and other news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
IOA confiscates 800 more dunums of Palestinian farmland
AL-KHALIL, (PIC) 8 Feb — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) informed Palestinian farmers that 800 dunums of their cultivated land in Nuba village west of Al-Khalil would be confiscated. Village sources told the PIC that Israeli occupation forces delivered the notices to the farmers, adding that the decision allowed the farmers to contest it with the civil administration within 45 days. The sources said that the farmland is owned by members of three families and was seized because of its proximity to the racist, separation wall.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz
Israeli settlers chase Palestinian children after Israeli military fails to provide escort
8 Feb – Operation Dove & Christian Peacemaker Teams. …Shortly after the schoolchildren and [CPT] volunteers set out on the path towards Tuba and Maghayir al-Abeed villages, Israeli settlers, two of whom were masked, emerged from the grouping of trees which encompasses Havat Ma’on and began moving towards the children. Upon seeing the settlers, the children turned and sprinted to distance themselves from the settlers. Several children began crying and screaming in fear as they ran away from the settlers, one young girl began shaking uncontrollably as soon as she stopped running from the settlers.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/02/16603/
Annoyed by call to prayer, East Jerusalem settlers appeal to police
Jerusalem — The Israeli police plan to limit the volume of calls to prayer issued from the mosques in Shu’fat refugee camp and the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Khamees, responding to complaints from illegal East Jerusalem settlements.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9528&Itemid=49
Fayyad demands intervention to stop settler violence
International pressure must be brought to bear on Israeli settlers in the West Bank to halt their use of violence and constant harassment of Palestinians, premier Salam Fayyad said Monday. Speaking with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Navi Pillary, who is on an official visit to Palestine, Fayyad blamed the Israeli government for “terrorist acts” committed by settlers, and cited the shooting deaths of two teens in January.
During Pillary’s visit, Fayyad accompanied him to the Jerusalem-area village of Beit Iksa, stuck in a no-man’s-land within the Green Line but trapped on the Israeli side of the separation wall, next to the Ramot Allon settlement. In the village, Fayyad and the UN official visited Sabri Ghareib, whose home is surrounded with a barbed-wire fence, in which Israeli forces installed an electronic gate which opens to allow the family members in and out of their village.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357960
Rightists call Spanish FM ‘anti-Semite’
Trinidad Jiménez greeted by dozens of angry right-wing activists during visit to Hebron. Jewish settlers say European Union supporting renovation of Palestinian neighborhood aimed at blocking Jews’ access to Cave of Patriarchs … The discussed neighborhood is located in H2 area which is under Palestinian administrative control but where Israel maintains military presence. The renovation work, estimated at €50 million (about $68 million), began about half a year ago. some 1,500 people live in the neighborhood, and 3,000 Palestinians are expected to live there when the restoration is complete.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025656,00.html
Incursions / Violence
Teen injured in Beit Ummar
HEBRON (Ma’an) — An 18-year-old was hit four times with rubber-coated bullets shot by Israeli forces in the southern West Bank town of Hebron Tuesday afternoon, local officials said, sending the teen to hospital. Local popular committee activist Muhammad Awad said Israeli troops entered the town shortly before noon, apparently to conduct an arrest raid. The troops were searching one home when the teen, identified as Shadi Ahmad Ekhlayel, walked past the scene. Awad said that Ekhlayel did not know that he had entered an area where military activity was taking place, but was shot four times in the back, neck and hands.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358040
Israeli troops raid northern Gaza
GAZA (ABNA) - Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced 500 meters into the northern Gaza Strip near Beit Lahia town amidst intensified firing, a local source reported. The IOF soldiers in six armored vehicles escorted four bulldozers and took position north of Beit Lahia, the source added. He said that the bulldozers leveled citizens’ land in the area while the soldiers were firing to protect the operation. Medical sources said that no casualties were reported
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=224992
Detention
IOF troops round up seven West Bankers
