Jerusalem mayor finds support for united city in Congress

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat

Barkat warmly received in Washington, with Congress members presenting to him legislation proposal to have US embassy moved from Tel Aviv to capital without need for president's consent

Yitzhak Benhorin
11.07.09, 08:42 / Israel News

WASHINGTON - Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat met with Democratic and Republican Congress members in Washington on Friday, and was pleased to find wall-to-wall support of the need to keep Jerusalem united.

The mayor, who is on a two-week visit to the United States and Canada, arrived at Congress accompanied by Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren. Barkat was received warmly, and learned that it is seemingly easier to run Jerusalem from the US capital than from the Israeli one.

One example of the support Barkat found for his position on Jerusalem can be found in the Senate, where a group of seven senators are working on legislation that will support maintaining a united Jerusalem.

The proposal will also include a decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, by circumventing the US president's authority to hinder the decision. Barkat discussed the matter with two of the senators behind the proposal, Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyl.

In the mid 1990s, Congress passed the "Jerusalem Embassy Act" stating that "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem".

The act was adopted by the Senate and the House, but former US President Bill Clinton used his authority to suspend the relocation, citing national security concerns.

Former President George Bush, who vowed to relocate the embassy during his 2000 elections campaign, failed to keep his word upon entry to the White House, after his advisors outlined to him the dangers such a move could pose in the Middle East and on US embassies around the Arab and Muslim world.

The US House of Representatives presents an even more extreme version, which is being backed by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with her colleague Dan Burton.

The two presented the Jerusalem mayor with a copy of their initiative for legislation on American support of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

It is unlikely that the document, in its current form, will receive the support of the Democratic majority, since it calls for significant financial penalties against the State Department until it relocates the embassy.

Barkat was cordially received by 15 members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He briefed them on his plans to open Jerusalem up to the world and enable economic development for all the city's sectors, using a business management approach.

When asked about the demolition of houses in east Jerusalem, the mayor spoke of the difficult task of running a city with the eyes of three billion people from around the world watching it.

The mayor explained that all actions were carried out according to Israeli law, and added that the scope of the demolition of houses in the east of the city was similar to that of the west.

Several injured in clashes with settlers

Nablus – Ma'an – Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked the villages of Burin and Iraq Burin south of Nablus on Saturday afternoon.

Ma'an's correspondent, reporting live from Iraq Burin village, said settlers threw rocks at Palestinians, leading to clashes.

Israeli forces responded in force, injuring a number of Palestinians, including journalists. They were identified as Abed Ar-Rahim Al-Qosini and Aref Tufaha.

Other settlers also threw rocks at Palestinians in Burin village, the correspondent said.

Israel’s future wars will be over water resources

07/11/2009

AMMAN, (PIC)-- Dr. Ghazi Al-Rabab’ah, a professor of political science at the university of Jordan, stated Saturday that Israel’s future wars against Arab countries would be over water resources.

In a press statement to the Jordanian Al-Arab Alyawm newspaper, Rabab’ah said that the first war would be in the Jordan basin area in the Lebanese Shebaa farms.

He added that Israel also steals Gaza water resources and sends salt contaminated water from Tiberias lake to Gaza.

The professor stressed that Israel also steals 350,000000 cubic meters of water from Litani river in Lebanon, noting that Israel rejects any settlement with the Arabs which does not take into account the issue of sharing water supplies.

The professor also pointed out that Israel is one of the poorest countries in water resources in the world and its water supplies will run out in the coming years which portends that Israel will resort to the strategy of waging wars over water recourses in other places.

He also expected that another war could take place in the coming seven years against Egypt to control the Nile water.

Afghan insurgents learn to destroy key U.S. armored vehicle

By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs by using increasingly large explosive charges and rocket-propelled grenades, according to U.S. soldiers and defense officials.

At least eight American troops have been killed this year in attacks on so-called Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and 40 more have been wounded, said a senior U.S. military official who, like others interviewed on the issue, declined to be further identified because of the issue's sensitivity.

The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, underscores their ability to counter the advanced hardware that the U.S. military and its allies are deploying in their struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, which entered its ninth year last month.

The attacks also raise questions about how vulnerable a new, lighter MRAP, the M-ATV, which is now being shipped to Afghanistan, are to the massive explosive charges that Taliban-led insurgents have been using against its bigger cousin.

The insurgents are also hitting MRAPs with rocket-propelled grenades that can penetrate their steel armor, according to U.S troops in Afghanistan, several of whom showed McClatchy a photograph of a hole that one of the projectiles had punched in the hull of an MRAP.

