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Israeli tanks shell Beit Hanoun

January 16, 2010

Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli tanks operating near the northern Gaza border near Beit Hanoun targeted civilian properties with heavy artillery fire, witnesses said late Friday night.

Eyewitnesses said tanks were spotted at the border, and noted a heavier than usual weaponry used by the forces. They said the fire hit civilian homes on the outskirts of the town, causing material damages but no injuries.

Families said the louder than usual tank fire terrified their children.

An Israeli military spokesman said he was unfamiliar with any military activity in the area overnight, but said he would look into the incident.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ weekly Protection of Civilians Report, last week saw a steep escalation in violence in Gaza. It counted seven Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli airstrikes, and called the deaths a “serious escalation.”

January 16, 2010 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Hebron leaves us stunned, devastated, drowning in shame

By Alice Rothchild | January 15, 2010

On January 12th, we drive to the southern West Bank city of Hebron. This city is literally drowning in a complex, traumatic, and violent history, that has given birth to the outrageous situation we see today. Most people start the story with the burial of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives several thousand years ago, followed by multiple invasions, the Arab massacre of Jews in 1929 one week after Zionists raised a Jewish flag at the Wailing Wall (with many questions regarding the role of the British in this catastrophe), and Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of Moslems praying at the Ibrahimi Mosque in the middle of Ramadan in 1994.

We are touring Hebron with Hisham Sharabati, the uncle of our local co-leader, Lubna. He explains that he went “to the college of the Israeli prison during the First Intifada’ and that after a barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets, he was shot in the leg and sustained a fracture, requiring crutches for 1 1/2 years. He is clearly articulate and educated; suffering has made him strong.

We start in a central open area of the market, old stone buildings with green metal doors on the ground floor, a small square with a palm trees, women in colorful hijabs sitting on poured concrete seats under umbrellas, and a steady circle of traffic and rambunctious young boys, racing around, playing, and harassing us, with unrelenting requests to purchase a variety of Palestinian trinkets. On quick inspection, I notice multiple security cameras and a few guard towers mounted on the tops of the buildings as well as an IDF checkpoint with a swinging yellow metal gate and a solid metal gate guarding the entrance to a Jewish settler area with a soldier perched above. All the ground floor doors, formerly markets, are closed, some welded shut by the IDF, and there is a second floor apartment completely encased in wire to protect the windows as well as the inhabitants from rocks thrown by Jewish settlers. .

As we sit down for the usual lunch of felafel, hummus, pita, and a collection of vegetables, Hisham begins to speak, his style sincere and serious with an ironic sense of humor. Shortly, we notice a commotion at the checkpoint site and it appears that a number of the teenage boys have been apprehended by the soldiers, their intimidating automatic weapons ready, and are being taken one by one inside the metal door for questioning after their bags are checked. We move closer and can only peek through a crack in the tall concrete blocks around the checkpoint. The local population does not seem to pay much attention to this encounter, it is clearly an everyday affair. I do not know what happened to the boys, although several were released and came out, tucking in their shirts and resuming a slightly subdued teenage swagger. The little boys watched with curiosity and at one point, two Israeli soldiers came out from their bunker, wearing what appeared to be a significant amount of battle gear, hands always on their weapons, and spoke with the little boys. I suspect this is the only kind of interaction these children have with Israeli Jews.

Hisham explains that after 1967 a group of very right wing Jewish settlers came to a hotel in Hebron and declared they would never leave. A deal was struck with the IDF that they could settle next to a military facility. There were further deals and expansions and ultimately the settlement of Kiryat Arba was officially established in 1971.These settlers have a history of particularly violent, racist, ugly attacks against their Palestinian neighbors, often observed and sometimes even promoted by the local Jewish soldiers. These are the settlers that spray paint: “Death to the Arabs!” or “Gas all Arabs,” on the walls of Palestinian homes and taunt children and women, calling the women “Whores.” Much of this has been well-documented by Palestinians with video cameras, many provided by the Israeli human rights organization, B’tselem in their “Shoot Back” campaign. It is soldiers from Hebron who started “Breaking the Silence,” when they felt guilty and haunted by their violent racist behavior patrolling this city. The local Palestinians have responded with repeated nonviolent resistance, including strikes and demonstrations, and some of the local leadership have been arrested by Israeli authorities and deported. In the 1970s and 1980s there were also armed attacks against the settlers as well as an attack on a nearby settlement called Beit Haddassah.

In the 1990s, a group of 400 settlers, (which included 250 yeshiva students), decided to move into the old city, into homes that they claimed were originally Jewish and these settlers have repeatedly attacked the local Palestinians and destroyed their market and ability to live a normal life. There are 150,000 Palestinians in all of Hebron and 35,000 in H2, the area of the city under strict Israeli control, “taken hostage on behalf of the settlers.” The UN OCHA has documented 98 different kinds of restrictions of movement in an area that is just one square kilometer. 512 Palestinian stores, spray painted with red and black dots, have been closed by military order, there are repeated prolonged closures and curfews, and Palestinians are only allowed to walk on certain streets, even if their homes are on these streets. These people access there homes by traipsing through other backyards or by walking from roof to roof, up and down ladders, to get to their homes. The central bus station was taken for “security” and given to settlers and the Yeshiva was built above the Palestinian market on top of a Palestinian school.