JENIN, (PIC) 8 Feb — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained seven Palestinians in various West Bank areas at dawn Tuesday, press reports said. They added that the IOF soldiers, mounting armored vehicles, raided several areas in the West Bank and searched homes before apprehending the seven men.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7Spd%2fyA8rEVxm%2fiw3Zehp1B%2fS4L1utF7YSPEA1%2bW%2bc3mzWwAlLAQBMSpz1VyGjwrhyu34MwN5cVmZ%2bhF7y9x0jEwiZ2tgWM4IEFE022VWl0g%3d
In their own words: A report on the situation facing Palestinian children detained in East Jerusalem
Defence of Children International — Palestine Section – In three out of the 13 cases (13%), the children report being shown, or asked to sign, documents written in Hebrew, which is not the children’s mother tongue. “The interrogator then handed me a piece of paper written in Hebrew. ‘Write down your name’, he said, and I did. (I.M. – 12 years – Al Mascobiyya Interrogation Centre, Jerusalem)”
http://www.dci-pal.org/English/Doc/Press/EASTJERUSALEM_JANUARY2011.pdf
UN human rights commissioner to visit relatives of Palestinian prisoners
GAZA, (PIC) 8 Feb — Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is to visit the Gaza Strip on Thursday to meet with relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the support the prisoners organization announced on Monday. It described in a statement the visit as an opportunity to explain the suffering of those prisoners in Israeli detention.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?x
Siege
Egypt unrest cuts fuel lifeline to Gaza
Gaza is facing acute fuel shortages as smuggled diesel and petrol supplies from Egypt are rapidly running out … Long queues of cars, motorcycles and people on foot carrying containers have formed at gas stations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/08/egypt-unrest-cuts-gaza-fuel
Dutch want more exports from Gaza
Foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal asked Israel to extend export possibilities from the Gaza Strip during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday. At the moment, tomatoes, strawberries and carnations can be exported from the territory but Rosenthal wants this list extended, reports news agency ANP. He also wants the import ban on building material lifted.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/02/dutch_want_more_exports_from_g.php
RI to build cardiac center in Gaza
Jakarta Post – The government will build a cardiac center at Al-Syifa Hospital in North Gaza, Palestine. Health Minister Endang Sedyaningsih said that the center would be funded by a Rp 20 billion (US$2.24 million) grant from the Indonesian government to the Gaza community through Islamic Development Bank). Endang said the government gave the money to Al-Syifa Hospital after its initial plan to build a hospital in Gaza was stymied by land acquisition difficulties.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/02/08/ri-build-cardiac-center-gaza.html
Single Gaza crossing opens
A single Gaza crossing was opened Tuesday for the transfer of 140-150 truckloads of aid and commercial goods. The second operational crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip was closed, as UN officials say wheat reserves continue to rise, but remain at only half what they should be.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357963
Reprisals
Reports: 2 rounds of projectiles hit Negev
Israeli media reported two separate rounds of projectiles landing in the Negev desert Tuesday, one near the Gaza border and a second in the Western Negev, damaging several cars. The Israeli news sites Ynet and Ma’ariv reported the incidents at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. respectively. In a statement, the Al-Quds Brigades said their fighters launched a mortar shell toward an Israeli military zone east of Beit Hanoun. The brigades, affiliated with the Islamic Jihad, said Israeli fuel tankers were the target of the attack.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358057
Egyptian uprising and Palestine
Egyptian regime change hope for Gaza
RAMALLAH (IRIN) 8 Feb – Possible regime change in Egypt, sparked by mass popular protests against President Hosni Mubarak since 25 January, could usher in a new leadership not as committed to maintaining the Gaza blockade, observers say. Opening Rafah, the sole border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, to allow humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza could have an immediate impact on the livelihoods of 1.5 million Palestinians living there, according to UN agencies and officials from the Hamas-led government.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357883
Refugees
Refuge and return / Lamya Hussain
“Where would you like to go?” asks a taxi driver a little older than my father, his thick Lebanese accent I barely understand. I reply politely, “Off the airport road to Bourj al-Barajneh.” “The refugee camp? No, I don’t go there,” he replies. Not understanding how to respond, I nod and keep waiting for a taxi that will agree to take me.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11778.shtml
UK gives aid to Palestinians refugees in Lebanon
