Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• Egyptian polls open amid accusation of election fraud

• Pregnant Pulitzer prize winning American photojournalist humiliated as Israeli soldiers ‘watched and laughed’

• ‘A Needle in the Binding’: The legacy of Palestinian prisoner self-education in Israeli prisons

• Thanksgiving in Gaza

• Human rights groups target fashion icon over NYC exhibition funded by settlement tycoon Lev Leviev

• Sumarin family receives news that eviction is temporarily delayed

• Activists charge World Health Organization with being ‘blind to apartheid’

• A message in the sand: ‘We will not allow gas exports to Israel’

• Wait, did the South Carolina legislature pass a one-state resolution?!

• JJ Goldberg is uncomfortable with ‘astoundingly hostile’ new ‘New York Times’

Egyptian polls open amid accusation of election fraud

Nov 29, 2011

Allison Deger

(Photo: David Degner)

Today red index fingers paint Egypt. They are symbolic marks for the post-Mubarak era changes, however as the indelible ink that stains voters’ skin at the polls wears off after 24 hours, so will the guises the elections as “fair.”

After ten days of demonstrations in Tahrir Square and major cities across Egypt, which killed41 people and wounded thousands, the Egyptian government opened polls for the first day of three tiers of elections that will take place through March 2012. This last wave of mass dissidence in Egyptian cities also included a ninth bombing of a gas pipeline with Israel (the second bombing in the last two weeks). Some Egyptian groups are boycotting the elections, including the Democratic Coalition, who called the three-tiered process with reserved seats for independents in a third of the parliament as “independents and candidates from the old regime.”

The elections process is complicated. There are over 10,000 candidates from 50 political parties. The country is divided into three voting districts, with different polling dates, and voting takes place over a two-day period, with no international election monitors. Under Mubarak, international observers were deemed unconstitutional, and in 2007 a system of staining voter’s index fingers with a red indelible ink was implemented. The red is used in other countries, Iraq and India, and it’s use is to stop election fraud by ensuring voters only vote once. However, the ink wears away after 24 hours, and with two days of elections the major source of accountability is mute. The red ink is not only a symbol of change, but a symbol of no change; as it blends itself out of existence, so does the guise of fair elections, with social trust from the people, and political accountability from the parties.

In July, international observers were scheduled to bring delegations to monitor the elections, however the SCAF military government canceled the observers, and transferred the monitoring process to the SCAF controlled judiciary. Earlier this month, there was a brief possibility of adelegation from Occupy Wall St., where $29,000 was allocated to monitor elections, however the funds were rescinded following an open letter from Egyptian activist citing “confusion” over the move to monitor elections, and the rumors of U.S. government involvement in using the Occupy Wall St. movement to legitimize the elections of a “puppet parliament”.

The Muslim Brotherhood (Ikwan) and the Wafd Party also allege that widespread voter fraudtook place in the first day of polling, where in previous elections the Muslim Brotherhood won 20% of the vote, this time, they have yet to win one seat. Abdel Galil el-Sharnoub from the Muslim Brotherhood said “the elections revealed the real intention of the regime – to unilaterally take over the Egyptian political arena.” The elections reveal that SCAF similar to Mubarak not only in brutal crackdowns, but in politics.

Pregnant Pulitzer prize winning American photojournalist humiliated as Israeli soldiers ‘watched and laughed’

Nov 29, 2011

annie

New York Times photographer Lynsey Addario stands near the frontline in Ras Lanuf, Libya.
(Photo: AP)

After a month long investigation into the humiliating treatment of pregnant Pulitzer Prize winning NYT American photojournalist Lynsey Addario, Israel finally issued an apology yesterday. Ethan Bronner, NYT Bureau Chief for Israel, reportedly said he was ‘shocked’ at both Addario’s treatment and the length of the investigation.

AP:

Israel’s Defense Ministry apologized Monday for the treatment of a pregnant American news photographer who said she was strip searched and humiliated by Israeli soldiers during a security check.

Lynsey Addario, who was on assignment for the New York Times, had requested that she not be forced to go through an X-ray machine as she entered Israel from the Gaza Strip because of concerns for her unborn baby.

Instead, she wrote in a letter to the ministry, she was forced through the machine three times as soldiers “watched and laughed from above.” She said she was then taken into a room where she was ordered by a female worker to strip down to her underwear.

In the Oct. 25 letter sent by the newspaper said Addario, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is based in India and has worked in more than 60 countries, had never been treated with “such blatant cruelty.”

