Bulletin 21 -
25 October
2008
Shlomo Sand *
Translated
by Donald Hounam
da
Le Monde Diplomatique
FROM :
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18721
22 October 2008
An Israeli historian suggests the
diaspora was the consequence, not of the expulsion of the
Hebrews from Palestine, but of proselytising across north
Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East......(read
the full article)
Bulletin 20 -
5 October 2008
Access Denied:
Israeli measures to deny
Palestinians access to land around settlements
September 2008, comprehensive report
www.btselem.org
For years, Israeli
authorities have both barred Palestinian access to rings
of land surrounding settlements, and have not acted to
eliminate settlers’ piratical closing of lands adjacent to
settlements and blocking of Palestinian access to them.
Blocking access is one of the many ways used to expand
settlements..........(read
the full article)
Bulletin 19 -
31 August 2008
By Michael Finkel
The
little town where Jesus was born is now one of the most
contentious places on Earth.
This is
not how Mary and Joseph came into Bethlehem, but this is how
you enter now. You wait at the wall. It's a daunting concrete
barricade, three stories high, thorned with razor wire.
Standing beside it, you feel as if you're at the base of a
dam. Israeli soldiers armed with assault rifles examine your
papers. They search your vehicle. No Israeli civilian, by
military order, is allowed in. And few Bethlehem residents are
permitted out—the reason the wall exists here, according to
the Israeli government, is to keep terrorists away from
Jerusalem.
Bethlehem and Jerusalem are only six miles apart (ten
kilometers), though in the compressed and fractious geography
of the region, this places them in different realms. It can
take a month for a postcard to go from one city to the other.
Bethlehem is in the West Bank, on land taken by Israel during
the Six Day War of 1967. It's a Palestinian city; the majority
of its 35,000 residents are Muslim. In 1900, more than 90
percent of the city was Christian. Today Bethlehem is only
about one-third Christian, and this proportion is steadily
shrinking as Christians leave for Europe or the Americas. At
least a dozen suicide bombers have come from the city and
surrounding district. The truth is that Bethlehem, the "little
town" venerated during Christmas, is one of the most
contentious places on Earth..........(read
the full article)
Photograph by
www.HolyLandFree.org
Bulletin 18 -
9 July 2008
Beating the
Drums of a Broader Middle East War
Israel,
Syria, and Lebanon Prepare the "Home Fronts"
www.globalresearch.ca
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
The Levant could be the starting point of a major
international conflict with global ramifications and which
could quickly spin out of control. Such a conflict could
even involve the use of Israeli or American nuclear
weapons against Iran and Syria. Syria has additionally
declared that it is preparing for an inevitable war with
Israel despite the fact that it believes that the chances
of a war in 2008 are slim.
In the scenario of a war against Iran, the reaction of
Syria will be pivotal. Damascus plays a central role and
how it acts and reacts will have a definitive impact on
Israeli military strategy in regards to Iran. It is in
this context that Israel, the U.S. and the E.U., with the
help of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, have been
attempting to undermine and ultimately destroy the
alliance between Syria and Iran. This is part of a
geo-strategic stride to foreclose the possibility of a
Mediterranean battle-front that might emerge in the Levant
as a result of an attack on Iran.............(read
the full article)
Bulletin 17 -
3 July 2008
Two
Israelis killed in bulldozer attack
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- A Palestinian riding a
bulldozer ran over a number of cars and caused a bus to
overturn in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday killing at
least two Israelis and wounding 30 others in a preliminary
report.
The
Hebrew radio said that security men fired at and killed
the driver.
The
bulldozer driver hit an Egged bus, which turned over,
attacking other vehicles along the way, the broadcast
added.
