Today in Palestine !

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Land Theft/Destruction

Palestinians Say Israeli Regulations Unfairly Hinder Quarry Industry
(West Bank) — Complaints over Israel’s conduct on Palestinian land are well-known. Less commonly heard, however, is the accusation that Israel is actually removing the land. “How is it that they are taking our land to Israel?” asked Ibrahim Abder, a Palestinian man standing at a stone quarry near his home a few miles south of Bethlehem during an interview with the Forward.
http://www.aggregateresearch.com/article.aspx?src=rss&id=16008

Punitive house demolitions as "deterrence"

By the time we arrived in Sur Bahir, a Palestinian village near Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on the afternoon of 7 April, it was calm. At 6am, some 2,000 Israeli border police and special forces and other personnel descended on the village to demolish a wing of a house that belonged to the family of a Palestinian construction worker who allegedly went on a rampage while operating a bulldozer last July. Marian Houk reports.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10467.shtml

Attacks/Aggression

The Israeli military kidnaps four civilians and attack kindergarten near Hebron

The Israeli military kidnapped four Palestinian teenagers and attacked a kindergarten during invasions targeting villages near the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59988

Israeli police to bar Palestinians 50 years old or less to enter the Al Aqsa mosque Thursday

As extremist right wing Israeli groups are planning to flock to the Al Aqsa mosque, the Israeli police decided that barring Palestinians less than 50 years old from entering the mosque, is the way to deal with the issue.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59976

A state of anxious in the occupied East Jerusalem

Jerusalem, April 15, 2009, (Ramattan)- A state of anxious on Wednesday covers the occupied East Jerusalem as Israeli extremists declared they would organize on Thursday a big march to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the holy city.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40216

Tuba kids walking back home from school- A recent CPT report and public call

Ehud Krinis - Villages Group - Of utmost concern for CPT and Operation Dove is the safe travel of Palestinian school children who walk from the nearby villages of Tuba and Magaher-al-Abeed to At-Tuwani’s elementary school. These school children face a treacherous daily walk past the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’on and the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on. For years, armed adult settlers have attacked, threatened and harassed the children along the path from Tuba to Tuwani. In 2004 the Knesset recommended that the Israeli military provide the children with an armed escort. However, since settlers constructed a gate across the road one year ago, the escort soldiers have refused to walk with the children far enough to ensure their safety.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=32962

Tension builds in Jerusalem as settlers threaten to invade the Al Aqsa mosque

Tension is mounting in the old city of Jerusalem as Israeli settlers and right-wing groups announced on Wednesday that they are planning to invade the courtyard of the Al Aqsa mosque some time on Thursday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59964

Palestinian citizens urged to defend Aqsa Mosque against Jewish attacks
Palestinian religious and national figures urged the Palestinian citizens to march towards the Aqsa Mosque in the early morning hours on Thursday to defend the Mosque against the Jewish extremists.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7hcQBYEjmJbkTlxZcPjQP1BwPLYhudjTwgJlNaeozFAGl7lu3wnS0kWqoTSQDquIFzVVoc%2bmxxMOc8X794qu0JT8in%2bs2M4t1u6zIIt%2bn82U%3d

Detentions

De facto government police arrest Fatah Youth planning Prisoners Day events

Gaza – Ma’an – Repressive actions are being carried out by de facto government forces in the Gaza Strip against Fatah Youth members preparing to mark Prisoners Day in Rafah, head of the youth council in the Gaza Strip Mahmoud Qanan said Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37155

IOF arrests 4 Palestinian teens in Hebron

Ramallah, April 16, 2009 (Ramattan) – The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested on Thursday four Palestinian teens in the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian security sources said.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40221

27 detainees in Al Ramla prison hospital without proper treatment

A legal group in defense of the Palestinian detainee reported that there are 27 detainees who are living in Al Ramla Prison hospital that lacks the basic equipment, while the detainees are not receiving proper treatment.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59974

PPS releases a report on Palestinian detainees

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) issued a detailed report on the Palestinian detainees imprisoned by Israel as the Palestinian prepare for commemorating the Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17. The report revealed that Israelis still holding 10500 Palestinians captive.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59973

Hundreds rally in Gaza ahead of Prisoner Day (AFP)

AFP - Hundreds of people in Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday called for the release of prisoners in Israeli jails as they held a rally ahead of Palestinian Prisoner Day.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090416/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictpalestinianprisonerdemo

