David Duke Blitzes Blitzer On CNN

December 14, 2006

KKK Leader David Duke, Rabbis attend Holocaust Conference in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Two rabbis are among 67 people attending a conference in Iran that organizers say will examine whether the Holocaust ever took place.

The conference was initiated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Organizers tout the conference as a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from Western taboos.

Also at the conference is former Louisiana state representative and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and Australian Frederick Toben, who was jailed in Germany in 1999 for questioning the Holocaust.

The conference has drawn condemnation from Israel and Germany.

David Dukes CNN Interview

Palestinian police open fire on Hamas supporters; 35 wounded

35 Hamas supporters were wounded on Friday as the Islamist party wished to march in Ramallah to celebrate the 19th anniversary of their formation and faced a blockade of Palestinian security forces close to the rival Fatah faction.

US Troops Raid Hospital Again

by Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 15, 2006

Iraqi doctors and medical staff are outraged over yet another U.S. military raid at Fallujah General Hospital.

The raid followed a roadside bombing Dec. 7 where four Iraqi policemen were killed and two civilians injured. The injured were taken to Fallujah General Hospital.

Shortly after this attack, a U.S. Marine who was on a patrol in the city was wounded by a gunshot.

"U.S. soldiers replied to the source of fire then headed straight to the general hospital across the (Euphrates) river hoping that they had shot and injured the sniper," an eyewitness told Inter Press Service (IPS).

"American soldiers seem to have some imagination to think wounded fighters might go to that so-called hospital," a retired surgeon told IPS. "We know that they do not trust that place because of the continuous raids by the U.S., and lack of everything in that hospital." The hospital is functioning at minimal capacity due to lack of medicines and equipment, the surgeon said.

Eyewitnesses at Fallujah General Hospital said U.S. soldiers raided the hospital "as if it were a military target."

"We panicked at the way they entered, kicking open doors and blasting locked ones," a nurse told IPS. "A doctor tried to tell them he had keys for the locked doors, but they pointed their guns to his face. Then they told us to go out of the building and they kept us under guard in the garden until the early hours of next morning."

The nurse said the soldiers "would not even allow us to get some blankets to keep us warm; the temperature was below five degrees centigrade."

Doctors and medical staff were arrested and insulted, and some were called terrorists, witnesses said. The hospital was then closed, and could no longer offer even minimal treatment.

"We are used to that kind of behaviour from American soldiers," a hospital employee told IPS. "This was the third time I was in handcuffs with my face down. They have been more vicious with medical staff than others because they consider us the first supporters of those they call terrorists."

The U.S. military said that Marines from Regimental Combat Team 5 entered Fallujah General Hospital in order to search for fighters after two Marines were wounded the previous day in the city.

Lt. Col. Bryan Salas, spokesperson for the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, told reporters: "Coalition forces searched the hospital to ensure that it continues to be a safe place for the citizens of Fallujah to receive the medical treatment they deserve."

This hospital has been raided many times before, particularly in the U.S. military assault on the city April and November 2004.

Two years back, on Dec 13, 2004, IPS reported that the U.S. military was impeding Iraqi health workers around and inside Fallujah, and was deliberately targeting ambulances. In November 2005, IPS reported that the U.S. military had raided two hospitals in Ramadi.

Many Iraqi doctors have been arrested by U.S. forces for various periods of time on suspicion of "supporting terrorism" in Iraq. Many have fled the country for fear of repeated arrests or even killings by U.S. soldiers or sectarian militia death squads.

The independent Iraq Medical Association announced last month that of the 34,000 Iraqi physicians registered prior to 2003, over half have fled the country, and that at least 2,000 have been killed.

Article 12 of the first Geneva Convention states: "(Combatants) who are sick and wounded... shall be treated humanely and cared for by the Party to the conflict in whose power they may be..." The article goes on to state that "any attempts on their lives, or violence to their persons, shall be strictly prohibited..."

Article 24 of the first Geneva Convention states: "Medical personnel exclusively engaged in... transport or treatment of the wounded or sick . . . (and) staff exclusively engaged in the administration of medical units and establishments . . . shall be respected and protected in all circumstances."

Under the fourth Geneva Convention, Article 18 reads: "Civilian hospitals organised to care to the wounded and sick, infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict."

Dahr Jamail has spent a total of 8 months in occupied Iraq as one of only a few independent US journalists in the country. Dahr uses the DahrJamailIraq.com website, where this article first appeared, and his popular mailing list to disseminate his dispatches. Ali Al-Fadhily writes for Inter Press Service.

"Well I Say, We Got a Little Bit of a Problem?"

Abbas calls for fresh PA elections as soon as possible

18 people hurt in Hamas-Fatah clashes in Gaza

Message from Latuff to Progressive Students Labour Front

November 19, 2006

"I'm Latuff, Brazilian cartoonist, supporting Palestinian struggle for independence since 1999. I'm glad to know there's another exhibition of my cartoons in Gaza, promoted by the Progressive Students Labour Front.

I'd like to thank you, Palestinian students, for your kindness and support to my art and efforts. I dedicate my art to every single Palestinian, no matter if living in Palestine or being a refugee overseas, no matter if alive or dead.

My art is your art, my heart is with you, the strong and brave Palestinian people.

You survived to Ariel Sharon, you will survive to Ehud Olmert or any other criminal produced by the State of Israel and backed by United States.

My sincere regards,

Latuff,

Your everlasting Brazilian brother-in-arts."





A Very Dignified Israeli

Ehud Olmert's flatulence

Certain foods counteract the production of Ehud Olmert's deadly intestinal gas, most notably U.S. dollars.

by Latuff

Outsourcing Victory

Mark Flore Video


DynCorp

The world's premier rent-a-cop business runs the security show in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the US-Mexico border. They also run the coca crop-dusting business in Colombia, and occasional sex trafficking sorties in Bosnia. But what can you expect from a bunch of mercenaries?

DynCorp International

Dyncorp Web Site

--------------------------------

Blackwater USA

In March 2006, Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA, suggested at an international conference in Amman, Jordan that the company is ready to move towards providing security professionals up to brigade size for humanitarian efforts and low intensity conflicts. Critics have suggested this may be going too far in putting political decisions in the hands of privately owned corporations. The company, however, denies this was ever said.


