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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Commentary
Title		Description	Date
On the al-Dura affair: Israel officially drank the Kool Aid		Larry Derfner - +972 - "The mentality here is essentially the same one that drives the 9/11 "truthers," the anti-Obama "birthers," those who say the Shin Bet assassinated Rabin, or those who say ultra-rightists assassinated JFK ¨C a fevered imagination activated by political antagonism that knows no bounds." - id (for rh)	23/5/2013
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Report Notes Restrictions On Israeli, Palestinian Journalists		Daoud Kuttab - Al-Monitor - "The report notes that Israeli and Palestinian journalists are denied physical access to the other`s territory and at times even the ability to speak to sources on the other side." - id	22/5/2013
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The Stone Age		Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "Ma`ariv devotes pages upon pages to the cry of the settlers, stridently demanding that soldiers finally start shooting and killing stone throwers." - id	22/5/2013
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Catastrophic thinking: Did Ben-Gurion try to rewrite history?		Shay Hazkani - Haaretz - Most historians today agree that in at least 120 of 530 villages, the Palestinian inhabitants were expelled, and that in half the villages the inhabitants fled because of the battles and were not allowed to return. Ben-Gurion appeared to have known the facts well (...) in many cases senior commanders of the Israel Defense Forces ordered Palestinians to be expelled and their homes blown up. The Israeli military not only updated Ben-Gurion about these events but also apparently received his prior authorization, in written or oral form, notably in Lod and Ramle, and in several villages in the north. bz	19/5/2013
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The Israeli army`s default position: Supporting the outlaws		Yossi Gurvitz /Yesh Din - +972 - The following day, everything went back to normal: the farmers went to their lands after coordinating it with the army; hoodlums who were seen coming from Kfar Tapuach or Tapuach Ma’arav prevented them from accessing the land with the use of violence and firearms; and IDF troops ordered the Palestinians to return home. So it goes. The IDF’s default action in the West Bank is collaboration with criminals. It is not the IDF’s fault alone; its policy is the result the entire government’s policy, and all of its branches. bz	19/5/2013
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Borderline Views: Fighting on two fronts		David Newman - Jerusalem Post - Ironically, BDS and their supporters strengthen the right wing through their activities by hardening mainstream opinion in Israel along the lines of “the whole world is against us.” Equally, the activities of the extremist right-wing groups add fuel to the BDS arguments, as our bastion of democracy appears to be less and less democratic by the day. bz	18/5/2013
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Palestinian Investment Fund		Omar Shaban - Al-Monitor "The fund`s rules of procedure state that the PIF is as a limited public company, is owned by the Palestinian people and is independent both financially and administratively. The fund has a board of directors and is an independent public body...the fund may be promoting monopolistic practices, which the Palestinians blame the high poverty and unemployment on. This kind of mixing of political power and wealth has characterized the Arab despotic regimes, against which the people revolted two years ago." ca	17/5/2013
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Nakba`s Meaning and Memories		Talal Alyan - Al Monitor "To be born in the diaspora can mean to hold memory above location and even, at times, people. It instills in the exiled an acute sense of how ephemeral things can be. The idea that once something has passed, it cannot return is so strongly felt because there is a pre-existing understanding about what happens when things are left behind." ca	17/5/2013
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Promoting science, promoting democracy		Ismail Serageldin - AlAhram Weekly "Centuries before Bacon and Descartes, before the emergence of modern science in the West, our forefathers were calling for the experimental method, relying on the power of observation and the application of rationality and logic. They promoted openness to the contrarian view, balanced by a healthy scepticism...The challenge for Egypt today is to ensure that it can create an overall climate that is open and tolerant, for that is how democracy will flourish and science will advance. Democracy requires pluralism, which is based on difference of opinion, and democracy is about protecting the rights of those who hold minority opinions from the tyranny of the majority. That is why belief in the values of science, so essential to proper scientific research and for the development of new ideas, is also essential for the development of a proper democratic system." ca	17/5/2013
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Israel’s strategy in Syria		RAY HANANIA - Colums - "As most honest people know, Israel is far from a true democracy and more like an apartheid state which bases its social and political policies on race and religion." - id (for rh)	16/5/2013
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The Kotel doesn`t need liberating - we do		Dror Etkes - Haaretz - "The Western Wall, dear female friends, doesn`t need to be liberated. We must liberate ourselves from the Western Wall." - id	15/5/2013
