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Palestinian expert says Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners is ‘routine’
Written by www.daily.pk
Sunday, 23 November 2008 21:16
It came as no surprise to Abdun-Nasser Farawna when the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot published a report about a "top secret" Israeli intelligence document authorizing the use of torture against Palestinian prisoners.
Farawna, a former prisoner and an expert in prisoners’ affairs, said torture "began in 1967 as a policy which later got legal coverage and judicial immunity. It aims at destroying Palestinian and Arab prisoners both physically and psychologically."
To Farawna, Israel’s use of torture is neither secret nor new.
Farawna said the legalization of torture in Israel dates back at least to the report of a government commission headed by Supreme Court President Moshe Landau in 1987. Landau was charged with examining government interrogation techniques. His committee came up with a two-part report. One half of the report was kept secret and contained a list of permissible interrogation tactics.
According to Farawna, the Landau document protected Israeli intelligence officers from prosecution for torturing Palestinian prisoners. The recommendations in the document were approved by the Israeli Knesset, and have been amended since.
The central conclusion of the report, that "the exertion of a moderate degree of physical pressure cannot be avoided," has not been changed.
Farwana explains that the newly revealed Israeli document allows interrogators to use non-traditional techniques of physical and psychological torture, including slapping, violent shaking, hunger, sleep deprivation and forcing prisoners to stand for long periods.
According to the document, officers can also exert psychological pressure by accusing the prisoner of collaboration in front of other prisoners, or revealing confidential information about him. Interrogators can also arrest family members, including women, to place further pressure, or they can threaten to demolish his family home or deport him.
Farwana asserted that Israeli interrogators are still torturing Palestinian prisoners "on a daily basis."
According to Farawna’s own research, 95% of Palestinians who have been imprisoned in Israel have been beaten; 89% were deprived of sleep for long times; 82% were forced to stand in difficult positions for long periods; 55% were subjected to extreme hot and cold temperatures; 50% had pressure applied to their testicles.
Furthermore, Farawna said that since 1967, 70 prisoners have died in Israeli custody as a result of torture.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Judge Orders Five Detainees Freed From Guantánamo
November 21, 2008
Judge Orders Five Detainees Freed From Guantánamo
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
In the first hearing on the government’s justification for holding detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, a federal judge ruled Thursday that five Algerian men were held unlawfully for nearly seven years and ordered their release.
The judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court in Washington, also ruled that a sixth Algerian man was being lawfully detained because he had provided support to the terrorist group Al Qaeda.
The case was an important test of the Bush administration’s detention policies, which critics have long argued swept up innocent men and low-level foot soldiers along with high-level and hardened terrorists.
The six men are among a group of Guantánamo inmates who won a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have constitutional rights and can seek release in federal court. The 5-4 decision said a 2006 law unconstitutionally stripped the prisoners of their right to contest their imprisonment in habeas corpus lawsuits.
The hearings for the Algerian men, in which all of the evidence was heard in proceedings that were closed to the public, were the first in which the Justice Department presented its full justification for holding specific detainees since the Supreme Court ruling in June.
Judge Leon, in a ruling from the bench, said that the information gathered on the men had been sufficient to hold them for intelligence purposes, but was not strong enough in court.
“To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court’s obligation,” he said. He directed that the five men be released “forthwith” and urged the government not to appeal.
Judge Leon, who was appointed by President Bush, had been expected to be sympathetic to the government. In 2005, he ruled that the men had no habeas corpus rights.
Lawyers said the decision was likely to be seen as a repudiation of the Bush administration’s effort to use the detention center at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a way to avoid scrutiny by American judges. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison.
“The decision by Judge Leon lays bare the scandalous basis on which Guantánamo has been based — slim evidence of dubious quality,” said Zachary Katznelson, legal director at Reprieve, a British legal group that represents many of the detainees. “This is a tough, no-nonsense judge.”
Because of the Bush administration’s claims that most of the evidence against the men was classified, Judge Leon ordered the entire case to be heard in a closed courtroom after brief opening statements on Nov. 5.
The government argued that the six Algerians, who were residents of Bosnia when they were first detained in 2001, were planning to go to Afghanistan to fight the United States and that one of them was a member of Al Qaeda.
The five men who were ordered freed on Thursday include Lakhdar Boumediene, for whom the landmark Supreme Court ruling in June was named. The one detainee Judge Leon found to be lawfully held, Bensayah Belkacem, has been described by intelligence agencies as a leading Al Qaeda operative in Bosnia.
It was not immediately clear whether the government would appeal, but some lawyers said they considered an appeal likely.
The case has become an example of the Bush administration’s pattern of changing strategy in its long legal war over Guantánamo as the courts have scrutinized the government’s justification for its detention policies in general and its reasons for holding individual detainees.
In 2002, President Bush made the government’s allegations against the men a showcase of his administration’s approach to dealing with terrorists. He said in his State of the Union address that the six men had been planning a bomb attack on the United States Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Last month, however, Justice Department lawyers said they were no longer relying on those accusations to justify the men’s detention.
The habeas corpus cases have moved slowly despite the Supreme Court decision that directed federal judges in Washington to act quickly after nearly seven years of detention for many of the 250 men still held in Guantánamo.
Detainees’ lawyers said Thursday’s ruling by Judge Leon would be a signal to other judges that they should be skeptical of the government’s efforts to delay hearings.
P. Sabin Willett, a lawyer for the Uighurs, said that Judge Leon’s decision “sends a powerful message to all the other judges to get these cases moving.”
J. Wells Dixon, a detainees’ lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the ruling made clear that Guantánamo Bay had failed. But, he said, “Justice comes too late for these five men.”
Earlier this week, the Justice Department filed legal motions seeking to stop more than 100 of the other Guantánamo habeas corpus cases from proceeding, a move that lawyers for detainees said was a government effort to avoid further court scrutiny.
The Justice Department lawyers argued in motions filed Tuesday that there were flaws in the ground rules of other judges for the Guantánamo cases that would require the government to reveal classified evidence.
Last month, another district court judge in Washington, Ricardo M. Urbina, ordered the release of 17 other detainees, all ethnic Uighurs from western China. The judge did not hold a hearing on the evidence in that case because the government conceded that the men were not enemy combatants.
The Justice Department won a stay of Judge Urbina’s release order and is appealing. Arguments are scheduled for Monday in the United States Courts of Appeals in Washington.
Bernie Becker contributed reporting from Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/us/21guantanamo.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&oref=slogin
Judge Orders Five Detainees Freed From Guantánamo
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
In the first hearing on the government’s justification for holding detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, a federal judge ruled Thursday that five Algerian men were held unlawfully for nearly seven years and ordered their release.
The judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court in Washington, also ruled that a sixth Algerian man was being lawfully detained because he had provided support to the terrorist group Al Qaeda.
The case was an important test of the Bush administration’s detention policies, which critics have long argued swept up innocent men and low-level foot soldiers along with high-level and hardened terrorists.
The six men are among a group of Guantánamo inmates who won a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have constitutional rights and can seek release in federal court. The 5-4 decision said a 2006 law unconstitutionally stripped the prisoners of their right to contest their imprisonment in habeas corpus lawsuits.
The hearings for the Algerian men, in which all of the evidence was heard in proceedings that were closed to the public, were the first in which the Justice Department presented its full justification for holding specific detainees since the Supreme Court ruling in June.
Judge Leon, in a ruling from the bench, said that the information gathered on the men had been sufficient to hold them for intelligence purposes, but was not strong enough in court.
“To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court’s obligation,” he said. He directed that the five men be released “forthwith” and urged the government not to appeal.
Judge Leon, who was appointed by President Bush, had been expected to be sympathetic to the government. In 2005, he ruled that the men had no habeas corpus rights.
Lawyers said the decision was likely to be seen as a repudiation of the Bush administration’s effort to use the detention center at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a way to avoid scrutiny by American judges. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison.
“The decision by Judge Leon lays bare the scandalous basis on which Guantánamo has been based — slim evidence of dubious quality,” said Zachary Katznelson, legal director at Reprieve, a British legal group that represents many of the detainees. “This is a tough, no-nonsense judge.”
Because of the Bush administration’s claims that most of the evidence against the men was classified, Judge Leon ordered the entire case to be heard in a closed courtroom after brief opening statements on Nov. 5.
The government argued that the six Algerians, who were residents of Bosnia when they were first detained in 2001, were planning to go to Afghanistan to fight the United States and that one of them was a member of Al Qaeda.
The five men who were ordered freed on Thursday include Lakhdar Boumediene, for whom the landmark Supreme Court ruling in June was named. The one detainee Judge Leon found to be lawfully held, Bensayah Belkacem, has been described by intelligence agencies as a leading Al Qaeda operative in Bosnia.
It was not immediately clear whether the government would appeal, but some lawyers said they considered an appeal likely.
The case has become an example of the Bush administration’s pattern of changing strategy in its long legal war over Guantánamo as the courts have scrutinized the government’s justification for its detention policies in general and its reasons for holding individual detainees.
In 2002, President Bush made the government’s allegations against the men a showcase of his administration’s approach to dealing with terrorists. He said in his State of the Union address that the six men had been planning a bomb attack on the United States Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Last month, however, Justice Department lawyers said they were no longer relying on those accusations to justify the men’s detention.
The habeas corpus cases have moved slowly despite the Supreme Court decision that directed federal judges in Washington to act quickly after nearly seven years of detention for many of the 250 men still held in Guantánamo.
Detainees’ lawyers said Thursday’s ruling by Judge Leon would be a signal to other judges that they should be skeptical of the government’s efforts to delay hearings.
P. Sabin Willett, a lawyer for the Uighurs, said that Judge Leon’s decision “sends a powerful message to all the other judges to get these cases moving.”
J. Wells Dixon, a detainees’ lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the ruling made clear that Guantánamo Bay had failed. But, he said, “Justice comes too late for these five men.”
Earlier this week, the Justice Department filed legal motions seeking to stop more than 100 of the other Guantánamo habeas corpus cases from proceeding, a move that lawyers for detainees said was a government effort to avoid further court scrutiny.
The Justice Department lawyers argued in motions filed Tuesday that there were flaws in the ground rules of other judges for the Guantánamo cases that would require the government to reveal classified evidence.
Last month, another district court judge in Washington, Ricardo M. Urbina, ordered the release of 17 other detainees, all ethnic Uighurs from western China. The judge did not hold a hearing on the evidence in that case because the government conceded that the men were not enemy combatants.
The Justice Department won a stay of Judge Urbina’s release order and is appealing. Arguments are scheduled for Monday in the United States Courts of Appeals in Washington.
Bernie Becker contributed reporting from Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/us/21guantanamo.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&oref=slogin
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 20, 2008 ~
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 20, 2008 ~
Israeli forces raid north Tulkarem, storm Palestinian home
Israeli forces raided the neighborhood of Qaffin in northern Tulkarem at dawn on Thursday, according to witnesses. Local sources reported that 15 military vehicles stormed the northern West Bank village, an operation conducted under "intensive shooting of bullets and sound bombs."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33366
Israeli forces seize two Tamoun residents
Israeli military forces detained two residents of the West Bank town of Tamoun early on Thursday morning, according to witnesses.
Local Palestinian sources told Ma'an that "Israeli troops invaded the town at dawn, broke into several homes and arrested Akram Bani A'udah and Ahmad Bsharat."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33378
Palestinian forces arrest 12 Hamas members in West Bank
Security forces loyalty to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrested 12 Hamas members in West Bank during a crackdown against the Islamic movement, Hamas said Thursday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/20/content_ 10388172.htm
Israeli army detains several Palestinians in the West Bank
Israeli military detained late on Wednesday night more than 20 Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank, as it dismantled a sit-in tent in the occupied east Jerusalem.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57732
Israeli prosecutors charge Islamic leader over Syrian flag
Israeli prosecutors charged the head of an Islamic organization in Israel over his waving of a Syrian flag at a demonstration in Jerusalem on Thursday, according to a news release from the Islamic Movement. Israeli prosecutors charged Sheikh Raed Salah, who is the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, with "lifting the Syrian flag" at a Jerusalem march, the organization said. The Israeli prosecution reportedly upheld the charge on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33373
Evicted settlers vandalise West Bank mosque
A group of Jewish settlers have graffitied messages insulting the prophet Mohammed on a mosque in the West Bank. Recently around 150 settlers were ordered to leave a fortified building in Hebron where they had been living since last year.
http://www.euronews.net/en/article/20/11/2008/evicted-settlers-vandalise-west-bank-mosque/
Dichter: Disputed Hebron house will be evacuated
In meeting with senior police, Shin Bet and IDF officials, internal security minister says High Court's decision to evacuate disputed Hebron House will be carried out in full. IDF soldiers spent morning painting over anti-Muslim graffiti sprayed by settlers on Hebron mosque.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3626098,00. html
Settlers spray inflammatory graffiti on mosque
AP-Jewish settlers on Thursday spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ settler_standoff
Hebron: Rightists injure soldier, desecrate graves
Tensions surrounding disputed Hebron house continue to run high as settlers clash with local Palestinians, pour turpentine on soldier, spray 'Muhammad the pig' graffiti on mosque.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625869,00. html
Report on Israeli settlement in the occupied territories Nov-Dec 2008
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MUMA-7LJ56L?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Another Palestinian family expelled from their home in East Jerusalem and hundreds of houses demolished. Israel's colonial policies kill any chance for a peace process!
Israeli police recently expelled the Al–Kurd family from its house, in the dark of night, in the Sheikh Jarrah area in East Jerusalem. The family includes Umm Kamal, the mother, her husband – who is partially paralysed and suffering from chronic heart disease – and their 5 children. Already refugees in 1948, when they were displaced from West Jerusalem, the family has once again been dispossessed of its home, where it has been living since 1956.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/19/another-palestinian-family-expelled-from-their-home-in-east-
jerusalem-and-hundreds-of-houses-demolished-israels-colonial-policies-kill-any-chance-for-a-peace-process/
IOA demolishes sit-in tent pitched by owners of usurped home
Large numbers of Israeli occupation policemen on Wednesday tore down the tent pitched by an old Palestinian couple who were evicted from their home by force in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Insult added to injury as Israelis tear down tent of family evicted from Jerusalem home
Israeli security forces on Wednesday tore down a tent in which an Occupied Jerusalem Palestinian family had been living since being evicted from their nearby house earlier this month. The tent housed Fawzia al-Kurd and her ailing husband since their November 9 expulsion from their home of 52 years.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=97825
'Gaza closure has no effect on Hamas'
Israel's decision to keep the crossings into Gaza closed will remain in effect until the end of the week, defense officials said Wednesday, despite an official IDF assessment submitted to Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the restriction is not having an effect on Hamas.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404781584& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle% 2FShowFull
Essential health facilities at the Al Shifa medical center stopped functioning
Dr. Hussein Ashour, head of the Al Shifa medical center in Gaza, one of the biggest medical centers in the Gaza Strip, stated that main facilities at the center stopped functioning due to the lack of fundamental equipment and tools.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57725
Gaza: Responding to urgent medical needs of choked-off Strip
As a result of the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip since 5 November, medical facilities are once more running out of essential supplies. This has dire consequences for the health of the Palestinian population. Katharina Ritz, the ICRC's head of mission for the occupied Palestinian territories, talks about the humanitarian situation and the organization's efforts to respond to the most urgent needs.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-7LJLNU?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Health ministry: Dozens of patients may die in case of a power outage
The health ministry warned that dozens of Palestinian patients might die within half an hour if there was any power outage in the units of intensive care, heart and preterm infants in Gaza hospitals.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
UNRWA suspends financial assistance to refugees in Gaza
UNRWA has announced that it would be forced to suspend its financial assistance to refugees in the Gaza Strip due to the lack of Israeli currency in Gaza banks.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Holmes: Gaza situation desperate, unacceptable, presents collective punishment
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said Wednesday that the situation in Gaza is desperate, unacceptable and the Israeli blockade is continuing, a scene which was described before as a collective punishment.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1954474&Language=en
Hamas's agriculture ministry warns of a nutrition crisis due to the Israeli blockade
The Hamas-run agriculture ministry warned today of a nutrition setback in the coastal Strip, unless the commercial crossings are reopened.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57731
Gazans cook on wood fires because of power cuts
AP-While an Israeli cutoff in fuel shipments has closed down a dozen of his competitors, baker Khalil Awad stays in business thanks to a little creativity and dirty black oil drained from car engines. The cutoff in fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip's sole power plant started a week ago in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_ palestinians_gaza_notebook
European campaign warns of Israeli attempts to dupe the world on Gaza
The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza has warned of an Israeli attempt to draw the world's attention away from the oppressive siege imposed on the Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Palestinian rights group warns of humanitarian disaster in Gaza
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) warned in a report on Thursday that the Gaza Strip is facing "disaster" as a result of the "endless siege." PCHR also blamed Israel for the ongoing clashes in Gaza. According to the center's weekly report, Israeli troops made 30 incursions into the West Bank and Gaza, where 44 Palestinians were seized. Among them were two children from the West Bank, 15 fisherman off the coast of Gaza and three solidarity activists onboard a ship, the center claimed.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33376
Gaza voices
Palestinians describe life under the Israeli blockade.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7735852.stm
Barghouthi: IOA measures against Gaza war crime
MP Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi has charged that IOA measures against Gaza constituted a war crime and a blatant violation of the international laws and the Geneva Convention.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Free Gaza Organisation meets Dr Mustapha Bargouti
So is Abbass just a tool of the Israelis? The Free Gaza Organisation meets Dr Mustapha Bargouti.
http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=dd066910361233d04c9fab24f1ce92 17&offset=
Al Hindy: Hamas will declare a new president after January 9
Senior Islamic Jihad leader, Mohammad Al Hindy stated in an interview with the Maan News Agency that the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, will most likely declare a new Palestinian president replacing Mahmoud Abbas after January 9 of 2009 which marks the end of Abbas' term in office.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57727
Hamas slams PA marketing of the "Arab initiative" minus "the right of return"
Hamas strongly denounced the PA in Ramallah for intending to publish advertisements in Israeli newspapers in order to market the Arab peace initiative without mentioning the right of return.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Abbas mad at head of Arab League, decides to boycott foreign ministers' meeting
Official Fatah sources revealed that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas was indignant at the Arab League secretary-general because of his refrainment from holding Hamas responsible for thwarting the dialog.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Iner-Palestinian dialogue to resume next month
Well-informed Palestinian sources revealed on Wednesday that Egypt would invite the Palestinian factions, including rival Fatah and Hamas, to Cairo on early December to resume the national dialogue.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_ 10382743.htm
Prospects of Palestinian reconciliation 'darker than ever'
Palestinian resistance factions were roundly blamed in the mainstream media for their last-minute decision to boycott last week's Egypt-sponsored "comprehensive dialogue" summit, ostensibly aimed at Palestinian national reconciliation. But some independent commentators say the move, led by Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas, was justified.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=97839
Sources: Arabs tending to find a mediator other than Egypt
Palestinian political sources revealed a tendency among Arab political leaders active in the Palestinian issue to find an alternative mediator in the inter-Palestinian dialog instead of Egypt.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
ANALYSIS /Which peace initiative will Obama back?