Blackwater USA is a private military contractor offering "tactical training," firing range and target systems, and security consulting under the company's subdivisions: Blackwater Training Center, Blackwater Target Systems, Blackwater Security Consulting and Blackwater Canine. According to its website, Blackwater provides "a spectrum of support to military, government agencies, law enforcement and civilian entities in training, targets and range operations as a solution provider." Their slogan is: "Providing a new generation of capability, skills, and people to solve the spectrum of needs in the world of security."

Blackwater USA Web Site

Zionist American Spy Gets Presidential Medal of Freedom

Natan Sharansky, center, shakes hands with President Bush, right, after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Americas highest civil award, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

While in Russia:

In 1973, Sharansky applied for an exit visa to Israel, but was refused on “security” grounds. He remained prominently involved in Jewish refusenik activities until his arrest in 1977.

Convicted in 1978 of treason and spying on behalf of the United States, Sharansky was sentenced to thirteen years imprisonment.

He spent 16 months in Moscow's Lefortovo prison, frequently in solitary confinement and in a special “torture cell,” before being transferred to a notorious prison camp in the Siberian gulag.

Is the U.S. a Christian Nation?

December 15, 2006

Commentary

by Housewife4Palestine

Please do not tell my parents, I am a hijacker; they think I am a piano player in a whorehouse.

Alaska License Plate Bumper Sticker


At a time when Islamic countries are being accused of being or possibly terrorist countries, by the United States and their Allies; we have one other factor that is a growing concern in the world slice of the pie.

Speaking about Christian Racialism or Terrorism by Christian coalitions to fundamentalist or whatever word theses terrorist are using this week to justify their terror on helpless people.

Since 9/11 from the Bush camp, to every cracked pot across the country has got on the bandwagon declaring the United States as a sole Christian country and nothing more.

I even saw a picture the other day of a woman asking for money who paled in looks to the Tammy Faye Baker in her heyday. She looked more like Miss. Mona from "The Greatest Little Whore House in Texas" when she first woke in the morning with a bad hair day and ten cans of Dutch Boy Paint.

But getting back to matters at hand, the below article apparently I am suspecting because I do not know Cal Thomas is a Christian writer, giving his views on the United States being a Christian country and I found it most interesting what he had to say and the manner in which he wrote his opinion.

Mainly because in one aspect he is correct, because the United States for quite sometime now has been a melting pot country with a much-diversified populace with from what I had viewed in my travels is a representation of about every religion in the world in some form.

What even makes it more interesting is the ruling government is becoming more radical Zionist then the guise of Christianity.

Moreover, the same radical extremism I spoke of earlier not just speaking about a unified Christian country but more to the framework of Zionism not the purity of Christianity at all.

Furthermore, what is a political problem in the world to make anything a religious war is going back to the days of the suit of armor and the crusades?

Lastly, to force your religion upon anyone by terror or any kind of force is despicable and as the radical’s are so prone to accuse the religion of Islam, it is for them to check their dirty sheets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

by Cal Thomas

Isaiah Already Answered This Question

The prophet Isaiah wrote: "Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales...Before Him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing." (Isaiah 40:15-16). That doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for those who claim America is a "Christian nation."

What does that mean? That we are all Christian? Of course not, because all are not.

Declaring America as special, or uniquely Christian, or more favored by God than, say, Canada, or Mexico, or even Iran, is a form of idolatry.

It also reflects an unbiblical view that God's Kingdom and the United States have a kind of "special relationship," the theological equivalent of the "special relationship" that has existed between the U.S. and Britain. A lot of Scripture has to be twisted to reach such a conclusion.

Only individuals can be Christian, not countries, and those who think otherwise are in danger of breaking the Commandment, "Thou shalt not have no other gods before me."

Cal Thomas-Syndicated political columnist and “On Faith” panelist Cal Thomas has a twice-weekly column that appears in over 500 newspapers around the world. A graduate of American University, Thomas is a veteran of broadcast and print journalism. He has worked for NBC, CNBC, PBS television, and the Fox News Channel where he currently appears on the weekly media critique show, “Fox News Watch.” Thomas has authored ten books, including Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?, A Freedom Dream, Public Persons and Private Lives, Book Burning, Liberals for Lunch, Occupied Territory, The Death of Ethics in America, Uncommon Sense and Things That Matter Most. His latest was The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas. In 1995, Thomas was honored with a Cable Ace Award nomination for Best Interview Program. Other awards include a George Foster Peabody team reporting award, and awards from both the Associated Press and United Press International. Common Ground, which Thomas writes for USA Today, offers insightful discussion of contentious social issues with his friend and political counterpart, Bob Beckel. The two are working together on a book to be published in 2007.

Fighting terrorism should not break any laws: German FM

Khaled el-Masri

December 15, 2006

German Foreign Minister Frank- Walters Steinmeier said Thursday in Berlin that the German authorities have never broken any laws in fighting terrorism.

He made the remarks to reporters before receiving a parliamentary inquiry, which is probing if former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government was aware of the alleged U.S. abduction of German citizen Khaled el-Masri in 2003.

"We sometimes had very difficult decisions to make. But these were always within the framework of the state of laws, and will continue to be so," said Steinmeier, who served in Schroeder's office at that time.

On the same day, his predecessor Joschka Fischer told the parliamentary inquiry that he had not known anything about el- Masri's abduction.

El-Masri, a Muslin of Lebanese origin with German citizenship, is suing the United States for damages.

The German parliamentary inquiry had heard that the then U.S. ambassador to Berlin Daniel Coats informed then German interior minister Otto Schily on May 31, 2004 of el-Masri's mistaken abduction and afterward release.

Fischer said he had not learned of the meeting from Schily but from reading about it in the online version of the Washington Post newspaper. Fischer is currently teaching at Princeton University in the United States.

German officials all denied that they have known anything about the abduction till after el-Masri was freed.

Source

Unrecognised villages in the Negev expose Israel's apartheid policies

Bangani Ngeleza and Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada, 21 December 2005

A waterstation in front of an unrecognized village, 5 km from Bir Saba. Bedouin do not have access to this waterstation. (Photo: Ameer Makhoul)

Eighty thousand Palestinian Bedouin Israelis live in unrecognised villages in the Negev desert in the south of Israel. The villages are deprived of basic services like housing, water, electricity, education and health care. With the adoption of the Israeli Planning and Construction Law in 1965, 45 villages in the Negev were not declared as existing. Recently, Bangani Ngeleza and Adri Nieuwhof visited the region. They write about the serious consequences this has had for villagers in these "unrecognised villages".

