The destruction of wells near Hebron (Photo: AFP)
Israeli bulldozers demolish Khirbet Tana
NABLUS (Ma‘an) — A herder village east of Nablus was demolished by Israel’s Civil Administration for the sixth time on Wednesday, a Palestinian official confirmed. Early Wednesday morning, 13 Israeli patrol cars and three military bulldozers arrived in the hamlet of Khirbet Tana, and demolished the tents and sheds recently re-built by residents.
Israel destroys wells near Hebron: witnesses
HEBRON, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 2 Mar – Israeli troops on Wednesday destroyed three water wells belonging to Palestinian villagers living near a sprawling Jewish settlement outside Hebron, witnesses said. Two of the wells were located in Wadi al-Ghrous, just east of Kiryat Arba settlement, and were used for agriculture by a family of 10, they said. The third well was used by 20 people and sited in the nearby village of Al-Beqa … Meanwhile in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops razed some 20 Bedouin structures located in Beit Furik, southeast of the city of Nablus, an AFP correspondent at the scene said … Last month, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA condemned Israel’s routine demolition of cisterns and wells.
IOF troops detain 6 Palestinians in Al-Khalil, destroy pond as settlers escalate
AL-KHALIL, (PIC) 2 Mar — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained six Palestinians in a number of villages in Al-Khalil and in a refugee camp on Wednesday, local sources reported. They said that the detainees were apprehended in the villages of Yatta, Beit Ola, and a 55-year-old man in Sourif while two were taken from Fawar refugee camp and a man from the city itself. The IOF troops at dawn Wednesday destroyed a 500-square-meter pond east of Al-Khalil city, which was being used by the inhabitants in irrigating their plantations. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers last night threw stones and empty bottles at Palestinian cars on the ring road surrounding Al-Khalil city, breaking the windshields of some of them. Other herds of settlers attacked Tawana village east of Yatta village in Al-Khalil on Wednesday and chopped off olive trees. In the same district, the Palestinian popular committees called on citizens to attend the next Friday congregation in Radamin’s mosque, south of Dhaheria town, which is threatened with destruction by the IOF.
IOF troops uproot olive trees, detain Jerusalemite and serve eviction notices
BETHLEHEM, (PIC) 2 Mar — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Tuesday uprooted tens of olive trees in Bethlehem village at the pretext they were planted in an area allocated for the army, locals said. They added that the IOF soldiers forced Ahmed Al-Wahash in Za’tar village east of Bethlehem to uproot 40 olive trees while they damaged 25 others.
And more from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
Jerusalem panel approves 14 new Jewish homes in Arab neighborhood
Haaretz 2 Mar — The Jerusalem licensing committee issued a permit yesterday for construction of 14 apartments in a former police compound in East Jerusalem. The compound, located in the neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, was once the headquarters of the police’s Shai (Samaria and Judea ) Division, which is responsible for the West Bank … Opposition city councilman Yosef “Pepe” Alalu (Meretz ) was furious over the decision to approve the first 14 houses. “Here we finally had a large public building that could have provided an answer to the problems of the eastern part of the city – for instance, as a school. Instead, they’re giving another 14 apartments to the settlers in order to Judaize Ras al-Amud,” he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-panel-approves-14-new-jewish-homes-in-arab-neighborhood-1.346558
Third day in the Jordan Valley / Caroline and Brenda
Jordan Valley Solidarity 2 Mar — Today we went to Ein il Hilwe camp and heard the shepherd, from the day before, had returned after having been handcuffed until he bled and thrown to the ground. These random arrests and brutality are common and there is no one of authority the Bedouins can turn to for help. This camp has 3 illegal settlements surrounding it. Their water is piped underneath the ground and electricity runs overhead, neither of which supplies the Bedouins.
