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english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/235D9A48-E6A5-4318-B83B-88EF9F375652.htm
Israeli troops kill Palestinian boy
AlJazeera 2/15/2006
A Palestinian teenager with learning difficulties has been shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. Palestinian security forces said Israeli soldiers shot and killed Mujahid Samadi, a retarded 15-year-old Palestinian boy who was carrying a toy gun, on Wednesday. Witnesses said the clashes had broken out when about 20 Israeli jeeps entered the village of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, in the early morning. The victim had wandered out into the streets with a stick in his hand which the Israelis appeared to have mistaken for a weapon.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4715570.stm
Disabled Jenin man shot by troops
BBC 2/15/2006
A young Palestinian man with learning disabilities has been shot dead by Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian officials said. Mujahid al-Simadi, 20, was shot through the chest during a raid to arrest militants. The Israeli military said its soldiers had seen a “suspect armed with a weapon who was threatening them”. A 12-year-old boy was shot dead in the Jenin refugee camp three months ago during a stone-throwing protest. Local residents said Mujahid al-Simadi had gone up to the troops with a toy gun and shouted that they should leave the village. He was among a number of children who had surrounded a house occupied by Israeli soldiers and began to throw stones, Palestinian security sources said.
www.imemc.org/content/view/16718/1/
38 residents arrested in the West Bank
International Middle East Media Center 2/15/2006
Wednesday at dawn, Israeli soldiers invaded the West Bank city of Tulkarem, broke into dozens of homes and arrested twenty residents, including two residents from the nearby village of Kafer Jamal. Eighteen residents were arrested and few others were injured in separate invasions in Nablus, Jenin, Hebron and Bethlehem. A local source in Tulkarem reported on Wednesday that soldiers supported by six armored vehicles and a troop carrier invaded Tulkarem and initiated house-to-house searches. Soldiers used military dogs while searching houses in the eastern neighborhood of Tulkarem,and fired concussion grenades at a number of homes; damage to the houses was reported, no injuries.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ACIO-6M2
DR8?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Israel threatens to sever all ties with Palestinians
ReliefWeb 2/15/2006
JERUSALEM, Feb 15, 2006 (AFP) – Israel ratcheted up the pressure Wednesday on the Palestinian Authority by threatening to cut all ties if a prime minister affiliated to Hamas is chosen after parliament is sworn in this weekend. But the leader of the militant Islamist movement, which won a landslide victory in last month’s general election, said resistance would continue unless Israel ceased “aggression” toward Palestinian territory. Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz threatened to cut all contacts with the Palestinian Authority if parliament is headed by Hamas leaders.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AA882CCA-C738-4275-8C1F-6B8EAD17EE5C.htm
Hamas selects parliamentary leaders
AlJazeera 2/16/2006
Hamas has made its first parliamentary appointments as Israel prepares to decide on its strategy towards the Palestinians. On Wednesday, Hamas named Mahmoud al-Zahar, from Gaza, as head of the Hamas majority faction in the legislature, which convenes on Saturday for its first session since the group won the 25 January Palestinian election. Aziz Dweik, from the West Bank, was chosen by Hamas as parliamentary speaker. As the leader of parliament, Dweik would become interim president, pending an election within 60 days, in the event of the death, resignation or incapacitation of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. The appointments raised speculation that Hamas would choose another of its leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, as prime minister.
www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/02/15/court-case-in-jerusalem-
tomorrow-february-16th-palestinian-activist-mohammed-mansour-
proclaims-%e2%80%9cstanding-up-to-the-occupation-is-not-illegal%e2%80%9d/
Palestinian Activist Mohammed Mansour on trial
International Solidarity Movement 2/15/2006
When: Thursday February 15th 12. 30pm – Where: Peace Court in the Russian Compound. Jerusalem — Mohammad Mansour, a Palestinian organiser for non-violent resistance to the occupation, faces trial tomorrow. He has been falsely charged with assaulting a police officer, throwing stones, and encouraging others to do likewise. He has also been charged with involvement in “illegal demonstrations”. Mohammad said, “Despite the military having cameras to film the demonstration, they do not have a single shred of evidence that I did anything illegal, because I didn’t. They want to get me because I am standing up against the occupation, that’s it. “
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216772,00.html
Knesset: Another Arab city needed
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Internal Affairs and Environment Committee also discusses unlawful construction, unclassified towns in Arab sector. Arab MK Dehamshe says ‘State does nothing to stop the illegal construction; it is too busy demolishing the houses, repeatedly’ — The Internal Affairs and Environment Committee recommended Wednesday to build a new Arab city in Israel. It’s too soon to know the location, not to mention the long process this recommendation will go through until it’s approved by the Knesset. But before any corner stone is laid, stressed the committee, there is much work to be done immediately and comprehensively to stop illegal construction in Arab towns, and the flourish of unclassified towns, a phenomenon indicating “contempt for the development and the law authorities. “
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=682936
Panel: Ban immigration of Arabs from nations hostile to Israel
Ha’aretz 2/15/2006
The advisory committee for studying Israel’s immigration policy, headed by Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, has recommended that the government be allowed to ban all migration from countries and regions where there is systematic incitement against Israel. This means the government will be able to completely ban “family unification” with Gaza residents, and maybe also with West Bank residents if there is a rise in terror emanating from there. The committee presented its interim report last week to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. The committee recommends that all emigrants from Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority be required to prove they do not post a security risk to Israel.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4497.shtml
Supreme Court Dismisses Criminal Charges Against Knesset Member Azmi Bishara Report, Adalah, 14 February 2006
Electronic Intifada/Adalah 2/14/2006
On 1 February 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel, in a 2 to 1 split decision, accepted a petition submitted by Adalah, ruling illegal the Israeli Knesset’s 2001 vote to strip Member of Knesset (MK) Dr. Azmi Bishara of his parliamentary immunity, and dismissed all criminal charges against him. Commenting on the Court’s decision, Adalah General Director Attorney Hassan Jabareen stated that, “the Supreme Court’s decision is the culmination of a legal struggle against the authorities’ attempts, mainly by the former Attorney General and the General Security Services (GSS), to violate the fundamental right of political representation. This legal triumph, however, is only another step for the Arab minority in its quest to achieve a liberated, dignified and equal existence in the country. “
www.imemc.org/content/view/16721/1/
Palestinian resistance shells military posts north of Gaza
International Middle East Media Center 2/15/2006
The National Resistance Brigades, the armed wing of the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), clamed responsibility for shelling Israeli military targets east of the northern Gaza strip city of Beit Hanoun late Tuesday night. The group also said, in the press release they issued in the Gaza strip, that this action is a response to Israeli army attacks against the Palestinian nation and promised to continue the resistance. [end]
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683417
Israel won’t stop transfer of aid to Palestinians
Ha’aretz 2/16/2006
“It’s like a meeting with a dietitian,” an advisor to the prime minister, Dov Weissglas, said. “We need to make them lose weight, but not to die. “ — Israel will not oppose the transfer of international aid funds to humanitarian organizations in the Palestinian Authority following the establishment of a new government led by Hamas, it was decided Wednesday after a consultation headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Livni convened the discussion, which focused on the international community’s position vis-a-vis a Hamas-led regime. The government will acquiesce to the transfer on the condition that the aid does not reach PA hands.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216797,00.html
Jordan invites Hamas for first visit since expulsion
YNetNews 2/16/2006
