Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFv7h_gfAfU

April 16, 2010 - Almost one month after the UC Berkeley Student Senate voted 16-4 to divest from General Electric and United technologies because of their complicity in Israeli war crimes the Student Senate meets again to attempt to override a veto by President Will Smelko. The Meeting ended with the senate tabling the bill to be voted on next week.

A Dr. & nurse who spent summer working in West Bank talk about their experience.

Via: Amnesty International

Palestinian villagers' homes under threat

Since the Israeli army's threat to demolish their homes, most of the people living in the village of Hadidiya have moved their tents and shacks a few hundred metres to the hamlet of Humsa. However, on 29 May Israeli forces delivered a written warning to the villagers in Humsa, ordering them to leave the area. They now fear that army bulldozers may return at any time to destroy their homes.

The official reason given by the Israeli army is that area is a "closed military area", from which the local Palestinian population is barred. Only a few hundred metres away Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, are continuing to expand, on the land from which the local Palestinian population is barred on the "closed military area" pretext.

During July and August, inhabitants of the more isolated hamlets in the Jordan Valley desert tend to shelter from the extreme heat in the villages of Tubas or Tammoun, where they have access to some basic facilities, such as water and electricity, which the Israeli army does not allow them to have in hamlets like Hadidiya and Humsa. However, the inhabitants of Hadidiya and Humsa now fear that even a brief absence would increase the risk that the Israeli army would destroy their homes (as happened in nearby Khirbet Tana in July 2005, when Israeli forces destroyed the entire village) and that they would be prevented from returning.

The Israeli army is continuing to increase its pressure on the local Palestinian population in Hadidiya and Humsa to leave the area. As well as threatening to destroy every single home in the villages, the army continue to deny the Palestinian villagers access to running water, electricity and other essential facilities, and has set up military checkpoints and blockades which restrict their movements.

In a visit to the area in mid-July, an Amnesty International researcher heard from the villagers about the frequent Israeli military patrols in and around the village, during which villagers are warned that their homes are about to be demolished, and are threatened with arrest if they do not leave the area. The Amnesty International delegate witnessed the extremely difficult conditions in which the villagers are forced to live: They are forbidden from building permanent structures, and so are forced to live in tents and shacks, which provide little shelter from the extreme heat in the summer and bitter cold in the winter, and are not allowed to use the wells and the roads in the area, as these are for the exclusive use of the nearby Israeli settlements, which have well-watered gardens and swimming pools.

The Palestinian Bedouin residents of Hadidiya have lived in the area since before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. They have traditionally been farmers and herders, living off their crops and the dairy products from their sheep and goats. The growing restrictions imposed by the Israeli army in recent years on their movements and access to water have made it increasingly difficult for them to survive in the area. Now the Israeli army is taking steps to force them out of the area altogether.

The villagers have welcomed international pressure, which has brought several high-level delegations to visit the Hadidiya and Humsa area. However, as international attention diminishes the threat to the villagers increases and further action now is crucial.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
For years Israel has pursued a policy of discriminatory house demolition, allowing scores of Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, to be built on occupied Palestinian land, while confiscating Palestinian lands, refusing building permits for Palestinians and destroying their homes. The land vacated has often been used for Israeli settlements. This is a violation of international law, which forbids occupying powers from settling their own citizens in the territories they occupy.

Palestinians, especially Palestinian Bedouins, who live in the Jordan Valley, have suffered particular pressure. Most of the Jordan Valley area of the occupied West Bank has been declared a military area by the Israeli army or has been taken over by some 36 Israeli settlements.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English, Hebrew or your own language:
- expressing concern that the residents of Humsa and Hadidiya are facing the demolition of their homes, and calling for the demolition orders to be rescinded;
- calling on the authorities to place a moratorium on house demolitions and forced evictions in the occupied West Bank until the law is amended to bring it into line with international standards;
- calling for the restrictions imposed on the Palestinian villagers in the Jordan Valley to be lifted, in particular for them to have access to water, electricity and other essential services, and for them to be allowed to move freely within the Jordan Valley, and between there and the rest of the West Bank;
- calling for responsibility for planning and building regulations in the Jordan Valley and elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be removed from the Israeli military authorities and placed solely with the local Palestinian communities.

APPEALS TO:

Ehud Bark
Minister of Defence
Ministry of Defence
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Fax: +972 3 691 6940
Email: minister@mod.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Minister

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
Military Judge Advocate General
David Elazar Street
Tel Aviv, Israel
Fax: +972 3 608 0366
Email: arbel@mail.idf.il
Salutation: Dear Judge Advocate General

Commander
District Coordination Office (DCO)
Jericho, West Bank, via Israel
Fax: +972 2 9943305
Salutation: Dear Sir

COPIES TO: diplomatic representatives of Israel accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 7 September 2007.

----
East Mediterranean Team
Amnesty International, International Secretariat
Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom
E-mail: Eastmed@amnesty.org
Tel: +44 (0)20 7413 5500
Fax: +44 (0)20 7413 5719

Finally, Olmert confirmed what I have mentioned over a months ago about the increase of military AID to racist Israel. But the smell of death does not stop there. US also announced that it will increase military SALES to some Arab regimes.

One ironic part in both the stories... It's an AID to Israel, but SALES to Arab regimes. Another part is that the arms sold to Arab are anything but as advanced or of quantity and quality of arms DONATED to Israel. This explains why Israel says "No Objections" to US/Gulf arms deal... (underline the words "Israel says No Objection", you go figure out who controls who...)

Excuse my ignorance... but is this the road of/for peace, Mr. Bush?!

Action:

US citizen are invited to contact their congress and demand they reject both the military sales to Arab regimes AND the increases in military grants to Israel (free weapons given for racist wars). Israel's military aid is to increase from $2.4 billion to $3 billion annually for the next ten years (a total cost to US taxpayers of $30 billion in addition to other aid).

For contacts of your representatives, go to:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

Maan News report that Israel will provide Abbas with up to $1 billion so Fatah can kill Hamas.

This is nothing but the first drop from the "aid flood" from Israel, U.S. and international community. But for what? For Palestinians to kill Palestinians:

Bethlehem - Ma'an – The Israeli authorities have announced that Israel intends to transfer between 400 million and one billion US dollars to the Palestinian Authority in coming weeks to battle Hamas.

Israeli Channel Two reported late on Friday evening that Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, "Has the intention to start final status negotiations in the coming months, on the condition that Abbas must fight Hamas."

Israeli political analysts claimed that "there are many steps under preparation, agreed upon by [US President] Bush and Olmert, including a joint plan against the Hamas movement on the political, economic and security levels".

It was also reported that Jordan will be asked "to pay more attention" to the West Bank, "and help in solving its problems".

Olmert is expected to request Egypt "to make a clear position regarding the Gaza Strip, especially in regard to the crossings."

What a fabulous scenario for them. The Zionist/Bush/Cindi's dream comes true. Do away with all those who vote against you, and get your guys to kill them.

And how much will end up in Abbas and Fatah pocket, as his "fee" for becoming the murdering hand of the Israelis, whose hands will remain clean? How much in other pockets of other collaborators, like the entire new "appointed" cabinet?

[Hat tip: David Cohen. Image by Ben Heine]

The bloody fight has spread from street to street and from one house to another. Rockets are falling from everywhere on innocent civilians, destroying their houses over their heads. During the last few weeks over 200 Palestinians were killed, and over 400 were injured, many are in critical conditions. Dozens of Hamas and Fatah members have been killed in heavy clashes. Gaza is controlled by Hamas "government" and the West Bank declared its own.

That's what the mainstream media is reporting but what's going on in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) is more than that. In fact the Palestinian Authority (PA) is censoring all the reports that explains the real reasons behind the war in Gaza and West Bank.

It is not a secret now that since the elections of Hamas, the Americans, Israel EU and Arab states are supporting only Fatah with arms, money and all kind of aid to keep them in power. In fact we now know that the American military coordinator and representative at the Palestinian military, the war criminal General Keith Dayton
will continue his work for "training the Palestinian forces" (Fatah only) in the West Bank.

US to help transfer humanitarian aid to West Bank

Sources in Bush administration say Washington will try and convince Quartet to transfer emergency aid to West Bank in bid to maintain Fatah's hegemony there.

According to a US State Department spokesperson, General Keith Dayton, who is responsible for training the Palestinian forces, will continue his work after a reassessment of the situation. The training will likely be transferred from Gaza to the West Bank, the spokesperson said.

What the media is not telling us is that the continued failings of the PA government and bloody disaster which the radical militants of Hamas brought upon the lives of all Palestinians was the last nail in the coffin of the PA government, Abbas as President and Hamas as elected party.

The Palestinians now want the Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resign, and the International Community to take charge of their responsibility toward the Palestinians for peace and order in all Palestinian cities, in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Palestinians are seeking that International Military Forces be stationed in Gaza and the West Bank, replacing the corrupt PA, Hamas militants and the Israeli occupation. However, unlike the latest news coming from Condi, the Palestinians strongly refuse the interference and participation of any US military deployment. They also refuse the European offer of sending troops for protecting Israel only along Gaza borders because Palestinian need protection from Israel attacks too.

What Palestinians are seeking is a powerful military force to be stationed in all Palestinians cities, to protect them from the daily attacks by Israelis, the corrupt PA and the various Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Fatah militias. The US is not invited to take part in this action because they are not trusted by Palestinians.

The mainstream media has not only failed to clarify the Palestinian demands, but also the reasons behind the bloody war between the two biggest parties in Gaza and the West Bank, the radical Islamic movement, Hamas, and the corrupt wing of the Palestinians Authority, Fatah.

Palestinian civilians from Gaza reported that Hamas, supported by other Palestinians opposition movements, and some leaders from the Fatah movement itself are fighting against what they described as the American-Israeli-Arab project which is being implemented by the corrupt PA government, supported by the head of the death squads in Gaza, Mohammad Dahlan. This project has the purpose of creating a PA "government" which supports US and Israeli interests, and denies Palestinians their rights of return among other things.

