Hebron: At least 10 children arrested by Israeli military in one week
The extreme Golani Unit of the Israeli military is escalating its arrests of Palestinian children in Al Khalil (Hebron), targeting boys between the ages of 12 to15 years old with at least 10 reported cases of child arrests made just in the span of one week.
link to palsolidarity.org

Ethnic Cleansing / Destruction of Homes & Property / Apartheid 

The 8th annual Israeli Apartheid week is approaching, and it’s approaching fast. Israeli Apartheid Week is a week where Palestinian solidarity groups from around the globe mobilize events to spread awareness of the atrocities happening to the Palestinians because of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid system. It also is a week where these solidarity organizations can answer the call of the Palestinian civil society and launch or continue their Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign.

Israeli Apartheid Week starts on February 26th and runs until March 3rd. Solidarity groups are currently putting much effort into planning out their schedule for this week of panels, direct action, tabling, and educational events. Planning Israeli Apartheid Week is no piece of cake, and to see the dedication and passion of these individuals, who put effort into making Israeli Apartheid week one to remember, is awe inspiring.

At the University of New Mexico, where I attend, this will be Students for Justice in Palestine’s first time participating in Israeli Apartheid Week. We have been inspired by past efforts of other Palestinian solidarity organizations who have participated in Israeli Apartheid Week in past years. Though, Palestinian solidarity organizations get much resentment towards them from pro-Israel Zionist organizations, they continue their solidarity efforts year round with no hesitation, and with no fear. I commend the daily efforts put forth by these groups and individuals, but the reason why Israeli Apartheid Week remarkable to me is because it brings international unity in the Palestine Solidarity movement. It’s a time where distance might separate us, but we all come together with the same mission, to end Israeli apartheid and end the Illegal occupation. We relay the voice of those in Occupied Palestine who are affected by this inhumane occupation and apartheid, to our neighbors, our community members, and our fellow students.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions plays a key part of Israeli Apartheid Week. The Palestinian civil society has called that we support BDS, and it’s something I recommend all organizations participate in. It’s a non-violent way to support freedom, justice, equality, and human rights. The University of New Mexico Students for Justice in Palestine, along with other social justice organizations on campus are hoping to launch our first ever divestment campaign on campus during Israeli Apartheid week. It’s a great way not only to stand in solidarity with Palestinians, but also a way to take direct action in targeting the systematic oppression, apartheid, and illegal occupation.

Apartheid week is more than just a week of solidarity; it’s a week of community. It’s a week where we stand alongside our brothers and sisters around the world, chanting words of freedom, equality, and justice.

For more information on how you can get involved in Israeli Apartheid week please visit apartheidweek.org and e-mail your regional contact.

The North Coast Coalition for Palestine  in the San Francisco North Bay are preparing to present a letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors opposing the county's contract with Veolia. The French multinational company currently operates the county's bus system and has come under international pressure due to its involvement in a light rail line in Occupied East Jerusalem. Activists plans to collect signatures and present the letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.

Recently Palestinian Freedom Riders challenged Israeli laws banning Palestinians from riding on Israeli-only bus lines. The action draws the parallel between segregated buses in the US and the current situation in Palestine.

The full text of the letter is below. Sonoma County residents are encouraged to sign. Other comments are encouraged and can be directed to the county here.

Open Letter to Sonoma County Board of Supervisors concerning SCTA Veolia contract

As residents of Sonoma County we are asking the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to reconsider Sonoma County's transportation contract with Veolia unless it stops aiding and abetting human rights violations by the Israeli government in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

The French company, Veolia, which operates the Sonoma County Transit buses under a contract with the county, also operates buses that carry Israeli citizens between Jerusalem and illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine’s West Bank. This is in direct violation of international law which has declared these settlements to be illegal.

Seven hundred thousand Israelis now live in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in Jewish-only settlements. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the settlements as an obstacle to peace. The last six U.S. administrations have taken similar stances and President Carter has described the situation as apartheid.

According to Israeli Human Rights organization, B'Tselem, there are 144 miles of roads in the Occupied West Bank that, "Israel classified for the sole, or almost sole, use of Israelis, primarily of settlers. Israel also prohibits Palestinians from even crossing some of these roads with vehicles, thereby restricting their access to nearby roads that they are ostensibly not prohibited from using. In these cases, Palestinians travelers have to get out of the vehicle, cross the road on foot, and find an alternative mode of transportation on the other side."

In 2005 Palestinian civil society called for the boycott of companies that profit from, or are complicit in, the occupation of Palestine. As a result ,Veolia has lost several contracts with government agencies and other public institutions.

In 2008 Matthijs Bierman, the director ot the Dutch Bank Triodos, announced that the bank will not invest in Veolia, comparing this new policy to the bank’s past divestment targeting apartheid South Africa.

In 2009 the Stockholm Community Council in Sweden announced that Veolia, which had operated the subways in Stockholm County for 10 years, had lost its contract.

In December 2010 the monitoring network Banktrack noted that financial investment in Veolia is "risky" because of its illegal activities in the OPT based upon Veolia’s violations of international law.

In November 2011 Veolia was removed from selection for construction of a waste treatment facility in South London worth £ 1 billion. Again, in 2011, Cambridge University students voted to break a contract with Veolia because of Veolia’s connection to Israeli human rights abuses. Jewish student Daniel Benjamin, who was involved in the campaign, said, “With this vote, Cambridge students make a strong statement against Veolia’s criminal actions in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories).

Sonoma County Transit Authority has a contract with Veolia. Citing human rights violations, and discrimination based on race and religion, we, as Sonoma County residents, are requesting that Sonoma County officials work with Veolia to discontinue its contract in Palestine, or face possible termination of its contract with Sonoma County Transit.

Post-PennBDS conference, Hasbara groups and journalists described pro-Israel students as "ignorant," and unable to defend their stance against statements such as "Israel took Arab land." From "Lessons Learned from the Frontline,"  Lisa Hostein, executive editor of the Jewish Exponent, laments:

the pervasive ignorance of young Jews and too many adults who can't begin to counter simple questions about Israel's legitimacy let alone respond to the more sophisticated sophistry from those like BDS keynoter Ali Abunimah.

Bryan Schwartzman, also from the Jewish Exponent confirms this inability to counter with an anti-BDS narratives. The writer asks:

[D]id BDS speakers like Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah reveal how much pro-Israel students need to learn in order to counter arguments that are steeped in the language of universal justice and human rights?

His answer -- yes. Schwatzman continues with Hasbara failures by detailing Abunimah’s keynote speech, where he de facto throws Abunimah a moral endorsement over Alan Dershowitz. Referencing the Palestinian activist/author as recently catching  the pro-Israel professor in a lie, during his February 2nd speech. Schwartzman writes:

During a question-and-answer session there, a female student asked Dershowitz, 'If an Arab student comes up to me and says, 'You took my land,' and I respond, 'Yeah, but we support gay rights,' how does that add up?’

Dershowitz said the answer is that the Jews didn't steal the land.

In addition to articulating Hasbara faults, both journalists managed to highlight what they viewed as the one victory: consensus. The Exponent found though Pro-Israel students and Zionist organizations failed to provide any meaningful challenge to BDS, they were successful in sending a unified message that they are all against BDS. Therefore, while pro-Israel students may be ignorant, at least they are successful at sticking together.

