Land theft and destruction/Ethnic cleansing
22 Palestinian homes to be razed in East Jerusalem
Jerusalem municipal planning committee approves plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem to make room for a tourist center.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/22-palestinian-homes-to-be-razed-in-east-jerusalem-1.297471?localLinksEnabled=false
Ground broken for 600 J’lem settler homes
Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli construction vehicles and bulldozers began digging in Jerusalem on Monday morning, in what is believed to be ground work for the building of some 600 new settlement units. The homes were announced in late February, and are set to be built near the illegal Pisgat Ze’ev settlement and the Palestinian neighborhood of Shu’fat.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=293414
J’lem to authorize al-Bustan demolition
The Jerusalem municipality is slated to authorized on Monday the "King’s Garden" plan, in which 22 houses in east Jerusalem’s al-Bustan neighborhood will be demolished. The plan, which has made waves throughout the world, has caused various bodies in the city council to bare their teeth as the Right demands that an even harsher plan against Arab illegal building be implemented, while Meretz and the Left have announced their intentions of resigning from the city government.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3908061,00.html
Report: Israel revoking Jerusalem residency of hundreds
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Many Palestinians from Jerusalem who choose to study and work abroad are finding out that they have imperiled their right to return to their hometown, an Israeli newspaper reported Saturday. The 1952 Law of Entry into Israel determines that anyone who is not an Israeli citizen or the holder of an immigrant’s permit or immigrant’s certificate does not have the right to live in Israel, and his residency in Israel is conditional on a residency permit that has been granted to him according to this law, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported regarding a Palestinian deportee.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=293096
Israeli High Court Rejects Appeal Against Deporting Jerusalem Legislators
The Israeli High Court rejected on Sunday an appeal against deportation orders targeting three Palestinian legislators and a former minister from Jerusalem.
http://www.imemc.org/article/58969
Activism/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Protesters prevent unloading of Israeli ship
(06-20) 12:35 PDT OAKLAND — Hundreds of demonstrators, gathering at the Port of Oakland before dawn, prevented the unloading of an Israeli cargo ship. The demonstrators, demanding an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, picketed at Berth 58, where a ship from Israel’s Zim shipping line is scheduled to dock later today. The day shift of longshoremen agreed not to cross the picket line.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/20/BA0G1E28CV.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea#ixzz0rQV6NFrV
Video of Activists in Oakland California: Protesters Picket Israeli Cargo Ship
In Oakland, California an Israeli ship was blocked by protesters for the first time in history. 700-1000 protesters blocked three different gates at 5:30 A.M. keeping dockworkers from unloading the Israeli cargo. ILWU members refused to cross picketline – citing "health & safety" provisions of their contract. Management demanded "instant arbitration." The arbitrator took a look at the picketlines at each gate to the SSA Terminal and ruled that ILWU members were justified in refusing to cross. All dockworkers were sent home with FULL PAY. Special thanks to the Brass Liberation Orchestra for their performances today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpKObPFtcBA
Huge outpouring of Oakland picketers stop unloading of Israeli ship, Henry Norr
If anyone had any doubts that the movement for justice in Palestine is growing by leaps and bounds, in numbers, breadth, and determination, check out what happened this morning in Oakland, CA
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/06/huge-outpouring-of-oakland-picketers-stop-unloading-of-israeli-ship.html
Update from Oakland: Victory!, Henry Norr
Quick follow-up on today’s action at the Oakland docks: we won! Something like 400 or 500 people – many who had also been there at 5:30 in the morning, plus others who hadn’t made the first shift – turned up to resume the picket line at 4 p.m. I was surprised there weren’t more: I had assumed there would be far more people in the afternoon, with the BART running, but I guess even in the Internet age it’s hard to get people out with only a a couple of hours notice.
