NOVANEWS
- Political farce
- A wall
- Israeli forces attempt to arrest 2-1/2-year-old Palestinian
- Jazz reviewer pulls glowing review of my album so as to ‘stand with Israel’
- ‘Struggle is now for equal rights for everyone in Greater Israel’ –Gideon Levy
- English effort to boycott Israeli theater is likened to…. ‘Nazi book-burning’
- Beinart awaits Netanyau’s ‘epiphany’
- Do you think they’ll get it? Is 2012 an election year?
- With ‘last ink,’ Gunter Grass breaks silence on Israeli nuclear program threatening world peace
Political farce
Apr 05, 2012
Annie Robbins
Israeli forces evict settlers in Hebron
So much for the showdown accompanied with glaring headlines plastered all over the MSM yesterday. In a political dance that is making my head spin, on orders from Defense Minister Ehud Barak, settlers were evicted from the building in the heart of Hebron yesterday while Netanyahu was announcing new housing tenders for hundreds of new dwellings as well as authorizing retroactive legalization of three illegal outposts! What a set up!
Connecting these illegal outposts to existing settlements solidifies Israel’s clutch on more Palestinian land. With the distraction of the inflammatory settler encroachment into the heart of Hebron and those settlers’ eviction grabbing the world’s attention under the guise of ‘the rule of law,’ are we supposed to not notice who just won out here? The settlers!
Is this an election season gambit? There’s more here than meets the eye.
Israeli police and border officers swiftly evicted a group of Jewish settlers from a contested house in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron Wednesday on the orders of the minister of defense, officials said, though at the same time, the Israeli government signaled strong support for more Jewish settlement in areas it captured in the 1967 war.
Among the signs of official support, the Ministry of Housing posted new tenders on its website for plots for the construction of more than 800 new apartments in Har Homa, a Jewish development across the 1967 lines in south-east Jerusalem, and in Givat Zeev, a settlement north of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
….
In a move that appeared aimed at mollifying the settlers, but that is likely to infuriate Palestinians, Netanyahu said shortly before the Hebron eviction that he had asked the attorney general to “find a solution’’ for a neighborhood of the Beit El settlement that was built without proper permits and is supposed to be demolished by court order by May 1.He said he also intended, together with the defense minister, to see the necessary permits to retroactively legalize three other West Bank settler outposts that went up without authorization.
……
In a rare note of discord within Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition, rightist ministers blamed the defense minister, Ehud Barak, for ordering the eviction, accusing him of trying to set the government’s agenda. Mr. Barak leads a small centrist faction in a government that is otherwise dominated by right-wing and religious parties.
Amos Harel in Haaretz explains the political infighting and maneuvering:
Wednesday’s headlines declared otherwise, but the final countdown has begun. The hullabaloo surrounding the eviction of the house in Hebron reveals that Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition partners sense that elections can’t be far off.
While Netanyahu confidently claims he won’t call early elections, his government is losing control. Likud ministers and MKs were quick to show their solidarity with the settlers in Hebron, and the defense minister wasted no time in sending the police’s Special Patrol Unit to evict the invaders before Passover. Meanwhile, Likud ministers swiftly slammed Defense Minister Ehud Barak, conveniently playing down the prime minister’s role in authorizing the eviction.
……..
Netanyahu was quick to declare his commitment to the rule of law, but in the same breath he said he would legalize three illegal outposts by connecting them to existing settlements. Still, Likud ministers from Limor Livnat to Ya’alon wasted no time in attacking Barak; Ya’alon said the defense minister had manipulated Netanyahu. Barak associates countered by accusing Ya’alon of “very peculiar behavior.”
….
The problem is that the legal problems with the settlers won’t go away. Barak promised the High Court of Justice to empty several large apartment buildings in Beit El by May 1, while Netanyahu said yesterday he would seek a way to legalize them. And the Migron problem is yet to be solved.
Color me suspicious, but the upshot of this one-week-long dance with the Hebron house settlers is that the world is left with the impression of Israeli forces easily overpowering settlers who bend at the government’s will, as opposed to being militant fanatics screaming and clutching in the civil war between military and settlers we thought was inevitable). But as Israel stages this showpiece of following the rule of law…what do we get but illegal outposts now cloaked in legality.
Had the GOI just announced it was grabbing a whole bunch more land it would have been problematic, it wouldn’t have left the impression there was some kind of ‘balance and compromise’. It almost seems like there was political cooperation going on.
