Issue no 126

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Issue No : 126 17th March 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


Palestinian Cultural Organization MalaysiaMalaysiaM

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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Read in This Issue

Netanyahu claims ‘worldwide’ effort to ensure he loses Israeli elections

#AskHamas campaign launched against ‘terrorist’ label

FEATURED STORY

Articles & analyses

Read in This Issue

ISIL, Israel and cultural cleansing

P 9

P 4

Three US presidents and Israeli settlements

Hamas: We Rejected Israeli Proposal to Separate Gaza from West Bank for 5 Years Truce

Israel destroys EU-funded West Bank shelter for Palestinians while expanding settlements

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P 12

P 6

Palestinian Female Detainees’ Numbers in Hasharon Rise to 20

Israel Insider P 18

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CONTENTS

Articles & Analyses

Isreal Insider

News of Palestine

FEATURED STORY

#AskHamas campaign launched against ‘terrorist’ label 4

IHamas: We Rejected Israeli Proposal to Separate Gaza from West Bank for 5 Years Truce 5

Palestinian Female Detainees’ Numbers in Hasharon Rise to 20 6

International solidarity efforts continue 12 years after killing of Rachel Corrie 7

Gaza fishermen: A life under attack 8

Three US presidents and Israeli settlements 9

Media wars in full swing ahead of “Israeli” vote 10

Torture of Palestinian detainees by Israel soared in 2014 – report 11

Israel destroys EU-funded West Bank shelter for Palestinians while expanding settle-ments 12

Netanyahu claims ‘worldwide’ effort to ensure he loses Israeli elections 13

Jewish settlers storm Al-Aqsa compound 14

Israel arrests Palestinian boy for ‹stone-throwing› 16

Gaza girls turning heritage into income 17

“Israel” detains 5 journalists 18

Hamas is a resistance movement, not a terrorist group, insists Qatar 18

Disloyal Arabs should be beheaded: Israel FM 19

ISIL, Israel and cultural cleansing 20

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Featured Story

#AskHamas campaign launched against ‘terrorist’ label

Hamas has launched a one-week so-cial media campaign under the hashtag #AskHamas to raise support against its “terrorist” label. The move has been made given the imminent deadline for appeals against an EU court ruling that the move-ment should be taken off the EU’s list of “terrorist organisations”.The campaign will launch via media outlets and social media, said Hamas media advi-sor Taher Al-Nounou. It will be directed at a Western audience and aims to convey a message about the movement’s ideas and stances on many issues of concern.“The campaign is aimed at rejecting the la-belling of the Palestinian resistance move-

Chief of Staff says

ment as ‘terrorists’,” said Al-Nounou during a media workshop in Gaza on Thursday. The theme of the event was “Cultural cleansing: modulating the history and heritage of Palestine”.According to Al-Nounou, the campaign will be based primarily on social media websites. “It will take the form of questions and answers, as evidenced by the title #AskHamas, in order for the truth to reach the widest segment of ordinary Western people,” he ex-plained. “They show remarkable solidarity with the Palestine Cause.”The campaign will include a number of programmes and events containing direct meetings via social net-working sites between the public and leading figures in the movement. He called on social media activists to support this campaign. 13 March 2015 Source: MEMO

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The Deputy Head of the Hamas political bureau, Dr Mousa Abu-Marzouk, said yesterday that the movement “rejected” an Israeli proposal which would effectively separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank in return for a five-year truce. The terms of the proposal were passed on through Palestin-ian businessmen and indepen-dent figures; Israel would have allowed Gaza to develop its sea-port as well as the airport, claims a report in Anadolu.

“Israel made the proposal with the aim of separating the enclave from the West Bank so it can swal-low it with the settlements,” wrote Abu-Marzouk on his Facebook page. He said that Hamas has in-formed the Palestinian leadership about the proposal.

“We are paying a steep price for our stance by the continued blockade and economic pressure over the Strip, but we reject any idea that would lead to the sepa-ration of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” he added, “despite the fact that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his govern-ment are actively doing so with their policies.”

Hamas: We Rejected Israeli Proposal to Separate Gaza from West Bank for 5 Years Truce

News of Palestine

Abu Marzouk called on President Abbas to “review his poli-cies towards the Palestinian reconciliation and unity be-tween the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

In a bizarre twist, a member of the PLO Executive Com-mittee, Ahmed Majdalani, spoke to a local radio station on Wednesday and claimed that “there are contacts between Hamas and Israel to establish a separate political entity in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel’s Walla! news website said on Monday that it had ob-tained documents from Western diplomats revealing that Hamas offered a five year truce with Israel in return for lift-ing the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. The claim was denied by the Islamic movement’s spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, in previous statements to Anadolu.

