notes 7-15-6
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'Israel Has Reached the End of the Road' Israel continues to engage in daily massacres, cowardly assaults on civilians, in response to attacks on legitimate military targets. Although Israel attempts to instill terror in its neighbors and in its occupied population, its gig is up. Israel has lost its ability to terrify, said Ali Abunimeh in a
radio interview. It can no longer impose its will by sheer brute force. It worked for sixty plus years, but the genie is out of the bottle now, he maintains. Israel has reached the end of the road. July 15, 2006
http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/***********************************************************
Ali Abunimeh radio interview.
http://electronicintifada.net/download/audio/20060713-flashpoints.mp3***********************************************************
"But it's Israel!" Fox News crew shot at by Israeli troops Video, FOX News, 14 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4998.shtml************************************************************
Attention Deficit Americans Are Being Misled to War by Paul Craig Roberts July 15, 2006
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=9311************************************************************
Palestinian refugees are enormously fragmented today yet they also possess a collective aspiration which is exactly the ingredient needed to combat it. Indeed, the fact that their aspirations are not individual but rather collective in character is the most hopeful sign for the coming period. The Palestinians' strength is in their collective aspiration By Karma Nabulsi July 15, 2006 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=73980************************************************************
The Lebanese and Palestinians have responded to Israel's persistent and increasingly savage attacks against entire civilian populations by creating parallel or alternative leaderships that could protect them and deliver essential services. With every new Israeli attack against the Hamas and Hizbullah leaderships or the civilian populations, four important things have happened, and will probably happen during this round of war: The Lebanese and Palestinian governments have lost power and impact; Hamas and Hizbullah have garnered greater popular support, which enhances their effectiveness in guerrilla and resistance warfare; they have expanded their military technical capabilities (mainly longer-range missiles and better improvised explosive devices); and, the anti-Israel, anti-US resistance campaign led by Hamas and Hizbullah has generated widespread political and popular support throughout the Middle East and much of the world. The 4 pairs in the Middle East's death dance By Rami G. Khouri July 15, 2006 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=73981************************************************************
It is ironic, given Israel's bombing of civilian targets in Beirut, that Hizbullah is often dismissed in the west as a terrorist organisation. In fact its military record is overwhelmingly one of conflict with Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory. This is just an example of the way that the west employs an entirely different definition of terrorism to the one used in the Arab world and elsewhere, where there is a recognition that terrorism can come in many forms.
The attempt to frame Hizbullah as a terrorist organisation is very far from political reality in Lebanon, from public opinion across the Arab and Islamic world, and from international law.
The framing of Hizbullah Israel's response to its soldiers' capture is part of a hamfisted attempt to redraw the region's map Amal Saad-Ghorayeb in Beirut July 15, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,1821036,00.html***********************************************************
Massacres in Gaza (June 2006) http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/440.shtml******************************************************
14 July 06 Yesterday Mohammed was struck with shrapnel as he was taking those photographs. Thank God he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. [The webmaster]
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm*******************************************************
The "apartheid Israel state" is worse than the apartheid that was conducted in South Africa, Willie Madisha, the Congress of SA Trade Unions president, said today. He said Palestinians were being attacked with heavy machinery and tanks used in war which had never happened in South Africa. Cosatu and other organisations supporting Palestine have called on government to end diplomatic relations with Israel and establish boycotts and sanctions such as those against apartheid South Africa. http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,130958,00.html*******************************************************
There is nothing new in this. In 1948, the Palestinians opted for a very low intensity conflict when the UN imposed on them a deal which wrested from their hand half of their homeland and gave it to a community of newcomers and settlers, most of whom arrived after 1945. The Zionist leaders waited for long time for that opportunity and launched an ethnic cleansing operation that expelled half of the land’s native population, destroyed half of its villages and dragged the Arab world into unnecessary conflict with the West, whose powers were already on the way out with the demise of colonialism. The two designs are interconnected: the wider Israel’s military might expands, the easier it is to complete the unfinished business of the 1948: the total de-Arabization of Palestine.
