The London Independent reports that a Palestinian student has been handcuffed, blindfolded and forcibly expelled to the Gaza Strip by Israeli troops just two months before she was due to graduate from college.The London Independent reports that a Palestinian student has been handcuffed,... more
Intel CEO Paul Otellini started off this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco thinking small. As in netbooks, 22-nanometer silicon, and Atom, Atom, Atom.Intel CEO Paul Otellini started off this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco... more
Today at IDF, Intel unveiled Light Peak technology, a plan for an extremely high-speed optical cable they hope will land on consumer products in 2010. Imagine transferring an entire Blu-Ray disk in 30 seconds. And that's just the beginning.
Excerpts:
A leading Swedish newspaper reported this week that Israeli soldiers are abducting Palestinians in order to steal their organs, a claim that prompted furious condemnation and accusations of anti-Semitic blood libel from a rival publication.
"They plunder the organs of our sons," read the headline in Sweden's largest daily newspaper, the left-leaning Aftonbladet, which devoted a double spread in its cultural section to the article.
The report quotes Palestinian claims that young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israel Defense Forces, and their bodies returned to the families with missing organs.
"'Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,' relatives of Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied," writes author Donald Boström in his report.
Boström's article makes a link to the recent exposure of an alleged crime syndicate in New Jersey. The syndicate includes several American rabbis, and one Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, who faces charges of conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant.
Boström also cites an incident of alleged organ snatching from 1992, during the time of the first Palestinian intifada. He says that the IDF seized a young man known for throwing stones at Israeli troops in the Nablus area, who was shot in the chest, both legs, and the stomach before being taken to a military helicopter which transported him to "a place unknown to his loved ones".
Five nights later, Boström says, the young man's body was returned, wrapped in green hospital sheets.
"The sharp sounds from the shovels were mixed with the occasional laughter from the soldiers who were joking with each other, waiting to go home. When Bilal was put into his grave, his chest was revealed and suddenly it became clear to the present what abuse he had been put through. Bilal was far from the only one who was buried cut-up from his stomach to his chin and the speculations about the reason why had already started," he writes.
But the liberal Sydsvenskan - southern Sweden's major daily - had harsh criticism for the rival paper, running an opinion piece under the headline "Antisemitbladet" (a play on the name Aftonbladet).
"We have heard the story before, in one form or the other. It follows the traditional pattern of conspiracy theory: a great number of loose threads that the theorist tempts the reader to tie into a neat knot without having been provided with any proven connection whatsoever," writes leading columnist Mats Skogkär of Sydsvenskan.
"Whispers in the dark. Anonymous sources. Rumors. That is all it takes. After all we all know what they [the Jews] are like, don't we: inhuman, hardened. Capable of anything," the opinion piece says. "Now all that remains is the defense, equally predictable: 'Anti-Semitism' No, no, just criticism of Israel."
The Foreign Ministry reacted angrily on Tuesday to the report. Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor said the newspaper's decision to publish the story is "a mark of disgrace" for the Swedish press.
"In a democratic country, there should be no place for dark blood libels out of the Middle Ages of this type," Palmor said. "This is an article that shames Swedish democracy and the entire Swedish press."
A Foreign Ministry official said that Israel's embassy in Stockholm have communicated a harsh condemnation to the Swedish government and the newspaper itself.Excerpts:
A leading Swedish newspaper reported this week that Israeli soldiers are... more
Women in Israel have to serve in the Israeli military, just as men do. This pod will introduce you to some of those women who serve in the Israeli Defense Forces.Women in Israel have to serve in the Israeli military, just as men do. This pod will... more
Straight out of Avigdor Lieberman’s Foreign Ministry: a new Internet Fighting Team! (http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=34520) Israeli students and demobilized soldiers get paid to pretend they are just regular folks and leave pro-Israel comments on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other sites. The effort is meant to fight the “well-oiled machine” of “pro-Palestinian websites, with huge budgets… with content from the Hamas news agency.” The approach was test-marketed during Israel’s assault on Gaza, and by groups like Give Israel Your United Support, a controversial effort to use instant-access technology to crowd-source Israel advocates to fill in flash polls or vote up key articles on social networking sites.
Will the responders who are hired for this also present themselves as “ordinary net-surfers”?
“Of course,” says Shturman. “Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the policy-explanation department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis. They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the Foreign Ministry developed.”
