Mondoweiss » Iraq http://mondoweiss.net The War of Ideas in the Middle East Mon, 28 May 2012 13:50:14 +0000 en hourly 1 UN Committee: Israeli system ‘tantamount to apartheid’ http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/un-committee-israeli-system-tantamount-to-apartheid.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/un-committee-israeli-system-tantamount-to-apartheid.html#comments Sun, 27 May 2012 14:37:44 +0000 Today in Palestine http://mondoweiss.net/?p=76668 link to mondoweiss.net Ethnic Cleansing / Land Theft & Destruction / Occupation & Apartheid / Exile & Restriction of Movement / Refugees Report: Israel issued 13,000 demolition orders against Palestinian real estate Haaretz newspaper said the Israeli civil administration issued 13,000 demolition warnings … Continue reading →]]> link to mondoweiss.net

Ethnic Cleansing / Land Theft & Destruction / Occupation & Apartheid / Exile & Restriction of Movement / Refugees

Report: Israel issued 13,000 demolition orders against Palestinian real estate
Haaretz newspaper said the Israeli civil administration issued 13,000 demolition warnings against Palestinians accused of unlicensed construction in Area C of the West Bank.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

UN report shows that, in contrast to the tight restrictions placed on Palestinian construction in Area C, the Civil Administration's regulations allow settlements to proliferate.
 

Israeli military order expels Palestinian family from its land
The Israeli occupation forces expelled on Friday a Palestinian family from an area south of Al-Khalil, claiming that it is a closed military zone in which Palestinians are not allowed to live.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

 Deir Istiya’s Farmers Pray for Their Trees
Wadi Qana, occupied West Bank—About 30 residents of Deir Istiya gathered under an olive tree in the village’s Qana Valley farmland on Friday, 18 May 2012, for midday prayers. They were praying for a miracle. Last month, Israel’s Civil Administration (ICA)—the deceptive title allotted to the governing body running its occupation of the West Bank—handed nine of Deir Istiya’s farmers orders to uproot over 1,400 olive trees by May 1st or face the consequences. Nafiz Mansour, whose extended family owns most of the farmland in Wadi Qana, is rather despondent when looking towards the future. “What can we do? We are up against the one of the strongest militaries in the world – they can do whatever they want. We are living on 22% of historic Palestine and the are taking more every day.”
 
Occupation to confiscate 30 dunums of Palestinian land in Deir Estia
The Israeli occupation issued a military order to confiscate 30 dunums (1 dunum= 1000 square meters) of Palestinian land in the village of Deir Estia in the northern West Bank district of Salfit.
 
Jewish settlers wound Palestinian, set dozens of dunums on fire
A Palestinian youth was shot in his abdomen while hundreds of cultivated dunums of land were set on fire during Jewish settlers attacks on a number of villages to the south of Nablus on Saturday.

Arbitrary checkpoint in the middle of Silwan
 In the late hours of  Wednesday The Israeli forces located a sudden Arbitrary checkpoint in between Beer Ayoub’s and al Abassiya’s area near the protest tent in Silwan. The Israeli forces provoked the locals and it raised the tension in the area.   2 days ago a lot of confrontations happened as a result of the Israeli soldiers’ and the settlers’ guards  provocations, The Israeli forces tried to invade a house through its roof in the Beer Ayoub area, and it lead to an angry reaction from the local youth that attacked the Forces using stones and molotov’s cocktails . During the confrontations the Israeli forces used robber bullets, sound and gas bombs, but it didn’t stop the people’s anger, the Forces tried to control the situation but couldn’t as a result of their provocations. 
 
Israeli undercover units deployed in Sheikh Jarrah
The Israeli occupation authorities have deployed undercover policemen in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem to arrest young Palestinians.
 
IOA blocks travel of liberated prisoner
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has blocked on Friday the travel of liberated prisoner Thawra Hamur to Jordan for treatment.
 
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A group of Palestinians deported to Gaza after the Nativity Church siege in 2002 on Saturday disputed claims by a former economic adviser that they had signed an agreement to be exiled. The 26 deportees told Israeli forces during the siege that only Yasser Arafat could negotiate on their behalf, denying claims that they themselves gave their approval to be deported, a statement said. 
 
UN Committee 2012 Session Concludes Israeli System Tantamount to Apartheid
Between mid-February and early March 2012, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination held its 80th session, in which it evaluated the compliance of several states with the 1966 International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Among these states was Israel, which became a party to the Convention in 1979. The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations are notable because they establish that Israel’s policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are tantamount to Apartheid, and additionally determine that many state policies within Israel also violate the prohibition on Apartheid as enshrined in Article 3 of the Convention.   ... Israel is a party to ICERD but has neither signed nor ratified the Apartheid Convention. 
 
Discerning the likely direction of events in the Middle East and their impact on the Palestinian refugees is a speculative but important step in trying to avoid pitfalls and policy errors of the past. The challenge is particularly difficult at this moment of great change: a financial crisis of systemic proportions, the rise of China and India as global actors, the accelerating impact of climate change, and the start of the Obama presidency in the United States. This contribution briefly examines the current situation of Palestinian refugees before presenting an overview of wider trends in the world refugee populations under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) jurisdiction with a particular focus on repatriation flows, resettlement, and local integration. It then focuses on possible scenarios in the resolution of the Middle East conflict, encompassing the continuation of the status quo of Israeli domination, the debate on bi-nationalism, and the two-state model for a peaceful solution. It concludes by examining these possible scenarios and applying them to specific options and programmes for the refugees and by arguing that demographic growth, the continuing preference of the international community for repatriation as a preferred option for refugees, and the results of climate change are the issues that will have the most significant impact on the future of the Palestinian refugees.
 
Did the State Department just create 5 million Palestinian refugees?
An analysis by the academic journal Refugee Survey Quarterly projected that if that definition remains intact, there will be 11 million Palestinian refugees by 2040 and 20 million by 2060. 
 
Palestinians in the occupied territories, the diaspora and in refugee camps protested earlier this month on the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, commemorating the expulsion of a quarter million Palestinians by nascent Israeli forces. Palestinians were sending a message to the world that the right to return to their homes would not be forgotten, and that millions of refugees are awaiting a solution.
 
Symbols of Nakba, Visions of Return: Al Majdal Special Issue on the Nakba and Resistance
For peoples engaged in struggle, the potency of symbolism is undeniable. In the Palestinian case, the symbols of struggle cover the world throughout which we have been dispersed, and exhibit the depth of a century-old quest for freedom. Among the most potent of these symbols is the kufiyyeh, a headdress associated with 1936-1939 Rebellion against British occupation and Zionist colonization. Large metal keys have become emblazoned in the Palestinian collective memory because refugees carried the keys to their homes to which they were sure they would return. Other symbols include Naji al-Ali’s Handhala, a caricature character with the spiky hair of a hedgehog bearing witness to the bitter ironies of loss and victory; the map of a homeland resembling a sharp shard of glass carved out by European powers and gifted to the world’s most famous Diaspora, only to create today’s largest and longest standing refugee population; and a flag designed as part of a British colonial campaign against its rival Ottoman empire, later to become a banned symbol of resistance raised in acts of defiance by protesting youth throughout the 1980s.
 
Siege of Gaza
 
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Two young men in their 20s sustained injuries Saturday while they worked inside a smuggling tunnel in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said the two were evacuated to Abu Yousif al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah for medical treatment. Since Israel and Egypt imposed a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006, about 170 Palestinians were killed in accidents in smuggling tunnels Gazans have been depending on to bring all kinds of merchandise from Egypt. More than 700 were injured. 
 
WHO adopts resolution slamming Israel's siege on Gaza
The general assembly of the World Health Organization adopted unanimously a draft resolution submitted by Arab countries including Saudi Arabia condemning the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 
Fear to CPDS: Short Documentaries Tell the Story, Talgha Bendie – Gaza
The Centre for Political and Development Studies (CPDS) had the privilege of having Harry Fear, a young independent film maker, present a lecture on the importance of short documentaries. Harry who is 23 hails from Oxford, England. He has made many short documentaries which highlight issues such as social injustices which take place around the world. Fear recently returned from South Africa where he shot some short documentaries on location. He is currently working in the Gaza Strip shooting short documentaries which have a running time of up to thirty minuets or less and hopes to show the world the reality of life in Gaza as opposed to the mainstream bias of the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict. 
 
Power of Culture: PalFest Breaks the Siege of Gaza, Ayah Bashir - Gaza
Amid the focus on the economic hardships caused by Israel's ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, it has been easy for many to overlook the fact that the territory's 1.6 million people have been kept under a cultural siege as well. This is ironic because much international debate has emphasized the rights and wrongs of cultural boycott of Israel in the context of the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. For years, the Palestine Festival of Literature — PalFest — has been trying to break this siege.
 
Israeli Violence and Aggression / Attacks on Peaceful Protest
 
IOF troops open fire at southern Gaza
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened heavy machinegun fire at the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis, to the south of Gaza Strip, on Saturday morning, local sources said.

An Israeli settler shot and wounded a Palestinian man on Saturday in a clash that began when a group of settlers set fire to fields belonging to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, officials said. Residents said about 25 settlers, some of them carrying guns, set fire to wheat fields in the village of Orif, which is near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
 
WATCH: Settlers set fire to Palestinian olive grove, man shot, Noam Sheizaf
Eyewitness report that a Palestinian who tried to put out a fire started by settlers in Urif was shot and injured. Throughout the day, there were reports of settlers from Yitzhar trying to set fire to Palestinian olive groves near the village of Urif, south of Nablus in the West Bank. The entire area is know for its frequent confrontations between settlers and local farmers. A team from B’Tselem who arrived at the spot caught one of the attacks on camera; Sarit Michaeli, spokesperson for B’Tselem who filmed the video, told me she had a very clear view of the settlers torching the field.
 
Jewish settler runs over Palestinian child
A six-year-old Palestinian child was rushed to hospital on Friday after a Jewish settler ran over him with his car near a Ramallah village.
 
Army Attacks Bil’in’s Weekly Nonviolent Protest
The Friends of Freedom and Justice Committee in Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, reported Friday that dozens of residents and international supporters were treated for the effects of teargas inhalation after Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly nonviolent protest against the illegal Annexation Wall and Settlements.
 
IOF soldiers quell weekly village march in Beit Ummar
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) quelled on Saturday the weekly peaceful anti wall march in Beit Ummar village, to the north of Al-Khalil, local sources said.
 
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) persisted in attacking the weekly peaceful marches against the segregation wall and settlement expansion.
 
Detainees

IOF soldiers arrest Palestinian child, Jerusalemites
IOF arrested on Saturday a child from the Dhohsheh refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, while other forces raided several towns in Al-Khalil on Friday night and set up roadblocks on their entrances.

Hunger Strikers / Other Prisoner News
 
Abu Kweik to resume hunger strike after his administrative detention extended
Hamas official Hussein Abu Kweik said he would go on open hunger strike once again to protest the Israeli court order to extend his administrative detention for three months.
 
Sarsak and Rikhawi continue their hunger strike
Two Palestinian prisoners, held by the Israeli occupation, are still refusing food despite the deal to end a mass prisoner hunger strike, the prisoners’ center for studies reported.

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Prisoners in Israel's Huwwara detention center started a hunger strike Wednesday in protest of poor conditions, the Palestinian prisoners society said.  The society's lawyer visited the jail Thursday and said prisoners were returning their meals. Prisoner Rida Khalid, of al-Ain refugee camp in Nablus, said detainees were demanding decent food, cleaning products to wash their clothes and cells and adequate breaks, the society said in a statement. Khalid said prisoners' demands were basic yet the administration refused to meet them. He said the hunger strike would continue until the demands were met.
 
Hamas administrative detainees threaten to resume hunger strike
Administrative detainees from Hamas said they are seriously mulling over going on gradual hunger strike if the Israeli prison authority violated its agreement with them and extended their detention.
 
Ashkar: Prisoners from Gaza to receive family visits next month
The IPS told prisoners from Gaza that it will allow their relatives to visit them starting next June, under the recent agreement signed between the prisoners' leadership and the IPS.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Solidarity / BDS / Anti-Normalization
 
Rafah march for deteriorating hunger strikers as family appeals for support, Joe Catron
Hundreds of Palestinians, led by Scouts from throughout the besieged Gaza Strip, marched in Rafah today to demand that Israel release Mahmoud Sarsak and Akram Rikhawi, two detainees still on hunger strike.
link to mondoweiss.net
 
Palestinian Youth statement thanks football ultras group in Scotland for their solidarity
On the 13th of May, as the ‘deal’ to end the mass Palestinian hunger strike was about to emerge from the rumour-mill, far away from Palestine in Scotland’s biggest city Glasgow, a display of solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers was done supporters of Celtic Football Club. This was the final game of the season when Celtic were given the league trophy and crowned Scottish Football Champions and amid all the displays, colour, noise and party atmosphere a flurry of Palestine flags and a banner reading “Dignity is more precious than food” appeared in one particular corner section of the stadium.
link to weareallhanashalabi.wordpress.com
 
Sheikh Ekrema Sabri renews rejection of visits to Jerusalem
Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, the higher Islamic authority chairman, has renewed his rejection of Arab and Islamic visits to occupied Jerusalem in solidarity with Al-Aqsa mosque.

We are South Africans artists who have recently learned that in the course of your upcoming international tour (which will include Bulgaria, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey) the Red Hot Chili Peppers are also planning to perform in Israel in September. We appeal to you to heed the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel. As you may know, the boycott enjoys the support of the overwhelming amount of Palestinian civil society (including artists and artist groups) and an increasing number of progressive Israelis. You might wonder what purpose refusing to perform in Israel might serve? As a people whose parents and grandparents suffered under (and resisted) Apartheid in South Africa, our history is testament to the value and legitimacy that the international boycott had in bringing an end to the Apartheid regime in our country.  When artists and sportspeople began refusing to perform in South Africa, the world’s eyes turned to the injustices that were happening here. This then created a wave of pressure on politicians and world leaders representing their constituencies, to insist on a regime-change - this contributed to a free, democratic and non-racial South Africa. The same is not only possible for Palestine-Israel, but inevitable. The question is: on which side of history do you want to be? Performing in Apartheid South Africa during the 80s, or in Israel today, is choosing to be on the wrong side of history.
 
Why South Africa’s Decision to Rebrand Some Israeli Imports Packs a Punch, Karl Vick
The international effort to boycott products made in Israeli settlements got a boost recently from a formidable quarter. South Africa announced it would label imports from the West Bank not “Made in Israel” but perhaps “Made in Occupied Palestine.”  It seems a small thing. The new regulation stops well short of calling for a boycott on Ahava beauty products and other exports manufactured or grown by Israeli companies on Palestinian land occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
link to globalspin.blogs.time.com 
 
One of South Africa’s largest tertiary institutions, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, is a site of multiple controversies, but a near-disaster on Monday deserves more reflection because it points us in a positive direction: away from allying with the Israeli state and its apartheid policies during a time of heightened racism. A representative of Israel had been invited to speak but was then disinvited, after the university was called on by staff and students to respect the “academic boycott” of Israel.
 
Anti
 
It’s not every day you get the chance to grill a high-ranking representative of Lockheed Martin over its role in arming Israel. So I jumped at the opportunity to confront Chad Fulgham, a vice president of the corporation, with some unpalatable truths during his visit to Brussels today. After Fulgham had addressed a conference dealing with the future of NATO, I responded to an invitation for questions from the floor. “Mr Fulgham, in an advertisement published in the program of this event, Lockheed Martin says it is ‘proud to have contributed to smart defense with products such as the F-35’ fighter jets,” I said, looking directly at him. “Are you proud that in 2010, your company signed a contract to supply 20 of these fighter jets to the State of Israel?
 
Acting as "censor," New York's 14th Street Y abruptly cancels Jewish youth event on Israel boycott, Ali Abunimah
The 14th St Y in New York City abruptly canceled a Jewish youth educational event about boycotting of Israel in what organizers are calling an attempt to “censor” them.
 
Israel’s UK embassy plans Twitter campaign against boycott of Tel Aviv theater group, Ben White
The Israeli embassy in London, along with pro-Israel bodies in Britain, is coordinating a planned effort to counter the call for a boycott of drama group Habima, it has been revealed.
 
Israeli / Zionist Racism and Discrimination
 
During a class on Sabbath halacha relating to religious physicians, the spiritual leader of Shas said that while doctors are expected to do everything in their power – even if it requires violating the Sabbath – in order to save Jews whose lives are in danger, the same does not apply for gentiles.    "If a gentile were to get injured in a car accident during Sabbath, and he is brought to the hospital – Israel must not treat him," he said.
 
Following Wednesday's violent protest against African migrants in Tel Aviv, Likud MK Danny Dannon called to remove African asylum seekers from population centers in Israel. Speaking to Haaretz, Dannon said that the immediate solution for calming the situation and for putting a stop to the violence requires the evacuation of the African migrants from south Tel Aviv. "The infiltrators must be distanced immediately," he said. "We must expedite the construction of temporary detention facilities and remove Africans from population centers." MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union), who makes regular appearances at protests against the migrant population of Tel Aviv, nonetheless said he was “very upset by the violence.” Ben Ari pointed out, however, that “there are things that are outside of my control, that’s the reality.” Ben Ari expressed satisfaction that his campaign to remove the migrant population from Tel Aviv has begun to gain momentum. “Suddenly we see MK’s from Likud and Kadima showing up at protests. Suddenly I hear the Interior Minister saying things I’ve said myself,” said Ben Ari.
 
Mob against migrants: How far can the violence go?, Dahlia Scheindlin
The rioting last night in south Tel Aviv against African migrants – some of them asylum seekers –  was another one of those moments that paralyzed me with a mixture of disbelief, horror and sorrow. The photos of smashed windows were reflexively associated in many Jewish minds with Kristallnacht, as many people on social networks pointed out. One photo of Likud MK Danny Danon standing on a platform exhorting the masses to expel the strangers in their midst was reflexively associated in my mind with Benjamin Netanyahu “on the balcony” circa 1994 or 1995.
 
There is a disturbing connection to be made between Baron Cohen’s Zionist politics and his willingness to exploit real communities and to bastardize ethnic imagery. Zionism, an ideology that can accommodate liberal and humanistic discourses, cannot be practiced without a concomitant abrogation of the rights of those who are not Jewish, a reality that becomes even more severe when we consider that the vast majority of Palestine’s indigenous inhabitants are Muslim and Christian.
 
Other News and Developments
 
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released the US State Dept.'s annual report on human rights Thursday, criticizing Palestinian security forces for abusing detainees and restricting civil liberties. The 2011 report's sharpest criticism was leveled at the Hamas government which controls Gaza, but it also noted alleged violations by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Israeli occupation in the West Bank.  It said the three most egregious violations across the occupied territories were arbitrary arrest and associated torture and abuse, restrictions on civil liberties, and government impunity in Gaza. 
 
Analysis / Op-ed
 
The Electronic Intifada Weekly Podcast - 24 May 2012
This week’s podcast includes several reports of home and property demolitions by Israeli forces against West Bank Palestinians as well as Palestinians with Israeli citizenship; an interview with BDS organizer and activist Nada Elia; and more!
 
In recent years, the one-state solution has claimed a large proportion of the Palestine/Israel bandwidth. For many people, interest in the issue arose out of necessity. The two-state solution lay still-born or smoldering – and apartheid was as untenable as ever. Others – like me – have never believed in a partition plan for Palestine. Liberalism and equal rights hold their own special appeal. That’s something no amount of moralistic or historical gymnastics can obviate. It was with a focus on the future that several of us at Harvard began to work toward a one-state conference. The main idea, however, was grounded in the present. Our goal – which built on the work done by many before us – was to begin exploring what a shared state could look like. We also wanted to encourage others to begin thinking seriously about alternatives to the two-state model. I alluded to the reason for that above: the two-state solution is over. Completely. Unequivocally. It’s worth briefly reviewing why.
 
Shiri Krebs is a PhD student at Stanford University law school. She was an international law advisor to Israeli Supreme Court president Dorit Beinisch and a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute.  She published a paper (for Hebrew readers, Haaretz offers this story) this month in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transitional Law about the rubber stamp offered by the Israel’s highest court to the security services in cases of administrative detention.  She pointedly argues against the reputation the Court enjoys for being “interventionist” in protecting the rights of security detainees and offering a robust defense of democratic rights.
 
German aid to Israel’s war machine is an invitation to abuse human rights, Annette Groth
Israel is constantly increasing its military expenditure. Recently published data indicate that Israel’s spending on “defense” rose by almost 7 percent in 2011, compared to the previous year. The business opportunities provided by a brutal occupation have helped three Israeli companies secure a place on the list of the world’s top arms dealers (“Business as usual for top arms producers despite slowdown in arms sales, says SIPRI,” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 27 February 2012). All three of these firms — Elbit, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael — happen to be recipients of scientific research grants from the European Union European Union. This reflects how the EU has been eager to nurture both its relationship with Israel and the international market in “security goods.”
 
This week a sobering and highly informative closed door seminar was held on the plight of Palestinian Prisoners in the elegant surroundings of London’s Westminster Central Hall, a stone’s throw away from the Houses of Parliament and the 11th century Westminster Abbey, the all affirmation of stability and continuity — in starkest contrast to testimony at the proceedings of the meeting.  The seminar, hosted by Middle East Monitor, had been planned and organized at the height of the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike. Although most prisoners are reported to have ended their desperation-driven fasts following a deal with the Israeli authorities, the issues surrounding their shocking treatment and imprisonment are unchanged.
 
What are Israeli sweets doing in Sidon? How did they reach the heart of the Ein Al-Hilweh refugee camp? According to newspaper reports, this candy was distributed to shops with wrappers indicating that they were “made in Syria and Turkey.” When this packaging was removed, the original wrapper appeared with Hebrew writing. This is not the first time that Israeli products have intruded into our daily lives. For example, those who work in shops importing American or European clothes know very well that some of the famous names are made in enemy factories in occupied Palestine and their labels clearly say “made in Israel.” Moreover, their bosses make them pick out the clothes and remove the labels, threatening to fire them if they told anyone.
 
Last month, students at universities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank cast their votes for student governments. Unlike their popularity-contest equivalents at universities throughout the world, Palestinian student elections have long been the subject of national attention. In particular, Birzeit University, located in the town of Birzeit outside Ramallah, is seen as a forerunner of developments within the broader Palestinian political scene. Despite another year of electoral marginality, the student Left at Birzeit is confident that it will overcome the trials that confront it.
 
Being compared to Caroline Glick or the AIPAC crowd is never nice. I understand the superficial case for drawing direct comparisons—and I understand why it’s important for Peter Beinart to make the argument. But it’s not a good one. It is true that both Glick and I recognize that the two-state outcome is a “fable,” and we both offer prescriptions for what to do about it. But that’s it for the commonalities. Beinart and Glick however, may have some uncomfortable things in common.
 
Published on May 26, 2012 by : The Poem is called "Draw a Moustache on Antar's Face". Antar is a folk Arab warrior, he was a black slave and he grew up to be the hero of his tribe. He was in love with Abla and wrote many poems about his love for Abla. The poem likens Palestinian children to Antar in his childhood. The images are drawings from Palestinian children mostly from Gaza. - art was part of their therapy in the aftermath of Cast Lead. The poem calls on them to draw a moustache for Anter as he has grown into a warrior and draw for Abla, his beloved, a beautiful smile and laughter that sounds like bells chiming. The clip matches some of the drawings from the Palestinian children and real life images that inspired them.
 
JERUSALEM – As a result of the diplomatic momentum geared to disarm international suspicions over the explosive issue of Iran’s nuclear program, the one country not directly party to the two-track negotiation process feels more isolated than Iran. Following the putative breakthrough reached by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, according to which Iran would permit the nuclear watchdog to inspect secret Iranian military sites (including the Parchin base where nuclear weapons’ testing was apparently conducted in 2003), Israel fears the international community will lower its guard. 

The Elevation of Jeffrey Feltman
On one issue Feltman is remarkably consistent. When it comes to the Middle East, Feltman has been outspoken about the threats posed by Iran in the region. Whether in Beirut or Manama, he has publically denounced Iranian “interference” outside its own boundaries. At the same time, Feltman has generously offered US assistance to these same regimes. In other words, US interference is quite acceptable, but Iranian interference is utterly unacceptable. This might be adequate behavior for the diplomat of a country, but it is hardly the temperament for a senior UN official. It raises doubts about Feltman’s ability to be even-handed in his deliberations as a steward of the world’s political dilemmas.
 
A gripping, deeply informative account of the plunder, hypocrisy, and mass violence of plutocracy and empire; insightful, historically grounded and highly relevant to the events of today. This documentary is about the foreign policy of the United States. It demonstrates the importance of the political economy, the Mafia principle, propaganda, ideology, violence and force. It documents and explains how the policy is based on the interest of major corporations and a tiny elite to increase profits and the United States governments own interests in maintaining and expanding it’s imperialistic influence. Inside the United States this has been made possible with a propaganda of fear for the horrible enemies like the Soviet Union, Communists and so on and a love for “free markets”, “democracy”, “freedom” and so on. Externally (and increasingly internally) this has caused massive poverty and suffering, genocide, war, coups, crushed unions and popular movements and environmental destruction.
 
Bahrain
 
On 20 May a Bahraini court granted bail to the prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab. However the charges of ‘insulting a national institution’ have not been dropped and, despite paying the bail amount, he remains in detention awaiting another court hearing on a separate charge. This hearing is scheduled for 28 May.
 
Bahrain to quit Arabsat to protest Iran channels
Bahrain will stop broadcasting its channels on satellite operator Arabsat to protest an Iran-led "hostile" media campaign, the state news agency BNA reported on Saturday.
 
Last month in Bahrain’s capital of Manama, the police, supported by armored vehicles and troops, fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters to ensure a Formula 1 race would be showcased as scheduled. Inside the stadium, spectators like BBC's Dan Roan described the atmosphere as “relaxed”—like any other F-1 race. But across the city, burning tires set ablaze by pro-democracy protesters sent clouds of black smoke into the horizon as part of the opposition's “three days of rage.” Now, the furor of the international media that surrounded the race has unfortunately already moved on, returning to ignoring the repression of the country's democracy movement. Until the F-1 race, Bahrain’s uprisings had been largely passed over by the international media. It took a Grand Prix to swing the spotlight onto a crisis that’s been neglected and downplayed by the western media and politicians in the past year. The fact that much of the media focus fell on the “recklessness” of the F-1 organizers raises the question: Why did it take the media circus of a Grand Prix to shine light on the ongoing repression in Bahrain?
 
Fueled by a desire for liberty and dignity, the region’s various uprisings continue unabated. While each uprising faces its own set of challenges and obstacles, various interests have worked to ensure that a semblance of the previous geo-political status quo survives this staggering onslaught of people power. Amid the regional upheaval, world attention has predominately focused on events in Syria while Bahrain has teetered on the edge, with the repressive Al-Khalifa regime maintaining power with the help and encouragement of its Western and regional allies.  Unlike the Assad regime, the Al-Khalifa’s have been given a free hand to repress their own people thanks in large part to their close alliance with Saudi Arabia and Western powers. Despite attempts to silence the persistent intifada in Bahrain, whether by framing the dispute as sectarian or whitewashing the regime’s repression, the fight for the future of Bahrain, and the region as a whole, remains unclear.
 
Egypt
 
Cairo's poor hope new president will help them
As Egyptians took part in the country's first free presidential election, residents of one of Cairo's poorest quarters expressed hope that a new leader would help them with a simple request — finding a new home.
 
Hamdeen Sabbahi will file a lawsuit calling for the suspension of Egypt's presidential election because of alleged voting irregularities and a pending case over the right of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to stand, Sabbahi's lawyer said Saturday. Sabbahi is a leftist presidential candidate who did not make it into the run-offs by a very small margin. "We will present an appeal on behalf of candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi ... to the Presidential Elections Commission, citing a series of irregularities ... that have affected the outcome of the first round," lawyer Essam El-Islamboly told Reuters.
 
A revolutionary activist group in Mansoura has accused the Ahmed Shafiq campaign of buying votes and threatening voters with violence at the polls. Shafiq took first place in the governorate, with 450,000 votes, but in a statement from the “Catch the Feloul” group, the organization said Shafiq had obtained many of these votes either by purchasing them or threatening voters with violence. “Catch the Feloul” is an activist group which works to expose members of the former regime and educate people about them.
 
Independent polls are pointing to a second round run-off between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Mursi, and a man vowing to bring back security, Ahmad Shafik. These results, if they hold true, would come as a surprise with pre-voting indicators suggesting former foreign minister Amr Moussa and Islamist candidate Abdel Moneim Abul-Fotouh were the frontrunners heading into the count. The second round is sure to intensify a showdown between the powerful Muslim Brotherhood – the largest bloc in parliament – and the ruling military, who are no doubt hoping for a Shafik victory to ensure the army retains its power in Egyptian politics.
link to english.al-akhbar.com 
 
Egypt Election: Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Could Face Mubarak's Ex-Prime Minister in Runoff
Preliminary results from Egypt’s first-ever competitive presidential election indicate there may be a runoff between Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, and Ahmed Shafik, the former prime minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak. The elections appear to have been relatively free and fair, with voter turnout estimated at around 40 percent. While official results will not be announced until Tuesday, Morsi appears to be in the lead. The two candidates competing for second place are Shafik, the anti-revolutionary former prime minister, and Hamdeen Sabahi, a longtime protester of the Mubarak regime. We get an update from Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous in Cairo.
 
ALEXANDRIA - Praying for the best, Mabrooka Hassan Ali sat with her husband under the shade beside their voting station on the Mediterranean coastline. Ali, in her mid-60s, said she had just finished casting her vote for Hamdeen Sabbahi, Egypt’s secular, nationalist candidate. “I did it for the martyrs,” said Ali, who is from downtown Alexandria, the governorate’s most densely populated district. “I did it because we’re tired of being slapped around, youth have no jobs and we want to live.” Alexandria is the home of Khaled Said, a young man who was beaten to death in broad daylight by police in June 2010 and is considered the first martyr of the revolution. It is also considered a stronghold for Islamists, with thousands of Salafi followers and Muslim Brothers. Over the past few weeks, however, Alexandria has proven to be full of surprises.
 
Why Did Sabbahi - 'One of Us' - Do So Well?
During revolutionary times, remarkable social, cultural and economic changes occur. Each phase potentially carries new surprises as a reflection of these emerging changes. The emergence of Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi in third place, so far, behind the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohamed Mursi and Mubarak-era Ahmed Shafiq reveals the significant portion of Egyptians thirsty for social justice. After Islamists – the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists – successfully campaigned for a 'yes' vote in a referendum on the constitutional declaration in March 2011, and then swept the parliamentary elections later in the year, the Islamists managed to win only on average forty-two percent of votes in the presidential elections.
 
For years we have heard pro-Israeli supporters talk about how Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, well, that argument is no longer valid with the recent historical elections taking place in Neighboring Egypt. Pro-Israeli groups have often sought to legitimize themselves with this argument, that by virtue of being a democracy, Israel should be supported, and that since Israel is a democracy, it shows that they are somehow better than the Arabs.
 
Iran
 
Straight after P5 +1 talks over Iran's nuclear program in Baghdad, the head of the U.S. negotiating team, Wendy Sherman, traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisers on Friday. Sherman will update Israeli officials on the talks in Baghdad, and on preparations for the third round of talks in Moscow on June 18 and 19. Sherman, who is undersecretary of state for political affairs, will also discuss broader bilateral and regional issues with senior Israeli officials during her visit, the State Department said in a statement on Thursday. Sherman will also "reaffirm our unshakable commitment to Israel's security," the statement said without mentioning the just-concluded Iran talks in Baghdad.
 
WASHINGTON, May 25, 2012 (IPS) - Negotiations between Iran and the United States and other members of the P5+1 group in Baghdad ended in fundamental disagreement Thursday over the position of the P5+1 offering no relief from sanctions against Iran.
 
Just as the "world powers" – as they’re eerily referred to in news accounts – were rejecting Tehran’s proposal to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent in exchange for lifting the draconian sanctions against Iran, an American cargo ship sent out a distress call near the Strait of Hormuz: pirates were attacking them.
 
Iraq
 
President Jalal Talabani posted on his website a plea for Iraqi's leaders to end the political dispute that threatens to break apar the Coalition government, and perhaps Iraq itself. Meanwhile, at least nine Iraqis were killed and 14 more were wounded.
 
Officials: Roadside bomb kills 3 Iraqi soldiers
Officials say a roadside bombing in northern Iraq has killed three soldiers.
 
Baghdad mortar attack kills one, wounds six
A mortar attack in Baghdad killed one person and wounded six others Thursday, in the second attack in Iraq's capital during key talks on Iran's nuclear programme, security and medical officials said.
link to news.yahoo.com
 
Lebanon
 
Kidnapped Lebanese Shiite pilgrims 'not in Turkey'
A group of Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped in Syria and said by Lebanese authorities to have reached Turkey are not in the country after all, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Saturday.
 
Sayyed Nasrallah to Deliver Speech on Resistance and Liberation Day
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is to deliver a speech on the twelfth anniversary of Liberation.
 
Hezbollah chief Nasrallah: No fence will protect Israel
Speaking in televised address on anniversary of Israeli pullout from south Lebanon, leader of militant group warns Hezbollah has missiles that can reach any point in Israel.  In some of his harshest words against Israel in several months, Nasrallah delivered a similar speech two weeks ago, in which he said that Hezbollah was capable of striking any target in Israel. He also stressed that "the days when we fled and they did not are over."
 
May 25: South Lebanon Returns Home
On 25 May 2000, the Israeli army was forced out of the Lebanese territory it had occupied for 22 years. 12 years later, Lebanon celebrates its liberated lands which continue to be under threat from Israels military. Israeli fighter jets violate Lebanese airspace on a daily basis. In summer of 2006, Israel launched a war to destroy the Lebanese resistance.
 
With the expulsion of Israeli troops from South Lebanon in May 2000, hundreds of Lebanese collaborators and their families fled with the occupiers. Many have since returned and faced reduced prison sentences, others remain behind the wall that Israel is erecting to block the view of a land where it once roamed.
 
Mohammad Safa is a veteran of Ansar detention center set up by Israel during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Since his stint at Ansar, he has become one of the most prominent advocates for prisoners, detainees and the missing in Lebanon.
 
Lebanon is always on the verge of civil war, but this status does not always mean that civil war is necessarily around the corner. It may happen tomorrow, or Lebanese may find a way to postpone its eruption, but civil war is inevitable. Something is in the air in Lebanon and it reminds people of my generation of the atmosphere that preceded the civil war of 1975. But there are some differences.
 
Saudi Arabia
 
Militants post appeal of kidnapped Saudi diplomat
Militants have posted online a video in which a man identifying himself as a Saudi diplomat kidnapped by al-Qaida in Yemen appeals to Saudi Arabia's rulers to respond to his captors' demands and save his life.
link to news.yahoo.com

War Against Activists: Turning Saudi Arabia Into A Big Prison
In a secret session on 10 April 2012, the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced Mohammed Saleh Al-Bajady, who was denied legal representation, to four years in prison followed by a five-year travel ban. A day later, the same court sentenced Dr. Yousif Al Ahmad, dean of the law faculty of Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, to five years in prison, a five-year travel ban, and a 27,500-dollar fine. The sentence of both Saudi political activists demonstrates a recent shift in the legal proceedings of Saudi prisoners of conscience. Not only has the imposition of travel bans as a form of punishment been alarmingly increased; peaceful political activists are also being tried in a court whose mandate is to prosecute terrorist and security-related offenses. Where the Ministry of Interior was once the sole institution that issued such punishments, today it is using the courts to give the arbitrary travel bans a legitimate façade. The ministry’s ability to render arbitrary travel bans and overstep the judicial branch are, however, still intact. In light of increasing political activism and mobilization across the Kingdom in the last year, the ministry has resorted to unwarranted travel bans and the special court to suppress freedom of speech and to give a distorted legal legitimacy to its orchestrated attack on dissent.
 
Syria
 
UN observers count at least 90 bodies, including 32 children, after Syrian government forces attacked the town of Houla, sparking foreign condemnation.
 
The Lede Blog: U.N. Observers View Bodies in Syrian Village, Robert Mackey
After what Syrian activists called a massacre in a village near Homs, video posted online showed United Nations military observers viewing dozens of bodies prepared for burial on Saturday.
 
Haunting images of dozens of dead children in Syria, among 90 killed in new regime attack
BEIRUT - Gruesome video Saturday showed rows of dead Syrian children lying in a mosque in bloody shorts and T-shirts with gaping head wounds, haunting images of what activists called one of the deadliest regime attacks yet in Syria's 14-month-old uprising.
link to news.yahoo.com
 
Videos of the victims from the Houla massacre, many of whom are children - very graphic
link to www.youtube.com
link to www.youtube.com
 
Ban-Ki moon blames the regime for 'unacceptable' violence as activists say 50 civilians killed in Homs.
 
Kuwaiti rally condemns Syria 'massacre'
Hundreds of Kuwaitis including several MPs rallied outside the Syrian embassy on Saturday to condemn a reported massacre in the Syrian town of Houla and to demand the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army.
 
The Syrian regime and an increasingly organized rebel force are carrying out illegal killings and torturing their opponents.
link to www.freep.com
 
Rebel face control: US ‘to screen Syrian opposition for arms supply’
Washington is an inch from starting shipping arms to the opposition in Syria, anonymous US officials say. The biggest hitch is that it wants to be sure American guns will be pointed in the right direction and won’t end up in the hands of Al Qaeda.
 
Free Syrian Army says cannot commit to peace plan
The Free Syrian Army said on Saturday it could no longer commit to the ceasefire brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan unless there was an immediate solution to regime violence.
 
Opposition has failed Syrian people, says outgoing leader Burhan Ghalioun
The head of Syria’s main opposition bloc, Burhan Ghalioun, admitted after resigning Thursday that the Syrian National Council (SNC) was riven with divisions and has not lived up to Syrians’ sacrifices. “We were not up to the sacrifices of the Syrian people.
 
Syrian troops continue protest crackdowns
Activists say two killed in northern city of Aleppo, with reports of violence in Homs, Idlib, Damascus and Inkhel.

American banks are refusing to let Syria’s United Nations delegation open a bank account, its ambassador said Thursday blaming sanctions imposed over the conflict in his country. Syria’s U.N. envoy Bashar Jaafari said the refusal by U.S. banks was a “flagrant violation” of the U.N. charter. Syria was among a group of countries that lost their bank accounts when a major U.S. institution closed its branch at the United Nations last year. With U.S. banks applying tougher rules against all diplomatic missions because of fears over terrorist financing regulations, Syria’s U.N. mission was only able to find a new account in Washington. “This new bank has now closed our accounts unexpectedly,” Jaafari told a U.N. General Assembly committee.
 
Tucked away in the underground garage of a nondescript apartment building in northern Jordan, the door to “the warehouse” is easy to miss. It looks like it should be a janitor’s closet or a boiler room. In fact, the tiny basement apartment is a way station for smugglers moving a vital product.
 
The United States is reportedly developing a plan to vet members of the Free Syrian Army before Arab nations transfer arms to them. It hopes to avoid arming muhahideen who turn against America should they succeed in bringing down the Assad regime. The US does not want another al-Qaida on its hands. The race to arm Syria is heating up as Saudi arms shipments are said to be getting through now. Russia reportedly also has an arms shipment en route to Syria.  The UN is asking both sides not to send arms to Syria, but in vain. A new U.N. report blamed both sides for human rights violations, but explains that the Syrian army is still killing more people than the opposition.
 
Since the Washington Post’s May 16 report on an influx of arms to Syrian opposition forces, the Obama administration’s plans for a proxy war against Syria have become clearer still. The Post wrote of “significantly more and better weapons” reaching oppositionists, “paid for by Persian Gulf nations [Saudi Arabia and Qatar] and coordinated in part by the United States,” based upon a perspective that “an expanding military confrontation is inevitable.” Saudi Arabia and Qatar were sending weapons with approval from Washington, which has “expanded contacts with opposition forces to provide the gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.”
 
