Jewish worshippers desecrate Muslim cemetery in West Bank

A Muslim graveyard in a village near the West Bank settlement of Ariel was desecrated by a group of Jewish worshippers visiting the area on Friday morning.

A group of some 1,300 Jews visited the tomb of Joshua Ben Nun on Thursday night, in full coordination with the Israel Defense Forces.

On Friday morning, after the Jewish worshippers had left, Palestinians informed leftist groups that several tombstones in the local Muslim graveyard had been vandalized. Some were smashed; others were sprayed with slogans reading "death to Arabs."

The Civil Administration filed a complaint with police.

IDF representatives met with the organizers of the excursion, who promised to repair the damages next week. (Source: Haaretz)

A complaint, huh... as if someone will listen. Imagine Palestinians doing the same thing to a Jewish cemetery, what do you think will happen?

1. Breaking News in all American media channels
2. White House officially condemn the act and calls it another reason why we (Palestinians) should rethink of the 'road map'.
3. Israeli officials denounce it and say it is an anti-Semitic and promise to retaliate and kill few Palestinian boys to purify the cemetery from the Arab hands
4. Egypt sends a team to negotiate with Palestinians to end their attack on Jewish cemeteries
5. and it goes on and on...

... were does this madness end?

On 24 May 2007 the Israeli Army invaded the Balata refugee camp outside the West Bank city of Nablus. First entering the camp disguised as Palestinian civilians, and later with a number of armored vehicles, the army arrested camp residents and placed the entire population under curfew. This video produced by the Research Journalism Initiative and the Anarchist Film Collective "A-Films" documents the invasion. (Source: IE)

Balata Camp (Nablus): Incursion May 24:

Dershowitz and other racists embarked on a program to press DePaul University to deny tenure to our friend Dr. Norman Finkelstein.

If you are not familiar with Finkelstein's excellent work, take a look around his website. Anybody who read Beyond Chutzpah knows how meticulous is the research of Prof. Finkelstein. Dershowitz's plagiarizing and garbage would not be tolerated if he was not part of an elite that were used to having their way in America. But above all, Dean Suchar should not accept the attack on free speech by these desperate, mean, and increasingly (if that is possible) fanatical elite. McCarthyism and witch hunts should not be tolerated in America! I hope you will take time to write letters especially if you are in academia (I am sure they are receiving letters from racists who do not like the facts articulated in Finkelstein's books or his other scholarly work):
Dean Prof. Charles Suchar csuchar@depaul.edu
President The Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, CM president@depaul.edu

Also, read and sign the We Support A Fair Tenure Process for Dr. Norman Finkelstein Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?nf200704

Update: If you need some inspiration to write to DePaul University, here is a copy of a letter written by Prof. George Salzman - University of Massachusetts at Boston [Hat tip: Robin]

Monday, 9 April 2007

The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., Ed.D.
President De Paul University

Dear Reverend Holtschneider,

I write you regarding the effort of Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz to intervene in De Paul University's tenure consideration of Professor Norman G. Finkelstein.

Setting aside for the moment which of these two bitter academic contestants is more accurate in portraying the true nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict, I urge a strong, principled stand by your institution, utterly rejecting the legitimacy of Mr. Dershowitz's attempted intervention.

The Chronicle of Higher EducationI account at http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=tqyfjnxDdNnvzcffqm3kYcxKjWm3pgDH , on which I am relying, reports that your Liberal Arts and Sciences' Faculty Governance Council, at its meeting on November 17, 2006, "voted unanimously to authorize a letter to DePaul's president, Dennis H. Holtschneider, and the university's provost, Helmut P. Epp, along with the president of Harvard University and the dean of Harvard Law school. The letter was to express "the council's dismay at Professor Dershowitz's interference in Finkelstein's tenure and promotion case" which "Professor Dershowitz's emails" violate.

Your Faculty Governance Council should be commended not only for the substance of its principled stand but for making available the minutes of its meeting at which its decision was taken.