The majority of the villages existed at the time of the creation of Israel in 1948 and some were established in the early 1960's when Israel evacuated Bedouins from northern Negev to the south of Beersheba. Comparisons between the experiences of Palestinian Bedouins in the unrecognised villages and black South Africans in the informal settlements in apartheid South Africa is striking. Apartheid policies in South Africa were adopted to ensure the priviliged position of white South Africans. Israeli government policies are targeted to secure the priviliged position of Jewish Israelis. A government that divides its people and deprives part of its citizens of basic human rights does not show a serious commitment to peace.

Unrecognised villages in the Negev

The 80,000 Palestinian Bedouins living in unrecognised villages in the south of Israel are citizens of Israel. They have the right to vote in national elections and when they have a job or operate a business it is their duty to pay taxes. The majority have lived for generations in villages on their land in the Negev. Following the adoption of the Planning and Construction Law of 1965, the villages did not appear on any Israeli map. They were not recognised by any official government and ignored by all government planning projects.

As there is no municipal authority that governs the villages, the Bedouin Palestinians cannot vote or be elected for municipal representation. Villagers are deprived of basic infrastructure and services like roads, sewage, running water, electricity, clinics, kindergartens and welfare services. The families in the villages mostly live in shacks under zinc roofs where the temperature can reach as high as 55 degrees Celcius. There is no authority that can decide upon permits for the construction of properties. The building of houses in the villages is therefore unlicensed and they are at all times under threat of demolition. A former captain of the Negev police remarked that "there is an imbalance since there is only a destroying authority and no authority issuing construction permits".1

Children

Half of the population of the Bedouins - about 40,000 - in the unrecognised villages is under the age of 18. In 2002, the infant mortality rate was 17.1 per 1000 births, as compared to the rate of 4.5 among Jewish infants. The absence of sewerage and garbage collection systems leads to unhygienic living conditions, a major cause of diseases among children.

Children of the unrecognised villages have to travel sometimes between 40 to 60 kilometres to school. They have to walk from the village to the main road to wait for transport. The majority of the children do not attend kindergarten, because there is no one in their village. This is against a law that rules that education is compulsory for four year old children. Specifically, the Compulsory Education Law requires the government to provide free and compulsory education for every child aged between 5 and15 years, regardless of whether a child has been registered in the Ministry of Interior's Population Registry or even if the child's parents are illegal residents. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs proudly claims this as part of its commitment to social and welfare rights.2

Yet 40 per cent of the children drop out before finishing high school, and of the children who manage to go to high school only 27 per cent pass the matriculation exams.

Policy of removal

The policy of removal of Palestinians from Israel is as old as the creation of the state in 1948 and is illustrated by Prime Minister Ben Gurion, who said during a visit to Nazareth, "Why are there so many Arabs here? Why didn't you chase them away?"3

After lifting the military rule that was in force from 1948 to 1966 in the Negev and the Galilee, Israel's policy continued to target the removal of the Bedouin population. During this period, over 50,000 Bedouins were transferred to seven townships that were planned specifically for this group. The townships are densely populated and uprooted the Bedouin families from their traditional way of life. The "concentration towns" are the poorest and most neglected towns in Israel. In the process of removal the land belonging to the Bedouin families was confiscated.

In April 2003, a six-year plan was approved by Sharon's government with the stated aim to change the population's condition, settle land disputes and bolster law enforcement in relation to the Bedouin sector in the Negev. The plan was developed without consulting the Bedouin community in the Negev. In practice, the focus of activities within the plan for the coming years is "enforcement", which means massive house demolitions.

Large sums of the budget are allocated to the Israeli police force. The cabinet of Sharon approved a $250 million budget to force Bedouins from 45 unrecognised villages to leave their homes. At the same time, the government is planning the development of new Jewish settlements throughout the Negev. According to fieldworkers of the Regional Council of Unrecognised Villages in the Negev, every week a few shacks are demolished by Israel's giant Caterpillar bulldozers. The strategy is to demolish a few houses there, avoiding large scale demolition of villages. The message to the Bedouins is that they had better move soon or be removed forcefully.

Informal Settlements in South Africa

The existence of informal settlements in South Africa today reflects an apartheid legacy that stripped Africans of their right to live where they wished. It will take the present government years and significant amounts of capital investment to address the housing backlogs.












There are disturbing similarities in living conditions between unrecognised villages and informal settlements under apartheid. These include lack of access to adequate potable water, lack of proper sanitation facilities, absence of proper road infrastructure, the lack of educational facilities, houses built of corrugated iron sheets (in some cases of black plastics and cardboard) etc.

The similarities are striking between racially based policies that lay behind the creation of white settlements under the apartheid regime in South Africa then and the estabslishment of Jewish settlements by the Israeli government.

Policy Rationale in Apartheid South Africa

The policy of influx control was introduced in South Africa in the 1960's as a mechanism for limiting the number of black Africans within 87 per cent of the land area that was designated as "white South Africa" under the 1913 Land Act. This policy had three components: (a) the Group Areas Act, which prohibited Africans from being present in South Africa for more that seventy two hours without official permission; (b) labour bureaus, which matched African workers with specific jobs and then granted them the required official permission to work for a specific employer and live in a designated township; and (c) strict enforcement of the Group Areas Act.4 This policy was implemented with zeal by the apartheid regime, with an extraordinary number of 5.8 million prosecutions under laws restricting movement in the decade between 1966-75. Effectively, this policy restricted African citizenship to 13 per cent of the poorest land area that was declared as part of its so-called "homeland" policy.

Forced Removals

The influx control policy was pursued in South Africa through expulsions. These saw the forced removal of over 3.5 million black people (Africans, "Coloured" and Indians) during the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. In the 1950's, over 600,000 people were forcefully removed from Johannesburg and dumped in a labour reserve/township, known as the Southwest Township (SOWETO) in overcrowded conditions. SOWETO was located 10 kilometres away from Johannesburg, initially with no amenities.

Forced removals also happened in Cato Manor (Mkhumbane) in Durban and District Six in Cape Town where 55,000 people were forcefully moved. The influx control policy meant that only those Africans that had permits to be in South Africa could remain within these reserves. Those who were found without such permits were regularly rounded up, detained and then trucked to the borders with homelands where they were dumped. This was effectively a measure to secure the demographic imperative of ensuring a white majority in the so called "white" South Africa. It was a policy similar to that of the Israeli government in securing a Jewish majority in Israel through mass expulsions.

