TO DAY IN PALESTINE

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Land theft / Demolitions

US-Palestinian contacts to stop home demolitions in Jerusalem
The suggestion, according to the source, is that the Palestinian Authority will ask Jerusalem residents to temporarily stop building homes or adding quarters to their homes without licenses, and apply for licenses from the Israeli municipal council for both new houses and those pending demolition. In return, US officials have promised to exert pressure on Israel to change the current policy of home demolition in East Jerusalem, and to try to find a way to address demographic changes and natural growth of the Palestinian population in Jerusalem. Ma’an’s correspondent quoted the Palestinian source as saying that the US advised the Palestinians in Jerusalem to focus on their basic civil rights, such as the right to live in Jerusalem, asserting that the US and the world will support their struggle for this right.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38191

Israeli ministers: No West Bank settlement freeze
Senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet reiterated Sunday that the government has rejected a U.S. demand to halt all activity in West Bank settlements, despite strongly-worded demands from the Obama administration to do so. ... Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas told his fellow cabinet ministers Sunday that the U.S. demand on settlement activity was tantamount to "expulsion."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089247.html

High Court orders freeze of construction at settlement
Court issues interim stop-work order on at least ten permanent structures being built in settlement of Halamish-Neve Tzuf in West Bank following petition filed by Peace Now
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3724050,00.html

AFP: Nearly half Israeli outpost land is Palestinian
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Nearly half of the land occupied by Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank is private Palestinian property, a watchdog group said on Sunday. Forty-four percent of the land where the wildcat settlements were built belong to private Palestinian owners, Peace Now said. The vast majority of the outposts — 80 of the more than 100 in the territory — were either partially or wholly built on private Palestinian land without authorisation of the owners, it said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ijr7ubrCmOTs0RJ5K1l1dhGYqCNA

Settlers use caves to replace evacuated trailer outposts
Israeli settlers have begun to follow a new policy in defending their illegal outposts, seeking out caves to replace trailers which Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government said it would evacuate. After Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered evacuating some ten outposts in the West Bank, settlers have begun searching for caves to live in, according to a report aired on Israeli TV. The report showed settlers working at night preparing caves near the Qedumim settlement because they believe Israeli law does not ban living in caves.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38206

Israel evacuates another outpost
The security forces evacuated the outpost of Shvut Ami overnight Saturday, said the report, adding that the forces demolished two wooden structures and evacuated 11 teens from the outpost by declaring the area a closed military zone. The evacuation of Shvut Ami, located near the Kedumim settlement, was carried out without incident, but Jewish settlers said they plan to rebuild it, which has been rebuilt a number of times in the past by teens belonging to the Land of Israel Faithful Movement. Several small-sized illegal outposts that had been dismantled throughout the West Bank over the past few days were rebuilt shortly afterwards.
http://english.cri.cn/6966/2009/05/31/189s488953.htm

Detentions

Campaign to release Samieh Jabbarin
31 May - The solidarity struggle with Palestinian theatre-artist and activist Samieh Jabbarin, who is still under house-arrest in Um Al Fahm, has gained significant resonance in the past two weeks thanks to the publication of journalist Aviva Lori’s extensive coverage of the affair in “Haaretz” weekend supplement in Hebrew (22.5.09) and English (28.5.09). English: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1088706.html Unfortunately, nothing has moved in court.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/05/6932

Interview with an ex-political prisoner
Mansour Hammad: In 1986 when I was 16 years old, I was arrested by the Shin Bet at midnight, in my home in Gaza. ...They beat me up again, and remained for a weak with minimal dirty food and water, and no sleep allowed. One week later, they took me to Majdal Prison.I cannot ever forget the Israeli soldier who had iron plated his teeth. He was the worse… he did things to me that I have difficulty recounting. Let me just say… that many young men leave their prisons… infertile… They constantly pressured me into collaborating with them against my people.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/05/6929

Palestinian journalist released by Israeli police after interrogation
A Palestinian journalist and his assistant were detained by the Israeli police when they were making a documentary about the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday after the midday prayers. The police claim that they had entered the Al-Aqsa compound illegally and were "arousing chaos inside". After an investigation of five hours the police released the journalist on a bail of 3,000 Israeli shekels, the equivalent of $750. The journalist is banned to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque for two weeks. The journalist himself told local media that he had entered the compound through one of the main gates, in a legal way, asserting that every Palestinian journalist is entitled to enter the Al-Aqsa compound..
http://imemc.org/article/60599

