A Palestinian boy sits on a rooftop near the fenced-in al-Ghirayim family house between the Jewish settlement of Givon Hahadasha and the West Bank village of Beit Ijza. (Photo: AP/Sebastian Scheiner)
Palestinian house inside cage in Jewish settlement
(AP) 23 Feb — BEIT IJZA, West Bank — The al-Ghirayib family lives in one of the stranger manifestations of Israel’s 43-year occupation of the West Bank: a Palestinian house inside a metal cage inside an Israeli settlement. The family’s 10 members, four of them children, can only reach the house via a 40-yard (meter) passageway connecting them to the Arab village of Beit Ijza farther down a hill. The passageway passes over a road used by Israeli army jeeps and is lined on both sides with a 24-foot-high (8-meter) heavy-duty metal fence. The same fence rings the simple one-story house, separating it from the surrounding settlement houses. Some of those dwellings are so close that the family can hear the insults shouted by a nearby Jewish neighbor.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Israel bars ICRC aid from reaching homeless Bedouin
[with video] HEBRON (Ma‘an) 23 Feb — Residents of the tiny Bedouin hamlet of Amniyr crowded into a small cave in the rocky hills south of Hebron to sleep on Wednesday night, after their tent homes were destroyed by Israeli demolition crews claiming the hamlet as state land … Hajj Mahmoud said the International Committee for the Red Cross had attempted to deliver aid and supplies, after calls from residents and observers from the Christian Peacemaker Teams to provide new shelters. The elder said he was unsure what the ICRC had brought, however, because Israeli troops prevented ICRC crews from unloading the supplies.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362567
Israeli authorities prevent street paving in West Bank
SALFIT, 22 Feb (WAFA) — The Israeli military authorities Tuesday warned the village council of Iskaka, in the Salfit region, north of the West Bank, against paving a street in the village. The two kilometers road, which is in al-Harayeq area near water springs west of the village, has been originally a road which farmers have been using for years to reach their land. Samir Haris, head of Iskaka village council, said that by preventing the village to pave the road after getting it almost ready, the Israeli authorities aim to block access to land in order to take it over for the benefit of Ariel settlement nearby, particularly because of the water spring in the valley.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15273
Witnesses: Israeli bulldozers uproot 250 olive trees
HEBRON (Ma‘an) — Israeli forces on Monday uprooted 250 olive trees in Al-Jab’a northwest of Hebron, locals said. Witnesses said two bulldozers uprooted the trees, which were loaded onto trucks and transported to Israel [where they will be sold for Jewish gardens, if the past is any guide] … The area is 500 meters from the illegal Beit Ein settlement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362399
Israeli tanks escort bulldozers in Gaza raid
KHAN YOUNIS (ABNA) 22 Feb - Israeli occupation forces (IOF) mounting tanks and armored vehicles raided eastern Gaza village of Qarara to the east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday morning. Witnesses reported that the IOF troops fired at residential quarters in the area while the bulldozing of land was proceeding.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=227737
Israel targets water wells and tents near Hebron
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph) 22 Feb — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished Tuesday eight tents and two water wells leaving great devastation in the area of Swasia, eastern Yatta town south of Hebron city. Local sources confirmed that Israeli soldiers came from Swasia settlement surrounded the area and harassed teachers of a school near the place of demolitions.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/8536-israel-targets-water-wells-and-tents-near-hebron.html
Villagers: Settlers torch two cars near Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 23 Feb — Israeli settlers set fire to two cars in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, residents said, and threw a Molotov Cocktail at a home east of the area. Fatah official charged with monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank Ghassan Doughlas, said Jewish settlers from the Barakha settlement were behind the arson … The Burin village has seen several waves of settler violence over the past years. In the past week, settlers in the area uprooted olive trees planted by UNRWA officials, and injured two others in a mob attack.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362556
