Prober: CIA ran secret jails in Europe

Swiss senator Dick Marty, who is heading the investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Europe, gestures as he speaks during a press conference at the Council of Europe office in Paris Friday, June 8, 2007. He said that CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 to interrogate detainees in the war on terror. He also accused Germany and Italy of obstructing investigations into alleged secret detentions by the CIA. (AP Photo/ Michel Euler)

8 June, 2007

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - The CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate key terror suspects, shackling and handcuffing inmates, keeping some naked for weeks and reducing contact with the outer world to masked and silent guards, a European investigator said Friday.

The CIA called the report "distorted," but stopped short of denying the existence of such prisons. Poland and Romania vehemently denied the allegations.

"High value detainees" like self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and suspected senior al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah were held in Poland, said the report, which cited CIA sources. It said lesser detainees, but still of "remarkable importance," were taken to Romania.

Top officials in both countries knew of the detention centers, said the report by Swiss Sen. Dick Marty, a former prosecutor asked by the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, to investigate CIA activities after media reports of secret prisons emerged in 2005.

Marty did not rule out the CIA having more such prisons in Europe, but told reporters he did not include that in his report because his sourcing was insufficient. He accused Germany and Italy of obstructing investigations into secret detentions.

The report said its conclusions about the clandestine prisons relied on "multiple sources which validate and corroborate one another." Marty said his team spoke with "over 30 one-time members of intelligence services in the United States and Europe" as well as former or current detainees and human rights activists.

While conceding at a news conference that sources for the report were limited, Marty said they were "well placed," including some who "were implicated."

The alleged prisons were at the center of a "spider's web" of purported human rights abuses that Marty outlined in his initial investigation a year ago. That report focused on flights to spirit detainees to CIA hideouts with landing points in at least 14 nations.

He said he saw his reports as a "dynamic of truth" and hoped they will stir debate over what he charges were blatant abuses of human rights.

Clandestine prisons and secret CIA flights involving European countries would breach the continent's human rights treaties, although the Council of Europe has no power to punish countries. The council, which is separate from the European Union, was set up four years after World War II to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe.

Officials at the EU have said previously that they trust the denials of Poland and Romania about hosting secret jails.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano did not address whether there were secret detention centers, but he disputed the report's characterization of the agency's activities.

"When you see words like apartheid and torture in the document, that tells you it's biased and distorted," he said. "The CIA's counterterror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed and of benefit to many people — including Europeans — in disrupting plots and saving lives. Our counterterror partnerships in Europe are very strong."

Following a meeting with President Bush in Gdansk, Polish President Lech Kaczynski told reporters: "I know nothing about any CIA prisons in Poland." His predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who was president in 2001-05, said: "I deny it. I've said as much several times."

Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu, mentioned in a list of ranking officials who allegedly had knowledge of the prisons, dismissed Marty's report as "stupid."

The report, which did not give specific locations for the alleged jails, provided graphic descriptions of conditions.

It told of prisoners being kept naked for weeks, sometimes attached to a "shackling ring" in cells. Buckets served as toilets. Masked guards who never spoke were the only contact for those consigned to four-month isolation regimes.

Cells, sometimes equipped with video cameras, were cramped and kept extremely hot or cold, the report said. Prisoners had to listen to irritating noises, including "torture music," rock or rap as well as "distorted" verses of the Quran, it said.

Bush acknowledged the existence of a secret detention program last September, when he announced the CIA had moved Sheikh Mohammed and 13 other suspected terrorists to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Marty's report said Poland and Romania hosted secret prisons under a special post-Sept. 11 CIA program to "kill, capture and detain" key terrorist suspects. It said the jails grew out of a secret pact within NATO shortly after the terror attacks on the U.S.

The pact "allowed the CIA to be able to move around Europe unobstructed, without undergoing any control and, especially, the NATO (security) protocol on secrecy was applied," Marty said.

In Italy, the first trial stemming from the CIA's detention program opened Friday without the presence of any of the 26 Americans charged with the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric suspected of terrorist ties. The trial has irritated U.S.-Italian relations and its opening coincided with Bush's arrival in Rome.

Value of the US dollar rises relative to the shekel

June 6, 2007

Tel Aviv – Ma'an - The United States dollar exchange rate rose on the Tel Aviv stock market on Wednesday by at least 0.5 percent, the rate of the dollar has now become 4.082 NIS.

Two weeks ago the rate was 3.99 NIS.

Last year the dollar lost at least 8.5 percent and started 2007 with the rate of 4.225 NIS.

The rate then plummeted until it was less than 4 NIS.Analysts said that the reasons for this decline in value were psychological more than anything else.

