Nakba
Palestinians mark day Israel stole their country
Palestinians are marking on Tuesday 64 years since predominantly European Jewish colonizers wiped their country off the map, cleansed the land of their villages, and brutally installed the state of Israel. Nakba Day – meaning "catastrophe" – commemorates the 750,000 to 800,000 native Palestinians that were either driven from their lands by force or fled as Jewish colonizers violently swept the territory to proclaim a state of their own. Around 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind, and now number about 1.3 million people, or some 20 percent of the population. This does not include the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank or besieged Gaza Strip.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Medics: 80 injured in Nakba protests near Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Over 80 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli forces near Ramallah on Tuesday, medics said, as protesters commemorated the Nakba, or catastrophe, of their exile in 1948. After a mass rally in Ramallah's clock square, protesters headed to Israel's Ofer detention center and the Qalandiya checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem to commemorate the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the founding of the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net
Israeli forces 'detain 3 at Nilin nakba rally'
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained three protesters rallying for Nakba Day near West Bank village Nilin on Tuesday, protest organizers said. Demonstrators attempted to cross the checkpoint at the edge of the village, on the anniversary of the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded. The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said three people, including activist leader Naji Tamimi, were detained by Israeli forces at the scene. Female activist Rana Nazzal was also detained, a Ma'an correspondent said. Nazzal gained notoriety for climbing atop an Israeli military truck at a demonstration last week near Ofer jail. An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces detained two people at Nilin attempting to breach the checkpoint. The army "will not allow anyone to impair Israeli sovereignty," she said.
link to www.maannews.net
Activists Cross Checkpoint, Raise Palestinian Flags on Nakba Day
RAMALLAH, May 15, 2012 (WAFA) – Palestinian activists Tuesday crossed a checkpoint separating the West Bank from Israel, located west of Ramallah, and raised Palestinian flags in a demonstration commemorating the 64th anniversary of the Palestinian 1948 Nakba, according to a local activist. One of the participants said that more than 50 activists from a Ramallah-based youth group headed to the Israeli checkpoint near Nilin, a village west of Ramallah and near the city of Ramleh on the other side of the border, and crossed the checkpoint as part of a the Historical Return to Ramleh march. The participants raised Palestinian flags and put up posters emphasizing the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their land, including the once-all-Arab city of Ramleh, which now has an Arab minority compared to the outnumbering Israeli Jewish population. The Israeli army used force and tear gas to disperse the protest and to force the activists back behind the checkpoint, as well as arrested an international activist and the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in the Ramallah area village of Nabi Saleh, Naji Tamimi. The Historical Return to Ramleh march is part of the nation-wide popular activities commemorating the Nakba Day when Palestinians were uprooted from their homes in Palestine in 1948 and which led to the establishment of Israel.
link to english.wafa.ps
Black flags in Mea Shearim mourn state's founding
The haredi neighborhood continues to fly black flags to mourn the 'sad' day Israel was born, and they're due to stay up until Jerusalem Day.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Youth vigil in Hebron commemorates Nakba
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Youth activists held a vigil in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday evening to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of Palestinian expulsion in 1948. Hundreds of Palestinian youth processed through Hebron's streets with torches, before gathering at the prisoner society office to celebrate the deal ending a mass hunger-strike in Israeli jails reached earlier in the day.
link to www.maannews.net
Tomorrow - Nakba Commemoration March to Ofer Prison
On the 64th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), the Independent Youth Movement Herak Shebabi and Stop the Wall have called for a mass demonstration to converge on Ofer prison in the West Bank. The protest presses for the respect of the demands of the hunger striking prisoners and aims to physically stand in the face of the Israeli occupation forces, who have imprisoned over the decades an estimated 40% of the male population in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and continue to enforce our “ongoing Nakba”.
link to www.stopthewall.org
Massive sit-in outside 10 Downing Street in London on nakba anniversary
Supporters of Palestinian rights and the Palestinian forum in Britain on Saturday staged a massive sit-in outside 10 Downing Street in London mark the nakba day which fall on May 15.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Qalqiliya unveils 'train of return' to mark Nakba
QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- Hundreds of students, local officials and activists gathered in Qalqiliya on Tuesday to commemorate the Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948. Qalqiliya governor Ribhi Khandaqji unveiled the "train of return," a model train symbolizing the right of refugees to return from exile. Khandaqji said the train was facing Israel, and noted that the northern West Bank city was a short distance from Palestinian villages and towns confiscated in the Nakba. "This train will remind us, and will remind our children of the right of return," the governor added. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced or fled from their homes in fighting to create the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net
Nakba Day: Returning to Lebanon's border
Victims of Israeli aggression on the Lebanese border recount their stories, one year on. It was meant to be a day of commemoration, albeit amid an atmosphere of festive defiance; hundreds of multi-coloured balloons were floating in the skies, national flags adorning the hill top were fluttering in the wind, speeches rich with patriotism were booming over the loud speakers. But what started off as a "day out" to the border for thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese - many of whom had never seen the occupied territories before - quickly turned to bloodshed. By the end of the day, six young men had been killed - and 126 people wounded - after Israeli soldiers opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators, reported the ad hoc committee Palestine Action in Lebanon, which counted the corpses and the injured. This was the scene at Maroun el Ras, a town situated on the Lebanese border with Israel, on Nakba Day 2011. The day, known as "The Catastrophe" in Arabic, commemorates the exodus of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and their land on May 15, 1948, sparked by Israeli violence immediately following the declaration of the Israeli state.
link to www.aljazeera.com
Palestinians in Egypt insist on right to return
Said Mohammad al-Shorbajy wants to die in Palestine. “That is my only wish, which I hope God will grant me,” he said. An ailing man in his late sixties, he is originally from Jaffa, a Palestinian city now in Israel. He has lived in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria for the past four decades. His father, Mohammad, was a fishmonger in Jaffa. During the Nakba — the wave of ethnic cleansing that led to Israel’s establishment in 1948 — his family was forced from their home. At that time, Said, who is also known as Abu Mohammad, was only three years old. Following the Nakba, his family moved to al-Shati, a refugee camp in Gaza. A teenage Said was once again uprooted when Israel occupied Gaza in 1967. Ever since then, he has lived in the Abu Qeer suburb of Alexandria. Abu Qeer hosts many Palestinian families and its dwellings resemble those of Gaza’s refugee camps.
link to electronicintifada.net
On Nakba Day, Palestinian Refugees Remain Uprooted
The Palestinians mark the Nakba Day on May 15; the day armed forces uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands, and destroyed their villages, killed and injured thousands of Palestinians before Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine in 1948.
link to www.imemc.org
Nakba Analysis / Op-ed
The Nakba: The Perpetuation of an Unwanted Legacy
Nakba-64Sixty-four years have passed since Palestinian society was decimated by the forcible transfer of some 700,000 people by Israeli forces. Each year, on 15 May, ‘Nakba Day’ commemorates the anguish of those who were expelled from their homes and those who fled in panic under direct military assault. Today also serves as a day of remembrance for the mass murders of 1948 and the destruction of entire villages, of Deir Yassin and Tantura and Al-Dawayima, when hundreds of Palestinians were killed during a period that is now known simply as ‘the catastrophe’.
link to www.alhaq.org
Crypts of Shatila: Where the Nakba Dwelled in
May 15, 1948: This date seems present even in their lineaments. You can meet them in the diaspora camps, the place where they live.
Connecting the Nakba to the present day
As the Nakba Day and its events draw closer, Palestinian uniformed forces send a clear message that demonstrations should not disturb the settlers.
link to www.haaretz.com
Nakba Day 2012: Refugees waiting, 64 years and counting, Adam Horowitz
Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American based in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, speaking at TEDxRamallah in April 2011. Bahour blogs on Palestinian affairs and is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians.
link to mondoweiss.net
Palestinian Nakba: Resolve of memory
The Nakba is now 64 years old and counting
May 2012 sees Israel entering the sixty-fifth year since it was established on the ruins of historic Palestine. Those years have been a colonial journey unprecedented in history. Israel was based on the philosophy of bringing people of one ethnicity from around the world to supplant another people indigenous to the land. To achieve this Israel has used genocide, "transfer" and ethnic cleansing, in a manner similar to what happened to Native Americans and aboriginal Australians and New Zealanders. The big difference, though, is that the Zionist-Israeli movement used ideological justifications based on mythology of a kind well-received by the colonial West.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
'Being Palestinian': Global Citizenship Available, Frank Barat
Before I start, I’d like to make it clear that not all views/takes on the subject will be mentioned in this piece. I will not talk about the 'views from Mars' (actually if there is 'people' on Mars they will probably be offended by the comparison. So if you do indeed exist, please forgive me) of certain 'Palestinian People deniers' US politicians that manage to be lunatic and mainstream at the same time. The fact that those views are hardly challenged and condemned in mainstream US politics and media says a lot about the 'land of the free'.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Right of return, prisoners and Al-Aqsa Mosque are "indivisible"
The Office for Refugees' Affairs of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has reaffirmed the organisation's belief that the principles of the Palestinian people are a "single, linked unit" which does not lend itself to being split-up. The Palestinian people, said Hamas, are united behind them, particularly in respect of the right to return to their land and properties which were taken from them by Zionist gangs during the occupation of Palestine in 1948.
Black flags in Mea Shearim mourn state's founding
The haredi neighborhood continues to fly black flags to mourn the 'sad' day Israel was born, and they're due to stay up until Jerusalem Day.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Youth vigil in Hebron commemorates Nakba
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Youth activists held a vigil in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday evening to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of Palestinian expulsion in 1948. Hundreds of Palestinian youth processed through Hebron's streets with torches, before gathering at the prisoner society office to celebrate the deal ending a mass hunger-strike in Israeli jails reached earlier in the day.
link to www.maannews.net
Tomorrow - Nakba Commemoration March to Ofer Prison
On the 64th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), the Independent Youth Movement Herak Shebabi and Stop the Wall have called for a mass demonstration to converge on Ofer prison in the West Bank. The protest presses for the respect of the demands of the hunger striking prisoners and aims to physically stand in the face of the Israeli occupation forces, who have imprisoned over the decades an estimated 40% of the male population in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and continue to enforce our “ongoing Nakba”.
