Today in Palestine!

 

Land theft/Home Demolitions
Demolition in Jahalin community leaves 30 homeless
Occupation forces destroyed tents belonging to five ’Arab Jahalin families, leaving 30 people, 15 of them children, homeless. These families are part of a community that has been threatened with expulsion for some time, as their land is targeted for the expansion of the nearby Ma’ale Adummim settlement. The demolition began at three in the afternoon on 3 February, when a large contingent of soldiers, 200 according to one witness, and military equipment arrived at the community. They declared the area a closed military zone, detained the families that were in the tents, and demolished the structures as well as their contents. The tents belonged to Kayid Salem and his four married sons and were used to house their respective families.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1837.shtml

Netanyahu: No return of Golan Heights to Syria
AP - Benjamin Netanyahu, the front-runner in polls ahead of Israel’s election this week, declared Sunday he would not give up the strategic Golan Heights for peace with Syria, an apparent attempt to toughen his right-wing credentials after a last-minute charge by a hardline party.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090208/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_politics

Bethlehem: Israeli settlers attack farmers’ lands and install portable homes
Scores of Israeli settlers attacked farm lands that belong to farmers from the village of Al Khadir located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem on Monday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58829

West Bank settlements
The settlements on the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law, a stumbling block to successive peace proposals. On the day I see Beni Raz I traverse the spine of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank from west of the Palestinian town of Qalqilya to Jerusalem. There are the Jerusalem settlements that probe into the Arab neighbourhoods in the city’s Arab east, pushing between the towns and villages. Prising them apart.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/09/israeli-settlements-peace

Attacks against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank/Arrests/Testimonials/Seige
Israel warplanes bomb Gaza after rocket attacks
Israel said it launched air strikes on two Hamas outposts in Gaza on the eve of an Israeli election.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10283784.html

Israeli shell kills Gaza fighter
Palestinian killed belonged to Islamic Jihad group.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2009/02/2009299921997924.html

Israeli Navy shells eastern and northern beaches of Gaza
The Israeli Navy shelled on Saturday several areas along the northern and western areas of Gaza beach, inflicting extensive damage to dozens of fishing boats that belong to Gaza fishermen. The Arabs48 news website reported that naval gunship opened fired at the fishermen and their boats in an attempt to bar them from fishing.
http://imemc.org/article/58815

Demonstration in Ni’lin
On Friday, around 100 residents of Ni’lin along with 20 international and Israeli solidarity activists gathered for a demonstration against construction of the Apartheid Wall. The Israeli army fired on people gathered around the medical clinic before the start of the demonstration. The army entered the town of Ni’lin during the demonstration and shot at demonstrators and homes. Hamada Abed Erazik was shot in the thigh with 0.22 calibre live ammunition. Additionally, the Army shot tear gas at the medical team as they were trying to treat and retrieve the injured. To read:
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/02/5149
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUXzu_h7tuA

One shot, several trees uprooted during Jayyous demonstration
Today’s demonstration in Jayyous was met by intensified force, with soldiers quickly invading the village and firing live ammunition. A huge number of soldiers occupied the village, bringing with them a bulldozer that was used to destroy trees and farmland. Clashes have lasted into the evening, and are ongoing in separate parts of the village. Several people have been wounded, one by live bullets.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1832.shtml

International activists denounce Israel targeting Gaza farmers
Israeli forces open fire on Palestinian farmers and internationals in Al Faraheen eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ku9WIKPz_k
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/02/5151

Israeli forces blockade Bethlehem-area village
Israeli forces have blockaded the West Bank village of Tequa, southeast of Bethlehem, local Palestinian sources said on Sunday evening. Sources in the village told Ma’an that a large number of Israeli soldiers have shut down all three routes into the community, declaring it a ’closed military zone.’ Residents have been prevented from moving in or out. No reason has been given for the closure.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35631

Israeli army arrests seven Palestinian teens In West Bank
The Israeli forces detained on Sunday morning seven Palestinian teens in different cities in the West Bank, Palestinian security sources said. The sources reported that the Israeli thrust into the city of Hebron amid intensive fire reinforced with several armored vehicles, arresting six teens after the Israeli soldiers stormed several houses in the city.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=39824

Disappeared Free Gaza activist Teresa McDermott found in Israel’s Ramleh Prison
Scottish activist Teresa McDermott has been found in Ramleh prison four days after she was “disappeared” by the Israel government after being forcibly removed from a seaborne Lebanese aid mission to Gaza. In early February Teresa responded to a call for support from internationals from the organizers of a Lebanese humanitarian aid voyage to Gaza aboard the Togo flagged ship, Tali. Teresa was one of only 9 passengers aboard the cargo ship on February 4, 2009 when Israeli gunboats intercepted it, boarded and forced the ship to Ashdod port in Israel.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/02/5144

