Remembering Furkan Dogan

Ralph G. Loeffler writing from Kayseri, Turkey, Live from Palestine, 18 October 2010

Furkan Dogan (http://furkan-dogan.com)

Furkan Dogan. I'm going to say Furkan Dogan so often that it will sound, as it rightly should, just as "American" as John Smith or Bill Jones. Furkan Dogan was an American, a young American of only 19 years when on 31 May a hail of Israeli bullets ended his life on the Mavi Marmara Turkish humanitarian aid ship. Furkan was filming the Israeli assault when an Israeli commando fired his first shot pointblank hitting Furkan squarely in the face. Four more shots were fired into Furkan leaving him dead and unrecognizable.

The Mavi Marmara, the largest ship of an international flotilla of six vessels that made of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, was carrying food, medicine and school supplies to the Israeli besieged Gaza Strip. The Israelis have blockaded Gaza since the Hamas government was democratically elected in 2006. For more than three weeks, in December 2008 and January 2009 the Israelis wantonly attacked Gaza destroying essential infrastructure and killing more than 1,400 citizens, a large percentage of them women and children.

Furkan, who was born in the Albany-Troy area of New York, had gone back to live in his family's hometown of Kayseri, Turkey. His family knew the names of the eight Turkish nationals who had been killed on the Mavi Marmara but one casualty had not been immediately identified. In their normal pattern of lies and misinformation the Israelis had not identified Furkan because he was an American. They waited until the initial impact of their murderous attack on innocent, defenseless humanitarians subsided a bit before confirming the ninth victim was Furkan.

When Furkan's father went to meet the Mavi Marmara's survivors and casualties he had no idea that his son had been murdered. Instead of greeting his son he was taken to the morgue to identify his remains. Surely such a day defies description.

In an immediate reaction to the Mavi Marmara massacre Viva Palestina announced plans for another humanitarian aid mission to Gaza. Viva Palestina, a UK-based charity founded by former Member of British Parliament George Galloway, launched its initial land aid convoy in March 2009 shortly after the Israeli attack ended. On 18 September 2010, four missions later, Viva Palestina 5 left the UK for Gaza.

The Viva Palestina 5 convoy arrived in Kayseri late on 29 September and spent the night on a mountain overlooking the town. We had come to Kaseyri for the sole purpose of visiting Furkan's gravesite and extending our condolences to his family. The following morning we were told that our convoy would be passing by the high school from which Furkan had graduated and that students from the school would be waiting for us. As we began our slow journey down the twisting mountain road the convoy took on the air of a funeral procession. Suddenly, there they were. The students lined both sides of the road standing for who knows how long. Each one sadly, silently, proudly held up Furkan's picture as the convoy rolled by.

Beautiful, moving words were spoken at the gravesite and afterwards we met with Furkan's family at the recently built community center named in Furkan's honor. The grandfather and uncle bore their grief perhaps with the acceptance of mortality that comes with age. But the older brother's grief was palpable. Deep, dark lines were etched under his eyes and he seemed detached from his surroundings. The despair evident on his face made a statement greater than words could ever do.

Any country should be proud to have a promising young man such as Furkan as one of its own. Intelligent and mature beyond his years Furkan had already dedicated his life to the struggle for Palestinian justice. Such a course bears no import with the US Congress, which allows for the US bankrolling of the occupation. And the Israeli thug who gunned down Furkan is no more responsible for murdering him than Furkan's own country which paid for the bullets.

Ralph G. Loeffler is an activist with the International Action Center in New York City.

Source:

Jewish aid ship nears Gaza

Ship with 8 Jewish activists sails for Gaza, in another bid to send humanitarian supplies and break the crippling siege.

An aid ship carrying 8 Jewish activists from Europe, Israel, and the US is less than 24 hours from reaching Gazan coastal waters.

Having left the port of Famagusta in Turkish-held northern Cyprus Sunday afternoon, the Irene is set to test the Israeli blockade sometime early Tuesday.

Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, has repeatedly warned that Israel will intercept any ship nearing Gaza, which is run by the Palestinian movement Hamas.

"In the tradition of the civil rights movement...we assert our right to continue to Gaza under international law," Glyn Secker, the ship's captain, told Al Jazeera.

The 10-meter catamaran is tiny in comparison with the six-ship May 31 aid convoy that contained 10,000 tons of aid and over 700 activists.

But the voyage is a gesture by left-leaning European Jewish groups to highlight what it sees as a flawed Israeli policy of collective punishment against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Yousef Rizka, a Hamas official, said: "The government has received Jewish activists arriving to Gaza before. The government positively views all attempts to break the siege on Gaza".

Israel eased its naval blockade following harsh international condemnation for storming the Mavi Marmara. The nine deaths aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were a public relations disaster for Israel.

Since then, groups from Iran, Ireland, Lebanon, and Libya, among others, have been trying to reach Gaza -- with varying degrees of success.

Groups represented on board the Irene include the UK-based Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the German Jewish Voice organization.

"The boat's cargo includes symbolic aid in the form of children's toys and musical instruments, textbooks, fishing nets for Gaza's fishing communities and prosthetic limbs," read a statement from European Jews for a Just Peace movement, the activist network that coordinated the voyage.

"We stand in the proud Jewish tradition of justice, of championing the rights of the downtrodden, of implacable opposition to prejudice and racism," continued the statement.

Kate Katzenstein-Leiterer, a leader of the German Jewish Voice, was quoted in June as saying, "We want Israel to behave in a way that it can be recognized as a democratic state. Now it is recognized as a criminal state. That is not what we want."

Reuven Moskovitz, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor among the passengers on the British-flagged vessel, is a founding member of the Jewish-Arab village Neve Shalom (Oasis of Peace).

“We are two peoples, but we have one future”, said Moskovitz in a statement on the Jewish Boat to Gaza website.

Another passenger is Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter died in a 1997 suicide bombing at a Jerusalem shopping centre.

Yonatan Shapira, a former Israeli military pilot and Irene crew member, represents Combatants for Peace. Eli Osherov, a reporter from Channel 10 in Israel, is also on board.

Adam Keller, spokesman for Gush Shalom, another Israeli peace group, said he expected the incident to end "less tragically than the previous one," adding that the Israeli Navy would probably divert the boat peacefully to the port of Ashdod in daylight on Tuesday.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Andy David described the voyage as "a provocative joke that isn't funny".

Secker, the ship's captain, told Al Jazeera that the organisers have "a particular point to make, as the voice of Jews who have an alternative opinion to that of the Israeli establishment".


Source: Al Jazeera and Agencies

Turkey: We expect formal apology, compensation from Israel over Gaza flotilla

Turkish president addressed UN general assembly and praised UN report on Gaza flotilla raid, which says Israeli forces violated international law.

By Shlomo Shamir and News Agencies

Turkey is still waiting for an apology from Israel over the Gaza flotilla raid, Turkish president Abdullah Gul told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

The UN Human Rights Commission released a report on the incident on Wednesday. The report, compiled by three United Nations appointed human rights experts, said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, killing nine activists, earlier this year.

Gul said that he still expects Israel to pay monetary compensation to the families of those killed in the raid, which he said was a scathing infraction of international law.

"In the light of international law, Turkey's expectation is a formal apology and compensation for the aggrieved families of the victims and the injured people," Gul said.

The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to the report late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council had a biased, politicized and extremist approach. They have since said that will "study" the report.

Gul lauded United States President Barack Obama's efforts to encourage the Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct peace talks.

However, he cautioned: "It would be very difficult to make progress towards permanent peace unless we put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza."

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu praised Gaza flotilla report, telling Anatolia news agency that it report was fair, impartial and used strong evidence.

"We expected the council to release a strong report based on strong evidence, and in this sense the report met our expectations," said Davutoglu. "We hope that Israel will learn to use language of international law and act in line with it."

The Human Rights Council's report was compiled by former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam.

The Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, was re-established in 2006 by then UN Security General, Kofi Annan, following accusations that its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights, openly and systematically discriminated against Israel.

But the new body has also passed several resolutions condemning Israel over the past few years, especially for its actions in the Palestinian territories, and is often of accused of unfair bias against Israel.

Source:

'Israel uses wiretapping equipment it sold to Turkey on Turkish citizens'

Turkish newspaper: IDF using equipment sold to Turkey in 2007 to listen in on Turkish citizens, including political activists, members of opposition parties and academics.

By Zvi Bar'el

A claim that Israel is using wiretapping equipment it sold Ankara to listen in on Turkish citizens is making headlines in that country.

According to the pro-government newspaper Taraf, the Turkish army's deputy chief of staff, Aslan Guner, purchased sophisticated wiretapping equipment in Israel in 2007 to aid Turkey in fighting the Kurdish PKK, which is considered a terror group by Turkey.

However, the newspaper claims the Israel Defense Forces communications branch has allegedly used the equipment to listen in on 2,000 Turkish citizens, including political activists, members of opposition parties and academics.

According to information Taraf received from a senior army officer, Turkey gave Israel technical details of the GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications, used in Turkish cell phones, so it could conform the equipment to it. This information, according to the officer, allows Israel to listen in on the cell phone conversations of any Turkish citizen.

In response to the allegations, Guner, who at the time was also head of military intelligence, said that the equipment purchase had been authorized by the Turkish Defense Ministry and that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had also signed it.

"The equipment was purchased to fight terror but if someone listened to other people it should be exposed," Guner said.

The Turkish army said in a statement that it has launched an investigation into whether the system was used illegally.

Political activists allegedly targeted by the wiretaps are planning to sue those responsible, as Turkish law prohibits the military's electronic communications command from installing wiretapping equipment. Only Turkey's national intelligence organization, the police and the gendarmerie, a branch of the military responsible for maintaining public order, may install such equipment, after receiving permission from the court and the Communications Ministry.

Though Israel supplies Turkey with aerial drones and electronics used to fight terror, Ankara has also accused Israel of being behind PKK attacks. PKK actions increased immediately after the flotilla to Gaza, and critics allege that Israel wants to use them to show that it can strike at Turkey's soft underbelly.

Report: U.S. to cancel drills

The anti-government newspaper Hurriyet reported yesterday that the United States planned to cancel its participation in military exercises with Turkey in October, ostensibly to force Turkey to invite Israel, which has taken part in the exercises since 2001.

However, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Ankara said the U.S. had already participated in two such exercises this year and traditionally did not take part in more than two per year.

The spokesman made no reference to Israel's exclusion. But last year, after Turkey excluded Israel from a joint exercise, both the United States and Italy canceled their participation.

Source:

Despite Israeli protests, Russia won't halt arms sale to Syria

Haaretz reported on Friday that PM Benjamin Netanyahu had asked Russian PM Vladimir Putin to cancel the sale of long-range surface-to-sea cruise missiles to the Syrian Army.

By Barak Ravid

Despite Israel's objections, Russia will not cancel its sale of advanced missiles to Syria, the Kremlin announced on Sunday.

Haaretz reported on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to cancel the sale of long-range surface-to-sea cruise missiles to the Syrian Army.

Following the Haaretz report, Sergei Prikhodko, a senior adviser to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, told the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti that Moscow would fulfill all agreements it had made with foreign countries and would not halt the deal.

"Lately, some Israeli media outlets have been actively disseminating information distorting Russia's position on the implementation of its obligations to Syria, including in the sphere of military and technical cooperation," Prikhodko said. "I would like to stress that the Russian Federation honors all the agreements that were previously signed between Russia and Syria."

The agreement in question is for P-800 Yakhont missiles, a highly accurate Russian weapon with a 300-kilometer range capable of carrying a warhead of up to 200 kilograms.

Israel is concerned the projectiles could significantly improve the Syrian military's ability to target its naval ships. The Chinese-made C-802 missile Syria currently has is less accurate, has a range of just 102 kilometers and can carry a warhead of no more than 150 kilograms.

Jerusalem also fears the more advanced missiles could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, the Syrian- and Iranian-supported Lebanese militia, which would create a significant threat to naval ships in Israeli ports and the Mediterranean Sea.

Source:

Report: Israel planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots in Syria

Let us pray this won't happen.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reports that Israel is preparing to strike Hezbollah targets in Syria; Al-Arabi Al-Quds reports that western diplomats have asked Bashar Assad to refrain from interfering with Israel-PA direct peace talks.

By Jack Khoury and Haaretz Service

Israel is planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported on Saturday.

The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas.

The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned aerial drone flights over Lebanon and Syria signal Israel's intentions to carry out operations in the area.

According to the report, Israel plans to attack Hezbollah weapons depots, including ones deep inside Syria that store long-range rockets.

The Al Rai report said that the situation on the Israel-Syria border is tense and that Syria could respond immediately to any Israeli attack and not demonstrate the restraint that it did after the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in the fall of 2007.

According to the report, Syria's military is on high alert and is strengthening its anti-aircraft defenses along the border with Israel and at strategic sites within Syria.

Western diplomats to Assad: Don't interfere in Israel-PA talks

Also on Saturday, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported that western nations, including the United States, have in recent days asked Syria to refrain from negatively interfering with the upcoming direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, set to open next week in Washington.

According to the report, American officials expressed their firm opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad taking any position or exerting any influence on the talks, as they fear that another failure of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians could lead to even graver consequences than did past failed talks.

The report said that Assad was also asked to restrain Palestinian militant organizations that operate on Syrian territory, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Source:

Israeli intelligence steps up its activity in the U.S. — and gets away with it.

By Philip Giraldi

Israeli government claims that it does not spy on the United States are intended for the media and popular consumption. The reality is that Israel’s intelligence agencies target the United States intensively, particularly in pursuit of military and dual-use civilian technology. Among nations considered to be friendly to Washington, Israel leads all others in its active espionage directed against American companies and the Defense Department. It also dominates two commercial sectors that enable it to extend its reach inside America’s domestic infrastructure: airline and telecommunications security. Israel is believed to have the ability to monitor nearly all phone records originating in the United States, while numerous Israeli air-travel security companies are known to act as the local Mossad stations.

As tensions with Iran increase, sources in the counterintelligence community report that Israeli agents have become more aggressive in targeting Muslims living in the United States as well as in operating against critics. There have been a number of cases reported to the FBI about Mossad officers who have approached leaders in Arab-American communities and have falsely represented themselves as “U.S. intelligence.” Because few Muslims would assist an Israeli, this is done to increase the likelihood that the target will cooperate. It’s referred to as a “false flag” operation.

Mossad officers sought to recruit Arab-Americans as sources willing to inform on their associates and neighbors. The approaches, which took place in New York and New Jersey, were reportedly handled clumsily, making the targets of the operation suspicious. These Arab-Americans turned down the requests for cooperation, and some of the contacts were eventually reported to the FBI, which has determined that at least two of the Mossad officers are, ironically, Israeli Arabs operating out of Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York under cover as consular assistants.

In another bizarre case, U.S.S. Liberty survivor Phil Tourney was recently accosted in Southern California by a foreigner who eventually identified himself as an Israeli government representative. Tourney was taunted, and the Israeli threatened both him and journalist Mark Glenn, who has been reporting on the Liberty story. Tourney was approached in a hotel lounge, and it is not completely clear how the Israeli was able to identify him. But he knew exactly who Tourney was, as the official referred to the Liberty, saying that the people who had been killed on board had gotten what they deserved. There were a number of witnesses to the incident, including Tourney’s wife. The threat has been reported to the FBI, which is investigating, but Tourney and Glenn believe that the incident is not being taken seriously by the bureau.

FBI sources indicate that the increase in Mossad activity is a major problem, particularly when Israelis are posing as U.S. government officials, but they also note that there is little they can do to stop it as the Justice Department refuses to initiate any punitive action or prosecutions of the Mossad officers who have been identified as involved in the illegal activity.