Hat tip to Nima Shirazi for catching this**
 

chan marshall @CATPOWER

DUE TO MUCH CONFUSION IN MY SOUL,PLAYİNG FOR MY İSRAELİ FANS W/SUCH UNREST BETWEEN İSRAEL&PALESTİNE I CAN'T PLAY,I FEEL SICK IN MY SPIRIT XX

He War

I never meant to be the needle that broke your back
You were here, you were here, and you were here
Don't look back

I never meant to be the needle that broke your back
You were here, you were here, and you were here
Don't look back

He war, he war
He will kill for you
He war, he war
He will kill for you
From who you can
You know you can

Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey

I'm not that hot new chick
And if you won't let me run with it
We're on to your same old trick
Get up and run away with it

I'm not that hot new chick
And if you won't let me run with it
We're on to your same old trick
Get up and run away with it

Hey hey hey
He war, he war
He will kill for you
Hey hey hey
He war, he war
He will kill for you
Hey hey hey
From who you can
Hey hey hey
You know you can

Hey hey hey
He war, he war
He will kill for you
Hey hey hey
He war, he war
He will kill for you
Hey hey hey
From who you can
Hey hey hey
You know you can

Washington Post

JERUSALEM — American musician Cat Power has canceled her show in Israel, joining a list of artists shunning the country over its conflict with the Palestinians.

Charlyn Marie Marshall, better known by her stage name Cat Power, was to perform in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

But she tweeted on Friday that due to “much confusion” she felt she could not play for her Israeli fans and that she felt “sick in her spirit.”

We're a growing movement. We're the future, apartheid isn't.

Thanks Cat, more power to you.

(Hat tip Omar Barghouti)

Khader Adnan enters the 55th day of his hungry strike in Israeli detention, he has not been charged with anything

Ethnic Cleansing / Destruction of Homes & Property / Apartheid

Palestinian family forced to destroy their home
Palestinian family in Occupied East Jerusalem have until Friday to clear the rubble from their house which they were forced to destroy with their own hands.
link to gulfnews.com 

Settlers take more land in occupied West Bank
Jewish settlers have seized a large area of the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron. The land grab is to expand an illegal settlement. The Yatta coordinator of the Popular Committees Against the Wall and Settlements, Rateb El-Jabour, told Quds Press that the settlers cordoned-off around 3,000 square metres in the early morning. This, he said, was a prelude to the land's confiscation for expansion of a settlement near ancient Susya. 
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk

After immersing myself in all things Israel/Palestine for the past few years, and working hard for some modicum of justice to be dealt to Palestinians who have suffered so much only to be denied even recognition of their suffering, I have tried to imagine what post-apartheid Israel will look like.

First the good news: the willful ignorance of people refusing to see the oppression against Palestinians is eroding. Zionists are working overtime to make the oppression appear to be a kinder and more tolerable injustice, which I believe accounts for the gaining influence of organizations like J-Street. But those organizations' insistence on holding on to the main core tenet of the oppression, an ethnically pure state, means that people will sooner or later see through the bankrupt philosophy.

The plight of Palestinians and historical facts, rather than myths, are making their way into main stream discussion. From high school classes, to churches and grocery stores, in media, film, poetry, and literature, the Palestinian side of the story is finally being told.

An example of this reversal from myth to historical fact is found in the work of Waziyatawin, a Dakota scholar and activist. In an earlier book, What does justice look like[1] she uses Herzl’s Jewish state as a model for how justice can be brought to indigenous Americans: just as Jews returned to the land from which they were expelled, so should the Native Americans return to their lands. She has since renounced that model after learning about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and she participated in a Women of Color delegation to Palestine. I consider someone with such impeccable anti-colonialist credentials who had been deceived by the Zionist myths as an example of the former success of those Zionist myth-makers. But their successes are becoming fewer.

It is no longer heresy to talk about any other solution than the (what has always been considered "reasonable") two-state solution. The one-state solution, a secular democratic state of all its citizens, each with equal rights and responsibilities, is no longer such a wild and crazy idea. In large part, the acceptance of this democratic idea into the discussion is due to international solidarity activism, mainly the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement (and I must give a shout out to an organization in which I am involved, Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign).

I believe that it is a matter of time, and not a long time, that the regime in Israel will fall and there will be a government of all the people in Palestine. What an idea: universal suffrage, a constitution guaranteeing equal rights, representation in parliament, a new national anthem…

At the end of apartheid, international Palestinian solidarity activists will have to bow out. We’re not asked to do more than to use economic and moral pressure to help bring about the end of this oppressive regime. I have no skills that could be useful to a new government or state. My past involvement in this issue gives me no credibility. My work is done.

So what will this new state look like? Does post-apartheid Israel mean a just society with equal rights for all the people of Palestine? A society which respects the human rights of all people? Where racism isn’t tolerated, criminals are brought to justice, and reparations for past injustices are made? What does justice look like?

Post-colonial models

My optimism ends at the certainty that there will be a post-apartheid Israel. After that, the optimism fades as I search for post-colonial models. Apartheid in Israel is often compared to that of the former South Africa, but post-apartheid South Africa has a dubious record.

Less than 10 years after the adoption of the new South African Constitution, the democratic government of South Africa, led by Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress, was confidently declared a success.[2] The 1996 Constitution took precedence over parliament (i.e. the legislators were sworn to uphold the Constitution, not their offices), federal and provincial/local governance was worked out, individual rights were given precedence over nationalities' rights, and systems of working with traditional group leadership were identified.

But by 2008, Johann Rossouw described the increasing xenophobic and racist violence in South Africa as occurring in a country which was "not yet post-colonial."[3] The "romantic image of post-apartheid South Africa…was an illusion," said Rossouw. In many ways there are analogies to be drawn between South Africa and Israel, including the fact that in both countries fiercely nationalistic movements replaced British colonial systems. When the Afrikaners took the reins of government in the early 20th century, they instituted severe oppressive policies against non-Afrikaners, including the apartheid system which began in 1948. This system was not only a method of controlling the colonial subjects, but it also worked to separate those colonial subjects from each other, preventing them from forming alliances which could have helped to overthrow the regime years before its final demise.

The post-Mandela South African government has shown characteristics of many post-colonial African governments: corruption, censorship of the press,[4] government cronies amassing immense wealth at the expense of the majority of the poverty stricken population, neglecting to provide services and infrastructure for those people. Much of this anti-democratic governance may be attributed to economic policies forced upon the new country by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),[5] a new colonialism. This leads to statements by impoverished and unemployed residents of slums, that things were better under apartheid when, for some, at least there were jobs.[6]

The South Africa experience is an imperfect analogy, as all analogies are. South Africa is a country with vast mineral wealth. The victims of apartheid make up about 80 percent of the population and had been exploited for their labor. Israel has few natural resources and the apartheid system there was never for labor exploitation. The very western economic system in Israel may insulate it from falling into the trap of indebtedness to institutions like the IMF, and therefore if there is to be exploitation in post-apartheid Israel, it will come from within the country. This brings me to the second model, and one that seems to me even more apt: post-slavery United States.

