Palestine – Breaking News

By Iqbal Jassat – Chairman, Media Review Network

Reading details of a press conference hosted by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon to mark International Human Rights Day makes one aware not only about how far removed the apartheid state is from human rights, but also how inimical the state is towards legitimate campaigners for this fundamental right.

In addition to the event being far removed from the theme, it was held primarily to release a new study or monograph, Lawfare – Exploitation of Courts in the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

The study by an Israeli-funded group called NGO Monitor was punted as “groundbreaking research” on the role of global NGOs involved in expanding the concept of universal jurisdiction to indict Israeli leaders, politicians and soldiers for war crimes. This international role by civil societies in various capitals of the world is viewed as a hostile development that strategically could undermine the Zionist regime’s legitimacy.   

An intemperate Ayalon outrageously noted that human rights groups have been “manipulated” by “terror organizations” to cover their own atrocities and to strip the right of self-defense from democracies! Such rhetoric is typical and again reflects how vain and desperate Israeli efforts are to conceal their tyranny against Palestinians.

If despotism requires decorum, then the Lawfare monograph qualifies as an excellent effort to slander legitimate civil society activism in order to deprive it of credibility. By no means is this mischief the only objective. The main goal is a despotic attempt to starve known international non-governmental organizations of their main lifeline: funding!

Read More »Israeli castigation of global activism as lawfare

 REUTERS/Aladin Abdel Naby/Files (EGYPT)

A fisherman sits on the bank of the Suez Canal in Ismailia. Winding through this small Egyptian town like an artery, pumping cash into its hospitals and schools and beyond into the wider economy, the Suez Canal has flourished as a shipping shortcut. Now the faltering global economy, coupled with a rise in piracy to the canal’s south, looks set to end the high times for the waterway and the town Egyptians call its bride.

Egypt has called an urgent meeting of Arab countries bordering the Red Sea to combat rampant piracy off Somalia, the foreign ministry said today.

Egypt and Yemen will coordinate the meeting, which will be held later this month, the ministry said in a statement, without specifying a date.

Cairo has said that piracy has not harmed traffic through the Suez Canal — which is Egypt’s third largest source of revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers.

Last month the British think tank Chatham House said in a report that increasingly brazen hijackings by Somali pirates, who commandeered a Ukrainian freighter carrying a shipment of tanks in September, threatened Suez traffic.

"The danger and cost of piracy (insurance premiums for the Gulf of Aden have increased tenfold) mean that shipping could be forced to avoid the Gulf of Aden/Suez Canal and divert around the Cape of Good Hope," it said.

"At a time of high inflationary pressures, this should be of grave concern," the report added.

Earlier this week pirates seized a Turkish bulk carrier carrying iron ore off the coast of Somalia, and in a separate incident opened fire at an Italian-operated cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, 77 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January. Thirty-one were hijacked and 10 are still being held for ransom. Pirates are holding about 200 crew members.

Piracy is rife and well-organised in the area where Somalia’s northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which an estimated 30 percent of the world’s oil passes.

NATO has sent a number of destroyers and frigates to the region to escort civilian shipping.
Egypt says a solution must be found to the root problems that have led to piracy off Somalia, citing the chaotic political situation there.

In September, Somali pirates released an Egyptian ship with 25 crew on board after holding them for three weeks.

Egypt denies paying a ransom to the pirates, who held a record 374 hostages in September, according to the risk-assessment group Risk Intelligence.

Sapa-AFP

Read More »Egypt calls urgent meeting to fight piracy

STATEMENT OF H.E. FATHER MIGUEL D´ESCOTO
BROCKMANN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS
GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY
OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINAN PEOPLE

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK
24 NOVEMBER 2008

Mr. Chairman,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Excellencies,
Brothers and Sisters,

1. It is with mixed emotions that I join you today to observe the
International Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People at this event organized by the
Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. As you know,
Solidarity is a
concept that is central to my work as the Assembly President. I want to
thank the Committee
for its dedicated efforts to rally our solidarity with the Palestinian
people, pursuing the
mandate entrusted to it by the General Assembly.

2. Today we recall that, 61 years ago this month, the General Assembly
adopted the historic
resolution 181, calling for the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab
State. The State of
Israel, founded a year later in 1948, now celebrates 60 years of its
existence. Shamefully,
there is still no Palestinian State to celebrate.

Read More »Statement of he father miguel dâ´escoto

 Israel’s War Crimes
Calls for investigation into Gaza attacks

by Richard Falk

For the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948 the government is facing serious allegations of war crimes from respected public figures throughout the world. Even the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, normally so cautious about offending sovereign states – especially those aligned with its most influential member, the United States – has joined the call for an investigation and potential accountability. To grasp the significance of these developments it is necessary to explain what made the 22 days of attacks in Gaza stand shockingly apart from the many prior recourses to force by Israel to uphold its security and strategic interests.
 
In my view, what made the Gaza attacks launched on 27 December different from the main wars fought by Israel over the years was that the weapons and tactics used devastated an essentially defenceless civilian population. The one-sidedness of the encounter was so stark, as signalled by the relative casualties on both sides (more than 100 to 1; 1300-plus Palestinians killed compared with 13 Israelis, and several of these by friendly fire), that most commentators refrained from attaching the label "war".
 

Read More »Israels war crimes