Palestinian Women Forced to Give Birth at Home

Pregnant Palestinian women in Azzun Atma, a village near Qalqiliya encircled by the security fence, prefer to take up residence outside of the town in the later stages of their pregnancy for fear that they will be prevented from crossing the fence to get to the local hospital when they go into labor.

The IDF checkpoint which separates the village from the rest of the West Bank is not manned during the night and thus women who go into labor are unable to reach the local hospital.

In the last year, some 20 out of the 33 pregnant women from the village relocated to outside of Azzun towards the end of their third trimesters.

Hanan Yakoub, one of the few women who took the chance of staying in the village in her ninth month asked: "How am I, at 40 years of age, expected to give birth in a car? Where is your mercy? At my age it isn't easy to give birth, and certainly not in a car."

Complete Article

Gaza's Christian Minority

Father Manawel Musallam and Ismail Haniyeh

As Christmas approaches, I thought it would be good to look at the plight of the Christians in Gaza after the Hamas takeover.

There was much talk that the Christians in Gaza were being harassed and persecuted. Indeed, after the takeover, there were isolated incidents of hate crimes against Christians in Gaza, but there are extremists in every society.

The Gazan Christians enjoy the same rights as the Gazan Muslims. The relationship between Christians and Muslims is one of mutual respect. The long history of peaceful coexistence is cherished and embodied everyday in Gaza.

Israeli oppression does not discriminate against the Palestinian Muslim or Christian. All Palestinians suffer from the occupation and all Palestinians resist the occupation.

Gazan Priest, Father Manawel Musallam :

"Of course, I am a Christian believer, but politically I am a Palestinian Muslim. I resist Israel's military occupation, obviously not with weapons. The Jihad can never be mine but with my words, my sermons, I am a Palestinian priest."

Christians in Gaza have lived side by side with Muslims for many generations and they will continue to do so for many more to come.

"We are all one people who suffer together for the sake of freedom, independence and restoration of our inalienable citizenship rights," Hanyieh stated publicly. "We are waging a single struggle and refuse to allow any party to tamper with or manipulate this historical relationship, [between Muslims and Christians]."

Christmas under Hamas rule

Christians And Muslims Coexist In Gaza

Life in Gaza

If someone could please point out the armed militants that are the supposed targets of this missile?

Yahoo Pics

Reality of Occupation

A typical day at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Bethlehem

EU, US Criticise "Israel" Settler Plan

After the "negotiations for peace" at Annapolis, the apartheid state revealed a new settler plan which would build 300 new ILLEGAL homes in occupied Jerusalem.

The agreements at Annapolis state that both parties should work towards abiding by the Road Map to Peace drafted by the US. The road map clearly states that the apartheid state should SEIZE all illegal settlement activity.

The EU and US made rare criticisms of this plan, but they will fall on deaf ears.

Obviously, the apartheid state doesn't want peace.

Complete Story

Note: The settlements are illegal under international law.

Ahmed Yousuf: Open Letter to Condoleezza Rice

Dr Ahmad Yousuf is a Senior Political Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza; he is the top advisor to deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh.

The Honourable Secretary of State
Ms. Condoleezza Rice
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice,

I am writing to you in light of the conference in Annapolis to fulfill our obligations to the Palestinian voters who have overwhelmingly legitimized our governance. Your administration cannot want peace more than the Palestinian people want and need peace. However, peace initiatives and conferences are ineffectual if the basic ingredients for success are not present. Meaningful steps toward a resolution cannot take place while the legitimacy of the elected government in Palestine continues to be ignored by your administration. Not only is the policy to isolate Hamas unethical it is ineffectual as well. Your administration ignores the realities on the ground. The Change and Reform Party, the name of the new political party we formed for the Palestinian elections, won an overwhelming majority in the occupied territories. To pretend otherwise is not only futile but detrimental to US interests in the region for many years to come and likely to add to the anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world. You cannot preach about exporting democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and ignore the democratic process in Palestine.

Many people make the mistake of presuming that we have some ideological aversion to making peace. Quite the opposite; we have consistently offered dialogue with the U.S. and the E.U. to try and resolve the very issues that you are trying to deal with in Annapolis. Our conflict with the Israelis is a grievance-based conflict. We want to end the occupation of our land and the systematic human rights abuses that our people suffer from daily. We do not have any ideological problems with living side by side with Christians and Jews. When we have not been occupied we have successfully done this for thousands of years. However, they can not live in peace and security in a land that was usurped. Indeed if you asked a Jewish person where they would have been safest to live over the last two millennia, with Arabs or Europeans, the answer would be obvious. Nor do we have any ideological arguments with the West. We are not anti-American, anti-European or anti-anyone. The root of the problem which neither Israel nor the US is willing to acknowledge, let alone address, is the dispossession of the Palestinian people upon the creation in their homeland of Israel in 1948.

It would come as no surprise to us if this letter were to be met with dismissal, in keeping with this administration's policy of not dealing with "terrorists", despite the fact that we entered the democratic process and held a unilateral ceasefire of our own for over two years. But how do you think the Arab and Muslim worlds react to this American hypocrisy? Even our growing ranks of western supporters complain about U.S. narrow-mindedness and the bullying of its allies to tow the American line. The State of Department should be looking for new solutions instead of reinforcing old stereotypes. On a personal note we found it amusing that a black person empathizes with Israeli deaths on the one hand and Palestinian segregation on the other if media reports are accurate. It is a military occupation Ms. Rice. Their citizens face insecurity and death because that is the situation they have created for themselves. We do not beg you to recognize us. Our party is the legitimately elected party in the occupied territories. You owe it to your sense of fairness to engage meaningfully with all relevant parties to the conflict.

The conference is faulty in its inception. It was conceived in a vacuum and hastily announced for political expediency. In addition, it ignores the inherent weaknesses of the negotiating parties involved. Furthermore, despite your efforts the conference has not secured the key Arab support you were hoping for. Arab leaders are leery of committing to an American initiative that exhibits no fundamental change from the past. Annapolis' failure will have negative consequences for those Arab states that supported it further destabilizing the region.

Our skepticism is based on experience. You know that despite every call for restraint by the U.S. over the last twenty years the Israelis have continued to expand and develop their vast network of towns and roads on Palestinian land. While you sat and talked in Annapolis the sound of cranes and bulldozers were echoing across the West Bank as those networks continue to grow. It is therefore hard to imagine an Israeli government bent on a peaceful withdrawal from our land. We can only presume that they are paying lip-service to your request to participate, seeing it as a delaying tactic to talk about peace with no real intention to deliver.

