When will Zionist Jews stop cursing other religions? From Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

When will Zionist Jews stop cursing other religions?

From Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

2 September, 2007

On 29 August, 2007, Israeli soccer fans were heard cursing the Prophet Muhammed (PUH) while accompanying an Israeli soccer team to Turkey.

According to the Ynet, the Yedeot Ahronot news website, a Turkish reporter working for the Channel 24, Elif Ural, who accompanied the Israeli soccer team, Maccabi Tel Aviv on its flight from Israel to the Turkish city of Kayseri, videotaped a group of fans while signing songs cursing the Prophet of Islam and Muslims in general.

Ural, who has been living in Israel for the past three years, reportedly was deeply offended by what she witnessed and heard. Ural was especially upset because the club’s officials failed to intervene to put an end to the offensive behavior.

I realize there are many decent Jews who condemn such a blaspheme which offends and provokes over a billion and a half human beings around the world.

After all, offending people’s sensibilities is a repulsive and anti-social behavior by every shred of imagination.

However, it is also true that the obnoxious incident expressed and reflected to a large extent an increasingly hateful and xenophobic culture bordering on fascism, which explains why the bulk of the Israeli Jewish society is so numb and callous toward the nearly daily killing by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian children and civilians. (five Palestinian children were murdered last week.)

This is by no means an isolated incident. The Israeli Jewish culture is already rife with anti-Muslim, anti-Christian and anti-gentile expressions. One could easily cite numerous examples in this regard.

A few months ago, a Jewish immigrant from France brutally murdered a Muslim taxi driver from East Jerusalem after.

And when the murderer, who reportedly had turned “religious,” was questioned by the police, he nonchalantly told interrogators that “I felt I was killing an animal, not a human being.”

Interestingly, the Israeli press has reported that an Israeli court had acquitted the murderer, named Jullian Sufir, ruling that he was unfit to stand trial because of “insanity.”

Insulting, defiling and desecrating Islamic symbols in Israel/Palestine happened nearly on a daily basis and the Israeli authorities usually refuse to take a decisive action to stop the rising Islamophobia, constantly fed by a venomous media that is very much indolent of the Nazi propaganda machine in the mid and late 1930s.

The Turkish TV channel did the right thing when it refused to broadcast the offensive video, fearing unpredictable reactions.

However, Jews around the world should have issued stronger condemnations of the offensive behavior.

Jews for centuries had been the target of religious discrimination and vilification, and offending the religious symbols of other peoples is not exactly the right way to encourage inter-religious tolerance in an increasingly globalized world.

Moreover, Muslims and Jews are neighbors in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. And cursing the prophet Muhammed and offending his followers is really like playing with fire.

I honestly believe that vast bulk of Jewish religious leaders don’t accept such behavior because of its potentially disastrous consequences and also because it is intrinsically wrong.

This is why the two chief rabbis of Israel as well as Israeli President and Prime Minister are urged to publicly condemn the incident.

Muslims around the world would accept and appreciate such an apology, which would enhance mutual respect between the followers of the two monotheistic religions.

Moreover, the next time Jewish religious symbols are assaulted Muslim religious leaders would be morally bound to show solidarity with Jews. Religious tolerance is a two-way street.

I know Muslim-Jewish relations these days are not at their best, to put it very mildly.

After all, Israel, the Zionist entity which calls itself “the Jewish state” has been indulging in every conceivable act of murder, persecution, and oppression against the predominantly Muslim people of Palestine.

Zionism, a project of dispossession and a pretext for a creeping genocide, shows very little respect for religion in general, including Judaism itself.

This is certainly an additional reason why true Jews who value the Torah of Moses should speak up against the blasphemous culture being fostered by Zionism, a culture that has succeeded in eviscerating life of justice and human decency.

Zionism is not only Islam’s virulent foe. It is also Judaism’s grave-digger.

When all else falls into place- Jordan Times Editorial

"Many would prefer to sweep this problem under the carpet, to pretend it doesn’t exist. But the refugee problem, the forced displacement of over half the Palestinian population in 1948, is at the heart of the problem. Solve that problem and all else falls into place."

http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=1868

When all else falls into place His Majesty King Abdullah is rightfully urging Palestinians to unify their ranks. Tellingly, he called Palestinian divisions “unacceptable” at the Arab as well as the Palestinian levels. For a longtime now, the Palestinian cause has been a rallying cry for the Arab world, a burning source of Arab humiliation and suspicion against the West. That the massive injustice visited upon Palestinians should have been allowed to fester for so long, even as world leaders speak of prosperity, global justice, human rights and democracy, is inexplicable to most people across the Arab world. It has also created a process of radicalisation among Arabs and Muslims generally, fed up with Western double speak. But today, Palestinians are divided, fighting against each other. No good can come of that, especially now that Arab countries themselves have a clear and united position. The danger, of course, is that just as Palestinians are divided, so the Arabs may end up divided. Yet there is promise for Palestinians. If Hamas and Fateh can patch up their differences, if they can unite against their common enemy, there is real movement in the world now for change. Europe is ready to come out of Washington’s shadow. For too long Europe has allowed the US to call the shots in this region and the deterioration has been dramatic and inexorable. The one area where Arabs and Westerners can make common cause is on Palestine, because there the international law is clear. The Israeli occupation must end, regardless of who is in charge of the Palestinian struggle. Palestinians must respect that if the occupation ends, so does their struggle. But ending the occupation does not only mean withdrawing troops to this or that line. Crucially, it means redressing past injustices, and no injustice is bigger than that which led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. Many would prefer to sweep this problem under the carpet, to pretend it doesn’t exist. But the refugee problem, the forced displacement of over half the Palestinian population in 1948, is at the heart of the problem. Solve that problem and all else falls into place. Solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and this region might, finally, see some calm, some sense and start to make good on some of its undoubted potential. 2 September 2007

If not attacked by Israeli soldiers, journalists are attacked by Palestinian security forces

http://www.imemc.org/article/50192

Saturday September 01, 2007 15:00 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC

Palestinian journalists were this week attacked three times by Palestinian Authority forces in the Gaza strip. Similarly, security forces last week attacked journalists and media organizations in the West Bank. While Palestinian journalists have always had to deal with the brutality of the Israeli army, these new attacks set a dangerous new precedent in which journalists now have to be concerned over attacks from their own security forces.