U.S. and Other World News
 
At least 10 people were killed and several others sustained injuries when unmanned US predator drone targeted a mosque in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan Agency on Thursday.

32 Britons could be killed in drone strikes, claims lawyer
“I understand that there are 32 people who British intelligence are concerned about and may provide intelligence to the US that could result in them being killed,” he said.
 
IT was James, a thickset American interrogator nicknamed “the Elephant,” who first told Lakhdar Boumediene that investigators were certain of his innocence, that two years of questioning had shown he was no terrorist, but that it did not matter, Mr. Boumediene says. The interrogations would continue through what ended up being seven years, three months, three weeks and four days at the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. An aid worker handling orphans in Sarajevo, Mr. Boumediene (pronounced boom-eh-DIEN) found himself swept up in the panic that followed Sept. 11, 2001. He likens himself to a caged cat, toyed with and tormented by fate and circumstance. “I learned patience,” Mr. Boumediene, 46, said. He is a private man, trim and square-jawed and meticulously kempt, his eyes set in deep gray hollows. “There is no other choice but patience.”
 
Propaganda firm owner admits attacks on journalists
The co-owner of a major Pentagon propaganda contractor publicly admitted Thursday that he was behind a series of websites used in an attempt to discredit two USA TODAY journalists who had reported on the contractor.
 
www.TheHeadlines.Org
]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/un-committee-israeli-system-tantamount-to-apartheid.html/feed 1 Senate fight today over the number of Palestinian refugees http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/senate-fight-today-over-the-number-of-palestinian-refugees.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/senate-fight-today-over-the-number-of-palestinian-refugees.html#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 16:16:53 +0000 Today in Palestine http://mondoweiss.net/?p=76544 link to thecable.foreignpolicy.com

'--> Senate fight today over Palestinian ‘refugees’ Thirty U.S. senators will vote today over whether there really are 5 million Palestinian "refugees" or just around 30,000 -- a hot-button issue that has already become the subject of a vigorous international debate involving … Continue reading →]]> link to thecable.foreignpolicy.com

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Senate fight today over Palestinian ‘refugees’
Thirty U.S. senators will vote today over whether there really are 5 million Palestinian "refugees" or just around 30,000 -- a hot-button issue that has already become the subject of a vigorous international debate involving Israel and its Arab neighbors. When the Senate Appropriations Committee takes up the fiscal 2013 State Department and foreign operations appropriations bill today, senators will vote on an amendment crafted by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) that would require the State Department to report on how many of the millions of people currently supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) are actually people who were physically displaced from their homes in Israel or the occupied territories, and how many are descendants of original refugees.
link to thecable.foreignpolicy.com

Eliminating 4,970,000 Palestinian refugees: Status Update
With the stroke of a pen, a new bill in Congress could slash the number of Palestinian refugees -- and open a world of controversy.


UK: Israel’s Settlements Harm its International Standing
The WAFA News Agency reported today a UK Foreign Office statement issued on Wednesday. British Foreign Secretary William Hague told his visiting Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman that Israel’s settlement expansion in Jerusalem and the West Bank harms its international standing.
link to www.imemc.org

IOF troops tear down six tents for Palestinian Bedouins
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) tore down six tents for Palestinian Bedouins near Yatta town to the south of Al-Khalil city.
 
Jewish settlers close main West Bank road
Jewish settlers from Tikwa and nearby settlements to the east of Bethlehem attacked Palestinian commuters and closed the main road linking north of the West Bank to its southern areas.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Latest Attempt at Legalization of Ulpana Settlement Neighborhood
Despite an Israeli High Court ruling that the Ulpana settlement neighborhood must be vacated and demolished because it is illegal, a Knesset bill that had been proposed to circumvent the court’s ruling has been stalled to allow more time for the government to settle the issue. Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his own Defense Minister to disobey the High Court and stall any demolitions.
 
Palestinian Hotel Occupation in First Quarter Decreases
The WAFA News Agency reported a press release by the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) today that hotel occupancy in the Palestinian areas decreased by 16% in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter, and by 13% when compared to first quarter 2011.
 

Senate fight today over Palestinian ‘refugees’
Thirty U.S. senators will vote today over whether there really are 5 million Palestinian "refugees" or just around 30,000 -- a hot-button issue that has already become the subject of a vigorous international debate involving Israel and its Arab neighbors. When the Senate Appropriations Committee takes up the fiscal 2013 State Department and foreign operations appropriations bill today, senators will vote on an amendment crafted by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) that would require the State Department to report on how many of the millions of people currently supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) are actually people who were physically displaced from their homes in Israel or the occupied territories, and how many are descendants of original refugees.
link to thecable.foreignpolicy.com

Eliminating 4,970,000 Palestinian refugees: Status Update
With the stroke of a pen, a new bill in Congress could slash the number of Palestinian refugees -- and open a world of controversy.
link to www.foreignpolicy.com 
 
Siege on Gaza
 

Health ministery: Gaza hospitals still threatened by the power and fuel crisis
The health ministry warned that the medical work in Gaza hospitals is still endangered by the power crisis and there is no sufficient fuel even to operate their generators in the coming days.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli Companies Win Bids For Gaza Reconstruction
The Palestinian Contractors Union stated that two Israeli companies won bids for reconstructing water distilling stations destroyed by Israel during the war on Gaza December 2008 – January 2009), the Palestine Press News Agency reported (Palpress).
 
Israeli Violence / Aggression / Raids
 
Annual report for 2012 says Israel killed 55 civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, including 11 children.
 
In the second such incident in three days, IDF soldiers are idle as settlers exert force and damage property on local Palestinian population in the West Bank. 
 
2012, settlers firing at Palestinians in the presence of soldiers
On Saturday, 19.5.2012, settlers descended on the eastern outskirts of the village 'Asira al-Qibliya, from the settlement Yitzhar. B'Tselem volunteer photographers filmed the events. The video shows the settlers throwing stones at Palestinian homes. Palestinian youths from the village soon arrived and threw stones at the settlers. The video later shows settlers aiming their weapons at the Palestinians and firing in the presence of soldiers. The firing injured village resident, Fathi 'Asayira, 24, in the head.
 
Ta’ayush video: A settler attacked a B’Tselem field researcher and broke his camera in the South Hebron Hills. Soldiers present did not intervene.
B’Tselem submitted a complaint to the Judea and Samaria district police against a settler who smashed a camera grabbed from one of its field researchers earlier this week in the South Hebron Hills. The incident was caught on video by a Ta’ayush activist.
 
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- An 18-year-old stabbed by Israeli soldiers near Bethlehem on Sunday is in a stable condition after surgery, the Palestinian prisoners society said Wednesday. Salah al-Zghayar underwent surgery at Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center after he was stabbed in the abdomen at Gush Etzion junction, prisoners society lawyer Mofeed al-Haj said in a statement. Al-Zghayar, from Hebron, told the lawyer he was attacked by several soldiers who were guarded by police.
link to www.maannews.net 
 
Confrontations and large forces surround Hosh Ouda
The last few days witnessed many violent confrontations, the biggest one happened yesterday around Beer Ayoub’s area in Silwan. A few angry young men threw Molotov’s cocktails towards the settler’s guned guards Jeep, an incident that happened repeatedly, and the Israeli forces tried to invade Hosh Ouda  through the alleys of Al- Bustan that is attached to it.   The confrontations began when extremist Israelis celebrated  the so-called  ”United Jerusalem Day” in some streets in Silwan.  The Israeli forces invaded the area, so the local youth stood up against them by shutting the streets through stones and barricades, tens of young men participated in the confrontations, many locals said it was the most violent day for the last few weeks.   Tension was all over the area, especially after the Israeli forces blocked the entrances and allowed the settlers to drive freely while the Palestinians were not allowed to use thier streets.  
 
Israeli judge to issue verdict in Rachel Corrie case, Allison Deger
Nearly a decade after the Israeli military killed Rachel Corrie, 23, with a weaponized Caterpillar D9 tractor, the civil suit filed by her family will finally close. The verdict will be announced on August 28, 2012 by a Haifa District judge. In attendance will be Rachel Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig, and sister Sarah Corrie Simpson.
 
Detainees
 
Press freedom watchdogs have called on the Israeli military to release the director of a Palestinian TV station who was detained last Thursday (17 May). Israeli soldiers arrested Baha Khairi Moussa, who runs the Palestine Prisoner Channel, a satellite broadcaster based in the West Bank. They also confiscated the station's equipment. But the reason for his arrest remains a mystery, as do his whereabouts. Both the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) have called for his release.
 
IOF kidnap six Palestinians in raids on W. Bank homes
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) Thursday kidnapped six Palestinians in Al-Khalil, Bethlehem and Jenin cities and raided many other West Bank areas.
 
Israeli Forces Abduct Palestinians From Across the West Bank, Take Them to Unknown Destinations
The Palestinian News Network, PNN, and Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, reported that Israeli forces invaded several areas of the West Bank on Tuesday, and abducted seven Palestinians. The Israeli Army transferred the detainees to unknown destinations to investigate allegations that they are wanted by the army.
 
Palestinian teen, two children rounded up in Qalqilia village
A Palestinian teen and two others under 18 years old were detained in Azzun village, east of Qalqilia city, in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday by Israeli occupation forces.

Young men and kids from the Siwaneh were arrested and a brutal attack on the Tamimi family
The Israeli police extended the arrest of 5 youth from the Siwaneh near Mount of Olives in  Jerusalem  for 24 hours so they can transfer them to court. The young Palestinians and kids are being suspected in throwing stones at the Israeli forces, the arrested youth and kids  are Raja’i and Kayed al Tamimi, Abu al Elmi and Yussef Musha’sha’ and Ahmad Abu Armile. According to the locals of Siwaneh the police attacked and beaten the Tamimi family using clubs, tasers and pepper spray. Jad al Kadmani, Lawyer from the prisoner’s club visited the arrested youth in the  Police Station in Salah Eddin street and said that Kayed and Rajai al Tamimi were beaten by clubs and attacked by tasers, and there are clear marks on their bodies to prove that. Jad al Kadmani: “The police are charging them of attacking the Israeli forces, and of causing a menace to the system” They were held for 24 hours so they can be taken to court, Jad adds that other 3 youth from the same place were held for 24 hours during the raids in the area, and during the raids the Israeli forces ran over Akram Totah with their car and broke his leg.The Israeli forces also broke into the civilian Rajaei al Tamimi and arrested his son Kifah, during the arrest they attacked by clubs and tasers the 58 years old Rajai that suffers from diabetes, high pressure and heart problems, when his nephew Kayed tried to protect him he was sprayed by pepper spray and electricity shots by the tasers.Es’hak al Tamimi, who attended the incident said that the forces broke into the house and attacked all of the family members in a brutal way then arrested his father and his cousin Kayed and took them to the Police Station. Same time, youth from Al Tour area threw stones towards settlers’ cars after clashes broke out between settlers and Palestinians.
 
On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Israeli forces entered Beit Ommar and arrested seven people during a night raid, the second one in two nights. We expect many more night raids before the end of the month, as the Israeli military rounds up those who participated in demonstrations on Nakba Day and in solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers earlier this month.
 
IOF soldiers arrest three Palestinians in Al-Khalil village
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested three Palestinians in Beit Ummar village, to the north of Al-Khalil, at dawn Wednesday, local sources said.
 
Prisoner News
 
An Appeal to save the life of Mahmoud Sarsak
Our brother and son, Mahmoud Sarsak, is a 25 years old professional footballer from Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, today entering his 67th day of hunger strike. We ask you to support Mahmoud and his demand for fair treatment. Your voice can contribute to saving his life and to a little victory against injustice.
 
Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Huwarra
Ma’an news agency reported earlier today that prisoners in Huwarra prison have taken part in an open hunger strike for the second day to protest to the inhumane treatment of the prisoners.
 
An Hour Before Release, Prisoner Transferred to Administrative Detention
In a PNN report today, the Al-Ahrar Centre for Prisoners' Studies and Human Rights stated that on Wednesday, May 23rd, prisoner Sameh Elaiwe, 50, was transferred from Nablus city to Administrative Detention one hour before his scheduled release date.
 
Prisoner Lubada suffering serious health deterioration
Ahrar Center warned that time is running out to save the life of administrative detainee Lubada who entered an extremely dangerous stage in light of the prison service's indifference.
 
BDS / Solidarity
 
BDS roundup: South Africa and Denmark to correctly label Israeli settlement products
South Africa and Denmark make historic rulings to correctly label Israeli settlement products; and international Quaker churches fully divest from the Caterpillar corporation.

But Davies, 64, who was made a minister by South African president Jacob Zuma as a “favor” to the trade union movement and the Left, is an old-style ANC Marxist (some say “Stalinist”) in the Joe Slovo mold. He completed his Ph.D. (in “political studies”) at the-then radical redbrick university, Sussex, in 1977 and joined the ANC in 1978 (in Mozambique) and the South African Communist party in 1989.
link to www.haaretz.com 
 
Alternattiva Demokratika is asking the Maltese government to ban the incorrect labelling of products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank as 'Made in Israel'. Prof. Arnold Cassola, Alternattiva Demokratika spokesperson on EU and International Affairs, said Maltese and EU consumers should be provided with correct information on product labels. "A product produced in a settlement on the West Bank, clearly not recognised as a legal settlement by the international community, should not be described as 'Made in Israel'.
 
Palestinian heritage event draws thousands
Kristin Szremski is a member of the US Campaign Steering Committee, an independent journalist and the director of media and communications at American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). The Chicago chapter of AMP recently held their second annual Palestine Parade to commemorate the Nakba. Kristen put together the following piece for CNN iReport about the entire day's events. 
link to blog.endtheoccupation.org
 
Israeli Racism and Discrimination against African Migrants
 
Violent Tel Aviv demo, African migrants attacked
Violence broke out as several hundred people demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night against the sizeable community of African immigrants in the city, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
 
Following up on Noam’s report on what’s developing into a night of unprecedented violence against African asylum seekers in Tel Aviv, here is a testimony uploaded onto Facebook after yesterday’s protest, by one of the many community activists who walked home a group of African children to make sure they weren’t attacked.
 
Video: Israeli mob demands all African refugees be deported from the country (and anyone who disagrees deserves to be raped), Adam Horowitz
At a demonstration in south Tel Aviv demanding the immediately expulsion of all non-Jewish African asylum-seekers, a lone Israeli woman who does not agree with the rest of the crowd is shouted down with ferocity and told that she deserves to be raped
 
Far-right activists organize march through Tel Aviv, call for expulsion of Sudanese and other Africans from Israel.
 
Africans attacked in Tel Aviv protest; MKs: ‘infiltrators’ are cancer, Noam Sheizaf
Coalition MKs incited the crowd against the refugees and asylum seekers during a protest in south Tel Aviv, which was followed by attacks on African immigrants and confrontations with police. A Likud MK called for the prosecution of Israelis giving shelter to Africans.
 
Israel will collapse unless Africans and Palestinians are expelled, fenced, says legal advocate, Ali Abunimah
“The separation fence must be closed and sealed. The Egyptian border fence must be closed and sealed. We must build a fence on the Jordanian border immediately, no one gets in or out! Jews who live in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] may come in and out - Arabs may not come in and out.”
 
How mainstream Israeli politicians sparked the Tel Aviv race riot, Noam Sheizaf
Israeli governments have neglected the poor neighborhoods of Tel Aviv for decades. Today, Knesset members use the asylum seekers to channel the anger of local residents and score easy political points.
 
How I survived a Tel Aviv mob attack, Haggai Matar
Last night I had to flee a raging mob not too far from my home in south Tel Aviv. After long speeches of incitement by right-wing parliamentarians, the masses stormed after me and a fellow journalist, and thenturned on African asylum seekers, their businesses and their homes. This is how it happened.
 
Is there a link between Israeli profits, anti-African incitement?, Mya Guarnieri
As Interior Minister Eli Yishai incites against African asylum seekers–leading to outbreaks of violence against Africans–his ministry issues visas to foreigners who pay tremendous amounts of money to come to Israel.
 
Israeli pogromist, dragging on a fag, proclaims 'Death to Sudanese.' Today, Israel moved one step closer to Nazi Germany circa 1938.  In Berlin, Nazis walked the streets terrorizing Jews, smashing windows, burning books and synagogues.  Today, in Tel Aviv’s poor Hatikva neighborhood, the cream of Israel’s political Übermenschen, Kahanists Michael Ben Ari, Itamar Ben Gvir and Baruch Marzel terrorized foreign workers who live there with mass violence and nothing less than a pogrom
 
Israeli Racism and Discrimination against Palestinians
 
Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal, YOUSEF MUNAYYER
I’M a Palestinian who was born in the Israeli town of Lod, and thus I am an Israeli citizen. My wife is not; she is a Palestinian from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Despite our towns being just 30 miles apart, we met almost 6,000 miles away in Massachusetts, where we attended neighboring colleges. A series of walls, checkpoints, settlements and soldiers fill the 30-mile gap between our hometowns, making it more likely for us to have met on the other side of the planet than in our own backyard. Never is this reality more profound than on our trips home from our current residence outside Washington.
 
The Israel Land Administration (ILA), the powerhouse behind Jewish territorial expansion, is being challenged in Israel's high court over race and gender discrimination. Yesterday a judge gave the government agency and steward over state-owned lands 60 days to come up with an explanation as to why women and Palestinians should not be appointed to their high council.
 
Jerusalem Day rife with racism
“See, these are the Arabs who want to throw rocks at us, but the police are taking them down one by one like this.” She made the hand gesture as the father, wearing a gun on his belt, agreed with a smile. Israeli youth gathered at the fence with only the width of the street separating them from the Palestinian youth and yelled racist slurs at them. Both sides were screaming “This is our land!”  It was disconcerting to see young Israelis, who used their larger number to scream racist slogans at Palestinians with such hatred, such as “Death to the Arabs!” and “Muhammad is dead!”
 
Other News and Developments
 
Four officers accused of ordering the raid on the Mavi Marmara, in which nine Turks were killed.
 
Report: Turkey seeks 10 life sentences for Israeli commanders
Turkish prosecutor prepares indictments against four top IDF commanders involved in Marmara raid, Sabah newspaper reports. Gabi Ashkenazi, three others to be charged with first degree murder. 
 
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A group of students protesting political detentions by the Palestinian Authority went on hunger strike Thursday in Birzeit University. The students, who are Hamas supporters, have been sleeping inside the university since May 5. They fear the Fatah-led PA's security forces will arrest them if they leave campus. In a statement, the students said they would remain on campus until the issue was resolved with the PA, adding that they would escalate the strike if political detentions did not stop.
 
The Minister of Public Works and Housing, Dr. Youssef Al Mansi, condemned the Zionist government's approval for the law encouraging settlements, stressing that it is a racist law.
 
BEIRUT (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that Palestinians in Lebanon should not arm themselves, as they are under the protection of the Lebanese state and its military, local media reported. “The weapons of Palestinians in Lebanon are illegitimate. We do not want them inside or outside camps. We respect the law and we are [under] the protection of the Lebanese state and army,” Abbas was quoted as saying. 

In response to decision by Press Complaints Commission, London's Foreign office says Israel's claim that that Jerusalem is its capital is not recognized by the U.K.
 
Fear mongering about missiles while Arabs and Iranians are in range of Israeli nukes: IDF: Israel in range of nearly 65,000 Hezbollah, Iran, Syria missiles
Hezbollah has some 60,000 rockets and missiles and is developing drones and sea-to-air missiles, IDF top brass tells Knesset committee.
 
Laurette Onkelinx posts 'My hands are clean!" on her official Facebook page, adding only an Iranian refused to shake hands with her before.
 
Police suspect Moti Malka raped woman in his chambers, sexually assaulted another, in addition to raping municipal worker.
 
Analysis / Op-ed
 
‘Obama will only go as far on Iran as AIPAC permits him to go’, Philip Weiss
The other day the Senate unanimously passed an Iran sanctions act upping the pressure in an effort to preempt the talks now going on between world powers and Iran.

Honest broker? Israeli consulate sponsors Obama’s former Middle East peace adviser at Stanford talk!, Philip Weiss
Dennis Ross worked for Obama for several years on Middle East peace. And before that he worked for Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush too. But he was always accused of bias toward Israel. Aaron David Miller called him Israel's lawyer. Abe Foxman celebrated him as Israel's advocate. But Obama's spox Jay Carney said Ross was a fair dealer when he left a year back...
 
Ambassador Michael Oren's recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal is timely - and appropriate. Israel is less popular among young Americans than ever before. And it will only grow more unpopular as more facts about the occupation make their way into the American mainstream. It is hard to know what Shalom Eisner -- an Israeli army officer -- was thinking when he brutalized a Danish bike protester several weeks ago. Probably his thoughts tracked what he was doing -- which is to say they weren't anything out of the ordinary. The Israeli officer was acting normally, on a normal day, in the normalized context of Israeli occupation. The only exceptional thing about the episode was the reaction it elicited.
 
Bio shows why Leila Khaled remains an icon of resistance, Asa Winstanley
Leila Khaled, an icon of the Palestinian resistance struggle, is the subject of a recommended new biography.
Israel – Self-made Global Pariah, Vacy Vlazna
Every time Israel bans Palestinians from leaving Israel's West Bank-Gaza Prison, and every time a well-meaning foreigner is refused entry to give humanitarian assistance to Palestinian
s, Israel is consolidating its reputation as a global pariah, now, according to the BBC poll, on par with North Korea for having the highest negative influence on the global stage.

Redefining the 'Arab Spring': Is Chaos Overtaking Revolution?, Ramzy Baroud
The age of revolutionary romance is over. Various Arab countries are now facing hard truths. Millions of Arabs merely want to live with a semblance of dignity, free from tyranny and continuous anxiety over the future. This unromantic reality also includes outside ‘players’, whose presence is of no positive value to genuine revolutionary movements, whether in Egypt, Syria, or anywhere else.
link to palestinechronicle.com

Love in the Time of Cassettes
Ahmad Ghossein’s My Father Is Still a Communist uses audio messages his mother recorded for his father who was away for work, Ghossein draws a picture of a social, economic and political landscape where people might not be heroes, but are so in the eyes of their children.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Bahrain
 
GENEVA (AP) — Bahrain has agreed to consider recommendations to release political prisoners, outlaw torture and join the International Criminal Court, a move that could open it to international prosecutions of alleged abuses, the U.N.'s top human rights body said Wednesday.
In its highly anticipated review of the Gulf kingdom's record, the U.N. Human Rights Council said Bahrain will consider 176 recommendations submitted by other nations. The council's report, part of a process that all 193 U.N. members are required to undergo every four years, reflects international concern about the 15-month Bahraini uprising by majority Shiites against the ruling Sunni monarchy.
 
Bahraini female activist jailed over protest
A Bahraini court jailed on Thursday opposition activist Zainab al-Khawaja for one month after convicting her of attacking a policewoman and taking part in an illegal rally, witnesses said.
 
If I get released, every village I pass through will shout the names of countless prisoners of conscience. All the walls will show me their faces. Around me, I will see their grief-stricken mothers and fathers, their wives, their children crying for her children as I write. I am not Zainab only, I am Jaffar and Hassan, I am Ahmed and Abbas, I am Masooma and Mansoor. My case is the case of hundreds of innocent political prisoners in Bahrain, my release, without them, means nothing to me.  I will not be attending my trials, no matter how many they are. Freedom, and not my release, is what I want and dream of. I will sit in my prison cell, I will listen to its walls reciting the poetry of another political prison Sadeq Al-Ghasra, reminding me that our struggle for liberty shall continue not only from inside this prison but even from under the soil. All my admiration, for my imprisoned brothers and sisters. Whose determination and patience give me hope. --Zainab Alkhawaja Isa Town Prison 19th May 2012 
 
Human Rights in Bahrain, a Casualty of Obama's Double-Standard
Both the president of Syria and the King of Bahrain have worked hard this past year to portray their respective countries as stable and safe, hoping to distract from the popular uprisings they have brutally crushed. Both regimes have systematically tortured members of the opposition, killed and detained children, and banned journalists from entering the country to report, all the while alleging these popular movements are driven by "foreign terrorists."
 
The huge wave of protests for democracy and human rights sweeping across the Middle East over the last year has seen hundreds of thousands of previously politically inactive young people become dedicated revolutionaries. In Egypt they call them “first time activists,” people whose first taste of protest came in the early months of 2011.
Throughout the region, the demonstrations and subsequent violent government reactions have transformed a generation into a new political force using social media and other tools to fuel revolutions. In Bahrain in early 2011 a young woman was pursuing her hobby of photography, “taking mostly photos of flowers or landscapes. I wasn’t that interested in shooting pictures of people to be honest,” she said.  Then, on her way home from work on February 14 2011, everything changed. “It was around 6pm, I was passing the Pearl Roundabout with this huge crowed and Bahrain flags everywhere, I was like ’OMG It’s happening!’ I found myself parking on the flyover and stepping out of my car to have a look.”  She started taking pictures of the crowds and has been documenting the revolution ever since.

Egypt
 
Egyptians go back to polls to elect president
Egypt resumes its first free presidential election after voting passed off calmly on the first day.
link to www.aljazeera.com
 
Egypt Votes: Sharif Abdel Kouddous Reports From Cairo on Historic Post-Mubarak Election
A historic election is underway as Egyptians head to the polls for the first presidential election since their ouster of Hosni Mubarak. For the first time in the country’s history, the winner is not a foregone conclusion. We go to Cairo for an update from Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Despite predictions of a high turnout, Kouddous says concerns remain over the role of Egypt’s military rulers: "Many say we cannot have a president without a constitution. The president is essentially being elected without knowing exactly [his] authorities vis a vis the military, the cabinet, the parliament. Many of these young revolutionaries say any president that comes will be a puppet for the Supreme Council and will not have any real power, and the real struggle will continue to be in the streets."
link to www.democracynow.org
 
Egyptian Voters on the Promise, and Limits, of Historic Election: Sharif Kouddous Reports From Cairo
Voters are heading to the polls for the second day in Egypt’s first competitive presidential election following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak 15 months ago. The first day of voting saw numerous reports of minor violations, but was largely hailed as free of fraud and violence. Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak’s last prime minister and now a leading candidate, was swarmed by protesters outside his polling station who hurled shoes and debris at him. Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous and videographer Hany Massoud spent the day traveling to polling stations around Cairo speaking to voters about their choices for president and their concerns in the election.

Former Hamas minister arrives in Ismailia to cast his vote
Mahmoud al-Zahar, the former foreign minister in the Hamas government, has arrived in Ismailia to cast his vote in the Egyptian presidential elections. The Hamas official, who lost his son in the 2008 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, has recently obtained the Egyptian citizenship through his Egyptian mother. An estimated 11,000 Palestinian nationals hold Egyptian citizenship and have the right to vote in the elections. "Now I can, for the first time, exercise my rights as an Egyptian citizen,” he said. He declined to disclose the polling station he is registered at. “I do not want the media to know,” he said.
link to www.egyptindependent.com

Egypt Votes!
For the first time in its presidential era, Egypt heads to the ballot boxes on Wednesday without knowing the name of the winner ahead of time. With many undecided voters narrowing down their choices to candidates from contradictory camps, the lines on that map are not that clear; they overlap and crisscross and are infused with other factors: mainly the economic and security elements in the candidates’ platforms, or at least their perceived ability to improve people’s daily lives.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Egypt viewpoint: Democracy under military boots, Gigi Ibrahim
As Egyptians prepare to head to the polls to vote for a new president, the BBC News website asked Egyptians of contrasting political persuasions to write about their hopes and fears for the country's future. Gigi Ibrahim is a journalist, blogger, activist and socialist.

In Search of Egypt’s Fifth President: Hamdeen Sabahi
Longtime Nasserist activist and former MP Hamdeen Sabahi’s stock was on the rise in the last month before the elections. But will it be enough to make this candidate of humble origins the next president of Egypt?
Former foreign minister under Mubarak, Amr Moussa is confident of his chances of winning the presidential race. Al-Akhbar asks its fifth interviewee what he would achieve should he succeed.
In the last of Al-Akhbar’s series of interviews with Egypt’s presidential candidates, Abdel Rahman Youssef quizzes the former Muslim Brotherhood luminary who broke with the group to run as an independent.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

In Search of Egypt’s Fifth President: Hamdeen Sabahi
Longtime Nasserist activist and former MP Hamdeen Sabahi’s stock was on the rise in the last month before the elections. But will it be enough to make this candidate of humble origins the next president of Egypt?
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Egyptian Presidential Elections: The Undecided Decide
For the first time in its presidential era, Egypt heads to the ballot boxes on Wednesday without knowing the name of the winner ahead of time.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Presidential Elections: Egypt’s Left Behind
As Day 1 of voting closes, the strife among the candidates of the Left in the Egyptian presidential elections demonstrates the inability of this political current to unite in order to grasp this revolutionary moment.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Inside Story - What kind of leader do Egyptians want?
Egyptians are preparing to elect a new president, and for the first time they have a real choice. But the conservatives are split over which candidate to support and votes are also likely to be divided in the liberal camp. So what kind of leader do the people want, and what kind of power will the winner have? Guests: Dina Zakaria, Mohammed Waked, Abdullah al Arian.
link to www.youtube.com

The role of religion in Egypt's election
Two of the main contenders for Egypt's presidential election are or were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports from the group's stronghold of Beni Suef, to find out what impact religion is likely to have on the vote.
link to www.youtube.com

Al Jazeera World - The Brotherhood and Mubarak
For years the Muslim Brotherhood was officially banned by Egypt's government, but following the 2011 revolution, the fall of Hosni Mubarak and the country's first free parliamentary elections, the Brotherhood - with its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party - has emerged as Egypt's most powerful political force.
link to www.youtube.com

Can Egypt Have a President Without a Constitution?
Everyone is awaiting the outcome of Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential election with baited breath. For many, the election of a new president will restore the stability Egyptians have been longing for since Mubarak's ouster early last year. For others, a new president means the end of the military's involvement in politics. For others still, the victory of their favorite candidate will usher in a new age of freedom and social justice.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

The Presidential Race: A Game of Egyptian Roulette
Before going to bed, I decided I was going to write an article on the presidential election first thing in the morning. I closed my eyes and before falling into a deep sleep I wondered if there was any use to add to the unbearably noisy pool of voices debating the elections. A group of huge, dark and hairy mountain rats with glittering eyes invaded my house like locusts. Only minutes later, a new group of rats came pouring into the house from every window and all balconies, moving as if following the orders of some remote leader. I was thrown into a panic as I watched them move like trained dogs in a Russian circus. I realized they were indeed moving according to a plan to occupy the entire house. I tried to reach my office room but a number of these rats were able to stop me from getting near the door. Suddenly, I remembered that my daughter is sleeping in the other room, so I ran to her — only to find that a group of rats had devoured her bare arms. With that horrible scene, I woke up.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Civil-Military Relations: a Potential Fault-line in Egypt's Democracy, Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Arab people are demanding democracy after living for decades under authoritarian regimes suffering systematic violations of their natural rights where injustice, impunity, police torture, battering and excessive use of deadly force  were the norm. Ramzy Baroud put it this way: 'Arabs merely want to live with a semblance of dignity, free from tyranny and continuous anxiety over the future.' Those who succeeded in toppling their tyrants have already found there is more to a meaningfully democratic society than regime change and voting, although these are necessary. Because authoritarian political culture has been prevalent in the Arab countries, transition to democracy is a big challenge. Democracy as a normative system of legitimate government strengthens the realm of liberty, personal political responsibility, deals with social and economic equity, and civil control of the armed forces.
link to palestinechronicle.com
 
Egypt's Working Class and the Question of Organization, Hossam El-Hamalawy
“Who is the labor candidate in this presidential election?” This is a question I have been asked frequently in the past few days. My answer is “no one.” Despite the presence of left wing candidates in the race, including labor lawyer Khaled Ali, who by all accounts is the most experienced in labor organizing among his counterparts (even when he repeatedly denies the accusation of being a “socialist,” and advocates a “strong private sector” working hand in hand with a state-run public sector), neither Ali nor any other candidates can claim to speak for Egypt’s working class, simply because the working class does not have yet formal entities, organizations, parties, and unions that can claim their representation. 
 
Post-January 25 Iranian-Egyptian Relations: A New Dawn?
Iranian-Egyptian relations have been an often-overlooked aspect of Middle Eastern and international politics over the last thirty years, due in no small part to the almost complete lack of ties between the two states following Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.  Whilst these two great Middle Eastern powers have been linked over thousands of years of history, the last thirty years have been characterized by a distinct lack of inter-state relations, and considerable enmity and distrust. However, with the fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime following the momentous events of 25 January 2011, will Iranian-Egyptian relations encounter a “new dawn”, characterized by friendship and amity? Or are Iran and Egypt doomed to the continuing enmity and distrust which has poisoned relations between these two great regional powers for the last thirty years? 
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Iran

Ahmadinejad says atomic weapons 'against Islam'
Islam forbids atomic weapons and other arms of mass destruction, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted on Wednesday ahead of his country's nuclear talks with world powers in Baghdad.
link to news.yahoo.com

Iran is offered new plans to ease nuclear concerns
Diplomats from six world powers offered Iran new proposals Wednesday to ease international concerns about its nuclear program, but appeared to reject Tehran's appeals to ease economic sanctions to help move along talks.
link to news.yahoo.com

Israel inches closer to compromise on Iran
"...Though Israel has been expressing zero flexibility regarding a possible deal with Iran, Defense Minister Ehud Barak a few weeks ago issued a written statement that Israel would consent to Iran's continuing enrichment of uranium to a low level of 3.5 percent, as well as to allowing a few hundred kilograms of 3.5-percent enriched uranium to remain in that country...... A senior Israeli source said that Barak's remarks, which were shared in private conversations with U.S. officials, contradict the tough line being presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
link to friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com
 
Bullish allies resist Iran's call for end to nuclear sanctions
World powers meeting in Baghdad yesterday produced new proposals aimed at limiting the levels of uranium enrichment in Iran's nuclear programme and edging towards a deal they hope could lift the threat of a Middle East war.

Activists Worry that Sanctions May Undermine Chances for Future Democracy
Since the story of the Syrian and Iranian opposition is similar in many ways and since both Damascus and Tehran are facing foreign sanctions and regime-change policies, a friend wrote to share this news of an encounter between Iranian opposition figures and State Department officials during a recent conference on Iran.
link to www.joshualandis.com

War With Iran Has Already Begun
On Friday, 93% of the U.S. House of Representatives affirmed a resolution escalating America’s already aggressive position on Iran, from “crippling” sanctions to a zero-tolerance policy on nuclear weapons.
link to www.counterpunch.org

Israel’s Strategic Analyst: Attack Iran, Propose Mideast Peace Deal, Richard Silverstein
Israel’s premier strategic analyst, Yehezkel Dror, has produced a new study for the Begin-Sadat Center which advocates a military attack on Iran accompanied by an Israeli proposal for a comprehensive peace deal.  Essentially, this paper is a blueprint for Bibi Netanyahu in his march toward war.  It outlines the major issues he faces in persuading the Israeli public and world opinion that his decision is just.  It warns him of the pitfalls that naysayers will suggest and offers him arguments against the nabobs of negativism.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
 
The meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) with Iran in Baghdad is apparently producing a lot of detailed proposals for resolving the crisis. Apparently the one place there could be a breakthrough, if not at Baghdad then later this summer, is with regard to Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 19.75% (this is still low-enriched uranium or LEU) for the production of medical isotopes at its medical reactor. A stock of 19.75%- enriched LEU is much closer to the 95% enriched uranium typically needed to construct a nuclear warhead than the 3.5%-enriched uranium used to fuel ordinary electricity-generating reactors. The UNSC and Germany want to find a way to have Iran supplied with the fuel for the medical reactor from the outside, so that they do not have to make their own.
link to www.juancole.com 

Iraq 

14 Iraqis Killed As National Alliance Is Asked To Select A Replacement PM
A formal letter has been sent to the National Alliance, asking the bloc to select a replacement for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. At least 14 Iraqis were killed and 11 more were wounded in new violence.
link to original.antiwar.com

Iraq attacks kill eight
Attacks in Iraq killed eight people and wounded 33 on Wednesday, security officials said, as Baghdad hosted key nuclear talks in its latest effort to emerge from decades of isolation.
link to news.yahoo.com

Three killed in Iraq attacks as world powers meet
Three people were killed and 18 others wounded in attacks in Iraq on Wednesday, security officials said, as Baghdad hosted key nuclear talks in its latest effort to emerge from decades of isolation. Three people were killed and 14 others wounded in a shooting and three roadside bombings in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, a police lieutenant colonel and Dr Ahmed Ibrahim of Baquba General Hospital said.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Jordan

Jordanian worker dies after setting himself ablaze
A Jordanian man died after setting himself on fire on Thursday morning in apparent despair over having been fired from his job last week, police and a colleague said. 

Jordan bank fires Christian woman for refusing to wear headscarf
The Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank on Wednesday fired a Christian employee because she refused to wear a scarf to cover her hair as part of uniform for female staff, its spokeswoman said. “
link to english.alarabiya.net

Washington's Bahrain in the Levant
Despite sharing some of the socio-economic and political problems that propelled uprisings in other Arab countries, Jordan remains an exception to the trend. And if it can be kept that way, much of the world inside the Beltway will celebrate.
link to www.merip.org

Unearthing Jordan’s Soviet Cinema
A collection of decades-old films uncover some forgotten truths about Jordan’s dalliance with socialism. In 2008, Ali Maher, a commissioner for Jordan’s Royal Film Commission, received a phone call from a Russian friend. She was in the process of clearing out the old Amman headquarters of the Jordan-Russian (once Soviet) Friendship Society. The society had moved offices about 20 years prior, but had left behind piles of what appeared to be arcane junk. She thought that Maher might be interested in taking a look around, to see if there was anything worth salvaging.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Lebanon
 
Killed Gunman in Karakass Related to Hariri’s Assassination Group
Security sources told Al-Manar that Shanti was among Al-Qaeda’s group of 13 people who had claimed the responsibility behind Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

Fresh clashes broke out in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Wednesday evening, with grenades thrown and gunfire heard near the Hamra area of the city. At least two grenades exploded in the late evening in the Caracas district of the city, which is next to the popular tourist destination of Hamra. Following the initial explosion there was a number of incidents of gunfire before Lebanese security forces intervened. It was not immediately clear who the groups involved were. A witness on the scene said the clashes started at around 10.30pm but things had gone quiet by 12.30am. He added that two grenades had exploded during the early part of the evening, followed by automatic gunfire.
 
At least two men were killed and seven soldiers wounded in fresh clashes throughout Wednesday evening in the Caracas district of Beirut, the Lebanese army and an Al-Akhbar correspondent confirmed. An army statement said one militant was killed and another injured during the storming of the apartment at roughly 6.15am, while an officer and three soldiers were wounded in the final stoush.
 
Lebanese pilgrims blown up in Iraq
A roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying Lebanese Shia pilgrims in a Sunni area of western Iraq on Wednesday, killing three and wounding at least 10 others, police and medics said. "A roadside bomb exploded in the Khamsat Kilo area as a bus carrying Lebanese pilgrims... passed on the highway, killing three of them and wounding 10," a first lieutenant in the Anbar provincial police said, referring to an area west of the provincial capital Ramadi.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria
Abduction of several men in Aleppo, allegedly by Syrian rebels, prompts army raids, and protests in Beirut suburbs.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Released female Lebanese tell of kidnapping
Syrian rebels deny role in abduction of Shia pilgrims as violence in Syria heightens sectarian tensions in Lebanon.
 
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah and Amal movement are following the kidnapping of the Lebanese men in Aleppo very seriously, calling on people not to cut off roads or exercise any violence because it does not serve the issue.
 
A Syrian Islamist cleric said on Thursday that he was mediating the release of 13 Lebanese Shia men kidnapped in Syria two days ago. "They are well and safe, we are trying to secure their release, but the Syrian army shelling of the area has been blocking it so far," Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zoaby, head of Free People of Syria group, told Reuters. Zoaby said the kidnappers would issue a video or recording of the kidnapped men soon to show they were being treated well. He said the kidnappers want to hand the men to Lebanese authorities.
 
