Decades of experience indicate that negotiations are useless if one of the parties is not interested in an agreement. Worse: negotiations can actually cause damage when one of the parties uses them to waste time while creating a false impression of progress towards peace.
In our conflict, peace negotiations have become a substitute for peace, a means to obstruct peace. They are an instrument used by successive Israeli governments to gain time – time to enlarge the settlements and entrench the occupationSunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Rabbinic Text or Call to Terror?
Rabbinic Text or Call to Terror?
By Daniel Estrin
January 22, 2010 "The Forward" - -January 20, 2010 - Jerusalem — The marble-patterned, hardcover book embossed with gold Hebrew letters looks like any other religious commentary you’d find in an Orthodox Judaica bookstore — but reads like a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.
“The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”
“The King’s Torah (Torat Hamelech), Part One: Laws of Life and Death between Israel and the Nations,” a 230-page compendium of Halacha, or Jewish religious law, published by the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar, garnered a front-page exposé in the Israeli tabloid Ma’ariv, which called it the stuff of “Jewish terror.”
Now, the yeshiva is in the news again, with a January 18 raid on Yitzhar by more than 100 Israeli security officials who forcibly entered Od Yosef Chai and arrested 10 Jewish settlers. The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, suspects five of those arrested were involved in the torching and vandalizing of a Palestinian mosque last month in the neighboring Palestinian village of Yasuf. The arson provoked an international outcry and condemnation by Israeli religious figures, including Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who visited the village to personally voice his regret.
Yet, both Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, have declined to comment on the book, which debuted in November, while other prominent rabbis have endorsed it — among them, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Jewry’s preeminent leader. Also, despite the precedent set by previous Israeli attorneys general in the last decade and a half to file criminal charges against settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting violence against non-Jews, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has so far remained mum about “The King’s Torah.”
“Sometimes the public arena deals with the phenomenon and things become settled by themselves,” Justice Ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen told the Forward.
A coalition of religious Zionist groups, the “Twelfth of Heshvan,”—– named after the Hebrew date of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to order Mazuz to confiscate the books and arrest its authors.
“You open the book, and you feel that you read a halachic book. And it’s a trap,” said Gadi Gvaryahu, a religious Jewish educator who heads the coalition. It was, in fact, “a guidebook [on] how to kill,” he charged.
Family members who answered phone calls placed to the homes of both authors said they did not wish to comment.
In 2008, author Shapira was suspected of involvement in a crude rocket attack directed at a Palestinian village. Israeli police investigated but made no arrests.
Co-author Elitzur wrote an article in a religious bulletin a month after the book’s release saying that “the Jews will win with violence against the Arabs.”
In 2003, the head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, was charged by then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a “cancer.”
In 2006-2007, the Israeli Ministry of Education gave about a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshiva, and in 2007-2008 the yeshiva received about $28,000 from the American nonprofit Central Fund of Israel.
“The King’s Torah” reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a minority of rabbis in the West Bank, said Avinoam Rosenak, a Hebrew University professor specializing in settler theology. Asher Cohen, a Bar Ilan University political science professor, thought its influence would be “zero” because it appeals only to extreme ideologues.
But the book’s wide dissemination and the enthusiastic endorsements of prominent rabbis have spotlighted what might have otherwise remained an isolated commentary.
At the entrance to Moriah, a large Jewish bookstore steps from the Western Wall, copies of “The King’s Torah” were displayed with children’s books and other halachic commentaries. The store manager, who identified himself only as Motti, said the tome has sold “excellently.”
Other stores carrying the book include Robinson Books, a well-known, mostly secular bookshop in a hip Tel Aviv shopping district; Pomeranz Bookseller, a major Jewish book emporium near the Ben Yehuda mall in downtown Jerusalem; and Felhendler, a Judaica store on the main artery of secular Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute.
The yeshiva declined to comment on publication statistics. But Itzik, a Tel Aviv-area book distributor hired by the yeshiva who declined to give his last name because of the book’s nature, said the yeshiva had sold 1,000 copies to individuals and bookstores countrywide. He said an additional 1,000 copies were now being printed.
Mendy Feldheim, owner of Feldheim Publishers, Israel’s largest Judaica publishing house, said he considered this a “nice” sales figure for a tome of rabbinic Halacha in Israel. He said his own company, which distributes to 200 bookstores nationwide, is not distributing “The King’s Torah” because the book’s publishers did not approach the company.
