Archive
Prof Shillony on Japan’s Role In Arab-Israel Peace
Posted on January 11, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Newsletter No. 1594
Editorial-Opinion
May 15, 2010
BEN-AMI SHILLONY ON JAPAN’S ROLE IN ARAB-ISRAELI PEACE
Professor Ben-Ami Shillony (Shingetsu Member No. 74) of Hebrew University in Jerusalem has submitted to the Shingetsu Newsletter an opinion article recently published in the Asahi Shinbun. The following is a slightly revised version of that article.
Japan Can Promote Peace in the Middle East
The recent visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Japan came at a time when both countries find themselves on a collision course with their long-time patron, the United States.
In both cases, the confrontation involves construction. The Hatoyama Cabinet is criticized by the Obama administration for its inability to carry out the agreement for the relocation of the Futenma airfield to another part of Okinawa Prefecture. The Netanyahu government is admonished for its inability to stop the construction of Jewish housing on the West Bank and in Jerusalem.
Both Israel and Japan are afraid that their cordial relationship with Washington is undergoing a change. The Israelis are concerned that the Obama administration, despite its pro-Israeli pronouncements, will pursue closer ties with the more populous Arab world. There is a similar concern in Japan that despite its friendly pronouncements, the United States is going to regard China as its most important partner in East Asia. A continued inability of Japan and Israel to solve the Futenma and the settlement cases bodes ill for the future relations of these countries with the United States.
The present visit also sheds light on the state of relations between Japan and Israel. The Japanese have a favorable opinion of the Jews. This already started 106 years ago, when Jacob Schiff, the Jewish president of the Kuhn, Loeb and Co. investment bank in New York (which in 1977 merged with Lehman Brothers) extended substantial loans to Japan to help it win the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
Another outstanding Jew who captured the imagination of the Japanese was Albert Einstein, who visited Japan in 1922. Both Schiff and Einstein admired Japan, creating in Japan the image of the rich and clever Jew.
Zionism, the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland in Palestine, had many supporters in prewar Japan. The Christian evangelist Uchimura Kanzo hailed it as the harbinger of the messianic age.
In 1920, when the League of Nations had to determine the future of Palestine after World War I, the delegates of the Big Four Powers (Britain, France, Italy and Japan) met in San Remo, Italy, and decided to allocate the mandate over Palestine to Britain on the basis of the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which pledged to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine, was thus accorded legal international status.
In 1922, the Shanghai Zionist Association expressed its gratitude to Japan by inscribing the name of the Japanese foreign minister, Viscount Uchida Yasuya, in the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem.
During World War II, Japan was an ally of Nazi Germany. But instead of killing Jews, as Hitler did, it saved thousands of them, enabling them to find refuge in Japan and in Japanese-held territories. Japan tried, during the war, to lure the Muslims of Asia and supported Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the anti-British mufti of Jerusalem, who spent the wartime years in Berlin.
Nevertheless, in February and March 1945, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia declared war on Japan.
During the war, Japan was sympathetic to the anti-British Zionist Revisionist movement (the forerunner of the present Likud Party in Israel), allowing its youth movement Beitar to function freely in Manchuria and Shanghai.
In 1952, following the end of the allied occupation, Japan and Israel established diplomatic relations. Israel was the first country in the Middle East to establish diplomatic ties with Japan after World War II. Japan was also the first country in Asia to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
During the 58 years since then, relations between the two countries have withstood many pressures. Since the mid-1980s, relations have steadily developed.
The Japanese have a high regard for Israeli high-tech and many Israeli companies are doing good business in Japan despite the economic depression. Last month, the company Better Place, of the Israeli innovator and entrepreneur Shai Agassi, in conjunction with Tokyo’s Nihon Kotsu taxi company, started a pilot project of electrically operated taxis.
Japan is admired in Israel for both its traditional arts and its modern achievements. Hundreds of Israeli students study Japanese language and culture at Israeli universities and thousands of Israeli tourists flock to Japan.
Last year, the Japanese writer Murakami Haruki received the Jerusalem Literature Prize.
Japan and Israel can work together to promote peace in the Middle East. Japan is respected by both Arabs and Israelis for being objective and friendly.
Since 1996, a contingent of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force has been operating in the Golan Heights, as part of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). The Japanese government is extending economic aid to Palestinian refugees and to various projects of the Palestinian Authority.
A greater economic and diplomatic Japanese presence in the region will be beneficial to the peace process. But there is also a cultural role that Japan can play to promote peace in the Middle East. In 2005, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs organized a conference on Culture and Peace at the ancient Horyuji temple in Nara. Professor Sari Nusseibeh, president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, was invited to represent the Arab side and I was invited to represent the Israeli side. The organizers were surprised to see that we did not quarrel. On the contrary, we shook hands and proposed jointly that Japan establish a Center of Japanese Culture in Jerusalem that would serve both our universities and our peoples.
By studying and admiring a third culture, Palestinians and Israelis can learn to understand and respect each other. The proposal was welcomed by the agency’s president, professor Hayao Kawai, who promised to do his best to carry it out. But Kawai died two years later, and nothing came out of that plan.
I still believe that promoting Japanese culture in Jerusalem can promote peace in the Middle East.
***************************
The Shingetsu Institute for the Study of Japanese-Islamic Relations
Website: http://www.shingetsuinstitute.com
E-Mail: shingetsu_institute@hotmail.com
Political Palestinians Prisoners Make the Headlines
Posted on January 11, 2012 by Marivel Guzman
Diaries: Live from Palestine
How my uncle in Gaza filled me with hope of return
By Fidaa Elaydi
The Electronic Intifada
Maghazi refugee camp
10 January 2012
Hazem Elaydi Released After 20 years in Israel Prison
Political Prisoners or Conscience Prisoners Come Home after Long Wait
The author’s uncle, Hazem Elaydi, comforts his mother in the family’s home in Maghazi refugee camp.
The date is 21 December 2011, a day that will live within me for the rest of my life. As I went through the Rafah crossing, my eyes scanned the faces of every man before me; I was searching for my uncle, Hazem Elaydi. I had not seen him in more than twenty years, since before he was illegally imprisoned by Israel during the first intifada. I traveled across the world to see him after his release during the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas in October.
Every time I travel to Palestine, my first few days in my homeland are always filled with tears and covered by a cloud of disbelief. The sheer joy of being home makes me feel as if I’m in a dream, that I could not be so lucky as to return to my homeland yet again, and this last trip was no exception.
Photography Credit Omar Karem
I remember first seeing his smiling face. Even as I ran to his arms, I stared at his face trying to remember its details in case I really was dreaming and would soon wake up from this beautiful fantasy. As I hugged him, I tried to learn his scent, hoping that I could add this detail to the archive of my memory of him to draw on later when I was no longer near him. As we rode from Rafah to the old family home where my father, aunts and uncles were all born and raised in Maghazi refugee camp, I stared at him. I tried to learn the shape of his smile, the shades of black, brown and gray in his beard, the fine lines forming around his eyes, the depth of his voice and the innocent and child-like quality of his uniquely high-pitched laugh.
Photography Credit Omar Karem
When we arrived, we sat in the family room and I quickly stole the seat next to him. I held his hand and wondered what I could say to him to show him how happy I was to meet him. I wanted to be articulate, but he cannot understand my native tongue. I wanted to impress him without being obnoxious. I wanted him to know me and be proud of me but I was too intimidated to speak. Instead, I sat silent and tried to force myself to believe that I wasn’t dreaming.
Everyone in my family asked me what I did when I first saw my uncle. Did I cry like my older brother? Did I pass out from shock like my cousin? My reaction included neither tears nor the loss of consciousness. Although it’s not as exciting a story, my reaction to seeing him came in small, nearly overwhelming doses of sudden awareness.
That first day, when I was sitting in my father’s childhood home, reality slowly set in. Last year, I sat in this room as my family welcomed me back to Gaza after six years of being away. This time was different. This time was not about welcoming me home or asking me about Egypt or my brothers; this time I was sitting in this room to meet my uncle. The uncle I knew only from photos, stories and a few sporadic phone calls. Now I am in his presence.
All those countless times I begged for his release in my prayers were fruitful. All those moments of anguish when my grandmother desperately cried for him have been offset by her joy of seeing him. I looked around and saw my 17-year-old cousin who was named after my uncle and met him for the first time two months ago. It was real. My uncle was among us and free and himself and unafraid and I was there with him. My eyes swelled with tears and I suppressed them. The time to cry had passed and now was a time for smiles and laughter, I told myself.
I remember the first time I heard someone call out my uncle’s name to ask him a question. I don’t remember the question or who was asking, I just remember realizing that finally my uncle was near enough for us to merely call his name when we wanted to speak with him.
Here to stay
I remember the first time someone made reference to “Hazem’s house.” Again, I cannot remember the context, but I can remember the overpowering joy I felt as awareness of the realness of his release set in. He has a house, I thought, his own house. This is not temporary; he’s here to stay. I’m not imagining this. I forced myself not to cry. I looked at my dear uncle and smiled; the moments I have with him are limited to the length of my visit and I will not spend them trying to convince myself of something it took me two weeks to come to terms with back in October. He is here and I will make the best of it.
I tried to learn his personality, his sense of humor, the way he spoke to people, his mannerisms, and everything else that Skype conversations and phone calls can’t give away. I realized that he was very different from anyone I knew. Unlike most people I knew in Gaza, he never interrupted anyone in conversation. He was respectful and patient and always paid very close attention when others spoke to him. Everyone who met him instantly trusted him. There was something about him; there was honesty in his eyes, thoughtfulness in his facial expression, wisdom in the curve of his brow. Something about him made me instantly feel like I could trust him with all of my secrets and feel like they were safer than before.
He always gave humble advice in every context and topic of conversation, but he never preached. He offered the best solutions to every issue and cited where the wisdom of his advice came from. When we were invited to dinner at two places the same night, he was the one that resolved the issue. When my brothers’ haircuts were too wild for Gaza’s conservative culture, instead of staring and judging, he explained to them people’s reactions. When my cousins and I had a sudden desire to go to the beach in the middle of a winter afternoon, he took us and let us stay as long as we wanted. He is easy going and took everything in life in small doses. He was our tie to occupation and injustice before his release and now he is our anchor.
Photography Omar Karem
My uncle’s release not only brought great joy to my family and reunited all of my aunts and uncles both in Gaza and the diaspora, but it also changed the dynamic of our family. It felt like a lot of the pettiness that often exists with large families seemed to disappear from ours for a while. My grandmother is more upbeat and focuses her attention on choosing for me a husband and sharing stories from a time when Palestine’s air was free and her trees more fruitful. The cousins we worried about have been tamed by the influence of a respected uncle. And finally, we no longer have to hang posters, photos and plaques bearing his face on our walls to feel his presence. My uncle Hazem is with us and we treasure him even more than before.
I tried to learn who my uncle was and observe him so that when my ten-day opportunity to get to know him was over, I’d have plenty to draw on when I later tried to remember him. I memorized how much he adored his wife, how gentle and patient he was with his young nieces and nephews, how understanding he was with me and my older cousins, how accommodating and affectionate he was with his mother, and how contemplative he seemed in the moments he had to himself.
Instant remorse
As a Palestinian who only knows her homeland through short visits, the most difficult part of my trips home is leaving. This time was the worst. I avoided saying goodbye to my uncle for as long as I could. I made up excuses, came up with stories to share and favors to ask and staged family photos, but the impeding sorrow was unavoidable. As soon as my uncle released me from the last hug I was able to share with him, I felt instant remorse.
Why did I go to bed so early when my family was having our evening gatherings? Why didn’t I sit with my uncle more? Why didn’t I say more when I was with him? Why didn’t we book a later flight? Do I really need to go back to school? Why didn’t I take an extra year off? What if I come back to Gaza in the summer? I realized that my trip had been too short and that I spent far too much of it eating and sleeping or sitting around waiting for electricity, an Internet connection, or bath water to heat up. In the end, I was grateful for the beautiful opportunity to get to know my uncle and his incredible wife and to see the way my family had changed with his presence. Now, I look forward to my next opportunity to see my uncle.
Oddly, this experience has led me to wonder about the moment I will meet another Palestinian that I have heard stories about my entire life and have a deep attachment to but have never met: my Palestinian hometown of Bir al-Saba.
Many refugees in the diaspora have grown so accustomed to their lives outside of their hometowns that they no longer identify with their ancestral villages and towns. My uncle’s release has taught me that nothing is too far out of our reach. My imagination was never creative enough to piece together an alternate reality where my uncle Hazem was no longer a prisoner. Even with my hopelessness, this miracle occurred. When I try to picture Bir al-Saba, I see images of Maghazi Camp, the Sinai Desert and photos of Bedouins I’ve seen in books and online.
Now when I remember meeting my uncle, I think about my coming encounter with Bir al-Saba and learning her history, roads, buildings, schools, wells and her market. I think about memorizing her scent and her landscape; the colors in her sunsets; how dark it must get before the first stars begin to appear in her sky; and how warmly she will welcome me and her other estranged children.
Even though the right of return seems far-fetched to so many refugees, meeting my uncle has reinvigorated my belief in this right. His release is proof that the victims of injustice should never lose hope because history and experience have proven that all types of oppression eventually come to an end. Like I said before, I always tied the release of my uncle to the freedom of Palestine and to our return to our hometown and, after meeting him and experiencing the miracle of his release, I believe this even more strongly.
Fidaa Elaydi is a Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activist and law student. She is visiting Gaza to meet her uncle, a political prisoner who was released in the October 2011 prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. She is a third-generation refugee who strongly believes in the right of return.
Meeting My Uncle After 20 Years in Israel Jail was an experience many felt in Palestine, after this historic deal took place in Egypt between Hamas and Israel. One Israel Soldier was exchanged for 1027 Political Palestinian Prisoners, including 27 women and 14 children.
The Euphoria started spreading around the world when the news broke out that our Palestinians heroes will be coming home.
Since early in the morning on this day October 18, 2011 thousands of people started gathering in different parts of Palestine to welcome The Heroes coming home.
The Red Cross was preparing the buses that have to be used to transport hundreds of Palestinians to 3 different spots in Palestine, Rafah Gaza Border to be officialy received by Haniyeh, Twenty-two female and 96 male prisoners are to pass through Beituniya on their way to Ramallah, where they will meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Rafah Egypt, Khaled Meshaal the leader of Hamas in Damascus will be arriving in Cairo where 40 Palestinians will be welcome by him, as the first step to find their next home, there are 3 countries already confirmed to take some of them into exile; Turkey was confirmed yesterday, Qatar and Syria the other two countries.
The Cost of War vs. The Value of Agriculture: A Stark Contrast in Priorities
by Akashma News
The profitability of war far surpasses that of agriculture, but at what cost? While farming sustains life, regenerates the environment, and contributes to national stability, the war industry thrives on destruction, consuming immense resources with little benefit to the average citizen.
Take, for example, a family of farmers cultivating 133 acres of land. With months of hard labor, favorable weather, and healthy crops, they might earn a profit of $25,000. This income, however, is never guaranteed—droughts, pests, and fluctuating market prices can easily wipe out their earnings. Meanwhile, their work produces thousands of bushels of grain, feeding people, replenishing the soil, and reducing reliance on imported food.
Scott Brooks, in his article What It Takes to Grow and Sell Corn (2008), highlights the immense effort required to bring a corn crop to market. He describes the long hours, unpredictable weather, and fluctuating commodity prices that determine a farmer’s success or failure. “A single bad season can set a farmer back years,” Brooks writes, emphasizing the financial precarity of agriculture compared to government-backed war contracts.
Contrast this with the war industry, which operates on a different economic plane. The United States government spends billions of taxpayer dollars annually on defense contracts, often with guaranteed profits for weapons manufacturers. For example, in 2022, the U.S. defense budget exceeded $800 billion, with major contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon raking in tens of billions in profits. Lockheed Martin alone reported $63 billion in revenue that year, with over 70% coming from government contracts—essentially, taxpayer-funded free money.
Unlike agriculture, which requires sustainable practices and reinvestment in land and resources, the defense industry generates wealth without producing anything that benefits the civilian economy. While a farm provides food security and environmental benefits, the production of weapons fuels conflict, pollutes ecosystems, and contributes to geopolitical instability.
Moreover, war spending diverts critical resources away from social programs. The United Nations estimates that just $30 billion annually could end world hunger, a fraction of what the U.S. spends on its military. Instead of investing in food security, healthcare, or education, governments prioritize defense spending, enriching a handful of corporations while leaving millions struggling.
The consequences are dire. While farmers fight to keep their land and livelihoods, defense contractors secure lucrative government deals, often free of traditional market risks. The war economy perpetuates a cycle of destruction, while agriculture—if properly supported—could provide the foundation for a healthier, more sustainable future.
Ultimately, the choice is clear: continue feeding the war machine or invest in a system that truly nourishes humanity. The contrast between these industries is not just financial—it is a reflection of our values and priorities. Until policies shift toward supporting life rather than destruction, we will remain trapped in an economy that profits from suffering rather than sustenance.
The Peace Process Has Failed – Marwan Barghouti
Posted On January 3, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
Marwan Barghouti
Ramallah – 
Political Editor – Marwan Barghouti, a deputy in the Legislative Council and Member of the Central Committee of the “open” on “the importance of maintaining the National Authority and to continue the struggle to convert it to an independent state with full sovereignty,” but said “I call to review many of the functions of the authority in order to achieve and enhance the national steadfastness in confronting the occupation and settlements, including supports and supports the peaceful popular resistance and the abandonment of all forms of cooperation with the occupation. ”
He said in a letter marking the forty-seventh of the start of the Palestinian revolution, “The peace process had failed and ended there is no longer any point to make desperate attempts to breathe life into the dead body and the need to move towards Palestinian strategy and a new national long let them and confirmed them.”
He said: “It is time to adopt this strategy and go until the end, which is based primarily on the bet on our people and strength of living and generations young and wings his sons, and considered in 2012 in the Popular Resistance peaceful and extensive in the face of settlement and aggression and the Judaization of Jerusalem and the siege and barriers, and continue to work in the United Nations to extract membership of the State of Palestine in all international forums and in the United Nations, and not retreat to the pressure exerted by the United States and Israel, and continue to work to a wider international boycott of Israel economically and politically, the media, diplomatically and militarily, to stop all forms of cooperation with them, as well as raise the pace and expand the County Products and Israeli goods and the evacuation of the markets Palestinian them. ”
Barghouti has stressed out “the importance of the great national achievement that has been the release of hundreds of activists in the swap deal between Hamas and Israel is the duty of the National Authority and the PLO and the factions working to free all prisoners and detainees and to develop a comprehensive national strategy to achieve this national goal.”
He said: “I will bless the Palestinian reconciliation and the understandings reached and I call on all parties and factions and leaders to work with sincerity and seriousness of the implementation of the Agreement on Reconciliation, translated on the ground and guided by a document of prisoners of national reconciliation with evidence of a program and a common denominator for all.”
He called for accelerating the reform and development (m. T.. Q) and holding elections for membership of the National Council and the participation of all factions, which, in addition to holding presidential and legislative elections in an atmosphere of unity and cohesion and solidarity, and to reject internal violence and media incitement and stop violations of human rights and respect for the rule of law and freedom of the press The media and public and individual freedoms, and the fight against corruption more effectively, including the symbols of corruption affects those who are not accountable to this day one of them, stressing the importance of transparency and integrity and the right of our people in his money in the account and to punish those who violate the sanctity of trust and responsibility.
And, consequently, the literal text of the message issued by the militant leader Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian people on the occasion of the forty-seventh anniversary of the start of the Palestinian revolution:
“I would like on this occasion, dear to our hearts greeting, reverence and gratitude of our people and great at home and in exile and the Diaspora and the masses of our Arab and Islamic countries, all free, friends, and solidarity with the struggle of our people, and I greet reverence and gratitude to the martyrs of our great people and the martyrs of our Arab and Islamic countries, led by the martyr leader Yasser Arafat and his companions founders, led by Prince of Abu Jihad martyrs, I would also like to congratulate the leadership and cadres, members and supporters of Fatah movement and its organizations and the Libyan People’s everywhere.
This anniversary at a time when Israel and its government fascism, war and aggression is not unprecedented on our people and our land, and are primarily aimed at the Judaization of Jerusalem and the destruction and the liquidation of its Arab and Muslim and Christian, is aimed at occupying the city Bmekdsadtha and its neighborhoods, its residents and their homes, and the settlement cancer continues to pace is the most comprehensive and broader since the occupation began in 1967 in order to abort the project independent Palestinian state on land occupied in 1967, and comes in light of international failure to completely stop Israel when alone, and required them to halt settlement building and end the occupation and accept the decisions of international legitimacy, and that Israel was exploiting the case of worry experienced by the Arab world even temporarily because of the revolution taking place in Arab democracy that many Arab countries, as they exploit the ongoing Palestinian division, and the state deficit in the face of this aggression Continued settlement.
As I turn to the Palestinian people on this anniversary, which derive strength and determination and all the meanings of sacrifice and redemption and absolute faith in the justice of our cause and the purity of the blood of our martyrs and the pain and suffering of our people throughout the country and in refugee camps and in the diaspora and the diaspora, we promise our great people to remain flag raised Whisk until the end occupation and the establishment of our independent state with full sovereignty and its capital Jerusalem and the return of refugees to their homes and free all prisoners and detainees and stressed the following:
1 – bless the Palestinian reconciliation and the understandings reached and I call on all parties and factions and leaders to work with sincerity and seriousness of the implementation of the Agreement on Reconciliation, translated on the ground and guided by a document of national reconciliation with the prisoners and a program guide and a common denominator for all.
I also call on the Palestinian factions and the Palestinian leadership to reconciliation with the Palestinian people, because the reconciliation between the factions are not enough do not provide a real solution, because Mr. Faisal, the government was and remains our great revolutions and uprisings maker and maker of the legendary steadfastness in the face of occupation and aggression.
2 – The peace process had failed and ended there is no longer any point to make desperate attempts to breathe life into the body of the dead, and I call to stop the export of illusions could be built upon, and the need to move towards Palestinian strategy and a new national long let them and confirmed them. The time has come to adopt this strategy and go until the end, based primarily on the bet on our people and strength of living and generations young and wings his sons, and considered in 2012 in the Popular Resistance peaceful and extensive in the face of settlement and aggression and the Judaization of Jerusalem and the siege and barriers, and continue to work in the United Nations to extract the membership of the State of Palestine in all international forums and in the United Nations, and not retreat to the pressure exerted by the United States and Israel, and continue to work to a wider international boycott of Israel economically and politically, the media, diplomatically and militarily, to stop all forms of cooperation with them, as well as increase the frequency and expand the County Products and Israeli goods and the evacuation of the Palestinian markets them.
3 – While emphasizing the importance of preserving the national authority and to continue the struggle to convert it to an independent state with full sovereignty, I call to review many of the functions of the authority in order to achieve and enhance the national steadfastness in the face of the occupation and settlements, including supports and supports the Popular Resistance peaceful and renounce all forms of cooperation with the occupation. And work to strengthen the economy of steadfastness and support groups affected by the occupation, particularly the parents in Jerusalem and the institutions of the city of all kinds, and the villages and communities affected by the wall, and support the families of martyrs and prisoners, the wounded and unemployed workers and graduates, in addition to expanding the People’s Committees at all sites of resistance to occupation and settlement and aggression.
4 – To accelerate the reform and development (m. T.. Q) and holding elections for membership of the National Council and the participation of all factions, which, in addition to holding presidential and legislative elections in an atmosphere of unity and cohesion and solidarity, and to reject internal violence and media incitement and stop violations of human rights and respect for the rule of law and freedom of the press The media and public and individual freedoms, and the fight against corruption more effectively, including the symbols of corruption affects those who are not accountable to this day one of them, stressing the importance of transparency and integrity and the right of our people in his money in the account and to punish those who violate the sanctity of trust and responsibility.
5 – I extend my greetings and appreciation for the peoples of our Arab rebel that have achieved victory in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and I call on leaders of new parties and governments and the masses to adopt a new policy towards the Palestinian issue based political support, economic and media and financial support to Palestine and the struggle of its people, and support the unity of the Palestinian people and their national reconciliation and resistance to the occupation and support democracy in Palestine and the use of influence and weight in favor of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people and their just struggle for freedom, return and independence.
6 – As we emphasize the importance of the great national achievement that has been the release of hundreds of activists in the swap deal between Hamas and Israel is the duty of the National Authority, (m. T.. Q) and the factions working to free all prisoners and detainees and to develop a comprehensive national strategy to achieve this national goal.
7 – I call on the sons of the “Open” venerated and agents of the principles of open and maxims and its program to take the initiative and the leadership of the Popular Resistance peaceful and engage the broadest and in all locations and squares, the movement of “open” used to be in the place of leadership since the start of the Palestinian revolution to lead in the leadership of AD. T. P and the establishment of the PA, in uprisings Alambarkian must be at the helm of the now peaceful popular resistance.
Long live the Palestinian people, the great
Long live the movement of the “Open” … Long live the unity
Yes to resist the occupation and settlement
Yes to freedom, independence and return
Glory to the martyrs and healing to the wounded and freedom for the prisoners
Brother
Marwan Barghouti
* Hadarim prison cell No. 28
Khan Younis Refugee Camp Gaza, Palestine
Khan Younis refugee camp
Excerpts From UNRWA Office, From Gaza, Palestine
Posted On January 1, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
All the content is for information only, awareness and diffusion of the tragedy that Gaza lives right now due to Israel Siege and ultimately largely to the long occupation that have severed the lives of an entire Country.
Khan Yoinis in Gaza Strip, Palestine is just a minor example of the damage of Israel Occupation, the public institution that serve to prologue the occupation and in their roles of Aid Agencies perpetuate the occupation are as guilty as Israel is.
UNRWA is a branch of UN created specifically to Aid Refugees of Conflicts created by war/enterprises organized by the UN Club. UN is an organization that primary intention when created was to avert wars, but as we seen over and over UN is the maker of war and conflicts.
Even thought UNRWA “Aid” alleviates some necessities for the refugees that are registered with this Institution, the great necessity is left unattended.
Construction Material, Food, Health Products and Machinery are primordial to take Gaza out of its misery, but Israel and its Allies with lame excuses are deeping the entire population in despair with no immediate solution offered to Gaza residents but the crumbs of a subsidized Aid.
The governments in charge of UN and its branches give their “Donations” and they look the other way, and pretend everything will be OK. Well nothing is ok, in fact UNRAW is underfunded and its inability. to mitigate the suffering of the refugees is well known.
“UNRWA relies almost entirely upon donations from individuals, institutional donors and governments. Every dollar you donate to UNRWA helps restore dignity to the lives of refugees who are unable to support themselves due to the loss of livelihoods under the blockade” Form UNRWA Office, and yet astronomical salaries are paid to top executives. The latest post offering for UNRWA official in Gaza was in November 2011, Head of UNRWA office in Gaza. ”
“UNRWA offers an attractive compensation package including annual salary starting at $111,950 net tax free with dependants or $102,847 single, plus post adjustment of 57% (subject to change without notice). Other benefits, subject to eligibility, include education grant, dependency allowance, home leave, pension fund, health insurance and 6 weeks annual leave. Staff members based in Gaza are entitled to additional benefits, subject to eligibility, including expanded leave provisions, hardship pay, and R&R leave every 6 weeks (according to the UN classification of the duty station and subject to change without notice). While Gaza is a non-family duty station, eligible staff members may set up a second household in a nearby location to have their family nearby. Initial contract is for one year, with the possibility of further extensions. Note: following the assessment of relevant academic qualifications and work experience, the Agency reserves the right to appoint the incumbent at one grade below the advertised level.”
There are more than 11,000 personnel in Gaza that work for UNRWA, most of the recruiters are foreigners from around the world, there are “some” jobs that are given to people from Gaza but are the lowest paid.
Gaza counts with a tremendously educated population graduated from their Universities, they are more than qualified to take top UNRWA posts , they speak Arabic, they know the local custom, they know the internal conflict, they are directly involved in Gaza life, they should be given the opportunity to be part of the solution or at least to take advantage of this foreign “Aid” more directly, will serve to revive in little scale their economy as the Money will stay in Gaza and will not be spend in Israel, as most of the foreign workers are to freely cross the Eretz crossing to Israel in weekly bases.
“It juz shows the magnitude of what’s on display at the moment. Yet the infinite potential of the educated youth who are more than capable of doin much of the needed work to help readdress & reconstruct Gaza’s economy given the chance await for the dawn of a new day. I have no doubt having met with many of the young people I rubbed shoulders with in Gaza that they would flourish when the blockade is eventually broken. Until then the greatest asset of Gaza (which is its people) especially the young have to continue to be battle strong. It’s easier said than done I’m afraid.” Mohammad Hamza
Absolutely! true. Every country in the world has more or less the same problems that Gaza is suffering; extreme poverty belts, severe unemployment, underfunded social programs like health, and after school programs, political internal conflicts, religious division, corruption in the government spheres, plus a Political Blockade imposed by Israel and blessed by the UN country security council members, and an on going military occupation, all this incorporated to the Public Aid System aka Foreign Welfare that makes Gaza a Unique Spot on Earth.
Which can be considered a blessing in any country which is a highly educated society. in Gaza is kind of a soft burden, because an Educated Society is not easy manageable and highly susceptible to change, highly educated society makes it citizens to understand the problematic of the country and will try to do something about it, civil disobedience, non violent resistance movements and violent movement as well, all intended to change the Status Quo of the occupation and the internal dynamics of the political process that seems not help but to keep the population “Controlled”.
It is happening in Gaza, we saw it with the March 15 March, where the youth came together to yell to their leaders what is wrong with them, a move that was not welcome by the authorities but at the end they have to take in consideration, the magnitude of the wave around the world, and in an unprecedented move that surprise world leaders and the world, the two strong internal factions came to an agreement.
Now the Odds are in the hands of time and the World, that every day are taking more notice of the conflict and are speaking up, adding their efforts to the ongoing resistance movement inside Gaza.
What Gaza needs is not Aid, but to be liberated, to be allowed to trade their products, to import material to reconstruct the destroyed infrastructure, to let it be a free region, to take advantage of it’s potential as a fishing port, and tourist destination. Khan Younis, Gaza Stritp, Palestine.
Khan Younis
Khan Younis refugee camp is located about two kilometers from the Mediterranean coast, north of Rafah. It lies west of the town of Khan Younis, a major commercial center and stop-off point on the ancient trade route to Egypt.
After the 1948 war, 35,000 refugees took shelter in the camp, having fled their homes during the hostilities. Most were from the Be’er Sheva area. Today, Khan Younis camp is home to nearly 72,000 refugees.
Blockade
Life for nearly all refugees in the camp is more difficult because of the blockade of Gaza, with much higher unemployment. Fewer families can provide for themselves, leaving a staggering proportion of the population dependent on UNRWA’s food and cash assistance. Ninety per cent of the camp’s water is unfit for human consumption, so basic hygiene is another big concern.
Reconstruction
Over the years, many of the refugees living in Khan Younis lost their shelters in Israel Defense Forces operations. Prior to the imposition of the blockade, UNRWA had commenced a significant re-housing project to accommodate all those who had lost their shelters. However, the blockade prevented UNRWA from bringing in construction materials to complete the project, leaving thousands of people without permanent shelters.
UNRWA only received permission in 2010 to bring in the materials to complete a number of housing units for refugees whose shelters were demolished years ago. UNRWA estimates that it must construct a minimum of 10,000 shelters to re-house refugees currently living in unacceptable conditions and/or who have lost their homes as a result of the conflict.
DONOR OPIUM, the impact of international aid to Palestine
This documentary film, directed by Mariam Shahin and George Azar, and funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, features Palestinian criticism of this externally funded “development”.
For twenty years now the international donor community has financially supported Palestinian institution-building, infrastructure development, the economy, public employees’ salaries, health and education, social welfare, the police, electricity production, private credit guarantees, and the bigger part of the civil society organizations with regards to democracy promotion, human rights, tolerance, women rights etc.
Peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state have been the declared goals of all the support. But actual results are the fragmentation and pacification of the Palestinian people.
Statistics
- Nearly 72,000 registered refugees
- 25 school buildings, 22 running double-shifts, accommodating a total of 38 schools
- One food distribution centre
- Three health centres
- Demographic profile:
Programmes in the camp
- Health
- Education
- Relief and social services
- Microfinance and microenterprise
- Reconstruction and recovery
- Emergency food and cash assistanceaid
Major problems
- Overcrowding
- Housing shortage
- High unemployment
- Access to adequate water and electricity supplies
MK ULTRA – NOT CONSPIRACY BUT TRUTH
MK-ULTRA:
MK Ultra was a code name declassified in the 1970’s Church Committee and other lawsuits brought against the government where the public was informed that thousands of people, patients from hospitals, mental health patients, prisoners in the justice system, and even public citizens were selected for testing without their consent.
Testing was conducted in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Some claim they still go on today and provide evidence.
The testing includes torture, drugs, and exotic hypnosis experiments in an effort to explore the mind, propaganda, and other related patterns.
One sub department of the operation included a group of lunatic scientists who were looking to create an assassins program, to see if it was possible to kidnap someone, say an enemy in a country, conduct hypnosis and other techniques learned in Mk Ultra, and send them back to the country with a plan to assassinate their leaders. That plan is what scares people most. MK Ultra was carried out by the CIA illegally, and in the 1970s, hundreds of patients sued the federal government for damages, and the government settled and paid millions of dollars.
Now here is the really trippy, scary info. Some of these patients where MK Ultra was used include Ted Kazinsky (the unabpmber), mark David Chapman (the man who shot Lennon), Sirhan Sirhan (the man who shot Bobby Kennedy) and even Lee
Harvey Oswald is rumored to have attended a base in japan before heading to Russia where MK Ultra experiments were taking place.
David Ferrie, Oswalds boss for a long period of time, is said to have been an MK Ultra specialist and specialized in hypnosis, and believe it or not, sexual molestation to mess with his patients heads. David Ferrie was a convicted child predator who left the Catholic Church to train Black Operations hitmen for the invasion of Cuba.
David Ferrie taught the Louisiana Civial Air Patrol, where both Lee Harvey Oswald and Barry Seal joined as 15 year old children. Barry Seal became the primary operative in Iran-Contra, who ran drugs for the CIA and was an active contract hitman, Oswlad was accused of killing John F Kennedy. David Ferrie was murdered, made to look like a suicide, the night before his testimony in a trial Jim Garrison brought against the CIA where he accused Ferrie and others of using Oswald as a patsy.
New videos found
Project MK-ULTRA, or MKULTRA, was the code name for a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. The program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used United States citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that Project MK-ULTRA involved the surreptitious use of many types of drugs, as well as other methods, to manipulate individual mental states and to alter brain function.
Project MK-ULTRA was first brought to wide public attention in 1975 by the U.S. Congress, through investigations by the Church Committee, and by a presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MK-ULTRA files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms’ destruction order.
Although the CIA insists that MK-ULTRA-type experiments have been abandoned, 14-year CIA veteran Victor Marchetti has stated in various interviews that the CIA routinely conducted disinformation campaigns and that CIA mind control research continued. In a 1977 interview, Marchetti specifically called the CIA claim that MK-ULTRA was abandoned a “cover story.”
On the Senate floor in 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy said:
“The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an ‘extensive testing and experimentation’ program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens “at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign.” Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to ‘unwitting subjects in social situations.’ At least one death, that of Dr. Olson, which resulted from these activities. The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers.”
Project ARTICHOKE was a CIA project that researched interrogation methods and arose from Project BLUEBIRD on August 20, 1951, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. A memorandum by Richard Helms to CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles indicated Artichoke became Project MKULTRA on April 13, 1953.
The project studied hypnosis, forced morphine addiction (and subsequent forced withdrawal), and the use of other chemicals, among other methods, to produce amnesia and other vulnerable states in subjects.
Artichoke was an offensive program of mind control that gathered together the intelligence divisions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and FBI. In addition, the scope of the project was outlined in a memo dated January 1952 that stated, “Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self preservation?”
Operation LAC (Large Area Coverage) was a U.S. Army Chemical Corps operation, which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide (ZnCdS), particles over much of the United States. The purpose was to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents.
3-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB, BZ, EA-2277), IUPAC name 1-azabicyclo[2.2.2]Oct-3-yl α-hydroxy-α-phenylbenzeneacetate, is an odorless military incapacitating agent. Its NATO code is BZ. The Iraqi incapacitating agent Agent 15 is believed either to be the same as or similar to BZ.
BZ is a glycolate anticholinergic compound related to atropine, scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and other deliriants. Dispersal would be as an aerosolized solid (primarily for inhalation) or as an agent dissolved in one or more solvents for ingestion or percutaneous absorption.
Acting as a competitive inhibitor of acetylcholine at postsynaptic and postjunctional muscarinic receptor sites in smooth muscle, exocrine glands, autonomic ganglia, and the brain, BZ decreases the effective concentration of acetylcholine seen by receptors at these sites. Thus, BZ causes PNS effects that, in general, are the opposite of those seen in nerve agent poisoning. CNS effects include stupor, confusion, and confabulation with concrete and panoramic illusions and hallucinations, and with regression to automatic “phantom” behaviors such as plucking and disrobing
Physostigmine, which increases the concentration of acetylcholine in synapses and in neuromuscular and neuroglandular junctions, is a specific antidote.
