UN: 70 percent of the refugees around the world are Muslim
10,792,095 displaced around the world originate from Muslim countries
Islamic Human Rights Commission – 17 June 2009
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2009 annual report revealed shocking figures about the world refuge community. According to the figures revealed on 16 June 2010, the total refugee population around the world reached 15.2 million which is the highest since the mid 1990s. Around 70 percent of all refugees, which amounts to 10,792,095, around the world originated from Muslim countries.
The recent figures revealed by the UNHCR have reminded the international community that the overwhelming majority of oppressed people in the world are Muslim. According to the latest report of the UNHCR, there were 15.2 million refugees worldwide and around 70 percent of them, which amounts to 10,462,095, originated from Muslim countries. With their long-lived plight, 4.8 million Palestinians were the largest refugee community in the world. Since the Palestinian refugees are under the responsibility of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) their statistic were not included in the report.
There UNHCR listed 2.9 million Afghani refugees scattered around the world with the majority fleeing to Pakistan. Iraqis also made up a substantial amount of the total refugee population with 1.8 million, predominantly based in the Middle East. Somalis made up the third largest refugee group with 678,000 persons and finally 368,200 Sudanese refugees, the vast majority of them from the Darfur region.
The figures show the US and its allies have turned the Muslim territories into a massive conflict zone and Muslims have become the largest single religious refugee group. Muslim refugees have been deprived of their basic rights and are going through immeasurable difficulties.
IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
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Masked Attack
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
The rolling hills south of Hebron are home to some of the poorest Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and in recent years, some of the most radical Israeli settlers have come here. At-Tuwani is a small traditional village of about 250 residents and a focal point of the region’s tensions. At the south tip of the village, near the edge of a densely wooded hill, is Beit Juma, the large home of the Rabai extended family. At 10:45 AM, not long after Juma and one of his brothers had gone to a neighbouring village, the attack came from the trees without warning.
“There were problems before,” explains one of the younger brothers, present at the time of the attack. “But nothing like this. This is something new. First came stones, hitting the wall and flying over the house into the yard where the children were playing. Then came the settlers, 30 or 35, with faces covered, with iron sticks, smashing windows and fence. Some came this way around the house, and the others came that way. They tried to come inside, to force their way, but we pushed them back.” The brothers admit they wounded two of the settlers, knocking them to the ground and kicking them. “At that time, it’s impossible to think. Of course we fight. They are coming into our home.”
Right: Beit Juma, home of Rabai family, with woods in background, where the settler attack came from.
Photo: Michael Carpenter
The Rabais say that up to ten people from their family and village suffered minor injuries from stones or beating. One woman, four months pregnant, was hurt in a fall as she fled the violence. She was taken to the hospital and returned in good condition.
A pregnant woman is taken to hospital after minor injuries. Photo: Operation Dove.
The initial onslaught lasted only a couple minutes before the international observers and many others from the village were on the scene. “We saw the last part of the fighting around the house,” says Sirio, a member of the Italian non-violent peace corps Operation Dove. “Then the settlers—I counted at least 26—ran back to the woods. But that was not the end. They continued to throw stones from the trees for the next 20 minutes or so before disappearing deeper in the woods.”
After the initial assault, masked settlers continued to throw and launch stones from the edge of the woods. Photo: Operation Dove
Shortly after, by about 11:30, police, army, and border patrol arrived, taking statements, photos, and collecting evidence, including multiple large knives. Later in the afternoon, some of the Rabai family, accompanied by members of Operation Dove, filed an official complaint at the police station in Kiryat Arba (the Israeli settlement in Hebron). “The first thing they asked my brother,” says Musab Rabai incredulously, “was ‘Who beat the settlers?’” He laughs. “Not, ‘Why were settlers in the home?’” The residents of At-Tuwani are not confident the attackers will be prosecuted.
Although the weekend marked a dramatic escalation of Israeli settler hostility, the events were just the latest in the troubled history of the besieged village. Every year, the growing settlement of Ma’on (established 1981 on a neighbouring hill) de facto annexes more and more of the village’s pastureland. In the last several years, shepherds, school children, and international observers have been beaten, the drinking well and grazing land have been poisoned, animals have been killed, and property has been vandalised. Scores of incidents have been documented in photos and videos by international monitors such as Operation Dove.