On the economic level the importers benefit from the decline in the dollar exchange rate while the exporters lost, experts believe that the rate is going to rise over the coming fortnight.

Bush in Hel

President Bush, left, gives a thumbs up when asked about his health as he poses for photographs with first lady Laura Bush, second from right, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria Kaczynski at the Presidential Retreat in Jurata Hel, Poland, Friday June 8, 2007. With them is the Kaczynski's dog 'Titus.' (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In a light moment, President Bush jokes with the Polish president about visiting his retreat in Jurata, Poland on the Hel Peninsula. ( June 8)

Caught on Tape

Gaza militants infiltrate Israeli crossing

Palestinian Hamas militants stand guard as Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh arrives for Friday prayers in Gaza June 8, 2007. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

June 9, 2007

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) -Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated into Israel at a key border crossing on Saturday, igniting a fierce gun battle in the biggest raid from the territory since an Israeli soldier was abducted a year ago.

The Israeli army confirmed the attack near the Kissufim crossing and said four to five militants had entered near the border.

The attack was carried out jointly by Islamic Jihad and a unit of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

Militants riding in a jeep marked with U.N. insignia crashed into the crossing gate, according to Abu Ali, a spokesman for the al-Aqsa unit. Mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades were used to provide them with cover.

They then jumped out of the jeep and opened fire on the Israeli soldiers guarding the crossing, he said.

"The attack comes as a natural reaction to the Zionist crimes and assassinations against fighters in Gaza and the West Bank," Abu Ali said.

The cross-border attack was the biggest since Palestinian militants tunneled under the Gaza border and kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on June 25, 2006.

Gunfire and explosions could be heard in the area during the nearly three-hour-long battle as unmanned aircraft and helicopters hovered overhead.

Islamic Jihad said one of the gunmen remained in Israeli territory while the others withdrew back into Gaza.

The Israeli army said they shot one of the gunmen but had no details about his condition. An Islamic Jihad spokesman said the group believed he was killed because they lost contact with him.

An Israeli army spokesman denied Islamic Jihad assertions that militants had killed one soldier. The army spokesman said there were no reports of injuries on the Israeli side.

Saturday's daytime attack on the Kissufim crossing came after Israeli ground forces entered southern Gaza and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants there, injuring at least one of them.
Israel stepped up its military operations in Gaza last month in response to a surge in cross-border rocket attacks against Israeli towns.

In southern Gaza, at least one Hamas gunmen was wounded in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops who entered at least two small neighborhoods on the outskirts of Rafah.

Local residents said the troops, backed by tanks, conducted house to house searches and questioned men between the ages of 18 and 40. An army spokesman said several local residents were taken into custody.

Israel Attacking Syria This Summer?

Israeli TV: Israeli army training in model Syrian villages in preparation for a war this summer with Syria

June 5, 2007

Bethlehem - Ma'an report - Israeli TV revealed on Tuesday evening that the Israeli forces are training in model Syrian villages and towns in preparation for a possible war between the two countries.

The television program showed photos of Israeli army training sessions attended by Israeli defence minister Amir Peretz and chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who said, "We are ready for any deterioration on the Gaza Strip front and the Syrian front." the photos also revealed that the army is training how to break into towns and villages like those in Syria.

Ashkenazi said, "I hope there will be no war but the training is part of preparing the army for any emergency; we have to make use of every day to train so that we can be ready for any attack."

Peretz said that the training is a message to the Syrians. "We don’t have the intention to start a war but this is a message to tell them that we are ready for it if it occurs; we are carrying out training in the same time the Syrians are doing so".

Hamas officially supports creating a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders

June 5, 2007

Gaza - Ma'an - The Hamas movement confirmed on Tuesday that it accepts the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lands.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war, the movement said that it accepts the establishment of such a state but "that this never means abandoning any part of the occupied lands or making any concessions with regard to the right of return for the refugees who were forced to leave their lands [in 1948]."

The statement also said, "Hamas receiving power in Palestine confirms the will of our people in [adhering to a] resistance culture and the collapse of other choices, such as surrender, or negotiations, or satisfying the enemy."

The statement called on the world community to "lift the siege imposed on the Palestinian people and end the occupation, in addition to cease standing blind in the face of the Israeli crimes against Palestinians."

Further Reading:

PM Haniyeh slated to address London rally in solidarity with Palestinians under occupation

Israel's Curse

Bulldozed houses, olive trees axed; terroist bombs, funeral wails; no courts or trials, prison still. The land is holy, hate prevails.