Geopolitics of Confusion
Posted Originally on Opinion Maker on 29. Dec, 2011 by Nadir Mir
US – NATO attack on Pakistan
By Brig Nadir Mir
US – NATO attacked a non NATO Ally Pakistan!
The attack was unprovoked, wanton, cowardly and ruthless. It was open aggression and violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. US – NATO aggression was condemned or Pakistan received support and sympathy from China, Russia, Iran, OIC (Saudi Arabia) – Turkey. Even UK expressed regrets; France supports an inquiry into the issue. Germany was obviously disappointed by Pakistan’s cancellation of participation at Bonn Conference
US filled with hubris even refused to apologize, while Delhi was gloating over the death of Pakistani Soldiers and its predicament. The Pakistani Nation is livid with rage and united to defend Pakistan. The American sanctioned attack (no other power on the planet can dare to attack Pakistan at its own) is radicalizing Pakistan. The beleaguered (mini minority) corrupt and treacherous elite in Pakistan are finding excuses to explain American aggression.
The time has come to end the Geopolitics of Confusion!
Firstly why was this aggression launched?
A long list of answers can be compiled, some are presented here:
A strategy of deflection to keep away from the ‘Memo’.
Gunship raid, attack (live) rehearsal – against Pakistan’s nuclear sites. (Helicopters at night used even earlier for ‘snatch operations’ like the Abbotabad Raid).
Daily Beast article which claims this as ‘Obama’s Foreign Policy Doctrine’ and terms it as ‘Off Shore Balancing’ (with money and bravado in short supply, avoid land battle. Use of heliborne/drone/air power for foreign policy ends of USA).
Condition Pakistan to stay prostrate during expected ‘war against Iran’ by Israel / US (urgency of expected strike on Persia)
Intimidate Pakistan before Bonn Conference. (Absurd but irrational Globalists can do anything)
Pakistan’s (offensive) containment. Degrade, disgrace Pakistan Army and drive a wedge in the Pakistani Nation. (The opposite effects have been achieved. The Pakistani Nation stands united and supports the Army vehemently)
Secondly who is with and against Pakistan?
With Pakistan stand its brave plus patriotic Armed Forces, and the nationalistically motivated people of Pakistan. The soldiers and masses stand together against foreign threats. Externally to varying – degrees Pakistan is supported by China – Russia – Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia – OIC. Almost the entire region is against US sponsored wars, or longevity for its military presence. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are already in a state of war with USA. Most of the world respects Pakistan (Pakistan’s nomination to Security Council seat was testament). India is of course completely untrustworthy. It can always launch ‘Cold Start’ offensive on any pretext in harmony with US MILITARY STRIKE – against Pakistan. (In December a major Indian Army Exercise is underway in the deserts against Pakistan). Still the regional Geopolitics would have to be viewed by Delhi, more than Pakistan’s offer of MFN.
Russian support can prove a game changer for Pakistan. It would tilt the scales, Russia – China and not only China supporting Pakistan. Deterring USA to an extent, while inhibiting India from joining US for an attack on Pakistan. (Besides Pakistan’s conventional forces and nuclear deterrent – tactical weapons included, could keep India at bay)
The British even as America’s most Allied Ally are not openly clashing with Pakistan. (Both due to British Policy and British vulnerability at home. More so, the fate of the British Embassy in Tehran clearly indicates an Iranian – British clash). In fact Pakistan’s relations with the British, French and Germans (major NATO members) have been good. They could even be better if NATO withdraws from Afghanistan. (There would be little to have friction on). Pakistan – German friendship should improve further. Germany is the true and future leader of Europe and respected by Pakistanis.
Now the question who is against Pakistan?
A brutally candid answer is:
Firstly, Pakistan’s own corrupt, treacherous and incompetent elite, a mini minority which wants to keep robbing and exploiting the Pakistani Nation. They seek solace and work for foreign powers (USA – India). The treacherous elite would sell the Motherland for a song. They want to serve as slave overseers for a shackled Nation. Selling it to the first bidder. Yesterday it was USA alone but now it is USA – India. This is the Pakistan Corruption – Treachery Nexus, who are more loyal to Washington – Delhi than many Americans and Indians and of course Anti Pakistan. (After all in USA, Americans are challenging the system – Occupy Wall Street, LA etc or Anna Hazara ‘Anti corruption Drive’ in India)
Secondly the cabal of America’s Globalists, military – industrial complex, left over Neo cons who still want to conquer the world. (Despite being chastened in Iraq – Afghanistan). On the contrary, the good hearted, charity giving and amiable people of America many of whom are now questioning this perpetual war quest. They seek jobs and living at home rather than wars abroad! The White House and State Department are confused in the Geopolitical labyrinth of Afghanistan.
The war lovers of course love war. They want to continue the war in Afghanistan and start new ones in Iran – Pakistan! (Not divining that the combined Geopolitical space of Afghanistan – Pakistan – Iran – Iraq will prove a Giant Black hole (even for Uncle Sam).
Thirdly, Delhi the serpent, is always bidding its time to strike Pakistan. Still the complex and multi faceted (Delhi does not want to lose Tehran / Moscow affinity) regional Geopolitics weighs heavy on Indian minds . As does the fear of nuclear holocaust from a Pakistani response.
Veteran Indian Diplomat MK Bhadrakumar had predicted a ‘Persian Response’ by Pakistan for this attack, (asymmetrical plus Strategic Defiance). Simon Tisdall warning in ‘Pakistan has had enough’ had opinioned that an Iranian type Revolution in Pakistan could be one outcome in future.
‘A hot flash in the Cold War with Pakistan’ is how the Atlantic titled its article. The only people who still think in terms of an alliance in the Global War on terror are Pakistan’s dimwitted, thieving, treacherous elite! The rest of the world is quite clear on the real issues, which are:
Pakistan’s Denuclearization (through ‘Memo of Treachery’ or American Geo strategy)
America’s partial withdrawal from Afghanistan
From the MemoGate to Gunship attack etc, are all tactics of one supreme over arching strategy to denuke Pakistan. (War hawks controlled, Indian influenced).
Washington wants to keep its ‘Strike or Nuclear Grab Option’ open against Pakistan (before or after war with Iran). For this herculean task there are three pre requisites.
Treacherous elite support within Pakistan. (Memo and related kind)
Prepositioning, maintaining secret – clandestine forces, Special Forces in Pakistan in disguise. (To act as path finders, initial strike force)
Afghanistan Bases (operations for denuking strike)
Without these three pre requisites any Strategic Denuclearization Scenario remains fiction and outside the realm of feasibility. (Any attempt against Pakistan’s nuclear sites will have catastrophic consequences any way).
Strategic logic dictates that all three pre requisites (for denuclearization attempt) be denied to foreign forces.
· The treacherous elite have to be marginalized.
· Secretly positioned clandestine foreign forces eliminated or expelled.
· Afghan Bases Denied. (Complete pull out of all foreign forces from Afghanistan has to be Pakistan’s avowed policy)
Besides Pakistan’s brave soldiers, the Nation stands united. China, Russia and Iran at the very least seek Pakistan’s strategic autonomy from NATO. EU – NATO can be divided more so with Turkish support. British are cautious, French non hostile, Germans Peace Seeking. In America, the Afghan war has divided them, even as they unite for the war against Iran.
Pakistan should lobby for:
· An immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan and Pakistan – Afghanistan border.
· The political face of Taliban for talks.
· Early resolution of Baluch problem, where Empire (US – NATO) will strike back in Pakistan. (The next front being attacked by western – Indian Geo-strategy – Charter of Freedom for Baluchistan etc)
· Complete and early withdrawal of all US – NATO forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Disagree to any stay behind NATO forces in Afghanistan).
· Moscow – Islamabad synergism can prove a game changer. Supply routes to NATO in Afghanistan should be jointly blocked by Pakistan and Russia as part of a Peace Policy.
(‘Next War – Iran’ written by this scribe for Opinion Maker has been published by Pravda Ru and Windows to Russia. A view in Moscow is that Pakistan and Russia can together choke NATO in Afghanistan!)
· Pakistan needs to muster more tangible support from China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey on Afghanistan while keeping it cool with India for the present (through diplomacy – deterrence).
The problem in Afghanistan is very simple.
The Americans lost the war, but do not want to admit it.
There is still time for them to declare victory and go home today. Tomorrow may be a different day!US – NATO attack on Pakistan
How Congress is Signing its own Arrest Warrants in the NDAA Citizen Arrest bill
Published: December 12th, 2011
Author:Naomi Wolf
I never thought I would have to write this: but—incredibly—Congress has now passed the National Defense Appropriations Act, with Amendment 1031, which allows for the military detention of American citizens. The amendment is so loosely worded that any American citizen could be held without due process. The language of this bill can be read to assure Americans that they can challenge their detention — but most people do not realize what this means: at Guantanamo and in other military prisons, one’s lawyer’s calls are monitored, witnesses for one’s defense are not allowed to testify, and one can be forced into nudity and isolation. Incredibly, ninety-three Senators voted to support this bill and now most of Congress: a roster of names that will live in infamy in the history of our nation, and never be expunged from the dark column of the history books.
They may have supported this bill because—although it’s hard to believe—they think the military will only arrest active members of Al Qaida; or maybe, less naively, they believe that ‘at most’, low-level dissenting figures, activists, or troublesome protesters might be subjected to military arrest. But they are forgetting something critical: history shows that those who signed this bill will soon be subject to arrest themselves.
Our leaders appear to be supporting this bill thinking that they will always be what they are now, in the fading light of a once-great democracy — those civilian leaders who safely and securely sit in freedom and DIRECT the military. In inhabiting this bubble, which their own actions are about to destroy, they are cocooned by an arrogance of power, placing their own security in jeopardy by their own hands, and ignoring history and its inevitable laws. The moment this bill becomes law, though Congress is accustomed, in a weak democracy, to being the ones who direct and control the military, the power roles will reverse: Congress will no longer be directing and in charge of the military: rather, the military will be directing and in charge of individual Congressional leaders, as well as in charge of everyone else — as any Parliamentarian in any society who handed this power over to the military can attest.
Perhaps Congress assumes that it will always only be ‘they’ who are targeted for arrest and military detention: but sadly, Parliamentary leaders are the first to face pressure, threats, arrest and even violence when the military obtains to power to make civilian arrests and hold civilians in military facilities without due process. There is no exception to this rule. Just as I traveled the country four years ago warning against the introduction of torture and secret prisons – and confidently offering a hundred thousand dollar reward to anyone who could name a nation that allowed torture of the ‘other’ that did not eventually turn this abuse on its own citizens — (confident because I knew there was no such place) — so today I warn that one cannot name a nation that gave the military the power to make civilian arrests and hold citizens in military detention, that did not almost at once turn that power almost against members of that nation’s own political ruling class. This makes sense — the obverse sense of a democracy, in which power protects you; political power endangers you in a militarized police state: the more powerful a political leader is, the more can be gained in a militarized police state by pressuring, threatening or even arresting him or her.
Mussolini, who created the modern template for fascism, was a duly elected official when he started to direct paramilitary forces against Italian citizens: yes, he sent the Blackshirts to beat up journalists, editors, and union leaders; but where did these militarized groups appear most dramatically and terrifyingly, snapping at last the fragile hold of Italian democracy? In the halls of the Italian Parliament. Whom did they physically attack and intimidate? Mussolini’s former colleagues in Parliament — as they sat, just as our Congress is doing, peacefully deliberating and debating the laws. Whom did Hitler’s Brownshirts arrest in the first wave of mass arrests in 1933? Yes, journalists, union leaders and editors; but they also targeted local and regional political leaders and dragged them off to secret prisons and to torture that the rest of society had turned a blind eye to when it had been directed at the ‘other.’ Who was most at risk from assassination or arrest and torture, after show trials, in Stalin’s Russia? Yes, journalists, editors and dissidents: but also physically endangered, and often arrested by militarized police and tortured or worse, were senior members of the Politburo who had fallen out of favor.
Is this intimidation and arrest by the military a vestige of the past? Hardly. We forget in America that all over the world there are militarized societies in which shells of democracy are propped up — in which Parliament meets regularly and elections are held, but the generals are really in charge, just as the Egyptian military is proposing with upcoming elections and the Constitution itself. That is exactly what will take place if Congress gives the power of arrest and detention to the military: and in those societies if a given political leader does not please the generals, he or she is in physical danger or subjected to military arrest. Whom did John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, say he was directed to intimidate and threaten when he worked as a ‘jackal’, putting pressure on the leadership in authoritarian countries? Latin American parliamentarians who were in the position to decide the laws that affected the well-being of his corporate clients. Who is under house arrest by the military in Myanmar? The political leader of the opposition to the military junta. Malalai Joya is an Afghani parliamentarian who has run afoul of the military and has to sleep in a different venue every night — for her own safety. An on, and on, in police states — that is, countries with military detention of civilians — that America is about to join.
US Congress people and Senators may think that their power protects them from the treacherous wording of Amendments 1031 and 1032: but their arrogance is leading them to a blindness that is suicidal. The moment they sign this NDAA into law, history shows that they themselves and their staff are the most physically endangered by it. They will immediately become, not the masters of the great might of the United States military, but its subjects and even, if history is any guide — and every single outcome of ramping up police state powers, unfortunately, that I have warned for years that history points to, has come to pass — sadly but inevitably, its very first targets.
LINKS:
National Defense Appropriations Act
Indefinite military detention for U.S. citizens now in the hands of a secretive conference committee
December 8, 2011 – by Donny Shaw
http://bit.ly/sxolqr
Libya In The News: Old Libya
FRANÇAIS 189 عربي 9 ESPAÑOL 146 ENGLISH 201 PORTUGUÊS 20 DEUTSCH 28 ITALIANO 57 فارسى 1 РУССКИЙ 10 POLSKI 1
Targeting of Christian Syrians and Black Libyans: The “Clash of Civilizations” is on the march
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
21 NOVEMBER 2011
Divide and conquer stratagems are back with a vengeance throughout the Arab world, fanning the flames of discontent and undermining national sovereignty. The stage is being set for a contrived “clash of civilizations,” closely following the 1982 plan of Israeli strategist Oded Yinon, for which any form of peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic and religious groups living in Arab countries spells disaster and must be stamped out. Nazemroaya analyses the process already underway.
“THE ART OF WAR”
Armed business in Libya
by Manlio Dinucci
ROME (ITALY) | 14 NOVEMBER 2011
The “new Libya” is a mirror for larks, with entrepreneurs scrambling for mega-deals. However, the current state of instability makes any construction project extremely risky. The oil and food supply sectors are the only ones that offer long-term guarantees. Provided of course that businessmen are protected … this is where the private military companies come in.
Bob Powell: ’We’ve been lied to by every media outlet in the world about Libya’
13 NOVEMBER 2011
Upon recently uncovering information that the “revolution” in Libya was anything but a popular uprising, Bob Powell, host and producer of “The Truth Is Viral” on Above Top Secret decided to share it with his audience in the latest episode of his show.
In an efficiently packaged presentation, he exposes the real reasons behind the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi without leaving any stone unturned, from the CIA trained and equipped al-Qaeda terrorists assisted by Qatari Army soldiers, to the (…)
NATO WAR CRIMES
Libyan humanitarian activist vs. NATO
13 NOVEMBER 2011
Setting a momentous precedent, 34-year old Khaled K. El-Hamedi filed a lawsuit against NATO after his entire family was killed in a bombing raid on 20 June 2011 at 2:30 a.m. While in Libya, Voltaire Network’s Thierry Meyssan reported on the “The Sorman massacre”, denouncing NATO’s strategy of deliberately targeting the family members of Libyan leaders, aided by undercover agents who marked the targets for the strikes. Khaled K. El-Hamedi brings us his personal testimony of the barbarism that destroyed his loved ones, his life and his entire country.
Allied forces deployed in Libya since mid-February
10 NOVEMBER 2011
According to Nathalie Guibert of Le Monde, the French and British military General Staff negotiated the division of Libyan waters between their respective submarines a month before NATO’s intervention, that is when the Benghazi disorders erupted.
The French daily further reported that four nuclear attack submarines (SNA) were deployed off the coast of Libya during Operation “Unified Protector”. One of them allegedly started running intelligence missions by end of February.
Such reports (…)
In 1978, Imam Sadr was indeed Muammar Gaddafi’s victim
10 NOVEMBER 2011
Muammar Gaddafi’s former personal aide, Ahmad Ramadan al-Asaibie, gave an interview to journalist Jenan Moussa, released by the UAE-based television channel Al-Aan on 8 November 2011.
In the 80’s, Colonel Ahmed Ben Ramadan had coordinated the pro-Libyan forces in Chad, before taking command of the Libyan Revolutionary Guard. In the 90s, he headed the “Guide”’s Intelligence Bureau.
He claims to have witnessed the arrival at Muammar Gaddafi’s Headquarters of Iman Mosa el Sadr and his two (…)
5 000 Qatari troops helped to colonize Libya
7 NOVEMBER 2011
Having long claimed that it participated in the fighting in Libya by only sending a few planes, Qatar admitted some ten days that it actually deployed hundreds of ground troops.
However, Voltaire Network has consistently reported a massive presence of Qatari ground forces (and to a lesser extent, Jordan). Qatar had built a small airport in southern Libya and used the one in Cyrenaica to transport its troops. It disembarked reinforcements in Tripoli when the capital was taken.
Moreover, (…)
General Bouchard acknowledges that NATO’s informants in Libya were journalists
3 NOVEMBER 2011
In a 31 October 2011 interview on Radio Canada, Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, who led Operation Unified Protector in Libya, revealed that an analysis unit was set up at NATO headquarters in Naples. It’s mission was to study and decipher what was happening on the ground, that is to say both the movements of the Libyan Army and those of the “rebels.”
To fortify the unit, several information networks were created. “The intelligence came from many sources, including the media who were on (…)
Al Qaeda takes possession of emblematic Benghazi Courthouse
3 NOVEMBER 2011
Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the former Justice Minister of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya who became chairman of the National Transitional Council, announced the rebels’ intention to turn Libya into an Islamic state and implement Sharia as the only law.
From the first month of NATO’s bombing campaign in Libya, Voltaire Network highlighted Al Qaeda’s role in the destabilization of the country to justify foreign military intervention.
According to journalist Elhelwa Sheriff, the Al Qaeda flag is (…)
NATO Secretary General statement on end of Libya mission
by Anders Fogh Rasmussen
BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) | 28 OCTOBER 2011
Today, we confirmed the decision taken by the North Atlantic Council a week ago. Our operation for Libya will end on October 31. Until then, together with our partners, we will continue to monitor the situation. And if needed, we will continue to respond to threats to civilians.
We have fully complied with the historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people of Libya, to enforce the no-fly zone and the arms embargo. Operation Unified Protector is one of the most successful in (…)
Libya’s former UN ambassador fears for life in jail
27 OCTOBER 2011
Libyan ex-PM Abuzed Dorda has suffered broken legs and other injuries following what relatives claim was a murder attempt by guards. The Libyan, meanwhile, says his wounds were sustained during an escape bid.
Dorda’s son-in-law, Adel Khalifa, wrote to the UN Security Council’s Nigerian president, U. Joy Ogwu, according to a web report by Foreign Policy magazine, which has a copy of the email.
“Most of you may have known and dealt with Mr. Dorda during his tenure as Prime Minister of Libya,” (…)
Libya and Gaddafi: setting the record straight
26 OCTOBER 2011
The following video, by an anonymous author, has circulated virally on the internet. It presents irrefutable facts which paint an image of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime diametrically opposed to what has systematically been conveyed by the NATO-subservient media.
Eloquently entitled “Libya & Gaddafi: The Truth you are not supposed to know,” the enormous attention galvanized by this video is a sign of the mounting outrage as public opinion opens its eyes to the fabrications and lies foisted (…)
An African perspective: “Three reasons why Gaddafi has to die”
25 OCTOBER 2011
Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi overthrew the repressive Libyan monarchy of King Idris in 1969, nationalised the oil and banking industry and with the profits oversaw Africa’s first communication satellite in 2007, free health care and education for the Libyan people. He was working towards the unification of Africa to create a single African trading bloc and a single African currency based on gold and dinar, along with a united African military force.
In the following video, taped before (…)
Gaddafi’s son: ‘We continue our resistance to full revenge. I am in Libya, alive and free’
23 OCTOBER 2011
The son and heir apparent of the late Colonel Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, is still in Libya. He is free and will go on with resistance, he reportedly claimed in an address to supporters aired by Syria’s Arrai TV Channel, loyal to the Libyan ex-leader.
“We continue our resistance. I am in Libya, I am alive, free and intend to go to the very end and exact revenge,” Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quotes Saif al-Islam as saying on the Syrian Channel on Saturday night.
Earlier contradictory reports (…)
Chávez: Gaddafi’s assassination will not be the end of Libyan resistance
23 OCTOBER 2011
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez condemned the killing of Libyan head of state Muammar Gaddafi as an “assassination” and “a disregard for human life”.
Chávez stated that Gaddafi would be remembered as “a fighter and a martyr” and opined that the conflict in Libya isn’t finished, because in the North African country “there is a people, a dignity, and the Yankee empire will not be able to dominate”.
“The most lamentable thing is that in its [the US] determination to master the world, and its European (…)
Clinton: “We came, we saw, he died!”
21 OCTOBER 2011
Paraphrasing Emperor Julius Caesar following his victory over Pharnaces II (“Veni, Vedi, Vici”, meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered.”), US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, chortling before CBS cameras, reacted to Muammar Gaddafi’s death and the end of the war on Libya by declaring “We came, we saw, he died!”
The lynching of Muammar Gaddafi
by Thierry Meyssan
BEIRUT (LEBANON) | 21 OCTOBER 2011
The death of Muammar al-Gaddafi was hailed with an explosion of joy in all the government palaces of Western countries, but not by the Libyan people. For Thierry Meyssan, this militarily useless murder was perpetrated by the Empire not only as an example, but also to deconstruct Libya’s tribal society.
Barack Obama on Announcement of Death of Libya’s Qadhafi
by Barack Obama
WASHINGTON D.C. (USA) | 20 OCTOBER 2011
Good afternoon, everybody. Today, the government of Libya announced the death of Muammar Qaddafi. This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya, who now have the opportunity to determine their own destiny in a new and democratic Libya.
For four decades, the Qaddafi regime ruled the Libyan people with an iron fist. Basic human rights were denied. Innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed. And Libya’s wealth was squandered. The enormous potential of the (…)
Mali: Masses March in Support of Muammar Gaddafi
18 OCTOBER 2011
Mass demonstrations took place Friday in Mali against the European-American aggression on the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the leader of the Libyan revolution, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.
The protesters wore T-shirts and placards bearing the image of Colonel Gaddafi and chanted their readiness to die to save Libya. International brigades are being formed to stand up against the re-colonization of Africa.
The Jamahariya devoted part of its oil revenues to the development (…)
DOCUMENTARY BY JULIEN TEIL: “HUMANITARIAN WAR IN LIBYA : THERE IS NO EVIDENCE !”
Lybia: Human rights impostors used to spawn NATO’s fraudulent war
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
17 OCTOBER 2011
The names change but the methods remain the same. In Iraq the imperial war facilitator was Ahmed Chalabi. In Libya he goes by the name of Soliman Bouchuiguir, a shadowy human rights figure whose baseless allegations against Gaddafi were endorsed by the UN system and its affiliated human rights agencies without the slightest verification. Each one in his own way, Nazemroaya and Teil shed light on a failed system of international law and justice, which has made itself complicit in NATO’s war crimes in Libya.
Sirte martyred by NATO
15 OCTOBER 2011
The religious leaders of Sirte (Libya) have issued a fatwa authorizing the surviving residents to eat dogs and cats.
About one month ago some 3 000 soldiers and 80 000 civilians were trapped in the city, besieged by the forces of the National Transitional Council, overseen by officers of the International Coalition, and bombed by NATO.
Sirte no longer receives food supplies. Electricity and water are cut off. Hospitals stopped functioning. The city is in ruins.
Only 10 000-20 000 people (…)
Testimony by Lizzy Phelan: “The war on Libya is a war on Africa”
14 OCTOBER 2011
Back in the UK, after several months spent in Libya covering NATO war crimes and uncovering mainstream media lies, freelance journalist Lizzie Phelan continues to fight for truth and justice on behalf of the Libyan people. Her testimony below is a gripping example of her commitment.
Lizzie Phelan spent her last days in Libya – where she was reporting for PressTV – trapped in the Rixos Hotel, together with Thierry Meyssan, Mahdi Nazemroaya and two other members of the Voltaire Network (…)
Rebel Claims of Libya ‘Mass Graves’ Come Up Empty, Again
9 OCTOBER 2011
The NTC loses yet more credibility!
Since the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi, the rebel claims that the former dictator had killed some 50,000 people in the civil war began to be scrutinized, and suffered from a major lack of actual bodies.
The above photo, taken in March 2011, shows a row of empty graves but no victims.
The rebels acted quite vindicated yesterday, announcing some 900 bodies were found in a “mass grave.”
The problem is once again, it never happened. The rebel National (…)
Washington targeting China’s Achilles heel
by F. William Engdahl
FRANKFURT (GERMANY) | 7 OCTOBER 2011
While nervously watching China edging closer to becoming the predominant world power in the 21st century, Washington has also been keeping a keen eye on China’s heavy reliance on foreign oil to meet its growing energy needs. Engdahl analyses the oil trap that Washington has laid for China in Libya and through AFRICOM’s deployment across Africa.
Witch hunts in “free” Libya
by Lizzie Phelan
LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM) | 22 SEPTEMBER 2011
While NATO’s mandate enjoins it to protect civilians, the Alliance allows the forces of the Libyan National Transition Council to continue their abuses. After hunting down black Africans, the summary executions now extend to members of the Qadhadhfa tribe, that of the fallen Leader. Hundreds of thousands of African workers have already fled the country to escape death; the time has now come for certain Libyans to take the road to exile if they want to survive.
Walter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home—Guess Who He Saw Doing the Killing
by Valencia Mohammed
WASHINGTON D.C. (USA) | 21 SEPTEMBER 2011
Former US Congressman Walter Fauntroy had traveled to Libya as a goodwill negotiator to try to stop the war. Trapped inside the Rixos Hotel together with the team of Voltaire Network journalists, he narrowly escaped death: we can testify that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had personally given the order to execute him. He owes his salvation to his faith and the intervention of a high-profile US military official. Back in the U.S., he gave an interview to “Afro” magazine.
Muammar Gaddafi: “Jamahiriya Government Can Never Be Defeated”
20 SEPTEMBER 2011
Summary of leader Muammar Gaddafi’s statement made in an audio message broadcast on Syria’s Arrai television on Tuesday, 20 September:
“All should be aware that the government of Libya is the Jamahiriya government, that the power belongs to the men and women of the Popular Conferences and the People’s Committees in Libya. This Government by the People will never fail nor fall. It embodies the millions of Libyans and for that reason it can’t fall. Anyone who says Qaddafi’s government has fallen (…)
Civilian deaths in Libya: who’s killing who?
17 SEPTEMBER 2011
In Libya, where NATO-backed NTC forces are attempting to wipe out the last remaining pro-Gaddafi strongholds, civilians are still being killed but normally-vocal countries backing a UN resolution to protect them have gone strangely quiet.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid a visit this week to survey their handiwork. The first heads of state to visit Tripoli since the city fell to rebel forces say their countries’ work in spearheading the NATO (…)
NATO’s War Crimes in Libya: Sanctions against defiance
by James Petras
NEW YORK (UNITED STATES) | 14 SEPTEMBER 2011
Faced with the deteriorating global situation and a wave of popular uprisings breaking away from Western hegemony, NATO powers counter-attacked in the most resolute manner. According to James Petras, the destruction of an independent and secular regime like Libya was meant to send the following unequivocal message “to whom it may concern”: any independent Third World regime can be overthrown; colonial puppet regimes can be forced upon a devastated people; colonialism is still thriving; and imperial rule is here again.
Special Declaration by ALBA-TCP Countries on Libya and Syria
13 SEPTEMBER 2011
Caracas, Venezuela
12 September 2011
The Foreign Affairs Ministers of the member states of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America) gathered in Caracas on September 9 and condemned the NATO intervention in Libya and the illegal military aggression carried out under a UN Security Council resolution, saying that it opportunistically takes advantage of the internal political conflict in that country. This follows two prior ALBA statements on the issue this year: the (…)
American Growing Insolation
By Alan Hart
A longer headline would have added the words because of President Obama’s grovelling for Jewish campaign funding and votes.
On 19 December, in the Jewish Daily Forward, Josh Nathan-Kazis wrote this:
“Top-level Jewish fundraisers from President Obama’s 2008 campaign are sticking with the president in 2012.
“Despite reports that President Obama faces a loss of Jewish funders due to his Middle East policy, analysis of a list of elite bundlers from his 2008 race shows no defections among the president’s top Jewish supporters in 2012.”
That’s not good news for the would-be presidents on the Republican side who are grovelling for Jewish campaign funds and votes.
On the same day, in what the BBC’s Barbara Plett called “a highly unusual move”, all the regional and political groupings on the UN Security Council sharply criticised Israeli settlement activities. They said in their statements that “continued settlement building threatened the chances of a future Palestinian state.” They also expressed dismay at rising settler violence. (“They” were the envoys representing the European Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab Group and a loose coalition of emerging states known as IBSA).
It was UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant who read the statement of the EU group.
“Israel’s continuing announcements to accelerate the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, (1000 new housing units tendered for last week), send a devastating message. We believe that Israel’s security and the realisation of the Palestinians’ right to statehood are not opposing goals. On the contrary they are mutually reinforcing objectives. But they will not be achieved while settlement building and settler violence continues.”
As Barbara Plett noted, “Despite the unanimity of views, the envoys did not try to draft a single Security Council statement because they knew the US would veto it.” She also noted that the Obama administration’s stance was that “anything to do with Israeli-Palestinian peace talks belongs in a US-led bilateral process, not at the UN.” (In my opinion that’s hypocrisy of the highest order).
It could be said, and I do say, that such criticism of Israel’s settlement activities is 44 years too late. So what, really, is its significance?
My answer is in three parts.
The first is that it’s a strong indication of America’s growing isolation because of the Obama administration’s unconditional support for Zionism’s monster child.
The second, related, is that it seems to confirm what I have been saying and writing for several months – that behind closed doors almost all of the governments of the world, European governments in particular, are more than fed up with Israel’s contempt for and defiance of international law.
The third is that the governments of most of the member states of the UN have come to terms with the fact that Zionism’s assertion that a Palestinian state on the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip could and would pose a threat to Israel’s existence is propaganda nonsense of the highest order. (This, of course, is only of academic interest because the two-state solution has long been dead if not yet buried).
When I am thinking about Obama’s grovelling, my memory recalls a comment made to me by Dr. Hajo Meyer, the passionate anti-Zionist Nazi holocaust survivor and author of An Ethical Tradition Betrayed, The End of Judaism.
We had shared a platform in London and over breakfast the following morning I asked him a question. I said: “Hajo, you’re well into your eighties and you are being vilified by Zionism’s verbal hit-men for your efforts to unmask the Zionist monster. Why are you continuing with your truth-telling? Why don’t you sit back in peace and quiet and enjoy what’s left of your life?”
He replied with nine little words. “The first person I see every morning is me,” meaning “I have to live with myself.”
It’s more than reasonable to assume that Obama looks in the mirror from time to time. I wonder if he can live with himself.
Footnote: My comments on Israel’s response
Israel’s response as delivered by Karean Peretz, spokeswoman for Israel’s UN Mission, included this: “The main obstacle to peace, has been, and remains, the Palestinians’ claim to the so-called right of return and its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,”
That, too, is Zionist propaganda nonsense of the highest order.
Israel is not a Jewish state. How could it be when about a quarter of its citizens are Arabs and mainly Muslims? Israel could only be a Jewish state after it had resorted to a final round of ethnic cleansing. Israel is a Zionist state.
Because Arafat kept them informed through a secret channel, Israel’s leaders have long known that in the event of a two-state solution, the PLO was reluctantly reconciled to the reality of the right of return being confined to the territory of the Palestinian state, which would mean that only about 100,000 refugees would be able to return, with the rest having to accept financial compensation for the loss, theft, of their land and rights.
As I explain in my book Zionism, The Real Enemy of the Jews, when they decided they had no choice but to be pragmatic, Arafat and his leadership colleagues took a degree of comfort from two hopes. One was that all Palestinian refugees everywhere could and would have a Palestinian passport. The other was that if there was a two-state solution, it could evolve over one or two generations into one state for all – i.e. because in peace and partnership enough Israeli Jews would say something like, “We don’t need two states”. In the event of a one-state solution coming about by mutual consent, it was assumed on the Palestinian side at leadership level that, over time, all Palestinians who wanted to return would be able to return. So in theory the two-state solution was not necessarily the end-game on the right of return.
Vittorio Arrigoni: Gifts that are Given, and Those Taken From Us
Dec-25, 2011
Tim King -News.com
This Christmas remember our warrior for humanity, Vittorio ‘Vik’ Arrigoni.
 Vittorio ‘Vik’ Arrigoni
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(SALEM) – When we first reported the death of Vittorio Arrigoni last April, we knew we were faced with the passing of a spirit larger than those that can be contained inside of any man, or activist; his death represented something far worse than the loss of any single person.
It left a barren hole that punched through Gaza, reverberated through Italy and all of the world, creating a huge void. The magnitude of Vik’s loss was tantamount to his presence on earth. Few people ever did more and he almost certainly was one of the most inspirational activists to ever live.
As we consider the gifted man whose vitality slipped away in the night, know that Vittorio, known by ‘Vik’ to his friends, wasn’t in it for himself. Every aspect of every story screams this. Vik cared about the people of Gaza, who live in a prison camp setting. He could not stand the way Israel attacks Gaza’s fishermen, or its loan teenage female captain. He accompanied them, he rolled tape, he wrote at length about their lives, their accomplishments, their deaths. Vik was shot and hurt once by the Israeli military while defending Gaza fishermen, and on another day they nearly drowned him.
He helped people in their effort to survive, as they were pummeled under the fascist fist of Israel’s political prejudice. Their apartheid system has different laws for people, one set for Jews and one for everyone else. There are even “Jewish Only” roads throughout Israel. Their political punishment of perceived enemies is unforgivable and Israel’s campaign against Palestine is one against the whole world.
Israel kills more than 1400 people in Gaza at a time, in a single operation, using illegal weapons and tactics; yet claims only their national security is at risk. Israel’s apologists constantly talk about rockets fired from Gaza, which are acts of futile resistance, that have killed a total of 29 Israelis in all time, ever. That is hardly a justified reason for apartheid, murder, genocide, and human abuse.
This, as Israel imprisons an entire population. Zionists and Nazi’s are very similar, very close. Vik’s grandparents, Italian resistance fighters in World War Two, fought the Nazi’s and the Fascists. However all the Israeli Defence Forces ever did was treat Vik with scorn, political abuse and violence.
For the brave and courageous men and women of this world like Vittorio Arrigoni, who oppose those who strike humanity from the conversation, Israel’s Zionists reserve special titles that imply that somehow all the good motives are bad.
The aggressive ones accuse the human activists of not hating the violence. They claim, and their views are repeated by the press and the networks, that opposing Zionism is actually a hatred of their Jewish faith. The first and largest problem with that utterly false accusation, is that Judaism and Zionism (the belief that God authorized Jews to kill Palestinians and steal their land) are like apples and oranges.
Judaism is ancient, Zionism is an idea given birth by a German in the 1890’s, Theodore Herzl.
Hating them over their religion? – these are words from a language most of us don’t even understand. Does a person or group need amazing ego just to make that claim, or what? In the end the term antisemitic technically means a person is against people of the ancient Semitic languages, this means Jews and Arabs, Ethiopians, or Assyrians.
Labeling those who defend Palestinians as ‘antisemitic’ is akin to claiming that those who oppose the woman-abusing Taliban are actually masking a hatred for Muslims, or inferring that abhorring the acts of the murderous Mexican drug cartels are actually bigotry toward Hispanic people. What nonsense, what rubbish.
As both Egidia Beretta Arrigoni, mother of Vittorio Arrigoni, and Ken O’Keefe, our fellow writer and close friend of Vik’s in Gaza, said: he is not dead. No such person ever truly goes away; Vik Arrigoni’s legacy is here to stay.
Watch the VIDEO below:
Story and pre-production by Tim King, Video post-production by Sean King.
__________________________________
End of the Road by Agron Belica
Dedicated to Vittorio Arrigoni
(Featuring Marka)
Produced by Kyle Hall
Co-Produced by Patrick Dreier, Tim King, Sean King and Agron Belica
_________________________________________________
<iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/23932754?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0″ width=”400″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/23932754″>End of the Road – Tribute to Vik Arrigoni</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user4825625″>Tim King</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
What I’m doin’ at the end of the road:
Pride in my words, and passion in my heart.
And ain’t a place that I’d rather start.
And if it comes down to what I’m doin’, What I’m doin’,
What I’m doin’, at the end of the road.