link to www.stopthewall.org
Massive sit-in outside 10 Downing Street in London on nakba anniversary
Supporters of Palestinian rights and the Palestinian forum in Britain on Saturday staged a massive sit-in outside 10 Downing Street in London mark the nakba day which fall on May 15.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Qalqiliya unveils 'train of return' to mark Nakba
QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- Hundreds of students, local officials and activists gathered in Qalqiliya on Tuesday to commemorate the Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948. Qalqiliya governor Ribhi Khandaqji unveiled the "train of return," a model train symbolizing the right of refugees to return from exile. Khandaqji said the train was facing Israel, and noted that the northern West Bank city was a short distance from Palestinian villages and towns confiscated in the Nakba. "This train will remind us, and will remind our children of the right of return," the governor added. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced or fled from their homes in fighting to create the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net
Nakba Day: Returning to Lebanon's border
Victims of Israeli aggression on the Lebanese border recount their stories, one year on. It was meant to be a day of commemoration, albeit amid an atmosphere of festive defiance; hundreds of multi-coloured balloons were floating in the skies, national flags adorning the hill top were fluttering in the wind, speeches rich with patriotism were booming over the loud speakers. But what started off as a "day out" to the border for thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese - many of whom had never seen the occupied territories before - quickly turned to bloodshed. By the end of the day, six young men had been killed - and 126 people wounded - after Israeli soldiers opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators, reported the ad hoc committee Palestine Action in Lebanon, which counted the corpses and the injured. This was the scene at Maroun el Ras, a town situated on the Lebanese border with Israel, on Nakba Day 2011. The day, known as "The Catastrophe" in Arabic, commemorates the exodus of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and their land on May 15, 1948, sparked by Israeli violence immediately following the declaration of the Israeli state.
link to www.aljazeera.com
Palestinians in Egypt insist on right to return
Said Mohammad al-Shorbajy wants to die in Palestine. “That is my only wish, which I hope God will grant me,” he said. An ailing man in his late sixties, he is originally from Jaffa, a Palestinian city now in Israel. He has lived in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria for the past four decades. His father, Mohammad, was a fishmonger in Jaffa. During the Nakba — the wave of ethnic cleansing that led to Israel’s establishment in 1948 — his family was forced from their home. At that time, Said, who is also known as Abu Mohammad, was only three years old. Following the Nakba, his family moved to al-Shati, a refugee camp in Gaza. A teenage Said was once again uprooted when Israel occupied Gaza in 1967. Ever since then, he has lived in the Abu Qeer suburb of Alexandria. Abu Qeer hosts many Palestinian families and its dwellings resemble those of Gaza’s refugee camps.
link to electronicintifada.net
On Nakba Day, Palestinian Refugees Remain Uprooted
The Palestinians mark the Nakba Day on May 15; the day armed forces uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands, and destroyed their villages, killed and injured thousands of Palestinians before Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine in 1948.
link to www.imemc.org
Nakba Analysis / Op-ed
The Nakba: The Perpetuation of an Unwanted Legacy
Nakba-64Sixty-four years have passed since Palestinian society was decimated by the forcible transfer of some 700,000 people by Israeli forces. Each year, on 15 May, ‘Nakba Day’ commemorates the anguish of those who were expelled from their homes and those who fled in panic under direct military assault. Today also serves as a day of remembrance for the mass murders of 1948 and the destruction of entire villages, of Deir Yassin and Tantura and Al-Dawayima, when hundreds of Palestinians were killed during a period that is now known simply as ‘the catastrophe’.
link to www.alhaq.org
Crypts of Shatila: Where the Nakba Dwelled in
May 15, 1948: This date seems present even in their lineaments. You can meet them in the diaspora camps, the place where they live.
Connecting the Nakba to the present day
As the Nakba Day and its events draw closer, Palestinian uniformed forces send a clear message that demonstrations should not disturb the settlers.
link to www.haaretz.com
Nakba Day 2012: Refugees waiting, 64 years and counting, Adam Horowitz
Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American based in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, speaking at TEDxRamallah in April 2011. Bahour blogs on Palestinian affairs and is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians.
link to mondoweiss.net
Palestinian Nakba: Resolve of memory
Many Palestinians remember and reference al-Nakba, also known as the Catastrophe, on May 15 every year. The event marks the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians, while their villages were destroyed.
link to www.presstv.ir
The Palestine Nakba: The Past is Now, Ludwig Watzal
The establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine and the myth of Jewish return after two thousand years of exile to a 'land without a people, for a people without a land' were accompanied by a great injustice. The diplomatic success of the Zionist movement in close cooperation with the leading imperial powers caused, however, a catastrophe for the indigenous population and the owners of the land, the Palestinian people. 'Palestine' was wiped off the map. Since then, the Palestinians commemorate this historical event for the 64th time as al-Nakba (the catastrophe). And this catastrophe continues until today.
link to palestinechronicle.com
link to www.presstv.ir
The Palestine Nakba: The Past is Now, Ludwig Watzal
The establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine and the myth of Jewish return after two thousand years of exile to a 'land without a people, for a people without a land' were accompanied by a great injustice. The diplomatic success of the Zionist movement in close cooperation with the leading imperial powers caused, however, a catastrophe for the indigenous population and the owners of the land, the Palestinian people. 'Palestine' was wiped off the map. Since then, the Palestinians commemorate this historical event for the 64th time as al-Nakba (the catastrophe). And this catastrophe continues until today.
link to palestinechronicle.com
May 2012 sees Israel entering the sixty-fifth year since it was established on the ruins of historic Palestine. Those years have been a colonial journey unprecedented in history. Israel was based on the philosophy of bringing people of one ethnicity from around the world to supplant another people indigenous to the land. To achieve this Israel has used genocide, "transfer" and ethnic cleansing, in a manner similar to what happened to Native Americans and aboriginal Australians and New Zealanders. The big difference, though, is that the Zionist-Israeli movement used ideological justifications based on mythology of a kind well-received by the colonial West.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
'Being Palestinian': Global Citizenship Available, Frank Barat
Before I start, I’d like to make it clear that not all views/takes on the subject will be mentioned in this piece. I will not talk about the 'views from Mars' (actually if there is 'people' on Mars they will probably be offended by the comparison. So if you do indeed exist, please forgive me) of certain 'Palestinian People deniers' US politicians that manage to be lunatic and mainstream at the same time. The fact that those views are hardly challenged and condemned in mainstream US politics and media says a lot about the 'land of the free'.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Right of return, prisoners and Al-Aqsa Mosque are "indivisible"
The Office for Refugees' Affairs of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has reaffirmed the organisation's belief that the principles of the Palestinian people are a "single, linked unit" which does not lend itself to being split-up. The Palestinian people, said Hamas, are united behind them, particularly in respect of the right to return to their land and properties which were taken from them by Zionist gangs during the occupation of Palestine in 1948.
Sins of Our Fathers, William A. Cook
Victors' celebrations harbor shadows that lurk in the soul as revelers dance in remembrance, burying in laughter the suffering screams of those displaced and destroyed, furiously hiding forgotten faces framed in fear from mocking the glorious dance should they be awakened once more by the reverie. May 14 and 15 are paradoxically days of celebration and catastrophe; victors “dance round in a ring and suppose,” caught in a never ending quest to know if indeed this celebration is for victory or for defeat, while those vanquished understand “the secret that sits in the middle and knows.” Are the secrets Truth that we are afraid to delve into, too ashamed to acknowledge, or fear of a pending Nakba for the victor signaled by a merciful and just God?
Israel's Buffoon: The UN Nakba, Vacy Vlazna
On May 15, 1948 the unilateral proclamation of the State of Israel which erupted into the brutal Palestinian Nakba or Catastrophe was also catastrophic for United Nations (UN) ringing the death knell for its stature and authority. Like medieval kings, the US and Israel employed the UN to be its fool running around with a cap o' bells and sceptre (rendered useless by US veto) beginning with the 1947 Resolution 181, passed on 29 February by members (under coercion) recommending the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states which was understandably rejected by Palestine but accepted by Israel as a step toward its Zionist expansionist goal for the full realisation of a Jewish Eretz Israel.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Zionist Reaction to Nakba Day
‘The Nakba is BS’, Allison Deger
Hundreds of right-wing Israelis poured onto Tel Aviv University's campus yesterday to protest a student-run Nakba commemoration. Extremist members of Knesset joined their ranks, providing them with official encouragement. Incited to fevered levels of resentment by the student commemoration of Nakba-- the 1947-49 expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias-- minister of Knesset Areyah Eldad declared his intent to celebrate the catastrophe. "I am not against remembering the events of Nakba Day, as Arabs call it. On the contrary, I think the State of Israel needs to turn the day into a holiday. It is time to be happy that we defeated our enemies," said Eldad.
Victors' celebrations harbor shadows that lurk in the soul as revelers dance in remembrance, burying in laughter the suffering screams of those displaced and destroyed, furiously hiding forgotten faces framed in fear from mocking the glorious dance should they be awakened once more by the reverie. May 14 and 15 are paradoxically days of celebration and catastrophe; victors “dance round in a ring and suppose,” caught in a never ending quest to know if indeed this celebration is for victory or for defeat, while those vanquished understand “the secret that sits in the middle and knows.” Are the secrets Truth that we are afraid to delve into, too ashamed to acknowledge, or fear of a pending Nakba for the victor signaled by a merciful and just God?
Israel's Buffoon: The UN Nakba, Vacy Vlazna
On May 15, 1948 the unilateral proclamation of the State of Israel which erupted into the brutal Palestinian Nakba or Catastrophe was also catastrophic for United Nations (UN) ringing the death knell for its stature and authority. Like medieval kings, the US and Israel employed the UN to be its fool running around with a cap o' bells and sceptre (rendered useless by US veto) beginning with the 1947 Resolution 181, passed on 29 February by members (under coercion) recommending the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states which was understandably rejected by Palestine but accepted by Israel as a step toward its Zionist expansionist goal for the full realisation of a Jewish Eretz Israel.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Zionist Reaction to Nakba Day
‘The Nakba is BS’, Allison Deger
Hundreds of right-wing Israelis poured onto Tel Aviv University's campus yesterday to protest a student-run Nakba commemoration. Extremist members of Knesset joined their ranks, providing them with official encouragement. Incited to fevered levels of resentment by the student commemoration of Nakba-- the 1947-49 expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias-- minister of Knesset Areyah Eldad declared his intent to celebrate the catastrophe. "I am not against remembering the events of Nakba Day, as Arabs call it. On the contrary, I think the State of Israel needs to turn the day into a holiday. It is time to be happy that we defeated our enemies," said Eldad.
link to mondoweiss.net
Right-wing march to pass through East Jerusalem, despite past spats
Organizers of Jerusalem Day ‘flag procession' say will employ ushers to keep the peace, avoid incidents with Palestinian residents.
link to www.haaretz.com
Right-wing march to pass through East Jerusalem, despite past spats
Organizers of Jerusalem Day ‘flag procession' say will employ ushers to keep the peace, avoid incidents with Palestinian residents.
link to www.haaretz.com
Land Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing
Netanyahu Rejects Abbas’s Call to Halt Settlement Building in Response to Peace Talks Letter
One month after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter that it was hoped would initiate efforts over frozen peace negotiations, Netanyahu rejected demands to halt Jewish settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
One month after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter that it was hoped would initiate efforts over frozen peace negotiations, Netanyahu rejected demands to halt Jewish settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Barak: Ofra and Beit El settlements would remain in Israel in final-status deal
Decision marks change in Defense Minister's position from 2000 Camp David talks, when he offered the Palestinians most of the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem.
link to www.haaretz.com
Decision marks change in Defense Minister's position from 2000 Camp David talks, when he offered the Palestinians most of the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem.
link to www.haaretz.com
New demolition warrants in Silwan
Sunday the 13th of May, Israeli forces invaded Silwan alongside Municipality workers to deliver 7 demolish orders in the Bustan and Ein al Lousa in Silwan. The way the municipality workers normally attach the orders in the house entrance without writing a name on it which makes it hard for the people to resist legally in the Israeli courts, they need a lawyer to check if the warrant is real or it is an individual act by the municipality workers.
link to silwanic.net
Settlers damage fields in Bethlehem village
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers damaged agricultural fields near Bethlehem-area village Wadi Fukin overnight Monday, the local council leader said. The group came from neighboring Israeli settlement Betar Illit, and were chased off lands by local residents, village council head Ahmad Sukkar said. They damaged harvests on land belonging to Hajj Ibrajim Muhammad Awad and Hajj Atiyeh Manasra, he said, adding that settlers threatened to return to destroy more land.
link to www.maannews.net
Settler Land Theft - 12th & 13th May
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank continue apace, while the occupational forces provide the aggressors’ with protection. The attacks, ranging from destruction of fruit trees to seizure of land, demonstrate Israel’s continued commitment to policies of terrorism and ethnic cleansing as they continue to expand and build on stolen land.
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank continue apace, while the occupational forces provide the aggressors’ with protection. The attacks, ranging from destruction of fruit trees to seizure of land, demonstrate Israel’s continued commitment to policies of terrorism and ethnic cleansing as they continue to expand and build on stolen land.
link to www.stopthewall.org
Gaza
Brazil Grants $ 7.5m to UNRWA Programs in Gaza
RAMALLAH, May 14, 2012 (WAFA) - The Government of Brazil Monday signed a contribution of US$ 7.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to support its education, health and social service programs in Gaza, said an UNRWA press release. The total one-year contribution will help the Agency sustain its humanitarian food assistance programme to 106,000 abject poor Palestine refugees, ensure a decent educational environment for 1,800 children, and help provide primary health care to 1.2 million refugees in 20 health facilities in the Gaza Strip. The agreement was signed during a ceremony at al-Ojah Basic Co-ed School in Jericho by Brazilian Representative to the Palestinian Authority, Ligia Maria Scherer, and UNRWA Commissioner-General, Filippo Grandi, added the press release.
Gaza
Brazil Grants $ 7.5m to UNRWA Programs in Gaza
RAMALLAH, May 14, 2012 (WAFA) - The Government of Brazil Monday signed a contribution of US$ 7.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to support its education, health and social service programs in Gaza, said an UNRWA press release. The total one-year contribution will help the Agency sustain its humanitarian food assistance programme to 106,000 abject poor Palestine refugees, ensure a decent educational environment for 1,800 children, and help provide primary health care to 1.2 million refugees in 20 health facilities in the Gaza Strip. The agreement was signed during a ceremony at al-Ojah Basic Co-ed School in Jericho by Brazilian Representative to the Palestinian Authority, Ligia Maria Scherer, and UNRWA Commissioner-General, Filippo Grandi, added the press release.
Israeli Violence / Aggression
Settler Violence
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank continue apace, while the occupational forces provide the aggressors’ with protection. The attacks, ranging from destruction of fruit trees to seizure of land, demonstrate Israel’s continued commitment to policies of terrorism and ethnic cleansing as they continue to expand and build on stolen land.
Israeli Soldiers Invade Hebron
Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Beit Ummar, northwest of the southern West bank city Hebron, broke into two houses and handed the owners an notices to appear in Etzion interrogation center, north of Hebron.
IOA renews administrative detention of MP Rejoub for fourth time
The Israeli occupation authority has renewed the administrative detention of MP Nayef Al-Rejoub for six months for the fourth time running, his son said on Monday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Youth organisation release statement regarding Hunger Strike & PLO
The following is a statement released by youth organisation Palestinians for Dignity, 13.5.12 - Local and international news agencies informed us last night, 12 May, that the Palestinian political establishment met with the representative of the Israeli apartheid regime, Isaac Molkho, in Ramallah to deliver the latter's response to a previous letter that was sent by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on 17 April.
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank continue apace, while the occupational forces provide the aggressors’ with protection. The attacks, ranging from destruction of fruit trees to seizure of land, demonstrate Israel’s continued commitment to policies of terrorism and ethnic cleansing as they continue to expand and build on stolen land.
Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Beit Ummar, northwest of the southern West bank city Hebron, broke into two houses and handed the owners an notices to appear in Etzion interrogation center, north of Hebron.
IOF firing of teargas at homes hurt father, two children
A father and his two children were treated for breathing difficulty after Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired teargas at Palestinian homes in Shalalde street in downtown Al-Khalil.
Youth arrested in the wake of Silwan clashes
Israeli occupation police arrested a young Jerusalemite on Saturday night in Silwan town after severely beating him.
A father and his two children were treated for breathing difficulty after Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired teargas at Palestinian homes in Shalalde street in downtown Al-Khalil.
Israeli occupation police arrested a young Jerusalemite on Saturday night in Silwan town after severely beating him.
After the Ramleh’s police arrested protesters: A testimony from the house arrest
We have been following the hunger strike solidarity protests around Palestine for the last week, as Silwanic wrote before, the Israeli police in Ramleh arrested in a brutal way around 18 protesters, we spoke over the phone with Rami Yunes one of the arrested protesters while he is in a house arrest. Rami Yunes: The protest was peaceful and organized, it was even licensed, as we gathered in front of Ramleh’s prison to support the Palestinian hunger strike prisoners, the police decided that the protest is not illegal, they started to attack us, they surrounded us and arrested 7 people and broke one woman’s leg, me and the rest decided to go Ramleh’s police station to speak our minds, and we were kicked out, soon as we stepped out we were surrounded by more cops, I think it was a special unit, they attacked us with all of their strength , they arrested another 10, I was one of them, they took us inside and the scenario went worse, they cuffed us, started kicking us with their feet, spitted on us, they even asked one of us to open his mouth and they spitted in his mouth a few times, I remember them cussing us “Dirty Arabs” and words I don’t want to repeat, they approached 2 women, one Israeli and one Palestinian, one cop mocked them and started to tell them “I want you two to perform sexual acts with each other’s and then do it with me” and the rest of the cops were laughing. Last thing I remember is they threw us all to the floor, above each other’s; I was on top, one of the cops asked “Who was a bad boy? Who want to be tased?” they approached me, tased me and the electricity reached the guy that’s under me and from him to the rest.
We have been following the hunger strike solidarity protests around Palestine for the last week, as Silwanic wrote before, the Israeli police in Ramleh arrested in a brutal way around 18 protesters, we spoke over the phone with Rami Yunes one of the arrested protesters while he is in a house arrest. Rami Yunes: The protest was peaceful and organized, it was even licensed, as we gathered in front of Ramleh’s prison to support the Palestinian hunger strike prisoners, the police decided that the protest is not illegal, they started to attack us, they surrounded us and arrested 7 people and broke one woman’s leg, me and the rest decided to go Ramleh’s police station to speak our minds, and we were kicked out, soon as we stepped out we were surrounded by more cops, I think it was a special unit, they attacked us with all of their strength , they arrested another 10, I was one of them, they took us inside and the scenario went worse, they cuffed us, started kicking us with their feet, spitted on us, they even asked one of us to open his mouth and they spitted in his mouth a few times, I remember them cussing us “Dirty Arabs” and words I don’t want to repeat, they approached 2 women, one Israeli and one Palestinian, one cop mocked them and started to tell them “I want you two to perform sexual acts with each other’s and then do it with me” and the rest of the cops were laughing. Last thing I remember is they threw us all to the floor, above each other’s; I was on top, one of the cops asked “Who was a bad boy? Who want to be tased?” they approached me, tased me and the electricity reached the guy that’s under me and from him to the rest.
Hunger Strike / Prisoner News
IOA renews administrative detention of MP Rejoub for fourth time
The Israeli occupation authority has renewed the administrative detention of MP Nayef Al-Rejoub for six months for the fourth time running, his son said on Monday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
The following is a statement released by youth organisation Palestinians for Dignity, 13.5.12 - Local and international news agencies informed us last night, 12 May, that the Palestinian political establishment met with the representative of the Israeli apartheid regime, Isaac Molkho, in Ramallah to deliver the latter's response to a previous letter that was sent by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on 17 April.
link to www.stopthewall.org
Strikers Need Strict Medical Supervision, says Rights Group
TEL AVIV, May 15, 2012 (WAFA) - Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) warned that long-term hunger strikers will need to be re-fed under strict hospital supervision to avoid life endangering complications, a PHR-Israel press release said Tuesday. PHR-Israel emphasized that long-term hunger strikers’ life are still in danger, as the process of re-feeding carries grave risks. It said that Israel Prison Service medical center, which is not a hospital – is incapable of giving them the adequate necessary care, also because it has no ability to cope with emergency situation that might occur. Independent doctors called for transfer of the prisoners to civil hospital, and recommend that the re-feeding process of all hunger strikers – even those in the prisons – will be done with professional advice. It, however, expressed joy to learn of the agreement that brought about the peaceful and life-saving resolution of the hunger strike of the Palestinian inmates. Director of Prisoners and Detainees Department in the organization, Anat Litvin, said, “We hope the agreement will indeed lead to the respect of the inmates human rights, including an end to Israel’s abuse of administrative detention, an end to the harmful practice of solitary confinement, and the renewal of family visits from the Gaza Strip and of families from the West Bank that were prevented entry until now.”
Strikers Need Strict Medical Supervision, says Rights Group
TEL AVIV, May 15, 2012 (WAFA) - Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) warned that long-term hunger strikers will need to be re-fed under strict hospital supervision to avoid life endangering complications, a PHR-Israel press release said Tuesday. PHR-Israel emphasized that long-term hunger strikers’ life are still in danger, as the process of re-feeding carries grave risks. It said that Israel Prison Service medical center, which is not a hospital – is incapable of giving them the adequate necessary care, also because it has no ability to cope with emergency situation that might occur. Independent doctors called for transfer of the prisoners to civil hospital, and recommend that the re-feeding process of all hunger strikers – even those in the prisons – will be done with professional advice. It, however, expressed joy to learn of the agreement that brought about the peaceful and life-saving resolution of the hunger strike of the Palestinian inmates. Director of Prisoners and Detainees Department in the organization, Anat Litvin, said, “We hope the agreement will indeed lead to the respect of the inmates human rights, including an end to Israel’s abuse of administrative detention, an end to the harmful practice of solitary confinement, and the renewal of family visits from the Gaza Strip and of families from the West Bank that were prevented entry until now.”
Israeli refuses to allow seriously ill hunger striking prisoner to go to hospital
According to Wafa’ Abu Ghalma, the wife of detainee Ahed Abu Ghalma, her husband has been denied medical treatment or hospitalization by the Israeli prison authorities despite a serious deterioration in his condition after 27 days of launching his indefinite hunger strike.
link to www.imemc.org
What Thaer Halahleh's family told me about his release brings joy, but raises troubling questions, Linah Alsaafin
What Linah Alsaafin was told by hunger striker Thaer Halahleh’s family about the deal ending his fast was a cause for both joy, and serious concern about a pattern of pressure to isolate prisoners and coerce them into accepting deals.
link to electronicintifada.net
After 77 days, Thaer Halahleh to end hunger strike as Israel agrees to release, father tells EI blogger,Ali Abunimah
Palestinian prisoner Thaer Halahleh has agreed to end his hunger strike after 77 full days, on 15 May, EI blogger Linah Alsaafin tweeted after speaking with his father a short time ago.
Detainee's daughter wishes to meet him
Ramallah: The family of Palestinian prisoner Thaer Halahlah, who has been on a hunger strike for 77 days, yesterday urged Israel to act humanely and allow the inmate to see his daughter Lamar at least once before he dies. Halahlah has never seen his daughter who was born while he was behind bars on administrative detention.
Ramallah: The family of Palestinian prisoner Thaer Halahlah, who has been on a hunger strike for 77 days, yesterday urged Israel to act humanely and allow the inmate to see his daughter Lamar at least once before he dies. Halahlah has never seen his daughter who was born while he was behind bars on administrative detention.
Prisoner Kamal Issa stops drinking water to escalate his strike
The captive Kamal Issa, detained in Nafha Desert prison, stopped drinking water, because of the Israeli prison administration's rejection of the Palestinian prisoners' fair demands.
The captive Kamal Issa, detained in Nafha Desert prison, stopped drinking water, because of the Israeli prison administration's rejection of the Palestinian prisoners' fair demands.
Hassan Salameh loses 12 kilograms of his weight
The liberated prisoner Akram Salameh, 38, confirmed that his brother Hassan Salameh, 9 years in isolation, has lost 12 kilograms of his weight since the start of his hunger strike.
Ibrahim Hamid was born and raised in the West Bank village of Silwad, north-east of Ramallah. He obtained a BSc degree in political science from Birzeit University and worked as a researcher at the Centre for Refugee Studies. He has written and published several papers on the depopulated Palestinian villages. Since his arrest in May 2006, Ibrahim Hamid has been held in Asqalan prison, in solitary confinement, and denied visits from his family. His wife and two children were later expelled to Jordan. Despite several requests through the International Red Cross, she has been unable to visit him. The only information she has received concerning her husband was conveyed through lawyers.
Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh in severe health crisis, occupation refuses to treat him
Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, PFLP leader and representative on the Central Committee of the Leadership of the Hunger Strike, is facing serious health concerns 27 days into his open hunger strike in isolation in Ramon prison, reported Comrade Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh, Ahed’s wife and a prisoner activist. She reported that Ahed is suffering severe headaches and dizziness, has lost over 15 kg of weight, and is vomiting blood. A lawyer who visited Ahed today in prison called for him to be taken immediately to the hospital, but the occupation authorities refused to do so, claiming “security reasons,” and gave him an injection only. Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh said that the occupation’s refusal to take him to the hospital is a deliberate attempt to slowly assassinate him, calling for urgent action to save his life.
Noam Chomsky: Palestinian Hunger Strike a Protest Against "Violations of Elementary Human Rights"
We begin our hour-long interview with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky by discussing the Palestinian hunger strike. A tentative deal has reportedly been reached to end a landmark action that’s seen an estimated 2,000 jailed Palestinians go without food to pressure Israeli prison authorities to end the use of solitary confinement and ease a wide range of restrictions. "The hunger strikes are a protest against ... violations of the elementary human rights," Chomsky says. He is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of dozens of books, most recently, "Occupy."
Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, PFLP leader and representative on the Central Committee of the Leadership of the Hunger Strike, is facing serious health concerns 27 days into his open hunger strike in isolation in Ramon prison, reported Comrade Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh, Ahed’s wife and a prisoner activist. She reported that Ahed is suffering severe headaches and dizziness, has lost over 15 kg of weight, and is vomiting blood. A lawyer who visited Ahed today in prison called for him to be taken immediately to the hospital, but the occupation authorities refused to do so, claiming “security reasons,” and gave him an injection only. Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh said that the occupation’s refusal to take him to the hospital is a deliberate attempt to slowly assassinate him, calling for urgent action to save his life.
Noam Chomsky: Palestinian Hunger Strike a Protest Against "Violations of Elementary Human Rights"
We begin our hour-long interview with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky by discussing the Palestinian hunger strike. A tentative deal has reportedly been reached to end a landmark action that’s seen an estimated 2,000 jailed Palestinians go without food to pressure Israeli prison authorities to end the use of solitary confinement and ease a wide range of restrictions. "The hunger strikes are a protest against ... violations of the elementary human rights," Chomsky says. He is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of dozens of books, most recently, "Occupy."
More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners are weeks into an open-ended hunger strike in protest against worsening conditions in Israeli jails.
Comrade Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh called for a popular uprising to free the prisoners, calling upon the Palestinian people to go to all of the squares and streets, march to the checkpoints, the wall, and the prisons of the Zionist enemy on the anniversary of the Nakba, calling for victory for the prisoners before it is too late. She said that the occupation will not accede to the prisoners’ demands without mass pressure inside and outside Palestine, wherever the Palestinian people are.
IDF Portrays Palestinian Hunger Strikers at Death’s Door as “Ticking Bombs", Richard Silverstein
Learning from the Irish Hunger Strikes of 1981 and the Palestinian Challenge
Almost half the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have joined the mass hunger strike protesting against the widespread use of administrative detention. Two of the strikers have reached Day 77 of their strike and Israel’s Physicians for Human Rights NGO says no previous individual has fasted for more than 75 days. Meaning the Palestinians have achieved a grim record. There are reports in Haaretz that Egyptian and Palestinian negotiators are near striking a deal that would allow family visits, which Israel withheld during Gilad Shalit’s confinement but never restored after he was freed. Part of the deal would also restrict the arbitrary use of solitary confinement though it unclear what the specifics are. One Palestinian prisoner has been in such confinement for ten years. Though Haaretz mentions administrative detention as being part of the deal it does so in a vague way that offers no details. The right-wing Times of Israel says Israel has agreed to “soften” the terms under which such detentions are used, which means…I don’t know, what does it mean?
John Hurson in Ireland has been keenly conscious of the affinities between the historic Irish hunger strike of 1981 and the ongoing Palestinian hunger strikes. He has travelled to Gaza on several occasions on humanitarian aid convoys, and is the founder of the on line Gaza TV News service. I suggested that we collaborate on an article that might recall the Irish experience, especially the parallels and the potential implications for the future of the Palestinian struggle.
Holding of Palestinians in Israeli prisons without charge or trial was the originating grievance of the latest protests. The issue that sparked the mass hunger strike among Palestinian prisoners was that of imprisonment without charge or trial, a practice Israel calls "administrative detention". There are 308 Palestinians in administrative detention in Israeli prisons. According to the Israeli human rights organisation, B'Tselem, about one third have been held for between six months and a year; one third have been held between one and two years; 13 have been held between two and four and a half years; and two prisoners have been held continuously for more than four and a half years.
Detainees
Son OF Arab MK Held For Refusing Military Service
The Israeli Police kidnapped Amro Naffa’, 18, the son of Arab Member of Israeli Knesset, Sa’id Naffa’, after he refusing to adhere to the compulsory military service, rejecting to be part of a military that occupies and oppresses the Palestinian people.
link to www.imemc.org
IOF soldiers arrest coordinator of Nabi Saleh popular committee
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested on Tuesday the coordinator of the popular resistance committee in Nabi Saleh village near Ramallah.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Solidarity / Activism
BDS
BDS roundup: 10,000 signatures delivered to Irish corporation demanding divestment from Israeli contracts
Zionist Racism
Israel To Deport 700 Sudanese Immigrants
The Israeli Government has decided to transfer 700 illegal Sudanese immigrants back to their country, the State of South Sudan, after it concluded that “their lives will not be endangered should they be sent back to their country”.
link to www.imemc.org
Israel bans Lebanese edition of Jewish philosophical work
Customs authorities holding up new version of Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari because importing this Arabic-language edition from Beirut 'violates laws regarding trade with the enemy.'
link to www.haaretz.com
Latest Lunacies from the Only Democracy in the Middle East, Richard Silverstein
Today’s news brings two new lunacies from our friends in the Only Democracy in the Middle East™ . In the first instance, the Israeli tax authorities impounded a shipment of copies of the Arabic language edition of Yehuda HaLevy’s seminal work of medieval Jewish philosophy, The Kuzari. They did so because the books had been printed in Lebanon, one of the few places in the Middle East that prints Arabic books. The Israeli authorities claimed that allowing the books into Israel would constitute “trading with the enemy.”
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
Hamas urges PA not to negotiate with Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas on Tuesday urged Fatah and the Palestinian Authority to reject negotiations with Israel. Hamas will not recognize Israel's occupation because the movement insists on the "sacred right" of Palestinian refugees to return to their land, the party said in a statement to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe. In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced or fled from their homes in fighting to create the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net
Representative Joe Walsh’s (R-IL) Op-Ed in the Washington Times May 3 turned heads. He argued that the only real solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “one contiguous Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” Palestinians who wanted to stay would have “limited voting power.” Walsh also suggests Jordan as a destination for Palestinians. Robert Wright of The Atlanticcommented that the Op-Ed should be interpreted as a call for apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
Leading Egypt candidate calls 'racist' Israel a threat
A leading Islamist candidate in Egypt's presidential election has branded Israel a "racist state" and said a shared 1979 peace treaty was "a national security threat" that should be revised.
link to news.yahoo.com
Abul Futtuh refuses to recognize Israel
Egyptian presidential hopeful Abdulmunem Abul Futtuh has said that he refuses to recognize Israel, describing it as a “racist entity”.
Egypt candidate claims shooting down Israeli planes in war
Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq's campaign boasted on Saturday that the former air force chief had shot down two Israeli planes during war, as it dismissed accusations of corruption.
link to news.yahoo.com
Brotherhood and Salafis exchange rebukes again
The Salafi-led Nour Party called on the Freedom and Justice Party Saturday to clarify Safwat Hegazy's statement that Salafis who back Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh for president are national security agents. Hegazy, a Muslim Brotherhood member, made the comment in a campaign rally for FJP presidential candidate Mohamed Morsy on Friday.
link to www.egyptindependent.com
Egypt’s Presidential Vote: Minorities Divided
Salafi and Coptic voters will have a major say in who becomes the country’s next president, but neither group is united over which candidate to back.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Egypt police raid Iran TV station
Egyptian police raided the Cairo office of Iranian television channel, Al-Alam, confiscating its equipment after it was found to be operating without license, a security source said on Monday. The raid was carried out on Sunday and the head of Al-Alam's Cairo office, Ahmed Sioufi, was charged with working without an official permit, the source said. On the Arabic-language channel's website, Sioufi confirmed that "several members of the police raided the office of Al-Alam" in Cairo.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iran
AIPAC Resolution Demanding War With Iran On House Floor Today
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives is slated to vote on a resolution designed to tie the president’s hands on Iran policy.
link to mjayrosenberg.com
Apparently Terrorism Isn't Terrorism If It Targets Iran
The Obama administration is moving to delist an Iranian dissident group from the State Department terrorism list, which, as recently as January, placed a magnetic bomb under the car of Iranian scientist, according to U.S. officials. Perhaps unintentionally, the message the move would send appears to be: This activity is OK as long as it's against Iran.
link to news.yahoo.com
Iran: talks with IAEA "constructive"
Iran's talks with the UN nuclear watchdog about Tehran's atomic program are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions. The talks will test Iran's readiness to address UN inspectors' concerns over military links to its nuclear work, ahead of wider diplomatic talks on the program's future in Baghdad next week between Tehran and world powers. The nuclear watchdog aims at the Vienna talks to gain access to Iranian sites, documents and officials involved in suspected research activity that could be used to develop atomic bombs.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iran tells West to 'correct its manner' ahead of talks
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday urged the West to "correct its manners" if it wants to win the respect of Iranians, as Tehran and the world powers meet in Baghdad this month to discuss Iran's contested nuclear programme.
link to news.yahoo.com
US "not impressed" with India over Iran oil ties
The United States is not impressed with India's efforts to cut its oil imports from Iran, a top US diplomat said on Tuesday, despite New Delhi pledging to slash imports by 11 percent. As a major buyer of Iranian crude, India is crucial to US efforts to squeeze Iran's economy. The issue has become an irritant in ties between India and the United States. Carlos Pascual, the US special envoy who has been negotiating with Iranian oil importers to cut their imports, met Indian foreign ministry officials on Tuesday.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Punished over Iran: S. Africa Petrol under Threat, Iqbal Jassat- Pretoria
Amidst reports that pro-Israeli lobbies in the United States have secured an assurance from the Obama administration to relentlessly pursue countries seen to be wavering in their compliance with rigorous sanctions on Iran, South Africa has been singled out for punishment. Though largely under-reported in the local media, pressure is building on the ANC-led government to immediately suspend its economic ties with Iran or risk being barred from US economy.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Iran to launch satellite on day of nuclear talks
Iran will launch next week an experimental observation satellite, on the day of talks with world powers over its nuclear program, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday. "The Fajr satellite will be launched on Khordad 3 (May 23)," the director of the Aerospace Industries Mehdi Farahi was quoted as saying.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iran Executes Accused Israeli Spy
Iran said on Tuesday it had executed a man accused of being an Israeli intelligence agent responsible for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported.
link to feeds.nytimes.com
I Want My NPT: A weekend review of Iran nuclear program propaganda, Nima Shirazi
Two news reports by major wire services this weekend demonstrate just how pervasive misinformation and propaganda are in the mainstream media when it comes to the Iranian nuclear issue.
link to mondoweiss.net
Iraq
Iraq Minister: War Dead Reaches 70,000; 11 Killed Today
Human Rights Minister Mohammed Shayaa al-Sudani said that the casualty toll, since 2003, has reached 70,000 killed and 250,000 wounded. A spokesman for the Iraqiya bloc said that the party would try to convince Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to return to Baghdad to stand trial on terrorism charges. Meanwhile, at least 11 Iraqis were killed today and 22 more were wounded in a second day of attacks focusing on Anbar province.
link to original.antiwar.com
Iraq: 20 Killed As Suicide Bombers Stage Several Attacks
The relative quiet of the last several days was broken decisively by several suicide and car bomb attacks around Iraq. At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 35 more were wounded.
link to original.antiwar.com
SNC snubs Arab League as violence continues
Syria's leading opposition group snubbed an Arab League invite to key talks on Monday, suggesting further divisions in the ranks of those opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime. Meanwhile a watchdog said 23 Syrian soldiers were killed while dozens more were wounded as fierce clashes between regime forces and armed rebels continued. The Syrian National Council (SNC) announced they would not take part in talks sponsored by the Arab League aimed at fixing deep divisions within the ranks of the opposition to President Assad.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Ghalioun elected chief of Syria opposition group
Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun was elected on Tuesday as head of the exiled opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council, a source within the SNC told AFP.
link to news.yahoo.com
Jihadist group denies claiming Damascus bombings
Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt, has denied in a statement that it had claimed responsibility for Damascus bombings last week that killed 55 people.
link to english.alarabiya.net
Obscure jihadists enter Syrian conflict
The Syrian conflict has bred the emergence of obscure jihadists carrying out bloody attacks, either acting independently or manipulated by the regime seeking to tarnish the image of its opposition, analysts say.
link to news.yahoo.com
Tunisian Islamists join jihad against Syria's Assad
BEN GUERDANE, Tunisia (Reuters) - The first that Tunisian schoolteacher Mokhtar Mars heard of his brother fighting alongside rebels in Syria was a phone call from a foreign number, telling him Houssein was dead. "We got an anonymous call telling us he had been martyred. Just three words. We tried to call back but there was no answer," said Mars, 40, sitting on a mattress along a wall of what was his younger brother's room, bereft of other belongings.
link to news.yahoo.com
Syrian Rebels Become More Lethal, Joshua Landis
As Syria’s rebel militias become more lethal, foreign analysts are trying to determine how Islamic they are, how to unify them, and what role the West can play in guiding Syria toward an outcome favorable to its interests. The Syrian government is exploiting Western concerns that the Syrian militias could turn out to be harmful to Western and Israeli interests. Deborah Amos explains that Damascus is arresting most moderates in an evident attempt to create an “either-or” dilemma for Western governments and Syrians themselves: they must choose either between and Assad dictatorship or divided Islamists. This has been the Assad strategy for 40 years. Liz Sly explains that in fact the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining influence over the revolt. Sharmine Narwani, in contrast to Deborah Amos, highlights the brutal and Islamist characteristics of some of the rebel groups, suggesting that the stark choices Syrians face are not manufactured by the Assad regime, but real. She suggests that the Western press has tried to whitewashed the distasteful realities of Homs’ Farouq Battalion to fit its narrative of brutal regime versus good people.
link to www.joshualandis.com
Homs Opposition: Al Farouq Battalion is Killing Us, Sharmine Narwani
It is extremely rare to have a direct peephole into events on the ground in Syria. The hard-fought battle over narratives often leaves truth in the dust.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Today IMEU held a phone conference with three experts on Palestinian prisoners: Sahar Francis, Director of Addameer: Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association; Ruchama Marton, founder of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel; and Bill van Esveld of Human Rights Watch. Some basic facts about the prisoners:
Activists stage sit-in before Red Cross
Palestinian activists staged a sit-in in front of the Red Cross office in Nablus on Monday in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners.
Palestinian activists staged a sit-in in front of the Red Cross office in Nablus on Monday in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners.
Five foreign activists start hunger strike in solidarity with prisoners
Five foreign activists declared they were going on hunger strike during a visit to a sit-in tent pitched in solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.
Five foreign activists declared they were going on hunger strike during a visit to a sit-in tent pitched in solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.
PressTV reported on a solidarity conference with the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike taking place in France. Interviewed here is Salah Hamouri, former Palestinian prisoner and dual Palestinian/French citizen who was freed in October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange agreement. A long solidarity campaign took place in France demanding his release.
Celtic FC supporters show solidarity with Palestinian hunger strikers
Celtic FC supporters raised Palestinian flags on May 13 during a match against Scottish Premiership rivals Heart of Midlothian FC. Members of the Green Brigade, one of Celtic’s most widely recognized fan groups, displayed at least eight Palestinian flags in their section of the stadium in solidarity with the thousands of Palestinian hunger strikers currently imprisoned in Israeli jails.
link to smpalestine.com
Celtic FC supporters raised Palestinian flags on May 13 during a match against Scottish Premiership rivals Heart of Midlothian FC. Members of the Green Brigade, one of Celtic’s most widely recognized fan groups, displayed at least eight Palestinian flags in their section of the stadium in solidarity with the thousands of Palestinian hunger strikers currently imprisoned in Israeli jails.
link to smpalestine.com
May 15-17: Albuquerque Solidarity with Palestinian Hunger Strikers
2000+ Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons launched a mass hunger strike demanding an end to administrative detention, isolation and other punitive measures taken against Palestinian prisoners including the denial of family visits and access to university education.
2000+ Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons launched a mass hunger strike demanding an end to administrative detention, isolation and other punitive measures taken against Palestinian prisoners including the denial of family visits and access to university education.
BDS
BDS roundup: 10,000 signatures delivered to Irish corporation demanding divestment from Israeli contracts
This week in BDS news around the world: 10,000 signatures delivered to Irish building materials corporation demanding divestment from Israeli business contracts; a call for 24 hours of hunger in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails; and more!
Palestinian writers call for boycott of Jerusalem int’l writers’ fest, Eleanor Kilroy
As hunger striking Palestinian prisoners, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla, mark their 75th day without food today in protest against detention without charge, solitary confinement and restrictions on family visits in Israeli jails, the 3rd International Writers' Festival begins in Jerusalem. According to a statement released on Thursday by the General Union of Palestinian Writers, the festival "sends a clear message to the world that the 'Israeli cultural establishment’ is an integral part of the 'Israeli colonial establishment’: the first wages war on Palestinian memory, while the latter continues its war against Palestinian existence."
As hunger striking Palestinian prisoners, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla, mark their 75th day without food today in protest against detention without charge, solitary confinement and restrictions on family visits in Israeli jails, the 3rd International Writers' Festival begins in Jerusalem. According to a statement released on Thursday by the General Union of Palestinian Writers, the festival "sends a clear message to the world that the 'Israeli cultural establishment’ is an integral part of the 'Israeli colonial establishment’: the first wages war on Palestinian memory, while the latter continues its war against Palestinian existence."
link to mondoweiss.net
Zionist concern about boycott campaigns in Britain
The Jewish community in Britain expressed its growing disbelief and total shock over the cancellation of the Israeli Professor Moty Cristal's lecture which was planned in Manchester.
link to www.palestine-info.co.ukZionist concern about boycott campaigns in Britain
The Jewish community in Britain expressed its growing disbelief and total shock over the cancellation of the Israeli Professor Moty Cristal's lecture which was planned in Manchester.
Zionist Racism
Israel To Deport 700 Sudanese Immigrants
The Israeli Government has decided to transfer 700 illegal Sudanese immigrants back to their country, the State of South Sudan, after it concluded that “their lives will not be endangered should they be sent back to their country”.
link to www.imemc.org
Israel bans Lebanese edition of Jewish philosophical work
Customs authorities holding up new version of Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari because importing this Arabic-language edition from Beirut 'violates laws regarding trade with the enemy.'
link to www.haaretz.com
Latest Lunacies from the Only Democracy in the Middle East, Richard Silverstein
Today’s news brings two new lunacies from our friends in the Only Democracy in the Middle East™ . In the first instance, the Israeli tax authorities impounded a shipment of copies of the Arabic language edition of Yehuda HaLevy’s seminal work of medieval Jewish philosophy, The Kuzari. They did so because the books had been printed in Lebanon, one of the few places in the Middle East that prints Arabic books. The Israeli authorities claimed that allowing the books into Israel would constitute “trading with the enemy.”
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
Political "Developments" & Other News
Hamas urges PA not to negotiate with Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas on Tuesday urged Fatah and the Palestinian Authority to reject negotiations with Israel. Hamas will not recognize Israel's occupation because the movement insists on the "sacred right" of Palestinian refugees to return to their land, the party said in a statement to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe. In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced or fled from their homes in fighting to create the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net
Defense minister to meet with American counterpart in Washington this week and discuss further U.S. aid for Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israeli historian Shlomo Sand receives death threats
A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claims that the prominent historian Professor Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University has received a number of death threats through the post. Prof. Sand, who is well known for his anti-Zionist stance and the author of "The Invention of the Jewish People", has been sent threatening letters and a bag containing a chemical substance. The letters have warned him that his days are numbered because he is "an anti-Semite" and "an enemy of Israel".
Israeli historian Shlomo Sand receives death threats
A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claims that the prominent historian Professor Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University has received a number of death threats through the post. Prof. Sand, who is well known for his anti-Zionist stance and the author of "The Invention of the Jewish People", has been sent threatening letters and a bag containing a chemical substance. The letters have warned him that his days are numbered because he is "an anti-Semite" and "an enemy of Israel".
Analysis / Op-ed / Human Interest
California Tea Party “White Christian” Rabbi for U.S. Senate, Richard Silverstein
Among the more bizarre elements of this political season is the Republican race for U.S. senate, which features Rabbi Nachum Shifren, an Orthodox rabbi running with the support of the Tea Party. Here is a snippet of a stump speech he delivered to the San Mateo GOP (a banner in the background says “Tea Party Patriots”): "I am an Islamophobe, and everything we need to know about Islam, we learned on 9-11…We’re getting sucker-punched because we as white — yes I said it! — as white, Christian Americans are being taught that somehow we are to blame for all the problems.”
Among the more bizarre elements of this political season is the Republican race for U.S. senate, which features Rabbi Nachum Shifren, an Orthodox rabbi running with the support of the Tea Party. Here is a snippet of a stump speech he delivered to the San Mateo GOP (a banner in the background says “Tea Party Patriots”): "I am an Islamophobe, and everything we need to know about Islam, we learned on 9-11…We’re getting sucker-punched because we as white — yes I said it! — as white, Christian Americans are being taught that somehow we are to blame for all the problems.”
Congressman Joe Pitts: ‘It is incumbent on Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat to restart a peace process’, Ian Rhodewalt
Apparently, my congressman believes that the solution for peace in the Middle East will be reached by encouraging negotiations between a vegetable and a dead man.
link to mondoweiss.net
Why So Little Condemnation of Israel's Extremism?, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
The moralistic Chief Rabbi will not be on "Thought for the Day" expressing sorrow for the treatment of these prisoners. Ardent British Zionists will not be pressed to condemn those responsible for the state barbarism.
Why So Little Condemnation of Israel's Extremism?, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
The moralistic Chief Rabbi will not be on "Thought for the Day" expressing sorrow for the treatment of these prisoners. Ardent British Zionists will not be pressed to condemn those responsible for the state barbarism.
Muscat: When two young Omani women got an opportunity to visit Palestine through an Arab exchange programme, they were on cloud nine. But when they saw the plight of Palestinians and heard heart-rending stories of Israeli aggression, they were in tears. Koola Al Khmaiyasi, a 22-year-old student at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), and Amal Al Mshaikhi, a 25-year-old, who works for the Information Technology Authority, spent five days visiting Ramallah, Bethlehem, Al Khalil (Hebron) and Nablus. From being questioned by soldiers at the Israeli-controlled border posts, to meeting people whose entire families had been killed and whose homes had been occupied by illegal settlers, from passing through electronic security gates to go to a mosque for praying, to walking through the crowded, dilapidated streets of refugee camps, Koola and Amal saw with their own eyes the predicament of helpless Palestinians.
'If the Prophet Mohamad was alive today, he would lend his support to NATO!
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based (and financed) preacher often described as the de facto spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, has recently kept up a barrage of verbal attacks on the Shias. He is president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, a loose Brotherhood-inspired body designed to pronounce on issues of common concern to Muslims. Founded in the friendlier climate of 2004, its top ranks also include Shia clergy. But Mr Qaradawi now attacks Shias for compromising the oneness of God (about the worst thing a Muslim can do) by ascribing semi-divine status to the people they regard as Muhammad’s legitimate successors. Another accusation is that Shias poach souls in Sunni lands. Time was when Mr Qaradawi praised the feats of Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed Shia militia in Lebanon, as fighters against Israel. But in recent punditry he has stressed the gap between Sunni and Shia beliefs and passionately called for regime change in Syria, where, among other things, a Sunni majority is rebelling against a ruling elite whose Alawite belief is a Shia offshoot. Senior Shia clergy have deplored his hardening line. Mr Qaradawi, whose utterances command attention from Marseilles to the north Caucasus, also backs Bahrain’s Sunni rulers in their anti-Shia stance.
link to www.economist.com
Bahrain
Wife visits jailed Bahraini hunger striker
The wife of a jailed Bahraini activist on hunger strike for more than three months says his condition appears better, but he is still only taking water and juice in his protest against government crackdowns in the Gulf kingdom.
link to news.yahoo.com
Bahrain extends detention of tweeting activist
Bahrain has extended the detention of rights activist Nabeel Rajab for participating in a January anti-government rally, his lawyer said on Sunday, after he was arrested over tweets deemed insulting to the government.
link to news.yahoo.com
Bahrain warns against protest tweets
The Bahraini government has warned against opposition calls for protests on the social networking site Twitter.
link to www.presstv.ir
Gulf leaders to discuss 'GCC Union'
Leaders of six Gulf countries will gather at a summit in Riyadh to discuss progress in their overall co-operation.
link to www.aljazeera.com
Saudi-Bahrain unity deal draws fierce criticism
Leading Bahraini and Saudi pro-democracy activists have criticized a unity deal between the two Gulf states as an attempt to secure the status quo of harsh autocracies amid ongoing protests. Over half of Iran's MPs also condemned the deal, saying it would lead to further unrest. The Gulf neighbors are expected to announce a deal today that will increase economic, military and security ties between them, with Saudi troops likely to be permanently positioned in Bahrain.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iranian MPs blast Saudi-Bahrain union plan
Iranian MPs on Monday condemned a planned union between Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni-ruled Bahrain, news agencies reported.
link to news.yahoo.com
US Chutzpah on Bahrain, Asad AbuKhalil
The State Department held a meeting with Bahraini activists in Washington, DC. During the meeting, the activists were lectured and hectored by a US official. They kept being told over and over again that the government can’t reform while the “youth are resorting to violence”. The activists, of course, retorted that the US has no qualms in supporting an opposition in Syria, including elements that resort to car bombs, shelling, kidnapping, ransom kidnapping, and various kinds of shooting.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
But what is hardly ever mentioned in the press and TV reports is that this very system of oppression, the rock against which the dreams of democracy are being dashed, was largely created by the British. That, throughout most of the twentieth century, British advisers to the Bahraini royal family, backed up by British military might, were central figures in the creation of a ruthless system that imprisoned and sometimes tortured any Bahraini citizen who even dared to suggest the idea of democracy. The same British advisers also worked with the rulers of Bahrain to exercise a cynical technique of divide and rule - setting Shia against Sunni in a very successful attempt to keep Bahrain locked in an old, decaying and corrupt system of tribal and religious rivalries. The deliberate aim was to stop democracy ever emerging. The Bahrainis know this, practically everyone else in the Arab world knows this - the only people who seem to have forgotten are the British themselves. So I thought I would tell the story of Britain's involvement in the government and the security of Bahrain over the past 90 years. Especially as the present King of Bahrain is coming to have lunch with the Queen on May 18th."
link to www.bbc.co.uk
Operation Lip Service, Chris Toensing
The popular uprising in Bahrain shows no signs of going away. The royal family tried crushing the revolt, importing shock troops from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It tried jailing important figures in the opposition, such as human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who as of early May had been on hunger strike for 90 days.
link to original.antiwar.com
Egypt
Sabbahi says he would cut gas supply to Israel even if prices raised
Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi has pledged that if elected, he would not export natural gas to Israel, even if the two countries agreed to raise the price of the gas. “Israel will not take a drop of Egyptian gas,” Sabbahi said at a public rally Sunday in Qena. “It will be provided to the houses of all Egyptians.” The candidate said the ruling military council terminated the Egyptian gas supply to Israel for financial reasons. He said he would bring to trial “whoever committed corruption in Egypt, killed a martyr, humiliated Egyptians’ dignity or rigged elections,” adding that he would work to restore state assets smuggled either inside or outside Egypt.
link to www.egyptindependent.com
Wife visits jailed Bahraini hunger striker
The wife of a jailed Bahraini activist on hunger strike for more than three months says his condition appears better, but he is still only taking water and juice in his protest against government crackdowns in the Gulf kingdom.
link to news.yahoo.com
Bahrain extends detention of tweeting activist
Bahrain has extended the detention of rights activist Nabeel Rajab for participating in a January anti-government rally, his lawyer said on Sunday, after he was arrested over tweets deemed insulting to the government.
link to news.yahoo.com
Bahrain warns against protest tweets
The Bahraini government has warned against opposition calls for protests on the social networking site Twitter.
link to www.presstv.ir
Gulf leaders to discuss 'GCC Union'
Leaders of six Gulf countries will gather at a summit in Riyadh to discuss progress in their overall co-operation.
link to www.aljazeera.com
Saudi-Bahrain unity deal draws fierce criticism
Leading Bahraini and Saudi pro-democracy activists have criticized a unity deal between the two Gulf states as an attempt to secure the status quo of harsh autocracies amid ongoing protests. Over half of Iran's MPs also condemned the deal, saying it would lead to further unrest. The Gulf neighbors are expected to announce a deal today that will increase economic, military and security ties between them, with Saudi troops likely to be permanently positioned in Bahrain.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iranian MPs blast Saudi-Bahrain union plan
Iranian MPs on Monday condemned a planned union between Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni-ruled Bahrain, news agencies reported.