So who's right, Netanyahu or Peres?Apparently neither. Obama was here in July, when winning the election seemed very far away and his main goal was not to screw up or ire anyone. Presumably he was polite, and told his hosts their proposals were "very interesting"-they leave satisfied and he hasn't promised a thing.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038959.html
Obama Tells Abbas He'll Work for Peace
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has received a courtesy phone call from President-elect Barack Obama, who confirmed that he would work for peace, a Palestinian official said Wednesday. The conversation took place Tuesday. The official, Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, said Mr. Obama had thanked Mr. Abbas for the congratulations he had extended after the Nov. 4 election. Mr. Erekat added that the two men had "reiterated their commitment to continue to work" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a two-state solution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20mideast.html?ref=world
Abdullah holds secret summit with Olmert, Barak
King Abdullah summons Israeli PM, defense minister to his palace in Amman, implores them not to launch operation in Gaza, stresses peace between Israel, Palestinians also a strategic interest of Jordan.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625818,00. html
Israeli leaders make secret journey to Jordan
AP-Israeli leaders made a secret journey to neighboring Jordan earlier this week, listening to pleas from King Abdullah II to avert a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Jordan officials confirmed Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ jordan
Poll indicates Likud Party preference among Israeli voters
If general elections were held today, the Israeli Likud Party would win 32 Knesset seats, while Kadima would gain just 26, according to a survey published in the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33368
Israel calls UK stance on settlements "painful"
Israel accused Britain of a "painful attitude" on Wednesday for urging the European Union to make sure that goods made in Jewish settlements are not allowed into the bloc on preferential terms.
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnTRE4AI5D1.html
Hamas' armed wing will 'blow up the truce' if Israel kills leaders
The armed wing of Hamas threatened on Wednesday to "blow up" the truce agreement with Israel if it kills Hamas leaders has threatened by certain Israeli leaders. Abu Ubaidah the spokesperson of Al-Qassam Brigades said: "Israeli threats and calls to carry out wide-scale aggressive operations in Gaza Strip are nothing but an attempt to console themselves after the projectile attacks they received from resistance factions especially Al-Qassam."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33350
Gazans say denied right to make pilgrimage
RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Hundreds of Palestinians protested at the Gaza-Egypt border Wednesday, saying they've been denied the right to go to Mecca for the upcoming Muslim pilgrimage. Led by seven men in the white robes worn by Muslim pilgrims, they waved Palestinian flags and carried banners reading in Arabic, "We want to perform our religious duty away from politics. The pilgrimage must not be the subject of conflict."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/19/news/ML-Palestinians-Pilgrims-Protest. php
Gaza pilgrims rally at Rafah crossing, call for allowing them to travel to Makka
Hundreds of Gaza pilgrims marched to the Rafah crossing to demand the Arab countries to expedite the opening of the crossing and facilitate the procedures necessary to perform the pilgrimage rituals.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Waqf minister calls on Hamas to respect Hajj pilgrimage
Sheikh Jamal Bawatneh, the Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs within the Palestinian Authority (PA), said on Thursday that the ministry hopes to overcome obstacles related to the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The minister called for Hamas to "return under the umbrella of Palestinian legitimacy," adding that the pilgrimage "should be respected."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33371
Peres: Settlement evacuation may lead to civil war
LONDON-President Shimon Peres told members of the British Parliament Wednesday that Israel would have difficulty dismantling West Bank settlements without causing a civil war in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038961.html
Global media executives protest Gaza press ban
Leaders of the world's biggest media organizations filed a protest with Israel's prime minister Wednesday criticizing the government's decision to ban journalists from entering the Gaza Strip for the last two weeks. The protest was the latest in a chorus of international criticism of Israel's Gaza closure, tightened after a five-month truce began unraveling about two weeks ago in a flurry of Israeli airstrikes against militants and Palestinian rocket barrages targeting Israeli towns.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-aRJnbPLC5ZcAuDIM5RBX-tX42wD94I84T83
Jordanian protesters urge Israel to end blockade against Gaza
Hundreds of Jordanians have held a demonstration in the capital Amman in protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza, urging for an end to the worsening humanitarian conditions in the coastal enclave, daily The Jordan Times reported on Thursday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/20/content_ 10387352.htm
The price of resisting the occupation in Israel: "leftists aren't allowed..."
The level of repression against activists in Israel is multi-faceted, violent, and effective. There are so many examples that it is hard to choose only a few, but consider just a handful of examples from recent months.
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1140.shtml
Activist opposes Gaza deportation
A human rights activist who was arrested while accompanying Palestinian fishermen on a trip is appealing against his deportation from Israel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_ news/scotland/highlands_and_ islands/7738179.stm
Free Gaza Movement call for aiding Gaza through the sea
The Free Gaza Movement issued on Wednesday this open letter to all organizations delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57721
Albawaba: Despite Ban, Leviev to Sell Jewelry at Grand Opening of Atlantis Hotel in Duba
Adalah NY has learned that the jewelry of Israeli billionaire and settlement-builder Lev Leviev will be on sale at this week's gala opening of the luxury hotel Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai. Despite Leviev's on-going construction of Israeli settlements and claims by United Arab Emirates officials that Leviev would receive no license to sell his jewelry there, the New York-based human rights coalition Adalah-NY has confirmed that Leviev's jewelry will be on sale at the Atlantis branch of the Levant Jewelry chain on the fabled Palm Jumeirah island.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/20/albawaba-despite-ban-leviev-to-sell-jewelry-at-grand-opening
-of-atlantis-hotel-in-dubai/
Second Saudi food aid shipment arrives in Gaza Strip
A convoy of food aid donated by the Saudi Arabian monarchy arrived in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, loaded with hundreds of tons of rice. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) received a previous convoy of flour last week, also from the Saudis.
UNRWA's director of aid programs, Kathy Heward, praised Saudi Arabia's role in delivering aid, particularly "its continued efforts to alleviate poverty among the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33374
Who Will Stop the Settlers?
The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians. Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11192008.html
Peres at Oxford
http://www.thejc.com/node/8345
Gaza: a Dire Life Zone Still Clings to Hope
Gaza Strip, 20, Nov, 2008-Following Israeli raids that killed around 15 Palestinians within one week, many rockets were fired into Israel in a reprisal of Israeli's provocation. As usual Israel started to blame Palestinians despite it was the one who initiated with violence again. The Israeli assault was an obvious breach of an agreed calm held with Palestinian fighting groups 5 months ago. It has provoked some Palestinians to fire some light rockets into Israel. Afterwards, Israel started a new phase of collective punishment and began more violent prevocational measures against 1.5 million people.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/20/sameh-habeeb-gaza-a-dire-life-zone-still-clings-to-hope/
Israel launches Arabic YouTube channel to bypass Arab media
The Foreign Ministry has launched a YouTube channel in Arabic which is meant to bypass Arab media and give Israel's version of current events directly to Arab viewers, Haaretz has learned.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038936.html
PA to publish first-ever ads in Hebrew explaining Arab peace plan
The Palestinian Authority is publishing for the first time on Thursday advertisements in the Hebrew-language Israeli press that present the details of the Arab peace plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038963.html
Another Showdown in Gaza?
Gaza is bracing itself for a harsh winter. Less than a week has passed since Israel slammed shut doors to all land crossings, leaving a million-and-half hapless Palestinians to a miserable fate. We have seen the images before; long queues at petrol stations, Gaza city engulfed in an eerie darkness, children huddled together around a kitchen table doing their homework and trying to make use of little light from a burning candle.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14403
Issuance of building licenses down 0.2% in West Bank
The total number of building licenses issued in the West Bank decreased by 0.2 percent in the third quarter 2008 compared to the second quarter, according to a report released Thursday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). But the total number of licensed dwellings increased 3.8 percent, compared with the second quarter 2008, when total licensed areas decreased by 14.9 percent, again compared to the second quarter, PCBS reported.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33370
Ben White: Economy first in Palestine?
Ben White: For some, reviving the Palestinian economiy is the route to peace. For others, it's the route to fragmentation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/20/israelandthepalestinians-middleeast
The Shooting of Brian Avery, and the Israeli Cover Up
While the Israeli military's investigation into the 2003 shooting of the American human rights worker Brian Avery did little to nothing in actually investigating the near-fatal injury, it was highly effective in covering up Israeli soldiers' involvement, thereby sheltering them from criminal charges. That became clear some time ago when, in a Jerusalem court, none other than the soldier who pulled the trigger and his commander severely incriminated the official account of the shooting on critical points.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14404
The Israeli Left: Yesterday's Traitors
In the crucial battle over the national consciousness, we are experiencing great success. Let us pause to recall: In the aftermath of the 1948 war, when we said there is a Palestinian people and that peace should be made with it, there were not 100 people in Israel and the entire world who agreed. When we said a Palestinian state should be established alongside Israel, we were deemed national enemies.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14406
Palestinians to hand over wanted militant to LAF
Palestinian officials and Islamist figures in the southern city of Sidon reportedly started efforts on Wednesday aimed at handing over six wanted militants to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Among the wanted is Abdel al-Rahman Awad, who is believed the successor of the militant group Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker al-Abssi.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=2&article_id=97849
Interview: Palestinians in Europe
On November 16, delegations representing Palestinian communities in EU countries gathered in Stockholm, Sweden to pave the way for a conference to be held in a European capital in May 2009. Zaid Tayem, the head of the cultural division of the Union of Palestinian Minorities in Europe and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), says the May meeting will solidify Palestinian ranks and push for political representation in European parliaments.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/11/200811191638980749.html
Palestinian Oscar hope
Take the sexiest man of the year, team him up with a statuesque Palestinian-American spoken word muse, add a fiery filmmaker who sets out to make her first feature movie and you end up with "Salt of This Sea," this year's official Palestinian Academy Award entry.
http://www.kansascity.com/451/story/899314.html
In Gaza coffee shops, men and women break strict taboos
GAZA CITY-A womens association celebrating the end of a management course, combined with a party for the 20th anniversary of the Palestinian declaration of independence is no big deal in itself.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039082.html
US to lower Israeli airport's safety ranking
FAA issues report listing various security defects in Ben Gurion International Airport, Transportation Ministry says Mofaz has been attempting to repair dangerous situation for a year.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625774,00. html
Israel to hold talks with UN over IDF pullout from northern border town
Israel will commence negotiations with the United Nations over a withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the northern section of the village of Ghajar, which sits along the border with Lebanon, the government decided on Wednesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038930.html
Ghajar residents irate over possible IDF pullout
Residents of divided village outraged over Jerusalem's decision to launch talks on ceding control of its northern section to UNIFIL. 'We will not accept any decision that will separate families and violate our rights,' council secretary says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625697,00. html
Wednesday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 17 Wounded
Excerpt: At least nine Iraqis were killed and another 17 were wounded in today's attacks. Also, the Iraqi governent reported that they had discovered a mass grave three months ago near Najaf. The grave contained 150 bodies killed during the Saddam era. Meanwhile, debate in parliament over a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement turned hostile and was postponed until tomorrow. Elsewhere in Baghdad, U.S. and Turkish officials joined the Iraqis for talks on the situation with Kurdistan Workers Party rebels.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13787
U.S. military: 8 bodies found in Baghdad
The U.S. military says the remains of at least eight people have been unearthed in a mass grave in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-11-19-iraq-bodies_N.htm
US will withdraw troops if Iraq does not sign security deal
The US will withdraw its troops from Iraq if the security pact between the two governments is not signed, Iraqi media quoted a senior United States official as saying Wednesday.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1443803.php
Iraqi parliament's debate on US pact disrupted
Lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday disrupted a parliamentary debate ahead of a Nov. 24 vote on a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would keep American troops in Iraq for three more years. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani adjourned the session until Thursday after Sadrist lawmaker Ahmed al-Massoudi aggressively approached a lawmaker from the ruling coalition who was reading aloud the text of the agreement. Al-Massoudi appeared to be on the verge of grabbing the document as lawmaker Hassan al-Sineid read it. Personal guards of Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, seated next to al-Sineid, stopped al-Massoudi from reaching the bench.
http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2008/11/iraqi-parliaments-debate-on-us-pact-disrupted
Hardline Iraqi MPs shout down US pact in parliament
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Lawmakers loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr shouted down the Iraqi parliament's second reading on Wednesday of a military pact allowing US troops to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011. The agreement, approved by the cabinet on Sunday, has been fiercely criticised by the Sadrists, who oppose any deal with the US "occupier" and have vowed to derail it with legislative manoeuvres and mass demonstrations.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusmilitaryparliament
Iraqi Lawmakers Brawl Over Security Pact
A session of Iraq's Parliament collapsed in chaos on Wednesday, as a discussion among lawmakers about a three-year security agreement with the Americans boiled over into shouting and physical confrontation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20iraq. html?ref=world
Defense officials highly critical of U.S.-Iraq troop accord
McClatchy Newspapers-WASHINGTON — Although the Pentagon officially has welcomed the new accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, senior military officials are privately criticizing President Bush for giving Iraq more control over U.S. military operations for the next three years than the U.S. had ever contemplated.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081120/wl_mcclatchy/3105096
Mosul Christians Reluctant to Return
Christians from Mosul are hesitant about returning home despite cash offerings and pledges of stronger security in and around the volatile northern city. The Iraqi government has boosted the number of security forces and troops in Mosul to 35,000 and is offering displaced Christian families up to 1.5 million Iraqi dinars (1,300 US dollars) to return to their homes. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani also earlier this month pledged 900,000 dollars to support and protect the community. An estimated 2,000 families – approximately half of Mosul's Christian population – fled Mosul and its surrounding areas following the killings of Christians there last month.
http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=l=EN&p=icr&s=f&o=347913
Iraq world's third most corrupt country
Iraq is perceived as being the world's third most corrupt country, with only failed state Somalia and Myanmar's military junta below it, according to the Transparency International index measuring perceptions of graft in 180 nations.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-24809-Iraq-world% 27s-third-most-corrupt-country.html
Iraq's 'Mulla Omars'
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan wants to bring peace to his war-torn country. For the peace to become a reality he will need to come to terms with the fugitive Talaban leader Mulla Omar. Karzai is reported to be holding serious negotiation with Mulla Omar to persuade him to lay down arms in return for safety and other so far undeclared privileges.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\ 2008-11-19\kurd.htm
Iranians urged to increase investments in Iraq
Iran is holding a trade fair in Baghdad, exhibiting its latest industries in a bid to increase volume of its exports to the country. It is the second running exhibition in the country. The Iranians are holding another fair in the northern Kurdish Province of Dahouk, which has traditionally relied on Turkish imports.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\ 2008-11-20\kurd.htm
Jennifer Utz: From Baghdad to Brooklyn: My Journey with an Iraqi Refugee
"That one sounds like mortar fire," Mohamed said to me. "And that was definitely a sniper." My Iraqi friend and I were in Coney Island for the Friday night summer fireworks. Listening to the thunderous explosions over the water as we rode the Wonder Wheel, memories of life in war-torn Iraq inevitably came to mind. I wondered what else must be going through his head. Just two weeks ago, he had been a refugee living in the slums of Damascus, Syria.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-utz/from-baghdad-to-brooklyn_b_145062.html
Lawmaker accuses Bush of secrecy over Iraq deal
The U.S. government is refusing to make public the security pact it has signed with Iraq, even though it has already been published in full in an Iraqi newspaper, a congressional hearing was told on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were holding a closed briefing for U.S. House of Representatives members on the pact signed on Monday that sets a 2011 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AI8OT20081119
Docs: US relied on faulty assurance before shipping prisoners to countries with history of torture
Hundreds of pages of documents released this week show the US government relied on dubious assurances before shipping detainees to countries with a history of torture. The documents reveal for the first time the contents of a "diplomatic assurance" exchanged between the US and a foreign government. Such assurances are issued when the US is asked to extradite an individual charged with a crime to a country that has a history of torturing prisoners. The requesting country essentially promises that it will not torture the extradited individual.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Docs_US_relied_on_faulty_ assurance_1119.html
Why Would Obama Proffer State Gig to Clinton?
"Her top, top, top advisers told me, 'Steve, she will animate things in the Middle East—she will deliver a Palestinian state. Gold-plated,'" said Steven Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington. Mr. Clemons also noted the irony that Mrs. Clinton potentially would be tasked with preparing the road for the direct negotiations with antagonistic foreign leaders that she excoriated Mr. Obama over during the primary. "She criticized him so much for going to meet foreign leaders without preconditions; now she is the one who is going to have to go and get all the preconditions sorted out."
http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/why-did-obama-proffer-state-gig-clinton
The limits of American racism, and the Arab exception
The electoral silly season is over and it is time for a serious discussion removed from partisan passions and manipulation. Racism, the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room, has shrunk and is now no bigger than a jackass. In his eloquent endorsement of Barack Obama, another African-American statesman, Colin Powell, took direct aim at racism and pulled the trigger: "It is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is?" He went on to describe a photo of a Muslim American mother grieving at the tomb of her soldier son at Arlington Cemetery.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=5&article_id=97846
Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales Indicted in Private Prison Case in Texas
A Texas judge has set an arraignment date for Friday for Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They were indicted this week by a Texas grand jury on state charges accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a privately-run federal jail. We speak with Willacy County district attorney Juan Angel Guerra.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/20/dick_cheney_and_ alberto_gonzales_indicted
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www.TheHeadlines.org
Israeli forces raid north Tulkarem, storm Palestinian home
Israeli forces raided the neighborhood of Qaffin in northern Tulkarem at dawn on Thursday, according to witnesses. Local sources reported that 15 military vehicles stormed the northern West Bank village, an operation conducted under "intensive shooting of bullets and sound bombs."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33366
Israeli forces seize two Tamoun residents
Israeli military forces detained two residents of the West Bank town of Tamoun early on Thursday morning, according to witnesses.
Local Palestinian sources told Ma'an that "Israeli troops invaded the town at dawn, broke into several homes and arrested Akram Bani A'udah and Ahmad Bsharat."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33378
Palestinian forces arrest 12 Hamas members in West Bank
Security forces loyalty to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrested 12 Hamas members in West Bank during a crackdown against the Islamic movement, Hamas said Thursday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/20/content_ 10388172.htm
Israeli army detains several Palestinians in the West Bank
Israeli military detained late on Wednesday night more than 20 Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank, as it dismantled a sit-in tent in the occupied east Jerusalem.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57732
Israeli prosecutors charge Islamic leader over Syrian flag
Israeli prosecutors charged the head of an Islamic organization in Israel over his waving of a Syrian flag at a demonstration in Jerusalem on Thursday, according to a news release from the Islamic Movement. Israeli prosecutors charged Sheikh Raed Salah, who is the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, with "lifting the Syrian flag" at a Jerusalem march, the organization said. The Israeli prosecution reportedly upheld the charge on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33373
Evicted settlers vandalise West Bank mosque
A group of Jewish settlers have graffitied messages insulting the prophet Mohammed on a mosque in the West Bank. Recently around 150 settlers were ordered to leave a fortified building in Hebron where they had been living since last year.
http://www.euronews.net/en/article/20/11/2008/evicted-settlers-vandalise-west-bank-mosque/
Dichter: Disputed Hebron house will be evacuated
In meeting with senior police, Shin Bet and IDF officials, internal security minister says High Court's decision to evacuate disputed Hebron House will be carried out in full. IDF soldiers spent morning painting over anti-Muslim graffiti sprayed by settlers on Hebron mosque.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3626098,00. html
Settlers spray inflammatory graffiti on mosque
AP-Jewish settlers on Thursday spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ settler_standoff
Hebron: Rightists injure soldier, desecrate graves
Tensions surrounding disputed Hebron house continue to run high as settlers clash with local Palestinians, pour turpentine on soldier, spray 'Muhammad the pig' graffiti on mosque.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625869,00. html
Report on Israeli settlement in the occupied territories Nov-Dec 2008
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MUMA-7LJ56L?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Another Palestinian family expelled from their home in East Jerusalem and hundreds of houses demolished. Israel's colonial policies kill any chance for a peace process!
