and other news from Today in Palestine:
Settlers/ Land, Property, Resource Theft & Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing
A Palestinian is arrested as his house is Demolished – West Bank
Israeli soldiers and border police officers scuffle with a Palestinian as a vehicle demolishes a Palestinian house in the south of the West Bank city of Hebron. 11/10/2010
http://www.demotix.com/news/472080/palestinian-arrested-his-house-demolished-west-bank
Palestinians attacked by armed settlers in Burin
People from the village of Burin were attacked by 20 settlers, 5 of which had guns. They wanted to make a road leading up to the house of one of the villagers, Bilal Eid. that is on the top of a hill inside the small village of 3500 inhabitants. Just as the bulldozer started working, about 20 settlers went down from the illegal settlement of Givat Arozi, shouting and throwing stones at the bulldozer. Five of them were carrying guns.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/14880/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
Israeli settlers attack peace activists attempting to harvest olives in Hebron
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian and Israeli solidarity activists in the Northern settlement of Susya,in the Southern West Bank city of Hebron, while the activists accompanied Palestinian farmers to their olive groves to harvest.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59582
Israeli settlers assault Palestinian farmers in Nablus
On Saturday morning, in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, a group of right-wing Israeli settlers assualted Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59580
Bethel Settlers Attack Village of Dowar al-Qare’, Destroying Irrigation Pipes
Ramallah – PNN – Israelis from the settlement of Bethel attacked the Naabie-area village of Dowar al-Qare’ last night, vandalizing and destroying its irrigation pipes. Village council members said the settlers wrote racist slogans on the walls of houses near Naabie, including one about the Prophet Muhammad. Water from Dowar al-Qare’ is not only important to the people of that village, but services people from Ramallah to al-Bireh and al-Majawra. This is also not the first attack on Naabie area farms.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8870&Itemid=64
Filling the Security Gap: Vigilante Justice in Area C, Palestine Monitor
Under the Oslo agreement, Israel’s military rules 60% of the West Bank, but offers little protection for the area’s majority Arab citizens. The result is lawlessness where tribal justice has supplanted official security. ST McNeil reports. Known as the occupation’s laboratory, the city is split like the larger West Bank between zones of Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli influence called H1 and H2, respectively. The Israeli-controlled eastern H2 is where 35,000 Palestinians live underneath 800 Jewish settlers. Sunlight filters to the alleys of the city centre through suspended sacks of waste caught in trash nets: faeces, stones and refuse thrown from settler apartments.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1562
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Abdullah Abu Rahma gets one year in prison despite international outcry
Bil’in protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment today, for his involvement in his village’s unarmed struggle against the wall.
http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/10/abdallah-abu-rahmah-gets-one-year-in-prison-despite-international-outcry/
Israelis Train to Suppress Demonstrations
Al-Nasir – PNN – Israel is speeding up its displacement policies to an extreme degree, making the Palestine of 1948 a kind of delirium. The leaders of the nation describe it as “a communal project” to build walls and homes, echoing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the rightist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Lieberman calls for the exchange of land and people with the Palestinian Authority to rid Israel of the half-million Palestinians living in their own lands of origin. The policy, which parallels the annexation of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers, is supported by the majority of Jews in Israel who have been obsessed for years with changing the demographic balance. Lieberman’s project seems to be ready for implementation by the Israeli government, and it would be in the center of Israeli’s security agenda if orders were given to execute it.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8869&Itemid=62
Two Journalists Wounded In The Weekly Non-violent Protest In Bil’in
Two journalists were wounded and dozens suffered effects of tear gas inhalation during the weekly nonviolent demonstration in the village of Bil’in on Friday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59572
Israeli soldiers don keffiyehs to try to break the back of Palestinian resistance, then stop photographers from filming them, Philip Weiss
Notes from the moral battleground: an amazing post by Joseph Dana on a demonstration against the illegal colonization of the village of Beit Ummar in which Israeli security disguised themselves as Palestinian demonstrators in order to arrest three Palestinian protesters. Vicious. Look at Dana’s photograph.
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/israeli-soldiers-don-keffiyehs-to-try-to-break-the-back-of-resistance.html
Weekly demonstrations: Israeli soldiers retreat when the ships arrive in Al-Ma`sara
On Friday afternoon, around 50 protesters, including many international and Israeli activists, gathered in the village of Al-Ma’sara, near Bethlehem, to demonstrate against the theft of village land by the Gush Etzion settlement block. Soldiers were waiting the demonstrators at the exit of the village, to prevent them from getting too close to settlement. After they showed a map indicating that it was a closed military zone, soldiers started to throw sound grenades.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/14875/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
A tour of the maze of Israeli (in)justice
Ron, the Irish activist arrested during the peaceful demo in Beit Ummar, will remain in prison till the 12th of October. On Sunday we went to see Ron’s trial at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem early in the morning, because they didn’t give us the exact time when it would be. It was very difficult to find out in what part of the building the trial would be since there was nobody at the information desk and everybody sent us from one place to another. It was like being lost in a Kafka’s novel.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/14953/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
No positive evidence supporting accusations against Ameer Makhoul
On May 8th, Jewish Peace News posted news of the arrest or, more precisely, abduction, of human rights defender Ameer Makhoul, “Director of Ittijah – The Union of Arab Community-Based Associations – … in the dead of night, while he and his family slept in their home in Haifa.” The arrest of this “Israeli citizen [and] … high-profile activist … [was] placed under a gag order … Israeli reporters, news outlets and even blogs” were forbidden from writing about it. On June 20th, JPN followed up with a letter from Makhoul, composed after he “had spent 3 weeks in prison without access to even pen and paper, not to speak of lawyers, family visits, due process, humane and legal conditions.”
