Gunman kills 2 at Tel Aviv club for gay youths

By Rami Amichai
Sat Aug 1, 2009 5:54pm EDT


TEL AVIV (Reuters) - A gunman sprayed automatic fire at an Israeli club for gay teenagers on Saturday, killing two people and wounding at least eight, police and witnesses said.

The shooting spree in central Tel Aviv set off a citywide security clampdown, reviving memories of Palestinian attacks that have ebbed in recent years. But a police spokesman said that the incident was "criminal, rather than nationalistic."

Citing witnesses, Israeli television said a black-clad, masked gunman stormed into the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association building and opened fire in a basement room where teenage homosexuals were holding a weekly support group.

Most of the casualties were minors, the police spokesman said, adding that the assailant was believed to have used an automatic weapon such as an M-16 rifle.

"This is an unprecedented event for Israel and for the community," association director May Pamel told Channel 10 TV.

"We have joined the roster of 'civilized' countries where hatred is the standard."

Coastal, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv has a bustling gay scene, but open homosexuality is less welcome in conservative areas of the Jewish state. Annual gay pride parades in Jerusalem meet with often violent protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Tel Aviv police chief Shachar Ayalon stopped short of branding the shooting a hate crime remarks to reporters.

But one protester at the scene held up a placard blaming a powerful religious Jewish political party whose members have regularly inveighed against gays.

Israeli media said police had warned other gay clubs in Tel Aviv to close for fear of a follow-up attack.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Thoughts on Fatah Convention and thoughts on Palestine

Bethlehem is a buzz with security preparations for the Fatah conference on Tuesday. The local people I talked to either were indifferent or were worried about inability to reach school or work or do shopping during the days of the conference. The Fatah people I talked to are unsure of how this will go and what will happen. A big segment of the Fatah cadres who are real resistance fighters from abroad or underground will not be able to attend. It is suspicious that Israel is allowing so many others to enter and even facilitated a few to come from Gaza across the green lines to the consternation of Hamas which wanted Fatah to release its political prisoners from West Bank jails before allowing Fatah officials from Gaza to travel to Bethlehem. Fatah, the biggest and most well financed of the Palestinian factions, is certainly at a crossroads. In the time of Arafat, he managed by his sheer personality and charisma to keep the various political factions and trends together under one umbrella (even those supportive of violent resistance and those against it). When Arafat was president and Abu Mazen was prime minister, they did not get along. Farouk Kaddoumi recently dropped a bombshell by releasing a transcript he claimed showed Abu Mazen at a meeting in which Dahlan and Israeli leaders discussed assassinating Arafat. But rumers and stories of the past aside, the future is far harder to shape.


I have no way of predicting what will happen at the meeting Tuesday. I onoy wish peopel in power believe in the power of ordinary citizens and create more accountable and democratic forums. I had a fantasy that attendees would do what the first conventiuon of Palestinian women did in 1929: go the streets, challenge the occupation and demand self determination. Most of the people I talk to (of various political leansings) believe that this convention will instead likely validate the negotiations track taken during Oslo (many opposed these talks that are not based on human rights and International Law). In the unlikely event that this conference reinvigorates the resistance plank of Fatah, there are implicit and explicit Israeli threats which are taken seriously since Bethlehem and all its visitors are under Israeli brutal military occupation. If the convention tries to straddle the fences and to come up with an arrangement that attempts to satisfy everyone, then it will likely fail. But while Fatah is a core segment of our society, it is not all. And we must remember that Palestine is bigger than any of us. We Palestinians are in Lebanon, in the US, inside Palestine 1948, inside the West Bank, in Gaza, and everywhere. Palestine is in us regardless of political leanings (or even courage). Collectively, we are diverse, dynamic, and able to resurrect hope in the land where it is believed that Jesus was resurrected from the death. It is this larger Palestine that gives us hope.


The original Zionist blueprints are for control of the area between the Euphrates and the Nile. Here we are 130 years later and even the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean is roughly at parity between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. 30 years ago, Zionists had convinced most of the world that there was no such thing as Palestinians. Today most of the world and even Zionists themselves recognize that not only are there Palestinians but that indeed there is such a thing as Palestine. The Palestinian flag now flies around Palestine even inside the Green line. But no one denies that we are perhaps at the most dangerous turn since 1948 and history has not decided yet what will transpire. We can shape the future if we believe in ourselves and our people.


I am completing a book on history of civil resistance in Palestine. What is notable is that resistance has been sporadic with periodicity of 10-15 years between uprisings (beginning in 1891) . Further, the biggest challenges came not because of external factors but from within (especially our infighting and drive for dictatorial control). Similarly the biggest successes (and there have been many) were achieved from grass root movements when Palestinians joined hands and worked together (e.g. the beginning of the 1987 uprising). The net of our strengths and weaknesses has overall resulted in stalemate. This is miraculous considering that we were facing perhaps the best organized, best financed, and most ruthless colonization effort in the past three centuries.


We as Palestinians have unique advantages and disadvantages in our struggles for liberation. We must analyze these scientifically and act accordingly. For example we need to leverage the tremendous sympathy and solidarity of people around the world to produce power (e.g. through better managed campaigns of boycotts, divestments and sanctions). And as the geopolitical landscape shifts around us (e.g. due to the failure and shedding of militarism or the mistakes of Israel with Turkey), we do need to take advantage in strengthening our position? In my upcoming book I show by hundreds of examples that we were/are able to seize these opportunities in timely manner when we had/have a dynamic responsive society that can adapt without bureaucracy or dictatorship. For example, this happened when clan relations were shed in favor of political party affiliation or when younger generations took leadership on the ground during the 1987-1991 Intifada.


We Palestinians can indeed shape our future with choices we make everyday even in the context of existing power structures (and those are changing). Neither reckless bravado and useless 1960s rhetoric nor supine begging for endless negotiations will help us at this critical junction. These are times that demand new ways of thinking. Accountability need not mean immediate punishment of those who harmed or profited from our cause but as a minimum unleashing new blood to take new initiatives unencumbered by old baggage. We would do well (at the Fatah Convention or outside) to begin by working with younger and newly empowered generations on such ideas as one state for all its people (the original PLO consensus) or at least the Civil Society Call to Action of 2005. It won’t be easy but our history has not been easy. Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote (and thsi is applicable to all of us including those who will attend teh convention Tuesday): “Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.”


