Statehood for the Palestinians

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ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#61

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Tue Jul 10, 2012 5:17 pm

Israel Demolishes Historic Islamic Sites In Jerusalem

The al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage issued a press release on Monday revealing that Israeli bulldozers destroyed and demolished historic Islamic sites dating back to the Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman eras in occupied Jerusalem.

The Foundation said that Israel’s so-called Archeological Authority has been destroying and burying ancient Islamic sites over the last five years during excavations in al-Boraq, 100 meters west of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Some of the demolished sites are a mosque and a school building dating back to the Umayyad era.

The area is part of the al-Magharba neighborhood, or the Moroccan Quarter in English, that was mostly demolished by Israel on June 11, 1967, after Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The al-Aqsa Foundation reported that its teams repeatedly visited the site and examined documents and pictures documenting the Israeli violations.

The foundation said, “the occupation is demolishing ancient sites, Islamic historic sites and structures, and claiming that it found Archeological Jewish sites underneath”. It added, “Israel is planning to build a huge Jewish Center, including five underground floors”.

The foundation further stated that the Israeli Archeological Authority conducted, in the period between 2005 and 2009, excavations on 1,500 square meters in an area west of al-Buraq Wall.

Full report at:

http://www.imemc.org/article/63789

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#62

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Aug 16, 2012 5:29 pm

Smuggled Semen Makes Palestinian Prisoner Dad

RAMALLAH: A Palestinian prisoner's wife on Monday delivered a baby conceived through artificial insemination after the father's semen was smuggled out from his Israeli prison. The baby was born in a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus and doctors said the process was unprecedented, Xinhua reported.

"The operation and the birth succeeded and the mother and the baby are in good health," said Salem Abu Khaizaran, a doctor at the birth centre.

The prisoner, Ammar Al-Zabn, tried three times to have children via artificial fertilisation over the past four weeks. But his attempts failed for several reasons, he said. The couple had a daughter before the man was arrested. "I'm very happy at having a son who would take care of me and his sister in the future," said the mother.

Ziad Abu Ein, deputy minister of prisoners' affairs of the Palestinian national authority, said Israel must allow Palestinian prisoners to have sex with their wives.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 486055.cms

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#63

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Aug 23, 2012 5:11 pm

Palestinian ‘Honor Killings’ Rising

A growing collection of Palestinian leaders are acknowledging that the recent rise in “honor killings” and other horrific acts of violence being perpetrated against Palestinian women can only be stemmed by changing the Arab cultural and Islamic propensity of violence toward women.

The latest victim of a Palestinian honor killing was Nancy Zaboun, a 27-year-old mother of three, who, moments after she left a divorce hearing in Bethlehem, was brutally murdered by her husband.

Nancy had been in the process of seeking an early exit from her marriage after having suffered repeated beatings over the course of her ten-year marriage, beatings that often required hospitalization but which never resulted in criminal charges being brought against her husband.

Unfortunately, Nancy Zaboun’s attempt to flee her abusive marriage caused such a stain on her husband’s familial honor that he stabbed her multiple times, a death sentence which tragically has been shared by a long and ever-expanding list of Palestinian women and girls.

In the years between 2007 and 2010, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights has reported 29 women were killed by family members in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, in the past two years, 25 women have been subjected to honor killings, with 13 women murdered in 2011 and 12 women slain in 2012.

Full report at:

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/frank-crim ... gs-rising/

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#64

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:04 pm

Israel Breaks Silence Over Army Abuses

Ex-soldiers admit to appalling violence against Palestinian children

Two months ago, a report from a team of British lawyers, headed by Sir Stephen Sedley and funded by the UK Foreign Office, accused Israel of serial breaches of international law in its military's handling of children in custody. The report focused on the interrogation and formal detention of children brought before military courts – mainly for allegedly throwing stones.

For the past eight years, Breaking the Silence has been taking testimonies from former soldiers who witnessed or participated in human rights abuses in the occupied territories. Most of these accounts deal with "rough justice" administered to minors by soldiers on the ground, often without specific authorisation and without recourse to the military courts. Reading them, however, it's hard not to recall the Sedley report's shocked reference to the "belief, which was advanced to us by a military prosecutor, that every Palestinian child is a 'potential terrorist'".

The soldier puts it differently: "We were sort of indifferent. It becomes a kind of habit. Patrols with beatings happened on a daily basis. We were really going at it. It was enough for you to give us a look that we didn't like, straight in the eye, and you'd be hit on the spot. We got to such a state and were so sick of being there."

The report by Sir Stephen Sedley's team remarks that "as the United Kingdom has itself learned by recent experience in Iraq, the risk of abuse is inherent in any system of justice which depends on military force". Moreover, Britain, unlike Israel, has no organisation like Breaking the Silence that can document, from the inside, the abuse of victims like Hafez Rajabi who never even make it to court.

But as the Sedley report also says, after drawing attention to the argument that every Palestinian is a "potential terrorist": "Such a stance seems to us to be the starting point of a spiral of injustice, and one which only Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, can reverse."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e32299.htm

anajmi
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#65

Unread post by anajmi » Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:12 am

Laura Baramki Khoury reads a lot and does not miss one item in the weekly Time magazine. She is writing the following in response to a letter written by Mr. Jeremy Slomnicki in the inbox of the Time Magazine issue of April 16 in which he emphasizes the need for Israel to defend itself because of Palestinian Terrorism. She did not respond to the Time magazine
because she wanted to say more words than allowed, yet she is hoping that in one way or another it will reach Mr. Slomnicki.

So please circulate to your international friends.

“I am writing this to remind Mr. Slomnicki and all the Slomnickis of the world that the first perpetrators of “Terrorism” in our region were the Jewish underground in Palestine during the British Mandate.
Israel did not exist then, but Jewish terrorism started before 1948.

I do not know how old you are Mr. Slomnicki, but if you are under 60 years you probably need to learn about the bombing of the King David Hotel Wing of the British Secretariat in July 1947 in which one hundred Palestinians were blown up.



The bombing took place on a Saturday to spare Jewish lives who were off on that day. Ironically the man behind the bombing was Menahim Begin who later became one of Israel’s prime ministers.