The UK on Monday announced a contribution of £1.5 million to UNRWA to assist Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The UK development agency DFID said the funding would help the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to provide medical supplies to over a thousand families and ensure shelter for 3,500 families. Over 425,000 Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, and many were displaced again in 2007 during internal fighting in the country in 2007.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357774
Politics / Diplomacy
PLO, Egypt blast Quartet statement
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo told Kuwait news agency KUNA Monday that the latest Quartet statement on the peace process was “regretful” and fell short of the Palestinians’ expectations. The statement, which focused on getting sides back to the negotiating table as an “imperative” for regional stability, did not mention Israel’s failure to stop settlement construction on Palestinian lands, an issue PLO negotiators say remains the stumbling block to a return to talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357943
Jordan’s deputy speaker criticises Abbas and Fateh leadership over their possession of Jordanian nationality
MEMO 8 Feb -The Deputy Chairman of Jordan’s Council of Representatives, Atef al-Tarawneh al-Naqab, has revealed that a number Palestinian officials and members of the negotiating team have been granted Jordanian nationality and national identity numbers at a time when nationality is being withdrawn from Jordanian citizens themselves based on claims of support for the Palestinian people and their need for a state.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2032-jordans-deputy-speaker-criticises-abbas-and-fateh-leadership-over-their-possession-of-jordanian-nationality
Erekat: Qatar holds investments in settlements
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat threatened Monday to expose official documents about investments he said proved that Qatar holds in companies that operate in illegal Israeli West Bank settlements. More than 24% of the biggest Israeli companies in the Qarne Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank district of Qalqiliya, rely on Qatari investments worth millions of US dollars, said Erekat.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357990
PA cabinet calls elections for July 9
RAMALLAH (AFP) — The Palestinian Authority cabinet decided on Tuesday to hold local elections on July 9, in what will be the first time voters have gone to the polls since 2006. It will mark the second attempt to hold a municipal vote, after July 17, 2010 elections were called off only weeks before they were scheduled to take place … Hamas on Tuesday reiterated its refusal to participate in polls run by the Ramallah-based authority,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358098
Abu Yousef: Israeli intransigence main barrier to talks
While the Egyptian uprising would impact the peace process, Israeli intransigence remained the chief obstacle to negotiations, PLO official Wassel Abu Yousef said Sunday. Abu Yousef said Egypt played a major role in negotiations, but that it was Israel’s continued refusal to stop settlement building that caused the deadlock in talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357866
PA secretary-general slams Egypt’s protesters as ‘suspicious alliance’
RAMALLAH, (PIC) [Hamas site] — Secretary-general of the Palestinian authority (PA) Attayeb Abdulrahim launched a scathing attack on the popular uprising in Egypt, describing what the protesters are doing as a “suspicious alliance” against the stability of the Egyptian regime.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Q
Media bias
‘NYT’ says two-state solution should be saved by building 25-mile tunnel so that Israelis don’t have to see Palestinians traveling to Gaza
The New York Times Magazine has afforded Bernard Avishai a number of pages in its forthcoming issue to try and resuscitate two-state solution ideas of three years ago … My mind reeled when I read this. Can a person really offer such an idea in good conscience as a concession to the Palestinians? I’m not phobic, but the idea of traveling 25 miles under the desert to see my grandmother– wow! And let us be clear, this is all a form of gerrymandering; so that privileged people get to hold on to their Jewish democracy while the fragmented parts of Palestine are somehow unified.
https://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/nyt-says-two-state-solution-should-be-saved-by-building-25-mile-tunnel-so-that-israelis-dont-have-to-see-palestinians-traveling-to-gaza.html
Tom Friedman can’t praise Egyptians without insulting Palestinians
8 Feb – Generally speaking, Friedman’s column in today’s New York Times is relatively harmless … as far as it goes isn’t bad — until the ever-present tendency to render Israel’s occupation of Palestine invisible rears its ugly head: “You almost never hear the word “Israel,” and the pictures of “martyrs” plastered around the square are something rarely seen in the Arab world — Egyptians who died fighting for their own freedom not against Israel.” (emphasis added) …for Friedman, it’s simply impossible that Palestinians fighting against the occupation of their country are fighting for their own freedom as well.