The emergence of the informal settlement phenomenon

The repeal of influx control legislation during the last years of apartheid saw a movement of African people from the impoverished rural areas (homelands) to urban areas (which were erstwhile reserved for "whites") in search of a better life (employment, education etc). From 1976, the apartheid regime did not construct any new housing stock to accommodate black people in urban areas as part of its racial policies of limiting black movement. The result of this urbanisation phenomenon was the creation of shanty towns where people settled informally, in the backyards of township dwellings, in open spaces adjourning townships and closer to cities and in border towns next to homelands. In 1994, when the African National Congress government came to power in the country's first democratic elections, there was one housing unit for every 43 Africans as opposed to one for every 3.5 whites. The housing backlog was estimated at 1.3 million housing units, with between 7.5 and 10 million people in informal dwellings.5

The future of Israel lies in the end of apartheid

Apartheid policies in South Africa were adopted to ensure the privilaged position of white South Africans, as Israeli policies are targeted to secure the priviliged position of Jewish Israelis. A government that divides its people and deprives some of its citizens basic human rights does not show a serious commitment to peace. With the continuation of these divisive policies, it is difficult to take Sharon's rhetoric about working for peace seriously. The challenge for Israel is to arrive at a solution that will guarantee equality for all its citizens regardless of race, gender, religion and so on, within a democratic state. Pressure must be put on the state of Israel to abandon its apartheid policies, including its refusal to recognise the existence of villages composed of its own citizens living within its national borders.

The material conditions of Bedouins living in unrecognised villages brings into sharp focus the sense of outrage that moved Nelson Mandela who, on the occasion of the Rivonia trial in 1964 at which he and other ANC leaders faced the possibility of the death penalty said,

"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunties. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and wish to achieve, but if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die".

Bangani Ngeleza and Adri Nieuwhof are independent consultants from respectively South Africa and the Netherlands. Ngeleza participated in the liberation struggle of the ANC to overcome apartheid in South Africa, and Nieuwhof supported the struggle as a member of Holland Committee on Southern Africa the ANC in achieving its goals.

Endnotes

[1] More information is available on the website of the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev: www.rcuv.org

[2] See Yoram Rabin, A Free People in Our Land: Welfare and Socio-Economic Rights in Israel, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1 April 2005); CRC factsheet: Israel, CRC/C/8/Add. 44 (27 February 2002)

[3] A Middle East View by Mennonite Church Liaison (PDF), Glenn Edward Witmer (November 2005)

[4] The Instruments of Apartheid: Dealing with the "Black Threat"

[5] Richard Knight

We didn't disappear

14 - 20 December 2006

Arabs in Israel call for a "state of all its citizens" to replace Jewish-only policies, writes Jonathan Cook in Nazareth

The official political leadership of Israel's more than one million Palestinian citizens issued a manifesto in Nazareth last week demanding a raft of changes to end the systematic discrimination exercised against non-Jews by the state since its creation nearly six decades ago.

Included in the manifesto -- the first ever produced by the community's supreme political body, known as the High Follow-Up Committee -- are calls for Israel to be reformed from a Jewish state that privileges its Jewish majority into "a state of all its citizens" and for sweeping changes to a national system of land control designed to exclude Palestinian citizens from influence.

The document is likely to further increase tensions between the Israeli government and the country's Palestinian minority, and has already been roundly condemned in the Hebrew media.

Although individual Arab political parties have made similar criticisms of the state before, it is the first time in its history that the High Follow-Up Committee -- a cautious and conservative body, mainly comprising the heads of Arab local authorities -- has dared to speak out. The committee is seen as setting the consensus for Israel's one in five citizens who are Palestinian.

The most contentious issue raised in the document, called "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel", is Israel's status as a Jewish state. The authors -- leading academics and community activists -- argue that Israel is not a democracy but an "ethnocracy" similar to Turkey, Sri Lanka and the Baltic states.

Instead, says the manifesto, Israel must become a "consensual democracy" enabling Palestinian citizens "to be fully active in the decision-making process and guarantee our individual and collective civil, historic and national rights."

An editorial in Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper denounced the document as "undermining the Jewish character of the state" and argued that it was likely its publication would "actually weaken the standing of Arabs in Israel instead of strengthening it".

The campaign among Israel's Arab parties for a state of all its citizens began in the mid-1990s after it was widely understood that under the terms of the Oslo Accords Israel's Palestinian population would remain citizens of the State of Israel. Until then the minority had kept largely out of the debate about its future, fearing that expressing a view would prejudice negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership.

The demand for a state of all its citizens has wide backing among the Palestinian minority: a recent survey by the Mada Al-Carmel Centre revealed that 90 per cent believed a Jewish state could not guarantee them equality, and 61 per cent objected to Israel's self-definition.

However, Israeli prime ministers, including Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, have always characterised the call for a state of all its citizens as tantamount to sedition. In a speech last week, Avigdor Lieberman, the new minister of strategic threats, repeated a similar line, telling policy-makers in Washington: "he who is not ready to recognise Israel as a Jewish and Zionist state cannot be a citizen in the country."

As well as highlighting the various spheres of life in which Palestinian citizens are discriminated against, the manifesto makes several key demands that are certain to fall on stony ground.

The High Follow-Up Committee argues that the Palestinian minority must be given "institutional self-rule in the field of education, culture and religion". Israeli officials have always refused to countenance such forms of autonomy. Instead, the separate and grossly under-funded Arab education system is overseen by Jewish officials; the status of the Arabic language is at an all-time low; and the government regularly interferes in the appointment of Muslim and Christian clerics, as well as controlling the running of their places of worship and providing almost no budget for non-Jewish religious services.

The manifesto also demands that Israel "acknowledge responsibility for the Palestinian Nakba " -- the catastrophic dispossession of the Palestinian people during Israel's establishment in 1948 -- and "consider paying compensation for its Palestinian citizens".

As many as one in four Palestinian citizens are internal refugees from the war, and referred to as "present absentees" by the Israeli authorities. They were stripped of their homes, possessions and bank accounts inside Israel, even though they remained citizens. Most homes were either later destroyed by the army or reallocated to Jewish citizens.

An internal government memorandum leaked several years ago showed that most of the internal refugees' money, supposedly held in trust by a state official known as the Custodian of Absentee Property, had disappeared and could no longer be traced.

