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6 minutes ago

'Pool got my daughter pregnant'

A Polish mum is suing an Egyptian hotel after claiming her daughter got pregnant using their mixed swimming pool. The bizarre... more

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13 minutes ago

Key Issues, Part 3: » Occupation and Its Realities

The occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has continued unabated since 1967. Its impact on the lives of Palestinians cannot be overstated, taking the form of gruesome violence against civilians, the restriction of free movement, arbitrary arrests and detentions of Palestinian men, women, and children, home demolitions, extra-judicial assassinations, and other forms of collective punishment.
Contents

* Restriction of Movement (Checkpoints, Curfews, Road Blocks)
* Home Demolitions
* Mass Arbitrary Arrests and Detentions
* Collective Punishment and Violence Against Palestinians

Restriction of Movement- Checkpoints, Curfews, Road Blocks

Palestinians Wait at Huwarra CheckpointImagine that you must pass through a checkpoint in order to leave Berkeley and travel to any other city, even Oakland. Imagine, furthermore, that hundreds of dirt and concrete obstacles block your access to roads in Berkeley. The impediments to your movement will have a great impact on your daily life.

Imagine, furthermore, that these checkpoints and roadblocks are placed there by the Oregon State Police, who can issue–by decree–any arbitrary regulations about who can pass at what times and under what conditions. There is no legal framework in which you are guaranteed access to medical care, to your workplace, to your school, or to the market. You are at the mercy of the Oregon State Police.

Finally, imagine that Oregon declares all unincorporated areas outside of Berkeley’s city limits to be “Oregon State Lands.” Only the Oregon State Police can grant permits to build on this land, and they have an unstated but very obvious policy of refusing such permitsto any Berkeley resident.

You would inevitably conclude that the checkpoints are inhumane on the one hand, and primarily serve Oregon’s desire to control land in California on the other hand.

For Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, the checkpoints and other impediments to movement are simply a means for Israel to control all activity in the West Bank, particularly land-use policy. They also make it easy to collectively punish the entire Palestinian population on short notice.

Palestinian Taxi Drops off Woman Forced to Cross Dirt Blockage on FootIt is important to understand that the vast majority of these checkpoints and roadblocks are not on the Green Line, which is the de facto border between Israel and the West Bank. Rather, the vast majority are internal to the West Bank, including 27 permanently staffed checkpoints that block movement between different Palestinian cities; 16 temporarily staffed checkpoints manned when the West Bank is put under Israeli closure; 12 checkpoints in the city of Hebron; and hundreds of earth and concrete barriers blocking roads from village to village, from city to city, and sometimes completely preventing any movement outside of a city at all.

These impediments allow for the imposition of arbitrary curfews on the West Bank by Israel. During the second intifada (2000-2005), the Israeli military placed entire villages under curfew if some of the residents were suspected of throwing stones. Towns from which suicide attackers came were treated even more harshly, including cities like Nablus. Curfews, furthermore, were enforced with live fire, in accordance with IDF regulations that were revised to allow for the clamp down of any sort of Palestinian political activity with an iron fist. (Source: B’tselem)

continued belowThe occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has continued unabated since 1967. Its impact on the lives of Palestinians... more

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My Sister's Keeper reviewed by The Rotten Tomatoes Show

Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox join forces with bloggers, comedians, students and citizen critics to review "My Sister's... more

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14 minutes ago

Censorship in South Dakota - Marijuana Activist Silenced By Judge as Condition of Probation

For most of this decade, Bob Newland has been the voice of marijuana law reform in South Dakota. The photographer and Black Hills... more

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21 minutes ago

Key Issues, PART 2: Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return

The Palestinian refugees are a largely disenfranchised majority of Palestinians, about half of which live in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the other half of which live in refugee camps throughout the Middle East or have emigrated to other parts of the world. The refusal of the Israeli government to recognize their rights as refugees to return is one of the biggest symptoms of the apartheid regime.
Contents

* Historical Context and the Nakbah
* The Rights of Refugees
* Why Israel Continues to Violate the Rights of Refugees
Historical Context and the Nakbah

Refugee from the Nakba Oversees Refugee CampThe mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 is called the Nakbah, an Arabic word for “catastrophe.” In late 1947, there were approximately 900,000 Palestinians in the area that was called Israel in 1948 after the Declaration. Within a year and a half, around 750,000 of them were driven out to become stateless refugees. Only 16% of the original Palestinian population in the area that became Israel was allowed to stay within the 1948 borders and, after being subjected to martial law for nearly two decades, were finally granted citizenship in 1967.

