Today in Palestine !

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Land Theft/Destruction

PCHR Strongly Condemns Israeli Plans to Confiscate 12,000 Donums of Palestinian Land in Order to Link the Illegal "Ma’ale Adumim" and "Qedar" Settlements
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the Israeli Ministry of the Interior’s decision to expand the illegal West Bank settlement of “Ma’ale Adumim” and to confiscate 12,000 donums (12 million square meters) of Palestinian land.
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/59-2009.html

PLO: IOF Seized 17,000 Dunoms in April
The National and International Department in the Palestinian Liberation Organization said that, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), has seized 17,000 Dunoms (1 Dunom = 1000 M2), mostly in East Jerusalem, for the purpose of expanding colonies and building the Israeli Apartheid Wall, during April, 2009. In its monthly report, issued today, the Department said that, “thousands of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip are still without shelter after the destruction effectuated by the Israeli war machine at the beginning of this year.”
http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=12686

Israeli minister blocks zone deal for Church sites
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s interior minister has blocked a proposal to declare six Christian heritage sites exempt from land appropriations by the Jewish state ahead of a visit by Pope Benedict, Israeli officials said on Monday. Unresolved zoning rights at the Vatican-owned shrines, including the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth and the Church of the Multiplication on the Sea of Galilee, have impeded relations that Israel and the Holy See established in 1993.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE54350D20090504

Settlers uproot, cut, dozens of trees near Ramallah
Palestinian sources reported on Monday evening that a group of extremist settlers uprooted and cut dozens of olive and fig trees belonging to residents of Sinjil village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60234

Israeli plan for Jerusalem centers on destruction of Palestinian life in capital
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Mayor for the Israeli-run Jerusalem municipality hopes to make “Jerusalem the greenest city in Israel,” largely at the expenses of Palestinian residents. Jerusalem municipal Mayor Nir Barkat revealed his “master plan” for the city on Monday, which includes the ominous pledge for the “Development of eastern Jerusalem,” where most of the Palestinian population lives.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37582

Attacks/Aggression/Testimonials
Israeli forces occupy Ni’lin homes to shoot at demonstrators
On Friday, 1 May 2009 at 11.15am, an hour before the weekly Friday demonstration against the Apartheid Wall begins, Israeli forces entered the village of Ni’lin through the fields. Soldiers attempted to forcefully occupy two homes, for use as shooting posts. During their attempt, a 10 year old girl was injured by a sound grenade thrown near her leg as soldiers tried to enter her home. Another 22 individuals were injured during the demonstration; 4 were shot with rubber coated steel bullets, 4 were hit by tear-gas canisters and 12 suffered from serious tear-gas inhalation and had to be treated by medics.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/05/6467

Video: Israeli army tries to occupy two roof tops in Ni’lin before the Friday demonstration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fh_1leWF-o

Army shells farmlands in Gaza, farmer wounded
Palestinian medical sources reported that one resident was moderately wounded on Monday evening after the Israeli army fired artillery shells at agricultural lands east of Gaza City.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60231

Egyptian soldier killed near the Rafah terminal
Egyptian security sources reported Monday that an Egyptian soldier was killed by smugglers gunfire south of the Rafah Border Terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60229

Aftermath (8) - Life is blind
In this series of personal testimonies, PCHR looks at the aftermath of Israel’s 23 day offensive on the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing impact it is having on the civilian population.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/PSLG-7RRCXK?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Detentions

Ill 60-year-old prisoner moved from hospital to detention; Israel renews administrative sentence
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli authorities transferred ailing 60-year-old detainee Ahmad Al-Qiq from the Ar-Ramlah Hospital to the Ofer Detention Center near Ramallah despite the move meaning he can no longer receive adequate care, his family said Monday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=37580

The military kidnaps five civilians from deferent parts of the West Bank
Five Palestinian civilians were kidnapped during pre dawn Israeli military invasions targeting several parts of the west Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian sources reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60238

IOF arrests 3 citizens in Bethlehem
Bethlehem, May 5, 2009, (Ramttan)- The Israeli Occupation Forces arrested on Tuesday three Palestinian citizens in the city of Bethlehem, Palestinian security sources said.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40339

IOF detains 5 Palestinian teens in West Bank
Ramallah, May 5, 2009 (Ramattan) – The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) detained on Tuesday five Palestinian youths in the West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron, Palestinian security sources said.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40337

