NOVANEWS
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Israeli troops respond to kites, clowns and children in Nabi Saleh the only way they know how – with tear gas
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The loneliness of the (Palestinian) long distance runner
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‘This is not my Jerusalem’
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Sabotage on the Aegean: Propeller mysteriously cut on flotilla ship
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Democracy Now talks to members of the US Boat to Gaza as the flotilla prepares to leave Greece
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Israel Law Center behind harassment of flotilla funded by homophobic End Timer Pastor John Hagee
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‘Gaza, We Are Coming’: Despite pressure and threats of violence, flotilla will sail
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UK government Facebook page shows solidarity with Gilad Shalit
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‘Commandos physical violence will only last a few minutes but feel like a few hours’ –Canadian boat training
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Pure hell at the Rafah crossing
Israeli troops respond to kites, clowns and children in Nabi Saleh the only way they know how – with tear gas
Jun 27, 2011 07:50 pm | Seham
Video description: Every Friday there is a peaceful demonstration in Nabih Saleh. Last friday, it was a colorful day for children with clowns, spiderman, kites and teargas….
Don’t be too surprised Israel attacked a clown. It’s not the first time.
The loneliness of the (Palestinian) long distance runner
Jun 27, 2011
Kate
Not even in the (Jewish) ballpark
Haaretz 27 June — Starting Monday, and for the rest of the week, Haaretz is running a series of stories on sport in Arab Israeli society … When it comes to budgets and infrastructure, discrimination against Arab sports is at least as severe as in other areas of life, if not more so, since sport is ostensibly a luxury. The only sport that still somehow exists is soccer, which has several successful clubs and players good enough to advance also to European teams. Yet they all face calls of “Death to the Arabs” when they play before Jewish crowds. The only stadium in the Arab sector is in Sakhnin; it was built with money from Qatar. There is no Olympic-size swimming pool, no tennis courts, running tracks or basketball arenas. Only two of the 347 athletes on Israel’s Olympic teams were Arabs, less than 1 percent.
And more news from Today in Palestine:
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid
Committee: Soldiers order Palestinian farmers to stop work
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 27 June — Israeli forces on Monday stopped Palestinian farmers working on their land in villages in the northern West Bank, a local agricultural committee said. Farmers were working in Jurish and Aqraba villages as part of a land reclamation project but soldiers said the farmland had been confiscated and now belonged to Israel, committee coordinator Yousif Deiriyya said. Deiriyya added that forces confiscated a backhoe. The committee for the union of agricultural workers said Friday that Israeli forces confiscated a vehicle from farmers and ordered them to stop work in the same area. Land reclamation projects aim to improve the source of income for families which rely on agriculture and also serve to protect vulnerable land from Israeli confiscation. The project is carried out by the committee for the union of agricultural workers in partnership with Palestinian non-governmental organizations under the management of agricultural relief committees. It is funded by the Dutch government.
link to www.maannews.net
Sewage from IDF, government facilities damaging Palestinian crops
Haaretz 27 June — The raw blackwater emanating from security services’ facilities is imperiling the environment as well Palestinian foodstuffs — The olive grove next to the fence abutting the Israel Defense Forces base near the ancient palace and fortress Herodium, south of Jerusalem, is one of the primary sources of income for the Jardal family. But for several years, the Palestinian family has been unable to grow olives there, for which they blame the sewage from the army base that spills over into their grove on a daily basis.
link to www.haaretz.com
PA slams Israel’s decision to bring Jews from India
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 27 June — …According to Monday’s issue of Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the ministerial committee convened under Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and decided to bring 7,300 Jews from India to Israel … PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the decision came in line with Israel’s policy to bring non-Israeli Jews to Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, he added, Israel prevents the Palestinians from returning to their homeland to live there.
link to www.maannews.net
Haredi group takes on Christian converts
Ynet 27 June — Yad L’Achim launching struggle against 1,000 Christians’ intent to convert to Judaism, make aliyah, establish cooperative kibbutzim beyond 1967 lines — and settle in Israel … In response to the claims, [MK] Shemtov said that Christians asking to make Aliyah to Israel and settle in the West Bank commit themselves to a full orthodox conversion to Judaism, subject to the approval of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
link to www.ynetnews.com
From ’48 to Israel 2011: the story of the Al-Aju family from Ramle / Hadas Ben-Eliyahu
[photos] Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity 27 June — ..The Al-Aju family, left with nothing, settled in Ramle, a mere stone’s throw away from their house and property which had been handed over to new immigrants. In 1950, Abed el-Razk Al-Aju married and started a family, and in 1960 he leased a house from Amidar, the same house he lives in today. He describes the house as a ‘ruin’ — cement floor, rickety walls, a tin roof. He slowly fixed the ruin up and built a modest home. He raised 14 children in the one-bedroom apartment and later, seven of his sons married and brought their brides to live nearby. Ibrahim describes life in the compound as a ‘kibbutz’; “we raise the children together.” And indeed, they run around with the chickens and in the garden that helps the family make ends meet. Jihan adds that they had a few good years, but that now it’s all over. After the family’s first eviction attempt failed, they received notices of a variable eviction, which stretches over a period of a month, during which they can be evicted at any time. An Amidar representative told Jihan that the reason for this notice is so “you couldn’t resist.”
