HEBRON (Ma’an) — Dozens of settlers attacked a family who were picking olives in Yatta, in the West Bank district of Hebron, witnesses said. Locals said settlers attacked Othman Abu Sabha and his family, damaged his car and stole their olives. Meanwhile, settlers entered Kfir Qaddum village east of Qalqiliya, and wrote graffiti on the walls threatening revenge. Palestinian farmers across the West Bank have reported frequent settler attacks since the olive harvest began in early October. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326474 Farmers Again Prevented from Entering their Land
Today a family in the village of Salim, southeast of Nablus, was prevented from harvesting their olives for a second time this year. All of their trees are located behind a settlers´ road leading to the illegal settlement of Elon More: a settlement which has stolen much of the village’s land. As the family and three internationals approached the settlers´ road, closed by a military ga te, about 10 soldiers stood waiting for them. These soldiers said it would not be possible for the family to go onto their land because the army did not have enough forces to stay in the field with them. Internationals suggested that the soldiers present remain to ensure their safety, but instead soldiers wasted 45 minutes asserting that this wasn’t possible. During this time, another jeep with five soldiers arrived, but the army maintained that there were not enough forces available, due to a “special operation”. Several times it was stated by the army that the commander of the unit, who was not available, had decided that the farmers could not harvest today, but “maybe tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow”. http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/15155/ Israel ramps up settlement building
JERUSALEM — The Elders, a group of retired world figures, criticised Israeli policies in Arab east Jerusalem on Thursday, saying they undermined regional peace efforts and Israel’s standing as a democracy. “If a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is to be found it has to be here in Jerusalem as well,” said delegation leader and former Irish president Mary Robinson. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hWEO6WXMHIUCMVM5rKdMNVEuiFmQ Elders Visit Silwan, Hear Local Stories
Bethlehem – PNN – This morning a delegation from the peace advocacy group The Elders, including former US President Jimmy Carter, visited the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. The delegation sat down with local leaders to discuss the effects of settler violence and the occupation. Image About 55,000 people live in Silwan, with many in the al-Bustan district being threatened with eviction as Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat plans to clear the area to build a tourist complex. Fakhri Abu Diab, a local spokesman, told the Elders that Palestinians have lived in Silwan for a thousand years but have been threatened with expulsion, assault, and harassment from Jewish settlers. Abu Diab was followed by a series of testimonials from Silwan residents, including a child’s account of capture and torture in an Israeli military prison. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8965&Itemid=66
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Bethlehem – PNN – One international supporter was injured and two others were arrested by Israeli soldiers during the weekly anti-wall protest in Al Ma’ssara village near Bethlehem on Friday. Israeli and international supporters joined the villagers and marched towards lands that Israel has planned to take over in order to construct its wall. Israeli soldiers stopped the protesters near the local school and used tear gas and sound bombs to force them back. A French activist sustained head injuries from a tear gas bomb and soldiers arrested two other internationals. Today marks the fifth year of anti-wall weekly protests in Al Ma’ssara village. Local organizers told PNN that the injured French activist was taken to the village clinic for treatment and released after receiving four stitches http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8979&Itemid=59 Dozens Suffer from Gas Inhalation at Ni’lin Weekly Wall Protest
Bethlehem – PNN – Dozens were injured in the weekly march against the wall in the central West Bank village of Ni’lin. After Friday prayers, Ni’lin villagers listened to a speech from Sheikh Murad Amira, who commended them for campaigning for freedom and spreading their message to the world. Then they went directly and peacefully to the wall, shouting slogans against the wall and the occupation and demanding the release of prisoners. As soon as the protestors reached the wall, soldiers began firing sound bombs and tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. When the demonstrators began to flee, the soldiers pursued them back to the village, firing rubber and rubber-tipped bullets and causing a number of minor injuries. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8983&Itemid=60 Three Civilians Injured During Weekly Bil’in Anti Wall Protest
Ramallah – PNN – Two adults and one child were reported injured during the weekly anti-wall protest in the central West Bank village of Bil’in on Friday. Israeli and international supporters joined villagers after the midday prayers at the local mosque and headed towards the Israeli wall that separates local farmers from their lands. As soon as protester reached the gate of the wall Israeli soldiers stationed there showered them with tear gas and sound bombs. Lamma Abu Rahma, 8 years old, along with Mohamed Al Khateb and Ahmad Burnat, both 17 years old, were hit in the foot by a tear gas bombs. Many were also treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation. The village of Bil’in has been protesting the Israeli wall for the past six years. Earlier in the year the Israeli court ordered the military to move the wall back, giving the villagers half of their lands back. The Israeli military has still refused to adhere to the court order. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8978&Itemid=59 Israel Crushes A Palestinian Gandhi: Bil’in Organizer Sentenced to 18 months, Joseph Dana