In violation of third Geneva Convention Israeli administration imposes orange uniforms in prisons
The Palestinian National Initiative condemned the Israeli prisons department for imposing orange uniforms on Palestinian political prisoners in the cells of the occupation. The PNI said the Israeli move intends to cause psychological harm to Palestinians. A great campaign was launched last year to prevent the imposition of such uniforms on political prisoners, but what the nonviolent resistance achieved was only a postponement.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5227

Israel continues illegal sentences of Hamas PLC members; extends three terms
Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli military courts announced longer prison terms for three Hamas lawmakers and added time to the sentence of head of the Palestinian Legislative Council Aziz Ad-Dweik Tuesday afternoon.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37588

Israeli prison service ban family visits to Palestinian prisoners at Ashkelon jail for one week
Nablus – Ma’an – Palestinian families are to be banned from visiting their relatives detained in Israel’s Ashkelon facility as a punishment for inmates refusing to wear the new orange-issue uniform, the prison service announced Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37586

War Crimes/Criminals

UN inquiry faults Israel for bombing its buildings in Gaza
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israel intentionally fired at UN targets causing severe damage and death, A UN report investigating the destruction of UNRWA and UN properties and equipment during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip found last week. The report, which is separate from the Human Rights Council investigation mandated by the UN Human Rights Council and is currently underway, investigated only Israel’s culpability in the destruction of UN property and resources during the war on Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37587

Barak: I Will Work to Have Spanish Lawsuit Annulled
Commenting on the Spanish court’s decision to proceed with an investigation against Israeli officials suspected of crimes against humanity, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he would appeal to the top Spanish offices to have the lawsuit annulled. "There is no army as moral as the Israeli army," he added. Several Israeli officials voiced their objections on Monday to Spanish judge Fernando Andreu’s announcement that he plans to continue a war-crimes probe into the involvement of Israeli politicians and military officials in the 2002 bombing of Hamas resistance senior official Salah Shehadeh’s residence which killed him and another 14 people mostly women and children.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=84352&language=en

Humanitarian

Jimmy Carter: Israel’s ’apartheid’ policies worse than South Africa’s
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said in remarks broadcast Monday that Israeli policy in the West Bank represented instances of apartheid worse even that those that once held sway in South Africa. Carter’s comments were broadcast on Israel Radio, which played a tape of an interview with the ex-president, but did not specify to whom Carter was speaking. But has made similar remarks in recent interviews, such as one to CBC television.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/799476.html

Hamad: Opening the Rafah crossing point is an urgent necessity
Dr. Ghazi Hamad, the head of the crossing points’ authority said on Monday that his department can facilitate the departure of 3,000 Palestinian citizens if the Egyptian authorities cooperate.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7KKIOb9yra4ADxOk7t7fTCJleWVw%2bRJfOz0RUMnhauBbdvhxVL9B94t8KdGFYh7v8OPHfaUT2B7X1UCzJrIgvSqW9OXuWvh8s7g4QIjpI%2b%2fE%3d

“Food Security” in Palestine

The recent increase in the number of check points, as well as the devastating consequences brought on by the latest Israeli Cast Lead Operations on the Gaza Strip, are affecting the life of the Palestinians in many different ways. The Palestinian economy is a “stifled economy” where the occupation is exacerbating the level of poverty and unemployment, and decreasing the standard living of the people. The domestic food production has declined and the danger of “Food Insecurity” is now more imminent than ever. Food Insecurity has greatly increased since the Second Intifada, which brought about the notoriously severe movement and access restrictions. Haneen, a researcher of the Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), explain that “before the last few years food aids and food security in the Region were not an issue”.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article933

Palestinian Collaborators Working on Behalf of Israel
PA forces working to root out Hamas, Hezbollah agents
Some 18 months ago, the defense establishment in Israel began targeting the civil infrastructure of Hamas in the West Bank, which consists primarily of various philanthropic and social service networks. However, several months later Israel passed on the handling of the containment effort to the PA, which continues to raid Hamas-run institutions and arrest its activists. In Israel the claim is that the Palestinians are more effective in this role than the Israel Defense Forces or the Shin Bet security services would be. One of the recent catches by PA security was a large data bank of a Hamas network in Nablus.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083079.html

Israeli restrictions prevent Palestinian police from pursuing criminals
When Nasser Qaout went to investigate strange sounds in his sheep pen late at night, a gang of armed thieves shot him in the leg and made off with half his flock. He and Palestinian police know who the thieves are - and even where they are - but a year-and-a-half later, they’re still in their homes about 5 kilometers down the road.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=101630

