Palestine – Features

By Bill Van Auken

(source: World Socialist Website)

The protracted crisis over the fraudulent election in Afghanistan, culminating in President Hamid Karzai’s acceptance last week of a runoff with his top challenger and former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, has once again laid bare the colonial character of the US occupation and the puppet status of the government in Kabul.

The entire degrading process reeks of cynicism. A United Nations-backed panel confirmed that over 1.2 million ballots in the August 20 election were fraudulent—including fully one-third of the votes cast for Karzai. The incumbent’s chief challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, is no less venal. Some 200,000 of his own votes were bogus. In areas dominated by his cohorts, ballot-stuffing was just as prevalent as that carried out by Karzai operatives in other regions.

Now the incumbent president is being hailed by the West as a true “statesman” for agreeing to a November 7 runoff that will supposedly lend the presidential election legitimacy.

Read More »The runoff farce in Afghanistan

(source: Al-Jazeera)

A US-educated Pakistani woman who was arrested in Afghanistan and accused of shooting at her US interrogators, has been found guilty of attempted murder by a court in the US.

Aafia Siddiqui was found guilty by a New York court on Wednesday after a 12-member jury reached a unanimous verdict, but said the crime was not premeditated.Siddiqui showed no emotion as the jury pronounced its verdict – reached after two days of deliberations – but shouted out as the jury members were leaving the court.

"This is a verdict coming from Israel, not America. Your anger should be directed where it belongs. I can testify to this and I have proof," Siddiqui said.

Read More »Pakistani found guilty ofUSattack

By Jonathan Cook

(source: Electronic Intifada)

A group of Jews and Arabs are fighting in the Israeli courts to be recognized as "Israelis," a nationality currently denied them, in a case that officials fear may threaten the country’s self-declared status as a Jewish state.

Israel refused to recognize an Israeli nationality at the country’s establishment in 1948, making an unusual distinction between "citizenship" and "nationality." Although all Israelis qualify as "citizens of Israel," the state is defined as belonging to the "Jewish nation," meaning not only the 5.6 million Israeli Jews but also more than seven million Jews in the diaspora.

Read More »Lawsuit challenges Isaraels discriminatory citizenship definition

(source: Press TV)

Michel Collon, a Belgian journalist and author, in his book "Israel, let’s talk about it," has slammed European media over decades of "lying" to people in order to support Israel.

Collon, in his book, has recounted "10 big lies" spread by Western media in order to "justify the existence and actions of Israel", which are concisely presented below:

1. The first lie is that Israel was established in reaction to the massacre of Jews during the World War II.
This notion is completely wrong. Israel is in fact a domineering project which was approved in the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, when nationalist Jews decided to occupy Palestine.

2. The second justification for establishing and legitimizing Israel is that the Jews are returning to their forefathers’ land, from where they had been driven away in 70 A.D. This is a tale. I have spoken to the famous Israeli historian Shlomo Sand and other historians and they all believe that there has been no "exodus," so "return" is meaningless. The people living in Palestine have not left their land in the ancient era.

Read More »Ten big media lies about Isarael