The intervention of Alan Dershowitz in Norman Finkelstein's tenure review is particularly egregious because Finkelstein has shown, with meticulous care, irrefutably, that Dershowitz, in his book The Case for Israel, plagairized substantial material from Joan Peters' book, From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine. Peters' book is well known to be a total fraud. Finkelstein, a skillful and committed scholar, has been relentless in uncovering the massively organized propagandistic misrepresentation of the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The false, pro-Israel version held almost undisputed sway from 1948 until it began to be challenged in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon. Dershowitz used Peters' material to help meet his own apparent psychological need to justify Israel's actions. That he knowingly claimed the material taken from Peters' book was his own historical research was, independently of the fraudulent nature of the material itself, surely grounds for Harvard to have revoked his tenure and fired him. Lying, as a faculty member, by claiming plagairized material to be his own academic research, is unacceptable academic conduct, tenure notwithstanding.

Dean Charles S. Suchar of your College of Liberal Arts and Sciences appears to have based his rejection of the unanimous recommendation by the College Personnel Committee in favor of Finkelstein's tenure on his judgment: "I find the personal attacks in many of Dr. Finkelstein's published books to border on character assassination and, in my opinion, they embody a strategy clearly aimed at destroying the reputation of many who oppose his views." It is certainly true that Norman Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky write very different kinds of polemics. However, Chomsky, like Finkelstein, exposes the shallow scholarly basis on which 'the reputation of many who oppose his views' are based, and in that way Chomsky acts to destroy their scholarly reputations. Among those 'many' are the uninformed but not malicious academics and others who honestly believe Israel is righteous. But Mr. Dershowitz is in a different category. He is not acting out of ignorance. His efforts to stifle open discussion and debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict are both legion, and undertaken with full readiness to lie. In this he acts as a lawyer, not a scholarly academic. His goal is to win 'the case for Israel', not to uncover the truth, and if besmirching Finkelstein and trying to destroy his livelihood and thus punishing him for not shutting up are, in Dershowitz's belief, useful tools for his campaign, he seizes them without hesitation. In my opinion his efforts are despicable.

I know full well that universities are not isolated from the society at large, and are subject to political and financial pressures, but I hope that you and your university will not be influenced by Dershowitz's attempted intervention.

Very sincerely,
George Salzman
Prof. Emeritus
University of Massachusetts at Boston

By Gregory Levey

The Israeli government is deploying new tactics to deepen ties with American youth and evangelicals.

For the moment at least, the state of Israel has 553 friends. One of them is Leonardo DiCaprio.

The 20-something Israeli official who is showing me Israel's new MySpace page, however, says she isn't sure if the link to the Hollywood heartthrob really leads to him. We're sitting in the offices of the Israeli Consulate in New York, where Israel's official MySpace page was launched in January under the direction of officials from the Foreign Ministry. The 20-something official mentions that the Philippines also now has its own MySpace page, adding excitedly, "They're one of our friends, too. Isn't that nice?"

According to its profile, Israel is a single female, 58 years old, a Taurus, who lives in Jerusalem.

58 years is not a coincidence, that is the age of occupation of Palestine.

(When asked if Israel's close ties with the United States meant that she should perhaps be listed as "in a relationship," the young official demurred.) The MySpace page automatically greets visitors with a sleekly produced hip-hop song called "Peace in the Middle," with lyrics in both English and Hebrew that include "Stop this holy war" and "What are we dying for?" It shows pictures of Israel's beaches, glitzy hotels and the Tel Aviv skyline. In the section labeled "Who I'd Like to Meet," it presents a slideshow of attractive young people who look lifted straight out of a fashion magazine. Israel, it seems, is mostly interested in meeting models.

In other words, SEX. That was and still is the best, easiest and cheapest way to seduce people.

The MySpace page is part of a wider effort, including Internet television and other online initiatives, led by an Israeli diplomat named David Saranga. Under Saranga's direction, Israel hopes to reach out to young Americans by adding some hip and stylish gloss to Israel's image and building a greater sense of connection in the process. Citing research on Israel's image in the United States, Saranga told me recently: "We saw that we had a problem with the age group of 18 to 35, and the reason is that this group doesn't see Israel as relevant. So we have to talk to them in their language, in platforms that they are using, and the new media is one of the ways to do so."

Probably it is time to watch out your kids and what they are exposed to online. Of course that does not apply to 18 to 35 or over, but I don't have to worry about this group age as much as I worry about teenagers and what the Zionist propaganda can do to them.

