and other news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
Israeli settlers cause environmental damage to Bethlehem villages
4 Feb – BETHLEHEM, (PIC)– Israeli settlers on Thursday caused environmental damage to fields belonging to residents of the villages of Husan, Wadi Fokin and Nahalin to the west of Bethlehem when they pumped large amounts of waste water the fields. Olive trees and plantations of Palestinian farmers in the villages were damaged, said Osama Shakarneh, head of the Nahaleen village council
Meanwhile, the IOF troops stationed at the Atarah checkpoint, north of Ramallah, intentionally caused traffic jam after they held Palestinian vehicles for long hours for “security” reasons, badly affecting students and sick people seeking medical treatment.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
IOA accelerates settlement activity in WB
5 Feb – RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has been accelerating lately the construction spree in various settlements planted in the West Bank, popular committees against the settlement activity reported on Saturday. They said that IOA bulldozers were seen bulldozing land in villages south of Nablus, north of Ramallah, and near each of Salfit and Al-Khalil. Engineering teams and construction workers are building new settlement units inside and in the vicinity of settlements without any media coverage, the committees said, adding that the media are preoccupied with the events in Egypt.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq
Fifteen wounded in Friday East Jerusalem clashes
Jerusalem – Maysa Abu Ghazala – 5 Feb – Violent clashes erupted on Friday after midday prayers in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud between local Palestinian youths and Israeli forces. Fifteen people suffered from tear gas inhalation and rubber bullet wounds and were treated by medical personnel. Youths threw stones at the Israeli forces, who blocked neighborhood streets and prohibited men and women from attending Friday prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque. Troops responded with gunfire and tear gas canisters.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9512&Itemid=64
January 2011: Wadi Hilweh Information Center Report
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) — The first month of 2011 was marred by escalations in the ongoing political crises of Jerusalem, with increasing numbers of demolitions, arrests, violence and repression of Palestinian protest. This repression has been wanton but by no means random, aimed at several prominent local activists and their families, particularly in Silwan. In January 2011 the Wadi Hilweh Information Center counted 65 arrest, detention and interrogations in Silwan, 25 of them children. An unknown number of youth were also stopped by Israeli forces on the streets of Silwan, who were subjected to on-the-spot background checks. Two homes were demolished during the month, in addition to a hotel, a kiosk, 2 animal barns and a water well. The latter was cleared along with the 40 dunums of land surrounding it in East Jerusalem, belonging to over 6 Palestinian families. Frequent clashes between armed Israeli troops, police, settlers and settler guards and Silwan residents resulted in a high number of injuries of Palestinians such as over 30 cases of injury from rubber bullets (including 2 journalists and 3 children under 13 years) and widespread exposure to toxic tear gas fumes (including several pregnant women).
http://silwanic.net/?p=11607
Violence
Worker hurt by gunfire in north Gaza
5 Feb — Israeli forces shot and injured three Palestinians from the Gaza Strip while they were collecting stones, medics said. Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmeya said a 22-year-old man was hit by a gunshot to the pelvic cavity, and another 19-year-old was hit in his right foot as they were collecting aggregates east of Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood …. He added that a 42-year-old man sustained a moderate injury while collecting stone aggregates north of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza strip … The shooting brings the toll for injuries in that area to 118 since March 2010, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357168
Film review: “The Shooting of Tom Hurndall” / Tim King
(with photos) 3 Feb …This triumphant film is not without an air of victory. Through their diligence, the Hurndall family was finally able to see a real investigation launched by the IDF – Israeli Defence Forces. The soldier ended up receiving the longest sentence ever handed down to a member of the IDF for the murder of a Palestinian civilian – eight years behind bars. The Israeli investigators who eventually prosecute the case push for what we perceive to be justice, but then we are confronted with the part of the story that is agonizing … Because a large number of Arab citizens of Israel are poverty stricken, and they also because they live under an apartheid legal system with clearly different laws for Jews and non-Jews, one option they sometimes take is to join the IDF … The obvious question centers around whether or not Israel finally chose to prosecute this soldier only because he was Arab and not Jewish.
