And other news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
In wake of fourth demolition, Tana villagers vow to rebuild
Nablus – PNN 10 Feb – On Wednesday, Israeli army bulldozers demolished all but the mosque in the tiny village of Tana, east of Nablus, because it did not have the required permits. On Thursday afternoon, the villagers began to rebuild. This is their fourth time. Thirty-five buildings in all were destroyed, most of them makeshift houses constructed of metal siding, pipes, and blue tarp. Now most of the roughly 200 villagers made homeless by the demolitions must move to nearby caves as winter winds and rain buffet this mountainous region of the West Bank. Livestock sheds were destroyed, so five thousand sheep are shivering. Nobody, however, is leaving Tana. “This is my life,” said one man, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals. “I was born here and I have my children here. I won’t leave.”
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9540&Itemid=62
Tadhamon: Israel demolishes 27 Palestinian structures in January
NABLUS, (PIC) 10 Feb — A report issued by the Tadhamon (Solidarity) human rights group says Israel leveled 27 structures in the West Bank during January. That includes entire villages in the Negev and Jodan Valley, the Shepherd Hotel in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah district and a school in Al-Khalil. The demolitions left hundreds of Palestinians homeless, the report documents.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
‘Settler marathon’ to pass through Hebron for 1st time – Noam Sheizaf
10 Feb – Jews in Hebron live in the heart of a Palestinian city, guarded around the clock by hundreds of soldiers. The settlers’ presence in the heart of Hebron has been a source of continued violence, including the murder of 29 Palestinians by Dr. Baruch Goldstein at the Cave of Patriarchs in February 1994. In previous years the run was confined to Jewish settlements in the Hebron area. But the 3rd Hebron Run will pass, for the first time, inside Hebron itself, which but for the few guarded Jewish neighborhoods, is an Arab city. This Jews-only sports event will be another symbol of the ethnic segregation in the West Bank.
http://972mag.com/settlers-marathon-to-pass-through-palestinian-hebron-for-1st-time/
Jerusalem MPs hold Palestinian Authority complicit in the Judaization of the holy city
9 Feb – Jerusalem MPs threatened with deportation from their home city by Israel have accused the Palestinian Authority and what they call “Arab and international complicity” responsible for the increasing Judaisation of occupied East Jerusalem. The MPs’ statement was prompted by the decision of the Zionist state to construct several settlement units in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem … The three members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who are seeking refuge at the headquarters of the International Red Cross in Jerusalem, said that the occupation authority’s latest settlement-related decision could not have been made without what is in effect the agreement of the Palestinian leadership to give up Jerusalem by considering that it is negotiable.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2037-jerusalem-mps-hold-palestinian-authority-complicit-in-the-judaization-of-the-holy-city
Frozen out in the West Bank / Bill Van Eswald
11 Feb – …Israel’s treatment of settlers and Palestinians in Area C is not just lopsided: Israeli policies systematically promote settlements while harshly discriminating against Palestinians living under exclusive Israeli control, barring them from paving roads, building schools, cultivating olive trees, and repairing wells. Israel claims these policies stem from security needs, but in our research for a new report, we found that they bear no conceivable relationship to the security of settlers or other Israelis.
A settlement in the northern Jordan Valley boasts a swimming pool and grows crops for export, while Palestinian villagers next door sometimes go without running water for up to three days at a time in the summer because the settlement’s wells have dried theirs out
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-van-esveld/frozen-out-in-the-west-ba_b_821341.html
Violence / Incursions / Attacks
Palestinian child hit by Israeli police car in Silwan
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 11 Feb — An Israeli police car ran over a young Palestinian girl on the main street of Ain al-Luza neighborhood in Silwan yesterday, 9 February. Witnesses reported that the police vehicle had been speeding through the streets of Silwan when it ran in to 15 year old Hanin Khalil Ghanayem on her way home from school, pushing her for a distance of approximately 3 metres and then colliding with a Palestinian car. The incident, which is unfortunately not the first of its kind in Silwan, was well-documented by locals with cameras. Ghanayem was rushed to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem.