http://www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=176:caroline-and-brenda-third-day-in-the-jordan-valley&catid=15:2010&Itemid=21
Settlement outpost expands
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 2 Mar — Settlers began expanding an illegal outpost south of Nablus on Wednesday, local Palestinian officials reported, adding several caravan homes to the area north of the Eli and Shilo settlements.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364984
Aharonovitch: Settlers threatened security forces
Ynet 2 Mar — Internal security minister endorses use of plastic bullets against settlers during razing of illegal structures in Havat Gilad outpost. ‘Police officers faced a concrete threat during operation, forcing them to use crowd dispersal means,’ he says … MK Levin rejected Aharonovitch’s explanations, claiming the act “stained decision makers – Jews who shoot at Jews. Part of the police’s role is to exercise restraint, and this could have been prevented by instructing police not to use weapons against settlers in Judea and Samaria, who suffer quite a lot as it is,” he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4036643,00.html
Jewish settlers mobilize for Thursday of Rage against Palestinians
NAZARETH, (PIC) 2 Mar — Jewish settlers in the West Bank have called for days of rage against the Israeli premier and Palestinians alike to protest what they call a systematic harassment policy against them. Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot on Wednesday reported that posters were glued on different West Bank areas calling on settlers to join the Thursday of rage while referring to Israeli destruction of minor settlement outposts such as Havat Gilad.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87M
Violence / Incursions
Gaza man injured in clashes near border
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) — A 22-year-old Gaza man was injured Tuesday, Gaza medics told Ma‘an, and transported to hospital from east of Khan Younis after what witnesses said was an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and resistance fighters. Witnesses reported a clash near the Israeli military base of Kissufim, east of the Khuza‘a village in the southern Gaza Strip. Residents said an Israeli patrol was seen entering the Gaza border before the clash began.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364584
Israeli navy fires at Palestinian fishing boats
IMEMC 2 Mar — Israeli Navy boats opened fire, on Wednesday at dawn, at Palestinian fishing boats near the shore in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Damage was reported, but no injuries. Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of Emergency and Medical Services in Gaza, said that the fishing boats were within Palestinian territorial waters during the attack.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60756
Israeli force penetrates Gaza amid gunfire
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 2 Mar — Gaza residents on the outskirts of Khan Younis reported Wednesday an Israeli force entering the Gaza borders, penetrating some 200 meters beyond the Green Line. The force entered under the cover of gunfire, witnesses said, and included three military vehicles and an armored bulldozer [for ripping up farmland]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364953
Siege
Worker killed in tunnel accident
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 2 Mar — A young man died Wednesday morning inside a tunnel at the Egyptian border in southern Gaza. Riziq Abdul Aziz, 21, was crushed by a barrel that workers were moving under the border at Rafah, medics said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364858
Israel closes Karni crossing permanently
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 2 Mar — Israeli authorities decided on Wednesday to permanently close Gaza’s central Karni [al-Mintar] crossing … Currently Karni is the only terminal able to import bulk goods like wheat, animal fodder and construction aggregates, and is mainly used for UNRWA-bound goods. UN officials had warned that the closure of the Karni terminal would further restrict imports … UNRWA spokesman in Jerusalem Chris Gunness earlier described the Kerem Shalom crossing as a “bottleneck through which we are forced to bring assistance to over one million people.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364756
‘Closing Karni crossing will tighten the siege’
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 2 Mar — The Palestinian Campaign Against the Siege slammed Wednesday, the official Israeli announcement that the bulk goods crossing for imports into Gaza would be closed permanently as of that morning. Campaign organizers released a statement saying that by closing the crossing, the humanitarian situation in Gaza would inevitably deteriorate, “causing human suffering” and aggravating the already dire economic situation there. In its statement, Israel cited “security concerns” for the closure.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364986
Gaza starts exporting tomatoes
Ynet 2 Mar — Palestinian farmers will start exporting cherry tomatoes from the Gaza Strip this week, as part of a government decision from the end of 2010 to expand the Strip’s agricultural exports.The first stage will see some 50 tons of tomatoes sent to Europe through Israel. According to estimates, the exports will yield Gaza’s farmers some €150,000 (about $206,500).