Another controversial demand is for a radical overhaul of the system of land policy and planning in Israel, described in the manifesto as "the most sensitive issue" between Palestinian citizens and their state. Israel has nationalised 93 per cent of the territory inside its vague borders, holding it in trust not for its citizens but for the Jewish people worldwide. The land can be leased, but usually only to Jews.

Israel's Palestinian citizens, on the other hand, are restricted to about three per cent of the land, although they do not control much of the area nominally in their possession. Gerrymandering of municipal boundaries means that Arab local authorities have been stripped of jurisdiction over half of their areas, which have been effectively handed over to Jewish regional councils.

The manifesto calls for an end to other discriminatory land practices: the exclusion of Palestinian citizens from planning committees; the refusal of such committees to issue house- building permits to Palestinian citizens; the enforcement of house demolitions only against Palestinian citizens; and the continuing harmful interference by international Zionist organisations, particularly the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund, in Israel's land and planning system.

The chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee, Shawki Khatib, said: "We've already seen the reality of which the Arab public says to the Jewish public, 'I want to live together, and I really mean it', but the Jewish public has still not reached the same conclusion. This document is a preliminary spark. Its importance is not in its publishing, but in what happens after it."

The High Follow-Up Committee was established in 1982, in the wake of Land Day in 1976 when six unarmed Palestinian citizens were shot dead by Israeli security forces during demonstrations against a wave of land confiscations by the state to advance its official goal of "Judaising" the Galilee.

The Follow-Up Committee has lost much of its status over the past decade, widely seen as too unwieldy a body to represent the Palestinian minority's needs effectively. Members, drawn from the heads of local authorities and major Israeli Arab organisations and parties, do not have to submit to direct election and reach their decisions through consensus, which has often paralysed the committee into inaction. The manifesto is viewed as an attempt to reassert the committee's authority.

In recent years Arab political factions have called for direct elections to the Follow-Up Committee, but the Israeli government has intimated that it would consider an Arab "parliament" as an attempt at secession and react harshly.

In a related development, the Mossawa advocacy centre presented a position paper at a conference in Nazareth this month, arguing that internal refugees should be allowed to return to villages that existed before 1948. "The move by refugees of 1948 to their villages will not change the demographic balance or endanger the Jews," said Jafar Farah, head of Mossawa. "Unlike the [Palestinian] refugees in Arab states, we are [already] here."

Two Jerusalem House Demolitions

December 12th, 2006

by John


Last night human rights workers learned that there were going to be demolitions of houses in the Jerusalem district today so we travelled to Al ‘Isawiya. When we arrived we found that the house had already been destroyed and that the bulldozer had come at 5am. The father of the family was there but the children and mother were all ’sick’ – stressed by the events of the day. This is the second time the house has been knocked down - they were told if they paid $10,000-20,000 it may be saved but of course they do not have that money. They had rebuilt it after the last demolition simply because they had nowhere else to go.


This family will now move into another house next door which other members of their extended family live in - the reason they had moved out is because there were too many to fit in this house - now 6 people will have to move into a house with a similar number. The space available to them is pretty small as it was, so this is going to make the situation even worse. Luckily they had enough time to retrieve almost all their belongings before the house was knocked down.




HRWs were also present later at a house on the Mount of Olives while the demolition took place, but police would not let internationals anywhere near because of ‘orders’. When questioned, one of the soldiers pushed a journalist for no real reason, only a small push, but still it is unacceptable as he was not trying to pass the soldier at the time, simply trying to ascertain why he was not allowed past. One police officer said that before this house, they demolished a Jewish house and were going onto another Jewish house, in fact a lot of the houses they knock down are Jewish. Of course she was vague on details and we replied we had never heard of this - one person in the group has researched this extensively, but she said see had seen different research. They then said we can take pictures from where we were, although the house could not be seen from this position.




Eventually some got onto the roofs of other properties but most of it was over. The soldiers and police who were there were all patting each other on the back and shaking hands - job done. The children were there and some of the grown men had tears in their eyes.


Other houses in this area have been bulldozed recently as well, and some residents seem worried that still more houses might be next. This month has seen a large number of properties bulldozed in the West Bank, and with many other properties threatened, more are likely in the near future. Since the start of 2004 234, and so far this year 36 Palestinian houses have been demolished in Jerusalem alone.

A family home in Walaja, west of Bethlehem, was destroyed for the third time today.

Postcards from the Edge

Two young men, backs turned, wrists bound, heads hanging – paired with anger, a mouth stretched wide open in rage and spewing hate. “You are disgusting Arabs and you should be beaten like animals and stay in jail”.

December 13th, 2006- Katie Miranda’s “postcards” create visual dispatches to the American people of life, death, and innocence demolished in Palestine



The pair are immortalised on one of Katie’s postcards. “It was such an emotional experience because they were just kids, you know, they hadn’t done anything wrong,” says the artist. “And no one will be held responsible. It was a meaningless death. I couldn’t get the image of those kids’ faces out of my head for weeks. So I dealt with that and the trauma of being in a place under siege by painting the picture of Ibrahim during his funeral procession that wouldn’t leave my head.” She later painted a picture of him from a photo studio portrait. “When I gave it to the family it was really emotional. I could tell they were really touched and really liked it – but of course it also reminded them that their son or brother was dead. It was hard for me to look at his brother’s face when I gave him the portrait.”


In another postcard, a fairly innocuous image, a young boy is shown with his mouth gaping open and a few teeth missing. But it is rendered appalling by the explanation – a settler woman had filled his mouth with rocks and slammed his jaw shut, shattering his teeth.

Occupation Hazards

Katie shares with Skin her top altercations with the IDF:

1. Water supplies being poisoned by Israeli soldiers

Our water is kept in tanks on the roof of our apartment building. The IDF soldiers occasionally use our roof as one of their outposts. One day we discovered some creepy-crawly things in the water coming out of the kitchen sink faucet. We went up on the roof to investigate and discovered that our water tanks had been turned into an IDF garbage dump. The garbage included forks, spoons, knives, army netting, unexploded bullets, paper, plastic, glass, bricks, broken pipes, pudding containers, an extremely outdated, unopened yoghurt package, and plastic trays on which soldiers’ meals are served. The water on the bottom of the tank was completely black but the water on the top was clear. When I smelled it I felt like I was going to throw up. Since we get the water on the top of the tank first, we didn’t notice a problem until we noticed wriggly things in our water. After we made the discovery I went to the doctor who found that I had some kind of gnarly amoebas living in my stomach. One volunteer was diagnosed with tapeworm.

