American Jews petition Obama against Palestinian state

Thursday, 29 September 2011 15:30

Reports in the Israeli media claim that around 100,000 American Jews have signed a petition to be presented to President Barak Obama, asking him to use the US veto at the UN Security Council against a resolution giving Palestine full member status. President Mahmoud Abbas presented the Palestinian Authority's application for UN recognition as an independent state last week.

According to Israel Radio, the petition says, "Since the establishment of the state of Israel, Arab countries have refused to recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state, and the Palestinian Authority holds on to that stance. And therefore, the US veto must be used against the PA's application for full member status for Palestine at the UN."

A London-based commentator called the wording of the petition "a blatant distortion of reality". MEMO's Ibrahim Hewitt pointed out that in 1948, "The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel was clear that it was enacting 'the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the state of Israel'." The Palestinian Liberation Organisation recognised the state of Israel in 1993 at the time of the Oslo Accords, so it gave de facto recognition to the Jewish character of the state. "This latest insistence on separate recognition of Israel as a distinctly Jewish state is," Hewitt claimed, "another obstacle intended to give Israel more time to build even more illegal settlements and make the possibility of a viable Palestinian state even more remote." The 100,000 signatories of the petition in America have been duped, added Hewitt. "They really should study the history of the conflict before getting conned in this way."

The petition was handed over to Israeli Minister of Information Yuli Edelstein, who is currently on a visit to New York, for him to pass on to the US Administration.

http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/americas/2876-american-jews-petition-obama-against-palestinian-state

UN experts: Gaza blockade illegal

Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:31AM GMT

A speedboat escorts Gaza Freedom Flotilla lead ship Mavi Marmara near the southern port of Ashdod after attack by Israeli commandos.

Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip is a violation of international law and amounts to collective punishment of the people of Gaza, a panel of UN experts says.

A panel of five independent UN human rights experts reporting to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) said on Tuesday in Geneva that the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in "flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law," Reuters reported.

The UNHRC-mandated panel of experts rubbished an earlier UN report released on 2 September that ruled Israel's naval blockade of the Strip both legal and appropriate.

The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli attack of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists also ruled that Israeli Defence Forces had used “excessive” force but “did not violate the international law” and held both Israel and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla activists responsible for the violence.

However, the UNHRC panel said the four-year Israeli blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the coastal enclave of fundamental rights.

In a joint statement, the experts noted, "In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognize the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel's closure policy toward Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians."

A previous fact-finding mission appointed by the UNHRC to probe the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre also concluded in a report in September that Israeli blockade violates international law.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the blockade violates the Geneva Conventions.

Richard Falk, who is a UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five UNHCR experts, said the Palmer report's conclusions were “aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey. It is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law."

Another expert, Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, went on to say that about one-third of Gaza's arable land and 85 percent of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli blockade.

He added at least two-thirds of Gazan households lack secure access to food. "People are forced to make unacceptable trade-offs, often having to choose between food or medicine or water for their families," Schutter stated.

The other three experts were the UN special rapporteurs on physical and mental health, extreme poverty and human rights, and access to water and sanitation.

GJH/MGH


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/199008.html

Israel attacks Gaza refugee camp

Fri Sep 30, 2011 2:39AM GMT

An Israeli warplane (file photo)

The Israeli Air Force has once again attacked the Gaza Strip, this time targeting a refugee camp in the central areas of the coastal territory.

On Thursday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a security checkpoint in the Maghazi refugee camp, AFP reported, citing the residents of the camp.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Last month, 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

The offensives continue as Tel Aviv keeps up its 2007-present siege on the enclave, which has been depriving 1.5 million Palestinians there of food, medicine, fuel, and other necessities.

GJH/HN


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201907.html

Israel defends settlement expansion

Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:50PM GMT

Israeli officials said the plan is one of the phases of a multi-year process for the expansion of the Gilo neighborhood.

Israel has rejected international criticism over its plan to construct 1,100 new settler units in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Defending Israel's interior ministry decision to build new housing units in the Gilo neighborhood, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that the site is neither a settlement nor a settlement outpost but a neighborhood which constitutes an integral part of the center of al-Quds.

Palestinian leaders, however, say Tel Aviv's decision to expand Jewish settlements in Gilo, which mostly lies in the Arab east al-Quds, has effectively rebuffed a recent proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the resumption of direct negotiations.

The United States, China and several European countries have also condemned the Israeli decision, saying it is against the two-state solution.

Gilo is built on the land captured by Israel in 1967. Tel Aviv later annexed the area to the al-Quds municipality in a move not recognized by the international community. Tel Aviv claims that areas within the Jerusalem municipality are not settlements.

The Israeli decision to expand Gilo by several hundred meters to the south came days after Netanyahu, in a speech in the UN General Assembly, invited Palestinians into direct talks, saying the decades long conflict between the two sides will only be resolved through negotiations.

Palestinians have repeatedly said that new round of talks with the Israeli regime cannot be resumed unless there is a complete halt in settlement expansion activities.

The controversial move also came days after Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas handed in his request for full UN membership for an independent Palestinian state.

Palestinians want East al-Quds as the capital of their future state.

HM/PKH/HGH


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201666.html

Three Injured By Army Fire In Salfit

 Friday September 30, 2011 04:20 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies 

Palestinian medical sources reported, on Thursday evening, that three residents were treated for the effects of teargas inhalation during clashes with Israeli soldiers invading Yasouf Palestinian village, near the West Bank city of Salfit.

Archive Photo

Local sources reported that the clashes first erupted when a number of armed Israeli settlers attacked the village. Israel soldiers invaded the village shortly afterwards and fired several gas bombs at the residents wounding three.

The three residents were identified as Mazin Yassin, 18, Ala’ Azzam, 18, and Osama Abdul-Raziq, 21; they were all moved to Yasser Arafat Hospital in Salfit.

In related news, a group of armed extremist Israeli settlers destroyed irrigation pipes used by the residents of Madama village, near Nablus.

Acting village council head, Ehab Al Qit, stated that approximately 20-30 settlers gathered near the spring that belongs to the village, and destroyed irrigation pipes that provide the Palestinian farmlands in the area with the needed water.

http://www.imemc.org/article/62144