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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

IOF troops deploy in Silwan to search for weapons, find nothing


[ 17/08/2011 - 01:48 PM ]


OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli troops and special forces backed by choppers stormed the Silwan town, south of occupied Jerusalem, on Wednesday and were deployed in Batn Al-Hawa and Ein Bir Ayub suburbs, local sources said.

They said that tension ran high in the town as they feared a wave of demolition of local homes in the process.

Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the committee defending the land of Silwan, said that Israeli soldiers occupied rooftops of Palestinian homes in Silwan and deployed large numbers of forces at the entrances to the town and inside its suburbs.

The Israeli army command claimed that the operation was meant to search for weapons but did not declare finding any.

Local sources in Bustan suburb reported that the soldiers barged into the sit-in tent pitched to protest land and property confiscation on part of the Israeli occupation authority and used hounds in searching homes in the company of intelligence elements.

IOF launches arrest sweep, burns down farmland in Jenin vicinity


[ 17/08/2011 - 02:02 PM ]


JENIN, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces launched wide-ranging arrest sweeps around the West Bank city of Jenin, and burned dozens of dunams of farmland west of the city.

Witnesses said several patrols raided Kafr Rai village south of Jenin and deployed throughout the streets. The home of 16-year-old Bilal Nabil Jawabira, 16, was searched in the operation.

The sources added the soldiers set up ambushes in the local cemetery, in the olive groves, and on the rooftops of nearby homes.

IOF troops raided several other villages in the area with patrols that went on until early morning without report of arrest.
Meanwhile, IOF soldiers set fire to dozens of dunums (1 Dunum= 1000 square meters) of olive groves and almond fields causing heavy damage in the village of East Barta’a in the southern region of Jenin governorate.

Locals said troops posted at the Barta’a checkpoint stopped fire vehicles from Jenin’s civil defense service from arriving to fight the blaze.

They said Israel forces had been burning grass piled on the sides of the roads where they were patrolling, when fire spread to nearby olive groves.

Meantime, locals reported that a gang of Jewish settlers burned down tens of dunams of farmland in the dismantled Jewish settlement of Homesh and directed verbal insults at Arabs and tried to assault the vehicles of Palestinians who drove along the road between Jenin and Nablus.

Witnesses said the settlers set fire to hundreds of olive and almond trees as Israeli military forces remained idle. IOF troops arrived to the region for the protection of the settlers, they said.

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

Russian journalist receives "death threats" for supporting Palestinians


Russian journalist receives "death threats" for supporting PalestiniansMaxim Shevchenko: "I have received anonymous death threats threatening to 'break my skull so that shrapnel from it will take out both eyes of my wife'."
Maxim Shevchenko is an immensely well-respected editor, journalist and presenter on television and radio in Russia. He is a staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and he is also one of the latest targets of the pro-Israel Lobby.


Shevchenko, one of Russia's leading journalists, has a wealth of experience behind him, and over the years he has been very open in his condemnation of Israel for its repeated violations of international law in its dealings with the Palestinians. This has, inevitably, led to him becoming a prime target of Russia's Zionists.

While he may be used to run-ins with Zionists and their repeated efforts to discredit him and anyone else who criticises Israel, the latest burst of condemnation against Shevchenko has been particularly vicious, to the point that he has received numerous death threats. The spark for this latest attack is reportedly a comment he made in which he allegedly compared Israel's actions towards the Palestinians with those of the Nazis towards the Jews. However, while denying all allegations of anti-Semitism Shevchenko points out that the particular statement he is being condemned for was actually a quote from Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein. Eighty-seven year old Ms Epstein is also a vocal critic of Israel and a supporter of the Palestinian cause.

The Jewish Congress of Russia, which has an Israeli at its helm, has been spearheading the campaign against Maxim Shevchenko and threats against his life have, it is alleged, been made by the former president and sitting board member of that congress Yevgeny Satanovsky. According to The Palestinian Journalist Forum: "Yevgeny Satanovsky repeated the death threat in front of Shevchenko's wife, Nadezhda Kifrckova, who is also a journalist, as Satanovsky told her... after her return from covering Freedom Flotilla II, 'I will kill your husband'." According to Shevchenko, "I have received anonymous death threats threatening to 'break my skull so that shrapnel from it will take out both eyes of my wife'."

On hearing of the reported threats against his life, MEMO contacted Shevchenko directly and spoke to him and his wife both of whom confirmed the threats made against his life. Shevchenko's wife stated that the threats made against her husband's life were made openly and publicly by Satanovsky in the middle of a public conference on the heritage of the USSR in June. She explained that her husband's pro-Palestinian stance has been the key reason for the targeting of her husband. She told us that one other catalyst for the attacks against him was that he had organised the first televised discussion between a member of Hamas (Osama Hamdan - who is the Hamas representative in Lebanon) and a top member of the Likud party in Israel. It was aired on the political talk show "Judge it" which is aired on one of the most popular television channels in Russia, Channel One. In journalistic terms, this should not have been a problem at all. On the contrary this was a unique opportunity to hear both sides. Hamas is not outlawed in Russia, as it is in many other countries, and members of Hamas have been invited to Russia on several occasions before, including by Prime Minister Vladamir Putin. Therefore having a Hamas representative on a political television programme hosted by Shevchenko should not have been a matter worthy of putting him in the firing line for such heavy criticism. However, as Shevchenko's wife pointed out to us, there are around one million Russian speaking Jews living in Israel and so this programme became something of a scandal in Israel to all those who did not want to hear dialogue between the two sides and who did not want the Palestinian voice to be heard.
Threats against people who condemn the aggression of the state of Israel are part of a global Zionist campaign to put fear into the hearts and minds of those who dare to stand against Zionism and its violations of human rights and international law. It is something faced by all critics of Israel at some time or other. Israeli newspaper Haaretz has referred to Israel's "global diplomatic intimidation campaign" and it is clear that such bullying takes place on many levels; it is unacceptable wherever and whenever it takes place.

