Tag Archives: israeli occupation

Posted on by

Britain may be a Christian country…

Stuart Littlewood
Stuart Littlewood

Stuart Littlewood

but its government marches to the beat of another drum

Prime minister David Cameron has told Britain: “We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so.”

He was speaking on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible which, he said, had helped to give Britain a set of values and morals that make us what we are today.

And Cameron doesn’t accept the argument about the church not getting involved in politics.  ”To me, Christianity, faith, religion, the Church and the Bible are all inherently involved in politics because so many political questions are moral questions.”

True, but can our churchmen ‘do politics’? They perpetually fail to get a result even on the Church’s ‘home turf’, the Holy Land.

Continue reading →

Posted on by

Palestinian Authority; Running on Empty.

It is unclear how long the PA will continue to serve a purpose. (Via Aljazeera)

It is unclear how long the PA will continue to serve a purpose. (Via Aljazeera)

It is unclear how long the PA will continue to serve a purpose. (Via Aljazeera)


Sami Jamil Jadallah

Perhaps it will do good for Salam Fayyad to pick up the phone, better yet to talk the short walk to the office of the Israeli Military Governor for Judea and Samaria (the Boss) and ask for the $300 millions needed by the PA. The $300 million should represent the first of many payments to come for services rendered to the Israeli Occupation since Oslo. Israel owes the PLO/PA some $ 50 Billions for services rendered.

On one hand we are told the PA is working on completion of its “state institutional buildings” in time for the declaration of the independent Palestinian state and we hear of praised from the World Bank and the IMF of the wonderful job Fayyad and the PA are doing in building state institutions. Well the performance of the World Bank and IMF in this messed up world economy raises lots of valid questions about the roles if not the competency of these two institutions to solve the world problems.

On the other hand, we are told Fayyad and the PA are unable to meet the salaries, payroll and running costs of the PA and that the PA does not have enough money to keep running for one month. So where is this great success the World Bank and IMF are talking about?

Perhaps someone from the World Bank and the IMF can explain to all of us, what kind of “state” Fayyad runs if it does not have enough money to keep going for one month and is living on the sole, international welfare. Raising the question of whether the Palestinians want to have a state that is totally dependent on international welfare? We know they accepted to rely on UNRWA for over 60 years.

What kind of state the guys in Ramallah are talking about? And what kind of institutional buildings that has been going on for sometimes? We are not aware of any efforts or plans underway to building governing institutions that are transparent and accountable to the people and can withstand public scrutiny.

So far, we are not aware of building a viable executive branch of government that is non-partisan, representing the nation and people and not a narrow partisan politics or personal business interests. An executive branch that is equal to other branches of government. Not aware of any efforts in this regards moving away from the “personality cult” that has afflicted and badly damaged the Palestinian cause of liberation from the early days of Arafat till now. An executive branch that is accountable before the people and not to Fatah or the PLO.

We are not aware of any plans to build a legislative branch that is free and independent of the executive branch, one that is the people’s representative, strong enough and independent enough to withstand marginalization by the executive branch as we have seen in the last 20 years, if not the last 45 years. The PLC and since Oslo served no purpose as the people’s representatives, accountable to one but the people who elected them, ineffective, and useless as ever.

We are also not aware of any plans to build an independent judiciary, that is free and independent from the executives, one that can dispense justice in transparent way where the poor and powerful are equal in the eyes of the law and courts. Where defendants and accused are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law with the right of defense to challenge witnesses and evidence in an open court. A judicial system free from partisan politics as we have seen both in Ramallah and Gaza. What is out there now is nothing to be proud of.

We are not ware of any plans to disengage the Palestinian economy from that of the Jewish Occupation, not aware of any plans to seek rebuilding of an economy that serve the general public and does not serve the narrow interests of a powerful oligarchy that has total control and monopoly over the Palestinians economy, an economy where the talents and educations of the Palestinian are its best assets.

True there has a been a boom in housing constructions but that narrow economy is in the service of the oligarchy and the banks with people overburdened with mortgage and consumer loans. Reports say the people are indebted to the banks to the tune of over $2 billions in an economy that is totally dependent on salaries and payroll of the PA. When the salaries come if they do come, they go directly to pay loans leaving consumers with little money for the daily livings. A payroll that is totally dependent on the good well of the Americans and Europeans and how they feel the PA is keeping its commitment in serving and securing the Jewish Occupation.

Not aware of any plans to develop, train and qualify a labor force that can move away from rebuilding Jewish settlements and away from working in settlement factories. The late Arafat and his team were always too keen on making sure that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian laborers are able to work inside the Green Line, but never in his tenure did he made any efforts to give these hundreds of thousands of labors a choice away from the humiliating process of seeking the daily jobs inside Israel. Supplying cheap labor to Israel was a top priority under Oslo.

The only thing we know of is that billions of dollars invested in the Palestinian Security Forces making sure its meets its commitments to Israel, to the Jewish Occupation and to the safety and security of the these marauding Jewish criminal settler’s terrorists. This is the only priority for the PLO/PA, Israel and international donors.

We all know the functions and duties of the Palestinian Security Forces toward the Jewish Occupations and Jewish settlers but we are not aware of the function and duties of the Palestinian Security Forces toward the Palestinians people. OK I concede the minor role the security forces play in solving petty crimes, managing traffic but not ware of one instant when the security forces prevented one single attack by Jewish criminal settlers on a Palestinian village or preventing the burning of an olive field or the poisoning of one single water well.

We understand the security forces could not fight the IDF provide safety and security for the people but we do not understand why the security forces does not intervene and protect the people from the daily and repeated crimes of these attacking Jewish criminals?

Frankly the PA, the PLO has been running on empty for a long time and so far we have not seen liberations of Palestine, we have not seen return of refugees, we have not seen the removal of one single security check points, have not seen the stopping or preventing of land confiscations, or house demolitions, certainly nothing is done about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem. Nothing the PLO or the PA committed to was ever accomplish, nothing but total failures and lies. No need to talk about the tens of billions fleeced and remains unaccounted for. Forget about Jerusalem it was promised to Israel.

If I were to make a bet, I will bet that the PLO will not go to the UN and will not keep commitments it made in Istanbul today and will “postpone” its decisions till next year waiting for the “right conditions” and buying time for itself, its leaders certainly buying time for the Jewish Occupation to take more and more land and create more and more facts on the ground, facts the Palestinian leadership will have to accept at the end of the day of its commitments to a negotiated settlement.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah is an international legal and business consultant and is the founder and director of Palestine Agency and Palestine Documentation Center www.palestineagency.com and founder and owner of several business in technology and services. Sami also runs an online website (Jefferson Corner). His articles are also featured on PalestineNote and Veterans Today.

Articles on RamallahOnline by Sami Jamil Jadallah

Posted on by

Freedom Flotilla II sets sail for Gaza

freegaza-1-1


Freedom Flotilla aid ship is setting sail for Gaza again.