"Police say the attack appears to have been politically
motivated. A state of emergency was declared in
Jerusalem," it said.
www.palestine-info.co.uk
Report: Israel killed 29 Palestinians in June including
four children
GAZA, (PIC)-- Quds Press reported that the IOF troops
killed last June 29 Palestinians including four children
which means that the total number of the victims murdered
during the first six months of 2008 rose to 449
Palestinians, mostly killed in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, Israel during June killed 24
Palestinians in Gaza alone due to its military escalations
while five were murdered in the West Bank. The report also
pointed out that the IOF troops have killed since the
beginning of this year a total of 66 children.
Most
of the victims were killed before the calm took effect on
19 June and after that date the IOF killed four others in
the West Bank taking advantage that the truce had not yet
been activated in the West Bank.
In a
new development, a 20-year-old Palestinian young man
called Mazen Arrar was proclaimed dead due to the closures
and the Israeli siege. His death raised the number of the
siege victims to 200 patients.
The
popular committee against the siege explained that the
young man suffered a heart disease and waited for the
Egyptian authorities to admit him into a hospital after
the health ministry in Gaza afforded his medical expenses
and coordinated with an Egyptian hospital to receive him,
but the closure of the Rafah border crossing deprived him
of the last hope to survive.
In
another context, Israeli press sources reported that
Israeli war minister Ehud Barak decided to reopen the Gaza
crossings on Wednesday in order to transport limited
quantities of cement into the Strip in addition to other
commodities, noting that the crossings intended to be
opened are Sufa, Karni and Nahal Oz.
www.palestine-info.co.uk
Washington Report, via Desertpeace
CONTACTS :
communications@wrmea.com
Washington
Report Correspondent Mohammed
Omer Hospitalized
Following Detention by Israeli Soldiers at Allenby
Bridge Crossing
Please
click on the button at right or visit the Washington
Report website,
www.wrmea.com, to sign a petition condemning Israel’s
attacks on journalists, both Palestinian and
international.......
...........
(READ
THE FULL ARTICLE and SIGN the PETITION)
Bulletin 16 - 2 July 2008
A Mideast
nuclear war?
MARTIN WALKER
Anthony Cordesman may be the most influential man in
Washington that most people have never heard of. A former
director of intelligence assessment for the secretary of
defense and director of policy and planning in the
Department of Energy, he is now the top strategic guru at
the Center for Strategic & International
Studies...(...)...This would mean, Cordesman suggests,
some 16 million to 28 million Iranians dead within 21
days, and between 200,000 and 800,000 Israelis dead within
the same time frame. The total of deaths beyond 21 days
could rise very much higher, depending on civil defense
and public health facilities, where Israel has a major
advantage..........(read
the full article)
Bulletin 15 - 23 June 2008
Msgr. Twal makes his Solemn Entry into the
Holy Sepulcher as the new Patriarch of Jerusalem
"The Israeli military occupation brings
about many difficulties to pastoral activity"
-
Mons.
Fouad Twal : Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea :"Peace
will be possible only with a strong Palestinian state"
-
“I want to sow the
joy of living”
Palestinian lawmaker says: “Israel is punishing us for
refusing to die”
A
Palestinian lawmaker recently released from Israeli
captivity has accused Israel of “adopting Nazi tactics”
and applying them to Palestinian prisoners.
Bassem al, Za’arir, 45, who lives in the town of Sammou,
south west of Hebron, won a seat in the Palestinian
Legislative Council elections in the January,
2006....(...)...The Palestinian MP castigated the “death
ride” torture technique whereby prisoners are made to
travel hundreds of kilometers throughout Israel while
confined in an oven-like metal chamber fixed on a car.
“Imagine languishing in such a filthy chamber in high
temperature and with very little oxygen for up to 24
hours. It is a real ordeal.”