Palestinian Journalists protest against recent attacks

The Palestinian constitution grantees the freedom of press, and grants local and international journalists the right to cover news freely across the occupied Palestinian territories. Despite this, attacks against those working in the news are on the increase, and journalists are being used as pawns in a disturbing political game in which the need to display power seemingly over-rides any commitment to the freedom of the press.

Such a situation gravely complicates an already trouble environment. Palestinian journalists are now asking themselves how they are best able to communicate with the rest of the world when they are being forced to write about two separate Palestinian governments, both of whom are hostile to one another.

Abded Al Salam Shihada, a Palestinian journalist for the Ramatan News Agency in Gaza, spoke with IMEMC of the problems faced by those attempting to report the news in a fair and unbiased manner, calling to both Fatah and Hamas to respect the rights guaranteed to journalists under the Palestinian constitution.

"Journalists have the right to access information, to document and to write. The Palestinian people also have the right to freedom of the press, and freedom of expression, wither they are Fatah or Hamas. Political groups have to accept and respect this.”

On Friday, approximately 11 people were injured by the Hamas-affiliated Executive force as they held a protest in Gaza City. Of the most shocking images from this protest was the footage of officers savagely beating one journalist as he lay prone on the ground.

IMEMC spoke to Dr. Khalil Abu Lilah, a Hamas leader in the Gaza strip, of this attack. Abu Lilah stated “we say that any Palestinian has the right to free expression, that journalists have the right to be able to work without restriction. Nevertheless, when the protesters attacked public and private property, security forces were forced to use force to stop them, and that is what happened on Friday."

When asked why journalists were attacked, Dr. Abu Lilah stated "everyone knows that, in the heat of the moment, some misconduct can happen. I think this conduct will be investigated, and those who were guilty of using excessive force will be punished according to Palestinian law.”

Despite the many attacks on journalists and civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, not one member of the security forces has faced criminal charges. It would seem that, so long as such a situation continues to exist, Palestinian journalists must now be wary of not only the brutality of the Israeli army, but of their own security forces also.

'This is how they think of us – like trash'

http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=22078

`This is how they think of us`, said a 55 year-old woman that was left in the sun, `like trash.` Yeela Raanan
August 31, 2007

The Israeli Land Authority `Evacuated the Area` in the village of Tawil Abu-Jarwal: they collected the tents of the Al-Tallaqa family into trucks and took it to the nearby dump.

Yesterday morning, Thursday, August 30, 2007, hundreds of policepeople accompanied four bulldozers and several trucks came to the village of Twail Abu-Jarwal. This time, they thought, they will `do it right`, as the village people insist on re-building their village. The unrecognized village of Twail Abu-Jarwal has been demolished entirely already nine times: this is the tenth. The bulldozers evacuated the area entirely: 20 tents, that were the homes of more than 100 people: men, women, elderly and children ג€“ were collected in to trucks, together with the belongings of the village people, and sent to the local dump. `This is how they think of us`, said a 55 year-old woman that was left in the sun, `like trash.`

When they completed the destruction, the policepeople and the rest sat to make coffee and eat their lunch. `they even laughed`, said Muhamad, who`s tent was sent to the dump. The children and women who`s water tank was destroyed, who had no shade just stood and stared.

A young man from the village was arrested. The police say he `was disruptive`. His arrest was extended today until after the weekend.

The village leader, Aqil el-Talalqa, a retired school pricipal, has been trying for years to bring a solution for the residence of his village people. The government of Israel has no answers for him. The Minister of Housing and Construction, Zeev Boim, has recently claimed that he wishes to create trust between the government and the Bedouin community, and that the demolitions must halt for a year. The Israeli Land Authority is in his jurisdiction, and the brutal demolitions continue.

Forum Hakara, a coalition of NGOs that strives for recognition of the Bedouin villages, is organizing a visit to the village tomorrow, Saturday, leaving Tel Aviv area at 9:00am. For more information contact Amos at 052 6035685.

Ismail Shammout's Palestine, a land crucified

Title: Palestine, a land crucified
Material: Oil on Canvas, 80X120 cm
Year: 1958

Visit The Palestine Booth at the 12th Arab American Festival, held at Village Green Park, Garden Grove, California

Visit The Palestine Booth at the 12th Arab American Festival!

Where: The 12th Arab American Festival will be held at Village Green Park, 12762 Main Street, Garden Grove, California

When: Friday, Saturday and Sunday September 7, 8 and 9, 2007

Al-Awda San Diego, Los Angeles and Riverside invite you to visit us at The Palestine Booth at the 12th Annual Arab American Festival. We will be sharing this booth with sister organizations including FPA, PAWA and NCA.

Come check out a variety of our items at the booth. These include: educational materials, interesting and unique historical books on Palestine, narratives, autobiographies, political analysis, cartoons, and photo books.

We will also have historical maps of Palestine (in Arabic and English), films, flags of various sizes, great looking T-shirts, Palestine map pendants, a variety of pins, and colorful greeting cards created
by Palestinian children. At various times, we will also show several short 20-30 min educational films.

Tickets for the Sunday October 14, 2007 Marcel Khalife concert in San Diego will also be available for sale at the booth. Get yours before they run out! The concert coincides with the start of the Eid and will be a great way to celebrate with the community.

Directions: To obtain directions to the festival, please use this page http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?bCTsettings=1 - The ending location is Village Green Park, 12762 Main Street, Garden Grove, California.