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/06/update-from-oakland-victory.html
More pictures
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/20/18651361.php
Compilation of coverage from: Ynet, IMEMC, Al Manar, Haaretz,
Soldiers Attack Nonviolent Protestors in Beit Jala
Israeli soldiers attacked, Sunday, a nonviolent protest against settlements and the Annexation Wall in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, leading to a number of injuries. The soldiers also attacked bystanders and reporters
http://www.imemc.org/article/58967
Hebron’s Youth Against Settlements red card occupation
Hebron – Ma’an – Clashes erupted between protesters demanding free movement in the downtown core of Hebron and Israeli police attempting to enforce a closure of the street confronted each other on Saturday. Blowing vuvuzelas and holding red cards, gathered demonstrators demanded Israel "get off the field" and halt its military occupation of the city, occupied by some 700 settlers, guarded by at least 1,500 soldiers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=293357
Al-Ma’sara demands the release of Palestinian activist Hasan Brijiyyeh
On June 18th, 2010, Israeli occupation forces suppressed Al-Ma’sara’s weekly protest which called for the release of Hasan Brijiyyeh who was arrested last week for his involvement in organizing the demonstrations which oppose the construction of the Apartheid Wall and insist upon the struggle to preserve the Palestinian land.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2296.shtml
Bil’in: occupation forces arrest 3 solidarity activists, wound 3 protesters
June 19th, 2010– The weekly march headed towards the area of the Wall where the occupation forces were already hiding behind the concrete blocks of the Wall. The demonstrators attempted to cross the gate of the Wall, which was closed with barbed wire. During the ensuing clashes, three demonstrators were injured.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2299.shtml
Ni’lin: occupation forces assault medical staff and a press
June 19th, 2010– The occupation forces beat the medical staff, threw down their important medical equipment, and arrested them. Hamud Said Amira, a cameraman from Ni’lin, was also assaulted during the demonstration. On the other side of the Apartheid Wall, the occupation forces set fire to olive trees.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2298.shtml
Wadi Rahal: Scouts lead protest against the Apartheid Wall in spite of threats from IOF
June 19th, 2010– The scouts of Wadi al-Rahal led the residents and the international solidarity activists in the weekly march against the Apartheid Wall in the village. After the Friday prayers, the march started from the center of the village and moved towards the area of the Wall in an attempt to reach the confiscated lands.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2297.shtml
Lebanese Christian women plan new Gaza aid convoy
A group of women planning to sail to Gaza gathered to pray by a statue of Our Lady in south Lebanon, before setting out on boat called Mariam, a voyage bringing aid to Gaza., Spokeswoman Rima Farah said she felt their prayers were already being answered as Israeli officials have now announced plans to slightly ease the blockade on Gaza., "The participants are committed to making progress and our only weapons are faith in the Virgin Mary and in humanity," she told Agence France Presse.
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16349
Israel Preparing to Repeat the “Marmara” Scenario, Lebanon to Respond
20/06/2010 Lebanon is preparing to explain its position at the UN Security Council in response to Israeli threats to prevent ships that could sail from Lebanese ports in an attempt to break the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Sunday. The paper quoted an unnamed source as saying that Lebanon will reject Israeli accusations, especially after the letter sent by Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev on Friday to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council members pointing to alleged links between the sponsors of a new Gaza-bound aid ship and Hezbollah.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=142999&language=en
European women organize new siege-breaking trip to Gaza
Women for Gaza organization has decided to send an aid ship to Gaza Strip with women on board to break the Israeli naval blockade on the coastal enclave.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7TvQQK%2fvtfGzusaFQSsh6iBndKnxmqvEXGzRhK0tWcVk8HG02EoOuVksAkhO%2fsIPwHKoTJ0tDydMnOaefDH1QIq0Unc3fOPdRNepzBG5wjUs%3d
Canadian who was on flotilla slams Israeli policy change
“It’s another one of these publicity stunts Israel is conducting,” the former Toronto resident said from Jordan. “I don’t want people — especially in my hometown — to fall prey to this propaganda.”