The full article, translated by Occupation Magazine into English here:
The Foreign Ministry presents: talkbackers in the service of the State
By: Dora Kishinevski
Calcalist 5 July 2009
Translated for Occupation Magazine by George Malent
After they became an inseparable part of the service provided by public-relations companies and advertising agencies, paid Internet talkbackers are being mobilized in the service in the service of the State. The Foreign Ministry is in the process of setting up a team of students and demobilized soldiers who will work around the clock writing pro-Israeli responses on Internet websites all over the world, and on services like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The Foreign Ministry’s department for the explanation of Israeli policy* is running the project, and it will be an integral part of it. The project is described in the government budget for 2009 as the “Internet fighting team” – a name that was given to it in order to distinguish it from the existing policy-explanation team, among other reasons, so that it can receive a separate budget. Even though the budget’s size has not yet been disclosed to the public, sources in the Foreign Ministry have told Calcalist that in will be about NIS 600.000 in its first year, and it will be increased in the future. From the primary budget, about NIS 200.000 will be invested in round-the-clock activity at the micro-blogging website Twitter, which was recently featured in the headlines for the services it provided to demonstrators during the recent disturbances in Iran.
“To all intents and purposes the Internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” Elan Shturman, deputy director of the policy-explanation department in the Foreign Ministry, and who is directly responsible for setting up the project, says in an interview with Calcalist. “Our policy-explanation achievements on the Internet today are impressive in comparison to the resources that have been invested so far, but the other side is also investing resources on the Internet. There is an endless array of pro-Palestinian websites, with huge budgets, rich with information and video clips that everyone can download and post on their websites. They are flooding the Internet with content from the Hamas news agency. It is a well-oiled machine. Our objective is to penetrate into the world in which these discussions are taking place, where reports and videos are published – the blogs, the social networks, the news websites of all sizes. We will introduce a pro-Israeli voice into those places.
more at the link--------------
Yes, yes..we know. Thats just the tip of the iceberg!Straight out of Avigdor Lieberman’s Foreign Ministry: a new Internet Fighting Team!... more
Col. Richard Kemp, Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, spoke at a recent conference on Hamas, the Gaza War, and Accountability under International Law. Col. Kemp reviewed the difficulties of any kind of warfare, but emphasized the challenges faced by Israel when fighting a terrorist organization that purposefully rejects and defies international law.Col. Richard Kemp, Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, spoke at a... more
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told the United States and the European Union that Israel will lift restrictions on food items, such as pasta and cheese, entering Hamas-ruled Gaza, diplomats said on Monday.
The government of U.S. President Barack Obama had protested at these and other seemingly random Israeli restrictions, which held up deliveries of certain types of noodles, fruit jams and other foodstuffs to 1.5 million Palestinians in the enclave.
In one case, Israel blocked for weeks a World Food Programme shipment of chickpeas, used to make the Palestinian food staple hummus, according to the UN agency.
Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Olmert's office informed Washington and Brussels that all types of food would be allowed into the Gaza Strip.Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told the United States and the European Union... more
PHR quoted figures issued by the World Health Organization, which showed 16 Palestinian medical personnel were killed by Israeli fire during the offensive and that 25 were wounded while performing their duties.
It said Israel attacked 34 medical care facilities, including eight hospitals.
The report also raises questions of whether IDF soldiers violated the IDF's own ethical code and basic humanitarian values, when they prevented treatment and the evacuation of the wounded and fired at emergency rescue teams and Palestinian medical facilities.PHR quoted figures issued by the World Health Organization, which showed 16... more
Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty.Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and... more
GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime has executed a Palestinian human rights researcher and journalist accused of working for Israel.
Haidar Ghanem was of several, perhaps dozens of Palestinians accused of spying for Israel who were executed by Hamas during the 22-day war in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.
Ghanem, a 46-year-old resident of Rafah and a researcher for the Israeli organization B'Tselem, was killed on Jan. 7, while operating a news agency.
"He was taken to an abandoned building in southern Gaza and shot to death," a Palestinian source said. "Others were executed the same way."GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime has executed a Palestinian human rights researcher and... more
Israel has dropped thousands of leaflets on the people of Gaza warning them that they will be increasing the ferocity of the attack on the territory they have trapped them in for several weeks.
The Israeli army will not allow movement of the civilian population in one of the most densely populated places on earth and continues its air and ground assault which has already killed over 600 people. With nowhere to go, the civilians of Gaza are being encouraged to stay indoors except for during a daily 3 hour window in which the IDF will stop bombing the rabbit warren of streets housing over 1.5 million Palestinians.