Settlers injure 2 Palestinians near Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 22 Feb — Thirty settlers on Tuesday attacked and injured two Palestinians in Burin village in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan Doughlas, who monitors settlement activity for the PA, said residents of the illegal Bracha settlement surrounded homes in the eastern side of the south Nablus village. They attacked and injured Fares Nassar and Ahmad Samir Eid, he said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362448
Violence / Incursions / Clashes
Clash east of Gaza City, 11 injured
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 Feb — An Israeli shell hit east of Gaza City on Wednesday afternoon, with initial reports saying 11 were left injured, including three members of an armed group and three children, witnesses said. The shelling came moments after four Israeli bulldozers and four tanks entered into the Gaza Strip, apparently preparing to tear up agricultural lands along the occupied border zone. The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, issued a statement shortly after the incident saying two mortar shells were fired on the bulldozers and tanks as they entered the Gaza border.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362626
Another version:
Palestinians fire mortars, IDF fires back
Ynet 23 Feb — IDF fires into Gaza after three mortars hit Negev, explains troops threatened by explosive device … The IDF spokesman said in response that during a routine IDF operation near the northern part of the Gaza Strip security fence, an explosive device was activated against the IDF followed by a mortar shell. He added that no injures or damage was reported. According to him, the IDF recognized a few terrorists in the area and fired tank shells at them.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4032919,00.html
Israeli forces shoot Gaza man in leg
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 Feb — A 22-year-old Palestinian man was injured by Israeli fire on Wednesday afternoon, telling medics he was shot while collecting construction aggregates east of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip … An Israeli military spokeswoman said the shooting was a “usual incident,” adding that forces stationed on the border zone acted according to military protocol … In 2010, Gaza medics say 88 people were wounded in the legs by Israeli fire along the border area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362698
Detention
Witnesses: Undercover Israeli force abducts Hamas leader
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 22 Feb — An Israeli undercover force on Tuesday entered the northern West Bank village of Salem and abducted a Hamas leader, locals said. Eyewitnesses told Ma‘an that the force arrived in two trucks with Palestinian license plates and surrounded the home of Hamas leader Awadallah Shtayya, 44, before breaking in and abducting him.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362351
Israel lures Gaza man offering medical treatment
GAZA, (PIC) 22 Feb — Rights groups in Palestine say Israel exploited a Gaza woman’s sickness to capture her brother. In a joint statement, the doctors’ league for human rights, and the Meezan, and Justice rights groups said Mohammed Moussa Mohammed Zaarab, 28, of Rafah was arrested while taking his sister Hanan, 43, to be treated for cancer and neuritis beyond Gaza borders.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Judge refuses to address Siyam’s house arrest sentence
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 22 Feb — The judge at Wadi Hilweh Information Center director Jawad Siyam’s first hearing today, regarding his house arrest sentence, postponed the hearing without examining his file. Siyam’s lawyer was not permitted to speak at the hearing regarding either his investigation or house arrest. Israeli police presented new charges against Siyam, prompting the judge to postpone his house arrest hearing until 22 March. The move was widely regarded by those attending in solidarity with Siyam as an attempt on the police’s part to ensure Siyam’s detention period extended, and one that was enabled by the presiding judge.