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Are Israelis Appropriating the Nakba?		SUSAN ABULHAWA - Counter Punch - "Why does AJ Stream think it’s appropriate, on this solemn remembrance day for Palestinians, to hold a discussion among Israelis about whether and how their country should acknowledge the savagery they perpetuated against the indigenous people of the land they now occupy?" - id	15/5/2013
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Israel, Assad, and the world		Yacov Ben Efrat - Challenge - The Israeli bombardment does not contribute to regional stability, nor even to the security of Israel itself. It is the latest chapter in a lengthy process, which began when Israel stuck its hand into strife-ridden Lebanon in the early 1980`s, supporting the Maronites, an act that would spawn the Hezbollah and years of bloodshed. bz	14/5/2013
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Never a dull moment in this crazy country (week review)		Adam Keller - Crazy Country - The Shamasnah family in the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood of East Jerusalem is far from sure that next year on Jerusalem Day they will have even the option of closing themselves up in their home while the settlers and their flags come flooding the street. Settler associations have marked the family home as next in line to be taken over.	12/5/2013
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Missing from the Arab peace plan: an Israeli partner		Jonathan Cook - UAE The Nation - Already in 1973, a few weeks after the end of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab League quietly offered Israel a regional peace agreement that would recognise its pre-1967 borders. But the Arab states were rebuffed. Israel`s obduracy was confirmed in last month`s disclosure by WikiLeaks of classified US diplomatic cables from that period. The cables describe Israel as hellbent on self-destruction, suffering, in the words of US officials, from a "Masada or Samson complex".	12/5/2013
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Red Rag column: The secret plan		Gideon Spiro - The secret plan - Racism in the Knesset, the religion, Orit Struk and Shai Dromi - Purity of the race - May Day - Gideon Spiro`s judicial victory	11/5/2013
Opinion: Israeli Messages in Several Directions		Eyad Abu Shakra - Asharq Al-Awsat "I believe that Israel, through the dual airstrike, wanted to send several messages and in several directions.In a message to the Israeli interior—only days before John Kerry’s meetings in Moscow—Israel wanted to drive home that it is able to strike when it wants and where it wants in the Middle East, and that it is a key player in the projects of the region.In a message to the Syrian regime, Israel conveyed that it monitors all details and chooses the targets and the timing of its actions in line with its interests regardless of its allies’ and opponents’ stances, in the knowledge that Assad’s army is dedicated solely to maintaining internal security, rather than liberation.In a message to Washington, Israel confirmed that it has its own take on the situation whether or not Obama chooses to be a backseat driver, and that its decision to get involved in the crises of the Middle East is not a matter only for the White House.In a message to Tehran, Israel attempted to probe the seriousness of Iran’s commitment in supporting Assad’s regime, and how far Tehran—and its allies in the region—can go when the situation reaches a decisive stage." ca	10/5/2013
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Stephen Hawking`s message to Israeli elites: The occupation has a price		Noam Sheizaf - +972 "By choosing to avoid the Presidential Conference – an annual meeting of Israeli generals, politicians and business elites with their international fans, Prof. Hawking reminds that the occupation cannot be forgotten or avoided. A response to Haaretz’s Carlo Strenger." ca By Noam Sheizaf	10/5/2013
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Israel`s Syria Strategy to Weaken Hezbollah and Profit from Chaos		Shir Hever - The Real News - The Israeli government is in a tight position at the moment, because John Kerry, secretary of state for the U.S., had some visits to the region, tried to restart the peace negotiations. And in so doing, he mentioned and tried to revive the Arab peace initiative. And that puts Israel in a very difficult position, because the Arab peace initiative is a very reasonable offer. Israel has no intentions of accepting it. And if this sort of pressure continues, Israel will be exposed as unwilling to work with the United States and unwilling to negotiate with the Palestinians.-rh	9/5/2013
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Israel Fumes Over ‘Google Palestine’ : Foreign Ministry Accuses Google of Meddling in International Politics		Jason Ditz - antiwar.com - Israeli officials are nowhere near so keen on this, insisting that Google’s name “pre-judges” the outcome of any future peace talks on Palestinian statehood by assuming the Palestinians will ever actually get a state.-rh	9/5/2013
Israel tries to lower tensions with Syria after reports of airstrikes		William Booth - The Washington Post - If Israel’s role is confirmed, the attacks would be the second and third Israeli airstrikes in Syria this year. In January, Israel conducted an airstrike that is said to have targeted an arms shipment headed for Hezbollah.-rh	9/5/2013
Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel		Harriet Sherwood and Matthew Kalman - The Guardian - Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel`s treatment of Palestinians.-rh	9/5/2013
A Necessary Reckoning With Torture		Philip Giraldi - The Council for the National Interest - The detainee treatment report is not an easy read, but it should convince a wider audience that the United States behaved wrongly post-9/11 and should now be strong enough to face the truth and initiate measures to ensure that nothing similar happens again.-rh	9/5/2013
