Holiday Blues…
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
I think last Christmas and this one are the worst I have ever experienced… I did not celebrate the Eid, and will not be celebrating Christmas either. There is nothing to celebrate. Thousands of lambs have been slaugthered, and the blood of Jesus has not stopped dripping by the gallons. I did not even dare call the Christian side of the family and wish them anything. I just sent a message with “God protect us all.” (…) And as this Iraqi Christian woman said, talking about Christmas. “I do not see any light at the end of this tunnel. It’s a very, very dark one. As long as there is no strong leader and government that knows how to take control, the chaos and terror will go on and on. You will see.” And there was a strong leader but now he’s gone. Gone a few days after Christmas and gone right before the New Year and gone on the day of the Eid. Who can replace him and bring back things the way they were ? Who will control the chaos and the terror?…

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Classified Fallujah report
Al Jazeera and Abu Ghraib scuttled US war in Fallujah
WIKILEAKS
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld launched the failed April 2004 assault on the Iraqi town of Fallujah before marines were ready because it had become “a symbol of resistance that dominated international headlines” and similar considerations eventually destroyed the operation — both according to a highly classified U.S. intelligence report into the defeat. “During the first week of April, insurgents invited a reporter from Al Jazeera, Ahmed Mansour, and his film crew into Fallujah where they filmed scenes of dead babies from the hospital, presumably killed by Coalition air strikes. Comparisons were made to the Palestinian Intifada. Children were shown bespattered with blood; mothers were shown screaming and mourning day after day.” …

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Christians, too, suffer the evilness of the occupation
From Khalid Amayreh in Bethlehem
Christmas is a season of good will. However, for Israel and its notoriously mendacious propaganda machine, Christmas is also a hasbara opportunity for spreading lies and disseminating disinformation and half truths about Christians in the Holy Land. The usual seasonal dosage of lies includes such claims that Christians in the Holy Land suffer more from Muslim persecution than from the Israeli and apartheid, and that Christian emigration is not really attributed to Israel’s Nazi-like repression of the Palestinian people but rather to Palestinian “Muslim” intolerance and violence…

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Bethlehem Christmas Cancelled: The Wall Must Fall
Window Into Palestine
My best wishes to all who are celebrating Christmas and a Happy Eid. This morning I saw a news article on the internet entitled “Peace Reigns in Bethlehem.” This is how “peace” is so distorted to the world. As long as atrocities and crimes continue without resistance to them, and it does not affect Israel, then this is what is known as “peace,” an utterly meaningless word. With that, I add this video which is entitled “Bethlehem Christmas Cancelled: The Wall Must Fall.” ….

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Thousands throng Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem
Maan News
“This land belongs to God. It must not be for some a land of life and for others a land of occupation and a political prison.” That was the message of Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah at the Christmas mass, held in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Thousands of Palestinians, pilgrims and tourists throughout the world converged on Bethlehem’s manger square for a celebration that was at once a religious holiday, a show of strength for the newly resurgent Palestinian Authority, and a show of national unity in Palestine’s multi-religious society…

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Merry Christmas! Remember Beit Sahour!
STRUGGLE FOR PALESTINE
We, the people of Bayt Sahur, being an integral part of the Palestinian people and its Intifada, refuse to pay taxes to the occupiers of our land, considering such payment to be a symbol of slavery and oppression. We consider the occupation of one people by another to be a clear violation of all international laws and religions, and it is in violation of the most basic human rights and democratic principles. We strongly believe that every citizen has to pay taxes to his national government in order to enable it to perform its duties and obligations. No taxation without representation! With this leaflet from November 5, 1989, the people of Bayt Sahur (Beit Sahour) announced the beginning of a campaign of civil disobedience centered around the nonpayment of taxes to the Israeli government.

