Ex-moderate Muslim to form 'anti-Zionist' party in Sweden

A once moderate Muslim spokesperson who last year came out as an Islamist radical has announced plans to start a political party uniting all of Sweden’s anti-Zionists.

According to Mohamed Omar, a 34-year-old author and commentator born in Uppsala in eastern Sweden, he is prepared to welcome all political stripes into his new party – from the radical left and Islamic extremists to neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists – as long as they subscribe to the party’s core principles.

“We’re going to focus not on Islamic questions, but solely on anti-Zionism in order to reach out to as many as possible,” Omar told the Sveriges Radio (SR) documentary programme Kaliber.

On his website, Omar denies that the Holocaust happened and refers to Judaism as "a parasitic culture of greed".

The Omar of today is a far cry from the measured and moderate man who once edited one of Sweden’s most respected Muslim publications, Minaret magazine, and condemned protests by Muslims angered by the 2007 decision of Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda to publish a drawing by artist Lars Vilks depicting the head of Muslim prophet Muhammad on a dog's body.

“I think the demonstration is counterproductive and will only serve to reinforce any prejudices people have about Muslims," Omar told The Local in August 2007.

“Nerikes Allehanda published the picture to illustrate a story. It's irrational to regard their decision to publish as being offensive to Muslims.”

According to Omar, Israeli incursions into the Gaza strip in the second half of 2008 played a key role in his radicalization.

“Last week I joined a protest against Israel for the first time,” Omar wrote in an opinion article published in the Expressen newspaper on January 9th, 2009.

“The latest bloodbath was simply too much. I felt compelled to take a public stance. But not only that. I decided to support Hamas and Hezbollah – the Islamic resistance movements.”

He concludes by declaring, “I’m a radical Muslim. And I say that with pride.”

Soon thereafter he began arguing that Zionism was to blame for a number of Sweden’s problems, including the disturbances which plagued the Rosengård neighbourhood in Malmö in December 2008.

“Besides, the big threat today is the Zionists. Today there are Zionists collecting money for the Israeli murder machine which used the money to burn children,” Omar said on the Sveriges Television’s Aktuellt news programme broadcast on January 29th.

A number of former allies have distanced themselves from Omar following his radicalization, including the current editor of Minaret, Abd al Haqq Kielan.

“He’s basically become a full blown extremist, seasoned with a bit of Islamic spice, but he doesn’t represent Islam in any way,” Kielan told Kaliber.

Members of Sweden’s pro-Palestinian movement (Palestinarörelsen) are also keeping their distance from the new Omar.

“Today he functions as sort of a front man for fascism in this country and he pushes the most egregious anti-Semitic propaganda that I’ve seen in a long time,” said commentator and Palestinian movement supporter Andreas Malm to SR.

“What upset me most is that he’s trying to dress it up as pro-Palestinian.”

Omar is short on details about his planned anti-Zionist political party, simply telling Sveriges Radio that “we’re working on it”. He added that he has drawn inspiration from France’s Parti Anti Sioniste, another anti-Zionist party.

Historian Henrik Bachner, an expert on anti-Semitism in Sweden, is concerned that the country remains fertile ground for extremist views like Omar’s.

“The danger with what Mohammed Omar and those close to him are trying to say with their propaganda today is that there may be a larger readiness among certain strands of opinion to latch on to it,” Bachner told SR.

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=654112

Hamas man was 'suffocated with hotel pillow', says Dubai Police chief

The father of Hamas's Mahmoud Al Mabhouh holds up a family photo showing Al Mabhouh, at their home in the Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip.

By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter, Gulf News

Dubai: Police authorities in Dubai are still unyielding to reveal more information about the recent assassination of a senior Hamas military commander in a Dubai hotel.

Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, reserved from giving details about the crime scene saying the cause of death is by suffocation. "Forensic examination point out that the deceased was suffocated with a pillow in his hotel room," he told Gulf News without commenting on whether he was electrocuted or tortured.

Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, 50, who managed to escape previous assassination attempts, was found killed in his hotel room a day after he arrived to the country. Dubai Police did not reveal the identities of the suspects.

"From our investigations and evidences collected from the crime scene, we have the identities of the people involved including the killer and the master mind behind this crime. It is a professional criminal group," he said.

Images

A security source said that surveillance cameras in the hotel captured the images of the suspects.

Hamas said the Israeli intelligence unit, Mossad, was behind the assassination of Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, the Ezz Al Deen Al Qassam Brigades.

According to Lt Gen Dahi, they have send requests through the Interpol to get more information about the suspects and whether the passports they were carrying were authentic. Lt Gen Dahi refused to reveal the European countries they are approaching. He said he expects cooperation from the authorities.

"We are approaching all the channels including embassies and consulates to get more information on the suspects," he said.

"European countries don't extradite suspects but we will demand for the suspects to be tracked," he said.

"The big question to ask is how Hamas allowed such an important figure like Al Mabhouh travel without protection. He didn't have any escort or guard and they should have sought the assistance from the authorities in Dubai to provide him with security, " he said.

"If this is how they handle matters then they have no knowledge on security matters," he said.

When asked on the reasons for his presence in Dubai, he said, "I don't know. All we know is a Palestinian entered on a visit visa to the country. His last name, Al Mabhouh, was missing from his passport."

Mossad role?

Lt Gen Dahi did not confirm or deny whether the Mossad is behind the assassination of Al Mabhouh, as claimed by Hamas Movement, but referred to an article in Sharq Al Awsat quoting an article published in the Israeli daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot.

"The Israeli expert, [Ron Ben Yishai] stated that indicators from the crime point out to the involvement of the Mossad in the operation," he said.

Al Mabhouh's brother, Fayed was qouted by AFP saying, "The first results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the UAE show he was killed by an electrical appliance that was held to his head. He was then strangled."

Send $300 billion to Detroit, not to Israel

WRITTEN BY Blaine Coleman
Was there any excuse for a bunch of armed European settlers to occupy Palestine?
No.
Was there any excuse for those armed gangs—now called the “Israel Defense Forces”– to ally themselves with the most racist regimes on Earth, including Apartheid South Africa?
No.
Was there any excuse for handing $300 billion to Israel, as it mass-murdered so many Palestinians and Lebanese?

No– but Congressman Dingell admits that Israel really did get $300 billion from your pocket, from the U.S. Congress.

That $300 billion should be spent to re-build Detroit, not to fortify the Israel Defense Forces.

I hope the Detroit City Council will send that message to Congress.

It would solve a lot of problems, in Detroit and worldwide.

Resolutions for Boycott and Sanctions against Israel

The Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission sent a very modest version of that message to its own City Council a few years ago.

A “Resolution in Support of Ending U.S. Military Support for Israel” was approved—unanimously– by the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission, in December 2003:

http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2010/01/resolution-in-support-of-ending-us.html

The Commission urged the Ann Arbor City Council to approve that same Palestine Resolution.

The City Council has certainly had enough time to think about it!

Now that the Israel Defense Forces have massacred 1400 Palestinian people in Gaza, the City Council should be jumping to approve that Resolution and more.

In fact, every City Council should join the student governments of Wayne State University, and the University of Sussex, in demanding total boycott against the Apartheid state of Israel.

The Palestinian people have demanded exactly those kinds of boycott resolutions.

City Council’s Revenge, against the Palestinian People:

Yes, the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission stood up for the Palestinian People.

Within a year, City Council member Joan Lowenstein stated that the Commission’s chairperson would not be reappointed, and the Commission found itself with no staff.

Now the City Council has approved the appointment of a man from “Friends of the Israel Defense Forces” to the Ann Arbor, Michigan Human Rights Commission.

That new Commissioner’s name is Neal Elyakin.

Don’t Deny the Palestinian People’s Existence

Ann Arbor’s new Human Rights Commissioner, Mr. Neal Elyakin, has publicly written that “The term ‘Palestinian’ is itself a masterful twisting of history… If the Palestinians are indeed a myth, then the real question becomes ‘Why?’ Why invent a fictitious people? The answer is that the myth of the Palestinian People serves as the justification for Arab occupation of the Land of Israel.”

1. First of all, no one should deny the real Holocaust suffered by the Palestinian people.

Armed Zionist settlers destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages.

Most of Palestine was emptied of Palestinians. The Palestinians were driven out by massacres, rapes, and other violent means, according to Professor Ilan Pappe.

1. How can anyone deny the existence of the Palestinian people?
2. How is a Palestinian child, in Ann Arbor, supposed to feel? If her city’s Human Rights Commissioner uses that kind of language about Palestinians, how safe can she feel?

