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Protesters greet Netanyahu in Washington as Israel expands settlements
Jul 9th
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 7 July 2010
Hundreds of activists in Washington, DC demonstrated outside the White House to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit on Tuesday, 6 July. As protesters held signs calling on the US government to end military aid to Israel, Netanhayu met with US President Barack Obama in a meeting characterized by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as “empty theatrics.”
“I think the Israeli government, working through layers of various governmental entities and jurisdictions, has shown restraint over the last several months that I think has been conducive to the prospects of us getting into direct talks,” Obama announced in a press briefing after their meeting yesterday, referring to Netanyahu’s settlement “moratorium.”
Earlier in the week, right-wing Zionist settler groups from colonies inside the occupied West Bank called on Netanyahu to honor a “promise to resume” settlement construction after his much-lauded ten-month moratorium that ends 26 September. The groups also urged Netanyahu not to react to pressure he could face at the White House to extend the settlement “freeze” (“Israel settlers pressure PM on construction halt,” Agence France Presse, 2 July 2010). The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that regional settler councils across the West Bank announced plans to build at least 2,700 housing units beginning 27 September. Shomron regional council deputy Ehud Stondia commented to Haaretz that the council was “preparing for construction on the scale that existed before the freeze or even more” (“2,700 houses to be built as soon as West Bank settlement freeze ends,” 5 July 2010).
But settlement construction has not, in fact, stopped during Netanyahu’s supposed moratorium that began 25 November 2009.
Coinciding with Netanyahu’s White House visit, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published an in-depth report, with detailed maps, yesterday. The report updates Israeli settlement policy in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem from 1967 through May 2010 and documents the ongoing “means employed by Israel to gain control of land for building the settlements” (“By Hook and by Crook: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank“).
In the 79-page report, B’Tselem states that after Netanyahu’s announcement of a cessation of settlement construction, Israel’s Central Command office allowed building “for which permits had already been issued and whose foundations had been laid … Although the wording of the decision was sweeping, Haaretz reported that it was not intended to apply to East Jerusalem, to 2,500 apartments already under construction, or to 455 other apartments whose marketing the defense minister had approved prior to the decision of 25 November.”
According to B’Tselem’s documentation, the settler population inside the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem has skyrocketed, notably doubling since the Oslo accords in the mid-1990s. Approximately 500,000 Israeli settlers are currently living in 121 illegal settlement colonies, in nearly 100 “outposts” in the West Bank and in 12 neighborhoods in East Jerusalem “on land it annexed to the Jerusalem Municipality … The settlement enterprise has been characterized, since its inception, by an instrumental, cynical, and even criminal approach to international law, local legislation, Israeli military orders and Israeli law, which has enabled the continuous pilfering of land from Palestinians in the West Bank.”
More than 42 percent of the West Bank, says B’Tselem, has been appropriated to this ever-expanding settlement infrastructure, despite Netanyahu’s “moratorium.”
“Israel established a legal-bureaucratic apparatus to gain control of the West Bank, based on the false grounds that the land was required for ‘military needs’ or for ‘public needs’ or that it was ‘state land,’ the objective being to transfer private and public Palestinian land to the settlements for their use,” says B’Tselem. “This apparatus enabled the transfer to the settlements of more than 42 percent of the land in the West Bank and the construction of 21 percent of the settlements’ built-up land on private Palestinian land. In operating this apparatus, Israel has extensively and systematically infringed on the right of property of Palestinians in the West Bank.”
As Barack Obama reiterated that the US-Israel bond will remain “unbreakable” yesterday at the White House, he urged Palestinians, occupied and subjected to Israel’s military apartheid structure, to avoid soliciting “opportunities to embarrass Israel.” He said he hoped talks between the Israeli government and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority would begin before the September settlement “freeze” ended.
But Dawoud Hammoud, researcher with the Ramallah-based Stop the Wall Campaign, told The Electronic Intifada that the machinations of a settlement freeze misses the bigger issue. “We are not asking to freeze the settlements. We are demanding to end the entire colonization system,” he said. “The announcement of a settlement freeze is just trying to market the failure of the peace project.”
Meanwhile, activists in New York are gearing up for protest as Netanyahu makes his way to Manhattan on Thursday, 8 July (“Protest Netanyahu in NYC,” Adalah-NY). “We are on a roll, people. The world is confronting Israeli war criminals,” states the Adalah-NY press release for the protest. “Let’s not permit this one to visit NYC with no resistance!”
The 40 Palestinian prisoners, Netanyahu refuses to release them
Jun 30th
Posted on Monday, the newspaper “Yediot Ahronot” the names and photographs of forty Palestinian prisoners Hamas demanded their exchange deal for Gilad Shalit, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu included within the deal and insisted on their survival in captivity. The list included: 
1 – Abdullah Barghouti – responsible for killing 67 Israelis – Operations: Sparrow, Cafe Hillel, Cafe Moment, Hebrew University, in prison since 2004.