http://www.canada.com/news/Canadian+flotilla+slams+Israeli+policy+change/3179169/story.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3a+canwest%2fF77+%28canada.com+World+News%29
Maariv: Targeted boycott and divestment pushing companies out of the settlements
The cover story of this morning’s (June 21 2010) Maariv business section reports that targeted boycott and divestment actions — Israeli, Palestinian and international — are pushing an increasing number of Israeli companies out of the West Bank settlements and into Israeli proper:
http://coteret.com/2010/06/21/maariv-targeted-boycott-and-divestment-pushing-companies-out-of-the-settlements/
“Stand up… and Break the Siege” Initiative continues to challenge closing off of Palestinian roads
June 19th, 2010– The villages of northeast Ramallah organized the second mass demonstration in Bittin to open the main road to Ramallah and to expose the Israeli occupation forces’ policy of collective punishment. The campaign is the first of its kind in demanding the opening of closed roads by the occupation forces.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2300.shtml
Participate in the World Education Forum in Palestine, October 28-31 2010
The World Education Forum (WEF) will take place in Palestine between the dates of October 28th through the 31st under the umbrella of the World Social Forum (WSF) program. Established in 2001, the WSF uses social exchange and active cooperation to oppose war, colonialism, neo-liberalism and a strictly market-driven approach to economic and social policy from which only a handful of elites are able to benefit. The WSF has become the ‘open space’ for global civil society with the basic goal of affecting positive change throughout world.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/2302.shtml
Punishing Dissent
Education minister vows to punish professors who back academic boycott
Gideon Sa’ar says government will act during the summer against academics who joined call for Israel boycott.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/education-minister-vows-to-punish-professors-who-back-academic-boycott-1.297330?localLinksEnabled=false
How I was summoned to the Knesset
On Monday, June 21, I am to appear before the Knesset Education Committee and the Minister of Education, Mr. Gideon Saar, following my unequivocal words to my students, condemning the 43 year-old occupation and rule over the life of the Palestinian people. A school principal should have a clear and unequivocal moral position about any subject and issue on the agenda of Israeli society. A principal is not an educational clerk. A principal must have, for example, something to say about the deportation of the children of migrant workers, trafficking in women, the separation fence, the withdrawal from Gaza, minimum wage law, settlers attacking Palestinian villagers to exact a `price tag`, the removal of Arabs from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, the siege on Gaza, corruption in government, or the relations of religion and state.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=40651
Violence and Aggression/War Criminals
IOF troops advance in northern Gaza, detain Jerusalemite youths
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced into the outskirts of Beit Lahia town in northern Gaza Strip at dawn Monday and fired at citizens’ homes at random, local sources said.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7g%2boXqzULtiTDnEpUBSXPMdWkVCMWzHJ89bWHQgT7Y4hNJjNRt5ut4zR3H1aVx2DZtAugxSA42JawEFd3z319px2770TILT4XDFtLUr00AZA%3d
A Widow Mourns, An Army Lies
Last week Palestine Monitor reported that Israeli police shot and killed Shu’fat resident 39-year-old Ziad Jilani in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi Joz. Now his widow, a U.S. citizen, reflects on her husband’s life and death, and the journey he’s taken her on. Reporting from Kara Newhouse.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1457
Who will be punished for killing civilans in the Gaza war?, Amira Hass
The decision to indict Staff Sgt. S. for killing two women during last year’s war in Gaza has caused a stir. But his lawyer will rightly ask, why him, and not all the others who killed civilians?’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/who-will-be-punished-for-killing-civilans-in-the-gaza-war-1.297390?localLinksEnabled=false
Detainees
Abbas’s militias kidnap Hamas leader in Jenin
Militias loyal to Mahmoud Abbas kidnapped Sheikh Khaled Al-Haj, a Hamas leader, on Sunday only two months after the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) released him from its jails.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7bjPDYneJKpeZQlFXwbeSpzy%2b9bfKlJHquZaSoxEOsRHc6KO7AN7qb4X8NzrKDePx0PlmhduWbX2svixDoISZMFDYgShhbz3daVAZANT4E3s%3d
Siege/Human Rights/Humanitarian Issues/Restriction of Movement
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – May 23 – June 19
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/06/goods-needs-vs-supply-may-23-june-19/
Israeli steps to ease blockade not end of siege: Hamas