MEMO condemns the targeting of courageous journalists like Maxim Shevchenko in the strongest possible terms. The ability to criticise the policies of any country freely is the right of all people; neither Israel nor its allies should consider it to be above criticism. Death threats and the slander of those who speak up for the human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people and who in doing so criticise Israel must stop. Such threats should be investigated fully in the most robust manner by the relevant authorities, and suitable action taken against the perpetrators.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/europe/2725-russian-journalist-receives-qdeath-threatsq-for-supporting-palestinians

Palestinian journalists hold rally in solidarity with Shevchenko


Palestinian journalists hold rally in solidarity with Shevchenko
EXCLUSIVE PICTURES

Palestinian journalists organised a rally yesterday, 16 August under the theme 'Don't silence the media' in solidarity with Russian journalist, Maxim Shevchenko, following death threats against him as a result of his vocal support for the Palestinian Cause.

The sit-in was held in front of the Gaza headquarters of UNESCO where participants raised placards calling on human rights organisations to follow up and advocate on the issue. Others called on the Russian government to ensure full protection for Mr Shevchenko who has reaffirmed his support for the Palestinian people until their usurped rights are restored.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2732-palestinian-journalists-hold-rally-in-solidarity-with-shevchenko

PA condemns conference hosted by hard-line Rabbi


Published yesterday (updated) 17/08/2011 20:54
 
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A Palestinian shows the damage to his family house which was firebombed by
Jewish settlers in the West Bank village of Huwwara near Nablus.
[AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh]
 
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli government on Wednesday for allowing a conference hosted by a hard-line Rabbi to take place Tuesday in the Pisgat Zeev settlement in East Jerusalem.

"The Israeli authorities’ ongoing and consistent tolerance towards hate speech and incitement against Palestinians leads to actions," director of the PA's media center Ghassan Khatib said Wednesday.

The conference was hosted by Rabbi Yitzshak Shapiro, a co-author of the notoriously racist "King's Torah", and called for halting construction of a Palestinian school in between Pisgat Zeev and Nabi Taakov settlements in East Jerusalem, as well as preventing Jewish girls from dating Arab men.

In addition, the conference demanded that the Jerusalem light railway project should be banned from passing through Palestinian neighborhoods, a PA statement said.

"In the name of freedom of speech, settlers are given freedom of incitement and freedom to use violence against Palestinians," Khatib added.

The Palestinian Government Media Center "calls upon the Israeli authorities and the government to take serious actions to prevent continuing settler incitement and violations.

"We, also, call upon the international community to hold the Israeli government accountable for permitting incitement and violence of settlers to go unpunished."

The "King's Torah", which has been banned from sale in Israel, reportedly says babies and children of Israel's enemies may be killed in certain circumstances since "it is clear that they will grow to harm us."

"Anywhere where the influence of gentiles constitutes a threat to the life of Israel, it is permissible to kill them," the authors wrote.
 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413931

World powers condemn Israeli settlement move

Published yesterday (updated) 17/08/2011 20:59
 
 
 
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) -- The United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations attacked on Tuesday, Israel's move to expand a West Bank settlement, calling it a threat to peace efforts.

The latest public condemnation of Israel came amid intense efforts by Tony Blair, the envoy of the diplomatic Quartet, to get Palestinians and Israelis back into direct talks, diplomats reported.

"The Quartet is greatly concerned by Israel's recent announcements to advance planning for new housing units in Ariel and East Jerusalem," both areas on the Palestinian side of the pre-1967 border, the four powers said in a statement.

"This comes at a critical juncture with Quartet efforts ongoing to resume negotiations which are the only way to a just and durable solution to the conflict," added the statement.

Ministers from Blair's native country joined the voices of rebuke. "Israel has again ignored the calls of the international community to refrain from actions which make a return to negotiations more difficult," UK Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham said in a statement Tuesday.

"These repeated actions, illegal under international law, undermine confidence and threaten a two state solution."

Israel on Monday approved the building of 277 new homes in Ariel, a Jewish settlement inside the occupied West Bank, taking the total to more than 2,700 new settler homes approved in the past two weeks.

The planned expansion has brought a furious response from the Palestinian Authority, which has shunned direct talks since Israel ended a moratorium on settlement building in September last year.

Israel has rejected the international criticism, insisting that settlements built illegally on Palestinian lands are not an obstacle to direct talks.

"The Palestinians have negotiated many times when settlements were in existence," said Israel's UN ambassador Ron Prosor.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put in place a freeze on settlements, during which Palestinians waited nine months to come back to the table. Why? They have learned that it is better for them to sit back and do absolutely nothing."

The freeze, which was imposed unilaterally by Israel, did not include East Jerusalem. Palestinians leaders called it insufficient to prove a serious will to make peace, and only returned to the negotiations table under heavy US pressure.

With the negotiations stalled for almost a year, President Mahmoud Abbas is preparing to seek full United Nations membership at the UN General Assembly in September.

Israel says this is a threat to the peace process and the United States is expected to veto any application to the UN Security Council.

"The Quartet reaffirms that unilateral action by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community," said the statement.

