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The grave violations of human rights

SPECIAL SESSION : THE GRAVE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY INCLUDING THE RECENT AGGRESSION ON THE OCCUPIED GAZA STRIP 

by H.E. Mr. Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios

SPECIAL SESSION

 THE GRAVE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY INCLUDING THE RECENT AGGRESSION ON THE OCCUPIED GAZA STRIP

Mr. President,

 I have the honor and the responsibility to address this special session of the Human Rights Council on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Mr. President,

 While the whole world was celebrating the end of the year 2008, hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, were dying under the bombs of the Israeli air force and artillery. Still not satisfied with the result, the Israeli army launched a complete ground operation at the beginning of 2009.

  Taking advantage of the festivities and demobilization of the world for initiating a military aggression is not moral, and simply not fair. Doing it with the added felony of brutalizing and massacring a whole people is a criminal act that must be repudiated by all.

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Obamas dose of reality may be a cure for the palestinians

By Tony Karon

(source: The National)

The Obama administration’s announcement that it had capitulated before Israeli recalcitrance on a settlement freeze should be read as a cry for help. Mr Obama has, in fact, taken a bold step in acknowledging frankly that he has a problem. He has been repeating the rituals and catechisms of the failed Oslo peace process in the hope of producing a different outcome. Now, he’s been forced to acknowledge that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a communication problem that can be solved by simply getting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas to talk.

Mr Obama’s epiphany appears to have come after his final humiliation by Mr Netanyahu, who turned down a massive package of military aid and diplomatic concessions offered for just 90 more days of a partial settlement moratorium aimed at restarting talks. Mr Netanyahu has so successfully resisted the US administration over settlements that there was little credibility to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s insistence, in a speech on Friday, “that the position of the United States on settlements has not changed and will not change… we do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity”.

Strong words, perhaps, but they can barely be heard above the roar of construction equipment in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The US disapproves, but it will impose no consequences for Israel ignoring that disapproval, and international law, by continuing to build outside of its 1967 borders.

Read More »Obamas dose of reality may be a cure for the palestinians

Summing up Isarael s new government in one word lieberman
Summing up Israel ‘s new government in one word: Lieberman
By Yossi Verter
 
 


If asked to sum up the 23 days of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s second government, one word will do: Lieberman. Our new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has hijacked the national agenda. From the minute he entered the ministry, from his crude behaviour toward U.S. envoy George Mitchell to his interview in the Russian papers and his comments on the Arab initiative, his unfortunate deputy at the Foreign Ministry, Daniel Ayalon, has had to trot after his boss to put out the fires Lieberman has ignited in the diplomatic fields.

Three times already, Netanyahu has had to reprimand his foreign minister, discreetly of course. The last time was on Wednesday, before the cabinet meeting. Perhaps "reprimand" is an exaggeration. "Pleaded" with him, or "begged" him to count to 10 before he opens his mouth, might be a more accurate description.

 

  

Read More »Summing up Isarael s new government in one word lieberman