Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on statehood moves at U.N.
"Peace between conflicting parties is not about Saeb Erekat waking up one morning and feeling his conscience aching for Israelis or Israelis waking up and feeling their conscience aching for my suffering. It's about the matrix of interests maturing. Once any conflicting party believes that making peace is cheaper than continuing war, he'll do it. Our matrix of interest has matured to deliver the requirement for peace, but Israel hasn't opened the door. They think maintaining the status quo is best for them. We are trying to show them that the status quo is not sustainable." Saeb Erekat
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Palestine's Fayyad holds Israel gov’t responsible for mosque arson
Fayyad holds Israel gov’t responsible for mosque arson
QUSRA, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday said the Israeli government bore "full responsibility" for an arson attack on a mosque in the northern West Bank.
"The Israeli government bears full responsibility for these attacks against our people, property and sacred places," Fayyad said in a statement issued several hours after burning tyres were rolled into the ground floor of a mosque in Qusra village, some 15 kilometres southeast of Nablus.
The building, which was also spray-painted with Hebrew graffiti, sustained damage from fire and smoke in an attack blamed on Jewish settlers responding to the demolition of three homes in the outpost of Migron overnight.
Fayyad said he held Israel's government responsible "because it has failed in the past to hold the perpetrators of such attacks accountable".
Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the attack was "proof of Israel's rejection of peace" and called on the international community to pressure Israel over the attack and similar incidents.
A similar arson attack was carried out on a mosque in a nearby village in early June, just days after police had demolished another West Bank outpost called Alei Ayin, sparking fierce clashes with settlers.
Overnight, hundreds of soldiers entered Migron settlement and dismantled three structures in line with a defence ministry order backed by the Israeli supreme court, security officials said.
"Six settlers who tried to prevent the demolition were arrested after attacking the forces," spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak had ordered the three structures be taken down in June. In early August, the supreme court issued an identical order, although it gave the authorities until March 2012 to implement the decision.
Hardline settlers have adopted what they call a "price tag" policy under which they attack Palestinians and their property in response to Israeli government measures against settlements.6 September 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Abbas of Palestine: “We don’t want to isolate Israel but to live with it in peace and security...”
“We don’t want to isolate Israel but to live with it in peace and security,” he also said. “We don’t want to delegitimize Israel. We want to legitimize ourselves.”
Abbas Affirms Palestinian Bid at U.N.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
American Muslims Call for Gilad Shalit's Release
American Muslims Call for Gilad Shalit's Release
By JTA
Published August 31, 2011.
A group of prominent American Muslims issued a letter urging Hamas to immediately release captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The Aug. 26 letter’s 11 signatories include the two Muslim members of Congress – Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN) – as well as Muslim academics and communal figures.
“We believe Hamas’ harsh treatment and five-year detention of Shalit is wrong,” the Muslim leaders wrote in their letter, which was addressed to Khaled Mashal, the Syrian-based chairman of Hamas’ political bureau.
The letter said that Hamas has complained about the conditions under which Israel holds thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Citing the teachings of Muhammad, the letter’s signatories wrote that Muslims are “instructed to ‘repel the evil deed with one that is better.’”
“The struggle for Palestinian human rights and self-determination must be based on this ethical and moral code,” the letter said. “Hamas’ inhumane detention of Shalit undermines the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for human rights and a state of their own, existing in peace and security beside Israel.”
Along with the two congressmen, the letter’s signatories include Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, who was involved initially in the controversial effort to build a Muslim community center near Ground Zero; Sayyid Syeed, national director of the Islamic Society of North America’s Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances; and Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United Kingdom who now teaches at American University.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Israeli military arms settlers in preparation for Palestinian protests
West Bank settlers are given training before protests predicted to coincide with a Palestinian petition for UN recognition
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/30/israeli-military-arms-settlers-protests
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk,
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk,
The Israeli military is arming and training West Bank settlers in preparation for mass protests by Palestinians that it expects to erupt around the time that the UN is asked to recognise a Palestinian state, according to a leaked document.
Teargas and stun grenades are being distributed and training sessions held with settlement security teams, according to the document obtained by Haaretz.
