Ynet News.com
Attila Somfalvi
Published: 08.30.11, 15:08
Israel Business
While economists warn of widespread boycott of Israel in wake of Palestinian declaration of state, senior ministers more concerned about allocating billions for defense against third intifada
Economists, pundits and politicians warn that a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state could put Israel in a corner by isolating the Jewish state both politically and financially.
The concern is that an increasing number of international companies and western nations will choose to boycott Israel – just like they did with South Africa under Apartheid – due to its continued control of the West Bank and its unwillingness to stop settlement construction. President Shimon Peres has warned of such developments, especially after a number of port authorities in Europe announced that they would not unload Israeli cargo.
In light of the heavy financial risks, it could be expected that the Finance Ministry would take extensive measures to prepare for the possibility that Israel's economy will take a blow. However, as of now, it seems as though the state prefers to invest the bulk of its efforts in diplomatic and military measures ahead of what the defense establishment expects to turn into a third intifada.
Moreover, it is attempting to gain the support of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defined as a "moral minority," which is to include about 30 western and European nations that will vote against the UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
'Palestinians don't want peace'
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz believes that Israel should focus its preparation efforts on the defense field.
"Joining the OECD, which includes 30 member states, gives us a kind of insurance," Steintz said in closed talks. "These are nations that cannot boycott Israel. Various companies and associations can boycott, but nations cannot. It doesn't make us absolutely immune, but it does make us stronger.
"Israel needs primarily to prepare strategically," he added."To tell the truth, the Palestinians don't want to make peace."
These days, the Finance Ministry is mainly getting ready for the possibility that Israel's economy would have to allocate billions of shekels for the defense establishment. If a third intifada breaks out, or if the Palestinians decide to launch a war of attrition on Israel's borders, it is the defense establishment that will have to deal with it; and it is still unclear how much financial resources it will require.
"An escalation can hurt the Israeli economy," a senior Treasury official said. "We are seriously preparing for an emergency situation. While the Palestinian declaration might not create a financial problem in itself, a security flare-up can change the entire picture."
"Right now there is no series of sessions scheduled specifically to deal with September, but we are preparing for any situation," he added.
In fact, Israel's leaders are not worried about boycotts that could harm the economy.
"A boycott doesn't happen that fast," said a top minister who serves on the seven-minister forum and the Political-Security Cabinet. "Israel does research and develops software, but it doesn't produce the final products. Israel's role in the global hi-tech industry is very significant."
He listed Intel as an example of a corporation that continues to invest billions of dollars in Israel, despite the anticipated implications of September.
"Without Israeli hi-tech, nations will collapse," he added. "We are second in hi-tech exports to the US alone. This is why we cannot be boycotted."
The finance minister also assures that there is no room for concern, claiming that Israel's economy will stay strong.
"It doesn't mean that Israel's economy cannot be harmed," Steinitz said in closed talks. "But it cannot collapse. Israeli parts are incorporated in a variety of products, and they cannot be taken out. It's difficult to get ahead in the hi-tech industry without Israel. Who can forgo the USB drive, for example, or the computer microchips that Israel manufactures?"
Steinitz, however, is readying for a possible security crisis, which would require recruitment of reserve forces and consequently hurt the market. Such a blow to the economy can ultimately lead to a disruption in tax collection.
"This is the main problem that should be dealt with," the finance minister said. "I'm not calm in anticipation of September, but we should not exaggerate the potential harm to the Israeli economy."
'Palestinians don't want peace' Israeli leaders saying this with a straight face has got to be high comedy. Israel= Apartheid South Africa is more accurate with the same fate in store for the Zionist Jewish supremacy ideology that fuels Israeli settlement aggression.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Israeli military arms settlers in preparation for Palestinian protests
West Bank settlers are given training before protests predicted to coincide with a Palestinian petition for UN recognition
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 30 August 2011 12.27 BST
Palestinians throw stones at Israeli soldiers during a protest near the West Bank settlement of Kadumim. Photograph: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images
The Israeli military is arming and training West Bank settlers in preparation for mass protests by Palestinians that it expects to erupt around the time that the UN is asked to recognise a Palestinian state, according to a leaked document.
Teargas and stun grenades are being distributed and training sessions held with settlement security teams, according to the document obtained by Haaretz.
The army has also drawn lines on maps around Jewish settlements close to Palestinian villages to guide troops, police and settlement security chiefs. Protesters who breach the first line will be subject to teargas and other methods of crowd dispersal. If a second "red line" is crossed, soldiers will be permitted to open fire at protesters' legs.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed it was liaising with settlers over Operation Summer Seeds, its codename for the military response to the expected protests. However, Palestinian leaders vigorously deny that violent protests are planned, and the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, has said he expects September to pass quietly.
In a statement the IDF said: "The IDF maintains an ongoing, professional dialogue with the community leadership and security personnel throughout Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] while devoting great efforts to training local forces and preparing them to deal with any possible scenario.
"Recently, central command has completed training the majority of the first response teams; these exercises are ongoing. Beyond the aforementioned training, the IDF cannot comment further regarding its operational preparedness."
According to Haaretz, the army has held training sessions for settlement security officers at a military installation near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.
Settlers are pressing the IDF to issue specific instructions on how they should respond to Palestinian protests, the paper says, but the military advocate general is concerned that such instructions could be interpreted as rules of engagement.
Hagit Ofran, of Peace Now, an Israeli organisation which monitors settlement activity, said: "We hope the army is making clear that non-violent protest is legitimate and no settlers should use any violence against unarmed demonstrators."
Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights said there were already "serious questions and problems" with settlement security officials acting outside their designated boundaries. "We're very concerned that [the IDF move] will not reduce conflict but increase it," he said.
Preparation for anticipated protests has been under way for weeks, with extra training given to thousands of police officers and soldiers. The Israeli authorities have allocated funds for training exercises and the purchase of additional equipment.
The military has reportedly stockpiled around 200,000 litres of foul-smelling liquid to be fired from water cannon at protesters, or possibly dropped from planes. Supplies of stun grenades, rubber bullets and riot gear are also being topped up.
According to the leaked document, the IDF expects demonstrations to turn into "mass disorder". It says the protests may include "marches towards main junctions, Israeli communities and education centres; efforts at damaging symbols of [Israeli] government. Also there may be more extreme cases like shooting from within the demonstrations or even terrorist incidents. In all the scenarios, there is readiness to deal with incidents near the fences and the borders of the state of Israel."
Earlier this month, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's rightwing foreign minister, said the Palestinians were preparing for "bloodshed the likes of which we've never seen before". Some commentators believed his remarks were aimed at inflaming the situation and stoking fears among the Israeli population.
The Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib said Israel was "trying to fuel a fake picture of what will happen in September", adding: "These Israeli predictions of violence aren't true."
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has called for peaceful demonstrations in September to coincide with the Palestinians' petition to the UN for recognition of their state. But he has repeatedly said protests should be peaceful. "I insist on popular resistance and I insist that it be unarmed popular resistance so that nobody misunderstands us," he told the Palestine Liberation Organisation's central committee.
The Palestinian leadership is expected to present their request to be admitted to UN membership when the general assembly meets in September. Membership of the UN requires security council approval, which the US has already said it will veto.
The Palestinians are then expected to request an enhanced "non-member state" status, which needs a two-thirds majority in the general assembly. They claim to have the backing so far of 124 of the UN's 193 members, and expect to get a majority by the time of a vote.
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 30 August 2011 12.27 BST
Palestinians throw stones at Israeli soldiers during a protest near the West Bank settlement of Kadumim. Photograph: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images
The Israeli military is arming and training West Bank settlers in preparation for mass protests by Palestinians that it expects to erupt around the time that the UN is asked to recognise a Palestinian state, according to a leaked document.
Teargas and stun grenades are being distributed and training sessions held with settlement security teams, according to the document obtained by Haaretz.
The army has also drawn lines on maps around Jewish settlements close to Palestinian villages to guide troops, police and settlement security chiefs. Protesters who breach the first line will be subject to teargas and other methods of crowd dispersal. If a second "red line" is crossed, soldiers will be permitted to open fire at protesters' legs.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed it was liaising with settlers over Operation Summer Seeds, its codename for the military response to the expected protests. However, Palestinian leaders vigorously deny that violent protests are planned, and the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, has said he expects September to pass quietly.
In a statement the IDF said: "The IDF maintains an ongoing, professional dialogue with the community leadership and security personnel throughout Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] while devoting great efforts to training local forces and preparing them to deal with any possible scenario.
"Recently, central command has completed training the majority of the first response teams; these exercises are ongoing. Beyond the aforementioned training, the IDF cannot comment further regarding its operational preparedness."
According to Haaretz, the army has held training sessions for settlement security officers at a military installation near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.
Settlers are pressing the IDF to issue specific instructions on how they should respond to Palestinian protests, the paper says, but the military advocate general is concerned that such instructions could be interpreted as rules of engagement.
Hagit Ofran, of Peace Now, an Israeli organisation which monitors settlement activity, said: "We hope the army is making clear that non-violent protest is legitimate and no settlers should use any violence against unarmed demonstrators."
Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights said there were already "serious questions and problems" with settlement security officials acting outside their designated boundaries. "We're very concerned that [the IDF move] will not reduce conflict but increase it," he said.
Preparation for anticipated protests has been under way for weeks, with extra training given to thousands of police officers and soldiers. The Israeli authorities have allocated funds for training exercises and the purchase of additional equipment.
The military has reportedly stockpiled around 200,000 litres of foul-smelling liquid to be fired from water cannon at protesters, or possibly dropped from planes. Supplies of stun grenades, rubber bullets and riot gear are also being topped up.
According to the leaked document, the IDF expects demonstrations to turn into "mass disorder". It says the protests may include "marches towards main junctions, Israeli communities and education centres; efforts at damaging symbols of [Israeli] government. Also there may be more extreme cases like shooting from within the demonstrations or even terrorist incidents. In all the scenarios, there is readiness to deal with incidents near the fences and the borders of the state of Israel."
Earlier this month, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's rightwing foreign minister, said the Palestinians were preparing for "bloodshed the likes of which we've never seen before". Some commentators believed his remarks were aimed at inflaming the situation and stoking fears among the Israeli population.
The Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib said Israel was "trying to fuel a fake picture of what will happen in September", adding: "These Israeli predictions of violence aren't true."
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has called for peaceful demonstrations in September to coincide with the Palestinians' petition to the UN for recognition of their state. But he has repeatedly said protests should be peaceful. "I insist on popular resistance and I insist that it be unarmed popular resistance so that nobody misunderstands us," he told the Palestine Liberation Organisation's central committee.
The Palestinian leadership is expected to present their request to be admitted to UN membership when the general assembly meets in September. Membership of the UN requires security council approval, which the US has already said it will veto.
The Palestinians are then expected to request an enhanced "non-member state" status, which needs a two-thirds majority in the general assembly. They claim to have the backing so far of 124 of the UN's 193 members, and expect to get a majority by the time of a vote.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Continuing Ashkenazim Jewish control of America's economy, Obama nominates Alan Krueger to be top economic advisor
San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg
Monday, August 29, 2011
Obama Says Krueger to Be Key Adviser on Spurring Growth
Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he's nominating Alan Krueger, a labor economist who has advocated for a hiring tax credit for businesses and increased infrastructure spending, to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Obama said Krueger will play a central role in developing policies to spur faster economic growth. The president said he'll announce a package of proposals next week to boost hiring.
"Our great ongoing challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster," Obama said at the White House. "Our challenge is to create a climate where more businesses can post job listings, where folks can find good work that relieves the financial burden they're feeling, where families can regain a sense of economic security."
The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation. Krueger, 50, would replace Austan Goolsbee, who left the administration earlier this month to return to teaching at the University of Chicago. Krueger, who received his Ph.D from Harvard in 1987, has been at Princeton University since last November after serving as the Treasury Department's chief economist for two years.
Krueger would help remake Obama's economic team ahead of next year's re-election campaign as the president seeks to lower the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
Jobs Tax Credit
"I favor the idea of having a new jobs tax credit," Krueger said in a July 1 interview with Bloomberg radio. "If companies increase their payroll by an employee, they could get a $5,000 tax cut to offset their additional hiring costs."
"Eventually, companies reach a point where they are so lean they do need to hire more," he said. "But they also need to be more confident that demand will be there for their goods and services."
Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton economist and former member of Obama's economic advisers' council, called Krueger "an inspired choice" by the president.
"He is probably best known for his work on the economic benefits of schooling and the impact of school quality on student outcomes, the impact of the minimum wage on employment, and more recently on measures of individual well-being including among the unemployed," Rouse said in an e-mail.
The Republican National Committee criticized Krueger, saying in a statement that he favored raising taxes and was "wrong" in assessing the stimulus passed in 2009 had helped turn the economy around.
Team Revamped
Krueger would be Obama's third CEA chairman in as many years, joining an economic team that has been almost entirely revamped in Obama's first term. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is the only member of Obama's original core economic advisers who remains in the administration.
The president's first council leader, Christina Romer, returned to teaching at the University of California at Berkeley last September. National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag left the administration last year. Summers returned to Harvard University and Orszag is now vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup Inc.
As chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Krueger's salary would be $191,300 a year. In his last full year as a professor at Princeton, Krueger made $369,807, according to his financial disclosure report.
Consulting and Speeches
Krueger supplemented that income with consulting, board memberships and speeches, including $7,000 from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for a speech in June 2008. As council chairman, Krueger would again be working with NEC director Gene Sperling, who left Treasury earlier this year to replace Summers and also drew money from Goldman before joining the administration, earning $887,727 for advice on that company's charitable giving.