Kingdom invites terror group leaders to make their first visit since Jordan expelled them in 1999; ‘We welcome the visit of a delegation of our brothers the leaders of Hamas in their capacity as Palestinians,’ Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet saysReuters Jordan, which has moderated its stance towards Palestinian terror group Hamas since its election win, said on Wednesday it invited Hamas leaders to make their first visit since the kingdom expelled them in 1999. The visit to the pro-U.S. country would be part of a regional tour by Hamas to garner financial and political support in the face of Western threats to cut Palestinian aid.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=682932
Cheshin calls PA ‘enemy gov’t’
Ha’aretz 2/16/2006
Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin called the Palestinian Authority an “enemy government” during a High Court of Justice hearing yesterday on family unification. Yesterday’s hearing was the last before the court hands down a ruling on petitions submitted in 2003 against the amendment to the Citizenship Law, which bans Palestinians from joining Israeli Arab family members in Israel. During the hearing, Cheshin discussed the security situation in the wake of Hamas’ victory in last month’s Palestinian Authority elections and the ramifications it could have on the court’s ruling. “The Palestinian Authority is an enemy government, a government that wants to destroy the state and is not prepared to recognize the State of Israel,” Cheshin, who is set to retire, said.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=22198
Mofaz: Mubarak believes Hamas will succumb to pressure
Daily Star 2/15/2006
Palestinian leaders urge EU to continue aid — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak believes after Hamas has become the Palestinian government, it will succumb to international pressure, renounce armed resistance and recognize Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday. Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders used talks with Germany’s foreign minister to urge the international community to continue aid. “The president says that he believes that Hamas will change its ways in the future and adopt the Israeli conditions,” Mofaz told a news conference in Cairo, where he had gone for talks with Mubarak and other Egyptian officials.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683429
U.S. lawmakers: Bush’s Mideast policy led to rise of Hamas
Ha’aretz 2/16/2006
WASHINGTON – Mistakes in U.S. Middle East policy have made America less safe and aided the militant group Hamas’s victory in Palestinian elections, Democratic and Republican lawmakers told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday. Hamas’s win last month in the Palestinian territories and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood’s rise in Egypt have fueled criticisms over U.S. President George W. Bush’s strategy of pushing for democracy in the Middle East. “This administration seems to have a tin ear when it comes to the Middle East and that tin ear is making us less safe,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, told Rice at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/13DEA8D4-D1C8-425B-B14A-6B7710E41F8A.htm
Senators criticise Rice on Middle East
AlJazeera 2/15/2006
Republican senators have criticised the Bush administration over its policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian territories. The criticisms came on Wednesday, as Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, made her first testimony to Congress in months, exposing her to a grilling from some members of her own party. Senator Chuck Hagel told Rice, as she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “I don’t see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better. I think things are getting worse. I think they’re getting worse in Iraq. I think they’re getting worse in Iran. “ Rice also had a tense exchange with moderate Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee over the pace of progress towards Israeli-Palestinian peace and the implications of the Hamas victory in Palestinian legislative elections last month.
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=02150670933
Hamas to End Armed Struggle if Israel Quits Territories
Palestine Chronicle 2/15/2006
Meanwhile, a Hamas official said Tuesday that attempts to bring down a Hamas-led Palestinian government were hypocritical. —MOSCOW/JERUSALEM – Hamas will end its armed struggle against Israel if the Jewish state withdraws from all occupied Palestinian territories, the Islamist group’s leader told a Russian daily. “If Israel recognizes our rights and pledges to withdraw from all occupied lands, Hamas, and the Palestinian people together with it, will decide to halt armed resistance,” the group’s leader Khaled Meshaal said in an interview with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In earlier statements Meshaal had only said that Hamas could agree to a “long-term truce” with Israel if it were willing to return to the 1967 borders and recognize the rights of Palestinians to self-determination.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216790,00.html
Hamas sworn in – Israel to cut off funds
YNetNews 2/15/2006
This coming Saturday, Palestinian parliament with Hamas majority will be sworn in; indications are Israel won’t declare total cessation of contacts with the PA, but will cut off funds; international funding will still be permitted in order to prevent Iranian money filling the vacuum — Israel will agree for international funding to reach the Palestinian Authority, instead of the tax and customs funds which will apparently be frozen to a Hamas controlled Palestinian parliament, sworn in this Saturday. The aim is to prevent funding of the PA by Iran, or moneys collected by radical Islamist movements around the world.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216742,00.html
Russia: Engaging Hamas will foster peace
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Russia’s invitation to Hamas realistic way to advance future peacemaking after Islamic group won Palestinian elections — Russia’s invitation to Hamas to talks, which has dismayed Israel, is a realistic way to foster future peacemaking after the Islamic terrorists won the Palestinian elections, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Moscow’s move has upset both the Jewish state and the United States by challenging their campaign to isolate Hamas, classified as a terrorist group in the West, until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel’s right to exist. www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3215284,00.html
PA Envoy: Likud behind Muhammad cartoons and www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=682350
PLO: Likud inflaming relationship between West and Muslims
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216722,00.html
Video – Dalai Lama: Politics, religion equal violence
YNetNews 2/15/2006
(VIDEO) Tibetan Diaspora leader arrives in Israel, says he hopes to advance dialogue, human warmth in area of conflict – The leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama, has arrived in Israel for a five-day visit. — Describing the purpose of his visit as bringing harmony to the area, he said he did not come to talk about the situation of Tibet. During a press conference, the Dalai Lama said the purpose of his visit was to advance humane values and warmth, as well as dialogue instead of violence, as a necessary condition for peace.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/16/content_4187633.htm
Ireland stresses roadmap as only peace framework for Mideast
China View 2/15/2006
AMMAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) — Irish President Mary Mcaleese reiterated here Wednesday that the roadmap plan drawn up by the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators remains the only framework for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and realizing their peaceful coexistence. Mcaleese told the Jordanian parliament that the Palestinians, Israel, Syria and Lebanon deserve peace after a long period of conflicts and that her country will continue support for Palestinian and Israeli leaders to seek peace in the region. She also expressed appreciation for Jordan’s positive role in helping Israel and the Palestinians to achieve peaceful coexistence.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/15/content_4184779.htm
World Bank approves $60mln financial aid to PNA
China View 2/15/2006
RAMALLAH, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) — A senior Palestinian official with Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday that the World Bank has approved 60 million U.S. dollars financial aides to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Jihad Al-Wazeer, under secretary of Palestinian Ministry of Finance, told reporters that the World Bank has determined to transfer 48 million dollars as a down payment to the treasury of the PNA. He said that the approval came after the World Bank and the donor countries got the guarantee of the ministry on cashing its employee’s salaries after a series of negotiations… Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department also announced that it would reconsider its threat to cut off aid to the Palestinians in one or two weeks.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216432,00.html
Hamas: Hizbullah funded us
YNetNews 2/15/2006
In report on its website, group admits it received funds, assistance in training activists from Hizbullah, boasts Lebanese-trained cell was most prominent in West Bank — The Hamas organization officially announced for the first time that it has received funding and assistance in training from the Lebanese Hizbullah terror group. A report posted on Hamas’ website recently, describes the establishment of the organization’s first cell in Ramallah, immediately following the outbreak of the intifada. According to the report, after the cell was founded, its members began looking for appropriate funding for their activity.
