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 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.

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

This article was originally published on February 9, 2012 for the Alternative Information Center.

In 2004, Israeli officials were up in arms about an impending Bedouin Intifada. But the Bedouin didn't rebel and now, despite plans to expel tens of thousands of Bedouin from their homes in the West Bank and the Negev, things remain relatively quiet. Why?

As Israel steps up its expansionist policies both inside and outside the Green Line, the Bedouin community has come under particularly intense pressure.

Inside of Israel, the state seeks to Judaize the Negev (Naqab) desert. This "development" includes last year’s Prawer plan which recommends that Israel relocate some 30,000-40,000 Bedouin citizens, ripping them from their villages and sticking them in impoverished townships, to clear the area for Jewish-only settlements.

After the Israeli cabinet passed the Prawer plan in September 2011, Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel likened it to "a declaration of war."

Al Arakib could be considered an opening battle. The state first demolished the unrecognized village in July 2010—destroying homes and tearing olive trees from the ground to make way for a forest to be planted by the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). After the Bedouin residents of Al Arakib rebuilt their village, Israeli forces returned and destroyed it again. Since then, Al Arakib has been demolished and rebuilt over 30 times.

Israel’s policies are just as inhumane on the other side of the Green Line, where the so-called "Civil Administration" seeks to remove 27,000 Bedouin from Area C in order to expand illegal Israeli settlements. The Civil Administration’s plans will be carried out over the next three to six years.

The United Nations reports that Israeli forces demolished 44 Palestinian-owned buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank last month, including 14 houses. 66 people were displaced, 40 of whom were Bedouin.

Recent years have seen Israel escalate its campaign to push Palestinians and Bedouin out of their homes. According to the UN, nearly 1100 Palestinians and Bedouins were displaced by Israeli house demolitions in 2011—approximately 80 percent more than 2010.

So where is the Bedouin Intifada?

In 2004, the Israeli daily Haaretz called a Bedouin uprising "practically inevitable." Lurching from one alarmist quote to the next, the article labeled the Bedouin a “ticking bomb,” a “keg of dynamite,” depicting them not as native inhabitants but as criminals who have taken over the Negev.

Amidst the hysteria came a fetishizing remark from Reuven Gal, then-Deputy National Security Advisor for Domestic Policy, who commented that, to the Bedouin, "honor is more precious than money."

The writer concluded, ominously, "every plan to develop the Negev is likely to face violent opposition because of the Bedouin who live in the area."

The article drips with racism and colonialism—Israeli plans to displace the Bedouin constitute "development." Not only are the Bedouin sure to oppose such "progress," they are likely to be "violent." And then there are the Orientalist depictions of the Bedouin as reactionary, volatile beings unable to control their impulses, especially when "honor" is at stake.

But it would be wrong to blame the writer and his interviewees alone.

In his book Good Arabs, Hillel Cohen describes an incident that took place in 1950, when the Israeli army’s chief of staff visited a Bedouin tribe, reporter in tow. The journalist recounted a "royal meal," eaten against the backdrop of "the echoes of gunshots" and "riders’ galloping." The evening climaxed with a ceremonial "presentation of the sword of the desert."

Cohen explains that the reporter’s depiction "fit well with that period’s common portrayal of the Bedouin as hospitable noble savages...." An Orientalist view of the Bedouin is deeply rooted and, as the 2004 Haaretz article suggests, persists. So feverish proclamations about a Bedouin Intifada should be taken with a camel-sized grain of salt.

We should also consider the motives behind such "warnings." As, Jaber Abu Kaf, a representative of the Regional Council for Unrecognized Bedouin Villages told Haaretz in 2004, claims of an imminent Bedouin Intifada "are baseless and are intended to promote a political agenda."

But, for argument’s sake, let’s say that the Bedouin would like to revolt, violently, against Israel’s discrimination.

Let’s set aside the quiet acts of resistance, the small, silent intifada, already taking place: rebuilding demolished homes; the day-long general strike held in December of 2011; the massive protest outside the Prime Minister’s office on the same December day.

And let’s set aside individual agency and pretend the Bedouin can only react, collectively, to Israeli policies.

So why hasn’t that "ticking bomb" exploded?

The answer lies, in part, in the state’s founding. Before Israel was established in 1948, some 91,000 Bedouin lived in the Negev. After the war, only twelve percent of the original population remained. Many of the Bedouin facing forced transfer from the West Bank today are refugees whose families fled or were driven from the Negev during the nakba.

Shattered and scattered, the Bedouin were subject to additional Israeli efforts to divide and rule. A number of those who had managed to hang on to their land in the Negev were pushed off of it. In some cases, the state appointed local mukhtars, pitting families against one another, and putting weak leaders, or those who would serve Israeli interests, at the head of villages.

Israeli authorities also sowed seeds of disunity by actively encouraging--and rewarding--collaboration. That some took the bait undermines the Orientalist assertion that the Bedouin value honor more than money.

Israel has also fomented poverty in the Bedouin community. In the 1970s, the state built seven townships for the Negev Bedouin that are home today to approximately 80,000 Bedouin. These ghettos have the country’s highest unemployment and school dropout rates as well as the social problems that accompany poverty and hopelessness, including rampant drug abuse.

Those that remained in the desert have not had it much easier. Despite the fact that many Bedouin live in villages that predate the state itself, Israel does not recognize most of these communities. Some 80,000 Bedouin live in the unrecognized villages that lack infrastructure and high schools. Rawia Aburabia, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), calls the status of Bedouin education, "catastrophic," pointing out to a drop out rate that tops 40 percent.

There is also the contentious issue of military service. Some Bedouin tribes serve in the Israeli army; many do not. This creates tension within the community and serves as yet another obstacle to the unity needed for a successful uprising.

With Palestine’s Bedouin divided between Israel and the surrounding countries; split between those who serve in the Israeli army and those who don’t; struggling to survive; lacking leadership and a cohesive national strategy, an organized and sustainable uprising is unlikely. The international community, then, has a responsibility to stop the home demolitions and forced transfers that Palestinians and Bedouin face in the West Bank and inside Israel.

Advocating for outside intervention runs the risk of sounding patronizing, at best, colonial, at worst. That’s the beauty of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. The call for BDS comes from Palestinian civil society and is self-empowering.

While some Palestinians don’t consider the Bedouin to be Palestinian—and many Bedouin don’t consider themselves Palestinian, either—BDS is an appropriate response to Israel’s treatment of the Bedouin. They suffer from the same discriminatory policies that plague the Palestinians. And the two communities share common hopes for human and civil rights, to return to their homeland, and to live in freedom, justice, and dignity.

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

A Palestinian millionaire extended an offer for Israeli Jews to purchase homes and make use of a country club constructed by his company in a new West Bank city near Ramallah. Bashar al-Masri, the Palestinian entrepreneur spear-heading the project, was quoted in  Ynet News welcoming settlers:

'Israelis are invited to come and visit any time, and even though our target audience is Palestinian, if Israelis also want to buy apartments there, they're welcome.'