Other Collaborators

Middle East: Egypt: Gates Seeks to Assure Allies
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates landed in Cairo on a tour of the Middle East intended to reassure Egypt and Saudi Arabia that they remain valued partners.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/world/middleeast/05briefs-egypt.html

Lebanon arrests six more Israel ’spies’
AFP - Lebanese authorities have arrested six more people on suspicion of spying for Israel, taking to 16 the number of suspected spies arrested since January, an army spokesman told AFP on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090504/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonspyisraelarrests

Talabani’s son
Talabani’s son is attending AIPAC conference. Arab guests have become a fixture at AIPAC conferences. But Talabani’s son is a good heir to the father: I mean there is no man in the Middle East who has been known for his fluctuations, oscillations, shifts, and political opportunism. Just remember Talabani’s ties to Saddam over the years.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/05/talabanis-son.html

Political Developments

Addressing U.S., Hamas Says It Grounded Rockets
DAMASCUS, Syria — The leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas said Monday that its fighters had stopped firing rockets at Israel for now. He also reached out in a limited way to the Obama administration and others in the West, saying the movement was seeking a state only in the areas Israel won in 1967.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/world/middleeast/05meshal.html

NYT interviews Meshaal, by Helena Cobban
Today’s NYT carries an important (though unfortunately severely truncated) account of an interview that Taghreed al-Khodary had with Khaled Meshaal in Damascus recently. Meshaal spelled out more clearly than ever before that he does not consider the "Charter" promulgated by Hamas when it was founded in 1987 to be a currently operational document. He also specified the length of the term— ten years— that he judged a "long-term" hudna, or truce, with Israel should have.
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003546.html

Hamas leader: Militant group is part of solution
AP - Hamas’ top political leader, in a message to the Obama administration, said the militant group is determined to be part of a solution to the Palestinians’ conflict with Israel.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090505/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria_hamas_leader

Palestinian official expects less U.S. pressure on Israel for peace
A Palestinian official on Tuesday predicted that U.S. pressure on Israel to accept a Palestinian statehood will be limited. "The U.S. administration will put limited pressure on the Israeli government to encourage it implementing the peace obligations and the two-state solution," said Bassam al-Salhi, secretary-general of the Palestinian People Party, adding that "This pressure will remain weak."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/05/content_11318513.htm

Hamas deploys forces in Gaza to stop rockets into Israel: witnesses
Islamic Hamas movement deployed its forces on the outskirts of Gaza Strip to prevent any rocket fire into Israel, witnesses said.
The witnesses added that Hamas people in the National Security uniform were checking cars and the identities of people who travel outside the towns, especially in northern Gaza Strip.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/05/content_11318960.htm

Netanyahu reiterates demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish State
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated his demand that the Palestinians must first recognize Israel as a Jewish State before resuming the peace process.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60232

Israeli PM wants ’triple track’ approach to peace
AP - Israel’s prime minister on Monday outlined a "triple track" approach to peace with the Palestinians, a strategy that emphasizes political, economic and security planks to resolve the decades-long conflict.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090505/ap_on_re_us/us_israel_prime_minister

Israel’s Peres omits mention of Palestinian state
Reuters - Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Monday Israel’s new government wants peace with all Arabs but made no explicit mention of establishing a Palestinian state, a top U.S. and Arab priority.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090504/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_peres

Lieberman to push EU to upgrade Israel ties
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, on his first official trip abroad, said he had traveled to Europe to exchange opinions on Israel’s new policies and push for a planned upgrade in EU relations, which some officials in the bloc have threatened to put on hold.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083107.html

UN meeting to give impetus to Mideast peace (AP)
AP - Russia has invited Security Council ministers to a meeting next week to give "new impetus" to the Middle East peace process.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090504/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_un_mideast_meeting

Arabs should start normalizing with Israel: Kerry
AFP - Arab states should boost peace hopes by starting now to normalize with Israel through lifting the embargo and allowing Israeli flights over their countries, leading senator John Kerry urged Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090505/wl_mideast_afp/mideastisraelusdiplomacykerry

Biden tells AIPAC: Israel must support two-state solution
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden pressed Israel on Tuesday to support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in an address to the leading pro-Israel lobby AIPAC during its annual conference in Washington.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083213.html