Amal thugs attack Syrian workers
Comrade Ibrahim talks about a racist campaign by Amal thugs against Syrian workers.  (I predict that Human Rights Watch will cover this because the culprits are not their friends in March 14).  
 
Berri: Resistance and Liberation Day Opportunity to Support Army
Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri congratulated the Lebanese people on the occasion of Resistance and Liberation Day, which falls on Friday, and reiterated his call for dialogue in Lebanon in order to prevent strife.
link to www.almanar.com.lb

Aoun: Israel Has Ambitions in Lebanon, Some Forget it
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said on Wednesday that some Lebanese forget the Israeli threats around Lebanon and try to link Syrian events with Lebanese ones in order to spread chaos.
link to www.almanar.com.lb 

Neil MacFarquhar justifies the kidnapping of innocent Lebanese, As'ad AbuKhalil
Look at this outrage:  "Activists reached in the Aleppo area said the Lebanese were grabbed on suspicion that they were Hezbollah “shabiha,” or thugs, working for the Syrian government."  Shame on Neil MacFarquhar.  In fact, the thugs are his contact in the armed Syrian opposition who are lying and justifying the kidnapping of innocent Lebanese.  Not even Saudi and Hariri media who are aligned with the Syrian opposition and Free Syrian Army have made this claim.  Not one Arab media have made those claims.  So now we know that the worst thugs are the contacts of Mr. MacFarquhar in Syria.  Some of the families are from the Amal movement and we know the names of the kidnapped and we know where they were in Iran and for what religious purpose.  Even the Free Syrian Army which earlier identified itself to the women who were released had to later lie and claim that they were not involved, when they were, because it was clear that those were civilians who were kidnapped to exchange them with prisoners in Syrian regime jail.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

Phalangist and Hezbollah students clash at Beirut university
A brawl erupted at a major university in Beirut on Wednesday between student groups of rival political factions, prompting Lebanese security forces to intervene, local media reported. Supporters of Hezbollah clashed with pro-Phalangist and Lebanese Forces (LF) students at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ), before security forces broke up the fight. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Al-Jadeed TV network said Phalangist, LF and Hizballah student bodies were meeting to defuse the tension.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
But the shooting in Beirut should not be diminished. Gunmen back on the streets of the capital produces a mixture of intense fear and weariness among the Lebanese. The fighting centred around the Berjawi family – Sheikh Shaker Berjawi, who was once pro-Palestinian and then pro-Mourabitoun, a particularly venal militia, and is now pro-Syrian, versus other members of his anti-Syrian extended family who support the Prime Minister Saad Hariri. But it spread from Tarek el-Jdeideh into the shopping district of Verdun and then moved towards the museum, the old civil war crossing point in Beirut.The problem is that Syria now dominates Lebanon as surely as it did in the days when tens of thousands of its troops occupied much of the country. You only have to count how many times the phrases "pro-Syrian" and "anti-Syrian" appear in reports about Lebanon to grasp that the division between the government – electorally pro-Syrian and very much supported by Hezbollah and pro-Syrian Christian parties and the Shia Muslims – and the anti-Syrian Sunnis and Druze and Phalangist Christians is presently incurable. But every time the Lebanese have been offered another civil war, they have turned it down. The young men and women educated outside Lebanon during the 1975-90 war do not want another conflict and are contemptuous of the sectarian politics, introduced by the French almost 100 years ago. And no one can forget who won the civil war: the one neighbouring power whose soldiers were stabled across the land, that rock-solid, secure dictatorship which would never suffer internal dissent, a nation called Syria.
 
During his last visit to Beirut on 3 May 2012, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman met with former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, former finance minister Mohamad Chatah, Future Movement leader Nader Hariri, and a number of Future Bloc MPs at Saad Hariri’s residence in Beirut’s city center.  The meeting included discussions on many issues, mostly regarding the way forward in Syria and Lebanon, among others. Al-Akhbar was able to obtain a partial transcript of the meeting’s minutes.
 
Jeffrey Feltman's children: Al-Qa`idah in Lebanon, As'ad AbuKhalil
This is one of the most unreported story: how the US government has sponsored and cultivated (directly and indirectly through the Hariri camp in Lebanon under the umbrella of March 14 movement--dubbed "pro-Western" in the Western press) Sunni Salafite groups, including those with a Jihadi bent.  In their eagerness to prop up rivals and opponents to Hizbullah, the US has midwifed the rise of various Salafite groups in the country.  Some, of course, are parts of Al-Qa`idah.  Of course, this won't be the first time the US has done such a thing: this movie has been shown many times before and the last time was in Libya, and not in Afghanistan in the 1980s.  So today, the Lebanese government under Saudi/Qatari/Hariri pressures released Shadi Al-Mawlawi who admitted his membership in Al-Qa`idah.  The US is now eager to support, arm, and finance any groups opposed to the Syrian regime, that they will be given birth to a monster in Syria (no, I am not making an argument for the preservation of the lousy Syrian regime which should be overthrown by its own people).
 
No sooner had Hassan Nasrallah ended his televized address, urging residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to get off the streets and not to harm Syrian citizens in their areas, than groups of hoodlums responded by going on vile racist anti-Syrian rampages in various places. Most of these were members or followers of the Amal movement. In the Lebanon of the 1970s and 1980s, racist behavior against Syrians was a Christian monopoly. After 2005, the Sunnis and Druze joined in. Following the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, so did a considerable portion of the Shia, thus making the picture of Lebanese racism complete.
 
Pilgrimage Trips: The Dangerous Road to Faith
Three Lebanese women were killed and 14 others were injured when a road bomb exploded near their bus west of Baghdad, while on their way to visit holy sites in the Najaf and Karbala.
 
Syria
 
A UN panel said on Thursday that government forces are to blame for most rights abuses in the latest violence sweeping Syria, as a watchdog reported renewed shelling of a rebel bastion. Meanwhile, President Bashar Assad said Syria's government was capable of finding a way out of the crisis gripping his country, as he met with a visiting minister from main regional ally Iran.
 
Amnesty sees possible crimes against humanity by Syria
The Syrian government may have committed crimes against humanity by using "lethal" force and "torturing" detainees in its crackdown on a 14-month uprising, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
 
Assad says Syria 'able' to get out of crisis
Meeting Iranian official, Syrian president says Syria "able to get out of this crisis" ahead of parliament address.

Anti-government demonstration broken up violently by security forces in Aleppo, according to activist groups.
 
Apart from over the dozen Lebanese pilgrims abducted by armed groups... Three Iranian Truck Drivers Abducted in Syria
Three Iranian truck drivers have been abducted by “armed opposition groups” in Syria, Iran’s charge d’affaires in Damascus was quoted by media sources Wednesday as saying.
link to www.almanar.com.lb

Speculation over 'killing' of Assad brother-in-law
Speculation was rife on Wednesday among Syrian anti-regime activists over the alleged "killing" of President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law who is also Syria's deputy defence minister.
link to news.yahoo.com
 
The Assef Shawkat controversy continues to gain traction. Was he assassinated? Not since JR of Dallas fame, has murder been so mysterious and talked about. Chances are, however, that he is alive and kicking. Assef Shawkat’s town-folks deny that he is dead, according to the on-line news site, “Syria Politic.” When their journalist, called people in the town, townfolks laughed at the news, claiming that they don’t even have a tradition of raising a black flag for the dead. Opposition sources claimed that the people of Madhale had raised a black flag for him. The townsfolk interviewed by Syria Politic say the news about his death is bunkum. This doesn’t prove much, but it does suggest that opposition members who write about the assassination are making parts of the story up.
link to www.joshualandis.com 

Syria says sanctions have cost country $4 billion
Syria's oil minister acknowledged the heavy toll international sanctions have taken on the country's oil sector, saying Wednesday that they had sucked about $4 billion from the economy.
link to news.yahoo.com

Venezuela delivers oil to Syria
Syrian oil minister Sufian Alao said on Wednesday a Venezuelan oil tanker with 35,000 tonnes of diesel had docked in Syria a day earlier and another was being prepared. "A Venezuelan tanker carrying 35,000 tonnes of diesel docked in Syria yesterday and Venezuela is preparing another tanker which will come to Syria soon," state news agency SANA quoted Alao as saying. Ship tracking data on Reuters shows that the Negra Hipolita, which is managed by state oil firm PDVSA, left Venezuela at the start of May and docked at the Syrian port of Banias this week.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Turkey accuses Syria of harboring Kurdish rebels
Syria is allowing Kurdish rebels who are fighting Turkish forces to establish bases in Syrian territory, as ties between the two neighboring countries deteriorate, a Turkish minister said Wednesday. Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said Turkish intelligence indicates that Syria is allowing rebels to establish themselves in areas close to the Turkish border. Some Kurdistan Workers' Party rebels have even taken charge of running small Syrian towns, Sahin claimed, describing the development as an apparent act of revenge against Turkey.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
...The one positive observation, in the US assessment, is that despite sustaining heavy losses at the hands of the Syrian regular army, the FSA is in better shape and more eager to fight on, and that the terms of the confrontation have improved despite the splits in the opposition. Washington knows that Iran is well aware that its support for Syria puts it at loggerheads with the entire Arab world. Yet Tehran evidently views things differently, and sees the loss its closest Arab friend – and its conduit to Hezbollah – as a worse outcome than losing all the other Arabs. The US, for its part, has not kept secret an approach made to it by Saudi Arabia, to declare its willingness to supply the world market with any additional oil it needs via the Red Sea in the event of Israel directing a severe military blow to Iran.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

U.S. and Other News

Amnesty criticizes U.S. for ‘unlawful’ bin Laden raid
WASHINGTON — Amnesty International criticized the United States on Wednesday for its use of lethal force, particularly for the “unlawful” killing of Osama bin Laden in a clandestine US commando raid in Pakistan last May. “The US administration made clear that the operation had been conducted under the USA’s theory of a global armed conflict between the USA and Al-Qaeda in which the USA does not recognize the applicability of international human rights law,” it said in its annual report. “In the absence of further clarification from the US authorities, the killing of Osama bin Laden would appear to have been unlawful,” it said.

BAE signs £1.9bn Saudi jet deal
British defence giant BAE signs a £1.9bn ($3bn) deal with Saudi Arabia to supply Hawk trainer jets, safeguarding over 200 UK jobs.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Saudi university holds urgent meeting on use of ‘Persian Gulf’ in exam
The administration of King Khaled University in the Saudi province of Asir held an urgent meeting over an English exam that contained the term “Persian Gulf”, a phrase which has been a major bone of contention between Iran and Gulf nations. 
 
www.TheHeadlines.Org
]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/senate-fight-today-over-the-number-of-palestinian-refugees.html/feed 23 Passive-aggressive George Bush namechecks neocons for getting us into that mess http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/passive-aggressive-george-bush-namechecks-neocons-for-getting-us-into-that-mess.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/passive-aggressive-george-bush-namechecks-neocons-for-getting-us-into-that-mess.html#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 17:48:57 +0000 Philip Weiss http://mondoweiss.net/?p=76348 Salad days Wolfowitz and Bush
Salad days: Wolfowitz and Bush

In a post on Bill Kristol's appearance in New York, Scott McConnell reminds us that George W. Bush called Kristol and Charles Krauthammer "the bomber boys" because they pressured him to bomb Iran. McConnell says the neocons may have had George W. Bush wrapped up, but he had real misgivings about them.

I just got Bush's book, Decision Points (2010). And it shows some real passive-aggressive tendencies with respect to the neocons.

Here's Bush's sole reference to neocon Paul Wolfowitz, during a post-911 meeting on Afghanistan:

At one point, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suggested that we consider confronting Iraq as well as the Taliban.... [Saddam's regime] had a long record of supporting terrorism, including paying the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.... Colin cautioned against it.

Oh so it was Wolfie's stupid idea. And it was because of Palestinians suicide bombers.

Here's Bush's sole reference to neocon Elliott Abrams, during the runup to the Iraq war in 2003:

Two of our biggest concerns were starvation and refugees.... An estimated two million Iraqis could be displaced from their homes during war. On January 15, Elliott Abrams, a senior NSC staffer, delivered a detailed briefing on our preparations. We planned to prestation food, blankets, medicine, tents, etc.

Translation: Abrams told me everything was under control.

Here's some other great advice Bush got. It's his sole reference to Elie Wiesel:

In the winter of 2003, I sought opinions on Iraq from a variety of sources.... One of the most fascinating people I met with was Elie Wiesel, the author, Holocaust survivor, and deserving Nobel Prize recipient. Elie is a sober and gentle man. But there was passion in his seventy-four-year-old eyes when he compared Saddam Hussein's brutality to the Nazi genocide. "Mr. President," he said, "you have a moral obligation to act against evil." The force of his conviction affected me deeply. Here was a man who had devoted his life to peace urging me to intervene in Iraq...

I've always wondered why many critics of the war did not acknowledge the moral argument made by people like Elie Wiesel.

Well because it was unhinged, Mr. President, as you note yourself. 

Neocons Fred Kagan, Eliot Cohen, and Robert Kaplan all get namechecked too, as war supporters at a time when Baghdad is "hell, Mr. President."

Curiously, there are no references in the book to Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Bernard Lewis, David Wurmser, David Frum, Bill Kristol or that other bomber boy Charles Krauthammer re war policy.

George Bush seems to want to forget his neocon captivity as a bad dream. Frum came up with the term "axis of evil"! But he gets no airtime?!

Oh, by the way, Bush does say that he and Condi Rice solved the Israel Palestinian conflict.

By the time I left, the Palestinians had a president and prime minister who rejected terrorism. The Israelis had withdrawn from some settlements and supported a two-state solution. And Arab nations were playing an active role in the peace process.

No sweat. Time for horseshoes!

P.S. I blame the neocons too. It was their idea, and almost all of them cited Palestinian suicide bombers, as if that was our problem. But someone had to execute their theory...

]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/passive-aggressive-george-bush-namechecks-neocons-for-getting-us-into-that-mess.html/feed 83 Palestinian Authority and Israel on an arresting spree, children and activists detained http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/palestinian-authority-and-israel-on-an-arresting-spree-children-and-activists-detained.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/palestinian-authority-and-israel-on-an-arresting-spree-children-and-activists-detained.html#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 14:53:48 +0000 Today in Palestine http://mondoweiss.net/?p=76355 link to news.yahoo.com
Detainees and Other Prisoner News Palestinians arrest 10 Islamic Jihad members Palestinian security forces arrested 10 members of the Islamic Jihad in the Jenin refugee camp on Monday, a local leader of the radical movement said. link to news.yahoo.com Islamic … Continue reading →]]> link to news.yahoo.com

Detainees and Other Prisoner News

Palestinians arrest 10 Islamic Jihad members
Palestinian security forces arrested 10 members of the Islamic Jihad in the Jenin refugee camp on Monday, a local leader of the radical movement said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Islamic Jihad holds PA security responsible for assaults on its cadres
The Islamic Jihad said that the PA security men broke into houses of a number of the Islamic Jihad leaders and cadres, on Monday, in the Jenin refugee camp in Burkin town.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF soldiers nab ten Palestinians including three children in Jerusalem and Al Khalil
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up ten Palestinians in Al-Khalil and Jerusalem over the past 24 hours including three children. 
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

In the past twenty-four hours, three male Palestinian children have been arrested in separate raids by Israeli soldiers in Beit Ommar. Jowad Muhammad Jameel Za’aqiq (15 years old) was arrested at around 5pm on Monday, 21 May, 2012. He was helping his father tend to his family land when the arrest took place. His father asked the soldiers present why his son was being taken. He was informed that Jowad (his son) had been seen throwing stones. Muhannad Mershad Awad (12 years old) and Alaa Yousef Mohammad Abu Maria (14 years old) were both arrested from their respective family homes in night raids at around 2am on Tuesday, 22 May, 2012. The reason for their arrests is unknown. Night raids are an almost daily occurrence in Beit Ommar. Night raids typically target Palestinian minors, activists and organizers involved in popular resistance initiatives against the Israeli occupation. Israeli soldiers often fail to explain why the ‘suspect’ is being arrested. The 
 

IOF soldiers detain child, summons liberated prisoner
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained a 15-year-old child in Beit Ummar village, north of Al-Khalil, on Monday evening, local sources said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli police arrest six Jerusalemites
Israeli border police arrested six Jerusalemite youths in confrontations in Tur suburb in occupied Jerusalem on Monday after they tried to prevent the policemen from kidnapping a child.
 
Khaled Abu Qash, a student activist at Bir Zeit University, was seized by undercover occupation forces from his home in the town of Abu Qash, Ramallah district on Friday, May 18, 2012. Abu Qash is the secretary of the Progressive Student Action Front at Bir Zeit University and was active in events at Bir Zeit and mass demonstrations in Ramallah in solidarity with the prisoners over the past month. This arrest has come among a number of arrests that have taken place against youth and student activists in recent weeks, and Palestinian activists have noted that these arrests have specifically targeted students and youth who engaged in and led many of the protests and solidarity events supporting the 28-day hunger strike of over 2500 Palestinian prisoners.
 
PARIS, May 22, 2012 (WAFA) - Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned on Monday the arrest by Israeli troops of Baha Mousa, director of the Palestinian Prisoner Channel, which broadcast from the northern West Bank city of Jenin. The troops raided the station on May 17, arrested Mousa and seized broadcasting equipment, computers, video cameras and documents. “Such abuses aimed at stifling the Palestinian media must cease,” the press freedom organization said in a statement.
 
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A Gaza engineer kidnapped by Israel in the Ukraine last year is the last remaining prisoner held in solitary confinement, after the hunger-strike deal sought to end the practice, his lawyer said Tuesday. Dirar Abu Sisi is still being held in an isolation cell in Ashkelon prison, while all others have been returned to normal wards, lawyer Karim Karim Ajwah said, noting his case was "kept secret in an unusual way."

VIDEO: "We are All Palestinian Prisoners" Exclusive Interview with Artist Hafez Omar
Hafez Omar, the young Tulkarm-based artist and activist, is the man behind many of the images we have come to associate with online Palestinian and Arab revolutionary campaigns--from the hunger striker Khader Adnan's stencil with a lock for a mouth to the late Egyptian Azharite Sheikh Emad Effat killed by the military police in Cairo in December. His most recent design, that of a faceless, blindfolded Palestinian prisoner became a Facebook sensation as thousands adopted it and other variations of the image to raise awareness about the countless prisoners observing a hunger strike in Israeli jails in protest of harsh conditions and inhumane detention procedures. Within 24-hours of posting the image on his Facebook page Hitan, Omar's design became a meme across the globe, prompting variations from Egypt and Syria to Ireland and the United States.
link to www.jadaliyya.com
 
Ethnic Cleansing / Land Theft & Destruction / Apartheid / Refugees

Netanyahu: Israel will continue to build Jerusalem and keep it united
Marking Jerusalem Day, PM says 'Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart'; thousands of religious-Zionist youths march through the city and Arab neighborhoods.
link to www.haaretz.com

Fayyad: Water crisis due to Israel's control of resources
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israel's control of Palestinian water resources in the West Bank is responsible for the water crisis, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Monday. Opening a conference on water and the prospects for agricultural development in Palestine, Fayyed said strategic vision and a long-term plan were needed to resolve the crisis.
link to www.maannews.net

Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem sells Real Estate to Zionists
The Hebrew newspaper "Maariv" has revealed, on Monday, a new scandal about selling real estate in Jerusalem to the occupation by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

The occupation escalates its siege on Jerusalem
The occupation authorities have imposed strict military measures since Sunday morning, around the city of Jerusalem.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Named for the crash site of an airforce plane shot down during the Six Day War in 1967, Givat HaMatos may yet prove the place where Palestinian hopes of a creating a capital in Jerusalem also plunge to earth. 'Airplane Hill' lies on the southern fringes of Jerusalem's city limits -- rock-strewn land dotted with shabby, prefabricated bungalows and the occasional pine tree.
link to www.maannews.net 

Jerusalem Day in the Old City: The Conflict Marches On, Karl Vick
Sunday was Jerusalem Day in Israel, a holiday once again observed by thousands of young Jews who chanted as they marched through Arab neighborhoods conquered in the 1967 Six Day War. The tension is always highest in the narrow passages of the largely Palestinian Old City. 
link to globalspin.blogs.time.com

The IOF suppress counter-demonstration held in Jerusalem
The occupation forces suppressed hundreds of Jerusalemites who demonstrated in response to the Zionist settlers’ marches on the anniversary of what they call "Jerusalem Day", on Sunday night.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 
Palestinians flee Syria for Jordan 
Violence in neighbouring Syria has driven increasing numbers of Palestinians into Jordan. But, the conditions at the former industrial complex where many of them are housed is only making the situation for the refugees increasingly difficult. Palestinian refugees from Syria held inside the Cyber City compound say the building resembles a detention facility. Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports. 
Nahr al-Bared was the first official Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It was then completely destroyed by the Lebanese army during clashes with Fatah al-Islam in 2007. Although the government designated the newly built camp as a military zone, residents insist that their return is a symbolic step towards return to Palestine.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

The Meaning of the Nakba, Naseer Aruri
During the middle of May, Zionists celebrate an event that they call the War of Independence. The same occasion is observed by Palestinians, who call it al-Nakba, meaning the catastrophe, which began with the internal displacement of some 200,000 Palestinians, reaching 800,000 or two-thirds of the population by the armistice of 1949, plus the organized destruction of some 600 Palestinian villages.
link to www.counterpunch.org

Siege of Gaza

The Arab Doctors Union calls to immediately support Gaza
The Emergency Relief Committee of the Arab Doctors Union has called for urgent support for Gaza and supplying it with necessary medications in order to meet the large deficit in hospitals.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 
Freed Palestinians find Gaza exile a challenge
"Gaza is a big prison, but some prisons are better than others," admits Nihad Abu Kishk, a former detainee from the West Bank who was exiled by Israel to the Gaza Strip. 
 
Falling between the cracks in the paperwork: What a single form can reveal
Bureaucracy isn’t photogenic. A clerk’s signature doesn’t film well. For that matter, writing about it isn’t easy either. A description of it can lead even the most determined reader to despair, but bureaucracy controls the lives of thousands of people and a single form might be the only distance separating an individual from her family. In a world such as this, one form can provide a lot of insight into the lives of hundreds of thousands if you look at it closely enough.
link to www.gazagateway.org
 
The Ministry of Agriculture in the Gaza Strip has launched the opening of the melon harvest season for 2012. At a ceremony conducted in the southern district of Rafah, it was confirmed that self-sufficiency targets set by the government have been attained. A number of senior officials from the ministry, engineers and farmers participated in the ceremony.

Israeli Violence and Aggression

From the start of the second intifada in September 2000 through December 2011, the human rights group B'Tselem filed 57 complaints over soldiers who allegedly did not stop violence such attacks.
 
IOF soldiers break into Aqsa mosque
Israeli occupation forces and border police broke into the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem in their uniform on Monday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Jewish settlers assault woman, lawyer in Yatta
A Palestinian human rights lawyer and a woman were assaulted by Jewish settlers to the east of Yatta town in Al-Khalil province at noon Monday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Palestinian teen injured in West Bank
A Palestinian teenager has been seriously injured in a clash with Israeli soldiers in north of the city of al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank.
link to www.presstv.ir

Where’s the Palestinian Gandhi? Soaking in Blood Shed by Settlers, Richard Silverstein
Yesterday, in the northern West Bank, outside the village of Aserra, a Jewish settler shot a Palestinian boy who was participating in a demonstration.  Here is the picture of the assassin aiming his rifle and there is the picture of the boy after the bullet has hit its target.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com

B’Tslem appeals closing of investigation into death of Firas Qasqas
On 15 May 2012, on behalf of B’Tselem, Attorney Gabi Lasky, filed an appeal to the State Attorney against the decision by the Central District Attorney’s office to close the investigation into the fatal shooting of Firas Qasqas by reserve-duty soldiers on 2 December 2007. The appeal was submitted after an examination of the material from the investigation into this case revealed that there is concrete evidence that necessitates an indictment for the negligent shooting of Qasqas, and that the decision to close the case is patently unreasonable and should be reversed.
link to www.btselem.org
 
Campaign: A message from Moira Jilani, Moira Jilani
My beloved husband, Ziad Jilani, was executed by Israeli Border Policeman, Maxim Vinogradov on June 11, 2010. There is undeniable evidence that my husband was lying unarmed and wounded on the ground, posing no threat when Israeli Border Policeman Maxim Vinogradov shot him point blank in the head. Despite the multiple contradictions, revisions and blatant lies in the testimony of the soldier who killed him, exposed by the autopsy, the Israeli authorities have closed the case against Maxim Vinogradov and his commander Shadi Kheir Al-Din.

Activism / Solidarity / BDS

Islamic bloc's students in Birzeit threaten open hunger strike
The Islamic bloc's students, who remain in sit-in at Birzeit University campus, threatened to go on an open hunger strike if the PA arrest and persecution campaigns against them does not stop.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

UK student union to support campus divestment initiatives, Ben White
The National Union of Student’s (NUS) National Executive Council has unanimously adopted a proposal mandating the body to work with local Student Unions to lobby universities to cancel contracts with Eden Springs.
link to electronicintifada.net

Pressure increases to deny Dutch bus contract to Israeli settlement profiteer Veolia, Adri Nieuwhof
Pressure to deny a public transport contract to Veolia because of its role in Israel’s violations of international law increases in the Netherlands.
link to electronicintifada.net
 
UK Community split over JNF Invitation to Avigdor Lieberman
In the UK, the Jewish National Fund and more than 280 "concerned" Jews, including the religious head of the Reform Movement, clashed this week over the charity's invitation to Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman, the Head of the far right Yisrael Beiteinu Party, is due in the UK next week to give a talk to JNF members and meet Foreign Secretary William Hague. 
 
How did I, who carefully checks every item on the supermarket shelves to avoid buying products made in the settlements, miss the fact that the halva I eat is made in northern Samaria?
  
Anti

Israel blasts foreign proposal on settlement goods
The Palestinian campaign to boycott goods produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank has received a boost from abroad with an unprecedented South African proposal to have the name of Israel dropped from labels on merchandise made in the settlements.
link to news.yahoo.com

Israeli Racism / Discrimination 

"Civil Rights": 84% of Palestinian Children in Jerusalem Live Below the Poverty Line
The Israeli Association for Civil Rights stated in a report published on Sunday that 84% percent of the Palestinian children of Jerusalem live below the poverty line.
link to www.imemc.org
 
Israelis sling racial epithets to mark 45 years of a Jerusalem ‘unification’, Allison Deger
Meanwhile en route to the Western Wall, by way of the Damascus Gate, extremist Israelis shouted, "the Temple will be rebuilt, the mosque will be burned," "Mohammed is dead," "sons of whores," and "death to the leftists". When the right-wing marchers entered Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter, protests were sparked amongst the Palestinian residents of the city and left-wing Israelis. Police on horseback then suppressed the demonstrators, arresting five. Ten Israelis were also arrested. 

Netanyahu: Israel could be overrun by African infiltrators
Netanyahu praises border fence being built in the south as a means of preventing infiltrations, but added that it is also important 'to physically remove the infiltrators.'
link to www.haaretz.com

Israeli MKs engage in stormy debate over African asylum seekers
Israel Police commander tells Knesset committee that increase in violent and sex crimes can be curbed by letting asylum seekers work.
link to www.haaretz.com

The Interior Minister’s call to expel African immigrants, in context, Paul Mutter
Interior Minister Eli Yishai's most recent remarks on African immigrants, calling for their expulsion and painting all of them (both refugees and migrant workers) as a criminal element in Israeli society, don't seen to be drawing much censure. Yishai is getting criticism from the Israeli police, but not for his bombast: Yediot Ahronot reports that the police inspector-general and one of Netanyahu's confidants are criticizing Yishai over the crime rate in South Tel Aviv - often blamed on African residents - and the two men promised that the government would devote more money to enforcing border controls and enforcing laws that prohibit hiring undocumented workers. 
link to mondoweiss.net
 
Lieberman and the JNF - a racist among racists
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, is paying a visit to the racist Jewish National Fund in London tonight.  That the racist JNF and the racist Lieberman support each other shouldn't surprise anyone.  I am however surprised that the JNF is so open about it. There is a bright side to this.  The meeting should help those of us who have been trying to expose the inappropriateness of the JNF's charitable status since hosting a foreign politician can hardly be deemed non-political. 
 
'Non-Jews are brainless thieves'
Rabbi Shteinman, leader of Lithuanian branch of ultra orthodox Jewry claims world was created for righteous, says nations have no principles
link to www.ynetnews.com

Other Developments and News

Israel set to impose further limits on privacy
The Israeli Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is proposing a new law that would allow a small number of official organizations to access public telephone calls, emails, and the contents of personal computers. This law would open the way for the Israel Antiquities Authority and the National Parks Authority to use what is known as “Confidential Eavesdropping,” a system used by Israeli police and military intelligence  to track emails and access the content of personal computers. For Palestinians, this law is another example of the violation of the democratic principles that Israel claims to uphold. This law is racially biased targeting Palestinians while helping settlers’ organizations take over Palestinian lands, using “democracy”  as a catchword to justify the law.  In the opinion of Palestinians, there is no need to create such a law because police and military intelligence are loyal to settlers’ organizations, and the same settlers control the Antiquities and National Parks Authorities. Settlers’ organizations are the sole source of information for these authorities. A local Palestinian said that Israel is the country that most often violates the public’s right to privacy especially for Palestinians. For example, cameras have previously been planted inside Palestinians’ houses so the settlers can monitor their movements.
link to silwanic.net 
The Obama administration is trying to convince the US Congress to approve the sale of spy drones to Turkey for its campaign against Kurdish rebels, the Turkish president was quoted as saying on Tuesday. However it is expected that powerful pro-Israeli lobbying groups will try to scupper any potential deal to punish Turkey for its hostile stance towards the Jewish state. "Actually the administration has a positive stance (over the sale)," President Abdullah Gul was quoted as telling the Anatolia news agency in Chicago where he was attending a NATO summit.
link to english.al-akhbar.com 

Austria minister: Lieberman's presence in Israeli cabinet 'unbearable'
In an interview to Die Presse daily, Norbert Darabos says Israel directing attention at enemies such as Iran, Palestinians in order to avoid internal social issues.
link to www.haaretz.com
 
Qatar's ruler says Israel is more isolated by the Arab uprisings and will face increasing pressures over issues such as its nuclear arsenal. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani urged Israel's leaders to view the Middle East uprisings as an opportunity for serious peace talks with Palestinians. The fall of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak last year wiped away Israel's main Arab ally, and Qatar's emir predicts the region's new governments will press Israel harder over its policies, including a widely suspected nuclear arms program.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Israel denies planning troops in Cyprus
Israel denied Monday reports in the Turkish press that it planned to deploy thousands of troops in Cyprus to protect oil and gas interests in the sensitive region.
link to news.yahoo.com

Occupation Inc.: Exporting Israeli Occupation to Cyprus, Richard Silverstein
Israel figures it can’t have too much of a good thing with its Occupation of Palestine.  Now it proposes to expand it to Cyprus as well, under slightly different terms.  Occupation by any other name would be just as sweet.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
 

Suspicion: Israelis harvested organs from the needy
Police suspect organ-harvesting network operated mainly in Kosovo, Azerbaijan; probe was launched after Turkish man told authorities in Kosov he was 'thrown out to the street' following operation.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Some 65,000 attend mass rally calling for kosher web; spokesman says event aimed at learning how to use the Internet responsibly.
 
Analysis / Op-ed

Monumental Dutch exhibit: Zionism built ‘a house, a cage, a UN shelter… a zoo’, Annie Robbins
ZOO, or the letter Z, just after Zionism is a far-out exhibit at an architecture center NAIM /Bureau Europa in the city of Maastricht, The Netherlands . It's also an adventure, an exploration into an unexpected world of architecture in conflict. First conceived by Israeli architect Malkit Shoshan, the founder and director of the Amsterdam based architectural thinktank FAST (the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory), "ZOO, or the letter Z, just after Zionism" was an extension of her award winning book Atlas of the Conflict. Israel-Palestine.link to mondoweiss.net
 
In response to questions rating which country '… is having a mainly positive or mainly negative influence in the world?' Israel was tie with N Korea for third place with highest negative influence on the global stage. The 2012 BBC Country Ratings Poll was conducted jointly by GlobeScan, an international opinion research consultancy, and The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, USA. Respondents were asked to rate 16 countries for their “mostly positive” or “mostly negative” influence on the world. A total of 24,090 citizens in 22 countries were interviewed in late 2011 and early 2012. People’s perception was based on the world’s view of the country’s foreign and domestic policies.
link to palestinechronicle.com

Interview: racism of Britain's rulers in Palestine explored in major new exhibition, Sarah Irving
Unearthed photographs shed new light on the British army’s Mandate of Palestine which paved the way for Zionist colonization.
link to electronicintifada.net

Nazism, Zionism, and the Arab World, Annette Herskovits
The intricate, sprawling architecture of deception that shapes understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict in America is probably unique in history. For over six decades, the U.S. Congress, successive presidents, media, public opinion, all have supported a story which portrays Israel as wholly good and innocent, while painting those resisting its violence and injustice as anti-Semites, Nazis, and terrorists. The myth that Israel is the victim of unprovoked attacks by uncivilized Arabs persists, even in the face of Israel’s brutality and violations of international law in its 44-year long occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
link to dissidentvoice.org
 

Al-Jazeera's (R)Evolution?
In March of 2011, an unusually forthright editorial by an anonymous writer made its way into the Peninsula Qatar, an English language daily bankrolled by a member of the emirate’s ruling family. At the time of publication, protesters had already toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, uprisings were in full swing in Libya and Yemen, and in the Persian Gulf, Bahrainis were gearing up for what would prove a bloody battle only days after the op-ed ran. 
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5610/al-jazeeras-(r)evolution

The Melancholia of a Generation
Mohammed Achaari is not new to Morocco’s literary scene; though The Arch and the Butterfly (al-Qaws wa-al-farashah) is only his second novel, he is the author of nine collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, and has served as both Minister of Culture and president of the Moroccan Writer’s Union. The brief synopses thataccompanied the announcement of his selection as one of two recipients of the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (popularly known as the Arabic Booker) for his most recent work inevitably focused on the novel’s connection to terrorism. The text’s opening line shows the narrator reading a compressed letter, presumably sent by an al-Qaida affiliate in Morocco, informing him in a single sentence that the son he had believed was studying engineering in Paris has been killed as a martyr in Afghanistan. The astuteness of Edward Said’s point that “the designation of a beginning generally involves also the designation of a consequent intention” remains, but the interpretation that the intention of The Arch and the Butterfly is of the same nature as that of novels like Yasmina Khadra’s Wolf Dreams and John Updike’s The Terrorist rests on a significant misreading.[1] There is little doubt that Achaari’s beginning is purposefully engaged in the production of meaning, but it is not precisely the meaning that has been widely asserted.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

The Most Unpopular Arab Uprising, Asad AbuKhalil
Certainly, Tunisia and Egypt have been the most popular Arab uprisings at the pan-Arab level. Certainly, the momentum of the counter-revolution has dashed the enthusiasm and excitement that followed the fall of Mubarak and Ben Ali. But Arab excitement and optimism gradually gave way to caution, pessimism, and dismay.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Bahrain

Bahrain activist attends retrial
Leading Bahraini political and human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja appears in court in the capital, Manama, for his retrial.
United Nations member states should scrutinize Bahrain’s deplorable human rights record during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on May 21, 2012. The international community should push Bahrain to adopt specific measures to ensure free expression and peaceful assembly, end torture, free political prisoners, and establish credible accountability mechanisms for continuing abuses.
link to www.hrw.org
 

Lawyer: Jailed Bahrain activist granted bail
A court in Bahrain granted bail Sunday for a jailed rights activist, but he remained in detention to await another court hearing later this week, a defense lawyer said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Despite Being Granted Bill, Nabeel Rajab Still Detained
Although he was granted bill, prominent Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab remained in jail of Al-Khalifa regime.
link to www.almanar.com.lb

Bahrain in UN spotlight over political prisoners
Bahrain faced calls at the United Nations on Monday to release its political prisoners, including prominent rights activist Nabeel Rajab who is charged with tweeting insults against the government.
link to news.yahoo.com

Leading Bahraini human rights activists, including hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, recalled their torture at the hands of the security forces on Tuesday. Al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike since February 8 but has recently been force-fed, appeared in court in a wheelchair as he is too weak to walk. The prominent activist, who is being retried at a civil court after a military tribunal had sentenced him to life in prison, looked frail but moved his chair forward without medical assistance.
 
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today released a report that details the impact of the ongoing militarization of Bahrain’s public health system on the country’s citizens especially the sick and wounded. The report, Under the Gun: Ongoing Assaults on Bahrain’s Health System, is based on 102 interviews, the examination of medical records and radiographic images, and site visits by PHR investigators in April 2012.
 
Secret Clinics Tend to Bahrain’s Wounded, Kareem Fahim
Amid an uprising, “no one goes to the hospital,” one protester said. The police are there.
 
Mohammed Al-Sheikh won his first prize for his photography in Austria back in 2008 for a photo of a small Bahraini child holding a rock in the middle of a chaotic scene on a street in Manama. The boy of no more than 7 years had his entire face, except for his eyes, covered. It was only years later that Mohammed learned who this child of the Bahraini resistance with, a mysteriously strong, determined look in his eyes, was. Mohammed was more eager to show me his work than to talk about himself. Very modest, every time my friend or I would compliment one of his photos or something he had done, he would find a way to pass on the credit to the fortunate light conditions, the strength of the subject in the photo, or to the Bahraini people in general.
 

Bahraini Prince Should Not be Welcomed in UK, Petition Asserts
The petition drawn up by Avaaz, the world's largest and most effective online campaigning community for change, will call on the British Prime Minster David Cameron and Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to prevent Sheikh Nasser's entry to the UK, declaring him as "persona non grata", the Ahlul Bayt News Agency reported.
link to www.albawaba.com 

Opposition to the grand prix was fuelled by anger towards the excesses of prestige projects and the squandering of resources. In the Gulf Arab states, opulent hotels with gold-plated toilet handles, shopping malls larger than several football pitches, cloud-reaching skyscrapers, artificial islands visible from space and almost racially segregated gated communities have all been hailed as "miracles" in the scorching deserts. These are the visible signs of unregulated capitalism: political systems that are in many ways still very traditional are chasing each other along the road to urban ultra-modernity.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
 
Egypt

Egypt: Widespread Military Torture of Protesters Arrested in May
Military soldiers beat and tortured protesters they arrested at a demonstration near the Defense Ministry on May 4, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today, after interviews with numerous victims and lawyers. The military also failed to protect the protesters from attacks by armed groups in the early morning hours of May 2, at the same demonstration, which began on April 27 in Cairo’s Abbasiyya neighborhood.
link to www.hrw.org
 
An Egyptian court sentenced five policemen on Tuesday to 10 years each in prison for their role in killing protesters in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, the first such convictions against a force that was blamed for hundreds of deaths. One of the driving forces behind demonstrations that have erupted since Mubarak was ousted in February last year has been anger that no officials or police have been held accountable for the deaths of more than 850 people during the uprising.
link to english.al-akhbar.com 
 
Blood money, see below: Saudi finalizes Egypt aid package
Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf said in a speech on Tuesday that the OPEC country was in the process of finalizing its US$2.7 billion aid package for Egypt. The funds are aimed at helping Cairo secure a US$3.2-billion IMF loan following the uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power in February 2011. After the transfer of US$1 billion to Egypt's central bank earlier this month, the Saudi package also includes US$500 million of support for development projects, US$250 million to finance purchases of petroleum products and US$200 million for small- and mid-sized firms.