King David was just the beginning followed by many other terrorist acts, such as the Semiramis hotel when a whole Palestinian family perished and the Palestine Post offices.

The list is endless, but fortunately it has been recorded by many historians and ironically some Jewish ones of conscience who had the courage to expose the truth.

But surely you must have heard of the “calculated” massacre of Deir Yaseen, a peaceful village near Jerusalem when a defenceless population was massacred, mostly women and children. A gruesome sight that triggered a scare that led to the fleeing of many Palestinians from their homes.



After 1967 The Jerusalem Post quoted Mr. Menahim Begin regarding Deir Yaseen: “It was a blessing in disguise because it helped create the State of Israel.” Of course those who did not flee were driven out at gun point in other parts of Palestine.

With regard to your letter Mr. Slomnicki that Israel has the right to defend itself, we are really tired of this cliché.

Surely Israel has the right to defend itself and so does every nation, but not when Israel is the aggressor, the occupier, the oppressor and the fifth strongest army in the world loaded with a stockpile of nuclear weapons. So from whom is Israel defending itself? From a defenceless, dispossessed, and occupied population separated by walls and check points while their homes are demolished and their farms and olive trees are razed.

Are you comparing a resistance of an area under siege by the use of crude home-made missiles that might have injured a few people but hardly caused any damage, to the Israeli air strikes of populated Gaza that killed hundreds?

The attack on the Jenin camp was another act of “terrorism” and not by underground militias, but by the regular and sophisticated Israeli army. So it is ironic that you should really be so worried about “poor” Israel’s need to defend itself.



And so is the implanting of the settlers and settlements on Palestinian land an act of terrorism, especially that those settlers are there as colonizers with the sole aim of driving away the Palestinians.
They raid their homes, block them from reaching their farms and groves and use every means to deprive them from living a peaceful life.

I would like to quote a letter that appeared also in the Time magazine inbox written by Mr. Claus Frausing from Copenhagen in the April 9, 2012 issue:“Israel’s irresponsible behaviour is dangerous for the security of the rest of the world. Israel is extremely superior from a military point of view. Thanks to the US. But because Israel has never been able to establish true alliances of friendships with its neighbours, it is surrounded by hostile populations. A power whose security is based on military superiority alone can only act militarily. This is the real threat to the World not the possible nuclear power of Iran.”

Not only does Israel want to be the only country that owns nuclear weapons in the region, it wants to be the super power of the region.
It succeeded in having the USA fight its war to eliminate what they perceived as a potential threat, a potential threat, Iraq, under false pretexts, and now their next target is Iran. Mr. Carter also alluded to that in the Time magazine at one time that if Iran has one war head, Israel has 300. So Iran will definitely not attempt to attack Israel knowing its strength.



Surely the Soviet Union and the USA during the years of the Cold War were aware of each other’s strength and none would have attempted an attack because both countries would have been destroyed. The key word was restraint.

Because we Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, because our territories have been surrounded by separation walls, separating us from our Palestinian families and communities, and because we cannot move further than 20 miles without having to go through an Israeli military check point it is we, Palestinians, Mr. Slomnicki, who have the right to defend ourselves.”

Laura Khoury

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#66

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:07 pm

Hyderabad groups protest against participation of Israeli varsities in education summit

Hyderabad: Hundreds of protesters affiliated with different organizations gathered outside Taj Banjara Hotel located in the posh locality of Hyderabad Banjara hills to protest against participation of Israeli universities in Indo global education summit 2012 Hyderabad.

'The Indus Foundation', organizer of the Summit invited three prominent Israeli universities, Tel Aviv University, Technion University, and Haifa University.

In the light of eminent participation of Israeli universities in the education summit, International Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (INCACBI) gave a call one month back for the boycott of the universities and protest for the same. “The Israeli state daily tramples on the academic freedom and cultural life of the Palestinian people, and continued association with the instruments of such a state is unconscionable. We believe that academic life is rooted in the values of democracy, equality and justice. The pursuit of excellence in the fields we work in has meaning only if imbued with conscience. When Palestinian students and teachers are not allowed to reach their universities because of permit laws and checkpoints, universities and schools are leveled by bombs and tanks, food, textbooks, and medical supplies are prohibited from entering Gaza, and artistic events are closed down in Jerusalem, none of the foundational principles on which academic and cultural contact are based can ever be fulfilled,” said INCACBI in a statement.

The group charged the three participating Israeli universities of war crimes and grave violation of human rights. According to the group, ‘Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel’s premier academic institution is deeply invested in the facilitation and prosecution (at both the material and conceptual level) of what amount to war crimes. Technion university has long been known to be complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and the rights of Palestinians, specifically by designing military weapons and developing technologies used to drive Palestinians off their land, repress demonstrations for their rights, and carry out attacks against people in Lebanon, Gaza, and elsewhere. Haifa University sponsors scholarships for army veterans and those who took part in the 2008/9 military attack on the Gaza Strip.’

M.A. Gafoor said, “Israel is not allowing Palestinian children and youngsters to get proper education let alone higher education. Israel in its every day activity is crushing the educational and cultural rights of people of Palestine. Indian govt. should not support such a fascist regime by making education coordination with universities involved in human rights violations.”

http://twocircles.net/2012sep10/hyderab ... im+News%29

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#67

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Nov 15, 2012 6:24 pm

Israel limited food to Gaza, calorie by calorie

The Israeli military meticulously calculated the number of calories Gaza’s residents would need to consume to avoid malnutrition during a sweeping blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory between 2007 and mid-2010, according to a document the Defence Ministry released under a court order and that was made public on Wednesday.

They said the document provides further evidence that Israel used food as a weapon to put pressure on Hamas, the violently anti-Israel militant group that seized Gaza by force in mid-2007.

Israel maintained the blockade was necessary to weaken Hamas, but critics accused the government of targeting Gaza’s more than 1.5 million people in its ultimately unsuccessful effort to achieve that goal.

Israel is said to have often used baffling secret guidelines similar to the calorie calculation to differentiate between humanitarian necessities and nonessential luxuries. The result was that military bureaucrats enforcing the blockade allowed frozen salmon and low-fat yogurt in, but not cilantro or instant coffee.

