Flame: Israel rejects link to malware cyber-attack

Moshe Ya'alon spoke to the country's military radio station about the attack

31 May 2012 Last updated at 10:32
By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Israel has dismissed suggestions that it might be behind the Flame cyber-attack.

Several media reports linked comments made by the country's vice prime minister with the malware, which has infected more than 600 targets.

However, a spokesman for the Israeli government told the BBC that Moshe Ya'alon had been misrepresented.

Security experts said it was still too early to pinpoint the source of the attack.

Mr Ya'alon, who is also Israel's minister of strategic affairs, discussed the attacks on Israel's military radio station, Army Radio.

"There are quite a few governments in the west that have rich high-tech [capabilities] that view Iran, and particularly the Iranian nuclear threat, as a meaningful threat - and can possibly be involved with this field," he said.

"I would imagine that everyone who sees the Iranian nuclear threat as a significant one, and that is not only Israel, it is the entire Western world, headed by the United States of America, would likely take every single measure available, including these, to harm the Iranian nuclear project."

When asked to clarify Mr Ya'alon's comments by the BBC, a spokesman for the minister said: "There was no part of the interview where the minister has said anything to imply that Israel was responsible for the virus."
Retreating Flame

Other speculation has linked the US with the malware. An anonymous US official told NBC News the country was behind the attack - but conceded he had "no first-hand knowledge" of the matter. The US has also denied responsibility.

Many analysts said Stuxnet, a past high-profile attack which shares some similarities with Flame, could have been orchestrated by both countries.

Leading security expert Ralph Langner said in 2011 that Mossad - Israel's security agency - had collaborated in the attack with US intelligence. Both countries deny involvement.

Russian security firm Kaspersky Labs, which was among the first to reveal details of Flame, told the BBC that it could take months, or even years, to determine where it had originated.

However, its researchers have noted that whoever was behind the malware appeared to be retreating slowly.

"It's very tough to shut down 80+ command and control servers at the same time," explained Roel Schouwenberg, senior security researcher.

"Some of them are not active anymore. I think this is some sort of effort to buy themselves some time and change the game plan if the need would arise.

"We've seen it in the past, that after some period of silence, that the operation is rebooted."

The United Nations has described Flame as a significant espionage tool which could affect critical infrastructure - and issued its "most serious" cyber security warning to date.

However, others have suggested the threat had been overplayed.

"We seem to be getting to a point where every time new malware is discovered it's branded 'the worst ever'," said US security researcher Marcus Carey.

Globe Theatre: Israeli play goes on despite protests

BBC News
29 May 2012
Last updated at 04:39 ET

The Habima theatre company performed a Hebrew-language Merchant of Venice

Pro-Palestinian activists have disrupted the UK debut of Israel's Habima theatre company in London.

Around 15 people were carried or led out of Shakespeare's Globe theatre after unfurling banners or Palestinian flags. One man was arrested.

Before the performance of The Merchant of Venice, Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole asked the audience to stay calm in the event of disturbances.

The actual performance carried on despite the disruptions.

The protests came after a group of stage figures including Mark Rylance, Mike Leigh and Emma Thompson called for the Globe to boycott the company over its performances in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

n a letter to The Guardian, they said Habima had "a shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory".

Shakespeare's Globe said its current international festival was "a celebration of languages and not… a celebration of nations and states".

It added that "people meeting and talking and exchanging views is preferable to isolation and silence".

Security was stepped up ahead of Monday's show, with airport-style metal detectors in the foyer and audience members' bags searched.

There were small-scale demonstrations outside the Globe by both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups.

As the performance was about to begin on the open-air stage, Dromgoole addressed the audience and joked about the unusual security arrangements.

"If there are disturbances, let's be perfectly calm," he went on. "Don't get angry.

"You're not watching politicians or policy-makers. You are watching artists who are here to tell a story."

About 10 minutes into the play, a banner reading "Israel Apartheid leave the stage" was unfurled from the first-floor balcony accompanied by several Palestinian flags.

Other protesters showed peace signs or stood up with tape over their mouths.

More banners and flags were unfurled on two more occasions before the interval.

As the protesters were removed, some shouted "Free Palestine!"

After the interval, a man standing in front of the stage was ejected after shouting: "Hath a Palestinian not eyes?" in a twist on Shylock's famous speech.

One protester, Zoe Mars, said: "We tried non-violently to convey the message that culture may not be used to give a civilised gloss to a state that perpetrates human rights abuses."

A Metropolitan police spokesman said a man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a security guard outside the theatre.

Another performance of the Hebrew-language production is due to take place on Tuesday. The play is part of the Globe to Globe festival, which sees all of Shakespeare's plays performed in 37 different languages over six weeks.

Ilan Ronen, Habima's artistic director, told the BBC: "I think it is important for Israeli theatre in general to be part of international activities.