This path I chose you don’t see it, but believe it!
Just know that I’mma have a place to go, at the end of the road.
(Hook-Marka)
Life is sacred; it came from heaven up above;
A blessing from the Lord to be shared by everyone!
Freedom is God-given, something that we come to love;
It’s in the blood to defend it, yes! Our strongest passion!
The message goin’ out to those who transgress and violate,
When we’re overwhelmed, the Lord shakes the earth awake.
Everyone suffers; count the losses, check the death rate!
The ignorant surprised, as they watch the newsbreak.
The tears shed, man. for the ones that are sufferin’—
For the ones captive or dyin’ in the millions;
This one goes out to all my people in captivity:
Everyday we pray the Lord gives you all security!
Free you from the devil’s hand, those who oppress thee;
So you can enjoy your sacred life in the world free!
No one has the right to dictate your future, see?
The message goes out: mercy extends universally!
When it comes down to what I’m doin’, What I’m doin’,
What I’m doin’ at the end of the road:
Pride in my words, and passion in my heart.
And ain’t a place that I’d rather start.
And if it comes down to what I’m doin’,
What I’m doin’, What I’m doin’, at the end of the road.
This path I chose you don’t see it, but believe it!
Just know that I’mma have a place to go, at the end of the road.
(Hook-Marka)
____________________________________________
Most of us don’t want to take responsibility
Save a few brave hearts, inspired God-consciously
Not afraid to parade the doorsteps of authority;
Demand justice be served for the sake of humanity!
Going out to all the brave men and woman activists,
Who put their lives on the line to expose injustice;
Who exert their energy to see we live with dignity—
Your mission and your efforts are recorded in our history!
For all those who enjoin the good and forbid the evil:
Men, women, and children—everyone that is able;
Give a lending hand to stop all that are sinful;
Only with unity can we achieve and become forceful!
Those who left us never will be forgotten;
In our hearts you all will remain with lots of lovin’;
A place for you is set at the end of the road!
May the Lord give you peace and a heavenly abode!
When it comes down to what I’m doin’, What I’m doin’,
What I’m doin’ at the end of the road:
Pride in my words, and passion in my heart.
And ain’t a place that I’d rather start.
And if it comes down to what I’m doin’,
What I’m doin’, What I’m doin’, at the end of the road.
This path I chose you don’t see it, but believe it!
Just know that I’mma have a place to go, at the end of the road.
(Hook-Marka)
Articles regarding Vittorio’s loss
Apr-20-2011: Men Die, Lions Rise – Jonathan Azaziah Special to Salem-News.com
Apr-17-2011: Vittorio Never Was as Much Alive as he is Now – By Egidia Beretta Arrigoni, Mother of Vittorio Arrigoni
Apr-17-2011: I Do Not Believe That A Palestinian Killed Vittorio Arrigoni – Gilad Atzmon Salem-News.com
Apr-17-2011: Vittorio and Israel’s Attack on the Intellectual Intifada – Lauren Booth Salem-News.com
Apr-16-2011: Was Israel’s Shin Bet Behind Vittorio Arrigoni’s Brutal Murder? – Tim King Salem-News.com
Apr-15-2011: AMP expresses deep condolences to ISM and family of Vittorio Arrigoni – Salem-News.com
Apr-15-2011: We Mourn Another Friend… Vittorio Arrigoni – Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Salem-News.com
Apr-14-2011: Hero of Gaza: Vittorio Arrigoni, Kidnapped and Murdered – Tim King and Bonnie King Salem-News.com
Apr-14-2011: Famed Activist Vittorio Arrigoni Kidnapped in Gaza – Feared Dead – Tim King Salem-News.com
Articles regarding the death of Juliano Mer Khamis:
April-05-2011: Losing Juliano – Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Salem-News.com
April-04-2011: Filmmaker Juliano Mer-Khamis was Murdered Today in Jenin – Gilad Atzmon Salem-News.com
Articles by Vittorio on Salem-News.com:
Mar-23-2011: Israel’s Attack on Civilians: Two Children Killed – Vittorio Arrigoni Special to Salem-News.com
Mar-18-2011: Gaza’s Youth: Hopes Broken at 15 March End Of Division Demonstration – By Vittorio Arrigoni for Salem-News.com
Mar-04-2011: 15 March Palestine: End of Division – Vittorio Arrigoni for Salem-News.com
Nov-10-2010: The First Targeted US Killing in Gaza – Vittorio Arrigoni for Salem-News.com
Also:
Nov-30-2010: Israeli Soldiers Fire at Road to Hope Convoy Members – Tim King Salem-News.com
Advisory regarding comments: Comments on this story need to be of a respectful nature or they will not be approved.
Salem-News.com Writer/Author/Musician Agron Belica, faced many challenges growing up as a rootless street youth, situations so intense that they threatened to destroy him- that is until he rediscovered his Muslim roots a few years ago and turned his life around. In 2008, Agron Belica published his research article The Revival of the Prophet Yahya, and has caused quite a stir in scholarly circles. In 2009, a new theory was born, The Crucifixion: Mistaken Identity?> John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ. With no formal advanced education, he offers new interpretations of certain key words in the Quran along with his challenging theories about the role of John the Baptist in the Crucifixion and has attracted the attention of well-known scholars in the field of comparative religion, such as Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar, the first American woman to translate the Quran into English, the noted university professor, Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub, and the author and translator, Dr. Jay R. Crook.
You can write to Agron at this address: agronbelica@gmail.com
Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com’s Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
Salem-News.com has some of the oldest and youngest working journalists in the nation. In 2006, at the age of 14, Sean became the youngest broadcast TV News reporter in the NW when he was selected as a Salem Correspondent by ATTN’s NW Teen News, which aired on Salem’s KWVT. He has been contributing to Salem-News.com and assisting with technical needs ever since. A graduate of the Media Arts Academy; a special high school that specializes in art, video and Internet production, Sean also has substantial time under his belt in the cable access world, where he has volunteered for years off and on, with Salem Oregon’s CCTV group. His show ran for several months in 2005 and was a hit with younger and older audiences. Literally raised in a TV news household, Sean is able to understand and report about many things with a fresh, undiluted perspective. Sean has several videos hosted on Youtube. One of which, entitled “Cradle of Filth- My Humps” with nearly a million views, is very popular among the YouTube community.
You can send an email to Sean at this address: dragonreign_75@hotmail.com
Prominent Egyptian activist and blogger released from prison
Prominent Egyptian activist and blogger released from prison…
Dr. Ashraf Ezzat Salem-News.com
Egyptian Blogger and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah released from prison, pending further investigations into the Maspero clashes. Is it a cause for rejoicing, or is it too late to resuscitate a dying revolution?
 Alaa Abd El-Fattah
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(ALEXANDRIA, Egypt) – Prominent Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah was released from custody Sunday. His detention on 30 October stemmed from charges that included inciting violence during the bloody attack by the military on Coptic rights protesters, in what is known as theMaspero rally, on 9 October, which sparked outcry and condemnation in Egypt and around the world.
Alaa also faces charges of alleged vandalism at the Maspero rally in downtown Cairo which morphed into clashes with security forces in which 27 people were killed, most of them Copts protesting over the burning of a church in the southern city of Aswan.
The young activist reportedly refused to undergo questioning by the military prosecution on the grounds that the military itself was implicated in the case.
Coptic witnesses said they were fired upon by soldiers during the protest march and that several people were killed when armored vehicles ran over and crushed them.
“Alaa will be released” his sister Mona Seif, who is also a political activist, said on Twitter.
Editor’s note:
 Egypt christians (Copts) rallying in front the downtownCairo state TV building. From the report: Cairo Clashes: The Chronicles of Egypt Copts by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat |
I was riding a taxi when I read the tweets of Alaa’s release from prison, and I was so thrilled I couldn’t hide the big smile that was suddenly drawn on my face. The taxi driver, who was peeking at my smiling face in his rear view mirror, asked me with sheer curiosity “Good news sir?”
“Excellent news actually” I assuredly replied “The military released Alaa Abdel Fattah this morning after nearly two months of detention. His release couldn’t have come at a better time; it will surely boost the morale of all political activists who have been enduring through rough times lately in Tahrir square” I enthusiastically added.
“The release of any prisoner is good news especially if he is innocent, but sir, who is this Alla abdel Fattah” the driver ingenuously asked.
“Never mind, and pull over please, I’ll get off here” I responded
 From the report: Call-Out for Solidarity withEgypt: Defend the Revolution by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat |
It is worth mentioning that the failure- up till now- of the Tahrir square revolution to produce strong and secular political leadership is one of the main reasons why the Egyptian revolution will remain to be seen as “unfinished business”.
In the lack of political cadres, proper funding and charismatic leadership the Tahrir revolution has been stabbed in the back and served cold to the Islamists and the military.
Meanwhile, the die-hard activists and revolutionaries can only find solace in rejoicing over the release of one of more than 12000 imprisoned activists and protesters detained and tried before military tribunals since last February.
Learn more, visit Dr. Ashraff’s Website: Pyramidion Politics & Faith – Egyptology & Art
Dr. Ashraf Ezzat is an Egyptian medical doctor whose passion has always been writing. He says of all the human-related studies, he finds himself attracted to history. Ashraf stresses that history helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be.
He says Egyptology holds a special place in his heart, for Egypt is where the human conscience sprouted. In ancient Egypt all things civilized began to evolve.
“I write articles and share posts of interest to me and hopefully to a lot of people.” Dr. Ashraf Ezzat says you can drop him a line any time at: amenhotep.55@gmail.com “I like to exchange knowledge and experience, I think that`s what Blogging is all about.”
Ahmedabad’s Imran went to Pakistan, became ISI agent, returned with a woman spy, arrested
New Delhi, 12 December 2011 Delhi police has arrested two ISI agents including one who is originally from Ahmedabad. Both were arrested from New Delhi railway station by Delhi police’s special branch. According to primary details arriving, one Imran Chhipa(40) of Ahmedabad went to Pakistan in 1988 and settled in commercial capital Karachi. Chhipa started textile business there in 2007-08 but incurred huge financial loses .Chhipa was then approached by Pakistan’s infamous intelligence agency ISI. Chhipa was offered training and money in exchange with a deal that he would escort Pakistan’s trained spy Karachi based 38-year-old Sofia Kanwal to India and would ensure that Sofia is settled well in India to perform tasks assigned to her by the ISI. Imran too was trained for some time by ISI and accordingly Imran and a trained ISI agent Soofia entered into India through Sanouli border of Nepal/Uttar PRadesh. They boarded Gorakhdham express to reach Delhi, but halted briefly in Agra to meet other Pakistani agent working there. However police in India was keeping watch on Imran and Soofia on the basis of inputs, and ultimately they were held by Delhi police at New Delhi railway station. Police has recovered Indian Election Commission card from Chhipa. Police has also recovered pan card and old Indian passport that was issued in Ahmedabad in year 1986. On the passport Imran’s name is mentioned as Imran Yusuf Lafangjiwala. Police has also recovered a driving license issued by RTO in Gujarat from Chhipa’s possession. From Sofia Kanwal, police recovered Pakistani citizenship card and Pakistani passport without India’s visa or stamp. Delhi Police claimed to have foiled an ISI plan to ensure smooth operations by a woman spy in the country. Further investigation is on in this matter.
The Trojan Horse that Landed In Iran
Posted On December 09, on Akashma Online News
The Trojan Drone or Demonstration Model
Building the robot planes themselves was relatively easy. Much tougher was writing the software needed to fly the drones. “The operating system is the part that’s hardest to deal with,”
Drones are Spies on the air, steel birds that fly at low altitude and can pick up signals of conversations from cell phones, cordless phones, digital radios, digital TV’s sets and they have the capabilities to take images using infrared technology, and snap pictures as small a few pixels, this amazing and surprising disturbing technology that have taken away the peace of mind, sleep and every bit of privacy to the citizens of the world. These steel birds have the spies agencies and best reverse engineers (theives) of the world fighting each other for the software and hardware blue prints.
This technology has been around since the early 1900 but not until was built by Boeing become public.
Some recent unveiled information suggested that the early spies programs were stripped away from German secret technology too advance to be from human minds.
Drones in the skies are called messengers of death, they are used every day in the skies of Gaza Palestine, to terrorize and kill innocent civilians. They are use to spy and to destroy infrastructure. All under the disguise to kill “Militants” than in Israel terms are “Terrorists”, but in reality every person that works for the government such security personnel are considered the Bad Guys. Gaza does not count with a formal army, it is not allowed under previous agreements signed by Yaset Arafat.
In Pakistan and Afghanistan are used every day by US, this information is never reported in the Paid Media, those drones have killed thousands of people in the last 10 years since the invasion of Afghanistan.
The tensions between Pakistan and US at its highest point, the use of drones in Pakistani territory is an everyday practice. The killing of civilians goes unreported in the remote villages bordering Afghanistan.
We are made believe that Pakistan and US are enemies, the Propaganda Machine AKA News reports indicate this fact, but if you dig little further you find out that is farther from the truth. US legal and illegal financial aids goes back decades. The Network of illicit sources of money can be found in the War Complex Industry backed it up by the Bank Industry.
“With the official blessing of George H. W. Bush as the head of the CIA, Adham transformed a small Pakistani merchant bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), into a world-wide money-laundering machine, buying banks around the world to create the biggest clandestine money network in history.” History Commons
In Libya the US Drones attacked and immobilized the convoy that was transporting Col Gaddafi, and the NATO illegal attacks of drones in sovereign territory of Libya was the cause of destabilizing the government by the mercenaries paid by the west.
With $14 trillion in the hole and a slew of wars seemingly no one wants America to be in, what better way for the United States to spend their money by putting $23 billion into spy planes?
The US will drop billions on defense spending with the purchasing of 55 Global Hawk drone planes over the next few years. Each of the four dozen-plus spy crafts comes at a price tag of $218 million apiece — ten times the price of the largest armed attack drone.
The Spy business is More expensive than feeding the American people, and against all Odds the American Government and others choose the Spy Business. The Profits are too high to pass.
The US Defense Department is only just one client of the many from around the world of this booming industry that it is “saving Lives” on the Offensive side of the war, according to “Official Sources”. The unmanned vehicles are remote controlled miles away from the target and they do not recognize innocent civilians from military targets, at least that’s what the number of collateral damage show in the latest incursions of these drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Gaza, Libya and other hot spots.
Is the US exporting its secretive spy technology to other countries? The latest News on the Drone in Iran hands sound too good to be truth. The two scenarios that I draw in this “fiasco” if is true, which I doubt very much is that the best way to demonstrate the product to a higher profile client of the war industry is to bring the drone to Iran. Or if we really are pursuing to invade Iran what best way to infiltrate their deep secret militarily Installations. Taking pictures of every inch of their installations, picking signals, voices, faces, frequencies, transferring of high sensitive Data and other important information.
In this advance era of frequencies, sophisticated software, Satellite technology, and lack of resources we can expect everything, Including treason from the War Makers Aka Weapon Manufactures. Just a Thought.
Iran is airing a video showing an American Drone in pristine conditions, we must wonder how a drone that can move to a extreme velocities can land inside enemy territory without getting one scratch, or without crashing. This devices are so precise in its functioning, they are manage by remote control using the latest technology, they are integrated with, cameras, microphones, infrared and frequency sensors, and they probably count with self destructive mechanism.
The Trojan Horse
Still seeking to gain entrance into Troy, clever Odysseus (some say with the aid of Athena) ordered a large wooden horse to be built. Its insides were to be hollow so that soldiers could hide within it.
Once the statue had been built by the artist Epeius, a number of the Greek warriors, along with Odysseus, climbed inside. The rest of the Greek fleet sailed away, so as to deceive the Trojans.
One man, Sinon, was left behind. When the Trojans came to marvel at the huge creation, Sinon pretended to be angry with the Greeks, stating that they had deserted him. He assured the Trojans that the wooden horse was safe and would bring luck to the Trojans.
Only two people, Laocoon and Cassandra, spoke out against the horse, but they were ignored. The Trojans celebrated what they thought was their victory, and dragged the wooden horse into Troy.
That night, after most of Troy was asleep or in a drunken stupor, Sinon let the Greek warriors out from the horse, and they slaughtered the Trojans. Priam was killed as he huddled by Zeus’ altar and Cassandra was pulled from the statue of Athena and raped.
There are more than 17, 000 satellites in our skies, those are the ones publicly known and used for defense, weather, communications, GPS, Data Transfer and other categories. But those numbers don’t reveal the countless others used for spies activities.
Real Time Satellite Tracking
Pray For Us: Father Who Art In Heaven Hallowed Be Thy Name
Posted on December 05, 2011 By Marivel Guzman
The Occupy Movement that it is brewing the Revolution
We know who you are, behind your thick mask of steel, power and salaried labor, you are my father, my brother, my husband, my sister, my mother. You are My Family Stay Human and protect us from harm.
I m speaking as an American Natural of this beautiful American Continent, that for the last 400 hundred years have been hijacked by foreign forces driven by evil spirit. Apparently we have enjoyed peace but has been at the expenses of other nations, see around, the destruction is been done to every spot on Earth.
The conflicts created by our leaders has created an atmosphere of murder and pillage everywhere on earth, the natural resources has been depleted to the minimum sustainable levels, the social and economical chaos is not possible to control any longer.
The time is closing on us, the time for acting instead of praying is necessarily howling in our ears every morning that we wake up and a new “Bill” is enacted against our liberties.
The constitution is an eroding document enacted for our protection, every time that a new “Bill” is signed, one more civil liberty is stripped away from us. We do not need to be lawyers to protect our constitutional rights, our bill of rights.
The time to act is a premium-urgent matter, leave the prayers for night time , the time to act is around the corner, it’s in every Occupy spot in our country.
Some more brave than others have made the switch already, some more desperate for a change than others have started acting in their behalf. Some starving fathers and mother unable to feed their family have taken to the Occupy Spots to try to salvage some crumbs from a lost economy that only enriched the 1 % of our society.
We are not Mad, We are the others, the 1 % that can not stand the inequality any more
We were programed to drive as a robots, just occupied to survive. All the social diseases such alcoholism, drug addiction, poverty, socially engineered poor healthy habits and under funded education were specifically and purposely inadequate to keep you busy and uncomfortably numb.
The unrest is felt every where; in the gas pump, in the supermarket, the University, the factory, the “office”, the coffee shop even in the busiest underground freeways where the homeless live.
Some desperate housewives, nothing to do with soap opera, forced to hopelessly by the banksters and the blind eye of our American Government are adding their misery and their bodies to gross the lines of the Occupy Spots in America, they have nothing else to lose.
After the President Obama economic plan for the rich that was too much, too long, too expected has sparked the social unrest in the US.
I don’t think we have a choice to turn back the clock, we left our welfare unattended for so long, thinking that Uncle Sam would fix our economical situation, we are half responsible for every bit of calamity we are suffering.
Remember that famous Statement: “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” by Rev. Martin Niemoller (1937)
We can add up so many negligence acts of pure numbness, and carelessness from our part that pertained to our actual situations, new twist on the wording and we get karma pay right back at us.
“First they came for the Muslims, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Muslim.
Then they came to detain immigrants indefinitely solely upon the certification of the Attorney General, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an immigrant.
Then they came to eavesdrop on suspects consulting with their attorneys, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a suspect.
Then they came to prosecute non-citizens before secret military commissions, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a non-citizen.
Then they came to enter homes and offices for unannounced “sneak and peek” searches, and I didn’t speak up because I had nothing to hide.
Then they came to reinstate Cointelpro and resume the infiltration and surveillance of domestic religious and political groups, and I didn’t speak up because I had stopped participating in any groups.
Then they came for anyone who objected to government policy because it aided the terrorists and gave ammunition to America’s enemies, and I didn’t speak up because…… I didn’t speak up.
Then they came for me……. and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
By Stephen Rohde, President of the ACLU of Southern California.
Let’s not forget that everything started in America with the erosion of our precious civil liberties, and the taking away by thugs of our privacy rights, with lies and well paid propaganda that was serving the coffers of a war industry, well ingrained in the conscientiousness of our American Society. A industry that worked so laboriously to take away your children, bathed in a faked patriotism since the cradle. The Government become not your protector but the servile slave of the Corporate America, making laws to serve their masters and becoming the prostitute of Justice. “Working for the best Paying Hand” .
It is not a crime to ask for justice, dissent is our right. Use it wisely while you can.
And as our society keep sinking in despair, dropping deeper in the dark hole of abuse by the insatiable greed of the corporate world and the support of our leaders, other hands are reaching out between the mud of desperation, and even if you judge on moral grounds or out of ignorance without thinking that their doings don’t affect your daily life, but their suppression does, it is a sign of the times.
Understanding the rights of others is the basis to guarantee that we keep enjoying our bill of rights and that no government official can design a law to strip that away from us.
And the stripping and the twisting keeps the ladder and the traps and the wording keeps changing and your rights smudging down.
“First they came for the hackers.
But I never did anything illegal with my computer,
Then they came for the pornographers.
But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway,Then they came for the anonymous remailers.
But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi,Then they came for the encryption users.
But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway,
so I didn’t speak up.Then they came for me.
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”
For many years they created murders out of us, the world started hating us, because they took decisions in our name and did great damage to other nations, if we could just have acted with Truth, Justice and Peace, we could have other society, more wiser, more equal and less convulsed with war.
Some have escaped from the lethargy long time ago, and they have been giving us strength with their compassion, leadership with their actions, they are an army of peace activists around the globe, they are musicians, writers, photographers, actors, poets, directors, ordinary citizens that without blinking an eye they defend the weak, the voiceless, the poor, the oppressed from every land.
Vittorio Arrigoni RIP, Ken O’keefe in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Song by Agron Belica
First they made us egocentric fools, thinking that we were right to murder, bomb, invade, colonize, exterminate, “democratize”, all in the name of our mighty power. Fools Fools we let them created pariahs out of us.
Now they turn against us, we can not pray any more. How desperate are you? Do you still have “Capital” to invest in their game?. And as we move along, the Occupy Movement keeps growing, even if you do not see it in your silver screen.
We can not turn the clock back but we can help others to wake up, your compassion is guiding you to lead our society to a more humane society, where Truth, Justice and Peace are the Pillars that support us and make our journey easy to navigate to a simpler society where Love is what move us to fight for us, for you, for them for our Blue Dot, our Mother Earth.
And the twist keeps getting closer to home.
Then they came for the middle class but I did not speak out because I was not part of the middle class, and I let them destroy the buffer zone of our economy.
Then They Came for the poor and I did not speak out because I was not poor, and I let them starve them to death, unable to pay their medical bills, unable to educate their children and they converted them in drug addicts, street gangsters and thugs, and they destroyed the left over of the sweet hard masses working class that was supporting the Our Nation On Their Shoulders.
Then they came for the homeless, and I did not speak out because I was not homeless.
Then we all became homeless, right-less, vulnerable to a police-state-Fascist- like society that wants to put us in concentration camps for complaining of our misery. Fools Fools we let them destroy Our American Dream.
Love me as if I m you, compassion is not an alien feeling but a natural state of your mind, let it reign onto you and love everyone and everything that is creation.
Join Us all to into this Incredible Invisible Revolution that is making waves in the consciousnesses of every soul/mind/spirit that it is open to a change.
Remember The Thoughts are manifestations that want to come out to explore the third dimensional bound that keeps you from knowing how capable you are of loving one another, from exercising your compassion for every creature that exist, and with that, brake free to a new world order, where Love is abundant and free to give.
Do not allow the structured social/economical chaos to stop you from freeing yourself and help others.
Stay Human, Peace Be Upon You and Bless All Men of Good Will.
Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of the everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration – whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday – I thought we could mark this November the fifth, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat….. Excerpt from V for Vendetta
Take what it is ours, softly move the wrath of oppression to the sides, do not stumble on violence, is not the way, move ahead to the next evolutionary level of our society. Do it with love.
Love can move mountains, love and compassion can unite us all. Peace To All.
If I m able to preach love and feel that is possible to change my world for a better one then I m in Love with my world, and you are part of my world. Help me to help you, Help you To Help Us All. I can not do without you, because I m part of you, and you are part of me. We are One. Remember!, One Creation!, One Family on Earth!.
Our Father, who art in heaven
hallowed be thy Name,
Forgive our trespasses that same way that you forgive us, do not allow us to become numb with injustice.
Give us strength to maintain our focus on what it is important in our lives. Do not allow father that destruction of our Earth, the war waste is polluting every green land, river and tree.
Stop the lunatics war makers, that are corrupting every mind and heart on Earth.
Take away greed to the heavens, and transform into into compassion and make it to rain on every spot on earth.
Take away hate from the hearts of every men and fill it with love and light to make Love not War any more.
Forgive our sins, and accept our deeds as a token of peace. Peace Be On Earth and Above the Sea, under the Sky and in every heart that be.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Those Who Make Peaceful Revolution Impossible, Make Violent Revolution Inevitable
These men do not make the mistakes, as they themselves are part of the same programs, they are disposable, usable and trash-able when they finish their mission.
We need to be vigilant of any actions that will come in the next few months, as the global awareness movement is taken new levels and so the Globalist Agenda. But as always We The People have the upper hand if we stay united.
There is nothing stronger than a United Family and in these volatile days we the “Human Family” needs to stay more united than ever to win the battle of the classes that has been waged against us.
And I m not talking in any socialist agenda or political agenda of any kind I m talking of the awareness that it is taking place in every block of society.
The main event during the period in which Murdoch asserted that the Arabs were trying to “overrun” Israel was the 1967 war. Zionism’s story of it, which the mainstream media still peddles to this day, is that Israel went to war either because the Arabs attacked first or were intending to attack. Both, the either and the or, are Zionist propaganda nonsense. It was a war of Israeli aggression. Opinion-Maker
“Muslims converts ” fueling the Muslim rage against the Jews. Cartoons enraging the Muslim religious faith.
The “Self Hater Jews” new term and its promoters working wonders in the social networks with their cheap hasbaras that can be smell miles away.
The invented wars that terrorized, murdered and put the last nail in the coffin of the middle east hard worked stability that devastated the region and inserted military opps all over the middle east.
All the Middle East Conflict Israel/Palestine used as convenience to keep the rage, the energies exhausted, to keep the people taking sides, while they are waging more wars, destroying our Earth, starving the world, wasting our natural resources. They are making us angry, they are steering our last fiber of patience, they are brewing the revolution that will put end to the American empire, they are making impossible the peaceful revolution, where we change the old world order for a new world order, where we all have fair share of our world, where we all enjoy Peace.
International Community of Activists-Heros? No! Just Humans Ken O’keefe
Outstanding Human Beings
Gaza Flotilla Survivor, witness and Peace Activist-Kenneth O’keefe-Palestinian Hero
by Marivel Guzman on Friday, June 25, 2010 at 11:54pm
Some times we rush to criticized some people’s actions, their motives, or goals, and we judge them wrong without even doing little research on their work.
We have in our disposal unimaginable wealth of information in the Net, but the same way with find good resources on a subject, issue or individual we encounter the mighty grasp of the big Paid Media, there is so much debunking information and distrust in the media outlets these days that we tend to disbelief even the most clear ” Truths” but the propaganda machine is so well structured and dress up that most of the time we take the Lie and throw the truth away.
For centuries the power of the word has been the most important assets that humanity has in his favor to give to the new generations the events that shook our world, but also we have a hidden hand that has been manipulating that printed word for centuries, we said that the winners get to right history, well that is absolutely true but also, they have been courageous individuals throughout our history that have risked their lives for us to know the truth.
Activism is an activity that is born from the heart, you can wake up one day and find yourself feeling sad for our world, that moment you find your truth self the compassionate being that we all are if we just wake up to our humanity.
We see our brother Kenneth O’keefe defending peace, human lives, marine life and lately defending Palestine rights and the right of the peace activists trapped in the Mavi Marmara trying to lend a hand to his brothers from the calculated and planned assault of a well trained commands with much passion that we immediately wonder if this person is an actor paid by the Propaganda machine, many have gone to the extremes to dedicate whole blogs to discredit Ken O’keefe, sad but truth.
Well facebook lovers, Peace lovers and Peace haters, this is not the case of our brother Kenneth O’keefe, he is one of those selflessly loving beings that sometimes born in our time, he is a truly a hero and compassionate being of light.
I usually do not use Wikipedia because is come to be a hasbara site, but some information is worth it to read, I know that lot of the wording is misleading, but I appeal to your wise mind to discern the truth, to strip the lies out and leave the facts intact.
I copied and pasted the entire article of Wikipedia of his latest activities as activist, justice seeker and peace lover, and I took the time to research the information found in Wikipedia and checked out if the article was recently created, Nope! pace haters and Israel blind lovers, he is being activist for more than 10 years,and a nature protector as well, the articles are being updated as he is accumulating points to his crusade for pace and protection of the environment. I think his volunteer work as a marine life protector is what he assigned himself to do as a marine soldier, fighter for marine life, but his soul evolved from animal protector to humanity soldier.
Kenneth O’Keefe born July 21, 1969, he is an USA/American born citizen who lawfully renounced to his US citizenship on March 1, 2001. He has since acquired Irish, Hawaiian and Palestinian citizenship.
He is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War who subsequently spoke out about the use of Depleted Uranium as a “Crime against Humanity” and the US Military using soldiers as “human guinea pigs” with experimental drugs that were directly linked to Gulf War syndrome.
He is also a social entrepreneur utilizing direct action marine conservation, but he is more widely known as a human rights activist who led the human shield action to Iraq and as a survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara who helped disarm two Israeli Commandos.
On January 7, 2004, Mr O’Keefe burned his U.S. passport in protest of “American Imperialism” and called for US troops to immediately withdrawal from Iraq.
He replaced his US passport with a World Passport in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which protects the right to travel and self-determination. Subsequently he proclaimed himself a “Citizen of the World” with “ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth.”
In 1995 O’Keefe earned a scuba diving instructor certification and in 1996 he created a social enterprise ‘to protect and defend the marine environment we operate within”. To date his scuba diving operation has conducted 13 Ghost net recoveries and over 55 endangered Green Sea Turtle rescues of turtles wrapped in monofilament fishing line. O’Keefe pioneered these rescues with over 40 such rescues personally, but he also taught others his methods and ultimately led a campaign to create a Marine Sanctuary (Pupukea MLCD) on the North Shore of Oahu.
In 1998 and 2000 he crewed with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) in anti-whaling and sealing campaigns in which he was mentored by Captain Paul Watson, another great marine life soldier.
In 2000 he became the Regional Director for SSCS in Hawaii, earned a US Coast Guard Captains license and was branded the ‘ecopreneur’ by Skin Diver Magazine, the worlds largest selling scuba diving magazine.
During this time O’Keefe found himself mixing marine conservation more and more with human rights, eventually his involvement in the Hawaiian Independence Movement led to his renunciation of US citizenship and full time investment in the cause of human rights.
Involvement in Hawaiian independence
In 1999 O’Keefe became an active supporter of the Hawaiian Independence Movement and began the process of formally renouncing his US citizenship.
In November 2000 he naturalized as a Hawaiian citizen, served as the Election Commissioner for the Hawaiian Kingdom elections and professed his allegiance to the Kingdom of Hawaii/Reinstated Hawaiian Government.
On November 30, 2000, then Kenneth Nichols was issued with a bench warrant for his arrest in the amount of $11,000, court transcripts proved that this was unlawfully issued and O’Keefe posted the warrant as proof of being targeted by the US Government.
In January 2001 he produced ‘The United States of Hypocrisy’, a scathing indictment of American imperialism that charges current administrations of the United States with continuing fraud in the ongoing theft of Hawaiian national lands.
He also charged the US Government with carrying out an unstated policy of genocide in Hawaii by the measuring of “blood quantum”. In his film former President of the American Indian Movement, Russell Means, claims that only two other nations have used blood quantum to measure blood, “Nazi Germany to measure Jews and Gypsies” and the “Apartheid regime to identify black’s in South Africa”. O’Keefe’s charge in the film is that the US measuring of blood is intended to eliminate Hawaiian nationals by making citizenship status contingent upon a 50% blood quantum. Predictably he says, over time, the Hawaiian people (kanaka maoli) will have diminished blood quantum below 50% and the policy of genocide will be complete, allowing the US to take adverse possession of Hawaiian national lands.
In 2000 O’Keefe authored a resolution that was approved by the Hawaiian Legislature which bound the Hawaiian Government to non-violence (except in absolute self-defense). In 2006 he returned to Hawaii and served as a democratically elected Representative of District 6 in Oahu, serving one year in the Hawaiian Legislature. During that time he authored resolutions calling for the ratification of international human rights treaties in Hawaii, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He also authored and lobbied for a resolution that would outlaw weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Hawaii; that resolution was subsequently approved in June 2007.
[edit] Seeking Political Asylum in The Netherlands
In the aftermath of 9-11, in November of 2001, O’Keefe left his family and business in Hawaii to seek political asylum in the Netherlands, claiming increasing persecution from US agents over his political activities. While the asylum process in The Netherlands provides a process to expel fraudulent asylum seekers within 96 hours of filing their claim, O’Keefe’s claim was determined to require the longer procedure that typically takes several years for a final decision. While in the asylum procedure he lived in a refugee camp in the north of The Netherlands, in Stadskanaal. Initially he represented himself, but eventually he secured the pro bono services of one of the top Dutch asylum attorneys, Pieter Bogaers. Understanding that the process would take years and seeing the upcoming invasion of Iraq he removed himself from the asylum process and initiated the human shield action to Iraq in December 2002.
[edit] Human Shield Action to Iraq
The human shield action to Iraq intended to exploit the greater value put on western life and render the 2003 invasion of Iraq politically untenable by placing the western shields at locations that are legally protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Critics of the human shields argued that their mission would only protect Saddam Hussein; O’Keefe however argued that the “people of Iraq” would suffer the most and publicly acknowledged Husein as a “violent dictator” and “mass-murderer”, unsurprisingly he was not greeted with open arms by the dictator when he later arrived in Iraq. At its height about 500 human shields were in Baghdad, but due to challenges internally, with the Iraqi government and O’Keefe’s deportation by order of Saddam, the numbers dwindled to approximately 100 at the beginning of ‘Operation Shock and Awe’.
Despite failing to achieve the primary objective of preventing the invasion, volunteers successfully protected all the sites to which they were deployed (Al Daura Electrical Plant, Baghdad South Electrical Plant, 7 April Water Treatment Plant, Al Daura Water Treatment Plant, Tejio Food Silo, Al Daura Oil Refinery and Al Mamun Telecommunications Facility).
[edit] P10K & International Observers in Palestine
In 2004 O’Keefe founded P10K and attempted to organise a group known as the “P10K Force”, a group of 10,000 Westerners intended to act as international observers in the Occupied Palestinian territories and help bring peace with Israel. In furtherance of that plan P10K secured endorsements from Noam Chomsky, the late President Yasser Arafat, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, the late Tanya Reinhart along with Israeli Refusniks and the overwhelming majority of the people of Palestine.
O’Keefe also sought meetings with leaders within the main resisting factions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in order to obtain an ‘Agreement in Principle’ that would effect a ceasefire in return for the arrival of the 10,000 international observers within the ‘P10K Force’. Having successfully met with leaders within Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, O’Keefe then managed to clandestinely pass through Eretz and Nisanit Settlement checkpoints on his way to meet with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. He was however halted by the Israel Defense Forces IDF at gunpoint in the security zone between Israeli settler and Palestinian Gaza.
Seemingly embarrassed by O’Keefe’s ability to breach Israeli security and enter Israeli settler Gaza, the IDF offered to release him if he signed an agreement stating that he would not attempt to re-enter Gaza; O’Keefe refused and spent 20 days in jail before being deported as a ‘security threat’ based on secret testimony by Israeli intelligence. While in Israeli custody he initiated a hunger strike due to being beaten and denied access to an attorney and use of a phone to call his family.
Free Gaza Movement
In 2007 O’Keefe joined the Free Gaza Movement and in July 2008 he arrived in Greece to serve as a captain and first mate in the transport of two boats to Gaza via Cyprus. The Free Gaza mission was an open challenge to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Ultimately he was one of the 46 passengers who succeeded in reaching Gaza by sea despite Israeli threats all the way up to departure from Cyprus. The boats arrived in Gaza on August 23, 2008, this was the first time in 41 years that boats had sailed into Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians greeted them as they arrived. O’Keefe piloted one of the two boats, the ‘Free Gaza’, into the Port of Gaza.
Aloha Palestine
In the aftermath of the success of the Free Gaza Movement, O’Keefe and Lauren Booth co-founded Aloha Palestine, a social enterprise intending to conduct ‘SafeTrade’ with Palestinians in Gaza. Aloha and Palestine were joined according to O’Keefe’s history of work in both Hawaii and Palestine. The Aloha Palestine mission commits the enterprise to ‘SafeTrade’; defined as ‘The commercial exchange of non-hazardous items that pose no danger to society. Trade conducted transparently and fairly that develops prosperity while fostering stability and building security in the region where it is conducted. Among the supporters of Aloha Palestine are Noam Chomsky, Tony Benn, UK Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and John Pilger.