A well that was poisoned, with the Rabai home (left) and the woods of the illegal settlement (right). Photo: Michael Carpenter.
The Italian peace corps, along with Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), have maintained a constant presence in the village since they were invited by the Palestinians in 2004. The local community had already committed to peaceful resistance in co-operation Hafez Huraini and the South Hebron Hills Committee for popular non-violent resistance.
The illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on, Hill 833, viewed from the south west.
Photo: Michael Carpenter
Concealed in the trees, about a hundred meters from the south edge of the village, is the settler outpost known as Hill 833, or Havat Ma’on. Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal, but this outpost is also illegal under Israeli law. First established in 1999, just south-west of the woods, the outpost was quickly dismantled by Israeli authorities, but by the end of the year, the renegade settlers had relocated inside the woods. Since then, they have entrenched themselves, continued building within the trees, and continued to harass the local population, all with apparent impunity from the Israeli authorities. Equally disturbing, settlers from this outpost, including Yosef Ben Barach and its founder Yehoshefat Tor, have ties to the radical group Kach, which is a designated terrorist organisation by both the United States and Israel for inciting violence and attempting to bomb Palestinian schools in Jerusalem.
Paranoid or prescient, the Rabai brothers believe the settlers intended far worse. “They came here to kill. They tried to kill with knives, some guys, and they tried to move into the home. I’m sure they saw us when we left here, and they thought no men were here, just the women and the kids. They thought if they threw stones first, all of them will run, but when they threw stones, three brothers came out. They tried to do like they do in other villages, to take the homes.”
Whatever the settlers’ intentions, the Rabai family is deeply concerned and expects more attacks soon. They spend many nights on their rooftops, peering vigilantly into the dark woods. This is the effect of daily terror. “We try to continue the non-violent resistance with these guys,” says Juma Rabai. “But I don’t know about the future. The future is dark for a long time, so black. But now, maybe more dark.”
Written by Michael Carpenter for Palestine Monitor
Gaza convoy activists claim Israeli soldiers using debit cards stolen in raid
By Haroon Siddique | The Guardian | June 18, 2010
Israeli troops have been accused of stealing from activists arrested in the assault on the Gaza flotilla after confiscated debit cards belonging to activists were subsequently used.
In their raid of 31 May, the Israeli army stormed the boats on the flotilla and, as well as money and goods destined for the Palestinian relief effort in Gaza, the bulk of which have yet to be returned, took away most of the personal possessions of the activists when taking them into custody.
Individual soldiers appear to have used confiscated debit cards to buy items such as iPod accessories, while mobile phones seized from activists have also been used for calls.
Ebrahim Musaji, 23, of Gloucester, has a bank statement showing his debit card was used in an Israeli vending machine for a purchase costing him 82p on 9 June.
It was then used on a Dutch website, http://www.thisipod.com, twice on 10 June: once for amounts equivalent to £42.42 and then for £37.83. And a Californian activist, Kathy Sheetz, has alleged that she has been charged more than $1,000 in transactions from vending machines in Israel since 6 June.
Musaji and Sheetz were on board two separate boats – one the Mavi Marmara, on which nine Turkish activists were killed, the other on the Challenger 1. Both activists only entered Israel when arrested, and were in custody for their entire time on Israeli soil.
“They’ve obviously taken my card and used it,” Musaji told the Guardian.
“When they take things like people’s videos and debit cards and use them, and their mobile phones, it becomes a bit of a joke.
“We were held hostage, we were attacked, and now there’s been theft. If the police confiscate your goods in the UK, they’re not going to use your goods and think they can get away with it.”
Musaji cancelled his card on 7 June, the day after he returned to Britain, where he is a support worker for adults with learning difficulties. His bank has agreed to treat the transactions as fraudulent and he will not be charged for them. His mobile phone was also used for two short calls in Israel after it had been confiscated.
Another American activist, David Schermerhorn, 80, from Washington state, claims his iPhone was used, while Manolo Luppichini, an Italian journalist, said his card was debited with the equivalent of €54 after it was confiscated.
Activists say Israel still has possession of at least £1m of goods and cash, comprising aid and personal possessions, including laptops and cameras.
Some passports, three of them belonging to British citizens, have still not been returned. On Thursday, delegations in 12 countries, including the UK, held meetings with their respective governments to exert pressure on Israeli to return the seized property.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy in London advised Musaji to register a formal complaint.
