Japan, Indyk and Negotiations--A Palestinian point of view from Mazin Qumsiyeh's Human Rights Journal

HumanRights]
From: Mazin Qumsiyeh
Tue, Jul 30, 2013 03:28 PM

I will be in Japan giving a series of lectures on Israel-Palestine
situation (explaining apartheid, popular resistance, nuclear weapons, and
advocating for the only viable sustainable solution: one democratic secular
state).  Please tell your Japanese friends that they can find my schedule
(in Japanese) at http://qumsiyeh.org/upcomingevents/

Public Negotiations began amid great fanfare in Washington DC. Saeb Ereklat
sat next to a war criminal (Tsipi Livni who is responsible for massacre of
hundreds of civilians in Gaza) and across from the Israeli lobbyist Indyk
(representing the US) after giving up on the requirement (that is part of
Oslo and the Road map) for a settlement freeze and settling for informal
verbal assurances.   This is the same Erekat who has been fruitlessly
 negotiating  for 20 years along the sa,e lines (hence his book titled
 Life is negotiations ). It is the same person who the Palestine Papers
leaked to AlJazeera was shown giving one after another concession while the
Israeli side yawned and asked for more (see
http://www.aljazeera.com/palestinepapers/).

But most disturbingly, Abbas and Erekat accepted Martin Indyk as a US key
broker in the talks.  Indyk was appointed as US envoy to the  peace
process .  Indyk will broker the deal between Erekat and Livni even though
Indyk is a Zionist Jew who was an Israeli lobbyist. Indyk took leave of
absence from the Zionist group the Brookings institute in Washington DC. A
major funder of this institute is Haim Saban (see more about Saban at
http://www.mediamonitors.net/mazin32.html).  Indyk first worked in
Washington for the 'Washington Institute for Near East Policy' (WINEP), an
offshoot of AIPAC (Israel s lobby). Indyk did not have US citizenship but
this was quickly corrected with a speeded up process of facilitation,
nomination, and approval (all in less than two weeks) by President Clinton
in order to appoint him (this is rather unberlievable) as US ambassador to
Israel. Appointing a lobbyist for a  foreign country as US ambassador to
that country is unprecedented. Now appointing a wolf to broker the deal
between another wolf and a chicken is quite a feat.  We will see how fast
this chicken will get fleeced.

Ya alon said,  Releasing prisoners came as a result of choosing a bad
option over a worse option  We reached the decision to avoid the worse
[option]. Many strategic considerations, which may be revealed in the
future, stood behind this, and hence we must go forward with a release of
pre-Oslo prisoners.

Netanyahu said it even more clearly: that he refused to accept borders of
1967 or a settlement freeze and that this move to negotiations is merely to
strengthen Israeli positions.

Palestinian Authority police prevent a Palestinian march and attack
demonstrators who object to the unilateral decision by Abu Mazen to return
to negotiations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbAkYyw3u7c

Analysis: Palestinians should invest in a Plan B By Daoud Kuttab
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=598851

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org

From Mazin Qumsiyeh's Journal

HumanRights] Palestinian choices

From: Mazin Qumsiyeh


Mr. Abbas agreed to go back to public negotiations with a pathological liar
(Netanyahu, see below).  Private negotiations have been ongoing behind the
scenes.  Public and private negotiations for the past 20 years produced
nothing tangible except increasing the number of colonial Jewish settlers
in the West Bank from 200,000 in 1992 to 650,000 today and subcontracting
Israeli security to Palestinian security officials.  Israel will release
some prisoners (and replace them with others) and the US will give more
money to corrupt officials on all sides.  The question is whether the only
two choices available to us are sitting around not doing anything or going
to fruitless unbalanced negotiations intended to liquidate Palestinian
rights? Do we really give up on resistance, on democratizing the PLO or on
freedom or on human rights? Below are some news showing that the BDS
movement is working thanks to global and local activists even as it is not
supported by Mahmoud Abbas and high level officials who continue to meet
and normalize with Israeli officials (the last was a high level meeting
with Likud and Shas leadesr at the PLO headquarters).

So that we are reminded who we are dealing with:  Netanyahu, caught
of-camera speaking his mind (not hasbara) about how he scuttled peace etc
http://youtu.be/3-5hUG6Os68

Despite heavy Israeli pressure, the EU published new guidelines asking all
Eropean entities not to deal with any Israeli entity that works in the
areas occupied in 1967.  Future agreements between the European Union and
Israel must include the explicit exclusion of Jewish settlements in the
West Bank or East Jerusalem, according to a new EU directive described by
an Israeli official as an "earthquake". This include the illegally annexed
Golan and Jerusalem.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/16/eu-israel-settlement-exclusion-clause

Consensus wisdom: The boycott of Israel is working: The only way to stop
its spread is to end the occupation, say a growing number of prominent
voices (none of whom, by the way, support the boycott).
http://972mag.com/consensus-wisdom-the-boycott-of-israel-is-working/74297/

[USA] BDS Campaigns Nationwide: Use the map below to connect with groups
working on specific BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns.
You can also search groups by state and resources they offer. If you would
like your group's campaigns included, please email Ramah Kudaimi at
membership@endtheoccupation.org
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3383

Kairos Palestine strongly condemns the planned displacement, dispossession
and eviction of tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel
http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/Letter%20of%20Condemnation%20-%20Pra
wer%20Plan.pdf

 [action needed] Announcing the launch of the  Freedom Stitchers  project
to create self-sufficiency for marginalized and jobless women in Gaza.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/freedom-stitchers

Stop the racist Prawer-Begin plan to ethniocally cleanse Palestinians of
the Negev
http://adalah.org/eng/?mod=articles&ID=1589


A visit to Al-Araqib, the desert village that refuses to be erased by Alice
Rothchild on July 1, 2013
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/07/desert-village-refuses.html

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
http://qumsiyeh.org

Israel slams EU's decision

English.news.cn   2013-07-17 05:32:48                                   JERUSALEM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Tuesday the European Union's decision to add a clause to agreements between its members and Israel specifying they will not apply to Israeli occupied territories in the West Bank. In response, Netanyahu held an urgent meeting Tuesday afternoon with Justice Minister and chief peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennet and Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin. According to the EU's decision, delivered as a guideline for its member states, it is prohibited for any country or companies located on their territories to do business with firms or bodies situated in the West Bank settlement. Slamming the EU's decision, the Israeli prime minister said he expected the body to focus on other worrying developments in the region, such as the Syrian crisis and the Iranian nuclear issue, instead of Israel's settlement policy. "As prime minister, I would not allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name of the West Bank) to be hurt, as well as those living in the Golan Heights and Jerusalem," said Netanyahu. "We will not accept anyone on the outside dictate our borders to us. This topic will only be determined by direct negotiation between the two parties." Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority came to a halt in 2010 over Israel's settlement construction in the West Bank, which represents a key issue in the attempts to resume negotiations. Editor: Mu Xuequan

Eclectic group sues U.S. government over phone data surveillance

By Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - A diverse collection of groups, including a gun manufacturer and marijuana legalization advocates, sued the U.S. government on Tuesday, alleging that the National Security Agency conducts unlawful dragnet surveillance of telephone calls.