It is not too late to stop the Israeli designs from creating a new and terrible reality on the ground. But the window of opportunity is very narrow and the world needs to take action before it is too late. What Does Israel Want? Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 14 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5003.shtml
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Letter from Beirut: Return to the Dark Ages Renee Codsi writing from Beirut, Live from Lebanon, 14 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5010.shtml*********************************************************
Experience has shown that not everything which Israel and Washington decree in the end succeeds. It was Lebanon alone that provided the example in this context by means of its steadfastness and ability to achieve liberation and expel an occupation. What they want is the head of the resistance movement Talal Salman, As-Safir (Beirut), 14 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5009.shtml**********************************************************
Information brief: History of Israeli-Arab Prisoner Exchanges Samar Assad, The Palestine Center, 13 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4986.shtml**********************************************************
Photostory: Damage after Israeli bombing of southern suburbs on Thursday night Stefan Christoff and Mohammed Shublaq writing from Beirut, Live from Lebanon, 14 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5011.shtml***********************************************************
In killing Palestinian civilians, Israel has always used the hackneyed excuse that “terrorist groups” take cover among the civilian population, thus putting them in harm’s way. Never mind that Israel has been proven time and time again that this is not the case when whole families are wiped out and children orphaned while military groups – and in this instance, the Israeli soldier in captivity - remain tucked away in some secure and unexposed corner somewhere in the Strip. In this Wasteland, July is the Cruelest Month By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH July 15, 2006 http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=10815&CategoryId=3**********************************************************
At least seven media workers were injured in the first 48 hours of fighting in Lebanon – all of them hurt by the Israeli military. According to the watch-dog group
Reporters Without Borders the count includes three employees of the Lebanese satellite channel New TV and four workers at the Hizballah-controlled TV network
al-Manar.
Israel: Stop Shooting Journalists by Aaron Glantz July 15, 2006
http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=9309************************************************************
Israel and Lebanon: ICRC gravely concerned about the plight of civilians caught up in hostilities Press release, ICRC, 13 July 2006 ***********************************************************
Last Saturday in Dublin, despite the spitting and occasionally pouring rain, over 500 people marched to protest Israeli war crimes in Gaza. The rally was called by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity campaign, and was the culmination of a week of condemnation of Israeli actions. Hundreds march in Dublin for Palestinian rights David Landy, The Electronic Intifada, 13 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4988.shtml***********************************************************
Wall Street Journal online Opinion Journal
letter 7-14-2006
Israel is to Blame
Ted Sawicki - Chicago
It is unclear whether you are getting your operative handouts from Likud or Kadima these days. The daily murder by the IDF of Palestinians, of course, is not a provocation. After all they are only Muslims or Christians and hardly to be valued as humans, like Jews. The grinding theft of Palestinians lands, most recently in the Jordan Valley, is not a provocation because if it were Arab reaction would be retaliation and the WSJ knows that only Israelis retaliate. The calculated destruction of any viable economic activity by Palestinians by Israel is not a provocation because Arabs should be forced into abject poverty in order to prove that they are unworthy unlike the neighboring Jews who live far beyond their means thanks to American and German taxpayers.
The fact is that Israel is uninterested in peace. It would interfere with its ongoing decades old plan of genocide. The Arabs are not interested in peace because they consider themselves human and entitled to dignity and justice. There is no peace. There will be no peace. America should mind its own business. By arming one side it increases the atrocities that are committed. After all, no matter how many children Israel slaughters, and it does so daily, the bill is sent to the Americans.