link to www.en.justjlm.org
Development plan for abandoned Palestinian village stirs up a troubled past
[photos] JERUSALEM (WaPo) 26 June — Flanked by busy highways and tucked into terraced slopes of the Jerusalem hills, a crumbling Palestinian village abandoned more than 60 years ago has become the focus of a struggle over memory and heritage. The nearly 3,000 people who lived in Lifta fled during the war that accompanied the establishment of Israel. Experts say the old village homes, with their distinctive stonework, along with a mosque, a spring and remains of granaries and olive presses, are unique remnants of a vanished way of life. But city officials and developers have their eyes on the site, located in a scenic valley at the entrance to Jerusalem. Their plan to integrate the buildings into a luxury housing project has prompted an outcry from preservationists, and exposed painful layers of historical memory and questions about whether and how to document the Palestinian past in Israel.
link to www.washingtonpost.com
Violent night clashes in Silwan, two minors beaten then arrested
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) 27 June — Palestinian citizens in Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem clashed with Israeli occupation forces in a number of suburbs last night after those forces tried to storm Bir Ayub suburb. Local sources said that the clashes started before midnight Sunday and continued till dawn Monday in Bir Ayub then spread to other suburbs, adding that the young men threw stones at the Israeli soldiers who responded by firing stun grenades and teargas canisters … The sources, describing the clashes as the most violent in recent weeks, said that disguised Israeli soldiers detained two minors after savagely beating them. They could only identify one of them Issa Hussam Al-Kurd, 15.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Living and dying in the Golan Heights – Part II
Majdal Shams – PNN Exclusive — 27 June — Victoria Delacroix- Playing games and avoiding parents is what the world revolves around at 13. Life is all about running around with friends through the narrow streets and between homes, laughing till you can’t breathe and not coming home until parents start hollering for you. And Majdal Shams seems like the perfect place to do all that and more. The town is nestled in between the rocky hills of the Golan and rolling cherry orchards. The winding narrow streets with the snow white stone homes and little shops in between offer so many different places to run around, to hide, to explore, and to be a child.For Saleh Abu Arar, this is what life did look like.“I was born here, in a very nice place. I like this place, this village so much,” Arar said. But at 13, Arar’s life and his body was literally torn in half, by a mine, a mine that had been placed in the village by Israeli soldiers.
link to english.pnn.ps
Activism / Solidarity
British Council “Mud bricks team 2011”
Jordan Valley Solidarity 27 June — On the June 15th, the British Council Palestinian team spent the afternoon with JVS volunteers. After a presentation of the situation in the occupied Jordan Valley, the group of both Palestinians and English British Council employees had a tour in the Southern Jordan Valley, from Jericho to Jiftlik. Once in Jiftlik the JVS volunteers explained our work, focusing on our special sustainable method of building in Area C with mud bricks. During about one hour the British Council team made mud bricks, trying to make as many bricks as possible respecting our quality criteria.
link to www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org
Sandy Quintano recounts trip to West Bank
Times Herald [Michigan] 27 June — Even while being treated in an Israeli hospital, a Port Huron peace worker said she heard fear and prejudice against Palestinians in people’s voices. Sandy Quintano, 60, was on her second trip to the West Bank this April with the Michigan Peace Team when she was shoved by Israeli soldiers during a demonstration, resulting in two broken wrists and a scraped forehead. Back in the United States and ready to tell her story, Quintano spoke Sunday evening to the Pax Christi group at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Port Huron. It is the first in a series of public talks she will be giving this summer on her experiences in the West Bank.
link to www.thetimesherald.com
Flotilla
Israel fears Gaza flotilla activists may try to kill IDF soldiers
Haaretz 27 June — Senior Israeli officials receive information that activists are bringing chemical substances to use against soldiers; extremists participating in flotilla have said they intend to ‘shed the blood of IDF soldiers.’
link to www.haaretz.com
Gaza flotilla activists: One of our ships was sabotaged / Amira Hass
Haaretz 27 June — One of the ships due to participate in the Gaza flotilla was deliberately tampered with while it was docked in Greece’s Piraeus port, Gaza flotilla activists told Haaretz on Monday. The ship, due to carry Greek, Norwegian, and Swedish passengers to Gaza, was found with its propeller shaft broken, the ship’s spokesman Israeli activist Dror Feiler told Haaretz.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israel drops threat to deport, ban journalists
AP 27 June — Foreign Press Association in Israel protests deportation threat against journalists boarding flotilla, prompting PM’s Office to introduce special procedure … A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said: “The prime minister has instructed not to apply standard policy against infiltrators and those entering the country illegally. It was also decided to allow Israeli and international media outlets on Navy boats in order to enable transparency and credible reporting of the events.” … On Monday, the Foreign Press Association in Israel demanded that the Government Press Office retract the threat claiming it was a serious injury to the freedom of expression. They urged a distinction between covering an event, legitimate in itself, and actively taking part in the flotilla.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Cabinet votes to stop Gaza flotilla
Ynet 27 June — The Security Cabinet voted Monday in favor of stopping the planned Gaza flotilla from breaching the maritime blockade placed on the Strip and reaching its shores. The cabinet further ordered the IDF to “adamantly” stop the sail should it try to breach the siege, while doing everything possible to spare human lives.
