This post originally appeared on The Arabist.

Participating in “Youth for the Right to Water and Sanitation” project (YRWS) has opened our eyes to a deeper and wider range of information regarding the water crisis that Palestinians have been suffering from, for years. Previously, we lacked awareness of such deadly facts. However, during the project, we are keen to better understand the key factors behind our water and sanitation crisis, and we have absorbed a lot of information concerning the daily frequent Israeli violations of international human rights law leaving water and sanitation on the edge of collapse.

In the light of thirsting for truth, as youth leaders, we feel responsible for raising up this cause internationally to speak on behalf of the unheard vulnerable Palestinians. So, after one of the project's meetings about the Israeli attacks, which are the origin of our current water crisis, we determined to reveal the bitter truth; therefore, we traced the road to Alsabra area located in the middle of Gaza City.

It was all in Alja’al’s house consisting of 16 members, including the 50-year householder, Ehmoud Alja’al who was a taxi driver but currently he is jobless due to healthy malaises he suffers from. His wife, Ateyat Alja’al, starts telling her tale aged 15 years!

“We are obliged to purchase gallons of clean water which cost US$18 a week instead of the salty and polluted water; we even use this clean water for bathing and washing. At the time we do not have enough money to purchase sufficient amounts of clean water, I am forced to cook and knead with the salty water which causes dermal diseases, vomiting, diarrhea and dysentery to my children”, said Ateyat.

In the last war in Gaza in 2008, Israel destroyed most of the facilities of water: 11 water wells, 4 water treatment plants as well as the sewage discharge plants.
It is also worth mentioning that Israeli restrictions on entry of fuel and electricity have resulted in 60-80 million liters of untreated or partially treated sewage flowing daily into the sea and contaminating the underground aquifer, which is the only available source of water to the 1.5 million people in Gaza, causing high levels of nitrates (330 mg/liter) which led to saltiness of water.

As Israel is a state party to Article 24, Child rights’ convention which declares that "the contracting countries must combat diseases and malnutrition by affording nutritive foods and pure water for children", it is obliged to implement what is stated by this convention; nevertheless, Ateyat's story proves the exact opposite!

“We only receive water 3 days a week at midnight; my eldest son has to stay awake till 12:00 am when water is available in the taps in order to store as much water as he can because we do not have a generator for pumping water”, she added.

Back to 2006, Israel bombed Gaza’s only power plant; consequently, water crisis is reaching alarming proportions because irregular supply of electricity leads to disorder of water distribution. “Electricity is another predicament; when water is available, electricity is not and vice versa!” Ateyat said. Noting that “Water must be healthy, sufficient, affordable and accessible”, Article 1, 11, Human rights’ accord

Israel, as an occupying power, has legal responsibilities to the under international humanitarian law as it is declared in the Fourth Geneva Convention, relative to the protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War “An occupying power is responsible for maintaining public health and hygiene in an occupied territory which necessitates the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.” Whereas the following states the contrast, "the salty water my neighbor receives once caused her sever digestive disease, so she always borrows clean water, which she can not afford, to avoid such diseases," she said.

SOS
“We complained about water problems to the concerned party but no response because the ones we complain to also suffer from the same problem, we really need help!" appealed she.

Take Action
To respond her appeal and many others', be part of the change by joining us on our global campaign ‘Thirsting for Justice’ and take part in  Facebook: Thirsting for Justice, and Twitter @thirsty4justice

As thirsty for justice and volunteers in (YRWS), we call upon international community to immediately intervene to advocate our rights of water as human beings and pressure Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and ensure that Palestinians in the OPT are enjoying their right to water.
Palestine is sorely appealing you for help and justice as its people have been bearing a lot under the Israeli’s violations of all water resources which are going to run out by 2015.

Remind your mind that Right to Water is Right to Life!

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 

Not behaving like Caesar's wife-- Goodman last month called for Israel to wage an international "war" for its public image. Now he's calling for war against Iran.

Notice the sloppy thinking-- that Iran is threatening America with nukes, threatening a world war.

Daniel Nolan reports for the Spectator, a Hamilton, Canada, newspaper on a speech by Goodman on Thursday night at a local synagogue, sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal:

A prominent Israeli writer is advocating his nation attack Iran’s nuclear development facilities now because the risk is too great after that country builds nuclear weapons.

Hirsh Goodman doesn’t believe sanctions being pushed by Western nations will stop Iran and said something has to be done this year before Iran moves its nuclear work underground.

He said a nuclear Iran, along with a nuclear Pakistan, would plunge the world into “a new cold war, if not a hot one.”

“The minute Iran is nuclear, it’s a whole different game,” Goodman said Thursday night at the Beth Jacob Synagogue in west Hamilton.

