Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

 

• ‘Is this is what the most moral army in the world does!?’: An American student describes being shot by the Israeli military during a peaceful demonstration

• From Mississippi to Gaza City: The spirit of the freedom riders lives on in the effort to break the siege

• Challenging AIPAC’s abuse of taxpayers money

• Palestinian teen critically injured as Israel cracks down on Nakba demos; American protester shot in the head with tear-gas canister at close range

• #Nakbasurvivor: Telling the story of the Nakba in the internet age

• Stolen Beauty boycott culture jam turns Ahava’s online marketing contest into a social media #FAIL

• Solidarity from Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, marches to Palestine planned for Nakba Day

• A story of the most powerful army in the Middle East chasing 18 cows.

‘Is this is what the most moral army in the world does!?’: An American student describes being shot by the Israeli military during a peaceful demonstration

May 13, 2011

Christopher Whitman

This video of today’s protest in Nabi Saleh was posted by Christopher Whitman. The caption says, “The last frame is me getting shot at close range with a high velocity tear gas canister.”

After posting earlier today about the Palestinian teen who was critically injured protesting in Silwan today, and an American activist who was shot at a protest in Nabi Saleh, that student, Christopher Whitman, contacted us and wanted to share his story. This is what he sent:

My name is Christopher Whitman from outside Boston, Massachusetts. I live in Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. I am a Master’s student in the Hebrew University in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. I was in Al-Nabi Saleh today protesting against the 44 year Israeli occupation and its current policy of illegal land confiscation expand the range of settlements in the region which include Dolev, Halamish, and Nahalil (sp?).

The protest was different than the other times I had been at al-Nabi Saleh in the past. Those were usually similar to protests in Bil’in or Nil’in, but rougher. Starting with the soldiers setting up on all fronts of the village and then refusing the protestors (who are mainly children) from reaching their lands in parts of the village. This goes on until the soldiers start tear gassing and using sound bombs which results in stone throwing from youths. This day was different, very different.

For the first 3 hours there was minimal tear gas and average usage of sound bombs and the soldiers were allowing for the villagers to go to certain parts of the land with massive buildups around them. Children sang and danced to nationalist songs. Then after 3 hours or so the Israelis got rather bored and starting arresting Israeli activists and local Palestinians. They also started beating the villagers (including women of all ages), and spraying mace in the eyes of women and men alike. This is when the Israelis started to push everyone back, and the vast majority scattered into the houses. It should also be noted, not a single rock was thrown or anything to warrant this massive retaliation. Not a single one was thrown all day, let alone just before this massive beating.

I was in the street with just a few observers documenting the incident. I saw that they started shooting tear gas from a distance of 50ft (15m) which is far to close, and they were not shooting it into the air. I decided to duck and knee just a little and got nailed on the top of the head above my forehead. I almost fell completely to the ground. From there I was picked up by two Palestinians who brought me to the ambulance with blood over my head and face. I then pointed to my face as we passed the Israeli army and border police and yelled “is this is what the most moral army in the world does!?” And then I was put into the ambulance.

The paramedic cleaned up my wounds as best he could. I felt delirious and discombobulated. At one point the blood loss was so extreme the places in my body that were farthest from my heart (fingers, knees) began tensing to a point of no control and I felt like a cripple. The ambulance arrived at Ramallah Hospital 30 minutes later, but my treatment was delayed due to a strike. I saw many doctors, had x-rays, CT scans, and stitches free of charge. Many people who were at the protest came to see how I was and even had a gift given to me from the village…which was the piece of my head the was knocked off by the tear gas cannister (photo – warning graphic).

From Mississippi to Gaza City: The spirit of the freedom riders lives on in the effort to break the siege

May 13, 2011

Adam Horowitz

Hannah Schwarzschild writes in TheHill.com about her father’s experience as a freedom rider 50 years ago, and her similar work today with the next flotilla to Gaza:

My father’s purpose in joining that Freedom Ride was twofold: to pressure the federal government into enforcing the Supreme Court’s decision that racial segregation in interstate travel violated the U.S. Constitution; and, just as importantly, to focus public attention on the injustice, brutality and defiance of the Jim Crow South.

My father was lucky. By the time he was arrested and jailed, the worst of the violence against the Freedom Riders was already over. Still, he was one of the so-called “outside agitators” whom Alabama Governor George Wallace had accused of “provoking” violence by his defiance of local laws and customs. As such, he had no assurance of a safe return, or any guarantee that his government, the United States government, would protect him from the torches, snipers and attack dogs of the local KKK.

My father was not naïve. He knew the dangers. He also knew that the goal of ending segregation was remote. He went, as he wrote many years later, not because he believed that his mission would succeed, but “as an act of faith in the validity of a moral act. I went because I needed to go.”

As we mark the 50th anniversary of those historic bus rides, a modern-day Freedom Ride will set out this June to challenge and focus international attention on another enduring and yet urgent injustice. The Israeli siege of Gaza has rendered 1.6 million souls – mostly refugees and the children and grandchildren of refugees – forgotten inmates in the world’s largest open-air prison. All movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza by land, air and sea is still controlled – mostly prohibited – by the Israeli military with continuing and coerced Egyptian complicity.

The infrastructure of civil society is still in rubble. Almost no one and nothing goes in; almost no one and nothing comes out. Israeli forces still regularly invade Gaza, destroying agricultural land and homes, and killing Palestinian civilians.

The population grows more desperate. The annual $3 billion of U.S. military aid to Israel continues to flow. The world pays little attention. Egypt’s newly-announced plan to open its border with Gaza promises to relieve some of the most immediate humanitarian crisis, but it does not address the continued separation of the people of Gaza from the rest of Israeli-occupied Palestine or end the illegal naval blockade.

That is why I have been working, along with so many other Americans who care about equality and freedom, to send a U.S.-flagged ship, named The Audacity of Hope, to break the siege of Gaza. Echoing the segregationists of old on “outside agitators,” Israel has slanderously accused the organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza of trying to bring material aid to terrorists.