Apr 05, 2012
Rawan Yaghi
Separation wall
It’s funny there’s a sidewalk here. I walked with my finger tips touching the huge blocks of the great, made-to-scare-me wall. I didn’t look at the graffiti; I know it very well. The sky was halfway eaten by the wall, and the sun was no better. I stumbled with a stone, which was probably thrown by some of my friends yesterday. I sat down where I stumbled and grabbed the stone, stared at it for a minute, and threw it to the other side of the wall. I listened for an aw, a curse word, footsteps , a call, a whisper, or a gun shot. Nothing. I kept on walking. It didn’t seem to end. My finger tips were now colored with all dry paint colors. I stopped. Turned my face to the wall. Put both my hands on it. I pushed. I kept pushing, my arms straight, my teeth stressed, my legs rooted to the ground, the paint of the graffiti’s smell going through my lungs, the man on the other sidewalk stopping to see what will come out of this. My feet started backing the other way. A sound from inside me broke out to a scream. I collapsed to the ground crying. And, the man on the other sidewalk giggled and went on walking.
(Crossposted at Rawan Yaghi’s blog I Am)
Israeli forces attempt to arrest 2-1/2-year-old Palestinian
Apr 05, 2012
Today in Palestine
Mo’men Shtayeh probably owns a John Cena shirt, the WWE wrestler who the Palestinian kids hero worship, their shrill voices echoing in neighborhood streets of Cena’s catchphrase, “You can’t see me!” accompanied with waving a hand in front of their faces. Mo’men Shtayeh has seen and knows too much. There is a chance—nay, a probability— that due to witnessing the Israeli army’s brutality and severe oppression in his village of Kufr Qaddoum, Mo’men might have grown up to be a warmongering Islamist (or perversely, a Tea Partier). Mo’men Shtayeh represents a threat to the security of the Israeli racist occupying state. Apparently, it is well known that due to his savvy nature, Mo’men has been involved in drawing up specialized blue prints to attack enemy bases. So it all makes perfect sense that the most moral army in the world, the Israeli Defense Forces, the 4th strongest army, the upholders of the beacon of democracy and godly light, tried to arrest Mo’men on Monday, April 2nd. The thing is, Mo’men is two-and-a-half years old.
link to electronicintifada.net
Ethnic Cleansing / Land Theft & Destruction / Theft of Resources / Refugees / Exile
New Tenders in Har Homa C Aiming at the Two States Solution
It seems to me that Netanyahu decided really to kill the two states solution. He continues with his plan to bloc between Bethlehem and the southern Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem so that no Palestinian capital will be able to be established in East Jerusalem. Today (4/4/12) Tenders for 800 housing units wereissued in Har Homa C, and another 72 in Har Homa B. link to settlementwatcheastjerusalem.wordpress.com
Israel Plans Theft of 10% More West Bank Land, Stephen Lendman
Israel occupies Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank illegally. Its settlements, closed military zones, tourist sites, and commercial areas control over 40% of the West Bank, including its most valued resource rich parts – notably water. Its expanding settlements steal more. When completed, its Separation Wall will control about 12% of the West Bank. In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled it illegal.
link to sjlendman.blogspot.com
Uprooting 30,000 Bedouin in Israel, Neve Gordon
‘It is not every day that a government decides to relocate almost half a per cent of its population in a programme of forced urbanisation,’ Rawia Aburabia asserted, adding that ‘this is precisely what Prawer wants to do.’ The meeting, which was attempting to coordinate various actions against the Prawer Plan, had just ended, and Rawia, an outspoken Bedouin leader who works for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, was clearly upset. She realised that the possibility of changing the course of events was extremely unlikely and that, at the end of the day, the government would uproot 30,000 Negev Bedouin and put them in townships. This would result in an end to their rural way of life and would ultimately deprive them of their livelihood and land rights.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Settlers pitch tent near Machpelah house
Settlers who claim they are rightful owners of Hebron property say they will remain in tent until allowed to reenter home.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Israel’s Finance Minister: Financial assistance to settlements grew significantly during my term
Yuval Steinitz says ministry had to compensate for construction freeze and ‘discrimination’ against settlements due to international pressure.
link to www.haaretz.com
Lieberman: IDF eviction of Hebron settlers could threaten stability of Netanyahu coalition
Foreign Minister criticizes conduct of Defense Minister Ehud Barak; says Yisrael Beiteinu has made decisive efforts to keep coalition together.