We wander through much of the market, some of it ghostly quiet, some bustling with vegetables, fruit, clothes, and crowds of people. Above the market Hisham points out a metal wiring creating a protective barrier as settlers living above, throw garbage, bricks, stones, plastic bags of urine and feces, and other offensive items down upon the Palestinians. At one stand he points to a plastic covering with a ragged hole above the market area. Here the Jewish settlers threw acid which burned the plastic and caused havoc below. Suddenly we see three Palestinian young men spread eagled against the wall, one kicked by a solder, and several soldiers, patting them down. We move closer, hoping our presence may contain the violence, and after what feels like an endless harassment, the young men are set free. Welcome to the daily Hebron patrol and, as one delegate said, the mass psychology of fascism.

The most painful part of this tour is the visit to Hisham’s friend, Hashem Aza, who not only can not access his house from the main street, but also lives next to one of the most rabid anti-Palestinian settlers. He has been told, “If you want peace, go to Gaza, Egypt, Saudia Arabia,” been cursed viciously, and particularly after the severe curfews from 2000-2003, many of his neighbors gave up and left. He states that there is a 90% poverty rate and minimal available employment. We clamber up a rocky hill, through several back yards and back stairs until we reach his home. He points to the stone stairs and garden that once were his backyard, but this has been repeatedly destroyed by his Jewish neighbors who not only have attacked his home and his family, but they have also cut his fruit trees, water and electricity lines. They too throw garbage and once hurled a washing machine that we see rusting amongst the trees. Only recently has he acquired water again and we see a new bright blue pipe snaking through the various backyards. His little boy comes scampering outside chasing a pink ball, watched carefully by his wife. In his home he shares more horrifying personal stories, shows us a series of videos documenting racist, violent attacks against Palestinians, primarily women and children, often by settler women and children, with no response from the police or IDF nearby. A committed nonviolent activist, he and his wife and nephew have been personally attacked, their home repeatedly trashed, his children suffer from bedwetting and other signs of PTSD, and he has unsuccessfully pursued his case in Israeli courts. He is determined to persevere, to document the realities in his beloved city, and bring this to the attention of the international community. We listen stunned and drowning in shame, outrage, and heartbreak.

Our sobering taste of life in Hebron includes other devastating stories and experiences with Israeli guard towers, camouflage netting, checkpoints, a wall spray painted with graffiti that includes a tribute to the IDF’s Golani brigade and to Betar, a right wing youth organization. I pass a concrete block obstructing the road, spray painted with an arrow and the words: “This is apartheid.” There are occasional Palestinian Authority police, but the consensus is that they are mostly useless.

So what do we do with this shameful reality? While most Israelis do not support these settlers, they receive full support, protection and encouragement from the Israeli government and military, and this has not changed in the past 42 years, no matter who is in power. They have made the lives of the Palestinians in Hebron a living hell, and they have never been held accountable. This does not happen by accident. From the moment Goldstein massacred the Palestinians in the mosque, it was a political decision by the Israeli government to put the Palestinians under curfew and protect the Jewish settlers who now celebrate his murderous actions. While these settlers are clearly the most racist, religiously fanatic, possibly deranged, and fascistic element in Israeli society, they both use and are used by the government as a wedge in the never-ending land grab and Judaization of the West Bank.

Given the blather that mostly passes for news about the settler issue in the US and Netanyahu and Leiberman’s blatant support for the settlement project and utter disregard for the the welfare of Palestinians, BDS is looking more and more like a reasonable imperative. I take my inspiration from the nonviolent activists who shared their painful reality with us. Such is the impact of a day in Hebron.

Source

January 16, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Detention of top Ma’an journalist condemned

15/01/2010

Bethlehem – Ma’an – As Israeli authorities prepared to expel Ma’an News Agency’s chief English editor later this week, media rights groups have blasted his ongoing detention as an assault on freedom of the press.

Jared Malsin was originally scheduled to be deported without a hearing on Thursday morning. Protests by US authorities in Tel Aviv resulted in a temporary reversal, and an injunction filed by Ma’an delayed the expulsion until at least Sunday.

Reporters Without Borders “condemns the detention and imminent expulsion of US journalist Jared Malsin, who has worked for the past two years as an editor with Ma’an, an independent Palestinian news agency,” the group said on Wednesday in a statement, the first of many that it and others would issue on behalf of the top journalist at Ma’an’s English Desk.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which monitors freedom of the press worldwide, urged Israel to refrain from taking punitive action against reporters over specific content in their work. “Israel cannot hide behind the pretext of security to sideline journalists who have done nothing more than maintain an editorial line that the authorities dislike,” the organization said.

Indeed, court documents indicated that Malsin’s detention was directly related to his work at the news agency, quoting airport officials as noting that he authored articles “inside the territories,” among them some which “criticized the State of Israel.”