Text of the apology available at the link.

Perhaps this explains some of the recent ‘hostilities‘ from the Grey Lady.

(Hat tip Karen Platt)

‘A Needle in the Binding’: The legacy of Palestinian prisoner self-education in Israeli prisons

Nov 29, 2011

Ben Lorber and Khalil Ashour

Books in the Prisoner’s Section of the Nablus Municipality Library (Photo: Rana Way)

On the third floor of the Nablus Municipality Library, there sits a room of over 8,000 books set apart from the rest. Many of these books are very old and tattered; many of them, in lieu of a normal face, are adorned with images taken from old National Geographic or Reader’s Digest magazines. Some are laboriously written by hand. The spines of the books show a variety of languages, from Arabic to English, French and Spanish. The New English Bible is flanked by The Great American Revolution of 1776 on one side and The Diary of Anne Frank on the other; across the aisle, Edward Said’s Orientalism and The Greek Myths look on silently, next to Elementary Physics and a study of The Chinese Road to Socialism.

One day in 2008, Italian artist Beatrice Catanzaro became fascinated with this section of the Nablus Library. “I would return day after day”, she related, “to pour over every detail- how the work was sown, the notations, the drawings.” A librarian, seeing her fascination, told her a story:

A few years ago an old man asked me for a specific book. [She picks up and shows me a thick hard covered grey book with old yellowish pages.] He started to explore the perimeter of the cover with his fingers, searching in the bookbinding gap. When [I] asked him what he was searching for, the man looked at [me] with a discouraged expression: ‘in prison I use to hide my embroidering needle in the binding of this book’.

What fascinated Beatrice about this collection? This 8,000-book collection is no ordinary collection, but the Prisoner’s Section of the Nablus Library. Here are gathered books that lived with generations of Palestinian prisoners behind the bars of Israeli prisons. The shelves are adorned with weathered tomes of economic theory, slim volumes of poetry, well-worn novels, textbooks on mathematics and physics, classic works of philosophy and history, and much more. Personal and political annotations, scribbles and drawings adorn these pages, which captivated the hearts and minds of decades of Palestinian prisoners before finding their way, after the closure of two ex-Israeli military detention structures in 1996, to this library.

PFLP leader Abdel-Alim Da’na, who was imprisoned for a total of 17 years between 1970 and 2004, spearheaded PFLP educational programs behind bars to spread the philosophy of resistance to less experienced prisoners. He explains the foundation of prison pedagogy- “everyone, when they enter the prison, must learn to read and to study. Some people, when they enter the prison, cannot read or write, and we put an end to their illiteracy. Some of them are very famous journalists now, some are poets, some are writing in the newspapers and doing research in the universities, some are men in the Palestinian Authority, some are activists!”

Khaled al-Azraq, a refugee from Aida Refugee camp who has been a political prisoner for the last 20 years, testifies that:

through the will and perseverance of the prisoners, prison was transformed into a school, a veritable university offering education in literature, languages, politics, philosophy, history and more…Prisoners passed on what they knew and had learned in an organized and systematic fashion. Simply put, learning and passing on knowledge and understanding, both about Palestine and in general, has been considered a patriotic duty necessary to ensure steadfastness and perseverance in the struggle to defend our rights against Zionism and colonialism. There is no doubt that the Palestinian political prisoners’ movement has played a leading role in developing Palestinian national education.

Khalil Ashour (Photo: Rana Way)

Khalil Ashour was a Palestinian political prisoner from 1970 to 1982. Years later, he became Director of the Ministry of Local Government for the PA in Nablus until his retirement in 2005. He was also a central figure in Beatrice Catanzaro’s aptly-titled exhibit in the Prisoner’s Section of the Nablus Municipality Library,  ‘A Needle in the Binding’. Several excellent pictures and stories from Catanzaro’s exhibit, which ran until November 17,  can be found here.

In conjunction with the exhibit, Khalil Ashour wrote a moving personal testimony called ‘The Palestinian Detainee and the Book’. In accordance with the wishes of Ashour and Catanzaro, it is reproduced here in full.

THE PALESTINIAN DETAINEE AND THE BOOK

by Khalil Ashour

The tragedy of detention is the deprivation of freedom of choice, or the limiting of this freedom to the minimum. If someone imposed their rules on you and oppressed you, you are their subject even if you are not a prisoner. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have lived this tragedy in the Israeli detention centers starting from the year 1967 until now, and the ugliest image of this tragedy was when Palestinian detainees were prohibited from reading and writing. They were allowed only to write letters of ten lines to their families, and if they were to write more than ten lines by one word or more, the prison administration used to tear up the letter. During this period Palestinian detainees used to spend their time in narrating stories they knew and films they had watched before detention.