http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/10/no-positive-evidence-supporting-accusations-against-ameer-makhoul/
My father in prison, from Bil’in, a village of Palestine
At the moment, four of Bil’in’s villagers are in Israel jails on concocted evidence and the children of two of them were the focus of today’s protest. For many months now, Abdullah Abu Rahmah’s seven year old girl, Luma, has beeen marching in the protests holding up a placard of her jailed dad, drawing the awe and admiration of all who witness this spirited young girl doing her dad and Bil’in proud – Abdullah and his wife, Majida, have two other children: Lian (5) and nine-month-old baby Laith. Hero and inspiration of the village and the bravest man that I know, Adeeb Abu Rahmah has nine children and they are all suffering greviously, especially the youngest that are in the most need of his love and care: Tutu (4) and Falastine (8).
http://www.bilin-village.org/english/videos/8369-My-father-in-prison
Corrie family appeals decision allowing soldiers to testify behind screen
Lawyers for the family of Rachel Corrie filed an appeal with the Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday, challenging a decision to allow soldiers to testify behind a screen in the lawsuit filed against the State of Israel for the unlawful killing of the American peace activist in Rafah, Gaza. State attorneys made the highly unusual request in court on Thursday, October 7 arguing that they were necessary to protect the soldiers’ safety and prevent their images from being circulated. Haifa District Court Judge Oded Gershon granted the request, ruling that all but two soldiers, who were both already known to the public, would be permitted to provide their testimony hidden from public view.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/14923/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
Rachel Corrie Trial: Commander Forgets What Happened, Palestine Monitor
The ongoing civil lawsuit lodged by Rachel Corrie’s family against the state of Israel for the unlawful killing of their daughter resumed on Thursday, October 7. The trial, which first began on March 10, is seeking prosecution for the killing of Rachel on March 23, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza. Rachel was killed by a bulldozer operated by IDF soldiers as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian home. Charlotte Silver reports
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1563
IDF did use violence on Gaza relief boat
The Israeli Defence Force says that there was no resistance and no violence in the boarding of The Jewish Boat To Gaza (Report, 29 September). In fact, when boarded, we cut the engines and I held the wheel with all my strength. With one commando standing by with an electric Taser, two others removed me (I am 66) and threw me hard to the floor. I grabbed the ignition keys, but they wrenched them from me. They violently shoved aside those sitting over the switches and started the engines. On the port side, commandos singled out Yonatan and Itamar Shapira, our two refuseniks. Itamar was violently dragged backwards across the safety wires to their boat and restrained dangerously by a commando who pushed his fingers deep into Itamar’s jugular artery. Yonatan was hugging Rami Elhanan, our Bereaved Families passenger. The commander fired his Taser twice into Yonatan’s shoulder, then with deliberation moved Yonatan’s lifejacket aside, placed his Taser directly over Yonatan’s heart and fired. Yonatan’s whole body went into spasm, he let out a fearful scream, crashed across the cockpit and was dragged backwards over the safety wires to the commandos’ boat. As passive resistance, I turned off the fuel supply to the engines, so they towed us at very high speed through increasingly rough waters. The boat lurched and crashed about for hours to Ashdod. It was dangerous for the elderly passengers; most sustained serious bruising. There was therefore considerable nonviolent resistance by the crew and passengers to the illegal action by the IDF, and violent, reckless and very dangerous action by the IDF commandos. Glyn Secker, Captain, Irene, The Jewish Boat To Gaza [end]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/11/idf-violence-on-gaza-boat
Deported: Israel no longer my Israel, Lillian Rosengarten
I have been deported, no longer a good Jew. I have dissented. How? I along with five Israelis and three other Jewish passengers tried to reach Gaza to show solidarity with the occupied population of Palestinians held hostage by the Israeli “moral army”. By what hubris can any army be called “moral?” Armies kill and are taught to hate. Armies fight immoral wars. I am a pacifist and believe the only way to conflict resolution is through compassionate listening to our enemy. I was the only American passenger, a refugee from Nazi Germany. I am a cultural Jew with a deep connection to my roots.