http://silwanic.net/?p=11743
New Gaza factory, jobs destroyed in Israeli attack
EI 10 Feb – “I still cannot believe my eyes as I see the machines of our new factory, scattered to all corners,” said Rabah al-Hatto as he surveyed the rubble of his recently-established plastic water tank factory in northeast Gaza, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes early yesterday. “What have I and the twenty workers here done to find ourselves jobless?” al-Hatto told The Electronic Intifada. The factory was due to start distributing its products in the local market in two weeks.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11795.shtml
PCHR strongly condemns destruction of civilian property in the Gaza Strip
PCHR strongly condemns the targeting of civilian establishments in the Gaza Strip by aircraft of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) early this morning. Ten Palestinians, including two women and a child, were wounded as a result of the bombing. In addition, a factory was destroyed, a drug store [storage facility] belonging to the Ministry of Health in Gaza was set on fire, and a school and wood warehouses were partially damaged. PCHR calls upon the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war, to exert pressure on IOF to ensure respect for the provisions of the Convention, especially those relating to the prohibition of the destruction of civilian property and objects and to the special protection ensured by the Convention to medical facilities and medical personnel.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JARR-8DXE74?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Siege / Restriction of movement / Rights violations
Weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory 3-9 Feb 2011
Excerpt: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 46 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 27 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children. IOF moved into al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem. They raided a two-story house belonging to the family of Jameel Salem Balboul, 68, an extended family comprised of 5 small families. They harassed members of the family, especially a 7-year-old child, who was evacuated to the hospital. He is now facing difficulties in speaking. When IOF left the house, the family found the they Israeli soldiers extensively damaged the house. Israeli soldiers further arrested two of the owner’s sons. The family discovered also that Israeli soldiers had stolen two kilograms of gold and US$ 29,000.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JARR-8DYCPM?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Gaza under total closure over weekend
11 Feb – Israeli authorities announced that both crossings into the Gaza Strip would be closed on Friday and Saturday, Palestinian officials said. ggCrossings liaison official Raed Fattouh said no goods or aid would enter Gaza until Sunday.q21
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358948
Foreign press intimidated by Israeli and Egyptian security
Israeli airport security and Egyptian border control prevent Roee Ruttenberg and his cameraman from filming a simple assignment for an international media outlet in Sharm el Sheikh …We arrived at Tel Aviv’s domestic airport, Sde Dov, at 6am to catch our morning flight. Security at Sde Dov usually takes 30-45 seconds. Unless you are travelling with an Arab cameraman … we were instructed to take the next flight to Eilat and told our camera would come on the following flight. Knowing from the experience of colleagues that we would likely receive our camera in pieces — if at all — as can be the case when Israeli security attempts to harass and intimidate foreign media, I responded, “However long the camera scan takes, we prefer to stay with our video gear and travel with it.”
