and other news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Judaization / Settlers
The new Christian settlers
Ynet 14 Apr — Will US Christians settle in Samaria? About 1,000 Americans have signed a document requesting to convert to Judaism, move to Israel, and settle in Samaria. The group members are seeking to serve in the IDF and later establish communities based on the Kibbutz movement model.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4056696,00.html
Israel’s plan for next year’s school curriculum: reinforcing Jewish and Zionist values
Haaretz 14 Apr — Education Ministry’s plan for the coming school year does not include civics, democratic values or Jewish-Arab coexistence …The first [goal] is to “deepen education for values,” which includes a new middle-school program called “the culture and heritage of Israel,” as well as classes and field trips aimed at encouraging army service.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-s-plan-for-next-year-s-school-curriculum-reinforcing-jewish-and-zionist-values-1.355853
Dawn raid targets Palestinian minors in Silwan
Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 13 Apr 23:36 — Israeli forces executed a large-scale raid of Silwan this morning, arrest several minors. The arrest include: Suhaib Alrjaby, 17, of Baten al-Hawa, who has been charged with participation in protests in Silwan and has been serving a house arrest sentence since 2010; Louay Alrjaby, 14, who has been arrested several times for charges including throwing a Molotov cocktail at Israeli officers; Ra’aof Abbasi, 13, on charges of participating in confrontations between residents and Israeli forces; and Amir Qaraeen of Wadi Hilweh, who was beaten severely whilst in police custody in the past, causing severe medical problems.
http://silwanic.net/?p=14724
IOF violate court decision, raze Bedouin homes in Nuwaimi‘ah
JERICHO, (PIC) 14 Apr — The Jerusalem legal aid and human rights center said the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) violated the higher court’s decision and demolished homes and structures belonging to Bedouin clans in Nuwaimi‘ah area near Jericho city. The center added that it demanded on Wednesday the Israeli prosecution bureau, the IOF judicial advisor and the higher court to explain why the Israeli army violated the court decision.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Palestinian says 150 trees cut down by settlers
Ynet 13 Apr – Palestinian villager Ibrahaim Salah faced a rude welcome after arriving at his olive grove Tuesday, claiming that his trees were cut down by settlers. “I arrived at my land Tuesday morning and couldn’t believe my eyes,” said the Samaria resident, who is allowed to access his grove only a few times a year with a security escort … Salah says that only 60 trees remain in his plot of land at this time, yet most of them are too young and do not produce commercial quantities of trees. “I don’t know what to do now. I have nothing except for these trees,” he said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4056588,00.html
Samaria: Settlers attack Palestinian farmers
Ynet 14 Apr — Palestinian elements reported that residents of the Adi Ad settlement attacked Palestinian farmers from the central Samaria village of Turmus Ayya. According to the report, the farmers were attacked when they came to plow their lands. One of them suffered an injury to his head when he was hit by a club, and was taken to the hospital.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4056857,00.html
Boy hurt in northern West Bank clash
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 14 Apr 12:49 — An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was injured Thursday after Israeli forces fired tear-gas canisters to break up clashes in the northern West Bank, onlookers said. Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Daghlus said the boy, Amid Asous, was treated in hospital for tear-gas inhalation. Local residents clashed with settlers between the Palestinian village of Burin and the illegal settlement of Givat Ronen, throwing rocks at one another, news reports in Israeli media said … The Palestinians claimed that settlers used live fire in the incident, the Israeli news site Ynet reported. It said the military had reported opening an investigation into the claims.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378530
Israel to grant preference to settlers in gun licensing procedure
Haaretz 14 Apr — Citizens living in ‘danger regions’ to receive preference in gun license issuance procedures; danger zone includes West Bank and a number of towns and communities along the Green Line.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-to-grant-preference-to-settlers-in-gun-licensing-procedure-1.355842
Police plan for evicting settlers from East Jerusalem building leaked online
