With a nuclear device strapped to  one of their current missiles what will Iran be able to do without a conscious?

Shahab-1 missile is rated at 120 miles respectively.  The Sajjil-2 missile is Iran’s most advanced two-stage surface-to-surface missile with a 1200 mile range.
Shahab-3 uses a combination of solid and liquid fuel in its most advanced form, which is also known as the Qadr-F1. It can carry a nuclear war head. Solid fuel is seen as a technological breakthrough for any missile program as solid fuel increases the accuracy of missiles in reaching targets.

Fateh, Tondar and Zelzal missiles, which have a range of 120 miles, 93 miles and 130 miles respectively.

Iran’s last known missile tests were in May when it fired its longest-range solid-fuel missile, Sajjil-2. Tehran said the two-stage surface-to-surface missile has a range of about 1,200 miles — capable of striking Israel, U.S. Mideast bases and southeastern Europe.

No country has ever built a military that they didn’t use.  Iran is getting close.  Will the United Nations react after the missiles are armed or wait till they are launched?

Tadi.. hubby pi bank rakyat.. buka akaun Nuri Fateh.. hubby sebagai pendeposit.. masa Amiera dulu letak nama aku sebagai pendeposit.. adil kan..

Collection duit raya tahun ni memberangsangkan especially Fateh laaa.. campur sikit ngan simpanan yang ada.. dan aku top-up sikit untuk bagi genap.. adalah RM600.. separuh tu aku suh hubby masukkan ke dalam akaun Nuri.. dan separuh lagi aku nak masukkan ke dalam SSPN..

Amiera pulaks.. collection duit raya campur simpanan sikit.. dan top-up dari aku.. dapatlah RM400.. memandangkan Amiera dah ada simpanan sikit dalam Nuri.. so, aku plan masuk kan ke SSPN jugaks.. baru nak masuk kan ni… ada sebab kenapa aku beria2 nak masukkan ke dalam SSPN ni.. hehehehe..

Nak tahu kenapa?? haaaa.. bleh tolak income tax maaaa.. kalau tak jangan harap aku nak masuk SSPN tu.. dividen sikit bebenor..

Oklah.. malas nak cerita pasal SSPN.. yang penting tahun ni aku dapat kurangkan income tax..

Oh ya.. Kelab Nuri kali ni guna tema Upin Ipin.. jom tengok gambar tabung Nuri dari Bank Rakyat..

Amiera jeles sekejap.. sebab tengok gambar Upin Ipin..

Gambar buku akaun pun dah lain.. tak sama macam buku akaun Amiera..

Dapat free key chain..

dan kad keahlian nuri.. tapi takde nama Fateh.. masa Amiera dulu ada nama..

Hari raya pertama tempohari genap usia Fateh sebulan..

Baru hari ni sempat pergi klinik pakar AnNur untuk dapatkan injection Hep B..

Alhamdulillah.. baru sebulan seminggu berat Fateh dah 4.6kg.. jaundis dia pun dah takde.. itu kata doktor laaa..

Mata sebelah kanan still berair.. takes time nak hilang.. Fateh kena selesema selepas balik beraya tempohari.. tapi tak effect paru2 dia.. so, doktor tak mau bagi ubat..

Lepas kena inject dia menjerit.. tapi lepas doktor dukung dia.. dah senyap.. bagus anak mama ni.. hehehehe..

Next appointment lagi sebulan..

Jom tengok gambar2 Fateh sekitar usia sebulan..

Lagi hadiah untuk Fateh.. tima kasih Mak Ngah, Umi dan Mak Tih..

Sep 27, 5:29 AM (ET)
By Nasser Karimi

TEHRAN (AP) – Iran said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles during drills Sunday by the elite Revolutionary Guard, a show of force days after the U.S. and its allies condemned Tehran over a newly revealed underground nuclear facility that was being secretly constructed.

English-language Press TV reported the Fateh-110, Tondar-69 and Zelzal were test fired in a missile defense exercise, but did not give specifics on range or other details. All are short-range, surface-to-surface missiles.

Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, told reporters Iran tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday’s drill in a desert in central Iran. In the clip, men could be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” as the missiles were launched.

“The message of the war game for some arrogant countries which intend to intimidate is that we are able to give a proper, strong answer to their hostility quickly,” the Web site of state television quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.

Continue

Balik dalam keadaan separuh basah sebab setengah jalan hujan.. per lagi.. kawasan lembah.. Kuala Lumpur..

nampak tak kesan basah kat bungkusan.. nasib baik dalamnya berplastik..

meriahlah Fateh ngan baju raya tahun ni.. terima kasih Din dan Ita..

Mesti ramai yang peliks.. Fateh?? tak glamour nya nama.. tapi nama tu paling disanjungi dan disegani pada zaman Othmaniyah..

Salam..

Macam dah jadi kebiasaan kebanyakan bayi yang baru lahir akan di serang jaundis.. orang kampung kata demam kuning.. jaundis berpunca dari sel darah merah yang mengeluarkan bilirubin tidak dapat diproses oleh hati bayi kerana belum matang sepenuhnya.. Fateh juga tidak terkecuali.. aku ingatkan dia tak kena sebab masa lahir dia ok jer.. tapi pada hari ke-3 jaundis dia naik ke paras 11.. sebab tu dia kena tahan wad..

Alhamdulillah.. semalaman dia di bawah cahaya lampu atau di kenali sebagai phototerapi.. jaundis dia kurang ke paras 9.. kami di syorkan supaya membawa Fateh semula ke hospital 3 hari kemudian untuk check tahap bilirubin nya..

ni kad Fateh.. semua info pasal jaundis dan senarai suntikan yang perlu diambil mengikut usia.. kalau kat kerajaan hanya sekeping kad aja.. tapi tu dulu zaman Amiera.. tak tahulah sekarang macam mana..

27hb Ogos.. selepas di check.. tahap bilirubin Fateh meningkat semula ke paras 11.. aku dah mula risau.. tapi dok pesakit luar Hosp. AnNur tu just cadangkan bykkan bagi minum susu supaya dia byk berak.. kuningnya akan dikeluarkan dari proses perkumuhan tu..

30hb Ogos.. kami datang semula ke hospital untuk memastikan jaundis Fateh berkurangan… tapi malangnya tahap bilirubin tidak berkurangan.. kami mula risau.. belah mata kanan Fateh pun berair dan byk tahi mata.. bila aku tanya doktor tu.. dia tak berani nak jawab kerana bukan bidang dia.. dia suggest kami jumpa doktor pakar..

dah 2 minggu ni.. dah pandai gerak2 badan.. sampai senget2 dibuatnya..

3hb Sept.. kami terus jumpa doktor pakar kanak-kanak.. alhamdulillah.. tahap bilirubin Fateh telah turun ke tahap 10.. doktor pakar bagitahu.. kuning dia akan hilang dengan sendirinya.. just kerapkan bagi minum susu.. sekiranya kuning dia ketara baru bawa dia semula jumpa doktor.. kalau tidak lagi sebulan kami bawa dia semula.. pasal mata tu pulaks doktor kata itu normal.. akan hilang dengan sendirinya.. begitu juga bintik2 cecair di atas kepalanya.. akan menjadi kerak dan akan hilang dengan sendirinya.. lepas dengar penjelasan doktor baru lega sikit..

ni susu formula Fateh buat masa ni.. mahal siot.. 850gm aja dah RM70 lebih.. dahlah si Fateh kuat minum.. belum hantar ke taska ni bolehlah minum susu mahal2.. still in the bajet.. pasni kena cari susu yang murah sikitlah..

InsyaAllah lepas raya nanti kami akan bawa Fateh semula untuk injection Hepatitis B dan check jaundis..

Haaa.. nak sambung balik kisah sebelum dan semasa bersalin tempohari.. kali ni kisah selepas bersalin laks..

ini lah baby aku… tak sangka jugak berat dia 2.7kg.. aku ingatkan bawah 2.5kg.. tak padan ngan perut aku yang kecik.. inilah rupanya anak yang aktif dalam perut aku selama berbulan2..

Lepas aku di masukkan ke dalam wad kan.. cam biasa rutin nurse kat situ datang check aku.. baguih lah service diorang.. paling yang aku suker.. semua staff nya pompuan.. dari nurse, tukang sapu, tukang hantar makanan, tukang angkat sampah.. so, tak de nak malu2 nya… semua sama.. hehhehhee…

Memandangkan aku dah dpt single bed.. syukur yang amat.. at least hubby ngan Amiera leh temankan aku kat spital.. nak2 pulaks si Amiera tu.. kang nangis pulaks bila aku takde.. start 20hb aku masuk wad.. sampai lah aku kuar wad 24hb.. kenapa lama sangat?? haaa.. nanti aku story mory yer..

Hari pertama ceaser tu 20/8.. aku memang tak boleh gerak sangat.. sakit woooooo… tapi nasib baik diorang bagi injection tahan sakit.. masalahnya.. ubat tu mengantuk.. kejap2 tidur.. sampaikan badan kat belakang ni gatal2 sebab terlentang jer.. bila aku cuba nak mengiring ke kiri atau kanan.. tak boleh lagi sebab sakit.. berat jer rasa punggung aku ni.. bila ubat tahan sakit tu habis time.. rasa pedih2 kat perut.. bisa nya hanya Tuhan yang tahu.. bila nurse datang nak inject… adoiii laaa.. tahan je laaa.. aku mintak pil.. tapi kata diorang selagi aku tak kentut selagi tu aku tak boleh makan dan telan pil..

Esoknya.. hari kedua 21/8.. aku tak leh bangun lagi.. masih sakit2.. diorang yang lap2 kan aku.. hampir tengahari diorang tanggalkan saluran kencing.. dan diorang suh aku bergerak2.. nak gerak mendanya.. sakit ooo.. nasib baik hubby aku ada… dialah yang byk bantu aku untuk bergerak.. diorang bekalkan aku dengan ubat angin dan ubat melembutkan usus.. adoiii.. lepas makan ubat tu.. perut aku macam ada something bergerak2.. angin daaaa.. dia malu2 nak kuar.. jenuh aku menahan sakit angin..

Ceaser kali ni aku rasa lebih sakit dari ceaser masa bersalin kan Amiera.. berkali2 aku minta injection sebab sakit.. tapi masa Amiera dulu.. lepas ceaser aku cuma dapat sekali jer injection.. pastu diorang bagi pil tahan sakit.. lepas tu aku ok lah.. keesokan petangnya aku dah boleh bangun dah bergerak sendiri.. Dr. Fatimah pun bagitahu yang ceaser kali kedua lebih sakit dari yang pertama, begitu juga ceaser untuk kali ketiga akan lebih sakit dari yang kedua.. erkkk.. terkedu aku.. aku dah 2 kali ceaser.. pasni kalau nak anak lagi aku kena ceaser gaks.. tak boleh nak normal dah.. huhuhu.. tahan je lah..

Maklumlah hari Jumaat kan.. waktu rehat kan lama.. so.. belah tengahari tu member aku Zie, kawan sejak ITM dulu datang menziarah.. thanks Zie.. kerana datang dan bagi hadiah untuk Fateh.. tak lama lepas tu.. lepas Zie balik… satu rombongan member opis aku pun sampai.. thanks Eida, Maizan, Sya, Kak Zana, Banu dan Nanthini kerana sudi datang… masa tengah borak2 ngan diorang.. family aku pun sampai.. so, makin meriah bilik tu.. tapi malang sekali.. diorang tak boleh tengok secara dekat si Fateh sebab memang rule kat AnNur.. baby tak boleh terdedah dengan ramai pelawat.. kalau nak tengok pun melalui cermin bilik baby..

Hadiah dari zie.. tima kasih zie..

Petang lepas semua orang balik.. aku cuba gagahkan diri jugak untuk ke toilet.. tara tahan lor.. susah sungguh nak buang air.. menahan sakit je lah..

Hari ketiga 22/8.. aku dah start bangun.. cuba mengaktifkan diri.. kena kuatkan semangat.. alhamdulillah… aku dah boleh kentut.. hehehheheh.. pasni bleh la aku makan nasi ngan ubat tahan sakit.. dah naik kematu punggung aku kena injection.. Fateh aku try bagi susu tapi dia cam tak mau jer.. aku pulaks masih sakit.. so, aku serah bulat2 kat nurse untuk menyusukan Fateh.. Dr. Fatimah datang check aku.. mula2 dia nak bukak pelekat kat tmpt ceaser.. tapi aku bagitahu dia yang aku nak stay lagi semalam.. nak bagi kuat sikit sebelum aku kuar spital.. nasib baik Dr. Fatimah bagus.. dia tak kisah selama mana aku nak duk wad.. kalau itu adalah yang terbaik untuk aku berehat.. so, tak jadilah dia buka pelekat tu.. esok dia akan buka.. petang tu.. ayah sedara hubby yang kami panggil Acik dan anak nya Firus datang menziarah.. terima kasih Acik sebab datang lawat kami..

Amiera terpaksa celebrate birthday ngan makan nasi spital.. cian dia..

Memandangkan umat Islam menyambut Ramadhan hari ni.. hubby aku buat pertama kali dalam hidupnya bersahur dan berbuka pose di spital… hehehhehhe.. kesian hubby aku.. dahlah pose sorang2… sorry yer bang.. len kali pilih tarikh yang sesuai yer… hehhehehhe…

Hari keempat 23/8.. aku dah sihat.. boleh bergerak tanpa bantuan hubby walaupun tak aktif sangat..

Pelekat kat jahitan pun dah dibuka.. so, aku boleh kuar spital arini.. yahooo.. seronoknya.. cepat2 kami packing nak balik… bila hubby aku on the way nak hantar barang ke kereta.. nurse tiba2 datang ke bilik kata.. Fateh kena kuning.. so, dia di tahan wad… lor… pulaks.. aku dah sihat.. dia pulaks yang kena tahan.. terpaksalah call hubby suh bawak balik barang naik atas.. tak jadi balik.. terpaksa bermalam lagi kat spital.. kami dah risau.. hubby aku cuti sampai Selasa aja.. andai kata Fateh masih di tahan selepas hari Selasa.. cemana ni.. sapa nak jaga Amiera.. macam2 yang kami fikirkan..