More of Katie’s artwork can be seen on her website: www.theopticnerve.com

She also maintains a blog at: moomin13.livejournal.com

Apartheid wall, Qalandia checkpoint, occupied Palestine2006

Olmert filmed 'coaching' Prodi

Channel 10 showed footage of Olmert apparently leading Prodi into endorsing Israel's view

December 14, 2006

An Israeli television station has broadcast footage that appears to show Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, coaching Romano Prodi on what to say during a joint press conference.

The footage, broadcast on Israel's Channel 10 television station, was taken from Olmert's first offical trip to Rome where he met the Italian prime minister.

"It is important that you emphasise the three principles of the Quartet - that they are not negotiated [sic]. They are the basis for everything," Olmert says, referring to Western demands that Hamas, which runs the Palestinian government, recognise the state of Israel before peace talks can begin.

"Please say this?" Olmert asks his nodding counterpart in English.

Prodi then delivered words to that effect. He also endorsed Israel's vision of remaining a Jewish state, which rules out an influx of Palestinian refugees.

Channel 10 television suggested that Prodi's statement on the continued Jewish identity of Israel was also at Olmert's prodding.

"You said something about a Jewish state [in the past]. I know that," Olmert is shown telling Prodi.

Olmert and Prodi aides had no immediate comment on the Channel 10 footage.

Sanctions

Before his Rome visit, Olmert marked a Berlin trip by seeming to confirm that Israel has the Middle East's only nuclear weapons – a reversal of a Israel's previous policy of "strategic ambiguity" on nuclear arms.

An Olmert spokeswoman denied that he had changed this policy, but opposition politicians still asked for his resignation.

Also during the Rome trip, Olmert called on other countries to co-ordinate efforts to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons.

Western governments, including the US and Britain, have expressed concern that Iran's uranium enrichment programme is being used to produce material for a nuclear weapon. Iran insists its programme is for civilian use.

Olmert hopes to convince Italy to back sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme.

He said they both agreed that "co-ordinated efforts are needed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power".

Deaths

The trip to Rome comes as a truce in Gaza between the Israeli army and Palestinian armed factions continues to hang in the balance.

On Wednesday, a Palestinian was shot dead by the Israeli army in Gaza, the first such death since the ceasefire came into effect over three weeks ago.

Fighting in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah armed groups followed the decision of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to deploy Fatah security forces across the territory.

The deployment came after three young sons of a Fatah intelligence official were shot and killed on Monday.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, where no ceasefire is in effect, two Palestinians were killed on Thursday.

Wahib Misleh, 25, was shot in the chest and arms by Israeli soldiers in the village of Kafr Al-Dik, medics and security sources said.

"Our troops searched the area and spotted a Palestinian who was about to throw a breeze-block at them from an elevated position. As they felt their lives were in danger, the soldiers opened fire, hitting the Palestinian," an Israeli army spokesman said.

Witnesses said Misleh was not among those throwing stones.

In a second killing, West Bank residents said men wearing plain clothes jumped out of an unmarked car and shot dead a man in a refugee camp in Nablus.

The residents identified the man as Mohammed Rammah, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed wing of Fatah.

Four other Palestinians were wounded during the raid, including a 12-year-old girl, hospital officials said.

The Israeli army had no comment but said it was checking the report.

Source

Haniya barred from entering Gaza

The Rafah border crossing is the only way in or out of the Gaza Strip which does not pass through Israel

December 14, 2006

Israel has closed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt preventing the Palestinian prime minister returning to the Gaza Strip.

Hamas supporters entered the terminal after hearing of the closure, sparking a gunbattle with the guards.

Israeli security sources said Amir Peretz, the defence minister, had ordered the closure.

Another Israeli source told Reuters news agency that Ismael Haniya was suspected of trying to bring in millions of dollars donated by Iran.

He had been on a two-week tour of the Middle East to raise money for the Hamas government.

The European Border Assistance Mission, which monitors the crossing point, said it was unclear when it would reopen.

"It is closed. The operation has stopped for a while until the situation with Haniya is clarified," a spokeswoman said.

Hundreds of Hamas supporters waving the group's green flags had gathered at the Rafah terminal to welcome Haniya's return.

The crossing is the only way in or out of the Gaza Strip that does not involve travelling through Israel.

"This is a political message to the Hamas government and the Palestinian administration as a whole."

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent said: "This is a political message to the Hamas government and the Palestinian administration as a whole."

"This will reinforce the Palestinian conviction that Israel remains an occupying power in the Gaza Strip," she added.

Haniya received assurances of up to $350m in aid for next year during his regional trip, which included visits to Qatar, Iran and Sudan.

Egyptian security sources said that Haniya was carrying $35m.

The Hamas-led government has needed to secure funds this way because of an economic blockade by Western nations and the refusal of the Israeli government to hand over revenue it collects on the Palestinians' behalf.

Haniya had "moved up his return because of the situation in the Palestinian territories", Ahmad Yussef, a senior Hamas official told AFP news agency.

Hamas and Fatah have blamed each other for a series of killings in the Palestinian Territories, the most prominent of which was the shooting of the three young sons of a senior Fatah loyalist on Monday.

That attack was followed by the murder of a prominent Hamas member on his way to work in the southern town of Khan Yunis on Wednesday.

Link:

Israel preventing Haniyeh enter Gaza Strip through Rafah crossing

Inter-Palestinian fighting moves from media to streets

Presidential guard fire at the Haneyya's motorcade

At least 13 Palestinians, including son of Palestinian PM and his political adviser were wounded and one of his bodyguards was killed Thursday at Gaza's Rafah border crossing after Hamas gunmen went on a rampage waiting for prime minister Ismail Haniya to cross back into the strip after being detained by an Israeli closure.

Remedial Iraq Study Group

Improve You Remedial Iraq Study Group Skills...Just a Click away

By Mark Fiore

U.S. Officials show ignorance about basic Mideast facts

The new Democratic chairman of a US congressional intelligence committee Silvestre Reyes.

December 13, 2006

The Telegraph Group

Washington: The new Democratic chairman of a US congressional intelligence committee did not know what Hezbollah was and incorrectly described Al Qaida as deriving from the Shiite rather than Sunni sect.

Representative Silvestre Reyes was flummoxed when a journalist rounded off a 40-minute interview by asking him two basic questions about the Islamist groups that are the principal targets of America's intelligence agencies.

