Palestinians take down parts of WB wall

Press TV - November 6, 2009 00:06:37 GMT

Palestinian youths have tipped over a part of Israel's separation wall in
the occupied West Bank during a demonstration which marked the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Some 300 Palestinians and left-wing activists attended the demonstration in the village of Naalin, Ynet reported on Friday.

They held banners reading "No matter how tall, all walls fall."

According to the demonstrators, a 6-meter (20-foot) high section of the wall was taken down.

"Twenty years ago, no one imagined that the monstrosity that divided Berlin would ever be taken down, but it took only two days to do it," said Muhib Hawaja, a protester attending the rally.

Israeli police however dispersed the crowd by firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Some of the demonstrators were wounded, according to the report.

Israel began the construction of the barrier in 2000 despite the fact that the International Court of Justice had declared the project illegal.

It confiscated thousands of acres of Palestinian lands for constructing 723 km (454 miles) of a barrier of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire.

Michigan woman imprisoned by Israel following settler take over of Palestinian home

Imprisoned American citizen and Michigan resident Ahlam Mohsen to be deported to the US after being arrested in a Palestinian home taken over by Israeli settlers in Occupied East Jerusalem.

Ahlam was a guest of the al-Kurd family when on the morning of 3 November 2009 Israeli settlers burst in and seized part of the building. Contrary to eyewitness accounts, the police claim the 21-year-old attacked them.

From the Givon prison in Ramle where Ms. Mohsen is currently awaiting deportation she reported that: “The Israeli police were violently pushing an elderly Palestinian woman. So I stepped in front of them. They told me to move and when I refused they started forcefully pushing me. Then they grabbed me and carried me into a police van. While I was waiting at the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the police officers kept telling each other that I was a ‘dirty Arab’ and introducing me as 'Osama Bin Laden’s sister'. One of them, threatened to ‘break my head’. None of the other non-violent demonstrators were targeted; the way they treated me, it’s obvious that I was arrested because I’m of Arab descent.”

The 40 settlers, accompanied by private armed security and Israeli police forces, entered a section of the home, threw out the family’s belongings and locked themselves in.

The take-over came after an appeal submitted by the family's lawyer was rejected by the District Court. In their appeal, the Palestinian family was challenging an earlier court decision that deemed a section of the house illegal and ordered that the keys be given to settlers. The settlers proceeded to enter the house, while the court did not grant them the right to enter the property.

The al-Kurd home was built in 1956. An addition to the house was built 10 years ago, but the family was not allowed to inhabit the section because the municipality refused to grant them a building permit. Visibly unequal laws are used to make it possible for settlers to move into a home where it was declared illegal for Palestinian residents to inhabit. The Israeli authorities exercise their abilities to demolish and evict Palestinian residents, while ignoring building violations from the Israeli population in East Jerusalem.

The al-Kurds have become the fourth Sheikh Jarrah family whose house has been occupied by settlers in the last year. So far, 60 people have been left homeless. In total, 28 families living in the Karm Al- Ja'ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the
Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes.

See video:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/11/03/hancocks.fight.for.jerusalem.cnn

Ahlam is imprisoned in the Givon prison in Ramle. She is available for
interviews.

Please contact:
Ahlam Mohsen +972.548.845.924
Sasha Solanas, ISM Media office +972.54.903.2981

Source

Israeli tank fire hits house in Gaza Strip

Press TV - November 6, 2009 19:18:11 GMT

Israeli tanks have shelled a house in the east of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, leaving at least two people wounded.

The attack, which came on late Friday, caused panic among Palestinian families living in the vicinity, a Press TV correspondent reported.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the attack, saying "a suspicious figure was spotted by our forces" near the barrier separating Gaza from the occupied West Bank, AFP said.

Obama warned: No Australian troop escalation in Afghanistan

No more troops, Faulkner tells US

By Anne Davies
Sydney Morning Herald
November 6, 2009

WASHINGTON: Australia has made it clear to the US it is not in a position to increase troop or training commitments in Afghanistan if the Obama Administration decides to add to its troop levels in response to General Stanley McChrystal's report, the Defence Minister, John Faulkner, said in Washington.