Michelle Alexander’s extremely disturbing book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,[7] describes systems of race-based control in the United States. Following the end of slavery, when it was clear that no "40 acres and a mule" would be forthcoming to most former slaves, many newly freed slaves had to resort to returning to indentured servitude to earn enough to feed themselves and their families. Shortly after Reconstruction the system we have come to know as Jim Crow was instituted, stripping African Americans of their recently acquired right to vote and hold elected office and instituting an oppressive system of total control, which rivaled the system of race-based slavery. That system came to an end in the 1960s with the Civil Rights era, but has been replaced by an equally oppressive system of control called the War on Drugs. Cloaked in non-racial terms, drug laws target primarily people of color, meaning huge populations are imprisoned, disenfranchised, impoverished, and left permanently in an under-caste.

Because this system appears to target only law-breakers, rather than people of a certain race, most people in the U.S. are disinterested in its real effects. People can point to successes in civil rights, like the election of an African American president, to prove that we have overcome racism in this country. We don’t have to examine the statistics showing the enormous disparity in numbers of people (mainly men) of color compared to whites who are incarcerated. People who have been convicted of a felony (and drug crimes are for the most part non-violent offenses) face a lifetime of unemployment, racism, homelessness and often disenfranchisement, and all of this is legal and accepted, because they are perceived to be "bad guys" who deserve what they got.

It is because the racism and oppressive system of control of populations of non-whites can be invisible to most whites, that I believe this is the most likely analogy for what post-apartheid Israel will look like. It may not be a war on drugs that becomes the system of control, but some other non-racial method of maintaining a permanent under-class.

Demographics

Demographics are the most boring of statistical data if the subject is voting patterns in Wisconsin or migration patterns into urban areas, but it becomes the most racist of terms when the subject is Israel and Palestine. My fingers hesitated as I reached the "g" in "demographics," giving my brain a chance to find a synonym. But "the underlying rationale for ethnic cleansing" is hardly better.

Israeli society is dominated by the minority Ashkenazi Jewish population (those descended from Eastern Europeans). As of 2006 only 22% of the Jewish population were Ashkenazi Jews, and the rest were Mizrahi[9 PDF] (from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa). Just as white privileged people in the U.S. were able to drive a wedge between poor whites and African Americans by allowing poor whites some measure of superiority over blacks, Israeli society drives a wedge between the Mizrahim and the Palestinians. Ben-Gurion’s disdain for Jews of Middle Eastern origin (he said they were "difficult human material—[their] cultural level is low")[10] is shared by many Ashkenazi Jews today and the Mizrahim suffer discrimination in housing, education, and employment. They would be natural allies of Palestinians, were it not for the exploitation of this wedge. Mizrahi Jews supported Avigdor Lieberman’s extreme racist Yisrael Beytanu party overwhelmingly in the last elections, which mirrors some poor white Americans’ support of racist candidates.

Among the Jewish population in Israel divisions are exacerbated, as fundamentalist Orthodox Jews discriminate and attack others for not being Jewish enough. The Orthodox Jews have had special privileges since the beginning of the State, where the men don’t work or serve in the military, but receive welfare benefits and subsidized housing. In post-apartheid Israel how willingly would they give up those benefits? How willingly would the rest of the population continue them?

The divide and rule strategy, which served colonialists so well created havoc during post-colonial periods (a recent extreme example being the Rwandan genocide). Palestinians, too, have been divided into many groups, which may never re-coalesce into a single people: there are the Palestinian Israeli citizens, West Bank residents, Gaza residents, refugees within the West Bank and Gaza, refugees in other countries, diaspora Palestinians, and now Hamas supporters and Fatah supporters. At times the various groups have had little respect for one another, and certainly after many years of separation, culture, language and priorities have become differentiated. In a post-apartheid country, even one in which the Palestinian population is approximately the same as the Jewish population,[11] would these differences further divide people or could the population embrace differences? History does not show many examples of the latter.

The birthrate within Israel (not including the occupied territories) is about 3 children per woman, higher than other developed countries.[12 PDF] This is about 3.75 children per Palestinian Israeli woman and 2.97 children per Jewish Israeli woman.[13 PDF] Currently, with Israel’s fear of "losing the demographic war," Jewish families with many children are encouraged. It is not unreasonable to believe that Palestinians feel the same way. Overpopulation, overcrowding in cities and suburbs, and dwindling resources, will only exacerbate the problems.

Environment and Land

Even well-intentioned post-apartheid players in Israel will come up against physical factors that would destroy hope of justice. These include changes to the landscape, land use, resources, and environment.

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) has worked for over a century to build parks over ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages. It uses them as propaganda to promote its "good stewardship of the land"—carbon sinks, green space, the encouragement of wildlife habitat, a quiet spot for (Jewish) Israelis to picnic, etc., and all the while not mentioning the violations of human rights, the massacres, the theft, that take place because of those parks.[14] Justice demands that those parks be returned to the villagers and descendents of those villagers who were expelled. But in post-apartheid Israel, could that happen?

In the last 10 years, the estimated average per capita carbon dioxide emissions by Israelis were 6.9 metric tons per year (compared to 15.1 tons per capita per year for U.S. citizens).[15] With a population of about 8 million,[16] this is more than 55 million metric tons of CO2 per year emitted on average from both Israelis and Palestinians. One acre of forest absorbs approximately 75 metric tons over 20 years.[17] (These numbers are given for rainforests and not arid regions, and may not be equivalent.) Since 1901, the JNF has planted more than 250,000 acres of trees,[18] giving a sequestration rate of 18.8 million metric tons of CO2 in 20 years. In other words, the sequestration rate doesn’t come close to the emission rate. But regardless of the origin of those forests, or the effects of forest fires,[19] there would be a world-wide outcry if the future state tried to cut out its lungs, even to repair a previous injustice. Since the trees planted over ethnically cleansed villages are not native to the region, their presence there has changed the ecology of the land, which is no longer suitable for growing the crops that sustained the former residents.

Land that has been confiscated for roads, houses, and the apartheid wall, is equally unsuitable for farming. With a wildly increasing human population (there and everywhere else), the land will be required and used for other purposes. The vast majority of Palestinians who were stripped of their living as farmers or herders will have to give up the dream of returning to that life for good. Those types of farms will be replaced by factory farms, squeezing the highest yield from the smallest acreage, using high amounts of chemicals and water.[20] Those farms will be owned by the settlers and their descendents; Palestinians will work as laborers on the Jewish-owned farms. Land redistribution ends up badly no matter where it is done or for what reason, and I can’t envision a scenario where land is taken from a settler to give back to the Palestinian who formerly owned it. The Palestinians who have suffered from land and livelihood confiscation, assessments of extraordinary fees, denial of educational opportunities, will not have enough wealth to purchase a farm, even if a Jewish land owner did not have heirs to which to will the land.

With the land being now designated for various purposes, with an increasing population and decreasing resources, and with the divisions among the different Palestinian groups, what are the chances that a significant number of refugees will have the opportunity to return to the country? Unfortunately, I see this also as a very low probability.

I believe that the system of apartheid in Israel will end, but I do not believe that the end will mean justice for Palestinians. So with all this pessimism, why do I continue? Well, for one, I’m desperately hoping someone will read this and point out my basic analytical error. But I’ve thought about this for a long time and don’t believe I’ve made an analytical error. For another, I like to believe that had I lived during slavery in the U.S., even knowing the oppression that African Americans would face at the end of that system, I would have worked to end it. And then I would have worked to end Jim Crow. The end of one struggle is the beginning of the next.[21] So I will continue to work for justice and human rights in Israel/Palestine and continue to hope that somehow an equation can be found which will allow for justice to prevail.

