Articles

Former Zionist envoy: 'Israel at all-time low at UN'
May 17, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS     Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s former UN ambassador, said the state’s current status at the United Nations is ...Read more
Child Holocaust survivors demand compensation
May 17, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   Survivors who were kids at end of WWII want Claims Conference to fight for additional reparation Ed ...Read more
UK minister with alleged links to Zionist ‘oligarch’ quits
May 17, 2011
United Kingdom
NOVANEWS     Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, minister of state for security and counter- terrorism, stepped down at her own request ...Read more
IsraHell shells injure at least 30 demonstrators in Gaza
May 17, 2011
Gaza
NOVANEWS by crescentandcross Gaza City – Israeli soldiers fired toward thousands of Palestinians who marched Sunday to the border with Israel ...Read more
The Revolution That Wasn’t–Pro-Zionist Egyption police fire at rally outside Zio-Nazi Embassy
May 17, 2011
Egypt
NOVANEWS   Protestors set fire to Zionist flag, call for Zionist ambassador’s expulsion. At least 185 arrested Egyptian riot police ...Read more
Zio-Nazi Gestapo's says handled border breach well
May 17, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS     Military admits intelligence did not indicate protesters would infiltrate border, but says its actions prevent further bloodshed ...Read more
Italy to upgrade Palestinian delegation to full diplomatic mission
May 17, 2011
Italy | Palestine Affairs
NOVANEWS   Haaretz   Italian President Giorgio Napolitano announced Monday that Italy was upgrading the status of the Palestinian representation ...Read more
Reports: 20 ‘Nakba’ Protesters Killed as Zio-Nazi Troops Attack
May 17, 2011
Palestine Affairs
NOVANEWS antiwar.com Israeli soldiers shot and killed at least 20 Palestinian protesters today, and wounded several hundred others, during Nakba ...Read more
Nakba’ Killings: Zio-Nazi Envoys Told to Blame Syria
May 17, 2011
Palestine Affairs
NOVANEWS antiwar.com   Faced with growing international concern over the killing of some 20 civilian protesters along its borders with Lebanon ...Read more
BBC the Mouthpiece of Zionism
May 17, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS Letter to the BBC - Palestinians Don't Celebrate Their Own Expulsion! Dear Sirs, This morning, on both Radio 4 ...Read more
Palestine: Nakba Day Report
May 17, 2011
Palestine Affairs
NOVANEWS Nakba Day Report from an Israeli On Nakba day, March 15, the writer of this article participated in a ...Read more
‘The Only Democracy in the Middle East’ Murders 13 Unarmed Demonstrators
May 17, 2011
ZIO-NAZI
NOVANEWS   On the day that it was announced that Libya’s Col. Ghadaffi will likely be indicted at the International ...Read more

Former Zionist envoy: 'Israel at all-time low at UN'

NOVANEWS
 


 

Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s former UN ambassador, said the state’s current status at the United Nations is “at a record-breaking low”.

“This low began with Operation Cast Lead, and its end is anyone’s guess,” Shalev said, adding that the declaration of statehood was not the Palestinians’ aim but rather “a means to Israel’s final demise in the eyes of the world”.

The debate was launched by a number of professors who explained their views on recent regional developments. “Israel must be more active in the political arena as an initiator, rather than observing and saying, ‘All of these developments prove what we’ve been saying all along’,” Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Shimon Shamir said.

Dr. Dan Shiftan, of Haifa University, rejected hopes of reaching an accord with the Palestinians due to impassable disagreements, the Hamas-Fatah truce deal, and the current US administration.

He suggested withdrawing from areas in the West Bank which Israel plans to relinquish in any future deal in order to “buy time in the international arena”.

Among those participating in the debate are former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate Major General Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash, and former Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Uzi Dayan.

The declaration is scheduled to be made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly in September. Many Israeli officials fear it will further exacerbate tension in the West Bank, but others say it will likely have little effect on the ground.