The Palestinian message on the ground is clear, but no one’s listening. They won’t accept surrender for peace. They want nothing less than freedom and justice in their own unoccupied land.

Debbie Menon

The aid flotilla is being organized by a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups, most of them based in Europe, the Associated Press reported.

The mission is named after the first Freedom Flotilla, which Israeli naval commandoes attacked on May 31, 2010, in international waters, killing nine Turkish activists and injuring around 50 others.

Huwaida Arraf, was on board The Challenger, a U.S.-flagged ship that was part of this international effort to break Israel’s cruel illegal blockade of the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Huwaida recounts : “Israeli commandoes grabbed me by my hair and rammed my head into the deck. They then stepped on my head in order to cuff my hands behind my back and then put a sack over my head. Worse yet, the commandoes killed nine of my fellow passengers, including 19-year old U.S. citizen Furkan Dogan, on the Mavi Marmara.”

Huwaida Arraf ISM Co-Founder

Huwaida Arraf ISM Co-Founder

An international fact-finding mission of the UN Human Rights Council concluded that Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is “collective punishment”–a war crime–and that its May 31, 2010, attack on the flotilla in order to enforce its blockade was “illegal.” The mission found that six passengers, including Furkan, were killed “in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution,” and that survivors were subjected to “torture.”

 

Rather than put pressure on Israel to end its illegal blockade of Gaza, investigate Israel’s killing of a U.S. citizen and attack against a U.S. ship, and sanction Israel for misusing U.S. weapons to attack the flotilla, the Obama Administration shamefully has tried to shield Israel from accountability for its actions.

 

On Saturday, Egypt permanently reopened its border crossing with Rafah. This is an important step toward ending Gaza’s isolation. But because Israel is still illegally blockading Gaza by land, sea and air, and because my country–the United States–is still enabling Israel to get away with it (in April, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice even publicly pressured governments to block future flotillas), in June I plan to sail for Gaza again with “Freedom Flotilla II–Stay Human.”

 

Four women Nobel Peace Laureates have sent an open letter calling on United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to support the safe passage of the Freedom Flotilla II. The flotilla will be bringing much-needed humanitarian supplies to the people of Gaza in late June.

Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, and Rigoberta Menchú Tum have asked the Secretary General to “support the people of Gaza with two key actions.

First, by appointing a representative to inspect and seal the cargo of the boats of the Freedom Flotilla II—thus assuring the Israeli government that the boats are carrying humanitarian supplies…”

and to “call on all governments to support the safe passage of the Freedom Flotilla II.”

Download the open letter here or read the full text below.

Nobel Women’s Initiative An Open Letter to Ban Ki Moon


10 June 2011 | Nobel Women’s Initiative


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

United Nations

New York, NY 10017 USA

 

RE: Inspection and sealing of Freedom Flotilla II cargo


Dear Mr. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

 

We are writing to urge you to use your good offices in support of the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza.

 

In our view, you can support the people of Gaza with two key actions. First, by appointing a representative to inspect and seal the cargo of the boats of the Freedom Flotilla II—thus assuring the Israeli government that the boats are carrying humanitarian supplies such as toys, medical supplies, cement and educational materials. Equally important, we strongly urge you to use your authority to call on all governments to support the safe passage of the Freedom Flotilla II.

 

We are disappointed to learn of your recent efforts to persuade member governments from stopping the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza on the Freedom Flotilla II. We urge you to reconsider and instead encourage member states to lend support and ask Israel not to use force against legitimate humanitarian initiatives undertaken by civil society to help ease the suffering of the people of Gaza who are facing a humanitarian crisis of devastating scale.

 

The Freedom Flotilla II, organized by 14 national groups and international coalitions and carrying approximately 1500 ‘freedom riders,’ is set to sail to Gaza this month. Sailing in the spirit of promoting human rights, prosperity, and social responsibility, the aim of the Flotilla is to alleviate the  humanitarian crisis faced by the citizens of Gaza. The blockade in Gaza is clearly having a harmful impact on the people of Gaza, and indeed UNDP and other agencies report high levels of malnutrition and other disturbing health problems.

 

According to a report by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the level of “abject poverty” among the Palestinians of Gaza has tripled since the imposition of the blockade, with 61 % of households not having enough food.

 

The blockade has crippled the Gaza economy and destroyed Palestinians’ livelihoods and homes.

 

We believe our requests to you are in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1860 of January 2009 as well as the 2010 UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission on the attack on Freedom Flotilla I, which are calling for a lift of the blockade to allow humanitarian assistance. We urge you to do all you can to support this nonviolent international humanitarian effort, to provide UN representatives to inspect and seal the cargo, and to appeal to all governments to allow safe passage of the Freedom Flotilla II.

 

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to your positive response.

 

Sincerely,

-Mairead Corrigan Maguire

-Rigoberta Menchu Tum

-Jody Williams

- Shirin Ebadi

A short promo video edited by Adam Shapiro, co-founder of International Solidarity Movement, for Freedom Flotilla 2:


Contact: Adam Shapiro, +30-694-781-5798, adamsop@gmail.com
Huwaida Arraf, +30-694-781-5798, huwaida.arraf@gmail.com
Greta Berlin, +33 607 374 512, Iristulip@gmail.com

Greta Berlin one of the early pioneers of the flotilla initiative and founder of  Free Gaza Movement wrote: “Instead of pressuring countries to stand in our way, or coming up with ways to bribe governments to stop our ships, the United Nations, the United States and the rest of the international community should recognize the power of this non-violent civilian effort to pressure Israel to change its policy.”

The world community must force Israel to back off and world public opinion and people of conscience must demand that it does so.

The inability of the world community and the United Nations to challenge Israel only frustrates hopes for a stable and peaceful world.

The US government being the primary negotiator for peace and security between Israelis and Palestinians should bear the responsibility for the Zionist regime’s massacre of Palestinian women and children in their homes and territories. Peace and security will be realized only through the establishment of true justice. How can sustainable peace and security be reached by provoking and humiliating others?

Gaza remains under siege, Palestinians in Gaza remain deprived of basic amenities, provoked and angered, the West Bank is also terrorized, Palestinians are being evicted from their homes daily, settlements continue being built, Palestinian land keeps being taken, more innocent lives in the territories are being lost, suffering remains unbearable, and hope for the beleaguered people are dashed.  More Sanctions are being imposed on Israel’s perceived  enemies in the region, crippling their economies further.  Israel does all this without offending anybody!

The Palestinian message on the ground is clear, but no one’s listening. They won’t accept surrender for peace. They want nothing less than freedom and justice in their own unoccupied land. Israel won’t leave them in peace, so the struggle continues.

The United States is not being part of the solution, and appears as a great part of the problem.

I believe the only conclusions to the problem is for Americans to force their Government and Congress to stop supporting Israel diplomatically, militarily and financially.

But, first, and above all, someone is going to have to conduct a spinal implant in the US administration and the Congress!