The hundred billion or so of aid that the US has formally sent to Israel is small potatoes compared to the true cost of our blind support of Israeli criminality. Your own Holman Jenkins, no friend of the Arabs, stated a few years back that Israel had cost the American economy 1.7 trillion dollars. It is well over 2 trillion now. Next time you go to the gas pump remind yourself that at a minimum over a dollar per gallon is the price paid for the economic turmoil caused by continued everyday Israeli aggression, theft and murder. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/responses.html?article_id=110008658
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Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines 14-07-06 ~ http://www.theheadlines.org/06/14-07-06.shtml
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Red Crescent Society: new Israeli tactic is to kill entire Palestinian families Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, said, “What is happening in Gaza is a new method of war that includes the extermination of entire families. This Israeli assassination campaign, unfortunately titled ‘Summer Rain,' is resulting in massive economic and social hardship for the Palestinians.”
http://www.pnn.ps/english/archive2006/jul/week2/130706/report3.htm***********************************************************
Indeed, Israel's slate will continue to be clean as long as racism and inequality are the concepts according to which this conflict is explained. Israel has the right to do all the above actions without hesitation because Israel is not Palestine, and the lives and well being of the residents of Israel, at least some of them, cannot be equated with Palestinians. Turn the tables for a moment and you'll understand how repellent such racism is.
Racism Plagues Western Media Coverage By: Ramzy Baroud July 13, 2006http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2006/july/july13-0.html
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There is a stark difference between the initial actions of Israel and the initial actions of Hezbollah and the groups in Gaza—Hezbollah and the groups in Gaza attacked military targets. Ironically, groups that much of the West regards as terrorists entities, applied more conventional standards of warfare in recent weeks than Israel has.
When Civilians Become Targets: The Israeli Destruction of Lebanon and Gaza By Remi Kanazi July 15, 2006
http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2006/july/july15-0.html
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Palestinian Activists Wed in the Shadow of the Wall! July 14th, 2006 http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/14/palestinian-activists-wed-in-the-shadow-of-the-wall/************************************************************" ....[the Zionist pioneers believed that] the only language the Arabs understand is that of force ..... [They] behave towards the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly upon their boundaries, beat them shamefully without reason and even brag about it, and nobody stands to check this contemptible and dangerous tendency." Zionist Ahad Ha'Am, 1856-1927, visited Palestine for three months in 1891
'They Behave Towards the Arabs With Hostility and Cruelty' July 13, 2006
http://www.umkahlil.blogspot.com/*************************************************************
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The Oslo "Death Trap"July 07, 2006 By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH http://www.miftah.org/*****************************************************************
Double Standards Undermine Democracy July 11, 2006 By Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation http://www.miftah.org/*******************************************************************
Special Report - Collective Punishment: Israel’s Attack on the Gaza StripJuly 11, 2006 By the Palestinian Monitoring Group
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57 Palestinians Killed, 121 Injured, Tens of Houses Destroyed and Agricultural Lands Leveled as a Result to IOF Continued Offensive on the Gaza StripJuly 11, 2006 By Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights http://www.miftah.org/ ****************************************************************
US vetoes UN resolution on Gaza 13 July 2006, But John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, said the draft was still unacceptable because it had been overtaken by events in the region - including the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah on Wednesday - and was "unbalanced".
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/36D7D6BE-EE01-4564-9AEA-EC02AA9AE8F2.htm****************************************************************
'Never Again' Gone Mad In Israel by
Sandy Tolan The irony is that, contrary to making themselves more safe, the Israelis, just like the Americans in Iraq, are only sowing the seeds of more hatred and rage. http://palestinechronicle.com./story-071206194713.htm*****************************************************************
How to reconcile communal and national identities? by Rami G. Khouri Ethnic cleansing and killing people on the basis of their identity cards are two common consequences. Such savagery, whether in Europe or the Middle East, will not go away easily. It requires a much more diligent review of the institutions of the modern nation-state that Western Europe bequeathed the world in the second half of the second millennium. Modernity may be in need of an overhaul, or at least some serious tinkering.
http://jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion2.htm********************************************************************
Perspectives for narratives by Daoud Kuttab Another problem in these opposing narratives is the issue of time. If you ask either side to explain their narrative, they begin at a particular advantageous time. For the Israelis, the attack that led to the capture of their soldier and the attack against the troops in the north of Israel was unprovoked. Palestinians point out that these same soldiers are part of an army that had been shelling them, that has been assassinating their leaders and has been holding nearly 10,000 Palestinian prisoners. For Israelis, time begins with the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Palestinians would point out that the settlements were illegal in the first place, and that the occupation was declared unacceptable by the international community.