GAZA, June 21 (Xinhua) — The Israeli decision to ease the blockade of Gaza by extending the list of items allowed into the territory "does not mean the end of the siege," an official from the deposed Hamas government said on Monday. "Israel is maneuvering," Hamas Minister of Economy Ziad al-Zaza told the Gaza-based al-Quds Radio, adding "the Israelis are deceiving the world to avoid the recent wave of international criticism."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-06/21/c_13361269.htm
Inside Story – Lifting the blockade
George Mitchell, the US special envoy to the Middle East, met with Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, on Saturday to discuss ongoing political deadlock in the Middle East. On Friday he met with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, in Ramallah. Both Abbas and Ismail Haniya, the deposed prime minister, however, reiterated that the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip must be completely lifted. But can those making this demand capitalise on unprecedented international pressure to achieve that end? And will more planned aid flotillas bound for Gaza help or hinder?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHn5uOWdUPA&feature=youtube_gdata
Concerns over Gaza blockade "ease"
Israel has announced it will loosen its blockade on the Gaza Strip by allowing a greater variety of goods to enter the territory, which has been deprived of basic imports including medicine and construction material for more than three years. The Israeli prime minister’s office said it will start prohibiting only items deemed as "weapons or war material" to mitigate security risks. But specifics as to what constitutes "war material" have not been mentioned, fueling widespread fears that much needed items will remain banned from entering Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros reports from Jerusalem. [June 21, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jdsZqWW23Y&feature=youtube_gdata
Report: German government to demand sea aid to Gaza
The German parliament is to issue a cross-party demand that Israel allow humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip by sea, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Saturday.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1564554.php/Report-German-government-to-demand-sea-aid-to-Gaza
MK Zoabi: Blockade easing proves politics as motivator, not defense
Arab lawmaker who took part in Gaza-bound flotilla says it marked ‘beginning of total collapse of Israeli siege.’ Adds: I won’t be deterred by political persecution, scare campaign.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3908076,00.html
No Gaza optimism over easing blockade
"I don’t need ketchup or mayonnaise from Israel. I need my business back," says Nasser al-Helo standing on a busy street in Gaza City.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10359740.stm
Israel willing to increase transfer of goods to Gaza by 30%
Shortly after announcement on easing of blockade, coordinator of government activities in territories tells Palestinians Israel prepared to raise number of trucks entering Strip each day from 100 to 130. MK Hasson: PM sending dangerous message that terrorism pays off.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3908047,00.html
Gaza power plant: Ramallah stalls fuel deliveries
Gaza – Ma’an – The Gaza Energy Authority said Monday that the central Strip fuel station has been receiving some 33% of the necessary amount of industrial diesel, and accused the Ramallah government of curtailing supply. The report renews an argument which first arose in February, one month after the EU handed over control of Gaza fuel deliveries to the Palestinian Authority, at the government’s request. The PA, citing budgetary difficulties, had the EU contribute funds to civil servant salaries but had trouble funding sufficient amounts of fuel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=293464
Gazan family sends plea for their daughter’s health condition
Gaza, June 20, (Pal Telegraph) The family of Reem Riad Abdel-Gawad (14 years), appealed to President Mahmoud Abbas and every other concerned direction to provide the necessary treatment for their daughter suffering from an abnormality of the left hand that grows while she grows up. Reem’s mother said that her daughter suffers from inflation in the bones of her left hand, pointing out that the size of her daughter’s hand gets bigger and heavier while her daughter grows up.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/gaza-strip/6464-gazan-family-sends-plea-for-their-daughters-health-condition
Gazans decry tax increases
Residents of the Gaza Strip have been facing a new burden – a significant rise in taxes on a number of items ranging from gas to cigarettes. The taxes, which have been introduced by Hamas, the Palestinian group ruling the territory, have been increasing the strain on many business owners and shopkeepers. Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston reports on how some are questioning the legitimacy of the financial measures. [June 20, 2010]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEoIyTMKz5k&feature=player_embedded
A day on the road to Gaza