"We are very much involved in the last three years in a lot of collaborations with the leading theatres in Berlin, Moscow and other places. This is the reason we were so happy to be invited to this festival.

"I think politically it's an important festival. This is a way for artists to meet each other and have a better dialogue and be helpful, maybe, to our politicians, to make the world better."

Founded in Moscow in 1913, Habima settled in Tel Aviv in the late 1920s. Since 1958 it has been recognised as the National Theatre of Israel.

About 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Mavi Marmara: Israeli officers face Turkish trial

Israeli navy commandos intercepted the Mavi Marmara and other ships

BBC News
28 May 2012
Last updated at 09:49 ET

A Turkish court has charged four senior Israeli military commanders over the killing of nine Turkish activists trying to reach Gaza in 2010.

Ex-military chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi and former heads of military intelligence, the navy and air force are expected to be tried in absentia.

The nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed after Israeli troops boarded their ship, the Mavi Marmara.

They had been hoping to breach Israel's naval blockade and deliver aid to Gaza.

A prosecutor at the court in Istanbul has called for each of the four Israeli officers to face nine life sentences, Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.

The other three commanders are ex-naval chief Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom, former head of military intelligence Major General Amos Yadlin, and former head of the air force Brigadier General Avishai Lev.

Israel has refused to co-operate with any prosecution of those who took part in the attack.

If they are convicted, the Turkish court could issue a warrant for their arrest.

The Mavi Marmara was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters as it sailed towards Gaza's coast on 31 May 2010.

A UN inquiry found that Israel's blockade of Gaza was "a legitimate security measure".

It said Israeli troops had faced "significant, organised and violent resistance" when they boarded the ship.

But it said Israel's decision to board the ship and the use of substantial force was "excessive and unreasonable".

The incident has led to a major rift in relations between Turkey and Israel.

Amnesty: UN Security Council “unfit for purpose” | euronews, world news

Amnesty: UN Security Council “unfit for purpose” | euronews, world news

 24/05 10:33 CET

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International, in its annual State of the World Human Rights report,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/report-2012-no-longer-business-usual-tyranny-and-injustice-2012-05-24
lambasts the UN Security Council for being “tired, out of step and increasingly unfit for purpose.”

It highlighted the failure to take stronger action in Syria as evidence that a “sclerotic” council was hamstrung by vested interests.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/syria-weapons-increase-imports-russia.html
It said the Assad regime may have committed crimes against humanity by the use of lethal force and torture.

“The dictators have gone in many of these countries in transition, but not the dictatorships. So we have to keep our eyes very carefully on these places. We hope that in respect of who becomes the president, there are some absolute urgent things to do,” said Amnesty boss Salil Shetty, in reference to the ongoing Egyptian elections.

Amnesty expresses its concern over the unfolding events in Egypt,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/23/egypt-presidential-election
but also salutes 2011 as a “tumultuous” year during which millions took to the streets worldwide in pursuit of human rights.

Copyright © 2012 euronews

"Citizen journalism" focuses on Israeli occupation

One of two Palestinians that filmed video speaks during an interview with Reuters near Nablus
( MOHAMAD TOROKMAN, REUTERS / May 23, 2012 )

Noah Browning
Reuters
3:57 a.m. CDT, May 23, 2012

ASEERA AL-QIBLIYA, West Bank (Reuters) - Amateur video of Israeli soldiers appearing to watch idly as settlers opened fire on Palestinians throwing stones has emphasized the growing power of "citizen journalism" in the occupied West Bank.

Shaky footage, captured on Saturday from two angles by residents of Aseera al-Qibliya village, shows bearded residents from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar aiming a hand gun and assault rifle at the crowd, followed by sounds of gunfire.


A bloodied youth shot in the face was shown being carried away on the shoulders of fellow villagers. The video was soon posted on the Internet.

Teacher Ibrahim Makhlouf, who filmed the incident, lives by the brush scorched in the clashes on the village's edge, beneath the gaze of the prefabricated suburbs of Yitzhar, which lie outside the official settlement boundary.

"We want the whole world to see what Israel and the settlers do to us. They steal our land and they attack us, and the world said we were the terrorists and criminals," he said.

"Now we can make it clear who's the aggressor and who's attacking whom. The truth contradicts their claims about our situation."

The Israeli Defence Force has ordered an investigation and confirmed that live fire was used during the confrontation. "That said, it appears that the video in question does not reflect the incident in its entirety," it said in a statement.

A spokesman for the settlers said the violence flared when they were pelted with stones as they tried to put out a scrub fire allegedly started by the Palestinians.

B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, provided the cameras used to document the event, as part of a program started in 2007 whereby it has distributed around 150 camcorders to "citizen journalists" throughout the West Bank.

The group aims to use social media to bring alleged violations by settlers and the military into public view.

"The importance of our work is that we show what is being done in (Israel's) name in the West Bank by our soldiers and by organs of our government," said Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem's spokesperson.