Silence Gives Consent - The US and Israel’s Syrian Airstrikes		ROBERT FISK - Independent - "Let’s see if the US and the EU condemn Israel’s air attacks. I doubt it. Which would mean, if we are silent, that we approve of them. Silence, to quote Sir Thomas More, gives consent." - id	8/5/2013
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Drones, knives and peace initiatives		Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "Borovsky’s fellow settlers cried out vociferously that the authorities’ failure to treat stone-throwing as terrorism was to blame for things getting worse. In proof of which the settlers proceeded to engage in a particularly heavy bout of …stone-throwing, at Palestinian school buses carrying girl students." - id	8/5/2013
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Analysis: Fayyad’s resignation is a crisis for Abbas		Ghassan Khatib - Ma`an - Fayyad’s loss has severe consequences outside the internal Fatah struggle. First, it will remove the minimal but sole aspect of non-Fatah checks and balances on the political system. The resignation will also further expose Abbas and Fatah to public criticism at a time when there is a great deal of internal turmoil -- over the budget, over the government’s political program and over the remaining division with Hamas. Among his other roles, Fayyad was a buffer zone, providing Abbas and Fatah with a shield against the intensifying domestic unrest. bz	7/5/2013
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Chinese President makes four-point proposal for settlement of Palestinian question		An - Xinhua - The immediate priority is to take credible steps to stop settlement activities, end violence against innocent civilians, lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip and properly handle the issue of Palestinian prisoners in order to create the necessary conditions for the resumption of peace talks.	7/5/2013
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The Israeli-Jihadist Alliance		Justin Raimondo - AntiWar - Israel bombs Damascus – and the cat is out of the bag	6/5/2013
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No, We Can’t!		Uri Avnery - If President Obama has the will and the power to compel the government of Israel to make this historic decision and choose peace, may the political price for the president be as it may, then he should proceed. If this will and this power do not exist, the whole great peace effort is an exercise in deception, and honorable men should not indulge in it. bz	4/5/2013
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Fayyad: Palestinian leadership a failure		Ma`an (quoting NYT interview) - "Let`s make sure our Bedouin population in the Jordan Valley has access to drinking water before we discuss final arrangements." bz	4/5/2013
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The solution is the problem		Saleh Al-Naami - Al Ahram Weekly "Despite the fierce debate and war of words between Fatah and Hamas, one cannot ignore the role of foreign factors that negatively impacting the chances of reaching and implementing a conciliation agreement. In fact, Israeli Minister Yuval Steinitz has already threatened the PA that Israel will once again withhold taxes it collects on behalf of the PA if conciliation is achieved.The aim of forming a “national consensus” government was to prepare for conciliation, but if this government is formed without consensus it will become yet another stumbling block for conciliation rather than a solution." ca	3/5/2013
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Israel evicts Palestinian villagers for army exercise		Noah Browning - Reuters - The residents of Wadi al-Maleh, a village mostly inhabited by shepherds in the arid area bordering Jordan, had almost all left their homes by an evening curfew and retreated to neighboring villages, Aref Daraghmeh, a local leader, told Reuters.-rh	2/5/2013
The Albatross of Israel : Military Judaism and the Celebration of May Day		NORMAN POLLACK - Counterpunch - I remain defiant when I say, not only can and should Judaism be disentangled from Israel in all things pertaining to its militarism and the persecution of others, but also, that Judaism as a noble religion cannot survive with the albatross of Israel around its neck—and the corresponding rightward turning of Jews in America.-rh	2/5/2013
Beinart Peels Open the One-State Curtain		SCOTT MCCONNELL - The American Conservative - In the absence of a two-state solution, then what? A significant barrier was breached this week when Peter Beinart’s Open Zion site published Daniel Gavron’s provocative column, “Time to Stop Demonizing the One-State Solution.”-rh	1/5/2013
With an empty stomach		Adam Keller - Crazy Country - "One shouldn’t underestimate the Israeli government’s public relations headache caused by one young Palestinian who is tightly incarcerated behind bars and who confronts the entire might of the state, its government and army and security services, his only weapon being – an empty stomach." - id	1/5/2013
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Israeli security forces deployed in West Bank after settler is stabbed to death : Fatal attack on settler near Nablus occurs at around same time that Israeli air strike kills alleged terrorist in Gaza		Harriet Sherwood - The Guardian - Confrontations between militant settlers and Israeli security forces in the West Bank were reported following the attack. Two Palestinian school buses were stoned by settlers, while others set fire to tyres and olive groves, the Palestinian official Ghassan Daghlas told the news agency Ma`an.-rh	1/5/2013