Consumer goods have been moving into Gaza from Israel freely, but construction materials are still largely barred from entering, with Israel arguing that the Gaza militants could use items such as pipes and concrete in attacks on southern Israeli communities.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 009653.ece

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#68

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Nov 23, 2012 6:40 pm

Saudi Arabia and the 1948 Palestine War beyond official history

This chapter explores the official Saudi narrative that highlights contribution to ‘defending’ Palestine, then it considers the dissenting voices who challenged the authenticity and the credibility of this official narrative. Finally, by navigating a thin line that separates the official from the unofficial, the chapter aims to present an interpretation and assessment of Saudi involvement and role in the 1948 Palestine War that goes beyond the official discourse of glorification and the counter narratives of condemnation and treason.

http://www.madawialrasheed.org/index.php/site/more/133/

anajmi
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#69

Unread post by anajmi » Thu Nov 29, 2012 12:41 pm

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commenta ... le5766526/

The fear in Israel is that Mr. Abbas intends to use his new status to turn to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to charge Israel with war crimes – fulfilling a long-standing Palestinian threat. The result would be the effective criminalization of the Jewish state. As one senior Israeli official put it to me, “Every Israeli soldier, every Israeli leader, could face charges as a war criminal.”

Imagine that!! I thought the Israelis have only been defending themselves and here they are afraid of being labeled as war criminals. As the American government tells us when checking us at airports that you shouldn't be afraid if you haven't done anything wrong, shouldn't someone give that same piece of invaluable advise to the Israelis?

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#70

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:11 pm

UN general assembly makes resounding vote in favour of Palestinian statehood

Overwhelming majority votes to recognise Palestine as non-member state as US and Israel are left to condemn decision

The United Nations general assembly voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to recognise Palestine as a state, in the face of opposition from Israel and the US.

The 193-member assembly voted 138 in favour of the plan, with only nine against and 41 abstentions. The scale of the defeat represented a strong and public repudiation for Israel and the US, who find themselves out of step with the rest of the world.

Thursday's vote marked a diplomatic breakthrough for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and could help his standing after weeks in which he has been sidelined by Palestinian rivals Hamas in the Gaza conflict.

Abbas, who flew from Ramallah, on the West Bank, to New York to address the general assembly, said: "The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: enough of aggression, settlements and occupation."

A Palestinian flag was unfurled on the floor of the general assembly after the vote.

In his address, Abbas noted the symbolism of the date, the 65th anniversary of the UN partitioning what had been British-ruled Palestine into Jewish and Arab countries. In the decades that followed, the idea of an independent Palestine had often been in danger of disappearing but had been "miraculously" kept alive, he said.

The general assembly resolution had finally given legitimacy to Palestine, he said. "The general assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the state of Palestine."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/no ... tine-state

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#71

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:16 pm

Nobel peace laureates call for Israel military boycott over Gaza assault

Letter with 52 signatories including artists and activists also denounces US and EU 'complicity' through weapons sales

A group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists have issued a call for an international military boycott of Israel following its assault on the Gaza Strip this month.

The letter also denounces the US, EU and several developing countries for what it describes as their "complicity" through weapons sales and other military support in the attack that killed 160 Palestinians, many of them civilians, including about 35 children.

The 52 signatories include the Nobel peace laureates Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; the film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; the author Alice Walker; the US academic Noam Chomsky; Roger Waters of Pink Floyd; and Stéphane Hessel, a former French diplomat and Holocaust survivor who was co-author of the universal declaration of human rights.

"Horrified at the latest round of Israeli aggression against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip and conscious of the impunity that has enabled this new chapter in Israel's decades-old violations of international law and Palestinian rights, we believe there is an urgent need for international action towards a mandatory, comprehensive military embargo against Israel," the letter says.

"Such a measure has been subject to several UN resolutions and is similar to the arms embargo imposed against apartheid South Africa in the past."

The letter accuses several countries of providing important military support that facilitated the assault on Gaza. "While the United States has been the largest sponsor of Israel, supplying billions of dollars of advanced military hardware every year, the role of the European Union must not go unnoticed, in particular its hefty subsidies to Israel's military complex through its research programmes.

"Similarly, the growing military ties between Israel and the emerging economies of Brazil, India and South Korea are unconscionable given their nominal support for Palestinian freedom,"
it says.

The letter opens with a quote from Nelson Mandela: "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

The other signatories include John Dugard, a South African jurist and former UN special rapporteur in the occupied territories; Luisa Morgantini, former president of the European parliament; Cynthia McKinney, a former member of the US Congress; Ronnie Kasrils, a South African former cabinet minister; and the dramatist Caryl Churchill.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/no ... el-boycott

trvoice
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#72

Unread post by trvoice » Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:51 pm

Solution is simple

1. Let Iran built a base in Palestine
2. Iran wipes of Israel, pick up where hitler left.
3. Peace in Palestine. Announce it as a country
4. Send back left out jews to british

Operation Palestine freedom accomplished

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#73

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Dec 01, 2012 5:56 pm

'Hamas is Israel's creation'

The Blockade denies the Palestinians in the Gaza strip their basic human rights. The blockade itself is the main reason that Hamas is still in power

In general life has gotten more and more hard for the average Gaza citizen since Hamas started to gain a bigger influence. In this context we must remember that Hamas is Israel's creation. This fact is not that well-known outside of Palestine. Israel watched the Islamist movement take shape, get stronger, start challenging secular Palestinian rivals and then transform into what today is Hamas. Instead of trying to stop Gaza's Islamists, Israel for years tolerated and encouraged them in order to undermine PLO and Yasser Arafat's Fatah. It is a similar story to how USA armed Usama Bin Laden to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and this way created a monster that later turned against its own creator.

My personal life in Gaza started to be affected by Hamas when I reached puberty. Hamas activists gave hints to my father that I was about to turn into a woman and it was time for me to put on the Islāmic Hijab. I refused, and the Hamas sympathisers started to write bad words about me on the wall of my family house. My father supported my decision, so I refused to cover my hair until Hamas begin to threat to throw acid in the face of any young woman who would refuse to wear the Hijab. So during my High-school years I was forced to wear scarf in public. As soon as the Palestinian Authority entered Gaza in 1994 I removed my headscarf.