Those of you who would like to visit us in the Bethlehem are most welcome. Despite all, it is still the city of the prince of peace. And our change for peace begins with ourselves as individuals and communities.


In Peace - Salam


Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a Villager at Home

http://qumsiyeh.org

Palestinians in kite record bid

Thousands of Palestinian children turned out for the record bid

Palestinian children turned out in big numbers on a beach in the northern Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the world record for kite flying.

More than 6,000 children gathered to fly more than 3,000 kites, according to the United Nations, which organised it.

The previous record was set in Germany last year - when the Guinness Book of World Records says 967 kites took to the sky simultaneously.

Guinness says it has received an application from Gaza for inclusion.

The organisation did not send a judge to Gaza.

But Karolina Thelin, a spokeswoman, said there were other ways of verifying the feat.

The UN agency UNRWA says the Gaza children smashed the existing record, and a final tally of the number of kites flown will be released on Saturday.

A UN spokesman said: "The symbolism of thousands of children, in one of the world's most locked-up communities, creating beautiful kites, letting them soar upward, is truly beautiful."

Organic food is no healthier, study finds

LONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday.
Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:29pm EDT

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007.

A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference.

"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors.

"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."

The results of research, which was commissioned by the British government's Food Standards Agency, were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Sales of organic food have fallen in some markets, including Britain, as recession has led consumers to cut back on purchases.

The Soil Association said in April that growth in sales of organic products in Britain slowed to just 1.7 percent in 2008, well below the average annual growth rate of 26 percent over the last decade, following a plunge in demand at the end of the year.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Simon Jessop)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

"51 Documents: History of Nazi-Zionist Collaboration".

Although the wind

blows terribly here,

the moonlight also leaks

between the roof planks

of this ruined house.

-Izumi Shibiku


And the wind blows terribly in this land of apartheid. But the moonlight is getting brighter as more and more of the lies upon which the racism that nourished this injustice become exposed one after another. The Israeli ministry of transportation tries to erase more of the native names in favour of the made-up names. And the Israeli Education mi8nister wants even Arab children not to hear in their schools about the Nakba (the catastrophe of our ethnic cleansing). But people's memories and collective will (aided now by the internet and a strong oral tradition) are far stronger than military might and distortions. Thankfully more Palestinians (more humans in general) are speaking out. A good way to reach our brothers and sisters who happen to be Jewish is to tell them of a history hidden from them in the smokescreen of Zionist propaganda. A good example of this is Nazi-Zionist collaborations and incidents when the Zionist movement put its political interests ahead of interests of Jewish victims. This history is little known (or at least not as well known as the history of Mufti Husseini's dalliance with Hitler that the racist & corrupt Avigdor Lieberman wants to Israeli embassies to resurrect today).



I urge you to read Lenni Brenner's book "51 Documents: History of Nazi-Zionist Collaboration". Here is an example of a message to Nazi Germany in 1941 asking for alliance by a group led by a future Prime Minister of Israel and leadership of Likud: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story799.html



The Zionist Federation of Germany wrote in a letter to the new Nazi regime: "Zionism believes that a rebirth of national life, such as is occurring in German life through adhesion to Christian and national values, must also take place in the Jewish national group" (June 21, 1933 memo from The Zionist Federation of Germany, reprinted in Brenner, 51 Documents, p. 43). The Zionists also cooperated with the Nazis in the mid-thirties to facilitate Jewish immigration to Palestine while blocking other routes of escape. The details of one agreement were researched by Edwin Black (Edwin Black, The Transfer Agreement: the Untold Story of the Secret Pact Between the Third Reich & Jewish Palestine, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1984). Even Yad Vashem (built on land overseeing the destroyed and ethnically cleansed |Palestinian village of Deir Yassin) acknowledges this agreement:



“Nazi Germany and the Jewish Agency concluded the "Ha'avara" (transfer) negotiations, allowing Jews immigrating to Palestine to deposit part of their assets in Germany and receive Palestine pounds upon arrival in Palestine. After three months of talks, the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank, and the German economic authorities signed the agreement, which permitted the transfer of Jews’ capital from Germany to Palestine by immigrants or investors in the form of goods. The German authorities thereby partially removed a barrier that had greatly impeded the efforts of German Jews to emigrate to Palestine and, at the same time, increased the production and export of German goods. For the Zionists, the agreement facilitated immigration to Palestine by allowing Jewish emigres to salvage some of the value of their property as they left, and to meet one of the criteria for obtaining a certificate of immigration from the British authorities. For a time, the Ha'avara Agreement helped the Nazis in undermining the anti-Nazi boycott.”



After commencement of attacks on Jews (especially socialist and communist) under German control, the British, in the hope of easing the pressure for increased immigration into Palestine, proposed that thousands of Jewish children be admitted directly into Britain. Ben-Gurion, the recognized leader of labor Zionism at the time, was adamently opposed to the plan, telling a meeting of Labour Zionist leaders on 7 Dec. 1938:

"If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second alternative. For we must weigh not only the life of these children, but also the history of the People of Israel" (Lenni Brenner, The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir (Zed Books, 1984). cites as reference no. 23: Yoav Gelber, ' Zionist Policy and the Fate of European Jewry (1939-42)' Yad Vashem Studies, vol. XII, p. 199.)