I recall that a detainee narrated for us the story “Les Miserables”  by Victor Hugo, in several chapters. He used to narrate one chapter a day, until he finished the story after two weeks. We used to wait anxiously everyday until nighttime to listen to a new chapter. We all felt as if “Jean Valjean” the hero of the novel, was living among us. The last night we were so sad, as “Jean Valjean” was leaving our detention center, knowing that we were never to meet him again. And when the moment of separation arrived, a sorrowful silence fell upon us all.

This was our situation in Asqalan prison in the years 1970-1971. However, in Biet Led, in 1972, the prison administration allowed three things: the first one was to allow the “Jerusalem Post” Newspaper into the prison, which is published in English. One of the detainees who is fluent in English used to translate articles and news relevant to our interests as detainees for freedom. The second was distributing Israeli books which explain and defend the Zionist Movement, the Jewish right to Palestine, and that the Palestinian Organizations are a group of “terrorists” who are going to fail, in order to inject detainees’ minds with the Israeli version of the situation, bring despair to their hearts and smash their morale. The third one was that every detainee’s family is allowed to buy two books every month for their detained family member, however, these books were to be approved by the prison’s administration first, in addition to the fact that they should remain in the prison if the detainee is released or transferred to another prison. This is how the first library was established in Beit Led prison.

However, cultural life in Nablus prison was rather different. The prison was managed by the Jordanian Police before 1967, there was a small library of tens books in this prison. Most of the books were novels, poetry and few school books that talk about the Jordanian History. However books that address philosophy or politics were originally prohibited in the Jordanian Reign. A remarkable improvement occurred during one of the Red Cross’s visits near the end of the year 1972, the delegation handed us a long list of the books that are allowed and approved by the prison’s administration. The list was distributed to the detainees to choose whatever they wanted, it included books about Marxism, Leninism, Communist theory, and Socialist thought. It was a golden opportunity for the Popular Front and democratic front organizations’ members, as their leaders say that they are leftist organizations that defend laborers’ rights, and lead the proletariat revolution from the inside of the Palestinian national movement and Arab nationalism. This was the first time that the communist books were seen in prisons.

Every time a delegation from the Red Cross used to visit the detainees, the number of red books increased, as well as religious books, especially those authored  by Hassan Al-Banna, Sayed Qotob and his brother Mohammed Qotob, as well as Mohammed Al-Ghazali.  Those authors were the founders and poles of the Muslim Brotherhood that was established in Egypt in 1928.

Based on these books, the thoughts that lie within their pages, and according to their viewers and readers, three intellectual trends appeared and spread among detainees. 1. A patriotic and national movement 2. A communist and socialist movement 3. A religious and Salafi movement. Fruitful and rich discussions and debates occurred between these three parties, which improved the intellectual and cultural level of the detainees. These movements also influenced residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as its ideas spread among the populace, especially amongst university students and educated people. When the communist and socialist movements disintegrated as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union after the year 1989, the leftist parties and organizations suffered from a sever tremor, and a deep shock, as they started flopping aimlessly searching for an identity, which resulted in the spread of the Religious and Salafi movement’s values, thus gaining more popularity, as it found itself more free to compete with the national movement.

In addition, books’ spread in Israeli prisons, and the variation in its genres and subjects, opened new horizons for the detainees; even those who were illiterate, mastered reading and writing. Detained students completed their education, became Tawjihi degree holders, and joined universities after they were released. Those who were interested in language learned Hebrew, English and French. Those with little knowledge read books about geography, history, economy, politics, philosophy, astronomy, religion, and literature. This is how Palestinian detainees turned prisons, through reading and writing into active and living workshops, as a room in any prison used to be calm at time allocated for reading and noisy when holding sessions and conducting debates, regardless of the number of inmates. In order to test erudition and level of knowledge, they used to conduct a weekly “question & answer” tournament, and award the winning team. As a result of this tournament, the spirit of competition spread among detainees, they started reading more, and copying books to send to other prisons that lacked them. It is known that copying books helps in memorizing more than reading. Translations also became common from Hebrew or English into Arabic. Detainees used to hold a special meeting to listen to translated articles’, which used to be read by the translator himself. They even held meetings in order to listen to translated literature.

One of the cultural activities also was that a group of detainees worked on preparing and distributing magazines, where they would hand write their articles in notebooks. Here one can see how the desire for learning, reading new books and self-education, was spread amongst detainees, as it was their priority. Books played a pioneering role in the significant change in detainees’ lives and hearts, and the clear evidence was that detainees were different when they were released; different than how they were several years ago when they were arrested. They occupied important and influential positions in society after they were released, in fact, some of them were top students at universities, and some of them went on to complete their MA and PHD degrees.

It is natural for detainees to pursue any mean in order to free themselves from imprisonment, and search for a way to escape from their harsh and bleak reality. Those who are deprived of bread dream of bread, and those who are deprived of freedom seek freedom. The Palestinian prisoner resorted to books in order to dream and free themselves through words as well as to escape to an alternative to their lived reality. If the book was a novel, the prisoner lives with its characters and moves amongst them from one place to the other, eavesdrops on their discussions, experiences their feelings, and walks around in their homes. This feeling creates another life for the prisoner, another world, and another reality.

Hence, books transferred and freed prisoners, even if it was temporary, it is the path to their salvation, as it also brings new ideas to the reader, and new beliefs, it introduces us to different lived experiences, which leads to a widening of horizon and an openness towards difference. The more books a human reads, the more minds he tackles and deals with, the more he enriches his knowledge.

A book is a spring of knowledge that quenches the intellect’s thirst for learning, blessed are those minds that are forever thirsty.

A book is a new world – we add to the world we know a space for another. The book is a transformation tool from a state to a better one, if we listened carefully to what it says and comprehended what it means. A book does not redeem humans from illiteracy, ignorance, delusion and myth only, it redeems one from corruption, bad manners, bad behavior, narrow mindedness, and bias.

Books reveal your true self, guide you to what you will become, and illuminate your world just like the sun lights your day. There are two truths in this world, the first is is God which is a permanent truth, and the second; the world, is temporary. We came to this life to read the second truth in order to understand the first, and those who do not know are the ones who do not read.

Thanksgiving in Gaza

Nov 28, 2011

Kate

Thanksgiving in Gaza
[photos]25 Nov by Radhika Sainath — It all started with a simple question from Jabar, a Palestinian farmer from Faraheen, during Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice. “Is there an American eid (holiday) where you slaughter an animal?” he asked Nathan, a colleague here in Gaza, a few weeks ago. Thanksgiving and turkeys came to mind. And so, I found myself celebrating “Thanksgiving,” Gazan-style, this afternoon in the small, southern Gazan village.
link to notesfrombehindtheblockade.wordpress.com

