Dive into the archives.
- Safa Joudeh: What I Witnessed Today in Gaza
It was just before noon when I heard the first explosion. I rushed to my window, barely did I get there and look out when I was pushed back by the force and air pressure of another explosion. For a few moments I didn’t understand, then I realized that Israeli promises of a wide-scale offensive [...]
- Found in NYT Letters
I believe the Israeli airstrikes are clear violations of international humanitarian law. While the Palestinian rocket fire against civilian targets in Israel may be illegal, that does not give Israel the right to violate the Geneva Conventions. The airstrikes represent: ¶Collective punishment (the civilian population is being punished for actions of a few militants). ¶Unlawful [...]
- This is Zionism
Israel prevents toddler in need of surgery from returning home from Gaza to West Bank (more…)
- Blogging With Blood
Days after sending aircraft to strike Hamas militants in Gaza, the Israeli government is launching a campaign to dominate the blogosphere. (more…)
- Disingenuous Standards
The United States Contributes $85 Million for Humanitarian Assistance to Palestinian Refugees And how much does Israel receive in American foreign aid, loan guarantees and arms shipments?
- The Puppets Speak
“It’s impossible to hold peace negotiations with Israel while its army is committing massacres against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Qureia was quoted as saying. “U.S.-sponsored talks with Israel are now suspended due to the bloody scene that the Gaza Strip is witnessing.” (more…)
- Gaza Clouds Obama’s Prospects
Whatever their original intentions, the occupation created its own logic of suppression, first breeding discontent and then rebellion. It doesn’t matter whether that rebellion takes the form of stone-throwing or rocket launching; the Israeli response will always be wildly disproportionate, further damning the prospect for rational solutions. And uncritically underwriting that disproportionate Israeli response to [...]
- Gaza Engulfed By Suffering
“Many people died while they were waiting to enter the operating rooms. Some died in the lobby of the hospital waiting to enter the reception area,” said Hussein Ashor, the hospital’s director. “There were not enough beds, so we pulled out the curtains and lay them on the ground, and we put patients on the [...]
- Darkness in Qassam-Land
And so this is an unnecessary, cruel and cynical war — a war that could have been avoided if our leaders had shown courage during the months of the cease-fire to truly work toward creating better lives for people whose only crime is that they live in the south. (more…)
- Morally Dubious
The cease-fire itself was morally dubious and legally asymmetrical. (more…) Morally dubious and legally asymmetrical? Sounds like the Israeli occupation to me… But Dershowitz would never say that.
- A Matter of Responsibility?
Unfortunately, the Palestinians weren’t really ready to take responsibility in Gaza. (more…) How can they take responsibility when Israel has yet to end the occupation and invades on a daily basis? Besides, when has Israel ever taken responsibility for oppressing the Palestinians these 41 years? This genius is going back to Stanford to write her [...]
- The Danes Will Support Gaza
Røde Kors starter i dag på opfordring af danskerne en indsamling til fordel for ofrene i Gaza-konflikten. (more…)
- The Manipulative Mr. Morris
Israel’s highly efficient air assault on Hamas, which began on Saturday, was his first move. Most of Hamas’s security and governmental compounds were turned into rubble and several hundred Hamas fighters were killed. (more…) Look how Benny Morris manipulates information to praise Israeli aggression. Many of the Hamas policemen killed by Israel are guilty of [...]
- Enforcing Occupation
It is not rational to believe that the Palestinians in the occupied territories will be terrorized by force and violence, by cruelty, by starvation or by slaughter into a docile acceptance of the Israeli occupation. There is no evidence that that could possibly happen and mountains of evidence to the contrary. (more…)
- Who’s the Toughest War Criminal?
In the run-up to the election, observed Michael Warschawski, a founder of the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem, “all Israeli leaders are competing over who is the toughest and who is ready to kill more.” (more…)
- UN Body Must Act To End Gazan War Crimes
The following intervention was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on 30 December 2008: Dear Member State of the UN Human Rights Council, Representing the Palestinian human rights community, we write to you with an urgent request for intervention by the UN Human Rights Council to put an end to the war crimes and [...]