2 – Hassan Salama – responsible for the killing of 46 Israeli operations -: blow my bus line 18 in Jerusalem, in prison since 1996.
3 – Atta Abu Warda – responsible for the killing of 46 Israelis – Operations: the bombing of my bus line 18 in Jerusalem, in prison since 1996.
4 – Alaa Abbassi – responsible for the killing of 45 Israelis – Operations: cafe moment, “Sheffield Club” in Rishon Lezion, Hebrew University, in prison since 2004.
5 – Order Abbasi – responsible for the deaths of 36 Israelis – Operations: Cafe Moment, Hebrew University, “Sheffield Club” Rishon Lezion, detained since 2004.
6 – Mohammed Odeh – is responsible for the deaths of 36 Israelis – Operations: Cafe Moment, Hebrew University, in prison since 2004.
7 – Mohamed Omran – responsible for the deaths of 36 Israelis – Operations: Moment Cafe, club Sheffield Rishon Lezion, Hebrew University, in prison since 2004.
8 – Ibrahim Hammad – responsible for killing dozens of Israelis – Operations: Cafe Moment, Cafe Hillel, Hebrew University, Road No. 4, Tserbin, detained since 2006.
9 – Joseph Anjas – responsible for the deaths of 36 Israelis – Operations: cafe moment, “Sheffield Club” Rishon Lezion, Hebrew University, in prison since 2003.
10 – Wael Qasim – responsible for killing 35 Israeli operations -: Cafe Moment, Hebrew University, Sheffield Club Rishon Lezion, detained since 2004.
11 – Isaac Audi – responsible for the deaths of 35 Israelis – Operations: Hebrew University, “Sheffield Club” Rishon Lezion, detained since 2004.
12 – Fathi Abu Sheikh – responsible for killing 30 Israelis – Operations: Park Hotel Netanya, in prison since 2002.
13 – Muhannad Al Shuraim – responsible for killing 30 Israelis – Operations: the Park Hotel in Netanya, in prison since 2002. 14 – Nail Barghouti – responsible for killing 30 Israelis, processes: the Park Hotel in Netanya, in prison since 2002.
15 – Muammar Ahrory – responsible for killing 30 Israelis – Operations: Hotel Barak Netanya, in prison since 2003.
16 – Ali Abu Halil – responsible for killing an Israeli 26 – Operations: An explosion on a bus 19 and bus 14 in Jerusalem, in prison since 2004.
17 – forbid Bilal – responsible for the deaths of 26 Israelis – Operations: bended Yehuda market in Jerusalem, in prison since 1998.
18 – Pioneer Hutri – responsible for the deaths of 25 Israelis – Operations: Blast Aldonfeinaleom, detained since 2003.
19 – Wael Abu Sharif – is responsible for the deaths of 19 Israelis – Operations: Blast 17 bus in Haifa, in prison since 2004.
20 – Munir Rugby – is responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis – Operations: Explosion in Haifa bus 37, in prison since 2003. 21 – Nael Obeid – responsible for killing 18 Israelis – Operations: Cafe Hillel, the position of passengers in Tserbin, detained since 2004.
22 – Ahlam Tamimi – responsible for killing 20 Israelis – Operations: Port accompanied the Sbarro restaurant, the detention camp since 2003.
23 – Omar Saleh Sharif – is responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis – Operations: 14 bus explosion in Jerusalem, in prison since 2004.
24 – Muhannad Talal Shreim – responsible for killing 30 Israelis – Operations: Hotel Barak Netanya, in prison since 2002.
25 – Abbas Sayed – is responsible for the deaths of 30 Israelis – Operations: Hotel Barak Netanya, in prison since 2002.
26 – Ahmed Obaid – responsible for the deaths of 18 Israelis – Operations: Cafe Hillel, the position of passengers in Tserbin, detained since 2004.
27 – Abdullah Barghouti – responsible for the deaths of 22 Israelis – Operations: Sbarro restaurant, detained since 2002.
28 – Bilal Barghouti – responsible for the deaths of 22 Israelis – Operations: Sbarro restaurant, detained since 2002. 29 – Amr Magdi – responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis – Operations: An explosion in a bus in Haifa, 37, detained since 2003.
30 – Fadi pot – is responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis – Operations: An explosion in a bus in Haifa, 37, detained since 2003.
31 – Nasim Rashid Thyme – is responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis – Operations: An explosion in a bus 14 in Jerusalem, in prison since 2004.
32 – Amjad Abedo – responsible for the deaths of 21 Israelis – Operations: Maxim restaurant in Haifa, in prison since 2004. 33 – Sami Jaradat, – responsible for the deaths of 21 Israelis – Operations: Maxim restaurant in Haifa, in prison since 2004. 34 – Festive Badr – was responsible for killing 18 Israelis – Operations: Tosrovin, Cafe Hillel, in prison since 2004.