See also “FDR, Ruth Gruber and me: Zionists stymie WWII rescue plan,” by Ronald Bleier October 2006 http://desip.igc.org/FDRGruberAndMe.html



And also these relevant articles

http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/kasztner_intro.htm

http://www.counterpunch.org/brenner05252005.html



I go over these and other issues of Zionism in Chapter 6 of my book which is now online here http://www.qumsiyeh.org/chapter6/



England occupied Palestine illegally at the time, had issued the infamous Balfour declaration, and had armed and supported Zionist militias. The Mufti did meet with HItler who made vague promises to allow self determination to people in the Arab world should he win the war (and asked the Mufti to make propaganda statements in support of Hitler to European Muslims). But ultimately which had more of an impact on the course of the war: that Mufti liason or the Zionsit deals to block Jewiosh immigration to any other country and cut deals with Hitler to leave only one exit to Palestine (to later participate in the ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians)? I think that is a question worth pondering especially by Jews.



Israeli racists share their views: http://www.alternet.org/world/141310/video:_young_cosmopolitan_israelis_share_their_shocking_racist_views/

Interesting article: Fascism Needs an Enemy by Ran HaCohen, July 20, 2009 http://original.antiwar.com/hacohen/2009/07/19/fascism-needs-an-enemy/



Report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/SNAA-7QF9WC-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf



ACTION: PACBI Guidelines for Applying the International Cultural Boycott of Israel http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1045



Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home

http://qumsiyeh.org

Britain 'should approach Hamas'

Map of Israel and Palestinian territories

In pictures: Gaza six months on

The UK government has come under rising pressure from MPs to start making contact with Palestinian group Hamas.

A Foreign Affairs Committee report also said it was "regrettable" UK-supplied military items were "almost certainly" used by Israel in the Gaza conflict.

The cross-party group, which monitors foreign policy, called on the EU to make relations with Israel conditional on its peace-making efforts.

Hamas was also criticised for its use of rockets on Israeli civilian targets.

'Ineffective strategy'

But committee chairman Michael Gapes said the committee saw "few signs that the current policy of non-engagement with Hamas" was effective.

He added that the government "should urgently consider engaging with moderate elements within Hamas" as it had with the political wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon earlier this year.

The wide-ranging report condemns Israel for the continuing growth of settlements and for its blockades around the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip.

It was unacceptable, said Mr Gapes, to deny unrestricted access for humanitarian assistance.

And the report also called for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to declare whether it considered war crimes had been committed during the December 2008 to January 2009 conflict in Gaza and southern Israel.

Hamas came into criticism for its rocket attacks, but MPs concluded that Israel's military action in Gaza was "disproportionate".


Hamas supporters

Who are Hamas?

Mr Gapes said: "Rocket fire from Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian groups on civilian targets in Israel is unacceptable.

"It generates the risk of a renewed escalation in violence, and constitutes a central obstacle in the way of Israeli willingness to move forward towards a two-state settlement."

The report welcomed the endorsement by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a two-state solution to the conflict.

The committee added that the split between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank was a central obstacle to creating a united and democratic Palestinian state, and called for elections that could be accepted by all parties.

Former prime minister Tony Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, was commended for "making an important contribution to Palestinian economic and institutional development".

But movement, access and administrative restrictions on the West Bank continued to represent a "major obstacle to further Palestinian economic development," it added.

Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation.

No one wants to be branded war criminals with Israelis in Gaza. Finally, some pressure is put on Israel to deal realistically with Palestinians, e.g., stopping incursion of more Israeli settlers into the West Bank as if the West Bank were part of Israel. Some day Westerners will understand that to Middle Easterners, the creation of Israel was a crime against humanity. The whole Arab region rejected the U.N. partition plan and they, not Europeans or Americans or anybody else were the people most effected by the American and UK orchestrated U.N. partion of Palestine. In other words, democracy was totally absent in the decision to create Israel. And that deed has caused the disruption of a whole region for 61 years, not counting all the thousands of people killed needlessly to assuage European guilt.

North Korea 'executes Christians'

By Andre Vornic
BBC News


A cross and candle (file image)
North Korea views religion as a threat to its state ideology

Human rights groups in South Korea say North Korea has stepped up executions of Christians, some of them in public.

The communist country, the world's most closed society, views religion as a major threat.

Only the founder of the country, Kim Il-sung, and his son, Kim Jong-il, may be worshipped, in mass public displays of fervour.

Despite the persecutions, it is thought up to 30,000 North Koreans may practise Christianity secretly in their homes.

A report by a number of South Korean groups highlights one particular case of a woman allegedly executed in public last month, in a northern town close to the Chinese border.

She was accused of distributing Bibles, spying for South Korea and the United States and helping to organise dissidents.

Her parents, husband, and children were sent to a prison camp.

Such reports are hard to verify, but North Korea is known to be intolerant of religion - it views any form of alternative social organisation as a competitor for its own, religion-like ideology.

The US government says just owning a Bible in North Korea may be a cause for torture and disappearance.

Pyongyang's position appears to have hardened on everything from human rights to defence policy and international relations in the last year or so.

It is thought this may be a way to shore up the government through Mr Kim's illness and the process of anointing his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as North Korea's next leader.

The SF Jewish Film Festival is coming up. Rachel Corrie film included which Zionists are trying to shut down the event

from Bay Area International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

There is a film about Rachel Corrie playing and her mother, Cindy Corrie, who has been very active since her daughter’s death, is coming up to speak. Several Zionist organizations have given the film festival a lot of flack for the screening and are planning to demonstrate and try to shut down the event. The level of disrespect to Rachel’s mother and memory is profound but not surprising.

People and groups are mobilizing to have a presence there to oppose the Zionists who are trying to shut this movie down and Cindy’s Corrie from speaking. We hope everyone can turn up to the movie thisSaturday, July 25 and Tuesday, August 4 (see below).

The latest news is that the Festival has invited a speaker from SF Voice for Israel to speak before the film.

The film festival issued the following statement to defend itself:

http://fest.sfjff.org/sites/default/files/docs/SFJFF_statement_on_RACHEL.pdf.

Saturday, July 25 at 1:30pm at the Castro Theater in San Francisco

Tuesday, August 4 at 6:30pm at the Roda Theater in Berkeley.

Lets turn out in mass to show our outrage at this latest Zionist attempt at censorship!


bay.ijsn@gmail.com :: www.ijsn.net

Rabbis held over 'kidney trade'

Unidentified detainees outside FBI offices in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday
Suspects were taken to the FBI office in Newark

Dozens of politicians, officials and five rabbis have been arrested in the US over alleged corruption, money laundering and human organ trafficking.