The Jordanian government has warned against the dangerous rise in the number of Jerusalemites residing in Jordan who don’t renew their residency permits issued by the Israeli occupation. This prompted the government to change the Jerusalemites permanent residency yellow cards to temporary green cards, stripping them of their basic rights. The Jordanian opposition said the citizenship order is unconstitutional. Hasan al-Shubaki met a Jerusalemite family and reported on their ordeal. http://www.linktv.org/scripts/episode_transcript.php?episode=mosaic20101020 Rolling blackouts resume in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — One of the generators in Gaza’s sole power plant will stop running Friday as it has run out of fuel, a Gaza Electricity Company spokesman said. Jamal Ad-Dardasawi said efforts to open Kerem Shalom crossing for the entry of fuel had failed. Israeli authorities informed Gaza crossings official Raed Fattouh that both Kerem Shalom and the Karni crossing would be closed on Friday and Saturday, and reopen Sunday. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326428 Seeing Is Believing
ANERA- PNN – The dingy basement room was constructed in 1972 with miserable ventilation and light. Worn-out, outdated computers are stacked in a monotonous line alongside the moldy crumbling walls. ImageThis was the room in Kufur Thulth Secondary Girls School, located southeast of Qalqilia, where hundreds of high school girls used to squeeze in together to learn about computers. “Seeing is believing,” said the headmistress Ayda Mwafi as she tried to describe the miserable condition of the old computer lab. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8967&Itemid=63
Racism & Discrimination
According to its Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for the week of 14– 20 October 2010, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that two members of the Palestinian resistance were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip; three civilians were wounded, and 13 abducted, including two Israeli peace demonstrators and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. http://www.imemc.org/article/59714 Witnesses: Israeli patrol enters Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – Israeli forces entered Gaza via the Karni and Sufa crossings Thursday morning, witnesses said. Locals said soldiers patrolled the area east of Gaza City and opened fire before withdrawing. Also, the An-Nasser Brigades claimed responsibility for attacking an Israeli force stationed near Al-Matbaq gate east of Rafah in southern Gaza. An Israeli military spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326225 More Clashes Reported In East Jerusalem
Hebron – PNN – An Israeli military force invaded the villages of Beit Awa and Beit Omer near the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Friday morning, arresting five civilians. Local sources said that troops searched and ransacked a number of homes in both villages before arresting five men and taking them to an unknown location. Also on Friday, a group of Israeli settlers stormed the village of Kufer Qaduom in the northern West Bank. Settlers vandalized farmers’ property and wrote slogans on residents’ homes, telling them to leave or be killed. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8972&Itemid=64 Security guard attacks Al Jazeera reporter in Jerusalem
A private security guard was arrested on Thursday evening after allegedly attacking an Al Jazeera reporter at Malha Mall in Jerusalem. The suspect, a Jewish man in his 40s, worked as a security guard at the Malha branch of the post office. The reporter said he was sitting in a coffee shop in the mall with his crew when the guard attacked without provocation. The guard was not armed during the confrontation. He was taken for questioning and will be brought before the court on Friday morning. http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=192346
Detainees
HEBRON (Ma’an) – Israeli forces detained six residents of the West Bank district of Hebron at dawn on Friday, Palestinian security sources said. The sources said Israeli soldiers detained Tareq Ahmad, 35, and confiscated 6 laptops and 21 cell phones from his home. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Sawarneh, 18, and his 16-year-old brother Ahmad were detained from Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. Saed Masalmeh, Yosef Masalmeh and Abdul Khader Masalmeh were detained from Beit Awwa in southern Hebron. An Israeli military spokesman said two Palestinians were detained in Beit Awwa, but was not aware of any other detentions overnight. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326451 Palestinian captives at Atzion live on bread and water for the past 10 days
Director of the PPS in the district of al-Khalil called on all human rights organisations to intervene to put a limit to the suffering of Palestinian captives at the Atzion detention centre http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7
Israel’s Arab Helpers
