MAY 2013
Buckling to Bigotry: The Newseum
Dishonors Murdered Palestinian
Journalists
by Nima Shirazi / May 14th, 2013
Just two days before Palestinians
commemorate the 65th anniversary of the
Nakba, the names of two Palestinian
cameramen targeted and killed by Israeli
airstrikes in Gaza last November were
dropped from a dedication ceremony held
to honor ”reporters, photographers and
broadcasters who have died reporting the
news” over the past year. The move
followed an Israel lobby pressure
campaign led by anti-Palestinian
organizations such as the
Anti-Defamation League, the Foundation
for the Defense of Democracies and the
American Jewish Committee, efforts that
were openly supported by the Israeli
government.
Are Israelis Appropriating the Nakba?
Palestinians Should Not Stand For It
by SUSAN ABULHAWA
14 May 2013
Counter Punch
Al
Jazeera Stream contacted me a few days
ago asking if I would participate on a
show commemorating the Nakbe. I would be
the only Palestinian, the producer said,
“to balance things out” amidst various
Israeli voices. Here’s the exact excerpt
of the email: “We are looking for a
unique angle with which to cover this
and one we were thinking of was looking
at the Nakba through Israeli eyes and
competing Israeli perspectives. We would
also like to have a Palestinian guest
join us on set however, to balance
things out. As you noted, it would be
3-4 Israelis and just the one
Palestinian – but as I said, the
Israeli’s will include those very
critical of Israeli society on this
issue. We certainly wont have anyone in
the discussion who flat out denies the
Nakba.”..
The last of the Semites
14 May 2013
Joseph Massad
Aljazeera
It is Israel's claims that it represents
and speaks for all Jews that are the
most anti-Semitic claims of all.
Barbara Boxer, AIPAC seek to codify
Israel's right to discriminate against
Americans
A bill introduced by the California
Democrat would uniquely exempt Israel
from long-standing requirements imposed
on all other nations Share 6451
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 13 April 2013
In
order for the US to permit citizens of a
foreign country to enter the US without
a visa, that country must agree to
certain conditions. Chief among them is
reciprocity: that country must allow
Americans to enter without a visa as
well. There are 37 countries which have
been permitted entrance into America's
"visa waiver" program, and all of them -
all 37 - reciprocate by allowing
American citizens to enter their country
without a visa...
SodaStream "treats us like slaves,"
says Palestinian factory worker
Stephanie Westbrook
The Electronic Intifada
Rome
9 May 2013
A
professionally-produced video recently
appeared on YouTube, taking the viewer
on a carefully-constructed tour of the
production facilities for the Israeli
company SodaStream, manufacturer of
carbonated drink machines. The
8.5-minute video focuses on the firm’s
factory located in Mishor Adumim, the
industrial zone of the illegal Israeli
settlement Maale Adumim in the occupied
West Bank, and its Palestinian workers.
The underlying message throughout the
video is that the company’s settlement
factory is a “fantastic sanctuary of
co-existence” and, despite being built
on stolen Palestinian land, is
beneficial to the Palestinian economy
and workers.
Krux('ns:centro',
'dataprovider.exelate');
By Paul Thornton May 8, 2013, 12:29
p.m.
More than
40 readers sent
letters to the
editor in
response to
George
Bisharat's April
28
Op-Ed article
on a bill to
include
Israel in
the U.S. visa
waiver program.
Bisharat, an
American law
professor and a
pro-Palestinian
activist who has
traveled several
times through
Israel's
Ben Gurion
International
Airport,
said the
legislation
would allow
Israel to
continue its
racial profiling
of U.S. citizens
who are Muslim
or of Arabic
descent..
Media Advisory
Chemical claims should be investigated, not used as
pretext for war
5/6/13
FAIR
U.S. suggestions that the Syrian government could have
used chemical weapons have been treated as fact by some
media outlets, and are helping to fuel the case for
greater U.S. military involvement. But subsequent
reporting has called into question these early,
credulous reports--and highlighted the continuing media
failure to treat WMD claims with the skepticism they
deserve..