Alternatively, please see http://www.aafestival.com/map.html

To get more information about The Palestine Booth, please contact:

Al-Awda Chapters in Southern California
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
E-mail: info@al-awdacal.org
WWW: http://al-awdacal.org

__._,_.___

In a file picture dated 14 June 2007 a Palestinian woman evacuated from the besieged Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon sleeps in a classroom converted into living quarters, in the nearby Beddawi refugee camp. As raging battles continue for the fourth month between the Lebanese army and Islamist extremists, Palestinian refugees who fled the fighting yearn only to return to the smouldering ruins of their homes.(AFP/File/David Furst )

In a file picture dated 01 July 2007 Palestinian children, who fled the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon, rest in a converted classroom in the nearby Beddawi camp. As raging battles continue for the fourth month between the Lebanese army and Islamist extremists, Palestinian refugees who fled the fighting yearn only to return to the smouldering ruins of their homes.(AFP/File/Anwar Amro )

Lebanese soldiers are seen inside the severely damaged Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, 12 August 2007. Palestinian clerics continued negotiating on the possible evacuation of wounded militants from the camp besieged by the army since May 20, a mediator has said.(AFP/File)

View of damaged buildings in the besieged Palestinian camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon, 23 August 2007. The families of Islamist fighters besieged in the camp were being evacuated by the army, opening the way for a possible final army assault.(AFP/Marwan Naamani)

"People only want to return to Nahr al-Bared. It is a step on our way to Palestine," Abdel Hakim Sheref, a 46-year-old accountant among the 650 refugees overcrowding a small school in Beddawi, told AFP...

AFP/File Photo: Lebanese army soldier Abdel Karim Hussein (R) hugs his five-year-old brother Kais (L) in his...

Lebanon refugees yearn to return home once fighting ends

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070901/lf_afp/lebanonunrest_070901194316;_ylt=AmjBBsKVzA6zlTRK9uK1JhMUvioA

by Sylvie Groult 6 minutes ago

BEDDAWI, Lebanon (AFP) - As raging battles continue for the fourth month between the Lebanese army and Islamist extremists, Palestinian refugees who fled the fighting yearn only to return to the smouldering ruins of their homes.

Sitting in a classroom at the refugee camp of Beddawi in northern Lebanon, Lina Abdel Halim does not even want to await the eventual reconstruction of her home at the nearby war-ravaged camp of Nahr al-Bared.

Abdel Halim, whose family fled to Lebanon after the 1948 creation of Israel, would be more than happy to move to a temporary home on the outskirts of Nahr al-Bared.

"If we return near Nahr al-Bared, we will be hopeful that one day we will be able to return to the camp," said the 27-year-old pregnant woman, carrying her one-year-old baby in her arms.

The Lebanese army has been struggling to defeat Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militiamen holed up inside Nahr al-Bared for more than three months and in the nearby Mediterranean port city of Tripoli.

About 150 soldiers have been killed since fighting erupted on May 20, the deadliest internal bloodletting in the country since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Nahr al-Bared was home to 31,000 Palestinian refugees when the fighting broke out but most residents fled the camp shortly afterwards, mostly to Beddawi camp.

According to United Nations figures, about 12,000 refugees from Nahr al-Bared are crammed into the impoverished camp at Beddawi which was already overpopulated with 16,000 residents.

"My major concern is overcrowding, and this has been my concern for several weeks now. I told the people they have to be patient," Richard Cook, Lebanon director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees, said.

"We have a return plan, which

goes into effect the moment the Lebanese army says we can enter," he told AFP during a tour of Beddawi to present a project for the return of the Nahr al-Bared refugees.

But Cook warned that "before the refugees can return, we have to demine, to dismantle the booby traps. We have to make buildings safe, we have to disinfect -- one of the problems is about the risk of disease because of dead bodies, not only human bodies but also animals.

"We will do a quick assessment in 72 hours, then it will take weeks to demine, it will take months to take out the rubble -- over 500,000 cubic metres," he added.

"Then we'll be establishing temporary accommodation around Nahr al-Bared, temporary schools, health centres... then reconstruction will start."

The United Nations has offered 600 dollars each to 700 families -- or about 3,500 people -- as a housing grant for three months.

"But people are hesitant to accept this solution because they do not want to be dispersed" across different parts of Lebanon, said Cook.

UNRWA had proposed plans to build prefabricated housing around Beddawi, but abandoned the idea after the refugees refused to move anywhere far from Nahr al-Bared.

"People only want to return to Nahr al-Bared. It is a step on our way to Palestine," Abdel Hakim Sheref, a 46-year-old accountant among the 650 refugees overcrowding a small school in Beddawi, told AFP.

Cook said UNRWA "had considered providing temporary accommodation on lands around Beddawi, but the people rejected it. They said 'we want to go for temporary accommodation near Nahr al-Bared'.

"We have negotiated a number of pieces of land with landlords near Nahr al-Bared but most of them are inaccessible at the moment, so we will only be able to use them once the conflict is over," he said.

It is estimated that hundreds of millions of dollars will be required to rebuild Nahr al-Bared, and the government has already asked a private company to draw up a study for its instruction.

An international conference is due to be held in Beirut on September 10 in order to gather financial assistance for the project.

The United Nations is hoping that the reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared would create better living conditions in the shantytown where poverty and insecurity were one of the main reasons for the rise of Islamist extremism.

"If you improve conditions in the camps, you make people less vulnerable to extremism," said Cook.