In addition to the MySpace page, the state of Israel also now has its own blog -- the first country-as-a-whole to have one, according to Saranga. The blog is called "isRealli" so as to incorporate the word "real." It also sports the slightly odd subtitle, "The New Blog of Israel." ("You can tell that the person who named it thinks they speak English better than they actually do," one of the young officials in the consulate commented to me.)

Am I surprised?

Updated several times a day by anonymous government employees, some of the blog's recent posts have been titled "Hummus Up to My Eyeballs," "'Mamma Mia' in Israel," and "Who Says We Can't Dance?" Although these entries valiantly attempt to fit in with the informal and irreverent tone common to the blogosphere, they carry an unmistakable whiff of government talking points. The blog entry used to introduce the state of Israel's MySpace page, for example, began, "We all know that Israel sometimes has a tough time making friends," before urging readers to "join our friends list" and "check out our favorites." A post from Thursday titled "Maximum Israel" notes that the widely read American men's magazine Maxim has a forthcoming spread on the beauty of Israeli women -- a feature the Israeli consulate pushed for as "part of our latest efforts to show a little more of Israel's sexier side." (The post further notes that Maxim's editors were reluctant at first, but after they were sent pictures of 12 Israeli models, "it was smooth sailing from that moment on.")

SEX again. Not literally, but seducing and perception of women figures/shape/sex, etc... is the old game of any and all 'Inelegance' Systems.

Israel is reaching out with other online initiatives. Both its blog and MySpace page link to videos on YouTube -- many of them posted by a mysterious user named "Hollyyyyyyy" -- which aim to make Israel look attractive in the eyes of young Americans and disarm the conflict-centric image so prevalent in the Western media. The videos highlight Israel's achievements in technology, medicine, business and entertainment. They also show a lot of people wearing bikinis. There is nobody wearing a military uniform in the videos, even though military service is compulsory for all Israelis after they turn 18.

Did I hear SEX again? Oh, it's just bikinis, which are a symbol of CIVILIZATION only!

Another video, posted by a user called "Koshergirl2007," is called "Gay Scene in Israel" and shows scenes from Israel's Gay Pride Parades and gay nightclubs. It is meant to demonstrate to America's gay population that Israel is a gay-friendly country. This is also a theme frequently highlighted on the blog. Saranga says that this is just "presenting the reality" in Israel. "When we speak in front of gay audiences" in the United States, he says "sometimes they are amazed at how liberal Israel is."

SEX? AGAIN? Oh well, what better they can do!

Inevitably, though, Israel's new media push could not be free from politics, which arrived in part with Israel's recent blog posting about the big European music competition, Eurovision. For the competition -- which takes place this May and is wildly popular in Europe and all over the Middle East -- each country chooses a representative band and song. Not everyone is happy with Israel's choice. There was talk recently by the event's organizers of banning Israel's entry for politicizing the Eurovision competition, though they have elected not to do so. Teapacks, the band representing Israel, will be singing a song called "Push the Button," an apparent criticism of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. Israel's blog promotes the country's Eurovision entry and links to a YouTube video that shows the band performing the controversial song. The multilingual lyrics include "There are some crazy rulers/ they hide and try to fool us/ with demonic, technological willingness to harm," and the refrain, "They're gonna push the button, push the button, push the button, push the button."

Warmongers! Yeah, thats another master key the Zionist play very well in this world.

In fact, in the near future the Foreign Ministry will launch a second blog, one devoted exclusively to politics. The plan is to have Israeli Foreign Ministry officials post their thoughts on the current political situation in Israel and the Middle East, and allow readers around the world to post responses. Some worry it is an online war waiting to erupt, but Saranga remains optimistic. "The government of Israel will have a direct dialogue with readers everywhere," he explains.

I'm looking forward for that. Lets see how can - if they can - face the truth. It is a great sign that what we are doing is the right thing. I'm not happy that they will have their own blog because that will raise the scale of cyberwar, but it is good to have some official place where activist can express their feelings and uncover the lies of the Zionist regime.