Three mayors from the state of New Jersey and two members of the state legislature were among more than 40 people detained.

Three hundred FBI agents raided dozens of locations across New Jersey and New York as part of a 10-year probe.

Cars carrying suspects were parked four deep outside FBI offices in Newark.

'Piece of the action'

Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez were among those arrested.


State legislators Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt were also arrested.

Law enforcement officials say the investigation originally focused on a network they allege laundered tens of millions of dollars through charities controlled by rabbis in New Jersey and neighbouring New York.

It widened to include alleged official corruption said to be linked to a New Jersey construction boom.

Acting US Attorney, Ralph Marra, said: "It seemed that everyone wanted a piece of the action. The corruption was widespread and pervasive. Corruption was a way of life for the accused."

He said politicians had "willingly put themselves up for sale".

"These rings, led by clergymen, cloaked their extensive criminal activity behind a facade of rectitude," he added.

Jon Corzine, the Governor of New Jersey, said: "The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated."

Ed Kahrer, an FBI agent who has worked on the investigation from the start, said: "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation.

"It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture," he said.

The BBC's Jane O'Brien says the money laundering ring reportedly spanned the US, Israel and Switzerland.

Prosecutors accuse one rabbi of dealing in human kidneys for transplant for a decade.

It's alleged that "vulnerable people" would give up a kidney for $10,000 (£6,000) and these would then be sold on for $160,000 (£97,000).

Christian leaders bilk their followers but this is a new low of Abrahamic religious corruption.

Victors revising history: Israeli textbooks to drop 'Nakba'

Palestinian surrendering in Ramle during 1948 war
The exile of Palestinians in 1948 is given little weight in Israeli textbooks

Israel's education ministry is to drop from an Arabic language textbook a term describing the creation of the state of Israel as "the catastrophe".

The Arabic word "nakba" has been used with Israeli-Arab pupils since 2007. It does not appear in Hebrew textbooks.

Education Minister Gideon Saar said no state could be expected to portray its own foundation as a catastrophe.

Israeli Arab MP Hana Sweid called the move an attack on Palestinian identity and collective memory.

The passage in question, which occurs in one textbook aimed at Arab children aged eight or nine, describes the 1948 war, which resulted in Israel's creation, in the following terms: "The Arabs call the war the Nakba - a war of catastrophe, loss and humiliation - and the Jews call it the Independence War."


There is no reason that the official curriculum should present the establishment of the state of Israel as a 'catastrophe'
Gideon Saar
Education Minister

Israel concern at UN use of Nakba

The sentence was introduced when Yuli Tamir of the centre-left Labour party was education minister.

Ms Tamir's successor in Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing administration, Mr Saar, said: "There is no reason that the official curriculum of the state of Israel should present the establishment of the state as a 'holocaust' or 'catastrophe'."

Mr Saar added that state education for children was not supposed entail the de-legitimising of that state.

"Including the term in the official curriculum of the Arab sector was a mistake, a mistake that will not repeat itself in the new curriculum, which is currently being revised," he concluded.

Correspondents say most Hebrew-language history books, especially when written for schoolchildren, focus on the heroism of Israeli forces in 1948 and gloss over the mass exile of Palestinians.

If it is mentioned at all it is attributed to a voluntary flight, rather than the deliberate expulsion which later revisionist historians claim to have uncovered from archive sources.

The term Nakba is usually applied to the loss suffered by millions of Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war and subsequent conflicts; their fate remains a key factor in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Jafar Farrah, director of Israeli-Arab advocacy group Moussawa, told the BBC that removing the word Nakba from textbooks would not stop Arabs from using it, but it would complicate relations.

Far-right members of the Israeli government are pursuing legislation to make it illegal in Israel to commemorate the Nakba, as Palestinians and their supporters do every 15 May.

Zionists getting desperate: Israel circulates Hitler photo to battle critics

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
Reuters
Wednesday, July 22, 2009; 4:10 PM

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has ordered its diplomats to use an old photograph of a former Palestinian religious leader meeting Adolf Hitler to counter world criticism of a Jewish building plan for East Jerusalem.

Israeli officials said on Wednesday Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli ambassadors to circulate the 1941 shot in Berlin of the Nazi leader seated next to Haj Amin al-Husseini, the late mufti or top Muslim religious leader in Jerusalem.

One official said Lieberman, an ultranationalist, hoped the photo would "embarrass" Western countries into ceasing to demand that Israel halt the project on land owned by the mufti's family in a predominantly Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, annexing it as part of its internationally unrecognized claim to Jerusalem as its capital.
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Some diplomats opposed Lieberman's move, arguing it could earn Israel stiffer world criticism for seeming to sidestep the wider conflict it faces with the Palestinians who want East Jerusalem as capital of a future state, another official said.

Asked why Lieberman issued the order, a spokesman said: "because it's important for the world to know the facts" and would not elaborate.

The United States and Europe this week protested the plan by private Israeli developers to build 20 apartments on the land which Israel says was bought by an American-Jewish millionaire as well as Israel's threats to demolish Palestinian homes that could leave thousands homeless.

The controversy has complicated an Israeli rift with the U.S. over its refusal to meet President Barack Obama's demands to halt Jewish settlement building throughout the West Bank so that stalled peace talks may resume.

About half a million Israelis live in the settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas that are home to some three million Palestinians.

An official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government accused Lieberman of "political bankruptcy" in ordering the distribution of the Husseini-Hitler photograph.

"It's an old story that has its own circumstances and doesn't apply to the present," Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian Authority-appointed governor of Jerusalem, and a relative of the late mufti, told Reuters.