Palestinian schoolgirls arrive at their school on the first day of the school year at the West Bank city of Jenin Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007. Thousands of Palestinian children kicked off the new school year on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, but some of their counterparts in the West Bank got an extra day of vacation thanks to a teacher's strike. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

Palestinian women walks with their children as they arrive to the school on the first day of the school year in Gaza City Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007. Thousands of Palestinian children kicked off the new school year on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, but their counterparts in the West Bank got an extra day of vacation thanks to a teacher's strike. The streets of Gaza City were filled with students in blue uniforms returning from their two-month summer vacation, eager to find refuge from a summer of conflict between the Hamas and Fatah factions. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Palestinian children attend a class on the first day of the schoolyear in the West Bank city of Jenin September 1, 2007. The words on the board read: "Welcome to the New Year " REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK)

A Palestinian girl holds a weapon next to militants from Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia linked to the ruling Fatah movement, during a rally in the Old City of the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, Aug. 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinians attend a rally at the Palestine camp near Damascus August 31, 2007 marking the 6th anniversary of the death of Abu Ali Mustafa, former leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)

Palestinian youths hold flags behind a burning tyre during clashes with the Israeli army following a protest against the closing by Israel the road at the entrance of the West Bank village of Sarra near Nablus August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini (WEST BANK)

Palestinians demonstrators try to remove a block of cement that is part of a Israeli military roadblock between the West Bank villages of Tell and Sarra, during a protest next to the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, Aug. 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Palestinian cave residents belonging to the al-Hawamdeh and al-Daghamin clans prepare "Mansaf" dishes for a party lunch, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

Palestinian cave residents belong to the al-Hawamdeh and al-Daghamin clans cook "Mansaf" for a party lunch, south of the West Bank city of Hebron August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

A Palestinian cave resident belonging to the al-Daghamin clan carries water to their guests during a party lunch, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

A Palestinian boy holds a flag before a protest against the construction of Israel's controversial barrier in the West Bank village of el-Walajeh, near Bethlehem, August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Eliana Aponte (WEST BANK)

A Palestinian boy cycles past a graffiti showing the Palestinian flag at the centre of the the West Bank city of Ramallah August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Loay Abu Haykel (WEST BANK )

A Palestinian woman holds her daughter during a protest against the health sector strike outside Nase Hospital in the southern Gaza strip town of Khan Younis, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007. Dozens of women and children staged a sit in the southern Gaza strip town of Khan Younis in protest over hospital doctor slowdown across Gaza strip. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Palestinian Ashraf Yacoub, 27, checks his honey combs in the West Bank village of Ein Kenya near Ramallah, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2007. Residents of the Ein Kenya village mainly live off their honey production. Apiculture is widely practiced in the West Bank, and honey is used in a variety of traditional Palestinian sweets. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

An Israeli army bulldozer demolishes a Palestinian house during a military operation in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007. Israeli troops are operating in the town since Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Palestinian children look at an Israeli army bulldozer demolishing a Palestinian house during a military operation in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007. Israeli troops are operating in the town since Wednesday morning. ( AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A Palestinian woman carries her son at al-Wehdat Palestinian refugee camp in Amman August 28, 2007. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed (JORDAN)

Palestinians walk as they cross the Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the biggest issues dividing the two sides at a meeting on Tuesday — final borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, an Israeli official said. It was the first time the two men discussed these matters in depth, the official said.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A Palestinian boy sits on a man's shoulders while they sift through garbage for salvageable items at a local dump site near the West Bank city of Hebron August 28, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

Palestinian children sift through garbage for salvageable items at a local dump site near the West Bank city of Hebron August 28, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

A Palestinian boy carries a bicycle he found while sifting through garbage for salvageable items at a local dump site near the West Bank city of Hebron August 28, 2007. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

Palestinian workers wave Palestinian flags during a demonstration demanding workers rights in Gaza City, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the biggest issues dividing the two sides at a meeting on Tuesday — final borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, an Israeli official said. It was the first time the two men discussed these matters in depth, the official said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Life in the West Bank..& more from IMEU

Palestinian children play next to fishing boats as the sun sets over the beach in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Hatem Omar, Maan Images)

Walking in Palestinian shoes

Joharah Baker, The Palestine Chronicle, Sep 1, 2007

This article was originally published by The Palestine Chronicle and is republished with permission.

A Palestinian boy stands in front of his home, which was demolished by the Israeli army this week in the West Bank city of Qalqilia. (Khaleel Reash, Maan Images)

Many times, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict deserves lengthy and deep analyses. There are historical, cultural, political and religious considerations that need to be picked apart before reaching some sort of theory as to why this tiny slice of earth is so tormented.

Then there are those times when a simple glance at the obvious is enough to clarify the complete injustice of the Israeli occupation. This is not even about the more significant issues such as political assassinations, home demolitions, prisoners or military operations that claim scores of lives. No, this is about everyday matters, most often taken for granted, which when one takes a moment to contemplate, show just how sinister a military occupation can be.

Take an innocuous trip to the coastal town of Herzeliya. One of the more ritzy areas in Israel, the main mall in the town center is picture perfect. Not only is the actual structure aesthetically appealing, but the spacious piazza onto which the mall opens is breathtaking, overlooking the equally picturesque port, lined with sailboats, motorboats and luxurious yachts.

Still, over and above the obvious affluence, something else is even more striking. Carefree Israelis stroll along the boardwalk, iced coffee in hand, while children run freely around them in circles. This is hardly the picture portrayed in Western and Israeli media about the Israeli people’s daily lives. Israel has succeeded in conjuring up one specific image in the collective minds of most of the world’s peoples: the Israelis live in terror, afraid to walk into malls, cinemas, onto buses or across crowded intersections for fear that a militant Palestinian terrorist – probably one with a green and white headband with Islamic scrawling – will detonate a powerful bomb in their midst.

Quite the contrary, this is completely undetectable in the shopping mall in Herzeliya. Not a single Israeli soldier could be found in sight, not one machine gun slung across the chests of belligerent Jewish settlers. No, these Israelis were hardly living in fear. On the contrary, there was not one policeman either, pulling people over at random, demanding ID cards or permits from their chosen targets. It also goes without saying that none of these shoppers had to endure the humiliation of crossing a checkpoint before reaching their sunny destination.