Bethlehem- PNN – The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) called on the Palestinian Authority to take immediate action to release 26-year-old Al Quds TV correspondent Mamdouh Hamamreh. Hamamreh, from the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, has been held in the PA’s Bethlehem civilian prison since September 19, 2010. The story of Hamamreh began on September 1, when a group of Palestinian intelligence services officers came to his home and took him to the intelligence headquarters in Bethlehem. After three days of questioning about his work at Al Quds TV, he was released and asked to return on September 18. He could not make that date and instead went in on September 19, whereupon the PA arrested him immediately. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8977&Itemid=73
War Criminals
The family of Rachel Corrie had a long and painful wait for the opportunity to come face to face in court with the driver of the Israeli Army bulldozer that crushed her to death in southern Gaza more than seven years ago. But yesterday they were denied the chance – listening instead to the driver’s voice from behind a screen during four hours of testimony as he gave his own version of what happened on that fateful March afternoon. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/
bulldozer-driver-insists-he-did-not-see-rachel-corrie-2113346.html
Political Developments
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A member of the PLO’s negotiating team said Thursday that the Obama administration had all but given up its efforts to restart peace talks at least until US midterm elections next month. Fatah leader Nabil Sha’ath said the US position threw the Palestinian Authority into crisis through its handling of the talks, which ended in September when Israel opted to renew building settlements in the occupied territories. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326331 Islamic Jihad joining Hamas ceasefire with Israel?
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Islamic Jihad is taking strides to restrain its members in the Gaza Strip from unauthorized attacks, suggesting that the group has quietly joined Hamas in enforcing a nearly 2-year ceasefire with Israel. This became clear when, on Sunday morning, an Israeli drone killed two men widely believed to be current or former members of the Palestinian movement in northern Gaza; mysteriously, the group did not claim them as their own. The Israeli military said the two were preparing to fire rockets into Israel. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326321 Syria to officially invite Fatah to Damascus
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Syria will officially invite Fatah to continue Palestinian reconciliation talks in Damascus as a dispute between the two has been resolved, sources told Ma’an. A meeting was scheduled to be held in the Syrian capital on Wednesday, but Fatah delayed the meeting over a perceived snub at the recent Arab League summit in Sirtre, Libya. Fatah officials had been offended when Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad urged President Mahmoud Abbas to stop preventing attacks on Israel from the West Bank at the summit. Fatah leader Nabil Sha’ath said it would be difficult to send a delegation to Damascus “after the Syrians humiliated us in their speech.” http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326436 Taha: Fatah visit to Gaza postponed indefinitely
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A scheduled visit by Fatah to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has been postponed, a Hamas leader said Thursday. Ayman Taha said the visit, scheduled for Sunday, was delayed indefinitely “as not to create the impression that such a meeting would substitute for the Damascus talks.” Taha added that “contacts are ongoing between the two movements to set a place other than Damascus.” http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326365 Peace with Palestinians would help U.S. on Iran: Peres (Reuters)
In a rousing 30-minute speech Wednesday night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implored attendees at the annual gala for the American Task Force on Palestine not to give up on the struggling Middle East peace process, despite past, current, and future obstacles. Hosted by ATFP President Ziad Asali, the event was packed with officials, experts, and influence makers involved with the region. The four honorees of the night were Retired Col. Peter Mansoor, renowned poet Naomi Shihab Nye, playwright Betty Shamieh, and Booz Allen Hamilton’s Ghassan Salameh. Other notables figures in attendance included Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud and Sharif El-Gamal, the developer of the Park 51 Muslim Community Center. Palestinian-American comedienne Maysoon Zayid was also a hit. http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/21/
clinton_we_promise_not_to_turn_our_backs_on_palestinians_or_israelis
Other News
President Shimon Peres on Thursday said that Israel could not exist without the assistance of the United States, and that it should assist in America’s security and to help enable the formation of a coalition against Iran by solving the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel Radio reported. In Peres’s remarks at the JPPP conference in Jerusalem, the President said that he does not believe that there are problems with the US. He continued to say that he believes that the American people have a central connection with Israel, according to the report. http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=192379 Netanyahu’s ‘list of millionaires’
Former chief rabbi, two of Israel leading sociologists believe Israelis would have become more materialistic, greedy and selfish than in November 1995 even without trauma of prime minister’s assassination. ‘The murder deepened the polarization and hatred between the people,’ Rabbi Lau says. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973330,00.html
