residents who repeatedly pointed out that the tent is built of private property. The police then took two of the international solidarity activists from the site.
Hamas: PA security services arrest 44 Hamas supporters in West Bank
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Nablus – Ma’an – The Palestinian Authority (PA) has arrested 44 Hamas-affiliates in the West Bank in recent weeks, said a statement from the party on Sunday. From the northern West Bank: Jalal Djerboue, from Askar refugee camp, Amjad Qozh, a university student, Mohammed Suleiman, a school teacher, Jihad Shehadeh, a journalist from Jama’in, Ayoub Nabhan, from Marda, Solomon Solomon from Marda, Gamal Abu Nidal from the Jenin governorate, Ahmed Ghanem Ghanem from Qalqilia, Nasser Ghanim from from Qalqilia, Saddam Ghanim from Qalqilia, Imattin Youssef Shteiwi from Sawan, Hossam Ghalib Musaliha from Qalqilia, Saher Tariq Abdullah Rabia from Qalqilia, Omar Mahmoud Saadou from Qalqilia, Issam Aref Hosni from the village of Hajah, Hajm Omar firm from his home in Deir Al-Ghusun, Ahmed Al-Jilad from Tulkarem. . .
Aid Ship leaves Gaza with five Gazans on board
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Gaza – Ma’an – An aid ship that defied an Israeli naval blockade to sail to Gaza on Friday left Gaza on Sunday night carrying five Palestinians who had been stranded in Gaza. Two envoys from a Qatari charity also came on the ship, along with international and Israeli activists, and an Israeli journalist. A Palestinian anti-siege activist, Amjad Ash-Shaw, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that three of those who arrived on the ship chose to stay in Gaza. He also praised the Qataris as the “first Arab delegation that could arrive in Gaza aboard a ship. ”The arrival of the ship on Saturday marked the fifth successful challenge to the naval blockade since August. Israeli warships turned back a Libyan aid ship in November, and the Israeli government rejected a request by the Qatari government to send another.
IAF air strike destroys two rocket launchers in northern Gaza Strip
Haaretz Service and The Associated Press, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
The Israel Air Force on Sunday carried out an air strike on two Qassam rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip. The two launchers were loaded and ready to fire when they were eliminated. Palestinians said four people were injured in the strike, including children. Palestinian militants on Sunday morning fired 19 Qassam rockets and three mortar rounds into Israel, lightly injuring one person and damaging a private home. Rescue services said one rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the town of Sderot, causing damage to the building. Maya Iber - who was on the lower level of her house while the rocket hit its top floor - was treated for shock. "Everyone is traumatized," Iber told AP Television News. A Thai migrant worker from moshav Nativ Ha’asara sustained light shrapnel wounds from mortar fire.
Shin Bet chief: Hamas rockets can hit outskirts of Be’er Sheva
Barak Ravid Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin said Sunday that Hamas is capable of firing rockets that can strike targets as distant from Gaza as the outskirts of the Negev capital of Be’er Sheva. He told a meeting of the cabinet that rockets could also hit Kiryat Gat and Ashdod, cities which thus far were seen as beyond range. Hamas’ armed wing used the last six months of relative calm to improve its medium and long-range rockets and mortars, he said. "We believe that if we strike at significant assets, they will respond with longer-range fire," Diskin said. Hamas officials, meanwhile, are not ruling out a renewal of suicide bombings in Israel. Ayman Taha, a Hamas representative in Gaza, told Haaretz that under the current conditions, no cease-fire is in effect whatsoever.
Gaza rockets hit southern Israel
Al Jazeera 12/21/2008
Eight rockets and mortars fired from Gaza have hit towns in southern Israel, with one house being severely damaged in Sderot, Israeli rescue service workers have said. No one was injured in the attack, which began at about 7am (0500GMT) on Sunday, two days after the official end of a truce between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. A migrant worker was wounded by shrapnel in a separate rocket attack on a Kibbutz, an Israeli farming co-operative. The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attacks. Air raid launched Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip, said that the Israeli military launched an air raid into Gaza, targeting a rocket firing squad. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israeli strike on eastern Gaza City wounds four, including child
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Gaza - Ma’an - Four Palestinians were injured late on Sunday night after an Israeli Apache helicopter fired missiles on eastern Gaza City. One of the injured is reportedly a child. Dr Mua’waiyah Hassanein, the Ministry of Health’s director of Ambulance and Emergency Services, confirmed the injuries. He added that the four Palestinians were moderately injured in the assault. A spokesperson for the Israeli military confirmed the attack, according to Al-Jazeera. [end]
Palestinians: Civilians wounded in IAF Gaza strike
Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Palestinian sources on Sunday night said that several civilians were lightly wounded in an IAF air strike against rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip. Earlier, the army confirmed an attack in the area. [end]
Israeli troops stole money from West Bank home during raid, resident says
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Tulkarem – Ma’an – A Palestinian resident of the West Bank town of Far’un says that Israeli soldiers stole 500 Israeli shekels (134 US dollars) while raiding his home on Sunday. Bassam Abed Ar-Rahman told Ma’an that Israeli troops forced his family out of the house, destroyed the interior of the home, and questioned his sons Hamed and Ahmad. No one was arrested. Far’un is south of the city of Tulkarem. [end]
Sasson rejects calls to shelve 2005 report on outposts
Shelly Paz, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Attorney Talia Sasson, who wrote a controversial report commissioned by prime minister Ariel Sharon on illegal West Bank outposts in 2005, rejected calls on Sunday from the Right that the government shelve it now that she is running for Knesset with Meretz-Hatnua Hahadasha. "I have come to the conclusion that to influence [events] and to make sure my report is implemented, I need to go into politics and advance its findings," Sasson told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "As long as Israel controls the territories in Judea and Samaria, it controls the lives of three million Palestinians, deprives them of their basic human rights and denies the Israeli people their right to live in a democratic society," the former head of the State Prosecution Criminal Department said. The March 2005 report said that at least 105 illegal outposts had been built and expanded with governmental support.
Popular resistance challenging new settlement that will add to separation of Jerusalem and Bethlehem
Maisa Abu Ghazaleh - Palestine News Network, International Middle East Media Center News 12/21/2008
One of the most well-organized communities in the fight against settlement, Al Walajeh Village, is under new threat. Already the village between Bethlehem and Jerusalem was cut in half over the past several years and decades ago its hills were taken for settlements. The Wall is taking even more of its land and now reports indicate that Israeli forces intend to build a new settlement, Givat Yael, on Al Walajeh land. The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Jerusalem Affairs, Hatem Abdel Qader, warned of the settlement plan that threatens to engulf "large parts" of the town near Bethlehem’s Cremisan Winery, southwest of Jerusalem. Abdul Qader said during an inspection tour yesterday, "The occupation authorities have stepped up their actions against the owners of the land in Al Walajeh, particularly on the land adjacent to the southern commercial zone.
Palestinian prisoners declare hunger strike after violent clashes with Israeli guards
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Jenin – Ma’an – Palestinian prisoners declared a hunger strike in an Israeli prison camp in the West Bank on Sunday, a day after clashes with prison guards left ten people injured. “The strike is ongoing until the prisoners’ demands are granted by the prison administration. Otherwise, escalating actions will be taken,” said Mahmoud As-Sa’di, a prisoner and a spokesman for the detainees in the Ofer prison camp. Eight prisoners and two Israeli guards were injured when guards water cannons, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets to suppress a prisoner demonstration. The prisoner said they were protesting an invasive search of prisoner property. Speaking on the phone from inside the prison, As-Sa’di told Ma’an that the prison administration is still ‘provoking’ prisoners by confiscating all their belongings except their clothes.
PA ministry demands international protection for Palestinian prisoners
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
GAZA, (PIC)-- The ministry of prisoners’ affairs in the PA caretaker government in Gaza has called for international protection for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails in the wake of the Israeli assault on Ofer prisoners. The ministry in a statement on Sunday also asked for sending an international fact finding committee to the Israeli jails to investigate the Israeli practices against prisoners. It held the Israeli occupation authority and the Israeli prisons authority fully responsible for the events in Ofer jail, west of Ramallah, which ended with the injury of 8 prisoners and the burning of many tents. The ministry said that escalation violations of prisoners’ rights and provocations against them heralded such clashes, and added that the surprise night search had led to the clashes on Saturday.
Palestinian prisoners’ affairs minister demands access to prison camp after clashes
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Ramallah – Ma’an – Palestinian Minister of Prisoners Affairs Ashraf Al-Ajrami demanded immediate access to Israel’s Ofer Prison near Ramallah to visit the prisoners involved Saturday’s clashes. Al-Ajrami said Sunday that he wished to meet with representatives from the prisoners involved in the clash with Israeli prison wardens that lead to eight Palestinians and two Israelis being injured and dozens of tents burned. He demanded that International organizations including the Red Cross collect first hand reports from the incidents to make sure Israeli prison officials are abiding by international law. [end]
IPS: Ofer riot was spontaneous but not ideological
Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
The Palestinian prisoner riot that rocked the Ofer high-security prison near Pisgat Ze’ev on Saturday came as "no surprise" to the wardens who guard the facility, an Israel Prisons Service spokesman said Sunday. "As we see it, this was a totally spontaneous incident," IPS spokesman Yaron Zamir told The Jerusalem Post, explaining that wardens expected disturbances of this kind to erupt periodically. Zamir denied press reports that claimed the rioting had been launched by Hamas prisoners, saying that the prison wings had no clear-cut segregation between Hamas and Fatah prisoners. "The wing in which the riots began has mixed prisoners [from Fatah and Hamas]; they are not fully separated," he said. "The disorder began as a localized incident of hotheadedness, a spontaneous reaction to the entrance of IPS staff who had come to carry out a routine inspection," he explained.
Latin Patriarch visits Gaza; Asks 'where are the Peacemakers?'
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Gaza – Ma’an – The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fuad Twal visited Gaza on Sunday where he denounced the Israeli siege on the area and expressed his hope that the Palestinian people will close ranks and solve their problems rather than waiting for external mediators. Twal criticized Israel for barring Gazan Christians from visiting Bethlehem during Advent and Christmas. He called visiting the Holy Land a right granted by God, and said neither state nor any person had the right to prevent worshipers from making such a holy pilgrimage. He said both the Church and the Christian community had strong feelings for the people of Gaza, adding that “What hurts Muslims hurts Christians,” and vice versa. The Patriarch expressed his hope that peace will prevail between all countries and between the Palestinians. “Mutual love,” he said, will be what reunites Palestinians.
Khudari: Gaza at the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
GAZA, (PIC)-- The chairman of the popular committee against the siege on Gaza MP Jamal Al-Khudari has strongly condemned Sunday the Israeli economic blockade on the tiny Gaza Strip, asserting that the siege left Gaza at the brink of a looming humanitarian catastrophe. According to Khudari, the Israeli closure of all crossing points in Gaza Strip for the successive seventh week would aggravate the humanitarian crises in the populated Strip, underlining that the suspension of the main power plant in Gaza city drowned 80% of the Strip in total darkness. In a press release he issued in Gaza, Khudari explained that the blockade has affected all aspects of life in the Strip, adding that more than 273 Palestinian citizens died due to that repressive siege. "The lack of wheat has led to halt of all mills, and the sharp shortage of gas and flour forced many bakeries to close doors, which. . . "
Egypt Red Crescent to deliver aid to Gaza
Reuters, YNetNews 12/21/2008
40 tons of flour, 20 tons of rice and medical supplies to arrive at Rafah border crossing Monday - The Egyptian Red Crescent said on Sunday it would send five trucks carrying food and medical aid to the Gaza Strip. An Egyptian official at the Rafah border crossing with the coastal strip said Egyptian authorities had agreed with Israel to allow the trucks in on Monday. Mohamed Orabi, the head of the organisation in North Sinai, said the trucks were loaded with 40 tons of flour, 20 tons of rice and some medical supplies. In the past, Egyptian authorities have prevented scores of activists, mainly from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, from delivering aid to the Gaza Strip. The Brotherhood has historical and ideological ties with Hamas, but is considering threatening to the Egyptian government.
