Palestinian Prisoners: Imprisoned for their Love of Freedom
Reham Alhelsi
Every year, on April 17, Palestinians commemorate the Palestinian Political Prisoners Day. On 17.4.1974 the first Palestinian political prisoner, Mahmoud Baker Hijazi, was released from Israeli prisons in the first prisoner exchange deal with Israel. That same year, the Palestinian National Council declared the 17th of April a day of solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners, to be commemorated every year. In Occupied Palestine prison and impr isonment are as common as sunrise and sunset. There is almost no family that had not been subjected to Israeli imprisonment one way or the other. Palestinians are being detained on a daily basis, making them the most imprisoned people on earth. It is difficult to estimate their number, but several sources put the number of Palestinians detained or imprisoned by Israel since 1967 at over 750,000 Palestinians, making 20% of the total Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories, and approximately 40% of the total Palestinian male population. With the outbreak of the 2nd Intifada in September 2000 until September 2008 some 65,000 men, 750 women and 7,500 children were arrested by Israel. According to the ICRC, in October 2008 there were 10,500 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Addammeer puts the number at 9,493, 750 of which are administrative detainees, 349 aged 18 and under, and 75 are females. Among those detained are political figures and some 47 Palestinians parliamentarians.. .
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“Our peaceful towns should no longer be the graveyard of our youth”
Palestinian National Initiative
This afternoon the Israeli army killed Basem Abu Rahma, 25, in the village of Bi’lin, West of Ramallah. Abu Rahma was , hit by a high velocity gas canister in his chest, during a peaceful demonstration aginst the Wall Israel is building around the village. “I saw Basem, who was wearing a yellow football T-shirt, being hit and collapsing on the ground”, reported Palestine Monitor’s photographer in Bil’in. MP Dr. Mustafa Barg houthi, The Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative expressed shock “For four years, the residents of Bi’lin have been peacefully resisting the building of the Apartheid Wall, every single Friday.” “This, represent the Palestinian commitment to the non-violence principles and their steadfastness. Palestinian and International youths are peacefully struggling, but our towns where such demonstrations take place can no longer be the graveyards of our youths”, Barghouthi said. “By constantly defying non-violence and responding with an overwhelming use of force, the Israeli army is aiming to provoke Palestinian violence and launch the aggression circle”, he added firmly. In similar incidents this year, the Israeli army killed 4 Palestinian children and teenagers in the nearby village of Ni’lim, as well as critically injuring an American peace activist…
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Voices Rise from under the Rubble in Gaza
By Ahmad Barqawi
Last Monday, 13th of April 2009, was supposed to be a good day for Ahmad, a nine year old Palestinian boy from Gaza who became widely known for appearing on Aljazeera Channel speaking about the horrors he witnessed during the Israeli war on the strip and how life has become utterly unbearable under the siege “The World should come and see how our children are sitting on the floor with no blankets or mattresses; is this a life? This is not a life, This is a siege; a large prison; I switch on the TV only to find funerals, war, death, destruction and amputated body parts, I wish to see children programs!” he said in that ingenuous yet defiant tone of voice which made him memorable to millions of viewers across the world; “let the world come and witness how we live, they (the Israelis) destroyed our homes and there is nothing left for us, what shall we do?” …
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US Threatens to Invade Eritrea
Jason Ditz
The United States has reportedly threatened to invade Eritrea and subject it to “the same fate as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks” for providing support to the al-Shabaab resistance movement in Somalia, which the US has since attempted to link with al-Qaeda. The Daily Telegraph quotes one source as saying “There are consequences for working with al-Shabaab when President Obama cannot afford to look weak on terrorism.”…
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Drug Addiction, and Misery, Increase In Afghanistan
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
A growing number of Afghans — including children — are escaping the pain of war and poverty by using opium or heroin, for as little as a dollar a day.
Women opium addicts. A United Nations survey begun this month is widely expected to show that at least 1 in 12 people in Afghanistan abuses drugs — double the number in the last survey four years ago. Experts say that the alarming trend is not being addressed by the Afghan government and its international partners, even though most officials acknowledge that the drug scourge threatens lasting stability in Afghanistan….
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Against All Odds…
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…And when I woke up, I checked my inbox — my morning ritual, I found several mails. Great ones for which I thank you all. Very touched. One in particular got me thinking, with racing thoughts, I could not ignore. This person who is VERY committed to my beloved – Iraq, enquired about why my blog was blocked and said to the effect – Iraq can be forgotten now and the so-called anti-imperialists, the Arabs and the Palestinians can dance over the corpses of 1 million and half Iraqis and celebrate the US-Iranian alliance. Sometimes it is one word or one sentence that suffices…more of a reason to keep IRAQ alive and not forgotten – against all odds. So all of you out there who have supported my Beloved, in your own ways – you too need to keep her alive and not forgotten…
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Human Body Parts
Dahr Jamail
In Iraq, time leaves bloody marks upon each day of the ongoing US occupation. The policies of the Obama administration, adopted from the Bush administration, continue to wreak their havoc on the Iraqi people. The US-created al-Sahwa (Sons of Iraq), a Sunni militia comprised mostly of former resistance fighters and even some members of al-Qaeda, that grew to 100,000 in number, now threatens to fade back into the shadows in order to resume anti-occupation resistance operations against the US mil itary and Iraqi government security forces. The Sahwa, which were to be incorporated into the government security apparatus, have instead been suffering attacks by that same apparatus for several months – attacks that are now occurring daily. And they are reacting in kind…
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Caught on Video – Murder of a Palestinian Protesting the Apartheid wall
Reuters.com
“Apr. 17 – A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli security forces during a weekly anti-barrier protest in the West Bank.