http://silwanic.net/?p=12391
Son of Hamas lawmaker among 6 detained overnight
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 22 Feb — Israeli military officials said six were detained from the West Bank overnight, with Palestinian security sources identifying one of the men taken as the son of a Hamas lawmaker. Sources said Israeli forces entered Idhna village in the southern West Bank before sunrise, where Mujahid Abu Juheisha, son of Palestinian lawmaker Muhammad Abu Juheisha was detained. A second force entered the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, taking two men and a child.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362193
Israeli forces arrest 10 Palestinians in West Bank raids
WEST BANK, 22 Feb (WAFA) — Israeli forces arrested Tuesday 10 Palestinians after raiding several areas, according to local sources. They raided Beit Furik, a village east of Nablus, Beit Ummar, a town north of Hebron, and Silat-al-Harithiya, a village west of Jenin … soldiers searched a carpet warehouse in Bani Naim, a village east of Hebron, searched a Palestinian house in Dura, a village south of Hebron, and set a checkpoint at the entrance of Khirsa, also south of Hebron. They also arrested two Palestinians from Silat-al-Harithiya, raided many houses and tampered with their contents, according to security sources. Sources said that soldiers also raided Kufur Dan, a village west of Jenin, no arrests were reported.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=15271
Ministry: 132 Palestinians detained for over 20 years
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 21 Feb — The Detainees’ Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Monday that more than 132 Palestinian prisoners have spent over 20 years in Israeli jails.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362085
Siege
Gaza reconstruction held hostage to politics / Rami Almeghari
EI 22 Feb — Controversy has arisen between the Hamas-led government and the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) during the past few weeks over stalled reconstruction in the war-torn Gaza Strip. The Gaza government is criticizing UNRWA for not putting more pressure on Israel to allow raw materials through Gaza’s commercial crossings — a condition that the government of Libya imposed on the aid it pledged to UNRWA for the construction of homes destroyed during Israel’s three weeks of bombing of the Gaza Strip in winter 2008-09.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11820.shtml
Qatar charity to spend QR11m to rebuild Gaza schools
22 Feb — DOHA: Qatar Charity will implement projects worth of QR11m in Gaza toward reconstruction of several educational institutions damaged in the Israeli attacks, Qatar News Agency (QNA) has reported.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/143454-qatar-charity-to-spend-qr11m-to-rebuild-gaza-schools.html
Gazans hope new Egypt regime will end blockade
(AP) 22 Feb — RAFAH, Gaza Strip – A rare euphoric mood is sweeping through the Gaza Strip, where people are hoping the downfall of Hosni Mubarak will give the coastal territory a chance to get out from under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has stifled the economy.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_gaza_after_egypt
118,000 unemployed in Gaza, statistics say
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 22 Feb — Over the final quarter of last year, 13,000 jobs were created in Gaza, bringing down the unemployment rate in the coastal enclave to 37.4 percent from nearly 40 percent earlier in the year … According to the report, the average daily wage for workers in the West Bank was 86.8 shekels ($23), and only 59.9 shekels in Gaza ($16) … Young Palestinians aged 15-19 have the highest unemployment rate at 42.5 percent.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362204
Two Gaza terminals open for limited transports
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 Feb –The bulk goods crossing in the northern Gaza Strip will open for the import of 160 truckloads of wheat and animal feed, liaison official Raed Fattouh told Ma‘an. The import comes as the Gaza imports committee accused UNRWA of preventing adequate amounts of wheat into the area. UNRWA said they were doing their utmost to ensure wheat supplies were increased, but added that with the bulk goods crossing operational only twice a week, the top priority was pressure on Israeli officials to open the crossing more often.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362528
Rafah crossing open for second consecutive day
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 23 Feb — Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, saying another 300 Palestinians from Gaza will be permitted to cross into the country … On Tuesday, 299 of 318 registered civilians left Gaza, while 56 returned to Gaza, the crossings committee said. Twenty-three citizens were not allowed to pass for unknown reasons.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362562
Palestinians stranded in Sudan appeal for help