“America’s inability to resolve the question of Palestine is one of the gravest tragedies of our times. This is primarily because the US administration and the US Congress have succumbed to the demands of the Zionists in America, the Zionist regime in Telaviv and its various Lobbies, AIPAC (American–Israeli Policy Action Committee) and ADL  (Anti-Defamation League). There exists a coordinating agency called “The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations,” Their website ( www.conferenceofpresidents.org ) is worth exploring (and AIPAC is just one of literally dozens of organizations under its umbrella). This is a lethal ailment that afflicts the United States.  The American politicians have fallen captive to this Zionist network.”

 


 

Debbie Menon

Debbie Menon

Debbie Menon is a freelance writer based in Dubai. Her articles have been featured in several print and online publications. She can be reached at: debbiemenon@gmail.com, http://mycatbirdseat.com/
http://www.facebook.com/mycatbirdseat
http://twitter.com/mycatbirdseat/

This article was first published in Veterans Today.

Posted on by

Shot in the Head: Giffords, Hurndall and Palestinian Children

Gaza June 2010 - Israeli snipers arriving in jeeps

Alison Weir, 14 Jan 2011

There is something particularly horrifying when someone is shot in the head. Perhaps it’s the gruesome image, the destruction of the brain, the clear intent to kill. The recent shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is made even more nightmarish by the location of her devastating injury.

Those of us who focus on Israel-Palestine are acutely aware of this horror.

Several years ago, I was researching the cause of death of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces during the first months of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. As I counted up the numbers, I was chilled to discover that the single most frequent cause of death in those beginning months was “gunfire to the head.”

In the past 10 years Israeli forces have killed at least 255 Palestinian minors by fire to the head, and the number may actually be greater, since in many instances the specific bodily location of the lethal trauma is unlisted. In addition, this statistic does not include the many more Palestinian youngsters shot in the head by Israeli soldiers who survived, in one form or another.

Below is a small sampling of those who died. (The term IDF stands for “Israeli Defense Forces,” although these forces are, in reality, an occupation army and are almost always deployed offensively; the incidents below took place on Palestinian territory):

Sami, 12, died of head wounds from IDF gunfire during a demonstration. Abdul, 9, was killed by IDF gunfire to his head during a funeral. Ala, 14, died of head wounds from IDF gunfire while on the terrace of his home one hour after injuring an Israeli soldier with a stone. Omar, 11, died of head wounds from IDF gunfire during a demonstration. Diya, 3 months, was killed, along with her older brother, by Israeli settler gunfire to her head and back. Bara, 10, was killed by IDF gunfire to his head while near his home. Ayman, 15, was killed by IDF tank fire to his head while farming. Khalil, 11, was killed by IDF tank fire to his head while playing with a friend. Rami, 13, was killed by IDF helicopter fire to his head while playing in front of his house. Yaser, 11, died of head wounds from an IDF rubber-coated bullet fired at close range during a demonstration…(1)

Imagine if these names were Bobby… Michael… Susan… Melissa… Jimmy…and that the foreign troops killing them were invading Arizona, Connecticut, Ohio…

I remember seeing one little brain-dead boy when I was in Gaza in February of 2001; long before any rockets had been fired out of this already assaulted enclave. It’s not a sight you forget, regardless of the name or nationality.

A 2009 article in the UK Telegraph entitled “Bullets in the brain, shrapnel in the spine: the terrible injuries suffered by children of Gaza,” investigated a situation in which doctors at a hospital near Gaza were “almost overwhelmed by the number of Palestinian children needing treatment for bullet wounds to their heads.” (2)

The article began: “On just one day last week staff at the El-Arish hospital in Sinai were called to perform sophisticated CAT brain scans on a nine-year-old, two 10-year-olds and a 14-year-old – each of whom had a bullet still lodged in their brain, after coming under fire during the Israeli ground assault on Gaza.”

Asked about the nature of these shootings, a physician replied:

“I can’t precisely decide whether these children are being shot at as a target, but in some cases the bullet comes from the front of the head and goes towards the back, so I think the gun has been directly pointed at the child.”

Israeli soldiers in a group called “Breaking the Silence” have provided chilling testimonies about Israeli military culture; the titles alone tell a great deal. Following are a few:

“The battalion commander ordered us to shoot anyone trying to remove the bodies”, “The commander of the navy commandos put the muzzle of the rifle into the man’s mouth”, “They told us to shoot at anybody moving in the street”, “You can do whatever you feel like, nobody is going to question it.” (3)

Another person shot in the head by Israeli forces was 21-year-old Tom Hurndall. The anniversary of his death is this week.  Hurndall, a student and photographer, had wanted to “make a difference” with his life. In 2003 he went to Gaza to join the nonviolence movement against Israeli aggression and to photograph what he saw.(4)

On April 11th he was nearby when a group of children who had been playing suddenly came under Israeli rifle fire. Most of the children fled, but three, aged four to seven, froze with fear. Hurndall dashed over, rushed one small boy to safety and returned for two little girls. Just as he was reaching to lift one up, an Israeli sniper shot him in the head.

Despite the urgency of his injury, Israeli officials delayed his transport to specialized medical care for over two and a half hours. A British television crew in the area filmed a powerful on-the-scene report that was aired on England’s Channel 4 (5) but has never, to my knowledge, been shown on American television. Tom remained in a vegetative state for nine months, finally dying on Jan. 13t, 2004.

From the end of 2002 to the spring of 2003, Israeli forces killed four internationals and shot another in the face. One of the dead was a UN official, Iain Hook. As with Hurndall, Israeli forces retarded efforts to provide critical medical care. (6) Another was filmmaker James Miller, who had been waving a white flag. He was shot in the throat. (7)

Two recent non-Palestinian victims shot in the head, in this case by high velocity tear gas canisters, are 37-year-old Tristan Anderson  (8) and 21-year-old Emily Henochowicz. (9) Both have survived, Emily without an eye and Tristan in a wheelchair. Part of his right frontal lobe has been removed, he is partially paralyzed, blind in one eye, and it is unclear to what degree his cognitive abilities will return. After shooting him at close range, Israeli forces twice delayed his ambulance to a hospital.

It is difficult to know how many of the 45,000 Palestinian men, women, and children killed or injured by Israeli forces since September 29, 2000 (10) have been shot in the head. Quite likely the number is staggering. Former Yale professor and author Mazin Qumsiyeh describes one:

[Mohammed] was 12 years old when Israeli soldiers shot him in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet, fragmenting his skull and damaging part of his brain. Ten years later, Israeli army officers severely beat and tortured him.  He got married… the young couple received a blessing in the form of a donation of a very small plot of land from their uncle and they built a humble one room house… they lived in this house for 3 years…Then the Israeli army demolished the home saying that it was built without permit (Israel gave no permits for any houses in the village since the occupation began in 1967.)  The family rebuilt the house but Israeli threats forced them to not live in it (Israel wants also some NIS 20,000 for the cost of destroying the home and wants to levy other fines on the family.)  So the young family came to live in a small dwelling underground… (11)

A Dec. 23rd news story by the International Middle East Middle Center mentions another:

“After being brought to the hospital, 22-year old Salamah Abu Hashish succumbed to his wounds. He had been shot in the back by Israeli troops stationed at the border. Another of the victims was a 14-year old boy who was critically injured when he was shot in the head while collecting rubble near where Abu Hashish was tending his sheep.” (12)

The stories go on and on.