"Jerusalem in particular is one of the core issues that must be resolved through negotiations between the parties, which underscores the urgent need for the parties to resume serious and substantive talks," the international powers added.

The Quartet has itself been divided in recent months over how to end the conflict that it has been trying for years to settle.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a meeting in Washington in July and could not even agree on a statement about the encounter.

The European powers want the Quartet to take a stronger role in efforts to get the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table, even if this means setting out the parameters for talks. The United States has pushed back such a move, diplomats said.

Former British prime minister Blair, who has been the Quartet's special envoy since 2007, is working on a Quartet communique which he hopes could end divisions between the international powers and help get talks started again before the UN assembly.

"Those efforts are still going on. Tony Blair is in the center of efforts trying to find the relevant wording to move forward," said a senior diplomat at the United Nations.

"Mr Blair is making progress. If you are talking about success -- not yet," the envoy told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ma'an staff writers contributed to this report 
 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413746
 

Fuel, medicine 'crisis' in Gaza hospitals


Published yesterday (updated) 17/08/2011 14:57
 
 
 
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Muhammad Al-Kashef, a health ministry official in Gaza, warned Tuesday of a crisis hitting the sector as medicine shortages have plagued the enclave for two months.

Al-Kashef said the ministry of health in Ramallah is largely responsible for the crisis after excluding Gaza from its legal share or 40 percent of supplies like medications and other consumables.

In the past three years, he said, Gaza has received about 30 percent of the overall budget for health services. In 2011, however, the crisis reached a peak despite advanced warning.

The ministry has announced a state of emergency and reduced health services such as dental clinics and children's centers, the official added.

Moussa As-Samak, head of administrative and financial affairs in the ministry, said there was also a crisis of fuel shortages and spare parts for generators.

The generators, which operate for 8 to 12 hours a day, need maintenance, he said.
 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413666

Israeli troops shoot dead Palestinian approaching border

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip as he came near to the border with Israel, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.

The shooting came hours after Palestinian medics reported that a Palestinian was killed and seven wounded in at least four overnight Israeli air strikes across Gaza.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted four areas in the Gaza Strip in response to the firing of a Grad rocket from the Palestinian territory into southern Israel.
The man killed near the border fence with Israel was identified by his family as Mohammed al-Majdalali, aged 22.
Majdalali had approached the border east of the refugee camp of Maghazi in the central Gaza Strip, the sources said.
Relatives said he did not belong to any armed group.
An Israel army spokesman confirmed that "soldiers opened fire at a suspect who was approaching the border fence in this sector, and hit the suspect."


She did not say if the suspect had any weapons or explosives on him.

The Israeli army opens fire systematically on Palestinians who go near the border fence separating the Gaza Strip from the Jewish State to prevent attacks on patrols, infiltration attempts or bids by suspects to plant bombs.

Earlier on Tuesday Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for the Hamas-run emergency services in the Gaza Strip, said air strikes had killed one Palestinian and wounded seven in the coastal enclave.
"We learned of the martyrdom of the youth Musa Shtawe, 29, who died of his injuries after a strike east of Gaza City," he said.

"The outcome of the Israeli aggression during the past 24 hours is now one martyr and seven injured."
The Israeli military did not specify which sites it had targeted, but Palestinian sources said they counted five air strikes across Gaza.

Three of the raids hit targets east of Gaza City, including the Zeitun neighbourhood, they said.
Further south, two more raids were carried out east of Khan Yunis and on a tunnel under the border with Egypt near Rafah, they said.

"The raid in Rafah left three people injured, including a child," Abu Selmiya said.

In a statement, Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Shtawe was a member of the group. "He was martyred after a journey of jihad ... and hard jihadi work," it said.

The Israeli military said it carried out the strikes "in response to the firing of a rocket from the Gaza Strip at the city of Beersheva.

The rocket that hit near Beersheva did not cause any damage or injuries, the military said. Israeli public radio said a second rocket had been fired at Beersheva, but it was not immediately clear where it landed.

Since last month there has been an increase in the number of rockets fired from Gaza, which are usually followed by retaliatory air raids.

The incidents have interrupted several months of calm following a flare-up in April, when an anti-tank missile hit an Israeli school bus, killing a teenager.

Israel responded to that attack with a series of air strikes that killed at least 19 Palestinians in the deadliest violence since Israel's devastating 22-day assault on Gaza over New Year 2009.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8705554/Israeli-troops-shoot-dead-Palestinian-approaching-border.html

Settlers Torch Dozens Of Dunams Near Homesh Former Settlement In Nablus

author Tuesday August 16, 2011 21:40author by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies 
A group of armed extremist Israeli settlers torched on Tuesday evening dozens of dunams of farmlands near the Homesh former settlement, north of Nablus city, in the northern part of the West Bank.
Ghassan Douglas, a Palestinian official in charge of settlements file in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that the settlers set ablaze all trees planted around the evacuated settlement and that the fire consumed hundreds of almond trees and evergreens.

He added that the trees belong to the local Palestinian residents, and that the attack was carried out just as the residents were preparing to break their fast as the Muslims are marking the holy month of Ramadan.

On Sunday evening, July 31, a group of fundamentalist Israeli settlers set ablaze, 150 Dunams of farmlands that belong to residents of Ein Jaloud village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

On Friday July 15, settlers torched Palestinian olive orchards in Jabal Suleiman area, close to Burin village, south of Nablus.

The attack was carried out by a group of twenty heavily armed settlers who set ablaze at least 80 Dunams of farmlands, including dozens of olive trees.
Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene but failed to stop the settlers, but instead, obstructed the work of local firefighters.