At Treasury, Krueger worked on the administration's first stimulus package, tax credits for businesses and the Build America Bond program. As an academic, his work has focused on the labor market, including studies on long-term unemployment, which will be one of the issues Obama plans to address in his jobs speech next week.
Obama will release his jobs plan shortly after the Sept. 5 Labor Day holiday. The president intends to press Congress for billions of dollars in spending to reduce unemployment as he also pursues a compromise on long-term deficit cuts.
Jobs Proposal
The proposal will be for "a series of steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working families and middle-class families to make it easier for small businesses to hire people to put construction crews to work rebuilding our nation's roads and railways and airports and all the other measures that can help to grow this economy," Obama said today. The measure should draw bipartisan support, he said.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the time and place for Obama's address hasn't been set. It will include proposals that Obama previously has backed, he said. Those include extending that temporary cut in employee payroll taxes and worker retraining programs.
The administration also is set to release its mid-year budget review this week with projections on growth, unemployment and the deficit.
Krueger has "not had any role" in shaping the president's proposals, Carney said.
Obama's Popularity
The jobless rate and sluggish growth have driven down Obama's popularity. Disapproval of the way he's handling the presidency hit a new high of 55 percent in an Aug. 25-27 daily tracking poll by Gallup. His approval rating was 38 percent, tying a low.
Since World War II, no U.S. president has won re-election with a jobless rate above 6 percent, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, who faced 7.2 percent unemployment on Election Day in 1984. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg puts the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent in the third quarter of next year.
In March, Krueger predicted the jobless rate wouldn't increase, as some economists have suggested, as workers feel more confident about employment and seek full time jobs.
"I suspect a large rise in the labor force won't cause the unemployment rate to jump," he wrote on March 30, when the jobless rate was 8.8 percent, in a Bloomberg opinion piece. "Instead, I suspect we're going to see a continuing decline in the unemployment rate, though there surely will be some blips along the way."
That statement was among those cited by the RNC today in its criticism of Krueger.
Debt Debate
During the debate on the debt ceiling this summer, he argued that businesses were looking for certainty from the political process to start hiring. He also called for patience on the economic recovery and made the case for additional infrastructure spending.
"The recovery does just take time," he said in the July 1 interview. "There are some things the government can do that would also help, like investing in infrastructure."
"That would help to reduce unemployment among construction workers and could lead to an increase in consumption and possible raise confidence and would raise productivity in the future," he said.
The three-member Council of Economic Advisers was created by Congress in 1946 to advise the president on preparation of the White House economic report and to analyze the interaction between economic trends and developments and administration policies.
--With assistance from Kate Andersen Brower in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Justin Blum
Political Summary:
"Of the twenty-five(25) U.S. Treasury Department senior officials, eighteen(18) are Jews. This is a numerical representation of 72%. Jews are approximately 2% of the U.S. population.* Therefore Jews are over-represented among the U.S. Treasury Department senior officials by a factor of 36 times times(3,600 percent)."
Monday, August 29, 2011
Obama Says Krueger to Be Key Adviser on Spurring Growth
Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he's nominating Alan Krueger, a labor economist who has advocated for a hiring tax credit for businesses and increased infrastructure spending, to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Obama said Krueger will play a central role in developing policies to spur faster economic growth. The president said he'll announce a package of proposals next week to boost hiring.
"Our great ongoing challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster," Obama said at the White House. "Our challenge is to create a climate where more businesses can post job listings, where folks can find good work that relieves the financial burden they're feeling, where families can regain a sense of economic security."
The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation. Krueger, 50, would replace Austan Goolsbee, who left the administration earlier this month to return to teaching at the University of Chicago. Krueger, who received his Ph.D from Harvard in 1987, has been at Princeton University since last November after serving as the Treasury Department's chief economist for two years.
Krueger would help remake Obama's economic team ahead of next year's re-election campaign as the president seeks to lower the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
Jobs Tax Credit
"I favor the idea of having a new jobs tax credit," Krueger said in a July 1 interview with Bloomberg radio. "If companies increase their payroll by an employee, they could get a $5,000 tax cut to offset their additional hiring costs."
"Eventually, companies reach a point where they are so lean they do need to hire more," he said. "But they also need to be more confident that demand will be there for their goods and services."
Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton economist and former member of Obama's economic advisers' council, called Krueger "an inspired choice" by the president.
"He is probably best known for his work on the economic benefits of schooling and the impact of school quality on student outcomes, the impact of the minimum wage on employment, and more recently on measures of individual well-being including among the unemployed," Rouse said in an e-mail.
The Republican National Committee criticized Krueger, saying in a statement that he favored raising taxes and was "wrong" in assessing the stimulus passed in 2009 had helped turn the economy around.
Team Revamped
Krueger would be Obama's third CEA chairman in as many years, joining an economic team that has been almost entirely revamped in Obama's first term. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is the only member of Obama's original core economic advisers who remains in the administration.
The president's first council leader, Christina Romer, returned to teaching at the University of California at Berkeley last September. National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag left the administration last year. Summers returned to Harvard University and Orszag is now vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup Inc.
As chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Krueger's salary would be $191,300 a year. In his last full year as a professor at Princeton, Krueger made $369,807, according to his financial disclosure report.
Consulting and Speeches
Krueger supplemented that income with consulting, board memberships and speeches, including $7,000 from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for a speech in June 2008. As council chairman, Krueger would again be working with NEC director Gene Sperling, who left Treasury earlier this year to replace Summers and also drew money from Goldman before joining the administration, earning $887,727 for advice on that company's charitable giving.
At Treasury, Krueger worked on the administration's first stimulus package, tax credits for businesses and the Build America Bond program. As an academic, his work has focused on the labor market, including studies on long-term unemployment, which will be one of the issues Obama plans to address in his jobs speech next week.
Obama will release his jobs plan shortly after the Sept. 5 Labor Day holiday. The president intends to press Congress for billions of dollars in spending to reduce unemployment as he also pursues a compromise on long-term deficit cuts.
Jobs Proposal
The proposal will be for "a series of steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working families and middle-class families to make it easier for small businesses to hire people to put construction crews to work rebuilding our nation's roads and railways and airports and all the other measures that can help to grow this economy," Obama said today. The measure should draw bipartisan support, he said.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the time and place for Obama's address hasn't been set. It will include proposals that Obama previously has backed, he said. Those include extending that temporary cut in employee payroll taxes and worker retraining programs.
The administration also is set to release its mid-year budget review this week with projections on growth, unemployment and the deficit.
Krueger has "not had any role" in shaping the president's proposals, Carney said.
Obama's Popularity
The jobless rate and sluggish growth have driven down Obama's popularity. Disapproval of the way he's handling the presidency hit a new high of 55 percent in an Aug. 25-27 daily tracking poll by Gallup. His approval rating was 38 percent, tying a low.
Since World War II, no U.S. president has won re-election with a jobless rate above 6 percent, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, who faced 7.2 percent unemployment on Election Day in 1984. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg puts the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent in the third quarter of next year.
In March, Krueger predicted the jobless rate wouldn't increase, as some economists have suggested, as workers feel more confident about employment and seek full time jobs.
"I suspect a large rise in the labor force won't cause the unemployment rate to jump," he wrote on March 30, when the jobless rate was 8.8 percent, in a Bloomberg opinion piece. "Instead, I suspect we're going to see a continuing decline in the unemployment rate, though there surely will be some blips along the way."
That statement was among those cited by the RNC today in its criticism of Krueger.
Debt Debate
During the debate on the debt ceiling this summer, he argued that businesses were looking for certainty from the political process to start hiring. He also called for patience on the economic recovery and made the case for additional infrastructure spending.
"The recovery does just take time," he said in the July 1 interview. "There are some things the government can do that would also help, like investing in infrastructure."
"That would help to reduce unemployment among construction workers and could lead to an increase in consumption and possible raise confidence and would raise productivity in the future," he said.
The three-member Council of Economic Advisers was created by Congress in 1946 to advise the president on preparation of the White House economic report and to analyze the interaction between economic trends and developments and administration policies.
--With assistance from Kate Andersen Brower in Washington. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Justin Blum
Political Summary:
"Of the twenty-five(25) U.S. Treasury Department senior officials, eighteen(18) are Jews. This is a numerical representation of 72%. Jews are approximately 2% of the U.S. population.* Therefore Jews are over-represented among the U.S. Treasury Department senior officials by a factor of 36 times times(3,600 percent)."
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Palestinians see progress in EU stance on UN bid
(AFP) – 4 hours ago
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — The Palestinian leadership sees "progress" in the European Union's position on its plan to seek UN membership next month, a senior PLO official told AFP on Sunday.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (AFP, Abbas Momani)
"There is progress in the European stance and a willingness to coordinate with the Palestinian leadership over the type of resolution we are looking for," said PLO secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo a day after president Mahmud Abbas met in Ramallah with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Central to the talks in the West Bank town was the Palestinian plan to seek full membership in the United Nations when its General Assembly meets next month in New York despite Israeli and US opposition.
"We will inform them of every move and we won't surprise them with anything," Abed Rabbo said.
"We have seen progress in the European position which is demonstrated through the EU's willingness to coordinate over the PLO's steps in going to the UN," he said.
Ashton arrived in the region on Saturday for a three-day visit aimed at pushing Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations, which have been on hold since last September in an intractable dispute over Jewish settlement building.
Abbas said on Sunday that success in his UN bid would change the status of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under international law.
"International recognition of our state based on the 1967 borders will make it a state under occupation. It will change the legal formula of our situation," Abbas said in a joint interview with Jordan's Al-Dustur daily and Qatar's Al-Watan newspaper, without elaborating.
During talks with Abbas on Saturday evening, Ashton said the EU position would depend on the wording of the Palestinian proposal to be presented to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on September 20, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
Abbas told her that European support for the bid was crucial in order to safeguard the peace process, Erakat said.
"The president asked the EU to do everything to help us because the Palestinian bid is a way to preserve the peace process and the two-state solution and is based on international law and UN resolutions," he said.
"We are facing an Israeli government which refuses to acknowledge the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, and refuses to stop settlement activities so the international community must help and support us in this bid," Erakat said.
Europe is currently divided over the Palestinian bid for UN membership, with Germany and Italy publicly opposed to the move, while Spain has said it will vote in favour; Britain and France are keeping their cards close to their chests.
Shortly before meeting Ashton, Abbas said that seeking UN membership was a direct result of the world's failure to help the Palestinians secure their legal rights.
"We are going to the UN to ask for full membership for a Palestinian state. We wouldn't be going if the international community had given us a solution which complied with international law -- one based on the 1967 borders and a halt to settlement activity," he said in a speech to religious leaders in Ramallah.
"But without that, we will go to the UN," he said, while stressing that the bid would not prevent a "return to the negotiating table."
"Regardless of the outcome at the UN, there are issues that cannot be solved without negotiating," he said.
"Our decision does not seek to isolate Israel, nor to enter into a confrontation with the United States. Our objective is to realise our dream of gaining international recognition for our Palestinian state at the UN with full sovereignty on the lands occupied in 1967."
On Friday, Erakat urged both Brussels and Washington to support the Palestinian bid for UN membership.
"Maintaining the peace process and the principle of two states on the borders of June 1967 requires that the EU and the United States support the application for full membership of Palestine in the UN," he said.
Ashton was to meet later on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as with other top Israeli officials, and would have breakfast with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman early on Monday before heading to Jordan.
Abed Rabbo said Ashton was expected to meet ministers from the Arab League monitoring committee in early September "to coordinate the Arab and European positions."
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — The Palestinian leadership sees "progress" in the European Union's position on its plan to seek UN membership next month, a senior PLO official told AFP on Sunday.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (AFP, Abbas Momani)
"There is progress in the European stance and a willingness to coordinate with the Palestinian leadership over the type of resolution we are looking for," said PLO secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo a day after president Mahmud Abbas met in Ramallah with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Central to the talks in the West Bank town was the Palestinian plan to seek full membership in the United Nations when its General Assembly meets next month in New York despite Israeli and US opposition.
"We will inform them of every move and we won't surprise them with anything," Abed Rabbo said.
"We have seen progress in the European position which is demonstrated through the EU's willingness to coordinate over the PLO's steps in going to the UN," he said.
Ashton arrived in the region on Saturday for a three-day visit aimed at pushing Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations, which have been on hold since last September in an intractable dispute over Jewish settlement building.
Abbas said on Sunday that success in his UN bid would change the status of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under international law.
"International recognition of our state based on the 1967 borders will make it a state under occupation. It will change the legal formula of our situation," Abbas said in a joint interview with Jordan's Al-Dustur daily and Qatar's Al-Watan newspaper, without elaborating.
During talks with Abbas on Saturday evening, Ashton said the EU position would depend on the wording of the Palestinian proposal to be presented to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on September 20, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
Abbas told her that European support for the bid was crucial in order to safeguard the peace process, Erakat said.
"The president asked the EU to do everything to help us because the Palestinian bid is a way to preserve the peace process and the two-state solution and is based on international law and UN resolutions," he said.
"We are facing an Israeli government which refuses to acknowledge the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, and refuses to stop settlement activities so the international community must help and support us in this bid," Erakat said.
Europe is currently divided over the Palestinian bid for UN membership, with Germany and Italy publicly opposed to the move, while Spain has said it will vote in favour; Britain and France are keeping their cards close to their chests.
Shortly before meeting Ashton, Abbas said that seeking UN membership was a direct result of the world's failure to help the Palestinians secure their legal rights.
"We are going to the UN to ask for full membership for a Palestinian state. We wouldn't be going if the international community had given us a solution which complied with international law -- one based on the 1967 borders and a halt to settlement activity," he said in a speech to religious leaders in Ramallah.