Meanwhile the entire Palestinian people are being punished for having the temerity to hold a free and fair election and choosing us as their government. It is hard to get across the appalling level of privation that the Palestinian people and in particular the 1.3 million Palestinians who live in Gaza currently suffer from. Our isolation is complete, confining us in a ghetto (worse than the Jewish ghettos of Warsaw ) where our sewage, power and water systems have been destroyed, all normal supplies constrained and even humanitarian aid withheld. Many people have not been paid for nearly two years, over 75% are unemployed and now the Israelis are threatening to cut off fuel and power supplies and to invade us once again.

You have made it a precondition to any engagement with us that we accept certain conditions. Yet you don't apply the same preconditions to the Israelis. You don't require of them recognition of Palestinian rights or a renunciation of the terrible violence that they daily invoke on us. Nor do you require that they comply with previous agreements or the settlement building would long since have stopped.

Your predecessor General Collin Powell stated that the U.S. has to find a way to engage with Hamas because it won the Palestinian elections and it continues to enjoy support among a large portion of the Palestinian people. He did not make that statement because he is less of an American or less committed to the service of America. He simply practiced at home what you are preaching about democracy abroad.

If you were even-handed in this conflict, if you engaged with us openly then the chances of peace would dramatically increase. As it is, you are setting yourself up for failure and with that failure will come more pain and anguish for the Palestinian people, a further colonization of our lands and a blank space in history for the Bush administration' s role in making peace in the Middle East.

In the meantime, the people will hold steadfast to their rights and national constants. The internationally sanctioned resistance will not be quashed until the occupier packs its bags and leaves. And the aspiration of a free and independent Palestinian state is realized.

We Will Never Be Silenced

We will never submit
We will never leave
We will never be silenced
We will never forget

Pipes Back at UCI with Hate

Daniel Pipes, a leading Islamophobe, visited the UC Intifada for a second time.

Below is an excerpt of the question and answer session from his lecture, where the Muslim Student Union's Spokeswoman Mariam Moustafa challenged his hateful message:

Mariam: What if Muslims do not accept your modernized versions of Islam?

Pipes: The war goes on.

Mariam: For how long?

Pipes: Until they do. We are fighting a defensive war…Which is worse, being attacked by terrorists, or being afraid of being perceived as a terrorist?

Mariam: So because I’m a Muslim, people should be afraid of me?

Pipes: I’m afraid so. [Applause]

Read on at: Muslamics

Al-Awda Statement On Annapolis Conference

November 26, 2007

With the upcoming US-sponsored international conference in Annapolis MD, Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, reiterates once again that a just and lasting peace can only be achieved with the return of all Palestinians to their original homes, towns, and villages, with full restitution of all of their confiscated and destroyed property, and compensation. The Palestinian Arab people, regardless of their religious affiliation, are indigenous to Palestine. Therefore, they are entitled to live anywhere in their homeland Palestine which encompasses present-day "Israel", the West Bank and Gaza Strip. No agreement, negotiations or parties which purport to trade away these rights or any other inalienable rights can have any legal basis and cannot bind or compel the Palestinian people to end the struggle for the fulfillment of all of their rights.

The definition of Israel as a "Jewish state", granting exclusive rights to citizenship and land to any Jew from anywhere in the world, while denying the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine their fundamental rights, is part and parcel of the racism inherent in the colonialist Zionist ideology which underlies the policies and laws of the settler state of "Israel". Any sacrifice of any part of our land and culture will represent a blow to the entire Arab peoples and the lands of West Asia and Africa.

The US government subsidizes Israel's injustices with billions of dollars annually. Any Palestinian and other Arab participating in accommodation with the Zionist and US regimes in order to promote normalization and put an end to the Palestinian liberation struggle, stand exposed naked before the world as traitors to our people.

Until all Palestinians exercise their right to return and self determination, Al-Awda calls on all its members and supporters to redouble their efforts, working for and demanding:

1. An end to all US political, military and economic aid to "Israel"
2. The divestment of all public and private entities from all Zionist corporations, American corporations with subsidiaries operating within "Israel"
3. An end to the investment of Labor Union members' pension funds in "Israel"
4. The boycott of all "Israeli" products

The 60 year commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba will take place in May 2008. Al-Awda's 6th Annual International Convention will take place in Anaheim, California, May 16-18, 2008. The convention will be dedicated to renewing our struggle to return and to reclaim our land no matter what deals are made in Annapolis.

Until Return

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

PO Box 131352

Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243

Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To make a donation, please go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html

West Bank settlements 'expanding'

Peace Now published a report stating that the apartheid state is still active in expanding it's illegal settlements. "Israel" openly makes promises to seize construction, but behind the scenes continues.

"Israel" does not want peace, it wants all of Palestine.

Construction is continuing in dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank despite Israel's pledge to freeze their expansion, an campaign group has said.

Peace Now says Jewish population growth is three times higher in the area occupied in 1967 than in Israel itself.

Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are deemed illegal under international law.

Israel had pledged to stop their construction as part of internationally-backed peace efforts.

Complete Story

Faulty Logic

Ethnic Cleansing in Hebron

Palestinian Olive Farmers Face Threat of Attack

MSU Headlining OC Weekly

'Against the Wall'
Praying, eating and bowling with the most hated student group at UC Irvine

With a brief red flash, the sun disappears behind the trees at Aldrich Park in the center of the UC Irvine campus as I pray.

“Pray as if this is your last prayer,” instructs a man standing in front.

I place a digital recorder on the ground. A dark-skinned man at my side says, “Follow my lead.” We bow and then lie prostrate on cooling cement. I stand at the end of a row of 30 men, shoulder-to-shoulder. Behind us, another row has nearly the same number of women. All the women wear hijabs, or scarves over their hair and neck. We bow in unison.

The man at the front is named Kareem Elsayed; he’s 21. He leads the prayer with a musical and mournful verse. His cracking voice invokes an abysmal melancholy. I have no idea what he’s saying, but the suras—chapter of the Koran—flow meditatively, centering and calming the Muslim Student Union (MSU) of UCI. Suddenly, familiar words: “Allahu Akhbar.” Followed by several beats of silence. “Allahu Akhbar.”