"The media might just show one minute, but anyone who's interested can watch this whole playlist and make up their own mind," she said, referring to numerous videos showing the shootings uploaded to YouTube.

MEDIA "WEAPON"

The incident was the latest in a series of images captured by activists and other people in the West Bank which are attracting fierce scrutiny by the international and Israeli media on practices in territory seized in the 1967 war.

Some 340,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, which most refer to by the Biblical names of Judea and Samaria. Many claim an ancestral right to the land and reject the fact that the United Nations deems the settlements illegal.

A senior Israeli officer was suspended after being filmed striking a young Danish activist in the face with the butt of his rifle during a pro-Palestinian rally last month.

Lieutenant-Colonel Shalom Eisner argued that the initial video was deliberately fragmentary and concealed the violent nature of their gathering. Other clips released subsequently showed Eisner striking other people.

Circulated among army personnel, an internal memorandum obtained by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in the wake of the Eisner affair underscored mounting concern by the Israeli leadership over the influence of video on the media narrative.

"Remember it takes only 10 seconds out of hours of video footage to cause irreparable damage to the image of the soldiers, the army and the state," the memo said.

"The media does not reflect reality as a mirror, but rather shapes and influences it. The Palestinians make good use of this tool. It's important to be the one leading and not the one being led," it continued, reflecting the fact that Israeli soldiers now often film incidents of unrest in order to advance their version of events.

IDF officers say their primary task in the West Bank is to defend settlers from Palestinian attacks.

In villages and at demonstrations throughout the West Bank, cameras now accompany stones and tear gas as an increasingly permanent fixture.

"Our impact is excellent if you consider that Nabi Saleh is a village of less than 600 people," said Bilal Tamimi, an activist and wielder of a B'Tselem camera from a flashpoint area near an Israeli settlement and military base in the West Bank.

"People from around the world have learned what happens here through this distinct medium," he said.

EU condemns Israeli settlement construction, evictions

By Sebastian Moffett and Justyna Pawlak
BRUSSELS | Mon May 14, 2012 12:29pm EDT

(Reuters) - Israeli settlement building and curbs on economic development in the occupied West Bank risk wrecking Palestinian hopes of creating their own state, the European Union said on Monday.

Clearly frustrated by long-stalled peace talks, European Union foreign ministers issued a detailed statement, accusing Israel of accelerating settlement construction and tightening its control over East Jerusalem at the expense of Palestinians.

Israel condemned the report as "biased", saying it would do nothing to help promote peace in the region.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in late 2010 in a dispute over Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, and Palestinians say talks cannot resume unless such construction is frozen.

Israel says there should be no pre-conditions for talks and last year intensified its settlement program after the Palestinians won a seat at the U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, as part of its campaign to seek broad, statehood recognition.

"The EU expresses deep concern about developments on the ground, which threaten to make a two-state solution impossible," EU foreign ministers said in a statement after a meeting.

The bloc also criticized what it said were worsening conditions for the Palestinians living in Area C -- the 60 percent of the West Bank which is under Israeli control and where most Jewish settlements are located.

EU ministers said Israel was forcing some Bedouin communities to leave their land in Area C, adding that economic life for Palestinians in the territory had to be improved.

"The EU calls upon Israel to meet its obligations regarding the living conditions of the Palestinian population in Area C, including ... halting forced transfer of population and demolition of Palestinian housing and infrastructure," it said.

EU diplomats in Jerusalem have been incensed by Israel's destruction of projects in Area C that had received EU backing.

According to data collected by international aid groups, at least 62 structures funded by the EU and its member states were demolished by Israel in 2011 and 2012, including water cisterns, animal shelters, and agricultural and residential buildings.

In addition, over 110 structures are at risk after receiving demolition or stop-work orders from Israeli authorities, said the so-called Displacement Working Group, which joins together NGOs and international bodies operating in the West Bank.

Israel says it issues demolition orders for projects that failed to receive planning permission. The EU said the Israeli bureaucracy had to be simplified.

"The EU will continue to provide financial assistance for Palestinian development in Area C and expects such investment to be protected for future use," the statement said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a sharp riposte.

"The (EU) conclusions ... include a long list of claims and criticism which are based on a partial, biased and one-sided depiction of realities on the ground. Such a public presentation does not contribute to advancing the process," it said.

Israel retains military authority and full control over building and planning in Area C. Up to 70 percent of it is off-limits for Palestinians, classified as Israeli settlement areas, firing zones, or nature reserves, NGOs say.

In the remaining 30 percent there are restrictions that reduce the possibility for Palestinians to get building permits.

The EU also reiterated its commitment to the Jewish state's security on Monday and said it was "appalled" by rocket attacks from Gaza, which is run by Palestinian Hamas Islamists.

Europe is the largest donor to the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the West Bank. However, Europe's leverage is limited, with its aid program far outweighed by Washington's economic and military support for Israel.