http://972mag.com/foreign-press-intimidated-by-israeli-and-egyptian-security/
Activism / Solidarity
Israeli troops attack anti-wall protests organized in West Bank villages, Jerusalem
Bethlehem – PNN 11 Feb — Israeli soldiers used tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets on Friday to attack anti-wall protests organized in southern and central West Bank villages as well as the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Two international supporters were arrested by Israeli troops during a protest against the wall and settlements in the old city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. International and Israeli supporters joined residents to protest the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Old City. People tried to enter al-Shuhada Street, closed by the army since 1994, but soldiers rebuffed them with tear gas, rifle butts and batons.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9547&Itemid=28
Turkey says 5 flotilla victims shot at close range
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) 11 Feb — A Turkish government inquiry into Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American says Israeli soldiers shot five victims at close range. The report released Friday says two of the victims were killed even before soldiers boarded the Turkish ship in May. The report says Israel blatantly violated international laws.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110211/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_israel
Detention – by Israel and the PA
Man appeals for release of sick brother
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 11 Feb — The brother of a sick Palestinian detained by Israel on Friday appealed for his immediate release, a detainees’ center said. Khaled Al-Shawish is in a wheelchair and is only given painkillers, which he has become addicted to, his brother Nasser said. Nasser said he didn’t recognize his brother on his last visit as he had lost so much weight.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358951
Palestinian detainees clash with prison administration
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 11 Feb – Palestinians detained in Israel’s Majedo jail were beaten after arguing with the prison’s administration, a detainees’ center said. Detainees argued with prison authorities when they were told they must pay to keep their property in a safe place, the center said. The prisoners were moved to other jails, and neither the detainees nor the center were informed where they were taken.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358968
Prisoners’ families want UN to pressure Israel
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 10 Feb – Relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails urged the United Nations on Thursday to exert pressure on Israel to respect their human rights.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110210/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictgazaun
MPs in West Bank: PA still prosecutes civilians before military courts
RAMALLAH, (PIC) 11 Feb — Palestinian lawmakers from the change and reform bloc have asserted Thursday that the PA still prosecute Palestinian civilians before military courts despite claims that it has halted such practices…The MPs cited a number of cases to substantiate their claims including the case of four Palestinian citizens Abdullah Al-Akr, Abdul Hakeem Al-Kadah, Emad Al-Tanbour, and Munir Al-Masri from Nablus city who were sentenced by a military court to different imprisonment terms on January, 19, 2011 despite the fact that a number of them have supreme court decisions ordering their release.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Abbas’s militia continue to detain 70 Najah University students
NABLUS, (PIC) 11 Feb — The Islamic bloc at Najah University in Nablus said that Abbas’s militia continue to detain 70 of the university’s students on a political background, the bloc said in a statement.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Palestinian lawyers suspended their work in the West Bank for a day
RAMALLAH, (PIC) 11 Feb — The Palestinian Lawyers’ Union decided on Thursday to suspend their work for one day to protest the assault of one of their members at the hands of two security men answerable to de facto PA president Mahmoud Abbas. Two security men working at the magistrate court in Bethlehem stormed the lawyers’ office at the court building and physically assaulted lawyer Ahmad Faraj dragging him on the floor bruising him all over which necessitated his hospitalisation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Egyptian revolution and Palestine
Palestinians can only watch as Egyptians are living their dream / Gideon Levy
11 Feb ….Residents of Jenin’s refugee camp closely followed events in the land of the Nile, in a mood of melancholy jealousy. Each night they crowded into homes to watch television and see what was going on in Cairo. But no winds of change are blowing in the West Bank. No solidarity demonstration was staged; not a single poster of support was to be seen on the streets. The pining for freedom is to be found only in the Jenin theater … Camp residents saw what just a few days of popular protest can do – topple a tyrannical regime that has been in power for decades. Yet here in the camp, a struggle that has lasted decades, a mass, armed and sometimes violent campaign for freedom, has changed nothing. All is despair. At the end of last week, the IDF once again invaded the camp and in the dark of night whisked four young men from their beds. Nobody in the camp knew why this happened, or where the men were taken. That’s just the way the world turns.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/palestinians-can-only-watch-as-egyptians-are-living-their-dream-1.342762
Palestinian escape stories
Al-Ahram – Although a week has passed since his escape with thousands of other detainees from Abu Zaabal prison, the marquee that the family of Moetassem Al-Qawqa put up to celebrate was still packed with well-wishers from all corners of the Gaza Strip this week. Al-Qawqa himself appeared fatigued from hugging the assembled well-wishers despite his strong physique.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1034/sc1802.htm