But of course the biggest problem for the people of Gaza is the Israeli siege. The Blockade denies the Palestinians in the Gaza strip their basic human rights. It stops them from import and export of products and to travel in and out of their own country. It denies them access to their farming lands and fishing grounds. The Blockade is a form of collective punishment which makes it is impossible for the people to support themselves, secure food supplies, get medical care, education, drinkable water and cultural exchange. The siege puts Gaza's population totally in the hands of Hamas who today controls everything from the tunnels to Egypt, the distribution of foreign aid, to the way women dresses in public. The blockade itself is the main reason that Hamas is still in power.

Why do you think Israel attacked Gaza this time?

Officially Israel justified the aggression on the Palestinians on grounds of self-defence. But Israel is a country of 7.5 million people with tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, helicopter gunships and Air-Force. Gaza is a small occupied territory of 1.7 million which has no heavy weaponry.

And in reality, it was civilians in Gaza that paid the price of the Israeli attack, rather than Hamas.

So what was the real reasons for the attack on Gaza? I would say Politics: the upcoming elections in Israel. The assassinated leader of Hamas in Gaza was ready to sign a truce and ceasefire immediately. With Hamas fully ready to negotiate, why else would Netanyahu increase the aggression into a major conflict? The victims here are the people in Gaza, and the man who holds the main responsibility for this violence is Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. This was happening just before the Israeli elections, and Netanyahu's support was poorer than expected. It seems he was trying to use this murderous tactic to gain support from the voters. The last thing Netanyahu wants is peace, because peace is not on the agenda of the current Israeli leadership. Hamas is a useful tool that Netanyahu can use to stir up hate, and to get support from Israeli citizens for more war.

After Sept 11, and even before that, the images of the Arabs have been negative: If he is a man he is a terrorist or a wife-beater. If she is a woman, she is pictured as a veiled victim. After the fall of "Communism", the western world needed a new enemy. The way Mossad created Hamas, CIA created Bin Laden and al-Qaida.

In Arab media it was a different story. When the attacks on Gaza started they flashed it. There was live coverage, most of it good journalism. But after the ceasefire, Gaza disappeared from the headlines. It was like: "No dead bodies - No story." My main criticism against the mainstream Arab media coverage would be that they were focusing a bit too much on the rockets, air-strikes and the dead bodies. They could have given a bit more attention to the stories and the psychological sufferings of the people who survived on the ground, the bombed factories and infrastructure. Another thing that stoked me was how much the Islamist agenda is affecting the Arab media. The focus was only on Hamas, not on other Palestinian factions that also fought in Gaza. And they tell the story about the ceasefire as of it was a big success for Hamas. Truth is that both Israel and Hamas failed.

For me it was very upsetting when Hamas after two days of ceasefire declared that they respect 1967 borders. I find it disgusting to acknowledge the state of Israel, and to defacto give up the Palestinian right to return.

We as Palestinians are not more important than Africans. But as a media-worker I understand that Palestine from a dramaturgic point of view is more "sexy" than Congo-Kinshasa. But also, the Americans have more interest in the Middle East and Israel/Palestine than in Africa. If, for example, Obama wants to secure his re-election: he will wag his tail for the Israeli lobby. For historical and geopolitical reasons Palestinian/Israeli issues often get more attention both from the Left and from the political right.

http://www.viewpointonline.net/hamas-is ... ation.html

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#74

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sun Dec 02, 2012 4:38 pm

Israel defies U.N. vote with expansion

A day after Palestine won a historic UN vote upgrading its status to a non-member observer state, Israel on Saturday unveiled plans to build 3,000 more Jewish homes, including in controversial areas that would sharply divide the West Bank, severely hampering prospects of peace.

Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in consultation with his inner Cabinet, ordered that 3,000 new housing units be constructed in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, including through advancing long-frozen project for the so called E1 area which covers territory that links the city of Jerusalem with the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.

If implemented, the controversial project would prevent territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank, making it difficult for a future Palestinian state to function.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 153879.ece

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#75

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Dec 03, 2012 3:48 pm

Israel faces flak over expansion plans

Israel’s decision to build new homes near occupied East Jerusalem is evoking an unexpectedly strong response in Europe-with Britain and France considering withdrawal of their ambassadors from Tel Aviv in protest.

London is miffed about Israel’s decision to green-light construction, as it may have been taken to punish the Palestinians for successfully securing observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.

Israeli daily Haaretz is reporting that France, a fellow European Union (EU) member is also considering the recall of its ambassador from Israel, and is working together with Britain on a number of punitive steps.

Normally mild mannered, an infuriated Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General, slammed the Israeli move. “It would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution,” said Mr. Ban. He added that the new settlements would completely cut off Palestinians in East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

The Israeli decision on settlements was followed up by Tel Aviv’s move to deprive Palestinians of around $100 million, collected by way of taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The Israelis say that this money would go the Israeli Electric Corporation as part payment for a $ 200 million debt that the Palestinians owe. Under the terms of past agreements, Israel collects certain taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, before they are transferred.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has so far dismissed the avalanche of international criticism against his plans. “We will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places that are on the map of Israel’s strategic interests,” he said on Sunday during a weekly Cabinet meeting.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 160841.ece

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#76

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:46 pm

I recieved an interesting piece of article :-

This is a fascinating, almost unbelievable, glimpse into Nauru, one of the 9 nations that recently voted against granting Palestine observer state status at the UN: US, Israel, Panama, Palau, Canada, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Czech Republic, Micronesia. Fortunately the resolution passed with 138 "yes" votes.

The Middle of Nowhere

No Island Is An Island

Nauru is a tiny island, population 12,000, a third of the size of Manhattan and far from anywhere: Yet at the center of several of the decade's biggest global events. Contributing editor Jack Hitt tells the untold story of this dot in the middle of the Pacific and its involvement in the bankrupting of the Russian economy, global terrorism, North Korean defectors, the end of the world, and the late 1980s theatrical flop of a London musical based on the life of Leonardo da Vinci called Leonardo, A Portrait of Love.