link to www.haaretz.com
Palestinians deny sale of Machpelah house
Palestinian family who lived in contested Hebron property says it never sold it to anyone; settlers forged ownership papers.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Palestinians, leftists try to take over Hebron house
Security forces evacuate 20 Palestinians, left-wing activists from house located one kilometer from Machpelah house. Palestinians: We have permit from Civil Administration.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Army Constructs Outpost On Mt. Olive
Fkahri Abu Thiab of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem, stated that Israeli soldiers have concluded the establishment of an outpost near the “Seven Arches Hotel” on Mount Olive, in occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestine News & Info Agency, WAFA, reported.
link to www.imemc.org
Israel causes $66 million worth of damage to EU-funded aid projects, Charlotte Silver
new report by the European Commission indicates that 82 humanitarian aid projects that it funded in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were destroyed or damaged by Israeli military attacks between 2001-2011.
link to electronicintifada.net
‘Prawer Plan’ to uproot Bedouins shows folly of the phrase ‘democratic Israel’, Alex Kane
Peter Beinart’s pro-settlement boycott article in the New York Times has rightly been critiqued from the left for ignoring the fact that “Israel is only a ‘genuine democracy’ for its Jewish citizens,” as Adam Horowitz put it . A close look at the Israeli government’s Prawer Plan, which calls for the forced relocation of tens of thousands of citizens of Israel, further shows why the notion of a “democratic Israel” is a farce.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/prawer-plan-to-uproot-bedouins-shows-folly-of-the-phrase-democratic-israel.html
Kifl Hares and the Settler Partying
Kifl Hares is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located six kilometers west of Salfit and 18km south of Nablus in the Salfit Governorate, northwest of the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel.
link to www.palestinemonitor.org
Look How Unequally Water Is Divided In The Middle East
IsraelTHE southern provinces on Lebanon’s border with Israel fare worse than the rest of the country by most measures. Water is one thing in short supply. Swathes of fertile farming land sit idle. Officials say the lack of water is partly to blame for the region’s underdevelopment. While Lebanon as a whole has water in abundance, the south’s rivers are shared with Israel which gets the lion’s share. This is nothing new, but a new study has sketched out the extent of the imbalance for the first time.
link to www.businessinsider.com
UNRWA deletes 169,000 Palestinian refugees from its records
The organisation for Palestinian refugees and their right of return, Thabet, has expressed grave concern that the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has deleted 169,000 refugees from its records for 2011. Thabet condemned the move. In a statement sent to Quds Press, the organisation explained that the statistics at the beginning of 2011 noted the details of 4,797,724 registered refugees, whereas the records for 2010 had included 4,966,664. The details of 168,940 registered refugees are missing. Thabet said, “The names of 19,219 refugees from Lebanon, 9,024 refugees from Syria, 19,886 refugees from Jordan, 211 refugees from Gaza and 121,023 refugees from the West Bank have been removed.”
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Relatives of released hunger-striker travel to Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The family of deported former prisoner Hana Shalabi arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to visit her in hospital, after she spent 43 days on hunger strike in jail. Shalabi’s mother, father, and uncle traveled to the coastal strip via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and visited Shalabi in Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, a Ma’an correspondent said. Shalabi, 29, is from Burqin village in the northern West Bank. She arrived in the Gaza Strip on Sunday under a deal to end her hunger strike protesting Israel’s administrative detention policy.
link to www.maannews.net
The camps are becoming “more and more of a battlefield” between those who are for or against the Assad regime in Syria.
