HumanRights--Land Day!

Report from Mazin Qumsiyeh

*Injuries to our friends, death and mayhem on Land Day and the Global March
to Jerusalem*

This blog report is also posted at
http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2012/03/land-day.html where you can
leave comments

*Two of our  friends were among the over >150 people injured today by the
Israeli occupation forces.  Demonstrations were held in dozens of locations
in Palestine and the border areas of Palestine.*  Other demosntrations were
held for Land Day in cities around the world.  The ambulance took our
friend and home guest Don Bryant (US Citizen) to the hospital as he was hit
in the head by a tear gas canister.  We quickly gathered the rest of the
group and rushed to the hospital.  There we find many injured people (I
counted 8 in the emergency room and two at the X-ray).  One of the injured
there was our friend Yusef Sharqawi hit with a rubber-coated steel bullet
that fractured his shoulder blade. Mohamed Zakout, 20 year old was shot and
kileld by Israeli forces in Gaza as he participated in a demonstration near
the Erez checkpoint.  In Jerusalem, Israeli occupation forces used horses
to trample on people and arrested 36 individuals.  Before all is done
Israel will likely to arrest 300 people.   Below is our video and other
relevant videos.

Some of my students have more logic/sense than the political leadership of
the USA, Israel and the "Palestinian authority" combined.  For example,
last week we had a lively discussion about roles of politiciansin creating
the problems and perpetuuating the disastrous human rights violations here.
I don't teach this course human rights but I coach it so after we exchanged
significant information about these issues all of it showing the bad things
of politics (collaborations, agreements of surrender, etc), I asked to take
time for us to talk just about the positives (no negatives).  I was
surprised at some of the good comments that came out: persistance of the
Palestinain people, demonstrations and many forms of popular resistance
happening, the fact that rights are not lost for people even when their
leadershuip is corrupt and weak, the fact that many were
martyred/injured/imprisoned for their work for Palestine, the fact that
while some collaborated and even sold their conscience and tehir heritabe,
more simply refused ……

So it is that we can always look at the glass half empty or half full.  We
can always curse the darkness or light a candle and hope for the best.  We
can feel depressed and powerless or we can actually do something.  I was
anxious before the demonstrations today.  Our mind racing to worry about
level of participation/attendance and about Israeli authorities' violent
reaction to peaceful demonstrators (there is afterall a long history of
that including shooting at unarmed demonstrators). We have to remind myself
of the positives and forget all the  negatives (or at least just learn from
them lessons and keep them in the back of our mind).  The march was a
success even before it started.  The thousands who tried to arrive to us
here in Palestine got an education THROUGH the process of preparing to come
to nearby boerders and they each  told many othesr where they are going and
why.  This ripple effect that started montsh before today's events is
critical. Here are a few other positives before, during and after this
event today:

-37 Indian activists were stranded in a ship off the port of Beirut for 36
hours.  Activists in India mobilized speaking to parliamentarians and other
officials and the indian embassy was able to get the Lebanese government to
finally issue the visas for them.  This ensured atht more people because
aware of our predicament here: not onlt the Zionist regime but the
col;lusion sometiems of Arab regimes.  It also meant more avtivism in india
will be growing and more boycotts, divestments and sanctions.

- Hundreds of actvists from different countries did not know about each
other or their commen interests until this event. The process of linking
together via physical meetings and internet empowered many of tehm and they
became more active in tehir local communities.  I know of several example
where new projects (e.g. on boycotts divestment, sacnction, different ways
of media work etc) were started in some copuntries or localities because
they learned from the networking with other activists.

-Activists learned via doing how to work in team efforts, how to make
collective decisions etc.  These skills are useful for any kind of
collective work.

-The attempts by the Zionist manipulated media to hide and ignore the
brutality of the apartheid regime is backfiring.  More and more people
stopped seeking news via these corporate outlets and started to get news
directly via blogs, live feed, email etc.

-Israeli  Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai said about the events today
"It's important to remember that this is the first day. The Nakba and Naksa
days are ahead of us, and that is where the challenge will be."  It is
obvious that they start to worry!

I could go on to list a few more.  But we need now to focus on our next
events : the Welcopme to Palestine Campaign for 15-21 April.  We do need
people to work hard on this (volunteers are always welcome).  Action is the
best antidote to despair.

*Our video in Bethlehem: http://youtu.be/7U1qQVqVnsM*

Other videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVuxQJw-6TI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukH9VBD2Zeg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkF9awg-HPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nffbnYZW4ws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkaIs8s4i4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXJnBZfX1GA


Pictures

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/30/10940732-violence-on-land-day-as-israeli-f
orces-and-palestinians-clash


Take action Land Day
http://www.stopthejnf.org/unitedstates_takeaction_landday2012.html

Israel Defense Ministry plan earmarks 10 percent of West Bank for
settlement expansion. Newly released maps indicate Civil Administration
secretly setting aside additional land for Jewish settlements, presumably
with the intention of expanding them. By Akiva Eldar

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-defense-ministry-plan-earmarks-10-per
cent-of-west-bank-for-settlement-expansion-1.421589

More links/news on this land day events

http://www.imemc.org/article/63234

http://www.imemc.org/article/63235

Thousands of demonstrators mark Land Day in Jordan

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-30/168555-thousands-of-demonstrators
-mark-land-day-in-jordan.ashx#axzz1qc3PlPcd

Rabbis of Anti-Zionist Group Join Protest Marking Land Day on
Lebanon-Israel Border

http://tv.ibtimes.com/rabbis-of-anti-zionist-group-join-protest-marking-land-day-on-lebano
n-israel-border/4523.html

Why Land Day still matters: Today, with no resolution in sight to the
historic injustices inflicted upon them, Palestinians in Israel and
elsewhere use this day to remember and redouble their efforts for
emancipation.

By Sam Bahour and Fida Jiryis

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/why-land-day-still-matters-1.421606


Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

http://qumsiyeh.org

UPDATE 2-Israeli forces clash with Palestinians on Land Day

Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:48am EDT

* Israeli forces on alert on Lebanese, Syrian borders

* Palestinians organise "Global March to Jerusalem"

By Jihan Abdalla

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Reuters) - Israeli security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up groups of Palestinian stone-throwers on Friday as annual Land Day rallies turned violent.

Medics in the Gaza Strip said the Israelis also used live fire to prevent protesters from nearing the frontier wall, seriously wounding one man.

Palestinian activists have called for a "Global March to Jerusalem" to mark the day when Israeli Arabs protest against government policies that they say has stripped them of land.

Israeli forces were put on high alert at frontier crossings with Lebanon and Syria, but there were no reports of anyone nearing the border fences, unlike last year when several demonstrators were killed in separate protests.