Switch frames now, to the Qalandiya checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, which by the way, was completely nonexistent six years ago. Today it is an elaborate maze of terminals, iron turnstiles, glassed-in Israeli soldiers, fluttering Israeli flags and hoards of Palestinians waiting to get to the other side.

Related stories Delaying the fundamentals Killing with impunity Starving Gaza Closure crushing Gaza economy Boycott movement targets Israel

The concept of a military checkpoint in the midst of occupied territory is inherently racist, given that it discriminates between the occupied and the occupier and knocks down the occupied population to second and third class citizens solely because of their nationality. This particular checkpoint takes this racism up one more notch. Only Palestinian Jerusalemites and Palestinians with Israeli issued permits [in addition to the odd foreigner] are allowed to cross the checkpoint, barring the majority of other Palestinians bearing West Bank IDs from reaching their most revered city. Even among this small group, discriminatory measures have been put into place.

Once passengers reach the crossing by bus, those between 12 and 60 years of age are allowed to stay on the bus through the lengthy Israeli inspection. The others are made to get down and walk through the checkpoint where their IDs are checked and personal belongings run through an X-ray machine before boarding the same bus on the other side.

Even here, Israel manages to further dissect the "privileged" Palestinians allowed across. Only the elderly and mothers with children with a Jerusalem ID can stay on the bus when crossing the checkpoint. If a mother with young children is carrying a West Bank ID [albeit with an Israeli permit] she is not "worthy" of staying on the bus. She too must get down, no matter how small her babies are, and walk through the iron turnstile so a young soldier, not much older than her own child, can inspect her papers and make sure she is not a "threat to the security of Israel."

Anyone living outside the surreal box known as Palestine would be appalled by the absurdity and blatant injustice of such a situation. Logically, it seems unfathomable that anyone would accept such human and civil rights abuses on an everyday basis. The Palestinians however, have fallen into a treacherous pitfall where the more they are oppressed the more they seem to tolerate injustices. We have grown so accustomed to an Israeli military presence on our land, checkpoints, the permit system and daily harassment by Israel’s military establishment that crossing a checkpoint with all of the hassles this entails has become no more than a nagging inconvenience.

The truth is, the racist system put in place for Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, is far from a mere inconvenience. It is outrageous; an atrocity against humanity and one that Israel is allowed to pull off with impunity because it has so artfully molded an image of victimization around the Israeli people...[more]

Lobbying for a foreign country The Palestine Chronicle

The strangulation continues Al-Ahram Weekly

The Palestinian Bedouin This Week in Palestine

Gaza children deaths 'accident'
BBC (Sep 1, 2007)

Palestinians poorer than ever
David Cronin, Inter Press Service (Sep 1, 2007)

First day of school cancelled in West Bank due to strike
Maan News (Sep 1, 2007)

Desperate Gazans take their chances
Ed O'Loughlin, The Age (Aug 31, 2007)

Life in the West Bank
The San Diego Union-Tribune (Aug 31, 2007)

Israeli authorities demolish more Bedouin homes in the Negev
IMEMC (Aug 31, 2007)

UN: Palestinian trade stifled by Israeli control
Reuters (Aug 31, 2007)

Israeli games again
Azmi Bishara, Al-Ahram Weekly (Aug 31, 2007)

The undeclared war on Arab cuisine
George S. Hishmeh, The Jordan Times (Aug 31, 2007)

BBS News: Gaza: Palestinian Infant Dies Due to Israeli Crossing Delays

http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20070831135649322

Gaza: Palestinian Infant Dies Due to Israeli Crossing Delays

Friday, August 31 2007 @ 01:56 PM EDT
Edited by: Michael Hess

Continued Israeli Control of Gaza is Crippling Fisherman, Education and Basic Health Services Even as Israeli Assassinations Continue

BBSNews 2007-08-31 -- By Mohammed Omer. A one year old Palestinian baby has died shortly after crossing into Israel from northern Gaza Strip to receive treatment for a heart condition. Dr. Muawiya Hassanin of the Emergency and Ambulance Department at Al Shifa hospital said the baby, Ibrahim Abu Nahel, died after waiting for at least three hours to enter Israel at the Erez border crossing with Gaza.

A Palestinian child crying over the death of one of her relatives in Gaza. Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-08-30.

Israel contests that the child was not delayed entry to Israel.

Yet, Dr. Hassanin responded to the Israeli allegations by saying: "Once he passed, the Israelis did not arrange for an ambulance, so he took a taxi to the hospital and he died in the taxi near Ashkelon City."

In southern Gaza's Rafah, eight Palestinian fishermen, including 5 youths, were fired on and arrested while fishing in the very limited permitted area off Rafah's coast. The Israeli navy opened gunfire on them, arresting them all. While no casualties were reported, considerable damage was inflicted on 15 fishing boats in the area, boats vital to the fisherman dependent on fishing, one of the last remaining jobs in economically-repressed Palestine.

Accumulating Rubbish Rots

All over Gaza, the rotting stench of garbage prevails: after still not receiving their salaries, municipality workers have been on strike, a halt in sanitation work which in turn poses a considerable threat of environmental and health crises in Gazan camps and cities.

Abu Eyad, a worker who began striking last week, refuses to clean the streets any longer. "I have my children waiting for me; I need to feed them. I have been volunteering all of my life, but my six kids need food and I need to come back home with a piece of soap to wash my hands and keep myself hygiene and healthy," he said. "I can't work for free forever. I have the right to live as others," he added.

Freedom of the Press?

Journalists in Gaza held a protest Friday following the harassment and detention of 4 journalists by Hamas security forces at an earlier Fatah-led protest the same day. Condemning the rising repression and arrest of journalists, protesters carried banners reading slogans like "No to Repression and Beating." A local reporter was badly beaten and detained while photographing the protest.