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#77

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:58 pm

Shocking leaked video:what Israeli Zionists actually believe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... PWi6x8HshM

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#78

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sun Dec 16, 2012 6:46 pm

Israel the Chosen Nation

“We need to flatten entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, flatten all of Gaza; the Americans did not stop with Hiroshima, because the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki too” (Gilad Sharon son of Ariel Sharon, OP Ed in The Jerusalem Post)

“There are no innocents in Gaza.... Turn it into rubble! Paint it red!” (Michael Ben-Ari Knesset member)

Consider how the West would have reacted, if Iran was behaving like the Israelis. They would not be pleading for restraint; instead there would be an outcry, with threats of military action, and instant UN sanctions imposed. History seems to support the notion that Israel will always get preferential treatment, no matter what it does. Hence, the blatant media bias in the West, combined with the unquestionable vocal support it receives from Westerns leaders. Accordingly, they have simply echoed the Israel propaganda: Hamas started this conflict with their rockets and Israel is merely acting in self-defence.

The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, blamed Hamas and supported Israel’s right to issue collective punishment on the citizens of Gaza. According to that sort of logic, the British government would have bombed the Catholics in Ireland for the actions of the IRA (Irish Republic Army). Yet, the British Foreign Minister was quick to endorse, Israel can do what the UK would not even contemplate! In tune with this sort of hypocrisy, western leaders continuously lecture about Israel’s security whilst ignoring the fact that the Palestinians have no security.

And the BBC media coverage followed the same pro-Israeli line that is more akin to the actions of a child molester like Jimmy Savile, rather than objective journalism; otherwise it would have shown the numerous images of the dead Palestinian children, and questioned the Israelis when they speak of acting in self-defence. Instead, like Jimmy Savile, Mark Regev of Israel representing the child killers is given a prime platform on the BBC media. So where is the Hamas representative on the ‘impartial’ BBC?

Despite Israel’s talk of self-defence, all I see are images of dead Palestinian children! Such images are absent from the Zionist dominated media like CNN, BBC, FOX NEWS, and Sky News of Rupert Murdoch (a well-known Zionist sympathiser). However, they are easily visible in the popular internet based media of Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and YouTube videos, where the voices of genuine individuals on the ground are heard directly, without the media spin and selectivity.

A genuine act of self-defence would be a proportional response to the action of the aggressor; applying Israel’s propaganda you have the absurd conclusion of: the defenceless Palestinians under siege as the aggressor. Moreover, proportional response would be reflected in the casualty figures. For this reason, the figures are conveniently kept out of the media headlines; so far around 170 Palestinians killed, many more injured, and very few know the figures from the other side, no one is happy to advertise that, only thing that gets mentioned repeatedly is that evil Hamas sends rockets.

In order to justify Israeli savagery, the media has always projected this conflict as one between two nations of equals; as if the rockets hurled by Hamas are comparable to the firepower (F16s, attack helicopters and warships) used by Israel, which is militarily and financially backed by the US and the West. It does not take much courage or ethics to bomb defenceless civilians from a distant, its ‘state-terrorism’, a term that is rarely found in the western media. Israel has a track record of using self-defence as a pretext to commit large scale massacres; in the previous carnage in Gaza, around 1500 Palestinians (one third were women and children) were murdered, whereas the Israel loss was less than 20.

For Israel to use the notion of self-defence is misleading and illogical, because that assumes Israel is the victim; the stronger bully rarely acts in self-defence against its adversaries. This leads to the next question of who escalated this ongoing war. Before the conflict started, here are the facts:–

· Ignoring international law and consensus, Israel continues to build illegal settlements in the West Bank; well why not, this is Israel, the chosen nation. Building of these illegal settlements alone justifies the rocket attacks.

· The continuing siege on Gaza has turned it into an open air prison, which is approximately 150 miles with 2 million people living on it. In the West Bank, the noose is tightening around the Palestinians with an apartheid wall, check points, and various other forms of restrictions imposed on them.

· The siege of Gaza combined with the settlement means the scope for a two-state solution is diminishing fast. The real truth is Israel has always aimed for a single state solution. Its argument has always been that the other Arab nations should simply absorb the Palestinians. So the indigenous Palestinians are expected to give up their homeland to make room for the chosen nation. What an irony coming from a people whose claim to this land is based on their ancestors going back thousands of years.

· Prior to the rockets, many reports of Israeli armed forces murdering the odd Palestinian civilians here and there went undetected on the western media radar. This has become the norm; thus, just after the cease fire, a Palestinian was murdered, and this sort of news never makes the headlines like the Hamas rockets.

Despite the facts, the media and the ruling elite in the west expect the world to believe this was started by the Hamas rockets and the benign victim, Israel, has only acted in self-defence!

There is always causal reference made to the angry words emanating from the Palestinian side as justification for Israeli actions. What does the west expect? Silence in the face of occupation and extermination?

However, when the Israelis are spouting belligerent statements and hate, it all goes undetected in the Western media. This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPWi6x8HshM&sns=em.3) shows a public rally where they are openly chanting racist slogans, calling for flattening Gaza, like wolves, they are hungry for blood. There are many images and videos depicting the same belligerency from the Zionists.

The preferential treatment given to Israel means the US-led countries can never be honest brokers in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, unless there is a fundamental shift to neutral ground where an honest broker should operate from. Indeed, there is broad consensus for a two-state solution. By accepting the 1967 borders, endorsed by the UN resolution, the Palestinians have already made a huge compromise on their homeland, the question should be asked - when will Israel reciprocate and live in peace? That should be the starting point for a peaceful solution.

Yamin Zakaria (yamin@radicalviews.org)
Published on 27/11/2012
London, UK
www.radicalviews.org
http://yaminzakaria.blogspot.com

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#79

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Feb 01, 2013 4:44 pm

Israel Must Remove All Jewish Settlers from Occupied West Bank - UN Inquiry

A UN human rights inquiry has called on Israel to remove all Jewish settlers from the West Bank and cease expansion. The report said the settlements violate international law, and are an attempt to drive out Palestinians through intimidation.

The inquiry prompted a strong reaction from Israel who slammed the report as biased.