“We regard any misconduct as described in Mr Musaji’s allegations to be utterly unacceptable and intolerable, and suggest waiting until this subject matter is clarified,” she said. “As had happened previously, an Israeli soldier was found guilty of illegal use of a credit card for which he was indicted and sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment.”
Police postpone CCTV scheme targeting British Muslims
By David Sapsted | The National | June 17. 2010
LONDON // The introduction of a network of more than 200 CCTV cameras giving blanket coverage of two predominantly Muslim areas of Birmingham is to be postponed after furious protests.
Muslim, civil rights and community groups were enraged after it emerged earlier this month that the cameras were not primarily for crime prevention and detection, but were paid for by the police for anti-terrorism surveillance.
It led to accusations that, because of the concentration of Muslim families in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook districts of the city, the police had stigmatised the area as a terrorist ghetto.
The Safer Birmingham Partnership, the joint city council/police organisation that installed the cameras, backed down yesterday after mounting protests and a parliamentary motion condemning the move, and announced that the 218 cameras would not be switched on in August as planned.
About 60 of the cameras are hidden in buildings or trees. Another 150 are on roadside poles and monitor every vehicle entering the two districts. When the cameras first started going up in April, the Safer Birmingham Partnership said it had received a £3 million (Dh16m) grant from the Home Office to improve community safety and reduce crime.
However, The Guardian newspaper revealed earlier this month that the cameras were actually financed through the Association of Chief Police Officers’ fund for terrorism. The stated objective of the fund is to finance projects that “deter or prevent terrorism or help to prosecute those responsible”. Amid mounting anger in the two communities, civil rights lawyers threatened legal action, Roger Godsiff, the Labour MP for the area, tabled a motion condemning the move as a “grave infringement of civil liberties” and, after several public meetings, a petition was started calling on Chris Sims, the chief constable of the West Midlands, to resign.
Mr Godsiff said yesterday: “I put down an early day motion in the House of Commons expressing my concern about the way it had been handled and saying that there should be proper public consultation before the cameras are activated.
“If that’s what the police have now decided to do, I applaud them for doing so.”
The total of 150 number plate recognition cameras in the two areas is more than three times the total in the rest of Birmingham, which has a population of just over a million, about 15 per cent of them Muslims.
Announcing the postponement of the switching on of the network pending consultation with the two communities, the Safer Birmingham Partnership said in a statement: “We apologise for these mistakes, which regrettably may have undermined public confidence in the police and the council.
“Although the counter terrorism unit was responsible for identifying and securing central government funds and has overseen the technical aspects of the installation, the camera sites were chosen on the basis of general crime data, not just counter-terrorism intelligence.”
However, city councillors, including the deputy leader of the council, Paul Tilsley, and Ayoub Khan, the councillor in charge of community safety programmes, said they had not been involved in the decision to install the cameras and that it had purely been in the hands of police.
Mr Khan yesterday welcomed the move to defer the deployment of the cameras and called on the police to physically cover them up to reassure residents that they were not being used, otherwise many residents “will not believe they are inactive”.
He said that the failure to consult earlier had left a bitter taste. “All communities felt offended by the manner in which number plate recognition cameras were placed, not just the Muslim community,” he told the Birmingham Mail. “I am not against [number plate recognition cameras] and CCTV technology. In many areas it is welcome because it creates a feeling of safety. Unfortunately, with this particular scheme it is obvious that the local communities were not consulted. I was never informed at any stage in relation to the intensity or the geographical coverage of such a system. Counter terrorism was mentioned at a meeting, but it was as a bolt-on extra not the main thrust.”
Tanveer Choudhry, a local councillor, said: “The area has been stigmatised as a terrorist ghetto. The police should remove the cameras until they have fully consulted with local communities.”
Mr Choudhry said that some in the community were sceptical about the belated consultation and that, eventually, the cameras would go live regardless of local opinion.
Birmingham is not regarded as one of the hotbeds of Muslim extremism in Britain, although five young men were convicted in 2008 of a plot to capture and behead a soldier to protest against the UK’s involvement in Afghanistan.