Israel's Yad Vashem memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust said Husseini supported Nazi Germany to try to win backing for Arab nationalistic goals and that he lobbied for the extermination of Jews in North Africa and Palestine.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)

You know that Israelis won't mention the fact that less than 2% of Jewish holocaust survivors elected to go to Israel and even those who went complain about the Israeli social security services for them. Israelis have been spoiled with decades of American blank check on Israeli policies and now they see that the old Zionist America stranglehold has weakened tremendously. Soon the world will know why Palestinians and most Middle East Arabs believe Israel to be an illegitimate state, one imposed on them by force by the West without democratic due process.

France summons Israeli ambassador over Jewish settlement

www.chinaview.cn
2009-07-22 05:47:57

PARIS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- France has summoned the Israeli ambassador in Paris to demand a halt of Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday.

Daniel Shek, the Israeli ambassador in Paris, "has now been summoned to the Foreign Ministry," Kouchner told a news conference. "He will be received this afternoon or tomorrow."

Kouchner stressed that the settlements were against both international and Israeli law, calling for a stop of those activities.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also reiterated "the need for a complete freeze" of building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, after a working lunch in Paris with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

According to local media reports, Egyptian President Mubarak alluded to possible regional peace "initiatives." However, he doubted whether talks hosted by Egypt between Palestinian opponent Fatah and the Islamist Hamas would work by the end of next month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls and insisted Jews should be allowed to build homes anywhere they like in Jerusalem. 　

Europe raises pressure on Israel to stop settlements

Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:10pm EDT
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Germany, France and Sweden on Tuesday joined a widening group of Western nations pressing Israel to stop building settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank under a U.S.-led effort to resume stalled peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has resisted international calls to freeze building in occupied territory, seemed to show a sign of flexibility as a newspaper reported a secret plan to remove two dozen unauthorized settler outposts.

Israel has long pledged to dismantle hilltop outposts that it never approved, but has continued building larger settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, land it captured in a 1967 war, and where Palestinians want to build a future state.

Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would not resume peace talks with Israel, stalled since Israel elected Netanyahu, a right-wing settler champion in February, unless all settlement construction stopped.

In Berlin, Ruprecht Polenz, a senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party, was quoted as saying Israel ran the risk "of gradually committing suicide as a democratic state" if it did not stop the construction.

Polenz, head of the German parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, further told the Rheinische Post daily that "Israel is overlooking the fact that neither Palestinians nor Arab states will agree to a solution without East Jerusalem."

The French Foreign Ministry summoned Israel's ambassador, Daniel Shek, in Paris, to protest against a planned Israeli housing project for East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its capital and which Palestinians also seek to make their capital.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem shortly after its capture, in a move never recognized internationally.

THOUSANDS THREATENED WITH DISPLACEMENT

European Union president Sweden urged from Stockholm that Israel refrain from demolishing homes in East Jerusalem where thousands are threatened with displacement.

Jerusalem has emerged as a focal point of the settlement controversy since Israeli officials accused the U.S. State Department on Sunday of telling Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, Israel should suspend plans to build about 20 housing units in the city's eastern sector.

The United States has never confirmed it made this demand, but Netanyahu rejected it in televised remarks to his cabinet, a move analysts saw as capitalizing on broad popular support in the country for Israel's continued control of the disputed city.

Neither Netanyahu's office nor the Israeli army would comment on a report in the respected Haaretz daily that the military was preparing to "forcibly evacuate 23 illegal outposts in one day," in a plan drawn up with Netanyahu's knowledge.

The same Haaretz columnist disclosed plans to remove troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip before that pullout occurred in 2005.

Separately, a report by the Macro Center of the Israeli European Policy Network said settlements were receiving a larger share of government funding than municipalities inside Israel, and the settler population was also growing three times as fast.

"While Israeli municipalities as a whole receive 34.7 percent of their income from (the government) and obtain another 64.3 percent from their own income, settlement municipalities obtain 57 percent from the (government) and only 42.8 percent from their own income," the report said.

Second day of virus alert on my computer when I tried to access a negative Israeli news story

This virus alert only has happened when opening news reports of Israeli doings against Palestinians. Who knows what's been planted in our computers via the Intel chips made with Israelis overseeing Intel's specifications.

Life imitates art

Black scholar's arrest raises profiling questions

By MELISSA TRUJILLO (AP) – 35 minutes ago

BOSTON — Supporters of a prominent Harvard University black scholar who was arrested at his own home by police responding to a report of a break-in say he is the victim of racial profiling.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. had forced his way through the front door of his home because it was jammed, his lawyer said Monday.

Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home near campus after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."

By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.

"Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt. James Crowley. The Cambridge police refused to comment on the arrest Monday.

Gates — the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.

"Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him," the officer wrote.

Gates said he turned over his driver's license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com

He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior." He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.

Gates, 58, also refused to speak publicly Monday, referring calls to Ogletree.

"He was shocked to find himself being questioned and shocked that the conversation continued after he showed his identification," Ogletree said.

Ogletree declined to say whether he believed the incident was racially motivated, saying "I think the incident speaks for itself."

Some of Gates' African-American colleagues say the arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge.

Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years, said he was stopped on campus by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.

"We do not believe that this arrest would have happened if professor Gates was white," Counter said. "It really has been very unsettling for African-Americans throughout Harvard and throughout Cambridge that this happened."

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he will attend Gates' arraignment.

"This arrest is indicative of at best police abuse of power or at worst the highest example of racial profiling I have seen," Sharpton said. "I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs."

Ogletree said Gates had returned from a trip to China on Thursday with a driver, when he found his front door jammed. He went through the back door into the home — which he leases from Harvard — shut off an alarm and worked with the driver to get the door open. The driver left, and Gates was on the phone with the property's management company when police first arrived.

Ogletree also disputed the claim that Gates, who was wearing slacks and a polo shirt and carrying a cane, was yelling at the officer.

"He has an infection that has impacted his breathing since he came back from China, so he's been in a very delicate physical state," Ogletree said.

Lawrence D. Bobo, the W.E.B Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard, said he met with Gates at the police station and described his colleague as feeling humiliated and "emotionally devastated."

"It's just deeply disappointing but also a pointed reminder that there are serious problems that we have to wrestle with," he said.