The lawsuit, filed in a Northern California federal court, follows disclosures about NSA surveillance programs by fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The suit targets the NSA's "Associational Tracking Program," which collects phone information from all major American telecommunication companies, including time and duration of calls.

A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

The group of 18 plaintiffs - including a Unitarian church, an Islamic advocacy group and a gun rights organization - subscribe to Verizon and other phone carriers, the lawsuit said.

They are represented by the Electronics Frontier Foundation, data privacy advocates who have already been litigating for years against warrantless wiretapping under former President George W. Bush.

Last week, a San Francisco federal judge rejected government arguments that the older case should be dismissed because it would compromise state secrets and damage national security.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday seeks an injunction against the operation of the Associational Tracking Program, along with the return and destruction of communication information possessed by the NSA.

The NSA's bulk collection of communication information is done without probable cause that the plaintiffs are engaged in any crime or international terrorist activity, the lawsuit says.

The White House said on Tuesday that Snowden, who applied for temporary asylum in Russia after spending three weeks in limbo at a Moscow airport, should be returned to the United States to face trial on espionage charges.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles et al. vs. National Security Agency et al., 13-cv-3287.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Could this mark the END of Israeli expansion into Palestine? McDonald's refuses to operate in West Bank settlement

The West Bank Jewish settlement of Ariel is seen in this Sept. 20, 2010 aerial photo. (AP / Ariel Schalit)


 Tia Goldenberg, The Associated Press
Published Thursday, June 27, 2013 2:46PM EDT

JERUSALEM -- The McDonald's restaurant chain refused to open a branch in a West Bank Jewish settlement, the company said Thursday, adding a prominent name to an international movement to boycott Israel's settlements.

Irina Shalmor, spokeswoman for McDonald's Israel, said the owners of a planned mall in the Ariel settlement asked McDonald's to open a branch there about six months ago. Shalmor said the chain refused because the owner of McDonald's Israel has a policy of staying out of the occupied territories. The decision was not co-ordinated with McDonald's headquarters in the U.S., she said. The headquarters were not immediately available for comment.

The Israeli branch's owner and franchisee, Omri Padan, is a founder of the dovish group Peace Now, which opposes all settlements and views them as obstacles to peace. The group said Padan is no longer a member.

The decision by such a well-known multinational company to boycott the West Bank deals settlers an unwelcome blow.

It also adds the name of an important international brand to a movement that has urged businesses to stay out of the West Bank. International companies like Caterpillar, France's Veolia and others have faced pressure from a global network of pro-Palestinian activists to sever links with the settlements.

The activists have also pushed consumers to shun products made in settlements. Israeli academics and unions have also been boycotted because of Israel's settlement policies and European countries are considering stepping up efforts to label settlement-made products sold in Europe.

The Palestinians want the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, as part of their future state. Israel captured those areas, along with the Golan Heights, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians and most of the international community consider Israel's West Bank settlements illegal or illegitimate.

The mall's owners, settlers and politicians who back them chided McDonald's for its decision.

"McDonald's has gone from being a for-profit company to an organization with an anti-Israeli political agenda," said Yigal Dilmoni, a leader of the Yesha Council, a settler umbrella group. He urged Israelis to think twice before they buy a meal at McDonald's following its decision. Pro-settler lawmaker Ayelet Shaked said she would boycott the fast food chain.

Tzahi Nehimias, a co-owner of the Ariel mall, said an Israeli burger chain, Burger Ranch, had offered to take McDonald's spot. He also said Burger King had shown interest, but Miguel Piedra, a spokesman for Burger King Worldwide Inc. said the company had no plans to re-enter Israel. The company closed its restaurants in Israel in 2010 and turned them over to Burger Ranch.

Nehimias said other international companies who were asked to open a branch at the mall also declined, but none cited the mall's location in a settlement as a reason. He declined to identify the other companies. Some 19,000 Jewish settlers live in Ariel and it has a large student population.

Peace Now welcomed McDonald's decision.

"We totally understand and support people who think settlements are bad for Israel's interests," said Yariv Oppenheimer, who heads Peace Now. "They don't want to take an active role by opening a business there and helping to expand and to contribute to the settlement idea."

Rafeef Ziadah of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement said McDonald's move "will encourage other corporations to end their complicity in Israel's occupation."

This is not the first time McDonald's has stirred controversy in Israel. The company didn't open a branch in Israel until 1993 due to the Arab League boycott of the country.

A year later, McDonalds built a branch near a memorial to Israel's Golani military brigade, and Israelis objected to the large double arches sign there, saying it desecrated the site. The sign was later made smaller. In 2004, McDonalds was criticized for telling its Arabic and Russian speaking staff not to speak those languages at work.

Ecuador waives U.S. trade rights over Snowden case

(Reuters) - Ecuador said on Thursday it was waiving preferential rights under a U.S. trade agreement to demonstrate its principled approach to the asylum request of former American spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Officials in Quito added that the U.S. fugitive's case had still not been processed because he had not reached any of its diplomatic premises.

In a deliberately cheeky touch from the leftist government of President Rafael Correa, Ecuador also offered a multimillion donation for human rights training in the United States.

Snowden, 30, is believed to be at Moscow's international airport.

"The petitioner is not in Ecuadorean territory as the law requires," government official Betty Tola said at an early morning news conference in Ecuador.

Bristling at suggestions Quito was weighing the pros and cons of Snowden's case in terms of its own interests, officials also said Ecuador would not base its decision on its desire to renew the Andean Trade Preferences Act with Washington.

"Ecuador gives up, unilaterally and irrevocably, the said customs benefits," said another official, Fernando Alvarado.

"What's more, Ecuador offers the United States economic aid of $23 million annually, similar to what we received with the trade benefits, with the intention of providing education about human rights," Alvarado added.

"Ecuador does not accept pressure or threats from anyone, nor does it trade with principles or submit them to mercantile interests, however important those may be."

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

New Eco-Friendly Battery Made of Wood And Sodium

New Eco-Friendly Battery Made of Wood And Sodium Can Be Charged More Than 400 Times

By Kukil Bora | June 20 2013 1:56 AM

Using only wood, tin and sodium as raw material, scientists at the University of Maryland have come up with a tiny, long-lasting, eco-friendly battery, which can be charged hundreds of times.

The scientists build the battery by using a very thin piece of wood, which they say is “a thousand times thinner than a piece of paper,” coated with tin. And, instead of lithium, which is found in many rechargeable batteries, they chose to use sodium to make it environmentally friendly.

Photo: ACS Publications Scientists have developed a very small long-lasting eco-friendly battery, using wood, tin and sodium, which can be charged hundreds of times. 
 