"But without that, we will go to the UN," he said, while stressing that the bid would not prevent a "return to the negotiating table."
"Regardless of the outcome at the UN, there are issues that cannot be solved without negotiating," he said.
"Our decision does not seek to isolate Israel, nor to enter into a confrontation with the United States. Our objective is to realise our dream of gaining international recognition for our Palestinian state at the UN with full sovereignty on the lands occupied in 1967."
On Friday, Erakat urged both Brussels and Washington to support the Palestinian bid for UN membership.
"Maintaining the peace process and the principle of two states on the borders of June 1967 requires that the EU and the United States support the application for full membership of Palestine in the UN," he said.
Ashton was to meet later on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as with other top Israeli officials, and would have breakfast with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman early on Monday before heading to Jordan.
Abed Rabbo said Ashton was expected to meet ministers from the Arab League monitoring committee in early September "to coordinate the Arab and European positions."
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Norwegians hold Quds day rally
PressTV
Sat Aug 27, 2011
9:50AM GMT
Quds Day rally in London (file photo)
A group of Norwegian Muslims have rallied in Norway's capital of Oslo on the occasion of Quds Day, calling for an end to Israel's state terrorism.
The demonstrators gathered in front of Norway's parliament building on Friday, carrying signs that demanded an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and its terrorist activities.
“Participating in this annual demonstration is incumbent upon all Muslims,” a Norwegian national attending the demonstration said.
Another Norwegian national said “we have come to answer Imam Khomeini's Fatwa to keep Quds Day alive.”
Imam Khomeini, in August 1979 declared the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as the International Quds Day, calling for international rallies in support of Palestinians and against Israel.
MYA/MGH
Sat Aug 27, 2011
9:50AM GMT
Quds Day rally in London (file photo)
A group of Norwegian Muslims have rallied in Norway's capital of Oslo on the occasion of Quds Day, calling for an end to Israel's state terrorism.
The demonstrators gathered in front of Norway's parliament building on Friday, carrying signs that demanded an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and its terrorist activities.
“Participating in this annual demonstration is incumbent upon all Muslims,” a Norwegian national attending the demonstration said.
Another Norwegian national said “we have come to answer Imam Khomeini's Fatwa to keep Quds Day alive.”
Imam Khomeini, in August 1979 declared the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as the International Quds Day, calling for international rallies in support of Palestinians and against Israel.
MYA/MGH
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Sex with Neanderthals Made Us Stronger
Modern humans developed stronger immune systems after they interbred with Neanderthals.
By Jennifer Viegas
Thu Aug 25, 2011 02:00 PM ET
THE GIST
The immune systems of modern humans got a boost when our early ancestors interbred with archaic species.
Genetic analysis shows that two now-extinct species contributed to the DNA of all living people.
In Europe and Asia, Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred with modern humans, some of whom brought the newly acquired genetic changes back to Africa.
A replica of an old Neanderthal man at the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann, Germany. New research suggest interbreeding with Neanderthals helped boost our species' immunity.
Corbis
Mating with Neanderthals and another group of extinct hominids, Denisovans, strengthened the human immune system and left behind evidence in the DNA of people today, according to new research.
The findings add to the growing body of evidence that modern humans who left Africa around 65,000 years ago mated with Neanderthals and Denisovans -- two archaic species that lived in Europe and Asia.
The study, which appears in this week's Science, is among the first to show how the interbreeding shaped modern human genes and the attributes they pass to us.
Peter Parham, a professor of cell biology, microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and his team focused their analysis on "HLA" genes, which are fast-evolving vital components of the human immune system.
"The modern human populations who left Africa to colonize other continents were likely to have been small groups who started off with limited HLA diversity and suffered further reduction of HLA diversity due to disease," Parham told Discovery News. "Interbreeding with archaic humans introduced additional HLA variants into the modern human population that increased their genetic viability and capacity to resist infection."
He and his colleagues studied the genomes for Neanderthals and Denisovans, as well as the DNA of modern human populations. The organization Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide, as well as bone marrow registries from several countries, provided data on HLA genes.
The analysis shows that Neanderthal and Denisovan HLA genes now represent more than half of such immune system-related DNA in modern European and Asian populations. They also appear to have been later introduced into Africans.
The specific gene HLA-A, for example, is present in the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes. It contributed this much to the following modern human populations: Up to 95.3 percent for Papua New Guineans, 80.7 percent for Japanese people, 72.2 percent for Chinese people, 51.7 percent for Europeans, and 6.7 percent for Africans.
Such percentages provide clues on how modern humans migrated and interbred. The scientists believe some modern humans migrated out of Africa 67,500 years ago. Interbreeding became evident 50,000 years ago.
GAME: Play Darwin and try your hand at evolution.
"Because archaic humans had lived in Asia and Europe for hundreds of thousands of years before the modern humans arrived, their HLA alleles almost certainly were adapted to the local infections and in this way further invigorated the immune systems of the recent modern migrants," Parham said.
Some of the Europeans and Asians then went back to Africa around 10,000 years ago, bringing the newly acquired genes and their associated immunity boost with them.
Human history was "a lot more complex and interesting" than previously thought, Svante Paabo, director of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, told Discovery News.
In separate research, Paabo and his team found that about 4 percent of the genomes of non-Africans are derived from Neanderthals and 4 to 6 percent of modern Melanesian genomes are derived from Denisovans.
This earlier research and the new study then suggest at least two possible scenarios: Either interbreeding was frequent and widespread, involving a lot of individuals, or the majority of native modern populations from certain regions are descended from individuals that did interbreed, even if such "seed" groups were relatively small. Parham suspects the latter is what happened.
While Europe and Asia might now be viewed as a hotbed of interbreeding, modern humans who stayed in Africa appear to have been active interbreeders as well. Neanderthals and Denisovans weren't present, but other archaic human groups likely were.
"Well established is that modern Africans have greater genetic diversity, overall, than the modern populations of other continents," Parham said. "This greater diversity is likely due to what was inherited from earlier forms of Homo, combined with interbreeding between different forms of Homo."
The early ancestors of all modern people, then, did not seem to shy away from breeding with different human species, actions that strengthened our immune systems and likely resulted in other benefits yet to be revealed.
Anthropology has always fascinated me. Was once even a U.C. Berkeley anthro major but alas life and God had other plans. Still, without a basic knowledge of homo sapien ancestry a whole lot of misguided religious notions will and have arisen to plague societies with racism and religiously instilled ignorance of human diversity.
By Jennifer Viegas
Thu Aug 25, 2011 02:00 PM ET
THE GIST
The immune systems of modern humans got a boost when our early ancestors interbred with archaic species.
Genetic analysis shows that two now-extinct species contributed to the DNA of all living people.
In Europe and Asia, Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred with modern humans, some of whom brought the newly acquired genetic changes back to Africa.
A replica of an old Neanderthal man at the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann, Germany. New research suggest interbreeding with Neanderthals helped boost our species' immunity.
Corbis
Mating with Neanderthals and another group of extinct hominids, Denisovans, strengthened the human immune system and left behind evidence in the DNA of people today, according to new research.
The findings add to the growing body of evidence that modern humans who left Africa around 65,000 years ago mated with Neanderthals and Denisovans -- two archaic species that lived in Europe and Asia.
The study, which appears in this week's Science, is among the first to show how the interbreeding shaped modern human genes and the attributes they pass to us.
Peter Parham, a professor of cell biology, microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and his team focused their analysis on "HLA" genes, which are fast-evolving vital components of the human immune system.
"The modern human populations who left Africa to colonize other continents were likely to have been small groups who started off with limited HLA diversity and suffered further reduction of HLA diversity due to disease," Parham told Discovery News. "Interbreeding with archaic humans introduced additional HLA variants into the modern human population that increased their genetic viability and capacity to resist infection."
He and his colleagues studied the genomes for Neanderthals and Denisovans, as well as the DNA of modern human populations. The organization Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide, as well as bone marrow registries from several countries, provided data on HLA genes.
The analysis shows that Neanderthal and Denisovan HLA genes now represent more than half of such immune system-related DNA in modern European and Asian populations. They also appear to have been later introduced into Africans.
The specific gene HLA-A, for example, is present in the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes. It contributed this much to the following modern human populations: Up to 95.3 percent for Papua New Guineans, 80.7 percent for Japanese people, 72.2 percent for Chinese people, 51.7 percent for Europeans, and 6.7 percent for Africans.
Such percentages provide clues on how modern humans migrated and interbred. The scientists believe some modern humans migrated out of Africa 67,500 years ago. Interbreeding became evident 50,000 years ago.
GAME: Play Darwin and try your hand at evolution.
"Because archaic humans had lived in Asia and Europe for hundreds of thousands of years before the modern humans arrived, their HLA alleles almost certainly were adapted to the local infections and in this way further invigorated the immune systems of the recent modern migrants," Parham said.
Some of the Europeans and Asians then went back to Africa around 10,000 years ago, bringing the newly acquired genes and their associated immunity boost with them.
Human history was "a lot more complex and interesting" than previously thought, Svante Paabo, director of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, told Discovery News.
In separate research, Paabo and his team found that about 4 percent of the genomes of non-Africans are derived from Neanderthals and 4 to 6 percent of modern Melanesian genomes are derived from Denisovans.
This earlier research and the new study then suggest at least two possible scenarios: Either interbreeding was frequent and widespread, involving a lot of individuals, or the majority of native modern populations from certain regions are descended from individuals that did interbreed, even if such "seed" groups were relatively small. Parham suspects the latter is what happened.
While Europe and Asia might now be viewed as a hotbed of interbreeding, modern humans who stayed in Africa appear to have been active interbreeders as well. Neanderthals and Denisovans weren't present, but other archaic human groups likely were.
"Well established is that modern Africans have greater genetic diversity, overall, than the modern populations of other continents," Parham said. "This greater diversity is likely due to what was inherited from earlier forms of Homo, combined with interbreeding between different forms of Homo."
The early ancestors of all modern people, then, did not seem to shy away from breeding with different human species, actions that strengthened our immune systems and likely resulted in other benefits yet to be revealed.
Anthropology has always fascinated me. Was once even a U.C. Berkeley anthro major but alas life and God had other plans. Still, without a basic knowledge of homo sapien ancestry a whole lot of misguided religious notions will and have arisen to plague societies with racism and religiously instilled ignorance of human diversity.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Settlers uproot 80 olive saplings near Nablus
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)- Settlers from the illegal settlement of Eish Kodash uprooted 80 newly planted olive saplings in the south of al-Masara village, southeast of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Gassan Duglos, a Palestinian official in charge of settlements file in the northern part of the West Bank, said that Jewish settlers invaded the village and started uprooting 80 olive saplings planted by local families.
Doglus added that Palestinian citizens shocked Sunday morning when they saw the trees destroyed.
Residents appealed all human rights institution to intervene to stop Israeli recent escalation against their properties.
Al-Jazeera bureau chief arrested in Israel
The Guardian
Samer Allawi, Al-Jazeera's Kabul bureau chief, is unde arrested in Israel. He was detained last Tuesday after crossing the border between Jordan and the West Bank at the conclusion of a three-week vacation in his home town near Nablus.
The Israeli authorities originally informed Allawi's family that he would be held for four days for questioning, saying that it was a "security-related arrest."
Last Thursday, the authorities told Al-Jazeera that Allawi's detention would be extended to eight days.
Allawi's lawyer has since been told that his client will appear before an Israeli military judge later today.
Local human rights and press freedom groups have released statements condemning Allawi's arrest and calling for his immediate release.
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists
Samer Allawi, Al-Jazeera's Kabul bureau chief, is unde arrested in Israel. He was detained last Tuesday after crossing the border between Jordan and the West Bank at the conclusion of a three-week vacation in his home town near Nablus.
The Israeli authorities originally informed Allawi's family that he would be held for four days for questioning, saying that it was a "security-related arrest."
Last Thursday, the authorities told Al-Jazeera that Allawi's detention would be extended to eight days.
Allawi's lawyer has since been told that his client will appear before an Israeli military judge later today.
Local human rights and press freedom groups have released statements condemning Allawi's arrest and calling for his immediate release.
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists
Israeli Soldiers Assault Palestinian Officer in Nablus
WAFA
Date : 22/8/2011
Time : 22:45
NABLUS, August 22, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers Monday beat a first sergeant, who works in the Palestinian national security, near Burqa, a village north of Nablus, according to security sources.
Sources told WAFA that Israeli soldiers set up a temporary checkpoint near the village of Burqa and when the 30- year-old sergeant stopped to pass through the checkpoint, as he was on his way to the city of Nablus, the soldiers severely beat him without any reason.
T.R./F.R.
Date : 22/8/2011
Time : 22:45
NABLUS, August 22, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers Monday beat a first sergeant, who works in the Palestinian national security, near Burqa, a village north of Nablus, according to security sources.
Sources told WAFA that Israeli soldiers set up a temporary checkpoint near the village of Burqa and when the 30- year-old sergeant stopped to pass through the checkpoint, as he was on his way to the city of Nablus, the soldiers severely beat him without any reason.
T.R./F.R.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Israel kills 5-year-old terrorist in Gaza!
Palestine Telegraph
Saturday, 20 August 2011 11:55
Gaza, (Pal Telegraph) – Many media outlets adopt the Israeli accounts without making sure about its validity. The attack in Eilat which claimed the lives of 7 Israelis was vivid that it has targeted armed soldiers. Yet, Israeli media outlets led by Haaretz said “People” were killed, afterwards we have seen photos of the scene where military bags indicate it was a military target.