According to Abu Zuhri, “international parties”, which he did not name, submitted such a proposal, but that Hamas has not responded to it until now.

Last year, Israel and the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip agreed to a long-term truce after Egyptian mediation, and to resume indirect talks within a month. The latter has still not happened. 12-March-2015 Source: MEMO

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Palestinian Female Detainees’ Numbers in Hasharon Rise to 20

The total number of Palestinian female detainees held in the Israeli prison of Hasharon has risen to 20, said the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) in a press release published on Thursday.According to PPC, Israeli forces re-cently detained Hanan al-Shalabi and Ala’ Bani Odeh from Tulkarm and Tu-bas after releasing two female detain-ees; 16-year-old Yathrib Rayyan and Fida’ Suleiman.Ramallah and Al-Bireh district was ranked the first in terms of the number of female detainees. Four female de-tainees identified as Bushra al-Tawil, Thurayya al-Bazzar, Haniyeh Naser and Lina Khattab were imprisoned.Besides, three female Palestinians were detained from Nablus. They were identified as Weam ‘Asida, Filistin Najm and samaher ‘Izziddin.Three other women were also detained from Hebron district. They were iden-tified as Ihsan Dababsa, Nahil Abu ‘Eisha, and Hala Abu-Sil. Meanwhile, three other females were detained from Jenin district. They were identified as Yasmin Sha‘ban, Yaman ‘Amarna and Muna Qadan.Both Hanan al-Shalabi and Dunya Waked were detained from Tulkarem district. Shireen ‘Issawi and Dima al-Sawahra were both detained from Je-rusalem district.Lina al-Jarbuni, Ala Bani Odeh and Amal Taqatqa were detained from 1948 land, Tubas and Bethlehem re-spectively.Israeli forces routinely detain Palestin-ians from occupied West Bank districts and detain them based on the admin-

istrative detention policy. They have frequently launched hunger strikes protesting their harassment and lack of proper medical treatment.Administrative detention is a form of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to detain Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed for indefinite peri-ods of time.Human rights groups have repeatedly denounced detaining Pal-estinians without charge or trial.According to the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Associa-tion (Addameer), Palestinian women living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are generally held in prisons outside of the occupied territories, mainly in HaSharon Prison, in direct violation of international law (Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention).The human rights organization stated that: “Throughout the pro-cess of their detainment, from the moment of the arrest until their release, these women are subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, torture, and psychological abuse.”It added, “They have suffered ill treatment at the hands of Israeli forces, including gender-based violence, physical and verbal as-sault, and degrading strip searches used as a punitive measure.”According to Addameer, physical and verbal assault have proved frequent by Israeli state actors towards Palestinian women during arrest, interrogation, transfer, and detention in violation of inter-national standards. 12 Feb 2015 Source: Wafa

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International solidarity efforts continue 12 years after killing of Rachel Corrie

Protests by international solidarity activists against Israel’s military occupation continue 12 years after the killing of Rachel Corrie. The young woman was crushed by an Is-rael Defence Forces armoured bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes. Speaking to Anadolu, a number of solidarity activists stressed that they look upon the young American as a hero; a great example of someone dedi-cated to the struggle for Palestinian rights.Protests by international solidarity activists against Israel’s military occupation continue 12 years after the killing of Rachel Corrie. The young woman was crushed by an Is-rael Defence Forces armoured bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes. Speaking to Anadolu, a number of solidarity activists stressed that they look upon the young American as a hero; a great example of someone dedi-cated to the struggle for Palestinian rights.According to one 24-year-old Frenchwoman taking part in the weekly anti-Israel protest in the village of Al-Nabi Saleh, it is “unnatural” to be there. “But being here is important as I am taking part in the Palestinians’ lives and writing notes about a detained nation here.”