In another ongoing Israeli spy case, Stewart Nozette appears to be headed towards eventual freedom as his case drags on through the District of Columbia courts. Nozette, an aerospace scientist with a top secret clearance and access to highly sensitive information, offered to sell classified material to a man he believed to be a Mossad officer, but who instead turned out to be with the FBI. Nozette has been in jail since October, but he has now been granted an additional 90-day delay so his lawyers can review the documents in the government’s case, many of which are classified. If Nozette demands that sensitive information be used in his defense, his case will likely follow the pattern set in the nine-times-postponed trial of AIPAC spies Steve Rosen and, who were ultimately acquitted in April 2009 when prosecutors determined that they could not make their case without doing significant damage to national security. A month after Rosen and Weissman were freed, Ben-Ami Kadish, who admitted to providing defense secrets to Israel while working as an engineer at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, walked out of a Manhattan court after paying a fine. He did no jail time and continues to receive his substantial Defense Department pension.

The mainstream media reported the Rosen and Weissman trial intermittently, but there was virtually no coverage of Ben-Ami Kadish, and there has been even less of Nozette. Compare that with the recent reporting on the Russian spies who, by all accounts, did almost nothing and never obtained any classified information. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that spying for Israel is consequence free.

Source: The American Conservative via My Catbirdseat

Leaked CIA memo cites U.S. Jews among exporters of terrorism

Wikileaks releases a CIA memo titled 'What if Foreigners See the United States as an Exporter of Terrorism?' in which American Jews in Israel was one of four groups mentioned.

By Haaretz Service

The Wikileaks website released a CIA document on Wednesday that examines the trend of Americans committing terrorist acts overseas, including American Jews in Israel.

American Jews in Israel were one of four groups mentioned in the classified report, titled "What if Foreigners See the United States as an Exporter of Terrorism?"

"Some American Jews have supported and even engaged in violent acts against perceived enemies of Israel," the report reads. "In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American Jewish doctor from New York, emigrated to Israel, joined the extremist group Kach, and killed 29 Palestinians during their prayers in the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron which helped trigger a wave of bus bombings by Hamas in early 1995."

Other groups mentioned were Irish-Americans who supported the Irish Republican Army; a group of Muslim-American men who traveled to Pakistan last year to engage in Jihad; and a Pakistani-American man, David Headley, who conducted surveillance for the Lashkar-i-Tayyiba terrorist group ahead of the attack in Mumbai, India in November 2008 that killed more than 160 people.

The leaked report was compiled in February 2010 by the CIA's Red Cell, which, according to the memorandum, was tasked with "taking a pronounced 'out-of-the-box' approach that will provoke thought and offer an alternative viewpoint on the full range of analytic issues."

Wikileaks, an online whistle-blowing website, recently published tens of thousands of classified military documents related to the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Source:

Norway government-run pension fund drops Africa Israel group shares

Says group firm Danya Cebus violates Geneva convention.

By Reuters and Shuki Sadeh

Norway’s 450 billion euro oil-riches fund has excluded two Israeli firms involved in developing settlements, as well as a Malaysian forestry firm, on ethical grounds, Norway’s finance ministry said yesterday. The excluded companies are Africa Israel Investments and its engineering subsidiary Danya Cebus, both of which are controlled by energy and real estate magnate Lev Leviev. The Malaysian firm is Samling Global.

The ministry said that the oil fund, which is essentially a form of pension fund, has already sold all its holdings in these companies.

The central bank-managed fund follows ethical guidelines set by the government and does not invest in companies that produce nuclear weapons or cluster munitions, damage the environment or abuse workers’ rights. Nor will it invest in companies that build in the settlements, it appears.

Africa Israel controls Danya Cebus, “a construction company involved in developing settlements in occupied Palestinian territory,” the fund said in a statement.

Danya Cebus has carried out construction projects, as a hired contractor, in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, and in the settlements Ma’aleh Adumim, Modi’in Ilit ‏(shown in the picture‏) and Adam.

The vast fund, which invests the Nordic nation’s oil and gas wealth in foreign stocks and bonds to save for future generations, holds more than 1% of all global stocks. It owned shares worth 7.2 million Norwegian crowns ‏(€1.16 million) in Africa Israel Investments at year-end 2009.

“The Council on Ethics emphasizes that the construction of settlements in occupied areas is a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,” it said.

“Several United Nations Security Council resolutions and an International Court of Justice advisory opinion have concluded that the construction of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory is prohibited under this Convention,” Finance Minister Sigbjoern Johnsen said in the statement.

The ministry said it had excluded forestry company Samling Global based on the environmental impact of its forest operations in Malaysia and Guyana. The fund owned shares worth 8.1 million crowns in Samling Global at year end 2009.

“The Council on Ethics has assessed Samling Global, and concluded that the company’s forest operations in the rainforests of Sarawak and Guyana contribute to illegal logging and severe environmental damage,” Johnsen said.

Africa Israel stated that it and its subsidiaries have not been involved for a long time in real estate development or housing construction in the towns of the West Bank. Therefore, the company said, the claims made by the fund are groundless.

This is not the first time Africa Israel has taken arrows for building in the territories. A year and a half ago, following pressure by pro-Palestinian groups, the British embassy in Israel eschewed moving to a building owned by Africa Israel in Tel Aviv, because of its activity in the territories.

A year ago this same Norwegian oil fund dropped its investment in Elbit Systems, a defense electronics company, because of its involvement in building the separation fence, which the fund said violated human rights.

Source:

An open letter to Israel

By Lauren Booth, one of 44 passengers on board the first voyage, August 23, two years ago.

“This morning I set out to write a piece about the looting of the aid Flotilla to Gaza, by your soldiers. As you may have read, an Israel Defense Forces officer, has been remanded by a military court, suspected of stealing laptop computers from passengers. Interestingly, Haretz newspaper, now refers to the fleet as an ‘aid flotilla.’ Which it was. Rather than the ‘terror’ fleet your leaders would have had you call it. But I digress.

So, there I was, all ready to write my piece, when I came across an article on ynetnews. It sought to spell out the shock perhaps felt by some about the looted goods. A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said of the flotilla thefts: ‘there must be a serious problem in the IDF in terms of values."

I looked at those words for a long time. And, instead of writing my piece, decided to write to you instead. Because I can’t help wondering, who on earth still has any reserves of ‘shock’ to spare for the behaviour of your military? I mean really, come on guys. Beyond the comfortable avenues of Tel Aviv, the rest of the world finds the phrase ‘Moral Army,’ when applied to the IDF, nothing short of a huge, (sadly catastrophic), global sized joke. One on the same level as, say, climate change denial or George Bush’s presidency.

Now, here I’ve done it again. I’ve made you really mad at me. But please, just give me a moment or two to explain why I’m writing this letter. Because I didn’t set out to, nor do I want to insult you. Certainly not anymore than I have in the past. I’m sit here with washing up undone and housework piling up, to ask you one question. As a mother and as a fellow human being I need to know why you don’t see the evil that’s being done in your name?

How can you not see?

As you may already know, I was on the first Freegaza mission in 2008. This means that I not only have the pleasure of knowing personally the fine ladies who founded the FGM (Freegaza Movement). It also means that I had many friends and colleagues on the Flotilla that your military attacked in May.

You know, (again just for a second see me as a mum and not an ‘enemy’) not one of those fine people is a terrorist, wanting to run weapons to ‘extremists’. They are to a man (and to a woman) kind, concerned citizens of the world. People, who simply cannot go about their normal daily lives whilst your state, your army, your settlers torment other human beings. Every minute of every day. Of every month. Of every year. For sixty two years.

I don’t mean to be rude guys. But there comes a time when saying ‘I didn’t know what was going on’ wears a bit thin. You know what I mean? This whole charade about being ‘shocked’ by your soldiers' bad behavior, it makes non Israeli’s...well...it makes us laugh.

