More Childhood Cancer Near Nuclear Power Plants

German study

The German section of IPPNW has initiated a study, which approves that children under the age of five living near nuclear power stations have contracted cancer at a greatly higher rate than the national average. The study was paid for by the German Federal Radiation Protection Agency (BfS) the government's main adviser on nuclear health. It was conducted by the German Register of Child Cancer, an office in Mainz which is funded by the 16 German states and the federal Health Ministry.

The risk of cancer increased by 60 percent for children living less than five kilometres (three miles) from a nuclear power plant, according to the study. The risk was 117 percent higher when only leukemia was taken into account. The study looked at statistics from between 1980 and 2003 in regions near 21 reactors or former reactors. In those areas, 77 cases of cancer were found among children under five, or a 60-percent increase over the national average. Some 37 cases of leukemia were recorded instead of the average of 17.

"Our study confirms that in Germany a relationship is observable between the proximity of the home to the nearest nuclear power plant at the time of diagnosis and the risk of contracting cancer (respectively leukemia) before the child's fifth birthday," the researchers write.

One member of the expert commission that oversaw the study even considers the conclusions to be understated. According to him, the data indicate an increased risk of cancer for children in a radius of 50 kilometres.

It needed lobbying since 2001 by the local IPPNW section and more than 10,000 protest letters from the public authorities and ministries to get the BfS to commission the study. The campaign was triggered by a study initiated by the IPPNW and carried by Dr. Alfred Körblein (Environment Institute Munich), which found significantly higher child cancer incidence near Bavarian nuclear power stations.

The BfS commissioned its study to the Mainzer Kinderkrebsregister (Mainz Child Cancer Register) in 2003.

“Now that the connection between increased cancer and leukemia rates and proximity of the residence to the nuclear power station has been established, the causes of this must be further clarified immediately,” IPPNW says in a media release.

“The population affected at nuclear power station locations must be examined by suitable screening methods quickly and comprehensively.”

“Given these massive findings at every German nuclear power station location, a radiation-linked cause is highly likely in every case. Anyone who now still talks of coincidence is making himself ridiculous,” writes Dr. Angelika Claussen, chair of the German IPPNW.

“The precautionary principle enshrined in European environment law now demands that the German nuclear power stations be switched off immediately.”

“The IPPNW demands that the environment ministry now greatly reduce the obviously too lax upper limits for radioactive emissions from nuclear power stations. From now on the burden of proof of cause of illness should no longer have to be borne by parents, but conversely by the operators of the nuclear installations.”

The BfS media release about its study in German: www.bfs.de/en/bfs/presse/aktuell_press/Studie_Kernkraftwerke.html

More IPPNW background and chronology in German at www.ippnw-ulm.de

More on the topic: www.alfred-koerblein.de www.bfs.de

Contact: Reinhold Thiel, #49 0176-511 64 195 or #49 7346-8407,
Dr. med. Angelika Claussen, IPPNW Chair #49 521-15 22 13,
Henrik Paulitz, IPPNW expert on nuclear energy issues #49 621-3972-668.

Source

Al-Walajah, a symbol of Israeli ethnic cleansing

Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 9 October 2009

Palestinians retrieve their possessions after the Israeli army demolished their home in the West Bank village of al-Walajah, near Bethlehem, December 2006. (Fadi Tanas/MaanImages)

While American officials continue to claim that the mission of US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell is by no means over, and that he will still pursue his efforts to convince the Israeli government to agree to some sort of settlement freeze, Israeli plans for further colonization of Palestinian land continue undisturbed. The latest Israeli plans call for the destruction of the West Bank village of al-Walajah for the second time in six decades.

According to Israeli press reports, Israel is planning a massive new settlement in the vicinity of Jerusalem, on land owned by Palestinians of al-Walajah. The project, expected to be approved by the Israeli ministry of the Interior, could become the single most populous settlement built in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967 according to the Israeli daily Maariv. The project plans prepared by the ministry of the Interior and the Jerusalem municipality call for 14,000 housing units for 40,000 settlers on 3,000 dunums of land which would require the demolition of al-Walajah residents' homes, according to the paper.

The original village of al-Walajah was located on the opposite side of its current location, on a mountain slope facing east, just about six kilometers south of Jerusalem. It was very close to Battir, the village in which I was born and brought up. The two villages were separated by a valley, with Battir on the opposite slope from al-Walajah, though a little further south and were very closely linked.