Sadly, all professional media outlets circulated that one side of the story without carrying out any journalistic efforts. BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters and the key outlets said that civilians were attacked in Israeli resort in Eilat. Shortly, contradictions started to arise as Israeli army released photos of some of the killed soldiers. Haaretz, published a piece of news showing Israeli PM visiting some soldiers in the hospital.
Moving to the Palestinian side, Israel retaliated quickly and killed a number of Palestinian freedom fighters. A child has been killed in the area as the attack took place within a very densely populated area. However, no single Palestinian factions claimed the responsibility of the Eilat attacks.
In the same night, Israel launched further attacks and killed a number of civilians including a boy aged 13. We can’t really confirm if this boy was a terrorist or not!
Yesterday, a Palestinian medic, his 5-year-old child, Islam and his brother were killed in Gaza city. They were targeted by a drone while in a motorcycle. None of the media outlets presented their story with balance yet they continue their bias saying Israel is responding to the Palestinian terror.
The boy Islam Qaraqi is 5 years old. The photo above shows what happened to him. He was grilled like by the Israeli attack rockets.
Islam was about to join his KG1 within days. His parents bought him some stationary and a nice bag. He didn’t wear his new clothing yet!
Sarcastically, we “believe” Israel killed this child because he planned the attacks in Israel. This little child is responsible for the death of many Israeli soldiers! Israel killed him in act of self-defense! This child is responsible for that terror in Israel which is like the terror in 9-11 in the US, 7/7 in London and Madrid bombings!
Yet again, Israel uses the term “terror” to justify its acts. However, terrorism has not been defined yet. What’s happening in Palestine is not terror but a kind of resistance of people under occupation. That resistance is guaranteed by International law. It’s the same of the American resistance in quest of independence and the British one against the Nazis.
Saturday, 20 August 2011 11:55
Gaza, (Pal Telegraph) – Many media outlets adopt the Israeli accounts without making sure about its validity. The attack in Eilat which claimed the lives of 7 Israelis was vivid that it has targeted armed soldiers. Yet, Israeli media outlets led by Haaretz said “People” were killed, afterwards we have seen photos of the scene where military bags indicate it was a military target.
Sadly, all professional media outlets circulated that one side of the story without carrying out any journalistic efforts. BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters and the key outlets said that civilians were attacked in Israeli resort in Eilat. Shortly, contradictions started to arise as Israeli army released photos of some of the killed soldiers. Haaretz, published a piece of news showing Israeli PM visiting some soldiers in the hospital.
Moving to the Palestinian side, Israel retaliated quickly and killed a number of Palestinian freedom fighters. A child has been killed in the area as the attack took place within a very densely populated area. However, no single Palestinian factions claimed the responsibility of the Eilat attacks.
In the same night, Israel launched further attacks and killed a number of civilians including a boy aged 13. We can’t really confirm if this boy was a terrorist or not!
Yesterday, a Palestinian medic, his 5-year-old child, Islam and his brother were killed in Gaza city. They were targeted by a drone while in a motorcycle. None of the media outlets presented their story with balance yet they continue their bias saying Israel is responding to the Palestinian terror.
The boy Islam Qaraqi is 5 years old. The photo above shows what happened to him. He was grilled like by the Israeli attack rockets.
Islam was about to join his KG1 within days. His parents bought him some stationary and a nice bag. He didn’t wear his new clothing yet!
Sarcastically, we “believe” Israel killed this child because he planned the attacks in Israel. This little child is responsible for the death of many Israeli soldiers! Israel killed him in act of self-defense! This child is responsible for that terror in Israel which is like the terror in 9-11 in the US, 7/7 in London and Madrid bombings!
Yet again, Israel uses the term “terror” to justify its acts. However, terrorism has not been defined yet. What’s happening in Palestine is not terror but a kind of resistance of people under occupation. That resistance is guaranteed by International law. It’s the same of the American resistance in quest of independence and the British one against the Nazis.
Israeli regrets over clash fail to end Egypt protests
BBC News
20 August 2011
Last updated at 23:45 ET
Protesters burned Israeli flags and chanted "Long live Egypt!"
Thousands of Egyptians have rallied outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo for a second day over the deaths of five Egyptian policemen.
One demonstrator climbed the building, took down the Israeli flag and replaced it with an Egyptian flag.
Israel earlier expressed "regrets" over the incident on Thursday.
It happened on the Israeli-Egyptian border as Israeli troops pursued suspected militants who had fired shots into Israel, killing eight.
In response, Israel has carried out a series of air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 20 rockets into Israel since Saturday night.
The Cairo-based Arab League is to hold a meeting on Sunday to discuss the crisis.
In the latest violence, a rocket killed one person and injured at least four in the Israeli city of Beersheba on Saturday.
Israeli sources identified it as a Grad rocket, adding that two children were slightly injured when Grads hit another town, Ofakim.
Hamas militants confirmed they had fired Grad missiles at Ofakim, in retaliation for Israeli attacks, AFP news agency reports. There was no immediate comment on the Beersheba attack.
'Not enough'
More than 1,000 Egyptians protested outside the Israeli embassy late on Saturday night.
They demanded the immediate expulsion of the Israeli envoy from the country.
Military police stood outside the embassy, but did not intervene when one protester pulled down the Israeli flag.
The protests continued as Cairo was considering its ambassador from Israel.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said he "regrets" the deaths of police officers on the Sinai Peninsula.
Without confirming Israeli forces had killed the policemen, Mr Barak said he had ordered a joint inquiry to be held with the Egyptian army.
But the Egyptian government said Israel's response so far had not been enough.
The violence began on Thursday when gunmen attacked Israeli civilian buses near the Red Sea resort of Eilat, killing eight people.
Egyptian officials say Israeli forces chased the suspected militants across the border, and a number of people were killed - including the policemen.
Tensions between Israel and Egypt have escalated sharply, the BBC's Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem.
Their 30-year-old peace treaty was already being tested after the long-time Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, was forced from office earlier this year, our correspondent says.
Under Mr Mubarak, ties between the two nations had been stable after a history of conflict.
But Mr Mubarak's removal has sparked fears among Israeli officials that a less amenable government could take charge in Cairo.
And correspondents say the Sinai desert region of Egypt has become increasingly lawless since Mr Mubarak was ousted, with a rise in militant activity inspired by al-Qaeda.
20 August 2011
Last updated at 23:45 ET
Protesters burned Israeli flags and chanted "Long live Egypt!"
Thousands of Egyptians have rallied outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo for a second day over the deaths of five Egyptian policemen.
One demonstrator climbed the building, took down the Israeli flag and replaced it with an Egyptian flag.
Israel earlier expressed "regrets" over the incident on Thursday.
It happened on the Israeli-Egyptian border as Israeli troops pursued suspected militants who had fired shots into Israel, killing eight.
In response, Israel has carried out a series of air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people.
Palestinian militants have fired more than 20 rockets into Israel since Saturday night.
The Cairo-based Arab League is to hold a meeting on Sunday to discuss the crisis.
In the latest violence, a rocket killed one person and injured at least four in the Israeli city of Beersheba on Saturday.
Israeli sources identified it as a Grad rocket, adding that two children were slightly injured when Grads hit another town, Ofakim.
Hamas militants confirmed they had fired Grad missiles at Ofakim, in retaliation for Israeli attacks, AFP news agency reports. There was no immediate comment on the Beersheba attack.
'Not enough'
More than 1,000 Egyptians protested outside the Israeli embassy late on Saturday night.
They demanded the immediate expulsion of the Israeli envoy from the country.
Military police stood outside the embassy, but did not intervene when one protester pulled down the Israeli flag.
The protests continued as Cairo was considering its ambassador from Israel.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said he "regrets" the deaths of police officers on the Sinai Peninsula.
Without confirming Israeli forces had killed the policemen, Mr Barak said he had ordered a joint inquiry to be held with the Egyptian army.
But the Egyptian government said Israel's response so far had not been enough.
The violence began on Thursday when gunmen attacked Israeli civilian buses near the Red Sea resort of Eilat, killing eight people.
Egyptian officials say Israeli forces chased the suspected militants across the border, and a number of people were killed - including the policemen.
Tensions between Israel and Egypt have escalated sharply, the BBC's Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem.
Their 30-year-old peace treaty was already being tested after the long-time Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, was forced from office earlier this year, our correspondent says.
Under Mr Mubarak, ties between the two nations had been stable after a history of conflict.
But Mr Mubarak's removal has sparked fears among Israeli officials that a less amenable government could take charge in Cairo.
And correspondents say the Sinai desert region of Egypt has become increasingly lawless since Mr Mubarak was ousted, with a rise in militant activity inspired by al-Qaeda.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Arab League to hold emergency meeting over IDF strikes on Gaza
Haaretz News
Published 15:45 20.08.11
Latest update 15:45 20.08.11
Meeting to be held Sunday following request of Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas to 'discuss the Israeli aggression on Gaza'; Abbas also calls for special UN Security Council session to discuss airstrikes.
By DPA and Reuters
The Arab League will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss Israel Defense Forces air strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past two days, state media said Saturday.
"The Arab League received a request from the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the Israeli aggression on Gaza," state television reported.
"The Arab League received a request from the Palestinian state ... and after negotiations it decided to host an urgent meeting on the level of the permanent representatives at 12 pm tomorrow," said Arab League spokesperson Mahmoud Abdel Aziz.
The 22-member organization will host the emergency meeting on the level of the permanent representatives.
Mahmoud Abbas also called Saturday for a special United Nations Security Council session to discuss the IDF airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which followed deadly attacks in southern Israel this week.
The Palestinian representative at the UN had been tasked with this demand, sources in Ramallah told the German Press Agency dpa.
Nabil Shaath, a senior member of Abbas' Fatah party, earlier called the air strikes on Gaza a "war crime."
After coordinated terror attacks that killed eight in southern Israel on Thursday, 30 Grad and Qassam rockets were fired throughout southern Israel on Friday, with rocket attacks continuing Saturday in areas near Be'er Sheva and in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip.
IAF strikes in the Gaza Strip early Saturday morning in reponse to the attacks left three dead, including a five-year-old boy, according to Palestinian sources.
At least four Palestinian militants were killed on Friday by two separate air strikes while attempting to launch rockets at Israel. Meanwhile, Israel’s Iron Dome system was able to intercept a rocket over the city of Ashkelon in southern Israel.
In response to the ongoing rocket fire, an IDF spokesperson stated that the military will not tolerate any attempt at harming Israeli civilians or soldiers, and will continue to “act with determination and strength against any source of terror.” The spokesperson also claimed that Hamas must be “held responsible” for the ongoing attacks.
Most of the rockets fell in open areas and did not cause damage or injuries, but one of the missiles hit a building in an Ashdod industrial park, wounding six people, one of them seriously.
Published 15:45 20.08.11
Latest update 15:45 20.08.11
Meeting to be held Sunday following request of Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas to 'discuss the Israeli aggression on Gaza'; Abbas also calls for special UN Security Council session to discuss airstrikes.
By DPA and Reuters
The Arab League will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss Israel Defense Forces air strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past two days, state media said Saturday.
"The Arab League received a request from the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the Israeli aggression on Gaza," state television reported.
"The Arab League received a request from the Palestinian state ... and after negotiations it decided to host an urgent meeting on the level of the permanent representatives at 12 pm tomorrow," said Arab League spokesperson Mahmoud Abdel Aziz.
The 22-member organization will host the emergency meeting on the level of the permanent representatives.
Mahmoud Abbas also called Saturday for a special United Nations Security Council session to discuss the IDF airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which followed deadly attacks in southern Israel this week.
The Palestinian representative at the UN had been tasked with this demand, sources in Ramallah told the German Press Agency dpa.
Nabil Shaath, a senior member of Abbas' Fatah party, earlier called the air strikes on Gaza a "war crime."
After coordinated terror attacks that killed eight in southern Israel on Thursday, 30 Grad and Qassam rockets were fired throughout southern Israel on Friday, with rocket attacks continuing Saturday in areas near Be'er Sheva and in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip.
IAF strikes in the Gaza Strip early Saturday morning in reponse to the attacks left three dead, including a five-year-old boy, according to Palestinian sources.
At least four Palestinian militants were killed on Friday by two separate air strikes while attempting to launch rockets at Israel. Meanwhile, Israel’s Iron Dome system was able to intercept a rocket over the city of Ashkelon in southern Israel.
In response to the ongoing rocket fire, an IDF spokesperson stated that the military will not tolerate any attempt at harming Israeli civilians or soldiers, and will continue to “act with determination and strength against any source of terror.” The spokesperson also claimed that Hamas must be “held responsible” for the ongoing attacks.
Most of the rockets fell in open areas and did not cause damage or injuries, but one of the missiles hit a building in an Ashdod industrial park, wounding six people, one of them seriously.
Egypt to recall Israel envoy over Sinai shootings
BBC News
20 August 2011
Egyptians gathered outside the Israeli embassy for a second day of protests
Egyptian state TV has said the country is recalling its ambassador to Israel until Israel explains why it reportedly shot dead five Egyptian policemen.
Demanding an apology, Egypt's cabinet was quoted as saying Cairo held Israel politically and legally responsible and was summoning the Israeli ambassador.
Israel says it will investigate the shooting, said to have happened as its forces pursued Palestinian militants.
The latest violence began on Thursday when gunmen attacked Israeli buses.
Eight people were killed in the attacks, near the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat.
Egyptian officials say Israeli forces chased the suspected militants across the border, and a number of people were killed - including the policemen.
Tensions between Israel and Egypt have escalated sharply, the BBC's Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem.
Their 30-year-old peace treaty was already being tested after the long-time Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, was forced from office earlier this year, our correspondent says.
Hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo overnight, burning the Israeli flag and demanding that the Israeli ambassador be expelled from the country. Protests were reportedly continuing on Saturday morning.