Shaked settlement. (Photo: Milutin Labudovich/A Civilian Occupation)

Digital design of Rawabi. (Image: Bayti)

The village, Rawabi, has the aesthetics of Disney's corporate-owned Celebration, or The Truman show; an  American style suburb with the hilltop-grabbing spiral city planning of an Israeli settlement, jointly owned by a private company and the Palestinian Authority. Al-Masri plans to also recreate the synthetic culture of new urbanism in the occupied Palestinian Territories, in constructing the first new city in the West Bank since 1967, with up to 40,000 housing units:

'We're not only building homes there, but also public parks, shopping malls, and a country club....We wish to change Palestinian mentality where life is confined to the home…we wish to return to the warm neighborhood feeling I remember from my childhood in Jenin, where everyone knew everyone, but to do so in a modern fashion.'

As a companion to the Western life-style, al-Masri is also hopeful that Palestinians will take mortgages from Israeli-owned banks in order to finance home purchases:

'I would be happy to see them taking out a mortgage in an Israeli bank, but even I cannot open a bank account there.'

Recently, the Palestinian millionaire was also awarded a permit to build a contested access road to the new city, facilitating one key step towards eventual habitation. The estimated move-in date for Palestinians residents-- and Israeli settlers-- is 2013.

Land Theft / Ethnic Cleansing 

Zionist plans to build a shopping centre on Armenian Church land
The Jerusalem occupation municipality announced a plan to build a new shopping centre with a car park on a piece of land that is owned by the Armenian Church in the old city.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Anti-Semitism and Israel's Inherent Contradictions, Ramzy Baroud
In a recent article, columnist Yaniv Halili described British author Ben White as 'anti-Semitic'. He also denounced Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi for writing a forward to White's latest book, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy. Those of us who can see through such distorted thinking know that White is a principled writer who has never displayed a shred of racism in his work. Zoabi is very well-known civil rights leader with a long-standing reputation of courage and poise. How could anti-racist endeavors themselves become the subject of accusation by Halili and others like him?
link to palestinechronicle.com

www.TheHeadlines.Org

Bill will turn Bedouin dispossession into Israeli law
A new bill seeks to turn the controversial Prawer Plan into Israeli law. If the Knesset passes the legislation, it will pave the way for Israel to step up its efforts to disposess the Negev's Bedouin and relocate them to impoverished townships. This bill has gone totally ignored by both local and international media.
link to www.alternativenews.org

Palestinians escort lost soldier out of village
Combatant loses sight of fellow soldiers during routine operational activity near Ramallah, later returns unharmed. IDF launched inquiry. 
link to www.ynetnews.com

Land Theft / Land Theft & Destruction /  Restriction of Movement / Apartheid / Refugees

Jerusalem Municipality Forces Arab Resident to Demolish Own Shop
JERUSALEM, February 2, 2012 (WAFA) – The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem forced a Palestinian shop owner in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan to demolish his own shop or face major financial and punitive consequences, Wadi Hilweh Information Center said Thursday. It said Akram Abbasi demolished his shop on Wednesday after he received a threat from the municipality that if he does not demolish it himself and remove the rubble, the municipality will do it for him and force him to pay costs. The municipality said Abbasi did not have a permit to build the shop. Palestinians say they build without permits because the municipality does not give permits to Arab residents.
link to english.wafa.ps

IOF soldiers blast part of Palestinian home, summon its owner
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) blasted part of the home of a Palestinian citizen in Yatta town, south of Al-Khalil, and broke many of its furniture at dawn Thursday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israel to Open New Police Station in Occupied East Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Post, an Israeli daily, reported via their website on Tuesday that the State of Israel intends to open a new police station at the Mount of Olives, in occupied East Jerusalem.
link to www.imemc.org

IOA confiscates 431 dunums of cultivated land in Nahalin village
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has confiscated 431 dunums of cultivated land in Nahalin village to the west of Bethlehem.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

New demolition notices delivered by the Jerusalem Municipality
On the morning of Wednesday, 1 February, the Jerusalem Municipality, supported by Israeli forces, raided the neighborhoods of Ein Al Louzeh and Karm al Shiekh in Silwan and delivered new demolition notices. This raid led to confrontations with local residents due to the provocative behavior of the Israeli forces that attacked Hamoodeh abd al Razak and his brother, spraying them with tear gas.
link to silwanic.net

OCHA: 1, 100 Palestinians, mostly children, displaced by Israel in 2011
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said about 1, 100 Palestinians, over half of them children, were forcibly displaced after Israel demolished their homes in 2011.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

 

Public Security Minister and the Jerusalem police chief tour Silwan under extreme security precautions
The Israeli Authority closed all of the entrances to Silwan and set up checkpoints while the Public Security Minister, Yitzhak Ahronovitch, and the chief of police in Jerusalem, Niso Shahaq, toured Silwan. They were received by David Bairy, the chairman of the settlement association ELAD, who apparently proposed the establishment of new police stations, most likely one in the settlement compound “Givatee Parking.”Silwan residents view the tour as a preliminary step before more formal discussions begin on 13 February. The police and ELAD enjoy a strong, well established relationship. Recently, the police allowed ELAD to turn an old police building into a residential settlement. In exchange, ELAD agreed to build a new police compound near the Ma’ale Adumim settlement that is also built on land confiscated from residents of East Jerusalem . At the end of the 90- minute tour, the convoy continued to the Mount of Olives, the rumored site of another proposed police compound. 

link to silwanic.net

Israel has closed 120 Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem since 1967
A Palestinian human rights organisation has revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities have closed more than 120 Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem since it completed its occupation of the city in 1967. Around 88 were closed down completely, while the others had to transfer their operations from occupied Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank. In a press statement, the Almakdasi Foundation said that the Israeli authorities have now closed-down the Islamic Club and Salwan Charity Foundation for a period of 30 days under the pretext of them receiving funding from Hamas and conducting activities on its behalf. This is despite the fact that both foundations have appropriate licences and Salwan presented evidence to prove its independence.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk

Top Likud minister: Peace will not come by uprooting Jews from their homes
Speaking at West Bank settlement, Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar says withdrawal from Gaza Strip 'did not improve or elevate Israel’s status, nor did it help achieve peace and security.'
link to www.haaretz.com

Yair Lapid: Jerusalem belongs only to the people of Israel
Budding politician, shy to expose his views in the media, has been more forthcoming in correspondences on his official Facebook page.
link to www.haaretz.com

Sabra’s Longing to Return
In Sabra, misery is never ending and suffering is eternal. Death has its own meaning. Pain has a number of synonyms. The home of resistance and immortality, unyielding, and defiant, Sabra, to me, is simply Palestine. I walked its dark and hallow streets. Immediately, I realized that I am amongst great martyrs and eternal freedom fighters. Blood, struggle, and the scars of war tell the tale of the place. Sabra’s daily life is a poem addressed to the sons and daughters of the forgotten Palestine. They greet you with a smile, and in their eyes you sense genuine warmth. They share with you to whatever they have. Even if it’s only scraps. Sighs have crept into the dreams of the Sabra children. They see nothing but the fight to return. The games the play are those of faraway Palestine. The trail of return is through the nozzle of a rifle.I went in with fear and respect. I went out longing to return.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Violence