“We are alarmed by the Israeli government’s efforts to deport Jared Malsin on vague security charges,” stated CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. “We call on the Israeli authorities to ensure that our colleague be allowed to carry out his work without further harassment.”

Full article

January 15, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Remembering earlier massacres in Gaza: “This is life”

Eva Bartlett writing from occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 14 January 2010

It’s a sunny day in the border region east of Beit Hanoun. Aside from a glaring absence of the citrus and olive trees which for decades abounded on this fertile land, finally razed by Israeli military bulldozers, all seems idyllic.

“This is the first time I’ve returned here since my friends were killed,” Ahmad Hammad says. He stands at the edge of a vacant plot and gestures to its far end which lies over 1 km from the border separating Israel and the Gaza Strip. “They were over there, I was standing here,” he explains.

Hammad, 24, recalls the day two years ago when three of his friends, all in their early twenties, were torn apart by an Israeli-fired surface-to-surface missile.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that an Israeli military spokesman claimed that the Israeli army “targeted Palestinian gunmen accused of launching home-made rockets at Israeli towns.”

But Hammad remembers differently.

“They were all sitting over there, beside a small concrete hut. We used to come here all the time, to relax, drink tea, talk of our hopes and dreams. I was late that day.”

The date — 23 February 2008 — is etched in Hammad’s memory. His is a story of seeking a sanctuary where politics, occupation, siege and Israeli attacks didn’t exist. Just friends, tea, tobacco water pipe and talk.

“I left home around 2pm when they called me. They were already here, preparing the tea, relaxing. When I arrived to this spot, Muhammad stood up and began dancing around, joking, waving me to come over.”

He relives the next painful minutes in slow motion:

Then — it was exactly 2:28pm — there was a huge explosion and much smoke. I couldn’t see the area where they’d been standing, the smoke was so thick. When I finally got through the smoke and reached where they’d been standing, I found only pieces of my friends. I couldn’t even identify them by their faces, they were so destroyed.

I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t talk. I cried and cried, for maybe half an hour. Then I tried to call an ambulance, but I was still crying so hard the dispatcher couldn’t understand me. I called a friend instead and told him to bring a car and come here. He asked why, and I just told him to come here, still crying.

We collected my friends in pieces and took them to the hospital.

Hammad walks now, venturing to the site where his best friends were martyred. He sits near a water pipe leading from the ground and explains the area. “That was the hut, it was just a single room. We’d prepare tea and heat coals [for the water pipe] here.”

Pointing beyond the flat space where the hut stood, he notes a pile of rubble. “The room was destroyed in the last Israeli attacks on Gaza.”

The land is parched and cracked from want of rain or irrigation. “All the water pumps and wells in this area have been destroyed,” Hammad says, diverting to the troubles which now plague the region. “My own father’s well, over there, just 700 meters from the border, was destroyed. It must have cost him at least $10,000 to build, and now he can’t water his citrus trees.”

The Hammad family is not alone in repeatedly losing trees, crops and wells to Israeli bulldozers. Throughout the border region, wells, cisterns, piping, houses, farm equipment, and crops have been destroyed over the last decade, the most thorough destruction being during Israel’s invasion of Gaza last winter.

This dry, flat plot of land once sprouted onions. “Some of our other friends rented the land. They wanted to earn some money, so they planted onions and worked the land together. But they always let us come here to relax, whenever we wanted. That’s why we came here that day.”

He points up, over the border region where a fat white blimp hangs in the sky, surveying the land below with great accuracy. “These blimps are along the border. They can see everything with great detail, including my clothes and face.”

What the blimp misses, the drone hovering above sees. During Israel’s invasion, drones clouded Gaza’s skies and accounted for 519 of the 1,419 Palestinian civilians murdered during the Israeli massacre, according to the al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights. Often, the first drone-fired missile would be pointedly followed minutes later by a second or third, striking those who came to rescue the injured.

Earlier this day, Israeli warplanes leafleted the border regions, again declaring the 300 meters from the border mortally off-limits to anyone on the Gaza side. The Israeli-imposed “buffer zone” goes back a decade. And although the current limit is 300 meters, in practice Israeli soldiers target Palestinians up to nearly 2km away.

“They were young, were still dreaming and planning their lives,” says Hammad.

Muhammad al-Zaniin was from Beit Hanoun. He was still in school, studying business and English at al-Azhar University.

“He was an over-achiever, always wanted to get the highest marks possible. His goal was to be first in his class throughout university, and to finish early. He was always studying. Just before he was killed, he had learned the results of some of his exams: 97 percent, 95 percent. But he was killed before he knew the rest. He wasn’t asking for much from life, just to do well in school, get a job, and marry a girl he loved.”

Ibrahim Abu Jarrad was also from Beit Hanoun.

“He was the quietest of us all. He was very thoughtful and a mediator, always solving problems between people. His hopes were very simple: to build a home and marry the girl he loved.”

Muhammad Hassanain was from Jabaliya. His father was dead and Muhammed had taken on the role of providing for the family.