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4035850,00.html
1 Gaza crossing partially open
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) — Israeli authorities decided Wednesday to partially open the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow aid into Gaza, officials said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364714
Goods: Needs vs. supply Jan 30-Feb 26
http://www.gazagateway.org/2011/02/goods-%E2%80%93-needs-vs-supply-%E2%80%93-jan-30-%E2%80%93-feb-26/
Industrial fuel: Needs vs. supply Jan 30-Feb 26
http://www.gazagateway.org/2011/02/industrial-fuel-%E2%80%93-needs-vs-supply-%E2%80%93-jan-30-%E2%80%93-feb-26/
Activism / Detention
Report: Israel arrests 285 Palestinians in February
GAZA, (PIC) 2 Mar — The Gaza prisoner affairs ministry has released a report on Tuesday revealing that Israel had carried out 550 raid operations on Palestinian areas arresting 285 Palestinians in February, including 34 children. The report also details and documents Israeli abuses of Palestinian detainees that month … The same month, Israeli courts extended prison sentences on more than 140 detainees, and sentenced Palestinian Legislative Council members Mohammed Jamal al-Natshe and Omar Abdul-Razzaq to six months in administrative detention.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2
Hamas: Abbas authority rounded up 135 Hamas supporters in February
RAMALLAH, (PIC) 2 Mar — The security apparatuses loyal to the Ramallah authority summoned more than 1,500 Hamas supporters and cadres and kidnapped 135 of them in the past month of February, Hamas said in a press release in the West Bank on Tuesday. The movement added that the illegal Ramallah courts passed prison sentences against 17 of those kidnapped. It noted that the Fatah-controlled authority continued to target West Bank universities, kidnapping two university professors and 24 students in February other than tens of daily summonses.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2b
Israeli court extends detention of 57-year-old woman from Issawiya
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 2 Mar — The detention of a 57 year old Palestinian woman was extended by the Israeli court yesterday, after she was arrested one week ago during a raid on her village of Issawiya, in north Jerusalem. The woman, whose name has not been revealed to the public, is accused by police of involvement in recent clashes that gripped Issawiya.
http://silwanic.net/?p=12811
Court extends Center director Jawad Siyam’s house arrest; family home raided again
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 2 Mar — Wadi Hilweh Information Center director Jawad Siyam’s house arrest sentence was extended until March 14 by the Israeli Magistrates Court in Jerusalem yesterday. Israeli police raided Siyam’s house again last night, summoning him to the station this morning. Two City of David settlement guards employed by Elad testified against Siyam, stating that he had broken the conditions of his house arrest but provided no further evidence.
http://silwanic.net/?p=12788
Abbasi sentenced to over 2 years in prison
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 2 Mar — Abdul Rahim Abbasi, 26, was sentenced by the Israeli Magistrates Court yesterday to 28 months imprisonment. Abbasi was arrested on 14 May 2010 on suspicion of involvement in clashes that took place in Silwan during that month, with his hearing initially scheduled to take place on the day set for his wedding day, one week after his arrest.