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 22 Feb — Palestinians stranded in Sudan on Tuesday appealed to leaders to help them return to the Gaza Strip. Muhammad Abu Awwad told Ma’an he was one of 50 Palestinians stranded in Sudan. Abu Awwad said the group had traveled to Cairo on Monday, but were turned back at Cairo airport and forced to return to Sudan.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362477
In Gaza, 2,000 hail from Libya and wait to return
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 22 Feb — Libyans in Gaza say they have been trapped in the coastal enclave for decades since the Libyan regime prevented them from returning home. Ali Muhammad Ali Al-Farahani, 32, said that today, some 2,000 descendants of Libyan fighters were in Gaza, and prevented from returning to the North African country by the Libyan government. He said his father arrived in the Gaza Strip in the 1940s to help Palestinian fighters defend their land, adding that his parents were never able to return to Libya and died in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362388
Gaza church nurtures hope despite Israeli blockade and Hamas control
CNS 22 Feb — … “Despite all the bad things you hear about Gaza, there is life here,” said Father Jorge Hernandez of Holy Family Catholic Church. “People here pray and lead virtuous lives. They are happy, even living in Gaza with all its problems … Father Hernandez has served in Gaza for just two years, but he said the community’s elders have helped him understand how practitioners of Gaza’s two faiths share a long and relatively harmonious history.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1100730.htm
Visiting Nasser / Vera Macht
GAZA 21 Feb …While almost every other place in Gaza is loud and overcrowded, here’s open land and soothing silence. There are a few olive trees that have survived the uncountable tank invasions, and a few new minor ones planted bravely. In between there’s the lush green grass from the winter rain. At least where it wasn’t again plowed up by Israeli bulldozers. And just as we talk about how peaceful this place actually is, we become suddenly aware of this calm being deceptive. On the other side of the barbed wire border, a jeep of the Israeli military appears. He stops as he sees us. My two colleagues and I exchange anxious glances, and without a word we open our hair and begin to inconspicuously walk in front of our Palestinian translator. What kind of a world is that in which blonde hair is a lifesaver.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february212011/visiting-nasser-vm.php
Racism
Four teens suspected of stabbing to death Arab youth in Jerusalem
Police suspect crime had nationalistic motives; of the four suspects, two are from Jerusalem and two are from settlements in the West Bank … Four youths were arrested for allegedly stabbing a young Arab man to death earlier this month, police revealed on Wednesday, after a gag order on the case was lifted … During the police investigation, the suspects confessed to the crime attributed to them but remained silent when they were asked about their motives for the stabbing. Police suspect that the stabbing had nationalistic motives, and the prosecution decided to put them on trial for manslaughter. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/four-teens-suspected-of-stabbing-to-death-arab-youth-in-jerusalem-1.345233
Hate crimes against Palestinians in the heart of West Jerusalem go unnoticed in Israel / Joseph Dana
[with AIC video] Amid the revolutionary cheer that was emanating from Egypt last week, a group of Israeli Jews attacked and killed a Palestinian in the heart of West Jerusalem. 24-year-old Palestinian Hussam Rwidy was killed by a group of nationalist Jewish youth screaming “death to Arabs” as he was walking home from work. The Israeli government quickly put a media blackout on the case fearing a violent reactions from Palestinians in Jerusalem, Israel and the West Bank. Once the media blackout was lifted, select Israeli media outlets covered the story as a “drunken brawl turned bad.” According to one Jerusalem resident who helped the victims after the attack, neither of them were drunk.
http://josephdana.com/2011/02/hate-crimes-against-palestinians-in-the-heart-of-west-jerusalem-go-unnoticed-in-israel/
Activism / Solidarity
BART riders can’t escape the Palestinian issue
22 Feb — The ad above [Stop Israel Apartheid – Human rights for all is the answer – Boycott Israel] greeted commuters passing through several major Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in San Francisco and the East Bay this week. At other stations travelers could feast their eyes on this one: [Picture of a wolf in a sheepskin – Israel, you’re not fooling anyone. All wolf since 1948] The ads – professionally printed, but posted without BART authorization – were the latest twist in a battle that began last December
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/bart-riders-cant-escape-the-palestine-issue.html
Great-grandson of S.Y. Agnon tells Ian McEwan not to shake hands with apartheid / Joseph Dana
[with videos] 22 Feb — Israeli activists from the Boycott From Within and Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity movements disrupted an event with British author Ian McEwan this evening in Jerusalem.
