The Human Rights Situation in Occupied Palestine
Stephen Lendman
On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly 170 to 4 (with only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau against) “to establish the Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, in replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly….responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fa ir and equal manner.” HRC “is an inter-governmental body within the UN system made up of 47 states responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.” At its tenth session this year, HRC prepared a report titled: “Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories” and delivered it on March 20. It deals mainly with grave human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, especially due to Operation Cast Lead against Gaza. It states that the “Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly the Gaza Strip, has been affected by protracted conflict and occupation policies for decades.” However, Operation Cast Lead caused “a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of (a) civilian population” already reeling under an oppressive “20-month-long” siege. An estimated 80% of Gazans, especially women and children, were already dependent on humanitarian aid prior to the conflict’s onset…
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Do Not Waste Your Time in Palestine, Obama
Kawther Salam
As a Palestinian, I strongly support the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, however, a state with complete power and not under the Israeli occupation and the dictates of the US and ag.jpgforeign countries. As a journalist, I am obliged to carry the moral and ethical values of Journalism. To carry the voice of those Palestinians whose voices do not reach the international public opinion, of the majority of Palestinians who are tired of political lies and the liars who continue saying and repeating “the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian President, the Prime Minister, the Palestinian government, Hamas and Fatah …” and other invented and self-adjudicated names and titles which never fit the truth, the facts on the ground, and more important, to the will of the majority of Palestinians. In Ramallah and Gaza there is nothing more than Israeli occupation and some Palestinian political parties who receive some support and bribes from foreign countries who only support the continuation of the Israeli occupation under varied pretexts. This is what we the Palestinians see, think and believe. What President Yasser Arafat refused to sign, the next Palestinian Authority (actually, all dogs and swine of Americans and Israelis), have accepted….
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A family lost in white phosphorous shelling
Eman Mohammed writing from Gaza City
The Abu Halima family’s agony began when the family was taking shelter from Israeli missiles in the foyer of their two-floor home in the Jabaliya area of the northern Gaza Strip on 11 January when two white phosphorous bombs struck. The father of the family, Saad Ala Abu Halima was instantly killed along with his three sons, Abed Raheem (14), Zaid (10) and Hamza (8), along with his only daughter, one-year-old Shahed. Saad’s wife, Umm Muhammad , and her 20-year-old daughter-in-law, Ghada, were left with severe burns — unable to run away or call for help. Meanwhile, Ghada’s two-year-old daughter Farah and Umm Muhammad’s youngest son, four-year-old Ali, were injured and watched their family members perish in horror…
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Living with 75 tons of depleted uranium in Gaza
gazasolidarity
Gaza is littered with the depleted uranium Israel uses to strengthen its warheads. Now there will be many children born with deformities and even more precious land beyond human habitation or farming. Gaza / PNN – ‘Citizens Action to Dismantle Nuclear Weapons Completely’ has prepared a 33 page report showing the presence of tens of tons of depleted uranium in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli attacks of late December and January are the culprit, report the inter national organization.…
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Two million rendered refugees by fighting in Pakistan
By Vilani Peiris
The Pakistan military offensive against pro-Taliban militia in the country’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) has produced a massive humanitarian crisis. More than one-and-a-half million people have fled their homes during the past month—the largest number of people to have been displaced by violence since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, reports the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The fighting and resulting exodus of Pashtuns from the NWF P is also exacerbating national-ethnic tensions in Pakistan, a country founded on communalism and beset by ethnic and religious-communal cleavages…
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Leaflets dropped on Gaza ordering citizens to stay away from border areas
Palestinian Information Center
Israeli helicopters dropped on Monday morning thousands of leaflets ordering the Palestinians to stay away from border areas in the Gaza Strip, and threatening to open fire at any citizen approaching the borderlines. The leaflets state that the Gaza people should not approach the electronic border fence, and should be at least 300 meters away from the fence or else they would be targeted by Israeli military fire. Also, the leaflets include maps showing the areas that the Palestinians are not allowed to get near…
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One hundred disabled children in Hebron will lose their home in June
by Saed Bannoura
A center for disabled youth in Hebron, which currently houses 100 children, will be shut down in June unless emergency funding prevents the closure. The Palestinian Authority had been funding the center, but since 2004, no money has been provided by the P.A. The center was able to continue for the last five years with private contributions, but now those, too, have stopped, and the center plans to close its doors in June. Omar Abu A’ram, tha acting head of the Al-Ihsan charitable society, said that the cost to run the center is about 1,800 – 2,000 shekels ($4 – 500 US Dollars) per child per month. But with the Israeli siege in place, the Palestinian economy has plummeted, and people who funded the center (Palestinians from around the West Bank) can no longer afford to do so…
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Colin Powell Still World’s Biggest Asshole
Jonathan Schwarz
As someone who has picked meticulously through Colin Powell’s lies during his UN address, and is also familiar with the grim history of his climb to power, I didn’t think Powell had any tricks left in his Giant Bag of Sleaze that would surprise me. Oh, how wrong I was! Check out this amazing exchange yesterday between Sam Husseini and Powell. As you’ll see, Powell denies knowing anything whatsoever about the torture of Ibn al-Libi, which elicited one of Powell’s claims in his UN address about connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and thus has generated screaming international headlines for several years…
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Leftist Blues…
Layla Anwar, Uncensored Arabwomanblues
…Am tired of the leftist jargon, clichés, slogans and banners…I am tired of seeing the act, the package of looks…the fucking beret à la Che, the pony tails and the angry eyes that have led to nothing…I am tired of hearing the discourse, the self proclaimed atheist who is greater than God, the not too sure agnostic kissing ass both ways, the songs of nostalgia to something that never was…and the comrade…what fucking comrade ? the comrade that beats the dru ms for sub-occupations, or the comrade that dances to the tunes of some pseudo revolutionary sectarian belly dance under the name of the “thawra” and the “kadiyeh” (revolution and cause)…
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The Iraqi “Lions” of the Occupation
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
Mashallah, praise the Lord…what fitness ! what swiftness ! what endurance ! Gazelles on the run. Panthers of flexibility. Roaring lions of strength… Please don’t give the Iraqi army the evil eye with your envy – touch wood while you’re watching this video…
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‘Cry, the Beloved Country’
Joharah Baker
…What Israel does not realize is that they cannot imprison hearts and minds. I am not a refugee. I do not have stories of my grandparents carrying their personal belongings on their backs for miles. Nonetheless, the sign marked “Castel” on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway always pulls at my heartstrings and a pang of sorrow rushes through my veins. One of Palestine’s most heroic leaders, Abdul Qader Husseini, fought valiantly in the Battle of Al Qastal (Castel) in 1948 and was kill ed there defending Jerusalem. And still, when I see Israeli flags over homes that are clearly Palestinian on the streets of Jaffa, this beloved city, I too cringe and then make a promise to myself never to forget…
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Time for Transparency at Der Spiegel?