Haatetz 14 Apr — Jerusalem police respond that leaked plan was an old one, did not include all aspects of the eviction and that plan had been prepared jointly with civilian bodies …Several years ago, the court ordered the eviction of Beit Yonatan, an illegally built apartment building that is home to 10 Jewish families in the heart of Palestinian-majority Silwan … The eviction was scheduled for four months ago, but was called off at the last minute.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/police-plan-for-evicting-settlers-from-east-jerusalem-building-leaked-online-1.355840
Detention / Exile
IOA banishes Palestinian detainee to Malaysia
RAMALLAH, (PIC) 14 Apr — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) banished Palestinian detainee Maher Odeh to Malaysia rather than return him to his hometown Ein Yabrud in Ramallah. Odeh was arrested on 14th March last year and after 45 days of cruel interrogation rounds he was held in administrative detention without trial or charge. The Ahrar center for human rights and prisoners’ studies said that Israeli interrogators failed to extract any confession from Odeh and offered him exile on repeated occasions but he refused. His wife Um Anas told the Ahrar center that the prison manager told her over the phone that her husband was deported to Malaysia on Wednesday evening.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Seven detained across West Bank overnight
SALFIT (Ma‘an) 13 Apr — Israel’s military said soldiers detained seven Palestinians overnight from areas across the West Bank, with reports from the northern West Bank of additional raids and intimidation …
In the Salfit region, Israeli forces entered the town of Deir Istiya, stationing soldiers near the town’s girls’ school. Mayor of Deir Istiya Nathmi Salman said the presence of soldiers near the school with their weapons drawn terrified the young students, who passed the military units on their way to class. Salman condemned what he called the “presence of weapons amidst elementary school children,” and said it was not the first time soldiers had intimidated students.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378274
6 including PA officer detained by Israel overnight
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 14 Apr — Six Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces from areas across the West Bank overnight, a military statement said Thursday morning, claiming all were “suspects wanted for terrorist activity.” Palestinian security officer Amjad Darawsheh, 39, was detained by Israeli forces from his village in the northern West Bank, following an extensive home search, local officials said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378590
Family of cancer patient appeals for releasing him from PA jail/
Al-KHALIL, (PIC) 14 Apr — The family of prisoner Nabil Al-Natsha, detained by the Palestinian authority preventive security, appealed to human rights organizations and the Palestinian leadership to intervene to have him released, especially since he suffers from cancer. His family said that Natsha has been in isolation cell for four months at the preventive security headquarters and in dire need for continuing medical treatment.
Meanwhile PA militia men from the preventive security kidnapped at dawn Thursday Sheikh Abdulkarim Halayka, 55, from his home in Al-Shyukh village, east of Al-Khalil city.
Earlier on Wednesday, militias from the intelligence apparatus broke into and ransacked the house of Hamas leader and ex-detainee Hasan Al-Wardiyan in Bethlehem city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
PA prisoners’ families call for their release
RAMALLAH, (PIC) 13 Apr — With Palestinian Prisoner Day coming next Sunday, the families of Palestinians held by the Palestinian Authority security agencies in the West Bank have renewed calls for the freedom of their relatives and to turn the pages of the past. The PA currently holds more than 500 of such men in its prisons as the de facto PA chief Mahmoud Abbas has made fresh calls for a unity government with Hamas.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcO
Palestinian prisoners await light / Saleh Jadallah
Gaza Strip (Berama – Malaysia) 13 Apr — The families of about 7,500 Palestinian prisoners held under intolerable conditions in Israeli jails hold a weekly sit-in demanding their release. Holding pictures of the prisoners, they gather in front of the International Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City every Monday, declaring that they will not give up until all their sons, husbands, fathers, and relatives are set free.
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=578667
Gaza
IOF opens fire at Gaza border areas
GAZA, (PIC) 14 Apr — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened machinegun fire at Palestinian residential quarters to the north and east of Gaza Strip border areas at dawn Thursday, locals reported. They said that the IOF troops launched a limited incursion in northern Gaza Strip areas.