Hari kelima 24/8.. hubby ngan Amiera balik umah sebab nak ambik barang lagi.. standby kalau kena bermalam lagi kat spital.. petangnya.. sebelum hubby sampai.. nurse bagitahu yang kuning baby dah kurang dan dia dibenarkan keluar wad… syukur alhamdulillah.. suker sangat aku bila dengar berita tu.. cepat2 aku call hubby suh datang spital.. tak sabar2 aku nak balik umah ni.. nak menjalani hidup cam biasa…

Masa nak discharge tu.. ada prosedur gaks.. lepas hubby settlekan payment.. baby kena hantar dulu ke nurseri.. diorang akan bagi segala dokumen yang berkaitan.. hadiah berupa beg tajaan EnfaMama pun dapat… best giler.. lepas settle sain dokumen bagai.. aku ingat nak balik camtu jer.. diorang suh aku duk kat kerusi roda.. nurse akan hantarkan aku hingga ke luar hospital.. aku kata tak payahlah.. aku boleh jalan sendiri.. tapi itu memang prosedur kat situ… so, kena lah ikut.. bagus sungguhlah AnNur ni.. tapi kebetulan yang hantar aku tu student praktikal dan dia pun tak pernah menggunakan kerusi roda tu.. naik risau pulaks aku.. lepas guard isi maklumat pengeluaran bayi dari hospital.. aku cakap.. aku bleh jalan sendiri.. kang jatuh pulaks aku kat tepi jalan.. dari sihat terus sakit balik nanti… hehhehe..

beg lagi.. tima kasih EnfaMama.. sesuai laks tu.. nasib baik dpt baby boy.. makin byk lah koleksi beg si Fateh nanti..

Alhamdulillah… semuanya telah selamat… nanti aku ceritakan kisah aku semasa berpantang ni.. dah 2 minggu yer..

As proud as I am of Centre for Human Emergence – UK (CHE-UK) , as grand as our ambitions are – and partially redesigning the United Kingdom is pretty ambitious!! – as committed to them as I am and as daunting as the challenges we face are, it seems at times relatively ‘small beer’ compared to what the Center for Human Emergence Middle East (CHE-ME) is up to.

Our members don’t live in a semi-hot war zone, with the ever-present threat of real violence (whether terrorist activities – suicide bombers and rockets – or heavy-handed military responses such as in Gaza at the start of this year). The UK might be bothered about corruption in government, desperate to recover from what is being labelled as the worst recession since the 1930s, very unsure of itself as a multi-cultural society in certain parts of the kingdom and iffy in its relations with the EU whilst at the same time being uncertain as to the changing constitutional relationship between its 4 constituent countries. But CHE-ME is faced with a real and frequently violent conflict between one country (Israel) and the stateless land of a dispossessed people it occupies (Palestine), with that stateless land split both geographically and politically. CHE-ME is faced with 2 wars – Israel vs Palestine and Fatah (aka Fateh) vs Hamas – both in fragile ceasefires that threaten to boil over into murderous warfare at any moment.

So it’s a pleasure for me once again to draw attention to the work of Elza Maalouf and CHE-ME – which, it should be stressed, is strongly supported by Integral Israel. In the 5 years since Rafael Nasser first invited Spiral Dynamics co-developer Don Beck to present to Integral Israel on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, enormous progress has been made behind the scenes – particularly in terms of building Palestinian capacity for self-government so that Palestine can be a full and competent partner to Israel in designing a viable and sustainable 2-state solution.

As Elza reports in her article for the Common Ground News Service, ‘6th Convention Fateh’s and the Building of a Nation’, the Convention has made clear recommendations to the Fatah-led government of President Mahmoud Abbas that a new national agenda needs to be designed based on economic development. Many of those who voted for positive change at the Convention had been through some form of training and/or briefing by Maalouf & Beck.

What it seems CHE-ME is beginning to bring about is a major shift in sections of the Palestinian consciousness. That shift is from the old anti-Israeli/Palestinians-as-victims ethos PURPLE and BLUE had got them locked into – which RED demagogues have so ruthlessly exploited for the past half-century and more – into the first stirrings of an ORANGE-driven entrepreneurial culture. The old Palestine, an alienated and divided society embittered with hatred towards Israel and split into its own warring factions, all but invited Israel to occupy and suppress. A new Palestine geared towards the well-being of its people and the economic prosperity of the region must be an attractive proposition as a trading partner for Israel.

The emergence of the ORANGE vMEME, as Beck lays out in his development of Muzafir Sherif’s Assimilation-Contrast Effect, breaks up the log jam of intractable positions by working towards a new and better future.

But, in her big picture perspective, Maalouf knows that Hamas can’t be left out of these developments. So, in her Common Ground article, she points out that the olive branch needs to be offered to Hamas. (Though their work to date has been mostly with Fatah, she & Beck have made some inroads into Hamas and know that there are potentials for change and voices of reason all too often missed in the Western media’s portrayal of that terrorist organisation.)

So, some wonderful news of progress in one of the world’s most troubled and dangerous regions!

For those interested in progress in the Middle East, may I also recommend Bitter Lemons, an EU-funded site dedicated to helping Israelis and Palestinians understand each other’s points of view on the issues which are seen to divide.

Tracklist

1. From The Forest . . .   
2. Tapir Hunt  
3. The Storyteller’s Dream  
4. Holcane Attack
5. Captives
6. Entering The City With A Future Foretold
7. Sacrificial Procession
8. Words Through The Sky – The Eclipse
9. The Games and Escape
10. An Illusive Quarry
11. Frog Darts 
12. No Longer The Hunted 
13. Civilisations Brought By Sea   
14. To The Forest . . .

ภาพยนตร์ดิบเถื่อนจากผู้กำกับ Mel Gibson บอกเล่าเรื่องราวที่เกิดในอารยธรรมของชาวมายัน เมื่อความเป็นอยู่แบบสงบสุขเรียบง่ายของ Jaguar Paw และชนเผ่าของเขาได้ถูกทำลายอย่างเหี้ยมโหดจากกลุ่มชาวมายันและผู้คนบางส่วนก็ถูกจับไปบูชายันต์ แต่แล้วโชคชะตาทำให้ Jaguar รอดพ้นจากการบูชายันต์และมีชีวิตรอดจากเกมมรณะ ทำให้เขาถูกพวกมายันตามล่า ระหว่างการหลบหนี Jaguar ต้องดิ้นรนต่อสู้ให้มีชีวิตรอดเพื่อที่จะกลับไปหาครอบครัวของเขาให้ได้
ในส่วนของดนตรีประกอบได้คอมโพเซอร์ James Horner มาสร้างสรรค์ดนตรีแนวพงไพรซึ่ง Horner ยังคงใช้ดนตรีออเคสตร้าแต่จะเน้นไปที่พวกเพอคัสชั่นและเครื่องเป่าลมไม้เป็นหลัก รวมถึงการหันมาพึ่งพาซินธิไซเซอร์ ทั้งนี้ยังได้นักร้องชาวปากีสถาน Rahan Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan มาร้องนำช่วยสร้างสรรค์เสียงมนุษย์แบบโบราณสุดขลัง
From The Forest . . . ขอต้อนรับทุกท่านเข้าสู่ป่าอันอุดมสมบูรณ์ด้วยเสียงนกร้องตามธรรมชาติ คลอเสียงร้องเบาๆบวกกับเสียงเครื่องสายซึ่งเป็๋นการแนะนำธีมหลักของอัลบั้มไปด้วย The Storyteller’s Dream เพลงที่โดดเด่นด้วยเสียงฟลุ้ตชวนเพ้อฝันแต่แฝงไปด้วยความไม่ชอบมาพากล
มาถึงเพลงเด่นตัวแรกของอัลบั้ม Holcane Attack ซึ่งเป็นดนตรีประกอบฉากพวกมายันบุกหมู่บ้านตัวเอกของเรานั่นเอง แม้ Horner จะเลือกใช้ดนตรีทำนองช้า แต่ก็ยังสามารถสื่อถึงความน่ากลัว ความวุ่นวาย และความสูญเสียจากการรุกรานนี้ได้อย่างถึงอารมณ์
Entering The City With A Future Foretold เพลงที่มีดีกรีความหลอนสูงสุดในอัลบั้ม กับดนตรีจังหวะลอยๆชวนขนลุกที่มาพร้อมซินธิไซเซอร์และเสียงเพอคัสชั่นมากระแทกหูเป็นระยะ ก่อนที่จะถึงจุดสูงสุดในช่วงท้ายด้วยเสียงร้องและเครื่องเป่าสุดหลอน
Sacrificial Procession ชื่อเพลงก็บอกอยู่แล้วว่าเกี่ยวกับขั้นตอนการบูชายันต์ ซึ่งเสียงเครื่องเป่า เพอคัสชั่น และเสียงร้องคลอจะทำให้คุณซึมซับความน่ากลัวของพิธีนี้ได้อย่างดี Words Through The Sky – The Eclipse อีกหนึ่งดนตรีจังหวะลอยๆโดยมีเสียงฟลุ้ตประกอบ เพลงนี้โดดเด่นด้วยเสียงร้องที่เหมือนคำสวดในช่วงท้ายของเพลง สื่อถึงคำทำนายหายนะของพวกมายันที่กำลังจะเป็นจริง
เพลงจังหวะเร็วที่โดดเด่นที่สุดในอัลบั้ม The Games and Escape เป็นการปลดแอกความอึดอัดในครึ่งแรกของอัลบั้ม ด้วยเพลงหนีตายสุดชีวิตที่มาพร้อมเสียงเพอคัสชั่นและซินธิไซเซอร์สุดมันส์ Frog Darts เป็นดนตรีประกอบฉากที่ตัวเอกเริ่มต่อสู้กลับซึ่งเพลงนี้มาพร้อมความระทึกแบบคนป่าขนานแท้
การหลบหนีใกล้จบลงในเพลงระทึกชวนลุ้นสุดมันส์ No Longer The Hunted ที่นำมาสู่ตอนจบใน Civilisations Brought By Sea ซึ่งเป็นเพลงเดียวที่ดนตรีออเคสตร้าเข้ามามีบทบาทสูงสุด โดยเราจะได้ยินเสียงเครื่องสายบรรเลงกันแบบยิ่งใหญ่เต็มตัวในท่อนกลางๆของเพลง
To The Forest . . . เพลง End Credit ชวนผ่อนคลาย ที่นำดนตรีจาก From The Forest . . .  มาต่อยอดเป็นเพลงที่ยาวขึ้นและฟังดูเป็นชิ้นเป็นอันกว่า นี่คืออีกหนึ่งเพลงที่โดดเด่นที่สุดซึ่งส่งท้ายอารมณ์ในช่วงของการปิดอัลบั้มนี้ได้อย่างสมบูรณ์
สุดยอดงานดนตรีแหวกแนวที่เล่นน้อยชิ้นแต่ได้ผลลัพธ์ที่ดีเกินคาดจาก James Horner ที่คุณควรได้ลองสัมผัสดูครับ

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Nobody here likes Fateh (no surprise).

People here think Fateh is controlled by America (I’ll got to admit, I’m a little surprised).

[GALLO/GETTY]

Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/200984841157927.html

By Mira Nabulsi

As Fatah’s sixth congress gets underway in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Al Jazeera asked young Palestinians how relevant the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is to them and whether they still consider it to be the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

They share their views on whether reforming the PLO could help bring an end to Palestinian infighting and what they think the future of the PLO will look like.

Raqia, librarian

We have to take into consideration that Fatah is the major party in the Palestine Liberation Organisation even when other parties like the Palestinian left were in their good times, internal problems in Fatah were greatly reflected in the PLO, so reforming Fatah will pave the way to reforming the PLO.

Unfortunately, other Palestinian parties are now too weak to intervene, yet I do believe that reforming the PLO should be the fundamental priority of all factions.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) had definitely a big role in marginalising the PLO, and I don’t know whether Hamas has any interest in reviving or reforming it even if it publicly declares that.

The PLO should be the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, but in its current status it is not, none of the PNA parties are working to achieve that.

Reform will only happen if there is a political will and decision yet the prospects aren’t encouraging.

I am not very optimistic about the future of the PLO … we need a political earthquake.

Wassim Abu Fasha, researcher

Limiting the Palestinian representation to one political entity or structure is a necessity.

The question is whether the PLO with its current formula is representative to people’s ambitions, hopes and interests inside Palestine and in the diaspora or not.

The reality on the ground, the history of the PLO and the Arab and international recognition have given the PLO this position, especially as it gathered the majority of Palestinian factions in addition to some independent members.

I won’t get into history, nevertheless going back to PLO’s early times and the circumstances of its founding as part of the official Arab system essentially means narrowing the margins of its independence and linking decision making with the alliances and general context in the Arab region.

However, if we put all that aside I think the weakness of the PLO and the distortion in its programme is primarily a product of the Oslo accords and the founding of the Palestinian National Authority which “intentionally or unintentionally” marginalised the role of the PLO, took over many of its responsibilities and even subjected its legitimacy to questioning in the Palestinian street.

Accordingly the discussion of the PLO’s legitimacy and its representation to the Palestinian people and their cause deserves significant consideration; from one side having a Palestinian organisation with a clear agenda and gathering the different Palestinian factions is a strategic necessity, on the other hand the current situation of the PLO with its weakness and fragility makes the reform extremely important and so is distinguishing its role from that of the PNA.

Such confusion sums up the Palestinian cause into 1967 lands and disregards the representation of the Palestinian diaspora.

The PLO became a conflicting matter, each party is trying to obtain political gains to win recognition and legitimacy.

Reforming the PLO alone will not be a driving force for solving the internal Palestinian conflict, if this reform was not reached on the basis of a national reconciliation and a holistic programme unifying references, defining roles and strategies to deal with Israeli occupation, in addition to the inclusion of other Palestinian factions like Hamas and Islamic Jihad; it will not rescue the Palestinian situation, all disputed matters need to be dealt with holistically.