Gazans with residencies abroad and students protest Egyptian complicity in siege
Palestine News Network - PNN, International Middle East Media Center News 12/21/2008
Students and employees with residencies abroad are protesting the Egyptian role in the siege on the Gaza Strip. During a sit-in yesterday at the Egyptian Embassy in Gaza City protestors held banners demanding that the Rafah crossing be opened for passengers. "Hundreds of people are stranded trying to return from work abroad or to their families outside, while so many of us were accepted into scholastic programs but we cannot reach them," a student said. "We are appealing for immediate and rapid intervention by all concerned parties to end this tragedy," student representative Mohammad Marahab said. Speaking on behalf of students stranded inside the Gaza Strip, Marahab read a statement to the media indicating that the "suffering of students is growing day by day" with the continued closure of the crossing for over a year and a half.
Lebanese ship to set sail to Gaza in two weeks
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
BEIRUT, (PIC)-- The Lebanese "Fraternity" vessel is to set sail from Lebanon to Gaza on 3rd January 2009 carrying medical and food consignments along with representatives of various public institutions and forces. Coordinator of the Lebanese national committee to break the siege on Gaza Mu’in Bashur told the fifth meeting of the committee that contacts were ongoing with activists in Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Bahrain to coordinate the sail of ships from those Arab countries together from Larnaca port to Gaza. He said that the ships would carry a number of messages the first to the people of Gaza that they are not alone, and the second to the official Arab regimes that they should bear their historic responsibility towards breaking the siege, and third to the silent international community regarding the siege on one and a half million Palestinians.
IOF troops storm Ramallah, Tulkarem
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces stormed the cities of Ramallah and Tulkarem in the West Bank on Sunday and freely moved in the cities while PA security elements were noticeably off the streets of both cities. Media reporting of the storming, which was covered live, showed the soldiers riding in their jeeps and in front of them and moving slowly and freely in the streets with no presence of PA security apparatuses which claimed they were responsible for defending the country. Abu Abir, the spokesman of the Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the popular resistance committees, in Gaza said that the PA security war on resistance and its elements allowed such a scene to happen. He said that the scene is a scandal for both PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and his entourage, noting that the situation is totally different in the Gaza Strip where the IOF soldiers find big difficulty in advancing 200 meters even in open areas.
IAF targets Kassam launchers in Gaza
Yaakov Katz And AP, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Several people were in shock and buildings were damaged when Palestinian terrorists on Sunday night fired a Kassam rocket at the Sha’ar Hanegev region and two more at the Sdot Negev region. No one suffered bodily harm in the attack. Rocket fire rains down on western Negev Shortly afterwards, An IAF aircraft on Sunday night targeted two Kassam rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip. The army confirmed a hit and said that the launchers were loaded and ready to launch. Earlier Sunday several rockets were fired from the area. Earlier, Palestinian sources reported that a woman was moderately wounded in an IAF strike on Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. RELATEDWoman whose house was hit by Kassam: ’Nothing changes’ slideshow:Gaza flare-up The Warped Mirror: Worried about Gaza’s dignity The Palestinians. . .
Exchange of fire starts early; Gaza parents advised to keep children indoors
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Gaza – Ma’an – Thirteen homemade projectiles and several mortar shells were fired by Palestinian armed factions on Sunday, two days after a six-month old truce between Israel and Palestinian factions expired. After an initial salvo of projectiles, an Israeli aerial drone fired two missiles at a projectile launch site near Qlebo Dome in the northern Gaza Strip. In Israel a Thai man was injured, several greenhouses and a home were slightly damaged by Palestinian projectiles in the border town of Sderot, while no injuries have been reported in Gaza. On Saturday Israeli fire killed one Gazan fighter and injured five including two children playing in an open field in the north of the Strip. The same day reports of between ten and fifteen projectile launches resulted in no Israeli injuries. Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry Muawiya. . .
Israeli minister advises Hamas leaders to remain indoors during daylight hours
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Bethlehem - Ma’an - Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Zahhar should avoid moving freely during the day, Israeli Minister of Transportation Shaul Mofaz told Israeli Army Radio Sunday afternoon. Mofaz’s comments seem to affirm the new Israeli position on military retaliations for Palestinian projectile launches from the Gaza Strip. To date Israeli fire has targeted Gazan resistance fighters usually at projectile launch areas, or the launch pads themselves. Mofaz expressed disapproval over the way Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been responding to the projectile launches from Gaza, wondering what more Barak wanted before he escalated the Israeli response. He described the current response as one of ‘merely opening and closing crossings. ’“There is only one way to respond to the escalation by Hamas,” Mofaz added.
Israel set to carry out targeted assassinations against Gaza faction leaders
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli security sources indicated a confrontation with Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip is imminent and that there is little chance of a détente after days of fire from both sides. According to Radio Israel the army will carry out ground and air attacks on the Gaza Strip Sunday, they will aim weapons at military and factional leaders carrying through with earlier threats of targeted assassinations. The siege will continue. In the past targeted assassinations have resulted in tens of civilian deaths, since the civilian centers in the Gaza Strip are densely populated and high-ranking officials are not likely to be in the field launching projectiles. The Israeli sources explained that the military would “not necessarily” be conducting widespread ground invasions, indicating targeted air attacks.
ISM Gaza Strip: Drone rockets strike Gazan people
International Solidarity Movement 12/21/2008
After welcoming the 5th Free Gaza boat this morning, ISM activists based in the Gaza Strip went to see the site of an Israeli rocket attack that had occurred just as the boat arrived, at about 8. 30am. Three rockets were fired from a drone plane, killing an Al Aqsa Brigades fighter and wounding a second. The rockets hit farmland where local families were working their land, grazing their sheep and goats. They ran from the area during the attack, but out of necessity were back at work when we arrived at about 1pm. While we were there, a drone plane was visible overhead; the drones over Gaza land near the border are present to such an extent that life must go on beneath them. They fire rockets without warning. Hearing reports of two children struck by one of these rockets as they played, we went visited Kamel Adwan Hospital and spoke to. . .
IOF choppers fire missiles at northern Gaza
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli army choppers fired two missiles at a target north of the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning but no casualties were reported, according to local sources. The Israeli occupation forces have been escalating aerial attacks on the Strip ever since the calm agreement with Palestinian resistance factions expired last Friday. The agreement, which stipulated reciprocal ceasefire, also included lifting the siege on Gaza and opening crossings gradually but Israel did not live up to its promises and retained the siege and kept the crossings working at minimal capacity. Meanwhile, the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, on Sunday fired five locally made Quds missiles at Israeli targets adjacent to Gaza. The armed wing said that the firing was in retaliation to IOF crimes in the West Bank and the besieged Strip.
Woman injured by shrapnel from Israeli shell in northern Gaza
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Gaza – Ma’an – A Palestinian woman was moderately injured by shrapnel from an Israeli artillery shell in the town of Beit Hanoun, in the northern the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening. Witnesses said Israeli artillery shelled a house in the eastern section of Beit Hanoun, near the border with Israel. The Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, Muawiya Hassanain, said the woman was treated for “moderate” injuries at a local hospital in Beit Hanoun. Separately, a group of Palestinian fighters say they were unharmed after an unmanned Israeli drone aircraft fired a rocket at them near the Industrial Zone, east of the Ash-Shuja’iyyah neighborhood of Gaza city. The fighters were affiliated with the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, and the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah.
Man lightly hurt in rocket, mortar barrage
Shmulik Hadad, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Sixteen rockets fired from Gaza Strip into Israel on Sunday; foreign worker lightly injured in his arm by mortar shell. Four rockets land in Sderot; one hits house, man suffers from shock. Two additional rockets land in Ashkelon’s industrial zone. IDF strikes rocket launcher in Gaza - Palestinian gunmen fired 16 Qassam rockets and several mortar shells into Israel on Sunday. One of the rockets fired in the first barrage at around 7 am landed within the Eshkol Regional Council, another hit the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, and the third landed within the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council Hanegev without exploding. A mortar shell was fired at a community within the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council. A foreign worker was lightly injured by shrapnel while working in a hothouse in the area. He was evacuated to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
Vilnai: Expedite fortification in South
Roni Sofer, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Deputy defense minister orders his office to speed up construction of public shelters and installation of defense systems in Gaza-vicinity towns amid incessant rocket fire - Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai (Labor) has instructed his office on Sunday to expedite the construction of public shelters and the installation of defense systems in the Gaza-vicinity communities in light of the incessant rocket and mortar Hamas-controlled territory. At least 16 Qassam rockets and a number of mortars were fired toward southern Israel on Sunday. Some 40 Qassams and dozens of mortars have been fired towards the western Negev region since the ceasefire between Israel and the armed Palestinian groups expired on Friday. Vilnai decreed that any community within a 7-kilometer range of the border with Gaza must have five or six renovated shelters.
Sunday evening: Qassam fire continues, IDF strikes in Gaza
Shmulik Hadad, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Two Qassams hit Negev; no injuries reported. Israeli forces attack rocket launchers in northern Strip. Mofaz: Israel must reestablish its deterrence -A Qassam rocket fired from northern Gaza Sunday evening landed near a kibbutz located in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries, but a number of structures were damaged. A short while later IDF forces struck two rocket launchers in northern Gaza. Palestinians reported a massive explosion in Gaza City, and added that a large blaze could be seen. At around 10 pm another rocket landed within the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council’s limits. There were no reports of injuries or damage. At least 17 Qassams and a number of mortars were launched toward the western Negev region throughout the day. A foreign worker sustained light shrapnel injuries during one of the attacks.
Legal report: IOF killed 50 Palestinians during calm
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces have repeatedly violated the calm agreement forged with Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip since 19th June 2008 killing 50 Palestinians in the process, a legal report said on Sunday. The international Tadamun (solidarity) institute for human rights said in its report that the lull was brittle ever since it went into effect. It noted that the IOF soldiers violated the calm many times through different methods such as incursion, assassination, detention, demolition of homes, closure of Palestinian societies, escalation of settlement activity and the siege. The report underlined that the IOF troops killed 50 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip including 25 in the latter including 21 in shelling operations. It noted that IOF troops demolished 60 houses, installations and sit-in tents mostly in the West Bank in. . .
View from Sderot / Quick, before the next Qassam
Avirama Golan, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Yesterday the children of Sderot boarded buses to school and daycare between 7:30 and 8 A. M. as they always do. The route had not changed, but what had changed was the presence of a police escort. The Qassam rockets fell one after another until8 A. M. , and then a temporary quiet prevailed. The press likes to use the term "ghost town" in describing Sderot, but the city is far from that. It is a cautious city - since a rocket fell in the central commercial area last week no one spends more than the time absolutely necessary to shop. They do their business and go home. The children, who have grown accustomed in the recent months of the cease-fire to caper around the city’s public parks, have now been reduced to stare at television and computer screens or to pile into stairwells. In the seniors’ room at Kibbutz Nir Am in the Gaza envelope this weekend, members in their 80s and 90s drank tea and discussed current events.