Other News

Israeli gov’t to revoke the Israeli citizenships of 4 Arabs
Gaza, May 5, 2009 (Ramattan) – The Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai decided on Tuesday to begin revoking the Israeli citizenship of four Arab-Israelis "involved in activities prejudicial to the State’s security." Israeli sources said.
http://english.ramattan.net/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40341

Arab citizens of Israel sue bus company for racism
Israeli sources reported Monday that four Arab resident of Israel filed a lawsuit against the Dan Israeli bus company for not allowing them to board its buses because of their ethnicity.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60230

Pal. Official Dismisses Israeli Plan to Boost Housing for City’s Arabs as Ruse
Occupied Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat outlined a plan on Monday to give many more building permits to Arab residents, but a Palestinian official dismissed it as an Israeli ruse to cement its hold on the city. Barkat claimed in a statement he had devised what he called the city’s first "master plan" in 50 years to allow the construction of some 23,550 housing units in occupied eastern Jerusalem, a part of the city where mostly Arabs live, by 2030.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=84349&language=en

What the Pope won’t see...
A sort of order is restored when Mohammed Abed, 48, standing in the queue that snakes back along the grey eight-metre concrete slabs that make up the separation wall, remonstrates. Pressed by the jostling crowd against an older man who by now is wincing and distinctly pale, Mr Abed warns in a loud authoritative voice: "People are coming in without waiting in line." Though he will enter the nativity city through the wall at this same Gilo checkpoint during his five-day trip to the Holy Land next week, this is a scene that Pope Benedict will not see. By the time he arrives around 8am, the thousands of workers will have long gone...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/what-the-pope-wont-see-1679011.html

Far-rightist MK: Hitler Youth pope not welcome in Israel
National Union MK Michael Ben Ari declared Tuesday that next week’s visit by Pope Benedict XVI, whom he referred to as a former member of the Nazis’ youth movement, would be an insult to the memory of Holocaust victims.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083196.html

’U.K. airline BMI must explain its omission of Israel from maps’
The omission of Israel from the electronic in-flight maps of British airline BMI continues to rile officials in Jerusalem. The Transportation Ministry on Tuesday sent a letter to the airline’s chief executive officer in Britain demanding an explanation as to why the only reference to Israel on the map is the Arabic word for Haifa. "Israeli travelers complained that erasing Israel hurts their sensitivities and enrages them," the ministry’s director-general, Gideon Siterman, wrote in the letter. The ministry said it is awaiting a response from the airline.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083197.html

Games - Italy wants Israel and Palestinians in Mediterranean event
ROME (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian teams should compete in the 2013 Mediterranean Games, Italy’s foreign minister said on Tuesday as he looked forward to this year’s event in the earthquake-hit region of Abruzzo. The four-yearly competition involves 23 nations with links to the Mediterranean, but not Israel. "Italy is working so that Israeli and Palestinian teams will compete in the next Mediterranean Games in Greece," Franco Frattini told a news conference.
http://in.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idINIndia-39426120090505?rpc=401&

Israeli envoy taunted with anti-Semitic slurs in Madrid
A torrent of anti-Semitic epithets met Israel’s ambassador to Spain, Rafi Shotz, Saturday evening as he walked home from a Real Madrid-Barcelona soccer match in the Spanish capital. Shotz said the three perpetrators, patrons of a pub, shouted slurs like "Jewish dog" and "dirty Jew" until they were driven off by Spanish police escorting Shotz.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083065.html

Solidairty/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
The village of Jayyous asks Norway to divest from Lev Levievs Companies
Jayyous broad coalition - Leviev is the co-owner of Leader Management and Development, the company that is building the Israeli settlement of Zufim on our villages land. According to media reports, Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Levievs company Africa-Israel, has also built Israeli settlements on Bilins land, as well as the settlements of Har Homa and Maale Adumim around Jerusalem.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=33279

Code Pink activists interrupt Shimon Peres during AIPAC speech
During Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres’ speech today at the annual AIPAC (American Israeli Political Action Committee) policy conference at the Washington Convention Center, CODEPINK members raised banners saying “Want Peace? End the Occupation," “What About Gaza?," and “No Money for War Crimes."
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/05/code-pink-activists-interrupt-shimon-peres-during-aipac-speech.html

Our tax dollars come with strings attached
Jewish-American group Jewish Voice for Peace is launching a campaign aimed at counteracting AIPAC, the lobbying group implicated in a number of scandals involving foreign agents suspected of spying on America for Israel., In a message sent to supporters today, communications director Cecilie Surasky announced that JVP had purchased a truck advertisement circling outside the conference in Washington D.C. to greet the conference’s attendees, who include Congresspeople, the Vice President, local and state leaders, and university students.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/05/our-tax-dollars-come-with-strings.html