Israel Breaks Signed Agreement to End Prisoner Hunger Strikes		Gavan Kelly, Shir Hever - The Real News - (video) - In any military occupation, imprisonment is a tool used heavily by militaries in order to control the occupied population. Israel is no exception, and the arrest and long-term imprisonment of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory has become one of the symbols of the Israeli occupation.-rh	1/5/2013
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US visa-free travel plan for Israelis angers some Americans		Taimur Khan - The National - Proposed legislation that would grant Israeli citizens visa-free travel to the US, while exempting Israel from extending the same courtesy to US citizens, troubles Palestinian-Americans like New York pastor Khader El Yateem.-rh	1/5/2013
The Gaza Doctor’s Story		Michal Aharoni - Al-Monitor - The play is based on the autobiography of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, the Gaza doctor whose three daughters were killed by a stray shell fired by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead [2009]. Abu al-Aish, known as “the doctor from Gaza,” worked for years as a gynecologist in Israel. Seconds after the shell hit his house he called journalist Shlomi Eldar at Israel’s Channel 10 news studio. Eldar hit the speaker button on his cell phone and broadcast live the agony of the man whose three daughters lay dead on the floor in front of his eyes.-rh	1/5/2013
What Has Bibi Been Doing?		Philip Giraldi - AntiWar - "As Israel slides even further in the direction of an extremist run apartheid police state, it is regrettable to note that the American media and congress continue to slide right along with it. There is no law that cannot be broken if Israel is involved and no policy that cannot be embraced if Benjamin Netanyahu is for it"	29/4/2013
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Man bites dog [from the dog`s point of view so to say]		Richard Baehr - Israel Hayom - Of course, there are the naysayers. One left-wing journal is decrying Cornell`s ties to a university linked to `the occupation.` Still, for once, the Times has an article on Israel that does not mention settlements, occupation, or the two-state solution. Even the description of the Technion and its connection to Israel`s military, avoids the snarkiness common in Times articles on the subject.	27/4/2013
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Friends of Israel Defense Forces Raises $27 Million Under NY Media’s Radar		Jeff Blankfort - Counterpunch - It isn’t every day or night that a tax- exempt non-profit American charity rakes in $27 million in the space of a few hours. When it happens in New York at such a well known landmark as the Waldorf-Astoria, arguably the city’s most famous hotel, it should be news, right?	27/4/2013
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The Russians came		Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - WHEN THE huge immigration wave from the Soviet Union arrived in 1990, we were glad. First of all, because we believe that all immigration is a good thing for the country. This, I believe, is generally the case. Second, because we were convinced that this specific group of immigrants would push our country in the right direction. gm	27/4/2013
Syria’s Christians Threatened		Jean Aziz - Al-Monitor "Since the beginning of the civil war, Syrian church officials have been warning of a dark fate awaiting the country`s Christians, a fate similar to that of Iraq’s Christians. On June 16, 2011, the bishops of Damascus called on Syrian Christians to avoid getting dragged into the “battle of the axes” and to not bet on foreign entities. A few months later, in September 2011, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris and warned him that Syria’s Christians were in danger. Afterward, almost all Christian religious officials, from every denomination, started speaking out on the issue." ca	26/4/2013
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Gideon Levy: It’s time for a ‘one person, one vote’ movement to end Israeli oppression		Ales Kane - Mondoweiss "Focusing on this demand will disarm Israel of all its excuses. What can it say? That the Palestinians aren`t human? That they don`t have rights like any other nation? Not every nation has a state, but every person has the right to vote. Palestinians do not have voting rights in the state that determines their fate. Theirs must be a struggle for this right without criminal violence, such as the terror of the second intifada. Such a struggle will attract international support by peoples and governments." ca	26/4/2013
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Demolition across the West Bank today		DWG oPt (Displacement Working Group)- We are still following up to obtain further information, but according to initial reports this included the destruction of at least 15 Palestinian structures in 6 separate locations in the northern and southern West Bank. As a result, at least 26 people, including 18 children, have been displaced and another 41 people, including 22 children, otherwise affected. The number is likely to increase as we receive further information about the incident in Khirbet Yarza. Many of the demolitions took place in the northern Jordan Valley, in areas that are located close to Israeli settlements.-rh	25/4/2013
Haaretz Columnist Confirms Two Unarmed Palestinian Teenagers Executed by IDF		RICHARD SILVERSTEIN - Tikun Olam - The soldiers essentially waited in ambush for the teenagers. They killed one boy immediately. Then, after the others fled unarmed, the assassins pursued one boy who ran into a leather factory. There they shot him in the back at close range, execution-style.-rh	24/4/2013