---from "Hollow Eyes, Bellies, Hearts" in Always a Reckoning by Jimmy Carter

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland looks at the long-term political implications of Israel's occupation of its newly captured territories after the 1967 war.

New UN map charts West Bank reality

By Sharmila Devi and Harvey Morris in Jerusalem

June 4 2007

A new map of the West Bank (see above), 40 years after its conquest by Israel in the Six Day War, gives the most definitive picture so far of a territory in which 2.5m Palestinians are confined to dozens of enclaves separated by Israeli roads, settlements, fences and military zones.

Produced by the United Nations’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it is based on extensive monitoring in the field combined with analysis of satellite imagery. It provides an overall picture officials say is even more comprehensive than charts drawn up by the Israeli military.

The impact of Israeli civilian and military infrastructure is to render 40 per cent of the territory, which is roughly the size of the US state of Delaware or the English county of Norfolk, off-limits to Palestinians.

The rest of the territory, including main centres such as Nablus and Jericho, is split into isolated spots. Movement between them is restricted by 450 roadblocks and 70 manned checkpoints.
The UN mapmakers focused on land set aside for Jewish settlements, roads reserved for settler access, the West Bank separation barrier, closed military areas and nature reserves.

What remains is an area of habitation remarkably close to territory set aside for the Palestinian population in Israeli security proposals dating back to postwar 1967.

The process of enclosing the civilian enclaves has accelerated in the years since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, and the reintroduction by Israel of its military rule even in areas previously under Palestinian Authority security control.

A network of roads designed to ease the movement of Jewish settlers limits access between Palestinian enclaves. A secondary network being built would allow Palestinian limited movement via tunnels, bridges and trenches.

Diplomats say the effect of the infrastructure changes would be to formalise the de facto cantonisation of the West Bank. Some 450,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem and settlements have grown by at least 5.5 per cent a year compared with less than 3 per cent among Palestinians.

The map is one of a number of documents whose publication has coincided with Monday’s anniversary of the 1967 war. Amnesty, the rights group, issued a report that accused Israel of a land grab in the West Bank and called for urgent action to address “widespread human rights abuses committed under the occupation”.

The Israeli justice ministry branded the report as “one-sided, immoral and riddled with mistakes”.

'This is worse than occupation'

Il-Ghoul: It's a prison

June 5, 2007

By Laila El-Haddad in Gaza

As part of a series of eyewitness accounts of the 1967 war and the 40 years of occupation since Fares Salih il-Ghoul, now 80-years old, recounts his experiences to Laila El-Haddad.

I was around 40 at the time of the war. I went to Wadi Gaza in the central part of the Gaza Strip and stayed with my brother on his farm to seek refuge.

But the Israelis came after us. They were conducting house-to-house searches. They stole my clock and a radio and whatever else they could find. I remember I had one Egyptian pound on me and they took that too. These were their reconnaissance forces. After staying there for 10 or 15 days, we returned to the Shati Refugee Camp.

We were forced out of our village, Hirbiya, near the Gaza Strip, in 1948.

Heavy fire

My brother and I tried to escape to Jordan through the north of Gaza. We saw the Israelis and tried to hide.

We saw a Palestinian fedayeen [fighter] who tried to show us the way out through some forest, where some other people had sought refuge.

But they began to shoot at us, heavy fire that we were not accustomed to.

We sought shelter with some peasant women. They surrounded the area looking for us. We went to get some water from nearby Jabaliya, and people were telling us they were looking for us - for anyone that was trying to leave.

I was wearing white sandals and a jalabiya (traditional robe). My brother fled to his relatives. In the morning they surrounded us and asked for my documents. I didn't have them.

They took us to an open field and they brought someone else there too. They tied my hands behind my head. There was a group of us.

The person next to me fell down and died. The soldier pushed him with his foot. He said: "Why is he asleep?" I said: "I don't know." And he said: "See what happens if you try to escape - you'll be shot at and die."

He told the other solider to take me behind a nearby school and shoot us. There was someone there, too. He was already dead. His blood was gathering on the ground. They had shot him just minutes earlier.

They asked me to confess that I was a resistance fighter, then they shot near me and dragged me off to a detention centre with 50 others.

They put us in a meat truck and kept driving around. They had taken some men from the Zeitoun quarter in the old city and shot them just before, two buses full.

Permits

They took us to the same area. But they didn't shoot us. They kept circling with us for three hours. They took us back to downtown Gaza. I found 500 people there. They surrounded us with guards. There was some Egyptian prisoners with us too. One of the Egyptians began to yell at the Israeli. He was shot immediately.

The head of the unit asked why he shot him, he lied and said "he tried to escape". So he said "see what happens if you try to escape".