http://jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion3.htm********************************************************************
Israel should seek wise enemies Hasan Abu Nimah, Israel stands politically bankrupt because it unwisely wasted all its political assets. The Electronic Intifada, 13 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4974.shtml********************************************************************
Ladies and gentlemen, I did not want to burden you with the troubles of war but...Zena el-Khalil writing from Beirut, Lebanon, Live from Palestine, 13 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4989.shtml********************************************************************
Information brief: History of Israeli-Arab Prisoner Exchanges by Samar Assad, The Palestine Center, 13 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4986.shtml********************************************************************
Israeli war planes are bombing Beirut Sawsan Kalache & Stefan Christoff writing from Beirut, Lebanon, The Electronic Intifada, 13 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4985.shtml********************************************************************
Diaries Gaza, repeated, ad infinitum Nora Barrows-Friedman, Live from Palestine,
Human RightsIsrael/Lebanon: End immediately attacks against civilians Press release, Amnesty International, 13 July 200613 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/********************************************************************
IOF Bomb a House in Gaza City, Killing Two Parents and Their 7 Children; 34 Civilians Injured Report, PCHR, 12 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4965.shtml********************************************************************
Ministry of Health report on toxic Israeli weapons confirmed by Gaza City medical sources(Gaza City) Bisan Hisham 13 July 06
Director of Public Relations at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital, Dr. Juma Al Sakka, confirmed the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s report from earlier this week which stated that Israeli forces are using toxic weapons in the Gaza Strip.
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A hard rain's gonna fall by Laurie King,
If you are not rain, my love
Be tree
Sated with fertility, be tree
If you are not tree, my love
Be stone
Saturated with humidity, be stone
If you are not stone, my love
Be moon
In the dream of the beloved woman, be moon
(So spoke a woman to her son at his funeral)
>From the poem, “Under Siege,” by Mahmoud Darwish
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have named their relentless military operation in Gaza “Summer Rain” (gishmei ha-qeitz in Hebrew), which is cruel and sarcastic given the political, historical, and environmental context of the Eastern Mediterranean. It does not rain in the summer in this region. From early May to mid-September, one can expect clear skies and no precipitation. What is raining, though, is fire and metal, along with leaflets bearing chillingly familiar threats. The Electronic Intifada, 13 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4968.shtml
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From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/*********************************************************************
From bad to worse: the downpour continues Raising Yousuf: a diary of a mother under occupation July 14, 2006
http://www.a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/
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CALL FOR ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL http://www.pacbi.org/
********************************************************************************* In remembrance: Ismail Shammout, 1931-2006 Samia Halaby, The Electronic Intifada, 5 July 2006
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4903.shtml
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Rest in Peace, Ismail Shammout – artist, historian, activist, advocate, compassionate humanist, and a Palestinian treasure. You will be missed, but your inspiring work will live on forever. Tawfiq Zayyad’s poem, “All I Have,” is a fitting tribute to end with:
ALL I HAVE
I never carried a rifle
On my shoulder
Or pulled a trigger.
All I have
Is a lute’s memory
A brush to paint my dreams,
A bottle of ink.
All I have
Is unshakeable faith
And an infinite love
For my people in pain.
For more information, please visit: www.shammout.com
Ismail Shamout (1930 – 2006) tribute by Haithem El-Zabri, July 4, 2006 http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/obituary.htm
Ismail Shammout was a refugee who lived the Palestinian experience fully, and went on to tell the story through art. Dispossession, exile, identity, suffering, perseverance, and struggle, are all predominant features of his brilliant oil paintings, and his remarkable way of advocating for his people's cause.
Shammout was born in 1930 in the Palestinian agricultural town of Lydda, son to a produce wholesale merchant. He remembered clearly how their world had turned upside down when they were driven out of their homes on July 12, 1948. The Israeli soldiers ordered them, at gunpoint, “Out! Out!” and the family of nine was instantly homeless.
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Reversing ethnic cleansing: The Right to Return Home by Salman Abu Sitta June 5, 2006 Salman Abu Sitta is a Palestinian author and researcher on refugees. http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2006/june/june5-0.html****************************************************************************
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.htmlUniversal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html******************************************************************************
PalestineOnlineStore.com
REFUGEES @ Palestine Online Store <>This page features resources related to the refugee issue. Refugees are suffering tremendously, and especially so in Gaza. Their plight is one that deserves no less than our full and immediate support. We hope that these materials will help in supporting them by increasing awareness. To support them by making donations, we recommend
donating to UNRWA.
http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/refugees/**************************************************************************************
The release of Kelani's CD comes at a particularly difficult time for the Palestinian people. Kelani says: "unless people listen to, and acknowledge, the Palestinian narrative in its own right, no peace treaty, accord or settlement will work. The Palestinian narrative has always been robbed of its independence and authenticity." Reem Kelani: Telling the Palestinian narrative through song Susannah Tarbush, The Electronic Intifada, 11 July 2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4959.shtml**************************************************************************************
Look into My Eyes
Outlandish Song based on Words by Gihad Ali
Major hit in Danish charts in 2005
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July 8 1972 Ghassan Kanafani assassinated in Beirut -
Israeli Mossad agents plant a bomb in celebrated Palestinian poet and novelist Ghassan Kanafani's car, killing him and his young niece. Born in Acre in 1936, Kanafani is credited as a pioneer in "revolutionary literature," and was the editor of the PFLP magazine.
July 15 1950 . Israel declares "Law of Return" - Jews from anywhere in the world become eligible to immigrate to the occupied Palestinian homeland who's inhabitants were driven out, and claim Israeli nationality.
July 22 1946 Zionist terrorist group, Irgun, blows up the King David Hotel, killing 80 -
http://www.palestinecalendar.org/july.htmJuly 15 2006 ... more of the same but in many ways much worse, thanks to the blatant injustice and brutality of Political Zionism....*************************************************************************************
The Right of Return A wide range of international legal instruments, including human rights law, humanitarian law, law of nationality, UN resolutions, bilateral and regional agreements, domestic law, as well as general legal principles considered to be binding recognize the right of refugees to return to their places of origin. Many of these same legal instruments also recognize the right to restitution of property.
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/194.shtml************************************************************************************
http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/************************************************************************************
http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060713/OPINION02/607130448/1080Letters
Don't buy into propaganda of political Zionists
Home News Tribune Online 07/13/06
Iapplaud you for publishing Nicholas Noor's excellent letter "U.N. intervention needed in Mideast." Political Zionism has gone a long way away from Balfour's Declaration of 1917.
To more fully understand what is going on with political Zionism let us take a serious glance at the establishment of Israel in 1948: "More than three-quarters of the Palestinian villages within the 1949 armistice lines were destroyed. In several of the districts wholly incorporated into Israel — Jaffa, Ramala, and Beersheba — no Palestinian village remained. From 1948 to the early 1950s, the amount of land owned and controlled by Arabs was reduced by more than 70 per cent. Even before the war's end, Israel was distributing refugee homes, possessions and properties to Jewish individuals and organizations for settling Jewish immigrants and to reward prominent Zionists and Jewish military officials." http://www.badil.org/Publications/Bulletins/Bulletin-17.htm
More than 80 percent of Gaza's population are in fact already Palestinian refugees pushed out of their homes and off their land in what we call Israel proper.
Israel's punitive economic and military siege of Gaza is quite simply more of the same intentional Israeli-made segregation and genocide that has been going on all along. It is a cruel fiasco made possible by many fools worldwide who buy into Zionist lies and propaganda about security and peace. Israel, racist Israel as the misnamed "Jewish State," the home-wrecking war machine of institutionalized bigotry and injustice has been wrong from the start. Palestine is right, and Palestine is in pain. I think it is time to put a stop to Israel period.
Anne Selden Annab
MECHANICSBURG, PA.
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Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are one of the largest and longest-standing displaced populations in the world today. Approximately three-quarters of the Palestinian people are displaced. http://www.badil.org/Refugees/refugees.htm
Related BADIL Publications:
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NO ISRAEL !!!!
