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UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
28 November, 2008 =========================================================================
DOHA FORUM CRUCIAL TO CRAFTING GLOBAL RESPONSE TO FINANCIAL CRISIS – BAN
A United Nations conference set to begin tomorrow in Doha provides a vital opportunity to plan a globally coordinated response to the financial crisis to ensure the well-being of millions worldwide, especially the poor, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today.
Such a response “can protect developing countries, underpin our drive to a green economy, and stimulate a commitment to a renewed multilateralism,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in the Qatari capital on the eve of the Review Conference on Financing for Development.
The four-day meeting will focus on ensuring sufficient financing to meet key development goals amid mounting concern about the impact of the current global economic slowdown on poor nations.
“The Doha conference is crucially important for the well-being of people everywhere,” added the Secretary-General, who held a closed discussion attended by about 30 delegations, including 10 Heads of State, government and international agencies, on the implications of the financial crisis.
“It is also very timely, falling just two weeks after the emergency G-20 summit on the financial crisis,” he said, referring to the meeting in Washington on 15 November of the leaders of the so-called Group of 20 nations, aimed at promoting dialogue between advanced and emerging countries on key issues regarding economic growth and stability of the financial system.
One of the main goals of today’s discussion, and of the conference beginning tomorrow, is “to build a bridge between the G-20 and the rest of the world – the full community of nations,” he noted.
A summary of today’s discussion points out that leaders agreed that the Doha conference offers an opportunity “to listen to the perspectives and concerns of a larger group of countries. Broad participation in and support for the designs of reforms will make them more effective and sustainable.”
Mr. Ban told reporters that the financial crisis is not the only crisis the world faces. “We also confront a development emergency and accelerating climate change. These threats are inextricably linked. They must be dealt with as one.”
He emphasized the need for a truly global stimulus plan that meets the needs of emerging economies and developing countries. This includes protecting the poorest, as well as not reneging on commitments regarding official development assistance (ODA), which remains a crucial part of development finance for many countries.
It also includes ensuring resources to help countries meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.
Also vital is to promote development that is sustainable and the fight against climate change. “Investments in green technologies will produce pay-offs in the long-term, in terms of a safer environment and more sustainable growth,” said the Secretary-General. “But the record already shows that green investment can produce jobs and spur growth in the here-and-now.”
He added that reform begins with the financial markets but it cannot stop there. “We also need fresh thinking about our food and energy systems, about financing for development and about our institutions.” This means giving a greater voice in global financial institutions to emerging economies and developing countries.
Ahead of the conference, World Bank President Robert Zoellick called on developed countries to boost aid to developing countries, which are facing a “perfect storm” of slowing world growth, higher interest rates, and a withdrawal of equity and lending from the private sector.
In a paper prepared for the conference, the World Bank says it is imperative that donors meet their previous commitments to debt relief and scaled-up aid.
Representatives of the World Bank will join those of governments, business and civil society at the forum, which is a follow-up to the International Conference on Financing for Development that took place in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, and resulted in the adoption of a landmark partnership agreement for global development.
Known as the Monterrey Consensus, the agreement covered a number of topics, including domestic resource mobilization, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, ODA, debt relief and systemic issues.
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SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS ‘REPREHENSIBLE’ TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI
The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that started on 26 November, which included the taking of hostages and caused numerous deaths and injuries in India’s financial capital.
“The members of the Security Council expressed their condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of India,” the 15-member body said in a statement issued to the press last night.
The attacks, which have now stretched into their third day, targeted two major hotel complexes and several other locations in India’s largest city, leaving at least 140 people dead and more than 300 wounded. Rescue operations are still ongoing to try to free the remaining hostages.
Council members “underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice” and urged all States to cooperate with the Indian authorities in this regard.
“All acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation,” the Council reiterated in its statement.
The Mumbai attacks are just the latest in a series of acts of terrorism to strike the South Asian nation over the course of the past year. The north-eastern state of Assam and the cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Delhi have all fallen victim to the scourge.
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NEARLY 10,000 CHOLERA CASES NOW REPORTED IN ZIMBABWE, UN SAYS
Almost 10,000 cases and over 400 deaths due to cholera have now been reported in Zimbabwe since the current outbreak of the disease began in August, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Nearly 500 new cases and 23 additional deaths have been reported since yesterday, with the largest increase in cases found in Budiriro and Beitbridge in the country’s south.
The UN continues to support the Government respond to the outbreak through water deliveries, education programmes, procurement of medical supplies and constructing latrines.
OCHA noted that more health professionals are needed to respond, given the scale of the outbreak, and that poor hygiene awareness and solid waste removal are propelling the increase in cholera infections.
Cases of the illness – an acute intestinal infection caused by contaminated food or water – have also been reported in neighbouring Botswana and South Africa, and the health ministries of these two countries and of Zimbabwe have been working with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) to address the spread.
WHO and its partners are responding to cases and supporting treatment centres in 26 districts, and the agency has airlifted emergency supplies from its Dubai warehouse.
The agency has identified several areas where there are gaps, including detection, response organization and surveillance.
It is also planning to dispatch a team – comprising epidemiologists and water and sanitation specialists, among others – to investigate and respond to the outbreak.
For its part, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has over 50 staff dedicated solely to tackling Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak. The agency is working closely with authorities and along with its partners, has asked for $9 million as part of the UN Consolidated Appeal to address water and sanitation issues.
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SOME SUDANESE REGIONS RIFE WITH ARBITRARY ARREST AND DETENTION, SAYS UN REPORT
Arbitrary arrest and detention are rife in many parts of Sudan, and are often linked to further serious violations such as torture, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says in a report released today.
The 51-page report covers the capital Khartoum and other parts of northern Sudan, southern Sudan, and the three central areas of Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile state. It does not cover the western region of Darfur, which has been the focus of previous OHCHR reports.
According to the report, intelligence and security services, police, and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the country’s south, have all committed violations of Sudanese and international law in the form of arbitrary arrests of civilians, in the length and manner of their detention, and in the physical treatment of detainees.
“In Khartoum and other parts of northern Sudan, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) systematically use arbitrary arrest and detention against political dissidents,” states the report. The NISS has reportedly been responsible for a large number of cases involving ill-treatment and torture, including attempts to intimidate detainees, punish them, extract information or force them to incriminate themselves or others.
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) explicitly limits NISS’ mandate to an advisory role, focusing on information and analysis.
The report also notes that UN human rights officers have encountered many cases in which SPLA soldiers illegally arrested and detained civilians. Some prisoners have been detained for prolonged periods without charge, denied family visits or legal help, and kept in very poor living conditions, with insufficient or inadequate supplies of food, water and medical supplies.
The OHCHR report found “disturbing” patterns of arbitrary arrest and detention by police forces in the South including arrests of family members of suspects to pressure fugitives to turn themselves in.
The report also cites cases of women and children detained as a means of forcing their families to pay compensation in civil disputes, or in relation to dowry payments – especially in Southern Sudan, and cites examples of a 17-year-old girl sentenced to one year in jail in Yei for leaving her husband, and a 16-year old Dinka girl jailed for two months in Bor for running away from a forced marriage.
Impunity was an overarching concern in all of the areas covered by the report. “Even blatantly unlawful arrests rarely result in criminal or disciplinary actions against the officials involved.” However, it also says the problems “are not necessarily intractable,” adding that “reforming institutions is as important as changing individual attitudes.”
At the same time, the report also notes there have been “positive examples of judges, prosecutors, parliamentarians and police officers who have taken effective action against arbitrary arrest and detention.” The report cites cases where judges disregarded written confession statements that had allegedly been obtained under torture and acquitted defendants who had retracted their confessions in court.
OHCHR adds that the Government of National Unity and the Government of Southern Sudan have taken some positive steps to address the human rights concerns in the report. The Government of National Unity, for example, has announced its intention to table legislation to establish an independent human rights commission.
Meanwhile, the Government of Southern Sudan has established a human rights commission and is in the process of enacting legislation linked to its proposed functions.
OHCHR provides 28 specific recommendations designed to assist the authorities in their efforts to address the concerns identified in the report.
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‘WE ARE GOING WHERE OTHERS DO NOT WANT TO GO’ – UN PEACEKEEPING CHIEF
The 18 United Nations peacekeeping operations worldwide are carrying out their work well under circumstances that are often extremely difficult and in areas where no other major organizations or countries are prepared to be involved, the head of the world body’s missions says.
“We are going where others do not want to go,” Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy says in an extended interview with the UN News Centre to mark the first of its Newsmaker profile series. “Sometimes we are easy scapegoats. [But] on the contrary, on my field visits I see missions that in the vast majority of cases are being executed well.”
Mr. Le Roy, who took up his post in August, last month visited the Darfur region of western Sudan – now home to the joint UN-African Union mission known as UNAMID – and then this month travelled to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the UN mission known as MONUC is responding to fierce recent fighting that has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.
In the interview he notes the scale of the task facing UN peacekeeping missions, which collectively have about 110,000 personnel and a budget of more than $7 billion.
“That is huge. There has been a very great increase in our engagements in recent years. Some think that we have perhaps reached the limits. Of course, it is the Security Council that decides on the missions and troop levels it gives us.”
Mr. Le Roy says the recent decision by the Security Council to boost MONUC’s numbers by another 3,000 troops and police officers “is clearly very important to help us fulfil our mandate,” especially in North Kivu province, the scene of much of the recent fighting.
But he adds that the mission’s current total of blue helmets – about 17,000 – is comparatively small given the sheer size of the DRC, one of Africa’s largest countries.
In Darfur, the Under-Secretary-General says the administrative problems experienced by UNAMID, which replaced an under-resourced AU-only monitoring mission at the start of the year, are in the process of being resolved.
“On the other hand, the logistical aspect remains extremely complicated: the region is 2,500 kilometres from its nearest port and there are very few access roads.”
He adds that the mission is still waiting on 18 transport helicopters and six attack helicopters from Member States, despite earlier authorization for the craft from the Security Council.
“The States we have asked say they don’t have any available. It’s very damaging because that diminishes the effectiveness of the force. We sincerely hope that certain countries will supply us with these helicopters.”
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INFRASTRUCTURE SHARING IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEEDED TO OFFSET INVESTMENT DROUGHT – UN
Strategies for sharing among telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT) providers are needed to offset an investment drought stemming from the deepening global financial crisis, according to a new United Nations report.
“Sharing strategies are increasingly necessary to ensure that operators can deploy their networks at low cost while guaranteeing that consumers have access to affordable services,” UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Sami Al Basheer said on the release of the agency’s annual report.
“Now, more than ever, sharing strategies make sense as operators are forced to reduce the costs of network deployment as they compete for scarce investment funds. This is a forward-looking perspective in light of the current financial and economic uncertainty.”
Such strategies include sharing civil engineering costs in deploying networks, promoting open access to network support infrastructure (poles, ducts, conduits), essential facilities (submarine cable landing stations and international gateways), and access to radio-frequency spectrum and end-user devices.
The report – Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2008: Six Degrees of Sharing – details a set of regulatory strategies designed to lower the costs of network rollout. It notes that 2008 has been marked by unparalleled numbers of voice and Internet consumers in both the developing and developed world, the result of network growth and expansion.
The “Six Degrees of Sharing” theme was first discussed in Thailand during the ITU’s 2008 Global Symposium for Regulators last March. Few observers could then have anticipated the rough ride that would be in store for financial markets later this year.
Yet, the guidelines announced in March seem almost prophetic in today’s circumstances. Taking a broad and innovative view of sharing, the world’s regulators sought to capture the productivity of global networks and use it to expand the scope of opportunities for service and content providers and, ultimately, consumers.
Developing countries embraced sharing to make more affordable the expansion of ICT networks to rural and under-served areas. Many developed countries are looking at sharing to reduce the cost of rolling out ultra high-speed broadband networks that reach customers’ homes and apartment buildings.
What had been foreseen as ideal strategies to extend broadband network access in developing markets may now be viewed as a prescription for the entire world. If the sources of capital for network investment suffer a temporary drought, policymakers could take steps to make their markets more amenable to the shrinking pool of investment.
Such measures could include lowering investment barriers that inhibit capital flows from one country to another, reducing regulatory barriers (high licence fees or market-entry bans) that represent hostile environments for capital investment and market growth, and sharing essential facilities, such as cable landing stations, local switching centres or fibre backbone networks.