Egypt's top cleric: Shias bring instability
Egypt's top Islamic cleric on Monday denounced Shia houses of worship in an outburst against the Muslim sect, telling Iran's envoy in Cairo that the husseiniyas promoted "instability." Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the imam of the prestigious Sunni Al-Azhar institute, met with the envoy a day after scholars from Al-Azhar and Islamist groups issued a statement condemning what they said were attempts to spread Shiism in Egypt.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Egypt vote: The Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty
Unpopular neighbour, But one foreign policy issue does bubble away beneath the bread and butter business of electoral politics here; what should newly-democratic Egypt do about the peace treaty with Israel signed more than 30 years ago back in the days of authoritarian military rule?, It is a campaign issue, although it has not dominated campaigning., The truth is that the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was a deal between leaderships, not a deal between peoples, and it is now deeply unpopular with the Egyptian street. 
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Israeli expert: Moussa a rival, but Abouel Fotouh hostile to Israel
Presidential candidate Amr Moussa sees Israel as a rival that should be fought through diplomatic and political means, as opposed to rival candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, who is hostile to the Jewish state, according to an Israeli expert on Egypt quoted in Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. The report highlighted Moussa’s campaign statements about his foreign policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians. The former foreign minister and former Arab League chief has said he would call for a Palestinian state in accordance with the borders as they were before the end of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, with East Jerusalem as its capital. He has also called for a nuclear-free Middle East.
link to www.egyptindependent.com
 
Voting results from Egyptian expatriates in Qatar, announced Saturday evening, showed Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh won the race in the Gulf country. A diplomatic source from the Egyptian Embassy in Doha said there was a turnout of 19673. Abouel Fotouh garnered 6134 votes to win, and was followed by Mohamed Morsy with 5975 votes. Hamdeen Sabbahi came in third with 3274 votes, Amr Moussa fourth with 2143 votes, Ahmed Shafiq fifth with 1191 votes, and Mohamed Selim al-Awa sixth with 299 votes. Khaled Ali received 121 votes, the diplomatic source said.
 
I recently interviewed Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fettouh. In three short parts below, Mr. Abul Fettouh discusses the most important aspects of his electoral platform, covering a variety of economic and political issues.
 
Egypt Islamist warns against vote fraud ahead of election
The powerful Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohammed Mursi warned Sunday against any attempt to tamper with Egypt's presidential poll this week as thousands of supporters rallied across the country on the last day of campaigning.
 
Khalid Ali. Egypt presidential candidate joins hunger strike
Several hundred Egyptians including a presidential candidate began a 24-hour hunger strike on Sunday to protest the continued detention of around 300 people rounded up in a mass arrest who face possible military prosecution.
 
Hamdeen Sabbahi: Egypt’s underdog presidential candidate?
Egyptian presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi rolls into the village of Dakarnas with a retinue of enthusiastic young supporters who are convinced their underdog candidate can surprise the nation.
 
Hamdin Sabbahi, As'ad AbuKhalil
Hamdin Sabbahi is a cultural-political phenomenon in Egypt and yet there is not a single article about him in the Western press, perhaps because he is neither an Islamist nor a pro-Saudi (fake) liberal, a la Amr Musa.  He is a staunch secularist Arab nationalist opposed to the very existence of Israel.  The bulk of Egyptian cultural elite is supporting Sabbahi but you would not know it from the coverage of the Western (and Saudi and Qatari) media.  
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

`Umar Sulayman: the new Egypt, As'ad AbuKhalil
It is hilarious.  `Umar Sulayman gives his first interview to Jihad Al-Khazin of Al-Hayat (the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan).  He is worried about the new Egypt and worries about a war with Israel.  Mubarak's proteges are always worried about Israel.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com
 
In Al-Akhbar’s fourth interview with Egypt’s presidential candidates, Mubarak’s former prime minister talks about Saudi Arabia, the US and his hope for economic revival.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Egypt presidential race gets new twist: Mubarak-era figure surges
Presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafik, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, rises in the polls days before the election. He may not win but could become a spoiler.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/Nl9N2w6_2Kc/la-fg-egypt-election-campaign-20120521,0,5329955.story

Cairo Journal: In Streets and Online, Campaign Fever in Egypt
Three days before Egypt’s presidential elections, a combination of high stakes, suspense and confusion has made for a heady atmosphere.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

Egypt’s Choice
In Egypt, no one knows what comes next. In a moment as fretful as any in decades, Egyptians are preparing to freely vote for a president, trading the certainties of rigged rule for a future with no guarantees. After the election, the malfunctioning state awaits an overhaul. Yet the moment is more hopeful, and more vibrant, than any in recent memory. Since last year’s revolt, Egyptians have repeatedly humbled their critics, including their deposed president, who called them unfit to choose their leaders. Now, Egypt’s once-opaque politics are a rich public spectacle, bubbling with talk of candidates, their missteps and their plans, as Egyptians recover something they had lost. “They feel they are citizens now,” said Hani Shukrallah, a journalist and author. “They have rights. And they have the ability, and the willingness, to fight for those rights.”
link to feeds.nytimes.com

The Making of Egypt’s President, Esam Al-Amin
Ever since the toppling of Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak, the United States has been very nervous with regard to its former client state. Likewise, most Israeli leaders have been sounding the alarms, warning that the peace treaty with Egypt is in danger and that its relationship with its western neighbor has never been more fragile. Last month, Egyptian authorities, under intense pressure from the public and revolutionary groups, abruptly ended all natural gas shipments to Israel. In addition, the parliamentary elections late last year, which resulted in the overwhelming victory of Islamic candidates, gave early warning signs that Egypt might chart a new independent course to the detriment of U.S. and Israeli policies in the region.
link to www.counterpunch.org

Iran
 
Deal with Iran reached on probe: U.N. nuclear chief
Despite some differences, a deal has been reached with Iran that will allow the U.N. nuclear agency to restart a long-stalled probe into suspicions that Tehran has secretly worked on developing nuclear arms, the U.N. nuclear chief said Tuesday.
 
Israeli warmongering at its finest: Israeli premier says Iran wants to destroy Israel
Iran is seeking atomic weapons to destroy Israel and world powers should not make any concessions over its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
link to news.yahoo.com

Neocons in Washington Post: Military strike on Iran would ‘calm nerves in the region’,  Philip Weiss
The Washington Post seems to think that the United States is not in enough overseas wars. It runs a piece by Matthew Kroenig and Jamie Fly urging us to pursue the military option with Iran. "On Iran, it’s time for Obama to set clear lines for military action." The excerpt below includes the shocking claim in my headline. Jamie Fly is at the neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative. Its board consists of four directors, Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol, Dan Senor and Eric Edelman. A lot of robust diversity there! Looks like a front organization. Kroenig is at the Council on Foreign Relations and worked in the Obama Defense Department-- so much for change you can believe in. Probably a Lester Crown play, the Obama supporter who is militant on Iran. Steve Walt took Kroenig's argument for war apart last December as a "textbook example of war-mongering disguised as 'analysis'"
link to mondoweiss.net
 
Iraq
 
Iraq bombings kill six, including four children
Bombings in the centre of the ethnically-mixed city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killed six people including four children on Tuesday, an army officer and a doctor said.

Iraq attacks kill three
Shootings and bombings killed three people and wounded nine in central Iraq on Monday, security officials said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Iraq buying US drones to protect oil
Iraq is buying unmanned drones from the United States to help protect its southern oil platforms as the OPEC nation ramps up production after the withdrawal of the last American troops, US and Iraqi officials said on Monday. Protecting the vital infrastructure around its oil reserves, the world's fourth largest, is crucial as Iraq rebuilds an industry battered by years of war and sanctions against former dictator Saddam Hussein.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Kurdish oil deal stirs Iraqi tensions
Autonomous region's oil minister outlines plans to export oil and gas to Turkey, increasing tensions with Baghdad.
link to www.aljazeera.com
 
Lawyers for fugitive Iraqi VP quit case in protest
Lawyers for Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president charged with running death squads quit the case on Sunday in protest after judges rejected their request for evidence for his defense.
 
Ankara and Baghdad on Sunday both condemned the burning of a Turkish flag at a rally in south Iraq at which protesters decried Turkey's refusal to hand over Iraq's fugitive vice president. The remarks were a rare show of unity amid cooling ties between the two countries in recent weeks as Turkey has accused Iraq's government of stoking sectarian tensions and Baghdad has responded that Ankara was becoming a "hostile state."
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Inside Baghdad’s Sharaf Prison
The Iraqi government organized a trip for journalists to Sharaf Prison in the capital Baghdad, following a report by Human Rights Watch about prisoners being beaten up and electrocuted.
link to english.alarabiya.net
 
Bush and Blair's pre-Iraq conversation must be disclosed, tribunal rules
Foreign Office loses appeal against release of extracts from phone call that took place a few days before invasion. Extracts of a phone conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush a few days before the invasion of Iraq must be disclosed, a tribunal has ruled. The Foreign Office lost an appeal against an order by the information commissioner, Christopher Graham, to disclose records of the conversation between the two leaders on 12 March 2003. Graham's order was made in response to a freedom of information request by Stephen Plowden, a private individual who demanded disclosure of the entire record of the conversation. "Accountability for the decision to take military action against another country is paramount," Graham had said in his original order.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
 
Lebanon
 
Anti-Assad Lebanese cleric bailed
An anti-Syrian Sunni cleric whose arrest sparked sectarian clashes in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli is released on bail.

The Lede Blog: Video of Street Fighting in Beirut
A Lebanese broadcaster captured harrowing footage of the fighting between rival Sunni factions that support opposite sides of the Syrian conflict, including armed men squeezing off rounds and darting through darkened streets.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

Beirut Battle: One Night, One Street, Photo Blog by Haitham Moussawi
Street battles between pro and anti Syrian groups in Beirut overnight left two people dead, a security official said on Monday, however the Lebanese capital was largely quiet on Monday morning. "During the night, groups of young men cut off the road in the Tariq al-Jdideh district and street battles followed," the official said, requesting anonymity. "Two people were killed and 18 were wounded," he said, adding that machineguns had been fired.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Two dead after overnight street battles but Beirut calm
Street battles between pro and anti Syrian groups in Beirut overnight left two people dead, a security official said on Monday, however the Lebanese capital was largely quiet on Monday morning. "During the night, groups of young men cut off the road in the Tariq al-Jdideh district and street battles followed," the official said, requesting anonymity. "Two people were killed and 18 were wounded," he said, adding that machineguns had been fired. Supporters of the anti-Syrian Future Movement clashed with members of the pro-Assad Arab Movement, with fighting continuing until 3.00am.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Qahwaji: We won’t Allow Sedition in any Area in Lebanon
Lebanese Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed Monday that what happened in Akkar in North Lebanon after the killing of Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Wahid and his bodyguard was the result of political tension in the region. Lebanese armyIn an interview with Al-Jomhouriya newspaper, he urged Lebanese to put an end to sedition in the country, because people adhere to the state and army.
link to www5.almanar.com.lb

High Tension in Lebanon after Death of Sheikh Abdul Wahid
Several areas in Lebanon are witnessing high tension with roads being cut and gunshots heard after the Lebanese army fired at a convoy of cars which declined to stop at an army checkpoint in the town of Alkwykhat in Akkar.
link to www.almanar.com.lb
 
Protests after Lebanese sheikh killed in Akkar
A Lebanese sheikh was shot and killed by the country's army in the northern district of Akkar on Sunday, in circumstances that were initially unclear. Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Wahed and his companion Muhammad Hussein Merheb were killed in the town of Halba, the state run National News Agency (NNA) said.  The article claimed Wahed had been heading to a sit-in protest organized by the Future Movement but had failed to stop at a military checkpoint.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

US and Russia concerned by Lebanon security situation
The United States and Russia on Monday voiced concern about security in Lebanon after two clerics were shot and killed amid violence between between pro and anti Syrian groups. US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner issued a statement welcoming a pledge by the Lebanese authorities to probe the shootings and urged all sides to show restraint amid fears the violence in Syria was spilling into Lebanon.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Russia Urges Lebanon to Take Stabilization Measures
Lebanon has largely managed to remain neutral in the conflict that began in neighboring Syria last March, but violence has recently spread to the country’s northern region, which saw frequent clashes between rival Sunni groups in the past two weeks.On Sunday, Lebanese troops shot dead a Sunni cleric at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon. At least two people were killed and 18 injured in Beirut in clashes overnight. “Moscow is seriously concerned over the rise of public discontent in Lebanon…we are calling on Lebanese politicians to show restraint and high patriotic responsibility in this uneasy moment both for the country and for the region,” the Foreign Ministry said urging Lebanese authorities to restore order in the country. The ministry also said that “forces that are unable to implement their destabilization plans in Syria have turned their attention to Lebanon.” 
link to en.ria.ru
 
Lies of the US government, As'ad AbuKhalil
The recent clashes in Tripoli started with the arrest of Shadi Al-Mawlawi, a man with Al-Qa`idah connection.  The arrest was widely condemned by the "pro-Western"--according to Western media--coalition of March 14.  The other side revealed that the arrest was at the behest of the CIA.  That embarrassed the sponsors of the March 14, so pro-Saudi/US media in Lebanon, LBC TV and An-Nahar, quoted US officials as denying that they were behind the arrest.  Now, Sulayman Franjiyyah, revealed on New TV that the CIA was behind the arrest of the Jordanian suspect, and that led to the arrest of Al-Mawlawi.  So the US government was being too cute in its propaganda through March 14 media in Lebanon.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

"Armed kids on scooters were using the anarchy to try to assassinate soldiers from behind"
"The Shiites have [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah and [Amal leader Nabih] Berri to tell them when to fight and when to stop, and their people listen," one frustrated Beirut Sunni told me late in the evening as he checked the casualty reports on his phone. "The Sunnis? We have a poster of a dead man."
 
A day after an all night battle in the Future Movement’s stronghold of Tariq al-Jdideh in the Lebanese capital, residents of the neighborhood have mixed feelings that range from the thrill of “victory” to the fear of what’s next.

America's favorite Salafites, As'ad AbuKhalil
The Hariri Salafites in Lebanon are of the Jihadi-Bin Ladenite type.  Those were the folks who recruited fighters in Iraq.  They have been burning Lebanon in the last few days and yet not a word against them from the US government.  They are those allies: this is one of the most unreported stories.  Western journalists who were going to Lebanon on media junkets paid for by Hariri family were introduced to the Whiskey sipping members of the Hariri media office and they were not introduced to the muscle on the street.  Can you imagine if the culprits were from Hizbullah? The UN Security Council would have met in an emergency session and sanctions would have been ordered against Lebanon. 
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

The Salafi monster in Lebanon and Jeffrey Feltman, As'ad AbuKhalil
I will write about that later but make no mistake about it: Jeffrey Feltman and US policies in Lebanon during the Bush administration are responsible for the rise of the Jihadi-Salafi monster in Lebanon.  They wanted a sectarian counter to Hizbullah and found one.  I hope that they are enjoying it.  Hariri camp has been speaking about "a civil state" in Lebanon (this is very much a code word by the Muslim Brotherhood to mask their aim at Islamization of society and state): I believe them but we did not know that they wanted Ayman Adh-Dhawahiri as its head.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

Muhammad Ra`d: Hizbullah's second thoughts on Syria, As'ad AbuKhalil
On the sinking Syrian regime ship.  People did not notice the speech by Muhammad Ra`d (the head of Hizbullah parliamentary bloc who has a unique way of expressing his political views--he was a teacher of Arabic).  Ra`d spoke about Syria in a tone that can be contrasted with the rest of Hizbullah's rhetoric about Syria.  He spoke about the right of the Syrian people to determine their future, and spoke about the freedom of the Syrian people to chose.  The party must have realized how much fodder he has provided to his enemies in Saudi/Hariri media by his unconditional and unlimited support for the lousy regime.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

Kuwait warns residents not to visit Lebanon
Kuwait's Foreign Ministry has told its citizens to leave Lebanon and avoid traveling to the country because of increasing violence fueled by the revolt in neighboring Syria, state-run news agency KUNA reported on Monday, citing a ministry source. "Kuwaitis...should not travel to Lebanon under any circumstances," KUNA quoted the source as saying. The decision follows similar announcements by Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE on Sunday. At least two people were killed in Beirut in heavy clashes between rival Sunni Muslim gunmen early on Monday. 
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Tripoli: Salafis Make Their Move
The repeated security breaches in the Northern Lebanese city of Tripoli raise questions about who’s in control of the security situation on the ground. There are no definitive answers to these questions, but the growing influence of Salafi forces is visible.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Don't blame Syria – Lebanon's leaders are fuelling the fighting in Tripoli, Patrick Galey
The resulting flare-ups have been carefully managed by sectarian leaders and have helped maintain the real reason why Tripoli is such a hotbed for hostility. For behind all of Syria's influence in Lebanon, and underneath a past of political manipulation, the true cause of Tripoli's violent present lies in the city's appalling neglect. The figures speak for themselves. Close to 40% of all Lebanon's poor live in Tripoli or the surrounding areas. More than half of Tripoli residents are classed as either "poor" or "extremely poor." Of those families who live in the trouble hotspots of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, 82% live on less than the equivalent of £336 per month. Illiteracy and unemployment rates in the city are way above the national average.  While it is true that all areas of Lebanon have suffered in recent decades as the country attempts to recover from its civil war and subsequent conflicts, Tripoli residents have endured special hardship. Compared for example to parts of southern Beirut and the south, where inhabitants worst affected by Hezbollah's 2006 war with Israel have had their homes rebuilt and infrastructure improved, the people of Tripoli receive precious little by way of financial support from either state or private sponsors.
link to www.guardian.co.uk

About Last Night
Last night the sound of gunfire punctuated the Beirut soundscape. Supporters of the anti-Syrian and majority Sunni Future Movement clashed with members of the pro-Assad and Sunni Majority Arab Movement. The fighting, which was most intense around the Beirut Arab University, continued until the early hours of the morning.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

The Number One Sunni in Lebanon, Qifa Nabki
The Future Movement has seized on these events to make a typically hamfisted play, pressuring Miqati to resign. I don’t see that succeeding unless the situation in Tripoli becomes far worse. And even in such a case, I continue to believe that Hariri has no desire to return to the limelight so soon. He is biding his time abroad not because of security threats but because the position of the Lebanese Prime Minister — the Number One Sunni in Lebanon — is precisely where he doesn’t want to be right now.
 
Syria
 
Bomb kills 5 in Syrian capital
A bomb that apparently struck a restaurant in the Syrian capital killed at least five people, the state-run news agency said Tuesday, as activists reported intense clashes between army defectors and soldiers in the restive north.
 
Syria forces kill deserters as NATO rejects action
Syrian forces ambushed and killed nine army deserters in a north Damascus suburb on Monday, a human rights watchdog said, as NATO ruled out military action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
link to news.yahoo.com
 
Ex-detainee: Syrian prisons are 'slaughterhouses'
A prominent Palestinian writer who was jailed in Syria for nearly three weeks described the facilities as "human slaughterhouses," saying security agents beat detainees with batons, crammed them into stinking cells and tied them to beds at night.
 
NATO chief says 'no intention' to intervene in Syria
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Sunday voiced concern about violence in Syria, but said the alliance has "no intention" of taking military action against the regime.
 
Bomb detonates near UN observers in Syria
No casualties reported in blast in Damascus suburb, as UN peacekeeping chief urges all parties to exercise restraint.
 
Opposition groups report clashes in Syrian capital
A restive district of the Syrian capital that has been a hotbed of dissent against President Bashar Assad was rocked by fighting overnight between government forces and army defectors, opposition groups said Sunday.
 
High-ranking Syrian officials deny reports of their own assassinations
Two high-ranking Syrian officials denied in interviews with state television on Sunday reports by pan-Arab channels that they, along with four other regime stalwarts, had been assassinated. 

This photo of an opposition banner hung on a dormitory at the University of Aleppo shows the growing reach of the opposition in Aleppo. Another sign of the growing capability of the opposition is its ability to set off car bombs with growing regularity near intelligence offices and in Syria’s major cities, such as this one: Car bomb hits Syrian city of Deir al-Zour, killing 9 instantly and wounding 100. An intelligence headquarters was the target. 

Syrian opposition to announce new leader
Syria's opposition group, the Syrian National Council says it's almost ready to announce a new leader. The group's been in disarray, increasingly accused of being ineffective and out of touch with the armed struggle. Laurence Lee looks at whether a new chief might restore some of its legitimacy.
link to www.youtube.com
 
Inside Syria: An opposition divided 
The Syrian opposition appears to have come apart at the seams as different factions vie for leadership roles. James Bays discusses with Bassma Kodmani in Paris, Dr. Kamal al-Labwani in Cairo and Josh Landis in Oklahoma.
link to www.youtube.com

Syria: Losing Its Youth
The newly-politicized generation of young Syrians are constantly facing fresh challenges and bleak prospects. As employment opportunities dwindle, it becomes even harder to stay in their country.
 
The US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, is to leave his post this summer, the embassy in Kabul confirmed on Tuesday. "Amb Crocker has confirmed with regret that he will be leaving Kabul this summer," the embassy said on its Twitter feed, a day after the conclusion of a NATO summit in Chicago in which leaders charted a path out of the Afghan war. The veteran diplomat, who was appointed to Kabul 10 months ago, previously served as the US envoy to Iraq, Pakistan and Syria.
 
US protesters condemn NATO
Protesters gathering in Chicago for the NATO summit geared up on Sunday for the largest demonstration of the weekend, as thousands are expected to march from a downtown park to the lakeside convention center where President Barack Obama and other world leaders were meeting. Hours before the main demonstration was set to start, protesters – including peace activists, war veterans and those more focused on the economy – began arriving at Grant Park, holding signs denouncing NATO, including ones that read: "War(equals)Debt" and "NATO, Go Home."
link to english.al-akhbar.com

"No NATO, No War": U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit
We broadcast from Chicago, site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s six-decade history. On Sunday, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as members of Afghans For Peace, led a peace march of thousands of people. Iraq Veterans Against the War held a ceremony where nearly 50 veterans discarded their war medals by hurling them down the street in the direction of the NATO summit. We hear the soldiers’ voices as they return their medals one by one from the stage. "I am giving back my global war on terror service medal in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan," said Jason Heard, a former combat medic who spent 10 years in the U.S. Army. "I am deeply sorry for the destruction that we have caused in these countries and around the globe."
link to www.democracynow.org

Scott Olsen, U.S. Vet Who Nearly Lost Life at Occupy Protest, Brings Antiwar Message to NATO Summit
We’re joined at the NATO summit in Chicago by Scott Olsen, who survived two tours in Iraq but almost died when he was hit with a police projectile at an Occupy Oakland protest last year. Olsen returned four of his medals at Sunday’s antiwar march. When asked why he’s joined the Occupy movement and is protesting against the heavily-policed NATO summit, Olsen says, "I am going to make every effort I can to show them that we’re doing the right thing. No matter what they do to any of us, we’ve got each other’s backs and we’re going forward."
link to www.democracynow.org

U.S. Army Vets Join With Afghans For Peace to Lead Antiwar March at Chicago NATO Summit
Sunday’s antiwar march at the NATO summit in Chicago was led by members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and Afghans For Peace. "We’re here to protest NATO and call on all NATO representatives to end this inhumane, illegal and barbaric war against our home country and our people," says Suraia Sahar, a member of Afghans For Peace who marched alongside Afghan war veteran Graham Clumpner during anti-NATO protest in Chicago. "I feel honored standing next to this veteran because in my opinion they are doing the right thing by speaking out against the occupation and war alongside us." Clumpner says, "I reject any affiliation with this war."
link to www.democracynow.org

Chicago Police Face Accusations of Entrapment, Brutality in Crackdown on NATO Protesters
Dozens of anti-NATO protesters have been arrested in Chicago over the past several days including five men who were jailed on domestic terrorism charges. Three of the men were accused of plotting to attack President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home and other targets. Their lawyers say they were entrapped by government informants. The Chicago police have also been criticized by activist groups for using violent force to break up protests and accused of targeting independent media activists who have been streaming the protests live over the Internet. On Saturday night three helping to live stream video of the protests were detained at gunpoint.
link to www.democracynow.org
 
Imagine the reaction if a Muslim cleric in the U.S. said this: North Carolina pastor: Send LGBT people to concentration camps to die
Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in North Carolina recently told his congregation that LGBT individuals should be rounded up and detained in camps until they’re all dead. During a sermon on May 13, Worley berated President Barack Obama for claiming that same sex couples should be allowed to marry. “The Bible is against it, God is against it, I’m against it and if you’ve got any sense you’re against it,” he said. “I figured a way out to get rid of all the lesbians and queers. But it isn’t going to pass in Congress. Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out, feed em, and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out. You know why? They can’t reproduce!” “I am not going to vote for a baby killer and a homosexual lover,” Worley added. “God have mercy, it makes me puking sick.”
 
UAE ruler cancels debts of defaulting borrowers
Citizens of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates who defaulted on hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans could soon see their debts wiped away.

Kuwaiti Shiite tweeter 'denies insulting prophet'
A Kuwaiti Shiite tweeter on Monday denied in court charges that he insulted Islam's Prophet Mohammed, his wife Aisha and some companions, his lawyer Khaled al-Shatti said.
link to news.yahoo.com
Suicide bombing kills nearly 100 soldiers in Yemen
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military parade rehearsal Monday in Yemen's capital, killing 96 soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks in the city in years, officials said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Robert Fisk: Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is dead. Now we'll never know the truth about Lockerbie
So the old scoundrel has died. Midday Tripoli time, at his home, peacefully, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, after a long struggle with cancer, "bravely borne" no doubt. But "scoundrel", nonetheless, not because he arranged the Lockerbie bombing – many have the gravest doubts he ever did – but because he was a member of Gaddafi's intelligence services and no-one who served the Great Leader as a "mukhabarat" agent had clean hands. If he was wrongly convicted, what did he do in the service of his master? Cliché time: his secret dies with him.
 
www.TheHeadlines.Org
]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/palestinian-authority-and-israel-on-an-arresting-spree-children-and-activists-detained.html/feed 4 Bill Kristol celebrates Republican Party purge of ‘oldfashioned Arabists’ Scowcroft, Baker and Bush I http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/bill-kristol-celebrates-republican-party-purge-of-oldfashioned-arabist-realists-scowcroft-baker-and-bush-i.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/bill-kristol-celebrates-republican-party-purge-of-oldfashioned-arabist-realists-scowcroft-baker-and-bush-i.html#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 16:33:02 +0000 Philip Weiss http://mondoweiss.net/?p=76259

Every time I go into the Jewish community to hear a discussion of the issue, I am reminded that the Jewish community on its own is incapable of moving forward. This week I am still reeling from seeing Bill Kristol hold forth at a debate at Bnai Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side last Tuesday [a short portion of which is above]. He came off as what he is, a Republican Party warlord; and he was treated like royalty. The rabbi said he was proud to host Kristol, and Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street said he wanted to take Kristol with him to the West Bank, and moderator Jane Eisner of the Forward was very respectful, though she got in a jab at Kristol's "smear" tactics at the Emergency Committee for Israel.

When Kristol gave the self-congratulatory riff from which I’ve gotten my headline—about how all the elements hostile to Israel inside the Republican Party were purged over the last 30 years – no one dared to question the power of the Israel lobby.

Or when Kristol lectured Ben-Ami for being outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party, no one pointed out that Kristol is a Republican, and who is he to enforce a pro-Israel line inside the Democratic Party? Well because he has power in the Jewish community, and support for Israel in our community transcends party, that's why.

There was a sense that we are all on the same side because we are communal Jews and everyone in that community is a Zionist. "We've won the war, we won the war" Jeremy Ben-Ami proclaimed; 99 percent of Congress now has "deep" support for the special relationship between Israel and the U.S.

But as for the war that Bill Kristol pushed, the Iraq war, no one was so impolite as to bring that up, let alone Kristol's counsel to George W. Bush to remove Saddam Hussein because "Israel’s fight against terrorism is our fight." The words neoconservative, apartheid and Peter Beinart also were not uttered. 

Kristol was the most charming figure on the dais. He had the line of the night when he said, "I hope the organization [J Street] continues to flourish and to have no effect on actual US policy." I walked out feeling like I’d just seen the Knights of Columbus having a party for Tony Soprano.

The news coming out of the event last week was that Kristol endorsed Obama’s Middle East policy—that is, once Obama abandoned the Cairo speech of 2009 for the AIPAC speech of two months back.

“I can mostly support the Obama administration of the last two years after they gave up their foolish efforts…. to cause a huge diplomatic crisis… I think the Obama administration has moved to the center… After the terrible failure [to support the Green revolution in Iran in 2009]…he’s come down on my side…I’m happy to sit here and agree with President Obama to a considerable degree at least as the policy has moved in the last two years with respect to Israel and the middle east..”

And why did Obama capitulate? Because of people like Bill Kristol. Kristol was freaked out by Obama’s early stances, and particularly by Obama's belief that he had the support of the Jewish community. This was Ben-Ami's "great achievement," Kristol said: creating a perception that the whole Jewish community was moving to the J Street position. The Emergency Committeee for Israel was born to exert pressure the other way.

Here Ben-Ami offered his strongest criticism. After saying that “We’ve won the war" and only "far outliers" in Congress criticize Israel, he said that Bill Kristol was too much of an enforcer for Israel with American politicians. They are "live in fear" of speaking out. There’s an “atmosphere of fear” and “intimidation” that has caused hundreds of congresspeople not to speak their true minds.

"You’ve pushed the debate too far, you have the impact of silencing people on a policy question."

He explained this in communal terms. You have, Ben-Ami said, "turned criticism of policy into a question of whether someone is anti-Israel," and this tactic blurred an "important line in the Jewish communal conversation"-- the line where "criticism" crosses into "delegitimization of Israel." So when Kristol attacked a congressman as anti-Israel for opposing Israel's ban on coriander entering the Gaza Strip, he was signalling to the community that the politician was delegitimizing Israel, and serious people believed him, a form of hysteria that is bad for America and bad for Israel and bad for the Jewish community too.

Kristol fought back. Those coriander Congressmen were "trashing Israel" and the J Street position was outside the "mainstream of the pro-Israel community." When 54 members of Congress sign a critical letter, or 30 members vote against the overwhelming majority of Congress on a pro-Israel resolution, "we are entitled to say that as a matter of fact this person took a position that is not in the majority position of the Democratic party and a lot of serious people think would be a position that would damage the security of the state of Israel." 

Ben-Ami said Kristol is trying to "quelch debate." Those 50 members who dare to criticize Israel are the courageous ones. "Another 200 are scared to do it..."

Kristol laughed and dared him to name names. Ben-Ami said he can't give names because the politicians are afraid. Kristol said it was the New York Times and NPR and J Street on one side and “little old ECI" on the other.

Ben-Ami: "I very seriously and absolutely do believe that a significant percentage of American members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are intimidated on this issue... They worry about the ramifications of speaking out.... They are worried about the attacks that they will receive."

So the Israel lobby has gone too far, Ben-Ami is saying. This is the same man who when Walt and Mearsheimer wrote about the Israel lobby's hammerlock on US policymaking in the Middle East, said it smacked of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Because they weren't Jews. Because by and large, Jews are afraid to share our "communal" conversation. Eisner said that some in the audience had written on their question cards that maybe the Jewish community should be more “circumspect” about having this debate, because it would arm the anti-Semites. Sp a journalist suggests that we should be more circumspect. But what is the truth? What is making US policy? What are the "ramifications" of a politician criticizing Israel? Aren't Jews strong enough here to have this conversation? It would have been nice if Ben-Ami or Eisner could have asked Kristol about how he derives his power-- how he buys a full-page ad in the Times to say that Obama whom he agrees with is using Israel as a punching bag. No one mentioned hedge funder Daniel Loeb, who funds the Emergency Committee for Israel.

Ben-Ami rationalized the "communal" conversation because American Jews have a curious national status:

“Every Israeli Prime Minister says that Israel is the state of all the Jewish people, and it does represent us and we do have a stake in what goes on there… we’re asked to send our kids, and we have a right to speak out and say that the way that the country behaves is deeply reflective of the values of the Jewish people….”

He and Eisner were very good about talking about conditions on the West Bank. Ben Ami said that people of a different skin color than ours don’t have any rights and that we are about to see a new phase in the conflict, in which this becomes a worldwide issue, the battle for equal rights between the river and the sea. That was clear-sighted, and though Ben Ami wants to do everything to put off that struggle, he said the destruction of Palestinian rights was at the top of the agenda wherever Hillary Clinton goes and is hurting the U.S.' strategic national interest.

Kristol sniggered. He said that it’s a “myth” that the Palestinians are important even to Arab countries. The status quo is sustainable for another 45 or 60 years. There is no Palestinian majority between the river and the sea, because Kristol doesn’t count Gaza—1.5 million people wiped off the political map.  

Some of these statements sounded like defensive lies from a party boss. When Ben-Ami said the settlement regime is threatening the rule of law in Israel, Kristol said with a petulant tone that it was “cavalier” for comfortable Americans on the Upper West Side who face no risks at all to "berate" Israel and “second-guess” the ”tough calls” that Israel has had to make.

“I'm not sure I'm capable of judging all these extremely complicated legal and political issues within the state of Israel. I believe that as Americans what we can do… is above all stand with Israel against existential threats, terror threats.”

This is Kristol's most important role in life, being Israel's guardian in the U.S. He  spoke proudly about the ways the Republican Party had purged critics of Israel in the last 30 years.

I think the good news is [Ron Paul] didn’t do well…I mean, the big story in the Republican Party over the last 30 years and I’m personally very happy about this as a Republican is first the eclipsing of I’d say the [George H.W.] Bush [Brent] Scowcroft [James] Baker traditional—it’s unfair to say-- hostility to Israel-- but lack of closeness and warmth for Israel … I say this as someone who served in the first Bush White House and has high regard for the first president Bush, but it was an Arabist, oldfashioned Republican Party, which was certainly very concerned about relations with Arab states that were not friendly with Israel and skeptical about the case for Israel. They have really been eclipsed by the Reagan George W. Bush McCain kind of tradition of a more sympathetic attitude toward Israel, greater support for Israel.

The other thing that for 20 years now that has been a worry for many of us on the Republican conservative side, was the rise of -- the return of the Pat Buchanan/Ron Paul type of hostility to Israel. The good news is that doesn’t have much support in the Republican Party or the presidential field or Congress….”

How did this happen? What is the relationship of this political transformation to the Jewish rise inside American society? 

Kristol kept saying that Americans support Israel, but does he trust them to do so without some influence? I don't think so. In 2008, I reported on a Kristol speech at AIPAC urging Israel's friends to cultivate up-and-coming politicians: Kristol said that Hart Hasten, a Holocaust survivor and successful Indianapolis businessman, had been crucial to shaping Dan Quayle's view of Israel, having "spent a lot of time" with Quayle when he was still a congressman.

And at Bnai Jeshurun, Kristol admitted playing a role in expelling members of the Republican Party he doesn't agree with. There were some Republicans you had to "repudiate," people 

of whom I disapprove so much that I wont appear with them. That I've encouraged that they be expelled or not welcomed into the Republican Party. I'd be happy if Ron Paul left and ran as a third party candidate. I was very happy when Pat Buchanan was allowed-- really encouraged I would say by George Bush and others [unintelligible name, possibly Tony Martin] in 1998 or 1999 to go off and run as a third party candidate. And he simply left the Republican Party. I'm happier to have a Republican Party without Pat Buchanan than with Pat Buchanan. But everyone’s got to make up their own mind about where they draw that line.

I again despair of the Jewish community. They called this a "robust" debate, but the "communal conversation" is a conversation foreclosed by Jewish fear--that criticism of the need for the Jewish state will bring about a rise in anti-Semitism. So Bill Kristol is empowered because of fears, because he is more of a communalist even than Ben-Ami. And no one in our community will force Kristol to reflect on his push for the Iraq war, which many Jews have still not had to reflect on – a war that the Reform Jews supported (even as Chris Matthews bragged the other night that the Vatican was against it). This is about what the poet Robert Lowell called our transformation from doves into hawks under the influence of Jewish nationalism, and in the end the issue is whether Ben Ami will allow his Jewish communal fears to override his genuine respect for human rights. 

The only way to beat Kristol is to build a coalition outside the Jewish community, to turn to the realists whom Kristol purged. Ben-Ami won’t do that. No, he is busy trying to calve Jews off the Kristol iceberg. He said again that he is not against AIPAC. This is a fight for influence, a fight for the center of the power structure. He and Kristol smiled when Eisner said that they both went to Collegiate, the fancy prep school nearby.

Meantime, I wonder who will follow up the great generational American Jewish stories I heard in Bnai Jeshrun. Who will chart the purge of the Realists from the Republican Party? Who will tell what Bill Kristol did to crush J Street? Who will tell what AIPAC did to elevate Bill Clinton and defeat that oldfashioned Arabist George Bush? Alas the Democratic establishment is not interested in these stories because it is just as corrupted; the smartest guy on this subject, MJ Rosenberg, left the Democratic Party-aligned thinktank Media Matters following Bill Kristol’s frontal attack on him in a full page New York Times ad-- Bill Kristol who is a Republican Party boss but speaks for the mainstream Democratic Party too.

]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/bill-kristol-celebrates-republican-party-purge-of-oldfashioned-arabist-realists-scowcroft-baker-and-bush-i.html/feed 83 Daily escalations in Occupied Palestine http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/daily-escalations-in-occupied-palestine.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/daily-escalations-in-occupied-palestine.html#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 15:47:26 +0000 Today in Palestine http://mondoweiss.net/?p=75994 link to english.al-akhbar.com
Ethnic Cleansing / Land Theft and Destruction / Nakba
 
Joseph's Tomb is located in the West Bank city of Nablus which is under full Palestinian control since the Oslo Accords were signed.
link to www.haaretz.com

Thousands of Israelis to visit West Bank site after court decision
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are likely to visit a West Bank tomb in the coming year, after a Jerusalem court awarded two rabbis legal and administrative control over it in contravention of international law. Joseph's Tomb in Nablus is in the part of the West Bank that the Oslo Accords assigned to full Palestinian control. Consequently, the Israel Defense Force officially have no jurisdiction in the area and any Israeli involvement there is illegal.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Minister says Israel will not give up settlements of Ofra and Beit El near Ramallah
Israel's Minister of Defence has said that any political agreement with the Palestinians will exclude a number of settlements in the occupied West Bank. Ehud Barak claimed that the Zionist state will not "abandon" the illegal settlements of Ofra and Beit El near Ramallah. Barak told Israeli Army Radio, "In any map I can think of for final status negotiations, Ofra, Beit El and Baal Hazor must be part of Israel." He added, "I think that there are many things to be done in order to promote Beit El as a very important settlement and I have no doubt whatsoever regarding its future." The Hebrew newspaper Haaretz called such statements "a change in Barak's position". In the Camp David negotiations when he was Prime Minister of Israel, noted Haaretz, he had agreed to transfer most West Bank land to the Palestinians, including East Jerusalem
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk

In pictures: portraits of al-Aqaba, a village surrounded by the Israeli army
Al-Aqaba is a small Palestinian village in the Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank surrounded by Israeli military checkpoints and training grounds.
link to electronicintifada.net


AJC hasbara video includes ethnically cleansed Palestinian village, Ben White
A hasbara video called “The Rhythm of Israel”, produced by the American Jewish Committee’s initiative ‘Project Interchange’, includes a church from an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village.
link to electronicintifada.net

An Nakba
 
The Naqba “Right of Return” march begins from Damascus Gate
As part of the Naqba Day memorial activities, a large crowd marched from the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem through the streets of the city, demonstrating their commitment to the Right of Return and claim to the land that hundreds of thousands lost in 1948. Today 5 millions Palestinian refugees living in neighboring countries and in Palestine itself, are waiting to return. The march also criticized the silence from the international community, and the weakness of the Arab leaders to address the ongoing violation of human rights by the Israeli occupation. Israeli forces tried to block the march but were unable to delay the determined protestors.
link to silwanic.net

Palestinians face repression on Nakba Day rallies
Palestinians across the West Bank held rallies and protests to commemorate Nakba Day Wednesday with many protests facing violent repression.
link to www.english.rfi.fr
 

Nakba day at Ofer prison, May, 15, 2012
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.434889723188004.106848.136633479680298&type=1

Nakba Day clashes on West Bank between Palestinians and Israeli forces – video
Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces clash in the West Bank on Tuesday as Palestinians mark Nakba Day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/may/16/nakba-day-palestinians-israeli-video

Today, May 15, 2012, Palestinians are remembering the 64th anniversary of the Nakba. In Arabic, “nakba” means “catastrophe,” and it refers to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, which was accompanied by the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. Many Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes, while others fled when they heard the news of massacres in nearby villages, such as Deir Yassin and Tantura. More than 450 Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated by Zionist forces, and most of them were razed to the ground to prevent the return of the Palestinian refugees. Many refugee families still carry the keys to the homes that they were forced to leave.
 