Gaza Freedom Flotilla involvement
In June 2010, O’Keefe was on board the MV Mavi Marmara as the Managing Director of Aloha Palestine CIC, a social enterprise intending to conduct SafeTrade with Palestinians in Gaza. In the ensuing Gaza flotilla raid, O’Keefe was among the defenders of the ship and the mission to deliver aid to Gaza. In the course of defending the ship O’Keefe was involved in providing initial first aid to a seriously wounded passenger and disarming two Israeli Commandos. He helped to disarm one commando of his assault rifle and himself took possession of a 9mm pistol from another commando. He removed the “real bullets” from the pistol, giving the bullets to others while hiding the weapon. It was his hope that the weapon could be used as evidence in any subsequent trial. O’Keefe said of the experience that it was like “combat but without combat weapons” and that “We had in our full possession, three completely disarmed and helpless commandos” who were “surrounded by at least 100 men”; “we could have done anything with them.” He said that “woman provided basic first aid, and ultimately they were released, battered and bruised for sure, but alive. Able to live another day.
According to fellow activist Fintan Lane, O’Keefe was severely beaten by security officials at Tel Aviv airport before boarding a plane on 3 June for deportation, and that his injuries were so bad that he had to be hospitalized in Tel Aviv. He later released a video apparently showing the extent of his injuries, which he claimed were sustained from beatings by Israeli officials.
On 6 June, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that O’Keefe was linked to terrorist organizations, that he was an “anti-Israel extremist” whose “goal was to reach Gaza in order to train and establish Hamas commando units. Mr O’Keefe publicly rejected the IDF’s allegations, pointing out “If they had a supposed terrorist in their possession, why the hell did they let me go?” He confirmed that he had held meetings with senior Hamas officials, but added that he had never carried arms for any group: “The only weapons I ever carried were while I was a US Marine serving in the Gulf War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_O%27Keefe
Kenneth O’keefe Palestinian Hero
Outstanding Human Beings – Huwaida Arraf
Oustanding Human Being – Patrick Macmanus
International Community of Activists-Heros? No! Just Humans; Huwaida Arraf
Outstanding Human Beings
Huwaida Arraf
Every Person once in his/her life get touched by compassion, this feeling that it’s impossible to describe only can be felt. Love make miraculous manifestations in the life of individuals. Everyone that got involved some how in the peace process of our earth have felt it, the strike of light that it is leading us to a new road of understanding, of unity, where we all are awakening to our humanity.
We do not need to be heroes to act in our own behalf, because every deed we make in the name of Truth, Justice and Peace is for us all humans that share this beautiful blue dot of the Universe.
If you get the urge to help in any way, don’t waste that urge as time is running fast, and more you wait more damage is made against your brothers. We are an army of compassionate being, and we can achieve wonders if we unite for a common goal. There are special souls in this earth that are dedicating their entire existence to peace. Huwaida Arraf is one of those cases, she along with Ken O’keefe, Vittorrio Arrigoni RIP, Adam Shapiro, Rachel Corrie RIP, Patrick Macmanus RIP and thousands of others that crossed the world to go to Palestine to help in their struggles, they are not the only ones, but their deeds, their work make them outstanding individuals. The great nation of Palestine is a great example for us to follow, they all lived inside the storm of the occupation.
Life is short inside the occupied territories, as life is risky but if you follow your heart the risk is worth it. Stay Human is what we need to be an activists for Truth, Justice and Peace and to help Liberate Palestine. Remember the most powerful weapon is our humanity
Huwaida Arraf is a first-generation Palestinian- American. She was born and raised in Detroit, MI. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1998 with majors in Political Science, Arabic and Hebrew & Judaic Studies. Huwaida spent her junior year abroad, studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After graduation, she worked for the Arab American Institute to promote the rights of Arab-Americans. In 2000, Huwaida became a Program Coordinator in Jerusalem with Seeds of Peace – an American-based non-profit organization focused on working with youth from regions of conflict, including the Middle East, Cyprus and the Balkans.
Huwaida left Seeds of Peace after becoming involved in active resistance to the Israeli occupation forces and policies. With other Palestinian and international activists, she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement in April, 2001. In April 2002, as Israeli forces continued their siege on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Huwaida led a group of international activists to the Church to deliver bread and food to people trapped in the Church. She was arrested by the Israeli Army and forced to leave the country. She returned a month later and resumed her organizational role with the ISM. Huwaida has been arrested over a dozen times over the past four years by the Israeli military for nonviolent protest in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In addition, Huwaida co-edited Peace under Fire (2004), a collection of personal accounts of ISM volunteers published by Verso Books.
Huwaida recently graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law. She is married to fellow human rights activist, Adam Shapiro.
International Solidarity Movement – The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli apartheid in Palestine by using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded by a small group of primarily Palestinian and Israeli activists in August, 2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by providing the Palestinian people with two resources, international solidarity and an international voice with which to nonviolently resist an overwhelming military occupation force.
Amnesty International -International Body dedicated Humans Rights
Salem News – Independent Outlet that has partnered with Truth Justice and Peace to bring you the real News, as they happened without dressing or sugar coating, they have been working tirelessly to raise awareness, telling you as it is
Free Gaza Movement – Since August 2008, the Free Gaza Movement has sailed from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip on several successful voyages, bringing in international witnesses to see first hand the devastating effects of Israeli violence against the Palestinian people. Ours are the first international boats to journey to Gaza since 1967.
We are Italian, Irish, Canadian, Greek, Tunisian, German, Australian, American, English, Scottish, Danish, Israeli, and Palestinian. We are of all ages and backgrounds. We have years of experience volunteering in Gaza and the West Bank at the invitation of Palestinians. But now, because of the increasing stranglehold of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, many of us find it almost impossible to enter Gaza, and an increasing number have been refused entry to Israel and the West Bank as well.
We want to break the siege of Gaza. We want to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation. We want to uphold Palestine’s right to welcome internationals as visitors, human rights observers, humanitarian aid workers, journalists, or otherwise.
The Electronic Intifada– The Electronic Intifada is an independent online news publication and educational resource focusing on Palestine, its people, politics, culture and place in the world.
Founded in 2001, The Electronic Intifada has won awards and earned widespread recognition for publishing original, high-quality news and analysis, and first-person accounts and reviews. The Electronic Intifada’s writers and reporters include Palestinians and others living inside Palestine and everywhere else that news about Palestine and Palestinians is made.
Palestinian Center for Human Rights – The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Gaza City. The Centre is a non-profit company, dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). It holds Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. It is an affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists-Geneva, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) – Paris, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network – Copenhagen, the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC) – Stockholm, the World Coalition against the Death Penalty, and the Arab Organization for Human Rights – Cairo. PCHR is a recipient of the 1996 French Republic Award on Human Rights, the 2002 Bruno Kreisky Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Area of Human Rights, the 2003 International Services Human Rights Award (UNAIS) and the 2009 Human Rights Prize of Andalucia. The Centre was established in 1995 by a group of Palestinian lawyers and human rights activists in order to:
- Protect human rights and promote the rule of law in accordance with international standards.
- Create and develop democratic institutions and an active civil society, while promoting democratic culture within the Palestinian society.
- Support all the efforts aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights in regard to self-determination and independence in accordance with international Law and UN resolutions.
“Total Policing” And The Criminalisation Of Dissent
Posted on Akashma Online News
Posted by Marivel Guzman
12 November 2011
dis·sent (d
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The scale of the police operation mounted Wednesday against a relatively small and entirely peaceful protest against UK education cuts shows that the ruling elite is no longer prepared to tolerate any form of political and social opposition.
According to the varying estimates of the organisers, the media and the police, the deployment of 4,000 officers, many in full riot gear, represents a police-protester ratio of one-to-one or two-to-one.
New Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe described the protest as a test of his policy of “Total Policing.” This is what it looked like: London was placed on virtual lock-down, with all major roads along the march’s route blocked off by ranks of police, riot vans, mounted officers and ten-foot-high barricades.
Here To Serve and Protect: Law enforcement officials shall at all times fulfill the duty imposed on them by law, by serving the community and by protecting all persons against illegal acts, consistent with the high degree of responsibility required by their profession. Law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons. Law enforcement officials shall not commit any act of corruption, abuse of power, or excessive force The term "law enforcement officials" includes all officers of the law, whether appointed or selected, who exercise police powers, especially the powers of arrest or detention. In countries where police powers are exercised by military authorities, whether uniformed or not, or by State security forces, the definition of law enforcement officials shall be regarded as including such services.
Marchers were met at the rail, underground and coach stations and handed an 11-page brochure, with the capitalized title “TOTAL POLICING” on the front and back. It warned that police would use section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 to search people and enforce the removal of masks.
The march was dragooned by ranks of police at the front, back and both sides along the three-mile route. Helicopters circled overhead, making extensive videos of those taking part.
In a further provocation, the march was stopped every ten metres, meaning that a three-mile route took three hours to walk. This periodic kettling enabled the police to go into the crowd at certain points, pushing and barging people in the hope of provoking a reaction.
A statement issued on the day warned that the planned rally at the London Wall had to end in less than an hour and the area had to be completely cleared in two hours. An attempt to set up a tent camp in Trafalgar Square, in solidarity with the Occupy protest at St Paul’s Cathedral, was cleared in minutes as police dragged away those involved.
Supporters of the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest take part in a mass meditation on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
The effort by a group of electricians—striking against management threats to cut their wages by up to 35 percent—to join up with the student protest was similarly met with police violence. The electricians’ march was encircled so they were virtually imprisoned. When some tried to break away, riot police waded in with batons and knocked workers to the ground. Police were reportedly armed with stun grenades. Names and addresses were taken under the authority of Section 60 of the Public Order Act.
The Unite union encouraged workers to march to parliament for a lobby of MPs. This sparked shouts of “We want to march with the students!”
As the march set off, hundreds of electricians marched towards Fleet Street where they broke through police lines. Police then drew batons and contained a section of the workers.
Before the march, the commander in charge, Simon Pountain, told a press conference that the use of water cannon was not planned, but plastic bullets had been authorised—the first time ever in England.
Rubber-bullet injuries induced by MA/RA 88 bullet
Over 450 letters were sent out warning anyone arrested in connection with previous public order offences that a repeat offence would lead to arrest and trial “at the earliest opportunity.” Many of these letters were sent to people with no previous convictions, pointing to the existence of a police database of those whose sole “crime” was to have engaged in a previous protest.
In an article reprinted in the Police Oracle, the Guardian’s crime correspondent blithely described the pre-authorisation of baton rounds and the sending of threatening letters as nothing new. “What is new,” she said, was the decision by Pountain to make this public.
On 09 November 2011, Baton rounds and public order policing
Metropolitan Police Service officers are deployed to facilitate peaceful protests and that is the aim today. A range of tactics are available to us if there is criminality and violence associated with the event, including the authority to deploy baton rounds in extreme circumstances – however at this moment in time there is no intention to deploy baton rounds.
Officers policing the route will not be armed with baton rounds. These are carried by a small number of trained officers. This is a tactic which has always been available to deploy in the most extreme circumstances.
To give context to their use, the MPS had authority to use baton rounds during the disorder this summer but did not do so. This tactic requires pre-authority, and would take time to deploy, and is one of a range of tactics we have had available for public order, and not used, in the past.
Authorisation for baton rounds was given during the summer rioting in Britain’s cities, she said, and “perhaps less well known… they were also authorised for use during the student demonstration against cuts a year ago.”
The police are also to be given additional powers, she noted, by Home Secretary Theresa May, whereby a “police superintendent will be able to clear the public out of a specific area during a demonstration—a power not available since the Riot Act was removed from the statute book in 1973.”
Last October’s student protest saw over 150 arrests, both during and after the event. This summer’s riots—provoked by the police killing of an unarmed man—were followed by over 2,000 arrests and over 11,000 prosecutions with long custodial sentences handed out for the most trivial offences.
A similar picture is repeated internationally. Wherever workers and young people seek to protest the imposition of savage austerity cuts, they are met with brutal repression.
In Greece, for example, the October 20 general strike protest was attacked by 15,000 riot police and Syntagma Square was flooded with tear gas. In the United States, the Occupy Wall Street protests spread nationally after two weeks in large measure in response to the October 1 arrest of 700 protesters—almost one-third—of those demonstrating on the Brooklyn Bridge. Since then, various local police forces have mounted attacks using riot gear, tear gas and other weapons, bringing the national total of those arrested to over 3,000.
Observations of a Jailed Journalist A journalist reporting on the Occupy Wall Street protest is arrested for doing his job. He documents several cases of excessive police force, including police pepper spraying women who were already restrained behind a barrier. This is a symptom of the ills of our society. Until we can act civilly towards each other we cannot affect true social reform. We lose when the people in power, in this case the police, can use any means to achieve their goals.
The resort to repressive measures is a measure of the extreme polarisation between the classes.
In Britain, the Riot Act now being cited was originally drafted in 1714, making rioting punishable by death. This was reduced to transportation for life in 1837.
Its most famous usage was in the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, in Manchester, when a cavalry charge against 80,000 protesters demanding parliamentary reform and relief from crushing economic hardship killed 15 and injured 700.
In Glasgow, on Black Friday 1919, riot police and 10,000 troops were despatched against workers campaigning for shorter work hours. Black Friday took place in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, day that John Reed died in 1920, at a time when Britain’s elite feared a “Bolshevist uprising.” The fact that similar powers are being enacted today, first covertly and now amid official fanfare, should be a warning to the working class in Britain, Europe and internationally.
Today, the vast majority of economic experts — both on the Left and on the Right — have come to the conclusion that Greece is insolvent. It just cannot realistically repay its overwhelming debt while the economy keeps contracting as a result of the brutish austerity measures that Ackermann and Trichet have been prescribing.
Today, a fabulously wealthy oligarchy dictates all aspects of social life in pursuit of ever-greater personal enrichment. Under conditions of worsening economic crisis, this translates into demands for cuts and austerity for millions, for which there is no possibility of securing a democratic mandate.
This determines the moves by bourgeois governments around the world to enact measures characteristic of a police state and, in Greece, the threat of a military coup.
Revolution is coming. A new fiscal, economic and political order will be established. And given what you see about the world around you, the corruption, the fraud, the crimes…do you see any way around this? I want to see corrupt politicians and businessmen in handcuffs, making a long and painful perp walk. I want to see power returned to The People.
The response of workers and young people must be the building of a mass socialist movement and the adoption of a revolutionary perspective for a truly democratic and egalitarian society, based on the expropriation of the oligarchy and the organization of production to meet the social rights of all to education, health care, housing and a well-paid job.
Chris Marsden
More On Global Protests…
Sacrament California:By Kevin Kearney,12 November 2011
Sacramento—the state capital of California and the home of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown—has spearheaded efforts to criminalize the Occupy protests over the last month.
Just days after 700 anti-Wall Street protesters were trapped on the Brooklyn Bridge by the New York Police Department and arrested, officials in Sacramento, California quickly followed suit, initiating the first arrests of Occupy protesters on the West Coast.
First police action against Occupy Canada movement—more planned:By Carl Bronski,11 November 2011
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, police in London, Ontario forcibly evicted several hundred supporters of the Occupy Canada movement who, two weeks ago, established a tent community in that city’s Victoria Park.
The mass eviction, staged in the dead of night, was the first such police action in Canada against the Occupy movement. It came during the same week that mayors and police chiefs from municipalities across the country began to publicly issue eviction threats against the Occupy encampments that have sprung up in at least twenty cities from coast to coast.
Report on Palestine Bid Accepted
Today in the News and Media of the UN Press
SC President H.E. José Filipe Moraes Cabral (Portugal) on the membership of Palestine at the UN – Security Council Media Stakeout
Q; Is there a date about when it will come out?
JFM; I m not sure, I can not discuss, because is confidential report
Q; When will you
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Israel Concerned About New Offices For Hamas In Jordan and Egypt
Posted on November 7, 2011 Akashma Online News
Deconstructed Article taken from International Middle East Media Center
By Omar Karem
Monday October 24, 2011 14:23 by Saed Bannoura
Khaled Mashal head of the Political Bureau of Hamas – Arabs48
Senior Israeli security sources said that Tel Aviv is concerned about Egyptian and Jordanian intentions to allow Hamas to open offices in Amman and Cairo, and considered the move as “granting legitimacy to terror”.
Israel is in the hot seat, can not control the PR any more, the lies, rumors, propaganda is now seen so clearly that we can smell it miles away, right before it gets published. Sometimes I wonder if they really believe their own lies, its amazing that after so much slap in the face they still continue with their Paid Rumors aka Propaganda
The sources said that both Washington and Tel Aviv are concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world is gaining more power, and claimed that the Brotherhood challenges the Arab regimes and presents itself as an alternative.
United States, and Israel will always will try to use the Religious Card, sometimes it seems that the US and Israel are really pushing the Muslim Brotherhood to take the lead, that in equal societies, if the people’s will chooses to be represented by a Muslim Organization shouldn’t be our concern, the Iranphobia that they propagate and that seems they are infected with, is more like a disease than a reality.
The Arabs48 news website reported that Israel considers the move to be a negative factor “especially since Cairo and Amman admit to the rising power of Islamist groups in the region, amidst American talks with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
I m not endorsing, a religious faction party, or secular one, but isn’t Egypt and Jordan Muslim countries?, and why Us and Israel do not worry for Saudi Arabia, after all Saudi Arabia is the most Muslim country that there is, why not call it Islamist Society, do we chose the denomination and the name to be used according to our convenience?
Israeli security and political leaders also stated that, by hosting Hamas, Cairo will be jeopardizing the close relations between the two countries.
Now why the Leaders of any country, will auto-nominate themselves the representatives of All the People?, the last time we check, the Egyptian Society did not want Israel Embassy in their soil, and they showed to Israel, destroying her embassy, to the the world by posting the videos of how much they despise their aggressive neighbors in their soil, they took the Israeli Flag and was burn in front to the whole world. So what close relations Israel is talking about?
The leaders added that Egypt played an important, and undeniable role in the release of corporal Gilad Shalit, “but its decision to host a terrorist group cannot be taken lightly”, and added that Israel will be holding talks about the issue with a number of concerned countries, mainly referring to its strongest ally, the United States.
The role of Egypt was of paramount importance because, Israel is escorting Egypt to open up the doors again post Mubarak era, and help her with the blockade of Gaza, without Egypt Israel can not humiliate Palestinians any longer, without Egypt control and support on the Rafah border, Palestinians will be half free, so, the importance of Gilad Shalit compromise with Egypt was a winning point for Israel not for Egypt. Egypt does not get anything from Israel, beside the enemies that Egypt gets if continue its diplomatic relations with Israel. Now days, the Egyptian Military Government is transitional and does not have much of support from the people, The Millions of Egyptians that took to the streets to take down the dictatorship of Mubarak do not like Israel very much.
Information Published in the New York Times on May and Debunked by Hamas Leadership, not once but twice.
Remember The New York Times is Zionist Own Corporation, so most of their News are Paid News in other words, propaganda. Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. charman and Editor of the New Yourk time with an outstanding Salary of 1.08 millions dollars and a $6,002,468 2010 compensation, Zionist Corporation that control, his family control The New York Time Co. The Boston Globe,” and 21 other newspapers in six states. It also has a one-half interest in the “International Herald Tribune” ,the Washington Post. The firm owns three magazines (including “Golf Digest”), eight television stations, and two radio stations, and publishes online. Plus serves and license 650 Newspapers around the world. Amazing power his prints have.
Also, a security source in Tel Aviv said that the fact the Turkey hosting a number of former Hamas detainees, who were released under the Shalit swap-deal, “is also a negative indicator showing that Turkey is interested in freezing its relations with Israel and maintaining strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Arab regimes”, according to the source.
Another Note to debunk, Turkey was clear when it recalled their ambassador from Israel, Turkey is another country that will be better braking for ever diplomatic relations with Israel. Israel has won the position that she find herself in, has not done anything positive for Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, or any other country in the region, now she is paying for her mistakes.
The leadership of Hamas in exile is hosted by Syria, but after the Syrian revolution started, the movement started talking about the possibility of moving its offices to another country.
Al Hayat, the London-based pan-Arab newspaper, reported Saturday that Hamas’s political wing was decamping to Doha, the capital of Qatar, but Hamas officials in Syria and beyond it denied it. Similar reports circulated on Monday and denials were again issued
Syria also hosts several Palestinians factions, mainly those who split from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Hamas was never a PLO member but expressed willingness to join it “should serious reforms be conducted”.
Israel is forgetting that historic reconciliation between the Palestinians factions took place, and if they are not one political party at least they are in the right road to converge with their ideologies, their priorities and the well being of Palestinians in mind, they do not represent themselves but the millions of Palestinians inside Gaza, West Bank and the Exile, and any talks that they conduct are for Palestine.
some of the information was taken and deconstructed from – IMEMC & Agencies
Gaza Global Affairs – Israel abused the leverage she had on the world, and played with the intellect of the people for long time, and she created her own destruction. Israel is dying and swimming in her own mud of deception and lies. She can not control the PR Propaganda any longer, is too late to savage her theater of powerful bully. What it took Israel 63 years to built with Lies and Deceit. The Gaza Strip Illegal and Inhumane siege has to be remember by the Zionist as the spot in the mirror that blur the fake glory of Israel, the 4 years of widely propagandize siege imposed in Gaza Population showed to the world what a sadistic minds were behind Israel creation and imposition to the world.
Palestinian Killed, Three Wounded, As Army Air Strikes Khan Younis
Sunday November 06, 2011 01:56Palestinian medical sources reported that the Israeli Air Force fired, on Saturday evening, missiles into Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and injuring at least three others.
The Body Of Abdullah Mhanna – Image Palestine-Info
Local sources reported that the army fired at least two missiles at a group of fighters on the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, in Al Qarara town, east of Khan Younis. The army then fired rounds of live ammunition into the area.
The slain resident was identified as Abdullah Eid Mhanna, 22, member of the Al Quds briagdes; three residents suffered moderate injuries.
The Al Quds brigades stated that, contrary to Israeli army claims, its fighters did not fire shells into Israel, and did not intend to.
On Saturday morning, one resident was moderately wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire at farmers in an area near the Nahal Oz crossing, east of Gaza.
The resident was identified as Mohammad Hamad, 23; he was shot in his right thigh; several residents suffered panic attacks.
Eyewitnesses reported that the army was not provoked in any way, and that the farmers were taken by surprise when the soldiers opened fire at them while working in their lands. Fearing for their lives, the farmers left their farmlands and went back home.
Israeli sources claimed that, on Friday at night, a shell was fired from Gaza into Asqalan (Ashkelon) causing no damages or injuries.
by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies
Related Post…
Youth Injured by Israel Fire in Gaza – Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli forces randomly opened fire at Palestinian citizens and farmers near “Nahal Oz” zone, wounding one resident identified as Mohammed Ibrahim Hamad, 23 years old; his injury was described as moderate.
“The army was not provoked, soldiers just opened fire at the farmers east of the Gaza Strip, they fled the scene fearing further attacks by the army”, an eyewitness said.
Late Friday, Israeli security sources claimed that a Palestinian home-made projectile was launched into the beach of city of Asqalan.
Hamas called on the Arab League – to break the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip in response to Israeli piracy against international solidarity activists who were trying to break the siege by sailing to Gaza.
The movement said in a statement, on Friday following the Israeli navy’s action against the two aid boats, We strongly condemn the Zionist piracy against the international activists acting in solidarity with our besieged people. We consider this Zionist act a crime and a violation of international laws and conventions.”The movement added that the continued siege against the Gaza Strip and the targeting of aid convoys are crimes added to Israel’s long list of crimes against the Palestinian peopleThe movement called on the Arab League to end the siege and called on the UN to shoulder its responsibilities towards the Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people and to immediately end the siege.
Photographic Exhibition in Gaza
Posted on November 01, 2011 Akashma Online News
By Marivel Guzman in Collaboration with Omar Karem
Omar Karem First Photographic Exibition
Gaza Strip this tiny peace of land with a window to the Mediterranean sea has always news for the world, some hear the name Gaza and expect to hear bad news all the time but this time is not Israel bombs making the news, but Omar Karem a young Gasawan that presents his first photographic exhibition to the world.
Gaza a land of close to 2 millions Palestinians life moves fast and the dreams of the youth are not different from others, they want to travel the world and take their art outside of Gaza Walls.
Since 2005 that Israel decided to confined Gaza to its borders photographers and other artists are force to make their trade using the internet as the only window to the outside world. They need to find ways to give us their art, using social media spaces, blogs or Independent Online Photo Exhibitors.
They go to extreme lengths to pursue a career in photography,Gaza Strip where more than 50 % of the population is unemployed studying is almost a luxury, but they find the way to study with borrowed equipment and all they succeed.
Gaza lies in a conservative society and is not used to the new trends in art as the big metropolitan cities, like New York, France or London, where a photographic exhibition is a big exciting experience. Gaza Siege have deprived our young photographers of equipment necessary to fulfill their dreams. In Gaza is not easy to get professional cameras, lenses, flash cards, or filters the basic photographic items that here in the US we can get very inexpensive in Gaza if they find them the prices are double because they come through the tunnels from Egypt, and they are subject to exploitation. The situation is harsh as an occupied land, and Gaza is blocked double the struggle.
Omar has a dream to travel the world, he wants to be like a regular guy that chose where to live, where to go, where to study and not have to be waiting for Israel wishes to decide his future.
In Gaza every young person has a dream to live, free of fear, to live without bombs, without f16’s patrolling their sky, every young person in Gaza have struggled his whole life, and have survived the Israel Occupation.
It is not easy to live under occupation, the resistant movement has taken the life of thousands of Palestinians, thousands of them have cut their dreams short, the ones alive have a bleak future, without support from their parents, but some how the lucky ones live to tell the tale and the dreamers get to chose their future.
And against all odds Omar Karem managed to mounted his first photographic exhibition in Gaza. I have my hopes high that he will soon come to America to bring Gaza to us. We cross our fingers that his career takes him out of Gaza but not escaping from his land, but as an artist, as a bringer of stories for the world to know. To show us first hand that hopes and dreams never die.
He wanted to bring you the other Gaza, her beautiful gardens, her beaches, to show you in prints his culture, regardless of the situation that he lives in Gaza every day with no peace under the sky, he inspired himself in his dreams to give you the beautiful side of Gaza, that part that they only know. Even with bombs from Israel after the storm they keep Gaza, they rebuild it, clean it and enjoy their piece of land, that land that is the only one they have.
The best stories are printed in paper, and photographs tell a thousand words, and we will be waiting for those stories to be captured by his camera and be told.
Good Luck Omar.
Palestine One Step Closer To Independence
Palestinian Statehood Gets Recognized by UNESCO: What’s Next?
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki delivers a speech during the 36th session of UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris October 31, 2011. (Photo: Benoit Tessier / Reuters)Unesco’s approval of full membership for Palestine is not without practical significance: The U.N. organization bestows and enforces the status of World Heritage Site, and with portions of the Heritage-aspirant Dead Sea located in Palestinian territory, as well as Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and the Hebron tomb of Abraham and his family, membership will give Palestinians more say in some of the most sensitive places on the planet.
But the main upshot, of course, is political. Monday’s lopsided 106-14 vote in Paris serves as a reminder of the popularity most of the world feels for the Palestinian bid for full membership in the U.N. itself. That application is now pending before the U.N. Security Council, where the United States is threatening to use its veto — but really, really would rather not. In light of the Arab Spring and other perceptual challenges, Washington would much prefer that the Palestinians simply fail to muster the nine votes necessary to move the application forward at all. At least a couple of non-permanent Council members are on the fence, and the hope in Ramallah is that this gust from the Unesco vote — cheers went up in the assembly hall when the final tally was announced — might tip them their way.
(READ: Palestinian Authority takes statehood bid on the road.)
Nor was the vote painless. Welcoming Palestine to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization may have meant saying goodbye to as much as 22 percent of the organization’s budget. A U.S. law passed in 199o obliges Washington to cut off funding to Unesco if it admits Palestine. The measure passed when both Unesco and the Palestinian leadership had lousy reputations among Americans. Times have changed: the U.S. is now the agency’s biggest contributor, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is known in Washington as an advocate of non-violence and diplomacy.
Two weeks ago a pair of American diplomats were closeted in Abbas’ hotel bedroom, pleading with him not to put the Obama administration over a barrel with the Unesco application. Abbas was in Paris on a 10-day trip to drum up support for U.N. membership, and listened politely to U.S. envoy David Hale and Jerusalem Consul General Daniel Rubinstein. But the Unesco application went forward, with Palestinian leaders arguing that perhaps the difficulty lay not with their assertion of their rights but rather with a U.S. law specifically aimed at trying to deny them. And after the vote the U.S. ambassador to the organization, David T. Killion, sounded as though there may be a way to work around the new reality. Killion said the vote “will complicate our ability to support Unesco” and that Washington “remains deeply committed” to it.
Vote-counters will be studying the Paris balloting with an eye to New York, where the Security Council is expected to act in early November. In the Unesco hall, a whopping 52 nations abstained, including the United Kingdom, while France, another permanent member of the Security Council, voted to admit the Palestinians. No roll call was immediately available, but the swing votes among non-permanent Council members include Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal and Colombia.
The reaction from Israel, on whose behalf the U.S. is prepared to veto full Palestinian membership: “Unesco deals in science, not science fiction,” said Nimrod Barkan, the Israeli ambassador to the organization. “They forced on Unesco a political subject out of its competence.”
A possibly crucial technical point: The membership becomes effective only when Palestinians sign and ratify the Unesco constitution, something that presumably would be done by a sitting legislature. That’s something Palestine has lacked since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, dividing Palestinian territories between that coastal enclave and the West Bank, where Abbas’ Fatah party rules. The two factions have agreed in principle to reconcile, however, and elections may produce a sitting Palestinian Legislative Council as early as January or February if Hamas accepts Abbas’ offer of going to elections sooner rather than later. The delay may also provide the loophole through which Washington could continue funding Unesco, at least for the time being.
Source Global Spin
MORE: Photos of Palestinians and Israelis clashing in the West Bank.
Related Topics: israel, Middle East, Palestinian, U.N., U.S. , Daniel Rubinstein, David Hale, David T. Killon, Mahmoud Abbas, Nimrod Barkan, UNESCO
Israel Losing its Grip in US Congress and In Palestine When 107 countries out of 185, vote for Palestine and 52 stay mute, seems that Israel is losing its grip not only on the US congress but also in international forums and organizations, for years was expected to lose any resolution related to Palestine, many countries representatives were forced to vote NO or to absteen depend the measure at stake, but this days with the Spring Revolutions looming in every head of state heads, there is not too much to think but it the security of their own countries.
Gaza Is being Attacked Again
Posted on October 29, 2011 Akashma Online News
By Marivel Guzman in collaboration with Omar Karem
An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip killed five Palestinians belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group, Gaza emergency medical services spokesman Adham Abu Selmeya told reporters. 20 other people were also reported to have been injured in the attack. The escalation started on Saturday morning when Israel attacked Gaza Khan Younis Camp.
BREAKING NEWS : 5 PALESTINIANS WERE KILLED SOUTH OF GAZA STRIP AFTER ROCKING THEM BY 2 MISSILES AT LEAST COMES FROM DRONES . ALL OF THE MARTYRS BELONGS TO ISLAMIC JIHAD ARMED WING . ONE OF THEM IS A LEADER IN ID ,GOD BLESS OUR MARTYRS . NAMES OF MARTYRS :
1- AHMED SHEIKH KHALIL LEADER
2-MOHAMED ASHOUR
3-ABED KARIEM SHATAT
4-BASEM ABU ATTAH
5- MOHAMED AL SORDIThe Other Two Maryrs names still to be confirmed –Hani Siliman Salamah
Islamic Jihad — which is not directly affiliated with Hamas — said it will take revenge for the killings.
“Our response shall be in the depths of the Zionist entity,” it said in a statement.
A spokesman for Islamic Jihad also said one of the fatalities was a local field commander, Ahmed Sheikh Khalil.
“Today it was a great loss for us in the Islamic Jihad,” he said. “The size of our retaliation will equal our loss.”
The Israeli air force confirmed the attack and defended its move by claiming that the militants were planning to launch rocket missiles into Israel. They also said Islamic Jihad had fired a missile into the city of Ashdod in southern Israel on Wednesday.
I always wonder where wisdom is when attacks of this nature happen in Palestine, I refuse to believe that Palestinians in Gaza Militias will act against their own well being, if knowing that there is unfinished business with Israel regarding the second part of the swap of Palestinians Prisoners, why will they risk an escalation in the already shaky relations between Hamas and Israel, don’t they know that Israel always use the minimum excuse to attack Gaza.
Islamic Jihad swears that their rockets attacks were in retaliation for Israel incursion in Gaza, and Israel swears that she attacks in retaliation for rockets attacks. The truth sometimes is clearer than words, reality have showed us in the past that Israel is usually the perpetrator and the first striker.
Who benefits when Israel attacks Palestinians Villages? Israel of course. So we wonder why will Palestinians want to be killed? Right? It’s common sense.
Indeed, a few hours after the attack on its people, Islamic Jihad fired a rocket into Israel, which injured one person.
The Israeli military also released a statement saying it had “attacked three terrorist sites in the Gaza Strip, as well as an arms factory in the south of the territory.” One of those targets reportedly belonged to Hamas..
Let’s be clear in the wording, for Israel The whole Gaza enclave is a terrorist spot, and she sees every Palestinians as a valid target, does not matter is the target is 5 years old
Israel directly blamed Hamas for the renewed violence. The Same way that Israel IOF’s can not control the criminal behavior of the settlers inside the Occupied territories, the same way Hamas can not control all the anger inside Gaza. There are dozen of militias groups inside Gaza that act in their own.
A spokesman for Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum, replied that Israel is “fully responsible for all the results of this dangerous escalation.”
The incident threatens to postpone or cancel the planned release of 500 more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. (Israel had previously freed about 500 Palestinian inmates in exchange for the release of Israeli solider Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas for five years.) Some of the freed prisoners also belonged to Islamic Jihad.
Israel is trying to renegade in the deal they signed for the release of their soldier, and will use any excuse to brake the truce, would not be the first time that Israel promise something and renegaded on her promises. Palestinians were waiting something like this to happen expecting nothing from Israel once Gilad Shalit was safe in Israel the promises are not expected to be fully comply.
There are some other news that Tunnels were hit in the Rafah border where a girl was injured.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Hamas and Israel to avoid an escalation in a statement published on the Palestine News & Info agency that is also called Wafa.
He called on Hamas “not to give Israel an opportunity to exploit the situation and relaunch a war on Gaza.”
Israel and Hamas carried out the first stage of a prisoner swap on Sept. 18 that freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after more than five years captivity in Gaza.
The Israeli army said today it holds Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, ending a partnership government with Abbas a year after winning parliamentary elections.
Israel Bombs Tunnels injuring a girl, The total toll so far of this attack 7 Palestinians and 20 injured – Free Gaza Today – Please pray for Gaza. They are under massive attack from Israel. At least 20 air raids in 12 hours killing and injuring many people and children 😦 the crossings are being closed)
NATO’s War on Libya was an Attack on African Development
Posted On October 28, 2011 Akashma Online News
To prevent this ‘threat of African development’, the Europeans and the USA have responded in the only way they know how – militarily. Four years ago, the US set up a new “command and control centre” for the military subjugation of the Africa, called AFRICOM. The problem for the US was that no African country wanted to host them; indeed, until very recently, Africa was unique in being the only continent in the world without a US military base. And this fact is in no small part, thanks to the efforts of the Libyan government.
Before Gaddafi’s revolution deposed the British-backed King Idris in 1969, Libya had hosted one of the world’s biggest US airbases, the Wheelus Air Base; but within a year of the revolution, it had been closed down and all foreign military personnel expelled.
More recently, Gaddafi had been actively working to scupper AFRICOM. African governments that were offered money by the US to host a base were typically offered double by Gaddafi to refuse it, and in 2008 this ad-hoc opposition crystallised into a formal rejection of AFRICOM by the African Union.
Massive Greek Protest Stops A Yearly Military Parade
by yalmpanis on 28/10/2011
October 28 is the National Day of Greece. On October 28, 1940 Mussolini asked Greek government to surrender. When the Greeks replied “NO”, Italians invaded the country. Surprisingly, Greek army won the war over the wanna-be Roman Empire of Mussolini. Only after a second German invasion, Greek army collapsed. Every year after the Liberation, on October 28 Greeks celebrate the historic “No” with a huge military parade in Thessaloniki and school parades in all municipalities.
But this year’s October 28 was different. All over the country, parades turned to anti-government and anti-austerity demonstrations. People who lost their jobs, students and pupils, “indignados”, professors and teachers, everyday working people with no political background, expressed their anger for the IMF-EU-Greek government austerity plans. They demanded government officials to leave the parades and in many cases politicians were forced to leave.
In Thessaloniki there was the most massive protest (photo). Thousands of demonstrators were shouting “Bread, Education Freedom. Dictatorship was not over in 1973” and “Government are traitors”. Finally, Carolos Papoulias, the President of the Republic, had to leave for security reasons. For the first time since Liberation, the Armed Forces didn’t parade on October 28. A very angry Papoulias said “I was an antifascist partisan when I was 15. I don’t allow anybody to call me traitor”. People accuse Papoulias for signing all the austerity bills voted by the Parliament.