Al-Kurd tent demolished for fourth time; Islamic Judicial Council condemns act
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Jerusalem – Ma’an – The Protest Tent of Umm Al-Kurd was demolished for a fourth time Sunday. The elderly woman was evicted from her home by an Israeli court order stating the building, constructed 50 years ago, did not have the proper permits. Umm Al-Kurd’s husband died the day after the family was evicted; she set up a protest tent on property near the site of her demolished home which has been destroyed four times since November. The Islamic Judicial Council condemned the action, which saw dozens of Israeli soldiers and police dismantle the Sheikh Jarrah tent. The condemnation came during a Sunday session of the council headed by Palestinian Judge Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi in Jerusalem. The council demanded all of the International human rights organizations intervene immediately to stop the Israeli attacks on both prisoners and the Al-Kurd family.
Police probe vandalism of Jaffa mosque
Haviv Rettig Gur And Brenda Gazzar, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
The Tel Aviv police opened an investigation Sunday into virulent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim slogans painted overnight on the front entrance of the Al-Bahar Mosque in the Jaffa port. The mosque’s doors were covered in red and black spray-painted slogans, including "Muhammad is a pig," "death to Arabs" and "a real Arab man is a dead Arab man. " Locals and Islamic Movement officials say the act was likely committed by extremist segments of the Jewish settler movement, a view apparently confirmed by one of the painted slogans: "No peace without the House of Peace," a reference to the disputed Hebron building evacuated of Jewish tenants earlier this month. Those who defaced the mosque’s front doors "are people who hate peace, extremists," believes local resident and mosque member Amgad Kassam. "I don’t want them to drag us into a situation like what happened in Acre," where local Jews and Arabs clashed in the streets in October.
'Muhammad is a pig,' 'Death to the Arabs' spray-painted on Jaffa Mosque
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli extremists on Saturday evening spray-painted slogans insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Arabs in general on the walls of the Sea Mosque in the city of Jaffa, on the Israeli Mediterranean coast. When Muslim worshippers arrived at the mosque for the dawn prayer, they found “Muhammad is a pig” and “Death to the Arabs,” said Muhammad Ashqar, a member of the Al-Aqsa Foundation, and organization dedicated to preserving Muslim heritage. The Head of the Islamic movement in Jaffa, Sheikh Ahmad Abu Ajwah and head of Al-Aqsa Foundation in Jaffa, Zaki Ighbariyya called the vandalism a “criminal act. ”“We don’t rule out that Israeli extremist settlers were involved in writing these slogans, especially that similar acts have taken place in the West Bank recently. We say that what happened today in the Sea Mosque was a natural outcome of the incitement campaign. . .
Israel initiates a media campaign to prepare for a Gaza offensive
Saed Bannoura & Agencies, International Middle East Media Center News 12/22/2008
The Israeli Foreign Ministry started an international media campaign in an attempt to garner support for a large-scale military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, instructed the Israeli embassies around the world to start diplomatic activities in order to gather support for an offensive in Gaza. The main Israeli focus right now is on countries that are members of the Security Council and a number of EU countries. Also, Livni instructed the Israeli delegates to the United Nations to file an official complaint to UN Security General, Ban Ki-moon. She said that the UN must understand that Israel will "not remain idle while Qassam shells are being fired at Israeli areas adjacent to the Gaza Strip". Livni added that "Israel will do whatever is can to protect its citizens", and that she will contact her counterparts around the globe, especially with American, French, German and British Foreign Ministers.
Ministers clash in cabinet as rockets rain down
Barak Ravid, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Yesterday’s cabinet meeting to discuss how Israel should respond to the ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip wound up focusing more on what ministers had been saying to the media. Defense Minister Ehud Barak lashed out at Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Vice Premier Haim Ramon, both of whom have argued in the media that Israel needs to respond to the rockets more forcefully. "Hold your tongues!" he snapped. "Such statements don’t bolster the citizenry’s stamina. We shouldn’t be vying over who wants to hurt Hamas more or who hates it more. I know it’s a political time but we shouldn’t engage in verbal assaults. ""This has nothing to do with the elections," Ramon retorted. "I’ve been talking for months about the need for a more aggressive stance against Hamas. I want to hold a discussion in the government or the [diplomatic-security] cabinet or any other forum - and once. . .
As rockets rain down, political leaders split on military response
Amos Harel Barak Ravid and, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Mazal Mualem The recent rain of rockets on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip has sparked a heated debate in Israel over how to respond - not only between the government and the opposition, but within the government itself. Palestinians fired 15 rockets and mortars at Israel from Gaza yesterday, with most landing in the western Negev. The rocket assaults have intensified since Hamas formally ended its cease-fire with Israel last Friday. Both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the former Kadima Party chairman, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who heads Labor, continued to urge restraint yesterday. But Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who replaced Olmert as Kadima’s head, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads Likud, argued that Israel must get rid of Gaza’s Hamas-run government. Livni, who supported the truce until recently, told a Kadima faction meeting yesterday. . .
Israel kicks off global PR campaign to recruit support for Gaza raids
Jack Khoury and Barak Ravid, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Israel is kicking off a public relations campaign with the intention of widening a basis for international support of a military offensive on the Gaza Strip. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has instructed Israeli representatives abroad to begin diplomatic efforts focused on members of the United Nations Security Council and Europeans states. The foreign minister told Israeli delegates to the UN to file an official complaint with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and the Security Council stating that Israel would not remain apathetic to the continued firing of rockets from Gaza, adding that it will do everything necessary to protect its citizens. Livni is also planning a series of telephone conferences with her counterparts across the world, including U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Ban, and the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Ben-Eliezer rejects claim Barak is soft on rocket fire
Mazal Mualem, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer is rallying to the side of Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the face of accusations the Labor leader is not doing enough to quell rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. "The matter of Gaza and security affairs in general must not be part of election spin," said the Labor Party’s Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister. "The ministers need to show responsibility and leave these issues out of the election campaign. Ben-Eliezer targeted one of his party leader’s main rivals, Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni. "The one who particularly surprises me is Tzipi Livni, who until two days ago everyone saw as the leader of the left, the one who’s going to resolve complicated political processes, and suddenly without warning she veered right and is now talking about destroying Hamas," said Ben-Eliezer.
Diskin: Hamas missiles can hit outskirts of Be’er Sheva
Barak Ravid, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin said yesterday that Hamas is capable of firing rockets that can strike as far from Gaza as the outskirts of Be’er Sheva and other targets in the Negev. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Diskin said Hamas had given free reign to the other factions and had also renewed firing. He said Hamas wanted to continue the cease-fire but wanted to improve its conditions. "It wants us to lift the economic siege and stop attacking, and expand the cease-fire to Judea and Samaria," Diskin told the ministers. The Shin Bet chief also said that Hamas’ military wing had used the six-month lull to improve its firing capabilities of mid- and long-range rockets and mortars. "They are ready for a confrontation. They can reach Kiryat Gat, Ashdod, and even the outskirts of Be’er Sheva," he said.
Hamas’ al-Zahar: No talks on renewal of ceasefire with Israel
Roee Nahmias, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Senior Islamist group figure tells Israeli-Arab radio station that Jerusalem ’failed to implement truce agreement, did not reopen Gaza crossings as it said it would, says Hamas undeterred by possible IDF operation: ’We’ve been hearing talk of an Israeli invasion for the past three years’ - Senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar said Sunday that the Islamist group was not conducting any negotiations with Egypt on the resumption of the six-month long ceasefire with Israel, which expired last week. "Israel did not implement the ceasefire agreement and did not reopen the Gaza crossings as it said it would," he told the Israeli-Arab radio station A-Shams. Al-Zahar said during the interview that Hamas was undeterred by the possibility of an Israeli operation in Gaza: "We’ve been hearing talk of a possible Israeli invasion for the past three years.
Despite snubbing Egyptian unity talks, Hamas waiting for Cairo call on issue of truce
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Bethlehem – Ma’an – European officials contacted Hamas offering to broker a renewal of the ceasefire with Israel, but informed sources say Gaza leadership is waiting for Egypt to step in and resume its role as mediator. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said European ministers offered their services to Hamas in order to prevent further escalation of violence in the Strip and promised to lean on Israel to lift the Gaza siege. Despite snubbing Egypt’s reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah, Gazan leadership indicated that it did not want to bypass Egypt in any renewal efforts. Palestinian Authority (PA) personnel said they contacted Hamas in Gaza as well as Egyptian mediators urging both sides to contact each other and renew discussions. Sources indicated that Hamas has not stipulated new conditions for a ceasefire, but wanted assurances that Israel would cease its attacks on the coastal region and open crossing points.
Hamas: We were never officially informed of Egypt-Israel contact over ceasefire renewal
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Gaza – Ma’an – Hamas was never officially informed of ongoing contacts between Israel and Egypt regarding the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza factions, but say they are prepared to discuss any possibilities. The six-month truce agreement expired on 19 December, though both the Israeli army and Palestinian factions have been involved in escalating violence since 4 November, when Israel invaded the area. All factions have declared the ceasefire terminated and no effort has been made to contact Egyptian mediators regarding a renegotiation. “We consider the ceasefire expired, and we have not renewed it,” Hamas spokesperson Ismail Radwan said Sunday, explain that the “occupation is to be held accountable for the failure of ceasefire because they failed to commit to its conditions. ”He added, “Hamas defends the Palestinian people and its behavior on the ground is according to the Palestinian people’s higher interests.
Egypt warns Israel against ’devastating’ assault on Gaza
Yaakov Katz And Brenda Gazzar, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Egypt warned Israel on Sunday against launching a massive military operation in Gaza, but Israeli defense officials said Cairo was angry with Hamas leaders for ending the six-month period of relative calm. "Egypt is very upset at Hamas, and understands that the leadership there needs to be replaced," one official told The Jerusalem Post. Officially, though, the Egyptians cautioned Israel against an escalation of violence. "We say such a move would have devastating consequences, devastating humanitarian consequences," Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told the Post in a telephone interview. "This is something we cannot accept or condone under any terms. " Meanwhile, Defense officials revealed that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak met privately on Thursday and decided that Israel would respond militarily to rocket attacks against the western Negev.
Bardawil: No contact with Hamas to extend calm
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman of Hamas’s parliamentary bloc, has emphatically denied presence of any Arab or regional contacts with Hamas Movement to extend the calm agreement with the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip. He said that rumors about Egyptian pressures on Hamas were mere "test balloons" to probe Hamas’s wish to renew the calm, adding that calm with the Israeli concept is "meaningless". The MP told ’Palestine’ newspaper in a statement published on Sunday that all Palestinian factions and forces should agree to that new calm if it ever materialized. He also noted that a complete halt to Israeli aggression and a complete lifting of the siege on Gaza and including the West Bank in the calm along with guarantees were pre-requisites for any such lull. Bardawil, responding to Russia’s call on Hamas to re-consider its position toward calm, said. . .
Top official: Decision on Gaza op made
Roni Sofer, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Secret meeting between Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Barak results in decision to have IDF stage scaled response to any terror attack from Strip. Tactical conditions, operational possibilities will dictate actions, says state official - The decision has been made: Right now Israel has to work towards getting international legitimization for an operation in Gaza, a senior source in Jerusalem told Ynet on Sunday. " (Israel’s) actions depend only on the tactical conditions and the operational possibilities," added the source. "Israel will react with all due force to any provocation by Hamas. "Following various security assessments by the defense establishment, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak met secretly last Thursday and decided that Israel would no longer practice a policy of restraint in view of terror attacks emanating from the Strip, opting instead for a scaled reaction.