"We don't want any ties with Israel," one protester, Ahmed Aggoura, told the BBC.
"Israel is only interested in a subservient Egypt, not a free Egypt. By protesting outside the embassy we're sending them a clear message. This is not Mubarak's Egypt anymore. If you kill our soldiers, there will be consequences."
On Friday, in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, a protester managed to take down the Israeli flag from the consulate there and replaced it with Egyptian and Palestinian flags.
After the initial Eilat attack, Israel expressed concern about security in the Sinai Peninsula and said Palestinian attackers had reached Eilat after entering Egypt from Gaza and travelling through the Sinai desert.
But, according to Egyptian state TV, the Egyptian cabinet issued a statement on Saturday denying it had lost control of the Sinai and demanding an apology from the Israeli leadership over "the sad and hasty remarks about Egypt".
"The cabinet assigns the Egyptian foreign minister to summon the Israeli ambassador in Cairo... in protest over shootings on the Israeli side of the border that led to deaths on the Egyptian side," the statement said.
Egypt's ambassador to Israel was being recalled, the cabinet said, "until we are notified about the results of an investigation by the Israeli authorities".
Cairo said it regarded the attack as a breach of the 1979 peace treaty between the two nations, and blamed Israel for lax border controls.
20 August 2011
Egyptians gathered outside the Israeli embassy for a second day of protests
Egyptian state TV has said the country is recalling its ambassador to Israel until Israel explains why it reportedly shot dead five Egyptian policemen.
Demanding an apology, Egypt's cabinet was quoted as saying Cairo held Israel politically and legally responsible and was summoning the Israeli ambassador.
Israel says it will investigate the shooting, said to have happened as its forces pursued Palestinian militants.
The latest violence began on Thursday when gunmen attacked Israeli buses.
Eight people were killed in the attacks, near the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat.
Egyptian officials say Israeli forces chased the suspected militants across the border, and a number of people were killed - including the policemen.
Tensions between Israel and Egypt have escalated sharply, the BBC's Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem.
Their 30-year-old peace treaty was already being tested after the long-time Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, was forced from office earlier this year, our correspondent says.
Hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo overnight, burning the Israeli flag and demanding that the Israeli ambassador be expelled from the country. Protests were reportedly continuing on Saturday morning.
"We don't want any ties with Israel," one protester, Ahmed Aggoura, told the BBC.
"Israel is only interested in a subservient Egypt, not a free Egypt. By protesting outside the embassy we're sending them a clear message. This is not Mubarak's Egypt anymore. If you kill our soldiers, there will be consequences."
On Friday, in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, a protester managed to take down the Israeli flag from the consulate there and replaced it with Egyptian and Palestinian flags.
After the initial Eilat attack, Israel expressed concern about security in the Sinai Peninsula and said Palestinian attackers had reached Eilat after entering Egypt from Gaza and travelling through the Sinai desert.
But, according to Egyptian state TV, the Egyptian cabinet issued a statement on Saturday denying it had lost control of the Sinai and demanding an apology from the Israeli leadership over "the sad and hasty remarks about Egypt".
"The cabinet assigns the Egyptian foreign minister to summon the Israeli ambassador in Cairo... in protest over shootings on the Israeli side of the border that led to deaths on the Egyptian side," the statement said.
Egypt's ambassador to Israel was being recalled, the cabinet said, "until we are notified about the results of an investigation by the Israeli authorities".
Cairo said it regarded the attack as a breach of the 1979 peace treaty between the two nations, and blamed Israel for lax border controls.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Several killed in Israel attacks - Israeli TV stations
BBC News
18 August 2011
Last updated at 06:40 ET
Attacked Israeli bus The bus was attacked near the southern resort of Eilat
Several people have been killed in a series of attacks on vehicles in southern Israel, Israeli television stations report.
It began when gunmen fired at an Israeli bus which was travelling near the Egyptian border, wounding at least five people, Israeli sources said.
The bus was targeted north of the Israeli Red Sea resort city of Eilat.
Several gunmen ambushed the civilian bus, Israeli radio said. Security forces were in pursuit of the gunmen.
Shooting was later reported to have erupted near the site where the passenger bus was first attacked.
The gunfire in the initial incident appeared to come from the Egyptian side of the border, and came shortly after an Egged bus left Eilat, heading north, security sources told the AFP news agency.
A vehicle carrying the gunmen seemed to have followed the bus, then two to three men jumped out and opened fire with automatic weapons, Israeli radio reported quoting Israeli officials.
False Flag attack? The timing of this incident coinciding with Israel's refusal to apologize to Turkey is suspicious. We need to know for certain that Palestinian militants were involved and not IDF posing as such before condemnation of Palestinians for this incident.
18 August 2011
Last updated at 06:40 ET
Attacked Israeli bus The bus was attacked near the southern resort of Eilat
Several people have been killed in a series of attacks on vehicles in southern Israel, Israeli television stations report.
It began when gunmen fired at an Israeli bus which was travelling near the Egyptian border, wounding at least five people, Israeli sources said.
The bus was targeted north of the Israeli Red Sea resort city of Eilat.
Several gunmen ambushed the civilian bus, Israeli radio said. Security forces were in pursuit of the gunmen.
Shooting was later reported to have erupted near the site where the passenger bus was first attacked.
The gunfire in the initial incident appeared to come from the Egyptian side of the border, and came shortly after an Egged bus left Eilat, heading north, security sources told the AFP news agency.
A vehicle carrying the gunmen seemed to have followed the bus, then two to three men jumped out and opened fire with automatic weapons, Israeli radio reported quoting Israeli officials.
False Flag attack? The timing of this incident coinciding with Israel's refusal to apologize to Turkey is suspicious. We need to know for certain that Palestinian militants were involved and not IDF posing as such before condemnation of Palestinians for this incident.
Arab Israeli-Palestinian partnership to develop insurance company for Arab sector
Insurance company will start by focusing operations on elementary, car and property insurance; partners will raise NIS 60-90 million in capital to establish the company.
Haaretz News
Published 12:03 18.08.11
Latest update 12:03 18.08.11
By Tali Heruti-Sover and Noam Bar
Arab-Israeli and Palestinian businessmen have joined forces to develop an insurance company that will compete in Israel's insurance market and appeal to the Arab population in the country.
Initial estimations suggest that the company will need a capital investment of NIS 60-90 million, in accordance with the independent capital requirements of all Israeli insurance companies.
Tarek Bashir, Israeli-Palestinian insurance
Lawyer and Accountant Tarek Bashir
The partnership includes three business groups - one Israeli and two Palestinian – each of which will have equal holdings in the insurance company, and have already committed to providing their share of the required capital investment.
The two Palestinian partners are Al Quds Holding and Wataniya Insurance Co. (also known as National Insurance). The Israeli partner is being led by Lawyer and Accountant Tarek Bashir, who recently left the Herzog, Fox & Neeman law firm, and was among the initiators of the enterprise.
At first, the insurance company will focus on elementary insurance, car insurance and property insurance, and may broaden its scope in the future to other areas, like health insurance and life insurance.
According to Israeli insurance companies, the portion of insured Arabs among Israeli insurance companies is similar to the rest of the population, such that not one of the large companies are particularly exposed to the Arabic population. Therefore, if this initiative succeeds, all of Israel's existing major insurance companies will be equally affected by its impact. However, the small insurance companies – who tend to appeal to niche markets - are most likely to feel the blow.
Associates of the insurance company's initiators pointed out the language barriers and cultural differences that impact the level of service and treatment insured Arabs receive from Israeli insurance companies. According to the associates, there is a reason why this insurance company will be established in a full Arabic atmosphere, as opposed to an insurance company that appeals to an Arab market, but is still under Jewish ownership.
Israeli insurance companies said they do not see the enterprise as a threat just yet. "I don't think such an initiative will succeed. What determines where customers go is the price, not the people behind the company," said a senior staff member of one of Israel's largest insurance companies on Wednesday. Staff of other major Israeli insurance companies added, "Companies tend to treat the religious (Jewish) and Arabic sectors as communities that require special attention. You can't be too sure that they experience language difficulties – most of them know the Hebrew language exactly like we do. In any case, what matters most to the insurance customer is not the company itself, but rather the insurance agent that works with him or her. There are many Arab and Jewish insurance agents that specialize in the Arabic sector and are very familiar with it.
Haaretz News
Published 12:03 18.08.11
Latest update 12:03 18.08.11
By Tali Heruti-Sover and Noam Bar
Arab-Israeli and Palestinian businessmen have joined forces to develop an insurance company that will compete in Israel's insurance market and appeal to the Arab population in the country.
Initial estimations suggest that the company will need a capital investment of NIS 60-90 million, in accordance with the independent capital requirements of all Israeli insurance companies.
Tarek Bashir, Israeli-Palestinian insurance
Lawyer and Accountant Tarek Bashir
The partnership includes three business groups - one Israeli and two Palestinian – each of which will have equal holdings in the insurance company, and have already committed to providing their share of the required capital investment.
The two Palestinian partners are Al Quds Holding and Wataniya Insurance Co. (also known as National Insurance). The Israeli partner is being led by Lawyer and Accountant Tarek Bashir, who recently left the Herzog, Fox & Neeman law firm, and was among the initiators of the enterprise.
At first, the insurance company will focus on elementary insurance, car insurance and property insurance, and may broaden its scope in the future to other areas, like health insurance and life insurance.
According to Israeli insurance companies, the portion of insured Arabs among Israeli insurance companies is similar to the rest of the population, such that not one of the large companies are particularly exposed to the Arabic population. Therefore, if this initiative succeeds, all of Israel's existing major insurance companies will be equally affected by its impact. However, the small insurance companies – who tend to appeal to niche markets - are most likely to feel the blow.
Associates of the insurance company's initiators pointed out the language barriers and cultural differences that impact the level of service and treatment insured Arabs receive from Israeli insurance companies. According to the associates, there is a reason why this insurance company will be established in a full Arabic atmosphere, as opposed to an insurance company that appeals to an Arab market, but is still under Jewish ownership.
Israeli insurance companies said they do not see the enterprise as a threat just yet. "I don't think such an initiative will succeed. What determines where customers go is the price, not the people behind the company," said a senior staff member of one of Israel's largest insurance companies on Wednesday. Staff of other major Israeli insurance companies added, "Companies tend to treat the religious (Jewish) and Arabic sectors as communities that require special attention. You can't be too sure that they experience language difficulties – most of them know the Hebrew language exactly like we do. In any case, what matters most to the insurance customer is not the company itself, but rather the insurance agent that works with him or her. There are many Arab and Jewish insurance agents that specialize in the Arabic sector and are very familiar with it.
Israel refuses to apologise to Turkey over Gaza flotilla raid
UN report into Gaza ship killings had been delayed to allow for possible Israel-Turkey talks
Reuters in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 18 August 2011 09.58 BST
Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu told US secretary of state Hillary Clinton that Israel would stick to a refusal to apologise to Turkey over the Gaza flotilla killings. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images
Israel will stick to its refusal to apologise to Turkey for killing nine of its citizens on a Gaza-bound ship, officials have said, a position Ankara said would sink any prospects for reconciliation.
The decision, which officials said the prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu conveyed to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in a telephone call, was made days before the anticipated publication of the findings of a UN inquiry into the seizure of the Mavi Marmara last year.
The so-called Palmer report was repeatedly delayed to allow for Israeli-Turkish rapprochement talks amid concern in Washington at the rift between two countries that had been strategic partners in an increasingly stormy Middle East.
"We're firm on not apologising," the Israeli official said in comments later confirmed by the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman in an interview with an Israeli television network, in which he called it "a wise and correct decision".
Pointing at uprisings in the Arab world since January which Israel has been watching warily, Lieberman added that any "message of weakness today would be the most dangerous from Israel's standpoint".
The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, asked by reporters about Israel's comments, replied that "as long as Israel does not apologise, does not pay compensation and does not lift the embargo on Palestine, it is not possible for Turkey-Israeli ties to improve."
The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said in separate comments that "Israel is facing a choice: deeper relations with Turkey or open a gap with the Turkish state that will not be overcome very easily".
The Mavi Marmara was part of an activist flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza when it was boarded by Israeli marines on the Mediterranean high seas on 31 May 2010. The marines shot dead nine Turks, including a dual US citizen, during fierce deck brawls.
Netanyahu had voiced regret over the killings, and the defence minister Ehud Barak, a centrist in his conservative coalition government, has since stirred debate inside the cabinet by proposing Israel offer a diluted apology in hope of restoring ties with what was once a rare Muslim ally of the Jewish state.
Barak had also thought such a step would help indemnify Israel's navy personnel against lawsuits abroad.
Israeli officials, citing advance copies of the report by a UN panel headed by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, have said the document would vindicate Israel's blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Israel calls its Gaza blockade a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea. Palestinians and their supporters describe the blockade as illegal collective punishment.
Lieberman said the report he said would be published on 23 August "is very positive toward Israel".
In his remarks at a news conference in Istanbul, Davutoglu suggested Turkey would not accept such an outcome. "If the Palmer Report does not contain an apology, both sides and the United States know what we will do," he said.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that Netanyahu and Clinton had spoken but denied that the US had asked Israel for any apology. "That report is inaccurate," she said.
Kurt Hoyer, spokesman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv, said Washington wanted Israel and Turkey "to look for opportunities to get past the current strains in their bilateral relations".
Reuters in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 18 August 2011 09.58 BST
Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu told US secretary of state Hillary Clinton that Israel would stick to a refusal to apologise to Turkey over the Gaza flotilla killings. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images
Israel will stick to its refusal to apologise to Turkey for killing nine of its citizens on a Gaza-bound ship, officials have said, a position Ankara said would sink any prospects for reconciliation.