http://thefastertimes.com/politicalmedia/2011/02/08/tom-friedman-cant-praise-egyptians-without-insulting-palestinians/
Other news
‘Troops reassured me as I went into labor’
Shirin Muhammad Salamin, 27, recounts positive experience of giving birth to baby boy in military ambulance with help of IDF soldiers [How lucky she is that she encountered some humane soldiers – some other Palestinian mothers haven’t been so fortunate, as recounted here: Targeting Palestinian mothers “Since the beginning of Al-Aqsa intifada in 2000 and till 2006 at least 69 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints in front of Israeli soldiers. This led to 35 miscarriages and the death of five mothers:”]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025375,00.html
First private equity company launched in West Bank
Ramallah- The first Palestinian private equity company with an initial closing capital of 60 million dollars was launched in the West Bank on Tuesday, according to its founder and main investor Palestinian-American businessman Bashar Masri.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/366347,company-launched-west-bank.html
Israel
Court orders government to accommodate East Jerusalem schoolchildren
The High Court of Justice has given the government five years to find enough classroom space for East Jerusalem children, or it will have to pay private schools to take care of the matter … Some 40,000 out of nearly 80,000 school-age children in question are registered in the public-school system; the rest study in private schools or do not attend school at all. It is estimated that 9,000 children are not registered at all, whether publicly or privately.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/court-orders-government-to-accommodate-east-jerusalem-school-children-1.341917
Peres forms high-tech coalition to integrate Arabs, haredim into workforce
The coalition will be setting up a designated website, to be jointly operated by the nonprofit organization Kav Mashve, which helps job-seekers find work.
http://english.themarker.com/peres-forms-high-tech-coalition-to-integrate-arabs-haredim-into-workforce-1.341931
MKs clash on assimilation in Israel
Knesset debates mixed couples on first ever Jewish Identity Day, prompting accusations of racism
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025788,00.html
Rabbi Lior supporters protest arrest warrant
Some 1,000 people demonstrated outside the home of Rabbi Dov Lior in Kiryat Arba on Tuesday in protest of the arrest warrant issued against him for suspected incitement. On Monday, police issued the warrant over the rabbi’s refusal to be questioned in relation to the foreword he wrote for the book “The King’s Torah” which calls for the murder of non-Jews.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025488,00.html
Knesset committee approves ‘Bishara Bill’
Eight MKs vote in favor of law revoking wages, pension of lawmakers who have failed to report to police or trial … If approved, the bill will revoke different payments former Balad Chairman Azmi Bishara is entitled to from the State Treasury, including his pension rights. Bishara fled Israel in the midst of an investigation into suspicions that he transferred information to Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025621,00.html
IDF says enlisting hackers
IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu said Tuesday that the army is currently in the process of enlisting “new media fighters”. Benayahu told a panel on the subject of “the digital medium as strategic weapon” that the army was searching for “little hackers who were born and raised online”.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025751,00.html
IDF: Combat motivation breaking records
Rate of teens seeking combat service rose by more than 10% since 2007. Estimated 80% of eligible youths express desire to serve in field units in March enlistment round
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025657,00.html
Sharp drop in asylum seekers entering Israel from Egypt
In the last months of 2010, an average of one thousand asylum seekers entered Israel in any given month, but in the month of January, data shows that only 400 asylum seekers entered Israel. The reason for the drop in numbers is partly explained by the acceleration of construction work on a fence on the border with Egypt … Despite Shani’s claim that the low figures have no relation to the unrest in Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave instructions to accelerate the construction of the fence on the Egyptian border due to the crisis in Egypt.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/sharp-drop-in-asylum-seekers-entering-israel-from-egypt-1.342034
Analysis / Opinion
Rawabi implicates PA in Zionist project / Uri Davis
As the Convener of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Committee on Resistance to the Settlements, the Apartheid Wall and the Ethnic Cleansing it is my responsibility to ensure that damage already done in the construction of Rawabi city is minimized. My concern hinges on the acceptance of a donation of thousands of tree saplings from the Jewish National Fund by Rawabi city developers, planted on lands sequestered by the Palestinian Authority from neighboring villages, for a private and commercial venture … On 15 November 2009, Abbas signed the decree, taking approximately 1,537 dunum of lands from the neighboring village of Ajjul, 122 dunum from Attara and 118 dunum from Abwin.