According to the scientists, lithium can be more efficient than sodium in storing energy. But sodium, wood and tin are more readily available, making them the ideal materials to build a cheap battery that will stock huge amounts of energy at once, not unlike solar energy at a power plant.

“Sodium (Na)-ion batteries offer an attractive option for low cost grid scale storage due to the abundance of Na. Tin (Sn) is touted as a high capacity anode for Na-ion batteries with a high theoretical capacity of 847 mAh/g,” scientists said in a research paper that appeared in ACS Publications.

The ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries are generally inflexible making them too fragile and susceptible to swelling and shrinking. But, the new sodium-ion battery is capable of withstanding extreme conditions, the scientists say, thanks to the wood fibers that are supple enough to let it survive more than 400 charging cycles, putting the new battery in the company of the longest-lasting nanobatteries.

“The soft nature of wood fibers effectively releases the mechanical stresses associated with the sodiation process, and the mesoporous structure functions as an electrolyte reservoir that allows for ion transport through the outer and inner surface of the fiber,” scientists said.

Liangbing Hu, an assistant professor of materials science at the University of Maryland, said that the idea of a wood-sodium battery was inspired by trees. According to him, wood fibers from trees are capable of storing mineral-rich water, and so are ideal for storing liquid electrolytes, making them not only the base but an active part of the battery.

Scientists observed that after charging and discharging the battery for hundreds of times, the wood used in it got wrinkled but remained intact, and that the wrinkles helped relax stress on the battery during the process.
"Pushing sodium ions through tin anodes often weaken the tin’s connection to its base material,” said Teng Li, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. "But the wood fibers are soft enough to serve as a mechanical buffer, and thus can accommodate tin’s changes.  This is the key to our long-lasting sodium-ion batteries."

According to the new research, which was funded by the University of Maryland and the National Science Foundation, the soft and mesoporous wood fiber substrate can be utilized as a new platform for low-cost, sodium-ion batteries.

This is not the first time scientists have developed small batteries that can store huge amounts of power.
In April, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed new microbatteries, which they claimed could “pack such a punch that a driver could use a cellphone powered by these batteries to jump-start a dead car battery – and then recharge the phone in the blink of an eye.”

NSA is collecting phone records of Verizon

 

 

By Joseph Menn and Sinead Carew

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK | Wed Jun 5, 2013 11:01pm EDT
 

(Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency is collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon Communications customers, according to a secret court order obtained and published by the Guardian newspaper's website.

The order marked "Top Secret" and issued by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directs Verizon's Business Network Services Inc and Verizon Business Services units to hand over electronic data including all calling records on an "ongoing, daily basis" until the order expires on July 19, 2013.
The order can be seen at: r.reuters.com/kap68t

Signed by Judge Roger Vinson at the request of the FBI, the order covers each phone number dialed by all customers and location and routing data, along with the duration and frequency of the calls, but not the contents of the communications.

The disclosure comes as the Obama administration is already under fire on other privacy and First Amendment issues. In particular, it is being criticized for a search of Associated Press journalists' calling records and the emails of a Fox television reporter in leak inquiries.

Officials at the White House and the NSA declined immediate comment. Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden declined to comment.

Verizon's biggest rival, AT&T Inc, did not provide any immediate comment when asked if the government had made a similar request for its data.

"That's not the society we've built in the United States," said Kurt Opsahl, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing the NSA over surveillance inside the country. "It's not the society we set forth in the Constitution, and it's not the society we should have."
 
MOBILE AND LANDLINE NUMBERS

The order expressly compels Verizon to turn over both international calling records and strictly domestic records, and it forbids disclosure of the order's existence. It refers to mobile and landline numbers, though not explicitly to Verizon's consumer business.

The order is the first concrete evidence that U.S. intelligence officials are continuing a broad campaign of domestic surveillance that began under President George W. Bush and caused great controversy when it was first exposed.

In 2005, the New York Times reported that the NSA was wiretapping Americans without warrants on international calls. Los Angeles Times and USA Today later reported that the agency also had unchecked access to records on domestic calls.

In addition, a former AT&T technician, Mark Klein, said that a room accessible only with NSA clearance in the carrier's main San Francisco hub received perfect copies of all transmissions.

Privacy lawsuits against the government are continuing, though cases filed against the phone carriers were dismissed after Congress passed a 2008 law immunizing the companies that complied with government requests. That law also allowed for broader information-seeking, though methods must be approved by the special court handling foreign intelligence matters.

The new order cites legal language from the 2001 U.S. Patriot Act, passed soon after the September 11 attacks, that allows the FBI to seek an order to obtain "any tangible thing," including business records, in pursuit of "foreign intelligence information."

Verizon is the second biggest U.S. telephone company behind AT&T in terms of revenue. The vast majority of Verizon's overseas operations come from its acquisition of MCI Communications, which is also covered by the order although foreign-to-foreign calls are exempted from it.

Opsahl said it was unlikely that Verizon would be the only subject of such an order and that the other major carriers probably had similar orders against them.

It is unclear what the NSA and FBI do with the phone records they collect. If past practices have continued, though, Opsahl said, they are probably mined with sophisticated software in an attempt to figure out close connections between people the agencies consider to be terrorism suspects and their associates.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Economic pacification

From: Mazin Qumsiyeh's Journal
 

The meeting in Jordan of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is a shameful
spectacle of self-described  World business and political leaders.
 Millions are spent to have good food, smiles and handshakes between  elite
Arabs  and war criminals like Shimon Peres and Israeli business tycoons.
John Kerry suggested $4 billion  investment  to improve life under Israeli
occupation via  economic peace  [pacification]. Israeli industries would
benefit from cheap Palestinian (slave) labor after having taken our
country, our natural resources, and dispossessed most of us. This to
fulfill the biblical message of  Let them live; but let them  [the
remaining non-Israelites] be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all
the congregation  (Joshua 9:21).  As soon as the WEF meeting ended,  The
Peres Center for Peace  [read for Pacification] hosted a conference
bringing Israeli chambers of commerce and Israeli business leaders with
some (shameless) Palestinian high tech business leaders for normalizing and
business relations (undermining the widespread call for BDS among
Palestinians).  Nine years ago, I managed to get an article in the magazine
of the WEF that caused an uproar and a public apology from Klaus Schwab,
the founder of the WEF.  My article was titled  Boycott Israel  and I urge
all to read it to see why boycott is the way to go to achieve real peace
and not normalization and cheeky relationship with an apartheid regime
built on ethnic cleansing: http://qumsiyeh.org/boycottisrael/

Every week I share with you more reasons for such boycotts, divestment and
sanctions (BDS) rather than normalize relations with Israel (which today
was psychologically preparing its population for yet another offensive war
while it continues its colonization activities).  In this week s mailing
you find articles and action calls about ongoing ethnic cleansing, ongoing
human rights violations (including especially rights of children), and
ongoing denial of refugee rightsm but also two pieces of good news at the
bottom.