english.wafa.ps/cphotonews.asp?num=1121
PLO Refuses Israel’s Plan to Isolate Jordan Valley from WB Territories
WAFA 2/15/2006
RAMALLAH, February 15, 2006 (WAFA)- The PLO Executive Committee (EC) refused Wednesday the Israeli plan to isolate Al- Aghwar (the Jordan Valley) area, from the rest of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. In a meeting headed by President Mahmoud Abbas in the Presidential HQ in Ramallah, the EC said such a plan transforms the Palestinian territories into isolated cantons that prevent the establishment of the independent state. It urged the Quartet Committee, which issued the Road Map, to voice out its stance towards this colonial plan, and to assume its responsibilities toward the peace process as well as the two-state solution.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ACIO-6M2
EUA?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Hezbollah chief says disarmament linked to peace
ReliefWeb 2/15/2006
BEIRUT, Feb 15, 2006 (AFP) – The head of Lebanon’s fundamentalist Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah has insisted that the disarmament of its military wing must be linked to a broad peace deal in the Middle East. “Lebanon is in a state of war with Israel and there will be no handover of weapons until there is an end to that,” Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in remarks published Wednesday. Lebanon’s largely anti-Damascus government, which took power after elections last year following the withdrawal of Syrian forces, is under international pressure over the disarming of Hezbollah.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6M2
8JZ?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Hamas rejects Annan’s call to disarm: leader
ReliefWeb 2/14/2006
KHARTOUM, Feb 14, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Visiting leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Khalid Mashal said on Tuesday that the group rejected UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s call to disarm. Mashal, Hamas’ politburo chief who has been living in Damascus in exile, made the statement at a press conference held in the presidential residence in Khartoum after talks with Sudanese President Omar Ahmed el-Bashir. “Hamas cannot accept UN Secretary General (Kofi) Annan’s call to disarm and become a political party since the call is unrealistic as most of the Palestinian territories are still occupied by Israel,” said Mashal.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6M
287K?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Aid to Palestinians depends on recognition of Israel: Canada
ReliefWeb 2/14/2006
OTTOWA, Feb 14, 2006 (AFP) – Canada will only provide aid to the new Palestinian government if the leadership recognizes Israel and renounces all forms of violence, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday. “Future assistance to any new Palestinian government will be reviewed against that governments commitment to the principles of non-violence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the roadmap” to peace, Harper said. The prime minister made his comments following a telephone call with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas, but his message was clearly aimed at the Islamic group Hamas, the winner of January 25 legislative elections.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4493.shtml
CNI calls on U.S. to deal with new democratic forces in Middle East
Electronic Intifada/CNI 2/13/2006
“Our officials in the Middle East,” Elizabeth Viering said, “are not listening to the people. They are isolated and cut off. “ — February 10, 2006 — A delegation from the Council for the National Interest that participated as international observers to the recent Palestinian elections and met with government and opposition figures in six Middle East countries called yesterday on President Bush and his administration to deal honestly and openly with the new Islamist opposition that has been brought to power by democratic means in several Middle East countries. The members of the delegation, including two ambassadors, were among the first American retired foreign service officers to meet with Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Khaled Meshaal, whom they described as eager to talk to American officials, and even to reach a peace with Israel.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/15/content_4184775.htm
Abbas to address PLC on peace vision with Israel
China View 2/15/2006
RAMALLAH, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) — A senior Palestinian official revealed on Wednesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would make a speech before the new-elect Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) on Saturday and ask Islamic Hamas movement to recognize his vision of making peace with Israel. The official who spoke in condition of anonymity said during the speech, Abbas would ask the 132 PLC members, most of them are members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), to accept his political program and implement the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)’s international commitments towards peace.
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/
Render&c=Article&cid=1139957413219&call_pageid=968332188492
Abbas appoints allies to top posts
Toronto Star 2/15/2006
Palestinian leader boosts powers ahead of Hamas takeover – Harper spells out the conditions for future aid from Canada — RAMALLAH, West Bank—In the countdown to the Hamas takeover, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has broadened his already considerable authority, taking control of the state media and naming allies to top government jobs to make it harder for the Islamic militants to rule. Some Abbas confidants said they hope a Hamas government left without key powers — and also isolated and short of cash — will be headed for quick failure. Others said Abbas’s main goal is to protect the fiefdoms of his defeated Fatah party, such as the security services.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216692,00.html
Hamas nominates parliament speaker
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Abdel Aziz Duaik, geography professor from Hebron, is put forward by Hamas as candidate for parliament speaker; low profile candidate seen as attempt to decrease tensions with Fatah — Hamas has named Abdel Aziz Duaik, a geography professor from the West Bank city of Hebron, as its candidate for parliament speaker, a Hamas official said. Dauik’s selection is a little surprising, since many believed that a leading Hamas figure would take up the post. Sources in the PA said, however, that Hamas decided not to place a leader of the organization in the sensitive role, in order to avoid antagonism with Fatah. Hamas is continuing to try and assemble a government which will include Fatah.
www.imemc.org/content/view/16732/1/
Zahar picked as Hamas Majority Leader
International Middle East Media Center 2/15/2006
The Hamas Party in Palestine has announced that its top parliamentary seat will go to Mahmoud az Zahar, who received the most votes of any candidate during the legislative elections January 25th. After winning a majority of seats in the legislature, Hamas is required to form a new Cabinet and government… The Party has yet to pick a Prime Minister, though they are expected to announce a candidate by the opening of the Palestinian Parliament on Saturday. Ismail Haniyeh has been rumored to be the top candidate, but party officials are hesitant to speculate, due to the possibility of a joint Fateh-Hamas partnership in which Haniyeh may not be seen as the best choice.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/15/content_4184537.htm
PNA urges handover of accused Palestinian officials
China View 2/15/2006
RAMALLAH, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) — The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has demanded several countries to hand over Palestinian officials accused in corruption, the Palestinian Satellite Channel (PSC) reported Wednesday. Tawfik Terawi, chief of general intelligence in the West Bank, told the PSC in an interview that the PNA had demanded some countries, where some corrupted Palestinian officials are staying in, to hand them over to the PNA. He, however, didn’t tell the names of the countries. “The handing over process and special procedures need some time, the PNA has coordination and agreements with these countries,” Terawi was quoted as saying.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216710,00.html
Mofaz: We must maintain Jewish majority
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Defense minister speaks to J’lem high school students about security, Omri Sharon’s sentencing and his shift from Likud to Kadima. Student: He was very politically correct — Students at Boyer high school managed to get what no reporter has: A senior member of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, to talk about the conviction of Omri Sharon. “Anyone who serves the public must face the law and stand the public’s scrutiny. No doubt these are difficult days for the Sharon’s family, but the law applies to everyone in any discipline,” Mofaz said. Mofaz talked to hundreds of students at Boyer High School in Jerusalem, participating in a political panel that included Ami Ayalon (Labor), Ron Levintal (Shinui), and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216741,00.html
Sharon investigation set to continue
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz rules to continue investigation involving prime minister despite his medical condition due to ‘public interest’ — The investigation in the Cyril Kern episode involving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will continue, according to a ruling by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. The ruling came at the end of a meeting held due to the medical condition of the prime minister, who is the central figure being investigatedin the case, and in light of the sentence given to his son, Omri, who was sentenced to nine months in jail.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216537,00.html
Aide: PM also guilty
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Former adviser to Ariel Sharon claims PM was involved with all illegal financial transactions during election campaign in 1999, says Omri Sharon unjustifiably takes fall for his father in case. Attorney general turned blind eye to evidence, he adds — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s former strategic adviser David Spector lashed out at Sharon and his personal adviser Dov Weisglass Wednesday, claiming they were involved in all the illegal financial transactions for which the prime minister’s son Omri was convicted Tuesday… According to the former adviser, the PM’s close associate and adviser Weisglass “was aware of all the payments… and I’m not talking about the figures listed in the indictment, but much higher sums. “
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216582,00.html
Arab party: We’ll fight Israel’s ‘Zionization’
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Leaders of new united Arab party say they believe in Muslim rule, vow to fight racist discrimination and ‘Israelization’ trend in country — The rule on earth, or at least the rule on Arab and Muslim land should be led by the Caliph (Muslim leader and Muhammad’s heir), chairman of the United Arab List –Ta’al party Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur told reporters. The two Arab factions UAL and Ta’al, the latter headed by Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi, have recently decided to join forces and merge ahead of the elections. At a press conference to mark the launching of the new list’s election campaign, Tibi and Sarsur presented their candidates for the Knesset and spoke of the party’s platform and ideological principles.