link to www.ynetnews.com
In preparation for Gaza flotilla, passengers briefed in how to face Israeli soldiers / Amira Hass
Haarerz 27 June — …The Tahrir passengers are asked to decide: “Where would you prefer to be when the [Israeli] commandos commandeer the ship?” Based on the experience of previous Gaza-bound boats, with the exception of the Mavi Marmara, the lecturer presents the options. “On deck you will be exposed to a few minutes of physical violence from the soldiers that will feel like a few hours,” he says. “From previous experience, the soldiers, en route to the captain’s cabin, will step on people’s heads. You won’t move, but they’ll see you as the aggressor. The commanders know very well that we’re not armed. But the simple soldier has been brainwashed, and he’ll be afraid.”
link to www.haaretz.com
Netanyahu: Israel will not allow flotilla to breach Gaza naval blockade
Haaretz 27 June — Security officials inform cabinet that they have no information indicating that anyone affiliated with a terror group is planning to take part in the flotilla … Some 10 ships are planning to set sail tomorrow in an attempt to breach Israel’s blockade of the Strip. The government and army are hoping the ships will stop on their own, possibly early Thursday, and that the Israel Navy will not have to board them, a move that would not be well received in the world … Government and defense sources said the fact that most, if not all, the flotilla participants will be European peace activists presumably not interested in violence will present a “more difficult public diplomacy challenge,” and Israel wants to avoid clashes with the activists.
link to www.haaretz.com
Report: Israel, Egypt agree Gaza flotilla can unload cargo at El-Arish
Haaretz 27 June — Israel and Egypt have reached an understanding that the ships taking part in the Gaza flotilla will be allowed to unload their cargo in the Egyptian port of El-Arish, where it will be checked and then transferred to the Gaza Strip via land, Israel Radio reported on Monday.
link to www.haaretz.com
Civil society organizations stage demonstration outside Gaza UNRWA headquarters
[photos] MEMO 27 June — Demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags and waving placards with slogans condemning the blockade of Gaza have staged protests outside the headquarters of UNWRA in Gaza demanding international intervention to provide protection for ships taking part in Freedom Flotilla II … The demonstrations were well attended as Palestinians are filled with concern following Israel’s announcement and threat that it would stand in the way of any vessel heading toward Gaza.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Getting on board with peace in Israel / Hagit Borer
LA Times 26 June — I am an Israeli Jewish American. I was born in Israel, and I grew up in a very different Jerusalem from the one today. The Jerusalem of my childhood was a smallish city of white-stone neighborhoods nestled in the elbows of hills. Near the center, next to the central post office, the road swerved sharply to the left because straight ahead stood a big wall, and on the other side of it was “them.” … It is a different Jerusalem now. It is not their Jerusalem, for it has been taken from them. Every day the Palestinians of Jerusalem are further strangled by more incursions, by more “housing developments” to cut them off from other Palestinians. In Sheik Jarrah, a neighborhood built by Jordan in the 1950s to house refugees, Palestinian families recently have been evicted from their homes at gunpoint based on court-sanctioned documents purporting to show Jewish land ownership in the area dating back some 100 years. But no Palestinian proof of ownership within West Jerusalem has ever prevailed in Israeli courts.
link to articles.latimes.com
Gaza
Gaza official says Egypt working to fix Rafah delays
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 27 June — The head of the crossings authority in Gaza said Sunday that Egyptian authorities have begun implementing a new mechanism at the Rafah crossing to alleviate a backlog in travel. Hatem E’weidah said the new protocol would take into consideration emergency cases and persons whose residencies expire in June. E’weidah said that Egyptian authorities were still committed to facilitating travel, as they have pledged, except for the number of people crossing each day. “This has led to a huge crisis,” he said. “The issue that prevented the Egyptians from allowing large numbers of travelers via the crossing was due to logistical obstacles including decreasing state security staff” after the revolution … The government in Gaza is working on speeding up approval for those Palestinians who have been returned to Gaza due to unspecified security concerns, E’weidah added.
link to www.maannews.net
Pure hell at the Rafah crossing / Shahd Abusalama
Mondo 27 June — “Oh yes! I got the scholarship! I’ll be going to USA for a leadership program,” I said while jumping with happiness after reading the email with news of my approval. I thought I had passed the most difficult step. It wasn’t actually the step that I should have worried about. I realized later that I had rushed my happiness, and that it had been too early to feel like I was in control of everything … It is, simply, pure hell at Rafah. Every day I went to the border was harder than the one before it. Every day, I just got more and more frustrated. “There’s only one way you’re going to leave: with a strong connection” — this is the system that the Rafah border follows. Every day I went there, I bled tears for the people who have been struggling to leave for weeks, but couldn’t. There was no mercy for anybody, whoever they were: old or young, sick or healthy, or whatever.
link to mondoweiss.net
Gaza union thanks Australian surgeons for volunteer work
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 27 June — The Union of Health Work Committees on Saturday thanked an Australian medical delegation for performing surgeries in the Gaza Strip. Union chairman Dr Yousef Awadallah said the Australian doctors had seen hundreds of patients needing specialized treatment and performed 45 operations during their visit.
link to www.maannews.net
Rights group wants inquiry into detainee’s death
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 27 June — The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has called upon the government in Gaza to seriously investigate the death of Ibrahim Akram al-Aa’raj, 45, who died Saturday in police custody. Al-Aa’raj died at the Abu Oraiban police station in Nussairat camp, the rights group said noting that it was concerned he was subjected to torture and cruel treatment during his detention over two days. The anti-drug unit has come under suspicion this month after a different detainee died in custody and another suffered a bullet wound to the foot while in custody of the same police unit, the PCHR said.