Israeli police recently expelled the Al–Kurd family from its house, in the dark of night, in the Sheikh Jarrah area in East Jerusalem. The family includes Umm Kamal, the mother, her husband – who is partially paralysed and suffering from chronic heart disease – and their 5 children. Already refugees in 1948, when they were displaced from West Jerusalem, the family has once again been dispossessed of its home, where it has been living since 1956.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/19/another-palestinian-family-expelled-from-their-home-in-east-
jerusalem-and-hundreds-of-houses-demolished-israels-colonial-policies-kill-any-chance-for-a-peace-process/
IOA demolishes sit-in tent pitched by owners of usurped home
Large numbers of Israeli occupation policemen on Wednesday tore down the tent pitched by an old Palestinian couple who were evicted from their home by force in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Insult added to injury as Israelis tear down tent of family evicted from Jerusalem home
Israeli security forces on Wednesday tore down a tent in which an Occupied Jerusalem Palestinian family had been living since being evicted from their nearby house earlier this month. The tent housed Fawzia al-Kurd and her ailing husband since their November 9 expulsion from their home of 52 years.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=97825
'Gaza closure has no effect on Hamas'
Israel's decision to keep the crossings into Gaza closed will remain in effect until the end of the week, defense officials said Wednesday, despite an official IDF assessment submitted to Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the restriction is not having an effect on Hamas.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404781584& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle% 2FShowFull
Essential health facilities at the Al Shifa medical center stopped functioning
Dr. Hussein Ashour, head of the Al Shifa medical center in Gaza, one of the biggest medical centers in the Gaza Strip, stated that main facilities at the center stopped functioning due to the lack of fundamental equipment and tools.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57725
Gaza: Responding to urgent medical needs of choked-off Strip
As a result of the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip since 5 November, medical facilities are once more running out of essential supplies. This has dire consequences for the health of the Palestinian population. Katharina Ritz, the ICRC's head of mission for the occupied Palestinian territories, talks about the humanitarian situation and the organization's efforts to respond to the most urgent needs.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-7LJLNU?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Health ministry: Dozens of patients may die in case of a power outage
The health ministry warned that dozens of Palestinian patients might die within half an hour if there was any power outage in the units of intensive care, heart and preterm infants in Gaza hospitals.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
UNRWA suspends financial assistance to refugees in Gaza
UNRWA has announced that it would be forced to suspend its financial assistance to refugees in the Gaza Strip due to the lack of Israeli currency in Gaza banks.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Holmes: Gaza situation desperate, unacceptable, presents collective punishment
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said Wednesday that the situation in Gaza is desperate, unacceptable and the Israeli blockade is continuing, a scene which was described before as a collective punishment.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1954474&Language=en
Hamas's agriculture ministry warns of a nutrition crisis due to the Israeli blockade
The Hamas-run agriculture ministry warned today of a nutrition setback in the coastal Strip, unless the commercial crossings are reopened.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57731
Gazans cook on wood fires because of power cuts
AP-While an Israeli cutoff in fuel shipments has closed down a dozen of his competitors, baker Khalil Awad stays in business thanks to a little creativity and dirty black oil drained from car engines. The cutoff in fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip's sole power plant started a week ago in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_ palestinians_gaza_notebook
European campaign warns of Israeli attempts to dupe the world on Gaza
The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza has warned of an Israeli attempt to draw the world's attention away from the oppressive siege imposed on the Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Palestinian rights group warns of humanitarian disaster in Gaza
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) warned in a report on Thursday that the Gaza Strip is facing "disaster" as a result of the "endless siege." PCHR also blamed Israel for the ongoing clashes in Gaza. According to the center's weekly report, Israeli troops made 30 incursions into the West Bank and Gaza, where 44 Palestinians were seized. Among them were two children from the West Bank, 15 fisherman off the coast of Gaza and three solidarity activists onboard a ship, the center claimed.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33376
Gaza voices
Palestinians describe life under the Israeli blockade.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7735852.stm
Barghouthi: IOA measures against Gaza war crime
MP Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi has charged that IOA measures against Gaza constituted a war crime and a blatant violation of the international laws and the Geneva Convention.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Free Gaza Organisation meets Dr Mustapha Bargouti
So is Abbass just a tool of the Israelis? The Free Gaza Organisation meets Dr Mustapha Bargouti.
http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?module=latest_news&id=dd066910361233d04c9fab24f1ce92 17&offset=
Al Hindy: Hamas will declare a new president after January 9
Senior Islamic Jihad leader, Mohammad Al Hindy stated in an interview with the Maan News Agency that the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, will most likely declare a new Palestinian president replacing Mahmoud Abbas after January 9 of 2009 which marks the end of Abbas' term in office.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57727
Hamas slams PA marketing of the "Arab initiative" minus "the right of return"
Hamas strongly denounced the PA in Ramallah for intending to publish advertisements in Israeli newspapers in order to market the Arab peace initiative without mentioning the right of return.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Abbas mad at head of Arab League, decides to boycott foreign ministers' meeting
Official Fatah sources revealed that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas was indignant at the Arab League secretary-general because of his refrainment from holding Hamas responsible for thwarting the dialog.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Iner-Palestinian dialogue to resume next month
Well-informed Palestinian sources revealed on Wednesday that Egypt would invite the Palestinian factions, including rival Fatah and Hamas, to Cairo on early December to resume the national dialogue.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_ 10382743.htm
Prospects of Palestinian reconciliation 'darker than ever'
Palestinian resistance factions were roundly blamed in the mainstream media for their last-minute decision to boycott last week's Egypt-sponsored "comprehensive dialogue" summit, ostensibly aimed at Palestinian national reconciliation. But some independent commentators say the move, led by Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas, was justified.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10& categ_id=2&article_id=97839
Sources: Arabs tending to find a mediator other than Egypt
Palestinian political sources revealed a tendency among Arab political leaders active in the Palestinian issue to find an alternative mediator in the inter-Palestinian dialog instead of Egypt.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
ANALYSIS /Which peace initiative will Obama back?
So who's right, Netanyahu or Peres?Apparently neither. Obama was here in July, when winning the election seemed very far away and his main goal was not to screw up or ire anyone. Presumably he was polite, and told his hosts their proposals were "very interesting"-they leave satisfied and he hasn't promised a thing.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038959.html
Obama Tells Abbas He'll Work for Peace
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has received a courtesy phone call from President-elect Barack Obama, who confirmed that he would work for peace, a Palestinian official said Wednesday. The conversation took place Tuesday. The official, Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, said Mr. Obama had thanked Mr. Abbas for the congratulations he had extended after the Nov. 4 election. Mr. Erekat added that the two men had "reiterated their commitment to continue to work" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a two-state solution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20mideast.html?ref=world
Abdullah holds secret summit with Olmert, Barak
King Abdullah summons Israeli PM, defense minister to his palace in Amman, implores them not to launch operation in Gaza, stresses peace between Israel, Palestinians also a strategic interest of Jordan.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625818,00. html
Israeli leaders make secret journey to Jordan
AP-Israeli leaders made a secret journey to neighboring Jordan earlier this week, listening to pleas from King Abdullah II to avert a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Jordan officials confirmed Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ jordan
Poll indicates Likud Party preference among Israeli voters
If general elections were held today, the Israeli Likud Party would win 32 Knesset seats, while Kadima would gain just 26, according to a survey published in the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33368
Israel calls UK stance on settlements "painful"
Israel accused Britain of a "painful attitude" on Wednesday for urging the European Union to make sure that goods made in Jewish settlements are not allowed into the bloc on preferential terms.
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnTRE4AI5D1.html
Hamas' armed wing will 'blow up the truce' if Israel kills leaders
The armed wing of Hamas threatened on Wednesday to "blow up" the truce agreement with Israel if it kills Hamas leaders has threatened by certain Israeli leaders. Abu Ubaidah the spokesperson of Al-Qassam Brigades said: "Israeli threats and calls to carry out wide-scale aggressive operations in Gaza Strip are nothing but an attempt to console themselves after the projectile attacks they received from resistance factions especially Al-Qassam."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33350
Gazans say denied right to make pilgrimage
RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Hundreds of Palestinians protested at the Gaza-Egypt border Wednesday, saying they've been denied the right to go to Mecca for the upcoming Muslim pilgrimage. Led by seven men in the white robes worn by Muslim pilgrims, they waved Palestinian flags and carried banners reading in Arabic, "We want to perform our religious duty away from politics. The pilgrimage must not be the subject of conflict."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/19/news/ML-Palestinians-Pilgrims-Protest. php
Gaza pilgrims rally at Rafah crossing, call for allowing them to travel to Makka
Hundreds of Gaza pilgrims marched to the Rafah crossing to demand the Arab countries to expedite the opening of the crossing and facilitate the procedures necessary to perform the pilgrimage rituals.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Waqf minister calls on Hamas to respect Hajj pilgrimage
Sheikh Jamal Bawatneh, the Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs within the Palestinian Authority (PA), said on Thursday that the ministry hopes to overcome obstacles related to the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The minister called for Hamas to "return under the umbrella of Palestinian legitimacy," adding that the pilgrimage "should be respected."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33371
Peres: Settlement evacuation may lead to civil war
LONDON-President Shimon Peres told members of the British Parliament Wednesday that Israel would have difficulty dismantling West Bank settlements without causing a civil war in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038961.html
Global media executives protest Gaza press ban
Leaders of the world's biggest media organizations filed a protest with Israel's prime minister Wednesday criticizing the government's decision to ban journalists from entering the Gaza Strip for the last two weeks. The protest was the latest in a chorus of international criticism of Israel's Gaza closure, tightened after a five-month truce began unraveling about two weeks ago in a flurry of Israeli airstrikes against militants and Palestinian rocket barrages targeting Israeli towns.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-aRJnbPLC5ZcAuDIM5RBX-tX42wD94I84T83
Jordanian protesters urge Israel to end blockade against Gaza
Hundreds of Jordanians have held a demonstration in the capital Amman in protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza, urging for an end to the worsening humanitarian conditions in the coastal enclave, daily The Jordan Times reported on Thursday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/20/content_ 10387352.htm
The price of resisting the occupation in Israel: "leftists aren't allowed..."
The level of repression against activists in Israel is multi-faceted, violent, and effective. There are so many examples that it is hard to choose only a few, but consider just a handful of examples from recent months.
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1140.shtml
Activist opposes Gaza deportation
A human rights activist who was arrested while accompanying Palestinian fishermen on a trip is appealing against his deportation from Israel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_ news/scotland/highlands_and_ islands/7738179.stm
Free Gaza Movement call for aiding Gaza through the sea
The Free Gaza Movement issued on Wednesday this open letter to all organizations delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57721
Albawaba: Despite Ban, Leviev to Sell Jewelry at Grand Opening of Atlantis Hotel in Duba
Adalah NY has learned that the jewelry of Israeli billionaire and settlement-builder Lev Leviev will be on sale at this week's gala opening of the luxury hotel Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai. Despite Leviev's on-going construction of Israeli settlements and claims by United Arab Emirates officials that Leviev would receive no license to sell his jewelry there, the New York-based human rights coalition Adalah-NY has confirmed that Leviev's jewelry will be on sale at the Atlantis branch of the Levant Jewelry chain on the fabled Palm Jumeirah island.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/20/albawaba-despite-ban-leviev-to-sell-jewelry-at-grand-opening
-of-atlantis-hotel-in-dubai/
Second Saudi food aid shipment arrives in Gaza Strip
A convoy of food aid donated by the Saudi Arabian monarchy arrived in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, loaded with hundreds of tons of rice. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) received a previous convoy of flour last week, also from the Saudis.
UNRWA's director of aid programs, Kathy Heward, praised Saudi Arabia's role in delivering aid, particularly "its continued efforts to alleviate poverty among the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33374
Who Will Stop the Settlers?
The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians. Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11192008.html
Peres at Oxford
http://www.thejc.com/node/8345
Gaza: a Dire Life Zone Still Clings to Hope
Gaza Strip, 20, Nov, 2008-Following Israeli raids that killed around 15 Palestinians within one week, many rockets were fired into Israel in a reprisal of Israeli's provocation. As usual Israel started to blame Palestinians despite it was the one who initiated with violence again. The Israeli assault was an obvious breach of an agreed calm held with Palestinian fighting groups 5 months ago. It has provoked some Palestinians to fire some light rockets into Israel. Afterwards, Israel started a new phase of collective punishment and began more violent prevocational measures against 1.5 million people.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/20/sameh-habeeb-gaza-a-dire-life-zone-still-clings-to-hope/
Israel launches Arabic YouTube channel to bypass Arab media
The Foreign Ministry has launched a YouTube channel in Arabic which is meant to bypass Arab media and give Israel's version of current events directly to Arab viewers, Haaretz has learned.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038936.html
PA to publish first-ever ads in Hebrew explaining Arab peace plan
The Palestinian Authority is publishing for the first time on Thursday advertisements in the Hebrew-language Israeli press that present the details of the Arab peace plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038963.html
Another Showdown in Gaza?
Gaza is bracing itself for a harsh winter. Less than a week has passed since Israel slammed shut doors to all land crossings, leaving a million-and-half hapless Palestinians to a miserable fate. We have seen the images before; long queues at petrol stations, Gaza city engulfed in an eerie darkness, children huddled together around a kitchen table doing their homework and trying to make use of little light from a burning candle.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14403
Issuance of building licenses down 0.2% in West Bank
The total number of building licenses issued in the West Bank decreased by 0.2 percent in the third quarter 2008 compared to the second quarter, according to a report released Thursday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). But the total number of licensed dwellings increased 3.8 percent, compared with the second quarter 2008, when total licensed areas decreased by 14.9 percent, again compared to the second quarter, PCBS reported.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33370
Ben White: Economy first in Palestine?
Ben White: For some, reviving the Palestinian economiy is the route to peace. For others, it's the route to fragmentation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/20/israelandthepalestinians-middleeast
The Shooting of Brian Avery, and the Israeli Cover Up
While the Israeli military's investigation into the 2003 shooting of the American human rights worker Brian Avery did little to nothing in actually investigating the near-fatal injury, it was highly effective in covering up Israeli soldiers' involvement, thereby sheltering them from criminal charges. That became clear some time ago when, in a Jerusalem court, none other than the soldier who pulled the trigger and his commander severely incriminated the official account of the shooting on critical points.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14404
The Israeli Left: Yesterday's Traitors
In the crucial battle over the national consciousness, we are experiencing great success. Let us pause to recall: In the aftermath of the 1948 war, when we said there is a Palestinian people and that peace should be made with it, there were not 100 people in Israel and the entire world who agreed. When we said a Palestinian state should be established alongside Israel, we were deemed national enemies.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14406
Palestinians to hand over wanted militant to LAF
Palestinian officials and Islamist figures in the southern city of Sidon reportedly started efforts on Wednesday aimed at handing over six wanted militants to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Among the wanted is Abdel al-Rahman Awad, who is believed the successor of the militant group Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker al-Abssi.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=2&article_id=97849
Interview: Palestinians in Europe
On November 16, delegations representing Palestinian communities in EU countries gathered in Stockholm, Sweden to pave the way for a conference to be held in a European capital in May 2009. Zaid Tayem, the head of the cultural division of the Union of Palestinian Minorities in Europe and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), says the May meeting will solidify Palestinian ranks and push for political representation in European parliaments.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/11/200811191638980749.html
Palestinian Oscar hope
Take the sexiest man of the year, team him up with a statuesque Palestinian-American spoken word muse, add a fiery filmmaker who sets out to make her first feature movie and you end up with "Salt of This Sea," this year's official Palestinian Academy Award entry.
http://www.kansascity.com/451/story/899314.html
In Gaza coffee shops, men and women break strict taboos
GAZA CITY-A womens association celebrating the end of a management course, combined with a party for the 20th anniversary of the Palestinian declaration of independence is no big deal in itself.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039082.html
US to lower Israeli airport's safety ranking
FAA issues report listing various security defects in Ben Gurion International Airport, Transportation Ministry says Mofaz has been attempting to repair dangerous situation for a year.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625774,00. html
Israel to hold talks with UN over IDF pullout from northern border town
Israel will commence negotiations with the United Nations over a withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the northern section of the village of Ghajar, which sits along the border with Lebanon, the government decided on Wednesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038930.html
Ghajar residents irate over possible IDF pullout
Residents of divided village outraged over Jerusalem's decision to launch talks on ceding control of its northern section to UNIFIL. 'We will not accept any decision that will separate families and violate our rights,' council secretary says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625697,00. html
Wednesday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 17 Wounded
Excerpt: At least nine Iraqis were killed and another 17 were wounded in today's attacks. Also, the Iraqi governent reported that they had discovered a mass grave three months ago near Najaf. The grave contained 150 bodies killed during the Saddam era. Meanwhile, debate in parliament over a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement turned hostile and was postponed until tomorrow. Elsewhere in Baghdad, U.S. and Turkish officials joined the Iraqis for talks on the situation with Kurdistan Workers Party rebels.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13787
U.S. military: 8 bodies found in Baghdad
The U.S. military says the remains of at least eight people have been unearthed in a mass grave in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-11-19-iraq-bodies_N.htm
US will withdraw troops if Iraq does not sign security deal
The US will withdraw its troops from Iraq if the security pact between the two governments is not signed, Iraqi media quoted a senior United States official as saying Wednesday.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1443803.php
Iraqi parliament's debate on US pact disrupted
Lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday disrupted a parliamentary debate ahead of a Nov. 24 vote on a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would keep American troops in Iraq for three more years. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani adjourned the session until Thursday after Sadrist lawmaker Ahmed al-Massoudi aggressively approached a lawmaker from the ruling coalition who was reading aloud the text of the agreement. Al-Massoudi appeared to be on the verge of grabbing the document as lawmaker Hassan al-Sineid read it. Personal guards of Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, seated next to al-Sineid, stopped al-Massoudi from reaching the bench.
http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2008/11/iraqi-parliaments-debate-on-us-pact-disrupted
Hardline Iraqi MPs shout down US pact in parliament
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Lawmakers loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr shouted down the Iraqi parliament's second reading on Wednesday of a military pact allowing US troops to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011. The agreement, approved by the cabinet on Sunday, has been fiercely criticised by the Sadrists, who oppose any deal with the US "occupier" and have vowed to derail it with legislative manoeuvres and mass demonstrations.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusmilitaryparliament
Iraqi Lawmakers Brawl Over Security Pact
A session of Iraq's Parliament collapsed in chaos on Wednesday, as a discussion among lawmakers about a three-year security agreement with the Americans boiled over into shouting and physical confrontation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/middleeast/20iraq. html?ref=world
Defense officials highly critical of U.S.-Iraq troop accord
McClatchy Newspapers-WASHINGTON — Although the Pentagon officially has welcomed the new accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, senior military officials are privately criticizing President Bush for giving Iraq more control over U.S. military operations for the next three years than the U.S. had ever contemplated.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081120/wl_mcclatchy/3105096
Mosul Christians Reluctant to Return
Christians from Mosul are hesitant about returning home despite cash offerings and pledges of stronger security in and around the volatile northern city. The Iraqi government has boosted the number of security forces and troops in Mosul to 35,000 and is offering displaced Christian families up to 1.5 million Iraqi dinars (1,300 US dollars) to return to their homes. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani also earlier this month pledged 900,000 dollars to support and protect the community. An estimated 2,000 families – approximately half of Mosul's Christian population – fled Mosul and its surrounding areas following the killings of Christians there last month.
http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=l=EN&p=icr&s=f&o=347913
Iraq world's third most corrupt country
Iraq is perceived as being the world's third most corrupt country, with only failed state Somalia and Myanmar's military junta below it, according to the Transparency International index measuring perceptions of graft in 180 nations.
http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-24809-Iraq-world% 27s-third-most-corrupt-country.html
Iraq's 'Mulla Omars'
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan wants to bring peace to his war-torn country. For the peace to become a reality he will need to come to terms with the fugitive Talaban leader Mulla Omar. Karzai is reported to be holding serious negotiation with Mulla Omar to persuade him to lay down arms in return for safety and other so far undeclared privileges.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\ 2008-11-19\kurd.htm
Iranians urged to increase investments in Iraq
Iran is holding a trade fair in Baghdad, exhibiting its latest industries in a bid to increase volume of its exports to the country. It is the second running exhibition in the country. The Iranians are holding another fair in the northern Kurdish Province of Dahouk, which has traditionally relied on Turkish imports.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\ 2008-11-20\kurd.htm
Jennifer Utz: From Baghdad to Brooklyn: My Journey with an Iraqi Refugee
"That one sounds like mortar fire," Mohamed said to me. "And that was definitely a sniper." My Iraqi friend and I were in Coney Island for the Friday night summer fireworks. Listening to the thunderous explosions over the water as we rode the Wonder Wheel, memories of life in war-torn Iraq inevitably came to mind. I wondered what else must be going through his head. Just two weeks ago, he had been a refugee living in the slums of Damascus, Syria.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-utz/from-baghdad-to-brooklyn_b_145062.html
Lawmaker accuses Bush of secrecy over Iraq deal
The U.S. government is refusing to make public the security pact it has signed with Iraq, even though it has already been published in full in an Iraqi newspaper, a congressional hearing was told on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were holding a closed briefing for U.S. House of Representatives members on the pact signed on Monday that sets a 2011 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AI8OT20081119
Docs: US relied on faulty assurance before shipping prisoners to countries with history of torture
Hundreds of pages of documents released this week show the US government relied on dubious assurances before shipping detainees to countries with a history of torture. The documents reveal for the first time the contents of a "diplomatic assurance" exchanged between the US and a foreign government. Such assurances are issued when the US is asked to extradite an individual charged with a crime to a country that has a history of torturing prisoners. The requesting country essentially promises that it will not torture the extradited individual.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Docs_US_relied_on_faulty_ assurance_1119.html
Why Would Obama Proffer State Gig to Clinton?