Israeli prisons escalate measures against Palestinians refusing orange uniforms
GAZA, (PIC)— The ministry of prisoners’ affairs in Gaza reported that the Israeli prison authority stepped up recently its arbitrary measures against the Palestinian prisoners who refuse to wear the orange uniforms. Riyadh-Al-Ashqar, the director of the information office in the ministry, said that the Israeli prison administrations have been trying for several months to impose by force an orange uniform on the Palestinian prisoners who unanimously refused to wear it.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7UVBX8BBLk04MD9Q3livipBZdWL7eAcQ%2bRLeV6L%2fm56uz%2ftuVQeMceDMdTPnaXYyk8YolRuqGyVDdWQZNI86KObmDN7Ykcl9KTTibL0BiNnk%3d

Passengers of freighter seized by Israel return home with tales of abuse
BEIRUT: A group of activists arrested after the Israeli navy seized an aid ship bound for the devastated Gaza Strip were expelled from Israel on Friday, a day after being detained by the military. Fifteen of the Togolese-flagged Tali’s crew members were deported back to Lebanon and Syria early on Friday, and three others were preparing to fly to London.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?article_ID=99193&categ_ID=1&edition_id=1

OPT: Aftermath (1) - “We never feel safe”
In this new series of personal testimonies, PCHR looks at the aftermath of Israel’s 22 day offensive on the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing impact it is having on the civilian population. Foreign correspondents and camera crews have now begun to leave Gaza, in search of the next headline grabbing location. But ongoing airstrikes and violations of international law are a stark reminder that there is no real end to Israel’s offensive here.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/LSGZ-7P4HV7?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

War Crimes/Criminals
NLG Members in Gaza Document Executions of Civilians, Blocking of Humanitarian Aid, and Destruction of Civil Property
The seven delegates also witnessed the remains of the entire residential neighborhood of Izbit Abed Rabbo. Resident Khaled Abed Rabbo told delegates Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath how he witnessed an Israeli soldier execute his 2 year-old and 7 year-old daughters, on a sunny afternoon outside his house there. Two other Israeli soldiers were standing nearby eating chips and chocolates at the time on January 7, 2009. “I will never eat chocolate again,” said Abed Rabbo, who was formerly employed by the Fateh-led Palestinian authority. His third daughter, Samar, was also shot and paralyzed by the same Israeli soldier. Samar, 4 years old, is currently hospitalized for treatment in Belgium.
http://www.nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry090205-125948

Humanitarian Concerns
ISRAEL-OPT: Homeless Gazans struggle to find shelter
GAZA CITY Monday, February 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are still seeking shelter after their homes were badly damaged or destroyed during the 22-day Israeli offensive which ended on 18 January.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=82822

Palestinian Resistance
Gaza rocket hits southern Israel
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip has landed in southern Israel, setting several cars on fire, the Israeli military has said. The rocket landed in an agricultural community near the southern town of Sderot, the military said. No one was injured. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since Israel ended a 22-day military offensive in Gaza on January 18 that left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/02/20092881811580544.html

Political Aftermath
Report: Israel, Hamas to sign truce deal within 2 days
Egyptian newspaper al-Gomhuria says Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Zahar set to return to Cairo with approval of new
understandings between Jewish state, Palestinian organization. Israel expecting Gilad Shalit’s release to be included in agreement.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3668765,00.html

ANALYSIS / Fatah fears Shalit deal will bring down Abbas
Concerned voices have been heard in the Muqata in Ramallah over the past few days: Senior Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials are speaking openly of the end of an era if an agreement to free abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is reached...The latest poll from the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre conducted in the territories shows the recent war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip afforded the Islamic organization unprecedented popularity.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062612.html

Fatah leader assails Hamas stance on truce proposal
With Hamas still seeking clarifications over Israeli response to an Egyptian truce proposal between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, prominent Fatah member Nabeel Amr has criticised Hamas’ position, accusing it of inflexibility in the ceasefire negotiations and obstructing a national Palestinian reconciliation dialogue.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10283452.html

Hamas seeks to keep equal distance from all nations
l Authority’s (PNA) charges that the group was trying to form alliances with “regional” countries, saying the group doesn’t want to join any camp against another.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10283451.html

Defense sources: Air Force can’t repeat Gaza successes in bigger war
In the event of a large-scale future war, the Israel Air Force will not be able to provide the same kind of close aerial support it gave ground troops during the recent operation in the Gaza Strip, military sources said recently.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062700.html