But the U.S. Boat to Gaza’s mission is not to deliver “humanitarian aid” or any other material cargo. Instead, our ship will carry a brave band of unarmed human rights activists as well as the audacious hopes of thousands who have committed their money and time to this nonviolent mission of resistance to enduring racism and injustice. Israeli government officials have vowed to send snipers and attack dogs to stop the flotilla’s supposed “terrorists” and “provocateurs” from entering Gaza. Anyone who doubts their seriousness is simply not paying attention.

Read the entire article on TheHill.com.

Challenging AIPAC’s abuse of taxpayers money

May 13, 2011

Omar Barghouti

The Arab democratic spring, striving to end authoritarian rule and establish freedoms and social justice, has not been welcome by all. Israel and its main lobby in the U.S., the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), for instance, appear to have been caught off guard and visibly disturbed by the seemingly irreversible transformations that these uprisings promise to bring about in the Arab world and, to an extent, the world at large.
Having stood on the wrong side of history during the Tunisian and then the Egyptian revolutions, supporting the despots and authoritarian regimes against the people, Israel has a lot to lose from the democratic winds of change in the region. When Hosni Mubarak was about to be overthrown by the people’s revolution in Egypt Israel launched a diplomatic campaign to convince key Western capitals to support him lest stability is lost and Israel’s other tyrannical friends in the region feel abandoned.
In Tunisia, as well, the vaunted electronic surveillance apparatus of the former dictator Ben-Ali was run in close cooperation with Israel, as exposed by Tunisian civil society organizations. With more of Israel’s friends in the region being dethroned, it is becoming abundantly clear how much Israel and its Western partners have invested in safeguarding and buttressing the unelected, autocratic regimes in the Arab world, partially to make a self-fulfilling prophecy of Israel as the “villa in the midst of the jungle” — the myth often repeated by AIPAC. The impact of debunking that myth cannot be overstated. Israel has, for decades, extracted billions of dollars, not to mention diplomatic, political, and scientific support from the U.S. and European states partially based on this misleading image of Israeli democracy, and despite all the evidence to the contrary. A state that has been imposing an occupation regime for almost 44 years on Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza, that has denied on racial grounds millions of refugees their UN-sanctioned right to return home, and that is regularly condemned by its chief benefactor and ally, the U.S. government, for its “system of institutional, legal and societal discrimination” against its own Palestinian minority carrying Israeli citizenship cannot reasonably be regarded as a “democracy.”
The fact is, U.S. citizens have been bankrolling Israel’s system of occupation, racial discrimination and denial of basic human rights to the tune of billions of dollars annually without knowing what they were funding and why. AIPAC is the main culprit in this process of defrauding the American people, while one cannot ignore the fact that the U.S. military and oil establishments have also stood to gain from Israel’s colonial expansion, endless bloody wars of aggression, and role as the police of the region, preventing popular revolt from threatening the pillage of its vast strategic resources.
For many years AIPAC has falsely advertised Israel as a democratic state that best serves U.S. interests in a turbulent and unpredictable part of the world, covering up Israel’s suppression of human rights and its very nature as a state premised on fanatic militarism, racial segregation and injustice, contrary to the supposed “shared values” with the “West” that AIPAC has fed to the American public so effectively with its well-oiled media machine and its unmatched power of intimidation as well as suppression of debate and dissent by anyone who dares to slightly step out of line and question the “Israel-first” agenda.
But given that Israel in the last few years, especially since the start of the recent Arab revolutions, has largely and quite demonstrably failed in hindering the outbreak of popular uprisings and democratic transformations in the Middle East, leading pundits have started to raise serious doubts about the taken-for-granted mantra of convergence between Israeli and American interests.

Furthermore, at a time when average Americans are losing jobs, benefits and hope, should the U.S. be spending billions to help Israel maintain its regime of oppression and violations of international law? When schools and hospitals in the U.S. are being closed, and when hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers are mired in endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere, where they sow mass destruction and death among the populations of these countries, while they themselves suffer increasing casualties, should U.S. taxpayers continue to fund this immoral war agenda? Should Israel and its lobby groups be allowed to pull the U.S. into more wars or to continue to justify Israel’s own brutal and patently illegal wars of aggression, as the one against Palestinians in Gaza in 2008-09 and on Lebanon in 2006?
If members of the U.S. Congress dare not ask these critical questions for fear of AIPAC’s wrath – perceived and carefully marketed as invincible – and an almost certain loss of career, shouldn’t the working people of the U.S. pose them and demand accountability and, indeed, democratic regime change?
It is in this context that one cannot but highly admire the courage, creativity and resilience of human rights and advocacy groups in the U.S., like CODEPINK, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Jewish Voice for Peace and many others that insist on challenging AIPAC’s domination of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond and its detrimental and deeply corrupting influence over U.S. decision making in general. The CODEPINK-led campaign to “expose AIPAC and usher in a new foreign policy,” to be launched in Washington, DC in May is a badly needed and truly inspiring effort that should be widely supported by all those who care about the cause of justice and peace in the U.S. and, by extension, the entire world.
Omar Barghouti is a human rights activist and author of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS): The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Haymarket, 2011)
Take action by attending Move Over AIPAC, a gathering in Washington DC from May 21-24, 2011, to expose AIPAC and build the vision for a new US foreign policy in the Middle East! More information can be found atwww.MoveOverAIPAC.org.

Palestinian teen critically injured as Israel cracks down on Nakba demos; American protester shot in the head with tear-gas canister at close range

May 13, 2011

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Video from today’s protest in Silwan.

A 17 year-old was critically injured from live fire in East Jerusalem, and an American protester suffered serious head injury after being hit by a tear-gas projectile shot directly at him from close range.

Israeli military and police forces responded heavy handedly to demonstrations commemorating 63 years to the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948 today all over the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Morad Ayyash, a 17 year old from the Ras el-Amud neighborhood was shot in the stomach with live ammunition. He has reached the Muqassed hospital with no pulse and the doctors are now fighting for his life.