Today’s events are a considerable blow to Papandreou government. Yesterday Papandreou tried to present as a national triumph EU’s decision for cutting 50% of Greek debt. Nevertheless, it seems that people don’t share Papandreou propaganda. First of all, the agreement dictates that for the next 10 years austerity will be very strict. It is certain there will by thousands of new lay-offs in public sector, a complete sell-off of public property, and new salary cuts. In addition to that, European “surveillance” over Greek government is considered as loss of national sovereignty. There is a wide spread feeling of national humiliation and many say that this “the second German occupation of the country”.
It is highly possible that on November 10 there will be a new general strike. Keep an eye on us; this is a real hot country.
October 20: second day of 48h general strike – Violent protesters attacked peaceful ones with petrol bombs and stones Thursday in Athens, as tens of thousands rallied outside parliament ahead of a vote on despised new austerity measures demanded by creditors to keep the country afloat.
Greece Paralyzed in its second day of Massive Strike– As the second day of a general strike paralyzed the country, more than 50,000 peaceful demonstrators flooded downtown Syntagma Square, the scene of violent protests on Wednesday, the first day of the nationwide strike.
Creditors have demanded the extra austerity measures before they give Greece more funds from a C110 billion ($152 billion) bailout loan from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. Greece says it will run out of money in mid-November without the next C8 billion ($11 billion) installment.
The austerity bill won initial approval from the Greek parliament, and deputies on Thursday were voting on the details, which include putting 30,000 public servants on reduced pay and suspending collective labour contracts.
Thousands in the Streets of Athens – The Arab Revolutions that shook the world is given ammunition to millions around the world to protest against their own governments, in Greece the streets are filled with angry protesters, claiming justice. They have been since 3 years ago suffering the consequences of the lavish life style of their Politicians and Banking moguls. Now they are asked to respond for a debt they did not incurred.
The agreement retaliation: Campaign of Violence in Israeli Jails
Posted on 10/25/2011 in Akashma Online News
Bethlehem – Ma’an . The Palestinian detainees in the prison in the Negev have revealed that “the Israeli prison management is conducting a violent campaign inside some prisons in retaliation to the trade agreement reached between Israel and Hamas.”
The campaign was called “For the statement of the agreement,” with violent raids and inspections in the cells of the deceased.
The direction of the Hasharon prison has installed cameras in the clearing where Palestinian prisoners may spend several hours outdoors. The gesture provoked the wrath of prisoners who described him as “a measure irresponsible directed to monitor the movements and invade their privacy.” The inmates have reacted in their cells indefinitely retreating. ”
Remain in Hasharon Prison held seven Palestinians : Lina al-Jarbouni, Rania Halsah, Bushra at-Tawil, Mona Mana ‘, Khadija Abu’ Aiyash, Hanyah Nasser, Fida ‘Abu Saninah.
Two Palestinian women prisoners in the jail instead of Damoun, waiting to be transferred to Hasharon : Wuroud Qassem and Su’ad Nazzal.
Last night, Israeli occupation forces stormed the prison of Ramon. Many detainees have been transferred.
By phone, some prisoners of the prison in the Negev told the Palestinian Ma’an Agency: “The occupation forces are carrying out violent raids and surprise inspections of prisoners.”
According to the story of the detainees: “The prison director officially informed them that ‘Manhaleet’ * are permanently erased and, with reference to the second phase of the exchange, if this were to distribution will be made at or after Eid al-Adha, the Islamic festival of sacrifice, on 6 November.
“Two sections will be closed to the prison in the Negev and also the two prisons and Eishel ‘Ashqelon to Bi’r as-Saba’ (Berkshire) are being closed,” he told the warden.
The direction of the prison in the Negev has placed in solitary confinement the prisoner Tareq Ibrahim, Palestinian 19 years, punished for attempted defense during an assault in the cell where he was with the other detainees. Tareq had tried to protect the personal objects of others. The Palestinian prisoner was sentenced to three years in prison, already discounted. Against it has been decided to extend the detention.
* Manhaleet: Israel to the term which indicates a reduction of the prison sentence of 21 days the first year, 14 days after the second and so on.
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/30948433″>شريط فيديو حاولت اسرائيل اخفاءه عن الاسرى</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/wattantv”>Wattan TV</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a></p>
Vittorio Arrigoni, the Italian Gazawi. The interview with the mother Egidia
Posted On October 26, 2011 on Akashma Online News
Originally Posted on 10/04/2011 in News in Infopal
By Angela Lano
The trial of the killers of activist ‘International Solidarity Movement and journalist, freelancer, Vittorio Arrigoni, in Gaza killed on 14 April by a group of “Salafi”, has been postponed until October 20 .
It ‘a process is not easy, because the murder and alleged murderers are still dense fogs. Investigation and trial phases is researching military court in Gaza, as some of the defendants were members of the military training “al-Qassam Brigades.” The September hearing was postponed to October 3 because the defense lawyer had claimed that the confessions were “extracted”, and therefore were not valid.
Investigations and process environments and are used by some Italian media to direct rather serious accusations against the government of Gaza, in some blogs more or less clearly close to Zionism, however, the crime and the trial stage are used to create further confusion and false leads on the identity the instigators and perpetrators.
In recent months, Vittorio Arrigoni and the process of our mainstream newspapers and TV no longer speak. And ‘fell silent. The many friends of Vik-Utopia, his name of “battle”, always non-violent means, but do not forget him. His name and his slogan, which became famous around the world – “We are human” – read it anywhere, websites, facebook, blogs. The Freedom Flotilla 2, this summer, he was entitled: “Stay Human”, in fact.
In recent days, we interviewed the mother of Victor, to take stock of the situation and to tell us his son, a hero-villain of the day.
Mrs. Giles, q hat are your expectations and those of his family to the process being the murderers of his son?
“We expect to know why Victor was killed. Because at that very moment. It seemed that they knew that Victor was about to leave Gaza.
“The day of his abduction, we learned that the group that held him prisoner wanted to do an exchange with one of their leaders in prison, but usually the exchange can afford negotiating reality with a certain power. These, however, seemed unprepared for.
“In any case, I’m interested in who was to kill my son and why. I hope that this truth comes out. I’m not complaining for postponements of the trial, because here in Italy we can not give lessons to anyone: our processes are very long. I did not hurry, do the time it takes, what matters is that justice is done. If those brought to court in recent weeks are innocent, look for other culprits.
Network of newspapers and read many hypotheses about the murder of Victor. What do you think?
“I do not make assumptions, I stick to what I say from Gaza. Why the ‘Jordan’ through the tunnels to go specifically to kill my son?
“I ask myself many questions, since then, but I have no solutions. I really hope that those who led the investigation has gone to the bottom and has not found a culprit in the case.
“Victor has never attended the ‘palaces of power’, he was with the people.”
She never mentioned that he feared for his life? He had the impression that bother anyone?
“I do not know if it bothered anyone. I do not ever talked. Lately I felt tired, but he had health problems.
“I did not think it was scared of Israel: I had not mentioned. After those threats , and after running the risks in its activities to support the Palestinians (boating and fishing alongside Palestinian farmers in the BufferZone Strip Gaza, ed), I seemed to have particular fears of attacks against him. On the other hand, of course, Israel would have killed him when he wanted, in one of these actions when Victor was on the side of the Palestinians. ”
Someone raised the hypothesis that Victor may have been murdered for his efforts with Gybo . The result?
“I do not think it was part of Victor. He will certainly have seen with joy the formation of that new reality, because he shared the anxiety of freedom of those guys who were protesting in the wake of the Arab revolution in progress. But from here to say that this was the reason he moved the hands of his murderers, there goes … Anyway, he had never spoken to me.
“There is a total fog about her murder. I have confidence in the court that is conducting the investigation.
“I do not point the finger at anyone. Of course if true the news that one of the assassins approached Victor, he attended the gymnasium where he was going to kill him, it would be really terrible. This is a hypothesis that has saddened me a lot: knowing how Victor kept the friendship, thinking that someone has betrayed him makes me very badly. ”
Ms. Beretta, tell us as it was Vik …
“It’s hard for me to tell my son. … I could tell you many things Victor was Victor. We had a relationship of empathy and intense. We shared the same ideas and ideals. I said so often, I still have a text message sent on June 8 2009, for my re-election as mayor of Bulciago: ‘Mom, I am here and you there, but we share the same things away. We are following the same path.’ He told me that he was proud of me, and I had him.
“From a young age, Victor was involved in labor camps and solidarity had begun with Peru, to 20 years. He was in Africa, Eastern Europe, Lebanon, West Bank and Jerusalem, then in Gaza. I in Palestine said that he had met the ‘sum of all the injustices’.
“They sailed to the Gaza Strip in late July of 2008, the small fleet of boats Free Gaza and Liberty. I still remember – it was a Saturday – the explosion of joy, on the phone when he saw the coast of Gaza. From that moment began its life gazawi. But it was Lebanon, in 2007, and the story of an old Palestinian refugee, to convince him that his place was alongside the Palestinians. ”
He feared for his life?
“They asked me if I regret the choices that Victor had done, if I go back in time and avoid everything … Victor is nourished by what he heard in the family, of what we did, and then chose, of his putting.
“No, I do not regret anything. I suffer a lot, sure, but I can only say well done to Vittorio follow your road.
“My son has helped to positively influence many people to wake up. His life was extraordinary. I do not know if he’d like to know who is considered a model, a hero, he was humble. It certainly has shaken the conscience.
“I do not know what to call my son, if not as a man who understood that he could not help but do what he did.”
And ‘Today the news reported by Victor’s sister, Alexandra Arrigoni: “The Premio Paolo Borsellino for the social and civil engagement will be for the future from this year and named in memory of Vittorio Arrigoni, for his constant commitment to of justice, and delivered Saturday, October 29 Pineto (TE) to Egidio Beretta, Vittorio’s mother. ”
Source: Infopal Agenzia Stampa Informaziones
News
N. Koreans in Libya banned from returning home
Posted on October 25, 2011 on Akashma Online News
2011-10-26 10:38
TRIPOLI, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) — North Korea has banned its citizens in Libya from returning home in an apparent attempt to prevent the popular uprisings in the Arab world from reaching the isolated regime, a source said Wednesday.
The development illustrated the North’s concern about possible social unrest inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions that also toppled longtime autocratic leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.
Last week, Moammar Gadhafi was killed in his hometown of Sirte, months after a public revolt against the former Libyan leader.
North Korea, which maintained close ties with Gadhafi’s regime, has so far been silent on his death. It has yet to officially recognize Libya’s rebel-led National Transitional Council as the North African nation’s legitimate governing authority.
About 200 North Koreans have been left in limbo in the war-torn country as Pyongyang ordered them not to return home, the source familiar with the issue said.
The North Korean doctors, nurses and construction workers were sent to the African nation to earn hard currency for their impoverished communist country.
North Korea has also taken similar steps for its officials in Libya, Egypt and other countries, said the source.
In recent months, North Korean defectors and other South Korean activists have sent leaflets calling for an uprising against North Korean leader Kim Jong-il who rules the country with an iron fist.
Still, many experts are skeptical about an Arab Spring-style popular uprising in the isolated country, citing North Korea’s intolerance of dissent and tight control over any information spread within and across the country’s borders.
Source: Korean Herald
<한글기사>
카다피 사망소식 北주민에 확산조짐
리비아를 42년간 철권통치하다 비참한 최후를 맞은 독재자 무아마르 카다피의 사망 소식이 북한의 일반 주민에게 확산될 개연성이 크다고 미국 자유아시아방송(RFA)이 26일 보도했다.
일 본 언론기관인 아시아프레스의 이시마루 지로(石丸次郞) 대표는 RFA에 “북한 내 일반 주민은 카다피가 사망한 것을 아직 잘 모르지만 평양과 지방의 고급 간부들 은 알고 있을 것”이라며 “일반 사람들에게는 이제 정보가 들어가게 될 것”이라고 말 했다.
RFA는 또 한 탈북자를 인용해 중국과 북한을 오가는 무역일꾼, 한국에 사는 가 족이나 친척과 통화하는 북한주민, 리비아에 파견된 북한 근로자 등을 통해 카다피 의 사망 소식이 북한에 간접적으로 알려지고 있다고 전했다.
미 국 내 탈북자도 “대학생이던 1989년 루마니아의 독재자 니콜라에 차우셰스쿠 가 시민군에 처형된 소식이 순식간에 학교에 퍼졌고 보위부가 학교를 통제했다”며 “카다피가 반정부군에게 사살됐으므로 북한 주민에게 미치는 충격은 작지 않을 것”이 라고 내다봤다.
북한은 카다피가 핵무기를 포기했기 때문에 서방국가에 의해 비참하게 죽었다는 주장을 계속 펼치고 , 북핵 문제의 해결은 더 어려워질 것이라는 전망이 많다고 RFA 는 소개했다.
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The Missing Link “Lockerbie” Libya Not Involved
Posted on October 22, 2011 on Akashma News
SOUTH AFRICAN’S PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA TRIED TO
SOLVE THE LOCKERBIE-TRADEGY IN LIBYA AND IN SCOTLAND
RESUME 22-29.OKTOBER 1997
Mandela’s Visit to Libya to Discuss Lockerbie-affair
October 22-23 TRIPOLI (Reuters) – South African President Nelson Mandela, sternly dismissing U.S. reservations about his mission, arrived in Libya on Wednesday for a visit described by diplomats as the most important for Muammar Gaddafi since the United Nations clamped sanctions on his nation in 1992.
Mandela, his Mozambican companion, Graca Machel, and Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo arrived at the Libyan border town of Ras Adjir by helicopter from the nearby Tunisian resort island of Djerba and drove across the frontier and 160 km (100 miles) to Tripoli. The trip was made by road because of an air embargo imposed on Libya by the United Nations. 
Mandela’s 50-vehicle convoy passed under a series of welcoming banners, including one that set the tone for his visit saying: “Mandela’s visit to Libya is a devastating blow to America.”
After a triumphant cavalcade around downtown Tripoli, Mandela, 79, was greeted by Gaddafi outside the ruined home in which the Libya leader’s daughter, Hana, was brutally killed in a U.S. air raid more than 10 years ago.
Greeting Gaddafi with a hug and a kiss on each cheek, Mandela told him: “My brother leader, my brother leader. How nice to see you.”
Shortly afterwards, he told reporters he remained unimpressed by U.S. opposition to his mission, adding: “Those who say I should not be here are without morals. I am not going to join them in their lack of morality.”
Mandela said he had spent 27 years in jail rather than abandon his principles under pressure and said he felt the same way about his debt to Gaddafi and the Libyan people for their support in the struggle against apartheid.
“This man helped us at a time when we were all alone, when those who say we should not come here were helping the enemy (South Africa’s white government),” Mandela said.
He reiterated South Africa’s policy on the sanctions imposed by the United Nations to force Libya to hand over two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland — saying a way should be found to lift them.
Mandela said South Africa supported the Organisation of African unity’s call for a trial in a neutral third country.
He said he would seek to promote a resolution of the stalemate between Libya and the United States and Britain at the Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh next week.
“It would be premature now to say exactly how we are going to search for a solution. (We) feel that to maintain these sanctions is to punish the ordinary people of Libya and that is why there is now great concern that the remaining sanctions must be lifted,” he said.
Diplomats in Tunisia said Mandela was Gaddafi’s most significant guest since the U.N. banned air travel to the North African state. “Colonel Gaddafi receives a regular stream of African leaders in Tripoli, but it would be fair to say that with his international stature, Mr. Mandela is the most significant visitor he has received since 1992,” said an African diplomat. The United States has branded Libya a terrorist state and, in line with its policy of discouraging trade or diplomatic relations, on Monday renewed its objection to Mandela’s visit. “We would be disappointed if he decided to make such a trip. To give(the Libyans) any solace at a time like this would be unfortunate,” said U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin.
Ebrahim Saley, South Africa’s ambassador to Tunisia and Libya, told Reuters, however, Libya had offered Mandela’s ANC consistent moral support throughout the 30-year armed struggle against white rule in South Africa, including training and financial backing that helped the party to sweep apartheid into history.
Mandela visited Libya twice between his release from jail in 1990 and his election as South Africa’s first black leader in 1994, but has not been to Tripoli since becoming president.
Abdalla Abzubedi, Libya’s ambassador to South Africa, told Reuters the visit would focus on regional peace-making efforts and bilateral trade. Asked whether the Lockerbie issue could be raised, he said: “President Mandela always makes a difference to any international issue – especially in Africa.”
Mandela not to mediate for Libya in Edinburgh ?
24 October 1997
South African President Nelson Mandela said Friday he would not use his visit to a Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh to mediate in a four-year stand-off between Libya and the governments of Britain and the United States.
He did say he would meet relatives of those Britons killed in a 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, an attack which is blamed on two Libyan agents.
Mandela arrived in Edinburgh after talks with Libyan Revolution leader Muammar Gaddafi on the protracted row with the West, which is demanding the extradition of the two suspects.
“I am not here to negotiate on Libya. I am not here to negotiate with anyone at all, I am not here on behalf of Gaddafi,” he told reporters.
Mandela supports Gaddafi’s call for the two suspects to be tried in Libya or a neutral country. Mandela said he planned to meet Dr. Jim Swire, head of an organization which groups the relatives of the British victims.
“My officials are arranging a meeting with Dr. Swire and the families,” he said, but declined to give further details.
Mandela Speaks On Lockerbie in Edinburgh 26. October 1997
President Mandela of South Africa has strongly urged Britain to allow two Libyans accused of bombing an American airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie nine years ago to be tried in a neutral country.
Mr Mandela is campaigning for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Libya after it refused to hand over the two men to the United States and Britain.
Speaking at a news conference in Scotland — where he’s attending the Commonwealth summit — Mr Mandela said justice would not be seen to be done if the men were tried in Britain; no country should be complainant,prosecutor and judge.
“I have never thought in dealing with this question that it is correct for any particular country to be the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge at the same time,” .
President Mandela said some of the victims’ families had come round to the idea of a trial in another country.
Read the official statement from Nelson Mandela in Edinburgh (ANC-news-archive)
Mandela Gives Gadhafi Award
Wednesday, October 29, 1997; 7:16 p.m. EST
ZUWARAH, Libya (AP) — Returning to Libya for his second visit in a week, Nelson Mandela presented South Africa’s highest award for a foreigner to Moammar Gadhafi on Wednesday, praising the Libyan ruler as “my dear brother leader.”
The meeting, coming so quickly on the heels of the last one, prompted speculation that the South African president was trying to mediate an end to the 5-year-old U.N. sanctions against Libya.
Mandela was accompanied by foreign reporters, so his visit gave Gadhafi a platform to heap scorn upon the United States. As with his previous stop in Libya, and earlier visits to Cuba, the trip demonstrated Mandela’s willingness to risk U.S. wrath in maintaining close relationships with old friends.
Libya and Cuba were among the countries that provided early backing to Mandela’s African National Congress in its struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
At a brief welcome ceremony with bagpipes, a guard raised a red Scottish tartan-plaid umbrella over Mandela’s head Wednesday to shield him from the sun. The two leaders linked hands as they walked toward a tent for a five-minute meeting.
Libya used the gathering to lash out at Washington.
“Down, down U.S.A., the enemy of the peoples!” said one banner, in English, at the sports center where the ceremony was held in the seaside town of Zuwarah, 60 miles west of the capital, Tripoli. 
At Wednesday’s ceremony, a crowd of some 3,000 burst into rhythmic applause as Mandela draped a sash across Gadhafi’s chest and presented him with South Africa’s Order of Good Hope, that country’s highest honor for foreigners.
“Increase the struggle!” the crowd chanted.
A 21-gun salute and military parade greeted Mandela and Gaddafi when they arrived at a sports stadium in a cavalcade of limousines. Three of Gaddafi’s women bodyguards, their gold bracelets glinting in the sun, smiled for the cameras while clutching their guns.
Libyan tribesmen on camels mingled with dancing, ululating women whose patriotic songs were punctuated by police sirens and the shouts of officers prodding people into line with machineguns.
“Welcome Mandela, the tough rebel and the stubborn resister who was not threatened by challenges and threats,” the TV announcer said as Mandela greeted guests. At times, the crowd chanted in English, “Long live Mandela!”
Mandela, however, made no direct references to Lockerbie in his brief remarks and said he was only in Libya to present the award.
For his part, Gadhafi remained defiant. “Asking Libya to hand over its citizens to America or Britain is a silly matter that makes us laugh, especially after the price we have had to pay,” he told a news conference after the awards ceremony.
In Washington, U.S. officials said the Clinton administration position on Pan Am flight 103 and on maintaining sanctions against Libya remain firm. They also said they were unaware of any initiative led by Mandela to mediate the issue.
At one point, Mandela referred to Gadhafi as “my dear brother leader.”
Gadhafi said the United States and its allies were “punishing the whole world” with sanctions against Libya.
Respectable delegations are forced to come by road, like a man Mandela who spends 27 years in prison,’ I He said. “America enjoys seeing him come by road.” respectable.
The 79-year-old Mandela arrived by car from neighboring Tunisia so as not to violate the U.N. sanctions.
Pictures of the South African leader were plastered on shops and houses lining the 40-mile road from the Tunisian-Libyan border to Zuwarah. South African and Libyan flags adorned the sides of buildings.
Reaction from the USA:
Growing opposition to sanctions against Libya
By Lisa Macdonald
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn’t Fit
source: Green Left Weekly #296 11/5/97
In response to US State Department criticism of his visit to Libya on October 23, South African President Nelson Mandela has accused the US administration of racism and condemned its “arrogance to dictate” where South African leaders should go.
US officials had attempted to pressure Mandela into cancelling the visit, arguing that “governments should have the lowest possible diplomatic contact with the government of Libya” and proclaiming that they would be “disappointed by any ratcheting up of South African-Libyan relations”.
Mandela said his visit fulfilled a moral commitment to Libya, which “supported us during our struggle when others were working with the apartheid regime”. The US government said Mandela’s response to its warnings was “unfortunate”.
This is just the latest attempt by the US to force South Africa to cede to US policy in relation to governments it considers “troublesome”. Libya, along with Cuba, Iran and Syria, is top of that list.
In 1995, a proposed deal involving the storage of Iranian oil in South Africa was scrapped under pressure from the US. Soon afterwards, “concerns” were raised in the US Congress about South Africa’s relations with Cuba. The following year, discussions about a possible arms deal between South Africa and Syria were cancelled after strong condemnation and threats from the US.
The US campaign against Libya began when the September 1, 1969, revolution overthrew the US puppet King Idris, refused to renew foreign base agreements and nationalised US, French and British oil interests. Since then, the US and its allies have waged a covert and overt war against Libya, including a series of CIA-orchestrated assassination attempts, provocative incursions into Libyan territorial waters and the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986.
In 1992, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Libya which prohibit arms sales and flights to and from the country. These sanctions were ostensibly to punish Libya for so-called terrorist activities and to force it to extradite two Libyan agents accused by Britain and the US of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, which killed 270 people.
Libya, supported by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), has proposed that the Lockerbie trial be held in a neutral country, conducted under Scottish law. In the words of Mandela, who has been mandated by the OAU to mediate between Britain and Libya on the issue: “You can’t have a country like Britain, which is the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge at the same time. For a country to combine the three roles, there can be no justice there.”
The British families of those killed in the Lockerbie disaster have welcomed Mandela’s call and endorsed South Africa as a suitable venue for a trial.
The South African government has further angered the US by supporting the OAU’s demand that the UN lift the sanctions against Libya.
South Africa’s State’s lawyer backes Mandela over Lockerbie
31-October 1997 A TOP Department of South Africa’s Foreign Affairs lawyer has backed President Nelson Mandela’s controversial stance on Libya, advising him to support Moammar Gadaffi’s refusal to hand the Lockerbie bombing suspects to Britain and the United States.
The department’s chief legal adviser, Albert Hoffmann, told Mandela’s office that according to international law, Libya was right to refuse to hand over the suspects accused of the bombing of a PanAm jumbo jet in 1988.
Hoffman said of the use of the security council by Britain and the US: “They are both permanent members of the council, I presume they were the main architects of the resolution. I don’t want to pass judgment but bigger powers can afford to use the security council mechanisms for their own purposes, which they say is in the interests of fighting international terrorism. Legally speaking, both sides are correct. The US and the UK can demand and may demand extradition, but at the same time Libya is also fully entitled under international law not to extradite. That’s why there is this impasse …
“The United Nations is deliberating on a permanent international criminal court and were this in place, it would have provided a way out.”
Hoffmann said Libya had complied with the 1971 Montreal Convention to Suppress Acts of Violence against Civil Aviation, by arresting both suspects in Libya and setting up a local investigation. He said the US and the UK had rejected international treaty obligations in favour of security council resolutions to try to pressure Libya to hand over the suspects.
Hoffmann, in his advice to Mandela, suggests solutions that include pursuing negotiations beyond the impasse. He suggests setting up a special ad hoc criminal tribunal to prosecute the suspects. The parties in the dispute would then agree to the composition of the tribunal and it would adopt its own rules of procedure.
South African Mail&Guardian, October 31, 1997.
Al-Gadhafee Human Rights Prize Fund Centered in Swiss Soil
Gadhafee Defiance After 20 years of Sanctions– Gadhafi defiant after 20 years of not bending to US-UK-Israel rule. The man that stood alone against the giants with the dreams of creating a Unifying Greater Africa. The African Puppets made kings exchanged their dignity for crowns, and a bad society.
He used billions of dollars over the years to support the resistance around the world, he knew that without resistance his dreams will die with the fighters. Palestine, Scotland and other countries received great support from the coffers of Libya, the African countries got hands full of Libya money but they never appreciated the gift.
Convicted Lockerbie Bomber Probably Not Guilty—So Who Is the Real Criminal? – Edwin Bollier, the owner of MEBO which manufactured the alleged bomb trigger device used in the explosion, revealed that he had turned down an FBI offer of $4 million to testify that he had sold the device to Libya.
Who will have benefited from this operation? Israel, United States and United Kingdom, and other small players in the Oil Industry, taking one competitor out of the game.
According to US Department of State; “Much of Libya’s income has been lost to waste, corruption, conventional armament purchases, and attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction, as well as to large donations made to “liberation” movements and to developing countries in attempts to increase Qadhafi’s influence in Africa and elsewhere.” being Palestine Resistance in the list of “liberation movements” a lower blow to Israel, and western allies.
Requiem of a Dream, A Sad Day For Africa – Black Africa today mourn the killing of a dream with Moammar Gadhafee death, the dream to be independent from the Wrath of the Western Powers is buried today as the illegal forces of NATO backed mercenaries “interim forces” carry the crime to humiliate the only men that have successful defied the US and Israel and have survived the tribulations. During Ghadafee years in power Libya saw an economic 360 turn around, he brought Libya from the age stone to be one of the most modern educated and civilized societies in Africa.
Requiem for a Dream, A Sad Day for Africa
Posted on October 20, 2011 by Akashma News
By Marivel Guzman
Black Africa today mourn the killing of a dream with Muammar Gadhafee death, the dream to be independent from the Wrath of the Western Powers is buried today as the illegal forces of NATO backed mercenaries “interim forces” carry the crime to humiliate the only men that have successful defied the US and Israel and have survived the tribulations.
During Ghadafee years in power Libya saw an economic 360 turn around, he brought Libya from the age stone to be one of the most modern educated and civilized societies in Africa.
Gadhafee like Hugo Chavez Venezuelan President and Fidel Castro have stood up to the tyrannical orders of the International Monetary Mobsters, he never gave up the rights of the people to determine their own future.
Like any other leader in modern history he did have his opponents, but only the ones fueled and funded by The Western Powers.
He took power in a bloodless military coup in 1969 when he toppled King Idriss, and in the 1970s he formulated his ‘Third Universal Theory’, a middle road between communism and capitalism, as laid out in his Green Book.
See: “The Libyan War, American Power and the Decline of the Petrodollar System” by Peter Dale Scott; “Bombing of Libya – punishment for Gaddafi for his attempt to refuse US dollar” as cited by Ellen Brown in “Libya: All About Oil, or All About Banking.” For this and other points see also: “Euro-US War on Libya: Official Lies and Misconceptions of Critics” by James Petras and see other articles on the subject
If he has Libyan blood in his hands which probably he did, he did have also millions of Libyans that will be mourning his death, and much more millions of African that will be swallow by the wolf IMF, that will appear with sheep cloths to save their already ransacked economies. I know that Gadhafee image is now tarnished by the 40 year continual western propaganda, for many years to come will be impossible to see him in any other way but on the dictator that he was or he was portrayed to be. Because regardless of all the good things he did, once you hold to the power you are a dictator, even if the power that you keep is do do the greater good, without discontinuing that he did murder people in his 40 years in power. We can say that he was not a good man, not a bad men, but someone that did raise Libya from the grounds to be economically stable, socially and politically ahead of all his African friends and enemies.
Gaddafi-Central Bank used $33 billion, without interest rates, to build the Great Man-Made River of 3,750 kilometers with three parallel pipelines running oil, gas and water supplying 70% of the people (4.5 of its 6 million) with clean drinking and irrigation water.
“In 2010 Gaddafi offered to invest $97 billion in Africa to free it from Western influence, on condition that African states rid themselves of corruption and nepotism. Gaddafi always dreamed of a Developed, United Africa and was about to make that dream come true – and nothing is more terrifying to the West than a Developed, United Africa.” – Source: Reuters
The Truth Behind the Opposition The Idriss Monarchy – The uprising in Libya, which has been portrayed by many in the west as a democratic movement, has been symbolized by the tri-coloured rebel flag. The flag is in fact the flag of the oppressive, undemocratic, monarchy of Idris. At the start of the conflict elements of the rebels in Benghazi held aloft pictures of King Idris. The Truth behind Libya Unrest.
In the recent NATO operations in sovereign soil of Libya, the so called peace forces terrorized entire towns, and killed thousands of innocent civilians under the disguise of liberating Libya. Plenty of evidence is documented by official diplomats, human rights groups, and thousands of ordinary citizens on the massacres perpetrated by NATO and their “Rebels”.
A chapter is closing on a long journey of conspiracy, murder, deceit, theft, of western propaganda. Now there is no covert up anymore, the coffers of Libya are open to be ransacked by the International banking mobsters. The richest country in Africa in a few months, will be deep on forced debt. The guardian of the Oil and sovereign soil of Libya is been caught in another paraded western show. Requiem for a Dream and Rest in Peace the Dreamer.
They tried to assassinate his character and structured the same show of hiding in a hole story that was done to Saddam Husseim the former Iraqi leader, this will be the last sting propaganda that will be played against Gadhafe.
“There are reports that Gadhafe was hiding in a hole, possibly a sewer or drainage ditch, like former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein before he was captured. It doesn’t seem like Gadhafe’s M.O. What do you make of this?
Ben Wedeman: We understood when he left Tripoli in August that he left with a large entourage, with lots of cash … and a lot of weapons. And for him to end up basically in the same sort of spider hole that Saddam Hussein did seems a bit odd, a bit out of character.”
“Why they want Gadhafe Dead”
“Wrong Gaddafi criticised Israel and wanted gold for his oil instead of dollars, that why they wanted him dead. 500 Million is neither here nor there in global terms and certainly isn’t worth a war. The AMF and central bank are part of creating an African Union, which will like all unions, North American and European Union etc, will eventually be joined to creat a world government. So there is no way this war is to stop the African Union happening, this is want is wanted, this is their plan.”
“Regardless of whether he is dead or alive, colonel Gaddafi will go down as one of the greatest men in human history. A great revolutionary leader who defended his continent, country and his people against bloody Western imperialism. A great military strategist who resisted and fought against the strongest, and the most evil military machine the Earth has ever known. His name and legacy will live for ever.
VIVA GADDAFI!” (via Aden Abdullahi)
heatflash888“I feel MG was a new threat due oil trading, i.e. his threats to trade oil with the emerging and comepting industrial nations. i.e China and India etc. Further, the nation is not within the orbit of international banking and demand and recieves payment for oil in their Dinar and/or gold. Sounds crazy? What nation started demanding the Euro currency for oil trading, a dangerous president for the USD if adopted by OPEC….Iraq! The statments in this video are, in my view, accurate!”
8corporal“Yes, thank you for this information. We are being lied to about everything through our media. This invasion of Libya is one more crime that we can add to the long list. When will people in the West wake up and realise what is going on? It is a crime of complicity to do nothing. Thank you for your good work!
pooth27“Gaddafi is neither a good guy or a bad guy,But in my opinion,if Gaddafi admit western countries to take African resources,human civilization will develop faster and it will be good for Africans and their offsprings.Now we can know who is the justicial and who is evil.Who is more important?Current Africans or Africans’ offspring?Current Africans or human civilization?
huangjun4“Now Europeans have most of daily goods and perfect infrastructures,so their economy become bad because no one have jobs.If Africa can make other people to get cheap resources and then make other people’s economy grow faster,it will help African offsprings when all industries will have moved to Africa”.
huangjun4 1 month ago “Now China is like a building site.Chinese want to buy a lot of products and build a lot of infrastructures and they can export products to America,so a lot of industries and factories move to their country and their economy is good.However if America fall,China will have to be greedy of resources and foods for African resources.”
huangjun4 1 month ago “If western countries don’t have enough money to buy Chinese products,it will become WW3.Chinese will start WW3 to snatch foods and oil to raise their hungery people.In the future,when western countries fall,China will become robbers and India will become thieves.So they are not ever good guys.After China fall,India will become robber and Africa will become thieves.This is like a game.”
huangjun4 1 month ago,”For example if robbers don’t snatch resources and money from Africa any more and then they won’t have enough money to buy Chinese thieves’ products and research new technologies that will be stolen by Chinese thieves.So who will be the loser?China,Japan,Korea,Isreal,Italy,Britain,India,France and Germany will be the losers because they don’t have enough resources to raise their too big population.American workers can dig up own resources and go back to farms,but front countries are not able to.
1969 – The al Fateh Revolution The Overthrow of King Idris
THE LOCKERBIE BOMBING: LIBYA WAS FRAMED–
On December 21 1988, a Pan Am plane mysteriously exploded over Scotland causing the death of 270 people from 21 countries. The tragedy provoked global outrage. In 1991, two Libyans were charged with the bombing. In the event, only Abdulbaset Ali Mohammad Al Megrahi, a Libyan agent, was pronounced guilty by a panel of three judges, who based their decision on largely circumstantial evidence. Al Megrahi and the Libyan government have protested their innocence all along.
Nevertheless, after suffering punitive UN sanctions which froze overseas Libyan bank accounts and prevented the import of spare parts needed for the country’s oil industry, Tripoli reluctantly agreed to pay $2.7 billion to victims? families ($10 million per family), on condition the pay-out would not be deemed as admission of guilt.
Lockerbie Not Guity – On Aug. 21 Scotland freed Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi—convicted under Scottish law at a special court in The Netherlands of destroying Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on Sept. 21, 1988. Killed were 259 persons, including 189 Americans on board and 11 people on the ground. The terminally ill Megrahi, after dropping his second appeal, was released on compassionate grounds. Back in Libya, he continues to protest his innocence.
The Missing Link, “Lockerbie” Libya Not Involved – Mandela told Gaddafi: “My brother leader, my brother leader. How nice to see you.”
Shortly afterwards, he told reporters he remained unimpressed by U.S. opposition to his mission, adding: “Those who say I should not be here are without morals. I am not going to join them in their lack of morality.”
Mandela said he had spent 27 years in jail rather than abandon his principles under pressure and said he felt the same way about his debt to Gaddafi and the Libyan people for their support in the struggle against apartheid.
“This man helped us at a time when we were all alone, when those who say we should not come here were helping the enemy (South Africa’s white government),” Mandela said.
He reiterated South Africa’s policy on the sanctions imposed by the United Nations to force Libya to hand over two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland — saying a way should be found to lift them.
Qadhafi Defiance after 20 years of UN and US Sanctions: Who Benefits from it?. Libyan get a Rotten deal
Lt Col Al-Muammar Gaddafi Photography History – The Libyan Leader had a dream for Africa whether he compromise his own reputation to achieved is not in question, because he did. He did not care much of what the Media will say about him, Gaddafi had a straight forward goal for Africa. To Make an Independent Block of African Countries, where they can rely one another economically. He did used billions of dollars to support his country first, and brought Libya out the stone age, how some writers like to call it, reality is that he spent billions of dollars to built a strong economy, he invested in Education, Housing and infrastructure for the main cities.
90 % of the Libyan population was living in the 3 main cities, and they were developed and modern cities. His most famous project was the 33 billions dollar invested in the water project to serve potable water to the cities.
Palestinians Coming Home Received As Heroes
Posted on October 18, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
Gaza TV News Parents of prisoners released in a feast of joy now in Gaza.
Since early in the morning on this day October 18, 2011 thousands of people started gathering in different parts of Palestine to welcome The Heroes coming home.
The Red Cross was preparing the buses that have to be used to transport hundreds of Palestinians to 3 different spots in Palestine, Rafah Gaza Border to be officialy received by Haniyeh, Twenty-two female and 96 male prisoners are to pass through Beituniya on their way to Ramallah, where they will meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Rafah Egypt, Khaled Meshaal the leader of Hamas in Damascus will be arriving in Cairo where 40 Palestinians will be welcome by him, as the first step to find their next home, there are 3 countries already confirmed to take some of them into exile; Turkey was confirmed yesterday, Qatar and Syria the other two countries.