http://silwanic.net/?p=12796
Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
Back in action / Yigal Sarna
Left-wing anarchist Yonatan Pollack emerged from prison itching to rejoin separation fence protests. He also expresses a certain yearning for Tahrir Square — Three days after leaving prison, Yonatan Pollack was already sitting in a house in the Palestinian town of Budrus as if he’d never left … “For an offence like mine, for which I got a three month sentence, Abdallah Abu Rahmah received 18 months. In fact, the number of Jewish protesters who received prison sentences can be counted on one hand, the same as the number of Palestinians who didn’t get prison sentences.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4035484,00.html
This week’s report on Israeli activism in support of Palestinians
Ilan against the Wall 1 Mar – roundup of actions in various places – with links to videos
http://ilanisagainstwalls.blogspot.com/2011/03/palestine-israel-joint-struggle.html
JVP’s Rebecca Vilkerson debates for BDS at J Street’s annual convention / Max Blumenthal
1 Mar — Today at J Street’s annual convention, my friend and one-time debate partner Rebecca Vilkomerson, who is the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, made the case for BDS against liberal Zionist opponents Ken Bob of Ameinu and writer Bernard Avishai. Because it wasn’t videotaped, I have reproduced the full text of Rebecca’s opening remarks below. Note that she identified BDS as a Palestinian-led movement that forms the international backbone of the Palestinian non-violent strategy and is “part and parcel of the Arab Spring sweeping the region.” Building on these points, Vilkomerson questioned why there were no Palestinian members on the panel (the BDS movement’s mastermind, Omar Barghouti, has been mysteriously denied a visa to enter the US to promote his book about the boycott).
http://maxblumenthal.com/2011/03/jvps-rebecca-vilkomerson-debates-for-bds-at-j-streets-annual-convention/
Racism / Discrimination / Repression of dissent
Rightists march in Jaffa
Ynet 2 Mar 11:40 — Hundreds of officers, police chopper secure march against ‘Islamic takeover of Jaffa’. Residents take to streets to protest, holding signs saying ‘Extreme Right’s racism equals neo-Nazism in blue and white’; 16 leftists arrested … Among participants in the march are MK Michael Ben-Ari and extreme right-wing activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir. They marched with Israeli flags and signs that said “Jaffa for the Jews” … Kamal Agbaria, chairman of Ajami’s neighborhood committee, threatened revenge. “At the end of the month, on our Land Day, we will pay them back and march in Kiryat Arba,” he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4036528,00.html
16 leftists arrested at protest against right-wing march in Jaffa
Haaretz 2 Mar 11:47 March is organized by right-wing activists who want to protest ‘Islamic Movement gaining control over [the city]’; Arab residents close businesses in protest … The march comes just a few days after the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality announced a plan to build affordable housing exclusively for Jaffa’s Arab residents.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/16-leftists-arrested-at-protest-against-right-wing-march-in-jaffa-1.346660
Court: Profiling all Israeli Arabs as a ‘security risk’ is unacceptable
Haaretz 2 Mar — High Court has yet to rule on petition filed by the Union for Civil Rights demanding state alter its procedure of security checks at airports.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/court-profiling-all-israeli-arabs-as-a-security-risk-is-unacceptable-1.346730
In dirt-poor Jisr al-Zarqa, showers are a rare commodity
Haaretz 2 Mar – Mekorot is cutting the city’s water supply every afternoon over unpaid bills … Mayor Az al-Din Atash explains that Jisr al-Zarqa is deep in debt because most residents don’t pay their water bills and municipal taxes. “People have no money. We’re the poorest community in Israel, with monthly salaries of less than NIS 3,000 per person. We tried joining a local water authority but none would accept us.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/in-dirt-poor-jisr-al-zarqa-showers-are-a-rare-commodity-1.346559
Israeli parliament weighs probe of nation’s critics
JERUSALEM, March 1 (Reuters) – Right-wing lawmakers have ignored the concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rescheduled a vote on a proposed parliamentary probe of foreign funding for Israeli groups critical of Israel’s policies … Danny Danon, a legislator from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and a sponsor of the proposal, said on Tuesday it was back on parliament’s agenda, with a vote likely on March 16.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/israeli-parliament-weighs-probe-of-nations-critics
Can Oscar fame bring Israeli citizenship?