Australia also will not take over as the lead force in Oruzgan province when the Dutch forces leave in August next year, Senator Faulkner said.

After meetings on Wednesday with the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, the National Security Adviser, Jim Jones, and other officials, Senator Faulkner said that he had made it clear - and the Americans had accepted - that Australia made a significant increase in its commitment when it increased troops by 40 per cent to 1550 in April.

''I think it's very well understood that … we have very considerable commitments in our own region.

''If you look over the past few weeks, we have had a tsunami in Samoa and Tonga; we have had a major earthquake in Sumatra - they are the sort of contingencies we must plan for.''

Asked whether he had in mind an exit timetable for the Australian forces, Senator Faulkner said: ''We have a mission and that is to train and mentor the 4th brigade of the Afghan army in Oruzgan province. It is certainly not an easy task and it will take some time.''

UK: Public support for Afghan strategy plummets

November 5, 2009 - 4:45 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – The public is rapidly losing confidence that the war in Afghanistan can be won, after the killing of five soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman, a new poll showed Thursday.

The YouGov poll found 57 percent of people thought British troops were not winning the conflict against Taliban insurgents, and "victory is not possible," an increase from 48 percent just two weeks ago.

Thirty-three percent think the war is being won, or that victory is possible eventually.

Consequently, 35 percent want troops withdrawn immediately -- compared with 25 percent two weeks ago. Another 38 percent want most troops withdrawn soon and the rest in the next 12 months or so, the poll showed.

Only 20 percent think troops should stay the course, down from 29 percent two weeks ago, the poll for Channel 4 News said.

The poll comes amid increased pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government over its strategy in the war-ravaged country after the deaths of the British five soldiers.

An apparently rogue Afghan policeman with suspected Taliban links shot dead the soldiers at a checkpoint in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province on Tuesday.

The attack, one of the most deadly single incidents during a surge in military deaths this year, raised new questions about the safety of coalition troops as world leaders work to boost training of Afghan forces.

Separately, a soldier died in an explosion Thursday, bringing to 230 the number of British troops who have been killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001.

Brown announced plans last month to send an extra 500 British troops on top of the 9,000 already deployed.

YouGov interviewed 1,021 adults on Wednesday and Thursday.

UN Affirms Israeli-Hamas War Crimes Report

by Thalif Deen, November 06, 2009

A 575-page blistering report by Justice Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes in Gaza last December is refusing to die despite an aggressive Israeli smear campaign to kill it.

The report, which was favorably voted by the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, received overwhelming support Thursday in the 192-member General Assembly.

The vote was 114 in favor and 18 against, with 44 abstentions.

The 18 countries that voted against the resolution included the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Israel.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, singled out Ireland, one of the few Western nations to vote for the resolution, for "supporting" it.

He also noted that a "sizeable number of European nations" abstained on the resolution.

Among the abstentions were Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Denmark and Greece.

"The General Assembly sent a powerful message," he told reporters, adding that if Israelis do not comply, "We will go after them."

The Assembly requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report within three months on the implementation of the resolution.

Among other things, the resolution calls upon both the Israelis and the Palestinians to undertake independent investigations of their own on the serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws during the 22-day conflict in Gaza in December.

Still, Mansour said he rejects any equation of the "occupying power’s aggression and crimes with actions committed in response by the Palestinian side".

"We wish to clearly reaffirm that there is absolutely no symmetry or proportionality between the occupier and the occupied," he added.

U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff rejected the Goldstone report as "deeply flawed" and "unbalanced".

He said the United States was fully committed to a two-state solution – Israel and Palestine – and will do nothing to hinder it.

Last month, the 15-member Security Council debated the report but refused to take a vote primarily because of the opposition by the United States, a veto-wielding member of the Council.

In Geneva, the Human Rights Council endorsed the report last month by a vote of 25 in favor, six against, 11 abstentions and five no-shows.

The report was also the subject of a vote Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives, traditionally sympathetic towards Israel. That vote, condemning the report, was 344 in favor and 36 against.

Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Palestine Studies, told IPS the importance of the Goldstone Report is evident given the amount of effort Israel, the United States and their allies are investing in trying to bury it.

She said irrespective of the strength or weakness of the General Assembly resolution, the report is important because of its very existence.

Not only does it provide an authoritative basis for Palestinians seeking reparations and accountability, but it also puts the world on notice that international law must be upheld and impunity must end, she said.

"It’s simply not going to go away," said Hijab.

The report, authored by a four-member international fact-finding mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, details war crimes charges against both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The mission, and specifically Goldstone, has been politically crucified by pro-Israeli groups in the United States.

The U.N. mission recommended that the Security Council require Israel to report to it, within the next six months, on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to the violations cited in the report.

During the ruthless military operation, codenamed ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ the Israelis destroyed houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings.

The number of Palestinian killed during the conflict is estimated at between 1,387 and 1,417, mostly civilians, compared with four Israeli fatal casualties in southern Israel and nine soldiers killed during fighting, four of whom died as a result of friendly fire.

The report also recommended that the Security Council set up its own body of independent experts to report to it on the progress of the Israeli investigations and prosecutions.

"If the expert’s reports do not indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceedings are taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court (ICC)," the report recommended.

Hijab told IPS the Goldstone Report has already had an impact on the Israeli-Palestinian scene.

"It will ensure that henceforth the Israeli state as well as Palestinian armed groups are more careful about the use of force," she said.

In addition, she said, the initial misguided attempt by the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to "postpone" consideration has strengthened the hand of political parties and civil society in setting limits on how far the PA/PLO can go in their alliance with the U.S. and its erosion of Palestinian human rights.

In short, the Goldstone Report has had a significance before it even reached the General Assembly, and it continues to be discussed the world over, Hijab declared.

(Inter Press Service)

Ministry: Gaza fisherman shot by Israeli navy

04/11/2009

Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli naval forces shot a Palestinian fisherman on Wednesday whilst he was fishing near Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

The Agriculture Ministry in Gaza stated that fisherman Bilal Muhammad An-Najjar, 20, was shot in the stomach by Israeli naval officers.

The ministry stated that An-Najjar was fishing one km from the Rafah shore line and was taken to Abu Yousef Najjar Hospital, describing his injuries as moderate.

Additionally, the ministry remarked that the Israeli occupation holds responsibility for the fishermen’s lives.

Israeli military officials said they were investigating the claim.

Non-violent protesters begin vigil outside evicted Palestinian family’s home

By Saed Bannoura - IMEMC - November 5, 2009

After a Palestinian family was forcibly removed from their home by armed Israeli settlers in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, international and Israeli peace activists have descended on the neighborhood to hold a vigil in support of the evicted family.

The vigil began late Wednesday when the peace activists brought a tent, food and supplies to the al-Kurd family, and set up the vigil across the street from their now-occupied home.

The family was forced out of their home Tuesday morning by 40 armed settlers accompanied by private armed security and Israeli police forces, who entered a section of the home, threw out the family’s belongings and locked themselves in.

The take-over came after an appeal submitted by the family’s lawyer was rejected by the District Court. In their appeal, the Palestinian family was challenging an earlier court decision that deemed a section of the house illegal and ordered that the keys be given to settlers. The settlers proceeded to enter the house, while the court did not grant them the right to enter the property.

The al-Kurd home was built in 1956. An addition to the house was built 10 years ago, but the family was not allowed to inhabit the section because the municipality refused to grant them a building permit.

The al-Kurds have become the fourth Sheikh Jarrah family whose house (or part of it) has been occupied by settlers in the last year. So far, 60 people have been left homeless. In total, 28 families living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes.

The area of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, where most of the recent home demolitions and evictions have taken place, is the place laid out by Israeli municipal authorities for expansion of Jewish developments, in a plan published in 2005.

In addition, Israeli peace groups have documented significant excavations underground in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods by Israeli archaeologist and ideologically-driven religious elements.