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/deported-israel-no-longer-my-israel.html
Call for International Solidarity: Stop Raids and Repression of Antiwar Activists
To all international solidarity activists; We are calling on our international allies to take action in support of long-time peace and human rights activists who have come under attack for their work against U.S. occupation and military intervention abroad. Take action now and sign the letter using our online form! On September 24th, 2010, the FBI subjected about a dozen anti-war activists and activists working in solidarity with struggles in Palestine and Colombia to searches and raids of their homes in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan. Activists in California, Wisconsin and North Carolina were also harassed.
http://palestineconference.org/wp/2010/10/09/call-for-international-solidarity/
Annie Lennox: I have no interest in going to Israel
Ex-Eurythmics singer and human rights activist tells The Observer she is in no way anti-Semitic, but coming to Israel would be ‘too volatile.’
http://www.haaretz.com/culture/annie-lennox-i-have-no-interest-in-going-to-israel-1.318380?localLinksEnabled=false
500 civil activists from Asia will march to Gaza against siege
New Delhi: About 500 civil rights activists from 17 Asian countries will march to Palestine to press Israel to end the siege of Gaza. The activists will gather in New Delhi on December 1 and proceed to Gaza. The march is being organized by Asian People’s Solidarity for Palestine. The group announced the schedule of the march in a press conference on October 5 in Delhi with similar press conferences on the same day in four other countries Turkey, Iran, Indonesia and Lebanon. According to the release, 500 civil resisters from 17 Asian countries will join the caravan from India and march through 18 Asian cities of Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey to break the siege of Gaza through the sea route in December 2010. “This struggle is broad, varied and multi-dimensional. It is humanitarian and for peace, freedom and human dignity. It is against occupation, imperialism, apartheid, Zionism and all forms of discrimination including religious discrimination,” the group said.
http://twocircles.net/2010oct08/500_civil_activists_asia_will_march_gaza_against_siege.html
#BDS: Palestinian Civil Society Urges COOP to Boycott Agrexco
We, the undersigned Palestinian civil society representatives, including farmers unions, agricultural organizations and popular committees are writing to express deep concern at reports that COOP Italia is considering entering a direct commercial agreement (albeit including a traceability guarantee) with Carmel Agrexco, the partially state owned Israeli exporter that is responsible for marketing 60-70% of the agricultural produce grown in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. We wish to emphasize that the proposed agreement does not mitigate, on the contrary it reinforces, COOP’s complicity in Israel’s system of occupation, colonisation and apartheid.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/10/bds-palestinian-civil-society-urges.html
#BDS: Ireland urged to join boycott of OECD tourism conference in Israel
London, (IRNA): The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is urging the Irish government to join Britain and Spain in boycotting an OECD tourism conference that is due to be held in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem later this month. In a letter to Irish Foreign Minister Martin, IPSC national chair Freda Hughes called on the government to follow the examples of its European partners to decline Israel’s invitation to attend the three-day conference, starting on October 20.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/10/bds-ireland-urged-to-join-boycott-of.html
#BDS: Letter to Dulce Pontes to cancel his performance in Tel Aviv on December 21
Dear Dulce Pontes: We write as fans love your music and your voice. We were disturbed to learn of your upcoming concert in Tel Aviv, scheduled for December 21, 2010. We ask that you cancel this action. Despite the breathtaking beauty of your tunes, if you act in Israel you will be doing an accomplice to the normalization of a situation which has nothing beautiful, but for those who suffer is quite close to horror. The State of Israel maintains a military occupation and economic exploitation, ie colonial rule on a territory to which no right under international law. The population of these areas suffer the oppression of living not even allowed to statehood and the helplessness of living in refugee camps scattered across the Middle East.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/10/bds-letter-to-dulce-pontes-to-cancel.html
#BDS: Ford Foundation Funds Anti-Israel Event
The Ford Foundation is paying to send at least eight anti-Israeli scholars to a conference at an Italian villa. A total of 21 scholars will meet in the villa in Bellagio, on the banks of Lake Como, to discuss academic boycotts and their relation to academic freedom. More than a third of the participants publicly support boycotts of Israeli universities out of opposition to the Jewish state, according to the New York Sun. The foundation is contributing $70,000 to fund the meeting and publish the conference’s proceedings. The move comes less than three years after reports of Ford Foundation funding of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activity led to an international uproar. In November 2003, The foundation apologized for some of its funding and announced policies requiring grant recipients not to engage in bigotry.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/10/bds-ford-foundation-funds-anti-israel.html
Refugees/ Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Rights Violations/Restriction of Movement
Industrial Fuel – Needs Vs. Supply – Sep 12 – Oct 9
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/10/industrial-fuel-needs-vs-supply-sep-12-oct-9/
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – Sep 12 – Oct 9
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/10/goods-needs-vs-supply-sep-12-oct-9/
Syria strives to resettle Iraqi Palestinians
DAMASCUS // Nahya Mahmoud Abdulkader and her disabled son, Omar, are the victims of two major wars: the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict and the shorter but also devastating fighting in Iraq. A Palestinian, her family was displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948. Mrs Abdulkader had been a refugee in Baghdad for almost six decades, only to be displaced once again after the US-led invasion of 2003.
http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/syria-strives-to-resettle-iraqi-palestinians
German Minister Denied Entry to Gaza Strip
German Development Minister Dirk Niebel was denied entry to the Gaza Strip on Sunday. Once again, it would seem, Israel has failed to strike the correct diplomatic tone. And it shows that the country cannot deal with criticism.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-701900,00.html
‘Eased’ Blockade Continues to ‘Strangle’ Gazan Economy, Alex Kane
The Gaza “Freedom Flotilla” of May 31 brought the world’s attention to the collective punishment the people of Gaza are going through. But despite the much-heralded Israeli “easing” of the siege in response to a furious world, the situation in Gaza remain much the same, and even worse for businesses there.
