Activism

Weekend in Palestine: Gaza airstrikes and attacks on peaceful protesters in the West Bank

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Land Theft & Destruction / Restriction of Movement / Refugees

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers set fire to a 1,000-year-old olive tree in central Hebron overnight Friday, witnesses said. Local activist Issa Amro said the group then hurled stones at a community center in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood on Saturday morning.  Settlers tried to remove the Palestinian flag from the ‘steadfastness and challenge’ center while Israeli soldiers looked on, he said.
 

Home Evictions in Sheikh Jarah
Below is an excerpt from the third trip report of the Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) delegation to Palestine/Israel. It was written by Marianne Torres. ”They came for us at 5:00 in the morning when everybody was asleep. It was August 2, 2009 when the soldiers came after 10 families with 38 family members. They came, more than 100 soldiers and Special Forces, police on horses and water cannons filled with sewage water.” This is the beginning of a story we heard today from Mariam Alrawi in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. 
http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2012/05/home-evictions-in-sheikh-jarah.html

Last week there were two house demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem resulting in the displacement of two families, including six children. In both incidents the owners of the properties were forced to carry out the demolitions themselves. Had they refused the Israeli judiciary would have ordered the homes to be destroyed by Israeli forces and for the owners to pay a large fine. Al-Haq’s field researchers have identified six such self-demolitions in East Jerusalem so far this year, although many more go unreported. Forced self-demolition is being increasingly used as a tactic by the Israeli courts to avoid international pressure to stop house demolition in East Jerusalem.
 
Last Wednesday morning, for just under an hour, Israel’s High Court heard arguments about whether or not five women from Gaza should be able to travel to their studies at Birzeit University in the West Bank. In a watershed moment for Gisha, which has brought no less than three similar cases in its seven years of existence, and for the first time in 12 years since a ban on travel for students between Gaza and the West Bank was first imposed, the court actually instructed the state to reconsider its position. That is, reconsider it for four of the five women.
45 Years of Occupation
June 5, 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of the start of the 1967 War, when Israel launched a surprise attack against Egypt and Syria and began its military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Syrian Golan Heights. The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) has put together a fact sheet that provides an overview of Israel’s 45-year occupation of Palestinian territories and its settlement enterprise.  The sheet includes facts and figures about settler violence, Palestinian prisoners and home demolitions carried out by Israel. There are also links to maps showing the continuing expansion of settlements and the route of the separation wall.  This is a great resource to help in your efforts to change U.S. policy toward Palestine-Israel. 

Siege on Gaza

The quarterly report of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics indicates that unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached 31.5% in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 30.3% in the preceding quarter. The unemployment rate in the West Bank is 20.1%. The percentage of women who do not participate in the work force in Gaza is 86.3%. The unemployment rate among women who do participate in the work force is 46.5%, compared to 28.4% among men in the Gaza Strip. The highest unemployment rate, 33.9%, was recorded in Gaza’s northern district. Unemployment in the 25 to 29 age bracket is 58.9%, the highest rate relative to other age groups. Thirty-nine percent of the work force is employed in the public sector. Salaried employees account for 74.4% of the work force, 16.5% are self-employed and 2.9% are business owners.
 
Gazans’ suffrage has never stopped, as they are sinking in darkness for more than 16 hours a day. Their trade also is left down, and many patients are dead due to the shortage of power. Although a deal, signed between both the Egyptian government and the Gaza government a week ago, facilitated the power to get to Gaza, the solely Gaza power planet stopped working for two months because of the lack of fuel, smuggled through the tunnels on the Palestinian-Egyptian borders It is worth mentioning that the Gaza Strip depends on three main resources to get electricity: the Israeli Company, the Egyptian Company and the only Gaza power planet.
 
GAZA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 1 June 2012 – Every year, an estimated 1,600 babies die in the first four weeks of life in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Most of these newborns deaths could be prevented if mothers and newborns’s health was systematically evaluated, and if young mothers received advice on how to best care for their children. To improve newborn survival, UNICEF has revitalized a post-natal home-visit programme for new mothers and infants in the Gaza Strip. Last year, nearly 5,000 home visits were supported, reaching more than 3,000 high-risk pregnant women in Gaza with technical and financial support from UNICEF.
 
Activists arrive in Cairo to enter Gaza through Rafah crossing
Dozens of international activists affiliated with the “Miles of Smiles” convoy landed in Cairo International Airport on Thursday in order to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. The convoy aims to show support to the Palestinian people.Cairo airport sources said that the majority of activists arrived from Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and some European countries carried medical aid for hospitals in Gaza. It added that 13 Palestinians also arrived to the airport intending to enter Gaza through Rafah.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/activists-arrive-cairo-enter-gaza-through-rafah-crossing-news2
 
Michael Morpurgo gave an emotional speech at the Hay Festival about his visit to Gaza.

Violence / Aggression / Attacks on Peaceful Protest

Sunday: Seven Injured In A Series Of Airstrikes Targeting Gaza
The Israeli Air Force carried out, on Sunday at dawn, several airstrikes targeting different areas in the Gaza Strip, mainly in central and southern Gaza, inflicting seven injuries among the Palestinians, medical sources reported.

 

Palestinian medical sources reported Saturday that several protesters were treated for the effects of teargas inhalation after the Israeli army attacked the weekly nonviolent protest against the illegal Israeli Annexation Wall and settlements, in Beit Ummar town, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli soldiers also invaded several nearby area and broke into several homes before kidnapping four residents. 

 
Sufian, along with his brother Shaban, father Mohammed, and sister-in-law, were traveling from H1 area to H2 area of the Palestinian city of Hebron. The H1 area is home to around 140,000 Palestinians and is under Palestinian authority control. The H2 area is inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians and approximately 500 Israeli settlers in 4 illegal downtown settlements and is under Israeli military control. To pass into H2, Sufian and his family were forced to go through an Israeli military checkpoint.
 

Dozens of Palestinians and activists suffered injuries in Masarah and Bil’in villages when their peaceful marches against the segregation wall and settlements were attacked by Israeli troops.

 
HEBRON, June 2, 2012 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers from Ramat Yishai settlement in the southern West Bank city of Hebron Saturday set fire to ancient olive trees in Tel Rumeida, a neighborhood in the center of Hebron, and attacked a local youth center and houses, said local sources. Witnesses told WAFA that a group of extremist settlers set fire to several hundreds-of-years old olive trees, including a tree over 3000 years old, and attacked houses in the neighborhood. The settlers also raided an office for the Youth against Settlements group and tried to bring down the Palestinian flag in the area flying over the office’s roof, said local residents, noting that settlers had previously taken down the flag. In a related matter, Israeli settlers wrote racist slogans inciting against Arabs and Palestinians on the walls of Qurtoba school and Palestinian houses in Shuhada street in the city.
 
Friday: Medics: Man dies from Gaza airstrike injuries

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A man died on Friday evening after being injured earlier in the day by an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip, medics said. Naji Qudeih, 34, was one of four people injured when Israeli aircraft bombed an auto rickshaw east of Khan Younis, hours after an Israeli soldier and Palestinian militant were killed in an exchange of fire along the border.
Palestinian medical sources reported Friday that five Palestinians were wounded when the Israeli air force missiles targeting Abasan Al-Kabeera town, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. 

 

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked the funeral procession of the remains of a martyr in Beit Uwa village, west of Al-Khalil, on Friday, local sources said.

Israeli navy gunboats fired at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Sudaniya, to the north west of Gaza city, on Friday.