PM: Responsible gov’t not eager to fight
Roni Sofer, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Cabinet discusses escalation in southern Israel amid plea from Gaza communities’ heads to take swift action. Olmert assure ministers government ’will know which move to make and when’ - The cabinet discussed the ongoing escalation in southern Israel on Sunday, following the lull’s official end, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to call on the ministers to "calm down and act responsibly. ""We cannot accept the situation manifesting in Gaza. I’ve instructed the IDF and the defense establishment to offer contingencies as to what can be done. We are guided by the need for a successful operation," he told his fellow ministers. "We feel the pain of Sderot’s residents, who are faced with daily trials, but all the harsh criticism is uncalled for and damages our deterrence. "Olmert told the ministers that "a responsible government is never eager to battle, but nor does it shy away from it.
Netanyahu: Likud will back Gaza op
Shmulik Hadad, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Opposition leader visits Sderot, blames situation in south on government’s lack of action, says Kadima responsible for residents’ suffering. His party, he pledges, will support decision to strike in Strip - Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and several other party members toured Sderot on Sunday. The Color Red alert sounded during the visit, while Netanyahu and his convoy were inside a building. "We visited a woman who miraculously survived a Qassam hitting her house, but the residents of Sderot cannot continue to rely on miracles," he said. The area’s residents, he added, were "paying a hefty price for the mistakes made by (Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi) Livni and her ministers. They shrug it off but they are responsible for the unilateral withdrawal that resulted in the increasing terror form Gaza. For three years, Kadima’s ministers have been burying their heads in the sand. "
Bibi: Israelis can’t count on miracles
Abe Selig, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
As Hamas rockets continued to pound the South on Sunday, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu inspected a Sderot home damaged only hours earlier and decried what he called the "politics of pacifism" of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "Likud would support decision to strike Hamas," Netanyahu says during visit to Sderot- "We’re paying for the mistakes of Olmert and Livni," Netanyahu said after surveying the home, which bore the burn marks of a crude rocket on an upstairs balcony. "They shrug it off, but they’re ultimately responsible for the unilateral withdrawal that resulted in the creation of a terrorist state in Gaza," he said. "For three years, the ministers of Kadima have been burying their heads in the sand," the Likud leader continued. "And that needs to change. In the long term, we have no choice but to topple the Hamas rule in Gaza.
Israeli election campaign begins with bellicose rhetoric on Gaza
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Fear is mounting that Israel will soon launch a major military operation in the Gaza Strip after a six-month old truce expired on Friday. On Sunday, the two frontrunners in the Israeli general election are promising to end Hamas’ control of the tiny coastal enclave. There are currently no talks taking place towards reviving the Egyptian-brokered agreement, which brought almost five months of relative calm in Gaza and its surroundings. The ceasefire disintegrated when Israel launched a preemptive attack in Gaza on 4 November and tightened its blockade of the territory. Since the formal end-date of the truce on Friday, Israeli leaders and the Hamas rulers of Gaza have ratcheted up their rhetoric and their actions. By one Israeli press count, Palestinian groups fired 14 more homemade projectiles into Israeli areas. . .
Mofaz calls for overthrowing Hamas
Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz on Sunday called upon the government to toughen up its response to repeated rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and overthrow the territory’s Hamas rulers. Shin Bet head says Hamas prepared to resume conflict and has improved rocket arsenal - "There is no reason why we should allow a terror organization situated only several kilometers from here to plant fear and terrorize Israeli children," Mofaz said at a meeting of the Ashkelon Municipality. "We must take steps so that deterrence is returned, and in the long-run we must overthrow the Hamas regime. Earlier, Foreign Minister and Kadima leader Tzipi Livni vowed to end Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip if elected prime minister in the upcoming general elections. "The people of Israel are threatened, missiles are falling," she said.
Israel launches PR blitz ahead of Gaza operation
Roni Sofer, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Foreign Ministry agrees on international diplomacy campaign intended to secure political backing for anticipated military action against Gaza rocket terror. Livni to meet with fellow foreign ministers from all over the world, bring ambassadors to Qassam-battered communities - Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni and Israel’s ambassadors around the world are preparing to launch a global effort in a bid to secure backing for the anticipated operation in the Gaza Strip. The campaign is intended to create an ’international umbrella’ of support for the intensification of military action against Hamas, and possibly prevent the passing of UN Security Council resolutions against Israel. The move was decided upon in a special meeting held Sunday evening by Livni with all the ministry brass in attendance.
Hamas: Israel can invade, by all means
Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Despite increasing calls among Israeli ministers of a need to launch a military operation to tackle the escalating threat of rocket attacks on the southern border, Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip seemed unperturbed, with one senior member even daring Israel to take the action. "For three years we’ve been hearing comments about an Israeli invasion into the Gaza Strip. Israel is like a teenager who begins to smoke, chokes, then stops," Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said during an interview with a Nazareth radio station. "If they want to [invade] - by all means," "Even in the days of the ceasefire, Israel didn’t allow vital supplies into the Gaza Strip, and this is a callous violation," he continued. "Israel promised to open the crossing but that never happened on the ground. . . "
Activists call on gov’t to boost Arabic culture
Brenda Gazzar, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Jewish and Arab activists promoting equality in Israel have called for a government association to preserve neglected Muslim holy sites and the establishment of an official day to honor the Arabic language and culture in Israel. The calls were among those made during last week’s 4th annual Jaffa "Call to Action" Convention initiated and organized by the Jerusalem-based Citizens’ Accord Forum between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Changes are urgently needed to bridge gaps and create true equality and coexistence in Israel, panelists said. "What we need first and foremost is mutual respect, respect of the rights of the Arab Palestinian population that lives in its homeland, which doesn’t have a lot. . . but it’s important to know also, that it doesn’t have anywhere to go," MK Hanna Swaid (Hadash), co-chair of the Knesset Committee on Jewish-Arab Relations, told participants.
PA to distribute aid to poor after Italian donation
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Ramallah – Ma’an – Social allowances will be disbursed by the Palestinian Authority beginning on Monday after a donation from the Italian government, the Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs, Mahmoud Habash, announced on Sunday. Social allowances will not reach the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli blockade. Israel refuses to allow banks to transfer funds to their branches in Gaza. Habash said the Palestinian Authority is working with the European Union to overcome this problem. Italy made the donation through PEGASE, the European mechanism that channels aid to the Palestinian Authority. Habash called on the international community to pressure Israel to allow aid into Gaza, saying that 24,000 would be denied benefits by the blockade. The Italian contribution was intended for47,000 needy families, who will received 1000 Israeli shekels each.
Palestinians unhappy with Abbas’s frequent absences
Associated Press, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
In four years as Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas has traveled to the far corners of the earth, but never set foot in the West Bank’s largest city, Hebron. Ordinary Palestinians have long grumbled about their leader’s trips abroad, some taken during times of intense crisis, such as last year’s fierce internal fighting that led to the takeover of Gaza by Hamas. Abbas aides say he’s helping the Palestinian cause by rallying international support. They say the day-to-day government is the prime minister’s job and Abbas, who was in Chechnya on Sunday, is continuing a pattern set by his predecessor, frequent flyer Yasser Arafat. "The world is still supporting us. . . simply because of our efforts, the efforts of President Abbas and before that the late president, Yasser Arafat," said Abbas aide Nimer Hamad.
Abbas: Hamas’ abuse of religion for political end is unacceptable
DPA, Ha’aretz 12/21/2008
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Russia, strongly criticized the radical Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday, saying the organization’s "abuse of religion for political ends" was unacceptable, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported. Speaking in Grozny, the capital city of the Chechen Republic in Russia, Abbas said that extremists were to blame for Islam receiving so little respect in the world at present. In reality, terrorists have no relationship with religion, he declared. Abbas is the head of the moderate Fatah Party, Hamas’ rival. He also spoke of trying to unite Palestinians by trying to enter into dialogue with Hamas. This, he said, was difficult to achieve. In talks with the Kremlin leadership in Grozny, he predicted "a bright future" for Chechnya.
Hebron police crack down on water theft
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Hebron – Ma’an – Palestinian police in the West Bank city of Hebron continued a crackdown on Sunday on the alleged theft of water from municipal networks. According to Hebron police, 173 illegal water extensions have been disconnected in towns of Sa’ir, Ash-Shuyukh and Halhul. According to local water authorities, this campaign will increase water pressure in the main pipes, allowing scarce water resources to reach all areas. [end]
Haneyya briefs King of Bahrain, Emir of Qatar on Gaza conditions
Palestinian Information Center 12/21/2008
GAZA, (PIC)-- Ismail Haneyya, the premier of the PA caretaker government, has telephoned each of the Bahraini King and the Qatari Emir last night and Sunday morning respectively to brief them on Palestinian developments. Taher Al-Nunu, spokesman for the government, said that Haneyya last night reached King Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa and congratulated him on the occasion of his country’s national day. Nunu said that Haneyya briefed the monarch on latest Palestinian developments in the light of the Israeli escalation of aggression and tightening siege on Gaza Strip that is witnessing human tragedies. The spokesman said that the premier on Sunday contacted the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and also congratulated him on his country’s national day. Haneyya briefed Sheikh Hamad on latest political developments in the Palestinian arena and expressed appreciation. . .
Palestinian representative to the Arab League: Israel responsible for collapse of Gaza truce
Ma’an News Agency 12/21/2008
Cairo – Ma’an – Israel bears full responsibility for the collapse of a six-month old truce in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian representative to the Arab League, Mohammad Subeih alleged on Sunday. Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Subeih said that efforts to resume talks regarding the Egyptian-brokered truce were aborted by Israel. The six-month-old truce formally expired on Friday after being eroded by months of cross border violence that began with a deadly Israeli incursion on 4 November. Subeih said Israel contributed to the collapse of the truce in Gaza by continuing military action in the West Bank, which was not included in the ceasefire. He said 22 Palestinans were killed and over a hundred injured in the West Bank over the course of six months of truce. “What is needed right now is to return to the national dialogue.
The 2009 Factsheets are now online
Palestine Monitor, Palestine Monitor 12/21/2008
The Palestine Monitor is proud to release the most up-to-date and comprehensive snapshot of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to date. To access the factsheets, go to the homepage and click on the appropriate link on the left hand side. Once inside of a link, you are provided with all of the information you will need to make your research or advocacy faster, easier, more accurate and more effective. Illustrated pdfs of each topic are also available within the links which can be downloaded, printed and shared. The hardcopy of the Factbook, including introductions, conclusions and a wealth of illustration and information, can be found at theoffice, Ramallah on Rukab Street (Open Mon-Thurs, Sat - 9-5). To pick up a copy, please contact the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HDIP) at 02-2985372. -- See also: Facts @ a glance and Palestine Monitor
Lieberman’s long and winding road to the political center
Lily Galili, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman MK Avigor Lieberman says an election campaign is like a marathon - you have to divide up your strength the right way. According to Lieberman, his adversary, Likud chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu, has burst to the finish much too early. By the tone of Lieberman’s voice it seems he doesn’t think this is good advice, although he does not seem sorry Netanyahu is taking it. Yisrael Beiteinu is pacing itself in the election, its messages spread modularly over precisely nine weeks. Its target audience has changed greatly since the 2006 elections. Then, the party hoped its voters would be two-thirds Russian-speakers and one-third native-born Israelis; now, the declared goal is half and half. In order to become the ruling party, the party has to extricate itself from its immigrant image while not losing its power base as "the only Russian party.