link to www.maannews.net
Limited goods to be allowed into Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 27 June — Israeli authorities will allow limited deliveries of goods and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian officials said … Fattouh said 8 trucks would bring building materials for a project funded by the German Development Agency, while ten trucks would bring cement for water authorities’ projects. Meanwhile, 50 trucks would bring gravel for UN-funded projects.
link to www.maannews.net
Detention / Court actions
Jerusalem court indicts four border policemen for assaulting Palestinian boy
Haaretz 27 June — According to the indictment, the incident began when a young Palestinian boy approached a checkpoint near the village of Al-Jib, and was asked by the border policemen for his identity card. When the boy did not take out his card, one of the policemen took him into a military jeep where there was a guard-dog in order to threaten him. Another policeman told the boy that they would order the dog to bite him if he didn’t take out his identity card. The interaction between the police and boy continued in this manner until the boy burst into tears. One of the policemen allegedly hit the boy in his stomach, while another poured water on him and threw a bottle at him. The entire incident was documented on one of the policeman’s cell phones.
link to www.haaretz.com
Report: Israel uses over 100 forms of mental and physical torture against Palestinian prisoners
MEMO 27 June — …In a report released on Sunday, June 26, in commemoration of International Day against Torture, the Prisoners Studies Centre revealed that Israeli authorities are “exercising all manner of internationally banned torture techniques against Palestinian detainees from the moment of their arrest until their release.” The centre called on the international community to monitor the situation inside Israeli prisons and to file indictments against all those involved in torturing detainees. According to the report, Israeli interrogators “use many suppressive methods to extract confessions from prisoners. Interrogation techniques include pouring hot and cold water onto detainees’ heads, depriving them of medicine, putting cigarettes outs on their bodies and keeping them in overcrowded, dirty and dark places — in addition to death threats and threats to expatriate detainees and arrest their family members.”
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
IOF soldiers detain 8 Palestinians including children
RAMALLAH (PIC) 27 June — The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up five Palestinian citizens at dawn Monday and three children on Sunday in various West Bank areas, locals reported. They said that the five were taken from their homes after evacuating them for search.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israel said to be clamping down on Hamas prisoners
JERUSALEM (AFP) 27 June — Israel has moved several of its Hamas prisoners to solitary confinement, media reported on Sunday three days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make their conditions harsher. Internet news site Ynet said that “at least seven senior Hamas operatives” had been transferred. Netanyahu said on Thursday that as the Palestinian Islamist movement refused to allow Red Cross visits to Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier it has held for five years, he would cut privileges of Hamas militants in Israeli jails, such as external university courses.
link to www.maannews.net
Israel holding at least eight Palestinian prisoners in permanent isolation
Haaretz 27 June — At least eight Palestinian prisoners are incarcerated in isolation in Israeli prisons for security reasons. These inmates, mostly Hamas members, are at the top of the prisoner list under discussion between Israel and the Islamic organization in talks for the release of Gilad Shalit.
link to www.haaretz.com
In Israeli jails, Palestinian prisoners prove the most studious
Haaretz 27 June — Of the 270 prisoners studying for degrees through the Open University at the end of last year, only 60 were criminal prisoners, according to prison data … While criminal prisoners have been allowed to study since 1978, this right was granted to security prisoners only in 1994, after a hunger strike by some of them two years earlier. One likely reason so many security prisoners are students is that their tuition is paid by the Palestinian Authority … The most popular courses, reflecting the preferences of the security prisoners, include “Introduction to the History of the Middle East in Modern Times,” “Genocide,” “Basic Concepts in International Relations,” “Israeli Arab Society” and “Islam: Introduction to the History of the Religion.” In 2002, the prison service tried to forbid security prisoners from taking a list of 30 courses, among them several mentioned above … For security reasons, as well as a lack of labs and equipment, prisoners cannot study life sciences, exact sciences or computer science.
link to www.haaretz.com
Week 14: Ahmed Fareed Muhammad Shehadeh, Palestinian political prisoner
MEMO 27 June — It is possible for a prisoner to make the most of an appalling situation. One man who has done so has completed university studies and brightened his surroundings with his own ingenious works of art with his paintings which express his will not to surrender at any cost. That man is prisoner Ahmed Fareed Muhammad Shehadeh, 48, from Qalandiya refugee camp in Ramallah, is single and is the doyen of the prisoners from the camp. He was arrested on 16 February 1985 and charged with belonging to Fatah, resisting the occupation and killing an Israeli spy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment; he has now spent more than half of his life in prison.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Rights group denies Shalit claims
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 26 June — The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has denounced claims in local media that PCHR demanded the release of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza. This controversy follows PCHR’s signature on a joint statement by international and Israeli human rights organizations demanding that the soldier, Gilad Shalit, be treated according to international law.
link to www.maannews.net
PRC vows to capture more Israeli soldiers
GAZA (Ma‘an) 26 June — The Salah Ad-Din brigades, armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, has warned of capturing more Israeli soldiers to swap them for prisoners. The brigades said in a statement Sunday that “capturing soldiers is an option and priority in the current and coming stage as long as there is a Palestinian prisoner in the Israeli jails.”.