 

Child Holocaust survivors demand compensation

NOVANEWS

by crescentandcross

 

Survivors who were kids at end of WWII want Claims Conference to fight for additional reparation

Ed note–well folks, at the risk of sounding repititious–HERE WE GO AGAIN–constant whining, complaining and kvetching from the Jewish community over how they have suffered and the demand on the rest of us to make up for it. Innocent people suffering as a result of injustuce is always an evil thing, but the fact is this–YOU MOVE ON FROM IT. I for one want to see a “Holocaust Fund” set up for the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghansitan, Lybia, etc, who have AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHO CONTINUE to suffer as a result of Jewish butchery and oppression.

Members of the Lost Childhood organization, who survived the Holocaust when they were children, are set to hold a demonstration on Monday in front of the Claims Conference offices, demanding to receive reparations for the life-long suffering that was inflicted on them by the Nazis.

Grim Reality

Over 25% of Holocaust survivors live in poverty / Omri Efraim

Report published ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day indicates some 208,000 victims of Nazi atrocities remain in Israel; poll reveals 40% of survivors feel lonely, while half say they are in need of financial aid

“We demand the recognition of the obligation and the debt that Germany owes us, the Shoah children, for the deprivation of our childhood,” the organization said in a statement. “Our voice, the voice of the children and orphans who survived the Holocaust, is not being heard. We were young, no one cared for us; we were neglected and forgotten. No one was there for us, and we were busy building a new life while repressing the horrors that we experienced.”

The survivors say that the Claims Conference, which was established in 1951 to represent Holocaust survivors in negotiations with Germany for reparations, has neglected their cause.

“We demand the Claims Conference include our representative, without delay, in the child Holocaust survivors’ claim for compensation from the German government,” the Lost Children organization added.

‘Sweeten the terrible memories’

According to the Claims Conference, the child survivors are demanding a special compensation, in addition to what all Holocaust survivors are entitled to.

Yechezkel Adiram, who was hidden as a child by the partisans in the woods of Lithuania, said that Monday’s demonstration will be the first of its kind. “I don’t think that there are many causes that are as justified as the one of the Holocaust children,” he said. “For some reason, the 50 organizations that deal with the (reparations) on behalf of Israel are ignoring this issue.

“The most cynical part is that they refuse to include us as an full-fledged organization that fights for the rights of Holocaust survivors,” he added. “We are trying to sweeten a little the terrible memories and the suffering that we experienced.”

A Claims Conference spokeman responded in a statement, saying that the German government has yet to agree to pay special compensation for their “lost childhood” beyond the standard amount given to victims of Nazi persection – even though the conference brings up the issue every year.

He added that child survivors are represented on the Claims Conference board. “This is an internal organizational struggle that is not related to the Claims Conference, and certainly does not contribute to progress on the issue,” he said. “The Claims Conference will continue the sacred activity for which it was founded, and will not be dragged into these internal struggles.”

UK minister with alleged links to Zionist ‘oligarch’ quits

NOVANEWS
 
Pauline Neville-Jones

 

Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, minister of state for security and counter- terrorism, stepped down at her own request in order to work with private industry.

LONDON – A British cabinet minister who said Israel “had shown the world” how to deal with terrorism while maintaining democracy and who had alleged links to Uzbekistan-born Israeli “oligarch” Michael Cherney has resigned from the government.

According to the government, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, minister of state for security and counter- terrorism, stepped down at her own request in order to work with private industry.

Speaking in 2008, following a trip to Israel, she said that Britain could learn from Israel on how to handle terrorist threats.