Humanitarian Issues

Israel will not cooperate with UN Gaza inquiry

Israel does not plan to cooperate with a U.N. agency’s investigation into alleged war crimes by Israeli troops and Hamas militants during fighting in Gaza, an Israeli government official said on Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLF401659._CH_.2400

International reputation be damned

Israel continues to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and refuses to cooperate in UN war crimes investigationIsrael’s international standing may be plummeting due to its new government, but it would appear to remain unbowed. Today the AP is reporting that Israel is "very unlikely" to cooperate with a UN war crimes probe into the war in Gaza (Hamas has said they will support the investigation). In addition, there is yet another story about Israel preventing necessary humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. From the IPS article "Aid Rots Outside Gaza":
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/israel-refuses-to-cooperate.html

PRC: Gaza Refugees "Perpetual" suffering

April 15th, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) - Palestine Return Center (PRC) expresses deep anxiety over the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza, especially refugees who are the majority. A harsh siege followed by a deadly war has destroyed the lives of people there. PRC calls for a prompt intervention to ease the refugees’ conditions in Gaza until long term solution is implemented.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=558:prc-gaza-refugees-perpetual-suffering&catid=60:palestinian-refugees&Itemid=184

Children victims of Gaza war arrive in Dubai for medication

DUBAI — Twenty Palestinian children who were seriously injured during the Israeli military offensive on Gaza Strip in early January, 2009, have arrived here on Wednesday for medication.
http://www.uaedailynews.com/middleeast/4158.html

Riz Khan - Gaza’s unending nightmare - 15 April 09 - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd8Xh2fOve0&feature=player_embedded

Riz Khan - Gaza’s unending nightmare - 15 April 09 - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayfv-d8L4Ek&feature=player_embedded

Stranded patients, frustrated medical workers protest Rafah closure

Gaza – Ma’an – Dozens of Gazan patients waiting to receive treatment outside the Strip and ambulances staffed by frustrated medical workers from the Gaza Strip gathered in front of the Rafah crossing gate in a joint condemnation of Egypt’s maintained closure of the crossing point.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37157

One Gaza crossing open as goods trickle into Strip; no fuel for four days

Gaza – Ma’an – One Gaza crossing will open for food and humanitarian supplies on Thursday following ten days of minimum shipments, only one of which included fuel. Gaza crossings official Raed Fattuh said Kerem Shalom will be opened to allow the transfer of 115-130 truckloads of food and aid into Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37152

Collaborators

MIDEAST: Aid Rots Outside Gaza

AL-ARISH, Egypt, Apr 15 (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aid intended for the Gaza Strip is piling up in cities across Egypt’s North Sinai region, despite recent calls from the United Nations to ease aid flow restrictions to the embattled territory in the wake of Operation Cast Lead.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46504

Second Lebanese man arrested over Israel espionage

Lebanese security forces this week arrested two men suspected of spying on behalf of Israel. J’ Al-Alam was detained for questioning on Thursday, just days after his relative, retired General Adib Al-Alam.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078776.html

An Israeli Spy in Lebanon

You will not read about this in the US press: Yet another Israeli spy/terrorism network was uncovered in Lebanon. And this time it was uncovered by the Jihaz Al-Ma`lumat which is armed and equipped by the US and is controlled by the Hariri family. The Lebanese newspapers like As-Safir which has been writing about the story have refrained from priting the name of the lousy and dirty Israeli spy: his name is Adib `Alam. An anonymous reader from Lebanon tells me in a confidential letter that `Alam is an uncle (on the mother side—"khal" in Arabic) of Gen. Francois Al-Hajj (the chief of operations of the Lebanese Army and who was assassinated last year). Al-Hajj had been known for being anti-Israeli. It will be known one day the extent to which Israeli terrorists were responsible for assassinations in Lebanon (and this is not to absolve the Syrian regime from responsibility for some of the assassinations in Lebanon, or the Jordanian regime for that matter). [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/04/israeli-spy-in-lebanon.html

Abu Mazen’s Son: A Self-made Crook

Abu Mazen’s son, the well-known crook Yasir (named after Yasir `Arafat before he labeled Abu Mazen as the "Hamid Karzai of Palestine") talks to Al-Arabiyya TV. He said that he collaborates with Israel because everybody collabroates with Israel "except those who live "on rain". He admittd that he is a millionaire but denies that he is a crook ("I am not a crook" he almost said) and said that he collected his fortune with his "sweats." He said that 25% of his business goes to the Palestinian Authority. He said that he started his company with a "modest capital." He said that he hit it big with Falcon Tobacco which became the official distributor of American cigarettes.
http://angryarab.net/2009/04/15/abu-mazens-son-a-self-made-crook/