Merkel speech under 'Zionist' influence

©2009 The Press and Information Office of the Federal Government

Press TV - November 5, 2009 10:29:02 GMT

The Islamic Republic has condemned German Chancellor Angela Merkel's latest remarks on Iran, saying her speech was against the national interests of Germany.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast said on Thursday that Merkel's remarks were influenced by 'Zionist circles'.

Mehmanparast's remarks come after Merkel repeated Western allegations over Iran's nuclear issue in a Tuesday address to US Congress.

"Zero tolerance needs to be shown when there is a risk of weapons of mass destruction falling, for example, into the hands of Iran," Merkel said.

The German chancellor also stressed that security for Israel was non-negotiable for her.

"Whoever threatens Israel also threatens us," she said.

The West accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weaponry. Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has reiterated that its program is aimed at civilian applications of the technology. Iran has also been vociferous in its call for global nuclear disarmament.

Criminal convictions of 22 CIA agents in Italy

The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.

By Glenn Greenwald -November 5, 2009

The criminal conviction of 22 CIA agents (and 2 Italian intelligence officers) by an Italian court yesterday -- for the 2003 kidnapping of an Islamic cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, off the street in Italy and his "rendition" to Egypt to be tortured -- highlights several vital points:

First, illustrating how these matters are typically distorted by the U.S. establishment media, note that CNN -- in the very first paragraph of its story -- claims that the CIA agents were convicted "for their role in the seizing of a suspected terrorist in Italy in 2003." What did Nasr allegedly do that warrants that "terrorist" label? Did he participate in the 9/11 attacks, or plan attacks on "the American homeland" or U.S. civilians? No. According to CNN, this is what makes him a "suspected terrorist":

He was suspected of recruiting men to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So the West invades, bombs and occupies Muslim countries, and when Muslims attempt to find people to fight against the West's invading armies, those individuals are deemed "terrorists." Or consider this quite informative 2005 Washington Post article, which details how the CIA's kidnapping derailed the Italians' criminal (i.e., legal) investigation of Nasr; that article explains:

Nasr was wanted by the Egyptian authorities for his involvement in Jemaah Islamiah, a network of Islamic extremists that had sought the overthrow of the government. The network was dispersed during a government crackdown in the early 1990s, and many leaders escaped abroad to avoid arrest.

• Continue Reading

The Egyptian government, long propped up by the U.S., is one of the most tyrannical and brutal in the world. But Egyptians who work to overthrow that government are deemed "terrorists" by the U.S., and we're apparently willing to kidnap them from around the world -- including from countries where they've received asylum -- and ship them back to our Egyptian friends to be imprisoned and tortured.

For many Americans -- probably most -- the word "terrorist" conjures up images of the people responsible for the 9/11 attack. For that reason, labeling someone a "suspected terrorist" can justify doing anything and everything to those individuals (after all, other than civil liberties extremists, who could object to the "seizing of a suspected terrorist" -- or their indefinite detention or torture?). It's therefore unsurprising that the U.S. Government would use the term "terrorist" so promiscuously and selectively (see John Cole's excellent contrast between what we deem to be "terrorism" when it happens to the U.S. versus what we deny is "terrorism" when done by the U.S.). It's a powerful term that can justify almost any government action.

But the U.S. media's willingness to mindlessly apply the term "terrorist" in exactly the subjective, self-serving way the U.S. Government dictates -- starkly contrasted with their refusal to use the far more objective term "torture" on the ground that the term is in dispute (i.e., disputed by the U.S. Government torturers) -- illustrates the establishment media's principal function: to serve American political power and justify whatever our government does. That's a major reason -- perhaps the primary one -- why the U.S. Government has been able to get away with everything it's done over the last decade. Those unseen victims of torture, rendition, indefinite detention and other government crimes are all just "terrorists," so who cares? In reporting on these convictions, CNN immediately and helpfully proclaims Nasr to be a "suspected terrorist" in a way that guts any meaningful definition of that term and -- in many minds -- justifies whatever was done to him, no matter how illegal.

It's worth asking this question: which sounds more like actual "terrorism": (a) kidnapping people literally off the street and shipping them thousands of miles away to be tortured with no legal process, or (b) what Nasr is "suspected" of having done?