http://josephdana.com/2011/02/great-grandson-of-s-y-agnon-tells-ian-mcewan-%E2%80%98not-to-shake-hands-with-apartheid%E2%80%99/
US Boat to Gaza update and report from Madrid meeting of international flotilla
22 Feb — MADRID, Spain – We have recently returned from the Madrid meeting of the international flotilla and want to take this opportunity to bring you up to date on the U.S. Boat to Gaza campaign. Enthusiasm and support for the international flotilla has continued to build with representatives from 22 countries at the meeting. Current plans are for the flotilla to sail in the second half of May.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february222011/gaza-boat.php
Threats of Jewish violence canned Seattle bus ads / Tim King
‘I think I will organize a group to riot at your bus stops.’ (SALEM, Ore.) 21 Feb – Three dozen angry messages defeated a Seattle bus advertisement about Israeli war crimes. The already approved ads were killed specifically because angry supporters of Israeli politics threatened the Seattle Metro bus line with violence … If Muslim people had dared to threaten violence over the rejection of a bus advertisement you would have the FBI crawling in every dark corner of people’s lives.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february212011/seattle-bus-ads.php
Political/Diplomatic news
Fayyad proposes unity gov’t with Hamas
RAMALLAH (AFP) 22 Feb — Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has proposed forming a unity government with Hamas, under which the Islamist group would have responsibility for security in Gaza. Speaking to Palestinian journalists late Monday, Fayyad said the “security concept” applied by Hamas in Gaza, where the group has sought to enforce a ceasefire with Israel, could provide common ground.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362443
Palestinian FM: Statehood by September
Ynet 23 Feb — Riyad Al-Malki says there is still enough time for two state solution, adding ‘we have to continue working for Gaza to come back to the Palestinian family’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4032516,00.html
Fatah official: 28 Jerusalem-area municipalities to boycott USAID in response to veto
Jerusalem PNN 23 Feb — Hatem Abdul Qader, the Fatah official in charge of Jerusalem affairs, announced on Wednesday that 28 Jerusalem area municipalities had decided to boycott and refuse money from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in response to the American veto of a resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements at the UN Security Council last Friday
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9606&Itemid=62
Lieberman: Israel conflict ‘not linked’ to Arab turmoil
BRUSSELS (AFP) 22 Feb — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, said Tuesday there was “no linkage” between turmoil in the Arab world and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the EU pressed for quick progress on peace talks to ensure stability. “The Israel-Palestinian conflict is not the main issue, not the main problem,” Lieberman said after talks in Brussels on EU-Israeli ties.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362418
Israeli president: Arab protests ‘opportunity for peace’
MADRID (AFP) 22 Feb — Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Tuesday the anti-government protests sweeping the Arab world that have toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt are an “opportunity for peace” in the Middle East. “We believe that the biggest guarantee of peace is having democracy in our neighbors. We are happy to witness this democratic revolution which is taking place in the Arab world,” he said here in an address to the Spanish parliament.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362490
Other news
Israeli foreign minister accused of apartheid in attempted citizen’s arrest
Guardian 22 Feb — An Irish journalist has attempted a citizen’s arrest of the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, outside a meeting of the EU-Israel Association council in Brussels … Cronin, a freelance journalist who has written for the Economist, the Inter Press Service news agency and the Guardian’s Comment is Free, was restrained by security guards and escorted from the building, shouting “Free Palestine”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/22/israel-minister-avigdor-lieberman-citizens-arrest
Fayyad asks Facebook: Who to be in gov’t?
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 23 Feb — As young people across the Middle East are using Facebook and Twitter to bring down governments, appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has asked his followers on both sites to help put one together.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=362621
Ayalon: Diplomats will tour Hebron
Ynet 23 Feb — Deputy foreign minister unveils new plan to take new ambassadors, Foreign Ministry cadets on tours to ‘Jewish heritage sites’ in West Bank in order to ‘prevent apologetic PR, clarify that we are in Hebron by right, not force’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4032918,00.html
Israel to fly more Sudanese migrants back to Africa
Ynet 23 Feb — Over 100 infiltrators set to board flight en route to homeland ‘for fear of imprisonment.’ Interior Ministry: They want to leave
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4032557,00.html
Analysis / Opinion
From Tahrir Square to Shatila Camp, ‘hurriya’ (freedom) / Dr. Franklin Lamb