Israeli Racism Codified by Law		Daoud Kuttab - Al Monitor -One of the best ways to accomplish the goal of quiet transfer of Palestinians is to deny couples the right to live in Israel. The notoriety of the Israeli Interior Ministry’s harassment of Palestinians in east Jerusalem has been widely documented. East Jerusalemites are considered residents and not citizens, and can lose their residency if they can’t regularly prove that Jerusalem is the center of their lives. However, what is unique about this law is that it applies to Israeli citizens and not just residents.-rh	24/4/2013
Unique Memorial Ceremony Unites Israelis, Palestinians		Akiva Eldar - Al Monitor - Perhaps their bequest instructs us to do all that’s humanly possible to ensure that their children get to live in a peace-loving and not in a territory-loving state? In a democratic state, rather than one that deprives others? In a Jewish state rather than a nationalistic state? Perhaps they willed us reconciliation with our Arab neighbors, recognition of the Palestinian pain and a joint striving for prosperity in our blood-soaked land?-rh	24/4/2013
Israel`s justice system fails to protect the Palestinians it rules		Yossi Gurvitz - +972 - As the good civilians left their vehicle, some of them hooded, they started attacking the Palestinians. The assault, which included use of clubs and tear gas, went on for several long minutes, as the soldiers in the jeep did nothing. During history lessons, we used to call an attack by a group of civilians on others as the agents of the government did nothing “pogroms”; the Israeli media prefers the term “clashes.”-rh	24/4/2013
A satiated people’s advice		Ilana Hammerman - Australians for Palestine - Issawi did not choose to commit suicide but to fight for his freedom. Had you really been anxious about his welfare and wanted to encourage him to choose life, you would have demanded his immediate release. And it is quite likely that your voice would have been heard throughout this land and the whole world.-rh	24/4/2013
Diaspora Jews must speak out against the Israeli Law of Return		Sam Bahour - Mondoweiss - For the most part, world Jewry is silent about this reality of having an Israeli citizenship held in perpetuity for Jews only that awaits them their entire life. All they need to do to claim it is to visit Israel and request it. Partly because of this warped state of affairs, every Jew in the world is coaxed into thinking that they need to bear-hug Israel, regardless of whether Israel is engaged in war crimes or blatant racism.-rh	24/4/2013
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Focus on Syria gives Hagel respite from tempering Israeli warnings about attacking Iran		Ariel David (AP) - Washington Post - "The White House said Tuesday the U.S. hasn’t yet come to the conclusion that Assad has used chemical weapons even though close U.S. allies say he has." - id	24/4/2013
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What`s the big deal about a Knesset member acknowledging the occupation?		Mairav Zonszein - + 972 - "Her Facebook status could have been taken right out of the 1980s – which isn’t a criticism of her, but rather a strong indication of just how much Israel has regressed. We are in a sad state of affairs when that defines the Israeli Zeitgeist." - id	24/4/2013
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US State Department: Israel practices "institutional discrimination"		Ben White - The Electronic Intifada - The annual country report on Israel contains uncomfortable reading for pro-Israel advocacy groups, particularly given who is publishing it. With regards to problems faced by Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, the State Department notes the following.-rh	24/4/2013
Red Rag Column: The death-cult		Gideon Spiro - The Week of the Dead in Israel - 65 years of independence - Brainwashing Israeli children - The last refuge of the scoundrel	23/4/2013
Former AG: Settlements worse than Darfur		Tova Zimuki - Ynet - Discussing a Yesh Din report on facebook, Michael Ben-Yair wrote: "The settlement movement is a political act by a state against another people and as such is the most evil and immoral act since the end of World War II." bz	23/4/2013
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When Israeli denial of Palestinian existence becomes genocidal		Ilan Pappe - EI - "Peres’ interview on the eve of the 65th commemoration of the Nakba is chilling not because it condones any violent act against the Palestinians, but because the Palestinians have entirely disappeared from his self-congratulatory admiration for the Zionist achievement in Palestine. It is bewildering to learn that the early Zionists denied the existence of Palestinians in 1882 when they arrived; it is even more shocking to find out that they deny their existence — beyond sporadic ghettoized communities — in 2013"	22/4/2013
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Boston Bombing – Good for Israel?		Jason Ditz - AntiWar - Top Netanyahu Aide Sees Diplomatic Dividends for Marathon Attack	22/4/2013
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After Fayyad		No mention - The Economist "One of the biggest obstacles to peace is the division between Fatah and Hamas, which thrives by painting the more moderate Mr Abbas and his PA as stooges of Israel and America. A truce between them is overdue. As the overseer of the cities of the hilly West Bank since 2007, Mr Fayyad waged, to Israel’s delight, a fractious contest with the Islamists of Hamas who rule Gaza on the coast. Without Mr Fayyad, President Mahmoud Abbas could yet implement a deal, long in abeyance, to form a unity government with Khaled Meshal." ca	19/4/2013
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Kerry, beware the bogeyman		Reuven Pedatzur - Haaretz - "In Ya’alon’s view, we don’t understand the only way to deal with the Palestinians is to hit them again and again, to strengthen Israel’s deterrence and `sear their consciousness.’" - id	17/4/2013
