Jamal Juma the coordinator of Stop the Wall campaign was arrested by the Israeli security at midnight of December 15. After searching his house the parting words of the soldiers directed at his wife were you would only see you husband again through a prisoner exchange.Since then, Juma has been detained. No explanation has been given for his arrest.
20100130
.
The blog, "The Corner Report", has noted that Israel's military forces prevented Eastern calendar Christians from celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany on the west bank of the Jordan River. The Feast of the Ephiphany commemorates the baptism of Jesus.
Thousands of Christians came from Europe, Russia, and Ethiopia to join Palestinian Christians despite pouring rain and swelling river banks.
Hundreds of Christians from Jordan also joined in from the east bank of the Jordan River, shouting greetings to friends and loved ones on the Palestinian side.
Pilgrims noted a heavy Israeli military presence, and were prohibited from performing the traditional baptism in the Jordan River.
Read the full post.
The blog, "The Corner Report", has noted that Israel's military forces prevented Eastern calendar Christians from celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany on the west bank of the Jordan River. The Feast of the Ephiphany commemorates the baptism of Jesus.
Thousands of Christians came from Europe, Russia, and Ethiopia to join Palestinian Christians despite pouring rain and swelling river banks.
Hundreds of Christians from Jordan also joined in from the east bank of the Jordan River, shouting greetings to friends and loved ones on the Palestinian side.
Pilgrims noted a heavy Israeli military presence, and were prohibited from performing the traditional baptism in the Jordan River.
Read the full post.
20100118
.
Israeli security forces have arrested a group of militant Jewish settlers for alleged vandalism, including a high-stakes attack on a Muslim holy place.
About 100 Israeli police and intelligence officers raided the radical Jewish settlement of Yitzhar in the West Bank. Police say nine settlers were arrested for attacks on Palestinian property, including five linked to the torching of a mosque last month. The vandals burned prayer carpets and Muslim holy books at the mosque, located in a Palestinian village near the settlement.
Hebrew graffiti at the site said "Price Tag" - a slogan referring to the price of the Israeli government's partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. The settlers accuse the right-wing government of caving in to pressure from the United States, which sees the settlements as an obstacle to peace.
During the arrest raid, settlers accused police of using excessive and brutal force, including beatings, confiscation of cameras and damaging property. Michael Ben-Ari is a parliamentarian in the pro-settler National Union Party.
Ben-Ari told Israel Radio that "even if there are people who broke the law, there is a proper way to enforce the law." He said the actions of the police are reminiscent of the world's "darkest" regimes.
The mosque attack was broadly condemned by Israeli officials. Cabinet Minister Uzi Landau says the perpetrators should spend time in jail.
"Just to make it clear: In our society, they are moral and social lepers," said Uzi Landau.
Palestinians accuse Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence, but it appears the mosque attack crossed a red line. Israeli officials say after synagogues were torched during the Holocaust, attacks on houses of worship will not be tolerated by the Jewish state.
Israeli security forces have arrested a group of militant Jewish settlers for alleged vandalism, including a high-stakes attack on a Muslim holy place.
About 100 Israeli police and intelligence officers raided the radical Jewish settlement of Yitzhar in the West Bank. Police say nine settlers were arrested for attacks on Palestinian property, including five linked to the torching of a mosque last month. The vandals burned prayer carpets and Muslim holy books at the mosque, located in a Palestinian village near the settlement.
Hebrew graffiti at the site said "Price Tag" - a slogan referring to the price of the Israeli government's partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. The settlers accuse the right-wing government of caving in to pressure from the United States, which sees the settlements as an obstacle to peace.
During the arrest raid, settlers accused police of using excessive and brutal force, including beatings, confiscation of cameras and damaging property. Michael Ben-Ari is a parliamentarian in the pro-settler National Union Party.
Ben-Ari told Israel Radio that "even if there are people who broke the law, there is a proper way to enforce the law." He said the actions of the police are reminiscent of the world's "darkest" regimes.
The mosque attack was broadly condemned by Israeli officials. Cabinet Minister Uzi Landau says the perpetrators should spend time in jail.
"Just to make it clear: In our society, they are moral and social lepers," said Uzi Landau.
Palestinians accuse Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence, but it appears the mosque attack crossed a red line. Israeli officials say after synagogues were torched during the Holocaust, attacks on houses of worship will not be tolerated by the Jewish state.
20091230
Editorial: The Electronic Intifada
by Ali Abunimah
"Increasingly, we see that Israel's hasbara (propaganda) efforts have no positive message, offer no plausible case for maintaining a status quo of unspeakable repression and violence, and rely instead on racist demonization and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims to justify Israel's actions and even its very existence.
Faced with growing global recognition and support for the courageous nonviolent struggle against continued land theft in the West Bank, Israel is escalating its violence and kidnapping of leaders of the movement in Bilin and other villages (Mohammad Othman, Jamal Juma' and Abdallah Abu Rahmeh are among the leaders of this movement recently arrested).