Accusing Hizbullah: Egyptian charges against Hizbullah risk worsening Arab-Iranian and Shia-Sunni relations

Egypt is committed to the pacification of the Gaza Strip, preferably in consultation with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that seized control of the territory in 2007. Egypt suspects Iran and its allies in the Arab world—Hizbullah, Syria, Islamic Jihad and Hamas—of seeking to maintain Gaza as a base for ongoing resistance operations against Israel....At a deeper level, Egypt’s leaders are concerned at the prospect of an alliance between the Shia forces that produced the Islamic revolution in Iran, which led in turn to the rise of Hizbullah, and the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition group in Egypt, and the inspiration for the creation of Hamas.
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13480609&fsrc=nwl

Hezbollah: Egyptian Regime Campaign Will Backlash

16/04/2009 Cairo is considering the possibility of ’indicting’ Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and his deputy Sheikh Naim Qassem… Indeed, it’s just another part of the aggressive campaign launched by the Egyptian regime against the Resistance party. According to Egyptian "well-informed sources" quoted by the Arab press on Thursday, Egyptian jurists have actually begun drafting a legal document that may lead to the indictment of Sayyed Nasrallah and his deputy Sheikh Qassem for "conspiring to commit a crime and planning acts of aggression and terror on Egyptian soil."
The Egyptian sources said that the document should be completed in the coming days and be presented to "the highest authorities."
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=81985&language=en

Israel Insists It Gave Egypt Intel on “Network”

16/04/2009 Israeli security officials continued Thursday to confirm that Egypt had received data on the so called Hezbollah cell in Egypt from Israeli intelligence services. The officials have called to make use of the “event” and strike an alliance between Israel and Egypt, since “the enemy is one:” Hezbollah and Hamas. Other Israeli observers have called not to show jubilance at the Cairo-Hezbollah row “so as not to push both sides into ending their conflict.”
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=81979&language=en

Political Developments

Officials say Hamas and Fatah no nearer to reconciliation

Despite popular expectations that Hamas and Fatah would overcome their differences, there is concern in Gaza that the next round of reconciliation talks between Fatah and the Islamic movement will not take place.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078590.html

British lawmakers meet Hamas leader in Syria

A British parliamentary delegation on a visit to Syria has met Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal as part of European efforts to communicate with the Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas said on Wednesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078508.html

Spanish FM meets Fayyad and Al-Maliki; condemns settlement construction

Ramallah – Ma’an – Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos was in Ramallah Wednesday where he met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his local counterpart Riyad Al-Maliki. Moratinos confirmed the Spanish stance against the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in accordance with the Road Map and the Arab Peace Initiative.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37145

Marwan Bargouthi most trusted politician

According to an opinion poll conducted in the Palestinian territories at the end of March, Marwan Bargouthi commands the most trust within the Palestinian population.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59963

Palestinians have no peace partner: Barghuti (AFP)

AFP - Jailed intifada leader Marwan Barghuti said in an interview published on Wednesday that Palestinians had no peace partner in the current largely right-wing Israeli cabinet.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090415/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictprisonerbarghuti

Hamas: Kidnapping of Israeli soldiers is a strategic vision

Hamas stated that the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers is a strategic vision for the liberation of prisoners after the failure of diplomacy and poor agreements to set them free.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s70couwCiYms0DQp8EPT6WSHt1LbXnAHZfr7bte8lzyytvdqOPQDiTJBCOl4EFpKQ%2fzrdqGSKrclwWGGiH6TMsV2zhBOGUG48N4YMQ2StlKyA%3d

Hamas: The Islamic bloc’s win in Birzeit a sign of the resistance popularity

Hamas said that progress achieved by the Islamic bloc in the Birzeit university elections through winning three more seats is an indication that the Palestinian people support the resistance project.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s76GOKRU2sW%2b4VoJPSQQ9M9As7wsxH1pQ6RhBVveIw0e%2fq5SRyUPem62xY3H6caikrQF%2bg4BVc3n%2bFuiFYp5ceJQjrY7WUjmuPOkE91KhY8DM%3d

