Calls for Palestinian right of return

Sunday, 22 August 2010 11:26

Written by Francis Boyle

WASHINGTON--Today the former head of the Palestinian negotiating team asserted the rigth of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi, who led the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington talks said that Palestinians "evicted out by terrorism and force" should be allwoed back to their homes.  "This is a matter that should go to the conscience of the world--and the democratic world especially."

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Hebron: The Fence Beside Our Door by Art Gish

[I am reposting an old essay by Art Gish, who was killed two weeks ago in a farming accident  on his farm in Athens County, Ohio. — George Hartley]
January 21, 2004

Just over a year ago, on Christmas day, 2002, Israeli soldiers constructed a
high fence and gate on our street right beside our door in Hebron, cutting
off access to Shuhada Street for us and everyone else in the Chicken Market.
We then had to walk two blocks north to get to Shuhada Street and come back
down the street to walk south on that street from our apartment.

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Prominent local activist dies in farming accident

By Jim Phillips
, Athens News

Local peace activist and farmer Art Gish, perhaps best known for making repeated pilgrimages to Palestine’s West Bank to advocate for peace, was killed in a farming accident Wednesday morning.

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Octavia Nasr,20-year CNN career ended over a tweet. UK ambassador Frances Guy removes blog post under pressure.

Reposted from MuzzleWatch, July 8, 2010

There’s really little to add to Glenn Greenwald’scomprehensive post on the hypocritical firing of (until now, the very safe and non-controversial) CNN Senior Middle East News Editor Octavia Nasr over just one short tweet she posted this weekend:

“Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah  . . . . One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

Fadlallah was one of the world’s most revered Shia leaders. He was also the religious leader most associated with the political party of US ally Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Upon his death, UK ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy wrote in a piece (which, believe it or not, she has now taken down,presumably due to pressure after the Nasr uproar- on her official blog) called (cached version) The Passing of Decent Men, “When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person.  That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith…The world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints.”

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Israel Talks Itself Into War: An Analysis

June 23, 2010

There was an article in The Christian Science Monitor the other day (June 22, 2010) entitled "Why Iran vs. Israel rhetoric could escalate into war." Almost all of the rhetoric was coming from one source, and that was Israel. Once more, the war talk reflected the peculiar and really pathological nature of the Israeli worldview.

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Echoes From The Warsaw Ghetto In Gaza

An Interview with Cecilie Surasky 
by Christiana Voniati

19 June, 2010
Countercurrents.org

Gazing at letters that her grandmother wrote from the Warsaw Ghetto before she was killed , Deputy Director of the global organization “Jewish Voice for Peace”, Cecilie Surasky, discusses Israel's “anti-Jewish” crimes and the inescapable comparison between the sufferings of Gazans and the gradual crushing of Jewish life in the Nazi ghettos in the period that led to the Final Solution . More significantly, the Jewish activist for peace reveals and explores the relationship between Jewish collective trauma and Israel 's aggression.

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Targeted for protesting Israel

Brian Napoletano reports on an attempt by the University of California Irvine to punish all Muslim students after a protest against a defender of Israel's war crimes.

June 22, 2010 | SocialistWorker.org

A UC Irvine student is escorted from a lecture hall after a protest against Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren

ACTIVISTS ARE outraged after administrators at the University California (UC) Irvine announced plans to suspend the Muslim Student Union (MSU) for a whole year starting in September. What did they do wrong? Students protested Israel's ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren.

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Israeli Blockade 'Eased' Only in English, but U.S. Media Eat It Up

FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting)06/18/2010 by Alex Kane

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement yesterday that promised to "liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza."  The announcement from Israel's security cabinet came after widespread international pressure on Israel following a deadly Israeli naval raid on a humanitarian flotilla trying to break the three-year old blockade of Gaza.

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Ahava campaign comes to court

Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada, 17 June 2010

Activists protest outside of a US store selling Ahava products. (Stolen Beauty)

In France, the campaign to boycott Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics has entered a new phase with boycott, divestment and sanctions advocates taking legal action against the Sephora cosmetics retail chain's contract with the company.

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Israel's Palestinian Minority Thrown into a Maelstrom

Jonathan Cook

Middle East Report Online

June 16, 2010

Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth. He is author of Blood and Religion (2006), Israel and the Clash of Civilizations (2008) and Disappearing Palestine (2008).

The first reports of Israel’s May 31 commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla surfaced among the country’s 1.4 million Palestinian citizens alongside rumors that Sheikh Ra’id Salah, head of the radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement of Israel, had been shot dead on the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara. Salah is alive, but at the time his demise seemed confirmed when it emerged that large numbers of police had been drafted into northern Israel, where most of the Palestinian minority lives, in expectation of widespread violence.

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Masked Attack on At-Tuwani

Palestine Monitor

17 June 2010

On Saturday morning, 30 to 35 masked Israeli settlers stormed the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. Armed with metal clubs, slingshots, knives, and stones, the attackers targeted the house closest to the edge of the woods. International observers stationed in the village arrived in time to witness and document the final phases of the assault. Michael Carpenter investigated for Palestine Monitor.

Photo: Operation Dove

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Palestinian boycott coordinator: "The movement has a huge impact"

 Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada, 14 June 2010

Hind Awwad (Adri Nieuwhof)

Hind Awwad, national coordinator of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), recently toured Europe to support the growing worldwide campaign. The movement aims to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the discrimination against Palestinian citizens in Israel, and calls for respect for the rights of Palestine refugees. The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof interviewed Hind Awwad in Bern, Switzerland.

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