IMAGE OF THE MONTH ~~ US JUSTICE or GRIM REAPER?
September 30, 2011 at 20:23 (Cartoons, Corrupt Politics, Racism)
IF IT STINKS IT CAN’T BE A ROSE
September 30, 2011 at 13:08 (Corrupt Politics, Ethnic Cleansing, Illegal Settlements, Israel, Occupation, Palestine, Status of Jerusalem)
“Gilo is not a settlement, nor a settlement outpost. It is a neighborhood which constitutes an integral part of the center of Jerusalem,” a senior Israeli official told Agence France-Presse.
The move, which was signed off by Israel’s interior ministry on Tuesday, drew a sharply worded response from the Palestinian Authority, and a chorus of condemnation from Europe, the US and China.
Gilo lies in the part of Jerusalem which Israel captured along with the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War and later occupied and annexed in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel considers both halves of the Holy City its “eternal, indivisible” capital.
FREEDOM WITHOUT WATER?
September 30, 2011 at 12:48 (Activism, Associate Post, Collective Punishment, Israel, Occupation, Palestine)
Waters for Life in Palestine
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
September 28, 2011 at 12:54 (Holidays)
Enjoy
IT’S OK FOR ISRAELI SOLDIERS TO KILL CIVILIANS AND CHILDREN
September 27, 2011 at 12:02 (Ethnic Cleansing, Extremism, Irony, Israel, Religion)
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi: Excuse religious soldiers from events where women sing
Rabbi Yona Metzger distributes rulings to rabbis both in Israel and abroad, with a suggestion that they include it in their sermons during the upcoming Jewish holidays
Chief West Bank rabbi issues ruling that legalizes killing Arabs
Fundamentalist Settler Rabbi Says Killing “Non-Jews” Is Justifiable
VIEWS THAT WERE SILENCED AT THE JERUSALEM POST
September 27, 2011 at 06:23 (Censorship, Corrupt Politics, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Statehood, United Nations)
Last week at the UN, Israel lost America
“Tafasta meruba, lo tafasta,” is a Hebrew saying that means, “If you get too greedy, you end up with nothing,” and it fits well to the arm-twisting job Israel just did on Obama at the UN. By leaning on him too single-handedly to block the Palestinian statehood bid, to pressure countries like Gabon and Bosnia-Herzegovina to go along, and to give a speech that Avigdor Lieberman said he would “sign with both hands,” Israel bent Obama too far, until he just broke. In the eyes of Palestinians, Muslims of the Middle East and probably everybody else in the world, the U.S. president has now assumed the identity of the ultimate Israel lobbyist, of Mr.Hasbara. “He’s not the president of the United States, he’s the president of Israel,” a man in Ramallah said to me the day after the speech, and that’s what Palestinians think today: They flat-out hate Obama. They may hate him more than any other U.S. president in history, including George W. Bush. They thought Obama was on their side, and in the moment of truth he sold them out to the LIkud, to the settlers, to the Republican wackos. Palestinians, and presumably all Muslims, feel toward Obama today how the settlers felt toward Ariel Sharon after he decided to withdraw from Gaza: betrayed.
With Obama’s America now having zero credibility in the Middle East, where does this leave Israel? Alone and vulnerable to an extent that’s unfamiliar to Israelis. Until now, the U.S. held sway with the Palestinians; it doesn’t anymore. It held sway with Egypt, Jordan and Turkey; I wonder how much it has left now. In highly dramatic fashion, the U.S. stood up for the occupation and against Palestinian independence, and the result of this disgrace is that outside of Israel and America, the occupation is more unpopular and Palestinian independence more popular than ever. It’s the Palestinians who have the wind at their back now, and Israel that’s pissing in the wind. And America can’t help us anymore because America has become a spent force around here.
Having gotten no respect from the U.S., the Palestinian Authority shows it none. Abbas’s aide Yasser Abed Rabbo says publicly that the Palestinians will refuse to negotiate with Israel if America is the mediator. The Quartet’s mealy-mouthed proposal for talks about talks gets blown off by the PA. The eminiently mealy-mouthed Tony Blair gets chewed out by Abbas. What leverage does America or its emissaries have over the Palestinians anymore? What can America and Europe do for Israel – threaten to cut off funds to the PA? This is the threat coming from the Netanyahu government and the Republican Party – and Abbas is just daring them to go through with it. If we can’t have independence, he’s telling them, the PA will shut down and Israeli soldiers and money can keep the peace in the refugee camps, villages and cities of the West Bank. U.S. congressmen and most Israeli cabinet ministers are too fat-headed to understand, but this is something like Abbas’s doomsday option.