Soon after, they began issuing "Israeli ID cards", and our population and birth registry all came under their control. We began to require permits to go everywhere.

"I said 'no there won't be room for you in 5 years. This is our land'" Fares Salih il-Ghoul

They recorded who was at home at the time of the census and issued ID cards on this basis. If you were out - even on an errand, or for example attending university or working somewhere, you lost your right to the ID card, and thus your right to return to or reside in Palestine.

In 1974 they finalised the census; they asked people to bring their birth certificates and so forth. I went to register and gave them the papers they requested.

The female soldier, her name was Dahlia, looked and asked: "Who are these all for?"

I had 20 applications - for my entire family. She said: "Why this many?" I said: "Because we have a chicken farm; we replace every single martyr who dies resisting your occupation."

Looting

She asked me to go in. The soldier in charge said: "What did you tell her?" I said: "That we have a chicken farm."

He said: "Are you saying there won't be room for us in 10 years?"

I said: "No there won't be room for you in five years. This is our land."

Soon after, they began to loot houses.

Then they banned the Palestinian flag. They would force old men to go and take it down from electric posts and mosques and beat them with it.

After a year or so, they laid siege to our refugee camp.

First, they surrounded us and sealed us in with barbed wire. Then they began making rounds with their Jeeps.

My house was in front of the fence and the camp was besieged for nearly a month.
Palestinian women outside of the camp would pass bread and food through the fence for the residents.

It was really intense and the head of the battalions was there at times. If they saw someone leave the camp during the siege, or even peep their head outside a window or rooftop, they would shoot at them immediately, beat them, and detain them in front of their family.

There was no such thing as permission to go outside. The resistance was very weak at the time and after a month or so, they undid the siege but life went on regardless.

They would go into the houses to terrorise people, shooting as soon as they went in.

They killed many, many people and would shoot anyone who as much as peered out of their house.

People were then deported and accused of resisting the occupation.

Residents were really in bad shape at the end and here we are today, 40 years later, still under occupation.

Worsening situation

The situation now is worse than before.

They closed the prison [Gaza] and took the key with them, and the sea, the air, the borders are all controlled by them.

If they stayed, it would have been better - at least then the world would acknowledge the situation for what it was - an occupation clear and simple.

Now, any minister needs a permit to travel. What kind of government is this? When they want to release some steam and placate the international community, they will only open the border for a few days.

This is worse than occupation, it's a prison.

How many decisions has the UN passed? They have not abided by any, but not one country still dares to open its mouth.

Hollywood: Casting the Enemy

Josh Rushing talking to Tony Shalhoub

June 5, 2007

Introduction

by Housewife4palestine

I came across this piece thanks to Al Jazeera , what came to mind is all the propaganda video’s that are on the web as well as Hollywood depicting not just Palestinians, but anyone that is Arab in a derogatory manner.

While this is a shameful representation to untruth of the majority of the Arab world and Islam as a whole, I am amazed of how many especially in the West believe these falsehoods towards a world they have yet to understand and from what I have seen some really do not wish too. They would rather roll up in their blindness, then study history or what the world is really like.
It seems to be those filled with these misconceptions would rather insult those of us who are Arab or Muslim, then see us towards who we really are.

With the precept of what is going on between the Palestinians and Israel for example, these self same people have the idea that the Palestinians are the people without out peace on their lips and while this is so far from the truth. Again with a an example, just in the last year about three idea’s towards peace in the region as came across the table and each time it was not the Palestinians that said no towards peace, but the Israel’s.

The Al Jazeera Article

Since movie-making began, the US film industry has often been accused of perpetuating negative stereotypes - the incompetent African-American and the savage Native American, the sinister Asian and Italian mafia mobster are all Hollywood staples.

But while American cinema has evolved to depict a more balanced view of many cultures, world events mean that Arabs remain the 'bad guys' of choice poised to threaten the Hollywood hero.
From Bedouin thieves to gun-wielding terrorists, Arabs and Muslims are struggling to be cast in a sympathetic light.

There are concerns from some that as these images permeate the audience's consciousness, so too does misperception and fear.

Josh Rushing, right, with actor Alexander Siddig Ironically, it seems that since 9/11, the way in which Arabs are portrayed in Hollywood films has become more nuanced.

A number of Arab actors and filmmakers have made names for themselves within the industry and that fame offers the opportunity for Arabs and Muslims to transcend the on-screen stereotypes.

Join Al Jazeera's Josh Rushing in conversation with some of the most prominent Arab voices in Hollywood as he explores Hollywood's influence on how different cultures precieve one another.