It is not a secret to say that Palestinians from Gaza accuse the US/Israel-supported Mohammad Dahlan of several attempts to assassinate Hamas leaders (including Prime Minister Ismail Haneya), hindering the work of the coalition government in Gaza and West Bank after Mecca treaty, and of causing and succeeding in creating a the bloody war between the two biggest parties in West Bank and Gaza, Hamas and Fatah. Dahlan is well known as the hand of Israel and the CIA in the Palestinian government.

On the other hand, the IOF air strikes in Gaza during the past few weeks aimed murdering leaders from Hamas including threats to assassinate Haneya himself and the destruction of Hamas's organizations while Abbas, Dahlan and the corrupt PA didn't say a word. Palestinians explained this by a conspiracy between the Mohammad Dahlan, the PA, and the Israeli occupation to eliminate as much as they (Israel) can from Hamas leaders, not to forget the huge number of Hamas leaders who are behind bars in Israeli prisons for no reason.

The mainstream media kindle the fires of hatred between the Palestinians themselves. Daily incitements against Hamas appear, as well as support for arming the "Presidential Guard", a force which receives training and funding from the US and the EU.

The anger against Mohammad Dahlan and PA in Gaza is huge, however, the Palestinians are also very angry with Hamas. Since Hamas was elected, the Palestinians live in two giant concentration camps, Gaza and the West Bank. They are not safe from Israeli rockets or from Hamas and Fatah bombs and murderers. Last night, four Palestinian children were killed by Israel in Gaza, mainstream media didn't care to report this. The Palestinians live under death threat 24 hours a day, they spend all their time taking part in funerals, starving and hearing the bombs exploding somewhere. The "International community" has furthered this genocide by allowing Israel to steal PA funds and then by imposing a financial siege on the Palestinians, leaving them to starve.

It's very simple: the Palestinians say "Hamas, Dahlan, and the PA should go to hell, all of them should disappear from Palestine". The International community should stand up to its responsibility toward the Palestinians according to the International laws, and not according to the Israelis demands.

[Credit to original author: Kawther Salam]

The silent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Hebron never stopped since the Israeli occupation landed. Following are few examples of the endless crimes conducted by Hebron colonizers (a.k.a. settlers) and their terrorist army (IOF), against land and Palestinian families, documented and published by B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

Introduction: The "quiet transfer" in Hebron:

Hebron is the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement at its heart. To enable a few hundred settlers to move about freely, Israel chose to enforce a formal policy of discrimination against more than 120,000 Palestinian residents of the city. Throughout the years Hebron city center became a ghost town.

The Rooftops of Hebron:

In 2000, the army closed Shohada Street , in Hebron , to Palestinians and sealed the entrances to the houses on the street. To leave her home, Malka Kafisha had to climb up through the roofs of neighboring houses.

Imagine if this family has some emergency and they want to take someone to doctor, say. The door is "welded". They are prisoners inside their house while the Jewish colonizers are freely walking in the street.

Harvesting olives, Harvesting a Storm:

On 26 Oct. 06, Hashem al-'Aza, one of the last remaining Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida, set off to harvest his olive trees. The settlers, who view his property as their own, came to stop him.

Error: A main street in Hebron "closed by mistake"

The main street in Hebron's commercial area has been closed to Palestinians since 2000. The army closed all the shops and sealed the doors at the entrances to the houses. Six years later, three Palestinians "TRY" to cross the street.

What is this called? RACISM? I don't think there is enough words in the dictionary to describe what the Zionists are doing in Palestine.

Tel Rumeida, Hebron:

In the center of the city of Hebron lies the "Tel Rumeida" neighborhood. In 1986, a new settlement was established at the heart of the neighborhood. The settlers of Tel Rumieda, who known as particularly extreme, live on one side of a dead-end street... The Abu Eisha family lives on the other side.

That was a small sample of Palestinian's lives in Hebron under the force of the apartheid occupation state called "Israel".

The Bedouin community in Israel are an ignored part of Israeli society that are facing the same systematic ethnic cleansing that we all faced in 1948, 1967, 2000, and through today.

Please support the attached "Call for a letter-writing campaign" issued by: Recognition Forum Association Forty, Association for Support and Defense of Bedouin in Israel, Coalition of Women for Peace, Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, New Profile, Rabbis for Human Rights, Ta'ayush, The Committee Against House Demolition.

Call for a letter-writing campaign

For about two years now, the Israeli government has been carrying out an unwritten policy of wiping from the face of the earth entire villages of Bedouins in the Negev. This policy is well demonstrated by the repeated demolition of 'Tawil Abu Jarwal' village in the eight-month period between September 2006 and May 2007. In February 2007, members of the Al-Nasasra clan received warnings that all village houses would be demolished. The unrecognized Bedouin villages such as 'Al-Sadir', 'Atir, Um al-Hiran', 'Tel-Arad' received similar warnings, and all households in the village 'Amara-Tarabin' received demolition orders. We request your participation in a letter-writing campaign that we are initiating in order to counter this policy of force, coercion and demolition by the Israeli government.

Background

In 1948, on the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel, there were about 110,000 Bedouins in the Negev. Following the war, there was an ongoing evacuation of the Bedouins from southern Israel. A census made in 1960 reveals that 11,000 Bedouins remained. During the early 1950s, the State of Israel concentrated the Bedouins in the area of the Sayag (see attached map). Entire tribes were displaced from their lands in the western and southern Negev and transferred to the Sayag area. The state declared a large part of the Sayag area to which the Bedouins had been moved as lands over which there was no municipal government. The planning and building law legislated in 1965 zoned all of these lands as agricultural, so implicitly building was forbidden there. Every house already built was therefore considered to be "illegal". Thus with a single sweeping political decision, the State of Israel transformed the entire Bedouin population into law-breakers, though the Bedouins’ only crime was to exercise their basic human right to housing.

In the late 1960s, a new stage commenced, in the policy of concentrating the Bedouins into narrower areas. The government started to establish a small number of townships, in which it intended to concentrate all the Bedouins. In order to encourage them to move to these townships, it began a policy of demolishing houses, destroying crops, confiscating herds of sheep and goats and denying basic services such as water, electricity, access roads, schools, clinics, sewage systems, etc. Only after public and legal struggles was the government obligated to build twenty regional schools and eight clinics for these unrecognized villages, and to connect some of the villages to the water system. Not only were the lands of the Bedouins nationalized and expropriated so that few of their lands remained available to them, but this rapacious policy of expulsion was accompanied by an enormous publicity campaign and by demonization of the Bedouins.

The townships have been a failure from every point of view - they remain a pocket of unemployment and welfare assistance, blighted by problems of hard crime and violence, and suffering from a dearth of workplaces, public transportation, banks, large businesses, industrial zoning, basic infrastructure, etc.

Bedouin tribes that were once dispersed throughout the entire Negev (see map), and intensively used about 2,000,000 dunams (200,000 hectares) of land, live today on about 240,000 dunams (24,000 hectares) and struggle to preserve ownership of a further 450,000 dunams (45,000 hectares). Today, the Negev Bedouins number about 160,000, out of which about 80,000 live in dozens of unrecognized villages and the rest in the eight new townships. If the state succeeds in concentrating the Bedouins into the townships (of which another nine are planned), the area remaining available to them for sustenance (grazing flocks, cultivating crops, etc.) will be reduced dramatically.

It can be seen from the above that the State of Israel is engaged in persecuting its Bedouin citizens, while coveting their remaining lands. The terrible situation in the townships proves that these were established not out of concern for the Bedouins, but from the desire to evict them from their lands.

Sample Letter:

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

Re: Opposition to the deliberate policy of your government to eradicate villages in the Negev

How can it be that Israel has villages inhabited by hundreds and sometimes thousands of Israeli citizens but which remain unrecognized by your Government? How can it be that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens are denied the simple right to a roof over their heads, to running water for their houses, to electricity, health services, roads or sewage systems, simply because your Government wishes to force them into townships? How can it be that there are Israeli citizens who are denied the opportunity to choose the way in which they wish to live?

Having already transferred entire tribes of Bedouins from their lands to elsewhere in the Negev, how can the Government then fail to recognize the new villages thus created? Why does the Government refuse to return these inhabitants to their original dwelling places despite promises to do so? Why is the State of Israel unwilling to recognize villages that were already there, on their lands, even before the State's establishment?

Is it permissible for the State of Israel to persecute these citizens because they were born as Bedouins and not as Jews?

Did this policy come about in order to snatch from the Arab Bedouins their remaining lands in the Negev, just as the majority of their lands were expropriated long ago?

Being a nation that (justifiably) struggles against anti-semitism around the world, it is difficult to understand how you can harm Israeli citizens in this way, simply because they are Bedouins rather than Jews.

I respectfully appeal to you to desist from this racist policy against the Bedouins and permit them to live in their dwelling places according to their needs, their traditions and desires, as is permitted to every Jewish citizen of Israel.

Respectfully,

Please send letters of protest to:

Mr. Ehud Olmert
Prime Minister of Israel,
Fax: 972-2-6513955,
Email: pmo.heb@it.gov.il
Office of the Prime Minister
Government Offices, Jerusalem, Israel

***

Ms. Tsipi Livni
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Fax: 972-2-5303704
Email: sar@mofa.gov.il
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Government Offices, Jerusalem, Israel

***

Mr. Shimon Peres
Deputy Prime Minister,
Fax: 972-3-6954156,
Email: info@sp.pmo.gov.il
Ministry of Development of the Negev and the Galilee and Regional Economic Development.

***

Prof. Daniel Friedman
Minister of Justice
Fax: 972-2-6287757
Email: sar@justice.gov.il
Ministry of Justice
Government Offices, Jerusalem, Israel

***

Mr. Roni Bar-On
Minister of the Interior
Fax: 972-2-6701585
Email: sar@moin.gov.il
Ministry of the Interior
Government Offices, Jerusalem, Israel.

***

Mr. Meir Shitrit,
Housing and Construction Minister
Fax: 972-2-5847688
Email: sar@moch.gov.il
Ministry of Housing and Construction
Government Offices, Jerusalem, Israel

We also ask that you send copies to Israeli ambassadors in your countries and to members of parliament in your countries.