Report: Israel says ready for Friday protests
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 10 Feb — Israeli security forces are preparing for “any fallout” from the mass protests in Tunis and Egypt, an Israeli official told the Hebrew-language website Enyan Merkazi. Police, border guards, army, intelligence forces, and the Mossad are on alert, according to the report. With Facebook groups calling for protests Friday, against both the Hamas and Fatah governments in the West Bank and Gaza, and Israelis protesting a recent hike in water and electricity prices, the official said there are fears that protests will spread to Palestinian areas in Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358697
Al-Quds Brigades train in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) — Islamic Jihad’s armed wing underwent military training overnight Thursday in the southern Gaza Strip, the head of the brigades said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358962
Politics / International relations
UN rights head raps Israel over settlements impact
JERUSALEM (AFP) 11 Feb — UN human rights chief Navi Pillay sharply criticised Israel on Friday for ignoring the harm done to Palestinians by its Jewish settlement policy and the construction of a vast West Bank barrier. She also condemned Palestinian militants in Gaza, describing their rocket attacks on Israel as “war crimes” which were a “major obstacle” to efforts to broker a peace agreement between the two sides.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110211/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansunrights
Palestinian FM accuses some European countries of hindering EU Mideast involvement
10 Feb – …France is eager to increase the EU’s political role in the Middle East in addition to its economic contributions, but countries like Holland “obstructed” the French trend, [Reyad] al-Malki told the Voice of Palestine Radio on Thursday.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7283759.html
Other news
Water shortages to force Mideast cooperation: study
GENEVA (AFP) 10 Feb – A report for the Swiss and Swedish governments warned on Thursday that water shortages in the Middle East were so alarming that opposing camps in the region would have little choice but to cooperate. Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey called for closer cooperation between Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinians and Israel on managing increasingly scarce water resources, arguing that water could also be used to forge a “blue peace.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110210/wl_mideast_afp/mideastwaterdiplomacyswitzerlandturkeyiraq
Palestinian rights groups stand up for their Israeli counterparts
RAMALLAH, Feb 9 (WAFA) – A number of Palestinian human rights organizations defended in a recent press release the work of the Israeli human rights organizations, accusing the Israeli government and parliament of attempting to hide the truth by investigating the work of these organizations. “The Israeli radical right has recently endorsed a new act which establishes a parliamentary commission to investigate the transparent Israeli human rights organizations’ work and funding,” said nine West Bank and two Gaza-based Palestinian human rights organizations.”“This act represents a direct attack on these organizations as well as the Palestinian victims whom they work with,” they said.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15127
Germany to donate €6.5 million to Palestinian education sector
Ramallah (PNN) 9 Feb — Germany signed an agreement to support the Palestinian Education sector with €6.5 million on Wednesday … With this agreement, the German government increases its overall support to the first Joint Financing Arrangement in the Palestinian Territory to a total amount of €39 million. Currently, four countries – Finland, Germany, Ireland and Norway – have signed the Joint Financing Arrangement for the Education Sector with an overall amount of approx. US$92 million so far.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9532&Itemid=61
PCBS holds workshop for Palestinian workers’ safety in Israel
RAMALLAH, Feb 9 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) discussed the risky behavior of Palestinian workers in Israel in a seminar it held on Tuesday at its Ramallah headquarters … Awad noted that the workers are constantly at risk of AIDS and HIV transmission due to their daily contact with Israelis, among whom rates of STDs are much higher than in the Palestinian Territory. She warned that the results of the study indicate the danger to the workers’ health due to the chance for more open sex in Israel … [The study] is important because it sheds light on a vulnerable segment of the Palestinian society, especially since one fifth of those working in Israel are under the age of 25 and nearly half of them have received no schooling after the age of 10.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15124
UN envoy on sport for peace cheers young Palestinian women footballers
10 Feb – The United Nations special envoy on sport today concluded a five-day mission to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories by watching a football match between two women’s teams in the West Bank, an event he said filled him with optimism for the cause of gender equality in the region.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37510&Cr=sports&Cr1=
Israel
Netanyahu presents benefits package in bid to stave off general strike
Haaretz 10 Feb – PM says minimum wage to increase while gasoline, water, public transportation prices to decrease … The steps Netanyahu presented along with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Thursday are an effort to stave off a general strike due to the recent price hikes of basic goods such as bread, water, and gasoline.
http://www.haaretz.com/netanyahu-presents-benefits-package-in-bid-to-stave-off-general-strike-1.342541
Ministers mull Google Maps street view for Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
Haaretz 11 Feb – A ministerial task force has been appointed to decide whether to allow Google to photograph streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as part of its Street View service.