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacked a group of farmers in Taku village, south east of Bethlehem, on Friday, local sources said.

 
The Friends of Freedom and Justice Committee in Bil’in, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, reported Friday that dozens of nonviolent protesters, including Israeli and international peace activists, were treated for the effects of teargas inhalation after Israeli soldiers attacked their weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and settlements.
Last week I posted videos taken by the spokesperson of B’Tselem, Sarit Michaeli, showing a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians near the village of Urif, in the Nablus region. You can see in the videos settlers setting fire to a Palestinian olive grove, and hear gunshots. A third clip shows a wounded Palestinian being evacuated from the area (see the report and watch the videos here). At the time, Michaeli told me that local Palestinians also said that the wounded man was  beaten – after he was shot – by the settlers. There was no footage backing this claim.

Illegal Arrests / Hunger Strike / Prisoner News
 
More than 250 Palestinians, including 35 children, were arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in the past month of May, revealed the researcher specialized in prisoners’ affairs Riad Ashkar.
 

House arrest of three Jerusalemite youths extended
The Israeli central court in occupied Jerusalem has decided to extend the house arrest of three young men in Thawri suburb in the holy city for three months.

 
Israeli forces arrest Hebron journalist
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces arrested a local journalist in Hebron early Sunday, relatives said. Soldiers raided the home of Sharif Rajoub in the village of Dura and took him to an unknown destination, his brother Mahmoud told Ma’an. Rajoub works as a reporter for al-Aqsa radio station. He was preparing for his wedding, which was set to take place next week, his brother added. An Israeli army spokeswoman said that a man had been arrested in Dura overnight Saturday, but could not provide further details about his identity.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=491674
 

Prisoner Hamid Amoudi unable to move due to torture
Palestinian prisoner Hamid Amoudi is hospitalized in Nablus national hospital suffering from a serious health condition.

Prisoner Aker still on hunger strike in PA jail
Political prisoner Abudullah Al-Aker is insistent on continuing his hunger strike until the Palestinian Authority’s security apparatuses end his arbitrary detention.

The IOF renewed, on Thursday, the administrative detention of the MP Ahmed Haj Ali for six more months.
 
The Israeli Court extended, on Thursday, the administrative detention of Dr. Mohammad Ghazal, 55, lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, Al-Najah National University.
 
The IOF disavowed the agreement that it signed with the prisoners claiming that there is no agreement concerning administrative detention.
 

Soldiers Break Into Detainees Rooms In Ofer Prison
Undercover soldiers of the Matzada and Nachshon brigades broke into Palestinian detainees’ rooms in section 14 of the Ofer Israeli Prison and searched them; the soldiers also used military dogs while searching the rooms.

 

Israel To Transfer 395 Detainees To Different Facilities
The Husam Institution For Detainees and Ex-Detainees reported that the detainees’ committee that led the most recent hunger-strike in Israeli detention camps, held on Friday a meeting with the Israeli Prison Administration to discuss the latest violations, including the transfer of 395 Gaza Strip detainees imprisoned in Nafha, to different detention centers.

 
Barghouti: We are ready to confront the prison administration
Commander of the armed wing of Hamas in the West Bank prisoner Abdullah Barghouti warned of the procrastination of the IPS in the implementation of the deal it signed with the strike leadership.

 
Palestinian prisoner Raed Da’amsa suffered a severe heart attack in the Israeli Nafha prison, his relatives told the PIC on Saturday.
 
Thousands of Palestinians participated, on Thursday afternoon, in the funeral of liberated prisoner, Zuhair Rashid Lubada, who died few days after his release from occupation jails.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7kHx4u3OnkXRtHumC8yGq0UoXRqifg4zJtObAq0mplS3teKUIQ959knS4Fytjhi8cjW7vuoI8uvcTIEAHsvZsPHiiVnySGYf2r4Mhc9tmVYc%3d 

Activism / Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions 

’5 Broken Cameras’ is reminiscent of ‘The Battle of Algiers’ (but the ‘NYT’ can’t tell you that), Abdeen JabaraAnybody’s who interested in peace, justice in Palestine/Israel, has  to see this movie. It’s an incredible documentary about the steadfastness of the villagers in Bil’in and of the steadfastness of this one fellow, Emad Burnat, who wanted to report what was happening to his village and the taking of the land. And it’s a testament to the  the Israelis who are supporting the people of Bil’in, that they got the wherewithal to make a world-class showing, of the standard of the Battle of Algiers, although this is a documentary, and Battle of Algiers was a staged recreation. The film interweaves this fellow Burnat’s life and his family’s life and the story of his youngest child Gibreel over the five years of these demonstrations, what happens with this child– the filming, the raids on the village, the Israelis’ arrests of young boys. And all of this is interwoven into a story that is immensely powerful.
 
BETHLEHEM, June 2, 2012 – Palestine’s Christians expressed support for decisions by the governments of South Africa and Denmark, as well as from Switzerland’s largest retail chain Migros, to distinguish products made in the illegal West Bank settlements from those made in Israel, a statement by Kairos Palestine said on Friday. South Africa, Denmark and Migros retail stores decided that products coming from the settlements should have clear labels on them stating where they have originated from to allow buyers to distinguish their origins. Israel has strongly objected to these decisions. Describing the decisions as “historic,” Kairos Palestine, a group of Palestinian Christians who authored in 2009 the document “A Moment of Truth,” said, “We believe that this decision is a positive step into the right direction and we hope more countries and companies will follow this initiative.”
 
The South African Ministry of Trade and Industry has signified its intention to outlaw the labelling of products from illegal Israeli settlements as ‘Made in Israel’. The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Rob Davies, published a notice in the Government Gazette on Thursday, 10 May 2012, stating: “I, … intend to issue a Notice in terms of … the Consumer Protection Act…to require traders in South Africa, not to incorrectly label products that originate from Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as products of Israel” (GG No.35328 Notice 379 of 2012). Dr Davies further stated that consumers in South Africa “should not be misled into believing that products originating from the OPT are products originating from Israel”. Significantly, the notice indicates that the burden for proving where the products originate will lie with the traders. 

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1206/S00026/pchr-welcomes-south-africa-move-to-label-west-bank-goods.htm 

Conference Call Features Organizers Sharing Their Work on Ending Aid to Israel
On May 31, the US Campaign held a conference call with organizers from member groups around the country sharing their inspiring organizing efforts to raise awareness about and organize to end U.S. military aid to Israel.
http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2012/06/conference-call-features-organizers.html
 
After Madonna began her world tour there last week, campaigners urge cutting of cultural ties. Some of the world’s biggest stars – from Madonna to the Red Hot Chili Peppers – are being accused of putting profit before principle in a growing backlash against artists performing in Israel. Campaigners angry at human rights abuses against the Palestinian people – symbolised by Israel’s policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians and allowing Israeli settlers to take over their land – are demanding a boycott of Israeli venues in a campaign that echoes the 1980s protests against South Africa and the infamous venue Sun City. Last week Madonna came under fire for her decision to perform in Israel to kick off her world tour last Thursday. “By performing in Israel, Madonna has consciously and shamefully lent her name to fig-leafing Israel’s occupation and apartheid and showed her obliviousness to human rights,” said Omar Barghouti of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/israel-is-new-south-africa-as-boycott-calls-increase-7813538.html 

AP investigates the ‘Made in Israel’ label, Adam Horowitz
Following decisions from the South African government and Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain to distinguish between products made in the occupied territories from those west of the green line, the Associated Press reports on the “Made in Israel” label. 
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/ap-investigates-the-made-in-israel-label.html

Thousands in Istanbul rally against Israel

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Thousands of Turks in Istanbul rallied against Israel Thursday, marking the second anniversary of an Israel Defense Forces raid on the Mavi Marmara ship that was part of a flotilla that claimed to be carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel had determined that the flotilla was violating its blockade of the coastal area, and found weapons aboard. The Humanitarian Aid Foundation, known as IHH and one of the main groups behind the flotilla, organized Thursday’s rally. Israel, the United States and other nations consider the IHH to be a terrorist group. Protesters in Turkey called for those responsible for the raid to be held accountable, AFP reported. Earlier this week, a Turkish criminal court accepted indictments against the four top Israeli commanders who led the 2010 raid. Turkey and Israel have not had diplomatic relations since the raid.
 