Because, this week's looting by your soldiers, it’s not the first of its kind. is it? Come on. Think back. There have been an awful, awful lot of others. Forgotten? Let me help you. Get to a computer and type the words ‘IDF looting’ into google's search engine. You may (or may not be surprised) when this search produces more than 64,000 results. Now before you go off the deep end, crying ‘our enemies are telling lies about us.’ Please, I beg you. Read just some of the results on the first page. It won’t take you long. Okay why not spend the whole morning reading them? After all it’s kind of your duty to know what’s being done in your name isn’t it? I mean, when military crimes are being committed with YOUR tax shekels, you have a right to know.


One of the google results reveals that an Israel Defense Forces soldier confessed to stealing a credit card from a home in northern Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Remember that? The soldier in the Givati infantry unit's reconnaissance battalion used it to withdraw NIS 1,600 in Israel. A small criminal act.
Part of a much wider crime.


A crime against humanity, that you’ve been either ignoring. Or have been deliberately blinded to by your leaders.
As I have already said though, you have access to the internet, you don’t have to remain in the darkness. Unless of course you’re comfortable there.


The most recent looting by the IDF of civilian goods, made me think of the Al Samouni women, I met them last year, on the rubble of their homes in Al Zaytoun (I’ve attached some photos for you to see). You may, vaguely recognize that name ‘Al Samouni’. Let me jog your memory. On Saturday, 3 January 2009, the Israeli incursion into Al Zaytoun neighbourhood began.


The following day, on 4 January 2009, your forces bombed the same area.


On Monday at 7:00 Am, 5 January 2009, again your forces bombed the very same area of Hay (neighborhood) Al Zaytoun. One of the missiles struck the third floor of Tallal Hilmi Al Samouni’s home. Then came the soldiers shooting to kill.


Overall, 26 members of the Al Samouni family were killed, including 10 children and 7 women. The Red Cross was only allowed entry three days later to evacuate the dead and injured, the majority of whom were so critical that they were taken to Belgium, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia for treatment.


Allow me, if you don’t mind to give you their names as you probably don’t know them. As kind human beings, I’m sure you’ll wish to pay them your respects, and perhaps pray for them.


Names of children killed


• Azza Salah Al Samouni, 3 years of age
• Waleed Rashad Al Samouni, 17 years of age
• Ishaq Ibrahim Al Samouni, 14 years of age
• Ismail Ibrahim Al Samouni, 16 years of age
• Rifka Wael Al Samouni, 8 years of age
• Fares Wael Al Samouni, 12 years of age
• Huda Nael Al Samouni, 17 years of age
• Ahmad Atieh Al Samouni, 14 years of age
• Mu’tassim Mohammed Al Samouni, 6 years of age
• Mohammed Hilmi Al Samouni, 5 years of age


Names of Women Killed


• Rahma Mohammed Al Samouni, 50 years of age
• Safa’ Hilmi Al Samouni, 25 years of age
• Maha Mohammed Al Samouni, 22 years of age
• Rabbab Azzat Al Samouni, 32 years of age
• Laila Nabih Al Samouni, 40 years of age
• Rifqa Mohammed Al Samouni, 50 years of age
• Hannan Khamis Al Samouni, 36 years of age


Names of Men Killed


• Tallal Hilmi Al Samouni, 55 years of age
• Attieh Hilmi Al Samouni, 25 years of age
• Rashad Hilmi Al Samouni, 42 years of age
• Tawfiq Rashad Al Samouni, 23 years of age
• Mohammed Ibrahim, 26 years of age
• Ziyad Izzat Al Samouni, 28 years of age
• Nidal Ahmad Al Samouni, 30 years of age
• Hamdi Maher Al Samouni, 23 years of age
• Hamdi Mahmoud Al Samouni, 70 years of age


Last March I was shown around the rubble of their community by the surviving women and children. I saw the racist grafitti left behind on the walls of the room where a teenage girl still had to sleep. Left for her by your ‘Moral Army’ no less. It said in places in Hebrew, in places English stuff like ‘we’ll be back’ and there was a coarse cartoon of a house exploding with the words ‘you are here’ wittily added. A beautiful young woman, told me of how she was about to get married before the attack. Her family had saved several thousand dollars for her dowry (many people of one family saving for a very, very long time, as you can imagine). It had been hidden under a bed in a suitcase for the happy event. Her mother had a few ancient pieces of jewelery that had been passed down through the generations in gold as well. Well, you see, your soldiers bombed these people, then shot their children, then finally looted everything the survivors owned. I swear to you, look on google, look into your own hearts, you know, this happens.


You know this is how your army deliberately treats Palestinians.


Before you scream ‘lies!’ or ‘anti Semite!’ please, I beg you. Parent to parent. Human to human. in the name of the God of all faiths, take a breathe, suspend your disbelief a while longer, then read on. Because, oh Israel. What if, just suppose, I’m not the anti Semite your wiki trained extremist supporters try to paint me as? And what if, just ten per cent of the 64,000 google entries for “IDF looting’ are utterly true? What then? What does that make you complicit in? What will you do if just for a second the truth that the rest of the world sees about your leaders barbarism fills your mind and your hearts as it one day surely must?


My words, as an outsider will no doubt seem harsh, even naive. This then, is from today's Jerusalem Post:


“According to information analyzed by the human rights organization Yesh Din, between September 2000 and the end of 2009, less than six percent of nearly 2,000 investigations opened against IDF soldiers suspected of crimes against Palestinians ended in indictments.


During the same period, according to various estimates, thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed as a result of IDF activities. How many of these fatalities resulted in convictions? Four. Not four percent – just four.”


It’s becoming increasingly clear that your young men and women are being trained to behave like animals. These events, the looting, the photos posted online by Eden Abergil, they can’t be explained away as ‘one off’’s any longer.


It’s for you to ask yourselves what they mean.


I’m truly sorry if my words have offended you. I just wanted to talk with you directly for once.


By the way there are an estimated 400 laptops, 600 mobile phones plus other personal cash and effects, which your military still has not returned to the passengers of the aid flotilla. You see, when then they set sail. For some reason, those good people, didn’t think the IDF would steal from them.

Yours in Hope Lauren Booth

Economic emptiness in Palestine and Israel

By Sam Bahour, business management consultant

Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to enter direct negotiations (yet again) in Washington on September 2. The Obama administration is sure to hail this as a significant breakthrough. Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, and borders will all be on the table. But substantive Palestinian economic growth must also be addressed with guarantees that the Palestinian economy won’t be choked off as is currently the case.

The lead-up to these talks saw both Palestinian and Israeli leaders touting economic growth as a prelude to moving the political process forward. The growth they cite is hard to comprehend.

Palestinians were dispossessed from 78 percent of our homeland, 60 percent of Palestinians are internally displaced or dwell in refugee camps just hours from their homes and properties, 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza survive under siege conditions, hundreds of thousands have been illegally detained by Israel, and the economy is micro-managed by a foreign military. Yet leaders, foreign and domestic, laud the temporary West Bank economic growth that results from a brief respite in a harsh crackdown.

Very few in the U.S. Congress have done their homework to gauge if US policy is helping or actively impeding the prospects for peace. One brave congressman who has gone the extra mile is Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA). Rep. Baird sets a prime example of a legislator willing to challenge the current unhelpful US path. At a recent speaking engagement organized by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Baird advocated that his colleagues visit the West Bank and Gaza and see firsthand the results of the current policy. He noted that “they’re certainly ignorant about what’s happening on the ground in Gaza because they’ve never been” and they’re nearly as “ignorant about what’s happening in the West Bank because they haven’t been to a checkpoint, they’ve never seen Bethlehem as it is now surrounded…” He also expressed frustration with the constant “litmus tests” on the issue, referring to the pro-Israel lobby that uses heavy-handed tactics to push Congress to speak and act as if they were part of Israel’s far right.