[Davis describes himself as “a Palestinian Hebrew national of Jewish origin, anti-Zionist, registered as Muslim and a citizen of an apartheid state – the State of Israel.”]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358002
The Promise: powerful TV drama at its best / Harriet Sherwood
Peter Kosminsky’s 4-part series on mandate-era Palestine and modern-day Israel is vivid, harrowing and utterly compelling … Among the most striking scenes are the house demolitions: Jewish homes destroyed by British forces in the 1940s; Palestinian homes crushed by the Israeli army in modern times.The unbearable scenes of Jewish victims of and refugees from the Holocaust are countered by distressing scenes of the Palestinian nakba during the bloody birth of the state of Israel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/view-from-jerusalem-with-harriet-sherwood/2011/feb/07/israel-palestinian-territories
I love my country / Noam Raz
Op-ed: IDF soldier who serves as B’Tselem official explains why he criticizes Israel … When I research an incident for B’Tselem, I feel bad whichever way I turn it. I am full of sympathy for the civilian or civilians, usually Palestinians, who have been harmed by actions of Israel’s security forces or other authorities. Yet I also think about the soldiers – those young men sent out on the psychologically destructive mission of policing a civilian population, and end up acting badly or committing outright criminal offenses. Don’t get me wrong – under no circumstance can I accept or justify soldiers destroying property, beating, degrading and abusing persons or shooting them for no reason.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4022620,00.html
Iraq
Monday: 2 Iraqis killed, 15 wounded
At least two Iraqis were killed and 15 more were wounded in new violence mostly in and around the capital. A bomb exploded near the Iraqiya offices in Baquba and wounded three people, including two security guards. Two government workers were wounded in a bombing in Taji. In Mosul, two policemen were wounded during a roadside blast. A pair of bombs in Iskandariya killed a policeman and a woman. Two other personnel were wounded…
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/02/07/monday-2-iraqis-killed-15-wounded-3/
Amnesty: Torture routine in Iraqi prisons
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq operates secret prisons and routinely tortures prisoners to extract confessions that are used to convict them, Amnesty International said in a report released on Tuesday. An estimated 30,000 men and women remain in custody in Iraq, some in secret facilities operated by the ministries of defence and interior, the London-based rights watchdog said in the report, titled “Broken Bodies, Broken Minds.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110208/wl_mideast_afp/iraqrightsprisonsamnesty
Iraq hikes duties as Arab state battle inflation
BAGHDAD (AFP) – As other Arab states scramble to prevent Egypt- and Tunisia-style uprisings sparked in part by rising prices, Iraq is going its own way by raising tariffs on a range of goods from bottled water to bayonets.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110208/wl_mideast_afp/iraqeconomytrade
Refugees forced back to a still-violent Iraq, prompting criticism of European policy
Baghdad – Working with American media, Ali Jassim Mohammad became used to documenting the misery of Iraqis caught in war. And then he became one of them, in a tale that stretches from Baghdad to Sweden and back, and underscores the growing problem of European nations deporting Iraqi refugees to a homeland still wracked by violence.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20110207/wl_csm/354359
US Marine gets 6 years for Iraq contracts fraud
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US Marine captain was sentenced to six years in federal prison for conspiring with his wife to skim nearly $1.7 million from government contracts in Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110208/pl_afp/usiraqmilitaryfraudtrialprison
Donald Rumsfeld book admits ‘misstatements’ over WMD sites
Former US defence secretary’s memoirs express regret for saying ‘stuff happens’ over Iraq war — [He] admits in his memoirs that he made a mistake in claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction sites round Baghdad and Tikrit, one of the main justifications for launching the Iraq invasion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/08/donald-rumsfeld-book-misstatements-wmd
Other Mideast / Arab world (see Mondoweiss.net for compilations of Egypt news)
Lebanese PM on final stretch of cabinet formation
BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanese prime minister designate Najib Mikati is soon to complete his cabinet, which will include the Hezbollah-led camp and technocrats but exclude the pro-West wing, an official said Tuesday. “Prime minister Mikati hopes to finalize his consultations and form the government this week,” the official, who is close to the premier, told AFP on condition of anonymity.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358166