U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels
used sarin gas: investigator
Sun, May 05 18:13 PM EDT
GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights
investigators have gathered testimony
from casualties of Syria's civil war and
medical staff indicating that rebel
forces have used the nerve agent sarin,
one of the lead investigators said on
Sunday.
The United Nations independent
commission of inquiry on Syria has not
yet seen evidence of government forces
having used chemical weapons, which are
banned under international law, said
commission member Carla Del Ponte...
In Defense of Radicalism
I Was One of the Radicals at the Mosque
by KATHY MANLEY
Weekend Edition May 3-5, 2013
Counter Punch
After the Boston Marathon bombing some
media outlets have suggested that the
Islamic Society of Boston Cultural
Center (ISBCC) was an incubator of
radicalism because the Tsarnaev brothers
occasionally worshipped there, and
because they had permitted “radicals”
who “defended terrorism suspects” to
speak there...
Iowa Town Named for Muslim Hero Extols
Tolerance
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
New York Times, May 3, 2013
ELKADER, Iowa — Amid an expanse of
undulating farmland, deep in the steep
valley carved by the Turkey River, the
town of Elkader sits most of the year in
remote obscurity. Population 1,200 and
gradually shrinking, it is the seat of a
county without a single traffic light...
12- and 11-year old Palestinian children
arrested after attack by settler
children – Swedish
activist also arrested, resisting
deportation
Updated May 2, 2013
28th April 2013
International Solidarity Movement,
Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Alleged Beating by PA Interrogators
Costs Palestinian Man His Speech
By: Linah Alsaafin for Al-Monitor
Palestine Pulse Posted on May 2.
Father
of eight Mohammed Ghannam lost his
ability to speak after less than 48
hours in the custody of the Palestinian
Authority Preventative Security Forces...
APRIL 2013
Israel's free pass from Boxer
Proposed legislation from the California
senator would ease entry to the U.S. for
Israelis but would not ensure the same
rights for Muslim and Arab American
travelers.
By George Bisharat April 28, 2013, Los
Angeles Times
Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced
legislation last month that would allow
Israel to continue racially profiling
Americans of Arab and Muslim heritage
who travel to Israel, even as it confers
new privileges on Israelis traveling to
the United States...
Washington fabricates chemical weapons
pretext for war against Syria
By Bill Van Auken
27 April 2013
In an attempt to pave the way for a
direct military intervention aimed at
toppling the government of President
Bashar al-Assad, Washington, its NATO
allies, Israel and Qatar have all in
recent days broadcast trumped-up charges
that Syria has used chemical weapons...
The Terror of Capitalism Made in
Bangladesh
by VIJAY PRASHAD
Weekend Edition April 26-28, 2013
Counter Punch
Delhi.
These Bangladesh factories are a part of
the landscape of globalization that is
mimicked in the factories along the
US-Mexico border, in Haiti, in Sri
Lanka, and in other places that opened
their doors to the garment industry’s
savvy use of the new manufacturing and
trade order of the 1990s. Subdued
countries that had neither the patriotic
will to fight for their citizens nor any
concern for the long-term debilitation
of their social order rushed to welcome
garment production. The big garment
producers no longer wanted to invest in
factories – they turned to
sub-contractors, offering them very
narrow margins for profit and thereby
forcing them to run their factories like
prison-houses of labour.
British officials predicted war – and
Arab defeat – in Palestine in 1948
Declassified UK reports document
build-up of conflict, Jewish public's
endorsement of their leaders'
pro-terrorist stance and declare armies
of Arab states were Palestinians' 'only
hope' Share 918
Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Friday 26 April 2013
VIDEO: Israel uses Palestinian teenager
as human shield during protest
Israeli forces use 17-year-old
Palestinian teenager as human shield
while trying to disperse a protest in
Abu Dis, the West Bank on Friday
Nadeen Shaker , Monday 22 Apr 2013,
Al-Ahram Online
Re-turning rights
Like everything else with Zionism and
Israel, their conception of rights is
never universal but always particular.