We Are All Hana Shalabi activist statement on Mubarak sentence
*Any stupid liberal who loves trolling and loves reflecting their shallow philosophy, drawn from their vacuous sheltered life, please look away from this comment*, This is in response to the recent disgusting verdict that was given to the Zionist, the agent of America, the tyrant who oppressed many Arab Generations, the Dictator, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak., Mubarak alongside with his family and elite should have all been hung publicly in Tahrir Square after 11/2/2011. We are now going to learn the lessons of Steadfastness from our brothers and sisters in Bahrain and Syria., Justice has not been granted, Victory has not yet been achieved., The blood of Martyrs has not been shed for nothing., “Samidoun”, we are still standing., Revolution until Death, Revolution until Victory.

 
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-apartheid Wall Campaign, World Social Forum: Free Palestine, From November 28 to December 1 2012 the World Social Forum “Free Palestine” will be held in Porto Alegre (Brazil)´. This is a historic event that brings together solidarity, human rights and social justice movements and organizations from across the globe to develop and debate ideas, share experiences, network and plan strategies and campaigns to advance solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation.  (For more information and the full call for the WSF “Free Palestine” see: www.facebook.com/WSFPalestine )

Anti-Solidarity / Normalization

‘Fear and censorship’ — How NY Jewish Y locked out young Jews’ discussion of boycott, Adam Horowitz 
No matter what one believes about Palestinian non-violent movements and the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, we must allow these conversations in Jewish communities. Open, honest critical debate strengthens the Jewish community. Let’s talk about what our real questions are; and if people disagree, let’s respectfully hear each other out. The 14th Street Y—a Jewish community center—should not shut out young Jews eager to gather for learning and discussion. To the contrary, in a time when the Jewish community is deeply concerned about keeping younger generations engaged with Jewish life, we should celebrate a new generation of Jewish leaders trying to wrestle with the hard issues that are facing our community. We should do all we can to widen the circle of young Jews engaging in that conversation. Please open your doors to these young Jews.
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/petition-to-14th-street-y-dont-shut-out-debate-over-israel.html

Israeli Racism / Discrimination
 
“Do you feel more Arab or more American?” she asked. I had answered the ten previous questions very calmly, but with this question I looked back at the security official confused and irritated. She couldn’t have been much older than me—her business attire and stern facial expressions did not mask her youth.
 
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — A Sudanese man was seriously wounded overnight Saturday after being assaulted in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported. The man was found unconscious at 4 a.m. in south Tel Aviv with multiple injuries across his body, Israeli news site Ynet said. Police said they arrested a 48-year-old Tel Aviv resident on suspicion of assault. The assault appears to be the latest in a string of racially motivated attacks following mass anti-migrant rallies in Tel Aviv last week. Earlier this week, a Sudanese hotel worker was severely beaten by seven hotel guests in Eilat after he refused to give them towels which were reserved for other guests, Ynet reported. Two of the attackers were detained for questioning before being released. 
 
The Tel Aviv District Court, roughly comparable to a circuit court in the American federal system, sentenced on Wednesday an Eritrean refugee convicted of aggravated robbery to four and a half years imprisonment. Explaining the harsh sentence, he cited the need to deter “foreign citizens” from committing crimes. Without detracting from the brutality of the individuals who attacked refugee shops and cars last week, this is a far more insidious form of racism. And if anybody was so deluded into thinking that only the less fortunate lower classes are so racist, Judge Zvi Gurfinkel has proven that the virus of racism against African refugees is firmly ingrained in the system.
 

On Tuesday during a Knesset meeting a Kadima member and advocate for Tel Aviv’s social protest movement intensified an anti-African debate by proposing to round up leftists sympathetic to migrants in work camps. The remarks were made by Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich who stated the rights activists should be “jailed,” due to circulating an image on Facebook of fellow Knesset member, Miri Regev’s face doctored onto a saluting uniformed Nazi.  The Photoshop picture went viral after Regev made anti-migrant remarks during a Tel Aviv protest that turned violent last week.

An Israeli lawmaker who called African migrants a “cancer” during a violent anti-African pogrom, has now apologized for likening African migrants to human beings.
 

Stop excusing the ‘have-nots’ for racism and violence, Larry Derfner
The riots in South Tel Aviv are further evidence of the violent racism among Israel’s Sephardi underclass. It’s part of a worldwide, historic phenomenon among poor people that the left doesn’t want to face up to.

Jews Gathering Strength to Fight Same-Sex Attraction
Many observant Jews struggle with same-sex attraction (SSA), with few resources to help them. One courageous group is offering a workshop.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156384#.T8ji9FLgfPZ

 
Expressions of racial discrimination are multiple and widespread across Israeli society, and are particularly evident between Jews and Arabs. There is also evidence of racism between Jews themselves. May 2012 has evidenced further complexities of racism in Israeli society, including the ongoing racial discrimination against African refugees who come to work in Israel. This has resulted in a night of violence against African refugees on 23 May, including Molotov cocktails being thrown and arson attacks on buildings in which African refugees are staying in Tel Aviv.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/guest-writers/3825-the-multiple-strands-of-racism

Developments / Other News

Der-Spiegel reports German-made submarines sold to Israel will allow it to create ‘floating nuclear weapons cache’ in Mediterranean’s waters.
 
Memories flied her to Ramallah; they landed there. Am I really this close to his body today? Is it true that we are no longer parted from one another? These questions along with many others crossed Um AlQassam’s mind, once she heard that her husband’s remains had been handed over. I got sick of waiting, said she.
She did not think that her husband’s death will cause her such mounted pain. Her soul was assassinated the moment her husband was assassinated. And this pain was doubled as Israel kept my husband’s body in a “numbers graveyard” for years, said the woman.
 
Arab states Saturday agreed to set a “financial safety net” for the Palestinian Authority if Israel freezes due monthly revenue estimated at around $100 million, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
 

Palestinian students in Turkey make appeal after training revoked
TURKEY (Ma’an) — A group of Palestinian students in Turkey on Saturday appealed to President Mahmoud Abbas to intervene after authorities changed the terms of their scholarships to study medicine.

 

Analysis / Op-ed / Human Interest

Israel is playing a big part in Arizona race

Once she joined ‘Women in Black’ and opposed aid to Israel. And then– she ran for Congress and went to AIPAC.
Critics of Senator Mark Kirk’s drive to redefine who a Palestinian refugee is say the move is part of a strategy to take refugee rights for Palestinians off the negotiating table. 

What will wake Americans up to Israel’s role in our foreign policy? Here is an AP story on the Senate amendment that pushes for the stripping of millions of Palestinian refugees of their rights.
 