>From Al-Araqib to Susiya: Forced Displacement on Both Sides of the Green
Line. Adalah captures the stories of two Palestinian villages, Al-Araqib
and Susiya -- one in Israel, one in the West Bank -- that share a single
story of struggle against forced displacement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtF3rOdSbr4

The Israeli  Knesset  is about to vote on a bill that would force up to
40,000 Bedouin citizens out of their homes [destroying 45 communities and
taking over 800,000 dunums of the land of the Negerv from its owners] You
have a last chance to stop it by sending a direct message to heads of
coalition factions, calling them to and vote against the government bill
and by writing to your country representatives to urhge them to push Israel
to stop its ethnic cleansing practices. See
http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_to_forced_eviction_of_negev_bedouins/?ktikOab

Huffington Post features discussions with elderly Palestinians on Nakba
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/05/grandmother-discussion-palestinians.html

 Our friend Sireen was abducted by Israeli soldiers and we ask you to help
free her.  She was active in promoting Palestinian life in the Jordan
valley, an area targeted for more ethnic cleansing.  Send messages of
solidarity and support https://www.facebook.com/FreeSireenKhudiri (ENGLISH)
https://www.facebook.com/Welcome.toOo.Palestine (ARAB)
and Write to your politicians and ask them to make representations to the
Israeli government calling for Sireen's release

Palestinian kids swept up in wave of Israeli arrests : According to Defence
for Children International (DCI), an independent non-governmental
organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, since the beginning of this year
there has been a 17 percent increase in arrests of Palestinian children. An
average of 198 children were arrested each month in 2012; that average has
risen to 232 arrests during the first three months of 2013, DCI reported.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/19/18322645-palestinian-kids-swept-up-in-wave-o
f-israeli-arrests

B Tselem video: Israel bans Gaza children from seeing their fathers
http://youtu.be/W4z8GvtmrCI

US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Ramallah and even shut down whole
streets so that he can eat a Shawerma sandwitch and claim connection with
common people who were not allowed anywhere near him (next time, please try
a Falafel sandwich in a refugee camp not emptied).
http://youtu.be/5RPcD2Av6Lg
there were demonstrations against his visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USt9xKAAImE

Two pieces of Good news:
- Palestinian-American Plants Flag on top of Everest, Dedicates Climb to
Political Prisoners
http://palestinechronicle.com/palestinian-american-plants-flag-on-top-of-everest-dedicates
-climb-to-political-prisoners/#.UZ-4N6IweNI
- Two Palestinian titles compete at Cannes (Film Festival)
http://euromedaudiovisuel.net/p.aspx?t=news&mid=21&l=en&did=1380

PS: And on personal good news, four of us were doing some environmental
field work in Wadi Mikhmas (between Ramallah and the Jordan Valley) in a
very hot day and we underestimated the distance and ruggedness of the
valley and ran out of water after 10-15 km hike.  Israeli  rescue team  was
apparently called by a colleague and they came late to the edge of the
valley from the settlement side (refusing to come close to the Arab
village) and spent time chatting and laughing about our situation (I could
hear their loud laughs on the phone). Meanwhile, young Palestinian men of
Mihkmas (and two colleagues who happened to be in Ramallah) came and helped
us. One man (Yousef) brought water first and then guided us up the
cliff-side and we were met half way up the cliff with several young
energetic men for the climb up the steeper part of the valley.  Three days
later, we are still  sore  but recovering from the 14 hour ordeal and are
grateful to these great Mihkmasi Palestinians.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org

(Caving into Israeli pressure) Church of Scotland revises controversial Israel report

17 May 2013 Last updated at 12:38 ET

The report was critical of settlement expansion

A controversial Church of Scotland report which questioned the divine right of Jews to the land of Israel has been rewritten.

The 10-page discussion paper is due to be debated and voted on at the Kirk's general assembly next week.
Last week Israel's ambassador to the UK described it as "truly hurtful".

The Kirk said its revised version of The Inheritance of Abraham? paid attention to the concern over some of the language in the earlier report.

The Church of Scotland made the changes following a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community in Britain facilitated by the Council of Christians and Jews.

'Peace and security'

  Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton, convener of the Kirk's church and society council which compiled the report, said: "We are grateful for the dialogue that has grown out of the questions being asked of our report.
"We believe that this new version has paid attention to the concern some of the language of the previous version caused amongst the Jewish community whilst holding true to our concerns about the injustices being perpetrated because of policies of the government of Israel against the Palestinian people that we wanted to highlight.

"The views of this report are consistent with the views held by the Church of Scotland over many years."
She added: "We are clear that the citizens of the State of Israel have a right to live in peace and security. We are clear that there should be a Palestinian State which also can live in peace and security.

"We condemn anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We will always condemn acts of terrorism, violence and intimidation whether the perpetrator is an individual, a community or a government."

'Fairer claim'

  Last week the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, said the report "plays into extremist political positions" and "belittles the deeply held Jewish attachment to the land of Israel in a way which is truly hurtful".
The report stated there had been a widespread assumption by many Christians, as well as many Jewish people, that the Bible "supports an essentially Jewish state of Israel".

But its authors said an "increasing number of difficulties and current Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians" had led to this viewpoint being questioned.

They wrote: "Possession of any land is clearly conditional. The question that arises is this: Would the Jewish people today have a fairer claim to the land if they dealt justly with the Palestinians?"

Palestinian scales Mt. Everest

Mountaineering trailblazers include first Saudi woman to scale soaring summit, man of Palestinian extraction who dedicates trip to compatriots languishing in Israeli prisons

Elior Levi
Published:     05.19.13, 13:14 /
Israel News

Four alpinists from Arab countries scaled Mount Everest as part of a 64-man group, thus setting a triple mountain-conquering precedent: The first Palestinian, the first Saudi woman and the first Qatari national to climb to the top of the world's highest mountain. The group dubbed themselves "Arabs with Altitude."

Tilak Padney of Nepal's Mountaineering Department said 35 foreigners accompanied by 29 Nepalese Sherpa guides reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak on Saturday morning after climbing all night from the highest camp on South Col. All were reported to be safe.

They began the arduous journey last April, intent on raising $1,000,000 for projects aimed to promote education in Nepal. Among them was Raha Moharrak, who became the first Saudi Arabian woman to scale the world's highest peak. At 25, she is also the youngest ever Arab to achieve the feat.

 Arab alpinists with a Palestinian flag atop Mount Everest (photo: www.palweather.ps)

In a country such as Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive, her participation in the expedition was far from a given. She said she faced tough time trying to convince her family to allow her take the treacherous trip, but that she doesn't set store by being a trailblazer as long as it inspires other Arab women to follow in her steps. Everest can be climbed from either Nepal or Tibet.