The names still non known, as there still diplomatic conversations deciding the luck of these Palestinians.
The World Eyes are in Gaza Rafah Border, where a historic Deal is being taking place, hundreds of Palestinians were pardoned on an exchange Deal. I m so anxious to see families reuniting with their Loves ones. God help the other families to cope with their pain now, but I m sure that all Palestinians as resistant fighters that they are they all are happy because 477 brothers are being release today
Historic deal taking place in these moments, thousands of Palestinians families await for their love ones to come home.
The high court of Israel stayed out of the Deal. Israel President pardoned officially 477 Palestinians Resistant fighters, and Political prisoners.“I’m so excited I have tears in my eyes, I just can’t wait to hug him,” said Halia Bazain, brother of Ala Adin Bazain, a resident of the Old City, who was in jail for 25 years.
“I feel so happy. It’s really good but I think that straight away there will be two or three more Schalits,” said Muhammed Isawiyeh, a distant relative of Ahaled Ahmed Muahatsi, from Issawiya. “There are still 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in jail.”
Expectation, and anxiety around the world, as we all were ready to receive the first Photos and videos that would make history, Palestinians that have spent their whole lives in Israel Jails are coming home to find a completely different landscape and politics, like Ala Adin Bazain, 25 years, Ahmad Abd-Al-Rahman Husein Abu-Hasira, 35 years, Mustafa Ayyad Ahmad Abu Hasana 30 years, Tayir Mahmud Jamil Kared 30 years, Jamal Amar Muhammad Arqiq 30 years with 3 months, as you can see this Deal is considered historic because have save the lives of 1027 Palestinians from the hands of Israel, before few weeks ago their life were being waste, languished in Israel prisons know for their inhumane treatment to Palestinians prisoners.
“This deal will bring relief to Gilad Shalit and his family after an ordeal that has lasted more than five years. Many Palestinian families will feel a similar sense of relief today when they are reunited with their relatives, many of whom have spent decades under harsh conditions in Israeli detention,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Soldier Gilad Shalit and his father, Noam Shalit, after landing at Tel Nof Air Base,
In a surprise interview Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was has been released as part of a swap deal with Hamas, has said he would be “very happy” if all Palestinian prisoners still held by Israel could be freed and return home.
Speaking to Egypt’s Nile TV, Shalit, who had been held in captivity for five years, said “I hope this deal will help the conclusion of a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.”
Thousands of Activists around the world were joining in the celebration, and sharing the first photos taken from the Hamas run channel Al-Aqsa TV live, Al jazeera and Elahmad.com that have been intermittently transmitting the events from Jerusalem, West Bank, Rafah Gaza, Egypt and Israel.
Today is Celebration day for Palestine and around the world, it is a victory for Hamas, for the Prisoners that have been released, for the families, for we do not forget the other more than 6,000 still in Israel Jails, we don’t forget Marwa Barghouti, Ahnmad Asa’aad and other key political leaders still waiting to be release.
Ammesty Internal and other Human Rights Groups around the world still working to guarantee release of the other Palestinians Prisoners that are considered conscience prisoners and not criminals, as they were only exercising their right and duty to defend their land, their person, belongings and families.
Egypt military court ‘toying with life’ of jailed blogger
Posted on October 17, 2011 by Akashma News
Egypt military court ‘toying with life’ of jailed blogger
Jailed blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad has been on hunger strike for 52 days
© Private
13 October 2011
Amnesty International today urged Egypt’s military leadership to immediately and unconditionally release a jailed blogger after the military appeals court in Cairo ordered a retrial of his case.
Maikel Nabil Sanad, a 26-year-old blogger, is in very poor health after spending 52 days on hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment.
Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience following his arrest and sentencing earlier this year to three years in prison for his writings about protests in Egypt and criticizing the armed forces.
“Maikel Nabil Sanad’s trial has been rife with flaws and unnecessary delays, and the decision of the appeals court for a retrial brings him back to square one, cruelly toying with his life,” said Amnesty International.
“The charges against him must be dropped and he should be released immediately and unconditionally. He should never have been tried in the first place, let alone before a military court.”
“Forcing him to face the same unfair proceedings all over again is especially cruel given the frail state of his health.”
Maikel Nabil Sanad’s retrial is due to take place before a military court on 18 October. He will remain in detention until the new court date.
In the Egyptian military court system, appeals are limited to legal points and do not include a review of the facts of the case and the evidence.
Amnesty International opposes the trial of civilians by military courts and considers these courts as fundamentally unfair, as they deprive defendants of some of the basic guarantees of fair trial, including the right to appeal.
Since protests began in Egypt at the beginning of the year, some 12,000 people have been referred to military trials.
After the blogger’s arrest at his home in Cairo on 28 March, a military court sentenced him on 10 April to three years in prison over his criticism of the Egyptian military’s use of force against protesters in Tahrir Square and his objection to military service.
His hunger strike has caused his weight to plummet and prison authorities have denied him the medication he needs to treat a heart condition.
Family members told Amnesty International that they fear for their son’s life, and had booked a space for him in the intensive care unit at Hayat Hospital, in hopes he would be set free after the latest court hearing.
But the military court has refused to release Maikel Nabil Sanad even temporarily to receive medical treatment.
Family members said he plans to maintain his hunger strike.
Read More
Life of Egyptian blogger hangs in the balance as appeal postponed (News, 4 October 2011)
Egypt blogger on hunger strike must be released as health fails (News, 26 September 2011)
Egyptian blogger in solitary confinement (Urgent action, 30 August 2011)
Demanding change in the Middle East and North Africa (Multimedia microsite)
Source: © 2011 Amnesty International
Not All Heroes Fly; Some Sit in Jail For long Time Part 2
Marwan Barghouti
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Marwan Barghouti (Marwan Hasib Husayn al-Barghuthi): member of the Fatah Central Committee, former Secretary-General of the Fatah Higher Committee in the West Bank, and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Probably the most popular Palestinian politician in the Occupied Territories, and widely regarded as a probable future Palestinian leader. An early and active supporter of the Oslo process, who became increasingly skeptical through the 1990’s that negotiations alone would end the Israeli Occupation. He was an outspoken supporter of armed resistance when the Oslo process collapsed in 2000, and became the personification of the al-Aqsa intifada to Palestinians and Israelis alike. Currently serving five consecutive life sentences plus forty years in Nafha Prison in the Negev, for alleged complicity in five murders carried out by the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Born 6 June 1959 in Kafr Kubr, nr Ramallah, into a large and politically-active West Bank family (Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative, is a distant cousin). One of seven children; father was a migrant worker in Lebanon. His younger brother, Muqbel, describes him as “a naughty and rebellious boy”, who was a mediocre student at Amir Hassan Junior School.
Joined Fatah at age 15, and was a co-founder of the Fatah Youth Movement (Shabiba) on the West Bank. Arrested in 1978 and imprisoned for more than four years for “membership of a banned organisation”. Completed his secondary education and received high school diploma while in jail, and became fluent in Hebrew.
Enrolled at Birzeit University in 1983, though arrest and exile meant that he did not graduate B.A. (History and Political Science) until 1994. Received his M.A. (International Relations) also from Birzeit in 1998. As an undergradate, he was active in student politics on behalf of Fatah, and headed the BZU Student Council. On 21 October 1984, he married a fellow student, Fadwa Ibrahim. (Fadwa took Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in law and was a prominent advocate in her own right on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, even before becoming the leading campaigner for Marwan’s release from his current jail term). They have a daughter, Ruba (b. 1987), and three sons, Qassam (1986; also here), Sharaf (1989) and Arab (1991).
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Family photos via al-Watan Voice, 24 Feb 2005; (expired link). View the rest of al-Watan’s Barghouti photos.
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Barghouti was arrested in September 1985, and held without trial for 6 months under administrative detention. On the eve of the first intifada (in May 1997), he was expelled to Jordan for “incitement”, by then-Commander of the IDF Central Command, Gen. Ehud Barak. Served as a low-level liaison officer between the PLO in exile and Fatah in the Occupied Territories through the first intifada, which erupted shortly after his expulsion. Based first in Amman and subsequently at PLO headquarters in Tunis, where he was a protégé of Khalil Wazir (Abu Jihad). He was elected to the Fatah Revolutionary Council in August 1989, becoming its youngest ever member, and to the PLO Central Council, as an independent delegate.
He was allowed to return to the West Bank in April 1994, a result of the signing of the Oslo Accords. Barghouti was a strong advocate of a two-state solution, and strongly supported the peace process with Israel, believing that Oslo would eventually lead to a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories of 1967 and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
On returning to Ramallah in 1994, he established the West Bank Fatah Higher Committee, to develop civil society in the Occupied Territories and to develop Fatah into a modern political party. This brought him into conflict with Arafat and his many supporters, who maintained that Fatah was still a revolutionary movement struggling for independence on behalf of Palestinians both in the Territories and in the Diaspora, and the transformation to a civil, political party should wait till after an independent Palestinian state had been achieved.
Barghouti was an outspoken critic of the centralisation of power around the person of Arafat, and became the leading representative of the reformist stream within Fatah. He called repeatedly (and continues to call) for the aging Fatah Central Committee to organize the long-delayed 6th Fatah Convention that would allow for the holding of the movement’s first internal elections since 1989, which would bring into power younger activists with grassroots support (the Young Guard) at the expense of the established leadership (the Old Guard/the Tunisians) who were in exile for a generation. He maintained that “in the past Fatah earned its right to lead the Palestinian national movement by virtue of the armed struggle of its fighters and the blood of its martyrs, now we have a Palestinian National Authority on Palestinian soil we must earn our legitimacy from the democratic choice of its people.” (Arafat attempted to remove him from leading the West Bank Fatah in 2000 by in favour of Husayn al-Shaykh, but Barghouti refused to be replaced and remained the recognised leader among the movement’s membership).
Within Fatah, Barghouti was most closely aligned with two former long-time prisoners in Israeli jails: Jibril Rajoub, head of the PA’s West Bank Preventative Security Service (and a former cell-mate of Barghouti’s at Beer Sheva jail), and Qadoura Faris, PLC member for Ramallah in the first PA parliament and later one of the leading Palestinian negotiators and signatories to the Geneva Accord. He also established good working relationships with the major Palestinian factions outside Fatah, including the Islamist movements.
Arafat was reluctant to empower Fatah leaders who had their own strong base of popular support, and excluded Barghouti from the Fatah slate for the first elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996. Barghouti nevertheless ran as an Independent candidate, and won a seat representing the Ramallah district. In Parliament he was a prominent campaigner on social and economic issues, and for women’s rights, but he particularly struck a chord with Palestinian public opinion when he expressed the widely-felt dissatisfaction with the performance of the PA leadership. He launched a campaign against human rights abuses by Arafat’s own security services and corruption among some of his officials, which included tabling a motion of no-confidence in the executive at the PLC in May 1997 over the issue of budgetary misuse. Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the influential pan-Arabic newspaper al-Quds, noted that: “Marwan Barghouti has always identified with the grass-roots rather than the leadership… His star really came into its ascendancy after he spoke out against the Palestinian Authority leadership.”
Barghouti also closely reflected Palestinian grassroots sentiment in his changing attitude to the Oslo peace process. He was initially an outspoken advocate of Oslo, and as a Parliamentarian worked closely with Israeli politicians across the political spectrum. “He had the telephone numbers of about half the Israeli Knesset,” one Israeli interlocutor later recalled.
I remember him from other times. A delegation to Europe that included Israeli Knesset members and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Barghouti made friends with everyone – Haim Ramon of Labor, Golan Heights settler Yehuda Harel, Yitzhak Vaknin and David Tal of Shas and Maxim Levy and Yehuda Lancry of the Likud. The only friction that arose was between him and Dedi Zucker: Zucker, a Maccabi Haifa fan, couldn’t tolerate Barghouti’s rooting for Hapoel Tel Aviv. On the last evening, Barghouti preferred the company of the Israelis to that of the wealthy Palestinians in Valencia, Spain, who had invited him over. Unbelievably, this was less than five years ago. Not even five years ago… (Gideon Levy)
Although his support for a negotiated two state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders remained consistent, by 1998 he publicly doubted whether Oslo was the vehicle to bring this about, and questioned whether Israel had entered the peace process with the intention of ending the occupation at all. The issue that soured Barghouti on Oslo, and which he regarded as the touchstone of Israel’s good faith in negotiating with the Palestinians, was the ongoing settlement project in the Occupied Territories.
Barghouti noted that while ostensibly talking peace, Israel during the Oslo years was planting just as many settlers on the Palestinian lands that were supposed to be the subject of the negotiations as they had done before the peace process existed. He viewed accelerated settlement in the OPT as a clear indicator of Israel’s bad faith in its alleged pursuit of peace, and concluded that the Oslo process was a fraud that on the Israeli side was never intended to lead to Palestinian independence. He felt particularly betrayed by the failure of the Israeli left to resist the growth of the settlements, which accelerated under both Likud and Labour governments.
We have no motivation to go out for new Intifada… We already paid the price for the former one. There is only one matter that can take us again out to the streets – the continuation of constructing settlements. We can accept the current situation for 100 years, even without another further redeployment, but will not accept new settlements. (Marwan Barghouti, 4 Feb 1998)
[I]t has been our experience that we cannot trust the Israelis. Since the Madrid conference till now – almost 10 years – we were going to the negotiating table, thousands of meetings, not hundreds believe me but thousands of meetings on a lot of issues like political, economics, security, etc. And what happened while we’re negotiating? The Israelis used the time…used the umbrella of the negotiations to build new settlements. Israel since the 1967 war to 1993 built roughly 25,000 housing units during the 26 years of Israeli occupation. Since 1993 until the eve of the Intifada – in a period of seven years – they built 23,400 new housing units. So I think the Israelis laugh at the Palestinians and use the negotiations to advance their own goals. (31 July 2002)
Barghouti called for the PA leadership to end to all negotiations with Israel until the Israeli government would freeze settlement activities and publicly commit itself to ending the occupation of 1967.
You must understand, once and for all, that you must end the occupation. You must announce that the occupation is over and that Israel is leaving the territories. Present a timetable of a month, six months, a year. The important thing is that you present a timetable for withdrawal from all of the territories and the dismantling of the settlements, and announce that you recognize an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem…. The moment you announce the end of the occupation and recognize a sovereign, genuine Palestinian state, not a vassal state, at that very moment everything will change. (Maariv)
Israelis must abandon the myth that it is possible to have peace and occupation at the same time, that peaceful coexistence is possible between slave and master. The lack of Israeli security is born of the lack of Palestinian freedom. Israel will have security only after the end of occupation, not before. Once Israel and the rest of the world understand this fundamental truth, the way forward becomes clear: End the occupation, allow the Palestinians to live in freedom and let the independent and equal neighbors of Israel and Palestine negotiate a peaceful future with close economic and cultural ties. (WaPo)
He became increasingly outspoken against the Oslo process, and led massive demonstrations calling for the leadership to refocus national attention on the basic objective of ending the occupation, rather than on the empty vehicle of peace talks with an occupier that did not intend to leave. Barghouti’s scepticism over the Oslo Accords and over the sincerity of Israel’s commitment to a negotiated settlement resonated strongly with a Palestinian public that was already associating the peace process on the ground not with greater freedom and independence, but with more restrictions on movement and more intrusive Israeli occupation than had ever been the case in the pre-Oslo period.
Barghouti’s disenchantment with Oslo was matched by his growing disillusionment with the role of the U.S. in the conflict. He was convinced that the U.S. was too close to Israel to ever be an “honest broker”, and concluded that a permanent solution to the Middle East conflict can be found only if the mediator is changed (in favor of the U.N., Europeans, or Russians).
[W]e have no faith in the United States, the provider of billions of dollars in annual aid to fund Israel’s expansion of illegal colonies, the “fighter of terrorism” that supplies Israel with the F-16s and helicopter gunships used against a defenseless civilian population, the “defender of freedom and the oppressed” that coddles Sharon even as he faces war crimes charges for his responsibility in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees. The role of the world’s only superpower has been reduced to that of a mere spectator with nothing to offer other than a tired refrain of “Stop the violence” while doing nothing to address the root causes of that violence: denial of Palestinian freedom.
Watch as the hapless Gen. Anthony Zinni focuses his efforts on “violence” while Jewish settlers violate international law and even American policy by moving into a new illegal colony in occupied East Jerusalem. We Palestinians are not impressed. (WaPo)
I think our problem is not with the Israelis, but our biggest problem is with the Americans—with you, unfortunately. Do you realize that the Palestinians have more support in the Israeli Knesset than we do in the US Congress?
…The Palestinians are asking themselves—including me—why do the Americans treat us so badly? Why do they always support the Israelis more than even the Israelis themselves? Why are they always accusing the Palestinians of being violent terrorists while ignoring Israel’s brutal occupation? The occupation is the greatest terror of all and the greatest violence in this part of the world. Why are they so aggressive in their policies toward the Palestinians? …I think the Americans should look for their long-term interests in the region and realize that they have many interests greater than Israel. They cannot continue to ignore the Arab nation of more than 300 million people as well as a billion Muslims all over the world for the sake of these 4 million Jews in Israel. Its time for the Americans to start being fair in their policies toward the Palestinians. (Media Monitors)
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As the Oslo period dissolved into violence, Barghouti was an early advocate of a more militant approach to Israel. “We tried seven years of intifada without negotiations, then seven years of negotiations without intifada. Perhaps it is time to try both simultaneously,” he said in November 2000. As the second intifada erupted, the Palestinian factions (both nationalist and Islamist) established two steering committees, one for Gaza and one for the West Bank, which met weekly to set the times and locations of demonstrations for the next day. Barghouti headed the West Bank steering committee, and personally became a highly-visible figure at demonstrations, funerals and in the media, rallying support for Fatah and calling on Palestinians to escalate the unrest in order to demonstrate that Israel would not enjoy security while it maintained its occupation.
Oslo died with Rabin. How would you feel if on every hill in territory that belongs to you a new settlement would spring up? If your best friends, with whom you fought shoulder to shoulder, continue to rot in jail? I reached a simple conclusion. You don’t want to end the occupation and you don’t want to stop the settlements, so the only way to convince you is by force. This is the Intifada of peace. I’m serious. This Intifada will lead to peace in the end. We need to escalate the conflict. It will be hard. Many of us will be killed, but there is no choice. Every one of us is willing to sacrifice himself. We have decided that Sharon will not bring you security, and we have succeeded. It’s been 274 days since he was elected, and what has happened? Is there security? No. Nothing will help. Only a just agreement, the 1967 borders, a sovereign state, Jerusalem and a solution to the refugee problem. This is the formula and there is no other, and no one has the right to give up on it. (Maariv)
On the escalation of the intifada, as in decentralisation of political power and disillusionment with Oslo, Barghouti was more in line with Palestinian popular opinion than more established members of the Palestinian leadership who argued for de-escalation and a return to negotiations. He told al-Jazeera on 17 October 2000: “This intifada has laid down a new rule: Let those who want to negotiate do so, but the Palestinian people will continue their struggle… We will no longer be captives of the negotiating table.” The following November, he vehemently rejected (French & Israeli TV) as naïve the position of those PA leaders – naming specifically Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] and Saeb Erekat – who argued that Israeli occupation would be ended by negotiation alone.
As the most prominent member of the PA to public endorse the Palestinians’ right of violent resistance as long as occupation, Barghouti became to some extent the personification of the second intifada in public perception on both sides of the Green Line. As the first year of the intifada progessed the Israeli authorities gradually came to accuse him of being one of the chief instigators of attacks on Israelis, and claimed that he was the founder of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a Fatah-affiliated militant organisation that carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and (from 14 Jan 2002) suicide attacks on civilians inside Israel, and was apparently founded as a means of reasserting Fatah’s claim to lead the resistance, which was becoming undermined by the Islamist movements that pioneered the use of suicide bombings.
Barghouti denied founding the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and insisted he was a political leader, not involved in military activities. He criticised the use of suicide bombings as “not correct”, but expressed his support for “any action against the Israeli occupation”, specifying that by “the Israeli occupation” he meant soldiers and settlers in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. He could also be ambiguous on the legitimacy of attacks inside Israel proper, which he did not necessarily condone, but said he “understood”, e.g. telling Gideon Levy in Nov 2001:
I would really like all the organizations to concentrate on the territories. But I understand why they carry out actions inside Israel. Why should you feel secure in Tel Aviv when we don’t feel secure in Ramallah or Bethlehem? More than 80 percent of those killed were killed in Area A. For me, Ramallah and Tel Aviv are now Area A. The same. If you want security in Tel Aviv, give security to Ramallah… Why should the Israelis have the right to fire shells and send in 15 tanks, while if a Palestinian goes into Israel, it’s a big deal?
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Barghouti narrowly survived an Israeli missile strike on a convoy in which he was travelling through Ramallah on 4 August 2001. The IDF maintained that the attack was aimed at Muhanad Abu Halaweh, a member of Arafat’s Presidential guard, who was riding in a different car, and was not an attempt on Barghouti’s life; although Israel’s Deputy Minister for Internal Security Gideon Erza made clear his government’s view of Barghouti, stating that: “He amply deserves to die … , for he is very much to blame for the attacks against Israel”.
Following the attack on his convoy, Barghouti went underground. A warrant for his arrest was issued on 23 September 2001 accusing him of membership in a “banned organisation” and of organizing attacks and conspiracy to murder. He was arrested (left) seven months later on 15 April 2002, at the house of Fatah official Ziad Abu Ain in northern Ramallah. The Israeli government announced on 11 July that he would be tried in a civilian court, on charges of financing or instigating 37 attacks which had killed 26 people. Upon arrest, and through his subsequent trial, Barghouti’s ratings in opinion polls soared, putting him in second place only to Arafat in terms of popularity among Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
Barghouti contended that the Israeli authorities had no legal authority to arrest him (citing the Oslo II agreement of September 1995 which gave PLC members Parliamentary immunity from arrest by Israel), and no legal right to try him in Israel (citing the 49th Article of the 4th Geneva Convention which prohibits the transfer of a protected individual or individuals from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power). He insisted from the outset that his was a show trial whose result was a foregone conclusion, held at the behest of Israeli political leaders who wanted to criminalize and blame the Palestinians (and ultimately PA President Arafat) for “terrorism”, while ignoring their own 36-year-old policies of occupation and illegal settlement that underlay the violence in the first place.
My show trial says more about the sorry state of Israeli morality than it does about me. I pity the state of Israel – the Middle East’s “only democracy” stooping to fabricating charges in a show trial aimed not at truth and justice but rather to appease the Israeli masses who refuse to see any connection between their own brutal policies and the cycle of violence Israelis and Palestinians are now experiencing. Like President Arafat, I have become a scapegoat – my trial simply a public relations event by a morally bankrupt and vision-less Israeli leadership desperate to cover up its own inadequacies. And I pity the Israeli people, lied to and misled by a Prime Minister promising peace and security and who has failed miserably in delivering either.
I categorically reject the authority of this criminal court of occupation and I will not dignify the ludicrous claims against me by responding to them. If my trial were truly a search for truth and justice, it would be Sharon and the Israeli army behind bars – it would be the criminals of occupation who have perpetrated war crimes against the men, women and children of Palestine over decades, who continue to violate UN Resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention with impunity.
– It is not I who is on trial in Israel; 3 Oct 2002.
We have been suffering under your sinister military occupation for over 36 years during which you killed us, tortured us, destroyed our homes and usurped our land. You made our life an enduring hell. We have an inherent moral and legal right to resist your occupation of our country. If you were in our shoes, you most certainly would do the same as we are doing. You would resist.
– Denouncing a show trial; Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-8 Oct, 2003.
So from the beginning of his trial on 5 September 2002, Barghouti refused to recognise the authority of the court to try him, dismissed his defence counsel, and declined to plead on or contest the charges against him. Instead he issued his own 54-count indictment, charging the the state of Israel with gross human rights violations on behalf of the Palestinian people, including violations of numerous UN resolutions, and took every opportunity to turn his trial into a trial of Israel and its occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Ultimately, Barghouti was convicted on 22 May 2004 of the murder of five civilians in three shooting attacks (at Givat Ze’ev in January 2002, at Ma’aleh Adumim in June 2002, and at the Sea Food Market restaurant in Tel Aviv in March 2002). He was also convicted on one count of attempted murder for a failed car bombing at a Jerusalem mall and on a separate count of belonging to a ”banned organisation”, i.e. the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. He was acquitted on the remaining 33 charges against him, including 21 counts of murder. Ha’aretz legal analyst Moshe Gorali concluded: “In its ruling, the court sent a message to the authorities — next time, bring us the murderers or their dispatchers, not their leader”.
The panel of three judges that convicted Barghouti ruled that although he did not have full control over the local leaders of the Brigades and often did not know of attacks beforehand, he did have “significant influence” over the Brigades. It also reported that “the defendant most of the time did not have direct contact with the field operatives who carried out the attacks”, but that he disbursed funds to close associates who themselves supplied funding and arms to the field units. Most importantly, the panel claimed that it was within Barghouti’s power to instruct the local Brigades to stop or restart attacks, and that his orders to restart attacks were sometimes “based on instructions” from President Arafat, who “would never give explicit instructions for attacks but he let it be known when the timing was right”.
Barghouti was sentenced on 6 June 2004 to five consecutive life terms for the murders of Yula Hen, Georgios Tsibouktzakis, Yosef Havi, Elyahu Dahan and Selim Barichat, plus twenty years for the failed car bombing of the Malcha Mall and twenty years for membership of a banned organisation. In keeping with his refusal to recognise the court, Barghouti declined to appeal his conviction and sentence, and declared that the time he would serve would not anyway be decided by the judicial system but by the political exigencies of the Israeli government.
As Barghouti’s trial drew to a close, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (the international organization of Parliaments of sovereign States) published a legal assessment of the proceedings, based on – among other things – a review of the case notes, and interviews with the members of the prosecution and defence teams, and with the representatives of international NGOs who served as observers at the trial. The IPU reported that:
According to the case papers, from Mr. Barghouti’s arrest on 15 April 2002 to the trial itself, the Israeli authorities and the prosecution had tried to turn it into a media event, a symbol, putting on trial one of the men who epitomise the Intifada, and presenting him as a terrorist.
It found that “from the beginning of the investigations until the final day of the trial, the prosecution put almost as much effort into staging a media event as it did into working on the legal aspects”, and that the demands of staging the media event had taken precedence over Barghouti’s legal rights as a defendant. The report concluded that:
The Israeli authorities are right to point out that their country is up against blind terrorism posing serious security problems that they have to address. This report is not the right place to discuss the origins of this terrorism, or ways of putting an end to it, but it does illustrate that the methods chosen to deal with it have been inconsistent with the rule of law, and sight has been lost of such equally essential principles as the absolute priority that must under all circumstances be given to respect for the physical integrity of prisoners.
The numerous breaches of international law recalled in this report make it impossible to conclude that Mr. Barghouti was given a fair trial.
Most of the persons contacted are convinced that Mr. Barghouti will receive a severe sentence, but all are equally convinced that the verdict will have no legitimacy because it will have been dictated far more by intense media pressure and political interests than by any rigorous application of procedures respecting the integrity of the defendant and his right of defence.
The Barghouti case has very clearly demonstrated that, far from bringing security, the breaches of international law have, above all, undermined the authority of Israeli justice by casting discredit on its conduct of investigations and the procedures used.
– The trial of Mr. Marwan Barghouti; Simon Foreman for the IPU, Apr 2004.
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Barghouti’s influence on PA politics has if anything increased with his arrest and imprisonment. In the winter of 2003, his support for Mahmoud Abbas and Muhammad Dahlan was crucial in persuading Arafat to relinquish some of the authority of the PA Presidency to an empowered Prime Minister, a post which Abbas himself filled when it was formally created in Feb 2004. (Abbas succeeded after intensive wrangling with Arafat in installing Dahlan in the key security role of Interior Minister in his new Cabinet). Barghouti was also instrumental in bringing about the comprehensive hudna (ceasefire) of July 2004 which was a top priority of the Abbas/Dahlan government, persuading the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leadership-in-exile to bring their movements into the ceasefire, which Abbas himself had been unable to do.
Barghouti also played a major role in drafting – and was the Fatah signatory to – the Prisoners Document of 11 May 2006, which set out a common platform for all the major Palestinian factions, and which was widely viewed as a possible basis for conciliation between Hamas and Fatah as they struggled in the aftermath of the Jan 2006 PLC elections to establish a unity government capable of overcoming the U.S.-led blockade of the Hamas government. (It also, as Barghouthi has emphasized, represented the first time that all major Palestinian factions – including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – had approved a document calling for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders). He criticized Hamas’ seizure of Fatah-dominated PA security assets in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 as a “stab in the back” that undermined the Palestinian cause, but also blamed Fatah’s entrenched leadership for the fragile state of the party in Gaza, and opposed any attempt to forcibly resolve the situation by to blockading or trying to disarm Hamas. He envisages conciliation between the Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movements coming about through the admission of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to membership in a reformed and reinvigorated PLO:
[T]he Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) remains the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and the highest political reference. The fact that the PLO now finds itself beleaguered with stagnation and erosion, and needs radical and comprehensive reform, does not invalidate this legitimacy. I hope that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad will join the organization, for they have an important role to play in the Palestinian arena. I am hoping mechanisms can be found for a prompt rebuilding and restructuring of the PLO institutions, and I am looking forward to the convening of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) with its new frameworks, in order to preserve the national unity within the organization. I believe that according to the interim constitution, the PA powers are distributed between the elected president and the elected government, and Hamas has to take these facts very seriously into consideration…
The fact is that Fateh was able to reconcile between the political, the diplomatic, the negotiations, and the control of the PA, on the one hand, and resistance and the intifada, on the other, bolstered by international legitimacy as well as laws and resolutions pertaining to Palestine. Will Hamas be capable of doing the same? The immediate future will tell. In my view, Hamas must hold on to the resistance option and reject free concessions, although it is going to find great difficulty combining between the PA and resistance. (Source)
Barghouti’s arrest and trial turned him into a well-known and popular figure throughout the Occupied Territories, second only in popularity to President Arafat, and increasingly seen as his heir apparent. Upon Arafat’s death on 11 November 2004, Barghouti called upon Fatah to select its candidate for the PA Presidential election through a process of democratic party primaries. When the traditionally conservative Fatah Central Committee (the organisation’s most senior body) instead nominated Mahmoud Abbas as the Fatah candidate, there was some dissent in the West Bank Higher Committee (which Barghouti heads) about this manner of selecting a candidate, and Barghouti announced on 25 November 2004 that he would run against Abbas for the Presidency, as an independent.
Barghouti’s decision to run against the Fatah candidate was widely criticized within the movement: the Fatah Revolutionary Council overwhelmingly endorsed the nomination of Mahmoud Abbas, and party chairman Faruq al-Qaddumi warned that Barghouti would be expelled from Fatah if he did not withdraw his candidacy. Even members of the reformist current, whom Barghouti could normally have counted among his supporters, were critical that Barghouti’s move would split the party at a time when unity to ensure a smooth transition of power was of paramount importance. His PLC colleague Hatem Abdel Qader suggested that it would be more appropriate for Barghouti to build majority support in the higher elected bodies within Fatah, rather than leap-frogging direct to the Presidency, and West Bank al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades leaders Mohammed Dandan and Zakariya Zubeidi expressed the dominant view among Fatah militants that this was the wrong time for a challenge to the party leadership:
“We are against the candidacy of Marwan because it is contrary to the decision of the central committee of Fatah, which unanimously chose [Mahmoud Abbas],” said Zakariya Zubeidi, Jenin leader of the al-Aksa Brigades. “We will not let anybody, no matter who, create any division or split in the Fatah movement.” (Source).
Facing overwhelming support for Mahmoud Abbas’ candidacy within Fatah, Barghouti withdrew from the Presidential race on 12 December 2004, and urged all party members to support Abbas (who would win the Presidency on 9 Jan 2005, with 62% of the vote).
(It is possible that Barghouti had never intended to follow through on his 2005 Presidential run, and that his threatened candidacy served a different purpose altogether. Barghouti himself said that the reason for his running in the first place was “to maintain the path of the intifada and the resistance and to defend it and protect it from being labelled as terrorism”. As Mahmoud Abbas was widely believed to be against armed intifada and in favour of a return to an approach of negotiations alone, Barghouti probably chose that platform specifically as a warning to Abbas not to try to renounce – in the event of his winning the Presidency – the option for armed resistance that Barghouti and many of his younger supporters in Fatah advocated. Additionally, one of the incentives to withdraw that Barghouthi seems to have received from Abbas and the Fatah party leadership was an assurance that the long-overdue Fatah Convention would be held in August 2005, when elections would be held for an expanded Central Committee and Revolutionary Council, which would finally bring the under-represented local Fatah activists into senior positions in the movement. Having warned Mahmoud Abbas that he should not base his Presidency on ending the intifada, and that the younger generation of Fatah activists would not continue to be ignored in the highest ranks of the party, Barghouti may have felt that his candidacy had served its purpose, and therefore withdrawn. Though in the event the Fatah 6th Convention planned for 4 August 2005 did not take place).
Barghouti threatened again to split Fatah over the issue of inertia within the party’s senior institutions, during the run-up to the Palestinian PLC elections of 25 January 2006. Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to hold primary elections for the Fatah list of parliamentary candidates and, in the regions where primary voting was completed before the process was halted due to factional violence (i.e. Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin and Tubas) Barghouti and local activists like him swept the board at the expense of the “Tunisians”. (Barghouti himself received some 34,000 votes out of the 40,000 eligible Fatah voters in his Ramallah District). When the Central Committee nevertheless drew up a Fatah party list favoring members of the Old Guard over the primary winners, Barghouti announced on 14 December 2005 that he would not run on the Fatah list, but would instead represent a new party, al-Mustaqbal (The Future), whose candidate list was made up of younger generation Fatah activists (including Dahlan, Rajoub and Fares) but excluded all the members of the Central Committee. A formal split was averted when Abbas prepared a compromise list of Fatah candidates, headed by Barghouti, who agreed to rejoin a unified list on 28 December 2005; but the incident publically illustrated Fatah’s deep divisions and internal disunity less than a month before polling day.
(N.B. Although Barghouti’s revolt was aimed at the Fatah Old Guard, of which Mahmoud Abbas is the senior member, it was not directly aimed at Abbas himself. Abbas was an ally of the Young Guard in opposing the centralisation of power in the hands of President Arafat, and maintains a close relationship with them. He is believed to favor their elevation within Fatah, but to lack the clout to overcome opposition in the Central Committee).
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Barghouthi’s ability to ever translate his popularity into political leadership of the Palestinian Authority probably depends on his early release from his consecutive life sentences, presumably as part of one of Israel’s periodic prisoner exchanges with its Arab neighbours (though Barghouti stated emphatically in Oct 2007 that he will run for the PA Presidency – and win – as soon as Abu Mazen steps down, even if he has to run, and govern, from prison). Israel was reported to have considered his release in return for information about missing IAF navigator Ron Arad in the 2003 prisoner exchange with Hizbullah, and ever since Barghouthi’s conviction there has been periodic speculation about his release in exchange for Israeli spies Azzam Azzam (imprisoned in Egypt) or Jonathan Pollard (in the U.S.). An Israeli newspaper, Maariv, reported in September 2007 that a majority in Olmert’s cabinet favored releasing Barghouti in a deal for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit (in Gaza).
Officially, Israeli President Katsav insisted that Barghouthi’s imprisonment is a judicial affair, and that there is no possibility of his release for political reasons. In practice, however, it is apparent that Israel is not closing the door on the possibility of his release at a suitable moment, and is in some ways grooming him as a possible future leader by enabling him to exert and enhance his political influence from his prison cell. Without the facilitation of the Israeli authorities, it is not likely that Barghouthi would have been able for example to mediate the hudna of 2003 (which involved his personal contact with the Palestinian Islamist leadership in Damascus), or to liaise with other imprisoned faction leaders to negotiate the terms of the Prisoners’ Document, nor would he have had the direct access to the Palestinian TV audience that he received in the days leading up to the 2006 PLC elections, when the faltering Fatah vote was in need of a boost.
The Israeli authorities might have presented Barghouthi at his trial as the personification of Palestinian terrorism but, as a nationalist who unequivocally accepts the two-state solution and unambiguously recognises Israel within its 1967 borders, Israelis of both Right and Left might well find his leadership of the Palestinians preferable to the strengthening Islamist alternative. As the current Israeli Justice Minister, Meir Sheetrit, remarked: when it comes to the question of pardoning Barghouti, one can “never say never”.
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Other biographical information available online:
- Not All Heroes Fly; Some Sit in Jail for long time
- The Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti and all Prisoners
- Profile: Marwan Barghouti (BBC NEWS)
- The Palestinian Napoleon (Christian Science Monitor)
- Glen Rangwala’s Middle East Reference
- The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA)
- Maan Independent News
- Marwan Barghouti: Radical pragmatist – al Ahram Weekly, 3-9 June 2004
- Al Jazeera Profile
- Chinese News Agency (Xinhuanet)
- Report by the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to the Inter-Parliamentary Union: The Trial of Marwan Barghouti.