Mark Kirk’s recent legislation seeking to cut the number of recognized Palestinian refugees has brought new attention to the senator’s track record of being one of Israel’s strongest supporters in Congress (no small feat). But it is also well known that Sen. Kirk suffered a very serious stroke in January and has not made a public appearance since. I find it odd that Kirk would be sponsoring legislation during the early stages of his recovery process from a massive stroke. It simply does not make sense that in the course of months-long rehabilitation he would be focusing on the money Americans could save by slashing the funds paid out to UNRWA. Not logical.  Look at Gabrielle Gifford’s legislation during recovery. Projects for the people of Illinois? Yes. Our troops? Sure. Legislating the number of Palestinian refugees? I don’t get it.
 

Philip Giraldi, the executive director of the Council for the National Interest and an astute critic of America’s Israelocentric policy in the Middle East, recently made the case that United States support for Israel, and the concomitant Israeli power which depends on that support, has reached its tipping point and is now on an ineluctable downward slide. A “tipping point,” a term given wide publicity in the decade past by Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book with that title, is defined by Giraldi as a point “where physical momentum, inclined in one direction, reverses its course, stabilizes, and then begins to move the opposite way.” And the movement usually accelerates after reaching the “tipping point.” In Gladwell’s definition: “The word ‘Tipping Point’ . . . comes from the world of epidemiology. It’s the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It’s the boiling point. It’s the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards. AIDS tipped in 1982, when it went from a rare disease affecting a few gay men to a worldwide epidemic.”

 
When President Obama first came into office he promised this country that some fundamental and drastic changes would take place. He also promised the same scope of change in his Cairo speech to Arabs and Muslims across the globe, and because of the unprecedented gesture, people believed him. Today Arabs and Muslims, especially those in the Middle East, are still waiting for that fundamental change to come. There is overwhelming consensus among people in the region that President Obama has not delivered on promises made and hopes raised three years ago in Cairo. Earlier this week at the U.S. Islamic World Forum in Doha, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough had a counter message: that U.S. policy changes in the Middle East were fostering a better relationship between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim world. The purpose of his speech was to articulate what the Administration views as U.S. accomplishments in the region, but he completely ignored perhaps one of the single most important issues to people in the region: Palestine.
 
In the upscale Ramallah area of al-Masyoun, which is home to extravagant hotels such as the Movenpick and high rise cafes, one man has for a month been solidly protesting from the early morning to late at night outside the offices of Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Tareq Mahmoud Abu Jweid decided to undertake this act after exhausting all means of trying to find a job. He placed adverts in newspapers, filled out many job applications, tried to talk directly to future employers, and finally appealed to the PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ Office who transferred him to the Prime Minister’s office.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/palestine-one-man%E2%80%99s-fight-right-work?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29 

 
Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that Israel deliberately undermines peace and is single-mindedly pursuing the Palestinians’ socio-political extinction and national erasure, liberal supporters of Israel, who may acknowledge that Zionism’s historical and legal claims to Palestine do not hold up, insist on the “existential threat” rationale—the murderous historical persecution of Jews and its potential recurrence.  This to them encapsulates Zionism’s and Israel’s justification.
 
(This poem is dedicated to all political prisoners past and present all over the world who seek a life of dignity, freedom, safety, human rights and justice. This poem is dedicated to all Palestinians who remained principled and steadfast in our struggle against the State of Israel and all other forms of oppression. But this poem is also dedicated to the pain locked inside my father’s eyes and caged inside his body. This poem is my heart song that seeks to make you free. Daddy I see you and I see Palestine. One day, I will build again the home that was stolen from you. And I will do it because when they stole your home they stole the whole you from me before I ever met you…And so Daddy Until ’48 ..)
The first-ever Arab woman political cartoonist, Palestinian Omayyah Joha, who was recently invited to Turkey to display her art, said the inspiration for the subjects of her grievous work comes not from her imagination but from the real suffering and oppression Palestinians face every day. Joha, whose work has won wide acclaim both in the Arab and Western worlds, told Sunday’s Zaman in an exclusive interview that her caricatures are a collection of depictions of the daily suffering and pain the oppressed Palestinians experience.

http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=282297 

 
The death of nearly 100 people — reportedly mostly women and children — over the weekend is a salutary reminder of an eternal truth which Western leaders seem unfamiliar: PEOPLE GET KILLED IN WARS. In the present Syrian case, both sides in the ongoing Syrian civil war appear to share responsibility for the deaths. And while the trigger pullers on each side bear responsibility, the line of responsibility also leads directly back to Britain’s David Cameron, the UN’s leaders, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Barack Obama, and especially Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice. These interventionists have led an effective effort to prevent the legitimate Syrian regime from restoring order to the country, and have encouraged Syrian dissidents to provide the cannon fodder for what has become a face-off between Asaad’s army and Islamist militants aided by al-Qaeda and armed and funded by the Jordanians, Turks, Saudis, and other of the Gulf’s tyrants. Western intervention, in short, prolonged Syrian disorder and gave time for the ripening of today’s civil war there. 
The Arab World and the Media’s Symbiotic Revolutions, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin
The Arab world has forever changed, and so has the media. Some would argue governance, as we’ve known it, is also changing. Business is certainly changing; in fact, the whole world might just be changing too. The question is, is social media the catalyst? My simple answer is yes. For just over a year now, I’ve been fortunate enough to be immersed in a series of chaotic and fateful events that had deprived me of sleep, catapulted my career, but most importantly connected me through social media, at times intimately, to my shared generation of Arab brothers and sisters fighting for their right to self-determination.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5769/the-arab-world-and-the-medias-symbiotic-revolution
 
Egypt

Leading rights group Amnesty International on Saturday condemned the acquittal of a number of senior aides to deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, but praised the life sentence given to the former dictator. Mubarak was convicted of failing to stop the killing of unarmed pro-democracy protesters in the country last year, with a judge saying he could expect to spend the rest of his life in jail.
 
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to congratulate Egypt on sentencing Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak to life in prison, instead saying the matter was not something she could comment on. ”That is up to the Egyptian people and their judicial system and their government,” Clinton told reporters during a visit to the Arctic city of Tromsoe in Norway, part of her nine-day tour of Scandinavia, the Caucasus and Turkey.
 
The historic trial of toppled President Hosni Mubarak is set to wrap up today when the presiding judge, Ahmed Refaat, hands down a verdict. The trial began in August 2011 and was adjourned on 22 February when Refaat declared that a verdict will be pronounced on 2 June. The former president could face a variety of punishments, up to the death penalty, for charges of conspring to kill protesters during the uprising in January and February 2011. His former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly faces the same charges in the same trial. Mubarak, along with his sons Gamal and Alaa, are also charged with corruption for involvement in selling state land at below-market prices. The trial is being held at the Police Academy in the Fifth Settlement on the eastern outskirts of Cairo. 
 
Political forces denounced the ruling in the case against Hosni Mubarak and 10 other defendants that sentenced  the former president and his interior minister to life but acquitted the rest of the accused. Salafi Nour Party spokesperson Nader Bakkar called for challenging the ruling issued against Mubarak and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly on charges related to the deaths of more than 800 protesters across the nation during last year’s uprising. “Shock and then fury now grip the Egyptian street, ” he wrote on his Facebook page. “How come Adly’s assistants were not indicted like he was?”
 