link to www.maannews.net
Terror cell planning abductions nabbed
Ynet 27 June — Released for publication: A group of Palestinians belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were arrested near Ramallah on suspicion of planning a series of terrorist attacks on Israel. The Shin Bet and the IDF said that the cell was planning to kidnap Israeli soldiers, among other plots. Some of the suspects are residents of east Jerusalem who hold Israeli citizenship.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Negev man suspected of planning soldier abduction
Ynet 27 June — A man from the Bedouin village of Lakiya was arrested Monday on suspicion of involvement in an attempted kidnapping of an IDF soldier and for breaking into the house of a judge in southern Israel. According to suspicion, he broke into the house together with a Palestinian man from Jenin, who was also arrested last weekend. The housebreaking occurred last February.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Germany: Israel accepted Shalit deal proposal; Hamas did not
AP 27 June — Spokesman for German government reaffirms Netanyahu’s claim on Sunday that Israel accepted a German-mediated prisoner swap deal for Shalit but Hamas failed to do so.
link to www.haaretz.com
Abu Marzouk: We rejected the Israeli conditions for a prisoner exchange deal
DAMASCUS (PIC) 27 June — Deputy political bureau chairman of Hamas Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk has said that his movement had rejected the “unjust offer” tabled by the German “mediator” on the prisoners’ exchange deal because he bowed to Israeli occupation conditions. He told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper published on Monday that Gerhard Conrad adopted the Israeli occupation government’s conditions, which he described as “unjust and unfair.” He added that the Israeli occupation’s stringent position is understood but for the German middleman to adopt such a position is “unacceptable.”
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Racism / Discrimination
Israeli group urges yellow pages to boot businesses advertising Jewish-only labor
Haaretz 27 June — Israel’s version of the Yellow Pages allows businesses to advertise Jewish-only labor in its phone directories, according to a complaint filed by a local umbrella group for civil rights organizations. The group, Shutafut-Sharakah, approached the Israel Golden Pages (Dapey Zahav ) CEO, Nir Lampert, with a request to remove from the directory businesses that advertise “avodah Ivrit” or Hebrew labor, and to refrain from letting them advertise in the future.
link to www.haaretz.com
Video: Rabbi Lior’s arrest sparks protest
Ynet 27 June — Dozens of right-wing activists blocked the entrance to Jerusalem Monday and set tires on fire following the arrest of Rabbi Dov Lior for incitement suspicions. Six protestors were arrested. Police and rescue forces were dispatched to the area. Meanwhile, the rabbi who is suspected of inciting against non-Jews by supporting the book “The King’s Torah”, has been released from custody after being questioned for two hours.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Political / Diplomatic / International news
Hamas: No plans for Mash‘al, Abbas meeting in Cairo
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 27 June — Hamas is not aware of any arrangements for party chief Khalid Mash‘al to meet Fatah-leader President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya said Monday. Abbas and Mash‘al had been scheduled to meet in Cairo on Tuesday to finalize the formation of a unity government, but the meeting was indefinitely postponed. Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said the trip was delayed over a leadership row. Hamas rejected Fatah’s nomination of Salam Fayyad to the post of prime minister in the new government.
link to www.maannews.net
Report: PM backed out of flotilla apology
Ynet 27 June — Did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuagree to apologize to Turkey for thedeadly raid on the first Gaza-bound flotilla only to change his mind? Ankara’s daily newspaper Hurriyet reported Monday that Netanyahu did just that — and three times.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Palestinian officials to visit nearly a dozen countries for UN recognition, support
AP 27 June — Palestinian delegations will make the rounds of nearly a dozen countries to try to drum up more support for their bid to have the United Nations recognize a Palestinian state, senior officials said Monday. Palestinian officials will visit Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries that have not yet endorsed the Palestinian plan for recognition, said Hana Amireh, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s decision-making Executive Committee.
link to www.theglobeandmail.com
Cyprus offers to rally European support for Palestinian state
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 27 June — Cyprus on Monday said it would rally support in Europe for the Palestinian bid for UN recognition of statehood in September. Cyprus recognized a Palestinian state on 1967 borders in January. Cyprus Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis offered to continue to support Palestine during a meeting with his Palestinian Authority counterpart Said Abu Ali Ramallah.
link to www.maannews.net
Israel, Jordan at odds over Mughrabi Bridge
Ynet 27 June — Diplomatic crisis said to be brewing between Jerusalem, Amman after latter asks UNESCO to condemn Israel over plans to renovate rickety bridge … Jordan is also demanding that UNESCO order Israel to stop the archaeological excavations in the Old City.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Repression
New version of boycott prohibition bill approved for final reading
ACRI 27 June — Following the approval today (Monday) in the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of a more extended and harmful version of the Boycott Bill, preparing it for a final vote in the plenum, Executive-Director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Hagai El-Ad, states: “Why should Israeli citizens be allowed to boycott Israeli cottage cheese, as we have heard and seen in recent weeks, but be barred from boycotting the occupation? This bill is politically motivated and unfortunately it is not the only bill promoted in Knesset these days that stands in contrast to democratic values. A boycott by consumers is a legitimate tool of protest and falls within the protection of freedom of expression. It is ironic that this bill will further enhance the criticism voiced against Israel”.
link to www.acri.org.il
‘Anti-boycott bill has fragile foundations’
Ynet 27 June — During the hearing, Attorney General Weinstein’s senior aide, attorney Raz Nazri said the bill “leans on a fragile foundation. “According to Nazri, the bill is borderline in terms of its legal applicability, adding that “every small alteration might weaken its already feeble framework.”