Palestinian Authority supplies fuel to Gaza
Fuel began arriving in Gaza on Wednesday as per a new deal between the territory’s Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, an official said. “Tanks of fuel holding 45,000 liters each entered through the Kerem Shalom crossing this morning,” Raed Futuh, the coordinator on the Palestinian side of the crossing, told AFP. “We’re expecting about 430,000 liters of industrial fuel for the electricity plant today,” he added.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Abu Salmiya: Palestinian patients in Gaza in danger of death
Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip are in danger of death due to the continued power crisis in the enclave for the second month running, Adham Abu Salmiya said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli Violence and Raids
Video: Israeli Army Invades and Closes University Community Media Center
For the second time in two months, the Israeli authorities have invaded, searched and prevented the functioning of Al-Quds University’s Institute of Modern Media. This time, they prevented skype contact for an event taking place simultaneously in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Today, at 12:55 pm local time, plain clothes police arrived at the offices of the Institute of Modern Media, at Al-Quds University, in the old city of Jerusalem. University faculty and students and invited guests had gathered at the location to launch Hona Al-Quds (“Jerusalem is Here” an online multi-media community network focusing on Jerusalem. After mingling with the guests for about fifteen minutes, without any warning, the police locked the office doors, shutting some guest inside and some outside, ransacked the offices, and collected the identification documents of all those inside the building. The building was by that time surrounded by soldiers. They presented those outside with an order in Hebrew, signed by the Israeli Minister for Internal Security, forbidding the launch event on the grounds that it was a “PA” event, i.e. organized by the Palestinian Authority. This was despite the fact that Honaalquds is clearly a part of Al-Quds University, since 1996, recognized as an independent NGO by the Israeli authorities. The Israelis arrested two Al-Quds University employees: Adel Ruished, Administrative Director of Jerusalem Affairs, and Mohannad Izheman, University security guard. Since then, Mr Izheman has been released with a summons to return tomorrow and Mr Ruished is being held at the central Israeli police station.
link to theonlydemocracy.org
Israeli forces raid Kafr Qaddum
QALQILIYA (Ma’an) — Israeli forces raided the northern West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum before dawn on Thursday and detained locals and two police officers, witnesses said. Witnesses said soldiers detained police officers Thaer Shteiwi, 38, and Riyad Shteiwi, 38, and 18 other residents including four minors. An Israeli army spokesman said 10 villagers were detained and taken for security questioning. Locals told Ma’an that soldiers ransacked several homes during the raid and stole jewelry worth 8000 Jordanian dinars ($11,200) from Ata Shteiwi’s home.
link to www.maannews.net
Investigate death, injuries from live firing during Land Day demonstrations in Gaza
B’Tselem wrote to the Military Police and the Military Advocate General Corps requesting they launch a Military Police Investigation into the death of a Palestinian demonstrator and the wounding of dozens of others when live ammunition was used against protesters during a Land Day demonstration in the Gaza Strip on Friday, 30 March 2012.
link to www.btselem.org
Group leaks EU report on Israeli settler violence suppressed by Dutch government, Ali Abunimah
A European Union report on Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians, that was suppressed at the insistence of Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal, has been published today by a nongovernmental group.
link to electronicintifada.net
Illegal Arrests by Israel and the PA / Administrative Detainees / Prisoner News
Israeli forces attempt to arrest 2-year-old Palestinian child, Linah Alsaafin
Mo’men Shtayeh probably owns a John Cena shirt, the WWE wrestler who the Palestinian kids hero worship, their shrill voices echoing in neighborhood streets of Cena’s catchphrase, “You can’t see me!” accompanied with waving a hand in front of their faces. Mo’men Shtayeh has seen and knows too much. There is a chance—nay, a probability— that due to witnessing the Israeli army’s brutality and severe oppression in his village of Kufr Qaddoum, Mo’men might have grown up to be a warmongering Islamist (or perversely, a Tea Partier). Mo’men Shtayeh represents a threat to the security of the Israeli racist occupying state. Apparently, it is well known that due to his savvy nature, Mo’men has been involved in drawing up specialized blue prints to attack enemy bases. So it all makes perfect sense that the most moral army in the world, the Israeli Defense Forces, the 4th strongest army, the upholders of the beacon of democracy and godly light, tried to arrest Mo’men on Monday, April 2nd. The thing is, Mo’men is two-and-a-half years old.