However, violence flared at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank to the north and south of Jerusalem. Witnesses also reported disturbances at gates leading into the Old City, with police limiting access to the Muslims' revered al-Aqsa Mosque.

A Reuters reporter saw two men being carried away injured after scuffles at Jerusalem's Lions' Gate, while police said they had made five arrests at the Damascus Gate.

Jerusalem is a focal point of conflict, as Palestinians want the city's eastern sector, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of a future state. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem as part of its capital and insists the city remain united.

"We are determined to march together toward Jerusalem, and hopefully we will break through and reach it," said a masked youth, calling himself Rimawi, as he faced off against soldiers in the West Bank city Ramallah, a short distance from Jerusalem.

Flag-waving crowds neared the Qalandiya crossing out of Ramallah, some of them hurling stones at the security forces, but were forced back when border police sprayed them with foul smelling liquid from a water cannon.

There were also confrontations in Bethlehem, where Palestinians hurled petrol bombs at an Israeli watchtower.

BORDER FEARS

Land Day commemorates the killing by security forces of six Arabs in 1976 during protests against government plans to confiscate land in northern Israel's Galilee region.

Previous remembrances have mostly passed quietly, but Israel decided to reinforce its defences following deadly clashes along the Lebanese and Syrian borders in May that appeared to catch the military off guard.

Palestinian organisers called for peaceful rallies against "the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state" and said solidarity protests were planned in some 80 nations. "When crowds from 80 countries move towards Jerusalem, they send a strong message to the Israeli occupation that no one can accept what they are doing in Jerusalem," said Ismail Haniyeh, the Gaza leader of the Islamic group Hamas.

Israel is wary of growing unrest in the Palestinian Territories, with peace talks stalled for months and Palestinian leaders refusing to return to the negotiating table until Israel halts all Jewish settlement building in the West Bank.

Leading Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti, serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli jail for orchestrating suicide attacks, called on Monday for a new wave of civil resistance in the decades-long quest for statehood.

On high alert along its borders, police were also wary of possible friction within the boundaries of Israel, where the Arab minority was planning protests.

Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's total population. Many complain of discrimination. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently called for improved efforts to integrate Arab citizens into Israel's work force.

Israel Seals off West Bank Before Protests

Time
By AP /
DIAA HADID
Friday, Mar. 30, 2012

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2110595,00.html#ixzz1qbTbBKJE
(JERUSALEM) — Israeli forces went on high alert in anticipation of mass demonstrations Friday, sealing off swaths of territory and tightening restrictions on entering a flashpoint holy site as Palestinians and Arabs prepared for a day of marches throughout the region.

The Land Day rallies are an annual event marked by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who protest what they say are discriminatory Israeli land policies. Supporters in neighboring Arab countries are also planning marches near Israel's borders in solidarity events. (MORE: A New Season of Palestinian Protest Challenges Both Israel and Abbas)

Similar demonstrations turned deadly last year, and thousands of Israeli troops and police were deployed Friday in anticipation of possible violence.

Israel's military closed off the West Bank to all but humanitarian emergencies, saying the move was "in accordance with security assessments."

The West Bank is a hilly territory on Israel's eastern border where over 2.5 million Palestinians live, alongside hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jewish settlers. The closure will not apply to the settlers.

Police also restricted access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site and a frequent flashpoint for Palestinian-Israeli violence. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said only men over 40 years of age may enter the compound, while women may freely do so.

The age restriction applies to Palestinians from Jerusalem who carry residency permits, and for West Bank Palestinians — though few of them are expected to be allowed into the city because of the military's closure of the territory.

Israeli-Arab citizens, regardless of age, will be allowed to enter, Rosenfeld said.

Thousands more policemen were deployed into northern Israel, where Israel's Arab citizens are expected to hold a large demonstration in the village of Deir al-Assad, Rosenfeld said.

Israel's military was also preparing for possible trouble along the borders with Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan to the east, and Egypt and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to the south.

Mahmoud Aloul, a Palestinian leader in the West Bank involved in the marches, said Friday's demonstrations were to be held in Jerusalem, the Qalandiya checkpoint — a frequent flashpoint of violence on the outskirts of Jerusalem — and in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

While organizers said Friday's marches would be nonviolent, similar protests last year turned deadly.

At least 15 people were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers when they tried to cross the Syrian and Lebanese borders with Israel in a May protest marking Palestinian sorrow over Israel's creation in 1948.

A month later, Israeli troops killed 23 demonstrators who crossed into the no-man's land between Israel and Syria in a demonstration against Israel's control of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

Activists in Gaza planned to hold a demonstration about half a mile from the Israeli border, but said they did not plan to move closer, minimizing the chance of clashes.

Likewise, authorities in Lebanon and Jordan said they would keep demonstrators far from the Israeli border. Several thousand protesters were expected in each place. It was not clear whether protesters would gather in Syria, which is in the midst of an anti-regime uprising that has killed thousands.

Land Day commemorates an event in 1976, when Israeli Arab protests against land confiscation turned deadly. Since then, it has been used a rallying cry for Israeli Arabs and Palestinians to highlight what they say are Israel's discriminatory policies that have seen their lands confiscated in Israel and in the West Bank, mostly to be utilized by Jewish Israelis.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2110595,00.html#ixzz1qbTKFHLi

Jailed Palestinian leader Barghouti urges resistance

From his prison cell, Marwan Barghouti has remained an influential figure

BBC News

27 March 2012 

Last updated at 08:02 ET

A jailed leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement, Marwan Barghouti, has called for a new wave of civil resistance against Israel.

In a message sent from Hadrim prison in Israel, Barghouti said the "launch of large-scale popular resistance at this stage serves the cause of our people".

He also called on the the Palestinian Authority had to halt immediately all co-ordination with Israel.

Barghouti was convicted on five counts of murder by an Israeli court in 2004.

But the trial turned him into household name and he enjoys widespread support among all Palestinian factions.

If Barghouti were ever released, many believe he would be a favourite to succeed to Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian Authority president.
'Marketing an illusion'

Barghouti, the former leader of Fatah in the West Bank and chief of its armed wing, the Tanzim, issued his call ahead of the 10th anniversary of his detention by Israel.

Thousands of Palestinians are expected to protest against the Israeli government's land policies later in the week in an occasion know as Land Day.

"The launch of large-scale popular resistance at this stage serves the cause of our people," Barghouti said.

"Stop marketing the illusion that there is a possibility of ending the occupation and achieving a state through negotiations after this vision has failed miserably."

"It must be understood that there is no partner for peace in Israel when the settlements have doubled," he said.

It is the Palestinian people's right to oppose the occupation in all means, and the resistance must be focused on the 1967 territories."

Barghouti also said the Palestinian Authority had to halt immediately "all co-ordination with Israel - economic and security - and work toward Palestinian reconciliation", rather than a peace agreement.