So far tens of Israeli civilians have been killed as Hamas fired rockets into Southern Israel causing fear amongst its population. The Israelis have retaliated by targeting the densely populated Gaza strip which houses some members of Hamas and hoping that what amounts to collective punishment will break the will of Hamas to launch rocket attacks on the Israeli civilian population.
Other than the 3 hour window in which they are free to go to the shops and seek medical help, the Palestinians are asked to stay put by the Israeli army and this new leaflet drop outlining how violent the situation will get is only set to further increase the psychological suffering.Israel has dropped thousands of leaflets on the people of Gaza warning them that they... more
As Israeli ground forces continue to fight their way through Gaza, there's been no shortage of commentary on the causes and possible consequences of the current conflict.
For the most part, the consensus runs as follows: Hamas began the violence when it resumed launching rockets indiscriminately into southern Israel; Israel escalated the situation with a disproportionate response; and now, with Israeli soldiers in Gaza, whether the conflict destabilizes the region as a whole depends on the extent of Iranian interference.
In basic terms this consensus is accurate, but two further points ought to be noted.
The first is the deliberation with which Iran, Hamas, and Israel all began planning for this when the six month cease-fire was signed last summer.
The tell here isn't just the timing of rocket fire by Hamas or the precise maneuvers of the Israeli incursion, but the highly coordinated messaging by senior Israeli and Palestinian officials. Given such tight coordination, we probably won't see anything significantly off-script on either side for at least another week or ten days; only then will we get a sense of which side has gained greater leverage.
Meanwhile, the second point is much broader.
In short, the fighting in Gaza is not merely a struggle for Palestinian autonomy or regional power. Even more, the violence there is the latest episode in a longstanding drama over the legitimacy of the Israeli state -- and by extension, over the legitimacy of the international order that recognizes Israeli sovereignty.
That's a heady claim, so bear with me as I explain.
For starters, consider the view that Israel is legitimate only to the extent that it secures the territorial sovereignty, now and for succeeding generations, of a specifically Jewish population. In the aftermath of the second World War, when the Holocaust lingered in recent memory and nation-states could still appeal directly to ethnic pretensions, that view carried a good deal of weight. Not surprisingly, it was perhaps most succinctly articulated by Golda Meir, the former Israeli Prime Minister, who once claimed that, "For me the supreme morality is that the Jewish people have a right to exist. Without that there is no morality in the world."
Alongside this view lies the argument that the Israeli state is legitimate because it is democratic. According to this claim, the fight for Israel's security is not a fight for Jewish persons so much as a fight for human rights. Presumably this view is what Israel's current Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, had in mind when she recently hoped aloud "that at the end of this military operation, the outcome will be victory for those who believe in our values."
The trouble for Israel is that while these two understandings of Israeli sovereignty were once complimentary, over the last two decades they have increasingly diverged. With the end of the Cold War and the proliferation of democracy, nation-states can no longer defend their sovereignty in purely ethnic terms without compromising their support in the international community. As a result, Israel, which is uniquely dependent on international consensus, has had to go out of its way to defend its actions in terms of democratic values and human rights.
[More at link or read the continuation in the following post under the article]BY CHRIS MESEROLE
As Israeli ground forces continue to fight their way through... more
Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, takes us through the secret tunnels that connect Gaza and Egypt - a common route for smuggling under the border.
The tunnels beneath the Egyptian border have become a common way for Palestinians to attain items that they cannot due to the Israeli restrictions on imports into the Gaza Strip. Some of these items, like medicine or cigarettes, are relatively innocuous, but weapons and rocket parts are also smuggled through the tunnels, making them a target for Israel's IDF forces.
Collective Journalism, Current's citizen journalism program, works by combining perspectives from around the world to create a picture of the world we live in.Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, takes us... more
Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, gives us an exclusive look at a group of Palestinian militants who make - and set off - homemade rockets headed for Israel.
For years Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas have fired these homemade rockets into Israeli towns and settlements as a means of resistance against the IDF and Israeli occupation or embargoes. Thousands of rockets have fallen on Israel and over a dozen have been killed.
Collective Journalism, Current's citizen journalism program, works by combining perspectives from around the world to create a picture of the world we live in.Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, gives us an... more
There have been many stories published concerning alleged shortages in Gaza.