Other steps are: adopting rules to provide for infrastructure sharing, particularly “passive” sharing of towers, ducts, rights-of-way and other support facilities; overhauling and streamlining cross-agency processes to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for various network-related authorizations, such as land management, port access, environmental and safety permits; and adding innovative spectrum management mechanisms that promote increased sharing and efficient use of spectrum.
Regulatory frameworks could be amended to eliminate discriminatory rules that favour one company or industry over another in a converged services market and government policies and rules would be to ensure maximum ability for incumbents and market entrants to choose between different opportunities for business plans and long-term strategies, including resale, wholesale, and niche markets.
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VOTER REGISTRATION FOR CôTE D’IVOIRE POLL PROCEEDING WITHOUT MAJOR INCIDENT, UN REPORTS
Identification and voter registration in Côte d’Ivoire is progressing without major incident for long-delayed elections, a key element in resolving a political crisis that in 2002 divided the West African country into a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south, the United Nations has reported.
The operation is attracting large crowds in Abidjan, the country’s largest city, in the south and in Bouaké, the former rebel stronghold, the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) said.
UNOCI hopes the population will participate just as eagerly when the operation spreads to other parts of the country in line with the deployment of identification teams, spokesman Hamadoun Touré told a news conference in Abidjan yesterday.
The mission will continue with its electoral assistance and logistical and material support by “making its vehicles and staff available in order to accelerate the identification and voter registration operation so that it takes place under the best possible conditions,” he said.
He urged the Ivorian authorities to continue along the right track and remain focused on the remaining stages so that they should lead to a definitive end to the crisis.
The identification and registration processes were launched in mid-September in preparation for the elections then slated for 30 November but the polls have now been delayed again for the third time since the signing of the north-south peace pact last year.
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UNDERSTANDING MOST RECENT HIV INFECTIONS CRUCIAL FOR FURTHER PREVENTION, UN REPORT SAYS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) today called on countries to realign their prevention programmes by better understanding how the most recent infections were transmitted and the reasons why they occurred.
“Not only will this approach help prevent the next 1,000 infections in each community, but it will also make money for AIDS work more effectively and help put forward a long-term and sustainable AIDS response,” UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a report issued to mark the 20th anniversary of the first observance of World AIDS Day.
Findings from countries that have conducted studies on the modes of transmission and developed incidence estimates have highlighted three broad trends. First, patterns of epidemics can change over time and therefore such analyses must be undertaken at regular intervals.
Second, in many sub-Saharan African countries with high HIV prevalence, new infections occur mainly as a result of having multiple sex partners and among discordant couples – that is where one partner is HIV positive and one is HIV negative.
Third, in many countries, even with high HIV prevalence among the general population, substantial numbers of new infections might also occur in populations at higher risk of exposure to HIV, including sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users, and men who have sex with men, groups who often receive little attention in prevention initiatives.
“There is no single magic bullet for HIV prevention, but we can choose wisely from the known prevention options available so that they can reinforce and complement each other and cut back the wave of ongoing new HIV infections that is stripping away gains in treatment,” Dr. Piot said.
Even though the number of new HIV infections has fallen in several countries, there are five new HIV infections for every two people put on treatment. As reported earlier in 2008, some 3 million people are now receiving antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries.
The global financial crisis could lead to funding cutbacks, which, in turn, will have harmful impacts throughout the developing world generally and in the AIDS response in particular.
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UN AID AGENCIES BRING RELIEF TO FLOOD-HIT NORTHERN SRI LANKA
Three United Nations agencies are offering relief to tens of thousands of Sri Lankans who have been displaced from their homes after floods struck at least five districts in the north of the island nation this week.
Aid agencies held a coordination meeting in the town of Jaffna today to plan their response to the floods, which follow several days of heavy rains, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
Sufficient stocks of relief items, including food and shelter materials, are available across the Jaffna peninsula to help affected families for the next few days. The region is already affected by the conflict between Government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is coordinating the distribution of non-food relief items and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is providing dry rations at the request of local authorities. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is assisting with water and sanitation services.
OCHA reports that the floods are worst in five districts: Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in Northern province, and Trincomalee in Eastern province. Three reservoirs are at risk of overflowing, and vehicle movements across the north are being obstructed by flood waters and bad road conditions, thus hampering the progress of humanitarian convoys.
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UN-BACKED FORUM URGES COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY TO FIGHT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN
A United Nations-backed forum to combat the sexual exploitation of children today called for a comprehensive strategy comprising laws, policies, regulations and services across all social sectors as well as a shift in social attitudes and practices, such as child marriage.
“There is no single intervention that protects children from sexual exploitation,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Nils Kastberg said at the end of World Congress III Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Rio de Janeiro. “Building and strengthening child protection systems is critical and requires action from all actors to provide children with the protection they deserve.”
Representatives of 137 governments, meeting with children, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector companies, conceded that ending the scourge is a long and difficult battle, but the Congress organizers said countries are in a better position now to win the fight as a result of days of work in developing a blueprint for action.
The Rio Declaration and Action Plan to Prevent and Stop the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents calls on governments to enact laws that protect all children in their jurisdiction, including undocumented migrants or those who have been trafficked so that every child is provided protection under the law. Governments are also asked to pass laws that do not criminalize children for crimes they have committed as a result of their sexual exploitation.
On prevention, the Rio Action Plan stresses the need for a comprehensive strategy and the involvement of all social sectors, especially social welfare, education, health, security and justice, to support prevention and respond to risks.
Unlike previous World Congresses, where the recommendations of young participants were prepared separately, in Rio de Janeiro the young people participated fully in the drafting of the action plan.
Studies indicate an increase in the sexual exploitation of the young and UNICEF noted that predators continue to use new tools to target children, including cyberspace and new generation mobile phone technologies, with adults preying on children in chat rooms and using the Internet to post or download pornography.
The gathering was co-sponsored by UNICEF, the Brazilian Government, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), a global non-profit network of organizations and individuals set up in 1991, and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Seven years after the last World Congress in Yokohama, Japan, which focused exclusively on commercial sexual exploitation of children, the current Congress also discussed strategies for combating non-commercial forms of child sexual exploitation, including the sexual exploitation of children in their homes, by religious leaders, teachers, peacekeepers and armed groups in war zones.
The First World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children took place in Stockholm in 1996, resulting in the ‘Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action,’ which was adopted by 122 countries. This committed countries to develop strategies and plans of action with agreed-upon guidelines and 161 countries have now signed on.
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MINISTERS AT UN MEETING URGE NATIONS NOT TO SLASH EDUCATION BUDGETS AMID FINANCIAL CRISIS
With hundreds of millions of people around the world with little or no access to education, participants at a United Nations conference in Geneva urged governments not to cut funding for this critical sector amid the current financial turmoil.
Participants at the week-long International Conference on Education, which ended today, voiced concern at the impact of the global financial crisis, warning that it “will have a disproportionate impact on the poor – those who carry the least responsibility for these events.”
According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which organized the conference, the hundreds of millions around the world with little or no access to education include 75 million out-of-school children – more than half of whom are girls and one third are disabled.
Many of these children are working and many belong to indigenous groups and linguistic minorities, or are living in conflict and post-conflict situations. There are also some 776 million adults who lack basic literacy skills.
In the current economic environment, providing quality education was all the more important since education was crucial to reducing poverty and improving health and livelihoods, stressed the participants, which included ministers, education experts and civil society representatives.
“Funding for education should be a top priority and… the financial crisis should not serve as a justification for a reduction in the allocation of resources to education at both the national and international levels,” they stated.
The conference recommended a number of steps that governments could take to improve their education systems and ensure more inclusive education. These include equipping teachers with the skills and materials they need to teach diverse populations, and promoting the greater participation of those concerned in decision-making.
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IN NORTHERN KYRGYZSTAN, UN REFUGEE AGENCY FUNDS SCHOOL AND SANITATION PROJECTS
The United Nations refugee agency is supporting school and sanitation projects in rural areas of northern Kyrgyzstan that have served as home to former refugees from neighbouring Tajikistan.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that it has recently expanded a pre-school and opened a public bathhouse in the district of Ivanovka, which is located in Chui province.
The projects are part of UNHCR’s support to the local community, which has taken in the former Tajik refugees – despite limited resources – and is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz returnees and local villagers.
UNHCR representative Hans Schodder said about $100,000 was spent by the agency on the projects as part of a wider effort to support the greater integration of refugees in the poor Central Asian country.
More than 20,000 Tajiks fled to Kyrgyzstan after civil war erupted in their homeland in the early 1990s. Most eventually returned home, but about 9,500 have been successfully naturalized by the Kyrgyz Government.
Ivanovka is also home to Kayrlyrmans, ethnic Kyrgyz who returned to the region after the country declared independence in 1991, as well as numerous stateless people following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
UNHCR estimates that Kyrgyzstan is also host to at least 1,000 asylum-seekers and refugees, mainly from Afghanistan.
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JUSTICE ESSENTIAL TO BREAKING CYCLE OF CONFLICT IN DR CONGO, UN RIGHTS CHIEF SAYS
Outbreaks of bloodshed will continue to occur in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where in the past few months escalating conflict has uprooted a quarter of a million people, unless impunity is ended for those guilty of the worst violations, the top United Nations human rights official said today in Geneva.
“The DRC runs the risk of becoming a case study in how peace processes can go awry without the will to make justice and accountability an integral part of these processes,” Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a special session on the human rights situation in the east of the vast African nation.
The DRC has been trying to consolidate stability following a brutal six-year civil war – widely considered the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II – that ended earlier this decade and cost 4 million lives in fighting and attendant hunger and disease. Serious unrest has continued sporadically in recent years, despite the official end of the war.
Fighting has stepped up in recent weeks between Government forces (FARDC) and a rebel militia known as the Congress in Defence of the People (CNDP), led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, mainly in North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda. Other armed groups, including the Mayi Mayi, have also been involved in deadly clashes, some of which have been along ethnic lines.
Ms. Pillay told the 47-member Council today that her office has documented a worsening human rights situation in North Kivu, with executions, kidnappings and looting occurring daily.
“The prevailing culture of impunity contributes to this wide range of serious human rights violations,” she said, adding that “unparalleled violence” against women continues, with rape being a particular concern.
The High Commissioner said Government forces had been involved in pillaging, rapes and killings in Goma, North Kivu’s capital. But such acts are not confined to North and South Kivu provinces, she underscored, pointing to the violations committed by other “brutal forces” in the region, including Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
“Past peace agreements have enabled well-known perpetrators of atrocities to be integrated into the army and police,” Ms. Pillay said. “This has exacerbated the current climate of impunity in the DRC, empowered human rights violators and further endangered the Congolese population.”
Four UN human rights experts today voiced their serious concern over violations in the country’s east, calling on warring parties to respect human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as abide by ceasefire commitments and allow aid workers access to the vulnerable.
“The international community has a responsibility to protect and should provide MONUC, the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations in the DRC, with the capacity to protect civilians at risk, where and when State authorities fail to do so,” according to a statement by Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Yakin Ertürk, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative on the human rights of IDPs.
In a related development, former Nigerian president and the Secretary-General’s envoy Olusegun Obasanjo will be returning to the region today to resume diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in the DRC’s east.
It was announced today that he is slated to visit Kinshasa tomorrow and Goma on Sunday, with other regional stops planned along the way.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that it has begun the voluntary transfer of displaced Congolese from camps in Kibati, on Goma’s northern outskirts.
The agency’s vehicles will take the first group of people with special needs such as disabilities and chronic illnesses will be transported to Muganga I camp, one of four sites in the area.
This is the first of several movements which will continue through the weekend, UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler told reporters in Geneva, and about 1,000 are expected to be moved to the camp by next week.
Shelter and basic services will be provided at the camp, and the new arrivals will join 25,000 other IDPs who have been sheltering there since 2006.
Ground has been broken on construction at Mugunga III, a new site proposed for voluntary relocation of the displaced who will travel from Kibati on foot.
Mr. Spindler also said that thousands of Congolese refugees have fled across the border to Uganda in the past two days to escape a new round of fighting and attacks by armed assailants in Rutshuru in North Kivu.
UNHCR staff have reported that 13,000 IDPs had entered the south-west Uganda border town of Ishasha, while 10,000 people crossed into the country today. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern that the new arrivals may be carrying diseases, such as cholera, with them, and has been distributing clean water there.