Medics: Israeli tanks open fire on northern Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli tanks opened fired on the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said. No injuries were reported as tanks opened fire at a crowd of people in Beit Hanoun, medical sources told Ma'an. Six projectiles were fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday with no reported injuries. The projectiles landed in the Shaar Hanegev regional council at around 9 p.m., Israeli news site Ynet reported.

link to www.maannews.net

Israeli warplanes blast targets in northern Gaza
Israeli warplanes blasted targets in Beit Hanun, north of the Gaza Strip, at dawn Thursday with no casualties reported, local sources said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Palestinian man injured after being shot by Israeli police
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) -- A Palestinian man was injured on Thursday night after being shot by a policeman in the central Israeli city of Rehovot. Police said they noticed a man acting suspiciously in the streets and opened fire on the suspect when he tried to run away from them, Haaretz's Hebrew language site reported. The man sustained injuries to his foot and was taken to hospital.
link to www.maannews.net
 

Political Detainees

Document - Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Palestinian hunger striker’s life at risk: Khader Adnan
Khader Adnan has been on hunger strike since 18 December 2011 in protest against his a dministrative detention , a procedure which the Israeli authorities use to detain individual s indefinitely without charge or trial . Israeli soldiers arrested Khader Adnan from his house in Arrabe village in the occupied West Bank on 17 December 2011 and transferred him to Kishon detention centre in Israel for interrogation. He reported being beaten and ill-treated during his arrest and interrogation. According to his lawyers, Khader Adnan announced a hunger strike after the first day of interrogation in protest against his ill-treatment and the conditions of his detention. He was moved to Ramleh prison hospital on 30 December 2011 after his health deteriorated as a result of his hunger strike. He has lost a significant amount of weight, as he is only accepting water. The organization Physicians for Human Rights has warned that his life is at risk.
link to www.amnesty.org
 

1 Feb. '12: Sharp increase in administrative detention in 2011; one detainee on hunger strike for 46 days

Physicians for Human Rights – Israel reported on 29 January that Khader ‘Adnan, has been on hunger strike since 18 December 2011. Thirty-four year old 'Adnan, from the village of ‘Araba near Jenin, was detained on 17 December 2011 and placed in administrative detention. ‘Adnan is on the hunger strike in protest against his administrative detention and the manner in which he was arrested and interrogated. According to PHR, “his condition is life-threatening.”
link to www.btselem.org

Khader Adnan Mohammad Musa: Israeli Prisoner of Conscience
In 1948, brute force established Israel. In 1967, militarized occupation of one-fifth of former Palestine followed. An entire people suffer. Collective punishment is official policy. So are torture, violence, land theft, apartheid, injustice, and other forms of state-sponsored terror. They include imprisoning Palestinians for wanting to live free on their own land in their own country. As a result, since June 1967, over 750,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned.
link to sjlendman.blogspot.com

IOA renews administrative custody of MP, extends detention of journalist
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) renewed the administrative detention, without charge, of Hamas MP Mohammed Jamal Al-Natshe for six months for the second time running.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 

Crowded reception for recently freed Sa’eed Sarhan

 Sa’eed Sarhan was freed from Al Ramlah prison at noon on 31 January after the Central Court ruled that the police evidence presented against him was insufficient. Silwan residents expressed joy at his released and a large crowd gathered to welcome him home. Sa’eed Sarhan spent 9 months in prison. The prosecution tried to convince the court to expel Sa’eed from Silwan, but the judge ruled to release him.Sa’eed said to Silwanic site, “Today I’m out of the Israeli prisons not because of the justice of the Israeli courts because true justice would have given me no single hour in prison. This exposes the Israeli practices in the town of Silwan, and the judge who determined my innocence is also an Israeli who acted nine months too late. There are many people who were put in the prison oppressively.”Muhammad Mahmoud, Sa’eed’s lawyer said, “The Israeli prosecution made extraordinary efforts to falsify the charges against him which made me think that he would spend many years in prison, but thank God that he is now with his family.

link to silwanic.net

 

Gaza 

Gaza Human Rights Watchdogs not Meeting Ban Ki-moon
Gaza, (Alresalah.ps)--Human rights activists and associations excused for not accepting an invitation to meet the U.N. undersecretary Ban K-moon coming Thursday. Many of the activists invited favored not to attend Ki-moon and participate in the meeting for the way the U.N. selected them. Chairman of Al-Mizan human rights association Isam Yusuf said he is sorry for not accepting moon’s invitation since it does not extend to several officials bodies concerned such as the representatives of agriculture and health sectors and the spokespersons for the Palestinian captives in the Israeli jails or the Palestinian refugees.
link to www.alresalah.ps

Palestinians throw shoes at UN chief's convoy
Gazans express their anger at Ban Ki-moon's refusal to meet with the families of prisoners held in Israeli jails.
link to www.aljazeera.com

20 cars, 270 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli authorities on Thursday opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow 20 cars and 270 truckloads of commercial and agricultural goods into the Gaza Strip. One truck of flowers was allowed to be exported from the coastal enclave, Palestinian border crossing official Raed Fattouh told Ma'an. The southernmost border crossing is the only operating entry point for commercial goods and humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave, which is home to more than 1.65 million Palestinians.
link to www.maannews.net

Gazans protest slow pace of reconciliation talks
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Dozens of people in the Gaza Strip took to the streets on Wednesday night to protest the slow progress of reconciliation talks. Protesters banged empty cooking pots in a protest aimed at pressuring officials to speed up the process of national unity. Spokesman for the campaign Shamekh Badra said the protest was a success due to the wide participation of diverse sectors of society. The campaign, entitled "Loyalty to martyrs by ending the split," called on both Fatah and Hamas officials to speed up reconciliation in order to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.
link to www.maannews.net

Palestinian children's drawings find sanctuary at Swat
After being blocked by Jewish lobbyists in Oakland, California, an exhibit of drawings by Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip will be coming to Swarthmore on April 6. The project’s originator and organizer, Susan Johnson, met with the Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine (SPJP) on Monday night to discuss the specifics of their collaboration effort.  The drawings were collected by Johnson herself, who, in 2009, visited the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that borders Egypt and Israel and is home to approximately 1.5 million people. Operation Cast Lead, a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel that took place in early 2009, resulted in the death of around 1,300 Palestinians and caused enormous and largely irreversible destruction (to the regional economy and infrastructure). Johnson and her group visited centers, where they were shown drawings made by Gaza’s children as part of an art therapy program that dealt with the trauma sustained during these three weeks of invasion.
link to www.swarthmorephoenix.com

Protest / Activism / BDS 

Palestinians urge international community to join Global March to Jerusalem
The recent Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa have proven that the Arab people are no longer willing to tolerate oppression and tyranny. They send a strong message to Western hegemonic powers and their oppressive regional allies that a new wave of nonviolent civil resistance will ultimately prevail over injustice and occupation. In addition, the Arab uprisings also send an important message to all people of the world that armed resistance is no longer the only option for pursuing change.
link to palsolidarity.org
 