Gabrielle Giffords

Ironically, the American Congresswoman recently so tragically shot in the head has been extremely close to the Israel lobby, which has played a critical role in enabling the tragedies sketched above. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) works year after year to ensure that the approximately $7-8 million per day of American tax to Israel (13) keeps flowing regardless of how many civilians its troops kill. (14)

Giffords has been known as “a safe pro-Israel vote in the House” (15) and could be counted on to support AIPAC’s various initiatives to shield Israel from negative consequences for its ruthless and illegal use of American weaponry. (16)

She called a 2001 visit to Israel a turning point in her life (Israeli forces killed 103 children that year, 31 of them shot in the head) and wrote in 2006 (a year in which Israeli forces killed 665 Palestinians, 139 of them children, and Palestinians killed 23 Israelis, two of them children) that “the United States must do everything possible to secure Israel’s long-term security.” (17) Palestinian victims – killed first and in far greater numbers – seem to have been invisible to her. (18)

Giffords, of course, wasn’t the only victim of the Tucson shooting; 14 were injured and six were killed. It is deeply saddening to read about the dead and to imagine the unending grief for their survivors. (19) It is particularly difficult to view the sweet, smiling picture of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, knowing that her bright life is no longer before her.

It is equally tragic to read of nine-year-old Akaber, killed by Israeli gunfire to her head while riding in her uncle’s car to get medical stitches removed, and of the 29 other nine-year-olds killed by Israeli forces in the past decade, eight of them by Israeli gunfire to the head.

It is too late for Akabar, Diya, Mohammed, Tom, and the multitude of others. But there is hope that Gabrielle Giffords is going to survive. Let us pray that she recovers fully, that she is able to return to Congress, and that she then works to prevent others – including Palestinians – from being shot in the head.

We have better uses for our money than to fund atrocities.

- Alison Weir is President of the Council for the National Interest and Executive Director of If Americans Knew, which has produced posters and cards for people to disseminate in commemoration of the seventh anniversary of Tom Hurndall’s killing and about Palestinian children, (which contain a picture of the Gaza boy she saw). Contact her at: alisonweir@ifamericansknew.org and visit: http://ifamericansknew. (This article was first published in Counter Punch: www.counterpunch.org)

Notes:

1. Remember These Children. Since Sept 29, 2000 Israeli forces have killed at least 1,452 Palestinian children; Palestinians have killed 124 Israeli children. Every single one of these deaths is a tragedy.  91 Palestinian children were killed before any Israeli children were killed.

2. “Bullets in the brain, shrapnel in the spine: the terrible injuries suffered by children of Gaza,” The Telegraph, Jan. 2009.

3. “The Darkness to Expel! Israeli soldiers’ book ‘Breaking the Silence’ describes ‘routine’ oppression,” The Missing Headlines, Uri Avnery, Dec. 27, 2010.

4. Section with articles on Tom Hurndall, If Americans Knew website.

5. “Dispatches: The Killing Zone,”  Sandra Jordan and Rodrigo Vasquez, UK Channel 4, May 19, 2003.

6. “Israel’s killing of British citizen Iain Hook, UNRWA’s Project Manager in Jenin
Caoimhe Butterly as told to Annie Higgins writing from Jenin Refugee Camp,” Live from Palestine, 22 November 2002.

7. “Film-maker’s death ‘was murder’,” BBC News, April 4, 2006.

8. “Facts about Tristan”. http://justicefortristan.org

9. “EXCLUSIVE…Emily Henochowicz Speaks Out: Art Student Who Lost Her Eye After Being Shot by Israeli Tear Gas Canister in West Bank Protest Discusses Her Life, Her Art, and Why She Plans to Return,” Democracy Now, Aug 5, 2010.

10. If Americans Knew website, from B’Tselem and Remember These Children.

11. “The Story of a Palestinian Shot in the Head with a Rubber-Coated Steel Bullet by Israeli Occupation Soldiers,” Mazin Qumsiyeh, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, September 20, 2010.

12. “Shepherd killed; 3 injured in Northern Gaza,” IMEMC, Dec. 23, 2010.

13. “U.S. Military Aid and the Israel/Palestine Conflict,” If Americans Knew, from Congressional Research Service reports; “$3.4b in US military aid delayed: US military aid to Israel in 2011 is due to be largest amount Israel has ever received,” Globes Israel’s Business Arena, December 26, 2010.  http://www.globes.co.il.

14. “The Israel Lobby,” London Review of Books, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, March 23, 2006.

15. “Gabrielle Giffords Shot in the Head,” The Forward, Jan 8, 2011.

16. “Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideast,” IPS, Jan 17, 2006.

17. AIPAC Facebook post, Jan. 9, 2011, 3:35 pm.

“A Tribe of Candidates Leads Drive To Retake House for Democrats,” The Forward, Sept. 22, 2006: “…Several candidates who spoke with the Forward did say that they would be strong advocates for Israel in Congress. This is ‘an opportunity to send someone to Congress who’s going to work for Israel,’ Giffords told the Forward…”

18. B’Tselem – Israeli Information Center for Human Rights. http://www.btselem.org/

If Americans Knew. http://ifamericansknew.org.

19. “Thumbnail sketches of those shot in Arizona,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 11, 2011. http://www.ajc.com.

Posted on by

Liar, Liar

Obama is acting like desperate salesmen before a conceited tourist.

Philip Giraldi, November 18, 2010

President Barack Obama’s speech in Indonesia in which he conceded that the United States must do more to establish a good working relationship with many Muslim nations would have ranked as one of the more pathetic performances by an American president in recent years but for the fact that there have been so many awful performances to choose from.  The president’s grammar and syntax were perfect and the speech was cleverly crafted, exactly what we have come to expect.  It was replete with carefully designed pauses, Indonesian words and phrases, and some self deprecating humor, but it was characteristically bloodless and completely tone deaf.  One almost longed to see Bill Clinton choking up and shedding a tear or two.

Obama’s spin team made a heroic effort to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.  They likened the Indonesia speech to his Cairo offering seventeen months ago, in which he likewise committed his administration to establishing a new, more convivial modality for dealing with Islamic nations.  That speech was received respectfully and even positively in many quarters, but this time no one was fooled.  It’s funny how a year and a half of inaction and even retreat can reshape how someone thinks.  One Indonesian commented afterwards “What will Obama do in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? If we don’t see any progress, what he says is just a speech.”