He called instead for "a renewal of efforts" to achieve recognition of Palestinian statehood, which was blocked at the UN Security Council by the US last year.

"The PA must turn to the UN General Assembly and the rest of its agencies."

Barghouti was arrested by Israeli troops in Ramallah in April 2002 and first appeared in an Israeli court the following August - charged with the killing of 26 people.

Throughout his trial, he refused to recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli court. His lawyers insisted he was only a political leader.

In 2004, Barghouti was convicted on the murder of four Israelis and a Greek monk, as well as attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, and membership of a terrorist organisation.

The court found there was insufficient evidence connecting him to the 21 other deaths.

From his prison cell, Barghouti has remained an influential figure, helping negotiate a short-lived truce declared by militant groups in 2003, and several other agreements.

U.N. Human Rights Council to probe Israeli settlements-Israel doesn't want this

March 22, 2012 3:13 PM

Israel condemns UN settlement probe

JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister has rejected a vote by a U.N. body to send a team to investigate Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Benjamin Netanyahu issued his statement Thursday after the U.N. Human Rights Council voted for the inquiry.

"This is a hypocritical council with an automatic majority against Israel," Netanyahu said. "This council ought to be ashamed of itself. Until today, the council has made 91 decisions, 39 of which dealt with Israel, three with Syria and one with Iran," he said.

On Thursday the council approved four other resolutions critical of Israel.

Some 300,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, an area Palestinians claim as part of a state. Israel says the issue must be resolved in peace talks.

Israel stacks the legal deck

A Palestinian woman holds a poster with a drawing depicting baker and activist Khader Adnan with a locked mouth. Adnan captured headlines recently for a 66-day hunger strike that led him to the brink of death. (Bernat Armangue / AP Photo)

L.A. Times
Op-Ed
March 07, 2012|By George Bisharat

Its court system provides little justice for Palestinians.

Palestinian baker and activist Khader Adnan captured headlines recently for a 66-day hunger strike that led him to the brink of death. His ordeal began in the dead of night on Dec. 17, 2011, when Israeli soldiers broke down the door of his West Bank home. Adnan was arrested before his terrified wife and daughters, and was reportedly abused verbally and physically upon detention and later in interrogation.

Adnan was never tried but instead faced administrative detention. Israeli prosecutors presented secret evidence to a military judge, who then ordered a four-month detention. Adnan is widely believed to be a leader in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which Israel considers a terrorist organization. The government, however, lacked evidence that he was directly involved in terrorist attacks. Adnan's protest against Israel's unjust legal practices ended after an agreement between his lawyers and prosecutors to release him April 17 barring substantial new evidence.

Adnan's case was unique for the extreme sacrifice he offered and the public attention it earned. Yet Israeli military courts, established after Israel's 1967 seizure of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, have imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including men, women and children, in similarly unfair proceedings, as documented by Lisa Hajjar in her book, "Courting Conflict: the Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza."

To Palestinians, Israeli military courts are sites of repression, not houses of justice. Palestinian defendants facing trial in 2010 were found guilty in 99.74% cases, according to Israel Defense Forces documentation. Proceedings are conducted in Hebrew, which few Palestinians speak. Judges and prosecutors answer to higher military authority, denying military tribunals full independence. Courts may renew administrative detentions in six-month increments indefinitely. Some Palestinians have been so detained for years, never having enjoyed the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses nor even to know the evidence against them.

Such evidence is frequently provided by Palestinian informers recruited by Israeli authorities, often through exploitation of the vulnerable. For example, Palestinians seeking advanced medical care that is unavailable in their own less-developed hospitals are sometimes pressured to collaborate in exchange for permits to enter Israel for treatment, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. Credible allegations of torture and physical abuse of detainees gathered by such groups as the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel also continue to dog the military court system, despite a 1999 Israeli High Court of Justice decision barring four forms of torture previously used by interrogators. Evidence derived through informers is notoriously unreliable. Physically coerced statements are no more reliable: Those undergoing torture often say anything to alleviate their pain.

The quip often credited to Georges Clemenceau — "Military justice is to justice as military music is to music" — springs to mind. Yet the injustices of Israel's legal treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank cannot be so blithely dismissed. The crude procedures of military courts may be tolerable during brief military occupations. Israel's occupation of the West Bank is anything but brief.

Moreover, Palestinian litigants have fared scarcely better in Israeli civilian courts, including its vaunted High Court. There, suits to defend Palestinian rights routinely fail. Most recently, the High Court denied a petition that would have barred Israeli corporations from exploiting West Bank natural resources such as water, gravel and stone for Israeli use.

In the Jordan Valley, 10,000 Israeli settlers were allocated 18 times the water per capita that native Palestinians were allocated in 2008, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. Restricted access to water and other natural resources has doubtless contributed to the dwindling Palestinian population in the Jordan Valley, from as many as 320,000 in 1967 to 56,000 in 2009. In leaving discriminatory allocations of resources undisturbed, the High Court functions as a tool of colonization.

Israel is a colonial power that is still expanding in an era of human rights and mass-media scrutiny. Its methods for clearing land for settlement are necessarily different than those of earlier colonial powers, which sometimes employed genocide and ethnic cleansing. Israel made the most of its opportunities by denying return to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled from their homes or were forcibly expelled by Israeli forces in the wars of 1948 and 1967. Thereafter, its inexorable takeover of Palestinian lands and other resources has assumed primarily bureaucratic form, with its courts providing a veneer of legality. But the end result — the displacement of a native population in favor of settlers — is the same.

Israeli courts may provide justice to Jews living in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories. But a legal system that is fair to one ethno-religious group while trampling the rights of others deserves to be recognized for what it is: a handmaiden to apartheid.

Our own government, by running diplomatic interference for Israel and providing it billions in military aid, is complicit in the entrenchment of Israel's variant of ethno-religious discrimination. Why we support practices that subvert our interests and defy our values is a question that every American should ponder.

George Bisharat is a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and writes frequently about law and politics in the Middle East.

Palestinian female detainees tell horrific stories of abuse in Israeli prisons

Women show their solidarity with Hanaa Shalabi, a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike to protest her detention by Israel, at a rally in Palestine. (File photo)


Al Arabiya
Thursday, 08 March 2012

By Amjad Samhan
Al Arabiya Ramallah

Throughout the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, around 800,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli authorities, more than 10,000 of whom are women. Many of those female detainees were subjected to several forms of abuse, sexual in particular, but very few were willing to talk. On the eve of International Women’s Day, however, some decided to break their silence.

S.H., who refused to disclose her full name, was arrested for a few days to put pressure on her husband, also detained at the time, and extract confessions from him.

“They striped me and the officer who was interrogating me sat beside me and tried to molest me but I resisted,” she told Al Arabiya.

