Norman Finkelstein Arrested in Israel

"And the American academic Norman Finkelstein has been arrested and ordered deported from Israel. Finkelstein arrived in Tel Aviv earlier today on his way to the Occupied Territories. He was immediately detained and told he is banned from Israel for ten years. He's expected to be deported tomorrow. Finkelstein is known as one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. He was detained by the Interior Ministry and Shin Bet.")

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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.

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This is what US aid to Israel looks like

Wed Jun 27, 6:18 AM ET

A Palestinian woman carries her daughter after she was injured by an Israeli tank shell in Gaza June 27, 2007. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah (GAZA)

Wed Jun 27, 5:40 AM ET

The bodies of two wounded Palestinians are seen inside a car as they are taken to the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday June 27, 2007. Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed eight Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, Palestinians said. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Wed Jun 27, 10:42 AM ET

A woman carries a girl injured by an Israeli tank shell in Gaza June 27, 2007. (Ismail Zaydah/Reuters)

Wed Jun 27, 2:25 PM ET

A wounded Palestinian child lies on a hospital trolley in Gaza City following an Israeli offensive. Nine Palestinians were killed on Wednesday as Israel launched twin offensives in the Gaza Strip, triggering the deadliest violence since Hamas fighters overran the territory 12 days ago.(AFP/Mohammed Abed)

Wed Jun 27, 3:48 PM ET

A wounded Palestinian woman lies on the ground after she was injured by an Israeli tank shell in Gaza, June 27, 2007. (Ismail Zaydah/Reuters)

Wed Jun 27, 5:30 AM ET

A Palestinian man carries a wounded boy at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City,Wednesday, June 27, 2007. Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed eight Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, Palestinians said. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Wed Jun 27, 8:46 AM ET

A Palestinian woman carries her daughter after she was injured by an Israeli tank shell in Gaza June 27, 2007. (Ismail Zaydah/Reuters)

Wed Jun 27, 10:50 AM ET

A Palestinian man carries a boy who was wounded in an Israeli army operation into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, June 27, 2007. Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed ten Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, Palestinians said. (AP Photo/Majed Hamdan)

Wed Jun 27, 9:29 AM ET

Palestinian children wait in line to receive food distributed at a soup kitchen in the West Bank city of Hebron June 27, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

Wed Jun 27, 6:14 AM ET

People carry a wounded Palestinian girl (L) and a boy after they were injured by an Israeli tank shell in Gaza June 27, 2007. Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, on Wednesday in their biggest raid in the Gaza Strip since Hamas Islamists took over the territory two weeks ago, medical workers and residents said. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah (GAZA)

Wed Jun 27, 5:26 AM ET

A Palestinian woman carries her wounded daughter at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday June 27, 2007. Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed eight Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, Palestinians said. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Wed Jun 27, 9:29 AM ET

Palestinian children wait in line to receive food distributed at a soup kitchen in the West Bank city of Hebron June 27, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

Wed Jun 27, 9:02 AM ET

Palestinians carry the body of a badly wounded man at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday June 27, 2007. Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed eight Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, Palestinians said. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Wed Jun 27, 5:07 AM ET

A woman carries a Palestinian girl injured from an Israeli tank shell in Gaza June 27, 2007. Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah (GAZA)

Carter blasts US policy on Palestinians

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 19, 7:41 PM ET

DUBLIN, Ireland - Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S.,

Israel and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate Fatah movement.

Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.

Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."

"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.

The U.S. and European countries cut off the Hamas-led government last year because of the Islamic militant group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel. They have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations.

In the latest crisis, the U.S., Israel and much of the West have been trying to shore up Abbas in hopes that the West Bank can be made into a democratic example that would bring along Gaza.

During his speech to Ireland's annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election that Hamas won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Far from encouraging Hamas' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.

"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" — but Hamas routed Fatah in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."