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Christmas Under Occupation
Mohammad, ? KABOBfest

To everybody celebrating Christmas today, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas from the Holy Land. As people celebrate the birth of Jesus and Bethlehem is mentioned in countless Nativity plays and sermons all over the world, too few will realize the suffering endured by this holiest of cities. Surrounded by the illegal Israeli settlements of Har Homa and Gilo, Bethlehem today lies captive to the abusive policies of the Israeli occupation. The main road linking Bethlehem to Jerusalem has been closed off to Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) for several years now, reserved exclusively for the use of Israelis. The settlements and the Apartheid wall have taken up large tracts of Bethlehem’s land. Beit Jala, a suburb of Bethlehem, had 22% of its land confiscated by Israel in 1967, and a further 45% will be lost for the construction of the wall. For Palestinians in the northern West Bank, it is almost impossible to reach Bethlehem, courtesy of another one of the occupation’s military rules that restricts the entry of civilians from the northern West Bank to its southern branch.

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Bethlehem’s struggles continue
Christian Porth, Aljazeera.net
A normally empty Manger Square was filled beyond capacity on Christmas day as thousands of Palestinians, dignitaries and foreigners descended on the little town of Bethlehem to welcome Michel Sabah the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. The Patriarch’s yearly visit was meant to kick off Christmas festivities but this year, as in others, the spirit of the festive season is uniquely intertwined with the fate of all Palestinians, who say the city has suffered from years of Israeli occupation. And like previous years, despite a boost in tourism, celebrations in Bethlehem have been marred by a poor economic and security situation….

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25 December : 66 Iraqis Killed, 105 Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
After a brief holiday break, violent attacks resumed in Iraq. At least 66 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 105 were wounded. No Coalition deaths were reported. Also, Turkey continues to bomb Kurd rebel areas in northern Iraq. A suicide bomber in Baiji killed 29 people and wounded 80 more at a checkpoint located next to a residential complex housing oil company workers. In Baquba, a suicide bomber attacked a funeral for two 1920 Revolution Brigades members. According to separate sources, 10 people were killed and 21 more were wounded…

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Turkish army claims massive toll from Iraq bombing raid
AFP
The Turkish military Tuesday claimed to have inflicted massive losses on Kurdish rebels in recent bombing raids in northern Iraq as Iraqi Kurds reported a fresh strike by Turkish warplanes in the region. “It is understood that between 150 and 175 terrorists… were rendered ineffective” in a December 16 strike, the general staff said in a statement on its web site. “The figure does not include the terrorists who were rendered ineffective as a result of hideouts or caves collapsing in the air raid.” The statement added that many rebels were also wounded in the operation and taken to hospitals in Arbil, Raniyah, Kaladiza and Choman in the north of Iraq…

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Israel denies entry to Christian clergy
Press Release, Campaign for the Right of Entry, 25 December 2007
As the world celebrates this holiday season, Israel is blocking clergy from reaching their churches and Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem and elsewhere in the Holy Land. These Israeli actions are in blatant violation of international humanitarian law, block the right for religions to practice in the Holy Land, and defy every notion of basic common sense. The Israeli authorities are arbitrarily denying entry to clergy and volunteers belonging to or working for Christian institutions and service providers. The clergy being harassed and denied entry to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) join tens of thousands of ordinary foreign passport holders of Palestinian and non-Palestinian origin who wish to be with their families, work or study, as well as tourists and pilgrims. This is especially sad at a time of spiritual reflection and reunion of families, friends and communities when major celebrations of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities coincide over the same period…

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An Update on the Trial of Bilal Hussein
Scott Horton, Harpers
America’s first major trial concerning press freedom involved a German newspaper man, John Peter Zenger. He was accused of having libeled the Royal Governor of New York, William Cosby. Andrew Hamilton won a favorable jury verdict in that case that set the tone for American attitudes about a free press three decades before the American Revolution. Iraq’s equivalent of the Zenger case is being conducted now before an Iraqi investigating judge….

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Turkey says its raids in Iraq killed 150 rebels
Sebnem Arsu and Stephen Farrell
Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq have killed more than 150 rebels and hit more than 200 targets in recent days, the Turkish military said Tuesday, countering Kurdish claims that only a handful of people were killed in the attacks. The air raids, on Dec. 16 and 22, were the first large-scale assaults on Iraqi territory since the Turkish Parliament approved cross-border operations in mid-October against hide-outs of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, known by its Kurdish initials PKK…