Israel currently holds as many as 12000 Palestinian
political and resistance prisoners, many of whom without
charge or trial.....(read
the full article)
Hamas’s wise step
By Khalid Amayreh in the
West Bank
The Egyptian-mediated
ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Islamic
Resistance Movement (Hamas) is, ostensibly at least, a
wise, dignified and expedient step for several reasons........(read
the ful article)
IOF troops breach truce
in Gaza,
shoot at Palestinian
fishermen
GAZA,
(PIC)-- At least three Israeli violations of the fresh
truce that was sponsored by Egypt in the Gaza Strip were
recoded few hours after that truce started on Thursday as
IOF troops opened their machinegun fire at Palestinian
fishermen, and farmers. Local Palestinian sources said
that Israeli gunboats fired at Palestinian fishermen
trying to earn a living, no casualties were recorded.......(read
the full article)
Bulletin 13 - 11 June 2008
VOTE NO TO LISBON :
Thank you Ireland !!!
Zionist Rabbi :
Death For ALL
Who Dislike Jews
Genocide
Announced
7-June-2008
"All
of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants,
and even their beasts." This was the religious opinion
issued one week ago by Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of
the Tsomet Institute, a long-established religious
institute attended by students and soldiers in the Israeli
settlements of the West Bank. In an article published by
numerous religious Israeli newspapers two weeks ago and
run by the liberal Haaretz on 26 March, Rosen asserted
that there is evidence in the Torah to justify this stand.
Rosen, an authority able to issue religious opinions for
Jews, wrote that Palestinians are like the nation of
Amalekites that attacked the Israelite tribes on their way
to Jerusalem after they had fled from Egypt under the
leadership of Moses. He wrote that the Lord sent down in
the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill the
Amalekites, and that this ruling is known in Jewish
jurisprudence.
Rosen's article, which created a lot of noise in Israel,
included the text of the ruling in the Torah: "Annihilate
the Amalekites from the beginning to the end. Kill them
and wrest them from their possessions. Show them no mercy.
Kill continuously, one after the other. Leave no child,
plant, or tree. Kill their beasts, from camels to
donkeys."
http://weekly.ahram.org
http://www.rense.com/general82/geno.htm
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Islamic-Christian front: Jerusalem is
exposed to a serious Judaization attack |
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02/06/2008 |
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Jerusalem,
(PIC)-- The
Islamic-Christian front for the defence of Jerusalem
and the holy shrines warned Monday that occupied
Jerusalem is exposed to a dangerous Judaization
attack and dozens of historical buildings adjacent
to the Aqsa Mosque threatened with collapse.
In a press statement, Dr. Hasan Khater, the
secretary-general for the front, added the ongoing
Israeli excavations and settlement expansion aim to
wipe out the old city in order to deport its
Palestinian population and to rebuild it in the same
pattern of the Jewish neighborhood in the city,
warning that if this happened it would be the last
link in the chain of Judaizing Jerusalem.
Dr. Khater underlined the Israeli housing ministry's
announcement about starting to build 1420 settlement
units in a number of settlements in occupied
Jerusalem is part of a new serious wave targeting
the remaining lands of the city, expecting that
Zionist extremist forces would be in fierce
competition in the coming weeks to escalate their
settlement activities against the city.
The Palestinian leader pointed out that despite the
repeated warnings over the past days and weeks about
the existence of cave-ins and cracks in the Aqsa
Mosque's yards and in different parts of the old
city, the IOA persists in its excavations in more
than five sites in the heart of the city and
deliberately turns a blind eye to these warnings.
The Palestinian leader appealed to the organization of
the Islamic conference, the Quds committee, the Arab
League, and all concerned institutions to assume
their responsibilities towards Jerusalem and its
Islamic and Christian holy places.
In the same context, MP Samira Al-Halaiqa, a member of
the Hamas parliamentary bloc, deplored the IOA for
expanding its settlements in occupied Jerusalem.
MP Halaiqa stated that these settlement activities are
the fruits of the Annapolis conference which brought
more ravages on Palestine added to the disasters
caused by previous conferences and meeting like
Madrid, Oslo and Taba.
|
IOF
shell blows off the head of Palestinian boy, another child
killed in WB
20/05/2008
GAZA,
(PIC)-- An Israeli
occupation forces' shelling of a group of citizens north
of the Gaza Strip at an early hour on Tuesday blew off the
head of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy.