When Egypt announced it would open Gaza’s Rafah border crossing on June 1, hundreds of Gazans flocked to the border. Photo: International Solidarity Movement Two days after the flotilla massacres on May 31, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt announced in response to mass demonstrations in Cairo and across the world, that Egypt was opening the Rafah border crossing, breaching the siege of the Gaza Strip that holds its 1.5 million people in a stranglehold. Hundreds of Gazans flocked to the southern-most border of the coastal enclave. Many were left waiting on the border for days, denied entry to Egypt. On the Egyptian side, only a small trickle of aid passed through the dusty hopelessness of northern Sinai through the myriad military checkpoints on the road to Gaza.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44490
Flotilla activists: Violence led to blockade removal
Following Israel’s decision to ease Gaza blockade, pro-Palestinian activists celebrate victory, say ‘without the deaths onboard Marmara, we might not have witnessed results today’.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3908370,00.html
Olmert aides: Barak responsible for siege
Following decision to ease blockade on Strip, former prime minister’s associates blame defense minister for Israel’s ‘coriander and pasta policy’ which was harshly criticized by world. ‘He was the one who insisted on preventing the inflow of products with no security risk,’ one of them says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3908233,00.html
Refugees
First person: Life of a Palestinian refugee
The United Nation marks World Refugee Day on June 20, a day meant to focus attention on the plight of 40 million uprooted people around the world. Alia Salman is a Palestinian woman who was living in Iraq until the war changed her life. Now a resident of Anaheim, California, she tells Al Jazeera her story in her own words. (June 20, 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX4xGjIbKFc&feature=youtube_gdata
Palestinian Women under Occupation
The Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations is a Beirut, Lebanon-based organization engaged in "strategic and futuristic studies on the Arab and Muslim worlds, (emphasizing) the Palestinian issue. In early 2010, it published the second of its series, "Am I Not a Human," a report titled, "The Suffering of the Palestinian Woman under the Israeli Occupation, " discussed below.
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2010/062110Lendman.shtml
Israel‘s Arab Security Guards
PNA hopeful to open more police stations under proximity talks
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is hopeful to get an Israeli approval through proximity negotiations to build new police stations in the West Bank, a source told Xinhua Saturday. The source added that the 28 police stations would be built on B areas where the PNA — under Oslo agreement — have administrative control in these areas while it shares security control with Israel.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7031555.html
Nablus: not allowed to visit Joseph’s Tomb!
Yesterday, while in Nablus, we went to Joseph’s Tomb – just on the edge of downtown Nablus, and near Balata and Askar refugee camps. There was no one else there as we parked next to the low white-washed domes. But there was a Palestinian Security post right across the streets. One soldier/policeman came with his big gun, and said we were not allowed to be there. He gestured at the top of the mountain facing us. There I saw one of the concrete cylindrical Pillbox” towers used by Israeli forces. The Palestinian policeman said the Israelis either had, or would momentarily be, calling him on the radio to say we weren’t allowed to be there. But, I said, the Oslo Accords provide for free access to all religious sites.
http://un-truth.com/israel/nablus-not-allowed-to-visit-josephs-tomb
Political Developments/Flotilla Fallout
US signals better relations with Israel (AFP)
AFP – The United States signaled Sunday strained relations with Israel were on the mend, announcing White House talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early next month and backing him to the hilt over his plans to ease a four-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100620/pl_afp/uspoliticsdiplomacymideastgaza
Netanyahu drops opposition to Likud plan for renewed settlement building
PM delayed discussion on the construction freeze in for months but will not oppose new initiative and may even support it.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-drops-opposition-to-likud-plan-for-renewed-settlement-building-1.297334
Netanyahu: Decision to ease Gaza siege weakens Hamas
Prime Minister tells Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that easing civilian blockade allows Israel to focus on real security concerns.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-decision-to-ease-gaza-siege-weakens-hamas-1.297476
Aluf Benn / Turkey can take credit for ending Israel’s blockade of Gaza
It is now clear, even to Israel’s leaders, that the Turkish flotilla – despite activists’ deaths and not having actually reached Gaza – accelerated policy change in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/aluf-benn-turkey-can-take-credit-for-ending-israel-s-blockade-of-gaza-1.297463
Freed Islamic leader urges national unity
Nayef Rajoub, the popular Islamic leader in the al-Khalil region, has been set free after spending 48 months of captivity in Zionist jails and detention camps for “taking part in illegal elections.”