Fatah wins student council elections at Birzeit, Hebron universities
Bethlehem - Ma’an - The Birzeit University and Hebron Polytechnic student council elections saw the campus’ Fatah-affiliated parties win majorities at both senates on Wednesday. At Birzeit, widely seen as one of the West Bank’s most politically active campus, elections saw 84.6% participation from the 6,970 students at the university.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37150

Obama envoy to Israel: U.S. wants Palestinian state (Reuters)

Reuters - U.S. President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy told Israel’s ultranationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, Thursday that Washington wants to see the creation of a Palestinian state.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090416/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_usa

Other News

Thousands Muslims demonstrate in Jerusalem to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque

Jerusalem, April 16, 2009 (RAMATTAN) – Thousands of Muslims demonstrated in Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday following reports that Jewish extremists planned to rally on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40223

Nobel Peace laureate Ahtisaari wants Hamas in Mideast talks
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari said Wednesday that Hamas should be included in a negotiating process to achieve peace in the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078525.html

Gaza Blockade Spurs Minds to Develop Inventions that Impress the World (Report)

Although the Zionist occupation has imposed a suffocating blockade on the Gaza Strip for years, the minds of the besieged Gazans have refused to accept surrender or defeat.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7tPjTkAORoF6LT%2fk0NCnLaEZ1imYO9wP1Ujqn8ou3J5T6D%2fY5lmW%2fiaaJR7V3ZkT6GRIIRRdJzsM4x9WjsOa7beSOEg4SCqCN%2bgTEs8wCRXk%3d

Hezbollah says no longer considered pariah by West (AFP)

AFP - The West can no longer ignore Hezbollah and has given assurances it will deal with the Lebanese militant group if it wins upcoming elections, the Shiite movement’s deputy chief said on Wednesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090415/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonpoliticshezbollahqassem

Hizbullah, a Western fascination

The killing of four Lebanese soldiers on Monday reawakens some old thoughts about a phenomenon I’ve watched over the years, one that should not be underestimated in determining how Lebanon is understood and portrayed abroad: the devouring fascination with Hizbullah that many Westerners living in.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=101012

Egyptian FM: Lieberman not welcome in Egypt

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Wednesday that his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, is not welcome in Egypt.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078514.html

Egypt: We’ll talk to Israel, but not to Lieberman

Tensions between Cairo, Jerusalem seem far from abating as top Egyptian minister warns his country will not welcome Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman so long as he retains his current positions.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3701804,00.html

Israeli conductor Barenboim to perform in Egypt for first time

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim will lead the Cairo Symphony Orchestra Thursday in his first performance in Egypt, bringing his campaign to bridge divides through music to the heart of the Arab world for the first time.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078512.html

Propaganda

High

"The Israeli Anti-Drug Authority launched an ad campaign linking smoking marijuana with support for Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/04/high.html

Unusual entries

"The Israeli government is sending the two of you to Moscow as part of its propaganda machine that is trying to create the appearance of Jewish-Arab ’coexistence’ under which it carries out the daily massacre of Palestinian civilians," the letter said. "Israeli artists, authors and intellectuals that take part in this propaganda machine, instead of working for justice, equality and the upholding of human and civil rights, not to mention international law, are partners to the crime." Israel hasn’t been shy about submitting unusual entries to Eurovision."
http://angryarab.net/2009/04/15/unusual-entries/

BBC panel finds broadcaster breached guidelines on Israel

In reporting about Israel, BBC’s Middle East Editor has breached the corporation’s guideline on accuracy and impartiality, an internal BBC complaints panel on Wednesday stated. The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland said that the findings show that the BBC has an anti-Israel "bias" and that the position of the editor, Jeremy Bowen, is "untenable." The corporation rejected these claims.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078501.html

How can you trust the cowardly BBC?

Robert Fisk - The Independent -Haaretz gave considerable space to the BBC`s findings yesterday. I`m not surprised. But why is it that Haaretz`s top correspondents – Amira Hass and Gideon Levy – write so much more courageously about the human rights abuses of Israeli troops (and war crimes) than the BBC has ever dared to do? Whenever I`m asked by lecture audiences around the world if they should trust the BBC, I tell them to trust Amira and Gideon more than they should ever believe in the wretched broadcasting station. I`m afraid it`s the same old story. If you allow yourself to bow down before those who wish you to deviate from the truth, you will stay on your knees forever.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-how-can-you-trust-the-cowardly-bbc-1669281.html

Barenboim Urges Arabs to Visit Israel ! ! ! ! ! !