link to news.yahoo.com
US Chutzpah on Bahrain, Asad AbuKhalil
The State Department held a meeting with Bahraini activists in Washington, DC. During the meeting, the activists were lectured and hectored by a US official. They kept being told over and over again that the government can’t reform while the “youth are resorting to violence”. The activists, of course, retorted that the US has no qualms in supporting an opposition in Syria, including elements that resort to car bombs, shelling, kidnapping, ransom kidnapping, and various kinds of shooting.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
But what is hardly ever mentioned in the press and TV reports is that this very system of oppression, the rock against which the dreams of democracy are being dashed, was largely created by the British. That, throughout most of the twentieth century, British advisers to the Bahraini royal family, backed up by British military might, were central figures in the creation of a ruthless system that imprisoned and sometimes tortured any Bahraini citizen who even dared to suggest the idea of democracy. The same British advisers also worked with the rulers of Bahrain to exercise a cynical technique of divide and rule - setting Shia against Sunni in a very successful attempt to keep Bahrain locked in an old, decaying and corrupt system of tribal and religious rivalries. The deliberate aim was to stop democracy ever emerging. The Bahrainis know this, practically everyone else in the Arab world knows this - the only people who seem to have forgotten are the British themselves. So I thought I would tell the story of Britain's involvement in the government and the security of Bahrain over the past 90 years. Especially as the present King of Bahrain is coming to have lunch with the Queen on May 18th."
link to www.bbc.co.uk
Operation Lip Service, Chris Toensing
The popular uprising in Bahrain shows no signs of going away. The royal family tried crushing the revolt, importing shock troops from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It tried jailing important figures in the opposition, such as human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who as of early May had been on hunger strike for 90 days.
link to original.antiwar.com
Egypt
Sabbahi says he would cut gas supply to Israel even if prices raised
Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi has pledged that if elected, he would not export natural gas to Israel, even if the two countries agreed to raise the price of the gas. “Israel will not take a drop of Egyptian gas,” Sabbahi said at a public rally Sunday in Qena. “It will be provided to the houses of all Egyptians.” The candidate said the ruling military council terminated the Egyptian gas supply to Israel for financial reasons. He said he would bring to trial “whoever committed corruption in Egypt, killed a martyr, humiliated Egyptians’ dignity or rigged elections,” adding that he would work to restore state assets smuggled either inside or outside Egypt.
link to www.egyptindependent.com
Six in ten Egyptians want to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, a new poll has found, up from just over half of respondents since last year’s survey. The poll, released last week by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, showed 61 percent of Egyptians want to cancel the 1979 agreement, while a third want to keep the treaty and the rest are undecided.
link to www.jpost.com
link to www.jpost.com
Leading Egypt candidate calls 'racist' Israel a threat
A leading Islamist candidate in Egypt's presidential election has branded Israel a "racist state" and said a shared 1979 peace treaty was "a national security threat" that should be revised.
link to news.yahoo.com
Abul Futtuh refuses to recognize Israel
Egyptian presidential hopeful Abdulmunem Abul Futtuh has said that he refuses to recognize Israel, describing it as a “racist entity”.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Egyptian candidates' tough words on peace turn Israel wary
JERUSALEM -- Along the Israel-Egypt border a barrier is being built among the desert dunes. Every few months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels hours south of his government offices to mark the progress firsthand. It is, says his office, a top priority for the government. The barrier is just one of the signs that relations between Israel and Egypt, which have been at peace with one another since 1979, are on shaky ground.
link to www.kansascity.com
Israel impeding project linking Egypt and Saudi, says former PM
Former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf warned against Israeli attempts to disrupt the construction of a bridge linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In a statement before the Shura Council's Transportation, Communications and Information Technology Committee on Monday, Sharaf called for disregarding Israel’s comments about Israeli plans to establish a railway line parallel to the Suez Canal or an alternative canal. “Israel knows quite well that its railway will not affect the Suez Canal, which is used for the transportation of 35 million containers annually, while if their railway operates at full capacity for 24 hours a day, year round, it will not carry more than 2 million containers,” he said.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/839636
Egyptian candidates' tough words on peace turn Israel wary
JERUSALEM -- Along the Israel-Egypt border a barrier is being built among the desert dunes. Every few months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels hours south of his government offices to mark the progress firsthand. It is, says his office, a top priority for the government. The barrier is just one of the signs that relations between Israel and Egypt, which have been at peace with one another since 1979, are on shaky ground.
link to www.kansascity.com
Israel impeding project linking Egypt and Saudi, says former PM
Former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf warned against Israeli attempts to disrupt the construction of a bridge linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In a statement before the Shura Council's Transportation, Communications and Information Technology Committee on Monday, Sharaf called for disregarding Israel’s comments about Israeli plans to establish a railway line parallel to the Suez Canal or an alternative canal. “Israel knows quite well that its railway will not affect the Suez Canal, which is used for the transportation of 35 million containers annually, while if their railway operates at full capacity for 24 hours a day, year round, it will not carry more than 2 million containers,” he said.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/839636
Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq's campaign boasted on Saturday that the former air force chief had shot down two Israeli planes during war, as it dismissed accusations of corruption.
link to news.yahoo.com
Brotherhood and Salafis exchange rebukes again
The Salafi-led Nour Party called on the Freedom and Justice Party Saturday to clarify Safwat Hegazy's statement that Salafis who back Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh for president are national security agents. Hegazy, a Muslim Brotherhood member, made the comment in a campaign rally for FJP presidential candidate Mohamed Morsy on Friday.
link to www.egyptindependent.com
Egypt’s Presidential Vote: Minorities Divided
Salafi and Coptic voters will have a major say in who becomes the country’s next president, but neither group is united over which candidate to back.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Egypt police raid Iran TV station
Egyptian police raided the Cairo office of Iranian television channel, Al-Alam, confiscating its equipment after it was found to be operating without license, a security source said on Monday. The raid was carried out on Sunday and the head of Al-Alam's Cairo office, Ahmed Sioufi, was charged with working without an official permit, the source said. On the Arabic-language channel's website, Sioufi confirmed that "several members of the police raided the office of Al-Alam" in Cairo.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iran
AIPAC Resolution Demanding War With Iran On House Floor Today
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives is slated to vote on a resolution designed to tie the president’s hands on Iran policy.
link to mjayrosenberg.com
Apparently Terrorism Isn't Terrorism If It Targets Iran
The Obama administration is moving to delist an Iranian dissident group from the State Department terrorism list, which, as recently as January, placed a magnetic bomb under the car of Iranian scientist, according to U.S. officials. Perhaps unintentionally, the message the move would send appears to be: This activity is OK as long as it's against Iran.
link to news.yahoo.com
Iran: talks with IAEA "constructive"
Iran's talks with the UN nuclear watchdog about Tehran's atomic program are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions. The talks will test Iran's readiness to address UN inspectors' concerns over military links to its nuclear work, ahead of wider diplomatic talks on the program's future in Baghdad next week between Tehran and world powers. The nuclear watchdog aims at the Vienna talks to gain access to Iranian sites, documents and officials involved in suspected research activity that could be used to develop atomic bombs.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iran tells West to 'correct its manner' ahead of talks
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday urged the West to "correct its manners" if it wants to win the respect of Iranians, as Tehran and the world powers meet in Baghdad this month to discuss Iran's contested nuclear programme.
link to news.yahoo.com
US "not impressed" with India over Iran oil ties
The United States is not impressed with India's efforts to cut its oil imports from Iran, a top US diplomat said on Tuesday, despite New Delhi pledging to slash imports by 11 percent. As a major buyer of Iranian crude, India is crucial to US efforts to squeeze Iran's economy. The issue has become an irritant in ties between India and the United States. Carlos Pascual, the US special envoy who has been negotiating with Iranian oil importers to cut their imports, met Indian foreign ministry officials on Tuesday.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Punished over Iran: S. Africa Petrol under Threat, Iqbal Jassat- Pretoria
Amidst reports that pro-Israeli lobbies in the United States have secured an assurance from the Obama administration to relentlessly pursue countries seen to be wavering in their compliance with rigorous sanctions on Iran, South Africa has been singled out for punishment. Though largely under-reported in the local media, pressure is building on the ANC-led government to immediately suspend its economic ties with Iran or risk being barred from US economy.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Iran to launch satellite on day of nuclear talks
Iran will launch next week an experimental observation satellite, on the day of talks with world powers over its nuclear program, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday. "The Fajr satellite will be launched on Khordad 3 (May 23)," the director of the Aerospace Industries Mehdi Farahi was quoted as saying.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Iran Executes Accused Israeli Spy
Iran said on Tuesday it had executed a man accused of being an Israeli intelligence agent responsible for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported.
link to feeds.nytimes.com
I Want My NPT: A weekend review of Iran nuclear program propaganda, Nima Shirazi
Two news reports by major wire services this weekend demonstrate just how pervasive misinformation and propaganda are in the mainstream media when it comes to the Iranian nuclear issue.
link to mondoweiss.net
Iraq
Iraq Minister: War Dead Reaches 70,000; 11 Killed Today
Human Rights Minister Mohammed Shayaa al-Sudani said that the casualty toll, since 2003, has reached 70,000 killed and 250,000 wounded. A spokesman for the Iraqiya bloc said that the party would try to convince Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to return to Baghdad to stand trial on terrorism charges. Meanwhile, at least 11 Iraqis were killed today and 22 more were wounded in a second day of attacks focusing on Anbar province.
link to original.antiwar.com
Iraq: 20 Killed As Suicide Bombers Stage Several Attacks
The relative quiet of the last several days was broken decisively by several suicide and car bomb attacks around Iraq. At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 35 more were wounded.
link to original.antiwar.com
Iraq bomb attacks against security kill five
A series of bomb attacks mostly targeting security forces, including a suicide car bombing, killed five people across Iraq and wounded several more on Sunday, security and medical officials said.
link to news.yahoo.com
Terror trial of fugitive Iraq VP starts in Baghdad
The terror trial of Iraq's fugitive vice president accused of running death squads started Tuesday in Baghdad with witnesses testifying how their relatives were killed in attacks that the authorities have linked to the country's top Sunni official.
link to news.yahoo.com
Iraq VP masterminded killings: trial witnesses
Victims' families and witnesses on Tuesday accused Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi of masterminding killings at the opening of his trial in absentia on charges he says are politically-motivated.
link to news.yahoo.com
Iraq “torture prison” is still open: rights group
Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Iraqi authorities were still running a jail they said had been shut over a year ago after reports of prisoners being beaten and electrocuted, but the government denied this, saying the site was empty.
link to english.alarabiya.net
Jordan
Major US, Arab war drill begins in Jordan
The United States and its allies have started in Jordan what was described as the largest military exercises in the Middle East in 10 years, focusing on "irregular warfare," top officers said on Tuesday. "Yesterday we began to apply the skills that we have developed over the last weeks in an irregular warfare scenario ... They will last for approximately the coming two weeks," Major General Ken Tovo, head of the US Special Operations Forces, told reporters in Amman.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Jordan editor charged with incitement freed on bail
Jordanian military prosecutors on Sunday released on bail a local news website editor charged with anti-regime incitement, a judicial official told AFP.