IOF gunboats, meanwhile, fired at Palestinian fishermen off the southern Strip coast of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Eyewitnesses said that an artillery shell was fired at agricultural areas east of Gaza city.
The escalation is the biggest of its kind since the conclusion of an unofficial reciprocal calm with Palestinian resistance in Gaza on 10th April
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd8
Gaza fighter dies of wounds from Israeli fire
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Apr — A Palestinian resistance fighter died Thursday from wounds sustained a week earlier during fighting with Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip, officials said. Officials from Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said Mahdi Abu Athra, 26, died in hospital after being injured by Israeli fire near Rafah … Abu Athra’s death brought to 19 the number of dead following a one-week spike in violence between Israel and Gaza resistance factions. Six of the dead were civilians. Three Israelis were injured during the violence.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378712
Video: Italian citizen kidnapped in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Apr — Salafist radicals in the Gaza Strip have kidnapped an Italian citizen and are threatening to kill him, a video posted late Thursday on YouTube warned. The video shows Vittorio Arrigoni bruised and blindfolded. Text scrolling across the screen threatens that he will die unless Hamas releases Salafist prisoners by 5 p.m. Friday. Arrigoni was in Gaza working with the International Solidarity Movement, according to Palestinian associates in Gaza who confirmed that the video showed their colleague. There was no immediate reaction from the Hamas government which controls Gaza. The Islamist movement has in recent years taken a hard line against Salafi activists in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378840
New updates on Vittorio Arrigoni’s abduction in Gaza
Join Vittorio’s support group on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/ghRe0k Sign this petition asking for his immediate release and share it: http://goo.gl/4TFRd Gazans will move to Al Jundi Sq. tomorrow at 4 pm in Gaza to protest and ask for his immediate release, join the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=218681814813064
http://gazatimes.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-updates-on-vittorio-arrigonis.html
Gaza crossing operates for second day
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 14 Apr — Imports of commercial and humanitarian goods continued to enter Gaza on Thursday, for the second day in a row after Israeli forces controlling import terminals into the coastal enclave shut the zones down for one week.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378595
Minister orders road accessing Nahal Oz be moved
Ynet 14 Apr — Minister Matan Vilnai has ordered work to be done to move the road accessing Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Gaza vicinity area following the firing of an anti-tank missile at a school bus last week.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4056983,00.html
Sands, not lights, cover Gaza archaeology sites / Nidal al-Mughrabi
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (Reuters) 14 Apr — Five thousand years of fascinating history lie beneath the sands of the Gaza Strip, from blinded biblical hero Samson to British general Allenby. The flat, sandy lands on the Mediterranean’s southeastern shore have been ruled by Ancient Egyptians, Philistines, Romans, Byzantines and Crusaders. Alexander the Great besieged the city. Emperor Hadrian visited. Mongols raided Gaza, and 1,400 years ago Islamic armies invaded. Gaza has been part of the Ottoman Empire, a camp for Napoleon and a First World War battleground. But archaeology here does not flourish. “The only way to preserve what we discover is to bury it until the proper tools are available,” says Hassan Abu Halabyea of the Gaza ministry of Tourism and Archaeology.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110414/sc_nm/us_palestinians_archaeology_1
Awarta collective punishment
Family of 20, women and children, locked up for 11 hours without food or water in latest Awarta raid