"Her top, top, top advisers told me, 'Steve, she will animate things in the Middle East—she will deliver a Palestinian state. Gold-plated,'" said Steven Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington. Mr. Clemons also noted the irony that Mrs. Clinton potentially would be tasked with preparing the road for the direct negotiations with antagonistic foreign leaders that she excoriated Mr. Obama over during the primary. "She criticized him so much for going to meet foreign leaders without preconditions; now she is the one who is going to have to go and get all the preconditions sorted out."
http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/why-did-obama-proffer-state-gig-clinton
The limits of American racism, and the Arab exception
The electoral silly season is over and it is time for a serious discussion removed from partisan passions and manipulation. Racism, the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room, has shrunk and is now no bigger than a jackass. In his eloquent endorsement of Barack Obama, another African-American statesman, Colin Powell, took direct aim at racism and pulled the trigger: "It is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is?" He went on to describe a photo of a Muslim American mother grieving at the tomb of her soldier son at Arlington Cemetery.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1& categ_id=5&article_id=97846
Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales Indicted in Private Prison Case in Texas
A Texas judge has set an arraignment date for Friday for Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. They were indicted this week by a Texas grand jury on state charges accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a privately-run federal jail. We speak with Willacy County district attorney Juan Angel Guerra.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/20/dick_cheney_and_ alberto_gonzales_indicted
--
www.TheHeadlines.org
30, 000 signatures for gay marriage
30, 000 signatures for gay marriage
Written by Rachel Cook
The National Union of Students (NUS) will rally in Melbourne this Saturday in support of same-sex marriage.
The rally, which takes place at 1pm at the State Library, will culminate in the handing over of signatures, collected as part of the NUS petition supporting gay marriage, to Greens’ Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Hanson-Young will take the petition to Canberra, where they will be tabled in the Senate.
The petition, Equal Rights for All: Support Same Sex Marriage, End Legal Discrimination, has attracted over 30,000 signatures since January.
James Vigus, queer male officer with the NUS, told MCV support for same-sex marriage covers a wide demographic.
“The signatures show that it’s not just a narrow range that supports same-sex marriage. To get so many signatures from so many different places, whether it was regional or inner city, shows that there is a large sentiment for equal rights beyond the gay ghettoes.
“We have signatures collected from as far away as Townsville.”
Vigus said the response to the petition was in line with opinion polls that have shown the majority of Australians support the right for same-sex couples to marry.
In May this year, 79 per cent of respondents to The Age readers poll, ‘Should gay couples be allowed to marry?’ said yes, while only 21 per cent said no.
Last week before the Senate the Greens asked the Liberal and Labor parties to permit their senators to exercise a conscience vote on the issue of same-sex marriage.
The vote was not granted, with the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, once again stating that the Labor Party stance on marriage is that it is between a man and woman.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Labor and the Liberals had both “trumpeted” their commitment to removing discrimination against same-sex couples in Commonwealth law.
“However, the Marriage Act has been a glaring omission from the suite of bills that will bring us into a new age of equality for same-sex couples.
“[The Greens] are hopeful that, with a conscience vote, the issue will be debated fully, and party lines will be overridden by the understanding that true equality in law for same-sex couples includes the right to marry.”
Halley Conway, co-convenor of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, is one of the speakers at this weekend’s rally. She told MCV the NUS petition sends a strong message to politicians.
“If people are willing to put their name and contact details on a petition it shows elected officials that this is something they believe in,” Conway said.
“Petitions are an effective way of communicating what people think en masse and NUS has done this particularly well.”
Conway said she will be addressing the issue of future strategies needed to push legalising same-sex marriage.
“I will be talking about where we go from here, why there is a need for concerted and multi-pronged activities across the board to see change.”
In related news, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, which will allow for lesbians and single women to access fertility treatments and broaden surrogacy laws, last week passed a second reading in the state’s Upper House.
The bill has now been referred to the seven-member Legislative Committee, which will report back to the Upper House on December 2.
http://mcv.e-p.net.au/news/30-000-signatures-for-gay-marriage-4512.html
Written by Rachel Cook
The National Union of Students (NUS) will rally in Melbourne this Saturday in support of same-sex marriage.
The rally, which takes place at 1pm at the State Library, will culminate in the handing over of signatures, collected as part of the NUS petition supporting gay marriage, to Greens’ Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Hanson-Young will take the petition to Canberra, where they will be tabled in the Senate.
The petition, Equal Rights for All: Support Same Sex Marriage, End Legal Discrimination, has attracted over 30,000 signatures since January.
James Vigus, queer male officer with the NUS, told MCV support for same-sex marriage covers a wide demographic.
“The signatures show that it’s not just a narrow range that supports same-sex marriage. To get so many signatures from so many different places, whether it was regional or inner city, shows that there is a large sentiment for equal rights beyond the gay ghettoes.
“We have signatures collected from as far away as Townsville.”
Vigus said the response to the petition was in line with opinion polls that have shown the majority of Australians support the right for same-sex couples to marry.
In May this year, 79 per cent of respondents to The Age readers poll, ‘Should gay couples be allowed to marry?’ said yes, while only 21 per cent said no.
Last week before the Senate the Greens asked the Liberal and Labor parties to permit their senators to exercise a conscience vote on the issue of same-sex marriage.
The vote was not granted, with the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, once again stating that the Labor Party stance on marriage is that it is between a man and woman.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Labor and the Liberals had both “trumpeted” their commitment to removing discrimination against same-sex couples in Commonwealth law.
“However, the Marriage Act has been a glaring omission from the suite of bills that will bring us into a new age of equality for same-sex couples.
“[The Greens] are hopeful that, with a conscience vote, the issue will be debated fully, and party lines will be overridden by the understanding that true equality in law for same-sex couples includes the right to marry.”
Halley Conway, co-convenor of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, is one of the speakers at this weekend’s rally. She told MCV the NUS petition sends a strong message to politicians.
“If people are willing to put their name and contact details on a petition it shows elected officials that this is something they believe in,” Conway said.
“Petitions are an effective way of communicating what people think en masse and NUS has done this particularly well.”
Conway said she will be addressing the issue of future strategies needed to push legalising same-sex marriage.
“I will be talking about where we go from here, why there is a need for concerted and multi-pronged activities across the board to see change.”
In related news, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, which will allow for lesbians and single women to access fertility treatments and broaden surrogacy laws, last week passed a second reading in the state’s Upper House.
The bill has now been referred to the seven-member Legislative Committee, which will report back to the Upper House on December 2.
http://mcv.e-p.net.au/news/30-000-signatures-for-gay-marriage-4512.html
TUC Calls for End to Discrimination Against Transgender People
TUC Calls for End to Discrimination Against Transgender People
Brendan Barber speaks out on International Trans Memorial Day
LONDON, November 20, 2008 – The TUC is today calling on employers to stop discriminating against transgender people in the workplace on International Trans Memorial Day.
Violent attacks on gay men and women because of their sexuality are well documented – much less well known are the murderous assaults committed against transgender people.
In September 2008, at least 25 transgender people were murdered across the world, for no other reason than the fact that they were different. (source: ILGA)
International Trans Memorial Day will remember ‘trans’ people across the world who have been the victims of such crimes, and aims to bring them to public attention.
In Britain the trans community continues to face violent physical attacks, alongside prejudice and discrimination in communities and at work.
The TUC has worked with transgender union members and with representatives of the trans community to campaign for Britain’s equality laws to provide comprehensive protection from discrimination for trans people.
Although there have been improvements to the law, there remain gaps and widespread exemptions that leave trans people without full protection.
“Discrimination, hatred and violence are part of the daily lives of far too many in Britain, and employers need to make sure all their employees are working in safe environments free from discrimination.,” TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said last night.
“Unions need to step up campaigning for equality for trans people in the UK.
“We will shortly have a new Equality Act and the TUC will be pressing for complete protection for those people who identify with the opposite gender to the one that they were born.
“The murderous attacks on trans people worldwide – and the assaults we know take place in Britain – show that this community faces prejudice and bigotry.
“If Britain is to be a truly equal and inclusive society we need to understand the issues facing trans people, and develop practical steps to end discrimination in workplaces, and in society at large.”
http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/08/Nov/2002.htm
Brendan Barber speaks out on International Trans Memorial Day
LONDON, November 20, 2008 – The TUC is today calling on employers to stop discriminating against transgender people in the workplace on International Trans Memorial Day.
Violent attacks on gay men and women because of their sexuality are well documented – much less well known are the murderous assaults committed against transgender people.
In September 2008, at least 25 transgender people were murdered across the world, for no other reason than the fact that they were different. (source: ILGA)
International Trans Memorial Day will remember ‘trans’ people across the world who have been the victims of such crimes, and aims to bring them to public attention.
In Britain the trans community continues to face violent physical attacks, alongside prejudice and discrimination in communities and at work.
The TUC has worked with transgender union members and with representatives of the trans community to campaign for Britain’s equality laws to provide comprehensive protection from discrimination for trans people.
Although there have been improvements to the law, there remain gaps and widespread exemptions that leave trans people without full protection.
“Discrimination, hatred and violence are part of the daily lives of far too many in Britain, and employers need to make sure all their employees are working in safe environments free from discrimination.,” TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said last night.
“Unions need to step up campaigning for equality for trans people in the UK.
“We will shortly have a new Equality Act and the TUC will be pressing for complete protection for those people who identify with the opposite gender to the one that they were born.
“The murderous attacks on trans people worldwide – and the assaults we know take place in Britain – show that this community faces prejudice and bigotry.
“If Britain is to be a truly equal and inclusive society we need to understand the issues facing trans people, and develop practical steps to end discrimination in workplaces, and in society at large.”
http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/08/Nov/2002.htm
Belarusians More Tolerant to Sexual Minorities than Russians?
Belarusians More Tolerant to Sexual Minorities than Russians?
Slavic Gay Pride movement opens public discussion on the rights of gays and lesbians in Belarus
MOSCOW, November 20, 2008 (GayRussia.ru) – The ‘unification seminar’ between Russian and Belarusian gay activists in Minsk last weekend – and the announcement of the creation of the Slavic Gay Pride movement with its first march on May 16 next year in Moscow – has provoked reaction not only in Russia but also in Belarus.
And the support for rights for gay men and women appears to be stronger than in Russia.
According to the website Gay.By, the Belarusian Internet radio TUT has shown interest in the concept of the Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow on Eurovision Song Contest final day.
A reporter from TUT went into the streets for some vox pops with ordinary people, asking about their attitude towards homosexual people.
The replies they go – and broadcast – were mixed, but generally supportive of gay rights. They include:
Let them marry, of course, let them have children, if they can. If they have conditions then let them do it.
● Yes, really, they should be given liberty probably
● Just that they do not propagate this massively and the issue of children should be thought out…
● Same-sex marriages? This should be thought out…
● The response to gays is the following. Kill yourself, faggots…
● If they are trying, let them try…
● Same-sex marriages are too much for our country.
● Gays are the same humans as all.
● After all they are a minority, let them gather and go to Holland, to create something together there but not here. We are rooted Slavic people and we are not destined to be gays.
● We should deal with it in a more tolerant way.
● We should have the same attitude here as in all open world.
● I think our head of state does not respond to all letters, and to this specially will not. I think they don't have big chances… Let them write letters…
TUT.By radio reported that “Belarusian gays demand equality. They decided to send a letter to President Alexander Lukashenko, trying to attract attention to the problems of sexual minorities in this country. Moreover, Belarusian gays are going to unite in the fight for their rights with Russian gays and stage Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow during Eurovision final.”
The results of the poll conducted on TUT.By site show that around 13% have positive attitude towards homosexual people, around 25% are neutral. 38% expressed their negative attitude to gays and lesbians while 24% chose the answer “I have no connection with them”.
At the end of the radio news report the journalist suggested that “as we can see out of the responses that we got, everything is not so bad in our country.”
“I was pleasantly surprised by the responses of Belarusian respondents during the poll on the streets,” chief organiser of Moscow Pride, Nikolai Alekseev, said last night.
“They showed higher tolerance towards sexual minorities in the society. But I am glad that the movement of Slavic Gay Pride that we created less than a week ago has already lead to the start of the discussions in the society – and the media – about the rights of gays and lesbians in Belarus. This is only the beginning but it is a foundation.”
http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/08/Nov/2001.htm
Slavic Gay Pride movement opens public discussion on the rights of gays and lesbians in Belarus
MOSCOW, November 20, 2008 (GayRussia.ru) – The ‘unification seminar’ between Russian and Belarusian gay activists in Minsk last weekend – and the announcement of the creation of the Slavic Gay Pride movement with its first march on May 16 next year in Moscow – has provoked reaction not only in Russia but also in Belarus.
And the support for rights for gay men and women appears to be stronger than in Russia.
According to the website Gay.By, the Belarusian Internet radio TUT has shown interest in the concept of the Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow on Eurovision Song Contest final day.
A reporter from TUT went into the streets for some vox pops with ordinary people, asking about their attitude towards homosexual people.
The replies they go – and broadcast – were mixed, but generally supportive of gay rights. They include:
Let them marry, of course, let them have children, if they can. If they have conditions then let them do it.
● Yes, really, they should be given liberty probably
● Just that they do not propagate this massively and the issue of children should be thought out…
● Same-sex marriages? This should be thought out…
● The response to gays is the following. Kill yourself, faggots…
● If they are trying, let them try…
● Same-sex marriages are too much for our country.
● Gays are the same humans as all.
● After all they are a minority, let them gather and go to Holland, to create something together there but not here. We are rooted Slavic people and we are not destined to be gays.
● We should deal with it in a more tolerant way.
● We should have the same attitude here as in all open world.
● I think our head of state does not respond to all letters, and to this specially will not. I think they don't have big chances… Let them write letters…
TUT.By radio reported that “Belarusian gays demand equality. They decided to send a letter to President Alexander Lukashenko, trying to attract attention to the problems of sexual minorities in this country. Moreover, Belarusian gays are going to unite in the fight for their rights with Russian gays and stage Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow during Eurovision final.”
The results of the poll conducted on TUT.By site show that around 13% have positive attitude towards homosexual people, around 25% are neutral. 38% expressed their negative attitude to gays and lesbians while 24% chose the answer “I have no connection with them”.
At the end of the radio news report the journalist suggested that “as we can see out of the responses that we got, everything is not so bad in our country.”
“I was pleasantly surprised by the responses of Belarusian respondents during the poll on the streets,” chief organiser of Moscow Pride, Nikolai Alekseev, said last night.
“They showed higher tolerance towards sexual minorities in the society. But I am glad that the movement of Slavic Gay Pride that we created less than a week ago has already lead to the start of the discussions in the society – and the media – about the rights of gays and lesbians in Belarus. This is only the beginning but it is a foundation.”
http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/08/Nov/2001.htm
UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 18 Nov 2008
UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 18 Nov 2008
Will The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military Ever Be Reported?
Michael Schwartz
Will The US Government And Media Finally Report The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military? I recently received a set of questions from Le Monde Diplomatique reporter Kim Bredesen about the 2007 Project Censored story about 1,000,000 Iraqi deaths due to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The questions and answers are, I think, useful in framing both the untold story of the slaughter in Iraq and the failure of the U.S. media to report on its extent or on U.S. culpability for the deaths of 4% of the Iraqi population....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48874
"Iraq out of Iraq" and other Mousetraps...
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
...I was watching with Mom - God bless her - Al Jazeera program "Itijah al Muakess" - Opposite Directions or Views. One of the guests was an "Iraqi" Kurd, the other a Lebanese. Why on earth did Al-Jazeera feel the need to bring in a Lebanese to talk about SOFA when there are plenty of Iraqis who are opposed to the DUAL occupation ? The Kurd dismissed the question when asked about the persecution of the Iraqi Christians and literally ducked it. When grilled about American detention camps - he said " The AMERICANS NEVER ARREST ANYONE". Kamel and Omar, my close relatives are STILL IN DETENTION. As for Omar, we are not quite sure if he is alive or not. And Kamel is over 67 years old. If he ever makes out alive, that in itself would be a miracle. They are both detained by the Americans with NO CHARGES. At that point, Mom who was busy cleaning the Bamia - Okra or Ladies Fingers-said in her typical Iraqi fashion, "Nchab, kalb ibn al kalb." - Shut up, dog son of a dog. My Mom is polite...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48870
"From them the sin, and from them the forgiveness. From them the killing, and the tears. From them the massacres, and the justice of the courts."