“He dreamed of building a new home, large enough to house the family comfortably. He was such a responsible guy — as paying the university tuition of his younger brother. He just wanted to marry and take care of his family.”

It was the same week that the Israeli military killed another six civilians in Gaza and wounded 16. Among the martyred were an elderly shepherd and a farmer in his thirties, both nearly 3 km from the border when shelled by an Israeli surface-to-surface missile east of Gaza City. A 12-year-old and two 10-year-olds were killed later the same day west of Jabaliya, targeted by Israeli air strikes. An infant was killed by shrapnel to his head and chest after Israeli aircraft bombed a government building surrounded by houses in the center of Gaza City. A 31-year-old in the east Khan Younis region was killed by indiscriminate Israeli fire the day earlier.

“After I saw my friends torn to pieces, I kept thinking, ‘I wish I had been with them.’ I saw part of the missile that looked like it hadn’t exploded, and I wished that it would now explode with me,” Hammad says. “It was the end of the life I had, the end of my dreams.”

The killing of Hammad’s three friends wasn’t his first personal loss, but it hit him the hardest.

“I’d seen my cousins killed, in 2004. But that was nothing. This was the most difficult thing for me, it still haunts me.”

While Hammad no longer visits places that remind him of his martyred friends, he does still regularly visit their families.

“Of course, they are like my own families. But even though I know they love me, I always feel that they blame me, think I was the reason their sons were killed. I see it in their eyes.”

Like most Palestinians who’ve suffered the loss of their loved ones, or suffer from the grinding, nearly four-year-long siege on Gaza, Hammad hides his pain behind smiles and laughter.

“I told my friends that I’d never laugh again after my best friends were killed. But we go on. And my laughter is hollow.”

Fluent in English, Hebrew and his native Arabic, Hammad is educated and employed. But not happy.

“I also had many dreams. I used to dream of doing a Masters degree abroad. Now I just live day to day, continue because everyone tells me I must. This is life. It comes and takes everything you want.”

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian human rights advocate and freelancer who arrived in Gaza in November 2008 on the third Free Gaza Movement boat. She has been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement and documenting Israel’s ongoing attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. During Israel’s recent assault on Gaza, she and other ISM volunteers accompanied ambulances and documenting the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

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January 14, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Jewish settlers burn Palestinian property, IOF damage land and detain citizens

14/01/2010 – 11:09 AM

QALQILIA, (PIC)– Jewish armed settlers wreaked havoc in the village of Ematin, Qalqilia district, in a pre dawn raid on Thursday that complemented their sabotage acts in the same village over the past two weeks.

Eyewitnesses said that the settlers from a nearby settlement burnt four vehicles in the village while people were asleep before swiftly withdrawing.

Villagers said that the vehicles were three cars and a tractor.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up 12 Palestinians in various West Bank areas at an early hour on Thursday during which they searched homes and harassed civilians.

The IOF soldiers on Wednesday night bulldozed four dunums of cultivated land lots in Safa north of Beit Ummar village, Al-Khalil district.

Local sources said that the IOF troops commenced their destruction without prior notice, noting that the land was cultivated with fruitful trees.

In the Gaza Strip, the IOF troops advanced into northeast of Rafah city for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon amidst intensified firing at civilian neighborhoods.

PIC reporter said that the soldiers mounting three armored vehicles escorted bulldozers that damaged cultivated fields.

The troops stationed east of Rafah fired at citizens’ homes and IOF artillery fired at agricultural areas east of Jabalia north of the Gaza Strip inflicting material damage but no casualties.

IOF F-16 warplanes flew at low altitudes over the Strip on Wednesday and penetrated the sound barrier spreading fear among civilians especially children.

January 14, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

A second Gaza war around the corner?

Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 13 January 2010

Israel is once again complaining that its “security” is being threatened by new eruptions of violence along the border with Gaza. About two dozen Qassam rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza in recent days. Although they fell in (and may have been deliberately targeted at) open areas, causing no damage or injuries, Israel took revenge with destructive air raids that did cause damage and killed several people, including a 15-year-old boy.

Before asking who should stop first, one should recall who started the latest ugly round of violence.

On 26 December, Israel carried out double attacks in the West Bank city of Nablus and in Gaza, murdering three people in each place. In Nablus, Israeli death squads carried out cold-blooded extrajudicial executions in revenge for the killing of a West Bank settler several days before. According to the wife of one of the Nablus victims, her husband was at home in his living room, completely unarmed when the death squad burst in and shot him in the face. Neither he nor the other victims of these state-sponsored terrorists had been accused, tried or convicted of any crime in a court of law.

In Gaza, the three victims were reportedly workers scavenging near the border fence to salvage building supplies from the rubble of previous destruction.
Since late December, Israeli attacks have killed more than a dozen Palestinians, routine violence which is ignored by the “international community” and for which Israel is never held accountable. On the contrary, Israel’s Western friends continue to justify this terrorism as “self-defense.”

Israel’s recent aggressions look ominously like the 4 November 2008 attack on Gaza, which killed six persons and shattered the four-month-long truce meticulously respected by Hamas. Predictably, Hamas and other factions retaliated for that Israeli provocation and then Israel used their response to justify its massacre of 1,400 people in Gaza this time last year.