Palestinians Flee During NakbaThe Nakbah occurred during a war between Israel and a number of surrounding Arab countries. Israeli leaders used this war as an opportunity to shape the demographics of the land they had taken over in their favor, establishing a clear Jewish majority in the area that became Israel. Benny Morris, a leading Israeli historian, writes that at least 24 organized massacres occurred in 1948: “That can’t be chance. It’s a pattern. Apparently, various officers who took part in the operation understood that the expulsion order they received permitted them to do these deeds in order to encourage the population to take to the roads. The fact is that no one was punished for these acts of murder. Ben-Gurion [the first Israeli Prime Minister] silenced the matter. He covered up for the officers who did the massacres” (Morris, 2004).

Palestinian Refugee Girl after NakbahThese massacres were used to terrorize the Palestinian population, as villagers were threatened by Israeli military officials that they would suffer the same fate as their compatriots if they did not leave. After the end of the war, the Israeli government used bureaucratic means to deny citizenship for Palestinians who fled so that their refugee status would become permanent and the state’s goals of maintaining a Jewish majority of citizens could be realized.

The Nakbah was not supported by all Jewish parties when it happened. Aharon Zisling, a minister from the left-wing Mapam party, said on June 16 1948: “We are embarking on a course that will most greatly endanger any hope of a peaceful alliance with forces that could be our allies in the Middle East… Hundreds of thousands of Arabs who will be evicted from Palestine […] will grow up to hate us […] If you do things in the heat of war, in the midst of battle, it’s one thing. But if, after a month, you do it in cold blood, for political reasons, in public, that is something altogether different” (Flapan, 1987: 110).

Next subparts below in commentsThe Palestinian refugees are a largely disenfranchised majority of Palestinians, about half of which live in the Gaza Strip and... more

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25 minutes ago

Xbox Live "Summer of Arcade" Release Dates

If you’re feeling bored at the lack of quality retail releases that usually accompanies the lazy months of summer and your... more

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27 minutes ago

10 Fantasy Football Myths You Should Ignore

10- Draft a Tight End Early Most people rank tight ends too high on their draft boards, resulting in missed opportunities for... more

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28 minutes ago

The (involuntary) confessions of a confidential informant

The first case Lee worked on for the sheriff led to a search warrant on a house where less than an ounce of marijuana was... more

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29 minutes ago

Photos: Deer gets hit by Google Street View car

There are two more if you go to the link.

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30 minutes ago

Key Issues in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The situation in Palestine and Israel is more complicated than most media will acknowledge. Despite the diverse variety of political attitudes on the ground in both Palestine and Israel, today and throughout the past century or so, there are a number of key issues which continue to guide and define the Palestinian struggle, despite changing historical and political circumstances for people both in Palestine and Israel as well as around the world. Many things have changed and will continue to change–what will not are the rights and grievances of those Palestinians who, in 1948, lost their homes to colonizers who later became Israeli citizens, as well as all those who suffer injustice after injustice to this day. They continue to seek redress for the wrongs that have continually been committed against them.

PART 1:
General Background

While the information below is necessary for understanding the situation in Palestine and Israel, perhaps one of the most important things to realize is that “Palestine” and “Israel” are not as separate as one might expect, given various appellations like the “Palestine-Israel conflict” which imply a clear-cut separation. For one, Palestinians account for 20% of the Israeli population by citizenship. The important thing to recognize is that “Palestine” and “Israel” by no means refer to distinct geographical areas or state formations. We are talking about different people who inhabit the same area of land, over which Israel is effectively sovereign. Within the 1967 borders, the Israeli government uses civilian law and Palestinians have some rights; outside those borders, the Israeli government uses military law and Palestinians have almost no rights. This gerrymandering is meant to ensure that civil law, civil rights, and citizenship are only extended to people who live in areas where a Jewish majority can be maintained; over the rest, the Israeli government governs by the gun.
Contents

* Geography
* Demographics
* Politics
* History
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The bulleted points listed above can be read at the above link. I'll put the start in a comment below.