http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/eased-blockade-continues-to-strangle-gazan-economy/
Israeli Crushing of Economy Not Limited to Gaza, Alex Kane
Yesterday, I wrote about how the so-called “easing” of the siege of Gaza has in fact led to the further “strangulation” of the Gazan economy. In the comments section, Chris, who blogs at Notes From a Medinah: Perspectives on the Middle East and who is currently “living in the West Bank and working at a community development NGO,” makes an important point:
http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/israeli-crushing-of-economy-not-limited-to-gaza/
Gazans suffer high unemployment due to Israeli blockade
GAZA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) — Ten years ago, 42-year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad could earn 100 U.S. dollars every day as a carpenter, however, now he lives on international aid with income dropping to 150 dollars every month. Abu Jarad, a father of eight living in al-Tufah neighborhood of Gaza city, used to be a talented carpenter and worked in Israel until the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, erupted in late Sept. 2000. Israel then closed its borders and tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-10/10/c_13550426.htm
Beit Safafa Schools: Overcrowded and Without Services, and With Two Curricula Under One Roof
Beit Safafa, about 10 kilometers from Jerusalem, has overcrowded schools whose classrooms are too small, and it suffers from a unique condition: it uses both Israeli and Palestinian curricula. Abdulkarim Lafi, an engineer and president of the Jerusalem Parents of Students Committee, said in an interview that the Beit Safafa schools are perhaps the only ones in the world to pursue two different curricula in one building, under one administration, with one faculty. This division happened in two stages: first Israel imposed its curriculum, but then the people refused it, forcing the administration to teach the Jordanian curriculum alongside the Israeli version. This was later replaced with a Palestinian one.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8877&Itemid=1
Two Schools in Nablus
“Most of the students from age fourteen have had a prison experience.” A great short film from 2008 on secondary schools in Nablus. Parts 2 to 4 over the fold. I challenge anybody to watch the girls’ terror in part three and remain unaffected. We must redouble our efforts to strengthen the Palestinians and to weaken their enemies.
http://pulsemedia.org/2010/10/09/two-schools-in-nablus/
Israeli Artists, Intellectuals Protest Against New Israeli Bill
Shortly after the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu based a bill on Sunday requiring all non-Jewish citizens to pledge allegiance to Israel not only as a state but as a “Jewish and democratic state”, hundreds of Israeli intellectuals and artists held a protest in Tel Aviv to challenge the new bill.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59586
Detainees
Prisoners
During the journey from Ramallah to Nablus I got talking to the middle-aged man sitting beside me. It turned out he’d been in prison for five years, cramped in a cockroach-run tent with tens of other men. At the kiosk at the end of my street I got talking to a white-haired young man. A few nights earlier the two owners of the kiosk had been taken away in an Israeli jeep. The white-haired man’s brother had been killed in 2007. He himself had done eleven years inside. I got talking to a writing student whose brother was constantly detained. A Palestinian friend of mine who now lives outside did ten years in Israeli jails. Two and a half of them were underground. Almost every male I met in Nablus had been imprisoned at some point. There are at least 8500 prisoners currently inside. But my friend tells me he felt more free inside the small prison than he did inside the larger. So here’s the statistic that counts: in all the territories controlled by the apartheid state of Israel there are 5,300,000 Palestinian prisoners. The other half of the Palestinian people is locked outside in exile. Here’s Saed Abu-Hijleh describing temporary detention.
http://pulsemedia.org/2010/10/08/prisoners/
Israel’s Arab Helpers
PA approves textbook offering both sides’ narratives
Study guide that presents both Israeli, Palestinian versions of history banned by Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/pa-approves-textbook-offering-both-sides-narratives-1.318307?localLinksEnabled=false
PA denies backing textbook with Zionist narrative
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — A Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education official denied on Monday approving a textbook which teaches schoolchildren the Zionist and Palestinian narrative. A member of the PA ministry’s curriculum committee Thwarwat Zaid rebuffed a report in Israeli daily Haaretz that the textbook had been approved and said the committee neither knew of the book nor read it.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323091
PA: Hamas is dividing homeland
JERICHO (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority on Sunday said Hamas was acting to socially and economically separate Gaza from the West Bank. Ministers at a weekly Cabinet meeting condemned Hamas’ imposition of import duty on goods entering Gaza from the West Bank. Further, the Gaza government was forcing companies registered in Ramallah to re-register in Gaza, and preventing some West Bank companies from trading in the Strip, a Cabinet statement said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=322857
ATFP Board Member’s Business Links With Israeli Army: More “Cooperation Towards Peace”?