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GI Special 5L19: The Empire Sends Holiday Greetings [ December 25, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
A Christmas message from a Vietnam veteran:
(…) The Home of the Brave used to refer to Americans willing to fight for and sacrifice against foreign enemies: tyrants and those that oppress.
These threats are domestic now.
Elections are stolen. The media is silent, no one is accountable, people are tortured, US Attorneys are fired for not using their jobs for political reasons, CIA agents are outed, Americans are spied upon, Media conglomerates, billions of dollars more for killing people in Iraq while stopping funding for children’s health insurance. (…)

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U.S. copter fire leaves 9 casualties in Samarra
Voices of Iraq
A U.S. helicopter killed three gunmen while trying to plant an improvised explosive device in central Samarra, an Iraqi police source said on Monday, adding the U.S. fire also left two civilians killed and four others, including a woman, wounded. “The gunmen were planting an IED in al-Dhubbat neighborhood in central Samarra when a U.S. chopper opened fire at them, killing all three gunmen instantly,” the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by telephone. “The U.S. aircraft also killed two civilian pedestrians and wounded four others, including a woman, who happened to be near the firing scene,” the source added….

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They Do Not Exist, And That Is Official
Mona Alami
In the maze of dirty streets that spreads from Beirut’s revamped Sport City to the shabby Halabi quarters, 20,000 refugees are clustered in what is known as the Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian camp. In a town plagued by poverty, many families live in complete destitution. These forgotten people have fallen through the cracks of legality and belong nowhere: they are known as non-ID Palestinians. With the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, many Palestinians fled their homeland to Lebanon. Today, there are approximately 400,000 refugees living in the ‘Land of the Cedars’, some with no documentation, and not registered with either the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) or the Lebanese authorities….

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Israeli Occupation kills 5 patients in 48 hours, Death toll has risen up to 50
Popular Committee Against Siege(PCAS)
More victims are falling down due to the illegitimate and criminal siege imposed by Israel on Gaza Strip. The number of dead patients has risen up to 50 in the past two days. Palestinian medical sources announced today, Monday, that new patient died after Israeli forces prevented her to travel for treatment abroad. The sources added that the 57 years old, Dalal Musalm died due to severe disease. On Sunday, an old man aged of 59 died due to heart disease. It was supposed he travels for medications outside. His family tried hardly to get him abroad to undergo for urgent surgeries. It called and made appeals to many NGO’s and human rights associations…

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Who is impeding ceasefire in Gaza?
Comment by Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
The Palestinian government in Gaza has recently given many indications of its willingness to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel. This writer has received first-hand information from some Gaza officials, expressing genuine readiness to reach a dignified and equitable ceasefire agreement that would put an end to the callous Israeli blockade of Gaza and the daily killing of Palestinians there in exchange for a stoppage of all rocket-firing on nearby Jewish settlements. In recent days, some Israeli officials close to the Defense Ministry asked some rabbis, who purportedly hold relatively moderate views regarding Hamas, to look into the possibility of a ceasefire agreement with the Islamic group, which might also include a possible prisoner swap between the two sides….

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Al-Dhari Sends A Letter To Iraqi Tribes
Dr. Harith Al-Dhari , AMSI
…But the enemy is still not hopeless yet. It is searching for a trick in order to rescue itself and to protect a little bit of shame. The enemy considered you as a nation without any mass and heaviness so it has aimed you by invasion of your country attempting to wipe up all values of Iraqi nation. That is why the houses, homes and shelters were attacked. That is why your honest people were pulled to prisons and to wipe your tradition and the customary way of living. This time the enemy seems to you as a good friend; it seems that his only aim is to assist you. However all are false. The enemy wants to pull you into projects and gatherings against each other of the nation’s sons. But you are the tribes’ sons who are experienced and many people are learning the life lessons from you. You never move with such disgusting and false things…

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OH COME LET US ADORE HIM….. BUT DON’T GET CAUGHT PRAYING
Desert Peace
‘We want your tourist dollars…. but you can’t go where you want to.’ That’s what Israel is basically saying to an entire section of the Christian world… as Ripley would say…. ‘Believe it or not!’ The following Press Release was just issued by a group known as the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory(oPt)….

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 24 December 2007
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
…In a dispatch posted at 3:50pm Baghdad time Monday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that a US helicopter opened fire on civilians killing three and wounding four more of them in the city of Samarra’. Yaqen reported an eyewitness as saying that he attack took place late on Sunday night. One of those reported wounded in the attack was a woman…

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