Steve Jolly, the organiser of a grassroots campaign against the cameras, said: “Birmingham is one of the most successfully integrated cities in the country. Coming together to oppose the scheme has united the Muslim community and what you might call the white, middle-class community. We’re speaking with one voice.”
WHO: Medical equipment still banned from Gaza
Ma’an – 18/06/2010
Bethlehem: Spare medical parts and replacements are, in practice, barred from entry into Gaza, or only arrive “after great delays,” a World Health Organization spokesman told Ma’an on Friday.
Following the release of a report from the WHO on Gaza City’s Ash-Shifa Hospital, the spokesman emphasized that beyond the impeded access to parts, engineers are unable to enter Gaza to service the equipment. “Life saving equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars has been held up in Ramallah for over six months,” the statement said.
In the WHO’s profile, it says that most of the medical diagnostic equipment in Ash-Shifa hospital, a 560-bed facility in Gaza City, remains out of order. The CT scan, MRI, mammography, endoscope and gastroscope, a statement said, have all been waiting for service or spare parts for months, in some cases years.
The blockade Israel has imposed on the territory for the past three years is affecting the functioning of medical equipment threefold, the report found, with prohibitions, delays, and lack of qualified service personnel and power cuts/surges damaging delicate machines.
The CT scanner, used to diagnose cancers, cardiovascular disease, appendicitis, and dozens of other conditions, has only been running from parts borrowed from other facilities, and, the WHO said, its “radiation levels are above international norms. Without an alternative, however, it is used about 15 times a day for emergencies.”
According to the WHO report, a replacement machine is available in a warehouse in Ramallah, only “80 kilometres from Gaza city as the crow flies,” the report noted, adding “it has been lying there for over six months,” but has yet to receive clearance from Israeli crossings officials.
WHO officials say “patients with chronic diseases are particularly hard hit by the lack of appropriate equipment,” particularly the 200 odd dialysis patients served three times every week. A lack of dialysis machines means patients receive only half their necessary treatment, exposing them to severe health risks, while others are asked to come in for treatment during the late hours of the night and early morning, the statement reported.
Turkey Freezes Defense Deals with Israel in Wake of Gaza Flotilla Raid
Al-Manar TV – 17/06/2010
Turkey has frozen billions of dollars worth of defense deals with Israel in the wake of the Israeli Navy’s deadly raid on a humanitarian bound flotilla to the Gaza Strip, according to Turkish media.
Some of the 16 scrapped projects include a $5 billion deal in which Ankara was to receive 1,000 Merkava Mark III tanks from Israel, a $50 million plan to upgrade Turkish M-60 tanks, and a $800 million agreement to buy two Israeli patrol aircrafts and an Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.
Turkey has also abandoned a $632.5 million deal for 54 F-4 Phantom, and a $75 million program for 48 F-5 fighter bombers.
Bilateral corporate deals in the private sector would continue as usual unless so decided by the companies, according to Today’s Zaman.
The decision regarding the defense sector was made due to Israel’s refusal to apologize or offer concessions for the deaths of the nine Turkish citizens it killed aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31, said Zaman.
Turkey said it does not know if or when it would decide to send its ambassador back to the Zionist entity, according to the newspaper, though such a move would depend on Israel’s agreement to send a representative to a United Nations investigatory commission into the raid.
Turkey will refuse to recognize Israel’s internal inquiry into the incident at all levels, according to Zaman. “An apology is Israel’s exit if it really wants to normalize relations with Turkey, and we are firm in our demand for an apology,” Zaman quoted a diplomat as saying.
“Destroying such ties is easier than establishing them. But we are ready to face the negative impact of cutting these ties in an eventual absence of an apology from the Israeli side,” said the diplomat.
Turkey is considering downgrading its ties with Israel to a “charge d’affairs” level, as they were in the 1980s, according to Zaman.
Irish Singer’s Concert In Israel Canceled
By Malak Behrouznami – Palestine News Network – June 17, 2010
Legendary songwriter, performer and peace activist, Tommy Sands’s scheduled performance at the “Festival Bloomsday Concert ” Sunday June 20 has been canceled.
The appearance was canceled after Sands refused to be censored during his performance. Sands was asked by the organizers of the events, the Israeli- Ireland Friendship League, in association with the Municipality of Ramat Hasharon, to not perform “Peace on the Shores of Gaza,” the song he had written as the anthem for the MV Rachel Corrie that set sail from Ireland to Gaza.