The Pentagon has spent more than $26.8 billion to develop and build three versions of the largest MRAPs, totaling some 16,000 vehicles, mostly for the Army and Marine Corps, according to an August report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Another $5.4 billion is being spent to produce 5,244 M-ATVs, the smaller version that U.S. defense officials contend offers as much protection as the large models do, but is more maneuverable and better suited to Afghanistan's dirt tracks and narrow mountain roads.

"The traditional MRAP was having real problems . . . off road in Afghanistan," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell. "And clearly we have to do a lot of work off-road. And these new vehicles will provide our forces the ability to travel more safely off road — certainly off paved roads — than they would have been able to do with other vehicles."

Defense officials acknowledged the growing problem of successful attacks on MRAPs, and said the U.S. military is constantly developing improvements for the vehicle that include better sensors and tactics.

"It's not all about the armor. We can't build something that is impervious to everything," said Navy Capt. Jack Henzlik, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We are using a comprehensive strategy to try to provide for the protection of our forces."

The issue was the subject of a high-level meeting convened on Wednesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who made the production of MRAPs his highest priority in 2007 as U.S. troops in Iraq were suffering massive casualties from roadside bomb attacks.

The use of powerful explosive charges against MRAPs "is a problem that he (Gates) is keenly aware of, very concerned about, and is determined to make sure this building is doing everything it can to combat," Morrell said. "We have never advertised MRAPs or M-ATVs as a silver bullet for the IED (improvised explosive device) problem. This is but one element of a vast array of capabilities that we need to bring to bear to protect our forces."

However, retired Army Col. Douglas A. MacGregor, a former armored cavalry commander and combat veteran and an expert on armor warfare, said that vehicles such as the MRAP have "very limited utility" in a war against a guerrilla group such as the Taliban.

"The notion of a wheeled armored constabulary force as a prescription for a close combat situation is nonsense," he said.

U.S. troops rely on the MRAP's V-shaped hull, which is designed to deflect explosive blasts, and heavy armored plating to protect them against the landmines and IEDs that are causing most American combat deaths in Afghanistan.

October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the 2001 U.S. invasion. At least 59 were killed, bringing the total for the year to at least 272 dead, according to the Internet site iCasualties. At least 139 of those troops died in IED blasts, according to the Pentagon.

"Pentagon officials note that insurgents are building larger IEDs and are finding better ways to conceal them," the Congressional Research Service report said.

"The biggest question is what took them so long," said a senior Pentagon official with extensive experience with the MRAP program and familiarity with the weapons and techniques that the militants in Afghanistan have developed to "compromise" the vehicle.

The fact that the large MRAPs — which range from 7 tons to 24 tons depending on the model — often are confined to narrow mountain roads and valleys in Afghanistan has made it easier for insurgents to prepare ambushes using anti-tank mines, IEDs or rocket-propelled grenades capable of penetrating armor, the official said.

U.S. defense officials insisted that many more U.S. troops would be killed and injured in Afghanistan and in Iraq if they'd been equipped with vehicles other than MRAPs.

"KIA (killed in action) rates in particular are noticeably reduced in MRAPs," said Irene Smith, a spokeswoman for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, the Pentagon agency created to develop defenses against roadside bombs.

U.S. defense officials in Washington and Kabul declined to reveal the number of MRAPs that have been crippled or destroyed since the first vehicles were deployed in Afghanistan in 2003, saying they didn't want to provide the Taliban with information on the effectiveness of their tactics.

McClatchy is voluntarily withholding some U.S. soldiers' descriptions of insurgent tactics out of concern that they may not be known by all of those fighting U.S.-led forces.

The soldiers spoke out of what they said was a heightened concern about the vehicles' vulnerability to ambushes, especially on mountain roads where there's no room for the vehicles to turn around.

UN chief to refer Goldstone report to Security Council

07/11/2009 16:55

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The UN Security Council will begin discussions of the Goldstone report "as soon as possible," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.

"As requested by the General Assembly, I will transmit the report of the Fact Finding Mission to the Security Council," he told reporters in Kabul. "I would strongly urge the parties concerned to engage, without preconditions, to discuss this matter."

His announcement followed Thursday's overwhelming majority decision by members of the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling first for the endorsement of the report's call for independent investigations on alleged Israeli and Palestinian war crimes under the supervision of the secretary-general, and second for the report to be taken up to the Security Council.

General Assembly President Ali Treki urged all sides to conduct credible investigations. "The world is united on human rights," he said. "The vote was a strong declaration against impunity, and in support of justice and accountability."

"While the General Assembly has fulfilled its responsibility and will remain seized over the matter, it is vital that all concerned now devote efforts to implement the resolution and ensure follow up," he added.