Obama’s offering was full of the usual bromides, about how respectful he is of Islam and its traditions.  He even touched on Israel-Palestine, not surprisingly blaming both sides for not taking the necessary courageous steps to find peace.  It is a familiar argument for American audiences who are used to hearing that the conflict is bilateral, but did not go down well in Indonesia where the listeners are all too aware of the details of the brutal Israeli occupation.

What Obama should have said was that it has now become clear that Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has no desire for any peace agreement that does not provide for perpetual and absolute Israeli dominance over the Palestinians.  He should have added that he knows that Netanyahu has nothing but contempt for him personally in the wake of the midterm election debacle and he might also observe that his ability to act independently is conditioned by the Israel Lobby so he can do nothing to help the Palestinians achieve statehood or even to recover a measure of dignity under Israeli occupation.  He might admit that he has now been reduced to offering multi-billion dollar bribes of military equipment to Israel just to tempt it to suspend some settlement activity for ninety day.  Obama’s words would not have changed reality on the ground, but at least he would have told the truth for a change and the candor would have been refreshing.

If Obama wants to establish some kind of modus vivendi with the Islamic world he must speak to it in language that it understands and not lie about things that all Muslims know to be true.  And it is also past time that he begin to speak the truth to the American people also.  His administration’s retreat from any confrontation with Israel in an attempt to make a recalcitrant Netanyahu conform even to minimal standards of behavior confirms what all the world already knows:  Israel will act and the United States will follow, even if those actions will inflict grave damage on the American people and on the US national interest.

And what will that mean for the United States?  It means that the decision about going to war for the US is essentially controlled by Israel because Tel Aviv can start a conflict with Iran at any time that will quickly draw Washington in.  Those who think that the White House still is managing the situation are completely naïve.  There is no indication that the Obama administration has warned Israel against bombing Iran because the US has no cards to play, having ruled out exerting any sort of economic or military pressure on Netanyahu. And there should be no doubt that an attack by Israel on an Iranian nuclear facility would trigger Iranian retaliation and immediate calls in Congress and the media to support Tel Aviv, leaving the president no option but to enter the conflict.  A third war in the region would mean goodbye to any American ability to disengage from the other conflicts that are bleeding the US white and would possibly lead to even more dire consequences if neighbors like nuclear armed Pakistan and India somehow enter the fray.

Bibi Netanyahu surely understands that the cost to the United States in lives and treasure from war with Iran could potentially be catastrophic but it is a price he is willing to pay as his own people and economy would largely be spared, at least initially.  No American leader should tolerate such a situation but, deplorably, those who have spoken out at all on the Middle East have lined up behind the Israelis as if they were part of the United States, or even more esteemed than any of the fifty states. Vice President Joe Biden told the Jewish Federations of North America annual gathering in New Orleans last week that “the ties between our two countries are literally unbreakable” and described how he is “absolutely certain that our support for Israel must continue … forever,” echoing similar statements made by both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama.  Biden knows full well that Israeli and US interests do not coincide and his comments amount to political pandering of the worst sort.  It is even more disconcerting to think that he might actually mean what he says.

Meanwhile Steny Hoyer, who calls himself a Zionist and frequently expresses his love for Israel, and has spoken of “our responsibility to stand by Israel and the Jewish people,” is poised to take over as Minority Whip in the House of Representatives.  On the other side of the aisle, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Eric Cantor are unrelenting advocates of Israel who are about to step into senior positions in the Republican dominated congress.  Cantor recently met privately with Bibi Netanyahu and said the Republican Party would serve “as a check on” the Obama Administration over its policies in the Middle East. Then “He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.” In other words, Cantor was meeting with the leader of a foreign country and promising to do whatever he could to influence and even subvert the foreign policy of his own country.  Think about that one for a minute or two.

And while Cantor, Hoyer, Biden and company are ceding US national security to the Israelis, who actually is calling the shots on shaping American policy?  None other than the redoubtable Dennis Ross, perched in the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region.  Ross, who has been described as Israel’s lawyer, is poison in the very heart of the policy making apparatus. He recently spoke at an AIPAC Conference in Hollywood Florida where he said “Just last week, I participated in the US-Strategic Dialogue, a biannual event that includes a comprehensive exchange of views on regional issues crucial to both the United State and Israel. But more importantly, the Strategic Dialogue is just one of many, ongoing, and high-level exchanges that occur regularly between the United States in Israel. I’m not aware of another country that we engage more regularly on such a wide range of issues. These types of exchanges not only provide opportunities for discussion of ideas on policy, but they also help solidify connections between our two governments. Over the last two years, I have seen four-star generals, intelligence officers, and high-ranking diplomats all develop personal relationships with their Israeli counterparts. Frankly, this degree of coordination is unprecedented. I have participated in these types of discussions for the last 30 years, and they have never been as intense or focused, reflecting the serious cooperation that we have today with Israel. But our commitment to Israel’s security is defined not by talk. It is defined by the kinds of actions and deeds that help make both of our countries safer and stronger in the face of common threats.”

So if you doubt that the United States is tied hand and foot to Israel in terms of its ability to take independent action in the Middle East, just listen to what Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Eric Cantor are saying.  Does it sound like they are articulating policies beneficial to the US?  They are insisting that Americans have to support Israel unquestioningly no matter what it does and are little more than advocates for monsters like Bibi Netanyahu, pure and simple.  The word Quisling comes to mind when one thinks of them and also Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen.  If their failure to be truly loyal to the country that has nurtured them brings about a new war in which many of their fellow citizens will die, their actions and posturing should be defined by one and all as treason.  If America is to be taken back in a new revolution that will lead to a restoration of the vision of the Founding Fathers it will only take place after the betrayers of our constitution are removed from government, every single one of them.  When American politicians and senior government officials speak of their love of a foreign government that pursues policies inimical to US values and interests they should be disowned by every true patriot and also by every respectable media outlet.  It should be grounds for their immediate removal.


This article first appeared in Antiwar.com. Republished with the author’s permission
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is a contributing editor to The American Conservative and executive director of the Council for the National Interest.

Posted on by

‘Um, You’ve Got an Olive in Your Hijab’

IMG_1767

img_1788

Christopher Cottrell

During the olive harvest season in Beit Umreen, a northern village in the Occupied West Bank, many families’ daily routines shift to the vast green hillsides and fields peppered with olive trees.

The delectable fruit and the precious oil it produces represent a staple income source for many rural Palestinians. Grossing around 25 Sheikels per kilo, a family can earn around $900 per day harvesting olives.

img_1777

(For me, the sound of olives plopping onto the plastic tarps below reminded of raindrops on a tin roof, but I’m sure others also hear the “ka-ching” of a cash register.)

A tree is relinquished of its fruit by first beating the branches with hardwood sticks. Any leftover olives are then picked out by hand.

img_17821

Nestled within dusty branches, the vibrant green and purple olives are easy to spot.

The leaves and sticks are eventually sorted out, leaving just the olives to be poured into a burlap sack.

screen-shot-2010-10-29-at-11-26-33-pm

After an hour of work, we reclined in the shade of an olive tree and ate pomegranates, falafel and za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice made from thyme, salt and toasted sesame seeds.