University of California at Berkeley students have come up with the Key Issues that should be read. I will break this up into several different posts since it is long and has different subjects.

The students have a club called Students for Justice in Palestine and have researched for the truth. They and we will no doubt be called every name in the Zionist handbook since we have spoken out against Israel. We dont care-intelligent people know what the truth is and it is getting easier and easier to find out. So, here is the beginning of this excellent report:The situation in Palestine and Israel is more complicated than most media will acknowledge. Despite the diverse variety of... more

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35 minutes ago

Benedict XVI Offers Commentary on Encyclical

Benedict XVI gave a personal commentary on his third encyclical today, dedicating the general audience to a consideration of... more

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44 minutes ago

California Should Pay Its People in Pot

California's state finances have gone to pot, and that's what it should use to pay its employees. Right now the state... more

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50 minutes ago

To fix UC system budget failure, UCSD proposes to close UC Merced

The following is an excerpt from the letter signed by 23 department chairs at the University of California at San Diego. The letter was dated June 15, 2009 and was forwarded to the University of California Office of the President:

3. Establish different budget priorities for the profiles of different UC campuses. Every state system of public education save California manages to sustain (at best) one flagship campus. Many, including such states as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, do not manage even

that. We pretend we have ten such campuses. In better times, there were in reality four flagships (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, and – in its highly specialized way, UCSF). Rather than destroying the distinctiveness and excellence at Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD by hiring temporary lecturers to do most of the teaching (and contribute nothing to original research, nothing to our reputation, nothing to the engine of economic growth a first rate research university represents), we propose that you urge the President and Regents to acknowledge that UCSC, UCR, and UC Merced are in substantial measure teaching institutions (with some exceptions – programs that have genuinely achieved national and international excellence and thus deserve separate treatment), whose funding levels and budgets should be reorganized to match that reality.

We suggest, more generally, that in discussions systemwide, you drop the pretence that all campuses are equal, and argue for a selective reallocation of funds to preserve excellence, not the current disastrous blunderbuss policy of even, across the board cuts. Or, if that is too hard, we suggest that what ought to be done is to shut one or more of these campuses down, in whole or in part. We have suffered more than a 30 per cent cut in our funding from the state, and we can thus no longer afford to be a ten campus system – only a nine, or an eight (and a half) campus system. Corporations faced with similar problems eliminate or sell off their least profitable, least promising divisions. Even General Motors, which for decades resisted this logic, to its near-fatal cost, is lopping off Hummer, Buick, GMC, Opel, Saab and who knows what else.

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Oh the wonders of Facebook notes. . .The following is an excerpt from the letter signed by 23 department chairs at the University of California at San Diego. The... more

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53 minutes ago

Dove World Outreach Center: Islam is of the Devil

About 125 people of diverse religions, ages and races gathered in front of the Dove World Outreach Center Wednesday evening for a... more

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54 minutes ago

Israel shows its Criminal Guilt: Gaza War Crimes Probe Faces Israel Resistance

The fact that Israel will not cooperate with ANY investigation, is in itself a show of Guilt. This Guilt is for crimes against humanity that are some of the most atrocious acts ever committed against innocent people-here's the story...

Donatella Rovera, who headed a field research mission to Gaza and southern Israel during and after the conflict said that "Israel's failure to properly investigate its forces' conduct in Gaza, including war crimes, and its continuing refusal to cooperate with the UN international independent fact-finding mission headed by Richard Goldstone, is evidence of its intention to avoid public scrutiny and accountability." Donatella Rovera added, "the international community, led by the UN Security Council, must use all its leverage to ensure that Israel cooperates fully with the Goldstone inquiry, which now offers the best means to establish the truth."