Dedicated climb to prisoners. Raed Zidan



Raed Zidan was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents who immigrated from a village near Qalqilya. Zidan, who is living in the US, is a seasoned mountaineer who had previously scaled Mount Kilimanjaro. There, as on top of Nepal, he erected a Palestinian flag, saying he dedicates his feat to Palestinians, especially those "languishing" in Israeli prisons.

Furore deepens over Stephen Hawking's Israel boycott

Political motive revealed after Cambridge University first claimed scientist's non-attendance was on medical grounds

• Harriet Sherwood and Matthew Kalman in Israel, and Sam Jones
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 May 2013 14.16 EDT

Stephen Hawking pictured with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in 2006. Photograph: Yoav Lemmer/AFP/Getty Images

 

The celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking became embroiled in a deepening furore today over his decision to boycott a prestigious conference in Israel in protest over the state's occupation of Palestine.
Hawking, a world-renowned scientist and bestselling author who has had motor neurone disease for 50 years, cancelled his appearance at the high-profile Presidential Conference, which is personally sponsored by Israel's president, Shimon Peres, after a barrage of appeals from Palestinian academics.
The move, denounced by prominent Israelis and welcomed by pro-Palestinian campaigners, entangled Cambridge University – Hawking's academic base since 1975 – which initially claimed the scientist's withdrawal was on medical grounds, before conceding a political motivation.

The university's volte-face came after the Guardian presented it with the text of a letter sent from Hawking to the organisers of the high-profile conference in Jerusalem, clearly stating that he was withdrawing from the conference in order to respect the call for a boycott by Palestinian academics.

The full text of the letter, dated 3 May, said: "I accepted the invitation to the Presidential Conference with the intention that this would not only allow me to express my opinion on the prospects for a peace settlement but also because it would allow me to lecture on the West Bank. However, I have received a number of emails from Palestinian academics. They are unanimous that I should respect the boycott. In view of this, I must withdraw from the conference. Had I attended, I would have stated my opinion that the policy of the present Israeli government is likely to lead to disaster."

Hawking's decision to throw his weight behind the academic boycott of Israel met with an angry response from the organisers of the Presidential Conference, an annual event hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres.
"The academic boycott against Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone for whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic mission," said conference chairman Israel Maimon. "Israel is a democracy in which all individuals are free to express their opinions, whatever they may be. The imposition of a boycott is incompatible with open, democratic dialogue."

Daniel Taub, the Israeli ambassador to London, said: "It is a great shame that Professor Hawking has withdrawn from the president's conference … Rather than caving into pressure from political extremists, active participation in such events is a far more constructive way to promote progress and peace."
The Wolf Foundation, which awarded Hawking the Wolf prize in physics in 1988, said it was "sad to learn that someone of Professor Hawking's standing chose to capitulate to irrelevant pressures and will refrain from visiting Israel".

But Palestinians welcomed Hawking's decision. "Palestinians deeply appreciate Stephen Hawking's support for an academic boycott of Israel," said Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. "We think this will rekindle the kind of interest among international academics in academic boycotts that was present in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa."

Palestinian academics sent a barrage of letters to Hawking in recent weeks in an attempt to persuade him to join the boycott movement.

Samia al-Botmeh, of Birzeit University in the West Bank, said: "We tried to communicate two points to him. First, that Israel is a colonial entity that involves violations of the rights of the Palestinians, including academic freedom, and then asking him to stand in solidarity with Palestinian academic colleagues who have called for solidarity from international academics in the form of boycotting Israeli academia and academic institutions."
Hawking's decision to withdraw from the conference was "fantastic", said Botmeh. "I think it's wonderful that he has acted on moral grounds. That's very ethical and very important for us as Palestinians to know and understand that there are principled colleagues in the world who are willing to take a stand in solidarity with an occupied people."

Comments on social media in Israel were overwhelmingly opposed to Hawking's move, with a small number engaging in personal abuse over his physical condition. A minority of commentators supported his stance on Israel's 46-year occupation of the Palestinian territories.

In addition to the letter sent by Hawking to the conference organisers, a statement in his name was sent to the British Committee for the Universities in Palestine, confirming his withdrawal from the conference for political reasons. The wording was approved by Hawking's personal assistant after consultation with Tim Holt, the acting director of communications at Cambridge University.

On Wednesday morning, following the Guardian's revelation that Hawking was boycotting the Presidential Conference, Holt issued a statement saying: "Professor Hawking will not be attending the conference in Israel in June for health reasons – his doctors have advised against him flying."

However, a later statement said: "We have now received confirmation from Professor Hawking's office that a letter was sent on Friday to the Israeli president's office regarding his decision not to attend the Presidential Conference, based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott."
In a telephone conversation with the Guardian, Holt offered "my apologies for the confusion".

This year's conference is expected to be attended by 5,000 people from around the world, including business leaders, academics, artists and former heads of state. Former US president Bill Clinton, former UK prime minister Tony Blair, former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, Prince Albert of Monaco and Barbra Streisand have accepted invitations, according to organisers.

Prof Stephen Hawking 'boycotts' major Israel conference

BBC News

8 May 2013 Last updated at 06:53 ET

Prof Hawking was lobbied by pro-Palestinian groups

UK cosmologist Prof Stephen Hawking has withdrawn from a high-profile Israeli conference, apparently in support of an academic boycott of the country.

The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine said Prof Hawking had taken advice and acted based on "his knowledge of Palestine".

A University of Cambridge spokesman told the BBC the renowned scientist had approved the BRICUP statement.

Event organisers criticised the move as contrary to Prof Hawking's values.
The June conference will celebrate the 90th birthday of Israeli President Shimon Peres.

'Personal reasons'

  Prof Hawking had been due to give an address at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, where previous speakers include Tony Blair, George W Bush and Dr Henry Kissinger.

“The academic boycott against Israel is in our view outrageous and improper” Israel Maimon Israeli Presidential Conference chairman

 

"The situation is that he's discussed it with fellow academics and has decided, for personal reasons, not to attend the conference in June," a university spokesman said.

His decision follows a campaign, led by Palestinian and pro-Palestinian groups, to persuade the 71-year-old to withdraw from the conference.

A statement published by BRICUP with Prof Hawking's approval said: "This is his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there."

'Bizarre'

  Conference organisers sharply criticised Prof Hawking's decision to withdraw.
"The academic boycott against Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone for whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic mission," conference chairman Israel Maimon said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Fair Play group, which campaigns against boycotts of Israel, described the scientist's withdrawal as "bizarre".

"Prof Hawking could have joined the conference and explained his views on the conflict in the region, just as many other participants have done.

"By boycotting the conference, he has thrown away this opportunity and will help nobody."

