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A settlement unit under construction
near the road linking Bethlehem and Jerusalem

This month:

'Undercover Israeli combatants threw stones at IDF soldiers in West Bank'. Testimony by commander of the Israeli Prison Service's elite 'Masada' unit sheds light on IDF methods in countering demonstrations against barrier (Ha'aretz, May 12)

April 2012

When Europe Develops, and Israel Destroys (ips)

Israelis can't resist following the occupations pied piper.
At the heard of the debate over the settlements there was always this question: Whose side are we on - that of the Palestinian subjects of the occupation, or that of the state that oppresses them?

March 2012

IN PHOTOS: Economic Exploitation in Jordan Valley Settlement (AIC, March 12)

February 2012

Words matter: A new language for peace
Israel's propaganda machine
carefully chooses its words to assert illegal ownership over Jerusalem and Palestine (Aljazeera, Feb 12()

January 2012

Israeli students to get $2,000 to spread state propaganda on Facebook (ei)

10 percent of Israeli academics labeled 'anti-Zionist' by campus watchdogs.Survey comes up with the names of more than 1,000 Israelis, 800 of whom are academics but also including authors, journalists, public intellectuals, and past and present cabinet ministers (Haaretz, Jan 12)

Israel foreign minister calls for Arab citizens to be under Palestinian rule (The National Jan 2012)

Israel 'will launch significant Gaza offensive sooner or later' . Israel Defence Forces chief of staff speaks on third anniversary of start of a major three-week Gaza assault (Guardian)

2011 'toughest year yet' for Gaza medics (Maan)

December 2011

Arab spring quiz of the year 2011. 2011 will go down as the year in which the Arab world was rocked by uprisings, but do you know your jasmine from your pearl revolutions? (Guardian)

EG: Egyptian judge frees anti-junta blogger. Alaa Abd El Fattah was detained for two months, pending investigation into charges that he incited violence against military (Guardian)

IL /PS: Ni’ilin Commemorates its Martyrs, IOF Suppress the demo with live ammunition

IL /PS: Boycott campaigners claim credit for denial of London contract to company invested in settlements (IMEMC)

IL /PS: Israel Kidnapped More Than Three Thousand Palestinians In 2011 (IMEMC)

Living in the shadow of the Wall. Bethlehem residents can only watch as the Israeli Wall surrounds the town and slowly chokes the life out of it (Aljazeera)

IL /PS: Confronting intimidation, working for justice in Palestine (Ilan Pappe, ei)

IL /PS: A tradition of violence (inluding video evidence) (Occupation Magazine)

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17.-24.12: EG: Egypt clashes continue into third day as army cracks down (Guardian)

IL/ PS: Demonstration in the no go zone, Beit Hanoun (ISM)

IL/ PS: Page by page, Marwan Barghouti's anti-war tome walked out of prison (The National)

IL/PS: How I became a `terrorist` (Occupation Magazine)

IL /PS: Israel's treatment of women is hardly that of a democracy. A 'dignified' dress code and gender segregation show Israel is fast becoming bigoted about dissent and difference (Guardian)

IL/PS: New 'wall museum' tells women's stories (Maan)

IL /PS: We've become accustomed to the injustices in Israel. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but your entire personality has changed, has become distorted, while you were becoming accustomed to things (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: 'If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed' A strip of settlements built on what was northern Bethlehem threatens to cut the city off from its historic twin, Jerusalem (Guardian)

IL/PS: It’s the right moment for churches to pay attention to Israel’s occupation. In his book Kairos for Palestine, Rifat Odeh Kassis deals with a topic that is as fresh as the destruction of a Palestinian home by Israeli-driven, US-built bulldozers, and as ancient as the use of the term kairos, derived from an ancient Greek word which refers to a specific moment in time.