“Not because they are going to blow up Israel. They’ve got missiles that can reach the east cost of America, but what happens if the ayatollah (Iran’s supreme leader) wakes up one morning and destroys the Saudi fields and the Kuwaiti oilfields and the West is left with no energy.”

The Israel military court has extended administrative detention for two months in addition to three months already detained for civil rights lawyer Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, a lecturer at An-Najah National University and the Cultural Coordinator for the Tanweer Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum, currently detained in Ofer Prison near Ramallah.

Yousef Abdul Haq was arrested November 7th, 2011 at his home at 2:00 AM, suffering from illness which requires constant dosage of medicine, forcing his transfer to a hospital immediately after his arrest in Ramla.

He was sentenced to two months in administrative detention immediately.

This arbitrary administrative detention is legally incompatible with the most basic international standards of human rights, because it is without any specific charge against the prisoner. These arbitrary detentions depend on the military file and “secret evidence” which cannot be seen by the detainee or defense lawyers. This file is prepared by Israel intelligence and is “collected” illegally.

This type of detention is internationally banned and is impacting lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council, members of local councils, university students, political activists, academics, trade unionists and even women and children.

The imposition of administrative detention by Article 111 of the military state of emergency imposed by the British colonial authorities of Palestine September, 1945 is illegal on the grounds that Article 43 of the Hague international agreement of 1907 prohibits an occupying power to change the legislative reality of the country occupied.

Administrative detention is the endless suffering of the prisoners because they may de detained for a decade, physically and psychologically impacting the detainee and their family based on the expectation that the next decision will be an extension of detention.

The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights received from the Israeli military court in Ofer, that the number of additional administrative detentions issued by the Israeli military governor reached a total of 5,971 since the beginning of 2004 until the end of 2010.

We in the Tanweer Enlightenment Forum, call for the release of our colleague Dr. Yousef immediately from behind bars, and we hold the Government responsible for the conditions of Israel’s occupation, in respect to his health. We demand the end of the administrative detentions which are contrary to international law..

On this occasion, we declare our solidarity with the prisoner hero Khader Adnan, who is continuing his hunger strike battle in his 55th day to end the administrative detentions. We also call on international institutions and the Arab and local media to expose the policy of administrative detention. We uphold the work of a united front for the release of Palestinian prisoners including lawyers, members of the Legislative Council, academics, students, children and women.

                 We call for the end of administrative detentions forever.

                                    Freedom for political prisoners.

                 Close the detention camps and prisons and abolish                                               administrative detention.

 

A recent response to a subpoena from the United States Capitol Police has revealed the main assailant of a peaceful demonstrator who was physically attacked and injured on May 24, 2011, to be Stanley Anthony Shulster, allegedly a member of the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). According to the lawsuit, Mr. Shulster, a retired lawyer, admitted to assaulting Rae Abileah, a member of CODEPINK, in the House of Representatives while she protested the Israeli occupation of Palestine during the speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel. The Capitol Police issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Shulster for this attack.

Mr. Shulster’s biography on the Jackson County, Oregon Republican Women website identifies him as “an Unpaid Lobbyist,” and a “Volunteer in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Unit and a member of AIPAC.” The bio states: “At the last AIPAC meeting in May of 2011 Stan was present to hear the stirring address that Prime Minister Netanyahu gave to Congress and he grabbed the woman who heckled the Prime Minister while he was speaking.”

Abileah protests Israeli occupation
during the speech by Netanyahu 5.24.2011

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach also attested to the assault when he wrote in his blog, “The elderly gentleman to my right, whom I had been talking to just before the speech started, pulled the flag out of her hands, cupped his hands over her mouth, and assisted in subduing her.”  Additional witnesses have been identified by the U.S. Capitol Police.

According to the complaint, Mr. Shulster grabbed the banner held by Ms. Abileah, used his hand to attempt to gag and suffocate Ms. Abileah, and yanked her head back, injuring her neck. As a result of the attack, Ms. Abileah sustained a neck strain, swollen neck and muscle strain, and has since suffered from frequent head and neck aches as well as emotional trauma.

Ms. Abileah is a 29 year old American Jew of Israeli descent, who works as the Co-Director of CODEPINK, a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice organization that seeks to end U.S. wars and the U.S. funded occupation of Palestine.

“I was shocked that the biography of the person who attacked me would brag about his use of violence. This lawless behavior echoes the routine actions of the Israeli government and military in carrying out violent acts daily against the Palestinian people. I am hopeful that my filing suit will be a clear signal to those who attempt to silence peaceful protesters, that they will be held accountable for their illegal actions,” said Ms. Abileah.

Photos of the action and assault can be found here.

AIPAC’s 2012 annual policy conference will be held from March 4 to 6 in Washington, D.C. It is expected that peaceful protesters will challenge AIPAC’s policies of supporting Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people and its threats of attacking Iran.