The PLO should represent Palestinians everywhere, to be based on democratic foundations balancing the different political ideologies of Palestinian factions and adopting a programme inspired by Arab aspirations which for years were suppressed by the ruling elites.

This programme has also to fit in the broader global struggle for freedom and justice, equality and democracy which would secure us the popular international and Arab solidarity and support.

Sami Abdo, quality engineer

Personally, I don’t think that the PLO with its current shape represents the entirety of the Palestinian people.

We have a whole new generation that grew up after the latest PLO elections (Palestinian National Council and PLO Executive Committee), not to forget that we have major Palestinian parties that emerged and refuse the previous commitments of the PLO.

I personally never elected a representative in the PLO, then how can it be legitimate if it’s not elected?

Currently, there is no body that represents Palestinian people everywhere not even the PLO, hence it can be our best choice, we have to also remember that the PLO obtained international recognition so I don’t see a problem in it continuing to follow up with Palestinians’ issues inside Palestine or the Arab countries but I don’t accept any crucial commitment it could make while it’s still with the current formula.

If reforming the PLO constitutes a free and transparent election where all Palestinians would get to vote and choose a programme that wins the trust of the majority, then I think our problems are solvable, that is because the current internal conflict is between two parties; one chose resistance until the full liberation and one chose political settlement. Evidently each party wants to impose its agenda, we therefore need to go back to the people and lets see whom will they choose.

I believe our people are fed up with negotiations and compromises and will choose to go back to resistance to ensure no more compromises and to hinder the submissive approach that characterises the PLO right now.

As for the future, I think people look forward to see change, they do not want a repetition of Hamas election’s experience and they do not want to go back to the previous approach.

We need people that are politically more liberal than Hamas is but who also care about the interest of their people, maybe this will give a push to more independent figures to take the lead.

If Fatah presented a programme that is stronger and takes into account people’s choices maybe they still have a chance. On the other hand, if Hamas came up with better strategies to confront the siege maybe it will also still have a chance.

Ayman, leftist from Ramallah

I think the PLO is still part of the Palestinian identity. The PNA is part of the PLO’s responsibilities and not the opposite, the current situation still doesn’t cancel the PLO’s legitimacy or its sole representation of the Palestinian people.

The overlap in responsibilities between the PNA and the PLO is the main problem, and to be more specific the conflict between Hamas and Fatah is a conflict over the importance and the position of the PLO in the local sphere. Everybody still recognises its role and Hamas cannot alone be the representative of the Palestinian people because the PLO is a political platform and not a single party.

I think the PLO is on a crossroad; its reform is a national duty that is vital for the protection of the Palestinian national project.

If you ask whether there is a possibility for reform, I will say of course there is. What’s important here is having the will and the political decision.

So far reform has been discussed in the context of party interests and not in the broader context of the Palestinian cause which is why I think a serious will from the different parties and the president of the PLO is able to achieve reform.

I believe the confidence in the PLO is still existing, but associating it with Fatah has reduced its popularly.

Discords always existed between the Palestinian factions; that manifested in the pull out and accession of parties in and out of the PLO throughout the decades, and the attempts of finding other substituting entities failed and always re-emphasised that the PLO is the gathering framework. Hamas is making use of this low level of confidence to manipulate people for its own gains.

The PLO should not exclusively utilise political talks, and the political agenda must not threaten our right of resistance.

Our society is diverse politically and socially and the PLO should correspond with this variety in the Palestinian society, side by side with the revival of the international alliances that support the cause of our people.

Marwa Yousef, architect

The PLO is too corrupt to represent us, so my answer is no, I don’t think it represents me as a Palestinian.

The PLO in its current form is not relevant to the cause or to the Palestinians.

The cause was sold out long ago. I don’t think they even remember what the cause is.

In my opinion the internal conflict is not a political conflict, it’s a conflict over power and money, part of the reformation will do the trick! But who will reform it?

I find that the corruption levels are too high that even to the scale of the simplest Palestinians who will find a degree of badness in them.

In the current political society, I cannot think of anyone who is suitable for such a responsibility.

The future is gloomy. I think people have to go back 60 years, remember the Nakba and all that happened and start working all over again.

If we don’t do that, things will go worse than ever!

Nadia Hajal, researcher

As a Palestinian, I do consider the PLO as the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people inside Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Diaspora.

I believe that we, Palestinians, are still in a liberation phase against the Israeli occupation given the dead end tunnel of political negotiations, sign agreements and the paralysed Palestinian Authority institutions.

We need a reference and the PLO is the one.

The Israeli matrix of control – land annexation, construction of settlements, separation wall, bypass roads, control of borders, etc – create no opportunity for a viable and sovereign Palestinian Authority beyond its physical existence.

The remaining unviable and Israeli controlled 22 per cent of historical Palestine for Palestinians holds no optimism for the future. The annexation of Jordan valley makes land percentage even less.

However, I do also believe that the PLO has to refresh its blood and open its nerves to represent all spectrums of Palestinian factions who I believe should revolve around the PLO’s political agenda in affirmation to right to self-determination and right of return but consider an expansion in the methods of resistance represented in article 10 of the Palestinian National Charter to include non-violent resistance as well.

Reformed PLO should reconsider the 1988 officially endorsed two-state solution which – in my opinion – signals the starting point for the collapse of the Palestinian national project.

holding an american passport, having the privilege of white skin, and living in palestine means that one needs to be conscious of these privileges and also use them strategically to support palestinians. the summer camp last week was one example of using my white privilege to help palestinian refugees learn about their villages and use that knowledge and experience to imagine how to fight for their right of return. i think this is urgent for this generation to be given as many tools as possible to fight for this right and to acquire knowledge from their elders and their own experiences as the risk of losing the generation that holds first-hand memories. one of the youth on the trip has an 89 year old grandfather who recalls acutely every last detail of his village beit ‘itab. part of the next phase of this project is to get the youth to record the oral histories of their elders as well as to use that history as another tool to fight for their right of return. i use the word “project” advisedly. it is not some little program that we are working on here that is temporary or fleeting. it is something that we are hoping to project into the future to help this generation realize their right of return. to break out of their prisons in the refugee camps, in their bantustan cities and villages. to take their land back.

i taught my indigenous american class last night in deheishe, in which some of the same youth from camp are students, and i started to worry a bit about the upcoming delegation. first, here is a description and a way you can support the project by donating to the middle east children’s alliance:

The Indigenous Youth Delegation to Palestine, the first-ever delegation of its kind, is scheduled for August 2009. Youth leaders from grassroots indigenous groups in the US, namely Seventh Native American Generation (SNAG) Magazine, Huaxtec, and Native students at Haskell University, will travel to Palestine at the invitation of five Palestinian youth centers. After more than two years of communicating through the internet, these young people will have the opportunity to learn firsthand from each other by sharing tools of empowerment and education.

The trip to Palestine is part of an ongoing process to connect the shared experiences of Indigenous peoples across the world, to build solidarity, justice and peace. The group will create print media, blogs, a Native/Palestinian music CD, video, photo essays, poetry and other forms of media to share their stories and involve their communities in building a national and international movement for indigenous rights.

i think that this project is hugely important as global indigenous solidarity is necessary. i think the youth can learn a lot from each other. at the same time one of the differences between indigenous youth in the americas and in palestine is time–a few hundred years difference. and i worry that the palestinian youth will look to the american indian youth and see this as their fate: four hundred years of living in refugee camps, of removal from their land, of imprisonment.

one of the more well known american indian political prisoners is up for parole again. leonard peltier, jeremy scahill reminds us, has the possibility of being released from prison in a couple of weeks:

“I AM but a common man, I am not a speaker but I have spoken. I am not all that tall, but I have stood up. I am not a philosopher or poet or a singer or any of those things that particularly inspire people, but the one thing that I am is the evidence that this country lied when they said there was justice for all… I am just a common man and I am evidence that the powers that put me here would like to sweep under the carpet. The same way they did all of our past leaders, warriors and people they massacred. Just as at Wounded Knee, the Fifth Cavalry sought its revenge for Custer’s loss and massacred some 300 Indian men women and children, then gave out 23 Medals of Honor and swept the evidence of their wrongdoing aside… I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in this prison. And I don’t want you to spend the rest of your life in some prison of the mind, heart or attitude. I want you to enjoy your life.

If nothing else give somebody a hug for me and say, ‘This is from Leonard.’”

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

Leonard Peltier

NOTE: Read Leonard Peltier’s full June 26 statement. Peltier is up for parole on July 28. His supporters and friends have launched a letter-writing campaign to support his release from prison after 34 years.

americans, like their zionist allies, love to lock people and communities up in prisons. they have this, among other things, in common. there are over 11,000 palestinian political prisoners languishing in zionist terrorist colonist jails, among them are some more well-known political leaders and figures. last week the campaign to free ahmed sa’adat issued a letter calling for his release as well as all the other political prisoners:

Dear Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon;

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, call upon you to immediately take action in defense of the lives, health and rights of the over 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners held inside Israeli occupation jails. This number includes numerous elected members of Palestinian Legislative Council, among them Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Marwan al-Barghouthi, Fateh leader; Abdel-Aziz Dweik, Hamas leader and President of the Council, just freed after three years in prison, and dozens of other elected political leaders, in addition to thousands of other Palestinian activists, union members, community organizers, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.

Palestinian prisoners suffer in conditions that violate international standards and norms, and are imprisoned because they refuse to accept a brutal occupation of their land and their people. Ahmad Sa’adat recently waged a nine-day hunger strike in protest of the policy of isolation and solitary confinement that has recently been escalated against Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian prisoners have been denied family visits, at times for years, denied access to all books and magazines, and denied even communication with their fellow prisoners in the isolation units. Palestinian prisoners, including Sa’adat, are currently denied necessary health care and medical treatment.

Palestinian prisoners are placed into isolation because they are national leaders and because the Palestinian prisoner movement has been an inspiration to all Palestinians and all who struggle for freedom. Ahmad Sa’adat’s hunger strike has sparked thousands of people around the world to appeal for his release, as a living example who symbolizes the steadfastness and strength of the Palestinian prisoners amid isolation and dire conditions, and it must compel all of those outside the prisons to act. Many Palestinian and international human rights and social justice organizations have called for the release of Sa’adat and to ensure the safety of his life and health, as well as for freedom and protection for all Palestinian prisoners.

The fate of these 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners is a fundamental issue of justice. Palestinians, in Palestine and in exile, are denied their rights – to return home, to self-determination, and to freedom, and those who seek to secure those rights are subject to imprisonment, whether within the open-air prisons of Gaza under siege or the walled-in West Bank, or the jails of the occupation. The silent, and at times, active, complicity of international agencies, particularly the United Nations, in the denial of Palestinian rights must not continue.

We call upon you to uphold your responsibilities and exert all pressure to end torture, cruel and inhuman treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and to free every Palestinian political prisoner from Israel’s occupation jails.

Sincerely,
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

the number of palestinian political prisoners grows every month with the zionist terrorist forces’ nightly raids into palestinian refugee camps, villages and cities. here is a report on the month of june alone:

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees reported that the Israeli army kidnapped more than 380 Palestinians in several parts of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem during the month of June.

The ministry added that the army also kidnapped four Egyptians in the Negev after claiming that they crossed the border and entered a military base.

Hundreds of Palestinian workers were also detained in the Green Line as the Israeli Police claimed they were working there without permits.

Riyadh Al Ashqar, head of the Media Department at the Ministry, stated that last month witnessed a significant escalation in Israeli attacks against Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip, and that the soldiers kidnapped sixteen fishermen.

He added that Israeli security personnel interrogated the fishermen and tried to blackmail them by telling them that they would be allowed to fish in Gaza’s territorial waters should they collaborate and spy for Israel in Gaza.

The minister added that, for the first time, soldiers detained a four-year old child, identified as Mohammad Mousa, after claiming that he hurled stones at police vehicles in Jerusalem. 31 residents, including three children below 12, were detained in Hizma village, near Jerusalem.

The army also kidnapped three women, and tortured one of them at the Atara roadblock, north of Ramallah.

The tortured woman was identified as Nahed Farhat, from Ramallah; the soldiers kicked her, dragged her on the ground and punched her before blindfolding and cuffing her, and took her to a detention facility.

Soldiers also broke into the home of female legislator, Dr. Mariam Saleh, searched the property and kidnapped her son Salah after kicking and punching him and his brother.

Troops confiscated the legislator’s mobile phone and some private documents.

In its report, the Ministry said that Israeli courts issued more than 220 administrative detention orders and imposed high fines on dozens of detainees.

Troops broke into several detention facilities, searched the rooms and attacked a number of detainees.

mohammed ballan compiled a list of some of the palestinian political prisoners’ names, which jasmin ramsey at pulse media reported. however, this is just a small fraction of their names, names that must be spoken, remembered, and the demand for their release must be fought for:

It is also imperative to note that these name are only roughly 200 names when in fact there are over 11, 000 in Israeli prisons. Unfortunately, there is no transparency, and the names of these prisoners remain elusive due to the nature of their imprisonment. No human rights organizations or governmental organizations have access to all of the names and identities of these Palestinians. Although they may be erased from our regular world, we will not forget their existence and let them run through the pages of history.

It should also be noted that of those Palestinians detained, only a minor proportion have actually committed acts of “terrorism” (as defined by Israeli law) or orchestrated attacks against the Israeli civilian and military infrastructure of occupation.

For some of the sources used to compile these names, please visit:

http://addameer.info/
http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=
http://www.miftah.org/Doc/Factsheets/Miftah/English/Prisoners.pdf
http://palestinianprisoners.blogspot.com/

PALESTINIAN PRISONERS:

10,000 men, 1500 women, 500 children under 12 yrs old.