Palestinians and their pro-justice supporters around the world have remembered the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, the Catastrophe caused by the creation of the state of Israel in historic Palestine. In 1948, almost a million Palestinians were driven out of their homes by Zionist Jewish militias and were forced to find relief and shelter in neighbouring Arab countries and the wider world, as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Events were held around the world to commemorate Nakba Day, including demonstrations, protests and conferences. In Gaza, old and new faces came together as hundreds of Palestinian artists visited universities in Gaza City and painted murals on the walls depicting different aspects of the Nakba, including the initial expulsion and the lives lost during the Catastrophe. The main theme of the artwork was that the key to peace is Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homeland. Below is a selection of artwork from the streets of Gaza City.
 
Coalition Of Youth Revolution, the Arab Spring forces have organized a massive march in Tahrir Square on Tuesday after noon prayers to mark 64th anniversary of "Nakba."
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7DtYAqanJBSVUfI0bZvexNb6A7YpIcSUd1Ad%2fKXX2ajb52dCQZnKCe3GNLCK1zEXq1VwG247F8k9shm0oq2RYgW8wkd4DGca89TBybU3BX1E%3d
 
ISTANBUL (Ma'an) -- Palestinians in Turkey on Tuesday held a rally to commemorate the anniversary of Palestinian exile in 1948. Ahmad Abu Saleh, a member of the Palestinian community in Turkey, gave a statement stressing Palestinians' right to return to their homes. The rally was attended by Turkish politicians and a Turkish association that supports Palestine on the day commemorating the Nakba, or catastrophe. 
 
Dan Sisken took these photos in Washington, D.C., yesterday at the Nakba commemoration.
 
A sit-in tent outside the Netherlands parliament to mark Nakba
The Palestinians in the Netherlands commemorated the 64th anniversary of the Nakba in a sit-in tent outside the Parliament in The Hague, highlighting the prisoners' issue.
KARACHI - Imamia Students Organisation on Wednesday led a rally from Numaish Chowrangi to the Press Club to express solidarity with Palestinians.The protesters, including children, marched on MA Jinnah Road, Preedy Street and Regal Chowk, supporting Palestinians on the 64th anniversary of proclamation of Zionist regime of Israel on the land of Palestine.The demonstrators, carrying placards and banners, burnt US and Israeli flags and chanted slogans against Israel’s aggression. Addressing the protesters, Maulana Sadiq, Allama Aftab Haider Jafri, Maulana Munawar Naqvi and Muhammad Rizvi said Palestinians had been deprived of their legitimate rights while the world leaders were dragging their feet over the matter.They cited the massacre of Palestinians in May 1948 and took a swipe at the major powers for their failure to resolving the longstanding issue.
link to www.nation.com.pk
 
An Australian court has rejected a request made by the police force in Sydney to postpone a march commemorating the Nakba. The police asked for it to be held at the weekend instead of midweek to avoid disrupting the city's traffic. Judge Christine Adamson rejected the request after a hearing on Monday evening, explaining that freedom of expression takes precedence over any potential traffic congestion. In any case, she added, the importance of the actual date of the Nakba made it essential for the commemoration to take place on 15th May, not on any other day.
 
Walid Khalidi on Nakbah
"The UN partition plan, presented as a compromise between the two communities was anything but. It gave the Jewish population, which by then had artificially grown into about 30 percent of the population, over half (55 percent) of Palestine where Jews owned less than 8 percent of the land. It condemned hundreds of thousands of Palestinians within the UN-drawn boundaries to live in separation from their compatriots as a minority in the Jewish state-to-be. The Jews were overjoyed, but the Palestinians were outraged at this dismemberment of their country and fragmentation of their society – a prolonged nightmare realized. Artfully the Zionist leaders represented their “acceptance” of partition as evidence of their readiness to “compromise” and to comply with the will of the international community. 
 
Erasing the Nakba, Neve Gordon
I first heard about the Nakba in the late 1980s, while I was an undergraduate student of philosophy at Hebrew University. This, I believe, is a revealing fact, particularly since, as a teenager, I was a member of Peace Now and was raised in a liberal home. I grew up in the southern city of Be'er-Sheva, which is just a few kilometres from several unrecognised Bedouin villages that, today, are home to thousands of residents who were displaced in 1948. I now know that the vast majority of the Negev's Bedouin population was not as lucky, and that, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, most Bedouin either fled or were expelled from their ancestral lands to Jordan or Gaza.
 
QALANDIA, Occupied West Bank , May 16, 2011 (IPS) - Israeli confidence that Nakba day, marked by The Great March on May 15 in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel and neighbouring Arab countries, would remain under control, has backfired badly.
link to ipsnews.net

Siege on Gaza

Medics: Man suffocates in Gaza tunnel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A man died on Thursday after suffocating in a smuggling tunnel beneath the Gaza-Egypt border, medics said. Jihad Barakeh, 18, was pronounced dead upon arrival at a Gaza hospital, having been pulled out of a tunnel by other workers. Since Israel tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007, goods smuggled in from Egypt through underground tunnels have provided a lifeline to the coastal enclave. Under siege, Gaza's economy collapsed and a 2011 UN study found that unemployment rates in Gaza were among the highest in the world. Gaza officials say over 160 young men have died at work in smuggling tunnels, but with a lack of alternatives many are still drawn to the hazardous profession.
link to www.maannews.net

Gaza-bound activists arrive in Egypt
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Over 120 activists arrived in Egypt on Thursday en route to the Gaza Strip, a security official said. An Egyptian security officer told Ma'an that 40 activists arrived at Cairo airport and 84 flew into El-Arish airport to join the 12th Miles of Smiles convoy and the Jordanian Supporters of Gaza group. They are bringing medical aid and vehicles adapted for disabled people and will enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
link to www.maannews.net

Jordanian aid convoy "Ansar 2" leaves for Gaza
The aid convoy dubbed "Ansar 2" on Thursday left for Gaza to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians caused by the Israeli blockade., The convoy headed by Head of the Jordanian "Artery of Life" committee Wael Saqqa and about 100 participants from various local activities left Amman International Airport to the Egyptian Al Areesh Airport. It is expected to arrive at Gaza Strip on Thursday noon., Saqqa told (Petra) that "Ansar 2 " aims to confirm Jordan’s solidarity with Gazans, adding that it will support the sector’s small productivity projects, visit the Jordanian field hospital in addition to other activities.
link to en.ammonnews.net

Israeli Violence and Aggression

PCHR Weekly: “46 Palestinians Wounded, Army Continues Its Invasions”
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), based in Gaza, issued its weekly report (May 10 - 16) on Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, revealing that Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 46 Palestinians, including children and reporters, and carried out more than 41 invasions. The army continued to use excessive force against nonviolent protesters.
link to www.imemc.org

Israeli tanks fire on Gaza Strip, 7 injured
Israeli forces opened fire on northern and eastern Gaza, medical officials say.
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Seven people were injured on Thursday when Israeli forces fired artillery rounds at the northern and eastern Gaza Strip, medics said.  Gaza medical spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya told Ma'an that two people were seriously wounded and five moderately injured when Israeli forces opened fire on Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, and east of Gaza City.
link to www.maannews.net

Farmers critically wounded in unprovoked Israeli attack
Eight Palestinian farmers were injured this morning in the Shujaeya district, east of Gaza City, in an unprovoked attack by Israel. All the victims were working on their farms during the attack; two are in a critical condition in hospital. In a similar incident, a number of farmers were wounded by Israeli forces in Bayt Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip. In the south of the beleaguered territory, Israeli forces infiltrated the area east of Khan Yunus. Eyewitnesses report that a number of Israeli bulldozers and tanks eventually retreated under air cover. Commentators point out that these are the sort of daily infringements which provoke resistance groups in Gaza to fire rockets into Israel. Subsequent Israeli "responses" are given maximum media coverage to illustrate how dangerous life is for Israeli civilians. No such sympathetic coverage is afforded to Palestinian civilians trying to go about their daily business under the threat and reality of Israeli bombs and bullets.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
 
Israeli police kill Palestinian in Tayeba city
The Israeli occupation police on Wednesday killed a Palestinian citizen in Tayeba city of the 1948 occupied lands and wounded others during a raid on a house.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Two workers seriously injured during IOF chase
Two Palestinian workers were injured when a wall fell over their head while escaping chase of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) near Beit Awa village in Al-Khalil, local sources said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF troops fire teargas bombs on civilians in northern Gaza
Palestinian citizens were treated for breathing difficulty after Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired a number of teargas canisters on northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday night.
 
Tension in the Issawiya area, tens of injuries
Many confrontations since this early morning in the Issawiya village in Jerusalem between the locals and the Israeli forces as a result of the memorial Naqba day, The Israeli forces attacked the Palestinians in Gas and robber bullets, witnesses said that the under cover forces (Mista’revim) kidnapped 7 young men and beat them then they took them to the Post Office police station and then transferred them to the Maskubiya jail. At the same time the Israeli forces maintained their raids in the area, they kept assaulting the youth and the children.  The Israeli forces  kidnapped another 4, among them 2 children, Ismail Kweder and Muhammad Abbas, they were assaulted in a brutal way, they also arrested and attacked a guy that suffers from mental illness till he bled, eye witnesses added that an Israeli soldier was injured from the stones. During the confrontations the Israeli forces broke into Mahmood Eliyan’s house and they beat him, his wife and his children in a brutal way. As was mention before, the Issawiya  decided to have a general strike for the Naqba Memorial Day.
 
The assault on Diala Jwejan the journalist from Jerusalem
The Israeli forces assaulted the journalist that is known for covering the incidents in Jerusalem, the assault happened during the Naqba day memorial in the Issawiye village in Jerusalem, Diala told Silwanic over the phone the Israeli forces  broke her equipment then they started beating her.
link to silwanic.net

PA: Settlers torch car in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- A group of settlers on Thursday set fire to a car in Nablus, a PA official said.Three settlers from Yitzhar settlement set fire to the car in Einabus village, PA official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma'an.The owner, Zain Mustafa Allan, said the car was parked outside his home when the attack took place. Earlier, settlers threw rocks at Palestinian cars driving near Yitzhar settlement, Daghlas said. The Nablus district experienced the majority of settler violence in 2011, The Palestine Center says.
link to www.maannews.net

Jewish settlers, officials storm Aqsa mosque
A group of 25 Jewish settlers accompanied by an Israeli minister stormed the holy Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday morning.

Illegal Arrests / Detainees

IOF rounds up seven Palestinians
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up seven Palestinian citizens in various West Bank areas at dawn Thursday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli special force shoots, arrests Palestinian youth in Alezariye
A special force of the Israeli army shot and wounded a Palestinian youth in Alezariye town in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israel 'arrests TV director, confiscates equipment'
JENIN (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces arrested the director of a Jenin-based satellite channel on Thursday after raiding his home, the executive director of the channel said. Saher Qassem, chief of the Al-Asir channel, told Ma'an that a group of soldiers arrested Baha Khayri Ata Musa, 32, after raiding his home in Mirka village.
Soldiers Kidnap Child Near Hebron; Israeli Soldiers Attack Nakba Protests
Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Tuesday, a Palestinian child in Beit Ummar town, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, on Tuesday. He was repeatedly kicked and punched to various parts of his body.
link to www.imemc.org
 
Child wounded in Arub clashes
A Palestinian child was hospitalized in Al-Khalil on Wednesday when Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired bullets and tear gas grenades at protestors.
 
Tension in the Issawiya area,11 arrests
Many confrontations since this early morning in the Issawiya village in Jerusalem between the locals and the Israeli forces as a result of the memorial Naqba day, The Israeli forces attacked the Palestinians in Gas and robber bullets, witnesses said that the under cover forces (Mista’revim) kidnapped 7 young men and beat them then they took them to the Post Office police station and then transferred them to the Maskubiya jail. At the same time the Israeli forces maintained their raids in the area, they kept assaulting the youth and the children.  The Israeli forces  kidnapped another 4, among them 2 children, Ismail Kweder and Muhammad Abbas, they were assaulted in a brutal way, they also arrested and attacked a guy that suffers from mental illness till he bled, eye witnesses added that an Israeli soldier was injured from the stones. During the confrontations the Israeli forces broke into Mahmood Eliyan’s house and they beat him, his wife and his children in a brutal way. As was mention before, the Issawiya  decided to have a general strike for the Naqba Memorial Day.
 
Prisoner News
 
Details emerge of Israeli concessions that ended historic Palestinian mass hunger strike,Ali Abunimah
Details of the Israeli concessions that ended an historic 28-day mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and the more than two-month hunger strikes of several prisoners, emerged today.

Two Palestinians ‘restart’ hunger strike
Two Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are refusing food, despite the signing this week of a deal to end a mass prisoner hunger strike, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Thursday.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Several prisoners still on hunger strike in Israeli jails
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Several prisoners in Israeli jails are still on hunger strike, officials said Thursday, days after a deal was struck to end a mass hunger strike movement. Israeli Prisons Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman told Ma'an that Mahmoud al-Sarsak and Akram al-Rekhawi are refusing food. They are being held in Ramle prison clinic, she said. Al-Sarsak has been on hunger strike for 60 days and is protesting his detention without charge or trial. A soccer player, al-Sarsak was detained in July 2009 while leaving the Gaza Strip to join the national team in the West Bank.
link to www.maannews.net
 
Nizam Abu Rumuz was denied from a medical treatment in the Gilboa prison
Nizam Abu Rumuz from Silwan is serving 22 months in the Gelboa prison after he was accused in resisting the settlements and the Israeli forces, although he needs an immediate surgery in his Back the prison administration is denying him as a punishment for his strike hunger that’s been going on for 25 days, he is striking with the rest of many prisoners that’s demanding to improve their bad circumstances in the prison. Nizam’s family informed us that the Red Cross told them that he is forbidden from visitors, as well, new information reached Silwanic’s website that he is being transferred to  different prisons without any doctor’s examination, Nizam is suffering from over fat in his back and its causing him extreme pains and still the prison administration is denying him from an immediate surgery.
 
The family of administrative detainee Suleiman Skafi demands his release
The family of the administrative detainee Mohammed Suleiman Tawfiq Skafi, from Al-Khalil city in the West Bank who had participated in the dignity strike in an attempt to achieve his release.
 
This morning (15 May 2012), the media reported that an agreement was reached between Israel and representatives of the Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. The agreement follows a hunger strike by almost 2,000 prisoners that lasted some six weeks. The prisoners raised a number of demands, focusing primarily on the conditions of their imprisonment. One of the demands was the resumption of family visits for the prisoners from Gaza, which were stopped in 2007 when Hamas took control in the Gaza Strip. According to the initial media reports, Israel has agreed to resume family visits, with a number of limitations that have not yet been clarified.
 
Despite repeatedly stating that a key demand was an end to administrative detention, and that no partial offer would be accepted, an Israeli offer was yesterday accepted by the Higher Committee for the Hunger Strikers on behalf of the prisoners. Although Israel has agreed to release 19 prisoners from solitary confinement – several of whom have been in isolation for more than ten years – and to lift the ban on family visits for prisoners from Gaza, the agreement states only that administrative detention will not be ‘renewed’ automatically and that after six months, the prisoner must be released, or charged. Current administrative detainees will be released, or charged, at the end of their current sentence.
 
Israeli Racism
 
Hotline for Migrant Workers files a police report about the calls and also filed a complaint against Interior Minister Eli Yishai for incitement.
link to www.haaretz.com

Growing tensions between locals and migrants in Israel
TEL AVIV, Israel (IRIN) -- Blessing Akachukneu was already looking for a new place to live when her south Tel Aviv apartment, which doubles as a day-care center, was firebombed in April. Her Israeli neighbors, she explained, had complained to the landlord about the noise from the day-care center and she had been asked to leave. Otherwise, she had not had any problems in Shapira neighborhood.
link to www.maannews.net

Incredibly vile racist Israeli rant: Terra Incognita: How racism crept into my neighborhood
African migrants are viewed through the prism of “victims”; their own racism is not usually acknowledged.
link to www.jpost.com
 
Other News

Abbas makes “big error” in naming new cabinet: Hamas
President Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in nine new ministers to his cabinet in a reshuffle condemned by the opposition Hamas as a “big error.” PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was retained in his role but had to relinquish his influential second post as finance minister. The move is a blow to reconciliation efforts with Hamas, which governs Gaza, as the PA appears to be moving away from plans for a unity government.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Palestinians now merit full ambassador
The Foreign Ministry has given diplomat Naofumi Hashimoto, chief of the Representative Office of Japan to the Palestinian Authority, the title of ambassador in charge of Palestinian affairs. It is an extraordinary step for a diplomat in charge of an area that Japan has not yet recognized as a state to be designated as an ambassador. The new title, bestowed Tuesday, does not carry extraordinary and plenipotentiary representative powers equivalent to those of the Japanese ambassador to the United States, for instance, but the title will enable him to engage in diplomatic activities more smoothly, sources said. Hashimoto was formerly deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Iraq.
link to www.japantimes.co.jp
 
Jill Stein, the prospective Green Party presidential nominee, hailed yesterday's agreement regarding solitary confinement, family visitation rights, and more by Israeli prison authorities as a significant victory for non-violent resistance and human rights. The agreement was the result of a hunger strike by over 1600 Palestinian prisoners that lasted in some cases as long as 77 days.
 
Israel 'violates' Turkey airspace
Turkey says it scrambled two military jets to chase away an Israeli plane which allegedly violated the airspace of Turkish-held northern Cyprus.
link to www.bbc.co.uk
 
IDF to boost intelligence efforts on Jordanian border
Army hopes to deploy advanced observation system currently installed in south, in Jordanian border area too.
 
Israeli military intelligence chief Aviv Kochavi made a "secret visit" to Washington earlier this month to discuss the upcoming talks between world powers and Iran, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. An Israeli security official confirmed the visit, which was reported in Haaretz newspaper, but could not provide further details. As well as discussing Tehran's nuclear program, the major general also held talks with senior White House and intelligence officials in New York and Washington on "the Syria crisis and Hezbollah's increasing power in Lebanon," the paper said.
 
US gas giant works to avoid Israel electric shortage
Noble Energy is to hook up two small natural gas fields to Israel's central gas supply to avoid electricity shortages over the summer due to the cut in Egyptian supplies, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

BBC Poll: Israel's global image plummets
Israel ranks among states perceived to have most negative influence on world, according to BBC poll; only Iran, Pakistan do worse, Israel's image hits nadir in Europe.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Israel Tied with North Korea in BBC Negative Influence Poll
Israel’s foreign and domestic policy seems to have tarnished its image on the world stage as it came joint third in an annual international BBC poll assessing the negative influence of major countries. The poll asked which states were perceived to have had the most negative influence on the world. Iran and Pakistan took first and second place respectively, with Israel sharing third place with North Korea.
link to www.imemc.org

Verdict in Corrie Lawsuit to be Announced August 28, 2012
(Olympia, WA USA - May 16, 2012) - The verdict in the civil lawsuit against the State of Israel for the killing of peace activist Rachel Corrie more than nine years ago will be announced August 28, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. at the Haifa District Court.
Analysis / Op-ed

"Above and Beyond" for Israel
Is the United States "going above and beyond for Israel?"  According to the Washington Post's Walter Pincus, the answer is yes. In his column today, Pincus asks provocatively, "Should the United States put solving Israel’s budget problems ahead of its own? When it comes to spending, it appears that the United States already is."
link to blog.endtheoccupation.org
 
New Texts Out Now: Past Is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine
This open-access (and therefore freely accessible) special issue emerges out of a conference we organized in early March 2011, convened by the SOAS Palestine Society. The impetus for the conference came from two main directions. First, we all work on one aspect of Palestine or another, and each of us has grown distressed by the tendency to treat Palestine as a series of temporal and spatial set pieces. Second, we were perplexed by the ongoing application of ever-newer theoretical approaches that seek to understand the constantly shifting situation on the ground: we feel that, taken together, these discrete approaches tend to undermine holistic, structural analysis. The framework of comparative settler colonialism offers important insights and interventions that, while not all new, provide productive scaffolding for thinking about Palestine. Comparative settler colonialism rejects the exceptionalism that is ascribed to Zionism and Israel, and to Palestine and Palestinians, and it opens the situation to comparison with other contemporary and historical settler colonial cases. It is, for us, a paradigm that is coherent and elastic, and it helps to illuminate characteristics and tendencies that are too often treated in isolation. 
 
Protest Outside the BBC: End Your Silence on Palestine
Protestors will gather outside the BBC in central London later today to protest at its biased coverage of Palestine and the Israeli occupation. They will hand in a letter, signed to Helen Boaden, the BBC's Director of News, highlighting the BBC's sparse coverage of the mass hunger strike by more than 2,000 Palestinians held in Israel's jails which lasted four weeks and came to an end on Monday (14 May). During this time, while ignoring the Palestinians' hunger strike, BBC television and radio news gave prominent coverage to Chinese dissident, Chen Guangcheng, and the hunger strike of Ukrainian politician, Yulia Tymoshenko.

link to english.pnn.ps

Manchester launch for Leila Khaled biography CANCELLED
I’m very sad to say that the Manchester launch of my Leila Khaled biography, which was due to take place a week on Thursday, has been cancelled. A very shaken staff member called me earlier to say that the shop had been subjected to a deluge of phone harassment since opening this morning, and that they simply could not cope. As a mainstream bookshop, Blackwell’s hasn’t experienced anything like this (or not for a very long time – I seem to remember tales of someone trying to firebomb it over another controversial title, but that was in the 1980s!) and they are simply not equipped to cope. This is, of course, immensely disappointing, but I absolutely do not blame Blackwell’s for taking this decision, and they have been incredibly kind about it (I feel rather guilty about not foreseeing this and for putting their very sweet but rather literary staff through this!). It is, of course, a measure of the desperate rearguard action which apologists for the actions of the State of Israel are currently fighting that they feel the need to close down all debate and discussion of issues around Palestinian history, politics and culture. It’s also worth noting that some of the callers hadn’t even bothered to properly find out what the event was – they thought that Leila Khaled herself was planning to appear, something which is currently impossible because she is denied visas by the UK government. But it is revealing that Zionist campaigners are happy to close something down when they don’t even know what it is.
link to www.sarahirving.co.uk

Michael Oren is ambassador of Israel to the U.S., which makes him the chief public relations employee of Israel. And he sees the writing on the wall. His piece in the Wall Street Journal is titled "What happened to Israel's reputation?" You can see that he is enraged by Sarah Schulman's pinkwashing piece in the New York Times, you can see that he knows that Israel exhibits "brutal conduct" in war and has demonstrated arrogance with the alleged peace process. He is afraid of BDS. And calls it a more "sinister" tactic than what? Than violence? Yes; he would prefer violence. We don't know how to fight Gandhi, the Israelis say.
 
Jewellers Profit While Palestinians Bear The Cost
As the leaders of the global diamond industry gathered in Vicenza, Italy on Monday for the annual meeting of the World Diamond Council, Palestinians remained trapped in a surreal nightmarish existence under the cosh of a diamond-funded, nuclear-armed belligerent regime.  Despite the fact that cut and polished diamonds from Israel are funding war crimes and crimes against humanity, the US Chair of the international diamond-regulatory system known as the Kimberley Process (KP), said on Monday, "We cannot be everything to everyone and our role is to cover the rough distribution process."
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Amidst Fragmentation and Disposession, Which Palestine?, Fida Jiryis
Throughout contemporary history, movement of people outside their own countries for long or short intervals movement of people outside their own countries has occurred for long or short intervals has occurred for various reasons...
 
A surplus of mediators have been around all the time, including the heavy weight Quartet of the UN, U.S., EU and Russia, as well as heaps of terms of reference of UNSC resolutions, bilateral signed accords and 'roadmaps,' in addition to marathon bilateral talks that have left no stone unearthed, international as well as regional conferences were never on demand to facilitate the 'peace process,' which has been lavishly financed to keep moving.
 
Israelis Not Keen on Changing the Status Quo, Stuart Reigeluth
The Israelis are anything but stupid. However their cleverness and innovation in perfecting the technological, logistical and financial dimensions of the military occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land make the situation nearly impossible to reverse — but not impossible, if it weren’t for European endorsement. While the United States continues with its carte blanche foreign policy of supporting Israel blindly in all forms of security and military material, Europe — that has much more to gain from changing its policies towards the Palestinians — is still essentially paying for the continuation of the Israeli occupation by covering costs to maintain the Palestinian National Authority.

Artistic Depictions of Arab Women: An Interview with Artist Lalla Essaydi
The intersection of gender, perception, identity, and space have, for centuries, collided to illustrate a skewed depiction of Arab women. The art of Orientalism brought about imagined scenes of women in harems, hidden in seclusion behind veils and walls. As these images continue to shape Western perception of Arab women, Moroccan-born artist, Lalla Essaydi, reclaims and deconstructs these images. In her exhibit, Lalla Essaydi: Revisions, at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, through her experiences as an Arab woman living in the West, she presents her past. 
 
Should a visitor from another planet happen to arrive here and look around at the reality between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea without the usual lenses of distortion, she would see that in Israel/Palestine—the land stretching from the river to the sea which has been under one rule for over forty years—almost half the population is Palestinian Arab and Arabic is their mother tongue, as well as that of nearly half of the Israeli Jewish population. Should our guest distinguish—as does the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, as well as the Israeli academy and media—between Israeli citizens and occupied Palestinian subjects, she would find that within the category of “Israeli citizens,” the majority is of Arabic-speaking (and to a large extent reading and writing) origin. Our guest would likely notice that Israel is located in the heart of the Arab world and that each and every one of its neighboring countries is Arab.

Bahrain

Bahrain activist says charge over tweets 'vindictive'
Prominent Bahraini rights activist Nabeel Rajab told a court on Wednesday that a charge that he tweeted insults against the government was "vindictive," as dozens of lawyers turned up to defend him.
link to news.yahoo.com

Rights group chides US arms sale to Bahrain
A Bahraini rights group urged the US to reconsider its planned arm sales to Bahrain citing continued human rights violations with the use of US-made weapons. Washington lifted its freeze on supplying arms to Bahrain last week after initially raising concerns that US weapons were being used by Bahraini authorities to brutally suppress pro-democracy protesters. Locally based rights group Bahrain Watch said the deal was "problematic" as it did not take into account Bahrain's ongoing violent crackdown on the uprising.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

US Arms Sale Sends Wrong Signal to Bahrain, Groups Say, Jim Lobe
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is sending the wrong signal to the government of Bahrain in proceeding with a partial sale of new arms to Manama, according to human rights activists and some lawmakers.
link to original.antiwar.com

Bahrain and Iran in 'union' row
Bahrain's foreign ministry summons Iran's charge d'affaires following Iranian comments objecting to a proposed union between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Egypt

Egypt: Court acquits police in protesters' deaths
An Egyptian court has acquitted 14 policemen charged with killing protesters during last year's popular uprising.
link to news.yahoo.com

Egypt: New Law Keeps Military Trials of Civilians
Egypt’s parliament on May 6, 2012, approved amendments to the Code of Military Justice that failed to end the unprecedented expansion of military trials of civilians, despite pleas for reform from the legal and human rights communities. In 2011 more than 12,000 civilians, including children, faced unfair military trials which fail to provide the basic due process rights of civilian courts, more than the number of military trials of civilians during 30 years of rule by former president Hosni Mubarak.
link to www.hrw.org

Rights group documents 841 deaths in 2011 uprising
An Egyptian rights group released Tuesday the most comprehensive list to date of the more than 800 civilians killed by security forces in last year's uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak last year. The report by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information follows what many in Egypt see as a failure by officials to adequately investigate what happened during the 18 chaotic days of street protests in January and February 2011, or to hold those responsible for killing protesters to account.
link to www.egyptindependent.com

Revolutionary youth demand release of prisoners, formation of Constituent Assembly
Revolutionary movements announced that they will organize a number of activities to pressure for the release of prisoners arrested after different incidents since the start of the revolution till the Abbasseya clashes. The activities will start with a march on Wednesday evening from Cairo High Court to the headquarters of Parliament demanding it take real steps to release prisoners, said a statement Tuesday by the Revolutionary Forces Coalition, the Second Revolution of Anger, the Revolutionary Youth Coalition, the April 6 Youth Movement Democratic Front, the Revolution Youth Union and the Free Front for Peaceful Change.
link to www.egyptindependent.com

Copts fear an Islamist president, mostly back Shafiq or Moussa
Egypt's Coptic Christians complained of discrimination under Hosni Mubarak but fear it may get worse if an Islamist takes his place in next week's presidential election. Long-suppressed Islamists already dominate Parliament. Islamist contenders for the presidency say Christians, who form about a tenth of Egypt's 82 million mostly Muslim people, will not be sidelined, but mistrustful Copts will not vote for them.
link to www.egyptindependent.com

Shafiq: Relations with Saudi Arabia priority over Iran
Presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafiq has said that if elected president he would work to develop deep and strategic relations with all countries, with priority given to Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. He emphasized Egypt could cut relations with Iran if it comes at the expense of Saudi relations. Iran and Egypt severed ties in 1980 after the Islamic revolution in Iran and the normalization of relations between Egypt and Israel. Both nations have long vied for power in the Middle East. Egypt has been allied with the US and Israel for decades, but relations between Cairo and Tehran have warmed since the resignation of Hosni Mubarak.
link to www.egyptindependent.com

Egyptian director sends messages to Islamists, and Israel in Cannes
About his film being projected in Israel, Nasrallah said he did not want the movie to be sold there, believing that the country is “not an ally” of the Egyptian revolution. “I do not know at all if the film was sold to Israel, but if you want my opinion, no, I do not want it to be. Not as long as the Israelis still occupy the Palestinian territories,” he said during the conference, as several journalists applauded.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Egyptian presidential hopeful Amr Moussa still committed to decade-old Arab Peace Initiative
The decade-old Arab Peace Initiative “is our initiative and we will stick to it,” Egyptian presidential candidate Amr Moussa told The Electronic Intifada in an audio interview.
link to electronicintifada.net

Rap Group at the Leading Edge of Egyptian Rebellion
Alexandria, with a rich and cosmopolitan past, these days is a focal point of revolutionary fervor, expressed in a vibrant underground art and rap music scene.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

Iran

Sanctions are focused on foreign banks that handle transactions for Iran's national oil and tanker companies.
 
Bolton: ‘Israel should have struck’ Iran several years ago
Former United Nations’ American ambassador John Bolton continued his campaign to have the country of Iran bombed Tuesday evening, feeling that Israel should have accomplished the task several years ago. Appearing on Fox News’ On The Record with Greta Van Susteren, Bolton expressed to van Susteran how Israel needed to be clever with its approach to any military action with Iran. “I thought the Israelis should have struck about three and a half years ago,” he said. “So as far as I’m concerned, everyday that goes by just increases the risk that our intelligence maybe imperfect. I just throw that out there for what it’s worth. Iran could be a lot farther along to developing nuclear weapons than we think.”
link to www.rawstory.com

Top U.S. think tank warns against Israeli, American strike on Iran
Amir Oren - Haaretz - "RAND Corporation sides with Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin, openly disagreeing with Netanyahu and Barak`s belligerent stance on Iran."
link to www.haaretz.com

More ‘magnet than a mallet’: RAND Corporation warns against striking Iran, Annie Robbins
One week before the next P5+1 meeting with Iran in Baghdad, the RAND Corporation, one of the most influential and respected U.S. think tanks advising the Pentagon, has published a comprehensive report in the Rand Review warning against striking Iran. The report, co-authored by RAND's director James Dobbins, advises the US to  persuade Iran against nuclear-arms through diplomatic means including economic sanctions instead of a military attack.  "No effort at persuasion can begin, though, until the United States acknowledges that the Iranian nuclear program might not be reversed and thus commences preparations to deal with the consequences."
link to mondoweiss.net

RAND Calls for U.S., Israel to Prepare for Nuclear Iran, Richard Silverstein
The U.S. national security think-tank, RAND, just published an eye-opening report on the issue of the Iranian nuclear program and how the U.S. should approach the issue.  In a number of ways, it ratifies the Obama administration approach including supporting sanctions against Iran (with a significant caveat, read below).  But in a number of other ways it is significantly more dovish than current administration policy and certainly rebuts the approach of the Barak-Netanyahu war party in the Israeli government.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com

That Was Now, This is Then:Another Pro-War Resolution Hits the House Floor, Nima Shirazi
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives debated H.Res. 568, an AIPAC-sponsored bill designed to outlaw diplomacy with Iran and take the United States Congress one step closer to authorizing an illegal, unprovoked and premeditated military attack on Iran. Debunking statements about Iran made by House Representatives and Senators on the floor of Congress is tedious and boring. Most of the statements are inarticulate readings of AIPAC-drafted talking points and boilerplate hasbara. M.J. Rosenberg has already excellently addressed the point of this legislation and there is no need to repeat, ad nauseum, why most of what's in the bill is wrong, how 13,000 AIPAC operatives were dispatched through the halls of Congress to garner sponsorship and support for the bill, how shameful it is for elected officials to spout pure propaganda about silly cartoon drawings and absurd assassination plots, and how - despite the many repetitions of the same infamous and long-debunked claim (which has literally appeared in over 50 Congressional resolutions since 2005) - even Israeli Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor admitted on Al Jazeera that Iran has never threatened to "wipe Israel off the map."
link to www.wideasleepinamerica.com
 
Removing MEK from the terrorist list would raise chance of war, Ira Glunts

Robert Wright at The Atlantic has a good piece on the campaign to remove the name of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from the U.S. terrorist list. As Wright states, legitimizing this terrorist group whose main goal is to overthrow the current Iranian regime is not a big confidence builder for the upcoming second round of nuclear negotiations with Tehran. This is especially true since MEK has been responsible for recent Israeli-sponsored acts of sabotage including assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.
link to mondoweiss.net

Iraq

17 Bodies Found Across Iraq
At least 17 Iraqis were killed, while three Iraqis were injured in a blast in the capital. Meanwhile, a government spokesman blamed technical difficulties for the absence of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi name from a presidential website and said the vice president's presence will return in the coming days.
link to original.antiwar.com

5 Iraqi soldiers killed in suicide bombing
Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber who drove an explosives-rigged fuel truck into the front gate of an army post has killed five soldiers in the country's north.
link to news.yahoo.com

The Already Forgotten Iraq War
Will there be autocracy in Iraq or renewed civil war? The country seems headed for either one or the other, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tightens the noose on Iraqi democracy and sectarian bombings resume.
link to original.antiwar.com

Lebanon

Child Killed in Tripoli despite Lebanese Army’s Deployment
The National News Agency reported that the Lebanese army and security forces heavily deployed in the streets and squares of the northern city of Tripoli but that a boy was killed and two Lebanese army soldiers were wounded.
Several wounded in renewed Lebanon clashes
At least four people were wounded on Wednesday in clashes between the army and residents of two areas of Lebanon's city of Tripoli supporting opposite sides in the crisis in neighbouring Syria, a security official said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Uneasy calm prevails in Lebanon's Tripoli
The latest bout of violence in the northern city of Tripoli, which has left nine people dead and several dozen more wounded, began after the authorities arrested Shadi el Mawlawi. Islamic groups in the north of Lebanon have closed one of the city's main squares in protest against Mawlawi's arrest, who is now facing terrorism charges. The city is home to a large Alawite minority, which is the sect that Syrian president Bashar al Assad belongs to, as well as a Sunni majority, who support the Syrian opposition. Lebanese troops deployed on Tuesday in sectors of Tripoli affected by clashes. They are said to be on Syria Street, the fontline of the fighting between the residents of Bab el Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen. "Hostilities have ceased in Tripoli," Najib Mikati, Lebanese prime minister, said on Tuesday in Beirut, adding that "the past 48 hours have been difficult." Mikati said he had met political officials and Islamist leaders to discuss the crisis. "We reached an understanding on a number of issues," including a ceasefire, he said. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Tripoli, Lebanon.
link to www.youtube.com

Saudi-Brokered May 17 Agreement Worse than Camp David
Those who talk about Hezbollah’s “illegal weapons” are the same people who were enthusiastic towards May 17 agreement.
link to www.almanar.com.lb

Syria

At least 10 more killed in Syria: watchdog
Regime troops shot dead at least five people in a new assault on the flashpoint town of Khan Sheikhun and opened fire on a refugee camp in southern Syria on Wednesday, monitors said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Syrian activists say regime fires on funeral
Syrian activists say regime forces fired on a funeral procession in the presence of U.N. observers, causing many casualties.
link to news.yahoo.com

UN mission to Syria comes under attack in Idlib
An IED went off yesterday in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, damaging a UN observer convoy and killing at least 20 locals, but no UN observers. The government and opposition blame each other.
link to rss.csmonitor.com

Syrian forces out to 'destroy' rebel town Rastan: NGO
Regime forces sent shells crashing into rebel stronghold Rastan early Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, while calling on UN observers to rush to the town in central Homs province.
link to news.yahoo.com

Syrian regime torture
Palestinian-Syrian writer, Salmah Kilah, shows signs of torture on his body, after he was released from Syrian regime prisons.  The Syrian regime interrogator also insulted the Palestinian people and their cause.  This is a regime that does not have a legitimacy of one second.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com

Syria accused of blocking relief efforts
Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups complain that they are not allowed to enter the country.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Assad: Ready to show foreign mercenaries to world
Syrian President Bashar Assad says his country has captured foreign mercenaries who were fighting for the opposition and is ready to show them to the world.
link to news.yahoo.com

Assad warns against sowing chaos in Syria
President pours scorn on armed opposition group and says countries igniting chaos in Syria may be affected themselves.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Israeli defense minister says Assad is ‘doomed,’ urges more pressure on him
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is “doomed” and called for increased pressure on his regime amid reports that Israel’s intelligence no longer sees Assad’s continuity as beneficial for the Jewish state.
link to english.alarabiya.net

US facilitating arms flow to Syrian rebels
Gulf states are sending more weapons to Syrian rebels battling President Bashar Assad's regime with coordinated assistance from the United States, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Obama administration officials denied the claims accusing the United States of supplying or funding lethal material, which includes antitank weapons, the report said. Instead, they claimed that the administration had expanded contacts with armed rebels to provide the Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure, the Post said.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

U.S. Organizing Syrian Rebels: Syrian Rebels Get Influx of Arms with Gulf Neighbors’ Money, U.S. Coordination
Syrian rebels have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.
link to www.washingtonpost.com

Exclusive: Iran flouts U.N. sanctions, sends arms to Syria: panel
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Iran, like Russia, is one of Syria's few allies as it presses ahead with a 14-month old assault on opposition forces determined to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
link to news.yahoo.com

UN team stayed with Syria rebels
The six UN observers who came under fire in northern Syria have spent the night with the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), UN officials say.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

The Lede Blog: Syrian Activists Question U.N. Observer Mission After Deadly Attack on Protesters, ROBERT MACKEY
Syrian activists claimed that government forces moved tanks into a northern town on Wednesday, in clear violation of a ceasefire agreement, just after the departure of a team of United Nations observers.

link to feeds.nytimes.com

Opposition Syrian National Council head Burhan Ghalioun 'to resign'
The head of Syria's main opposition alliance, the Syrian National Council, has said he will resign amid growing criticism and rifts within the group.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Another senior figure walks out on SNC
A prominent dissident resigned from the Syrian National Council (SNC) on Tuesday, dealing another blow to the Istanbul-based opposition that has seen several senior figures quit in the last few months. The resignation of Fawaz Tello came hours after the council's general secretariat, a body of 45 of whom 33 were present, re-elected Burhan Ghalioun as president for another three-month term at a meeting in Rome organized by the Italian government to prod the SNC toward reform.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/another-senior-figure-walks-out-snc?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