In April, Saranga and his colleagues are also set to launch an Internet television station aimed at American evangelicals and other Christians. According to one of the officials involved in the project, the station will have content that "speaks to Christians of all denominations" and "shows Christian movies and clips." All this, he said, would be accompanied by a "really funky design" that is being coordinated by "Christian experts" hired by the Israeli government. It's not clear whether the site will include a link to the "Gay Scene in Israel" video on YouTube.

I wonder if they will show them the video of Jewish settlers saying: "We killed Jesus and we are proud of it."

Saranga and other Israeli officials are proud of Israel's MySpace page and other nascent efforts to break into new media. They point to some early improvement in relations that have gone beyond American youth. "We were surprised by the kinds of people who wanted to be friends with Israel," one of them told me, mentioning that the blog sometimes receives visitors from Saudi Arabia and Iran. For a while, he said, Israel's bloggers were regularly conversing with someone from the United Arab Emirates, though eventually it became clear that he was only interested in trying to sell them real estate. Still, the official remained enthusiastic about the overall effort to show "the young lady that Israel is and what she's got to offer!"

As of this publication, she now has 937 friends on MySpace, though it is still unclear whether one of them is the real Leonardo DiCaprio. [Source: Spiegel Online]

I'm sure Israel can make a lot more REAL friends in real life if and only if the chose to live in Peace with themselves and Palestinian!!!

Web-savvy criminals have turned Israel into the world's highest ranking source of malicious Internet activity per user, security experts have told The Jerusalem Post.

From July through December 2006, 9 percent of all such activity could be traced back to Israel. Taiwan came next with 8%, while Poland and the US tied at 6%, according to a report issued in March by security software giant Symantec, based in Cupertino, California...

The sophistication of Israel's Internet users and its developed hi-tech sector have contributed to the high level of malicious Web activity, said Arie Danon, Symantec manager for the Mediterranean region...

Reznik chalked the high amount of criminal Internet activity here up to the fact that Israel, according to a study his company performed in February, is a large exporters of spam, accounting for approximately 2% of world junk mail in 2006...

"The figures clearly show that spammers are operating intensively in Israel on an international level" said Yaniv Barzilai, TrekIT deputy managing director of sales, referring to the TrekIT report. Although spam is not itself considered malicious by the researchers and is not necessarily illegal, the Symantec report found that it is increasingly intertwined with malicious criminal activities. [Source: The Jerusalem Post]

Comments on last few post were closed while I was moving the blog to it's final destination (new server). They are now OPEN. Sorry for the inconveniences, comments are welcome :-)

"My father was not a fighter. He was not armed. The [Israeli] soldiers took him from our house and tortured him without any mercy, they killed him and gave us his body, my brothers and I are orphans now. Where is the international conscience, where is the United Nations that puts the victim and the attacker on the same scale? My father was a peaceful man supporting his six children."

by Translated by; Saed Bannoura - IMEMC - By Palestine News Network

With these words, Mustafa Husny Fayid, 13, started talking about the tragedy that beset his family when the Israeli army carried out the Jenin refugee camp massacre in 2002, during an invasion that Israel calls "Operation Defensive Shield".

Five years after the massacre, the child was finally able to talk about what happened when he was seven. He expressed his anger that "the world is still unable to stop the Israeli atrocities".

"The world is talking about justice, peace and human rights but when it comes to us, and to what Israel is doing to us, they change their concepts and principles. We are refugees dreaming of a stable life, a country and a humble home", Mustafa stated, "Where is the world justice, were is the international law, how come the committee set up to investigate the massacre in our camp was never allowed to be formed? They should come here and see how we are living, and the destruction inflicted on us and on our future. The occupation is the cause of all our problems, but nobody wants to see the truth, they want us to be silent".

The misery of the child and his family started when the Israeli army invaded the camp in April 2002. "When the army invaded the camp, soldiers started occupying homes and started ambushing the fighters, then they started shelling all the houses after totally surrounding the camp", Mustafa said, "Everything became dangerous, danger was all around us. We were hiding in one room for a whole week, while planes and tanks were firing shells and missiles at the whole camp. We lived in fear and my younger brothers never stopped crying the whole time. My father asked us not to be afraid, and he read us verses of the holy Quran".

At that, Mustafa stopped talking for a while. His eyes were filled with tears as he looked at his fathers' picture hanging on the wall. Finally he continued, "Several days after the invasion began, we knew that the soldiers had the whole camp surrounded, and that the invasion was getting more violent and fierce. Then the shelling intensified and the soldiers shelled the mosque near our house".