"Bizarre"? To have morals and be against a European colonial occupation and takeover of Palestine by force of arms?
Bizarre to not want to be associated with these proven liars who are all responsible for the loss of thousands of unnecessary lives, Tony Blair, George W Bush and Dr Henry Kissinger? We think not.  Thank you, Stephen Hawking, for showing us what great minds think of Zionism. Another great mind, Albert Einstein, was also a critic of unfettered Zionist aggression and occupation of Palestine.

Google Lists Palestinian Territories 'Palestine'

JERUSALEM May 3, 2013 (AP)

 

Google is de facto recognizing a state of Palestine — at least on its local home page in the Palestinian territories.

Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said Friday "We're changing the name 'Palestinian territories' to 'Palestine' across our products."

He said Google consults with a number of sources and authorities when naming countries and is following the lead of several international organizations.

The move comes after a U.N. decision last year upgrading the Palestinians' status to "non-member observer state."

Israel says Palestinian statehood should be reached through negotiations, not unilateral moves.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said "Google is not a diplomatic entity which begs the question why are they getting involved in international politics and on the controversial side."

U.N spokesman Farhan Haq said the organization tended to refer to Palestinian areas on its maps as "the occupied Palestinian territories," but after the upgraded status, documents now refer to it as "Palestine."
Google's domain for Palestinian territories www.google.ps now lists the location as "Palestine."

Abbas threatens to appeal Israeli building to ICC

Analysis: Israeli building in Oslo’s E-1 will spark Palestinian retaliation

The Media Line
Published:     04.28.13, 21:23 / Israel News
   
Ramallah – Senior Palestinian officials warned that if Israel begins construction in the area designated “E-1” by the Oslo peace process, a sensitive piece of land Israel acquired in 1967 that is adjacent to eastern Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and seek indictments of Israeli military officials on war crimes charges.

The ability to join the ICC comes after “Palestine” became a non-member observer state in the United Nations last November. The Media Line has learned that Abbas promised US Secretary of State John Kerry the PA would not to attempt to join any United Nations organizations before the end of May as a sign of good will as Kerry seeks to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that have sat idle for more than four years.

Abbas is currently engaged in consultations to form a new government after Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned.

"According to the law, Abbas now has five weeks to form the new government — enough time for Kerry to decide whether there is ground to re-launch the stagnant Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and enough time for Hamas to decide whether they want elections,“ a senior Fatah official told The Media Line.

"When he began his efforts, Kerry asked President Abbas for a period of eight weeks to explore the possibilities of resuming negotiations. According to our calculations, this period will end on May 23rd, whereas the law gives him until June 2nd to form a government," the official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak with media, added.

As a UN non-member observer state,“Palestine” now has the right to seek membership in international bodies, including the International Criminal Court, where it could pursue war crimes charges against Israel.

"President Abbas has the power to go to the United Nations again — tomorrow. He has the power to ask to be a part of an agency or to be recognized now,” Kerry told the House Foreign Relations Committee. “He is restraining from doing that. That is his sign of good faith at this moment. He would like to see if we could get this process moving."

Yet, it could all change if Israel begins construction in the controversial E-1 area adjacent to the Israeli community of Ma'ale Adumim. Currently, there is an Israel police station on the site, and it is home to hundreds of Bedouin. Palestinians say that Israeli building there would make an independent Palestinian state virtually impossible by cutting-off east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Palestinians say east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed following the 1967 war, must be the future capital of a Palestinian state.

In a recent report known as "Study 13," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat suggested that, "In the case that the Israeli government started the implementation of the construction in the 'settlements' of E1, Givat Hamatos, and Ramot Shlomo, then the Palestinian state should put the whole matter before the International Criminal Court.”

The study, which was obtained by The Media Line, said building in E-1 would be a "moment of truth.”

Secretary of State Kerry has suggested that negotiations should first revolve around the issues of borders and security, according to Palestinian sources.

“He thinks that if the issue of borders is solved, then the Israelis will know which lands will be under their control, in the context of land swaps, and thus they will know where they can build,” a Palestinian official said. “And the Palestinians will know which lands will belong to their state, thus solving the issue of ‘settlements.’”

According to a senior Palestinian official, Abbas asked Kerry to demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provide a map depicting the borders he would offer for a Palestinian state. In addition, Abbas insists that Netanyahu must accept a two-state solution explicitly based on the pre-1967 borders – both demands that the Israeli leader is unlikely to agree to.

In order to develop trust between the two sides, Kerry has suggested mutual confidence-building measures. He suggested that Israel release Palestinian prisoners, allow West Bank development projects, and end Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas.

According to a Western diplomat, Netanyahu is willing to release prisoners as a unilateral step, but not within the context of an agreement with the Palestinians. Both Abbas and Netanyahu have said that they will cooperate with a West Bank economic development project that Kerry recently launched.

During his visit to Turkey, Kerry told journalists that he discussed the project with Quartet representative Tony Blair, as well as the president of the Coca-Cola Company and other business people. The goal, he said, is "to try to change life in the West Bank as rapidly as possible and to create some transformative economic initiatives.”

Some 60 percent of the West Bank, known as “Area C,” is under Israeli security and administrative control while 18 percent, “Area A,” is under sole Palestinian control. The rest, “Area B,” is under joint control.

Privately, Palestinians are not optimistic about Kerry’s effort, but don’t want to be accused of sabotaging it. A senior Palestinian official told The Media Line that, "It is difficult to connect some Palestinian villages in Area C with water and electricity, so it is difficult to believe that huge projects can be built in that area.”

“What is needed is decisive action from the United States to get the Israelis to stop building settlements and go immediately to negotiations to discuss withdrawal to the borders of 1967. Otherwise, it will be crisis management and not solving the crisis,” he added.

Recently, Abbas announced his intention to form a new government, just two weeks after accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is popular in the West. Yet, Fayyad was often criticized by Hamas, which had demanded his removal from office, and they welcomed his resignation. It could pave the way for “national reconciliation” between Abbas’s Fatah and Hamas, and clear the way to new elections.

“Abbas has thrown the ball in Hamas’s court,” Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the central committee of Fatah in charge of dialogue with Hamas, told The Media Line. “They kept saying that Fayyad was the obstacle, now Fayyad has left; they said that the US is against reconciliation and now he proved that there is no obstacle; so it’s their moment of truth.”

According to al-Ahmad, “Consultations will begin first with Hamas, but this will not change the fact that the government will be a government of independents implementing the program of President Abbas,” he said. “We are talking about a three month government that will prepare for elections – presidential, legislative, and for the Palestinian National Council of the PLO,”

Abbas will go to Cairo next month for a meeting with the Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to discuss implementing the reconciliation agreement, al-Ahmad said.

Until forming the new government, Fayyad will continue leading the caretaker government.

“We’re on a track, and I hope the track we’re on is one that can come to a positive place, and of course, maybe over the next weeks, month or so, where we are capable of sort of really laying out a road forward. That’s our hope. I say hope. I’m not going to express levels of optimism or qualify it. It’s a hope,” Kerry said in Istanbul.