www.imemc.org/content/view/16733/1/
Israel releases one jailed legislator, extends term of another
International Middle East Media Center 2/15/2006
Wednesday morning, Israeli Prison Authorities released a jailed Palestinian legislator, and extended the the detention of another elected legislator for an additional eight days. The two legislators are members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and were elected to the Legislative council during the January 2006 general elections. Legislator Ahmad Ali Al Haj, 66, from Nablus, was recently elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council, and released from Israeli prison on Wednesday. He was imprisoned in the Negev detention camp.
english.wafa.ps/cphotonews.asp?num=1120
Organiser for Non-violent Resistance to Israeli Occupation Faces Trial
WAFA 2/15/2006
RAMALLAH, February 15, 2006 (WAFA)- Mohammad Mansour, a Palestinian organiser for non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation, faces trial Thursday in the Court in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. In a press release issued Wednesday, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said that Mansour has been falsely charged with assaulting an Israeli police officer, throwing stones, and encouraging others to do likewise. He has also been charged with involvement in “illegal demonstrations”.
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5391
HR Organisation Denounces Israeli Bombardment on Gaza Strip
WAFA 2/15/2006
KHANYOUNIS, February 15, 2006, (WAFA)- The National Association for Democracy and Law denounced Wednesday the continued Israeli bombardment on citizens’ complexes in Gaza Strip cities. In a statement faxed to WAFA, the Association said that the Israeli Occupation Forces have been committing targeted killings, bombardment, mock raids and the razing vast areas of arable land. “Such criminal acts spread a state of panic and horror among citizens, mostly children and women”, the Association added. The Association called upon the international community and peace-advocating countries to immediately intervene to pressurize Israel halts its escalating policy in the Palestinian territories. [end]
www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/02/15/mohammad-
mansour-targeted-for-standing-against-the-occupation/
Mohammad Mansour targeted for standing against the occupation
By Harry, International Solidarity Movement 2/15/2006
I’ve been working with Mohammad Mansour a Palestinian activist in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) since I started work here a month ago. He is to face a trial tomorrow. If found guilty he could go to jail and quite possibly be tortured. What is his crime? He is an organiser in the non-violent resistance. He was charged with assaulting a soldier, throwing stones and encouraging kids to throw stones. But there is no evidence of this. He was at a demonstration with soldiers filming everything and taking high resolution photographs yet they have no evidence of this.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4494.shtml
Urgent Appeal: Help F.A.S.T. Reconstruct Lifta’s Map
Electronic Intifada/F.A.S.T 2/14/2006
In the following months, the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (F. A. S. T. ) will, with your help, reconstruct the map of Lifta. F. A. S. T. invites you to help it describe the town by sending your details, narratives, drawings and photographs of Lifta. F. A. S. T. will compile the material that is send to them (by email or fax) and fill the map… The village of Lifta, which lies just outside Jerusalem, has been abandoned since the Israeli army drove out the last of its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948. Today Lifta is more or less a ghost town while the former villagers live mainly in East Jerusalem and Ramallah. Now, however, a renovation project aims to turn Lifta into an expensive and exclusive Jewish residential area – reinventing its history in the process.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216609,00.html
IDF: J’lem neighborhood at risk
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Senior IDF officer tells Ynet dozens of shooting attacks against neighborhood of Gilo foiled in 2005; army bracing for wave of terror attacks after Hamas’ election victory — The defense establishment is concerned that terror groups are planning to renew shooting attacks at residents of Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood. “They have the experience and the intension and I have the Tanzim in mind,” a senior IDF official told Ynet. The IDF is bracing for a wage of terror attacks after Hamas’ election victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections. According to the official, dozens of shooting attacks against Gilo were foiled in 2005… “as long as we have freedom of action in Bethlehem and good intelligence, these attempts will be thwarted. “
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216423,00.html
Amona commander’s car torched
YNetNews 2/15/2006
Brigadier General Meir Bokovza subject to threats by right-wing activists ever since leading evacuation of West Bank outpost; despite special security arrangements, officer’s car set on fire Tuesday night by unknown assailantEli Senyor An unknown assailant arrived Tuesday night at the home of Brigadier General Meir Bokovza, deputy commander of the Judea and Samaria district, in the town of Shoham near Ben-Gurion Airport, and set his car on fire. The car of Bokovza’s neighbor was also set on fire. The two vehicles were totally burned.