She claimed that she once viewed Palestin-ians in a stereotypical way and believed that Palestine was a war zone. “When I came here, though, I found a nation and human beings living the same as all other humans. A Palestinian can be happy or sad and can resist. I found an occupation arresting and stealing lands. I will write to the French about our fellow Palestinian human beings.”The Arabic-speaking activist added that she has many friends in Palestine. “I will come here again. I think that it is the duty of the whole world to stand against the Israeli kill-ing and arresting of Palestinians and foreign activists. The world must stand with the Pal-estinians.”She has concluded that the international

community and the Western media are wrong to treat the Palestin-ians and the Israelis in the same way. “There are no similarities. Palestinians are a nation under occupation and the Israelis are the occupiers,” she insisted.Despite being shot in the leg by the Israeli occupation forces three weeks ago, Maria, 22, also took part in the protest in Al-Nabi Saleh. “I have been in Palestine for 60 days,” she toldAnadolu. “I will return home in a few weeks, but I will be back here again. Everyone can see the violations of the Israeli army.”Maria’s purpose in being there, she explained, is so that she can tell the world about what is happening in the occupied Palestinian ter-ritories. “The Israeli army has no justification for opening fire. It killed Corrie and is killing Palestinians every day. This is unbelievable.”British citizen Jemmy is 19. He insists on staying in solidarity with the Palestinians. Israeli security forces sprayed pepper spray in his face and arrested his friends, a number of whom were subsequently deported.“I am here to support freedom and to expose the violations of the Israeli occupation,” he said. “I want to reflect the image of the Pal-estinians who suffer the most at the hands of the Israeli occupation, which steals the land and kills the people.”Jemmy believes that he and his colleagues are following in Rachel Corrie’s footsteps. “I might be banned from coming here again, but I want to encourage everyone in my country to come and experience the life of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation.”Palestinian activist Abdullah Abu-Rahma said that an average of five international solidarity campaigners enter the Palestinian territories every month. They live with the Palestinians and take part in their anti-occupation protests. Many are arrested during the demonstra-tions and then deported. Most are members of the International Soli-darity Movement (ISM). 14 March 2015 Source: MEMO

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Gaza fishermen: A life under attack

Abu Mohammad el-Hissi spent his whole life working on fishing boats before eventually becoming head of the Gaza-based Palestinian Fishermen’s Society.Due to the eight-year Israeli-Egyp-tian blockade of Gaza, the 70-year-old Hissi says Palestinian fisher-men can no longer make a decent living. “This work isn’t enough to provide for a family,” he told Al Jazeera.Whether or not fishermen bring in a big catch, operating the boat each day requires roughly 800 li-tres of fuel. “This runs fishermen about 4,200 shekels ($1,080) and sometimes they don’t catch nearly enough to cover the operational costs,” Hissi said.Although Israel agreed to respect the fishing zone as six nautical miles in the August 26 ceasefire

agreement that put an end to last summer’s 51-day war in Gaza, fishermen and human rights groups alike accuse Is-rael of regularly violating that condition.An Israeli military spokesperson said the amount of space allotted to fishermen is determined by “security threats” such as “shipments of weapons, some of them headed for Gaza”.“Just last week, we announced another foiled shipment of materials headed for Gaza that would have enabled Hamas to build more rockets,” the spokesperson told Al Jazeera. “The naval blockade is lawful and necessary in order to maintain the security of the state of Israel.”Yet fishermen should be allotted at least 20 nautical miles, according to the 1993 Oslo Accords agreement signed be-tween Israel and the Palestinian leadership. Israeli authori-ties have continually shrunk the fishing zone’s size in recent years, particularly “after its military operations in the Gaza Strip”, explained Sarit Michaeli, director of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.“The most important impact is on their livelihoods,” Michaeli told Al Jazeera. “If Israel, on the one hand, says it is a secu-rity risk, [fishermen] have to be provided an alternative.” 10 Mar 2015 Source: Al Jazeera

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Three US presidents and Israeli settlements

Over the past two decades, the num-ber of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has climbed steadily.

03 Mar 2015 Source: Al Jazeera

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Late last month, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren released a campaign video imploring Israel to vote for Kulanu, a newly-formed centrist party, if they were tired of “dirty poli-tics”.The message was timeless, but not the packaging. Doing his best to imitate Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, Oren ultimately delivered a southern US ac-cent that would make Colonel Sanders blush.Israel has long been known for stern politicians and campaigns. But today, with just days to go before snap elections in March, videos like this have be-come mainstream political discourse in the country.