Interview: Mahmoud al-Zahar
In his first interview following the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, Dr Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader and member of the movement’s political bureau, talks to Al Jazeera, from Cairo. Al Jazeera: What is the political meaning behind Hamas sending a delegation to Cairo at this time? Zahar: The main motive behind this issue is to rebuild what the occupation has demolished - the crimes which the whole world has witnessed and its serious impact on humanity. The truce has to be upheld on conditions that are not unjust to the rights of the Palestinian people. Particularly to give them a chance to rebuild the houses that have been demolished, the mosques, hospitals, schools and others. My attendance, along with a delegation of senior [Hamas] figures, reflects the real desire of Hamas’s leadership inside and outside the Palestinian territories to end this crisis by upholding.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/02/200928195444472727.html

Fatah secretaries call for investigation into death of Jenin man in PA custody
Nablus – Ma’an – The secretaries of the Fatah movement in the West Bank called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Monday to open an investigation into the death of a Hamas member in a PA prison. Ad Al-Jamil Al-Haj died in a Palestinian Preventive Security detention center in the West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday. The PA said Al-Haj committed suicide, but his family and Hamas are alleging that he was arrested on political charges, then tortured and possibly killed.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35647

Investigation sought after Gaza man tortured to death by security forces
A Palestinian human rights organization is calling for an investigation in to the death of a Gazan man it says was tortured to death by Palestinian security forces in Gaza. According to the independent Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Jameel Shafiq Shaqqura, 51, from Khan Yunis refugee camp Internal Security Services and subsequently died of his injuries.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35646

PFLP-GC urges end to incitement among Palestinian groups
Isma’il As’ad, a political official with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), urged Palestinian political factions to end incitement against one another. The PFLP-GC said that dialogue is the only solution to the current political split.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35645

Tens of thousands rally for PLO in West Bank
Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in support of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on Monday as its West Bank leaders railed against the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza. Demonstrators filled the streets in the centre of the West Bank town of Ramallah, the political headquarters of Palestinian president and PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas, whose forces were driven from Gaza by Hamas in June 2007.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ie5EY1JxIu43blv0nYH6k6reMlNw

Activists seek ’Gaza abuses’ probe
Human rights groups have called on Hamas officials to investigate widespread allegations of abduction, torture and the killing of Palestinians accused of being collaborators during Israel’s war on Gaza. Al Jazeera has been shown sworn affidavits, medical records and photographs of alleged victims of reprisals committed against Fatah supporters by security agents or associates of Hamas.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/02/200928182256132932.html

Collaborators
Gaza: Hamas hunting Fatah loyalists who ’collaborated with Israel’
Human rights researchers say Islamist group killed at least six Fatah men it claims assisted in killing of senior Hamas figures during recent war. ’Hamas turned on their own people,’ relative of Fatah loyalist in hiding says - While the IDF’s offensive in Gaza ended a few weeks ago, Palestinian infighting in the coastal enclave is raging on, as Hamas security forces are seeking out Fatah loyalists who the Islamist group accuses of collaborating with Israel during Operation Cast Lead.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3668615,00.html

Hamas: Fatah strongman Dahlan collaborated with Israel ahead of Gaza op
A senior Hamas official has accused Fatah strongman Mahmoud Dahlan of collaborating with Israel to carry out Operation Cast Lead, the 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip. The official, identified only as a Hamas leader, told Time magazine that Dahlan - Abbas’ former national security adviser - helped Israel ahead of the operation in order to weaken the resistance of the Islamist movement, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062511.html

PA held responsible in death of Hamas man in West Bank prison
Bethlehem – Ma’an – The family of a Hamas member who died in a Palestinian Authority (PA) prison on Sunday are holding the PA responsible for his death. A Palestinian security source earlier confirmed that 30-year-old Mohammad Abd Aj-Jamil Al-Haj died in a Palestinian Preventive Security detention center in the West Bank city of Jenin. He was arrested on Friday. The security source claimed that Al-Haj committed suicide.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=35628

Hamas: PA seizes six members in the West Bank
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces seized six Hamas supporters in the West Bank on Sunday, the Islamic movement said. In a statement Hamas said that Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Hassri, Hassan Sa’id and Fadi Umeir were arrested in the city of Tulkarem. According to Hamas, PA security men stormed the Khaled Ibn Al-Walid mosque in the village of Bal’a and confiscated brochures and computers.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=35629