Bobo said he hoped Cambridge police would drop the charges and called on the department to use the incident to review training and screening procedures it has in place.

The Middlesex district attorney's office said it could not do so until after Gates' arraignment. The woman who reported the apparent break-in did not return a message Monday.

Gates joined the Harvard faculty in 1991 and holds one of 20 prestigious "university professors" positions at the school. He also was host of "African American Lives," a PBS show about the family histories of prominent U.S. blacks, and was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997.

"I was obviously very concerned when I learned on Thursday about the incident," Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust said in a statement. "He and I spoke directly and I have asked him to keep me apprised."

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


Clever and funny Amos & Andrew satirizes stereotyping
Amos & Andrew

Written and Directed by E. Max Frye.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson
and Nicolas Cage.
Loews Cheri.

By John Jacobs
Staff Reporter

GoodFellas, White Sands, Jungle Fever, and Patriot Games to name a few. He's also in two movies now playing, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 and Amos & Andrew, which also stars Nicolas Cage, from Raising Arizona.

Jackson's character in Amos & Andrew is Andrew Sterling, a black playwright who's finally begun to experience success. He was on the cover of Forbes magazine. His plays have been on Broadway. He's finally able to afford a BMW and a summer house on an island, the residents of which are all very wealthy and, well, very white. It's when he drives in to spend his first night in his new home that events take an interesting turn. A well-meaning, but racist couple sees him in his own house and thinks, "[Gasp!] Look! There's a thief in the neighbor's house! That's probably the son's BMW is in the driveway! This must mean . . . My God! He's been taken hostage! That must be it. We all know what a black man is doing in an expensive house, right? He's stealing the stereo." The instructional video for the Neighborhood Crime Watch on this island must be a tape of the LA riots.

This movie pokes fun at this more passive type of racism which most of us call "stereotyping." All of the white people in this movie (with the exception of Amos) are comically small-minded characters stuck in a racist frame of mind that distorts everything they see. Because of their gross misinterpretations of events, the plot gets wildly out of control. Although the movie is a comedy, it makes having such sweepingly negative stereotypes look as irresponsible as it really is.

What I thought was unusual was how clueless the neighbors were. Didn't they see the "For Sale" sign in the yard? Don't they gossip with other neighbors? (I thought about the last time I moved. I was ten years old and I found out about it when, at my neighbor's house, I overheard him talking about it on the phone.) But then it hit me. Of course! Most rich people have at least two sets of neighbors. It's a requirement, right? And they are too important to actually talk to each other. Try and talk to rich people. See if they don't, no matter how they respond, make you feel like a salted slug.

Anyway, the racists stop strolling and call the chief of police, who's running for commissioner. Politically gifted, he realizes that this is his lucky night. He does what any candidate for commissioner would do in an election year -- he goes hard-core. He and his backups stake out the house. The policemen are inept (it's not NYC, you know, just some snooty island), so I understood when one of them tripped headlong into Andrew's car, setting off the alarm. Sterling wakes up, of course, because no one can sleep through one of those things. He goes outside to check it out, but he can't hear the officer over his car alarm, so he points his alarm silencer at the car and . . . What happens? Let me just say that Sterling may enjoy hearing the pitter-patter of little feet in his house, even the pitter-patter of rain on his roof, but not the pitter-patter of bullets through his front door. Alarm silencers should be banned, maybe -- just like super-soakers.

Eventually, the chief tries to call the "hostage," discovering that, (whoops!) he and his officers have just shot up Andrew Sterling's house-the Andrew Sterling. This is where Amos comes in. Amos is that loser pothead you went to school with back in high school who was always in trouble, but here he's disguised as Nicolas Cage. Amos was arrested for "contributing to the delinquency of a minor." "She looked eighteen," he responds. Ha, ha. It's a very old joke, but a good one, I guess. The chief has another flash of genius. He gives Amos a choice, telling him that he'll go free if he plays the part of the hostage-taker. If he doesn't, he'll get sent to a real prison as a "career criminal," which he really isn't; he's just a loser. Amos says yes, but he isn't as stupid as he looks, or as you remember him to be from high school.

The chief wants to use him as a trophy, so Amos takes Andrew hostage and demands a million dollars and a helicopter. But the pair escape from the house without being seen, and get to talking. Andrew, Amos says, sees racism where there isn't any; there's just bad luck. But then Andrew tells the sad story of his father, who gave 40 years of his life to some company. When he died a few weeks after retirement, only the black janitor came to the funeral. They reach a tacit understanding that they both suffer from negative stereotypes: one is a "nigger" and one is a "career criminal."

Meanwhile, the policemen, the press, and federal agents have stormed the house. The result is a well-filmed scene of confusion. Blocks away, Andrew helps Amos escape in a stolen Mercedes. Amos heads in the direction of Florida to start, we assume, a new and crime-free life. Andrew Sterling also has his vague catharsis, and they all live happily, except for the chief of course, who will be ruined by the press in one of its classic frenzies.

For a few minutes before the movie, I was worried that Cage, as the main comical character, would upstage Jackson in his more serious role as Andrew. But that didn't happen. Both actors had very commendable performances. The screenplay is clever, and the movie is, overall, well-done, coherent, and funny. All the characters are believable, and the film is, if not a must-see, definitely worth seeing.

Israeli crackdown on Bil'in continues: Invasion in Bil'in on 19.07.2009

At 5:30am, shortly after the Palestinian and international activists returned to their houses after patrolling the village all night, villagers gave the alert that four Israeli Army Jeeps were driving toward the village. Shortly thereafter, Israeli soldiers raided the house of Abd Al Fatah Bornat whose son Muhammed Abd Al Fatah Bornat (age 21) they had arrested at 2am on July 17, 2009. His brother is also wanted by the occupation forces, but he was not at home this morning. The Army left without making any arrests.