The Israeli armed forces have destroyed 49.14 million euros ($65.08 million) worth of EU-funded development projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the last 10 years, according to European Commission figures seen by Reuters in April.

A tenth of the damage occurred during Israel's bombardment and incursion into the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip in 2008-9. Another large proportion coincided with the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel last decade.

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Crispian Balmer/Mark Heinrich)

Palestinian Prisoners to End Hunger Strike

By AP / DIAA HADID and IAN DEITCH
Monday, May 14, 2012

 (RAMALLAH, West Bank) — Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners agreed Monday to end a weekslong hunger strike after winning concessions from Israel to improve their conditions and limit detentions without trial, the two sides announced, resolving a standoff that united Palestinians behind one of their most emotional causes.

The deal ended one of the largest prison protests ever staged by the Palestinians. Two men had refused food for 77 days, the longest ever Palestinian hunger strike, leaving them in life-threatening conditions, according to their supporters.

With the Palestinians set to hold an annual day of mourning on Tuesday, both sides were eager to wrap up a deal to lower tensions. The Palestinians are marking what they call the "nakba," or "catastrophe," the term they use in describing the suffering that resulted from Israel's establishment 64 years ago.

Both Israeli and Palestinian officials, as well as representatives of Palestinian militant groups, confirmed the deal had been signed on Monday afternoon. Egyptian mediators had brokered the deal, in which Palestinian officials from the West Bank, militant leaders and prisoner representatives participated over several days.

Two men launched the strike on Feb. 27, and were joined by hundreds of others on April 17.

Among their demands: permission to receive family visits from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and an end to solitary confinement.

More ambitiously, they also demanded an end to an Israeli policy of "administrative detention," under which suspected militants are held for months, and sometimes years, without being charged. Israel has defended the policy as a necessary security measure.

Israel said it had granted many of the requests, including new limits on administrative detention. While the policy wasn't scrapped, detentions cannot be extended if Israel does not present additional intelligence information to a military court, according to the Shin Bet security agency.

The Shin Bet also said the roughly 400 prisoners from Gaza will now be allowed to receive family visits, like their West Bank brethren. The visits from Gaza were halted in 2006 after Hamas-linked militants in Gaza captured an Israeli soldier. After the soldier was released in a prisoner swap last October, the Palestinians said the ban should be lifted.

The two longest strikers, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, who have gone 77 days without food, had said they would not start eating again until their administrative detentions are lifted. (MORE: Israel Releases Palestinian Protest Leader)

Diab has been held without charge since last August, and Halahleh has been in administrative detention since June 2010, and spent an additional six and a half years in administrative detention last decade.

Israel has not said what they are suspected of doing. Both men are members of Islamic Jihad, a violent Palestinian militant group that has killed hundreds and maimed many more in suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks.

It was not immediately known whether the pair would be released. Another Islamic Jihad militant, Khader Adnan, staged a 66-day hunger strike earlier this year that ended after Israel agreed to free him.

Israel said some 1,600 prisoners, or more than a third of the 4,500 Palestinians held by Israel, joined the hunger strike. Palestinians said the number was closer to 2,500.

Haitham Hamad in Ramallah, West Bank, and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2114772,00.html#ixzz1us2u0UBz

Israel 'facing major West Bank uprising over Palestinian hunger strike'

By Adrian Blomfield, in Kharas, the West Bank

The Telegraph
6:26PM BST 10 May 2012

Israel has been warned that it faces a major uprising in the West Bank after six Palestinian prisoners taking part in one of the largest and most protracted hunger strikes ever staged in its jails were said to be close to death.

Palestinian Authorities President Mahmoud Abbas Photo: EPA
Adrian Blomfield

Palestinian militant groups and moderate politicians alike have predicted that years of relative tranquility could be brought to an abrupt and violent end if any of the 1,600 inmates now refusing food were to starve to death.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that the six inmates who have declined sustenance the longest are "at imminent risk of dying".

None of the six, who have all been admitted to prison hospitals, has eaten for the past 50 days. But the greatest concern is directed at two men, Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab.

By Thursday, both men had refused food for 74 days, one more than managed by Kieran Doherty, the longest surviving of the 10 Irish militants who died during the Maze Prison hunger strike of 1981. Bobby Sands, the best known of the prisoners and the first to die, succumbed after 66 days.

The two men's act of defiance, initially a largely solitary affair called to protest their incarceration without trial, has spiralled into a major crisis for Israel. The vast majority of the 1,600 inmates demanding better prison conditions and and end to the practice of detention without trial have now been on hunger strike for 24 days and an ever growing number are having to receive medial attention.

But it is the potential for the crisis to spread beyond the razor-coiled walls of its prisons that really worries Israel. Prisoner rights have always been a deeply emotive subject for Palestinians, a fifth of whom -- some 700,000 people -- have served time in Israeli jails, according to activist groups.

There have already been violent clashes between protesters and the Israeli security forces outside prisons where hunger-striking inmates are being held. More demonstrations are planned for Friday.