The repeated attacks by the settlers are part of what they dub as “Price Tag” and include attacking and torching mosques in the West Bank, in addition to attacking farmers and their lands. The settlers hold the Palestinians responsible for the few random settlement outposts that were evacuated by the Israeli army in the West Bank.

http://www.imemc.org/article/61844

Spotlight on Occupied Palestine


By Lawrence Davidson * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz | Aug 16, 2011

Education as indoctrination


Over the last 10 years there have been periodic outbursts of rage over the alleged anti-Semitic nature of Palestinian textbooks. Most of these episodes have been instigated by an Israeli based organization called the Centre for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (also known as the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education).

According to Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar, the centre does sloppy work. It “routinely feeds the media with excerpts from ‘Palestinian’ textbooks that call for Israel’s annihilation … [without] bothering to point out that the texts quoted in fact come from Egypt and Jordan”. The centre’s conclusions have been corroborated only by other Israeli institutions such as Palestinian Media Watch.

Not surprisingly, almost all independent investigations of the same issue have come up with very different conclusions. Non-Zionist sources such as The Nation magazine, which published a report on Palestinian textbooks in 2001, the George Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, reporting in 2002, the Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information, reporting in 2004, and the US State Department Report of 2009 all found that Palestinian textbooks did not preach anti-Semitism. Nathan Brown, a professor of Political Science at George Washington University, who did his own study on the subject in 2000, set out the situation this way: Palestinian textbooks now in use, and which replaced older ones published in Egypt and Jordan, do not teach anti-Semitism. However, “they tell history from a Palestinian point of view”. It might very well be this fact that the Zionists cannot abide and purposefully mistake for anti-Semitism.

Here is another not very surprising fact. When it comes to choosing which set of reports to support, which set to take a public stand on, American politicians will almost always go with the Zionist versions. Take then Senator Hilary Clinton who, in 2007, denounced Palestinian textbooks. They “don’t give Palestinian children an education, they give them an indoctrination”. How did she know? Well, Israel’s Palestinian Media Watch told her so, and she did not have the foresight to fact-check the assertion before going public. How typical. And, how analytically shallow. While the Palestinian textbooks don’t teach hatred of Jewish Israelis, the reality of daily life under occupation surely does. Those “facts on the ground”,and not the textbooks, supply the most powerful form of education for Palestinian youth.

Although in 2009 the US State Department found that Palestinian textbooks were not the products of anti-Semites, there will be yet another State Department-sponsored “comprehensive and independent” study in 2011. This time around the investigation will look at “incitement caused by bias in both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks. When this happens, one can only hope the investigators take a look at the work of the Israeli scholar Nurit Peled-Elhanan. She is a professor of language and education at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and also the daughter of the famous Israeli general-turned-peace-activist, Matti Peled.

Peled-Elhanan has recently written a book titled Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education. The book will be published this month (August) in the United Kingdom. The work covers the content of Israeli textbooks over the past five years and concludes that Palestinians are never referred to as such “unless the context is terrorism”. Otherwise, they are referred to as Arabs. And Arabs are collectively presented as “vile and deviant and criminal, people who do not pay taxes, people who live off the state, who don’t want to develop … you never see [in the textbooks] a Palestinian child or doctor or teacher or engineer or modern farmer”.

In contrast she finds that Palestinian textbooks, even while telling history from a Palestinian point of view, “distinguish between Zionists and Jews”. They tend to take a stand “against Zionists, not against Jews”.

Peled-Elhanan makes a link between what Israeli children are taught and how they later behave when drafted into the country’s military services. “One question that bothers many people is how do you explain the cruel behaviour of Israeli soldiers towards Palestinians, an indifference to human suffering, the inflicting of suffering… I think the major reason for that is education.” Historically, the mistreatment of Palestinians and even their periodic massacre is taught to Israelis as something that is “unfortunate” but ultimately necessary and “good” for the survival of state. On the other hand, this behaviour of Israelis toward Palestinians must also have its consequences. In Peled-Elhanan’s opinion, Palestinian terrorist attacks are “the direct consequence of the oppression, slavery, humiliation and the state of siege imposed on the Palestinians”.

This Israeli process of educating children to hate and prejudice is, of course, exactly what the Zionists accuse the Palestinians of doing. It turns out that all this time, while levelling charges of incitement at the Palestinian educational process, they themselves have been practising the same sort of indoctrination on their own children. This revelation fills Peled-Elhanan with despair – “I only see the path to fascism” for Israel.

Education and making choices

Keeping our theme of education in mind, let us shift attention to the unprecedented protests now going on in Israel. For the last two weeks massive demonstrations have hit all of Israel’s major cities. “Tent cities” have sprung up in some 40 locations. All of these protests are demanding “social justice”. What, in this case, does social justice mean? It means addressing all the legitimate, standard of living problems that beset most of the demonstrators: soaring costs of food and housing, declining social services and the like. All the predictable consequences of unregulated capitalism and neo-liberal governments.

A significant number of Israelis have decided that this lack of social justice has gone far enough. A recent poll shows that 88 per cent of the citizenry supports the protests. However, this is not entirely a good thing. In order to maintain such support, coming as it does from almost all sections of Israeli political life, the protest leaders now endeavour to remain “non-political” and “rooted squarely in the mainstream consensus”. This is, of course, naive. They live in an albeit skewed “democratic” political environment. The government, which is a right-wing affair, is not going to acquiesce to their demands, except to throw them an occasional bone, unless they can command the votes to shape the outcome of elections. Like it or not, that is the way their system works.