Mainstream media coverage, including Israeli/Arabic/Palestinian/Western news stations: 0.00 minutes, 0 news articles

Names (a mere fraction of them)

Abdullah Hussein Abdullah Odeh
Samah Abdullah
Muhammad Ouni Muhammad Daadou
Amin As’ad Mustafa Salim
Mahmoud Shukri Abd al-Karim Hamshari
Ali Kamal Hussein Abu Salim
Muhammad Saleem Shaheen
Azzam Yusuf Mahmoud Yasin
Roulan Tawfiq Abdullah Dighlis
Nahed Taysir Tawfiq Abu Diyak
Mu’in Mustafa Musa Feshafesha
Muhammad Bassam Tawfiq Walway
Muhammad Amin Ahmad Yunus
Nadel Khalil Ahmad ‘Aalouna
Adam Ghazzan Ahmad Harami
Khadeer Ali Muhammad Bisharat
Mahmoud Radwan Mahmoud Musleh
Samed Muhammd Hassan Asleem
Ehad Mansur Ibrahim Khleelya
Muhammad Saleh Suleyman Mardawi
Saleh ‘Amer Swey’ad S’aida
Amin Abd Muhammad ‘Arbash
George Ghabi Yusuf Bihnan
Ghassan Nu’man Mahmoud Taha
Jibr ‘Ouda Ali Mukhamra
Nitham Mustafa Sawafta
Samer Mahmoud Karim Haimouni
Ibrahim Muhammad Khalil Dababsa
Khalil Suleyman Khalil Jrouf
Ashraf Hussein Mahmoud Abu Ghlass
Tamer Badr Qubtan Abu ‘Arqoub
Muhammad Ibrahim Muhammad ‘Oud
Tawfiq Abd al-Qader Talib Omar
Ziyad Hassan Abd al-Jalil Kahla
Ayman Yaser Khalil ‘Amru
Imad ‘Ezat Muhammad Awlad Muhammad
Mustafa Sawafta
Muhammad Zuhdi Abd al-Rahman Mahfoudh
Muhammad Ahmad Abd Quttamsh
Amru Hassan Muhammad ‘Amru
Osama Muhammad Suleyman Sabateen
Najeh Yusuf Muhammad ‘Amru
Mu’mmar Muhammad Khalil Ta’amra
Ouda Ismail Muhammad Za’anouna
‘Asem Mahmoud Abd al-Rahim Salama
Amna Mouna
Bedran Abd al-Qader Ibrahim Badir
Ahmad Hassan Ahmad Shaqura
Amin Sarhi Salama Abu Mandil
Hussam Suleyman Mustafa ‘Arouq
Omar Mustafa Muhammad Omar
Fadi ‘Essam Sha’ban Saleem
Jum’a Qader ‘Atiya Abu Farha
Mundhir Mahmoud Muhammad Abu Zaghreet
Ala’ Rubhi Hussein Saleh
Muhammad ‘Ayed Muhammad Rub’i
Ghada Jasser
Nayef Ahmad Abd al-Fatah Butran
Khawla Zeitawi
Khaled Ramadan Tawfiq Ismail
Sa’di Mahmoud Hassan ‘Ouda
Ahmad Mahmod Muhammad Saleh
Haitham ‘Asmat Reja’i Zahran
Muhammad Ahmad Fraj Asleem
Asma’ Hussein
Samar Subaih
Bara’ Subaih
Fadi Husni ‘Oud Abu ‘Aoun
Abdullah Qa’dan Khidr Sa’ad
Mutleq Saleh Qassem Bani Jaber
Rasheed Muhammad Rasheed ‘Aql
Ahlam Jawhar
‘Isa Ahmad Amin Abu Eid
Murad ‘Ezzat Muhammad Qassem
Haitham Muhammad Ahmad Baradi’iya
Muhammad Ahmad Shehadeh Farhan
Muhannad Abd al-Fatah Mahmoud Hatataba
Suad Ghazal
Ahmad Mustafa Ali ‘Araj
Muhammad Ibrahim Muhammad Abu Jheesha
Ibrahim Mufleh Saleh Abu Jheesha
Muhammad Abd al-Karim Ismail Hameedan
Abdullah Hassan Ahmad Qandil
Muhammad Na’eim Nimr Muhammad
Manal Ghanem
Nor Ghanem
Khayri Nasr Yusuf Wahdan
‘Asem Ahmad Muhammad ‘Isa
Hani Mahmoud Hussein Taneena
Nadeem ‘Aoud Mahmoud Smara
Sa’ad al-Din Muhammad Abd al-Majid Hassoun
Muhammad Ibrahim Ismail Abu Ismail
Sana ‘Amer
Rafet Suleyman Hussein Radaideh
‘Ouni Yusuf Mahmoud Omar
Rasem Suleyman Abu Rayhan
Sameeh ‘Isa Abd al-Haroush
Ismail Hassan Ali Jabour
Jibril Hassan Hassan Jabour
Imad Yunus Suleyman Jabour
Tawfiq Ahmad Za’al Jabour
Arafat Mahmoud Muhammad Abd al-Aziz
Ayman Munir Tawfiq
Sa’eed Wajia Sa’eed Al-Outban
Na’el Saleh Abdullah Barghouti
Fakhri ‘Asfour Abdullah Al-Barghouti
Akram Abdulaziz Sa’eed Mansur
Muhammad Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Ali
Fu’ad Qassem Aeafat Al-Razem
Ibrahim Fadl Nimr Jaber
Aseel Al-Hindi
Hassan Ali Nimr Salama
Uthman Ali Hamdan Musleh
Sami Khaled Salama Yunus
Karim Yusuf Fadl Yunus
Maher Abd al-Latif Abd al-Qader Yunus
Salim Ali Ibrahim Al-Kayl
Hafedh Nimr Muhammad Qundus
Majd Al-Kokhen
‘Isa Nimr Jibril Abdrabo
Muhammad Abd al-Rahim Sa’eed Mansur
Ahmad Fareed Muhammad Shehadeh
Muhammad Ibrahim Muhammad Nasr
Rafe’ Farhoud Mahmoud Kraja
Talal Yusuf Ahmad Abu Al-Kabash
Ziyad Mahmoud Muhammad Ghneimat
Mustafa ‘Amer Muhammad Ghneimat
Khalid Sa’adi Rashed Abu Shamt
Uthman Abdullah Mahmoud Bani Hussein
Heza’ Mahmoud Heza’ Al-Sa’adi
Bashir Suleyman Ahmad Al-Muqt
‘Asem Mahmoud Ahmad Wali
Seitan Nimr Nimr Wali
Sidqi Suleyman Ahmad Al-Muqt
Hani Badwi Muhammad Sa’eed Jaber
Muhammad Ahmad Abd al-Hamid Al-Tus
Nafidh Ahmad Talib Herz
Fayez Mutawwa’ Hmad Al-Khour
Azi Jum’a Muhammad Al-Nams
Ahmad Abdurrahman Hussein Abu Haseera
Muhammad Misbah Khalil ‘Ashour
Nour Al-Hashalamoun
Walid Nimr As’ad Diqqa
Muhammad Abd al-Hadi Muhammad Al-Husni
Tawfiq Ibrahim Muhammad Abdullah
Mustafa Mahmoud Musa Qar’ushi
Marian Saleh
Rashda Hamdan Muhammad Abu Mikh
Ibrahim Nayef Hamdan Abu Mikh
Ibrahim Abd al-Razeq Ahmad Beyadsa
Ibrahim Mustafa Ahmad Baroud
Ali Badr Ragheb Musulmani
Fawaz Qadhem Rashda Bukhtan
Khalid Ahmad Dawoud Muheisen
‘Asem Saleh Ali Jundal
Wasfa Ahmad Abd al-Qader Mansur
Aladdin Ahmad Reda Al-Baziyan
Ahmad Ali Hussein Abu Jaber
Abd al-Latif Ismail Ibrahim Shaqir
Afu Misbah Nufal Shaqir
Saleh Muhammad Yusuf Al-’Abd
Tareq Dawoud Mustafa Al-Hlees
Abd al-Nasser Dawoud Mustafa Al-Hlees
Ibrahim Hussein Ali ‘Elyan
SamirIbrahim Mahmoud Abu Ni’mah
Hazem Muhammad Sabra ‘Asilia
Hamza Nayef Hassan Zayed
Samer ‘Asem Salem Al-Mahroum
Abdurrahman Fadl Abdurrahman Al-Qeeq
Khaled Muttawa’ Muslim Al-Ja’eedi
Ahlam Al-Tamimi
Aziz Dweik
Maryam Saleh

part of the point of compiling a partial list of the names of palestinian political prisoners is related to the utter lack of media attention palestinian political prisoners get in the international media. last week when the free gaza movement’s boat was captured by zionist terrorist colonists and twenty one internationals were imprisoned, the media story focused on them because the media is not interested in covering the imprisonment of the indigenous fighting to free their land. in response, they produced this video about palestinian political prisoners and the 1.5 million palestinians imprisoned in gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison:

cynthia mckinney was one of those jailed by the zionist terrorist colonists and she wrote “letter from an israeli jail,” the title of which, of course, alludes to martin luther king’s “letter from a birmingham jail,” which reads in part:

But I’ve learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. First of all, it’s incredibly black: populated mostly by Ethiopians who also had a dream … like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They are all are in their twenties. They thought they were coming to the Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better … The once proud, never colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights and self-determination.

My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and Egypt was arduous. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them. And it wasn’t cheap. Many of them represent their family’s best collective efforts for self-fulfilment. They made their way to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow paper of identification. They got their certificate for police protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to Israel only after they arrived Israel told them “there is no UN in Israel.”

The police here have license to pick them up & suck them into the black hole of a farce for a justice system. These beautiful, industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as a place of refuge and safety for the world’s first Jews and Christian. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper.

The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves who are now trapped in Ramle’s detention facility. And what are we to do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for 6 months. As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give 12.8 trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it ought now be clear that hope, change, and ‘yes we can’ were powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfilment, individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly believed in.

It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to the voters of America as was Israel’s marketing to the world. It tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women.

We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to represent us. I have read and re-read Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I too would one day have to do so. It is clear that taxpayers in Europe and the U.S. have a lot to atone for, for what they’ve done to others around the world.

What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, for other people’s children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I’m experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] I’m lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where dreams die?

Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. [Ask yourself:] what are you willing to do?

part of the context of those prisoners, who were refugees seeking asylum, mckinney writes about in her letter was reported on last week by irin news:

Some 15,000 mainly African asylum-seekers in Israel have put the regulatory, security and welfare response under strain, according to the Interior Ministry and UNHCR.

Israel does not have a refugee law, despite being a signatory to the 1951 refugee Convention.

However, regulations can allow asylum-seekers to work, and grant temporary protection and non-refoulement (a commitment not to force people back to where they came from).

About 200-300 asylum-seekers arrive each month, mainly overland from Egypt, according to the Immigration Authority and NGOs.

The UNHCR local office reports 14,766 asylum-seekers in Israel, while the Refugee Rights Forum (RRF – eight NGOs active in promoting the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers in Israel) suggests a number over 17,000.

The difference may in part be explained by the fact that UNHCR does not count asylum-seekers who are no longer in touch with them, according to William Tall, a UNHCR representative in Israel.

In the run-up to the handover of the RSD process to the Interior Ministry on 2 July, UNHCR has helped train 25 immigration officers who will begin work in July.

what happens with palestinian political prisoners–when internationals and asylum seekers are perhaps far from view–is something mckinney did not witness. in electronic intifada, jonathan cook reported on the most recent reports of the routine torture of palestinians, including youth, inside zionist terrorist colonist jails:

Despite the 1999 court ruling, a coalition of 14 Israeli human rights groups known as United Against Torture concluded in its latest annual report in November that Israeli detention facilities are still using torture systematically. Israeli doctors are also being relied on to treat the resulting injuries.

Last week, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI) published a joint report examining hundreds of arrests in which Palestinians were bound in “distorted and unnatural” ways to inflict “pain and humiliation” amounting to torture.

The report noted instances where prisoners, including a pregnant woman and a dying man, were shackled while doctors carried out emergency procedures in a hospital.

According to the report, the doctors violated the Tokyo Declaration, the key code of medical ethics adopted by the WMA in 1975 that bans the use of cruel, humiliating or inhuman treatment by physicians.

Ishai Menuchin, the head of PCATI, said his group had been lobbying strenuously against Israeli doctors’ complicity in torture since it issued a report, “Ticking Bombs,” in 2007, arguing that torture was routine in Israel.

PCATI highlighted the testimonies of nine Palestinians who had been tortured by interrogators. The report also noted that in most cases Israeli physicians treating detainees “return their patients to additional rounds of torture, and remain silent.”

In June last year, PHR-I drew the IMA’s attention to two cases in which the attending doctor failed to report signs of torture on a Palestinian.

Anat Litvin of PHR-I told the IMA: “We believe that doctors are used by torturers as a safety net — take them out of the system and torture will be much more difficult to enact.”

The groups stepped up their pressure in February, writing to Avinoam Reches, the chairman of the IMA’s ethics committee. They demanded that his association investigate six cases of doctors who failed to report signs of torture.

In one case, a prison doctor, under pressure from interrogators, agreed to retract a written recommendation that a detainee be immediately hospitalized for treatment.

Reches promised to conduct an inquiry. However, last month the two human rights groups criticized him for failing to investigate their claims, accusing him of holding only “amicable and unofficial” conversations over the phone with a few of the doctors concerned.

“We have sent to the IMA many testimonies from victims of torture who were referred to doctors for treatment,” Dr. Menuchin said. “But the IMA has yet to do anything about it.

“A significant number of doctors in Israel, in detention facilities and public hospitals, know torture is taking place, but choose to avert their gaze.”

This month, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section issued a report on the torture of Palestinian children, noting that in several of the cases it cited, Israeli doctors had turned a blind eye. A boy of 14 who was beaten repeatedly on a broken arm reported the abuse to a doctor who, he said, replied only: “I had nothing to do with that.”

The report stated that the group “has not encountered a single case where an adult in a position of authority, such as a soldier, doctor, judicial officer or prison staff, has intervened on behalf of a child who was mistreated.”

Campaigners against Dr. Blachar’s appointment as the head of the WMA say its Israeli sister association’s inaction on torture is unsurprising given its chairman’s public stance.

Derek Summerfield of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said: “The IMA under Dr. Blachar is in collusion with the Israeli state policy of torture. Its role is to put a benign face on the occupation.”

Dr. Blachar told the Israeli website Ynet last week that such criticisms were “slanderous,” saying he and the IMA denounced all forms of torture.

The WMA, with nine million members in more than 80 countries, was established in 1947 as a response to the abuses sanctioned by German and Japanese doctors during the Second World War.

In 2007, the WMA’s general assembly called on doctors to document and report all cases of suspected torture.

the defence of children international advocates on behalf of the children who are arrested and tortured every month by zionist terrorist forces. here is a recent video they produced to illustrate their predicament:

dci’s most recent urgent action is for wa’ad arafat mustafa al-hidmy and below is information about how you can take more action on his behalf. he is but one child prisoner, but his situation is indicative of the hundreds of palestinian children languishing in zionist terrorist colonist prisons:

Name Wa’ad Arafat Mustafa al-Hidmy
Age at arrest 16
Occupation Student
Place of residence Surif, Hebron, Hebron, OPT
Date of arrest 28 April 2008
Charge No charge
Place of detention Ofer Prison

UPDATE: July 2009

21 September 2009 Possible release date
21 June 2009 Fifth administrative detention order (3 months)
26 March 2009 Fourth administrative detention order (3 months)
26 November 2008 Third administrative detention order (4 months)
27 August 2008 Second administrative detention order (3 months)
6 May 2008 First administrative detention order (4 months)
28 April 2008 Date of arrest

Background information

Wa’ad was arrested from the family home in the village of Surif, near Hebron in the West Bank, at 3:00am on 28 April 2008. He was asleep at the time and woke to the sound of Israeli soldiers banging on the front door.

The soldiers entered the house and after identifying Wa’ad, tied his hands behind his back with plastic cords and took him out of the house to a waiting jeep where he was blindfolded. Wa’ad was placed on the floor of the jeep and told to ‘shut-up’. During the drive to the settlement of Karmi Zur, soldiers in the back of the jeep placed their legs on Wa’ad’s body. On arrival at the settlement Wa’ad was asked some questions about his health before being transferred to Etzion Interrogation and Detention Centre, near Bethlehem. In an affidavit given to lawyers for DCI-Palestine in June 2009, Wa’ad recalls that: ‘I did not know why they were arresting me. I started to wonder whether I had done something wrong without knowing.’

Two days later, Wa’ad was transferred to Ofer Prison, near Ramallah, where he was interrogated by a policeman in blue uniform. During the interrogation the policeman told Wa’ad that he had been informed by a third person that Wa’ad had participated in a demonstration organised by Islamic Jihad, an organisation banned by the Israeli authorities. Wa’ad could not recall there being any demonstrations organised by Islamic Jihad where he lived during the previous year and that in any event, he had not participated in any of their demonstrations. Wa’ad recalls that the interrogation only lasted around five minutes.

Several days later a prison officer handed Wa’ad a document written in Hebrew and informed him that it was an administrative detention order for six months. Wa’ad recalls feeling depressed because ‘I was expecting to be released because I had not confessed to anything and I had not done anything.’ Two days later Wa’ad’s order was reviewed by the Administrative Detention Court and reduced to four months.

Months passed, and in August, three days before the expiry of the first order, a prison officer again handed Wa’ad a document written in Hebrew and informed him that he had been given a second administrative detention order for four months – ‘I became anxious, but felt helpless. I was expecting to be released after the expiry of the first order but this new order surprised me.’ Several days later the Court reviewed the second order and reduced it to three months.

Wa’ad recalls becoming nervous in the week before the expiry of the second order – ‘I was afraid that the order would be renewed again.’ Two days before the expiry date, Wa’ad was issued with a third administrative detention order for four months, which was confirmed by the Court.

‘I feel a great injustice because of this detention that, according to what I understood from the lawyer and judge, is based on confidential material. I do not know the real reason behind my detention because I cannot remember doing anything that would put the security of the state at risk.’

In March 2009, a few days before the expiry of his third order, Wa’ad was issued with a fourth administrative detention order, for four months, which was later reduced to three months by the Court – ‘I did not know what to do in such a situation. I became unstable and unsure when I would be released. Such a situation is driving me crazy.’

On 14 June 2009, nearly 14 months after his arrest, Wa’ad was visited for the first time by his parents. Up until this time, they had been denied a permit on unspecified security grounds, and only his younger siblings had been allowed to visit him. During the 40 minute visit, Wa’ad recalls telling his parents that he was ‘certain’ to be released on 25 June. However, on 21 June 2009, Wa’ad was issued with a fifth administrative detention order for three months – ‘now I am extremely depressed and do not know what to do.’

Wa’ad was imprisoned once before in September 2005 for throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and has a 20 year-old brother who is also being held in administrative detention in the Negev, inside Israel.

Wa’ad will lodge an appeal against the issue of his fifth administrative detention order.

Administrative detention

Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial and is often based on “secret evidence.” Israeli Military Order 1591 empowers military commanders to detain Palestinians, including children as young as 12, for up to six months if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” The initial six month period can be extended by additional six-month periods indefinitely. This procedure denies the detainee the right to a fair trial and the ability to adequately challenge the basis of his or her detention.

There are currently at least 449 Palestinians being held by Israel without charge or trial in administrative detention, of which six were under 18 when they received their order. For more information visit the DCI-Palestine website at Freedom Now.

Recommended action

The detention of a child in these circumstances does not conform to Israel’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child or the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Please send Urgent Appeals to the Israeli authorities urging them to:

* Immediately cease the practice of holding persons under the age of 18 in administrative detention; and
* Immediately and unconditionally release Wa’ad from administrative detention, or charge him with a recognisable criminal offence and promptly try him in a proper court of law with internationally accepted standards for a fair trial. Any further action should take into consideration the fact that Wa’ad has now been detained without charge since April 2008.

Appeals to:

Prime Minister,
Office of the Prime Minister,
3 Kaplan Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem, 91919, Israel,
Fax: +972- 2-651 2631,
Email: rohm[at]pmo.gov.il, pm_eng[at]pmo.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister

Ehud Barak
Minister of Defence, Ministry of Defence,
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Fax: +972 3 691 6940
Email: minister[at]mod.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Minister

Minister of Justice, Fax: + 972 2 628 7757; + 972 2 628 8618

Attorney General, Fax: + 972 2 627 4481; + 972 2 628 5438; +972 2 530 3367

there are prisons within prisons within prisons in palestine because of the zionist terrorist colonists occupying palestinian land. and for those occupying palestine even a five-month-old baby is a threat who cannot be released from the prison that is gaza as was the case last week:

Israeli forces at the Erez crossing stopped a 5-month old baby from crossing into Israel. His mother and five-year old sister both had a permission to leave the Strip, so the 5-year old girl could receive medical treatment in Israel.

As Israeli troops refused the infant to enter Israel, the mother and both her children were forced to turn back home without receiving medical treatment and might be unable to receive another permission to enter Israel.The five-year old girl needed medical help in Israel, as doctors in Gaza were unable to diagnose why the girl has been suffering from chronic fevers.The mother decided to take her baby with her, because she didn’t know how long the treatment would take, assuming that a five-month old infant didn’t constitute any threat for the state of Israel.The permits the mother and her daughter received were only valid on Tuesday and they had a hospital appointment for Tuesday afternoon in the Al-Maqased hospital in Jerusalem.

palestinians in gaza are particularly trapped as are people like natalie abou shakra who has been trying to return home to lebanon, but has been having to confront the egyptian regime who is keeping her trapped inside the prison that is gaza. and for those palestinians from gaza who manage to leave and try to return, mohammed omer’s story is an example of what they will face upon trying to return home:

June 26, 2008 is a day I will never forget. For the events of that day irrevocably changed my life. That day I was detained, interrogated, strip searched, and tortured while attempting to return home from a European speaking tour, which culminated in independent American journalist Dahr Jamil and I sharing the Martha Gellhorn Journalism Prize in London — an award given to journalists who expose propaganda which often masks egregious human rights abuses.

I want to address the denials from Israel and the inaccurate reporting by a few journalists in addition to requesting state of Israel to acknowledge what it did to me, prosecute the members of the Shin Bet responsible for it and put in place procedures that protect other journalists from such treatment.

Since 2003, I’ve been the voice to the voiceless in the besieged Gaza Strip for a number of publications and news programs ranging from The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs to the BBC and, Morgenbladet in Norway as well as Democracy Now! These stories exposed a carefully-crafted fiction continuing control and exploitation of five-million people. Their impact, coupled with the reporting of others served to change public opinion in the United States and Europe concerning the dynamics of Israel and its occupation of Palestine.

After receiving the Martha Gellhorn prize I returned home through the Allenby Bridge Crossing in the Occupied West Bank between Jordan and Israel. It was here I was detained, interrogated, and tortured for several hours by Shin Bet and border officers. When it appeared I may be close to death an ambulance was called to transport me to a hospital. From that day my life has been a year of continued medical treatments, pain — and a search for justice.

Lisa Dvir from the Israeli Airport Authority (IAA), the agency responsible for controlling Israel’s borders in an June 29th article by Mel Frykberg for the Inter Press Service stated, “the IAA was neither aware of Omer’s journalist credentials nor of his coordination.”

The statement is wholly inaccurate and impossible on two counts. First, because I’m Palestinian, I am unable to enter Israel or leave Gaza, even through the Rafah border with Egypt, without Israeli permission, something quite difficult to get. Each time I’ve left Gaza for speaking tours required substantial lobbying and political maneuvering by several governments. In 2006, it was the American governments who ultimately won my visa. In 2007 the Dutch Parliament invited me back to speak to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and in 2008 when it was announced I won the Martha Gellhorn Prize, several European countries requested Israel grant me a visa but it was MP Hans Van Baalen of the Netherlands who, with great efforts, secured and guaranteed my passage out of Gaza and Israel, as well as the return for both the 2007 and 2008 trips on the condition I travel and be escorted by members of the Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv while within Israel or the occupied West Bank. Therefore I was under diplomatic escort with the full knowledge of the Israeli government when I arrived at Allenby on June 26th. In fact Israeli security had blocked my re-entry for four days, causing me to miss a family wedding and wait in Jordan.

Secondly Dvir’s claim that the IAA didn’t know I was a journalist is proved false by the actions of the Shin Bet and border police. During the interrogation an Israeli security personnel searching my belongings repeatedly asked ‘Where’s the money from the prize, Mohammed?’ The prize is only given to journalists. Not only were they fully aware I am a journalist. They knew exactly how much I received, for what and where.

Dvir further perjured herself when she claimed, “We would like to know who Omer spoke to in regard to receiving coordination to pass through Allenby. We offer journalists a special service when passing through our border crossings, and had we known about his arrival this would not have happened.” Her denial shocked a Dutch diplomat in Tel Aviv who had confirmed with the state permission for me to cross on June 26. Again, I was traveling under diplomatic escort and when I asked to phone the escort — waiting on the other side of the terminal — Shin Bet’s response was they knew and didn’t care.

While not admitting that the interrogation and torture took place, Divr then dismissed any actions by the Shin Bet as out of her department’s control: “I’m not aware of the events that followed his detention, and we are not responsible for the behavior of the Shin Bet.” But the Israeli Airport Authority, Divr’s department, like most port authorities, is responsible for border security and those who enforce that security in Israel are members of the army and the Shin Bet.

Unfortunately Dvir’s diversions were just the beginning. In the days following my detention and torture, the Israeli Government Press Office acknowledged that despite traveling under diplomatic escort I was searched “due to suspicion that he had been in contact with hostile elements and had been asked by them to deliver items to Judea and Samaria (Occupied West Bank).” This has been mentioned and quoted in different papers. Like everyone else entering, my bags were x-rayed and cleared multiple times excluding the possibility I was carrying some type of contraband. And I was traveling in the Dutch Embassy’s car directly to Erez crossing with Gaza , as communicated to the Israeli authorities. There was zero possibility of me delivering ‘items’ to anyone.

Confronted with the medical reports and injuries including bruised ribs Israeli officials told the BBC on July 1, 2008 that, “He lost balance and fell, for reasons unknown to us,” other officers suggest, “Mr. Omer had a nervous breakdown due to the high temperature.”

Despite the attempts at denials, the emergency medical technician who sat in the back of the ambulance with me reported, “We noted fingerprints on his neck and chest,” the type bruising caused by excessive force often used in forensics to identify an attacker.

When Associated Press reporter Karin Laub called me on my cell phone for an interview after my ordeal, I detailed how I was stripped and held at gunpoint. Her reply? “Go on,” she stated. “This is normal about what we hear happening at Ben Gurion Airport. It’s nothing new.”

Torture, strip searches and holding award winning journalists or any other human beings at gun point is normal at Israel ’s largest airport? Ms. Laub’s apathy continued. In her article for the Associated Press on June 29th she wrote that she interviewed “Dr. Husseini who claims there were no signs of physical trauma.”

There’s only one problem with this. This Dr. Husseini never treated me. The Minister of Health in Ramallah confirmed that Husseini never made any such statement to the AP reporter. For reasons known only to her, Ms. Laub appears to have fabricated this comment and purposely ignored the medical reports and the statements by the attending paramedics — counter to journalistic ethics and standards upheld by the Associated Press. Despite this, no independent investigation took place.

Meanwhile the Jerusalem correspondent for the Los Angles Times, Ashraf Khalil, conducted an investigation into my case and noted in his article on November 3, 2008, that my medical records describe: “Tenderness on the anterior part of the neck and upper back mainly along the right ribs moderate to severe pain,” and “by examination the scrotum due to pain varicocele (varicose veins in the spermatic cord) at left side detected and surgery was decided later.” Fevers and falls do not cause such distinctive marks. Kicks, punches and beatings do. Continuing Khalil explains that, “Paramedic Mahmoud Tararya arrived in a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance and said he found Omer semiconscious with bruises on his neck and chest. Tararya said Israeli security officers were asking Omer to sign “some sort of form written in Hebrew. The paramedic said he intervened, separated Omer from the soldiers and loaded him into the ambulance, where he remained semiconscious for most of the trip to a hospital.”

Khalil notes in his article that Richard Falk, the U.N. human rights official wrote to Verhagen, the Minster of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands and stated: “I have checked out Mr. Omer’s credibility and narrative of events, and I find them fully credible and accurate.”

Recovering mentally and physically from torture and interrogation is far from easy. This should not happen to anyone. My objective is for my case to focus attention on universal human rights, the right of freedom of expression and freedom of movement. There are places in this world where these freedoms do not exist. Israel insists it is not one of those places, but both the government and the complicity of individual journalists in covering up what they did to me prove otherwise. Ironically, the day the Shin Bet chose to detain, interrogate and torture me — June 26 — is the date set aside by human rights groups as the International Day Against Torture.

the situation with gaza, while different from the west bank, 1948 palestine, and palestinian refugees outside of the region can be solved–indeed all of the above problems can be solved with the same solution: the right of return for palestinian refugees. when palestinian refugees are granted the right of return there will be no more problems with the zionst terrorist colonists putting palestinians in prison. there will be no more problems with them controlling the borders and torturing palestinians. this is what palestinians want and this boycott, divestment, and sanctions (bds) is one of the main methods they are using to seek this desired and long overlooked right. in the last month or two i’ve been trying to seek new signatures for the u.s. campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of israel. i had an email conversation with norman finkelstein, whose academic work i admire so much and whose work has been fundamental my own research project. he told me that he speaks about bds when he gives talks, but that he thinks ending the siege of gaza is more urgent. while i agree that the situation in gaza is urgent, i also think that the underlying core issue is the right of return given that the majority of the population in gaza are refugees for starters. ending the siege of gaza is necessary, but it is only a small part of the solving the problem. the larger issue is liberating palestinian land and fighting for the right of all palestinians to return to their homes and land. period. he asked me if i would help organize a protest in the west bank in coordination with his new year’s convergence on gaza and i told him that i would share the information, but that the people i know would rather energy be spent on bds and and right of return. and then i saw the new facebook group for the march and changed my mind. below is the image associated with the group:

i do not know if norman helped to create this image or agreed to it. but this image is highly offensive to me. to me this image says that this march is about norman and not about the people of gaza who are featured only as silhouettes in the background below the white man who is the only subject featured prominently in this image. it reminded me of his talk in shatila refugee camp in lebanon a couple of years ago when he said, one the one hand, that it is up to palestinians to decide their own fate, but on the other hand that they should agree to a two-state solution and give up the right of return to their original homes and land. the people in the camp were incredibly irate as you might imagine. it seems that when norman was in gaza a couple of months ago at least some people had a similar reaction to his discourse as an activist, though not as a scholar. natalie abou shakra has two posts about this in relation to the march as well. the first one is entitled “the white man teaches the native”:

SO, did I not tell you about Mr. Finkelstein’s discovery of civil resistance and suddenly teaching the Palestinians… “how to fight”?
Off the record, Mr. Finkelstein: the first twenty years of the Palestinian struggle was a civil, non-violent resistance. After 1967, Palestinian civil resistance went hand in hand with armed struggle…
What a disappointment:

and here is her second post entitled “tarzan in africa”:

So, Norman Finkelstein visited the Gaza Strip around a month ago with the Code Pink delegation that came in via the Rafeh Crossing.

Norman Finkelstein in “my” opinion is an excellent researcher, his books on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are widely read…
But, when Norman Finkelstein visited Gaza, “I” [and many other Palestinian intellectuals and political analysts] were… dissapointed.

Norman Finkelstein spoke to Hamas officials in Gaza, and told them “what they have to do,” to… “turn down the rhetoric,” and accept the two-prison- oops- I mean the “two-state” solution.

Norman Finkelstein decided to call for a breaking of the siege by US citizens coming into Gaza marching to the Beit Hanoun Crossing [known as Erez Crossing on the Israeli side]. So, Norman Finkelstein comes to Gaza for… four days and he: takes on the leadership of the Palestinian civil resistance.

Now… don’t get me wrong. “We” welcome any initiative to break this medieval, hermetic siege on Gaza. I mean, if Norman Finkelstein is capable of organizing a march that can manage the oppressive, totalitarian, dictatorial Egyptian regime, open the Rafeh Crossing, break the Apartheid wall, then go to “Erez” to break the siege- we support him!

However, the siege is part of a political umbrella.

The BDS movement shows nowhere on the radar of Norman Finkelstein.

Norman Finkelstein did not show any support for the inalienable right of return for the six million refugees, the core of the… “conflict.”

Norman Finkelstein did not admit to the fact that the two-prison solution is a… racist solution, a 19th century idea which does NOT support the INALIENABLE right of return.

Norman Finkelstein: Israel is an occupation; it is the longest occupation the 20th century has witnessed, of the WB and GS, it is a colonization, and is an Apartheid; against the 1948 indigenous population, not to mention its Bantustanization of the GS and WB.
In the last genocidal war against the Palestinians, more than 93% of the Israeli citizens supported war crimes in Gaza. “Israel now looks very much like Germany in the 1930s” says Gideon Levy from Ha’aretz.

“I” mean: who supported a two state solution in Apartheid South Africa? A state for the Black and a state for the… White?
Norman Finkelstein must choose a side: with oppression or against oppression.

Uri Avnery, Peace Now, patronizingly will reply back saying he accepts the return of only… 20,000 refugees. He is anti-BDS and anti-ROR [right of return]. He is… a “leftist” Zionist… from when does the “left” accept a … religious state? [or state to begin with]. He is like the “master” who decides. “I” mean… am “I” stupid? How can a democratic state exist when it has a… religious identity?! I must be really stupid here Uri, I mean… for me not to understand your “democracy.”

Israel must transfer to a secular, democratic state a la South Africa.

Meaning: a state for ALL of its citizens disregarding gender, race or religion.

I mean… I am really dissapointed with Norman Finkelstein’s visit to Gaza.

As soon as PACBI was founded in 2004, the Knesset formed a committee which included Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni and Benjamin Netanyahu, with Uri Avnery behind the curtains, to counteract it.

The worst thing to hear right now is…”let the Palestinians decide what their fate will be.” Really? Was that the case with South Afica? The BDS and One Democratic state are UNIVERSALISTIC in their slogans: social justice, secularism, democracy…

In South Africa, no one said okay for Bantustans!

When Norman Finkelstein came forward after an ISM Gaza talk in the Commodore Hotel in the port area in Gaza, he said “gather up students from the US group, and let them get on the borders with cameras- let’s see if their [Israeli soldiers] are going to shoot when America is watching!”

Norman… you completely neglect the Palestinian civil resistance that existed since… 1936. Yes, I assure you. We, Arabs did have that going on. But, will the White man ever challenge his standards of “us”?

If Norman Finkelstein flirts with Zionism… then?

here is one of the many examples of why the situation in gaza needs to be dealt with in a way that recognizes the issue of the right of return that would help all palestinians in the long-term. abd al-rahman talakeh was arrested for “infiltrating” his own land, though he was born as a refugee in gaza. this news item illustrates the way in which prisoners, gaza, and the right of return is all connected and why the right of return is the only solution to all of the above problems:

A Palestinian from Gaza was indicted in an Israeli court on “terrorism” and “infiltration” charges Sunday, according to the country’s Prime Minister’s Office.

In a statement to Ma’an, Israel claimed that the Palestinian refugee, Abd Al-Rahman Talalkeh, was arrested in the Negev desert on 1 June after having left Gaza and entered Israel via the Sinai Peninsula.

He was indicted at a Beersheba court in the Negev, which was both the target of the alleged “infiltration” as well as the prior residence of 16,000 refugees who pre-Israel Zionist militants expelled to the An-Nuseirat camp in Gaza, where Talkalkeh was born in 1984.

Israel alleged that the young Palestinian said he received military training by the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza, intended to establish “a terrorism infrastructure inside Israel,” and was well-versed on the use of a variety of weapons.

The Popular Resistance Committees did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

but the issue with norman finkelstein reminds me of why it is important to listen to those you work with so that you are not imposing your will on them, so that you are working in solidarity to help people realize their goals and rights and dreams. naomi klein, who has been speaking out on bds recently, including when she was just here also shows the limits of even those supporting boycott. although i also love her writing, i was quite disturbed when i saw her talking in bil’in and when she somehow managed to rationalize the fact that she was wearing shoes made in the zionist terrorist colonist regime. i mean, does one really need shoes that are identical to birkenstocks? is that really so hard to boycott? here she is rationalizing away:

unlike klein i think that boycott must be across the board. no exceptions. right of return. no exceptions. i wish that these white folks who are famous, who have a wider audience would get behind these two fundamentally important aspects of palestinian resistance. they have the power to influence so many people and i think that listening to refugees and to the larger civil society in palestine is the only way to act as foreigners, as white people who want to see rights realized in palestine. is that really too much to ask?

Hi , first of all i would like to say sorry for not updating my blog. I was very busy in my job, even right now (when i am writing this) i am on duty. Anyways back to blog. As the Title suggests i am going to write here persons whom i like and whom i dont like. (1) PRIYANKA CHOPRA Vs PRIETY ZINTA , i hate that witch. She has got a fake,artificial face, she is oversmart without any talent blah blah blah read my previous post for more details. I like PRIETY ZINTA (as far as bolly actress is concern) she is white, fair, bubbly, real, charming etc etc. Did you see PRIYANKA’s nokia mobile ad? She tried extremely hard to be/look like a bubbly girl but she fails on every aspect. huh.. Just search on youtube a video called “sajan mere satrangiya” and see priyanka’s real look (before plastic surgery) (2) ABHISHEK BACHCHAN Vs BRUCE WILLIS. ABHISHEK BACHCHAN is the worst , ugliest , horrible and camel type actor. He doesnt know the dancing aswell. Haha. He always walks behind his father (AMITABH BACHCHAN). But i must say that he is quite lucky guy by getting AISHWARYA (who cares about 2nd hand or 3rd hand??? Hahaha) because what look he got he does not deserve to marry a “C” Grade heroine. He has done wonderful,extraordinary and very natural/real acting in only one film and the name is DOSTANA hehehe. He had nothing to do with his acting in this film. Thers gonna nothing on his way whether he add one extra “I” to his name or 99 more. Even god cannot help him to be succeded. Now i come to The Great BRUCE WILLIS. The name says all no need to write about him as you all know very well his greatness. (3) ANU MALIK Vs A.R. RAHMAN. As you all know ANU MALIK is a thief, copy cat and I hate thieves. He also has no potential talent and he is also famous for his nonsense bakwaas (badbola). He looks like a cactus tree and his voice like a donkey even a donkey can sing better than him. Now A.R. RAHMAN, he is my fav musician, what an artist. Original, humble, cool, calm…. He speaks less and works more. The only indian musician who has an oscar. His music has the devine feel,touch.. I proud on him. Jay ho !!! (4) ATIF ASLAM The Thief Vs KAILASH KHER. On ATIF The Thief i have wrote in my previous post so will write here something only about KAILASH KHER. He has got great talent in his singing. When he came to Mumbai, almost every music composser refused him but he kept his struggle on and rest is the history. He is now one of most popular singers of bollywood. I love his voice, real and a bit of saltyness makes his voice different from others. Atif has also that kind of rawness but he is copying his former, ex- friend GOHER. That boy is a live wire, absolute dynamite. His songs have been stolen by ATIF The Thief. Thats why i dont like him infact i hate ATIF The Thief. I never write Atif the thief’s name without the tag “The Thief” hahaha (5) INDIATV Vs NDTV. The most Chaalu, gaanduest, faltu, bakwaas, worst channel of the world is INDIATV. They have always published most disgusting news. They always claim that they have the information that OBAMA will do this or TALIBAN gonna do this etc etc. Thier most TRP getting program is BHAVISHYAWANI (an astrology based program). They always have breaking news’ regarding to snake, mummy, waterdemon, yeti etc etc. I can give 50k if someone can go and kiss its owner Rajat Sharma also the most fashionable hair style owner. Hehehe. NDTV is the most Genuine news channel of india. Thier hosts,anchors never sensetionalise an issue. They shows the reality and thier issues are always for the common man. Its the only channel WHERE GUEST SPEAKS MORE THAN THE ANCHOR. Next 5 will be in next post.

last week palestinian university students in gaza showed extraordinary solidarity by coming together and authoring a boycott statement. if only palestinian students in the west bank could show the same moral courage to come together for such a document:

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) calls upon freedom-loving students all over the world to stand in solidarity with us by boycotting Israeli academic institutions for their complicity in perpetuating Israel’s illegal military occupation and apartheid system. We note the historic action taken by thousands of courageous students of British and American universities in occupying their campuses in a show of solidarity with the brutally oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza. We also deeply appreciate the decision by Hampshire College to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Such pressure on Israel is the most likely to contribute to ending its denial of our rights, including the right to education.

In this regard, we fully endorse the call for boycott issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, PACBI, in 2004.[i]

We emphasize our endorsement of the BDS call issued by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in July 2005.[ii]

We also support the Call from Gaza issued by a group of civil society organizations in the second week of the Gaza Massacre (Gaza 2009).[iii]

Our goal, as students, is to play a role in promoting the global BDS movement which has gained an unprecedented momentum as a result of the latest genocidal war launched by Israel against the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. We address our fellow students to take whatever step possible, however small, to stand up for justice, international law and the inalienable rights of the indigenous people of Palestine by applying effective and sustainable pressure on Israel, particularly in the form of BDS, to help put an end to its colonial and racist regime over the Palestinians.

We strongly urge our fellow university students all over the world to:

(1) Support all the efforts aimed at boycotting Israeli academic institutions;

(2) Pressure university administrations to divest from Israel and from companies directly or indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies;

(3) Promote student union resolutions condemning Israeli violations of international law and human rights and endorsing BDS in any form;

(4) Support the Palestinian student movement directly.

To break the medieval and barbaric Israeli siege of Gaza, people of conscience need to move with a sense of urgency and purpose. Israel must be compelled to pay a heavy price for its war crimes and crimes against humanity through the intensification of the boycott against it and against institutions and corporations complicit in its crimes. As in the anti-apartheid struggle in solidarity with the black majority in South Africa, students concerned about justice and sustainable peace have a moral duty to support our boycott efforts.

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)

Endorsed by:

* Progressive Student Union Block;
* Fateh Youth Organization;
* Progressive Student Labor Front;
* Islamic Block;
* Islamic League of Palestinian Students;
* Student Unity Block;
* Students Affairs (University of Palestine).

[i] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=869
[ii] http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52
[iii] http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php/component/content/article/1100-a-call-from-gaza.html

if you need more reasons why you should boycott, try this one (thanks dina):

The Carmel Academic Center in Haifa shut down the concentration in accounting within its Department of Business Administration because a majority of the students applying were Palestinian citizens of Israel. This was revealed in a news item reported on Israeli news Channel 10 on 24 May (in Hebrew only).

or this one (thanks josie):

Despite strong objections from the Committee of University Heads, individual academics and the human rights organization Gisha, the High Court of Justice on Monday accepted the army’s non-security related criteria for granting Palestinian post-graduate students permits to enter Israel to study at Israeli universities….

At the urging of the court, the army also presented criteria for investigating applications from other Palestinians who had been accepted for studies in Israel as an exception to its overall policy not to consider entry requests except for humanitarian reasons.

The criteria included the following:

• Only PhD and Masters students will be considered and only if there is no practical alternative to studying in Israel

• Preference will be given to applicants to programs focusing on regional cooperation or developing coexistence and regional peace. The Education Ministry must testify as to the nature of the program

• Palestinians will not be allowed to study professions that have the potential to be used against Israel.

• The applicant will have to provide the army with a detailed request from a recognized academic institution explaining the grounds on which the institution wants him to study there

• There will be no further examination if the applicant has a security or criminal record.

• The army will take into account the age of the applicant and his personal status.

• The army, at its own discretion, may refuse to consider an applicant even if the student meets the above criteria.

The court added, however, that whenever the army rejects a Palestinian student’s entry request on the grounds that he has not met its criteria, the Palestinian student may petition the High Court against the decision.

“We are being forcibly prevented from accepting students who can make a decidedly valuable contribution to higher education in Israel,” Hebrew University Law Prof. Alon Harel said, following the court ruling.

“I call upon the court and the defense establishment to respect academic freedom. The decision whether or not to accept a student must be the exclusive decision of the university, while the military should be limited to performing a security check.”

and here are some even better reasons from omar barghouti in an interview with ali mustafa in electronic intifada:

AM: One of the most contentious aspects of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign is the academic boycott. Can you clarify exactly what this means and why Israeli academic institutions are, as you argue, such a fundamental extension of the Israeli state and state policy?

OB: The academic boycott, which was called for by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel in 2004, is an institutional boycott — so it’s a call to every conscientious academic and academic institution to boycott every Israeli academic institution because of their complicity in perpetuating Israel’s occupation and other forms of oppression … Complicity in the case of Israel is different than academic complicity elsewhere. In Canada, for example, your biggest universities are certainly complicit in Canadian policy, especially since they’re all state-funded universities exactly like in Israel … But what’s different is that in Israel, they are in full organic partnership with the security/military establishment — so that most of the weapons developed by the Israeli army are done through the universities, most of the research justifying the repression of the Palestinians and denial of Palestinian rights is done by academics in the universities in academic programs; many of the colonization projects that are considered by international law to be war crimes have been produced by universities. The wall [in the West Bank] for example was produced in an academic environment; an academic at Haifa University claims that this is his brainchild and there is no reason not to believe him because he has produced other projects that were terribly involved in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians even inside Israel. At every level there is a very deep, entrenched complicity between the Israeli academia and the security/military establishment.

Also, all Israeli academics, like all Israelis within a certain age group, with some exceptions, serve in the occupation reserve army. They serve as occupying soldiers part-time every year, three months every year … You go and leave academia, your research, you leave everything, and you serve at a checkpoint or worse — so you’re either participating in committing human rights violations or war crimes, or at least you watch them with total apathy — in both cases you’re very complicit even at an individual level; the universities not only tolerate that, they promote that — this is part of the system. Despite this, we are not calling for boycotting individual academics but institutions. The only reason why our boycott is not individual is because otherwise it would be McCarthyist — it would involve some form of McCarthyism or political test: who is a good academic, who is bad, and who decides? And we don’t want to get into that because it’s a very troubling prospect to have political tests and in principle, we are against political tests, so that’s why we have an institutional boycott.

AM: One common argument against the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign is that dialogue is more constructive than boycotts. How would you respond?

OB: That’s wrong factually and wrong logically. Factually, there have been so many attempts at dialogue since 1993 when the so-called peace process was announced at Oslo. There were many dialogue organizations and initiatives established; it became an industry — we call it the peace industry. You could get rich very fast by getting involved in one of those dialogue groups and you get to travel to Europe and stay in fancy hotels and get a lot of money in return, but otherwise it produces absolutely nothing on the ground. The main reason is because it’s morally flawed and based on the false premise that this so-called conflict is mainly due to mutual hatred and, therefore, you need some kind of therapy or dialogue between those two equivalent, symmetric, warring parties. Put them in a room, force them to talk to one another, then they will fall in love, the hatred will go away and you will have your Romeo and Juliet story. Of course, this is deceitful and morally very corrupt because the conflict is a colonial conflict — it’s not a domestic dispute between a husband and wife — it’s a colonial conflict based on ethnic cleansing, racism, colonialism and apartheid. Without taking away the roots of the conflict you cannot have any coexistence, at least not ethical coexistence.

There are many other issues related to this dialogue industry in that you don’t have dialogue between asymmetric parties, you have negotiations. To have a dialogue you have to have a certain minimal level of a common denominator based on a common vision for the ultimate solution based on equality and ending injustice. If you don’t have that common denominator than it’s negotiation between the stronger and weaker party and, as I’ve written elsewhere, you can’t have a bridge between them but only a ladder where you go up or down not across … I call this the master/slave type of coexistence … A master and a slave can also reach an agreement where this is reality and you cannot challenge it and you make the best out of it. There is no war, no conflict, nobody is killing anybody, but a master remains a master and the slave remains a slave — so this is not the kind of peace that we the oppressed are seeking — the minimum is to have a just peace. Only with justice can we have a sustainable peace. So dialogue does not work — it has not worked in reality and cannot work in principle. Boycotts have worked in reality and in principle so there is absolutely no reason why they cannot work, because Israel has total impunity given the official support it gets from the west in all fields (economic, cultural, academic and so on). Without raising the price of its oppression, it will never give up; it will never concede on any of our right

for these and many other reasons please sign this petition to protest the university of california, davis’ study abroad program in the zionist entity, which would necessarily mean being complicit in zionist terrorist war crimes:

To: Dr. Eric Shroeder Summer Abroad faculty Director, Dr. Jean-Xavier Guinard Associate Vice Provost, and Dr. William Lacy Vice provost at the University of California Davis

From: The EAP Equality Coalition

Date: June 1, 2009

As University of California students, faculty, and people of conscience, we strive to uphold the Principles of Community whereby “We affirm the inherent dignity in all of us, and strive to maintain a climate of justice.” In light of these principles supporting equality and justice, we find the recent inception of the new Summer Abroad to Israel program morally objectionable.

Given that the university also shares our commitment to uphold “the highest standards of civility and decency towards all,” we are dismayed that UC Davis established the program with Israel, which required the university to make recommendations that nullified even the US Department of the State’s (DOS) Travel Advisory.

We are deeply troubled that UC Davis decided to make an exception for the program in Israel, and did so in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza in winter 2008-09. UN special investigators on human rights offer compelling evidence that “Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza violates international humanitarian law,” and requires an independent investigation into whether it involved war crimes.

Numerous UN-protected Palestinian schools and universities were bombed by Israeli missiles in the recent war on Gaza. We are very dismayed that the university has continued a program with Israel in the wake of these recent attacks, that have been condemned by the international community. Even though this program was planned before the latest Israeli offensive in Gaza that caused the deaths of 1500 people, once this massacre became public, the university should have revoked its approval of the program.

Continuing the Study Abroad in Israel suggests the university’s condoning of the Israeli massacres and sanctioning of the Israeli state’s ongoing policies of discrimination toward non-Jews. Israel’s long-standing pattern of human rights violations includes the exploitation, annexation, and illegal settlement of Palestinian territories, as well as segregation of and discrimination toward Palestinians in the occupied territories and inside Israel. The location and structure of the program in Israel hinder an unbiased representation of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict; indeed they reinforce a limited and narrow understanding of these issues.

We understand that the university is going through extreme precautions to ensure the inception of this program by forwarding the names of enrolled students to the Israeli consulate in San Francisco to ensure their proper passage through Israeli airports and checkpoints. Israeli military personnel will also apparently accompany UC students during their outdoor endeavors. Although doing this may provide an illusion of protection for the students, it does not guarantee their safety, especially those suspected of being Arab or Muslim, in a state that practices systemic racial discrimination, as illustrated by the DOS warning: “American citizens whom Israeli authorities suspect of being of Arab or Muslim origin are likely to face additional, often time-consuming, and probing questioning by immigration and border authorities, or may even be denied entry into Israel.”

In fact, these measures only compromise the freedom of education of the participants. The military presence also serves to romanticize the notion of the Israeli Defense Force as a protective state entity that ensures human security, when in reality the IDF is currently under numerous investigations for consistently attacking innocent civilians, including children and students, and violating international human rights law. The impact of the “security wall,” the closures of roads and restrictions on travel, the demolition of homes, the destruction of trees, all impact the mobility and livelihood of Palestinians and violate their human rights, including their right to education, and consequently make a mockery of the notion of academic freedom for students and scholars.

These extreme measures of providing military escort also violate the philosophy of the EAP. Study Abroad programs strive to provide “opportunities to discover, learn about and engage with other cultures to challenge our students to rethink the way they look at the world”; however, normal Israeli citizens do not walk around Israel with military protection. Therefore, by having the inevitable military presence in the program, students experience an education that is embedded with the military, and that limits their understanding of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. By continuing this program, the university transgresses core standards of equality, justice and precedence.

The University of California has a historic pattern of divestment from South Africa in 1986 because of systematic racism against black Africans, and again in 2006 from Sudan, due to issues of transnational displacement and ethnic cleansing. Now in 2009, the UC should divest from Israel because Israel also enforces systemic discrimination against Palestinian citizens in Israel, and is accused of ethnic cleansing and war crimes against the Palestinians in the occupied territories. By supporting this program the university fails to uphold its own statements of values.

Given UC Davis’s commitment to the “Principles of Community,” where the university pledges to “affirm the inherent dignity in all of us, and…strive to maintain a climate of justice…and confront and reject all manifestations of discrimination, including those based on race, ethnicity, gender,” it becomes morally contradictory and compromising to have a Study Abroad program in Israel. Therefore, in light of this evidence, it is ethically incumbent on EAP officials to reconsider the inception of the Summer Abroad program in Israel, and to terminate it forthwith.

and finally a salute to the guerrilla activists who have been busy campaigning in the bay area by altering zionist colonist terrorist study abroad programs trying to lure american students to their universities. you can read more about the campaign and see more images on the us campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of israel website.

original billboard

modified billboard

i’m wondering what the first two turning points were. the last few days i’ve heard war games in the sky above beit lahem. all day long i’ve heard ominous war planes testing out the zionist entity’s doomsday scenario. here is an al jazeera report on the “defense” strategy it is testing, though for those of us here we know better; this is clearly a test for its next offensive strike:

Turning Point 3 comes just two weeks after the Israeli air force wrapped up a four-day exercise testing its ability to defend against strikes from Syria and Iran.

Israel believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons and has not ruled out a military strike on the country in response.

Iran says its nuclear programme is only for energy production.

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem correspondent, said that while Israel claims that the drill has “no special significance”, it is likely to be seen in the context of “Israel’s sabre-rattling towards Iran and also towards other neighbouring Arab countries”.

“It was only a couple of weeks ago that Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu was in Washington and he was really pushing the question of Iran and its perceived nuclear threat really to the top of the agenda of his talks with President [Barack] Obama,” she said.

“So, although Israel is saying that this is a defensive drill and it is really practising its ability to defend its civilians against attack from outside, inevitably it has to be interpreted by Israel’s Arab neighbours – and indeed the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank – as a warning, a not so subtle warning of Israel’s offensive capacities to strike should these circumstances arise.”

al jazeera’s “inside story” with kamahl santamaria had a discussion of this series of tests this week and its effect on the various regional players who will be subjected to these weapons in the zionist entity’s next attack:

of course any such impending war must be understood as a joint u.s.-zionist war on the palestinians, lebanese, syrians, iranians in the region given that the obama administration promises to continue funding and supplying the zionist terrorist army as saed bannoura reports:

Robert Wood, US State Department deputy spokesperson, stated Monday that he would not comment on the Times report regarding intentions of the Obama administration to condition its support to Israel with freezing the settlements, but added that the US would maintain its support to Israel in the United Nations.

Wood stated that President Barack Obama and his administration are clear in their stance that all parties involved in the Middle East Peace Process should maintain their obligations to ensure successful peace talks.

He also said that the United States has long worked to ensure that Israel receives what he described as “fair treatment” in the United Nations, and that his country will continue doing so.

Wood further said that Israel is a close friend and ally to the United States, and that the US will remain committed to Israel’s security.

ghassan bannoura reported that there were war sirens going off in 1948 palestine, although here in beit sahour we can only hear the planes overhead. while the zionist entity maintains that this is about “defense” there are many of us who see this as aggression:

According to the Israeli military, the training exercise is meant to prepare the Israeli military and the entire population for a regional war. Sergio Yanni, an Israeli political analyst, told IMEMC the exercise is aimed for butting Israelis in a state of fear.