Although the protests have been small so far, any death could cause such outrage that it could easily revive the resentments that triggered the Second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in 2000, according to relatives of some of the prisoners.

"If anyone dies there will be a third intifada that will include both violence and non-violence," said Ahmad Zidan, whose brother Rami is among the hunger strikers.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant Gaza-based group, has already declared that it will end its ceasefire if any prisoner dies while this week Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, sounded his own ominous warning.

"It is very dangerous," Mahmoud Abbas told Reuters. "If anyone dies today or tomorrow or after a week, it would be a disaster and no-one could control the situation."

For the moment, however, Palestinians are exulting in challenging Israel through non-violent means.

In Kharas, the village near the city of Hebron when he was born, Thaer Halahleh has become a hero, a reputation that has spread through the West Bank because of the perceived dignity of his act of protest.

At his home on Thursday his mother Fatima anxiously awaited news of her son, aware that his life hung in the balance -- all the more so after Israel's supreme court this week rejected demands by Halahleh and Diab to be charged or freed.

Her hopes were lifted by the arrival of an intensely personal letter, written two days before and addressed to his family.

To his parents, he wrote: "I salute you from the middle of the battle and from the depth of my suffering. My morale is very high and my will very strong. Do not worry about me."

Turning to his wife Shireen and his daughter Namer, born a fortnight after his arrest two years ago, he added: "I cannot explain with words my love for you. I do this for the sake of God and my homeland, my wife and my daughter. Take care of her and take care of your health and forgive me that I cannot be there to hug you."

But in a letter to his lawyer on the same day, he struck a more sombre note, writing that he had lost more than 50lb.

"I have inflammation in my hands. It comes and goes. I'm bleeding in my stomach and from my gums. I have mouth ulcers and my muscles are shrinking -- I feel my body has stopped operating normally," he wrote.

"My excrement is black and I feel very cold. The doctors have been insulting. One told me: 'I hope you die.'"

It is powerful stuff, and his refusal to bow down is why Israel is so scared, according to Halahleh's brother Maher.

"This is a battle of wills," he said. "He doesn't have a weapon, but he has a weapon stronger than a weapon. This is a new weapon that is stronger than a nuclear bomb. Israel is fighting people who have no weapons, only their will."

Israeli officials admit they are in quandary. Israel has already reached deals to free two hunger striking prisoners earlier this year. If they do the same with Halahleh and Diab, both accused of membership of Palestinian Islamic Jihand which they deny, it would only embolden other hunger-striking prisoners.

Nor is it willing to end the practice of "administrative detention", under which more than 300 Palestinians are held, saying the practice is essential to protect informants in the West Bank whose identity would be exposed in a trial before open court.

"From Israel's point of view, if every time someone goes on hunger strike they get a get out of jail free card, obviously that would not be sustainable," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

But he also conceded that any deaths would be dangerous for Israel and would give some of the instigators of the hunger strike what he said they have been after all along: a martyr.

"We don't want to see someone on custody commit suicide," he said. "Many of these prisoners were involved in very gruesome crimes against civilians. There is a concern that some of them are trying to commit suicide in order to instigate violence."

Palestinian hunger striker admitted to Israeli hospital

BBC News
8 May 2012
Last updated at 12:02 ET

Palestinian schoolchildren demand the release of Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla (6 May 2012) Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla have been refusing food since 28 February

A Palestinian who has been on hunger strike for 71 days in protest at his detention by the Israeli authorities has been transferred to a hospital.

The Israeli Prison Service said Thaer Halahla was moved from prison early on Tuesday after refusing to drink water.

Israel's Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request by Mr Halahla and fellow hunger striker Bilal Diab to be freed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is extremely concerned about their health, and that of four others.

ICRC delegates believe the six detainees who have been on hunger strike for between 47 and 71 days are in imminent danger of dying.

"We urge the detaining authorities to transfer all six detainees without delay to a suitable hospital so that their condition can be continuously monitored and so that they can receive specialised medical and nursing care," said Juan Pedro Schaerer, the head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

"While we are in favour of any medical treatment that could benefit the detainees, we would like to point out that, under resolutions adopted by the World Medical Association, the detainees are entitled to freely choose whether to consent to be fed or to receive medical treatment."

The ICRC expressed regret that the authorities had suspended family visits for the six men, as well as for the more than 1,600 detainees who have been on hunger strike in solidarity with them since 17 April.

The EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah also said they were concerned about the hunger strikers and urged the Israeli government "make available all necessary medical assistance and to allow family visits".
'Slow death'

Mr Halahla and Mr Diab are among 308 Palestinians in "administrative detention", a controversial practice whereby people can be held without charge or trial when they are suspected of security offences.

At an Israeli Supreme Court hearing last week Mr Halahla described administrative detention as a "slow death", adding: "I want to live my life with dignity. I have a wife, and a daughter I never met. I am on hunger strike because there is no other way."