Culture
Yesterday James North wrote a piece about Budrus and Ayed Morrar, the Palestinian organizer of nonviolent resistance who is at the heart of the film. At North’s urging, I went to see the film yesterday. Every story we get about Palestinians must be smuggled into the United States; and now there is a story smuggled in, about the actual occupation, in the form of a feel-good documentary. By the end of Budrus you think that everything is OK, that the small village of Budrus got its land back, and the Palestinian activists and the Israeli activists are working together. The last image is of the activists walking down the hill together. A feel good moment, which does not represent the reality of the occupation. http://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/please-see-budrus.html Olives – A Palestinian family affair, Nour Odeh
Mommy wake up! It’s time to go pick olives! The sweet voice of my five-year-old Yasser this Friday morning didn’t feel so sweet. It was six in the morning on my first day off in a while and I was hoping to stay well-planted in dreamland until 9am. But Yasser was too excited about his upcoming adventure, picking the olives we would eat for months to come, and being a very curious child, was curious to know how these treats end up at his table. Olives and olive oil are a Palestinian must. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, these two healthy offerings are never absent from a Palestinian table. http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/10/20/olives-palestinian-family-affair Jerusalem center promotes Palestinian heritage
Situated just a few yards away from the Haram al-Sharif in the Souq al-Qattanin, the Cotton Market in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Centre for Jerusalem Studies is both an assertion of the city’s Palestinian identity, and an example of the threat that identity faces. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11583.shtml
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
TAIBEH, Israel — Is there no limit to what the American government will accept from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-line foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman?, With Netanyahu’s backing, the Israeli cabinet voted in support of Lieberman’s loyalty oath for non-Jewish immigrants, which requires allegiance to a “Jewish and democratic state” of Israel. It was as if Mexican immigrants to the United States would have to swear allegiance to a United States that is white and Protestant, while immigrants from Europe would face no such oath. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/opinion/22iht-edtibi.html?_r=2&ref=global Time to abandon talks?
With Israel pushing a hardline stance while settlement expansion is ongoing, pressure is mounting on Ramallah to ditch US sponsored peace talks with Tel Aviv, writes Saleh Al-Naami. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1020/re4.htm
It’s a normal day in Jerusalem. The famous Jerusalem sesame-seed round loaf of bread, all kinds of people, from all religions worship God in their own way. There’s the traffic, the Old City shops, Jewish kids playing, Muslim kids playing, Christian kids playing, and… you can’t decipher who is who. If it were not for a few juxtaposed shots in between like soldiers, weapons, checkpoints, settlements, arrests, confrontation, house demolitions, and other pointers of a military occupation — one could falsely imagine that coexistence and normal life already exists in the holy city.
Setting aside for a moment the argument of whether dividing historic Palestine into two states was ever a good idea, clearly forty years ago it was a viable solution. Today as liberal Zionist Jews and others call for this solution, it is a sad and pathetic sight. In 1967, after the IDF completed the conquest of Palestine, great men like Dr. Nahum Goldman, Dr. Yishayahu Leibovitch, General Dr. Matti Peled and other prominent Jews called for the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. However, Jews in Israel, America and elsewhere around the world were basking in the messianic glow of the conquest of historic Israel, bewitched by the sounds of biblical names now made accessible. Names like Hebron and Bethlehem, Shilo and Bet El, all of which who were now within reach drove everyone, including secular liberal Jews to believe that there is a God and that he was really on their side. http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16347 Image and reality of Barack Obama’s Israel policy, Alex Kane
Ali Abunimah’s Pizza analogy for Israel’s facts-on-the-ground negotiating style has taken the world by storm. I have it on good authority that the clip has been watched and enjoyed on the most extreme Israeli settlements. One settler was even heard to say “that guy’s really cool for a Palestinian, but he makes me hungry.” I think it’s time however, to take things to another level: dessert. Pizza’s fine for negotiating strategy and settlement policy, but for a more complete metaphor, describing the essence of Israel and everything it stands for, we need cake. http://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/let-them-eat-cake.html Britain Hangs out ‘Welcome’ Sign to War Criminals, Stuart Littlewood – London
An American activist once gave me a book she wrote detailing her experiences in Palestine. The largely visual volume documented her journey of the occupied West Bank, rife with barbered wires, checkpoints, soldiers and tanks. It also highlighted how Palestinians resisted the occupation peacefully, in contrast to the prevalent media depictions linking Palestinian resistance to violence. http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16348 Actuality–to use the language of Hegel–of the Zionist Idea