The railway from Jerusalem to the Palestinian coastal city of Jaffa ran right through that valley, which also marks the 1949 armistice line following the end of the 1948 war (also known as the "Green Line.")

During October 1948, Zionist forces attacked and occupied al-Walajah. Its roughly 1,800 inhabitants were scattered in every direction, sharing the fate of Palestinians from hundreds of other towns and villages ethnically cleansed in the same period.

I have strong memories of visiting al-Walajah as a young child, which was walking distance from my village. Often when I was dispatched by one of my parents to purchase something for the house from the only shop in our village, I was advised to try the shop in al-Walajah if the item was not to be found in Battir.

There was active social interaction and intermarriage between the small, tight-knit populations of al-Walajah and Battir. There were daily exchanges of visits and sharing of most kinds of public events. That also applied to many other villages which were within walking distance from Battir such as Beit Safafa, al-Malhah, al-Jawrah, Ain Karem, al-Qabou and Sataf; all were occupied and ethnically cleansed in that first war.

That kind of cozy relationship amongst the small populations of Palestinian villages was all but destroyed by the 1948 war. When the inhabitants of Battir returned home after several months of forced refuge elsewhere when the village during the war came under direct fire, al-Walajah, which used to bustle with life was now silent and deserted. The demarcation line delineated following the 1949 armistice had left al-Walajah just west of the line, on the Israeli side. Battir was barely saved with the barbed wire running through the village cutting most of the village agricultural land, some houses and the boys school. Later, we watched as the Israeli army started to demolish al-Walajah, house by house. We would see a cloud of smoke and dust shoot up into the air over a house, followed by the sound of an explosion, leaving nothing but a heap of rubble. Al-Walajah was completely destroyed before Israel built the settlement of Aminadav and a park where Israelis picnic on its lands.

Apparently the people of al-Walajah owned land across the hills to the east, well within the West Bank, and that is where they decided to settle temporarily for the awaited hope of justice and redemption from the United Nations, which like many Palestinians, they still thought would come.

But time passed and justice never visited them, so they started to build homes and created a new al-Walajah. This new town is the one now threatened with ethnic cleansing. Of course the standard Israeli excuse for destroying Palestinians homes is that they were built "without permission."

The irony is that the Israelis have all along permitted themselves to massacre, ethnically cleanse, occupy, confiscate, destroy and commit every sort of crime against their Palestinian victims while Palestinians are severely punished for building on their land in their country. Al-Walajah in 1948 and now, bears witness to Israel's insatiable appetite for Palestinian land.

Israel's brazen acceleration of settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land is unquestionably a result of international, and particularly American, policy failures and the refusal to hold Israel accountable under international law.

While we have constantly witnessed the so-called "international community" relentlessly tracking down alleged violations and violators in Iran, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon, Kenya, Burma and among Palestinians not affiliated with US-backed Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, Israel is offered unconditional impunity.

It doesn't stop there; Israel is not only exempt from punishment but routinely rewarded for its crimes. After six months of defiant rejection of American requests to stop settlement construction, the Americans were the ones who finally dropped the demand and put pressure instead on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to drop its conditions to restart "negotiations."

Last month's New York summit of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, hosted by US President Barack Obama, was Netanyahu's first great diplomatic victory. Following the growing public outrage at the PA's shelving of the Goldstone report into Israel's war crimes in Gaza, it emerged (according to the BBC Arabic Service on 3 October) that Abbas agreed in New York to drop the Palestinian effort to have the report forwarded to the Security Council for further action. This is a second major Israeli victory. Netanyahu, it should be recalled, had dwelled heavily on the Goldstone report in his address to the UN General Assembly rejecting the report as a serious obstacle to peace. Abbas on his part ignored any mere mention of the report in his own UN speech. This indicates that Abbas had already acquiesced to public and private American and Israeli demands to shelve the Goldstone report.

Israel's third victory is the revelation that the Obama administration, like all its predecessors, has agreed to help Israel continue to hide its nuclear weapons arsenal that threatens the region and all of humanity, while the US and its allies escalate their pressure on Iran in response to Israeli incitement.