www.imemc.org/content/view/16742/1/
Army invades village near Jenin
International Middle East Media Center 2/15/2006
Israeli soldiers invaded Al Zabbouba village, near the West Bank city of Jenin after claiming that residents of the village came close to the Separation Wall. A local source in the village reported that five military vehicles invaded the village, fired rounds of live ammunition and chased dozens of youth who hurled stones at the invading forces, no injuries were reported. [end]
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4712078.stm
Israel arrests 19 in W Bank raids
BBC 2/14/2006
Nineteen suspected Palestinian militants were arrested by Israeli troops in overnight raids in the West Bank, the Israeli military has said. Seven members of Hamas, which won last month’s elections, were arrested with an Islamic Jihad activist in Hebron. Meanwhile, six Fatah members were arrested in Nablus, two Islamic Jihad members in Qalqilya, and one Fatah-Tanzim member in Ramallah. Israeli raids on Monday resulted in 18 other Palestinians being detained. [end]
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5389
17 Citizens Arrested, including Woman in WB
WAFA 2/16/2006
TULKAREM, February 15, 2006 (WAFA) – Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Wednesday seventeen citizens, including a woman in the West Bank (WB) cities of Tulkarem, Nablus, Qalqiliya and Jenin, WAFA reporter and security sources said. In Tulkarem, security sources told WAFA that a massive number of Israeli soldiers thrust into the city, launched a house-to-house search campaign, amid intensive fire shooting and arrested ten citizens, leading them into an undisclosed place. In Nablus, Israeli soldiers, backed by military vehicles, stormed Askar refugee camp and the city and arrested three citizens, security sources said.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683207
IDF troops kill Palestinian wielding toy rifle near Jenin
Ha’aretz 2/15/2006
Israel Defense Forces soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man on Wednesday while carrying out an arrest raid in Qabatiyah, near the West Bank city of Jenin. Palestinian security officials said the victim was a mentally-handicapped 19-year-old Palestinian man, identified as Mujahed Al-Simadi, who was carrying a toy rifle. IDF sources said soldiers from the elite Maglan unit entered Qabatiyah in order to arrest wanted Palestinians. Palestinian youths began throwing stones at the soldiers. When the soldiers spotted what appeared to be an armed individual near them, they opened fire at him.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683257
Ten percent of Meretz Convention members jump ship for rival Labor Party
Ha’aretz 2/15/2006
A solid 10 percent of Meretz Convention members announced Wednesday morning that they were joining the rival Labor Party. The Meretz Convention, which chooses the left-wing party’s Knesset list and determines party policy, is equivalent to the central committee of registered members maintained by other political parties. The 100 of the 1,000 registered Meretz members – including administrative figures, branch directors and secretariats – informed journalists of their move to Labor in a morning press conference. “Meretz headed by [Chairman Yossi] Beilin is not the same Meretz as that of [former party leader] Yossi Sarid,” Smadar Aharoni, a member of the Nes Tziona council and a Meretz member up until Tuesday, said.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683186
Labor takes Kadima to ‘court’ over Peres, other defectors
Ha’aretz 2/15/2006
The Labor Party, seeking to keep “defectors” Shimon Peres, Haim Ramon, and Dalia Itzik from running for Knesset on the rival Kadima party list, pressed its case before Central Elections Committee Chair Dorit Beinisch in a hearing on Wednesday. The Labor Party petition invokes a Basic Law clause stipulating that MKs who quit their party must resign from the Knesset immediately afterward, if they intend to run on another party’s Knesset list. Ramon resigned from the Knesset 56 days after leaving Labor, Itzik 49 days, and Peres 48 days. Beinisch said she would issue her ruling at a later date.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683692
Labor considers closing Russian-speaking vote campaign
Ha’aretz 2/16/2006
American advisers to Labor advised the party to close down its immigrants’ campaign headquarters due to the party’s financial straits and dire situation among the Russianimmigrants, but Labor’s leaders dismissed the idea fearing the long-term political implication of such a move. “The American advisers analyze things coldly,” a senior source said. “They believe that it will be hard struggle among the Russian speakers, and that the money would be better invested elsewhere. “ Recent polls indicate that Labor will receive less than half a Knesset seat from the immigrant voters.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3216166,00.html
Olmert seeks bridge to settlers
YNetNews 2/14/2006
Acting PM to use religious members of Kadima in bid to initiate dialogue with moderate members of Religious Zionist camp —Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is embarking on a fresh attempt to build bridges to moderates within the Religious Zionist camp, Ynet has learned. The attempt, which follows the violent clashes between settlers and police during the evacuation of the West Bank outpost of Amona, will involve reaching out to Religious Zionists who do not feel at home in the newly united National Union and National Religious Party (NRP) list. Olmert hopes the dialogue will prevent violence in future evacuations of illegal outposts.
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6M35DP?OpenDocument
Remedial education helps millions of Palestinian children
ReliefWeb/UNICEF 2/16/2006
AZZUN ATMA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 16 February 2006 — Education is a daily struggle in the remote northern West Bank village of Azzun Atma where there is only one school. UNICEF is supporting a project that trains teachers and parents throughout the West Bank and Gaza to help students study on their own or at home with remedial worksheets. Azzun Atma is home to 1,000 Palestinians, many of them children. The school serves nearly 400 students from the village and surrounding areas… But since the Israeli military set up a gate at the bottom of the school hill two years ago, children as young as six years old and most of the two dozen teachers have been either delayed or denied access to the village. Classes have been held up or cancelled, forcing the headmistress to send students home.
electronicintifada.net/v2/article4495.shtml
“Made in Palestine” art exhibition to open in New York City
Electronic Intifada/Al-Jisser 2/15/2006
Al-Jisser is proud to announce the opening of the “Made in Palestine” art exhibition in New York City. After two years of fundraising, community events and wonderful support, Al-Jisser has leased a space in a central gallery building in the heart of Chelsea in Manhattan’s art world, to open and present this monumental exhibition to the art world, the community and the public. Please join with us in sharing in this great victory and in publicizing this exhibition far and wide. “Made in Palestine” will be opening at The Bridge 521 W. 26th St. , 3rd Floor, NYC The show will be open to the public between March 14, 2006 and April 22, 2006, on Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 11 AM to 6 PM daily.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4715168.stm
Oscars deny Israeli film pressure
BBC 2/15/2006
An Israeli diplomat in Jerusalem told the Reuters news agency that his country and Jewish groups in the US were lobbying the academy to not describe the film as coming from “Palestine”. —Oscars organisers have said they have yet to decide whether to recategorise a best foreign film nominee from the Palestinian territories. Israel is not pressuring them over whether to say Paradise Now was from “Palestine” or “the Palestinian Authority”, they said. The academy has also not been contacted by Israel or any US Jewish group over the issue, said spokesman John Pavlik. But he said some individuals had raised the matter with the academy.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=22227
Israeli, Palestinian audiences divided over ‘Paradise Now’
Daily Star 2/16/2006
JERUSALEM: “This is a terrorist film!” the man roared through the darkened auditorium where hundreds of viewers, mostly Israeli, were watching “Paradise Now,” a deeply controversial film about two suicide bombers. “You have no right to play this in Israel,” he bellowed, with his wife joining in: “Terrorists, terrorists!” The outburst prompted a quick smattering of applause from some, but others were clearly angry. “Shut up and sit down!” snapped one. “If you don’t like it, leave!” Four months after its release, the controversy surrounding the 90-minute film shot entirely in Arabic has not abated, particularly with the film now in the running for a best foreign language Oscar.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683401
Kadima maintains commanding lead as Labor, Likud slip in poll
Ha’aretz 2/15/2006
With six weeks to elections, Kadima remains in a stable position, and maintains a significant lead over its two main rivals, Likud and Labor, according to a Haaretz-Channel 10 poll conducted Tuesday night. According to the poll, conducted by Prof. Camile Fuch’s Dialog company, were elections to take place today, Kadima would win 40 Knesset seats (unchanged from last week), Labor would win 19 (two down from last week), and Likud would drop from 15 to 13. Both Yisrael Beiteinu and the newly formed National Union-National Religious Party alliance, on the other hand, have markedly improved their positions, with the current poll awarding seven seats to the former (up from five last week) and 10 to the latter (up two from last week, prior to the union).