Land, property theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Restriction of movement
Netanyahu delays demolition of Jerusalem bridge over Egypt, Jordan warning
Haaretz 28 Nov — The dispute over the Old City’s Mughrabi Bridge is a key issue in Egypt’s elections — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Jerusalem municipality and the Public Security Ministry on Friday to postpone for one week the demolition of the Mughrabi Bridge, which leads from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount, due to warnings from Egypt and Jordan of possible repercussions. According to a senior Israeli official, the demolition of the bridge was planned for a 72-hour period beginning Saturday night. However, Netanyahu’s bureau asked the municipality to postpone the work due to the sensitivity of the issue and warnings from Egypt that the action would focus protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Israel. Netanyahu is expected to convene a meeting of officials for a broad discussion to resolve the matter.
link to www.haaretz.com
JNF delays eviction of Palestinian family from East Jerusalem home
Haaretz 27 Nov — Eviction order initially issued requiring the 12 members of the Sumarin family to be out of the property by Sunday; Jewish National Fund has been trying to evict them since 1991 . Following an initial report on the matter ten days ago by Haaretz, the left-wing groups Rabbis for Human Rights and the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement launched a campaign against the JNF, including its American affiliate. The campaign was also launched in the United Kingdom by the left-wing Jewish organization Yachad. Following the campaign, the JNF announced that it was not a party to the eviction case, claiming that Elad had pursued the action without any connection to the Jewish National Fund.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israel’s war of attrition. waged on non-Jews
AIC 28 Nov — The eviction of the Sumarin family was delayed. But the family has been living in limbo for 20 years and other groups live with uncertainty as Israel wages a psychological war of attrition on non-Jews … A delayed eviction does not represent a permanent solution for the Sumarins, a family of 12 who could still lose their house. Nor does this delayed eviction address the larger issue of illegal Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the Israeli government’s complicity in the enterprise, and the far-reaching consequences for Palestinians who live under military occupation … There is something torturous about living with uncertainty, with a sword dangling over one’s head. Whether that sword be eviction from one’s home or deportation from the country–it’s a reminder that one is not the master of his fate, that his life is in someone else’s hands. It’s a psychological war of attrition.
link to www.alternativenews.org
Beit Hannina: House demolitions without warning
ISM posted 27 Nov — At 11 AM this Thursday the 24 of November, Mohammed Ka’abne and his family, of Beit Hanina, were shocked by the arrival at their doorstep of an Israeli military unit accompanied by several police officers and two bulldozers.ithout issuing any kind of eviction order, or notification to the family, they proceeded to demolish the two houses of Mohammed’s sons and their families, and the tent where Mohammed himself has lived for five years.
link to palsolidarity.org
Report: Israel approves plans for 119 settlement units
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma‘an) 28 Nov — The Israeli defense ministry has approved plans for 119 housing units in the settlement of Shilo, north of Jerusalem, the Israeli news site Ynet reported. The permits were issued as part of the Israeli state’s response to a high court petition against the settlement by Israeli rights group Peace Now eight months ago, the report said.
link to www.maannews.net
Eviction of Givat Assaf outpost delayed
Ynet 28 Nov — High Court judges accept State’s claims, agree to postpone eviction for second time, until July 2012 … Civil Administration supervisors are expected to meet fierce resistance if and when the outpost is forcefully evacuated. The outpost residents, which include some 30 families, vowed to stage a violent struggle against their eviction.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Israeli forces raze land in Qalandia village to expand separation wall
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 27 Nov – Israeli bulldozers razed Sunday the agricultural land north of the village of Qalandia, south of the city of Ramallah, in preparation of expanding the Separation Wall, according to witnesses. Witnesses said that two Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by borders’ guards, razed land, belonging to the village’s residents, to steal it in favor of expanding ‘Atarot’ settlement. They added that the Wall will separate a number of the residents’ homes from their village, and will completely isolate the village from the outside world. Head of Qalandia village council, Yousef Awad, said that the razing process is going very fast and is destroying a lot of land, indicating that the villagers had confronted the soldiers and bulldozers, however, they continued bulldozing.
link to english.wafa.ps
Power outage in Jerusalem suburbs due to Israeli checkpoint construction
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 28 Nov — An ongoing power outage, affecting 50,000 people, began Sunday night in some suburbs in central Jerusalem due to Israeli construction work to build a new checkpoint, according to Jawad al-Dibs, an employee in the Jerusalem District Electricity Company. He said power was cut off in the suburbs of Ras Khamis, Al-Salam and Ras Shehadeh, the town of Anata, as well as in Shu‘fat, a refugee camp in East Jerusalem, due to Israeli construction work on a new checkpoint to replace the existing military checkpoint in Shu‘fat.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israel attempts to foil Palestinian initiative for self-generating energy
Ramallah (WAFA) 27 Nov — The Israeli decision demanding Palestinians in the west bank to obtain permits from the Israeli authorities to build solar-cells to generate electricity power aims at thwarting the Palestinian efforts to self-generate power and stop the reliance on Israel for it, Sunday said an official. General Director of The Palestinian Energy and Environment Research Centre (PEC), Ayman Ismail, told WAFA that the Energy & Environment Research Center proposed to the Cabinet a three-year initiative, starting from 2012, to generate electricity by using solar-cells, during which the solar-cells, with capacity of 150 Megawatts (MW), will be put on rooftops, and from which 1000 houses will benefit.