Turkey warns against Sectarian outlook in Syria
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the violence in Syria should not be viewed as a sectarian or ethnic conflict, and those who did so risked setting the whole region on fire. Erdogan made a specific call to on Shia Muslims to see the conflict in Syria only through "brotherly eyes," despite harboring Syrian Sunni Islamists on its own soil. Majority-Sunni Turkey, which shares a 900km long border with Syria, fears the internal conflict could develop into sectarian and ethnic fighting that could spill across borders, pitting Shia Muslims against Sunnis.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/turkey-warns-against-sectarian-outlook-syria?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

U.S. and Other World News

How Many Innocent Civilians Did NATO Kill in Libya?
When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meets next week at a summit in Chicago, expect a lot of self-congratulatory rhetoric about the alliance’s bombing campaign in Libya last year. Backed by a U.N. Security Council mandate, NATO charged in, citing its “responsibility to protect” civilians threatened by the bloody rampages of the late Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi. The near 10,000 sorties launched by NATO strike craft helped push back Gaddafi’s forces; targeted attacks on the regime’s arsenals and defenses allowed rebel fighters on the ground to eventually sweep into Tripoli and bring down Gaddafi. Not long thereafter, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were greeted raucously as heroes in Tripoli and Benghazi.
link to globalspin.blogs.time.com

Julian Assange's The World Tomorrow: Surviving Guantanamo
The 5th episode of The World Tomorrow takes us to the very heart of America's War on Terror: Guantanamo Bay. In the episode Julian Assange speaks with Moazzam Begg - former Gitmo prisoner and a rights campaigner fighting for those still trapped behind the wire, and Asim Qureshi - former corporate lawyer, whose human rights organization Cageprisoners Ltd exists solely to raise awareness of the plight of prisoners who remain in Guantanamo Bay.
link to www.youtube.com

US rendition 'torture' case heard
A German man who alleges he was subjected to "extraordinary rendition" by the CIA takes his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

President Obama executive order gives Treasury authority to freeze Yemeni assets in U.S.
President Obama plans to issue an executive order Wednesday giving the Treasury Department authority to freeze the U.S.-based assets of anyone who “obstructs” implementation of the administration-backed political transition in Yemen.  The unusual order, which administration officials said also targets U.S. citizens who engage in activity deemed to threaten Yemen’s security or political stability, is the first issued for Yemen that does not directly relate to counterterrorism.  Unlike similar measures authorizing terrorist designations and sanctions, the new order does not include a list of names or organizations already determined to be in violation. Instead, one official said, it is designed as a “deterrent” to “make clear to those who are even thinking of spoiling the transition” to think again.  The official was authorized to discuss the new order on the condition of anonymity.
link to www.washingtonpost.com

Al Jazeera exposes 2nd anti-Islam class taught to US military officers, Alex Kane
Al Jazeera English has revealed that a second anti-Muslim class was taught to senior US military officers. The class was titled “Understanding the Threat to America,” and claimed that Islamists from Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have infiltrated the US government at the highest levels.
link to mondoweiss.net

Islamists & Necrophilia: How Western Media Fell For Bogus Islam-Bashing Tale
The making of a hoax: how a story about a law allowing Egyptian men to have sex with their dead wives went from rumor to front page of the Daily Mail, the Huffington Post and Al-Arabiya.
link to www.worldcrunch.com

FBI Crackdown on Anti-War Groups Targets Chicano, Brown Beret Activist Carlos Montes
Supporters of a longtime California activist, Carlos Montes, rallied outside a courthouse in Los Angeles Tuesday calling on authorities to drop his prosecution. Montes faces four charges including one for firearms possession that dates back to the 1960s. A longtime leader in the Chicano, immigrant rights, and antiwar movements, Montes’ arrest in a May 2011 raid followed similar FBI raids on activists in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois targeting fellow members of a political group called the Anti-War Committee. "They are attacking me for my activism against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also because of my solidarity work with oppressed people throughout the world — whether they be in Palestine, Colombia or Mexico," says Montes, who plans to march against NATO this weekend in Chicago. Montes helped organize the Brown Berets and took part in the famous 1968 walkout by high school Chicano students in East Los Angeles to protest academic prejudice and dire school conditions.
link to www.democracynow.org

"What Have We Been Doing?": Decorated Veteran Aaron Hughes to Return War Medals at Anti-NATO Protest
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will join thousands of protesters this Sunday at the NATO summit in Chicago. We speak to Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Aaron Hughes, who’s among a number of Afghanistan and Iraq war vets planning to return their medals of honor to visiting NATO generals. "[Veterans] have to live with the failed policy of the global war on terror on a daily basis," Hughes says. "What have we been doing in this decade-long war? There is a real moral disconnect between that the idea that our military can build a democracy and the idea that our military is trained and designed to control, dominate and kill people... Occupations do not build democracies. Occupations do not extend individuals’ freedoms. The movements of the Arab Spring, that was building democracy. The movements of Gandhi, of civil rights in this country, people’s movements, that’s what extends democracy."
link to www.democracynow.org

Queen Rania
According to sources in Amman, the previous head of the Mukhabarat secret police told the queen she needed to lower her profile for the good of the monarchy. It is rumoured that a journalist who published negative stories about her was on the Mukhabarat payroll. A claim that she was helping Palestinians acquire Jordanian citizenship was especially damaging.
link to www.guardian.co.uk

Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey
On February 20th 2010 Cihan Kırmızıgül, a junior industrial engineering student of Galatasaray University, was waiting at a bus stop in Istanbul after a visit to a college friend’s home.  Suddenly he was approached by Turkish police who arrested him violently, one cracking his skull with a blow from his rifle butt, and took him away to be detained at a prison in the west of Istanbul, charged with “membership of an illegal organization” and “harming private property”.  The reason for his surprise arrest was the scarf he was wearing around his neck – the traditional black and white checked Arab headdress known as the ‘keffiyeh’.
link to www.counterpunch.org


www.TheHeadlines.Org
 

]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/daily-escalations-in-occupied-palestine.html/feed 6 Nakba 64 years later, we will never forget http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/nakba-64-years-later-we-will-never-forget.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/nakba-64-years-later-we-will-never-forget.html#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 15:40:55 +0000 Today in Palestine http://mondoweiss.net/?p=75838 link to english.wafa.ps
 
(Photo: Stop the Wall)

Nakba

Palestinians mark day Israel stole their country
Palestinians are marking on Tuesday 64 years since predominantly European Jewish colonizers wiped their country off the map, cleansed the land of their villages, and brutally installed the state of Israel. Nakba Day – meaning "catastrophe" – commemorates the 750,000 to 800,000 native Palestinians that were either driven from their lands by force or fled as Jewish colonizers violently swept the territory to proclaim a state of their own. Around 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind, and now number about 1.3 million people, or some 20 percent of the population. This does not include the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank or besieged Gaza Strip.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Medics: 80 injured in Nakba protests near Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Over 80 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli forces near Ramallah on Tuesday, medics said, as protesters commemorated the Nakba, or catastrophe, of their exile in 1948. After a mass rally in Ramallah's clock square, protesters headed to Israel's Ofer detention center and the Qalandiya checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem to commemorate the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the founding of the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net

Israeli forces 'detain 3 at Nilin nakba rally'
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained three protesters rallying for Nakba Day near West Bank village Nilin on Tuesday, protest organizers said. Demonstrators attempted to cross the checkpoint at the edge of the village, on the anniversary of the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded. The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said three people, including activist leader Naji Tamimi, were detained by Israeli forces at the scene. Female activist Rana Nazzal was also detained, a Ma'an correspondent said. Nazzal gained notoriety for climbing atop an Israeli military truck at a demonstration last week near Ofer jail. An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces detained two people at Nilin attempting to breach the checkpoint. The army "will not allow anyone to impair Israeli sovereignty," she said.
link to www.maannews.net

Activists Cross Checkpoint, Raise Palestinian Flags on Nakba Day
RAMALLAH, May 15, 2012 (WAFA) – Palestinian activists Tuesday crossed a checkpoint separating the West Bank from Israel, located west of Ramallah, and raised Palestinian flags in a demonstration commemorating the 64th anniversary of the Palestinian 1948 Nakba, according to a local activist. One of the participants said that more than 50 activists from a Ramallah-based youth group headed to the Israeli checkpoint near Nilin, a village west of Ramallah and near the city of Ramleh on the other side of the border, and crossed the checkpoint as part of a the Historical Return to Ramleh march. The participants raised Palestinian flags and put up posters emphasizing the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their land, including the once-all-Arab city of Ramleh, which now has an Arab minority compared to the outnumbering Israeli Jewish population. The Israeli army used force and tear gas to disperse the protest and to force the activists back behind the checkpoint, as well as arrested an international activist and the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in the Ramallah area village of Nabi Saleh, Naji Tamimi. The Historical Return to Ramleh march is part of the nation-wide popular activities commemorating the Nakba Day when Palestinians were uprooted from their homes in Palestine in 1948 and which led to the establishment of Israel.
link to english.wafa.ps

Black flags in Mea Shearim mourn state's founding
The haredi neighborhood continues to fly black flags to mourn the 'sad' day Israel was born, and they're due to stay up until Jerusalem Day.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Youth vigil in Hebron commemorates Nakba
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Youth activists held a vigil in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday evening to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of Palestinian expulsion in 1948. Hundreds of Palestinian youth processed through Hebron's streets with torches, before gathering at the prisoner society office to celebrate the deal ending a mass hunger-strike in Israeli jails reached earlier in the day.
link to www.maannews.net

Tomorrow - Nakba Commemoration March to Ofer Prison
On the 64th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), the Independent Youth Movement Herak Shebabi and Stop the Wall have called for a mass demonstration to converge on Ofer prison in the West Bank. The protest presses for the respect of the demands of the hunger striking prisoners and aims to physically stand in the face of the Israeli occupation forces, who have imprisoned over the decades an estimated 40% of the male population in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and continue to enforce our “ongoing Nakba”.
link to www.stopthewall.org

Massive sit-in outside 10 Downing Street in London on nakba anniversary
Supporters of Palestinian rights and the Palestinian forum in Britain on Saturday staged a massive sit-in outside 10 Downing Street in London mark the nakba day which fall on May 15.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Qalqiliya unveils 'train of return' to mark Nakba
QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- Hundreds of students, local officials and activists gathered in Qalqiliya on Tuesday to commemorate the Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948. Qalqiliya governor Ribhi Khandaqji unveiled the "train of return," a model train symbolizing the right of refugees to return from exile. Khandaqji said the train was facing Israel, and noted that the northern West Bank city was a short distance from Palestinian villages and towns confiscated in the Nakba. "This train will remind us, and will remind our children of the right of return," the governor added. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced or fled from their homes in fighting to create the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net

Nakba Day: Returning to Lebanon's border
Victims of Israeli aggression on the Lebanese border recount their stories, one year on. It was meant to be a day of commemoration, albeit amid an atmosphere of festive defiance; hundreds of multi-coloured balloons were floating in the skies, national flags adorning the hill top were fluttering in the wind, speeches rich with patriotism were booming over the loud speakers. But what started off as a "day out" to the border for thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese - many of whom had never seen the occupied territories before - quickly turned to bloodshed. By the end of the day, six young men had been killed - and 126 people wounded - after Israeli soldiers opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators, reported the ad hoc committee Palestine Action in Lebanon, which counted the corpses and the injured. This was the scene at Maroun el Ras, a town situated on the Lebanese border with Israel, on Nakba Day 2011. The day, known as "The Catastrophe" in Arabic, commemorates the exodus of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and their land on May 15, 1948, sparked by Israeli violence immediately following the declaration of the Israeli state.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Palestinians in Egypt insist on right to return
Said Mohammad al-Shorbajy wants to die in Palestine. “That is my only wish, which I hope God will grant me,” he said. An ailing man in his late sixties, he is originally from Jaffa, a Palestinian city now in Israel. He has lived in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria for the past four decades. His father, Mohammad, was a fishmonger in Jaffa. During the Nakba — the wave of ethnic cleansing that led to Israel’s establishment in 1948 — his family was forced from their home. At that time, Said, who is also known as Abu Mohammad, was only three years old. Following the Nakba, his family moved to al-Shati, a refugee camp in Gaza. A teenage Said was once again uprooted when Israel occupied Gaza in 1967. Ever since then, he has lived in the Abu Qeer suburb of Alexandria. Abu Qeer hosts many Palestinian families and its dwellings resemble those of Gaza’s refugee camps.
link to electronicintifada.net

On Nakba Day, Palestinian Refugees Remain Uprooted
The Palestinians mark the Nakba Day on May 15; the day armed forces uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands, and destroyed their villages, killed and injured thousands of Palestinians before Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine in 1948.
link to www.imemc.org

Nakba Analysis / Op-ed

The Nakba: The Perpetuation of an Unwanted Legacy
Nakba-64Sixty-four years have passed since Palestinian society was decimated by the forcible transfer of some 700,000 people by Israeli forces. Each year, on 15 May, ‘Nakba Day’ commemorates the anguish of those who were expelled from their homes and those who fled in panic under direct military assault. Today also serves as a day of remembrance for the mass murders of 1948 and the destruction of entire villages, of Deir Yassin and Tantura and Al-Dawayima, when hundreds of Palestinians were killed during a period that is now known simply as ‘the catastrophe’.
link to www.alhaq.org

Crypts of Shatila: Where the Nakba Dwelled in
May 15, 1948: This date seems present even in their lineaments. You can meet them in the diaspora camps, the place where they live.
Connecting the Nakba to the present day
As the Nakba Day and its events draw closer, Palestinian uniformed forces send a clear message that demonstrations should not disturb the settlers.
link to www.haaretz.com

Nakba Day 2012: Refugees waiting, 64 years and counting, Adam Horowitz
Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American based in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, speaking at TEDxRamallah in April 2011. Bahour blogs on Palestinian affairs and is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians.
link to mondoweiss.net

Palestinian Nakba: Resolve of memory
Many Palestinians remember and reference al-Nakba, also known as the Catastrophe, on May 15 every year. The event marks the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians, while their villages were destroyed.
link to www.presstv.ir

The Palestine Nakba: The Past is Now, Ludwig Watzal
The establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine and the myth of Jewish return after two thousand years of exile to a 'land without a people, for a people without a land' were accompanied by a great injustice. The diplomatic success of the Zionist movement in close cooperation with the leading imperial powers caused, however, a catastrophe for the indigenous population and the owners of the land, the Palestinian people. 'Palestine' was wiped off the map. Since then, the Palestinians commemorate this historical event for the 64th time as al-Nakba (the catastrophe). And this catastrophe continues until today.
link to palestinechronicle.com

The Nakba is now 64 years old and counting
May 2012 sees Israel entering the sixty-fifth year since it was established on the ruins of historic Palestine. Those years have been a colonial journey unprecedented in history. Israel was based on the philosophy of bringing people of one ethnicity from around the world to supplant another people indigenous to the land. To achieve this Israel has used genocide, "transfer" and ethnic cleansing, in a manner similar to what happened to Native Americans and aboriginal Australians and New Zealanders. The big difference, though, is that the Zionist-Israeli movement used ideological justifications based on mythology of a kind well-received by the colonial West.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk

'Being Palestinian': Global Citizenship Available, Frank Barat
Before I start, I’d like to make it clear that not all views/takes on the subject will be mentioned in this piece. I will not talk about the 'views from Mars' (actually if there is 'people' on Mars they will probably be offended by the comparison. So if you do indeed exist, please forgive me) of certain 'Palestinian People deniers' US politicians that manage to be lunatic and mainstream at the same time. The fact that those views are hardly challenged and condemned in mainstream US politics and media says a lot about the 'land of the free'.
link to palestinechronicle.com

Right of return, prisoners and Al-Aqsa Mosque are "indivisible"
The Office for Refugees' Affairs of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has reaffirmed the organisation's belief that the principles of the Palestinian people are a "single, linked unit" which does not lend itself to being split-up. The Palestinian people, said Hamas, are united behind them, particularly in respect of the right to return to their land and properties which were taken from them by Zionist gangs during the occupation of Palestine in 1948.
Sins of Our Fathers, William A. Cook
Victors' celebrations harbor shadows that lurk in the soul as revelers dance in remembrance, burying in laughter the suffering screams of those displaced and destroyed, furiously hiding   forgotten faces framed in fear from mocking the glorious dance should they be awakened once more by the reverie. May 14 and 15 are paradoxically days of celebration and catastrophe; victors “dance round in a ring and suppose,” caught in a never ending quest to know if indeed this celebration is for victory or for defeat, while those vanquished understand “the secret that sits in the middle and knows.” Are the secrets Truth that we are afraid to delve into, too ashamed to acknowledge, or fear of a pending Nakba for the victor signaled by a merciful and just God?
Israel's Buffoon: The UN Nakba, Vacy Vlazna 
On May 15, 1948 the unilateral proclamation of the State of Israel which erupted into the brutal Palestinian Nakba or Catastrophe was also catastrophic for United Nations (UN) ringing the death knell for its stature and authority. Like medieval kings, the US and Israel employed the UN to be its fool running around with a cap o' bells and sceptre (rendered useless by US veto) beginning with the 1947 Resolution 181, passed on 29 February by members (under coercion) recommending the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states which was understandably rejected by Palestine but accepted by Israel as a step toward its Zionist expansionist goal for the full realisation of a Jewish Eretz Israel.
link to palestinechronicle.com

Zionist Reaction to Nakba Day

‘The Nakba is BS’, Allison Deger
Hundreds of right-wing Israelis poured onto Tel Aviv University's campus yesterday to protest a student-run Nakba commemoration. Extremist members of Knesset joined their ranks, providing them with official encouragement. Incited to fevered levels of resentment by the student commemoration of Nakba-- the 1947-49 expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias-- minister of Knesset Areyah Eldad declared his intent to celebrate the catastrophe. "I am not against remembering the events of Nakba Day, as Arabs call it. On the contrary, I think the State of Israel needs to turn the day into a holiday. It is time to be happy that we defeated our enemies," said Eldad.
link to mondoweiss.net

Right-wing march to pass through East Jerusalem, despite past spats
Organizers of Jerusalem Day ‘flag procession' say will employ ushers to keep the peace, avoid incidents with Palestinian residents.
link to www.haaretz.com
 
Land Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing
 
Netanyahu Rejects Abbas’s Call to Halt Settlement Building in Response to Peace Talks Letter
One month after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter that it was hoped would initiate efforts over frozen peace negotiations, Netanyahu rejected demands to halt Jewish settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
 
Barak: Ofra and Beit El settlements would remain in Israel in final-status deal
Decision marks change in Defense Minister's position from 2000 Camp David talks, when he offered the Palestinians most of the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem.
link to www.haaretz.com
 

New demolition warrants in Silwan
Sunday the 13th of  May,  Israeli forces invaded Silwan alongside Municipality workers to deliver 7 demolish orders in the Bustan and Ein al Lousa in Silwan. The way the municipality workers normally attach the orders in the house entrance without writing a name on it which makes it hard for the people to resist legally in the Israeli courts, they need a lawyer to check if the warrant is real or it is an individual act by the municipality workers. 
link to silwanic.net

Settlers damage fields in Bethlehem village
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers damaged agricultural fields near Bethlehem-area village Wadi Fukin overnight Monday, the local council leader said. The group came from neighboring Israeli settlement Betar Illit, and were chased off lands by local residents, village council head Ahmad Sukkar said. They damaged harvests on land belonging to Hajj Ibrajim Muhammad Awad and Hajj Atiyeh Manasra, he said, adding that settlers threatened to return to destroy more land.
link to www.maannews.net

Settler Land Theft - 12th & 13th May
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank continue apace, while the occupational forces provide the aggressors’ with protection. The attacks, ranging from destruction of fruit trees to seizure of land, demonstrate Israel’s continued commitment to policies of terrorism and ethnic cleansing as they continue to expand and build on stolen land.
link to www.stopthewall.org

Gaza

Brazil Grants $ 7.5m to UNRWA Programs in Gaza
RAMALLAH, May 14, 2012 (WAFA) - The Government of Brazil Monday signed a contribution of US$ 7.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to support its education, health and social service programs in Gaza, said an UNRWA press release. The total one-year contribution will help the Agency sustain its humanitarian food assistance programme to 106,000 abject poor Palestine refugees, ensure a decent educational environment for 1,800 children, and help provide primary health care to 1.2 million refugees in 20 health facilities in the Gaza Strip. The agreement was signed during a ceremony at al-Ojah Basic Co-ed School in Jericho by Brazilian Representative to the Palestinian Authority, Ligia Maria Scherer, and UNRWA Commissioner-General, Filippo Grandi, added the press release.
Israeli Violence / Aggression
 
Settler Violence
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank continue apace, while the occupational forces provide the aggressors’ with protection. The attacks, ranging from destruction of fruit trees to seizure of land, demonstrate Israel’s continued commitment to policies of terrorism and ethnic cleansing as they continue to expand and build on stolen land.
 
Israeli Soldiers Invade Hebron
Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Beit Ummar, northwest of the southern West bank city Hebron, broke into two houses and handed the owners an notices to appear in Etzion interrogation center, north of Hebron.
 
IOF firing of teargas at homes hurt father, two children
A father and his two children were treated for breathing difficulty after Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired teargas at Palestinian homes in Shalalde street in downtown Al-Khalil.
 
Youth arrested in the wake of Silwan clashes
Israeli occupation police arrested a young Jerusalemite on Saturday night in Silwan town after severely beating him.
 
After the Ramleh’s police arrested protesters: A testimony from the house arrest
 We have been following the hunger strike solidarity protests around Palestine for the last week, as Silwanic wrote before, the Israeli police in Ramleh arrested in a brutal way around 18 protesters, we spoke over the phone with Rami Yunes  one of the arrested protesters while he is in a house arrest. Rami Yunes:  The protest was peaceful and organized, it was even licensed, as we gathered in front of Ramleh’s prison to support the Palestinian hunger strike prisoners, the police decided that the protest is not illegal, they started to attack us, they surrounded us and arrested 7 people and broke one woman’s leg, me and the rest decided to go Ramleh’s police station to speak our minds, and we were kicked out, soon as we stepped out we were surrounded by more cops, I think it was a special unit, they  attacked us with all of their strength , they arrested another 10, I was one of them, they took us inside and the scenario went worse,   they cuffed us, started kicking us with their feet, spitted on us, they even asked one of us  to open his mouth and they spitted in his mouth a few times, I remember them cussing us “Dirty Arabs” and words I don’t want to repeat, they approached 2 women, one Israeli and one Palestinian, one cop mocked them and started to tell them “I want you two to perform sexual acts with each other’s and then do it with me” and the rest of the cops were laughing. Last thing I remember is they threw us all to the floor, above each other’s; I was on top, one of the cops asked “Who was a bad boy? Who want to be tased?” they approached me, tased me and the electricity reached the guy that’s under me and from him to the rest.

Hunger Strike / Prisoner News

IOA renews administrative detention of MP Rejoub for fourth time
The Israeli occupation authority has renewed the administrative detention of MP Nayef Al-Rejoub for six months for the fourth time running, his son said on Monday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 
Youth organisation release statement regarding Hunger Strike & PLO
The following is a statement released by youth organisation Palestinians for Dignity, 13.5.12 - Local and international news agencies informed us last night, 12 May, that the Palestinian political establishment met with the representative of the Israeli apartheid regime, Isaac Molkho, in Ramallah to deliver the latter's response to a previous letter that was sent by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on 17 April. 
link to www.stopthewall.org

Strikers Need Strict Medical Supervision, says Rights Group
TEL AVIV, May 15, 2012 (WAFA) - Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) warned that long-term hunger strikers will need to be re-fed under strict hospital supervision to avoid life endangering complications, a PHR-Israel press release said Tuesday. PHR-Israel emphasized that long-term hunger strikers’ life are still in danger, as the process of re-feeding carries grave risks. It said that Israel Prison Service medical center, which is not a hospital – is incapable of giving them the adequate necessary care, also because it has no ability to cope with emergency situation that might occur. Independent doctors called for transfer of the prisoners to civil hospital, and recommend that the re-feeding process of all hunger strikers – even those in the prisons – will be done with professional advice. It, however, expressed joy to learn of the agreement that brought about the peaceful and life-saving resolution of the hunger strike of the Palestinian inmates. Director of Prisoners and Detainees Department in the organization, Anat Litvin, said, “We hope the agreement will indeed lead to the respect of the inmates human rights, including an end to Israel’s abuse of administrative detention, an end to the harmful practice of solitary confinement, and the renewal of family visits from the Gaza Strip and of families from the West Bank that were prevented entry until now.”

Israeli refuses to allow seriously ill hunger striking prisoner to go to hospital
According to Wafa’ Abu Ghalma, the wife of detainee Ahed Abu Ghalma, her husband has been denied medical treatment or hospitalization by the Israeli prison authorities despite a serious deterioration in his condition after 27 days of launching his indefinite hunger strike.
link to www.imemc.org 

What Thaer Halahleh's family told me about his release brings joy, but raises troubling questions, Linah Alsaafin
What Linah Alsaafin was told by hunger striker Thaer Halahleh’s family about the deal ending his fast was a cause for both joy, and serious concern about a pattern of pressure to isolate prisoners and coerce them into accepting deals.
link to electronicintifada.net

After 77 days, Thaer Halahleh to end hunger strike as Israel agrees to release, father tells EI blogger,Ali Abunimah
Palestinian prisoner Thaer Halahleh has agreed to end his hunger strike after 77 full days, on 15 May, EI blogger Linah Alsaafin tweeted after speaking with his father a short time ago.

 
Detainee's daughter wishes to meet him
Ramallah: The family of Palestinian prisoner Thaer Halahlah, who has been on a hunger strike for 77 days, yesterday urged Israel to act humanely and allow the inmate to see his daughter Lamar at least once before he dies. Halahlah has never seen his daughter who was born while he was behind bars on administrative detention. 
 
Prisoner Kamal Issa stops drinking water to escalate his strike
The captive Kamal Issa, detained in Nafha Desert prison, stopped drinking water, because of the Israeli prison administration's rejection of the Palestinian prisoners' fair demands.
 

Hassan Salameh loses 12 kilograms of his weight
The liberated prisoner Akram Salameh, 38, confirmed that his brother Hassan Salameh, 9 years in isolation, has lost 12 kilograms of his weight since the start of his hunger strike.

 
Ibrahim Hamid was born and raised in the West Bank village of Silwad, north-east of Ramallah. He obtained a BSc degree in political science from Birzeit University and worked as a researcher at the Centre for Refugee Studies. He has written and published several papers on the depopulated Palestinian villages. Since his arrest in May 2006, Ibrahim Hamid has been held in Asqalan prison, in solitary confinement, and denied visits from his family. His wife and two children were later expelled to Jordan. Despite several requests through the International Red Cross, she has been unable to visit him. The only information she has received concerning her husband was conveyed through lawyers.
 
Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh in severe health crisis, occupation refuses to treat him
Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, PFLP leader and representative on the Central Committee of the Leadership of the Hunger Strike, is facing serious health concerns 27 days into his open hunger strike in isolation in Ramon prison, reported Comrade Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh, Ahed’s wife and a prisoner activist. She reported that Ahed is suffering severe headaches and dizziness, has lost over 15 kg of weight, and is vomiting blood. A lawyer who visited Ahed today in prison called for him to be taken immediately to the hospital, but the occupation authorities refused to do so, claiming “security reasons,” and gave him an injection only. Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh said that the occupation’s refusal to take him to the hospital is a deliberate attempt to slowly assassinate him, calling for urgent action to save his life.

Noam Chomsky: Palestinian Hunger Strike a Protest Against "Violations of Elementary Human Rights"
We begin our hour-long interview with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky by discussing the Palestinian hunger strike. A tentative deal has reportedly been reached to end a landmark action that’s seen an estimated 2,000 jailed Palestinians go without food to pressure Israeli prison authorities to end the use of solitary confinement and ease a wide range of restrictions. "The hunger strikes are a protest against ... violations of the elementary human rights," Chomsky says. He is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of dozens of books, most recently, "Occupy." 
 
More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners are weeks into an open-ended hunger strike in protest against worsening conditions in Israeli jails.
Comrade Wafa’ Abu Ghoulmeh called for a popular uprising to free the prisoners, calling upon the Palestinian people to go to all of the squares and streets, march to the checkpoints, the wall, and the prisons of the Zionist enemy on the anniversary of the Nakba, calling for victory for the prisoners before it is too late. She said that the occupation will not accede to the prisoners’ demands without mass pressure inside and outside Palestine, wherever the Palestinian people are.
 
IDF Portrays Palestinian Hunger Strikers at Death’s Door as “Ticking Bombs", Richard Silverstein
Almost half the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have joined the mass hunger strike protesting against the widespread use of administrative detention.  Two of the strikers have reached Day 77 of their strike and Israel’s Physicians for Human Rights NGO says no previous individual has fasted for more than 75 days.  Meaning the Palestinians have achieved a grim record.  There are reports in Haaretz that Egyptian and Palestinian negotiators are near striking a deal that would allow family visits, which Israel withheld during Gilad Shalit’s confinement but never restored after he was freed.  Part of the deal would also restrict the arbitrary use of solitary confinement though it unclear what the specifics are.  One Palestinian prisoner has been in such confinement for ten years.  Though Haaretz mentions administrative detention as being part of the deal it does so in a vague way that offers no details.  The right-wing Times of Israel says Israel has agreed to “soften” the terms under which such detentions are used, which means…I don’t know, what does it mean?
 
Learning from the Irish Hunger Strikes of 1981 and the Palestinian Challenge
John Hurson in Ireland has been keenly conscious of the affinities between the historic Irish hunger strike of 1981 and the ongoing Palestinian hunger strikes. He has travelled to Gaza on several occasions on humanitarian aid convoys, and is the founder of the on line Gaza TV News service. I suggested that we collaborate on an article that might recall the Irish experience, especially the parallels and the potential implications for the future of the Palestinian struggle.
 
Holding of Palestinians in Israeli prisons without charge or trial was the originating grievance of the latest protests. The issue that sparked the mass hunger strike among Palestinian prisoners was that of imprisonment without charge or trial, a practice Israel calls "administrative detention". There are 308 Palestinians in administrative detention in Israeli prisons. According to the Israeli human rights organisation, B'Tselem, about one third have been held for between six months and a year; one third have been held between one and two years; 13 have been held between two and four and a half years; and two prisoners have been held continuously for more than four and a half years.
 
Detainees
 

Son OF Arab MK Held For Refusing Military Service
The Israeli Police kidnapped Amro Naffa’, 18, the son of Arab Member of Israeli Knesset, Sa’id Naffa’, after he refusing to adhere to the compulsory military service, rejecting to be part of a military that occupies and oppresses the Palestinian people.
link to www.imemc.org

IOF soldiers arrest coordinator of Nabi Saleh popular committee
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested on Tuesday the coordinator of the popular resistance committee in Nabi Saleh village near Ramallah.

link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 
Today IMEU held a phone conference with three experts on Palestinian prisoners: Sahar Francis, Director of Addameer: Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association; Ruchama Marton, founder of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel; and Bill van Esveld of Human Rights Watch. Some basic facts about the prisoners:
 
Solidarity / Activism
 
Activists stage sit-in before Red Cross
Palestinian activists staged a sit-in in front of the Red Cross office in Nablus on Monday in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners.
 
Five foreign activists start hunger strike in solidarity with prisoners
Five foreign activists declared they were going on hunger strike during a visit to a sit-in tent pitched in solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.
 
PressTV reported on a solidarity conference with the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike taking place in France. Interviewed here is Salah Hamouri, former Palestinian prisoner and dual Palestinian/French citizen who was freed in October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange agreement. A long solidarity campaign took place in France demanding his release.
Celtic FC supporters show solidarity with Palestinian hunger strikers
Celtic FC supporters raised Palestinian flags on May 13 during a match against Scottish Premiership rivals Heart of Midlothian FC. Members of the Green Brigade, one of Celtic’s most widely recognized fan groups, displayed at least eight Palestinian flags in their section of the stadium in solidarity with the thousands of Palestinian hunger strikers currently imprisoned in Israeli jails.
link to smpalestine.com
 
May 15-17: Albuquerque Solidarity with Palestinian Hunger Strikers
2000+ Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons launched a mass hunger strike demanding an end to administrative detention, isolation and other punitive measures taken against Palestinian prisoners including the denial of family visits and access to university education.

BDS

BDS roundup: 10,000 signatures delivered to Irish corporation demanding divestment from Israeli contracts
This week in BDS news around the world: 10,000 signatures delivered to Irish building materials corporation demanding divestment from Israeli business contracts; a call for 24 hours of hunger in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails; and more! 
 
Palestinian writers call for boycott of Jerusalem int’l writers’ fest, Eleanor Kilroy
As hunger striking Palestinian prisoners, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla, mark their 75th day without food today in protest against detention without charge, solitary confinement and restrictions on family visits in Israeli jails, the 3rd International Writers' Festival begins in Jerusalem. According to a statement released on Thursday by the General Union of Palestinian Writers, the festival "sends a clear message to the world that the 'Israeli cultural establishment’ is an integral part of the 'Israeli colonial establishment’: the first wages war on Palestinian memory, while the latter continues its war against Palestinian existence."
link to mondoweiss.net

Zionist concern about boycott campaigns in Britain
The Jewish community in Britain expressed its growing disbelief and total shock over the cancellation of the Israeli Professor Moty Cristal's lecture which was planned in Manchester.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Zionist Racism

Israel To Deport 700 Sudanese Immigrants
The Israeli Government has decided to transfer 700 illegal Sudanese immigrants back to their country, the State of South Sudan, after it concluded that “their lives will not be endangered should they be sent back to their country”.
link to www.imemc.org

Israel bans Lebanese edition of Jewish philosophical work
Customs authorities holding up new version of Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari because importing this Arabic-language edition from Beirut 'violates laws regarding trade with the enemy.'
link to www.haaretz.com

Latest Lunacies from the Only Democracy in the Middle East, Richard Silverstein
Today’s news brings two new lunacies from our friends in the Only Democracy in the Middle East™ .  In the first instance, the Israeli tax authorities impounded a shipment of copies of the Arabic language edition of Yehuda HaLevy’s seminal work of medieval Jewish philosophy, The Kuzari.  They did so because the books had been printed in Lebanon, one of the few places in the Middle East that prints Arabic books.  The Israeli authorities claimed that allowing the books into Israel would constitute “trading with the enemy.”
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
 
Political "Developments" & Other News

Hamas urges PA not to negotiate with Israel
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas on Tuesday urged Fatah and the Palestinian Authority to reject negotiations with Israel. Hamas will not recognize Israel's occupation because the movement insists on the "sacred right" of Palestinian refugees to return to their land, the party said in a statement to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe. In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced or fled from their homes in fighting to create the state of Israel.
link to www.maannews.net
 
Defense minister to meet with American counterpart in Washington this week and discuss further U.S. aid for Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
link to www.haaretz.com

Israeli historian Shlomo Sand receives death threats
A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claims that the prominent historian Professor Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University has received a number of death threats through the post. Prof. Sand, who is well known for his anti-Zionist stance and the author of "The Invention of the Jewish People", has been sent threatening letters and a bag containing a chemical substance. The letters have warned him that his days are numbered because he is "an anti-Semite" and "an enemy of Israel".
Analysis / Op-ed / Human Interest
 
California Tea Party “White Christian” Rabbi for U.S. Senate, Richard Silverstein
Among the more bizarre elements of this political season is the Republican race for U.S. senate, which features Rabbi Nachum Shifren, an Orthodox rabbi running with the support of the Tea Party.  Here is a snippet of a stump speech he delivered to the San Mateo GOP (a banner in the background says “Tea Party Patriots”):  "I am an Islamophobe, and everything we need to know about Islam, we learned on 9-11…We’re getting sucker-punched because we as white — yes I said it! — as white, Christian Americans are being taught that somehow we are to blame for all the problems.”
 
Congressman Joe Pitts: ‘It is incumbent on Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat to restart a peace process’, Ian Rhodewalt
Apparently, my congressman believes that the solution for peace in the Middle East will be reached by encouraging negotiations between a vegetable and a dead man.
 
Representative Joe Walsh’s (R-IL) Op-Ed in the Washington Times May 3 turned heads. He argued that the only real solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “one contiguous Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” Palestinians who wanted to stay would have “limited voting power.” Walsh also suggests Jordan as a destination for Palestinians. Robert Wright of The Atlanticcommented that the Op-Ed should be interpreted as a call for apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
link to mondoweiss.net

Why So Little Condemnation of Israel's Extremism?, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
The moralistic Chief Rabbi will not be on "Thought for the Day" expressing sorrow for the treatment of these prisoners. Ardent British Zionists will not be pressed to condemn those responsible for the state barbarism.
Muscat: When two young Omani women got an opportunity to visit Palestine through an Arab exchange programme, they were on cloud nine. But when they saw the plight of Palestinians and heard heart-rending stories of Israeli aggression, they were in tears. Koola Al Khmaiyasi, a 22-year-old student at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), and Amal Al Mshaikhi, a 25-year-old, who works for the Information Technology Authority, spent five days visiting Ramallah, Bethlehem, Al Khalil (Hebron) and Nablus.  From being questioned by soldiers at the Israeli-controlled border posts, to meeting people whose entire families had been killed and whose homes had been occupied by illegal settlers, from passing through electronic security gates to go to a mosque for praying, to walking through the crowded, dilapidated streets of refugee camps, Koola and Amal saw with their own eyes the predicament of helpless Palestinians. 
 