IL /PS: The real 'invented' people. Newt Gingrich's controversial statement begs the question: Who invented a nationality? The Palestinians or the Israelis? (Aljazeera)

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10.-17.12: IL /PS: The Bethlehem Call:
Here we stand – Stand with us (“Kairos for Global Justice Conference”
04-10. December 2011
Bethlehem, Palestine, declaration)

Preamble

How long, O God, will they steal our livelihood? Oppress, imprison and humiliate our people? Deprive our children of their childhood?  Indeed how long, God, will the multitudes of Christians of the world ignore the anguish of our Palestinian sisters and brothers and all of the oppressed?

“Come and see,” said the Christians of Palestine. “Come and see the olive groves, the bulldozers, the ancient terraces, the segregated cities.  The situation is worsening.”

We now say: “Injustice no more. Here we stand. Stand with us”

The current context

Today, the illegal regime and illegal forms of the Israeli occupation of Palestine assumes

dimensions of systemic injustice whereby the unthinkable and unimaginable becomes gobally accepted, supported and normalized. This is an example of Empire (global domination) at work. It happens in Palestine as it happens in many other contexts around the world. At the same time, Palestine is clearly a global issue. The government of Israel claims to have and indeed enjoys an exceptional status within the international community. Israel regards itself to be above the law and is treated as exempt from international law. This status provides the Israeli government the freedom to occupy Palestine with impunity.

As witnessed with our own eyes, the treacherous conditions imposed by the Israeli occupation on Palestinians and their land have reached a level of almost unimaginable and sophisticated criminality. This includes the slow yet deliberate and systematic ethnic cleansing and the genocide of Palestinians and Palestine as well as the strangling of the Palestinian economy. The brutality in the “violence of silence” internationally provides an almost impenetrable shield for the Israeli government to implement its evil designs in blatant disregard for human rights and international law. Silence is an opinion. Inaction is an action.

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IL /PS: Barak Calls Vandals “Jewish Terrorists” As Right-wingers Clash With Police In Jerusalem (IMEMC)

IL /PS: Volunteer in Gaza with the ISM

A courageous Palestinian has died, shrouded in stones. The army spokesman was right - Mustafa died because he threw stones; he died because he dared to speak a truth, with his hands, in a place where the truth is forbidden (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: In pictures: When a non-violent protest ends in death. Palestinian villager killed after being shot in the face with a tear gas canister by an Israeli soldier at close range (Aljazeera)

IL /PS: Israel must enforce law on West Bank settlers. Monday night's riots merely proves what has long since been obvious: In the West Bank, there is neither law nor judge as far as the settlers are concerned. They can run riot to their heart's content (Ha'aretz)

SA: Saudi Arabia: the "good" tyranny (Watzal)

USA: US House passes 'indefinite detention' bill. House of Representatives approves defence bill including moves to allow terror suspects to be detained indefinitely (Aljazeera)

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04.-10.12: IL / PS: Report: “19 Children Killed, 200 Injured, By Israeli Shells In 2011” (IMEMC)

IL /PS: In Israel, 'fascist' is not a rude word. The silence of Yad Vashem and other Holocaust memorial institutes to the recent rash of anti-democratic legislation is deafening (Amira Hass, Ha'aretz)

27.11.-03.12: EG: Eye on elections: To vote or not to vote? (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Is U.S. Egyptian policy just an Israel policy in a galabiya? (mondoweiss)

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IL /PS: Former IDF soldier sentenced to 4.5 years for leaking documents to Haaretz.Anat Kamm was originally charged with espionage for collecting documents from the IDF and handing them writer Uri Blau in Israeli 'wikileaks' scandal; her final conviction was reached in a plea bargain (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Israel Declared an Apartheid State in “People’s Court” (Jeff Halper, IMEMC)

IL/ PS: Amira Hass: Settlements have become substitute for welfare state (AIC)

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20.-26.11: EG: Losing eyes, but not vision. An atmosphere of hope and determination dominates at the International Eye Hospital, where three activists are being treated for severe eye injuries they sustained in Tahrir Square on Saturday (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Coptic movements demand national salvation government. Coptic movements on Sunday condemned security forces' violent attempt to disperse a sit-in organized by unarmed protesters and victims of the 25 January revolution in downtown Cairo Saturday (Almasryalyoum)