Thanks,

Recognition Forum:
Association Forty, Association for Support and Defense of Bedouin in Israel, Coalition of Women for Peace, Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, New Profile,
Rabbis for Human Rights, Ta'ayush, The Committee Against House Demolition.

P.O.Box 130, Omer 84965, Israel. Web: www.dukium.org email: info@dukium.org Mobile: +972(0)50-7701118

Wishing a voice for the voiceless!

Sari Chreih and Razan Al-Ghazzawi – Interview with a Physician on Nahr el-Bared Tragedy

Q: What is your name and profession?
A: My name is Saleh Bhar and I am a pediatrician at American University Hospital (AUH, Beirut, Lebanon).

Q: We learned that you lost a member of your family during the bombings, which day was that?
A: During the first hours of the first day of the bombardment. My uncle died in his home when he was hit by one of the shells, he was with his two sons and one of his neighbors.

Q: How did you learn about his death?
A: My cousins told me that night.

Q: What was your uncle's name?
A: Salim Bhar, he was 75 years old, he used to work at Popular Committee and was working lately at his restaurant.

Q: What about your folks?
A: My parents told me that our house was hit by a shell. I also learned from neighbors that the damage is serious, as it was shelled more than once. They are staying at my aunt's in Tripoli.

Q: Where is your house located?
A: In the Saffouri part of the camp, at the Mohammara entrance.

Q: Do you know of any other relatives who may have possibly been injured or died?
A: My uncle's wife was injured. I have many relatives who lost their houses. My cousin Amin Bhar, a dentist, lost his house. My other cousin, also a doctor, lost his house too. My cousins told me that my uncle's neighbor, Raed el Shans, who was with him when his house was shelled, also died with my uncle.

Q: Do you know if anyone in your neighborhood was injured or killed?
A: My cousins told me that there are more than 20 people dead in our neighborhood, including my uncle, and that they were buried in a mass grave.

Q: Do you remember the names of those who were buried?
A: Yes, my uncle's neighbor, Raed el Shans, Jihad Azzam, Mahmud Hussen, Ahmad Attayar, Abd el Latif Kza', Jihad Abu el Ezz, Ashraf el Akel, Nayef el Saleh, Fakhri el Hassan. Among these were children no more than 15-years-old, Moahmud Mansur and Amer Mansur.

Q: Were they among the first who were buried in a mass grave in Saffuri area in the first day of the bombings?
A: Yes.

Q: What were the causes of death?
A: Some of them died when their houses were hit by shells, and some of them died from shrapnel-related injuries.

Q: Can anyone else confirm these causes of death?
A: There is a doctor who was there during the burial, his name is Fath Alla, and you can call him.

Q: What were the political backgrounds of those who died?
A: They had none, they are merely civilians.

Q: How did you first notice the Fatah al Islam militants?
A: They used to buy and rent houses. You know, there is something you should know about Nahr el Bared camp, it is a trade camp. Unlike other camps, it is a market for regional villages and cities, like Akkar and Minyeh. This advantage made it possible for non-Palestinians, especially Lebanese, to inhabit the refugee camp. These Fatah al Islam militants continued coming to Nahr el Bared, for the past three months, till they became huge.

Q: What was Fatah al Islam's internal policy?
A: They are trying to impose their policy on us. If they see someone drinking alcohol, they would beat him, and they used to encourage the youth to go to Mosques and pray. Not only that, they were too extreme. More than once, some of our inhabitants were killed by them; it was all over the news and TV. This militia was imposing itself on our camp and the Lebanese government along with the Palestinian officials is silent or cooperated.

Q: How do you explain their silence or cooperation?
A: I think the militia's existence for over three months is not a coincidence, but it is planned. The Palestinian officials have never been seen visiting the Lebanese government before, lately the visits were intense and raised suspicion. I think this may be a conspiracy taking place, against the Palestinian people and against the Palestinian existence in Lebanon. I would like to ask the following question: why is the camp being bombarded and not Tripoli, though in the latter the army has lost 27 soldiers? What we are witnessing today is an attack on entire camp, not only on Fatah al Islam. I honestly recall Sabra and Shatila right now. I'm also afraid something serious will happen in the near future.

Q: What about the nationalities of these militants?
A: Some are Lebanese, Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians and some are from North Africa; from Algeria and Tunisia. Most of them are non-Arab, from Afghanistan and Bangladesh, you can easily tell from the weird clothes they wore.

Q: How did they settle at the camp with such an arsenal?
A: Well, they bought and rented houses. They placed bags of sand in front of their houses, loaded with guns and RBJ weaponry. This prompts the following question: how did this weaponry enter the camp?

Q: A report appeared on ABC which linked the poor living conditions of the Palestinian refugees, in Lebanon and Gaza, with terrorism, do you think to be poor is to be a terrorist?
A: Well, I was poor, and I am still poor, but I am a doctor and not a terrorist. This analysis doesn't make sense. As I recall, Osama Bin Laden is millionaire, is he not?

Q: Are there any organizations working in Nahr el Bared?
A: No, there aren't.

Q: Anything else you want to add?
A: I want to say that though there are many people dying, and it is a tragedy, nobody is talking about them. Another tragedy awaits the survivors, where do they go now? Who is going to rebuild the camp? Are we forever going to stay at other people's houses in the camps?

Q: Do you think that the Lebanese government is responsible?
A: I think the Lebanese government is racist towards the Palestinians, there was not a single school opened to host the refugees.

Sari Chreih is a student at American University of Beirut in Beirut. Razan Al-Ghazzawi is a graduate student at University of Balamand. She is a member of Tlaxcala, and her blog is: Decentering Damascus

Originally posted at: http://tinyurl.com/3dq2lh

Please, publish, distribute and link to this important interview widely.

Yesterday I forwarded this insightful observation made by Susanne Scheidt, the coordinator of Al-Awda Italia, and person who is exquisitely informed on events in the Middle East. Since then, we have seen the tragedy deepen and unfold with the entrance of Lebanese Armed Forces into the refugee camps. Susanne has added some background information to the piece since last night, and with the knowledge of these things, the suspicions begin to turn into convictions, and we hope that you will choose to publish, disseminate or link this article far and wide. It is important to express that when the mass media chooses to report that it is a Palestinian "terrorist" group that is creating havoc, and that Lebanon is trying to maintain law and order, there is probably another story behind it. One that they are hesitant to allow the public to know, since killing and deporting refugees for "urban renewal and tourist purposes" is unethical in any book, and a crime against humanity in some.
- Mary Rizzo

30 May, 2007

Dear awdaiti,

As used as I am to interpreting historical events through the lens that focuses on their inherent finalities, I'm unable to get out of my mind the suspicion that the facts of Nahr al-Bared have been drawn up with a specific plan in mind. With the purpose of emptying this site from its current residents and their ramshackle buildings, to make room for a "re-qualification" of this excellent real estate resource, in order to build a tourist harbour complete with hotels and shopping malls.

Of the quantity of money that has been promised for the reconstruction of a Lebanon that has been destroyed by the Israeli Air Force, not one dollar has been spent to date for the construction of the houses that have been destroyed in Beirut and in the southern part of the country, because Siniora's government refuses to distribute the resources to the consortium of cooperatives Jihad al-Binaa, in which the majority of the victims are subscribed.

The USA has decreed that Jihad al-Binaa must not be enabled to claim any merits for the reconstruction of Lebanon, seeing as how it is an organisation that was established by Hezbollah. Extremely efficient, in that next to the engineers, architects and skilled labourers of tested professionalism, Jihad al-Binaa uses the labour of the victims themselves, as long as they are capable of working. It is a model that has already been tested and had allowed the reconstruction of every house, every village that had been destroyed during the Israeli occupation (1982-2000) and adequate housing under difficult circumstances to the hundreds of thousands of people who were evacuated from the southern areas of Beirut. If it were to pass through the Jihad al-Binaa consortium, the international donations would without a doubt be spent in the best way, since within one or two years the houses could be restored and the agricultural terrain cleared and rendered arable once again.

The Siniora government, so far, has not spent one single dollar in the reconstruction of housing, limiting its intervention to the repair of bridges and some principle roads. The USA have forbidden their banks to conduct any kind of transaction with Jihad al-Binaa and both the USA and France would like (naturally) that the "reconstruction" of Lebanon is translated into an influx of vital lymph for the huge real estate companies of the Hariri family and for the companies that are connected to them, to Walid Jumblatt and to the other speculators associated with the anti-Syrian "14 March" club.

The pouring down of more than a million cluster bombs upon southern Lebanon in the final hours of the Israeli military aggression, had the purpose of impeding a return of widespread human presence in the southern territory and in the southern areas of Beirut, defined as the reign of Hezbollah (the objective that was officially declared both during the offensive of April 1993, that of April 1996 and once again, at the start of that of July 2006). Now, the arrival of 8 cargo airplanes full to the gills of weapons from the United States to the Siniora government to carry out a war in the ghetto of Nahr al-Bared, has the stench of the desire to complete the Israeli operation of emptying selected areas of undesired populations. In the case of Nahr al-Bared, to remove an impoverished population from an area of enormous future value for the investors of capital.

SOME IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The real number of those displaced from southern Lebanon is close to 500 thousand. They were forced out of their homes through Israeli occupation from 1982 on, and once again through the two heavy offensives of the Israeli Air Force in April 1993 and April 1996. It's this huge number of displaced, and the effort and skills and especially the organizational genius of Jihad al-Binaa that led to the construction of a whole satellite-city - the Dahiyya ("outskirts") - on the southern edge of Beirut. It's no secret that the Dahiyya was a sore in the eyes of the forces who organised in the March-14 bloc, just as Sabra and Shatilah had been a sore in the eyes of the Kata'ib forces during the Lebanese civil war.