He has other options, though. He can keep going back to the Security Council time after time and force Obama to embarrass himself again and again. He can launch non-violent “people power” protests across the West Bank. He can give up on the two-state solution and demand the one-state solution: Israeli citizenship for Palestinians. The Palestinians are the darlings of the world, while not only Israel but Israel’s great protector are in the world’s doghouse, or certainly the Middle East’s.
And in all this, what are Israel’s options? What leverage does it have over anybody – except the Obama administration, which, as noted, is a spent force in this neighborhood. Who wants to be Israel’s friend today, aside from Glenn Beck Nation?
Tafasta meruba, Bibi – you were too greedy. You wanted to beat Obama, but you beat him to death, for Israel’s purposes. Effectively, you lost America for this country. When it comes to alliances Israel can count on, you’ve left us with nothing.
TOON OF THE DAY ~~ THE APARTHEID WITHIN
September 26, 2011 at 16:31 (Cartoons, Class Struggle, Israel)
A PRICE TAG THAT MIGHT SAVE LIVES
September 26, 2011 at 10:30 (Israel, Palestine, Police Brutality, Soldier Brutality)
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Case of Abir Aramin: Dispute between police and B’Tselem (Activestills)
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State to pay NIS 1.6 million over killing of Palestinian girl
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Abir Aramin was killed in 2007 from a rubber bullet fired by Border Guard officer during dispersion of violent riot in east Jerusalem, now court rules that State must compensate her family
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Over a year after it determined that the State was responsible for the death of Palestinian girl Abir Aramin, the Jerusalem District Court, presided by Judge Orit Efal-Gabai, ruled that the state must pay NIS 1.6 million ($430,000) in compensation to the family of Abir Aramin, a Palestinian girl from east Jerusalem who was killed in 2007 from a rubber bullet fired by a Border Guard officer.
The judge said that there was no dispute over the fact that the 10-year-old’s death was due to negligence or that the bullet was fired in violation of orders.
“We are happy that justice has come to light and are still working to award the family compensation for all the suffering it has gone through,” the family’s attorney Lea Tsemel told ynet.
According to Tsemel, “The father is a peace activist whose attitude has not changed since the incident. that is one positive aspect of this story. The whole thing brings color back into the cheeks of anyone who is trying to make the judicial mechanism establish justice for the victims of the police and military.”
In her ruling the judge said that the State must pay NIS 10,000 (about $2,700) for burial expenses and NIS 674,000 (about $182,000) for “lost years”. The judge also ruled that the State would compensate the family to the tune of NIS 900,000 (about $243,000) for the way Aramin was killed, her young age, the circumstances surrounding the case and the customary sum of compensation awarded in similar cases.
Abir was killed in January 2007 near her school in the village of Anta north of Jerusalem, where Border Guard forces were dispersing a violent riot.
Police adamantly claimed that according to the autopsy, the child was killed from a stone – but a week after the incident, her family, with the help of the B’Tselem organization, published a pathologist’s report stating she was hit by a rubber bullet.
In July of this year the High Court rejected a petition demanding that the two Border Guard officers involved in the incident be brought to trial.
Yet at the same time the court also expressed harsh criticism against the police and the State Prosecutor’s Office’s handling of the case and called the investigation “negligent and lacking”. The High court also ruled that the State and the officers must pay NIS 10,000 in costs.
THE SETTLERS ANSWER THE CALL FOR PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD
September 26, 2011 at 08:28 (Collective Punishment, Ethnic Cleansing, Extremism, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Statehood, Settler Violence, zionist harassment)
Settlers Hang Posters Calling For Killing Arabs, Palestinians
File
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Racist posters were also placed along the Jerusalem-Hebron road, and around all settlements extending from the southern part of Bethlehem district to the northern part of Hebron.
Some of the posters read “We Will Slaughter All Arabs”, “This is the land of our fathers and forefathers”, and dozens of similar racist posters.
The settlers also camped in Palestinian farmlands and orchards south of Bethlehem, and preventing the residents from reaching their own lands.
Settlers living in the city of Hebron also hung Israeli flags and racist posters threatening to kill the Palestinians and calling for their expulsion.
Written FOR
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Meanwhile, Palestinians are REFUSING TO DIE IN SILENCE …
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Yesterday in Nabi Saleh, a new campaign was launched ‘Refusing to Die in Silence’, that documents and confronts colonist “settler” attacks on unarmed citizens in the West Bank. The project aims to warn the colonists and make them feel pressured by the presence of media crews ready 24/7 to document the attacks.
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PALESTINE HAS A HERO … AMERICA NEEDS ONE
September 26, 2011 at 07:56 (Collaboration, Corrupt Politics, Irony, Palestine, Palestinian Statehood)






President Abbas receives hero’s welcome in West Bank, declares ‘Palestinian Spring’
Thousands gather in Ramallah as Palestinian President returns from New York; Abbas expected to convene top ministers to discuss the Quartet’s proposal for renewing peace talks.
NEW YORK HAS BECOME ‘THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE USA’ ~~ PHOTOS AND VIDEO
September 25, 2011 at 18:16 (Activism, Associate Post, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Class Struggle, DesertPeace Exclusive, Dictatorship, Economy, Photography, Police Brutality, Sarcasm)
The NYPD didn’t shut it down! It is still there! Lots of people are joining the occupiers today. THERE IS STILL HOPE!
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PHOTO ESSAY ~~ OCCUPHOBIA
September 25, 2011 at 08:55 (Activism, Associate Post, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Class Struggle, DesertPeace Exclusive, Dictatorship, Nonviolent Resistance, Photography, Police Brutality)
ISLAMOPHOBIA REACHES NEW HEIGHTS AT AMERICAN CAMPUS
September 24, 2011 at 20:53 (Academic Freedom, Activism, Democracy, Education, Islamophobia)
Photo: Muslim students gather with their attorney at the Central Justice Center on Friday after being found guilty of conspiring to disrupt and then disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador at UC Irvine last year. Eight of the 10 students were present for the verdict at the center in Santa Ana. The other two had permission by the court to be out of town. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times
More photos HERE
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After more than two days of deliberation, an Orange County jury on Friday found 10 Muslim students guilty of two misdemeanors to conspire and then disrupt a February 2010 speech at UC Irvine last year by the Israeli ambassador to the United States.
There was crying as the verdict was read in Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson’s courtroom. The students showed no visible emotion, although they hugged each afterward. Some also stormed out.
In a case that garnered national attention over free-speech rights, the trial centered on conflicting views of who was being censored. Prosecutors argued that Ambassador Michael Oren was “shut down” when his speech was interrupted by students who took turns shouting preplanned phrases in a crowded UC Irvine ballroom.
Six defense attorneys argued that the students, seven from UC Irvine and three from UC Riverside, were only following the norm of other college protests and were being singled out.
A guilty verdict, the defense had said during the trial, could chill student activism and the free exchange of ideas at colleges nationwide.
University administrators disciplined some of the students involved and suspended the campus Muslim Student Union, whose members participated in the protest, for an academic quarter. The group is still on probation.
The case also has drawn the attention of a wide range of groups, including Muslim and Jewish organizations and civil libertarians. The trial began Sept. 7.
Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Irvine’s Law School, has said that although freedom of speech is not an absolute right, university sanctions were enough for the students.
But he also added that he believes criminal sanctions go too far.
Chemerinsky told The Times last week that “it makes no sense” to use such resources. “It’s so minor.”
Charges against one defendant were tentatively dismissed pending completion of 40 hours of community service at a local soup kitchen.
But the other 10 went on trial Sept. 11 before packed, at times noisy, crowds in the courtroom.
KUDOS MR. ABBAS
September 23, 2011 at 20:44 (Associate Post, Palestine, Palestinian Statehood)
Celebration Photo: Reuters
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Kudos Mr. Abbas
By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
Mahmoud Abbas gave a brilliant speech at the United Nations, getting rounds of applause from most of the representatives. I think it demonstrated clearly and unambiguously that the Palestinian leadership has been “unreasonably reasonable” and has instead seen the hopes of peace and of millions of Palestinians suffering for 63 years dashed on the rock of Israeli expansionist, colonial, and apartheid policies. He explained that Israel has been taking one unilateral action after another each resulting in more pain and suffering for our people. Going to the UN, he explained is putting things back where the problems started (he did not use the last two words but I do). He said a word that I think he should defend strongly that no person or country with an iota of logic or conscience should reject the Palestinian state membership in the UN or its formation in the 22% of historic Palestine that is the West Bank and Gaza. I think he took a courageous step and gave a good performance. Now we here on the ground in Palestine hope and will push for additional follow-up steps. From our own perspective, three things are critical:
1) That he and his administration now implement quickly the reconciliation agreement signed by all Palestinian factions most notably the one about creating a representative Palestinian National Council. In his speech he said he hopes this will be done in a few weeks. We hope this will be done quickly and not any longer than four weeks.
2) That he and his administration act quickly and decisively to really promote popular unarmed resistance throughout Palestine and among Palestinians in exile. In forming a new government, the ministry that is now in charge of walls and settlements should be either a) dismantled or b) reconfigured. A new strategy to encourage real nonviolent resistance must be adopted. We must end the practice of holding a few demonstrative actions that do not disturb the occupation and that are used to enrich a few people. We must instead allow the kind of popular resistance that have been effective from our history (see my book that details challenges and opportunities learned from this history and available in Arabic and English). He also said he will pursue this.
3) The Palestinian people are waiting to see clear evidence of change; a new Palestinian Spring as Mr. Abbas called it. This requires seeing visibly what Mr. Abbas talked about: transparency, accountability, democracy, and freedom.
There were those who worried that going to the UN will raise the expectations of the Palestinian people who then may turn to despair and more if they do not see a change on the ground. I say a) it is great to raise the expectations, and b) we, the Palestinian people will never turn to despair but we will revolt if we do not see real changes and stronger steps. I share Abu Mazen’s hope that the international community steps up to the plate. But I also hope that we all go back to our people and take those steps that will ensure our freedom.
I also listened to Netanyahu’s speech and was just amazed at how many lies can be packed in one speech. It is not even worth detailing except to refer you to this link: http://www.qumsiyeh.org/liesandtruths/
In this occasion, it might be worth comparing Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel Palestinians
Population—————-5.5 million Jewish———11 million (7 million refugees or displaced)
Land controlled ———-91.7%———————-8.3% of historic Palestine
Nature——————–Occupier/colonizer——Occupied people
Military Personnel——Regular 175,000———–None
—————————-Reserves, 500,000
Irregulars—————-10-50,000——————3-5,000
—————————Armed settlers————Armed underground forces
Police/other security— 30,000——————–50,000
Tanks———————-3,800———————-0
Artillery——————-1500 large—————-0
Submarines—————6 ————————-0
Warships—————–20-30———————0
Combat airplanes——-2000———————-0
Nuclear Weopons——>300———————-0
GDP———————-$195 billion————–$4 billion
Military expenditure—$10 billion—————Negligible (security services)
Casuaties (63 years)—-6000 killed————-75,000 killed
—————————-20,000 injured———300,000 injured
Abducted/jailed———-30———————400,000
Homes demolished——-0———————-50,000
Refugees created———0———————->6 million people
Mr. President, we don’t want a shortcut, we want our freedom by Abir Kopty
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/mr-president-we-dont-want-a-shortcut-we-want-our-freedom.html
Palestinians on statehood: ‘We want action, not votes at the UN’
Villagers who have often been at the sharp end of Palestinian-Israeli relations are sceptical about the UN route
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/14/palestinian-statehood-action-un
OBAMA’S DEFENSE OF JIM CROW IN PALESTINE
September 23, 2011 at 14:10 (Collective Punishment, Israel, Nonviolent Resistance, Occupation, Oppression, Palestine, Palestinian Statehood)
Why is the U.S. so fearful of a nonviolent freedom movement?

Alarming reports indicate the Israeli government is preparing for war as Palestinians prepare a slow push for freedom and statehood in the United Nations Security Council. It is dismaying that Israel interprets nonviolent Palestinian measures – that leave the door open to further negotiations if Israel legitimately freezes settlement activity and provides a real reason to believe these talks will be different from the previous 20 years – as reason to make intensive military preparations.
If the Israeli government is really ready for peace, as it claims, why is it importing horses from Belgium, amassing tear gas, and organizing militias with trained dogs in illegal settlements? These officials seem determined to replay the role of white police officers on horseback and with attack dogs who enforced racial segregation in the American South in the 1960s.