Prominent religious figures wrote letters of endorsement that preface the book. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, blessed the authors and wrote that many “disciples of Torah are unfamiliar with these laws.” The elder Yosef has not commented on his son’s statement.
Dov Lior, chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and a respected figure among many mainstream religious Zionists, noted that the book is “very relevant especially in this time.”
Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, one of the country’s most respected rabbinic commentators, initially endorsed the book, but rescinded his approval a month after its release, saying that the book includes statements that “have no place in human intelligence.”
A handful of settler rabbis echoed Goldberg’s censure, including Shlomo Aviner, chief rabbi of Beit El and head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, who said he had “no patience” to read the book, and spoke out against it to his students.
Previously, Israel has arrested settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting the killing of non-Jews. In addition to Ginsburgh, the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva head, in 1994, the government jailed Rabbi Ido Elba of Hebron for writing a 26-page article proclaiming it a “mitzva to kill every non-Jew from the nation that is fighting the Jew, even women and children.”
“The atmosphere has changed,” said Yair Sheleg, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, who specializes in issues of religion and state. Previous governments took a tougher stance against such publications, he said, but “paradoxically, because the tension between the general settler population and the Israeli judicial system…is high now, the attorney general is careful not to heighten the tension.”
It is not uncommon for some settler rabbis, in the unique conditions of West Bank settlement life, to issue religious decrees, or psakim, that diverge from normative Jewish practice. In 2008, Avi Gisser, considered a moderate rabbi from the settlement of Ofra, ruled that Jews may violate Sabbath laws and hire non-Jews to build hilltop settlements. And In 2002, Yediot Aharanot reported that former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu sanctioned Jewish harvesting of Palestinian-owned olive trees.
By Daniel Estrin
January 22, 2010 "The Forward" - -January 20, 2010 - Jerusalem — The marble-patterned, hardcover book embossed with gold Hebrew letters looks like any other religious commentary you’d find in an Orthodox Judaica bookstore — but reads like a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.
“The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”
“The King’s Torah (Torat Hamelech), Part One: Laws of Life and Death between Israel and the Nations,” a 230-page compendium of Halacha, or Jewish religious law, published by the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar, garnered a front-page exposé in the Israeli tabloid Ma’ariv, which called it the stuff of “Jewish terror.”
Now, the yeshiva is in the news again, with a January 18 raid on Yitzhar by more than 100 Israeli security officials who forcibly entered Od Yosef Chai and arrested 10 Jewish settlers. The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, suspects five of those arrested were involved in the torching and vandalizing of a Palestinian mosque last month in the neighboring Palestinian village of Yasuf. The arson provoked an international outcry and condemnation by Israeli religious figures, including Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who visited the village to personally voice his regret.
Yet, both Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, have declined to comment on the book, which debuted in November, while other prominent rabbis have endorsed it — among them, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Jewry’s preeminent leader. Also, despite the precedent set by previous Israeli attorneys general in the last decade and a half to file criminal charges against settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting violence against non-Jews, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has so far remained mum about “The King’s Torah.”
“Sometimes the public arena deals with the phenomenon and things become settled by themselves,” Justice Ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen told the Forward.
A coalition of religious Zionist groups, the “Twelfth of Heshvan,”—– named after the Hebrew date of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to order Mazuz to confiscate the books and arrest its authors.
“You open the book, and you feel that you read a halachic book. And it’s a trap,” said Gadi Gvaryahu, a religious Jewish educator who heads the coalition. It was, in fact, “a guidebook [on] how to kill,” he charged.
Family members who answered phone calls placed to the homes of both authors said they did not wish to comment.
In 2008, author Shapira was suspected of involvement in a crude rocket attack directed at a Palestinian village. Israeli police investigated but made no arrests.
Co-author Elitzur wrote an article in a religious bulletin a month after the book’s release saying that “the Jews will win with violence against the Arabs.”
In 2003, the head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, was charged by then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a “cancer.”
In 2006-2007, the Israeli Ministry of Education gave about a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshiva, and in 2007-2008 the yeshiva received about $28,000 from the American nonprofit Central Fund of Israel.
“The King’s Torah” reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a minority of rabbis in the West Bank, said Avinoam Rosenak, a Hebrew University professor specializing in settler theology. Asher Cohen, a Bar Ilan University political science professor, thought its influence would be “zero” because it appeals only to extreme ideologues.