I relocated from a comfortable life in Ohio to be part of building a Palestinian state. I advise some of the most strategic investors in Palestine. If my experience as a business consultant is any indication, Palestine’s investment community remains in a wait-and-see mode. More peace talks will not spark the significant investments required to build an economy that can serve an emerging state. Serious state-building economic development requires land, water, access, movement, ports, and spectrum, which Israel remains in full control of today. My clients, and many like them, refuse to be misled, yet again, by another round of empty talk from politicians as settlements go up in East Jerusalem.

Following the last meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House, President Obama declared, “…if we continue to make progress on that [economic] front, then Palestinians can see in very concrete terms what peace can bring that rhetoric and violence cannot bring – and that is people actually having an opportunity to raise their children, and make a living, and buy and sell goods, and build a life for themselves, which is ultimately what people in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories want.”

Fine words, but he ignores entirely the context of occupation and domination. What Palestinians “ultimately” want is their freedom and independence.

Israel, in extolling its virtues, skips the fact that the land and water it has acquired required military aggression in 1948 and 1967, compounded by the further illegal annexation of Jerusalem in 1980. Without the U.S. bankrolling Israel – approximately $3 billion per year – and exonerating Israeli military adventurism, its economy would be as feeble as its politics.

Palestinian banks hold over $8 billion in assets. Private sector credit from the banking sector was $1.56 billion at the end of January 2010. The loan-to-deposit ratio was 36 percent. To compare, the world average loan-to-deposit ratio hovers around 87 percent. Forty companies are listed on the Palestine Securities Exchange with a total market capitalization of approximately $2.4 billion. This is one of the smallest, yet most profitable, exchanges in the world. I estimate that 100 more companies would publicly list if indications on the ground pointed to a real end to occupation. And we have scarcely tapped the potential of Palestine’s diaspora community. What Palestine needs is not more peace process but an end to military occupation, which is delaying real progress.

A report titled, The Untapped Potential, conducted by the Peres Center for Peace and PalTrade (Palestine Trade Center) in December 2006 tried to quantify the missed economic opportunities if occupation persists. It noted, “The value of Palestinian exports could cumulatively rise to some US$11 billion per annum (compared to US$500 million in 2005). The cumulative contribution to the Palestinian GDP (in value added terms) would amount to approximately US$8 billion, thereby tripling the GDP from some US$4 billion in 2005 to approximately US$12 billion.”

But it is not only Palestine that stands to gain by ending the occupation. The Israeli economy would benefit significantly as well. Regarding Israel, the report noted, “The value of Israeli exports could cumulatively rise by over US$17 billion...Israeli employment would potentially benefit from the creation of more than 400,000 new jobs. In value-added terms, the contribution of economic cooperation to the Israeli GDP is estimated at approximately US$12 billion; this is the equivalent to approximately 10% of the current Israeli GDP.”

From the American side, President Obama is not in this peace-making effort alone. Like Rep. Baird, every member of Congress has a responsibility to put aside the tired politics of the Israel lobby in the interest of pursing a more equitable approach to the conflict. Arming and massively funding one side of the conflict will almost certainly result in Israel refusing to negotiate in good faith and further entrenching its military occupation.

Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business management consultant living in Ramallah. He blogs at www.epalestine.com.

Source:

Will Israel really attack Iran within a year?

After interviewing dozens of Israeli, American and Arab officials, Atlantic Magazine correspondent concludes Israel may not even ask for American 'green light' to attack Iran nuclear sites.

By Natasha Mozgovaya

Israel might attack Iranian nuclear sites within a year, if Iran stays the current course and the U.S. administration doesn't succeed in persuading Israel's leadership that U.S. President Barack Obama is ready to stop Iran by force if necessary, so argues Jeffrey Goldberg in Atlantic magazine's September cover story, obtained by Haaretz ahead of publication.

Based on dozens of interviews the Atlantic correspondent conducted in recent months with Israeli, American and Arab officials, Goldberg came to the conclusion that the likelihood of an Israeli strike has crossed the 50 percent mark. And Israel might not even ask for the famous "green light" from the U.S. - or even give couple of false pre-attack alerts, so that Washington won't try to stop the unilateral operation.

"…one day next spring, the Israeli national-security adviser, Uzi Arad, and the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, will simultaneously telephone their counterparts at the White House and the Pentagon, to inform them that their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has just ordered roughly one hundred F-15Es, F-16Is, F-16Cs, and other aircraft of the Israeli air force to fly east toward Iran - possibly by crossing Saudi Arabia, possibly by threading the border between Syria and Turkey, and possibly by traveling directly through Iraq's airspace, though it is crowded with American aircraft…," Goldberg paints a possible scenario.

The repercussions of such a strike, which could include the bombing of the Iranian facilities in Natanz, Qom, Esfahan, and maybe even the Russian-built reactor in Bushehr, are less than clear, despite the endless discussions and several simulations. American experts speculate that attacking Iran's nuclear facilities will only slightly delay the nuclear program, whereas some Israelis, according to Goldberg, are a bit more optimistic, in light of the successful Israeli operations against Iraqi and Syrian reactors in the past.

The results might be dire: It's likely that the Israeli air force won't have much time to waste in Iran, as Hezbollah will probably retaliate against Israel in the North and the fighter jets will be needed there. The unilateral operation might throw relations between Jerusalem and Washington into an unprecedented crisis, and might even unleash full-scale regional war with possible economic repercussions for the whole world, not to mention the cost of human lives.

The timetable in this issue is an evasive one - the red lines were pushed back again and again, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told New York Times reporters this week: "Based on my conversations with allies, it's not so much the timing of when or how the Iranians might pursue the nuclear weapons, it's whether they do so. And so whether it would take six months, a year, or five years, it's that deep concern about Iran acquiring nuclear weapons that is the preoccupation of our friends and partners. And we would be pursuing the path we're pursuing regardless of any issue of timing because we think it's got the best potential for changing Iranian behavior."

According to Goldberg, for Israel the red lines are clear. The end of December is Netanyahu's deadline to estimate the success of "non-military methods to stop Iran."

And while Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, reminded Goldberg that "the expression 'All options are on the table' means that all options are on the table," - the Israeli interviewees repeatedly questioned Obama's resolve to actually do it. Some even asked Goldberg if he thought the American president was actually an anti-Semite, forcing the reporter to explain that Obama is probably "the first Jewish President" – but not necessarily Likud's idea of a Jew.

But the reply he got from one official was: "This is the problem. If he is a J Street Jew, we are in trouble."

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, stressed that "This president has shown again and again that when he believes it is necessary to use force to protect American national security interests, he has done so" - but the Israeli government might need stronger assurances.

Israel is trying to convey the message not only through the official channels - Israeli military intelligence chief Major General Amos Yadlin visited Chicago recently to meet with the billionaire Lester Crown, one of Obama’s supporters, and asked to him to convey Israel's concerns to the American President, Goldberg reports.

"If the choice is between allowing Iran to go nuclear, or trying for ourselves what Obama won't try, then we probably have to try,” one senior Israeli official told Goldberg. Basically, the Israeli military officials agreed that it would be tough for Israel to do it alone – but on the other hand, the conclusion is Netanyahu might well risk this operation and alienation of his closest ally if he becomes convinced Iran's nuclear bomb "represents a threat like a Shoah."

Goldberg delves into Netanyahu’s relations with his father – the historical lessons he learned from Ben-Zion Netanyahu – and his eagerness not to disappoint him. He also offers a long list of Iran's verbal hostilities toward Israel to remind his readers that Israel is not personally obsessed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


"I once asked Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a leading Iranian diplomat who is now Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, why the leadership of Iran persistently described Israel not as a mere regional malefactor but as a kind of infectious disease. 'Do you disagree?' he asked. 'Do you not see that this is true?'" Goldberg writes.


A recent poll conducted in six Arab countries showed a shift of opinion in favor of the Iranian nuclear weapon – views that the Arab leadership clearly doesn’t share with the street.