God is Greatest.

The phrase, in its most reverent use, is a parallel of the Judeo-Christian “Hallelujah” (Praise to God). But the words “Allahu Akhbar,” repeated melodically, strike a cold chord. A simple statement of belief that has become, to many non-Muslims, synonymous with extremism, a jihadist battle cry. Much like the group that now utters it, the phrase has become indelibly linked in many minds with intolerance.

The prayer ends. I dust off, feeling content and serene. I haven’t prayed in months. The Muslim prayer seems as good as any other, I guess.

It’s dusk, and the students begin ambling toward a picnic table near Ring Road, a narrow walking and biking road encircling the park. They are hungry. It is late September, and the holy month of Ramadan is in full swing. The students break their sun-up-to-sundown fasting regimen—no food, water, sex—with a sweet date.

I eat a date, too; it’s good. Elsayed tells me that dates are high in glucose, providing an instant rush of energy and potassium for rehydration. The perfect appetizer for a thirsty, starving Muslim.

The women and the men of the group eat at separate tables. It’s part of tradition, one of the students tells me. Like the conservative dress of the women, eating separately is a way to avoid the distractions of physical attraction so one can focus only on God.

I pile delicious lamb and some kind of spicy rice on a plate and move to a table full of solemn faces. “Mind if I sit down?” I ask with a smile.

They neither object nor invite. They barely look at me, instead staring at their plates. Three thin freshmen and a man in his 40s who looks like an Arab Tony Soprano sit at the table. Not a word is said for several minutes. One of the young men is somewhat sloppily eating with his hands; the rest use plastic cutlery.

“So,” the Soprano look-alike asks me, “how long have you been a Muslim?”

“I’m not a Muslim,” I answer.

He raises his eyebrows and turns his attention back to his food. He seems to regard me suspiciously, not surprising considering the MSU is likely the most hated––and feared––student group at the university.

Complete Article

UN Expert Rails at Quartet Policies

good article from BBC, just wait for John Dugard to be labeled as an "anti-semite"..

John Dugard speaks slowly and carefully. He rarely hesitates. But from his measured voice comes a reputation for being outspoken.

Earlier this year, in his role as special rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council for the Palestinian Territories, the South African law professor wrote a report for the UN General Assembly in which he compared Israel's actions to those of apartheid South Africa.

Indeed, the word "apartheid" appears 24 times in the 24-page report.

But in his interview with the BBC, Mr Dugard goes further than before.

He has been trenchant in his belief in the past seven years that he has held the UN post that Israel is collectively punishing the Palestinians.

Now, though, he has the international community, and the UN itself, in his sights for complicity.

Complete Article

In Memory of Iman Al-Hams

On the morning of the 5th of October, 2004, a morning as rudimentarily awful as any lived under a brutal occupation, 13-year-old Iman, wearing her blue and white school uniform and carrying her schoolbag, left her house in Rafah refugee camp to go to school. Iman wandered a few meters away from her usual route to school and ventured into the large security zone surrounding an Israeli military base, which is, as is common, located near Palestinian civilians’ houses and schools. What follows is a gruesome tale of sickeningly cold-blooded murder.

Iman was spotted by the Israeli military base’s watchtower. She was about 100 yards away from the military base when the following conversation took place between a soldier in the watchtower, an army operations room and a certain Captain R, who remains unnamed to this day:

From the watchtower: "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward."

From the operations room: "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?"

Watchtower: "A girl about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."

A few minutes later, Iman is shot from one of the army posts

Watchtower: "I think that one of the positions took her out."

Captain R: "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."

Captain R—along with another soldier—walks towards Iman, and shoots two bullets at point-blank range into her head to “confirm the kill.” He starts to head back to his base, before turning around again and emptying all the bullets from his machine gun into the body of Iman.

Captain R then "clarifies" why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."

After she was taken to the hospital, doctors counted 17 bullet wounds in Iman’s body, and three in her head, though they were unsure of the exact number since her little body was shattered to the point where one couldn’t accurately count how many bullets had riddled it.

Anywhere in the world, you would expect such a murderer to be tried and to receive a very harsh sentence. Unfortunately, the laws that apply in most of the world do not apply to Palestinian children and their murderers. An Israeli military court, on October 15, 2004, cleared the soldier of any wrongdoing or unethical behavior, declaring that “confirming the kill” is standard procedure.

Complete Story

Iran-born German out of "Israel" Game

Why legitimize apartheid?

Iran-born German soccer player refuses to play his match in the apartheid state, now thats a modern day hero.

Ashkan Dejagah, an Iranian-born player in Germany's under-21 national football team, has withdrawn from an upcoming match against Israel citing "personal reasons", according to the German Football Association (DFB).

Dejagah, 21, who plays for VfB Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, asked national team managers to allow him to withdraw from Germany's European Championship qualifier against Israel, which is scheduled to be played in Tel Aviv on Friday, the DFB said.

Complete Article

Google Earth Provides Bird’s Eye View of "Israeli" Reactor

can't pretend to not have nukes anymore..

Courtesy of: ConflictBlotter

Complete Story

Palestinian Child Prisoners

It is illegal under international law to hold child prisoners.

This from "the only democracy in the middle east"

No Apartheid in "Israel'?

Kaid Dabah has dreamed of living in Carmiel, near his hometown of Dir al-Asad, since he was 15 years old. He was drawn to the neighboring town's orderly streets, quiet and clean neighborhoods, and entertainment and leisure options that his village lacked. As an adolescent, he remembers, he longed above all for personal freedom and presumed he would find it in Carmiel, out of his family's reach.

In August 2004, at age 28, Dabah and his fiancee decided to realize that dream and buy a home in Carmiel. The housing crunch in his village only reinforced his decision and persuaded his parents. He found an apartment on He'asif Street in Carmiel's Givat Ram neighborhood.

"Within a week, I had reached an agreement with the owner on the price and signed a contract with him. I worked on the bank, and they approved a mortgage for me. I thought I was at long last making the dream come true," Dabah said. But the Jewish National Fund had other plans.

"A month before the wedding, after I had signed the contract and made a down payment of NIS 40,000 to the apartment's owner, the lawyer called me and told me to come see him as soon as possible," he continued. When Dabah arrived for a meeting, the lawyer informed him that the land on which the apartment building stands belongs to the JNF.

"The lawyer said to me: 'I'll give it to you straight: The JNF doesn't sell to Arabs and you can't buy the apartment.' I felt my world cave in," Dabah said.

Ditching the Buck

even our closest ally wont use our currency..

Secretary of State Rice has acknowledged a communique from Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Levni which requests that all foreign aid payments and loans from the United States be made in Euros rather than in Dollars. Foreign Minister Levni cited the rapidly declining dollar and it's disfavor as a world currency as reasons for the request.

"In the spirit of Yom Kippur, the United States will not hold Israel to any agreements obligating them to accept Dollars as payment for their foreign aid. We will translate our obligations into Euros or whatever currency that best fits Israel's needs.

We need to place our Israeli obligations at the top of our national prioriy list. Israel should not suffer any inconvenience due to currency fluctuations," said Rice before heading off to Camp David.

A similar request from Egypt was declined last week.

Ban: "Israel" violating Palestinian rights

just words, but never action..

Israel is violating the human rights of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the top U.N. official said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that Israel’s decision to interrupt the provision of essential services, such as electricity and fuel, to Gaza contravenes its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights toward the territory’s civilian population.

In a statement Ban called on the Israeli government to reconsider its decision, which also includes a declaration that the Gaza Strip is an “enemy entity.”

“There are 1.4 million people in Gaza, including the old, the young and the sick, who are already suffering from the impact of prolonged closure,” he said. “They should not be punished for the unacceptable actions of militants and extremists.”

The statement noted that the United Nations has broad humanitarian responsibilities and is mandated to provide assistance to and meet the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Ban added that “the continued indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel is unacceptable and I deplore it. I call for it to stop immediately. I understand Israel’s security concerns over this matter.”

UN: "Israel" has added dozens of new roadblocks in West Bank

By Avi Issacharoff

Despite repeated promises to reduce the number of roadblocks in the West Bank, Israel has in fact added dozens of new ones, according to the United Nations.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week to remove 24 roadblocks and consider additional alleviations of movement restrictions on the Palestinians. This followed a similar promise to alleviate movement restrictions that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

However, the number of roadblocks has now reached 572, an increase of 52 percent compared to 376 in August 2005, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In the past two months alone, Israel put up 40 new roadblocks, OCHA said.

Complete Article

Welcome to Planet Gaza

By Pepe Escobar

It is one of the most scandalous instances of collective punishment anywhere in the world in recent times. And what is the response of the high-minded "international community"? It's the standard "three monkeys" - willfully deaf, dumb and blind.

Complete Article

Teen Crushed by "Israeli" Bulldozer in Gaza

the brutal ways of the IDF..

A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was killed on Thursday after being run over by an Israeli army bulldozer during a military incursion in the Gaza Strip, medics and witnesses said.

Mahmud Kayed was run over by the bulldozer when it lurched towards a group of youths throwing rocks at the vehicle during the army incursion in the Al-Bureij refugee camp, they said.

Full Story

How to Spin a Military Occupation as "Self-Defense"

Happy Ramadan - "israeli" style.

IDF guns down 16yr old, lets him bleed to death

Palestinian sources reported that the youth, Mohammed Jabbarin, was not armed and was shot after he hurled rocks at Israeli troops. The IDF had been carrying out a routine operation in the West Bank town when the clash erupted.

* * *

According to hospital officials in the city, three bullets were found in Muhammad Jabrin's body.

* * *

Both eyewitnesses and medical sources reported that the Israeli army prevented ambulances from entering the area and dispensing first aid to the gravely injured teenager. The boy subsequently bled to death.

Video "Israel" Doesn't Want You to See

Accidents Happen: "Israelis" Kill 892 Palestinian Kids

" . . . on the BBC the Israeli military stated that the killing of Yehya, Mahmoud and Sarah was an accident: 'at the very last second, it was apparent that they were children, but it was impossible to stop the explosion.' There was no mention of holding accountable the soldiers who killed them or at the very least any offer of support to the families and the community. They cannot leave their area, or their land, as they have nowhere else to go. Where's the justice for 12-year-old Yehya and his childhood, or 10-year-old Mahmoud who wanted nothing more than to have the same things as his friend, or 10-year-old Sarah who never got to wear her new school clothes?"

Since September 28, 2000, there have been 892 such accidents.

Ban on Political Junkets to "Israel" Deals Blow to Lobbying Efforts

Watch AIPAC scream "Anti-Semite" at this one!

In a challenge to one of the most powerful lobbying tactics used by the Jewish community, a county in Maryland decided last week that local legislators could no longer go on sponsored trips to Israel.

Complete Article

"Israel" furious over Norway torture claim

The Foreign Ministry has in recent days exchanged "strong words" with the Norwegian embassy in Tel Aviv over a diplomatic document the embassy sent back to Oslo calling for criticism of Israel for allegedly using torture in prisons, diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said Thursday night.

The Norwegian state radio network NRK reported Thursday it had obtained a secret diplomatic document from the embassy urging action by "expressing our concern that torture is still practiced in Israel." According to NRK, the embassy's concern stemmed from a report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel claiming that prisoners were sometimes beaten during interrogation, held in painfully tight handcuffs and suffered isolation, threats, humiliation and sleep deprivation.

Complete Article

Born in Lakeland; detained by "Israel"

An American family is told seven of their children cannot leave via Tel Aviv.

"I can't believe that children who were born in Lakeland could have their American citizenship ignored by a country so friendly to the U.S," said Wedad.

Complete Article

Study finds U.S. Jews distance selves from "Israel"

as they should..

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Young U.S. non-Orthodox Jews are becoming increasingly lukewarm if not alienated in their support for Israel in a trend that is not likely to be reversed, according to a study released on Thursday.

Complete Article

Sara, Mahmoud and Yehya

The story of the three children murdered in Gaza last week by the apartheid state.


Sarah Abu Ghazal's school uniform still lay on her mattress, untouched as she had left it before running out after her cousins Mahmoud and Yehya Abu Ghazal on Wednesday, 29 August. She was to begin the fourth grade on 2 September, but her friend Amani, who has accompanied her to school since the first grade, would walk alone this year. Sarah's mother had bought her the blue school uniform, blue jeans and the black shoes just the day before she was killed by Israel tank fire. Her mother waited until the last minute to buy Sarah's school supplies because she was waiting for her husband's salary which he had not received since June. Still full of life, Sarah was readying her new clothes for the start of the school year when Yehya called for her to come out and play.

Ten-year-old Mahmoud looked up to Yehya and followed him wherever he went, as he did not have any brothers of his own. On the day he died he had just finished telling his mother not to buy him anything for school until Yehya had acquired his things. He made her promise only to buy the same things that Yehya had. Mahmoud was killed alongside Yehya and now lies buried right beside him.

"Israel just wants to shed our blood," said Yehya's mother, choking on her words. "They didn't do anything wrong ... they had no rockets, no tanks ... they were just playing," added Mahmoud's mother. They were all sitting on the mattress Yehya shared with Mahmoud. Mahmoud would sneak out of his mother's bedroom at night to go and sleep by Yehya. "They were meant to go together," said Yehya's mother, "Mahmoud would not have lived without Yehya. May God rest their souls together."

The Israeli army stated it had "identified and fired at several rocket launchers aimed at Israel." According to the Abu Ghazal family, rockets had not been fired from that area for the past nine months and the Israeli army knew this. However, the tanks were close enough for the soldiers manning them to see the children and they could have also relied on their large white reconnaissance balloon that constantly hovers over Beit Hanoun.

Where's the justice for 12-year-old Yehya and his childhood, or 10-year-old Mahmoud who wanted nothing more than to have the same things as his friend, or 10-year-old Sarah who never got to wear her new school clothes?

Complete Article

Children of War

By Gideon Levy

Again children. Five children killed in Gaza in eight days. The public indifference to their killing - the last three, for example, were accorded only a short item on the margins of page 11 in Yedioth Ahronoth, a sickening matter in itself - cannot blur the fact that the IDF is waging a war against children. A year ago, a fifth of those killed in the "Summer Rain" operation in Gaza were children; during the past two weeks, they comprised a quarter of the 21 killed. If, heaven forbid, children are hurt in Sderot, we will have to remember this before we begin raising hell.

The IDF explains that the Palestinians make a practice of sending children to collect the Qassam launchers. However, in this case, the children killed were not collecting launchers. The first two were killed while collecting carob fruit and the next three - according to the IDF's own investigation - were playing tag. But even if we accept the IDF's claim that there is a general trend of sending children to collect launchers (which has not been proven), that should have brought about an immediate halt to firing at launcher collectors.

Complete Article

Zionists Attacking Orthodox Jews

Ad in Haaretz

Day & Night in the Holy Land

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And speaks about
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And a rosy future
For the Palestinians.

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Destruction is being wrought.

During the day - deception.
During the night - reality.

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www.gush-shalom.org
info@gush-shalom.org

Three Children Murdered in Gaza

Some news not "worthy" enough for the mainstream media...

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) strongly condemns the killing earlier today of three Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip when an Israeli tank opened fire on the Jabaliya refugee camp which is located in the north of Gaza. According to media reports, two children, 10 and 12 years-old, were killed immediately. Their cousin, a 12 year-old girl, was pronounced dead after efforts to save her life failed. This brings the number of Palestinian children killed during this week, as a result of Israeli military operations, to nine.

ADC strongly condemns the killing of innocent civilians and is saddened at the tragic loss of children. The Gaza Strip, being one of the most densely populated places on earth with almost half of the population under the age of 15, has often seen indiscriminant killing of civilians and children in particular. More than 1.4 million people live in the 140 square miles (360 square kilometers) which is the Gaza Strip. According to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), 84.6% of Gaza's residents live below the poverty line (US $ 2/day).

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"Controversial" professor's class canceled

Criticize the polices of the apartheid state and you can lose your job, but Norman Finkelstein isn't going down without a fight.

"I intend to go to my office on the first day of classes and, if my way is barred, to engage in civil disobedience," Finkelstein said. "If arrested, I'll go on a hunger strike. If released, I'll do it all over again. I'll fast in jail for as long as it takes."

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Illegal Settlers: We killed Jesus & we are proud of it!

Young illegal settlers tresspass onto Palestinian land and begin to curse an International volunteer(im assuming he is Christian) as he films them.

Warning: Derogatory language is used in the clip

Maria's Fight

Just collateral damage to the apartheid state..

Maria was paralysed from the neck down by an Israeli rocket attack in May 2006.

The missile was aimed at a leader of the armed Islamic Jihad movement, who was killed outright.

So were Maria's mother, her grandmother and seven-year-old brother, who were driving past at the time. Maria was blown through the car window, suffering severe injuries.

Israeli law denies compensation to victims of what it calls its "acts of war", but Maria's story was taken up by local as well as foreign press.

Under pressure, Israel's Defence Ministry has been paying for her rehabilitation treatment at the specialist hospital in Jerusalem.

But now it wants to deport Maria to a Palestinian clinic in the West Bank.

"Israel's air strike killed my son and my wife. All I ask is that they look after my daughter"

-Hamdi Amin, Maria's father

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Amir Abdel Malik Ali at UC Santa Cruz

This is part 1 out of 5

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Barak's Shameful Policy

In an army action

This week,

Two boys,

Aged 9 and 11,

Were shot dead.

The Minister of Defense,

Ehud Barak,

Leader of the Labor Party,

Did not even apologize

Or express regret.

Silence is admission:

This is now the policy.

03-5221732.

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Dimona Reactor Animation

A look into the apartheid state's Nuclear reactor in Dimona.

Take note that not even UN inspectors are allowed to verify their arsenal. It is believed that they have approximately 400 nuclear warheads, but we may never know.

"Israel" Bans School Supplies to Gaza

Children are not even safe from the siege, as now they are prohibited from even receiving the needed materials to obtain a descent education. It is well known that the children of Gaza are barely surviving daily on tea and bread.

Gaza, Aug 21 (Prensa Latina) The Israeli government forbade the entrance of paper for making text books to children from Gaza Strip, denounced Palestinian-Israeli Information-Investigation Center (CIIPI).

A released issued by the institution revealed that Palestinian children will attend the classrooms in September without their pens, pencils, books and more if the military command withholds the entry of five supply trucks to the region.

The Israeli Defense Ministry is considering if the load is part of the humanitarian aid material that should enter Gaza Strip, blockaded since June 14 when it was taken by the Islamic Resistance Movement.

The schools of the region are funded by the UN Agency of Palestinian Refugees, revealed the note.

CIIPI has always defended education as a way to achieve peace between Israeli and Palestinians but maintains that there cannot be education without supplies, stated the release.
The plaintiffs asked for the intervention of the Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Education Minister Tuli Tamir and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

The Mighty IDF

Ramallah, 19-08-07: Footage captured by an independent American filmmaker on Wednesday 15 August, showing Israeli soldiers beating, spitting on and throwing stones at three Palestinian children offers yet further proof that Israel's 543 permanent and 610 'flying' checkpoints "are sites of systematic torture and human rights violations against Palestinian civilians", said veteran human rights activist, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP at a press conference held in Ramallah today.

The footage was captured at the Ras at-Tira checkpoint in the Qalqiliya District, and shows the three children attempting to cross the checkpoint in a horse cart when they are stopped by two Israeli soldiers. The female soldier is clearly shown beating the boys before spitting on them and sending them back the way they came. Her male colleague is then seen picking up stones from the ground and throwing them at the children as they drive away.

Dr. Barghouthi said the beatings were reminiscent of the physical assault of 18-year old university student Mohammad Jabali by Israeli soldiers near the notorious Huwwara checkpoint in Nablus on 18 March 2007. Four Israeli soldiers punched and kicked Jabali in the face, head and genitals, causing bleeding and a blood clot in his right testicle. Jabali was forced to undergo surgery and to have part of the testicle removed.

Evangelical pastor told to leave "Israel"

A must read for all those Christian Zionist Evangelicals out there...

An American evangelical pastor and his wife who have been living in "Israel" for nearly two decades have been ordered to leave the country within two weeks, after their request for permanent residency was turned down, officials said on Thursday.

Ron Cantrell, 59, and his wife Carol, 54, have run a small Jerusalem-based ministry, Shalom Shalom Jerusalem, for the past four years. Cantrell previously worked for Bridges for Peace, an evangelical organization, for 14 years.

Two of the couple's children have married "Israelis" and have "Israeli" ID cards.

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Gush Shalom Ad on IDF Murder of Boy

The boy Khalil Sha'er

Was waiting for a bus

Near Tekoa,

When he was seized

And beaten to death

By five soldiers.

Almost every day

In the West Bank and Gaza

The army kills

Children, women

And other unarmed people.

A matter of routine.

While Olmert babbles

About peace,

The occupation is getting

More and more

Deadly, destructive
And rapacious.

03-5221732.

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Our activities and ads

By sending checks to

Gush Shalom, P.O.Box 3322

Tel-Aviv 61033.

www.gush-shalom.org

info@gush-shalom.org

I Received A Death Threat From "Israel"

Kawther Salam

Whatever the criminal Israeli sender wanted to tell me with his message, he will not scare me or stop my words. This kind of threat will never stop me from exposing the daily crimes, destruction, murders, terror, IDF "activities" in Palestinian towns and cities.

Loudly I say that freedom of speech is privileged under international laws, that the Israeli intelligence or Mossad or whatever will not scare me. I am not scared from Israel, I am not scared from that state of executioners. The former Israeli Knesset member and former deputy defense minister and one of Israels top executioners, Efraim Sneh, said in his response to criticism from the extreme rightist parties of Israel, Shas, Mifdal and Moledet "We are doing and implementing the execution and the punishment against the Palestinians in silence and in a very quite way, we don't need to declare openly and before the public what we are doing".

Israel does not need to send messages threatening to kill me. Israel has committed war crimes, genocide, daily murders, destruction of infrastructure and of private and public property, of agricultural land, of water sources, and collective punishment in my homeland. Threatening me will not increase or decrease the daily crimes of Israel against Palestinian civilians, journalists and peace activists. I have seen and lived with their crimes all my life. Do they think that they can scare me with yet another threat ?

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Gaza: The Auschwitz of our Time

Largest detention camp in the World

In 1940, several months after invading Poland in September 1939, the Nazis forced about 500,000 Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto, surrounding it with a high wall. Tens of thousands died from hunger and disease. Eventually, 300,000 were sent to death camps, mainly Treblinka in eastern Poland.

Similarly, Israel is now incarcerating nearly a million and a half helpless Palestinians in the Gaza Strip into a hell similar in nature to the Warsaw Ghetto. The Gaza concentration camp is not only fitted with a wall, but also with every conceivable tool of repression, such as electric fences and watch towers manned by Gestapo-like trigger-happy Jewish soldiers who shoot first and ask questions later.

Moreover, thousands of Israeli soldiers, are surrounding Gaza in a hermetic manner, shooting and killing any Palestinian trying to escape, e.g. enter Israel to search for work or even food.

Palestinian kids survive on bread and tea

Even Palestinian kids playing soccer near the hateful fences, are routinely riddled with bullets or reduced into pieces of human flesh by the "most moral army in the world."

As a result of these genocidal designs, Gazans in the thousands are dying of malnutrition and illness resulting from anemia. Moreover, Children in great numbers are surviving on a meager and totally inadequate diet consisting mainly of bread and tea.

This week, this writer contacted several Gaza families and asked to speak with the kids. The answers I received were truly horrifying. I did speak with 10 kids and was shocked to find out that aseven of the kids told me their diet during the previous week consisted mainly of bread and tea in addition to some tomatoes.

The grown-ups, especially the parents, wouldn't reveal the extent of the unfolding tragedy they are facing. They would only say a terse "al hamdulillah" (thank God). But the tone of their voices tells us that they are in real distress.

The Gaza Strip into the largest detention camp in the World

The harsh blockade of Gaza didn't start in mid June when Hamas took over the small seaside region after defeating and ousting the American-backed Fatah forces led by Muhammed Dahlan and cohorts who had been planning, with American dollars and arms, to murder the Hamas leadership in order to receive a certificate of good conduct from the Bush Administration and Israel.

In fact, Gaza has been effectively under siege since 2000 when the second Palestinian intifada or uprising broke out. Since, then Gazans have been barred from exporting their products and produces.

Moreover, Israel, which has been telling the world that it had ended its occupation of Gaza, still retains full control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, thus reducing the Gaza Strip into the largest detention camp in the world.

To make a long story short, Gazans are being pushed into a situation very similar to that which prevailed at the Ghetto Warsaw. They are not allowed to work (unemployment in Gaza stands at more than 70%), they are not allowed to travel abroad, they are not allowed to enter Israel for work, they are not allowed even to go fishing offshore since Israeli gunboats would open fire at any fishing-boat daring to go more than a mile off the shore.

The criminal and draconian measures are meant to further impoverish Gazans to the extent that they won't be able to purchase food.

The declared Israeli goal behind starving and tormenting the people of Gaza is to force them to revolt against the democratically-elected government, led by the Hamas movement, and settle for a quisling-like government that would sell-out Palestinian national rights, including the paramount right of return for Palestinian refugees uprooted from their homes and villages by Jewish gangs in 1948, when Israel was created.

It is believed that up to two thirds of the inhabitants of Gaza are refugees. Hence, the intensive repression and coercion being meted out to these people in order to force them to give up their right to return to their homes and villages in what is now Israel.

It is crystal clear that Israel is steadily but certainly effecting a Nazi-like approach toward the people of the Gaza Strip.

The PR-conscious Israeli government, however, is hoping that the world will not take proactive measures to expose the creeping genocide in Gaza . This is why Israel is allowing limited shipments of food products , such as flour and cooking oil, into Gaza , to avoid a possible international outcry.

However, the supplies are conspicuously meager and don't meet the basic nutritional needs of the vast bulk of Gaza children.

Unfortunately, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) seems to be conniving and colluding with Israel to keep the unfolding Gaza tragedy as silent as possible.

UNRWA officials do make idle statements from time to time, warning of an impending "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza. However, the UN agency often refrains from "saying it as it is," probably for fear of upsetting the Israelis and the Americans, who apparently don't like to hear words like "starvation, and concentration camps" with regard to the situation in Gaza find their way to the international media.

Israel is undoubtedly the central culprit in this man-made tragedy in Gaza, since it is up to her to allow Gazans to obtain food and export their products and especially their produces to the West Bank. Such a step, which would cost Israel nothing, would help Gazans obtain some meager income to feed their children.

However, Israel, as always, has apparently chosen to be faithful to long traditions of callousness and moral depravity, not unlike the way the Nazis treated their victims.

Complete Article

Highway Apartheid

NYT
By Steven Erlanger

Israel is constructing a road through the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, that will allow both Israelis and Palestinians to travel along it — separately.

There are two pairs of lanes, one for each tribe, separated by a tall wall of concrete patterned to look like Jerusalem stones, an effort at beautification indicating that the road is meant to be permanent. The Israeli side has various exits; the Palestinian side has few.

The point of the road, according to those who planned it under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is to permit Israel to build more settlements around East Jerusalem, cutting the city off from the West Bank, but allowing Palestinians to travel unimpeded north and south through Israeli-held land.

“The Americans demanded from Sharon contiguity for a Palestinian state,” said Shaul Arieli, a reserve colonel in the army who participated in the 2000 Camp David negotiations and specializes in maps. “This road was Sharon’s answer, to build a road for Palestinians between Ramallah and Bethlehem but not to Jerusalem. This was how to connect the West Bank while keeping Jerusalem united and not giving Palestinians any blanket permission to enter East Jerusalem.”

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"Israel's" Jewish problem in Tehran

(excerpts)

Iran is the new Nazi Germany and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new Hitler. Or so Israeli officials have been declaring for months as they and their American allies try to persuade the doubters in Washington that an attack on Tehran is essential. And if the latest media reports are to be trusted, it looks like they may again be winning the battle for hearts and minds: US Vice President Dick Cheney is said to be diverting the White House back on track to launch a military strike

There is an interesting problem with selling the "Iran as Nazi Germany" line. If Ahmadinejad really is Hitler, ready to commit genocide against Israel's Jews as soon as he can get his hands on a nuclear weapon, why are some 25,000 Jews living peacefully in Iran and more than reluctant to leave despite repeated enticements from Israel and American Jews?

As Ciamak Moresadegh, an Iranian Jewish leader, observed: "If you think Judaism and Zionism are one, it is like thinking Islam and the Taliban are the same, and they are not."

In "Operation Susannah" of 1954, for example, Israel recklessly recruited a group of Egyptian Jews to stage a series of explosions in Egypt in a bid to discourage Britain from withdrawing from the Suez Canal zone. When the plot came to light, it naturally cast a shadow of disloyalty over Egypt's wider Jewish community. Following Israel's invasion and occupation of Sinai two years later, the government of Gamal Abdel Nasser expelled some 25,000 Egyptian Jews and, after others were imprisoned on suspicion of spying, the rest soon left.

Even more notoriously, Israel went to greater lengths to ensure the exit of the Arab world's largest Jewish population, in Iraq. In 1950 a series of bombs targeted on Jews in Baghdad forced a rapid exodus of some 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel, convinced that Arab extremists were behind the attacks. Only later did it emerge that the bombs had been planted by members of the Zionist underground, supported by the Israeli government.

More important than the welfare of Iranian Jewish families, it seems, is the value of Iranian Jews as a propaganda tool in Israel's battle to persuade the world that coexistence with the Muslim world is impossible. For those who want to engineer a clash of civilizations, the 3,000-year-old Jewish legacy in Iran is not something to be treasured, only another obstacle to war.

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Haaretz: Colored Tags for Arabs' Luggage at Ben Gurion Airport Discontinued

Can you say APARTHEID!

By Zohar Blumenkrantz and Yoav Stern

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz announced on Tuesday that Ben Gurion International Airport security would no longer mark the luggage belonging to non-Jews with colored tags, in order to spare these passengers embarrassment.

Instead, Mofaz explained, the luggage of non-Jewish passengers will be stamped with the same color sticker as the Jewish passengers, only with a different number. In the past, the color of the sticker on the passenger's luggage would indicate to airport security personnel the level of security check they must administer.

This practice mainly affected Arab passengers.

The security checks at Ben Gurion have been denounced by many in the Arab sector as degrading. "We're talking about frequent degradation of Arab passengers, which causes great anger and frustration," MK Nadia Hilou (Labor) said in January, adding, "I won't leave this subject alone until it has been resolved."

Though the colored stickers have been discontinued since the beginning of August, the luggage belonging to Arab passengers still undergoes a more thorough security check than that of Jews. The Arabs' luggage is sent to an X-ray scanner with higher resolution.