From the star power of Tony Shalhoub, the legendary Omar Sharif and Star Trek regular Alexander Siddig, to a film about Arab-American frustrations in the aftermath of 9/11, conventions are being actively challenged, and new stories are starting to emerge.

Watch Hollywood: Casting the Enemy here:

Part 1:

Part 2:



Source

Israel Jeers Amnesty International Report

A Palestinian rides his bicycle alongside Israel's controversial separation barrier in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, January 2007. Israel has rejected criticism by Amnesty International over its vast barrier in the occupied West Bank, saying Palestinian suicide bombers are to blame for the controversial structure.(AFP/File/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

Israel rejects Amnesty criticism over barrier

June 4, 2007

JERUSALEM (AFP) -Israel on Monday rejected criticism by Amnesty International over its vast barrier in the occupied West Bank, saying Palestinian suicide bombers are to blame for the controversial structure.

"Amnesty's report is one-sided, immoral, and riddled with mistakes and numerous factual and legal inaccuracies, including scant mention of Palestinian terrorism," the justice ministry said in a statement.

"The report does not relate -- in any acceptable manner -- to Israel's right of self-defence or to its legitimate security needs, but mentions these needs only casually, without giving them their due consideration.

"Israel views with the utmost importance the safeguarding of human rights and invests abundant resources in doing so," it said.

In its report on the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the London-based human rights group said Israel had plunged the Palestinians into unprecedented levels of poverty but failed to assure its own security.

"The Palestinians are responsible for their lot," Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio.

"The enormous problems caused by the security barrier are the consequences of the second intifada and the buses that the Palestinian suicide bombers coming from the West Bank exploded in Israel.

"Each state must protect its nationals and the security barrier was erected to prevent these attacks, which have practically stopped since it was put up," he said.

Amnesty said Israel could not justify building the barrier, much of which lies on Palestinian land inside the West Bank, and spoke out against the more than 500 Israeli checkpoints and blockades in the West Bank.

"We are trying to reduce the number of roadblocks in the West Bank to ease traffic, but at the same time the Palestinian terrorist organisations try to take advantage of this to carry out attacks in Israel," Peres said.

Israel says the 700 kilometre (435 mile) long barrier, made up of concrete walls and razor wire fences, is necessary to protect the Jewish state against attacks.