It seems that whenever there is relative calm on the Gaza front, Israel is keen to destroy it. Prior to the November 2008 attack, the Gaza situation, despite the siege and the intense international pressure on Hamas, was stable — that was the last thing Israel wanted. And despite the truth that Israel sabotaged the truce and then refused to renew it even though Hamas wanted to, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, some Arab states and the so-called international community led by the United States blamed Israel’s attack on Gaza on Hamas rockets, and claimed that Hamas — not Israel — had rejected renewing the truce.

When Israel ended “Operation Cast Lead” last year, it refused to enter into a new formal truce with Hamas. Nevertheless, Hamas has observed a unilateral ceasefire, only using force occasionally in retaliation for Israeli attacks, say, on tunnels that bring vital supplies into Gaza from Egypt, circumventing the siege. Moreover, Hamas — in the face of much local criticism — has enforced the truce on other Palestinian factions.

Could Israel be following the same pattern again now with its escalating violence against Gaza? Neither last year’s war nor the tightening blockade that has prevented any meaningful reconstruction have succeeded in their clear but unstated goal of toppling Hamas.

Is Israel then preparing to do again what it does best: use wanton murder and destruction to try to achieve its political goals?

It is hard to say, but this is an alarming possibility, especially as senior Israeli officials have been dropping hints about preparations for a “second Gaza war.”

Israel, which does not act according to any normal or civilized standards, could have several motives for this; not least, another “small war” could give Israel a welcome distraction from the continuing diplomatic impasse or any threat of a renewed American-led peace initiative, no matter how timid.

Up to this point, it looks like Israel has been in the diplomatic driver’s seat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu easily dismissed US President Barack Obama’s initial demand for a freeze on construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Obama Administration not only backed down, it also fully adopted Israeli positions and has been continuously putting pressure on the moribund Palestinian Authority to return to negotiations without “preconditions.” (Of course “without preconditions” means only that Israel is not obligated to meet any conditions; Palestinians are always presented with lengthy lists of Israeli preconditions.)

But if this seems like a diplomatic victory for Israel, it may only be temporary. If, as expected, the Palestinian Authority eventually succumbs to pressure and returns to “negotiations,” it will become instantly apparent that, given Israeli intransigence and expansionism, there is absolutely nothing to discuss and not even an infinitesimal prospect of any sort of peace deal.

It is doubtful that the bankruptcy of the Israeli and American positions can simply be covered up with more empty process, and expect the situation on the ground to remain quiet and stable. Bringing the crisis closer, on its own terms, and once again blaming Hamas, may be the “ideal” way out for Israel.

Hasan Abu Nimah is the former permanent representative of Jordan at the United Nations. This essay first appeared in The Jordan Times.

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Progressive Hypocrite | Leave a comment

“Iron Dome”, Israel’s new rocket defense system

By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth | 14 January 2010

Israel unveiled “Iron Dome” last week, a missile-defence system that is designed to strike a knock-out blow against short-range rockets of the variety fired into Israel by Hamas and Hizbullah. In the short term, Iron Dome is supposed to herald the demise of the rocket threat to Israeli communities near Gaza four years after Hamas won the Palestinian elections.

The period in-between has been marked by a series of inconclusive moves by both sides: Israel’s crippling siege of Gaza has yet to break the will of Gazans; negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas more than three years ago, have gone nowhere; reconciliation talks between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have borne no fruit; and even the savage offensive against Gaza last year, Operation Cast Lead, achieved little in strategic gains for Israel.

Now Israel says it has a winning card in its hand. From May, the first batteries of Iron Dome – developed at a cost of 200 million US dollars – will be installed around Gaza, foiling the efforts of militant factions to continue their struggle against a policy that denies the enclave’s inhabitants all but the most essential humanitarian items.

Militant groups in Gaza have done their best to remain defiant. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad declared last week to Maan, a Palestinian news agency, that the rocket defence system “cannot stop the projectiles of the resistance”, as it launched sustained volleys of rockets and shells into Israel for the first time since Cast Lead. Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, has accused Hamas of turning a blind eye to this activity.

Certainly, several big question marks hang over the Israeli project, despite the large claims being made by Israeli officials.

Analyst Reuven Pedatzur noted today in the Haaretz newspaper that Israel was peddling “deceptions and half-truths” over Iron Dome. He pointed out that the flight time of a few seconds for rockets fired at Israeli communities close to Gaza, such as Sderot, is far shorter than the time needed by Iron Dome to calculate an interception.

Even more significantly, what economic sense does it make for Israel to try to destroy home-made rockets when each interceptor missile costs an estimated 100,000 US dollars?

Military analysts reckon that, in addition, Israel will be forced to spend 1 billion US dollars on 20 batteries needed to protect Israeli communities next to Gaza and more in the north that are currently in the line of Hizbollah’s fire from Lebanon. That cost will rise rapidly as Hamas and Hizbollah extend the reach of their arsenals. Another system, Magic Wand, can reportedly shoot down medium-range missiles, but each interception costs close to 1 million US dollars. And then there are additional costs to be factored in when groups in the West Bank begin launching rockets, too.

