Land Theft / Ethnic Cleansing
Zionist plans to build a shopping centre on Armenian Church land
The Jerusalem occupation municipality announced a plan to build a new shopping centre with a car park on a piece of land that is owned by the Armenian Church in the old city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7K1lb424vTV6QXD6QuszFgxbUKYQ9HEwQVqHtMCZ2Zptx7vpbNtfOGKTv%2bhKjBBsTWpBTx9RWELGdfhLOVaYpus6lsLzbNCyzCsqVr0db3Do%3d
The unrecognised Bedouin village of Al Araqib, in Israel’s Negev desert, remains steadfast in the face of ongoing demolitions at the hands of government authorities.
Jewish settlers attacked Nabi Saleh village, to the north west of Ramallah, before dawn Saturday and tried to burn a mosque in it, local sources said.
IOF soldiers unleash hounds at Palestinian teen, beat two children
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested a Palestinian teen in Tabaqa village, south of Al-Khalil, after unleashing trained hounds at him, local sources said.
Israeli Settlers Enter Beit Ommar, Harass Palestinian Residents
On Friday, February 3, 2012, a large group of around 150 Israeli settlers entered the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar in the southern West Bank. The presence of settlers on Palestinian land is prohibited under International Law. The group was escorted by Israeli soldiers and border police, and moved through several neighborhoods of the village during the middle of the day.
Despite chronic attacks on their homes and property by settlers, while Israeli forces continue to confiscate more and more land to serve the nearby settlement, the Jaber family hold fast to both their heritage and their future.
Palestinian Prisoner Khader Adnan reached the 49th day of his hunger strike against prison conditions on Saturday. This includes five days of refusing liquids as well – although Israeli prison officers have begun force-feeding him liquids to keep him alive. In solidarity, dozens of youth activists in Gaza have announced that they are joining Adnan in his hunger strike.
10 More Detainees Join Hunger Strike
Ten more Palestinian detainees at the Ofer Israeli prison, decided to join the open-ended hunger strike of Sheikh Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike since 50 days, and his health condition has sharply deteriorated.
15 Palestinian young men go on hunger strike in solidarity with Adnan
15 Palestinian young men started a hunger strike at the Red Cross offices in Gaza on Saturday in solidarity with Islamic Jihad leader Sheikh Khader Adnan who has been on hunger strike for 49 days.
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) violently dispersed Palestinians and foreign activists while trying to plant olive trees in Beit Ummar village in Al-Khalil on Saturday.
PA security raid home of a liberated captive
PA security forces on Friday afternoon raided the home of liberated captive Burhan Shreteh from the town of Yatta to the south of al-Khalil.
Palestinian prisoner threatened with paralysis
A human rights report has warned that health of Palestinian prisoner Zuhair Lubada was rapidly deteriorating in Israeli detention and could end up in paralysis.
Non-violent anti-wall marches in W. Bank met with Israeli violence
Peaceful marches against the segregation wall and settlement activities took place on Friday afternoon in different West Bank villages despite the violence used by Israeli soldiers against them.
Happy birthday, dear Vittorio (RIP)
As I realized today’s date, the 4th of February, a stream of memories flooded into my mind. Today, last year, marked my dear friend Vittorio Arrigoni’s last birthday I spent with him. I remember it was a nice, rainy Friday. I felt happy to be rich, having just gotten my $1,000 share from YouthSchool for my work on the Gaza 2011 calendar “All I Want Is Peace”. My best friend Adie Mormech, an English activist who spent a year in Gaza working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), reminded me that it was Vik’s birthday. That day, Vik missed the Friday lunch, to which he always looked forward. I knew about Vik’s stress regarding his father’s deteriorating health, and that it was a reason he didn’t join us for lunch. He would always say “Zaki”, delicious, as his gentle but funny way of thanking Mum for the food that was fondly ranked by “his majesty” as the best in Gaza.