AL-AWDA, via Annie's letters
Below is a letter from one of the young women attacked by on the Berkeley campus while standing in silent protest (because of anti-Arab sentiments expressed at a concert) with a Palestinian flag. The way the incident has been addressed by the university is perpetuating the racism experienced by these Palestinian students. Please support these students & help the authorities on the campus figure out who the 'bad guys' were in this incident. We will not stand by while those attacked are revictimized by being blamed for taking a (legal) stand against the dehumanization of Palestinians & all Arabs. This was handled badly by the school administration & we can't let this go by without response. Please send an email to the Chancellor & student affairs...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48878
James Zogby and the Politics of Perception
Remi Kanazi
James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a well known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East. This is precisely why his latest article, "Rahm Emanuel and Arab Perceptions" is so disturbing. In the piece, Zogby tries to calm the fears of Arab Americans about Barack Obama's first appointment, Rahm Emanuel, to White House Chief of Staff. Zogby expressed shock and dismay that his constituency, once euphoric over the election of Obama, was now sending him angry and cynical letters. Zogby described the emails and calls to his office as "troubled and troubling—because much of the reaction was based on misinformation and because of what the entire episode reveals about the larger political dynamic."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48879
Obama advisers: Harsh interrogators will walk
Stephen C. Webster
Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture. Speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, the advisers said that the plan is to put a stop to current interrogation methods and to "look forward" as opposed to focusing on prior transgressions....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48884
Methinks they do protest too much
William Bowles
- I’m coming across quite a few essays by lefties bemoaning the fact that Barack Obama has somehow 'let us down’. For example there’s a piece by Dave Lindorff 'Obama's First Big Mistake on the Job - Rescuing Joe Lieberman’. Mistake? There is no mistake. The gist of the piece is about the "treacherous" Joe Lieberman, former Dem, who when he lost the race for nomination as Democratic Senator for Connecticut, turned around and joined the Republicans and got elected. Okay, the guy is as Lindorff says, "…a wretched example of a man without principle—a back-stabbing slimeball of a politician whose only allegi[a]nce, apparently, besides to himself, is to Israel", something else I object to in Lindorff’s piece is his qualification of his reference to Lieberman’s Zionist 'credentials’, "Now I don’t want anyone to think I’m some rabid anti-semite. My wife and kids are Jewish, we have good friends who are Israeli, and no, I don’t think the Jews run the media or the country. I do, however, think that Joe Lieberman thinks more about what, in his warped and shriveled worldview, is good for Israel, than about what is good for America." Come on Dave, 'some of my best friends are Jews’? There’s no need to apologize for attacking Zionism, you’ll be branded as an anti-semite no matter how much you protest that you ain’t. Get used to it...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48881
Iran and the US-Iraq SOFA
Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
... Some have argued with some justification that the Iranians are sending a signal to the president-elect Barak Obama by persuading their Iraqi brethren to go along with the SOFA deal, while others have called the SOFA deal a defeat for the Iranians. Personally, I agree somewhat with the first take, while I think the SOFA agreement in and of itself is neither a threat to the Iranians nor a boon. What the Iranians want in the region is a recognized role assigned to them by the Americans as an indispensable 'partner' in the workings of the major issues concerning the long-term fate of the region. And in playing a key role in the Iraqi regime signing onto the SOFA deal, they have made a showcase of their 'indispensable' role to the Americans. This in turn should gain them some favor in other areas of their dealings with the Americans. This, again, should show to the U.S. Leftists who think the Iranian regime has some deep-seated anti-imperialist bent that no such thing will be exhibited by the Iranian state in its current setup. They want regional hegemony and the only power that can guarantee them such a status is the U.S...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48862
The Era of Magical Thinking: SOFA Smokescreens and Presidential Power
Chris Floyd
The American media is by and large swallowing the propaganda line that the Iraqi cabinet's acquiescence to a "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) with the U.S. occupation force means that the Iraq War will be over in 2011. This will further cement the conventional wisdom that the suppurating war crime in Iraq is now behind us, and the topic will be moved even further off the radar of public scrutiny. But as usual, there is a wide, yawning abyss between the packaged, freeze-dried pabulum for public consumption and the gritty, blood-flecked truth on the ground. As Jason Ditz reports at Antiwar.com, the so-called "deadline" in 2011 for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces remains, as ever, an "aspiration," not an iron-clad guarantee....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48868
Video: Taliban's increasing clout in Kandahar
AlJazeeraEnglish
The Canadians have lost a higher percentage of their troops killed in action in Afghanistan than any other country in the multinational force. Meanwhile, as Al Jazeera's David Chater reports, the Taliban are in full control again in many areas of Kandahar, where the group was born....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48864
UN human rights chief calls for end to Israeli blockade of Gaza Strip
UN News Centre
The top United Nations human rights official called today for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which she said contravened international law and had deprived those living there of their most basic human rights for months. "By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "This is in direct contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must end now," she said....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48875
Caught in Bed with Evil
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank
Crossing points into Gaza have been shut down for almost two weeks, forcing the only power plant there to stop functioning, due to the lack of fuel. Last week, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ran out of food and stopped rations’ deliveries to 750,000 residents of Gaza. Though the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now immanent, Western media refrains from reporting about the emerging disaster. Apparently, there are far more interesting things to write about, much more interesting than millions of Palestinians who are being starved by the Jewish state. However the press was kind enough to report that British foreign minister David Miliband spent some time in Israel this week....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48872
Rendered homeless, East Jerusalem's Al Kurd family now targeted in tent
Maisa Abu Ghazaleh, PNN
Director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights, Ziad Hammouri told PNN today that Israeli forces have demolished 51 houses in East Jerusalem since the beginning of 2008. He said, "The delivery of demolition orders, the destruction or confiscation of houses and the construction of settlements are all being conducted frantically by the Israelis before any solution on the issue of Jerusalem can be implemented." Hammouri added, "The new realities on the ground will be imposed de facto." This year’s demolitions are focused on East Jerusalem's Silwan and Beit Hanina. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's advisor is referring to an "open battle on Jerusalem."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48877
From Kurdistan to K Street
Inside Washington's covert foreign policy apparatus, middlemen like Shlomi Michaels are key.
Laura Rozen, Mother Jones
The routine of Washington foreign policymaking is straightforward and, well, a little boring. Presidents and secretaries of state issue pronouncements in speeches. Diplomats have discussions in ornate ceremonial rooms. That's the official version, anyhow, and even if we're well aware that reality departs from the C-Span, Foreign Affairs version of things, the rhythm, pomp, and ceremony shape our understanding of how countries relate to each other. This is a story of the other world, the one whose real power players never show up in the CNN headline crawl...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48883
Index on Past, Present and Future
Sarah Meyer, Index Research
Heimat means 'Homeland.' A boxed edition of Edgar Reitz's 1982 film, Heimat, just arrived. 6 disks (english subtitles) with an introductory booklet by David Parkinson. I would like to share Edgar Reitz's outline in his press notes on Heimat, quoted by Mr. Parkinson in "Reactions and Responses." Why? Because what seemed relevant in Germany then is now also relevant to the United States today, as the U.S. president and his retinue are getting ready to leave the White House. Hopefully there will be no more home-made disasters before this becomes an actuality...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48871
Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?
Perils of Pakistan
GEORGE C. WILSON
President-elect Obama has committed himself to stepping up the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is not an overstatement to say that he will risk his whole presidency, and perhaps even unwittingly put nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists who might use them to attack the United States, if he leaps too far into neighboring Pakistan in pursuit of elusive victory. The rub, as the Vietnam and Iraq wars showed us all, is unintended consequences. Our military leaders can, and almost certainly will, make a strong case to Obama that there is no way to defeat the Taliban and their allied tribes in Afghanistan without cleaning out their sanctuaries just over the Afghan border in Pakistan...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48869
President-elect Obama and the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace
for Israeli-Palestinian peace
United States President-elect Barack Obama's election victory has revived hopes that stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations could finally lead to a two-state solution. Few new presidents have been greeted with such optimism and associated high expectations. However, the chances for progress depend on more than a new American president. There are several interrelated factors: US engagement, the availability of a viable peace agreement, Israeli and Palestinian internal politics and the broader international situation. An examination of these factors indicates that the optimism is unjustified...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48867
URGENT: Kidnapped by the Israeli Navy
FreeGaza.org
Fifteen Palestinian fishermen along with three internationals have been kidnapped in Palestinian waters by the Israeli Navy. They were fishing seven miles off the coast of Deir Al Balah, clearly in Gaza fishing waters and well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994. The fishermen and the human right's observers were transferred from 3 separate boats to the Israeli warships. Other Palestinian fishermen reported that the 3 boats were seen being taken north by the Israeli Navy...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48866
Obama’s “seamless transition” to endless war
Bill Van Auken
President-elect Barack Obama appeared Sunday on the CBS program "60 Minutes" for his first televised interview since his November 4 election victory. He covered a wide range of subjects with a lack of specificity and a placid tone that suggested someone who had read through stacks of briefing books, but had few defined positions of his own and was above all anxious to offend no one. When asked what he had been "concentrating on" in the past week, however, his answer was unhesitating: "Number one, I think it’s important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack. We want to make sure that there is as seamless a transition on national security as possible."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48863
Israeli military invades Rafah city in southern Gaza
Rami Almeghari - IMEMC
Israeli military bulldozers, backed by armored vehicles, swept early on Tuesday morning into the eastern borders of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said that the Israeli bulldozers began razing farm lands just 50 to 100 meters depth into Palestinian areas, mainly in the Alnahda neighborhood. Witnesses added that the Israeli armored vehicles moved towards the Gaza international airport, and that they also razed farm lands in the area...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48865
Democrats Cover Up Bush Era War Crimes
George Washington's Blog
The Associated Press writes: "Two Obama advisers said there's little—if any—chance that the incoming president's Justice Department will go after anyone involved in authorizing or carrying out interrogations that provoked worldwide outrage." And when Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was asked if Bush officials could face war crimes, he responded: "In the United States, no. These things are not going to happen." This is not entirely surprising, given that Democratic congress members Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman and John D. Rockefeller were secretly briefed on torture many, many years ago, and yet did nothing to stop those unlawful programs...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48873
Iraqi Sunnis Push for Referendum on Security Pact
Democracy Now!
In Iraq, the head of the Accordance Front, Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab bloc, said on Monday that the Sunni bloc still has reservations about a security pact that would let US troops stay in Iraq for another three years. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni bloc, told reporters that the Sunnis wanted a referendum on the pact which has yet to be approved by parliament...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48876
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
Will The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military Ever Be Reported?
Michael Schwartz
Will The US Government And Media Finally Report The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military? I recently received a set of questions from Le Monde Diplomatique reporter Kim Bredesen about the 2007 Project Censored story about 1,000,000 Iraqi deaths due to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The questions and answers are, I think, useful in framing both the untold story of the slaughter in Iraq and the failure of the U.S. media to report on its extent or on U.S. culpability for the deaths of 4% of the Iraqi population....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48874
"Iraq out of Iraq" and other Mousetraps...
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
...I was watching with Mom - God bless her - Al Jazeera program "Itijah al Muakess" - Opposite Directions or Views. One of the guests was an "Iraqi" Kurd, the other a Lebanese. Why on earth did Al-Jazeera feel the need to bring in a Lebanese to talk about SOFA when there are plenty of Iraqis who are opposed to the DUAL occupation ? The Kurd dismissed the question when asked about the persecution of the Iraqi Christians and literally ducked it. When grilled about American detention camps - he said " The AMERICANS NEVER ARREST ANYONE". Kamel and Omar, my close relatives are STILL IN DETENTION. As for Omar, we are not quite sure if he is alive or not. And Kamel is over 67 years old. If he ever makes out alive, that in itself would be a miracle. They are both detained by the Americans with NO CHARGES. At that point, Mom who was busy cleaning the Bamia - Okra or Ladies Fingers-said in her typical Iraqi fashion, "Nchab, kalb ibn al kalb." - Shut up, dog son of a dog. My Mom is polite...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48870
"From them the sin, and from them the forgiveness. From them the killing, and the tears. From them the massacres, and the justice of the courts."
AL-AWDA, via Annie's letters
Below is a letter from one of the young women attacked by on the Berkeley campus while standing in silent protest (because of anti-Arab sentiments expressed at a concert) with a Palestinian flag. The way the incident has been addressed by the university is perpetuating the racism experienced by these Palestinian students. Please support these students & help the authorities on the campus figure out who the 'bad guys' were in this incident. We will not stand by while those attacked are revictimized by being blamed for taking a (legal) stand against the dehumanization of Palestinians & all Arabs. This was handled badly by the school administration & we can't let this go by without response. Please send an email to the Chancellor & student affairs...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48878
James Zogby and the Politics of Perception
Remi Kanazi
James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a well known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East. This is precisely why his latest article, "Rahm Emanuel and Arab Perceptions" is so disturbing. In the piece, Zogby tries to calm the fears of Arab Americans about Barack Obama's first appointment, Rahm Emanuel, to White House Chief of Staff. Zogby expressed shock and dismay that his constituency, once euphoric over the election of Obama, was now sending him angry and cynical letters. Zogby described the emails and calls to his office as "troubled and troubling—because much of the reaction was based on misinformation and because of what the entire episode reveals about the larger political dynamic."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48879
Obama advisers: Harsh interrogators will walk
Stephen C. Webster
Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture. Speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, the advisers said that the plan is to put a stop to current interrogation methods and to "look forward" as opposed to focusing on prior transgressions....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48884
Methinks they do protest too much
William Bowles
- I’m coming across quite a few essays by lefties bemoaning the fact that Barack Obama has somehow 'let us down’. For example there’s a piece by Dave Lindorff 'Obama's First Big Mistake on the Job - Rescuing Joe Lieberman’. Mistake? There is no mistake. The gist of the piece is about the "treacherous" Joe Lieberman, former Dem, who when he lost the race for nomination as Democratic Senator for Connecticut, turned around and joined the Republicans and got elected. Okay, the guy is as Lindorff says, "…a wretched example of a man without principle—a back-stabbing slimeball of a politician whose only allegi[a]nce, apparently, besides to himself, is to Israel", something else I object to in Lindorff’s piece is his qualification of his reference to Lieberman’s Zionist 'credentials’, "Now I don’t want anyone to think I’m some rabid anti-semite. My wife and kids are Jewish, we have good friends who are Israeli, and no, I don’t think the Jews run the media or the country. I do, however, think that Joe Lieberman thinks more about what, in his warped and shriveled worldview, is good for Israel, than about what is good for America." Come on Dave, 'some of my best friends are Jews’? There’s no need to apologize for attacking Zionism, you’ll be branded as an anti-semite no matter how much you protest that you ain’t. Get used to it...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48881
Iran and the US-Iraq SOFA
Reza Fiyouzat, Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
... Some have argued with some justification that the Iranians are sending a signal to the president-elect Barak Obama by persuading their Iraqi brethren to go along with the SOFA deal, while others have called the SOFA deal a defeat for the Iranians. Personally, I agree somewhat with the first take, while I think the SOFA agreement in and of itself is neither a threat to the Iranians nor a boon. What the Iranians want in the region is a recognized role assigned to them by the Americans as an indispensable 'partner' in the workings of the major issues concerning the long-term fate of the region. And in playing a key role in the Iraqi regime signing onto the SOFA deal, they have made a showcase of their 'indispensable' role to the Americans. This in turn should gain them some favor in other areas of their dealings with the Americans. This, again, should show to the U.S. Leftists who think the Iranian regime has some deep-seated anti-imperialist bent that no such thing will be exhibited by the Iranian state in its current setup. They want regional hegemony and the only power that can guarantee them such a status is the U.S...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48862
The Era of Magical Thinking: SOFA Smokescreens and Presidential Power
Chris Floyd
The American media is by and large swallowing the propaganda line that the Iraqi cabinet's acquiescence to a "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) with the U.S. occupation force means that the Iraq War will be over in 2011. This will further cement the conventional wisdom that the suppurating war crime in Iraq is now behind us, and the topic will be moved even further off the radar of public scrutiny. But as usual, there is a wide, yawning abyss between the packaged, freeze-dried pabulum for public consumption and the gritty, blood-flecked truth on the ground. As Jason Ditz reports at Antiwar.com, the so-called "deadline" in 2011 for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces remains, as ever, an "aspiration," not an iron-clad guarantee....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48868
Video: Taliban's increasing clout in Kandahar
AlJazeeraEnglish
The Canadians have lost a higher percentage of their troops killed in action in Afghanistan than any other country in the multinational force. Meanwhile, as Al Jazeera's David Chater reports, the Taliban are in full control again in many areas of Kandahar, where the group was born....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48864
UN human rights chief calls for end to Israeli blockade of Gaza Strip
UN News Centre
The top United Nations human rights official called today for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which she said contravened international law and had deprived those living there of their most basic human rights for months. "By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "This is in direct contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must end now," she said....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48875
Caught in Bed with Evil
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank
Crossing points into Gaza have been shut down for almost two weeks, forcing the only power plant there to stop functioning, due to the lack of fuel. Last week, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ran out of food and stopped rations’ deliveries to 750,000 residents of Gaza. Though the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now immanent, Western media refrains from reporting about the emerging disaster. Apparently, there are far more interesting things to write about, much more interesting than millions of Palestinians who are being starved by the Jewish state. However the press was kind enough to report that British foreign minister David Miliband spent some time in Israel this week....
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48872
Rendered homeless, East Jerusalem's Al Kurd family now targeted in tent
Maisa Abu Ghazaleh, PNN
Director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights, Ziad Hammouri told PNN today that Israeli forces have demolished 51 houses in East Jerusalem since the beginning of 2008. He said, "The delivery of demolition orders, the destruction or confiscation of houses and the construction of settlements are all being conducted frantically by the Israelis before any solution on the issue of Jerusalem can be implemented." Hammouri added, "The new realities on the ground will be imposed de facto." This year’s demolitions are focused on East Jerusalem's Silwan and Beit Hanina. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's advisor is referring to an "open battle on Jerusalem."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48877
From Kurdistan to K Street
Inside Washington's covert foreign policy apparatus, middlemen like Shlomi Michaels are key.
Laura Rozen, Mother Jones
The routine of Washington foreign policymaking is straightforward and, well, a little boring. Presidents and secretaries of state issue pronouncements in speeches. Diplomats have discussions in ornate ceremonial rooms. That's the official version, anyhow, and even if we're well aware that reality departs from the C-Span, Foreign Affairs version of things, the rhythm, pomp, and ceremony shape our understanding of how countries relate to each other. This is a story of the other world, the one whose real power players never show up in the CNN headline crawl...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48883
Index on Past, Present and Future
Sarah Meyer, Index Research
Heimat means 'Homeland.' A boxed edition of Edgar Reitz's 1982 film, Heimat, just arrived. 6 disks (english subtitles) with an introductory booklet by David Parkinson. I would like to share Edgar Reitz's outline in his press notes on Heimat, quoted by Mr. Parkinson in "Reactions and Responses." Why? Because what seemed relevant in Germany then is now also relevant to the United States today, as the U.S. president and his retinue are getting ready to leave the White House. Hopefully there will be no more home-made disasters before this becomes an actuality...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48871
Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?
Perils of Pakistan
GEORGE C. WILSON
President-elect Obama has committed himself to stepping up the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is not an overstatement to say that he will risk his whole presidency, and perhaps even unwittingly put nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists who might use them to attack the United States, if he leaps too far into neighboring Pakistan in pursuit of elusive victory. The rub, as the Vietnam and Iraq wars showed us all, is unintended consequences. Our military leaders can, and almost certainly will, make a strong case to Obama that there is no way to defeat the Taliban and their allied tribes in Afghanistan without cleaning out their sanctuaries just over the Afghan border in Pakistan...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48869
President-elect Obama and the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace
for Israeli-Palestinian peace
United States President-elect Barack Obama's election victory has revived hopes that stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations could finally lead to a two-state solution. Few new presidents have been greeted with such optimism and associated high expectations. However, the chances for progress depend on more than a new American president. There are several interrelated factors: US engagement, the availability of a viable peace agreement, Israeli and Palestinian internal politics and the broader international situation. An examination of these factors indicates that the optimism is unjustified...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48867
URGENT: Kidnapped by the Israeli Navy
FreeGaza.org
Fifteen Palestinian fishermen along with three internationals have been kidnapped in Palestinian waters by the Israeli Navy. They were fishing seven miles off the coast of Deir Al Balah, clearly in Gaza fishing waters and well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994. The fishermen and the human right's observers were transferred from 3 separate boats to the Israeli warships. Other Palestinian fishermen reported that the 3 boats were seen being taken north by the Israeli Navy...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48866
Obama’s “seamless transition” to endless war
Bill Van Auken
President-elect Barack Obama appeared Sunday on the CBS program "60 Minutes" for his first televised interview since his November 4 election victory. He covered a wide range of subjects with a lack of specificity and a placid tone that suggested someone who had read through stacks of briefing books, but had few defined positions of his own and was above all anxious to offend no one. When asked what he had been "concentrating on" in the past week, however, his answer was unhesitating: "Number one, I think it’s important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack. We want to make sure that there is as seamless a transition on national security as possible."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48863
Israeli military invades Rafah city in southern Gaza
Rami Almeghari - IMEMC
Israeli military bulldozers, backed by armored vehicles, swept early on Tuesday morning into the eastern borders of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said that the Israeli bulldozers began razing farm lands just 50 to 100 meters depth into Palestinian areas, mainly in the Alnahda neighborhood. Witnesses added that the Israeli armored vehicles moved towards the Gaza international airport, and that they also razed farm lands in the area...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48865
Democrats Cover Up Bush Era War Crimes
George Washington's Blog
The Associated Press writes: "Two Obama advisers said there's little—if any—chance that the incoming president's Justice Department will go after anyone involved in authorizing or carrying out interrogations that provoked worldwide outrage." And when Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was asked if Bush officials could face war crimes, he responded: "In the United States, no. These things are not going to happen." This is not entirely surprising, given that Democratic congress members Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman and John D. Rockefeller were secretly briefed on torture many, many years ago, and yet did nothing to stop those unlawful programs...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48873
Iraqi Sunnis Push for Referendum on Security Pact
Democracy Now!
