Israel escalates UN rights spat
Israel has cut working relations with the UN Human Rights Council, officials say, after it decided to investigate settlements in the West Bank.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-17510668
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday an expected Hamas delegation had not arrived in Cairo to join talks on ending the Gaza Strip’s fuel crisis. Palestinian officials headed to Egypt on Saturday to discuss the mechanism for ongoing fuel pumping into Gaza after Egypt cut off supplies through an underground tunnel network. While an Egyptian security official said Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar crossed from Gaza to Egypt on Egypt, Fayyad said a Hamas delegation did not join talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=470964
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7I2c6DoLzLMlUSKoSzZkCG%2fYq%2f0CedDjcFp5784BHGRMu%2b%2bA42FnN8z3eNYmPwtbQ18ZdPig27pyGQi%2fhXGgGA61XYBxM%2fB2Nx7WcoE51PNQ%3d
Eight children between the ages of 14 to 17 years old were arrested in Beit Ummar during night raids from 6th to 11th of March conducted by the Israeli occupation forces following a nonviolent solidarity demonstration for the hungerstriker Khader Adnan on the 21st of February. On Tuesday 20th of March the youth went to court at the Israeli military court at Ofer and faced a sentence of being banned from Beit Ummar, where they live with their families, for a period of 6 months. The youth are being accused of throwing stones at Israeli military installations. The detainees are Ayesh Khalid Sabri Awad (17 years), Basil Khalid Hassan Abu Hashim (15 years), Zain Hisham Khalil Abu Maria (15 years) Sami Amer Ahmed Abo Joudeh (16 years), Emad Mohammed Saed Solaiby (16 years), Mohab Jawdat Adi (14 years), Bilal Mahmud Awad Ayyad (16 years), and Ahmed Ali Mahmoud Solaiby (16 years)
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/03/eight-children-from-beit-ummar-facing-suspension-from-their-village-of-residence/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
The Judaisation of Jerusalem
The Judaisation of Jerusalem has occupied a prominent place in the Arab and Muslim media recently, and is the focus of many statements made by officials and heads of state on the grounds that the city’s future concerns those who care about Islamic and Christian holy sites there. Recent conferences in Doha and Beirut released statements confirming Jerusalem’s Arab identity and the need to protect the holy places as well as cultural and historical monuments which characterise the city.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/arab-media/3550-the-judaisation-of-jerusalem
Violence Against Palestinians
Settlers Attacks Leave One Injured; Troops Arrest Nine Civilians in Dawn Invasions
A Palestinian farmer was injured when Israeli armed settlers attacked a group of farmers near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Monday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63204
Hospital ‘may consider force-feeding’ Shalabi, Published yesterday
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The ethics committee of Meir Hospital may consider force-feeding hunger-striking detainee Hana Shalabi, human rights organizations said Monday., The committee will meet Tuesday to discuss Shalabi’s case and could discuss force-feeding her, Addameer prisoner rights group and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said in a joint statement., Amnesty International warned forcible feeding “could constitute cruel and inhuman treatment,” a release from the group said.
Hana Shalabi Enters Day 40 of Hunger Strike
Israeli Military Court refuses to shorten administrative detention order of Hana Shalabi, who is in critical condition on this 40th day of her hunger strike.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/component/content/article/28-news/4231-hana-shalabi-enters-day-40-of-hunger-strike-
Six citizens from Nablus on hunger strike in solidarity with Shalabi
Six Palestinian citizens from Nablus, held in Israeli administrative custody, have gone on hunger strike in solidarity with hunger striker Hana’a Shalabi topped by 72-year-old MP Ahmed Al-Haj Ali.
Megiddo prison administration blocks visits to hunger strikers
The administration of the Israeli Megiddo prison has blocked visits by lawyers to their clients in the jail as a punishment for going on hunger strike.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7jmn6yHF0xdX5%2ffsHwNDjhKsf5AgGo%2fk4HMscm5mHiz06EBXooCC0uwSW4Ooprfjxc21cqMMal7j7CHF05cRg2BkN7IRZ1tvTFGsyypWLTxc%3d
Palestinian detainees take on Israel with hunger
Inspired by Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who pressured Israel with a 66-day hunger strike, a growing number of his fellow detainees are launching similar protests.