A few minutes later, they reached the house of Emad Bornat whom they arrested. Villagers and Palestinian and international activists tried to block the path to the Jeep where the soldiers were about to take the victim. They were pushed back violently by the Army so that any attempt to de-arrest the victim was futile. As the Jeep with the victim inside was about to drive off, the activists marched in a chain in front of it, preventing its escape. Soldiers in a second Jeep then threw sound bombs and tear gas at the activists which made them disperse allowing the Jeep to escape. The three remaining Jeeps followed under a rain of rocks thrown by the villagers. They drove into the village while activists followed. After stopping at an intersection, soldiers took extensive video footage of all the activists. All the Jeeps then turned back and left the village with the victim.

The situation is extremely serious for Emad Bornat. He is currently under medical treatment after a very bad tractor accident. It is vital for him to continue receiving this treatment.


Thank you for you continued support,

Iyad Burnat- Head of Popular Commitee in Bilin
co-founder of Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin

Email- bel3in@yahoo.com

www.bilin-ffj.org

Israel backs East Jerusalem housing construction despite U.S. opposition

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Jews have the right to build in an area annexed after the Six-Day War in 1967. Palestinians consider the land part of their future state.

By Jeffrey Fleishman and Batsheva Sobelman
10:44 AM PDT, July 19, 2009

Reporting from Cairo and Jerusalem -- Calling Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem indisputable, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today rejected U.S. demands to stop plans to build 20 Jewish-owned apartments in the eastern part of the city that Palestinians regard as key to their future state.

The decision to allow new housing on land annexed by Israel after the 1967 war probably will further agitate relations with the Obama administration, which has been pressuring Netanyahu to halt the expansion of settlements in hopes of reviving the Middle East peace process and enticing Arab nations to normalize relations with Jewish state.

The sensitivity concerning the project, proposed by a Jewish American millionaire, was highlighted over the weekend when Israeli officials said the country's ambassador to Washington, Michael B. Oren, was summoned to the State Department. But Netanyahu, referring to news reports about the U.S. opposition to the plan, was unwavering, saying that a united Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and that there would be no limits on Jewish construction.

While refusing to rule out natural growth in existing settlements, Israel has pledged not to build new settlements and not to confiscate more land. But Israel doesn't consider projects in East Jerusalem to be settlements, but rather legitimate expansions in a section of the city it captured in the Six-Day War.

"We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and purchase [homes] anywhere in Jerusalem," Netanyahu told reporters at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting. "I can only imagine what would happen if someone would propose that Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods of New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry. We cannot accept such a decree in Jerusalem."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Netanyahu's comments were a distraction from the peace process and that East Jerusalem, like the West Bank, would one day be freed from occupation to become part of a Palestinian state. Washington and the international community hold that Jewish expansion in disputed East Jerusalem is a major deterrent in solving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

"The job of the prime minister of Israel is to prepare his people for peace," Erekat said. "Settlements and peace are two parallels that do not go together. It is either settlements or peace."

For the last two months, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and special U.S. envoy George J. Mitchell have met several times to try to resolve what has turned into the most publicly pointed disagreement in years between Israel and Washington.

The Israeli activist group Peace Now said construction in East Jerusalem is not supported by all Israelis and "undermines the chances of the city becoming the joint capital of Israel and the future Palestinian state."

Conservative voices, however, fear that forgoing construction in East Jerusalem will only invite more outside pressure on Israel to curtail its rightful development within the city. Ophir Akunis, a Likud party member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, said, "All countries in the world must understand that on the issue of Jerusalem, we will not receive dictates."

The project in East Jerusalem is funded by U.S. businessman Irving Moskowitz, who has backed a number of housing projects in the city. It calls for building 20 apartments on land that includes the old Shepherd's Hotel, which was originally constructed in the 1930s for the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Husseini. After the Six-Day War, the hotel became a courthouse under the Israeli Ministry of Justice. It has been empty for about 15 years. The Jerusalem Planning Committee, which approved Moskowitz's project, said copies of the proposal were given to the U.S. and British consulates.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in statement, "According to the High Court of Israel, Jews, Muslims and Christians alike can purchase land in all parts of the city of Jerusalem."

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

Eretz Yisrael means it's all ours. Even if we're most all European immigrant descended, we've got more right to Palestinian land than the Palestinians. Only we Jews get to force indigenous peoples out of their country so that we can live there--no one else in history has had this special right but we have it 'cause we're special.

Palestinians in pastry record bid

Attempt at world's biggest kunafa
The giant kunafa was eventually devoured by thousands of visitors

Bakers in the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus have attempted to set a record for the world's biggest kunafa - a local sweet pastry.

The sticky pastry was 74m (243ft) long and made from 700kg (1,540lb) of semolina flour and the same amount of cheese plus 300kg (660lb) of sugar.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was among the first to receive a slice before thousands of visitors tucked in.

Kunafa originates from Nablus but is renowned throughout the Arab world.

Organisers say they will now submit the results to the Guinness World Records.

Palestinian news agency Maan said that 170 bakers from 10 Nablus pastry shops had helped make the giant kunafa, which cost around $15,000 (£9,000).

The pastry was laid out on a tray which stretched across Nablus's main square and its measurements were certified by the Palestinian Standards Institute.

Peace message

Mohanad Rabi, a local businessman who helped to organise the attempt, said he is confident the record would be accepted. He said he did not know of any previous attempts.

Nablus leaders hope the event will help restore the image of the town, once the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

Occupying Israeli forces have only recently eased restrictions on the city, imposed for the past nine years.

"The message of today is that we want to live in peace," said Mr Rabi.

Although Israel has praised recent Palestinian efforts, it continues to carry out raids in Palestinian towns.

Army Invades Bil'in Again-One arrested, One injured.

1-Weekly Demonstration at Bil'in on July 17, 2009

Some 400 demonstrators, including international and Israeli activists joined today's peaceful demonstration against the Apartheid Wall. A group of drummers from the PFLP Ramallah lead into this demonstration. The protesters proceeded peacefully toward the Wall where they were soon met with a first series of tear gas and sound bombs. The people did not disperse but stayed close to the Wall chanting slogans. One international activist in the wheel chair was hit directly in the shoulder and the leg by tear gas, which slightly burned his clothes. He was not injured, however.
Like last week, the "bad smell" water was sprayed again but the group did not disperse in spite of it. Chanting continued while everyone was dodging the tear gas and "bad smell" water. The demonstrators remained gathered close to the wall for some 90 minutes while the occupation forces shot tear gas from two directions. Then the everyone returned back to the village. No one was injured or arrested today.