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683419
Israeli cartoonist solicits anti-Semitic caricatures by Jews
Ha’aretz 2/16/2006
An Israeli cartoonist is responding to Iran’s efforts to mock the Holocaust with an unconventional contest of his own: He’s asking Jewish artists to draw anti-Semitic cartoons themselves. Amitai Sandarovich, a cartoonist for the Yediot Ahronot daily, said he came up with the idea for the competition after an Iranian newspaper launched a contest for cartoons about the Holocaust. “I think that a strong nation needs to know how to laugh at itself, and the Jewish nation has a long history of laughing at itself,” Sandarovich said.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=682886
Jews and Arabs pin tourism hopes on Wadi Ara Trail
Ha’aretz 2/16/2006
Yesterday, women in the village of Zalfa, located south of the Megiddo intersection, stood on their porches watching their children walk to school. It was 7:00 A. M. and the children walking down the road were met by a group of hikers going in the opposite direction. The mothers looked surprised – they were unaccustomed to seeing groups of visitors in their village. But if the tour group’s plans come to fruition, many more travelers will be visiting the village over the coming years when it becomes the first village on the “Wadi Ara Trail. “… The project is one of several initiated by the Wadi Ara Forum, made up of Jewish and Arab local council leaders. The forum’s goal is to promote equality and coexistence between Jewish and Arab populations in the region by means of professional and public collaboration between local councils
english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5387
PCBS: Consumer Price Index Increased by 4.66 % during January in GS
WAFA 2/15/2006
RAMALLAH, February 15, 2006, (WAFA) – Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) stated Wednesday that the consumer price index for food items goes up by 4. 66 % during January 2006 in Gaza Strip (GS) due to the closure of Al Muntar Passage (Karni). In its press release , PCBS said that “the closure of Karni Passage for more than 20 days during January 2006 caused serious economic and humanitarian crisis for the Gazan population, the flow of goods from and into GS, which leads to a sharp increase in relevant prices. “
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3215467,00.html
Report: 18 families control market
YNetNews 2/13/2006
BDI study shows in 2005 business families controlled 32 percent of top 500 companies’ earnings — In 2005 18 business families of controlled 32 percent of the earnings from the top 500 companies in the market, a BDI study on economic centralization in Israel revealed. The families’ earnings reached NIS 198 billion (USD 43 billion) last year, or 77 percent of the 2006 State Budget. Comparably, foreign companies controlled just eight percent of top 500 company earnings in 2005. In all, centralization in the Israeli market has risen by four percent, despite the privatization process, the research showed. “The privatization processes of recent years, including privatization of banks, Bezeq Phone Company, El-Al and Zim not only failed to decrease market centralization, they contributed to its rise,” a BDI source said. See also: www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000060829&fid=942
Richest families extend grip on Israeli economy
www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000061981&fid=942
National debt at 99% of GDP
Globes 2/15/2006
A further fall is seen in government debt as a percentage of GDP, if economic growth reaches at least 4. 3%. — The total government debt, as expressed as a percentage of GDP fell another 3% in 2005, to 99%, completing an overall fall of 5% over two years. The government debt-GDP ratio rose 15% in 2000-03, during the intifada. The fall in government debt over the last two years was caused by strong growth, stabilization of government deficits and the move by the Israeli economy from borrowing to lending in international markets.
www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1710699,00.html
Bush plans huge propaganda campaign in Iran
The Guardian 2/16/2006
Congress asked for $75m to fund programme· Rice to visit Gulf states as nuclear crisis deepens — The Bush administration made an emergency request to Congress yesterday for a seven-fold increase in funding to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government, in a further sign of the worsening crisis between Iran and the west. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said the $75m (£43m) in extra funds, on top of $10m already allocated for later this year, would be used to broadcast US radio and television programmes into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and support pro-democracy groups inside the country.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5960BE3A-DC17-478C-8DF1-C12D7067FD65.htm
US confirms abuse images authentic
AlJazeera 2/16/2006
A US defence official says the latest images of abuse from Abu Ghraib are authentic. The previously unpublished video footage and photographs show abuse of Iraqis in US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. The images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, were taken at about the same time as photos discovered in 2004 that sparked protests and outrage in the Middle East, the Special Broadcasting Service’s Dateline programme reported on Wednesday. SBS refused to give details on the source of the photos and video clips but said they were among those the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was trying to obtain from the US government under a Freedom of Information request.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4718328.stm
US attacks Iraq abuse images leak
BBC 2/16/2006
The US has said images broadcast on Australian TV showing the apparent abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers should not have been released. A US defence department official said the images could “further inflame and cause unnecessary violence”. The official said action had already been taken against US soldiers guilty of abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib jail. Australian TV has now aired previously unseen images of the apparent abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib in 2003. The images on SBS TV are thought to be from the same source as those that caused an outcry around the world and led to several US troops being jailed.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=22234
In Iraq, U.S. fighting an enemy it hardly knows
Daily Star/International Crisis Group 2/16/2006
Report: America’s failure to understand insurgents is counterproductive — Editor’s note: Below are the Executive Summary and Recommendations from the latest report from the International Crisis Group titled “In Their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency. “ — In Iraq, the U.S. fights an enemy it hardly knows. Its descriptions have relied on gross approximations and crude categories (Saddamists, Islamo-fascists and the like) that bear only passing resemblance to reality. “In Their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency,” based on close analysis of the insurgents’ own discourse, reveals relatively few groups, less divided between nationalists and foreign jihadis than assumed, whose strategy and tactics have evolved (in response to U.S. actions and to maximize acceptance by Sunni Arabs), and whose confidence in defeating the occupation is rising. An anti-insurgency approach primarily focused on reducing the insurgents’ perceived legitimacy – rather than achieving their military destruction, decapitation and dislocation – is far more likely to succeed. www.vtjp.org/www.crisisgroup.org
View the full report
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FE8746C5-5BB3-445F-8C63-0BC3E8EAC769.htm
Bomb kills Iraqi schoolchildren
AlJazeera 2/15/2006
A home-made bomb has killed four children on their way to school in Baghdad, according to police. Relatives say three girls and a boy were walking to school when they were killed on Wednesday. At least 19 other people, including six police officers, died in car bombings and shootings across the Iraqi capital. The violence took place as Iraqi leaders try to hammer out deals in advance of the formation of the country’s next government, which the US sees as its best chance to restore security and reduce its troop numbers in the country.
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5622899,00.html
Saddam Reportedly Warned U.S. of Terrorism
The Guardian 2/16/2006
NEW YORK (AP) – Saddam Hussein told aides in the mid-1990s that he warned the United States it could be hit by a terrorist attack, ABC News reported Wednesday, citing 12 hours of tapes the network obtained of the former Iraqi dictator’s talks with his Cabinet. One of Saddam’s son-in-laws also explained how Iraq hid its biological weapons programs from U. N. inspectors, according to the tapes from August 1995. The coming terrorist attack Saddam predicted could involve weapons of mass destruction. ``Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans,’’ Saddam is heard saying, adding he ``told the British as well. ‘’
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/90A8F3DD-22A5-4651-9D3B-931153B6495E.htm
Iran hints at Venezuelan nuclear tie
AlJazeera 2/16/2006
Iran is open to helping Venezuela develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, but the two Opec members have not yet held talks about such cooperation, an Iranian lawmaker says. Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president and an ardent critic of the US government, is backing Iran’s right to develop nuclear fuel despite international community opposition to Tehran pursuing its atomic programme. Gholamali Haddadadel, Iran’s parliament speaker, said: “Although we have not had any conversations until now with Venezuelan authorities, we would be willing to study the possibility. “Venezuela, the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, last year said it was interested in developing nuclear technology with the possible help of Argentina, Brazil or Iran for civilian energy and medical purposes.
www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=683693
Jordan court condemns 9 to death for chemical plot
Ha’aretz 2/16/2006
A court on sentenced the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, AbuMusab al-Zarqawi, and eight other men to death for plotting chemical attacks against sites in Jordan, including the U.S. Embassy. Al-Zarqawi and three others were sentenced to death in absentia on Wednesday. But the plot’s alleged mastermind, Azmi al-Jayousi, and four co-defendants were in the courtroom when the judge handed down the sentence for the 2004 plot, which security officials foiled before it could be carried out.