Mohammed Adam, 19, of Darfur, is one of the main figures in the film “Strangers No More,” which was awarded the Oscar for best short documentary on Sunday. Adam, who graduated last year from the Bialik-Rogozin school in Tel Aviv, is now studying auto mechanics at the Kfar Hayarok Youth Village technical college … “At first, when I studied history and Bible in high school, and I got residency, I said ‘I belong to the people of Israel; I’ll have one country and I can enlist in the army and I will defend the people of Israel.’ But suddenly I hear ‘We don’t need you’ and that they want to make a prison for children, and then I think perhaps it’s better to go somewhere else…”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/can-oscar-fame-bring-israeli-citizenship-1.346372
Political news
Jordanian rights group to sue Israel after explosion kills child
AMMAN, (PIC) 2 Mar– A Jordan human rights organization condemned in statements on Wednesday an Israeli explosion that killed a Jordanian boy and left another wounded a few days back in the Jordan Valley. Tamir al-Ajarima was killed and his brother Bara wounded after the reverberation of an explosion caused a garage to collapse on them. The Jordanian Methaq rights group announced it has begun to take local and international legal action over the incident
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87M
Netanyahu mulls Palestinian state with temporary borders as part of interim peace deal
Haaretz 2 Mar — Apparent move is a step back from the Prime Minister’s previous statement, according to which Netanyahu wants to attempt to reach a final-status agreement within a year.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-mulls-palestinian-state-with-temporary-borders-as-part-of-interim-peace-deal-1.346555
UN delegates ‘walked out’ during Clinton speech
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 2 Mar — Palestine’s delegation to the UN Human Rights Council walked out Monday in protest of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech in which she criticized the council for bias against Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364721
Mideast quartet due in Israel in bid to restart peace talks
Haaretz 1 Mar — Netanyahu refuses to send Israeli representatives to Quartet meeting in Brussels Wednesday, where they will meet with the Palestinians, so Quartet officials to come to Israel in compromise.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mideast-quartet-due-in-israel-in-bid-to-restart-peace-talks-1.346546
Hamas: Fayyad unity plan ‘born dead’
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 2 Mar — Political adviser to Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plan to create a new unity cabinet was “born dead, it is of no political value.” In a government statement, Yousef Rizqa said Hamas officials never received information on Fayyad’s plan
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=364999
Veteran Israeli diplomat: Netanyahu and Lieberman harming Israel’s stance in international community
Haaretz 2 Mar — Former envoy to South Africa says retiring after nearly 40 years with Israel’s foreign ministry following what he calls a ‘malignant dynamic’ which undermines Israel’s legitimacy.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/veteran-israeli-diplomat-netanyahu-and-lieberman-harming-israel-s-stance-in-international-community-1.346624
Palestinian, Chinese officials agree to boost trade collaborations
People’s Daily 2 Mar — Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and Palestinian Minister of Economy Hassan Abu Libdeh agreed Tuesday to boost commercial exchange between the two nations. After their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the visiting Chinese minister told reporters that he discussed with Abu Libdeh ways to encourage Chinese organizations to invest in the Palestinian territories. The two ministers also agreed to increase Chinese aid to the Palestinian National Authority and mutual training programs.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7305217.html
Other news
Palestinian detainees in Egypt go on twelfth day of hunger strike
GAZA, (PIC) 2 Mar — Palestinians held in Egyptian prisons have gone on their twelfth day of hunger strike as they demand freedom after the power shift in the country and court rulings that they should be released. Around 44 Palestinians remain inside the prisons after the Egyptian revolution … The recipient of power there, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, had announced it would release 14 detainees, but has only released two so far.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
Palestinians try to create ‘Facebook revolution’