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Ideal Israeli Soldiers: Not Only Killers But Thieves
Ayman T. Quader
The old man sat in the light of a kerosene lamp and looked bleakly ahead. His wife sat in the opposite corner, crying loudly “They soiled our sheets, haram, haram, they broke our bed, fired guns in our bed’ ‘and’, the old man said ‘they took all our money. The day after we left we found a 100shekel note in the garden, that’s all’. He was talking about the Israeli occupation of his house to a foreign photographer who had come to film the destruction in No rth of the Gaza Strip. Sa’ad Al Atar lived in a line of houses along a high ridge overlooking Gaza city in Atatra district. It was the part of Gaza nearest the Israeli border, and it also commanded long views of Gaza city, so it was bombed repeatedly in the first few days, and most of the houses were destroyed…
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Palestinian man killed by tear-gas canister in Bil’in
Ma’an news
A Palestinian man was killed on Friday when Israeli forces opened fire on demonstrators in the West Bank village of Bil’in, near Ramallah. Palestinian medical officials identified the man as 29-year-old Basem Ibrahim Abu Rahmeh, who had previously been listed in serious condition following a direct shot to the stomach from an Israeli fired tear-gas canister on Friday afternoon…
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Has Washington lost Lebanon?
Part II: Persia Rising
Franklin Lamb
…Without current natural resources (there may be gas and oil off its coast) Lebanon continues to work to develop its tourism and banking industries and to model itself roughly after Switzerland. Many in Lebanon and in Iran are waiting to test the words of the Obama administration. As one of Lebanon’s leading clerics, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, widely respected in Lebanon, Iran and the Middle East, told his congregation last Fri day at noon prayers, “We have heard beautiful words from the new American administration. Through open and honest dialogue and discussing freely all the concerns of each side, we can resolve our misunderstanding and make a better life for all our people”. Lebanon will resist US pressure to diminish its expanding relations with Iran as it resists the Bush legacy of “with us or against us.” Its people strongly prefer good relations with both Tehran and Washington and this will remain the case after June 7th…
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Besieged Gazans resorting to Internet to communicate with outside world
Yousef Al-Helou
Living in the besieged Gaza, a strip of land about 45 km long and 8 km wide means that you are isolated from the outside world. To allay that sense of isolation Gazans have resorted to the internet, to be in touch with their loved ones from whom they have been separated for over two years, due to the ongoing Israeli blockade and closure of Rafah border crossing policed by Egypt. “I have not seen my family for more than 3 years due to t he Israeli blockade and continued closure of Rafah border crossing but thanks to technology, I can see them through webcam and talk to them via microphone but I really hope to see them face to face and that the crossing which is the only exit for the Gazans to the outside world be open forever, so that we can cross in and out whenever we want; now we are prisoners and we really aspire to freedom of movement”, Ahmad Dallol, Gaza resident said while setting on his PC chatting to his family, currently residing in UAE…
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Bush Memos Parallel Claim 9/11 “Mastermind’s” Children Were Tortured With Insects
John Byrne
…At a military tribunal in 2007, the father of a Guantanamo detainee alleged that Pakistani guards had confessed that American interrogators used ants to coerce the children of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed into revealing their father’s whereabouts. The statement was made by Ali Khan, the father of detainee Majid Khan, who gave a detailed account of his son’s interrogation at the hands of American guards in Paki stan. In his statement, Khan asserted that one of his sons was held at the same place as the young children of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. “The Pakistani guards told my son that the boys were kept in a separate area upstairs and were denied food and water by other guards,” the statement read. “They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding.” Khan’s statement is second-hand. But the picture he paints of his son’s interrogation at the hands of American interrogators is strikingly similar to the accounts given by numerous other detainees to the International Red Cross…
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Hezbollah sees signs of acceptance from West
Cites European assurance of support after June vote
ocelyne Zablit AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS
The West can no longer ignore Hezbollah and has given assurances it will deal with the militant group if it wins upcoming elections in Lebanon, the Shi’ite movement’s deputy chief says. “Western countries are rushing to speak with us and will do so even more in the future,” Sheik Naim Qassem said in an interview with Agence France-Presse…
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“Iranian drone” Photo is Israeli?
Middle East Institute
Iran may have been doing some photo tampering again, reminiscent of the “missile launch” photo last year that had clearly been Photoshopped. This time Press TV, the Iranian news agency, has apparently run a photo of a soon-to-be-unveiled “Iranian drone” that is actually an Israeli Heron, and the photo is identical to an Israel Aircraft Industries photo of the Heron…
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Palestinian teen shot dead by settlers at Hebron-area settlement
Ma’an news
…Residents of the Hebron-area settlement of Haggay reported that they were patrolling the area when they saw a Palestinian walking around the Israeli-military secured area. Two settlers approached the man and reportedly struggled with him, at which point he pulled out a knife, according to one account. Both men then tried to shoot the Palestinian, who was identified as 17-year-old Rabah Hejazi Seder, they reportedly said…
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Infant succumbs to wounds sustained during latest Israeli strike on Gaza
An infant from Gaza City seriously injured in Israel’s latest airstrike on the Strip Wednesday night succumbed to his injuries overnight. Palestinian medical sources identified the baby as four-month-old Ayham Karim Eid; he had inhaled poisonous released during Israel’s attack on a home in Gaza City Wednesday night. He was taken to hospital where medical crews stabilized him, but his conditioned worsened and he passed away….
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