'If the Prophet Mohamad was alive today, he would lend his support to NATO!
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based (and financed) preacher often described as the de facto spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, has recently kept up a barrage of verbal attacks on the Shias. He is president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, a loose Brotherhood-inspired body designed to pronounce on issues of common concern to Muslims. Founded in the friendlier climate of 2004, its top ranks also include Shia clergy. But Mr Qaradawi now attacks Shias for compromising the oneness of God (about the worst thing a Muslim can do) by ascribing semi-divine status to the people they regard as Muhammad’s legitimate successors. Another accusation is that Shias poach souls in Sunni lands. Time was when Mr Qaradawi praised the feats of Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed Shia militia in Lebanon, as fighters against Israel. But in recent punditry he has stressed the gap between Sunni and Shia beliefs and passionately called for regime change in Syria, where, among other things, a Sunni majority is rebelling against a ruling elite whose Alawite belief is a Shia offshoot. Senior Shia clergy have deplored his hardening line. Mr Qaradawi, whose utterances command attention from Marseilles to the north Caucasus, also backs Bahrain’s Sunni rulers in their anti-Shia stance.
link to www.economist.com

Bahrain

Wife visits jailed Bahraini hunger striker
The wife of a jailed Bahraini activist on hunger strike for more than three months says his condition appears better, but he is still only taking water and juice in his protest against government crackdowns in the Gulf kingdom.
link to news.yahoo.com

Bahrain extends detention of tweeting activist
Bahrain has extended the detention of rights activist Nabeel Rajab for participating in a January anti-government rally, his lawyer said on Sunday, after he was arrested over tweets deemed insulting to the government.
link to news.yahoo.com

Bahrain warns against protest tweets
The Bahraini government has warned against opposition calls for protests on the social networking site Twitter.
link to www.presstv.ir

Gulf leaders to discuss 'GCC Union'
Leaders of six Gulf countries will gather at a summit in Riyadh to discuss progress in their overall co-operation.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Saudi-Bahrain unity deal draws fierce criticism
Leading Bahraini and Saudi pro-democracy activists have criticized a unity deal between the two Gulf states as an attempt to secure the status quo of harsh autocracies amid ongoing protests. Over half of Iran's MPs also condemned the deal, saying it would lead to further unrest. The Gulf neighbors are expected to announce a deal today that will increase economic, military and security ties between them, with Saudi troops likely to be permanently positioned in Bahrain.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Iranian MPs blast Saudi-Bahrain union plan
Iranian MPs on Monday condemned a planned union between Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni-ruled Bahrain, news agencies reported.
link to news.yahoo.com

US Chutzpah on Bahrain, Asad AbuKhalil
The State Department held a meeting with Bahraini activists in Washington, DC. During the meeting, the activists were lectured and hectored by a US official. They kept being told over and over again that the government can’t reform while the “youth are resorting to violence”. The activists, of course, retorted that the US has no qualms in supporting an opposition in Syria, including elements that resort to car bombs, shelling, kidnapping, ransom kidnapping, and various kinds of shooting.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

But what is hardly ever mentioned in the press and TV reports is that this very system of oppression, the rock against which the dreams of democracy are being dashed, was largely created by the British. That, throughout most of the twentieth century, British advisers to the Bahraini royal family, backed up by British military might, were central figures in the creation of a ruthless system that imprisoned and sometimes tortured any Bahraini citizen who even dared to suggest the idea of democracy.  The same British advisers also worked with the rulers of Bahrain to exercise a cynical technique of divide and rule - setting Shia against Sunni in a very successful attempt to keep Bahrain locked in an old, decaying and corrupt system of tribal and religious rivalries. The deliberate aim was to stop democracy ever emerging.  The Bahrainis know this, practically everyone else in the Arab world knows this - the only people who seem to have forgotten are the British themselves.  So I thought I would tell the story of Britain's involvement in the government and the security of Bahrain over the past 90 years. Especially as the present King of Bahrain is coming to have lunch with the Queen on May 18th."
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Operation Lip Service, Chris Toensing
The popular uprising in Bahrain shows no signs of going away. The royal family tried crushing the revolt, importing shock troops from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It tried jailing important figures in the opposition, such as human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who as of early May had been on hunger strike for 90 days.
link to original.antiwar.com

Egypt

Sabbahi says he would cut gas supply to Israel even if prices raised
Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi has pledged that if elected, he would not export natural gas to Israel, even if the two countries agreed to raise the price of the gas. “Israel will not take a drop of Egyptian gas,” Sabbahi said at a public rally Sunday in Qena. “It will be provided to the houses of all Egyptians.” The candidate said the ruling military council terminated the Egyptian gas supply to Israel for financial reasons. He said he would bring to trial “whoever committed corruption in Egypt, killed a martyr, humiliated Egyptians’ dignity or rigged elections,” adding that he would work to restore state assets smuggled either inside or outside Egypt.
link to www.egyptindependent.com
 
Six in ten Egyptians want to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, a new poll has found, up from just over half of respondents since last year’s survey.  The poll, released last week by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, showed 61 percent of Egyptians want to cancel the 1979 agreement, while a third want to keep the treaty and the rest are undecided.
link to www.jpost.com 

Leading Egypt candidate calls 'racist' Israel a threat
A leading Islamist candidate in Egypt's presidential election has branded Israel a "racist state" and said a shared 1979 peace treaty was "a national security threat" that should be revised.
link to news.yahoo.com

Abul Futtuh refuses to recognize Israel
Egyptian presidential hopeful Abdulmunem Abul Futtuh has said that he refuses to recognize Israel, describing it as a “racist entity”.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Egyptian candidates' tough words on peace turn Israel wary
JERUSALEM -- Along the Israel-Egypt border a barrier is being built among the desert dunes. Every few months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels hours south of his government offices to mark the progress firsthand. It is, says his office, a top priority for the government. The barrier is just one of the signs that relations between Israel and Egypt, which have been at peace with one another since 1979, are on shaky ground.
link to www.kansascity.com

Israel impeding project linking Egypt and Saudi, says former PM
Former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf warned against Israeli attempts to disrupt the construction of a bridge linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia. 

In a statement before the Shura Council's Transportation, Communications and Information Technology Committee on Monday, Sharaf called for disregarding Israel’s comments about Israeli plans to establish a railway line parallel to the Suez Canal or an alternative canal.

 “Israel knows quite well that its railway will not affect the Suez Canal, which is used for the transportation of 35 million containers annually, while if their railway operates at full capacity for 24 hours a day, year round, it will not carry more than 2 million containers,” he said.


http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/839636
 
Egypt candidate claims shooting down Israeli planes in war
Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq's campaign boasted on Saturday that the former air force chief had shot down two Israeli planes during war, as it dismissed accusations of corruption.
link to news.yahoo.com

Brotherhood and Salafis exchange rebukes again
The Salafi-led Nour Party called on the Freedom and Justice Party Saturday to clarify Safwat Hegazy's statement that Salafis who back Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh for president are national security agents. Hegazy, a Muslim Brotherhood member, made the comment in a campaign rally for FJP presidential candidate Mohamed Morsy on Friday.
link to www.egyptindependent.com

Egypt’s Presidential Vote: Minorities Divided
Salafi and Coptic voters will have a major say in who becomes the country’s next president, but neither group is united over which candidate to back.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Egypt police raid Iran TV station
Egyptian police raided the Cairo office of Iranian television channel, Al-Alam, confiscating its equipment after it was found to be operating without license, a security source said on Monday. The raid was carried out on Sunday and the head of Al-Alam's Cairo office, Ahmed Sioufi, was charged with working without an official permit, the source said. On the Arabic-language channel's website, Sioufi confirmed that "several members of the police raided the office of Al-Alam" in Cairo.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Iran

AIPAC Resolution Demanding War With Iran On House Floor Today
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives is slated to vote on a resolution designed to tie the president’s hands on Iran policy.
link to mjayrosenberg.com

Apparently Terrorism Isn't Terrorism If It Targets Iran
The Obama administration is moving to delist an Iranian dissident group from the State Department terrorism list, which, as recently as January, placed a magnetic bomb under the car of Iranian scientist, according to U.S. officials. Perhaps unintentionally, the message the move would send appears to be: This activity is OK as long as it's against Iran.
link to news.yahoo.com

Iran: talks with IAEA "constructive"
Iran's talks with the UN nuclear watchdog about Tehran's atomic program are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions. The talks will test Iran's readiness to address UN inspectors' concerns over military links to its nuclear work, ahead of wider diplomatic talks on the program's future in Baghdad next week between Tehran and world powers. The nuclear watchdog aims at the Vienna talks to gain access to Iranian sites, documents and officials involved in suspected research activity that could be used to develop atomic bombs.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Iran tells West to 'correct its manner' ahead of talks
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday urged the West to "correct its manners" if it wants to win the respect of Iranians, as Tehran and the world powers meet in Baghdad this month to discuss Iran's contested nuclear programme.
link to news.yahoo.com

US "not impressed" with India over Iran oil ties
The United States is not impressed with India's efforts to cut its oil imports from Iran, a top US diplomat said on Tuesday, despite New Delhi pledging to slash imports by 11 percent. As a major buyer of Iranian crude, India is crucial to US efforts to squeeze Iran's economy. The issue has become an irritant in ties between India and the United States. Carlos Pascual, the US special envoy who has been negotiating with Iranian oil importers to cut their imports, met Indian foreign ministry officials on Tuesday.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Punished over Iran: S. Africa Petrol under Threat, Iqbal Jassat- Pretoria
Amidst reports that pro-Israeli lobbies in the United States have secured an assurance from the Obama administration to relentlessly pursue countries seen to be wavering in their compliance with rigorous sanctions on Iran, South Africa has been singled out for punishment. Though largely under-reported in the local media, pressure is building on the ANC-led government to immediately suspend its economic ties with Iran or risk being barred from US economy.
link to palestinechronicle.com

Iran to launch satellite on day of nuclear talks
Iran will launch next week an experimental observation satellite, on the day of talks with world powers over its nuclear program, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday. "The Fajr satellite will be launched on Khordad 3 (May 23)," the director of the Aerospace Industries Mehdi Farahi was quoted as saying.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Iran Executes Accused Israeli Spy
Iran said on Tuesday it had executed a man accused of being an Israeli intelligence agent responsible for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

I Want My NPT: A weekend review of Iran nuclear program propaganda, Nima Shirazi
Two news reports by major wire services this weekend demonstrate just how pervasive misinformation and propaganda are in the mainstream media when it comes to the Iranian nuclear issue.
link to mondoweiss.net

Iraq

Iraq Minister: War Dead Reaches 70,000; 11 Killed Today
Human Rights Minister Mohammed Shayaa al-Sudani said that the casualty toll, since 2003, has reached 70,000 killed and 250,000 wounded. A spokesman for the Iraqiya bloc said that the party would try to convince Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to return to Baghdad to stand trial on terrorism charges. Meanwhile, at least 11 Iraqis were killed today and 22 more were wounded in a second day of attacks focusing on Anbar province.
link to original.antiwar.com

Iraq: 20 Killed As Suicide Bombers Stage Several Attacks
The relative quiet of the last several days was broken decisively by several suicide and car bomb attacks around Iraq. At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 35 more were wounded.
link to original.antiwar.com

Iraq bomb attacks against security kill five
A series of bomb attacks mostly targeting security forces, including a suicide car bombing, killed five people across Iraq and wounded several more on Sunday, security and medical officials said.
link to news.yahoo.com

Terror trial of fugitive Iraq VP starts in Baghdad
The terror trial of Iraq's fugitive vice president accused of running death squads started Tuesday in Baghdad with witnesses testifying how their relatives were killed in attacks that the authorities have linked to the country's top Sunni official.
link to news.yahoo.com

Iraq VP masterminded killings: trial witnesses
Victims' families and witnesses on Tuesday accused Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi of masterminding killings at the opening of his trial in absentia on charges he says are politically-motivated.
link to news.yahoo.com

Iraq “torture prison” is still open: rights group
Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Iraqi authorities were still running a jail they said had been shut over a year ago after reports of prisoners being beaten and electrocuted, but the government denied this, saying the site was empty.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Jordan

Major US, Arab war drill begins in Jordan
The United States and its allies have started in Jordan what was described as the largest military exercises in the Middle East in 10 years, focusing on "irregular warfare," top officers said on Tuesday. "Yesterday we began to apply the skills that we have developed over the last weeks in an irregular warfare scenario ... They will last for approximately the coming two weeks," Major General Ken Tovo, head of the US Special Operations Forces, told reporters in Amman.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Jordan editor charged with incitement freed on bail
Jordanian military prosecutors on Sunday released on bail a local news website editor charged with anti-regime incitement, a judicial official told AFP.


Lebanon

Update: Lebanon boosts security after deadly clashes
The Lebanese army has strengthened its numbers in the northern city of Tripoli, after fighting there between fighters loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and supporters of Syria's opposition left at least three people dead. Zeina Khodr has more from Beirut.
link to www.youtube.com

Several dead in clashes in Lebanon's Tripoli
At least four people killed, including a soldier, after clashes between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Trouble in Tripoli: Syrian Crisis Shifts The Stage
The events in Tripoli, North Lebanon over the weekend in which seven people were killed and over a dozen injured have exposed the city’s many fault lines.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

North Lebanon: A State That Sells its People to the Devil, Ibrahim al-Amin
The uprising of Tripoli figures in protest against the disregard of protocol by a security apparatus while arresting a wanted person makes you feel that you are in the presence of political leaders who would not allow citizens be subjected to immodesty. But in the case of Tripoli now, the picture is different. The protesters know the security agencies are blatantly using them to do their dirty work. The leaders are attempting to contain public anger because they were not able to deal with the issue of Islamist detainees without trial.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Libya

Rights group: NATO underplayed civilian deaths in Libya
NATO air strikes killed 72 civilians in Libya last year, Human Rights Watch said on Monday, accusing the western alliance of failing to acknowledge the scope of collateral damage it caused during the campaign that helped oust Moammar Gadhafi.
link to worldnews.msnbc.msn.com

Unacknowledged Deaths: HRW: Report
This report examines in detail eight NATO air strikes in Libya that resulted in 72 civilian deaths, including 20 women and 24 children. It is based on one or more field investigations to each of the bombing sites during and after the conflict, including interviews with witnesses and local resident.
link to www.hrw.org

Inside Story: Holding NATO accountable in Libya
Can NATO be sued and held accountable for killing civilians and is there an international mechanism to help the victims of war? Stephen COle discusses with guests: David Mepham, Olivier Ribbelink & Alexandre Vautravers.
link to www.youtube.com

Saudi

Saudi Arabia Seeks Union of Monarchies in Region
The move also highlights the Saudi monarchy’s preoccupation with its regional rival, Iran, which has been reflected in a series of Saudi interventions that have taken on distinctly sectarian overtones, including its support for Sunni opposition groups in Syria and its military intervention last spring on behalf of the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain. Thousands of Saudi troops rolled into Bahrain last year to help Bahrain’s monarch put down a popular uprising led by members of the country’s Shiite majority. Bahrain, which is linked by a bridge to Saudi Arabia, is virtually the only country publicly endorsing the Saudi push for a tighter regional federation. In a statement released on Monday, the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, said, “We are looking forward to the establishment of the Gulf Union.”
link to www.nytimes.com

Saudi Feminism: Between Mama Amreeka and Baba Abdullah
On 9 May 2012, Manal al-Sharif was awarded the Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. This came shortly after al-Sharif was honored as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World at a Gala in New York City. Such events have given rise to a pattern: just as numerous pictures and videos of activists attending various conferences and receiving numerous awards surface, waves of criticism pour in. Their motives are viewed with suspicion, worthiness is questioned, and a movement’s progress is reassessed.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Syria

Syria activists: At least 5 killed in village raid
Syrian forces killed at least five people and torched a number of homes in a raid on a farming village Sunday that activists said showed worsening relations between Syria's myriad religious groups.
link to news.yahoo.com

Syrian clashes 'kill 23 soldiers'
At least 30 people - including 23 soldiers - die in clashes in the central Syrian town of Rastan, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Syrians raid village, violence bleeds into Lebanon
Syrian forces killed at least five people when they raided a Sunni farming village on Sunday, torching homes and looting shops in what activists said is a sign of worsening relations among the country's religious groups.
link to news.yahoo.com

VIDEO: UN: Syrians must put down weapons
Damascus must ensure that its forces go "back to the barracks" in order to move forward in resolving Syria's bloody conflict, the head of the UN's observer mission to the country has said.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Palestinian intellectual tortured in Syria: U.N.
Prominent leftist Palestinian writer Salameh Kaileh, freed recently after being arrested in Syria last month, was tortured during his detention, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Group: Syria troops target health workers, wounded
Syrian forces are targeting medical workers and patients who were wounded in the 14-month-old conflict, forcing doctors to scramble to help the injured in makeshift clinics, an international aid agency warned Tuesday.
link to news.yahoo.com

20,000 Syrians fled to Jordan in two months: charity
About 20,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring Jordan in the past two months, a prominent local charity said on Sunday, urging wealthy Arab countries to help the refugees.
link to english.alarabiya.net 


SNC snubs Arab League as violence continues
Syria's leading opposition group snubbed an Arab League invite to key talks on Monday, suggesting further divisions in the ranks of those opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime. Meanwhile a watchdog said 23 Syrian soldiers were killed while dozens more were wounded as fierce clashes between regime forces and armed rebels continued. The Syrian National Council (SNC) announced they would not take part in talks sponsored by the Arab League aimed at fixing deep divisions within the ranks of the opposition to President Assad.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Ghalioun elected chief of Syria opposition group
Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun was elected on Tuesday as head of the exiled opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council, a source within the SNC told AFP.
link to news.yahoo.com

Jihadist group denies claiming Damascus bombings
Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt, has denied in a statement that it had claimed responsibility for Damascus bombings last week that killed 55 people.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Obscure jihadists enter Syrian conflict
The Syrian conflict has bred the emergence of obscure jihadists carrying out bloody attacks, either acting independently or manipulated by the regime seeking to tarnish the image of its opposition, analysts say.
link to news.yahoo.com

Tunisian Islamists join jihad against Syria's Assad
BEN GUERDANE, Tunisia (Reuters) - The first that Tunisian schoolteacher Mokhtar Mars heard of his brother fighting alongside rebels in Syria was a phone call from a foreign number, telling him Houssein was dead. "We got an anonymous call telling us he had been martyred. Just three words. We tried to call back but there was no answer," said Mars, 40, sitting on a mattress along a wall of what was his younger brother's room, bereft of other belongings.
link to news.yahoo.com

Syrian Rebels Become More Lethal, Joshua Landis
As Syria’s rebel militias become more lethal, foreign analysts are trying to determine how Islamic they are, how to unify them, and what role the West can play in guiding Syria toward an outcome favorable to its interests. The Syrian government is exploiting Western concerns that the Syrian militias could turn out to be harmful to Western and Israeli interests. Deborah Amos explains that Damascus is arresting most moderates in an evident attempt to create an “either-or” dilemma for Western governments and Syrians themselves: they must choose either between and Assad dictatorship or divided Islamists. This has been the Assad strategy for 40 years. Liz Sly explains that in fact the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining influence over the revolt. Sharmine Narwani, in contrast to Deborah Amos, highlights the brutal and Islamist characteristics of some of the rebel groups, suggesting that the stark choices Syrians face are not manufactured by the Assad regime, but real. She suggests that the Western press has tried to whitewashed the distasteful realities of Homs’ Farouq Battalion to fit its narrative of brutal regime versus good people.
link to www.joshualandis.com

Homs Opposition: Al Farouq Battalion is Killing Us, Sharmine Narwani
It is extremely rare to have a direct peephole into events on the ground in Syria. The hard-fought battle over narratives often leaves truth in the dust.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
www.TheHeadlines.Org
]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/nakba-64-years-later-we-will-never-forget.html/feed 10 The left lacks an analysis of the neocon rise http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/the-left-lacks-an-analysis-of-the-neocon-rise.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/the-left-lacks-an-analysis-of-the-neocon-rise.html#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 11:36:41 +0000 Philip Weiss http://mondoweiss.net/?p=75819 The other night on CSpan, I watched Rachel Maddow give a lecture at Mount Holyoke College about her foreign policy book Drift. The speech was amusing, and her condemnation of Obama's use of drones was excellent, as was her sympathy for military families who have borne the brunt of these wars inside the U.S. But the speech was singularly lacking in analysis. Why are we mired in Middle Eastern wars? Maddow's analysis seems to be, That's just us. We've got a military establishment. They do this stuff. They can't be stopped. They build drones and like to fly 'em.

The same aphasia is at work in Ari Berman's piece on Romney's neoconservative braintrust in the Nation. It's a well-reported piece on the prevalence of neoconservatives in the Republican Party. And the Nation knows that neocon is now a curseword. It's on the cover of the magazine in huge letters.

Americans don't want to be stuck in these wars, Berman shows, citing polls. But why do the neocons have power? Berman draws a blank. It's because of a vacuum in the Republican establishment. Or a "dangerously myopic" black and white worldview. "A cold war prism," he says, quoting Joseph Biden. Though in a parentheses, Berman says that there is a domestic logic to Romney's hires-- "courting conservative elements of the Jewish vote." As if the power Sheldon Adelson wields is his ability to waddle into a polling place in Nevada.

I can justly be accused of being a conspiracy theorist because I believe in the Israel lobby theory. I find it a more compelling conspiracy than the Chomskyan conspiracy, a Military Industrial Complex of Lockheed and Grumman and Halliburton that got us into Iraq. Certainly my theory has an explanation of the rise and influence of the neocons. They don't have a class interest but an ideological-religious one. Like evangelical Christians who jam buses to vote on abortion, they don't care about financial self-interest. They are rightwing Zionists. As I observed here -- when Robert Siegel on NPR said it was anti-semitic to mention the Jewishness of the neocons-- neoconservatism came out of the rightwing Jewish community. I quoted 7 Jewish writers on this point, including Dershowitz: "the recent neo-conservative movement in America has also been dominated by Jews."

Neoconservatism is dominated by rightwing Jews because they are ultra-Zionists who believe in Israel's militarism and have sought to import that ideology to the U.S. Part of their success was that they did their intellectual work. Over 25 years they elaborated a powerful idea about the way the world worked, with Zionist pedigree, and when the U.S. had a crisis, our leaders reached for those (misguided) ideas. As Francis Fukuyama has said about the neoconservatives' ideological persuasion: "there was a very coherent set of strategic ideas that have come out of Israel's experience dealing with the Arabs and the world community, having to do with threat perception, preemption, the relative balance of carrots and sticks to be used in dealing with the Arabs, the United Nations, and the like..."

Walt and Mearsheimer addressed this intellectual investment in The Israel Lobby when they said the "special relationship" had a hammerlock on US policy in the Middle East. Scott McConnell expressed it at the Middle East Policy Council:

The... special relationship [with Israel]... is at bottom a transmission belt, conveying Israeli ideas on how the United States should conduct itself in a contested and volatile part of the world. To a great extent, a receptive American political class now views the Middle East and their country’s role in it through Israel’s eyes.

Maybe McConnell is wrong. Maybe Walt and Mearsheimer and Fukuyama and I are wrong. But at least we are presenting a coherent analysis that seeks to explain the fact that the same thinktank-sponsored Americans who advised Netanyahu to make a "clean break" with the peace process 16 years ago, and who succeeded in that initiative, and who urged that the U.S. to invade Iraq, an initiative also crowned with success, and who are now pushing a war with Iran out of concern for Israel's security, are still regnant in the American system. (And why are they regnant? Because of money, because of the usual springs of political power in this country-- an issue that the conventional left is afraid to broach because it touches on uncomfortable issues, like the prevalence of conservative Jewish donors in our political system).

You can't go forward without an analysis. As long as the mainstream left is being purposely vague about the causes of the neoconservative investment, it will be powerless to stop it.

]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/the-left-lacks-an-analysis-of-the-neocon-rise.html/feed 44 The neocon machine http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/the-neocon-machine.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/the-neocon-machine.html#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 13:23:28 +0000 Philip Weiss http://mondoweiss.net/?p=75700 At the American Conservative, Scott McConnell reports on Steve Walt's talk to the Palestine Center.  Iraq was a war dreamed up by the neocons, he writes, and--

Washington is setting up the same path all over again.  As if nothing has been learned. The neocon propaganda organs are very much in place. The war talk is similar, especially the depiction of Iran’s leaders as irrational zealots, impervious to reason. Many of the key players are the same: Bill Kristol, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, “mainstream” Jeffrey Goldberg, Elliott Abrams. AIPAC drafting congressional resolutions designed to tie the administration’s hands,  which Congress rubber stamps with all the careful debate one would expect from an assembly in  Pyongyang. To an extent which seems even greater than 2002, the bulk of the Republican Party seems to have fallen in line.

Some important differences remain,  however. The entire Israel lobby is not on board for an Iran war, and there are major national security figures  in Israel itself saying it would be a bad error. The U.S. military seems more vocally opposed. The Obama administration, despite rhetorical hedging, seems to recognize that war is neither necessary nor wise.

]]> http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/the-neocon-machine.html/feed 23 Israeli officer threatens to rape Palestinian activists in custody (if this happened in Syria it would be headline news) http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/israeli-officer-threatens-to-rape-palestinian-activists-in-custody-if-this-happened-in-syria-it-would-be-headline-news.html http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/israeli-officer-threatens-to-rape-palestinian-activists-in-custody-if-this-happened-in-syria-it-would-be-headline-news.html#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 15:30:56 +0000 Today in Palestine http://mondoweiss.net/?p=75641 link to www.flickr.com

Israeli police brutally arrest hunger strike demonstrators, threaten them with rape, Sawsan Khalife
Thaira Zoabi, a 27-year-old activist from Nazareth, also suffered injuries at the hands of police on 3 May. “As soon as the protest began, the Israeli Yassam and police forces first arrested the bus driver and eight protesters. That did not stop us from continuing our protest demanding to release them all,” she said. “I was first attacked by a police officer when he lifted me up the ground with my kuffiyeh [traditional checkered scarf] that was around my neck, suffocating me and making it hard for me to breathe. They arrested me and eight other protesters. There were also Israeli and foreign activists amongst us. “The Israeli forces used [taser guns] and I have bruises on my arms and legs. I saw them open a protester’s mouth by force and spit in it, and they spit in my face as well. They beat us and used massive verbal violence. They did a full body search. While being under custody, a police officer of Ramle district addressed both me and another female activist while being cuffed with verbal sexual harassment, threatening to rape us. I have to admit I burst in tears.”
link to electronicintifada.net

 
Palestinian Hunger Strike
 
Israel: Stop Jailing People Without Charge or Trial
Israel should immediately charge or release people jailed without charge or trial under so-called administrative detention.
link to www.hrw.org
 
Israel facing major West Bank uprising over Palestinian hunger strike
Israel has been warned that it faces a major uprising in the West Bank after six Palestinian prisoners taking part in one of the largest and most protracted hunger strikes ever staged in its jails were said to be close to death. 
Reports indicate that progress in negotiations has been made, though hunger strike to continue as a number of issues remain unresolved.
 
Palestinian officials said on Saturday they expected a breakthrough soon on efforts to end a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israel, some of them close to death. But Amin Shoman, head of a monitoring group of Palestinian political factions, said that if Israel gave a negative response, prisoners would intensify their fast and break off further talks with prison authorities. "The prisoners will stop taking vitamins and water and stop negotiations with the Israel Prisons Service if they get a negative answer," he said.
 
Palestinian hunger strikers 'in danger'
At least six out of 2,000 hunger-striking prisoners in Israeli jails at imminent risk of dying, lawyers say.
 
The Palestinian Center for Defending the Detainees (PCDD) issued a press release stating that, contrary to certain media reports, no agreement has been reached between the hunger-striking Palestinian detainees and the Israeli Prison Administration.
Prisoner Jamal Al-Hawr said strikers might escalate their strike soon and refrain even from drinking water if the Israeli prison authority did not respond to their just demands.
 
Detained MP Natshe loses 15 kilograms of his weight
MP Mohammed Jamal Al-Natshe has lost 15 kilograms of his weight in the hunger strike he has been waging along with hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails for 26 days.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Hunger strikers stop to take vitamins from Israeli jailers
The Palestinian center for the defense of prisoners said the hunger strikers in Israeli jails started on Wednesday to refrain from taking vitamins sent by their jail administrations.
 
Thaer Halahleh's letter to his daughter: "My Beloved Lamar...Forgive me", Linah Alsaafin
On his 75th day of hunger strike, Thaer Halahleh sends a heartbreaking message to his 2 year old daughter Lamar: “Lamar my love: I know that you are not to be blamed and that you don’t yet understand why your father is going through this battle of the hunger strike for the 75th day, but when you grow up you will understand that the battle of freedom is the battle of going back to you.”
 
JENIN (Ma'an) -- Hunger-striker Bilal Diab has sent a will to his family in the northern West Bank on his 75th day without food, relatives said on Saturday. Diab, 27, has refused food since Feb. 29 to protest his detention without charge in Israeli jail. His family, from Jenin-district town Kufr Rai, said they received his will on Saturday detailing his wishes in case of his death.
 
EMOHR calls for UN human rights council's session on hunger strikers
The Euro-Mediterranean observatory for human rights (EMOHR) called on the member states of the UN human rights council to request a special session addressing the issue of Palestinian hunger strikers.
 
Khudari calls for urgent Palestinian unity to support prisoners
Independent Palestinian MP Jamal Al-Khudari has championed speedy unity of Palestinian ranks to support demands of prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.
 
Ahrar center said prisoner Mahmoud Issa is still on hunger strike in solidarity with other hunger strikers after his transfer from his solitary confinement to the general wards.

Abdullah al-Barghouti Solitary Confinement Prisoner #2
"To see my children is tastier than food, and being with other human beings is more stimulating than drink" Abdullah al-Barghouti is on hunger-strike to obtain a mere fraction the rights he is entitled to as a human being and as a father. He has been prohibited from seeing his family since he was arrested over ten years ago and has remained in solitary confinement for the same duration.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
 
Israeli Attacks on Solidarity Protests for Hunger Strikers
 
A complaint has been lodged with the Israeli ministry of justice after the violent arrest of 17 demonstrators at a hunger strike solidarity protest near Ramle prison.
 
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) mainly quelled Palestinian protests, organized in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, over the past week, an international report said.
 
Four casualties in IOF quelling of March including child, foreign activist
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) violently suppressed a rally in Beit Ummar village, to the north of Al-Khalil, on Saturday injuring four participants including a child and a foreign activist.
 
In Beit Ommar, Israeli soldiers entered the town in the afternoon and occupied several people’s homes, firing teargas and rubber-coated bullets at the children in the street. In the evening, villagers marched in the town.
 
12 Jerusalemites injured in Israeli quelling of their march
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired rubber bullets and teargas at a march for relatives of Palestinian prisoners and supporters in Abu Dis east of occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday night.
 
Support and Solidarity for Hunger Strikers
 
The Electronic Intifada Weekly Podcast - 10 May 2012
This week on The Electronic Intifada podcast: Up-to-date coverage of the ongoing hunger strike protests by thousands of Palestinian prisoners; Linah Alsaafin and Asa Winstanley report from the West Bank on prisoner solidarity actions; and much more.
 
 
The liberated captive, student Fatima Zahra Sidr, said that the occupation is unable to confront the Palestinian prisoners’ strong will and their determination to carry on their battle.
 
Youth protest by Red Cross, UN offices in Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Dozens of Palestinian youth held demonstrations outside the offices of international organizations in Gaza City on Sunday morning, calling for a stronger stance in support of hunger-striking prisoners. Protesters blocked employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Development Programme from accessing their offices for two hours, witnesses said.
link to www.maannews.net
 
Palestinian youth lead united solidarity with hunger strikers
On the 17th of April, Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, 1500 prisoners held in Israeli jails began a open ended hunger strike  protesting the use of administrative detention, strip searches, the denial of access to education, the prevention visits, and demanding an end to solitary confinement and other human rights abuses practiced in the Israeli jails. The strike is an inspiring act of national unity against the Israeli occupation - there are representatives from all Palestinian political factions involved, with a united representative leadership.The Palestinian community has united to support the cause of the hunger strikers. There have been mass demonstrations in city centers, and at checkpoints and along the Wall, as well as demonstrations in front of the prisons on an almost daily basis.
 
Some 12,000 people attend rally organized by Islamic Movement in village of Qana in support of security prisoners staging hunger strike. 'Prisoners will be triumphant,' says deputy head of Islamic Movement's northern branch.
 
Reaching a new height in protests supporting the 2,500 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, thousands demonstrated in cities across the West Bank yesterday. Marches were held in Hebron, Kafr Qaddoum, Nablus, Nabi Saleh, Ni'lin, Ramallah, al-Walaja and outside of Ofer prison.
 
Every day the support for the Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli jails spreads, creating national unity in solidarity with their protest. As groups across Palestine show their support, it becomes more apparent how pivotal this strike is in terms of the wider struggle – it is becoming a rallying point, a symbol of national cohesion reminiscent of the Intifadas. Despite internal disputes, unity is being displayed by Palestinians across the country in the face of Israeli occupation and repression of all shows of support of the prisoners. Momentum is building on the back of the “War of Empty Stomachs”, a war being raged to gain the recognition of rights guaranteed by International Law, but denied by the Israeli occupier.
 
Protest in East Jerusalem against Judaization of the city and in support of the hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners
Photos by Lazar Simeonov.   On Friday, 4 May 2012, approximately 75 demonstrators gathered outside Damascus Gate in the old city of Jerusalem to protest Israel’s occupation at large and its facilitation of home evictions and settler take-overs in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
 
Thousands of Jerusalemite demonstrators marched after Friday prayers in solidarity with the hunger striking prisoners.
 
Today, May 12, 2012, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists joined together for the weekly demonstration in Beit Ommar. Today’s demonstration was in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike and to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba. Khader Adnan, who was released from administrative detention on April 17th, 2012 and was on hunger strike for 66 days, also took part in the demonstration.
 
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- A group of young protesters demonstrated in Bethlehem on Thursday to show support for prisoners on hunger strike, a Ma'an correspondent said. The demonstration was a youth initiative to support prisoners in their battle for dignity and freedom, protesters told Ma'an. Demonstrators wore black clothes and carried the Palestinian flag.
 
On Friday, May 11, 2012, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered outside Ofer prison in Ramallah to protest in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. Over two hundred activists came and joined the demonstration. Israeli soldiers shot countless canisters of teargas at the demonstrators, as well as skunk water and rubber-coated and plastic-coated bullets. The activists set over a dozen tires on fire, creating a thick wall of smoke that made it difficult for the soldiers to see the demonstrators, so the soldiers shot into the crowd at random. Over 20 people were taken into the ambulances, and at least one was taken to the hospital.
 
AMMONNEWS - Ghalib Barghouthi, an engineer whose son Abdullah is serving 67 life sentences in an Israeli prison, on Thursday said he had not seen his son in 15 years.  “The Israeli authorities do not allow us to visit him,” Ghalib told The Jordan Times during a demonstration held by members of the Jordan Engineers Association to express solidarity with Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who are on hunger strike. He indicated that his son was arrested because he joined his fellow Palestinians to fight Israelis when the second Intifada broke out in 2000.
 
Solidarity and human rights activists Elizabeth West and Domenica Bianca have initiated a new project, Fasting on Fridays (see the Fasting on Fridays website: http://fastingonfridays.wordpress.com/), calling for international solidarity with the Karameh Hunger Strike by fasting on Fridays. Fasters will engage in 24-hour fasts each Friday (May 11, May 18, May 25 and June 1) or until Palestinian prisoners achieve their demands and end their hunger strike. The site provides instructions and information about conducting a 24-hour fast, as well as an opportunity to sign a Pledge to Fast. The fasting project began yesterday, Friday May 11, with eight fasters, who are updating their experiences via this blog. Fasters are encouraged to sign on from around the world and join the project.
 
 
Turkish rally supports Palestinian striking prisoners
Turkish demonstrators marched in downtown Istanbul on Friday in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike for almost four weeks in Israeli occupation jails.
 
Malaysian support to the prisoners’ issue
The Malaysian people and the Arab and foreign communities in Malaysia showed great support for the Palestinian issue during the Palestine Week event in Kuala Lumpur.
 
Continuing sit-ins in London in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners
The PFB organized, on Wednesday, a sit-in outside the Israeli embassy in London as a part of continuing solidarity activities in support of Palestinian prisoners which started two weeks ago.
 
 
 
Hunger Strike Analysis / Op-ed
 
The hunger strike launched by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails created a large splash into the stagnant waters of Palestinian politics. It has forced voices to come forth from the monotonous silence, in an attempt to create a tune that is at once different and authentic. The strike in which thousands of Palestinian prisoners are now participating was initially characterized by a profound paradox.
link to english.al-akhbar.com 
 
A critical shift in the Palestine-Israeli conflict is now underway. The shift promises an endgame for the Israeli plot in Palestine, and a possible collective response from the Palestinian people. Every Palestinian uprising in the past — from as far back as the late 1920s to the second Intifada in 2000 — has been sparked by a single event, which was a critical accumulation of numerous prior events that forced Palestinians to act en masse. Such a moment is now approaching.
 
Empty Stomachs, Palestinian Spring, Patrick O. Strickland
Following the examples of Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi, 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have joined a mass hunger strike campaign inside Israeli military prisons. They are calling for an immediate termination of the policy of administrative detention and the excessive use of solitary confinement, and demanding humane living conditions, family visits, and reasonable access to educational materials.
 

Land, Property & Resource Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Restriction of Movement / Refugees

European Union to slam Israel's actions in West Bank
Netanyahu envoy Isaac Molho delivers letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
 
Most ministers oppose legalization of West Bank outpost
High Court of Justice gave the government until July 1 to demolish five homes built on Palestinian-owned land in the neighborhood, near Ramallah in the West Bank.
 
Settlers Steal Palestinian Farmlands Near Bethlehem
A group of armed extremist Israeli settlers occupied at gunpoint privately-owned Palestinian farmland that belongs to a resident of Al-Khader city, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
 
Battir, West Bank — One of the last Palestinian farming villages that still uses irrigation systems from Roman times says its ancient way of life is in danger as Israel prepares to lay down its West Bank separation barrier. With construction possibly beginning in the coming weeks, the people of Battir hope a legal battle, backed by recent U.N. recognition of the village's agricultural practices, will help change Israel's mind. Battir's 6,000 inhabitants live in limestone-faced houses built into a hillside southwest of Jerusalem. On the lands around the homes, stone retaining walls have transformed scrubby hills into orderly terraces of olive trees and vegetable gardens.
 
This must-see video chronicles the continued displacement of the Jahalin Bedouin community. The Palestinian-Bedouin communities live in the hills to the east of Jerusalem and have been forcibly evicted time and again. The community was issued eight eviction orders by the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) last Sunday May 6th and was scheduled to be evicted today. This morning, 20 minutes before the demolition order was to go into effect, they got a notice of delay from the court. This is a temporary injunction preventing the demolition of homes.
 
Israel is planning to revive a controversial form of collective punishment by razing the family homes of two Palestinians convicted of murdering Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
 
The recent escalation of Israeli attacks on Muslim and Christian religious sites in Palestine, including Jerusalem, other cities in the occupied West Bank and the area occupied in 1948, can be viewed as part of Israel's assault on all things Palestinian since 1967. It is a war declared by Israel and waged by the occupation authority's military and security forces as well as the illegal Jewish settlers. The latter form the spearhead of attacks against mosques with the cooperation and support of military personnel. Although the Israeli occupation authority describes such attacks as "criminal activity", in reality they are attacks of a religious and socio-political nature.
 
Islamic-Christian body calls for urgent action to deter settlement escalation
The Islamic - Christian Commission in Support of Jerusalem warned of the occupation authorities’ settlement activities that have been escalated recently, especially in Jerusalem.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Visiting the Institute for Middle East Understanding site this morning I recognize the friendly familiar face of blogger/activist Morgan Bach in this video by Haitham Katib. It's self explanatory.  As thousands of Palestinians protested all across the region yesterday in solidarity with prisoners on hunger strikes, settlers continued their scorched earth policy this week. And so the actions of Israel's armed forces perpetuates the toxicity of the occupation both literally and figuratively in Bil'in...
 
Israel’s monopoly over distribution of fuel to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip has yet to be challenged by the Palestinian Authority.
 
An international campaign to break the siege on Jerusalem kicks off in Cairo
The Committee of Foreign Relations in the Egyptian Press Syndicate launched the "International Campaign to break the siege on Jerusalem,"
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
 
The 9th May marks the 22nd day of the Palestinian prisoners mass hunger strike. Today as with every day, the prisoners’ families and friends met at Nablus Prisoners’ tent in a show of solidarity, paying respect to their sons, brothers, daughters and sisters suffering in Israeli prisons in conditions which constantly violate international laws. Said al Kabi, 54, is just one father whose anguish is worn on his worried face. He has suffered greatly, lost many family members and both of his legs to the illegal Israeli occupation. His son, Jawad al Kabi, 26,  is sentenced to 13 years in prison and has now served six of them. Said lost both his legs in 1967. One morning whilst going out in his tractor to farm his land as usual, Said turned down a dirt road and hit a land mine left by the Israeli army. In 1984 a demonstration in Balata Refugee Camp claimed the life of Said’s mother. The demonstration was to resist the occupation but tragically Said’s mother was shot in the heart and died immediately. Ten years later, in 1994, Said’s brother was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper, also in Balata Refugee Camp.
 
Insight from the Palestinian Diaspora
“Eventually, nobody prevents me from returning to my country and living in a place we always dreamed of.” These are the words of Fath Hamdan, a Palestinian from the Diaspora living in Palermo, Italy. He left his hometown Tulkarem almost 30 years ago, and defines himself as an “advantaged” migrant since he became easily integrated into the new environment and he has the legal right to return and live in Palestine anytime. The following interview is a brief account of his experience as an economic migrant living in Italy and his perspective about the future in the Occupied Palestinian territories.
 
Nakba
 
1948 Arabs to stage events and general strike on 64th Nakba Anniversary
The Arab political parties and popular committees in the 1948 occupied lands decided to form a committee to make outstanding preparations for the 64th anniversary of the Palestinian nakba.
 
Sabeel, Code Pink, the Washington Report for Middle East Affairs, and several other organizations are sponsoring a Nakba remembrance outside the White House next week. The groups are hoping for 500 to attend so as to commemorate every village extirpated.
 