http://salem-news.com/articles/february032011/tom-hurndall-tk.php
Detention
Israel releases Ramallah MP Abd al Jaber Fuqaha
EXCLUSIVE PICTURES – The Israeli occupation authorities have released Islamic bloc politician Mr Abd al-Jaber Fuqaha. He was given his freedom at the al-Thahiriya checkpoint near Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank on 3 February. The elected representative for Ramallah had served 27 months in “administrative detention” in a prison in the Negev Desert. He was met at the checkpoint by the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr Aziz Duweik, along with a delegation of other West Bank politicians.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2023-israel-releases-ramallah-mp-abd-al-jaber-fuqaha
Megiddo prisoners threaten to go on hunger strike over strip searches
NABLUS, (PIC)– The Megiddo prison administration could be exploiting the world’s preoccupation with Egypt to impose heavier restrictions, prisoners say. Prisoners have threatened to kick off an open-ended hunger strike to protest the escalation. The prison administration has engaged in suppressive policies turning life into hell, prisoners wrote in a statement to the public on Friday, saying they are forced into strip searches, severe beatings and property damage during nearly everyday night raids.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx
Ministry of captives condemns PA summoning of captive’s wife in Ramallah
4 Feb – GAZA, (PIC)– The ministry of captives in the Gaza Strip has strongly condemned the PA security forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah for summoning wife of a Palestinian captive incarcerated in an Israeli occupation jail, describing such behavior as a stab in the back of the captives. The ministry added … that the PA security forces summoned Palestinian citizen Fatima Shaker Al-Ajrab, wife of Palestinian captive Hussein Yakoob Al-Ajrab who is under administrative detention in occupation jails since 18 months. He spent several periods in occupation jails totaling ten years. The ministry also explained that Mrs. Al-Ajrab was sick and suffered a stroke recently
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Activism / Solidarity / BDS
Video: Wad Rahhal 4 Feb 2011
Demonstration In Wad Rahhal [over] land some of it taken for an illegal Jewish only colonial settlement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-t9vgPlD_c
Updated: PR firms drop Israeli image campaign
4 Feb – Israel wants to hire PR firms in 10 countries to improve its reputation, according to Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth. Norwegian PR firms have refused.
http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/updated-pr-firms-drop-israeli-image-campaign/
A Jewish group makes waves, locally and abroad
3 Feb – Hundreds of people, mostly Arab-Americans, are expected to gather Saturday in downtown San Francisco to support anti-government protests in Egypt, and a large contingent of Jews representing a Bay Area peace-advocacy group will join them, one of its leaders says. “We are deeply inspired by their push for democracy and freedom,” said Cecilie Surasky, deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, based in Oakland. Ms. Surasky said she hoped a new political order in Egypt would help speed the end of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, which her group opposes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/us/04bcactivists.html?_r=2&ref=global-home
Ishmael Khaldi lecture in Edinburgh cancelled after protests
Ishmael Khaldi’s lecture at the University of Edinburgh, hosted by the university’s Jewish Society, was cancelled after protest by students acting in support of Palestinian refugees. Khaldi, special advisor to Avigdor Lieberman, left the stage after 45 minutes, having been unable to speak due to the group of approximately 50 protesters, whose presence was not removed by security.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60568
Supporters around the world demand justice for Yousef Ikhlayl
5 Feb – Throughout the week supporters around the world honored Yousef Ikhlayl, shot and killed on January 28 by settlers from the Bat Ayn settlement. Demonstrators in Jaffa and San Francisco carried signs with pictures of Yousef and handed out fliers explaining what had happened to him. Protesters in Chicago dropped a banner in his honor, and The Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Scotland honored Yousef at their annual conference. In Santa Fe, a presentation on Yousef drew over 150 participants. Yousef Ikhlayl was shot and killed Friday, January 28, when 100 settlers from the Bat Ayn settlement descended upon the Palestinian villages of Saffa and nearby Beit Ommar in the southern West Bank.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2011/02/05/supporters-around-the-world-demand-justice-for-yousef-ikhlayl/
First International Apartheid Short Film contest announces winners
3 Feb – The winning films are as follows: The Expert Panel prize and Overall prize was awarded to “Road Map to Apartheid” The Global Jury prize was awarded to “Confronting the Wall” The Palestine Jury prize was awarded to “Ali Wall” These powerful films are starting to circulate on the internet all over the world. There have been showing of the films, in the US, Canada, Venezuela , Britain, Australia, France and the Netherlands. [Links above are to YouTube]
http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-international-israeli-apartheid.html
Omar Barghouti: Why is BDS a moral duty today? A response to Bernard-Henri Levy
1 Feb – …Since 2008, the BDS movement has been led by the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations inside historic Palestine and in exile, the BDS National Committee (BNC). Anchored in deep respect for international law and universal human rights, the movement has spread across the world, empowering and mobilizing creative energies and emphasizing sensitivity to the particularities of each context. BDS activists anywhere select their own targets and set the tactics that best suit their political and cultural environment. The fact that BDS categorically rejects racism of all sorts, including anti-Semitism, has further increased its appeal among liberal and progressive movements everywhere.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-barghouti/why-is-bds-a-moral-duty-t_b_816990.html
Anti
The price of success: Fanatical wingnuts target Jewish Voice for Peace activist / Mitchell Plitnick
On the same day that Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) could celebrate an excellent article about it in the New York Times, they also had to send out the alert below, alerting us to another threat to one of their activists. I had reported some time back on a physical attack perpetrated by at least one member of the fanatical extremist group, Stand With Us against JVP members in Berkeley. The violence, however, doesn’t seem to be abating. Quite the opposite, as the defenders of occupation, human rights violations, and ethnic hatred continue to be exposed by groups like JVP, they will increasingly turn to intimidation tactics. It’s all they have.