The trend began in December, when Naftali Bennett donned the hipster uniform - fake beard, plaid shirt, straight-billed baseball cap and wide-rimmed glass-es - for a filmed skewering of the Israeli left. During the video, the head of the right-wing Jewish Home party is seen alternatively at a coffee shop, driving a Smart Car and walking his dog down Rothschild Boulevard, doling out apologies (as needless as his glasses) to anyone who crosses his path.“Starting today, we stop apologising,” Bennett says at the video’s conclusion. “Vote Jewish Home.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu’s ruling Likud party posted a video in January that depicts his foes - centrists Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union, as well as right-wingers Avigdor Lieberman and Bennett - as unruly students at a kindergarten.Netanyahu appears in the video as the voice of rea-son, which, in his view, is a kindergarten teacher who patronises toddlers. At the end of the video, a Netan-yahu voice-over tells the Israeli public to vote Likud to “change the system” - perhaps failing to consider that Likud has been in charge of the system since 2009.

Media wars in full swing ahead of “Israeli” vote

In a follow-up video, Netanyahu appears at the house of two young Israeli parents about to go out on the town. “You ordered a babysitter? You got a Bibi-sitter,” he says, referencing his nickname as he steps inside. The couple and the Bibi-sitter proceed to criticise Livni and the Zionist Union’s co-leader, Yitzhak Herzog, over anticipated capitulations to the Palestin-ians.Bibi himself has not made it through the media wars unscathed. The Zionist Union capitalised on the fiasco that was Netanyahu at the Paris protests following the Charlie Hebdo attack.Netanyahu pushing his way to the front of the group of world leaders present for a free speech demonstration, gained much attention in Israel, so the Zionist Union made a short 8-bit game called “Push the Bibi”, in which players direct Netanyahu towards to the front line of the demonstration, where a spot next to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Ab-bas awaits. Once Netanyahu arrives, text ap-pears telling the player that “When Bibi wins, everyone loses.”

Meanwhile, Likud was responsible for a video showing members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) driving through Israel. At a stoplight, one asks an Israeli sitting in the next car over (in Hebrew, as Likud was seem-ingly unable to find anyone who could speak Arabic, although an estimated 18 percent of Israelis [Palestinian citizens of Israel] speak Arabic): “How do we get to Jerusalem?”“Just turn left,” the Israeli responds. The video concludes with text saying the left would “ca-pitulate to terror”.

March 08, 2015 Al Jazeera

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Torture of Palestinian detainees by Israel soared in 2014 – report

The instances of torture of Pales-tinian prisoners by Israeli servic-es soared sharply in the second half of 2014, after the killings of three Jewish teenagers in June, says data from military courts and anti-torture bodies, collected by Haaretz.All in all, 51 cases of torture were reported in the second half of last year, according to an attorney rep-resenting those accused of securi-ty offences. The data was obtained by Haaretz from military courts, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.“In years past there were a few rare cases. But something has changed,” the attorney said.Twenty-three Palestinians sent a number of complaints of torture they had suffered in 2014 by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service. Each of the plaintiffs said they experienced several methods of torture.In the first part of 2014, eight instances of torture were reported. They included beatings and sleep deprivations. However, the second half of the year saw ‘darker’ methods of interrogation, which included tying up suspects in what is called “banana” and the “frog” positions.

Of fifty-one instances of torture, there were 19 complaints of sleep deprivation, 18 of tying, 12 of beatings and 2 of shaking.2014 saw 59 torture complaints, which is a rise, compared to 2013 (16 instances of violent means), 2012 (30), and 2011 (27).Thousands of Palestinian detainees were tortured by Israelis up to 1999, a year when the High Court of Justice prohibited the systematic use of torture. However, it left a small ‘window’ for Israeli services: an interrogator could claim that there was an urgent need to flout the law. The rules when this “need” can be implemented are not open to the public.Different types of torture are mentioned in the Shin Bet documents, officials in the military court who saw them told Haaretz. They include blindfolding, beating, slapping, forcing a suspect to stand for hours with hands at his sides and tying people up in the “banana” position. All these methods are less brutal than covering the head with a sack, tying in the “frog” position and sleep deprivation, say the documents. March 08, 2015 Source: Reuters

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Israel destroys EU-funded West Bank shelter for Palestinians while expanding settlements

With politicians around the globe calling on Israel to take action against illegal settlements in the West Bank, the Jewish state has finally taken action. Not against its own communities, but against an EU-funded building for Palestinians.On Tuesday, the Israeli government demolished an EU settlement on Mount Scopus in northeast Jeru-salem. The city’s municipality said it undertook the measures because the structure was constructed on land, which had been designated for a national park.According to the EU it was not even a building, but a temporary shelter, which the pan-European organi-zation has continued to fund to help displaced people.“We condemn today’s demolition of temporary shelters funded by the European Union... as part of its response to the needs of the affected communities,” an EU statement said, according AFP.