A former head of the UK’s joint intelligence committee, Neville-Jones last year threatened to resign when her appointment to a key cabinet position was blocked after M15 revealed her links to Cherney and another Russian “oligarch,” Dimitry Firtash The UK’s domestic counterintelligence and security agency said in a briefing sent to Prime Minister David Cameron that she had connections to the two billionaires with alleged links to organized crime and a Russian mafia leader, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

According to a source quoted by the newspaper, “MI5 sent a summary of the intelligence on Neville-Jones’s financial associations with the two oligarchs. Based on that submission and on a separate briefing by his political advisers, Cameron decided not to appoint her.”

Instead Neville-Jones was given the more junior position as minister of state at the Home Office, in charge of security and counter-terrorism.

The demotion was said to have infuriated the former career diplomat, whose career spanned more than 30 years serving in an array of locations including Washington and Bonn.

Prime Minister Cameron last week praised her for helping to ensure the balance between security and liberty and for drawing up the original plans for the National Security Council.

IsraHell shells injure at least 30 demonstrators in Gaza

NOVANEWS

by crescentandcross

Gaza City – Israeli soldiers fired toward thousands of Palestinians who marched Sunday to the border with Israel north of Gaza City, injuring at least 30 people.

Gaza emergency services chief Adham Abu Salmeya said the Israelis fired first a smoke shell, then three artillery shells and opened also small gunfire.

The Israeli military would not immediately comment.

The marchers were reported to have burst through road blocks on the way to the Erez crossing with Israel.

One of the injured was in critical and seven in serious condition, Abu Salmeya said.

He said minors were among the injured, as large crowds gathered in the area to participate in marches marking the 63rd anniversary since hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees in 1948.

The critically injured was identified as Mohamed Othman, a photographer for a Gaza-based electronic news agency called ‘Safa.’

In Tel Aviv, an Arab-Israeli truck driver killed a man and injured some 17 Israelis as he ploughed into cars and a bus along a road in the south of the city.

Israeli police said they suspected an intentional attack, coinciding with Nakba Day.

The driver said it was an accident, losing control of the vehicle after a tyre burst.

Police said this claim did not match eyewitness accounts.

Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the driver, in his early 20s, was from the Arab-Israeli village of Kfar Qassem, north-east of Tel Aviv near the border with the West Bank.

Witnesses said he shouted ‘God is Great’ in Arabic and tried to beat someone with a part of a traffic light, after he got off the truck. Some 40 angry Israeli bystanders for their part beat the driver, before police managed to drag him off into custody.

Witnesses said the driver stopped at nothing and caused damage along a stretch of some 2 kilometres, arguing it made no sense he would have been unable to regain control for that long.

Palestinian youths also clashed with Israeli police and soldiers in East Jerusalem, and at the Israeli-controlled military checkpoints of Qalandia and Atara, south and north-west of the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

Some 30 Palestinians were reported injured at Qalandia, two by rubber bullets and the rest from tear gas inhalation.

Three youths were arrested and one Israeli policeman was also lightly injured by a stone thrown in a clash with some 40 youths in one East Jerusalem area, police said.

Israel had deployed some 10,000 policemen in and around Jerusalem and at possible flashpoints near the border with the West Bank.

The Israeli army also imposed a closure on the occupied territory, closing roadblocks on key West Bank roads, amid fears of violence.

A page on the social network Facebook urged Palestinians to launch a third Intifada (uprising) against the Israeli occupation on Sunday.

 

The Revolution That Wasn’t–Pro-Zionist Egyption police fire at rally outside Zio-Nazi Embassy