- Strengthening Hamas, Courtesy of Israel
But, in the long run, it is difficult to see Hamas not benefiting the same way Hezbollah benefited from the 2006 war. Their aura as resistance fighters can only be strengthened. (more…)
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Israel has rejected calls for an immediate temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip after five consecutive days of aerial assault. (more…)
- Israel’s Puppets in Ramallah are Very Pleased
Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah said Saturday that they were prepared to assume control over the Gaza Strip if Israel succeeds in overthrowing the Hamas government. (more…)
- Land of Death
The battered Gaza Strip has turned into a giant funeral procession as tens of thousands of people came out to bury the victims of a massive Israeli bombardment of the overcrowded sliver of land. (more…)
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“The situation is absolutely disastrous,” U.N. official Christopher Gunness told CNN on Sunday, as a second day of aerial attacks brought the death toll in Gaza close to 300. Hundreds more people have been injured. (more…)
- Attack on the Sabbath
Israel took extraordinary care to lull Hamas into a sense of complacency ahead of its deadly onslaught of the Gaza Strip, officials and media said on Sunday. Disinformation and secrecy were essential elements that Israel took in the week before the bombardment to coax Palestinians into believing that no major attack was imminent, they said. [...]
- Keeping Israel Safe
“Seventy policemen were killed there, not all Hamas members,” said S., who opposes Hamas. “And even those who supported Hamas were young men looking for a job, a salary. They wanted to live. And therefore, they died. Seventy in one blow. This assault is not against Hamas. It’s against all of us, the entire nation. [...]
- The Gazan Abatoir: Israel’s Unbridled Destruction
I apologize for the lack of activity for the past week on this website; I am currently without a stable internet connection and cursing myself that I am unable to follow Israel’s atrocities more closely. Naturally, I am concerned for my friends suffering this nightmare and I have not managed to be in contact with [...]
- The Bloodiest Day in the History of Israel’s Occupation
PCHR condemns in the strongest terms the war waged by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against the Gaza Strip through a wide scale aerial offensive, which has so far targeted dozens of police headquarters and stations, public and governmental buildings and security sites throughout the Gaza Strip. PCHR calls upon the international community, particularly the High [...]
- Kris-mas Break
I am off to the U.S. to spend Christmas with my family… so for the next three or four days, I may not be posting. I will try to get back soon, but the posting may be spontaneous and random… The new year will bring many interesting developments. I will be returning to the Gaza [...]
- What You Won’t Read in the Western Press
An Israeli infantry patrol crossed into Lebanon and kidnapped two Lebanese citizens from their olive grove near the southern village of Blida on Friday. The two were only identified as members of the Tarraf family. (more…)
- The Morning After
Rick Warren Is Not Change We Can Believe In
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British citizens are to be formally advised by the government not to buy property in settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, a move that marks a proactive shift of its position on a core issue of the Middle East conflict. (more…)
- This is Zionism
“With this ill-considered action, Israel put itself in the company of countries like Burma and North Korea in denying entry to UN human rights experts,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division. “Strongly disagreeing with Professor Falk’s views is no good reason for denying him entry, treating him in a [...]
- Torture, American Style
Last week, a report by the US senate armed services committee involving both Republicans and Democrats said the abuse of detainees in Guantanamo Bay “cannot simply be attributed to the actions of ‘a few bad apples’ acting on their own”. (more…)
- The Morning After
President-elect Barack Obama took only a few days after his election victory before tossing his most liberal supporters overboard. While loading up his administration with war-hawks of various stripes, including Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, he left antiwar activists weeping in their blogs. (more…)
- Israeli Torture
Rights groups B’Tselem and Hamoked released a report last year entitled “Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-Treatment of Palestinian Detainees” in which they accused the court ruling of “legitimizing severe acts, contrary to international law, which does not acknowledge any exceptions to the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment.” (more…)
- Bigots for Obama
But would any inaugural committee say to Jewish Americans, “We’re opening with an anti-Semite but closing the program with a rabbi, so don’t worry”? (more…)
- Obama Wants More
A deadly United States military raid on a house near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan became a new source of tension on Thursday, with the Americans calling it a successful counterterrorism strike and the Afghans saying it left three innocent civilians dead and two wounded, including a 4-year-old boy bitten by an attack dog. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
On Thursday, Dana M. Perino, the White House press secretary, said President Bush had urged the Iraqis “not to overreact, because he was not bothered by the incident, although it’s not appropriate for people to throw shoes at a press conference, at any leader.” (more…) I disagree—the shoe is the least Bush deserves for the [...]