2-Army Invades Bil'in Again-One arrested, One injured.

On July 17 at 2am, jeeps full of soldiers invaded the village of Bil'in. After arresting Muhammed abde al fatah burnat (age 21) the soldiers tried removing him by foot to the military outpost. International and Palestinian activists blocked the path of the army units, demanding his immediate release. The army responded by hitting activists with their rifles, throwing percussion grenades, and spraying chemicals in activists' faces. Additional army units arrived to dislodge the activists from the path of the arrested boy. These soldiers began chasing activists and trying to arrest them.
In the process of being chased, one of the Palestinian activists was injured. He suffered a deep gash on his leg that may require stitches and some minor lacerations on one of his arms.
The village of Bil'in has had 60 percent of its farmland confiscated by the apartheid wall and has had weekly demonstrations for the last 5 years. Recently, it has been under constant raids from the army and over 15 boys have been arrested in the last three weeks.

3-Bil'in

Bil'in, a village of some 1,600 inhabitants located northwest of Ramallah, has been subject to repeated night raids and arrests of villagers for the past month. Since the construction of the Apartheid Wall in 2004, Bil'in has been holding weekly demonstrations against this Wall. The resistance to the military occupation is very strong in this village. Consequently, arrests of villagers involved are very frequent. These arrests occur in various ways, i.e. at Israel's borders when Palestinians attempt to travel, or locally in Bil'in at the Apartheid Wall, as well as during night invasions. In recent weeks, the occupation forces conducted night raids of houses in the village up to three times a week in the wake of the weekly demonstrations. During these operations, eight villagers and one international activist have been kidnapped. They are still in detention. The list of wanted Palestinians is steadily growing.

The occupation forces are constantly changing their strategy to suppress the resistance in Bil'in. On Tuesday, July 14, 2009, a flying checkpoint was erected between Bil'in and Safa, operating for some 2 hours. Arrests at Israel's border to neighboring Jordan, in particular, are increasing. At last week's demonstration on July 10, 2009, the "bad smell" water (Durban) was used to disperse the demonstrators. This weapon has not been used in Bil'in for over one year. Previously, this chemical weapon has been challenged in court, and the case was won against the Israeli Army.

The following Palestinians are currently being detained in connection with their active resistance against the military occupation:

Kamil Katib
Kaleel Yaseen
Mohammed Katib
Ouda Aburahma
Hammuda Yaseen
Mahsen Al-Katib
Majdi Aburahma
Adeeb Aburahma
Tamar Al-Katib
Souleiman Walidi
Mahmoud Issa Yaseen
Basel Bornat
Muhammed abde al fatah burnat

We welcome all of you to support the village of Bil'in in their resistance against the military occupation.

4-To all our supporters and friends,

Bi'lin is a small village that has been struggling against construction of the wall for the last 5 years. The Israeli occupation has resulted in the confiscation of sixty percent of the farmers' land. This year, occupation forces have invaded the village and taken away many of the villages' youth. Many people have also been injured at the weekly demonstration against the wall and one farmer was killed. Neighboring villages have also experienced raids, brutalization, and land confiscation.

Our demonstrations are joined by many internationals and Israeli activists who have come every week in solidarity with our cause to demand justice. We want your help to continue our non-violent struggle in Bi'lin and other villages. In order to maintain our resistance, we need financial, media, and advocacy assistance. This will help us remain steadfast on our land and to resist further efforts to drive us away. Send a message to the Israeli government in your own countries by demonstrating at Israeli embassies and demanding an immediate end to the occupation of our land.

Thank you for your continued assistance in our struggle. Please donate to our cause

Help Us Continue Our Struggle!

In additon to the help provided by our volunteers, we are always grateful for financial assistance. Many villagers have lost thier jobs, thier land and their ability to sustain themselves and their families.

In addition we are in urgent need of funds to continue our non-violent resistance and to spread Bilin's example to other villages. Please wire funds to the Friends of Freedom and Justice Society in Bilin using the bank information below:

BANK OF PALESTINE PLC
RAMALLAH BRANCH
RAMALLAH , WEST BANK, PALESTINE TERRITORIES
SWIFT CODE: PALSPS22
BANK NO : 89
BRANCH NO :458
BENEFICIARY NAME : FRIENDS OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE
BENEFICIARY ACCOUNT NO: 222459
TELEPHONE NO : 022489129
ADDRESS : BILIN


--The Friends of Freedom and Justice in Bi'lin

Thank you for you continued support,

Iyad Burnat- Head of Popular Commitee in Bilin
co-founder of Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin

Email- bel3in@yahoo.com
Mobile- (00972) (0) 547847942
Office- (00972) (2) 2489129
Mobile- (00972) (0) 598403676
www.bilin-ffj.org

OK, so the election route didn't work: Let's go back to brute force: Israel warships pass through Suez

Israeli submarine in Mediterranean, 5 May, 2008
The Israeli navy is reported to be "sending a message" to Iran

Two Israeli warships have sailed through the Suez Canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, Israeli and Egyptian officials say.

Israeli media described the passage of the two Saar class missile boats as a "message" to Iran.

Israel believes Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, something Iran denies.

Israeli officials say an Israeli submarine used the canal in June, returning on 5 July.

An Israeli official said deployment of the two ships was linked to the Israeli navy's "recent activities around the Red Sea".

Correspondents say that although Israel vessels regularly use the canal, the recent moves have - unusually - been publicised by the Israelis.

Shlomo Brom, of the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, said: "I believe (the news) was likely leaked on purpose in order to signal to Iran that Israel has the capability of reaching them."

Israel has said repeatedly that it will not rule out the possibility of taking military action against Iran over the nuclear issue.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit told the BBC that warships had the right to use the canal provided they had no aggressive intent towards Egypt.