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-detainees-israel-hunger-140440793.html
Political Prisoners & Detainees
An Israeli military court has extended the detention of seven Palestinian children from Al-Khalil for 101 days for further interrogation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7nsx6av%2bzpNMPZth1g%2f9ry%2bbPX7ZEIWDZMwuqoFbzIFNEq0GeJPd9K0R8OJRdDNlyX9SdWZVyyIHmUiWlXQxMY3HUmgTUP9XFd8RGFgRM3dU%3d
IOF soldiers arrest 9 Palestinians, field interrogate others
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up nine Palestinian citizens in the provinces of Al-Khalil and Bethlehem at dawn Monday.
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched a search campaign in various West Bank areas at dawn Sunday that ended with the arrest of six Palestinians.
ISRAEL-OPT: Helping ex-detainee children cope with trauma
RAMALLAH, 26 March 2012 (IRIN) – A year after his arrest and detention by the Israeli military in Bethlehem, Hamza, a 17-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank, is seeing a social worker to try and overcome the trauma he suffered in a small cell with 10 other people. “They blindfolded me, tied my arms together and took me away to prison in an army jeep. We were 10 people in a small cell, and they kept asking me why I threw stones a few times every day,” he told IRIN, as he waited for the social worker at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) office in Beit Sahour. When Hamza was detained about a year ago, he was 16. “There were settlers outside our school and then clashes broke out. I threw stones and got caught,” he said. “During four and a half months in detention, I was not allowed to see my family once. When I got out of prison, I just didn’t know where to begin,” he added.
Detained commander: We are entitled to resist occupation
Detained Qassam Brigades commander Abdullah Al-Barghouthi has said that the Palestinian people are entitled to resist occupiers of their country.
Solidarity / Actvism / Popular Protests / BDS
Israeli diplomat chased out of Morocco after mass protest
Women in Gaza Voice Support for Global March to Jerusalem
TEHRAN (FNA)- Women in Gaza held a gathering outside the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza City to underline their support for the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ).
Cairo marathon against Judaization of O. Jerusalem
Egyptian popular committees have declared that a marathon would be organized in Cairo next Friday in support of Jerusalem and in rejection of Israeli Judaization attempts of the occupied holy city.
Jerusalemites stage sit-in in solidarity with prisoners
The committee of relatives of Jerusalemite prisoners in Israeli jails and the Palestinian prisoner’s society organized a sit-in on Saturday in solidarity with their next of kin.
Two Israeli women, one Palestinian and the other Jewish, are the latest activists to appear on San Francisco Bay Area transit posters calling for an end to U. S. military aid to Israel. Images of Lubna Masarwa and Michal Zak, who work together for the threatened Bedouin of the Negev/Naqab Desert, are now greeting commuters on Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in San Francisco and the East Bay.
The Park Slope Food Co-op, one of the oldest and largest in the country, is set to vote Tuesday on whether to hold a referendum on boycotting goods from Israel to protest the Israeli government’s policies toward Palestinians. We host a debate on the international advocacy effort called the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, or BDS for short, which is inspired by the international boycott movement against apartheid South Africa. “We believe this campaign is for the sake of both Palestinians and the Israelis, because it would help us liberate ourselves from the last segregation and occupation system in the world. And it would help liberate the Israelis from the last colonial settlement system in modern history,” says Dr Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Parliament who supports the BDS movement. “The result of the way BDS is framed on almost everyone I have talked to who feels attracted to it, is that the society as well as the government of Israel is wrong and must be attacked,” says Rabbi Arthur Waskow who is opposed to BDS. He is founder and director of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia. “Even using methods that are not outright violence, is not a nonviolent approach.” We also discuss the case of Hana Shalabi, the Palestinian hunger striker protesting the Israeli policy of administrative detention. She has been on hunger strike for 39 days. This past weekend, an Israeli military court rejected her appeal. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]
South Africans recall their own history during Israeli Apartheid Week
Israeli Apartheid Week in South Africa aimed to reach a wide audience and strengthen the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/south-africans-recall-their-own-history-during-israeli-apartheid-week/11097?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Racism & Discrimination
Christian Palestinians: Israel ‘manipulating facts’ by claiming we are welcome
Israel’s envoy to U.S. writes that Christians are morethan elsewhere in Mideast. Too bad the Christians disagree.