Joseph Massad
Last Modified: 20 Apr 2013
Since its inception, the Zionist project
was clear in its goals and the strategy
required to achieve them. In order for
Jews to colonise the lands of the
Palestinians and establish an
exclusivist Jewish state, Zionist
strategists insisted, the natives must
be driven out of the country. For
Zionism, colonisation and expulsion were
to be simultaneous processes that could
not be decoupled from one another:
indeed, they would become the very same
process...
Video: Israeli soldiers use handcuffed
Palestinian teen as human shield as they
fire at protestors
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Fri,
04/19/2013
Israeli soldiers used a handcuffed
Palestinian teenager as a human shield
as they fired at protestors in the
occupied West Bank village of Abu Dis on
Friday.
When Israeli denial of Palestinian
existence becomes genocidal
Ilan Pappe
The Electronic Intifada
20 April 2013
Sixty-five years on, Israeli President
Shimon Peres still denies the existence
of the indigenous population of
Palestine. (World Economic Forum /
Flickr) In a regal interview he gave the
Israeli press on the eve of the state’s
” Independence Day,” Shimon Peres, the
current president of Israel, said the
following: “I remember how it all began.
The whole state of Israel is a
millimeter of the whole Middle East. A
statistical error, barren and
disappointing land, swamps in the north,
desert in the south, two lakes, one dead
and an overrated river. No natural
resource apart from malaria. There was
nothing here. And we now have the best
agriculture in the world? This is a
miracle: a land built by people” (Maariv,
14 April 2013)...
‘The Kill Team’ examines moral dilemmas
facing young soldiers at war
By Holly Bailey, Yahoo! News | The
Lookout
Three years ago, the U.S. was stunned by
a horrific story that emerged from the
front lines of the war in Afghanistan:
Several members of an Army platoon had
killed at least three unarmed Afghan
civilians, apparently for sport. The
soldiers referred to themselves as ‘the
Kill Team”—a nickname that seemed
tailor-made for television news, which
devoted hours of coverage to the case.
“The Kill Team,” which is playing at
Tribeca Film Festival in New York this
week and premieres at the San Francisco
Film Festival on Friday.
Barbara Boxer, AIPAC seek to codify
Israel's right to discriminate against
Americans
A bill introduced by the California
Democrat would uniquely exempt Israel
from long-standing requirements imposed
on all other nations
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 13 April 2013
Barbara Boxer, the chair of the Senate
environment and public works committee
Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer introduces
an Aipac-favored bill that would allow
Israel, uniquely among all countries, to
discriminate against Americans of Arab
descent Photograph: Joe Marquette/EPA
MARCH 2013
In Death as in Life, Chávez Target of
Media Scorn

His independence, help for Venezuela's
poor will not be forgiven
FAIR
March 6, 2013
Venezuela's left-wing populist president
Hugo Chávez died on Tuesday, March 5,
after a two-year battle with cancer. If
world leaders were judged by the sheer
volume of corporate media vitriol and
misinformation about their policies,
Chávez would be in a class of his own...
On the Legacy of Hugo Chávez
Greg Grandin
March 5, 2013
The Nation
I first met Hugo Chávez in New York City
in September 2006, just after his
infamous appearance on the floor of the
UN General Assembly, where he called
George W. Bush the devil. “Yesterday,
the devil came here,” he said, “Right
here. Right here. And it smells of
sulfur still today, this table that I am
now standing in front of.” He then made
the sign of the cross, kissed his hand,
winked at his audience and looked to the
sky...
FEBRUARY 2013
The Biblical Pseudo-Archeologists
Pillaging the West Bank
By Dylan Bergeson
Feb 28, 2013
The Atlantic Monthly
Finding the elusive, unregulated Israeli
bureaucrat who lets American
evangelicals run amok in the Palestinian
territories.