At the beginning of the civil war, Pierre Gemayyel once told a group of European reporters that where Sabra and Shatilah stood, once there was a wonderful pine-tree park and that his Kata'ib forces would restore that park, once the Palestinian "squatters" were removed. Then again, about ten years ago, Walid Jumblatt - owner of the largest Lebanese cement factory - proposed to relocate the Palestinian refugees "squatting" on valuable real estate at the sea-coast and inside Beirut to the internal areas, into a remote valley in the mountains, where he would "graciously" build for them a big new concrete camp (with money from international donors).

As to the whole picture, my suspicion regarding the Nahr al-Bared is growing ever greater, the more this event unfolds into a nightmare, with tens of thousands still holed up inside the Nahr al-Bared camp and the Lebanese artillery shelling it mercilessly, repeating the Israeli mantra "we'll do our utmost to avoid excessive civilian casualties ...."

Susanne Scheidt is the coordinator of the Italian branch of Al-Awda, and activist for Palestinian rights. Translated from Italian by Mary Rizzo, member of Tlaxcala, network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation is on Copyleft and may be reprinted as long as the author, source and translator are cited and the content remains unchanged.

I've been watching the latest Palestinian refugees crises for a week now. Thousands of Palestinian refugees fled from Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon as one week of clashes by the Lebanese army and a militant group known as Fath al-Islam has left dozens of soldiers and fighters (better described as terrorists) and an unknown number of civilians dead.

The situation of these Palestinian refugees worsens, 59 years after they were first expelled from their homeland into Lebanon. The world looks on in silence, while the U.S. RUSH with arms to support...?

There are many theories and version that explained the origins of Fath al-Islam, the events that led to the violence and what it means for Lebanon and the region.

As usual, the MSM focus on U.S. officials version and omits the others, which by the way are shocking and holds more facts than the "official" story.

Few days ago, Democracy Now! interviewed Seymour Hersh and revealed part of the untold story:

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh joins us to talk about another theory of who is backing the militant group - the Lebanese government itself, along with the United States. Last March, Hersh reported the U.S. and Saudi governments are covertly backing militant Sunni groups like Fatah al-Islam as part of an overarching foreign policy against Iran and growing Shia influence.
[...]

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what you learned?

SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, very simply -- this is over the winter -- the government made -- I think the article is called "The Redirection." There was a major change of policy by the United States government, essentially, which was that we were going to -- the American government would join with the Brits and other Western allies and with what we call the moderate Sunni governments -- that is, the governments of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- and join with them and with Israel to fight the Shia.

One of the major goals for America, of course, was the obsession the Bush White House has with Iran, and the other obsession they have is, of course -- is in fear -- is of Hezbollah, the Party of God, that is so dominant in -- the Shia Party of God that's so dominant in southern Lebanon that once -- and whose leader Hassan Nasrallah wants to play a bigger political role and is doing quite a bit to get there and is in direct confrontation with Siniora.

And so, you have a situation where the Sunni government, pretty much in control now, the American-supported Sunni government headed by Fouad Siniora, who was a deputy or an aide to Rafik Hariri, the slain leader of Lebanon, that government has -- we know, the International Crisis Group reported a couple years ago that the son Saad Hariri, the son of Rafik Hariri, who's now a major player in the parliament of Lebanon, he put up $40,000 bail to free four Sunni fundamentalists, Jihadist-Salafists -- which you will -- who were tied directly to -- you know, this word "al-Qaeda" is sort of ridiculous -- they were tied to jihadist groups. And God knows, al-Qaeda, in terms of Osama bin Laden, doesn't have much to do with what we're talking about. These are independently, more or less, you can call them, fanatical jihadists.

And so, the goal -- part of the goal in Lebanon, part of the way this policy played out, was, with Saudi help, Prince Bandar -- if you remember him -- we remember Prince Bandar, the Saudi prince, as a major player in Iran-Contra and also in the American effort two decades ago -- if you remember, we supported Osama bin Laden and other jihadists in Afghanistan against the Russians, and that didn't work out so well. Well, we run right back to the well again, and we began supporting some of these jihadist groups, and particularly -- in the article, I did name Fatah al-Islam.

The idea was to provide them with some arms and some money and some basic equipment so -- these are small units, a couple hundred people. There were three or four around the country given the same help covertly, the goal being they would be potential enemies of Hezbollah in case of warfare; in case Nasrallah decided to do something physical, get kinetic, in Lebanon, the Sunni Siniora government would have some very tough guys on its side, period. That's the policy.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Sy Hersh, if that is true, then what has led to the current fighting now? If the Lebanese government had been backing the group, why is it now attacking it?

SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, first of all, the Lebanese army is very distinct. Let me begin by saying nobody really knows anything right now. I mean, there's a lot -- one of the things about crises is you learn that you really get to play much later. But based on common sense and what I'm reading, the Lebanese army has maintained an amazing sort of neutrality, which is surprising. The army has not been a pawn of the Siniora government.
[..snip..]

So I think the story that we have is that there was a crime, and they were chasing people into one of the Palestinian camps, which are always hotbeds. God knows the Palestinians are the end of the stick, not only for the West, but also for the Arab world. Nobody pays much attention to them and those places. I've been to Tripoli and been into the camps, and they are seething, as they should be. You know, rational people don't like being mistreated. And in any case, so what you have is, what seems to me, just a series -- the word you could use is "unintended consequences." I don't think anybody in the Siniora government anticipated that the people they were covertly supporting to some degree -- I got an email the other day, and I have not checked this out, from somebody who was in the community, in the intelligence community and still consults with the community, he says, "Why don't we ask more about the American arms that the fighters of Fatah al-Islam have, are brandishing?" I don't know if that's true or not, but I did get that email. And so, that could be true. Both Saudi money and American money, not directly, but indirectly, was fed into these groups.

And what is the laugh riot and the reason I'm actually talking to you guys about this -- I usually don't like to do interviews unless I have a story in The New Yorker -- the reason I'm talking about it is because the American government keeps on putting out this story that Syria is behind the Fatah group, which is just beyond belief. There's no way -- it may be possible, but the chances of it are very slight, simply because Syria is a very big supporter, obviously, of Nasrallah, and Bashar al-Assad has told me that he's in awe of Nasrallah, that he worships at his feet and has great respect for him. The idea that the Syrians would be sponsoring Sunni jihadist groups whose sole mission are to kill the apostates -- that is, anybody who doesn't support their view, the Wahhabi or Salafist view of Sunni religion -- that includes the Shia -- anybody who doesn't believe -- support these guys' religions are apostates and are killable, that's basically one of the crazy aspects of all this, and it's just inconceivable. Nothing can be ruled out, but that doesn't make much case, and I noticed that in the papers today there's fewer and fewer references to this. The newspapers in America are beginning to wise up, that this can't be -- this isn't very logical. The White House is putting it out hot and heavy as part of the anti-Syria campaign, but it's not flying, because it doesn't make sense. So there we are. It's another mess.

You might think that one of the reasons -- I think I wrote about this in The New Yorker -- one of the things that the Saudi Bandar had promised us was that we can control the jihadists. We can control them, he assured us. Don't worry about getting in bed with these bad guys, because, as we remember, the same kind of assurances were given to us in the late 1980s, when we supported, as I said, bin Laden and others in the war against Russia, the Mujahideen war, and that, of course, bit us on the ass. And this is, too. So there we are.
[..snip..]

Surprise?!

Well, not until you hear more details. These details answers the question which Hersh could not or didn't have enough info about (Why and what is this all about?).

CounterPunch published an article titled: Who's Behind the Fighting in North Lebanon? - By Dr. Franklin Lamb, in which he gives amazing details and analysis. This is a must read to understand what is going on and why:

Given Bush administration debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan and its encouragement for Israel to continue its destruction of Lebanon this past summer, the situation in Lebanon mirrors, in some respects, the early 1980's when groups sprung up to resist the US green lighted Israeli invasion and occupation. But rather than being Shia and pro-Hezbollah, today's groups are largely Sunni and anti-Hezbollah. Hence they qualify for US aid, funneled by Sunni financial backers in league with the Bush administration which is committed to funding Islamist Sunni groups to weaken Hezbollah.

This project has become the White House obsession following Israel's July 2006 defeat.

To understand what is going on with Fatah al-Islam at Nahr el-Bared one would want a brief introduction to Lebanon's amazing, but shadowy 'Welch Club'.

The Club is named for its godfather, David Welch, assistant to Secretary of State Rice who is the point man for the Bush administration and is guided by Eliot Abrams. Key Lebanese members of the Welch Club (aka: the 'Club') include:

• The Lebanese civil war veteran, warlord, feudalist and mercurial Walid Jumblatt of the Druze party( the Progressive Socialist Party or PSP)
• Another civil war veteran, warlord, terrorist (Served 11 years in prison for massacres committed against fellow Christians among others) Samir Geagea. Leader of the extremist Phalange party and its Lebanese Forces (LF) the group that conducted the Israel organized massacre at Sabra-Shatilla (although led by Elie Hobeika, once Geagea's mentor, Geagea did not take part in the Sept. 1982 slaughter of 1,700 Palestinian and Lebanese).
• The billionaire, Saudi Sheikh and Club president Saad Hariri leader of the Sunni Future Movement (FM).

Over a year ago Hariri's Future Movement started setting up Sunni Islamist terrorist cells (the PSP and LF already had their own militia since the civil war and despite the Taif Accords requiring militia to disarm they are now rearmed and itching for action and trying hard to provoke Hezbollah).

The FM created Sunni Islamist 'terrorist' cells were to serve as a cover for (anti-Hezbollah) Welch Club projects. The plan was that actions of these cells, of which Fatah el-Islam is one, could be blamed on al Qaeda or Syria or anyone but the Club.

To staff the new militias, FM rounded up remnants of previous extremists in the Palestinian Refugee camps that had been subdued, marginalized and diminished during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Each fighter got $700 per month, not bad in today's Lebanon.

The first Welch Club funded militia, set up by FM, is known locally as Jund-al-Sham (Soldiers of Sham, where "Sham" in Arabic denotes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine & Jordan) created in Ain-el-Hilwa Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. This group is also referred to in the Camps as Jund-el-Sitt (Soldiers of the Sitt, where "Sitt" in Sidon, Ain-el-Hilwa and the outskirts pertain to Bahia Hariri, the sister of Rafiq Hariri, aunt of Saad, and Member of Parliament).