There are other problems. Also in order to be “rooted in the mainstream consensus” the protest leaders are staying away from the issue of social justice for the Palestinians. In Israel proper, that means turning their backs on the plight of over 20 per cent of the population. What sort of social justice is that? Well, it is social justice as defined by people educated in the system described by Nurit Peled-Elhanan. That is why the protest leaders can happily solicit the support of Naftali Bennett, the thoroughly despicable leader of the colonial/settler movement, but not any of the leaders of the Arab-Israeli community.

By not taking a social justice for all stand the protest movement leaders have registered their acceptance of the “justice for Jews only” system to which they were educated. This in itself is a political act which will make them vulnerable to being picked apart with pseudo solutions that offer some of them a little while denying others a lot. Already, as reported by Haaretz, “dozens of MKs [Members of the Knesset]‘ have petitioned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to “solve the housing crisis by building in the West Bank”. Soon thereafter the government announced approval for “1,600 more settler homes” in East Jerusalem, with 2,700 more to come later. That is the sort of solution this protest movement will get unless their leaders can overcome their education/indoctrination and go into politics in a way that applies social justice to all citizens.

Conclusion

In all societies there are two major goals for education: one is vocational and the other is acculturation. So, one important reason for education is to prepare young people for the job market. The other is to educate them to be “good citizens”. What this latter goal means depends on the society one is raised in. In the old Soviet Union becoming a good citizen meant being acculturated to a nationalist brand of communism, as is still the case today in China. In the United States it means becoming a believer in the American version of freedom, both political and economic. And, in Israel, being a good citizen means becoming a believing Zionist.

The objective of acculturation means that education always has, and probably always will have, a strong dose of indoctrination attached to it. That the Zionists should find it shocking that the Palestinians want to use education for their version of indoctrination and acculturation is sheer double standards. And, finally, that the leaders of the on-going protest movement in Israel so pointedly exclude the plight of the Palestinians, is testimony to the success of their own education/indoctrination within the apartheid model.

You see, most of us really are what we are educated to be.


* Lawrence Davidson is professor of history at West Chester University. He is the author of numerous books, including Islamic Fundamentalism and America’s Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood.

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/spotlight-on-occupied-palestine/

81 House Members Enjoy Hiatus In Israel

By James M. Wall * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz | Aug 16, 2011




Eighty-one members of the US House of Representatives-about 20 percent of the total membership-are enjoying a late summer week-long, all-expenses paid trip to Israel.

This hasbara (propaganda) trip happens every other summer (in non-election years), but this year’s excursion to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea comes at a time when voters back home are not thinking about Israel. They are worried about their under-water mortgages and disappearing 401Ks.
Instead of returning immediately to their home districts to answer questions about the US economy, 81 House members are flying to Tel Aviv to demonstrate their loyalty and devotion to a foreign power. They are hoping, of course, as they bolster their standing with AIPAC, that financially-stressed voters will not be told that the 81 are enjoying an all expenses paid visit to Israel.

So far, the main stream media (MSM) has protected them. The only way to find out if your congress person is living in Israeli luxury for a week is to call his or her office and ask. The MSM has not bothered to identify the 81, except when a single member is mentioned in a fawning local feature story.

Allison Weir describes this bi-annual summer all-expenses hiatus trip as “extraordinary”, because “no other lobby on behalf of a foreign country comes anywhere near controlling such wealth or taking so many of America’s elected representatives on a propaganda trip to its favorite country”.
Weir, writing for the Anti-War blog, notes that most US media outlets ignored the story.
I could not find a complete list of the 81. Since this is not a Codel (congressional delegation) trip, the House website does not offer any help. Phillip Weiss’ Mondoweiss found a picture released to the media from the Israeli Embassy, with no names attached.

Weiss assumes the picture is that of the Democratic delegation, since Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer shares front row honors with Israeli President Simon Peres. The picture is large enough for constituents to look for familiar faces.
(Sunday Update: Richard Silverstein, a dogged researcher who has been writing the liberal Jewish blog, Tikun Olam, since 2003, has identified 33 names on the list of 81.)

(Monday Update: Silverstein’s blog, for the moment, is off line. The original Silverstein posting of Tikun Olam with the 33 names is reprinted, in part, at the end of this posting as a Comment.)
The Washington Post provides the names of three Democratic travelers, Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (Ill.), Betty Sutton (Ohio) and Mark Critz (Pa).

Otherwise, according to a survey by Weir, the Main Street Media has been respectfully silent and protective on the matter of the 81 who used their time away from Washington to visit sites holy to Jews and Christians, and to listen to lectures by Israeli leaders. Here is what Weir found in her survey:
The Associated Press, America’s number one news service, has decided not to report on a lobbying group taking 81 representatives to a foreign country in order to influence their votes.
Even though the trips are being reported by news media in Britain, Iran, India, Israel, Lebanon, and elsewhere, AP has decided to give the story a pass. When contacted about this, an AP editor in Washington, D.C., said AP knew about the trips and was “looking into it.”
Taking a similar tack, The New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, CNN, ABC, et al., failed to inform Americans about the trips.
When the Chicago Tribune learned that Jesse Jackson, Jr., was on the Israeli trip, it treated the visit as a human interest, feel good, story.

The Tribune used a short item from the Associated Press to inform its readers that Jackson was traveling abroad to evaluate how well Israel was handling US tax dollars which Jackson and his colleagues so generously send to Tel Aviv.

The Tribune story is a case study for a Journalism 101 class on how not to write a story involving a major congressional figure. Here is the soft story the Tribune ran on August 7:
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is headed to Israel for an eight-day visit. Jackson’s office says he leaves Sunday and returns Aug. 15.