For Samer Issawi: a poem by Susan
Abulhawa

The Palestine Monitor
19 February 2013
Looting by IDF soldiers: 'But on the
spoil, laid they not their hand'
The occupation has made us accustomed to
things we never thought we’d get used
to. This, basically, is the meaning of
the weary expression “the occupation
corrupts.” News that an IDF soldier is
suspected of looting was met by the
Israeli media with silence. We’re
getting used to looting too, it seems.
Published February 16, 2013
By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz
+972 Magazine
Confrontation erupts in Jaffa during
attempts to demolish Arab houses
Friday, 15 February
Middle East Monitor
On Thursday morning, large numbers of
Israeli police and members of other
units specialized in supporting the
bulldozers of the so-called Land of
Israel Department, began to carry out
the task of demolishing houses in the
city of Jaffa...
Israeli soldier posts disturbing
Instagram photo of child in crosshairs
of his rifle

Submitted by Ali Abunimah, Electronic
Intifada, Fri, 02/15/2013
This disturbing image shows the back of
the head of a child or young man as seen
in the crosshairs of a rifle. The photo
was posted on the personal Instagram
account of Mor Ostrovski, a 20-year old
Israeli soldier in a sniper unit.
The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and
military services companies in the world
The SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute 2013) Top 100 lists
the world’s 100 largest arms-producing
and military services companies
(excluding China), ranked by their arms
sales in 2011. The list is based on the
comprehensive SIPRI Arms Industry
Database, which contains financial and
employment data on the world’s major
arms-producing and military services
companies.
Obama, the US and the Muslim world: the
animosity deepens
Another new poll, this one of Pakistan,
shows: a central promise of Obama for
improving US security is an utter
failure
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk
Friday 15 February 2013
After the Arab Spring: Al-Jazeera
Losing Battle for Independence
By Alexander Kühn, Christoph Reuter and
Gregor Peter Schmitz
February 15, 2013
Dein SPIEGEL
For over a decade, the Arab
television broadcaster Al-Jazeera was
widely respected for providing an
independent voice from the Middle East.
Recently, however, several top
journalists have left, saying the
station has developed a clear political
agenda...
Rising From Ruins
By RAJA SHEHADEH
February 13, 2013
IHT
SEBASTIA, West Bank — I spent
last Sunday, a gorgeous early spring
day, visiting a colonnaded street
leading to a Roman theater, the 30 B.C.
temple of Augustus and a church built to
commemorate the martyrdom of John the
Baptist, which supposedly occurred on
this hill. These and many more ruins can
be seen in Sebastia, an ancient city
first settled in the Early Bronze Age
less than ten miles northwest of
Nablus...
Egypt floods Gaza tunnels to cut
Palestinian lifeline
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - Wed Feb 13, 2013
(Reuters) - Egyptian forces have flooded
smuggling tunnels under the border with
the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip in a
campaign to shut them down, Egyptian and
Palestinian officials said. The network
of tunnels is a vital lifeline for Gaza,
bringing in an estimated 30 percent of
all goods that reach the enclave and
circumventing a blockade imposed by
Israel for more than seven years...
Biased new study skirts around racism in
Israeli school books
Nurit Peled-Elhanan The Electronic
Intifada 12 February 2013
Two main categories are missing
from the analysis: occupation and racist
discourse. Perhaps that is why
describing the dire facts of the
occupation seemed to involve “negative
characterization of Israelis” to the
researchers...
Pillaging of Gaza Antiquities An
Archaeological Tragedy
By Asmaa al-Ghoul for Al-Monitor
February 12, 2013
AL-MONITOR
Moshe Dayan is the former Israeli
defense minister who, using the strength
of the Israeli army, pillaged countless
artifacts — dating from the Ottoman era
to the time before Christ — from Gaza,
in an effort to erase Palestinian
history...