The second was Fateh-al-Islam (The name cleverly put together, joining Fateh as in Palestinian and the word Islam as in Qaeda). FM set this Club cell up in Nahr-al-Bared refugee camp north of Tripoli for geographical balance.

Fatah el-Islam had about 400 well paid fighters until three days ago. Today they may have more or fewer plus volunteers. The leaders were provided with ocean view luxury apartments in Tripoli where they stored arms and chilled when not in Nahr-al-Bared. Guess who owns the apartments?

According to members of both Fatah el-Islam and Jund-al-Sham their groups acted on the directive of the Club president, Saad Hariri.

So what went wrong? "Why the bank robbery" and the slaughter at Nahr el-Baled?

According to operatives of Fatah el-Islam, the Bush administration got cold feet with people like Seymour Hirsh snooping around and with the White House post-Iraq discipline in free fall. Moreover, Hezbollah intelligence knew all about the Clubs activities and was in a position to flip the two groups who were supposed to ignite a Sunni ­Shia civil war which Hezbollah vows to prevent.

Things started to go very wrong quickly for the Club last week. FM "stopped" the payroll of Fateh el-Islam's account at the Hariri family owned back.

Fateh-al-Islam, tried to negotiate at least 'severance pay' with no luck and they felt betrayed. (Remember many of their fighters are easily frustrated teenagers and their pay supports their families). Militia members knocked off the bank which issued their worthless checks. They were doubly angry when they learned FM is claiming in the media a loss much greater than they actually snatched and that the Club is going to stiff the insurance company and actually make a huge profit.

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (newly recruited to serve the bidding of the Club and the Future Movement) assaulted the apartments of Fatah-al-Islam Tripoli. They didn't have much luck and were forced to call in the Lebanese army.

Within the hour, Fatah-al-Islam retaliated against Lebanese Army posts, checkpoints and unarmed, off-duty Lebanese soldiers in civilian clothing and committed outrageous killings including severing at four heads.

Up to this point Fatah-al-Islam did not retaliate against the Internal Security forces in Tripoli because the ISF is pro-Hariri and some are friends and Fatah al-Islam still hoped to get paid by Hariri. Instead Fatah al Islam went after the Army.

The Seniora cabinet convenes and asks the Lebanese Army to enter the refugee camp and silence (in more ways than one) Fatah-al-Islam. Since entrance into the Camps is forbidden by the 1969 Arab league agreement, the Army refuses after realizing the extent of the conspiracy against it by the Welch Club. The army knows that entering a refugee camp in force will open a front against the Army in all twelve Palestinian refugee camps and tear the army apart along sectarian cracks.

The army feels set up by the Club's Internal Security Forces which did not coordinate with the Lebanese Army, as required by Lebanese law and did not even make them aware of the "inter family operation" the ISF carried out against Fatah-al-Islam safe houses in Tripoli.

Today, tensions are high between the Lebanese army and the Welch Club. Some mention the phrase 'army coup'.

The Club is trying to run Parliament and is prepared to go all the way not to 'lose' Lebanon. It still holds 70 seats in the house of parliament while the Hezbollah led opposition holds 58 seats. It has a dutiful PM in Fouad Siniora.

The club tried to seize control of the presidency and when it failed it marginalized it. Last year it tried to control of the Parliamentary Constitutional Committee, which audits the government's policies, laws and watch dogs their actions. When the Club failed to control it they simply abolished the Constitutional Committee. This key committee no longer exists in Lebanon's government.

The Welch Club's major error was when it attempted to influence the Lebanese Army into disarming the Lebanese Resistance led by Hezbollah. When the Army wisely refused, the Club coordinated with the Bush Administration to pressure Israel to dramatically intensify its retaliation to the capture of the two soldiers by Hezbollah and 'break the rules' regarding the historically more limited response and try to destroy Hezbollah during the July 2006 war.

The Welch Club now considers the Lebanese Army a serious problem. The Bush administration is trying to undermine and marginalize it to eliminate one of the last two obstacles to implementing Israel's agenda in Lebanon.

If the army is weakened, it can not protect over 70% of the Christians in Lebanon who support General Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement. The F.P.M. is mainly constituted of well educated, middle class and unarmed Lebanese civilians. The only protection they have is the Lebanese Army which aids in maintaining their presence in the political scene. The other type of Christians in Lebanon is the minority, about 15% of Christians associated with Geagea's Lebanese Forces who are purely militia. If the Club can weaken the Army even more than it is, then this Phalange minority will be the only relatively strong force on the Christian scene and become the "army" of the Club.

Another reason the Club wants to weaken the Lebanese Army is that the Army is nationalistic and is a safety valve for Lebanon to ensure the Palestinian right of return to Palestine, Lebanese nationhood and the resistance culture led by Hezbollah, with which is has excellent relations.

For their part, the Welch Club wants to keep some Palestinians in Lebanon for cheap labor, ship others to countries willing to take them (and be paid handsomely to do so by American taxpayers) and allow at most a few thousand to return to Palestine to settle the 'right of return' issue while at the same time signing a May 17th 1983 type treaty with Israel with enriches the Club members and gives Israel Lebanon's water and much of Lebanon's sovereignty.

Long story short, Fatah el-Islam must be silenced at all costs. Their tale, if told, is poison for the Club and its sponsors. We will likely see their attempted destruction in the coming days.

Hezbollah is watching and supporting the Lebanese army.

Personally -- as s Sunni Muslim -- I trust Nasrallah and the above version of the story than the official Lebanese/American theory (no theory actually).

Beneath these ironic "unintended consequences" as Hesrh called them, the Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians are the victims. For several days now, some PLO figures are negotiating with Fath Al-Islam, on behalf of the Lebanese government, the Lebanese army, the Americans, etc, God knows on whose behalf and for what, but that's not the issue. What is more important to me is the civilian Palestinian refugees who fled the camp, and the remaining ten thousand refugees still in the camp (reports says that more than thirty thousand fled and ten thousand remained).

Once again, Palestinians has nothing to do with the conflict, yet, they pay the price with their blood. In an interview on Al-Arabiya television on May 23, the Lebanese defense minister, Ilyas Murr, stated that of the several dozen terrorist killed in the battles, not a single a fighter is identified as Palestinian. He said they are mostly Lebanese, Saudi, Yemeni, Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan and so on.

I hate to say this, but what the PLO in Lebanon fears is a retaliation war between Palestinians - from one side - and Lebanese - from the other side. Unfortunately this is supported by the fact that, on one hand the Palestinians (not the Lebanese government or the army) are the ones negotiating with Fath al-Islam to save lives and solve the conflict, and on the other hand the dead silence reaction to the indiscriminate killing/shelling of the refugees in the camp by the Lebanese army. No one can imagine that 'some or all' the of the Palestinian militias in Lebanon will keep silent any longer if the Palestinian refugees are not safe and continues to be killed indiscriminately (by the Lebanese army or fath al-Islam) while no one cares to protect them.

Monitoring the reaction in Lebanon this is one of the most painful elements in this story and in history. There is an overwhelming competition by people and organizations to pay tribute to the Lebanese army but not a single political party in Lebanon has spoken out against the indiscriminate shelling of the refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, except for Nasrallah (so Hezbollah), conservatively, indirectly, but late. However, as they say: "better later than never". Contrary, several Lebanese political parties tried and still working on theories to tie Fath al-Islam with Palestinian militias'.

This is nothing but a general racist attitude towards Palestinians. Maybe that's why it is easy for so many people to tolerate indiscriminate attacks on Palestinian refugee camps (similar to Israel case, which always escape the same crimes when they target the Palestinian civilians in Occupied Palestine). If Arab can do it, why not Zionists? Very painful ... but true!

What can YOU do? YOU can help by engaging in Political/media activism AND also donate.

Razan, a sweet close friend of mine informed me few days ago about the formation of Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign. The organization delivers medicine and the supplies needed to Badawi camp (where most refugees of Nahr el Bared camp fled to):

About the Campaign
The Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign was spontaneously formed following the tragic events in Nahr el Bared Camp. We are a grouping of unaffiliated individuals working on relief and civil action to end the violence and offer aid to those injured and displaced due to the Nahr el Bared conflict.

Donation Account Details
For tax-deductible donations to the Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign please use the following account:

AUB Office of Development
https://rtf.aub.edu.lb/

Please make sure to specify that your donation is going to the Nahr el Bared refugees.

Contact us
marcynewman [at] gmail [dot] com: 70-977812 r.moumneh [at] gmail [dot] com: 03-356644

Aid supply drop-offs
If you have any donations you would like to drop off in person, you can do so in Teh-Marboota Cafe, Pavillion Center, Hamra main road.

Razan went to Badawi camp and she made interviews with refugees who've lost their families under the Lebanese army bombs. She got an initial list of martyrs. You can see the post here:
http://ya-ashrafe-nnas.blogspot.com/2007/05/dont-feel-sorry-about-me-see-me.html

More donations can be sent to The Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA):
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=1171

(Image by Ben Heine)

Update (1): In his most recent report, the 'Welch club' story writer, Franklin Lamb says, "Will try to send results shortly of my interviews with 11 Fatah al-Islam fighters regarding who paid them and got them travel documents and weapons and what was their mission. There was no bank robbery by them. That was a fake story put out by the Welch Club. Sorry I misreported it. BBC was suckered. Also, no, repeat no heads cut off. Where are the medical reports from those who claim it? That was black propaganda to smear Fatah el-Islam. Must leave this building now may not be until tomorrow or so."

A Dutch reporter in Beirut, Sietske Galama, asks "Who is Franklin Lamb?," and says, "if he's for real, he's real good." Galama notes, "The man is right now inside the Palestinian camp Nahr el-Bared. While all of us journalists are sort of hovering on the outskirts of the camp, this man actually went inside. Or at least that is what he writes."