PM opts for hearing in bid to stave off indictment on Rishon Tours case
Tomer Zarchin, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to exercise his right to a hearing with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on the charges that may be drawn up against him, but doesn’t want the hearing held before May, his attorneys informed Mazuz Sunday. Mazuz announced last month that he has tentatively decided to indict Olmert in the so-called Rishon Tours case, in which the premier is suspected of double-billing various nonprofit and state agencies for the same flights abroad on public business, and then using the extra money to finance flights and seat upgrades for himself and his family. Rishon Tours is the agency through which the flights were booked. A hearing is a last chance to convince the attorney general that an indictment is unjustified. Olmert’s attorneys said the hearing should be delayed until May because it will take them. . .
Russian-speakers’ lifestyle guru may be just the ticket for Yisrael Beiteinu
Shahar Ilan, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
If the committee in Yisrael Beiteinu in charge of arranging the names on its Knesset list puts Anastasia Michaeli in a place likely to get into the Knesset, the star of the Russian-Israeli TV channel is will be setting a precedent on two fronts: She will be the first woman MK to give birth in office, and will be the first convert in the Knesset. Michaeli, 33, was born in St. Petersburg, and has an M. A. in broadcast communication from the local university. She is also a former beauty queen of her city. She followed her husband, businessman Yossi Michaeli, to Israel, where she pursued the modeling career she began in Paris, and since 2003 has been the anchor on the show "The Pleasures of Life" on Russian-language Channel 9. The program has been criticized for flaunting a lifestyle that most of its new-immigrant viewers cannot afford.
Ethiopians protest nixing of candidate from Likud roster
Amnon Meranda, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Dozens of community members rally outside Likud’s Tel Aviv headquarters in protest of party’s decision to disqualify Ethiopian candidate chosen for one of immigrant slots on its Knesset list -Several dozen Ethiopian protesters rallies outside the Likud party’s Tel Aviv headquarters on Sunday, in protest of the party Election Committee’s decision to disqualify the Ethiopian candidate’s win of one of the slots reserved for immigrants on its Knesset roster. The party has secured the 21st and 28th slots on it roster for representatives of the Russian and Ethiopian immigrant communities. The petition against Alali Adamso’s election, filed by two candidates who lost to him in the partyprimaries held earlier in December, said that since the Likud Codex states that only those who came to Israel after 1985 can bid for the slots, and Adamso came to Israel in 1983, he was ineligible to bid in the first place.
VIDEO - Livni, on her home life: We’re a completely normal family
Haaretz Staff and Channel 10, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Haaretz. com/Channel 10 daily feature for December 21, 2008. Kadima party Chairwoman Tzipi Livni and her husband Naftali Spitzer recently gave an interview in which they spoke of the relations between the prime ministerial hopeful’s political career and her family life. Speaking at home to Channel 10’s Oshrat Kotler, Spitzer was called on to describe Livni, who is also foreign minister, as a wife and mother. Spitzer took issue with the portrayal of Livni in the media as being somewhat cold and distant. [end]
Tekuma rabbis consider how best to partner Uri Ariel
Nadav Shragai, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
The rabbis of the Tekuma party have yet to decide whether MK Uri Ariel of the newly formed Habayit Hayehudi party will join forces with MK Aryeh Eldad’s Hatikva party in a new, more hawkish partisan alignment. The new Eretz Israel Shelanu party of Baruch Marzel and Rabbi Dov Wolpe is also expected to participate in the possible merger. Ariel is the only candidate in Habayit Hayehudi’s top six slots representing Tekuma, which takes a hard line against territorial concessions. The rabbis affiliated with Tekuma fear that in the event of territorial grants of the Golan Heights to Syria or parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians, the Habayit Heyehudi Knesset faction will not quit the government as they would like. Yesterday representatives of the rabbis spoke with Maj. Gen. (Res. ) Yaakov Amidror, head of the party council that drew up the Knesset list, but the talks reportedly failed to bear fruit.
Cash crunch hits FSU Jewish learning programs
Haviv Rettig Gur, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Jewish education programs in the former Soviet Union are in danger of collapse as Israel government funding dries up and the global economic crisis threatens its main donors. The most at-risk institution is the Heftsiba project, an Israeli government-funded program in 45 schools that provides funds, curricula and teachers from Israel for Jewish and Zionist education. Some 10,000 children in Russia and Ukraine participate in the program, but senior officials in the Education Ministry cannot say how long that will continue. About two-thirds of Heftsiba’s state funding has been cut in the past few years as the Education Ministry has seen its overall budget reduced and transferred much of the responsibility for the program’s funding and operation to the Jewish Agency. With the agency facing a 10 percent budget cut itself for the coming year, or some $45 million, it is unclear. . .
Members of exclusive N.Y. synagogue lose collective $2 billion in Madoff scam
Shlomo Shamir, Ha’aretz 12/21/2008
Hanukkah, which began Sunday, will not bring light and joy to the famous Modern Orthodox synagogue, situated in an upscale Manhattan neighborhood, known to many within the Jewish community as the "Fifth Avenue Synagogue. " The revelation that has dampened the joy of the holiday for the Fifth Avenue worshippers is the discovery that the Madoff scam - the $50 billion "Ponzi scheme" that may rank among the biggest fraud cases ever - cost the members of the synagogue a collective $2 billion, the New York Post reported Sunday. The fraud has crippled the synagogue, which boasts some of New York’s elite as members. Bernard Madoff, who has been arrested on suspicion of having incurred the loss of $50 billion to charities, financial institutions and private investors, is not a member of the synagogue and did not attend it.
Key Obama backer, confidante Alan Solow tipped to head U.S. Jewry’s top body
Bradley Burston, Ha’aretz 12/21/2008
Chicago attorney, philanthropist and Jewish community leader Alan Solow, a key supporter and confidante of Barack Obama, has been nominated to chair the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, U. S. Jewry’s most prominent voice in foreign and domestic policy issues. The choice of Solow follows a period of political tension surrounding the 2008 campaign, in which Obama backers chafed at reported statements and decisions of the formally non-partisan Presidents Conference, and in particular, of its influential longtime executive vice-chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein. "After considerable deliberation and consultation, the Committee unanimously decided to submit its recommendation of Alan Solow to be the chairman of the Conference of Presidents for a term ending May 31, 2010," said nominating committee head James Tisch, a former chair of the umbrella group.
Envoy: Russian missiles not being sent to Iran
Barak Ravid, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Russia reassured Israel yesterday that it stands by its commitment not to supply Iran with advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles - despite an Iranian lawmaker’s statement yesterday that the system "is being delivered to Iran. ""You will be the first to know about any progress or change in the matter of the missiles," Pyotr Stegny, the Russian ambassador to Israel, told top Israeli officials. Stegny said Russia was not planning to advance the missile deal and had not yet begun to deliver the missiles. "We are adhering to the agreements we reached during Prime Minister Olmert’s visit to Moscow. " Russia made its initial commitment regarding this matter to Israel during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s October visit. But Russia’s RIA news agency last week quoted "confidential sources" as saying that Russia was fulfilling terms of an S-300 contract with Iran, and the official news agency. . .
Iranian official: Russia started missile delivery
Reuters, YNetNews 12/21/2008
MP Email Kosari says Moscow has begun delivering air defense systems that could help repel any Israeli, US air strikes -Russia has begun delivering S-300 air defense systems to Iran which could help repel any Israeli and US air strikes on its nuclear sites, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. "After few years of talks with Russia. . . now the S-300 system is being delivered to Iran," IRNA quoted Email Kosari, deputy head of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and National Security committee, as saying. Kosari did not say when the deliveries began. Iran’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the report. Last week Amos Gilad, head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Security-Diplomatic Bureau, landed in Moscow to convey Israel’s opposition to the deal. While in Russia, Gilad was also expected to address the possible sale. . .
’Russia not delivering S-300 to Iran’
Herb Keinon And Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Israeli officials categorically denied on Sunday Iranian press reports that Russia will soon begin delivery of a state-of-the-art anti-missile system that could make it considerably harder to attack the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel had been assured by senior Russian officials that these reports were "baseless," and that the Kremlin stood by the agreement, reached with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during his visit there in October, not to sell weapons in the region that would "tip the strategic balance. " On Sunday, the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Esmaeil Kosari, deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy, as saying that Teheran would take delivery of the S-300 air defense system from Russia "soon.
’Chavez helping Iran smuggle equipment to Syria’
AFP, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Italian newspaper La Stampa reports Tehran using warm ties to Venezuela leadership to duck UN sanctions, transport missile parts to Syria - Iran is using its warm relations with Venezuela to dodge UN sanctions and use Venezuelan aircraft to ship missile parts to Syria, an Italian newspaper reported Sunday. Citing US and other Western intelligence agencies, La Stampa said Iran is using aircraft from Venezuelan airline Conviasa to transport computers and engine components to Syria for use in missiles. The material comes from Iranian industrial group Shahid Bagheri, listed inthe annex of UN Security Council Resolution 1737, adopted in December 2006, for involvement in Iran’s ballistic missile program. The resolution instructed all nations to "prevent the supply, sale or transfer" of all material or technology that could be used for Iran’s nuclear. . . "
Damascus: Talks with Israel only after U.S., Israeli elections
Yoav Stern, Ha’aretz 12/22/2008
Damascus has proposed that Turkish-mediated talks with Israel resume "officially’ perhaps even directly after Barack Obama assumes the U. S. presidency and a new government is elected in Israel, according to a reporter from the Qatari paper Al-Watan, in Damascus. Arab sources told the paper that until that time, Syria is not interested in continuing talks with Israel. The Arab sources said Syria preferred to wait and see what Israel’s new government’s policies would be as far as the peace process is concerned. The sources noted that there was concern that the Israeli right would come to power and would not seek to continue negotiations. The sources added that Damascus wants the document that Syria presented to Israel via Turkish mediators - which discusses the future border between the two countries - to constitute the legal basis for discussions between the two countries, assuming Israel agrees to the document.
Report: Syria won’t renew talks until elections
Roee Nahmias, YNetNews 12/21/2008
Arab sources tell Qatari daily ’Al-Watan’ that Damascus intends to resume negotiations with Jerusalem only after Obama inauguration, completion of Israeli elections - Damascus has has recently rejected proposals to resume the indirect Turkish-mediated negotiations with Israel at the present time, Qatari daily ’Al-Watan’ reported on Sunday. The report comes just a day before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert leaves for Turkey to meet with counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has acted as the go-between in the talks. According to the report, Syria is adamant that the official negotiations only resume after US President-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20th and Israel holds its general elections, which are scheduled to take place three weeks later. Olmert, however, has made it clear he is keen to see the talks move to a direct track while he is still premier.
Report: Assad won’t talk to Olmert gov’t
Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
Syria has reportedly postponed a proposal to renew Turkey-brokered indirect talks with Israel. According to a report in the Qatari daily al-Watan, cited by Israel Radio, Arab sources in Syria were quoted as saying that Damascus prefers to wait until after US President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration to the White House, and the establishment of a new Israeli government. The sources added that Syria does not wish to carry out negotiations with outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government in its final days. The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report. [end]
IAEA chief warns Syria to cooperate
Associated Press, Jerusalem Post 12/21/2008
The head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency warned Syria in comments published Sunday of negative consequences if it does not cooperate with the agency’s investigation of its nuclear activities. The London-based Al Hayat newspaper quoted International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei as saying in an interview that it is in Syria’s interest to cooperate. Otherwise, Syria will face a deeper confrontation with the international community, ElBaradei said, according to the paper. The pan-Arab newspaper quoted him as saying that his agency still expects clarifications from Syria and Israel on issues related to a Syrian site bombed by Israel last year that allegedly had features re Sphere: Related Content
Gaza, You Are Not Alone!