In Iraq, the head of the Accordance Front, Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab bloc, said on Monday that the Sunni bloc still has reservations about a security pact that would let US troops stay in Iraq for another three years. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni bloc, told reporters that the Sunnis wanted a referendum on the pact which has yet to be approved by parliament...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48876
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
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 19, 2008 ~
Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines November 19, 2008 ~
Israeli Authorities demolish a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem
The Israeli Authorities demolished on Tuesday a Palestinian home in Al Esawiyya town, in east Jerusalem, arrested three residents and attacked seven others including a number of women.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57709
Abdul-Qader: Israel is launching an open war against the Palestinians in Jerusalem
Hatim Abdul-Qader, Jerusalem Affairs advisor to the Palestinian President, stated on Tuesday that Israel is waging an open war against the Palestinians and their homes in Jerusalem, and is encouraging hostile activities against the Palestinians in order to force them out of city.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57710
Settlers block road near Nablus, stone Palestinian cars
Israeli settlers blocked the bypass road linking the West Bank cities of Nablus and Qalqilia, near the village of Madama on Tuesday night, witnesses said. Hassan Zyadeh a municipal council member in Madama said the settlers prevented Palestinian vehicles from passing into the village and pelted their cars with stones.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33334
Israeli army stands by while settlers attack in Burin
In the village of Burin on Tuesday November 18th, armed settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar attacked Palestinian villagers, throwing rocks and shooting in the air. At 8:40 pm, the houses of Khalib Kasam and his extended family, near Route 60, were assaulted by approximately twenty settlers. Shortly after, the mayor of Burin called the DCO (District Coordination Office) who sent the Israeli army. The army set up a checkpoint, stopping Israeli and Palestinian cars, then telling the drivers to keep going. Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses, settlers hid in the bushes and trees 50 meters away and threw rocks at several Palestinian cars, which as a result of the checkpoint, were easy, slow-moving targets. Although the army was present during the violence, no settlers were held accountable.
http://www.palsolidarity..org/main/2008/11/19/israeli-army-stands-by-while-settlers-attack-in-burin/
Israel arrests Fatah leader for possession of hunting rifle
Israeli forces arrested a Fatah leader in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday for possession of a hunting rifle. Palestinian sources told Ma'an that Israeli troops seized 22-year-old Jamal Thabet, a member of the local Fatah committee, from his house in the village of Azmut. Israeli troops in eight military vehicles also attacked a student's house within the same area.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33336
Five seized at East Jerusalem house demolition protest
A Palestinian and four internationals were taken into Israeli police custody at a protest in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to a statement. The five were demonstrating against the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in Sheikh Jarrah, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, where the house was demolished by Israeli forces on 9 November. The home, which belonged to the Al-Kurd family, was built on private Palestinian property, the statement claimed.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33351
Israeli forces hold dozens of youths in raid south of Bethlehem
Israeli forces raided the village of Tuqu, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem at dawn on Wednesday and imposed a curfew. Witnesses said that dozens of military vehicles raided the village. Israeli soldiers rounded dozens of young men into a school, where they are being interrogated. Witnesses added that Israeli troops stormed houses and damaged property. In enforcing the curfew they used a public address system to order students not to go to school and residents not to attend the morning prayer.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index..php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33337
Hamas: Fateh forces in the arrested 17 Hamas supporters in the West Bank
Hamas movement stated on Tuesday that Fateh security forces arrested 17 members and supporters of the movement in several West Bank areas.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57708
Israel arrests 14 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli troops arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank in a continued crackdown against what the Jewish state called as wanted Palestinian activists, Palestinian sources said Wednesday. The arrests took place during raids into the cities of Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Hebron, according to the sources.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_ 10382095.htm
Israeli military detains four residents from Nablus City
Israeli military detained on Wednesday four Palestinian residents from the West Bank city of Nablus, as the soldiers ransacked the detainees' houses.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57714
Israeli forces arrest Gaza fishermen and solidarity activists
At around 9am on Tuesday, 18 November 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacked Palestinian fishing boats off the central Gaza Strip's shore. IOF continued to seal off the Gaza Strip for the thirteenth day in a row, allowing only a limited number of trucks loaded with commodities and food to enter the Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9971.shtml
Fifteen Palestinian fishermen released
19th November Update: The fifteen Palestinian fishermen who were abducted from Palestinian waters by the Israeli navy on the 18th November have been released. Their boats, however, have yet to be returned.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/18/fifteen-palestinian-fishermen-released/
Israeli military continues rampage in the Taqou' village
Israeli military continued on Wednesday rampage throughout the West Bank village of Taqou, detaining dozens of youth after ransacking many houses.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57713
Israeli army imposes curfew in West Bank village
AFP-The Israeli army imposed a curfew on a Palestinian village near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, questioning dozens of men, security sources and witnesses said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbank
Israeli court holds hearing on the file of Maghareba gate events
The Israeli court in Jerusalem held Tuesday a hearing on the file of the Maghareba gate events and the indictment charge leveled against Sheikh Ra'ed Salah and four of his colleagues.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Two Palestinian lawmakers sentenced to prison terms
Two Palestinian members of parliament were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and fined by an Israeli military court on Tuesday. Lawmaker Samir Al-Qadi was sentenced to 42 months in prison and a 7,500 shekel fine. Al-Qadi was originally sentenced to just 28 months. Bassem Az-Za'arir was sentenced to 26 months in prison and 9 months probation. Both men are members of Hamas' Change and Reform Bloc, and are from the West Bank city of Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33345
Israel spurns UN plea to ease Gaza blockade
AP-Israel stood fast Wednesday by its decision to clamp shut cargo crossings at the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
http://news.yahoo..com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ palestinians
UNRWA facing "grave and imminent financial crisis"
The United Nations' relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is facing "a grave and imminent crisis," a senior official announced on Wednesday. The Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Karen AbuZayd said the agency's General Fund, which funds UNRWA's core services will suffer an 87 million US dollar shortfall beginning next year.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33355
UN envoy urges Gaza blockade end
Aid was allowed in to Gaza on Monday but Israel then shut the crossings. The UN's top human rights official has said Israel's blockade of Gaza deprives Palestinians of the "most basic human rights" and should end immediately.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7735945.stm
UN: Israel Violating Law in Gaza
The U.N.'s top human rights official says the Israeli blockade of Gaza is depriving Palestinians of their most basic human rights.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-18-voa8.cfm
Israel renews blockade of Gaza crossings
Reuters-Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081119/wl_nm/us_israel_palestinians
Egypt court says aid must be allowed into Gaza
Presently, Egypt has limited humanitarian trucks from entering Gaza as part of its border crackdown in line with Israeli policies.
http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/egypt-court-says-aid-must-be-allowed-into-gaza-2008111415989.html
Statements of UN High Commissioner regarding the siege anger Israel
Israeli was "angered" by the statements of Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; as she called on Israel to immediately lift its blockade over the Gaza Strip as this siege violates the international and humanitarian law.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57712
Many sections of Shifa hospital closed because of fuel depletion
Several wards and medical equipment in the compound of Shifa hospital, one of the biggest medical institutions in Gaza, stopped operating as a result of power outages and the depletion of fuel.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Zahhar: Truce isn't given for gratis, and those who need it should abide by it
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar has asserted Tuesday that the calm with the Israeli occupation couldn't be given for gratis.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Hamas: The truce does not mean the resistance cannot protect its people
The Hamas Movement stated Tuesday that the truce does not mean that the Palestinian resistance is not supposed to protect the Gaza people from the Israeli aggression.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Bashour: RoR of Palestinian refugees couldn't be compromised
Ma'en Bashour has affirmed Tuesday that the RoR was a personal, national, popular, and human right that couldn't be compromised.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Abu Marzouk: Hamas will attend the meeting of Arab foreign ministers
Dr. Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, stated that Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, understood Hamas's request to participate in the meeting of Arab foreign ministers to be held in Cairo on the 26th of this month.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/
Hamas denies reports on its acceptance to extend Abbas' term
Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Wednesday denied reports that it had accepted to extend President Mahmoud Abbas' term in exchange for joining the presidency's institutions.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_10382741.htm
Islamic Jihad: Hamas will appoint own president if Abbas refuses to step down
Hamas will likely appoint its own president if Mahmoud Abbas does not step down at the end of his term on 9 January, a senior Islamic Jihad leader predicted on Wednesday. In an interview in Cairo, Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Al-Hindi predicted "more exchange of blame, and president Abbas will find a legal [justification to stay], and he will gain Arab and European support. However, Hamas will appoint its own president, and that might be the PLC speaker.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33353
PA: 'Hamas is staging Gaza blackouts'
Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah accused Hamas on Tuesday of staging the latest blackouts in the Gaza Strip in a bid to win sympathy and incite the Palestinian public against Israel and the PA. The officials said that contrary to Hamas's claim, there is no shortage of basic goods, medicine and fuel in the Gaza Strip, largely thanks to the many underground tunnels along the border with Egypt.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404771503& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Ramallah Palestinian Authority blocks website reporting on corruption
The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah has blocked access to a popular news website because of the site's reporting on widespread corruption among the entourage of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. For several days, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been unable to view the website Donia al-Watan ( http://www.alwatanvoice.com) as access has been blocked through the PA-controlled telecom company. Readers outside Palestine and a few inside the country using proxies are still able to access the site. The Electronic Intifada confirmed that several users attempting to access the website in Ramallah and other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank could not do so and instead saw a message in English stating "We are sorry, the site was blocked based on attorney General instructions [sic]."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9972.shtml
University workers protest at prime minister's office in Ramallah
Palestinian university workers and legislators staged a sti-in in front of the Prime Ministers' Office in the West Bank city of Ramallah to bring attention to their fight for increased pay. Unions at universities in the West Bank and Gaza have waged a series of strikes, saying that the Palestinian Authority's Council on Higher Education, has not addressed their concerns. Another two-day strike began on Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33331
Who stole Palestinian prisoners' money?
Palestinian Ministry for Prisoner Affairs allots millions of shekels every year for residents held in Israeli prisons. Ynet learns PA has launched investigation into disappearance of inmates' canteen allowance; senior official arrested.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625306,00.html
Miliband says 2009 'year of change' in Mideast
AFP-Visiting Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday he hoped 2009 would see a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement given changes in the US and Israeli administrations and elections in the region.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonbritaindiplomacy
Peres: Obama 'very impressed' by Arab League peace plan
LONDON-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama proclaimed himself "very impressed" with the Arab League's peace plan when he discussed it with President Shimon Peres during a brief visit to Israel four months ago, Peres said Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038636.html
Obama calls Abbas, promises to back peace talks: official
AFP-US president-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and vowed to continue pushing Middle East peace efforts, a senior official said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/pl_afp/mideastusdiplomacyobama
PA negotiator: Obama told Abbas he'd spare no effort to see Mideast peace
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has called the Palestinian president and told him that peace is a vital interest for Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038898.html
Israel ex-army chief to stand for opposition in February poll
AFP-Israel's former army chief Reserve General Moshe Yaalon announced on Tuesday that he will be a candidate for the right-wing opposition Likud in February general elections.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastisraelpoliticslikud
Yaalon: Withdrawals must end
Newest addition to Likud holds press conference with Netanyahu, says decision to enter politics followed lengthy deliberation, but he 'couldn't just sit idly by'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625081,00.html
Palestinian PM nixes Netanyahu plan for Mideast peace
AFP-Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad rejected proposals by Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu for an economic solution to the Middle East conflict, in comments published on Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictpalestinianfayy ad
Foreign Reporters' Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza
JERUSALEM — An association representing international news organizations is campaigning for an end to an unusual Israeli policy barring foreign reporters from entering Gaza that has lasted for almost two weeks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/middleeast/19gaza. html?_r=1&ref=world
Israel MP moves into settler house despite evacuation order
AFP-A right-wing Israeli MP on Tuesday joined a group of Jewish settlers living in a controversial house in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron which the High Court ordered them to evict.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbanksettler court
Jewish West Bank settlers defy evacuation order
AFP-About 100 Jewish settlers on Wednesday defied a High Court order to evacuate a house in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, and braced for possible confrontation with police.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictsettlercourt
MIDEAST: On Top of Humanitarian Disaster, A News Blackout
Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete closure of Gaza's borders for the last two weeks.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news. asp?idnews=44745
Foreign Reporters' Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza
Israel has almost entirely sealed crossing points along its border with Gaza since a five-month cease-fire with Hamas began to unravel on Nov. 4.
http://www..nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/middleeast/19gaza.html
Khudari warns: Gaza population might march towards crossings
Alarm sirens wailed in northern Gaza on Tuesday as the anti siege committee members and foreign solidarity activists marched near Beit Hanun crossing to protest the IOA closure of all Gaza crossings.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
NY-Rights groups protest Hebron settlement fundraiser
Adalah-NY, Brooklyn for Peace rally outside Marriott Marquis hotel against fundraiser held there by settlement group, chant 'Hebron's settlers, Klu Klux Klan, racist groups go hand in hand'.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/18/ynet-ny-rights-groups-protest-hebron-settlement-fundraiser/
UK protestors call Peres 'war criminal'
President's address in front of 1,000 Oxford University students interrupted by small group of demonstrators claiming Israel ethnically cleansed Palestinians, calling for end to Gaza siege. Peres: We don't need your permission to stay alive.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625214,00.html
A London demonstration protesting at Israel's president visit to the region
Scores of British Palestinians and some solidarity campaigners staged today noon a demonstration in front of the UK parliament premises , in protest against the visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres, to the region.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57718
Comments from the Angry Arab
"I am an avid reader of your blog and I have a story for you from Oxford. Tonight, on 18th November 2008, Balliol College of Oxford University hosted Israeli President Shimon Peres in our university's most prestigious venue, the Old Sheldonian Theatre. They honoured him not only with this platform, to speak on the topic 'The Globalisation of Peace'(!), but also with the announcement that this would constitute the first in a lecture series entitled 'Peace Lectures: Inaugurated by Shimon Peres'. We, the Oxford Arab Cultural Society and the Oxford Students' Palestine Society, alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and concerned members of the public, held a demonstration outside starting over an hour before the talk, and lasting-audibly-throughout Peres' speech. Some of us attended the lecture and, at intervals, nine students got up and made loud statements beginning 'I represent all the Palestinians who...' One such student was bundled out of the lecture hall. Peres was visiblyfazed by these interruptions and the sound of the protestors outside, while the audience were thus made aware of the point of view being stifled by Peres' presence today in Oxford, and every day in Palestine. Several letters of opposition have been presented to the Master of Balliol, Andrew Graham, among which was one from a prominent group of South African anti-apartheid activists (attached below). We hope that there will be publicity for this opposition, and for the events of today, as part of our ongoing protest to show that the head of the Israeli state is not welcome here..." [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2008/11/pro-palestinian-protestors-interrupted.html
2 arrested at Gaza protest outside Ministry of Defense
Approximately 200 people held a vigil outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, protesting the recent flare-up of violence in the Gaza Strip and what they called the "occupation, suffocation, and liquidation" of the Palestinian people. Police arrested two protesters for disturbing the peace, but the vigil, which lasted for over an hour, was otherwise peaceful.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404770059& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty: Boymelgreen out of Toronto, Brooklyn and Palestine!
On November 15, as part of the International Week Against the Apartheid Wall, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) erected a reinforced cement wall in front of the Toronto building '50 On the Park' at 50 Portland Street. This building is owned by wealthy real estate developer Leviev-Boymelgreen, which has projects in Toronto and Brooklyn, and which also builds illegal settlements in the West Bank.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1780.shtml
Cyclers against the Wall tear down the Apartheid Wall
On November 16, Forum Palestina and Palestinian solidarity activists in Rome built a mock wall across the main street, Via dei Fori Imperiali, in the center of Rome to protest the Apartheid Wall being built in Palestine. A critical mass group called Cyclers Against the Wall participated in the event, and with the wave of the "starting" flag – a Palestinian flag – the cyclists drove at the mock wall, and broke it down.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1781.shtml
'Palestinian banks are better than Israeli banks'
Jihad al-Wazir, governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, was 25 years old when his father, Khalil al-Wazir-better known as Abu Jihad was assassinated. It happened in their Tunis home in April 1988.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038831.html
PNA to publish advertisement first time on Israeli media
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will publish its first advertisement on Israeli media this week, calling on Israelis to support a Saudi-proposed peace plan, Israeli news service Ynet reported Tuesday. The public statement will appear on Israeli newspapers as of Thursday, marking the first time that the PNA uses this channel to communicate with the Israeli public, said the report, adding that similar advertisement will be published in American and European newspapers as well.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_10378084.htm
Israel to boycott Durban II anti-racism conference
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced Wednesday that Israel has made a final decision to boycott the United Nations "Durban II" conference on human rights this spring, fearing it would be used once again as a forum for anti-Israeli sentiment..
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038897.html
Target Practice in Gaza
What came first: the chicken or the egg? And who started the latest round of clashes in Gaza: the Israelis or the Palestinians? Depending on whom one asks, the answer will be different every time-the Israelis, the Palestinians, both are guilty, it depends… On November 5, Israeli forces entered Gaza, killing six Palestinians in the process. Since then, Palestinian fighters have been clashing with Israeli troops and dodging Israeli missiles.. In response to every Israeli action, they play their only card-they fire homemade rockets into Israel. To date, 16 Palestinians have been killed, with zero Israeli fatalities recorded. Palestinians say Israel made the first move by entering Gaza in an unwarranted and aggressive manner. Israel, on the other hand, says it was responding to rumors of possible kidnapping attempts against Israeli soldiers and the threat of more rocket attacks. But debating who started the latest round of violence is an unproductive pastime. Instead, considering the timing and the consequences of these hostilities yields a much more interesting though sad tale.
http://www.miftah.org/Display. cfm?DocId=18207&CategoryId=3
…
Extrajudicial Assassinations As Official Israeli Policy
Extra-judicial killings are indefensible, morally abhorrent, and illegal under international laws and norms. Article 23b of the 1907 Hague Regulations prohibits "assassination, proscription, or outlawry of an enemy, or putting a price upon an enemy's head, as well as offering a reward for any enemy 'dead or alive.' " Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." UDHR also recognizes the "inherent dignity (and the) equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family."
http://globalresearch..ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11041
Crossing the Line looks at Obama's "change" for Palestine
This week on Crossing The Line: With a resounding victory, United States President-elect Barrack Hussein Obama made history on the evening of 4 November 2008. Running on the slogan "Change You Can Believe In," many are hoping that after eight years of the Bush administration, change has finally arrived. But what about change for the Palestinians and their untenable situation? What change can Obama bring to the world's longest-standing refugee population? We'll speak to Kathleen and Bill Christison both formerly with the US Central Intelligence Agency about this issue.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9970.shtml
Settler rabbi: State of Israel is an enemy of the people
"The state of Israel has become the enemy of the people and the land of Israel," settler rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe said Tuesday during an emergency meeting on the state's plan to evacuate a house in Hebron whose ownership has been at the center of a bitter dispute for over a year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038565.html
Alperon's sister: Whoever killed Ya'akov, the same will be done to his children
At around 1 P.M. Tuesday afternoon the funeral procession of underworld kingpin Ya'akov Alperon, who was killed in a car bombing in Tel Aviv Monday morning, set out from his home in Ra'anana. Hundreds of people accompanied his coffin to the cemetery at Kfar Nahman.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038513.html
Israeli mob swears vengeance as it buries boss
For a moment, as the first few of the hundreds of mourners came up the cypress-lined avenue to the main cemetery on the edge of this prosperous satellite town outside Tel Aviv, the menfolk donning kippas, you could have mistaken it for any Israeli funeral.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-mob-swears-vengeance-as-it-buries-boss-
1024601.html
Meir Porush's son beaten as haredi confrontations continue
In another incident demonstrating the escalating tensions between rival camps within the haredi community, the son of United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush was beaten and knocked to the ground Monday. Yisrael Porush confirmed that he had been attacked but added that he did not want to provide details of the incident for fear it would lead to the desecration of God's name.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404770681& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A secular mayor for Jerusalem
THE hollowness of Israel's rhetoric about "united Jerusalem" is never starker than on local election day, when the city's 537,000 adults, together with the rest of Israel, can go to the polls to pick their new mayor. Among Jerusalem's Palestinians, who make up some 30% of the citizenry, hardly anyone bothers to vote. In East Jerusalem, the mainly Arab part of the city captured and annexed by Israel in 1967, polling stations in schools and public buildings stay yawningly empty, apart from a trickle of municipal employees and their families.
http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12609920
Britain resumes high-level intelligence links with Syria: report
AFP-Britain re-established high-level intelligence links with the Syrian authorities as Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Damascus, the Times newspaper said Wednesday citing senior Syrian officials.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_afp/mideastsyriabritaindiplomacyintelligence
Peres: Withdrawal from the Golan will only be under Israeli conditions
Israeli President, Shimon Peres, said that if Syria wants the Golan Heights back it must proof that it is ready for peace, and must change its policies, such as its relation with Iran and Hezbollah.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57707
Israel may cede control of Lebanon village to UN
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to call several senior defense officials Wednesday to discuss the possibility of pulling out of the northern part of the border village of Ghajar and relinquishing control to UN forces.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038579.html
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon?