My friends’ mother gathered fallen olive tree branches and made a fire for tea. Passing me the first steaming cup, I saw that her hands were worn from many harvests past.

The serenity of our break was interrupted every few minutes by the sound of passing cars, their drivers honking to greet neighbors in adjacent fields.

Anytime a car drove by I instinctively checked the color of the license plate (yellow would have meant Israeli settlers). Especially during the olive harvest season, settlers frequently attack Palestinian farmers, often razing crops in their wake.

International activists often visit the Occupied West Bank during the olive harvest. The extra manpower reduces the amount of time farmers spend exposed in their fields and the mere presence of foreigners is sometimes enough to deter settler attacks.

In the past, even Israeli rabbis have come to the defense of Palestinian farmers. Just last month, Jewish settlers clashed with activists of the Rabbis for Human Rights movement near the southern city of Hebron.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “activists were going to 40 Palestinian villages to protect olive growers and uphold their right to work the land, and harvest. They would act ‘as human shields’ if necessary.”



Christopher Cottrell is an independent American journalist based out of Nablus. Currently working as a part-time volunteer at An-Najah National University working with journalism students. You may also follow Chris at www.chris-cottrell.com.

Olive Harvest

img_1795

img_1788

Christopher Cottrell

During the olive harvest season in Beit Umreen, a northern village in the Occupied West Bank, many families’ daily routines shift to the vast green hillsides and fields peppered with olive trees.

The delectable fruit and the precious oil it produces represent a staple income source for many rural Palestinians. Grossing around 25 Sheikels per kilo, a family can earn around $900 per day harvesting olives.

img_1777

(For me, the sound of olives plopping onto the plastic tarps below reminded of raindrops on a tin roof, but I’m sure others also hear the “ka-ching” of a cash register.)

A tree is relinquished of its fruit by first beating the branches with hardwood sticks. Any leftover olives are then picked out by hand.

img_17821

Nestled within dusty branches, the vibrant green and purple olives are easy to spot.

The leaves and sticks are eventually sorted out, leaving just the olives to be poured into a burlap sack.

screen-shot-2010-10-29-at-11-26-33-pm

After an hour of work, we reclined in the shade of an olive tree and ate pomegranates, falafel and za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice made from thyme, salt and toasted sesame seeds.

My friends’ mother gathered fallen olive tree branches and made a fire for tea. Passing me the first steaming cup, I saw that her hands were worn from many harvests past.

The serenity of our break was interrupted every few minutes by the sound of passing cars, their drivers honking to greet neighbors in adjacent fields.

Anytime a car drove by I instinctively checked the color of the license plate (yellow would have meant Israeli settlers). Especially during the olive harvest season, settlers frequently attack Palestinian farmers, often razing crops in their wake.

International activists often visit the Occupied West Bank during the olive harvest. The extra manpower reduces the amount of time farmers spend exposed in their fields and the mere presence of foreigners is sometimes enough to deter settler attacks.

In the past, even Israeli rabbis have come to the defense of Palestinian farmers. Just last month, Jewish settlers clashed with activists of the Rabbis for Human Rights movement near the southern city of Hebron.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “activists were going to 40 Palestinian villages to protect olive growers and uphold their right to work the land, and harvest. They would act ‘as human shields’ if necessary.”



Christopher Cottrell is an independent American journalist based out of Nablus.  Currently working as a part-time volunteer at An-Najah National University working with  journalism students. You may also follow Chris  at  www.chris-cottrell.com.

Posted on by

A Show of Palestinian Business Resilience

Sam Bahour

Sam Bahour, 31 Oct 2010

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will most likely cut a ribbon; a handful of government officials will be jockeying for camera time to claim economic leadership; major multinationals will compete to get their logo in the limelight; international donors, like USAID, DFID and the World Bank will be prominently featured and the media will eat all of this and regurgitate it, with little or no real analysis, as economic development toward statehood. This is all a probable scenario in the upcoming Palestinian information and communication technology (ICT) sector’s premier annual public event, EXPOTECH Technology Week 2010.

The real story however will be embedded in the exhibition’s booths, in the people who are struggling to survive under a brutal and prolonged Israeli military occupation while keeping their eye on the prize: building an information technology sector that has the potential to be a pillar of a future Palestinian state while in the meantime providing sustenance under the distress of occupation.

This exhibition is not about growth; it is about survival.

Education

Palestine’s ICT players are many but the key to this sector is its knowledge-based resources. The human resources that feed the sector are a mix between products of Palestine’s higher education system and Palestine’s diaspora and ex-pat community who have returned home during the past two decades.

Palestinian universities have been weathering crisis after crisis ever since Israeli occupation began in 1967. In the mid 1970’s university presidents and staff had to deal with being deported from their homes by Israel; in the late 1980’s several Palestinian universities were closed for years on end and hundreds of staff and students were arrested by Israel; in the 1990’s, with the signing of the Oslo peace accords, what was supposedly a paradigm shift toward independence turned out to be a reshuffling of the occupation with a new layer of bureaucracy called the Palestinian Authority (PA). Since the year 2000 Palestinian professors and students have been randomly blocked by Israeli checkpoints and closure regimes from reaching their classrooms and continue, all the while, to be arbitrarily harassed, humiliated and arrested.

More recently, how higher education institutions in Gaza can sustain their existence under Israeli siege and constant shelling from the air, land and sea is a story in itself and will surely be noted in tomorrow’s history books.

In spite of this bitter reality, Palestinians persevered and held on to education like there was no tomorrow. This steadfastness in the face of incredible odds should not be underestimated. In the midst of all of this chaos, universities struggled to attain their fair allocation of the PA budget to meet their payrolls, retain their teaching staff and adjust their offerings to meet the rapidly changing market needs. For better or for worse, this is the foundation that the information technology sector of Palestine stands on.

Business Drivers

Those driving Palestine’s occupied economy are also key. Thus far, the donor community, by virtue of its funding abilities, is the back-seat driver of the entire economy and is in structural control. The U.S., EU, World Bank and the like are micromanaging many sectors in Palestine; the ICT sector is not an exception.

Intervention comes in many shapes and sizes and, over time, develops its modalities. What started nearly two decades ago as charitable assistance has since moved to grants managed by each donor country’s private sector firms. Over time, and with the need to navigate through a political minefield, assistance to the sector took a new shape: partnerships with local civil society. Even multinational corporate social responsibility venues started playing a major role.

A growing number of Palestinian software development firms and service providers are reaching out to global markets, some benefiting from this international support and others on their own. Hidden in the alley ways of Palestine’s economic landscape are Palestinians from the ex-pat community and diaspora who are linking local engineers to global markets.

Firms like gSoft Technology Solutions (www.gsofttech.com), one of the leading software development companies in Palestine which provides outsourcing services to leading American companies specializing in the semiconductor, solar, insurance, medical, real-estate and mobile markets in the U.S., is a prime case in point. gSoft also builds and globally markets mobile and advertising products and services. This firm highlights the organic link that the Palestinian diaspora can play in opening up markets for local firms to serve.