A board member at The American Task Force on Palestine which operates as the lobbying firm for the Israeli-sponsored, Western-funded, and American-supervised collaborationist Palestinian regime in Ramallah, has been conducting a very lucrative business relationship with an Israeli military firm. The ATFP has recently had to defend its ongoing relationships with AIPAC and other racist, Zionist groups. Hussein Ibish, the Washington concierge to PNA officials, has gone as far as describing such meetings with AIPAC and other fanatical Zionist groups as “cooperation towards peace.” How will he describe this revelation?
http://ikhras.com/2010/10/atfp-board-members-business-links-with-israeli-army-more-cooperation-towards-peace/
Political Developments
Barghouthi: There is no authority in WB except that of occupation
MP Mustafa Al-Barghouthi has asserted that the Israeli assassination of resistance cadres in Al-Khalil proves that there is no authority in the West Bank except that of the Israeli occupation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U
Barghouthi: Peace talks amid settlement activity an illusion
Palestinian National Initiative Secretary General Mustafa Barghouthi voiced outrage against Israeli settlers who looted olives in Qalqaliya and Nablus under protection of Israeli forces.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Q
Netanyahu offers settlement freeze in exchange for recognition, Palestinians say no
Prime minister says Israel will extend settlement freeze if the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas spokesman says ‘issue of Jewishness of the state has nothing to do with the matter.’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/netanyahu-offers-settlement-freeze-in-exchange-for-recognition-palestinians-say-no-1.318447?localLinksEnabled=false
PA rejects demand on Jewish state for freeze
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority on Monday rejected a demand earlier by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to recognize Israel as a Jewish state in exchange for an extension to a settlement freeze. President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh told British news wire Reuters that a return to peace talks required a freeze on Israel’s settlement building.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323104
Israel backs bill on majority vote for territorial withdrawal
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli parliament’s Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a bill on Monday requiring a 60-MK majority and national consent on withdrawing from territory occupied by Israel in 1967. The referendum bill on withdrawal from the Syrian Golan Heights and East Jerusalem mandates that any government decision be brought before Israeli citizens in a referendum, Israeli news site Ynet reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=323059
French, Spanish FMs: Lieberman violated every rule of diplomacy
European foreign ministers furious with Israeli counterpart, who told them to ‘solve their own problems before they complain to Israel.’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/french-spanish-fms-lieberman-violated-every-rule-of-diplomacy-1.318404?localLinksEnabled=false
Lieberman To European Counterparts: “Go And Solve Your Problems First”
Israeli Foreign Minister of the fundamentalist right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, told his French and Spanish counterparts that Europe should first solve its own problems before trying to complain about Israeli policies.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59584
Other News
PA funds street repairs in East Jerusalem
When city didn’t listen, Arab residents turned to Salam Fayyad – and got NIS 1.2 million.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/pa-funds-street-repairs-in-east-jerusalem-1.318290
Palestinian dream city hits snag from Israel (AP)
AP – It is billed as a symbol of the future Palestine: a modern, middle-class city of orderly streets, parks and shopping plazas rising in the hills of the West Bank, ready for independence, affluence and peace.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101010/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_suburbia_on_hold
OECD protest at Israeli minister
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says it could cancel a conference in Jerusalem over remarks by an Israeli minister.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-11508953
Dubai police: Suspect in Hamas death nabbed abroad (AP)
AP – A key suspect in the killing of a Hamas operative in Dubai has been arrested abroad but details of the capture are secret, according to Dubai’s police chief.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_dubai_hamas_slaying
Ireland cancels arms deal with Israel reportedly over Mabhouh issue
The Irish ministry of defense has cancelled an arms deal with Israel by which the latter would supply Dublin with ammunition, a Hebrew daily reported on Monday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Q
Newly declassified documents show that Israel considered using nuclear weapons in ’73 war
Thirty seven years ago, during the 1973 war between Israel and surrounding states, then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir considered the use of nuclear weapons against Syria, according to recently unsealed documents.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59587
Protesters to throw shoes at Obama effigy during TA rally
At rally titled “United Against Obama’s Brutality Towards Israel” organizers say protesting against US president’s policies towards West Bank settlements. Demonstrators plan to throw shoes at an effigy of US President Barack Obama at a rally to be held outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv at 7 p.m. on Monday. The rally is titled “United Against Obama’s Brutality Towards Israel” and organizers they are protesting against Obama’s policies towards the West Bank settlements, policies they say are “undemocratic, anti-Semitic, and biased in favor of the Arabs,” according to the group’s Facebook page.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=190907&R=R2
Rabbi Yosef’s son: Newly religious must become Sephardic
In Israel one must embrace Sephardic traditions, yet one mustn’t abandon the tradition of one’s fathers, Rabbi Avraham Yosef says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967284,00.html
Rightist website marks anniversary of Rabin’s murder – with a conspiracy theory contest
Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew site promises to publish the ‘most interesting’ theory about the assassination of the prime minister in 1995.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/rightist-website-marks-anniversary-of-rabin-s-murder-with-a-conspiracy-theory-contest-1.318394?localLinksEnabled=false
celebration of bigots in the New York Times
This is a very long and largely celebratory piece about a self-described anti-Islam bigot. But what attracted my attention is the suggestion in the piece that the website Little Green Footballs (a known hateful site) is a rather moderate site that abhors bigotry when it broke with this woman for personal reasons.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/10/celebration-of-bigots-in-new-york-times.html
Looting the Holy Land
Since 1967 countless artifacts have been unearthed and removed from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many are displayed in Israeli museums and private collections, while others are sold to tourists. Al Jazeera searches through the evidence, unearthing the facts and exposing a power struggle in which every stone has meaning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NY0JF9VBQ8&feature=youtube_gdata
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
Avigdor Lieberman: A Profile in Ultranationalist Extremism, Stephen Lendman
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lieberman represents the worst of Israel’s lunatic fringe, sort of a combination Dick Cheney/John McCain/Joe Lieberman, too extremist to be entrusted with power, but he’s got it.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/avigdor-lieberman-profile-in.html
the Lobby is powerful, but not all powerful, Max Ajl
Perhaps the most bizarre thing about attempts to really analyze the Lobby and find the limits of its influence is that they are frequently met by accusations that the analyst who attempts to do so is “obfuscating” the role of the Lobby. If Jewish, the accusation gets an endearing twist: he is indulging in “Jewish tribalist apologetics.” Stranger still is that these accusations have no rational rhyme or reason. Instead, those making the most wide-ranging claims proclaim their monopoly on Historical and Analytical Truth, pretend counter-arguments are gratuitous, and in the process talk very little about class, capitalism, and Empire. When we get to the Middle East, materialism doesn’t matter for the Empire—according to this line of thought, we need to look to nationalism, ideology, Zionism, special interests, and a bunch of other causal explanations. It’s a grab bag, but what you won’t find in the grab bag are the phrases “political economy” and “capitalist imperialism.”