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Analyses of Israeli apartheid are ever more crucial		Ben White - MEM - "As more people see the writing on the wall about the `two state solution`, this apartheid analysis is set to become more crucial." - id	17/4/2013
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Banging the drums of war: Christians United for Israel		Emily Lawrence The Electronic Intifada - "Here, anyone who struggles for justice for Palestinians is an “aggressive” enemy of Israel and, by proxy, God himself." - id	17/4/2013
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The Plan to ‘Moderate’ Hamas, Control Gaza - Gaza’s Siege Intensifies		Ramzy Baroud - CounterPunch - "According to a Gaza-based economist Maher Al-Tabbaa, `30 percent of Gaza’s goods come from the tunnels.` But other estimates, cited by Reuters, place the food reliance on smuggling at 80 percent. Without tunnels, and no real, long term alterative, Gaza will delve deeper into poverty and the crisis will likely reach unprecedented levels"	15/4/2013
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“Around Us the Storm is Raging…”		Uri Avnery - Gush Shalom - "Under Netanyahu […] Jewish victimhood is bandied about as a totem that sanctifies all our policies: the occupation, the settlements, the oppression of the Palestinians, the rejection in practice of peace based on the two-state solution. It is also a political ploy. The constant reminders of existential dangers – in Iran, in Syria, in Egypt and elsewhere – are designed to rally the population around the leadership"	15/4/2013
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Zionist intellectuals offer pizza to Samer Issawi		Free Haifa - “`Writers and poets, including Eli Amir, Amos Oz and AB. Yehoshua, turned in a personal letter to Samer Al Issawi, on hunger strike for more than 230 days, and called on him to stop the strike.` […] No, they did not wake up when Samer was arrested without any cause, as they didn’t protest at the imprisonment without trial of thousands of other Palestinians, including political activists, journalists and intellectuals. They didn’t even raise their voices while Samer was on a hunger strike for 200 days, as the continuing disregard to his cry for freedom puts his life under imminent danger"	15/4/2013
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Israel`s Memorial Day: A day of mourning and militarism		Larry Derfner - +972 - Today is not only a day of sadness for fallen Israeli soldiers, it’s also one of public declarations that all those bloody conflicts were righteous and necessary – just like the current ones and those that lie ahead	15/4/2013
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Carter Gets Peace Award at Law School, Despite Criticism		Ariel Kaminer - NYT "Some alumni of the school, a part of Yeshiva University, had argued that it was inappropriate for an Orthodox Jewish university to honor a persistent and harsh critic of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians. But the International Advocate for Peace award was given to Mr. Carter by the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, a legal journal run by students at the law school, which is secular." ca	12/4/2013
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Netanyahu to United States: Drop Dead		MJ Rosenberg - Huffington Post "Ha`aretz reported that the Netanyahu government has informed Secretary of State John Kerry that Israel is not interested in discussing land and borders right now. So we are back to Shamir and the bad old days before Rabin.The good news is that Netanyahu has made everything so clear. He has no interest in peace, negotiations, any kind of territorial withdrawal or even freezing settlements." ca	12/4/2013
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Israeli Property Theft is Nothing New		PAUL LARUDEE - Counterpunch - Israel had no intention of respecting the legal records of land ownership. The Absentee Property Law of 1950 made clear that the job of the Custodian was to “release” the property in its custody to other agencies, which would use the land without regard to the registered owners.-rh	11/4/2013
Army Kidnaps 23 Palestinians In the West Bank		Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - Also, the army kidnapped Imad Hasan Zaytoun, 35, from Zabbouba village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, as he was heading to visit his detained brother in Megiddo Israeli prison. His brother was kidnapped a year ago and was never sentenced by any Israeli court.-rh	11/4/2013
Rock Throwing On Palestinian Children`s Day		Anna Lekas Miller - The Daily Beast - According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), children under the age of 18 make up almost half of the population ofthe West Bank and Gaza. Statistically, 20 percent of them—and 40 percent of the males—will be arrested, detained and likely imprisoned. For some, this process has already begun: as of January 1, 2013 there were 193 Palestinian children in prison with 26 under the age of 16. “They will arrest them for anything, even just standing there,” Ahmad Qareen of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan told me.-rh	10/4/2013
Amira Hass receives hate mail for claiming Palestinian schools should teach children how to `resist occupation` `		Harriet Sherwood - The Observer - Hass said her critics had either not read or had not understood her article. "I`m surprised that they don`t read the whole text – and then I`m surprised at myself for being surprised," she told the Observer, pointing out that she had drawn "a clear distinction between a citizen [as a target] and a soldier or someone who carries arms".-rh	10/4/2013
John Kerry and the 65th Anniversary of Deir Yassin		Rami G. Khouri - Middle East Online - is appropriate that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Jerusalem this week, exactly 65 years to the day (April 9,1948) when pre-state Zionist troops massacred some 100 unarmed Palestinian men, women and children in the Palestinian Arab village of Deir Yassin, west of Jerusalem.-rh	10/4/2013