The army has also drawn lines on maps around Jewish settlements close to Palestinian villages to guide troops, police and settlement security chiefs. Protesters who breach the first line will be subject to teargas and other methods of crowd dispersal. If a second "red line" is crossed, soldiers will be permitted to open fire at protesters' legs.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed it was liaising with settlers over Operation Summer Seeds, its codename for the military response to the expected protests. However, Palestinian leaders vigorously deny that violent protests are planned, and the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, has said he expects September to pass quietly.
In a statement the IDF said: "The IDF maintains an ongoing, professional dialogue with the community leadership and security personnel throughout Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] while devoting great efforts to training local forces and preparing them to deal with any possible scenario.....READ MORE
Monday, August 29, 2011
Don’t demolish my future!...To stay updated join UNWRA on Facebook and Twitter.
Six-year-old Nawal Ead is about to start first grade. "After the Eid I'm going to school," she told us excitedly.
Don’t demolish my future!
Campaign to save a West Bank school from demolition
UPDATE: Alarming developments in the West Bank community of Khan al Ahmar. Settlers from Kfar Adumim have filed a petition against the school, asking for an injunction not to re-open the school this September and pushing for the school to be swiftly demolished.
Though the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the request to close the school, the petition has set the clock ticking for the demolition of the school. Such a demolition would effectively deny the children of the community their education and jeopardise their future.
More on the situation in Khan al Ahmar.
How you can help:
Join our campaign
1) Raise awareness
On Facebook:
We are asking all our friends to donate their Facebook status.
Please share the photo of six-year-old Nawal whose school is under threat and copy and paste the following as your status:
"Don’t demolish my future!
Israel: Stop demolishing Palestinian schools.
http://bit.ly/nKDUN3"
On Twitter:
If you want to show your support for the children and community please write a short message on our Facebook wall (www.facebook.com/unrwa). We will print your messages of support and put them up on the walls for the start of the new school year on the 5th September.
Copy the photo and tweet the following:
"Don’t demolish my future! Israel: Stop demolishing Palestinian schools #stopdemolitions #UNRWA http://bit.ly/nKDUN3"
2) Send a message of support
This campaign is about more than just one school. We want Israel to stop the demolitions of schools, homes and infrastructure in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. 3) Stay informed about the bigger picture
The Israeli practice of demolition, which has increased sharply in the first half of 2011, continues to devastate Palestinian families and communities in Area C – the 60 per cent of the West Bank controlled by Israel. Many of the people affected already live in poverty. Children are often hit hardest.
The UN estimates that there are more than 3,000 demolition orders outstanding in Area C alone, including 18 issued to schools.
Find out more on our demolitions watch section (updated monthly).
More on the alarming increase in West Bank demolitions.
The OCHA report “Displacement and insecurity in Area C of the West Bank” has detailed analysis of the current situation.
4) Support our demand that Israel meet its obligations under international law
• Immediately cease demolitions of Palestinian-owned homes, schools and infrastructure, which cause displacement and dispossession, until Palestinians have access to a fair and nondiscriminatory planning system. This should include community participation in all levels of the planning process;
• Families that have been forcibly displaced must be allowed to return to their homes in safety and dignity, and be given compensation for any harm they have suffered, including the destruction of land, homes and property.
UNWRA: Living with the threat of demolition
A’had, 11, builds a house out of clay at the UNRWA summer camp. “I want to have a house just like this when I grow up,” he says.
Living with the threat of demolition
Khan al Ahmar is a community fighting for survival. The 180-strong community faces the threat of imminent displacement if the Israeli authorities demolish their homes and school as planned. This may well destroy the Bedouin community, one of 20 in the area, who have become victims of creeping settlement expansion.The land the community lives on has been slated for the expansion of settlements in the Ma’ale Adumim municipal area, in the Jerusalem periphery, despite the community’s decades’ long presence. Israeli authorities see Khan al Ahmar and the other Bedouin communities in the area, more than 2,300 people in all, as a hindrance to the planned expansion of Ma’ale Adumim, Kfar Adumim and other surrounding settlements, and to the construction of the West Bank Barrier, which would effectively annex this strategically significant area to Israel.
If implemented, the Israeli development plans would be the culmination of years of settlement expansion at the expense of the Bedouin communities. Since 1991, when large parts of the communities’ living areas were integrated into the expanded boundaries of Ma’ale Adumim, Israeli policies have increased the pressure on the communities to leave their homes.