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IL/PS: Popular Resistance in Palestine. Palestinian resistance against an Israeli “belligerent occupation” is mostly viewed as terrorism and rocket attacks. The brutal violence that was inflicted upon the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation force is mostly ignored by the West. The most what the Western politicians are doing, is recommending the Palestinian to abstain from using violence, ignoring Israel`s forty-five-year-old occupation and colonization of another people. For them, popular resistance seems immoral or unnecessary.
Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, Popular Resistance in Palestine. A History of Hope and Empowerment, Pluto, London-New York 2011, 290 pp. L 16

IL /PS: The banality of a Palestinian's arrest. The usual charges: 'Throwing an object, including a stone, with the intention of harming a person or property,' and organizing an illegal demonstration in which he participated (Amira Hass, Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: The necessary elimination of Israeli democracy. Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken says there is a difference between the apartheid of South Africa and what is happening in Israel and in the territories, but there are also similarities (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Right-wing group mapping Jerusalem businesses that employ Arabs. Meir Ettinger, 19, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and grandson of late Rabbi Kahane, says goal of Hebrew Labor project is 'to warn the public' against buying from businesses that employ Arabs (Ha'aretz)

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13.-19.11: EG. Should the US cut its aid to Egypt?  (arabist.net)

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IL /PS: The truth, but not the whole truth. In his documentary on the complex legal system operated by the IDF in the territories, filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz repeatedly reminds viewers that they are watching a movie - not an objective reflection of reality (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Netanyahu is less of a liar than past Israeli PMs. Merkel, Sarkozy and Obama, do not believe Netanyahu, but it seems that they and their governments are pissed off at him because he's not as good a liar as his predecessors in the Prime Minister's Office (Amira Hass, Ha'aretz)

IL/ PS: A new Israel in the making. The future is now. The revolution is in progress; just wait for what's to come.(Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz)

IL/ PS: Israel must topple Netanyahu before it's too late. If Israel wants to continue existing, PM Netanyahu must suffer a similar fate to that suffered by Neville Chamberlain before the clouds clear (Sefi Rachlevsky, Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Peres: Israeli right-wing bills are 'digression from democracy' (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: U.S., EU pressure Netanyahu to scrap proposed bill against Israeli NGOs. EU ambassador to Israel, Andrew Standley, warns prime minister's national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror that passage of legislation could harm Israel's standing (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Israel's Internet intifada. Online po

litical activism has hitched its battlewagon to the stars of social networking, leading to warfare over Israel’s legitimacy on sites like Facebook and MySpace (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Israel stalling release of report proving West Bank outpost built on Palestinian land. The outpost, Derekh Ha'avot, established early 2001 and is home to about 35 families; according to report 60 percent of the community is on Palestinian farmland (Ha'aretz)

IL/PS: Study Shows Palestinian Businessmen Invested $2.5 B In Israeli Settlements In 2010. An academic study conducted by a Palestinian researcher from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, revealed that the amount of investments by Palestinian businessmen in Israeli settlements and in Israel itself, amounted to $2.5 Billion in 2010 (IMEMC)

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06-12.11: IL /PS: The danger of legalizing Israel as a state of Jews (Haaretz)

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30.10.-05.11: IL /PS: Israel is a strategic asset for U.S. national interests, according to new report (Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Report: “Settler Attacks Increased By 40% During 2011” (IMEMC)

IL /PS: Palestinians must say no to negotiations with Israel. Diplomatic moves in the United Nations, no matter how refreshingly daring, are not enough (Amira Hass, Ha'aretz)

IL /PS: Israel Air Force conducts drills for long-ra

nge attacks. While the media and political sphere is abuzz with news on a potential attack on Iran's nuclear development facilities, the Israel Air Force conducts comprehensive drills on long-range attacks at Italy NATO base (Ha'aretz)

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IR: IAF chief must save Israel from futile attack on Iran. The IAF can bomb Iran, he must tell the government, but ultimately the operation will not destroy the Iranian nuclear program, at best it can delay it (Ha'aretz)