ISM 13 Apr — … Zahwa Awwad (27), is six months pregnant. After sitting outside in the cold for four hours, she felt pain in her back and womb and she started to bleed. At 8 am, she called her doctor. The doctor, who was afraid the woman was having a miscarriage came directly, but was not allowed to go inside the home until 9.30 am … When the army occupied her home on Monday, Nouf was not allowed to go to the toilet or to drink for nine hours, causing her to become dehydrated. When the doctor finally got access to the family, he was prevented from treating Nouf or giving her anything to drink. He called for an ambulance to take Nouf and Zahwa to hospital however the ambulance was prevented from reaching the women for a further hour and a half. The women were eventually allowed to leave for the hospital only after Nouf had lost consciousness … During the 11 hours that they had been captive, one woman had tried to sneak to the kitchen to get some food for her hungry son, but a soldier had pointed his gun at her and forced her to put the food back and return to the room. The crying mother of a baby who was only weeks old told international activists minutes after she was released that she had not been allowed to feed her child during the whole time the family was guarded by the soldiers. At lunchtime, the Israeli soldiers had been brought food which they ate in front of the hungry children who started to cry.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/04/17620/
War crimes / Goldstone report
Gaza war report co-authors reject Goldstone’s retraction
Haaretz 14 Apr — Three members of UN panel that investigated the 2008-2009 Gaza war reject an op-ed by Richard Goldstone, the fourth member and chairman, which retracted key conclusions of the report such as Israel’s intentional targeting of civilians.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/gaza-war-report-co-authors-reject-goldstone-s-retraction-1.355951
Statement by members of UN mission on Gaza war
14 Apr — “In recent days some articles and comments appearing in the press with respect to the report of the United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict of 2008-2009 have misrepresented facts in an attempt to delegitimise the findings of this report and to cast doubts on its credibility….”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378829
BDS
Basque court: Waving Palestinian flag can be understood as incitement to terrorism
AIC 13 Apr — A Basque court began hearing a lawsuit against a BDS activist who in 2009 jumped onto the basketball court during a game with the Maccabi Tel Aviv team, waving a Palestinian flag. “Under the circumstances,” the Basque government prosecutor noted, waving the Palestinian flag should be understood as “incitement to terrorism.” … Although the first trial opened yesterday in Vitoria-Gasteiz against the international BDS movement’s protest actions against Maccabi Tel Aviv, it will certainly not be the last.
In the Basque country a large group of social activists, internationalist associations and supporters signed the Palestinian BDS appeal and decided to move from words to actions in solidarity with Palestine.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/economy-of-the-occupation/3525-basque-court-waving-palestinian-flag-can-be-understood-as-incitement-to-terrorism-
Political/Diplomatic/International news
Palestinians hail international ‘birth certificate’ of statehood
dpa 13 Apr — Donor countries meeting in Brussels recognized on Wednesday that the “Palestinian Authority (PA) is above the threshold of a functioning state” – an assessment immediately hailed as a “birth certificate” for a Palestinian state by PA premier Salam Fayyad. In recent months, the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have certified that Fayyad’s state-building plans are on track for completion in mid-2011.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-hail-international-birth-certificate-of-statehood-1.355821
PA seeks US support for statehood
Ynet 14 Apr — Palestinian leaders focus on garnering Washington’s support ahead of unilateral declaration of independence; push for firm US stance on borders, settlements
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4057098,00.html
EU opens market to Palestinian exports
BRUSSELS, Belgium (Ma‘an) 14 Apr — On the sidelines of this week’s Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting in Belgium , EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced the signing of a deal that would open West Bank and Gaza markets to Europe. The agreement gives – effective immediately – all agricultural products, processed agricultural products and fish and fishery products originating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip duty free access to the EU market.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378597
Netanyahu invited to give Mideast peace speech before US Congress
Haaretz 14 Apr — Premier reportedly procured the invitation to speak before Congress due to the support of Republican officials; speech seen as response to Obama’s planned Mideast policy speech.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-invited-to-give-mideast-peace-speech-before-u-s-congress-1.355981
Russia asks Israel to prove its arms were used in bus attack