Tension also rose in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, where 19 protesters have been injured and 11 were arrested. During the evening hours, large police forces raided houses in Silwan and carried out additional arrests.

In the village of Ma’asara, south of Bethlehem, two protesters were arrested during a peaceful demonstration that was attacked with tear-gas for no apparent reason. One of those arrested is a member of the village’s popular committee. In Nabi Saleh – a regular target for military aggression recently – soldiers and Border Police officers injured no less than 25 protesters, including a Palestinian women in her 50s who was beaten up so badly that her wounds required her removal from the Salfeet Hospital to the bigger and more advanced Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus. A 25 year-old American demonstrator suffered a serious head injury and an Israeli activist was diagnosed with two open fractures in his hand. Both were injured by tear-gas projectiles shot directly at them from short range, in violation of the Israeli Army’s open fire regulations. Four protesters were arrested in Nabi Saleh, including two Palestinian women.

Violence in Nabi Saleh started today after Israeli Border Police officers took over the village’s main junction and tried to disperse the demonstration while it was still well inside the village, The officers began charging the peaceful protesters with batons, shooting large amounts of tear-gas – partly shot directly at the demonstrators – and carrying out arrests.

The Israeli military and police’s violent and hysteric reaction to the Nakba day demonstrations today is an example to the fact that Israel cannot conceive handling Palestinian civil resistance to the Occupation in any means but military means. As September looms, it seems as if Israel chooses to tread not the path of democracy, but rather that of neighboring regimes like Egypt and Syria, and shoot at unarmed demonstrators.

#Nakbasurvivor: Telling the story of the Nakba in the internet age

May 13, 2011

Adam Horowitz

The above video is from an innovative new project from the Institute for Middle East Understanding called #Nakbasurvivor. The project encourages Palestinians to tell their family’s story of the Nakba over twitter or using short video clips. Here’s another one:

You can view all the videos on the #Nakbasurvivor website and follow the conversation on twitter here. You can also submit your own video telling your family’s story of the Nakba, using a webcam, cell phone video or flip cam, here.

This project helps demonstrate some of the revolutionary potential of the internet to inform and subvert the mainstream discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While even mentioning to Nakba was considered controversial just years ago, today the Palestinian experience of 1948 it has become a required part of any discussion of the founding of the state of Israel. This is in part because of the emotional, horrifying and inspiring testimonies given in these videos. They are a record that cannot be dismissed.

Stolen Beauty boycott culture jam turns Ahava’s online marketing contest into a social media #FAIL

May 13, 2011

Salim

On Wednesday, May 11 and Thursday, May 12, Ahava US, the U.S. arm of the Israeli cosmetics firm based in an illegal West Bank settlement, and @birchbox, an online cosmetics retailer, ran a marketing contest on the social media site Twitter using the hashtag#AhavaReborn, which is the slogan for Ahava’s current rebranding campaign. Members of the public were invited to submit beauty care questions with the lure of a prize of $300 worth of Ahava products for the best query.

US group CODEPINK Women for Peace, which manages the Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott campaign, alerted other BDS activists about the marketing campaign and suggested using the opportunity for a culture jam to subvert Ahava’s rebranding effort.

What followed can only be described as a total disaster for Ahava. From early Wednesday European time and for the next 48 hours BDS campaigners flooded the twitter stream #AhavaReborn with hundreds of messages advocating the boycott of Ahava products. The BDS campaigners hailed from the US, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Singapore, Occupied Palestine and elsewhere, reflecting the international nature of the campaign against Ahava.

As people who hoped for the prize tweeted #AhavaReborn with their beauty questions about cracked heels, blemishes and dry skin, BDS campaigners used ready-made Tweets that CODEPINK had sent out. But quickly the culture jammers began inventing their own original tweets and even started responding to actual contestants with personal messages and tips—all of them around why consumers should avoid Ahava products. Many of the BDS campaigners’ questions for @birchbox and Ahava were highly amusing, and all of them highlighted Ahava’s complicity in Israel’s illegal Occupation. Throughout the 48 hours, BDS campaigners also posted tweets with links to the Stolen Beauty website for background information on Ahava for those who wanted to know more.

The pro-Ahava and counter-BDS lobbyists made an appearance on the first day to attack BDS and criticism of Israel. But they were few in number and weak in their arguments. By the second day they had given up after posting only a couple of Tweets.

Twitter only permits messages of up to 140 characters, so you have to be short and sweet to make your point. BDS campaigners excelled at using creativity and biting wit to get their messages across in a few words. Please read the small selection of tweets at the end of this message for a flavor of their inventiveness and wit.

Overall, the two days were a victory for BDS campaigners who took the opportunity provided by Ahava’s rebranding attempt through social media and turned it into a platform for BDS messaging. Thanks go to everyone who took part, but especially to CODEPINK for initiating the action. On now to the next battle…

Tweets from the Ahava Boycott Culture Jam

@Arabian_Babbler
My trigger finger is dry from shooting too many Palestinians around my settlement. What moisturizer do you recommend?

@Zzigggyyy
@birchbox & @ahava_us Do you have anything that will hide the israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

@bethlehemballet
The tear gas that the Israeli military fires on me when I visit Palestinian friends in Silwan is ruining my skin. What to do?

@bethlehemballet
I was helping to demolish Palestinian houses today and I chipped a nail! Do you have a product that will strengthen them?

@hdaboub
Hey Ahava, can you recommend a soap that will wash the blood off my hands? I know you’re experts at that

@Arabian_Babbler
Do you have any creams for burns from Israeli Army phosphorous bombs? School children in Gaza would be interested

@Chelsealeebee
#AHAVAreborn – not a fan of the “freshly bulldozed earth” or the “tears of the displaced” scents. Have anything that smells like “justice”?

