Iraqi babies for sale: people trafficking crisis grows as gangs exploit poor families and corrupt system
Afif Sarhan, Guardian
Corruption, weak law enforcement and porous borders are compounding a growing child trafficking crisis in Iraq, according to officials and aid agencies, with scores of children abducted each year and sold internally or abroad. Criminal gangs are profiting from the cheap cost of buying infants and the bureaucratic muddle that makes it relatively easy to move them overseas. Accurate figures are diff icult to obtain because there is no centralised counting procedure, but aid agencies and police say they believe numbers have increased by a third since 2005 to at least 150 children a year. One senior police officer said at least 15 Iraqi children were sold every month, some overseas, some internally, some for adoption, some for sexual abuse…
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Lost in the Buffer Zone
Eva Bartlett | In Gaza
They’re always shooting at us. Every day they shoot at us,” says Alaa Samour (19), pulling aside his shirt to show a scar on his shoulder. Samour said he was shot on Dec. 28 last year by Israeli soldiers positioned along the border fence near New Abassan village, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip. “We were cutting parsley like we do almost every day, and the soldiers began shooting. We started crawling away. When I got out of the line of fire I realised my sh oulder was bleeding and that I had been shot.” A month later, out of necessity, Samour was back in the fields. Like many other impoverished labourers from the Khan Younis area, Samour is employed by farmers to harvest parsley, spinach and pea crops in the fertile eastern region. He brings home 20 shekels (five dollars) per day of labour, his contribution to a family where the father cannot earn enough to cover their food needs…
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Israel on a piracy mission
PT editor
In a new piracy mission the Israeli Occupation arrested eight fishermen and confiscated their boats off the Gaza shore. The Palestine Telegraph reporter was informed that Israeli gunboats intercepted five Palestinian boats while fishing in the northern Gaza strip. The Israeli forces seized the boats and arrested eight fishermen who were on board. A Palestinian official said the Israeli army usually arrests fishermen to be transferred to Ashdod port where they are being interrogated abo ut the nature of their work. After that they are photographed before release forfeiting their boats…
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Video: Gaza medic distraught after Israel’s war
AlJazeeraEnglish
Dozens of Palestinian medics died while trying to save lives during Israel’s war on Gaza. Al Jazeera met one paramedic who was injured when an Israeli shell hit his ambulance. While Ala Sarhan survived, his colleague did not. This is his story in his own words…
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US and Israel may fall out over Iran
Jonathan Cook, The National
The new administrations in the United States and Israel could collide over how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, threatening to strain their close, long-standing relationship. The White House under Barack Obama has made conciliatory gestures towards Tehran, culminating in a video statement from the president a fortnight ago in which he appealed for a “new beginning” in relations between the two countries. But since Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Isr aeli prime minister on Tuesday, he has preferred to highlight the military option as a way to prevent what Israel and the United States have claimed are Iranian plans to acquire a nuclear warhead under the guise of a civilian energy programme…
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AT-TUWANI: Masked settlers beat three Palestinian children, shoot at Palestinian shepherds for the second time in ten days.
Christian Peacemaker Teams
At 4:00 pm on 5 April 2009, Israeli soldiers and the Ma’on settlement security guard took three Palestinian boys—ages ten, eleven, and fourteen—and transported them to the Ma’on settlement. Soldiers delivered the children to six masked settlers who kicked and punched the children. At 4:45, the children arrived back in their village, after the settlers allowed them to leav e to walk home through the hills alone. Earlier the same day, settlers shot at a teenage Palestinian shepherd as he grazed his sheep near Juwayya…
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So what did we learn about anti-Semitism?
Dima Omar
Well, not much really…. Just that when you invite people who don’t consider each other to be “within the pale”, as British columnist David Aaronovitch said, then the discussion on anti-Semitism turns into character assassination. No one expected a calm discussion during the debate entitled “Anti-Semitism – Alive and Well in Europe?”, which was organised by the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival. Along with Aaronovitch, the panel included Gilad Atzmon and the Observer columnist Nick Cohen.It’s not clear why Cohen was invited to join at the very last minute when his views, to the naked eye at least, are akin to those of Aaronovitch’s. It would be fair to describe both men as supporters of Zionism who believe that anti-Semitism is on the rise and that much of it is “unfairly” blamed on Israel’s actions. Atzmon’s views, on the other hand, are well-known to those who follow websites on Palestinian activism. He has very strong views on “Jewishness” and “Jewish identity”, and makes a clear distinction between Jews as a people and those who commit crimes in the name of “Jewish ideology”. Both Aaronovitch and Cohen launched an attack on Atzmon…
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Israeli MANIACS Attack Palestinian Civilians
PT editor
As part of the ongoing Israeli measures in Jerusalem, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked Al-Sadya neighborhood in east Jerusalem. The attackers tried to storm houses of the Al Jabir family. Bloody clashes erupted in the area as the settlers, backed by the Israeli army, surprisingly came into the area on Sunday evening. Hundreds of Palestinians gathered to challenge the settlers who tried to advance into the area. Israel escalated its repressive bloody actions as th e new fundamentalist mayor, Nir Barka, recently took office…
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1346 children lost one or both parents during Israel’s war in Gaza
Saed Bannoura – IMEM
The Islamic Relief Organization in the Gaza Strip reported that 1346 Palestinian children lost one parent or both during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Mohammad Abu Darraz, head of the Child Center at the organization, reported that in most cases orphaned children lost their fathers. Darraz stated that there are 5200 orphans in the Gaza Strip, and added that the organization received so far 500 forms asking for sponsorships for orp haned children, but the organization only managed to approve 200…
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Unholy Intentions in God’s Holy City
by Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
I have lived in the Old City of Jerusalem for almost 11 years now and this time of year has never ceased to amaze and disturb me all at once. This week marks major holidays for the world’s first two monotheistic religions. For Christians, Easter falls on April 12 and 19 for the western and eastern denominations respectively. For Jews, Passover begins on April 8 and lasts seven days. The festive mood is unmistakable in the ancient alleyways of Jerusalem’s wal led city. Throngs of Christian delegations from around the globe retrace the Way of the Cross, or the Via Delarosa, some singing hymns at each station, others praying quietly in reverence of the torturous trek taken by Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago in the name of all humanity. Yesterday, April 5, marching bands paraded through the streets to celebrate Palm Sunday, adults and children alike standing on the sides of the street, cheering them on and holding sweeping palm leaves in a reenactment of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem…
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Jayyus farmers at the mercy of the occupation
Ida Audeh writing from Jayyus, occupied West Bank, Live from Palestine
The wall Israel has constructed on occupied Palestinian land since 2003 has had a devastating effect on the 4,000 residents of Jayyus, a village northeast of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya. The wall near Jayyus separates the farmers from 75 percent of their agricultural land. This is a major disaster for farmers who cultivate seasonal fruit and vegetables, which require continual tending. The placement of entry gates (which remain locked almost around the clock) means that access to their farm lands is determined by whoever controls the gate keys. Almost six years after Israel began erecting the wall and almost five years after the International Court of Justice July 2004 advisory opinion ruling that the route of the wall on occupied land is illegal, the community struggles to survive…
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