MOSCOW, (PIC) 14 Apr — Russia has questioned Israeli claims that Russian weapons were used by Gaza Strip resistance forces to hit Israeli targets along the border. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov said that the overuse of claims that Russian weapons were used against Israel has prompted Russia to demand that Israel present proof.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Fatah insists ‘there are no political prisoners’
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 14 Apr — President Mahmoud Abbas never promised to free 23 prisoners held despite a court ruling ordering their release, Fatah’s top official in Ramallah said Thursday … Radwan says an initial check of the names on the list revealed that several prisoners had already been released, while others had voluntarily chosen to stay in custody as “protection from Israel.” … Protesters say those on the list are bona fide political prisoners, jailed without charge.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378658
Turkey tells Israel: Gaza flotilla not up to us
ANKARA, 14 Apr (Reuters) *Israel has asked Turkey to help stop planned flotilla *Flotilla of 15 ships expected in late May *Turkey says convoy organised by civil society — Turkey said on Thursday it had received a request from Israel to help stop activists sailing to Gaza on the first anniversary of an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship, but it said the flotilla plan was not Ankara’s concern.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/turkey-tells-israel-gaza-flotilla-not-up-to-us
Israeli tank ‘enters disputed area’ in Lebanon
ADAYSSEH, Lebanon (AFP) 14 Apr — An Israeli tank briefly entered a disputed border area with Lebanon on Thursday after the alert was sounded over people picking thyme and thistle in the volatile zone, an army spokesman in Lebanon said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=378683
Other news
Still no arrest in West Bank theatre murder
JENIN, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 13 Apr — Nine days after an Israeli-Palestinian theatre director was murdered in the West Bank, police have yet to make an arrest, a Palestinian security official said on Wednesday. A former militant was taken in for questioning shortly after the April 4 shooting of Juliano Mer-Khamis in Jenin refugee camp, but he was released after a few hours for lack of evidence, an official said. The official added that foreign volunteers at Mer-Khamis’s Freedom Theatre in the camp had since left, concerned for their safety.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110413/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansarabtheatrearrest
Human interest
Crafting the voice of Nablus
[with photos] Pal. Monitor 13 Apr — Buried in the worn stones of Nablus’ Old City – through its maze of alleys and market stalls, past the big hammam, the surviving soap factories and underneath countless posters of victims and martyrs of the occupation – is a special workshop, one of a kind in Palestine. Fifteen feet square, it’s cluttered with awls, screwdrivers, saws, chisels, vises, glues, strings, wrenches, sandpaper and drills. This place smells like a painter’s bookshop – piles of sawdust mix with open cans of pigments and varnishes to perfume the air. It looks like a laboratory of sound – stringed instruments in various stages of ruin and repair crowd the walls. This is the workshop of Ali Hsanein, Palestine’s only oud maker.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1753
Opinion / Analysis
Blowback: Israel’s bogus narrative on Palestinian refugees / Ghada Karmi
LA Times 12 Apr — What a timely article, “Israel and Palestinians have conflicting visions for village’s future.” April is a good month for recalling the abandoned homes, towns and destroyed villages of what was once Palestine. It was the month in which my own family was forced to leave our home in Jerusalem. Contrary to the official Israeli version, still largely believed, that the Palestinian exodus of 750,000 people — without which there would be no Israel today — happened in the fog of war, people like me are living proof that many of us had been forced out of our homeland months earlier … I do not know which is worse: the hundreds of Palestinian villages Israel wiped out after 1948 and whose previous inhabitants can only hope to find through faded memories; the dozen villages left such as Lifta, still standing but ruined and depopulated; or, as in my case, my house being in the possession of strangers (New York Times correspondent Ethan Bronner lives in an upper story added on later), who do not recognize my history or my right to my family home.
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/04/blowback-israels-bogus-narrative-on-palestinian-refugees.html
Inside Intel – Yoram Cohen’s take on Hamas / Yossi Melman
Haaretz 14 Apr — Has the new Shin Bet chief underestimated the organization?