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7EBB7025-A03B-4FDE-BC7F-3A5F657D9475.htm
Lebanese president refuses to quit
AlJazeera 2/15/2006
The president of Lebanon has rejected demands by the country’s anti-Syrian coalition to resign, vowing to complete his tenure, which expires in 2007. The office of Emile Lahoud, the president, in a tough-worded statement on Wednesday said that “the president has never cared about threats regardless of their source, never backed away from challenges and never yielded to blackmail”. “He is committed to his oath (as president) until the last day of his constitutional tenure. “ Calls for Lahoud’s resignation have intensified since the 14 February 2005 assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former prime minister, and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/16/content_4187815.htm
EU to mend relations with Islamic nations: Solana
China View 2/15/2006
AMMAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet)— The European Union is willing to restore strong relations with the Islamic nations, which were soured over the cartoons of Prophet Mohammad, Javier Solana, the visiting EU foreign policy chief, said on Wednesday. During a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II, Solana said the aim of his five-nation Middle East tour is to build bridges between Europe and the Muslim world with mutual understanding and dialogue. The 25-member EU hoped the Islamic nations help calm the situation to avoid escalating the crisis, he added.
www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/2006/pr0209.shtml
Arab Ministers of Interior are seeking to seize their control on the internet.
HRInfo 2/9/2006
17 Arab and international human rights organizations announced their protest on the endeavors of Arab ministers of Interior to legalize new laws giving them the right to close websites with the claim that they fight terrorism. The conference of Arab ministers of Interior held at Tunisia on last January, welcomed the proposal of Egyptian Minister of Interior, which apparently aims to close websites supporting terrorism or websites arguing hatred. However, the Egyptian minister of Interior or the Egyptian Council of Ministers did not provide any clear or identified definition for Terrorism excluding the loose definition declared in 1998.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=22239
U.A.E. embarking on terror crackdown
Daily Star 2/16/2006
DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates is trying to shield itself against terror by cracking down on extremists and promoting a culture of moderation, Interior Minister Sheikh Seif bin Zayed al-Nahyan said Wednesday. “Over the past years, we have handed over a number of people wanted on security charges to their countries” in keeping with international agreements, Sheikh Seif said. “The authorities also started dealing with extremist elements among expatriates more than 20 years ago by considering them persona non grata, and consequently forcing them to leave the country,” he said… Expatriates, mostly South Asians, make up some 80 percent of the four-million population of the U. A. E
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=22237
Syrian authorities briefly detain MPs
Daily Star 2/16/2006
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities briefly detained two former opposition MPs who were freed only a month ago after nearly five years in jail following the so-called “Damascus Spring” of liberalization. Riad Seif, 54, and Maamoun al-Homsi, 45, had only been released on January 18, along with three opposition figures. Prominent Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni said that the authorities had picked up Seif from his home before dawn on Wednesday, while Homsi was also held for several hours on Tuesday. Seif “was arrested at his home at 4:30 a. m. , and we do not know why,” Bunni said. He later said Seif had been freed after five hours. Homsi had been picked up Tuesday night and then released, before police went back to his home but did not find him.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=22245
Mobile phones now major contributor to Arab stock markets and GDP, says report
Daily Star 2/16/2006
BEIRUT: The biggest survey ever carried out into the mobile-phone industry in the Middle East has produced a series of astonishing statistics as well as some insightful observations on the social changes it has effected throughout the region. The industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs inside and outside the sector, boosting economic growth and fostering social harmony and security, according to the report published Wednesday. It says there are around 75 million subscribers in the MENA, using services offered by 38 mobile operators in 18 countries.
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=22201
Chevron chief tells Saudis Bush lacks understanding of oil
Daily Star 2/15/2006
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s massive oil resources are key to international energy security and U.S. President George W. Bush’s desire to cut U.S. dependence on Middle East oil shows a “misunderstanding” of global energy supply, the vice chairman of Chevron said. The U.S. would be better off working for “interdependence” with oil producing countries rather than seeking to cut dependence, Peter Robertson was quoted as saying by a Gulf Daily News report. “This notion of being energy independent is completely unreasonable,” Robertson said to a largely Saudi audience at the Jeddah Economic Forum… “Can you imagine a world without Saudi oil? “ asked Khaled Zeinal, executive director of Xenel Industries. “America was built and prospered on cheap oil from the Middle East, particularly from Saudi Arabia. “
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5622875,00.html
British Lawmakers Ban Glorifying Terrorism
The Guardian 2/16/2006
LONDON (AP) – British lawmakers voted Wednesday to ban glorifying terrorism, giving Prime Minister Tony Blair a badly needed victory on a measure he said was key to preventing future attacks. The House of Commons approved the ban 315-277, sending it back to the House of Lords, which had struck down the term ``glorification’’ earlier this year, saying it was dangerously vague. The two chambers must reach agreement for the measure to become law. Blair said the vote sent a ``signal of strength’’ and would help authorities counter those who espouse violence.
www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1710756,00.html
Civil liberties fear as US terror suspect list rises to 325,000
The Guardian 2/16/2006
Civil liberties organisations expressed outrage yesterday after it was reported that the database of terrorist suspects kept by the US authorities now holds 325,000 names, a fourfold increase in two and a half years. The list, maintained by the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC), includes different spellings of the same person’s names as well as aliases, but the Washington Post quoted NCTC officials as saying that at least 200,000 individuals are on it. They said that “only a very, very small fraction” of that number were US citizens, but that insistence did little to defuse the reaction.
Articles
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=02150663602
Misunderstanding Muslims
By James Carroll, Palestine Chronicle 2/15/2006
As with multiple problems today, this one comes back to the misbegotten American war. It threatens to ignite the century, and must be stopped.
When the Koran was said to have been denigrated by American guards at Guantanamo last year, Muslims reacted with rage, but most observers in the West misunderstood why.
It was easy for Christians and Jews — the other ‘’people of the Book” — to think that such an insult to the Koran was like an insult to the Bible. That would be sacrilege enough, but it was worse than that.
Drawing analogies between religions can mislead, but the Koran stands in Islamic belief more as Jesus does in Christian faith than as the Bible. As this Christian understands it, the Koran embodies the incarnational principle, with the chanting of the holy words that came from God to Mohammed as the way God’s presence is experienced again.
Non-Muslims tend to think that the Prophet is to Islam something like what Jesus is to Christianity (which is why non-Muslims have mistakenly called the religion ‘’Mohammedanism”), but it is the Koran that holds such a central place. Hence, Islamic visual celebration is calligraphy, not images. Therefore when the Koran is disrespected, the insult Muslims feel is nothing less than insult to God.
Insult, of course, is the issue that has been put so explosively before the world recently. The Danish cartoons were a flame applied to a primed fuse, and the extraordinary reactions to the images from across the whole House of Islam point beyond the immediate provocation to a far broader sense of insult that Muslims have been made to feel.
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=02150664532
Daniel Pipes and the Danish Editor
By John Sugg, Palestine Chronicle 2/15/2006
Was the reaction overwrought? Absolutely. Was it predictable? Absolutely. Was it an intentional scheme to provoke Arab anger, and thereby engender Western disgust with the Muslim world? The involvement of Pipes and Rose argues that that is exactly what happened.