The decision, which officials said the prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu conveyed to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in a telephone call, was made days before the anticipated publication of the findings of a UN inquiry into the seizure of the Mavi Marmara last year.
The so-called Palmer report was repeatedly delayed to allow for Israeli-Turkish rapprochement talks amid concern in Washington at the rift between two countries that had been strategic partners in an increasingly stormy Middle East.
"We're firm on not apologising," the Israeli official said in comments later confirmed by the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman in an interview with an Israeli television network, in which he called it "a wise and correct decision".
Pointing at uprisings in the Arab world since January which Israel has been watching warily, Lieberman added that any "message of weakness today would be the most dangerous from Israel's standpoint".
The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, asked by reporters about Israel's comments, replied that "as long as Israel does not apologise, does not pay compensation and does not lift the embargo on Palestine, it is not possible for Turkey-Israeli ties to improve."
The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said in separate comments that "Israel is facing a choice: deeper relations with Turkey or open a gap with the Turkish state that will not be overcome very easily".
The Mavi Marmara was part of an activist flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza when it was boarded by Israeli marines on the Mediterranean high seas on 31 May 2010. The marines shot dead nine Turks, including a dual US citizen, during fierce deck brawls.
Netanyahu had voiced regret over the killings, and the defence minister Ehud Barak, a centrist in his conservative coalition government, has since stirred debate inside the cabinet by proposing Israel offer a diluted apology in hope of restoring ties with what was once a rare Muslim ally of the Jewish state.
Barak had also thought such a step would help indemnify Israel's navy personnel against lawsuits abroad.
Israeli officials, citing advance copies of the report by a UN panel headed by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, have said the document would vindicate Israel's blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Israel calls its Gaza blockade a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea. Palestinians and their supporters describe the blockade as illegal collective punishment.
Lieberman said the report he said would be published on 23 August "is very positive toward Israel".
In his remarks at a news conference in Istanbul, Davutoglu suggested Turkey would not accept such an outcome. "If the Palmer Report does not contain an apology, both sides and the United States know what we will do," he said.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that Netanyahu and Clinton had spoken but denied that the US had asked Israel for any apology. "That report is inaccurate," she said.
Kurt Hoyer, spokesman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv, said Washington wanted Israel and Turkey "to look for opportunities to get past the current strains in their bilateral relations".
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Ethnic Cleansing 101: Israel-Palestinian conflict writ large on road signs
BBC News
6 August 2011
Last updated at 20:30 ET
Sign pointing to Jerusalem in Hebrew, Arabic and English Many road signs are tri-lingual
The increasingly heated dispute over place names in Israel underlies a much greater political struggle, the BBC's Yolande Knell explains from Jerusalem.
"Where are you going?" asked the friendly, but slightly over-familiar, Jewish-Israeli boy sitting next to me on the plane from London.
"I work in Jerusalem," I replied.
His smile instantly turned to a scowl. "It's not Jerusalem," he said. "It's Yerushalayim".
"That's in Hebrew, but in English we say Jerusalem," I protested and I was about to add - somewhat mischievously - that my Palestinian friends refer to it as "al-Quds" - the Arabic name for the city.
But at that point, the boy's little sister spilled orange juice over his lap. Our conversation was cut short.
Land may be at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but every day the struggle to control the historical narrative is played out most tangibly in language.
Place names are the most obvious example.
If some prominent politicians on the Israeli right have their way, then in future the road signs here will only point to "Yerushalayim".
Jews praying at the Western Wall Leading Israeli politicians argue the Jewish heritage of Jerusalem should be fully recognised.
A proposal to have all signs displaying just the transliterations of Hebrew names of cities and towns is being considered by a new ministerial committee.
There is strong opposition among Israel's population of more than one million Arab-Israelis but also from members of the Government Names Committee.
These independent experts have been responsible for selecting place names since the 1950s - not long after the creation of the state of Israel. They argue that changing the system will confuse tourists.
'Powerful symbols'
But others believe that complete Judaisation of the map is long overdue.
At 32, Tzipi Hotovely is the youngest member of the Israeli parliament. A well-qualified lawyer and religious right-winger, she is also seen as the ideological voice and rising star of the prime minister's Likud party.
She finds it unacceptable that although Hebrew names were given to Jerusalem neighbourhoods years ago, many Arabic ones have stuck.
For example, while the names of streets around the prime minister's residence read like an A to Z of Zionism, the upscale area itself is still called by its original Arabic name "Talbiya" - instead of "Komemiyut" or "Independence" - its given Hebrew name.
The same goes for Bakah and Malha, alias Geulim and Manahat.
Palestinians watch as the Hotel Shepherd is torn down, East Jerusalem (9 Jan 2011) Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to "erase" them from the city
Ms Hotovely has introduced a bill that would require different neighbourhoods to be identified by their Hebrew names only - on signposts, official documents and in state media.
She sees it as part of the wider battle for Jerusalem - which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital. Names are "very powerful symbols" she tells me.
The biggest problems arise in East Jerusalem - which was occupied by Israel in 1967 and is still a mainly Arab area - although Jewish settlers are fast moving in, taking over Palestinian homes.
Ms Hotovely wants the names of its quarters changed too.
"Most places in the east side of Jerusalem are part of our biblical heritage. It is very important to know the cultural history. The city was founded by David the King and many neighbourhoods are originally Jewish neighbourhoods," she says.
'Erasing identity'
For Huda Imam, a well-known, energetic Palestinian activist born in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem, such pronouncements are worrying.
Already she says she sees more and more signs for Shimon HaTzedik instead of Sheikh Jarrah.
The Hebrew name indicates the tomb is thought to belong to an ancient Jewish priest while the Arabic derives from the surgeon of the 12th Century Muslim leader, Saladin.
Huda points out the landmarks that suggest her neighbourhood's vibrant Arab history.
Palestinian boy flashes "v" for victory sign by group of young settlers. Palestinian activists in Sheikh Jarrah protest by the house of an Arab family taken over by settlers.
Many recent ones are tinged with a sense of loss like the Hind al-Husseini orphan school, Orient House, once the Jerusalem headquarters for Palestinian officials, and the Shepherd Hotel, demolished in January.
On the hillside there is also the green-shuttered house that Huda's own father built and which, she says, the Israeli authorities confiscated and later sold.
She feels that Israel is abandoning hopes of peaceful co-existence.
"I don't want to say they're succeeding because I'm still here," she adds. "But it's destroying any trust. They're erasing all traces of Palestinian identity."
There are many Palestinians and some Jewish Israelis trying to stop that from happening.
On Fridays, they organise noisy demonstrations on the streets in Sheikh Jarrah. Often there are scuffles with settlers, both sides asserting their competing claims.
The continuing fight for the rights to Jerusalem, and all the holy land, takes many forms.
6 August 2011
Last updated at 20:30 ET
Sign pointing to Jerusalem in Hebrew, Arabic and English Many road signs are tri-lingual
The increasingly heated dispute over place names in Israel underlies a much greater political struggle, the BBC's Yolande Knell explains from Jerusalem.
"Where are you going?" asked the friendly, but slightly over-familiar, Jewish-Israeli boy sitting next to me on the plane from London.
"I work in Jerusalem," I replied.
His smile instantly turned to a scowl. "It's not Jerusalem," he said. "It's Yerushalayim".
"That's in Hebrew, but in English we say Jerusalem," I protested and I was about to add - somewhat mischievously - that my Palestinian friends refer to it as "al-Quds" - the Arabic name for the city.
But at that point, the boy's little sister spilled orange juice over his lap. Our conversation was cut short.
Land may be at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but every day the struggle to control the historical narrative is played out most tangibly in language.
Place names are the most obvious example.
If some prominent politicians on the Israeli right have their way, then in future the road signs here will only point to "Yerushalayim".
Jews praying at the Western Wall Leading Israeli politicians argue the Jewish heritage of Jerusalem should be fully recognised.
A proposal to have all signs displaying just the transliterations of Hebrew names of cities and towns is being considered by a new ministerial committee.
There is strong opposition among Israel's population of more than one million Arab-Israelis but also from members of the Government Names Committee.
These independent experts have been responsible for selecting place names since the 1950s - not long after the creation of the state of Israel. They argue that changing the system will confuse tourists.
'Powerful symbols'
But others believe that complete Judaisation of the map is long overdue.
At 32, Tzipi Hotovely is the youngest member of the Israeli parliament. A well-qualified lawyer and religious right-winger, she is also seen as the ideological voice and rising star of the prime minister's Likud party.
She finds it unacceptable that although Hebrew names were given to Jerusalem neighbourhoods years ago, many Arabic ones have stuck.
For example, while the names of streets around the prime minister's residence read like an A to Z of Zionism, the upscale area itself is still called by its original Arabic name "Talbiya" - instead of "Komemiyut" or "Independence" - its given Hebrew name.
The same goes for Bakah and Malha, alias Geulim and Manahat.
Palestinians watch as the Hotel Shepherd is torn down, East Jerusalem (9 Jan 2011) Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to "erase" them from the city
Ms Hotovely has introduced a bill that would require different neighbourhoods to be identified by their Hebrew names only - on signposts, official documents and in state media.
She sees it as part of the wider battle for Jerusalem - which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital. Names are "very powerful symbols" she tells me.
The biggest problems arise in East Jerusalem - which was occupied by Israel in 1967 and is still a mainly Arab area - although Jewish settlers are fast moving in, taking over Palestinian homes.
Ms Hotovely wants the names of its quarters changed too.
"Most places in the east side of Jerusalem are part of our biblical heritage. It is very important to know the cultural history. The city was founded by David the King and many neighbourhoods are originally Jewish neighbourhoods," she says.
'Erasing identity'
For Huda Imam, a well-known, energetic Palestinian activist born in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem, such pronouncements are worrying.
Already she says she sees more and more signs for Shimon HaTzedik instead of Sheikh Jarrah.
The Hebrew name indicates the tomb is thought to belong to an ancient Jewish priest while the Arabic derives from the surgeon of the 12th Century Muslim leader, Saladin.
Huda points out the landmarks that suggest her neighbourhood's vibrant Arab history.
Palestinian boy flashes "v" for victory sign by group of young settlers. Palestinian activists in Sheikh Jarrah protest by the house of an Arab family taken over by settlers.
Many recent ones are tinged with a sense of loss like the Hind al-Husseini orphan school, Orient House, once the Jerusalem headquarters for Palestinian officials, and the Shepherd Hotel, demolished in January.
On the hillside there is also the green-shuttered house that Huda's own father built and which, she says, the Israeli authorities confiscated and later sold.
She feels that Israel is abandoning hopes of peaceful co-existence.
"I don't want to say they're succeeding because I'm still here," she adds. "But it's destroying any trust. They're erasing all traces of Palestinian identity."
There are many Palestinians and some Jewish Israelis trying to stop that from happening.
On Fridays, they organise noisy demonstrations on the streets in Sheikh Jarrah. Often there are scuffles with settlers, both sides asserting their competing claims.
The continuing fight for the rights to Jerusalem, and all the holy land, takes many forms.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Friends-of-freedom-and-justice-Bilin:] Bil'in -Al-Walaja--Stop the $30 Billion in US Aid to Israel Occupation
1- The Israeli occupation force suppresses the process of Bil'in weekly demonstration
12-8-2011-The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil'in organized the weekly march with the participation of dozens of Palestinians, dozens of international activists and some Israeli peace activists.
Despite the heat of the sun and fasting of Ramadan, the march started after Friday prayers from the center of the village. They headed to the land that was liberated, especially (Abu Lemon) natural reserve , the Palestinians and peace activists waved Palestinian flags, They chanted the national march chants calling for the departure of the occupation and demolition of the racist wall. Participants used a megaphone to call to the settlers, who are in Mattiaho Mzrah settlement which was built on the lands of Bil'in to leave the area and return to their original homeland and return the land to the Palestinians. they were able to destroy part of the barbed wire located along the concrete wall. On their part, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at demonstrators, which led to the suffering of some demonstrators with the poison gas,
2-Al-Walaja protest 10-8-2011
Despite the fact that the case of the route of the Apartheid-Annexation Wall through the SW Jerusalem village of al-Walaja is due to be heard in the Israeli Supreme Court on September 27 occupation forces are busy creating "facts on the ground" by uprooting olive trees and doing the preparatory ground work for a crime against humanity that will create a living ghetto similar to Gaza, Qalqilya and neighbouring Bethlehem. In revulsion against this, Palestinians and international solidarity activists their numbers greatly augmented by members of the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall direct action group protested in al-Walaja today but were greeted with stun grenades, tear gas and some thirteen arrests by the Israeli army. The village of Al-Walaja was, in 1948, the second largest land area after Jerusalem but was cut down to one third the size when Israel declared statehood that year. Now a border village, Al-Walaja is edged on its eastern flank by an expanding bloc of colonies and is being reduced in size by the path of the Apartheid- Annexation Wall, which annexes between two to three kilometers of village lands from the pre-1967 border.http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=372&Itemid= 1
3-Mazin Qumsiyeh: UN September Application For Palestinian Statehood 10-8-2011
Declarations to the media about 122 countries recognizing Palestine (about the same as was the case in 1989) mean little to villagers and refugees who are losing daily in their struggle to get their concerns heard by those driving SUVs and Mercedes cars in the streets of Ramallah and who go unhindered through checkpoints with VIP cards ... A few years ago, Mr. (Saeb) Erekat came for a tour in the US. When some leading Palestinian Americans started questioning him on the failure of Oslo, he just got angry and said to about 40 of us that he has a PhD and that "who are you all to question things" (Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh). http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17025 .http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid= 1
4-Land Reclamation Project in Bil'in After the Resiting of the Apartheid Wall
10-8-2011
Following the resiting of the Apartheid-Annexation Wall in Bil'in and the consequent return of 800 dunums (some 200 acres) to the village last June, hydrologist and project manager with the Palestinian NGO; Palestinian Hydrology Group Abdul Raouf Abu Raheh explains the current situation in his village and his plan to alleviate the poverty of 20 of Bil'in's poorest farmers by constructing water cisterns on the returned land and providing seed, fertiliser and seedlings to them.http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=370&Itemid= 1
5-Stop the $30 Billion in US Aid to Israel!