NOVANEWS
 
Protestors set fire to Zionist flag, call for Zionist ambassador’s expulsion. At least 185 arrested
Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and live ammunition overnight to disperse thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters outside the Zionist Embassy in Cairo, and a security official said Monday that at least 185 demonstrators were arrested over allegations of attacking police and vandalism.
The rally in Cairo followed calls on Facebook for Arabs to march to Gaza on Sunday in support of the Palestinians, who were holding annual ceremonies marking the “nakba,” or “catastrophe” – the term Palestinians use to describe their defeat and displacement in the war surrounding occupied Palestine 1948 founding.
The protesters set fire to an Zionist flag, chanted anti-Zionist slogans and called for the expulsion of Zionist ambassador and the closure of the embassy.
Egypt’s Health Ministry said at least 353 people were hurt outside the embassy, most of them from breathing tear gas. Some protesters had bullet wounds and one was in critical condition, a security official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Eighteen members of the security forces were injured by thrown rocks.
A youth organization that played a key role in the uprising that toppled former puppet Zionist Hosni Mu-Barak said on its Facebook page that the protest in front of the Zio-Nazi embassy was “civilized,” and questioned the riot police’s use of force in dealing with the demonstrators.
A witness, who wouldn’t give his name out of fear of reprisals, claimed the police used unjustified force.
Egypt’s state-run news agency, MENA, said the protesters managed to push aside barricades placed around the embassy building and attempted to storm the embassy itself to tear down the Israeli flag, which prompted the police action.
Security forces had used trucks and barricades to close off at least three main roads leading to the embassy.

 

Zio-Nazi Gestapo's says handled border breach well

NOVANEWS
 

 

Military admits intelligence did not indicate protesters would infiltrate border, but says its actions prevent further bloodshed

Zio-Nazi’s admitted Sunday that the Syrian border incident which saw dozens of protesters breach the border fence and enter Majdal Shams was a “failure” that should never have happened.

While the military’s intelligence did not predict the border rush, Gestapo’s sources said that once the protesters breached the fence, the security forces on the ground handled the situation well, and prevented hundreds from being killed.

Sunday’s events on northern border caught Zio-Nazi off guard; the Zionist regime must learn lessons quickly, ahead of September

The military said that while it geared for the possibility of “Nakba” protesters attempting to reach the border fence, the probability of violence erupting on the “Shouting Hill,” which sees dozens of rallies a year, was low.

An initial military inquiry into Sunday’s events derived that nearly 1,000 Syrians approached the fence, with Syrian border forces unable – or unwilling – to stop them.

About 300 protesters, including children, rushed the fences and crossed over onto occupied  Palestine 1948 soil.

As a result, about 100 people entered Majdal Shams and clashed with Zio-Nazi security forces.

Several Gestapo’s  sustained mild injuries, including Golan Brigade Commander Colonel Eshkol Shukrun, who ordered his troops not to fire directly on civilians, qualifying that if they must engage, to aim for the lower extremities only.

Colonel Shukrun, as well as 12 other soldiers and officers were later taken to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed. All were suffering from mild-to-moderate injuries to the head, neck and extremities.

Additional forces were dispatched to the area, including Paratroopers and Artillery forces. In the meantime, Zio-Nazi officials were negotiating with Druze community leaders, in order to return the infiltrators to Syria.

Eventually, with the exception of several individuals who were detained by the Zio-Nazi, all infiltrators returned to Syria.

Military sources said that the incident was playing into Damascus’ hands, by distracting the world from Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal suppression of the uprising against him.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry meanwhile, condemned IsraHell’s “criminal activities” and demanded the international community “hold IsraHell responsible for its actions.”

Zio-Nazi Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz called a special assessment forum for Sunday night and ordered forces in all sectors to prepare for any scenario. Zionist Gantz further instructed the GOC Northern Command to mend the Zionist-Syrian border fence immediately.

The events in Lebanon, the military said, bear Iran’s fingerprints – much like the events in Gaza.

The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon urged Zionist regime, Lebanon and Syria to exercise “maximum restraint” and prevent further casualties.