Northwest of Ghajar Village, South Lebanon : "We, as Lebanese, are here to confirm that we cling to freeing every grain of our soil. We will not abandon the great national cause, which is the continuation of the liberation of our land. The resistance looks forward to hoisting the flags of victory again over the Kfarshuba hills, Shebaa Farms, Ghajar and Abbasieh where 80 percent of the land is still occupied" -- Sheik Nabil Qwork, Hezbollah leader addressing villagers at Abbasieh Village, 10/2008
http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb11182008.html
Tuesday: 23 Iraqis Killed, 35 Wounded
At least 23 Iraqis were killed and 35 more were wounded in the latest reports of violence. In political news, elections have been set for Jan. 31 in most of Iraq's 18 provinces. The top Iraqi cleric gave tacit support to a U..S.-Iraqi security agreement now being debated in parliament. Meanwhile, Corruption watchdog group, Transparency International, has called Iraq the third most corrupt country in the world, and demonstrators are moving their vigil for an Iranian dissident group living in Iraq from New York to Washington.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13784
IRAQ: At long last, an election date
Amid the drama over the Iraqi Cabinet's decision to approve a security pact giving American forces another three years on the ground here, it was easy to miss another milestone. The Cabinet has formally announced the date for provincial elections: Jan. 31, 2009. The decision, announced Tuesday, is the first time a date has been declared. The provincial election law passed by Parliament in September only said that the vote should be held by Jan. 31 but left in the air exactly when it would happen. This gives the country's political groups time to get ready for the official two-month campaigning period, which will begin Dec. 1. With luck and organization, it will give election officials time to arrange what is sure to be a massive undertaking.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/11/iraq-at-long-la.html
Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story-Iraq security pact-Nov 17
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2008/11/al-jazeera-video-inside-story-iraq.html
2011 US Iraq withdrawal depends on conditions on the ground, says Admiral Mullen
US military leaders are comfortable with a 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq but it should depend on conditions on the ground, the US military chief has said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/3474933/2011-US-Iraq-withdrawal-depends-on-conditions
-on-the-ground-says-Admiral-Mullen.html
Under Iraq troop pact, U.S. can't leave any forces behind
BAGHDAD — The status of forces of agreement between the United States and Iraq is now called the withdrawal agreement, and that's exactly what it is: an ultimate end to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
http://www.mcclatchydc..com/iraq/story/56110.html
Unofficial Translation of U.S.-Iraq Troop Agreement from the Arabic Text
Translated from the Arabic by Sahar Issa, Jenan Hussein and Hussein Kadhim of the McClatchy Baghdad Bureau.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/56116.html
Maliki defends troop pact; Sadr demands its rejection
McClatchy Newspapers-BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Tuesday urged the Iraqi public to support the new pact that calls for withdrawing American forces as his most determined opponent, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr, once again urged the parliament to vote down the agreement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081118/wl_mcclatchy/3103860
Small Iraqi party says it will not support US pact
A small Shiite party said Wednesday that a U..S.-Iraqi security pact allowing American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years infringes on Iraqi sovereignty, and vowed to vote against the deal in parliament. Even without the support of the Fadhila party's 15 lawmakers, the agreement is likely to be approved when the 275-seat parliament votes Nov. 24. The political parties that comprise Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ruling coalition dominate the legislature, and his Cabinet approved the deal with Washington on Sunday.
http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2008/11/small-iraqi-party-says-it-will-not-support-us-pact
Iraq bids farewell to US arms
The security pact between the United States and Iraq closes the door to a further US military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the US military that appears to be irreversible. What was supposed to be a client regime was instead waiting for the right moment to assert real control.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK20Ak02.html
Iraq arrests senior Iranian commando at airport
Iraqi security forces have arrested an alleged "senior" Iranian commando from the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The military said they suspected the man of "involvement in facilitating Iranian weapons.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/19/60406.html
US arrests suspected Iranian agent in Iraq
AP-The U.S. military says it has arrested an alleged senior member of the Iranian security forces suspected of funneling weapons into Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_ iranian_arrested
Iraq discovers remains of 150 Kurds in south Iraq
Reuters-Iraqi officials flew the remains of 150 Kurds found in a mass grave home to Kurdistan on Wednesday, after a moving ceremony that paid tribute to victims of repression under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081119/wl_nm/us_iraq_graves
Iraqis accused of killing soldiers at risk of torture, court told
Two Iraqis accused of killing British soldiers risk being tortured and executed, in violation of their human rights, if they are tried in Iraq for war crimes, the high court was told yesterday. Faisal Al-Saadoon, 56, and Khalaf Mufdhi, 58, who are being held by British forces in Basra, are accused of murdering Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/19/iraq-human-rights
Straw defends his role in Iraq war after ex-law lord brands conflict 'illegal'
Lord Goldsmith and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw defended their actions after Lord Bingham, the former senior law lord and one of Britain's most respected judicial experts, described the military action by Britain and the US as a " serious violation of international law".
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086902/Straw-defends-role-Iraq-war-ex-law-lord-brands-conflict-
illegal.html?ITO=1490
Will The US Government And Media Finally Report The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military?
I recently received a set of questions from Le Monde Diplomatique reporter Kim Bredesen about the 2007 Project Censored story about 1,000,000 Iraqi deaths due to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The questions and answers are, I think, useful in framing both the untold story of the slaughter in Iraq and the failure of the U.S. media to report on its extent or on U.S. culpability for the deaths of 4% of the Iraqi population.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-schwartz/will-the-slaughter-of-ira_b_143503.html
Steve Fainaru on "Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq"
Top Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly reviewing a draft indictment against six Blackwater security guards who opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square more than a year ago killing seventeen Iraqi civilians. The indictments would mark the first time armed private contractors from the United States face justice. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post correspondent Steve Fainaru about his new book Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/steve_fainaru_on_ big_boy_rules
Urgent International Push for Pollard
With Prime Minister Ehud Olmert scheduled to leave in a few days for a parting visit with U.S. President George W. Bush – who will leave office in two months' time, just a few weeks before Olmert is to be replaced –massive pressure is being exerted on Olmert to ask Bush for a pardon.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128444
On Rahm Emanuel
There's been a lot of speculation about the foreign-policy implications of Rep.. Rahm Emanuel serving as Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, much of which, of course, is …speculation. Below are two of the less fevered and somewhat more reassuring analyses of Emanuel and his views on the Middle East — one by Jim Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), the other by Lara Friedman, the policy and government relations director of Americans for Peace Now (APN). Both groups, of course, worked with the Clinton administration on the Oslo process and are strongly committed to a two-state solution, etc.
http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=203#more-203
NO FREE PASS FOR RAHM EMANUEL
James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute, a well-known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East. This is precisely why his latest article, "Rahm Emanuel and Arab Perceptions,"
published by The Huffington Post, is so disturbing. Remi Kanazi comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9974.shtml
Obama advisers: Harsh interrogators will walk
Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_admin_wont_prosecure_ Bush_war_1117.html
Essential Reading for Obama
In the weeks until his inauguration on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be focusing on the most immediate tasks of assembling a new administration and familiarizing himself with the depth of domestic and foreign crises confronting the Unites States. Once in the White House, President Obama will have to grapple with the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their manifestations in the area of human rights and law. But the catalogue of failures of the outgoing administration of George W Bush is long. If President Obama is to succeed in delivering on the promises raised by his victory, he may find it useful to read some of the pages from the catalogue of failures of his predecessor. They shed light on the blunders that made America's crises.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14401
Al Qaida No. 2: Obama guilty of betraying Muslim roots in backing Israel
Al Qaeda's second-in-command urged Muslims to continue attacks on "criminal" America and slammed U.S. president-elect Barack Obama for vowing to back Israel during his campaign.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038917.html
Cornel West on the Election of Barack Obama: "I Hope He Is a Progressive Lincoln, I Aspire to Be the Frederick Douglass to Put Pressure on Him"
Princeton University professor of religion and African American studies, Cornel West, speaks about the election of Barack Obama, his selection of Eric Holder to be Attorney General, the possible selection of Lawrence Summers to be Treasury Secretary and the role of the progressive left to push Obama. West is the author of the new book Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/cornel_west_on_the_ election_of
The Koran, punk rock and lots of questions
This much Hiba Siddiqui knows: She is a Muslim teenager living in America. But what does that mean for her? The front door shuts with a thud, and Hiba Siddiqui heeds her father's footsteps, heavy from a day at work, plodding across the foyer downstairs.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/457493688/la-na-muslimteen19-2008nov19,0,975087.story
--
www.TheHeadlines.org
Israeli Authorities demolish a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem
The Israeli Authorities demolished on Tuesday a Palestinian home in Al Esawiyya town, in east Jerusalem, arrested three residents and attacked seven others including a number of women.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57709
Abdul-Qader: Israel is launching an open war against the Palestinians in Jerusalem
Hatim Abdul-Qader, Jerusalem Affairs advisor to the Palestinian President, stated on Tuesday that Israel is waging an open war against the Palestinians and their homes in Jerusalem, and is encouraging hostile activities against the Palestinians in order to force them out of city.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57710
Settlers block road near Nablus, stone Palestinian cars
Israeli settlers blocked the bypass road linking the West Bank cities of Nablus and Qalqilia, near the village of Madama on Tuesday night, witnesses said. Hassan Zyadeh a municipal council member in Madama said the settlers prevented Palestinian vehicles from passing into the village and pelted their cars with stones.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33334
Israeli army stands by while settlers attack in Burin
In the village of Burin on Tuesday November 18th, armed settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar attacked Palestinian villagers, throwing rocks and shooting in the air. At 8:40 pm, the houses of Khalib Kasam and his extended family, near Route 60, were assaulted by approximately twenty settlers. Shortly after, the mayor of Burin called the DCO (District Coordination Office) who sent the Israeli army. The army set up a checkpoint, stopping Israeli and Palestinian cars, then telling the drivers to keep going. Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses, settlers hid in the bushes and trees 50 meters away and threw rocks at several Palestinian cars, which as a result of the checkpoint, were easy, slow-moving targets. Although the army was present during the violence, no settlers were held accountable.
http://www.palsolidarity..org/main/2008/11/19/israeli-army-stands-by-while-settlers-attack-in-burin/
Israel arrests Fatah leader for possession of hunting rifle
Israeli forces arrested a Fatah leader in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday for possession of a hunting rifle. Palestinian sources told Ma'an that Israeli troops seized 22-year-old Jamal Thabet, a member of the local Fatah committee, from his house in the village of Azmut. Israeli troops in eight military vehicles also attacked a student's house within the same area.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33336
Five seized at East Jerusalem house demolition protest
A Palestinian and four internationals were taken into Israeli police custody at a protest in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to a statement. The five were demonstrating against the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in Sheikh Jarrah, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, where the house was demolished by Israeli forces on 9 November. The home, which belonged to the Al-Kurd family, was built on private Palestinian property, the statement claimed.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33351
Israeli forces hold dozens of youths in raid south of Bethlehem
Israeli forces raided the village of Tuqu, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem at dawn on Wednesday and imposed a curfew. Witnesses said that dozens of military vehicles raided the village. Israeli soldiers rounded dozens of young men into a school, where they are being interrogated. Witnesses added that Israeli troops stormed houses and damaged property. In enforcing the curfew they used a public address system to order students not to go to school and residents not to attend the morning prayer.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index..php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33337
Hamas: Fateh forces in the arrested 17 Hamas supporters in the West Bank
Hamas movement stated on Tuesday that Fateh security forces arrested 17 members and supporters of the movement in several West Bank areas.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57708
Israel arrests 14 Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli troops arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank in a continued crackdown against what the Jewish state called as wanted Palestinian activists, Palestinian sources said Wednesday. The arrests took place during raids into the cities of Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Hebron, according to the sources.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_ 10382095.htm
Israeli military detains four residents from Nablus City
Israeli military detained on Wednesday four Palestinian residents from the West Bank city of Nablus, as the soldiers ransacked the detainees' houses.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57714
Israeli forces arrest Gaza fishermen and solidarity activists
At around 9am on Tuesday, 18 November 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacked Palestinian fishing boats off the central Gaza Strip's shore. IOF continued to seal off the Gaza Strip for the thirteenth day in a row, allowing only a limited number of trucks loaded with commodities and food to enter the Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9971.shtml
Fifteen Palestinian fishermen released
19th November Update: The fifteen Palestinian fishermen who were abducted from Palestinian waters by the Israeli navy on the 18th November have been released. Their boats, however, have yet to be returned.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/18/fifteen-palestinian-fishermen-released/
Israeli military continues rampage in the Taqou' village
Israeli military continued on Wednesday rampage throughout the West Bank village of Taqou, detaining dozens of youth after ransacking many houses.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57713
Israeli army imposes curfew in West Bank village
AFP-The Israeli army imposed a curfew on a Palestinian village near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, questioning dozens of men, security sources and witnesses said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbank
Israeli court holds hearing on the file of Maghareba gate events
The Israeli court in Jerusalem held Tuesday a hearing on the file of the Maghareba gate events and the indictment charge leveled against Sheikh Ra'ed Salah and four of his colleagues.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Two Palestinian lawmakers sentenced to prison terms
Two Palestinian members of parliament were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and fined by an Israeli military court on Tuesday. Lawmaker Samir Al-Qadi was sentenced to 42 months in prison and a 7,500 shekel fine. Al-Qadi was originally sentenced to just 28 months. Bassem Az-Za'arir was sentenced to 26 months in prison and 9 months probation. Both men are members of Hamas' Change and Reform Bloc, and are from the West Bank city of Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33345
Israel spurns UN plea to ease Gaza blockade
AP-Israel stood fast Wednesday by its decision to clamp shut cargo crossings at the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
http://news.yahoo..com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ palestinians
UNRWA facing "grave and imminent financial crisis"
The United Nations' relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is facing "a grave and imminent crisis," a senior official announced on Wednesday. The Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Karen AbuZayd said the agency's General Fund, which funds UNRWA's core services will suffer an 87 million US dollar shortfall beginning next year.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33355
UN envoy urges Gaza blockade end
Aid was allowed in to Gaza on Monday but Israel then shut the crossings. The UN's top human rights official has said Israel's blockade of Gaza deprives Palestinians of the "most basic human rights" and should end immediately.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7735945.stm
UN: Israel Violating Law in Gaza
The U.N.'s top human rights official says the Israeli blockade of Gaza is depriving Palestinians of their most basic human rights.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-18-voa8.cfm
Israel renews blockade of Gaza crossings
Reuters-Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081119/wl_nm/us_israel_palestinians
Egypt court says aid must be allowed into Gaza
Presently, Egypt has limited humanitarian trucks from entering Gaza as part of its border crackdown in line with Israeli policies.
http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/egypt-court-says-aid-must-be-allowed-into-gaza-2008111415989.html
Statements of UN High Commissioner regarding the siege anger Israel
Israeli was "angered" by the statements of Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; as she called on Israel to immediately lift its blockade over the Gaza Strip as this siege violates the international and humanitarian law.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57712
Many sections of Shifa hospital closed because of fuel depletion
Several wards and medical equipment in the compound of Shifa hospital, one of the biggest medical institutions in Gaza, stopped operating as a result of power outages and the depletion of fuel.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Zahhar: Truce isn't given for gratis, and those who need it should abide by it
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar has asserted Tuesday that the calm with the Israeli occupation couldn't be given for gratis.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Hamas: The truce does not mean the resistance cannot protect its people
The Hamas Movement stated Tuesday that the truce does not mean that the Palestinian resistance is not supposed to protect the Gaza people from the Israeli aggression.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Bashour: RoR of Palestinian refugees couldn't be compromised
Ma'en Bashour has affirmed Tuesday that the RoR was a personal, national, popular, and human right that couldn't be compromised.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
Abu Marzouk: Hamas will attend the meeting of Arab foreign ministers
Dr. Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, stated that Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, understood Hamas's request to participate in the meeting of Arab foreign ministers to be held in Cairo on the 26th of this month.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/
Hamas denies reports on its acceptance to extend Abbas' term
Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Wednesday denied reports that it had accepted to extend President Mahmoud Abbas' term in exchange for joining the presidency's institutions.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_10382741.htm
Islamic Jihad: Hamas will appoint own president if Abbas refuses to step down
Hamas will likely appoint its own president if Mahmoud Abbas does not step down at the end of his term on 9 January, a senior Islamic Jihad leader predicted on Wednesday. In an interview in Cairo, Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Al-Hindi predicted "more exchange of blame, and president Abbas will find a legal [justification to stay], and he will gain Arab and European support. However, Hamas will appoint its own president, and that might be the PLC speaker.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33353
PA: 'Hamas is staging Gaza blackouts'
Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah accused Hamas on Tuesday of staging the latest blackouts in the Gaza Strip in a bid to win sympathy and incite the Palestinian public against Israel and the PA. The officials said that contrary to Hamas's claim, there is no shortage of basic goods, medicine and fuel in the Gaza Strip, largely thanks to the many underground tunnels along the border with Egypt.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404771503& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Ramallah Palestinian Authority blocks website reporting on corruption
The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah has blocked access to a popular news website because of the site's reporting on widespread corruption among the entourage of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. For several days, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been unable to view the website Donia al-Watan ( http://www.alwatanvoice.com) as access has been blocked through the PA-controlled telecom company. Readers outside Palestine and a few inside the country using proxies are still able to access the site. The Electronic Intifada confirmed that several users attempting to access the website in Ramallah and other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank could not do so and instead saw a message in English stating "We are sorry, the site was blocked based on attorney General instructions [sic]."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9972.shtml
University workers protest at prime minister's office in Ramallah
Palestinian university workers and legislators staged a sti-in in front of the Prime Ministers' Office in the West Bank city of Ramallah to bring attention to their fight for increased pay. Unions at universities in the West Bank and Gaza have waged a series of strikes, saying that the Palestinian Authority's Council on Higher Education, has not addressed their concerns. Another two-day strike began on Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=33331
Who stole Palestinian prisoners' money?