After the latest influx, there are now 150,000 refugees in Uganda, one-third of them from the DRC, Mr. Spindler said.
For its part, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that relief has been reaching South Lubero, nearly 200 kilometres north of Goma, but cautioned that inaccessibility in certain areas could lead to an increase in malnutrition cases.
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UPSURGE OF FIGHTING IN SOMALIA AMONG HEAVIEST IN RECENT MONTHS, UN REPORTS
The past week has seen some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in recent months, with at least 55 civilians estimated to have been killed and more than 80 others wounded, according to local hospital records cited by United Nations humanitarian officials.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 100,000 additional people have been forced to flee Mogadishu since 1 September in upsurge of fighting in a country that has been riven by factional conflicts and has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
Some 45,000 of those recently displaced moved to relatively safer areas in Mogadishu itself, while others sought safety along the Afgooye corridor, adding to a population of more than 360,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who live in appalling conditions there, UNHCR said. An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced from Mogadishu this year alone.
During the past week, NATO and Dutch naval frigates successfully escorted three vessels through pirate-infested waters with 18,730 metric tons of UN World Food Programme (WFP) shipments to Mogadishu and the coastal town of Marka. WFP distributed food to nearly 360,000 people in various parts of the Horn of Africa country.
The agency has found that large areas of cultivated farms in the Lower and Middle Juba regions have been flooded and crops damaged. Food reserves stored in underground pits were also destroyed.
But the outlook for the ongoing short rainy season (September-December) is promising and expected to be normal throughout Somalia, according to a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) analysis. Grazing and water availability has improved countrywide and the cereal crop harvest is expected to be good in the main producing areas of the south.
Depending on the outcome of the cereal harvest and prices in areas of good crop production, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance could decline over the coming six months.
On the political front, UN officials have welcomed the signing of a power-sharing decision in neighbouring Djibouti between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and one of its Islamist opponents, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), to set up an inclusive and enlarged government and Unity Government.
“We are pleased to be supporting this initiative,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said. The UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) is facilitating a three-day workshop in Djibouti ending today to flesh out the decision.
“This is the first of many dialogues on a long journey gathering various stakeholders in the complex process of bringing peace and stability to Somalia, UN Development Programme (UNDP) country director Bruno Lenmarquis said.
The Independent Expert on human rights in Somalia Shamsul Bari also welcomed the power-sharing decision as well as one on the establishment of a commission of inquiry and an international court to address gross human rights and international humanitarian law violations.
* * *
SOUTHERN SUDAN NEEDS MORE HELP TO REBUILD EDUCATION, ROADS, HEALTH CARE – UN AID CHIEF
The United Nations relief chief today wrapped up a two-day visit to southern Sudan by calling on international donors to help the region develop basic education and health-care services and quickly build up its road system as it recovers after two decades of civil war.
John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, met President Salva Kiir and other senior officials in the Government of Southern Sudan, which was set up as a result of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that ended the north-south civil war.
Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir – who met in Juba – discussed the scale of the south’s continuing development needs, as well as mutual concerns about the full implementation of the peace deal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Mr. Holmes – who is also the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator – also assured southern Sudanese officials of the UN’s ongoing humanitarian support and urged donors to get behind construction and development initiatives.
Southern Sudan is lacking in basic infrastructure as a result of the prolonged civil war, and Mr. Holmes stressed that the capacity of the Government in the region must be built up so it can take over health-care, education and other services.
“A lot of has been achieved since I was last in Juba less than two years ago, but a huge amount remains to be done,” he said. “The UN must be here for the long haul, to support Government leadership, while the international community as a whole has to keep up its spending. Too much rests on the development of the south and the continued health of the north-south relationship for there to be any other option.”
Health care is a particular concern, with southern Sudan experiencing some of the worst child and maternal health indicators in the world, due in part to exceptionally low immunization rates. One in seven women, for instance, dies as a result of causes related to childbirth.
“It is simply unacceptable in the 21st century that women continue to die in childbirth at such rates, and that children and adults die needlessly of preventable diseases like malaria.
“Distributing mosquito nets to all the population, training enough staff and qualified midwives, and getting them out to the rural communities who are in dire need of primary health care: these must be top priorities.”
Mr. Holmes visited Agok, home to some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled Abyei, a town in an oil-rich area of central Sudan that remains in contention between the north and south despite the peace accord.
During their discussions the Under-Secretary-General and Mr. Kiir also emphasized the importance of a rapid solution to the separate conflict still engulfing the Darfur region of western Sudan.
Members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a notorious rebel group that has waged war against Ugandan Government forces since the mid-1980s and is accused of recruiting children to serve as soldiers or sexual slaves, have long operated out of southern Sudan, which borders Uganda.
Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir strongly urged the leadership of the LRA to follow through on promises to sign a peace agreement tomorrow.
The UN relief chief is now in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, for meetings with Government officials, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He has already visited Darfur and neighbouring Chad on this visit.
* * *
UNICEF RAISES ALARM ABOUT CONDITIONS IN NORTHERN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is voicing concern that security in the strife-torn north of the Central African Republic (CAR) has started to worsen, with fresh fighting between Government forces and rebels uprooting thousands more civilians in the deeply impoverished country.
Two separate attacks took place last week between the military and rebels, and one of the clashes led to half of a town’s population escaping into the nearby bush, UNICEF reported in a press release on Wednesday.
The agency warned that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) – already estimated to be more than 200,000 – could swell even higher because of the recent security incidents.
This will further strain the capacity of aid agencies in the CAR, one of the poorest countries in the world, to reach and support IDPs and other conflict-affected civilians.
The Government and rebels are slated to hold two weeks of peace talks in the capital, Bangui, starting next Friday, and UNICEF said it is concerned that the latest insecurity could jeopardize those talks as well as the release and reintegration of child soldiers serving with rebels.
“UNICEF hopes the CAR’s ongoing political dialogue will pave the way for peace and recovery, but right now the country is on the edge,” said Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF’s representative in the CAR.
“Since the beginning of the peace dialogue, many positive developments for women and children have flourished. More fighting can only undermine this progress. It is time for the international community to pressure all the parties to show restraint.”
Last year the Security Council authorized the establishment of a multi-dimensional UN presence (known as MINURCAT) in the CAR’s north and in eastern Chad, where related fighting and instability has uprooted hundreds of thousands of civilians.
* * *
MALAWI’S PRESIDENT AWARDED UN PRIZE FOR ENHANCING NATION’S FOOD SECURITY
The President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, has been honoured by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for his efforts in achieving food security and in transforming the economy of his nation, among the poorest in Africa.
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf presented President wa Mutharika with the Agricola Medal – the agency’s highest award – yesterday during a ceremony in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe.
Mr. Diouf noted that in 2005, thanks in a large part to the adoption of an Agricultural Input Subsidy Programme piloted by the Government of President wa Mutharika, Malawi was able to restore national food security by increasing access to fertilizers and improved seeds by poor farmers and other vulnerable population groups.
In addition, despite sharply rising food and energy prices earlier in the year, and the negative impact of climate change, Malawi has been able to contain food prices to the extent that economic growth for this year is expected to be around 8 per cent.
Malawi was also one of the few countries to have surpassed the agreement reached among ministers at the 2003 Maputo African heads of State and government conference for a minimum budget allocation of 10 per cent for agriculture, by allocating as much as 16 per cent to the sector, said the Director-General.
Agriculture is crucial to the population of 13.2 million in Malawi, a largely rural and landlocked country in Southern Africa, where some 35 per cent of the population was undernourished in 2004.
Previous recipients of the Agricola Medal include Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, former French president Jacques Chirac, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Pope John Paul II, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German ex-president Johannes Rau of Germany.
* * *
WORLD’S FASTEST ANIMAL, IN RACE FOR SURVIVAL, TO GET ADDED UN-BACKED PROTECTION
The critically endangered cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal, is set to obtain added international protection next week at a United Nations-backed conference seeking to strengthen conservation of species that often cross national borders.
The cheetah, which reaches speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour but is now racing against extinction with only about 10,000 adults surviving, is among some 30 endangered land and marine animals on the agenda of the 9th conference of parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
“Species that migrate across countries and continents are facing ever greater hurdles from loss of habitat and feeding grounds to unsustainable use and the unfolding and often complex threats emerging from climate change,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which administers the CMS.
“Indeed the world is currently facing a sixth wave of extinctions mainly as a result of human impacts. Urgent and accelerated action is needed to ensure that a healthy, productive and functioning planet is handed on to the next generation,” he added.
More than 100 government representatives at the five-day conference, beginning Monday in Rome, will consider proposals to strengthen conservation by putting the animals on CMS appendix I, listing them as in danger of extinction, or appendix II, listing them as suffering from unfavourable conservation status and in need of international cooperation. Some of these animals are important economically, providing a significant source of tourism revenue.
Proposed steps range from tackling over-hunting to removing physical obstacles on the animals’ migratory paths such as border fences to calling for regional agreements for protection.
Migratory animals to be considered include:
The cheetah, which has suffered a dramatic 90 per cent decline over the past century, becoming extinct in 18 countries of its original range, with less than 10,000 adults surviving in Africa and a meagre 50 in Asia, mainly around Iran's Kavir desert, due to severe habitat loss, over-hunting and poor breeding in captivity.
The Saiga antelope, which used to roam the Eurasian steppes but is now on the brink of extinction for the second time in just 100 years. After being nearly exterminated in the 1920s, numbers went up to 2 million thanks to Soviet conservation efforts, but have now shrunk to just 50,000 due to hunting and obstacles on migration routes. Today they are confined to isolated pockets in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
Barbary sheep, agile climbers of the Sahara and Sahel region of Africa, are now also threatened by unsustainable and illegal hunting. The species is proposed for appendix I, committing all parties to prohibit hunting and removing obstacles to their migration like fences or habitat conversion.
The African Wild Dog has been eradicated from Western and most of Central Africa, with fewer than 8,000 estimated to survive due to conflict with humans and other animals, as well as infectious diseases. Fences on migration paths also endanger them. The proposed Appendix II listing would call on nations to establish regional agreements for their protection.
Other animals include seven species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, such as the reclusive Irrawaddy dolphins which used to inhabit coastal areas and estuaries throughout south-east Asia. Today, habitat loss, live capture, entanglement in fishing nets, electrocution and boat collisions put the survival of the remaining small populations at risk.
The Black Sea Bottlenose Dolphin, unique to one of the most degraded marine environments in the world, has also suffered from uncontrolled hunting and by-catch, despite the ban on cetacean fishery in the sea since 1983, while the West African Manatee, one of the world’s most camera-shy species, has been endangered by their only significant threat, humankind, due to poaching, habitat loss and other environmental impacts.
Other animals on the agenda include three shark species, spiny dogfish, and seven birds, such as the Saker falcon, prized as hunting companions by royalty and the aristocracy in Central Asia; the Egyptian vulture, poisoned by feeding on carcasses of feral animals laced with pesticides; and the Peruvian tern, threatened by disturbance in its breeding grounds from human activity.
“The Convention on Migratory Species is an important part of our international cooperative response to such challenges. It reflects the shared responsibility of nations for these species as each year they attempt their epic journeys across continents and oceans,” Mr. Steiner said.
Robert Hepworth, Executive Secretary of UNEP-CMS, added: “Many migratory species are now important parts of the local and international economy, generating income and supporting livelihoods via industries such as tourism. For example, an estimated 150,000 people visit the Serengeti (in Tanzania and Kenya) annually in order to see its famous wildlife. Based on 2003 figures, the park generates income of $5.5 million from tourists.”
* * *
PANAMA: UN FOOD AGENCY PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO THOUSANDS OF FLOOD VICTIMS
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing assistance to about 15,000 people along Panama’s Caribbean coast, where floods following a week of heavy rains have destroyed homes, roads and other infrastructure and left locals in urgent need of help.
The number of Panamanians affected by the floods could rise to 25,000, WFP reported yesterday, as aid agencies struggle to reach more isolated indigenous communities along the coast. The national Government has declared a state of emergency in all affected areas along the coast.
WFP is distributing enough high-energy biscuits from its Central American emergency response hub in El Salvador to feed up to 15,000 people for a period of four to five days.
The biscuits, which require no cooking or other preparation, contain fortified food of a high nutritional value and have been made specifically to feed people caught up in emergencies, many of whom have lost their crops and animals, as well as access to kitchens and clean water.