Israeli charged with trafficking African migrants
An Israeli man has been charged with participation in a human trafficking ring that captured and tortured African migrants in Egypt’s neighboring Sinai desert, according to an indictment released Sunday.
Raja Khalidi on Palestinian Liberation and Neoliberalism
Over the past year, as Arab peoples in surrounding countries erupted in protest against dictators, security regimes, and failed social and economic policies, the Palestinian people living in their occupied homeland have remained quiescent. Neither have mass protests targeted the Palestinian “regime’s” policies or negotiating performance, nor has resistance to Israeli occupation escalated or taken more effective forms.
Hamas political bureau wants to retain Meshaal
Political sources in Palestine have revealed that the Islamic Resistance Movement’s preparations for its leadership election are under way, as per its constitution. The vote is scheduled for April in Gaza and overseas simultaneously. There are no real surprises at this stage. The anonymous sources claim that the movement’s political bureau hopes to hang on to Khaled Meshaal despite his stated intention to step down as its leader. According to Hamas leader Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, all of his colleagues in the leadership have sent an open letter to Mr. Meshaal calling upon him to withdraw his decision and stay on in his post.
Afghanistan
US authorities have given cash to the families of those allegedly killed by an American soldier, reports say.
Ahmadinejad blasts US policy in Afghanistan
A US delegation walked out of a regional conference in Tajikistan Monday after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lambasted US policy on Afghanistan as the source of all the country’s troubles. Ahmadinejad slammed the US occupation of Afghanistan at a conference in the Tajik capital Dushanbe attended by leaders of Afghanistan’s neighbors as well as a US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake. “The cause of all the ills in Afghanistan is the presence on Afghan soil of NATO forces and above all those of the United States,” the Iranian president told the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA). As the Iranian president was giving his speech, Blake pointedly led the US delegation out of the conference hall.
Dozens join Bahrain hunger strike
Dozens of Bahrainis are beginning a hunger strike on Monday in solidarity with human rights leader Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who has now gone 46 days without food. The protest will begin with a march in the capital Manama, with activists planning to walk silently through the streets to highlight the lack of international media coverage. Afterwards activists will publicly pledge to refuse food to highlight Al-Khawaja’s plight. Al-Khawaja, also a Danish citizen and founder of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, was sentenced to life in prison in June 2011 for organizing peaceful protests calling for democratic reform in the tiny Gulf state.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/dozens-join-bahrain-hunger-strike
Bahrainis rally to support jailed activist
Bahraini anti-regime protesters have held a demonstration in the northwestern village of Diraz to express solidarity with prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, Press TV reports.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/233212.html
Bahrainis hold nationwide protests
Bahrainis have staged nationwide anti-regime protest rallies to call on the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty to relinquish power, saying the British-backed regime has lost legitimacy.
Bahraini Dissident Blogger Ali Abdulemam Missing For One Year
One year after dissident Ali Abdulemam disappeared, authorities insist he is a fugitive and have tried him in absentia. But the Human Rights Report listed him as a political prisoner. Madison Shimoda reports on the mystery.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/25/bahraini-dissident-blogger-ali-abdulemam-missing-for-one-year.html
Bahrain postpones ruling in blogger’s death
MANAMA, Bahrain: The lawyer for the family of a Bahraini blogger who died while in police custody during last year’s crackdown on dissent says a judge has ordered prosecutors to further question the five policemen charged with beating the man to death.