How to Start a Battalion (in Five Easy
Lessons)
Vol. 35 No. 4 · 21 February 2013
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports from Syria
LRB
In the cramped living room of a
run-down flat near the Aleppo frontline,
two Syrian rebels sat opposite each
other. The one on the left was stout,
broad-shouldered, with a neat beard that
looked as though it had been outlined in
sharp pencil around his throat and
cheeks. His shirt and trousers were
immaculately pressed and he wore
brand-new military webbing – the
expensive Turkish kind, not the Syrian
knock-off. The rebel sitting opposite
him was younger, gaunt and
tired-looking. His hands were filthy and
his trousers caked in mud and diesel...
New Actors in Middle East Peace Charade
By Ramzy Baroud
Feb 7 2013
Palestine Chronicle
Despite much saber-rattling by Israel
and the US administration and hyped-up
expectations by the Palestinian
leadership, the recognition of Palestine
as a non-member observer state last
November is fast becoming yet another
footnote in the protracted conflict...
More Than a Land Grab
By RAJA SHEHADEH
February 6, 2013
IHT
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Last week
some inhabitants of the Palestinian
village of Burin, near Nablus, set up a
small and peaceful protest camp on
private land in an attempt to protect
the village from encroaching Jewish
settlers. On Saturday, the Israeli Army
evicted the Palestinians. According to
one report, the settlers uprooted nearly
100 olive trees, a 16-year-old
Palestinian was wounded, 20 people
suffered tear gas inhalation, and a
mosque was set on fire...
When It Comes to Drones, Trust the
Churchgoing CIA Director
By Peter Hart
FAIR, Feb 06, 2013
Last night, MSNBC's Chris
Matthews (2/5/13) hosted a discussion on
the Obama administration's recently
disclosed "white paper" justifying its
policy of using drones to strike at U.S.
citizens. Matthews appeared rather
uncomfortable with the topic, ultimately
deciding that the policy was
defensible–on the grounds that the CIA
director Leon Panetta goes to church...
Where Are They Now? The Reporters Who
Got Iraq So Wrong
By Peter Hart
FAIR, Feb 05, 2013
Ten years ago today, Colin Powell
made the Bush administration's case for
going to war against Iraq. Much of what
he said about Iraq's threats to the
United States was false. But the media
coverage gave the opposite impression,
and most of the pundits and journalists
who promoted the justifications for the
war paid no price for their failures...
When 'Confirmed' Means 'An Official Told
Me So'
By Peter Hart
FAIR, Feb 04, 2013
On January 30, reports emerged
that Israel had carried out an airstrike
on Syrian targets near Damascus. Much of
the initial reporting took Israel's
claims at face value, though it appeared
impossible to confirm that the story was
true...
Brooklyn College's academic freedom
increasingly threatened over Israel
event
New York politicians join the Alan
Dershowitz-led campaign to dictate to
colleges what academic events they can
hold
Glenn Greenwald guardian.co.uk, Saturday
2 February 2013
On Tuesday, I wrote about a
brewing controversy that was threatening
the academic freedom of Brooklyn College
(see Item 7). The controversy was
triggered by the sponsorship of the
school's Political Science department of
an event, scheduled for 7 February,
featuring two advocates of the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS)
aimed at stopping Israeli oppression of
the Palestinians [one speaker is a
Palestinian (Omar Barghouti) and the
other a Jewish American (philosopher
Judith Butler)]. The event is being
co-sponsored by numerous student and
community groups, including Students for
Justice in Palestine, the college's LGBT
group, pro-Palestinian Jewish
organizations, and an Occupy Wall Street
group...
JANUARY 2013
What I learned about empire in the West
Bank
by Nathan Schneider
January 30, 2013
Waging Nonviolence
It took three vehicles to get to Jenin.
The first and last were shared taxis
that played pop music the whole way; the
one in the middle was a bus driven by a
handsome and solemn man with a big,
religious beard, whose television played
music videos memorializing martyrs. If
the West Bank is shaped like an
hourglass, Jenin is at the top of the
upper bulb, where the sand is when it’s
full. Thousands of years ago, the dusty
city was named after its gardens, but
more recently Ariel Sharon called it a
“hornet’s nest of terrorism.” ...