In fact, there is a large _surplus_ of fruit and vegetables intended for markets in Israel, and the vast majority of people here aren't wanting for food.
Reports of children are suffering from malnutrition are exaggerations, says Khaled Abdel Shaafi, director the United Nations Development Program.
"This is not a humanitarian crisis," he said. "It's an economic crisis, a political crisis, but it's not a humanitarian crisis. People aren't starving."...
Rafah, on the border with Egypt, always was regarded as the poorest of Gaza's towns. Not any more. Today, its dusty market is packed with products and with shoppers.
The Associated Press and Guardian also report that many Gazans have become addicted to readily available prescription drugs to help them through difficult times. Is this the same Gaza that has been 'denied' medical supplies?There have been many stories published concerning alleged shortages in Gaza.
In... more
Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty
over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, [or] on the Gaza
Strip.
-- Palestinian National Charter (the Palestinian Liberation Organization)
It points to a fundamental fallacy in the authenticity of the Palestinian
claims for national self-determination. As can be seen, they explicitly
eschew any claims of sovereignty in the territories of Judea and Samaria
(the "West Bank") and the Gaza Strip, which they openly concede to the
jurisdiction of the Jordanians and the Egyptians respectively.Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty
over the... more
In 1948 at the creation of the State of Israel, Jews from all the Arab countries were forced out or harassed until they left.
The land lost by Jews who fled was estimated by the UN to be worth 10X's that of any property lost by Arabs who fled Israel in 1948. When will they be reimbursed?
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Excerpt from an article by Sabri Jiryis, a well known Palestinian Arab researcher in the Institute for Palestinian Studies in Beirut, published in Al-Nahar, Beirut, on May 15, 1975:
"This is hardly the place to describe how the Jews of the Arab States were driven out of the countries in which they lived for hundreds of years, then how they were shamefully deported to Israel after their property had been confiscated or taken over at the lowest possible price.
"It is plain that Israel will air this issue in the course of any serious negotiations that might be undertaken one day in regard to the rights on the Palestinians.
"Israel's claims are these: It may perhaps be the case that we Israelis were the cause of the expulsion of some Palestinians, whose number is estimated at 700,000, from their homes during the 1948 War, and afterwords took over their properties. Against this, since 1948, you Arabs have caused the expulsion of just as many Jews from the Arab States, most of whom settled in Israel after their properties had been taken over in one way or another. Actually, therefore, what happened was only a kind of "population and property exchange," and each party must bear the consequences. Israel is absorbing the Jews of Arab States; the Arab States, for their part, must settle the Palestinians in their own midst and solve their problems. There is no doubt that, at the first serious discussion of the Palestinian problem in an international forum, Israel will put these claims forward."
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More Jews were expelled from Arab lands than Arabs were expelled from Israel!
When will the Sephardic Jews get justice, where is the UN, where is Europe, where are all the other so-called progressives, that claim to want justice.
The facts are these. Almost 1 million Jews were expelled in the 1950's from their homes where they had been for thousands of years. They were not allowed to keep any of their land or property.
Imagine the uproar if Israel just expelled _all_ palestinians without moey, houses, or possessions. that's exactly what the arabs did to the jews in the 1950's. Almost a million Jews.In 1948 at the creation of the State of Israel, Jews from all the Arab countries were... more
These pictures illustrate without a doubt that there was massive Jewish and Arab immigration into Israel: The Jewish refugees fleeing religious and ethnic persecution from European and Arab States, and Arabs immigrants from Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq.
These were not native "Palestinians" as they are called today, rather Arab migrant workers looking for a better standard of living. This story is brought to life in the following pages in over 460 photographs and lithographs of the period.
Yes, the "Palestinians" were Arab migrant farm workers from Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq, not the fabled "natives". The truth is, from 1880 to 1948, there was a massive increase in Jewish and Arab populations.These pictures illustrate without a doubt that there was massive Jewish and Arab... more
In 2007, According to Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group and B'tselem, Palestinians murdered 473 Palestinians. This apparent attempt at ethnic cleansing by rival factions of Hamas and PLO has yet to be condemned by the UN, the EU, Susan Sarandon, or Sean Penn.
In a related news, the number of Palestinians killed by the Israel Defense Forces in 2007 decreased by 43 percent since last year, to 373, 20% less than those killed by fellow Palestinians.In 2007, According to Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group and B'tselem,... more
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