Israel is still expected to declare its readiness to conduct investigations, he said, although the country has rejected the resolution. Nonetheless, Treki expressed hope that the Israeli government would respond positively to the resolution and conduct investigations.

He said a request to Israel had been made to conduct credible investigations, in accordance with international standards, to get to the bottom of the charges detailed by the report. Although it has rejected the resolution, Treki expressed hope that the Israeli government would eventually come around and embrace the resolution's terms.

The Palestinian side has been requested to do the same, he noted, within a three-month period. The de facto government in the Gaza Strip vowed, via Egypt, to take the allegations seriously and conduct an impartial investigation.

Taking questions, first on the follow-up he expected from the Security Council, Treki said it was extremely important that an overwhelming majority of states voted in support of the Human Rights Council report and of Goldstone.

He expressed hope that the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention would hold a meeting, with the participation of international experts, that would take into account a report prepared by the Arab League, as well as other facts unearthed by European investigators and independent parties. Importantly, the Swiss government, as depositary of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Time of War, agreed to the assembly's request to study the Gaza findings, he said, particularly on the use of certain weapons.

"This would be extremely helpful in determining the facts of the situation and serve the search for peace," he said. It was important for peace talks to resume, he said, once measures agreed by the Quartet had been implemented and settlement activities halted.

Asked whether he thought any further action would be taken by the Security Council or the International Criminal Court, he said that the council was the "master of its own decisions." Noting its responsibility to maintain international peace and security, and to protect human rights, he said the council would have a role to play. "I hope it will rise up to that responsibility."

To a question on whether it would have been important for the assembly to have garnered more votes on the resolution, if it had conceded to the European Union's request to change the word "endorse" to the word "welcome" in reference to the Human Rights Council report, he said the text's co-sponsors, which had led the negotiations, could address that.

Voting for the resolution were 114 countries, including China, Russia, and Arab and non-aligned states, as well as some South American and European countries. Eighteen voted against, including Israel, the US, Canada, Italy and Australia, while 44 abstained, including most EU nations, including France and the UK. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding.

Iran extends €300 million line of credit to Cuba

Press TV - Nov 2009 11:21:00 GMT

Iran has agreed to extend a 300-million-euro ($445 million) line of credit to Cuba to finance quick-return projects in the Latin American country.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the officials of the two countries at the end of their 14th joint economic cooperation committee meeting in Havana.

Iran's minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian says the new deal will increase the Iranian credit line to Havana from the current 200 million euros to 500 million.

Mehrabian says the line of credit will also provide Cuba with facilities for buying Iranian goods and engineering services.

He says Tehran is ready to expand its economic ties with Havana.

Cuban Minister of Transportation Jorge Luis Sierra also welcomed the agreement, saying his country attaches great importance to its ties with Iran.

Tehran and Havana began bilateral cooperation in 1981. Since that time, the two states have signed several bilateral cooperation agreements in health care, biotechnology, construction, fishing, culture, trade, agriculture, labor, social security and sports.

UK: Week of supermarket boycott actions

UK Boycott Divestment Sanction

7 November 2009 to 15 November 2009

Location: Global

This coincides with a week of action called by the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (http://www.stopthewall.org/).

Phone-in day Wednesday November 11

It is time to step up the supermarket boycott campaign which calls for consumers to reject Israeli goods for as long as Palestinian rights are denied by the apartheid regime. We must specially oppose the stocking of produce from the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which is stolen land. The excellent motion passed by the TUC Congress gives added impetus. The settlements are illegal under international law and goods originating there should not be on sale in the UK. The label ‘West Bank’ is grossly misleading; some shoppers think they are buying Palestinian produce.

From November 7 to 15, PSC and other organisations across the UK are targeting Waitrose and Morrisons supermarkets in particular, as both refuse to discuss the question of settlement goods. We aim to inundate them with calls to their HQs on Wednesday November 11. Note these numbers:
Morrisons Customer Services — 0845 611 6111
Waitrose Customer Services — 0800 188 884
Branches and individual members can stage a range of actions during the weekends of November 7-8 and November 14-15, and any time in between:

• Write or deliver letters to the manager of your local store
• Write or email their headquarters
• Organise or join a demonstration at your local branch
• Set up a stall or hand out leaflets outside your local branch
• Deluge Morrisons and Waitrose with phonecalls on Weds November 11
• Display photos, placards and other visual information making the case against Israeli apartheid
• Contact local media to publicise the campaign

If you have no Waitrose or Morrisons in your area, please raise the issue of Israeli and settlement goods in your local stores. In the case of M&S and the Co-op, encourage them to continue their existing policies of not stocking goods from illegal settlements but also not to stock Israeli goods at all.
Useful resources including model letters, videos of demos, pictures and links to background information are available via www.bigcampaign.org.