“Salam Fayyad will stay on for the next 35 days or more, somewhere in that vicinity. He’ll be a caretaker prime minister. There’ll be a careful transitional process. And I am convinced Salam Fayyad will continue to be involved in the development efforts and the politics of the Palestinian Authority. I have no doubt about that,” Kerry added.

Article written by Abed Daoud

Mork and Mindy star Jonathan Winters dies at 87

14 April 2013 Last updated at 10:21 ET

Winters (bottom) played Robin Williams' on-screen son, Mearth

 

US comedian and actor Jonathan Winters - best known for his role in sitcom Mork and Mindy - has died aged 87.

A pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy, he influenced a generation of comedians including Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and Steve Martin.

On the big screen, he appeared in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Loved One.
But it was his role as Williams's on-screen son in Mork and Mindy that brought him international fame.
The 1981-82 show saw him play Mearth, the off-spring of an alien race that ages backwards, who - having hatched from a giant egg - was the size of an adult but had the mind of a child.

Williams paid tribute to the actor saying: "First he was my idol, then he was my mentor and amazing friend. I'll miss him huge. He was my Comedy Buddha."

Other comics also took to Twitter to pay their respects including Carrey who said Winters was "the worthy custodian of a sparkling and childish comedic genius".

Steve Carell said he was "wildly funny" while Kathy Griffin said "there was no-one like him".
Dick Van Dyke added: "The first time I saw Jonathan Winters perform, I thought I might as well quit the business. Because I could never be as brilliant."

Robin Williams said Winters had been his 'mentor and amazing friend'

 

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Winters joined the Marines aged 17 and served two years in the South Pacific.
In the early 1950s, after stints as a radio disc jockey and TV host in his home state, he moved to New York where he became a nightclub comic doing impressions of John Wayne and Cary Grant, as well as creating new characters of his own.

He also made regular appearances on The Tonight Show with hosts Jack Paar and then Johnny Carson, The Andy Williams Show and his own TV variety shows - The Jonathan Winters Show and The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters - in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In later years, his voice talents were used on many cartoons and animated films. He played three characters in the Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle movie in 2000 and he provided the voice of Papa Smurf in the 2011 Smurfs film - a role he reprised for its sequel due for release this July.

Winters won a best supporting actor Emmy for playing Randy Quaid's father in the sitcom Davis Rules in 1991. He was nominated again in 2003 as outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for an appearance on Life With Bonnie.

He also won two Grammys - one for his work on The Little Prince album in 1975 another for his Crank Calls comedy album in 1996.

He also won the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for humour in 1999, a year after Richard Pryor.
Winters' friend, Joe Petro, said the actor died at his California home of natural causes surrounded by friends and family. He is survived by two children.

Farewell, Jonathan. One of my favorite all time comedians. One of the best of them too.

Women held for breaching ban at Jerusalem Western Wall

BBC News

11 April 2013 Last updated at 05:12 ET

The women say they should have the right to wear religious items at the Wall like men

Five women have been detained at Jerusalem's Western Wall for breaching a ban on performing religious rituals Orthodox Jews say are reserved for men.

The women are part of a movement seeking to overturn the prohibition, issued by the High Court in 2003.
Authorities are working on a compromise to try to resolve the dispute.

The Western Wall - a relic of the Biblical Temple compound - currently has separate sections where men and women are allowed to pray.

At sunrise on Thursday morning, about 120 women gathered inside their section at the wall to pray.
The BBC's Erica Chernofsky, who was at the scene, said five of the women from the Women of the Wall (WoW) movement wore phylacteries, kippot and colourful prayer shawls, religious items traditionally worn by Orthodox Jewish men.

About 100 men on the other side of the division heckled the group, while an ultra-Orthodox woman unfurled an umbrella with slogans on it denouncing the women, our correspondent says. The woman, and an ultra-Orthodox man who set fire to one of the WoW's prayer books, were also detained.

“If these things can be done at the Western Wall without hurting others, and this can bring about compromise and serenity, I don't object” Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz Rabbi of the Western Wall

The group have vowed to lead prayer services at the site every month, and members have previously been arrested there for violating the ban.

However, a compromise could see a new area for mixed-gender and women-led prayer.

The proposal has come from Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency - a government-backed organisation that facilitates the immigration of Jewish people to Israel.

"One Western Wall for one Jewish people," said Mr Sharansky, expressing hope that the site "will once again be a symbol of unity among the Jewish people and not one of discord and strife".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to consider Mr Sharansky's proposals, an Israeli official told Reuters news agency.

Correspondents say the proposal risks upsetting Israel's powerful ultra-Orthodox community as well as Muslims who worship near the Western Wall, reflecting the complex religious sensitivities in the area.
In a boost for the plan, the Western Wall's Orthodox Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz endorsed the new prayer section.

"I want everyone to pray according to Orthodox Jewish religious law, but I don't interfere," he told Israel's Army Radio.

"If these things can be done at the Western Wall without hurting others, and this can bring about compromise and serenity, I don't object."

Women of the Wall say their central mission is to be able to "wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall".

One of the big reasons we suffer continuous Abrahamic religious warfare is due to the fact that Abrahamic religions put into social practice are defined by their most conservative or fundamentalist practitioners, not the most liberal ones. And because Abrahamic religions are all territorial control oriented theologies, this translates into continuous friction between Abrahamic fundamentalists be they Jewish, Pauline Christians or Muslims. Certainly Israel's so-called "democracy" is a farce in this situation when ultra-Orthodox Jews control the politics of the nation. You may wonder how a Christian can bash Abrahamic religions. Well, that is due to the lack of cultural information about "my" people, the early Jewish Christian Gnostics who actually started Christianity but were ousted from history by the successful efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to ban and banish all Gnostic Christian Gospels and all Gnostic interpretation of the New Testament Gospels. I am a Jewish Gnostic Christian and our beliefs were never Bible centered, actually never Yahweh centered. I follow God Most High and the Spirit of Christ which is true to the Celestial Torah that was lost in the earthly Jewish Torah.

IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant

The ACLU has obtained internal IRS documents that say Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail messages, Facebook chats, and other electronic communications.

by Declan McCullagh

CNET News 

April 10, 2013 8:18 AM PDT 

The IRS continued to insist on warrantless e-mail access, internal documents obtained by the ACLU show, even after a federal appeals court said the Fourth Amendment applied.

(Credit: Getty Images) 

 

The Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail.
Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers say that Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications -- meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge.

That places the IRS at odds with a growing sentiment among many judges and legislators who believe that Americans' e-mail messages should be protected from warrantless search and seizure. They say e-mail should be protected by the same Fourth Amendment privacy standards that require search warrants for hard drives in someone's home, or a physical letter in a filing cabinet.