A series of bomb attacks mostly targeting security forces, including a suicide car bombing, killed five people across Iraq and wounded several more on Sunday, security and medical officials said.
link to news.yahoo.com
Terror trial of fugitive Iraq VP starts in Baghdad
The terror trial of Iraq's fugitive vice president accused of running death squads started Tuesday in Baghdad with witnesses testifying how their relatives were killed in attacks that the authorities have linked to the country's top Sunni official.
link to news.yahoo.com
Iraq VP masterminded killings: trial witnesses
Victims' families and witnesses on Tuesday accused Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi of masterminding killings at the opening of his trial in absentia on charges he says are politically-motivated.
link to news.yahoo.com
Iraq “torture prison” is still open: rights group
Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Iraqi authorities were still running a jail they said had been shut over a year ago after reports of prisoners being beaten and electrocuted, but the government denied this, saying the site was empty.
link to english.alarabiya.net
Jordan
Major US, Arab war drill begins in Jordan
The United States and its allies have started in Jordan what was described as the largest military exercises in the Middle East in 10 years, focusing on "irregular warfare," top officers said on Tuesday. "Yesterday we began to apply the skills that we have developed over the last weeks in an irregular warfare scenario ... They will last for approximately the coming two weeks," Major General Ken Tovo, head of the US Special Operations Forces, told reporters in Amman.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Jordan editor charged with incitement freed on bail
Jordanian military prosecutors on Sunday released on bail a local news website editor charged with anti-regime incitement, a judicial official told AFP.
Lebanon
Update: Lebanon boosts security after deadly clashes
The Lebanese army has strengthened its numbers in the northern city of Tripoli, after fighting there between fighters loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and supporters of Syria's opposition left at least three people dead. Zeina Khodr has more from Beirut.
link to www.youtube.com
Several dead in clashes in Lebanon's Tripoli
At least four people killed, including a soldier, after clashes between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime.
link to www.aljazeera.com
Trouble in Tripoli: Syrian Crisis Shifts The Stage
The events in Tripoli, North Lebanon over the weekend in which seven people were killed and over a dozen injured have exposed the city’s many fault lines.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
North Lebanon: A State That Sells its People to the Devil, Ibrahim al-Amin
The uprising of Tripoli figures in protest against the disregard of protocol by a security apparatus while arresting a wanted person makes you feel that you are in the presence of political leaders who would not allow citizens be subjected to immodesty. But in the case of Tripoli now, the picture is different. The protesters know the security agencies are blatantly using them to do their dirty work. The leaders are attempting to contain public anger because they were not able to deal with the issue of Islamist detainees without trial.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Libya
Rights group: NATO underplayed civilian deaths in Libya
NATO air strikes killed 72 civilians in Libya last year, Human Rights Watch said on Monday, accusing the western alliance of failing to acknowledge the scope of collateral damage it caused during the campaign that helped oust Moammar Gadhafi.
link to worldnews.msnbc.msn.com
Unacknowledged Deaths: HRW: Report
This report examines in detail eight NATO air strikes in Libya that resulted in 72 civilian deaths, including 20 women and 24 children. It is based on one or more field investigations to each of the bombing sites during and after the conflict, including interviews with witnesses and local resident.
link to www.hrw.org
Inside Story: Holding NATO accountable in Libya
Can NATO be sued and held accountable for killing civilians and is there an international mechanism to help the victims of war? Stephen COle discusses with guests: David Mepham, Olivier Ribbelink & Alexandre Vautravers.
link to www.youtube.com
Saudi
Saudi Arabia Seeks Union of Monarchies in Region
The move also highlights the Saudi monarchy’s preoccupation with its regional rival, Iran, which has been reflected in a series of Saudi interventions that have taken on distinctly sectarian overtones, including its support for Sunni opposition groups in Syria and its military intervention last spring on behalf of the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain. Thousands of Saudi troops rolled into Bahrain last year to help Bahrain’s monarch put down a popular uprising led by members of the country’s Shiite majority. Bahrain, which is linked by a bridge to Saudi Arabia, is virtually the only country publicly endorsing the Saudi push for a tighter regional federation. In a statement released on Monday, the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, said, “We are looking forward to the establishment of the Gulf Union.”
link to www.nytimes.com
Saudi Feminism: Between Mama Amreeka and Baba Abdullah
On 9 May 2012, Manal al-Sharif was awarded the Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. This came shortly after al-Sharif was honored as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World at a Gala in New York City. Such events have given rise to a pattern: just as numerous pictures and videos of activists attending various conferences and receiving numerous awards surface, waves of criticism pour in. Their motives are viewed with suspicion, worthiness is questioned, and a movement’s progress is reassessed.
link to www.jadaliyya.com
Syria
Syria activists: At least 5 killed in village raid
Syrian forces killed at least five people and torched a number of homes in a raid on a farming village Sunday that activists said showed worsening relations between Syria's myriad religious groups.
link to news.yahoo.com
Syrian clashes 'kill 23 soldiers'
At least 30 people - including 23 soldiers - die in clashes in the central Syrian town of Rastan, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
link to www.bbc.co.uk
Syrians raid village, violence bleeds into Lebanon
Syrian forces killed at least five people when they raided a Sunni farming village on Sunday, torching homes and looting shops in what activists said is a sign of worsening relations among the country's religious groups.
link to news.yahoo.com
VIDEO: UN: Syrians must put down weapons
Damascus must ensure that its forces go "back to the barracks" in order to move forward in resolving Syria's bloody conflict, the head of the UN's observer mission to the country has said.
link to www.bbc.co.uk
Palestinian intellectual tortured in Syria: U.N.
Prominent leftist Palestinian writer Salameh Kaileh, freed recently after being arrested in Syria last month, was tortured during his detention, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.
link to english.alarabiya.net
Group: Syria troops target health workers, wounded
Syrian forces are targeting medical workers and patients who were wounded in the 14-month-old conflict, forcing doctors to scramble to help the injured in makeshift clinics, an international aid agency warned Tuesday.
link to news.yahoo.com
20,000 Syrians fled to Jordan in two months: charity
About 20,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring Jordan in the past two months, a prominent local charity said on Sunday, urging wealthy Arab countries to help the refugees.
link to english.alarabiya.net
SNC snubs Arab League as violence continues
Syria's leading opposition group snubbed an Arab League invite to key talks on Monday, suggesting further divisions in the ranks of those opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime. Meanwhile a watchdog said 23 Syrian soldiers were killed while dozens more were wounded as fierce clashes between regime forces and armed rebels continued. The Syrian National Council (SNC) announced they would not take part in talks sponsored by the Arab League aimed at fixing deep divisions within the ranks of the opposition to President Assad.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Ghalioun elected chief of Syria opposition group
Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun was elected on Tuesday as head of the exiled opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council, a source within the SNC told AFP.
link to news.yahoo.com
Jihadist group denies claiming Damascus bombings
Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt, has denied in a statement that it had claimed responsibility for Damascus bombings last week that killed 55 people.
link to english.alarabiya.net
Obscure jihadists enter Syrian conflict
The Syrian conflict has bred the emergence of obscure jihadists carrying out bloody attacks, either acting independently or manipulated by the regime seeking to tarnish the image of its opposition, analysts say.
link to news.yahoo.com
Tunisian Islamists join jihad against Syria's Assad
BEN GUERDANE, Tunisia (Reuters) - The first that Tunisian schoolteacher Mokhtar Mars heard of his brother fighting alongside rebels in Syria was a phone call from a foreign number, telling him Houssein was dead. "We got an anonymous call telling us he had been martyred. Just three words. We tried to call back but there was no answer," said Mars, 40, sitting on a mattress along a wall of what was his younger brother's room, bereft of other belongings.
link to news.yahoo.com
Syrian Rebels Become More Lethal, Joshua Landis
As Syria’s rebel militias become more lethal, foreign analysts are trying to determine how Islamic they are, how to unify them, and what role the West can play in guiding Syria toward an outcome favorable to its interests. The Syrian government is exploiting Western concerns that the Syrian militias could turn out to be harmful to Western and Israeli interests. Deborah Amos explains that Damascus is arresting most moderates in an evident attempt to create an “either-or” dilemma for Western governments and Syrians themselves: they must choose either between and Assad dictatorship or divided Islamists. This has been the Assad strategy for 40 years. Liz Sly explains that in fact the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining influence over the revolt. Sharmine Narwani, in contrast to Deborah Amos, highlights the brutal and Islamist characteristics of some of the rebel groups, suggesting that the stark choices Syrians face are not manufactured by the Assad regime, but real. She suggests that the Western press has tried to whitewashed the distasteful realities of Homs’ Farouq Battalion to fit its narrative of brutal regime versus good people.
link to www.joshualandis.com
Homs Opposition: Al Farouq Battalion is Killing Us, Sharmine Narwani
It is extremely rare to have a direct peephole into events on the ground in Syria. The hard-fought battle over narratives often leaves truth in the dust.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
www.TheHeadlines.Org
Thanks
Nothing at Huff Po about Nakba day! Anyone surprised?
There’s this AP article at HuffPost:
link to huffingtonpost.com
Kate,
This is a little off topic, but one of the comments to that article brings up some interesting information about Netanyahu and Likud and the Likud Charter. The next time I have an Israeli supporter bring up the Hamas Charter to demonize Palestinians, I really must remember to bring up the Likud Charter. The Likud Charter explicitly denies a Palestinian State with the pre 1967 boundaries, it explicitly rejects intl law that makes settlements in Occupied Territories unlawful. The Charter of this Israeli group rejects the legitimacy of international law that Israel is subject to under her treaty obligations.
I read:
Likud Party Charter states:
a. “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel.”
b. “Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem”
c. “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.”
d. “The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.”
With a Party Charter like this, what is Netanyahu going to negotiate?
Sherri Munnerlyn
You could also point out this little caveat from the Hamas Charter
link to mideastweb.org
Article Thirty-One: “As to those who have not borne arms against you on account of religion, nor turned you out of your dwellings, Allah forbiddeth you not to deal kindly with them, and to behave justly towards them; for Allah loveth those who act justly.”
The Lukid Charter has no such provision.
This song always reminds me of Palestine
Fairuz/ zourouni
link to youtube.com
Ehh, cheefitch ya seafoid.
chuwayyis ya’ni
Israel seems to remember an nakba much more strongly now than in previous decades. It must be the guilt.
Lovely intro :
Palestinians are marking on Tuesday 64 years since predominantly European Jewish colonizers wiped their country off the map, cleansed the land of their villages, and brutally installed the state of Israel.
Syria lashed out at Israel for the bloodshed, warning it would bear full responsibility for its “criminal” actions, while Lebanon filed a complaint to the United Nations, urging it “to make the Jewish state halt its aggression and provocation,” Lebanon’s official NNA news agency reported.
Israel protecting itself from screaming hordes trying to break through the Israeli border and Israel is considered the aggressor!