he EU has helped to fund around 200 temporary structures, which are used as shelters mainly for the Bedouin communities, which are traditionally semi-nomadic tribes that stretch from North Africa to the Middle East. The Israeli government has often tried to move the Bedouin people into housing planned by the state. Israeli activists say this is taking place so the government can build its own settlements in the area.This would effectively carve out an Israeli enclave running through the middle of the West Bank, thereby making it almost impossible to create a contiguous Palestinian state.The charity Oxfam made a statement just days before the demolition, saying the EU needed to take a tougher line against the Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes, many of which were funded by EU tax-payer money.

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“To see positive change on the ground, Europe needs to step up and take a leadership role. EU govern-ments must match their words with urgent and concrete measures to push for an immediate end to settle-ment construction and the unlawful demolition of Palestinian civilian infrastructure,” Oxfam mentioned on its website.Regavim, an Israeli conservative non-governmental organization counters the EU’s claims, saying the body has built 500 structures in Israel, without the consent of the national government.“After years of researching this new phenomenon of illegal European settlements in and around Jerusa-lem, we praise the Jerusalem municipality for beginning to enforce the rule of law,” said Ari Briggs, director of Regavim, cited by the Jerusalem Post.A recent report by the right wing lobby group found that the EU’s policy of continuing to illegally build settle-ments of the Palestinians in Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank is an ongoing problem and they want the Israeli government to continue to take measures against this.“We see this action as a direct consequence of the recent Regavim expose on the subject and call on the government of Israel to find an immediate solution for the other 499 structures that we have identified as illegal EU settlements,” Briggs, a co-author of the study, said.Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it. This is a move that’s never been recognized by the international community, while Israel’s continued policy to build settlements has brought condemna-tion from all over the world, including from the country’s staunch ally, the United States.In late January, the US and the EU advised Israel against a plan to drop its plans to construct an additional 450 settlement homes in the West Bank, warning that failure to do so would further destabilize the situation in the region and diminish prospects for peace.Washington voiced concern, warning that building new settlements would not help to improve Israeli secu-rity; rather it would have the opposite effect.“I can tell you that issuing tenders like this does nothing to bolster Israel’s security, does not increase its prosperity and it does not further the cause for peace. In fact it does precisely the opposite,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.The US believes Israeli settlement activity is “illegitimate and counterproductive” to achieving a two-state solution, Earnest told reporters.Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among 2.4 million Palestin-ians. The Israeli occupied territories have been seeking full Palestinian statehood and independence from Israel for decades. However, despite international criticism, the Israeli government encourages the Jewish population in the West Bank to build new settlements.Rather than listening to the US and the EU, Israeli seems as though it is determined to plough a lone furrow and in 2014, set a new 10-year record for the number of settlements built.According to Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog, 4,485 tenders were issued in 2014, a 20 percent increase from the previous year (3,710). In 2007, only 858 were handed out. The watchdog also stated that there had been a 40 percent rise in construction in 2014.Peace Now claims the increase in settlement building is an election ploy by incumbent Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu to win votes ahead of the Israeli elections on March 17. The group adds that the in seek-ing a fourth term in office, Netanyahu is sacrificing good relations with the US, to secure the settlers’ votes. March 14, 2015 Source: RT

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Netanyahu claims ‘worldwide’ effort to ensure he loses Israeli elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes there is a “huge, worldwide effort” to make sure he does not get reelected in next week’s elections, which are expected to be extremely close.The comments by Netanyahu to activists from his right-wing Likud party were broadcast by Army Radio on Tuesday.“It is a very tight race,” Netanyahu said. “Nothing is guaranteed because there is a huge, world-wide effort to topple the Likud government.”The radio interpreted the remarks as relating to advocacy groups funded from abroad pushing for a change of government.Although political parties in Israel are not allowed to accept money from foreign donors, nonprofit organizations can accept money from overseas and US consultants have advised candidates in Israeli elections for many years, Reuters reports.Likud has said throughout the election campaign that groups such as V15, whose stated aim is to remove Netanyahu from power, are being funded by overseas donors.But last month State Attorney Shai Nitzan did not find any connection between V15 and any par-ticular political party, meaning that the group was not breaking Israeli laws.V15 released its own statement after the Likud press conference after Nitzan decided not to pros-ecute.“The state comptroller, attorney-general, Central Elections Committee and district court took the air out of the Likud’s spin and made a mockery out of the brown-nosing sycophants from the de-lusional press conference,” V15 said in a statement.The latest poll for the Jerusalem Post found that the center-left Zionist Union would beat Likud by 24 Knesset seats to 22, although Netanyahu is seen as having a better chance of forming a governing coalition.“Netanyahu is feeling the pressure ... he is shooting in all directions,” Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog told Israel Radio. March 12, 2015 Source: RT