But the book’s wide dissemination and the enthusiastic endorsements of prominent rabbis have spotlighted what might have otherwise remained an isolated commentary.
At the entrance to Moriah, a large Jewish bookstore steps from the Western Wall, copies of “The King’s Torah” were displayed with children’s books and other halachic commentaries. The store manager, who identified himself only as Motti, said the tome has sold “excellently.”
Other stores carrying the book include Robinson Books, a well-known, mostly secular bookshop in a hip Tel Aviv shopping district; Pomeranz Bookseller, a major Jewish book emporium near the Ben Yehuda mall in downtown Jerusalem; and Felhendler, a Judaica store on the main artery of secular Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute.
The yeshiva declined to comment on publication statistics. But Itzik, a Tel Aviv-area book distributor hired by the yeshiva who declined to give his last name because of the book’s nature, said the yeshiva had sold 1,000 copies to individuals and bookstores countrywide. He said an additional 1,000 copies were now being printed.
Mendy Feldheim, owner of Feldheim Publishers, Israel’s largest Judaica publishing house, said he considered this a “nice” sales figure for a tome of rabbinic Halacha in Israel. He said his own company, which distributes to 200 bookstores nationwide, is not distributing “The King’s Torah” because the book’s publishers did not approach the company.
Prominent religious figures wrote letters of endorsement that preface the book. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, blessed the authors and wrote that many “disciples of Torah are unfamiliar with these laws.” The elder Yosef has not commented on his son’s statement.
Dov Lior, chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and a respected figure among many mainstream religious Zionists, noted that the book is “very relevant especially in this time.”
Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, one of the country’s most respected rabbinic commentators, initially endorsed the book, but rescinded his approval a month after its release, saying that the book includes statements that “have no place in human intelligence.”
A handful of settler rabbis echoed Goldberg’s censure, including Shlomo Aviner, chief rabbi of Beit El and head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, who said he had “no patience” to read the book, and spoke out against it to his students.
Previously, Israel has arrested settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting the killing of non-Jews. In addition to Ginsburgh, the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva head, in 1994, the government jailed Rabbi Ido Elba of Hebron for writing a 26-page article proclaiming it a “mitzva to kill every non-Jew from the nation that is fighting the Jew, even women and children.”
“The atmosphere has changed,” said Yair Sheleg, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, who specializes in issues of religion and state. Previous governments took a tougher stance against such publications, he said, but “paradoxically, because the tension between the general settler population and the Israeli judicial system…is high now, the attorney general is careful not to heighten the tension.”
It is not uncommon for some settler rabbis, in the unique conditions of West Bank settlement life, to issue religious decrees, or psakim, that diverge from normative Jewish practice. In 2008, Avi Gisser, considered a moderate rabbi from the settlement of Ofra, ruled that Jews may violate Sabbath laws and hire non-Jews to build hilltop settlements. And In 2002, Yediot Aharanot reported that former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu sanctioned Jewish harvesting of Palestinian-owned olive trees.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Gaza flooded after Israel opens dam gates Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:41:04 GMT
Israel has opened the floodgates of one of its dams in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, flooding Palestinian houses and causing severe damage.
The Israeli authorities opened the dam's floodgates without any prior warning or coordination with local authorities in Gaza, stunning the residents of the area, the Press TV correspondent in Gaza reported late on Monday.
There has been heavy rain in the region over the past 24 hours. It seems the Israeli authorities could not handle the huge amount of rainwater and decided to open the floodgates without prior warning.
Because Gaza is located in a low-lying area and the elevation decreases on the way to the Mediterranean Sea, water gushed into the area, flooding two Palestinian villages and displacing a hundred Gazan families.
[...]
The flooding has made life more difficult for the Gazans, especially for those still living in tents because their homes were destroyed in the December 2008-January 2009 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
In the war, more than 1,400 people were killed, mostly women and children, and over 10,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, forcing at least 500 families to live in tents.
Very little progress is seen in reconstruction of the devastated areas in the Gaza Strip, mostly due to the Israeli blockade, which has prevented the delivery of building materials to the coastal enclave.
The Israeli authorities opened the dam's floodgates without any prior warning or coordination with local authorities in Gaza, stunning the residents of the area, the Press TV correspondent in Gaza reported late on Monday.
There has been heavy rain in the region over the past 24 hours. It seems the Israeli authorities could not handle the huge amount of rainwater and decided to open the floodgates without prior warning.
Because Gaza is located in a low-lying area and the elevation decreases on the way to the Mediterranean Sea, water gushed into the area, flooding two Palestinian villages and displacing a hundred Gazan families.
[...]
The flooding has made life more difficult for the Gazans, especially for those still living in tents because their homes were destroyed in the December 2008-January 2009 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
In the war, more than 1,400 people were killed, mostly women and children, and over 10,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, forcing at least 500 families to live in tents.
Very little progress is seen in reconstruction of the devastated areas in the Gaza Strip, mostly due to the Israeli blockade, which has prevented the delivery of building materials to the coastal enclave.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Schakowsky Prepares Legislation to Ban Blackwater
Published on Thursday, January 14, 2010 by RebelReports
Schakowsky Prepares Legislation to Ban Blackwater
Schakowsky says Blackwater has “severely damaged the credibility and security of our military and harmed our relationship with other governments”
by Jeremy Scahill
As multiple scandals involving Blackwater continue to emerge almost daily, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is preparing to introduce legislation aimed at ending the US government’s relationship with Blackwater and other armed contracting companies. “In 2009, the U.S. government employed well over 20,000 armed private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is every indication that these figures will continue to rise in 2010,” Schakowsky wrote in a “Dear Colleage” letter asking for support for her Stop Outsourcing Security (SOS) Act. “These men and women are not part of the U.S. military or government. They do not wear the uniform of the United States, though their behavior has, on numerous occasions, severely damaged the credibility and security of our military and harmed our relationship with other governments.”
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Egypt deports British lawmaker Galloway
PressTV
A spokeswoman for the convoy said police intervened when Galloway and colleague Ron McKay arrived at the crossing.
"As soon as they emerged on to Egyptian soil, both men were forcibly pushed into a van, refused exit and told that they were leaving the country. They were then driven off in a police convoy," the BBC quoted him as saying.
A spokeswoman for the convoy said police intervened when Galloway and colleague Ron McKay arrived at the crossing.
"As soon as they emerged on to Egyptian soil, both men were forcibly pushed into a van, refused exit and told that they were leaving the country. They were then driven off in a police convoy," the BBC quoted him as saying.
Fresh Israeli strikes kill 2 Gazans
The airstrikes, which were launched in the early hours of Friday, hit seven targets near Gaza's border with Egypt.
Medics say several people have been left wounded or missing in the incident, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Meanwhile, Hamas and Palestinian radio stations have confirmed that Israeli F-16 jets and gunboats bombed Khan Yunis.
Medics say several people have been left wounded or missing in the incident, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Meanwhile, Hamas and Palestinian radio stations have confirmed that Israeli F-16 jets and gunboats bombed Khan Yunis.
Monday, January 4, 2010
To: The International Community
To: The International CommunityWe support the Cairo Declaration of the Gaza Freedom March, which reads as follows:
End Israeli Apartheid
Cairo Declaration
January 1, 2010
We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South African delegation, state:
In view of:
* Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians through the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza;
* the illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the continued construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and settlements;
* the new Wall under construction by Egypt and the US which will tighten even further the siege of Gaza;
* the contempt for Palestinian democracy shown by Israel, the US, Canada, the EU and others after the Palestinian elections of 2006;
* the war crimes committed by Israel during the invasion of Gaza one year ago;
* the continuing discrimination and repression faced by Palestinians within Israel;
* and the continuing exile of millions of Palestinian refugees;
* all of which oppressive acts are based ultimately on the Zionist ideology which underpins Israel;
* in the knowledge that our own governments have given Israel direct economic, financial, military and diplomatic support and allowed it to behave with impunity;
* and mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007)
We reaffirm our commitment to:
Palestinian Self-Determination
Ending the Occupation
Equal Rights for All within historic Palestine
The full Right of Return for Palestinian refugees
We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the United Palestinian call of July 2005 for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to comply with international law.
To that end, we call for and wish to help initiate a global mass, democratic anti-apartheid movement to work in full consultation with Palestinian civil society to implement the Palestinian call for BDS.
Mindful of the many strong similarities between apartheid Israel and the former apartheid regime in South Africa, we propose:
1) An international speaking tour in the first 6 months of 2010 by Palestinian and South African trade unionists and civil society activists, to be joined by trade unionists and activists committed to this programme within the countries toured, to take mass education on BDS directly to the trade union membership and wider public internationally;
2) Participation in the Israeli Apartheid Week in March 2010;
3) A systematic unified approach to the boycott of Israeli products, involving consumers, workers and their unions in the retail, warehousing, and transportation sectors;
4) Developing the Academic, Cultural and Sports boycott;
5) Campaigns to encourage divestment of trade union and other pension funds from companies directly implicated in the Occupation and/or the Israeli military industries;
6) Legal actions targeting the external recruitment of soldiers to serve in the Israeli military, and the prosecution of Israeli government war criminals; coordination of Citizen’s Arrest Bureaux to identify, campaign and seek to prosecute Israeli war criminals; support for the Goldstone Report and the implementation of its recommendations;
7) Campaigns against charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF).
We appeal to organisations and individuals committed to this declaration to sign it and work with us to make it a reality.
..................................................
[The entire petition, and the signatories present at the March, may be viewed at http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/gaza-freedom-marchers-issue-cairo-declaration
or at
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/gaza-freedom-marchers-issue-the-cairo-declaration-to-end-this-chapter-and-chart-the-way-forward.html
Information about the march is also posted at http://gazafreedommarch.wordpress.com/]
..................................................Sincerely,
Friday, January 1, 2010
Israeli forces attack Gaza Strip Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:36:23 GMT
Israeli warplanes and tanks have carried out attacks across the Gaza Strip, damaging residential areas and leaving four Palestinians wounded.
The airstrikes which targeted residential areas in northern and central Gaza Strip, caused panic among children in the region, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday.
Witnesses said Israeli F16 fighters fired two missiles and Israeli tanks fired two shells that landed at empty areas east and northeast of Gaza City, DPA reported.
Local ambulances took the wounded from eastern Gaza to hospital for medical treatment, according to medical sources.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the attacks, but gave no further details, AFP reported.
The airstrikes which targeted residential areas in northern and central Gaza Strip, caused panic among children in the region, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday.
Witnesses said Israeli F16 fighters fired two missiles and Israeli tanks fired two shells that landed at empty areas east and northeast of Gaza City, DPA reported.
Local ambulances took the wounded from eastern Gaza to hospital for medical treatment, according to medical sources.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the attacks, but gave no further details, AFP reported.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Egypt forces Viva Palestina convoy to long Gaza road Egypt forced Viva Palestina aid convoy to return to Syria, which is a long trip to reach the Gaza
Egypt forced Viva Palestina aid convoy to return to Syria, which is a long trip to reach the Gaza Strip.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009 13:15
Egypt forced Viva Palestina aid convoy to return to Syria, which is a long trip to reach the Gaza Strip. The agreement came after a Turkish mediator reached a deal with the Egyptian consul in Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba.
The convoy will now head to the Syrian port of Latakia to sail from there to the Egyptian port of El Arish, and then to Gaza.
Lebanon army opens fire on Israeli jets
Lebanese anti-aircraft guns have opened fire on four Israeli fighter planes that were violating airspace over the southern part of the country.
"The army's anti-aircraft guns fired in the direction of four Phantom-type enemy Israeli planes that had been overflying the southeastern Hasbaya region at low altitude since Tuesday morning," an army spokesman told AFP.
"The army's anti-aircraft guns fired in the direction of four Phantom-type enemy Israeli planes that had been overflying the southeastern Hasbaya region at low altitude since Tuesday morning," an army spokesman told AFP.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Let the Gaza Freedom March Enter Gaza!
Contact the Egyptian government for the Gaza Freedom March
Let the Gaza Freedom March Enter Gaza!
I am writing to express my full support for the December 31, 2009 Gaza Freedom March. I urge the Egyptian government to allow the 1,300 international delegates to enter the Gaza Strip through Egypt.
The aim of the march is to call on Israel to lift the siege. The delegates will also take in badly needed medical aid, as well as school supplies and winter jackets for the children of Gaza.
Please, let this historic March proceed.
Let the Gaza Freedom March Enter Gaza!
I am writing to express my full support for the December 31, 2009 Gaza Freedom March. I urge the Egyptian government to allow the 1,300 international delegates to enter the Gaza Strip through Egypt.
The aim of the march is to call on Israel to lift the siege. The delegates will also take in badly needed medical aid, as well as school supplies and winter jackets for the children of Gaza.
Please, let this historic March proceed.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Three Condition which Egypt has stated to let the March to continue
1. We hand all our vehicles and aid over to UNRA.
2. We drive 500 miles back to Syria, and take a 24 hour ferry through the Suez Canal.
3. We have to ask Israel for permission to cross from Egypt to Gaza.
2. We drive 500 miles back to Syria, and take a 24 hour ferry through the Suez Canal.
3. We have to ask Israel for permission to cross from Egypt to Gaza.
Egypt blocks Turkish MPs in Viva Palestina convoy from entry
Saturday, 26 December 2009 17:42
World Bulletin / News Desk
Egyptian government blocked on Saturday 16 Turkish lawmakers from ruling AK party to entry country among "Freedom convoy for Gaza", a member of Turkey's IHH organisation told World Bulletin.
Turkish Prime Minister and head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that he supported the convoy and urged Egypt to allow them to enter.
Analysts said that the move of Egypt may rise tenions between Turkey and Egypt.
Husnu Tuna, MP from Konya said that "We wanted to enter Egypt within the convoy. But Egypt blocked this according to information that I took from our Foreign Ministry. Our Foreign Ministry is enable."
"This is a convoy for peace and humanity. I can't make of the attitute of Egypt."
Around 250 trucks laden with European, Turkish and Arab aid -- both food and medical supplies-- arrived in Jordan from Syria this week and were headed to the Red Sea port of Aqaba for the ferry journey across to the Egyptian Sinai port of Nuweiba.
Israeli soldiers shoot dead six Palestinians
Israeli soldiers have shot dead six Palestinians and left a seventh one wounded in separate incidents in the West Bank and the north of the Gaza Strip.
According to a Palestinian medical source, three Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza as they were on their way to cross over a wall to work in Israel on Saturday.
The source further added that another Palestinian was also wounded in the incident.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed three members of the Fatah Movement in another incident in the West Bank city of Nablus after surrounding their homes, Press TV correspondent Sari al-Khalili reported.
The victims were members of the Fatah Movement, led by Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Sources say the two had been previously ordered by Fatah to disarm, and that one of them was wanted by Israel.
According to a Palestinian medical source, three Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza as they were on their way to cross over a wall to work in Israel on Saturday.
The source further added that another Palestinian was also wounded in the incident.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed three members of the Fatah Movement in another incident in the West Bank city of Nablus after surrounding their homes, Press TV correspondent Sari al-Khalili reported.
The victims were members of the Fatah Movement, led by Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Sources say the two had been previously ordered by Fatah to disarm, and that one of them was wanted by Israel.
Saudi would have nuked Houthis: Yemeni MP
Yemeni lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi says Saudi Arabian warplanes are engaged in the relentless bombardment of civilian positions in Yemen's war-torn north.
[...]
Yemen's beleaguered north, bordering the Saudi kingdom, has been the scene of a massive military operation by the Saudi-Yemeni forces, since the Sana'a government stepped up its offensive against the Shia fighters in August.
[...]
Washington is reportedly providing Sana'a with firepower and intelligence in addition to some 70 million dollars worth of military aid Pentagon has poured into Yemen this year.
______________________________________
in addition 73 Saudi Soldiers were reported to be dead , while al Houthi claim there were more casulties to Saudies.
[...]
Yemen's beleaguered north, bordering the Saudi kingdom, has been the scene of a massive military operation by the Saudi-Yemeni forces, since the Sana'a government stepped up its offensive against the Shia fighters in August.
[...]
Washington is reportedly providing Sana'a with firepower and intelligence in addition to some 70 million dollars worth of military aid Pentagon has poured into Yemen this year.
______________________________________
in addition 73 Saudi Soldiers were reported to be dead , while al Houthi claim there were more casulties to Saudies.
Yemen Tribal area still under sever bombardment of Saudia Arabia
Saudia Arabia continues bombardment of Yemeni Alhouthi tribal area despite pretending to be out of war
Saudia Arabia use illegal weapons and severly bombs civilian population of Alhouthis
Saudia Arabia use illegal weapons and severly bombs civilian population of Alhouthis
Friends, I arrived with the Gaza Freedom Marchers to Cairo and the news does not look good. Read the letter to Mubarak.