Israeli Apartheid Week: Call it as it is, Adam Horowitz
Two US Delegations Endorse BDS and Call for Action in the US
The Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel has been endorsed by two US delegations recently returned from fact finding missions to occupied Palestine and Israel. US Campaign member group US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) organized a delegation of five distinguished scholars for a trip to Palestine and Israel in January. The delegation, composed of professors working at US universities, witnessed firsthand how Israel routinely denies the academic freedom of Palestinian scholars and students. According to a press release issued by USACBI, the delegation noted:
This weekend, the first national conference bringing together American supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement takes place at the University of Pennsylvania. We discuss the conference, the controversy surrounding it, and the growing international BDS movement, with guests Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada and conference keynote speaker, and Anna Baltzer, National Organizer with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
Video: “We–the global 99%–shall overcome!” Omar Barghouti’s salute to PennBDS conference, Ali Abunimah
Despite all attempts to bully BDS activists at UPenn into cancelling their historic conference, they have prevailed. Omar Barghouti, a human rights activist and founding member of the Palestinian civil society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in this video salutes PennBDS and all US activists who have adopted BDS as the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu endorses PennBDS conference, Adam Horowitz
Alumni donor threats and more Nazi analogies as the world awaits Penn BDS conference, Philip Weiss
I went to the last BDS conference at Hampshire College in Massachusetts and nobody paid any attention to us. But this weekend! Holy moly! Isn’t this an utter fulfillment of the Gandhi law of activism: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win….
Barghouti: Attacks on the Penn BDS conference reveal panic that Israel is losing hearts and minds, Adam Horowitz
Omar Barghouti, who was smeared in Professor Ruben Gur’s outrageous broadside against the Penn BDS conference, has been given a chance to reply. He shows that while Israel’s defenders will stoop to slurs, lies and fear mongering in their attempt to derail the BDS movement, supporters of Palestinian rights only need to rely on the values leading the BDS movement – freedom, justice and equality. From Barghouti’s Daily Pennsylvanianarticle “We — the global 99% — shall overcome!“:
Saboteurs blew up a pipeline in Egypt that supplied gas to Israel, the 12th such attack in a year, security officials said.
Hamas “will hold on to Meshaal”
The head of the Palestinian government in Gaza has confirmed his belief that Hamas “will hold on to Khaled Meshaal” as the head of the Islamic Resistance Movement’s Political Bureau. Speaking during his visit to Qatar, Ismail Haniyeh said that the movement’s political and military leaders are calling on Meshaal to withdraw his decision to stand down. Mr. Meshaal had notified the Hamas Shura Council of his intention not to stand for re-election during its meeting last month.
Bahrain protests grow ahead of anniversary
Frequency of demonstrations increasing as kingdom approaches first anniversary of protests.
Reuters – Bahrainis of different political stripes faced off in a rare forum on Saturday to try to bridge deep rifts against a backdrop of continued disturbances outside the Gulf Arab state’s capital.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120204/wl_nm/us_bahrain_dialogue
At least eight Iraqis were killed and nine more wounded in the latest violence. However, a town council in Diyala province wants help preventing more deaths. They want all the landmines and other explosives removed from the area.
Russia and China veto UN resolution on Syria
Second double veto of Syria resolution draws condemnation from Western and Arab powers as activists report more deaths.
The Lede Blog: Violence in Syria Prompts Protests at Embassies
In London, New York and other cities, demonstrators rallied after reports of mass killings in the city of Homs, Syria.
Syria activists commemorate Hama atrocities
Red paint symbolising blood put in the streets, 30 years after tens of thousands were killed in the central city.
Article says Israel may attack Iran in April
Opinion piece in US newspaper claims US defence secretary believes strong likelihood of attack over atomic programme.
U.S. Leak on Israeli Attack Weakened a Warning to Netanyahu, Gareth Porter
When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Washington Post columnist David Ignatius this week that he believes Israel was likely to attack Iran between April and June, it was ostensibly yet another expression of alarm at the Israeli government’s threats of military action. But even though the administration is undoubtedly concerned about that Israeli threat, the […]
HYPE OR REALITY: WILL ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN BEFORE THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?