The panel, which will start work next week, will decide where to permit the service in view of the security issues it raises.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/ministers-mull-google-maps-street-view-for-tel-aviv-and-jerusalem-1.342614
Analysis / Opinion
Hypocrisy is exposed by the winds of change / Robert Fisk
10 Feb – So when the Arabs cry out for the very future that Obama outlined, we show them disrespect — There is nothing like an Arab revolution to show up the hypocrisy of your friends. Especially if that revolution is one of civility and humanism and powered by an overwhelming demand for the kind of democracy that we enjoy in Europe and America.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-hypocrisy-is-exposed-by-the-wind-of-change-2209881.html
Book review: The makings of history – Army speak / Tom Segev
Haaretz 11 Feb – There is no mention of the Bus 300 affair. By no means do we learn about the failings of the wars in Lebanon, especially the second one, and there is not even a smidgen of truth about Operation Cast Lead.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/the-makings-of-history-army-speak-1.342705
Iraq
Hundreds of Iraqis protest lack of basic services
BAGHDAD, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets on Friday to demonstrate against a lack of basic services, the latest in a series of protests that have swept the country as turmoil rocks other parts of the Arab world.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/hundreds-of-iraqis-protest-lack-of-basic-services
Blast kills Shi‘a pilgrims in Iraq
At least eight people have been killed and 20 injured in a car bomb attack north of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. Officials said women and children were among those killed when the car, which was parked on the side of the road, blew up on Thursday afternoon. Raysan Abood, an eyewitness, said the car was disguised by flags commonly flown at such commemorations and was playing mourning music, allowing it to penetrate the crowd of pilgrims. “I saw seven dead bodies. I know them by name. They were our friends and they were delivering food and tea to the pilgrims who came from other towns,” Abood said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011210132040246123.html
Tribal clash kills 3 near Iraq’s oil-rich Kirkuk
KIRKUK, Iraq, Feb 11 (Reuters) – A tribal dispute between Arabs and Turkmen over land near Iraq’s oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk led to clashes that killed three people and wounded another eight on Friday, police and provincial officials said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tribal-clash-kills-3-near-iraqs-oil-rich-kirkuk
Iraq: Judicial security reforms take aim at gender-based violence
Baghdad 9 Feb — As it fights to improve security in the country as a whole, the Government of Iraq is also advancing a series of gender-related rule-of-law programmes to enhance protections for women in particular, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KKAA-8DX4Z7?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Iraq refugees in US scrutinized for al-Qa‘ida links
WASHINGTON (AP) 11 Feb — Hundreds of refugees who sought shelter in the United States during the early years of the Iraq war are coming under fresh scrutiny from U.S. government security officials for possible links to al-Qaida’s affiliate in Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110211/ap_on_re_us/us_iraq_refugees_terror
Iraqis in Egypt offered free flights home
BAGHDAD (AP) 11 Feb – Iraq has offered food, financial aid and free flights home to its citizens who had moved to Egypt to escape civil strife at home but may now feel threatened by unrest in their host country, officials said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/11/iraqis-egypt-free-flights-home
Other Mideast / Arab world
Tunisia says it seizes armed group linked to ex-leader
TUNIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Tunisian authorities said on Thursday they had detained an armed group, linked to ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, which they suspected of involvement in a wave of violence. While security forces wrestled with persistent unrest, an official for the first time laid out a blueprint for how the country, subject to de facto one-party rule for most of its history, would hold democratic elections.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tunisia-says-it-seizes-armed-group-linked-to-ex-leader
Tunisia gov’t has plan to recover ex-regime assets
UNIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Tunisia’s provisional cabinet on Thursday adopted a battery of “practical mechanisms” to enable it to recover assets of figures of the ousted regime, the official news agency said. Once recovered, “the smuggled and plundered funds and assets” will be used for the development of mainly poorer areas in the country, it said.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tunisian-cabinet-adopts-mechanisms-to-recover-smuggled-funds-and