This comes shortly after Ireland’s recent decision to expel an Israeli diplomat after an investigation over the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai earlier this year. The investigation proved that the eight Irish passports used by suspects in the assassination, an operation supposedly under Israeli intelligence, had been forged.
Despite the recent increase of artists boycotting Israel by canceling their performances, Sands has taken an alternative approach to the boycott, by performing in Israel, Palestine and Gaza during his tour. Sands recalls friends and colleagues in Ireland urging him not to come after the Flotilla crisis, fearing for his safety as a peace activist.
However, Sands thought it was important to come, “I realized that even though Ireland was seeing Israel in a dehumanizing way, I realized that there are many activists here who may need solidarity from the outside.”
During his performance last week at the Yellow Submarine in Jerusalem, Tommy received an invitation to play at the weekly Sheikh Jerrah demonstration in East Jerusalem this Friday. Sands accepted the invitation despite the fact that it was not a planned venue for the tour.
Sands is known for his involvement by actively speaking out about the conflict between Northern and Southern Ireland through his music. When asked about his role as a peace activist musician he responded, “Trust me, it would be a lot easier to stay home and make records, but we have a duty to contribute to the betterment of society.”
Anti-Palestinism is Hate Speech
By Ahmad Amr | Palestine Chronicle | June 18, 2010
Make no mistake, the likes of Biden will be obliged to eat their words.
I bet you’ve never heard of anti-Palestinism? In Israel and the United States, defaming and delegitimizing the Palestinians is a national sport; but have you ever heard anybody complain about it? Why didn’t Americans get worked up when 1,400 Palestinians were incinerated with Israeli phosphorous bombs? Why did the murder of 300 children in last year’s assault not touch a nerve? Why did it take three long years and the slaughter of eight Turks and a Turkish-American citizen to notice that Israel has incarcerated 1.5 million Palestinians in a concentration camp?
What if you were Palestinian shell shocked by decades of the world’s collective indifference? What would you tell your children? Is there any way to explain to a child why his people were ethnically cleansed to make room for a State as Jewish as England is English?
Why do pundits and politicians in the West get away with denying that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of the Holy Land? Why do we allow Israelis and their supporters to denigrate the historic rights of the Palestinians to live in the only homeland they’ve ever known? How is it that we don’t notice that, even today, half the population of historic Palestine is of native stock?
Why do the treasonous intellectuals of the West routinely allow Zionists to unabashedly declare their ‘right’ to settle in the Holy Land? Are they really that ignorant of the ethnic cleansing that dispossessed the Palestinians in 1948 or have they been afflicted by the epidemic of anti-Palisitinism? With or without a state, should we accord the Palestinians the right to exist and what kind of existence are they entitled to?
It’s one thing to talk about the facts on the ground and despair at the remote possibilities of a just solution for Palestinian problem. Because we all know what it would take to accord Palestinians the full spectrum of rights that we all take for granted. We all have the right to leave and return to the places where we were born – to the sacred land where our forefathers are buried. But if the Palestinians make legitimate claims to exercise that most basic of rights, they are accused of denying the right of Israel to exist.
Simply put, if international law applied to Palestinians, we would have to restore their rights to live anywhere in their ancestral homeland. But that’s not in the cards – because they’re nothing more than Palestinians and anti-Palestinism is the law of the land. If we were of a mind to accord them their legitimate rights, we would be obliged to issue every Palestinian refugee a visa to return to the Holy Land and we all know where that might lead – a country where immigrant European Jews and their descendents would be ‘deprived’ of an exclusive Jewish state.
Heaven forbid we should even attempt to persuade Israeli Jews to grant equal rights to the indigenous population. See, that would be considered anti-Zionism which is now deemed indistinguishable from anti-Semitism. The whole notion that there ever was an indigenous population in the Holy Land is a taboo subject. When it comes to the Palestinians, we cast reason aside and conveniently forget history, demographics and DNA. Who died and gave the Israelis and their dispensationalist Armageddon worshiping allies a license to make the absurd claim that Ethiopian and Moldavian Jews are the original natives of Palestine. Who issued the Israeli Lobbyists a pass to substitute their scripture for international law? Who says Jews are chosen and the Palestinians are not. And tell me again; if you’re not chosen, I imagine that means you’re cursed. How derogatory is that?