- This is Zionism
Documents signed in strange places – and crooked deals – are not unusual in the lucrative and clandestine trade in Palestinian-owned land. Another recent challenge to a settler land deal in the town of Hebron involved forged documents, and a third revolved around Israeli businessmen who set up a notary with a prostitute, filmed their [...]
- Duplicity in Iraq
U.S. military leaders and Pentagon officials have made it clear through public statements and deliberately leaked stories in recent weeks that they plan to violate a central provision of the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement requiring the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities by mid-2009 by reclassifying combat troops as support troops. (more…)
- If Obama is Serious…
Some time before Israelis vote in February, Mr Obama should spell out precisely the sort of peace America envisages: two states sharing Jerusalem, with a border very close to the pre-1967 armistice line, not one that lets Israel keep its settlement blocks deep in the West Bank. Just as Hamas needs to hear that Israel [...]
- Recognizing Hamas Could Help Peace
Eighteen months after Hamas evicted Fatah forces from Gaza, the prospects for restoring Palestinian unity are more elusive than ever, with both factions believing that time is on their side, according to a new report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) released Wednesday. (more…)
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The Soviets had nearly 400,000 Soviet and Afghan soldiers at their disposal – more than twice what the US and NATO have here – and yet they still failed, he notes. (more…)
- Time to Close
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has ordered his staff to draw up plans to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
Muntader is my brother and I know him very well. He does not apologise,” Udai al-Zaidi said. (more…) Sounds like a childhood regret…
- Shoe-Thrower to Be Pardoned
Den irakiske journalist, der kastede sine sko efter præsident Bush, beder om at blive benådet. (more…)
- Matthias Gebauer: Touring Guantánamo
The weeds are already growing rampant at the notorious “Camp X-Ray,” and President-elect Barack Obama plans to shut down the entire detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Now the Pentagon is inviting journalists to tour the camp one last time. One would imagine a trip to the world’s best-known and most notorious prison could be an [...]
- Torture, American Style
We can understand that Americans may be eager to put these dark chapters behind them, but it would be irresponsible for the nation and a new administration to ignore what has happened — and may still be happening in secret C.I.A. prisons that are not covered by the military’s current ban on activities like waterboarding. [...]
- Clean Up Our Mess?
There is almost no international support for sending a peacekeeping force to Somalia as the United States has proposed, the United Nations secretary general said Wednesday. (more…) After backing the overthrow of Somalia’s government by Ethiopian forces, the United States wants the international community to step in and stabilize the country? Nice one.
- A Pagan Christmas
Complaints about the corruption, dilution or fundamental impiety of Christmas have been made for centuries. The Puritans so mistrusted the holiday that its celebration was outlawed in 17th-century Boston. Around the same time, the German theologian Paul Ernst Jablonski asserted that Christmas amounted to a paganization of the authentic faith because the date, Dec. 25, [...]
- Hamas Conflicted
“Mashaal can’t tolerate the fact that other Hamas leaders are stealing the show,” the sources said. “Ismail Haniyeh, for example, is much more popular among the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip than Mashaal.” (more…) This is what has happened to the fight against Israeli occupation—it has become power struggle for control of Gaza.
- Bush X-Mas Video
If only Bush had stuck to his acting career.
- Power to the Shoe
Le lancer de chaussures du journaliste Mountazer Al-Zaïdi sur George Bush est d’ores et déjà qualifié de “moment historique” sur la blogosphère irakienne. Les vidéos de la séquence, les parodies et les jeux circulent de site en site et des blogueurs qui n’avaient pas posté depuis longtemps se sont remis à l’ouvrage. (more…)
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“We demand that the settlement expansion stop,” he said, adding that settlements distance the opportunities for a just and comprehensive peace. (more…)
- This is Zionism
The United Nations has halted the distribution of food aid in the Gaza Strip after its stocks of wheat flour ran out. The UN Relief and Works Agency said on Thursday that “irregular border access” meant deliveries had been unable to reach the improverished territory, where about 750,000 people depend on food assistance. (more…)
- Obama named ‘Person of the Year’
Recent winners have included Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the American soldier and the online public. (more…) Do I really need to comment on this? Putin and the American solidier…?