Franklin Lamb
…Why did Der Spiegel run the sensationalist Hezbollah story, first on its website, departing from Der Spiegel’s policy of posting on its website articles from its print edition only after, not before, the latter is published? Der Spiegel website runs some Spiegel print stories but only a few days after they appeared in the print edition published them. According to someone who knows the policy of Der Spiegel this was a first ever switch. (pulsemedia.org) and the wee kly was in a major rush to get the story out and to its ‘online partner” the New York times where it will may appear any minute. Why did the author cite only an anonymous source or sources? Why does the article allude to “anonymous documents” to bolster its claims, but fails to offer the reader any description or at least the title page of the report to give the reader some confidence in the articles veracity? Almost all of the Hezbollah operatives allegedly involved in the assassination are dead or missing. The Lebanese officer investigating the cell phones connection was killed, and Imad Mughniyeh, who oversaw the “special forces” unit, also was killed in Damascus last year, making the allegations tough to verify…
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Intelligence systems are supporting calls for secession in Yemen, al-Qirbi
Abdul-Aziz Oudah
Intelligence systems are supporting calls for secessionism in Yemen, but it is not the time to name these intelligence agencies, said Foreign Minister, Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi. “The most important thing now is to deal with problems without taking them out of the country, and if we do this, then we will be able to hunt down those fishing in troubled waters,” al-Qirbi added…
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Hope Convoy decides to return to Europe after Egypt denies it access to Gaza
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
Organizers of the “Hope” aid convoy decided to return to Europe after the Egyptian Authorities denied the convoy access to the Gaza Strip, and after pressuring the participants into leaving the Rafah border terminal between Gaza and Egypt. The 40-truck convoy carried medical necessities for physically challenged Palestinians, and other essential medical needs in an attempt to deliver them to the residents of the Gaza Strip. ..
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Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire detained by USA homeland security
Free Gaza Movement WebOffice
On Friday 17th May, 2009, Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate, was detained on her entry into Houston Airport, USA, by Homeland Security Immigration. Maguire was on her way home to Northern Ireland, after attending a 3 day conference in Guatemala, which was hosted by herself and three Sister Nobel Peace Laureates, Rigoberta Menchu, Jody Williams, and Shirin Ebadi. 150 women activists from around the World attended the Nob el Womens’ Conference to discuss, ‘Redefining Democracy, Human Rights and Peace.’ Maguire was held for two hours, during which she was questioned, fingerprinted, photographed and questioned again. This resulted in her missing her flight. She was released upon the actions of the Nobel Women’s Initiatives representatives’ who insisted on her immediate release…
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Gaza liquidity crisis having tangible humanitarian impact
IRIN news
A banking and liquidity crisis is affecting the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: Civil servants are struggling to get their salaries, and humanitarian aid is being delayed. Thousands of welfare benefit recipients are not getting their dues. This week Israel allowed the transfer of 50 million new Israeli shekels (NIS – equivalent to US$12.7 million) to Gaza towards the payment of 65,000 employees of the Ramallah (West Bank)-based Palestinian Author ity (PA) who live in Gaza, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)…
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Netanyahu: Settlements to expand
Aljaeera.net
Israel’s prime minister has said that Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank will continue to be expanded. “I have no intention to construct new settlements,” Binyamin Netanyahu was quoted by officials as telling his cabinet on Sunday. “… but it makes no sense to ask us not to answer to the needs of natural growth and to stop all construction,” he added…
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Pakistan diary: Beating the heat
Aljazeera.net
The heat is punishing. It must be 45 degrees Celsius with no wind. A haze seems to rise from every surface. It’s midday in the camp. Seemingly, there no escape from the brutal sun. Children try and cool off by splashing water over each other, which would be a happy scene anywhere else in the world. Except here. These children are at risk from dehydration, skin diseases and other problems. The Swati refugees come from a pleasant and temperate valley, and are used to average te mperatures of 25 degrees Celsius. The refugee camps are on the plains. There is little shade. The refugees are forced to live under canvas; water and food are limited and the toilet facilities are basic…
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Infant dies in Gaza due to the Israeli siege, death toll reach 337
Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC News
A Palestinian infant was reported dead on Monday afternoon after he was unable to leave the Gaza Strip for the life saving medical treatment he needed. One year old, Mohamed Nufal, had hart failure; he needed medical car that Gaza hospitals were unable to provide him with because of the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza. Israeli started its siege on Gaza in June 2007. With Nufal death, death toll due to the Israeli siege now reach es 337, doctors in Gaza reported…
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