"The Human Rights Council has sadly distinguished itself by its systematically one-sided and biased approach towards Israel. This latest report is yet another unfortunate reminder of that," said spokesman Yigal Palmor in a statement.

The UN investigators interviewed over 50 people who were driven from their homes. They described how their livelihoods were destroyed and their land was confiscated, and how they were subjected to continuous violence from Jewish settlers.

"The mission believes that the motivation behind this violence and the intimidation against the Palestinians as well as their properties is to drive the local populations away from their lands and allow the settlements to expand," said the report.

The report has the potential to significantly worsen the UN’s already-strained relationship with Israel, particularly after Israeli representatives failed to appear at a UN human rights review two days ago.

The Israeli government has repeatedly ignored international condemnations of its settlements in the occupied territories, and continues to bar the entry of a Human Rights Council probe to assess the impact of the settlements. Israel has insisted that the organization is biased in favor of the Palestinians, and claimed that historic and biblical ties justify its claim to the territories.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e33788.htm

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#80

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:58 pm

Oscar-nominated Palestinian filmmaker Emad Burnat detained, questioned at Los Angeles airport

A Palestinian filmmaker on his way to the Academy Awards said on Wednesday he was held at Los Angeles International Airport and threatened with deportation before being allowed into the United States.

Emad Burnat, whose 5 Broken Cameras is competing for an Oscar in the best documentary Feature category, said U.S. immigration officials took him, his wife and 8-year-old son aside when they arrived in Los Angeles from Turkey on Tuesday evening.

“Immigration officials asked for proof that I was nominated for an Academy Award … and they told me that if I couldn’t prove the reason for my visit, my wife Soraya, my son Gibreel and I would be sent back to Turkey on the same day,” Burnat said in a statement.

Burnat said he and his family were detained for about an hour.

U.S. officials declined to comment on the incident, citing privacy laws.

Burnat, a farmer, is the amateur filmmaker behind 5 Broken Cameras, which documents about five years of protests against land seizures by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in his village of Bil’in in the occupied West Bank. It was co-directed by Israeli activist and filmmaker Guy Davidi.

It is the first Palestinian film to be nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars, according to representatives for the film.

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/02/21 ... s-airport/

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#81

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat May 04, 2013 4:56 pm

Palestine now recognised by greater power than US or Israel – Google

Internet giant follows UN in recognising statehood, changing home page tagline from 'Palestinian territories' to 'Palestine'

When the UN recognized Palestine as an observer state last November, Israel retaliated by announcing new settlements. Now an organization of arguably greater authority has recognized Palestine: Google.

On Friday, the search engine changed the tagline on its home page in the occupied territories from "Palestinian territories" to, simply, "Palestine".

"We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries," a Google spokesman, Nathan Tyler, told the BBC. "In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations."

What to call the area south of Lebanon and Syria, west of Jordan and north of Sinai that isn't Israel is a matter of fierce debate. Before 1948 the entire area, including present-day Israel, was called Palestine. In 1988, leaders of the remaining territory declared a state of Palestine, but the state has had trouble gaining recognition. In November's UN vote, 138 nations voted to recognize a state of Palestine, nine voted against and 41 abstained.

Google's homeland, the United States, is currently the most powerful opponent of recognizing Palestine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... erritories#

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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#82

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Wed May 08, 2013 4:22 pm

Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel in solidarity with Palestinians

Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Hawking’s decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.

In April the Teachers’ Union of Ireland became the first lecturers’ association in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in the United States members of the Association for Asian American Studies voted to support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so.

By participating in the boycott, Hawking joins a small but growing list of British personalities who have turned down invitations to visit Israel, including Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Annie Lennox and Mike Leigh.

Hawking denounced Israel’s three-week attack on Gaza, telling Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera that Israel’s response to rocket fire from Gaza was “plain out of proportion … The situation is like that of South Africa before 1990 and cannot continue.”

The office of President Peres, which has not yet announced Hawking’s withdrawal, did not respond to requests for comment. Hawking’s name has been removed from the speakers listed on the official website.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/07/s ... olleagues/

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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#83

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sun May 12, 2013 6:22 pm

Stephen Hawking's support for the boycott of Israel is a turning point

Boycotting Israel as a stance for justice is going mainstream – Israelis can no longer pretend theirs is in an enlightened country

A standard objection to the Palestinian campaign for the boycott of Israel is that it would cut off "dialogue" and hurt the chances of peace. We've heard this again in the wake of Professor Stephen Hawking's laudable decision to withdraw from Israel's Presidential Conference in response to requests from Palestinian academics – but it would be hard to think of a more unconvincing position as far as Palestinians are concerned.

One of the most deceptive aspects of the so-called peace process is the pretence that Palestinians and Israelis are two equal sides, equally at fault, equally responsible – thus erasing from view the brutal reality that Palestinians are an occupied, colonised people, dispossessed at the hands of one of the most powerful militaries on earth.

For more than two decades, under the cover of this fiction, Palestinians have engaged in internationally-sponsored "peace talks" and other forms of dialogue, only to watch as Israel has continued to occupy, steal and settle their land, and to kill and maim thousands of people with impunity.

While there are a handful of courageous dissenting Israeli voices, major Israeli institutions, especially the universities, have been complicit in this oppression by, for example, engaging in research and training partnerships with the Israeli army. Israel's government has actively engaged academics, artists and other cultural figures in international "Brand Israel" campaigns to prettify the country's image and distract attention from the oppression of Palestinians.

The vast majority of Palestinians, meanwhile, have been disenfranchised by the official peace process as their fate has been placed in the hands of venal and comprised envoys such as Tony Blair, and US and EU governments that only seem to find the courage to implement international law and protect human rights when it comes to the transgressions of African or Arab states.

When it comes to Israel's abuses, governments around the world have offered nothing but lip service; while dozens of countries face US, EU or UN sanctions for far lesser transgressions, it has taken years for EU governments to even discuss timid steps such as labelling goods from illegal Israeli settlements, let alone actually banning them. Yet the peace process train trundles on – now with a new conductor in the form of John Kerry, the US secretary of state – but with no greater prospects of ever reaching its destination. So, enough talk already.