Offices of Egyptian presidential candidate attacked after Mubarak verdict
Offices of Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmad Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, were attacked early Sunday in two provincial towns, a security services official said. Shafiq’s campaign headquarters in Cairo had already been attacked on Monday.

 

Egyptians React After Former President Is Sentenced
Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison on charges of complicity in the deaths of some of the nearly 850 protesters who lost their lives in the uprising that swept him from power last year. 

 

Protests grow in Tahrir after Mubarak verdict
Thousands of people descend on square in Egyptian capital to protest acquittals of senior regime officials.

 
The Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi Saturday called on Egyptians to continue their “revolution” as thousands protested against a controversial verdict in Hosni Mubarak’s trial.
 
Presidential candidate Mohamed Morsy and former presidential hopefuls Hamdeen Sabbahi, Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, and Khaled Ali joined protesters in Tahrir Square Saturday evening. A spokesperson for the campaign of disqualified candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail said he was also going to visit the protest. On Saturday morning, judge Ahmed Refaat sentenced former President Hosni Mubarak and Habib al-Adly, his interior minister, to life in prison on charges of killing protesters during last year’s 18-day uprising. Although the two received the maximum prison sentence under Egyptian law, Mubarak’s two sons Gamal and Alaa and six of Adly’s top deputies were allowed to walk free. 
 
Pic of the day

Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the first round of the presidential election, surfs the crowds gathered to protest the Mubarak trial verdict.
 

The rise and fall of Hosni Mubarak 
Less than 16 months after he was forced from power, Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, was sentenced to life in prison. It is a dramatic turn of events for a man who once controlled his country with an iron fist. Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports on Mubarak’s career, and his eventual downfall.

Mursi: Mubarak should never be freed
Egyptian state television will broadcast live the verdict and sentencing on Saturday of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, his sons and security chiefs in a murder and corruption trial, official media reported. State television will charge foreign media between US$7,000 and US$10,000 to buy the coverage, the official MENA news agency quoted the head the of the state’s Egyptian Radio and Television Union, Tharwat al-Mekki, as saying. The first several hearings of the trial, which started in August, were broadcast live, but chief judge Rifaat Said then ordered cameras out before witnesses began to take the stand.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/mursi-mubarak-should-never-be-freed?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29
 

The dictator was sentenced to death yesterday. Twenty-five years is death, isn’t it, if you’re 84 years old? Hosni Mubarak will die in jail. And Habib al-Adli, his interior minister, 74 years old, maybe he will be killed in jail if he doesn’t live out his life sentence. These were the thoughts of two old Egyptian friends of mine yesterday. And Mubarak was sentenced for the dead of the 2011 revolution. That’s 850 dead – 34 people for each year of his term. Quite a thought.

Egypt’s Mubarak is healthy, lives in comfort: source
The account confirmed reports in other domestic newspapers in the past months that have shown Mubarak, who is formally under arrest, as far more healthy than he appears in the court room, where he lies on his back on a stretcher. ”Mubarak is in excellent health. The former president will likely remain with us even after the verdict comes out,” the hospital source, who has seen the former leader, told Reuters. The source said Mubarak was free to walk around the garden or swim in a pool, and had a team of doctors including a physiotherapist. Mubarak also received visitors from the Arab world and the ruling military council. ”This is the best place for him. There is a plane and an airstrip at the hospital to allow for safe movement,” the source added. Mubarak is on trial for complicity in killings of protesters and the verdict could reverberate across an Arab world in the throes of political change. If found guilty, he could face from three years in prison to the death sentence, according to assessments from New York-based Human Rights Watch. The ruling on Saturday also comes in the middle of a presidential election that pits two polarising candidates against each other: the Muslim Brotherhood, banned under Mubarak, and the deposed leader’s last prime minister.Mubarak’s critics, including members of parliament, have demanded that he be moved to Torah prison just like his two sons Gamal and Alaa, who are also on trial. But Interior Ministry officials have said the prison was not equipped for Mubarak’s health needs.‘No arrangement to move him’ “He will not be imprisoned. He will live out his sentence here,” the source said. “There are no arrangements to move him out of here.”
Egypt must return to rule of law as state of emergency ends
The end of Egypt’s 31-year state of emergency must signal a return to the rule of law, Amnesty International said after the measure timed out on Thursday, two years after it was last renewed by the government of Hosni Mubarak. “The Egyptian authorities must make a clean break with state of emergency practices by combating the systemic abuses it facilitated and which still continue today under military rule,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “These include serious human rights violations such as brutal crackdowns on peaceful protesters, arbitrary arrests, torture and unfair trials of civilians under military law.”
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/egypt-must-return-rule-law-state-emergency-ends-2012-06-01
 
Update: Marches head to Tahrir protesting against Shafiq
Hundreds joined marches after Friday prayers heading to Tahrir Square to participate in a demonstration protesting former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq’s participation in the presidential election runoff. Shafiq will compete against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy in the presidential runoff in mid-June. Protesters are calling for Shafiq to be banned from the race and for an investigation into corruption allegations against him.
http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/885236 

Egyptian presidential candidate: Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood
Mohamed Morsi is one of two candidates to make the runoff of Egypt’s presidential election. He won the most votes in the first round – about 25 percent.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/HT7uHyZ5FW4/Egyptian-presidential-candidate-Mohamed-Morsi-of-the-Muslim-Brotherhood

Egypt presidential candidate: Ahmed Shafiq, former Mubarak man
Supporters see in Ahmed Shafiq a former military man who can restore stability after a chaotic 18 months. But others charge their revolution could end with a Mubarak man becoming president.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/ki9cR6FP_9w/Egypt-presidential-candidate-Ahmed-Shafiq-former-Mubarak-man

Comrades from Cairo, “Egypt’s Elections Under Military Rule: Join Our Resistance to the Counter-Revolution”
Egyptians now find themselves in a vulnerable moment. Official political discourse would have the world believe that the technologies of democracy presently spell a choice between ‘two evils’. These are: Ahmed Shafiq, who guarantees the consolidation of the outgoing regime and its return with a vengeance, openly promising a criminal assault on the revolution under the fascist spectres of ‘security’ and ‘stability’, and the false promise of protection for religious minorities (against whom the regime systematically stages assault and isolation as part of its fear-mongering campaigns); and Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood whom we are expected to imagine might ‘save’ us from the ‘old regime’ through the myths of cultural renaissance — all while consolidating its financial stronghold and the regional capitalist hegemony that fosters and depends on it for a climate of rampant exploitation of Egypt’s people and their resources.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/egypt010612.html

Egypt presidential elections: Fruit of Tahrir Square tastes bitter to some
Many Egyptians feel they can’t vote for either candidate in the presidential election run-off.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/PSyq0yRqtoQ/Egypt-presidential-elections-Fruit-of-Tahrir-Square-tastes-bitter-to-some

Egyptian Elections: Choose None of The Above
An election boycott campaign against the remaining two candidates presents voters with a third option, as Egyptians refuse to choose between the Muslim Brotherhood and ex-prime minister Shafik.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/egyptian-elections-choose-none-above?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Egypt defaulting on fuel purchases
Egypt has struggled to obtain bank payments for its fuel purchases, trade sources said, delaying diesel supplies for transport, industry and agriculture ahead of the second round of an election vote. The payment problems have caused shipping delays and prompted some suppliers to think again before offering oil into a forthcoming $1 billion import tender, half a dozen trade sources, including current suppliers, told Reuters. They said delays of up to two weeks in deliveries were a regular occurrence ahead of peak summer demand for diesel, blaming Egypt’s difficulties in obtaining letters of credit from banks.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/egypt-defaulting-fuel-purchases?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