- The Saturday Profile: Marwan Barghouti (The Independent, 4 Dec 2004).
Interviews available online:
- “You’ll Miss Me Yet”: Interview with Ben Caspit; Ma’ariv, 9 Nov 2001.
- Death Isn’t A Big Deal Anymore: Interview with Gideon Levy; Ha’aretz, 12 Nov 2001.
- Israel’s Enemy Number One; Al-Ahram Weekly,18-24 April 2002.
- Interview With Marwan Barghouti; Media Monitors, 31 July 2002.
- “Abbas, hai dodici mesi per cacciare i corrotti” (“Abbas has twelve months to get rid of the corrupt”); Corriere della Sera, 29 April 2005. (And in English translation).
- Barghouti’s plan for ’67 borders; Ynet summary of an interview with Corriere della Sera; 24 May 2006.
- The Prisoners’ Document: A Palestinian View; Bitterlemons, 19 June 2006.
- Talking with Marwan Barghouthi; Palestine-Israel Journal, Autumn 2006.
- An Interview with Marwan Barghouti; Yedioth Ahronoth, via IMEU, 5 Oct 2007.
Writings:
- Want Security? End the Occupation; Marwan Barghouti op-ed, Washington Post (16 January 2002).
- It is not I who is on trial in Israel; Marwan Barghouti statement, 3 October 2002.
- Partners in the field, partners in the Parliament; Message to the first session of the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council, 18 February 2006.
Commentary on Barghouti’s trial:
- Trial By Fury; (Interview with Barghouti’s lawyer, Jawad Boulus); Ha’aretz, 18 April 2002.
- Palestine’s partisans; by Paul Foot, The Guardian, 21 August 2002.
- Barghouti’s lawyer says Tanzim chief will not enter plea in court; Daniel Sobelman and Zvi Harel, Ha’aretz, 5 September 2002.
- Uproar in courtroom as Barghouti’s trial opens; by Assaf Bergerfreund, Ha’aretz, 6 September 2002.
- Barghouti indicts Israel at trial; Associated Press, 3 October 2002.
- A trying trial for the state; by Moshe Goraldi, Ha’aretz, 4 October 2002.
- Political show trial for Marwan Barghouti; by William Hughes, Counterpunch, 4 October 2002.
- What a Show!; by Uri Avnery, Ha’aretz, 5 October 2002.
- Jailed colleagues refuse to testify against Barghouti; by Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 7 April 2003.
- Resolution of the Governing Council of the IPU on the trial of Marwan Barghouti; The Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva, 3 Oct 2003.
- Barghouti found guilty of five murders; by Assaf Bergerfreund, Ha’aretz, 23 May 2004.
- Barghouti convicted in deaths of five people; by Roni Singer, Ha’aretz, 23 May 2004.
- A Mandela in the making?; by Jonathan Cook, al-Ahram Weekly, 27 May-2 June 2004.
- Arafat’s likely successor gets five life terms, by Chris McGreal; The Guardian, 7 June 2004.
Not All Heroes Fly; Some Sit in Jail For long Time Part 1
Posted On October 15, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
AHMAD SA’ADAT BIOGRAPHICAL TIMELINE:
1953 – Born in al-Bira, to 1948 refugees from the destroyed village of Dayr Tarif (nr al-Ramleh).
1967 – Became a student activist following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the PFLP-led Palestine Student Union.
1969 – Formally joined the PFLP, attracted by its combination of Marxism-Leninism (which he felt most suitable for the son of a refugee peasant family) with traditional pan-Arab nationalism.
Feb 1969 – First arrested by Israel for PFLP activities; 3 months detention. Arrested again in 1970 (28 months), 1973 (10 months), 1975 (45 days). Credits his early years in prison with giving him the opportunity to advance his understanding of Marxist theory and consolidating his commitment to the PFLP.
1975 – Graduated from the UNRWA Teachers Training College in Ramallah, specializing in Mathematics.
1976 – Rearrested by the Israelis (detained for four years).
Apr 1981 – Elected to the Central Committee of the PFLP.
1989 – Arrested and held in administrative detention for 9 months.
1992 – Arrested and held in administrative detention for 13 months.
Mar 1993 – Elected to the Politburo of the PFLP while still in administrative detention, reportedly in recogition of his education and organizing activities with other detainees.
1993 – Released from administrative detention, but declared a “wanted person” liable to re-arrest, shortly after release.
1994 – Elected leader of the PFLP in the West Bank.
1995 – Arrested by the PA and briefly detained in a sweep of PFLP members, under Israeli pressure.
Mar 1996 – Briefly detained without charge again by the PA in a sweep of known activists.
Dec 1996 – Arrested by the PA in a roundup of PFLP members on the West Bank, following a PFLP attack on Israeli settlers in Beit-El/Surda on 11 December. Released without charge on 27 February 1997 after conducting a hunger strike, the PA fearing the consequences if he should die in jail. (Collapsed hours after release, and spent several days comatose and on a respirator in Ramallah Hospital).
2000 – George Habash steps down as General Secretary of the PFLP, at the party’s Sixth National Conference. Replaced by Mustafa Zibri (Abu Ali Mustafa), a member of the ‘old guard’ of exiled leaders based in Damascus, and regarded as a pragmatist in relations with Arafat and with Israel.
27 Aug 2001 – Abu Ali Mustafa assassinated when an Israeli helicopter fired rockets at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Two rockets fired from a helicopter yesterday morning blew apart the Palestinian leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, as he sat at his desk in Ramallah, just feet away from Yasser Arafat’s own offices. At a stroke, Israel had eliminated one of its most dogged foes. Abu Ali Mustafa (nom du guerre of Mustafa Zibri), who was 63, was head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was the most senior PLO casualty of the 11-month old Al Aqsa intifada.
3 Oct 2001 – Ahmad Sa’adat elected Secretary-General of the PFLP, regarded as a shift away from the pragmatism of Abu Ali Mustafa and in line with the more hardline principles of George Habash. Sa’adat declares at his inaugural press conference that the goals of the Palestinian people are “our right of return, and our independence, with Jerusalem as the capital” He also vows to avenge the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa.
17 Oct 2001 – Four members of the PFLP assassinate the far-right Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. (Zeevi is known as a supporter of the forced expulsion of the Palestinians from the Occupied Territories, and as a proponent of “targetted assassinations”. His assassination is a popular move among militants, and reinvigorates support for the PFLP in the Occupied Territories). Israel accuses Sa’adat of having ordered the assassination.
22 Oct 2001 – The PA condemns the killing of Zeevi as contrary to wider Palestinian interests as it gives Israel an excuse to take military action in the Occupied Territories. Jibril Rajoub, head of the West Bank Preventative Security Service, outlaws the military wing of the PFLP – the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades – and issues an ultimatum to Ahmad Sa’adat to turn himself in or face arrest.
24 Oct 2001 – IDF attacks the West Bank village of Beit Rima, apparently in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Sa’adat, shooting dead nine Palestinians including 5 local policemen sleeping in an olive grove.
15 Jan 2002 – Sa’adat is arrested by Palestinian special forces after being lured to a meeting in a Ramallah hotel with PA Intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi. The PFLP condemns the PA for caving to U.S. and Israeli pressure, and putting its own survival ahead of the national consensus by arresting the head of a PLO faction. Its military wing warns that it will kill Arafat aides if Sa’adat is not released. PFLP supporters protest the arrest in the streets of Ramallah, Gaza City and Bethlehem.
2 Feb 2002 – The PFLP’s politburo announces that the movement will suspend its participation in the PLO Executive Committee until Sa’adat is released.
21 Feb 2002 – The PA’s General Intelligence Services capture in Nablus the cell of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades believed responsible for the assassination of Zeevi. They are held with Sa’adat at Arafat’s Ramallah compound.
Mar-Apr 2002 – Sa’adat besieged with Arafat in the Muqata by the IDF, beginning 29 Mar.
29 Apr 2002 – Under heavy U.S. pressure, Arafat accepts a deal to end the siege of his compound. The terms of the deal are not made public but it is apparent that Israel has agreed to lift the siege on Arafat in return for the PA agreeing to imprison under international supervision Ahmad Sa’adat, the four PFLP members accused of killing Zeevi (Basel al-Asmar, ‘Ahed Abu Ghalma, Majdi al-Rimawi and Hamdi Qar’an), and Fuad Shubaki – the PA official accused of organising the Karine A weapons shipment. The four PFLP members are cursorily tried by a military tribunal inside the Muqata, and sentenced to terms up to 18 years’ imprisonment for killing Zeevi. Arafat rules that Sa’adat is a political leader, not a military leader, and so his case must be decided by the Palestinian judiciary.
1 May 2002 – All six are transferred to Jericho Prison on the evening of 1 May, where they are nominally under the control of the P.A. but actually guarded by U.S. and British monitors. Arafat is widely criticised in the Occupied Territories for winning his own freedom at the expense of Sa’adat’s.
2 May 2002 – IDF withdraws from the Muqata.
3 Jun 2002 – The Palestinian High Court of Justice in Gaza rules that there is no evidence linking Sa’adat to the assassination of Zeevi, and no legal grounds for his continuing detention. It orders his immediate release from jail. Ra’anan Gissin, an Israeli government spokesperson, implies that if the PA releases Sa’adat, he will be assassinated (“if he is not brought to justice, we will bring justice to him”…)
4 Jun 2002 – The Palestinian Cabinet declines to implement the High Court ruling, ostensibly because it fears that Sa’adat will be assassinated if released. (More realistically, it is probably because releasing Sa’adat will contravene the terms of the 29 Apr agreement that removed the Israelis from the Muqata).
13 Jun 2002 – Amnesty International calls for the PA to respect the finding of the High Court and release Sa’adat immediately, and for Israel to guarantee it will not take extrajudicial measures against him. Palestinian NGO’s call upon Arafat to uphold the rule of law. Sa’adat remains in jail.
20 Aug 2002 – Israeli Special Forces troops assassinate Sa’adat’s younger brother, Mohammed, a low-ranking member of the PFLP, at his home near Ramallah.
Muhammed Sa’adat (22) was assassinated in his house
in Al-Bireh by an Israeli special unit yesterday….
(al-Quds al-Arabi, 21 August 2002).
26 Aug 2002 – Sa’adat begins a 72-hour hunger strike to protest his continued detention.
14 Jan 2003 – In a letter from prison, Sa’adat expresses his opposition to the Road Map, on the grounds that it is designed solely to provide security for Israel’s occupation and criminalize opposition to it as terrorism.
23 Jan 2003 – Sa’adat’s wife, Abla, is arrested by Israeli troops at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, and prevented from addressing the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where she was a scheduled speaker.
15 Mar 2005 – PA President Mahmoud Abbas suggests that Sa’adat will be released when the PA resumes security control of Jericho later that month. Other PA officials deny they have any such intention, and Sa’adat himself doubts whether the PA even has the power to release him.
23 Nov 2005 – The PFLP announces that Sa’adat will run in the PLC elections of Jan 2006, in the hope that this will raise awareness of his imprisonment and bring pressure to bear for his release.
14 Mar 2006 – Ahmad Sa’adat was arressted by the Israeli Occupation Forces from the Jericho Prison with hundreds of other political prisoners after the prison was attacked by the IOF.
25 Dec 2008 – Ahmad Sa’adat was sentenced to thirty years in prison by the illegitimate Zionist military court.
Ahmad Sa’adat was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment by the illegitimate occupation military court on December 25, 2008 at Ofer Military Base in Ramallah, Palestine. Throughout the court’s meetings, which Sa’adat refused to recognize, the trial was delayed on multiple occasions, despite Sa’adat’s having been held in custody, of the Palestinian Authority under U.S. and British Guard, and then by the Israeli military after their attack on Jericho Prison on March 14, 2006. He was never tried during his four years in PA detention.
He was charged with a laundry list of “security offenses,” political in nature: for example, membership in a forbidden organization, holding a post in a forbidden organization, and “incitement,” for a speech condemning the Israeli military’s murder of the man who held his post before him, Abu Ali Mustafa. Sa’adat refused to cooperate with the court, pointing out that it is an illegitimate court enforcing an illegal military occupation, and acting as a weapon of the occupation, to persecute Palestinian leaders and political activists and to undermine the Palestinian people’s political activity. The thirty-year sentence imposed upon Sa’adat is the longest in the history of the occupation for such political charges.
June 2009 – Ahmad Sa’adat goes on nine day hunger strike in protest of isolation and solitary confinement.
October 22, 2009 – Ahmad Sa’adat sentenced to an additional six months of isolation by Zionist military
courts, after over 206 days of isolation.
October 16, 2011 – Palestinian Minister of Detainees, Issa Qaraqe’, stated that detained secretary-general of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Saadat, was moved to the Al Ramla Prison hospital due to health complications following 20 days of hunger strike.
Barghouti, Sa’adat Not to be Released in Exchange Deal, says Israel -The Israeli government Tuesday night said the imprisoned Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, and the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Sa’adat, are not included in the prisoners exchange deal that would free more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. “Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sa’adat will not be released,” said head of the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), Yoram Cohen. Israel and Hamas had reached a prisoner exchange deal last night that will release the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas since 2006, in exchange for releasing 1027 Palestinian prisoners.
Third Week of Hunger Strike – Action Grows as Sa’adat’s Health in Jeopardy– Palestinian prisoners have entered their third week of hunger strike. After two weeks of hunger strike, physical symptoms become increasingly severe and prisoners’ lives and health are increasingly at risk. As prisoners have put their lives and bodies on the line to defend the rights of themselves and their people, international support and solidarity is continually escalating and much-needed. The health of Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian national leader who has been in isolation for two and one-half years and the center of the demand for an end to isolation, is increasingly at risk. Two lawyers visited Sa’adat on October 7 and October 9, and reported that he was fainting and vomiting – a direct consequence of the Israeli Prison Service’s confiscation of salt from prisoners. He has already lost over 7 kilos on the hunger strike. Nevertheless, no independent doctors or medical professionals have been permitted to examine Sa’adat.
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat-Your support is critical for this campaign. In order to place meaningful pressure on the Israeli state to cease its persecution of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners, it is crucial that this issue take on a high level of international mobilization and support.
Heroes Coming Home
Posted On October 14, 2011 by Marivel Guzman
It is more valuable one ONE FREE Men than A THOUSANDS SLAVES
Ahlam Ahmed Ared Tamimi, a Palestinian Fighter, arrested in 2001, according to Israel Judges she should spend 1584 years in Israeli Jail. A Zionist soldier was provoking her every day day that she is going to to die in prison, but she was keeping the hope alive, knowing that one day she will be free because there were heroes behind her.
She is now one of the prisoners included in the deal between Hamas and Israel, she will be free Next Tuesday October 18, 2011, but she is one of the person that will be exiled to other countries.
From the list of 27 Female, Ahlam Ahmed Ared Tamimi, she will be the only one to be sent to the exile. We wonder what are her feelings at this moments, the Odds have changed in so short time since a harsh sentence of 1584 years was handed to her, she never lost the hope to be released. A dreamer is a winner Vik used to say and now for Ahlam she is a winner, let’s hope that in the next few weeks and months that the UN sort the legal issues with the Palestine UN Bid for Statehood more good things keep coming for Palestine.
This is a triumph for many in Palestine because the crimes of these Palestinians was to fight for their home land, for the protection of their families, their livelihood, their honor, their respect as a human beings. In this unequal “war’ that Palestinians have been fighting, “freedom” from Jail is a prize they can not refuse, if that give them the hopes to fight for a bigger prize that is to Liberate Palestine and Gaza from the bigger Jail that have been placed.
Both Israelis and Palestinians have been celebrating a deal between Israel and Hamas that will see 1,000 Palestinian prisoners set free in return for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held for five years.
In Jerusalem, young people took to the streets to sing and dance, and in Gaza City, crowds attended a Hamas rally.
Is more valuable ONE Free Man than a Thousands Slaved – 1027 Palestinians will be release from Israel Jails, but from the first 450 that will be freed next October 18, 2011 more than half will be exiled, or deported. There is celebration in the streets of West Bank and Gaza, but also there is anger that these resistant fighters will not be allowed to return to their families and lands, some are calling part of the ethnic cleansing Israel has been doing since its creation.
Gaza Families Wait for the Release of their Love ones -Electronic Intifada-Mothers and wives of Palestinian prisoners rapidly gathered outside the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) this week, after they heard news about a swap deal between Israel and Hamas. These women have not seen their loved ones for five years.
For the past five years, the families of 950 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza have been protesting weekly outside the ICRC’s headquarters, demanding their right to visit their sons, husbands and relatives inside the Israeli jails, a right denied to them by Israel.
Palestinians Prisoners Since Before Oslo – Male family members of Palestinian prisoners who were between 16 and 40 years of age and any family members with security records generally were barred from visiting relatives in facilities in Israel. Following the outbreak of violence in 2000, the Government banned all family visits for Palestinian prisoners in jails.
United Nation General Assembly- October 2007 – Identical letters dated 23 October 2007 from the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council
More than 11,000 Palestinian civilians, including more than 400 children and more than 100 women, are being held in the prisons and detention centres of Israel, the occupying Power. The majority of Palestinians being illegally imprisoned or arbitrarily detained by Israel are subject to extremely harsh living conditions and constant physical and mental ill-treatment, including coercive interrogations and humiliation, and many of them are subject to torture. The inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoners at the hands of the occupying Power has been the cause of widespread suffering and trauma among the prisoners and has led to the death of at least 190 Palestinian prisoners over the many years of this prolonged and bitter foreign occupation of the Palestinian land and people.
More than 750,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel since 1967 – The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People expresses its grave concern at the situation of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel, who have joined an open-ended hunger strike since 27 September 2011 in protest against the latest deterioration of their conditions of detention and the systematic violation of their fundamental human rights by the occupying Power, including the imposition of solitary confinements and restrictions on family visits. The Israeli prison authorities have regrettably responded with additional punitive measures against the hunger strikers.
The Bureau recalls that, since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967, at least 750,000 Palestinian civilians have been arrested, detained and imprisoned by Israel. Currently, thousands of Palestinians are held in political detention by Israel, including children, women and elected officials. The Bureau is alarmed by credible well-documented reports of the systematic abuse; mistreatment; medical neglect; denial of due process, legal assistance and visits; arbitrary detention; humiliation; and torture to which Palestinian prisoners are subjected on a daily basis at the hands of the Israeli occupying forces, in blatant contravention of international humanitarian and human rights instruments, including the Geneva Conventions.
Preliminary List of Palestinians to be Released
held in Israeli jails, in Gaza City October 13, 2011. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
2. Yahia Ibrahim Daamsa – Ertas – 2002 – exiled
3. Akram Mahmoud al-Namura – Dura – 2001 – exiled
4. Amir Saber Sawalma – Balata camp – 2003 – exiled
5. Amun Yousef al-Tallul – Dhahiriya – 1999 – exiled
6. Majed Hasan Abu Qateesh – Jerusalem – 1993 – exiled abroad
7. Jihad Muhammad Yaghmur – Jerusalem – 1994 – exiled abroad
8. Zaid Arsan Al-Kilany – Umm al-Rihan – 2001 – exiled
9. Salama Aziz Marei – Qarawat Bani Zeid – 1993 – exiled abroad
10. Salman Ahmad Abu Eid – Biddu – 2003 – released with conditions
11. Abdul Raouf Amin Al-Shalabi – Jenin camp – 1995 – exiled
12. Abdullah Ahmad Abu Sef – Hebron – 2003 – exiled
13. Ala Muhammad Qafesha – Hebron – 2004 – exiled
14. Muammar Murshed Ghawadra – Bir al-Basha – 2003 – released
15. Feras Fawzi Feddi – Beit Wazan – 2002 – exiled
16. Farah Ahmad Hamed – Silwad – 2003 – exiled
17. Lutfi Muhammad Darabe – Khirbet Mresh – 1993 – released with conditions
18. Muhammad Mussa – Beit Fajjar – 1993 – exiled
19. Mahmud Abdullah Seryeh – Jenin camp – 1996 – exiled
20. Nael Saadi Sakhel – Nablus – 2003 – exiled
21. Nidal Jawad Sarkaji – Nablus – 2002 – exiled abroad
22. Nimer Sadki Muhammad – Beit Furik – 2006 – exiled
23. Ayman Muhammad Abu Khalil – Jerusalem – 1994 – exiled abroad
24. Yaser Hasan Hammad – Silwad – 2003 – exiled
25. Anis Mahmud al-Namura – Dura – 2001 – exiled
26. Iyad Diyab Khezaran – Al-Faraa refugee camp – 1991 – exiled
27. Jamil Khamis Tarkhan – Izbat Beit Hanoun – 1993 – released
28. Hussam Yousef Barari – Zababda – 2003 – released
29. Hassan Yousef Zeid – Nazlet Zeid – 2003 – exiled for 3 years
30. Rebhi Suleiman Bisharat – Tammun – 2002 – exiled abroad
31. Shadi Yasin Yasin – Tulkarem – 2002 – exiled
32. Tareq Ibrahim Izz Ad-Din – Araba – 2002 – exiled
33. Tareq Muhammad Abu Maryam – Qalqiliya – 2002 – exiled
34. Taleb Ismail Abu Mustafa – Khan Younis camp – 1993 – released
35. Mazen Muhammad Jarad – Beit Hanoun – 1993 – released
36. Maher Hussein Abu Karsh – Shati camp – 1993 – released
37. Muhammad Abdul Rahman Zeid – Tubas – 2003 – exiled
38. Muhammad Afif Al-Far – Ash-Sheikh Radwan – 1993 – released
39. Muhammad Odeh Sakran – Al-Breij – 1993 – released
40. Muhammad Najeh Jarar – Wadi Baraqin – 2002 – exiled abroad
41. Nasser Yousef Fadi – Khan Younis camp – 1993 – released
42. Nidal Subhi Abdul Haq – Nablus – 2003 – released
43. Wael Kamel Jalbush – Marka – 2002 – released
44. Ahmad Taleb Hamad – Jordan valley – 2002 – released
45. Ayman Ismail al-Sharawna – Dura – 2002 – released with conditions
46. Baraka Rajeh Taha – Hebron – 2004 – released with conditions
47. Hamudeh Said Salah – Beit Wazen – 2000 – exiled for 3 years
48. Safwan uhammad Eweiwi – Hebron – 2002 – released
49. Daher Rebhi Kabha – Bartaa – 1994 – exiled
50. Muhammad Taleb Edris – Jerusalem – 1998 – exiled
51. Muayed Abdul Rahim Abdul Samad – Aneta – 1987 – released
52. Muhammad Ahmad Saleh – Qabatiya – 1994 – released with conditions
53. Salem Rajab al-Sarsur – Hebron – 1998 – exiled abroad
54. Muhammad Abdul Latif Ballut – Rantis – 2003 – exiled
55. Murad Awad al-Rujub – Dura – 2002 – exiled
56. Muath Said Abu Ramuz – Hebron – 2004 – released with conditions
57. Nasri Yousef al-Zer – Harmala – 2002 – exiled
58. Yasser Muhammad Salah – Ramallah – 2005 – released with conditions
59. Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Shalsh – Ramallah – 1995 – released with conditions
60. Ibrahim Fadel Jaber – Hebron – 1982 – released
61. Ibrahim Muhammad al-Hindi – Khan Younis – 2006 – released
62. Ibrahim Yousef Masri – Shuqba – 1995 – released with conditions
63. Ehsan Ali Madena – Jammain – 2001 – released
64. Ahmad Ibrahim Faleet – Deir al-Balah – 1992 – released
65. Hmad Abu Al-Suud Hanani – Nablus – 1987 – exiled abroad
66. Ahmad Khalil Awawda – Idhna – 1999 – released with conditions
67. Ahmad Salem Shaer – Rafah – 2001 – released
68. Ahmad Suleiman Fajem – Bani Suheila – 2002 – released
69. Ahmad Abdul Rahman Abu Hasira – Rimal – 1986 – released
70. Ahmad Abdul Karim Abu Taha – Jerusalem – 2002 – released
71. Ahmad Atta Hattu – Gaza City – 1993 – released
72. Ahmad Hussein Shukri – Ramallah – 1989 – released with conditions
73. Idrees Ahmad al-Rajabi – Hebron – 2003 – exiled
74. Ismail Abdul Hadi al-Masalma – Hebron – 1999 – released
75. Ismail Mussa al-Bakhit – Khan Younis camp – 1993 – released
76. Ashraf Hasan Baaluji – Tuffah – 1991 – release
77. Ashraf Ghazi al-Wawi – Tulkarem – 1993 – released
78. Ashraf Muhammad Awadat – Gaza City – 2003 – released
79. Akram Salama Said – Al-Maghazi – 2002 – released
80. Akram Abdul Rahman Salama – Khan Younis camp – 1996 – released
81. Akram Abdul Aziz Mansur – Qalqiliya – 1979 – released
82. Akram Abdullah Qassem – Ramallah – 2002 – released
83. Anwar Ahmad Hamad – Yabna camp – 2001 – released
84. Anwar Musallam Akhras – Rabwat – 1993 – released
85. Iyad Ahmad Abu Hasna – Canada camp – 1989 – released
86. Iyad Jamil Abu Taqyeh – Jabaliya camp – 1989 – released
87. Iyad Salem al-Areer – Turkman – 1993 – released
88. Iyad Muhammad Bisharat – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
89. Ayman Asad al-Shawwa – Al-Dorj – 1993 – released
90. Ayman Abdul Majid Amer – Hebron – exiled for 3 years
91. Ayman Mustafa al-Far – Sheikh Radwan – 1991 – released
92. Ayman Yousef Abu Daud – Hebron – 2004 – released with conditions
93. Nizar Samir al-Tamimi – Ramallah – 1993 – released
94. Basim Muhammad Al-Kurd – Beit Lahiya – 1993 – released
95. Bilal Ibrahim Abu Amr – Qalqiliya – 2002 – exiled for 3 years
96. Bilal Ismail Zara – Kafr Niama – 2004 – exiled
97. Baha al-Din Khatib – Rafah – 2001 – released
98. Tawfiq Abdullah Abu Naim – Al-Nuseirat camp – 1989 – released
99. Tayseer Salem al-Bardini – Rafah – 1993 – released
100. Thaer Mahmud Kurd – Jabaliya camp – 1988 – released
101. Jalal Kamel al-Loh – Beit Lahiya – 1988 – 1994 – released
102. Jalal Lutfi Saqer – Al-Nuseirat camp – 1992 – released
103. Jamal Amr Raqiq – Gaza City – 1989 – released
104. Jamil Ismail Baz – Al-Nuseirat camp – 1991 – released
105. Jihad Jamil Abu Ghobon – Jabaliya camp – 1988 – released
106. Jihad Muhammad Bani Juma – Jordan Valley – 1991 – released
107. Hatem Ibrahim Ismail – Nablus – 1995 – released
108. Hazem Ali al-Aedi – Al-Maghazi – 1991 – released
109. Hafez Mahmud Dabel – Al-Breij – 1990 – released
110. Hathefa Rashid Ghanem – Ramallah – 2004 – exiled
111. Hussam Suleiman Abu al-Jadyan – Ramallah – 2004 – released
112. Hasan Ahmad Maqadma – Al-Bureij – 1989 – released
113. Hasan Ismail Fayyad – Beit Hanoun – 2003 – released
114. Hassan Abdul Karim Judeh – Zawata – 2002 – released with conditions
115. Hassan Ali Salma – Beituniya – 1982 – released
116. Hasan Mahmud Novel – Jabaliya camp – 1988 – released
117. Ahmad Mustafa al-Najjar – United States – 2003 – exiled
118. Hasan Yousef Jafri – Ramallah – 1990 – released with conditions
119. Hamdi Amin Zweidi – Beit Hanun – 1993 – released
120. Hamza Nayef Zayed – Jenin – 1986 – exiled
121. Khaled Rajeh Taha – Hebron – 2004 – exiled for 3 years
122. Khaled Saleh Maghyeer – Yabna camp – 1992 – released
123. Khaled Muhammad Gheithan – Ramallah – 1995 – released with conditions
124. Khaled Matou Jeidi – Rafah – 1986 – released
125. Khaled Yousef Saleh – Qalqiliya – 1992 – exiled for 3 years
126. Khalil Muhammad Abu Alba – Sheikh Radwan – 2001 – released
127. Raed Ahmad Hallaq – Rimal – 1993 – released
128. Raed Amr Abu Lubda – Tal al-Sultan – 2001 – released
129. Rateb Abdullah al-Ajrab – Ramallah – 1991 – exiled
130. Rafat Ali Aruqi – Shati refugee camp – 1993 – released
131. Rasmi Saleh Mahariq – Samou – 1994 – released with conditions
132. Rohi Jamal Mushtaha – Shujaya, Gaza City – 1988 – released
133. Zakaria Muhammad al-Jasrawi – Samou – 1996 – released with conditions
134. Zuheir Salah Shashnyeh – Al-Breij – 1990 – released
135. Salem Ali Thweb – Bethlehem – 2002 – exiled
136. Yaser Tayseer Daoud – Jerusalem – 1991 – released
137. Samer Isam Mahrum – Jenin – 1986 – released
138. Yousef Mussa Hales – Jerusalem – 1991 – exiled
139. Sami Khaled al-Qashtan – Wadi Gaza – 2003 – released
140. Said Muhammad Sakik – Al-Durj – 1993 – released
141. Salim Ali Kayyal – Gaza City – 1983 – released
142. Suleiman Nayef Abu Tyour – Ramallah – 1991 – released with conditions
143. Shaaban Salim Hassuneh – Gaza City – 1990 – released
144. Saleh Muhammad Khariz – Ramallah – 1986 – released
145. Salah al-Din al-Awawda – Hebron – 1993 – exiled
146. Tareq Zeyad al-Rajabi – Hebron – 2003 – exiled abroad
147. Talal Ibrahim Shreim – Qalqiliya – 2002 – exiled abroad
148. Taha Adel Shakhshir – Nablus – 1992 – released with conditions
149. Ated Suleiman Masri – Al-Durj – 1993 – released
150. Amer Ahmad al-Qawasmeh – Hebron – 1988 – released
151. Amer Rabbah al-Rajabo – Hebron – 2004 – released with conditions
152. Ayed Mahmud Khalil – Tulkarem – 1989 – released with conditions
153. Muhammad Hasan Sharaha – Gaza City – 1989 – released
154. Abdul Raouf Mahmud Injas – Khirbet Bani Hareth – 2003 – exiled for 3 years
155. Abdul Rahman Rabie Shehab – Jabaliya – 1989 – released
156. Abdul Rahman Amr Abu Assaf – Qabatya – 1992 – released
157. Abdul Rahman Fadel al-Qiq – Rafah – 1986 – released
158. Abdul Aziz Muhammad Masri – Khan Younis – 1993 – released
159. Obeid al-Latif Ismail Shqer – Tulkarem – 1986 – released
160. Abdullah Judeh Abu Shalbak – Ramallah – 1991 – released with conditions
161. Abdullah Muhammad Az-Zeitawi – Nablus – 2001 – exiled
162. Abdul Mineim Othman Taama – Tulkarem – 1989 – released with conditions
163. Othman Ali Musleh – Qalqiliya – 1982 – released
164. Arafat Salem An-Natsheh – Hebron – 1994 – exiled
165. Ata Mahmud Falna – Safa – 1992 – exiled
166. Attyeh Hasan Abu Asab – Hebron – 1994 – released
167. Ala Hamdi al-Rajabi – Hebron – 2004 – exiled
168. Alyan Abdul Karim al-Zer – Al-Qarara – 2003 – released
169. Imad Ad-Din Ata Zuurob – Khan Younis – 1993 – released
170. Imad Abdul Rahman Ali – Qalqiliya – 1992 – released
171. Imad Ali Abu Rayyan – Beit Lahiya – 1991 – released
172. Amr Muhammad Shariji – Gaza City – 2003 – released
173. Amr Mahmud Al-Ghul – Gaza City – 1987 – released
174. Aweida Muhammad Qawlab – Sheikh Radwan – 1988 – released
175. Eid Abdullah Musleh – Al-Maghazi – 1992 – released
176. Fuad Muhammad Amareen – Al-Nuseirat camp – 1992 – released
177. Fiker Asfour Barghouthi – Ramallah – 1978 – released
178. Farhan Mahmud Khalida – Tulkarem – 2003 – exiled
179. Fahed Subhi Zaqzuqi – Jabaliya camp – 1992 – released
180. Fahim Ramadan Ibrahim – Tulkarem – 1989 – released
181. Kamal Sami Shabalu – Nablus – 2003 – exiled
182. Kamal Abdullah Abu Naim – Gaza City – 1992 – released
183. Kamal Muhammad Shalabi – Tulkarem – 2003 – exiled abroad
184. Muayed Saadeh Jallad – Tulkarem – 1994 – released with conditions
185. Mazen Muhammad al-Nahal – Rafah – 1992 – released
186. Maamoun Ismail Sattyn – Tulkarem – 2003 – exiled
187. Maher Khamis Zaqqut – Jabaliya camp – 1993 – released
188. Majdi Ahmad Hamad – Jabaliya camp – 1991 – released
189. Majdi Attyeh Ajjouli – Tulkarem – 1989 – released with conditions
190. Muhammad Ibrahim Derawi – Al-Zawabda – 2001 – released
191. Muhammad Ejmaan Abu Ayesh – Nasr City – 1992 – released
192. Muhammad Salama Abu Khusa – Lod – 1976 – released
193. Muhammad Salman Abu Jamus – Gaza City – 2001 – released