Second, this incident underscores -- yet again -- that our political and media elite simply do not believe in the rule of law or accountability for high government officials. To the contrary, they explicitly believe that such officials should be entitled to break the law and be exempt from consequences. As but one example, here's a discussion on CNN last night about this matter between Wolf Blitzer and Jeffrey Toobin:

TOOBIN: This is a real criminal conviction in a country where we tend to honor reciprocal legal arrangements. So they are in a -- they are in no jeopardy as long as they are inside the United States, but, if they were to leave, they are potentially at risk for being jailed and brought to Italy.

BLITZER: Because even if they went to a third country, like England, let's say, or France, Interpol could have a warrant out for their arrest. They have been convicted by an Italian court.

TOOBIN: That's why this is such -- so troubling. It would one thing if they only had to stay out of Italy, but, because of Interpol, because of the reciprocal nature of these agreements, they are potentially at risk almost anywhere they go.

So according to Toobin, this is all "so troubling." Why? Because the people who were found by a duly constituted court to have committed a serious crime are faced with the risk that there might actually be consequences. After all, these are Americans who were part of the U.S. Government, and consequences for lawbreaking are simply not meant for them. Echoing Joe Klein's infamous Orwellian claim that torture shouldn't be prosecuted because the CIA is "asked to behave extra-legally for the greater good of the nation," Toobin added that "one of the things you do when you are a CIA agent, at least in part, is break the law of other countries" -- Toobin says that as though they have the right to do that without accountability, and without mentioning that causing people to be tortured is also a violation of U.S. law (after Nasr's kidnapping, the chief of the CIA's Milan office traveled to Egypt for three weeks to participate in his "interrogation").

Third, the glaring contrast between (a) the United States and (b) countries that (at least partially) adhere to the rule of law and precepts of accountability continues to grow. As we saw earlier this week, a U.S. appellate court ruled that American government officials are immune from consequences even when they abduct an innocent man and knowingly cause him to be tortured -- even after the Canadian government publicly disclosed its detailed investigation of that matter, publicly apologized to the victim, and paid him $9 million. Spain continues to pursue the possibility of criminal prosecution of our high government officials for war crimes even as our own government insists that our war criminals (at least all those but the lowest-level ones) should be immunized and we should look forward, not backwards. Our attempt to compile a "hit list" of Afghan citizens we intend to murder because we suspect them of drug trafficking prompted angry objections from Afghan officials that our plan violated due process and the rule of law.

And now an Italian court demonstrates actual judicial independence and adherence to equality under the law by holding American and Italian government kidnappers liable for their complicity in torture -- something our own government institutions have repeatedly failed and/or refused to do (Harper's Scott Horton has much more on the glaring contrast between U.S. and Italian political values that is reflected here).

Finally, this isn't about the past -- at least not exclusively. The U.S. Government continues to refuse even to comment on what it did here. The State Department yesterday expressed "disappointment" with the Italian court ruling -- just as it did when a British High Court recently ordered the disclosure of evidence of American torture. The DOJ continues to insist that no American courts can examine past rendition and torture cases on the grounds of secrecy. The Obama administration has explicitly decided to continue the "rendition" policy which led to Nasr's illegal kidnapping, albeit with the addition of anti-torture "safeguards" similar in language if not effect when compared to those in place under Bush (it remains to be seen to which countries these "rendered" suspects will be sent under the "new" policy). And most notably of all, we continue to be a country which -- in the name of secrecy and national security -- insists that the rule of law and accountability simply do not apply to our highest government officials when they break the law. Fortunately, other countries -- slowly and incrementally -- are rejecting that pernicious view.

UPDATE: One of the convicted CIA agents admits to ABC News that they "broke the law" when kidnapping Nasr and claims, credibly, that everything they did was approved back in Washington.

This is as good a time as any to post this new and important 9-minute video from the ACLU (with whom I consult), in which you hear from numerous individuals who were abducted and held for years at Guantanamo with no charges or trial of any kind -- only to be released with no explanation, apology or accountability. This is really worth watching; like the absence of civilian deaths caused by our wars, it's the key missing piece from typical media coverage that really illustrates what we've been doing: