West Bank colonisation surge

All over the West Bank, the signs are that there is no longer a feeling among the colonists that they should hide their inexorable spread into stolen land behind legalese or diplomatic pettyfoggery. Residents of Saeer village, south of al-Khalil / Hebron, said on Wednesday 29th that colonists had begun work on 1,500 dunums of lands confiscated for settlement expansion. Heavy equipment was brought to the area and lands bulldozed.

A day earlier, the Palestinian Authority cabinet condemned what it called "Israeli attacks on Palestinians and their property," saying that within the past week, in addition to the land confiscation in the southern West Bank, 40 dunums in Nablus had been appropriated by the Israeli military, and dozens of trees had been taken down as the construction of the "separation" Wall continues in Walajeh.

Also on Wednesday, several homes in the unrecognized Bedouin village of As-Sadir, in Israel's Negev region, were bulldozed to the ground, according to President of the Arab Democratic Party in Israel, Talab As-Sane.

He said the homes belonged to the Al-Freijat family, adding that the continued moves to demolish Bedouin homes in the Negev region was a "crime... wreaking havoc on the land and displacing peoples."

He accused Israel of targeting its Arab population, saying the country's "only aim is to steal the lands."

Earlier in December, 67 members of the extended Abu Eid family were displaced when their six concrete homes were demolished by police in Lyd.

The six buildings were among more than 100 in the city under immediate demolition orders, following an autumn Knesset decision to destroy an estimated 4,000 illegal housing structures in a plan said to cost millions of shekels.

Electronic Intifada reports:

More than 100 Palestinian protesters and their supporters blocked a main street in the city of Lyd on 28 December, demonstrating against the recent demolition of Palestinian homes and what residents say is a rise in racism and police brutality.

Palestinian women from Lyd sit on top of the rubble of their home after it was destroyed by Israel http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11709.shtml

On 13 December, officials with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), the government agency that manages and leases state land, entered the Palestinian section of the segregated city flanked by bulldozers and hundreds of municipal, riot squad and border police forces. The bulldozers then demolished seven homes all belonging to the Abu Eid family in Lyd.

The demolition, which took several hours, made homeless 67 members of the entire family, including dozens of children, during one of the worst rainstorms of the season. Dozens of other Palestinian homes have been demolished over the years in Lyd, which is a few miles east of Tel Aviv inside the state of Israel.

Lyd is a so-called "mixed city," as is the neighbouring city of Ramle, with significant Palestinian minority communities living alongside the Jewish majority. Palestinian residents of these communities have been chronically discriminated against and brutalized by police.

Oren Ziv, a photojournalist with Israeli-based photography collective ActiveStills, witnessed the demolitions of the Abu Eid homes and told The Electronic Intifada that the family knew that the ILA had issued demolition orders against their homes, but they were given no notice of exactly when the destruction would take place.

"During the destruction, I climbed onto the roof of a neighbouring house and I saw several bulldozers demolishing the fourth house," Ziv said. "Many neighbours and a few activists were watching it all happen. I've been documenting [home demolitions] for seven years and this was one of the biggest demolitions I've ever seen."

Ziv added that when the bulldozers finished demolishing the seventh house, children were starting to come back from school only to find their homes reduced to rubble.

"People were trying to salvage their papers and belongings from underneath the destroyed homes," he said. "It was hard to find a solution for the family, especially during the terrible weather. They built a protest tent and a tent camp."

Ma'an News Agency reported that the homes were among more than 100 in the city "under immediate demolition orders" following a decision in the Israeli parliament to destroy an estimated 4,000 "illegal" housing structures.

Report: Israel demolishes 55 Jerusalem homes in 2010
Israel's Jerusalem municipality levelled 40 homes and forced 15 Palestinian families to rip down their homes by their own hands in the holy city in 2010, according to the Wadi Ain al-Halwa Information Centre.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k

Gazan Women and children paint their traumas

by Ane Irazabal, IMEMC
An art exposition shows, in Gaza City, the work of hundreds of refugee women and children from the coastal enclave, who use the artwork as a way to convey their traumas, the Spanish daily El País echoed.

(photo from El País)

Under the title "If you are happy, click your fingers," the exhibition shows portraits, murals and a "Tree of Dreams" that have been made by 300 mothers and children from Beit Hanun, Jabalia, Nuseirat and Rafah refugee camps.

The initiative has been leaded by the NGO Creart (Catalonia), with the cooperation of Mundubat (The Basque Country) and Solidaridad International. Using art workshops, the organizers have tried to help Palestinians affected by the Israeli "Operation Cast Lead" offensive on Gaza in the winter of 2008–2009, to transmit their traumas in a creative way.

The 'war' left 1,400 Palestinians dead and devastated Gaza, leaving the inhabitants in a difficult situation to overcome.

According to a member of Creart Chené Gómez, the massacres of those days and the current Israeli blockade in the strip have drastically affected the Gazans' vitality, especially with regard to children. As a result "There are many children with problem to concentrate. It is difficult to draw them a smile," he added.

In the opinion of Marta Mercadé, another organizer of the exhibition, the workshops aimed to be part of a creative process to help "rebuilding the social fabric and relationships broken during the war, " as well as to develop other skills to face the economical, cultural and humanitarian siege that Gazans suffer in their daily life.

The daily reality of the Zionist putsch in the West Bank

This girl looks like a pleasant enough sort, talking about her idyllic life in the sun, her perfect home; until you realise that she is a cold-blooded colonist.

She stole that home, from people she truly believes to be less than human and to be no more than talking trash, defiling the purity of the land that her god gave her 'people'. Watch her as she insults the defenceless Palestinians, the citizens of Al-Kalil (Hebron), part of the country that the UN in its lofty wisdom decided would be "Palestine" rather than "Israel", and which is being slowly taken from The People by the impatient invaders, whose army continues to be well-supplied by Britain and America. While the so-called Peace Talks continue, Hilary Clinton spouts hot air and Obama, in a combination of question-begging and sheer hypocrisy, advises the Palestinians to resist peacefully not violently.

Norway supports statehood; Hamas anniversary; PA continues franchise

OSLO, Norway (17th December) -- Norway's foreign ministry announced on Wednesday that the status of the Palestinian representative's office in Oslo would be upgraded to a diplomatic mission as part of an effort of the Scandinavian nation to support Palestinian efforts toward building a state.

The announcement came while Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was in Oslo, where officials announced the coming international donors conference to take place in the city in April 2011. During the announcement the official said he hoped a Palestinian state could be established within the year.

Speaking after talks with Salam Fayyad, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who heads the committee in charge of coordinating international aid to the Palestinians, did not give an exact date or venue for the meeting.

"We should all cling to the vision of 2011 being the year when we can see a new state on the world stage: the Palestinian state," he told reporters in Oslo.

"For that to happen, institutions need to be solid, governance needs to be transparent, security, schools, all these elements need to come in place," he added.

Fayyad meanwhile stressed the work done by the Palestinian Authority to lessen its dependence on international aid.

On the same day, a top Fatah official, Azzam Al-Ahmad said the party would not participate in further negotiations with Hamas after the talks later this month in Damascus.
Al-Ahmad, who heads the party's reconciliation team, said Hamas should sign the Egyptian reconciliation document. That remains unlikely. This week, on Tuesday, thousands of Hamas supporters filled the streets of Gaza City in a mass rally to boost support for the Palestinian resistance group on its 23rd anniversary, while the PA continues in the West Bank as an ‘Occupation-franchise’ in many respects. 

Cars and buildings were adorned in Hamas's trademark green colours, and flag-waving supporters clogged the streets to reach the rally, where Hamas leaders lauded the group's history of fighting Israel.
The large crowd cheered Hamas's pledge never to recognise Israel, as sonic booms blasted from Israeli jets overhead.
"Hamas has not failed, Hamas has not collapsed," Ismail Haniyeh, the group's leader in Gaza, told the crowd. "Hamas did not fail to bring together government and resistance."
Hamas has often been torn between its roots as a military group and a local government responsible for providing services to 1.5 million citizens.
While sticking to its logical rhetoric, Hamas has largely observed an informal truce since the murderous Israeli bombing and invasion two years ago. It remains in power, although the Palestine Peoples’ Party is, at least anecdotally, more popular with many Gazans. Hamas insists it is more popular than ever.
In a message distributed to news media on Tuesday morning, Hamas said it remains committed to destroying Israel, bringing back Palestinian refugees and seizing control of Jerusalem's holy sites.
"Anyone who gives up these rights is a traitor," it said - an apparent dig at Hamas's rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who favours a peace agreement with Israel, inevitably meaning yet more losses for Palestine. Simultaneously, in the West Bank, the PA ‘security’ militias carried out a widespread arrest campaign in the ranks of Hamas’ cadres and supports in West Bank cities and kidnapped 20 of them during raids on homes and a school.
In order to obstruct any attempt to celebrate the anniversary, the militias also summoned for interrogation hundreds of citizens thought to be affiliated or supporting Hamas throughout the West Bank.
Local sources in Al-Khalil city reported that civilians affiliated with Fatah faction and security militias raided and ransacked on Monday evening and Tuesday morning many Palestinian institutions, mosques, clubs and homes in the city at the pretext of aborting events that might be held on the anniversary of Hamas.

No more Jaw-jaw
On Wednesday again, Arab foreign ministers rejected any resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks unless it was based on a "serious offer" guaranteeing an end to the conflict - which would include an immediate end to ‘settlement’ building, seeking a UN Security Council resolution against Israeli ‘settlement’ construction on Palestinian land.
Arab foreign ministers decided to "bring up the entire situation with the Security Council and to activate the follow-up committee's decision to bring up the issue of Israeli settlements again to the Security Council."
The Arab League wants "to obtain a decision that confirms, among other things, the illegal nature of this activity and that would oblige Israel to stop it," a ministerial committee meeting at League headquarters in Cairo said.
The ministers, in their final statement, also urged the United States, which has traditionally vetoed Security Council resolutions against Israel, not to obstruct its decision.
The Arab League ministerial committee on the so-called ‘peace process’ "sees that the direction of talks has become ineffective and it has decided against the resumption of negotiations," the League's chief Amr Mussa said.
"Resuming the negotiations will be conditioned on receiving a serious offer that guarantees an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict," he said, reading from a statement after the meeting.

Meanwhile outside the committee rooms, the reality of the tensions between Palestine’s Big Two takes flesh:
The Islamic Jihad Movement said that prisoner Faisal Khalifa is being exposed to excruciating torture at the hands of interrogators from the Palestinian Authority in Tulkarem city and demanded his immediate release.
The Movement added it received reliable information affirming that Khalifa, an ex-detainee in Israeli jails, is being tortured severely by the PA intelligence interrogators and prevented from seeing his family.
Khalifa was kidnapped on Tuesday 7th December by PA intelligence militias from a school in Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem.
Islamic Jihad also said that the PA militias also refuse to release ex-detainee Rafat Hussein despite his poor health condition in addition to two others of its cadres jailed in solitary confinement in Juneid prison.

Sex, lies, Iran, Israel and Wikileaks

Anthony Lawson has produced another fine thought-provoking news-bomb, reminding us of that old truth about the first casualty of war being "Truth"; and of course it's arguable that the Second World War never ended. Most important: anyone who claims to have a monopoly of the truth has to be looked on with a little scepticism... As Claude Cockburn said, "Never believe anything, until it's been officially denied."

Edinburgh Council boycotts Veolia

Edinburgh Council has rejected Veolia's attempt to take over public services in the city!

A Council report published on 10th Dec 2010 indicates that Veolia is no longer being considered for any contracts in the city, despite having been seen as the leading contender for its environmental services bid.

Veolia works with Israeli authorities in Occupied Palestine to provide waste and transport services to Israel's illegal settlements. The French multinational has already lost contracts across Europe due to sustained protest over its complicity in Israel's war crimes.

This comes on top of similar losses throughout Europe and beyond as it becomes ever more clear that it no longer pays to profit from Israel's Occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.

Read SPSC media release

R2H: Bristol Boys come home

After a very long journey indeed, and adventures that no one could have anticipated, the two remaining representatives from Bristol made it all the way to Gaza. Keith Darkin had plenty of time to see for himself the effects of the ongoing UK/US backed siege, and to meet survivors. Shahid Iqbal, leading Bristol graffitist, was able to make his mark in a big way - at one point a policeman helped him do a giant version of his famous 'toff'. After a Welcome Home at the Farm pub, St Werburgh's on Tuesday 7th, there was a party at the same venue on Thursday, also hosting an art show/ fund-raiser for Gaza.

NOW: See short film report here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndwZWVGUBNg

Israel's racist rabbis: "Hate the gentile"

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: 'Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us.'

By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth

Jews must not rent homes to 'gentiles'. That was the religious decree issued this week by at least 50 of Israel’s leading rabbis, many of them employed by the state as municipal religious leaders. Jews should first warn, then “ostracise” fellow Jews who fail to heed the directive, the rabbis declared.

The decree is the latest in a wave of racist pronouncements from some of Israel’s most influential rabbis.

In October, Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed, delivered a ruling, signed by 17 other rabbis in the city, telling Jewish residents not to sell or rent property to members of the country’s Palestinian Arab minority, who make up a fifth of the population.

His followers turned words into deeds by attacking Arab students in the city and threatening to burn down the homes of Jewish landlords renting to the students.

Similar edicts have recently been backed by dozens of rabbis in Tel Aviv and nearby Bnei Brak, a suburb of 150,000 mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews. They have threatened to “expose” any Jews who rent to “foreigners” -- in this case, a reference to migrant workers and African refugees who are crowded into neglected neighbourhoods in the centre of the country.

After many weeks of silence on these declarations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was finally forced to issue a condemnation yesterday, describing the rabbis’ call as undemocratic and contradicting the bible, which, he said, called for Jews to “love the stranger”.

Nonetheless, racism in Israel is increasingly enjoying high-level sanction among the most influential sectors of the religious establishment.

The latest ruling was signed by Shlomo Aviner, a spiritual leader of Israel’s national-religious camp; Yosef Elyashiv, a senior ultra-Orthodox rabbi; and Avigdor Neventzal, rabbi of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Its sentiments have also been echoed by Ovadia Yosef, a former chief rabbi of Israel and the spiritual leader of Shas, an important political and religious party in Mr Netanyahu’s government. “Selling to [non-Jews], even for a lot of money, is not allowed. We won’t let them take control of us here,” Mr Yosef said recently.

Two months ago, Mr Yosef explained the logic behind his views and those of like-minded rabbis.

“Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us.” Explaining why God allowed non-Jews long lives, he added: “Imagine that your donkey would die, you’d lose your income. [The donkey] is your servant. ... That’s why he [the gentile] gets a long life, to work well for the Jew.”

Mr Yosef’s remarks against “gentiles” were greeted with respectful silence by Israeli officials and most of the media. It was left to the United States government and the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to issue rebukes. Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s head, accused the rabbi of advancing “hateful and divisive ideas”.

The rabbis’ use of theology to support racial discrimination is being applied to more than just housing.

This summer, Yosef Elitzur and Yitzhak Shapira, who head an influential seminary in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, published The King’s Torah, a 230-page guide to how Jews should treat non-Jews.

The two rabbis concluded that Jews were obligated to kill anyone who posed a danger, immediate or potential, to the Jewish people, and implied that all Palestinians were to be considered a threat. On these grounds, the pair justified killing Palestinian civilians and even their babies.

Last month Mr Shapira also backed the use of Palestinians as human shields, a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a practice that Israel’s supreme court has outlawed.

The King’s Torah, far from being condemned by moderate rabbis, has been greeted with a general silence and enthusiastic support from a number of notable religious leaders.

Arik Ascherman, head of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel, said the growing extremism of the the Orthodox religious establishment in Israel reflected the increasingly right-wing atmosphere in Israel that made the expression of ultra-nationalist views permissible.

In the current climate, he said, moderate rabbis were reluctant to speak out against their colleagues. Many of these rabbis belong to the Conservative or Reform streams of Judaism, which are not officially recognised in Israel.

“The religious sanction being given to the political right by these rabbis is dangerous. It makes their opinions seem more acceptable,” he said.

That is being reflected in public surveys, in which many Israeli Jews express support for anti-Arab views. A poll by the Israeli Democracy Institute published last week showed that 46 per cent of the country’s Jews did not want to live near Arab citizens, and 39 per cent felt the same about foreign workers.

Even more, 53 per cent, wanted Arab citizens to be encouraged to leave Israel and half believed Arabs should not have equal rights with Jews. Among the religious public, racist sentiments were more popular.

Israeli prosecutors, meanwhile, have turned a blind eye to the refusal of several prominent endorsers of The King’s Torah to obey a summons calling them for investigation. “Our holy Torah is not a subject for investigation or trial by flesh and blood,” the rabbis said.

In all, the rabbinical establishment is growing increasingly bold in promoting its vision of a Jewish state run according to holy law, according to Zvi Barel, a commentator with the daily newspaper Haaretz.

“They and their supporters are transforming zealous fundamentalism and the shameful The King’s Torah into the mainstream,” Mr Barel wrote recently.

The general trend towards extremism has not happened by chance, said Sefi Rachelevsky, a prominent Israeli writer critical of the Orthodox rabbinate. Israel’s public coffers pay the salaries of some of the most extremist rabbis, and the education system regularly falls under the political control of religious parties like Shas.

Mr Shapira, who advocates killing non-Jewish babies, receives large sums from the education ministry for his yeshiva -- a seminary where he spreads his message of hate. Religious students also receive extra subsidies unavailable to normal students to encourage their attendance at such yeshivas.

The rabbis exert their influence on the youngest and most impressionable too. When the new school year started in September, 52 per cent of Jewish children in first grade attended a strictly religious school.

Pupils in some of the most religious schools, Mr Rachlevsky pointed out, are taught that Jews sit above nature, which comprises four categories: “inanimate”, “vegetable”, “animal” and “speakers” -- or non-Jews, who are considered no more than talking animals.


- Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.jkcook.net. (A version of this article originally appeared in The National - www.thenational.ae - published in Abu Dhabi.)

If you like this article, please consider making a contribution to the Palestine Chronicle (http://palestinechronicle.com/contribution.php).

Army razes 12 West Bank homes, 1 school; airstrikes on Gaza

8th December: The Israeli army has today demolished 12 Palestinian houses and a school in the village of Kherbet Tana, near the West Bank city of Nablus - claiming as usual that all structures were illegally built. A Red Cross building, which reportedly served the impoverished residents of the village, was also severely damaged in the bulldozing, witnesses said.
Based on figures revealed by the Israeli NGO Bimkom, almost 95% of applications filed by Palestinians for construction permits are rejected. Bimkom also noted that Israel's Civil Administration only grants around 12 permits per year.

The residents said that the demolition on Wednesday is the third of its kind, where around 45 houses were demolished in the village this year. Tana has a population of 180.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli army arrested overnight nine Palestinian activists in the cities of Nablus, Tulkarem and Hebron, saying they are wanted by the Israeli security forces.

The Palestinian Authority did not condemn the demolitions. 


In the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes struck before dawn on Wednesday two targets in response, the Israelis claim, to earlier homemade rocket attacks carried out by Gaza militants.
Witnesses said that the Israeli F16 warplanes struck a poultry farm (a weapons depot, according to Israeli radio) near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, injuring one Palestinian civilian and causing severe damage.
The warplanes also struck a tunnel used for smuggling under the borderline between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt. The tunnel was destroyed, but no injuries were reported.

Photo: www.life.com

Argentina recognises Palestinian state

Argentina has become the second Latin American state after Brazil to recognize Palestine as an independent state.

AFP reports that in a letter to Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner (right) wrote that her country recognizes Palestine as a "free and independent state" as defined by the 1967 borders.

On Friday 3rd, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry announced that Brasilia recognizes the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

The Brazilian announcement came in a public letter in response to a personal request by Abbas on November 24.

The Brazilian letter expressed support for the Palestinians' quest for a homeland as a "legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people for a secure, united, democratic and economically viable state."

The authorities in Tel Aviv are reportedly infuriated.

True to form, US Congressman Eliot Engel criticized the Brazilian move and said, "Brazil's decision to recognize Palestine is severely misguided and represents a last gasp by a Lula-led foreign policy which was already substantially off track."

There is no legitimate reason why the international community should not back Palestinian demands for a state in most of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), all territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Late news: Uruguay has joined these countries in 'recognising' Palestine, announcing it will recognize a Palestinian state next year.

"Uruguay will surely follow the same path as Argentina in 2011," deputy foreign minister Roberto Conde told AFP. "We are working toward opening a diplomatic representation in Palestine, most likely in Ramallah."

More than 100 states, mostly from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, have recognised Palestinian statehood, and Brazil becomes the last of the BRIC group of emerging powers – Brazil, Russia, India and China – to do so.

Other South American countries could now follow suit, and there has been speculation that Peru could be next.

$150m aid for Palestinian Authority

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced $150m in new aid for the Palestinian Authority

The ‘Peace Process’ is at a standstill, but Washington is trying to keep the two sides - Israel and the PA - engaged - and it is working especially hard to stop the Palestinians from walking away from the process: even Mahmoud Abbas has cried ‘enough’ in the face of continued Israeli dishonesty in maintaining new colonial building and forced demolitions during the so-called freeze. He even threatened, on Friday 3rd December, to end autonomy in the Palestinian territories if Israel insists on going ahead with settlement construction on lands that should be a Palestinian state.

Interviewed by Palestine TV, Abbas said he would not "afford to remain the president of a nonexistent Palestinian Authority" if the Israeli occupation of the West Bank continued, and along with that settlement construction .

When asked if the comment meant that he could actually disband the Palestinian Authority, he answered, “I am telling the Israelis that they can continue as occupiers, but as for me, I will not accept the status quo.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced new aid of $150m (£93m) for the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday 1st December - part sweetener, part support for Palestinian institution-building, a track running parallel to the “negotiations”. She announced this at the State Department with a fine balloon-full of hot air:
"We have to move forward together, simultaneously and mutually reinforcing on two tracks, the hard work of negotiations and the hard work of building institutions and capacities."
Mrs Clinton was joined via video link to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah.
"Progress on this second track gives confidence to negotiators, removes excuses for delays and underscores that the Palestinian Authority has become a credible partner for peace," she added, and we can see once again that the PA’s ‘credibility’ only extends as far as its resemblance to the Vichy government of Occupied France will allow.
Not to be outdone in the hot-air stakes, Ziad Asali, from the American Task Force for Palestine in Washington, responded, "The announcement is a sign of confidence and commitment, commitment to the two-state solution and confidence in the integrity of the Palestinian Authority and its finance ministry,"

The new US money will help the P. A. close a budget gap before the end of the year.
The US and the EU are two of the largest single donors to the Palestinians. During the 2010 financial year, the US gave a total of $739.9m (£458.9m).
Some of it goes directly to budget assistance, including the payment of bills - freeing up money for the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries.

Some of the aid from the US and EU goes to training for Palestinian Authority military personnel.
The EU gives an average of $700m per year, but has been notoriously unenthusiastic about giving aid to Gaza since Hamas was elected. A coalition of major humanitarian, human rights and development organizations called on the European Union back in January 2009 to immediately suspend any further enhancement of its relations with Israel, known as an ‘upgrade’, until it agreed to a comprehensive ceasefire and provided unimpeded access to the Strip.
The call followed Israel’s rejection of European attempts to secure an immediate ceasefire during a visit of the EU’s most senior representatives to the region.
“Israel has shunned diplomatic efforts by the EU and the delegation has returned empty-handed. The EU’s credibility is now at stake. It is inconceivable that we should extend further benefits of European partnership to a government that violates international humanitarian law and refuses negotiation in favour of continued violence. It is time for robust EU action to bring about an immediate ceasefire and end the violence on all sides,” said Daleep Mukarji, Director of Christian Aid UK and Ireland.

No quid pro quo
This latest influx of cash comes after the US has been similarly, and repeatedly, insulted by Israel, which knows it is in a position of strength as the US foothold in the Mid-east, and continues to accept all handouts of military and financial aid while dragging its feet over following Uncle Sam’s wishes.
The most recent session of the Peace Negotiations, given a big launch by President Barack Obama in early September, hardly took off and ran aground after just two meetings.

Obama believes in fairies

As the rational world everywhere accepts that the so-called ‘Peace Process’ is nothing but a smoke-screen for Zionist expansion with or without the ‘freeze’, an ex-CIA official states that US President Obama’s only peace process is to ‘hope for a miracle’ - as MondoWeiss’ writer Adam Horowitz put it on DECEMBER 3:

Robert Grenier, CIA's chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1999 to 2002 and director of the CIA's counter-terrorism center, writes in disbelief at the current Obama administration strategy with the peace process (which he considers long dead). He comments on the Al Jazeera English website about the rumoured bundle of incentives the White House is offering Israel for a 90-day extension of the partial settlement freeze:
"After witnessing US policy toward Israel and the Palestinians for over 30 years, I had thought I was beyond shock. This development, however, is breathtaking. In effect, along with a whole string of additional commitments, including some potentially far-reaching security guarantees which it is apparently afraid to reveal publicly, the Obama administration is willing to permanently cast aside a policy of some 40 years' duration, under which the US has at least nominally labelled Israeli settlements on occupied territory as "obstacles to peace,". All this in return for a highly conditional settlement pause which will permit Netanyahu to pocket what the US has given him, simply wait three months without making any good-faith effort at compromise, and know in the end that Israel will never again have to suffer the US' annoying complaints about illegal settlements.
Leave aside the fact that as of this writing, the Israeli cabinet may yet reject this agreement - which seems even more breathtaking, until one stops to consider that virtually everything the Americans have offered the Israelis they could easily obtain in due course without the moratorium. No, what is telling here is that the American attempt to win this agreement, lopsided as it is, is an act of sheer desperation.
What gives rise to the desperation, whether it is fear of political embarrassment at a high-profile diplomatic failure or genuine concern for US security interests in the region, I cannot say. It seems crystal clear, however, that the administration sees the next three months as a last chance. Their stated hope is that if they can get the parties to the table for this brief additional period, during which they focus solely on reaching agreement on borders, success in this endeavour will obviate concerns about settlements and give both sides sufficient stake in an outcome that they will not abandon the effort.
No one familiar with the substance of the process believes agreement on borders can be reached in 90 days on the merits; consider additionally that negotiators will be attempting to reach such a pact without reference to Jerusalem, and seeking compromise on territory without recourse to off-setting concessions on other issues, and success becomes virtually impossible to contemplate."

Meanwhile, the Zionists argue among themselves over just how much of Palestine they will allow the Palestinians to keep, although it is only a matter of nothing versus next-to-nothing:

Jordan Valley

After almost half a century of Israeli occupation, its Palestinian population has shrunk from over 200,000 to fewer than 60,000. ... A fortnight ago 15 young Israelis in T-shirts came down from Maskiyot, a hilltop settlement, took possession of a Bedouin tent, put up a fence to keep out the family and its goats, and sang Hebrew chants.

An Israeli army jeep idled by, briefly surveyed the rumpus, and drove on. The local Palestinian governor, whose headquarters is in the Arab town of Tubas, paid a call, before also hurrying away.

“From experience, we’ve learnt that, if we protest, the settlers will resort to violence and demand that the state confiscate the land to protect them,” explains a Palestinian activist who advises the Bedouin.

On a nearby wall, someone had daubed in Hebrew: “Bless God for not making me a gentile".

http://www4.economist.com/node/17581571

Road To Hope in Gaza!

See report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/152675.html

Update, 28 November (From Ken O'Keefe)

After a demanding and very long 7 week journey the convoy members have been given just over two days to stay in Gaza or risk joining the imprisoned population of Gaza; this is typical of the Egyptian control of the Rafah Crossing. 13 members of the convoy were blacklisted by Egypt, including a seventy-year-old children’s entertainer and magician from Wales who was transporting toys for the children of Gaza. Also blacklisted was a Scottish national who has never left Scotland and has no affiliation with any organization, along with a 19 year-old British national, again with no associations that could be considered prohibitive. Several survivors of the Mavi Marmara were banned, along with British/Pakistani nationals and previous convoy members. This trend makes it harder and harder for people to support Palestine and should be considered a part of the overall blockade of Gaza.

The convoy members will do their best to experience as much of Gaza as possible and share with the world the reality of life for people entering four years of a brutal collective punishment policy. The vehicles and aid will be distributed to various charities and organizations that are doing invaluable work. Among the aid is medical equipment and medicines, wheel chairs, crutches, toys, clothes footballs and shoes.

Ken O’Keefe will remain in Gaza for 40 days (or longer if imprisoned) and begin daily video reports focusing on the children of Gaza. These will be posted at his Facebook and Twitter accounts and his blog.

R2H Facts – The Road to Hope humanitarian aid convoy left London on the 10th of October with £500,000 of humanitarian aid for the besieged people of the Gaza Strip. The convoy travelled with over 100 members and 32 vehicles over 5,000 miles through the UK, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya and Egypt. Ultimately 35 convoy members reached Gaza due to the lengthy journey and blacklisting.

Road 2 Hope: Gaza on the horizon?

Continued from http://palywely.blogspot.com/2010/11/road-to-hope-abducted-to-greece.html

The ship (the second to have been chartered by the Convoy), with the vehicles and three of the convoyers is nearing Al-Arish port in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities refused overland public transport for the rest of the convoyers, who have had to raise money for a specially chartered flight to Al-Arish.

In addition Egypt has banned about a dozen of the convoyers, including Ebrahim, who will be returning to the UK shortly. Also Ken O'Keefe, who had returned to London after the Greek abduction before rejoining the Convoy. Israel has branded as a "terrorist" everyone who travelled on the aid ship Mavi Marmara - this may explain Egypt's action. Names and faces, even addresses - with degrees of accuracy - have been listed in a publication by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

Keith and Shahid, the remaining Bristol pair on the convoy, are well. The Bristol mini bus is destined for a disabled youth club and the other vehicles for other local charities as arranged previously; boxes of aid will be delivered to the Baptist Church.

The remaining convoyers should fly from Benghazi at about midday. Assuming they are reunited with their vehicles and the entry formalities are swift they may all reach Gaza City later on Thursday where the vehicles and aid will be distributed.

London under invasion?

If London - the UK - were under invasion and permanent curfew like, say, Palestine or Afghanistan, this is how it would be. And this film answers the puzzle for so many who are unable to understand why 'those foreigners' hate the Peace-keepers so much.

And on the same theme, here's action/street theatre by Columbia University students in NYC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_StjwC9ry8

The Bat Ayn 'settlement' - Neighbours from Hell

The Bat Ayn 'settlement' - or colony - was established in the early 1990s by a breakaway group from the nearby Gush Etzion colony. Bat Ayn was established under the guidance of the controversial Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg. Rabbi Ginsburg has been quoted in the New York Times as stating that “any trial based on the assumption that Jews and goyim [non-Jewish people] are equal is a total travesty of justice”. Rabbi Ginsburg also praised the actions of Baruch Goldstein who in 1994 murdered 29 people and wounded more than 125 people who were praying in a mosque in Hebron.

Bet Ayn is one of over 200 Israeli colonies within the West Bank. The International Court of Justice has deemed these colonies illegal under international law which prohibits an occupying power from moving its population into occupied territory. At least 42% of land in the West Bank is currently occupied by colonists or set aside for further 'settlement' expansion. The ongoing construction of colonies has been criticized by the United Nations, the United States of America and the European Union.

Today more than 1,000 colonists from Bet Ayn live on land that was used for centuries by Palestinian families. Residents of Bet Ayn have a long history of violence. In 2002, four people from Bet Ayn were convicted of terrorism related offences following an attempt to blow up a Palestinian girl’s school in East Jerusalem. The men were arrested outside the school with a trailer containing explosives.

Residents of Bet Ayn frequently attack neighbouring residents of Palestinian villages and destroy their sources of income. The following are some examples of colonist violence, destruction and intimidation since April 2009:

– November 16 2010, burnt and destroyed 70 olive trees in the Saffa Valley.

– November 15 2010, burnt and destroyed 85 fig and olive trees in the Saffa Valley.

– 24 June 2010, set fire to farmland in the Saffa Valley and threw stones and bottles at nearby houses.

– 11 March 2010, set fire to a number of trees in the Saffa Valley.

– 9 January 2010, 40 settlers attacked three local farmers with stones.

– 31 December 2009, shot a local farmer with a hand gun.

– 20 December 2009, shot at local farmers.

– 13 July 2009, set fire to farmland in the Saffa Valley.

– 1 and 2 May 2009, entered the Saffa Valley destroyed fruit trees and shot at nearby residential homes.

– 26 April 2009, beat two elderly Palestinians, including holding down an 80 year old male and repeatedly smashed his head with stones.

– 8 April 2009, invaded Palestinian land and shot at local residents.

– In 2007, large numbers of colonists from Bet Ayn terrified locals by marching through neighbouring Palestinian villages dressed in white and carrying weapons, including M16 machine guns. The primary reason behind this campaign of terror and destruction is an attempt to deter local Palestinian farmers from farming their land, facilitating the annexation of the land by the Israeli military for further colonial expansion.

A website associated with the Bet Ayn colony states:

All who visit the Bat Ayin are struck by the beautiful vistas, the peaceful surroundings, and the profound level of devotion and spirituality of the people who live there. (http://www.batayin.org/73023/About-Us)

Unfortunately life, for Palestinians living near the Bat Ayn colony, is far from peaceful.

First published at http://palestinesolidarityproject.org

America: Silence of a Nation

Excerpts from a speech by Chris Hedges. The author spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in the Zionist colonisation of Palestine and the slow but determined destruction of the Palestinian people...

Palestine, and the livin' ain't easy

Israeli boycotters strike Tel Aviv opera
by PHILIP WEISS on November 16

The ground really is shifting. Here's incredible video from Israel of Israeli boycott activists trying to submarine the Cape Town Opera House's performance of "Porgy and Bess" in Tel Aviv last night. Boycott apartheid! they sing. Note the big turnout of activists, the inspiring songs. Ynet reports 40 activists. Wow. This is inside Israel. And it's civil society: people of conscience around the world waking up to the humiliation and dispossession and statelessness of the Palestinians-- and seeing that they can take action.

Road to Hope abducted to Greece

Greek commandos board Gaza-bound aid ship

Continued from: http://palywely.blogspot.com/2010/11/road-to-hope-convoy-to-move-on-at-last.html

Main-stream news reports in Greece(Friday 12-Saturday 13th) say Greek commandos boarded the Gaza-bound ship on Friday in the country's main harbour of Pireaus during a dispute between the ship's captain and the aid group over money.

The 10 travellers with the Road to Hope organization said they were being treated like terrorist suspects by the Greek commandos.

The organization said the Maltese-flagged ship, Strofades IV, with 16 crew members was originally intended to sail from Libya to El Raid in Egypt with the aid then to be transported via land route to Gaza. After a two-week wait at the Libyan/Egyptian border, the group had raised the money to pay for this alternative journey.

But following an argument between the ship's Greek captain and an Egyptian broker, the aid group's cargo and nearly 70 other volunteers were left behind in Libya and the ship sailed to Pireaus instead. According to an earlier statement from Road to Hope, the captain was reported to be saying he wanted to proceed to Greek islands and drop off the convoyers and Libyans, so that the Greek people could deal with them as illegal immigrants. The ship contains 10 aid workers - seven Britons, two Irish and an Algerian - on board as well as several Libyan police officers, plus a senior port official. The police officers had gone on board at the port to help settle the dispute, when the ship set off from the Libyan port of Darnah.
The captain had set off while the Strofades IV was still moored, snapping the ropes holding his boat by force and heading for open waters.
"The scene was crazy," said Saeb Shaath, one of the convoyers who was at the port helping the charity to dispatch the aid consignment and who witnessed the incident, speaking to Reuters.
"He [the captain] broke anchor without permission to leave. He broke the ropes tying the ship ... and nearly capsized the ship when when it hit the wall. There were a lot of people on that ship."
Libyan authorities pursued the ship with Zodiac speedboats and aircraft, but the captain refused to stop. "He won't listen," said Shaath. Libyan authorities had secured the boat while waiting to resolve the dispute between the captain and his passengers. The volunteers understood the captain feared the agent would not pay him the $90,000 fee for the voyage to Gaza. After leaving harbour, he apparently disembarked 22.50 GMT on Wednesday 10th, through a side door of the ship, onto a speed boat, which made for another cargo vessel in Darnah harbour – “Odin Finder”.
There followed this short statement from one of those on board:
"reports of 4 Libyan navy vessels & two fighter jets surrounding ship, attempting to bring the vessel back to harbour safely.
Attempts to ensure 10 kidnapped convoyers & 3 libyans safely transferred to Libyan ships, to return to Darnah. No force being used – only verbal reasoning applied to Strofades IV captain"
After this, the journey to Greece resumed.


Britain's foreign ministry said it was aware of the incident. It released a statement:
"Our Embassy in Athens has spoken to the shipping company and is also in close contact with the Greek authorities. Our priority remains that there be a safe resolution to this incident.”
The ship's owners are the Pireaus-based Ionion Bridge Shipping Management.
Ministry officials said all those on board the vessel were in good health; although it is known that for the earlier part of the journey they were allowed only washing-water to drink and no food.

Update, 14 November 19.45 GMT:

Ebrahim reports back: The convoy has just driven away from the port of Darnah where the debacle with the ship took place and apparently caused some bad feeling with the local police.

He says they are all safe and well, and had their passports returned.

The two local Bristol people, Keith and Shahid, are fine.

Internet connections have been limited and this is the reason communications have been so fragmentary.

They are driving to Tobruk where they will have some freedom and can relax.

There are no ships over the next few days as it is the festival of Eid.

They have their money back and have news of a ship arriving next Thursday which would leave on Saturday.

Ebrahim Mussaji, from Gloucestershire, is part of the Bristol Contingent of Road2Hope.

21st November: The abducted convoyers have returned to the UK but some of them were hoping to fly back to rejoin the convoy for the departure of ship number two, planned for the night of Sunday 21st; while the Captain of

Strofades IV

is, apparently, under arrest.

Gaza "unchanged"; Plans to raze Jerusalem

John Ging: Conditions in Gaza have not changed

since Israel declared it would ease the blockade

Thursday, 11 November 2010

John Ging: 'No tangible change has occurred to the lives of Gaza's people since Israel announced it would ease its economic blockade of the Strip last June.'

The Director of Operation for the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] in the Gaza Strip, John Ging, has confirmed that "no tangible change" has occurred to the lives of Gaza's people since Israel announced it would ease its economic blockade of the Strip last June.

Israel's announcement that it would lift some of the restrictions imposed on Gaza to allow the entry of more food and consumer goods followed the international pressure it came under after nine Turkish peace activists were killed by Israeli soldiers aboard a Turkish vessel attempting to breach the siege.

John Ging accused Israel of ignoring the demands of the international community to lift the blockade and stated that "there is no tangible change for the people on the ground here with regard to their condition, dependence on aid, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction. And there is no economy."

Mr Ging asserted that "The ease as described was nothing more than a political ease of pressure on Israel and Egypt."

He also stated that Israel had imposed its stifling siege on the Gaza Strip for more than four years and prevents the entry of the majority of basic materials, primarily construction materials, which the sector desperately needs for the reconstruction of buildings destroyed by Israel during the war.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/index.php

Jerusalem attorney discloses Israeli plan for

full destruction of city

10 November 2010
The Israeli government is “planning to completely destroy the city of Jerusalem and a erect a new Jerusalem with a Zionist vision amid a plan it prepared which it calls the Jerusalem 2020 plan,” Jerusalem attorney Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi said in a statement he released on Wednesday.

The Jerusalem unit head said the wide-ranging plan envisions new settlements in the city and a complete transformation of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Old City walls will dwindle down to a trace on the full parameters of biblical parks, bridges, and synagogues in an area covering the Silwan, Sheikh Jarah, Wadi Al-Jawz, and Al-Sawanah districts of the city, he added.

The plan alleges that Jerusalem is “the capitol and spiritual center of Israel and the Jewish people and a world city which attracts the souls of millions of believers across the globe.”

Ruwaidi went on to say: “All of the settlement projects in Jerusalem during the past three years, some of which have been practically implemented, fall under [the plan’s] framework, including a decision to erect a thousand new settlement units in Jebel Abu Ghunaim aimed at completing the isolation of the city with a wall of settlements.”

“Israel announced previously it will build 50,000 new units in the city. The implementation of 20,000 of those units has been initiated practically under projects that have been approved from time to time for political objectives linked to political and international action.”

20,000 Palestinian housing units have been threatened with demolition.

Under the plan, Arab Jerusalem will make up 71,000 dunums of the eastern and western sides of the city’s total 126,000 dunum land area.

Ruwaidi added that planning projects for new settlement units, conferences held in Jerusalem, excavation projects in the holy city’s area, and revocation of Palestinian residencies that have recently appeared in the media are part of a decided Israeli program that the Israeli government and other parties have been working to materialize.

Ruwaidi met on Wednesday with a legal team from the UK accompanied by political and cultural extensions from the British Consulate in Jerusalem. The delegation is currently developing a report about the situation in the city.

The Palestinian attorney presented a comprehensive report to the UK delegation relating to the city and the distress of its citizens, and the need to put the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and The Hague Convention of 1907 into action and to recognize Israel as an occupying force in Jerusalem that has no right to change the city’s landmarks.

He called for legal, political, and economic support for Palestinians in the holy city.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/

Jewish Pride!

To take action in an arena like this, surrounded in the dark by a whole lot of people who believed you were like them and who may now want to kill you, waiting for your turn to stand, must take a good deal of old-fashioned bravery...

The culture of destruction thrives - this week in Palestine

Hebron

As a further move to render the ancient city of Hebron void, a group of extremist settlers opened a new settlers-only road in the old city on the 9th November. Reports from the Palestinian Information Centre indicate that the group attacked two Palestinian families, including one worker employed in building Israeli settlements.

Al-Walajeh

Residents of al-Walajeh, northwest of Bethlehem, witnessed what appeared to be a near-fatal setback when the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered a 45-day grace period in which the Israeli army may continue building the wall that will completely encircle the village.

Seen through the broken window of one family's future home, the village of al-Walajeh may soon be surrounded on all sides by the Israeli wall.

The court ruling, delivered on Monday, effectively halfs the current land area of the already winnowed village. Al-Walajeh has lost 13,000 of its original 17,000 dunums of land since 1948, or about 75% (a dunum is about a quarter of an acre). Once the wall is complete, a development many say they can expect within the mandated 45 days, villagers will be cut off from another 1,800 dunums.

Officially, the 45-day period is for the Israeli army to report back with the security reasons behind the wall’s proposed route. But al-Walajeh residents say those reasons don’t exist and must be fabricated as their village shrinks.

“The court was Israeli, the judges were Israeli, the people confiscating the land are Israeli,” said Saleh Halmi Khalifa, head of the village council. “So the court just gave the army 45 days to confiscate more and more land.”

Khalifa called the decision “purely political” and said if the wall wasn’t finished surrounding al-Walajeh in 45 days, the court might grant another two or three months. He rejected the Israeli security rationale, citing the lawyer representing the villagers, who claimed via an Israeli security expert that Israelis near al-Walajeh might actually be less safe with the wall on its proposed grounds. But with the apparent rebuke of the lawyer, Ghayat Nasir, the wall is going up regardless.

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9117&Itemid=64

Settlers target Palestinian olive trees

Dr Cesar Chelala /New York

During the last few years, Palestinian olive trees - a universal symbol of life and peace- have been systematically destroyed by Israeli settlers. “It has reached a crescendo. What might look like ad hoc violence is actually a tool the settlers are using to push back Palestinian farmers from their own land,” stated a spokeswoman for Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation monitoring incidents in the West Bank.

The tree and its oil have a special significance throughout the Middle East. It is an essential aspect of Palestinian culture, heritage and identity, and has been mentioned in the Bible, the Qur’an, and the Torah. Many families depend on the olive trees for their livelihood.

Olive oil is a key product of the Palestinian national economy, and olive production is the main product in terms of total agricultural production, making up 25% of the total agricultural production in the West Bank. Palestinians plant around 10,000 new olive trees in the West Bank every year. Most of the new plants are from the oil-producing variety. Olive oil is the second major export item in Palestine.

For the last forty years, over a million of olive trees and hundreds of thousands of fruit trees have been destroyed in Palestinian lands. The Israel Defence Forces have been accused of uprooting olive trees to facilitate the building of settlements, expand roads and build infrastructure.

More at: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?

cu_no=2&item_no=397349&version=1&template_id=46&parent_id=2

Road to Hope convoy to move on at last

Continued from: http://palywely.blogspot.com/2010/11/road-to-hope-tenth-day-at-egyptian.html

The Road to Hope humanitarian aid convoy, which includes five vehicles containing aid from Bristol, is boarding a ship from Libya to Egypt today (Wednesday) and hopes to sail tomorrow (Thursday). The convoy group launched a last-minute fund-raising appeal last night for over thirty thousand pounds to pay for the ship and news on Wednesday evening is that this has been answered by a group of supporters in London.

After a month on the road having departed from London on 10th October, Road to Hope humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza has been stranded on the Libyan-Egyptian border for over two weeks witnessing a wrangle with the Egyptian authorities. Egypt is insisting that all aid for Gaza must arrive at the port of Al-Arish near the Gaza crossing, either by sea or by air, and refuses all overland crossings of its territories.

Just a skeleton crew have remained with the vehicles in Libya towards the end of the long wait. Some of the Bristol convoyers have had to return to the UK for work or personal reasons. But some have pledged to return to the convoy once it is on the move and to join it for the final leg of the trip from El Arish to the Rafah Crossing into Gaza.

Sakir Yildirim of Fishponds who has been on all the previous Bristol convoys and was on the Mavi Marmara says “I will drop everything to return to the convoy as soon as I know it is on the move. I want to be part of the team when we drive our aid into Gaza”.

Others who returned to Bristol are considering their plans but have spoken positively of the trip so far. Such convoys may be less likely in future for two reasons: there have to be less expensive ways of getting aid to Gaza; and, at least 50% of the raison d'etre of the convoys being publicity and the world's news media being perfidious as it is, hence zero publicity being generated.

However, there is another flotilla in the planning stages for early 2011.