Not OUR tax dollars to fund the occupation!
Support Palestinian Self-Determination and Human Rights
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Join us on the streets of Washington DC as we march to demand:
âž¡ US support of UN resolution for Palestinian self-determination
➡ An end to US tax dollars funding Israel’s military occupation of
Palestinian territory
Assemble at State Department and march at 5:30 PM to the
White House
Time to end support of Israeli occupation!
Real Democracy Not Hypocrisy
For more information, see our website:
www.september15.org
http://www.facebook.com/pages/STOP-USAid-to-Israel/222256727814644
White House - New York -
Dear Friends,
We would like to invite you to join our demonstrations in front of the White House on September 15th and in front of the United Nations building in New York on September 15th. The purpose of these demonstrations is to declare opposition to US aid to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
American tax dollars go toward supporting an illegal and humiliating occupation of Palestinian land; the construction of illegal settlements; the annexation of Palestinian farmland; the purchase of weapons and arms used in night raids and military strikes. Right now your money finds its way to this part of the world where children and innocent civilians are killed, injured, and made to suffer. It also empowers the Israeli government to further ignore international law and perpetuate its intransigence.
These demonstrations in September will tell the US government to stop supporting this occupation and stand up for justice and freedom in Palestine.
12-8-2011-The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil'in organized the weekly march with the participation of dozens of Palestinians, dozens of international activists and some Israeli peace activists.
Despite the heat of the sun and fasting of Ramadan, the march started after Friday prayers from the center of the village. They headed to the land that was liberated, especially (Abu Lemon) natural reserve , the Palestinians and peace activists waved Palestinian flags, They chanted the national march chants calling for the departure of the occupation and demolition of the racist wall. Participants used a megaphone to call to the settlers, who are in Mattiaho Mzrah settlement which was built on the lands of Bil'in to leave the area and return to their original homeland and return the land to the Palestinians. they were able to destroy part of the barbed wire located along the concrete wall. On their part, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at demonstrators, which led to the suffering of some demonstrators with the poison gas,
2-Al-Walaja protest 10-8-2011
Despite the fact that the case of the route of the Apartheid-Annexation Wall through the SW Jerusalem village of al-Walaja is due to be heard in the Israeli Supreme Court on September 27 occupation forces are busy creating "facts on the ground" by uprooting olive trees and doing the preparatory ground work for a crime against humanity that will create a living ghetto similar to Gaza, Qalqilya and neighbouring Bethlehem. In revulsion against this, Palestinians and international solidarity activists their numbers greatly augmented by members of the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall direct action group protested in al-Walaja today but were greeted with stun grenades, tear gas and some thirteen arrests by the Israeli army. The village of Al-Walaja was, in 1948, the second largest land area after Jerusalem but was cut down to one third the size when Israel declared statehood that year. Now a border village, Al-Walaja is edged on its eastern flank by an expanding bloc of colonies and is being reduced in size by the path of the Apartheid- Annexation Wall, which annexes between two to three kilometers of village lands from the pre-1967 border.http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=372&Itemid= 1
3-Mazin Qumsiyeh: UN September Application For Palestinian Statehood 10-8-2011
Declarations to the media about 122 countries recognizing Palestine (about the same as was the case in 1989) mean little to villagers and refugees who are losing daily in their struggle to get their concerns heard by those driving SUVs and Mercedes cars in the streets of Ramallah and who go unhindered through checkpoints with VIP cards ... A few years ago, Mr. (Saeb) Erekat came for a tour in the US. When some leading Palestinian Americans started questioning him on the failure of Oslo, he just got angry and said to about 40 of us that he has a PhD and that "who are you all to question things" (Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh). http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17025 .http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid= 1
4-Land Reclamation Project in Bil'in After the Resiting of the Apartheid Wall
10-8-2011
Following the resiting of the Apartheid-Annexation Wall in Bil'in and the consequent return of 800 dunums (some 200 acres) to the village last June, hydrologist and project manager with the Palestinian NGO; Palestinian Hydrology Group Abdul Raouf Abu Raheh explains the current situation in his village and his plan to alleviate the poverty of 20 of Bil'in's poorest farmers by constructing water cisterns on the returned land and providing seed, fertiliser and seedlings to them.http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=370&Itemid= 1
5-Stop the $30 Billion in US Aid to Israel!
Not OUR tax dollars to fund the occupation!
Support Palestinian Self-Determination and Human Rights
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Join us on the streets of Washington DC as we march to demand:
âž¡ US support of UN resolution for Palestinian self-determination
➡ An end to US tax dollars funding Israel’s military occupation of
Palestinian territory
Assemble at State Department and march at 5:30 PM to the
White House
Time to end support of Israeli occupation!
Real Democracy Not Hypocrisy
For more information, see our website:
www.september15.org
http://www.facebook.com/pages/STOP-USAid-to-Israel/222256727814644
White House - New York -
Dear Friends,
We would like to invite you to join our demonstrations in front of the White House on September 15th and in front of the United Nations building in New York on September 15th. The purpose of these demonstrations is to declare opposition to US aid to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
American tax dollars go toward supporting an illegal and humiliating occupation of Palestinian land; the construction of illegal settlements; the annexation of Palestinian farmland; the purchase of weapons and arms used in night raids and military strikes. Right now your money finds its way to this part of the world where children and innocent civilians are killed, injured, and made to suffer. It also empowers the Israeli government to further ignore international law and perpetuate its intransigence.
These demonstrations in September will tell the US government to stop supporting this occupation and stand up for justice and freedom in Palestine.
Russia urges Israel to reconsider its new settlement plan
English.news.cn
2011-08-12 23:09:34
MOSCOW, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia hopes that Israel will reconsider its plans for building some 1,600 houses in east Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Friday.
Moscow reiterated that Israel's decision to build the new houses would not help erase but instead raise serious concerns and denouncement, Lukashevich said.
Such plans "aggravate an uneasy and explosive situation in the Middle East" and run counter to the efforts of the world community aimed at finding a mutually basis for resuming the Palestinian-Israeli talks, he said.
"We call on the sides to refrain from unilateral steps inflaming additional tensions and hampering the search for the ways out of the existing situation," Lukashevich said.h On Aug. 6, Moscow called on Israel to stop plans for building some 900 new houses in the settlement of Har Homa in Jerusalem's eastern neighborhood.
2011-08-12 23:09:34
MOSCOW, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia hopes that Israel will reconsider its plans for building some 1,600 houses in east Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Friday.
Moscow reiterated that Israel's decision to build the new houses would not help erase but instead raise serious concerns and denouncement, Lukashevich said.
Such plans "aggravate an uneasy and explosive situation in the Middle East" and run counter to the efforts of the world community aimed at finding a mutually basis for resuming the Palestinian-Israeli talks, he said.
"We call on the sides to refrain from unilateral steps inflaming additional tensions and hampering the search for the ways out of the existing situation," Lukashevich said.h On Aug. 6, Moscow called on Israel to stop plans for building some 900 new houses in the settlement of Har Homa in Jerusalem's eastern neighborhood.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Four actions to take recommended by Mazin Qumsiyeh
Four actions: Please take at least two of them
Action 1: Join us Saturday 10 AM Palestine Ramadan Time in Al-Walaja as
villagers continue to see their lands destroyed. Last Wednesday at 8 AM,
some 60-80 human rights advocates marched with drums and chants to the sites
inside Al-Walaja al-Jadia (the new Al-Walaja) where the Israeli occupation
forces are uprooting trees and destroying the beautiful landscape to
separate people from their agricultural lands and to allow for further
expansion of illegal colonies built on Palestinian lands. Five Israelis
were kidnapped. Later after the actual event, the Israeli soldiers came into
town to terrorize the locals and one Palestinian was taken from his house
and treated badly even though he was not in the demonstration with us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUF6gkgRxzA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZAWODp_jDQ
The Struggle video network featured Al-Walaja and part of my talk in March
abou the town
http://tv.thestruggle.org/node/434
Action 2: Marwa was shot in the head 10 years ago. She is now 20 and a
university student. However, her original injury has led to severe dental
problems that her family cannot afford. Some friends in Palestine have
arranged for a dentist to begin work with some money we've already raised,
but the work will not be finished until we raise another $4000. If anyone is
interested in helping Marwa you can send a contribution to the Hartford
Catholic Worker with Marwa noted on the memo line. See
And
Action 3: This August break is for Members of Congress to be at home,
meeting with constituents to hear about our concerns. . Instead, 81
Representatives--nearly 20% of the House--are hightailing off to Israel on
an all-expense-paid junket organized by an affiliate of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Israel's goal there is to lobby the
Representatives to continue sending the Israeli military $30 billion of our
tax money -- the amount pledged for these 10 years (2009-2018). That means
sending money we won't have for jobs and healthcare to buy weapons for
Israel to perpetuate its illegal military occupation and apartheid policies
toward Palestinians. It's time to "name and shame" these Members of Congress
who put more weapons for Israel ahead of their own constituents' economic
rights. We need you to take action today
http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3080
Also similar actions called by Code Pink
http://www.codepink.org/article.php?id=5919
See also "Israel Lobby Dominates Congress, Media Covers it Up" by Alison
Weir, August 11, 2011
http://www.counterpunch.org/weir08112011.html
http://original.antiwar.com/alison-weir/2011/08/10/israel-lobby-dominates-co
ngress/
Action 4: Roadmap to Apartheid, a documentary film examining the apartheid
analogy is near completion! Narrated by Alice Walker, Roadmap to Apartheid
is promising to be the definitive documentary that compares and contrasts
South African apartheid with Israeli policies and practices. It will be a
very important and useful tool for BDS organizing worldwide. Finishing
funds are lacking to take it through the home stretch. Learn about the
current fundraising campaign here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roadmaptoapartheid/roadmap-to-apartheid
Inspiring Video on a group of activists who rode bicycles from London to
visit with us in Palestine
http://www.100daystopalestine.org/2011/08/10/the-pedal-short-video-from-lond
on-to-palestine-is-here/
In Tumult, New Hope for Palestinian Cause
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/world/middleeast/10palestinians.html?pagew
anted=1&_r=1
How Palestinian Authority's UN "statehood" bid endangers Palestinian rights
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/how-palestinian-authoritys-u
n-statehood-bid-endangers-palestinian-rights
Come visit us in Palestine this October for the Olive Harvest season and
this Christmas for a week of activities. Watch for more details next email.
Meantime, act, act, act.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinejn.org
http://pcr.ps
http://IMEMC.or
http://www.alrowwad-acts.ps
Action 1: Join us Saturday 10 AM Palestine Ramadan Time in Al-Walaja as
villagers continue to see their lands destroyed. Last Wednesday at 8 AM,
some 60-80 human rights advocates marched with drums and chants to the sites
inside Al-Walaja al-Jadia (the new Al-Walaja) where the Israeli occupation
forces are uprooting trees and destroying the beautiful landscape to
separate people from their agricultural lands and to allow for further
expansion of illegal colonies built on Palestinian lands. Five Israelis
were kidnapped. Later after the actual event, the Israeli soldiers came into
town to terrorize the locals and one Palestinian was taken from his house
and treated badly even though he was not in the demonstration with us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUF6gkgRxzA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZAWODp_jDQ
The Struggle video network featured Al-Walaja and part of my talk in March
abou the town
Action 2: Marwa was shot in the head 10 years ago. She is now 20 and a
university student. However, her original injury has led to severe dental
problems that her family cannot afford. Some friends in Palestine have
arranged for a dentist to begin work with some money we've already raised,
but the work will not be finished until we raise another $4000. If anyone is
interested in helping Marwa you can send a contribution to the Hartford
Catholic Worker with Marwa noted on the memo line. See
And
Action 3: This August break is for Members of Congress to be at home,
meeting with constituents to hear about our concerns. . Instead, 81
Representatives--nearly 20% of the House--are hightailing off to Israel on
an all-expense-paid junket organized by an affiliate of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Israel's goal there is to lobby the
Representatives to continue sending the Israeli military $30 billion of our
tax money -- the amount pledged for these 10 years (2009-2018). That means
sending money we won't have for jobs and healthcare to buy weapons for
Israel to perpetuate its illegal military occupation and apartheid policies
toward Palestinians. It's time to "name and shame" these Members of Congress
who put more weapons for Israel ahead of their own constituents' economic
rights. We need you to take action today
http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3080
Also similar actions called by Code Pink
http://www.codepink.org/article.php?id=5919
See also "Israel Lobby Dominates Congress, Media Covers it Up" by Alison
Weir, August 11, 2011
http://www.counterpunch.org/weir08112011.html
http://original.antiwar.com/alison-weir/2011/08/10/israel-lobby-dominates-co
ngress/
Action 4: Roadmap to Apartheid, a documentary film examining the apartheid
analogy is near completion! Narrated by Alice Walker, Roadmap to Apartheid
is promising to be the definitive documentary that compares and contrasts
South African apartheid with Israeli policies and practices. It will be a
very important and useful tool for BDS organizing worldwide. Finishing
funds are lacking to take it through the home stretch. Learn about the
current fundraising campaign here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roadmaptoapartheid/roadmap-to-apartheid
Inspiring Video on a group of activists who rode bicycles from London to
visit with us in Palestine
http://www.100daystopalestine.org/2011/08/10/the-pedal-short-video-from-lond
on-to-palestine-is-here/
In Tumult, New Hope for Palestinian Cause
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/world/middleeast/10palestinians.html?pagew
anted=1&_r=1
How Palestinian Authority's UN "statehood" bid endangers Palestinian rights
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/how-palestinian-authoritys-u
n-statehood-bid-endangers-palestinian-rights
Come visit us in Palestine this October for the Olive Harvest season and
this Christmas for a week of activities. Watch for more details next email.