link to electronicintifada.net
IOF soldiers arrested 38 Palestinians in Nablus in March including 11 children
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested 38 Palestinians in Nablus province in March including 11 children, the Tadamoun foundation for human rights, said in a statement on Thursday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
IOF soldiers arrest 20 Palestinians in Qalqilia village
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the village of Kafr Kaddoum in Qalqilia and rounded up 20 Palestinian citizens, local sources said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Quds Press calls on Israel to release its West Bank correspondent
Quds Press International News Agency has expressed its gravest concern over the fate of its West Bank correspondent, Muhammad Anwar Muna, after he was detained by the Israeli occupation forces yesterday. On Tuesday, Israeli forces raided the home of Mr Muna in the eastern suburb of Nablus and arrested him. A release from Quds Press condemned what it described as an ‘outrageous’ and unjustified act of aggression against the freedom of expression and the intimidation of the journalist’s family. The Agency’s statement added that it held the Israeli authorities responsible for the safety and wellbeing of its journalist, who it says is renowned for his professionalism. It called for his immediate release.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Female journalist in PA jail carried to hospital
Palestinian journalist Esmat Abdulkhaleq, who has been held in PA custody for a week, was rushed to hospital after her health deteriorated.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
CPJ condemns arrest of Palestinian journalists
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday condemned the Palestinian Authority’s recent arrest of journalists who challenged the government, calling it “anti-press” behavior. “It is ironic that Palestinian leaders, who for years have benefited from independent media coverage, should now try to stifle their own critical journalists,” said CPJ deputy director Robert Mahoney. “The Palestinian Authority should stop muzzling journalists and scouring social media posts looking for critics to punish.” Yousef al-Shayeb, of the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, was held for a week before a court ordered his release on bail. Tariq Khamis, of Zaman press, was briefly held for questioning about a separate case.
link to www.maannews.net
What happens when a Palestinian journalist dares criticize the Palestinian Authority?, Amira Hass
Palestinian journalist Yusuf Al-Shayeb dared raise suspicions of corruption at the PA’s mission in France. Now he languishes in a Ramallah cell.
link to www.haaretz.com
As a punishment for his hunger strike, the Prison Administration transferred him two days ago from the Zionist Megiddo Prison to solitary confinement and fined him NIS 1,000 for each day of strike.
MP Hamed Al-Beitawi died in Makased hospital in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday after the Israeli occupation authority refused to allow him travel for medical treatment in Jordan.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
IOA renews administrative detention of Hamas MP
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) on Tuesday renewed the administrative detention of Al-Khalil MP Hatem Qufaisha for six months.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
19 year old released from prison
Yousef Abu Hashem was yesterday released after six months in prison. He was arrested in October 2011, in the middle of the night by brutal soldiers with dogs, most likely because of his active participation during demonstrations in Beit Ommar. Yesterday he was back with his own family and friends. The car he was riding in joined a cortege of cars with flags and fireworks waiting for him two hundred meters inside Beit Ommar. They continued up the main street with noise from fireworks, shouting and car horns, then doing a lap of honor up-town before driving down towards the house of the young man’s family.
link to palestinesolidarityproject.org
Solidarity / Activism / Popular Protests
International symposium on Palestinian prisoners held in Gaza
An international symposium on the thousands of Palestinians still detained in Israeli jails has been held in Gaza. The event was attended by European parliamentarians, human rights activists and journalists, in addition to Arab experts on prisoners’ affairs. The European Network for the Defence of Palestinian Prisoners’ Rights, which organised the symposium, said that the European delegation was joined by other international researchers specialising in the law, detention and torture. The agenda included discussions on Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, the arrest of MPs, the detention of children and women, the physical and psychological torture of Palestinian prisoners, and the international movement for solidarity with the prisoners.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk
Pro-Palestinian groups plan April 15 mass arrival in Israel
‘More than 1,000 activists with European and other passports intend to fly to Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport for a Land Day event,’ organizer tells Haaretz.
link to www.haaretz.com
Swedish activists plan new Gaza convoy
‘Ship to Gaza Sweden’ says will launch aid convoy by year’s end in protest of blockade imposed on Strip
link to www.ynetnews.com
AICafe 5.4: Resistance from within with Israeli activist Sahar Vardi
Please join us at the AICafe on Thursday 5 April at 8.00 p.m. for a presentation and discussion about Resistance from Within with Israeli activist Sahar Vardi.
link to www.alternativenews.org
BDS / Anti-BDS
Palestinian Appeal: Boycott INjustice Conference at Hebrew U!