Home demolitions, evictions and property confiscations, exacerbated by settler harassment and the economic effects of movement restrictions, have left these communities struggling to make ends meet and living in fear. The people of Khan al Ahmar have now exhausted all legal avenues to protect 12 homes and the school building from demolition. If these are destroyed, the community will not only be plunged into deeper poverty but may also be displaced and dispersed.
Click to see photos
Photo credit: Ala’a Ghosheh/UNRWA
Friday, August 26, 2011
How Israel takes its revenge on [Palestinian] boys who throw stones
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/how-israel-takes-its-revenge-on-boys-who-throw-stones-2344037.html#
How Israel takes its revenge on boys who throw stones
Video seen by Catrina Stewart reveals the brutal interrogation of young Palestinians
Friday, 26 August 2011
The boy, small and frail, is struggling to stay awake. His head lolls to the side, at one point slumping on to his chest. "Lift up your head! Lift it up!" shouts one of his interrogators, slapping him. But the boy by now is past caring, for he has been awake for at least 12 hours since he was separated at gunpoint from his parents at two that morning. "I wish you'd let me go," the boy whimpers, "just so I can get some sleep."
During the nearly six-hour video, 14-year-old Palestinian Islam Tamimi, exhausted and scared, is steadily broken to the point where he starts to incriminate men from his village and weave fantastic tales that he believes his tormentors want to hear.
This rarely seen footage seen by The Independent offers a glimpse into an Israeli interrogation, almost a rite of passage that hundreds of Palestinian children accused of throwing stones undergo every year.
Israel has robustly defended its record, arguing that the treatment of minors has vastly improved with the creation of a military juvenile court two years ago. But the children who have faced the rough justice of the occupation tell a very different story.
"The problems start long before the child is brought to court, it starts with their arrest," says Naomi Lalo, an activist with No Legal Frontiers, an Israeli group that monitors the military courts. It is during their interrogation where their "fate is doomed", she says.
Sameer Shilu, 12, was asleep when the soldiers smashed in the front door of his house one night. He and his older brother emerged bleary-eyed from their bedroom to find six masked soldiers in their living room...READ MORE
Design Elements of the newly built Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Washington DC
Drawing on its location at the edge of the Tidal Basin, water is used as an essential element that builds on King's words and recalls most powerfully the theme of justice. The water appears only on either side of the main entry, not even visible until one has entered the memorial plaza. It is the sound of water “rolling down” that will draw a visitor’s attention. From this life-giving source, Dr. King’s message begins stretching away from the entrance, at once welcoming and yet daring the visitor to follow.
Trees
Along the Tidal Basin, Yoshino cherry blossom trees have thrived since 1912 – a gift from Japan as a sign of peace and unity. For only two weeks each spring, their tiny blossoms surround the Basin in a cloud of delicate pink and white. Spring resonates with the spirit of hope, rebirth and renewal; the King Memorial has added 182 cherry blossoms to the Tidal Basin’s collection. Poetically, each year the peak blooming period for the trees coincides with the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, April 4th.
To prolong the message of renewed hope embodied by the cherry trees, crape myrtles have also been planted in the memorial. Crape myrtles bloom throughout the summer months and into the fall, prolonging the burst of color and encouraging a sense of endurance and faith.
Along West Basin Drive and Independence Avenue 31 American elm trees have been planted, not only as the standard street tree of Washington, DC, but also as a border surrounding the memorial, embracing Dr. King as an American icon...READ MORE
“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.” MLK
Palestinians have to be very careful in their approach to the legal implication of the UN bid
"Dr. Hussein Ibish, a senior research fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, said that the opinion suggests that there are numerous important legal implications to the ambitious UN statehood initiative that have not been fully considered, particularly by the Palestinian general public.
One such implication raised by the report is that the PNA was established as a temporary administrative body, and as such it " has limited legislative and executive competence, limited territorial jurisdiction, and limited personal jurisdiction over Palestinians not present in the areas."
Ibish argued that the "Palestinians should be very careful about any action that might prove a symbolic victory but carry serious political, diplomatic and legal consequences."
"A confrontation is not in the interests of any of the parties, " Ibish said."
UN bid may erode PLO's status: Palestinian report
******************
This is an important legal opinion regarding The PLO, the future State of Palestine and the question of popular representation by Guy S. Goodwill-Gill at Oxford. http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/238962-final-pdf-plo-statehood-opinionr-arb.html
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
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