For Netanyahu, it's clear the bomb will not only strengthen Iran's proxies, but will undermine Israel’s status as a safe haven for Jews, embolden terrorists all over the word, and make the Arab countries more reluctant to make peace with Israel.

According to Goldberg, all the Arab officials he spoke to didn’t think that the U.S. administration truly understood Iran's ambitions. “The best way to avoid striking Iran is to make Iran think that the U.S. is about to strike Iran. We have to know the president’s intentions on this matter. We are his allies," one Arab minister told Goldberg.

Dennis Ross, special adviser to the U.S. president, told the Atlantic that imposing sanctions on Iran could work, despite Israeli doubts, because the Iranian government already faces public alienation. "They are looking at the costs of trying to maintain control over a disaffected public. They wanted to head off sanctions because they knew that sanctions would be a problem. There is real potential here to affect their calculus. We’re pursuing a path right now that has some potential."

Last week, Obama unexpectedly joined a White House briefing for a small group of senior reporters in Washington, raising questions whether he intended to convey some new message to Iran or hint at some new initiative. The accounts of the meetings were somewhat different, and the final impression was that there still is no answer for the question, what President Obama is ready to do if sanctions fail.

David Sanger, the New York Times reporter, heard from the White House sources that during his latest visit to Washington Netanyahu didn't list Iran as one of his top agenda items "whereas at the previous meetings when he has come here, [Iran] was the number one, two, and three issue," on the agenda, which might indicate that Netanyahu got some clear reassurances from the U.S. administration.

Source:

Palestinian women smuggled into Tel Aviv for day of fun

Israeli women bring 12 Palestinian women, 4 children out to eat in Jaffa restaurant, swimming in the Mediterranean, and home via Jerusalem.

By Jonathan Lis

A group of Israeli women smuggled 12 Palestinian woman and four children, among them a year-old baby, into Tel Aviv for a day of fun about two weeks ago. The women, among them writers Ilana Hammerman and Klil Zisapel, picked up the women from their villages, following two earlier meetings with them.

Avoiding the security forces at West Bank checkpoints, they took the women out to eat in a restaurant in Jaffa, swimming in the Mediterranean, and took them home via Jerusalem where they could see the Old City walls from afar.

Hammerman undertook a similar trip in which she brought three teenage Palestinian girls to Tel Aviv for the day, which she described in an article in Haaretz Magazine in May. Following publication of the article, the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel demanded that the attorney general investigate Hammerman for smuggling illegal residents into Israel.

After the complaint was filed, peace activists with whom Hammerman is acquainted approached her with the idea of doing another trip, but more extensive this time.

Hammerman and her friends then began to seek women in West Bank villages who would be willing to take a chance on getting caught to take part in such a trip, Hammerman said yesterday and eventually, the 28 Israeli and Palestinian women and children made their way into Israel.

"We all came, we met the women, we took them in our own cars. We pulled a fast one on the army," Hammerman said.

Most of the Palestinians had never seen the sea or visited certain holy places. None of them had permits to enter Israel.

"We passed the checkpoints in our cars, knowingly breaking the laws of entry into Israel," the Israeli women wrote in an ad published in the Hebrew weekend edition of Haaretz.

"We don't recognize the legality of the entry law into Israel, which allows every Israeli and every Jew to move freely throughout most of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, and denies this right to the Palestinians, to whom this land also belongs."

The ad also said the Israeli women had been greatly privileged "to experience in our country that lives by its sword one of the most beautiful and exciting days in our lives; to get to know brave Palestinian women who love life and the joy of life, and to spend time with them and to be free with them if only for one day."

Hammerman said the Israeli women wanted to spark debate in Israeli society. "None of us are anarchists, yet we broke the law. That is a symbolic act," she said.

Hammerman said the possible two-year prison term for smuggling people into Israel did not deter her.

Zisapel said yesterday that the women had wanted to "show the absurdity of this situation, of this law and what it does. The wall and the checkpoints do not keep illegal aliens, and certainly not terrorists, out of Israel."

Zisapel said some of the women wanted to see the sea, some the shops or the high-rises. One said she just wanted to breath.

Source:

IDF confirms firing at a Lebanon fishing boat

Statement comes less than a week after an IDF officer was killed in the most serious cross border incident since Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah.

By Haaretz Service

An Israel Navy vassal opened fire at a Lebanese fishing boat over the weekend, Army Radio reported on Sunday, adding that none of the crew had been hurt.

Full Story:

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL.......PRINT SUCCESS!!! BRAVO~~

Col. Ann Wright spoke in Albuquerque last week. Several days later, a reporter interviewed the Israeli mouthpiece for the region, Asher Yarden, consul general of Israel to the Southwest and never asked him a single probing question. One of Free Gaza's long time supporters, Miriam Adams, wrote me outraged over the accusations in the article. She suggested I write a short oped in response to Yarden's lies, one of them so outrageous, stating that they had video tapes of martyr statements from two of the men they murdered. These 'alleged' tapes were in Turkey.

Between my writing and Miriam's writing, we got the piece published today. More importantly are her comments to me below. If you are discouraged or you think they aren't out their listening, they are. The information is below in the link. If any of you want to write and thank the Albuquerque Journal for printing the oped, please do. They need to hear from us.

Greta

On sat. Aug. 7, 2010 at 6:13 PM, madams12 madams12@earthlink.net wrote:

Dear Greta,
Success!!!!....your OpEd piece WAS published....given Front and Center placement on rightside Editorial page with very large headline above and Cartoon to its Right....thus prominently placed in today's (Sat) paper....all thanks to you!! thank you for taking time to ensure that these guys WOULD respect your affiliation with FGM and thus your words, since they rarely if EVER publish local Ltr to Ed from me or others....This is nothing less than a rousing success for GAZA!!...many thanks/blessings/salaams/hugs, Miriam.

The followinng cartoon was published next to Greta's superb OpEd in today's paper however the Albq Journal doesn't 'allow' syndicated cartoons to viewed on their website. (this image can be found on http://www.intoon.com/#86655 Mike Keefe cartoons in case you cannot see the image)...

Printed from ABQjournal.com, A service of the Albuquerque Journel.

URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/guest_columns/07233216opinion08-07-10.htm

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Israeli Consul Spins Attack on Flotilla

By Greta Berlin

Co-founder, Free Gaza Movement

Once again, Israel commits war crimes against a civilian population on board six ships in international waters then whines that it is the victim of a PR smear.

Journal Staff Writer Lloyd Jojola's interview with Asher Yarden, consul general of Israel to the Southwest, proves they think they can spin the story of piracy at sea to sympathetic journalists who will ask no probing questions, but merely spout back what the apologists say.

So let's look at the facts instead of Israel's spin.

1. We were in international waters, 65 miles off the coast of Israel on our way to deliver supplies to the people of Gaza that Israel refuses to allow into Gaza.

2. The people on board all six boats were attacked by Israeli terrorists, not just the Mavi Marmara.

3. International law says Israel's siege on 1.5 million Palestinians is illegal, and that is the main reason we were sailing, to break Israel's illegal blockade.

4. As members of civil society, we have the right to hold Israel accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity since governments refuse to stand up to Israeli illegal actions, and

5. We have the right to self defense if attacked, defending our friends, families and boats.

We faced a highly armed militia that deliberately attacked us in the early morning hours. Their commandos murdered us, beat us, dragged us into a port where we had no intention of going, deprived us of lawyers for hours, stole all of our equipment and tapes, lied about the audiotapes they issued, and are now lying about some so-called video tapes made in Turkey. The men who were killed ranged between 33-61 with one American Turkish young man of 19 who wanted to be a doctor who was shot five times in the head and back. There are autopsy reports available ... and there are descriptions of who they were, why they were going and how many times they were shot on our website at http://www.freegaza.org/.

Your reporter never asked the tough questions of this Israeli mouthpiece.