Mr Diab collapsed during the hearing and has been admitted to hospital.

Judge Elyakim Rubinstein rejected their appeal on Monday, but expressed concern about their deteriorating condition and referred the military authorities to a legal clause which would allow them to be released on parole on medical grounds.

Although administrative detention caused him "great discontent", it was "necessary when the material regarding the petitioner is intelligence material, the exposure of which would harm its conveyor or the methods in which it was obtained", Judge Rubinstein added.

Israel says that many of 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in its jails are suspected of being members of militant groups.

*Time for change?"

by Mazin Qumsiyeh

 http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2012/05/time-for-change.html


Palestinian political prisoners illegally held in Israeli jails are on
hunger strike and some are near death.  The population of strikers includes
200 child prisoners, 27 Palestinian legislative council members, and 456
prisoners from Gaza who have not been allowed family visits since 2007
[1].  Meanwhile, colonization continued at a relentless pace. Ramzy Baroud
and Jeff Halper argue that Israel is “fixing” the outcome and is an
“end-game” scenario to take over most of the West Bank and leave us in
small cantons [2]. Yet, judging from my research into the carefully planned
Zionist project, such plans are not end games but mileposts to give the
Zionists time to consolidate gains in preparation for the next round of
expansion in precisely the way Ben Gurion described it to his son in 1937.
 Ben Gurion explained lucidly how the new state of Israel when established
on part of the coveted land would be a base of steady expansion and growth
in the future with or without agreement from “Arabs” [3].  I pondered how
little has changed in the intervening 75 years.  Colonial Israel continues
to push the envelope and expand with or without agreement from compliant
“Arabs”. Compliant Arabs existed in 1937 (headed by Ragheb Al-Nashashibi)
and existed in 1967 and in 2012.  There also existed intellectual and
honest Arabs throughout our history.



Zionist colonization is not driven by emotion or haphazard action.  It is
done as instructed by the founding father of Political Zionism Theodore
Herzl in 1897: "we must investigate and take possession of the new Jewish
country by means of every modern expedient." Modern expedients advocated by
Herzl include planned methodical structure to remove the native people
(with or without agreement of some Arabs) and create a large Jewish state.
Herzl was not specific on size of the "required estate" but Ben Gurion and
people of his era thought it possible to go as far as between the Nile and
the Euphrates.



The plans of colonizers are remarkably similar and known from the diaries
of Herzl in 1897, from the letter from Ben Gurion to his son in 1937, the
Allon plan of 1967, and from the Hebron accords of 1997.  It is a plan of
expansion without some Arabs consenting or occasionally with agreement from
some Arabs. These agreements, like the treaties that some Native Americans
signed with the government of the United States in its expansionary
phase, were and are violated because they are merely consolidation tools
[4]. I think like these Native American chiefs some Palestinians thought
that they are doing the best they could under difficult circumstances.
Most of the Native American “leaders” had no concept or understanding of
the true nature of the notions and emotions driving the Westward expansion
of the white colonialists in the USA.  They did not delve deeply into
notions of manifest destiny, choseness, and racism that characterize their
oppressors.  One could say the ideology of Native Americans exhibited the
exact opposite of their colonizers and thus they presumed that white rulers
are ultimately human and could be dealt with as equals.



Peace for natives is to get their freedom, to live in dignity, and most of
all to get the boot of colonization off our necks.  Peace for the
colonizers is to have the victim stop wiggling under their boots.  Towards
this they devised ingenious plans including a Palestinian Preventive
Security force.   Any rational human being can see this dictation and
imbalance of power in daily news.  Thus the people are left out of
decisions whether on “negotiations”,  on "national reconciliation", ongoing
and not going to the UN, or on how they may eventually be liberated.
Despairing and riding a ship without compass or rudder, the people grumble
and boil underneath and later erupt in revolt.



Needs and desires of the colonizers and the colonized are not the same.
Occupiers and colonizers want more opportunities to progress via
consolidation and strengthening of the status quo and allowing them to
expand further.   We, the occupied and colonized people, want to halt and
eventually reverse the process of injustice.  Palestinians want to return
to our homes and lands and live peacefully as we did for millennia.   We
insist on return and self-determination.  We insist that the country must
remain multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural.  This is not a
border dispute nor is it a quibble over the Israeli illegal control of the
religious sites.  Like in the struggle in South Africa under apartheid, it
is a struggle that pits two very different visions of the area: one of
racism and apartheid and the other of justice and equality.