The Illinois Democrat is scheduled to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders as he discusses what he calls “the quest for a lasting peace in the region.” He has meetings set with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, prime ministers and others.

Jackson says he’s looking forward to learning about Israel’s business and commercial sectors as well as the latest tools and technology the country is using in its fight against terror.

The trip is being arranged and paid for by the American Israel Educational Foundation, a privately funded charity.
And that is all Tribune readers know about the journey of the 81. The AIEF is a “privately funded charity”? Nothing about the AIPAC parentage of the “charity”, and nothing at all about Jackson’s large number of traveling companions.

Josh Ruebner, national advocacy director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, reports that in spite of the media’s protective cover, at least one Jackson constituent, is on the case.
Yali Amit, an Israeli-American constituent of Rep. Jackson, Jr. called his office to oppose his participation in the trip to Israel. He was told that Rep. Jackson, Jr. wants to learn what is happening there because of his position on the appropriations subcommittee that approves military aid to Israel.

Amit retorted that “you can’t learn what goes on there on a paid trip of a propaganda arm of the Israeli government.” And [Reuben adds] you certainly can’t learn about the devastating impact that these U.S. weapons have on unarmed Palestinian civilians, nearly 3,000 of whom were killed by the Israeli military over the last decade.
This year’s hasbara trip involved three separate delegations, two Republican and one Democratic; no bipartisanship here after those ugly DC scenes involving the debt ceiling. The 81 members will visit with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was last greeted enthusiastically by 29 standing ovations when he spoke before a joint session of Congress earlier this year.

The Jerusalem Post was quick to assure American tax payers that no US tax dollars would be used on the trips. (“Move along folks, nothing to see here”.)

All expenses for the 81 members and any spouses and staff members who choose to travel, are covered by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), better known as AIPAC’s education arm. We know all about AIPAC, but what is this AIEF?

The AIEF was created in 1990 as a supporting organization of AIPAC, America’s foremost pro-Israel lobby. Financial support for AIEF, a non-profit organization, comes from tax-exempt contributions, most notably from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.
AIEF, according to its mission statement, “provides grant monies to educate opinion leaders about the U.S.-Israel relationship, to expand public awareness about issues affecting the Middle East and to encourage participation in public affairs, especially by students on college campuses where anti-Israel propaganda is rampant.”

So, strictly speaking, no direct US tax dollars are funding the 81 House members on their summer outing. But it is also true that the members are traveling on round-trip first class airline tickets ($8,000 per traveler) and enjoying an all-expenses tax-free paid trip with funds from a US tax-free non-profit organization.

But the question lingers: Do these transactions meet the requirements of the US tax code. The answer, from Legistorm, a website that tracks congressional travel, suggests that these clever partners, AIEF, which is in the education business, and AIPAC, which lobbies on behalf of the state of Israel, have found themselves a convenient “sleight of hand” tax loophole.

According to the latest publicly available tax return of AIEF, the organization has no paid employees – an astounding feat in itself for an organization that raked in more than $26 million in 2009 and a mind-blowing accomplishment for an organization running three huge congressional delegations in one month.

AIEF’s partner, AIPAC, reports that in 2009, it very generously contributed more than $3.2 million of employee salaries to cover the staff costs of AIEF.

Legistorm also reports that two years ago, during the 2009 summer congressional recess, AIEF sent 50 lawmakers and staff members from both parties on a fully funded trip to Israel. Included in the 2009 delegation were House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who returned with this year’s even larger delegation of 81 House members, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who had business in Iowa and did not make it to Israel this August.

How tight is the Israel Lobby’s grip on Congress? What keeps these elected representatives coming back, year after year, like so many obedient children making their mandatory holiday visit to visit aging parents?

Allison Weir discovered one poignant story about an earlier traveler:
Not all those going on these trips are enthusiastic. The wife of one congressman who made a similar trip some years ago said that she and her husband had never been exposed to such pressure in all their lives. She said that at one point on their trip, her husband – a normally extremely tough man – was curled up in a fetal position.
There have been several internet hints that a few of the 81 will try and escape their Israeli minders long enough to cross over into the Occupied Palestinian Territories where they hope to experience the Palestinian narrative.

That could be a risky move, not for security reasons, but for their return flight home. It is an abrupt shift from El Al Business Class to a middle seat in Coach. What happens to the campaign contributions these “escapees” had hoped to gain from making the trip in the first place? These funds will dry up, quickly.

For their troubles any “escapee” who is exposed by the hasbara police, will still have the enormous advantage of bringing home pictures and memories of talking to real Palestinians, not Uncle Toms. Inshallah, they will also bring back to the voters, a congress member with a heightened sense of self-worth.


* James M. Wall is currently a Contributing Editor of The Christian Century magazine, based in Chicago, Illinois. From 1972 through 1999, he was editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine. Jim launched personal blog April 24, 2008. 

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/81-house-members-enjoy-hiatus-in-israel/

ZIONISM’S SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Going through my archives I found the following, which is as timely today as the day it was originally posted…
*
After rereading the piece, I realised that not only is zionism toxic, it is a contagious disease. It is this very virus that we recently saw manifested in Norway, NOT by Jews themselves, but by so called ‘Christians’ that have fallen victim to the hatred and the lies spread by zionism.
*
Yes, the writing is on the wall as far as zionism is concerned, but no one seems to want to read it…
*
The writing on the wall…..