link to english.wafa.ps
Amira Hass: Settlements have become substitute for welfare state
AIC 27 Nov — “The Israeli society lives insides two normalcies that contradict, but also complement each other,” explained Hass, the latest guest of the AIC Café. First, the civil normalcy: “If you live [in Tel Aviv or West Jerusalem] or if you come to visit [them] you can really feel that Israel is a normal country like in Europe.” “As for the military, the Israelis consider a militarized society [to be normal], with soldiers all around you. Very few people question this, because the possibility of war has a normal presence in life,” she continued … “The settlements, for example, have become a substitute for the welfare state that is disappearing in Israel,” the journalist explained. Subsidies, focus on education, and state-financed housing construction that used to exist in the 50s and the 60s inside the Israeli cities, moved to the West Bank settlements, especially after the 1990s with the Oslo peace process.
link to www.alternativenews.org
How to win friends and influence people – or, chutzpah and stupidity
Israel apologized to American journalist for overly intrusive search
Haaretz 28 Nov — Israel’s Defense Ministry apologized Monday for the treatment of a pregnant American news photographer who said she was strip searched and humiliated by Israeli soldiers during a security check. Lynsey Addario, who was on assignment for the New York Times, had requested that she not be forced to go through an X-ray machine as she entered Israel from the Gaza Strip because of concerns for her unborn baby. Instead, she wrote in a letter to the ministry, she was forced through the machine three times as soldiers “watched and laughed from above.” She said she was then taken into a room where she was ordered by a female worker to strip down to her underwear. In the Oct. 25 letter sent by the newspaper said Addario, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is based in India and has worked in more than 60 countries, had never been treated with “such blatant cruelty.” … The New York Times bureau chief in Israel, Ethan Bronner, welcomed the planned changes but said the newspaper remains shocked at the treatment Addario received and how long the investigation took.
link to www.haaretz.com
West Bank communities refuse blood drives over MDA deal
JERUSALEM (JTA) 28 Nov — Two communities [settlements]  in the West Bank refused to allow Magen David Adom to hold blood drives in their jurisdiction to protest MDA’s promise to the Red Cross to pull back operations in the West Bank. Peduel and Tapuach, part of the Shomron Regional Council, instead organized a blood drive this week to send donations directly to a hospital blood bank in central Israel. Under a 2005 memorandum of understanding signed by MDA and the Palestine Red Crescent Society with the International Committee of the Red Cross, MDA agreed not to operate in the West Bank as it does in pre-1948 borders Israel, and to remove the Star of David emblem from ambulances used in the area.
link to www.jta.org
Settlers, right-wing extremists
‘Price tag’ suspect emailed death threats from house arrest, police say
Haaretz 27 Nov — A man believe to be linked to a series of “price tag” attacks against Israeli peace activists has been continuously emailing death threats to leading Peace Now activists, just a week after being released to house arrest. The man, 21, was indicted less than two weeks ago for incitement for racism and vandalism of property, after had admitted to spraying graffiti in several locations in and around Jerusalem, reading “price tag” and “death to the Arabs.”
link to www.haaretz.com
Exclusive: Peace Now price tag suspect, parents identified / Richard Silverstein
Tikun Olam 27 Nov — Today, Israeli police released the suspect in the price tag attacks on Jerusalem’s Peace Now office to house arrest. As soon as he got home, he fired up his computer and began sending e mail blast death threats to every Peace Now activist he knew.  What’s even more astonishing is that he sent these emails in his own name using his personal e mail address, which allowed every recipient to identify him.  This despite the fact that his father, who works for the Shin Bet, managed to get a gag order restricting publication of his name.  More on Mom and Dad below … He is Dor Oved, age 18, whose mother is a policewoman.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
Gaza
Israeli forces kidnap Palestinian fishermen in Gaza
GAZA (WAFA) 28 Nov — Israeli forces kidnapped Monday two Palestinian fishermen, who were on board a small boat in the Gaza Sea, in front of Al-Shate’ refugee camp, according to local sources. Local sources said that an Israeli gunboat intercepted the Palestinian boat while Israeli forces kidnapped, Mohammad Abu Klub, 20, and Mahmoud Al- Nahal, 21, and confiscated their boat.
link to english.wafa.ps
Photos: A day at sea with Gaza fishermen
26 Nov by Lydia de Leeuw
link to palsolidarity.org
Official: Israel deliberately disconnects Gaza electricity
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 28 Nov — The energy authority in the Gaza Strip on Monday accused Israel of deliberately disconnecting the main electricity grid to the coastal enclave as part of a “punitive policy.” “The Israeli occupation uses security pretexts to justify disconnecting a grid which provides 14 megawatts to the northern Gaza Strip,” head of the energy authority Kanaan Ubeid said.  He added that electricity had been cut off to the north for nine days. The current power crisis in Gaza is also being caused by the cold weather, which has seen a surge in energy use, and maintenance works being carried out by Swedish engineers, Ubeid added.
Israel continues to supply the Gaza Strip with water and 70 percent of its electrical power, the rest being supplied by neighboring Egypt or local power plants. Israel warned on Saturday that it would cut the supply of water and electricity to the Gaza Strip if rival parties Fatah and Hamas formed a unity government. [End]
link to www.maannews.net