"Al Qaida is what - Sunni or Shiite?" Jeff Stein, the Congressional Quarterly magazine's national security editor, asked Reyes.

Column

"Al Qaida, they have both," came the reply. "You're talking about predominately?" the congressman then asked, before venturing: "Predominantly - probably Shiite."

As Stein noted in his subsequent column: "He couldn't have been more wrong. Al Qaida is profoundly Sunni."

He then asked the congressman about the militant group Hezbollah. "Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah..." he said, laughing. "Why do you ask me these questions at five o'clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?"

The holes in his knowledge are a fresh embarrassment to Nancy Pelosi, the incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives, whose leadership was undermined when her chosen deputy was rejected by Democrats.

She selected Reyes to chair the House intelligence committee over the head of Jane Harman, who is widely respected as having a firm grasp of the nuances of the Middle East.

Pelosi is said to harbour a long-time personal grudge against Harman. Stein has been quizzing senior intelligence officials and politicians with similar questions for the past 18 months.

Security branch

In a similar gaffe-laden session, Willie Hulon, chief of the FBI's national security branch, did not know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites either. "The basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following," he said. "And the conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shiites and the difference between who they were following."

So which were Iran and Hezbollah? With a 50 per cent chance of getting it right, Hulon flunked by plumping for Sunni.

Congressman Terry Everett, a Republican and vice-chairman of the House intelligence sub-committee on technical and tactical intelligence, chuckled when he was asked the same question.

"One's in one location, another's in another location," he said. "No, to be honest with you, I don't know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something." Islam split into Shiite and Sunni sects after the death of the Prophet in 632AD. Sunnis follow the Prophet's lieutenants as their religious leaders while Shiites follow his descendants.

Revealed: Over 100 Prisons identified worldwide for illegal detention in ‘War on Terror’

December 13, 2006

Disappearances in the War on Terror have formed an integral part of the Bush administration’s programme of secret detention. This latest report by Cageprisoners: Beyond the Law: The War on Terror’s Secret Network of Global Detentions, highlights the wide-reaching extent of those countries that house these detainees, generally at the behest of the US government. The report shows that out of the 120 prisons identified worldwide, 72 have been, or are currently being used by the US to interrogate detainees.

By piecing together statements of released detainees, work of investigative journalists and human rights organisations, we provide the most definitive and up to date list of prisons used in the ‘War on Terror.’

Commenting on the findings of the report, Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, wrote,

“…Cageprisoners publishes a comprehensive report which reveals the systematic practice of enforced disappearances in a global network of secret places of detention.”

Further the Chair of the British Institute of Human Rights, Geoffrey Bindman, states that in the policies of the War on Terror,

“This report is directed at one glaringly disgraceful element in that strategy: the detention without charge or trial and the physical abuse of those suspected of involvement in terrorism.”

The release of the report aims to catalyse the process of bringing transparency to a situation deliberately shrouded in obscurity. Deliberately denying prisoners access to open courts or any semblance of justice, whilst being tortured and coerced into giving false confessions is not befitting of any civilised society. It is imperative that transparency swiftly be brought to this process, so that the innocent can pick up the remains of their shattered lives and be returned to their loved ones.

The report consists of a list of detention facilities, an accompanying document to explain the terms and provide analysis of the findings, and finally a map, pinpointing the network of ghost detention sites worldwide:

Beyond the Law – Report:

www.cageprisoners.com/beyondthelaw.pdf

Beyond the Law – List of Prisons:

www.cageprisoners.com/beyondthelaw_prisonlist.pdf

Beyond the Law – Map of Global Network:

www.cageprisoners.com/beyondthelaw_map.pdf

Cage Prisoners is a human rights organisation that exists solely to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror. We aim to give a voice to the voiceless.

Time Magazine Found a Hate Filled Threadbare Rug

December 13, 2006

by Housewife4Palestine

Time magazine came out with an article December 10, titled“The Big Lie About the Middle East,” where all the global conflicts particularly that the conflict in Iraq and the plight of the Palestinians for example are not connected; when in fact all the conflicts that is occurring today has one root and that is Palestine.

Better yet, the Zionist government with the bottom kisser’s America.

It does not take an Einstein to figure this one out or anyone with the last two marbles rolling around in their skull! While there is a factor of profit in all these wars and not by the victims either, but anytime you have extermination of a culture or religion wake up they are connected.

Why do you think, I talk about the events or wars in the last few years from everything from Palestine, Iraq, to Afghanistan because they are connected. Anyone that knows anything about war or forensics knows that the situations all have the same toe tag.

While Lisa Beyer, who wrote the article might claim to be an authority in the Middle East. I am sorry to say, she fell short of the bus stop and landed in the sewage that flows by the curb with the apparently lack of knowledge to her subject or her extreme narrow mindness to what the real issues are in the Middle East.

I find that the gallant people that do serious blog pages on the Middle East issues will understand what I am talking about a lot more then Beyer.

Her article from the perspective I read, was more slander then good journalism and for Time Magazine to run such dribble just show's their screening department is vastly slipping.

I would hope in the future that such a good Magazine would be more particular in the articles they publish, because articles such as this hurts the media not help.

As for any other substance of this article it did not have any, think I'll get a glass of water?

In addition, Ms Beyer, as a suggestion, I would stop the martini lunches.

Upside Down Daydreams

December 13, 2006

by Housewife4Palestine

There is days when the roses smell sweeter, the butterflies seem brighter circling the flowers and your world is full of daydreams with happy sighing.

No matter how bad things are in the world it is like you need to take a day off and appreciate what you do have.

When the elbow's lean on the desk, even though your mother use to say not do that and the dreams flow like a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew novel?

Even when your friend who drives the bright, shiny new yellow car that is a cross between a Volkswagen and a French circus clown car, drives up and ask you to go search out the great mysteries; what more could bring the laughter to your heart or the big smiles to your face.

When everywhere you feel love and no matter if someone is different then you, but you find the differences are wonderful.

To look at everything around you as something new to explore like the children’s character of Curious George.

Where the paint is so many colors, food taste's better and there is hope for a brighter future.

Then you wonder how you can grab hands to share…Smiles...dancing with the sun in a field of sunflowers and cool green grass?

“I don’t want this feeling to go away!”

Iraq: Not in My Name

So we see destruction, devastation, the injured and the dead on our TV screens every week.

How devastated are we?

It is after all 1000's of miles away. What does it matter?