Israeli insider

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Jewish settlers storm Al-Aqsa compound

Dozens of Jewish settlers and Israeli police on Wednesday forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, a Palestinian official has said.“Around 25 settlers in three groups – backed by Israeli po-lice – forced their way through the Al-Mugharbeh Gate and toured the holy compound,” Palestinian director of the complex Sheikh Omar al-Qiswani told.Palestinian compound guards also expelled a setter disguised as a foreign tourist who tried to perform Talmudic rituals near the Dome of the Rock Mosque.Tension has run high at the flashpoint mosque complex since the early hours of the morning, when Israeli police imposed strict security measures on Muslim women seeking to visit the holy site.For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world’s third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount,” claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

11 March 2015 Source: World Bulletin

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Israel arrests Palestinian boy for ‹stone-throwing›

According to eyewitnesses, Israel police seized a teenager Palestinian boy at a bus stop in East Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud province..

Israeli authorities on Tuesday arrested a 15-year-old Palestinian boy for throwing stones at a bus in East Jerusalem.According to Israeli police, a woman was slightly injured in the incident.The bus had been en route to a Jewish-only settlement bloc in East Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud district, eyewitnesses told.Palestinian-populated districts of occupied East Jerusalem have been the site of repeated clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces.Palestinian protesters frequently throw stones at vehicles used to transport Israelis through East Jerusalem.Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War.

10 Mar 2015 Source: World Bulletin

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Six Palestinian sisters from the Gaza Strip have taken the art of Palestinian embroidery and turned it into a source of income in spite of the crippling Israeli blockade which is entering its eighth year. Noor, Nadrin, Budoor, Basma, Aya and Heba are The Six Flowers.According to an article the The Middle East Monitor, the gifted sisters learned the basics of embroidery while at school, an art that they practiced throughout college and which they used to make gifts for their friends and family.Budoor told Quds Net: “We wanted to have our own project and, as sisters, we decided to have our own logo that unites us and represent our work at exhibitions and to the public.”Both Noor and Nadrin are university graduates. Noor graduated from the Faculty of Com-puter Science while Nadrin studied Interior Design at Al-Aqsa University. After graduating, both sisters were unable to find jobs in Gaza and decided to join their sisters in the project.Nadrin used her academic background to bring a modern touch to the pieces, using bright colours and new ideas.Meanwhile, Budoor, being an active civil society volunteer, helped spread the word about The Six Flowers.Two of the sisters are still university students who spend their free time helping their sisters with their work.The sisters not only make traditional pieces, they created items for modern use including iPad and laptop covers, table cloths and bags.They use social networking sites such as Facebook to market their products and try to par-ticipate in exhibitions held in the Gaza Strip.Their dream is to have a shop dedicated to the sale of their items and to employ Palestin-ian women to help them earn a living. 09 March 2015

Gaza girls turning heritage into income

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“Israel” detains 5 journalists

Hamas is a resistance movement, not a terrorist group, insists Qatar

Israeli police on Monday stormed an Arab news outlet in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm and detained five journalists.“Police forces raided the outlet’s headquarters and confiscated sev-eral computers,” an employee of the “Here Jerusalem” news outlet told.He said five Arab journalists had also been detained.Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samra said the raid was linked to suspicions of “terrorism” funding.She said personal computers, docu-ments and funds had been seized and a number of individuals detained during the raid.Source: World Bulletin

Qatar’s Assistant Foreign Minister for International Affairs has told Alarab newspaper that Hamas is a resis-tance movement and not a terrorist group. Shaikh Mohammad Bin Ab-dul Rahman Al-Thani added that his country adopts an open-door policy in its foreign relations.

“Hamas uses its right to resistance, as it is a resistance movement in an occupied country,” insisted Shaikh Mohammad. “Its acts are completely different to terrorist acts.”