___________________

1 Waziyatawin, Ph.D., What Does Justice Look Like? The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland. St. Paul:Living Justice Press, 2008.
2 Bekker, Simon and Leildé, Anne, "Is Multiculturalism a Workable Policy in South Africa," International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS), Vol. 5, No. 2, 2003: 119-134. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001387/138797e.pdf.       3 Rossouw, Johann, "South Africa: not yet post-colonial," Le Monde Diplomatique. Aug. 2008.
4 Achmat, Zackie, Dawes, Nic, and February, Judith "Muzzling the Rainbow Nation,"New York Times, 30 Nov. 2011.
5 Klein, Naomi, The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Metropolitan Books. New York: Knopf Canada, 2007.
6 "Some things were better under apartheid," BBC News, 29 May 2010.
7 Alexander, Michelle, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010.
8 Never mind that the 40 acres would not be taken from any white land-owner. If any freed slave had received land it would have been expropriated from Native Americans’ land anyway.
9 "Jews and others, by origin, continent of birth and period of immigration," [PDF] Central Bureau of Statistics, Government of Israel.
10 Grodzinsky, Yosef, In the Shadow of the Holocaust. Monroe: Common Courage Press, 2004.
11 Palestinian population fast approaching that of Israeli Jews, in vBulletin, 1 Dec. 2011.
12 "Table 3.13 – Fertility rates, by age and religion," [PDF] Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2011.
13 Ibid.
14 See www.stopthejnf.org and the fourth e-book: Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund’s Environmental Cover Up [PDF]
15 "Carbon Dioxide Emissions (CO2), metric tons of CO2 per capita (CDIAC)." Millennium Development Goals Database. United Nations Statistics Division.
16 "Israel population tops 7.8 mn", European Jewish Press. 8 Jan. 2012.
17 FAQ. World Land Trust.
18 Blumenthal, Max "The forest through the trees: What the Carmel fire reminds us about Israel’s history." Mondoweiss. 7 Dec. 2010
19 Ibid.
20 Despite the high water wastage for which settlers in the occupied territories are known, Israel has pioneered the field of water re-use in agriculture. Some of this water will be recycled.
21 Thanks to Bob Kosuth for this line!

Hamas condemns Israeli attempts to wipe out Islamic, Christian shrines
Hamas strongly condemned the Israeli Judaization plans targeting Islamic and Christian holy shrines in occupied Jerusalem.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

650 students shut out of class for the second day in a row due to cuts in electricity
The administration of the mixed elementary school in Beer Ayoub, Silwan was forced to delay the start of instruction for the second day in a row due to a cut in electricity. The school’s electricity network has been damaged by rainwater that leaked into the building..This recent electricity cut deprives 650 boys and girls from attending their regular classes. Parents of children attending the school asked the Jerusalem Municipality to repair the leaks two months ago, but the scheduled repairs have been constantly delayed, one parent told Silwanic. Mousa Audeh, a member of the parents committee, said to Silwanic, ‘”How could the Jerusalem Municipality claim that it invests more money in developing education in East Jerusalem and doesn’t fix the electricity problem at one of these schools.” Silwan suffers from an extreme shortage of classrooms which forces 70% of neighborhood children, both boys and girls, to attend school outside of the neighbhorhood. Partially due to this, 61% of children in Silwan drop out before completing secondary school.
link to silwanic.net

An Ongoing Nakba: The Plight of Palestinian Refugees in Iraq
In September 2011, the month that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud ‘Abbas submitted Palestine’s statehood bid at the United Nations, Qusai Abdul-Raouf of the Lebanon-based Palestinian Human Rights Foundation was undertaking the task of documenting the increasing number of attacks against Palestinians in the Al Baladiyyat neighbourhood of Baghdad. As he toured the neighborhood three gunmen, reportedly wearing Interior Ministry uniforms, abducted him. No one has seen him since.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Neighborhood pays price of being on wrong side of Israel's wall
Residents of Kafr Aqab are cut off from most public services, even though they live within Jerusalem's city limits. The once-upscale area is now a slum. With a fire extinguisher in his hand and a cellphone pressed to his ear, principal Sameeh abu Rameelh battled an electrical fire in his Jerusalem high school's computer lab while pleading with the fire department to come to his aid.
link to feeds.latimes.com

Violence / Aggression

Soldiers assault man in Jenin
JENIN (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces assaulted a man in Jenin on Tuesday morning, witnesses told Ma'an. The unnamed man was stopped at a flying checkpoint near the Jenin village of Yabad. Witnesses said that soldiers took the man to a nearby area of olive trees where they began to assault him. They then took him to a unknown destination.
link to www.maannews.net

Palestinian cars sprayed with unknown materials at Israeli checkpoints, Abir Kopty
Lately I’ve been going to Jenin every 2-3 weeks with family members. We usually do our vegetable shopping in the city market. Last Saturday, on our way back from Jenin to Nazareth, we were surprised to find a new technology to check the ‘suspected’ cars at the Israeli checkpoint. The checkpoint’s check usually goes like this: There are about six lines of cars going out through the checkpoint, at each there are 1-2 "security" officers that ask for IDs, and decide whether this car including its riders, do or do not consist a major threat to Israel’s "security" and "existence". If they do not, the officer gives the car a white ticket, which means they are done with the "security" check. If yes, then the car gets a green ticket. Once you get the green one, you have to go to the far right route into a special check. You are asked to open all doors, take out all your belongings and go through physical check while the car is been checked separately.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/palestinian-cars-sprayed-with-unknown-materials-at-israeli-checkpoints.html

Israel 'closes investigation into tear gas shooting'
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Sunday closed an investigation into the shooting of an Israeli activist with a tear gas canister in West Bank village Nabi Saleh, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee reported. Ben Ronen suffered multiple fractures to his hand after being hit at close range on May 13, the committee said. He was informed by the Israeli internal affairs division that the case was closed because of insufficient evidence, the report added. The popular committee released footage of an Israeli border police officer firing the projectile towards Ronen during a weekly protest against land confiscation in the Ramallah-district.
link to www.maannews.net

 

Political Detainees

Israeli court ratifies detention order for Jihad leader
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Israel's Ofer military court said Tuesday that an administrative detention order for Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan is in effect. The Palestinian prisoners society contacted the court on Monday to obtain a final decision regarding the order. The military court confirmed on Tuesday that the 4 month administrative detention order issued on Jan. 8 is being implemented.
link to www.maannews.net
 

Ad-Dameer Laywer Visits Hunger-Striking Detainee
Lawyer of the Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Samer Samaan, managed to visit the ailing hunger-striking detainee, Adnan Khader, who has been on hunger strike since 51 days despite the sharp deterioration in his health condition. Khader is currently at an Israeli Hospital in Safad.