The Newsletter of the Free Gaza Movement 3/2008, Dec. 22
"The siege of the Gaza strip has been in place for nearly two years. A total of seven crossing points linking Gaza with the outside world have been closed. Raw materials, food stuffs, spare parts, medical machines and tens of commodities were barred from Gaza. Construction projects, housing and infrastructure rehabilitation were halted, leaving Gaza in dire straits of poverty and chaos." This is what Sameh Habeeb, a photojournalist from Gaza, reports. The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza in August 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the port in 41 years. Since August, three more voyages were successful, taking Parliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries to witness the effects of Israel's draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza. On 20 December voyage # 5 reached Gaza, this time with a delegation from Qatar, see a two-minute video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?
The Free Gaza Movement boat, the Dignity, sent another ton of medicine, baby formula and gifts to Gaza on December 19. It arrived at Gaza Port at 8:00 am the following day after the Israeli Navy threatened to board it and take the two Israelis off the boat. "We know you have Israelis on board, so either turn back, or we will board and take them off," said the voice on the radio. "We are going to Gaza," Huwaida Arraf, the delegation leader, replied. This time, the donations come from the people of Qatar, and two envoys from that nation accompany the supplies. The envoys from Qatar will assess hospitals, schools and civilian centers and will return with recommendations on how to help the beleaguered Palestinians rebuild the infrastructure that Israel has destroyed. One of the much-needed projects is fixing the sanitation system, which Gazans have been unable to do since Israel refuses the entry of vital supplies such as lumber, steel and cement. The only way these supplies will be able to come to Gaza will be via the sea in large ships. "This is just the beginning. After we assess the situation there, we will go back and let the people of Qatar know how we can help. We are delighted that we are finally able to go and see how we can work together to help relieve this terrible situation in Gaza," said Aiz Al-Qahtani, one of the envoys from Qatar. The Dignity also returned two Palestinians who want to go home to their families, as well as Arabs from other countries who have never been able to visit Palestine as a result of Israel's occupation. In addition to these and the human rights workers, there are two Israelis on board, including a journalist from Israel's Channel 10 TV. Traveling back from Gaza to Cyprus on Tuesday are four Palestinians who have been denied their right to leave, even though they have citizenship from other countries. They hope to rejoin family members they have not seen for years. See press release at http://www.freegaza.org/index.
We Do Not Ask Permission from Israel
The Free Gaza Movement would like to correct a few the statements made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a December 11 interview with Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper in which Abbas suggested that our efforts are coordinated with the Israelis and a "silly game" and that we are not really breaking the siege. We do not coordinate any of our actions with the Israelis. Israel has grossly abused its authority as an occupying power by collectively punishing the people of Gaza and denying them basic human rights. So, why do we get in, while other efforts are stopped by the Israeli authorities? Because we remove the "security" pretext. Amongst other things, we publicize our passenger list; we depart from a neutral European country; and we submit to a search by the Cypriot Port Authorities to verify that we are not carrying anything that can be considered a threat to Israel's security. We sail from Cyprus waters, into international waters, directly into Gaza's territorial waters, without entering Israeli waters. Israel realizes that it cannot stop us without using force against us, because we will not be turned around easily. President Abbas' statement that we coordinate with the Israelis was misinformed. However, Abbas was correct when he said that we are not really breaking the siege on Gaza. The Free Gaza Movement will continue to send boats to Gaza to challenge Israel's imprisonment of 1.5 million Palestinians, and we will continue to work for freedom and justice for all of the Palestinian people. We do not need Israel's permission and we will never ask for it. We do need President Abbas, the Arab world, and the entire international community to join us. The whole press release is here http://www.freegaza.org/index.
Why are Europeans Silent?
By Mazin Qumsiyeh, http://qumsiyeh.org. In Cyprus at our conference "Mediterranean Innovation and Research Coordination Action" and in the streets we talked to many Europeans. I asked why are Europeans silent about the slow genocide in Gaza. And if they do not care about the 1.5 million people of Gaza, are they not concerned about their own environment? The sewage of 1.5 million people is being dumped into the Mediterranean because of the Israeli blockade/siege of Gaza that cuts of electricity to the pumps, and prevents importation of needed supplies. That untreated sewage of 1.5 million people - many sick and malnourished - is pushed by the currents of the Suez and the Nile Delta north to coast of Europe (in addition to Tel Aviv!). Why are they silent? On the positive side, all are mobilized when informed so it tells us that we need to do a better job of informing/educating. And indeed Europeans are mobilizing and Cyprus is a center of that activity. In Cyprus, I was privileged to meet with two individuals involved in the Free Gaza movement which now regularly takes boats challenging the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Activists also joined ships doing fishing off the coast of Gaza. Israel confiscated three of the five Gaza fishing trollies thus cutting the 1.5 ton of fish caught to 0.5 ton! The inspiring struggle continues. Recently, thanks to activist letters, the European Parliament postponed a vote on upgrade of Israel relationship with the EU. But the foreign ministers of Europe, more beholden to imperial and special interests, just voted to go ahead and upgrade ties anyway. We must not let them get away with supporting apartheid. Write to them if you are a European.
Activities of the ISM in Gaza
By Fida Qishta, ISM Gaza Strip Co-ordinator. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM, http://www.palsolidarity.org) is a Palestinian human rights organization with its main office in the West Bank. A major focus of ISM Gaza Strip's work over the last three or four months has been the fishing accompaniment actions which were a continuation of an action undertaken by the Free Gaza Movement during its first trip to Gaza. Members of subsequent Free Gaza delegations participated in ISM fishing actions. We also helped initiate a broader campaign of support for Palestinian fishermen. Our support for Gazan farmers during this year's olive harvest was at the invitation of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative. This facet of ISM Gaza Strip's work constituted part of ISM Palestine's 2008 Olive Harvest Campaign. We took part in a farmer's demonstration in the "Buffer Zone" organized by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and attended a conference of Gazan farming associations, where one of the international volunteers spoke about the history of ISM, its aims, principles and current work. ISM Gaza Strip has participated in events organized by the Popular Campaign Against the Siege (PCAS), such as a candlelit demonstration and a protest against the siege at the Erez Crossing. We took part in a demonstration organized by Gazan fishing associations and PNGO, against Israeli restrictions on the Gazan fishing zone and Israeli naval attacks on Gazan fishermen. We also joined a demonstration at the Erez crossing organized by the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, to protest the tightening of the siege, as well as the abduction of Palestinian fishermen and international human rights observers.
Stories from Gazans
"Stories from Gazans" is a section of the Free Gaza website where we collect some individual accounts of people who live in the Gaza Strip. They are mostly in English and also not many yet. We want to show with these stories that there are human beings living there, people who have a right to live and to be happy. Almost half of the population is younger than 18. See the "Stories from Gazans" page at http://www.freegaza.org/index.
Quote of the Week
"Israel is acting as if it has something to hide, as I suspect it does. I condemn human rights abuses regardless of who commits them or what their history may be. I urge Israel both to respect human rights and to allow international observers to verify that they are doing so." - Dr Bill Wilson, SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, http://www.billwilsonmsp.org. Text of Motion S3M-03116 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (Scottish National Party): Israel's Detention of UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights - "That the Parliament notes reports of the detention of Professor Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, thereby denying him access to the Palestinian territories and Israel; further notes that reportedly this is partly in response to his claim that Israel's blockade of the Palestinian coastal territory of Gaza was a "Holocaust in the making", that Israel has previously denied access to Archbishop Desmond Tutu while he was on a UN fact-finding mission in Gaza and that it has deported human rights observers accompanying Gazan fishermen, and considers that if Israel were not guilty of human rights abuses in Palestine then it would welcome human rights observers and that denying them access only lends credence to warnings about the direction of its policies."
The Newsletter of the Free Gaza Movement and the website http://www.freegaza.org present news and background info on the nonviolent Free Gaza Movement and their action to break the siege of Gaza and Palestine. This issue was edited by Anis Hamadeh in Mainz, anis at anis-online.de. - German translation at http://www.anis-online.de/2/
For general Palestine daily news visit http://www.theheadlines.org
Sunday, December 21
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines December 21, 2008 ~
(20 Dec) During six months of declared truce, Israel carried out 193 violations until December 18, 2008. Most of the violations were carried out in recent weeks. The Israeli army killed 22 Palestinians, mainly fighters. 62 Palestinians, including nine fishermen, were wounded in recent Israeli attacks, and the army resumed the shelling of civilian areas and infrastructure. The army also kidnapped 38 Palestinians, all fishermen and farmers. Although the truce deal required Israel to open up border terminals, the Israeli Army kept the borders closed, and only opened them intermittently, and, for the most part, barred the entry of basic supplies to the Gaza Strip. Basic goods, gas, and various essential fuels remained in short supply. Several patients died due to the ongoing Israeli siege, increasing the number of patients that have died as a result of the siege to 271....