Resolution to Spend $300 Billion on Detroit, not on Israel:

Ann Arbor’s Human Rights Commission must speak clearly now.

It must repudiate any statement from its Commissioners claiming that the Palestinian people are a “myth”.

It must push the City Council to approve a resolution to boycott all products from Israel, and to cut off all aid to Israel. Those billions of dollars belong in Detroit, to begin repairing a half-century of federally-enforced strangulation imposed on Detroit.

I also hope the Detroit City Council will step up to the plate.

I hope the Detroit City Council will approve a Resolution asking Congress to totally cut off the trillions currently spent slaughtering Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

That Resolution should tell Congress to spend those trillions of dollars to re-build Detroit and every inner city.

What Detroiter would say “no” to that?
http://palestinethinktank.com/

PALESTINIAN UNITY~ABBAS VS HAMAS

Palestinian Unity between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas wants unity, and says:

Dr. Mahmoud Zahhar, a political leader of the Hamas movement, stated that they would sign the Egyptian document for internal Palestinian unity should the Egyptian leadership provide guarantees to ensure a successful agreement.

Zahhar said that Hamas does not want to sign on unclear issues, and that Egypt should provide clarifications so that all aspects are durable to ensure a lasting unity deal.

He added that Hamas believes that the transitional period should be used to achieve all needed arrangements and reconciliation measures to guarantee national interests and unity.

“We are determined to achieve unity, we want to make sure the Egyptian document is clear for all of us”, Zahhar said, “We demanded Egypt to provide guarantees to implementing all reached deals”.

Zahhar also insists that Egypt invite Hamas leaders for talks on the measures to guarantee the future unity deal is solid and flawless.

And rightly so, they must be careful of signing an agreement that is unclear. The above is a fair request to iron out any misconceptions and clear up any vague areas regarding security and other things. Ok, that’s one side, now what about Fatah? Abbas is continually claiming he wants unity for the Palestinians and continually pointing the finger at Hamas as the ones against unity. So here is Abbas’ contribution towards unity for all parties:

Palestinian Security Forces arrested 14 members of the Hamas political party in the West Bank this Wednesday at dawn.

In Qalqilia, to the north of the West Bank, Mustafa Bader was apprehended. He has been repeatedly arrested by Palestinian security forces along with spending time in Israeli prison. Nael Nofal, Sa’id Jeidy, Abdul-Halim Al Basha and Freij Daoud were also detained in Qalqilia. They face arrest just one day after release from a Palestinian detention center.

In Allar near Qalqilia, security forces arrested Ahmad Taqatqa, Abada Taqatqa, Khalid Abdullah and Mujahid Shadid.

In the district of Ramallah, security forces arrested Moath Ziad Mashal, a journalist from Silwad village. Mashal has been arrested three times by the Israeli military, spending a combined total of five years in Israeli prisons. He has also been arrested once by Palestinian security forces despite his involvement with the Silwad local council.

In Hebron, security forces arrested Sheikh Mahmoud Al Hour, member of the Surif village council and Sheikh Mahmoud Al Asafra. Al Asafra serves as the Imam of Al Rahman Mosque in Beit Kahil.

Near the city of Jenin, security forces arrested Mohammad Fares Abu Obeid from Al Yamoun village.

The statement issued by Hamas also alleged that Fateh security forces still hold Hamas party members in detention, despite a Palestinian court order demanding their immediate release.

I think we can all see the real problems with “unity.” Perhaps when Abbas and his cohorts begin to respect the democratic mandate of all parties, including Hamas who won a majority in a free and democratic election. Then we may see some unity.
http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2010/01/palestinian-unityabbas-vs-hamas.html

European campaign: EU should strongly retaliate to IOA

The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza Strip denounced on Tuesday the Israeli occupation authority's (IOA) refusal to grant Belgian minister Charles Michel permission to visit the Gaza Strip.

Mohammed Hanun, member of the campaign and head of the Palestinian gathering in Italy, said in a press release that the IOA measure was in absolute disregard of the European Union (EU) and must be met with a strong retaliation on the part of the EU.

He said that the IOA is trying to deceive the world public opinion into believing that the situation is normal in the Strip and is barring officials from entering it because they would discover the catastrophic impact of the four-year-old siege on the Strip.

Hanun advocated a Belgian and EU response to the IOA humiliation to the minister in blocking his freedom of movement and for its disrespect to the international laws.

He noted that the step came at a time when WHO revealed in a report the serious deterioration in the health and living conditions of the Gaza inhabitants especially following the latest Israeli war on Gaza.

Khudari, gov't committee appreciate congressmen's letter to Obama

MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of popular committee against the siege, and the government committee against the siege issued two separate statements on Tuesday appreciating the letter sent by 54 American congressmen to president Barack Obama regarding the Gaza siege.

The lawmaker said that pressures on the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) should not stop but rather must expand.

The government committee, for its part, said that the letter though not enough was still appreciated especially when the American administration is the main supporter of the IOA.

It said that the West is now convinced that the IOA siege and starvation with international collusion and American backing had failed.

The congressmen asked Obama to pressure the IOA into lifting the siege on Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

DEMOCRACY HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

“DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO”

Here is a small news roundup covering the Good and Great Democracies of America and England. (pun intended completely!) Want a first hand look at duplicity?

Since the Election in Palestine, which Bush touted as wholly “Democratic and Fair” the West has branded Hamas as “terrorists” and refused to recognise their electoral mandate. Hence, never mind who people vote for, if we don’t like whom you elect, we, along with Israel, will either destroy it with surgical strikes of Government buildings and kidnap and intern Government officials, strangle your country with an illegal siege, or inflict a genocide on the civilian population to punish them for voting. And this on a country that has never attacked America.

Now contrast the above with this insanity. Bush heads to Afghanistan after 9-11 to “smoke em outta their holes” to “hunt them down, dead or alive” to “Get Bin Laden and his supporters” and now here we are 8 years later and lo and behind the great military power of America cannot win the war. So, what does America do? Why begin negotiations with the Taliban (those would be the guys they’ve been fighting against for 8 years who work and support Bin Laden and Al Qaeda) and also offer to bring them into an Afghan government as their reward for helping Bin Laden and being part of Al Qaeda.

So, a country that supports, hides and works with Al Qaeda who DID attack America means the Americans will talk to them and allow them into government. And a country like Palestine, where no one attacked America, where no one sides with Al Qaeda, where the election was democratic, where the government wants to enter a peace process, America refuses to talk to them. Quotes from an interview with commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal:

link When asked if senior Taliban leaders might eventually become government leaders in Kabul, McChrystal said, "I think that anybody who dedicates themselves to the future and not the past, and anybody whose future is focused on the right kinds of things for Afghanistan might participate in government."

And UN special envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide said this:

"If you want relevant results, then you have to talk to the relevant person in authority," Eide said, adding that he believes the time has come to do it.

The move to reconcile with Taliban after eight years of a bitter US-led conflict in the war-ravaged nation has been described as a defeat for Washington and the Afghan government.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan to allegedly kill or capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and root out militancy in the country.

Signs that this "plan" will take place are beginning to emerge as now the UN agrees with the “plan” to integrate the Taliban into the Afghan government, whilst at the same time refusing to acknowledge the elected government of Gaza, who never bombed America:

The United Nations has joined some Western countries in laying the groundwork for bringing the Taliban into the Afghan government

And here’s another report which I find quite comical indeed. Again this one comes from that “Great” democracy that supposedly supports “Freedom of speech” in China, but NOT in America, is against censorship in China, but FOR censorship (of Arab news stations) in America, and guess who pushed this bill forward? AIPAC, surprise! Can’t have those Americans hearing anything other than officially approved Israeli media or FOX news:

link Clinton had cited China as among a number of countries where there has been “a spike in threats to the free flow of information” over the past year.

"Those who disrupt the free flow of information in our society or any other pose a threat to our economy, our government and our civil society."

Ooops shot self in own foot with that statement there Hillary....…more:

And turning to the Iraq war and complete cover-up of the real agenda, e’g’ regime change, which is illegal. Remember that nice scientist Dr. David Kelly who was giving Blair and Bush some trouble by telling the truth about all those “weapons of mass destruction” and such. He was a real pest, gaining some recognition and throwing a spanner into the works and plans of the two lying war mongers? Well, after countless officials and medical experts who demanded an inquiry into Kelly’s mysterious death, the results of that inquiry have now been banned from the public for the next 70 years. Can you say massive uber cover-up and Guilty as Hell of murder? Dr David Kelley COVER UP:

link The official heading an inquiry into the suspicious death of a British weapons inspector who cast doubts on the main argument for invading Iraq has secretly ordered all evidence locked up for 70 years.

Lord Hutton, who chaired the 2003 inquiry, which controversially concluded that Doctor David Kelly's death has been a suicide, secured a 70-year seal on all major evidence, including medical records — none of which had ever been made public.

The unprecedented move was revealed last week, sparking fresh uproar and allegations of a government cover-up — considering that by 2073 anyone with the least interest, or stake, in the case will probably be long dead.

Kelly was mysteriously found dead in the woods near his Oxfordshire home in July 2003, just days after his name was leaked as the source of a pre-war BBC documentary that undermined the now-notorious 45-minute dossier as highly exaggerated.

The clandestine restrictions came to light when a group of 13 doctors challenging the Hutton verdict received a letter from the Oxfordshire County Council in answer to their calls to see the postmortem file.

"It fits in with the subversion of due process we have seen for six years. It is extraordinary…I am shocked but not surprised by this," the Daily Mail quoted Dr. David Halpin, one of the group of 13 doctors, as saying on Saturday.

The revelations may prompt calls on the country's ongoing inquiry into the Iraq war, to question former British premier Tony Blair, who is to give evidence later this week, on the issue.

Blair penned a clinching introduction to the dossier, claiming spies had proved “beyond doubt” that the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that he could launch within 45-minutes.

How anyone can even remotely think for one minute that England and America stand for anything even closely resembling openness, democracy or justice is beyond me. America gives the entire Arab world a shining example of what a former Democracy looks like when taken over by Israel and neocons who have an agenda of making profitable wars for both of those countries, with the added bonus of taking control of the entire middle east.
http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2010/01/democracy-has-left-building.html

Israel Uses Depleted Uranium against Palestinians in Gaza

London, January 26, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - A London-based Palestinian activist announced that the buildings damaged in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli onslaught last year all showed signs of contamination with depleted uranium.

"The ruined buildings and debris left of the Israeli attack on Gaza are contaminated with depleted uranium and similar types of weapons," Sameh Habeeb, spokesperson of the Palestinian Return Center in London, told FNA.

The activist quoted international nuclear experts as saying that the contaminated materials will be severely destructive and hazardous to the Palestinian expatriates in the long run.

Habeeb criticized the United Nations for its inefficiency in providing the Palestinian people with proper services, saying that the international body has avoided proper measures to clean the contaminated areas.

The activist called on the UN to launch a probe into the type of weapons used by the Israeli troops during the 22-day long war on Gaza last year.

Israel began waging war on the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, and managed to kill a total 95 resistance fighters. Its major targets, however, were residential areas, mosques and medical centers.

The full-scale offensive led to the death of at least 1,400 civilians, many of them women and children. Officials from various international bodies have confirmed that Tel Aviv resorted to unconventional weapons and terror tactics.

During the 22-day long operation over 50,000 people were also left homeless in the enclave of 1.5 million. Israel's casualties in the conflict were put at 13, including 10 military personnel, while over 5,500 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Israeli attack on Gaza is estimated by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics to have caused nearly $2 billion worth of damage.

Anti-Israelism: Why Zionism doesn't and can't get it

By Alan Hart* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

There is no doubt it. More and more people all over the world, and probably many of their governments behind closed doors, are beginning to see the Zionist state of Israel for what it really is – not only the obstacle to peace but a monster apparently beyond control; and they, more and more so-called ordinary folk everywhere, are beginning to turn against it.

That explains why Prime Minister Netanyahu is leading Zionism's hysterical call for the world to stop demonizing Israel.

At the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem on 25 January, he said: "There is evil in the world, and it doesn't stop, it spreads. There is a new call to destroy the Jewish state. It's our problem but not only our problem. This (the re-emergence and growth of anti-Semitism according to Netanyahu) is a crime against the Jews, and a crime against humanity, and it is a test of humanity."

That was quite something from the man who has done more than most to assist Zionism in its transformation of the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust from a lesson against racism and fascism and all the evils associated with them into an ideology that seeks to justify anything and everything Israel does. War crimes and all.


Zionism can't see, is too blinded by its own insufferable self-righteousness to see, that the behaviour of its monster child is the prime cause of the re-awakening of the sleeping giant of anti-Semitism – except that in most cases it's not anti-Semitism. It's anti-Israelism. (The danger is that it could easily become anti-Semitism in its Western sense – loathing and even hatred of Jews just because they are Jews – if the Western world is not assisted to understand the difference between Judaism and Zionism. The difference explains why it is perfectly possible to be passionately anti-Zionist without being in any way, shape or form anti-Jew and, also, why it is wrong to blame all Jews everywhere for the crimes of the relative few in Israel, and not all Israelis).

It is a fact that prior to the Nazi holocaust, almost all the Jews of the world were opposed to Zionism's colonial enterprise. One of several reasons for the opposition of the most informed and thoughtful of them was the fear that if Zionism was allowed by the big powers to have its way, it would one day provoke classical anti-Semitism.
As I note in my book, Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, this fear was given a fresh airing in 1986 by Yehoshafat Harkabi, Israel's longest serving Director of Military Intelligence. In his remarkable book, Israel's Fateful Hour, he gave this warning (my emphasis added):

"Israel is the criterion according to which all Jews will tend to be judged. Israel as a Jewish state is an example of the Jewish character, which finds free and concentrated expression within it. Anti-Semitism has deep and historical roots. Nevertheless, any flaw in Israeli conduct, which initially is cited as anti-Israelism, is likely to be transformed into empirical proof of the validity of anti-Semitism. It would be a tragic irony if the Jewish state, which was intended to solve the problem of anti-Semitism, was to become a factor in the rise of anti-Semitism. Israelis must be aware that the price of their misconduct is paid not only by them but also Jews throughout the world."

Three particular events guaranteed that Israel's "misconduct" became not only "a factor" but the prime factor in the re-emergence and the rise of what Zionism asserts is anti-Semitism but is actually anti-Israelism. They were:

* Israel's invasion of Lebanon all the way to Beirut in 1982, the initial purpose of this offensive being to destroy the PLO, its leadership and infrastructure.

* Israel's war on Lebanon 2008, the main purposes of this offensive being to cause enough destruction and death to force Lebanon's political institutions and military to confront and defeat Hizbollah (which would not have come into existence if Israel had not invaded Lebanon and occupied the south of it in 1982); and to teach the Arabs, all Arabs, a lesson.

* Israel's most recent war on the Gaza Strip, the main purposes of it being to collectively punish all Palestinians there (for supporting Hamas) and destroying Hamas militarily and politically, in the belief that when it had done so, Israel would have more freedom to bully and bribe Abbas's quisling Palestinian National Authority into accepting crumbs from Zionism's table.

By any objective consideration those three offensives were demonstrations of Israeli state terrorism. (I have just finished updating the story for Volume Three of the American edition of my book and it has chapter titled State Terrorism Becomes Israel's Norm).

Because the Western world had been conditioned to see the 1967 conflict as a war of Israeli self-defense – i.e. not what it actually was, a war of Israeli aggression, Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon was the first real opportunity for the watching Western world to see what until then only the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians in particular, had seen in close-up – the ugly face of Zionism. A face so ugly that 400,000 Israelis assembled to express their outrage of what had been done in their name.

On the subject of the self-righteousness that is the cause of Zionism's congenital blindness, Harkabi wrote this (again my emphasis added):

"Self-criticism is imperative in order to counterbalance the tendencies to self-righteousness and self-pity that stem from basic Jewish attitudes, from the historical experience of persecution, and from the ethos fostered by Menachem Begin. No factor endangers Israel's future more than self-righteousness, which blinds us to reality, prevents a complex understanding of the situation and legitimizes extreme behaviour."

Footnote: There may be readers of this article who object a little or a lot to my description of the Zionist state as a monster. It's not an original Alan Hart idea. In 1984, and as quoted by Harkabi, Israeli journalist Teddy Preuss published a book with the title Begin, His Regime. In it he wrote (my emphasis added): "I have no doubt that Begin's rule will lead to the destruction of the state. In any case, his rule will turn Israel into a monster."

* Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East. Author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews. He blogs on www.alanhart.net and tweets on www.twitter.com/alanauthor

PLIGHT OF GAZA STUDENTS CONTINUES TO GROW

Many students in the Gaza Strip aspire to a higher education abroad but the Israeli-Egyptian blockade deprives them of setting out on their journey.

Hundreds of Gaza graduates receive scholarship to attend universities abroad, but they are trapped in the impoverished coastal enclave. They are going to lose their scholarships according to a report by Press TV correspondent

Ayman Quader is one of these students. He has finished his bachelor’s degree and was awarded a scholarship yet he cannot leave Gaza. The first term of his scholarship begins in February.

Quader told our correspondent that he is being prevented from going out by the complete siege of the Gaza Strip. Quader calls on all those who are concerned with humanitarian conditions in Gaza to support him and his peers who seek a brighter future in schools abroad.

Israel has imposed crippling restrictions on the Gaza Strip since 2007, preventing the shipment of food, fuel and other essentials into the populated region, pushing its impoverished population to the verge of starvation.

The condition has been further worsened by Egypt’s refusal to open the Rafah crossing — the only alternative which is a border terminal not controlled by Israel —.

Along with the other residents of the Gaza Strip, students must wait until the next opening of the Rafah crossing. But there are no scheduled openings of the only gate for the 1.5 million Palestinians in the blockaded region.

Academicians in Gaza argue that traveling abroad is one of the fundamental rights of students which must not be violated by political disputes.

“I’m disappointed and frustrated as a teacher because my students are losing golden opportunities to pursue their studies abroad,” said a Gaza University teacher, Akreem Habeeb.

Habeeb expressed regret that many of his students with scholarships from European and American universities lost their chance because they have not been allowed to leave the Gaza Strip.

“These students are living in a great fear of losing their seats and universities,” Gaza Education Minister Ahmad al-Najjar told Press TV, warning “their future is in a great danger.”

Students in the Gaza Strip have held several protests against the enclosure of their homeland, calling upon Egyptian authorities to facilitate their traveling abroad, requests that appear to fall on deaf ears in Cairo.
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/plight-of-gaza-students-continues-to-grow/

Israel's Gaza blockade continues to suffocate daily life

Israel must end its suffocating blockade of the Gaza Strip, which leaves more than 1.4 million Palestinians cut off from the outside world and struggling with desperate poverty, Amnesty International said one year on from the end of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.Amnesty International’s briefing paper Suffocating: The Gaza Strip under Israeli blockade gathers testimony from people still struggling to rebuild their lives following Operation “Cast Lead”, which killed around 1,400 Palestinians and injured thousands more.
“Israel claims that the ongoing blockade of Gaza, in force since June 2007, is a response to the indiscriminate rocket attacks launched from Gaza into southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups. The reality is that the blockade does not target armed groups but rather punishes Gaza’s entire population by restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials,” said Malcolm Smart, Middle East and North Africa Director, Amnesty International.

“The blockade constitutes collective punishment under international law and must be lifted immediately.”

As the occupying power, Israel has a duty under international law to ensure the welfare of Gaza’s inhabitants, including their rights to health, education, food and adequate housing

During Operation “Cast Lead”, from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, 13 Israelis were killed, including three civilians in southern Israel, where dozens more were injured in indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups.

In Gaza, Israeli attacks damaged or destroyed civilian buildings and infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, the water and electricity systems. Thousands of Palestinian homes were destroyed or severely damaged.

An estimated 280 of the 641 schools in Gaza were damaged and 18 were destroyed. More than half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18 and the disruption to their education, due to the damage caused during Operation “Cast Lead” and as a result of the continuing Israeli boycott, is having a devastating impact.

Hospitals have also been badly affected by the military offensive and the blockade. Trucks of medical aid provided by the World Health Organization have been repeatedly refused entry to Gaza without explanation by Israeli officials.

Patients with serious medical conditions that cannot be treated in Gaza continue to be prevented or delayed from leaving Gaza by the Israeli authorities – since the closure of crossings leading into and out of Gaza, patients have been made to apply for permits, but these permits are frequently denied. On 1 November 2009, Samir al-Nadim, a father of three children, died after his exit from Gaza for a heart operation was delayed by 22 days.

Amnesty International spoke to a number of families whose homes were destroyed in the Israeli military operation and one year on are still living in temporary accommodation.

Mohammed and Halima Mslih and their four young children fled their home in the village of Juhor al-Dik, south of Gaza City, during the conflict one year ago. While they were away their home was demolished by Israeli army bulldozers.

“When we returned everything was broken. People were giving us food because we had nothing,” said Mohammed Mslih.

Six months after the ceasefire the family was still living in a flimsy nylon tent and they have only now been able to construct a simple permanent home. The family fear, however, that continuing Israeli military incursions may destroy the little they have left.

Unemployment in Gaza is spiralling as those businesses that remain struggle to survive under the blockade. In December 2009, the UN reported that unemployment in Gaza was over 40 per cent.

“The blockade is strangling virtually every aspect of life for Gaza’s population, more than half of whom are children. The increasing isolation and suffering of the people of Gaza cannot be allowed to continue. The Israeli government must comply with binding legal obligation, as the occupying power, to lift the blockade without further delay,” said Malcolm Smart.
http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/

Оставить полтора миллиона человек в середине зимы без энергии - это очень по-сионистски...

В ближайший четверг может произойти полное отключение единственной в Секторе Газа электрической станции после того, как Европейский Союз перестал снабжать её топливом.
Об этом сообщил заместитель главы министерства электроэнергии Палестины Канаан Абид.

«В понедельник мы были вынуждены приостановить функционирование примерно половины генераторов, так как необходимое для них дизельное топливо перестало доставляться из "Израиля", поставки в который финансируются Евросоюзом. В четверг станция полностью прекратит работу…», - сказал он в эксклюзивном интервью корреспонденту Палестинского Информационного Центра.

Финансирование станции прекратилось первого декабря прошлого года, после чего она стала работать в ограниченном режиме, добавил К.Абид. «Никаких альтернатив или вариантов для решения проблемы в нашем распоряжении нет», - констатировал он.
В связи со сложностью ситуации Канаан Абид обратился ко всем народам арабо-мусульманского мира, а также свободным людям, тем, кто ещё прислушивается к голосу совести, с призывом оказать помощь жителям Газы, на долю которых выпадает новая трудность…
Оставить полуторамиллионный регион без электроэнергии в середине зимы - сам Евросоюз не пошел бы на такое варварство без лоббистской руки Тель-Авива. Всеми силами задушить гордое население анклава, который отвергает все подачки с американского барского стола и его европейского сателлита во имя того, чтобы не было растоптано его право выбирать, - вот, что хотят сионисты и их покровители. Не удалось победить в войне? Будем вас морить голодом, отключим электричество... Враги палестинского народа, эти химеры созданного ими материального мира потребления, уверены, что желудок, утроба - главные органы. Впрочем, в отношении тех, кто еще в библейские времена вызвал гнев у Бога, начав поклоняться "золотому тельцу", так оно и есть. Желудок у них главный орган. По их расчетам, палестинцы в Секторе Газа давно должны были выступить против ХАМАС: ведь и лекарств нет, и доставку продуктов перекрыли, не говоря о стройматериалах и т.д. Видимо, отключение электрооэнергии в январе - это их последний и самый главный козырь.
Разве понять им, тем,чей ум прячется в желудке, высокий дух палестинского народа! О его стойкость и мужество разобьются все еврейские заговоры!..

Африканская община предупреждает об угрозе обрушения Аль-Аксы!..

Жители пригорода оккупированного Иерусалима, члены африканской общины, заявили, что в последнее время под окнами их домов сионистская техника для рытья, бурения, перевозки грунта и т.д. работает круглосуточно.

Хосни Шахин, один из местных жителей, рассказал корреспонденту ПИЦ, что столь интенсивные раскопки продолжаются на протяжении последних двух лет. «Однако, судя по рёву моторов, с начала этого года евреи стали использовать более мощные машины для рытья».

Представитель общины добавил, что если раскопки будут продолжаться в таком режиме, то в пригороде могут обрушиться до 20 домов и 150 человек окажутся на улице...
http://www.palestine-info.ru/

США хотят отучить пакистанских детей от ислама

Завоевать сердца и умы молодого поколения, а также преодолеть растущие среди населения Пакистана антиамериканские настроения намерены США посредством телевизионных программ, предназначенных для пакистанских детей.

«В этом проекте нет ничего нового. Старая идея в новой упаковке, - считает писатель со стажем З.Р. Джафри. – Цель этого медиа-вторжения укоренить в детских умах мысль о том, что за терроризмом стоят религиозно настроенные люди, и поэтому они должны держаться от религии подальше».

Американское агентство международного развития (US Aid Agency for International Developments, USAID) разместило объявления в местных газетах, приглашая к сотрудничеству компании из Пакистана и США, занимающиеся производством программ для детей. На этот проект, рассчитанный на четыре года, уже выделено 20 миллионов долларов, сообщает «ИсламОнлайн».

Цели проекта, по словам представителя USAID Сухейла Хаммаюна, заключаются в том, чтобы развить у пакистанских детей языковые навыки, критическое мышление и способность преодолевать трудности. Однако многие относятся к американской инициативе весьма скептически.

«В Америке бесплатный сыр бывает только в мышеловках, - считает бывший член пакистанского парламента, один из руководителей ассоциации мусульманских ученых Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) Хафиз Хусейн Ахмад. – Они ничего никуда не инвестируют бескорыстно».

Некоторые полагают, что хотя основные заявленные цели проекта кажутся вполне безобидными, его результаты могут оказаться довольно опасными.

«Язык это наиболее важный инструмент социального и умственного развития ребенка. Посредством языка ребенок начинает думать и разговаривать, - отмечает известный мыслитель и писатель Шахнаваз Фаруки. – Если языковая модель американская, то автоматически образ мышления тоже будет американским».

Фаруки, пишущий на социальные и политические темы, также критически относится к тому, что американский проект должен привить детям способность преодолевать трудности:

«Казалось бы, что плохого в том, чтобы научить детей преодолевать трудности. Это же очень хорошо. Но существуют два подхода к тому, что является главным в жизни. Один подход исламский, а другой западный. Вы думаете, Америка научит наших детей исламскому отношению к жизни?»

Прекрасно понимая, сколь важна в жизни способность критически мыслить, Фаруки, тем не менее, с большим подозрением относится к тому, как ее собираются прививать детям заморские телевизионщики:

«Принимая во внимание то, как Запад ведет себя по отношению к исламу, можно ожидать, что это развитие критического мышления у мусульманских детей на деле означает развитие критического отношения к исламской вере и ее основам».

Его озабоченность разделяет и Джафри: «Они пытаются насадить представления, что каждый человек с бородой, который молится пять раз в день, является террористом – что абсолютно неправильно».

Руководитель JUI Хафиз Ахмад считает, что основная цель проекта – преодолеть растущие антиамериканские настроения.

«Молодежь и дети все больше настроены против Соединенных Штатов из-за их несправедливой и навязчивой политики по всему миру, особенно в мусульманских странах», - заявил он в интервью «ИсламОнлайн». – Я думаю, это попытка преодолеть такое явление».

Однако он полагает, что этот проект не принесет результатов:

«Вместо того, чтобы вкладывать такие огромные средства в промывание мозгов мусульманским детям, Америке следует пересмотреть свою политику, чтобы завоевать сердца и умы наших детей».

«Подобные же косметические усилия не помогали в прошлом, и не помогут в будущем», - отмечает ученый.
http://www.islamnews.ru/news-22334.html

Дети Газы спели для Обамы

Еще год назад жители Газы, обожженные огнем фосфорных бомб, которые применяла так называемая армия обороны Израиля, возлагали большие надежды на нового президента Соединенных Штатов. Они верили, что он способен вмешаться и заставить Израиль прекратить свои преступления против палестинцев.

Однако, ничего не произошло: преступления продолжаются, и худшее из них – блокада Газы, которая стала возмездием за свободное волеизъявление палестинцев на выборах 2006 года. При этом экс-президент США Джимми Картер считает, что выборы были справедливыми и демократичными.

Один из ведущих "американистов" Газы – профессор, преподаватель американской литературы в Исламском университете Газы доктор Акрам Хабиб – избрал необычное средство воздействия на американского президента Обаму, с тем, чтобы устами палестинских детей призвать к справедливому решению ближневосточного конфликта.

Разочарование бездействием главы американского государства и обладателя Нобелевской премии мира профессор выразил в своей песне, которую записал в исполнении палестинских детей и опубликовал в Интернете, пишет "Ислам для всех" со ссылкой на Paltelegraph.com.

"Мое послание – песня, написанная от имени детей Газы, и пропетая ими. Моя песня называется "Дети Газы призывают Обаму ("Gaza kids are calling for Obama")", - написал он в своем комментарии к релизу.

"Я считаю, что Обама должен быстро разработать действенный план по достижению мира, который удовлетворял бы законные притязания палестинцев на собственное независимое государство. Палестинцы также ожидают, что Обама откажется от израильского и американского права вето в отношении примирения палестинских фракций, поскольку без единства палестинцев не будет истинного мира", - пишет он.

Он призывает президента Обаму перестать воспринимать ближневосточный кризис исключительно как угрозу безопасности, но признать, что это – политический кризис, справедливое решение которого не терпит отлагательств. "Вот тогда мусульмане всего мира споют: Вива Америка, и вива Обама!" - говорит профессор.

Annie Lennox | Stop Gaza Massacre protest London Saturday 3 January 2009

Congressman Jim Traficant on Current Issues TV with Hesham Tillawi says Israel Control United States government.

Congressman Jim Traficant speaks about AIPAC and the control of American political Parties.





http://intifada-palestine.com/2010/01/24/congressman-jim-traficant-on-current-issues-tv-with-hesham-tillawi-says-israel-control-united-states-government/

В Норвегии отмечается резкий рост числа мусульманских общин

Количество мусульманских общин в Норвегии с 2000 года увеличилось почти на 40%. В последние пять лет в стране зарегистрировано более 30 мусульманских общин.

Согласно последним данным Центрального статистического бюро Норвегии, опубликованным в газете «Vаrt Land», темпы роста религиозных общин намного опережают показатели увеличения численности мусульман. В последние пять лет количество мусульман в Норвегии возросло на 15%, тогда как официально зарегистрированных религиозных объединений – на 37%.

Существуют две причины увеличения числа религиозных обществ: во-первых, в стране появилось много новых соискателей статуса беженца, во-вторых, возникла тенденция к регистрации небольших объединений, особенно за пределами столицы, поясняет газета.

В 2009 года на 126 мусульманских общин – это число соответствует числу мечетей – в Норвегии приходится 92 744 мусульман.

По количеству участников религиозных обществ, после христианства ислам является второй религией страны – на его долю приходится 21,5% населения, передает «Ислам для всех«.
http://caucase.wordpress.com/

WAC conference schedule survey

Click here for all surveys

Only shrinks can explain Israel's behavior

How can a nation that has so desperately fought for its international image appoint Lieberman as its No. 1 diplomat?
By Gideon Levy

Our wild world of crime has recently been sent for observation. From the bodyguard of the IDF Chief of Staff to the killers of their own children - all have been sent for observation. The time has come, as is the custom around here, to send the country for observation, too. Maybe with ongoing treatment from specialists, the diagnosis that will save us can be made.

There are numerous reasons for the observation. A long series of acts that have no rational explanation, or really any explanation whatsoever, raise the following suspicions: a loss of touch with reality; temporary or permanent insanity, paranoia, schizophrenia and megalomania; memory loss and loss of judgment. All of this must be examined, under careful observation.

The psychiatric specialists might be so kind as to try to explain how a country with leaders committed to a two-state solution continues to direct huge budgets toward building more settlements in territories it intends to vacate in the future.

What explanation could there be, if not from the psychiatric realm, for a 10-month halt to residential construction in the settlements, to be immediately followed by more construction? How can a country be so tightfisted when it comes to healthcare spending on its citizens, whose poor are getting poorer - and yet when a portion of the roads in the West Bank are already deemed as dangerous, they build more and more roads there leading from nowhere to nowhere?

They should explain how the state prosecutor can announce his intention to expropriate more privately-owned Palestinian land at the settlement of Ofra - the "largest illegal settlement in the territories" (in the words of the defense minister's adviser on settlement issues) - when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his address at Bar-Ilan University last year, explicitly committed not to do so, and President Shimon Peres did more of the same in a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

They should explain what lies behind the decision to examine annexing Highway 443, which runs through the West Bank, as Israeli territory - as a way of defeating the recent High Court of Justice ruling opening it to Palestinian motorists. How can a country that preaches the rule of law dare outfox the High Court through "bypass" laws? And how have an insignificant minority - the settlers - sown fear and managed to extort the country for so many years?

Psychiatric specialists should make clear how a country that's been dealt a report as potentially disastrous for it as the Goldstone report can so adamantly and stubbornly refuse to convene the commission of inquiry the report provides as an escape clause. How can a nation that has so desperately fought for its international image and standing, and which is so dependent on the world's benevolence, appoint such a thuggish and violent figure as Avigdor Lieberman as its No. 1 diplomat? Half the world is closed to the foreign minister and we suffer the consequences.

Why didn't Israel consider presenting, even through some illusion, a nicer face to the world than Lieberman's threatening visage? Why doesn't a country so ostracized by so much of the world not ask itself, even for a moment, what part it played in shaping that position of isolation, from which it simply attacks and points fingers at its critics? How can a society which has already existed with a cruel occupation in its backyard for two generations refuse to deal with it, continue feeling so good about itself and evade any kind of self-examination or even an inkling of moral equivocation?

What kind of explanation can be given for the fact that a nation with a clear secular majority has no system for civil marriage, no buses or trains operating on Shabbat? How in such a country are wealthy municipal governments required to transfer funds to religious councils, of all places, rather than other needs? How can a country that has to deal with a domestic Arab minority which has maintained surprising loyalty to the country for more than 60 years do everything to put it down, humiliate and exclude it, treat it unfairly and engender a sense of frustration and hatred within it?

Can it be rationally explained how a country, to which all of the Arab nations have presented a historic peace proposal, refuses to even discuss this? It is a country that the president of Syria (whose major ally, Iran, is threatening Israel) is begging to come to a peace agreement with, yet it remains insistent in its refusal.

Only psychiatric experts could possibly explain how the continued occupation of the Golan Heights and the missed opportunities for peace relate to security or logic. At the same time, they should try to explain the connection between the sanctity of historic sites and sovereignty over them. And above all, they should clarify how such a smart and talented society participates in this march of folly without anyone objecting.

True, it's a difficult case to figure out - all the more reason to recommend the country be sent for observation.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/Only-shrinks-can-explain-Israel-s-behavior.html

Americans have negative Islam view: Gallup

Americans still largely have a negative perception of Muslims and Islam despite growth in positive Muslim-American political and social activism and interfaith organizations in the past decade, according to a new report from the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

"More than 50 percent of Americans said they had unfavorable opinions of Islam, while 29 percent of those reported a strong degree of prejudice towards Muslims," concluded the report, "Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of US Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam.

It questioned 1002 interview subjects about different aspects of Islam and Muslims over a month-long period last year and married the results with those found in the Gallup World Religion survey, which surveyed Americans’ opinions on Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam and their followers.

Of the faiths, Islam and Muslims elicited the most negative perceptions.
Other findings from the survey reveal that there is a great public prejudice towards Islam as a faith than Muslims as adherents of that faith.

Senior analyst Dalia Mogahed, who is the Executive Director for the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, noted that though more than half of respondents said they knew someone who was Muslim, that didn’t deter from having negative attitudes towards Islam.

"While not knowing a Muslim is significant into falling in that extremely prejudice group," she said, "knowing a Muslims is not enough to keep someone from not being prejudice."

Mogahed said that correlation is indicative of how Americans tend to separate an individual from a group.

"We found that it’s possible to know someone in a group and make them the exception, to say, ‘Sure, so-and-so is a good Muslim. But most Muslims are not like him.’"

Though 70 percent of surveyed Americans said they believe Muslims worldwide want peace, 66 percent said Muslims are not accepting of other religions.

Some 68 percent said there is little in common between Christianity and Islam.

Despite numerous efforts by Muslim American organizations and individuals to inform the public about Islam, a whopping 63 percent said they have either no knowledge (23 percent) or very little knowledge (40 percent) of Islam.

The report is co-produced by the Muslim West Facts Project (part of Gallup) and the Coexist Foundation.

* Media factor

The findings did not surprise Mogahed.

"Though Muslim-Americans are positively involved in the fabric of American life, it’s difficult to see that in light of the media coverage of things like Fort Hood, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the troubles in Pakistan."

But she asserted that all the negativity revealed by the survey was disheartening to see because there has been so much hard work done by Muslim-Americans and Muslims worldwide to inform the non-Muslim public about the beauty of Islam.

"When the public tide can be turned towards having a positive view of Islam, then that will help negate all the prejudices."

The problem stems from media coverage of Islam, according to Media Tenor, a research firm that monitors and analyzes media coverage.

The report stated that not only is Islam the most frequently mentioned religion on the news networks in the US, but "a significant share of this coverage is negative."

An analysis of all statements made by television news between January and August of 2009 revealed that 36 percent of statements on religion is about Islam, and the tone of those statements is twice as likely (40 percent) to be negative than that about Christianity (20 percent).

Gallup’s survey surmised that the media coverage of the "fringe elements" of Islam "may shape Americans’ unfavorable attitudes towards Muslims."

"Muslims are different from one to the next. We live our lives differently, our world experiences are different and that shapes us," Mogahed said.

"But the one and only uniting factor of the group is Islam. And while acts of violence must be covered, perhaps what would help is for the media to pay attention to how it frames those stories."
Source: IslamOnline

Israel: Ariel College student says taken off bus for speaking Arabic

srael-Arab claims she was humiliated by two security guards who ordered her off bus after hearing her speak Arabic on cell phone. College: First such incident in 15 yearsAn Arab-Israel student at the Ariel College in the West Bank claimed she was told to get off a bus because she "dared" to speak Arabic on her cell phone.

Hanin Muslah said that during Thursday's incident she was also subjected to a full body search.

Muslah, who is originally from the Wadi Ara area and is studying for a degree in engineering at the establishment's architecture and interior design department, said two armed security guards boarded the bus near a checkpoint as it was leaving Ariel. She claimed that the guards questioned her after hearing her speak Arabic and eventually ordered her to get off the bus.

"As I was talking on my cell I noticed they were pointing at me," said Muslah, who takes the same bus home every day. "I started to cry. I have never been so humiliated in my entire life. They took me off the bus in the middle of nowhere. I told them, 'I'm an Israeli, just like you are, so why are you treating me like this? Why take me off the bus in such a degrading manner?'"

"I don't wear a veil or traditional dresses; I don’t look Arab," said the student, "I was taken off the bus only because I spoke Arabic."

The Ariel Municipality said the guards in question work for a security company that operates "according to IDF guidelines," adding that "non-Jewish citizens, including students, pass through Ariel's gate every day."

Ariel College said in response that the establishment's Arab-Israeli students make up four percent of the entire student body. "Many of them live in the dorms and are involved in the student community and the city itself. We regret the incident and will check it with the company responsible for security at the roadblock. This is the first time since Arab students began enrolling in the institution (15 years ago) that such an incident has taken place," it said.

Despite the college's claim, Muslah said other female Arab students have also been humiliated at the Ariel checkpoints, adding that they are considering taking legal action.

"Israel's Arabs – they are not a threat. They only want to go about their business in peace," she said.
http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/

Disproportionality of Force.Top photo is a hamas rocket, bottom is israeli

http://americanbuilt.us/videos/israeli-occupation.shtml

Got Fascism? : Obama Advisor Promotes 'Cognitive Infiltration'

Your government appointees at work: Cass Sunstein seeks "cognitive" provocateurs.

WRITTEN By Marc Estrin / The Rag Blog / January 11, 2010

Cass Sunstein is President Obama's Harvard Law School friend, and recently appointed Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

In a recent scholarly article, he and coauthor Adrian Vermeule take up the question of "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures." (J. Political Philosophy, 7 (2009), 202-227). This is a man with the president's ear. This is a man who would process information and regulate things. What does he here propose?

[W]e suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of extremists who supply conspiracy theories: cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity. (Page 219.)

Read this paragraph again. Unpack it. Work your way through the language and the intent. Imagine the application. What do we learn?

* It is "extremists" who "supply" "conspiracy theories."
* Their "hard core" must be "broken up" with distinctive tactics. What tactics?
* "Infiltration" ("cognitive") of groups with questions about official explanations or obfuscations or lies. Who is to infiltrate?
* "Government agents or their allies," virtually (i.e. on-line) or in "real-space" (as at meetings), and "either openly or anonymously," though "infiltration" would imply the latter. What will these agents do?
* Undermine "crippled epistemology" — one's theory and technique of knowledge. How will they do this?
* By "planting doubts" which will "circulate." Will these doubts be beneficial?
* Certainly. Because they will introduce "cognitive diversity."

Put into English, what Sunstein is proposing is government infiltration of groups opposing prevailing policy. Palestinian Liberation? 9/11 Truth? Anti-nuclear power? Stop the wars? End the Fed? Support Nader? Eat the Rich?

It's easy to destroy groups with "cognitive diversity." You just take up meeting time with arguments to the point where people don't come back. You make protest signs which alienate 90% of colleagues. You demand revolutionary violence from pacifist groups.

We expect such tactics from undercover cops, or FBI. There the agents are called "provocateurs" — even if only "cognitive." One learns to smell or deal with them in a group, or recognize trolling online. But even suspicion or partial exposure can “sow uncertainty and distrust within conspiratorial groups [now conflated with conspiracy theory discussion groups] and among their members,” and “raise the costs of organization and communication” — which Sunstein applauds as "desirable." "[N]ew recruits will be suspect and participants in the group’s virtual networks will doubt each other’s bona fides." (p.225).

And are we now expected to applaud such tactics frankly proposed in a scholarly journal by a high-level presidential advisor?

The full text of a slightly earlier version of Sunstein's article is available for download
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/01/13/got-fascism-obama-advisor-promotes-cognitive-infiltration/

Cartoon of the day

Say, Repeat and Teach: This is All of Palestine by Zaid Allan
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/01/20/cartoon-of-the-day-145/

Глава "израильского" парламента заявил, что "Иордания - это часть "Израиля" (??!)

Генеральный прокурор Иордании принял к рассмотрению иски нескольких адвокатов против председателя сионистского парламента Ривлина и депутата от партии «Ликуд» Эльдада.

Ожидается, что на следующей неделе судебные органы приступят к официальному расследованию событий, изложенных в исках, в которых указанные лица обвиняются в совершении преступлений против Иордании.

В начале текущего месяца четверо иорданских адвокатов подали официальную жалобу против Ривлина, который заявил, что "Иордания является частью «Израиля»", и упомянутого Эльдада, кстати, частого гостя российских "демократов" и "либералов", друга фармацевтического миллионера Бориса Шпигеля, который «посоветовал» палестинцам обрести родину в Иорданском королевстве.

Подобный прецедент является первым в своём роде с момента подписания мирного договора между двумя сторонами в 1994 году.

Эльдад маргинал. Но Ривлин - председатель парламента. И в его исполнении эти слова наполнены зловещим смыслом. Представитель Союза иорданских адвокатов Хакамт ар-Равашида отметил в интервью «Аль-Джазире», что в распоряжении имеется большой список доказательств того, что подобные слова действительно прозвучали.
http://www.palestine-info.ru/

В Узбекистане продолжаются аресты, пытки и исчезновения мусульман

Пресс-центр Инициативной Группы Независимых Правозащитников Узбекистана (ИГНПУ) 20 января распространил новый пресс-релиз о преследованиях за исламские убеждения в Узбекистане.

В нем, в частности, сообщается: "16 января 2010 года в г. Карши Кашкадарьинская область на улице вблизи дома арестован Нурбек Култураев 1984 года рождения, зять Мехринисо Хамдамовой, атын (жена имама) Каршинской мечети "Кук Гумбаз", арестованной 5–го ноября 2009 года и обвиняемой следствием Службы нацбезопасности Узбекистана (СНБ) по статьям 159 УК РУ "Посягательство на конституционный строй Республики Узбекистан" и 244-2 "Создание, руководство, участие в религиозных экстремистских, сепаратистских, фундаменталистских или иных запрещенных организациях". Место содержания Нурбека Култураева правоохранительными органами не разглашается, обвинение ему не предъявлено.
В тупиковом состоянии оказалось следствие СНБ, фабрикующее уголовное дело Мехринисо Хамдамовой: 6 из 8-ми свидетелей женщин мусульманок давшие в принудительном порядке показания против М. Хамдамовой “исчезли”, их безуспешно пытаются разыскать СНБшники. Опасается за свою безопасность и жена Нурбека (дочь М. Хамдамовой) Латофат Орзикулова – 1991 г.р., за которой ведется постоянная слежка сотрудниками правоохранительных органов г. Карши".

Также правозащитники сообщают информацию из Кувинского района Ферганской области: "носящие бороды мусульмане преследуются за религиозные убеждения со стороны сотрудников местной СНБ, в основном их подозревают в причастности к "Хизб-ут Тахрир". В связи с подозрениями мусульман в принудительной порядке доставляют в отделы СНБ и подвергают допросам".

В завершении в пресс-релизе сообщаются сведения, полученные от близких родственников арестованных по обвинению, якобы, в причастности к покушению на имам–хатиба г. Ташкента А. Турсунова и убийству полковника МВД РУ Х. Асадова. "Родственники утверждают, что 18 января 2010 года начался судебный процесс по 70-тью мусульманами г. Ташкента. Однако где и когда будут проходить заседания суда хранится в тайне, так же как и по каким статьям обвиняются подсудимые. Нанятые родственниками обвиняемых адвокаты, на следствие не были допущены в нарушении УПК РУ".

"Мусульманский Узбекистан"
http://www.islamnews.ru/news-22294.html

Американцы ничего не знают об исламе, но имеют неблагосклонное отношение к мусульманам

Мечеть в Чикаго
Мусульмане чаще любой другой религиозной группы становятся объектом предрассудков в США. Как сообщает Associated Press, к такому выводу пришли исследователи компании Gallup. Оказалось, что почти две трети американцев ничего или почти ничего не знают об исламе, но большинство граждан испытывают к этой религии неприязнь.

В ходе опроса, результаты которого в виде доклада выйдут в четверг, 21 января, 43 процента респондентов признали, что имеют те или иные предрассудки в отношении мусульман. Тот же показатель в отношении христиан составляет 18 процентов, иудеев - 15 процентов, буддистов - 14 процентов. Неблагосклонное отношение к мусульманам высказали 53 процента опрошенных, причем 63 процента признались, что имеют "очень небольшое" представление об исламе или вообще ничего о нем не знают.

Опрос Gallup проводился в рамках Muslim West Facts Project - совместного проекта Gallup и "Фонда сосуществования" (Coexist Foundation), пытающегося помочь межконфессиональному пониманию. Участие в опросе, проводившемся в период с 31 октября по 13 ноября, приняла тысяча совершеннолетних американцев, передает Лента.ру.
http://www.islamnews.ru/news-22265.html

Европейские мусульмане уважают закон, а немусульмане – свободу слова

Европейские мусульмане больше уважают закон, а немусульмане – свободу слова, показали опубликованные недавно результаты исследования, проведенного Институтом "Открытое общество".

Так, среди главных национальных ценностей своей страны уважение к закону указали 64,3% мусульман, и только 54,0% немусульман.

В то же время мусульмане не придают такого значения толерантности, как другие граждане страны (37,4% и 49,9% соответственно), считая, что гораздо важнее проявлять уважение во всем верам (51,6% против всего 29,1% немусульман).

Огромное значение авторы исследования, проводившегося в 11 крупных городах Европы, придавали вопросу «Считаете ли Вы себя британцем, французом и т.д.?» Утвердительно на него ответили 49,0% мусульман, отрицательно – 51,0%. Среди немусульман наблюдается совсем иная картина – №нет» сказали только 22,9%.

Частично такое положение объясняется следующим вопросом: «Считают ли Вас британцем, французом, бельгийцем и так далее – в зависимости от страны – большинство ее жителей?» Положительно на него ответили только 24,5% мусульман.

Примечательно, что в странах, где понятия «национальность» и «этничность» не совпадают, положение несколько иное: например, большинство жителей Великобритании считают себя англичанами, а не британцами. Но с другой стороны, как показало другое исследование, именно в этой стране существует глубокое разделение общества по религиозному признаку.

В тех же европейских странах, где эти понятия тесно переплетены, мусульмане считают, что их связывает со своей страной не национальность, а нечто иное.

Как сказал один германский мусульманин, «я не могу быть немцем, это вопрос этнической принадлежности, но я могу быть гражданином Германии».
http://www.islamnews.ru/news-22264.html

PHOTO ESSAY ~~ THE GAZA FLOOD

Photos by Ayman Quader

This photo was taken just a few minutes ago in the Al Moghraqa district, central Gaza Strip which has been devastated by the flood that occurred when the Israelis opened one of the dam gates.
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/photo-essay-the-gaza-flood/

So who is Israel’s one true friend? Clue: it isn’t the U.S.

By Tony Karon
Friends don’t let friends drive drunk, an old American slogan says. By that measure the U.S. has hardly been a real friend to Israel over the past decade. It has enabled a pattern of Israeli behaviour so reckless as to endanger Israel’s prospects of ever achieving peaceful coexistence with the states and peoples around it.

An aggressive drunk often reserves his most toxic invective for those of his friends who tell him the truth: that his behaviour is intolerable, is dangerous to himself and others, and can’t be allowed to continue.

So it should come as no surprise that the most belligerent of Israel’s leaders are shaking their fists at Turkey, most recently in last week’s adolescent stunt in which the deputy foreign minister deliberately humiliated the Turkish ambassador. The specific complaint was a negative portrayal of Israelis in a Turkish TV drama. The deeper grievance is that Turkey, a long-time friend of Israel, has started to deliver a message no longer heard from the U.S. or most of Europe: that normal relations with Israel depend on Israel pursuing a policy of peace.