Meantime, act, act, act.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Israel approves 1,600 settler homes in East Jerusalem
BBC News
1 August 2011
Last updated at 06:30 ET
Har Homa settlement 2010 Talks between the two sides are stalled over continued building of settlements in the West Bank
Final approval has been given for the building of 1,600 settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem by the Israeli interior ministry.
The ministry is expected to approve the building of a further 2,700 homes, an official has said.
This comes weeks ahead of expected moves by the Palestinian Authority to have a Palestinian state recognised at the United Nations.
The campaign for recognition is strongly opposed by Israel.
Direct talks between the two sides are stalled, and there are no known current initiatives to get them re-started.
The Israeli announcement has been criticised by Palestinian officials.
"We strongly condemn the new Israeli decision," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the AFP news agency.
"[I urge the US] to reconsider their position rejecting the Palestinian move to go to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state… We call on [US President Barack Obama] to support this approach because it is the only way to preserve the two-state solution."
'Economics not politics'
A spokesman for the interior ministry, Roei Lachmanovich, told AFP minister Eli Yishai had given approval for "1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo and will approve 2,000 more in Givat Hamatos and 700 in Pisgat Zeev".
The approval of 1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo caused a diplomatic row between the US and Israel. The initial go-ahead for the homes was initially given in March 2010 as US Vice-President Joe Biden was on a visit to Israel pressing for the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
Mr Lachmanovich insisted that that the approval for the settlement homes was "economic" not political.
Israel is currently experiencing nationwide protests over the high cost of living. One of the central issues is the lack of affordable housing.
"These are being approved because of the economic crisis here in Israel, they are looking for a place to build in Jerusalem, and these will help," he said. "This is nothing political, it's just economic."
Last week, the interior ministry issued a final green-light for the construction of 900 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa, which lies in the south-west of the city, beside Bethlehem.
Direct talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are currently stalled over the Palestinian refusal to take part while the Israeli government continues to build settlements in the West Bank.
The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and annexed East Jerusalem, a move not recognised by the international community.
More than 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, among a Palestinian population of about 2.5 million.
"Economics, not politics" my eye. Talk about cynical usage of Israel's people by their right-wing government trying to fool both its citizens and the world, this one should take some prize.
1 August 2011
Last updated at 06:30 ET
Har Homa settlement 2010 Talks between the two sides are stalled over continued building of settlements in the West Bank
Final approval has been given for the building of 1,600 settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem by the Israeli interior ministry.
The ministry is expected to approve the building of a further 2,700 homes, an official has said.
This comes weeks ahead of expected moves by the Palestinian Authority to have a Palestinian state recognised at the United Nations.
The campaign for recognition is strongly opposed by Israel.
Direct talks between the two sides are stalled, and there are no known current initiatives to get them re-started.
The Israeli announcement has been criticised by Palestinian officials.
"We strongly condemn the new Israeli decision," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the AFP news agency.
"[I urge the US] to reconsider their position rejecting the Palestinian move to go to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state… We call on [US President Barack Obama] to support this approach because it is the only way to preserve the two-state solution."
'Economics not politics'
A spokesman for the interior ministry, Roei Lachmanovich, told AFP minister Eli Yishai had given approval for "1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo and will approve 2,000 more in Givat Hamatos and 700 in Pisgat Zeev".
The approval of 1,600 homes in Ramat Shlomo caused a diplomatic row between the US and Israel. The initial go-ahead for the homes was initially given in March 2010 as US Vice-President Joe Biden was on a visit to Israel pressing for the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
Mr Lachmanovich insisted that that the approval for the settlement homes was "economic" not political.
Israel is currently experiencing nationwide protests over the high cost of living. One of the central issues is the lack of affordable housing.
"These are being approved because of the economic crisis here in Israel, they are looking for a place to build in Jerusalem, and these will help," he said. "This is nothing political, it's just economic."
Last week, the interior ministry issued a final green-light for the construction of 900 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa, which lies in the south-west of the city, beside Bethlehem.
Direct talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are currently stalled over the Palestinian refusal to take part while the Israeli government continues to build settlements in the West Bank.
The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and annexed East Jerusalem, a move not recognised by the international community.
More than 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, among a Palestinian population of about 2.5 million.
"Economics, not politics" my eye. Talk about cynical usage of Israel's people by their right-wing government trying to fool both its citizens and the world, this one should take some prize.
Friday, August 05, 2011
Friends-of-freedom-and-justice-Bilin: support and help Rani Burnat
Dear Friends,
We would like to thank you for your ongoing concern. Without your support and help Rani wouldn't be able to keep on bringing his testimony abroad. We plead you to remain in this beautiful form of solidarity and express your aid as soon as possible.
Rani Burnat has been wheelchair-bound since being shot in the neck by a sniper in 2000. The shooting occurred during a demonstration in Ramallah on the second day of the second intifada. The injury has left him paralyzed from the chest down, with a head wound from which he is still recovering. Despite the difficulties, Rani — now 30 years old — has since started a family and is the proud father of triplets.
In spite of his severe handicap, Rani continues to attend demonstrations against the separation wall in his village of Bil’in on a regular basis. Over the years of protest Rani has been beaten and shot numerous times by the forces of the occupation, and his wheelchair has sustained repeated damage. Rani’s medical equipment demands constant care and gets worn down quickly.
A list of medical equipment that Rani needs:
-Rani is now suffering from serious bedsores. He needs to sleep on a special mattress to prevent the bedsores. The cost of this 6000$.
-Rani has to stand at least one hour every day to let the blood flow in all the parts of his body. In order to do that he needs a special facility that can hold him in a standing position .The cost of this 7500$.
- In order to move and be independent as much as possible, Rani need a good electric wheelchair. The chair he has now is old and not functioning well. The cost of this 6000$.
You can watch the pictures from the time Rani' was injured and the pictures Rani is taking and also find a way to support at this website:
friends of rani
Support our friend Rani Burnat
Direct donation to rani's bank account:
$$
CAIRO AMMAN BANK
Palestine - Ramallah
SWIFT CODE : CAABPS22
CORESSPONDENT SWIFT CODE : IRVTUS3N
A/CNO. 8900556307
BENEFICIARY NAME : Rani Abdel Fattah Ibrahim Burnat
BEN.A/C NO: 132200
BRANCHNO. : 802
EUR
CAIRO AMMAN BANK
Palestine - Ramallah
SWIFT CODE :CAABPS22
A/C:291-114136-563-EUR-0
CORRES.BANK:FORTIS BANK
SWIFT CODE:GEBABEBB36A
BENEFICIARY NAME : Rani Abdel Fattah Ibrahim Burnat
BEN.A/C NO: 132200
BRANCHNO. : 802
Rani Abed alfattah Ibrahim Burnat
ID number is: 906423843
Please, if there is any problem or you need more information, send Rani a message about that.
To contact Rani : raniab281@yahoo.com
Thank you.
With love
We would like to thank you for your ongoing concern. Without your support and help Rani wouldn't be able to keep on bringing his testimony abroad. We plead you to remain in this beautiful form of solidarity and express your aid as soon as possible.
Rani Burnat has been wheelchair-bound since being shot in the neck by a sniper in 2000. The shooting occurred during a demonstration in Ramallah on the second day of the second intifada. The injury has left him paralyzed from the chest down, with a head wound from which he is still recovering. Despite the difficulties, Rani — now 30 years old — has since started a family and is the proud father of triplets.
In spite of his severe handicap, Rani continues to attend demonstrations against the separation wall in his village of Bil’in on a regular basis. Over the years of protest Rani has been beaten and shot numerous times by the forces of the occupation, and his wheelchair has sustained repeated damage. Rani’s medical equipment demands constant care and gets worn down quickly.
A list of medical equipment that Rani needs:
-Rani is now suffering from serious bedsores. He needs to sleep on a special mattress to prevent the bedsores. The cost of this 6000$.
-Rani has to stand at least one hour every day to let the blood flow in all the parts of his body. In order to do that he needs a special facility that can hold him in a standing position .The cost of this 7500$.
- In order to move and be independent as much as possible, Rani need a good electric wheelchair. The chair he has now is old and not functioning well. The cost of this 6000$.
You can watch the pictures from the time Rani' was injured and the pictures Rani is taking and also find a way to support at this website:
friends of rani
Support our friend Rani Burnat
Direct donation to rani's bank account:
$$
CAIRO AMMAN BANK
Palestine - Ramallah
SWIFT CODE : CAABPS22
CORESSPONDENT SWIFT CODE : IRVTUS3N
A/CNO. 8900556307
BENEFICIARY NAME : Rani Abdel Fattah Ibrahim Burnat
BEN.A/C NO: 132200
BRANCHNO. : 802
EUR
CAIRO AMMAN BANK
Palestine - Ramallah
SWIFT CODE :CAABPS22
A/C:291-114136-563-EUR-0
CORRES.BANK:FORTIS BANK
SWIFT CODE:GEBABEBB36A
BENEFICIARY NAME : Rani Abdel Fattah Ibrahim Burnat
BEN.A/C NO: 132200
BRANCHNO. : 802
Rani Abed alfattah Ibrahim Burnat
ID number is: 906423843
Please, if there is any problem or you need more information, send Rani a message about that.
To contact Rani : raniab281@yahoo.com
Thank you.
With love
Monday, August 01, 2011
Friends-of-freedom-and-justice-bilin: Invitation
White House - New York - London
http://www.facebook.com/pages/​STOP-USAid-to-Israel/222256727​814644
Dear Friends,
We would like to invite you to join our demonstrations in front of the White House on September 10th and in front of the United Nations building in New York on September 15th. The purpose of these demonstrations is to declare opposition to US aid to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
American tax dollars go toward supporting an illegal and humiliating occupation of Palestinian land; the construction of illegal settlements; the annexation of Palestinian farmland; the purchase of weapons and arms used in night raids and military strikes. Right now your money finds its way to this part of the world where children and innocent civilians are killed, injured, and made to suffer. It also empowers the Israeli government to further ignore international law and perpetuate its intransigence.
These demonstrations in September will tell the US government to stop supporting this occupation and stand up for justice and freedom in Palestine.
The popular comittees-Palestine asks all those who support peace and justice in Palestine to organise demonstrations in September 10 outside the US embassies of their countries calling for the end of US aid to Israel. Demonstrations are already planned in front of the White House on September 10th and in front of the United Nations bu...ilding in New York on September 15th, but to be successful we need to globalise the resistance.
American tax dollars go toward supporting an illegal and humiliating occupation of Palestinian land; the construction of illegal settlements; the annexation of Palestinian farmland; the purchase of weapons and arms used in night raids and military strikes. Right now American money finds its way to this part of the world where children and innocent civilians are killed, injured, and made to suffer. It also empowers the Israeli government to further ignore international law and perpetuate its intransigence.
These demonstrations in September will tell the US government to stop supporting this occupation and stand up for justice and freedom in Palestine, lets spread them far and wide accross the planet.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/​STOP-USAid-to-Israel/222256727​814644
http://www.facebook.com/pages/​STOP-USAid-to-Israel/222256727​814644
Dear Friends,
We would like to invite you to join our demonstrations in front of the White House on September 10th and in front of the United Nations building in New York on September 15th. The purpose of these demonstrations is to declare opposition to US aid to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
American tax dollars go toward supporting an illegal and humiliating occupation of Palestinian land; the construction of illegal settlements; the annexation of Palestinian farmland; the purchase of weapons and arms used in night raids and military strikes. Right now your money finds its way to this part of the world where children and innocent civilians are killed, injured, and made to suffer. It also empowers the Israeli government to further ignore international law and perpetuate its intransigence.
These demonstrations in September will tell the US government to stop supporting this occupation and stand up for justice and freedom in Palestine.
The popular comittees-Palestine asks all those who support peace and justice in Palestine to organise demonstrations in September 10 outside the US embassies of their countries calling for the end of US aid to Israel. Demonstrations are already planned in front of the White House on September 10th and in front of the United Nations bu...ilding in New York on September 15th, but to be successful we need to globalise the resistance.
American tax dollars go toward supporting an illegal and humiliating occupation of Palestinian land; the construction of illegal settlements; the annexation of Palestinian farmland; the purchase of weapons and arms used in night raids and military strikes. Right now American money finds its way to this part of the world where children and innocent civilians are killed, injured, and made to suffer. It also empowers the Israeli government to further ignore international law and perpetuate its intransigence.
These demonstrations in September will tell the US government to stop supporting this occupation and stand up for justice and freedom in Palestine, lets spread them far and wide accross the planet.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/​STOP-USAid-to-Israel/222256727​814644
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We are Holy One
Altarnative
About Me
- Steve Lewis
- Prophesy bearer for four religious traditions, revealer of Christ's Sword, revealer of Josephine bearing the Spirit of Christ, revealer of the identity of God, revealer of the Celestial Torah astro-theological code within the Bible. Celestial Torah Christian Theologian, Climax Civilization theorist and activist, Eco-Village Organizer, Master Psychedelic Artist, Inventor of the Next Big Thing in wearable tech, and always your Prophet-At-Large.