In acting this way, Israel increasingly resembles a bankrupt failed state, not a regime confident about its legitimacy and longevity.
And despite the failed peace process industry's efforts to ridicule, suppress and marginalize it, there is a growing debate among Palestinians and even among Israelis about a shared future in Palestine/Israel based on equality and decolonization, rather than ethno-national segregation and forced repartition.
Last, but certainly not least, in the shadow of the Goldstone report, Israeli leaders travel around the world fearing arrest for their crimes. For now, they can rely on the impunity that high-level international complicity and their inertial power and influence still afford them.
But the question for the real international community -- made up of people and movements -- is whether we want to continue to see the still very incomplete system of international law and justice painstakingly built since the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi holocaust dismantled and corrupted all for the sake of one rogue state."
Read the full Editorial
Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
by Ali Abunimah
"Increasingly, we see that Israel's hasbara (propaganda) efforts have no positive message, offer no plausible case for maintaining a status quo of unspeakable repression and violence, and rely instead on racist demonization and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims to justify Israel's actions and even its very existence.
Faced with growing global recognition and support for the courageous nonviolent struggle against continued land theft in the West Bank, Israel is escalating its violence and kidnapping of leaders of the movement in Bilin and other villages (Mohammad Othman, Jamal Juma' and Abdallah Abu Rahmeh are among the leaders of this movement recently arrested).
In acting this way, Israel increasingly resembles a bankrupt failed state, not a regime confident about its legitimacy and longevity.
And despite the failed peace process industry's efforts to ridicule, suppress and marginalize it, there is a growing debate among Palestinians and even among Israelis about a shared future in Palestine/Israel based on equality and decolonization, rather than ethno-national segregation and forced repartition.
Last, but certainly not least, in the shadow of the Goldstone report, Israeli leaders travel around the world fearing arrest for their crimes. For now, they can rely on the impunity that high-level international complicity and their inertial power and influence still afford them.
But the question for the real international community -- made up of people and movements -- is whether we want to continue to see the still very incomplete system of international law and justice painstakingly built since the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi holocaust dismantled and corrupted all for the sake of one rogue state."
Read the full Editorial
Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
20091229
Dozens of jeeps carrying masked Israeli commandos rolled into Nablus before dawn, surrounded homes of three Palestinians.
Six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the deadliest violence in months.
Dozens of jeeps carrying masked Israeli commandos rolled into the West Bank town of Nablus before dawn and surrounded the homes of three Palestinian gunmen. After a standoff, troops stormed inside and killed the wanted men.
The army said they were known militants who carried out a roadside ambush that killed a Jewish settler on Thursday. Palestinian officials said they were members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement headed by western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Al-Aqsa Brigades carried out many deadly attacks on Israelis during the second Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000. But the group has been largely inactive since 2005, when Mr. Abbas was elected on a platform of reaching a negotiated peace with Israel.
Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeineh condemned the Israeli raid.
"The policy of assassination, the policy of escalation from the Israeli side is ruining every chance of peace," he said.
Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of the gunmen in Nablus.
The Al-Aqsa Brigade threatened revenge, raising the specter of an escalation of violence.
In the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians who approached the border fence were killed in an Israeli air strike. The military said they were in an unauthorized area and suspected of trying to infiltrate Israel. Palestinian officials said they were unarmed civilians who were searching for scrap metal.
The upsurge in violence came a day before the first anniversary of the Gaza War, in which more than 1,100 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the deadliest violence in months.
Dozens of jeeps carrying masked Israeli commandos rolled into the West Bank town of Nablus before dawn and surrounded the homes of three Palestinian gunmen. After a standoff, troops stormed inside and killed the wanted men.
The army said they were known militants who carried out a roadside ambush that killed a Jewish settler on Thursday. Palestinian officials said they were members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement headed by western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Al-Aqsa Brigades carried out many deadly attacks on Israelis during the second Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000. But the group has been largely inactive since 2005, when Mr. Abbas was elected on a platform of reaching a negotiated peace with Israel.
Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeineh condemned the Israeli raid.
"The policy of assassination, the policy of escalation from the Israeli side is ruining every chance of peace," he said.
Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of the gunmen in Nablus.
The Al-Aqsa Brigade threatened revenge, raising the specter of an escalation of violence.
In the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians who approached the border fence were killed in an Israeli air strike. The military said they were in an unauthorized area and suspected of trying to infiltrate Israel. Palestinian officials said they were unarmed civilians who were searching for scrap metal.
The upsurge in violence came a day before the first anniversary of the Gaza War, in which more than 1,100 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
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A year after the Israeli military offensive against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military and politicians continue to enjoy full impunity for their actions. On 31 December 2009, over 1,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel and several dozen Jewish Israelis demonstrated outside of the Erez Crossing, demanding an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and to impunity of Israeli military and government officials. The Alternative Information Center (AIC) brings their voices and discusses the motivations and outcomes of the Israeli offensive.