During the Clinton years, while America’s Middle East policy was certainly biased in Israel’s favour, it was nonetheless based on a recognition that Israel was in a state of conflict precisely because its borders have never been finalised: where Israel begins and ends, and who belongs within those boundaries, has been a matter of conflict since 1948.

Mr Clinton and his Israeli partner, Yitzhak Rabin, understood exactly why the Palestinians had taken up arms: not because of some fanatical religious ideology or hatred of Jews, but because they had lost their land in 1948, and many had lost their freedom in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza that began in 1967. The Palestinians had reacted as any proud people would have done under similar circumstances, and the Israelis knew it.

Mr Rabin believed peace could be achieved by restoring to the Palestinians at least some of the land they had lost, and offering a just solution to their plight. And Mr Clinton expressed his friendship with Israel by doing his best to help it to resolve its conflicts with its neighbours through a two-state solution.

But Camp David failed, the second intifada followed, Mr Clinton was succeeded by George Bush, and Ariel Sharon, a fierce opponent of Mr Rabin’s “land for peace” principle, became prime minister of Israel. He declared the peace process dead, and set about suppressing the intifada by overwhelming military force.

The 9/11 attacks sealed the shift in U.S. policy. As a crucial front in its global “war on terror”, the Bush administration embraced Israel’s portrayal of itself as just another western country under attack from terrorists motivated by the same nihilistic ideology as those who struck the Twin Towers. And the suicide bombings of Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades played into that narrative, ending the very idea of pressuring Israel to make concessions for peace; the key issue in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship was now Israeli security. Israel was given free rein to bomb, blockade and besiege the Palestinians in the name of fighting terror.

Not only did Mr Bush give up on restraining Israel, but he managed to bully the Europeans into doing the same; perhaps they entertained the vain hope that supporting Israel’s “war on terror” would prompt Washington to press Israel to make a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians.

Instead, it had the opposite effect. Israel was free to bludgeon the Palestinians on to the defensive, and build a security wall that kept out suicide bombers but also cemented Israel’s grip on vast areas of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. And behind that wall, with the Palestinians out of sight, Israeli society simply moved on.

Israelis no longer believe their society needs peace to ensure its long term viability. Opinion polls suggest that only 40 per cent of Israelis hope to revive the peace talks with the Palestinians, and only half that number believe such talks would achieve anything. Even if its leaders now routinely admit that demographics require a two-state solution, that is an abstract principle; at the moment, Israeli society is content with the status quo, however intolerable it may be for the Palestinians.

Whether Israel is expanding its grip on East Jerusalem, strangling Gaza’s economy or just bombing the place to rubble, U.S. acquiescence has helped to cultivate among the Israelis an arrogance that brooks no criticism or restraint. When Barack Obama suggests that it would be in Israel’s best interests to stop all settlement construction, his plea is ignored by an Israeli leadership that knows no U.S. president can afford the domestic political price of applying the necessary pressure on Israel.

Israeli leaders fret today that Turkey has “gone over to the Islamist” camp. The truth is that Turkey is simply a close ally willing to tell harsh truths – starting with its condemnation of Israel’s disproportionate use of force in Gaza last year. The Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan pays no heed to the self-defeating restraints Washington has imposed on its own ability to engage the likes of Iran and Hamas, and is quickly emerging as the most effective potential mediator in conflicts stretching from Gaza to Afghanistan.

If Israel took the long view, it would see these developments as positive. Until now, the only leader in the region willing to publicly challenge Israel’s behaviour has been the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose regional influence has swelled considerably as a result of those actions and the failure of others to challenge them.

It is better for Israel – and the U.S. too, frankly – if Turkey takes the lead in saying things that western powers are no longer willing to say. Because the essence of Turkey’s message is simple: Israel needs to sober up.

-- Tony Karon's website is www.tonykaron.com. This article appeared in the The National.
http://aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/So-who-is-Israels-one-true-friend-Clue-it-isn.html

ISRAELI CHARITIES 'CASHING IN' ON PALESTINIAN SUFFERING

The above photo (part of an ad campaign) is being circulated throughout the Israeli press. The organisation that sponsored the ad operates (for hungry Jews only) soup kitchens in every major Israeli city. Below is the ad in question….

Feeding the poor is a wonderful deed…..asking for contributions to continue this work is to be expected….. BUT…. the photo used is not one of a poor, hungry Jewish child. It is the photo of a child in Gaza at the funeral of her brother who was killed by the zionists during the blitzkrieg a year ago. The same child can be seen in THIS article that appeared in the Telegraph.

The following montage shows the child in the ad and the (same) Palestinian child.

http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2010/01/israeli-charities-cashing-in-on.html

GAZA: ONE YEAR AFTER THE MASSACRE

Amnesty International Says Israel’s Gaza Blockade Continues to Suffocate Daily Life

01.18.2010 | Amnesty International
On first year anniversary of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, human rights organization charges that blockage does not target armed groups but punishes entire population

Contact: AIUSA media office, 202-509-8634 or ssingh@aiusa.org

(Washington, DC) Israel must end its suffocating blockade of the Gaza Strip, which leaves more than 1.4 million Palestinians cut off from the outside world and struggling with desperate poverty, Amnesty International said one year on from the end of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza

Amnesty International’s new briefing paper Suffocating: The Gaza Strip under Israeli blockade gathers testimony from people still struggling to rebuild their lives following Operation “Cast Lead”, which killed around 1,400 Palestinians and injured thousands more.

“Israel claims that the ongoing blockade of Gaza, in force since June 2007, is a response to the indiscriminate rocket attacks launched from Gaza into southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups,” said Malcolm Smart, Middle East and North Africa Director, Amnesty International. “The reality is that the blockade does not target armed groups but rather punishes Gaza’s entire population by restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials. The blockade constitutes collective punishment under international law and must be lifted immediately.

As the occupying power, Israel has a duty under international law to ensure the welfare of Gaza’s inhabitants, including their rights to health, education, food and adequate housing. During Operation “Cast Lead”, from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians in southern Israel, where dozens more were injured in indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups.

In Gaza, Israeli attacks damaged or destroyed civilian buildings and infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, the water and electricity systems. Thousands of Palestinian homes were destroyed or severely damaged. An estimated 280 of the 641 schools in Gaza were damaged and 18 were destroyed. More than half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18 and the disruption to their education, due to the damage caused during Operation “Cast Lead” and as a result of the continuing Israeli boycott, is having a devastating impact.

Hospitals have also been badly affected by the military offensive and the blockade. Trucks of medical aid provided by the World Health Organization have been repeatedly refused entry to Gaza without explanation by Israeli officials.

Patients with serious medical conditions that cannot be treated in Gaza continue to be prevented or delayed from leaving Gaza by the Israeli authorities – since the closure of crossings leading into and out of Gaza, patients have been made to apply for permits, but these permits are frequently denied. On November 1, 2009, Samir al-Nadim a father of three children, died after his exit from Gaza for a heart operation was delayed by 22 days.

Amnesty International spoke to a number of families whose homes were destroyed in the Israeli military operation and one year on are still living in temporary accommodation. Mohammed and Halima Mslih and their four young children fled their home in the village of Juhor al-Dik, south of Gaza City, during the conflict one year ago. While they were away their home was demolished by Israeli army bulldozers.

“When we returned, everything was broken. People were giving us food because we had nothing,” said Mohammed Mslih.

Six months after the ceasefire the family was still living in a flimsy nylon tent and they have only now been able to construct a simple permanent home. The family fear, however, that continuing Israeli military incursions may destroy the little they have left. Unemployment in Gaza is spiraling as those businesses that remain struggle to survive under the blockade. In December 2009, the UN reported that unemployment in Gaza was over 40 percent.

“The blockade is strangling virtually every aspect of life for Gaza’s population, more than half of whom are children. The increasing isolation and suffering of the people of Gaza cannot be allowed to continue. The Israeli government must comply with binding legal obligation, as the occupying power, to lift the blockade without further delay,” said Smart.

Later this month, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) will deliver approximately 20,000 signed petitions urging U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressing her to urge the Israeli government to immediately lift the blockade of Gaza.

“Tens of thousands of ordinary people around the world understand that the collective punishment of the more than 1.4 million people in Gaza – including many children – only leads to more human misery. This administration needs to stands by the people who suffer, and support the provision of the most basic human rights, such as the right to food and health, to the people of Gaza,” said Christoph Koettl, AIUSA Crisis Prevention and Response Campaigner.

AIUSA will also host a public forum discussing Amnesty International’s new briefing paper, Suffocating: The Gaza Strip under Israeli blockade, on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4 p.m. at AIUSA offices at 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE in Washington, DC.
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/gaza-one-year-after-the-massacre/