Why Palestine Should Take Israel to
Court in the Hague
By GEORGE BISHARAT
January 29, 2013
New York Times
LAST week, the Palestinian foreign
minister, Riad Malki, declared that if
Israel persisted in its plans to build
settlements in the currently vacant area
known as E-1, which lies between
Palestinian East Jerusalem and the
Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, “we
will be going to the I.C.C.,” referring
to the International Criminal Court. “We
have no choice,” he added...
Announcing the First U.S.-Wide
Interfaith Boycott Campaign!
by Anna Baltzer & Ramah Kudaimi
January 29th, 2013
US Campaign to End the Israeli
Occupation
Take Action this Super Bowl Week to
Boycott SodaStream!
The US Campaign is thrilled to announce
the launch of the first interfaith
nationwide boycott campaign! This week,
a coalition of Christian, Muslim,
Jewish, and other faith organizations
that are part of the US Campaign
coalition are starting a joint campaign
to Boycott SodaStream! The launch comes
just in time for the Super Bowl, during
which the settlement product SodaStream
will be airing a 30-second ad. Click
here to endorse their petition to
boycott SodaStream!
PBS Drone Coverage Brought to You by
Drone Makers
Lockheed's Nova sponsorship violates
underwriting rules
FAIR
Jan 28 2013
The PBS Nova broadcast "Rise of the
Drones" was sponsored by drone
manufacturer Lockheed Martin--a clear
violation of PBS's underwriting
guidelines. As Kevin Gosztola reported (FireDogLake,
1/24/13), the January 23 broadcast was a
mostly upbeat look at surveillance and
weaponized drones. "Discover the cutting
edge technologies that are propelling us
toward a new chapter in aviation
history," PBS urged, promising to reveal
"the amazing technologies that make
drones so powerful."
Islam and science
The road to renewal
After centuries of stagnation science
is making a comeback in the Islamic
world
Jan 26th 2013
The Economist
THE sleep has been long and deep. In
2005 Harvard University produced more
scientific papers than 17
Arabic-speaking countries combined. The
world’s 1.6 billion Muslims have
produced only two Nobel laureates in
chemistry and physics. Both moved to the
West: the only living one, the chemist
Ahmed Hassan Zewail, is at the
California Institute of Technology. By
contrast Jews, outnumbered 100 to one by
Muslims, have won 79. The 57 countries
in the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference spend a puny 0.81% of GDP on
research and development, about a third
of the world average. America, which has
the world’s biggest science budget,
spends 2.9%; Israel lavishes 4.4%...
The Gift of the Other
Why I Do Not Want to Leave
Palestine/Israel
by LYNDA BURSTEIN BRAYER
Counter Punch
Weekend Edition January 25-27, 2013
It is not by accident that I have been
asked on several occasions, and not
least by members of my own family, why I
remain in the Jewish state of Israel. I
am an implacable anti-Zionist and have
left the Jewish religion formally,
becoming a possible “meshumedet” or “one
who is obliterated” according to
Judaism! The question also arises
because I was not born in Palestine or
in the Jewish state of Israel but came
to Israel on aliyah according to the
Israeli Law of Return, legislated in
1950. I thereby fulfilled the Zionist
dream of returning to the moledet or
“land of my birth” [sic], a place I had
never been prior to my “homecoming” at
age 19! On the contrary, I had come into
this world in 1945 in Johannesburg,
South Africa...
Capturing Pride, not Pity. Josh Jones on
taking photographs in the Occupied West
Bank
Amelia Smith
Friday, 25 January 2013
The Middle East Monitor
Even so, he admits that even the
simplest snapshot of people having fun
is in many ways political, "because
existence is resistance there too. To
even have fun is such a political
statement in the West Bank. The
occupation is telling you to be
miserable all the time."