* * *
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Click here for a PDF version of the UN Daily News: http://www.un.org/News/dh/pdf/english/2008/28112008.pdf
For more details go to UN News Centre at: http://www.un.org/news
To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/
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Saturday, November 29, 2008
UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 27 Nov 2008
UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 27 Nov 2008
Obliterating Iraq
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Blog
Pakistan Daily published a list of Iraqi academics assassinated in Iraq during the US-led occupation. This is a particularly meaningful aspect of the Iraq genocide, the extermination of its intellectual classes. It wasn't enough to invade and occupy what was once the most advanced country in the Middle East and destroy its economy. Iraq had to be obliterated, its history re-written and its future denied. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative Roger Wright said in the October 2004 report: "Iraq used to have one of the finest school systems in the Middle East." Who remembers now that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was awarded the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) prize for eradicating illiteracy in 1982!....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49121
From fast death to slow death: Palestinian refugees from Iraq trapped on the Syria-Iraq border
ReliefWeb
Having fled killings, kidnappings, torture, and death threats, about 3,000 Palestinian refugees from Iraq are currently stranded in three camps along the border between Syria and Iraq. Denied asylum and refugee rights, they are extremely vulnerable in poorly situated camps. The Syrian government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are both open to third country resettlement on humanitarian grounds and on the basis of individual choice. Therefore, the challenge now lies with both traditional and emerging resettlement countries, in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to accept these Palestinian refugees from Iraq for resettlement, allowing the inhospitable camps to be closed...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49124
Muthana Harith al-Dari: "The Resistance will continue till the exit of the occupiers"
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
The responsible for Information Department of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) Dr Muthana Harith al-Dari clarified that the resistance in Iraq will continue until the exit of the occupiers from the land of Mesopotamia. Dr. Muthanna Hareth al Dari told in a news conference held in the Yemeni city of Hadeidah after attending the opening of Salih Mosque which the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) founded as a cultural and humanitarian project to resist and prevent the occupation through the written, audio-visual media. In addition to the efforts undertaken by AMSI, Muthanna al Dari informed the participant about the relief campaigns of AMSI to the victims of the sons of Iraq both living in their country or in exile...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49131
Gaza's death throes, and no one's listening
Sonja Karkar
What kind of government in the 21st century can deny another people basic human rights -- that is, the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity? What kind of government imposes draconian sanctions on another people for democratically electing a government not to its liking? What kind of government seals a heavily populated territory of 1.5 million people so that no person can enter or leave without permission, fishermen cannot fish in their own waters, and world food aid cannot be delivered to the starving population? What kind of government shuts off fuel, water and electricity and then rains down on the people, bombs and artillery fire?....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49130
A whoring, lying state
Khaled Amayreh
Israel routinely claims to be "civilized, and democratic." However, in truth, Israel is neither civilized nor democratic. In fact, one can safely claim that Israel is actually a criminal, barbarian and utterly uncivilized state that lives and thrives on murder, theft and mendacity. The following observations are an irrefutable proof showing that Israel differs very little from criminal states throughout history, past and present. Take, for example, the ongoing daily rampages by Jewish thugs, otherwise known as settlers, against Palestinians and their property in the southern West Bank town of Hebron...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49132
Iran in about-turn towards security agreement
Najmeh Bozorgmehr
The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has been unusually silent about the Iraqi government’s approval of the security pact with the US. But that may be because it has been loathe to publicise its dramatic change of attitude towards the agreement. People close to the government in Tehran said that after initially opposing it – and asking its Shia allies in the Baghdad government to resist it – Tehran has been relatively satisfied with the last-minute changes demanded, and won, by Iraq. Analysts see an additional reason for the about-turn: the election of Barack Obama as US president...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49133
Thank You America, For Killing Us
RickB
I assume that was a rejected headline for this AP report, instead they went with- Iraqi parliament OKs US troops for 3 more years- yeah they okayed it, real casual like- sure fellas you stick around for a while longer, it’s cool. But, it gets worse- (...) i>The war has claimed more than 4,200 American lives and killed a far greater, untold number of Iraqis, consumed huge reserves of money and resources and eroded the global stature of the United States, even among its closest allies.... But really 'untold number of Iraqis' well yes it is untold by you because you refuse to use the figures from peer reviewed scientific studies that in all other conflicts are accepted methodology, nor the survey results and extrapolation that tell us the untold truth it’s over a million dead. At this point pulling that kind of shit is basically Holocaust denial motherfucker...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49137
The Broken State
Nir Rosen
The situation in Afghanistan is not as bad as you've heard – its worse. Nir Rosen reports from Kabul and its surrounding provinces as the Taliban attempt to wrest control from Hamid Karzai's government. (...) As I saw on the road to Ghazni, the Taliban have succeeded in essentially cutting off Kabul from the rest of the country. The road southwest to Kandahar was lethal. "The Kabul to Ghazni road is gone," a British intelligence officer told me, "the Ghazni to Gardez road is exceedingly bad, the Wardak road is sh***, the Jalalabad road is sliding. The ambushes have become routine."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49136
Kristallnacht in Hebron
Khaled Amayreh
Unconcerned about arrest by the police or prosecution by the Israeli justice system, fanatical Jewish settlers in the Palestinian town of Hebron (Al-Khalil) have been attacking Palestinians, damaging and ransacking their property, exactly like Nazi thugs did to Jewish-owned property in Germany 80 years ago.
The settlers, who claim to be acting in the name of true Judaism, espouse a messianic doctrine advocating violence and terror against non- Jews in Israel-Palestine for the purpose of creating a pure Jewish kingdom that would be ruled by Halacha, or Jewish religious law. The settlers, who represent the core of religious Zionism, believe that the ethnic cleansing of non-Jews in the Holy Land will eventually usher the messianic age and accelerate the appearance of the Jewish Messiah, or Redeemer, who would bring about redemption for Jews and rule the entire world from Jerusalem...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49138
Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 47/2008 (20 - 26 Nov. 2008)
PCHR - Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law escalated in the OPT during the reporting period (20 – 26 November 2008): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 7 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On 21 November 2008, 5 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were wounded when IOF troops opened fire at dozens of civilians who organized a peaceful demonstration in protest to attempts of settlers to re-establish their presence in the evacuated "Homesh" settlement, northwest of Nablus. On 26 November 2008, a Palestinian child was seriously wounded during clashes between dozens of Palestinian civilians and IOF at the entrance of Qalandya refugee camp, south of Ramallah. During the reporting period, a Palestinian civilian was wounded when IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall west of Ramallah....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49127
Mullahs Regional Hegemons, Code Pink in Iran
Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
This one's a good one! Found it on Anti-War, who got it from Middle East Times (Nov. 26, 2008). I love this because now I, and thousands more like me, don't have to spell it out for the western leftists anymore. The ayatollahs in Iran now boast about the fact that they have become a regional hegemon. Congratulations, and I couldn't have said it better! Now ... a note to the uninitiated ... you don't become a power, be it a regional one, by playing nice all the time. But, things like that seem to have lost their ability to cause outrage, or even concern these days, among those that should be most offended by it....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49125
Iraq parliament passes U.S. security pact
Ahmed Rasheed and Khalid al-Ansary, Reuters
Iraq's parliament on Thursday approved a landmark security pact with the United States that paves the way for U.S. forces to withdraw by the end of 2011, taking the country a big step closer to full sovereignty. The deal, which parliament linked after days of fractious negotiations to a series of promised political reforms and a public referendum next year, brings in sight an end to the U.S. military presence that began with the 2003 invasion...Lawmakers in Iraq's 275 seat parliament passed the deal with a majority of 149 out of 198 present, Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49120
Israeli Crimes Under Observation of I.P.O
Kawther Salam
Ambassador Norma Giocochea Estenoz, the permanent representative of Cuba before the UN in Vienna, and Dr. Hans Koechler, President of the International Progress Organization, delivered the strongest speeches among other participants representing NGOs as well as international organizations and governments of various countries, among them many Arabs, during the special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Dr. Hans Koechler exposed the Israeli violations of the International treaties and UN resolutions which must be implemented under the observance of the International community...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49129
Gaza: A Human Tragedy under Siege
Hany Ramadan
The Gaza Strip has been living under an Israeli 16-month-old despicable siege, which is now reaching its most harshly shocking pinnacle. In addition to blocking the flow of food, medical supplies, and basic needs, Israel has recently barred the fuel supplies from reaching the impoverished strip. As a result, wide blackouts have reigned over the besieged city of about 1.6 million civilians. The majority of Gazans are now using candles to light up their homes and streets...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49128
Petition for Palestine Directed to the UN Secretary General
Kawther Salam
Today I went to the United Nations in Vienna, to take part in an event with occasion of the "Annual Observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People". The representatives of many countries and international organizations assisted to this event. Some of them gave speeches. The speech of the chairwoman of the session, the representative of Cuba, called my attention because her reference to international treaties and how she characterized the occupation. She stated clearly that the occupation is a crime against humanity. Other persons who called my attention were the representative of the "International Progress Organization", who presented an outline of the treaties and international laws violated by Israel...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49134
The US-Iraq Deal Doesn't Bode Well
Robert Dreyfuss
... The ruling alliance of Shiite religious parties and Kurds, who moved forward with the tacit support of Iran, steamrollered opposition to the accord, which passed with at least 144 votes out of 198 members of parliament in attendance. "A huge number of members left the country, supposedly on hajj [to Mecca] or for other reasons," said a leading Iraqi insider. But, although the vote is a victory for Maliki, it says little about the future stability and security of the Iraqi state. And it says even less about the future of US-Iraq relations...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49126
Gaza Christians without Sunday mass
Yusef Daher, Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre - JIC
On Sunday, November 23rd -The Israeli authorities banned the Papal Nuncio in Israel Archbishop Antonio Franco from entering Gaza and celebrating mass there, despite previous coordination with relevant parties at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and senior Israeli Army command since last Tuesday. Papal Nuncio Archbishop Franco arrived this morning to Erez Crossing at about 8:15 AM, accompanied by Latin Patriarchate priests Fr. Shawqi Baterian and Fr. Humam Khzouz as well with the Nunciature secretary, but was banned to enter to Gaza...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49123
The Attack in Mumbai II
Moon of Alabama
...From asking "Qui bono?" I arrive at the BJP's door. The attack, designed to created fight-outs with police, killed the man who was the biggest danger for the BJP as he was revealing Hindu terrorism and made the BJP campaign against Muslim terrorism seem bigot. The current attack, which will reliably be charged on some Muslim entity, will help the BJP win against the Congress party. But me arriving at that door does not mean that the BJP really is responsible here, I only find it possible to likely...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49135
The struggle is not over: Remembering Mohammed al-Kurd
Pam Rasmussen writing from the United States, Live from Palestine
The saying that a man's home is his castle goes back to the 1500s. Whether it is a mansion or a mud hut, a home to which you can retreat and be safe is a basic human need. But since 2001, Abu Kamel (Mohammed al-Kurd), his wife and five children were forced to fight every day for the right to stay in the East Jerusalem home his family had lived in for decades. And although the Jewish settlers who tried to push them out -- literally -- didn't put a gun to his head and pull the trigger, they might as well have. Two weeks after the al-Kurds were finally evicted from their home on 9 November, Abu Kamel suffered a fatal heart attack. Now, Um Kamel (his wife, Fawzieh) who I grew to admire and respect while I camped on their patio as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) must wage the fight alone...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49122
Aide: Iraqi government rejects Sunni pact demands
AP
An aide to Iraq's prime minister says the government's Shiite bloc has rejected two conditions set by mostly Sunni lawmakers for their support of a security pact with the United States. The dispute is delaying a vote on the pact, which is now scheduled for Thursday. The deal would allow U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for three more years. Sami al-Askari, an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, says the lawmakers have demanded the repeal of a law designed to weed out senior members of Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath Party from government agencies...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49119
THIS IS GAZA ~~ A REPORT BY AMIRA HASS
Desertpeace
If it`s not the power getting cut, leaving entire neighborhoods in darkness, then it`s the water not reaching the top floors or the cooking gas running out. If you have an electric generator, some small part of it is bound to be broken and unfixable, because even before the hermetic three-week siege, Israel prohibited bringing in any spare parts for cars, machines and household electric appliances. And if you somehow manage to find the money for a generator that was smuggled through the tunnels (its price has doubled or tripled since last month), it`s at the expense of buying a heater (not electric, of course), English lessons, clothes for the children and visits to the doctor. This is Gaza in November 2008...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49118
www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.