In the West Bank Monday, dozens of reporters in Bethlehem united to further protest the attacks on Gazan journalists.

Demonstrations continued Tuesday back in Gaza city, once again calling for basic freedom of the press.

IOF Assassination Attacks Continue Unabated

A 43-year-old civilian was killed in eastern Gaza on Monday. Israeli Occupation Forces fired on the farmer as he worked his land east of Al Bureij refugee camp.

Al Mezan reports that since the beginning of August alone, at least 22 Palestinians have been killed and 37 wounded by IOF assaults on Gaza. These include the following recent IOF attacks:

An August 20 Israeli air raid killed six when IOF targeted a car in central Gaza. Three more Palestinians were killed by an IOF missile firing on a crowd of civilians in Khan Younis August 21. Later the same day, two children, 11 and 12 years old, died from missile fire in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza.

Education Denied, Public Health Denied

Israeli rule over Gaza is additionally crippling the society's education sector. Israel's refusal to allow trucks carrying paper to enter the Strip means that schools will not have the necessary textbooks and materials to begin classes September 1, denying over 200,000 children of their right to education.

Furthermore, Israel's authoritarian border control is continuing to prevent the entrance of vital raw materials for necessary sanitation and water projects, meaning that Gazans will further be denied access to water.

###

Mohammed Omer is a young journalist/photographer in the Gaza Strip. He and his family have a very rough time in living day to day and they have lost much. In October of 2003, one of Mohammed's younger bothers, Issam, was injured and had to have a leg amputated. Later in the same month another younger brother, Hussam Al-Mouhagir, was killed in his home; shot to death by the Israeli Army that occupies and regularly devastates Palestine. These stories are written by Mohammed who knows no peace, only the continued devastation forced upon civilians who have little voice in the world. Mohammed has covered the Occupied Territories for several years. In 2006 Mohammed won the New American Media National Ethnic Media Award for best Youth Voice. On May 18th, 2007, Mohammed was shot at by unknown militants in Gaza yet he continues to report. Visit Mohammed's Web site, or write to him to get a more complete picture of what is really happening that main-stream news sources rarely brings to its audience. We are proud to feature articles from Mohammed Omer here at BBSNews, his reporting is some of the only original, on the ground reporting available from the Israeli Occupied Territories.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070831/wl_mideast_afp/mideastdiplomacyjordan;_ylt=ApG.ASgAbz3NSwBfLmSsyqSBzdAF

Palestinians can benefit from conference: Jordan king

Fri Aug 31, 2:56 PM ET

AMMAN (AFP) - King Abdullah II of Jordan urged the Palestinians on Friday to close ranks and let "reason prevail" in order to benefit from an international Middle East peace conference later this year.

The peace conference called by US President George W. Bush could take place in November after the Jewish and Muslim high holidays, according to some Palestinian officials.

"Our Palestinian brothers should benefit from this opportunity to unify their efforts and stances," King Abdullah told Jordanian television.

"The separation of Gaza from the West Bank is unacceptable at both the Palestinian and Arab levels," he said.

The Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June from the moderate Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, effectively splitting the Palestinians into two separate entities.

The Western-backed Abbas sacked the Hamas-led government and remains opposed to any dialogue with Hamas until it returns the Gaza Strip to his authority.

"When we talk about a Palestinian state, we mean a state that is established on Palestinian lands in Gaza and the West Bank," Abdullah said.

"So we call upon all our Palestinian brothers to let sound judgment and reason prevail, and to unify their ranks to surmount their suffering and realise their legitimate national goals and ambitions," he said.

Abdullah said Palestinian history was littered with missed opportunities.

"Since the reign of my great grandfather, there have been several initiatives to find a solution to the conflict in Palestine," he said.

"Had the political forces in the Arab-Islamic world and the international community accepted these initiatives, things would not be as they are today.

"It is time to translate the efforts that have been exerted into real actions on the ground," he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/palestinians-risk-all-to-escape-living-hell/2007/08/31/1188067368271.html

Palestinians risk all to escape living hell

September 1, 2007

Finding work has become a matter of life and death in the Gaza Strip, writes Ed O'Loughlin in Nusseirat.

Left to die … relatives and friends of Nizar al-Adeeb.
Photo: ED O'Loughlin

THERE can be few more dangerous places on earth than the 51-kilometre border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Among the numerous deadly border incidents in the past fortnight was an infiltration attempt by two armed Palestinian militants who made it several hundred metres through the band of watchtowers, sensors and electric fences before they were killed.

Elsewhere, five Palestinian boys and girls, aged between 10 and 12, died in two separate Israeli missile strikes.

The Israeli Army initially alleged that the children were sent by militants to collect spent launchers used to fire missiles into Israel, something the Palestinians deny.

Yesterday the Israeli Defence Force admitted that the three children killed in the second incident had only been playing tag near a used launcher, explaining that its troops had detected "unidentified movement and opened fire"

In a famous incident three years ago, Israeli soldiers from a unit that had just shot dead a 13-year-old schoolgirl near the Egyptian border leaked tapes of their commander ordering "anything moving in the zone, even a three-year-old, needs to be killed".

Clearly, anyone who tries to cross Gaza's border is taking a huge gamble. Yet such is their poverty and desperation that some Palestinians are willing to risk it just to seek work.

On August 18, 22-year-old Nizar al-Adeeb of the Nusseirat refugee camp was shot dead after approaching the fence with two other men who were then arrested. The Israeli Defence Force told the press that its troops had fired on militants who were laying mines. But a survivor, Abdullah Faraj, 20, freed after three days, says that he and his dead cousin Nizar were only looking for work.

"The situation here is getting worse and worse so we said let's go and check and see if we can cross," he said.

"As soon as we got close to the border fence the Israelis opened fire on him. He didn't have time to do anything. He was shot through the side and we hid in a hollow in the ground while they shot at us.

"He was bleeding for two hours before they helped him. Then it was too late."