PIC
reporter quoted medical sources as saying that the body of
the child Majd Abu Okel was badly mutilated in the blast.
The
sources pointed out that a number of other wounded
citizens were rushed to hospital.
IOF
troops at a late hour Monday fired and killed a
16-year-old Palestinian child at the Hawara roadblock
south of Nablus city in the West Bank.
The
soldiers blocked Palestinian paramedics from rescuing the
child who was left to bleed from three fatal bullet wounds
for half an hour until he died, witnesses reported.
They
said that the soldiers asked the youth to expose his
stomach and when he did they shot him dead.
The
soldiers closed the Hawara and Beit Furik road barriers
immediately after the incident and stormed the Beit Furik
and Beit Dajan villages amidst firing of sonic and flare
bombs.
The
IOF command claimed that the child was carrying pipe bombs
strapped to his stomach.
|
Sheikh Salah: The Zionist project in
Palestine breaks down day by day |
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19/05/2008 |
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 Jerusalem - (PIC)--
Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement
in the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948, stated
that the Zionist project in Palestine is breaking
down day by day, highlighting that the return of
Palestinian refugees is an inalienable and immutable
right.
In an interview with the Bayan magazine on the sixtieth
anniversary of the Nakba, Sheikh Salah announced
that the Islamic Movement intends to continue its
activities which support the right of return for
many years to come.
The Palestinian leader underlined that the Zionist
institution thought that it could uproot the Arab
presence in the lands occupied in 1948 and judaize
the Palestinian minority, but the demographic
expansion of this minority is apt to increase and
the number of Palestinians inside (occupied
Palestine) will become equal to the number of Jews
as their institutions fearfully expects.
As for the future of the Arab minority inside the 1948
lands and the threats it faces, the Palestinian
leader said: "Its future is promising; I am
optimistic about that. We will remain in our land,
in our homes, our institutions. We will stay to
build our society, a self-made society having the
ability to make what it needs of daily services at
all levels."
Regarding the Zionist attempts to obliterate everything
that is Palestinian, the Palestinian leader stressed
that the Zionist institution persists in its
injustice and works on confiscating all Islamic
endowments and sites and not hesitating to destroy
Islamic graveyards in order to build on them
settlement outposts, public parks and roads.
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IOF troops kidnap 19 Palestinians in
different parts of WB |
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19/05/2008 |
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WEST BANK, (PIC)--
IOF troops kidnapped at dawn Monday 19 Palestinian
citizens in different areas of the West Bank
especially in Al-Khalil, Nablus and the Jenin
refugee camp where they broke into and ransacked
dozens of houses and buildings at the pretext of
looking for wanted Palestinians.
Palestinian local sources reported that a large number of
the Israeli Golani and Shimshon brigades reinforced
by a military chopper kidnapped a Palestinian
ex-detainee called Omar Al-Aramin, 54, in the area
of the Rashaida Arabs in Al-Khalil after chasing him
for hours and took him to an unknown destination.
The IOF troops kidnapped Aramin many times and recently
demolished his house. Two weeks ago, he went on
hunger strike in protest at the continuing abduction
of Palestinian women in Israeli jails.
IOF troops boarding dozens of military vehicles also
stormed the Jenin refugee camp and the Laban village
in the south of Nablus amid intensive gunfire and
kidnapped an elderly citizen called Hussein Al-Haj,
60, from the camp and five young men from the
village.
Eyewitnesses said that the IOF troops imposed a curfew
on the Laban village and blocked its inhabitants
from going to the mosques for prayer during which
they ransacked dozens of houses.
