The governmental Information Office in Gaza said that the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails started new escalatory steps to protest the continuous brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Three Palestinian civilian were injured, one critically, on Saturday evening, by Israeli troops gunfire in the village of Al Nabi Saleh near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
Serious injuries during clashes near the Ofer prison
Violent clashes have erupted between hundreds of Palestinian youths and Israeli occupation forces near the Ofer prison south of Ramallah.
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli soldiers fired rounds of tear gas at youths protesting in Bethlehem late Saturday, a Ma'an reporter said. Youths threw rocks at an Israeli watchtower near Rachels Tomb, while soldiers fired multiple gas canisters into Bethlehem from behind a section of Israel's separation wall. The clashes took place near Azza and Aida refugee camps. Dozens of Palestinians were injured and at least 10 arrested on Saturday during West Bank demonstrations against Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Demonstration in Beit Ommar for Gaza
Today, a coalition of activists in Beit Ommar including the Center for Freedom and Justice, Palestine Solidarity Project, members of the Popular Committee and a new youth group Youth Power of Palestine (find them onfacebook) organized an emergency demonstration in Beit Ommar in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Over 100 people, all Palestinian, marched from the center of town to the Israeli military watch tower at the entrance to the town. They were met by a large Israeli military force which shot tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstration. For over 2 hours, the group stayed near the entrance to the village, protesting Israeli aggression and occupation. Israeli soldiers took up posts on the roofs of Palestinian homes and continued to shoot tear gas throughout the town.
Rallies marked by Hamas flags have been something of a rarity in the West Bank, but they could augur the future.
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Thousands of angry Palestinians rallied across the West Bank on Friday, urging Hamas militants to "bomb Tel Aviv" as Israel pursued a relentless air campaign on the Gaza Strip. More than 1,000 protesters gathered in central Ramallah, shouting slogans of support for Gaza's Hamas rulers, and waving the Islamist movement's green flag, AFP correspondents said. "Hamas, bomb Tel Aviv!" they chanted a day after a rocket from Gaza struck the sea just offshore from the sprawling coastal city. Coincidentally, a loud blast rocked Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon as sirens wailed to warn of an incoming rocket for the second day running, an AFP correspondent at the scene said. Police said sirens had sounded but could not immediately confirm that anything had hit the Tel Aviv area.
International Solidarity with Gaza
As Israel continues to pound Gaza for the 5th day Egyptian authorities have allowed a five bus convoy of 400 activists to enter Gaza thru the Rafah border in solidarity with Gazans under siege. This represents a radical departure from the policies of the Mubarak regime during Israel's '08-'09 war on Gaza. The activists are also delivering much needed medical supplies and humanitarian aid to Al Shifaa Hospital, in Gaza, in coordination with the Egyptian Red Crescent.
Thousands have gathered outside the Leader Ibrahim Mosque in Alexandria on Friday to protest against the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip. Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr broadcast images of protesters raising large banners for Palestinian martyrs who were killed during the attack. The banners read: "Gaza will never die," "We call on the president to open Rafah crossing," and "The Muslim who is not concerned with the affairs of his fellow Muslims is not one of them." The protesters chanted in support of the Palestinian resistance, saying: "O Zahar (Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar) tell Haniyah (Gaza premier Ismail Haniyah) not to leave the rifle," and "No to Israel's assault on Gaza." Other protesters raised banners demanding a stricter application for the Islamic Sharia in the new constitution.
Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza have sparked global protests condemning the attack. Thousands of people across the Middle East, the West, and Europe have come out to show their disdain. Yet, some countries remain convinced of Israel’s right to attack. Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza have sparked global protests condemning the attack. Thousands of people across the Middle East, the West, and Europe have come out to show their disdain. Yet, some countries remain convinced of Israel’s right to attack. Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense – which began Wednesday and has taken the lives of 39 Palestinians and three Israelis so far, according to Palestinian local media – has divided the international world.
Mass Demonstration: Solidarity with Gaza
[ November 18th, 2012; 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. ] In solidarity with GAZA and all Palestinians End the Siege! Stop the Massacres! Free Palestine! End Israeli Apatheid! 1pm Sunday November 18th Hall Building, Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve West Metro Guy-Concordia Facebook: On Wednesday November 14th Israel declared its latest war on Gaza “Operation Pillar of Defense” also known as “Operation Pillar of Cloud”.
Demonstrations in 50 countries around the world in solidarity with Gaza
Tens of thousands around the world demonstrated on Friday to protest against the continuous Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian campaign: show solidarity with Gaza by boycotting Israel, Asa Winstanley
Today, the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) released this statement, emphasising the importance of the BDS campaign now, more than ever.