Mr Adeeb's father, Raji, 47, said that he knows of dozens of men who have crossed the fence in search of jobs. A few take the "safe route" and pay 5000 shekels ($1500) to professional smugglers with contacts on the other side. But "who can pay such money now?"

Most simply take a jump at it. The Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza says it has records of at least 55 unarmed men who were shot dead while trying to enter Israel in search of work.

The Israeli Defence Force did not provide a figure for the number of Palestinian civilians killed on or near the fence, but it said that most of the 30-odd Palestinians arrested in the past month "were not terrorists and were returned to the Gaza Strip".

Nizar al-Adeeb's family said that he became desperate after recent political turmoil cost him his new job as a member of the Fatah-aligned Palestinian security forces.

His cousin, Abdul Minar, 23, said that Mr Adeeb's death would not deter him from making his own escape attempt. "What else am I going to do?" he said.

"Sometimes I wake up and ask myself what am I doing here? I wake up, I wander around the neighbourhood and then I go to bed again.

"For me to die is better than staying here. Life? There is no life here."

Mr Adeeb's older brother, Ghassan, 24, said he has made it across to Israel four times in recent years, remaining at large for months at a time.

"I spent two weeks watching the movements of the soldiers. I attached a cable, one end on either side of where I would cut the fence, so the alarm wouldn't go off."

He was one of the "mahzouzeen", "the lucky ones", who can earn up to 200 shekels a day working illegally in Israeli Arab communities.

Many escapees also enjoy the relative freedom away from the claustrophobic and deeply conservative Gaza Strip.

Like most young men in Gaza, Nizar al-Adeeb had never been allowed outside the Strip in his life.

"It's great over there," said his brother Ghassan. "In the beginning I was lost, but then I was in another world. Last time if I hadn't been caught I would never have come back to Gaza."

Eventually, though, most illegal Palestinian immigrants are detected, imprisoned and deported.

Before the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli military rule in 1987, Gazans could find employment doing mainly menial jobs inside Israel.

But ever-tighter Israeli restrictions on the flow of Palestinian goods and people, ascribed to security concerns, have progressively isolated Gaza from the world.

John Ging, Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, says the few commercial businesses that survived have shut down since Israel imposed a near-total blockade after Hamas took power from Fatah in June.

Almost all of the territory's 1.4 million people are now dependent on foreign food aid, he said.

"The sense of imprisonment here is greater than ever before. People feel trapped and desperate people do desperate things."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/dark-side-of-jewish-dream/2007/08/26/1188066926247.html?page=fullpage

Dark side of Jewish dream

Ed O'Loughlin, Jerusalem | August 26, 2007

The Jewish National Fund's blue collection boxes have long been a familiar sight in diaspora schools, workplaces, shops and homes - a chance for ordinary Jews to contribute their private cash to the Zionist dream.

These "pennies from the pushka" were used from 1901 onwards to purchase land for Jewish settlements in the Turkish and later British territory of Palestine, stepping-stones towards the creation of a Jewish state.

Yet sixty years after the birth of the state of Israel the JNF continues to thrive - and to generate controversy.

Last month Israel's parliament overwhelmingly endorsed the first stage of a bill which would formally allow the JNF to continue its established practice of barring non-Jews from leasing land and housing held in its name - 13 per cent of the area of Israel, much of it now prime real estate.

The Knesset bill has led to renewed accusations both in Israel and abroad that the JNF denies Israel's 20 per cent Arab minority access to what is in practice state land.

Under the headline "A Racist Jewish State" an editorial in the center-left Israeli newspaper Haaretz wrote that "the Jewish National Fund's land policy counters the interests of the state and cannot discriminate by law against the minority living in Israel ... Even though the Jewish National Fund purchased the lands for the Jewish people in the Diaspora, the State of Israel has already been established and these lands must now serve all its citizens."

Other Israeli commentators have pointed out that the move comes just as the Israeli government and international Zionist bodies are trying to stifle moves by trades unions in Britain and South Africa to boycott Israel as an apartheid state.

Most government figures, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have avoided taking a stand on the issue. The JNF and its many supporters say that its activities do not discriminate against anybody.

It says that the forests and parks it has built in its more recent environment role - many on bulldozed Arab villages - are open to all visitors, whether Jewish or not, and that it employs many Arabs there. It says that Bedouin herders are permitted to graze their sheep and goats in JNF forests.

"[JNF] land has been legally purchased penny by penny over the last 106 years, by Jews from all around the world in order to fulfill the dream of creating a secure Jewish homeland in the land that was from biblical times, the Land of Israel," said a statement from the Fund's office in Israel.

"To use these donations for any other purpose would be to breach the trust and desecrate the sacrifices of these Jews, many of whom were later to perish in the Holocaust and whose sole desire was to use the little they had to secure land for the benefit and security of the Jewish People, who like any other legitimate purchasers of land anywhere in the world have the right to decide, subject to the laws of the land how to manage, maintain or otherwise utilise the land that they have legitimate title to."

But historians say that much of the JNF's almost 3000-square kilometres of real estate was not legitimately purchased from its legal owners...[more]

Aggressive Settlers Set Fire to Palestinian Olive Trees

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/08/30/aggressive-settlers-set-fire-to-palestinian-olive-trees/

Aggressive Settlers Set Fire to Palestinian Olive Trees

August 30th, 2007 | Posted in Reports, Nablus Region

Tel, Nablus region
29/08/08

On Monday, August 27th, at 2pm, a family of seven settlers, headed by the father, Moshe Zohar, came down from their illegally built house next to the Qadumim settlement, on to Palestinian land and set fire to around 300 olive trees...[more]

Seven injured at Bil'in protest

http://www.imemc.org/article/50179

Friday August 31, 2007 17:39 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC

Seven peaceful protesters were injured on Friday when the Israeli army attacked the weekly nonviolent protest organized in the village of Bil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

As is the case each week, the villagers of Bil'in were joined by international and Israeli peace activists. Once assembled, the demonstrators marched towards the construction site of the illegal wall.