The next morning, the army started advancing into the camp, and the soldiers started knocking on the doors ordering all men to leave the houses and surrender themselves to them.

"We heard violent knocking on our door, and we became so scared. My father opened the door and saw more than 30 military jeeps outside on the street. The soldiers then broke into our house and started searching it, they stepped with their dirty feet on the bread, and started breaking the dishes, smashing the windows and then they started hitting my father violently before taking him to the yard, we heard him screaming from the pain, before they took him away".

According to other eyewitness accounts, Mustafa's father was used as a human shield by the soldiers, who forced him to knock on the doors of neighboring houses before they broke into them and abducted the inhabitants.

"Later on, the soldiers returned. They had my father and my uncle, and locked them in a small room in our house. The soldiers saw drawings that my kid brothers had painted on the wall in our house, maps of Palestine and other drawings, and the soldiers were angry and said that those drawings are maps for the fighters to escape and started hitting my father on his head", Mustafa added.

"They were violently hitting my father on his head, and were screaming and shouting at him, he started bleeding and they took him out in spite of his injuries and pain".

Eyewitnesses told Mustafa that they saw the soldiers torturing his father as they were taking him to an armored vehicle, then they transferred him to a location where the soldiers gathered with their vehicles. According to local accounts, Israeli troops took dozens of residents to the temporary camp where Mustafa saw them taking his father.

There, the soldiers tortured and interrogated the men. At one point, according to eyewitnesses, Mustafa's father pleaded to be taken to a hospital, but the soldiers refused to provide him with any medical treatment.

Later on, soldiers took the man to an unknown destination; some residents said that they saw him at a Civil Administration Office which belongs to the Israeli army. The residents said that they heard him screaming, and then he stopped.

"He wasn't breathing, and the people told me when that happened they started shouting at the soldiers, he is dead, the man is dead", Mustafa said, "Then the soldiers gave him first aid and took him to a hospital, after that we never knew where he was".

"We were told by the army that my father was at Al Foula Israeli hospital, but when we phoned the hospital, they told us that he was not there, we contacted the Red Crescent and the Red Cross and they told us that the soldiers took my father to Ofer prison. We searched for him for three months".

"The Prisoners Society, the Red Crescent and several organizations helped in the effort to locate my father. They were informed by the army that my father was taken prisoner, but when medical institutions and the lawyer of the prisoners' society contacted the army officers, they said that his name was not among the list of detainees".

Different stories regarding the destiny of Mustafa's dad increased the worries of his family, and three months later, after extensive efforts by the family and several institutions, the army admitted that the father was dead.

"We lived through tough times, as the army was waging its cruel war against the camp, against us, we were unable to hide our fears, our tears, my little brothers and I were crying day and night". Mustafa stated.

But when the news finally arrived about the whereabouts of the father, it was shocking to know the truth, that he was a dead body at Abu Kbeer Israeli morgue. When the army handed the body of the father to his family, their grief was even greater, it was in a closed coffin.

Nobody was allowed to see him because his body was severely mutilated and deformed. And now, five years after his father was killed, Mustafa is speaking.

"I insist that those responsible for his death should be prosecuted, I appeal to the international organizations to adopt the case of my father and file charges against the Israeli army, I want to know how did he die in their prisons, he left the house on his feat, and return to us a dead body, they took him away from us, forever".

[Hat tip: Yolanda]

Sip the sour:

TWO Australian soldiers who served in the first Iraq war have tested positive to depleted uranium (DU) contamination despite assurances from the Federal Government they had not been exposed, an anti-nuclear group said. Any such admission from the Government would leave it open to millions of dollars in compensation.

[Hat tip: David Cohen]

How the Lebanese town of Aita al Shaab won the war and lost almost everything? An excellent story of the Lebanese and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who you do not hear about in America.

As a young person, I eagerly absorbed Jewish culture and values, harnessing the lessons of tikkun olum, the Judaic principle which translates to "repair the world." As I came of age, I became increasingly committed to this principle in my daily life as an activist for social change....