Israel’s siege of Gaza could quickly be matched by a war of attrition by Hamas and Hizbullah against Israel’s defence budget – at a time when Israel is pondering expensive military adventures further afield, such as in Iran.

Nonetheless, signs of unease have become apparent in Gaza over the past week. Militant groups have again risked engaging in serious clashes with Israel. On Sunday, [10 January] Israel claimed that more than 20 rockets and mortar shells had been fired out of Gaza in a few days, while Palestinian sources said at least eight Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, had been killed in Israeli air strikes.

But even if Iron Dome is little more than a new development in Israel’s programme of psychological warfare against Gaza, the pressure is most definitely building on Hamas on several fronts. Israel has significantly tightened its choke hold on the enclave over the past year.

One of Israel’s most significant moves has been forcing Palestinians to abandon productive rural land in Gaza, much of it situated just inside the fence that surrounds the Strip.

According to Palestinian officials, Gaza once produced half of its own food, with one-quarter of its 1.5 million inhabitants dependent on agriculture. Today, about half of this land is no longer usable. Some of it was destroyed by the Israeli army during Cast Lead. Other areas, according to Italian researchers last week, have been contaminated with a cocktail of toxic metals from Israeli munitions. And yet more land is off limits because it falls within a buffer zone of 300 metres Israel has declared inside the perimeter fence, as a leaflet drop last week by the Israeli air force reminded Gazans. Farmers say in practice the zone often extends much deeper into the enclave.

As Gaza’s chief means of subsistence has been steadily eroded, the lifeline provided by hundreds of smuggling tunnels from Egypt into Rafah, under the one border not controlled by Israel, has come under imminent danger of being severed, too.

Sealing the Rafah border was one of the main goals of Operation Cast Lead, but Israeli aerial bombardments only had limited success in destroying the tunnels there. Instead, Egypt is building a steel wall underground in an attempt to foil the smugglers. Although Cairo is taking the flak for the wall’s construction, and has its own interests in punishing Hamas, the driving forces behind the scheme are almost certainly Israel and the United States. US engineers are reported to be providing the technical expertise to make the wall as effective as possible.

Another wall, this one to be built by Israel along the border with Egypt immediately south of Gaza, was announced this week. Although chiefly intended to stop the flow of refugees and illegal immigrants reaching Israel, it is also aimed “to turn the screws on Hamas” by blocking the only way into Israel for terror attacks, Yaakov Katz, an analyst with the Jerusalem Post newspaper, argued yesterday.

The increasing isolation of Gaza – and the ratcheting up of pressure – is designed to send a message to Gaza: that Hamas has nothing to gain, and everything to lose, from resisting Israel’s occupation, and that ordinary Gazans should turn their back on the Islamic movement.

But there is also a message for Hamas’s rivals in the West Bank. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and his Fatah supporters are being daily reminded that their own chances of extracting significant concessions from Israel – through a policy of quietism – are even more anaemic than Hamas’s.

The hope in Israel is that sooner or later Mr Abbas, or his successor, will realize there is no choice but to sign up to whatever territorial crumbs of the West Bank Israel is prepared to concede as a Palestinian state.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest book is “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press)

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January 13, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Tons of flowers, strawberries piled up at closed Gaza crossing

01/08/10 – Ma’an – For the first time in years, Gazan farmers were told a semi-regular system of exports for flower and then strawberries would be put in place at Israeli crossings.

During 2009 there were four days when the export of goods was permitted from Gaza, there were zero days in 2008. During these years the carnation industry in Gaza has staggered, with most of the product going to feed livestock. Because of scarce water, in mid-2009, farmers that wanted to grow strawberries had to apply for permission from the de facto Gaza government to get the okay to use more than their quota of fresh water for the crops.

For the past month, an irregular schedule for the export of the goods was working at the Kerem Shalom crossing. There is, however, more product awaiting export than has been permitted through the crossing, and the perishable items are lined up in trucks near the border waiting for their turn to leave….

According to the Agricultural Development Society (ADS) in Gaza noted that the “more than 300 out of 750 tones of strawberries that continue to be harvested between now and mid-February, are supposed to be exported; the flower season continues until the end of may and is expected to generate more than 30 million cut flowers for export, so far only 630,000 have left the Gaza Strip.”

The nature of the industry is that if farms stop producing flowers or strawberries, re-starting the production will be difficult and costly. Goods produced but not sold or exported, however, represent an even greater danger.

“Each shipment that cannot be exported causes accumulating economic losses for farmers, and increases the burdens both farming families and the agricultural societies working to get the goods sold,” the ADS said. The society called on crossings officials to ensure the agreed upon amount of goods exit the Strip.

The exports have so far been possible because of the help of the Dutch government, which continues to help 179 farmers in Gaza who work a total of 300 dunums of land for flower farms, and another 500 dunums of strawberry fields. The products from these farms are allocated for sale abroad.