From the little that I could find out, Dr. Franklin Lamb is described as an "international lawyer," is or was a researcher at the Center for Arab and Middle East Studies, American University of Beirut, a research associate at If Americans Knew, has been in Lebanon researching a book for the past nine months, and is the author of several books about the middle east conflict.

For more analysis and view of this story, see Missing Links' blog posts titled: A possible explanation and The war scenario.

Update (2): In this most recent piece, Franklin Lamb expounds further upon the proposed US airbase, previously broached, as the rationale for the recent terrible covert operations that saw dozens of Palestinians and Lebanese Army soldiers die. He doesn't much distinguish between the proposal as a US or an Israeli airbase (it is marketed as as a US/ NATO initiative) assuming that the hand of David Welch and Elliot Abrams means that the ziocons in the US might as well mean that Israel would have access to a proposed base in a country they were just at war with. (Source: Ann)

Much quicker and easier than starving the Palestinians, is simply letting them die of thirst.

This is what Mr. Netanyahu learned from the Holocaust - unfortunately it was all from the Nazis!

Collective punishment and a war crimes is nothing new to Netanyahu:

Netanyahu: Shut off Gaza's water

"The government can do a lot to protect its people," Netanyahu said. "It could evacuate whomever necessary, enact a closure on the Gaza Strip, stop providing services like electricity and water, or decide on a limited invasion of four or five kilometers to distance the range of the Kassams. But the government isn't doing anything to protect the people of Sderot, because it is paralyzed," he said. (Source: Jerusalem Post)

Nothing less can be expected from such a person...

But wait, it is not only at politician/war criminals level:

Mekorot limits water supply to Arara due to local council's unpaid debt

The Negev town of Arara has been largely without running water for three days, due to an unpaid municipal debt to the Mekorot Water Company.

According to Mekorot, the Arara Local Council owes NIS 321,000, and that limiting the supply of water to the Bedouin town was used as a last resort.

The National Council for the Child asked Interior Minister Roni Bar-On to intervene, after it was alerted to the situation by a resident of the town, who said the lack of water has placed the town's children in a dire situation. (Source: Haartz)

Please note that Arara is a Bedouin town in Israel. Imagine if the same thing happens to jewsih kids and their families. Can you imagine that? Of course you can't because that is impossible to happen to a Jew citizen (and I really hope that it never happens to them of others), but to Palestinians and Bedouins, it does not matter.

False! Well, not everywhere, but at Daily Kos it sure is.

It has been nearly a month since I decided to start cross-posting most of what I write in my blog to my diary at Daily Kos. The diaries at Daily Kos are more or less make for a personal blog, where members can publish their essays and engage in comments and dialogue with other members, if they wish to comment. Daily Kos is advertised to be the liberal-progressive front of the Left Wing in the Democratic Party of the United States. In other words, they claim to be the voice of Progressive Democrats, and that's what I thought, until few days ago.

It is worth to mention that I'm one of many blog owners (Sabbah's Blog) to cross-post at Daily Kos [see Daily Kos FAQs: . . . "11. Cross-posting from your own blog is welcome. Remember, though, that you can only write one diary a day at Daily Kos."], activists, authors, etc... coming from different backgrounds and religions, we are Americans and non-Americans, Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-believers alike. What we have in common is being pro-Palestine, pro-Peace, and anti-Occupation. Among the group from this side, there are many ideas and opinions about what is best to resolve the Israel/Palestinian conflict. We might not agree all the time, but we all agree that Israel's Occupation should end.

For an unknown period of time, there was a very active member on Daily Kos who went by the name, Shergald. He was one of the most active Kossacks members who never missed a day without publishing a pro-Palestine diary. Actually, the majority of his diaries were about the peace movement in Israel, Palestine, the US, and the around the world. Obviously, life is not that easy, and what everyone thought to be a 'freedom of speech' forum turned to be an occupied Zionist zone. Shergald was attacked and attacked thousands of times by this Zionist gang until, when they could not stop him by countering the truth and the facts he presented in his diaries, they started to overwhelm the administration at Daily Kos with complaints about him supporting the worst lies that you can imagine, such as his being anti-Semitic, etc. What Daily Kos administration did was surprising. The progressive left wing voice of the Democrats decided to silence Shergald, to ban him from writing diaries or having any functionality on Daily Kos. He was frustrated and disappointed by the unjust and biased decision to ban him (twice), so he decided to come back, but under different ID's. To cut long story short, his new IDs were hunted one after another until it reached a stage that anyone who knew or knows Shergald, or had any association with him (no matter what association means, you will see examples later), was kicked out of Daily Kos on behalf of the Zionist gang.

Unfortunately, after Shergald was silenced and banned from appearing on Daily Kos, the frequency of I/P diaries went down in volume to the level that it was hardly noticed to the pleasure of the Zionists. That meant that American readers of Daily Kos (nearly 0.5 million a day) were not going to read the facts behind the news or hear the hidden stories or history of the Palestinian catastrophe or the daily injustices that they go under by the Israeli occupation, or about the many peace organizations that have evolved to stop the injustices. Nor would they hear about the influence of AIPAC on American foreign policy at a times when Democrats are preparing from the next presidential election, a topic progressive Democrats are highly interested in.

What happened next was not very surprising. Several pro-Palestine/pro-Peace bloggers, authors, writers, activists, etc... started appearing at Daily Kos and bridged the gap that Shergald left. The number of new pro-Palestine Kossacks increased during the last 60 days or so to a level where the balance of true facts compared to propaganda/lies turned toward the pro-Palestine side. To name some of those new members, Steve Amsel (a.k.a. DesertPeace), Ben Heine (his blog here), Umkahlil (her blog here), Anna (her website here), Eileen Fleming (her website here), Jon the Anti Zionist Jew (I was told that Jon was posting for long period), and many more. I, Sabbah, was there too. I don't think that anyone mentioned above expected that their time on Daily Kos would fly smoothly, but at least it was a more even match than anyone thought.

The Zionist gang reopened their propaganda operating manual and started shooting accusations left and right that this one is anti-Semitic, that that one is pro-terrorist, and so on and so forth. They first managed to ban Ben Heine in no time at all for the following drawing:

Defenders of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's most racist government official, who advocates the transfer of Israeli Arabs into Bantustans, were incensed. A couple of days ago, Steve Amsel was banned because someone from the Zionist group complained to the administration that Steve might be Shergald in disguise. The complainer later admitted that he was wrong, but the Daily Kos administration decided to shoot the messenger (Steve) anyway and let the venom of the Zionist gang spread more lies around Daily Kos. So many tried to justify the banning of Steve Amsel, thinking it was the result of his being associated with Shergald. Of course, the biggest evidence they have to blot this association were a comment or two of Shergald's on Steve's blog, where Shergald was not saying any more than "well done" or "great post" following one of the master pieces that Steve writes.

Once the war started, it didn't stop. Other pro-Palestine authors such as Umkahlil, Anna Baltzer, and me were included. In fact, it started only seconds after any of us posted his/her first diary there. One can only wonder how many agents the Zionist gang and AIPAC recruited to act as watchdogs 24/7, sifting through every single word published on Daily Kos, observing every single move of Daily Kos members. It is evident that the Zionists on Daily Kos are very organized and I would not be surprised if they are supported by their biggest allies from the Bush administration Department of State. I'm sure that you all remember my own story about the State Department official who attempted to interfere in my blog (more here).

Yesterday, which marked the celebration of the Nakba, Daily Kos blew the last bridge it had with the Palestinian voices. Midday GMT, the news started coming. They first banned Umkahlil, later on they banned me, and last but not least, they banned Anna Baltzer. Why? Nobody knows. No reason is given. No warning or any notice from the 'busy' Kos administrators to let any of us know the circumstances under which the decision was taken and what valid reasons they gave for throwing these poisoned donuts at us. All that we heard from unofficial sources: we are associates of Shergald, again!

It is sad to believe that Daily Kos administration based its decision on such meaningless illusions. It would not have taken them more than a minute to check the history of each of us and see that we all are established pro Palestine peace activists, just by looking at our blogs and websites. We don't have to have any association with anyone, not even with other banned Kos members or other groups that might also talk about the plight of Palestinians. Our blogs and our work, online and offline, have their own merits and stands on its own. I do not deny knowing Shergald, in fact I'm proud to know a tough fighter like him, but he is not the reason why I started posting on Daily Kos. The main reason is the same reason I write here in my blog, which all of you know is about presenting the truth about Palestine historically and about the daily catastrophes that result from the criminal occupation of the Zionists of my homeland. I never hid my objectives, which are to bring justice to everyone in this conflict, including Israelis.

Today I'm left with no access to publish anything more on Daily Kos. That's bad. Not only for me, but for my American friends who know nothing more but the false Zionist narratives of the occupation. It is sad to confirm now that Daily Kos is the latest "Zionist Occupied Zone." It is unfortunate that they still advertise being a "Progressive Voice" for the Democratic Left Wing. It is also bad to believe that the Left Wing will let it go as is, but I hope not. But imagine the credibility of the Left Wing if this remains the case at Daily Kos, especially as they are preparing themselves for next year's elections. No one denies that the Israel/Palestine conflict is a central topic of the US foreign policy. If it remains as such, I will not be surprised to see AIPAC ads on Daily Kos soon. And need I say so, there will be another five or more years of support for Israel's illegal occupation by the new US "Democratic" administration?

Having said all the above, I'm not really interested in going back to cross-post diaries on Daily Kos, even though there is an open invitation to do so in the FAQs. It is not because it is not important. To the contrary, when 0.5 million people read what is published there, it is very important to keep the pro-Palestine view live. But to know that the Zionist gang have taken over the blog, it is next to impossible to make any move without expecting to get hijacked by the venomous Zionists of the site. Venom only seen elsewhere at Little Green Footballs. In other words, until and unless Daily Kos administration corrects its policies, and the mess its created because of its fear of Zionist members and their propagandists, it will be waste of time fighting the winds of colonial Zionism, while they have the control keys of Daily Kos in their hands.