#AHAVAreborn @birchbox and @AHAVA_US What is the best skin care regimen for normal, slightly dry, worried about wrinkles 28yr old skin?
@isvestiasalim Ahava is happy to advise on how to steal Palestinian Land but if its skincare advice you want please try elsewhere #ahavareborn

@birchbox & @ahava_us Do you have anything that I can use to cover up the#warcrimes committed by israeli#Apartheid

@ReclaimedBeauty Is there any chance of Ahava coming out with a fragrance line? Love the scents of your products. 
@isvestia 
Ahava already has a fragrance- its called ‘The Stench of Israel’s Illegal Occupation’.

@hakawai
Dear Ahava, Israel’s apartheid system makes my skin crawl! What products do you recommend?

@georginareeves
@BirchBox ahava advises weekly expropriation to rid you of palestinians and other irritating skin conditions

@WideAsleepNima
#AhavaReborn @birchbox, how will a deep ethnic cleansing affect my pores?

@Zzigggyyy 
@birchbox & @ahava_us Do you have anything that I can use to cover up the #warcrimes committed by israeli #Apartheid

@redcathexwas 
#AHAVAReborn @birchbox Do you have anything to relieve those nasty breakouts caused by the stress of living life under military occupation?

@BoycottAhava
Hey @birchbox why sell Ahava lotion? Human rights are a better notion. #AhavaReborn #StolenBeauty

@bethlehemballet
Any chance of #AhavaReborn launching a perfume range? I want something more delicate than my usual free IDF samples of eau de tear gas.

@georginareeves
@BirchBox what’s that i can smell? bath salts? body lotion? no, it’s the stench of racist colonialism

@krnbrrtt
#AHAVAreborn the world knows you sell ethnic cleansers, but how about new foundation for the ones your government bulldozed?

@clarefarrell
#AhavaReborn My skin care question is, do you have a cream to heal the scars caused by a brutal and systemic occupation?

Salim is a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and has been regularly attending the bi-weekly protests outside Ahava’s flagship Covent Garden store in London, UK.

Solidarity from Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, marches to Palestine planned for Nakba Day

May 13, 2011

Seham

(Photo: Sharif Kaddous)

Thousands gather in Egypt’s Tahrir Square
Protesters rally in support of the Palestinian cause and for national unity, while Suzanne Mubarak will be detained.
Thousands rally for Egypt unity after church attacks (AFP)
AFP – Thousands of people rallied in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday calling for national unity after attacks on Egyptian churches, and solidarity with the Palestinians.
Egyptians urge rulers to step up Palestinian support (Reuters)
Reuters – Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Friday to push their military rulers to do more to help Palestinians following the overthrow of the country’s president Hosni Mubarak.
Marking The Nakba Day On May 15, Egyptians Plan To March To Gaza
As the Palestinians prepare to mark the Nakba (Catastrophe) Day on May 15, thousands of Egyptians are said to be preparing to march to the Gaza Strip to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on the coastal enclave. They intend to attempt to cross into the coastal region via the Rafah Border Terminal, between Gaza and Egypt.
Egypt prepares to reopen mission in Gaza
The Egyptian embassy in Gaza is reportedly preparing to reopen its office in Gaza city as a high-profile delegation from the Egyptian intelligence is set to visit the Gaza Strip soon..
Egypt and Israel discuss Palestinian prisoner exchange deal
Media sources have claimed that the new regime in Cairo has made efforts to revive discussions of an exchange of prisoners between the Palestinians and Israelis. Israel currently holds around 6,000 Palestinians in its jails, while soldier Gilad Shalit is the only Israeli being held by the Palestinians. The Director of the Centre for Palestine Studies, Ibrahim Aladrawi, told Quds Press that Cairo recently hosted the leader of the Hamas military wing who has responsibility for the exchange deal.
EGYPT: Jury out on promise to open Rafah
JERUSALEM 13 May 2011 (IRIN) – Egypt’s new leadership has promised to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza permanently after more than five years of partial and occasionally full closure, but observers wonder how far this will go to ease the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).

And more news from the Arab uprisings:

Mubarak’s wife detained in Egypt
Suzanne Mubarak, wife of the ousted Egyptian president, is detained for 15 days pending further investigations into corruption allegations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13392099
Egypt: Mubarak, wife interrogated over corruption
Deposed president, wife questioned over suspicion of corruption, misuse of power. Reports claim Mubarak illegally amassed tens of billions of dollars stashed in numerous foreign bank accounts
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4068008,00.html
Egypt extends Mubarak’s detention
Egypt’s authorities order a 15-day detention of ousted President Hosni Mubarak on charges of profiteering, media reports say.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13385399
Egypt’s anti-graft agency to question Mubarak for first time
State news agency says Mubarak and his wife face accusations of taking advantage of the president’s influence to illegally accumulate massive wealth.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/egypt-s-anti-graft-agency-to-question-mubarak-for-first-time-1.361344?localLinksEnabled=false
Israel still doesn’t understand the new reality: Shin Bet: Egypt doing little to stop Gaza arms smugglers
New security agency report says Cairo’s grip on Gaza border lax; Strip’s militant groups’ weapon caches pose growing threat to Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4068013,00.html
Egypt businessman accused of inciting violence freed
CAIRO, May 12 (Reuters) – Egypt’s military prosecutor has decided to release a prominent businessman who had been accused of inciting violence against anti-government protesters, the state news agency said on Thursday. Ibrahim Kamel, a senior member in the old ruling National Democratic Party, had been arrested on April 10 on charges of inciting thugs to attack protesters in Tahrir Square, the site of demonstrations that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. The prosecutor decided to release Kamel because of a lack of evidence against him, the agency MENA said, without adding details.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/egypt-businessman-accused-of-inciting-violence-freed
Political change in Egypt to boost Nile cooperation
The fall of Hosni Mubarak may improve Ethiopia’s ties with Egypt and boost chances of a deal to share the Nile’s waters.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/analysis-political-change-in-egypt-to-boost-nile-cooperation
Egypt Brotherhood to Expel Any President Runner
A senior official of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said on Thursday that the group would expel any member who runs for president, after a leading Brotherhood reformer was quoted as saying he might stand.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=1&cid=23&frid=23&eid=15343
Emad Mekay, “Egypt Seeks End to Foreign Wheat Dependence”
The new strategy is centred on offering prices competitive with international rates to lure Egyptian farmers to shift back to growing more wheat, which is essential for making bread, a staple for most people here. The government said it is buying wheat for 350 Egyptian pounds (59 dollars) per erdab (150 kilogrammes), up from only 270 pounds (47 dollars) last year under Mubarak — a rate so low that farmers had complained that they could not afford new seeds or spend on technologies to compete in the market. Wheat acreage dropped by 5 percent. . . . The government promised to remove red tape that discouraged the creation of new agricultural companies that grow grains, especially wheat. Immediately after that announcement, a group of Egyptian expatriates in the Gulf, Europe and the U.S. announced that they would start a new company that would offer shares directly to the public to raise 3 billion Egyptian pounds. The money will be used to grow 500,000 acres of wheat next year. Egypt has turned to the neighbouring African nation of Sudan for extra arable land, and Sudan has offered one million acres for wheat growing by Egyptian farmers and companies. For the first time, Egyptian farmers said Tuesday that they have organised to create their own unions, a step they say will help them communicate better with the local authorities rather than leaving the government susceptible to foreign pressures.
http://bit.ly/kuHNu7
Was Mubarak a Zionist?
“… being called a Zionist is about as nasty a charge as there is in many parts of the Arab world, the dark corners of the blogosphere and a few other places. To many Israelis, calling the deposed Egyptian president a Zionist is an insult to their country, as they quickly and correctly cite a long list of affronts that made for a cold peace, … Mubarak refused to visit Israel (he said his trip to Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral didn’t count) …  He was the go-to Arab leader when Israel needed help dealing with other Arabs, particularly with the Palestinians. He was a better ally than he got credit for. Some observers say that by keeping the peace cold he was able to do more for Israel, as well as for Egypt. … He joined Israel’s blockade of Gaza in order to weaken the Islamist terror group’s hold there, and began the construction of a security barrier along the Gaza-Sinai border to prevent smuggling….”
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/was-mubarak-zionist.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+friday-lunch-club+%28%22friday-lunch-club%22%29

Bahrain

Trial of Bahraini opposition activists adjourned as independent observers barred
A military trial is under way for 21 porminent opposition activists in Bahrain charged with alleged crimes during recent pro-reform protests.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/trial-bahraini-opposition-activists-adjourned-independent-observers-barred-2011-03-
BAHRAIN: Activists tortured before trial, rights group alleges
One person who claimed to have seen him said he was at that point unrecognizable as a result of apparent beatings in detention,” the statement said.  Two other detainees entered court limping on Sunday, the rights group said.  “When the defendants asked to speak about the abuse they allegedly experienced in detention, security forces forcibly removed them from court,” the statement said.  Bahrain is a party to the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits torture, and its leaders have ratified the U.N. Convention Against Torture.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/05/bahrain-activists-tortured-before-trial-rights-group-alleges.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BabylonBeyond+%28Babylon+%26+Beyond+Blog%29
Bahrain: From hospital to prison
While medical staff in Bahrain are being unfairly targeted by government forces, the rest of the world remains silent.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201151285040679763.html
Bahrain targets Shia religious sites
Part three in our exclusive series on Bahrain reveals that the government destroyed Shia mosques and religious institutions as part of its crackdown on dissent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqPv4bFuBz0&feature=youtube_gdata
Bahrain’s Sunni rulers target Shiite mosques
The Bahraini regime has bulldozed dozens of Shiite mosques or other religious structures in the crackdown on a mainly Shiite opposition movement.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/dpoMnVgmZEc/Bahrain-s-Sunni-rulers-target-Shiite-mosques
Security forces target Bahrain medics
Part two of our exclusive report on Bahrain looks at the abuse of medical workers as part of the government’s crackdown.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011512111835943173.html
Bahrain opposition leaders plead not guilty (AFP)
AFP – Bahraini opposition leaders pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday to charges of belonging to a terrorist group and attempting to overthrow the monarchy, state news agency BNA reported.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110512/wl_mideast_afp/bahrainpoliticsunresttrial
Saudi troops to stay in Bahrain
Saudi-led forces sent to Bahrain to help crush anti-government protests will remain even after emergency rule is lifted next month, the kingdom’s military said, in a move likely to deepen regional tensions with Iran.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-troops-to-stay-in-bahrain-2283237.html
After crushed protests, Bahrain is accused of increased oppression of Shiites
The opposition says Bahrain’s government is going after majority Shiites, trying to turn a call for wider political freedom into a regional struggle between Sunni countries and Shiite-controlled Iran. Hassan Mohamed ran his finger over bumps of birdshot beneath his skin. He is nearly blind in his left eye, but is scared to go to the emergency room. The wounds would betray him as a protester. His sister arranged to sneak him into a hospital to visit a doctor she trusts. Mohamed was worried.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/VxyaAfO9OHo/la-fg-bahrain-shiites-20110502,0,6437434.story
Bahrain to try guards over activist’s death -BNA
DUBAI, May 12 (Reuters) – Bahrain has said it will try five prison guards over the death in police custody of a Shi’ite activist during protests by the Gulf kingdom’s Shi’ite majority.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bahrain-to-try-guards-over-activists-death–bna
Inside Story: Bahrain – the black hole of Arab uprisings?
This episode of Inside Story aired from Thursday, May 11, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uee3DuzyRnU&feature=youtube_gdata
Interview: Sabah al-Mukhtar discusses Bahrain
Sabah al-Mukhtar, from the Arab Lawyers Association, spokes to Al Jazeera about the health workers that are facing trial on charges that include inciting hatred against the Bahraini government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYRZkc9D2kU&feature=youtube_gdata
Iraq
Iraqi protesters demand better services, jobs (AP)
AP – More than 500 Iraqi protesters have gathered in downtown Baghdad, demanding better government services and more jobs.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110513/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
Jordan
Jordanians and Egyptians take to streets for pro-Palestinian protests
Protesters in Egypt and Jordan call for establishment of Palestinian state, end to displacement of refugees; demonstrations take place days before Nakba Day; Jordanian protesters call for end of peace with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/jordanians-and-egyptians-take-to-streets-for-pro-palestinian-protests-1.361537?localLinksEnabled=false
Jordanians protest for Palestinian right of return (AP)
AP – Heeding a call from Palestinian Facebook organizers, several hundred Jordanians took to the streets of the capital Friday demanding a sovereign Palestinian state and that refugees be given the right to return home.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110513/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_jordan_palestinian_refugees
Jordan/EU: Torture Prevention Insufficient
(Berlin) – Jordan should take steps to prevent torture in light of recent allegations of severe abuse there, Human Rights Watch said today. European and Arab national human rights institutions are discussing the subject on May 11, 2011, in Berlin, with the German Institute for Human Rights and the Jordanian National Center for Human Rights opening the discussion.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/11/jordaneu-torture-prevention-insufficient
Lebanon
Political Communiqué for “The Return to Palestine March-May 15th”
The Organizing Committee for the “Return to Palestine March” issued the following political communiqué on its blog marking 63 years since 1948 Nakba Day (catastrophe): From the suffering caused by the Nakba, from our aspirations for return and liberation, from the inspiration brought about by the Arab people’s revolutions, and from our longing to return to the land and the skies of Palestine, we rise. Marking the 1948 Nakba and restating our commitment to the Right of Return of all Palestinians to historical Palestine, the Palestinian people and all the free men and women who support the Palestinian cause will rally on May 15, 2011 in various countries around the world to commemorate the day in a massive Palestinian, Arab and global revolution. In Lebanon the Return to Palestine March will set out towards the Palestinian/Lebanese borders on Sunday May 15, 2011, on the day commemorating the 1948 Nakba. The March will include various Palestinian and Lebanese civil and popular organizations and associations, professional associations, federations, NGOs, political parties and groups, in addition to independent activists from different regions and refugee camps around Lebanon.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=15383&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=23&s1=1
Libya
Muammar Gaddafi Most Likely Wounded: Italy
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has very likely left the capital Tripoli and has most likely been wounded, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Friday. Frattini told reporters in Tuscany that he believed what he had been told by Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Catholic bishop in Tripoli, that “Gaddafi was most probably outside Tripoli and probably even wounded” by NATO airstrikes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/muammar-gaddafi-wounded_n_861609.html
Libya: NATO kills 3 civillians in attack on Kadhafi compound
“Three people died — two of them are journalists and one was their guide who was helping them film a documentary,” government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a news conference in the Bab al-Aziziya compound that was held next to a large, water-filled crater.
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/three-dead-in-natoled-strike-on-kadhafi-compound-20110512-1ekad.html
Libya: White House to meet Islamic insurgent leader Mahmoud Jibril