9 Arab youths suspected of rioting during Gaza op released on bail
The Haifa District Court released under limiting conditions nine young residents from the Arab town of Shfaram on suspicion of placing an electric pole on a main road during Operation Cast Lead and stoning vehicles. Judge Ron Shapira stated that there was no danger that the nine would influence witnesses, as nearly all the witnesses are policemen. As for the possibility that they would repeat their actions, the judge noted that the State had tools to deal with such a danger.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3723718,00.html

Violence and repression, from a West Bank village to Tel Aviv
(includes video) By Max Blumenthal. TEL AVIV–Violence erupted in the Palestinian town of Safa today [Saturday] as fanatical masked settlers from the Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin set upon a group of activists from the peace group Ta’ayush, destroying their cameras and badly vandalizing one of their cars ... Meanwhile, the repression of Palestinian citizens of Israel continues at an unprecedented level. While the United States moves closer to fulfilling the American creed, life in Israel increasingly resembles the Jim Crow South ... After the demonstration, I walked through the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv with my journalistic colleague Jesse Rosenfeld. Suddenly a bus stopped and two Arab men were tossed from its rear exit. A police car sprinted to the scene; two cops pushed the men against the car, rifled through their pockets and removed their belongings. The cops went through the men’s cellphone calling history, their text messages, and notes. After reviewing their identification cards, they finally let the men go. Then Jesse asked one of the detained men in broken Arabic what he had been harassed for. “Me and my friend were speaking Arabic on the bus, so someone called the police,” the man told Jesse with a wry grin.
http://maxblumenthal.com/2009/05/violence-and-repression-from-a-west-bank-village-to-tel-aviv/

Siege

Israel’s Netanyahu holds firm on Gaza blockade
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday there would be no let-up in Israel’s much-criticised blockade of Gaza, warning that the ceasefire with the territory’s Hamas rulers remained fragile. "We are being asked to ease the living conditions of the population and allow goods and equipment in, but we have other priorities in the Gaza Strip," a senior official quoted Netanyahu as telling a cabinet meeting.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jkiUIQfqimX61fXstftq1bRGCYJg

Barak: There is no crisis in Gaza
Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the cabinet on Sunday that he felt that there was no crisis in the Gaza Strip. "There is no hunger or crisis in Gaza," he said during a security briefing. "More supplies pass through the border crossings today than did during some points of the last cease-fire. Only sensitive materials or construction materials are not transferred in."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089251.html

How ’the busy one’ ekes out a living from the devastation in Gaza
Mahmoud Mohammed Imad sits in front of his curtain made of rubbish. The opening to his shop in the Jabaliya refugee camp could be a work of art. A single black army boot hangs threaded through its eyes. It dangles among coils of plastic pipe, skeins of used string, a football boot, the wheel of a child’s scooter. Disconnected electrical fittings are strung like beads. Shoes and more shoes. Fragments of the discarded and the broken.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/31/return-gaza-devastation

I asked her why she said Gaza is worse than the prison she worked in back in Pennsylvania
A number of us feel guilty that we half-believed the propaganda about Gaza. I did myself. I thought it was a fearful place and I was taking my life in my hands. One friend is angry at herself for worrying about her safety constantly before she left. Now it feels egotistical next to these people’s safety. John Ging of the U.N. said that if the people were really indoctrinating their children with hatred in the schools, then how come we have been safe everywhere we go? Susan Johnson spoke about how wrenching it was to meet so many intelligent people whose largest desire is to live a normal life ... as my roommate Sammer, an Arab-American, points out, the work ahead of us is political now, trying to move American minds, American policies. A big part of that is in the Jewish community, of course; and I can’t wait to get home and begin to tell people what I saw here, the cruelties perpetrated in the name of the Jewish people
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/05/i-asked-her-why-she-said-gaza-is-worse-than-the-prison-she-worked-in-back-in-pennsylvania.html

Kerem Shalom and Nahal Oz crossings open; Karni closed
Crossings official Raed Fattouh said that Kerem Shalom would be partially open to allow 41 truckloads of humanitarian aid to the agricultural and commercial sectors in Gaza, while Nahal Oz would allow shipments of limited quantities of cooking gas and industrial diesel.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38205

Shin Bet: Hamas cracking down on Gaza rockets, but arming itself
"Hamas is working against rocket fire from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, but is simultaneously building its own force within Gaza and is trying to expand its rocket range, both through internal manufacture and the smuggling of proper weapons from Egypt," Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089251.html