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) urges international legal scholars and professionals to boycott the Minerva Jerusalem Conference on Transitional Justice.
link to www.alternativenews.org
“Sí, se puede!” : Palestinian civil society salutes US Chicano/Latin@ youth for their principled stand in support of BDS
At the 19th annual national conference of M.E.Ch.A. (Movímíento Estudíantíl Chícan@ de Aztlán), the largest association of Latin@ youth in the US, chapter leaders voted by a landslide decision to endorse the global call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel, due to its military occupation and settlement of Palestine.
link to blog.endtheoccupation.org
link to antonyloewenstein.com
BDS Update: Israel’s Ides of March, Eric Walberg – Cairo
Israeli land confiscations accelerated in the 1970s and led Palestinians to organise the first coordinated demonstrations in the Occupied Territories on 30 March 1976, during which 6 Palestinians were killed. This date has been marked ever since as “Land Day”. The secret Interior Ministry Koenig Memorandum, written shortly after the 1976 Land Day rallies, called for “diluting existing Arab population concentrations” to “ensure the long-term Jewish national interests”. This officially marked the implementation of Ben Gurion’s plans of ethnic cleansing to make Israel a de facto Jewish state. Treatment of native Arab Muslims and Christians ever since merely confirms this policy, with forced Jewish loyalty oaths and second class services and laws for non-Jews.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Armed Resistance
Rocket From Sinai Lands in Israel
JERUSALEM — At least one rocket fired from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt struck the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat overnight, causing alarm but no injuries, police officials said on Thursday. Residents reported hearing several explosions shortly after midnight, and bomb-disposal experts located one rocket that fell in an open area close to buildings in a residential neighborhood.
link to www.nytimes.com
Racism and Discrimination
Teenagers abuse refugee, film act
Five teenagers suspected of savagely beating refugee in abandoned Jaffa house. Video of act found on one of the suspects’ cell phone.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Other News and Developments
ICC Prosecutor statement: Fears over justice for Gaza victims
A “dangerous” statement by the office of International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor that it cannot consider allegations of crimes committed during the 2008-9 Gaza conflict means Palestinian and Israeli victims seem likely to be denied justice, Amnesty International said. The Office of the Prosecutor today said that it cannot consider allegations of crimes committed during the conflict unless the relevant UN bodies or ICC states parties determine that the Palestinian Authority is a state. “This dangerous decision opens the ICC to accusations of political bias and is inconsistent with the independence of the ICC. It also breaches the Rome Statute which clearly states that such matters should be considered by the institution’s judges,” said Marek Marczyński, Head of Amnesty International’s International Justice campaign.
link to www.amnesty.org
Shady Companies With Ties to Israel Wiretap the U.S. for the NSA
Army General Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, is having a busy year — hopping around the country, cutting ribbons at secret bases and bringing to life the agency’s greatly expanded eavesdropping network. In January he dedicated the new $358 million CAPT Joseph J. Rochefort Building at NSA Hawaii, and in March he unveiled the 604,000-square-foot John Whitelaw Building at NSA Georgia. Designed to house about 4,000 earphone-clad intercept operators, analysts and other specialists, many of them employed by private contractors, it will have a 2,800-square-foot fitness center open 24/7, 47 conference rooms and VTCs, and “22 caves,” according to an NSA brochure from the event. No television news cameras were allowed within two miles of the ceremony.
link to www.wired.com
German Nobel laureate Guenter Grass’ new poem: Nuclear Israel is a threat to world peace
Grass publishes a poem criticizing Israel’s role in the Israel-Iran conflict; the poem, called ‘What must be said’ will be published in newspapers around the world on Wednesday.
link to www.haaretz.com
Israel’s Netanyahu to meet Palestinian PM Fayyad
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet next week with Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.
link to news.yahoo.com
Abbas to accuse Netanyahu government of undermining Palestinian Authority
link to www.haaretz.com
Israeli Parallel Universe: ‘Arabs should accept responsibility for Jewish refugees’
Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon urges Arab world to acknowledge historic liability for displacing Jews who once lived in Arab nations; creating Palestinian refugee problem by warring with Israel.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Israeli, Palestinian negotiators meet in Jordan
Amman’s Foreign Ministry says Yitzhak Molcho, Saeb Erekat resume preliminary peace talks in effort to break deadlock.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Jordan’s crown prince holds secret visit to Temple Mount
King Abdullah’s eldest son escorted around Temple Mount by Israeli security forces, may also visit Cave of Patriarchs.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Analysis / Op-ed / Human Interest
The Arab spring has shaken Arab TV’s credibility, Ali Hashem
Their biased coverage is undermining viewers’ faith in the Middle Eastern satellite channels that sprang up in the 1990s and 2000s. Twenty-two years ago my father, a Lebanese immigrant in Sierra Leone, bought a huge satellite dish with tens of channels to replace the radio that we had used to listen to the BBC’s Arabic service. I was only 10 at the time but I remember people gathering at our place to see CNN’s coverage of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. People always saw CNN as representing America, but still they wanted to know what was happening. This continued with the US-led intervention to liberate Kuwait.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
The Decline of Political Islam in the Arab World, Asad AbuKhalil
After more than one year of political transformation in the Arab world, it is not premature to declare the beginning of decline of the Arab Islamists.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Do not hesitate for a moment! Do not accept the request of President Obama, who merely wants to be left undisturbed before election day. Do not let Prime Minister Netanyahu hide behind the fig leaf of the Palestinian Authority — impose upon him, once again, the responsibility for the fate of 4 million Palestinians. Remain as the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which will give you the authority to lead the political negotiations if and when they resume.