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 1 Mar — The mass demonstrations sweeping the Middle East are touching the Palestinian territories, where West Bank and Gaza Strip activists are trying to organize their own “Facebook revolutions.” … Whether they can succeed is far from certain because of the unique situation of the Palestinians. In contrast to countries where crowds have rallied against a single, despised leader, the Palestinians face a series of intertwined problems, making it harder to rally around a common cause.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110301/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_protest
‘Extend Catholic-Jewish amity to Islam’
(Reuters) 2 Mar — The historic reconciliation between Jews and Roman Catholics over the past 40 years should be extended to Muslims to deal with the challenges of the 21st century, a senior Jewish official has said. The regular dialogue the two faiths have maintained since the Catholic Church renounced anti-Semitism at the Second Vatican Council, should be “a model for transformed relations with Islam,” Rabbi Richard Marker told an interfaith conference … “The focus of the world is no longer specifically on Jewish- Christian amity. We must, for so many reasons, involve the third of our Abrahamic siblings… Islam.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4035775,00.html
IDF celebrates Armored Corps history: Trophy system successful
1 Mar — Army top brass ecstatic as tank active protective system has first operational success. ‘Changes equation in Gaza and in northern sector against Hezbollah’s anti-tank threat,’ says senior IDF official
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4036357,00.html
Analysis / Opinion
Peace now, with Syria / Eitan Haber
1 Mar — Op-ed: Graves of Yom Kippur War fatalities reminder of why we need peace with Damascus
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4036185,00.html
What does the Arab world do when the water runs out? / John Vidal
Water usage in north Africa and the Middle East is unsustainable and shortages are likely to lead to further instability — unless governments take action to solve the impending crisis … Algeria and Tunisia, along with the seven emirates in the UAE, Morocco, Iraq and Iran are all in “water deficit” — using far more than they receive in rain or snowfall.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/20/arab-nations-water-running-out
Not so different after all? / Thomas Harrington
2 Mar — On more than a few occasions in the last decade, I have been the recipient of lectures – almost always by people with no discernible hands-on experience with foreign cultures in general, nor the Arab world in particular – about just how different and unlike us “those Arab people” in the Mideast really are. “You know, for them, life is cheap…” “In those places, people will do whatever their religious leaders will tell them to do; there is no independent thought as we know it…” “Islam is fundamentally incompatible with democracy…” … Though they are largely unaware of it, these people are suffering from what I have come to call Patai-Lewis Syndrome. It is named after two supposedly learned scholars of the Arab world, Rafael Patai and Bernard Lewis.
http://original.antiwar.com/thomas-harrington/2011/03/01/not-so-different-after-all/
U.S. wars
US Attorney General ‘not sure’ if Guantánamo will shut by 2013
Telegraph 1 Mar — Mr Holder declined to offer any new details about plans on how the administration will prosecute terrorism suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay prison, but he said repeatedly that the administration still planned to close the facility. The U.S. Congress has barred the Obama administration from bringing any detainees to U.S. soil for prosecution or detention, significantly hampering the effort to close the prison.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8355338/US-Attorney-General-not-sure-if-Guantanamo-will-shut-by-2013.html
Tuesday: 6 Iraqis killed, 7 Iraqis, 1 Pakistani wounded
Light violence left six Iraqis dead and seven more wounded. Besides them, one Pakistani man was wounded … The Iraqi Turkmen Front demanded the withdrawal of Peshmerga fighters from Kirkuk. The number of people wounded in last Friday’s demonstrations in Hawija grew by five to a total of 22 in the city and 51 in Kirkuk province.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/03/01/tuesday-6-iraqis-killed-7-iraqis-1-pakistani-wounded/
Gen. David Petraeus apologizes for deaths of 9 Afghan children
LA Times 2 Mar — NATO swiftly accepts responsibility for the deaths of the children, who were killed in a U.S. bombardment as they gathered firewood in eastern Afghanistan. ‘These deaths should never have happened,’ Gen. Petraeus says … Kunar province last month was the scene of another civilian-casualty episode that prompted an angry confrontation between the Karzai government and the NATO force.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-children-killed-20110303,0,4264416.story
Afghanistan and the arithmetic of austerity / Amy Goodman
Guardian 2 Mar — Getting out of just one foreign war could fix all the US states’ budget deficits. If the math is that simple, the politics should be
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/02/usforeignpolicy-iraq