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Legal report: IOF killed 50 Palestinians during calm
(21 Dec) GAZA, (PIC)--The Israeli occupation forces have repeatedly violated the calm agreement forged with Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip since 19th June 2008 killing 50 Palestinians in the process, a legal report said on Sunday. The international Tadamun (solidarity) institute for human rights said in its report that the lull was brittle ever since it went into effect. It noted that the IOF soldiers violated the calm many times through different methods such as incursion, assassination, detention, demolition of homes, closure of Palestinian societies, escalation of settlement activity and the siege. The report underlined that the IOF troops killed 50 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip including 25 in the latter including 21 in shelling operations.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Woman injured by shrapnel from Israeli shell in northern Gaza
(21 Dec) Gaza – Ma'an-A Palestinian woman was moderately injured by shrapnel from an Israeli artillery shell in the town of Beit Hanoun, in the northern the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening. Witnesses said Israeli artillery shelled a house in the eastern section of Beit Hanoun, near the border with Israel. Separately, a group of Palestinian fighters say they were unharmed after an unmanned Israeli drone aircraft fired a rocket at them near the Industrial Zone, east of the Ash-Shuja'iyyah neighborhood of Gaza city.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Exchange of fire starts early; Gaza parents advised to keep children indoors
(21 Dec) Thirteen homemade projectiles and several mortar shells were fired by Palestinian armed factions on Sunday, two days after a six-month old truce between Israel and Palestinian factions expired. After an initial salvo of projectiles, an Israeli aerial drone fired two missiles at a projectile launch site near Qlebo Dome in the northern Gaza Strip. Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry Muawiya Hassanain told Gazans to exercise extreme caution and prevent children from playing in open fields. He also recommended keeping streets clear so ambulances can move quickly in case of emergency.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Palestinians fire 14 Qassams into Israel, injuring one person
(21 Dec) Palestinian militants on Sunday morning fired 14 Qassam rockets and three mortar rounds into Israel, lightly injuring one person and damaging a private home. Rescue services said one rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the town of Sderot, causing damage to the building. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad took responsibility for Sunday's rocket fire.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Al-Aqsa Brigades fire projectiles from Gaza in response to killing of fighter
(21 Dec) The Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, claimed responsibility on Sunday for firing five homemade projectiles from Gaza at the Israeli towns of Ashkelon, Sderot and Sa'd Kibutz. The group said in a statement that two projectiles were launched at Sderot, two at Askelon and one landed in the main square at Israeli Kibutz of Sa'd. In a statement the organization said the homemade rockets were "natural retaliation" for Israel's killing on Saturday of Ali Hijazi, a local leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in northern Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
'Israel has given up its sovereignty over territory near Gaza'
(21 Dec) Residents of a Gaza-area community on Saturday accused the government of having abandoned them in the face of ongoing cross-border attacks by Palestinian militants. Earlier Saturday, Vice Premier Haim Ramon blasted Defense Minister Ehud Barak's policy on the Gaza Strip as a "total failure" as Palestinian militants in the coastal territory pounded southern Israel with a barrageof rocket and mortar fire. In light of the upsurge in cross-border attacks from Gaza, Kibbutz Movement Secretary-General Ze'ev Shor called on Barak and Olmert to declare the reinforcement of homes in Gaza-area Israeli communities as a national priority.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel set to carry out targeted assassinations against Gaza faction leaders
(21 Dec) Israeli security sources indicated a confrontation with Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip is imminent and that there is little chance of a détente after days of fire from both sides. According to Radio Israel the army will carry out ground and air attacks on the Gaza Strip Sunday, they will aim weapons at military and factional leaders carrying through with earlier threats of targeted assassinations. The siege will continue. In the past targeted assassinations have resulted in tens of civilian deaths, since the civilian centers in the Gaza Strip are densely populated and high-ranking officials are not likely to be in the field launching projectiles. The Israeli sources explained that the military would "not necessarily" be conducting widespread ground invasions, indicating targeted air attacks.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli minister advises Hamas leaders to remain indoors during daylight hours
(21 Dec) Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Zahhar should avoid moving freely during the day, Israeli Minister of Transportation Shaul Mofaz told Israeli Army Radio Sunday afternoon. Mofaz's comments seem to affirm the new Israeli position on military retaliations for Palestinian projectile launches from the Gaza Strip..."There is only one way to respond to the escalation by Hams," Mofaz added. He also expressed incredulity over the fact that it is a "terrorist" organization that is determining the fate of the ceasefire.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Top official: Decision on Gaza op made
(21 Dec) The decision has been made: Right now Israel has to work towards getting international legitimization for an operation in Gaza, a senior source in Jerusalem told Ynet on Sunday. "(Israel's) actions depend only on the tactical conditions and the operational possibilities," added the source. "Israel will react with all due force to any provocation by Hamas."... IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenaziwas reportedly instructed to order the Israel Defense Forces to begin targeting quality Islamic Jihadmarks. The Islamic Jihad had claimed responsibility for the recent rocket salvos in the western Negev.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
It's Hamas who decides
(21 Dec) By Zvi Bar'el. What suspense, what panic ensued at the end of the week. Will Hamas extend the cease-fire or won't it?How exactly should Khaled Meshal's "no" be interpreted, along with Mahmoud Zahar's "maybe" and Ismail Haniyeh's vague mutterings?In the communities of the western Negev, quotes from Al Jazeera have become more important than what Tzipi Livni or Ehud Barak have to say. It is not the state that will determine what happens, it is the organization. And the organization decided-no more cease-fire.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Egypt holds extensive contacts to renew Palestinian-Israel lull
RAMALLAH, Dec. 20 (Xinhua)--The Egyptian leadership is holding intensive contacts to renew a lull that ended on Friday between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, a senior Fatah movement's official said Saturday. Azzam el-Ahmed, head of the Fatah movement's block in the Palestinian parliament, known as the PLC, said there are intensive contacts held by Egypt with all parties concerned to renew the ceasefire agreement. "I expect that the truce with Israel will be renewed within the coming a few days," said el-Ahmed, one day after Gaza militant groups held Israel responsible for ending the truce. Meanwhile, earlier on Saturday, Hamas leader in Gaza Atef Odwansaid in a statement that there is a possibility to renew the truce in the Gaza Strip with Israel.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Despite snubbing unity talks, Hamas waiting for Cairo call on issue of truce
(21 Dec) European officials contacted Hamas offering to broker a renewal of the ceasefire with Israel, but informed sources say Gaza leadership is waiting for Egypt to step in and resume its role as mediator...Despite snubbing Egypt's reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah, Gazan leadership indicated that it did not want to bypass Egypt in any renewal efforts. Palestinian Authority (PA) personnel said they contacted Hamas in Gaza as well as Egyptian mediators urging both sides to contact each other and renew discussions. Sources indicated that Hamas has not stipulated new conditions for a ceasefire, but wanted assurances that Israel would cease its attacks on the coastal region and open crossing points.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Bardawil: No contact with Hamas to extend calm
(21 Dec) GAZA, (PIC)--Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman of Hamas's parliamentary bloc, has emphatically denied presence of any Arab or regional contacts with Hamas Movement to extend the calm agreement with the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip. He said that rumors about Egyptian pressures on Hamas were mere "test balloons" to probe Hamas's wish to renew the calm, adding that calm with the Israeli concept is "meaningless".
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Shin Bet chief: Hamas rockets can hit outskirts of Be'er Sheva
(21 Dec) He told a meeting of the cabinet that rockets could also hit Kiryat Gat and Ashdod, cities which thus far were seen as beyond range. Hamas' armed wing used the last six months of relative calm to improve its medium and long-range rockets and mortars, he said. "We believe that if we strike at significant assets, they will respond with longer-range fire," Diskin said. Hamas officials, meanwhile, are not ruling out a renewal of suicide bombings in Israel. Ayman Taha, a Hamas representative in Gaza, told Haaretz that under the current conditions, no cease-fire is in effect whatsoever. "Rocket fire is in the hands of the military wing. It will decide how to react," he said. "Resistance must continue in every way and by every means, as long as the occupation continues."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Livni and Netanyahu vow to topple Hamas rule
(21 Dec) JERUSALEM (Reuters)-The two leading candidates to become Israel's next prime minister vowed on Sunday to topple Hamas's government in the Gaza Strip, ratcheting up tensions after a six-month-old cease-fire ended in violence. The threats by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and right-wing Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu followed a cabinet meeting in which outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cautioned against rushing into a large-scale operation in the Hamas-ruled enclave in response to escalating rocket fire by militants.
http://africa.reuters.com/
Talk with Hamas
(21 Dec) By Gideon Levy. With the exception of a few loud-mouthed politicians including Kadima head Tzipi Livni who have elections in mind, most level-headed politicians know the truth: There is no military solution. No wide-scale or small operation; no targeted killing or bombing will help, nor is there a military solution for the situation of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit. So what's left to do but shrug?Gaza is banished and impoverished, Sderot is threatened and despaired and no one dares try to break the vicious cycle... What everybody already knew to be false-that the political choice of a people could be changed through violence, that the Gazans could be made into Zionists by being abused-was tried anyway. Now we have to finally change direction, to do what nobody has tried before, if only because we have no other choice.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Jordan sends aid convoy to Gaza
AMMAN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua)--Jordan on Sunday sent an aid convoy to the Gaza Strip, which faces serious humanitarian crisis under Israeli siege, according to Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO). Ten trucks laden with food and medical supplies have crossed King Hussein Bridge leading to the Gaza Strip, said Rajab Zubaydah, the assistant of JHCO secretary general, adding that another 22 trucks laden with humanitarian aid are expected to depart on Monday. Zubaydah said that the convoy is sent in cooperation with the Armed Forces Crisis Management Center and the Palestinian National Authority.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Egypt Red Crescent to deliver aid to Gaza
(21 Dec) The Egyptian Red Crescent said on Sunday it would send five trucks carrying food and medical aid to the Gaza Strip. An Egyptian official at the Rafah border crossing with the coastal strip said Egyptian authorities had agreed with Israel to allow the trucks in on Monday. Mohamed Orabi, the head of the organisation in North Sinai, said the trucks were loaded with 40 tons of flour, 20 tons of rice and some medical supplies. In the past, Egyptian authorities have prevented scores of activists, mainly from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, from delivering aid to the Gaza Strip.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Lebanese ship to set sail to Gaza in two weeks
(21 Dec) BEIRUT, (PIC)--The Lebanese "Fraternity" vessel is to set sail from Lebanon to Gaza on 3rd January 2009 carrying medical and food consignments along with representatives of various public institutions and forces. Coordinator of the Lebanese national committee to break the siege on Gaza Mu'in Bashur told the fifth meeting of the committee that contacts were ongoing with activists in Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Bahrain to coordinate the sail of ships from those Arab countries together from Larnaca port to Gaza. He said that the ships would carry a number of messages the first to the people of Gaza that they are not alone, and the second to the official Arab regimes that they should bear their historic responsibility towards breaking the siege, and third to the silent international community regarding the siege on one and a half million Palestinians.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
His Beatitude Patriarch Fouad Twal in Gaza City asks "Where are the peacemakers?"
(21 Dec) The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fuad Twal visited Gaza on Sunday where he denounced the Israeli siege on the area and expressed his hope that the Palestinian people will close ranks and solve their problems rather than waiting for external mediators. Twal criticized Israel for barring Gazan Christians from visiting Bethlehem during Advent and Christmas. He called visiting the Holy Land a right granted by God, and said neither state nor any person had the right to prevent worshipers from making such a holy pilgrimage. He said both the Church and the Christian community had strong feelings for the people of Gaza, adding that "What hurts Muslims hurts Christians," and vice versa.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Paralysed girl awaits life-or-death ruling
(21 Dec) THE life of Marya Aman, a seven-year-old Palestinian girl who was paralysed in an Israeli missile strike, may be saved next month if a landmark ruling by Israel's high court says she can remain in the country. According to lawyers close to the case, Israel's defence ministry has made a key concession by agreeing to fund her treatment in a Jerusalem hospital where she receives round-the-clock nursing care. The lawyers are quietly optimistic that the court will grant permission for Marya, her five-year-old brother and her father to stay in Israel so that her horrific injuries can continue to be treated. They hope the court will order the ministry to pay about £10,000 a month to fund her treatment permanently.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Israeli TV reporter unveils military plan to destroy Gaza tunnels
(19 Dec) Israeli TV unveiled new engineering techniques that will allow troops to destroy the extensive tunnel network snaking beneath the Gaza-Egypt border. According to a recently filmed report Israeli soldiers have completed 16 months of special drills and plan to destroy over 600 tunnels. The Israeli army has detailed information about the tunnels including the differences between those used for smuggling food, weapons, and individuals.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Egypt: An open Rafah would destroy the Palestinian cause
(19 Dec) Egyptian officials said the Rafah crossing will stay closed despite recent Arab calls for its opening,...Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Husam Zaki defended Egypt's policy saying that by opening the Gaza Strip crossing Egypt would allow Israel to wash their hand of Gaza, and the burden of the occupation would fall on Egypt.Foisting the consequences of the Israeli occupation and siege of Gaza onto Egypt would put the issue of Palestinian autonomy in Gaza at an impasse. The only result of opening Rafah would be an end to the Palestinian cause, Zaki said.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Looking out for number one
(21 Dec) By Zvi Bar'el. "Egypt will not tolerate an Islamic emirate on its eastern borders," warned the chairman of the Egyptian parliament's foreign relations committee, Mustafa al-Faqi, referring to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. Hamas claims that Egypt is not a "fair intermediary" between it and Fatah, and Al-Faqi didn't really try to find middle ground between the two organizations. . . Egypt sees Hamas and Iran as a single bloc bent on destroying the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). As far as Cairo is concerned, Hamas is not a national Palestinian organization but a branch of the Islamic Republic, meant to expand Iran's sphere of influence in the Middle East... But while Egypt is trying to withstand public pressure to free Gaza from the economic blockade, Jordan is getting closer to Hamas.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
If Gaza falls . . .