Hanaa Shalabi, the 30-year-old prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for 21 days in protest of the humiliation to which she was subjected in detention, said that an officer in civil clothes claimed he was a nurse at the prison and asked her to take off her clothes so he could search her.

“When I refused, he called other officers who tied me up and started beating me,” she said in a statement to the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

Shalabi’s lawyer Mahmoud Hassan said that one of the female officers wanted her to take off all her clothes in front of the other interrogators for the search.

“She kept refusing until the officer had to search her in the bathroom but threatened to retaliate against her,” he said in statement, of which Al Arabiya obtained a copy.

Hassan added that his client’s hands and legs were illegally tied during the trial.
Shalabi, who has so far lost 10 kilos, vowed to go on the hunger strike until she is released. She was sentenced to six months in jail and the sentence was reduced to four months, but no clear charges were leveled against her.

According to former detainee Iman Nafea, Israeli authorities abuse female prisoners all the time if not physically then at least verbally.

“In many cases, they search female prisoners after forcing them to take off their clothes. This is very humiliating even if it is done by a female officer because it shows there are bad intentions.”

Nafea argued that Israeli officers do not need to get prisoners naked to search them properly because they have advanced equipment that can reveal what is under the skin.

Nafea added that Israeli officers do not necessarily harass Palestinian detainees through direct physical contact with them, but they use other forms of sexual abuse.

“I know of a Palestinian woman who was assaulted with a club and several others who were constantly threatened with rape.”

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, which is an official holiday in Palestine, Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs Magda al-Masry stated that women have always been an integral part of the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

“This struggle is manifested in the plight of female detainees like Hanaa Shalabi,” she told Al Arabiya.

Masry added that the Palestinian government should take a firm stance on the naked search of Palestinian female detainees.

“This violates all human rights laws and the world has to break its silence.”
All Palestinian women, stressed Masry, will mark International Women’s Day by declaring solidarity with Shalabi.

“We will all support her until Israeli occupation forces release her.”

Several Israeli human rights organizations filed 17 complaints on behalf of Palestinian female detainees who accused Israeli officers of sexual harassment.

According to the organizations, the Israeli military prosecution is currently looking into the complaints.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)

US, Israel play-acting with a purpose

The core of all this anti-Iran brouhaha is regime change. It's the same strategy used by America and its allies to invade Iraq
 
By Linda S. Heard,
Special to Gulf News

Published: 00:00 March 6, 2012

Interesting scenario being concocted between Tel Aviv and Washington! Apparently, we are meant to believe that the Obama administration is going all out to restrain Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from pre-emptively striking Iran's nuclear sites.

If we're gullible enough to swallow the message put out by the US and Israeli media, we might imagine that Netanyahu is furious over President Barack Obama's reticence to trigger conflict and is preparing for his country to go it alone — without alerting the White House in advance. What a joke that is!

In reality, there isn't a hair's breadth of difference between US and Israeli foreign policy on this issue. Neither government can afford to fall out with the other; their relationship is incestuous.

The US is Israel's only friend in the region and one of the few it has worldwide. And Obama needs to keep the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and the other pro-Israel US lobbying organisations happy if he wants to get re-elected. Moreover, the aims of both are the same. The official version is that neither Israel nor America can allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons capability. But that isn't what they fear the most.

In the first place, there's no proof that Tehran seeks a nuclear bomb. Secondly, US National Intelligence estimates tell us that Iran binned its nuclear weapons ambitions in 2003. Thirdly even if Iran had a bomb, it would be used only as a deterrent. The ayatollahs would have to be deranged to nuke Tel Aviv in the knowledge that repercussions would be swift and merciless.

Furthermore, a nuclear strike on Israel would also kill Arab Israelis and Palestinians, while the fall-out would likely affect Iran's friends in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. The heart of all this anti-Iran brouhaha is regime change. But that is not a casus belli under international law and violates the United Nations Charter. What's happening now is deja vu. It's exactly the same strategy used by the US and its allies to invade Iraq.

Fragile ties

That's not to say that Iran isn't dangerous from Israel's perspective when it gives financial and military support to Israel's enemies — Hezbollah, Hamas and the Bashar Al Assad regime in Syria. Iran is also encouraging Shiite communities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to rise up and is dangling its wealth to lure Egypt into its sphere of influence when Egyptian-American relations are fragile.

Should Cairo fall to Iran, Israel's situation would, indeed, be precarious. The Camp David Peace Treaty would be annulled, Egypt would be free to expand its army, Israel's blockade on Gaza would no longer be effective and the Palestinians would be greatly emboldened to launch a Third Intifada, which according to the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is currently being considered.

Returning to the duplicitous propaganda of Washington and Tel Aviv, this is nothing but a good cop, bad cop play with a dual purpose. You can just imagine the American public's uproar if Obama initiated a new major war that would endanger US bases throughout the region, send petrol prices through the roof and further dent the economy when a rising number of Americans are surviving on food stamps.

Yesterday, Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with Obama in Washington. It is thought the Israeli leader will ask his US counterpart for the green light to attack Iran. In any event, even if Obama gives him the wink, I doubt that conversation will be made public.

In reality, the conflict is already raging beginning with the Stuxnet and Duqu viruses that have infected Iranian computers, the assassination of four Iranian nuclear scientists, the explosion at an Iranian Revolutionary Guards military base — and US and EU anti-Iranian sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry and banking.

For its part, Iran has terminated oil exports to the UK and France, has carried out a series of military and naval exercises in the Gulf region, has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and may be behind the recent attempted assassinations of Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia and Thailand.

One thing is sure: if Israel does strike Iran, the US will act in tandem; at the very least it will supply Israel with every logistical requirement. More likely, the two allies will go for gold, together taking out as many Iranian nuclear facilities as they can.

Obama can then tell his compatriots and the world that he did his best to stop Netanyahu in his tracks but when push came to shove he had to ensure the survival of the Jewish State.

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com Some of the comments may be considered for publication.

Killer Tornadoes

most recent tornado video from BBC

3 NC kids survive tornado pulling them from home

Published March 05, 2012

Associated Press

• inShare

CHARLOTTE, N.C. –  A North Carolina family says three children were ripped from their beds by a tornado, throwing one about 100 feet away along a fence lining a highway. All have been released from hospitals and are back with relatives.

Latonya Stevens says her 7-year-old son Jamal was sucked from his room as a tornado tore apart the family home's second floor where he slept. It was one of nearly 200 homes damaged by the storm in the Charlotte area.

A neighbor found Jamal about 100 feet away, tossed to the far side of a fence along Interstate 485.

His 3-year-old sister Amber and 4-year-old Ayanna were released from a hospital on Sunday. Amber was found in her home's yard under some debris. Ayanna landed in a neighbor's yard.

I took this picture of the tornado cloud that Sparky and I chased previously like idiots storm chaser wannabes across dirt farm roads outside Ogallalah, Nebraska, last year. The cloud formation was about 2 miles away and I asked Sparky to play his drum and call in the Thunder Beings which he did and lo and behold! I kid you not, seven funnels came down from that cloud but none reached the ground and they evaporated fairly quickly. The sky overhead was just amazing, circular cloud formation with rolling thunder and lightening in them and with winds coming into the center from all four directions at once. Then the cloud formation headed slowly toward Ogallalah, Neb, and the motel where we were staying with storm warnings going off on our TVs every 2 minutes warning residents to seek shelters and interior rooms which we did. It made me think on the way back home to California why don't these people all have concrete storm shelters? I thought of the concrete water tanks that only needed lids and doorway to make into a tornado proof shelter. Somebody could clean up in such businesses manufacturing ready-made storm shelters. I checked later and saw there are quite a few concrete storm shelter mfg. but there wasn't that many places with them I found out from our friend Bridgit's brother who lives outside of Kearney. Tornado ran right by their place the year before. I hope the shelters catch on more and save more lives.

Israel shuts down Palestinian TV in raid

By Paul Colsey, CNN
updated 6:30 AM EST, Wed February 29, 2012

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli security forces and intelligence officers raided a Palestinian television station overnight and took computers, tapes, transmitters and paperwork, the director of the station said Wednesday.

The raid began at 2 a.m., Wattan TV director Muamar Orabi said.

"Four night-shift employees were detained for more than three hours inside the offices after their mobile phones were taken," he added.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the raid had taken place.

Israeli Ministry of Communications spokesman Yehiel Shavi said Wattan broadcasts "were interfering with the signals of Israeli broadcasters" and said the interference had been stopped "with the assistance of the IDF."

The IDF said repeated requests had been made to Wattan to stop their broadcasts because they interfere with Israeli broadcasters and flight communications at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

But Orabi said his station had never received a complaint about transmission frequencies, and said the response was disproportionate even if that was the reason for the raid.

"Why destroy the TV station when they could have just confiscated the two transmitters?" he asked.

"This is not the first time this has happened. Wattan TV was destroyed 10 years ago, in March 2002," he said.

The station called the raid an act of piracy and vowed to continue its work.

"Wattan TV deplores this aggressive behavior against an efficient and effective media organization and will work through its contacts with local and international media and human rights organizations to expose this criminal act," the station said in a statement. "Wattan will work on restoring all the stolen equipment and transmitters and continue interrupted broadcasting."

CNN's Enas Muthaffar contributed to this report

Iran Accuses West of Double Standard on Nuclear Weapons

Voice of America
February 28, 2012
Lisa Schlein | Geneva

 In this photo released by the Iranian President's Office, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, is escorted by technicians during a tour of Tehran's research reactor center in northern Tehran, Iran, February 15, 2012.

With tensions high over whether Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, Iran on Tuesday repeated that it is open to talks on its nuclear program, and it accused the West of a double standard on the nuclear issue.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program as he addressed the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

He called for nuclear disarmament worldwide - saying the gravest threat to sustainable security is the existence of thousands of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of a few countries.

Western countries and Israel fear that Iran, despite its denials, is trying to join that group of nuclear-armed nations.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has "major differences" and "major concerns" with Iran over its nuclear program and possible weapons development.

U.N. inspectors said their latest visit to Tehran, aimed at gaining greater access to key nuclear sites and scientists, ended in failure.

On Tuesday, Salehi told the U.N. conference that Iran will continue to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. He said other countries have two choices on how to deal with this program.

“One way is engagement, cooperation and interaction, and the other is confrontation and conflict. The Islamic Republic of Iran, confident of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, has always insisted on the first alternative," said Salehi. "When it comes to our relevant rights and obligations, our consistent position is that Iran does not seek confrontation, nor does it want anything beyond its inalienable legitimate rights.”

Salehi said the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed, upholds the right of member states to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

He criticized the sanctions placed on Iran by nations that fear Iran's nuclear intentions are not peaceful.

“Monopolizing selfishly the scientific knowledge and the technology of peaceful nuclear energy and depriving others from it through various means including atrocious assassination of scientists is an illusion, which will certainly not lead to the preservation of their perceived supremacy,” said Salehi.

Salehi was referring to the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist last month. Iran blames the killing on Israel.

The Iranian foreign minister accused the West of double standards and discrimination in supporting Israel, which has not joined the NPT and is widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, although it has never confirmed having a nuclear arsenal.
The U.S. ambassador to the disarmament conference, Laura Kennedy, cast doubt on Iran’s nuclear program. She said the Iranian minister’s stated commitment to nuclear disarmament stands in stark contrast to Iran’s failure to comply with its international obligations.

She said Iran has just expanded its ability to enrich uranium and noted Tehran continues to deny U.N. inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities.


It's amazing to see this concerted political attack on Iran's nuclear program orchestrated by Israel which is actually the supreme villainous military entity that has developed nuclear weapons in secret and refuses any international inspection of its nuclear facilities. Israel never has let any outside agencies in and Israel is the record holder for non-compliance with U.N. resolutions. Why do we turn a blind eye to Israel? Because Israel is running our American foreign policy with Zionists positioned throughout the Bush/Obama administrations and acting as a 5th Column in America to get the U.S. to do Israel's bidding.

Report: Millions of White House dollars helped pay for NYPD Muslim surveillance

Published February 27, 2012
Associated Press

WASHINGTON –  Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.

The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, known as HIDTA.

Some of that money -- it's unclear exactly how much because the program has little oversight -- has paid for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons and social events.

When NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly was filled in on these efforts, his briefings were prepared on HIDTA computers.

The AP confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on HIDTA computers. The HIDTA grant program is overseen by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The disclosure that the White House is at least partially paying for the NYPD's wholesale surveillance of places where Muslims eat, shop, work and pray complicates efforts by the Obama administration to stay out of the fray over New York's controversial counterterrorism programs. The administration has championed outreach to American Muslims and has said law enforcement should not put entire communities under suspicion.

The Obama administration, however, has pointedly refused to endorse or repudiate the NYPD programs it helps pay for. The White House last week declined to comment on its grant payments.

John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, last year called the NYPD's efforts "heroic" but would not elaborate. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department also gives grant money to the NYPD and is one of the lead federal agencies helping police build relationships with Muslims, has refused in recent months to discuss the police tactics. Tom Perez, the Justice Department's top civil rights lawyer, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the NYPD.

Outside Washington, the NYPD's efforts drew increased criticism last week. College administrators at Yale, Columbia and elsewhere issued harsh rebukes for NYPD's infiltration of Muslim student groups and its monitoring of school websites. New Jersey's governor and the mayor of its largest city have complained about the NYPD's widespread surveillance there, outside New York's police jurisdiction.