Another local success story is Bisan Systems (www.bisan.ps). This firm has been providing accounting software services to the lion’s share of the Palestinian market for over 22 years. In keeping with the times they now provide all of the occupied territory with a new version of their Java-based, multilingual, online accounting application in an application service provider model. The firm is also providing the accounting system plumbing behind some of the main elements of the Palestinian Authority’s institutional financial reform efforts and is receiving rave reviews by international organizations like the World Bank. This is another local success story—ready, able and willing to compete on a regional and global scale. The examples are many.

Over the years many multinational firms have dabbled into Palestine’s ICT sector as well. At one point TIMEX had a team of Palestinian developers working as part of their global research and development network to develop new digital watch software. Today, HP and Google are just two more examples of firms on the ground in Palestine.

The most promising of the multinational experiences has been a three year commitment from CISCO’s CEO John Chambers, which is due to expire at the end of this year. CISCO has hinted that they are more than pleased with the investments they have made in Palestinian firms. The sector anxiously awaits a comprehensive review of the $10 million that was invested by CISCO in order to build on this high profile platform for other multinationals to follow suit.

Sector Leadership

The convener of the upcoming high-tech exhibition is the Palestinian Information Technology Association of Companies (PITA), of which my consulting firm is a proud member. PITA was founded in 1999 by a group of Palestinian entrepreneurs who wanted to create a non-governmental body to defend the interests of the ICT sector. Operations began in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank with one employee and a paid member base of 25 Palestinian ICT companies.

PITA can safely claim to be the most active Palestinian trade association, both on and offline. During the tough years of the second Intifada, PITA grew and today represents 100 ICT firms (29 of them based in Gaza)—everything from hardware distributors, software development firms, office automation vendors, internet service providers, telecommunications, IT consulting, IT training and related businesses. This growth and member base diversity exemplifies the dynamism of this sector and reflects its tremendous potential.

The newest addition to the sector has been the establishment of several university-based Centers of Excellences dedicated to incubation services to capture a pipeline of ideas emerging from Palestine’s youthful population.

Even the Palestinian Authority itself, at least in the West Bank, has started to finally get its act together and make progress on several long standing issues that have held back the sector, such as opening the telecommunications market for competition.

Capital in Action

The investment leadership in the sector has also become richer and more diverse in recent years. Today Palestine is proud to host several new private equity funds that are open to ICT investments. Abraaj Capital, the region’s biggest private equity group in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, has partnered with the Palestine Investment Fund, Palestine’s sovereign wealth fund, to launch Palestine’s branch of the Riyada Enterprise Development by way of a $50 million private equity fund. Abraaj Capital Group, the parent of Riyada Enterprise Development, was a recent recipient of $150 million in financial support from the U.S.’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to expand its efforts in the MENA region.

Massar International, one of Palestine’s emerging economic powerhouses, has recently received $30 million financial support from OPIC to launch the Siraj Palestine Fund I, another private equity fund.

Some funds have tried to bury the political complexities of managing a matrix of interests in Palestine, but others have dealt with the political complexities head on. For example, as reported in America.com, the Aspen Institute “has several projects designed to encourage Middle East entrepreneurship. It has played a key role in organizing the Middle East Venture Capital Fund, which is managed by Israeli businessman Yadin Kaufmann and Palestinian entrepreneur Saed Nashef. Backed by the European Investment Bank, Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corporation and other contributors, the fund has $50 million to fund high-growth, export-oriented ventures in information technology.”

The UK-based aid and development agency Mercy Corps recently reported in a press release that it “received a major international award for its work to support Palestinian information and communication technology (ICT) companies…They won the prestigious Digital Opportunity Award for their programme building links between Palestinian and Israeli ICT companies as a step towards peace in the region…[and]…in recognition of their ‘remarkable and successful’ work in building closer business relationships between Palestinian and Israeli companies. The programme involved an extensive awareness-raising campaign and proactively building business relationships, through meetings and the launch of a new website [see the Outsource to Palestine website at www.outsource2pal.com] and report , all aimed at promoting the capabilities of the Palestinian ICT sector to the Israeli and international market.”

Several new private equity and venture capital funds are also in the pipeline. Thus, one can see a clear building of the needed investment infrastructure. But to be honest to Palestine’s experience, it was never the hard infrastructure which was cause for concern, but rather the soft infrastructure—that which may be called the investment eco-system—that has hindered our progress: things like freedom of movement of people and goods, the right to engage in cross border trade without Israeli restrictions, a telecommunications network which is not forced to go through an Israeli operator and the like.

The rigorous international intervention to support Palestine’s ICT sector is surely welcomed; however, it would be meaningless if it was not accompanied by concentrated efforts from donor states to remove—not maneuver between—Israel’s illegal actions that hamper our sector’s development.

A Real Display of Resilience

Palestine’s EXPOTECH Technology Week 2010 has all the trappings of any world class exhibition. It will be the first event to be held in Palestine’s first 5-star Movenpick Hotel in Ramallah. A parallel venue in Gaza is also planned for those not permitted by Israel to attend. Aside from the business to business meetings, an array of workshops will be held on IT Business in Palestine, Telecommunication and Broadband, Technology Entrepreneurship, Technology Trends, e-Government Initiative, Technology Financing, Strategies to Grow the ICT Sector, Technology/Innovation Marketing and IT Education. If one did not know better, the exhibition agenda looks like one from any free market anywhere in the world. However, we do know better.

In the face of the systematic Israeli stifling of our economy, our technology entrepreneurs are putting on a show of Palestinian business resilience like no other. It can be viewed as an example of a battered people, proudly standing up at the podium of a globally vibrant sector, and screaming at the top of their voice that we are a people yearning to be free, yearning to compete in a global economy. We are a people that have kept abreast of our sector’s developments across the globe even as we find it hard to move from city to city in our own homeland.

The exhibition will physically bring together West Bank Palestinians, Jerusalemites, a few Gazan Palestinians and Palestinians from the Diaspora. It will be a symbolic sign of economic unity, albeit not fully complete. Those Palestinian technologists that are dispersed throughout our refugee community will be missing. Yet other loved ones from our sector who are currently being imprisoned by Israel will also be missing. But in spirit all will be present and all will be showing a side of Palestine that is rarely seen—a Palestine that can contribute to human knowledge; a Palestine that can improve human well being; and maybe more than anything else, a Palestine that is giving countries of the world yet another chance to uphold their obligations as signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention and to remove the misery caused by the dirty boot of Israeli military occupation being on our necks for so many years.

(Visit this display of genuine Palestinian business resilience at www.expotech.ps.)

Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business consultant living in the Palestinian city of Al-Bireh/Ramallah in the West Bank.

  • (A version of this article was first published in Arab News: http://arabnews.com.)