Why didn't the Navy wait until morning? Why did they attack a civilian caravan in international waters? Why did they murder nine men with 31 bullets, many to the head? Why did they maim and wound people on board the other boats, several of them beaten so badly they had broken bones?

Why not ask for the truth instead of Israel's spin? Why believe this man, Asher Yarden, when people can hear the testimony of those passengers who were on board, many of them threatened with bodily harm?...

Who are you going to believe? A decorated U.S. war veteran, Ann Wright, who participated in the flotilla and recently spoke in Albuquerque, as reported in the Journal, or a mouthpiece for Israel?


Greta Berlin, Co-Founder
+33 607 374 512
witnessgaza.com
http://www.freegaza.org/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza

Bedouins lose yet another village to Israeli forces

Jonathan Cook, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: August 06. 2010 12:16AM UAE / August 5. 2010 8:16PM GMT
The National

AL ARAQIB, NEGEV // Israeli security forces destroyed a Bedouin village this week for the second time in a matter of days, leaving 300 inhabitants homeless again after they and dozens of Jewish and Arab volunteers had begun rebuilding the 45 homes.

Human rights groups warned that these appeared to be the opening shots in a long-threatened campaign by the Israeli government to begin mass forced removals of tens of thousands of Bedouin from their ancestral lands in the southern Negev.

The High Follow-Up Committee, the main political body for Israel’s Arab minority, vowed this week to help rebuild the village for a second time and said it would call on the UN to investigate Israel’s treatment of the Bedouin.

Al Araqib village, which is a few kilometres north of the Negev’s main city Beersheva, has become a symbol of the struggle by about 90,000 Bedouin to win recognition for dozens of communities the government claims are built on state land.

In a test case before the Israeli courts, an inhabitant of al Araqib has been presenting documents and expert testimony to show his ancestors owned and lived on the village’s lands many decades before Israel’s establishment in 1948. The judge is expected to rule within months.

“Tearing down an entire village and leaving its inhabitants homeless without exhausting all other options for settling longstanding land claims is outrageous,” said Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch.

A force of 1,500 police, including a special riot squad wearing black balaclavas, entered the village early on Wednesday to pull down a dozen wooden shacks and a half-built concrete home. The local Aturi tribe had been in the process of rebuilding the village after it was razed by bulldozers a week earlier.

The Israeli forces also uprooted 850 olive trees, said Ortal Tzabar, a spokeswoman for the government’s Land Administration.

Yesterday Adalah, a legal group for Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens, demanded a criminal investigation into what it called “police brutality” during both demolition operations.

Sawsan Zaher, a lawyer, said assaults on villagers, confiscation of their property and the security forces’ decision to cover their faces and not wear identity tags were all designed to “instil fear” in the residents.

Taleb a-Sanaa, a Bedouin member of the Israeli parliament who was left unconscious on Wednesday after police dragged him from a tent in which he was staging a protest, warned that the government was risking “an uprising in the Negev”.

Six village leaders were arrested shortly afterwards when they refused to sign a paper committing not to return to al Araqib.

Awad Abu Freih, a village spokesman, said they remained defiant. “The authorities want to break our connection to this land so it can be turned over to Jews. They can keep destroying, but we will continue rebuilding. We will not leave.”

The first demolition of the village, late last month, came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his cabinet that the growth of the country’s Arab minority, already a fifth of the population, posed a “palpable threat” to the state’s Jewishness.

“The effect could be that different elements will demand national rights within Israel – for example, in the Negev – if we allow for a region without a Jewish majority.”

The Bedouin’s increasing assertiveness about their indigenous status, which is backed by international groups, has led to a backlash from officials, who regularly refer to the Bedouin as “squatters” and “invaders” of state land.

The government’s conflict with the Bedouin dates back to Israel’s founding, when most of the Negev’s population were driven out of the new state.

With the highest birth rate in Israel, the surviving tribes have grown rapidly and now number 180,000, more than a quarter of the Negev’s population despite waves of state-sponsored Jewish migration.

Israel has refused to recognise the Bedouin’s traditional communities and insists they move into seven deprived townships built by the government several decades ago. Only about half have done so, with the rest insisting on their right to continue with their pastoral way of life.

Like 45 other unrecognised villages, al Araqib is deprived of all services, including water and electricity, and its buildings are illegal.

A recent government commission found that tens of thousands of Bedouin buildings are subject to demolition orders, though until now individual buildings have been targeted, not whole communities.

Last month the Beersheva planning committee approved a scheme to recognise 13 Bedouin villages and force the other inhabitants into the townships. In that plan, al Araqib’s lands are designated for a “peace forest”, a move Mr Abu Freih said was designed to prevent the villagers’ return.

Ms Baruch said the authorities were demanding the inhabitants move to Rahat, even though no homes were provided for them.

Mr Abu Freih said other parts of the tribe’s lands nearby had been secretly settled by Jews in 2004..

jcook@thenational.ae

Only we're allowed

After Tuesday's border clash, Israel will continue to ignore UNIFIL and the Lebanese army.

By Gideon Levy

Those bastards, the Lebanese, changed the rules. Scandalous. Word is, they have a brigade commander who's determined to protect his country's sovereignty. Scandalous.

The explanation here was that he's "indoctrinating his troops" - only we're allowed to do that, of course - and that this was "the spirit of the commander" and that he's "close to Hezbollah." The nerve.

And now that we've recited ad nauseum the explanations of Israel Defense Forces propaganda for what happened Tuesday at the northern border, the facts should also be looked at.

On Tuesday morning, Israel requested "coordination" with UNIFIL to carry out another "exposing" operation on the border fence. UNIFIL asked the IDF to postpone the operation, because its commander is abroad. The IDF didn't care. UNIFIL won't stop us.

At noon the tree-cutters set out. The Lebanese and UNIFIL soldiers shouted at them to stop. In Lebanon they say their soldiers also fired warning shots in the air. If they did, it didn't stop the IDF.

The tree branches were cut and blood was shed on both sides of the border. Shed in vain.

True, Israel maintains that the area across the fence is its territory, and UNIFIL officially confirmed that yesterday. But a fence is a fence: In Gaza it's enough to get near the fence for us to shoot to kill. In the West Bank the fence's route bears no resemblance to the Green Line, and still Palestinians are forbidden from crossing it.

In Lebanon we made different rules: the fence is just a fence, we're allowed to cross it and do whatever we like on the other side, sometimes in sovereign Lebanese territory. We can routinely fly in Lebanese airspace and sometimes invade as well.

This area was under Israeli occupation for 18 years, without us ever acknowledging it. It was an occupation no less brutal than the one in the territories, but whitewashed well. "The security zone," we called it. So now, as well, we can do what we like.

But suddenly there was a change. How did our analysts put it? Recently there's been "abnormal firing" at Israeli aircraft. After all, order must be maintained: We're allowed to fly in Lebanese airspace, they are not permitted to shoot.

But Tuesday's incident, which was blown out of proportion here as if it were cause for a war that only the famed Israeli "restraint" prevented, should be seen in its wider context. For months now the drums of war have been beating here again. Rat-a-tat, danger, Scuds from Syria, war in the north.

No one asks why and wherefore, it's just that summer's here, and with it our usual threats of war. But a UN report published this week held Israel fully responsible for creating this dangerous tension.

In this overheated atmosphere the IDF should have been careful when lighting its matches. UNIFIL requests a delay of an operation? The area is explosive? The work should have been postponed. Maybe the Lebanese Army is more determined now to protect its country's sovereignty - that is not only its right, but its duty - and a Lebanese commander who sees the IDF operating across the fence might give an order to shoot, even unjustifiably.

Who better than the IDF knows the pattern of shooting at any real or imagined violation? Just ask the soldiers at the separation fence or guarding Gaza. But Israel arrogantly dismissed UNIFIL's request for a delay.