What does the Israeli government think is going to happen? The Palestinian leadership has decided to go to the United Nations because a moribund peace process has brought our people nothing but an entrenching of the occupation. As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said, “We don’t want to delegitimize Israel. We want to legitimize ourselves.” We are not preparing for war with Israel, but rather to move forward toward our own freedom with the multilateral assistance of scores of U.N. member states supportive of our aspirations.
As we have seen throughout the Arab world, the people will not wait for their leadership and painstakingly slow incremental reform and improvements. I have heard too many people argue that “the time is not ripe.” Such words evoke Martin Luther King Jr.’s frustration with those Americans who claimed in the 1960s the time was not “right” for the achievement of civil rights.
Palestinians have already adopted peaceful, nonviolent actions toward our freedom. The problem is that the Israeli security apparatus’ paranoia allows no space for people simply demanding their human rights. This paranoia leads the Israeli forces toward violence and the expectation of nothing but terrorism from the people they subjugate.
Nonviolence exists in Palestine, and it is growing. Every weekend, residents of Palestinian communities such as Budrus, Nabi Saleh, and Bilin protest against Israel’s separation wall that crisscrosses their land. International and Israeli activists often join the villagers and have helped document their story, including the Israeli government’s routine violence and disproportional reactions to quell protests. Stories abound of residents injured — and even killed — by tear gas and rubber bullets amid the horrible stench of the stink bombs used by the military.
The demonstrations of March 15, May 15 and June 5 were nonviolent, at least on the Palestinian side. Our young people took to the streets to march against the occupation; they went to the borders (and to the occupied Golan Heights) in peaceful protest of Israel’s continual encroachment on our land, human rights and freedom. Israel, for its part, did not respond peacefully or positively. Instead, it used the same exaggerated tactics Palestinians have grown so accustomed to: beatings, tear gas, stink bombs, rubber bullets and live rounds. In fact, one young woman, who was viciously kicked by Israeli soldiers, asserted, “It’s OK, we’re used to it, but it won’t stop us.”
Of course, it’s not OK. And I am afraid that Israel may be all too successful in stopping our youth from demanding their rights by employing overwhelming violence.
I fear, for example, that when our youth protest outside the illegal settlements stealing the land of our future state, they will be met by trigger-happy settlers, who have recently been trained by the Israeli military to respond to such protests. I am afraid of the response to such violence by our youth. While it is from the ability to “turn the other cheek” that the real power of nonviolence stems, I am not sure that our children, who only know Israelis as violent soldiers or settlers, will be able to hold to principled nonviolence when the Israelis instigate violence. We are not Jesus. Our people have suffered, and we are tired of indignities meted out by the Israeli government.
In February 2010, Amos Gilad of the Israeli Ministry of Defense told U.S. government interlocutors, “we don’t do Gandhi very well,” according to a WikiLeaks cable. This has been amply evident during nonviolent demonstrations in the West Bank and in Israel’s violent response to the May 2010 flotilla. The Israeli military’s ham-fisted response to nonviolent demonstrations is exacerbated by the silence of the Obama administration.
In all probability, the Israeli leadership is looking for an excuse to return to a military lockdown as we saw during the second Intifada in the West Bank or as we see today in Gaza. The responsibility of the international community will be enormous, particularly as the United States will be siding with Israel and vetoing Palestinian freedom efforts.
The solution to the pending “crisis” is not, however, to defeat the Palestinian bid at the U.N. or to pressure Palestinians to give up on the U.N. option by threatening to cut aid. No, the solution is to listen to the people protesting. The solution is to end this decades-old occupation and finally show the Palestinian people that international law and human rights conventions include them. The solution is to support Palestinian freedom and self-determination and to allow Palestinians to live a future of hope.
President Obama could do much to advance Palestinian aspirations by not standing in the way of our nonviolent U.N. effort. Instead, he will play domestic politics and do nothing until after the 2012 elections. How many more children will die as a result? For how much longer will he channel the segregationists of yesteryear in saying the time is not ripe?
*Zahi Khouri is founder and chairman of the National Beverage Co., Ramallah, Palestine.
Written FOR
THE WHOLE WORLD IS IMAGINING A FREE AND INDEPENDENT PALESTINE TODAY
September 23, 2011 at 10:38 (Palestine, Palestinian Statehood, Peace, Videos)