 

Italy to upgrade Palestinian delegation to full diplomatic mission

NOVANEWS

 

Haaretz
 
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano announced Monday that Italy was upgrading the status of the Palestinian representation in Rome, from a delegation to a full diplomatic mission, Israel Radio reported.
Speaking during a press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, Napolitano said the decision was proof of Italy’s good ties with the PA.
Abbas said there was still time to renew the negotiations with Israel for a peace deal based on the 1967 borders and the cessation of all settlement construction in the West Bank.
He expresses hope that United States President Barack Obama would also make the same decision during his expected speech next week.
In recent months Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and other countries have announced similar upgrades to PA diplomatic delegations.
U.S. President Barack Obama will host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on May 20, a U.S. statement said Monday, in a visit that may prove decisive in regards to the future of Israel’s peace talks with the Palestinians.
According to the White House statement, Obama will host the premier for “a meeting at the White House,” saying the “leaders look forward to discussing the full range of issues of mutual interest to the United States and Israel.”
Obama and Netanyahu last met in September of 2010, ahead of the ceremony inaugurating another round of peace talks with the Palestinians. The talks broke down less than a month later.
The late May meeting was officially confirmed after Netanyahu received an invitation last month to address a joint session of Congress, as part of his official visit to the United States.
Sources close to Netanyahu say that they are certain Obama will not put forth an American peace plan. However, Israeli diplomats noted yesterday that Obama will still devote a significant amount of space to Israel, the Palestinians and human rights in the Middle East.

 

Reports: 20 ‘Nakba’ Protesters Killed as Zio-Nazi Troops Attack

NOVANEWS
antiwar.com
Israeli soldiers shot and killed at least 20 Palestinian protesters today, and wounded several hundred others, during Nakba rallies around the region. Nakba commemorates the expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli territory during the founding of the Israeli state, and is officially illegal to commemorate inside Israel.
Of the 20 killed, 10 protesters were slain inside southern Lebanonwhen Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators they decided had drawn too near a border fence. The other 10 were killed along the Syrian border, as Palestinians rallied to the border with the Occupied Golan Heights.
In addition to the killings along the northern border, Israeli forcesshelled protests in the Gaza Strip, wounded scores of Palestinians there. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that he believes the protests are “just the beginning” of a series of rallies against the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights.
At the same time, Barak praised the military for its “restraint” in killing only 20 Palestinians, saying they could have very easily had a “ruinous bloodbath.” He insisted the killings were a defense of Israel’s sovereignty, but experts warn that killing civilian protesters who are “near” a disputed border might well violate international law.

 

Nakba’ Killings: Zio-Nazi Envoys Told to Blame Syria

NOVANEWS
antiwar.com
 

Faced with growing international concern over the killing of some 20 civilian protesters along its borders with Lebanon and Syria and the wounding of hundreds of others, the Israeli Foreign Minister has issued a memorandum defining the official PR stance that Israeli officials abroad are to take with respect to the killings.

The official stance will be that the deaths are entirely the fault of the Syrian government, with the argument being that since Syria’s military controls its border crossings into Israel, the protesters must’ve had official military permission to cross.

Israeli officials were quick to term the civilian protesters an existential threat to the nation of Israel and to praise the military for killing them. Exactly how Israel will manage to blame the 10 civilians its soldiers killed inside Lebanon on Syria is unclear.

At the same time as the Israeli Foreign Minister was coming up with the “blame Syria” stance, Israeli military officials had already decided to blame all of the killings on Iran, with the military’s spokesman calling the deaths a “clear Iranian provocation.”

BBC the Mouthpiece of Zionism

NOVANEWS

Letter to the BBC – Palestinians Don’t Celebrate Their Own Expulsion!

Dear Sirs,

This morning, on both Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live news, yesterday’s protests by Palestinians to mark Nakbah Day were described as “demonstrations to mark the creation of the State of Israel”. On the Today programme, John Humphrys introduced a discussion about the events using the same words (i.e. that the protests were marking the creation of the State of Israel).

In reality, the occasion of the protests was “Nakbah day.” The demonstrators were not “marking the creation of the State of Israel” but the forcible expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in what has become known as the “Nakbah” – the Palestinian national disaster. They were also protesting against the continued refusal of the Israeli authorities to allow the refugees their right of return in compliance with UN Resolutions.

To describe the protests as marking the creation of the State of Israel was grossly misleading because any listener who did not already know the reasons for the demonstrations might be given the impression that the protesters were celebrating the creation of the State of Israel rather than highlighting the plight of Palestinian refugees.

This misrepresentation is likely to have caused considerable offence to anyone, Palestinian or not, who understands the meaning and importance of the Nakbah. Anyone who did not already know the purpose demonstrations would have been left misled and confused about yesterday’s events.

That the BBC should report the issues in this way is of deep concern. Those who wrote the news reports would surely have known that the demonstrations were organised to mark Nakbah day and highlight the plight of the refugees. I should therefore be grateful if you would confirm how the BBC came to report the event in the way that it did. Was there an editorial decision to avoid the use of the word “Nakbah” or the phrases “creation of Palestinian refugees” or “expulsion of Palestinian civilians”? If so, why?

Would the BBC also ensure that all further bulletins use wording that accurately describes the purpose of the demonstrations?

Thank you for your assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Simon Natas

Posted by Tony Greenstein at 21:22 0 comments

 

Palestine: Nakba Day Report

NOVANEWS

Nakba Day Report from an Israeli

On Nakba day, March 15, the writer of this article participated in a demonstration in the North of Israel 14 km from the Lebanese border. We were a group of about 400 who tried to reach the border with Lebanon, but we were forced to stop by the police. We were allowed to demonstrate for one hour and were then attacked by the policy with tear gas about 10 of us suffered for hours from this attack and 22 of us were arrested. However compared to other Palestinians and the few Jews who participated in the Golan Heights, Ras Maroun in Lebanon and Gaza, the price we paid for the right to demonstrate for the Palestinian refugees to return was negligible.

Israel is doing everything to erase the memory of the Nakba. It removes the fact from the rewritten official books of history

The “Nakba bill”, proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu, requires the state to fine local authorities and other state-funded bodies for holding events marking the Palestinian Nakba Day.

The second bill, which passed by a majority of 35 to 20, formalizes the establishment of admission committees to review potential residents of Negev and Galilee communities that have fewer than 400 families..

After the passing of the bill the Knesset erupted in riots as MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al), refusing to limit himself to the comparison of the bill to South Africa’s apartheid, mentioned the Wannsee Conference in which the Nazis decided on the Holocaust’s “final solution” – or the gassing of Jews.

However, following yesterday demonstrations and the cold blood murder of number of Palestinians, the name “Nakba” become familiar for many people around the world. The Nakaba (catastrophe ) refers to the 1948 founding of Israel when the Israeli army expelled between 700.000 to 900.000 Palestinians to create a capitalist state with Jewish Majority.

At least one Palestinian was killed and up to 80 others wounded in northern Gaza as Israeli troops opened fire on a march of at least 1,000 people heading towards the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

A group of Palestinians, including children, marching to mark the “Nakba” were shot by the Israeli army after crossing a Hamas checkpoint and entering what Israel calls a “buffer zone” – an empty area between checkpoints where Israeli soldiers generally shoot trespassers, Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston reported from Gaza City on Sunday

Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh in his speech said :.
“Palestinians mark the occasion this year with great hope of bringing to an end the Zionist project in Palestine,”

At the same time acting on the Fatah-Hamas new agreement .Hamas tried to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the Buffer Zone. According to one of the demonstrators interviewed by Al Jazeera “Hamas has asked us to leave; they are trying to move people away from the Israeli border. They say seeing so many people at the border indicates a shift in politics in the area.”

AFP has reported that Israeli gunfire killed 12 people and wounded hundreds in MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights occupied in 1967, as Palestinians marched on Israel’s borders with Lebanon, Syria and Gaza in a mass show of mourning over the creation of the Jewish state.