IR: An attack on Iran would be a disaster for Israel (Ha'aretz)

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23.-29.10: SY: U.S. Senator McCain: After Libya, strike on Syria may now be considered (Haaretz)

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15.-22.10: IL /PS: The link between Shalit's release and Iran's bomb. The Shalit deal is meant to demonstrate that Netanyahu is a wise, fatherly leader with an aura of greatness (Haaretz)

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09-14.10: EG: Egypt's deadly night: what really happ

ened (Guardian)

EG: Maspero violence raises doubts over prospects for peaceful elections (Almasry Alyoum)

EG: "Chaos and Bloodshed": 25 Die in Cairo as Egyptian Military Attacks Coptic Christian Protesters (democracy now)

EG: Egypt's rulers deny security forces caused Cairo bloodshed.Videos and witnesses contradict account by generals regarding attacks on Christian protest that led to 26 deaths (Guardian)

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02.-08.10: EG: Egyptian government considers IMF loan package again (Almasry Alyoum)

EG: US met with Egyptian Islamists, says US diplomat (Almasry Alyoum)

EG: Minister of Manpower: Egypt is on t

he brink of bankruptcy (Almasry Alyoum)

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18.-24.09: IL/ PS: Why Palestinians have a right to return home. A thorough examination of the legal rights of all those displaced by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 (Aljazeera)

IL/ PS: A diplomatic bid to call Israel’s bluff (FT)

IL/ PS: Challenges in Defining an Israeli-Palestinian Border (NYT)

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11.-17.09: SY: For Syria's minorities, Assad is security
In order for minority groups, including Alawis, to join Syria's uprising, they need assurance of post-Assad protection (Aljazeera)

IL/ PS: Negev’s Bedouins: a new Nakba in the making (IOA)

04.-10.09: IL/ PS: The crime of apartheid. In order to keep Israel a "Jewish" state, racist policies amounting to apartheid have been used against Palestinians (Aljazeera)

USA: Chomsky: 9/11 - was there an alternative? Suppression of one's own crimes is virtually ubiquitous among powerful states, at least those that are not defeated (Aljazeera)

21.-27.08: EG: Military council fails to defuse mounting tales of torture in Egypt (Ahram)

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14.-20.08: EG: UN peacekeeping force: Israeli forces crossed Egyptian border by land (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Egypt's Islamic and liberal powers agree on general principles for the constitution (Ahram)

EG: Experts: Brotherhood's honeymoon with military council over (Almasryalyoum)

IL /PS: Attacks on Gaza continue: “I’ve never seen shrapnel wounds like this before.” (PM)

IL /PS: Israel continues deadly air strikes on Gaza. Hamas calls off its de facto truce with Israel, amid international concerns of escalating violence (Aljazeera)

IL /PS: A changed agenda? (Adam Keller, Gush Shalom)

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07.-13.08: EG: Egypt accepts US$2 billion from World Bank (Almasryalyoum)

EG: German-Egyptian consultations, August 12th 2011 “Berlin Declaration” (German Federal Foreign Office)

EG: Egypt Sufis plan mass rally to counter Salafist and Wahhabi muscle flexing (Ahram)

IL: The real victims of the state's housing policies are Arabs (The Palestine Chronicle Newsletter)

IL: Academic claims Israeli school textbooks contain bias. Nurit Peled-Elhanan of Hebrew University says textbooks depict Palestinians as 'terrorists, refugees and primitive farmers' (Guardian)

USA: Dual US / Israeli Citizens Running American Government

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31.07.-06.08: EG: Thursday's papers: Historic trial draws all the attention (Almasryalmyoum)

EG: Egypt says tourism recovering, reserves adequate (Ahram)

EG: Egyptian banks to inform government of NGO banking transfers (Ahram)

EG: Secular political groups move into unfamiliar territory with Ramadan charity (Almasryalyoum)

IL: MK Ahmed Tibi: World should boycott Israeli companies. In New York Times op-ed, Israeli Arab MK calls for external pressure to end the 'Israeli occupation', grant full equality to Palestinians and Jews, and implement right of return for Palestinian refugees (Ha'aretz)