Media Bias
As Israel assaults Gaza, BBC reporting assaults the truth, Amena Saleem
Shortcomings identified by 2006 independent report on BBC’s Palestine coverage exemplified over past few days
"It’s hard to find fault with the not-subtle argument in support of Israel’s campaign against the Gaza-based group, which does fire many rockets at civilian
neighborhoods".
Fares Akram: the man without self-respect
Without a doubt, Fares Akram is an errand boy for the Zionists of the time. He is playing the same despicable role that his predecessor, Taghreed El-Khodari had played during the 2008 assault on Gaza. There is no limit to what the token Arab errand boy (or girl in the case of Taghreed) can do for the Zionist bosses. While Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza, the New York Times bosses order the token Arab errand girl (in 2008) and the token Arab errand boy today to go to Gaza not to report on the plight of the civilian but to write a tribute to the collaborators who are executed for providing information to the enemy (the French resistance used to execute the man, his wife, children and pets and in one province in France, more than a third of all executed collaborators were women). If Fares Akram is ordered to go and cheer for Israeli soldiers, he would jump to follow the order. I have only contempt for one like him, really.
Analysis / Op-ed on Israeli War on Gaza
If the world will not defend the Palestinians against Israel, we have the right to defend ourselves. The latest Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has prompted several European countries and the US to reaffirm their position of unwavering support for the aggressor. William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, Cathy Ashton, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, and Barack Obama, have all claimed that Hamas's rockets were responsible for the crisis and that it is the right of Israel to defend its citizens. Had they checked the facts, they would have realised Israel started the attacks. The escalation started when an
Israeli military incursion into Gaza on 8 November killed a Palestinian child. That was followed by other Israeli incursions and attacks, provoking a response by Palestinian factions.
GAZA (Reuters) -- The defiance of Gaza's armed struggle bombards the senses in the city streets. Shrieks of outgoing rockets from downtown launch pads receive an encore of whistling youths, honking horns and celebratory calls of "God is Great" from mosque loudspeakers. Martial songs blare "Strike Tel Aviv!" from one of the few cars daring to chance the roads.
Palestinians are preparing themselves for possible Israeli ground operation, as they fear that the IDF could start reoccupation of the Gaza Strip with tanks and commandos. According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, it eliminated 90 per cent of Hamas’ military capability, as they deliver surgical strike aimed only at terrorists. While filmmaker Harry Fear, who is currently in Gaza, told RT about dead Palestinian civilians, including children, and an upcoming ground invasion.
Al-Akhbar’s reporters in Gaza examine the Palestinian military response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip. As the resistance fighters unify, they’ve been able to strike deeper into Israel.
Since November 14, when
Israel assassinated Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari, further escalating an already bloody week that
began with the killing of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy during an Israeli raid on November 8, at least
52 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including at least
16 civilians, ten children among them. During the same period, three Israeli civilians have been killed in southern Israel. This disparity in civilian casualties is representative of a historic pattern, with a disproportionate number of Palestinian and other Arab civilians killed and wounded in virtually every phase of the conflict since Israel’s creation in 1948.
The Wall Street Journal
reports the result of a press conference held on Air Force One by Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor
Ben Rhodes, who works as one of Obama's main (foreign policy) speechwriters who helped the President draft his spring 2012 AIPAC address. Rhodes expressed hope that mediation efforts by the Egyptians -- who had been brokering a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel the day before Operation Pillar of Cloud began -- will succeed, but the meat of his remarks comes in the form of a very clear public declaration the US will have Israel's back no matter what the government decides.
(WASHINGTON DC) - The following statement by Noam Chomsky indicates a different stand toward Israeli aggression than Prof. Chomsky has revealed in the past: "The incursion and bombardment of Gaza is not about destroying Hamas. It is not about stopping rocket fire into Israel, it is not about achieving peace. The Israeli decision to rain death and destruction on Gaza, to use lethal weapons of the modern battlefield on a largely defenseless civilian population, is the final phase in a decades-long campaign to ethnically-cleanse Palestinians. Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely-crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques, and slums to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command in control, no army… and calls it a war. It is not a war, it is murder. “When Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are crushing. You can't defend yourself when you're militarily occupying someone else's land. That's not defense. Call it what you like, it's not defense.”
link to www.salem-news.com
Use of Iran-developed rocket that can reach Israel's civilian heartland points to scale of arms smuggling into Gaza. In a straight fight between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip there is no question who has the upper hand. Israel's armed forces are among the world's most sophisticated. Their ability to mount a drone strike of the kind that
killed the Hamas military leader Ahmed Jaabari on Wednesday attests to a deadly combination of precise weaponry and accurate intelligence.
The first Israeli strike was severe. Ahmed al-Jaabari was assassinated. He was Hamas’ Imad Mughniyeh. His loss may have been even greater to the movement, given its organizational constraints and exceptionally centralized decision-making processes, but it can be recovered nevertheless. Jaabari put plans in place to fill the vacuum.