The leader of a Libyan, Islamic insurgency group is to meet senior US officials and members of Congress on Friday, the White House has said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13380426
Gaddafi Arrest Warrant Expected By Italy
ROME — Italy’s foreign minister says he expects the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi at the end of the month. Franco Frattini said Thursday that would be a “key moment” in the Libya crisis, suggesting that after the warrant is issued it would be impossible for Gadhafi to agree to an exile.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/gaddafi-arrest-warrant-ex_n_861245.html
Libyan capital rocked by explosions
Rockets fired on Ajdabiya in retaliation but no lives were claimed, say medics in rebel stronghold.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/05/20115123318113711.html
Libyan Rebels In Misrata Say They Have Pushed Back Gaddafi’s Forces
TRIPOLI, Libya — Pressing to break a two-month siege, rebels in the port city of Misrata said they had captured the local airport and pushed Moammar Gadhafi’s forces ever further from the city’s western outskirts. The reported advances were the latest in a recent flurry of accounts of rebel victories, coinciding with intensified NATO airstrikes on Gadhafi’s forces in several areas of Libya. In all, NATO said Wednesday, the alliance has carried out more than 2,400 airstrikes since March 31 as part of the effort to assist the rebels and pressure Gadhafi to end his 42-year authoritarian rule.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/libyan-rebels-misrata-push-back-gaddafi-forces_n_860904.html
Gaddafi Compound Bombed After Libya Leader Makes Appearance
TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO airstrikes struck Moammar Gadhafi’s sprawling compound in Tripoli and three other sites early Thursday, hours after the Libyan leader was shown on state TV in his first appearance since his son was killed nearly two weeks ago. Explosions thundered across the capital and wailing ambulances raced through the city as the last missile exploded.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/gaddafi-compound-bombed-libya-news_n_860949.html
Muammar Gaddafi Makes First Appearance Since Son’s Death
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan television showed Muammar Gaddafi meeting officials in a Tripoli hotel, ending nearly two weeks of doubt over his fate since a NATO air strike that killed his son. The Libyan leader, who had not been seen in public since an April 30 strike killed his youngest son and three grandchildren, made his appearance on Wednesday in trademark brown robe, dark sunglasses and black hat.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/muammar-gaddafi-libya-appearance_n_860939.html
The Lede: Qaddafi’s Visit Puzzles Journalists
Journalists staying at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, where the Libyan government hosts – or confines – the foreign press corps, are asking how Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi manged to hold a meeting at the hotel on Wednesday night without any of them noticing.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=96ef29f9ebe1caa632ec080baf5534c5
Libyan consul in Cairo joins rebel ranks – TV
CAIRO, May 12 (Reuters) – Libya’s consul in Cairo told Al Arabiya television in remarks aired on Thursday that he was quitting his post to join rebel ranks. “In response to the souls and blood of the martyrs of the February 17 revolution, I, Faraj Saeed al-Aribi, the Libyan consul in Cairo, declare my resignation and my joining of the February 17 revolution,” al-Aribi told the television channel.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-consul-in-cairo-joins-rebel-ranks-tv
Libyan opposition leader: Please recognize us, Obama!
Mahmoud Jibril, the prime minister of the Libyan opposition’s Transitional National Council (TNC), called on the United States to formally recognize Libya’s rebels as the country’s legitimate representative body so that urgent financial assistance can begin to flow. The Obama administration has repeatedly called for Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi to step down from power but the State Department has not abandoned its official recognition of the Qaddafi government and transferred recognition to the TNC, as did France, Italy, and Qatar. Without that recognition, the TNC can’t begin to draw from the billions of dollars in assets that had belonged to the Qaddafi regime and were frozen by the international community shortly after the revolution began, Jibril said during his Thursday visit to Washington.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/12/libyan_opposition_leader_please_recognize_us_obama
Libyan rebels to open London office – UK’s Cameron
LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) – Libyan rebels are to open an office in London as part of renewed efforts to rally international support behind their fight to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday. After meeting rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil, Cameron said other countries must step up the financial and military pressure to force Gaddafi to stand down.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-rebels-to-open-london-office-uks-cameron
LIBYA: How online mapping helped crisis response
NAIROBI 12 May 2011 (IRIN) – Soon after the Libyan crisis broke, decision-makers and humanitarian workers faced a critical challenge: lack of information about events inside the country.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=92686
Morocco
Middle East: Moroccan Youth Demands Action, Not Words
Protesters have been left unconvinced by government promises and remain determined to intensify their fight for real democratic change.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=bb1fc8e185f12f5444feff87b85fe7cd
Syria
700 dead in Syria crackdown, jurists’ group says
GENEVA, May 12 (Reuters) – Syrian authorities have killed more than 700 people and rounded up thousands while shelling cities indiscriminately in their military crackdown on protesters, an international jurists’ body said on Thursday.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/700-dead-in-syria-crackdown-jurists-group-says
Syria ‘to halt firing on rallies’
The Syrian opposition says an adviser to President Bashar al-Assad has pledged government forces will not fire on protesters on Friday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13383002
Army shells homes in besieged Syrian city
The Syrian army shelled residential areas in the country’s third-largest city yesterday, killing at least one person in a sharp escalation in the government’s attempts to crush a popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic rule.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/army-shells-homes-in-besieged-syrian-city-2282578.html
Activists: Syrian gov’t crushing dissent town by town
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian security forces kept crushing dissent town-by-town and rounding up opposition leaders on Thursday, activists said, in an unrelenting crackdown that Washington has slammed as “barbaric.” The army and security services arrested dozens of people in the flashpoint coastal city of Banias and the neighbouring villages of al-Beyda and al-Qariri, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/12/activists-syrian-govt-crushing-dissent-town-by-town/
Students in Syria face police crackdown
Young people beaten with batons as they defy police orders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r41bOvr1SW4&feature=youtube_gdata
‘The suspicious re-emergence of a Syrian track in the Hariri investigation’
According to Naharnet‘s source, Bellemare now has new evidence of Syrian complicity in the Hariri murder, which was made available to him by Syrian witnesses who defected to The Hague. The report in as-Safir discusses negotiations between the STL and French intelligence, part of an alleged effort to reach “the Syrian masterminds” behind the crime.
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2011/05/suspicious-re-emergence-of-syrian-track.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+friday-lunch-club+%28%22friday-lunch-club%22%29
Syrian ambassador in Damascus
The fellow is only concerned about Syrian support for Hizbullah.  It was a signal: that if Syrian regime ends its support for Hizbullah, the US will allow to kill as many people as it wishes–not that the US government really cares about victims of Arab tyrannies.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/syrian-ambassador-in-damascus.html