Letter from Human Rights Organisati​ons to the UN Special Coordinato​r for the Middle East Peace Process		Palestinian Centre for Human Rights - We, Al Dameer Association for Human Rights (Al Dameer), Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan), the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP), the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), hereby raise our serious concerns regarding the brief you delivered to the United Nations Security Council on 25 March 2013, in which you discussed, inter alia, the recent decision by Israel to again reduce the fishing zone available to Gaza fishermen to 3 nautical miles.-rh	10/4/2013
Now haircuts are a problem, too?		Joharah Baker - MIFTAH - This is a lesson lost on the de facto Hamas government in Gaza. Since it assumed power in 2007, it has issued one oppressive social edict after another against the people of the Strip. Mostly, these edicts target women – they cannot smoke water pipes in public or have a male hairdresser cut their hair. Schoolgirls must cover their hair with a headscarf or wear the jilbab (the Palestinian equivalent to the Iranian chador). Men and women cannot walk together unless they are married (or first degree relatives) and female university students must dress “modestly” in line with Islamic culture and norms.-rh	10/4/2013
Urgent action requested - my dear friend Hiba imprisoned		Trisha Issahra - On April 2, the family of my friend Khaled had such a visit. Imagine my horror and surprise when Khaled called to tell me the news! I was even more horrified when Khaled told me that the soldiers had arrested his lovely wife Hiba who is very ill with undiagnosed stomach problems. Hiba is a sweet, very shy young woman. She lives for her family, for taking her daughters Malak and Yara to play in the park, to bake cakes for family and friends.-rh	10/4/2013
Israel`s definition as a `Jewish state`		Ben White - AlJazeera - The alternative to Israel as a "Jewish state" is not a Palestinian Arab state, but a state where all have equal rights	9/4/2013
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Why I’m Supporting a Cultural Boycott of Israel		Iain M Banks - The Paletine chronicle - "I support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign because, especially in our instantly connected world, an injustice committed against one, or against one group of people, is an injustice against all, against every one of us; a collective injury"	9/4/2013
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Holocaust Remembrance Day didn’t use to be like this		Larry Derfner - +972 - The Holocaust lends itself perfectly to Israel’s two reigning ‘isms’ – nationalism and emotionalism	9/4/2013
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Obama`s empathy deficit in Palestine		Uri Avnery - Counterpunch - President Obama`s failure to acknowledge Yasser Arafat`s grave "was like spitting in the face of the entire Palestinian people. Imagine a foreign dignitary coming to France and not laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Or coming to Israel and not visiting Yad Vashem."	6/4/2013
Don’t Tread On My Hair, Hamas		Maysoon Zayid - The Daily Beast "Hamas makes laws and Israel chuckles. They empower the Israeli narrative that the conflict is about Islam versus Judaism rather than what it actually is, colonialism versus the indigenous population. When they fling their feeble rockets at the Israelis, they give a green light to Israel to massacre the trapped residents of Gaza in the name of security. The United States also empowers Hamas." ca	5/4/2013
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John Kerry`s Mission Impossible?		Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast "Netanyahu is probably comfortable with any relatively unstructured negotiations, so long as they are all process and no substance. The status quo suits him well, and the difficulty will be creating a structure that incentivizes and/or coerces him to move forward, even slightly, in spite of the political risks." ca	5/4/2013
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The PLO`s dangerous land swaps rhetoric		Samah Sabawi - Al Jazeera "It is as if we are somehow meant to believe that an end to occupation that may lead to a deformed state on tiny patches of undesirable agricultural land, where less than a third of the total Palestinian population lives, is all that is needed to bring about peace. Finally, this talk of "land swaps" evokes memories of decades of colonial oppression and total disregard for the indigenous people`s rights, the people whose lives are affected with every line drawn on some sterile map by well-suited men." ca	5/4/2013
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Nakba Steals All: Land, Life, Libraries		Richard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - As war came to Jerusalem in May 1948, Palestinian Omar Saleh Barghouti fled his home, leaving behind hundreds of his books, including years worth of his diaries. He would never see them again.-rh	4/4/2013
Look at the World from Behind the Wall		William A. Cook - Dissident Voice - Let’s report on a peaceful protest that has gone unnoticed by the American press with the exception of Tim King’s Salem-News: “Israeli forces have sprayed Palestinian homes in the village of Nabi Saleh with “skunk “* as a punishment for organizing weekly protests against the Apartheid Wall built on occupied West Bank land (March 26, 2013).-rh	4/4/2013
Red Rag Weekly Column: Barack Obama, Superstar		Gideon Spiro - Barack Obama, Superstar - The Apology - 46 years of Occupation - Male chauvinist pork	4/4/2013