Gaza smugglers say Egypt tightening tunnel trade
AFP - In the dunes of rubble along the Gaza border work crews are excavating scores of bombed tunnels, but smugglers say Egyptian forces on the other side are gradually choking off their trade.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090209/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaegypttunnels

Kuwait news
A well-placed source in Kuwait sent me this (he/she does not want to be identified): "During the war on Gaza, any donations to Palestine (Gaza or otherwise) was transferred to Kuwait’s State Security for questioning. To whom, what for, etc. Second. Do you remember the Kuwaiti martyr whose remains were swapped along the other martyrs between Hizballah and Israel? His name’s Fawzi Abdulrasul Al-Majadi, it seems that his name wasn’t included within the Kuwaiti Martyr Office. It’s an official branch that would provide welfare to the family and descendents of the martyr. A close source to the ’higher-ups’ tells me that the American ambassador in Kuwait advised the Kuwaiti government that “This action may damage Kuwait’s interests/benefits in the region.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/02/kuwait-news.html

Fatah leader: ’regional influences’ encouraged Hamas’ Gaza takeover
Hamas was encouraged to take over the Gaza Strip in June 2007 by ’regional actors’ outside Palestine, alleged prominent Fatah member Azzam Al-Ahmad on Sunday. Al-Ahmad, the head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian parliament, also said that the Muslim Brotherhood may have encouraged the Hamas “coup d’état” in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35626

Abbas ready to cooperate with any new Israeli government
AFP - Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas told journalists Monday in Warsaw he was ready to cooperate with any new Israeli government that emerges from Tuesday’s general election.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090209/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictelectionisraelpalestinian

Egyptian police search detained activist’s home
The sister of a detained German-Egyptian activist says Egyptian police searched their house in the pre-dawn down hours, four days after her brother’s arrest and disappearance.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Egypt/10283795.html

Rights group urges investigation into deadly café bombing in Gaza
A Palestinian human rights organization called for an investigation of the Thursday bombing of a café in Gaza City in which one person was killed and five others injured. According to the independent Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) report, released Sunday, unidentified individuals detonated a bomb at the entrance of the Al-Waha café in the upper-middle class Ar-Rimal neighborhood at 11:30pm, while workers were cleaning the shop.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35622

Elections 2009 / PA: Hamas rockets are bid to influence Israel election
The Palestinian Authority foreign minister said Monday that Hamas was trying to influence the outcome of Tuesday’s general election by continuing to fire rockets into southern Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062761.html

American Interference
Clinton: Obama Admin Will Follow Bush Stance on Hamas Boycott
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “We will not, in any way, negotiate with or recognize Hamas until they renounce violence, recognize Israel and agree to abide by, as the Foreign Minister said, the prior agreements entered into by the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/2/6/headlines#14

Other news
79.4 percent would attend legislations
According to a new poll conducted by researchers at An-Najah National University in Nablus, 79,4 percent of the Palestinian electorate will participate in upcoming parliamentary elections. 79 percent will attend presidential elections.
http://www.palestinianbasiclaw.org/news/794-percent-would-attend-legislations

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP: Recent opinion polls in Israel indicate a change and increase in the overall Israeli society of racism and hatred of Arabs and Palestinians
Ramallah, 09-02-09: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said today that recent opinion polls ahead of the Israeli elections show a clear shift in the Israeli society towards increased racism and hatred of Arabs and Palestinians.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article821

Israeli action worse than apartheid: South Africa
DURBAN: South Africa on Sunday said that some of Israel’s actions against Palestinians are worse than what happened during apartheid. Condemning the Israeli attack against the Palestinians, President Kgalema Motlanthe said that the creation of new settlements within the West Bank which exclude Palestinians was one such example. He also appreciated the role played by the international media in covering the incident. He was speaking at an international conference, ’Coalition for the Good and Charity’, in Cape Town.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Israeli_action_worse_than_apartheid/rssarticleshow/4095282.cms

Palestinians Unsure Which Israeli Leader Will Keep Gaza and the West Bank United
The biggest national concern of Palestinians today is to make sure that the Israeli attempts to split Gaza from the West Bank doesn’t become permanent. Egypt and the Palestinian Authority have been made to look bad in the eyes of the Arab world because of their refusal to fall for the trap to make Egyptians responsible for Gaza and possibly Jordan to take care of the West Bank thus destroying the possibility of an independent Palestinian states with contiguity.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daoud-kuttab/palestinians-unsure-which_b_164970.html

Olmert orders increase in Israeli military spending
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Israel’s outgoing Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has ordered the allocation of 2.4 billion Israeli shekels, or more than half a billion US dollars, to the Israeli military establishment following the Israeli war in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35647