If you probe Zionist theology, you’ll see the logic behind the core Zionist argument. Palestinian Christians and Muslims deserved to be ethnically cleansed because they abandoned the ‘right’ religious traditions. Think about that because it’s a real simple concept to digest. If the Zionists had shown up on the shores of Palestine and found the natives still practicing Judaism, they wouldn’t have evicted them from their homes or expropriated their lands. Every Palestinian understands that. They also understand that if they had obliged the Zionists and converted to Judaism, they might have been spared an eviction notice and all the carnage that has plagued them for two generations. You want to know the original sins of the Palestinians – some of them put their faith in Jesus and gave up Judaism for Orthodox Christianity and others went a step further and embraced Islam. Had they stuck to their ancient Jewish traditions, they would never have tasted the bitter fruit of exile and dispossession.
Today, we have six million nuclear armed Zionists in full control of the entire historical boundaries of Palestine and another six million Palestinian natives living under the military rule of a Jewish supremacist state. Even in ‘Israel proper’, 20% of the citizens are descendents of the indigenous people of the Holy Land. Just to give you a perspective, at the height of the civil rights movement, only 12% of Americans were of African descent. I challenge anybody to compare the worst excesses of the segregationist south to the draconian laws that apply to Palestinians living under military occupation.
The toll in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland was 13. Last week, the British finally got around to apologizing for that crime but will they ever get around to making amends for the Balfour Declaration? Even the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa didn’t kill the way Israel kills. In 1976, five hundred Africans were slaughtered in the Soweto uprising. Not that the world paid much attention to the carnage – but compare that figure to the 1,400 civilians who were slaughtered in Gaza last year. Does the State Department keep a tally of how many Palestinians have been butchered since the Zionists came to build a ‘Jewish homeland’ on their native soil?
Did the Palestinians deserve what happened to them? If they had been left unmolested by the British and the Zionists, what kind of country would they have now? That’s what the world looks like from Palestinian eyes? Why us and why doesn’t anybody care? They’ve stolen our homeland – can’t the Israelis at least leave us with the memories of what was and what could have been? Before they set their covetous eyes on our towns and villages in the West Bank, can’t they take a deep breath, hang their head in shame and step back to the land they’ve already vanquished?
Why are the Israelis given a carte blanche to falsify history? Why is Nakba denial not considered beyond the pale? Indeed, why is the ‘Nakba’ not part of our daily vocabulary?
Why was Joseph Biden not taken to task when he publicly avowed his allegiance to Zionist ideology? Where was the public outcry? Why didn’t anybody call for his immediate resignation? What exactly did the Vice President of the United States mean to say? Those words have a very clear meaning – they are an expression of the vilest form of anti-Palestinism? When somebody utters them – every Palestinian understands their meaning? It means that Palestine never had a right to exist – that it was a disposable country that deserved to be eradicated off the face of the earth. I know Joseph Biden is a bigot for uttering those words; the problem is he doesn’t. Worst still, he feels righteous in saying them – as righteous as any true blue segregationist who applauded Jim Crow laws – as righteous as any Nazi German who believed that European Jews deserved to be transferred – as righteous as any Zionist who believes the Palestinians should be ethnically cleansed to make room for Eretz Israel.
The thing about Zionists who openly spew their anti-Palestinism is not their support of the right of Israel to exist but their subscription to the obscene notion that Palestinians deserved to lose their homeland. In formulating a resolution of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, it is one thing to accommodate current demographic and political realities and quite another to say that Israel had the right to come into existence over the carcass of Palestine. We can acknowledge and deal with the end result of the nauseating refuse of Israeli history without justifying the cruelty inflicted on the Palestinians. Tribes have eradicated tribes for centuries. But last I checked, this is the 21st Century. What might have been considered acceptable conduct at the peak of the European colonialism should not be condoned today. We’ve dealt with segregationist southerners and the radical Apartheid regime and we can work a humane resolution to the plight of the indigenous people of the Holy Land without cheering Zionist racists or denigrating their Palestinian victims.