Were IDF close-range killings in Gaza justified?
By Amira Hass. Haaretz sent the following question to the IDF Spokesman’s Office on May 19: "Was the decision to shoot from a tank at a line of people walking and waving white flags made by an individual soldier or according to orders from someone higher up? Are we talking about an officer inside the tank or elsewhere? Was there intelligence about an armed fighter hiding among these civilians, based on which a decision was made to fire on the civilians, according to IDF regulations?... On May 21, the spokesman’s office replied: "The information given us by the reporter was checked over a period of several days by the IDF units on duty in the area. From this examination it became clear that the incident described is unknown to the army....
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089223.html

Gaza police seize group forging referrals for treatment abroad
The de facto [Hamas] government’s detectives have seized a group of doctors in the northern Gaza Strip who have been forging fake medical reports related to referral for treatment abroad, police told Ma’an. The police explained that they began investigations to identify patients who have forged referral reports to discover they were not patients at all, but rather used medical reports to be able to leave the Gaza Strip for other purposes.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38192

Internal strife

Six Palestinians killed in Hamas-PA clashes in Qalqiliya
Six Palestinians were killed on Sunday morning in clashes between Palestinian Authority security services and gunmen affiliated to Hamas in the northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya. According to the medics, three security officers and two Hamas fighters were killed, in addition to the owner of the building where the Hamas men had stationed themselves ... Sunday’s PA-Hamas incident is the most violent in recent memory in the occupied Palestinian territories since 2007’s turmoil,
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38203

Thousands attend funeral for three officers killed in Qalqiliya
Thousands of Palestinians on Sunday afternoon attended a funeral procession for three security officers who were killed the same morning in clashes with Hamas gunmen in the Kfar Saba neighborhood of Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank. Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Sa’id Abu Ali attended the funeral, along with other security commanders and officers.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38211

Qalqiliya Hamas fighters buried amid tight security
Two Hamas-affiliated gunmen were laid to rest in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya on Sunday afternoon amid heavy security. Earlier, three Palestinian Authority (PA) security officers who were killed in a firefight with the Hamas men were buried. Ma’an learned that during the funeral procession for the security personnel, the bodies of Hamas fighters Muhammad Yasin and Muhammad As-Samman, as well as Abd An-Nasser Al-Basha, the owner of the building where the shootout took place, were transferred to a hospital in Salfit in the northern West Bank to avoid encounters between victims’ families.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38218

Hamas and Fatah exchange accusations over Sunday’s bloodshed
Fatah in Qalqiliya accused Hamas of massing weapons in order to disturb order in the Israeli occupied West Bank district. ... For their part, Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades accused PA security services of pursuing the group the week leading up to Sunday’s incident. They said in a statement, “PA security conducted a wide-scale arrest campaign in Qalqiliya, particularly against dozens of Hamas affiliates. Then they besieged [the two Hamas men], demanding they hand themselves over, but they refused and asked security services to withdraw and let them go. PA security began shooting at the Hamas activists, and so they were forced to fire back.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38207

PA: Hamas’ men were heavily armed, had planned attacks
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security spokesperson Adnan Ad-Dimeiri said that the Hamas gunmen who engaged in a deadly shootout with security forces on Sunday were heavily armed had planned to attack the PA. “The weapons the two [Hamas] activists used are similar to those used by Israeli soldiers, M16s, and they also possessed bombs which the security forces themselves do not have such. We found large amounts of explosives,” said Ad-Dimeir.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38215

Fatah fighters say Hamas abducted 16 men in Gaza after Qalqiliya shootout
Al-Aqsa Brigades in Gaza released a statement in which they said, “Since the early morning hours, Hamas began a wide-scale abduction campaign against Al-Aqsa Brigades fighters. So far, 16 from different Gaza Strip districts have been abducted.” The statement threatened to retaliate in the West Bank against Hamas activists if any Fatah fighter is harmed in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38209

Fayyad: PA ’will not apologize’ for Qalqiliya deaths
Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad visited the West Bank city of Qalqiliya on Sunday afternoon to review the situation ... Fayyad insisted that the Palestinian Authority is intent on keeping order Palestinians in the West Bank. “I feel sorry and sad, but we will not apologize for what happened because our security forces have done their national duty, and the PA insists on imposing security and order,” Fayyad said.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38212

Reuters Factbox: Palestinian security forces in the West Bank
Following is an overview of a U.S.-funded programme aimed at helping Abbas meet security commitments under a 2003 peace "road map" that calls for a Palestinian crackdown on militants and for Israel to halt settlement expansion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLV25201