Palestinian Ministry for Prisoner Affairs allots millions of shekels every year for residents held in Israeli prisons. Ynet learns PA has launched investigation into disappearance of inmates' canteen allowance; senior official arrested.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625306,00.html
Miliband says 2009 'year of change' in Mideast
AFP-Visiting Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday he hoped 2009 would see a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement given changes in the US and Israeli administrations and elections in the region.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonbritaindiplomacy
Peres: Obama 'very impressed' by Arab League peace plan
LONDON-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama proclaimed himself "very impressed" with the Arab League's peace plan when he discussed it with President Shimon Peres during a brief visit to Israel four months ago, Peres said Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038636.html
Obama calls Abbas, promises to back peace talks: official
AFP-US president-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and vowed to continue pushing Middle East peace efforts, a senior official said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/pl_afp/mideastusdiplomacyobama
PA negotiator: Obama told Abbas he'd spare no effort to see Mideast peace
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has called the Palestinian president and told him that peace is a vital interest for Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038898.html
Israel ex-army chief to stand for opposition in February poll
AFP-Israel's former army chief Reserve General Moshe Yaalon announced on Tuesday that he will be a candidate for the right-wing opposition Likud in February general elections.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastisraelpoliticslikud
Yaalon: Withdrawals must end
Newest addition to Likud holds press conference with Netanyahu, says decision to enter politics followed lengthy deliberation, but he 'couldn't just sit idly by'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625081,00.html
Palestinian PM nixes Netanyahu plan for Mideast peace
AFP-Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad rejected proposals by Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu for an economic solution to the Middle East conflict, in comments published on Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictpalestinianfayy ad
Foreign Reporters' Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza
JERUSALEM — An association representing international news organizations is campaigning for an end to an unusual Israeli policy barring foreign reporters from entering Gaza that has lasted for almost two weeks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/middleeast/19gaza. html?_r=1&ref=world
Israel MP moves into settler house despite evacuation order
AFP-A right-wing Israeli MP on Tuesday joined a group of Jewish settlers living in a controversial house in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron which the High Court ordered them to evict.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081118/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbanksettler court
Jewish West Bank settlers defy evacuation order
AFP-About 100 Jewish settlers on Wednesday defied a High Court order to evacuate a house in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, and braced for possible confrontation with police.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictsettlercourt
MIDEAST: On Top of Humanitarian Disaster, A News Blackout
Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete closure of Gaza's borders for the last two weeks.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news. asp?idnews=44745
Foreign Reporters' Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza
Israel has almost entirely sealed crossing points along its border with Gaza since a five-month cease-fire with Hamas began to unravel on Nov. 4.
http://www..nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/middleeast/19gaza.html
Khudari warns: Gaza population might march towards crossings
Alarm sirens wailed in northern Gaza on Tuesday as the anti siege committee members and foreign solidarity activists marched near Beit Hanun crossing to protest the IOA closure of all Gaza crossings.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/
NY-Rights groups protest Hebron settlement fundraiser
Adalah-NY, Brooklyn for Peace rally outside Marriott Marquis hotel against fundraiser held there by settlement group, chant 'Hebron's settlers, Klu Klux Klan, racist groups go hand in hand'.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/11/18/ynet-ny-rights-groups-protest-hebron-settlement-fundraiser/
UK protestors call Peres 'war criminal'
President's address in front of 1,000 Oxford University students interrupted by small group of demonstrators claiming Israel ethnically cleansed Palestinians, calling for end to Gaza siege. Peres: We don't need your permission to stay alive.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3625214,00.html
A London demonstration protesting at Israel's president visit to the region
Scores of British Palestinians and some solidarity campaigners staged today noon a demonstration in front of the UK parliament premises , in protest against the visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres, to the region.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57718
Comments from the Angry Arab
"I am an avid reader of your blog and I have a story for you from Oxford. Tonight, on 18th November 2008, Balliol College of Oxford University hosted Israeli President Shimon Peres in our university's most prestigious venue, the Old Sheldonian Theatre. They honoured him not only with this platform, to speak on the topic 'The Globalisation of Peace'(!), but also with the announcement that this would constitute the first in a lecture series entitled 'Peace Lectures: Inaugurated by Shimon Peres'. We, the Oxford Arab Cultural Society and the Oxford Students' Palestine Society, alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and concerned members of the public, held a demonstration outside starting over an hour before the talk, and lasting-audibly-throughout Peres' speech. Some of us attended the lecture and, at intervals, nine students got up and made loud statements beginning 'I represent all the Palestinians who...' One such student was bundled out of the lecture hall. Peres was visiblyfazed by these interruptions and the sound of the protestors outside, while the audience were thus made aware of the point of view being stifled by Peres' presence today in Oxford, and every day in Palestine. Several letters of opposition have been presented to the Master of Balliol, Andrew Graham, among which was one from a prominent group of South African anti-apartheid activists (attached below). We hope that there will be publicity for this opposition, and for the events of today, as part of our ongoing protest to show that the head of the Israeli state is not welcome here..." [end]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2008/11/pro-palestinian-protestors-interrupted.html
2 arrested at Gaza protest outside Ministry of Defense
Approximately 200 people held a vigil outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, protesting the recent flare-up of violence in the Gaza Strip and what they called the "occupation, suffocation, and liquidation" of the Palestinian people. Police arrested two protesters for disturbing the peace, but the vigil, which lasted for over an hour, was otherwise peaceful.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404770059& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty: Boymelgreen out of Toronto, Brooklyn and Palestine!
On November 15, as part of the International Week Against the Apartheid Wall, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) erected a reinforced cement wall in front of the Toronto building '50 On the Park' at 50 Portland Street. This building is owned by wealthy real estate developer Leviev-Boymelgreen, which has projects in Toronto and Brooklyn, and which also builds illegal settlements in the West Bank.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1780.shtml
Cyclers against the Wall tear down the Apartheid Wall
On November 16, Forum Palestina and Palestinian solidarity activists in Rome built a mock wall across the main street, Via dei Fori Imperiali, in the center of Rome to protest the Apartheid Wall being built in Palestine. A critical mass group called Cyclers Against the Wall participated in the event, and with the wave of the "starting" flag – a Palestinian flag – the cyclists drove at the mock wall, and broke it down.
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1781.shtml
'Palestinian banks are better than Israeli banks'
Jihad al-Wazir, governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, was 25 years old when his father, Khalil al-Wazir-better known as Abu Jihad was assassinated. It happened in their Tunis home in April 1988.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038831.html
PNA to publish advertisement first time on Israeli media
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will publish its first advertisement on Israeli media this week, calling on Israelis to support a Saudi-proposed peace plan, Israeli news service Ynet reported Tuesday. The public statement will appear on Israeli newspapers as of Thursday, marking the first time that the PNA uses this channel to communicate with the Israeli public, said the report, adding that similar advertisement will be published in American and European newspapers as well.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/19/content_10378084.htm
Israel to boycott Durban II anti-racism conference
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced Wednesday that Israel has made a final decision to boycott the United Nations "Durban II" conference on human rights this spring, fearing it would be used once again as a forum for anti-Israeli sentiment..
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038897.html
Target Practice in Gaza
What came first: the chicken or the egg? And who started the latest round of clashes in Gaza: the Israelis or the Palestinians? Depending on whom one asks, the answer will be different every time-the Israelis, the Palestinians, both are guilty, it depends… On November 5, Israeli forces entered Gaza, killing six Palestinians in the process. Since then, Palestinian fighters have been clashing with Israeli troops and dodging Israeli missiles.. In response to every Israeli action, they play their only card-they fire homemade rockets into Israel. To date, 16 Palestinians have been killed, with zero Israeli fatalities recorded. Palestinians say Israel made the first move by entering Gaza in an unwarranted and aggressive manner. Israel, on the other hand, says it was responding to rumors of possible kidnapping attempts against Israeli soldiers and the threat of more rocket attacks. But debating who started the latest round of violence is an unproductive pastime. Instead, considering the timing and the consequences of these hostilities yields a much more interesting though sad tale.
http://www.miftah.org/Display. cfm?DocId=18207&CategoryId=3
…
Extrajudicial Assassinations As Official Israeli Policy
Extra-judicial killings are indefensible, morally abhorrent, and illegal under international laws and norms. Article 23b of the 1907 Hague Regulations prohibits "assassination, proscription, or outlawry of an enemy, or putting a price upon an enemy's head, as well as offering a reward for any enemy 'dead or alive.' " Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." UDHR also recognizes the "inherent dignity (and the) equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family."
http://globalresearch..ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11041
Crossing the Line looks at Obama's "change" for Palestine
This week on Crossing The Line: With a resounding victory, United States President-elect Barrack Hussein Obama made history on the evening of 4 November 2008. Running on the slogan "Change You Can Believe In," many are hoping that after eight years of the Bush administration, change has finally arrived. But what about change for the Palestinians and their untenable situation? What change can Obama bring to the world's longest-standing refugee population? We'll speak to Kathleen and Bill Christison both formerly with the US Central Intelligence Agency about this issue.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9970.shtml
Settler rabbi: State of Israel is an enemy of the people
"The state of Israel has become the enemy of the people and the land of Israel," settler rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe said Tuesday during an emergency meeting on the state's plan to evacuate a house in Hebron whose ownership has been at the center of a bitter dispute for over a year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038565.html
Alperon's sister: Whoever killed Ya'akov, the same will be done to his children
At around 1 P.M. Tuesday afternoon the funeral procession of underworld kingpin Ya'akov Alperon, who was killed in a car bombing in Tel Aviv Monday morning, set out from his home in Ra'anana. Hundreds of people accompanied his coffin to the cemetery at Kfar Nahman.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038513.html
Israeli mob swears vengeance as it buries boss
For a moment, as the first few of the hundreds of mourners came up the cypress-lined avenue to the main cemetery on the edge of this prosperous satellite town outside Tel Aviv, the menfolk donning kippas, you could have mistaken it for any Israeli funeral.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-mob-swears-vengeance-as-it-buries-boss-
1024601.html
Meir Porush's son beaten as haredi confrontations continue
In another incident demonstrating the escalating tensions between rival camps within the haredi community, the son of United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush was beaten and knocked to the ground Monday. Yisrael Porush confirmed that he had been attacked but added that he did not want to provide details of the incident for fear it would lead to the desecration of God's name.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404770681& pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A secular mayor for Jerusalem
THE hollowness of Israel's rhetoric about "united Jerusalem" is never starker than on local election day, when the city's 537,000 adults, together with the rest of Israel, can go to the polls to pick their new mayor. Among Jerusalem's Palestinians, who make up some 30% of the citizenry, hardly anyone bothers to vote. In East Jerusalem, the mainly Arab part of the city captured and annexed by Israel in 1967, polling stations in schools and public buildings stay yawningly empty, apart from a trickle of municipal employees and their families.
http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12609920
Britain resumes high-level intelligence links with Syria: report
AFP-Britain re-established high-level intelligence links with the Syrian authorities as Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Damascus, the Times newspaper said Wednesday citing senior Syrian officials.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081119/wl_afp/mideastsyriabritaindiplomacyintelligence
Peres: Withdrawal from the Golan will only be under Israeli conditions
Israeli President, Shimon Peres, said that if Syria wants the Golan Heights back it must proof that it is ready for peace, and must change its policies, such as its relation with Iran and Hezbollah.
http://www.imemc.org/article/57707
Israel may cede control of Lebanon village to UN
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to call several senior defense officials Wednesday to discuss the possibility of pulling out of the northern part of the border village of Ghajar and relinquishing control to UN forces.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038579.html
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon?
Northwest of Ghajar Village, South Lebanon : "We, as Lebanese, are here to confirm that we cling to freeing every grain of our soil. We will not abandon the great national cause, which is the continuation of the liberation of our land. The resistance looks forward to hoisting the flags of victory again over the Kfarshuba hills, Shebaa Farms, Ghajar and Abbasieh where 80 percent of the land is still occupied" -- Sheik Nabil Qwork, Hezbollah leader addressing villagers at Abbasieh Village, 10/2008
http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb11182008.html
Tuesday: 23 Iraqis Killed, 35 Wounded
At least 23 Iraqis were killed and 35 more were wounded in the latest reports of violence. In political news, elections have been set for Jan. 31 in most of Iraq's 18 provinces. The top Iraqi cleric gave tacit support to a U..S.-Iraqi security agreement now being debated in parliament. Meanwhile, Corruption watchdog group, Transparency International, has called Iraq the third most corrupt country in the world, and demonstrators are moving their vigil for an Iranian dissident group living in Iraq from New York to Washington.
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13784
IRAQ: At long last, an election date
Amid the drama over the Iraqi Cabinet's decision to approve a security pact giving American forces another three years on the ground here, it was easy to miss another milestone. The Cabinet has formally announced the date for provincial elections: Jan. 31, 2009. The decision, announced Tuesday, is the first time a date has been declared. The provincial election law passed by Parliament in September only said that the vote should be held by Jan. 31 but left in the air exactly when it would happen. This gives the country's political groups time to get ready for the official two-month campaigning period, which will begin Dec. 1. With luck and organization, it will give election officials time to arrange what is sure to be a massive undertaking.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/11/iraq-at-long-la.html
Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story-Iraq security pact-Nov 17
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2008/11/al-jazeera-video-inside-story-iraq.html
2011 US Iraq withdrawal depends on conditions on the ground, says Admiral Mullen
US military leaders are comfortable with a 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq but it should depend on conditions on the ground, the US military chief has said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/3474933/2011-US-Iraq-withdrawal-depends-on-conditions
-on-the-ground-says-Admiral-Mullen.html
Under Iraq troop pact, U.S. can't leave any forces behind
BAGHDAD — The status of forces of agreement between the United States and Iraq is now called the withdrawal agreement, and that's exactly what it is: an ultimate end to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
http://www.mcclatchydc..com/iraq/story/56110.html
Unofficial Translation of U.S.-Iraq Troop Agreement from the Arabic Text
Translated from the Arabic by Sahar Issa, Jenan Hussein and Hussein Kadhim of the McClatchy Baghdad Bureau.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/56116.html
Maliki defends troop pact; Sadr demands its rejection
McClatchy Newspapers-BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Tuesday urged the Iraqi public to support the new pact that calls for withdrawing American forces as his most determined opponent, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr, once again urged the parliament to vote down the agreement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081118/wl_mcclatchy/3103860
Small Iraqi party says it will not support US pact
A small Shiite party said Wednesday that a U..S.-Iraqi security pact allowing American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years infringes on Iraqi sovereignty, and vowed to vote against the deal in parliament. Even without the support of the Fadhila party's 15 lawmakers, the agreement is likely to be approved when the 275-seat parliament votes Nov. 24. The political parties that comprise Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ruling coalition dominate the legislature, and his Cabinet approved the deal with Washington on Sunday.
http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2008/11/small-iraqi-party-says-it-will-not-support-us-pact
Iraq bids farewell to US arms
The security pact between the United States and Iraq closes the door to a further US military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the US military that appears to be irreversible. What was supposed to be a client regime was instead waiting for the right moment to assert real control.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK20Ak02.html
Iraq arrests senior Iranian commando at airport
Iraqi security forces have arrested an alleged "senior" Iranian commando from the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The military said they suspected the man of "involvement in facilitating Iranian weapons.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/19/60406.html
US arrests suspected Iranian agent in Iraq
AP-The U.S. military says it has arrested an alleged senior member of the Iranian security forces suspected of funneling weapons into Iraq.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_ iranian_arrested
Iraq discovers remains of 150 Kurds in south Iraq
Reuters-Iraqi officials flew the remains of 150 Kurds found in a mass grave home to Kurdistan on Wednesday, after a moving ceremony that paid tribute to victims of repression under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081119/wl_nm/us_iraq_graves
Iraqis accused of killing soldiers at risk of torture, court told
Two Iraqis accused of killing British soldiers risk being tortured and executed, in violation of their human rights, if they are tried in Iraq for war crimes, the high court was told yesterday. Faisal Al-Saadoon, 56, and Khalaf Mufdhi, 58, who are being held by British forces in Basra, are accused of murdering Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/19/iraq-human-rights
Straw defends his role in Iraq war after ex-law lord brands conflict 'illegal'
Lord Goldsmith and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw defended their actions after Lord Bingham, the former senior law lord and one of Britain's most respected judicial experts, described the military action by Britain and the US as a " serious violation of international law".
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086902/Straw-defends-role-Iraq-war-ex-law-lord-brands-conflict-
illegal.html?ITO=1490
Will The US Government And Media Finally Report The Slaughter Of Iraqis By The US Military?
I recently received a set of questions from Le Monde Diplomatique reporter Kim Bredesen about the 2007 Project Censored story about 1,000,000 Iraqi deaths due to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The questions and answers are, I think, useful in framing both the untold story of the slaughter in Iraq and the failure of the U.S. media to report on its extent or on U.S. culpability for the deaths of 4% of the Iraqi population.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-schwartz/will-the-slaughter-of-ira_b_143503.html
Steve Fainaru on "Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq"
Top Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly reviewing a draft indictment against six Blackwater security guards who opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square more than a year ago killing seventeen Iraqi civilians. The indictments would mark the first time armed private contractors from the United States face justice. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post correspondent Steve Fainaru about his new book Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/steve_fainaru_on_ big_boy_rules
Urgent International Push for Pollard
With Prime Minister Ehud Olmert scheduled to leave in a few days for a parting visit with U.S. President George W. Bush – who will leave office in two months' time, just a few weeks before Olmert is to be replaced –massive pressure is being exerted on Olmert to ask Bush for a pardon.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128444
On Rahm Emanuel
There's been a lot of speculation about the foreign-policy implications of Rep.. Rahm Emanuel serving as Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, much of which, of course, is …speculation. Below are two of the less fevered and somewhat more reassuring analyses of Emanuel and his views on the Middle East — one by Jim Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), the other by Lara Friedman, the policy and government relations director of Americans for Peace Now (APN). Both groups, of course, worked with the Clinton administration on the Oslo process and are strongly committed to a two-state solution, etc.
http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=203#more-203
NO FREE PASS FOR RAHM EMANUEL
James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute, a well-known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East. This is precisely why his latest article, "Rahm Emanuel and Arab Perceptions,"
published by The Huffington Post, is so disturbing. Remi Kanazi comments.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9974.shtml
Obama advisers: Harsh interrogators will walk
Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_admin_wont_prosecure_ Bush_war_1117.html
Essential Reading for Obama
In the weeks until his inauguration on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be focusing on the most immediate tasks of assembling a new administration and familiarizing himself with the depth of domestic and foreign crises confronting the Unites States. Once in the White House, President Obama will have to grapple with the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their manifestations in the area of human rights and law. But the catalogue of failures of the outgoing administration of George W Bush is long. If President Obama is to succeed in delivering on the promises raised by his victory, he may find it useful to read some of the pages from the catalogue of failures of his predecessor. They shed light on the blunders that made America's crises.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14401
Al Qaida No. 2: Obama guilty of betraying Muslim roots in backing Israel
Al Qaeda's second-in-command urged Muslims to continue attacks on "criminal" America and slammed U.S. president-elect Barack Obama for vowing to back Israel during his campaign.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1038917.html
Cornel West on the Election of Barack Obama: "I Hope He Is a Progressive Lincoln, I Aspire to Be the Frederick Douglass to Put Pressure on Him"
Princeton University professor of religion and African American studies, Cornel West, speaks about the election of Barack Obama, his selection of Eric Holder to be Attorney General, the possible selection of Lawrence Summers to be Treasury Secretary and the role of the progressive left to push Obama. West is the author of the new book Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/cornel_west_on_the_ election_of
The Koran, punk rock and lots of questions
This much Hiba Siddiqui knows: She is a Muslim teenager living in America. But what does that mean for her? The front door shuts with a thud, and Hiba Siddiqui heeds her father's footsteps, heavy from a day at work, plodding across the foyer downstairs.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/457493688/la-na-muslimteen19-2008nov19,0,975087.story
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