An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer." The handbook was prepared by the Office of Chief Counsel for the Criminal Tax Division and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Nathan Wessler, a staff attorney at the ACLU's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, said in a blog post that the IRS's view of privacy rights violates the Fourth Amendment:

Let's hope you never end up on the wrong end of an IRS criminal tax investigation. But if you do, you should be able to trust that the IRS will obey the Fourth Amendment when it seeks the contents of your private emails. Until now, that hasn't been the case. The IRS should let the American public know whether it obtains warrants across the board when accessing people's email. And even more important, the IRS should formally amend its policies to require its agents to obtain warrants when seeking the contents of emails, without regard to their age.

The IRS continued to take the same position, the documents indicate, even after a federal appeals court ruled in the 2010 case U.S. v. Warshak that Americans have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their e-mail. A few e-mail providers, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook, but not all, have taken the position that Warshak mandates warrants for e-mail.

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request from CNET asking whether it is the agency's position that a search warrant is required for e-mail and similar communications.

Before the Warshak decision, the general rule since 1986 had been that police could obtain Americans' e-mail messages that were more than 180 days old with an administrative subpoena or what's known as a 2703(d) order, both of which lack a warrant's probable cause requirement.

The rule was adopted in the era of telephone modems, BBSs, and UUCP links, long before gigabytes of e-mail stored in the cloud was ever envisioned. Since then, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Warshak, technology had changed dramatically: "Since the advent of e-mail, the telephone call and the letter have waned in importance, and an explosion of Internet-based communication has taken place. People are now able to send sensitive and intimate information, instantaneously, to friends, family, and colleagues half a world away... By obtaining access to someone's e-mail, government agents gain the ability to peer deeply into his activities."

A March 2011 update to the IRS manual, published four months after the Warshak decision, says that nothing has changed and that "investigators can obtain everything in an account except for unopened e-mail or voice mail stored with a provider for 180 days or less" without a warrant. An October 2011 memorandum (PDF) from IRS senior counsel William Spatz took a similar position.

A phalanx of companies, including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, eBay, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Twitter, as well as liberal, conservative, and libertarian advocacy groups, have asked Congress to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to make it clear that law enforcement needs warrants to access private communications and the locations of mobile devices.

In November, a Senate panel approved the e-mail warrant requirement, and last month Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat whose district includes the heart of Silicon Valley, introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. The Justice Department indicated last month it will drop its opposition to an e-mail warrant requirement.

Gazan heads to Oxford University on unusual scholarship

3 April 2013 Last updated at 20:00 ET

By Jon Donnison BBC News, Gaza City

The scholarship offers Rawan Yaghi a life-changing opportunity

 

Rawan Yaghi is a bookish 19 year old who, appropriately for a student of literature, arrives to meet me in Gaza with a text tucked under her arm.

It is a well-thumbed copy of Catch 22, Joseph Heller's classic satirical novel on the absurdities of war; not an inappropriate choice for somebody who's spent her entire life amid one of the Middle East's most intractable conflicts.

But Rawan's life is about to take a different direction. Currently a student at Gaza's Islamic University, she has just won a scholarship to Oxford University to study linguistics and Italian.

“Most people think [Gaza] is like a war zone and that everyone here is really depressed and involved in politics. But it's not always about war. It's also about families, friends and love” Rawan Yaghi Gazan student

She is looking forward to moving from the minarets of Gaza to the city of "dreaming spires".

"I'm very excited. I can't wait," she smiles. "It's going to be different but it's going to be fun."

Unusual scholarship

  Few have made such a journey. But what is even more unusual is that all the other students at Oxford's Jesus College will pay some of the cost of Rawan's studies.

As part of the recently established Jesus College Junior Members Scholarship most of the other students have each agreed to pay £3.90 ($5.90) per term towards Rawan's fees.
The scholarship was set up by Oxford graduate Emily Dreyfus after she realised that few Gazans had ever had the chance to study at one of Britain's most prestigious universities.

She says most other students at Jesus were happy to contribute.

Emily Dreyfus says most students are happy to contribute to Rawan's scholarship. Emily Dreyfus expects the young Palestinian will be given a warm welcome.

 

"They voted for this from the outset. They recognise that this is a very small contribution to make which has a disproportionately positive benefit."

The student contributions will raise around £6,300 a year towards Rawan's living costs. This is only a fraction of the estimated £30,000 annual costs needed to complete the four-year course.
But the university has agreed to waive around 60% of the tuition fees.

The rest of the costs are being paid for by three charities: The Hani Qaddumi Scholarship Foundation, the AM Qattan Foundation and the Hoping Foundation which supports Palestinian refugees around the world.
Rawan still had to apply for and win the place against fierce competition, but she knows the other students at Jesus have given her a rare opportunity.

"I really appreciate that Emily believed in people here and she gave somebody like me a life changing chance," she says.

Rawan has only once before left the tiny Palestinian territory, when she went on a study trip to the United States.

Israel's blockade of Gaza and the ongoing conflict with Hamas which governs here make it difficult for Palestinians to leave through Israel.

In the past, Israel has refused permission for Palestinian students to leave Gaza in order to carry out studies abroad.
 
It is likely Rawan will leave Gaza through Egypt in order to travel to Oxford.

She is currently completing a degree in English literature studying, among other books, George Orwell's Animal Farm and William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

She says her favourite book is Mornings In Jenin by the Palestinian American writer Susan AbulHawa.
The novel follows the story of three generations of a Palestinian family who became refugees after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Rawan is also a fan of JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books.

Jesus College students will each contribute £3.90 per term towards Rawan's fees

 

"Her style of writing is very subtle. There are little things in her stories that grab your attention."
Education is highly valued in Gaza. There are no fewer than seven universities in the territory for a population of 1.7 million people.

But Rawan is expecting a different study experience at Oxford.

"The education system is completely different. I'm going to have my own tutors not like in Gaza where I am among hundreds of students who have the same teacher."

Cultural differences

  She will also have to get used to mixed education. At the Islamic University, where she studies now, men and women are taught separately.

"I don't think it's going to be a problem. The culture there is obviously very different but I'm open to that."
Rawan also accepts that she is going to miss home.

"Of course I will be homesick. But I have to go through that and get used to it because I have something more important to achieve."

Graduation day at Gaza's Islamic University: Rawan is expecting a very different cultural experience at Oxford

 

"I'm confident that she's going to have a wonderful time and I know that there are a lot of people at the college eager to meet her and to welcome her to their community."

And Rawan is looking forward to telling people about a different side of life in Gaza.

"Most people think it's like a war zone here and that everyone here is really depressed and involved in politics," she says.

"But it's not always about war. It's also about families, friends and love. It's not only about the conflict with Israel."

And despite the chance to broaden her horizons, she is adamant that once she has finished her four years in Oxford, she will return to Gaza.

"I still haven't thought about what I'll do after university but I'll definitely come back here. Although it may seem difficult to live here, it's still interesting and adventurous at times," she says with a wry smile.

"There is ugliness in Gaza but you can't leave it and turn your back on it."

Happy Easter!