Abu Zuhri: The Qalqiliya crime is a translation of Abbas’s remarks in Washington
DAMASCUS, (PIC)— Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated Sunday that the assassination of two Qassam fighters in Qalqiliya is a translation of earlier remarks made by former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas in Washington about his commitment to the roadmap plan that criminalizes the resistance against the Israeli occupation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s74%2blnVYpdDDiLSxti1fhIeL7kjjstYuqFar2rAUwonhlKstZoXUKa7QFcD8nGlpoc3Nl4HrDdegpIrunhTfGHFtDhro76VQ5QO8nU3oYfzI0%3d

Hamas may pull out of Cairo talks after Qalqiliya clashes
Hamas said it is considering withdrawing from upcoming talks with its rival Fatah in the wake of deadly clashes with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority on Sunday. The next round of Hamas-Fatah talks is scheduled to begin on 5 July in Cairo.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38217

Qassam Brigades: Qalqilia incident a turning point
GAZA, (PIC)— The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, on Sunday said that the PA security forces’ assassination of two of its commanders in the West Bank represented a turning point in dealing with those who chase its cadres. Abu Obaida, the Qassam spokesman, said in a press conference in Gaza city that his armed wing would not allow anyone to harm its fighters without being punished. He held Mahmoud Abbas, the former PA chief, fully responsibly for what happened and for its consequences.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7JJgXjf5a0ch6XoARx%2fJ9VQfv56W9ba9lE0RNguCyUnQ1ZiDzCXct76w3lS0EeNpPfO2YIH9sm2Lc6S1G4bMemhpFniMZeq4wsvxmTf8C3ww%3d

Hamas-Fatah divide reaches swine flu proportions
After Ma’an decided to dial 1800-222-000, the free line the Palestinian Ministry of Health dedicated to offer service to the public about swine flu, we discovered that the Hamas-Fatah rivalry had reached even that last line of independence. Several callers from the Gaza Strip now use that line to insult the doctors on call, they told us. Some callers, according to Dr Rashad Rizq, who was on call when Ma’an tried to contact the service, would first ask the doctor whether he is affiliated to Hamas or to Fatah. Others would accuse the doctor and the Health Ministry of collaboration with Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38197

Israeli legislative proposals

Ministers reject Yisrael Beitenu’s loyalty oath bill
The ministerial legislative committee rejected on Sunday a bill stating that those who wish to retain Israeli citizenship would have to declare their loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. The bill, put forth by Yisrael Beiteinu’s MK David Rotem, stated that oath would include a pledge of loyalty to Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state, to its emblems and values, and serving Israel either through military service or through any equivalent alternatives. Almost all of the committee’s members opposed the proposed bill, excluding only Yisrael Beiteinu MKs.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089252.html

Initiative: ’Nakba law’ to be softened
Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser has initiated an amendment in a new motion referred to as the "Nakba law", which was approved last by the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs and angered Israel’s Arabs and Left. According to the initiative, backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, activities marking the "catastrophe" of Israel’s establishment will not be banned, but institutions encouraging such activities will not receive government funding. The original bill included a penalty of up to three years in jail.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3723617,00.html

Arab Committee: Nakba bill a call to war, an attempt to force us to forget our history
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee slammed the Israeli government’s intention to hold a vote on Sunday on a bill outlawing marking the Nakba day by the Arabs in Israel. The Committee stated this bill is racist and aims at forcing the Arabs to forget and deny their own history. The Committee sent a letter on Saturday to Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, and Knesset Speaker, Reuven Rivlin, warning them of the outcome of passing such a bill
http://imemc.org/article/60602

Israeli Arabs defiant on ’loyalty laws’ plan
The BBC’s Heather Sharp reports from the Israeli-Arab town of Um al-Fahm, where residents are angry over two proposed laws apparently aimed at increasing their loyalty to the state of Israel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8073752.stm

The Independent: This suppression is symbolic of a state that fears its past
By Nahim Rouhana. For the Palestinian citizens of Israel, life is becoming a collective Kafkaesque experience. For years, their state has been determined to buttress its Jewish identity by legal, constitutional, cultural, and political means, in spite of the fact that one in five of its residents is an Arab. This latest series of bills is just another part of that effort. In addition to the discrimination they already face in all walks of life, Palestinians will not be able to mourn the Nakba, the loss of their homeland, or express their opposition to Israel as a Jewish state.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/nadim-rouhana-this-suppression-is-symbolic-of-a-state-that-fears-its-past-1693156.htm