In this brief study, I examine the many numbers cited by the Israeli military relating to Gaza rocket attacks into Israel. To begin, Israeli spokespeople frequently remind the world that a million Israeli citizens are within range of Gaza rockets, twelve thousand of which have been fired into Israel in the last twelve years, inflicting thousands of injuries and several dead. However, we are rarely told exactly how many people have been killed by these rocket attacks.
Bomb Iran? No. Bomb Gaza? Yes!, Pepe Escobar
So many wars to launch, so little time. When you're the political leader of the most militarized nation on the planet -- as is the case with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu -- you gotta find ways to play with your toys. Even if you're itching to, you can't bomb Iran because you don't have the right bunker buster bombs and enough fighter jet refueling capability. And on top of it, re-elected US President Barack Obama has made it absolutely clear; the way forward is diplomacy, not bombs. This may be an indication that Obama is at least considering a deal: "There should be a way in which they [Iran] can enjoy peaceful nuclear power while still meeting their international obligations and providing clear assurances to the international community that they're not pursuing a nuclear weapon." This had led to the president's commitment to "make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a dialogue" cutting through the US/Iran Wall of Mistrust.
Despite his deserved reputation as an extremist and rejectionist of the first order, Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu has unlike most of his predecessors never initiated a war. He appears not to have planned one this time either. The 1996 Tunnel Intifada, named after several days of clashes that followed Israel's festive opening of a tunnel in the heart of occupied East Jerusalem, may well have been Bibi's template for the current assault on the Gaza Strip. It after all transpired during his previous term in office, and consists of three simple steps. 1. Launch outrageous provocation guaranteed to elicit armed response. 2. Use overwhelming firepower to kill Arabs and remind them who is boss. 3. Mobilise foreign parties to quickly restore calm on improved conditions.
1. Israeli hawks represent themselves as engaged in a 'peace process' with the Palestinians in which Hamas refuses to join. In fact, Israel has refused to cease Colonizing and stealing Palestinian land long enough to engage in fruitful negotiations with them. Tel Aviv routinely announces new, Unilateral house-building on the Palestinian West Bank . There is no peace process. It is an Israeli and American sham. Talking about a peace process is giving cover to Israeli nationalists who are determined to grab everything the Palestinians have and reduce them to penniless refugees (again).
Jewish Voice for Peace Statement on Israel’s Operation “Pillar of Defense”
The international group 'Jewish Voice for Peace' issued a statement Saturday calling for an end to the Israeli attack on Gaza. The group has also participated in and sponsored protests during the last two days in cities across the US and Europe to demand that Israel end its attack and siege on Gaza.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza in 2008-09 represented an important turning point in my own relationship with Israel. I recall experiencing a new and previously unfamiliar feeling of anguish as Israel bombarded the people living in that tiny, besieged strip of land over and over, day after day after day. While I certainly felt a sense of tribal loyalty to the Israelis who withstood Qassam rocket fire from Gaza, I felt a newfound sense of concern and solidarity with Gazans who I believed were experiencing nothing short of oppression during this massive military onslaught. And now it’s happening again. Only this time I don’t think the term “anguish” quite fits my mindset. Now it’s something much closer to rage.
Why Gaza?, Justin Raimondo
The Israeli assault on Gaza was triggered Nov. 8 when the IDF crossed the border and murdered Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa, a 13-year-old boy playing football in his front yard: the official explanation for this action was an alleged weapons cache, supposedly stored nearby, but no credible evidence supporting this contention has come to...
Other West Bank News
Israeli Terrorism / Aggression / Raids in the West Bank
Child Killed In Qalandia Refugee Camp
Palestinian medical sources reported Sunday that a 20-month-old child was killed when a gas bomb fired by the Israeli army hit him in the head, and burnt his bed, in Qlandia refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem.
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Bethlehem man died on Saturday from medical complications caused by injuries sustained eight years ago after being assaulted by Israeli forces, Ma'an's reporter said. Omar Mohammad Hmeid, 26, from Tuqu village east of Bethlehem was detained eight years ago for stone-throwing. During his arrest he was hit over the head with the butt of an Israeli soldier's rifle, causing severe head injuries. He was then detained for six months where Israeli prison authorities failed to provide adequate treatment for his injuries, causing Hmeid to develop an infection which provoked irreversible brain damage, his family said. His funeral will take place on Sunday.
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Settlers torched a Nablus mosque overnight Sunday, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that a group of settlers from Yizhar entered the village of Urif and set fire to the entrance of a mosque. Villagers managed to stop the fire from spreading and chased the settlers out of the village, Daghlas added.