Israeli-Argentinian Conductor Daniel Barenboim on Wednesday called on Arabs to visit Israel, urging them not to put all Israelis "in one basket". "If I can be allowed one small word of criticism, in general, about the Arab world, is that (the tendency) is to put all Israelis in one basket and say, we boycott, we don’t want anything to do with them, anybody who goes there is an enemy," he said in Cairo. "It would be much better that Egyptians, and Syrians, and Palestinians, and Jordanians, and Lebanese, will go to Tel-Aviv, and explain their point of view, and express their point of view," he told a news conference a day before his orchestra is due to perform in the Arab world’s most populous country.
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&C840C7E28688B20CC225759A002DC50A

Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment

Veolia loses another contract in Bordeaux

The transportation branch of the French multinational corporation Veolia loses a contract worth 750 million euros in Bordeaux.
The Greater Bordeaux local government give a contract for the management of the biggest urban network in France to Keolis, a subsidiary of SNCF over Veolia. Veolia has been involved in the construction of a tramway in Jerusalem, designed to link West Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Veolia has now lost contracts that are worth more than $7.5 Billion in Stockholm, West Midlands (UK) and Bordeaux.
http://www.bigcampaign.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=399&cntnt01origid=103&cntnt01dateformat=%25d%20%25b%20%25Y&cntnt01returnid=72

On tax day, we ask, Why do we single out Israel ?

There has been an ongoing discussion on this site about the "Dershofoxmanitz" question - "Why do you single out Israel?" In addition to the other answers already given here’s another - because the US government has already singled Israel out.
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/tax-day-is-a-reminder-why-we-single-out-israel.html

Activists to scrawl letter decrying ’apartheid’ on separation wall

The separation barrier will receive its largest piece of graffiti yet when Dutch and Palestinian activists scrawl on it a 2,000-word letter by a South African scholar arguing that "Israeli apartheid" is "far more brutal" than Pretoria’s was.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078578.html

Op-ed/Analysis

The Official Surrender: Camp David and its Aftermath, by As’ad Abukhalil

It’s the 30th anniversary of Camp David: We count the hours, the seconds and the deep anger that lead up to this memory. It thus comes to pass in the Arab political life without any hoopla or without even someone who notices or who is unnerved by it. Israel and its allies want the Arabs to commemorate the anniversary with feasts and jubilation, while praising Sadat in popular Arab memory.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/04/official-surrender.html

Israel’s new government: Change your tune

Until now, Barack Obama has been oddly shy of embroilment, partly because of the lack of a solid Israeli government. That excuse no longer holds. He and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, have declared that securing two states, of Israel and Palestine, must be the sole basis of a deal. America cannot give unstinting support to an Israeli government that says it is resiling from the fundamental principle of two states and will continue to colonise the West Bank. If Mr Netanyahu does not change course, Mr Obama should reduce aid to Israel.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13413984

A marginal matter, By Gideon Levy

The 18th Knesset is different from all its predecessors. It is the first that does not have a Jewish MK whose guiding principle is the struggle against the occupation. Since the 7th Knesset, the first to be elected after the Six-Day War, we have not had a parliament like this one, devoid of Jewish anti-occupation activists. As such, the new Knesset precisely reflects the popular zeitgeist, in which the occupation is completely missing from the national agenda, and there is no reason to disturb our legislators with the issue.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078598.html

The rhetoric of "peace"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s "economic peace" proposal should be seen as the beginning of a new stage of colonization. Israel has been successful in dividing the Palestinians into different groups, separated politically and geographically. Israel has also been successful in creating a collaborating political class. Israel failed however to squash their desire for freedom and their right to resist aggression. In other words, Israel was successful in the physical colonization of the land, de facto controlling the whole of historic Palestine, but failed to colonize Palestinian minds, for the most part, at least. This new stage will target the latter. Ziyaad Lunat comments for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10466.shtml

Solving Palestine While Israel Destroys It

To a greater degree than perhaps ever before, Washington today is engulfed in denial about Israel and its stupefying behavior, about its murderous policies toward the Palestinians, about the efforts of Israel and its U.S. defenders to force us to ignore its atrocities. Blinders have always been part of the attire of U.S. policymakers and politicians with regard to Israel and Israeli actions, but in the wake of the three-week Israeli assault that laid waste to the tiny territory of Gaza — an assault ended very conveniently just before Barack Obama was inaugurated, so that he has been able to act as though it never occurred — the perspective from which Washington operates is strikingly more blinkered than ever in the past.
http://www.counterpunch.org/christison04152009.html