Most turn their backs and look away. Would it be a different story if it happened in their street - or in their shopping centre - or in their city? Perhaps.





Source

PM's emissaries in secret visit to Abbas

December 12, 2006

By Avi Issacharoff

Two emissaries of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert paid a secret visit to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday, Haaretz has learned.

During the meeting, Olmert also spoke with Abbas by telephone, and the PA chairman said that he wants Israel to release Marwan Barghouti from prison independent of any deal for the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Barghouti, a senior official in Abbas' Fatah party, is currently serving five life sentences for his role in the murder of five Israelis during the intifada.

However, Olmert replied that he is not even willing to discuss this issue until after Shalit is returned to Israel.

Palestinian sources said that the meeting, which was attended by Olmert's bureau chief, Yoram Turbowicz, and his political advisor, Shalom Turjeman, was extremely positive.

We received several very positive messages from Israel," said one.

This is the first time that Olmert's emissaries have been to Ramallah to meet with Abbas, so the very fact that they came was also perceived as an encouraging gesture, the sources said. Hitherto, Turbowicz and Turjeman have only met with lower-level PA officials.

At the meeting, Abbas and the Israeli officials also discussed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's planned visit to the region next month and the possibility of an Olmert-Abbas meeting. That meeting has been delayed by the lack of progress on Shalit's release.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced yesterday that Iran had promised to give the PA's Hamas government $250 million in 2007.

Haniyeh, who was speaking at the conclusion of a visit to Tehran, termed the visit "historic and very successful."

"We achieved our goals on this visit," he said. "We found all the love it is possible to give to the Palestinian people."

According to Haniyeh, the Iranian donation will include a direct cash payment to Hamas of $100 million.

The remainder will be divided as follows: paying the unpaid salaries of employees of three ministries - labor, welfare and culture - as well as stipends to Palestinian prisoners and their families for the next six months ($45 million); paying stipends of $100 a month to some 100,000 unemployed Palestinian civil servants for the next six months ($60 million); doing the same for some 3,000 Palestinian fisherman ($1.8 million); building a cultural center and "national" offices, apparently for the government's use ($15 million); rebuilding some 1,000 demolished houses, at a cost of about $10,000 per house ($20 million); purchasing 300 new cars for the Palestinian government ($3 million); and purchasing Palestinian olive oil at a special high price ($5 million).

Iran also promised to build three new hospitals and 10 clinics in the territories over the next 10 years.

Haniyeh said that the financial aid was personally approved by Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, with whom he met on Sunday.

Following that meeting, Khamenei said: "The day will yet come when all of Palestine will be under Palestinian rule. Only struggle and resistance will restore all of Palestine, every centimeter of it, to its owners. The Palestinian government will receive full support from the Islamic Republic of Iran."

A Palestinian child has been run over by an Israeli settler in Hebron

December 12, 2006

Hebron - Ma'an - An Israeli ambulance transported a Palestinian child, Mohammad Jabir, aged 5, to an Israeli hospital after being run over by an Israeli settler car near the Al Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Eyewitnesses said that the child was on his way to his kindergarten when the car hit him, and that Israeli forces arrived to the scene shortly after the incident.

South Park Bush

Something to think about?

US crime against Iraqi innocent people

The only survivor from the both families says:

I was in my farm, from far I saw American military forces surrounded the house then I heard gunshots and screams, after 15 minutes the noises stopped and the Americans left the area.

Minutes later, an airplane bombed the two houses with one missile followed with five missiles. I knew my whole family members are killed.



More Photo's you will not find at Al-Jazeera


'Children killed' in US Iraq raid

December 8, 2006

Six children and eight women are among at least 32 people killed in a US air raid northwest of Baghdad, according to Iraqi police and local officials.

Khedr Hussein, an Iraqi police major, said 32 people were killed at Ishaqi, 90km north of Baghdad.

Mayor Amer Alwan told Reuters news agency that US aircraft bombed two homes in the early hours of Friday.

He said 32 civilians were believed to be inside and that of 25 bodies pulled so far from the rubble, eight were women and six children.

The US military said in a statement two women were among 20 suspected "al Qaeda terrorists" killed during the ground and air operation.

"Civilian victims"

Troops raided a cluster of buildings in the area around Thar Thar lake in Salaheddin province on Friday, and came under attack from a machine gun and returned fire, killing two suspects, the US military said.

Air support was then called in and 18 more people were killed, it added.

"The [Iraq] invasion has killed more innocent people than any other dictator"

A Ali Al-Shammarri, London, UK

The statement said: "This is another step closer to defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq and helping establish a safe and peaceful Iraq."

"Coalition forces will continue to target not only senior al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, but all terrorists regardless of their titles or positions within the community."

Local people also told an Agence France Presse correspondent that the victims had been civilians and included a large number of children.

AFP said it had not been possible to independently authenticate either report.

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver, a US military spokesman, later said: "Obviously, these are serious accusations and we take them seriously - we are looking into them now."

The US military said AK-47 machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-personnel mines, explosives, blasting caps and suicide vests were found during the operation.

Garver told AFP news agency that the dead women would have been confirmed as combatants in a "battle damage assessment" or inspection of the site following the incident.

"If there is a weapon with or next to the person or they are holding it, they are a terrorist."

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, US military spokesman

"If there is a weapon with or next to the person or they are holding it, they are a terrorist," he said.

In March, Iraqis accused US forces of shooting 11 people in al-Ishaqi, including four women and five children, while US forces maintained it had only killed two women and a child in an air strike.

The BBC later broadcast video footage from the scene showing people with gunshot wounds. The soldiers involved in the case, however, were cleared of all misconduct.

The US military also announced on Friday the death of a soldier who was conducting joint operations with the Iraqi army when a roadside bomb exploded.

Thirty-three American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the first seven days of December.

Annan warning

Elsewhere Kofi Annan, the outgoing secretary-general of the UN, said the worsening conflict in Iraq is increasing the odds of a regional war in the Middle East.

In his final report on the UN role in Iraq before he leaves office on December 31, Annan said on Friday the violence threatened to "aggravate a range of underlying tensions in neighboring countries."

As a result, "the prospects of all-out civil war and even a regional conflict have become much more real" since his last report, issued three months ago, he said.

His comments appeared to go beyond earlier expressions of concern about the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

He said in a BBC interview aired this week that Iraq was in the grips of a civil war and many people were worse off now than under Saddam Hussein.