“Liberal Israelis fear that these measures may import the Arab-Israeli conflict, which had been largely confined to the territories occupied by Israel beyond the 1948 partition line, into Israel proper. Adding to the psychological barriers, the Lod authorities have erected physical ones. This year they have finished building a wall three metres high to separate Lod’s Jewish districts from its Arab ones. And where the Arab suburbs are cordoned off to prevent their spread, Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, encourages building for Jews to proceed with abandon. His foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, on the coalition’s far right, champions building quarters for soldiers’ families in the town. The equally chauvinistic interior minister, Eli Yishai, who heads an ultra-Orthodox party, Shas, grants building permits for religious Jews. http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/10/actuality-to-use-language-of-hegel-of.html Palestine’s Burning Olive Groves, Rannie Amiri
Olives and olive oil. Nothing symbolizes Palestinian land, identity and culture as they do. They are the hallmarks of national pride and the veritable heart of Palestine’s agricultural economy. Although the subjugation and daily humiliation of occupation takes various forms in East Jerusalem and the West Bank—demeaning checkpoint searches; arrest and interrogation of minors; preventing ambulances from expeditiously transporting the sick to hospitals; the eviction of families and demolition of homes—few situations evoke more outrage and deep sadness as do the torching of olive orchards by vigilante settlers. http://original.antiwar.com/rannie-amiri/2010/10/21/palestines-burning-olive-groves/
Lebanon
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad received a hero’s welcome from Hezbollah during his recent visit to Lebanon. He also took time out to meet with Palestinian refugees, who have indirectly benefited from extensive Iranian aid. “He’s more Palestinian than many Palestinians,” was one observation. – Franklin Lamb http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LJ23Ak01.html A three-handed game in the Middle East
A surge in diplomatic activity in the Middle East has focused on the cabinet crisis in Iraq, and on tensions in Lebanon over the 2005 murder of ex-prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. This flurry of statesmanship has revealed considerable coordination between Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. – Sami Moubayed http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LJ21Ak02.html
Iraq
With declining international media interest in Iraq, local reporters juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet. Freelance journalist Faisal Ali says the only way to survive in Iraq’s cutthroat media market these days is to duck and dive and keep your editors far apart. http://iwpr.net/report-news/iraqi-journalists-duck-and-dive
U.S./ Other Mideast/World News
WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) – The United States intends to cut off aid to about a half-dozen Pakistani army units believed to have killed civilians and unarmed prisoners, The New York Times reported late on Thursday. If confirmed, the decision would represent an extraordinary censure of the Pakistani military just as President Barack Obama’s administration seeks greater action from Islamabad in tackling Taliban safe havens. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22137001.htm Chavez meets Syrian President
The United Arab Emirates has opened a naval base on its east coast as part of efforts to secure its ability to export oil in the event Iran closes the strategic Strait of Hormuz, local media said Thursday. The move by the UAE comes at the same time as the United States approved its biggest arms deal ever, announcing Wednesday that it will sell up to $60 billion worth of warplanes, helicopters and other weapons to Saudi Arabia, partly to help it counter Iran. http://www.dailystar.com.lb//article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=120644 Egypt’s Mubarak ‘will run again’
With a parliamentary election due in Bahrain this Saturday, the BBC’s Bill Law looks at the struggle of the country’s Shia majority for more powers from the Sunni-led rulers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11599054
Islam in the West
Campbell Soup Co., the Camden, N.J., food giant, has been fighting a grass-roots boycott of its products after its Canadian subsidiary rolled out a line of soups certified as halal, meaning they’re prepared according to Islamic dietary laws. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101702840.html
What about Iran?
Rah, rah, sis boom bah: Silsbee High School in Texas wants their cheerleaders smiling, energetic, and willing to cheer for their rapists by name. Go team! H.S., a Silsbee student, reported being raped in 2008 by Rakheem Bolton, a fellow student and athletic star, with the help of two of his friends. In the end, Bolton recently ended up getting off without serving any jail time by pleading guilty to a lesser assault charge, spending two years on probation, doing community service, paying a fine, and attending anger management courses. Hardly seems like an adequate punishment, but it’s unfortunately not uncommon for attackers to bargain down their charges. What really gets the blood boiling is how the students’ high school treated the victim when the rape charge was levied. http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/high_school_
cheerleader_kicked_off_squad_for_refusal_to_cheer_for_her_rapist www.TheHeadlines.org