Upon arriving at an earlier-installed military barricade, Israeli soldiers showered the civilian protesters with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets.

Seven demonstrators were injured in the attack, among them Iyad Bornat, Mustafa Abu Rahma, and Abullah Abu Rahma.

A number of protestors managed to circumvent the barricade and reach the location of the wall. Upon reaching the illegal wall, soldiers beat and arrested two peaceful demonstrators.

In pictures: The work of Naji al-Ali

YOUR PICTURE GALLERY IS NOW LOADING...

It is 20 years since the fatal shooting of the Arab world's foremost political cartoonist, Naji Ali, creator of the character Handhala, child of the Palestinian refugee camps.

Born in Palestine in 1938, he became a refugee at the age of 10 when Israel came into being. Images of Palestinian struggle and suffering dominated his work. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6911815.stm

We

... will return

("...will return" Painting by Ismail Shammout)

Israeli-Palestinian fatalities since 2000 - Key trends

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LSGZ-76LHLP?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Date: 31 Aug 2007

OPT-OCHA Special focus: Israeli-Palestinian fatalities since 2000 - Key trends*

Introduction

Since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000 until the end of July 2007, at least 5,848 people have been killed either directly or as an indirect consequence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.1 This figure includes all persons regardless of their ethnic origin, nationality, gender, age, status as civilian or combatant and regardless of the circumstances or cause.

This paper examines some of the major trends in the fatalities of Palestinians and Israelis since the beginning of the second intifada until July 2007. Amongst the most notable trends are:

- the continuing high rate of fatalities amongst civilians who account for more than half the total of all those killed (p1);

- the declining number of Israelis killed (p2);

- a continuing high death rate for Palestinian adults and children particularly in the Gaza Strip (p2);

- the escalating and changing nature of Palestinians killed from internal violence (p4).

* OCHA acknowledges the assistance of the OHCHR oPt in the preparation of this report.

Full_Report (pdf* format - 411.1 Kbytes)

letters

The Golden Rule

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you...

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Dear CAIR,

I very much appreciated the letter that you wrote to the ADL recently, the plea by Parvez Ahmed, Ph.D. & Nihad Awad to "secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike". http://www.cair.com/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=2939&theType=NR

As such, knowing that you are much more able to write about Arabic words and Islam than I am, I write you asking that you write to the Christian Science Monitor in response to a series they published on 8-30-2007 called Four views on Islam and the state which includes a hate mongering article by Bill Warner who based his argument on his mistranslations of Arabic and the Koran: Specifically the word "Kafir" http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0830/p09s01-coop.html?page=4.

I am not an expert on Arabic but I have been told by someone I trust that the word "Kafir" in the Quran was used to classify those that worships idols- not Jews & Christians who worship one God... Jews and Christians were respectfully classified as those of faith ( word starts with an M I think but I have no clue as to how to spell it.)

Anyway I was hoping at least a brief, polite and respectful note ( they like short letters http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/contactus.pl ) by an expert would go a long way towards helping stop the ignorance and hostility inspired by such intentionally misleading and slanderous interpretations of Arabic words in the Quran.

Thanks, and please keep up the good work of reaching out with compassion to try to help protect America from the hate, ignorance and dangerous hostility generated by many misguided fear mongers and nasty bigots of every type.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab, homemaker
Mechanicsburg PA USA

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RE: West Bank policy not aiding peace, says UN
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/90c39d62-5721-11dc-9a3a-0000779fd2ac.html

Dear Editor,

Thank you for noticing and publicizing the fact that "Israeli infrastructure that divides the West Bank and confines 2.5m Palestinians to enclaves does not provide a basis for a two-state solution to the conflict"

40 % of the West Bank is off limits to the Palestinians... and 100% of Israel-proper is off limits to the persecuted and impoverished Palestinian refugees who have long been wrongly denied their inalienable right to return to original homes and lands.

Jews-preferred Israel is easily able to elect increasingly bigoted & bad policies because a vast majority of the native non-Jewish Palestinians have been pushed into dire poverty and exile. When do we get to call this Zionist made mess GENOCIDE ?

Palestine is crucially important and Palestine is much more than a flag to wave from prison camp enclaves in the quest to be free.

Peace in the region depends on full respect for basic human rights & dignity.

Peace depends on protecting ALL the people equally with the rule of fair and just laws: Peace starts and flourishes with full respect for the Palestinian refugees' right of return. True return, not more forced transfer, segregation and degradation. Stop Apartheid.

One land- one people- one peace- with full and equal rights for ALL.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

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RE: Ultra-observant Jews press trade with Gaza
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070831/FOREIGN/108310044/1003

Dear Editor,

It seems so odd that Jews in Israel would step up to pressure Israel to open the Israeli-made prison gates that have locked down impoverished Gaza so that ultra-observant Jewish communities can " remain faithful to the tradition of not growing or consuming food cultivated on Jewish land once every seven years."

Keep in mind that a large portion of Gaza's residents are Palestinian refugees pushed out of Israel-proper and refused their inalienable legal and moral right to return to original homes and lands... and keep in mind the fact that Israeli-made apartheid has ruined the lives and livelihoods of millions of innocent and vulnerable Palestinians as this mess has been 60 solid years of heavily armed Zionist warriors systematically attacking and pushing even more Palestinians into poverty and despair.

You'd think that the huge humanitarian crisis created by Israel's Jews-preferred laws and polices would be what religious people object to... shouldn't Jews in Israel care about Palestinians simply for humanities sake- as well as real justice ?!

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

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RE: Syria Says It Will Require Visas for Some Iraqi Refugees
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html?ref=middleeast

Dear Editor,

A recent Jordan Times editorial, concerned about educating all the children because Jordan recogniz