Unfreezing the Right of Return: First
Stop, Gaza
Al-Shabaka Policy Brief
22 January 2013
Munir Nuseibah
Overview
The Palestinian authorities should
immediately start implementing the right
of return, beginning with Gaza and
without waiting for Israel, argues Al-Shabaka
Policy Advisor Munir Nuseibah. While
mindful of the political and physical
pitfalls and problems, he carefully
constructs the arguments in favor of the
move in this policy brief. He cites the
legal obligations, the ways in which the
continuing occupation of Gaza need not
be an obstacle, and the practical steps
for beginning the implementation of the
right of return, in however limited a
manner...
Hebron’s Glass History
by Gail Simmons
Jan/Feb 2013
Volume 64, Number 1
ARAMCO Magazine
It’s a fine morning in June and the
Mediterranean sun is blazing down on the
West Bank city of Hebron. Its domes and
minarets throw deep, welcome shadows
onto dusty streets. Inside the Hebron
Glass & Ceramics Factory, the
temperature is even warmer, and it’s
hotter still as I approach the furnace
where 43-year-old Imad Natsheh is
creating the glass that, for centuries,
has brought Hebron renown throughout the
world...
Stolen Books, Stolen Identity: What Did
Israel Do with Palestinians’ Literary
Heritage?
Film review by Nora Lester Murad
Nora Lester Murad recently went to see
Benny Brunner’s film, "The Great Book
Robbery"
Posted on January 20, 2013
The camera follows two Palestinians with
Israeli citizenship from the counter at
Israel’s National Library to a table.
They carry a small stack books from a
collection labeled “AP” for “Absentee
Property.” They sit in front of them
awestruck. They touch covers showing
respect for the books, their rightful
owners, and the Nakba that caused
Palestinians to lose their country and
heritage...
How the media let Israel get away with
murder
Charlotte Silver T
he Electronic Intifada San Francisco
17 January 2013
Israel spends a lot of time talking
about secure borders and how the need
for them drives its policies regarding
the Palestinians. With few exceptions,
the media act as willing promoters of
this perversion of reality...
Why All Americans Should Care About the
Holy Land Foundation Case
By Stephen Downs, Esq. and Kathy Manley,
Esq.
January/February 2013, Pages 17, 26
Special Report
WRMEA.org
In 2008, five directors of the Holy Land
Foundation, formerly the largest Muslim
charity in the U.S., were convicted on
charges of material support for
terrorism—essentially for feeding the
poor and for building schools and
hospitals in Palestine. Although none of
the defendants were accused of violence
or even encouraging violence, some of
them received sentences of up to 65
years, and are incarcerated in mostly
Muslim isolation prisons...
Girl from Gaza Takes First Prize in
International Math Competition
Jan 17, 2013
Palestine Chronicle
14-year-old Palestine refugee Areej El
Madhoun, a student at UNRWA’s school in
Jabalia camp received the first prize in
this year’s Intelligent
Mental-Arithmetic Competition, held in
Malaysia every two years...
Did Israeli troops deliberately provoke
boy, only to shoot him in the back?
On Monday Samir was shot by the IDF near
his home in the West Bank. Israel says
he was trying to invade its territory.
But the boy's family claim the truth is
much more sinister
Alistair Dawber
Wednesday 16 January 2013
The Independent, UK
Samir’s family and other villagers said
the IDF regularly uses loudhailers to
taunt children at the Budrus Secondary
School, which overlooks the area where
Samir was killed...
Eviction of Bab Al Shams exposes Israel
as a lawless state
Max Blumenthal
The Electronic Intifada
14 January 2013
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu was clearly troubled by the
establishment of Bab Al Shams, a
Palestinian protest village erected on
privately-owned Palestinian land, the
planned route of what Israel calls the
“E-1” corridor in the occupied West
Bank...
Tom Hurndal, RIP
12 January 2013
International Solidarity Movement
Tom was 21 years old when he was shot. A
photography student, he had left the UK
to volunteer as a ‘human shield’ in
Iraq. Here he heard about the ISM, one
of whose volunteers, Rachel Corrie, had
just been killed by a bulldozer whilst
protesting house demolitions in Rafah.
He headed there himself, arriving on the
6th April...