All of these events are directly linked to what happens to people in al-Walajah -- and indeed all over Palestine from Galilee to Gaza -- who from 1948 until now, continue steadfastly and stubbornly to defend their rights and existence even as they still hope for international justice that has yet to come.

Hasan Abu Nimah is the former permanent representative of Jordan at the United Nations.

*****************************************************

In an endeavor for balanced coverage I am posting the Israeli narrative as elucidated by
Mort Zuckerman, Editor, U.S. News & World Report:

The Cruel Dilemma Facing the Jews of Israel
Published by Huffington Post
October 8, 2009

The Jews of Israel are facing a cruel dilemma. They came home to find peace and safety in their homeland of Israel; to find an end to that vulnerable status of a perpetual wandering minority; an end to exile, alienation, and powerlessness; and the beginning of a normal national existence. Instead, they found neighbors who were not reconciled to their living again together in this tiny piece of land the Jews have regarded as home for 4,000 years. How do you share a home with someone who says, "You have no right to be here"?

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mort-zuckerman/the-cruel-dilemma-facing_b_314617.html

[...]

Algerian army defuses French landmines

Oct 8, 2009

ALGIERS (AFP) – The Algerian army in September destroyed 5,163 landmines laid by French troops along the country's eastern and western borders, the APS news agency said.

The weapons were part of a total of 415,829 mines destroyed by the army in a latest operation by September 30, according to APS.

The landmines date back to Algeria's war of liberation from French rule in 1954-62.

Since 1962, the army has destroyed more than eight million of the 11 million mines laid along the borders of the country.

In 2007, France gave Algeria maps of the minefields laid on what were known as the Challe and Morice Lines on the eastern and western borders between 1956 and 1959.

The mines were laid to prevent infiltration into Algeria from Morocco and Tunisia by fighters of Algeria's National Liberation Army (ALN).

Warmonger Wins Peace Prize

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
October 9, 2009

It took 25 years longer than George Orwell thought for the slogans of 1984 to become reality.

“War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” “Ignorance is Strength.”

I would add, “Lie is Truth.”

The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to President Obama, the person who started a new war in Pakistan, upped the war in Afghanistan, and continues to threaten Iran with attack unless Iran does what the US government demands and relinquishes its rights as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.

The Nobel committee chairman, Thorbjoern Jagland said, “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.”

Obama, the committee gushed, has created “a new climate in international politics.”

Tell that to the 2 million displaced Pakistanis and the unknown numbers of dead ones that Obama has racked up in his few months in office. Tell that to the Afghans where civilian deaths continue to mount as Obama’s “war of necessity” drones on indeterminably.

No Bush policy has changed. Iraq is still occupied. The Guantanamo torture prison is still functioning. Rendition and assassinations are still occurring. Spying on Americans without warrants is still the order of the day. Civil liberties are continuing to be violated in the name of Oceania’s “war on terror.”

Apparently, the Nobel committee is suffering from the delusion that, being a minority, Obama is going to put a stop to Western hegemony over darker-skinned peoples.

The non-cynical can say that the Nobel committee is seizing on Obama’s rhetoric to lock him into the pursuit of peace instead of war. We can all hope that it works. But the more likely result is that the award has made “War is Peace” the reality.

Obama has done nothing to hold the criminal Bush regime to account, and the Obama administration has bribed and threatened the Palestinian Authority to go along with the US/Israeli plan to deep-six the UN’s Goldstone Report on Israeli war crimes committed during Israel’s inhuman military attack on the defenseless civilian population in the Gaza Ghetto.

The US Ministry of Truth is delivering the Obama administration’s propaganda that Iran only notified the IAEA of its “secret” new nuclear facility because Iran discovered that US intelligence had discovered the “secret” facility. This propaganda is designed to undercut the fact of Iran’s compliance with the Safeguards Agreement and to continue the momentum for a military attack on Iran.

The Nobel committee has placed all its hopes on a bit of skin color.

“War is Peace” is now the position of the formerly antiwar organization, Code Pink. Code Pink has decided that women’s rights are worth a war in Afghanistan.

When justifications for war become almost endless--oil, hegemony, women’s rights, democracy, revenge for 9/11, denying bases to al Qaeda and protecting against terrorists--war becomes the path to peace.