link to www.ynetnews.com
Human interest
Hungry for adventure? Head for West Bank cookery school / Catriona Davies
(CNN) 27 June — Women in the West Bank town of Nablus are preparing to open a cookery school to teach Palestinian specialties to foodie tourists. The school will be part of a cultural and social center, called Bait Al Karama, and will be the first women-led cookery school in the Palestinian Territories, according to its organizers. It has already joined the Slow Food movement, the international association set up to combat fast food culture and concerned with organic, locally sourced food … Fatima Kadumy, director of the women’s committee of the Nablus Old City Charity Society, said the center would give women the opportunity to become financially independent, especially those whose husbands were killed or are in jail.
link to www.cnn.com
Jerusalem boxing club brings Arabs and Jews together
Haaretz Daily 26 June — Gym in converted bomb shelter opens doors to all comers, with one rule — politics is left outside. The two men — one a Palestinian, the other an Israeli Jew — square up, the muscles in their faces clenched as they prepare to hit each other. They circle each other, fists raised. Then it begins: punches aimed at the head, accompanied by sharp grunts.It’s over quickly. Panting and dripping with sweat, they pull apart. They grin at each another, and the Palestinian truck driver claps a comradely hand on the shoulder of the Israeli soldier. The pair are not fighting as enemies, but training as friends in an unusual subterranean boxing club, based in a converted bomb shelter in a rundown area of west Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Boxing Club opens its doors to everyone: Jews, Arabs, Russians, boys and girls. Its youngest member is eight years old; the oldest is in his mid-60s. Gershon Luxemburg, an immigrant from Uzbekistan who has run the club with his brother for 30 years, firmly believes sport can overcome political, religious, nationalist and cultural differences and act as a bridge across a 63-year conflict.
link to www.haaretzdaily.com
Other news
PA television ‘silencing’ union leader
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 25 June — Public employees’ union chief Bassem Zakarna on Saturday accused Palestinian Authority media outlets of trying to silence him. Zakarna said the general supervisor of the PA-run Palestine TV and Palestine Voice radio station ordered journalists at the stations to cancel planned interviews with him. He added that the official also discouraged other media outlets from interviewing him.
link to www.maannews.net
Lynch survivor: I saw murder in their eyes
Ynet 27 June — Nir Nachshon, who was nearly lynched after accidentally entering Palestinian village, recalls moments of horror. Village’s mukhtar visits Nachson’s home, says ‘I ask for your forgiveness, invite you to return or visit’ … The mukhtar told Nachshon that “two months ago an Arab man was attacked by Jews in Jerusalem. I hope you will save the lives of Arabs just like we saved yours.” … At the end of the meeting, Darwish reiterated his disapproval of the event, but stressed that “our village is neglected and our residents don’t receive their basic rights. Our kids walk around in the streets and are only used to experiencing raids,” he said.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Analysis / Opinion
Exploding the myths: UNRWA, UNHCR and Palestinian refugees
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 27 June — As Palestinian leaders prepare to seek UN recognition of statehood in September, there is increasing talk in the US, Israel and elsewhere of disbanding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the UN Relief and Works Agency, and handing responsibility for Palestinian refugees to the UN High Commission for Refugees. Some argue UNHCR would resettle the refugees, robbing them of their right to return to their homes. But are these ideas based on a sound understanding of international law and refugee practice? Are they based on a real grasp of the mandates of UNRWA and UNHCR? To set the record straight, Ma‘an turned to UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.
link to www.maannews.net
Israel policy myth 3: trying to stem a flood of migrants/ Roi Maor
972mag 27 June — To justify draconian and inhumane measures against refugees, the Israeli government claims the country is flooded by work migrants from impoverished countries. The facts do not bear this out, to put it mildly. In Israel today, there are two classes of immigrants. One is composed of those who come under the Law of Return, which supposedly grants automatic citizenship for Jews and their immediate relatives (the myth surrounding this law will be discussed in the final installment of this series). The second class is composed, well, of everyone else. How do they fare? Quite badly, in fact. Children who have lived in the country for the majority of their lives face deportation [Hebrew]. A mother of an infant child with Israeli citizenship nonetheless also faces deportation. Getting pregnant will cost you your visa[Hebrew], despite a High Court of Justice ruling that says otherwise (and see upcoming myth #9 on that). And soon, the first Israeli-only kindergartens in the country will be opened. Refugees fare no better. A deaf Eritrean recently spent almost two years in jail, because his identity could not be verified. Some are imprisoned just because they require medical care, while others are incarcerated [Hebrew] without access to appropriate medical facilities. And the government is doubling down on this policy, building a huge new prison for refugees, with intentionally cramped conditions … The number of illegal migrants therefore comes to a total of less than 0.7% of the country’s population.
link to 972mag.com
groups.yahoo.com/group/f_shadi (listserv)
www.theheadlines.org (archive)
‘This is not my Jerusalem’
Jun 27, 2011
annie
Hagit Borer (right) moved from Israel to the United States to study in 1977. She became an American citizen in 1992 and is currently a professor of linguistics at USC and a passenger on the Audacity of Hope. She self-identifies as an Israeli Jewish American. Yesterday the LA times published an Op-Ed by Borer titled“Getting on board with peace in Israel” in which she shares some experiences of her youth growing up in Jerusalem as well as reflecting on Israel today.