Your help is greatly appreciated. Call the Egyptian Embassy ASAP and let us all pray that they will change their mind.
Please call the Egyptian Embassy(in the US 202-895-5400) and tell them to let us into Gaza. Then callyour representatives' offices and let them know you are going. If theyare sympathetic, ask them to call the Egyptian Embassy on your behalf.
Also, please call your representative and try to get some help from that source too.
The more we do to get press and officials involved, the better our chances of getting into Gaza!!!
Friday, December 25, 2009
World Fails Gaza: Aid Groups
"It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few,” Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, said in the report cited by the Guardian.
“World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza's ordinary citizens.
Israel bans the entry of materials needed to rebuild Gaza, such as cement and steel, effectively undermining efforts to rebuild the strip.
The siege has sharply increased poverty in the strip, leaving eight out of every 10 Gazans dependent on aid and leading businesses to close and lay off workers.
"The wretched reality endured by 1.5 million people in Gaza should appal anybody with an ounce of humanity,” Kate Allen, Amnesty International’s UK director, said.
GAZA MEMORIAL EVENTS DECEMBER 27 & DECEMBER 31
Gaza Memorial, Interfaith Service 4-6pm. Union Square, San Francisco. Candlelight Vigil to remember the 1,400 men, women and children killed in the attack on Gaza. Dec. 27 will mark the first anniversary of the Israeli attack and invasion of the Gaza Strip. We will educate the public with handouts.
Gaza Freedom March 12/31/09 is being blocked by Egypt.
A group which moved from London toward Gaza to break inhuma siege is in trouble. How anyone can help ? Only if I could help !
Palestine | San Francisco
Egypt Blocking Gaza Freedom March; Need Event at SF Egyptian Consul In
Solidarity
by Gaza Freedom March
Thursday Dec 24th, 2009 12:47 PM
Gaza Freedom March 12/31/09 is being blocked by Egypt. 1300 people
from 43 countries have assembled for a Ghandian non-violent march. We
should be planning events at the San Francisco Egyptian Counsulate to
publicize Egyptian complicity.
Falk has urged the Western powers to insist that Israel immediately end its blockade of the Gaza Strip
Just days before the first anniversary of the Israeli Cast Lead military operation which cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has urged the Western powers to insist that Israel immediately end its blockade of the Gaza Strip, threatening to enforce economic sanctions.
Falk also urged that the Goldstone Report’s recommendations, which suggest that Israel and Hamas have perpetrated war crimes possibly amounting to crimes against humanity, be fully and swiftly implemented. Falk said that “people having common sense, anywhere in the world, should become conscious of the dramatic situation in Gaza, where the suffering of over 1.5 million people, half of them children, has carried on without any formal objection from governments and the UN”.
Falk also urged that the Goldstone Report’s recommendations, which suggest that Israel and Hamas have perpetrated war crimes possibly amounting to crimes against humanity, be fully and swiftly implemented. Falk said that “people having common sense, anywhere in the world, should become conscious of the dramatic situation in Gaza, where the suffering of over 1.5 million people, half of them children, has carried on without any formal objection from governments and the UN”.
| 01:50 12/24/2009 | |
 | Israel Threatens Another Large-scale Gaza War |
Israel has threatened another massive war against the Gaza Strip as the impoverished enclave continues to suffer in the aftermath of the devastating January offensive. Israeli planes have been dropping thousands of leaflets across Gaza, warning Palestinians against cooperating with the resistance fighters based in the coastal sliver. The leaflets also threaten Gazans with a new attack just ahead of the first anniversary of Israel's 22-day onslaught against the Palestinian territory. | |
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Secretary-General expresses hope that Israel will allow more items to enter Gaza
here
24 December 2009 – After Israel’s announcement that it will allow glass into Gaza following United Nations requests to repair homes damaged during last year’s fighting, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced hope that this will pave the way for other much-needed materials to enter the area.
Just yesterday, a UN independent human rights expert underlined in a statement that building materials necessary to repair the damage resulting from the heavy bombardment and artillery assaults could not enter Gaza.
Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, also blamed the blockade for continued breakdowns of the electricity and sanitation systems due to the Israeli refusal to let spare parts needed for repair get through the crossings.
UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters today that the Secretary-General hopes the decision to allow glass into Gaza “will be followed by further imports of needed material for reconstruction.”
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