The society thanked the Dutch government, but said farmers would prefer to make a living from their crops, rather than rely on donations from the country to compensate them for the spoiled or perished crops. Full story

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

American Journalist and Partner Denied Re-entry to Israel – Deportation Imminent

IMEMC | January 13, 2010

…The English Desk at Ma’an News Agency, the largest independent news network in the Palestinian territories, is deeply concerned that its chief editor, Jared Malsin, an American citizen [and graduate of Yale University], was detained on Tuesday afternoon upon arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. He is slated for imminent deportation.

In what can only be explained as a retaliatory measure for Malsin’s reporting on Palestine, his long-term girlfriend, Faith Rowold, a two-year, registered volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, was also seized and placed in a holding cell pending deportation. Israeli security agents have prevented the couple from making calls, and lied to concerned American consular staff, denying that the two were even being held.

While the US Embassy is protesting both incidents, and is in constant contact with our staff on the ground, diplomatic officials say that there is little they can do when Israel cites “security reasons” for the denial of entry. Meanwhile, Israeli security officials have quietly expressed concern to Ma’an over this latest abuse of power by authorities at the Interior Ministry, skeptical that the professional journalist they know could be deemed a threat.

For its part, Israel has yet to specify any allegations against Malsin, who indicated – just before his phone was seized by airport guards – that during his hours of interrogation, security agents inexplicably questioned him over his supposed ties to international peace activists, with whom he has no relationship.

Ma’an scrupulously maintains its editorial independence and aims to promote access to information, freedom of expression, press freedom, and media pluralism in Palestine. It has no other agenda. Israel’s arbitrary detention of the head of its English Desk is an affront to professional journalists not only in Palestine, but also to journalists in Israel and abroad, who rely on Ma’an for its accuracy, impartiality, and independence…

Ma’an report:

Order of Events

Jared’s phone was confiscated by El Al security officials when he boarded a flight in the Czech Republic on 12 January 2010. He was denied the opportunity to make any calls to his consulate, his family or a lawyer between 11am (upon boarding) and 11pm (when his mobile was briefly returned).

In what can only be explained as a retaliatory measure for Malsin’s reporting on Palestine, his long-term girlfriend, Faith Rowold, a two-year, registered volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, was also seized and placed in a holding cell pending deportation.

At 4pm when the flight was disembarked in Tel Aviv, Faith used the phone of a fellow traveler, an Israeli national, in the restroom of the airport. She called her sister with a brief message saying she had landed but indicated that there were problems.

At 6:30pm, the office of US Citizen Services was contacted in Jerusalem. Officials called Israeli airport authorities, who assured them that there were no American citizens being held there at that time. The names of Jared and his companion, also a US national, were reportedly not flagged. The official suggested the couple were out having a good time in Tel Aviv and had simply not gotten in touch.

The official also said local police should be contacted if Jared were actually missing, but assured that his contacts at the airport were not holding him. Ma’an staff asked if the official could confirm whether or not Jared and his companion had in fact cleared immigration.

Jared used the mobile of a French traveler admitted to the detention hall at 8:30pm to call his Faith’s sister again and asked a colleague to immediately contact the US Embassy. He said he was being questioned and feared being denied entry into Israel; he provided passport numbers for himself and his fellow traveler.

The US Consulate official was contacted again with the information that Jared was not out in Tel Aviv, but had in fact been in Israeli custody since 11am that morning. The official immediately expressed concern and said he would call his contacts again at the airport.

The official called back at after 9pm and asked for more information on Jared and his fellow traveler: are they married, is she pregnant, is there a Palestinian connection, what newspaper does Jared write for, etc.

The consulate official was informed that Jared worked with Ma’an. He was also informed that while the US, EU and UK fund programs and productions with the Ma’an Network, that staff at each of the consulates consult the English Desk site daily, even hourly, the State of Israel does not recognize Ma’an as a news organization, and therefore denies its journalists press accreditation.

By 11pm, both Jared and Faith were informed that they had been denied entry. Their mobile phones were returned to them for two hours, and then confiscated just after midnight when they were transferred to holding cells.

At 8am, the US consular official was contacted, called security at the airport and was informed that Jared and Faith were set to be deported at 6am on 14 January 2010, on the next direct flight to Prague, where they had been vacationing a week before.

For further comment, please contact:

George Hale (English)
+972(0)52.785-4907

Raed Othman (Arabic)
+972(0)59.925-8704

Hakim Abdul Salah (Hebrew)
+972(0)59.895-1151

Full story

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

NATO forces kill protesters

By Zainullah Stanikzai | RAWA | January 12, 2010

LASHKARGAH: Ten people were killed and 25 others wounded as NATO-led soldiers opened fire on residents protesting civilian deaths and desecration of the Holy Quran in southern Helmand province on Tuesday.

Dwellers of the restive Garmser district said International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers raided the house of a tribal elder, killing three of his family members and torching copies of Quran in a local mosque.