Report: Israel’s Lieberman will seek defense post
Right-wing Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman reportedly plans to seek the office of defense minister after his hard-line “Israel Our Home” party comes in an expected third in Israel’s elections on Tuesday, the Israeli newspaper Maariv. As the leader of the third largest party in Israel, Lieberman is entitled to a senior ministerial portfolio, such as finance, defense or foreign affairs.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35644

Solider suspected of fabricating Jaffa knife attack
Military prosecution to launch probe against soldier who said Arab tried to stab him; soldier sticking by his version.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3668702,00.html

Lieberman’s anti-Arab ideology wins over Israel’s teens
In my daughter’s class, the kids told a joke that went something like: ’How long does it take an Arab woman to get rid of the trash? Nine months,’ and the teacher didn’t stop or say anything to them about it."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061910.html

Shouts for coexistence at Lieberman speech
Arab Israelis protest outside Haifa conference hosting Yisrael Beiteinu leader, some shouting slogans in Russian; Mossawa Center director detained for suspicion of assaulting police.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3668663,00.html

Israel elections / ’99% of Israeli Arabs stand by their loyalty to the state’
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that while he believes the government must take action against any disloyal citizen, he could not back rival Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman’s campaign motto of “no citizenship without loyalty.” "I believe in the declaration of independence and the need to act accordingly. Ninety-nine percent of Arab citizens are citizens who stand by their obligation to the state. I think steps need to be taken when people act against.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062507.html

Teens: war or peace?
As the war in Gaza was drawing to a close last month, Times editorial writer Marjorie Miller traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories to discuss prospects for peace in the region. Today, in the first of two parts, she reports from the Ramallah Friends School, which educates many children of West Bank Palestinian elites, and Hebrew University Secondary School in Jerusalem, one of Israel`s best high schools. Many of the 11th-graders she interviewed were born in 1993, the year the Oslo peace accord was signed. But they came of age during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Their points of reference are suicide bombings, rocket attacks, gunships and tanks, and a concrete and barbed-wire barrier separating Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-miller8-2009feb08,0,3515016.htmlstory

Appointment of colonel angers university’s faculty
JERUSALEM // The Israeli government has moved quickly to quash protests over the appointment of the army’s senior adviser on international law to a teaching post at Tel Aviv University. Col Pnina Sharvit-Baruch is thought to have provided legal cover for war crimes during the recent Gaza offensive. Government officials fear that recent media revelations relating to Col Sharvit-Baruch’s role in the Gaza operation may assist human rights groups seeking to bring Israeli soldiers to trial abroad.
http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0371.htm#Top

Far-rightist: Police can’t stop me from overseeing Arab city poll
Right-wing extremist Baruch Marzel said Monday that police had no right to prevent him from serving as a polling station supervisor in the Israeli Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, Army Radio reported. Marzel was quoted as vowing that he would do so “in spite of those haters of Israel.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062778.html

TPM Blogger Interrogated At Israeli Airport Over Blog Posts
As some of you know my wife and I have been seriously considering aliyah. We spent several weeks in November in Israel exploring some of the details involved in such a move. We were somewhat optimistic at that point and on January 22 we made an official Aliyah visit. Landing at Ben Gurion we were quickly moved to an interrogation room.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/09/tpm-blogger-interrogated-_n_165121.html

Senior U.K. diplomat said arrested over anti-Semitic tirade
Rowan Laxton reportedly shouted ’f**king Jews’ while watching TV report on IDF Gaza op in London gym.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062752.html

’Your father would be ashamed’: Rabin’s son heckled at Netanyahu’s side
An official from the Meretz party heckled Yuval Rabin, the son of late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, during an appearance Rabin made with Likud chief Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Monday. Netanyahu said he has held a series of meetings with Rabin over recent months, during which he laid out his plans to form a wide coalition.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062790.html

Propaganda and Media Bias
Why is the ’NYT’ protecting Americans from Lieberman’s racist message?
A smart friend writes: Ethan Bronner of the Times writes a front-page piece on Avigdor Lieberman ("A Hard-Liner Gains Ground in Israel") without mentioning racism or discrimination. No mention of the Haaretz report that he was a member of outlawed, terrorist Kach party. No quotes from Arabs. Bronner even prints one Israeli’s risible claim that Lieberman’s loyalty oath is no different from the American pledge of allegiance. And WTF does this line mean? “Taken together, Mr. Lieberman’s proposals aim toward an ethnically purer Jewish state, in many ways a classically conservative goal.”
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/02/why-is-the-nyt-protecting-americans-from-liebermans-racist-message.html