Sporadic acts of heroic popular resistance are not enough to reach peace
with justice.  Coordination and joint action must take place.  What hinders
it is a system developed by the occupiers and agreed to by some of the
occupied people.  Personal economic benefit maintains the status quo. What
is done with support from a Palestinian authority is nothing short of
making this occupation the most profitable in history (several billion
dollars flow annually to Israeli coffers as a result of this
occupation).  Already Israeli and Palestinian business deals are being
executed for example in area C.  This is the “economic peace plan” of
Netanyahu and others.  Those who may think of disrupting the status quo are
investigated and punished.  Most Palestinians are excellent diagnosticians
and have figured this out.  But I think many have not started to articulate
solutions or ideas to get out of this mud hole that the Oslo Process
(actually started with the 10 point program in 1974) put us into.  It is
not going to be easy and it does require sacrifice.  But those delusional
individuals who think that they have a salary or a position and they do not
want to risk rocking the boat should think again. They should think of how
their children or grandchildren would live under a system of racism and
oppression.  This is as true of Israelis as it is true of Palestinians.



Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) give us hope.  Shimon Peres, the
architect of Israel’s arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction and a war
criminal once explained: "In order to export you need good products, but
you also need good relations....[If] Israel's image gets worse, it will
begin to suffer boycotts. There is already an artistic boycott against us
and signs of an undeclared financial boycott are beginning to emerge."
International figures who worked against apartheid in South Africa argued
convincingly of why this can help here in Apartheid Israel [5]. But BDS is
only a tool and certainly not sufficient to effect the needed
change.  There has to be a structured program from the people which
includes an articulation of a vision with concrete goals for the
future.  In my book “Sharing the Land of Canaan” in 2004 I argued for
precisely such a program to move from apartheid to a state of all its
citizens.  These notions have gained widespread acceptance among
intellectuals and activists of various religious and political
backgrounds.  To arrive to this vision, we need organization.



Organization requires visionary leadership arising organically from a
maturing rising population.   We should not be reluctant to push our
existing leaders and if they are not willing to move then to create
alternative leadership.   ALL Factions have aging and non-innovative
leadership and ALL factions have younger energetic and dedicated (but
marginalized) individuals.  Clearly the status quo is devastating for us
and cannot last.  We know from history that people will rise-up and DEMAND
change.



Is it time for varied voices to coalesce into a thunderous uproar that
cannot be ignored?  May we organize meetings and discuss publicly the path
forward?  While many for example discussed the failure of the "two state
solution" and some articulated future visions, we need more than that. Can
we as a people in 1948 areas, in the WB and Gaza and in exile create
mechanisms and structures that take us to where we decide to go?  Can we
convince the world and even Israelis that we are serious about working for
a future of peace with justice and prosperity for everyone?  Voices of
negativism must not dominate this critical stage.  This conversation must
be open to people of goodwill from all factions and from independents.
While it must start among Palestinians, we must later involve our trusted
supporters from around the world.  We do have the resources: financial,
intellectual, emotional, and physical. Let those who have skills in
organizing organize and those who have skills in media work do media work.
Let those who have skills in social networking do that.  Those who have
skills in music write songs for the revolution.  Imagine if we can get even
5% or even 1% of the Palestinians around the world as participants in an
organized effort.  The change that could happen can be monumental.



The world today only respects those who respect themselves and struggle for
their own rights.  We have nothing to be ashamed of as Palestinians even
though 7 million of us are refugees or displaced people.  We have a lot to
be proud of from our history [6]. We cannot give up now that the crisis of
Palestine weighed on the world conscience and when the Arab spring could
change the whole geopolitical reality of the Middle East.  Even if we fail
at our goal this time, the positive spirit that results would enrich all
our lives. It would unleash the creativity and the energy that we know is
in us.   Change can and must happen because ours is an existential struggle
for 11.5 million Palestinians in the world and for our children and
grandchildren born and unborn.  Each of us has a role to play and has
skills and other resources to contribute.  Even if we start slow and among
a few individuals, it will grow because we have no other choice. Let us get
on with it.

UN official calls for US return of native land

BBC News
4 May 2012
Last updated at 22:09 ET

Much of the Black Hills is designated public park land, including the area around Mount Rushmore

A UN special rapporteur has called for the US to restore tribal lands, including the Black Hills of South Dakota, site of Mount Rushmore.

James Anaya announced the recommendation at the end of a 12-day tour, during which he met tribal leaders and government officials.

"The sense of loss, alienation and indignity is pervasive throughout Indian Country," Mr Anaya said.

He met with tribes in seven states on reservations and in urban areas.

The trip, Mr Anaya's first tour of Native American lands, was to determine how the United States is faring on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

President Barack Obama endorsed the declaration in 2010, reversing a previous US vote against it.
'Restorative'

Mr Anaya used the Black Hills, located in South Dakota near reservations that are home to the Oglala Sioux tribes, as an example of land restoration.

"I'm talking about restoring to indigenous peoples what obviously they're entitled to and they have a legitimate claim to in a way that is not divisive but restorative," he said.

The Black Hills are public land but are considered sacred by the Sioux tribes. The area, as well as other lands, were set aside for the tribes in an 1868 treaty.

Nine years later, Congress passed a law taking the land.

The Sioux refused to accept a 1980 monetary award from the US Supreme Court, calling for the return of the Black Hills.