194. Muhammad Aref Basharat – Nablus – 1992 – released with conditions
195. Muhammad Abdul Rahman Zaqut – Jabaliya camp – 1989 – released
196. Muhammad Abdul Fattah Dahan – Al-Nuseirat camp – 1989 – released
197. Muhammad Abdul Karim Abu Ataya – Nasr City – 1992 – released
198. Muhammad Abed Husni – Shati camp – 1986 – released
199. Muhammad Ali Haraz – Al-Dorj – 1992 – released
200. Muhammad Muhammad Abu Hasera – Gaza City – 1993 – released
201. Muhammad Muhammad Hassan – Gaza City – 1987 – released
202. Muhammad Mustafa Othman – Jabaliya camp – 1996 – released
203. Muhammad Nayef Barakat – Tulkarem – 2000 – released
204. Muhammad Said Jaradat – Jenin – 1989 – released
205. Mahmoud Ali Qawasmeh – Hebron – 2004 – exiled for 3 years
206. Mahmoud Mustafa Mardawi – Qalqiliya – 1992 – exiled for 3 years
207. Marwan Muhammad Zurd – Al-Durj – 1993 – released
208. Mustafa Ali Ramadan – Al-Amal – 1992 – released
209. Mustafa Ghazi Ananeh – al-Nuseirat camp – 2001 – released
210. Muntaser Rebhi Abu Mutawe – Nablus – 2003 – exiled
211. Munther Shaaban Dahshan – Gaza City – 1994 – released
212. Mansur Yousef Shamasna – Qatna – 1996 – released with conditions
213. Mansur Atef Rayyan – Nablus – 1994 – exiled
214. Mahdi Amr Shawer – Hebron – 2002 – exiled for 3 years
215. Mussa Muhammad Dodin – Hebron – 1992 – exiled abroad
216. Mussa Nather al-Badawi – Sheikh Radwan – 2002 – released
217. Nael Saleh al-Barghouthi – Ramallah – 1978 – released with conditions
218. Naser Ghazi Edweidar – Al-Nuseirat camp – 1992 – released
219. Nafeth Ahmad Haraz – Gaza City – 1985 – released
220. Nayef Hussein al-Shawamra – Hebron – 1995 – released
221. Nabil Maderes Okel – Jabaliya camp – 2000 – released
222. Harrun Mansour Nasser al-Din – Hebron – 1992 – exiled abroad
223. Wael Makin Abu Fanuneh – Gaza City – 1989 released
224. Walid Ibrahim Abu Nassar – Bethlehem – 1993 – exiled
225. Waheeb Abdullah Abu al-Rab – Jenin – 1994 – released with conditions
226. Yasser Abdul Qader Hejaz – Ramallah – 1990 – released with conditions
227. Yasser Mahmud Khawaja – Rafah – 1988 – released
228. Yahia Ibrahim Sinwar – Khan Younis camp – 1988 – released
229. Yasser Ibrahim al-Julani – Hebron – 2003 – released with conditions
230. Mahmud Muhammad Attun – Jerusalem – 1993 – exiled abroad
231. Walid Abdul Hadi Aqel – Gaza City – 1992 – exiled abroad
232. Abdul Hadi Salman Rafe – Al-Nuseirat camp – 1989 – released
233. Muhammad Mustafa Abu Jalaleh – Jabaliya camp – 1991 – released
234. Ali Ahmad Amudo – Gaza City – 1994 – released
235. Ali Said Bilal – Nablus – 2002 – exiled
236. Mihwash Nueimat – Rafah – 2007 – released
237. Marwan Muhammad Abu Rumeileh – Jerusalem – 1993 – exiled abroad
238. Tayseer Hamdan Suleiman – Jerusalem – 1993 – exiled abroad
239. Fahed Sabri Shalludi – Jerusalem – 1993 – exiled abroad
240. Issam Talaat Qadmani – Jerusalem – 1994 – exiled abroad
241. Mutasem Sabri Moqdi – Qalqiliya – 1994 – exiled abroad
242. Mussa Muhammad Aqari – Jerusalem – 1993 – exiled abroad
243. Muhammad Ayman Razem – Jerusalem – 1996 – exiled abroad
244. Basel Hashem al-Haymuni – Hebron – 2004 – exiled
245. Bassam Ibrahim Abu Sneineh – Jerusalem – 2000 – exiled
246. Bassam Naim al-Natsheh – Hebron – 1999 – released with conditions
247. Hani Badawi Jaber – Jerusalem – 1985 – exiled abroad
248. Mueen Abdul Malek Ahmad – Jabaliya – 2004 – released
249. Musaab Ismail Hashlamon – Hebron – 2004 – exiled
250. Khaled Mussa Makhamra – Yatta – 2006 – released
251. Ismail Abdullah Hejazi – Jerusalem – 2007 – released
252. Muayed Suleiman Qawasma – Hebron – 2006 – exiled
253. Nidal Akram Abu Shakhedam – Hebron – 2008 – exiled
254. Muhammad Ahmad Abu Awad – Nablus – 2003 – exiled
255. Abbas Abdullah Shabaneh – Hebron – 1992 – released with conditions
256. Zaher Wajeeh Khatatbeh – Beit Furik – 1994 – released with conditions
257. Kefah Jamil Arda – Jenin – 1999 – exiled
258. Farid Muhammad Qaysi – Khan Younis – 1994 – released
259. Zeyad Hassan Awad – Edna – 2000 – released with conditions
260. Hussein Elias Rabie – Beit Anan – 2001 – exiled
261. Mahmud Muhammad al-Sweiti – Beit Awwa – 2000 – released with conditions
262. Zuheir Kheiri Eskafi – Hebron – 2000 – released with conditions
263. Rabie Salama Zughel – Beit Hanina – 1998 – exiled abroad
264. Rajab Muhammad Tahhan – Jerusalem – 1998 – released with conditions
265. Daoud Khalil Shawish – Jerusalem – 2000 – released
266. Ramzi Ibrahim al-Ouq – Aida camp – 2003 – exiled
267. Murid Salim al-Akhras – Rafah – 2001 – released
268. Reyad Zakarya Asela – Jerusalem – 2000 – exiled
269. Nahed Abdul Raof al-Fakhouri – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
270. Muhammad Bassam Mallah – Tulkarem – 2002 – exiled abroad
271. Samer Ibrahim Abu Ser – Jerusalem – 1988 – exiled
272. Muhammad Muhamma Karsou – Gaza City – 2002 – released
273. Ashraf Abdul Qader Abu Markhyeh – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
274. Abdul Aziz Amr – Jerusalem – 2004 – exiled
275. Amjad Ahmad Arqub – Dura – 2002 – exiled
276. Shadi Zayed Odeh – Qalqiliya – 2002 – released
277. Shueib Saleh Abu Suneneh – Jerusalem – 1998 – exiled
278. Mahmud Ibrahim Dahbur – Nablus – 2002 – exiled
279. Tareq Daud Halisi – Jerusalem – 1986 – exiled
280. Samir Fesal Sawafta – Al-Jafaltak – 2003 – exiled
281. Mahmud Shaker al-Rayes – Gaza City – 2003 – released
282. Murad Abdullah Abu Rukab – Gaza City – 2003 – released
283. Ashraf Khalil Abu al-Rub – Jenin – 2002 – released
284. Akram Zaki al-Saedi – Al-Nuseirat camp – 2003 – released
285. Abdul Naser Daud Halisi – Jerusalem – 1986 – exiled
286. Zakaria Lutfi Najib – Jerusalem – 1994 – exiled for 3 years
287. Iyad Ata Abu Fnoun – Bethlehem – 2003 – released
288. Muhammad Salim Qassem – Gaza City – 2004 – released
289. Ibrahim Muhammad Mussa – Beit Luqya – 2004 – exiled
290. Rabie Samir Shalabi – Cober – 2005 – released
291. Hawem Muhammad Asaliya – Jerusalem – 1986 – exiled abroad
292. Nasser Humeidan Shqerat – Jerusalem – 1993 – exiled
293. Ali Bader Maslamani – Jerusalem – 1986 – released
294. Raed Muhammad Riziq – Jabaliya – 2002 – released
295. Imad Yasser Mussa – Marka – 1998 – released with conditions
296. Nader Radwan Abu Turkey – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
297. Suleiman Salem Abu Yousef – Al-Samua – 1994 – released with conditions
298. Ahmad Yousef al-Tamimi – Nabi Saleh – 1993 – released
299. Feras Walid Abu Shkheidam – Hebron – 2001- released with conditions
300. Fuad Qasem Razem – Jerusalem – 1981 – exiled
301. (BLANK; SEE BELOW)
302. Asad Fahmi Abu Salah – Beit Hanoun – 2008 – released
303. Amed Hamed al-Masri – Jenin – 1991 – exiled
304. Luay Muhammad Odeh – Jerusalem – 2002 – exiled
305. Munes Ahmad Aqqad – Khan Younis – 2002 – released
306. Hussam Atef Badran – Nablus – 1992 – exiled abroad
307. Muhammad Ibrahim Hamada – Jerusalem – 1997 – exiled
308. Salem Hasan Shab – Bani Suheila – 1993 – released
309. (BLANK; SEE BELOW)
310. (BLANK; SEE BELOW)
311. (BLANK; SEE BELOW)
312. Abdul Halim Mahmoud Abdulla – Shati camp – 1990 – released
313. (BLANK; SEE BELOW)
314. Imad Mustafa Khamis al-Loh – Deir Al-Balah – 2003 – released
315. (BLANK; SEE BELOW)
316. Ghazi Jumaa Nims – Gaza City – 1985 – released
317. Telal Yousef al-Kabsh – Al-Samua – 1986 – exiled
318. Muhammad Abdul Latif Salha – Jabaliya – 2008 – released
319. Naser Amr Namla – Gaza City – 1990 released
320. Hani Muhammad Abu Setta – Khan Younis – 1994 – released
321. Ibrahim Asad Daud – Qalqiliya – 2003 – released
322. Ibrahim Hussein Elayan – Jerusalem – 1987 – exiled
323. Ibrahim Abdul Razzaq Mashal – Jerusalem – 1990 – released
324. Ibrahim Abdul Qader Abu Hajla – Qalqiliya – 2002 – released
325. Khaled Ahmad Muhsein – Jerusalem – 1986 – released
326. Khaled Muhammad Taha – Jerusalem – 1988 – exiled
327. Samer Tareq Muhammad – Jerusalem – 2002 – released
328. Aref Khaled Fawakhra – Jaba – 2002 – released
329. Amer Abdul Rahman Muqbel – Tulkarem – 2003 – released with conditions
330. Issa Saleh Jandal – Jerusalem – 1986 – released with conditions
331. Luay Ahmad Novel – Deir Sharaf – 2001 – released with conditions
332. Luay Younis Kurnoz – Ramallah – 2004 – exiled
333. Mazen Mustafa Alawi – Jerusalem – 1991 – exiled
334. Muhammad Salama Sofi – Rafah – 2007 – released
335. Mustafa Kamel Badarneh – Ramallah – 2003 released
336. Hilal Muhammad Jaradat – Al-Yamun – 1987 – exiled
337. Ahmad Abed Jawad – Barouqin – 2002 – exiled for 3 years
338. Nasser Mussa Abed Rabbo – Jerusalem – 1988 – released with conditions
339. Ashraf Khaled Hanini – Beit Furik – 2006 – exiled
340. Bilal Khalil Bisharat – Tammun – 2002 – exiled for 3 years
341. Hamdullah Fayeq Ali – Jamaeen – 2002 – exiled for 3 years
342. Nahed Issam Abu Kashak – Tulkarem – 2001 – exiled
343. Khader Suleiman Radi – Aida camp – 2003 – released with conditions
344. Salem Rashid Tabanja – Nablus – 2003 – exiled for 3 years
345. Saher Nabil Shtayya – Salem – 2001 – exiled for 3 years
346. Safwat Jebril al-Jabur – Yatta – 2002 – released
347. Talat Mustafa Maaruf – Beit Lahiya – 2008 – released
348. Amer Ahmad Mabruk – Tulkarem – 2003 – exiled for 3 years
349. Abdul Rahum Abdul Latif Abdil Rahim – Badya – 2004 – released with conditions
350. Ibrahim Salim Shamasna – Qatna – 1993 – exiled abroad
351. Kamal Abdul Rahman Awad – Jordan Valley – 2001 – exiled
352. Ibrahim Abdul Rahman Jundyeh – Aida camp – 2003 – exiled
353. Ahmad Jebrin Takrurt – Jericho – 1988 – exiled
354. Ahmad Hasan Hassan – Nablus – 1992 – released
355. Luay Nafeth Qufesha – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
356. Iyad Mussa Ubayyat – Bethlehem – 2003 – exiled
357. Ayman Hatem Shakhshir – Nablus – 2002 – exiled
358. Ayman Muhammad Qafeesha – Hebron – 1997 – exiled
359. Ihab Hashem Qannan – Khan Younis camp – 2002 – released
360. Ahmad Rabbah Amira – Jerusalem – 1988 – released with conditions
361. Muhammad Salim Ramadan – Jamaeen – 2002 – exiled for 3 years
362. Tawfiq Ibrahim Abdullah – Qalqiliya – 1986 – released
363. Jaser Ismail al-Barghouthi – Cober – 2003 – exiled
364. Jebril Ismail Jebril – Qalqiliya – 2002 – exiled
365. Jamal Hamad Abu Saleh – Silwan – 1990 – released with conditions
366. Jawad Tayseer As-Sabaana – Jenin – 2002 – exiled
367. Hamza Hassan Abu Arqub – Jamaeen – 2002 – exiled
368. Khaled Abdul Maez Amr – Silwad – 2003 – exiled
369. Khamis Zaki Akel – An-Nuseirat camp – 1992 – released
370. Muhammad Issa Awad – Yatta – 2002 – released
371. Rami Zaki Masri – Beit Hanun – 2006 – released
372. Rabie Khader Hamida – Ramallah – 2003 – exiled
373. Rajai Saadi al-Karaki – Hebron – 2000 – exiled
374. Zaher Ali Jibrin – Salfit – 1993 – exiled abroad
375. Mahdi Shukri Asi – Balata camp – 2002 – released
376. Zeyad Salim Salmi – Gaza City – 1993 – released
377. Said Ibrahim Shalaldah – Sair – 2005 – exiled
378. Said Muhammad Bisharat – Nablus- 2002 – exiled
379. Nizar Khader Dehliz – Rafah – 2002 – released
380. Shadi Talat Balawna – Tulkarem camp – 2003 – exiled
381. Sharif Hussein Zyadeh – Al-Breij camp – 2005 – released
382. Shakib Baher al-Eweiwi – Hebron – 2006 – exiled
383. Derar Muhammad al-Hroub – Duheisheh camp – 2002 – exiled
384. Tareq Ahmad Hasayen – Qalqiliya – 2003 – exiled
385. Zaher Salman Ayayda – Rafah – 1990 – released
386. Nimir Ibrahim Daruzeh – Nablus – 2003 – exiled abroad
387. Abdul Hakim Aziz Abed – Beit Dajan – 1993 – exiled abroad
388. Abdul Rahmad Ahmad Ali – Alar – 2001 – exiled
389. Abdul Rahman Hasan Salah – Kufur Dan – 2002 – released with conditions
390. Abdul Aziz Yousef Salha – Deir Jarir – 2001 – exiled
391. Abdul Nasser Arar – Qarawat Bani Zeid – 2006 – exiled
392. Abdul Rahman Ismail Ghneimat – Surif – 1997 – exiled
393. Adnan Muhammad Maraja – Silwan – 1990 – released
394. Issam Muhammad Jarar – Jenin – 2002 – exiled abroad
395. Ismat Abdul Aziz Matawe – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
396. Ala Ad-Din Reda al-Bazyan – Jerusalem – 1986 – released with conditions
397. Ala Khaled Badawi – Bethlehem – 2003 – exiled
398. Wayel Suleiman Arafa – Tulkarem – 2002 – exiled
399. Ali Muhammad Qadi – Al-Bira – 2005 – exiled
400. Ali Muhammad Asafra – Beit Kahel – 2002 – exiled
401. Yaser Talal Yousef – Bethlehem – 2006 released
402. Basem Muhammad Nazzal – Qabatiya – 1992 – exiled
403. Amer Ahmad Assida – Jordan Valley – 2002 – exiled
404. Awad Zeyad Awad Salaymeh – Hebron – 1993 – exiled
405. Fadi Muhammad Al-Jabaa – Hebron – 2003 – exiled
406. Fadi Muhammad Dweik – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
407. Zeidan Muhammad Zeidan – Jenin – 2002 – exiled
408. Fahed Fawwaz Al-Qasrawo – Hebron – 2003 – released
409. Fawwaz Muhammad Nasser – Beir Qeddis – 2003 – exiled
410. Christian Adel Isaac Bandak – Bethlehem – 2003 – exiled
411. Majed Muhammad Jabaa – Hebron – 1995 – exiled
412. Mazen Muahammad Faqha – Tubas – 2002 – exiled
413. Majdi Muhammad Amr – Dura – 2003 – exiled abroad
414. Majdi Muhammad Naasan – Ramallah – 2003 – exiled
415. Muhammad Issac al-Julani – Beit Kahel – 2006 – exiled
416. Amr Hamdan Abu Sneineh – Hebron – 2002 – exiled
417. Muhammad Badawi Masalmeh – Beit Awwa – 2002 – exiled
418. Muhammad Salem Awad – Edna – 2005 – exiled
419. Nidal Abdul Rahman Hamed – Silwad – 2004 – exiled
420. Muhammad Taher al-Karam – Jalqamus – 2001 – exiled
421. Mahmud Awad Damra – Ein Um al-Sharayet – 2006 – released
422. Muhammad Wayel Doughlas – Jordan Valley – 2001 – exiled abroad
423. Mahmud Ibrahim Hajabi – Tulkarem – 2002 – exiled
424. Mahmud Ghassub Saad – Ramallah – 2003 – exiled
425. Khuweiled Ismael al-Jalil – Jordan Valley – 1998 – exiled
426. Mustafa Mahmud Maslamani – Tubas – 2001 – exiled
427. Mustafa Mahmud Qaroush – Tulkarem – 1986 – released
428. Muath Wael Talab Abu Sharkh – Hebron – 2003 – exiled
429. Muammar Rashad al-Jabari – Hebron – 2003 – released with conditions
430. Kifah Ahmad Nawahda – Jenin – 2006 – exiled
431. Mussa Ibrahim Wazwaz – Hebron – 2006 – exiled
432. Nasser Abdul Fattah Nazzal – Qalqiliya – 2002 – exiled
433. Said Muhammad Badarna – Yaabud – 1994 – exiled abroad
434. Nayef Yousef Radwan – Qabya – 1995 – released with conditions
435. Amer Saoud Abu Sarhan – Bethlehem – 1990 – exiled
436. Naser Sami Yataymeh – Tulkarem – 2002 – exiled abroad
437. Allam Ahmad Kaabi – Nablus – 2003 – exiled
438. Nidal Abdul Razzaq Zallum – Al-Bira – 1989 – released with conditions
439. Nimir Raqi Hamida – Ramallah – 2003 – exiled
440. Hani Rasmi Jaber – Hebron – 1993 – released
441. Hisham Abdul Qader Hejaz – Ramallah – 2003 – exiled abroad
442. Haitham Seif Radwan – Ramallah – 2003 – exiled
443. Wael Kamel al-Jaabari – Hebron – 2000 – exiled
444. Ali Yousef Mughrabi – Bethlehem – 2002 – released
445. Walid Abdul Aziz Injas – Khirbet Bani Hareth – 2002 – exiled abroad
446. Yassin Yassin Suleiman Rabie – Al-Mazraa Al-Qabaliya – 2003 – exiled
447. Nizar Muhammad Ramadan – Jordan Valley – 1998 – exiled abroad
448. Yaacoub Adnan Zeid – Yaabod – 2000 – released with conditions
449. Yousef Deib Abu Adi – Kufur Neimeh – 2005 – exiled
450. Yousef Taher Al-Karam – Jalqamus – 2001 – exiled
Six names are on a separate list which does not specify the conditions of their release. They seem to have been removed from the six blank spots on the original.
1. Sami Khaled Younes – Israel – 1983
2. Ali Abdullah Amriya – Ibten – 1988
3. Muhammad Ahmad Jabbarin – Um al-Fahem – 1988
4. Muhammad Mansour Zeyada – Israel – 1987
5. Mukhles Ahmad Burghal – Israel – 1987
6. We’am Mahmud Amasha – Israel – 1999
Attached with the originals is a list of 27 Palestinian female detainees who are also expected to be freed in the first round, possibly as early as Tuesday.
1. Randa Muhammad Yusuf Shahatit – Hebron – 2009 – released
2. Abir Isa Amru – Hebron – 2001 – released
3. Iman Muhammad Gazzawi – Nablus – 2001 – released
4. Amal Fayiz Jumaa Mahmoud – Nablus – 2004 – released
5. Miryam Salim Tarabin – Jericho – 2005 – released
6. Abir Mahmoud Hasan Awda – Tulkarem – 2009 – released
7. Fatin al-Saadi – Jenin – 2008 – released
8. Wafa Samir al-Bass – Gaza City – 2008 – released
9. Abu Golmi Youssef Lanan – Nablus – 2010 – released
10. Sanabil Nabigh Yusuf Barik – Nablus – 2008 – released
11. Fayina Mustafa Khalil Abu Ayyash – Nablus – 2006 – released
12. Aisha Muhammad Abiyat – Bethlehem – 2009 – released
13. Hanan Ahmed Ali – Bethlehem – 2010 – released
14. Nasrin Abu Zina – Tulkarem – 2009 – released
15. Shalbi Hana – Jenin – 2009 – released
16. Kraja Samud – Ramallah – 2009 – released
17. Pollshchuk Irina – Ukraine – 2002 – released
18. Issawi Abd Faiz Ibtisam – Jerusalem – 2001 – released
19. Shadeh Muhammad Hussein Sanaa – Israel – 2002 – released
20. Al-Saadi Said Ali Qahara – Ramallah – 2002 – released
21. Jiwasi Ziyad Dawaa – Tulkarem – 2002 – released
22. Daragmeh Rawad Hussein Ruma – Jenin – 2004 – released
23. Latifa Muhammad Abu Daraa – Nablus – 2003 – released
24. Tamimi Ared Ahmad Ahlam – Jordan – 2001 – released to Jordan
25. Muna Jawad Ali Amna – Israel – 2001 – exiled
26. Aliaa Muhammad Yhya Jaadallah Jaabri – Hebron – 2011 – released
27. Ramyah Ratab Hassan Abu Samra – Hebron – 2010 – released
Palestinians Prisoners Since Before Oslo – Male family members of Palestinian prisoners who were between 16 and 40 years of age and any family members with security records generally were barred from visiting relatives in facilities in Israel. Following the outbreak of violence in 2000, the Government banned all family visits for Palestinian prisoners in jails.
Palestinians in Israel Jails Since Before Oslo
Posted On October 14, 2011 Akashma Online News
By Marivel Guzman
If Israel clams that the Occupied Territories are war anexations (which by International law it’s illegal), they should at all the times respect the Geneva Convention on the rights of the Non combatants and on the prisoners that should be considered political prisoners of war.
The US State Department shows in its report of 2003 that the rights of the prisoners were not respected at all and that Some security prisoners were sentenced on the basis of coerced confessions by both themselves and others.
Laws and administrative regulations prohibit the physical abuse of detainees. During the year there were credible reports that there was an increase in the number of allegations that security forces tortured detainees, including using methods prohibited by a 1999 High Court decision.
The total number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, which was 1,854 at the beginning of the year (2003), reached 4,672 by year’s end. The Government stated that it held 1,007 persons from Gaza and the West Bank, and no Israeli Arabs in administrative detention (without charge or trial) at year’s end. The Government detained approximately 10,000 prisoners at some point during the year
October 2011 the situation have worsen for Palestinians detainees and prisoners.
More than 750,000 Palestinians have been detained by IOF in Palestine.
The Geneva Convention defines the rights and protections of non-combatants, thus:
| “ | Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall, at all times, be humanely treated, and shall be protected, especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity. Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault. Without prejudice to the provisions relating to their state of health, age and sex, all protected persons shall be treated with the same consideration by the Party to the conflict in whose power they are, without any adverse distinction based, in particular, on race, religion or political opinion. However, the Parties to the conflict may take such measures of control and security in regard to protected persons as may be necessary as a result of the war. |
| Mohammed | Salama | Hammad | Abu Khusma |
Jabalya | 3/6/76 |
| Nael | Saleh | Abdullah | Al-Barghouti | Ramallah | 4/4/78 |
| Fakhri | Asfour | Abdullah | Al-Barghouti | Ramallah | 6/23/78 |
| Ekram | Abdul | Aziz | Said | 1948 | 8/2/79 |
| Fuad | Qasim | Arafat | Ar-Razim | Mansour | 1/30/81 |
| Ibrahim | Fadl | Naji | Jaber | al-Quds | 1/8/82 |
| Hassan | Ali | Nimr | Salma | Hebron | 8/8/82 |
| Othman | Ali | Hamdan | Musleh | Ramallah | 10/15/82 |
| Sami | Khalid | Salameh | Yunus | 1948 | 1/5/83 |
| Maher | Abdel | Latif | Qadir Yunus |
1948 | 1/18/83 |
| Salim | Ali | Ibrahim | Al-Kiyal | Gaza | 5/30/83 |
| Karim | Fadel | Yunus | 1948 | 1948 | 5/1/84 |
| Hafiz | Nimr | Muhammad | Qandas | 1948 | 5/15/84 |
| Mohammed | Abdul | Rahim | Said Mansour |
Tulkarm | 1/27/85 |
| Ahmed | Farid | Mohammed | Shehada | al-Quds | 2/16/85 |
| Mohammed | Ibrahim | Mohammed | Nasr | Ramallah | 5/11/85 |
| Rafi’ | Farhood | Mohammed | Karajeh | Ramallah | 5/20/85 |
| Talal | Youssef | Ahmad | Abu | al.-Kabash Hebron |
6/23/85 |
| Ziad | Mahmoud | Mohammed | Ghneimat | Hebron | 6/27/85 |
| Mustafa | Amer | Mohammed | Ghneimat | Hebron | 6/27/85 |
| Othman | Abdullah | Mahmoud | Bani | Hussein Jenin |
7/27/85 |
| Hazza | Mohammed | Hazza | Sadi | Jenin | 7/28/85 |
| Bashir | Suleiman | Ahmed | Al-Maqt | Golan | 8/12/85 |
| Asim | Mahmoud | Ahmed | Wala | Golan | 8/23/85 |
| Sidqi | Suleiman | Ahmed | Al-Maqt | Golan | 8/23/85 |
| Hani | Badawi | Mohammed | Said | Jaber Al-Quds |
9/3/85 |
| Mohammed | Ahmad | Abdel | Hamid | At-Tus Hebron |
10/6/85 |
| Nafez | Ahmed | Talib | Harz | Gaza | 11/25/85 |
| Fayez | Matlou’ | Hamed | Al-Khour | Gaza | 11/29/85 |
| Ghazi | Juma | Mohammed | An-Nims | Gaza | 11/30/85 |
| Mohammad | Musbah | Khalil | Ashour | Ramallah | 2/18/86 |
| Ahmad | Abd | Al-Rahman | Abu Hussein |
Gaza | 2/18/86 |
| Walid | Nimr | Asad | Diqqa | 1948 | 2/25/86 |
| Mohammad | Abdel | Hadi | Hassani | Gaza | 3/4/86 |
| Tawfiq | Ibrahim | Mohammed | AbdallahSalfit | 3/7/86 | |
| Mustafa | Mahmoud | Musa | QrawishSalfit | 3/10/86 | |
| Ibrahim | Nayef | Hamdan | Abumekh | 1948 | 3/24/86 |
| Rushdi | Hamdan | Mohammed | Abu Mekh |
1948 | 3/24/86 |
| Ibrahim | Abd | Ar-Razzaq | Ahmed Dababsa |
1948 | 3/26/86 |
| Ibrahim | Mustafa | Ahmed | Barud | Jabalya | 4/9/86 |
| Ali | Bader | Raghib | Maslamani | al-Quds | 4/27/86 |
| Fawaz | Kazim | Rushdi | Bakhtan | al-Quds | 4/29/86 |
| Khalid | Ahmed | Daoud | Muheisin | al-Quds | 4/30/86 |
| Essam | Salah | Ali | Jandal | al-Quds | 4/30/86 |
| Wasfi | Ahmed | Abdullkadir | Mansour | 1948 | 5/15/86 |
| Alaeddin | Ahmad | Reza | Albazian | al-Quds | 6/20/86 |
| Ahmed | Ali | Hussein | Abu Jaber |
1948 | 7/8/86 |
| Abdul | Latif | Ismail | Ibrahim Shqeir |
Nablus | 7/23/86 |
| Ofer | Mubah | Nufel | Shqeir | Nablus | 7/24/86 |
| Saleh | Mohammed | Youssef | Al-Abd | Ramallah | 8/22/86 |
| Tariq | Mustafa | Daoud | Alhalisy | al-Quds | 10/16/86 |
| Abd | An-Nasser | Daoud | Mustafa Alhalis |
al-Quds | 10/16/86 |
| Ibrahim | Hussein | Ali | Alyan | al-Quds | 10/19/86 |
| Samir | Ibrahim | Mahmoud | Abuna’ma | Ramallah | 10/20/86 |
| Hazem | Mohammed | Sabri | Asilah | al-Quds | 10/21/86 |
| Hamza | Nayef | Hassan | Zayed | Jenin | 11/15/86 |
| Samer | Essam | Salem | Al-Mahroum | Jenin | 11/15/86 |
| Abdel | Rahman | Fadl | Abdel Al-Qiq |
Rafah | 12/18/86 |
| Khalid | Mutawi’ | Muslim | Al-Ja’bri | Rafah | 12/24/86 |
| Ahmed | Abu | Sud | Abdulrazzaq Hanani |
Nablus | 5/23/87 |
| Mueed | Abd | Ar-Rahim Asad |
Abd Al-Samd |
Ṭūlkarm | 6/14/87 |
| Mohammed | Mansour | Abd | al.-Majid Ziyada |
1948 | 9/10/87 |
| Mukhlis | Ahmed | Mohammed | Burghal | 1948 | 9/11/87 |
| Hilal | Mohammed | Ahmed | Jaradat | Jenin | 9/24/87 |
| Omar | Mahmoud | Jaber | al-Ghoul | Gaza | 10/13/87 |
| Mohammed | Mohammed | Shehadeh | Hassan | Gaza | 10/13/87 |
| Mohammed | Adel | Hassan | Daoud | Qalqilya | 12/8/87 |
| Yassin | Mohammed | Yassin | Abu Khadeer |
al-Quds | 12/27/87 |
| Yunus | Youssef | Abdullah | Hussein | 1948 | 12/31/87 |
| Basheer | Abdullah | Kamel | al-Khatib | 1948 | 1/1/88 |
| Khaled | Mohammed | Shafiq | Taha | al-Quds | 1/18/88 |
| Amer | Ahmed | Mahmoud | Al. Qawasma |
Hebron | 1/22/88 |
| Jihad | Ahmed | Mustafa | Abidi | al-Quds | 1/22/88 |
| Nader | Mohammed | Hassan | Al-Ja’ba | Ramallah | 2/3/88 |
| Nasser | Musa | Ahmed Nasser |
Abed Rabbo |
al-Quds | 2/9/88 |
| Rawhi | Jamal | Abdulnabi | Mushtaha | Gaza | 2/13/88 |
| Osama | Sulaiman | Fayyad | Abu Al-Jadyan |
Jabalya | 2/17/88 |
| Jamal | Hammad | Hussein | Abu Saleh |
al-Quds | 2/21/88 |
| Samer | Ibrahim | Wadd | Abusser | al-Quds | 2/22/88 |
| Mahmoud | Salim | Suleiman | Abuharbish Khadeer |
Ramallah | 3/11/88 |
| Yasser | Mahmoud | Mohammed | Al-Khawaja | Rafah | 7/8/88 |
| Hisham | Muhammad | Yunus | Shaath | Gaza | 8/4/88 |
| Thaer | Mohammad | Jamil | Al-Kurd | Jabalya | 8/8/88 |
| Hassan | Mahmoud | Abd Ar-Rahim |
Nufal | Jabalya | 8/9/88 |
| Jihad | Jamil | Mahmoud | Abu Ghaben |
Jabalya | 8/10/88 |
| Mohammed | Ahmed | Mohammed | Jabareen | 1948 | 10/6/88 |
| Mahmoud | Osman | Ibrahim | Jabareen | 1948 | 10/8/88 |
| Aweidah | Mohammed | Suleiman | Klab | Gaza | 10/12/88 |
| Ahmed | Rabah | Ahmed | Amira | al-Quds | 10/25/88 |
| Ahmed | Jibril | Osman | Tkruri | Ramallah | 10/31/88 |
| Jum’a | Ibrahim | Juma | Adam | Ramallah | 10/31/88 |
| Samir | Saleh | Taha | Sarsawi | 19481948 | 11/24/88 |
| Ala | Abdullah | Salim | Amriya | 1948 | 11/24/88 |
| Abd | Ar-Rahman | Rabi’ | Shehab | Jabalya | 12/16/88 |
| Bilal | Ahmed | Youssef | Abu Al-Hussein |
al-Quds | 12/20/88 |
| Osman | Mohammed | Atta | Maragha | al-Quds | 2/15/89 |
| Hani | Mohammed | Awni | Jaber | al-Quds | 2/17/89 |
| Ibrahim | Lutfi | Hilmi | Taqtouq | Nablus | 3/3/89 |
| Samir | Nayif | Abdulghaffar | An-Naishi | Nablus | 3/5/89 |
| Iyad | Ahmed | Mustafa | Abu Hasneh |
Rafah | 3/15/89 |
| Mohammed | Abd | Ar-Rahman | Mohammed Zaqout |
Jabalya | 3/23/89 |
| Nidal | Abd | Ar-Razzaq | Azat Zlum |
Ramallah | 5/3/89 |
| Mohammed | Youssef | Hassan | Sharatha | Jabalya | 5/9/89 |
| Yahya | Ibrahim | Hassan | Sinwar Khan |
Younis | 5/14/89 |
| Tawfiq | Abdullah | Salman | Abu Naim |
Dir Al-Balah | 5/14/89 |
| Hassan | Ahmed | Al-Khaled | Al-Muqadama | Dir Al-Balah | 5/18/89 |
| Emad | Mohammed | Jamil | Shehadeh | Gaza | 6/7/89 |
| Jamal | Issa | Abed | Rabbo Alnouri |
Rafah | 6/13/89 |
| Bilal | Ibrahim | Mustafa | Damrah Salfit |
6/19/89 | |
| Fahim | Ramadan | Sarahna | Ibrahim Salfit |
6/20/89 | |
| Mustafa | Othman | Omar | Al-Hajj Salfit |
6/20/89 | |
| Abdelhadi | Salman | Rafi | Ghneim | Dir Al-Balah | 7/6/89 |
| Mohammed | Mahmoud | Awad | Hamdieh | Gaza | 7/14/89 |
| Nihad | Yusuf | Radwan | Jundiya | Gaza | 7/14/89 |
| Raed | Mohammed | Sharif | al-Saadi | Jenin | 8/28/89 |
| Ahmed | Hussein | Mahmoud | Shukri | Ramallah | 9/9/89 |
| Ayed | Mahmoud | Mohammed | Khalil | Ṭūlkarm | 10/6/89 |
| Majdi | Attia | Suleiman | Ajuli | Ṭūlkarm | 10/17/89 |
| Abdel | Man’am | Othman | Mohammed Ta’ma |
Ṭūlkarm | 10/28/89 |
| Wael | Makeen | Abdallah | Abu Fannuna |
Gaza | 12/12/89 |
| Jamal | Amr | Mohammed | Arqiq | Gaza | 12/22/89 |
| Hassan | Youssef | Mahmoud | Ghafri | Ramallah | 2/3/90 |
| Abdel-Halim | Mahmoud | Hassan | Abdullah | Jabalya | 12/5/90 |
Alexandria University Corruption
Posted on October 11, 2011 in Akashma News
In Collaboration with a Student of the University of Alexandria Omar Shalaby
Alexandria University Students Takes to the Streets
(Alexandria Egypt) Students from the University of Alexandria, march in the streets of Alexandria to stop corruption in the University Campus.
Students are demanding the purge of the old guards of Mubarak, 8 months after the thrown out of the Dictator Mubarak the University was still running with the old rules of repression and oppression of the students.
“Hanafy announced that student union elections would be regulated by Guideline 79, which bans political activity on campus.”
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The youth of Egypt still demanding the institution of the liberties for the population, smooth transition to the new government,
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Clean elections where all the population get to decide in the election of their leaders, without coercion
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Without tumbling in the freedom of speech of the people,
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The release of the protesters, the bloggers, the journalist and any person that was arrested during the Egyptian Revolution.
- The elimination of the Military Courts for Civilian Matters
The students protesting in front of the Building of the University of Alexandria, have very specific demands: End of The Corruption at The University.
Omar Shalaby, Alexandria University, faculty of Engineering, Petrochemicals major, SSP
Omar Shalaby: “You should say that I am protesting for the corruption in the University here at Alexandria. Hend Hanafy takes 250 000 LE every month, we want to fire all the Managers of the University, the old Mubarak guards.
I do not know what it is happening in Egypt right now, I know what is happening here at the Alexandria University Building because I am protesting all days and nights in front of the University building that’s, that why I do not know what’s going on in Cairo.”
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Marivel Guzman: How is the situation in there? I heard many bad things
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14 hours ago
Omar Shalaby, we are receiving many threats to be killed, but we are here like one hand. yeah very bad things, just pray for us. - Omar Shalaby: Now I g2g and feel free to mention my name and put my pictures I am not afraid, google all info u want to know, I will be happy to see my name and pictures in your article, WOW I am too happy .. And that will increase my strength to keep fighting
🙂
“Demonstrators and continue to quarrel with police and military forces on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, demanding democratic elections and protesting against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for nearly 30 years:. January 11, 2011
Nine months later the population is taking to the streets again, the situation have not changed in Egypt, the Dictator is gone, but the Tyrannical rule of the all Tyrant still in place. The Mubarak undercover Elite police paid and trained by the US, was to blame for the criminal and inhumane practices exerted in the population, the many cases of torture and the disappearing of opposition leaders, the economic oppression that was asphyxiating Egypt all thought to be gone with Mubarak but as the past and no real change is seeing, the people knowing the power they have, they will be taking to the streets again.
In an Attempt to curve the growing resistant to the new military regime, the interim forces in power instituted a curfew in Cairo, but the people do not care for old practices of repression, and they are taking to the streets again.
Omar Shalaby: We are not afraid, (my friend Omar tells me that they are not afraid of be shown in the News, he wants their message to be known by the whole world).
Omar Shalaby: We need better education, we don’t need any of Mubarak supporters
Marivel Guzman; Better Education, more budget?
From Cairo to Aswan, higher education institutions in Egypt have been hit by a series of sit-ins staged by students protesting against the presence of university leaders and administrators associated with the fallen government of Hosni Mubarak. March 27, 2011
Official numbers talk of close to 1000 deaths, but having known the practices of Mubarak Secret Elite Police, they talk of the Thousands Disappear right at the beginning of the Revolution. So the people want all the thugs of the old regime out. There is no other way they will continue, the protests will continue, there are talks of Tahir Square to be Occupied Again.
AU Statement
Egypt is now going through a crisis, the language of wisdom and reason prevail over the language of feelings to prevent disturbance and unrest.
Greetings to Egypt’s conscious, promising, intellectual, esteemed, and committed youth, which calls for the right to a dignified life in all measures, a legitimate right of the people of this beloved homeland for a secure and stable life, bearing in mind the security and safety of the country under the discipline that govern all individuals without distinction between race or religion, protected by our armed forces which proved their respect and appreciation to the legitimate demands of the people of the nation.
We call on our young people, conscious of the intellectual investment pros of this situation to maintain the security of this nation and the stability of the belief that this is their homeland and that they are the future and the main sponsor of the country.
God save this nation. God save Egypt.
President of Alexandria University office
Prof. Hind Mamdouh Hanafi
22, El Gueish Str., El Shatby, Alexandria, Egypt
Tel: 002 03 5910096 – 002 03 5911152
Fax: 002 03 5910720
E-mail: pres@admin.alex.edu.eg
“Alexandria University , جامعة الإسكندرية, is a university in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in 1938, in 1942,It was known as Farouk University until the or ongoing research.Egyptian Revolution of 1952 when its name was changed to the University of Alexandria. Taha Hussein was the founding rector of Alexandria University. It is now the second largest university in Egypt and has many affiliations to various universities
Akashma Online News 