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=4254&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+http%2Fwwwmaxajlcom%2Ffeedrss2+%28Jewbonics%29
Could Israel survive without Harvard?
A friend sent along this report from a strictly off the record event at Harvard that promptly was reported openly in the Israeli media. The email which got directed to my Spam was titled: “CONGRATULATIONS.” The reference was to my winning a spot in a special study group with Tzipi Livni, which I attended yesterday afternoon. The instructions, apparently from Eric Andersen, a visiting scholar at Harvard Kennedy’s School Institute of Politics (IOP), were fit for a secret agent…
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/could-israel-survive-without-harvard.html
Young Jew at Princeton: Yes, American Jews are to blame for ennabling injustice, Philip Weiss
Beautiful. Brandon Davis in the Daily Princetonian. And yes he identified as a Jew to write this piece. They wouldn’t a run it if he didn’t. But: Young Jews get this. They understand why I say that Palestinian statelessness is an American Jewish achievement, of 60 years standing. The young un’s are going to save American Jews from the incredible selfishness of the Israel lobby generation. Davis is a sophomore. You go, dude
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/young-jew-at-princeton-yes-american-jews-are-to-blame-for-ennabling-injustice.html
What I didn’t get to ask Tzipi Livni, Stephen M. Walt
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of attending a breakfast meeting with Tzipi Livni, former Israeli foreign minister and current head of the opposition Kadima Party, along with a group of Boston-area faculty, journalists, and other interested parties. The session was off-the-record, so I can’t tell you what any of the participants said. I can report that Livni was well-informed, articulate, direct, and engaging, and it was easy to see why she’s done well in political life.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/08/a_question_for_tzipi_livni
Back to Gaza, Jared Malsin
I arrived in Gaza on Thursday. This the first time I’ve been back to any corner of Palestine since I was deported by Israel in January. It took a week of paperwork and waiting in Cairo to get approval from Egypt to enter Gaza. After obtaining the permit, I met up with Kristen Chick, the Cairo correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and together we hired a driver to take us to Rafah at one in the morning on Thursday. We raced across the Sinai in a taxi that appeared to be held together with scotch tape.
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/back-to-gaza.html
What Does a “One State Solution” Really Mean?, ALAIN GRESH
Renewed Arab/Israeli negotiations, opened under the auspices of President Barack Obama in September, are undermined not just by settlement building but differing visions on other fundamental issues. The impasse has led to calls by some senior figures, including Israelis, for the creation of a single state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan
http://www.counterpunch.com/gresh10082010.html
Israel’s Other “Peace” Plan, Jonathan Cook
A ghost haunted the meeting of the Arab League in Libya at the weekend, as its foreign ministers decided to give a little more time to the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. That ghost was the Camp David talks of summer 2000, when US President Bill Clinton publicly held Yasser Arafat, the then-Palestinian leader, responsible for the breakdown of the negotiations, despite an earlier promise to blame neither side if they failed.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/10/israels-other-peace-plan/
‘Jewish state’ demand is Israeli code for refugees, Jerusalem, Philip Weiss
Chris writes, at Notes from a Medinah, about the Israeli demand that Palestinian negotiators offer to recognize Israel as a Jewish state: There is a distinct and important difference between recognizing Israel as a home for the Jewish people and recognizing Israel as a legitimate state, welcome in the UN and with the right to live in peace and security. Yasser Arafat offered as much in an open letter to then PM Yitzhak Rabin during the Olso Peace Accords. Recognition as a state for the Jewish people was absent in the Oslo accords and the peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt. It was first introduced only in 2007 by Ehud Olmert and was rejected by both the Palestinians and then President George Bush as unreasonable. Netanyahu, however, has reintroduced the idea with a vengeance, creating more questions, in my mind, about whether he actually is open to a free and independent Palestinian state.