Racists for democracy
By Uri Avnery. ...This government has already adopted a bill to imprison for three years anyone who mourns the Palestinian Naqba – the 1948 uprooting of more than half the Palestinian people from their homes and lands. The sponsors expect Arab citizens to be happy about that event. True, the Palestinians were caused a certain unpleasantness, but that was only a by-product of the foundation of our state. The Independence Day of the Jewish and Democratic State must fill us all with joy. Anyone who does not express this joy should be locked up, and three years may not be enough.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1243720987/

A Middle East democracy
By Zvi Bar’el. It’s hard to understand why the Israeli left fears the right wing’s proposed legislation. Surely, these proposals are a grand step toward integrating Israel into the Middle East. The legislators must have been guided by Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iran and Sudan, and perhaps some states as advanced as Malawi and Ukraine, and seem to have borrowed from their most enlightened laws ... In Arab countries, these laws acquired a variety of derogatory nicknames and are known as "fear laws" and "laws of shame," used by the regime to protect itself rather than its state.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089215.html

The right to hate
Whoever approved Nakba Bill this week is an anti-Zionist coward - By Yair Lapid. Confident states do not indict those who protest against them. Such states know that laws are meant to protect precisely that which is infuriating and despicable. They are meant to protect the rabbis urging IDF troops to refuse orders, draft dodgers from Tel Aviv who travel to protest in Bil’in, Kahane and Mohammad Barakeh, Noam Federman and Ahmed Tibi, protestors and flag-burners, loud people and foolish people; the laws are meant to protect the beliefs we share, but mostly the beliefs we do not share.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3722978,00.html

Other news

Israel holds biggest civil defense drill in state history
A five-day civil defense exercise, simulating an attack on the country, started on Sunday. Named Turning Point 3, the drills will be the most extensive ever held and practice new measures to safeguard civilians. On Tuesday the exercise will spread nationwide and include emergency sirens and air-raid shelters.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089237.html

Palestinian negotiator: Peace talks with Israel drained
RAMALLAH, May 31 (Xinhua) — A senior Palestinian negotiator on Sunday said peace talks with Israel were drained and called for starting the establishment of a Palestinian statehood. "The mutual negotiations have consumed everything they had and it is time to create the independent Palestinian state on the territories (Israel) occupied in 1967," said Ahmed Qurei, head of the Palestinian negotiating crew. "Israel tries to waste the time," he said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/31/content_11463434.htm

Shin Bet officials met jailed Hamas leaders on Shalit deal
Shin Bet officials met with jailed Hamas leaders several months ago as part of intensive efforts by then prime minister Ehud Olmert’s government to secure the release of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit before the end of his tenure. It appears the Hamas prisoners were granted special conditions for being part of the meetings, including receiving mobile phones and being allowed to spend 10 days together.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089244.html

Israel names new negotiator for Hamas prisoner swap
Hagai Hadas, a former commander in the Mossad spy agency, will oversee talks on the release of soldier Gilad Shalit, held in Gaza since his capture by Palestinian militants in June 2006, the premier’s office said in a statement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090531/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictisraelhamasprisoner

Can you tell the difference between an Israeli and a Palestinian?
(with photos) The advertisement published in Haaretz in March read "Wanted: people who look alike," and promised NIS 8,000 to anyone that could locate someone who looked like one of the eight people featured in the advertisement. What the advertisement didn’t say was that the eight people pictured were Palestinians. The ad was made by Swiss artist Olivier Suter, as part of his project ’Enemies’, which focused on the absurd ways people identify "the other". Out of the dozens of photos he received, Suter picked a photo of an Israeli girl and a Palestinian boy who looked alike. The girl is one Hadas Maor, whose photo was sent in by her father, geography professor Yehuda Keidar. Keidar, a long-time supporter of a two-state solution, said "[David] Ben-Gurion was right when he said ’The Palestinians are not our cousins, they’re our brothers. Turns out, they could be twins."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089016.html

World medical association headed by overt racist
Wonderful report in the Jewish Chronicle. ( http://www.thejc.com/articles/torture-row-doctors-stick-knife ) It’s "about" the protest signed by 752 physicians from 40 different countries calling for the dismissal of Dr Yoram Blachar, former head of the Israeli Medical Association: "The Israeli president of the World Medical Association has attacked critics who have called for his dismissal over allegations that Israeli doctors have been involved in or condoned the torture of Palestinians...."
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/05/world-medical-association-headed-by.html