The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) aims to change this dynamic. It puts the initiative back in the hands of Palestinians. The goal is to build pressure on Israel to respect the rights of all Palestinians by ending its occupation and blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; respecting the rights of Palestinian refugees who are currently excluded from returning to their homes just because they are not Jews; and abolishing all forms of discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

These demands are in line with universal human rights principles and would be unremarkable and uncontroversial in any other context, which is precisely why support for them is growing.

BDS builds on a long tradition of popular resistance around the world: from within Palestine itself to the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Historically, boycotts work.

During the 1980s opponents of sanctions against apartheid South Africa – including, notoriously, the late Margaret Thatcher – argued instead for "constructive engagement". They were on the wrong side of history. Today, Palestinians are lectured to drop BDS and return to empty talks that are the present-day equivalent of constructive engagement.

But there can be no going back to the days when Palestinians were silenced and only the strong were given a voice. There can be no going back to endless "dialogue" and fuzzy and toothless talk about "peace" that provides a cover for Israel to entrench its colonisation.

When we look back in a few years, Hawking's decision to respect BDS may be seen as a turning point – the moment when boycotting Israel as a stance for justice went mainstream.

What is clear today is that his action has forced Israelis – and the rest of the world – to understand that the status quo has a price. Israel cannot continue to pretend that it is a country of culture, technology and enlightenment while millions of Palestinians live invisibly under the brutal rule of bullets, bulldozers and armed settlers.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2 ... el-history

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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#84

Unread post by trvoice » Tue May 14, 2013 10:20 am

Bomb the hell out of israel, wipe it out. Make a huge parking lot.

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#85

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:23 pm

Kerry’s New "Peace" Plan Sets The Palestinians Up To Fail

Under heavy pressure from the US, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has paid grudging lip service over the past four years to the goal of Palestinian statehood. But his real agenda was always transparent: not statehood, but what he termed “economic peace”.

Ordinary Palestinians, in Mr Netanyahu’s view, can be pacified with crumbs from the master’s table: fewer checkpoints, extra jobs and trading opportunities, and a gradual, if limited, improvement in living standards. All of this buys time for Israel to expand the settlements, cementing its hold over the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

After 20 years of pursuing Palestinian statehood implied in the Oslo Accords, the US indicated last week it was switching horses. It appeared to adopt Mr Netanyahu’s model of “economic peace”.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e35171.htm

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#86

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:36 pm

For second time, Palestinians from Syria torch Hezbollah aid

SAADNAYEL, Lebanon: Some 1,500 packages of food aid donated by Hezbollah were burned by Palestinian refugees from Syria and local residents in the Bekaa Wednesday, the second such incident in a week. Omar Halabi, the head of the Saadnayel Youth League, told The Daily Star that a truck with boxes of aid was unloaded in the morning at the offices of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Halabi said when the aid was distributed, the refugees noticed the labels attached to each package explaining that the aid was a gift from the “Islamic Resistance in Lebanon to our brethren, the displaced Palestinians from Syria.”

“When the refugees realized that the aid was from the same party which is killing their people in Qusair and in other places, they, with dozens of locals, took the boxes from the Palestinian Cultural Center and burned them,” Halabi said.

The DFLP is politically affiliated with the Syrian regime, and its leader, Nayef Hawatmeh, lives in Syria.

In February he was wounded after a bomb exploded in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, switched allegiances and broke off with President Bashar Assad’s government in the wake of the uprisings.

Last Thursday, Palestinian refugees from Syria set fire to humanitarian aid donated by Hezbollah in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, citing their anger over the party’s role fighting alongside the Syrian regime.

Refugees gathered in front of the camp’s Kifah School holding banners explaining their decision to destroy the aid, which the party is distributing across a number of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.


Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local- ... z2VwT5NQLe
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#87

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:05 pm

Israel: “Wiped off The Map”. The Rumor of the Century, Fabricated by the US Media to Justify An All out War on Iran

Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran’s President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, “Israel must be wiped off the map”. Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as the following article will prove.

BACKGROUND:

On Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at the Ministry of Interior conference hall in Tehran, newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a speech at a program, reportedly attended by thousands, titled “The World Without Zionism”. Large posters surrounding him displayed this title prominently in English, obviously for the benefit of the international press. Below the poster’s title was a slick graphic depicting an hour glass containing planet Earth at its top. Two small round orbs representing the United States and Israel are shown falling through the hour glass’ narrow neck and crashing to the bottom.

Before we get to the infamous remark, it’s important to note that the “quote” in question was itself a quote— they are the words of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution. Although he quoted Khomeini to affirm his own position on Zionism, the actual words belong to Khomeini and not Ahmadinejad. Thus, Ahmadinejad has essentially been credited (or blamed) for a quote that is not only unoriginal, but represents a viewpoint already in place well before he ever took office.

THE ACTUAL QUOTE:

So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in farsi:

”Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.”

That passage will mean nothing to most people, but one word might ring a bell: rezhim-e. It is the word “Regime“, pronounced just like the English word with an extra “eh” sound at the end. Ahmadinejad did not refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli regime. This is a vastly significant distinction, as one cannot wipe a regime off the map. Ahmadinejad does not even refer to Israel by name, he instead uses the specific phrase ”rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods” (regime occupying Jerusalem).

So this raises the question.. what exactly did he want “wiped from the map”? The answer is: nothing. That’s because the word “map” was never used. The Persian word for map, “nagsheh“, is not contained anywhere in his original farsi quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech. Nor was the western phrase “wipe out” ever said. Yet we are led to believe that Iran’s President threatened to “wipe Israel off the map”, despite never having uttered the words “map”, “wipe out” or even “Israel”.

THE PROOF:

The full quote translated directly to English:

“The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”.

Word by word translation:

Imam (Khomeini) ghoft (said) een (this) rezhim-e (regime) ishghalgar-e (occupying) qods (Jerusalem) bayad (must) az safheh-ye ruzgar (from page of time) mahv shavad (vanish from).