Bahrain scrambles to keep F1 race on track
Government eager to host Grand Prix after embarrassing cancellation last year due to protests.
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/middleeast/2012/03/2012326175515862176.html
Nada Dhaif: Speaking Out Against Ongoing Crackdown in Bahrain
Last year, the Bahraini regime detained, tortured, and convicted in sham trials 20 medical professional who had treated wounded pro-democracy protestors and then spoken to the international press about the crackdown. Dr. Nada Dhaif, a mother of two young daughters, is one of the 20. Bahrain security forces tortured Nada. They initially held her in solitary confinement for twenty-two days and subjected her to unrelenting physical and verbal abuse—including electrocution. Later, she was made to sign a false confession admitting to hatred for the regime, criminally supporting the protesters, and violating her Hippocratic Oath.
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2012/03/26/nada-dhaif-speaking-out-against-ongoing-crackdown-in-bahrain/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HumanRightsFirstBlog+%28Human+Rights+First+%C2%BB+blog%29
Iran
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iran-attack-would-last-48-hours-straftor-source?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s government has locked down Baghdad ahead of this week’s Arab League Summit, throwing up a maze of security checkpoints and roadblocks as it seeks to protect the capital from insurgent attacks. The three-day summit is the first of its kind to be held in Iraq in more than two decades, and a successful meeting would allow Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to show the country is pulling back from years of violence and upheaval months after the last U.S. troops left.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/baghdadis-brace-theselves-arab-summit?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Iraq VP demands probe into bodyguard’s ‘torture’
Iraq’s fugitive vice president on Sunday called for an urgent neutral inquiry into the death of his bodyguard, who was allegedly tortured while in custody.
Syria
Arab leaders won’t tell Syrian president to quit
Iraq’s top diplomat says the Arab League will not ask Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign at a summit in Baghdad this week.
http://news.yahoo.com/arab-leaders-wont-tell-syrian-president-quit-132946231.html
Syrian troops shell central city of Homs
Syrian troops shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs on Monday with at least five people seriously wounded, while Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus and recalled its ambassador as relations between the former allies continue to deteriorate.
Russia: Annan’s mission last chance to avoid Syrian civil war
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned Sunday that Kofi Annan represented the last chance for avoiding a civil war in Syria and offered the UN-Arab League envoy Moscow’s full support. ”This may be the last chance for Syria to avoid a protracted and bloody civil war,” Russian agencies quoted Medvedev as telling Annan at a meeting held in Moscow’s Vnukovo 2 airport before his departure for a summit in Seoul. ”We will be offering you our full support at any level in which we have a say,” said Mededev. “We very much hope that your efforts have a positive outcome.”
Free Syrian Army calls on armed groups to unite
Syria’s opposition fighters say they are running out of ammunition and are lacking the weapons need to battle government troops.
Obama pledges ‘non-lethal’ aid for Syria rebels
MOSCOW — US President Barack Obama pledged Sunday to send “non-lethal” aid to the Syrian rebels while peace envoy Kofi Annan piled diplomatic pressure on the regime by seeking the backing of its ally Russia. The announcement was the most overt show of US support for the rebels to date and is certain to irritate Russia following its fierce condemnation of the West’s calls on President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Blasts meanwhile once again rocked Syria’s flashpoint city of Homs as the regime pressed on with its assault on protest hubs while the rebels countered by attacking a military base in Damascus province.
Jordan arrests 10 alleged Syrian defectors
Jordan has arrested 10 Syrians who claimed they were army defectors after they left a designated area in the northern city of Mafraq, a security official said. “They were arrested last week and currently under interrogation,” he told AFP.
A woman who fled with her four children this month is among a growing number of Syrians who brave snipers to reach Jordan. About 80,000 Syrians have fled there. Um Eddine shudders as she describes the icy night she and her four children reached the barbed-wire fence that marks the border between her native Syria and Jordan.