Palestinians say the "apartheid wall" is a land grab which eats up chunks of their promised state, separates farmers from their land and splits entire communities and families.

~~~~~~~~

Israel/OPT: Forty years of occupation -- no security without basic rights

Amnesty International

June 4, 2007

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Amnesty International today called on the Israeli authorities to end the land-grabbing, blockades and other violations of international law carried out under the occupation. These have resulted in widespread human rights abuses and have also failed to bring security to the Israeli and Palestinian civilian populations.

A 45-page report published today, Enduring Occupation: Palestinian under siege in the West Bank, illustrates the devastating impact of four decades of Israeli military occupation. The report documents the relentless expansion of unlawful settlements on occupied land that deprives the Palestinian population of crucial resources and documents a plethora of measures that confine Palestinians to fragmented enclaves and hinder their access to work, health and education facilities. These measures include a 700km fence/wall, more than 500 checkpoints and blockades, and a complicated system of permits.

"Palestinians living in the West Bank are blocked at every turn. This is not simply an inconvenience -- it can be a matter of life or death. It is unacceptable that women in labour, sick children, or victims of accidents on their way to hospital should be forced to take long detours and face delays which can cost them their lives," said Malcolm Smart, Director for Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"International action is urgently needed to address the widespread human rights abuses being committed under the occupation, and which are fuelling resentment and despair among a predominantly young and increasingly radicalized Palestinian population," said Malcolm Smart. "For forty years, the international community has failed adequately to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem; it cannot, must not, wait another forty years to do so."

Amnesty International is calling for the urgent deployment of an effective international human rights monitoring mechanism to monitor compliance by both parties, Israeli and Palestinian, with their obligations under international law. This must be backed up with a commitment to investigate and prosecute, through the exercise of universal jurisdiction, those who commit war crimes or other crimes under international law.

"We do not underestimate the difficulties of establishing such an independent monitoring system, whether by the UN or another appropriate body, but it is vital that the international community should become more engaged in finding a solution, and in holding the parties to their obligations under international law," said Malcolm Smart.

In its report, Amnesty International acknowledges Israel’s legitimate security concerns and the government’s obligation to protect the population within its borders, but says this does not justify blatant violations of international law, such as construction of much of the fence/wall inside the West Bank on Palestinian land.

"If the intention was simply to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israel, the barrier would be located on the Green Line, the border between Israel and the West Bank," said Malcolm Smart. "Yet, the reality is that most of it is being built on Palestinian land, in defiance of the International Court of Justice, and is separating Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank."

In addition to the fence/wall, the movement of Palestinians is several constrained by a host of other restrictions, including over 500 checkpoints and blockades, and a network of roads for Israeli settlers to use and off-limits to Palestinians. The barrier, together with these roads and roadblocks, benefit continuously expanding but unlawful Israeli settlements and make them territorially contiguous with Israel.

"Harsh Israeli restrictions have caused the virtual collapse of the Palestinian economy and are exacerbating the increasingly fragile conditions in which Palestinians live and work -- resulting in levels of despair, poverty and food insecurity never before seen in the Occupied Palestinian Territories," said Malcolm Smart.

"Most Palestinians are now relying on aid for subsistence, with families reducing the quality and quantity of the food they consume and selling assets essential for their livelihoods."

Amnesty International is calling on the Israeli authorities to:

• 
  lift the regime of blockades and restrictions on Palestinians in the OPT, which constitute collective punishment, and ensure that restrictions imposed in response to specific security threats only target the individuals concerned -- not entire communities.


• 
  halt the construction of the fence/wall inside the West Bank, and remove the sections already built there;


• 
  cease the construction or expansion of Israeli settlements and related infrastructure in the OPT as a first step towards removing Israeli settlements and "outposts";


• 
  cancel all demolition orders on homes in the OPT, and provide reparation to Palestinians whose homes and properties have already been destroyed.

The organization is also reiterating its call on Palestinian armed groups to end immediately attacks on civilians and on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take effective action to stop and prevent such attacks and bring to justice those responsible.

To see a full copy of the report, please go to http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde150332007

Part1

Part 2

Clock ticking to Israel's 'destruction': Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pictured April 2007, on Sunday launched a new verbal attack on Israel, saying a "countdown" has begun that will end with Lebanese and Palestinian militants destroying the Jewish state.(AFP/File/Atta Kenare)

June 3, 2007

by Stuart Williams

TEHRAN (AFP) -Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday launched a new verbal attack on Israel, saying a "countdown" has begun that will end with Lebanese and Palestinian militants destroying the Jewish state.

In a speech to mark the 18th anniversary of the death of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the president said last summer's war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah started the process.

"In Lebanon, the corrupt, arrogant powers and the Zionist regime did all they could in an unfair 33-day war. But after 60 years its (Israel's) greatness fell apart," Iranian media quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"The countdown to this regime's destruction started through the hands of Hezbollah's children," he said in a speech to visiting foreign guests in Tehran.

"We will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future thanks to the endeavours of all Palestinian and Lebanese fighters," he added.

Ahmadinejad sparked outrage abroad shortly after coming to power in 2005 for saying that Israel should be "wiped from the map" and then repeatedly predicting that the state would disappear.