In another context, the Nafha society for the defense of
human and prisoners' rights reported that the IOA
filed a fabricated indictment against prisoner Hamza
Abu Khamis after he spent eight months in
administrative detention without any trial.
Khamis was kidnapped in September 2007 and
administratively detained in the Israeli Hasharon
prison. His father also is in administrative
detention in the Negev prison and one of his
brothers was sentenced to 12 years in the jalbo
prison.
The mother told the society that the IOA prevents her and
the family from visiting her husband and two sons in
Israeli jails without any reason.
She also appealed to human rights organizations to enable
her along with the rest of the family to visit her
husband and sons and to work on getting them
released for the lack of evidence against them.
In a written press release received Monday by the PIC,
prisoner Nasser Uwais, a prominent leader of the
Aqsa Brigades the armed wing of Fatah, who is
serving 14 life sentences in the Israeli Hadarim
prison, said that the Fatah leadership do nothing
for its prisoners and do not provide them with
minimum care or follow-up.
Uwais affirmed that the only prisoners who do not receive
financial allocations from their Movements are the
prisoners of Fatah, adding that the Fatah prisoners
want to know what the Fatah central committee do
with the movement's money.
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Health ministry briefs UNICEF on
siege repercussions on children |
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19/05/2008 |
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GAZA, (PIC)--
Dr. Basem Naim, the health minister in the PA
caretaker government, on Monday briefed the UNICEF
Gaza office director Laurent Chapuis on
repercussions of the Israeli imposed siege on Gaza
on the health of children and patients.
A ministry release said that the discussions tackled the
ramifications of the Israeli siege on the health of
children especially in the "border areas".
It quoted the minister as saying that children were
suffering social and psychological problems as a
result of the siege, adding that appropriate
atmosphere must be provided for those children along
with enough food, proper education and adequate
health care.
Naim hoped that UNICEF would accord those issues more
concern, the release said, adding that Chapuis
underscored that children's health occupies a basic
and central concern on the part of his agency.
He said that UNICEF had endorsed plans aimed at boosting
health care especially for children in the "border
areas".
The international official promised to follow up the
issue of the siege's repercussions on children. |
Bulletin 12 - 29 May 2008
UN facing increased
delays at Israeli checkpoints
60 years after United Nations created Israel, UN workers still get
hard time from Tel Aviv.
JERUSALEM - Increased Israeli restrictions on the
checkpoints around East Jerusalem have caused more delays and more
lost man hours for UN staff in March 2008 than in all of 2007, the
UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has
reported.
In the Humanitarian Monitor for March, released on 24 April, OCHA said
"operations were significantly affected" and almost daily UN vehicles
were delayed and even turned back by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints
south of Jerusalem.
Israeli soldiers have increasingly insisted on searching UN vehicles
at the checkpoints as a condition for being allowed through, despite
the fact that Israel signed the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and
Immunities of the UN which normally prohibits such searches.
"Movement of UN staff between the West Bank and East Jerusalem has
been increasingly restricted over the years, starting with the
erection of checkpoints, the requirement that national staff carry
permits, and the building of the Wall," Allegra Pacheco, the
acting-head of UN OCHA in occupied Palestinian territory, told IRIN.
"Beyond challenging its own commitments under the convention, it is
also challenging the neutrality of the UN by demanding a search,"
Pacheco said, adding that on 29 April she herself was delayed for over
one hour after soldiers demanded a search of her UN vehicle.
Most of the delays take place as staff try to enter East Jerusalem,
where nearly all UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
have their headquarters or secondary offices.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and subsequently annexed it
under Basic Law passed by the Knesset when Begin was premier, in
violation of international law. The goal was to create one unified
capital, no longer divided (as the city was from 1948 to 1967).
Palestinians see East Jerusalem as their future capital, and the UN
recognises it as part of occupied Palestinian territory.
"It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain large-scale,
long-term humanitarian operations given the closures," Christopher
Gunness, a spokesman for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian
refugees, told IRI