But for the sake of your own people, and for the sake of peace, you cannot let this farce continue.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) “was a hoax from the start.” So said Michael Mandel, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, in response to the ICC Prosecutor’s shocking decision yesterday to refuse jurisdiction over Gaza war crimes without even referring the matter to judges.
link to electronicintifada.net
Established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on July 1, 2002, it’s mandated to prosecute individuals for genocide and aggression, as well as crimes or war and against humanity. Instead, it functions solely as an imperial tool. It supports wealth and power. It targets independent states Washington and other Western nations oppose. In the process, it lets America and rogue NATO powers get away with murder.
link to sjlendman.blogspot.com
“Hidden from the news cycle of endless peace negotiations and fears of impeding violence in the region, non-aligned political activists are perfecting forms of civil disobedience,” writes Joseph Dana for the April 2012 issue of German GQ magazine. Dana continues, the new youth movement believes these demonstrations “will form the backbone of the next chapter in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” For his article, titled “Spring in Palestine,” Dana tagged along in the West Bank with Palestinian activists Diana Alzeer and Fadi Quran. Alzeer is a Ramallah-based organizer with a devoted Twitter following under the handle @ManaraRam and Fadi Quran (@FadiQuran) is the Stanford graduate who is best known for participating in thePalestinian Freedom Rides with the long-time Palestinian human rights advocate, Huwaida Araf.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/german-gq-gets-a-political-story-american-media-have-ignored-palestinian-youth.html
Last week Marwan Barghouti, the prominent Palestinian political prisoner and Fatah leader, called on Palestinians to launch a ‘large-scale popular resistance’ which would ‘serve the cause of our people.’ The message was widely disseminated as it coincided with Land Day, an event that has unified Palestinians since March 1976. Its meaning has morphed through the years to represent the collective grievances shared by most Palestinians, including dispossession from their land as a result of Israeli occupation. Barghouti is also a unifying figure among Palestinians. Even at the height of the Hamas-Fatah clashes in 2007, he insisted on unity and shunned factionalism. It is no secret that Barghouti is still a very popular figure in Fatah, to the displeasure of various Fatah leaders, not least Mahmoud Abbas, who heads both the Palestinian Authority and Fatah.. Throughout its indirect prisoners exchange talks with Israel, Hamas insisted on Barghouti’s release. Israel, which had officially charged and imprisoned Barghouti in 2004 for five alleged counts of murder – but more likely because of his leading role in the Second Palestinian Intifada – insisted otherwise.
link to palestinechronicle.com
Palestinian Hunger Strikers for Justice, Stephen Lendman
Hana Shalabi’s ordeal highlights what many others endured previously and dozens do now. Only they know the physical and emotional toll. Who else understands the willingness to die for justice? Who’ll suffer and risk it? Who’ll challenge an implacable foe unconcerned if they live or die? Hana, Khader Adnan, and many others risk everything to live free. They confront injustice courageously for it. They’re willing to die without it. What greater sacrifice than that! What better reason to lend support and honor them. Thousands of Hanas and Khaders rot in Israeli gulags. Recovering from his ordeal, Israel promised to free Khader on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners Day. More on it below. Free or in prison, tormenting Khader won’t end. Nor will Hana’s ordeal or other Palestinians persecuted by Israel’s racist oppression.