As a trusting and uninformed child, I never questioned my exuberant, unequivocal support for Israel. Looking back on this period of my life, I marvel at my own naivete....Today, I stand in full opposition to the Israeli occupation and the plethora of atrocious human rights violations committed by Israel and supported by the United States. I believe that it is my right and responsibility to speak out against the actions of the Israeli government - not in spite of being Jewish but because I am Jewish.

However, our actions - as represented by the Israeli government - distort the essence of our core values of peace and social justice. Israel’s despotism has turned Jews into the very oppressors we have struggled against for thousands of years. We are killing. We are demolishing homes. We are denying basic human rights. I refuse to tolerate the unequivocal endorsement of these brutalities to compose the predominant voice of the Jewish community at Stanford. A Jewish upbringing informs my system of values, and I will not betray my notions of social justice merely because those committing the atrocities are fellow Jews....

I refuse to stand idly by while the supreme injustices committed by Israel occur in my name. I refuse to allow fellow Jews to hijack our peaceful, resilient religion by supporting the occupation of Palestine under the guise of anti-Semitism and national security. For those of you who feel stifled and angry at this usurpation of Jewish values, I encourage you to join Jews for Justice in Palestine and become advocates for justice, human rights and peace in Israel and the Occupied Territories. For those of you who are afraid to stand in solidarity with Palestinians out of fear of offending the Jewish community, know that there are many Jews who are repulsed by the stifling of legitimate critique of Israel based upon unfounded claims of anti-Semitism. There is real anti-Semitism in the world, but employing the term in this manner is a disgrace to the legacy and current manifestations of prejudice and discrimination against Jews.

Read full Op-Ed: Occupation defies social justice, by By Amanda Gelender

The rules of decorum are binding: Welcome - to the U.S. Secretary of State and United Nations secretary-general, who have come here (Israel), and to the German chancellor, who is due next week. But the rules of logic are no less binding, and we must ask: So, why have you come?

All three have declared that they are coming here to further a solution. But this whole show, we must tell them, is no more than a ridiculous masked ball: In their pointless and fruitless visits, they only perpetuate and entrench the conflict that most threatens world peace.

The fact that all three boycott the elected Palestinian prime minister predetermines that there is no chance for progress. This blind trio is looking in the wrong place. If they really wished to contribute, they would have to do two things: meet with Ismail Haniyeh and pressure him to recognize Israel, and meet with Ehud Olmert and pressure him to put an end to the occupation. Without these two elements - nothing will move forward.

It is hard to understand how once again Israel manages to coerce the international community to dance to its tune. After it dragged the world into a futile boycott of Yasser Arafat, it now drags them into a boycott of Haniyeh, and thus only serves the desired aim of the government, which holds the key to ending the conflict: to reject any negotiations.

Contuine... A dangerous masked ball

Joint Letter of Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Submitted to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the Occasion of his Visit to the Occupied Palestine.

24 March 2007

Dear Secretary-General Ban,

As Palestinian organisations dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights, we welcome your decision to visit the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) at this early stage in your tenure as UN Secretary-General. After 40 years of belligerent occupation, the current reality in the OPT is one of systematic violations of international human rights law, as well as serious breaches of international humanitarian law, which in many instances amount to war crimes. This situation gives your visit great importance.

We welcome your stated intention to hear first-hand from the people in the region about the problems and challenges they face. In this regard, we invite you to take the opportunity to speak with Palestinian civil society in order to better comprehend the ways in which the Israeli occupation has severe and long-term repercussions on the human rights of every Palestinian, and by extension contributes to an escalation of the conflict with repercussions on the prospects for regional peace and security.

We trust that witnessing the situation on the ground will bolster your expressed commitment to bring about a “just and lasting peace in the Middle East, based on an end to the 1967 occupation and the creation of an independent Palestinian State living side-by-side in peace with Israel.” In this context, it is critical that any political agreement between Israel and the Palestinians be in conformity with fundamental principles of international law, most notably the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes of origin. Fundamental rights must not be ignored for the sake of political expediency or false compromises. Ignoring such rights only serves to obscure the reality of the Israeli occupation, creating an environment where injustice persists and progress towards meaningful peace cannot be achieved.