Gaza restaurant staffed by deaf people
beats prejudices
Roopa Suchak
11 January 2013
BBC
According to statistics, 1.5% of all
Gazans over the age of five has some
form of hearing disability. Now a
restaurant in the Gaza Strip is giving
some of these deaf people a chance to
break down prejudices about their
potential. A charity called Atfaluna -
Arabic for "our children" - has helped
set up a restaurant of the same name
where 12 out of its 14 staff are deaf.
Roopa Suchak reports...
The Future is Young
When did India Become
Part of Israel’s
Stable?
by DR. PAUL LARUDEE
January 08, 2013
Counter Punch
Amazing stuff, India ink. A few drops
spread vigorously with a roller for
several minutes on an iron plate are
enough for eight sets of fingerprints
and two sets of handprints on four
ancient double-sided and folded Indian
police fingerprint forms. By contrast,
the mug shot was taken with a digital
camera. After that, I was issued an
official deportation order, for which I
signed to acknowledge receipt. My
passport remained in police custody
until I got to the security check at the
airport, when it was returned to me...
Noam Chomsky: The Gravest Threat to
World Peace
Friday, 04 January 2013
By Noam Chomsky
Truthout, Op-Ed
Reporting on the final U.S. presidential
campaign debate, on foreign policy, The
Wall Street Journal observed that "the
only country mentioned more (than
Israel) was Iran, which is seen by most
nations in the Middle East as the
gravest security threat to the region."
Likud members call for Israeli
annexation of West Bank territories
Prominent members of ruling party urge
annexation of 'Area C' as battle for
rightwing votes intensifies before
general election
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 2 January 2013
A third Likud member, extreme rightwing
settler Moshe Feiglin, proposed that the
state of Israel should pay Palestinian
families to leave the West Bank, using
funds earmarked for security measures.
"We can give every family in Judea and
Samaria [the biblical term for the West
Bank] $500,000 [£300,000] to encourage
[them] to emigrate… This is the perfect
solution for us," he said...
DECEMBER 2012
This Time, Trust Anonymous WMD Claims–They've Got 'Specific Intelligence'
By Peter Hart
Dec 7, 2012
FAIR
The message could hardly be clearer: According to U.S. intelligence, Syrian
government could very well be preparing to use chemical weapons to put down the
long and bloody rebellion against ruler Bashar al-Assad. That was the signal
from the TV networks and other major media. Should anyone believe they're right?
A Palestinian Refugee Camp Wakes Up to a “State”
By: Qassem Qassem, Robert Abdallah
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Al-Akhbar
When Gaza emerged victorious from the November Israeli assault, Palestinian
refugees living in north Lebanon’s Baddawi Camp did not hesitate to take to the
streets in celebration. But when Palestine became a non-member state at the UN,
the response among them was not as enthusiastic...
The Reaper Presidency: Obama’s 300th
drone strike in Pakistan
December 3rd, 2012
By Alice K Ross, Chris Woods and Sarah
Leo
Published in Carousel
A US drone strike in Shin Warsak, South
Waziristan on December 1 2012 marked the
300th drone strike in Pakistan of Barack
Obama’s presidency, according to Bureau
research. The attack was the second
since President Obama’s re-election on
November 6. It reportedly killed Abdul
Rehman al-Zaman Yemeni, described as an
al Qaeda commander, along with up to
three others...
Resource: What is the E1 area, and why is it so important?
December 2, 2012
972Mag
In response to the Palestinian statehood bid, the Israeli government has decided
to promote zoning plans for the area known as E1, northeast of Jerusalem. The
project is intended to link annexed East Jerusalem with the mega-settlement of
Ma’aleh Adumin, thus finally making the creation of a contiguous Palestinian
State impossible...
Effective annexation: Israel now stamping passports of West Bank visitors “Judea
and Samaria only”
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Sun, 12/02/2012
Electronic Intifada
Because the Palestinian Authority has no real control or sovereignty, anyone who
wishes to go to the occupied West Bank can only do so with Israeli permission.
This includes foreign visitors and thousands of Palestinians with third country
passports who live or visit there...