To protest the overnight raid on the residence of tribal elder Haji Qayyum in the Darveshan village, residents staged a demonstration that came under fire from foreign troops, eyewitness Dost Muhammad told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Agha Muhammad, another resident who had come to the provincial capital of Lashkargah, said the people — chanting slogans against international troops — had informed the district chief of their protest. Even then they were fired on by Afghan and foreign soldiers, he claimed.

“Ten protestors were killed and 25 others wounded as a result of firing by the joint force,” he alleged, saying those slightly injured were rushed to the Garmser Civil Hospital. Eleven people with serious injuries were shifted to the provincial capital, he continued.

An employee of the Lashkargah Emergency Hospital confirmed receiving 10 wounded civilians. Two of them are said to be in a critical condition.

A security official, who did not want to be named, confirmed eight deaths and injuries to13 others. The angry demonstrators reportedly turned violent against intelligence operatives, who opened fire on them, he said.

“The protestors were signaled to stop but they ignored the orders. Subsequently, they came under fire,” the source said, disclosing one intelligence agent was also killed and another two injured. He alleged Taliban commander Mullah Naeem had provoked the protestors.

In Kabul, the ISAF Joint Command (IJC) said it was aware of the protests against the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran that took place in Garmser district.

“While denying these allegations, we take them very seriously and support a combined investigation with local Afghan authorities,” said Major Gen. Michael Regner, IJC deputy chief of staff for operations.

“ISAF is an international force that includes Muslim soldiers, and we deplore such an action under any circumstances.” The allegation comes in reference to an operation against the Taliban in the district.

On Sunday, the multinational force said, Afghan forces conducted the operation, supported by coalition troops. The joint force protected the dignity of all innocent civilians during the operation, it insisted

During the protest, an insurgent sniper shot an Afghan official, the statement added. ISAF service members identified the sniper and shot him dead. There were no other injuries or shots fired.

“As partners with the Afghan people, we will thoroughly investigate allegations to determine the facts,” Regner said. “IJC remains committed to our Afghan partners and we will continue our efforts in support of a free and prosperous Afghanistan.”

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Farmers prevented from planting trees

13/01/2010 – Hebron –Ma’an– Two Palestinians and one child were injured on Tuesday as Israeli forces prohibited farmers from tending to their land in Safa village in the northern Hebron governorate, solidarity workers said.

“While the farmers were planting olive trees, Israeli forces attacked them and clashes erupted between both sides,” said media spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Project Mohammad Awad.

Two men sustained injuries from rubber bullets used by Israeli forces and Hisham Al-Khlayel, 5, was taken to hospital to undergo treatment for shock as a result of tear gas used by forces to disperse those present, Awwad said.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the incident, saying troops responded to the group of farmers with “riot dispersal means,” after youth threw rocks at the encroaching soldiers. He said there were no reports of injuries or damages, however.

“The IDF responded to the group of Palestinians by preventing them from approaching the area in order to avoid a scuffle,” the spokesman said.

On Monday Israeli forces reportedly prohibited Palestinian farmers from planting 1,500 olive trees in the Abu Ar-Rish area, also in Beit Ummar.

“Despite the decision by an Israeli court allowing Palestinian farmers to work on their lands, Israeli troops banned farmers today from planting [olive trees],” said Awad.

“The troops said that it is a closed military area.”

An Israeli military source said troops operating in the area had been advised that the valley between Beit Ummar and the Bay Ayin settlement was one of high tension, following a series of settler attacks on Palestinians. One Palestinian youth also snuck into the settlement in April and killed a settler youth.

The Israeli military source said the April attack gave Israeli forces a “reason to prevent” farmers from working in the area.

[MaanImages] – http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=253739

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Hariri from Turkey: Defending Lebanon is Not Terrorism

Naharnet-AFP | January 11, 2010

Turkey and Lebanon signed Monday a number of cooperation agreements including an accord on visa-free travel between the two countries and other deals envisaging cooperation in the military, agriculture and transport realms.

The signing ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan, at a joint press conference with Hariri, assured support for Lebanon at all levels.

“We are continuing to put pressure on Israel to implement international resolutions and I have asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to visit Lebanon,” Erdogan said.

He slammed the Israeli overflights as “unacceptable action that threatens global peace.”

Erdogan said Turkey would supply natural gas and electricity to help meet Lebanon’s energy needs and that the two countries planned a ferry service between their Mediterranean coasts.

Hariri, for his part, said: “We are not advocates of war, but advocates of the return of our stolen land.”

“Defending Lebanon is not an act of terrorism, but attacks on Lebanon are terrorism itself… We have to stand shoulder by shoulder against the enemy’s plans… We have to stop Israel,” said Hariri answering a question.

Hariri hailed Turkey’s improving ties with Arab countries and increased activism in peace efforts in the Middle East.

“We hope and expect Turkey to continue playing a positive role in trying to bring peace,” he said.

Later Monday, Hariri and the accompanying delegation visited the Turkish parliament in the afternoon.

The premier crowned his talks by an evening meeting with the Turkish President Abdullah Gul in presence of Lebanese Ministers Ali al-Shami, Ziad Baroud, Jerban Bassil, Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh, Mohammed Rahhal, Salim Wardeh, and a number of top Turkish officials.

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

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