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Time: A Sort of Peace in Gaza

By Andrew Lee Butters / Gaza City

On Patrol in Shijaiyah, the toughest neighborhood in Gaza City, Lieut. Naim Ashraf Mushtaha, 31, an officer of the Hamas Executive Force, spots a man in civilian clothes carrying an M-16 assault rifle and walking through the street suqs in broad daylight. His officers quickly encircle the suspect and demand that he identify himself and turn over the weapon. The man turns out to be a member of one of the neighborhood's most powerful clans, and he refuses to give up his gun. "What's my name, boys?" he shouts to the gathering crowd of curious onlookers. "Mohassi Abbas!" they shout back. "See, everyone knows who I am," says the gunman. "I don't care who you are," says Mushtaha calmly, without raising his voice or his weapon. "No one is above the law."

The rule of law has returned to Gaza. Just two months ago, this beachfront slice of sand dunes and concrete jungles, home to about 1.5 million Palestinians, was one of the most dangerous places on earth. In June, after a few days of internecine warfare, Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, took control of Gaza from its rival, Fatah. Since then, Gaza has been under siege. Almost all shipments except for basic humanitarian supplies are barred from entering, and almost nothing comes out. The blockade is part of an Israeli and American strategy to isolate Hamas in the hope that Palestinians will turn away from its Islamist leaders, who have never recognized Israel, and toward Fatah, which is willing to restart the peace process. So far, the plan isn't working. With a free hand to govern as it pleases, Hamas is building popular support and military capability that may well outlast the international blockade.

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Paying the Costs of Zionism

The war in Iraq is costing the United States more per month than the Vietnam war cost per month on average over its eight-year term. In real dollars, adjusted for inflation. In a country that has recently deindustrialized itself, and has gone from being the world’s biggest creditor nation to being the world’s biggest debtor nation.

In a country that borrows money to pay for consumer goods and not for productive equipment that might pay the costs of borrowing. Trillion-dollar bill (on the rosiest assumptions). Mostly to pay the operating costs of the war (wait for when the Pentagon demands that all its worn-out equipment be replaced).

A war that increases the costs of fighting Bibi Netanyahu’s 'war on terror’. The generals can’t say when it will be over, and no prominent politician of either party is prepared to even discuss a meaningful withdrawal. It is bad manners to officially admit that fighting a war for Israel might be dumb, especially a war that is destabilizing the world’s largest source of hydrocarbons.

Both likely Presidential candidates are gung-ho for years more of fighting. The big secret about the strange American devotion to paying the costs of Zionism is that the United States simply can’t afford it. Nixon had to end gold backing for the dollar in order to keep the United States from becoming insolvent over the costs of Vietnam. President Giuliani won’t have anywhere near the same bargaining position when he has to try the same sort of trick. Of course, the right-wingers will use the economic crisis as yet another excuse for belt-tightening, i. e., cutting social programs. What happens when there are no programs left to cut?

Nazi justice system prevails in "Israel"

From Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

The Israeli "justice" system continued to pardon or give extremely light sentences to Israeli occupation soldiers convicted of murdering Palestinian civilians or causing them grave bodily injuries.

Earlier this week, an Israeli military court in Tel Aviv released four soldiers who a few days earlier seriously injured a Palestinian citizens from the town of Dahiriya, 19 kilometers south west of Hebron.

The Palestinian received multiple gunshot wounds in the neck as he was walking in the town's main market.

According to Israeli press sources, the soldiers stole a taxi cab at gunpoint, blindfolded the driver before driving to the village center in order to "hunt some Palestinians."

At one point, the soldiers shot and critically wounded the local Palestinian, leaving him bleed heavily, according to Palestinian sources.

The judge, an extreme right-winger, reportedly exonerated the soldiers, arguing that they didn't know that what they were doing was "illegal."

The Israeli army described the soldiers' murderous behavior as "resulting from excessive motivation."

On Thursday, an Israeli army court in Jaffa decided to release the soldier who shot the Palestinian to what was described as "open remand" on his base.

Other soldiers involved in the "incident" had already been released for absence of any incriminating evidence.

According to the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, the soldiers earlier claimed that one of them had sprained his ankle during a "morning patrol" in the Palestinian town.

The soldiers went on to claim that after they had tied up the driver and taken control of his taxi, another Palestinian approached the car and that the soldiers were in and that he was acting suspiciously, thus shooting him in the neck and injuring him seriously.

Israeli army sources later admitted that the soldiers' account of the entire affair was concocted and that none of them had sprained an ankle.

Two weeks ago, another Israeli soldier who murdered a Palestinian in the West Bank was also acquitted of any wrongdoing by a military court.

In 2004, an Israeli occupation soldier who murdered a 13-year-old Palestinian school girl in Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, and confirmed the kill in IOF lingo, was acquitted of any wrong doing.

Far from being indicted for murder, the soldier, dubbed Captain R., was later awarded thousands of dollars for "getting his reputation tarnished by the media."

Normally, the Israeli press and media as well as intellectuals and civil society keep silent in the face of such outrageous behavior by the Israeli justice system.

Israel, non the less, continues to claim that it is the only true democracy in the Middle East and that it is a country where the rule of law prevails.

A Palestinian lawyer from Hebron region described the Israeli justice system as "very much like the Nazi justice system."

"It is like a Nazi court prosecuting a Gestapo policeman, so what do you expect," said Hussein Raba'i.

Raba'i argued that the Israeli justice system was based on race.

"So if you the victim is Palestinian and the murderer is a Jew, every conceivable trick is employed to acquit the murderer."

The lawyer stressed that justice and Israel shouldn't be used in the same phrase.

"You see there can be no justice under such a Nazi-like occupation. The two are simply inherently incompatible. A state and an army that murders children on their way to school and shoots civilians knowingly and deliberately and practices the vilest acts of terror and humiliation can't really be expected to observe the principles of justice.

Israeli courts normally don't indict soldiers involved in killing Palestinians for murder or even manslaughter. Instead, the usual charge brought against these murderers is "misuse of IDF-issued weapon" and "behaving in a manner unbecoming of soldiers."

Until a few years ago, Israeli soldiers convicted of killing innocent Palestinians were fined the equivalent of one US cent.

The symbolic fine is meant to underscore the racist Israeli perception of non-Jewish lives as worthless.

Many of the Israeli courts, whether military or civilians, are staffed with religious-Zionist judges who are indoctrinated in Jewish racism which views non-Jews in general as lesser human beings or even outright animals.

Since the outbreak of the Palestinian Aqsa intifada, Israeli occupation troops killed thousands of Palestinian civilians, including as many as 1300 children and minors.

Thousands of other Palestinian civilians were also injured or maimed in what human rights organizations have called "Israel's liberal slaughter of Palestinians."