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/inside-intel-yoram-cohen-s-take-on-hamas-1.355874
Video– Krauthammer: Israel has ‘given away’ claim to West Bank6
JPost 14 Apr — Charles Krauthammer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist and political commentator, believes Israel has “given away” its claim to the West Bank and may also be ‘losing’ what he called the “battle to hang on to Jerusalem.” “Israel’s diplomacy, unfortunately, tragically, catastrophically … has given away the legitimacy of its claim on the West Bank,” Krauthammer told “Inside Israel’s” Mordechai Twersky in a wide-ranging phone interview, April 12. “Now you have to face reality; now you live in a new world, and you have to accept it.”
http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=216596
Israel must recognize Hamas government in Gaza / Uri Avnery
14 Apr — Who started the deadly tit for tat? To the Israelis it is clear − it started with the abominable fire on the school bus. To the Palestinians it is clear − it started with killing a senior Hamas official. And before that it was … and before that it was … and before that it was…
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-must-recognize-hamas-government-in-gaza-1.355882
Iraq
Wednesday: 2 Iraqis killed, 28 wounded
At least two Iraqis were killed and 28 more were wounded in the latest attacks, but it was a massive sandstorm that killed or harmed even more people today. One person was killed and 16 more wounded when a bomb exploded near a southern Kirkuk restaurant. A sticky bomb wounded a colonel. Three suspects were arrested and several explosives were located earlier in the day. A blast on a highway in Khanaqin wounded four people, including a district director for Saidiya. A man was killed inside his shop in Ramadi…
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/04/13/wednesday-2-iraqis-killed-28-wounded/
UN confirms 34 dead at Iranian camp in Iraq
UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (Reuters) – The United Nations on Thursday confirmed 34 people have been found dead at an Iranian dissident camp in Iraq after Iraqi security forces moved against the camp last week … The fatality count was the same number of deaths Ashraf residents had reported. Their death toll was disputed by Iraqi authorities, who said only three people were killed during the operation and others were dead before Iraqi troops moved in. Iraqi authorities say the three were killed when security forces responded to rock-throwing and threats by residents during an operation to reclaim land from the camp and return it to farmers.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/un-confirms-34-dead-at-iranian-camp-in-iraq
Remains of 800 bodies unearthed in Iraq mass grave
BAGHDAD, April 14 (Reuters) By Aseel Kami *Many believed to be opponents of Saddam Hussein *Kurds, Shi’ites, women and children among victims *More bodies expected to be excavated — A mass grave holding the remains of over 800 bodies, many believed to be opponents of ousted leader Saddam Hussein, has been discovered in western Iraq, a Human Rights Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/remains-of-800-bodies-unearthed-in-iraq-mass-grave
U.S.
Database launch on tax day highlights US arms to Israel
IMEU 14 Apr — While members of Congress and the Obama administration wrestle over painful budget cuts, military aid to Israel is about the only expenditure safe from the chopping block. American weapons transfers to Israel are scheduled to total $30 billion from 2009-2018, an annual average increase of 25% over previous levels. In line with a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, President Obama asked for a record $3.075 billion worth of weaponry for Israel in his 2012 budget request.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/imeu/2011/04/14/database-launch-on-tax-day-highlights-us-arms-to-israel
FBI files on Tupac Shakur murder show he received death threats from Jewish gang
Haaretz 14 Apr — Files released Thursday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur state that the star had received death threats from the Jewish Defense League, an organization that has been characterized as terrorist group … The JDL was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/fbi-files-on-tupac-shakur-murder-show-he-received-death-threats-from-jewish-gang-1.355962
US reviewing Mideast arms sales
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland (Reuters) 13 Apr — The U.S. government is reviewing arms sales to Middle Eastern countries on a “case-by-case basis” given turmoil in the region, and has already halted some sales, a Pentagon official said on Monday … two of the biggest deals on the table have been cleared to proceed: a $29.4 billion sale of 84 Boeing Co F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and a $7 billion sale to the United Arab Emirates of an advanced missile defense system built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110413/pl_nm/us_mideast_usa_arms