Last but not least, I really feel sorrow for leaving because I will miss the peaceful voices of the silent pro-Palestine majority at Daily Kos. However, I'm glad that I made more friends than enemies while there, no matter what happens. Just keep in mind that if you want to be seen as a peacemaker, stop applauding the war criminals and supporting the IOF terrorists. On the other hand, watch your back if you quote any Palestinian. You will be tagged as a terrorist.

Good bye "Zionist Occupied" Daily Kos!

(Drawings by: Ben Heine)

Update: This diary is a must read - Restoring The Palestinian Voice To Daily Kos

You will be shocked to know that the reason we (Nancy and I) got banned for is nothing to do with Shergald "association" thingy, but even more silly than that. It is because Nancy and I recommended another pro-Palestine diary there (Anna'a), and the administrators think that that diary promote "terrorist" views.

The DKos claims were defeated and the banning now has no merits. It was a racist action.

There is too much to read in this post and comments, but out of the +700 comments (and counting), this is the most important part to read.

Where on earth would you expect to see a military forces going out at 5:30 AM to throw out 'handicapped children' to the cold streets after snatching the kids out of their beds?

ISRAEL, no where else!

Believe it or not, the Israeli forces went out to demolish a centre for disabled children in east Jerusalem before the dawn on Tuesday. The Israeli forces claim that the centre had no license.

According to Ma'an news agency:

Our Jerusalem correspondent reported that the Israeli military forced the disabled children to evacuate the building and then began demolishing it.

The 70 m² building, which is owned by Palestinian Jerusalemite Hani Tatah, houses more than 20 disabled children.

Haaretz Correspondent said:

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) said seven children and two caregivers were asleep at 5:30 A.M. when police and Border Police arrived and instructed the caregivers to evacuate the children. According to ICAHD, the police refused to call the center's director to contact the parents and to evacuate the children, but started to do so themselves. After two children were removed by police, the director and the caregivers removed the rest, out of concern that the children would be harmed.

The Jerusalem police said they did not remove any children from the building. "Moreover, at the request of the people at the site, we allowed them to conduct their prayers undisturbed although we knew that the moment we delayed the demolition, we were taking a chance that disorderly conduct would occur."

'Disorderly conduct'... yeah... by the 'disabled children'!? Oh wait, they are Palestinians, so even if they are disabled, they are dangerous to the security of Israel.

Or maybe not... They are not dangerous, but some Jewish colonizers (a.k.a. settlers) 'liked' that spot of land and wants to build a small colony there. So, who cares about disabled children? And who cares if it is 5:30 AM or even 1:00 AM? And who cares if they are thrown into the streets? It's enough "sin" to be a Palestinian to have it all and worse.

The following shocking testimony is a sample of what an uprooted Palestinian face if s/he wish to return home, Palestine.

Nadia Hasan is a Palestinian woman with a Chilean passport. She is a human rights activist and translator. She visited Palestine once before, but since then, her only "sin" is wishing to set foot in the land that gave birth to her family, the land that is part of her. For this sin, for the racist prejudice against Palestinians, for the fear that Israelis have of facing the fact that the land they came to live on is the land that others yearn for and have been attached to for countless generations, she is paying the price.

This is her story:

30th March 2006: Nadia's experience while crossing the borders from Jordan to Palestine (borders occupied by Israel). She wrote me the following email:

Ahlen , first of all, sorry for my English, but i will explain for you what happened today.
Yesterday i came to Aqaba, and today i went to the border at 8 am.
I was nervous, but at the same time i felt good, making something that i was waiting for long time.

I crossed the Jordanian border without problems, only 15 minutes and i take my bag again and i start walking to the Palestinian side. Two armed guys were waiting there and asked me for my passport. They look each other and asked me "from where are you?, well, one of them had my passport in his hand, a Chilean passport, why they asked me!!, after i went to the check room, and two another guys were there and asked me the normal questions, well, normal for them! All the questions were about my family name, why my name is Nadia Hasan, if i am Muslim... i answered not, i am christian, but why you has a Muslim name, why you don't change it, well, 20 minutes of that and they let me pass, even they told me "Welcome to Israel, enjoy your time here"..

I went to the passport control and i big group of tourist were there, every one got their visa in less that 5 minutes. When was my turn, i saw a familiar face, the woman in the control office was the same that last year, the same that after gave me one month visa told me "if you don't like it come back to Chile, we don't want more Palestinians here!!!!".

Everything was normal, she asked me for my passport, and checked my name at the computer...., she was look at it for more that 2 minutes, at that moment i knew that my name was there, but which information they have, i don't know..., she called a guy, after another woman, after another guy..., all of them were talking in Hebrew, look at me sometimes, reading again, i don't know for how long, i was so nervous..

A new guy came to me and start to speak in Arabic with me, i told him that i don't understand, he continues speaking in Arabic...., after that he told me "Good luck" and asked me to go to the check room again. well, he didn't asked me, he order me, he told me "Move now"

I entered in the check room and i had all the Israeli security with me, more than 15 persons, all of them not more than 22, playing an important game in their life, with power in their hands and with a terrorist in front of them, i saw exciting eyes, waiting for the orders of the oldest man, the guy with the biggest m 16 in his hand.

They open all my bags, they put everything in a table and start to check it, everything...
After a young woman told me that she need to check my body, and with a smile in my face i answered, "OK, no problem", when she was checking me she told me whispering "i am sorry, but is my work, can you take of all your clothes?", i answer yes, but i want to keep my t shirt (i didn't want to show my tattoo), well, she checked me all, open your legs, close your legs, sit here, up and open your legs again, etc... like last year.

After the woman from the last year came and asked me if i was in Israel before, i answer yes, why you are coming again, i have friends here, Arabic friends she asked?, not, Israeli friends, Israelis????? (her fave change it), yes, Israeli friends, she asked me their names and i gave to her.

After asked me for my other passport, passport that i don't have of course, asked me about Gaza, about Nablus, about other Arab countries, about my name again...

Well, she left me alone, i check the time, was 10:30 am, i was thinking that my future in Palestine will depends of what she decided, and i wanted to smoke, of course i was not allowed to do it, sit there and wait!!!!

The time running, i was nervous but quite at the same time, i wait for this moment since i was refused from my homeland last year, 6 long months, and i was there again, ready for that.
I checked the time again, was 12:15, i asked if i can use the bathroom, they told me no, sit and wait!!! After 10 minutes the women came to me, i wanted cry, i knew that she has my dreams in her hands and she gave me back my passport, i take my bags (after put everything inside) and i start top walk.

I walk, with tears in my eyes, full of emotions inside me, all my memories from Palestine were in my head, in my heart, i remember in this 5 or 10 minutes every person that i met in Nablus, how much i wanted come back, how near i was.

One man stopped me and told me something that i didn't want to hear, something that was only in my nightmares, something that i listened before: "Welcome to Jordan"
I am in Aqaba again, with Palestine in front of me but more far than ever.

I checked again in the Jordanian border, i took again my bags and i start to walk. I felt my bags lighters, not so heavy than before, the tears were still in my eyes, but my legs were stronger, i am stronger, they make me feel in that way, they don't understand that every time that they refused a Palestinian at the border they recognize that the Palestinians are there, they must to use the guns to keep something that don't belong to them, they are afraid to see us trough our eyes, that we are here, near, and always will be near, they know that Palestine Exist!

I took a room in front of the sea, i will buy a bottle of wine, and this night i will drink, i will drink for Palestine, i am proud to be Palestinian.

All of you will be with me tonight.

Nadia Hasan.

Next day, Nadia gathers her strength and plan a new start. She wrote me an email and said:

Today is my first day in Amman, well, today its the first of many days that I will have to live in this city. I am a little paralyzed, i dont know from where I should begin, i dont know to where I should go neither what I have to do.

I am clear, in the relative clarity that we can have about an uncertain future that I will stay here the time that is necessary, I will build myself a new life until being able to recover my life, the life that I want, the one that they forced me to leave. Today I add myself to the millions of Palestinian who lives outside of Palestine, who have been displaced, who have been expelled of their homes, to those who have been denied the basic right of belonging, of being linked with a physical space, denied to founding roots and to see them to grow and to settle. The life is about that, right?, of looking for a place where you feel that you belong?, where your feet recognize the streets, and do the streets recognize your footfalls? We can be born in a certain country, to live half life in it, but your dreams and looks point to another place, to a distant space where your face feels part, where it is recognized, where it melts with the other ones, where you belong.

Jordan is the country of those displaced, of the refugees, of the Palestinian outside of Palestine. Where fictitious borders prohibit them the step, where apartheid limits castrate their return dreams, dreams of belong.

It paralyzes me the fear, the fear to melt in this mass of indifference. It paralyzes me the single possibility to assume a reality that I don't like, that disgusts me, a reality that I refuse to accept. The Palestinian outside of Palestine don't live in a place, since no place is for they own. They live in the time, their life is determined by political, economic circumstances or of any nature, that show them the path that they must to follow. They build houses, they find works, they form families, with the intention of continuing, of continuing walking, but in each one of them the word waits have a deeper sense, a wait that they dream can transform the time in place, they hope to stop to live in the time and to live in Palestine, live in their place.

Today I will begin to look for a house, to look for a work, to build a new life, but i am clear that the feeling that levies me is that of the wait, waiting that my footfalls will recognize the land that they touch, waiting that my face will melts with familiar faces again. But in this wait the strugle is bigger, the challenge imposed by the Occupation is even bigger, because we should challenge the memory, we cannot forget, we cannot allow to conquer ourselves for the indifference, we cannot forget. To conserve the scents, flavors, colors of our place will always be the best fight that we can give, to challenge to the forgetfulness and to win to the weapons, to stop to be the children of an idea of Palestine to become the children of Palestine, because while there are memories Palestine Exists and Palestine Resists!

Nadia was not broken. She was denied her "right to return" to her home, Palestine, but that's not the end of the story. From that date until few days ago, Nadia worked all she can to go home, Palestine.

For her determination to achieve what believes she was born for, her last attempt to go home was few days ago, but unlike before, this time it went worse than expected and planed.