The reservations near the Black Hills are some of the most poverty-stricken areas in the US, with extremely high rates of unemployment and much lower than average life expectancy.

Mr Anaya cited ongoing systemic and individual racial discrimination as common themes in his discussions with community leaders.

He said ideas that native populations were gone, wanted handouts or that their culture has been reduced to casinos were "flatly wrong".

Mr Anaya will make formal recommendations in a report to be released in September.

The UN fact-finder said he had met members of the Obama administration and briefed the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, but was unable to meet individuals members of Congress.

He said that he typically meets individual legislators during his tours of countries but said he did not know the reason why that had not happened in the US.

Israel's Supreme Court hears hunger strikers' appeal

BBC News
3 May 2012

Last updated at 16:44 ET

Thaer Halahla (left) and Bilal Diab (right) have been refusing food since 1 March
Israel's Supreme Court has deferred a decision on an appeal against their imprisonment by two Palestinians who have been on hunger strike for 64 days.

Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla have been placed in "administrative detention", a controversial practice whereby people can be held without charge or trial.

Both men are suspected of security offences by the Israeli authorities.

But the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights has said they are in very poor health and in danger of dying.

"Both have stopped co-operating in any way with the Israeli Prison Service doctors. They are not taking vitamins or salts on the IV [intravenous] drip," PHR spokeswoman Amani Dayif told the BBC on Wednesday.

"Bilal is only drinking water, less than a litre per day. He's in danger of cardiac arrest. There are signs that Thaer might have an infection in his lung. Both should be transferred to a proper hospital," she warned.
'Their choice'

Mr Diab, 27, has been held under administrative detention since August 2011, while Mr Halahla, who is 34, has been held since June 2010.

When the two men appeared before Israel's Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Thursday to appeal for their release they were both in wheelchairs.

Mr Diab is reported to have collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

Mr Halahla told the three-judge panel: "Administrative detention is a slow death."

"I want to live my life with dignity. I have a wife, and a daughter I never met. I am on hunger strike because there is no other way," he added.

However, the court deferred a ruling on the two prisoners' petitions.

Their lawyer, Jawad Boulos, said he expected a decision next week.

"We are fighting a losing battle. As long as there is occupation, there will be detainees in Israeli prisons," he told the Reuters news agency.

 Palestinians have joined protests in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike

More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have joined the two men's hunger strike since the middle of April, refusing food over the policy of detention without charge and seeking to improve their general prison conditions.

Many say they are kept in solitary confinement and are refused family visits.

Israel says that many of 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in its jails are suspected of being members of militant Palestinian groups.

The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) said it was trying to get Mr Diab and Mr Halahla to eat, and that they were receiving proper medical care.

"We are trying to talk to them to get them to eat. In the end, it's their choice," spokeswoman Sivan Weizman told Reuters news agency.

The practice of administrative detention has been condemned by the Palestinian Authority, which says it will take the matter to the United Nations.

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says there have also been daily protests by the prisoners' supporters outside the jails where they are being held.

There are clearly concerns that should the health of the hunger strikers dramatically worsen the protests could turn violent, our correspondent adds.

Two weeks ago, the Israeli authorities released Khader Adnan, reportedly a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, after he agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike in return for a his administrative detention not being renewed.

Microsubmarines could clean oil spills, researchers say

BBC News
3 May 2012

Last updated at 18:58

A special nano-coating on the microsubmarine makes it able to effectively absorb the oil particles

Tiny submarines that are 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair could be used to clean up oil spills, researchers have suggested.

The self-propelled microsubmarines are able to gather oil droplets and take them to collection facilities.

The team from the University of California San Diego's nano-engineering department said their tests showed "great promise".

Similar technology is able to deliver drugs through a person's bloodstream.

The research, which appeared in journal ACS Nano, suggested that the microsubmarines were capable of "a facile, rapid and highly efficient collection" of motor and olive oil droplets.

The tiny motors are propelled by bubbles created from internal oxidation of hydrogen peroxide.

This means they require small amounts of fuel and can move very quickly.
Self-propelled

Although currently just a lab-based proof of concept, it gives hope to improved methods of dealing with future spill disasters - a requirement made more pressing following painstaking attempts to deal with spills in the Gulf of Mexico.

"This is the first example of using nanomachines for environmental remediation," lead researcher Joseph Wang told the BBC.

"We had earlier developed self-propelled nanomachines.

"Here, we coated them with a superhydrophobic layer that offers strong 'on-the-fly' interaction with oil droplets."

Superhydrophobic materials are designed to be extremely hard to make wet, while also able to absorb oil effectively.

Last year, researchers at Penn State University demonstrated micromachines capable of bringing drugs to certain areas of the body via the bloodstream.

The research drew humorous parallels with 1960s science fiction film Fantastic Voyage in which a submarine and its crew are shrunk in order to get into the bloodstream of a key informant.