Here’s a brief segment:
A soldier helped me sneak into the Old City. Snipers were still at large and the city was closed to Israeli civilians. By the Western Wall, a myth to me until then, the Israeli army was already evicting Palestinian residents in the dead of night and demolishing all houses within 1,000 feet. Eventually, the area would turn into the huge open paved space it is today, a place where only last month, on Jerusalem Day, masses of Israeli youths chanted “Muhammad is dead” and “May your villages burn.”
It is a different Jerusalem now. It is not their Jerusalem, for it has been taken from them. Every day the Palestinians of Jerusalem are further strangled by more incursions, by more “housing developments” to cut them off from other Palestinians. In Sheik Jarrah, a neighborhood built by Jordan in the 1950s to house refugees, Palestinian families recently have been evicted from their homes at gunpoint based on court-sanctioned documents purporting to show Jewish land ownership in the area dating back some 100 years. But no Palestinian proof of ownership within West Jerusalem has ever prevailed in Israeli courts. Talbieh, Katamon, Baca, until 1948 affluent Palestinian neighborhoods, are today almost exclusively Jewish, with no legal recourse for the Palestinians who recently raised families and lived their lives there.
In his speech on Jerusalem Day, Yitzhak Pindrus, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, assured a cheering crowd of the ongoing commitment to expanding the Jewish neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik, as Sheik Jarrah has been renamed.
This is not my Jerusalem.
Sabotage on the Aegean: Propeller mysteriously cut on flotilla ship
Jun 27, 2011
Lizzy Ratner
This just in from Haaretz journalist Amira Hass: organizers for the Swedish-Greek–Norwegian boat to Gaza are reporting that their ship has been sabotaged.
One of the ships due to participate in the Gaza flotilla was deliberately tampered with while it was docked in Greece’s Piraeus port, organizers of the Gaza flotilla told Haaretz on Monday.
The ship, due to carry Greek, Norwegian, and Swedish passengers to Gaza, was found to have been tampered with when its propeller shaft was found broken, the ship’s spokesman, Israeli activist Dror Feiler told Haaretz.
A scuba diver who examines the ship on a daily basis discovered Monday that the ship’s propeller shaft, which connects the transmission inside the vessel directly to the propeller, was cut off.
According to Feiler, there is no doubt that the action was a deliberate attempt at sabotage, which he believed also violated Greece’s sovereignty.
The propeller shaft can be fixed, but it’s not clear how quickly given the general strike planned for Tuesday and Wednesday in Greece. Which means: more intrigue — and more delay.
Here’s a quick Google translation of the statement issued by representatives of the damaged ship:
At 17:30 o’clock (Swedish time) on Monday discovered the Ship to Gaza’s passenger boat “Juliano” victim of sabotage in the port of Piraeus. Hostile divers have destroyed prop house and cut the propeller shaft. No man was injured in the attack.
In Gaza has documented the sabotage of their own camera equipped divers. According to a first inspection on site yesterday to repair the damage before the planned departure at the end of this week.
Passenger boat “Juliano” (named after Juliano More Khamis, the murdered actor and director at Freedom Theatre in Jenin) is owned jointly by the Ship to Gaza organizations in Sweden, Norway and Greece.
In a first comment says Ship to Gaza spokesperson Mattias Gardell:
– It’s one thing to a foreign power presses the Greek government to delay our voyage with red tape. It is quite another thing to enemy agents operating on Greek territory. It is high time for the international community to put their foot down and say: Enough!
Democracy Now talks to members of the US Boat to Gaza as the flotilla prepares to leave Greece
Jun 27, 2011
Adam Horowitz
Israel Law Center behind harassment of flotilla funded by homophobic End Timer Pastor BASTARD John Hagee
Jun 27, 2011
Max Blumenthal
Pastor John Hagee is a major financial supporter of Shurat Hadin, the Israel Law Center behind the legal campaign against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Pastor John Hagee is a major financial supporter of Shurat Hadin, the Israel Law Center behind the legal campaign against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
On June 24, Joseph Dana, a journalist who will traveling aboard the US boat to Gaza, discoveredthat an anonymous private legal complaint had been filed against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The complaint alleged that US boat, “The Audacity of Hope,” was not sea worthy and therefore was unfit to sail. In response, the harbor master in Athens, Greece, where the boat was docked, told the crew that he could not allow them to leave until the complaint was resolved.
Two days later, the Israel Law Center, Shurat Hadin, accepted responsibility for the complaint, which was essentially a baseless but startlingly successful exercise in legal harassment. Who is Shurat Hadin, and what is their agenda? According to the group’s website, Shurat Hadin is a Tel Aviv-based law center that specializes in lawsuits against “terrorists.” Its founder, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, describes herself in her bio as a “human rights activist.”
Darshan-Leitner began her harassment of the US boat to Gaza began weeks ago when it filed a civil action against “perceived supporters of Hamas” on behalf of Alan Bauer, an American doctor who was injured along with his son in a 2002 Jerusalem bombing attack. The action also threatened maritime insurance companies with legal consequences if they insured any of the boats involved in the flotilla.
I have discovered that a major donor to Shurat Hadin is the homophobic far-right Pastor John Hagee. In March 2010, I reported that Hagee appeared beside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a major rally in Jerusalem to denounce the two state solution and announce the financial contributions he and his supporters were making to Israeli organizations. Among the organizations Hagee said he had bankrolled was Shurat Hadin.