Israeli army radio reported that dozens were wounded when Palestinian refugees from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border were shot for trying to break through the frontier fence. The demonstrators carried key of their houses that Israel has destroyed or gave to Israelis following the mass expulsion of the Palestinians

IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav “Poli” Mordechai described the incident in which Palestinians demonstrators crossed from Syria into Israel as an “Iranian provocation”

Israeli government officials have blamed Syria for “intentionally allowing hundreds of Syrian Arabs who called themselves Palestinians to cross into the Golan Sunday.

Syria is home to 470,000 Palestinian refugees.

There have also been reports that Israeli gunfire killed 10 people and injured scores more in the Lebanese town of Ras Maroun, on the southern border with Israel.

In the southern city of Hebron, 12 people were hit by rubber bullets fired by Israeli troops as an estimated 2,000 demonstrators held a protest, medical and security sources said.

One of the biggest Nakba demonstrations was held near Qalandiya refugee camp and checkpoint, the main secured entry point into the West Bank from Israel, where about 100 protesters marched, Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh reported from Ramallah.

In Jeruslaem there were many clashes with the Police, following the murder of Milad Ayyash, 16, on Saturday morning in East Jerusalem’ killed by shots fired from the Beit Yonatan apartment complex, inhabited by Jewish settlers, in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. Palestinian demonostrators attempted take over Palestinian houses given to Jewish setllers in Shiekh Jerah called now by the settlers Moscowitz housing project.

The main chant coming from the Palestinian demonstrators was : The Palestinian people want to return to their land that Israel has stolen. Many held keys to their houses that by now have been destroyed or given to Jewish settlers.

In Jordan, six people were injured as police tried to stop 200 students from marching on the border, while in Turkey, about 100 demonstrators held a protest outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, AFP correspondents said.

It is clear that the Palestinian revolution that is pushed forward by the Palestinian youth is part of the Arab revolution that engulfs the Middle East. All the attempts to isolate the Palestinians and prevent a popular uprising could not prevent the courageous demonstrators from raising the need for a revolution ..

The events yesterday have shown any one with eyes to see and ears to hear that a key question of the so called Israeli-Arab conflict is the Palestinian right of return.

The Israeli government has defended the killing of the Palestinians who tried to return to their land stolen by Israel.

In reaction to the killing of unarmed Palestinians that took place on Israel’s existing borders on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was determined to defend itself and its sovereignty.

Netanyahu said that the Nakba Day protests were not about the 1967 borders, but rather about “undermining the very existence of Israel.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday that Israel Defense Forces soldiers succeeded in defending Israel’s sovereignty when Palestinian refugee demonstrators breached the border with Syria and attempted to cross the border with Lebanon.

Netanyahu is right on one point. The demonstrations yesterday were not for a Mini Palestinian state alongside Israel controlling 80 % of Palestine. It was for the right of the refugees to return to their land. Once the refugees will be able to return the majority of the people living in this country would be Palestinians. For this reason Israel will be ready to kill thousands and thousands of Palestinians in an attempt to prevent such an outcome, and as long as Israel will exist the Palestinian refugees will not be able to return.

Thus, history has phrased the question the following: Either the right of the Israeli to rule Palestine and not allowed the right of self determination of the Palestinians or the right of self determination for the Palestinians that negate the right of self determination of the Israelis on Palestinian lands as all Israel is stolen land.

While Israeli Jews can live in security and equality in A Palestinian workers state and the Jewish workers who will join the revolution will be part of the ruling class in a workers state. the continuation of the Israeli state means not only the killing of Palestinians and Arabs but that Israel is a death trap for the Israelis..The clearest case demonstrating this fact is the refusal of Israel to release Shalit by releasing 450 Palestinian political prisoners.

We in the Internationalist Socialist League in Israel( occupied Palestine) in a leaflet we distributed yesterday said::For the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands, the only solution is a socialist revolution that will create a Palestinian workers state from the river to the sea as part of a Socialist Federation of the Middle East.