22 Feb — Palestinian refugees in Lebanon seem mesmerized by what’s been happening … In Lebanon’s camps it appears that support for the Arab Awakening grows with each new revolt in the region. They feel, as no doubt many who have been working for Palestinian civil rights in Lebanon for the past 20 years, including more than two dozen International and local NGO’s and civil society organizations, that the power of Tahrir Square will mean that Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees will at long last be granted the elementary, internationally mandated civil right to own a home and to work that every other refugee enjoys by law.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february222011/hurriya-freedom-fl.php
The UN voting record of Susan Rice on Palestinian rights / Howard Friel
CD 21 Feb — In December 2009, the U.N. General Assembly passed 18 resolutions on “The Question of Palestine” … The United States under President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Ambassador Rice, voted against each of these resolutions … Likewise, in 2010, the General Assembly passed 16 resolutions concerning The Question of Palestine … As in 2009, Obama, Clinton, and Rice voted against these resolutions [details below]
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/21-9
Why I tried to arrest Avigdor Lieberman / David Cronin
[with video] EI 22 Feb — If apartheid is a crime, there is only one way to treat its practitioners: arrest them. That is precisely what I tried to do when I confronted Avigdor Lieberman, the architect of a series of laws designed to make Israeli apartheid even more draconian than it already is.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11824.shtml
Is the West Bank next? / MJ Rosenberg
HP 22 Feb — If the Netanyahu government, and its lobby in Washington, were rational they would be rushing to plan Israel’s evacuation from the occupied territories, and encouraging the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. That is because they would understand that the Arab revolution will not stop at the gates of the West Bank, especially when it is the occupation that unites virtually all Arabs and Muslims in common fury.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/is-the-west-bank-next_b_826687.html
Palestinians: The unsustainable may no longer be sustainable / Nathan J. Brown
Carnegie 22 Feb — International proclamations about the internal Palestinian situation have echoed the apparently oxymoronic phrase, “The situation continues to be unsustainable.” While it is easy to poke fun at such a claim, it increasingly appears to be a very accurate description of where things stand.
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=42694
Jordan’s balancing act / Nicholas Pelham
MERO 22 Feb — When anti-monarchical revolution swept the Middle East in the 1950s, Jordan was one of the few populous Arab states to keep its king. King ‘Abdallah II, son of Hussein, the sole Hashemite royal to ride out the republican wave, has all the credentials to perform a similar balancing act … Why is it, then, that the Jordanian monarchy seems so alarmed amidst the revolution sweeping the Middle East today? In part, the king knows he is out of touch with the times … The protests that erupted across the kingdom marked less an uprising than the collapse of a legally sanctioned taboo that rendered the king inviolable and untouchable.
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero022211.html
How the ‘NYT’ swallowed the Stuxnet worm / Rehmat Qadir
22 Feb — …The New York Times article is deliberately misleading, excluding publicly-available evidence that casts doubts on the facts presented within it. Chiefly it has excluded the likelihood that the Stuxnet operation was a failed or only minimally successful experiment that did next to nothing in terms of setting back Iran’s nuclear program, as demonstrated by Stuxnet’s inconsequential effect on the production of low-enriched uranium — an effect documented in the graph below … I am suggesting that the article is a form of damage control related to the recent statements by Meir Dagan that Iran no longer poses an imminent threat.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/how-the-nyt-swallowed-the-stuxnet-worm.html#comments
Iraq
Monday: 17 Iraqis killed, 33 wounded
At least 17 Iraqis and an Egyptian resident were killed in the latest attacks, while 33 more were wounded. Although no new demonstrations reported today, last night Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani gave his support to protesters in a strongly worded statement castigating the government for negligence. Also, Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi reports that two investigative committees are being formed to track down almost $40 billion that has disappeared from the Development Fund for Iraq.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/02/21/monday-17-iraqis-killed-33-wounded/
Tuesday: 12 Iraqis killed, 31 wounded
At least 12 Iraqis were killed and 31 more were wounded in the latest reported attacks. Scattered demonstrations continued, but protests in Suleimaniya drew about 6,000 protesters. On Friday, however, they could grow during a planned “day of rage.” For the fifth day in a row, thousands took to the streets in Suleimaniya to demonstrate against corruption and poverty.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/02/22/tuesday-12-iraqis-killed-31-wounded/
Report exposes proliferation of rights abuses in Iraq / David Elkins
Washington (IPS) 22 Feb –A leading human rights group released a report Monday documenting the proliferation of human rights abuses in Iraq since the United States invasion in 2003. Among the most egregious cases, the 102-page report by Human Rights Watch identifies women, journalists, detainees, and marginalized groups, including internally displaced persons and religious minorities, as the most vulnerable populations in Iraq.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11822.shtml