Iranian officials have expressed bewilderment over the uproar caused by the comments, saying he was merely restating one of Khomeini's central beliefs that the Jewish state was doomed to destruction.

The president went on to court further controversy when he labelled the Holocaust as a "myth" and invited several researchers who have played down the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II to a Tehran conference.

But in recent months -- until now at least -- Ahmadinejad has largely avoided rhetorical outbursts against the Jewish state amid public criticism from moderate quarters over his provocative comments.

In a later speech at Khomenei's shrine, Ahmadinejad accused Israel of planning a new war against Lebanon over the past year but warned of the consequences for the Jewish state.
"I warn the Zionist regime and its protectors," he said.

"If you want to launch a new war against the Lebanese people, this time the people's ocean of anger will become stormy and will carry away your decayed roots from this region."

Despite having no borders with Israel, Iran has become one of the most vocal backers of militant groups fighting the Jewish state and its leaders pepper their speeches with attacks against the "Zionist regime."

Iran openly cheered on Hezbollah in its 2006 war with the Israeli army but vehemently denies that it provides military or financial support to the Shiite militant group.

It maintains a similar position towards Palestinian groups like Hamas, denying that its support for them is anything other than moral in nature.

But Iran has also helped rebuild bridges in war-ravaged Lebanon and sent millions of dollars in aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government to help it overcome drastic aid cuts from Western countries.

Iran's policy of non-recognition of Israel was a direct result of the Islamic revolution of 1979 that was led by Khomeini.

Before then, the US-backed regime of the shah was one of the Jewish state's strongest supporters in the region and there was considerable trade between the two countries.

The Nazi rabbi

June 4, 2007

By Khalid Amayreh

Shortly before Israeli occupation soldiers murdered in cold blood two Gaza children , who apparently were searching for scrap metal to sell for a few cents in order to help feed their impoverished families, the former Chief rabbi of Israel , Mordechai Elyahu, urged the Israeli army and government to use the “Nazi choice” against Palestinians.

Elyahu reportedly petitioned the Israeli government to carry out a series of carpet bombing of Palestinian population centers in Gaza , arguing that a ground invasion of the world’s most crowded spot would endanger Israeli soldiers.

Former Sephardi chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. Photo: Courtesy

“If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand,” said Shmuel Elyahu, the son of Mordechai Elyahu, quoting his father. “And if they do not stop after 1,000, then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop.”

Mordechai, considered one of the most knowledgeable Talmudic sages in Israel , said it was forbidden to risk the lives of Jews for fear of injuring and killing Palestinian civilians.

This is not the first time Elyahu issues such an outrageous Talmudic edict. A few years ago, he called on the Israeli occupation army not to refrain from killing Palestinian children if that meant “saving Jewish lives.”

Elyahu is associated with Merkaz Ha’rav, a Talmudic College in West Jerusalem , that is largely considered to be the theological and ideological nerve center of religious-messianic Zionism.
The College teaches and promotes the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the immigrant Jewish community in Palestine who is viewed as the religious and spiritual godfather and mentor of the settler movement, known as Gush Emunim (the bloc of faithful.”

According to Israeli writer Yair Sheleg Rabbi Kook wrote that “the difference between the Jewish soul and the souls of all non-Jews, no matter what their rank and level of understanding , is bigger and deeper than the difference between the human soul and the animal soul.” (Moses and the Prophets never taught this outrageous invention which is totally incompatible with the Abrahamic traditions).

This totally racist discourse toward non-Jews represents the mainstream and modus operandi at Merkaz Harav where Talmudic sages such as Haim Druckman, Avraham Shapira, Dov Lior, etc, teach that non-Jews are sub-humans, and ought to be enslaved or destroyed.

Western people, constantly brainwashed with unceasing Zionist propaganda and disinformation about Israeli “democracy” and “liberalism” might be prompted to think that such ideas are marginal, eccentric or even anecdotal and that they are espoused by only a small bunch of Talmudic extremists.

But this is not the case at all. Today, this Nazi-like ideology is “manual for action” for hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world, especially in Israel, including the estimated half a million settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem who openly claim that non-Jews living under Jewish rule ought to be enslaved, expelled or annihilated.

A few years ago, Haim Yavin, a prominent TV personality in Israel , did a documentary on Jewish settlers in the West Bank and how they viewed their Arab neighbors.

The documentary featured a Jewish settler woman who told Yavin that “if we Jews get together, we will make the Palestinians our slaves…and “Muhammed” will make coffee for both of us.”!!!

The more radical settlers (we are talking abut tens of thousands of people, such as the followers of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish terrorist who in 1994 murdered 29 Palestinian civilians while praying at the Ibrahimi Mosque in downtown Hebron, and the so-called hilltop youths) go one step further and believe that Palestinians belong to one and only place: The Ovens.

Last year, when some peace-minded Israeli activists visited Hebron and sought to erase graffiti reading “Arabs to the Oven” scrawled outside the settler compound of Abraham Avino, local settlers ganged up on the activists, calling them “Nazis, Arab lovers, and whores” as pro-settler policemen and soldiers looked on rather passively. One particularly nasty settler woman, the wife of a rabbi, shouted at one female activist, saying “How many Arabs did you sleep with today?”

There is no doubt that the nefarious ideas of Jewish supremacy, as taught by Talmudic circles such as Mirkaz Harav, is poisoning and even Nazifying the minds of thousands of Jewish and Israeli youths.

Earlier in May, a recent Jewish immigrant from France murdered in cold blood an Arab taxi driver from East Jerusalem after beguiling the unsuspecting victim to take him to Netanya.
The murderer, named Julian Sufir, had apparently been subjected to heavy doses of religious indoctrination at a synagogue near his home, which probably preached the message that non-Jews are infra-humans.

When this Sufir was interrogated by policy, he so calmly and nonchalantly told them that “I just wanted to kill an Arab, any Arab. There is no difference between killing an Arab and killing an animal. When I killed him, I felt I was slaughtering a sheep.!!” (see my article “Hypocrisy with French Flavor- www.thepeoplevoice.org