Solidarity
Beirut, 13 other cities honor Gaza’s martyred children
Hundreds of candles flickered on the seafront at Ramlet al-Baida on Sunday evening in commemoration of Gaza’s fallen children. The vigil was one of 13 organized by Mothers Across the World for Gaza in cities across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America to mark the passage of 40 days since the first child was killed.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=99218

UK Vickers call on Church of England to divest from occupation-supporting companies
Twenty-two members of the Church of England have written to the Guardian Newspaper calling on the General Synod to implement their resolution from 2006 and divest from companies profiting from the illegally occupied territories of Palestine. The letter-signers will arrive at the Synod in London, which will begin on 9 February and continue to the thirteenth.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35639

Boycott news: UK co-op signs up
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/02/boycott-news-uk-co-op-signs-up.html

Victory for Palestine at the U of Rochester!
http://barnardcolumbiaiso.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/victory-for-palestine-at-the-u-of-rochester/

Miami Street Theater for Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItExpaWNevI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw74a8IfzYc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fZyOW2G7qk

Leviev Valentine’s Day 2009
http://picasaweb.google.com/JusticeME/VDay2009#

One Minute Video - Rabbi Weiss: Something To Tell The World!
An animated message from Rabbi Weiss, expressing what a real Jew feels towards the Arab and Muslim people of the world!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT8cg62iKyg

Adrienne Rich, “Why Support the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel?”
Last week, with initial hesitation but finally strong conviction, I endorsed the Call for a U.S. Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel. I’d like to offer my reasons to friends, family and comrades. I have tried in fullest conscience to think this through.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/rich080209.html

Israeli women expose companies complicit in occupation
Two years ago the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace set up its project entitled, Who Profits from the Israeli occupation? In January, the Coalition officially launched its on-line database, www.whoprofits.org, listing companies directly involved in the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights. Dalit Baum, coordinator of the project, explains to The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof how the project came about.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10283.shtml

English actor urged to cancel appearance at Israeli festival
The following is an open letter to English actor and UNICEF ambassador Sir Roger Moore sent on 8 February 2009 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel: The Palestinian arts community has received the news of your plans to make a special guest appearance at the Red Sea International Music Festival in Eilat this February in a state of disbelief. At a time of unprecedented Israeli war crimes and grave violations of human right your participation in this festival can only be understood as condoning this injustice and celebrating it.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10284.shtml

Dia `Azzawi removes his name from Barenboim’s statement
Regarding that lousy letter by Daniel Barenboim, I received this letter from Iraqi artist, Dia `Azzawi (I cite with his permission):
"Dear As’ad, Badr forewarded to me your message and the whole text of the document. I am very embarrassed to sign this document, due to my mistake not to read the whole text. My understanding was that the document is a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians facing the brutal onslaught of their occupiers. At the time when the massacre was going on in Gaza in front of the eyes of the world, Mr. Barenbaum’s Secretary called me; my expectation was very clear wording against the brutality of the Israeli army. (cont’d)
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/02/dia-azzawi-removes-his-name-from.html

’Israel is using the memory of my grandfather gassed in Treblinka to justify abominations toward Palestinians’
Writer Jean-Moise Braitberg has written a letter to Israeli president Shimon Peres demanding that his grandfather’s name be removed from Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The letter is reported to have been printed first in Le Monde, 10 days ago.
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/02/israel-is-using-the-memory-of-my-grandfather-gassed-in-treblinka-to-justify-abominations-toward-pale.html

Op-ed/Analysis
A Short History of the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict: Past Is Prologue
Its roots are from the late 19th century when Theodor Herzl founded modern Zionism at the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland in 1897. In his book “Overcoming Zionism,” Joel Kovel writes: Zionism seeks “the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern, highly militaralized and aggressive state. (It) cut Jews off from (their) history and led to a fateful identity of interests with antisemitism (becoming) the only thing that united them. (It) fell into the ways of imperialist expansion and militarism, and showed signs of the fascist malignancy.”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12223

Gaza And Its Aftermath; Noam Chomsky interviewed by Assaf Kfoury
For more than three weeks, starting December 27th, Gaza and its 1.5 million people bore the brunt of a massive Israeli military campaign, supported and abetted by the US government. While Israel has now stopped its devastating air and ground operations in Gaza, it continues the total blockade from both the land and the sea, still pursuing the futile goal of trying to destroy Hamas and allied resistance groups by punishing the population around them. Noam Chomsky gives a preliminary assessment of the US-Israel war on Gaza and its consequences in an interview conducted by Assaf Kfoury on January 31, 2009. The Arabic translation of the interview will appear in the Beirut daily as-Safir.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/20518