It's the same arrogance behind the demand that the U.S. and France stop arming the Lebanese military. Only our military is allowed to build up arms. After years in which Israel demanded that the Lebanese Army take responsibility for what is happening in southern Lebanon, it is now doing so and we've changed our tune. Why? Because it stopped behaving like Israel's subcontractor and is starting to act like the army of a sovereign state.

And that's forbidden, of course. After the guns fall silent, the cry goes up again here to strike another "heavy blow" against Lebanon to "deter" it - maybe some more of the destruction that was inflicted on Beirut's Dahiya neighborhood.

Three Lebanese killed, including a journalist, are not enough of a response to the killing of our battalion commander. We want more. Lebanon must learn a lesson, and we will teach it.

And what about us? We don't have any lessons to learn. We'll continue to ignore UNIFIL, ignore the Lebanese Army and its new brigade commander, who has the nerve to think that his job is to protect his country's sovereignty.

Source:

Lebanon denounces claim it provoked deadly clash in north

Spokesman for the Lebanese Army said Lebanese soldiers called out to the Israeli troops to cease their actions and fired warning shots in the air.

By Jack Khoury

Lebanese officials rejected Israeli claims yesterday that a Lebanese soldier shot at an Israeli force at the border in an effort to provoke a firefight.

The sources said the Israel Defense Forces had twice requested permission from UNIFIL to operate in the area, but was turned down by the Lebanese Army, which considered the request a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the Second Lebanon War. The Lebanese officials said the Israeli request constituted a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.

The Lebanese version also maintains that Israel "arrogantly" disregarded the Lebanese refusal and acted unilaterally, putting troops in the area and cutting down a large tree on the Lebanese side of the fence to set up a camera.

A spokesman for the Lebanese Army said Lebanese soldiers called out to the Israeli troops to cease their actions and fired warning shots in the air, but the Israelis responded by targeting the Lebanese position. At that point the Lebanese soldiers fired at the Israelis.

The Lebanese also say the IDF fired artillery rounds, and that an Apache attack helicopter fired at a Lebanese armored carrier, killing three soldiers. The sources also said a Lebanese journalist for the daily Al-Ahbar, Asaf Abu Rihal, a 55-year-old father of three, was killed.

The Lebanese said the Israeli shelling hit two houses in the village of Adeisa and reported a number of injuries among civilians, who were taken to nearby hospitals.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his Islamist militia would not stand aside if Israel attacked the Lebanese Army in the future.

"I say honestly, that in any place where the Lebanese Army will be assaulted and there's a presence for the resistance, and it is capable, the resistance will not stand silent, or quiet or restrained," Nasrallah told tens of thousands of supporters via video link. He was speaking to mark the fourth anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, just hours after the cross-border skirmish yesterday.

Nasrallah said his group was in touch with the Lebanese Army and was at the ready if they needed to be called in.

"I was personally in contact with the [Hezbollah] commanders in the area, and I asked them not to act before receiving a direct order. We announced that we would not initiate any activity as long as we did not receive authorization from the highest command of the Lebanese Army. We contacted the army's commander and explained that we were ready to take action if they ask us to. We did what was needed in order to protect our sacred land," he said.

After the incident, senior Lebanese officers arrived at the scene and were briefed. The officers report directly to the Lebanese chief of staff and the senior political leadership including President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is abroad.

UNIFIL peacekeepers also arrived in an effort to avert an escalation. The United Nations held intensive discussions with both sides after the clash.

The fact that the incident involved Lebanese Army troops and not Hezbollah or any other militia force has helped unify the Lebanese; all radio stations, regardless of political affiliation, have supported the army and its commanders.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, former Lebanese president and chief of staff Emile Lahoud said the Lebanese Army today is different and its soldiers cannot accept a blatant violation by Israel. Lahoud said the soldiers acted in the spirit of the responsibility they felt for Lebanese sovereignty and security, knowing full well that the Lebanese nation and the Arab world supported them.

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I have added my name to the list for the U.S. Boat To Gaza

Yesterday I had my name put on the list in hopes that when it comes time to fill out the application that I will be accepted to be on the U.S. Boat to Gaza. The siege and the occupation has to stop. Israel has come to a time that they have to make the choice of peace or continue their ways and find themselves alone in the world. Only they can save themselves from destruction. I have not forgot about the USS Liberty. To attack the U.S. Boat to Gaza will not set well with Americans as the USS Liberty is still a sore spot with us. May God (Allah) Speed and protect this Humanitarian act by the U.S. Boat to Gaza.

Chet

Israel launches campaign to halt Lebanon Gaza-bound flotilla

Foreign Ministry instructs Israeli ambassadors to ask senior American, UN, EU and Egyptian officials to pressure Syria and Lebanon to stop latest planned flotilla from sailing from Lebanon to Gaza.

By Jack Khoury, Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid and Zvi Bar'el

Israel launched a diplomatic effort yesterday to keep the latest planned flotilla from sailing from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Ministry instructed Israeli ambassadors to ask senior officials in the United States, United Nations, European Union and Egypt to pressure Syria and Lebanon to stop the flotilla, which Israel deems a "provocation" in light of its recent decision to end its civilian blockade of Gaza.

Syria has been included because senior Israeli officials say it is helping to organize the flotilla. Hezbollah is also involved, they charged.

"This is a clear and organized provocation," one official said.

Officially, the flotilla is being organized by Palestinian businessman Yasser Kashlak, who last month tried and failed to organize another flotilla from Lebanon. The two ships are slated to sail from Tripoli by the end of this week.

Israel's message to international diplomats is that it views this flotilla particularly gravely because it is sailing from the port of an enemy country.

Last week, Egypt cooperated with Israel in diverting a Libyan aid ship headed to Gaza to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, and so Israeli officials are hopeful it will do the same this time.

Israel is still refusing to release three Turkish ships captured in a May 31 raid on an earlier Gaza-bound flotilla, saying it will not do so without a written pledge from the Turkish government that the ships will not be used for such activities again. That raid, which resulted in the death of nine Turks after passengers attacked the Israeli boarding party, tore gaping holes in the already tattered Israeli-Turkish relations.

A representative of the IHH organization, which sponsored that flotilla, told the Turkish daily Hurriyet that in the past, Israel has demanded such guarantees only from the groups that organized the ships, not from the governments of the countries whence they sailed.

Ankara, for its part, is demanding that Israel supply tugs to tow the ships to Turkey. Israel has yet to respond to this demand, and is apparently unwilling to discuss it until the Turks respond to Israel's demand for a written guarantee.

Turkish officials said they believe Israel is using its possession of the ships to prove its claim that the government in Ankara played an active role in the flotilla. Turkey insists the flotilla was strictly a private initiative by IHH.

Turkey is also still demanding that Israel apologize for the raid's casualties - a demand Israel has rejected on the grounds that no casualties would have occurred had its soldiers not been attacked. Recently, however, Ankara has slightly softened its stance, saying it will hold off on insisting on an apology until Israel completes its own probe of the raid.

Ankara is angry that Washington has not launched its own inquiries, as one of the nine killed in the incident was an American citizen of Turkish descent. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan even charged that Washington is indifferent "because he was a Turk."

American officials say they have asked Turkey for the autopsy report, which is necessary to conduct any probe, but that Ankara refuses to hand it over.

IHH, for its part, is seeking to file lawsuits against Israel over the flotilla in international courts. The group recently invited Israeli lawyers to a conference to discuss how this could best be done.

One of the invitations went to Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which eventually decided to decline the invitation on the grounds that Israel, like many other countries, defines IHH as a terrorist organization. Attendance at such a conference could result in legal proceedings against the Israeli participants.

Private Israeli attorneys invited to attend evidently declined for the same reason, and a source familiar with the guest list said that, in the end, it includes no Israelis.

However, IHH claims the list does include lawyers from 25 other countries, including the United States, Britain, Egypt and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, American activists are trying to raise funds for their own ship to Gaza, which they plan to call "The Audacity of Hope," after U.S. President Barack Obama's best-selling memoir.

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