Today, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius devoted his column, see here, to growing concerns within the Obama Administration that “Israel will attack Iran militarily over the next few months.” Ignatius describes U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as believing “there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June—before Iran enters […]
The Iran Crisis and Israeli Nukes
One of the most uncommented on ironies today is that Israel is threatening military action to prevent Iran from continuing the same clandestine route to nuclear weapons that Israel took; just as Israeli planes destroyed nuclear reactors in Syria and Iraq to prevent those countries from following Israel’s lead. A parallel irony: President Obama champions an economic embargo to force Iran to back off its nuclear program. Yet, for more than half a century one American president after another declined to sound any alarums over Israel’s secret drive for nukes. Indeed, U.S. leaders refused to even officially acknowledge the foreboding intelligence about Israel’s intentions that American analysts were providing. That flimflam continues to this day.
The Warmongering Post: Iran, Israel, Ignatius, and the Intended Consequences of Propaganda, Nima Shirazi
In the latest example of mainstream warmongering, in today’s The Washington Post’s David Ignatius writes, “Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months. Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the United States could then stop them militarily.” When reading reports like the one Ignatius has filed here, it should always be remembered that what is being so nonchalantly discussed as a point of perturbation for a beleaguered Leon Panetta is, without doubt, the willful and active commission of a war crime. Not only that, but – in the words of the Nuremberg Tribunal - initiating a war of aggression, as Israel would undoubtedly be doing by unilaterally and illegally bombing Iran, is “the supreme international crime.”
NYPD Muslim Spy Scandal Grows With Newly Revealed Plan to Target Shiite Mosques
New revelations have emerged about the New York City Police Department’s secret program to spy on Muslim communities. The Associated Press has just uncovered a confidential NYPD plan from 2006 to engage in targeted surveillance of Shiite mosques following increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran; the latest revelation on its secret intelligence operations focused on Muslim neighborhoods. On Thursday a coalition of Muslim and civil rights organizations reiterated their call for the immediate resignation of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. We’re joined by reporter Matt Apuzzo, who has helped break the NYPD spying story for the Associated Press; and Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, spiritual leader at the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood and president of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York.
Elected representatives of the Palestinian community in Israel face growing harassment by the state, fellow MKs and the media. The presence of a few Palestinian members in the Knesset (MKs) is often touted as a sign of Israel’s robust democracy. Yet elected representatives of the Palestinian community inside Israel face growing harassment by the state, by fellow MKs and the media. On Monday, the trial of MK Said Naffaa, from the Balad party, opened in Nazareth. Naffaa is charged with “travelling illegally to an enemy state, assisting in organising a visit to an enemy state, and being in contact with a foreign agent” – all relating to a trip he made to Syria as part of a Druze delegation in 2007.
Palestine-Israel negotiations are impossible
There are no Palestine-Israel negotiations being held at the moment because Israeli preconditions kill them before they begin. The Palestinian side doesn’t have any alternative to offer instead of negotiations, which means that the issue will remain in limbo unless there is a change in the balance of power on the ground. The logical basis for negotiations has to be the importance of Israel’s withdrawal from the land it has occupied since 1967 in return for the security demands it wants. However, Israel has switched from the issue of withdrawal to a plan to change borders, which will allow it to continue its occupation with new land in the West Bank.
Newt Gingrich’s South Carolina primary victory has brought onto the spotlight his campaign’s main benefactor,Sheldon Adelson. Relatively to his wealth and the manner in which he has acquired it, Adelson has managed to stay away from the limelight – despite his quoted bragging of being “The world’s richest Jew” (he’s not, btw; but his wealth is currently estimated at >$20B).
Why is the BBC so afraid of the word “Palestine”?, Amena Saleem
This week, the BBC issued its final ruling on a controversy which has been raging for nearly a year after the words “Free Palestine” were censored from a freestyle rap played on Radio 1Xtra.
Anti-Semitism and Israel’s Inherent Contradictions, Ramzy Baroud
In a recent article, columnist Yaniv Halili described British author Ben White as ‘anti-Semitic’. He also denounced Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi for writing a forward to White’s latest book, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy. Those of us who can see through such distorted thinking know that White is a principled writer who has never displayed a shred of racism in his work. Zoabi is very well-known civil rights leader with a long-standing reputation of courage and poise. How could anti-racist endeavors themselves become the subject of accusation by Halili and others like him?
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17749
www.TheHeadlines.Org
“More Jewish Settlers Wage More Pogroms; Deafening Silence from Adherents of Zionism Expected to Continue“