BDS proposal wins big at Occupy Oakland
Participants of the Occupy Oakland movement voted to back the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement during a regular general assembly (GA) meeting Wednesday evening at Oscar Grant plaza. In a near-unanimous passage of the proposal by 135 people voting yes, 12 abstentions, and 1 no vote, Occupy Oakland vowed to stand with the BDS movement. Palestine solidarity activists with Intifada Tent, one of many mainstay groups at Occupy Oakland, tweeted after the vote in the GA...
link to electronicintifada.net

BDS is Nazism and Omar Barghouti is Hitler says UPenn professor in shocking smear, Ali Abunimah
In the latest shot against the upcoming boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) conference at the University of Pennsylvania next weekend, the movement is being openly compared to Nazism.
link to electronicintifada.net

As anti-BDS attacks mount, students feel unsafe but U of Penn President maintains shameful silence, Ali Abunimah
Yesterday I wrote to University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann, asking her to condemn a vile and inflammatory attack by Professor Ruben Gur on the University’s own students. Gur likened those participating in this weekend’s conference on boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) (at which I will speak) to Nazis, and Omar Barghouti to Hitler. The unchecked inflammatory rhetoric by opponents of the conference, especially Professor Gur, is making students and conference participants feel unsafe. Most disturbingly, Gur singled out Jewish students and speakers, calling them “capos” at Nazi extermination camps. “Capo” or “kapo” is the term for a concentration or death camp inmate who collaborated with the Nazis.
link to electronicintifada.net

The BDS movement grows in Italy
Over the weekend of January 21-22, the third national meeting of the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel was held in Bologna, Italy. Roughly 80 activists from over 20 Italian cities representing groups, associations and political parties throughout Italy participated. The scope of the meeting was to evaluate the progress of ongoing campaigns, establish strategic objectives and shared work methods, exchange information between the various Italian groups working on BDS and reassess organizational aspects of the BDS movement in Italy.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/the-bds-movement-grows-in-italy.html

Short history of BDS in France
As 2012 begins, a French activist looks at the short history of the French BDS movement, which mobilized in the wake of the Israeli assalt on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead.
link to www.alternativenews.org

French campaigns to intensify efforts in support of Palestine
French pro-Palestinian organizations and figures promised to intensify their events and activities in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza people.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

BDS Update: Peaceful Blitzkreig and Israeli Counter Attacks
The Third Annual BDS Conference opened 17 December at Hebron’s Children’s Happiness Centre, “to expand Palestinian civil society’s active implementation of BDS that is deeply rooted in the Palestinian struggle.” European BNC coordinator Michael Deas affirmed, “BDS is now the main framework for solidarity. We are very close to closing the European market to Israel.”
link to dissidentvoice.org

Thank You Lara
Lara Fabian was forced to cancel a concert planned for Valentine's Day in Lebanon after activists launched a campaign against the singer due to recently surfaced surfaced of her at a pro-Israeli banquet.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Lara Fabian Out of Lebanon: Lessons Learned
The success of boycott activists in preventing a pro-Israel pop singer from performing a Valentine’s Day concert in Lebanon despite accusations of “cultural terrorism” and heated debates on Facebook may change the way boycott is advocated and legally protected in the country.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

 

Anti-Defamation League reprises debunked quote in attempt to discredit Helena Cobban and Penn BDS conference, Alex Kane

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is playing a leading role in the escalating debate over the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and this week's pro-BDS conference at the University of Pennyslvania. Over at the organization's "Access ADL" blog, the ADL has begun to publish what they call are highlights from "five of the most anti-Israel individuals scheduled to speak at the conference." But they completely miss the mark in their attack on Helena Cobban, and instead attribute a quote to Cobban that she says she never said and for which there is no evidence of. 

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/anti-defamation-league-reprises-debunked-quote-in-attempt-to-discredit-helena-cobban-and-bds.html

Professor petitions NC Supreme Court
After criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians and US policies towards Israel-Palestine, Dr. Terri Ginsberg lost her tenure track position at North Carolina State University. The following Open Letter will be sent with signatures to the Supreme Court of North Carolina and to North Carolina State University (NCSU) Chancellor Randy Woodson.

link to www.alternativenews.org
 

Racism / Discrimination

Israel: High Court Rulings Undermine Human Rights
Recent decisions by Israel’s high court aim to legitimize clear violations of Israel’s international legal obligations. In one decision, the court disregarded international law prohibiting discrimination, and in another, it ignored international law on the use of resources in an occupied territory. Israel should annul a law preventing Israeli citizens from living with their Palestinian spouses and end policies that permit private Israeli companies to strip rocks and other construction materials from quarries in the occupied West Bank for their own economic gain.
link to www.hrw.org

The Israeli Supreme Court’s Decision in the Citizenship Law Case HCJ 466/07, MK Zahava Galon v. The Attorney General, et al.
Raneen, a thirty-six-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, is married to thirty-nine-year-old Hatem, a Palestinian from the West Bank. They have been living together in the north of Israel since getting married in 1999, and have three children. They lead a normal family life, with one glaring exception: Hatem has only a temporary residency permit that allows him to stay in Israel for one year. The Interior Ministry has total discretion over whether or not to issue and renew his permit. When Hatem’s current permit expires, he may not be granted another. In such case he may be forced to separate from his family. This is the harsh reality created by Israel’s Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Racism Report: Africans in Israel, Adam Horowitz
This report demonstrates that Israel continues to ignore its international obligations towards asylum seekers and refugees and that various laws, policies and practices are racially discriminatory at their basis against this vulnerable population.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/racism-report-africans-in-israel.html

African refugees struggle to survive in Israel
Who are the Eritrean and Sudanese refugees that will be effected by Israel's Prevention of Infiltration Law, which passed last month? What did they face in their home countries and what do they struggle with now?
link to www.alternativenews.org

 

Senior sources: 'Evidence indicates Netanyahu's bureau chief harassed subordinate'

Testimony provided to Civil Service Commission investigators thus far appears to provide a solid evidentiary basis for the allegation that Natan Eshel, the prime minister's bureau chief, sexually harassed a subordinate named R. for a lengthy period, officials familiar with the investigation said on Wednesday.

link to www.haaretz.com 

Political Developments / Diplomacy / Other News

Israel asks U.S. to prod Palestinians to continue peace talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to press Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to continue the talks with Israel that began last month in Amman. The Prime Minister's Office said that the conversation with Clinton lasted 45 minutes, and quoted Netanyahu as saying, "Israel is interested in continuous talks with the Palestinians while preserving the security interests of Israeli citizens."

link to www.haaretz.com 

Abbas: “We Seek Real, Comprehensive Peace”
On Wednesday evening, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, stated during a press conference, held in Ramallah, with the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban ki-moon, that the Palestinian leadership seeks a comprehensive peace agreement with Israel, but will not accept to hold talks while Tel Aviv continues its settlement activities in the occupied territories.
link to www.imemc.org