For some, tunnels remain the only way into Gaza
Gaza (Al Akhbar) 28 Nov by Taghrid Atallah – Ibrahim Abu Deeb emerged from the tunnel to the light of his lost homeland and into the arms of his parents, who thought they would never see their son again. Abu Deeb, an Irish-Palestinian, had tried every trick in the book and exhausted every legal loophole in order to enter Gaza and see his family after decades of being away. In fact, as soon as Abu Deeb heard of Egypt’s decision to open the Rafah border crossing on the first of June 2011, his desire to enter Gaza was rekindled, but he expected his hopes to be crushed, especially after a previous failed attempt.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Devastating effects of Gaza siege
PressTV 26 Nov — with Radhika Sanath, civil rights lawyer, among others — The latest findings by Médecins Sans Frontières show that in Gaza thirty six percent of essential medicines are lacking. Shortage of drugs and medical supplies represent a real threat to patient health. The situation, which had been worsening steadily for several years, deteriorated further in 2011 and has reached an alarming level. In this edition of the show we will look at how the Gaza blockade prevents healthcare provision for those living in the strip and keeps the poverty level high.
link to presstv.com
Gaza farmers launch export season tightly controlled by Israel
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) 27 Nov — Farmers in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip began exporting hundreds of tons of produce to Europe on Sunday after Israel cracked open its border with Gaza for Palestinian goods. A truckload of strawberries left Gaza to launch the season, which is to run through May … Yousef Shaath of Gaza’s Agricultural Development Association said 250 farmers hope to export 600 tons of strawberries, 350 tons of bell peppers, 160 tons of cherry tomatoes and 17 million carnations, for estimated revenues of $25 million. That’s up dramatically from 300 tons of berries, 6 tons of peppers, 6.5 tons of tomatoes and 10 million carnations last year. The Israeli military did not give an explanation Sunday for easing the flow of produce out of the seaside strip. Still, exports out of Gaza remain heavily restricted.
link to www.washingtonpost.com
Gaza asks Turkey to restore Ottoman mosques
28 Nov — …Officials of the Gazan administration said that they presented a project to Turkey for new mosques and the repairs of existing mosques. The Gazan administration requested the repairs of 161 mosques that were damaged in the war of 2008-2009. The administration also requested the reconstruction of 34 mosques that were completely destroyed in 2008-2009.
link to www.worldbulletin.net
A patient’s struggle for care
Al Arabiya 28 Nov — Over a decade ago, Amal Saber Abu Lehya, was looking forward to starting her life with her fiancé who had spent 10 years in an Israeli prison.  ““The 10-year wait was no easy feat, but I wanted to stay, especially because being a prisoner of the Israelis is an honor every Palestinian woman wishes to be festooned with,” said Lehya. After his release, the couple lived together happily as a family with their seven children, until she was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer five months ago. “Now I’m awaiting death; I feel that my life will end at any moment,” she told alarabiya.net. Lehya began her treatment at various Israeli hospitals using her family’s day-to-day expenses as ways to pay for small bills. However, she was shocked when she was told by an Israeli that a bone marrow transplant she required would set her back half a million dollars — a sum the ministry of health in the West Bank failed to pay.
link to english.alarabiya.net
Rap and reconciliation in Gaza: an interview with the DARG team
PNN 27 Nov — In one of the most crowded places on earth, four Palestinians are standing out. They call themselves Da Arabian Revolutionary Guys — or the DARG Team — and they are considered to be the premier rap group in the Gaza Strip. Together with fellow Palestinian hip hop crews DAM, Awlad al-Hara, and Ramallah Underground, the DARG Team comprises the most famous faces of rap music in the occupied territories. PNN French Editor Alexis Thiry corresponded with the rappers, who are currently on tour in Switzerland, via email. [in case anyone has not seen/heard their video “Onadekum” for Vittorio Arrigoni, it’s here]
link to english.pnn.ps
Detention / Court actions
Prisoner’s Club: Israel releases Palestinian reporter
JERUSALEM (WAFA) 28 Nov — Israeli authorities Monday released the Jerusalemite journalist Isra’ Salhab after she spent two weeks in the Russian compound detention center in West Jerusalem, according to Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC). PPC Director in Jerusalem, Nasser Qaws, told WAFA that an Israeli court released Salhab, a presenter on al-Quds TV, after she was summoned for interrogation by the Israeli police in Jerusalem on November 16. It hasn’t been confirmed yet that Salhab’s release isn’t conditional to house-arrest, fine or others, added Qaws. To be noted, Salhab’s husband has been detained in Israeli jails for more than a month.
link to english.wafa.ps
Israeli forces storm Palestinian college, arrest students in Hebron