In truth, one can hardly exaggerate the danger of these powerful fascist elements in Israel as a growing number of Jewish youngsters are being inculcated with the same venomous hatred and fascistic mindset that once brainwashed German youths more than sixty years ago. We know the rest of the story.

This danger is so real and so tangible especially when one considers the fact that tens of thousands of Israeli occupation soldiers happen to be graduates of Talmudic schools, known as Yeshevot.

Needless to say, most of these schools teach that killing innocent Arab children is a great mitzvah and makes a Jew closer to God.

This little-known fact, which most westerners are not allowed to know or even discover, explains why Jewish soldiers in Gaza and Nablus shoot Palestinian school children right in the head with no compunction or guilty conscience.

Finally, the peoples of the world, including man honest and peace-minded Jews, are invited to imagine how Israel would look like and how the world would look like when these Judeo-Nazi forces assume power in Israel and be in control of Israel ’s 300 nuclear bombs.

I say “when” because the Israeli Jewish society is drifting menacingly to jingoistic religious chauvinism that can be compared with the drifting ideological currents among Germans in the mid and late 1930s. Hence, a takeover of power in Israel by the settler and pro-settler camp is not a matter of “if” but rather “when” it will happen.

This is not a matter of concern for Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims alone. The whole world would be facing a real danger. Germany , too, would be in danger since Talmudic sages are already saying that Germans would eventually be forced to pay dearly for the holocaust.

Palestinians Mark Forty Years Of Israeli Occupation Of Gaza and West Bank

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A visit to Hawarra checkpoint and the Ramallah

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) Palestinians wait in line at the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. Palestinians will mark forty years of Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank on June 4. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) Palestinians pass through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) Palestinians wait in line at the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) Palestinians pass through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) Palestinians pass through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 03, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) A Palestinians woman passes through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) A Palestinian man takes off his belt as he passes through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) A Palestinians boy passes through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 03, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) Palestinian women and children pass through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

HAWARRA, WEST BANK - JUNE 3, 2007: (ISRAEL OUT) A Palestinian woman and her baby pass through the Hawarra checkpoint on June 3, 2007, near the West Bank city of Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Palestinians protest as they hold placard...
RAMALLAH, -: Palestinians protest as they hold placards showing the map of the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank and smaller maps showing the shrinking size of the West Bank, according to Palestinians, as Israel builds its controversial separation barrier which is supposed to follow the Green Line which marks Israel's borders before the 1967 Six Day War, during a rally to mark the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of the Six Day War in the West Bank city of Ramallah 05 June 2007. In 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt -- an area more than three times bigger than the state of Israel at the time. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI (Photo credit should read ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Village Being Flattened As Death Toll Rises

Palestinians run to take cover form tear...
HEBRON, -: Palestinians run to take cover form tear gas lobbed by the Israeli military during a rally on the edge of the West Bank village of Bani Naaim against the Jewish settlement of Bani Hever, where several mobile caravans have been set-up this past year in this established settlement, 01 June 2007. Nearly half a million Israelis today live in settlements considered illegal under international law throughout the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured from Jordan, and the Golan Heights seized from Syria. The settlements are among the most formidable obstacles in the tortuous decades-old efforts to reach peace in the region. AFP PHOTO/HAZEM BADER (Photo credit should read HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images)
June 5, 2007

by Housewife4Palestine

At this time Israel is still flattening my village, everything has deteriorated here. The causality rate is very high now and so far do not see any relief in sight. It is very hard to see such a beautiful village being turned into rubble, as my friends and family are murdered.

Seems these days when I write what is really happening to me, I am being heckled by the enemy as well, for they would rather keep the world in the dark to the real atrocities that is befalling us.

Since I made the remark which is also on many other lips that the Palestinian Holocaust is worse then the Jewish holocaust, I have been jeered of how dare I say this because other’s died in that holocaust. What these people with blind eye’s and full of hatred do not realize is the same has happened in this war. It makes no difference if you Palestinian or what country you come from, if you oppose Israel, you are signing your death warrant and many have succumbed to this fate from many parts of the globe.

Canister's used in Bio Chemical Warfare, these particular canister's the Israeli's actually had used on Palestinian civilians.

There are also people who still criticize the use of biological warfare among other means to exterminate the Palestinian people and this is a proven fact that this does happen. This kind of warfare comes from American labs and shipped to the Israeli's to be used against the Palestinian people. While the photo above shows Hebrew markings, sometimes the Israeli’s do not even bother to change the markings; but bombard the territories with canisters marked from America.

Furthermore, we have never claimed to be victims of anything, that still is and always has been the tactic’s of the Israeli’s; so the world would give them global sympathy when one Israeli is killed in the war compared to 50 Palestinians.

Personally, I cannot seem to shake this illness that has plagued me for a little time now. It has been going on long enough; I am even forgetting exactly how long I have been sick with this lung ailment.

I am not so worried about my life these days, but the safety of my family, because I do not wish to loose any more to the fiery storm called the “Zionist War Machine.”