Here is the full transcript of the speech in farsi, archived on Ahmadinejad’s web site

http://www.president.ir/farsi/ahmadinej ... yonizm.htm

THE SPEECH AND CONTEXT:

While the false “wiped off the map” extract has been repeated infinitely without verification, Ahmadinejad’s actual speech itself has been almost entirely ignored. Given the importance placed on the “map” comment, it would be sensible to present his words in their full context to get a fuller understanding of his position. In fact, by looking at the entire speech, there is a clear, logical trajectory leading up to his call for a “world without Zionism”. One may disagree with his reasoning, but critical appraisals are infeasible without first knowing what that reasoning is.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad declares that Zionism is the West’s apparatus of political oppression against Muslims. He says the “Zionist regime” was imposed on the Islamic world as a strategic bridgehead to ensure domination of the region and its assets. Palestine, he insists, is the frontline of the Islamic world’s struggle with American hegemony, and its fate will have repercussions for the entire Middle East.


Ahmadinejad acknowledges that the removal of America’s powerful grip on the region via the Zionists may seem unimaginable to some, but reminds the audience that, as Khomeini predicted, other seemingly invincible empires have disappeared and now only exist in history books. He then proceeds to list three such regimes that have collapsed, crumbled or vanished, all within the last 30 years:

(1) The Shah of Iran- the U.S. installed monarch

(2) The Soviet Union

(3) Iran’s former arch-enemy, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

In the first and third examples, Ahmadinejad prefaces their mention with Khomeini’s own words foretelling that individual regime’s demise. He concludes by referring to Khomeini’s unfulfilled wish: “The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time. This statement is very wise”. This is the passage that has been isolated, twisted and distorted so famously. By measure of comparison, Ahmadinejad would seem to be calling for regime change, not war.

Read More :-

http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-wip ... ar-on-iran

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#88

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Jun 21, 2013 4:59 pm

Palestinian children tortured, used as shields by Israel: UN

Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said.

"Palestinian children arrested by (Israeli) military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released," it said in a report.

Most Palestinian children arrested are accused of having thrown stones, an offence which can carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, the committee said. Israeli soldiers had testified to the often arbitrary nature of the arrests, it said.

The U.N. committee regretted Israel's "persistent refusal" to respond to requests for information on children in the Palestinian territories and occupied Syrian Golan Heights since the last review in 2002.

During the 10-year period, an estimated 7,000 Palestinian children aged 12 to 17, but some as young as nine, had been arrested, interrogated and detained, the U.N. report said.

Many are brought in leg chains and shackles before military courts, while youths are held in solitary confinement, sometimes for months, the report said.

It voiced deep concern at the "continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields and informants", saying 14 such cases had been reported between January 2010 and March 2013 alone.

Israeli soldiers had used Palestinian children to enter potentially dangerous buildings before them and to stand in front of military vehicles to deter stone-throwing, it said.

"Almost all those using children as human shields and informants have remained unpunished and the soldiers convicted for having forced at gunpoint a nine-year-old child to search bags suspected of containing explosives only received a suspended sentence of three months and were demoted," it said.

Israel's "illegal long-standing occupation" of Palestinian territory and the Syrian Golan Heights, continued expansion of "unlawful" Jewish settlements, construction of the Wall into the West Bank, land confiscation and destruction of homes and livelihoods "constitute severe and continuous violations of the rights of Palestinian children and their families", it said.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/pales ... -un-382355

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#89

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Jun 22, 2013 4:37 pm

Hamas executes two Palestinians convicted of spying for Israel

Hamas leaders said they had hanged two Palestinians found guilty of spying for Israel over a decade, making them the first to be executed since the end of a month-long amnesty for informants in April.

Sixteen Palestinians have been executed in Gaza for spying since Hamas seized the territory in 2007.

Hamas, which rejects any recognition of Israel as a legitimate state, says the executions are aimed at discouraging Palestinians from impoverished Gaza selling Israel information such as the whereabouts of top militants or weapons depots.

Human rights activists say such executions violate Palestinian law which says that any cases of this sort must be reviewed by President Mahmoud Abbas, but Hamas does not recognise the Western-backed Abbas as having authority in Gaza.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/hamas-executes ... 59643.html

ghulam muhammed
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Re: Statehood for the Palestinians

#90

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Jul 13, 2013 6:06 pm

Israel’s 'Indigenous Invaders’

Israel justifies the immanent relocation of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin by characterizing them as invaders.

On June 24th the “Prawer Plan for the Arrangement of Bedouin-Palestinian Settlement in the Negev” passed its first reading in the Israeli parliament. If implemented, the Plan will constitute “the largest single act of forced displacement of Arab citizens of Israel since the 1950s,” expelling an estimated forty thousand Palestinian Bedouin from their current dwellings.

The Plan’s ultimate objective is to Judaize the Israeli Negev. In order to do this, however, seventy thousand (out of 200,000) Bedouin who currently live in villages classified as ‘unrecognized’ by the Israeli government must be moved. The government already forbids them from connecting to the electricity grid or the water and sewage systems. Construction regulations are also harshly enforced, and in 2011 alone about a thousand Bedouin homes and animal pens—usually referred to by the government as mere “structures”—were demolished. There are no paved roads, and signposts from main roads to the villages are removed by government authorities. The villages are not shown on maps, since as a matter of official geography, the places inhabited by these second-class citizens of Israel do not exist.

The government has, for years, argued that because these people live in small villages scattered across a relatively large area, it cannot provide them with basic services and therefore its objective has been to concentrate them in a few townships. Consequently, in 2009 Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed his planning policy chief, Ehud Prawer, to liberate the “Jewish land.” Prawer’s main task was to relocate these seventy thousand Bedouin who have refused to sign over their property rights to the State and have continued living in their “unrecognized villages.”

The NGO maintains that the Negev’s Bedouin inhabitants “rob” the Jewish people “of the Land of Israel” “ever so quietly, without the roar of battle and clamor of war.” “On this battlefield,” the organization continues, cement mixers have replaced tanks, plows replace cannons and innocent-looking civilians replace uniformed soldiers.... Acre after acre, house after house, buying, squatting, illegally cultivating the soil that is not theirs, sometimes with guile, other times with violence, with huge sums of money and firmly backed by anti-Zionist organizations in Israel and abroad – Israel is losing its hold on the Jewish people’s lands.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e35526.htm