REMEMBER TO CONTACT PSC OFFICE IN GOOD TIME TO REQUEST LEAFLETS, STICKERS and POSTCARDS TO SUPERMARKET MANAGERS!

Relevant contact details:

Waitrose Customer Service (8 am – 10 pm Mon – Fri, 8 am – 9 pm Sat, 9 am – 7 pm Sun)
Freephone: 0800 188 884
Email: customer_service@waitrose.co.uk
Waitrose Customer Service Dept, Waitrose Ltd, Doncaster Rd, Bracknell, Berks RG12 8YA
Morrisons Customer Service: 0845 611 6111
Head Office - 0845 611 5000
Registered office - Hillmore House, Gain Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD3 7DL

Picket Morrison's head office

13 November 2009 14:30 to 16:30

Location: Outside Morrisons HQ, Gain Land, Bradford, BD3 7DL

Morrisons supermarkert profited from the sale of Israeli goods throughout the bombing of Gaza, and they continue to do so. Unlike some other supermarkets they refuse even to discuss their sale of goods from illegal Israeli settlements.

The Picket will be on Friday 13th November from 2.30 to 4.30pm outside Morrisons HQ, Gain Land, Bradford, BD3 7DL. Map

Bring childrens "bloodstained" clothing, candles, and your placards

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Week of Action 7-16 November
Unite against Apartheid - Tear down the walls in Palestine - Break the siege on Gaza

The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, its popular committees and member organizations call on activists to launch a week of global mobilization against the walls of apartheid in the West Bank and Gaza from November 9 to 16 2009.
read full call for action from Palestine

As part of a UK wide targetted action

What you can do:

1. Join Scottish PSC or other boycott Israel action during this week of action

2. Phone-in to target supermarket on Wednesday November 11

3. Email target supermarket

Morrisons Customer Services – 0845 611 6111
Waitrose Customer Services - 0800 188 884

Chief Executive Officers:
marc.bolland@morrisonsplc.co.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
mark_price@waitrose.co.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Other actions you can do:

o Write or deliver letters to the manager of your local store
o Contact local media to publicise the campaign

If you have no Waitrose or Morrisons in your area, raise the issue of Israeli and settlement goods in your local stores. In the case of M&S and the Co-op, encourage them to continue their existing policies of not stocking goods from illegal settlements but also not to stock Israeli goods at all.

Waitrose Customer Service (8 am – 10 pm Mon – Fri, 8 am – 9 pm Sat, 9 am – 7 pm Sun)
Freephone: 0800 188 884
Email: customer_service@waitrose.co.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Waitrose Customer Service Dept, Waitrose Ltd, Doncaster Rd, Bracknell, Berks RG12 8YA

Morrisons Customer Service: 0845 611 6111
Head Office - 0845 611 5000
Email: Steven.Butts@morrisonsplc.co.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Registered office - Hillmore House, Gain Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD3 7DL

Boycott Israel action outside Waitrose, Morningside, Edinburgh:

Saturday 7 Nov 2pm to 4pm

& Thurs 12 Nov 5.30pm to 7pm

A Plea to Norway's University of Trondheim to Boycott Israel

It is shocking that the world accepts Israel’s genocides and threats against its neighbors as fait accompli without regard to the never ending suffering of Palestinians under its brutal military occupation. Palestinians and Lebanese die, suffer and endure in silence in a world conditioned to accept Israel’s “right to self defense”, a euphemism for wanton murder. They die in silence, absent from the western conscience due to the blanket support of most western media outlets, none more so than in America, the nation exporting democracy and freedom through smart bombs and biased politicians who if they dare to criticize Israel jeopardize their ambitions and become the recipients of the worst media smears. In the U.S. no debate or action is allowed against Israel either by our own “never challenge Israel” government or by our staunchly Pro-Israel media.

The academicians and experts invited to your university to speak on this issue know first hand their personal victimization at the hands of Pro-Israel forces. They have risked much for the truth and are honorable men and women.

Please do the right thing and vote for an academic boycott of Israel, a nation that is neither civilized nor democratic, by setting an educational precedent for your university, faculty, alumni, but most importantly for your students, that standing up for principles is the foundation for all just laws and human rights for all peoples and not just the powerful few.

Teach them to adopt “freedom from fear” as their guiding principle in life while facing all challenges, especially challenges that discriminate between the powerful and the weak, the haves and have nots, that no people should be victimized by the power of money and weapons.

SIGN THE PETITION:
http://www.petitiononline.com/boycott9/petition.html

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.