Free Gaza boat goes down, they request your support
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/05/04/free-gaza-boat-goes-down-at-harbour-they-request-your-support/

Targeted character assassination of Omar Barghouti?
I put the question mark after the title because the attempted character assassination of Omar Barghouti won’t work, rather it will just highlight the antics of the hasbara brigade desperately seeking to undermine the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the racist war criminals of the State of Israel.
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/05/targeted-character-assassination-of.html

Aid convoy sets sail from Genoa, Italy en route to the Gaza Strip with supplies to break the siege
Palestinians and Europeans concluded a conference for organizers and supporters of the convoy “Hope” to which they bid farewell from the Italian city of Milan. The convoy is destined for the Gaza Strip and carries provisions for the education and medical sectors, specifically for Palestinians with special needs – those who were handicapped by the major Israeli attacks of December and January.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5230

Anti-solidarity/Pro-apartheid
AIPAC aligns itself with Netanyahu: Iran is the issue, forget for now about a Palestinian state
The big question about AIPAC in the wake of the formation of the Netanyahu government was: Israel has shifted right even as the US has shifted left; would AIPAC, which famously wants no daylight between the United States and the Israeli government, move right with Netanyahu? The answer is Yes. The AIPAC line on display at the policy conference is in line with the Netanyahu government: Iran is the priority, and don’t worry about the two-state solution.
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/05/aipac-aligns-itself-with-netanyahu-iran-is-the-issue-forget-for-now-about-a-palestinian-state.html

Congressman Eliot Engel, addressing a breakout session at his 22d consecutive AIPAC policy conference:
You are the key to a safe and secure Israel... There is no more effective lobbying force on Capitol Hill than AIPAC. Bar none. It does make a difference. It’s noted in Washington, it’s noted in the Congress, it’s noted in the White House... I can talk about this because I’m mishpocheh [speaking to Jewish family]... If you can only join one organization, AIPAC in my opinion is the Organization to join."
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/05/rep-engel-aipac-is-most-effective-lobby-on-capitol-hill-bar-none.html

WATCH: American officials address AIPAC pro-Israel lobby
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1082972.html

Analysis/Op-ed

The dumbest leader of the Middle East, by Angry Arab
I regularly mock Arab leaders and their stupidity. But you would be mistaken to think that Israeli leaders (military leaders included especially during the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006) are any less dumb. Yesterday, I heard comments by Shimon Peres about the Arab world. Peres is now delighted because he seems to have stumbled on the division of Arab Muslims into Sunnis and Shi`ites. Peres told his interviewer on CNN (a former writer for the publication of the Israeli lobby who later changed his name) that 75% of all Arab Muslims are Sunni Arabs and that Sunni Arabs no more see Israel as the threat or the enemy but they all see Iran as the enemy and the threat. I made a note to inform my Sunni Arab mother next time I call her that she does not see Israel as the enemy because Peres thus ruled. [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/05/dumbest-leader-of-middle-east.html

Richard Engel of NBC News
I don’t mind changing mind about people I have criticized when confronted with evidence. I saw Richard Engel on HBO yesterday. He said that he is studying Arabic: I hope that means he is willing to devote years to the endeavor (I remember when Ethan Bronner told me that Robert Worth of the New York Times will take "a year off" to study Arabic. One year of Arabic study will permit you to order a falafil sandwich in halting Arabic). He was rather sensical and reasonable and spoke (with some hesitation but also with sincerity) about the people of Gaza and their suffering. I hope that he takes his stint seriously and learn about the people and about the crimes of Israel and the crimes of Arab (and Iranian) regimes. Yet, somebody told me he once said that nobody should question the knowledge of US troops in Iraq. I have a student at California State University, Stanislaus who had served in Iraq. And we often joke about the level of American ignorance about Iraq and the Middle East. My student decided to study the Middle East after he returned from Iraq. And Fareed Zakaria was also on the same Bill Maher’s show. I could see the viewers cringing when Zakaria would make an attempt at humor. [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2009/05/richard-engel-of-nbc-news.html

Mondoweiss tweets AIPAC
Follow Phil (or Adam)’s great Tweet-length observations from the AIPAC conference here. Get their longer commentary, as usual, here.
http://justworldnews.org/archives/003548.html