The Nobel committee has bestowed the prestige of its Peace Prize on Newspeak and Doublethink.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
Source

Iran welcomes foreign investment in energy industry

October 8, 2009

Teheran Times

Iran, holder of the world’s second- largest gas reserves, is open to foreign companies investing in its energy sector, the country’s deputy oil minister said.

“Many companies that belong to the government now will become private very soon,” Azizollah Ramezani, deputy Iranian oil minister, said on Tuesday in an interview in Buenos Aires. “I think the Iranian energy sector in very interesting for foreign companies, including American companies.”

Iran is executing a plan to sell 80 percent of its major state-owned companies to boost the economy and stock values, following a 2006 order by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. At least three- quarters of the Iranian economy is controlled by the state.

The National Iranian Gas Company is also open to potential ventures with private groups, said Ramezani, who’s also managing director of the state-owned gas producer.

“We are ready to negotiate partnerships,” he said. Iran plans to invest $50 billion during the next 10 years on liquefied natural gas projects. The country plans to export as much as 8 million tons of the fuel, known as LNG, by 2012, Ramezani said.

Iran is seeking to develop its mineral assets amid United Nations sanctions and the threat of military action over what Western nations say are its efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Global gas demand will probably rise between 2 percent and 3 percent a year for the next 20 to 25 years, with India and China the main markets for Iran’s gas exports, Ramezani said.

“All of our liquefied natural gas will be exported,” Ramezani said. “We will invest in the development of the projects and infrastructure, like plants.”

Liquefied natural gas is gas that’s cooled to a liquid to allow transport on tankers. Russia is holder of the world’s largest gas reserves.

The country also aims to increase natural gas exports by fivefold to 60 billion cubic meters a year by 2014, from 12 billion in 2009, he said.

“The world market for natural gas is not mature yet,” Ramezani said. “The demand will grow faster than for oil and for coal.”

---------$15 billion a year

Iran is investing $15 billion a year to expand its annual gas output capacity to 300 billion cubic meters in five years, from 170 billion, the deputy oil minister said.

Economic growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China, known as the BRIC nations, is prompting rising gas demand for use in power generation and industry. Demand in many so-called emerging economies is rising, while the economic crisis has curbed gas use in the U.S. and Western Europe, Repsol YPF SA Chief Executive Officer Antonio Brufau also said Wednesday.

“Brazil is too far and Russia has its own gas reserves,” Ramezani said. “China and India should be the main destinations for our natural gas exports.”

Still, the Iranian government has sought to increase ties with Latin American countries in talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Relations with Brazil have “no limits,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters in New York Sept. 24.

-------------Brazil development

Iran can help Brazil in the development and the exploration of the South American country’s new oil reserves and in the construction of refineries, Ramezani said. “Brazil is a good potential partner,” he said.

Oil prices will probably remain at around $70 a barrel for the next year and rise “gradually” in 2011, according to Ramezani. “I believe $70 is a bottom level for oil prices,” he said.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Berlusconi now open to prosecution

Press TV - October 7, 2009

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

Italy's Constitutional Court has stripped the country's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of his immunity against legal action.

The ruling by the court, the highest tribunal in Italy, came on Wednesday to the consternation of the premier's colossal public fan base, AFP reported.

Berlusconi has invoked his exception from the course of justice in a number of cases, which now threaten to be revived thanks to the annulment.

The premier could face charges of corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegal financing of political parties. There have also been some rumors regarding a possible connection with the Italian Mafia.

The 73-year-old slammed the adjudicators as "11 left-wing judges."

"We must govern for five years with or without the law," Berlusconi said following his earlier suggestions that legal complications should not get into the way of governance.

Israel Plans 'Environmental' Crusade

'Israel not after real peace with Palestine'

Press TV - October 8, 2009 06:11:46 GMT

Lieberman has been urged to employ a zero tolerance policy for instances of anti-Semitism.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry's documents suggest Tel Aviv is not after a real peace deal but rather a shelter from international frustration and Palestinian armed response.

An unapproved document outlining Israel's future foreign policy states that the government should not attempt to reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinians but should focus instead on a temporary accord to prevent US and European frustration.

The draft, handed to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday, was composed by Naor Gilon, Lieberman's former counselor for political affairs, and is scheduled to be presented before the ministry's directorate within the coming days in order to be approved as Israel's official foreign policy.