She said:

Dear friends,
Some of you didn't know I was planning to enter in Palestine again but I did. I got a letter from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying I was no longer refused entry into Israel. I was so happy. I packed my bag, I closed my house in Amman and I took a plane to Tel Aviv yesterday morning. Now I am writing you from Amman, I was deported again.

Everything is posted here. Sorry for my English, I hope you will be able to understand everything.
Salam
Nadia

The shocking details:

First of all, I want to thank all of you for your nice words to me and your continuous and infinite support.

What happened to me yesterday is something I couldn't imagine to be possible before, not because I didn't think I could be refused again, it always was a possibility, and even I knew about the "interrogation" I would be expected to pass, but not in the way they did it.

I landed in Tel Aviv at 7 AM, I gave my passport in the passport control and after less than 2 minutes, 3 guys came to me saying they had been waiting for my arrival. They took me to a big room with all my stuff. More than 20 people there started to check every single thing. First of all, they took my mobile and wrote down in front of me every single phone number and name I have in it, they check my sms, the latest calls I made and received, the pictures on my camera, everything.

After that, they checked me, my body, my clothes, my hair, my ears, even my nails.

One guy was introduced to me as Samy (I don't remember the last name). "I am Samy, from the Ministry of Defense, it's been a few days that I've been waiting for your arrival, I will work on you today, we will put everything on the table, it will be hard because I am not a nice person, I am strong, this is why they chose me for you, you are a special person Nadia, and you will get the best security system we have, if you collaborate with us we will help you."

Samy took me to a room very far from the main center of the airport. The office has the logo of Ministry of Defense, one woman was with us all the time (according to him it was so that it wouldn't make me feel bad. He told me, "I know Arabs girls, they don't want to be alone with a man, we respect you, don't worry"). First of all, he took several pictures of me and opened a file in his computer. Asking me about my family, phone numbers, professions, number of children, addresses, everything. He made copies of my credit card saying he must check the previous movement activities on it, made copies of my ID, driver's license, the pictures of my family I have with me, writing down who is who, etc.

After all this, he started, "I am here not to check what you did in Nablus, if you worked or not, if you stayed more than the permitted time, if you engaged in illegal activities, etc. There are people working on it, my job is check about TERRORIST ACTIVITIES YOU CAN BE INVOLVED WITH. For that we need to check on the people you are related to because WE KNOW that you know 5 people, terrorist ones, the worst people here are close friends of yours. If you give us their names (despite the fact that we already have them) you will enter, if you collaborate with us, we will help you Nadia."

And the show started.

He started with people in my mobile, one by one, the 163 numbers I have. "Who is he/she, how did you meet this person, are you in touch with him until now?" etc. Every single person in my mobile (the Palestinian numbers and Jordanian numbers) were checked on his computer and immediately a picture of this person was shown. I saw Sam' s picture, Anita's picture, Yusra's picture, Sumaida's picture, etc. The problem was not with them. At one point he started asking me about people in Balata and Askar Camp, people it is supposed that I know and he was waiting for me to mention them. He told me that he's been checking on me for a few months. "Many people you know in Nablus were interrogated, and almost all of them coincide in 5 names, saying you are a very close friend of theirs. Many people in Nablus know you Nadia, and we contacted all of them. Now you must start speaking."

I didn't know who they were looking for, as you can imagine. He continued with my mobile list and he found two of these 5 names he was looking for. 3 hours of the interrogation was about a friend of mine, actually a close friend of mine. He showed me his picture, and his brother's picture. In my mobile I have an sms from him wishing me good luck for my trip, and in my camera I had a picture with his brother because I visited him two days ago in a Camp here in Jordan. I explained to him that we are friends, I told him how and where and when we met and what kind of relationship we have. The guy didn't stop calling someone by phone asking for things and immediately new pictures of people were shown on his computer and he asked me about these people, most of whom I've never seen in my life, but some of them I had seen, and even their numbers were in my mobile.

He told me that these people are the worst people here, related with terrorist activities, and how is it possible that I don't know about that if it is clear we are good friends.

I told him that I can't be blamed for what someone else did or didn't do, that I don't know what he is taking about. I explain again to him how I met these guys and everything, but he continues saying I was not telling him all the truth because he already knows the truth and I will not enter again in Israel if I don't collaborate with him providing him with more details.

After he checked my mobile again and asked me how it can be possible that from the 163 numbers I had on it only 13 are from people in Jordan and all the rest are Palestinians. "How is it possible Nadia, that a woman like you, smart, good looking, attractive woman, doesn't have more relationships with people in Jordan? How is it possible Nadia, that you go everyday from your work to your house in Amman and you don't do anything else for more than a year, because we know that. What are you planning to do, why you insist so desperately to enter in Israel, why you are so related to these terrorists? Did they ask you to do something? Have they asked you for money? Have they asked if you are married? What are you planning to do with them as soon you enter here???? We know the truth, but we want to hear it from you, and again, if you don't collaborate with us we can not help you."

After a few minutes, another guy enters in the room, Amir, and he looks at me and tells me, "Stop lying, you are hiding something and we know it. You have bad friends and your relationship with them makes you related to their activities. I don't trust you and you will not enter because of that."

After he left and I was alone again with Samy I started crying, crying like a baby, and I told him that I want to stop with this interrogation and khalas. Send me back to Jordan because I don't know what they are looking for and I am not related to anything they were thinking. Samy sat next to me and kindly told me, "You are a nice person, a strong woman, I can see, well educated. Don't make mistakes, this is your opportunity to tell the truth. We will help you: give me the other 3 names we know you know, and don't cry anymore. Why are you so nervous? Why is this is so important to you? I don't understand and if I don't understand, I can only think about you what I already think about you... I WILL NOT LET YOU ENTER IF I DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING BECAUSE I WILL BE RESPONSIBLE WHEN YOU BLOW YOURSELF UP IN TEL AVIV."

The interrogation continued, he made copies of all the pictures I have and started writing down next to each person their names and looking in his computer. He found another person in my pictures that according to him is a terrorist and he said, "Nadia, maybe you have clean hands, but if any person puts their hands in a dirty water, with time their hands will be dirty, and your hands are already black."

To make everything short, he told me, "You don't look good, your situation here is not good, you have strong connections with bad activities here, and because this world is not safe because of MUSLIMS (Nadia, remember how the world is now after September 11 because of Muslims) you are a big risk for the security of Israeli people and all the visitors of this country. Israel is a democracy, one of the best countries in the world, not like the Arab ones, and we work hard to prevent any terrorist activities here and you are not helping us with our mission."

He left me saying, "My team will decide now about what we will do with you but I don't think you will be able to enter here again, you are a risk for yourself and for others, and you can do whatever you want, like go to the COURT. If you do that, I will be happy to go there personally and make sure YOU WILL NEVER ENTER HERE AGAIN."

All this interrogation lasted from 7:20 am until 4:15 pm.

Downstairs the Chilean consul was waiting for me, I was allowed to speak with him and go out accompanied by security, to smoke a cigarette. I never saw Samy again, he didn't come back to tell me the results of the meeting, but since before I finished the interrogation, people from security told the consul I was not allowed to enter in Israel.

They asked me to go to the check room again, they checked all my bags and myself again and put me on a plane back to Amman at 7 pm.

I will finish writing this saying to all of you that I did my best yesterday. I don't think anybody is ready to face something like that, at least not me because I am not used to being treated as a terrorist. I feel sorry for all the people who are related to me; now they have all their names and phone numbers, they can check on them because of my fault. I feel like the worst collaborator in the world and I am making the life of others harder than it already is.

I don't know in which point everything turned so dirty. In my 8 months in Palestine I only did translations, met people, drank coffee with them, learning about the life in Palestine without judging anyone. I will never regret having such beautiful friends, specially this guy that for the Israelis is one of the most dangerous people in the West Bank, but I want be sure he and the rest will not have any problem because of me. I will keep apart, I don't want to collaborate to continue with the injustice they are facing since the same day they were born, only because they were born as Palestinians.

Salam to all
Nadia

Today, the day after this horrible and inhumane experience, Nadia's regained her perspective and her inner strength. This is her reply to a letter:

...I am not afraid anymore. I know they were playing with me yesterday, they want to defeat me but they will never do it, I am not the weaker in this evil game, they are.
For a few months, I had been working in getting the support of the Chilean Government and I did. The Chilean Government made a very strong complaint to the Israeli Government about my previous deportation. I got the support of more than 50 deputies in Chile that personally committed with me in support of my case. I spent one month in Chile having meetings, the Chancellor included, and after all this, the Israeli Foreign Ministry provided me with a letter saying I was no longer refused entry into Israel.
Now I know the truth.
They wanted to orchestrate all of this show to humiliate me and torture me on one side and also to claim that I was linked to terrorists and that's why I was always denied entry and that's why I am denied entry now so they could fight me back on the political and diplomatic level. They want to use this ploy to repair some of the damage I caused to their foreign policy, at least with Chile. They sent me that communication to make me think that my efforts are bringing some results. At the same time, they prepared a special team to give "special" treatment. It is obvious that those doing it were instructed by the highest political authority. It's a crime. To make it look justified, they invent stories against people. I do not even know what these people are accused with anyway. If you know them or you do not is not that important even. Those people might be accused of anything, but who says that they are guilty? Which court proves those people's guilt of anything? An Israeli Army Military Court? Hell! Over 700 thousand Palestinians were arrested and detained by Israelis. How many were proved guilty of any offense, even if accusations are based on Israeli military orders that are way worse than South Africa's Apartheid system? It is them we have to bring to court. They are guilty!

Imagine, "black handed", "linked to terrorist", "come to blow herself up in Tel Aviv", yet, they let her go back!!! Simply, this is nothing but a racist prejudice against any Palestinian.

When is comes to Palestinians, Israel always refer to them by saying:

They are all terrorists, and they should be kicked out of Palestine...

Justice will come, one day, Nadia. It may take time, but the day will come...

PS. Nadia's blog in Spanish.

[Hat tip: Mary]