- Cheney’s Scowling Visage
Over the last eight years, Cheney’s scowling visage has been the more true and honest face of the Bush administration. Unlike Bush, when discussing the national security policies of the US Cheney rarely bothered with transparently disingenuous appeals to democracy-building, dealing instead in appeals to fear and raw assertions of power. (more…)
- The Morning After
Obama had thousands of clergy to choose from, and the choice of Warren is not only a slap in the face to progressive ministers toiling on the front lines of advocacy and service, but a bow to the continuing influence of the religious right in American politics. Warren vocally opposes gay marriage, does not believe [...]
- Bush’s Legacy
George W. Bush. US president: January 20, 2001 – January 19, 2009. Born of privilege. Unimpressive by every measure. A history of underachievement. Chosen by big money. Arranged through electoral fraud. Installed by the Supreme Court. (more…)
- A Potential Problem
It is not clear how the US might replace Blackwater. (more…) Is is just so difficult to find eager young killers willing to work for a paltry six-figure income these day.
- The American ‘Melting Pot’
A city judge in Georgia has in the past eight days barred two Muslim women wearing Islamic headscarves from entering his courtroom, jailing one, and prompting an inquiry from the civil rights office at the US department of justice. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
The legislative session became so tumultuous that it prompted the speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, to announce his resignation, according to The Associated Press. (more…)
- Israel Sentences Palestinian Political Prisoner
An Israeli military court sentenced Dr. Aziz Dweik, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Speaker, to three years in prison, two years of suspended imprisonment, and a New Israel Shekel 6,000 (USD 1,500) bail. Israeli Occupation Forces arrested Dr. Dweik on Saturday 6 August 2006 in the midst of a campaign of arrests that targeted dozens [...]
- Israel Only Ever ‘Responds’
A Palestinian man has been killed and two others injured in an Israeli air raid on the town of Beit Lahiya, Gazan medics have said. (more…)
- Time to Leave
The controversial American private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide, which was involved in the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians last year, should be dismissed by the US Government, an advisory panel to the State Department said yesterday. (more…)
- This is Zionism
An Israeli court has acquitted Julian Soufir despite confessing to the murder of the Arab Jerusalemite Tayseer Karki, 35, with a knife almost a year and a half ago. (more…)
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Two combat soldiers in the haredi infantry unit of the Nahal Brigade were arrested this week on suspicion of having beaten a Palestinian policeman at a checkpoint, Ynet discovered Monday. (more…)
- Guests in Iraq
QUESTION: But he wasn’t a guest. We’re occupiers. PERINO: No, we’re not. We are absolutely a guest. (more…)
- Power to the Shoe
The Shoe Heard Round the World
- Chris Hedges: Israel’s ‘Crime Against Humanity’
Israel’s siege of Gaza, largely unseen by the outside world because of Jerusalem’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid workers, reporters and photographers access to Gaza, rivals the most egregious crimes carried out at the height of apartheid by the South African regime. It comes close to the horrors visited on Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs. [...]
- The Cost of Freedom
U.S. military operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, have cost $904 billion since 2001 and could top $1.7 trillion by 2018, even with big cuts in overseas troop deployments, a report said on Monday. (more…)
- The Taste of Freedom
Torture and other forms of abuse in Iraqi detention facilities, frequently to elicit confessions in early stages of detention, are well documented. The reliance on confessions in the court’s proceedings, coupled with the absence of physical or other corroborating evidence, raises the possibility of serious miscarriages of justice. In at least 10 investigative hearings and [...]
- Power to the Shoe
Thousands of Iraqis on Monday demanded the release of Muntazer al-Zaydi, the journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush. (more…)
- Logic of Keynes
Yet they have been declining for many years. Some have been broken up and sold as more expensive private goods, especially for the well-to do – bottled water, private schools, security guards, and health clubs, for example. Others, like clean air, have fallen prey to deregulation. Others have been wacked by budget axes; the current [...]
- Power to the Shoe
Both shoes missed their target – one went high, and the president ducked the other – and Bush did his best to laugh the whole incident off. “I saw his sole,” he joked. But Bush is unlikely to escape the image of a US president cowering behind a lectern watched by an unflinching Maliki. The [...]
- Another Success for the Bush Doctrine
The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody. (more…) I’m sure this is what Bush intended when he promised to bring democracy to Iraq. Ah, freedom smells great!
- Power to the Shoe
But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at President Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world on Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war. (more…)