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/jewish-state-demand-is-israeli-code-for-refugees-jerusalem.html
Trying to watch the stars in the Palestinian desert
The Electronic Intifada contributor Sarah Irving recounts an attempt to enjoy the Palestinian night sky despite the obstacles of the occupation.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11562.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Book review: “A Wall in Palestine”
The conflict in Palestine has become so all-consuming that even objects are central to the struggle. French journalist René Backmann’s A Wall in Palestine illustrates this fact.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11560.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Lebanon
Nasrallah: STL protecting perjurers
BEIRUT: Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday accused the UN-backed court to try the assassins of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of protecting the so-called “false witnesses” into the case.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=120227
US tells citizens to ‘accept risks’ of remaining in Lebanon
BEIRUT: The United States’ Department of State urged the country’s citizens on Friday to avoid all travel to Lebanon “due to current safety and security concerns.” “US citizens living and working in Lebanon should understand that they accept risks in remaining and should carefully consider those risks,” said a travel warning posted on the Department of State website.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=120230
Lebanon arrests spy ‘looking for info on Ron Arad’
Beirut’s media reports Lebanese intelligence has uncovered new espionage ring for Israel. Ring’s members allegedly tasked with finding new information on missing Israeli aviator.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967555,00.html
HRW urges government not to bow to pressure to resume death penalty
BEIRUT: A leading human rights groups urged lawmakers on Sunday not to bow to political pressure for the resumption of the death penalty in Lebanon. On the occasion of the World Day against the Death Penalty, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for recent demands of capital punishment sentences to be ignored by the judiciary.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=120216
LF website suffers from ‘organized’ hacking attack
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces (LF) website was hacked into at 1:30 am on Saturday, a statement by the LF media office announced. The statement said the hacking type was a DDOS attack (distributed denial-of-service attack). According to the statement, the hacking was similar to that which the website experienced following May 7, 2008, civil strife but with a double magnitude.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=120223
Iraq
Four killed execution-style in Iraq (AFP)
AFP – Four men were killed execution-style when gunmen swooped on their town south of Baghdad on Monday, as five people were gunned down in a robbery on a currency exchange office in the Iraqi capital.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101011/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrest
Gunmen storm Baghdad money exchange, kill 5 (AP)
AP – Gunmen using pistols fitted with silencers stormed a money exchange office in central Baghdad on Monday, killing five people and wounding three in a brazen afternoon robbery, police officials said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
Sunday: 8 Iraqis Killed, 18 Wounded
At least eight Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded on a fairly quiet day politically and combatively. While Baghdad and Mosul suffered from the usual violence, Garma once again endured more than one attack. Although this city, just west of the capital, had been mostly quiet in recent years, insurgents are apparently stepping up their terror campaign there. Also, a court acquitted two Iraqis accused of murdering six British soldiers during a riot in 2003.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/10/10/sunday-8-iraqis-killed-18-wounded/
16% of Iraqis suffer from mental disorders
16% of Iraqis suffer from mental and nervous disorders. 98% of these cases are not subject to any treatment. Iraq’s Health Ministry exposed alarming figures during the opening of a mental health special center inside the mental hospital of Ibn Roshod.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-54998-16%25-of-Iraqis-suffer-from-mental-disorders.html
As Fallujah Rebuilds, the Bitterness of War Remains (Time.com)
Time.com – The city that was synonymous with the anti-American insurgency and rebellion has been largely rebuilt. But a former U.S. solder finds memories of war long and unforgiving.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101008/wl_time/08599202418000
New ‘Green Zone’ emerging in Baghdad
The appellation ‘Green Zone’ is in fact a euphemism the U.S. coined to escape being accused of pursuing former leader Saddam Hussien’s oppressive tactics. The U.S.’s Green Zone in Baghdad is exactly the site where Saddam had his fabulous palaces, prisons, security organs, the intelligence apparatus and the headquarters of his feared Special and Republican Forces. Very little has changed since U.S. invasion troops removed Saddam Hussein. His palaces and security and army headquarters, which were no-go and highly protected areas, were turned into new bastions for U.S. military and civilian administration.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2010-10-09\kurd.htm
U.S. and other world news
US Attack Kills 7 People In Pakistan
The strike came just hours after Islamabad agreed to reopen a crucial border crossing to Afghanistan, ending a protest over the fatal shooting of two Pakistani guards by US troops.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/drones-kill-seven-as-afghanistan-crossing-reopens/story-e6frg6so-1225936840443
NATO loses 150 tankers in Pakistan
Almost 150 NATO oil tankers and supply trucks turned to ashes and at least 20 people were killed in Pakistan with 29 more containers burnt in a sixth terrorist attack on Saturday morning since the beginning of October.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-10/09/c_13548885.htm
US ‘tortured suspects’ in secret prison in Poland
The CIA used a secret prison in Poland to detain and torture its key 9/11 suspect, it has been alleged.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11470379
Canadian jailed in U.S. on terrorism charge released
The 10-year-long saga of a Canadian man convicted in the United States of sending money to al-Qaeda may have drawn to an end Friday as he was released from prison and returned to Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-jailed-in-us-on-terrorism-charge-released/article1750572/
Military suicide rates surge
For John Helfert, the problems started with the mortar shells screaming into the Abu Ghraib prison compound, the explosions sending furious shock waves.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/oct/10/na-military-suicide-rates-surge/
FBI allegedly caught using GPS to spy on student (CNN)
(Wired) — A California student got a visit from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do … The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/10/08/fbi.tracks.student.wired/index.html
War against terror taking massive toll on human rights, conference hears
Governments and law-enforcement agencies around the world are using the war against terrorism as a pretext to clamp down on legitimate protest and free themselves from constraints on their activities, an international conference on human rights heard this weekend in Montreal.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/against+terror+taking+massive+toll+human+rights+conference+hears/3652141/story.html
Angle: Muslim law taking hold in parts of US
U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a crowd of supporters that the country needs to address a “militant terrorist situation” that has allowed Islamic religious law to take hold in some American cities. Her comments came at a rally of tea party supporters in the Nevada resort town of Mesquite last week after the candidate was asked about Muslims angling to take over the country, and marked the latest of several controversial remarks by the Nevada Republican. In a recording of the rally provided to The Associated Press by the Mesquite Local News, a man is heard asking Angle : “I keep hearing about Muslims wanting to take over the United States … on a TV program just last night, I saw that they are taking over a city in Michigan and the residents of the city, they want them out. They want them out. So, I want to hear your thoughts about that.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/angle-muslim-law-hold-parts/
Limbaugh: ‘Some people are just born to be slaves’
In a polemic almost worthy of Ayn Rand herself, radio host Rush Limbaugh explained Friday why equality is impossible and declared that “some people are just born to be slaves.” But that’s fine, Limbaugh explained, because “everybody’s needed for something.” “There is no equality,” Limbaugh said on his radio show. “You cannot guarantee that any two people will end up the same. And you can’t legislate it, and you can’t make it happen. You can try, under the guise of fairness and so forth, but some people are self-starters, and some people are born lazy. Some people are born victims. Some people are just born to be slaves.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/limbaugh-some-people-born-slaves/
California shooter says he saw Glenn Beck as ‘schoolteacher’
The 45-year-old “highway shooter” who engaged in a 12-minute shootout with California Highway Patrol officers earlier this year now says Fox News host Glenn Beck has been an inspiration for his activity. In a several thousand word expose for MediaMatters, Pacifica journalist John Hamilton interviewed the so-called highway shooter, Byron Williams, from prison.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/california-shooter-glenn-beck-schoolteacher/
Surprise — The Very Dark Side of U.S. History
When the United States inflicts unnecessary death and destruction, it’s viewed as a mistake or an aberration. In the following article Peter Dale Scott and Robert Parry examine the long history of these acts of brutality, a record that suggests they are neither a “mistake” nor an “aberration.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26550.htm
170 accused of Afghan vote fraud
Of those candidates accused, 136 were referred by the Independent Election Commission and 39 by security institutions, ECC spokesman Ahmad Zia Rafaat told reporters.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1378606/170-accused-of-Afghan-vote-fraud
25 Afghan MPs Accused of Electoral Fraud
Officials in the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said on Sunday that 25 Afghan members of Parliament are accused of committing electoral fraud.
http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/739-25-afghan-mps-accused-of-electoral-fraud
Over 60 percent of Afghans suffer mental health problems
Women and children are at particular risk from stress disorders and mental problems in a country which has suffered more than three decades of war and has an illiteracy rate of over 70 percent.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20101010-297005/Over-60-percent-of-Afghans-suffer-mental-health-problems
Iran says has proof of US nuclear aid to Israel
Tehran’s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili says Islamic Republic has tangible evidence the Washington gave Israel enriched nuclear material.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967661,00.html
Riyadh Islamic authority issues fatwa defending prophet’s wife
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Islamic authority issued a strong defense of the Prophet Mohammad’s wife Aisha on Saturday, after a Kuwaiti activist’s attack on her fed new tensions between the region’s Sunnis and Shiites.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=120194
Wife meets China’s jailed Nobel peace laureate
JINZHOU, China: The wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo met her jailed husband on Sunday, activists said, apparently to inform him he had won the prestigious award amid a media blackout in China.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=120192
Egyptian journalist tells poisoner’s tale
A former aide to late Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser has created an uproar in the Arab world by suggesting that Anwar Sadat was behind Nasser’s untimely demise in 1970. It isn’t the first time such theories have swirled around the death of a political leader in the Middle East. – Sami Moubayed (Oct 8, ’10)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LJ09Ak01.html
Egyptian fiction growing, challenging conservative norms
The Egyptian fiction industry, formerly overshadowed by Beirut and Baghdad, is booming and evolving to challenge norms and reflect a changing society.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/-zjPu7N5mPQ/Egyptian-fiction-growing-challenging-conservative-norms
Death penalty is not the norm in the Middle East | Brian Whitaker
Executions in the US, Iran and China were the main focus of demonstrations on Sunday to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty. Last year, the US executed 52 people and handed out 106 death sentences; in Iran 388 executions were reported and in China the total is believed to run to thousands. Taking population into account, though, Iran probably has the world’s highest execution rate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/11/death-penalty-middle-east
Gwynne Dyer: The rapid rise of Brazil’s Green party
Marina Silva, leader of Brazil’s Green party, has already done something remarkable: she persuaded one-fifth of Brazil’s voters to support the Green party.
http://www.straight.com/article-352155/vancouver/gwynne-dyer-rapid-rise-brazils-green-party
www.TheHeadlines.org