Gilon argues that 'the attempt at imposing a settlement with the Palestinians has failed in the past', warning that future attempts would lead to more disappointment on the part of Israel's Western allies and a harsh Palestinian response.

"We need a realistic attitude - the arrival at a temporary accord without dealing with the core issues. This is the maximum that can be achieved, if we want to be realistic," Ynet news website quoted the document as saying.

It also advises Lieberman to reestablish ties with African, Latin American, Balkan, Asian, and moderate Arab nations, countries which Israel has abandoned for many years.

Gilon has also urged Lieberman to employ a zero tolerance policy for instances of anti-Semitism and international isolation, suggesting that Israel should focus on environmental and economic issues in order to improve its global image.

Israel turns to face-saving measures amid mounting challenges it faces from the international community over war crimes committed during Tel Aviv's 23-day military onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which left more than 1,400 people — mostly civilians — killed.

Tel Aviv's Western allies are also pushing for a freeze on its illegal settlement construction activity in the occupied West Bank to pave the way for resuming long-stalled peace talks with Palestinians.

‘The Times’ lets everyone off the hook on Goldstone

by James North and Philip Weiss on October 8, 2009

The New York Times is covering the Goldstone Report. Where is it covering it? Well: the furor over the report among Palestinians. We’re pretty sure this is a good story. Neil MacFarquhar is on it. But it’s really not The Story, it’s just an angle of a hugely-important international story, and the only angle the Times is covering.

Here’s what the Times refuses to cover:

–the furor over the Goldstone report on the part of the Israel lobby in the U.S., and the pressure it’s put on the Obama administration, number one. Even J Street has been quiet about the Goldstone report, while it puts out a statement applauding an Israeli Nobelist.

–and what about the political jockeying over the report, the decision by the Obama administration to bury it and make the Palestinian Authority do the dirty work? Important story. Nothing. Mike Hanna of the Century Foundation said two weeks ago that the report’s troubling findings were going to be very "tricky" diplomatically for the Obama administration. He was right. He knows what’s gone down. Why isn’t the Times calling him for comment?

–the incredible discomfort that Goldstone, a Jewish judge who denounced apartheid, has created among liberal American Jews who know that Gaza was a horror but are afraid to face these facts. Nine dead Israelis, 1400 dead Palestinians: of whom the majority were civiilans. The Israelis destroyed the only remaining flour mill, destroyed chicken farms with bulldozers, and dropped white phosphorus on children. American Jews were never silent about napalm in Vietnam. Here they are tonguetied and helpless, and the Times is helping them to avoid this important question by suppressing the news.

–Nothing in the Times about the many Jews here who have supported Goldstone, including Jews Say No!

–No editorial yet in the Times.

This is about discourse suppression. It is related to the fact that the New Yorker, the leading cranial IV for the Establishment, has said nothing at all about Gaza in 10 months. No: Gaza and the persecution of the Palestinians there is an untidy embarrassment to the liberal Establishment.

The New Republic has actually been more responsible than the Times and the New Yorker here. By publishing raving maniacs like Michael Oren and Yossi Klein Halevi, it has at least informed its readers where it hurts, that this is ideologically disputed territory. The Times has told its readers, Only Palestinians care about this. More mush from the wimp.

One other point. Mainstream liberals are quick to call for people to speak out on Third World countries and once upon a time in Eastern Europe when human rights are suppressed. It’s easy to condemn the Soviet Writers Union or ministries in Africa for not speaking out against genocide. What’s hard is to report and speak out on issues that cause your own readers to squirm. The true measure of intellectual courage is, you go ahead and do it anyway. The Washington Post, the Times, the New Yorker and others have failed this test.

Source

Following al-Aqsa clashes, Israel mulls banning Islamic movement

Sheikh Raed Salah has been banned from Jerusalem for 30 days

By Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 8 October 2009

The Israeli government announced yesterday it would consider banning Israel's Islamic Movement at the next cabinet meeting, in a significant escalation of tensions that have fueled a fortnight of bloody clashes in Jerusalem over access to the Haram al-Sharif compound of mosques.

The move followed the arrest of the movement's leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, on Tuesday on suspicion of incitement and sedition. Police accused Sheikh Salah of calling for a "religious war" in recent statements in which he warned that Israel was seeking a takeover of the Haram, which includes the al-Aqsa mosque.