Yossi Schwartz

‘The Only Democracy in the Middle East’ Murders 13 Unarmed Demonstrators

NOVANEWS

 

On the day that it was announced that Libya’s Col. Ghadaffi will likely be indicted at the International Criminal Court at the Hague for war crimes, there was a strange omission.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been responsible for the murder of thousands of Palestinians, found his name left off the list of potential war crimes.

The latest killings, 13 at the latest count, occurred when peaceful and unarmed demonstrators at the Lebanese border, the Golan Heights and Gaza’s Erez Junction, among other places, were killed in cold blood and hundreds injured, tear gassed and arrested as they commemorated the Day of the Nakba.

Nakba means ‘Catastrophe’ and that is how it is seen by Palestinians. Between 1947 and 1948, Zionist militias deliberately massacred thousands of Palestinians in order to ‘encourage’ ¾ million Palestinians to leave for neighbouring Arab countries, never to return. The aim was the creation of a ‘Jewish’ State in Israel on May 15th 1948. To establish a state with a decisive Jewish majority in a land where the majority of the population were non-Jewish, it was absolutely vital to expel the vast majority of Palestinians from the area of that State. That was why ‘Transfer’ Committees had been set up under the Jewish Agency to plan the mechanics of the expulsion.

In subsequent years Israel wove the myth about how the Arabs had voluntarily left their homes in order that the armies of the neighbouring Arab states could enter. In time Israeli historians, such as Simha Flapan [The Birth Of Israel Myths And Realities], Benny Morris [The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem,1947–1949] and Ilan Pappe [The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine] demolished this revisionist attempt to rewrite history, although Morris’s views have become the Zionist equivalent of the Nazi attitude to Jews.His only regret now is that the expulsion of the Palestinians wasn’t completed and 100% had been expelled.

Ever since 1948 Israel had been engaged in trying to erase the collective memory of the Nakba. Over 250 villages, the names of which the late Professor Israel Shahak, a holocaust survivor himself, were uncovered as part of the process of rediscovering the memory of 1948. The Jewish National Fund, which today tries to cover itself in ‘green’ credentials planted forests and parks over those villages that the Kibbutzim – the symbol of ‘socialist Zionism’ hadn’t already stolen and built upon.

The articles below are from a number of different angles. The first is from an Israeli protestor, Yossi Schwartz, who describes the arrests and attacks on peaceful demonstrators describes this process of rewriting history. The ‘Nakba Bill’ of the semi-fascist Yisrael Beteinu, effectively outlaws mention of the Nakbah. The Nakba is not to be mentioned in the school curriculum and local authorities that hold events to commemorate it are fined (i.e. Arab local authorities which receive on average one-third per capita grants of similar Jewish local authorities.

But the more the Zionists try to ban and erase the memory of the crimes of 1948, the more it is embedded in the consciousness of Israel’s Palestinians. There is also an account of the various demonstrations and the attacks on them all over Israel and the occupied territories.

Below this is a description of how thousands of Syrians and Palestinians marched to the ‘border’ with Israel – in reality the illegally occupied Golan Heights that Israel captured in 1967. Again Israel used its normal customary force to repel the native population seeking access to their land although they were taken by surprise.

Underneath is a report from the International Solidarity Movement of the demonstration in Al-Walaja, which was also viciously attacked by the Zionist military and noted human rights and peace campaigner Professor Mazen Qumsiyah was arrested.

But whenever things go wrong for Israel’s public relations one can always rely on the BBC to step in to the breach. So John Humphries of the Today programme managed to describe the demonstrations as marking the creation of the State of Israel! Presumably by that feat of logic, Holocaust Memorial Day is really about remembering the creation of the Third Reich! Is it any wonder that people are ignorant of what happens in Israel/Palestine when the BBC deliberately misleads and misinforms. Simon Natas has written an excellent letter of complaint to the BBC about their coverage and I hope you do too.

Tony Greenstein