The White House HIDTA grant program was established at the height of the drug war to help police fight drug gangs and unravel supply routes. It has provided about $2.3 billion to local authorities in the past decade.

After the terror attacks, law enforcement was allowed to use some of that money to fight terrorism. It's unclear how much HIDTA money has been used to pay for the intelligence division, in part because NYPD intelligence operations receive scant oversight in New York.

Congress, which approves the money for the program, is not provided with a detailed breakdown of activities. None of the NYPD's clandestine programs is cited in the New York-New Jersey region's annual reports to Congress between 2006 and 2010.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not respond to questions the AP sent to him in two emails about the White House money and the department's intelligence division.

Most of the money from the White House grants in New York and New Jersey has been spent fighting drugs, said Chauncey Parker, director of the program there. He said less than $1.3 million was spent on vehicles used by the NYPD intelligence unit.

"Those cars are used to collect and analyze counterterrorism information with the goal of preventing a terrorist attack in New York City or anywhere else," Parker said. "If it's been used for specific counterterrorism effort, then it's been used to pay for those cars."

Former police officials told the AP those vehicles have been used to photograph mosques and record the license plates of worshippers.

In addition to paying for the cars, the White House money pays for part of the office space the intelligence division shares with other agencies in Manhattan.

When police compiled lists of Muslims who took new, Americanized names, they kept those records on HIDTA computer servers. That was ongoing as recently as October, city officials said.

Many NYPD intelligence officers, including those that conducted surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods, had HIDTA email addresses. Briefing documents for Kelly, the police commissioner, were compiled on HIDTA computers. Those documents described what police informants were hearing inside mosques and which academic conferences Muslim scholars attended.

When police wanted to pay a confidential informant, they were told to sign onto the HIDTA website to file the paperwork, according to a 2007 internal document obtained by the AP.

Parker said the White House grant money was never used to pay any of the NYPD intelligence division's confidential informants. The HIDTA computer systems, he said, are platforms that allow different law enforcement agencies to share information and work.

"I am shocked to hear that federal dollars may have helped finance the NYPD's misguided efforts to spy on Muslims in America," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., one of 34 members of Congress who have asked the Justice Department and House Judiciary Committee to investigate the NYPD.

The connection between NYPD and the White House anti-drug grant program surfaced years ago, during a long-running civil rights lawsuit against police. Civil rights attorneys asked in court about a "demonstration debriefing form" that police used whenever they arrested people for civil disobedience. The form carried the seal of both the NYPD Intelligence Division and HIDTA.

A city lawyer downplayed any connection. She said the NYPD and HIDTA not only shared office space, they also shared office supplies like paper. The NYPD form with the seal of a White House anti-drug program was "a recycled piece of paper that got picked up and modified," attorney Gail Donoghue told a federal judge in 2003.

The issue died in court and was never pursued further.

Last week, the controversy over NYPD's programs drew one former Obama administration official into the discussion.

After the AP revealed an extensive program to monitor Muslims in Newark, N.J., police there denied knowing anything about it. The Newark police director at the time, Garry McCarthy, has since moved on to lead Chicago's police department where President Barack Obama's first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is now the mayor.

"We don't do that in Chicago and we're not going to do that," Emanuel said last week.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the NYPD surveillance in his state was "disturbing" and has asked the attorney general to investigate. Christie was New Jersey's top federal prosecutor and sat on the HIDTA executive board during 2006 and 2007 when the NYPD was conducting surveillance in New Jersey cities. Christie said he didn't know that, in 2007, the NYPD catalogued every mosque and Muslim business in Newark, the state's largest city.

"I kind of think I would have remembered that," he said on Fox Business News last week.

Why has Obama turned out to be another Clinton sell-out to Zionists? Can no one get elected to high office in the U.S. who is not in Israel's pocket? So it would seem. How long do we have to wait for America to become the America Americans can be proud of anywhere in the world? Every decade I've lived I seen America's image of a haven for democracy ruined by take-over by self-serving politicians who cave in to anyone who's got the money to pay for their elitist lifestyle needs. I voted for Obama but next time it will be for Kucinich who still has integrity.

EU report calls for action against Israeli settlements

18 January 2012 Last updated at 09:19 ET
By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem

The European Commission is being urged to consider drafting legislation to ensure financial transactions by EU member states do not support Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.

The proposal is made in a confidential report by top EU diplomats in the area.

The report says "the systematic increase in settlement activity" undermines a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

It also describes a "deteriorating situation on the ground".

The EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem, which was sent to Brussels this week and was leaked to the BBC, builds on earlier reports that also criticised Israeli policies.

In a long list of recommendations, it suggests that the Commission proposes "appropriate EU legislation to prevent/discourage financial transactions in support of settlement activity".

Settlements are considered illegal under international law although Israel disputes this.
Continue reading the main story
"The EU treats these serial reports in the best possible way - they are discussed briefly, their absurd recommendations are disregarded and the reports are quickly shelved”

Yigal Palmor Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman

The EU document argues that Israel is "actively perpetuating its annexation" of Arab East Jerusalem, which it captured in 1967, by "systematically undermining the Palestinian presence in the city".

It outlines the problems caused by "the continued expansion of settlements, restrictive zoning and planning, ongoing demolitions and evictions, an inequitable education policy, difficult access to health care, the inadequate provision of resources and investment and the precarious residency issue".

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state, but Israel is determined that Jerusalem be its undivided capital.

'Facts on the ground'

Palestinian officials are reluctant to respond to the report because it has not been published.

However, speaking on condition of anonymity one told the BBC: "We think it shows facts on the ground that nobody can dispute. We now expect European capitals to implement the recommendations."

The Israeli foreign ministry's spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said there had been no consultation with Israel on the subject and that it was "therefore the result of an extremely dubious methodology".

"The EU treats these serial reports in the best possible way - they are discussed briefly, their absurd recommendations are disregarded and the reports are quickly shelved," he added.

This document follows a number of strongly-worded European statements and reports that have come to light in recent days.

On Monday, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, condemned settlements as "an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise upon which negotiations have taken place for years".

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, who is visiting the UK, described Mr Clegg's comments as "ill-informed" and "irresponsible", saying they gave the Palestinians an excuse to set pre-conditions on negotiations with Israel on a peace settlement.

An internal EU report leaked last week was very critical of Israel's policies and planning rules in "Area C", the 62% of the West Bank which it fully controls.

A French parliamentary report also described Israel's water policies in the occupied Palestinian territories as a form of "apartheid", because they give preferential treatment to Jewish settlers. The comments were welcomed by the head of the Palestinian Water Authority.

Tent of Nations Told to Stop Working its Own Land – Be Ready to Act!