link to sjlendman.blogspot.com
Shebab vs the Wall at the Erez Crossing, Johnny Barber
On March 30, 1976, the Palestinian people declared a general strike and demonstrated against the Israeli confiscation of thousands of acres of land in the Galilee. The Israeli’s responded with violence, killing six unarmed Palestinian demonstrators and injuring hundreds. Every year Land Day is commemorated in Palestine in remembrance of those who would rise up to protect their land. On this Land Day, I was at Erez Crossing. Several hundred youth had managed to find their way around the Hamas policemen blocking the roads leading to Erez. At the crossing, they moved to within two hundred yards of the Israeli gate. There they found their path blocked by rows of concertina wire across the road. The shabab set fire to tires in the roadway and threw stones towards the Israeli wall, most falling into the roadway, well short of their target. Intermittently and without warning, the Israeli occupation forces open fire on the stone throwers. Each volley consists of one to three shots, and with each volley, young men fall. Others immediately retrieve them. Dozens of youth mob the wounded. Somehow they manage to carry them through the crowd and load them onto motorcycles where they are ferried to the Palestinian side of the crossing to waiting ambulances.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/shebab-vs-the-wall-at-the-erez-crossing.html
Leading sociologist says ‘the enemy’ includes ‘disloyal’ individualistic young Jews who push human rights, Philip Weiss
A year ago, an Israeli wrote a piece for Commentary asking whether young rabbinical students are turning on Israel, and last week J Street held an educators’ panel about rabbinical students, and by extension young Jews, questioning Israel. I wanted to pass along the following excerpts of the discussion because you will see how important “loyalty” to Israel is within the American Jewish community. Steven Cohen is the leading sociologist of changes in American Jewish attitudes towards Israel. And here he speaks of human-rights-oriented Jews as “disloyal” individualistic crazy enemies of the Jewish collective– meshugayim (I think; pardon my bad Yiddish).
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/leading-sociologist-says-the-enemy-includes-disloyal-individualistic-young-jews-who-push-human-rights.html
Only 20% of American Jews Believe Israel is Important Part of Jewish Identity, Richard Silverstein
The news from the American Jewish community isn’t good as far as Israel is concerned (that is, if Israel even cares). The Public Religion Research Institute, whose board chair is Rabbi David Saperstein, has conducted a wide-ranging survey (full report) of attitudes toward Jewish identity and Israel among American Jews. If you’re a leader of the affiliated community or an Israeli who believes the Diaspora plays an important role related to Israel, then the news will be disturbing. This poll follows on a ground-breaking one published by the dean of Jewish demographers, Steven Cohen, in 2007,Beyond Distancing. I’ll be comparing these polls below to determine if there’s been a progression between the results of the earlier survey and the current one.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com
The First Amendment Does Not Apply To Israel, MJ Rosenberg
It would be funny if it wasn’t so creepy. An author or journalist can write anything he wants about the United States — or, in fact, about any foreign country — without causing legions of critics to question the propriety of his doing so. That is, unless the subject of the author’s work is Israel. Think about it. Books have accused FDR of having advance knowledge of Pearl Harbor while others argue that the U.S. government — in the form of the FBI, CIA or even Vice President Lyndon Johnson — had President Kennedy killed. In other words, books that accuse U.S. presidents and U.S. government agencies of high treason are okay. This is America, and authors, journalists and bloggers can write what they like. (So long as it isn’t libelous.)
link to us1.campaign-archive1.com
Tear Gas in the Morning, Adam Horowitz
This is a motion comic pitch for the graphic novel Tear Gas in the Morning: A Story of Nonviolent Resistance. Tear Gas in the Morning is the story of Barbara Silverman, a Jewish-American artist volunteering as an activist and human rights worker in the West Bank. The story is loosely based around the authors’ own personal experiences and the experiences of real life Palestinians, Israelis and international volunteers. The story takes place primarily in the West Bank cities of Hebron and Ramallah. As in Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the nationality of the characters in Tear Gas in the Morning is key to understanding the story. Taking a cue from Mr. Spiegelman, we have decided to color Israelis blue, Palestinians red and foreigners purple.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/tear-gas-in-the-morning.html
Grilled sea bream, sour plums and citrus fruits were once the staples of the Gazan diet. In the evenings, families would gather around a plate of fried fish stuffed with dill, accompanied with fragrant, chilli-spiced rice. Now, the daily struggle to put food on the table has forced many Gazans to reinvent their cuisine.
link to www.thenational.ae
As of the last few days, Mr. AlKhawaja has given up glucose and thus has been hospitalized due to a significant deterioration in his health. Doctors have told his family they expect him to fall asleep into a permanent coma. The Bahraini authorities refuse to acknowledge the severity of Mr. AlKhawaja’s case. More than 50 rights groups have called for his release, yet there has been no response from the government.