uruknetgif
Obliterating Iraq
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Blog
Pakistan Daily published a list of Iraqi academics assassinated in Iraq during the US-led occupation. This is a particularly meaningful aspect of the Iraq genocide, the extermination of its intellectual classes. It wasn't enough to invade and occupy what was once the most advanced country in the Middle East and destroy its economy. Iraq had to be obliterated, its history re-written and its future denied. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative Roger Wright said in the October 2004 report: "Iraq used to have one of the finest school systems in the Middle East." Who remembers now that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was awarded the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) prize for eradicating illiteracy in 1982!....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49121
From fast death to slow death: Palestinian refugees from Iraq trapped on the Syria-Iraq border
ReliefWeb
Having fled killings, kidnappings, torture, and death threats, about 3,000 Palestinian refugees from Iraq are currently stranded in three camps along the border between Syria and Iraq. Denied asylum and refugee rights, they are extremely vulnerable in poorly situated camps. The Syrian government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are both open to third country resettlement on humanitarian grounds and on the basis of individual choice. Therefore, the challenge now lies with both traditional and emerging resettlement countries, in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to accept these Palestinian refugees from Iraq for resettlement, allowing the inhospitable camps to be closed...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49124
Muthana Harith al-Dari: "The Resistance will continue till the exit of the occupiers"
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
The responsible for Information Department of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) Dr Muthana Harith al-Dari clarified that the resistance in Iraq will continue until the exit of the occupiers from the land of Mesopotamia. Dr. Muthanna Hareth al Dari told in a news conference held in the Yemeni city of Hadeidah after attending the opening of Salih Mosque which the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) founded as a cultural and humanitarian project to resist and prevent the occupation through the written, audio-visual media. In addition to the efforts undertaken by AMSI, Muthanna al Dari informed the participant about the relief campaigns of AMSI to the victims of the sons of Iraq both living in their country or in exile...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49131
Gaza's death throes, and no one's listening
Sonja Karkar
What kind of government in the 21st century can deny another people basic human rights -- that is, the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity? What kind of government imposes draconian sanctions on another people for democratically electing a government not to its liking? What kind of government seals a heavily populated territory of 1.5 million people so that no person can enter or leave without permission, fishermen cannot fish in their own waters, and world food aid cannot be delivered to the starving population? What kind of government shuts off fuel, water and electricity and then rains down on the people, bombs and artillery fire?....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49130
A whoring, lying state
Khaled Amayreh
Israel routinely claims to be "civilized, and democratic." However, in truth, Israel is neither civilized nor democratic. In fact, one can safely claim that Israel is actually a criminal, barbarian and utterly uncivilized state that lives and thrives on murder, theft and mendacity. The following observations are an irrefutable proof showing that Israel differs very little from criminal states throughout history, past and present. Take, for example, the ongoing daily rampages by Jewish thugs, otherwise known as settlers, against Palestinians and their property in the southern West Bank town of Hebron...
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Iran in about-turn towards security agreement
Najmeh Bozorgmehr
The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has been unusually silent about the Iraqi government’s approval of the security pact with the US. But that may be because it has been loathe to publicise its dramatic change of attitude towards the agreement. People close to the government in Tehran said that after initially opposing it – and asking its Shia allies in the Baghdad government to resist it – Tehran has been relatively satisfied with the last-minute changes demanded, and won, by Iraq. Analysts see an additional reason for the about-turn: the election of Barack Obama as US president...
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Thank You America, For Killing Us
RickB
I assume that was a rejected headline for this AP report, instead they went with- Iraqi parliament OKs US troops for 3 more years- yeah they okayed it, real casual like- sure fellas you stick around for a while longer, it’s cool. But, it gets worse- (...) i>The war has claimed more than 4,200 American lives and killed a far greater, untold number of Iraqis, consumed huge reserves of money and resources and eroded the global stature of the United States, even among its closest allies.... But really 'untold number of Iraqis' well yes it is untold by you because you refuse to use the figures from peer reviewed scientific studies that in all other conflicts are accepted methodology, nor the survey results and extrapolation that tell us the untold truth it’s over a million dead. At this point pulling that kind of shit is basically Holocaust denial motherfucker...
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The Broken State
Nir Rosen
The situation in Afghanistan is not as bad as you've heard – its worse. Nir Rosen reports from Kabul and its surrounding provinces as the Taliban attempt to wrest control from Hamid Karzai's government. (...) As I saw on the road to Ghazni, the Taliban have succeeded in essentially cutting off Kabul from the rest of the country. The road southwest to Kandahar was lethal. "The Kabul to Ghazni road is gone," a British intelligence officer told me, "the Ghazni to Gardez road is exceedingly bad, the Wardak road is sh***, the Jalalabad road is sliding. The ambushes have become routine."...
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Kristallnacht in Hebron
Khaled Amayreh
Unconcerned about arrest by the police or prosecution by the Israeli justice system, fanatical Jewish settlers in the Palestinian town of Hebron (Al-Khalil) have been attacking Palestinians, damaging and ransacking their property, exactly like Nazi thugs did to Jewish-owned property in Germany 80 years ago.
The settlers, who claim to be acting in the name of true Judaism, espouse a messianic doctrine advocating violence and terror against non- Jews in Israel-Palestine for the purpose of creating a pure Jewish kingdom that would be ruled by Halacha, or Jewish religious law. The settlers, who represent the core of religious Zionism, believe that the ethnic cleansing of non-Jews in the Holy Land will eventually usher the messianic age and accelerate the appearance of the Jewish Messiah, or Redeemer, who would bring about redemption for Jews and rule the entire world from Jerusalem...
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Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 47/2008 (20 - 26 Nov. 2008)
PCHR - Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law escalated in the OPT during the reporting period (20 – 26 November 2008): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 7 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On 21 November 2008, 5 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were wounded when IOF troops opened fire at dozens of civilians who organized a peaceful demonstration in protest to attempts of settlers to re-establish their presence in the evacuated "Homesh" settlement, northwest of Nablus. On 26 November 2008, a Palestinian child was seriously wounded during clashes between dozens of Palestinian civilians and IOF at the entrance of Qalandya refugee camp, south of Ramallah. During the reporting period, a Palestinian civilian was wounded when IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall west of Ramallah....
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Mullahs Regional Hegemons, Code Pink in Iran
Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
This one's a good one! Found it on Anti-War, who got it from Middle East Times (Nov. 26, 2008). I love this because now I, and thousands more like me, don't have to spell it out for the western leftists anymore. The ayatollahs in Iran now boast about the fact that they have become a regional hegemon. Congratulations, and I couldn't have said it better! Now ... a note to the uninitiated ... you don't become a power, be it a regional one, by playing nice all the time. But, things like that seem to have lost their ability to cause outrage, or even concern these days, among those that should be most offended by it....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49125
Iraq parliament passes U.S. security pact
Ahmed Rasheed and Khalid al-Ansary, Reuters
Iraq's parliament on Thursday approved a landmark security pact with the United States that paves the way for U.S. forces to withdraw by the end of 2011, taking the country a big step closer to full sovereignty. The deal, which parliament linked after days of fractious negotiations to a series of promised political reforms and a public referendum next year, brings in sight an end to the U.S. military presence that began with the 2003 invasion...Lawmakers in Iraq's 275 seat parliament passed the deal with a majority of 149 out of 198 present, Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said...
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Israeli Crimes Under Observation of I.P.O
Kawther Salam
Ambassador Norma Giocochea Estenoz, the permanent representative of Cuba before the UN in Vienna, and Dr. Hans Koechler, President of the International Progress Organization, delivered the strongest speeches among other participants representing NGOs as well as international organizations and governments of various countries, among them many Arabs, during the special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Dr. Hans Koechler exposed the Israeli violations of the International treaties and UN resolutions which must be implemented under the observance of the International community...
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Gaza: A Human Tragedy under Siege
Hany Ramadan
The Gaza Strip has been living under an Israeli 16-month-old despicable siege, which is now reaching its most harshly shocking pinnacle. In addition to blocking the flow of food, medical supplies, and basic needs, Israel has recently barred the fuel supplies from reaching the impoverished strip. As a result, wide blackouts have reigned over the besieged city of about 1.6 million civilians. The majority of Gazans are now using candles to light up their homes and streets...
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Petition for Palestine Directed to the UN Secretary General
Kawther Salam
Today I went to the United Nations in Vienna, to take part in an event with occasion of the "Annual Observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People". The representatives of many countries and international organizations assisted to this event. Some of them gave speeches. The speech of the chairwoman of the session, the representative of Cuba, called my attention because her reference to international treaties and how she characterized the occupation. She stated clearly that the occupation is a crime against humanity. Other persons who called my attention were the representative of the "International Progress Organization", who presented an outline of the treaties and international laws violated by Israel...
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The US-Iraq Deal Doesn't Bode Well
Robert Dreyfuss
... The ruling alliance of Shiite religious parties and Kurds, who moved forward with the tacit support of Iran, steamrollered opposition to the accord, which passed with at least 144 votes out of 198 members of parliament in attendance. "A huge number of members left the country, supposedly on hajj [to Mecca] or for other reasons," said a leading Iraqi insider. But, although the vote is a victory for Maliki, it says little about the future stability and security of the Iraqi state. And it says even less about the future of US-Iraq relations...
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Gaza Christians without Sunday mass
Yusef Daher, Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre - JIC
On Sunday, November 23rd -The Israeli authorities banned the Papal Nuncio in Israel Archbishop Antonio Franco from entering Gaza and celebrating mass there, despite previous coordination with relevant parties at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and senior Israeli Army command since last Tuesday. Papal Nuncio Archbishop Franco arrived this morning to Erez Crossing at about 8:15 AM, accompanied by Latin Patriarchate priests Fr. Shawqi Baterian and Fr. Humam Khzouz as well with the Nunciature secretary, but was banned to enter to Gaza...
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The Attack in Mumbai II
Moon of Alabama
...From asking "Qui bono?" I arrive at the BJP's door. The attack, designed to created fight-outs with police, killed the man who was the biggest danger for the BJP as he was revealing Hindu terrorism and made the BJP campaign against Muslim terrorism seem bigot. The current attack, which will reliably be charged on some Muslim entity, will help the BJP win against the Congress party. But me arriving at that door does not mean that the BJP really is responsible here, I only find it possible to likely...
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The struggle is not over: Remembering Mohammed al-Kurd
Pam Rasmussen writing from the United States, Live from Palestine
The saying that a man's home is his castle goes back to the 1500s. Whether it is a mansion or a mud hut, a home to which you can retreat and be safe is a basic human need. But since 2001, Abu Kamel (Mohammed al-Kurd), his wife and five children were forced to fight every day for the right to stay in the East Jerusalem home his family had lived in for decades. And although the Jewish settlers who tried to push them out -- literally -- didn't put a gun to his head and pull the trigger, they might as well have. Two weeks after the al-Kurds were finally evicted from their home on 9 November, Abu Kamel suffered a fatal heart attack. Now, Um Kamel (his wife, Fawzieh) who I grew to admire and respect while I camped on their patio as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) must wage the fight alone...
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Aide: Iraqi government rejects Sunni pact demands
AP
An aide to Iraq's prime minister says the government's Shiite bloc has rejected two conditions set by mostly Sunni lawmakers for their support of a security pact with the United States. The dispute is delaying a vote on the pact, which is now scheduled for Thursday. The deal would allow U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for three more years. Sami al-Askari, an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, says the lawmakers have demanded the repeal of a law designed to weed out senior members of Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath Party from government agencies...
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THIS IS GAZA ~~ A REPORT BY AMIRA HASS
Desertpeace
If it`s not the power getting cut, leaving entire neighborhoods in darkness, then it`s the water not reaching the top floors or the cooking gas running out. If you have an electric generator, some small part of it is bound to be broken and unfixable, because even before the hermetic three-week siege, Israel prohibited bringing in any spare parts for cars, machines and household electric appliances. And if you somehow manage to find the money for a generator that was smuggled through the tunnels (its price has doubled or tripled since last month), it`s at the expense of buying a heater (not electric, of course), English lessons, clothes for the children and visits to the doctor. This is Gaza in November 2008...
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www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.