Friends of Tent of Nations has just shared this upsetting letter from Daoud Nasser (above left):

From Shalom Rav
A Blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen
Posted on February 21, 2012 |


 Dear Friends,

    Today, the 14th of  February at 1.30 PM and as we were working on our land, specifically in the tree of life orchard, we found on three different places ,  papers with maps signed by the civil administration of Judea and Samaria which is the Israeli military government.

    The papers say that we have to stop working  on the land specified on the map, because they declared it as a state land. According to them, this land doesn’t belong to us but it is a state land and we are cultivating it. The papers also say  that if we want to challenge this order, we can appeal against it within 45 days in front of the military representative office.

    It is a shock to receive something like that after 21 years of legal battle defending our land and the right to it in front of Israeli courts.

    We sent those papers to our attorney in Jerusalem and he is going to appeal against it within the next days.

    This is just to inform you about what happened today, please be aware that the situation might get worse, please be prepared in case actions are needed. In the meanwhile, our attorney will appeal against it and we will see what kind of reaction we receive”

    We will keep you updated and will inform you about our next steps and how you can help.

    Thank you so  much for your support and solidarity. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

    Blessings and Salaam.

Readers of my blog should be well acquainted with my friend and personal hero Daoud Nasser. Last year I wrote about Tent of Nations and my visit, together with twenty JRC congregants, with Daoud on his family farm.

This new development is just the latest in a long history of harassment courtesy of the military administration in the West Bank – an institution that provides the shameful “legal” cover for Israel’s outright theft of Palestinian lands. Please stand by – I will forward any further news from Daoud and let you know how you can act on his behalf.

 

Tent of Nation outside of Bethlehem, Palestine, has adopted Paxcalibur as it's official logo so I therefore have a personal stake in supporting this great Palestinian Christian peace activist organization. This action by Israel against Tent of Nations showcases Israeli Apartheid ethnic cleansing in action. Anyone wishing to help Tent of Nations check out their blog links and do what you can to support Palestinian right to their own land.

Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan 'ends hunger strike'

BBC News
21 February 2012
Last updated at 08:36 ET



A Palestinian prisoner has ended his 66-day hunger strike over his detention by Israel in a deal that will see him released in two months, officials say.

The Israeli justice ministry said it had decided to end Khader Adnan's "administrative detention", but that he would remain in custody until 17 April.

Mr Adnan has not eaten since December, when he was arrested in the West Bank.

He is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, which Israel has designated a terrorist organisation.

The Israeli military has said that Mr Adnan - a 33-year-old baker - was arrested "for activities that threaten regional security".

Earlier this month, an Israeli military court ordered that Mr Adnan be placed for four months in administrative detention. Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.
'Imminent danger of death'

Mr Adnan has been refusing food since 18 December - one day after he was detained at his home in the village of Arabah - in protest at what he says was a violent arrest as well as humiliating interrogation sessions.

On Tuesday, Mr Adnan's lawyers had been due to petition the Israeli Supreme Court for his release when the Israeli justice ministry announced that it had reached a deal that would see him eventually released.

"[Khader Adnan] will stop his hunger strike. They will not extend his administrative detention and he will be free on 17 April," a justice ministry spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency.

On Friday, the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition, warned that he was "in immediate danger of death", adding that he had suffered "significant muscular atrophy".

Human rights groups also criticised the conditions in which he was being held at Ziv hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed, where he was shackled to his bed by chains on both legs and one arm.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc was following Mr Adnan's case with "great concern."

"Detainees have the right to be informed about the charges underlying any detention and be subject to a fair trial," she added.

Thousands of Palestinians also took to the streets of the Gaza Strip and West Bank to demand Mr Adnan's release, while Islamic Jihad had promised revenge if he was allowed to die by the Israeli authorities.

It is unclear whether Mr Adnan has ever participated in any attacks by the Iranian-backed militant group, which has killed dozens of Israelis.

Palestinians rally in support of hunger strike prisoner

BBC News
17 February 2012
Last updated at 12:50 ET

                                          Palestinians rally in support of hunger strike prisoner

Mr Adnan is protesting against what he says was a violent arrest
Thousands have rallied in Gaza and the West Bank in support of a Palestinian on the 62nd day of a hunger strike in protest at his detention by Israel.

All the main factions were represented at the Gaza demonstration, where crowds chanted: "We are all Khader Adnan."

Mr Adnan has not had food since mid-December, when Israeli security forces raided his home in the West Bank.

He is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, which Israel has designated a terrorist organisation.

The Israeli military has said that Mr Adnan - a 33-year-old baker - was arrested "for activities that threaten regional security". It has not given further details.

Earlier this month, an Israeli military court ordered that Mr Adnan be placed for four months in "administrative detention". Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.
'Immediate danger of death'

Mr Adnan has been refusing food since 18 December - one day after he was detained - in protest at what he says was a violent arrest as well as humiliating interrogation sessions.

On Friday, the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition, said he was "in immediate danger of death", adding that he had suffered "significant muscular atrophy".

"There is a risk to his health even if he starts eating now because his system has got used to not having any food at all," a spokesman added.

At least 5,000 people meanwhile took to the streets of Gaza City, waving a mixture of black Islamic Jihad flags, the green flags of the Islamist movement Hamas, and the yellow flags of the secular Fatah movement.

"The Palestinian people, with all its components and its factions, will never abandon the hero prisoners, especially those who lead this hunger strike battle," said Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniya.

Senior Islamic Jihad leader Nafiz Azzam said Mr Adnan was "not fighting for a personal cause, but for the defence of thousands of prisoners".

Hundreds of Palestinians also demonstrated in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, while Palestinian officials said many other prisoners in Is

Gaza's only power station closes

Political instabiilty in Egypt is believed to have reduced fuel supplies to the power plant

BBC News
14 February 2012
Last updated at 08:05 ET

By Jon Donnison
BBC News, Gaza City

The authorities in Gaza say the Palestinian territory's only power station has shut down because of a lack of fuel.

The closure is believed to be caused by a shortage in fuel being supplied through smuggling tunnels from Egypt.

Power cuts, already common, are expected to increase. The station provides around 30-40% of Gaza's electricity.

The rest of the electricity used by the territory is supplied by Israel.

The Gaza Power Company said the strip would soon be "swimming in a sea of darkness".

Supplies of fuel smuggled into the territory have diminished due to the recent Egyptian political unrest.

Many families and businesses have private generators to avoid the blackouts. But fuel for those is also hard to come by.

This week long queues can be seen outside petrol stations with people worried about filling up their cars.

A statement from the power station called on Egypt to allow more fuel to pass through the tunnels. It also blamed Israel's continuing blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Israel and Egypt imposed sanctions on Gaza after the Islamist movement Hamas came to power in 2007.