IL: The Boycott Law Plays to the Hands of De-legitimizers (Reut-Institute)

IQ: BP 'has gained stranglehold over Iraq' after oilfield deal is rewritten. New terms mean company will be paid even when production is disrupted, critics claim (Guardian)

EU: Norway: Muslims and metaphors. After the Norway attacks, as after many others, Muslims were the first to be blamed. (Aljazeera)

24.-30.07: EG: Islamists win some, lose some by overwhelming Friday’s demonstrations (Ahram)

EG: What do Salafis really want? (Almasryalyoum)

17.-23,07.: EG: Negotiations stall surrounding US aid to Egypt (Almasryalyoum)

US House bill to limit aid to Egypt, Palestinians (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Meet Egypt's nominee minister of industry and trade: a liberal economist with a difference (Almasryalyoum)

PS: Gaza-bound ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists sets sail from Greece. Ten activists head to Gaza aboard the French Dignite-Al Karama ship, regarding themselves as representatives of the entire abortive flotilla (Ha'aretz)

PS: Israel’s war on nonviolent protest (ei)

PS: Jailed Palestinian leader Barghouti calls for mass rallies to back UN statehood bid (Ha'aretz)

PS: Christians in the Holy Land shouldn't have to convert to Islam to get divorced.It is time for churches to use their influence to reform family law in the Middle East (Guardian)

PS: Jamal Juma’: PA "killing popular resistance" (ei)

10.-16.07: EG: Tahrir protesters: Brotherhood absence unimportant (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Transparency and borrowing (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Islamist association calls for a million man protest in Egypt against 'supra-constitutional' measures (Ahram)

EG: Brotherhood's website alleges Israelis infiltrating Tahrir protests (Almasryalyoum)

EG: The struggle to document Egypt's revolution (Guardian)

EG: In Tahrir Square the anger is growing again. Where is the revolution the crowds fought for?Mubarak may be gone, but the new order is floundering. In Cairo, Robert Fisk finds fury returning as people still demand change (independent)

EG: Egypt: Revolution in progress What has become of the Egyptian revolution after the initial euphoria of Tahrir Square? (Aljazeera)

IL: Knesset study: No democracy has similar anti-boycott laws (Occupation magazine)

IL: Israel's boycott law: The quiet sound of going fascist. This is the one. This is where the slope turns nowhere but down. When the Knesset passed the boycott law, it changed the history of the state of Israel (Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz)

LY: "Green Light" to Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons in Libya? (global  research)

PS: Where are the Palestinians? (ei)

George W Bush should be prosecuted over torture, says human rights group (Guardian)

03.-09.07: EG: Relatives of revolutionary martyrs block Cairo-Suez highway (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Minimum wage reduced to LE684 in new state budget (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Muslim Brotherhood announces its participation in Persistence Friday protests (Ahram)

PS: Outsourcing the Gaza blockade. Is Greece helping Israel enforce the siege by banning the Freedom Flotilla 2 from leaving its ports? (Aljazeera)

26.06-02.07: The new African land grab. Foreign investors, with the World Bank, are acquiring vast tracks of land in Africa - at the expense of local farmers (Aljazeera)

Water wars: 21st century conflicts? Almost half of humanity will face water scarcity by 2030 and strategists from Israel to Central Asia prepare for strife (Aljazeera)

EG: Day of Rage Resurrected: Egypt police tear gas martyr’s families, driving 2,000 protesters back to Tahrir (Ahram)

EG: Egypt rejection of IMF cash may slow recovery (Almasryalyoum)

EG: Why did Egypt reject IMF/WB loans?

PS: Criminalising Palestinian solidarity. Campaigning against Israeli apartheid has resulted in 23 Palestinian solidarity activists facing US federal grand jury (Aljazeera)

Former News

Does anything really matter?
A new book tries to explain how it may be possible to view moral judgements as objective truths
For Syria's minorities, Assad is security
In order for minority groups, including Alawis, to join Syria's uprising, they need assurance of post-Assad protection