I have retitled the essay to emphasize the danger which is spreading…
*
It’s not only the bombs, the guns and the tear gas that is killing off an entire people, it’s zionism itself.
*
We constantly see and hear justifications for the Jewish ‘right’ to have a homeland …. but from whom and for whom?  The following video talks of zionism’s seven deadly sins …

The above is an indication that zionism is not only toxic, it is a form of insanity. If there was no Palestine as they claim, who have they been killing for the past 63 years? Who have they walled into ghettos reminiscent of the ones created by madmen of history? Who have they been expelling from their homes in Jerusalem and other major cities?
*
And just what is the secret hold these tyrants have over the rest of humanity, especially the West? Why is there silence when a Palestinian child is slaughtered? Why is there silence when an entire segment of the Palestinian people is slaughtered in Gaza? Why is there silence when a family is evicted from their home to make room for illegal squatters? Why is there silence when two people from one family are slaughtered by Israeli troops for demonstrating PEACEFULLY against their lands being stolen? Has it become a crime to speak out against injustice? If so, isn’t it time to SPEAK EVEN LOUDER?
*
The madwoman in the video above speaks of God promising the land to Abraham and his seed… Did she forget, or just not pay attention to the FACT that there was also a son named Ismael? Did the rest of the world forget that as well?
*
A message from non zionist Jewry can be seen in this video…. a message to the people of Palestine.
 
Palestinians must be reassured that there are many Jews including Israelis standing with them to rid the land of the toxic waste that surrounds us. Justice and Peace WILL prevail …We will not remain silent!


***************


To say SORRY is not enough!
 
 

The above was reviewed and  featured at Rense.Com

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/zionisms-seven-deadly-sins/

Umm al-Fahm protest: 'Barak a war criminal'


Surprise visit by defense minister prompts outrage among Arab city's residents who hold him accountable for deaths of 13 Arab-Israelis in October 2000
Hassan Shaalan
Published: 08.17.11, 23:47 / Israel News

Dozens of Umm al-Fahm residents gathered in the city's main road on Wednesday and protested against Defense Minister Ehud Barak who held a surprise visit in the area. Minister Barak and fellow members of his Independence faction attended a dinner to break the Ramadan fast at a local's house.


Police blocked the al-Dahar neighborhood for the duration of the visit.

The protesters chanted "Barak is a war criminal, he's not wanted in Umm al-Fahm" and waved posters which read "We won't forget the killing of 13 martyrs in October 2011." The signs were referring to the events surrounding the al-Aqsa intifada in which 13 Arab-Israelis were killed.


Protest against Ehud Barak. 'He's not wanted here' (Photo: Hassan Shaalan)
Protest against Ehud Barak. 'He's not wanted here' (Photo: Hassan Shaalan)
 
Wassim Husri, a member of the Hadash movement, said: "We oppose Barak's visit. It would have been better to invite beggars who are hungry for food Instead of inviting him for a dinner and making such an effort.

"If Barak thinks that the residents of Umm al-Fahm have forgotten his responsibility for the killing of 13 shahids in October 2000, he is deluded."








Barak had served as prime minister during the 2000 intifada. Husri promised to take to the streets in September, as the Palestinians take their statehood bid to the UN. "We shall not remain with our hands tied behind our backs," he said.

Mamduh Aghbaria from the Balad movement said: "Barak's visit is a provocation attempt. He is apparently trying to garner support from the residents but we have decided we shall not endorse any Zionist party.

"They make promises which they do not keep. A man like Barak belongs in jail. He's a war criminal."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4110420,00.html

French journal of record peddles Zionist propaganda


Is it impossible to escape from Israel-related propaganda?

Yesterday, I was in a Brussels coffee shop, where I picked up a copy of Le Monde. In a section marked “The laboratories of the future”, the French daily had a full-page feature about the Israeli Institute for Technology in Haifa, which is better known as the Technion.

Described by the paper’s headline writer as a “high-tech Eden”, the university was lavished with praise for its innovative work on treating Parkinson’s disease and sending microsatellites into Space. Peretz Lavie, the university’s president, was quoted as arguing that the Technion was a model for coexistence between Israeli and Palestinian students and that there would be peace in the Middle East if everyone else could follow the Technion’s example. Indeed, the only hint that the region’s problems may encroach on the campus was in a paragraph about how students sometimes have to drop their books to fight Israel’s wars (such as the attack on Lebanon in 2006).

It seems clear that Laurent Zecchini, the author of this piece, either relied entirely on the university’s authorities for information or had no interest in exploring its military links further. For if he did a little googling, he should have easily found a comprehensive study on the Technion by Tadamon!, a Palestine solidarity organization based in Canada.

Harmony in Haifa?

That study confronts the Technion’s official drivel. Far from being a place of harmony, Palestinian students in Haifa have been treated in an overtly racist manner. Last year, 10 such students were arrested when they staged a protest against Israel’s murder of nine activists on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Yet there were no arrests of Zionist students who organized a larger counter-demonstration, which unlike the Palestinian one, was not authorized by the police.

Furthermore, the Technion has a history of close cooperation with the Israeli arms companies Rafael and Elbit, both of which supplied weapons used in the offensive against Gaza in 2008 and 2009. Technion has even joined forces with Rafael to run a business administration course specifically geared for that company’s managers.

Had Zecchini felt inclined to do a little more homework, he might also have got in touch with the Alternative Information Center, a campaign group working in Jerusalem and the West Bank. It has drawn attention to how Technion’s inventions include a remote-controlled bulldozer, designed to help the Israeli military demolish Palestinian homes.

The Technion, incidentally, is taking part in numerous EU-financed scientific research activities. And these activities have been enjoying some uncritical media attention of their own lately.