“The People In Israel after the war in Lebanon and in Gaza don’t buy so much anymore the question that there is a real threat on Israel, there is a big discussion over how much the army should be budgeted, the objective of this drill is for internal propaganda to make people feel that Israel is in a situation of war, we can’t exclude a possible attack on Lebanon or Gaza in the near future this is a permanent question.” Sergio Yanni said.

The exercise comes in the midst of increasing Israeli rhetoric against Iran, and a statement just last week by the Israeli military that the Lebanese Hezbollah group now has possession of more rockets than it did before the 2006 war- although that statement was not backed up with any evidence.

The drill also includes training in how to repress the Palestinian population in the West Bank, Gaza and inside Israel during the three-front scenario. Faouzi Barhum, spokesman of the ruling Hamas party in Gaza told IMEMC via phone that the exercise is a form of attack.

“At first this military exercise could be considered as an attack, because it is to show the military criminal machine that killed children in Gaza and Lebanon, those drills could become a war at any time, because we expect everything from the occupation, it is clear that the division and state of salience among the Arabs have encouraged the Zionist regime of doing this military exercise.” Barhum told IMEMC.

al jazeera reports how this is perceived by others in the region as the zionist entity rationalizes its desire for perpetual justification for war and aggression:

Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros, reporting from Beersheva, where some of the drills were taking place, said there has been criticism from rights groups inside Israel about the exercises.

“They say it is all part of the militarisation of Israeli society and a way to perpetuate the idea of an ongoing war and ongoing fight that Israel is carrying out against the rest of the world,” she said.

“This has been subject to a lot of criticism because it in some way justifies Israel’s brutal force and the security measures it takes against the Palestinians.”

Israel began its national drills in the aftermath of the July-August 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which revealed major weaknesses in how Israel dealt with the rocket attacks on its territory.

This year’s exercise comes just days before Lebanon holds a closely-fought election that could see the Hezbollah-led opposition become the new government.

The drills will also coincide with a regional tour by Barack Obama, the US president.

Israel is under pressure from the US to accept a Palestinian state, but it has also voiced fears of a strong Hezbollah in Lebanon and a strong Hamas in Gaza.

Alastair Crooke, director of the Conflict Forum in Beirut, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that there is a sense in the Arab world that Israel is looking toward the right for new solutions to its security concerns.

“It’s the sense of unwillingness for many Israeli leaders to see a Palestinian state pushed on it, at a time when Hamas is strong and when Hezbollah may be getting stronger, When America may be talking to Syria and talking to Iran at the same time,” he said.

“This leaves policy makers in Israel quite nervous and looking for ways to change the political paradigm in a way that will advance the Israeli sense of security.”

and, of course, given that the zionist entity is an apartheid regime, it is the colonists have access to bomb shelters and sirens; palestinians in 1948 palestine, for the most part, do not as saed bannoura reports:

A study conducted and released by the “Mubadarah” Israeli-Arab Rights group, revealed that 70% of the Arabs living in northern Israel do not have shelters or safe rooms, and the 25% of them do not have emergency sirens.

The reported also revealed that 80% of the Arab villages in Israel are not equipped to handle any crisis situation; this includes any sort of military escalation, missile strikes or even a natural disaster Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.

Haaretz added that 75% of the residents of Nazareth, the largest Arab city in the country, have no access to private shelters, and the 99% of the residents of the Arava area do not have any access to shelters.

The report found that in many of the Arab communities included in the study, the safest places were schools, although they are not built to function as shelters.

It also revealed that in most of the mixed cities, where Arabs and Israelis live, Arab neighborhoods are not equipped to face emergency situations.

The study was conducted as Israel’s so-called Home Front Command of the Israeli military conducted a nation-wide week-long drill to test Israel’s readiness for war or catastrophe.

Part of the drill was testing 2300 sirens and also included requesting to citizens to hide in secure rooms for 10 minutes.

and, of course, it is not just the planning for its next war that is in our midst. it is the ongoing war, particularly the zionist terrorist army’s war against palestinians in gaza as saed bannoura reports about palestinian injuries today:

The Al Aqsa brigades, the armed wing of Fateh movement, reported that two of its fighters were wounded on Wednesday at dawn during clashes with Israeli forces near the Al Hawouz area, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The brigades added that the two injured fighters were moved to a local hospital.

It stated that its fighters clashes with Israeli forces operating in northern Gaza, and added that the fighters will counter all Israeli assaults and will retaliate to “the ongoing Israeli crimes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip”.

The brigades also claimed responsibility for firing thee RPG shells, on Tuesday evening, at a number of Israeli tanks located near the Gaza border.

it is not only palestinian people who are attacked with american-made weapons in the hands of zionist terrorist colonists. it is also palestinian land which is under attack, land which under normal circumstances would provide the food to sustain palestinian people in gaza. erin cunningham’s report in the christian science monitor on the ever-enlarging so-called “buffer zone” inside the gaza strip affects palestinian farmers from producing food and is a part of the on-going savaging of gaza:

Farmers and their families have been displaced, too afraid to return to their fields, while international humanitarian organizations are unable to make an assessment of the needs and damages of the area in the aftermath of the assault.

“We haven’t been able to visit this area. No organization has,” says Mohammed al-Shattali, project manager for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in the Gaza Strip.

“The war increased the amount of land destroyed, particularly in the border areas, and the farmers can’t replant anything because it’s too dangerous,” he says. “The Israeli soldiers, they shoot at everything – dogs, sheep. They are very tense.”

An Israeli-imposed buffer zone in the already narrow enclave was established more than a decade ago to thwart attacks by Palestinian militants, who use the border areas to launch homemade rockets at Israeli towns or dig tunnels to carry out attacks against IDF troops stationed at the border.

But what was previously just a sliver of fortified land on the strip’s northern and eastern perimeters now, in the aftermath of Israel’s January offensive in the territory, swallows roughly 30 percent of Gaza’s arable farmland, according to the FAO.

It stretches as deep as 1.25 miles inside Gaza’s territory in the north and half a mile in the east, despite the 300-meter figure declared on the leaflets, the organization says. Gaza is just 25 miles long and slightly more than six miles wide.

you can see how this affects palestinian farmers on the blog farming under fire and here is a video encapsulating the experience of palestinians under attack by zionist terrorists every day:

but of course these war planes flying above our head, creating a kind of psychological terrorism for people living in palestine who have to hear this throughout the day, are not yet flying over our neighbors in lebanon and syria. nevertheless the fact that the last month or so has seen an extraordinary number of zionist spies in lebanon raises questions about things to come. al jazeera reported on more spies arrested this week:

Lebanon has charged four people with collaborating with Israel, raising to 23 the number of suspected spies who have been charged in the last few months, a court official has said.

Saqr Saqr, the military prosecutor charged the four men on Saturday with providing Israel with information about civilian and military positions and political figures.

General Jean Kahwaji, the Lebanese army commander, vowed to continue the crackdown against Israeli spies in a speech to troops on Saturday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported.

and now as ma’an news reports even an egyptian man has been arrested in lebanon because he has been helping his zionist colonist terrorist friends by spying on them in lebanon:

Lebanon has charged nine more people with spying for Israel, raising the number of formally accused collaborators to 35.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Tuesday that military prosecutor Saqr Saqr charged the nine with collaboration and giving information to Israel about military and civilian installations and political figures, according to AP.

Separately, an Egyptian man and a Lebanese have been arrested for spying, security sources told AP.

Shedding our own Blood for Israel

The unnecessary death of six Palestinians, including two resistance fighters, by Palestinian hands in Qalqilya on Sunday, 31 May, will be an indelible and everlasting stigma of shame on the forehead of Israel’s Palestinian puppets.
 
Palestinian (PA) officials, who think that dishonesty is the best policy, claimed that the killings were necessitated by commitments to keep law and order and protect the “national scheme.”
 
However, this vacuous and mendacious pretext is itself worse than a crime. After all, what “national scheme” can possibly justify the hounding and killing of people who have spent the prime of their youth, resisting the criminal occupiers of their country and cruel tormentors of their people?
 
Indeed, in any country that respects itself, people as such are accorded a high place of honor, not hounded and killed and called “outlaws.”
 
In Qalqilya, all the blood shed was a Palestinian blood, including the blood of three PA soldiers who had been duped and brainwashed into thinking that Hamas was the enemy, not the Israeli occupation army which continues to murder and oppress the Palestinian people. Isn’t that a real tragedy?
 
I have no doubt that the PA is completely responsible for the death of six Palestinians, all of them victims of Israeli oppression and criminality.

The PA security apparatus could have handled the incident differently. The PA did ask the two fighters who were hiding inside a home to surrender. However, given the close and treacherous coordination between the Israeli army and forces loyal to ex-PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the last thing that would have assured them was the suggestion that they should hand themselves over to PA forces.
 
Moreover, the rampancy of torture in PA jails and dungeons allowed no chance for a different outcome to this tragic episode. The two fighters apparently preferred to die rather than the prospect of being tortured and humiliated by those who have given up every shred of human decency in order to appease Gen. Keith Dayton.
 
The PA security apparatus, which is holding hundreds of Hamas sympathizers, mainly in order to punish them for the ousting by Hamas of American-backed Fatah elements from the Gaza Strip three years ago, could have simply allowed the two men to withdraw or escape.
 
This could have saved the lives of six Palestinians and prevented a tragedy that also befell their respective families.
 
However, behaving wisely and especially patriotically is not a character particularly known of PA security personnel who are more interested in receiving testimonies of praise from Washington and Tel Aviv than in saving Palestinian lives.
 
Actually, the willful misconduct of the PA security forces was apparent before as well as after the tragic event, which underscores their ill-will and malicious intents.
 
Thus, instead of apologizing to the Palestinian people for the murderous episode and immediately sacking the officers who gave the orders to open fire on the two fighters, PA officials from bottom to top indulged in spreading disinformation thinking the hastily orchestrated lies would whitewash the crime and exonerate the PA before the Palestinian people.
 
They claimed that the two fighters began firing at a passing PA patrol.
 
Well, that is a lie, because thousands of people in Qalqilya witnessed with their own eyes PA forces and reinforcements converging at the Kfar Saba neighborhood as if the henchmen of Oslo were celebrating the liberation of Jerusalem.
 
Then Abbas himself followed suit with his own fantastic narratives of the killings, saying that “we will confront with an iron fist all those who are trying to undermine our national gains.”
 
What national gains is this man talking about? Does he really think the West Bank is a liberated territory? Does he think that he and his Oslo charlatans really enjoy independence and sovereignty in Ramallah?
 
Or perhaps he may be thinking that the killing of two Palestinian fighters, at the expense of the death of four other Palestinians, would make Israel relent and give him a state on a silver platter.
 
Abbas is deadly mistaken if he thinks so. His predecessor Yasser Arafat made every conceivable “gesture” to appease Israel. He imprisoned and tortured political opponents, and for that purpose, he created “the State Security Court” …Yes, a “state” Security Court to serve a police state without a state.
 
Arafat even traveled to Tel Aviv where he kissed the head of Isaac Rabin’s widow as a sign of respect for the very man who had ordered his soldiers to break the bones of Palestinian boys.
 
None the less, and as things became eventually clear, all of Arafat’s tactless feats failed to impress an arrogantly racist Israeli leadership which thought that non-Jews were sub-humans at the very best. And when bush came to shove, Israel humiliated Arafat with conspicuous vindictiveness at his headquarters in Ramallah.
 
Eventually, Israel may have poisoned Arafat in one way or the other, possibly through one of his aides.
 
Doesn’t Abbas learn from Arafat’s mistakes?
 
One PA official, who apparently doesn’t distinguish between veracity and mendacity, claims that the tragic incident in Qalqilya showed that Hamas “was amassing forces in preparation for carrying out a coup and taking over the West Bank.”
 
What IQ do these people have? Are they blind? Are they hopelessly stupid? You see, even at lying, these people are lousy liars. They are lousy liars because in order for Hamas to even imagine carrying out a coup against the Ramallah regime, it would have to be militarily stronger than Israel and its guardian ally the United States, which is committed to Israel’s security.
 
None the less, PA operatives are advised not to bask for too long in their ignorant illusion about the continuity of their ramshackle fiefdom.
 
The Palestinian masses know the truth too well. They see on a daily basis the futility of having a failed state apparatus functioning submissively under the sinister Israeli military occupation.
 
In the final analysis, the Palestinian people are not naïve. They bear the unbearable, but they never forget. Eventually, the winds of fury will smash the ranks of the traitors.
 

Hamas hopes UN fact-finding mission would end in trial of Israeli war criminals
Gaza- Hamas on Monday welcomed the arrival of the UN independent fact-finding mission into Israeli war crimes committed during the latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

Fawzi Barhoum, the Hamas’s spokesman, said in a statement that his Movement would fully cooperate with the mission and table all evidence documenting the Israeli war crimes with its members.

He hoped that the investigation would end up with the trial of Israeli war criminals at the international court of justice.

He said that the Israeli government’s refusal to cooperate with the UN mission as the biggest proof of its involvement in war crimes in Gaza.

Dr. Mohammed Awad, the secretary of the Palestinian government, voiced a similar statement when he said that his government would extend all assistance to the UN committee.

He added in a statement that the team members would be allowed to freely tour the Gaza strip to see for themselves the bulk of devastation inflicted by the Israeli war other than the thousands of casualties.

The UN fact finding committee arrived in the Strip on Monday from the Rafah border terminal to investigation war crime allegations committed by the Israeli occupation forces during the war on Gaza.

Source: Palestine Informtion Centre

Photo: PIC

“This was a last-minute proposal, the details of which are unclear, waiting to be clarified during the coming round of talks that will be held at the end of April,” he added.

Al-Bardaweel expressed hope of reaching an agreement during the coming round of talks, and affirmed that “it will not be the last, in the event that there are unresolved issues, because Hamas as well as Fatah is determined to keep the doors open for Palestinian unity.”

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