link to www.imemc.org

Ofer jail isolates 8 Palestinian prisoners for going on solidarity hunger strike
The Israeli Ofer jail administration has isolated eight Palestinian prisoners on Monday for going on hunger strike in solidarity with Islamic Jihad leader Sheikh Khader Adnan.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Mustafa Tamimi’s brother arrested in Nabi Saleh, by Allison Deger
Clashes took place last night in Nabi Saleh between villagers and Israeli occupation forces. The Israeli army invaded the village, stormed houses, arrested two men Luai Al Tamimi 19 (brother of martyr Mustafa Tamimi)  and Ta'min Muhammad Tamimi 29. They also assaulted father of Mustafa Tamimi who suffers from renal failure and severely swollen hands. Tamimi's mother, sister and two other brothers were also assaulted.  Villagers took to the streets to protest the Israeli army. They threw stones and the Israeli army responded with live bullets, tear gas canisters and sound-bombs. The villagers cheered for resistance and condemning occupation. Israeli jeeps pulled out but news sources confirm that army vehicles are still surrounding the entrances of the village. The Committees of Popular Resistance condemned the attack and blamed the responsibility of this tension on the Israeli settlers and their continued attacks which are usually backed by the Frontiers' Guards. They also considered assaulting Mustafa Tamimi's family a new crime in the long series of Israeli crimes against humanity.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/mustafa-tamimis-brother-arrested-in-nabi-saleh.html

Soldiers detain 60-year-old blocking settler tree planting
QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained a 60-year-old man obstructing Israeli settlers from digging up land in Qalqiliya village Kafr Qaddum on Monday, witnesses and security officials said. Yaqoub Ishtawi tried to block a group of Israeli soldiers and settlers from razing village land, activist Murad Ishtewi told PA news agency Wafa. Soldiers beat Ishtawi severely before detaining him, Ishtewi added.
link to www.maannews.net

IOF soldiers arrest 15 Palestinians mostly in Nablus
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested 15 Palestinian citizens in the West Bank at dawn Tuesday mostly in Nablus province, local sources said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Six activists arrested in Issawiya
Israeli forces, accompanied by bulldozers, arrived in the East Jerusalem village of Issawiya early this morning and reportedly arrested six Jewish Israeli activists.
link to www.alternativenews.org

IOF soldiers arrest Palestinian, 3 foreign activists in Walaja
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained a Palestinian activist and three foreign solidarity activists while quelling an anti wall march in Walaja village to the south west of Bethlehem.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF soldiers round up five Palestinians
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up five Palestinians in various West Bank areas at dawn Sunday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Female prisoner in Hasharon jail suffer joint pains without any help
Tadamun society for human rights said the health of Palestinian female prisoner Woroud Qasem, in Hasharon jail, has deteriorated very badly and she is suffering from severe pains in her joints.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

700 Palestinian prisoners start gradual hunger strike on Tuesday
The ministry of prisoners in Gaza has said that 700 prisoners in the Israeli Raymond jail would start a gradual hunger strike on Tuesday demanding improvement of their incarceration conditions.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOA sentences freed prisoner to administrative custody, arrests another
The Israeli military court in Ofer has ordered the administrative detention of freed prisoner Ayman Sharawne from Al-Khalil for six months.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Shalit committee asks court to cancel release of freed Palestinian
A specialized Israeli committee formed to look into violations of the prisoners’ exchange deal claimed that one of the freed captives in the deal had violated conditions for his release.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

 

Gaza

Gaza tomatoes banned from Israel and West Bank
Israel allowed export of three truckloads of tomatoes from Gaza to Saudi Arabia on Monday but banned the trucks from unloading in Israel and the West Bank, where their natural markets are. Despite the fact that on their way to Saudi Arabia, the trucks will pass through Israel and the West Bank, Israel continues to ban sale of goods from Gaza in these areas as part of its "Separation Policy".
link to www.alternativenews.org
 

Miles Of smiles 9 Arrives In Gaza
Palestinian sources reported Monday that the “Miles Of Smiles 9” aid and solidarity convoy made it into the coastal region through the Rafah Border Terminal, between Gaza and Egypt. 

link to www.imemc.org

 

Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions

 
Kafr Adik’s weekly protest in review
Photos by Dylan Collins and Lazar Simeonov. KAFR ADIK – A popular resistance demonstration took place in Kafr Adik this Friday, marking the fifth week in a row that residents have organized a protest against the occupation and the increasing...

link to www.palestinemonitor.org

Qaryut joins in the new wave of popular resistance in the West Bank
Photos by Silvia Boarini and Giorgio Algeri   Last Friday, 3 February, the Palestinian village of Qaryut united for its first mass demonstration against the permanent closure by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) of one of its main roads.

link to www.palestinemonitor.org

 

Celebrating heroes and olives: Qaryut begins to dismantle roadblock
Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators confronted heavily armed Israeli soldiers this Friday, February 3rd,  at a new protest in the village of Qaryut, planting nearly one hundred trees and partially demolishing the roadblock that has obstructed access to the highway since the First Intifada.  Although organizers were prepared for military violence, the protest remained peaceful until the end, and demonstrators marched home triumphantly with a promise from the military to remove the roadblock with a bulldozer, which they did later the same day. While the villagers celebrated this as a victory, Qaryut’s people continue to struggle for control of their lands and recognition of their rights. As of the publishing date, it is uncertain what will be the nature of future protests.

link to palsolidarity.org

Beit Ommar Demonstration Plants Hundreds of Olive Trees
On Saturday, February 4th, 2012, Palestinian villagers in Beit Ommar conducted their weekly demonstration against the settlement appropriation of their lands. The activists organized this week’s actions to plant dozens of olive trees near the Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur. This week, the demonstrators were joined by a group of Palestinian and international runners conducting a marathon across the West Bank from Hebron to Jenin organized by Fair Trade groups and US-based community development group On the Ground.
link to palestinesolidarityproject.org

Farmers, internationals plant olive trees near Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Local farmers and international volunteers planted olive trees in the Bethlehem village of al-Khader on Monday as part of an ongoing advocacy initiative to protect Palestinian land. The Alternative Tourism Group and the YMCA-YWCA began the olive planting program on Feb. 4, and it will last until Feb. 13. On Monday, the group planted over 500 olive trees on agricultural lands belonging Ahmad Mousa, who owns 7,000 square meters, and Abdul-Hakim Salah, who has 15,000 square meters. Sixty international activists from 10 different countries arrived at the field at 8 a.m. to start planting 3-4 year old olive saplings.
link to www.maannews.net

Take action: Support United Methodist Church divestment campaign
United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) is an international movement in the United Methodist Church responding to the "Kairos Palestine Document," an urgent plea from Christians in the Holy Land for decisive action supporting a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
link to blog.endtheoccupation.org

Members of Asian People's Solidarity for Palestine Convene in Pakistan
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Palestine Foundation of Pakistan hosted a meeting in Karachi, where representatives of various Asian nations, who are part of the Asian People's Solidarity for Palestine (APSP), were present.
link to english.farsnews.com

No Valentine for Israeli blood diamonds
Members of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign joined London human rights campaigners in Hatton Garden, the centre of London’s jewellery trade, to raise awareness among shoppers and jewellers about the continuing sale of Israeli blood diamonds. Israel is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and exporters of cut & polished diamonds which generate more than US$ 1 billion (about UK£ 600 million) a year for the Apartheid State. Many jewellers falsely claim Israeli diamonds are “conflict-free” which is totally unjustified, given Israel’s blatant violation of international laws.
link to londonbds.org

David Wildman at PennBDS: Motorola and Caterpillar profited off apartheid South Africa before occupation, Alex Kane
Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi, who had a rocking performance at Penn's boycott, divestment and sanctions conference (BDS) Saturday night, explained the appeal of BDS in a tweet: "#BDS [is] so successful because it's a positive, ethical, rights based, anti-racist & inclusive movement to upend Apartheid. #pennbds." The conference showcased those qualities. But to add to Kanazi's list, one reason why BDS campaigns targeting Israeli apartheid is so appealing is because it has a successful precedent to look to, as David Wildman reminded conference-goers.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/david-wildman-at-pennbds-motorola-and-caterpillar-profited-off-apartheid-south-africa-before-occupation.html