Herzl’s vision of racism
In 1902, Theodor Herzl published his utopian novel “Altneuland” ("The Old New Land"), in which he described the Jewish state to be established in Palestine in 1923. In doing so, Herzl not only provided an idealized description of the Zionist movement’s goal; he also provided the State of Israel - the product of Zionism - with a mirror for viewing itself in light of Herzl’s vision. Not many national movements have such an efficient tool for self-scrutiny.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062723.html

Beni Raz: the West Bank settler who wants to leave
Things are ugly in Qarne Shomron for Beni Raz. He’s a solid man in middle age with a deeply lined, expressive face. The day we meet, one of the residents of his West Bank settlement has tried to take down one of Raz’s posters calling for compensation for those who want to evacuate. He also threatens Raz with violence. Driving back to his home in the settlement, Raz tries to report the threat to a blue-shirted policeman wearing a kippa. He is fobbed off. As he walks away, exasperated, one of the small group of men who were standing with the policeman – a Russian immigrant – pursues Raz across the street and shouts at him.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/09/israel-settlers-compensation

Pledging Allegiance to Discrimination
I’m going to risk a limb here and dip my toe into the extremely controversial Israeli ’loyalty’ debate. This debate heated up when Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman made it one of the major themes for which his party, Israel Beytenu, is campaigning. Translated as ’Israel Our Homeland’, the party was originally formed by Lieberman as a platform for Russian immigrants. It takes a strong stance against peace negotiations, considers the ’land for peace’ concept to be immoral and wrong, and aims to reduce the number of Palestinians living in Israel by as many as possible. As part of his Israeli election campaigning, Lieberman is calling for a loyalty test, or pledge of allegiance, for all Israeli citizens, including the Palestinians. You may ask yourself, so what’s the big deal? Don’t most countries require pledges of allegiance? Of course, most countries didn’t begin and maintain an illegal occupation, didn’t create millions of refugees, and don’t treat a large number of their citizens as second class. Lieberman and his supporters argue that they are not asking Palestinian-Israelis to renounce their identity. Instead, they are asking that they recognize and pledge loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. If they wish to live here as citizens with full rights and benefits, they must contribute to Israel’s success.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=18808&CategoryId=13

Israel’s forgotten Palestinians
The rising mistrust of Israelis towards the Palestinian citizens of Israel raises the question of what will happen to the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, who already suffer discrimination. While they used to make up the majority of the population of Palestine before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, only 150,000 out of 950,000 native Palestinians remain within what is now known as the state of Israel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/israelvotes/2009/02/200929135652244104.html

Open Letter to UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon
The United Nations, the world’s preeminent law-making body, together with its Charter, provides the basis for laws and principles; therefore, people of conscience everywhere look to the UN with hope for upholding its Charter and its pledge to end the scourge of war. As the Secretary General, you, sir, are expected to at least speak words that honour this Charter and its principles. However, while people of good conscience world-wide are expressing revulsion at Israel’s terrorist attack on the defenseless in Gaza, you are already seeking to minimize war crimes of monumental proportions while echoing the disinformation of Israel and its supporters.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/open-letter-to-un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon/

End the Occupation First
If Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today he may well have attended President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony wearing a black-and-white checkered kaffiyeh and holding a sign saying, “Mr. President, stop the Gaza nightmare. No more false hopes and delayed dreams. End the Occupation NOW!” Civil rights leaders spent precious political capital to speak out against America’s wrongdoings across the world, most notably the war in Vietnam. President Obama should spend domestic political capital to denounce Israel’s domination of the Palestinians. Nothing would boost desperately needed international capital more.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/end-the-occupation-first/

I Must Be on Crazy Pills
Sometimes it feels like I’m in a small minority group of freakish people who’ve been slipped crazy pills in their water, non-stop. I am not talking about Israeli genocidal barbarities in not only the Gaza Strip but in all of the Palestinian Occupied Territories, barbarities that the Israelis call ’self-defense’ against a captive and tortured people. Those barbarities are clearly monstrous and in calling them that I am not in a small minority but standing with the absolute majority of humanity.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/i-must-be-on-crazy-pills/

Images
a piece of shrapnel hit her face and tore her face all the way down to the bone
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anomalous/3235400306/

Iraqi
Iraqis Say U.S. Patrol Killed Girl, 8, in Crowd
BAGHDAD — An 8-year-old Iraqi girl was killed Saturday and several other civilians were wounded when gunfire from an American military convoy struck a crowd of Shiite pilgrims traveling to the holy city of Karbala, witnesses and Iraqi officials said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/world/middleeast/09iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world