So, let’s look at the guy who started this whole cartoon escapade. He’s Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of the Danish newspaper. In all of the Lexis-Nexis database of stories from the American media on the Mohammed cartoons, there is absolutely no mention of the fact that Rose is a close confederate of arch-Islamophobe Daniel Pipes. Indeed, there is almost no context at all about Rose’s newspaper. On a brief mention in the Washington Post gave a hint at a fact desperately needed to understand the situation. The Post described the affair as “a calculated insult … by a right-wing newspaper in a country where bigotry toward the minority Muslim population is a major, if frequently unacknowledged, problem.”
How bad is Pipes? He wants the utter military obliteration of the Palestinians; indeed, from the Muslim world, his racism is about as blatant as that of the Holocaust denying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Pipes’ frequent outbursts of racism — designed to toss gasoline on the neo-cons’ lust for a wholesale conflict of cultures — earned him a Bush nomination to the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressionally funded think tank. Rose came to America to commune with Pipes in 2004, and it was after that meeting the cartoon gambit materialized.
It’s also worth noting that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrapped himself in protestations about freedom of speech, and that’s commendable. But he is one of Bush’s few fans in Europe, steeped in the we-versus-them rhetoric, and having sent troops to the Iraqi Crusade.
See also: www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3215284,00.html
PA Envoy: Likud behind Muhammad cartoons and www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=682350
PLO: Likud inflaming relationship between West and Muslims
www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/02/15/how-might-we-live/
How might we live?
By Laila El-Haddad, International Solidarity Movement 2/14/2006
The shells are falling again.
Interspersed with the occasional sonic boom. It’s like a mix and match Monday special. The army once compared it to a “hat of tricks”. Let’s see what we pull out today. There’s the sonic boom, which after a brief hiatus, is now making a terrorizing comeback. Then there’s the aimless tank shelling into empty fields in eastern and northern Gaza, so strong it can be heard and felt kilometers away here in Gaza City.
And of course the ever popular kill-a-Palestinian-herding goats-or a child who got lost-by the border fence technique. That outta really stop the rockets from flying.
They try different combinations each day-25 tanks shells in a row; a gunship rocket attack; 5 more shells at eastern Gaza; drones whirring incessantly at varying speeds. 10 shells; 10 minutes of silence; sonic boom; 20 shells, with more firepower, in northern Gaza. 10 shells; one hour intermission; Shoot at someone near the fence. Stop to make sure there is no outcry and promise an investigation.
Then it continues.
Yousuf is at a very sensitive stage, where he doesn’t quite understand what’s going on-and looks to me for confirmation of whether or not he should be scared when the shelling starts. Following the advice of a friend, I continue to re-assure and distract him.
See also: a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/
From a-mother-from-Gaza.blogspot.com
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=02150670215
Palestinian Ballots vs. Israeli Bullets
Palestine Chronicle 2/15/2006
Applying Martin Luther King’s arguments to the conditions existing in Israel as it occupies and oppresses the Palestinian people.
“An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” — Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter From Birmingham Jail”
Every year in February, Americans celebrate the eradication of unjust laws that had imprisoned African-Americans behind a wall of segregation for more than 90 years and the centuries of effort that brought them out of slavery — stateless, penniless, oppressed — to a state of equality and justice with their fellow citizens. Yet even now, fifty years after this remarkable transformation of our society, the reality laid bare by Katrina demonstrates that equality remains elusive and racism alive. This truth about America burst from the television screen as Katrina lashed New Orleans. Had the TV crews not presented this scene to Americans, the truth of America’s poverty stricken hordes would have remained hidden behind the glitz of Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street. “Oppressed people,” Martin Luther King reminded us, “cannot remain oppressed forever.” But they can be forgotten, nameless, and voiceless, the detritus of our touted democracy. So while we celebrate this most recent accomplishment in creating a real democracy in America, almost 300 years after its proclamation to the world, we might ask why we allow our touted mid-east allay, the only bastion of American-type democracy in the mid-east, Israel, to create an apartheid state that incorporates the imprisonment of a people behind illegal walls condemned as such by the International Court of Justice, illegal theft of land contrary to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and actions that break the United Nations’ Convention against Genocide?
The three hundred years of slavery and segregation endured by African-Americans resulted in a legacy of humiliation, torture, powerlessness, and fear inflicted by whites that erupted from time to time in retaliation and vengeance, rebellion and terrorism, suicide and hate. The Civil-Rights Movement of the mid-20th Century grew out of this legacy led by Martin Luther King, who in April of 1963, wrote a letter to his fellow clergymen detailing the injustice of American society and the right of the oppressed to confront it.
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=02150665910
Palestinian Elections
By Hatem Abudayyeh, Palestine Chronicle 2/15/2006
Hamas is not the only winner today in Palestine. Victorious also is the Right of Return, freedom for political prisoners and self-determination.
Oslo is dead. This is not much of a scoop, as analysts and pundits have been saying and writing these words for many years, at least since the Intifada of September 2000 began. But now that the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections of January 25th, 2006, are over, we can officially turn off the lights on the agreement that, along with the first U.S. invasion of Iraq in 1991, has led to, arguably, the most difficult period in the modern history of Palestinian and Arab World politics.
This is not to say that the death of Oslo and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) victory in the PLC elections will immediately lead to freedom and independence for the Palestinians. The Israeli military continues its occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem, and there are still approximately 5.5 million Palestinian refugees calling for their Right to Return, back to the lands and homes in historic Palestine they were forced to flee in 1947-48 and again in 1967. The paradox of a democracy under military occupation, or a “government” of any kind under military occupation, is what doomed Oslo from the outset, so there were strong and consistent arguments from some Palestinians that the elections could only be a farce and a waste of time and resources. In fact, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad carried this opinion into a boycott of the entire process.
www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=02150665325
On Norman Finkelstein’s Beyond Chutzpah
By Ilan Pappe, Palestine Chronicle 2/15/2006
In ‘Beyond Chutzpah’, Finkelstein goes after bigger targets and challenges some of the most sacred taboos in the American public arena regarding Zionism and Israel.
Why is the history of modern Palestine such a matter of debate? Why is it still regarded as a complex, indeed obscure, chapter in contemporary history that cannot be easily deciphered? Any abecedarian student of its past who comes to it with clean hands would immediately recognize that in fact its story is very simple. For that matter it is not vastly different from other colonialist instances or tales of national liberation.
It of course has its distinctive features, but in the grand scheme of things it is the chronicle of a group of people who left their homelands because they were persecuted and went to a new land that they claimed as their own and did everything in their power to drive out the indigenous people who lived there. Like any historical narrative, this skeleton of a story can be, and has been, told in many different ways. However, the naked truth about how outsiders coveted someone else’s country is not sui generis, and the means they used to obtain their newfound land have been successfully employed in other cases of colonization and dispossession throughout history.
Generations of Israeli and pro-Israeli scholars, very much like their state’s diplomats, have hidden behind the cloak of complexity in order to fend off any criticism of their quite obviously brutal treatment of the Palestinians in 1948 and since. They were aided, and still are, by an impressive array of personalities, especially in the United States. Nobel Prize winners, members of the literati, and high-profile lawyers, not to mention virtually everyone in Hollywood, from filmmakers to actor, have repeated the Israeli message.
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