He noted that Hamas comes from the Palestinian people, who are be-ing subjected to state terrorism by Israel. “Regardless of the Hamas is-sue in particular, Qatar has generally

adopted an open-door policy with all parties.”

Qatar is keen to achieve peace and security in the en-tire region, said the minister, which is why it has al-ways played the role of a credible mediator. “We host Hamas and representatives of other political move-ments from other countries,” he pointed out, “which strengthens Qatar’s role as a mediator.” 13 March 2015 Source: MEMO

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Disloyal Arabs should be beheaded: Israel FM

“Those who are with us deserve ev-erything, but those who are against us deserve to have their heads chopped off with an axe,” Lieberman said dur-ing an election rally in the western city of Herzliya.Israeli Foreign Minister and the head of Yisrael Beiteinu Party Avigdor Li-eberman on Sunday lashed out at Israel’s Arab citizens, threatening to cut their heads off with an axe.“Those who are with us deserve ev-erything, but those who are against us deserve to have their heads chopped off with an axe,” Lieberman said dur-ing an election rally in the western city of Herzliya.He, meanwhile, added that there was no reason for Umm el-Fahm, an Arab city in northern Israel, to continue to be part of his country.Israel took control of the city in 1949 in the light of the Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan. It is the third largest Arab city within Israel as far as population size is concerned.During Sunday’s rally, Lieberman said those who raised the black flag of what is called the “Nakba Day” in mourning over the establishment of Israel, did not deserve to belong to the state of Israel.“I am quite willing to donate them [the people who raise the black flags] to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas,” Lieber-man said. “It would be my pleasure,” he added.He called for including Arab states and Israel’s Arab citizens in any set-tlement with the Palestinians.Lieberman said Israel should seize the opportunity of the presence of similar points of view with Arab states, even without mentioning what

these points of view were about.He said there could not be a bilateral settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, calling for a regional settlement that included Arab states and Israel’s Arab citizens.“The Palestinians know what is being said about them now in the Arab world,” Lieberman said.He added that some Arab states believed that real threats came from the Palestinian faction Hamas and the militant group Daesh, not from Israel.Palestine govt slams ‘Daesh member’ LiebermanThe Palestinian government has slammed remarks by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in which he said disloyal Israeli Arabs should be “beheaded,” saying Lieberman’s assertions made him no different from the Daesh militant group.“We urge the Israeli government – and all nations – to ar-rest the Daesh member Lieberman and boycott him for the threat he poses against humanity and its values,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.The ministry went on to urge the international community to denounce Lieberman’s remarks and help protect the Palestinian people from “the mounting fascism of the Is-raeli community.”On Sunday, Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu Party, lashed out at Israel’s Arab citizens, threat-ening to cut their heads off with an axe.

09 March 2015 Source: AA

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ISIL, Israel and cultural cleansing

“How on earth one manages to mention Israel when discussing #ISIS destroying #Nimrud...smh, unbelievable! @marwanbishara.”This was one of the reactions I got to my interview about the his-toric context of the bulldozing of archeological sites in Iraq’s Ha-tra, Nimrud, and the destruction of various statues in Mosul mu-seum by militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Le-vant (ISIL) group.It’s a rather predictable response from a Zionist, but it also shows how so many are in denial over their past and cannot see why the horrors in Iraq and Syria - as ugly as they might be - are neither new nor the exception.As I mentioned during my in-terview on Al Jazeera, histori-cally speaking, more than a few conquerors have attempted the same or worse when they occu-pied or colonised others’ lands. Whether that was the Japanese in Korea, the Germans in Poland, the Serbs in Bosnia, the Israe-lis in Palestine, or westerners in their colonies.

Historical factsThere’s no denying these his-torical facts; none that cannot be verified with a quick research.No harm, indeed much good could come of the US, France, England, Russia, Turkey, Portu-gal, Spain, Belgium, The Nether-lands, etc, coming to terms with the dark aspects of their past.

Articles & Analyses

Some nations have acknowl-edged their past sins while others remain in denial. The same goes for Israel and its Zionist friends.To their credit, some Israelis have come forward in recent years to speak out on the ethnic and cul-tural cleansing of Palestine.The Israelis, known as the new or “revisionist historians”, have defied the national conventional wisdom to expose decades-long state propaganda; one that is taught in Israel as “history”.Some of these historians have dedicated their research for set-ting the record straight by expos-ing the grave historic injustice that resulted from the premeditated or default policies of the Israel’s founders against the indigenous people, the Palestinians.Others however, while admitting the ethnic and cultural cleaning, are ideological in their approach. They justify the malfeasant poli-cies as necessary for the survival of the “Jewish State”. They argue that the only way to erect a Jew-ish state was to undo what’s been there before it, hence destroying or erasing much of the Palestin-ian landscape.