(Plans for OCCUPY AIPAC are under way and will take place March 2-6 in Washington DC.)

The following press release was just sent out by WitnessBahrain.org:

American Citizens Arrested in Bahrain during Peaceful Protest
Huwaida Arraf & Radhika Sainath in Police Custody

For immediate release

Febraury 11, 2011

(Manama) – US Citizens Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath were arrested by Bahraini security forces in Manama on Saturday during a peaceful protest in near the Standard Chartered Bank downtown. Protesters had marched into the city center to reestablish a presence of nonviolent, peaceful protest leading up to the 1-year anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising in Bahrain.

Huwaida and Radhika were in Bahrain as part of an international solidarity effort aimed at providing an international civilian presence to report and monitor the situation on the ground. Leading up to February 14, Bahraini authorities had prevented journalists, human rights observers and other internationals from entering the country, leading many to fear a brutal crackdown. The two women are part of the Witness Bahrain initiative ( http://www.witnessbahrain.org ), which arrived in Bahrain in response to a call by Bahraini democracy activists for international observers.

Just yesterday, top US human rights envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, called on the Bahraini authorities to respect the rights of Bahrainis to peaceful protest and to refrain from using excessive force. Huwaida was dragged away by numerous security forces after sitting on the ground, and it is widely reported that detainees have suffered physical abuse while on the way to and at police stations.

Both women were part of a peaceful protest marching near the Pearl Roundabout – site of last year’s peaceful round-the-clock protest in Bahrain, modeled after Egypt’s Tahrir Square – when they were attacked. Both are human rights lawyers, and both have experience as human rights activists in Palestine. Additionally, both were part of the National Lawyer’s Guild delegation to Gaza following Operation Cast Lead to investigate possible war crimes and illegal use of American weaponry on a civilian population.

A new, neoconservative online outlet called the Washington Free Beacon is continuing the campaign against the Center for American Progress (CAP) in two articles that go after the organization for “downplaying” intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program. But the author, Adam Kredo, misleads readers by distorting the existing evidence on Iran. The articles represent a continuation of a campaign to discredit those who are cautious about a war on Iran, a core reason why neoconservatives are attacking CAP.

Kredo’s main contention is that CAP, along with the Huffington Post and Media Matters, has “downplayed new intelligence indicating Iran’s nuclear program is more dangerous than previously thought.” Kredo writes that liberal groups have taken to questioning the reporting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the organization tasked with monitoring nuclear energy and weapons. But it’s Kredo’s characterization of the most recent IAEA report that is wrong.

But first, Kredo is also wrong when he writes that liberal groups like CAP have questioned “the IAEA’s recent findings on Iran.” As evidence for that assertion, he links to a CAP report that approvingly cites the IAEA report “detailing Iran’s past and current nuclear weapons-related research.” So in fact, CAP does not question the veracity of the IAEA report--and neither do the other articles Kredo links to.

More important though is Kredo’s distortion of the IAEA report--which, it should be noted, has been credibly criticized by some analysts. The distortion serves up an agenda that portrays an Iranian nuclear weapons program as an “existential threat” to Israel that should be wiped out by the U.S. and/or Israel--actions that would lead to a disastrous war.

"This is the exact same pattern that we saw in Iraq, and the effort by folks to hype the threat and take things out of context and confuse the American public into thinking things that are not true," said Jamal Abdi, the policy director for the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). "Right now, a lot of Americans have been fooled into thinking that Iran has a nuclear weapon, or even that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon."

In Kredo's first article (which has a hyperlink with the title, "war on truth,") Kredo writes:

The IAEA’s most recent report reveals that Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons since the mid-1980s with public activities peaking around 2002 before apparently moving underground.

And in his second article, which smears CAP as "prejudiced" and "anti-Semitic," he similarly states:

Liberal writers routinely question the veracity of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) November report on Iran. The report builds the case that the regime is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons.

The IAEA report does sound the alarm on certain aspects of Iran’s nuclear work that the report says may indicate nuclear weapons work. But no where in the report can you find a definitive statement that “Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons since the mid-1980s” or that Iran is “aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons,” which is how Kredo characterizes it.

"What [U.S.] intelligence reports found and continue to find is the same thing the IAEA report found, which is that Iran had a concerted nuclear weapons program up until 2003, and shut that program down," Abdi explained in a phone interview. "And while there still remains some activities that appear to be geared towards no other purpose than potential weapons work, it’s the finding of both the intelligence community and the IAEA that Iran has not made a decision to actually pursue a nuclear weapon. If anything, what they’re moving towards is the capability if they decide to get a nuclear weapon. And that’s much different than what this reporter is asserting."

Kredo's misleading characterizations, which frequently shows up in mainstream media, have been roundly criticized by the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). In November 2011, a FAIR “action alert” noted:

The first part of the agency's November 8 report declares--once again--that Iran is not transferring uranium for use in a military project.

The more explosive allegations that media are focusing on are contained in an annex that attempts to lay out evidence that has been circulating for years. The IAEA report stresses concern over allegations over past activities; very little of the report is dedicated to research that could be describing as ongoing. Indeed, the media is focusing primarily on the IAEA's speculation about what might be ongoing research that could be related to a military program.

The Christian Science Monitor also had a good report outlining why the IAEA report wasn’t the “game changer” it was made out to be:

In a 14-page annex to its quarterly report on Iran released yesterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said new intelligence and other data gave it "serious concern" about the allegedly peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. But the casus belli for military strikes that anti-Iran hawks in the US and Israel expected to gain from the IAEA report is far from clear-cut...

Prior to the report's release, speculation mounted in Israel and Washington that new revelations might prompt military strikes to prevent Iran from acquiring a weapon.

Instead, experts say, much of the information is years old, inconclusive – and perhaps not entirely real.

Most of the weapons-related work it details was shut down nearly a decade ago – in 2003 – the IAEA says, and less formal efforts that "may" continue do not bolster arguments that Iran is a nation racing to have the bomb.
Iran "doesn't seem to have the same North Korea-like obsession with developing nuclear weapons. That's nowhere to be found in the [IAEA] evidence," says Shannon Kile, head of the Nuclear Weapons Project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
"Yes, Iran is making progress, they've covered the waterfront in terms of the main technical areas that you need to develop a nuclear weapon," says Mr. Kile. "But there is no evidence they have a dedicated program under way. It's not like they are driving toward nuclear weapons; it's like they're meandering toward capability."

And after readers, urged on by FAIR, complained to the New York Times’ ombudsman about articles claiming that the IAEA report states that Iran's nuclear program has a military objective, the ombudsman agreed with FAIR. Arthur Brisbane wrote correctly that the “agency has stopped short” of emphatically saying that Iran is building nuclear weapons. Similarly, the Washington Post's ombudsman criticized his paper's reporting for "getting ahead of the facts on Iran" after a headline in the Post read, "Iran’s quest to possess nuclear weapons." The Times and the Post are no bastions of anti-war on Iran sentiment, so it’s significant that their ombudsmen would chastise their papers for reporting what Kredo is also writing.

To bolster the case that Iran is definitively pursuing nuclear weapons, Kredo quotes Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as saying that Iran is “certainly moving on [the] path” towards weaponization. It’s true that Clapper said that; but the next sentence in his testimony was this: “We do not believe they have actually made the decision to go ahead with a nuclear weapon.” This is similar to what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on CBS last month: “Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability and that’s what concerns us.”

Kredo’s zeal to discredit CAP and other analysts who are speaking out against a war with Iran is clearly one more step in the attempt to marginalize critics of current U.S./Israeli policy on Iran. Predictably, the clamoring for an Iran war is appearing in an outlet whose chairman is the neoconservative writer Michael Goldfarb, who advises the Emergency Committee for Israel. Goldfarb has also advised Sarah Palin on foreign policy.

"The hyping of this type is going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy," NIAC's Abdi said. "We’re going to see a repeat of Iraq. But a war with Iran is going to make the wars of the past ten years look like a cakewalk."

Yesterday, MSNBC reported that Mossad agents trained an Iranian group on the U.S. terror list, in order to carry out assassinations of nuclear scientists. Active since the 1970s, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran are credited as responsible for five deadly attacks on scientists since 2007.

Rock Center with Brian Williams MSNBC report.

MSNBC spoke with Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide in the Iranian government whose assertion the terror organization was linked to Mossad was confirmed.  The group was "financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service."  MSNBC reports:

Moreover, [Larigani] said, the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is training MEK [the Iranian terror group] members in Israel on the use of motorcycles and small bombs. In one case, he said, Mossad agents built a replica of the home of an Iranian nuclear scientist so that the assassins could familiarize themselves with the layout prior to the attack. [Emphasis added]

The news station’s evidence is based upon interviews with Iranian officials, and documents apprehended from a thwarted assassination attempt in 2010.

The Iranian terror organization denies allegations of a relationship with Mossad, citing the report as "absolutely false." Conversely, U.S. government officials stated to MSNBC "all your inclinations are correct," and affirm no involvement.  However, skepticism remains, Al Jazeera previously chronicled the group's strong U.S. ties:

George W. Bush's attorney general Michael Mukasey has described MEK members as 'courageous freedom fighters'. President Barack Obama's former national security advisor, General James L. Jones, gave a speech at a MEK conference dominated by non-Iranians. Their events have also been attended by former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Hat tip to Paul Mutter for catching this**
 

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