Anti-Palestinism deprives us of the moral clarity that is essential to a resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We need to start recognizing anti-Palestinism for what it is – hate speech. That day will come when every pundit and every politician will rue the day they publicly flaunted their anti-Palestinism. Make no mistake, in the not so distant future, bigots like Joseph Biden will be obliged to eat their words and apologize for their blatant espousal of ethnic cleansing. When anti-Palestinism becomes a crime, Biden is the first person the Palestinians should sue.
– Ahmed Amr is an Arab-American. He is the former editor of NileMedia.com and the author of “The Sheep and the Guardians – Diary of a SEC Sanctioned Swindle.”
Abbas Tells US Envoy Blockade Must Be Lifted
Al-Manar TV – 18/06/2010
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US special envoy George Mitchell met in Ramallah Friday afternoon and discussed the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The meeting focused on the progress of proximity talks between the two parties. Top PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Abbas requested that Mitchell provide clarifications on reports that Israel plans to build 1,600 housing units in the occupied east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.
Erekat said Mitchell told Abbas that the US promise to the Palestinians that there would be no further construction in the settlements was still valid.
Erekat added that Abbas demanded that the US Administration work to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip and ensure that all the basic needs of the Strip’s population are met. The negotiator said Abbas demanded that the movement of goods between the Strip and the West Bank be permitted, and said the blockade is a form of collective punishment that cannot continue.
He stressed that all six crossings into Gaza should be opened and said reports of easement are not enough and the siege should be completely lifted.
“President Abbas insisted during the meeting on the need for a continuation of US efforts to achieve the complete end of the Gaza blockade,” his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP following talks in Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank.
Mitchell met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and was due in Egypt on Saturday for talks with its leaders.
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif also made similar statements hours before the Abbas-Mitchell meeting. “Israel must lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip,” he said, stressing that his country has done its part by re-opening the Rafah crossing after three years of closure.
EU firms main ‘losers’ of Iran sanctions
Press TV – June 18, 2010
Amid efforts by European states to impose unilateral sanctions on Iran, a senior Iranian official warns that confrontational policies will bear no fruit.
“The policy of imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program will not help to settle the disputes but will inflict the most damage to the European firms,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani said in a meeting with State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office, Wolf-Ruthart Born on Thursday. He dismissed the dual-track policy of diplomacy and sanctions as “deceitful and useless” and urged the European countries to end their confrontational approach towards Iran.
“The European Union will face an appropriate and firm response from Iran should it pursue the policy of imposing sanctions,” Ahani said. He pointed to the new resolution passed by the UN Security Council on June 9 imposing the fourth round of sanctions on Iran and said the new sanctions against Iran are counterproductive.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister added that countries which voted for the recent UN resolution only aim to undermine the interactive approach of the Tehran nuclear declaration.
Based on the declaration, issued by Iran, Brazil and Turkey on May 17, Tehran announced readiness to exchange 1,200 kg of its low enriched uranium on Turkish soil for fuel for its medical research reactor.
Born, for his part, said that Germany and the EU will pursue their diplomatic efforts to lift sanctions imposed on Iran.
Turkey facing the challenge
Diplomatic and legal channels are supported by defense capabilities
By Sinan | Aletho News | June 18, 2010
Istanbul: After the Mavi Marmara incident politicians saw the benefits of raising your voices to Israel. But to do it effectively and succeed, you must be independent to some extent.
We can see in the last few days that this decision is already made. This kind of war is much more difficult than wars made by bombs and bullets and also incredibly risky. With patience and perseverance I hope we succeed.
War Has Already Begun
This war that has just begun is a very critical war for Turkey and we are facing major powers. The dangers Turkey will face are enormous. But without taking those huge risks there is no future for Turkey.
In critical situations like this we shouldn’t expect to find a lot of confirmed information. But if we analyze “open information” from the internet we can reach some conclusions.
The other day there were two very important security meetings in Turkish capitol Ankara. Both of these meetings were attended by military officials of the highest rank, defense industry representatives, ministers, and the PM of Turkey. These meetings lasted many hours.
If you put these two meetings side by side, we can assume that very important decisions will be made. We can also say that they are trying to realize important decisions because there are powers (local & foreign) that don’t want this to occur.
What’s Happening?
Every time relations between Turkey and Israel/USA are in crisis, I always think how dependent our military is on the US.
As a NATO member almost all our jets, tanks, missiles, radars, electronics etc. are bought from the US. Nobody exactly knows what the software is in these war machines. And as you can guess, without the software all the weapons are worthless.