Syrian children struggle to resume normal lives in Turkey
“Only a year ago Bashar was like a father to us,” said 10-year-old Hediye Fada at a school in a Turkish refugee camp near the Syrian border, referring to President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria’s opposition meets today after being shaken by resignations and splits. A united front could sway skeptical Syrians who don’t particularly support Assad but fear the alternative could be worse.
Ali Ferzat: Revolution redefines art in Syria
Syrian cartoonist on revolution, art – and taking a beating.
Al Arabiya English Facebook page hacked
The Al Arabiya English page on the social networking site Facebook was hacked on Monday. Posts on the page surrounding the conflict in Syria have provided our readers with what is believed to be false news on attacks in Syria and deceptive information on Saudi government orders.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/26/203307.html
Syria’s capital is calm despite revolt, but life has changed
Fear of the government persists in Damascus, Syria, but people are not afraid to talk openly about the yearlong revolt anymore. The cigarette smoke hovers dense inside the neighborhood cafe. Young patrons knock back beers at greasy wooden tables. A heated debate rages about Syria’s revolt.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/qzGCNwZ5KEQ/la-fg-syria-damascus-mood-20120326,0,5309358.story
U.S. other Mideast News
Woman beaten in San Diego attack to be buried in Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/26/beaten-san-diego-woman-iray
Professor notes similarities between Trayvon Martin and Shaima Alawadi cases
Brown University professor Tricia Rose said Monday that there were important similarities between the cases of Trayvon Martin and Shaima Alawadi. “There are some really important similarities,” she told The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur. “There are college campuses where young Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and African Americans are joining together, and wearing the hijab and the hoodie together to say, look, this is about people of color, people who are either fundamentally suppressed or unwanted or mistreated being criminally classed, so the presumption is that they are second class citizens, who can be pushed to the side, mistreated illegally — but nonetheless comfortably — policed and mistreated.”
Amnesty: US ranks 5th on global execution scale
The United States was the only Western democracy that executed prisoners last year, even as an increasing number of U.S. states are moving to abolish the death penalty, Amnesty International announced Monday.
http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-us-ranks-5th-global-execution-scale-230313817.html
United Arab Emirates authorities on Sunday briefly detained a political activist who criticized one of the Gulf country’s rulers on his Twitter account, a prominent Emirati blogger said.
Sarkozy says influential Muslim cleric not welcome in France
President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday that influential Qatar-based Sunni Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was not welcome in France.
http://news.yahoo.com/sarkozy-says-influential-muslim-cleric-not-welcome-france-201123790.html
also posted on: www.TheHeadlines.Org
Gosh. The ideological insistence on supporting YESHA over its own strategic and diplomatic interests does more for Israeli delegitimisation than anything the Khamas or the Khezbollah could ever dream of.
Too bad the US officer — the so-called US ambassador — seems more concerned about another country than his own.
Department of diplomatic ambiguity:
at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-reprimands-austria-belgium-over-vote-on-un-human-rights-council-1.420851?localLinksEnabled=false
“U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday that “the human rights council … could better go to investigating issues where the facts are not well-known and where they can actually make a difference in bringing a settlement about.” ”
Does this mean — could it mean ?? — that US DoS understands the well-known deprivations of H./R in OPTs the same way as we do? And concurs, again with us, that nothing can be done about it because of USA’s VETOes?
Extending the detention WITHOUT trial of 7 kids for a FURTHER 101 days?
Let’s see, they were kidnapped/abducted by the IOF about Mar12 (iirc), so that’ll be a total of nearly 17 WEEKS, or FOUR MONTHS detention without trial, for “INTERROGATION”. And all that means.
“most moral” my arse.
“US ambassador to Israel says Human Rights Council obsessively focuses on Israel instead of other critical issues in Syria, Iran.”
What a relief! Our ambassador saved USA from being scolded by Israeli Foreign Ministry! His efforts spared us the fate suffered by Austria, Belgium, Norway and Switzerland.