Abunimah highlights ‘turning point’ boycott conference, Philip Weiss
I'm just back from the boycott-divestment BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania, and will have a lot to post on it in days to come. I must begin with Ali Abunimah's keynote speech Saturday, at which he emphasized the diversity and positive tone of the conference. He spoke to a hall jammed with over 300 people from countless different backgrounds. There was a great feeling of openness in the hall. Abunimah's report is here.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/abunimah-highlights-turning-point-boycott-conference.html

Video of my Penn BDS speech and how Zionist filmmaker pretended to be from Canada's CBC, Ali Abunimah
Video and report about my Penn BDS conference keynote, and my account of how an anti-Palestinian filmmaker misrepresented himself as a CBC journalist in a dirty trick.
link to electronicintifada.net

Activists demand Cornell cut ties with Technion
Activists with Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine call on Cornell University to end its relationship with the Technion, an Israeli university that is involved in the research and development of military and arms technology. Read and sign the open petition.
link to www.alternativenews.org

Open letter in support of professor Terri Ginsburg; appealing to N. Carolina Supreme Court
Terri Ginsberg was a visiting film studies professor at North Carolina State University when she was dismissed after sharing views critical of Zionism and the state of Israel. (You can read prior coverage of her case in Muzzlewatch, the Electronic Intifada and in Ha’aretz). She filed a grievance with the university, which denied her a hearing – three times. So she took her case to the courts.
link to www.muzzlewatch.com

Madonna to launch MDNA world tour in Israel
The Queen of Pop is set to perform at Ramat Gan Stadium in May, in her fourth Israeli concert in history.
link to www.haaretz.com

Racism & Discrimination

Video report to UN details racism in Israel
During Holocaust Rememberance Day in 2011, Israeli President Shimon Peres called Israel the most "anti-racist" country in the world. But this in-depth look at the xenophobia that is rampant and growing in Israeli society--and that is common to citizens and politicians alike--tells a very different story.
link to www.alternativenews.org

Ethiopian students? Not in our school
Students of Ethiopian descent living in Netanya are sent to 'their own' school; municipality: Registration areas determined years ago.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Only rude comments made to Arabs are allowed: MK Tibi disciplined yet again
Arab lawmaker earns second suspension after he is banned from delivering speeches in Knesset for one month over rude comments made to Ethics Committee chairman.
link to www.ynetnews.com

blatant racism of the Zionist usurping entity
from The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب by As'ad AbuKhalil"Army Radio reported on Monday that a street naming committee in the Jerusalem Municipality voted against renaming Eshkol Street to Rachmo after some residents complained the change could lead authorities to think they are Arabs.  “If you name our street Rachmo, they [the authorities] will think we are Arabs and delay us at the airport,” a resident of Eshkol Street reportedly said during a heated debate at the Jerusalem Municipality. According to the report, the street was to be named Rachmo after legendary restaurant owner Rachamim Ben-Yosef, whose eponymous eatery “Rachmo,” has become a Jerusalem landmark.  According to the report, the proposed street-name change lost momentum after one resident wrote in a letter that “the name Rachmo has an Arab sound to it. It is unacceptable that a street in west Jerusalem should have an Arab name. During security checks at the airport they ask us our address, and we if we tell them ‘Rachmo Street’ we will immediately be suspected of being Arabs and suffer all the delays that result from that.”
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

Tel Aviv continues to fine store owners open on Shabbat in mostly non-Jewish areas
Judge criticizes municipality's policy, notes that the last time the issue was discussed by the city council it was addressed in a 'lethargic, non-systematic' fashion.
link to www.haaretz.com

Career officer suspected of blackmailing women online
Police arrest 24-year-old IDF career officer accused of forcing dozens of women, girls to strip in front of computer camera as he watches while threatening to destroy their computers if they refuse.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Political Developments / Diplomacy / Other News

French official: J'lem to be capital of ‘Palestine’
BERLIN – The head of the French Consulate in Jerusalem told French and Palestinian municipal officials late last month that Jerusalem will be the capital of an independent Palestinian state. “Welcome to Jerusalem, capital of the future State of Palestine,” Frédéric Desagneaux said at a conference in the city, the French-language online news outlet JSS wrote.
link to www.jpost.com

U.S. says Palestinian deal ‘internal’ matter
WASHINGTON — The United States Monday remained on the sidelines over a deal signed between Hamas and Fatah to end a long-running discord between rival Palestinian movements, saying it was an internal affair. “As we’ve said many times, questions of Palestinian reconciliation are an internal matter for Palestinians,” said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. The accord signed in Qatar was welcomed by officials from both Palestinian movements, but Israel warned Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to choose between reconciliation with Hamas and making peace with the Jewish state.
link to www.rawstory.com

The Mainstreaming of Hamas Continues as Palestinian Unity Gains Steam (Time.com)
Time.com - Hamas vows to give Palestinian moderate leader Mahmoud Abbas the running room to see what talks can produce.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com

Doha agreement divides political opinion
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The Doha agreement signed on Monday by President Abbas and Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal has been welcomed and criticized in equal measure by politicians and analysts. Hamas official Ismail al-Ashqar told Ma'an that the agreement "contradicted basic Palestinian law and overstepped the Palestinian Legislative Council." He urged President Abbas to take serious steps to implement the Cairo agreement as a whole, rather than being selective about which articles to implement.
link to www.maannews.net

Soldier forgets sensitive equipment in Palestinian store
IDF soldier buying cigarettes in violation of military protocol forgets case with night vision equipment in store. Owner returns equipment to local DCO.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Analysis / Op-ed

 

 

Israel to the United States: “We’ll Give You the War, You Give Us the Cannon Fodder”
The dogs of war are off the leash. In meeting rooms in London, Tel Aviv and Washington the dice have been thrown: snake eyes. Flashback, 1963: When John F. Kennedy decided not to escalate the soon-to-be disastrous Vietnam war and issued National Security Action Memorandum 263 (NSAM 263), he signed his death warrant. Scarcely six weeks after vowing to pull all American forces out of South Vietnam by 1965, Kennedy was dead, the target of an “executive action” orchestrated by the CIA, a coup d’état on behalf of America’s corporatist masters–the military-industrial cabal of hardline cold warriors who stood to lose billions if Kennedy lived. That sweet little deal to “win” the war in Southeast Asia cost some two million Vietnamese lives, 58,000 dead Americans and precipitated an economic crisis which dealt a death blow to post-World War II prosperity and launched the United States on its inexorable glide path towards becoming a failed state.
link to dissidentvoice.org

AIPAC Obtained Missile Secrets
Author Norman F. Dacey made powerful enemies. He turned the cozy estate-planning industry upside-down after publishing How to Avoid Probate in 1965. The book sold 2 million copies as Dacey barnstormed [.pdf] the country advising Americans how to structure their estates to avoid the costs, delays, and publicity of probate by setting up trusts.
link to original.antiwar.com

Ray Hanania – His own worst enemy
It’s always a dilemma. What to do, when people you admire are being attacked by the jealous and hateful? If you respond to it, it sometimes gives them the undeserved attention that they desperately seek. If you stay silent about it, you let baseless smears linger as if they contain some element of truth.  In the case of Ray Hanania attacking Palestinian surgeon and musician Doc Jazz, and Palestinian activist and publicist Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, I have decided to respond. Hanania, an Arab-American comedian of Palestinian origin, wrote down his vile accusations in the Jerusalem Post, a Zionist outlet that he apparently regularly contributes to as a columnist. Although he didn’t mention their names specifically, the descriptions he gave of them leave no doubt that Doc Jazz and Ali Abunimah are the two people his poisonous claims are aimed at.
link to ikhras.com

Where is the Palestinian Spring?
The Egyptian Revolution recently marked its first anniversary. When is the Arab Spring coming to Palestine?
link to www.alternativenews.org

Remapping Palestine and the Politics of Injury, Aimee Shalan
The struggle over Palestine, a struggle in which ideas, representations, rhetoric, and images are all fiercely contested, has been so overexposed in mainstream media in North America and Western Europe that the actual experience of Palestinians living under occupation has often disappeared from view. A preoccupation with “balance,” regardless of the asymmetry of the situation, has given vent to a seemingly vicious circle of tit-for-tat denunciations. In this context, legitimate Palestinian anger in response to decades of oppression is frequently regarded as an obstructive proclivity for “supercharged emotions” and the investment o
link to www.jadaliyya.com

 

Bahrain

Another Bahraini killed by toxic tear gas
Another Bahraini civilian has died of asphyxia after Saudi-backed regime forces fired toxic tear gas into a house, activist reported.
link to www.presstv.ir

 

1000s of Bahrainis attend funeral
Thousands of people in Bahrain have attended the funeral of a man who died due to inhalation of tear gas fired by Saudi-backed forces in Manama. 

link to www.presstv.ir

Bahraini mother freed after months in jail for revolutionary music
Prominent Bahraini activist Fadheela Al-Mubarak was freed on Monday, nearly a year after being arrested for listening to revolutionary music, as pro-democracy protests continue. Mubarak was among the first female activists to have been arrested in Bahrain when she was taken into custody at a checkpoint in March. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail by Bahraini authorities for listening to music that is common among many of the protesters, but is deemed revolutionary by the authorities. Mubarak was the first female to be tried in a military court in Bahrain.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Bahrain opposition launch week-long rally for reform (Reuters)
Reuters - Bahraini opposition parties, launching a week-long 'sit-in' for political reforms at a mass rally, swore on Sunday to take their campaign to the centre of last year's democracy protest in the capital Manama.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com

Egypt

Egypt activists call for general strike on #feb11
This is the poster designed by graphic artist Ganzeer (whom we interviewed in this podcast) for the upcoming "general strike" announced by revolutionary movements on February 11, the anniversary of Mubarak's overthrow. As al-Ahram reports, the revolutionaries –regrouped under a new umbrella organization – have the following demands:
link to www.arabist.net

Great new anti-army video calling for Egypt general strike, Issandr El AmraniThis video, put out by Aalam Wassef, is one of the most daring and well-made I've seen yet by the anti-SCAF movement. The basic narrative is that the SCAF represents a military that has run Egypt into the ground for some sixty years, while enjoying the fruits of its economic empire, luxury hospitals, clubs etc. It calls for a boycott of military-produced products and a general strike on February 11.
link to www.arabist.net

Iran

US and Israel 'in unison' on Iran
The US is working closely with Israel to use diplomacy to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, President Barack Obama says.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Incoming IAF chief: Iran is our top concern
Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel said in rare speech last month that nuclear Iran would trigger arms race in Middle East, and should be addressed strategically before all other conflicts.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Attack on Iran will be disastrous: Turkey
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has urged diplomacy to resolve Western concerns over Iran’s nuclear program, warning that a military strike will result in a “disaster.”
link to www.presstv.ir

The Lede Blog: Israeli Ad Jokes About Strikes on Iran's Nuclear Program
An Israeli cable television company has removed an ad from its YouTube channel making light of a possible attack on Iran's nuclear facilities by Israel.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

Israel's Intentions on Iran remain unclear

Analysts differ on whether Israel's threat of a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities is a bluff to spur tougher sanctions, or a real warning. By ramping up its threat to attack Iran's nuclear development program, Israel appears to have galvanized international attention on an issue it has long sought to bring to the top of the global agenda.

http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/middleeast/~3/SqMlbYJ17MM/la-fg-israel-iran-20120206,0,3741290.story

Widening Regional Escalation Anticipated After Israeli Attack on Iran, Richard Silverstein
Several interesting developments concerning the simmering war between Israel and Iran.  The  (in Farsi) by the director of an official government think tank that advocates Iranian attacks against Israeli sites.  The author argues that Israel’s sustained attacks within Iran demand a response.  An Israeli TV news report says (in Hebrew) that the Iranian website calls for a “pre-emptive” attack on Israel, and not one that is purely in response to an Israeli first strike.  Though it is reflective of the Israel’s narrow thinking that they would call such an Iranian strike “pre-emptive,” when Israel has already attacked Iran.  One of the specific sites indicated for targeting was Sdot Micha, Israel’s secret missile base and home of its Jericho intercontinental missile arsenal.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com

Would US back Israeli attack on Iran?
US President Barack Obama has stepped up pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions by signing an executive order to implement sanctions passed by Congress late last year. Amid speculation that Israel could be preparing a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, some have wondered whether Washington would also support military action by its ally. But Leon Panetta, the US defense secretary, has said that attacking Iran would be "a conflict that we would regret", only serving to delay Iran's abilities to develop nuclear weapons, making the US a target for Iranian retribution and having dire economic consequences for the US and Europe. Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports from Washington.
link to www.youtube.com

Iraq

Iraq's al-Qaida claims 2 deadly attacks on Shiites (AP)
AP - An al-Qaida front group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the two deadliest attacks on Shiites since the U.S. military completed its withdrawal last month, underlining an escalating sectarian security and political crisis that threatens to drive the country toward civil war.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com

Iraq's Sunni-backed ministers return to Cabinet (AP)
AP - Ministers from Iraq's Sunni-backed bloc ended their boycott of the Cabinet on Tuesday, a move that could restore some stability to the war-ravaged nation that has been mired in a security and political crisis since the U.S. completed its military withdrawal from the country.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com

Syria

The Lede Blog: Activist's Videos Tell of Syrian Carnage
An activist has posted a series of videos shedding light on the destructive force of the Syrian government's military crackdown in Homs.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

US closes embassy in Syria
The Obama administration has closed the US Embassy in Damascus and pulled all American diplomats out of Syria.
link to www.independent.co.uk

Syrian forces continue assault on Homs
Syrian forces pounded Homs on Monday, reportedly killing dozens, while an explosion hit the main oil pipeline fueling the restive city, opposition activists said. The explosion, the second in a week at the key pipeline which carries crude oil from the eastern Rumaila field, occurred in the district of Bab Amro, an opposition stronghold under heavy tank and mortar bombardment by President Bashar Assad's forces, residents and activists said.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Seven Hours in Hama
“That is it! We cannot wait anymore. We are going to Hama, this morning.” My mother stood facing both of us, my twin and I, helpless and without words. It was Tuesday 16 March, two weeks after Hafez al-Assad reopened the sealed city of Hama after he massacred around forty thousand people in February 1982. My mother had vetoed our decision to travel there several times before, and we had yielded to her wishes, but not today. Hama was our childhood city that we used to visit almost monthly after the family moved to Damascus so we may attend college. We felt the mourning city calling to us. When you feel something so powerful, you have to answer.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Theater at the UN Security Council, Asad AbuKhalil
It was quite a show at the UN Security Council this weekend. Susan Rice of the US could not believe that the veto was used in that august body. How could the veto be used to abort the will of the international community? Her country has sixty vetoes in support of Israeli war crimes.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Yemen

Saleh target of shoe-attack in incident reminiscent of Bush in 2008
Ali Abdullah Saleh was greeted by groups of protestors as he left and returned to his hotel in New York Sunday. As Saleh came out of the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South in New York a group of two dozen Yemeni Americans was protesting against his presence in the United States.
link to english.alarabiya.net
 

www.TheHeadlines.Org

Last Saturday at the Penn BDS Conference, Susan Landau moderated a panel of religious speakers who are supporting boycott and divestment. Here are her opening and closing remarks.

INTRODUCTION.

The road to equality and justice is well lit by people of faith. Conversely, the world of oppression and injustice is well maintained by other people of faith. For the purpose of this panel discussion, the term faith-based communities will refer to the former.

Our various ethical traditions are concerned with how we live, how we treat other people, and how to promote a more just world. Communities of faith find common ground in their shared commitment to ethical action.

Religion speaks in the language of faith, hope, peace and love. The political equivalent is a framework of non-violence, universal human rights, international law, and social responsibility. This makes BDS is a sensible, tested, and unambiguous response for people of faith to Israeli apartheid, injustice, and occupation. 

The 2005 BDS Call is from Palestinian civil society to people of conscience in the international community. Of course faith-based communities answer the Call.

Analogous to the role of the church in the civil rights, anti-war, and anti-Apartheid movement, BDS provides an aspirational and actionable agenda for faith-based communities. As respected community structures, churches, synagogues, and mosques are positioned to help lead this movement by opening spaces to host conversations, schedule educational events, sponsor missions, and organize political actions. 

It’s helpful to ground today’s panel discussion by reflecting on past and present trailblazers of faith-based organizing:

• Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s commitment to civil rights through the tactic of non-violent resistance had a seismic impact that forever changed the landscape of American society.

• American Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel interpreted the teachings of the Hebrew prophets as a clarion call for social action. Advocating for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, Heschel described his experience supporting Reverend Martin Luther King by saying “When I marched in Selma, my legs were praying.”

• The Rev. Dr. Naim Stifan Ateek a Palestinian Christian, is founder and head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.

• Archbishop Elias Chacour teaches reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. He is a "Palestinian-Arab-Christian-Israeli, and vice president of the Sabeel Center.

and 

• The bedrock of the moral universe for the BDS movement and uncontested champion for justice, Archbishop Desmund Tutu, who continues to bring the lessons from South Africa to the struggle against Israeli apartheid. 

Here in Philadelphia, local clergy move this work forward, including: Retired Episcopal Bishop Allen Bartlett, Rev. Cliff Cutler, Rev. Judith Beck, and longtime advocate for justice, Rev Isaac Miller. Pushing the envelope by courageously speaking out for justice in Israel-Palestine are Rabbis Brian Walt, Linda Holtzman and Alissa Wise. Yet successful faith-based organizing would not be possible without all of the ordinary and extraordinary people whose names we rarely know. 

Now to our panelists - -all of whom are trailblazers and co-travelers on this path. You honor us with your work and presence today. We welcome: Reverend Graylan Haglar, Rabbi Lynn Gottliieb, , Cyrus McGoldrik, and Natalia Cuadra-Saez.

CLOSING

From the jail in Birmingham, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. spelled out his theory of non-violence: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue." Let’s keep making it happen!

At Sunday afternoon's talk by Max Blumenthal and Sarah Schulman, Schulman spoke of the pattern of "Jewish substitution"-- the need on the Establishment's part to seek Jewish voices about the issue. Well, I felt a twinge, because Schulman and Blumenthal were in front of us, both Jewish, and I was about to be on a panel about the media with Blumenthal and Helena Cobban. (And Penn chairman David Cohen and president Amy Gutmann had come out against the conference days before; and the Super Bowl taking place later that day had two teams with Jewish owners; as I insisted at my panel, we make up a significant part of the establishment.)

At my media panel, Amy Kaplan, the great English prof at Penn who participated in the conference despite a storm of contumely and smear, asked the journalists whether the Nakba was ever going to be covered by the mainstream press. "How important is history to reporting events in the present, in the context of trying to get out an alternative view which is suppressed by the mainstream?" she asked.

I said that it was essential that Americans learn about the Nakba, it was great old/new news essential to an understanding of the refugees, and that inevitably the New York Times Magazine would run a Nakba piece but in the form of the emotional water-slide that Blumenthal and I had shot down some years before-- the Times would have a young Jew waking up to the crimes committed by the Zionists 64 or 74 years ago, whenever the Times gets round to it. This is not news. Palestinians have known about it for a long time. But that's the way the media will deal with it. Another Jew in recovery from suppressed memories will discover ethnic cleansing and the early Zionists' program for a "strong" Jewish majority in the land.

Subsequently a black woman in the audience rose to observe that the same thing had taken place during the civil rights struggle. "We call that the white gaze," she said, poetically.

I was then aware that my need to fix my own community, to push them toward recognitions, to undo the Israel lobby, to get them out of selfish nationalism, will limit my effectiveness in the Palestinian solidarity movement. That's OK; I will support that movement and put my shoulder to the wheel. But I took some pleasure-- watching a panel on the Jewish response featuring members of Jewish Voice for Peace-- hearing Liza Behrendt, a Brandeis graduate, saying that she wants to get Zionists on board with boycotting Israel. Later a friend said that Behrendt was naive, but I saw value in Behrendt's idea. At AIPAC I have often been struck that here are 5000 or 7000 people in a room acting in some measure out of charity: they are working for people they don't know on the other side of the world. Now it happens that they are ethnocentric, nationalist and are clapping at racist statements-- still they are pouring out energy and money for people they don't know. And I believe that energy can be shifted.

The mood of the BDS conference was so relentlessly positive, so hopeful, so alive with the concern for human rights, that I see it as inevitable that young Jews will want to align themselves with this program. Some of them may want to come as Zionists, and undo Zionism from inside. That wouldn't be such a bad thing. The Palestinian condition was created chiefly by Jews. And just as Holocaust evasion ended in a great cultural moment in the 1970s, Nakba denial will also end in a great cultural moment that is coming soon. Young Jews will be thirsting for knowledge of those events, and thirsting to try to repair the damage.

During the conference, I stayed at my mother's house, and she pressed on me a Soda Stream seltzer-maker she'd bought for my wife. I told her I couldn't take it; and I thought she was for the two-state solution, Soda Stream is occupying the land the Palestinians were supposed to get. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb suggested I take it and bury it. But the incident shows how backward my community is, how sunk. I love my mother. I want to help that community redeem itself.

Ali Abunimah said the highlight of Alan Dershowitz's talk before the conference at the Jewish Federations came when a young Jew said, Yes Israel is a great democracy, etc, etc, but didn't we throw those people off their land? The right question, Abunimah said; and Dershowitz answered with lies, that there were hardly any Palestinians there, etc. The young man's question is not going away.