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Friday, November 28, 2008
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 28, 2008 ~
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 28, 2008 ~
Weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory 20-26 Nov 2008
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JBRN-7LSFAN?OpenDocument
PCHR Weekly Report: 7 Palestinians injured, 32 abducted by Israeli forces; 2 dead due to occupation
In its weekly summary of Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of November 20-26, 2008, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights has reported a number of human rights violations. An elderly Palestinian man died of a heart attack when Israeli forces forced him from his home. A patient in Gaza died after being denied exit from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, because he refused to act as an informant for the Israeli military.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57835
Exceptions in the prosecution of Israeli occupation soldiers. Prosecution of IDF soldiers during and after the Second Intifada, 2000-2007 Full text.
http://www.yesh-din.org/sys/images/File/Exceptions%5BEng%5D%5B1%5D.pdf
Israeli troops wound three in Gaza: medics
Three Palestinians were wounded when Israeli troops backed by tanks mounted an incursion into the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, shelling suspected militants, medics and witnesses said. "The three wounded were evacuated," said Muawiya Hassanein, who heads the emergency services in Gaza.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h9vW7rs5kfD8MHonde1qzfa2T5ZA
Four Palestinians injured at Ni'lin anti-wall demonstration
Four Palestinians were reportedly shot by Israeli forces at an anti-wall march in the West Bank village of Ni'lin, near Ramallah, on Friday. After Friday prayers, demonstrators gathered near lands threatened with confiscation, shouting slogans and demanding help for 120 families whose lands are to be confiscated. As protesters neared the construction site, Israeli forces opened fire "from close range" with tear-gas canisters "fired directly at protesters," as well as rubber-coated bullets, according to a statement received by Ma'an. Four injured Palestinians were taken to a hospital in Ramallah, the statement added. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33577
International, local and Israeli activists tear-gassed in Bil'in demonstration
Israeli soldiers fired teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets and sound bombs at a group of Bil'in residents, Israeli and international activists on Friday as the group marched to the site of the separation wall in an anti-occupation protest. The protesters raised Palestinian flags and banners calling for the guarantee of Palestinian's right to Jerusalem, the right of return, Palestinian controlled borders, access to water, the release of all Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons and the removal of the separation wall and Israeli settlements from the West Bank and Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33579
Two Palestinians injured by Israeli soldiers during Jayous anti-wall demonstration
Two Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets shot by Israeli soldiers as they participated in the peaceful demonstration against the wall in the village of Jayous west of Qalqiliya on Friday. Those injured were identified as Muhamad Abdel Walid Salim and Muhamad Abdel Rahman Salim. Villagers demonstrated with activists and toured the streets of the village calling for the end of settlement construction. When the group reached what has been designated a military area Israeli troops prevented their progress and clashes ignited. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33575
Israel attempts to avoid court challenge by returning stolen Palestinian fishing boats
Three Palestinian trawling vessels confiscated by Israeli naval forces were returned today almost immediately following yesterdays announcement that three Human Rights Groups had filed an appeal against Ehud Barak and the commander of the Israeli navy. The vessels were stolen from Gazan waters on 18th November while fishing in Palestinian territorial water.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/27/israel-attempts-to-avoid-court-challenge-by-returning-
stolen-palestinian-fishing-boats/
Palestinian Journalists Bloc condemns PA arrest of reporter
The Palestinian Journalists Bloc condemned on Thursday the arrest by Palestinian security forces of Nae'l Nakhlah, a reporter for the Al-Quds newspaper in the West Bank town of Al-Bireh. The organization noted an "increase of the number of journalists arrested in the West Bank to nine in addition to three who were arrested in the Gaza Strip."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33562
Palestinian Water Authority pressed Israel to ship water purification chemicals to Gaza
The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) said on Thursday that it succeeded in pressuring Israel to allow chemicals used to purify water into the blockaded Gaza Strip. The deputy director of the PWA, Rebhi Ash-Sheikh, said Israel had blocked delivery of 100 cubic meters of Chlorine and dozens of tons of acids used to purify water for over a year. He said the authority was concerned that shortages of these chemicals would threaten the health of Gaza residents.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33561
Al-Khudari predicts Gaza power plant to shut down before midnight; fuel supplies exhausted
Gaza's power plant will shut-down again Friday night after the area exhausts the limited fuel transferred in on Wednesday. The black-out prediction was announced by Head of the popular committee against the siege in Gaza, Jamal Al-Khudari at a press conference in Gaza City.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33580
Israeli administration continues to ban imports to Gaza Strip
ImageGaza /PNN – The occupying Israeli authority claims it they had intended to lift the ban on 45 trucks of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Thursday, but reneged because of the launch of two projectiles at Sderot. However, no armed resistance faction claimed responsibility for any such launching and no damages were reported. The truckloads were said to include chlorine to disinfect the water supply which is contaminated. The fuel necessary to run the power plant, which in turn feeds the water and sewage treatment facilities, is also banned.
http://english.pnn.ps/index. php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4088&Itemid=28
Israel resumes starvation of Gaza after rocket attack
Israel on Thursday again prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished Gaza Strip in what the Jewish state said was a response to a rocket attack by Palestinian militants. The rocket hit an empty field in southern Israel and caused no injuries or damage, police said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98074
Another Arab ship from Qatar to sail from Cyprus to Gaza in the coming days
Palestinian legislator, head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, Jamal El Khodary, stated on Thursday that a new Arab ship from Qatar will sail from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip in the coming days.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57830
Qatari relief vessel to sail to Gaza soon; Libyan vessel to arrive Gaza Monday
The chairman of the Popular Committee against the Siege on Gaza MP Jamal Al-Khudari has declared the start of the "vessel peaceful uprising" to break the unjust siege on Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Gaza's death throes, and no one's listening
Palestinians wait to fix their old portable "primus" stoves which burn diesel fuel at a shop in the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, 25 November 2008. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)
What kind of government in the 21st century can deny another people basic human rights--that is, the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity? What kind of government imposes draconian sanctions on another people for democratically electing a government not to its liking? What kind of government seals a heavily populated territory of 1.5 million people so that no person can enter or leave without permission, fishermen cannot fish in their own waters, and world food aid cannot be delivered to the starving population?
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9997.shtml
Gaza: Salvation in a News Broadcast
When Gaza's electricity is in working order, most Palestinians in the impoverished and overcrowded Strip huddle around their television screens. It's neither "American Idol" nor "Dancing with the Stars" that brings them together. It's the news.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14427
Gaza: A Human Tragedy under Siege
The Gaza Strip has been living under an Israeli 16-month-old despicable siege, which is now reaching its most harshly shocking pinnacle. In addition to blocking the flow of food, medical supplies, and basic needs, Israel has recently barred the fuel supplies from reaching the impoverished strip.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14426
Hamas rips Arab League for backing Abbas
The Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza rejected Thursday a call by Arab states for Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas to stay in office until unity has been restored, insisting this is a decision for Palestinian voters. "Legitimacy does not flow from any outside party but comes from the ballot box in accordance with the law.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98050
Hamas to Arab States: Keep Out of Row over Abbas
The Hamas movement rejected on Thursday a call by Arab states for Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas to stay in office until unity has been restored, insisting this is a decision for Palestinian voters. "Legitimacy does not flow from any outside party but comes from the ballot box in accordance with the law and with the constitution," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=65441&language=en
Abbas says Israeli should seize Arab world's rare peace offer
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The Palestinian president says Israel should seize the Arab world's peace initiative as a rare opportunity. The 2002 plan offers Israel full Arab recognition if it withdraws from all the lands it captured in the 1967 Mideast War, including east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hDgGmW_wF8J-WLBChV1uBrj87-Hg
Israeli court rebukes state over illegal outposts
The Christian Science Monitor-An Israeli government effort to make good on a five-year-old commitment to the US and Palestinians to rein in settlement expansion in the West Bank is coming under legal fire at home.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081128/wl_csm/ooutposts
Gaza dispute may cancel pilgrimage procedures
Egypt gave permission Thursday for Palestinians to exit the Gaza Strip into Egypt to perform the annual pilgrimage in Mecca but it was unclear whether they would be able to because of registration disputes between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions. The Palestinian embassy in Cairo said it was informed by the General Egyptian Intelligence (GEI) of the government's plans to open the Rafah crossing to allow pilgrims to enter Egypt, proceed to Jordan and finally enter Saudi Arabia.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#drafts/11de173748acf7f7
Egypt to reopen Rafah for Palestinian pilgrims
Egypt will reopen the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip for three days from Saturday to allow Palestinians to leave the blockaded territory for the Muslim hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. "Egypt has announced the reopening of the Rafah border for three days from Saturday... to allow the passage of some 3,000 Palestinian pilgrims who hold visas for Saudi Arabia," the official said on Friday.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/28/60994.html
Death of Annapolis Defines Bush Failure
The imminent departure of America's leader from the White House, signals the end of eight disastrous years under the Bush administration. As biographers and others prepare to document a comprehensive list of the failures of George W Bush, they certainly will not be able to ignore his Middle East policies.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14425
A new role for Mohamad Dahlan
"...a new role for Mohammad Dahlan, or his rehabilitation so that he enters the front lines of Fatah, after his exit from Gaza. Dahlan has fervent supporters, just as he has equally ardent opponents and rivals. There are Arab and non-Arab states that support him. He is bold and intelligent and personally I do not rule out Abbas getting angry one day and resigning, leaving a vacuum...."
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-role-for-mohamad-dahlan.html
Lebanon to establish ties with 'Palestine'
Lebanon has decided for the first time to establish diplomatic relations with the "state of Palestine," and has approved the opening of an embassy in Beirut. "The cabinet has approved the establishment of diplomatic relations with the state of Palestine," Information Minister Tarek Mitri said following a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i40Qp3j0K_U0EIYXi_ f62M86CbKg
Norwegian ex-premier counters anti-Semitism accusations, slams Israel
Ex-Norwegian prime minister Kåre Willoch spoke out Thursday against Israel and a group of Israeli scholars who earlier this week held a symposium in Jerusalem devoted to accusing the Scandinavian countries of racism, anti-Semitism and Israel-hatred. "It's a traditional deflection tactic aimed at diverting attention from the real problem, which is Israel's well-documented and incontestable abuse of Palestinians," Willoch, who presided as Norway's prime minister in the 1980s, told a Norwegian daily. Willoch, a long-time critic of Israel, was reacting to accusations leveled at an event hosted on Tuesday by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which, as reported by Haaretz, is described by the organizers as "probably Israel's first comprehensive discussion into Scandinavia's approach to the Jewish people and state."
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041724.html
Trapped in Gaza with a Fulbright scholarship
University students in the Gaza Strip who want to study abroad have been facing severe restrictions since Israel imposed a blockade on the territory two years ago. Israel took the measure after the militant Hamas movement won elections in Gaza and took over control of the territory. Listen to the storyEvery year, one thousand or so Gazan students are accepted by foreign universities. But since the blockade was imposed, fewer than half of them have been able to go study abroad. One of them is Zohair Abu Shahan. This is his story.
http://www.radionetherlands. nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/081129-tswi-student-Gaza
For Gazans, one abundant resource: ingenuity
Coping with lengthy power cuts has become one of the biggest challenges for 1.4 million Gaza residents as Israel's tight blockade of the territory enters its fourth week. The closure, imposed Nov. 5 to force Gaza's Hamas rulers to halt rocket fire on Israeli border communities, comes after 19 months of sharply restricted access to the territory. The isolation has taken its toll, causing rolling blackouts and shortages of fuel and cooking gas.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzBAjH9S_ 7l7BdaawqwoB8cwqFtwD94NTTDO1
Olive harvest suffers under the blockade
Oxfam's Mohammed Ali Abu Najela reports on the impact of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip on the territory's olive oil industry.