    • Posted on by

    Science Fair at Bethlehem University, Israeli torture and more

    Mazin Qumsiyeh

    Mazin Qumsiyeh, 9th Oct 2010

    Video: Students at Bethlehem University put together a very successful
    science fair despite limited resources

    Palestinian Sam Bahour’s take on the peace process [in a Jewish publication]
    Jews and Israelis are asked to comment on this
    http://www.jewishpostandnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=531:bahour&catid=38:local-news&Itemid=112&lang=en

    Are the Israeli occupation tasks outsourced to US trained Palestinian
    forces?
    Detailed article on Israeli-American-Palestinian security “cooperation”
    http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/14/our-man-palestine/

    Action Call for International Solidarity: Stop raids against US anti-war
    activists and international solidarity activists http://www.ijsn.net/632/

    IDF learns lessons from Turkish flotilla: Oketz unit dogs will be first to
    go aboard, keep area sterile until soldiers arrive
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3966094,00.html

    Right wing settler leader runs over two palestinian Children in occupied
    Jerusalem. The settler leader helps bring settlers to live in Silwan, E
    Jerusalem where homes are being demolished under the guise of the “city of
    David” colonial project

    Israeli soldier dancing and taunting blindfolded Palestinian woman

    and the woman filmed here describes torture, humiliation
    http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=321957

    [more fascist state action] Israel expels Nobel peace laureate over Gaza
    protest
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/05/israel-deports-corrigan-maguire

    Video of Great Boycott Action in France (English subtitles)
    but there is a crackdown on
    activists and we need you to speak to European MPs, see
    http://www.palestinecampaign.org/Index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=106&Content_ID=1527

    Jewish population in Israel is declining: Despite a million immigrants over
    the past two decades, the percentage of Jews in the Israeli population is
    declining.
    http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/jewish-population-in-israel-is-declining-1.317042
    This argument in Israel between Zionists about “demographics” is itself
    revealing about the level of racism engendered in the notion of wanting
    maximum geography with minimum demography (of the native inhabitants)

    Israeli Rabbi: Honey-pot sex is kosher for female Mossad agents
    Rabbi Ari Schvat’s ruling appeared in a study, ‘Illicit sex for the sake of
    national security,’ published by the Tzomet Institute, which studies the
    interface between religion and modernity.
    http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/israeli-rabbi-honey-pot-sex-is-kosher-for-female-mossad-agents-1.317288

    Israel’s Netanyahu backs Jewish loyalty oath
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11491988

    Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
    A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home

    Posted on by

    Jewish Boat to Gaza sets sail from Cyprus

    Passengers on the Jewish Boat to Gaza gather for a group photograph before their departure. Photo by Vish Vishvanath/Metro

    Press release: issued on the 26th September 2010

    Passengers on the Jewish Boat to Gaza gather for a group photograph before their departure. Photo by Vish Vishvanath/Metro

    Passengers on the Jewish Boat to Gaza gather for a group photograph before their departure. Photo by Vish Vishvanath/Metro

    A boat carrying aid for Gaza’s population and organized by Jewish groups worldwide has set sail from Cyprus today at 13.32 local time.

    The boat, Irene, is sailing under a British flag and is carrying ten passengers and crew, including Jews from the US, the UK, Germany and Israel as well as an Israeli journalist.

    The boat’s cargo includes symbolic aid in the form of children’s toys and musical instruments, textbooks, fishing nets for Gaza’s fishing communities and prosthetic limbs for orthopaedic medical care in Gaza’s hospitals.

    The boat sets sail. Photos by Vish Vishvanath/Metro

    The boat sets sail. Photos by Vish Vishvanath/Metro

    The receiving organization in Gaza is the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, directed by Gaza psychiatrist Dr. Eyad Sarraj.

    The boat will attempt to reach the coast of Gaza and unload its aid cargo in a nonviolent, symbolic act of solidarity and protest – and call for the siege to be lifted to enable free passage of goods and people to and from the Gaza Strip.

    The boat will fly multicolored peace flags carrying the names of dozens of Jews who have expressed their support for this action, as a symbol of the widespread support for the boat by Jews worldwide.

    Speaking from London, a member of the organizing group, Richard Kuper of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said today that the Jewish Boat to Gaza is a symbolic act of protest against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the siege of Gaza, and a message of solidarity to Palestinians and Israelis who seek peace and justice.

    ‘Israeli government policies are not supported by all Jews,’ said Kuper. ‘We call on all governments and people around the world to speak and act against the occupation and the siege.’

    Regarding the threat of interception by the Israeli navy, Kuper said ‘This is a nonviolent action. We aim to reach Gaza, but our activists will not engage in any physical confrontation and will therefore not present the Israelis with any reason or excuse to use physical force or assault them.’

    Passenger Reuven Moskovitz. Photo by Vish Vishvanath

    Passenger Reuven Moskovitz. Photo by Vish Vishvanath

    Passenger Reuven Moskovitz, 82, said that his life’s mission has been to turn foes into friends. “We are two peoples, but we have one future”, he said.

    Satellite phone on board for contact to the passengers: 00 8821668610337

    Media Contact in London for interviewing the Boat’s organizers: Yosh, 0044 7816 448307 media@jewishboattogaza.org

    Media Contact in Israel: JNews 00972 549270796

    Passengers and crew for interview:

    Reuven Moskovitz, from Israel, is a founding member of the Jewish-Arab village Neve Shalom (Oasis of Peace) and a holocaust survivor. Speaks German, Hebrew and English.

    Rami Elhanan, from Israel, lost his daughter Smadar to a suicide bombing in 1997 and is a founding member of the Bereaved Families Circle of Israelis and Palestinians who lost their loved ones to the conflict. Speaks Hebrew and English.

    Lilian Rosengarten, from the US, is a peace activist and psychotherapist. She was a refugee from Nazi Germany. Speaks English and German.

    Yonatan Shapira, from Israel, is an ex-IDF pilot and now an activist for Combatants for Peace. Speaks Hebrew and English.

    Glyn Secker, from the UK, is the boat’s captain and a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. Speaks English.

    Dr. Edith Lutz, from Germany, is a peace activist and a nurse. She was on the first boat to Gaza in 2008. Speaks German and English.

    Alison Prager, from the UK, is a teacher and peace activist. She is media coordinator for the boat. Speaks English.

    Itamar Shapira, from Israel, is Yonatan’s brother, and a member of the boat’s crew. Speaks Hebrew, Spanish and English.

    Eli Osherov,  Israeli reporter from Israel Channel 10 News.

    Supporters: Jewish organizations and individuals from UK, Holland, Germany, US, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, France, Austria, Australia and Israel.

    Organizers and sponsors: European Jews for a Just Peace, Jews for Justice for Palestinians (UK), Juedische Stimme fuer einen gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Germany), American Jews for a Just Peace (USA), Jewish Voice for Peace (USA), Jews Against the Occupation Sydney.

    Visit www.jewishboattogaza.org and join us on Facebook and Twitter