Palestine Nakba 64 Years Later, Jamal Kanj
Each year on May 15 Palestinians commemorate the Nakba or Catastrophe. On that May Day, Palestine ceased to exist from the world’s map and 85 percent of its natives were evicted from their historical homes and villages. The expulsion of Palestinians was part of Zionism’s early obsession with creating a nation with a Jewish majority. Their increasing preoccupation with changing the population demography in Palestine was envisaged by the World Zionist Organization (WZO) in the late 1800s. In his writings in 1896 Herzl, founder of WZO foretold expelling “… the poor [native] population across the border unnoticed.”
 
Siege on Gaza
 
Minister seeks halt to Gaza gas supply over local shortage fears
Speaking ahead of the cabinet vote on preparations for summer power shortages, Minister Gilad Erdan asked ministers to support his proposal according to which any initiated power shortage in Israel would mean that Israel halts the power supply to Gaza. In a communiqué sent to the ministers Erdan said: "This isn't a sanction against Gaza or against its residents, rather it is a basic move that is demanded when fully recognizing the truth of 'the needy of your city come before those of another.'"
link to www.ynetnews.com
 
Abd al Moti stares vaguely from the deck of his fishing trawler moored in Gaza Harbour, just at the peak of the fishing season, as the fuel crisis has all but grounded the entire Palestinian fishing fleet. "It's the first time in the 20 years that I've owned this trawler that you can find me on the dock," Abd al Moti says. "I should be out at sea with my men. Missing the fishing season is a disaster."
 
UN official: Gaza does not receive the required attention
The new Director of operations of Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees "UNRWA", Robert Turner, said he will launch a campaign to draw attention to the difficult conditions in the Gaza Strip.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Dr Ashraf Kodra, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman, warned of the serious health situation in Gaza due to lack of medicines in the ministry's warehouses, pointing out that 202 types of medicines.
 
Over the past few days, the question of whether sale of goods from Gaza will be allowed has seemed more relevant than ever following the reported rise in tomato prices (Hebrew); the response of the Israeli Vegetable Growers Association that it does not oppose the marketing of tomatoes from the Gaza Strip in Israel, and; theend of the season for agricultural export from the Gaza Strip to Europe. We decided to try and provide some answer to the main questions on the topic.
Israeli Violence / Past War Crimes
 
A Jewish settler attacked and beat up a Palestinian Jerusalemite on Wednesday night claiming he tried to assault him.
 
The failure to properly investigate and punish injustices in the Samouni family case is a crime itself.
 
Shaul Mofaz, Netanyahu’s new partner, ordered ‘revenge’ op that killed Palestinian police in 2002, Alex Kane
Mofaz was also one of our crueler defense ministers - no less than 1,705 Palestinians were killed on his watch, including 372 children and teens and 191 targeted killings: that is no great honor, either. True, those were the days of the second intifada, but Mofaz was also one of the fathers of the doctrine of targeted killings, which has been completely forgotten. He was also the one heard whispering into a microphone that Yasser Arafat should be expelled from Ramallah, another genius idea at the time. "I thought we should strike very hard," he told the Winograd Commission investigating the Second Lebanon War, and in so doing said everything there was to say about his doctrine of warfare and his military-political creed. Perhaps he has changed his mind since then, but it is up to him to prove it, and he has not yet done so.
 
Detainees / Political Arrests
 
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Palestinian Authority security forces on Friday arrested four men in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a security source said. Forces arrested Nizar Guadreh, Qadre Seedan, Sati Awawdeh and a fourth man, a security official told Ma'an. They were transferred to Jericho prison, he added. The official did not disclose the reason for the arrests. 
 
Israeli soldiers and Policemen arrested, on Thursday, two Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem under the claim that they stabbed an Israeli person several days ago, inflicting injuries.
 
Other Prisoner News
 
Haneyya: Important development in Egyptian talks with Israel on prisoners
Gaza premier Ismail Haneyya said in a statement on Saturday that important developments had occurred in the Egyptian talks with Israel over the issue of Palestinian prisoners.
 
Other Activism / Solidarity / BDS
 
Ashraf Abu Rahmeh, a leading figure in the weekly demonstration in his village of Bil’in, was released last month on 15 April  after spending six and a half months in Israeli prison. Every Friday, demonstrations in Bil’in are held to protest the Israeli illegal separation wall which is built on the lands of the villagers. The land is used to build Jewish-only settlements. Ashraf was arrested on 21 October 2011 during one of the weekly Friday protest just outside Bil’in. He was charged with participating in illegal protests (all protests inside the West Bank are illegal according to the Israeli occupying force and Military Order No. 101) and throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, despite video evidence that prove the contrary. Ashraf spent the first three months of his detention without seeing a lawyer. When he finally had access to one, Ashraf was given a further three months of administrative detention. Defiantly, Ashraf told the judge: “I don’t care how much you charge me, and for how many times because you arrest and charge people without any reason.”
 
UK students slam anti-Palestinian policy
More than 100 student leaders in Britain have signed a letter condemning a recent decision by Zefat Academic College that prevents Palestinians from running for the role of president in Student Union elections.
 
Palestinian, Dutch groups tell The Hague: don't give contract to Israel settlement profiteer Veolia, Adri Nieuwhof
Palestinian and Dutch rights organizations call on the urban region of The Hague, to end its business with Veolia.
 
Normalizers / PA Collaborators

Abbas is upset because Israel won't give him weapons to repress Palestinians: Mahmoud Abbas Says Israel Is Hindering West Bank Security
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority said Israel was withholding authorized weapons, and he expressed worries about a widespread prison hunger strike.
 
See above: PA security services take measures to prevent a third intifada
PA security services held a meeting at the beginning of this week where they discussed the solidarity activities in support of the striking prisoners for the fourth week running.
 
Oren-Asali photo leads to call for Asali to resign from American Task Force on Palestine, Adam Horowitz
Controversy has surrounded the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) since Haaretz's Natasha Mozgovaya tweeted a photo of the Task Force's President Ziad Asali at an "Independence Day" party held at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.
 
Ignoring boycott calls, Algerian author Boualem Sansal will be a “guest of honor” at Israel’s International Writers Festival in Jerusalem as Palestinians commemorate Nakba.
 
Former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Ekrima Sabri criticized a controversial visit by Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa to al-Aqsa Mosque, saying it was wrong both religiously and politically. “On the religious level, one should not deal with, support, or recognize the enemy,” Sheikh Sabri said in an interview with Al Arabiya’s “Noqtat Nezam” (Point of Order), scheduled to be aired on Friday. Defenders of Gomaa’s visit to Jerusalem have cited the Prophet Mohammed’s visit to Mecca while the city was under control of the tribe of Quraish , his enemy at the time. But Sheikh Sabri rejected this comparison saying: “When Prophet Mohammed went to Mecca, it was not under occupation while Jerusalem is.” Sheikh Sabri said from a political perspective Gomaa’s visit implied the recognition of Israeli’s occupation.
 
Zionist Racism & Bigotry
 
Arab-Israeli drivers denied access to Kirya canteen
After Japanese defense minister's convoy parks in military compound, security guards instruct Arab drivers to remain in their vehicles; Jewish drivers allowed to do as they please.
 
Next week, StandWithUs and the UC San Diego pro-Israel student advocacy group, Tritons for Israel, will host a rather mysterious campus event.  According to a speaker contract SWU uploaded to the web in March, it is a conference called, Rescuing Human Rights, featuring the Wall Street Journal’s leading anti-jihadi columnist,Brett Stephens, necon legal scholar Avi Bell who was one of the Goldstone Report’s harshest critics, anti-jihadi “human rights” lawyer Brooke Goldstein, and the anti-jihadi Muslim activist Zuhdi Jasser.  He was the founder of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy, and featured star of several Clarion Fund Islamophobic films including Obsession and Third Jihad.
 
Since the mid-1960s law enforcement and regulatory agencies suspected a small nuclear processing facility in Pennsylvania had illegally diverted U.S. government-owned weapons-grade nuclear material into Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons program.  The Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation received start-up capital organized by a mysterious former smuggler with deep and ongoing ties to Israeli intelligence.  FBI investigations revealed NUMEC President, Zalman Shapiro also had repeated unexplained interactions with Israeli intelligence and organized a joint venture with the primary front organization of the Israeli nuclear weapons program.  According to a 2001 US Department of Energy report, NUMEC still holds the record for the highest losses of bomb-grade material of any plant in the United States.
 
The U.S. House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Subcommittee approved over $948 million in funding for Israel’s various anti-missile defense programs, chief among them the Iron Dome. Approximately $679 million of the funding will go to the Iron Dome, thanks in large part to legislation initiated last month by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chairwoman and ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, respectively. The remaining $269 million will go to Israel’s other anti-missile initiatives: the short-range David’s Sling ($149.7 million), and the current long-range Arrow anti-ballistic missile system and its successor the Arrow 3 ($119.3 million).  These projects, unlike the Iron Dome, are joint Israel-US projects. While the increase in funding for the Iron Dome was expected, with the Department of Defense stating in March that it “intends to request an appropriate level of funding from Congress to support such acquisitions based on Israeli requirements and production capacity,” the funding for the other projects represents an increase of $169 million over the Obama administration’s proposed number.
 
UN ambassador, at Boca Raton synagogue, asserts U.S. solidarity with Israel
The Obama administration is committed to preserving the "unshakeable bond" between the U.S. and Israel and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, UN Ambassador Susan Rice told a crowd of about 500 at a synagogue west of Boca Raton.
 
A Palestinian official said that Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday evening in Ramallah to submit a letter regarding the possibility of substantive talks. Molcho's letter is a response to a note that Palestinian negotiators gave to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month clarifying their positions if talks were to resume. 

Isaac Molho to deliver letter to the Palestinian Authority president in Ramallah, in reponse to Palestinian missive given to Netanyahu last month.
link to www.haaretz.com 
 
Both sides issue rare joint statement, saying they are committed to achieving peace through "exchange of letters".
 
Riad Malki says new Palestinian bid for statehood recognition at UN is 'imminent'; Netanyahu envoy to deliver letter to Abbas urging renewal of peace talks.
 
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Fatah central committee member said Friday that a new government would be announced sometime this weekend during a meeting of the party's leadership in Ramallah. Mahmoud al-Aloul told Ma'an that he was not slated for the post of deputy premier, despite rumors, on the sidelines of a demonstration in Walaja village near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath made a number of visits in Gaza City on Saturday, officials said. The Fatah international relations coordinator is in the Gaza Strip heading a delegation of party officials tasked with organizing party affairs, as well as meeting leaders of rival party Hamas. Shaath on Saturday visited the sister of Yasser Arafat, Khadija Al-Qudwa, and the Ata orphanage run by his wife Raja Abu Ghazaleh Shaath, officials said.  The delegation arrived in Gaza on Wednesday, after spokesman of the Hamas-run government in Gaza Tahir al-Nunu said premier Ismail Haniyeh welcomed the Fatah officials to Gaza in a phone call with Shaath.
 
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Saturday called for unity between Palestinian factions during the mass hunger-strikes in Israeli jails. The group said in a statement the new Israeli coalition government will not advance the cause of peace, but only increase extremism and settlement building. It condemned settlements as a "war of ethnic cleansing and apartheid," saying the original inhabitants of Jerusalem are being silently expelled from their land. 
 
During former president's rape trial, the Kiryat Malachi mayor said he hoped Katsav would be proven innocent.
Analysis / Op-ed
 
By once again demonstrating Congress's bottomless cup of munificence for Israel, actions this week by the House of Representatives make painful across-the-board budget cuts more likely. U.S. taxpayers will be even more complicit than before in bankrolling Israel's nearly 45-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Additionally, the American "generosity" will shred whatever little credibility the United States has left in attempting to portray itself as an "honest broker" to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on an equitable basis. And urging new weapons systems for Israel could help facilitate an attack on Iran. 
 
Questioning US-Israel relations 
How are US-Israel relations affecting foreign policy in the Middle East?
 
American Presidents have long been criticised for being too in thrall to the Jewish lobby. So what happens if American Jews fall out of love with Israel? That's what the Jewish American academic Norman Finkelstein claims is happening. He says they are now so unhappy with what Israel is doing that they want to distance themselves from the country. But then he is nothing if not controversial. He, after all, is famous for accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust. And his actions have so incensed Israel it's banned him from entering the country. Could he be right and if he is what does that mean for Middle East policy?
 
The Red and White Bird in Gaza, Mats Svensson
The young girl from Gaza tells me how she yearns for the red and white bird. It used to come every morning to the little veranda where her mother served a breakfast of bread, tea, water and fruit when the weather was good. Each morning her father left to look for work in Gaza City, and sometimes he was successful. Most of the time he came home late at night. She used to throw out a few seeds or bread crumbs to the red and white bird. It came every morning at the same time, as if it had its own clock. They used to have breakfast together.
 
Bean Counting States, Sam Bahour
As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict faces hunger strikes and the threat of renewed conflict, the question being tirelessly reiterated is whether a two-state solution is beyond us. The answer is "Yes" and "No." But counting the number of states required for bringing about a final status solution is entirely misguided.
 
Haaretz Publishes Pseudonymous Apologia for Torture, and They’ll Make You Pay to Read It, Richard Silverstein
Imagine you’re the op-ed page editor of the NY Times and a CIA torturer comes forward who wants to publish an anonymous op-ed not just defending torture, but arguing that any and all acts in which he engages should be retroactively approved by the State and its judicial bodies.  In other words, he’s arguing that every torturer who ever works for the security services should begin his career knowing that any act of torture he commits will automatically offer him immunity from prosecution.  All this on the grounds that the good he does for his fellow citizens and the State far outweighs any harm done.
Israeli Air Force seeks to replace pilot judgement with "ethical algorithm", Richard Silverstein
Among the worst of Israeli journalism there’s a sort of gung-ho, testosterone-infused reporting style about military and security stories that makes my blood curdle.  It’s super-credulous about virtually anything and everything offered by security sources.  Examples of this sort of journalism can be found in the reporting of Eli Lake, Ami Issacharoff, and now Amir Mizroch.  He’s the editor of Yisrael HaYom’s (Bibiton) English edition, who does some freelancing for Wired.
 
On Wednesday evening, May 9, Ido Aharoni, the Israeli consul general in New York, spoke at Ansche Chesed, a Conservative synagogue on New York's Upper West Side to which our family belongs. I attended with two aims: to see how members of our quite liberal but strongly Zionist congregation responded to the talk, and secondarily to ask a question or make a comment if the audience turned out to be too willing to swallow what I was sure would be a large dose of Israeli hasbara. I was pleasantly surprised on several counts.
 
On Monday, Akiva Tor, Israeli consul general of the Pacific Northwest, shed more light on the bitterness Israel feels towards the Arab Spring in a lecture at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Although the event was supposed to focus on the implications of political shifts in the region for Israel, Tor used the event to scapegoat the Palestinians for the stagnant peace process while all the audience wanted to talk about was Iran.
 
Thanks to Audrey Jacobs of StandWithUs, I’ve managed to confirm that the far-right Israel advocacy group is indeed sponsoring Rescuing Human Rights, and that the program will feature four controversial figures in the national anti-jihadi movement. This event is part of Israel Awareness Week on campus. This in turn is directly connected to Israel Apartheid Week held at the same time. One of SWU’s key missions is to take the pro-Israel message directly to those it considers enemies on campus. Getting in the face of campus Muslim or Palestinian groups is SWU’s stock-in-trade.
 
Tumultuous Israeli Politics Will Not Usher Peace, Ramzy Baroud
Israel is currently experiencing the kind of turmoil that may or may not affect its political hierarchy following the next general election. However, there is little reason to believe that any major transformations in the Israeli political landscape could be of benefit to Palestinians. Former politicians and intelligence bosses have been challenging the conventional wisdom of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through a series of charged statements and political rhetoric.
 
Demographic Majority: At What Cost?, Jamal Kanj
In the US, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish Human Rights organization, prescribes racial integration, equality and multiculturalism for America society. ADL and other Jewish organizations work closely at local levels with school administrators throughout the US educating young children the virtues of tolerance and multiculturalism.
 
Imagine a world plunged in darkness and extreme cold with the sunlight screened off by a thick pall of dust cloud. Imagine a world flung back into chaos. This is an image conceived of a world abandoned to dereliction by doomsday weapons. According to Samson Option theory, Israel reserves the option to retaliate massively with nuclear weapons when its existence is gravely endangered by the military might of another country although the regime refuses to admit to the possession of a huge nuclear arsenal.
link to palestinechronicle.com
 
A Tipping Point for Israel, Philip Giraldi
A tipping point is where physical momentum, inclined in one direction, reverses its course, stabilizes, and then begins to move the opposite way. Those of us who have been arguing for a sane United States foreign policy in the Middle East have well understood that the odds on shifting the prevailing narrative have been heavily against us thanks to the overwhelming resources possessed by a powerful domestic lobby. Ten years ago in America, it was impossible to place even a letter in a mainstream newspaper or magazine that was in any way critical of Israel. Apart from Pat Buchanan, no one on television provided a critique of Israel and its policies. In the U.S. media, Israel was ever the beleaguered little democracy surrounded by savage Arabs.
 
Israelis barely had time to absorb the news that they were heading into a summer election when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu yesterday pulled the rug from underneath the charade. Rancourous early electioneering had provided cover for a secret agreement between Netanyahu and the main opposition party, Kadima, to form a new, expanded coalition government.
 
Palestinian artists take on identity and politics with humor in "Subversion" exhibition, Sarah Irving
Subversion, an exhibition at Manchester’s Cornerhouse gallery, shows that young Palestinian artists are at the cutting edge of contemporary Arab art.
Film review: Palestinians in Israel honored in debut comedy feature, Maureen Clare Murphy
The under-recognized steadfastness of Palestinians who clung onto their land in the areas of Palestine upon which the State of Israel was declared is lovingly praised in Sameh Zoabi’s lighthearted debut feature Man Without a Cell Phone.
 
Stephen Walt: Iraq, Iran and the Israel Lobby
Harvard Professor Stephen Walt giving his recent Hisham B. Sharabi Memorial Lecture, titled Deja Vu All Over Again?: Iraq, Iran and the Israel Lobby.
link to pulsemedia.org

Long Live “Our” Gulf Bastards, Pepe Escobar
Life is a golden gift from Allah if you’re a certified member of the Gulf Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can torture, kill, repress and demonize their own subjects – in full confidence the “master” will let you get away with it.
 
Bahrain

US resumes arms sales to Bahrain
The US partially resumes sales of weapons to Bahrain, but says it is excluding equipment that can be used to suppress protests.
link to www.bbc.co.uk
 
Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa came to Washington this week to attend his son's college graduation, but he left with hands full of gifts from the U.S. State Department, which announced new arms sales to Bahrain today. The crown prince's son just graduated from American University, where the Bahraini ruling family recently shelled out millions for a new building at AU's School of International Service. But while he was in town, the crown prince met with a slew of senior U.S. officials and congressional leaders, including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican John McCain, as well as several other Washington VIPs.

The Lede Blog: Protests Over Arms Sales to Bahrain
Activists in Bahrain denounced the measure, as demonstrators descended on the country's capital city to protest the government's detention of political prisoners.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=238cf94ea22982f0fe20fa6f55e9be6a

In Bahrain, anti-regime protesters have once again come under attack by Saudi-backed forces across the tiny Persian Gulf Kingdom.
link to www.presstv.ir

Bahraini security forces fires tear gas and birdshot on Saturday to disperse protests staged in Shiite villages in solidarity with jailed opposition activists, witnesses said.

Bahrain police attack protesters as crackdown continues
Bahraini police fired tear gas and birdshot during overnight clashes with protesters demanding the release of jailed activists, opposition leaders said, as an intensified month-long crackdown continued. The attacks against protesters in villages around the capital Manama started when hundreds of demonstrators flooded the streets chanting anti-regime slogans and calling on the authorities to release the prisoners, including human rights leader Nabeel Rajab.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Gulf leaders will discuss a proposal for a closer political union among them that could begin with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Bahraini information minister said on Saturday.
 
Expecting, wanting or relying on Americans for anything is a mistake: Clinton must do more to support Bahrain democracy: opposition
A leading Bahraini opposition figure has called on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to do more to support the country's pro-democracy movement, after she met with the Gulf state's rulers amid ongoing protests. Clinton held talks with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa in Washington on Wednesday and urged Bahrain to take further steps to tackle continuing human rights abuses. Mattar Ebrahim, a leading member of the opposition Al-Wefaq party, said Clinton was merely talking about human rights, but had done little to force the government to make concessions.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Bahrain delays medics' retrial until June
A Bahraini defense lawyer says the retrial of 20 medical professionals on allegations of aiding the Gulf kingdom's uprising has been adjourned for a month.
link to news.yahoo.com

Watch Jordanians interrupt Bahrain's Minister of Culture
link to www.youtube.com

Anti-Bahraini rally held at UK PM office
Supporters of the Bahraini uprising have rallied at British Prime Minister’s office in London condemning the Queen’s invitation of the Bahraini dictator for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
 
You wouldn’t think Bahrain and Syria were much linked. Both are Arabic-speaking countries, though about half of Bahrain’s residents are non-citizen guest workers who speak anything but Arabic. One is a geographically fairly large country of some 23 million abutting the eastern Mediterranean. The other is a set of tiny islands in the Mideast’s Gulf. But Bahrain and Syria are tied in destiny, since they are numbers 5 and 6 of the series of Arab Spring countries that staged major rallies against their government. (The successful such movements were Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen). Bahrain and Syria are in some ways mirror images of one another. Syria has a Shiite, secular ruling elite and a Sunni majority that is treated like a minority. Bahrain has a Sunni ruling elite and a Shiite majority that is treated like a minority. Syria is backed by Russia and Iran, and has given the Russians a naval base on the Mediterranean at Tartous. Bahrain is backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia; it has given the US a naval base as HQ for the Fifth Fleet at Manama, and has garrisoned 1,000 Saudi troops on its soil.
 
Egypt
 
Egyptian paper al Aheam claims Cairo, Jerusalem to sign deal on Saturday that will see Israeli citizen Ouda Tarabin freed in exchange for 63 Egyptian prisoners held in Israel.
 
Egypt ends curfew around defence ministry
Egypt's military rulers lifted on Friday a curfew around the defence ministry in Cairo that was imposed after deadly clashes ahead of this month's presidential election, state news agency MENA reported.
link to news.yahoo.com

Cairo contacts Tel Aviv for release of Egyptian prisoners in exchange deal
Diplomatic sources have revealed that the Egyptian government has contacted its Israeli counterpart to strike a deal for the release of its nationals being held in Israel's prisons. At the same time, Cairo is hoping to obtain information about the health of those Egyptian prisoners who have gone on hunger strike as part of the general protest by Palestinian prisoners. Human rights reports suggest that 65 Egyptian prisoners are taking part in the hunger strike in protest against the conditions of their imprisonment.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/3740-cairo-contacts-tel-aviv-for-release-of-egyptian-prisoners-in-exchange-deal

Egyptian presidential candidates agree Israel is an enemy
The two leading candidates to become Egypt's first democratically elected president both stated that Israel is an enemy of the country during a heated televised debate on Thursday. The country has a long-standing peace treaty with the Jewish state, but since the overthrow of dictator Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising last year there has been increased pressure on Egyptian leaders to abandon the pact.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

U.S. urges Egypt’s candidates to respect Israel peace treaty; military rulers lift Cairo curfew
The United States on Friday welcomed Egypt’s televised presidential debate as a “good and healthy thing,” while implicitly urging the candidates to respect the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty as the country’s military rulers lifted a curfew around the defense ministry in Cairo.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Egypt's Presidential Duel an Epic Moment (Video)
Millions of Egyptians were glued to their TV sets on Thursday evening, 10 May 2012, watching the first-ever televised debate between the two presidential candidates leading opinion polls in recent weeks. The live telecast—two weeks before the country’s first multi-candidate Presidential elections—was an opportunity for Egyptians to learn more about the two expected election front runners‘ visions for “the new Egypt” and hear their stances vis-a-vis issues like security and the relationship between religion and the state. More importantly, Egypt’s  independent media broke significant new ground in Arab media election coverage by sponsoring the debut high level face-off between liberal diplomat Amr Moussa (a former foreign minister and Arab League Secretary General) and moderate Islamist Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh. The debate was shown simultaneously on privately owned channels ONTV and Dream, in collaboration with co-sponsors El Shorouk and AlMasry AlYoum, independent dailies. 
link to www.jadaliyya.com

The Lede Blog: Live Updates on Egypt's Presidential Debate
Two of the leading candidates to be Egypt’s next president square off in a televised debate on Thursday evening in Cairo, and The Lede will report on the clash between Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Amr Moussa, a former diplomat under Hosni Mubarak, as it unfolds.
link to feeds.nytimes.com

Egyptian prison authorities "sexually assaulted protesters"
Women protesters and rights groups have accused Egyptian troops and prison authorities of sexual assault during the latest crackdown on demonstrations, reviving allegations they are using abuse to intimidate female detainees and protesters. The charges made on Wednesday added new tension to Egypt's presidential election campaign, just two weeks before the voting. More than a dozen women were among more than 300 protesters detained following a protest outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo last weekend.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Women who accuse military of sexual assault seek limelight, general says
Military judicial chief Major General Adel al-Morsy dismissed as false rumors that women arrested during Abbasseya protests last week were sexually harassed by security forces or forced to undergo virginity tests. “The females were referred to the military prosecution without investigations by the authorities who arrested them while they were assaulting security forces at the Defense Ministry,” Morsy said in an interview with CBC satellite channel on Wednesday, according to state-run news agency MENA.
link to www.egyptindependent.com

In prisoners' long plea, empty stomachs raise the case
Laila Soueif, a long-time Egyptian activist in her 50s and assistant professor at Cairo University, chuckles softly and humbly at the suggestion of being interviewed as a hunger striker for a piece prompted by the mass hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails. “What I did was nothing compared to the Palestinians,” she says. Her action was taken out of prison. Nevertheless, she agrees to talk about her thoughts on and the experience of hunger striking for 22 days in response to her son and fellow activist, Alaa Abd El Fattah, being imprisoned and tried by a military court last year.
link to www.egyptindependent.com
 
Mosireen, "Egyptian Workers Speak Out"
"What were the reasons for this revolution if not for us to have a voice, to establish our worth, our dignity, to feel like we're humans, with the right to say yes or no?"
 
Iran

U.S. Vice President Biden: No options off table on Iran nuclear program
Republican Jewish Coalition blasts Biden over comments suggesting previous U.S. administration shares blame for Iran nuclear program
link to www.haaretz.com

Biden to Israel: Bomb Away!, Nima Shirazi
Speaking to an international assembly of 1,600 conservative rabbis in Atlanta today, self-proclaimed Zionist Joe Biden said that Israel still had time to attack Iran if it so chooses. "The window has not closed in terms of the Israelis if they choose to act on their own militarily," the Vice President told the congregation. "I would not contract out my security to anybody, even a loyal, loyal, loyal friend like the United States."
link to www.wideasleepinamerica.com

Iran: Free Students Jailed for Speaking Out
Iranian authorities should immediately free dozens of university students currently behind bars solely for peacefully expressing political opinions, and end harassment of student activists on university campuses throughout the country. Human Rights Watch issued the call as part of a joint campaign initiated by Iranian and international student and rights groups to highlight the government’s systematic crackdown against university students for their political activism.
link to www.hrw.org

Iraq

7 Dumped Bodies Found in Iraq
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's trial was postponed for a second time as his lawyers continued to argue for a venue change. At least seven bodies were discovered while four Iraqis were also wounded.
link to original.antiwar.com
 
Iraq’s Maliki Forced to Reinstate His Deputy PM
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was forced to reinstate Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq after trying to sack him. Meanwhile, only two Iraqi deaths were reported.
link to original.antiwar.com
 
Iraq's fugitive VP has medical checks in Turkey
Iraq's Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who faces trial in absentia in Baghdad on charges of running a death squad, has undergone "routine" medical checks in Turkey, his office said on Friday.
link to news.yahoo.com

Turkey refuses to extradite wanted Iraqi vice-president
Turkey will not extradite Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tariq Hashemi, who is being tried in absentia in Baghdad accused of running a death squad, its deputy prime minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday. "We will not extradite someone whom we have supported since the very beginning," Bekir Bozdag was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency. The decision means Turkey has refused to cooperate with Interpol, which issued an international Red Notice for Hashemi's arrest on Tuesday on suspicion of "guiding and financing terrorist attacks."
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Maliki Slams Turkish Remarks: Show No Respect
"We do not want to antagonize Turkey, or Iran, or America, or Saudi Arabia, or any other country, but what happened and the remarks issued by Turkey do not show mutual respect."
link to www.almanar.com.lb
 
Jordan
 
In Jordan, growing discontent over pace of reform
Israel’s last reliable Arab ally since the fall of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.
link to www.washingtonpost.com

Lebanon

Sayyed Nasrallah: The Time has Come when We Stay and They Disappear
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah reminded Friday of Tel Aviv-Dahiyeh equation indicating that Hezbollah is capable of striking very specific targets in Tel Aviv and in every part of occupied Palestine as well. "For every building in Dahiyeh, several buildings will be destroyed in Tel Aviv in return. The time when we were displaced and they don't has gone. The time when our homes were destroyed and theirs remain has gone," Sayyed Nasrallah said adding that the time when "we will stay and they disappear has definitely come." His eminence was talking in a ceremony on the occasion of the conclusion of Waed (promise) project to rebuild Beirut’s southern suburbs (Dahiyeh) which was destroyed after the Israeli July war on Lebanon.
 
Lebanese army exchanges fire with Islamists
Lebanese troops exchanged fire late on Saturday with a group of young Islamists protesting in Tripoli for the release of a terrorism suspect.

Lebanon: Future Movement Turns to Islam
In light of recent developments in the Syrian and Lebanese political scenes, Doha and Riyadh seek to prop up the Saad Hariri’s Future Movement with a strong ally. This ally is none other than the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
 
The Lebanese Election Law Conundrum
Walid Jumblatt has opened fire on all fronts in the battle over the election law. That’s even before the start of election season, and even before being sure that parliamentary polls will be held in 2013 at all – and not encounter a domestic impediment that leads to their postponement or the extension of the current parliament’s mandate. From the very outset, Jumblatt set out his opinion of what his opponents are trying to achieve: to eliminate him and his role. He said the confrontation would be a matter of “to be or not to be”.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Review: Lebanese villagers work it out in 'Where Do We Go Now?'
At the outset of the new film"Where Do We Go Now?"the usual constant fighting between Muslim and Christian men in a remote Lebanese village has reached a fragile peace aided by the arrival of a television set. When a series of events threatens this uneasy accord, the women of the town must band together to bring things back to an even keel with a plan that comes to involve Eastern European belly dancers and baked goods laced with hashish.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/LtYD0Zl7kOU/la-et-where-do-we-go-now-capsule-20120511,0,48884.story

Saudi Arabia

Justice Saudi-Style – Treat “Peaceful” Dissidents as Terrorists
The counter-terrorism court in Saudi Arabia is wrongly targeting people who criticise government policy and religious institutions as well as those who advocate greater respect for the rule of law – says campaign group. The Saudi justice minister Dr Muhammad al-'Issa was in London in late April. But, at the last minute, he cancelled a meeting with interested organisations and academics that I was to attend because – we were told – he preferred to meet only with the British government.
link to www.hrw.org
 
Saudi king fires sexist adviser
Saudi King Abdullah on Friday sacked one of his advisers, an outspoken critic of the sexes mingling outside the home, something banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom. The state news agency SPA published the decree announcing the dismissal of Sheikh Abdelmohsen al-Obeikan, an adviser to the royal cabinet, without providing further details. The move comes several days after Obeikan, speaking on local radio, lashed out at the interaction of men and women in court, accusing the judges of seeking to "Westernize society."
link to english.al-akhbar.com
 
Syria
 
Saturday: Deaths in Idlib as UN expands mission
Several people reported dead in latest clashes even as number of UN monitors charged with overseeing truce reaches 145.
 
Friday: 'Large blast' hits Syrian city
A large blast has hit the Syrian city of Aleppo, opposition sources say, hours after the authorities said they had foiled a major car bomb attack.
link to www.bbc.co.uk

Thursday: Desperate search for loved ones amid Damascus carnage
A hand here, a leg there, part of a crushed face, the scene in central Damascus is apocalyptic, as emergency workers fill nylon bags with what is left of dozens of people killed by two suicide bombers.
link to news.yahoo.com

Syria says thwarts 1,200 kg car bomb in Aleppo
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces foiled an attempted suicide car bombing with 1,200 kg (2,640 pounds) of explosives in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, state television said, a day after two bombs in the capital Damascus killed at least 55 people. The would-be bomber was killed in the al Shaar district of Syria's largest city which, like Damascus, has seen increasing street protests against President Bashar al-Assad and rising levels of bloodshed after months of relative calm.
link to news.yahoo.com

'Arms flowing' between Lebanon and Syria
UN special envoy says weapons are being smuggled in both directions, and warns region is "at brink of war".
link to www.aljazeera.com
 
Mangled and smouldering vehicles are seen at the site of an explosion in Damascus 10 May 2012. (Photo: Reuters - SANA - Handout)
Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group unknown before the Syrian revolt, released a video on Saturday claiming responsibility for twin suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 55 people. The video said the bombings on Thursday, the deadliest since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime erupted in March 2011, were "in response to regime bombing of residential areas in Damascus, Idlib, Hama, Daraa provinces and others."
 
In Beirut speech, Hezbollah leader also says his movement can accurately hit targets throughout Israel in case of war.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Kerry: Time to consider safe zones and arming the opposition in Syria
The United States needs to do more to protect civilians in Syria, including considering setting up safe zones inside Syria and potentially arming the opposition, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-MA) told The Cable in an interview Tuesday. 
link to thecable.foreignpolicy.com
 
Five years after being jailed, beaten, and tortured by government forces as a student in Damascus, Ahed al-Hendi is a Syrian dissident in the U.S. calling for Washington to arm the opposition fighting President Bashar al-Assad and his forces.

Syrians strive to survive in 'frontline' town
Families face acute shortages and daily dangers in conflict-ravaged border town of al-Qusayr.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Syrian doctors smuggle in aid from Turkey
A group of expatriate Syrian doctors and volunteers have teamed up to smuggle much-needed medical supplies into Syria through Turkey. Laurence Lee reports.
link to www.youtube.com
 
Iran helps release of Turkish reporters in Syria
One Turkish journalist detained in Syria is a devout Muslim who was on a Gaza-bound aid ship targeted in an Israeli raid in 2010, and reported being wounded by American bombing on a trip to Afghanistan. His cameraman is a film school student who, ahead of his Syria trip, ducked his father's disapproval by claiming he was headed to Italy.
link to news.yahoo.com

Christians on Syria's border wary of future
Syriac people in southeast Turkey have strong ties with relatives and fellow Christians across the border in Syria. In the ancient Assyrian city of Midyat, Christians say they fear their community could endure what Christians in Iraq suffered when the country fell into violence and chaos. Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports from Midyat.
link to www.youtube.com

Penetrated Opposition and Failure of Consensus in Syria: Interview with Haytham Manna`(Part 4 of 4)
On April 27th, around the Jadaliyya Co-Sponsored Conference at Lund University ("Contesting Narratives, Location Power"), I sat down for an extensive interview with Haytham Manna`, one of the icons of the independent Syrian opposition and a leading founder of the National Coordinating Body for Democratic Change (in Syria). The interview was long and candid, and addressed several topics, including the current impasse in Syria, the stages and transformation of the uprising, the questions of international intervention and of resistance, the Syrian National Council and its relations with other opposition groups and the Arab Gulf States and beyond, and the relationship between Syria and Hizballah.
link to www.jadaliyya.com
 
The U.S. is not concerned with dead Syrians, just with saving face: Syrian Opposition’s Turn to Violence Creates U.S. Dilemma
Syria’s deadliest bombing to date highlights the Obama administration’s dilemma as foes of President Bashar al-Assad increasingly adopt tactics the U.S. and its allies have condemned as terrorism.

Damascus Blasts: Are Terrorists the Wild Card in Syria’s Power Struggle?, Tony Karon
The twin suicide car bombings that reportedly killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on Thursday prompted a familiar set of responses: state television blamed unspecified “terrorists” for the atrocity, in keeping with its habit of linking all antiregime violence to jihadist extremism; opposition groups denied responsibility and instead accused the regime of staging the blasts as a propaganda exercise designed to ease international pressure to observe a U.N.-backed cease-fire. For both sides, the intended audience is the international community, playing the new political game in which both sides have publicly committed themselves to the cease-fire plan brokered by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, but neither is actually observing it — instead, each is maneuvering to ensure that the other side is blamed for the failure of a plan deemed by Annan to be the “last chance” to avoid a full-blown civil war. 
link to globalspin.blogs.time.com

Syria: Is This an Arab Spring or a Balkan Winter?, Tony Karon
Special envoy Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that his struggling peace plan is the last hope to prevent Syria from plunging into an all-out civil war.
link to globalspin.blogs.time.com
 
“The Hamas-Syrian Split, a Dilemma for Iran’s Palestinian Strategy,” By Mohammad Ataie, Mohammad Ataie
Since the advent of the Iranian revolution, the Palestinian issue has been at the heart of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy. For ideological and strategic reasons, supporting the Palestinian cause and resistance against Israel has been an integral part of the Islamic Republic’s identity and international approach. However, Iran’s Palestinian policy has, to a great extent, been forged under the influence of its alliance with Syria. That is why the tensions between Damascus and Hamas, brought about by the latter’s equivocal stance on Syrian crisis, have spilled over into the Palestinian movement’s relationship with Tehran.
Starving the Syrians for Human Rights
The wing of the U.S. human rights movement which targets foreign countries can wind up as a cruel business, aiding the ruthless and violent actions of the U.S. Empire, wittingly or not. For the U.S. all too often uses human rights as a cover for taking action against countries that defy the Empire’s control. Some weeks back, I decided to look into one such group, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an organization I had long refrained from joining out of skepticism. But perhaps, I thought, PHR had sidestepped the dangers inherent in this work. So I joined to find out.
link to dissidentvoice.org
 
Middle East expert Fawaz Gerges discusses Syria crisis 
Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics, tells Al Jazeera the regional and international variables have not been conducive to an international military intervention in Syria.
 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Keen for a little bit of certainty in a turbulent Arab world, Israeli leaders persuaded themselves last year that Syrian President Bashar Assad -- the devil they knew next door -- was finished, and something possibly better might be on the way. But it was not to be. With the Syrian uprising now into its 14th month and Assad still firmly in power, Israel has few options other than to sit the crisis out, unable to influence the outcome of an upheaval that is sure to affect it.

Other World News
 
NATO Admits Killing Afghan Mother, 5 Children in Air Strike
NATO has admitted it mistakenly killed an Afghan mother and five of her children in an air strike last week. Meanwhile, there are reports that as many as 14 civilians were killed in another incident in northwestern Badghis province.
Hollande's communications director, Manuel Valls, confirmed to the Telegraph on Monday that France will "announce the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan between now and the end of the year." The announcement will take place at the NATO summit being held in Chicago on May 20 and 21.
link to www.huffingtonpost.com

Turning their budget knife to domestic programs to protect the Pentagon, House Republicans on Thursday approved legislation cutting food stamps, benefits for federal workers and social services programs like day care for children and Meals on Wheels for the elderly.
 
US military school taught “total war” against Muslims
A senior US military official has been forced to condemn a class taught at a military college that advocated a "total war" against Muslims. The course at the Joint Forces Staff College in Virginia also suggested possible nuclear attacks on holy Islamic cities such as Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The story, originally published on Wired.com's danger room blog, risks damaging America's already tarnished image in the Islamic world, where it maintains a heavy military presence.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Bush found guilty of war crimes
A symbolic War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia has found former US President George W. Bush and several other members of his administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity , Press TV reports.
UN says three Libya prisoners likely tortured to death
Several prisoners likely were tortured to death at a detention center in Libya under government control, the United Nations said on Thursday as it urged the country to make stamping out such practices a top priority. 
 
www.TheHeadlines.Org
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