As you have correctly noted, Israeli military operations, severe movement restrictions, the withholding of Palestinian revenues and the socio-economic decline precipitated by these measures have resulted in a humanitarian crisis in the OPT, exacting a heavy toll on the Palestinian population. Continued settlement activity, particularly around East Jerusalem, further erodes the quality of Palestinian life. In this regard, we call upon you to reiterate that Israel must fulfill its obligations as the Occupying Power in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Importantly, Israel must immediately desist from all policies and practices that violate international human rights and humanitarian law or that alter the physical character or demographic composition of the OPT.

Insofar as the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank is concerned, we request that you raise the legal obligations incumbent upon Israel regarding its construction, as outlined in the 2004 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, with Israeli officials. In particular, Israel’s obligation to cease construction of the Wall, to dismantle those sections built to date and to provide reparation for the damages caused by such construction. Considering that the Register of Damage for the Wall operates under your administrative authority, we urge you to ensure that the Register, despite its inherent limits, is used to record damages in the most effective manner possible.

It is clear that without the respect for and implementation of international law by the international community, Israeli violations will continue with impunity, as they have for decades. Numerous UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions pertaining to the OPT, and a proliferation of special committees, sessions and Secretariat divisions and units, have had little meaningful effect on Israeli policies and have failed to ensure the fundamental rights of Palestinians. Accordingly, we call upon the UN, as an organisation whose Charter has amongst its primary purposes the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, to take effective steps to protect the rights of the Palestinian people. To do otherwise is to undermine the UN’s own commitment to human rights and rule of law and to condone governmental violations of international law.

As UN Secretary-General, you act as a spokesperson for the interests of the world’s peoples, particularly the vulnerable among them. We urge you to use your visit to Israel and the OPT as an opportunity to uphold the values and moral authority of the UN. Given the UN’s long-term commitment to the question of Palestine, we believe that it is time for it to take clear and effective actions that are commensurate with the challenge of ensuring a peace built on the respect for international law. As UN Secretary-General, you must use your unique position to clearly condemn the ever increasing breaches of international law in the OPT, regardless of the perpetrator. To fail to do so would be to betray the hope your visit holds, and render further distant the end of the occupation and a just and durable solution to the conflict.

Respectfully yours,

Al-Haq
Addameer
Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights Gaza
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Badil – Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Defence for Children International – Palestine Section
Ensan Center for Democracy and Human rights
Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights
Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling
Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies

Olmert says it's not about facts, but about image....and is Tsipi Livni going to survive and become Prime Minister?? [Hat tip: David Cohen]

This is for John (the US Marine who would die for me!) and Angelique (who thinks that her husband hasn't killed anyone in Iraq, but terrorists) and all the supporters of war in Iraq (and everywhere else). Although he was charged with other three marines with murder and the killings of two dozen Iraqi men, women and children on November 19, 2005, in Haditha, Sgt. Frank Wuterich would make the same decisions today:

A U.S. Marine charged with murdering 18 unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, said in an interview with CBS’s "60 Minutes" he regretted the deaths but would make the same decisions today.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich admitted shooting five unarmed Iraqi men in the back in the interview and said his actions were justified because he believed the men had hostile intent toward the Marines.

"There is nothing that I can possibly say to make up or make well the deaths of those women and children, and I am absolutely sorry it happened that day," Wuterich said.

"What I did that day, the decision that I made, I would make those decisions again today. Those are decisions that I made in a combat situation and I believe I had to make those decisions." [More: Guardian]

Be proud of your little sicko monsters, Mr. Bush and all warmongers. Do you know now why we "LOVE" you?

On the other hand, why these war criminals are not put to face International Court for war crimes where others are forced to (except Israel war criminals, of course)? Just an honest, humble, stupid question!

It is sad to see these brainwashed soldiers committing such crimes and ready to do it again, although charged with murder, yet, their leader is having sweet dreams in his bed. It is sad to see beloved American nation paying for the stupidity and crimes of its leaders.

I missed this when it came up a week ago, but it’s too good to ignore.

Mayan leaders will spiritually “cleanse” ancient ruins in Guatemala after a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.

The leaders said they would hold a spiritual ceremony to restore “peace and harmony” at the Mayan ruins of Iximche after Bush tours the site.

I wish it was that easy to cleanse Bushism ruins all around the world!