Last year Egypt eased restrictions allowing people to travel more easily, but all legal trade is still forbidden and the tunnel industry continues to thrive.

Haniyeh calls Israel ‘cancer that’s threatening to spread’

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Jerusalem Post
02/14/2012 01:30

Rounding up a three-day visit to Iran, Hamas prime minister says Israel remains "main enemy" of Arab, Islamic world; reiterates Hamas refusal to recognize, compromise with Israel; denies tension with Iran over Assad.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh continued Monday to issue fiery statements about Israel, which he compared to a cancer that is threatening to spread to other parts of the body.

Rounding up a three-day visit to Iran, Haniyeh said in an interview with an Iranian TV station that Israel remained the “main enemy” of the Arab and Islamic world.

Reiterating Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel or compromise on Palestinian rights, Haniyeh praised Iran for its “unconditional support” for the Palestinians and his movement.

Iran’s stance toward the Palestinian issue is a strategic one, the Hamas leader said.

“Iran’s support for the resistance and the Palestinian people stems from an Islamic commitment and belief and moral and political values.”

Haniyeh pointed out that Iran supported the Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip more than three years ago.

“The reality is that the Palestinians are under occupation and the Islamic Republic of Iran has faithfully heeded their appeal for help,” he said. “Iran never asked for anything in return for its support.”

He also denied reports about tensions between Hamas and Iran over the situation in Syria.

With regards to last week’s Qatari-brokered reconciliation accord between Hamas and Fatah, Haniyeh expressed hope the two sides would be able to form a Palestinian unity government in the near future.

The proposed unity government, he said, would consist of Palestinian technocrats and would not deal with political issues or negotiations with Israel.

Instead, the unity government would focus on lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip, preparing for presidential and parliamentary elections and rebuilding the Gaza Strip, Haniyeh said.

On Monday, Haniyeh arrived in Abu Dhabi, where he was received by the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.

In addition to Iran and the UAE, Haniyeh’s current tour has taken him to Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Sources close to Hamas said Haniyeh may also visit Saudi Arabia later this week.

This is Haniyeh’s second tour outside Gaza since Hamas seized control of the Strip in 2007. Last month, he visited Egypt, Sudan, Turkey and Tunisia.

Arabs support Palestinian call for peace conference

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abass (R) shakes hands with Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem (AFP, Khaled Desouki)

(AFP) – 1 hour ago 

CAIRO — Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday supported a Palestinian request for an international peace conference aimed at reaching a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a statement after talks, they stressed "the importance of holding an international peace conference on the Palestinian issue." The international meeting would seek "an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories and to reach a comprehensive solution to the issues of borders, security, Jerusalem and refugees based on the Arab peace initiative." The statement came after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas addressed the Arab League's Follow-Up Committee, which tracks Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
The League statement also called on its members to contribute financially to support the Palestinian Authority with $100 million a month.

The 22-member body said the funds were needed "in light of the financial strain on the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian people, with Israel not transferring the rightful money of the Palestinian Authority."
The Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas has warned of financial crisis many times in recent months, in part because aid pledges by Arab nations have not been paid on time.
Speaking before Abbas addressed the organisation, Palestinian official Azzam al-Ahmad said the delegation would seek backing for an international peace conference, without giving further details.
"One of the proposals we will request from the Arab Follow-Up Committee is for a call to convene an international peace conference on the Palestinian issue," Ahmad told AFP in Ramallah by telephone.
Abbas addressed the organisation on Sunday afternoon, and warned that the current stalemate in negotiations with Israel could not continue.

"We will send letters to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and world leaders to determine the basis and the terms for the resumption of negotiations," he said.
He warned that if Israel failed to respond, the Palestinians would forge ahead instead with attempts to gain recognition as a full member of the United Nations, a bid opposed by the Jewish state.
Abbas also warned that the continued deadlock could have dire consequences for the Palestinian Authority.
"The current situation cannot continue as it is, that of an Authority without power," he said.
Abbas was in Cairo after five rounds of "exploratory" talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Amman. The discussions were sponsored by the peacemaking Quartet and intended to chart a return to direct negotiations, but they ended without a deal to continue talks.

The Palestinians say Israel failed to present its parameters for territory and security, as requested by the Quartet, and that they will not hold direct talks without a freeze of Israeli settlement activity.
They also want discussions on borders to be based on the lines that preceded the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel has urged the Palestinians to begin direct negotiations without preconditions.
The Quartet, which comprises the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia, has also said it wants to see talks resume, but officials -- including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- have called on Israel to provide the Palestinians with goodwill gestures in a bid to lure them back to talks.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. 

Woolly Mammoth to Be Cloned

Discovery News
Analysis by Jennifer Viegas
Mon Dec 5, 2011 04:56 PM ET

Within five years, a woolly mammoth will likely be cloned, according to scientists who have just recovered well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thigh bone. Japan's Kyodo News first reported the find. You can see photos of the thigh bone at this Kyodo page.

Russian scientist Semyon Grigoriev, acting director of the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum, and colleagues are now analyzing the marrow, which they extracted from the mammoth's femur, found in Siberian permafrost soil.

NEWS: All About the Ice Age

Grigoriev and his team, along with colleagues from Japan's Kinki University, have announced that they will launch a joint research project next year aimed at re-creating the enormous mammal, which went extinct around 10,000 years ago.

Mammoths used to be a common sight on the landscape of North America and Eurasia. One of my favorite papers of recent months concerned the earliest-known depiction of an animal from the Americas. It was a mammoth engraved on a mammoth bone. Many of our distant ancestors probably had regular face-to-face encounters with the elephant-like giants.

The key to cloning the woolly mammoth is to replace the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those extracted from the mammoth's bone marrow cells. Doing this, according to the researchers, can result in embryos with mammoth DNA. That's actually been known for a while.

NEWS: Prehistoric Dog Found With Mammoth Bone in Mouth

What's been missing is woolly mammoth nuclei with undamaged genes. Scientists have been on a Holy Grail-type search for such pristine nuclei since the late 1990s. Now it sounds like the missing genes may have been found.

In an odd twist, global warming may be responsible for the breakthrough.

Warmer temperatures tied to global warming have thawed ground in eastern Russia that is almost always permanently frozen. As a result, researchers have found a fair number of well-preserved frozen mammoths there, including the one that yielded the bone marrow.

Is it such a good idea, however, to clone animals that have long been extinct? For a while there's been some discussion of a real-life Jurassic Park setup containing such animals. Introducing these beasts into existing ecosystems could be like bringing in a potentially invasive species that would try to fill some space presently held by other animal(s). Even if the cloned animals were contained in special parks, there could still be a risk of spreading.

So if the woolly mammoth is successfully cloned sooner rather than later, we'd probably be left with more questions and controversy than answers, at least in the short term.