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7iGNvAb%2bXnLN9dcfNs0uC%2fJlUtB8THrT%2bhKR71MlblcShMe7GpFA2aZD4N6ZDUUHlwVGKhjBa%2b7exSjCeZaqDPBtzBErSbTBKW2OnbG0w9H4%3d
Other News
Dubai to have security cameras ‘everywhere’ (AFP)
AFP – Dubai, where a top Hamas commander was killed in January in an assassination blamed on Israel’s Mossad spy agency, is to have security cameras "everywhere," the police chief was quoted as saying on Sunday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100620/wl_mideast_afp/uaedubaisecuritymideasthamas
Report: Brodsky used cover name Alexander Verin
Der Spiegel says Israeli arrested in Poland on suspicion of aiding Mabhouh assassination used several cover names while in Germany; claims Berlin angry over ‘Mossad’s use of Holocaust in passport request’.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3907484,00.html
Experts to discuss ‘hasbara’ at TA conference
The Israel Security Council – a private initiative that brings together 28 experts, including academics and former military officials – will hold a conference on Sunday in Tel Aviv to address the problems faced by the country’s often lackluster hasbara (public diplomacy) efforts. In a press release issued on Thursday, the council said the conference was being held as “Israel’s image is right before our eyes becoming a national security problem for the State of Israel. A need has been created for someone to fill this vacuum and designate the goals and objectives needed for hasbara.”
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=178818
West Bank women get first radio station
The new Arabic station, Nisaa (Women) 96 FM, will be run by men and women and aimed at a broad demographic, with programming focused on social issues as well as music and call-in shows with experts. "The broadcasts will focus on women’s issues, but they will also target men in order to influence them for the benefit of women," Maysoun Odeh Gangat, the station’s founder, told reporters in Ramallah at the formal launch.
http://business.maktoob.com/20090000482330/West_Bank_women_get_first_radio_station/Article.htm
Analysis/Opinion
Richard Falk:The Shock Resulting from Flotilla Attack has Reinforced the Campaign to de-Legitimize Israel
Richard Falk the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. In 2001 Falk served on a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Inquiry Commission for the Palestinian territories with John Dugard. He is also an American Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University with a long and distinguished career in academics, politics and law. He recently gave this exclusive and revealing interview to Intifada Palestine’s Elias F. Harb .
http://intifada-palestine.com/2010/06/richard-falkthe-shock-resulting-from-flotilla-attack-have-reinforced-the-campaign-to-de-legitimize-israel/
Our western privilege is the legacy of historical violence, Max Ajl
David Bromwich has responded to my comment about non-violence and violence with a strong, textual case for non-violent mobilization. Engagement is welcome. There is space for tactical and conceptual clarification and discussion. First, though, several mistakes, misinterpretations, and mis-directions demand correction. Bromwich insists that “For Gandhi and for King non-violence was a principle,” and proceeds to lay out their ideas, appending a post-script with extended quotations. I do not know why Bromwich brought up King, who was anyway not the dogmatic pacifist he presents, and whose non-violent activism achieved its partial successes against the specter of violence in American urban centers and the threat of revolutionary militancy from the Black Panthers and the social spirit they stood for. Anyway, I did not bring King up. Here I will stick to Gandhi…
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/06/our-western-privilege-is-the-legacy-of-historical-violence.html
Turkey, Israel, the U.S., Helena Cobban
Several strongly pro-Israeli members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have stepped up their campaigns against NATO ally Turkey over the past week, in a campaign that has been quietly orchestrated by the big pro-Israel organization AIPAC. (See, for example, the ‘Related Materials’ linked to on this page of the AIPAC website.)
http://justworldnews.org/archives/004048.html
MJ Rosenberg: AIPAC Circulates Racist Anti-Turk, Anti-Arab Video
The "pro-Israel" lobby is slipping big time. First, earlier this spring, its student activities czar, Jonathan Kessler, openly spoke about how AIPAC muzzles Congress. But this is worse. Yesterday, it’s press liaison circulated a blatantly racist video. (He sent it out to his media contacts by email to avoid too much of a direct link to AIPAC. Nice try).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/aipac-circulates-racist-a_b_618264.html
Cartoonists get the story, even if MSM is muzzled, Philip Weiss
Here’s Jeff Darcy at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, great. Hispaper promptly retrenched from his view of Gaza. And here’s Matt Bors, more Gaza inhumanity. Thanks to Idrees Ahmad. Oh and here’s Emily Henochowicz again. Her paintings for the "apartheid wall."
https://mondoweiss.net/2010/06/cartoonists-get-the-story-even-if-msm-is-muzzled.html
Book review: Victor Kattan’s legal history of the colonization of Palestine
In order to understand how the law works, one needs to situate it in its political and historical context, otherwise it loses its relevance. That’s what Victor Kattan’s new book From Coexistence to Conquest does. It is a novel attempt to examine the legal history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, describing law as one factor among many that shaped the development of events. Mazen Masri reviews.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11344.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Iraq
Sunday: 50 Iraqis Killed, 77 Wounded
At least 50 Iraqis were killed and 77 more were wounded in attacks that focused mostly on Baghdad. Turkish troops also struck in northern Iraq where civilians were among the casualties. Also, an American-born al-Qaeda spokesman repeated the group’s demands, which include the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/06/20/sunday-50-iraqis-killed-77-wounded/
New clashes in Iraq over electricity cuts (Reuters)
Reuters – Iraqi police fired water cannon Monday to disperse stone-throwing protesters in the southern city of Nassiriya, demonstrating over crippling power cuts that are stoking tensions following a March election.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100621/ts_nm/us_iraq_electricity_protest
Iraqi army confronted UK deportation officials on Baghdad plane
Army officer reportedly warned UK officials not to return Iraqis by force again, as UNHCR condemns removals to Baghdad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/16/unhcr-uk-baghdad-deportations
Inside Iraq – Iraq parliament’s first session
Three months after its elections, Iraq is still without a government. Tough political horse-trading is underway and party bosses are jockeying to win the coveted position of prime minister. All parties have wrapped themselves up in Iraqi nationalism and vowed to make services, security and fighting corruption their top priorities. But polls indicate that Iraqis do not believe a word of it. What everyone is reluctant to discuss openly and freely, however, is who Iraq’s neighbours would prefer to become prime minister. Despite denials and protestations by Iraqi politicians, the decision of who should govern Iraq is made as much in Tehran, Damascus and Washington as by Iraqi voters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyWREr0v9BI&feature=youtube_gdata
Iraqi FM says political ‘bickering’ risks street riots (AFP)
AFP – Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned on Monday that prolonged "bickering" over who should be the war-torn country’s prime minister is angering the public and risks stoking deadly street riots.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100621/wl_afp/iraqpoliticszebari
Iraq’s Allawi fears plots to assasinate him (AFP)
AFP – Former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi, who is locked in a struggle to form a new government after inconclusive polls, said in an interview Monday he had been warned of plots to assassinate him.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100621/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsallawi
Iraq: Finding hope for former child fighters
BAGHDAD, 14 June 2010 (IRIN) – Sheikh HM’s message to the teenagers gathered around him after Friday prayers at a Baghdad mosque was straightforward: "Islam is simple. Be a moderate Muslim and not an extremist one to win the love of God." The cleric, who gave only his initials for fear of retaliation, said the only way to win the war against terrorism and sectarianism in Iraq is to keep young people away from extremists.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4c1b1b9ca.html
Lebanon
Hezbollah: diplomacy doesn’t work with Israel
BEIRUT, June 20 (Xinhua) — Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah stressed Sunday that diplomacy is not the best way to deal with Israel, vowing to never stand on the "neutral side" when it comes to dealing with the Israeli threats to Lebanon. "Some groups are adopting a conspiracy path to protect Israel," Hezbollah’s MP Mohamad Raad was quoted by the National News Agency (NNA) as saying during a ceremony in the southern village of Zawtar.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-06/20/c_13359565.htm
Jumblatt: Sovereignty secured by safeguarding Resistance’s arms
MUKHTARA: Preserving the Resistance’s weapons guarantees Lebanese sovereignty and strengthens ties between Lebanon and Syria, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said Saturday. Jumblatt made his remarks during a luncheon banquet at his residence in Mukhtara, where the guest of honor of was Syria’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=116207
U.S. and other World News
Report: Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to quit White House
Washington insiders say top adviser has reached reached an understanding with the president that he will serve only half the full four-year term.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/report-obama-chief-of-staff-rahm-emanuel-to-quit-white-house-1.297393?localLinksEnabled=false
Meanwhile the press in the U.S. likes to focus on executions in Iran...World opinion condemns the US for a ‘savage’ execution
Around the world and across the US, the firing squad execution in Utah has been met with a wave of criticism from those entirely opposed to the death penalty and those who say that shooting is not the most humane method of killing a prisoner.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/world-opinion-condemns-the-us-for-a-savage-execution-2004760.html
Lieberman tells Web users to ‘relax’ about ‘kill switch’
"Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too," Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley on State of the Union Sunday.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0620/lieberman-relax-kill-switch/
Proposed Muslim centre near 9/11 site draws protest
A proposal to build an Islamic Centre near Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood in the US city of New York, has met with loud opposition from some Americans. Two hijacked airliners were flown into the towers on September 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people, an event blamed on, and claimed by, al-Qaeda. The Cordoba Initiative group, which says it aims to improve Muslim-West relations, plans to build a community centre near the site to help spread the message of tolerance. Local authorities, including New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, as well as residents in the neighbourhood, have welcomed the centre. But a small, vocal group led by the Stop Islamisation of America movement says the centre has no business being near Ground Zero. Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey reports. (June 20, 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJZbknXDLm8&feature=youtube_gdata
Academy-Award Winning Filmmaker Oliver Stone Tackles Latin America’s Political Upheaval in "South of the Border", U.S. Financial Crisis in Sequel to Iconic "Wall Street"
Academy-award winning filmmaker Oliver Stone has taken on three American presidents in "JFK," "Nixon," and "W." and the most controversial aspects of the war in "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July." He looked at the greed of the financial industry in the Hollywood hit "Wall Street" and its forthcoming sequel. In "South of the Border", his latest documentary out this week in the United States, Stone takes a road trip across South America, meeting with seven presidents about the revolution sweeping the continent. The leftist transformation in the region might be ignored or misrepresented as nothing but "anti-Americanism" in the corporate media, but this film seeks to tell a different story. Stone joins us along with the film’s co-writer, the Pakistani-British author and activist Tariq Ali.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/21/academy_award_winning_filmmaker_oliver_stone
Ethnic in Uzbek in Kyrgyzstan: We have become like Palestinians
400,000 uprooted people crammed into squalid camps on Kyrgyzstan’s sun-parched border with Uzbekistan with little access to clean water or food.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/ethnic-in-uzbek-in-kyrgyzstan-we-have-become-like-palestinians-1.297247
Iran executes Jundallah leader
The leader of Jundallah, an Iranian Sunni Muslim group that has been engaged in an insurgency against the Iranian government for years, has been hanged in public in Tehran, the capital. Abdulmalek Rigi, who was executed on Sunday, was the government’s public enemy number one. He was accused of being behind several attacks since 2005 that have killed more than 150 people, including security personnel and civilians. Jundallah says it is fighting for the rights of Sunnis, who they claim are discriminated against and oppressed in the Shia dominated country. Al Jazeera’s Dan Nolan reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BXLXtHRPJs&feature=youtube_gdata
Jordan patients seek justice over malpractice
Jordan is known for its advanced and high-quality medical services, but a recent increase in malpractice claims has dented the reputation of the country’s healthcare system. Last year, Jordan’s ministry of health said it had received about 3,000 complaints related to medical negligence. Now, victims of botched operations are calling for compensation in court and a change in the law. Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports from the capital, Amman, on the struggle of patients seeking justice. Viewers should note her report contains graphic pictures of surgery being performed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij4UDoVeaB8&feature=youtube_gdata
www.TheHeadlines.org