Syria’s ambassador in Washington, DC
“I wish to inform you that Rami Makhlouf, a businessman whom you interviewed at length, is a private citizen in Syria. He holds no official position in the Syrian government and does not speak on behalf of the Syrian authorities. The opinions he expressed are exclusively his and cannot be associated in any way with the official positions of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic.
IMAD MOUSTAPHA
Ambassador of Syria”.   Oh, come on, Imad.  Private citizen?  Did he accumulate his wealth as a private citizen too?  Does he hold monopolies in Syria as a private citizen too?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/05/syrias-ambassador-in-washington-dc.html
Rami Makhlouf’s daily blasts Turkey; Draws MB link
From the Makhlouf owned daily… translated in today’s Daily briefing from Mideastwire.com. For a trial please email info@mideastwire.com
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=9733&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Syriacomment+%28Syria+Comment%29
What Will a Post Assad Syria Look Like?, Joshua Landis
I am a pessimist about Syria’s future because the regime will dig in its heels and fight to the end. The Syrian opposition has successfully established a culture of resistance that is widespread in Syria and will not be eliminated. Even if demonstrations can be shut down for the time being, the opposition will not be defeated. Syria’s youth, long apolitical and appathetic, is now politicized, mobilized, and passionate. All the same, the opposition remains divided and leaderless, which presents great dangers for a post-Assad Syria.
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=9752&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Syriacomment+%28Syria+Comment%29
Tunisia
Knowledge Liberation Front, “Liberation Without Borders Tour” (Video)
“The activists in Tunisia who have been organizing this meeting since mid-February are very clear about one fundamental point: Let’s not call this project a caravan because we don’t need your help or in other words your Western solidarity, which often bears the stamp of colonial charity, and because we have demonstrated that we are capable of revolution without anyone teaching us how to do it. Moreover, they have added in recent weeks: What we see coming, labeled ‘humanitarian,’ from the other shore of the Mediterranean are bombs and war. Instead, we need your struggles to unite the two shores of the Mediterranean through conflict and transformation, ousting all tyrants — from Ben Ali to the tyrants of financial capitalism. . . . We will go to Tunisia to understand and to do activist inquiry, because the social composition of insurgents there — highly educated young people, precarious or unemployed workers impoverished by the crisis and by a system that produces corruption, women reclaiming their liberty and putting it in practice, people who want to live and move without borders — is very similar to that of the movements in revolt against austerity and education and welfare cuts across Europe.” — Knowledge Liberation Front
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/tunisia120511.html
Tunisians Relishing New Freedoms
Artist whose song became the anthem for the uprising describes how people’s fear of expressing themselves has vanished.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/tunisians-relishing-new-freedoms?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iwprstories+%28IWPR+Stories%29
Yemen
“Friday of Decisiveness in Yemen”: Tens of Thousands Protest as President Saleh Defiantly Rejects Demands to Resign
Tens of thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets today for what organizers have called the “Friday of Decisiveness,” days after Yemeni forces opened fire on demonstrators. The death toll from weeks of protests has surpassed 160. The violence comes as Qatar has pulled out of international talks on a deal that would see Saleh voluntarily resign. We are joined on the phone by Iona Craig, a Times of London correspondent, based in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/13/friday_of_decisiveness_in_yemen_tens
Qatar quits Yemen mediation attempt
Qatar has pulled out of the effort to mediate an end to Yemen’s political crisis, blaming the country’s embattled president for the impasse.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/qatar-quits-yemen-mediation-attempt-2283567.html
Gulf Cooperation Council: Revoke Immunity Promise to Saleh
(New York) – Negotiators should immediately remove a promise of immunity from any resignation deal for President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in light of repeated, lethal attacks by his security forces on peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said today.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/12/gulf-cooperation-council-revoke-immunity-promise-saleh
Protesters wounded in Yemen clashes
Security forces open fire at rally in Taiz as demonstrators continue to call for the ouster of president Saleh.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/2011512114245752696.html
The youth will win in Yemen
Yemen is a fertile land with beaches that stretch for more than 1,700km. It is also a country in which more than 10 million people are threatened by starvation, where thousands spend their lives sneaking into neighbouring countries in search of better opportunities, and where children are violated in forced labour markets. In an age of extraordinary medical advances, the greatest hope of 24 million Yemenis is that their children are not crippled by polio. Man landed on the moon more than 40 years ago, but in Yemen, many still dream of travelling by car rather than donkey. In an age of Facebook and Twitter, many Yemenis simply wish they could read a letter from a loved one.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/12/ali-abdullah-saleh-yemen-youth-democracy
Osama
Bin Laden was Operational Leader, Juan Cole
Kimberly Dozier of the Associated Press got the scoop. USG analysts going through the material captured at Usamah Bin Laden’s residence in Abbotabad described to her some of what they were finding.
http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/bin-laden-was-operational-leader.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29
Bin Laden journal reveals his calculations for another 9/11-style attack
The release of more information seized from Osama bin Laden’s compound revealed that he thought only another 9/11-scale attack would force the US out of the Arab world.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/oRjJtqYbhLA/Bin-Laden-journal-reveals-his-calculations-for-another-9-11-style-attack
Bin Laden’s wife: I’ll stand with you
(AP) – Osama bin Laden once gave his wives the option of leaving Afghanistan, but his young Yemeni bride was determined to stay and be “martyred” alongside him.
http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=25144
‘Pakistan wasn’t bin Laden’s only hideout,’
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in an exclusive interview with TIME on Wednesday one of the first he has given since the raid on Abbottabad thinks bin Laden may have visited his ancestral homeland, Yemen, in search of a new bride.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=185493
Dalai Lama ‘sad’ about bin Laden killing (AFP)
AFP – The Dalai Lama said Thursday he was saddened by the killing of Osama bin Laden by US commandos, which he likened to the 2006 hanging of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110512/ts_alt_afp/usattacksbinladentibetchina
Other Analysis/Op-ed
Amnesty says Arab uprising ‘on knife edge’
The struggle for freedom has entered a decisive phase as brutal Arab regimes try to regain control, rights group says.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/05/201151301734114107.html
VIDEO: Amnesty’s Arab Spring warning
A fightback by repressive governments is putting at risk a historic struggle for freedom and justice in the Arab world, Amnesty International says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13392234
Al Jazeera Journalist Dorothy Parvaz Remains Missing After Being Detained in Syria, Then Deported to Iran
Al Jazeera English reporter Dorothy Parvaz, an American-Canadian-Iranian citizen, was detained in Syria on April 29 when she arrived to cover the ongoing unrest. She has not been seen since. On Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported she had been deported to Iran, although there has been no direct contact with her. The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling for her immediate release from Iranian authorities. We are joined by Kim Barker, the sister of Parvaz’s fiancé, Todd Barker, who introduced the couple. She has known Parvaz for 12 years—they met as colleagues at the Seattle Times. Kim Barker is now a ProPublica reporter who has reported from Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Dorothy is an amazing journalist, and an amazing human being,” Kim Barker says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/13/al_jazeera_journalist_dorothy_parvaz_remains

A story of the most powerful army in the Middle East chasing 18 cows.

May 13, 2011

annie

I’m enchanted by this trailer, enjoy:

Here’s a brief synopsis of the film The Wanted 18 from Intuitive Pictures:

In 1987, at the beginning of the first Intifada, Palestinian leaders asked their communities to develop Palestinian alter-natives to Israeli products. In response, a group of Palestinian activists started a cooperative dairy farm in Beit Sahour with 18 cows. All of the activists were intellectuals who knew nothing about raising cattle or operating a dairy. But, after some training (and the purchase of some cows from Israel), these newbie dairy farmers managed to start producing a high quality competitive product which became known as “intifada milk”.

However, once the cooperative became successful the Israeli army ordered its closure, declaring it a threat to national security. Defying the army, the activists covered their faces and went under cover. They hid the 18 cows in people’s houses and continued to produce milk.

The Wanted 18, is an animated documentary told from the unique perspective of the cows and the activists. Using stop frame animation, created by a team in Ramallah and Montreal, this documentary will also contain powerful filmed interviews with the Palestinian activists who initiated the dairy farm in 1988, members of the Israeli army as well as American dairy farmers who were involved in training one of the farmers.