Jordan’s new cabinet looks oddly familiar
CSM 10 Feb – Using cabinet ministers as scapegoats, only to replace them with a nearly identical lineup, is a well-worn tactic in Jordan. Still, many people appear cautiously optimistic that political reforms are nearing.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0210/Jordan-s-new-cabinet-looks-oddly-familiar
Lebanon’s Sunnis warn against dropping tribunal
BEIRUT (AFP) 11 Feb — Lebanon’s highest Sunni Muslim authority on Thursday warned the next cabinet against abandoning the UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358889
Algerians say they want change but not chaos
ALGIERS, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Many Algerians believe their country needs new people at the helm to restore hope and create jobs, but change must be smooth because after years of Islamist strife in which 200,000 died they cannot face more turmoil. Algerians have watched with fascination the revolts in Egypt and neighbouring Tunisia, and opposition groups say they will defy a police ban and hold a protest march in the capital on Saturday inspired by the popular uprisings elsewhere.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/feature-algerians-say-they-want-change-but-not-chaos
US welcomes Syria access to Facebook, YouTube
WASHINGTON (AFP) 11 Feb — An aide to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday welcomed Syria’s decision to give its people direct access to Facebook and You Tube, but voiced fears that users would run risks without freedom of expression.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358776
WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks: Economic reasons behind the siege on Gaza
AIC 10 Feb – The ripple effects of the Wikileaks documents are still being felt, but until recently Israeli officials continued to boast that the documents were ‘good for Israel’ … More recent cables have provided unflattering revelations about Israel’s policies in the Gaza Strip, quoting Israeli officials spelling out their attempts to keep the Gaza Strip on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe. They have also described how corruption is rife at the checkpoints through which goods are brought to Gaza. One cable, however, does contain some new information and has so far received no coverage at all. The cable, titled “Shin Bet Talks Gaza Economics,” was written by David R. Burnett, Economic Counselor in the US embassy in Tel Aviv. It describes a briefing given to Embassy officials by senior members of the Israeli Shin Bet*, on how Israel uses the banking system in Gaza to increase the political influence of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Gaza, by attempting to starve the Hamas government of cash.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/economy-of-the-occupation/3283-wikileaks-economic-reasons-behind-the-siege-on-gaza-
Afghanistan
Afghan president confirms US demand for permanent bases
WSWS 11 Feb – Afghan President Hamid Karzai has confirmed for the first time that the Obama administration has demanded the establishment of a system of permanent US military bases across the country, effectively laying the basis for an indefinite neo-colonial occupation.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=74858
Afghan state seeks control over abused women
KABUL, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s government is considering taking over the running of women’s shelters, subjecting victims of domestic abuse to medical examinations and near-incarceration under a proposal rights groups say is a concession to the Taliban.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/afghan-state-seeks-control-over-abused-women
U.S., other world news
Oxfam: Aid increasingly wasted on security aims
LONDON (AlertNet) 10 Feb – Billions of dollars in aid have been spent on projects that are expensive, unsustainable and sometimes even dangerous, because donor governments are increasingly using the money to support their short-term military and security goals, international aid agency Oxfam said on Thursday.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/aid-increasingly-wasted-on-security-aims-oxfam
No. 1 priority for US security: domestic terrorism, report says
Washington (CSM) 10 Feb — The heads of America’s intelligence agencies rolled out their annual National Threat Assessment Thursday, warning members of Congress about the increasing danger that homegrown terrorists pose to the country.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20110210/ts_csm/362663
Prison term cut for bin Laden cook
The former cook of al-Qa‘eda’s Osama bin Laden has had his Guantánamo prison sentence reduced to two years from 14, under a plea agreement that remains secret. The US military said Ibrahim al-Qosi’s sentence had been reduced on Wednesday, contingent on his adherence to agreed upon terms.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/02/201121044251873985.html
www.theheadlines.org