Christian Support for Killing Iraqis
After the WMDs failed to materialize, American Christians had an option: They could have called for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops. Instead, they did the exact opposite. They supported the continued occupation of Iraq, with full knowledge that U.S. troops would have to continue killing Iraqis in order to solidify the occupation.
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2009-02-06.asp

Iraqis Back in Charge?
Excerpt: The votes are not officially tabulated yet, and it will take a while for the implications of the recent provincial elections in Iraq to become apparent. But it is not too early to take note that they were conducted almost entirely by the Iraqis themselves, under Iraqi rather than American direct supervision, and that they were carried out almost completely peacefully.
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=14215

Ricks: We’ve created a bunch of Saddams in Iraq
Tom Ricks was on Meet the Press this morning talking about his new book, The Gamble: General Petaeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 (excerpts here; profile of commanding Gen. Ray Odierno here).
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/02/08/ricks_weve_created_a_bunch_of_saddams_in_iraq

U.S.-Backed Iraqi Security Gains Forged on Mass Deaths and Heightened Sectarian Divide
After campaigning on increasing security, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s allies appear to have won a large victory in Iraqi provincial elections. The US military strategy of allying with some Sunni militias has been widely touted as one reason for improved security in certain parts of Iraq. But at what cost? We get a report from Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films and Shane Bauer of the Center for Investigative Reporting.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/2/9/us_backed_iraqi_security_gains_forged

The Insurgent Who Loved ’Titanic’
By taking them away from al Qaeda and putting them on the American payroll, he said, the huge economic advantage of the United States was finally brought to bear in Iraq. “They could not compete with the sheer volume of cash we were able to put in people’s hands,” he said. Payments of $300 a month each to 1,500 local security guards amounted to nearly a half million dollars a month, he noted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020701198_pf.html

U.S.
Friends and Enemies, Enemies and Friends
George Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, also blamed the Jews for many of his troubles, if the extraordinary scene Tyler describes in the book’s prologue is to be believed. He recounts how in 2004 a furious Tenet, dressed in his underwear, drank half a bottle of Scotch, supplied by Prince Bandar bin Sultan at his palace in Saudi Arabia, in a few minutes, while raging at the Bush administration’s duplicity. “They’re setting me up,” he said, but “I am not going to take the hit.” The hit that needed to be taken was for the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, over which the United States had gone to war. The White House, Tyler writes, expected Tenet “to fall on his sword to protect the president.” ­Tenet raged against the “bastards” in the administration and mocked the neoconservatives who supported Israel’s right-wingers as “the Jews.” He then jumped into the swimming pool and did impressions of Yasir Arafat and Omar Suleiman, the chief of Egyptian intelligence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/books/review/LeBor-t.html

Gitmo: conditions worsening since election
The Obama administration has made the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility a high priority. One of Obama’s first executive orders, two days after inauguration, was that Guantanamo be closed within the year. Human rights activists are applauding the order, as well as his promise that all American-led torture will cease. With new leadership, many are optimistic that the methods American forces use to gather intelligence during conflict will be dramatically changed.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Gitmo_Conditions_worsening_since_Obamas_election_0208.html

Pentagon Spends $4.7 billion On PR Propaganda
As it fights two wars, the Pentagon is steadily and dramatically increasing the money it spends to win what it calls “the human terrain” of world public opinion. In the process, it is raising concerns of spreading propaganda at home in violation of federal law.
http://www.2news.tv/news/national/39162862.html

Obama’s Mideast ways are pretty similar to Bush’s
It is too early to evaluate the direction the Mitchell mission is taking. Mitchell’s preliminary visit, immediately after the war in Gaza and just days before Israel’s elections, can only be defined as an orientation tour. Hence, at this early date we can address the Mitchell mission only in terms of the direction George Mitchell appears to be headed. Based on this first foray into the region, Mitchell’s mission can already be characterized as one enveloped in a paradox: He is not addressing all those Middle East actors who will have to be addressed if progress is to be achieved and if the principles laid out by President Barack Obama for dealing with the Middle East are to be honored.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=99210

Why the Muslim World Can’t Hear Obama
We saw Mr. Obama as a symbol of this justice. We welcomed him with almost total enthusiasm until he underwent his first real test: Gaza. Even before he officially took office, we expected him to take a stand against Israel’s war on Gaza. We still hope that he will condemn, if only with simple words, this massacre that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, many of them civilians. (I don’t know what you call it in other languages, but in Egypt we call this a massacre.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/opinion/08aswany.html