 
The recent elections in Egypt now lead to a showdown between the two top vote getters on June 16/17.   The protagonists, Ahmed Shaiq (former PM for Mubarak and candidate of the military) vs. Mohammed Mursi (Muslim Brotherhood), pits two candidates most of the population really doesn’t want in the first place.   Kind of like Obama vs. Romney.   Where’s Ron Paul on the ballot, right? The problem here is Egypt’s position on the timeline of revolution.    Egypt has gone through the 1st Stage of a government loosing its justification to govern, and now the 2nd Stage of a caretaker, or provisional government, is now coming to an end.   However, no accommodation has been created to correct the deficiencies that caused Egypt’s Spring Revolution, and that spells trouble. Egypt is entering the 3rd Stage of Revolution, and its most violent.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-egypt-enters-third-stage-revolution-and-no-one-watching 

Iran

Iran builds new space center to launch satellites
Iran is finishing construction of a new space center that will allow it to soon launch more domestically made satellites into orbit, the country’s defense minister said Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-builds-space-center-launch-satellites-125730061.html

 
June 02, 2012 “WSJ” — WASHINGTON—The U.S. is pursuing a wide-ranging, high-tech campaign against Iran’s nuclear program that includes the cybersabotage project known as Stuxnet, which was developed by the Central Intelligence Agency in conjunction with Idaho National Laboratory, the Israeli government, and other U.S. agencies, according to people familiar with the efforts. The covert CIA effort also includes persistent drone surveillance and cyberspying on Iranian scientists, they said. The U.S. strategy to use technologically advanced measures against Iran illustrates how the Internet and other remote-access capabilities are facilitating spy operations deep inside denied territories. ”It’s part of a larger campaign,” said a former U.S. official familiar with the efforts. “It’s a preferable alternative to airstrikes.”
 
Behind the US/Israeli Cyberattacks on Iran, Juan Cole

The New York Times [has] published a report detailing how the Bush and Obama administrations created the cyberweapon known as Stuxnet and used it to disrupt Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Much has been written about Stuxnet, which, as ProPublica recently reported, remains a threat beyond Iran. But the Times account, based on interviews with unnamed U.S. and Israeli officials, is the most extensive account to date of U.S. cyberwarfare capabilities.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/06/behind-the-usisraeli-cyberattacks-on-iran.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29

Obama Ordered Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran
Even after the Stuxnet computer worm became public, President Obama accelerated cyberattacks against Iran that had begun in the Bush administration, temporarily disabling 1,000 centrifuges.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6627c96379dfb54816cbbea189d27dab

Obama’s Secret War Against Iran Dooms Diplomacy and Imperils American Interests
In May 2009, we published an op-ed in The New York Times, see here, in which we argued that “President Obama’s Iran policy has, in all likelihood already failed”—largely because “Obama is backing away from the bold steps required to achieve strategic, Nixon-to-China type rapprochement with Tehran.” 
http://www.raceforiran.com/obama%e2%80%99s-secret-war-against-iran-dooms-diplomacy-and-imperils-american-interests

 
A US appeals court on Friday ordered Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to decide within four months whether to remove an Iranian dissident group from a terror blacklist.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-ordered-decide-iranian-groups-fate-235323583.html

Iraq

The number of Iraqis killed in May increased for a second consecutive month, but remained near the lowest level since the 2003 US-led invasion, according to official figures released on Saturday. In total, 132 Iraqis – 90 civilians, 20 policemen and 22 soldiers – died in attacks nationwide, figures compiled by the ministries of health, interior and defense showed. That compared with 126 deaths in April and 112 in March, the latter of which was the lowest monthly figure since the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
 

Iraq attacks kill four: officials
Bomb attacks and shootings in central Iraq on Friday killed four people, including a police colonel and an army officer, security and medical officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-attacks-kill-four-officials-170433709.html

Iraq: 20 Killed, 60 Wounded As Baghdad Sees String of Attacks
At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 60 more were wounded across the country. Meanwhile, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s trial in absentia resumed briefly today.

Bodies of Kurds killed during Saddam era found in Iraq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVZIMfi_gf4&feature=youtube_gdata

 
Iraq crisis escalates with calls for PM to go
A series of intertwined political crises that began with accusations that Iraq’s prime minister was consolidating power have escalated into calls to unseat him, and paralysed the country’s government. 
 

Sadr warns Maliki over ties to Turkey

“The most difficult phase of Turkey-Iraqi ties is when sectarian games are played. The wrong perspective is to see Iraq as only a Shiite country and Turkey as a Sunni country,” al-Sadr said, adding that Iraq should be a country of all sects, religions and races.

 

U.S. asks Iraq to extradite Hezbollah suspect
The United States has formally asked Iraq to extradite a suspected Hezbollah operative accused of killing American troops, a U.S. official told Reuters, amid heightened concerns in Washington that he may go free.

Lebanon

Twelve people reportedly killed in Tripoli as opponents and supporters of Syria’s regime fire machine guns and grenades.
 
At least six people were killed in the Lebanese second city Tripoli on Saturday, with snipers from both sides firing on civilians as supporters and opponents of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad clashed. Residents said at least one civilian was killed after being caught in the crossfire, adding that a Lebanese soldier was wounded when the army tried to intervene. Among the dead were a woman and her son, killed by a rocket in the Bab al-Tabbaneh district, an official said.
 

Nasrallah responds to kidnappers, calls for stronger state
“You said yesterday that you have no problem with a religious sect so you must prove this – these people are pilgrims and they must return to their families,” he said. “If you have a problem with me there are many ways to solve this. If you want to solve it with war lets solve it with war, if you want to solve it with peace lets solve it with peace.” “Solve your problem with us but to take the innocent people hostages for this problem is a big injustice that you must put a stop to.”
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/nasrallah-responds-kidnappers-calls-stronger-state?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Sayyed Nasrallah to Kidnappers: Release the Lebanese and We’ll Deal with You
Sayyed Nasrallah called for a national constituent assembly: the abducted Lebanese are State’s responsibility.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=57559&cid=23&fromval=1

Syrian group claims kidnap of Shia pilgrims
Armed “revolutionaries” from Aleppo say Lebanese hostages in good health and will be released after Nasrallah’s apology.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/05/201253119208172183.html

Lebanese hostages, As’ad AbuKhalil
These are the Lebanese hostages held by the gangs of the Free Syrian Army.  Their case has not received much attention in the Western press.  If the captors were enemies of the US, their names and faces would be on front pages of US newspapers.  Those older pilgrims are supposed to be Hizbullah fighters: the lies of the exile Syrian opposition are worse even than Ba`thist lies.  Al-Akhbar reporter, Firas Ash-Shufi wrote sarcastically on Facebook a few days ago that one of the hostages is in charge of the missile unit of Hizbullah, and another is in charge of commando unit, etc.  His joke was later used by Syrian exile opposition site as evidence of their culpability. 
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2012/06/lebanese-hostages.html

 
Burhan Ghalyun: what an end to a career, As’ad AbuKhalil
Burhan Ghalyun spent his life writing (not necessarily with originality) about democracy and secularism.  This week, this man made the round in the Saudi-funded and Qatari-funded Arab media to justify the kidnapping of Lebanese civilians.  What an end to his career: an advocate of kidnapping.  Would the career of an Arab academic in any Western university survive one day after that person advocates the kidnapping of Western hostages?  Can you imagine the uproar? 
Shame on the New York Times: disgrace of journalism

 
The New York Times published an op-ed piece by none other than Haytham Al-Malih, the liberal Syrian dissident days after he publicly told the mouthpiece of Prince Salman (Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat) that he supported the kidnapping of innocent Lebanese pilgrim and that he urged the kidnappers to not release them.  One question to the Times: would it EVER dare publish an editorial on any topic by somebody who advocated the kidnapping of innocent Jews? Ever?