Reconsecration of PalestineIn his book, Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, Meron Ben-venisti, an Israeli political scien-tist and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, writes:“The fate of the sites sacred to

Muslims in the State of Israel can serve as an example of how victors arrogate for themselves sites that are sacred to their van-quished enemy and adapt them to their own needs, whether for worship or for secular purposes, even turning them to uses that are clearly sacrilegious. If they find no use for them, they leave them deserted and crumbling, and do not allow members of the defeated people to restore them, lest that serve as a ‘precedent’ for their return to the old landscape.”

Benvenisti who served as head of Jerusalem planning department from 1971-78, continues with the same line of argument under the sub-headline, “Reconsecration by Conqueror”, to make a case for Israel’s disposition of the Pal-estinians, one that might come as a shock to friends of Israel:

Marwan Bishara

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“There was nothing novel about the victorious Jews’ takeover of sites sacred to the Muslims, save for the fact that it was something that might have been plucked from another era; not since the end of the Middle Ages had the civilised world witnessed the wholesale appropriation of the sacred sites of a defeated religious commu-nity by members of the victorious one. It’s true that places of wor-ship in many countries have been vandalised - even recently - from the bombing of mosques in Sara-jevo in the 1990s and the blowing up of churches by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolu-tion, down to the plundering of churches and monasteries during the French Revolution. But to find accurate parallels for the recon-secration of places of worship by a conqueror, one must go back to Spain or the Byzantine Empire in the middle of the late 15th cen-tury.”Much of these policies designed to erase the Palestinians’ past and introduce a new Israeli real-ity, that’s based on selective and at times mythical reading of his-tory, ran parallel to forced depor-tations or denial of return for hun-dreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.All of which paved the way for the destruction of hundreds of Pales-tinian towns, villages and com-munities across Palestine. Since then, Israel has erected several hundred towns and villages in their place.These inconvenient facts must be annoying or shaming to those who praise Israel as an oasis of civility, the “city on a hill” sur-rounded by a murderous bunch.Alas, this is not only history; it’s a continuing tragedy. Today, for example, the Gaza Strip, the world’s oldest, most populated,

In that way, ISIL celebrates its horrors; it videotapes and defus-es them around the world when other war criminals hide, mystify and camouflage their own crimes.ISIL terrorises people and de-stroys their heritage; including bulldozing statues that no one worships, in an attempt to oblit-erate the past. ISIL is the culmi-nation of multiple failures of our civilisation just as it acts as an af-front to civilisation.And yet, ISIL’s eerie exhibition-ism doesn’t mean its victims are “deader” than other victims of say the Assad regime or Israel. Nor is its destruction more destructive.ISIL’s eschatological theology is no different from other apoca-lyptical theologies that believe destroying the past helps build a future more united with the di-vine. In fact, ISIL merely follows in the footsteps of certain Evan-gelical Christians and Jewish fun-damentalists who adhere to such theology.It says a lot about the state of af-fairs in the Middle East that the actions of internationally recog-nised governments are compa-rable to ISIL’s wandering murder-ers.In that sense, ISIL is a symptom of a greater regional ill that re-quires immediate and compre-hensive treatment. Relying on more of the same (Israeli type) militarism and (Iranian-backed) sectarianism that led to the rise of ISIL is no solution.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect PCOM’s editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

These inconvenient facts must be

annoying or shaming to those who praise Israel as an oasis of civility, the “city on a hill” surrounded by a

murderous bunch.

and impoverished refugee camp; remains under siege by Israel af-ter suffering thousands of casual-ties from its last military offensive. But ISIL has stolen the show for now and it seems to give every-one else a break from interna-tional scrutiny.

The Un-Islamic StateAs ISIL grabs the limelight and

dominates the headlines as the worst offender of civility and hu-man rights, it forsakes other mur-derers and warmongers from the much-needed public scrutiny.In a few days, ISIL succeeded in destroying what 14 centuries of Islam has preserved in Iraq. But it’s not alone.Generally, the practitioners of horror are of two types, thuggish and exhibitionist - medieval style, or, cynical and stealth, modern style.

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Issue no 126

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Transcript of Issue no 126