The Amnesty International report documents Israel's use of battlefield weapons against a civilian population trapped in Gaza, with no means of escape. The report is based on evidence gathered by Amnesty International delegates, including a military expert, during field research in January and February. The report shows that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, killing three Israeli civilians, injuring scores and driving thousands from their homes. "Such unlawful attacks constitute war crimes and are unacceptable," added Donatella Rovera.

In an Amnesty International release, the organization indicates that the scale and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented. Some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians who took no part in the conflict were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. Most were killed with high-precision weapons, relying on surveillance drones which have exceptionally good optics, allowing those observing to see their targets in detail. Others were killed with imprecise weapons, including artillery shells carrying white phosphorus – not previously used in Gaza - which should never be used in densely populated areas.

Amnesty International found that the victims of the attacks it investigated were not caught in the crossfire during battles between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces, nor were they shielding militants or other military objects. Many were killed when their homes were bombed while they slept. Others were sitting in their yard or hanging the laundry on the roof. Children were struck while playing in their bedrooms or on the roof, or near their homes. Paramedics and ambulances were repeatedly attacked while attempting to rescue the wounded or recover the dead.

"The deaths of so many children and other civilians cannot be dismissed simply as 'collateral damage', as argued by Israel," said Donatella Rovera. "Many questions remain to be answered about these attacks and about the fact that the strikes continued unabated despite the rising civilian death toll."The fact that Israel will not cooperate with ANY investigation, is in itself a show of Guilt. This Guilt is for crimes against... more

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59 minutes ago

General Audience: Pope explains "Caritas in Veritate"

Dear Brothers and Sisters,Today I wish to reflect on my Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. Some forty years after Pope Paul VIs... more

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1 hour ago

Evian Roller Babies

ad for their new "live young" campaign

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1 hour ago

Walking the Last Free Mile with Eddy Lepp

Today Eddy Lepp called me at about 10:30 a.m. and said they were getting ready to pass through Pismo Beach. I hopped into my car... more

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1 hour ago

Postcards From the Edge---Of Insanity!!!

Somewhere out there this rings true for some elderly middle age folks. No offense of course. I'm not mad at you.

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Trailer Time: Love Happens, The Answer Man, and Informant!

In Trailer Time we show you some of the newest trailers in the theaters and on the web. The Rotten Tomatoes Show is a movie... more

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1 hour ago

Politicide or politic: Gillard and the Gaza muzzle

Days after the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was greeted in Israel and thanked for having been "alone in sticking by us" during Operation Cast Lead, the attack on the Gaza Strip in December and January, the Jewish state added piracy to its list of recent crimes against international law. The two developments are connected, and not just by coincidence of timing.

Israel sent six military vessels to seize a ship, the Spirit of Humanity, sailing from Cyprus with relief supplies for the people of Gaza, and arrested - no, make that abducted - 21 people on board, including the Nobel laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire. After a week in detention, they were released and deported.

At no time did the Spirit enter Israeli waters, so Israel's action could be deemed piracy under the definition of the International Maritime Bureau: "The act of boarding any vessel with an intent to commit theft or any other crime, and with an intent or capacity to use force in furtherance of that act". At least it amounts to an infringement of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which reserves the high seas for "peaceful purposes".

The Spirit's three-tonne cargo included medical and reconstruction supplies, and children's toys. Greece, whose flag the ship was flying, has asked for its return, and Israel says some of the goods on board may be passed on to Gazans for whom they were intended, "subject to security clearance". For now, it is forcibly keeping them from their rightful owners.

The international jurist Richard Falk, who has served as UN Human Rights Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, points out that this compounds an existing and ongoing violation of international law. The boat set sail in response to Israel's blockade of Gaza, which, Falk says, contravenes Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits any form of collective punishment of an occupied people.
---------------there's alot more at the link. The above story is typical. Speak against any thing Israel does, and you will be castrated as a hater or antisemitic, despite the FACT that Israel has broken numerous laws, as well as criminal acts.Days after the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was greeted in Israel and thanked for having been "alone in sticking by... more