The agricultural sector in Gaza has been severely affected by the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000, 112,000 olive trees have been destroyed in the Gaza Strip by the conflict and Israeli military incursions. Also, one third of agricultural land-thousands of dunums (1 dunum=.25 acre) along the border with Israel-has been inaccessible to Palestinian farmers since Israeli settlements were dismantled in 2005. Israel then carved out a security zone that included valuable Gazan farming land. Farmers have been killed and injured trying to access and cultivate these lands.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7LTN8E?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Gaza is Having it, its Way
In apparent shift in strategy, the Israeli government today issued two permits for new franchises in the Gaza Strip. Some are questioning whether this indicates the end of Israel's crushing embargo, or is just another generous humanitarian move by Israel. In response to greater international calls for more aid and assistance to Gazans, many of whom suffer from mal nutrition, Israel granted two popular food chains, Krispy Kreme doughnuts (KKD) and Burger King (BKC), permission to open franchises in the Gaza Strip. This move was warmly received by the teenagers, prospective Big and Tall shop owners, cardiologists and dermatologists of Gaza. On the same day, the Israelis denied three trucks of fresh produce at the Rafah crossing. An Israeli statement linked the two as acts of solidarity with Gaza's children.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/11/gaza-is-having-it-its-way.html
Zionism in Leeds University Campus
Leeds University Union to vote on a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus. For immediate release: Leeds University Union agreed last week, by a vote of 12 to 11, to send a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus. The motion, shrouded in the language of combating anti-Semitism, is a reversal of a motion passed 2 years ago which gave Palestinian activists at Leeds University the rights enjoyed by their counterparts throughout the country. If passed, organisations which have an anti-Zionist platform, such as the Socialist Workers Party and the Palestine Solidarity Group will be prevented from receiving funding from the union and prevented from holding many of their events.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/11/28/zionism-in-leeds-university-campus/
Cartoon: Gaza Ghetto by Carlos Latuff
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ ZxKAf8oOwtI/SS7SQuDHLJI/AAAAAAAARNA/IwfD-JHkB1s/s1600-h/carlos.jpg
Thursday: 8 Iraqis Killed; 43 Wounded
Excerpt: Updated at 6:55 p.m. EST, Nov. 27, 2008 Parliament today approved a contentious U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that will allow U.S. troops to stay in the country for three more years. Meanwhile, at least eight Iraqis were killed and 43 more were wounded in the latest violence. Also, the European Union has promised to take-in 10,000 Iraqis. No Coaltion deaths were reported, but a U.S. soldier who deserted his unit has applied for asylum in Germany. He had served in Iraq but refused to return, calling the war illegal.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13825
Suicide bomber kills 12 in Iraqi Shi'ite mosque
A suicide bomber wearing an explosives-packed vest killed 12 people and wounded 17 others inside a Shi'ite mosque south of Baghdad at prayer time on Friday, police said. The U.S. military said initial reports indicated a suicide bomber killed seven worshippers and wounded 30. The attack took place a day after Iraq's parliament passed a security pact with Washington that allows U.S. troops to remain for another three years and puts them under the control of the Baghdad government from 2009.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LS523567.htm
Iraqi Parliament approves 'historic' security pact with US
Iraq's Parliament on Thursday approved a landmark military pact that will see all US troops withdraw by the end of 2011, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and plunged the country into chaos. After 11 months of negotiations with Washington and a flurry of domestic political horse-trading leading up to the vote.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98073
US hails approval of Iraq accord, but referendum looms
AFP-The United States on Thursday hailed the Iraqi parliament's approval of a landmark accord for US troops to leave the country in three years, but a referendum on the deal next year could complicate withdrawal plans for the next US president.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081127/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary
With Iraqi parliament approving pact, Maliki's stature grows
BAGHDAD _ In a country where agreements are hard to reach, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built a broad political coalition to muscle through a divisive U.S.-Iraq security pact that could set his place in his nation's history as the man who ended the American occupation.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/56610.html
We respect those who opposed the pact – PM
BAGHDAD /Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday said that he respects those who opposed the Iraqi-U.S. security pact, passed earlier today by Iraq's Parliament, noting that the pact is a step on the way to giving sovereignty back to Iraq. "We respect those who opposed the pact on a [...]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103815
Iraq: from SOFA to resistance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwseJPac-oA
Sofa so disastrous
The status of forces agreement has been hailed as the end of the neocon dream in Iraq. If only that were true.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/28/iraq-middleeast
Iraq: Cleric al-Sadr calls for peaceful protests
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called for peaceful protests after the passage of a security pact that will let U.S. forces stay in Iraq through 2011. The cleric's spokesman says al-Sadr also wants his followers to close his offices and affiliated institutions for three days "to show the tragedy that has befallen us."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/28/news/ML-Iraq-Al-Sadr.php
Sadr orders to raise black flags in mourning for signing agreement
NAJAF /Aswat al-Iraq: Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday ordered his followers to raise black flags of mourning and to close his offices for three days throughout Iraq because of approving the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement, two Sadrist officials said. Sheikh Muhanad al-Gharawi said at a press conference, attended by Lewaa Smiesim, "Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr [...]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103822
Security agreement puts 16,000 Iraqi detainees at risk of torture
Thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces are at risk of torture or even execution, following the ratification of a security agreement between the US and Iraqi governments. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which will take effect on 31 December, around 16,000 prisoners held by the US will be transferred to Iraqi custody. Those at particular risk include former Ba'ath party officials or those who held posts under Saddam Hussain's government.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/security-agreement-puts-16000-iraqi-detainees
-risk-torture-20081128
EU countries to accept 10,000 Iraqi refugees
In Brussels, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble said European Union countries agreed to accept 10,000 Iraqi refugees of whom Berlin was ready to accept 2,500. On the sidelines of European Union Interior Ministers meeting, the German Minister said no conditions will be imposed on European countries in this concern. "This has to be done on a voluntary basis and in light of the reception capacities of member states," he said. The decision has been made by EU interior ministers on Thursday and includes Iraqis inside the Union's countries.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-25056-EU-countries-to-accept-10%2C000-Iraqi-refugees.html
Winter Soldier on the Hill: War Vets Testify Before Congress
War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan came to Capitol Hill earlier this year to testify before Congress and give an eyewitness account about the horrors of war. Like the Winter Soldier hearings in March, when more than 200 service members gathered for four days in Silver Spring, Maryland to give their eyewitness accounts of the injustices occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, "Winter Soldier on the Hill" was designed to drive home the human cost of the war and occupation—this time, to the very people in charge of doing something about it. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/28/winter_soldier_on_ the_hill_war
US Jews urge Obama to move embassy to Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (AFP) — A group of American Jews urged president-elect Barack Obama on Thursday to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the international community does not recognise as the capital of the Jewish state.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i4jGf3zi7RLEmJJM9b2XyeI1kQxA
--
www.TheHeadlines.org
Weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory 20-26 Nov 2008
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JBRN-7LSFAN?OpenDocument
PCHR Weekly Report: 7 Palestinians injured, 32 abducted by Israeli forces; 2 dead due to occupation
In its weekly summary of Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the week of November 20-26, 2008, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights has reported a number of human rights violations. An elderly Palestinian man died of a heart attack when Israeli forces forced him from his home. A patient in Gaza died after being denied exit from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, because he refused to act as an informant for the Israeli military.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57835
Exceptions in the prosecution of Israeli occupation soldiers. Prosecution of IDF soldiers during and after the Second Intifada, 2000-2007 Full text.
http://www.yesh-din.org/sys/images/File/Exceptions%5BEng%5D%5B1%5D.pdf
Israeli troops wound three in Gaza: medics
Three Palestinians were wounded when Israeli troops backed by tanks mounted an incursion into the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, shelling suspected militants, medics and witnesses said. "The three wounded were evacuated," said Muawiya Hassanein, who heads the emergency services in Gaza.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h9vW7rs5kfD8MHonde1qzfa2T5ZA
Four Palestinians injured at Ni'lin anti-wall demonstration
Four Palestinians were reportedly shot by Israeli forces at an anti-wall march in the West Bank village of Ni'lin, near Ramallah, on Friday. After Friday prayers, demonstrators gathered near lands threatened with confiscation, shouting slogans and demanding help for 120 families whose lands are to be confiscated. As protesters neared the construction site, Israeli forces opened fire "from close range" with tear-gas canisters "fired directly at protesters," as well as rubber-coated bullets, according to a statement received by Ma'an. Four injured Palestinians were taken to a hospital in Ramallah, the statement added. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33577
International, local and Israeli activists tear-gassed in Bil'in demonstration
Israeli soldiers fired teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets and sound bombs at a group of Bil'in residents, Israeli and international activists on Friday as the group marched to the site of the separation wall in an anti-occupation protest. The protesters raised Palestinian flags and banners calling for the guarantee of Palestinian's right to Jerusalem, the right of return, Palestinian controlled borders, access to water, the release of all Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons and the removal of the separation wall and Israeli settlements from the West Bank and Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33579
Two Palestinians injured by Israeli soldiers during Jayous anti-wall demonstration
Two Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets shot by Israeli soldiers as they participated in the peaceful demonstration against the wall in the village of Jayous west of Qalqiliya on Friday. Those injured were identified as Muhamad Abdel Walid Salim and Muhamad Abdel Rahman Salim. Villagers demonstrated with activists and toured the streets of the village calling for the end of settlement construction. When the group reached what has been designated a military area Israeli troops prevented their progress and clashes ignited. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33575
Israel attempts to avoid court challenge by returning stolen Palestinian fishing boats
Three Palestinian trawling vessels confiscated by Israeli naval forces were returned today almost immediately following yesterdays announcement that three Human Rights Groups had filed an appeal against Ehud Barak and the commander of the Israeli navy. The vessels were stolen from Gazan waters on 18th November while fishing in Palestinian territorial water.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/27/israel-attempts-to-avoid-court-challenge-by-returning-
stolen-palestinian-fishing-boats/
Palestinian Journalists Bloc condemns PA arrest of reporter
The Palestinian Journalists Bloc condemned on Thursday the arrest by Palestinian security forces of Nae'l Nakhlah, a reporter for the Al-Quds newspaper in the West Bank town of Al-Bireh. The organization noted an "increase of the number of journalists arrested in the West Bank to nine in addition to three who were arrested in the Gaza Strip."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33562
Palestinian Water Authority pressed Israel to ship water purification chemicals to Gaza
The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) said on Thursday that it succeeded in pressuring Israel to allow chemicals used to purify water into the blockaded Gaza Strip. The deputy director of the PWA, Rebhi Ash-Sheikh, said Israel had blocked delivery of 100 cubic meters of Chlorine and dozens of tons of acids used to purify water for over a year. He said the authority was concerned that shortages of these chemicals would threaten the health of Gaza residents.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33561
Al-Khudari predicts Gaza power plant to shut down before midnight; fuel supplies exhausted
Gaza's power plant will shut-down again Friday night after the area exhausts the limited fuel transferred in on Wednesday. The black-out prediction was announced by Head of the popular committee against the siege in Gaza, Jamal Al-Khudari at a press conference in Gaza City.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33580
Israeli administration continues to ban imports to Gaza Strip
ImageGaza /PNN – The occupying Israeli authority claims it they had intended to lift the ban on 45 trucks of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Thursday, but reneged because of the launch of two projectiles at Sderot. However, no armed resistance faction claimed responsibility for any such launching and no damages were reported. The truckloads were said to include chlorine to disinfect the water supply which is contaminated. The fuel necessary to run the power plant, which in turn feeds the water and sewage treatment facilities, is also banned.
http://english.pnn.ps/index. php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4088&Itemid=28
Israel resumes starvation of Gaza after rocket attack
Israel on Thursday again prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished Gaza Strip in what the Jewish state said was a response to a rocket attack by Palestinian militants. The rocket hit an empty field in southern Israel and caused no injuries or damage, police said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98074
Another Arab ship from Qatar to sail from Cyprus to Gaza in the coming days
Palestinian legislator, head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, Jamal El Khodary, stated on Thursday that a new Arab ship from Qatar will sail from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip in the coming days.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57830
Qatari relief vessel to sail to Gaza soon; Libyan vessel to arrive Gaza Monday
The chairman of the Popular Committee against the Siege on Gaza MP Jamal Al-Khudari has declared the start of the "vessel peaceful uprising" to break the unjust siege on Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Gaza's death throes, and no one's listening
Palestinians wait to fix their old portable "primus" stoves which burn diesel fuel at a shop in the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, 25 November 2008. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)
What kind of government in the 21st century can deny another people basic human rights--that is, the right to food, water, shelter, security and dignity? What kind of government imposes draconian sanctions on another people for democratically electing a government not to its liking? What kind of government seals a heavily populated territory of 1.5 million people so that no person can enter or leave without permission, fishermen cannot fish in their own waters, and world food aid cannot be delivered to the starving population?