Finding a sense of home in "Salt of this Sea"

Annemarie Jacir’s Salt of this Sea (2008) is the first full-length feature film by a Palestinian female director. Since its world premier at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, it has toured the world and is scheduled to screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York at the end of the month. Maymanah Farhat reviews for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10465.shtml

Neve Gordon`s "Israel`s Occupation"

Yehudit Keshet - Importantly, Gordon points out the underlying logic of the occupation – the separation of the Palestinian people from their land, and not simply by means of land expropriation for colonizing purposes. Already in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War, Meir Shamgar, then military advocate general, formulated a policy that ‘rejected the applicability of the 1949 4th Geneva Convention...to the OT’ (P.26) Shamgar maintained that since neither the West Bank nor Gaza had been sovereign areas prior to June 1967, they should be considered disputed rather than occupied territories. This position not only finds its place in Israeli policy, it is frequently voiced in public discourse; it denies the rights of Palestinians to their land and to political self-determination in that land.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=32963

A Gaza Doctor’s Case for Peace

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish was, and is, that remarkable Palestinian welcome on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. A resident of Gaza, fluent in Hebrew, deeply devoted to peace. An obstetrician who treated both Palestinians and Israelis — who was welcomed by Israeli medical colleagues, one of whom called him a “magical, secret bridge between Israelis and Palestinians.”
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2009/04/a-gaza-doctors-case-for-peace/

Hate Street, Hebron - A Photo Tour

Hebron, April 15th, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) - Visiting Hebron is currently possible for internationals such as myself, but Israeli citizens are forbidden to do so under Israeli law. I made use of this privilege by taking a tour arranged by ICAHD and hosted by a local Palestinian resident.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=555:hate-street-hebron-a-photo-tour&catid=55:palestinian-stories&Itemid=173

Many American Jews are furious at Israel

I think we are in the beginning of an American Jewish backlash against Israel. The causes of this anger are obvious: Gaza and Avigdor Lieberman are resonating through a Jewish community that voted for Barack Hussein Obama, 4 to 1. Years ago Tony Judt wrote presciently in Haaretz that Israel was like an adolescent out of control, and the U.S. was the parent, and the relationship was coming to an end. Judt was right. That relationship is coming to an end. And what do parents who have enabled a juvenile delinquent do? Well one thing they do is get very angry. Here are signs of the fury...
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/a-commenter-complained-lately-that-i-am-a-trendspotter-while-adam-horowitz-is-substantive-here-is-a-trend-mixed-a-little-wi.html

Defending the Indefensible: Israel, Gaza, and Idolatry

April 15, 2009 "Information Clearing House" --- A tell-tale sign of having become the victim of propaganda is the eruption of anger, name-calling, calumny, scapegoating, and insinuations when confronted with facts, ideas, or arguments that pose a threat to the unmasking or refutation of said propaganda. The provocation of such a vehement reaction is itself a deliberate product of the propagandist, for it is the implantation of a built-in, defense mechanism effectively precluding awareness of not only the mendacious character of the propaganda, but also its very existence in the mind of the victim.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22427.htm

Mr President, your silence on the murder of Palestinian women is complicity - By Nahid Abu T’eima
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37141

TV director: the occupation is sucking the art out of us

PNN exclusive / Hiba Lama - With a mixture of pain and hope Palestine participated in the opening of the Fifth Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival that began in Doha, Qatar on Monday. Entitled, "Five years of Hope," the event will end today.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5047

The suffering of Israel’s Mizrahis

The tales of Jewish migrants from Arab countries challenge those who cling to a monochrome script of Arab against Israeli.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/15/israel-mizrahis-equality-conflict

The most moral army in the world. Fact

On June 19, 1977, the Sunday Times marked the 10-year anniversary of the occupation with a wide-ranging expose on the torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The report concluded that torture was so widespread and systematic that it was impossible to dismiss these deeds as "’rogue’ cops exceeding orders. It appears to be sanctioned as deliberate policy." Israel’s denial was, of course, adamant. No Israeli newspaper addressed the accusations directly. Our ambassador in London said the morality of the prophets does not permit torture, and therefore these charges were baseless. It was Menachem Begin of all people, who had just formed his government, who expressed shock and ordered the Shin Bet to cease and desist.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078410.html