Eleven Palestinian media outlets have been raided by Israel over the past five years.
Unexpected visitors came Sunday early morning to visit activists of the anarchists against the wall and others with a "present": It is not everyday I get a wake up call from the police. Without warrant,they entered our home and handed over four bits of paper each with a map showing one of the villages of Bil'in, Kfur Qaddum, Nil'in and An Nabi Salih. They explained that until mid-March 2013 I cannot go on Fridays to any of these villages. They recorded the whole thing and insisted on signing receipt. It took time to understand it was not a legal personal restriction order, but a bogus act of intimidation which have no legal meaning. As it was the initiative of the regional commander of the center of the occupied was bank I joked that may be he want us to shift the focus of our weekend joint actions to the southern region of Southern Hebron Hills, Ma'asara, and beit Ommar.
Palestinians in the West Bank Resist
Locals: Israeli jeep damaged by firebomb near Nablus
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- An Israeli military jeep was damaged near Nablus late Saturday by a Molotov cocktail thrown by youths, local sources said. Palestinian youths in the village of Sarra confronted Israeli forces in the area and threw stones and a firebomb at a military jeep, causing it to set alight. Soldiers fired large amounts of tear gas and rubber bullets at villagers in response, the sources added. An Israeli spokeswoman said she would look into the incident.
Protests / Solidarity / Activism / BDS
Beit Ommar Participates in West Bank-Wide Demonstrations Against the Occupation
On November 14, a series of coordinated direct actions took place across the West Bank, coordinated by a network of activists throughout the West Bank. Palestinians, along with Israeli and international solidarity activists blocked settler-only roads and checkpoints in Huwarra, Nablus; Ni’lin, Ramallah; Nabi Saleh, Ramallah; Bil’in, Ramallah; Nashash, Betlehem; and Beit Jala, Betlehem. Activists from Beit Ommar and Palestine Solidarity Project joined over 100 other activists at the tunnels checkpoint outside of Beit Jala. For nearly half an hour, activists blocked Israeli settler traffic into Jerusalem through the checkpoint, protesting the ongoing military occupation of the West Bank. While some activists in some areas chose to emphasize the Palestinian bid for an upgrade in status at the UN, the participants in Beit Jala from Beit Ommar chose to focus on the Israeli military occupation and restrictions on freedom of movement.
link to palestinesolidarityproject.org
Political Developments / Other News
Fire exchanges on Syrian border; IDF jeep damaged
Stray fire hits IDF patrol on border area, army responds by firing back at Syrian post; Syrians retaliate by firing mortar that lands in demilitarized zone.
Palestinian officials: Arafat grave being dug up
Two Palestinian officials say workers with jackhammers are opening the concrete-encased grave of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his former compound in the West Bank.
The spokesperson of the US Department of State urges the Jordanian people to accept the pain inflicted on them by the puppet King
"MS. NULAND: It’s the IMF who’s made clear that the kinds of subsidies that the government has been providing are not sustainable for a modern economy, and that adjustments need to be made. We have supported the IMF, as in this case, and we support King Abdullah and his government in the change that they’re trying to implement inside Jordan, which they’ve got to do in order to modernize the state.
QUESTION: Well, that’s all well and good, but if I’m a Jordanian and I sit here and listen to the Spokeswoman for the State Department say that this is “necessary pain,” that’s just – who are you to tell me what’s necessary and what’s not?
MS. NULAND: Again, this is a set of reforms that need to be undertaken. It’s not easy. It’s never easy. It’s not easy in the European context; it’s not easy in the American context when we have to make adjustments to deal with our fiscal situation. But all of us are having to deal with these things in one way or another these days.
Please, Said.
Analysis / Op-ed / Human Interest
Israel maneuvers itself into a corner as Palestinians seek U.N. bid
Following Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s confirmation that the Palestinian Authority will present its bid for upgraded status at the U.N. on Nov. 29, an Israeli Foreign Ministry policy paper has proposed “toppling” his “regime” if the bid is approved.
A majority of Europeans want their governments to vote for Palestinian recognition at the UN, latest polls reveal. Overwhelming majorities in the UK and other western European countries believe Palestinians should have their own state and want their governments to vote for recognition of Palestine at the United Nations at the end of the month, according to latest polls.
Declaring the death of the two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become increasingly fashionable among growing sections of both right and left wing streams of Palestinians and Israelis. The late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said was one of the first to propagate this notion in his essays on the failure of the Oslo accords and on bi-nationalism . Since then, and in the wake of a second Palestinian uprising, a unilateral Israeli redeployment from the Gaza Strip, a vicious one-sided Israeli war on the same territory, and a comatose negotiations process, it's little wonder exasperated observers and participants are increasingly declaring the two-state solution dead, while kindling the search for alternatives.