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9997.shtml
Gaza: Salvation in a News Broadcast
When Gaza's electricity is in working order, most Palestinians in the impoverished and overcrowded Strip huddle around their television screens. It's neither "American Idol" nor "Dancing with the Stars" that brings them together. It's the news.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14427
Gaza: A Human Tragedy under Siege
The Gaza Strip has been living under an Israeli 16-month-old despicable siege, which is now reaching its most harshly shocking pinnacle. In addition to blocking the flow of food, medical supplies, and basic needs, Israel has recently barred the fuel supplies from reaching the impoverished strip.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14426
Hamas rips Arab League for backing Abbas
The Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza rejected Thursday a call by Arab states for Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas to stay in office until unity has been restored, insisting this is a decision for Palestinian voters. "Legitimacy does not flow from any outside party but comes from the ballot box in accordance with the law.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98050
Hamas to Arab States: Keep Out of Row over Abbas
The Hamas movement rejected on Thursday a call by Arab states for Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas to stay in office until unity has been restored, insisting this is a decision for Palestinian voters. "Legitimacy does not flow from any outside party but comes from the ballot box in accordance with the law and with the constitution," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=65441&language=en
Abbas says Israeli should seize Arab world's rare peace offer
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The Palestinian president says Israel should seize the Arab world's peace initiative as a rare opportunity. The 2002 plan offers Israel full Arab recognition if it withdraws from all the lands it captured in the 1967 Mideast War, including east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hDgGmW_wF8J-WLBChV1uBrj87-Hg
Israeli court rebukes state over illegal outposts
The Christian Science Monitor-An Israeli government effort to make good on a five-year-old commitment to the US and Palestinians to rein in settlement expansion in the West Bank is coming under legal fire at home.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081128/wl_csm/ooutposts
Gaza dispute may cancel pilgrimage procedures
Egypt gave permission Thursday for Palestinians to exit the Gaza Strip into Egypt to perform the annual pilgrimage in Mecca but it was unclear whether they would be able to because of registration disputes between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions. The Palestinian embassy in Cairo said it was informed by the General Egyptian Intelligence (GEI) of the government's plans to open the Rafah crossing to allow pilgrims to enter Egypt, proceed to Jordan and finally enter Saudi Arabia.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#drafts/11de173748acf7f7
Egypt to reopen Rafah for Palestinian pilgrims
Egypt will reopen the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip for three days from Saturday to allow Palestinians to leave the blockaded territory for the Muslim hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. "Egypt has announced the reopening of the Rafah border for three days from Saturday... to allow the passage of some 3,000 Palestinian pilgrims who hold visas for Saudi Arabia," the official said on Friday.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/28/60994.html
Death of Annapolis Defines Bush Failure
The imminent departure of America's leader from the White House, signals the end of eight disastrous years under the Bush administration. As biographers and others prepare to document a comprehensive list of the failures of George W Bush, they certainly will not be able to ignore his Middle East policies.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14425
A new role for Mohamad Dahlan
"...a new role for Mohammad Dahlan, or his rehabilitation so that he enters the front lines of Fatah, after his exit from Gaza. Dahlan has fervent supporters, just as he has equally ardent opponents and rivals. There are Arab and non-Arab states that support him. He is bold and intelligent and personally I do not rule out Abbas getting angry one day and resigning, leaving a vacuum...."
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-role-for-mohamad-dahlan.html
Lebanon to establish ties with 'Palestine'
Lebanon has decided for the first time to establish diplomatic relations with the "state of Palestine," and has approved the opening of an embassy in Beirut. "The cabinet has approved the establishment of diplomatic relations with the state of Palestine," Information Minister Tarek Mitri said following a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i40Qp3j0K_U0EIYXi_ f62M86CbKg
Norwegian ex-premier counters anti-Semitism accusations, slams Israel
Ex-Norwegian prime minister Kåre Willoch spoke out Thursday against Israel and a group of Israeli scholars who earlier this week held a symposium in Jerusalem devoted to accusing the Scandinavian countries of racism, anti-Semitism and Israel-hatred. "It's a traditional deflection tactic aimed at diverting attention from the real problem, which is Israel's well-documented and incontestable abuse of Palestinians," Willoch, who presided as Norway's prime minister in the 1980s, told a Norwegian daily. Willoch, a long-time critic of Israel, was reacting to accusations leveled at an event hosted on Tuesday by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which, as reported by Haaretz, is described by the organizers as "probably Israel's first comprehensive discussion into Scandinavia's approach to the Jewish people and state."
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041724.html
Trapped in Gaza with a Fulbright scholarship
University students in the Gaza Strip who want to study abroad have been facing severe restrictions since Israel imposed a blockade on the territory two years ago. Israel took the measure after the militant Hamas movement won elections in Gaza and took over control of the territory. Listen to the storyEvery year, one thousand or so Gazan students are accepted by foreign universities. But since the blockade was imposed, fewer than half of them have been able to go study abroad. One of them is Zohair Abu Shahan. This is his story.
http://www.radionetherlands. nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/081129-tswi-student-Gaza
For Gazans, one abundant resource: ingenuity
Coping with lengthy power cuts has become one of the biggest challenges for 1.4 million Gaza residents as Israel's tight blockade of the territory enters its fourth week. The closure, imposed Nov. 5 to force Gaza's Hamas rulers to halt rocket fire on Israeli border communities, comes after 19 months of sharply restricted access to the territory. The isolation has taken its toll, causing rolling blackouts and shortages of fuel and cooking gas.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzBAjH9S_ 7l7BdaawqwoB8cwqFtwD94NTTDO1
Olive harvest suffers under the blockade
Oxfam's Mohammed Ali Abu Najela reports on the impact of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip on the territory's olive oil industry.
The agricultural sector in Gaza has been severely affected by the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000, 112,000 olive trees have been destroyed in the Gaza Strip by the conflict and Israeli military incursions. Also, one third of agricultural land-thousands of dunums (1 dunum=.25 acre) along the border with Israel-has been inaccessible to Palestinian farmers since Israeli settlements were dismantled in 2005. Israel then carved out a security zone that included valuable Gazan farming land. Farmers have been killed and injured trying to access and cultivate these lands.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7LTN8E?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
Gaza is Having it, its Way
In apparent shift in strategy, the Israeli government today issued two permits for new franchises in the Gaza Strip. Some are questioning whether this indicates the end of Israel's crushing embargo, or is just another generous humanitarian move by Israel. In response to greater international calls for more aid and assistance to Gazans, many of whom suffer from mal nutrition, Israel granted two popular food chains, Krispy Kreme doughnuts (KKD) and Burger King (BKC), permission to open franchises in the Gaza Strip. This move was warmly received by the teenagers, prospective Big and Tall shop owners, cardiologists and dermatologists of Gaza. On the same day, the Israelis denied three trucks of fresh produce at the Rafah crossing. An Israeli statement linked the two as acts of solidarity with Gaza's children.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/11/gaza-is-having-it-its-way.html
Zionism in Leeds University Campus
Leeds University Union to vote on a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus. For immediate release: Leeds University Union agreed last week, by a vote of 12 to 11, to send a motion to referendum which will label anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and silence pro-Palestinian groups on campus. The motion, shrouded in the language of combating anti-Semitism, is a reversal of a motion passed 2 years ago which gave Palestinian activists at Leeds University the rights enjoyed by their counterparts throughout the country. If passed, organisations which have an anti-Zionist platform, such as the Socialist Workers Party and the Palestine Solidarity Group will be prevented from receiving funding from the union and prevented from holding many of their events.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/11/28/zionism-in-leeds-university-campus/
Cartoon: Gaza Ghetto by Carlos Latuff
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ ZxKAf8oOwtI/SS7SQuDHLJI/AAAAAAAARNA/IwfD-JHkB1s/s1600-h/carlos.jpg
Thursday: 8 Iraqis Killed; 43 Wounded
Excerpt: Updated at 6:55 p.m. EST, Nov. 27, 2008 Parliament today approved a contentious U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that will allow U.S. troops to stay in the country for three more years. Meanwhile, at least eight Iraqis were killed and 43 more were wounded in the latest violence. Also, the European Union has promised to take-in 10,000 Iraqis. No Coaltion deaths were reported, but a U.S. soldier who deserted his unit has applied for asylum in Germany. He had served in Iraq but refused to return, calling the war illegal.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13825
Suicide bomber kills 12 in Iraqi Shi'ite mosque
A suicide bomber wearing an explosives-packed vest killed 12 people and wounded 17 others inside a Shi'ite mosque south of Baghdad at prayer time on Friday, police said. The U.S. military said initial reports indicated a suicide bomber killed seven worshippers and wounded 30. The attack took place a day after Iraq's parliament passed a security pact with Washington that allows U.S. troops to remain for another three years and puts them under the control of the Baghdad government from 2009.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LS523567.htm
Iraqi Parliament approves 'historic' security pact with US
Iraq's Parliament on Thursday approved a landmark military pact that will see all US troops withdraw by the end of 2011, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and plunged the country into chaos. After 11 months of negotiations with Washington and a flurry of domestic political horse-trading leading up to the vote.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=98073
US hails approval of Iraq accord, but referendum looms
AFP-The United States on Thursday hailed the Iraqi parliament's approval of a landmark accord for US troops to leave the country in three years, but a referendum on the deal next year could complicate withdrawal plans for the next US president.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081127/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary
With Iraqi parliament approving pact, Maliki's stature grows
BAGHDAD _ In a country where agreements are hard to reach, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built a broad political coalition to muscle through a divisive U.S.-Iraq security pact that could set his place in his nation's history as the man who ended the American occupation.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/56610.html
We respect those who opposed the pact – PM
BAGHDAD /Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday said that he respects those who opposed the Iraqi-U.S. security pact, passed earlier today by Iraq's Parliament, noting that the pact is a step on the way to giving sovereignty back to Iraq. "We respect those who opposed the pact on a [...]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103815
Iraq: from SOFA to resistance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwseJPac-oA
Sofa so disastrous
The status of forces agreement has been hailed as the end of the neocon dream in Iraq. If only that were true.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/28/iraq-middleeast
Iraq: Cleric al-Sadr calls for peaceful protests
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called for peaceful protests after the passage of a security pact that will let U.S. forces stay in Iraq through 2011. The cleric's spokesman says al-Sadr also wants his followers to close his offices and affiliated institutions for three days "to show the tragedy that has befallen us."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/28/news/ML-Iraq-Al-Sadr.php
Sadr orders to raise black flags in mourning for signing agreement
NAJAF /Aswat al-Iraq: Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday ordered his followers to raise black flags of mourning and to close his offices for three days throughout Iraq because of approving the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement, two Sadrist officials said. Sheikh Muhanad al-Gharawi said at a press conference, attended by Lewaa Smiesim, "Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr [...]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103822
Security agreement puts 16,000 Iraqi detainees at risk of torture
Thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces are at risk of torture or even execution, following the ratification of a security agreement between the US and Iraqi governments. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which will take effect on 31 December, around 16,000 prisoners held by the US will be transferred to Iraqi custody. Those at particular risk include former Ba'ath party officials or those who held posts under Saddam Hussain's government.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/security-agreement-puts-16000-iraqi-detainees
-risk-torture-20081128
EU countries to accept 10,000 Iraqi refugees
In Brussels, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble said European Union countries agreed to accept 10,000 Iraqi refugees of whom Berlin was ready to accept 2,500. On the sidelines of European Union Interior Ministers meeting, the German Minister said no conditions will be imposed on European countries in this concern. "This has to be done on a voluntary basis and in light of the reception capacities of member states," he said. The decision has been made by EU interior ministers on Thursday and includes Iraqis inside the Union's countries.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-25056-EU-countries-to-accept-10%2C000-Iraqi-refugees.html
Winter Soldier on the Hill: War Vets Testify Before Congress
War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan came to Capitol Hill earlier this year to testify before Congress and give an eyewitness account about the horrors of war. Like the Winter Soldier hearings in March, when more than 200 service members gathered for four days in Silver Spring, Maryland to give their eyewitness accounts of the injustices occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, "Winter Soldier on the Hill" was designed to drive home the human cost of the war and occupation—this time, to the very people in charge of doing something about it. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/28/winter_soldier_on_ the_hill_war
US Jews urge Obama to move embassy to Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (AFP) — A group of American Jews urged president-elect Barack Obama on Thursday to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the international community does not recognise as the capital of the Jewish state.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i4jGf3zi7RLEmJJM9b2XyeI1kQxA
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