Tunisia calls in army reservists to stem unrest
8 Feb – Tunisia’s fragile interim government has called in military reservists to contain a fresh wave of violence as it races to organise the country’s first free elections.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=74750
Jordan tribes threaten revolution over country’s Palestinian Queen Rania
(Reuters) 8 Feb – Hard-line nationalist East Bankers take issue with both Queen Rania’s Palestinian background and her highly visible role in the country’s male-dominated society.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/jordan-tribes-threaten-revolution-over-country-s-palestinian-queen-rania-1.342072
Iran cleric: Filtering the Internet is un-Islamic
Mehdi Hadavi Tehrani, a cleric in the city of Qom, said web filters can block useful scientific and Islamic sites because words such as sex are flagged.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/iran-cleric-filtering-the-internet-is-un-islamic-1.342053
Damascus Jews restore synagogues as Syria seeks secular image
Albert Cameo, leader of what remains of the Jewish community in Syria, says he’s trying to fulfill an obligation to his religious heritage. The 70-year-old is organizing the restoration of a synagogue called Al-Raqi in the old Jewish quarter of Damascus built during the Ottoman Empire about 400 years ago. The project, which began in December, will be completed this month as part of a plan to restore 10 synagogues with the backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and funding from Syrian Jews.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-06/damascus-jews-restore-synagogues-as-syria-seeks-secular-image.html
WikiLeaks [See here for more WikiLeaks files at Telegraph site]
DAS Danin and DASD Kimmett discuss Gaza smuggling with ISA chief Diskin
(Nov 2007) …Diskin shared that sources among the smugglers have told the ISA that Egypt permits their activities as long as they do not result in terror attacks within Egyptian territory. This shows that they can crack down on the smugglers if they have the will, said Diskin, but the fact is that they prefer to use Gaza and Israel as a safety valve for extremists in Egypt.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/egypt-wikileaks-cables/8309335/DAS-DANIN-AND-DASD-KIMMITT-DISCUSS-GAZA-SMUGGLING-WITH-ISA-CHIEF-DISKIN.html
U.K., U.S.
‘David Cameron’s speech was all about Muslims and terrorism’
Mohammed Shafiq, CEO of Britain’s Ramadhan Foundation, discusses the British PM’s speech on the failure of multiculturalism … “I was deeply disappointed in the prime minister, who made allegations that tar a whole community. Who is he talking about? Muslims in Britain by and large are integrated and oppose terrorism in the U.K. and anywhere else in the world just like any other Brits…”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/david-cameron-s-speech-was-all-about-muslims-and-terrorism-1.341935
IDF spokesman visited UK incognito for fear of targeting by pro-Palestinian protesters
(Reuters) Israel concerned over U.K. laws allowing private citizens to secure arrest warrants for visiting foreign officials they accuse of war crimes.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-spokesman-visited-u-k-incognito-for-fear-of-targeting-by-pro-palestinian-protesters-1.342080?localLinksEnabled=false
Activist: Palestinian trips had no link to terror
CHICAGO (AP) — Four months after the FBI raided homes of anti-war activists in the Midwest, a Palestinian-American named in the probe is calling it a “witch hunt” and insisting in a series of interviews with The Associated Press that he has never given money to terrorist groups. Hatem Abudayyeh, head of an activist network in Chicago that deals in immigration and discrimination issues, says the trips he helped coordinate to the Palestinian territories were fact-finding and educational visits hosted by a women’s organization and that he knew of no links to groups that could be considered involved in terrorism. The federal government has divulged almost nothing about the focus of the probe, which included subpoenas demanding Abudayyeh and 22 other activists from Chicago, Minneapolis and Grand Rapids, Mich., appear before a grand jury.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110208/ap_on_re_us/us_fbi_raids_terrorism
Clash looms over extending surveillance methods
WASHINGTON (Reuters) 8 Feb – The Obama administration on Tuesday urged Congress to extend for nearly three years key powers to track terrorism suspects, setting up a possible clash with Senate Republicans who have urged making them permanent.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110208/pl_nm/us_usa_security_surveillance