Palestinians Jailed in Israel Protest After Inmate Dies		ISABEL KERSHNER - The New York Times - The office of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, said in a statement that it held the Israeli government “fully responsible” for Mr. Hamdiya’s death, which it said stemmed from a policy of “deliberate medical negligence.”-rh	4/4/2013
Can Kerry Rescue a Two-State Peace Accord?		Henry Siegman - Huffington Post - But any new U.S. effort that leaves Israeli interlocutors believing that America still has not caught on to their annexationist goals and remains prepared to provide American cover for these goals can only end in disastrous failure. America should act as the true friend of Israel it has not been. It should finally tell it the truth.-rh	4/4/2013
West Bank cities shut down to mourn Abu Hamdiyeh		Ma`an News Agency - Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, from Hebron, died in Israel`s Soroka Hospital aged 63. Palestinian officials say his cancer spread because he was denied treatment by Israeli authorities, who refused to release him. The Fatah movement in Hebron called for a general strike to mourn the death and urged all residents to respect the period of mourning.-rh	4/4/2013
Violence flares in Middle East as Israel and Gaza exchange attacks amid West Bank protests		Alistair Dawber - The Independent - Speaking after the raid on Gaza, Israel’s new defence minister, Moshe Yaalon, said: “Last night the IDF launched a strike on Gaza [in response to a series of mortars fired against Israel]. We hold the Hamas responsible for all firing from Gaza. We will not allow shooting of any sort towards our citizens and our forces"-rh	4/4/2013
Hamas Adds Restrictions on Schools and Israelis		FARES AKRAM - The New York Times - In reality, given the conservative nature of Gaza society, boys and girls over the age of 9 are already separated in most government schools and schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which assists Palestinian refugees and their descendants. The new separation rules are mostly expected to affect about a dozen private and Christian schools.-rh	2/4/2013
Israel set to jail teenage conscientious objector for eighth time: Nathan Blanc has spent more than 100 days in prison over the past 19 weeks due to his refusal to enlist in Israeli army		Harriet Sherwood - The Guardian - It is a routine Nathan Blanc knows well. At 9am on Tuesday morning, the 19-year-old will report, as instructed in his draft papers, to a military base near Tel Aviv. There he will state his objection to serving in the Israeli army. Following his refusal to enlist, Blanc expects to be arrested and sentenced to between 10 and 20 days in jail. He will then be taken to Military Prison Number 6 to serve his time. And then, following his release, the cycle will begin over again.-rh	2/4/2013
Israeli cruelty reached a point of no return in the 2008-09 Gaza war		Gideon Levy - MIFTAH - conceived at the same time was a new strategy of the IDF: “zero casualties” among our forces, and at practically any cost. It is this strategy that led to the slaughter during Cast Lead of 23 members of the Samouni family; the killing of five members of the Abu-Halima family by white phosphorus shells; the killing of six passersby, including two children and a woman, by a flechette shell at Izbet Beit Hanoun; and the killing of dozens of asylum-seekers at an UNRWA school in Gaza.-rh	1/4/2013
Reading Palestinian Prison Diaries		Richard Falk - Wordpress - We should not forget that there is a callous and manifest unlawfulness about this network of Israeli prisons, all but one of the 19 being located in Israel, in direct violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention governing belligerent occupation.-rh	1/4/2013
Detention Bulletin February 2013		Defence for Children International/Palestine Section - February registered the highest number of Palestinian children imprisoned and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system since October 2010, reaching a total of 236, an increase of 5.8 percent from January.-rh	1/4/2013
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Occupied Childhoods: Mass arrest of 27 children shows the increasing impact of occupation on Hebron`s children.		Christian Peacemakers Teams Palestine - On the morning of March 20 soldiers arrested 27 Palestinian children, age seven to 15 in the West Bank city of Hebron. The children were on their way to five schools near the Old City when 22 soldiers moved into a group of students outside the Hebron Public elementary school.-rh	1/4/2013
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Easter Resurrection Of Palestine		Mazin Qumsiyeh - Countercurrents - Jesus was a Palestinian martyr; he was born in Palestine and spoke the language of my ancestors Aramaic, the precursor of the Arabic language. He believed in resistance like turning tables of profiteers at the temple, challenging the “leaders” etc. And he worked to help the poor and disenfranchised.-rh	1/4/2013
Obama Releases Aid To Palestinian Authority		Anna Lekas Miller - The Daily Beast - Like Israel, the U.S. Congress froze $200 million in aid to the PA in 2011 as punishment for seeking statehood at the U.N. When Palestine was admitted as a non-member state last November, Congress once again froze the request for funds.-rh	1/4/2013
Palestinian prisoners and detainees denied medical care		UFree Network media centre - Prisoners with different diseases either chronic or normal complications are denied medicines and also not being seen by doctors. Many of the prisoners are given painkillers, antibiotics meanwhile they are in bad need for some special medications as they suffer chronic diseases. Israeli prison authorities prevent specialised doctors from providing health services to prisoners.-rh	1/4/2013
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