http://mitchellplitnick.com/2011/02/04/the-price-of-success-fanatical-wingnuts-target-jewish-voice-for-peace-activist/
One Portland grocer that buys into apartheid
Palestinian solidarity activists got an answer drenched in hypocrisy when they asked a Portland grocer to boycott Israeli goods, reports Wael Elasady.
http://salem-news.com/articles/february022011/bds-newseasons-we.php
Siege
Daily life in Gaza / Nathan Stuckey
4 Feb ISM — …Drones and F16’s can often be heard in the air overhead. Thankfully, since I arrived, there haven’t been any strikes that I know of. Gaza is densely populated but the streets are very quiet. Unemployment is brutally high because of the siege, few imports, and exports are impossible, so you don’t see many cars or people on the street. They don’t have jobs to go to, and they don’t have any money to shop with. The apartment has a generator, so it took me a few days to realize just how often there is no electricity in Gaza. If you don’t have a generator there is electricity for less than half the day, and you never know when you will have it.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/02/16521/
Egyptian uprising and Palestine, Israel
In solidarity with Egypt, fifty gather in Bethlehem’s Nativity Square
5 Feb – The protest was organized by human rights activist Dr. Mazen Qumsiyeh, author of the book “Popular Struggle in Palestine,” and coincided with others in Ramallah, Jerusalem, and Gaza. After between 50 and 60 protesters had gathered, flying Egyptian and Palestinian flags in Nativity Square — typically crowded only around Christmas — the group marched toward the marketplace, only to be stopped by local police. “The people in power are trying to stem the tide, they’re trying to go against the inevitable,” said Qumsiyeh.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9515&Itemid=59
Palestinians trapped in Egypt: Ambassador has done little to rescue us
CAIRO, (PIC) 5 Feb — While countries across the globe scramble to evacuate their citizens from volatile protests in Egypt, little has been done to aid Palestinian commuters trapped at the Cairo International Airport. Authorities have detained around 30 Palestinians transiting Egypt in a constricted room for over ten days … The stranded group includes people with illnesses, women, children, and elderly. No one is left in the airport besides them.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Hamas denies involvement in Egyptian upheaval
GAZA, (PIC) 5 Feb — Senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil called on Egyptian news outlets to hold their hands and tongues back from the Palestinians and pay heed to the Egyptians. He condemned in statements on Saturday “fabricated” accusations by the Egyptian Al-Akhbar newspaper dragging Hamas into the Egyptian disorder. “The siege, aggression and injustice are enough for the Palestinians,” he said. Bardawil considered the accusations were designed to alienate Hamas from the west, evade an objective diagnosis of the incidents in Egypt and spread the crisis to the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%
US expects Egypt to keep peace with Israel regardless of who is in power
5 Feb – …”Our expectation would be that whatever the next government of Egypt is, that they would adhere to a treaty signed by the government of Egypt,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Gibbs was referring to the 1978 Camp David Accords, which were brokered by the U.S. and set the stage for the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which is in force to this day.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-expects-egypt-to-keep-peace-with-israel-regardless-of-who-is-in-power-1.341356
Israelis discover a new love for Mubarak / Pierre Klochendler
5 Feb – JERUSALEM – Around the world, peoples revel in anticipation of the fall of a regime that has denied its citizens their basic rights. But most Israelis are haunted by nightmare scenarios of ‘the day after’, as if their country’s stability was anchored in the continuity of the rule of Hosni Mubarak – not in peace.
http://original.antiwar.com/klochendler/2011/02/04/israelis-discover-a-new-love-for-mubarak/
Critical connections: Egypt, the US, and Israel / Alison Weir
5 Feb – Minimally explored in all the coverage of the momentous Egyptian uprising taking place over the last 10 days are the Israeli connections. A central and critical reality is that it is US tax money that has propped up Hosni Mubarak’s despotic regime over the past 30 years, and that this money has flowed, from the beginning, largely on behalf of Israel. Israel is generally a significant factor in events in the Middle East, and to understand ongoing happenings it is important to understand the historic and current Israeli connections. The violent creation, perpetuation, and expansion of a state based on ethnic expulsion of the majority inhabitants has been central to Middle East dynamics ever since Israel was created by European and American Zionists in 1948 as a self-identified “Jewish State.”
http://original.antiwar.com/alison-weir/2011/02/04/critical-connections-egypt-the-us-and-israel%C2%A0/
Politics / Diplomacy
PA rejects Israeli ‘incentives’
BETHLEHEM 5 Feb — The Palestinians rejected a package of economic incentives Israel and the Quartet’s envoy Tony Blair offered Friday. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is playing games and haggling, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement commenting on the offer … Israel proposed Friday to wean Hamas-run Gaza off its infrastructure network, as Netanyahu set out a series of steps intended to ease the economic lot of the Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357074
Egypt overshadows talks on Palestine-Israel
5 Feb – MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – Egypt loomed large over talks of the Middle East Quartet in Germany on Saturday, with fears that a change of regime in Cairo could throw into turmoil an already deeply troubled peace process. “One of our big partners did not want the Quartet to meet at this stage, saying maybe it’s not the moment to be discussing the peace process when the whole region is undergoing dramatic changes,” a European diplomat said. “And our analysis is just the opposite. Because this is happening, the Quartet needs to meet, and the Quartet needs to give a strong signal that the peace process is alive.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110205/wl_mideast_afp/egyptunrestisraelpalestiniansquartetmunich
Resistance factions refuse elections in absence of reconciliation
GAZA, (PIC) 5 Feb — Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip have declared rejection of de facto president Mahmoud Abbas’s call for elections while division was still ruling in the Palestinian arena. Politburo member of the popular resistance factions Hasan Al-Za’lan said in a terse statement after a meeting for those factions on Saturday that the results of such elections would not be binding for them.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%
Palestinian negotiator backtracks on CIA charge
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The PLO’s chief negotiator has backed down from allegations an Al-Jazeera journalist worked for the CIA and stole a cache of secret documents on behalf of the Qatar-based network. Saeb Erekat claimed in January that Clayton Swisher, a US citizen and Al-Jazeera International journalist, was a current member of the CIA who had worked six months in the PLO’s Negotiations Support Unit.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=356993
Other news
Egypt holds gas supply to Israel and Jordan after pipeline explosion
5 Feb 9:33 – Security source in Sinai says ‘foreign elements’ targeted the pipe that supplies Jordan; Egypt supplies Israel with over 40 percent of its natural gas — Saboteurs blew up a pipeline that runs through Egypt’s Northern Sinai, state television reported on Saturday, disrupting flows to Israel and Jordan after Islamist groups called on militants to exploit the unrest that has rocked the government. The Egyptian army closed the main source of gas supplying the pipeline and were trying to control the fires. Following the explosion, Israel Radio said, quoting sources in the consortium overseeing imports, that the blast did not target supplies to Israel but they had been halted as a precaution.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-holds-gas-supply-to-israel-and-jordan-after-pipeline-explosion-1.341368
Egypt pipeline blast affects Jordan
(with map) 5 Feb 14:46 – An explosion at a pipeline in Egypt that supplies gas to Jordan and Israel has been blamed on a gas leak, according to the country’s natural gas company. Earlier reports suggested that sabotage had been behind the blast on Saturday. Magdy Toufik, the head of Egypt’s natural gas company, said in a statement that the fire broke out “as a result of a small amount of gas leaking” in the terminal at the pipeline that runs through the El-Arish area of Egypt’s north Sinai. However, a local security official said an explosive device was detonated inside the terminal, and the regional governor, Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, said he suspected sabotage … Jordan does not have any of its own reserves and currently gets all of its gas from Egypt.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/20112514224368313.html
Israeli official sees cyber alternative to ‘ugly’ war
JERUSALEM, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Cyberwarfare of the kind waged against Iran last year offers advanced nations an alternative to “ugly” military force with its moral costs, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday … [Deputy PM Dan] Meridor, who oversees Israel’s spy services and nuclear affairs, said Israel had learned from news coverage and the ensuing public censure of its conflicts with often outgunned enemies. Over the past two years, Israeli officials have quietly unveiled cyberwar capabilities that they say are a core pillar of defence strategy.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/israeli-official-sees-cyber-alternative-to-ugly-war
Israeli army battles new dangers within / Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Feb 3, 2011 (IPS) – They chant, “One people, one draft!” They raise the flag of unified, across-the- board army enlistment – students and veterans wearing scars of past wars from a few dozen mainstream Zionist civil society organisations and youth movements … They protest against a societal trend which many here view as a threat to national security … Meanwhile, the draft dodgers continue to raise the banner of deferment.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54334
A UFO over Jerusalem? Only if you want to believe in those sorts of things
(with video) Videos have surfaced on YouTube that claim to show a UFO, really a glowing, pulsating ball of light, as it descends from the sky, hovers over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and then shoots straight back up into the night sky. The Sydney Morning Herald says the sightings took place on January 28. A story on The Vancouver Sun offers several choices of video showing the event. Is it a hoax? Probably. Or, maybe, it’s just an illusion, a trick of the eye and there’s some more down-to-earth explanation. But, for the moment, it’s fun to take it at face value and just wonder: What was that?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/02/04/133493963/a-ufo-over-jerusalem-only-if-you-believe-in-those-sorts-things
Analysis / Opinion
Visit Palestine / Paula Rosine Long
5 Feb – This holiday season, an advertisement from the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism was attacked for “ignoring” Israel’s existence. The charges of geographical misrepresentation stem from the following lines: “From the famous cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Nablus, and Gaza, the Palestinian people welcome you to visit this Holy Land … Palestine lies between the Mediterranean Coast and the Jordan River, at the crossroads between Africa and the Middle East.” … Last year, two Israeli tourism ads were banned by the ASA for including landmarks from disputed territories, such as the Dome of the Rock. But if the same standards are applied to Palestine — if Palestine is forbidden to include “disputed” territories — then Palestine has little or nothing to advertise.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11760.shtml
A villa in the jungle? / Uri Avnery
4 Feb …The turmoil in Egypt was caused by economic factors: the rising cost of living, the poverty, the unemployment, the hopelessness of the educated young. But let there be no mistake: the underlying causes are far more profound. They can be summed up in one word: Palestine. In Arab culture, nothing is more important than honor. People can suffer deprivation, but they will not stand humiliation [no people will!]. Yet what every young Arab from Morocco to Oman saw daily was his leaders humiliating themselves, forsaking their Palestinian brothers in order to gain favor and money from America, collaborating with the Israeli occupation, cringing before the new colonizers. This was deeply humiliating for young people brought up on the achievements of Arab culture in times gone by and the glories of the early Caliphs. Nowhere was this loss of honor more obvious than in Egypt, which openly collaborated with the Israeli leadership in imposing the shameful blockade on the Gaza Strip
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1296857067/
Palestine Papers: The Palestinians’ ‘generous offer’ / Ramzy Baroud
3 Feb – As Palestinians are becoming increasingly confident about the authenticity of the Palestine Papers – 1,600 leaked documents that Al Jazeera began publishing on January 23 – they can also find little to be proud of in their contents. According to Palestinian political commentator Mazin Qumsiyeh, the PA’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat “comes out basically pleading and begging sometimes and other times using the presence of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran to try and convince (American and Israeli) officials.” If the conduct of PA officials is not outright betrayal of the rights of their people, then it is, at best, degrading political groveling in exchange for factional gains. Others have convincingly argued that such demeaning behavior is also indicative of the true nature of the negotiations. Palestinians are, in fact, the party desperate for a peace agreement, while the Israelis insist on arrogantly refusing all Palestinian initiatives
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16612
‘NYT’ pulls back the curtain for US: Egypt is about Israel / Ira Glunts
5 Feb – In an extraordinary report which appeared today both on the Internet and in the print edition of The New York Times, writers Helene Cooper and Mark Landler make plain the huge importance of Israel and the Israel lobby in all American government decisions regarding the ongoing crisis in Egypt. Among those quoted in the article, which is innocuously titled “Crisis In Egypt Tests US Ties With Israel,” are some of the usual players in the lobby game … But the most prominent and sane voice is that of Daniel Levy, the former Israeli negotiator who is presently a so-called pro-Israel critic of the occupation and Israeli militarism. Levy declares, “…the core of what is the American interest in this [Egypt]. It’s Israel. It’s not worry about whether the Egyptians are going to close down the Suez Canal, or even the narrower terror issue. It really can be distilled down to one thing, and that’s Israel.”
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/nyt-pulls-back-the-curtain-for-u-s-egypt-is-about-israel.html
Will US collude with the Brotherhood in Egypt?
I was thinking that just recently. The Muslim Brotherhood kept out of the Egyptian fray until the rising looked unstoppable. Hamas wouldn’t allow solidarity with Egypt demonstrations until the Brotherhood was on board. Such opportunism ought to be grist to the American imperial mill. I don’t do punditry so I kept these thoughts to myself until I just read this Guardian article by Noam Chomsky: “A common refrain among pundits is that fear of radical Islam requires (reluctant) opposition to democracy on pragmatic grounds. While not without some merit, the formulation is misleading. The general threat has always been independence. The US and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, sometimes to prevent the threat of secular nationalism…”
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2011/02/will-us-collude-with-brotherhood-in.html
Israel isn’t the center of the Mideast, or of the world / Yitzhak Laor
4 Feb – The problem with Orientalist discourse of our commentators − which sees the world through the prism of the Shin Bet Security Service − is that it helps to seal off the ghetto into which we are gradually locking ourselves, a ghetto within the Middle East and within world history.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-isn-t-the-center-of-the-mideast-or-of-the-world-1.341177
Interview with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti
27 Jan – In this interview Dr. Barghouti addresses the current economic situation in the West Bank, the failed peace process, the Palestine Papers and the responsibility of the international community for the continued occupation and situation of the Palestinians.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=74584
Iraq
Friday: 2 Iraqis killed, 8 wounded
At least two Iraqis were killed and eight more were wounded in light reported violence. Meanwhile, 40 Iraqi interpreters, or their surviving families, are suing the British government for not protecting them sufficiently. Also, civilian and military officials fear that Iraq has become the forgotten war, but its fragile state could mean continued U.S. presence there. During Friday’s sermons in Karbala, clerics warned that mass demonstrations could spread from Tunisia and Egypt into Iraq. Hoping to stave off such unrest, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised to give back half his rumored $360,000 salary to the country.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/02/04/friday-2-iraqis-killed-8-wounded/
Video: The end of farming in the Fertile Crescent
Rick Rowley: A rough short piece from a longer film we’re working on about how the US destroyed agriculture in the place where it was invented 10,000 years ago.
http://blip.tv/file/2116578
Amnesty: Kurdistan authorities must ensure fair trial of man held for 11 years
Amnesty International has urged authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) to ensure the fair trial of a man charged with terrorism-related offences 11 years after his arrest. Walid Yunis Ahmad, was arrested on 6 February 2000 and was held for 10 years without charge or trial. Recently, after international pressure for his release or trial, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities charged him with involvement in “terrorist” activities allegedly committed in 2009 when he had already been in prison for more than nine years.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/kurdistan-authorities-must-ensure-fair-trial-man-held-11-years-2011-02-04
An unsuppressible truth / John Green
(with film) 2 Feb – Only a few years ago the media was full of discussion about the so-called “Gulf war syndrome,” the mysterious illness affecting British and US troops who took part in the Iraq invasion of 1991. Then it dropped off the radar. But in Iraq the civilian population was subject to even more alarming incidences of unexplained illnesses. A recently published study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health confirms what film maker Friedere Wagner has been saying for years.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=74553
Iraq PM pledges not to seek third term
BAGHDAD (AFP) 5 Feb – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday that Egyptians have the right to democracy, and also pledged not to seek a third term in power himself. Maliki also backed constitutional term limits on his office in an interview with AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110205/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpolitics
Son of Babylon: ‘I made it for my family, for Iraq’
Film-making was a lost art in Iraq, until Mohamed Al-Daradji set about making an epic road movie. He tells Kate Connolly how difficult it was, and its significance to everyone involved
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/feb/03/son-of-babylon-iraq-film
Other Mideast / Arab world
Tunisia to lift state of emergency next week
TUNIS, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Tunisia will next week lift a state of emergency that was imposed last month by ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali at the height of a popular revolt, Tourism Minister Mehdi Houass said on Friday.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/tunisia-to-lift-state-of-emergency-next-week
Algeria opposition bent on protest despite government move
ALGIERS, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Algerian opposition groups said on Friday they would probably go ahead with a planned protest march next week despite promises from the president to heed some of their demands and allow more political freedoms. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, keen to stop uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia spreading to his energy-exporting state, said on Thursday he would give the opposition air time on television and soon lift a 19-year-old state of emergency.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/algeria-opposition-bent-on-protest-despite-govt-move
Syria: Gang attacks peaceful demonstrators; police look on
3 Feb – Syria’s government should immediately cease its intimidation and harassment of demonstrators expressing solidarity with pro-democracy campaigners in Egypt, Human Rights Watch said today … On February 2, a group of 20 people dressed in civilian clothing beat and dispersed 15 demonstrators who had assembled in Bab Touma in old Damascus to hold a candlelight vigil for Egyptian demonstrators, one of the gathering’s organizers told Human Rights Watch. The police, who were present nearby, failed to intervene, the sources said. When demonstrators went to the local police station to file a complaint, a security official insulted and slapped Suheir Atassi, one of the main organizers, and accused her of being a “germ” and an agent of foreign powers.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/03/syria-gang-attacks-peaceful-demonstrators-police-look
Facebook fails to ignite protests in Syria
DAMASCUS (AFP) — Rain, not protesters, flooded the streets of Damascus on Friday after Muslim prayers when a “day of anger” had been promoted by online activists in an echo of Egypt’s popular uprising. For a week, Facebook activists had touted Friday as the day they would mark a peaceful “2011 Syrian revolution” to “end corruption and tyranny.” The group’s page had amassed over 12,000 ‘likes’ on the social networking platform by early Friday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357056
U.S.
US: Conspiracy charges filed against Muslim students
5 Feb (AP) A group of Muslim students accused of disrupting a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California, Irvine, were charged Friday with misdemeanor conspiracy counts, ending speculation about what would come from their actions nearly a year ago.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4024067,00.html
$5 million lawsuit targets Jimmy Carter for ‘attacking Israel’
WASHINGTON – Former President Jimmy Carter has become the target of a class action lawsuit over ostensibly mean things he said about Israel in his best-selling 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. The lawsuit, filed in New York by an Israeli firm, alleges that the book “contained numerous false and knowingly misleading statements intended to promote the author’s agenda of anti-Israel propaganda and to deceive the reading public instead of presenting accurate information as advertised.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/carter-sued-5-million-attacking-israel-book/
Lawless FBI intelligence gathering practices / Stephen Lendman
4 Feb – A new Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) report titled, “Patterns of Misconduct: FBI Intelligence Violations from 2001 – 2008” based its findings on nearly 2,500 FOIA-obtained document pages, revealing “alarming (lawless) trends….” They suggest far more frequent civil liberty violations than previously known, including: (1) grossly understated numbers; (2) long delays between violations and reporting them; (3) types of violations involved, including: … (d) complicity of ISPs, phone companies, financial institutions and credit agencies, supplying unauthorized personal information without their customers’ knowledge or consent. (4) flagrant ones, including false declarations to courts, supplying bogus evidence to get indictments, and accessing protected documents without warrants.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=74601
Guantánamo: a tale of two Tunisias / Andy Worthington
In the last week, there have been two significant developments. In the first, former Guantánamo prisoner Abdallah Hajji (also identified as Abdullah bin Amor), who is 55 years old, was freed from prison in Tunisia “as part of a promise by the interim government to free all political prisoners.” A former member of the previously banned Islamist political party Ennahdha … Hajji, who was seized in April 2002 in Pakistan, where he had been living with his wife and children since fleeing Tunisia in 1989, had, in 1995, been sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison, on terrorism-related charges that his lawyer was convinced had been extracted through the torture and abuse of other prisoners in Tunisian custody.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=74598