Who Is Hagee Funding In Israel? from Max Blumenthal on Vimeo.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican Senator John McCain repudiated Hagee’s endorsement as soon as Hagee’s statements describing the Holocaust as a fulfillment of divine prophecy came to light. Hagee has also asserted his belief that the anti-Christ was “partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler.” As the researcher and reporter Bruce Wilson has documented, Hagee preaches that the Jewish Rothschild family controls the US economy through the Federal Reserve and conspires to attack the American middle class by devaluing the dollar. In his 2006 book Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee claimed that a lineage of “half-breed Jews,” descended from Esau and which included Adolf Hitler, have persecuted full-blooded Jews throughout history. Hagee prophesied that God intended to exterminate that “half-breed Jew” line.
These statements — and countless more demonizing gays, Muslims, and anyone else Hagee deems to be allied with “the Enemy” – have been widely reported. However, nothing Hagee says or does seems to deter the “human rights activist” Darshan-Leitner and Shurat Hadin from embracing him and benefiting from his riches.
This post originally appeared on Max Blumenthal’s blog.
‘Gaza, We Are Coming’: Despite pressure and threats of violence, flotilla will sail
Jun 27, 2011
The Free Gaza Movement
The Free Gaza Movement issued the following statement this morning:
On Saturday, 25 June, the French boat, Dignity / Karama, left the port of l’ile Rousse in Corsica, France, to meet up with at least nine other vessels sailing to Gaza to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade. Israel’s best efforts to stop our boats at port, including pressure on governments, threats against insurance and communications companies, intimidation of human rights defenders, frivolous lawsuits and other underhanded tactics, have thus far failed. The Freedom Flotilla has set sail.
In the coming days the rest of the vessels in the flotilla, two cargo ships and seven other passenger boats, will leave from various ports to a meeting point in international waters from which the boats will sail all together towards Gaza. We will carry nearly three thousand tons of aid and hundreds of civilians from dozens of countries, including members of parliament, politicians, writers, artists, journalists and sports figures, as well as representatives of indigenous peoples and various faith groups.
Unfortunately some of our vessels are facing delays admittedly initiated by bogus complaints from the Israel Law Center, attempted sabotage of some boats, as well as administrative obstacles created by the Greek government in response to Israeli pressure. We call upon the Greek government not to become complicit in Israel’s illegal actions by succumbing to this pressure, and to join France in standing unopposed to the flotilla.
There is no question that Israel’s near hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip is illegal; this has been affirmed again and again by numerous international human rights bodies including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. And, when prompted by the flotilla effort, international consensus has been unequivocal in the demand for the Israeli siege to end. There is no question that Israel’s closure policy has had a devastating effect on the occupied people of Gaza. This has also been well documented. The only question is why does the international community of states allow Israel to keep violating the law and rights of the Palestinian people with impunity?
Recent steps taken by Israel to address the concerns raised in the public eye by the Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human initiative, including last week’s announcement of authorization for construction materials for 1,200 homes and 18 schools in Gaza, prove that flotillas work. However, this is not enough, as our effort is not simply about increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza. It is about freedom for Palestinians in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. Calls by some world leaders for flotilla organizers to use “established channels” to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza show a fundamental disregard for Palestinian human rights. The Palestinian people do not want handouts from the international community; rather they demand liberation – a call we must all support.
Therefore, despite intimidation, pressure, and threats of violence from the Israeli government, which is not ashamed to boast that it will use snipers and attack dogs against unarmed civilians, we will sail. We are part of a growing movement, led by Palestinian civil society campaigning for their freedom, that Israel’s strong-arm tactics cannot stop. We call on our governments to do their utmost to protect their citizens as we take to the sea, without weapons, protection or threat of force, in defense of freedom, human rights, and the rule of law. Gaza, we are coming.
UK government Facebook page shows solidarity with Gilad Shalit
Jun 27, 2011
Eleanor Kilroy
A friend drew my attention to the extraordinary fact that the ‘UK in Israel‘ Facebook page (the British Embassy in Israel’s official page) had adopted the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit as their current political mascot (see the upper left and corner of the Facebook page above). Saturday 25 June marked the fifth anniversary of his capture and he has since been held by Hamas in the besieged Gaza strip. Before noting this, I had got into a fruitless discussion on the Palestinian academic and cultural boycott of Israel with an administrator of the page:
Eleanor – We should also add that the British government does not in any way support boycotts of Israel – particularly not in the fields of academia or cultural relations. In fact, we believe that boycotts are counter-productive and do not help in any way to get the sides back to the negotiating table.
To my knowledge this public expression of solidarity with Shalit has not been ‘balanced’ with similar efforts on the part of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
‘Commandos physical violence will only last a few minutes but feel like a few hours’ –Canadian boat training
Jun 27, 2011
Philip Weiss
Amira Hass reports to Haaretz from ‘Tahrir,’ the Canadian boat. I gather that Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston is urging his country to let the boats go through. A wisp of sanity sure to be ignored. Hass, excerpt:
SOMEWHERE IN GREECE – We’re in the lecture hall in which the people sailing on the Tahrir, the Canadian ship taking part in the Gaza-bound flotilla, are being briefed.
The Tahrir passengers are asked to decide: “Where would you prefer to be when the [Israeli] commandos commandeer the ship?”
Based on the experience of previous Gaza-bound boats, with the exception of the Mavi Marmara, the lecturer presents the options. “On deck you will be exposed to a few minutes of physical violence from the soldiers that will feel like a few hours,” he says.
“From previous experience, the soldiers, en route to the captain’s cabin, will step on people’s heads.