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2012/05/shame-on-new-york-times-disgrace-of.html

Lebanese Allowed to Attend World Cup Qualifier against Qatar
The Lebanese interior ministry allowed Friday Lebanese fans to attend Lebanon’s FIFA World Cup qualifier against Qatar in Beirut.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=57549&cid=23&fromval=1

Dear Collaborators: We’re Sorry for Wronging You
The country and its people have been hit by the curse of the military court of appeals. Or maybe it is the curse of Fayez Karam and those who beat him to collaboration and were later released by that court without flinching.Yesterday, it was the turn of collaborator Ziad Homsi to be granted freedom. He had spent three years and two months in jail following his arrest by army intelligence under suspicion of collaborating with Israel. At the time, the permanent military court sentenced him to 10 years based on the charges and increased it to 15 years. On Thursday, the military court of appeals decided to commute the sentence to time served.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/dear-collaborators-we%E2%80%99re-sorry-wronging-you?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Solidere Takes Another Bite Into Lebanon
In its latest exploits, Solidere has laid its hands on land that, officially, is still public domain. Applying its own “laws,” the company illegally turned the building permits it obtained from allowing temporary to permanent structures, amongst other violations. This article is about the Skybar project that Solidere is building on reclaimed land – the backfilled area that used to be the Normandy Landfill. Solidere owns 25 percent of the project’s shares and the majority owner is Sky Management company. The project is riddled with violations and fraud. In 2009, during Bilal al-Alayli’s term as head of the Syndicate of Engineers, Ali Saad – the engineer in charge at Solidere – requested from the Syndicate of Engineers in Beirut a building permit for temporary structures over 1,300 square meters. His application was registered under the number 6510. 
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/solidere-takes-another-bite-lebanon?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29
 

Syria 

Qatar on Saturday urged UN envoy Kofi Annan to set a timeframe for his Syria peace mission, and asked the UN Security Council to apply Chapter VII which permits military intervention. ”We request Mr. Annan to set a timeframe for his mission because it is unacceptable that massacres and bloodshed continue while the mission is ongoing indefinitely,” Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani told a ministerial committee on Syria attended by Annan.
 
The UN’s top human rights official says there should be no amnesty for crimes committed in Syria, even if potential prosecution might motivate members of the regime to cling to power at all costs. Asked Saturday if she would oppose an agreement for Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power in exchange for safe haven, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said international leaders may be drawn to “politically expedient solutions which may involve amnesty or undertakings not to prosecute.” But she insisted there cannot be amnesty for very serious crimes.
 
International peace envoy Kofi Annan warned on Saturday that Syria was slipping into “all-out” war. ”The specter of an all-out war, with an alarming sectarian dimension, grows by the day,” Annan told a meeting of members of the Arab League, co-sponsor with the United Nations of a peace plan aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria. The April 12 ceasefire brokered by Annan has taken a daily battering, with both regime forces and armed rebels continuing to carry out attacks.
 
Secretary general Nabil Elaraby says the UN mission in Syria should be given expanded powers to protect people.
 
Nearly 400 Syrians poured into Turkey in the last 24 hours seeking refuge amid a recent surge in violence in the strife-torn country, a Turkish official said Saturday. ”There has been an increase in the number of Syrians fleeing to Turkey after the latest assaults. 396 people – four of whom were injured, crossed in through the border town of Reyhanli in a single day,” said the official. This brought the total number of Syrians who have fled to Turkey to 24,433, according to official figures provided by Ankara.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/nearly-400-syrians-enter-turkey-24-hours?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29 

 
Thursday: 12 men murdered Thursday by pro-Assad gunmen, Syrian activists say

The killing of workers near al-Qusair in western Syria comes a week after the death of over 100 people, including women and children, in Houla.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/HBYcLpTriFs/12-men-murdered-Thursday-by-pro-Assad-gunmen-Syrian-activists-say

Saturday: Syrian rebels kill 14 soldiers in Deraa, Damascus

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad killed six soldiers in the southern province of Deraa on Saturday and at least eight others in clashes on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, a monitoring group reported.” 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=491527
Free Syrian Army declares resumption of attacks
The rebel Free Syrian Army on Friday announced it was resuming militant operations after the expiry of its ultimatum for the regime to respect international envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan. “We will now resume defensive operations,” FSA spokesman Kassem Saadeddine told AFP via Skype. “We will not go on the offensive because we do not want to be singled out as the ones responsible for breaking the peace initiative.” The decision came 48 hours after the FSA’s military council from inside Syria gave the regime until Friday 0900 GMT to observe the Annan plan which calls for the withdrawal of government forces and heavy armor from towns and cities.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/free-syrian-army-declares-resumption-attacks?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Houla massacre may have been ‘crime against humanity’: UN
UN rights chief Navi Pillay said Friday that crimes against humanity may have been committed during the massacre in the Syrian town of Houla last week.
http://news.yahoo.com/danger-whole-region-syria-conflict-erupts-un-105628941.html

Survivor describes Syria’s Houla massacre
The images of dead women and children shocked the world after 108 people were killed in Syria’s Houla on May 25. Activists say armed loyalists of President Bashar al-Assad carried out most of the killings, while a government inquiry has blamed rebels. Survivor Ali el-Sayed says he witnessed most of his family being shot in front of him. Al Jazeera’s Khadija Magardie reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksXS53N6mwI&feature=youtube_gdata

 

Syria blames rebels for Houla massacre
Syria on Thursday blamed up to 800 rebel fighters for the massacre in central Syria last week that killed more than 100 people, nearly half of them children, in its most comprehensive explanation to date of the bloodshed.
http://news.yahoo.com/syria-blames-rebels-houla-massacre-171550508.html

The Lede Blog: Syrian Government Investigates Massacre and Finds Syrian Government Blameless, ROBERT MACKEY
Although survivors said the slaughter was carried out by pro-government militiamen from neighboring villages, the commission of inquiry appointed by President Bashar al-Assad found the Syrian government blameless.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/syrian-government-investigates-massacre-and-finds-syrian-government-blameless/

Sectarian affiliation of the victims in Hula,  As’ad AbuKhalil
I have received information in the last few days that some of the victims in Hula were Shi`ites.  That was also reported on New TV and on the Syrian dissident website, Al-Haqiqah.  I was told that the victims from the families of `Abdur-Razzaq and As-Sayyid were Sunnis who had converted to Shi`ism in the 1980s.  I contacted those who reported that and I contacted people in Hula itself and I can tell you that there is no evidence whatsoever to that claim (which has obvious propaganda value particularly since that Syrian regime media never discuss issues of sects–unlike the Syrian opposition media which are blatant in its sectarianism and sectarian agitation).  And if you add this (the story that has not been proven) to the lousy and empty press conference in Damascus yesterday about the Syrian regime investigation of the massacre, I can only conclude that the Syrian regime is looking more and more guilty. We don’t have all the facts as of yet, but this is my feeling now in the absence of evidence to the contrary. What makes the Syrian regime more frustratingly noncredible is that it never ever admits killing an innocent person–not even by mistake. 
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2012/06/sectarian-affiliation-of-victims-in.html