35 – Mohamed Douglas – responsible for the deaths of 19 Israelis – Operations: Sbarro restaurant, detained since 2002.
36 – Salah Subhi Moses – is responsible for the deaths of 18 Israelis – Operations: Cafe Hillel in the position of the passenger Tosrovin, detained since 2004.
37 – Nazar generosity – is responsible for the deaths of 15 Israelis – Operations: An explosion in a bus in Haifa, detained since 2003,.
38 – Saleh Subhi Moses – is responsible for the deaths of 17 Israelis – Operations: Cafe Hillel, the position of passengers in Tosrovin, detained since 2003.
39 – Magdy Zaatari – responsible for the deaths of 16 Israelis – Operations: 2 bus explosion in Jerusalem, in prison since 2003.
40 – Abd al-Hadi Ghanayem – responsible for the deaths of 16 Israelis – Operations: the heart of the bus No. 405, in prison since 1992.
Independent journalists dismantling Israel’s hold on media narrative
Jun 16th
Abraham Greenhouse, Nora Barrows-Friedman,
The Electronic Intifada | 15 June 2010
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| Israeli naval ships trailing the Mavi Marmara. (Cultures of Resistance) |
“The systematic attempt and very deliberate first priority for the Israeli soldiers as they came on the ships was to shut down the story, to confiscate all cameras, to shut down satellites, to smash the CCTV cameras that were on the Mavi Marmara, to make sure that nothing was going out. They were hellbent on controlling the story,” commented Australian journalist Paul McGeough, one of the hundreds of activists and reporters who witnessed the deadly morning attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May (“Framing the Narrative: Israeli Commandos Seize Videotape and Equipment from Journalists After Deadly Raid,” Democracy Now, 9 June 2010). McGeough was one of at least 60 journalists aboard the flotilla who were detained and their footage confiscated. More >
hunger strike in north Norway ((bodø))
Jun 15th
Palestinian youth, 24years , decides to implement a hunger strike in north Norway ((bodø)) demanded a positive response on the issue of his asylum .. Permeates the strike to explain in English …. show the reasons that pushed him to the strike, addressing the media and public opinion …Declaring their right to humani…tarian …normal life .. and that would be on 21/06/2010 at at 3:00 pm – open strike. More >
Heroic Peace Activists return to UK from Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Jun 7th
harryfear — June 06, 2010 — Peace activists return from the Middle East having been aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. We witness their return and hear their message.
Osama Qashoo, an award-winning documentary film maker, describes events aboard the Mavi Marmara, and calls for further action.
PLEASE SHARE, so we can keep the momentum alive!
London Heathrow Airport – 11am Sunday 6 June 2010
Film © Harry Fear
Creative Commons License – http://bit.ly/license362010 More >
The Gaza flotilla and the ironies of history
May 31st
Richard Irvine, The Electronic Intifada, 30 May 2010
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| A ship with the Freedom Flotilla prepares to set sail for Gaza. (Free Gaza) |
No one can accuse history of not having a sense of irony. Sixty-three years ago in July 1947 a passenger ship destined for Palestine and named The Exodus was stopped and boarded by the British Navy. The ship was crowded with Holocaust survivors determined to make a new life for themselves in British controlled Palestine but did not have official immigration permits. Facing terrorism by Zionist organizations, waves of illegal immigration by Jews fleeing the displaced persons camps in post-war Europe, and resistance by Palestinian Arabs to the increasingly powerful and belligerent Zionist movement emboldened by its growing numbers, Britain was determined to stop the ship. More >
International solidarity and the Freedom Flotilla massacre
May 31st
Editorial, The Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2010 |
| Israeli naval ships flanking the Mavi Marmara. |
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| Israeli soldiers aboard the Mavi Marmara. |
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| A passenger aboard the Mavi Marmara carries a bloody stretcher. |
Early this morning under the cover of darkness Israeli soldiers stormed the lead ship of the six-vessel Freedom Flotilla aid convoy in international waters and killed and injured dozens of civilians aboard. All the ships were violently seized by Israeli forces, but hours after the attack fate of the passengers aboard the other ships remained unknown. More >
Freedom Flotilla delayed but undaunted
May 30th
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Fri, 28 May 2010 | Press TV
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In this image taken from the Free Gaza Movement website, one of the Turkish ships of the Freedom Flotilla is seen heading for the Gaza Strip. (AFP photo)
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Israeli threats and technical glitches have forced a delay in the Freedom Flotilla, a multinational relief mission heading for the Gaza Strip.
The flotilla, which is currently off the coast of Cyprus, consists of nine vessels from Turkey, Ireland, Britain, and Greece.
The approximately 750 activists of the Freedom Flotilla, who intend to break the siege of Gaza, are carrying around 10,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment, and school supplies. More >