Early speculation on the motive behind Israel's slaughter in Gaza that began on 27 December 2008 and continued till 18 January 2009 centered on the upcoming elections in Israel. The jockeying for votes was no doubt a factor in this Sparta-like society consumed by revenge and the thirst for blood, where killing Arabs is a sure crowd-pleaser. (Polls during the war showed that 80-90 percent of Israeli Jews supported it.) But as Israeli journalist Gideon Levy pointed out on Democracy Now!, Israel went through a very similar war two-and-a-half years ago [in Lebanon], when there were no elections. When crucial state interests are at stake, Israeli ruling elites seldom launch major operations for narrowly electoral gains. It is true that Prime Minister Menachem Begins decision to bomb the Iraqi OSIRAK reactor in 1981 was an electoral ploy, but the strategic stakes in the strike on Iraq were puny; contrary to widespread belief, Saddam Hussein had not embarked on a nuclear weapons program prior to the bombing. The fundamental motives behind the latest Israeli attack on Gaza lie elsewhere: (1) in the need to restore Israels deterrence capacity, and (2) in the threat posed by a new Palestinian peace offensive. - Norman G. Finkelstein
Mr. Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988 from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. For many years he taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict. He is currently an independent scholar.
Mr. Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988 from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. For many years he taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict. He is currently an independent scholar.
The Palestine Telegraph says "Slingshot Hip Hop is a documentary film that braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them."
The new generation, the young poets, the lyrical activists. Their chosen weapons for fighting oppression? Rhymes, rhythm, and beats. Projecting in your face non-violent resistance. These young artists smash walls with words crossing all borders and boundaries. They refuse the legacy of racism, wars, and political divisions.
Israel has admitted to unlawfully taking organs from dead people, including Palestinians, in the 1990s without the prior permission of the families of the victims.
JERUSALEM. UNICEF Regional Goodwill Ambassador and Egyptian actor Mahmoud Kabil has visited the Occupied Palestinian Territory to raise awareness about the situation of marginalized Palestinian children, especially Bedouins.
Mr. Kabil met Bedouin families in Al Maleh in the West Bank, a small community situated close to a military base. Al Maleh is part of 'Area C', which is under Israeli military and administrative control.
Families in Al Maleh live in tents under harsh weather conditions, and they face severe, chronic water shortages. (They have not been permitted to build houses and rainwater cisterns.) In addition, their children are often at risk because of the danger of unexploded ordnance.
"I am shocked by what Bedouins and East Jerusalem families are faced with. This is a human tragedy," said Mr. Kabil.
Mr. Kabil met Bedouin families in Al Maleh in the West Bank, a small community situated close to a military base. Al Maleh is part of 'Area C', which is under Israeli military and administrative control.
Families in Al Maleh live in tents under harsh weather conditions, and they face severe, chronic water shortages. (They have not been permitted to build houses and rainwater cisterns.) In addition, their children are often at risk because of the danger of unexploded ordnance.
"I am shocked by what Bedouins and East Jerusalem families are faced with. This is a human tragedy," said Mr. Kabil.
Palestine Press Links
Opinion
Noteworthy
- WHO: Israel-led blockade limits medical supplies in Gaza
- 'Obama is a racist,' settler rabbi tells protestors in Jerusalem
- Obama administration sends message to Israel - no early release for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard
- Egypt, Syria increase pressure on Hamas to seal agreement with Fatah
- Israeli Occupation Puts Strain on Palestinian Christians
- Israel's 32nd government is destined to fail.
- Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009
- Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Alice Walker, CODEPINK Founder Medea Benjamin in Gaza to Mark International Women’s Day
- Americans tune into Al Jazeera to watch Gaza war
- Scale of Gaza destruction emerges
- Israel using Holocaust guilt to continue Gaza op, says British Jewish MP
- Shoot Then Ask, Israeli Soldiers Told
Videographer Max Blumenthal's footage of the reaction by some Israelis and American Jews in Jerusalem to Obama's speech to the Muslim world.
Journalists Document War Crimes
Gaza War Crimes
The world's attention is on the Gaza Strip as Israel's military battles Hamas' combatants. There are many intersecting stories. Civilian lives are at risk, as are the future of Hamas and political parties in Israel.
Most everything about Israel's West Bank barrier is disputed; Israelis and Palestinians disagree on its name, its route and its impact. Israelis call it the "security barrier" or "the good fence." Many Palestinians call it "the apartheid wall" or the "racist fence."
Arabs say the barrier is one of the biggest impediments to economic growth. Israelis maintain it's vital to the Jewish state's security to thwart suicide bombers. In a four-part multimedia series NPR explores how the barrier has affected the lives of those who live there today -- profiling workers, businessmen, settlers and soldiers.
The short film Closed Zone has been launched online in support of the human rights group Gisha, which advocates freedom of movement for Palestinians.