The Houla massacre: reconstructing the events of 25 May
Interviews with survivors reveal the full story of the bloody horror that left more than 100 Syrians dead
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/01/houla-massacre-reconstructing-25-may?CMP=twt_gu

World leaders agree Syria is on the brink of civil war
World leaders voiced fears on Friday that Syria stands on the brink of civil war but found little agreement on how to bring it back from the abyss, as 18 more people died in the relentless violence. Talks in Berlin between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin exposed the sharp differences between Arab and Western governments and Damascus allies Beijing and Moscow on the way forward. The two leaders found common ground on backing the peace mission of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan but the former UN chief himself admitted to frustration at the slow progress he was making in staunching the bloodshed. Security forces opened fire on demonstrators in several towns amid protests across the country against the killing last week of 108 people, most of them women and children, near the central town of Houla, activists said.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/01/world-leaders-agree-syria-is-on-the-brink-of-civil-war/

UN officials acknowledge armed gangs’ role in Syria unrest 
British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant must have heard a mouthful in a closed-door UN Security Council briefing on Wednesday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4pzeI0FTHA&feature=player_embedded

US backtracks on Syria intervention call
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that any military action in Syria would need backing from the United Nations, backtracking from an earlier statement by Washington’s UN envoy that the superpower could pursue options outside the world body. Asked if he could foresee a scenario in which the United States would back military intervention even without UN authorization, Panetta said: “No, I cannot envision that.” Panetta said his duty as Pentagon chief was “to make sure that when we deploy our men and women in uniform and put them at risk, that we not only know what the mission is but we have the kind of support that we need in order to accomplish that mission.”
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-backtracks-syria-intervention-call?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Mitt Romney, Obama offer different takes on arming Syrian rebels
The opposition needs to have the ability to defend the Syrian people…” Romney senior foreign-policy adviser Dan Senor told McClatchy on Thursday….The White House disagrees strongly that it should be arming Assad opponents, saying that ….“there are elements to the Syrian opposition that do not share the democratic ideas of the broad Syrian people – who are not necessarily friends of the United States.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/31/150747/mitt-romney-obama-offer-different.html?storylink=addthis#.T8kaPOr6_i0.blogger

Russian Church Opposes Syrian Intervention
Leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church say protecting Syria’s Christians means supporting the rule of Bashar al-Assad. It’s a position the government cannot ignore.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/europe/russian-church-opposes-syrian-intervention.html

US students remember slain Syrian friend
After 14 months of unrest, the UN estimates that more than 10,000 people have been killed in Syria. With so many victims, the scale of the uprising is difficult to grasp. But the death of Bassel Shhadeh, a 28-year-old Syrian filmmaker, in the city of Homs has personalised the conflict for students and staff at Syracuse University in New York. Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey reports from New York.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3byr2Triegk&feature=youtube_gdata

VIDEO: Crises at heart of Syria’s opposition
As the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has said Syria could be moving towards a “catastrophic” civil war, the opposition based in Turkey is divided and beset by infighting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18291330#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Syrian refugees draining water-poor Jordan dry
Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled from carnage and violence at home to neighbouring Jordan are draining the desert kingdom’s meager water resources, officials and experts say.
http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-refugees-draining-water-poor-jordan-dry-160637584.html

Russia: Give us a good reason to jilt Syria’s Assad
One Russian analyst summed up Moscow’s resistance by saying, ‘We simply don’t believe Western leaders know what they’re doing, and we’re not listening to all that chatter anymore.’ 
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/gCfLYKyrxY8/Russia-Give-us-a-good-reason-to-jilt-Syria-s-Assad

You can’t say it enough: Syria is really different from Libya
Syria’s war is as violent today as at any point of the over year-long conflict, and a UN peace plan spearheaded by Kofi Annan is in tatters. But that doesn’t spell military intervention.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/ieJq0FfZgZg/You-can-t-say-it-enough-Syria-is-really-different-from-Libya

Killed by Syrian government — but young filmmaker had focused on Israel, Philip Weiss
Last night Charlie Rose asked Fawaz Gerges about the new Arab public opinion and the Israel-Palestine conflict. He said: Israel and the United States really are making a major strategic mistake, to underestimate, that deep down– yes the focus [of the Arab spring is] on domestic politics, but once the dust settles– the Palestinian conflict remains the most fundamental question, identity question for Arabs and Muslims.
https://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/killed-by-syrian-government-but-young-filmmaker-had-focused-on-israel.html

 
Syria Simmers Amid UN Security Council Deadlock, Haider Rizvi

The United States and its Western allies appear increasingly inclined to push for regime change in Syria, although the latest round of diplomatic talks at the U.N. Security Council Wednesday suggest that it remains a distant possibility. Both Russia and China, the two leading members of the Shanghai Cooperation Pact, a growing military alliance in Asia, have made it clear that they do not wish Syria to become another Libya.  ”The opposition groups are taking opportunities for killings,” said Russian ambassador Vladimir Churkin, alluding to the mass slaughter of civilians in the Syrian town of Houla last weekend.  The United States, Britain and 11 other nations jointly expelled Syrian ambassadors and diplomats following the May 25 killings of more than 100 people, including dozens of children, which the U.N. and witnesses say were likely perpetrated by pro-government militias known as Shabiha. 
 
Not too long ago, if one wanted to get into a debate about Syrian politics, there was really only one place to go: Joshua Landis’s Syria Comment blog, where I cut my teeth as a thread-lurker. The site’s comment boards played host to an international fraternity of political junkies: Arab nationalists, SSNP pan-Syrianists, Lebanese resistance supporters and regime haters, Israeli hawks and doves, menhebbakjiyyeh avant la lettre, etc. Today, Syria Comment is still going strong, but there are so many other places to get into an argument about Syrian politics. There’s an op-ed about Syria in a major newspaper pretty much every day alongside a flood of nonstop coverage on the wires and cable news channels, plus an explosion of personal commentary in the blogosphere, Twitter, and Facebook. Suddenly, everyone seems to be talking about Syria, and the range of opinions and perspectives is dizzying.
 
World News
 

UN body says changes to Canada’s immigration laws risk human rights violations
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/06/01/pol-un-report-torture-canada-milewski.html

A few of the GCC members blocked the idea, as it would give further sway to Saudi Arabia, the biggest member of the gulf coalition.Smaller GCC countries are afraid of losing political and economical influence to Saudi Arabia whose population is five times bigger than Oman; the second biggest country in the GCC by population. In addition there are  fears that they will lose out in important gas and oil sectors.After the summit, a source close to the Qatari government told Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that, “Qatar sees the move as a Saudi manoeuvre to undermine the bilateral relations between the countries of the GCC and to impose its agenda upon it.”
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/43355.aspx
 
Tunisia warns Salafists police can use live rounds
Tunisia’s police are allowed to use live rounds when needed, the interior minister warned Thursday after Salafist groups attacked police stations over the weekend.
http://news.yahoo.com/tunisia-warns-salafists-police-live-rounds-171519049.html

ICC lets Libya keep Kadhafi son pending legal challenge
Libya does not need to hand the son of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi over to the International Criminal Court while Tripoli contests the court’s jurisdiction, ICC officials said Friday.
http://news.yahoo.com/icc-lets-libya-keep-kadhafi-son-pending-legal-170651519.html
 

www.TheHeadlines.Org

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