The software are usually developed by US and lately by Israel. This means you cannot use these weapons against the will of the sellers. Worse the weapons could be disabled when you need them most, during a war. Also the software can be modified, changed or disabled from US satellites.
Also it is a known fact that the inventories of the Turkish armed forces are closely monitored by Pentagon. This way the Turkish army can get inventories needed but at which cost?
It is estimated that the Turkish Army depends on the US for %70 of their weapon systems.
Turkey has decided a long time ago to reduce this dependency by developing software locally. As you can guess neither US nor Israel wanted to help or give the source codes of these systems.
What is The Purpose?
Turkish software experts can break these codes but it can easily be changed again remotely by USA and Israel. This means Turkey must develop its own software and it has already started to so.
At this stage the Italians come into the picture. Their Augusta helicopters are fitted with an independent software. And as we have heard they are also willing to share the source codes with the Turkish Military.
The purchase of 140 helicopters is planned from Augusta. Also 9 helicopters that are urgently needed in Turkey are rumored to be delivered soon. This means Turkey made a very important step to become independent.
Conclusion
Put the following incidents together:
- Proposed Iranian uranium enrichment deal with Brazil and Turkey,
- Planned oil pipeline with Russia, (Western oil companies excluded)
- Voting no to Iranian sanctions in UN, (together with Brazil)
- Mavi Marmara massacre
- Recent Neo-con smear campaign against Turkey etc…
Do these separate incidents have anything to do what I have written above?
Well, I don’t have any classified documents, I can only make educated guesses, but my senses say, the answer is YES.
As Mitchell Tries To Launch Talks, Israel To Demolish 22 Homes in Jerusalem
By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies – June 18, 2010
Amidst efforts to create a positive atmosphere for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel to discuss demolishing 22 Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
Last time Mitchell visited the region on May 20, some 56 members of Knesset in Israel signed a statement calling on the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, to resume the construction in Ariel settlement in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli “Planning and Construction Committee” will discuss on Monday a plan put forth by Jerusalem Mayor, Nir Barkat, to demolish dozens of Arab homes in Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Israeli paper, Haaretz, reported that Barkat vowed to Netanyahu to delay the plan in order to finalize negotiations with the owners of the homes. The residents confirmed that they were not approached by any official or by the municipality.
The plan aims at constructing an “Archeological Garden” in Al Bustan neighbored; the neighbored contains 80 Arab homes allegedly built without a permit.
The municipality wants to demolish 22 homes and to transfer the residents to another area, an issue that was rejected by the residents as it violates their rights and violates international law.
The residents presented a plan that does not include demolishing their homes, Haaretz said, but the municipality rejected the plan and refused to hold talks with the residents.
The municipality will present its own plan on Monday without any changes and will submit it to the “Planning and Construction Committee” for approval.
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6 MAJOR US foreign policy failures of the post-Cold War era
By Adam Garrie | The Duran | September 14, 2017
In the 1990s, US officials, all of whom would go on to serve in the George W. Bush White House, authored two short, but deeply important policy documents that have subsequently been the guiding force behind every major US foreign policy decision taken since the year 2000 and particularly since 9/11.
These documents include the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years (more commonly known as the Wolfowitz Doctrine). This document, as the name implies was authored by George W. Bush’s deeply influential Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz as well as I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who served as an advisor to former US Vice President Dick Cheney.
The other major document, A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, from 1996 was authored by former Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee in the administration of George W. Bush, Richard Norman Perle.
Both documents provide a simplistic but highly unambiguous blueprint for US foreign police in the Middle East, Russia’s near abroad and East Asia. The contents of the Wolfowitz Doctrine were first published by the New York Times in 1992 after they were leaked to the media. Shortly thereafter, many of the specific threats made in the document were re-written using broader language. In this sense, when comparing the official version with the leaked version, it reads in the manner of the proverbial ‘what I said versus what I meant’ adage.
By contrast, A Clean Break was written in 1996 as a kind of gift to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who apparently was not impressed with the document at the time. In spite of this, the US has implemented many of the recommendations in the document in spite of who was/is in power in Tel Aviv.
While many of the recommendations in both documents have indeed been implemented, their overall success rate has been staggeringly bad.
Below are major points from the documents followed by an assessment of their success or failure. … continue
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