HEBRON (WAFA) 27 Nov – Israeli forces Sunday stormed the faculty of the Palestine Technical College in Arroub, a refugee camp north of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, and arrested a number of its students, according to witnesses. Bassam Al-Hadad, one of the teachers at the college, told WAFA that Israeli forces stormed the college, patrolling in its courtyard and checking students’ identity cards, and arrested several students under the pretext of looking for wanted Palestinians
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IOF soldiers arrest 6 citizens, Jerusalemite child
NABLUS (PIC) 28 Nov — Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained five Palestinian citizens in Beit Osrin village in Nablus including the village municipality council head, a young man in Jenin, and a 9-year-old child in occupied Jerusalem. Local sources said that IOF patrols stormed the village before dawn Monday and arrested the village council head in addition to four young men, three of them minors. Sources in Jenin said that the IOF troops detained a young man in Jaba’ village, south of the city, after breaking into his home and searching it. They said that the soldiers stormed four other villages to the west of Jenin and wreaked havoc on many houses before leaving without making any arrests.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation police detained a 9-year-old boy in Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem on Sunday evening.
Locals said that the policemen took away Ahmed Mansour Al-Resheq while playing in the alleys of Ein Al-Louze suburb without giving any reason.
Link to Palestinian Information Center
Israeli soldiers arrest 12 Palestinians in West Bank
HEBRON (WAFA) 27 Nov – Israeli soldiers Sunday arrested 12 Palestinians across the West Bank, according to security sources. They said Israeli soldiers arrested two Palestinians from Hebron and Balata camp and another three from Beit Ummar town, after they searched their homes and tampered with their contents … Soldiers also arrested seven Palestinians from Tireh town west of Ramallah, Battir town in Bethlehem and Jalazone camp.
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Release of 3 prisoners delayed by Israeli authorities
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 26 Nov — Israeli prison authorities are delaying the release of three prisoners from Gaza who have completed their sentences. The director of a prisoner’s assembly, Muhammad Badr, on Friday named Abdullah Tawfiq al-Kurd, Wael Mousa Sharbaji and Wade Khamis Tamman as the prisoners who have had their release postponed. Both al-Kurd and Sharbaji have finished their sentences of 9 and 7 years, respectively, and should have been released a month ago, Badr said. Tamman, 30, has spent 10 years in jail and suffers from epilepsy.
link to www.maannews.net
Prisoner’s Club: Released prisoner summoned for the second time
RAMALLAH (WAFA) 28 Nov — Israeli police Monday summoned Sana’ Shehadeh, a released prisoner in the recent swap deal, from Qalandia refugee camp near Jerusalem, for the second time in a month, according to a statement by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC). Israeli forces raided Sana’ Shehadeh’s house in the camp and handed her sister a notice to appear before the Israeli police station in Neve Yaacov settlement, said the press release.
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Israeli intelligence summons released prisoner
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) 27 Nov – Israeli Intelligence Sunday summoned the released prisoner, Hanan al-Hamuoz from al-‘Azza camp, north of Bethlehem, according to security sources. They said Israeli forces raided the camp and blocked the main entrance before raiding Hamouz’s house. Soldiers searched the house and tampered with its contents, then handed Hamouz’s parents a notice for her to report to Israeli intelligence in Etzion settlement, south of Bethlehem.
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Israel arrests Palestinian ex-detainee with cancer
HEBRON (WAFA) 18 Nov — The Israeli army Monday arrested a Palestinian ex-detainee who was released in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC). Amjad Najjar, head of PPC in Hebron, told WAFA that Hamzah al-Tarayreh, 23, from Bani Na‘im, a town east of Hebron city, was arrested at the “Container” checkpoint, which links the north of the West Bank to the south, on his way back from a visit to Jordan for medical treatment. Najjar condemned the renewed arrest of released, ill prisoners, considering it a violation of humanitarian and international norms, and called on international and rights groups to intervene and save al-Tarayreh, who needs continuous medical treatment
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Israel releases detainee suffering from cancer
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 28 Nov — Israel on Monday released a 23-year-old detainee suffering from cancer, a prisoners institute in Hebron said. Hamza al-Tarayra was detained in 2009 at a checkpoint near Bethlehem as he returned from hospital in Jordan, the center said. Amjad al-Najjar, director of the prisoner rights group, said al-Tarayra has mouth