(LRB, 1 Jan 2009 issue) By Sara Roy. How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel?How can the impoverishment and suffering of Gaza's children – more than 50 per cent of the population – benefit anyone?International law as well as human decency demands their protection. If Gaza falls, the West Bank will be next.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/
Israeli Supreme Court ruling allows wall to separate Jerusalem residents from city
(20 Dec) The Israeli Supreme Court has rejected a petition by Palestinian residents of three Jerusalem neighborhoods demanding that Israel re-route its separation wall in order to remain inside the city. The court's refusal to intervene on 25 November means that Israel will continue to build its wall along a route that will leave residents of Ras Khamis, Shufat Refugee Camp, and part of the town of Anata, on the eastern side of the Wall, isolated from the rest of Jerusalem, although residents possess Israeli-issued identification cards marking them as Jerusalem residents. "If they will be trapped on the West Bank side of the wall it drives them into poverty. Their places of work are in Jerusalem," said attorney Daniel Seideman in an interview with Ma'an's correspondent in Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Al-Kurd tent demolished for fourth time; Islamic Judicial Council condemns act
(32 Dec) The Protest Tent of Umm Al-Kurd was demolished for a fourth time Sunday. The elderly woman was evicted from her home by an Israeli court order stating the building, constructed 50 years ago, did not have the proper permits. Umm Al-Kurd's husband died the day after the family was evicted; she set up a protest tent on property near the site of her demolished home which has been destroyed four times since November.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Popular resistance challenging new settlement that will add to separation of Jerusalem and Bethlehem
(21 Dec) Jerusalem /Maisa Abu Ghazaleh – One of the most well-organized communities in the fight against settlement, Al Walajeh Village, is under new threat. Already the village between Bethlehem and Jerusalem was cut in half over the past several years and decades ago its hills were taken for settlements. The Wall is taking even more of its land and now reports indicate that Israeli forces intend to build a new settlement, Givat Yael, on Al Walajeh land.
http://english.pnn..ps/index.
Maisa', a child growing up imprisoned behind the Annexation Wall
(20 Dec) Maisa' Hani Omar, 11, from Mas'ha village west of Salfit district and south of Nablus and Qalqilia. She resembles a unique story in the history of mankind. She lives alone with her family in a house totally surrounded by the Annexation Wall, barbed-wires, Iron gates and above all soldiers, armored vehicles and armed settlers.
http://imemc.org/article/58087
Palestinian prisoners declare hunger strike after violent clashes with Israeli guards
(21 Dec) "The strike is ongoing until the prisoners' demands are granted by the prison administration. Otherwise, escalating actions will be taken," said Mahmoud As-Sa'di, a prisoner and a spokesman for the detainees in the Ofer prison camp. Eight prisoners and two Israeli guards were injured when guards water cannons, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets to suppress a prisoner demonstration. The prisoner said they were protesting an invasive search of prisoner property.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Minister of Prisoners' Affairs demands followup after clashes between Israeli guards and Palestinian prisoners in Ofer
(21 Dec) Minister Ashraf Al-A'jrami demanded immediate access to Israel's Ofer Prison near Ramallah to visit the prisoners involved in Saturday's clashes. Al-A'jrami said Sunday that he wished to meet with representatives from the prisoners involved in the clash with Israeli prison wardens that lead to eight Palestinians and two Israelis being injured and dozens of tents burned. He demanded that International organizations including the Red Cross collect first hand reports from the incidents to make sure Israeli prison officials are abiding by international law.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Hamas: PA security services arrest 44 supporters in West Bank
(21 Dec) Nablus – Ma'an – The Palestinian Authority (PA) has arrested 44 Hamas-affiliates in the West Bank in recent weeks, said a statement from the party on Sunday.[list of names of those arrested follows]
http://www.maannews.net/en/
IOF troops storm Ramallah, Tulkarem
(21 Oct) RAMALLAH, (PIC)--Israeli occupation forces stormed the cities of Ramallah and Tulkarem in the West Bank on Sunday and freely moved in the cities while PA security elements were noticeably off the streets of both cities. Media reporting of the storming, which was covered live, showed the soldiers riding in their jeeps and in front of them and moving slowly and freely in the streets with no presence of PA security apparatuses which claimed they were responsible for defending the country. Abu Abir, the spokesman of the Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the popular resistance committees, in Gaza said that the PA security war on resistance and its elements allowed such a scene to happen.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Israeli troops stole money from West Bank home during raid, resident says
(21 Dec) A Palestinian resident of the West Bank town of Far'un says that Israeli soldiers stole 500 Israeli shekels (134 US dollars) while raiding his home on Sunday. Bassam Abed Ar-Rahman told Ma'an that Israeli troops forced his family out of the house, destroyed the interior of the home, and questioned his sons Hamed and Ahmad. No one was arrested. Far'un is south of the city of Tulkarem. [End]
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Taxi strike averted; some fixed fares to be reconsidered; bus strike still in effect Sunday
(20 Dec) The comprehensive transit strike in the West Bank Sunday will not include taxis, said Palestinian Minister of transportation Mashhur Abu Daqa on Saturday. According to the minister government offices were able to reach a deal with the Drivers' Union, but not with the Union of Bus Companies, so the transit strike will only affect buses, not service or private taxis.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli forces claim bombs discovered near Jenin
(20 Dec) Israeli forces claimed on Saturday morning to have discovered homemade explosive devices in a deserted house in the northern West Bank town of Qabatia, west of Jenin. Palestinian security sources told Ma'an's reporter that Israeli patrols raided Qabatia at 1:30 am and ransacked a deserted house, claiming they found homemade bombs. The sources added that Israeli forces set fire to the devices, detonating them, which resulted in material damage to the area before they withdrew through Jenin to the Al-Jalama Checkpoint. No arrests were reported.[End]
http://www.maannews.net/en/
'Mohammed's a pig', 'Death to Arabs' sprayed on Jaffa mosque
(21 Dec) Extremists spray-painted "Mohammed's a pig" and "Death to Arabs" early Sunday on the walls and doors of the Sea Mosque in Jaffa, sparking the fury of the Islamic Movement in the mixed Arab-Jewish city. The hate slogans also included "Kahane was right," a reference to the slain Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the outlawed anti-Arab Kach movement, and "No peace without the House of Peace," alluding to the Hebron structure from which dozens of far-right activists were evicted earlier this month.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel's Arab parties elect chairmen
(20 Dec) Barakeh, Tibi and Zahalka to stay on as leaders of their respective parties. Balad secretary-general says government 'forced Bishara out of the country'
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Haredi, religious residents clash in Beit Shemesh
(21 Dec) Growing tensions between ultra-Orthodox and religious residents in the town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, have recently escalated into violence as three teen girls were beaten up by haredim who claimed they were "immodestly" dressed... "My daughter was completely hysterical," said the girl's father. "She came home all beaten up and filthy." He added that he was shocked to discover that the attack was not perpetuated by "bored deprived youth but by adults over 40."
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Spot the difference
(20 Dec) By Uri Avnery. IS THERE a real choice?In other words, are there any real differences between the three parties?... Not one of the three has stood up and told the public in simple words: I am going to make peace with the Palestinians in the course of 2009. This peace will include the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with agreed minor border changes on the basis of 1:1, turning Jerusalem into the capital of the two states and agreeing on a reasonable solution of the refugee problem, a solution Israel can live with. Not one of the three has offered any peace plan at all. Only hollow words. Only spin.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/
Palestinian leader visits Chechnya
(20 Dec) GROZNY, Russia (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas arrived on Sunday in Grozny , the capital of Russia 's troubled republic of Chechnya , a Chechen presidential spokesman said. "Allah be praised for the opportunity to come here. I am glad to make this visit and am only sorry that it turns out to be so short," Abbas told reporters in the airport where he was met by Chechnya's President Ramzan Kadyrov . Abbas also hailed the situation in Chechnya, which "has greatly improved and continues to improve." "There are things that unite us ( Palestinians ) with the Chechens , and I am watching what is happening in the republic," he added.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Report: Syria won't renew talks until elections
(21 Dec) Arab sources tell Qatari daily 'Al-Watan' that Damascus intends to resume negotiations with Jerusalem only after Obama inauguration, completion of Israeli elections
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Diplomats: Assad says he won't restrain arming of Hezbollah
(21 Dec) Syrian President Bashar Assad has told a number of European foreign
ministers and senior diplomats this month that he would not lift a finger to restrain Hezbollah's arming in Lebanon. "I am not Israel's bodyguard," he reportedly said. The future of Syria's relations with Iran and Hezbollah is one of the main subjects Israel has raised in its indirect negotiations with Syria. Assad's remarks show no willingness for a concession to Israel on this issue, let alone an overall change of policy.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Saturday: 5 Iraqis killed, 7 wounded
(20 Dec) Excerpt: At least five Iraqis were killed or found dead and another seven were wounded. Meanwhile, the fate of 23 "coup plotters" remains unknown, as is the actual reason for their arrests. No Coalition deaths were reported, but parliament again rejected a law that would oversee operations by foreign countries.
http://antiwar.com/updates/
Iraqi deaths due to US invasion: 1,297,997
(21 Dec) The number is shocking and sobering. It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. That study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet , estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006 . Iraqis have continued to be killed since then. The graphic above provides a rough daily update of this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. (See the complete explanation.)
http://www.justforeignpolicy.
Iraqi PM not to sue Bush shoe thrower
BAGHDAD, Dec.. 21 (Xinhua)--Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Sunday that he will not file a lawsuit against the reporter who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad last week. "I will yield my personal right (to file lawsuit) over the Zaidi case, but I will not relinquish the right of the state of Iraq and its guest in suing Zaidi," Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad. "If the Iraqi judiciary releases Zaidi, we won't object that," Maliki said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Iraq MPs to vote on fate of non-US troops
(21 Dec) BAGHDAD (AFP) – A last-gasp compromise will allow the future of non-US foreign troops in Iraq to be put to the vote in parliament on Monday, the final day before lawmakers start their year-end break, MPs said. With the troops' UN mandate due to expire on December 31, there is too little time to push through a bill, so parliament will vote on a simple resolution allowing the government to finalise new arrangements.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Iraq vows to expel Iranian opposition group
(21 Dec) BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq vowed on Sunday to oust members of the main armed Iranian opposition group from its soil, just days before Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is due on a trip to Tehran. The announcement was made during a visit by a government delegation to the camp in Iraq where about 3,500 members of the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) are based.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
'Lethal warriors' in Iraq linked to string of crimes back home
(21 Dec) Men from the US Army's 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry regiment have been accused or convicted in a string of alleged robberies and domestic violence and random murder. Official denies any war link.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
--
www.TheHeadlines.org
The man without religion
The man without religion
The man who stole 50 billion Dollars
(which are five thousand millions dollars)
is of a certain religion which we cannot criticise
otherwise we shall be labelled as being Anti-Semite.
So ,
let us assume that this thief were without any religion
but then comes another delicate question :
to which country ?? did he transfer a large part of his lute ???
We could name that State but then we shall be reminded
that all the Holocaust-survivors went to that State....
No it is not Florida !!!...........
NO !!! that other country...... the one full of Semite-Palestinian
who became now , Refugee-Semite-Palestinians
Yes !! indeed .......
the Only Democracy occupying a third country.
Never mind !
Sarcasm will lead us no where.....
So, do not mention
Mr. Madoff jewish-religionnor do you ever dare to mention the State of Israel.......
keep it as a secret.........just like I do .
And by the way ,
Mr. Madoff would have also transfered part of the 50 Billions
to Gaza....but unfortunately..... Gaza is under a siege !!!
so it all went to one place , only.
Sherlock Hommos
financial inspector
21.12.08
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