Mishaal-Abbas meeting postponed
The meeting between political bureau chairman of Hamas Khaled Mishaal and PA chief and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas was postponed to an indefinite date.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Resheq: Closure of my Facebook page “arbitrary”
Political bureau member of Hamas Ezzet Al-Resheq has lashed out at the Facebook administration for closing his personal page on the social network.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

 

Turkey PM accuses American Jewish writer of double standards on Israel
Erdogan's comment comes in response to novelist Paul Auster's refusal to visit Turkey in protest of the jailing of journalists.
link to www.haaretz.com

 

Maghreb Islamists and Israel: Worrisome Signs

Ghannouchi’s statement on Voice of Israel radio, in which he said that “the future of Tunisian-Israeli relations is dependent on solving the Palestinian cause,” is still subject to both confirmations and denials.

link to english.al-akhbar.com 

Bahrain

Bahraini Regime Forces Kill Two Elders in Tear Gas Attack
Bahraini regime forces fired poisonous tear gas, killing two elderly protesters in two separate attacks.
link to www.almanar.com.lb

Bahraini detainees on hunger strike to protest torture
A leading Bahraini activist has disputed claims by the country's interior ministry that the hunger strikes in the country's jails are subsiding. On Sunday 14 leading political prisoners began refusing food after reporting systematic abuses in Bahrain’s jails, including beatings, torture and the use of tear gas. Since then the number of confirmed strikers had risen to nearly 200, with detainees demanding fair access to legal proceedings and respect for human rights.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Iraq

Al-Qaida claims attack on Iraqi government center (AP)
AP - An al-Qaida front group in Iraq claimed responsibility for a bloody attack on a government compound in the Islamist militants' former stronghold west of Baghdad last month and vowed more attacks on the Shiite-led government as it tries to make up with its Sunni-backed members.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com

Hashemi Guards Arrested As Iraqiya Returns to Parliament
As Iraqiya lawmakers returned to parliament today, the Interior Ministry announced the arrest of 16 Hashemi bodyguards they have connected to terrorist acts. Fortunately, reports of violence were light today. At least two Iraqis were killed and 13 more were wounded across the country.
link to original.antiwar.com

Iraq to host Arab summit on March 29
The Iraqi capital is to host the next regular Arab summit on March 29, the Arab League assistant secretary general, Ahmed ben Hilli, announced on Wednesday in Baghdad.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Iraq executes 17 after U.N. rebuke (Reuters)
Reuters - Iraq executed 17 people on Wednesday, days after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized Baghdad for carrying out a large number of executions and questioned the fairness of its judicial proceedings.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com

Why we should be furious the Haditha massacre Marines got no jail time, Roqayah Chamseddine
Orwellian-style agitprop; this best describes the latest article written by James Joyner for The Atlantic on the Haditha massacre, which refers to the event in which 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women and children were killed by a group of United States Marines in 2005 in the city of Haditha, in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/01/why-we-should-be-furious-the-haditha-massacre-marines-got-no-jail-time.html

Iran

 

Senate begins another Iran sanctions push, targets Ahmadinejad and Khamenei

On Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee will officially start work on a new sanctions bill against Iran, and senators are set to add even more sanctions to the bill as it goes through the legislative process -- including measures that directly target President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

link to thecable.foreignpolicy.com

Iran doubles defense budget amid rising tensions
Iran plans to more than double military spending over the coming 12 months, according to an annual budget proposal by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented to parliament on Thursday. "In the area of defense, there is a 127 percent increase," Ahmadinejad said in his statement to lawmakers. Iran's official defense budget for the current fiscal year – which ends in mid-March – is around US$12 billion, on top of which parliament has authorized a US$3 billion extension.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

 

This is terrorism: Israel sets up elite command unit to strike behind `enemy` lines
Kim Sengupta - The Independent - "The unit, headed by Major General Shai Avital, a former head of an elite reconnaissance squad, was ordered by the head of Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to focus on undercover work."
link to www.independent.co.uk

Iranian nuclear bomb a matter of political will: US spy chief
Iran is keeping open its option to develop a nuclear weapon, but US intelligence agencies do not know whether it will eventually decide to build one, the US intelligence chief said on Tuesday. New US sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear program were likely to have a greater impact than previous ones, but were not expected to lead to the downfall of Tehran's leadership, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in prepared testimony on the annual worldwide threat assessment for the Senate intelligence committee.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Dempsey Told Israelis US Won’t Join Their War on Iran, Gareth Porter
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told Israeli leaders Jan. 20 that the United States would not participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel without prior agreement from Washington, according to accounts from well-placed senior military officers.Dempsey’s warning, conveyed to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister [...]
link to original.antiwar.com

No Exit in the Persian Gulf?, Tom Engelhardt
When it comes to U.S. policy toward Iran, irony is the name of the game. Where to begin? The increasingly fierce sanctions that the Obama administration is seeking to impose on that country’s oil business will undoubtedly cause further problems for its economy and further pain to ordinary Iranians.
link to original.antiwar.com

The Sound of One Hand Clapping:The U.S. Tries Too Hard to Fear-Monger about Iran, Nima Shirazi
With Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's recent admission, alongside Israel's similar, near simultaneous, acknowledgement, that Iran is indeed not - I repeat, NOT - building nuclear weapons and has not even made any decision to do so, it seems certain sectors are doing their best to keep those war drums beating and public hysteria over Iran at a fever-pitch.  The fact that Clapper - a longtime favored colleague of Robert Gates - would use the bogus Saudi-Mexican-Iranian-Used Car Dealer assassination plot to reach the conclusion that Iranian leaders "have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime" is not only absurd but dangerous.
link to www.wideasleepinamerica.com
 

Syria

UN debates removal of Syrian president
Security Council convenes in New York over draft resolution calling for Bashar al-Assad to hand power to deputy.
link to www.aljazeera.com

 

Russian holds firm against military intervention in Syria
U.N. diplomats say they have made progress on a Security Council resolution, but challenges remain. About 70 more deaths are reported in Syria. As diplomats attempted to craft a compromise, Russia remained firm Wednesday in its pledge to veto any U.N. Security Council resolution that could open the door for international military intervention in Syria.

http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/middleeast/~3/i0lNCQ4JzzM/la-fg-syria-violence-20120202,0,1368187.story

Russia official says Moscow will not stop sale of weapons to Syria
Moscow has been one of Syria's most powerful allies - along with Iran - as Syria tries to crush the revolt against President Bashar Assad.

link to www.haaretz.com

Iran Warns Citizens to Avoid Bus Trips to Syria
The warning came after Iran’s government confirmed reports that 11 Iranian citizens, whom it described as pilgrims, had been kidnapped last week while visiting Syria.

link to feeds.nytimes.com

The Lede Blog: Video of Heavy Street Fighting in Syria

A video opened a view on the pitched battles raging between Syrian government soldiers and rebel forces.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

Fears of Syrian civil war grow as violence escalates
Violence in Syria appears to be worsening with at least 31 people killed on Wednesday in clashes between the Syrian army and rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The bloodiest battle took place in the al-Safsafa neighborhood of Homs, with 15 regular soldiers and eight civilians reportedly killed, according to the UK-based Observatory. Six rebel fighters were also said to have been killed in clashes in the town of Wadi Bardi on the outskirts of Damascus.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

 

Aleppo Energy Crisis: Running Out of Patience

A severe shortage of oil and petroleum products has brought Syria’s political and security crisis home to Aleppo, the country’s second largest city and economic powerhouse.

link to english.al-akhbar.com

Other Mideast News

Saudi Arabia: Christians Arrested at Private Prayer
Thirty five Ethiopian Christians are awaiting deportation from Saudi Arabia for “illicit mingling,” after police arrested them when they raided a private prayer gathering in Jeddah in mid-December, 2011. Of those arrested, 29 were women. They were subjected to arbitrary body cavity searches in custody, three of the Ethiopians told Human Rights Watch.
link to www.hrw.org

 

Hariri Alliance: Paper Plans to Nowhere?

Ahead of the annual rally to commemorate the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, Lebanon’s March 14 alliance is busy drawing up plans for a comeback after being forced from government last year. The parties and politicians who make up the March 14 coalition have been preoccupied with the business of producing documents. After the experience of the past seven years, the current opposition is finding that the best course of political action often involves gathering their thoughts and recording them on paper.

link to english.al-akhbar.com 

 

Analysis / Op-ed

How the Occupation Became Legal
Eyal Press - The New York Review of Books - Surprisingly little is known about the legal apparatus that has enabled and structured the occupation. Filmed in nine days but based on years of archival research, The Law in These Parts aims to expose it. Even before the 1967 Six-Day War, the film reveals, officers in the army’s legal corps drew up guidelines for a separate system of laws that could be applied to territory under IDF control, rules they were convinced could strike a balance between order and justice.
link to www.kibush.co.il

The nonchalant, flippant, and nostalgic judges who put the occupation on legal footing, Scott Roth
I was fortunate enough to see “The Law in These Parts”, by Ra’anan Alexandrovicz at The Sundance Film Festival. It was, to put it mildly, a searing indictment of Israeli behavior on several fronts. The film sets out to examine how the legal groundwork (under Israeli law) for the occupation was conceived and put into practical use. The revelations aren’t pretty.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/01/the-nonchalant-flippant-and-nostalgic-judges-who-put-the-occupation-on-legal-footing.html

The BBC censors the word "Palestine"
This press release from the Palestine Campaign beggars belief... PRESS RELEASE: for immediate release: 31st January 2012 * *BBC Trust rules in favour of censoring ‘Palestine’ The BBC has admitted it was ‘overcautious’ in editing the word ‘Palestine’ from an artist’s performance on Radio 1Xtra and has said it is ‘looking to learn’ from the way it handled the situation. However, in a ruling released today (31/01/12), the BBC Trust said the final content that was broadcast on the Charlie Sloth Hip Hop M1X – a music programme – was not biased and therefore did not breach its editorial guidelines.
link to www.arabist.net

The BBC Censors its own Report on Tunisia’s Jews Saying “No” to Israel, Alan Hart
There was a moment in a report from Tunisia by the BBC’s Wyre Davies when I could not stop myself laughing. I was listening to it on the Corporation’s generally excellent World Service radio. (In my view this particular BBC service is generally excellent because unlike all other BBC news and current affairs outlets, radio and tv, it often reflects some of the truth about what is happening in and over Palestine that became Israel).
link to dissidentvoice.org

Romney’s battle in FL was to show Adelson he is OK on Israel –TNR, Philip Weiss
Your Israel lobby at work. Noam Scheiber reports at the New Republic that Romney's big goal in Florida was to convince Sheldon Adelson to drop Newt (whom he and his wife have given $10 million) and come over to his side. So Sheldon Adelson is the prize. I remind you that Adelson has said all he cares about is being a good citizen of Israel, he regrets wearing the American uniform, and he wants the U.S. to attack Iran because of his fears for Israel.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/romneys-battle-in-fl-was-to-show-adelson-he-is-ok-on-israel-tnr.html

Media Tell State Department: The Emperor Has No Clothes
When it comes to the so-called Israeli-Palestinian "peace process," the State Department daily press briefings have truly degenerated into a farce in which the mainstream media refuses to believe any longer.  Take, for example, yesterday's briefing, during which a succession of members of the media poked holes in the logic of the United States saying for the umpteenth time that Israeli settlement activity is "unhelpful" yet refusing to even consider any "consequences" for Israel's repeated and flagrant disregard of U.S. policy concerns.
link to blog.endtheoccupation.org

AIPAC met quietly with Dem thinktank to deplore writings critical of Israel, and took its leaders to Israel, Philip Weiss
Ron Kampeas has a good wrapup report on the CAP bloggers affair, the writers at the Democratic-Party-linked thinktank who were targeted by a smear campaign because they were critical of Israel. Kampeas concludes that the public attack on the writers was so over-the-top that it hurt the accuser, Josh Block, an Israel lobbyist formerly with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/aipac-met-quietly-with-dem-thinktank-to-deplore-writings-critical-of-israel-and-took-its-leaders-to-israel.html

How Congress is crushing Palestine
Laila El-Haddad - Gaza Mom - "Congress’s policies aimed at, what exactly? Punishing the PA for its statehood bid? For attempting to reconcile with Hamas? Or simply in deference to Israel, their masters?"
http://www.gazamom.com/

Mossad chief held secret talks in DC with top U.S. officials, Annie Robbins
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met yesterday for the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment. And it was broadcast live. Haaretz reports "cursory comments" made by Senator Dianne Feinstein and General David Petraeus indicate they recently met with Mossad chief Tamir Pardo in Washington.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/mossad-chief-held-secret-talks-in-dc-with-top-u-s-officials.html

Is Israel a failed state? asks ‘American Conservative’, Philip Weiss
The American Conservative is fabulous. It has a piece on Israel as a failed state, by Noah Millman. It is broaching a question that the New York Times and Washington Post will get around to in another five years, I guess. Millman observes that Palestinians have never reconciled themselves to the idea of a Jewish state-- and gosh, doesn't their opinion matter?
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/is-israel-a-failed-state-asks-american-conservative.html

In ’07, Gingrich blamed Israel for Palestinian conditions, Philip Weiss
Seems like both Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich have moved relentlessly right on the Palestinian issue. (Yes, and why?) Here's some more data. Tablet's Jacob Sugarman reports that one of Obama's rabbis on Israel/Palestine issue is, god help us, Ed Koch:
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/01/in-07-gingrich-blamed-israel-for-palestinian-conditions.html

New Texts Out Now: Ben White, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy
Ben White: I wanted to write something that would accessibly describe the policies of segregation and discrimination that Palestinian citizens in Israel have experienced since 1948. Many people, even those who are engaged with Palestine/Israel to some extent, are unaware of the ways in which the Palestinian minority has been systematically marginalized in ways that go far beyond the “complaints of inequality” that surface in the mainstream media on occasion. This is more than popular prejudice; we are talking systematic discrimination in key areas of state policy such as immigration, citizenship, housing, planning, and budgets. So, for example, since 1948, over seven hundred Jewish communities have been established in Israel’s pre-1967 borders (that is, not including West Bank settlements). Yet in the same period, not one new city, town, or village for the Palestinian minority has been created, with the exception of seven townships made for forcibly displaced Bedouin in the Negev. The state’s approach towards its own citizens mirrors the pattern we see in the occupied West Bank: Jewish housing and construction is privileged in parallel with Palestinian housing and land ownership being targeted for demolitions, bureaucratic obstacles, and fragmentation.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Is Israel on the Road to “Self-destruction”?, Alan Hart
One very well informed and courageous Israeli who thinks the answer is “Yes” is Merav Michaeli, a radio and television presenter who also writes for Ha’aretz. She is completely without fear when it comes to telling it like it is. On 2 January this year, for example, she wrote: “The Israeli government doesn’t want peace. There’s nothing new in that. It has been the proven way since the establishment of the state.”
link to dissidentvoice.org

Grandstanding and Betrayal -- Shalita Camp, Lebanon
In the US, it would be a difficult task to find even more revolting and groveling intellectual “half-men” to borrow a phrase from Syria’s beleaguered President Bashar Assad than Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich during their recent “debate” in Jacksonville Florida. While a high percentage of Republican Jewish voters will go to the polls in this winner-take-all primary, Mitt and Newt are also pondering their national fundraising networks as they gratuitously misrepresented history and betrayed their claimed religious and moral beliefs. Romney repeated his screed that President Obama “threw Israel under the bus” by following international law, seven UN Security Council Resolutions and world opinion by designating the pre-1967 borders as the starting point for peace talks. He also complained that America’s President “disrespected” Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu when Obama spoke recently at the UN and mentioned in passing illegal Israeli settlement building but did not discuss retaliatory rockets being fired from Gaza into occupied Palestinian territory.
link to www.counterpunch.org

New documentary presents shallow view of Arafat, Sarah Irving
A new documentary on Yasser Arafat accesses big-name Palestinian figures but wastes an opportunity to provide an in-depth look at the late leader.
link to electronicintifada.net

In interview of Muslim Brotherhood leader, NPR repeatedly asks about Israel’s security, Philip Weiss
I'm a fan of the anthropological term "culturally-bound." I think everyone is culturally-bound, and everyone has an obligation to struggle against the bindings. Though yes I tend to focus here on privileged Americans like myself. Well, last week Robert Siegel of National Public Radio interviewed Amr Darrag, a leader of a Muslim Brotherhood-aligned political party in Egypt, about policies favored by Islamists. And you should read his last eight questions below-- but Siegel seemed to me to be culturally-bound in his nagging apprehension about Israeli security and his concerns about the role of women in Egypt.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/01/in-interview-of-muslim-brotherhood-leader-npr-repeatedly-asks-about-israels-security.html

Why American 'democracy promotion' rings hollow in the Middle East, Mark Weisbrot
Egypt's crackdown on Republican and Democratic organisations is hardly surprising: they're widely seen as stooges of US empire. I have to laugh when I see the International Republican Institute (IRI) described by the international media as an "organization that promotes democracy" (in this case, on NPR). The IRI is in the news lately because Egypt's military government has put some of its members on a "no-fly" list and thereby trapped them in the country, facing investigation and possible trial. I am wondering just how credulous these journalists and editors are: if I were to describe the Center for Economic and Policy Research as "a magical organization that transforms scrap metal into gold", would that become CEPR's standard description in the news?
link to www.guardian.co.uk

Ikhras Shoe Of The Month Award Winner – January 2012
Ikhras is pleased to announce the winner of the Muntadhar Zaidi Shoe of the Month Award for this January, 2012 is Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf.  Speaking during his visit to occupied Palestine Feisal Abdul Rauf,  a self-declared supporter of Israel,  called on Muslims world wide to follow in his own foot steps and take a pilgrimage to the Zionist entity.
link to ikhras.com
 

www.TheHeadlines.Org

The American Conservative is fabulous. It has a piece on Israel as a failed state, by Noah Millman. It is broaching a question that the New York Times and Washington Post will get around to in another five years, I guess. Millman observes that Palestinians have never reconciled themselves to the idea of a Jewish state-- and gosh, doesn't their opinion matter?

Millman is reviewing Gershom Gorenberg's important book, The Unmaking of Israel:

[Post '67] The Israeli state broke its own and international law, but more alarmingly from the perspective of the integrity of the state, it encouraged private parties to believe that they were acting patriotically when they broke the law and forced the state’s hand, all in an effort to establish “facts on the ground” that would (those responsible presumably thought) redound to Israel’s benefit—or, more properly, to the benefit of the “Jewish national movement,” since Gorenberg’s contention is that this activity in fact damaged Israel as a state and since it wouldn’t be correct to talk about this or that activity benefiting an entire ethnic or religious group like “the Jews.” Since 1967, Gorenberg relates, the settlement enterprise has undermined the Israeli state top to bottom. It has fostered secrecy and corruption in government...

Gorenberg is making the case that Israel has encouraged the reversion to a pre-state mode of being; it has revived a situation where Jews are locked in ethnic conflict with their neighbors rather than dominating an independent state with relations (whether conflicted or harmonious) with neighboring states. But why blame Israel for this? How do we know that the pre-state situation ever really ended? Did the Arab states make peace in 1949? No. Have the Palestinians reconciled themselves to the idea of a Jewish state? No. Have the Palestinian citizens of Israel at least reconciled themselves to it? No. So why should Israel effectively disarm themselves and say: we’ve got enough; we’re not going to fight for more—even though you will continue to fight so that we have less. Why should Israel be the sucker?

...Zionism’s goal was a sovereign, independent Jewish state in the historic land of Israel, as a means to the moral and spiritual rebirth of the Jewish nation. If the occupation is destroying Israel’s fundamental character, dismantling the state, and corrupting the people, as Gorenberg contends, then Zionists above all should want to end it, as swiftly and comprehensively as possible, and not try to hold out for the most favorable terms—to say nothing of holding out for the approval and acceptance of those for whom the Jewish state can at best be seen as an unfortunate fact of life.

After all, it was always absurd to think that anyone but the Jewish people would ever truly endorse the aims of Zionism, because Zionism was a specifically Jewish national project. That project is properly judged a success or failure by what kind of nation it built, and how. Which is how Gorenberg judges it. And, to his dismay but not despair, he finds it wanting.

The issue of Israel being "an unfortunate fact of life" for its Arab neighbors and even second-class Palestinian citizens seems to me the great imponderable of the Arab Peace Initiative. Israel was offered a chance to legitimize itself in the eyes of its neighbors and in the eyes of the Palestinians too with that 2002 overture--offered a chance to show accountability for the Nakba by allowing a return of the refugees. That is the answer to Millman's questions about the irreconcilability of the Jewish state  for its neighbors; no, they rejected it, for a long time, and then offered an opening to it. The delegitimization of Israel that we have seen since is one that Israel itself has assisted fully, by treating its neighbors and non-Jewish citizens, including those under occupation, with such contempt.

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for glomming this piece.

Noam Sheizaf has a very smart piece up at Foreign Policy forecasting the results of the upcoming Knesset elections (he's not giving exact numbers - but who would, it's a parliamentary system?).

He's not optimistic about what the results will augur for the "peace process":

"Of all the major parties, none is expected to run in the next elections under a peace platform. Labor's new leader, the ex-journalist Shelly Yachimovich, prefers to concentrate on the economy and distribution of wealth. In a recent interview she even spoke of her sympathy to the settlement movement. In Kadima, the hawkish Shaul Mofaz is considered the front-runner in the coming primaries against current party leader Tzipi Livni, while the aforementioned [Yair] Lapid takes pains to ensure that he's no leftist and doesn't anyway seem very interested in the Palestinian question. Likud itself is moving to the right, with very few MKs left of the party's historical pragmatic wing, and one shouldn't forget Yisrael Beiteinu party leader and Israel's current Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who remains just as strong at the polls despite a maximalist, far-right agenda."

Although Bibi won't be unseated by the furthest right in his party, Likud's settler recruitment drive is going to tell. The man himself might be somewhat insulated from the furthest right, but his party as a whole is not. Some never were: Danny Danon and Yuli Edelstein aren't bit players anymore, they're the faces that, after Bibi's own, that Likud has chosen to show to the world (Danon is the chairman of World Likud; Edelstein is the Minister of Information and Diaspora).

As Sheizaf notes, the Ocupation is indeed a "non-issue" among the Israeli electorate - except for those carrying it out daily in the West Bank (and they'd prefer nosy people like Breaking the Silence keep the kids off of their lawns). The settlers have again and again pressured the government into marginalizing what already marginal voices voice criticism of the Occupation. A housing crisis? Build more houses in East Jerusalem, problem solved. And the spectacle over Migron shows no sign of ending soon. Who's going to stop Netanyahu? Netanyahu? Israel Hayom will keep printing (on Haaretz's machines, ironically) its pro-Netanyahu editorials, the Jersusalem Post and Yediot Ahronot will keep moving even further to the right, and independent television networks will continue to be cowed by libel laws and government pressure.

Given the way talks are going in Jordan - Israeli negotiators are pushing the West Bank barrier as the future interstate border, incorporating around 10% of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, into Israel proper - the "peace process" looks like it's heading smack into another wall (no pun intended). And if Palestinian unity succeeds in bringing Hamas in from the wilderness, the Israeli government has repeatedly asserted that it will not negotiate with Fatah anymore. This is a debate in and of itself - but for my part, I think reconciliation is less likely now that Khaled Mashaal is apparently going to resign rather than mount a challenge against the hardliners in Gaza.

I cannot see Fatah, let alone Hamas-Fatah, taking the Israelis up on their offer here, since "its zigzaggings have been determined primarily by the location of Israeli settlements, but it is impossible not to notice the dozens of wells and springs isolated in the so-called seam zone between the high concrete wall and the Green Line, which has cut off Palestinians from between 30 and 50 percent of the water they were allowed to pump from the Western Aquifer under the Oslo Agreement." And Israel has refused to freeze settlement construction during peace talks (though if they're all built around East Jerusalem, it won't really matter vis a vis the West Bank barrier, now will it?).

I don't think anyone has to worry that "if talks advance in such a direction, it could also spell the end for his nationalist coalition, where key members would consider the abandonment of most of the West Bank - a strategic highland and biblical heartland - an unforgivable betrayal." Netanyahu is not going to be that Prime Minister. 

When these talks stall - Abbas will likely offer some doggerel about returning to them at a date six months from now following consultation with the Arab League, and the Western media will leap to blame him and him alone for the talks' collapse - I can't see the US doing much to advance the "peace process" from here on out, "Obama 2012" or not.

If a Republican wins, then forget it altogether (Ron Paul is not included in this, but he won't be getting the nomination). Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have both made it clear that they do not regard any Palestinian political actor as a peace partner (top GOP donor and Israeli newspaper owner Sheldon Adelson must be ecstatic), and Congressional Republicans are increasingly peddling the idea of Israel's Biblical borders - "Judea and Samaria" - as a solution to the Occupation (Christians Zionists are ecstatic; I imagine some settlers will be too, though not exactly for the same reasons).

The Israeli right would finally have the international cover for annexation that even the George W. Bush Administration wasn't willing to provide. While the Republican National Committee quickly moved to deny its zeal for a "one-state solution" after Mitchell Plitnick called them out on it, it's clear from House resolution after House resolution, speech after speech and gala dinner after gala dinner that the Grossly Oblivious Party is only paying lip-service to the two-state solution as it turns inward from nuanced foreign affairs discussion and the "bipartisan consensus on Israel" in favor of unrepentant neoconservatives and evangelical voters who see the Holy Land as just that: the Holy Land. Anything else just doesn't poll well among Evangelicals, or increasingly, the anybody-but-J Street wing of the "Israel Lobby." A further to the right Israeli government might not raise much objection to such loaded resolutions, though it would probably want more informed people to help draft them, since as it stands that pandering GOP resolution implies one law, one vote for all "Israelis," regardless of their religion or ethnicity.

A second Obama term does not offer much hope either. Will Obama seek to base his presidential legacy on a peace process that the Israeli government is clearly not interested in putting its own political capital on the line for? Would he do that to his reputation, to his own party? And will he really put pressure on Bibi after getting burned time and again since 2008? For all the (meaningless) furor over his comments on Israel's 1967 borders, Obama has not at any point demonstrated a commitment to pressure Netanyahu over his willful disregard for the Oslo Accords.

With the possible exception of Iran, which is less of a crisis in the special relationship than a debate between the "go-slow" guys and the chickenhawks in both countries' capitals, the Obama Administration has not at any point put serious pressure on the Israeli government over any issue.

And while some have hope over Dennis Ross's absence in a second Obama Administration, who would be replacing him as the go-to guy? Jimmy Carter? More realistically, Ross's hotline to the Oval Office hasn't been disconnected, so it's naive to assume that his view - the majority view within the Beltway on Israel-Palestine - leaves with him. I don't know a single person who has suggested that it would, which actually restores my faith in humanity's analytical skills. As Noam has noted elsewhere, "In both cases [a Romney presidency or a second Obama one), one could assume that the United States will continue to pay lip service to peace while in practice supporting the Israeli occupation with money, arms and the diplomatic cover it provides."

"The new Knesset could mark the first definitive break by moving the political conversation into firmly one-state territory." Yes, by finally ditching the Oslo Accords in favor of the de facto policy of gradual West Bank annexation, the one that's been going on since the early 1970s. In 1972, the government counted some 10,000 settlers in Israel's census. Now there are over 500,000.

Prospects for Palestinian unity are dim, there is no Israeli political opposition to serious challenge Likud's coalition, and as always, the US government half-heartedly plods into the room to lecture everybody, only to shuffle off when it becomes clear no one in the room respects what it has to say. And then it's 2016 and we begin again.

But for now, welcome to 2012, the year of the Bibi.