Mesmerized by murder

Home in Dublin last month, I saw an article in The Irish Times celebrating how the EU will be devoting a mammoth €7 billion to research in 2012. As the author of the article, Conor O’Carroll from the Irish Universities Association, didn’t acknowledge that Israel (including its arms industry) will be among the beneficiaries of this largesse, I contacted the paper’s editors asking if I could write an opinion piece rectifying this omission. Not a chance, I was told; the news agenda is way too crowded at the moment.

Somehow, though, The Irish Times has been able to find space in the not-too-distant past to promote Israel’s scientific triumphs. In May, it ran a puff piece about how Israel has “the highest density of start-ups in the world” and how it has been able to turn its “intermittent wars” to its advantage. “Military units often act as incubators for tech start-ups,” journalist Ian Campbell wrote. Mesmerized by this success story, Campbell forgot to trace how the products of this enterprising culture end up as tools of oppression.

Both Le Monde and The Irish Times are considered journals of record in their respective countries. It is a measure of how amenable they are to Israeli spin that they are happy to present Zionist canards as undisputed facts.

Reading them often reminds me of my favorite comment from George Orwell: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

david's picture
David Cronin is the author of Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation (Pluto Press, 2011). He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal Europe, European Voice, the Inter Press Service, The Irish Times and The Sunday Tribune. As a political activist, he has attempted to place both Tony Blair and Avigdor Lieberman under citizen’s arrest for crimes against humanity.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/david/french-journal-record-peddles-zionist-propaganda

Thousands of Palestinians flee refugee camp near Latakia, Syria - UNRWA

Thousands of Palestinians flee refugee camp near Latakia, Syria - UNRWA

Thousands of Palestinian refugees have fled their camp in the city of Latakia on Syria’s Mediterranean coast amid an assault in the area by Syrian forces, UNRWA Spokesman Chris Gunness told The Electronic Intifada by telephone from Gaza.
According to Gunness, UNRWA has received information from a broad range of sources that more than half of the camp’s approximately 10,000 residents had left the camp after being ordered to do so by Syrian authorities. Gunness said the camp had come under attack from gunboats at sea, and by land.
Syrian forces have been engaged in a violent crackdown on protests in a number of cities throughout the country and information has been difficult to obtain as authorities have cut off most communications.
Gunness told The Electronic Intifada:
We don’t know how many they are. We don’t know if they’re sick, if they’re children, or if they’re elderly, what their medical condition is or who is looking after them, who is feeding them or who is housing them. It’s a really alarming situation.
He added that UNRWA operates four schools in the camp. It also runs a health center, food distribution center, a community center and a youth center. While schools were already closed due to Ramadan, other facilities are now closed due to the crisis.
UNRWA, a UN agency, provides services to almost five million Palestinian refugees living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. There are approximately 475,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria.

Update

Speaking on the BBC World Service, Gunness has subsequently stated that 4 people had been “confirmed dead” in the camp.

Chris Gunness on Al Jazeera English


Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN agency handling Palestinian refugees says the Syrian army has fired at a refugee camp in the city of Latakia. He condemns the violence and calls for immediate access to the site.

Ali Abunimah

Ali Abunimah's picture
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, and author of One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/thousands-palestinians-flee-refugee-camp-near-latakia-syria-unrwa

75 year old woman shot in Johr al-Dik


16 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Selma Al Sawarka, or Um Ahmad, is an active woman, a mother of seven, and a grandmother of 35, who has never quit working.  August 10, 2011 dawned like most days do for her; she went out to graze her family’s goats.  She took her neighbor with her, 15 year old Keefa Al Bahabsa.

They went to the same land they usually go to. At 9:30 that morning they saw an Israeli tank and an Israeli jeep near the border.  Not an uncommon sight.  The tank and jeep left.  About 30 minutes later, the jeep returned, three soldiers got out, and opened fire on Um Ahmed and Keefa.  Um Ahmed was shot in the leg, Keefa fled to get help.  The soldiers also shot ten of the families goats.

Um Ahmed is used to being shot at by the Israelis as her land is only 600 meters from the border. Usually, she says, the soldiers shoot around her, or into the air, trying to drive her from her land; she doesn’t know why today was different, why they shot directly at her, why they shot her in the leg.  Her scarf also has bullet holes in it; only through the grace of God is she still here.

It took half an hour for Keefa to return with help, they loaded Um Ahmed onto a donkey cart, and went to the main road to meet a taxi to take her to the hospital. When I met Um Ahmed she was laying on a mat on the floor, recovering from being shot.  A pale blue scarf covered her head.  Bracelets adorned her wrists.  Her daughter sat next to her.  The room was simple, some mats on the floor, two chairs for the guests, a dresser, and small stand with a TV.

On the wall was a picture of her son Mustapha.  He was killed by the Israeli’s on Dec, 15, 2004. 

Sometimes, the soldiers, or even the settlers themselves, would close the road near Netzarim settlement, the only way to go anywhere was to leave the road, and walk on the beach by the sea.  Mustapha was shot and killed as he walked on the beach. The house we are in used to be Mustapha’s house. Beside the TV is another picture, another of her sons, this one has been in prison for the last ten years.  He has eleven years left on his sentence.  Um Ahmed, like all Gazan mothers, is not allowed to visit her son in prison, for four years this has been a blanket Israeli policy.  Instead, she looks at this picture, she thinks about him in prison, while her leg heals

http://palsolidarity.org/2011/08/19809/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InternationalSolidarityMovementPalestine+%28International+Solidarity+Movement+Palestine%29