Sheikh Salah was released a few hours later on condition that he stay away from Jerusalem for 30 days. The decision was widely interpreted as a move to damp down a possible backlash from Israel's 1.3 million Palestinian citizens, many of whom regard the sheikh as a spiritual leader. Police were deployed in large numbers throughout Jerusalem yesterday.

An Islamic Movement spokesman, Zadi Nujeidat, told the Haaretz newspaper: "We will continue our activities and call for a continued presence in and around the mosque. We are used to arrests."

The move against the Islamic Movement follows a series of pronouncements from Sheikh Salah, echoing statements from Palestinian officials in the occupied territories, that have infuriated the Israeli government.

This week he called on Muslims who could reach the compound -- access to which has been heavily restricted by the Israeli police -- to "shield the [al Aqsa] mosque with their bodies." Sheikh Salah himself has been barred by the courts from entering the Haram compound for several months.

At his annual "Al-Aqsa is in danger" rally in his hometown of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel last week, he warned tens of thousands of supporters that Israel was trying to prize away control of the compound from the Islamic religious authorities. He added that, should Israel force a choice between martyrdom and renouncing al-Aqsa, "we will clearly choose to be martyrs."

Like many other Palestinian leaders, Sheikh Salah fears that, as well as "Judaizing" East Jerusalem, Israel is engineering a takeover of the Haram -- known to Jews as the Temple Mount because the remains of the destroyed first and second Jewish temples are believed to lie under the mosques.

He has raised repeated concerns that Israel is secretly digging under the mosques, as it did before opening the Western Wall tunnels in 1996. Then, clashes led to the deaths of 75 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers.

A delegation of Palestinian leaders from inside Israel who visited the compound yesterday warned that there was strong evidence of such excavations.

In an interview with Haaretz on Monday, Sheikh Salah also warned against "infiltration of extremist Jewish elements" into the compound -- a reference to Messianic cults that want the mosques destroyed so a third temple can be built.

Muslim leaders throughout the region have expressed growing concern that the Israeli police are secretly escorting such groups into the compound following a decision by Israel in 2003 to allow non-Muslims to visit the Haram without oversight from the Islamic authorities.

Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, meanwhile, are unable to reach Jerusalem, and Israel has increasingly limited access to the mosques for Palestinians with Israeli IDs.

During clashes at the compound on Sunday, the Islamic Movement's deputy, Kamal Khatib, and the Palestinian Authority's minister in charge of Jerusalem, Hatem Abdel Khader, were arrested. Both were released on bail and banned from Jerusalem for 15 days.

Calls from Israeli officials for Sheikh Salah's arrest and restrictions on the Islamic Movement have been growing all week.

The deputy prime minister, Silvan Shalom, of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, told Israel Radio on Tuesday: "Sheikh Raed Salah should be behind bars."

The cabinet meeting on Sunday will discuss a law to ban the Islamic Movement being drafted by the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister. The bill is expected to be presented to ministers a week later.

The interior minister, Eli Yishai, of the Shas party, announced on Tuesday he would withdraw funding for imams who "incited" against Israel and was investigating whether he could fire them.

The Islamic Movement has rapidly grown in popularity by focusing on charitable and welfare work and has won control of several councils since the 1980s.

Despite eschewing terrorism, the movement is regarded with great suspicion by Israeli officials, who have shut down its charities and newspaper on several occasions. Sheikh Salah and four other leaders of the Islamic Movement were arrested in 2003 accused of supporting terrorism but released two years later in a plea bargain that significantly reduced the charges.

It is unclear how Israel would ban the Islamic Movement.

Analysts say the government could use the 1945 emergency regulations from British rule but the move would be unlikely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Traditionally, the security establishment has argued that it is better not to push the Islamic Movement underground.

The US state department was reported this week to have expressed concern to Israel that it and the Palestinian Authority not "inflame tensions" over the Haram al-Sharif.

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

Richard Falk on Palestine and the Goldstone report

October 7, 2009

The Palestinian leadership has backed a move to defer a UN vote on the Goldstone report that accuses Israel of committing war crimes during its offensive in Gaza.

Richard Falk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a special UN rapporteur on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, talks to Al Jazeera about the possible motivation behind the decision.