Ignore AIPAC at America’s Peril
What do Charles Freeman and Jane Harman have in common? Nothing, apart from the fact that they are both involved in the truly ugly side of the Israel lobby’s activity in the United States and, for that reason, had their stories dropped by the mainstream media in record time. Harman’s story broke on April 19 and was on life support by the 24th. Freeman’s story had slightly more legs to it only because his withdrawal from his nomination to head the National Intelligence Council on March 10 was preceded by a three-week barrage of vicious ad hominem attacks from the media and the usual suspects in Congress.
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2009/05/04/ignore-aipac-at-americas-peril/

Lawyers credit Obama team for dismissing AIPAC case
“We are extremely grateful that this new Administration, in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, has taken seriously their obligation to evaluate cases on the merits and not to allow an unjust prosecution to continue solely due to momentum,” said the joint statement by lawyers for Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman issued Friday, hours after the government filed for a dismissal of the charges against the two former senior staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “This Administration truly shows that theirs is a Department of Justice, where the justice of any case can be re-evaluated and the government can admit that a case should not be pursued.”
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/05/01/1004853/lawyers-credit-obama-team-for-dismissing-aipac-case

Secrecy Expert: Harman Leakers Likely Committed Felony
Did the people — whoever they may be — who leaked details about Rep. Jane Harman’s wiretapped conversation with a suspected Israeli agent, break the law? The law quite clearly prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of classified information "concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government." And Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy, confirmed to TPMmuckraker: "It seems crystal clear that if this was a FISA wiretap," as appears to be the case, "then whoever disclosed it committed a felony."
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/secrecy_expert_harman_leakers_likely_committed_fel.php

Has a Stake Been Driven through Neocon Foreign Policy?
Neo-conservatives used the Republican Party as a vehicle to promote and employ their policies of muscular nation-building overseas. But like the parasite that eventually kills its host, the Republican Party’s virtual collapse, in large part because of the failed nation-building adventure in Iraq, has left neo-conservatives discredited and facing policy extinction. Unfortunately, neo-conservatism will probably live on by changing hosts.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15076

Can Bibi Force Abbas to ‘Recognize’ an Oxymoron?, By Tony Karon by Tony
In his own version of the evasion game that has become tradition for Israeli leaders when pressed by the U.S. and others to conclude a two-state peace agreement, Bibi Netanyahu has insisted that before he’ll talk to Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO Chairman would first have to recognize Israel as a “Jewish State” and “the national home of the Jewish people”. Excuse me?
http://tonykaron.com/2009/05/04/can-bibi-force-abbas-to-recognize-an-oxymoron/

Antisemitic alarm bells
The outcry over Caryl Churchill’s play is rendering the word ’antisemitism’ meaningless. There are already many words on record denouncing Caryl Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children as antisemitic. We can now add to them the official view of the Community Security Trust, the UK Jewish community’s defence body, as presented by two of its most senior employees, one of whom, Mark Gardner, the CST’s communications director, is the public face of the organisation. And their verdict is damning. Although they grant that "Churchill almost certainly does not intend" the play to be antisemitic, the entire thrust of their article is to argue that it is, in effect, virulently so.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/04/caryl-churchill-antisemitism-play

Israel’s war against youth | Rela Mazali
Protesters, activists and draft evaders are being targeted by a broad programme of state repression. About six months after Israel’s attorney general publicly announced an effort to criminalise dissent, state authorities have upped the ante in their "war" – as the daily Ha’aretz called it last September – against Israel’s youth and against the broad, grassroots protest movement of young Israelis who avoid serving their compulsory time in the military.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/05/israel-protest-feminism-draft

Gaza rappers find their audience
Unlike many young Palestinians, leaving Gaza for a better life abroad is not on the agenda for the members of Gaza’s most famous rap band, the Darj Team. Formed in 2004, the band now has many fans both in Gaza and beyond. I met five of the band members in a quite cafe in the strip.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8033451.stm

New film: A Boy, A Wall and A Donkey by Hany Abu-Assad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrAzY1pZ_XY&feature=player_embedded

Palestinian films harvest international awards
Ramallah - Palestinian director, writer and actor Elia Suleiman is no stranger to the Cannes Film Festival. In addition to delivering a speech at the festival’s 60th anniversary in 2007 and being a one-time member of festival’s jury, Suleiman has received several prizes for his films, including for his second feature film Divine Intervention and a comedy about the tragic life of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/features/article_1474990.php/Palestinian_films_harvest_international_awards__Feature__