Zionism – Breaking News

Justice in Gaza

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By RICHARD GOLDSTONE

(source: NewYork Times)

I accepted with hesitation my United Nations mandate to investigate alleged violations of the laws of war and international human rights during Israel’s three-week war in Gaza last winter. The issue is deeply charged and politically loaded. I accepted because the mandate of the mission was to look at all parties: Israel; Hamas, which controls Gaza; and other armed Palestinian groups. I accepted because my fellow commissioners are professionals committed to an objective, fact-based investigation.

But above all, I accepted because I believe deeply in the rule of law and the laws of war, and the principle that in armed conflict civilians should to the greatest extent possible be protected from harm. Read More »Justice in Gaza

Mahmoud abbas double agent

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

The Washington Farce

By Jeffrey Blankfort

(source: Counterpunch.org)

This coming week we will witness the latest challenge for the man who is arguably the most extraordinary double agent in the Middle East. What is unusual about Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, as he was known when his fellow Palestinians had yet to take his measure, is that most of what he does for his Israeli and US masters he does in plain sight.

To which of the two he is most beholden will be determined during his upcoming visit to Washington for the latest chapter in what has euphemistically been referred to as the “peace process” since it was launched in the aftermath of the Oslo Agreement. The odds are it will be Israel. In Oslo, it should be recalled, Abbas, as the chief Palestinian negotiator, played Neville Chamberlain for Tel Aviv, agreeing to surrender occupied Palestinian land with a view toward putting a permanent end to Palestinian resistance and, immediately, to the first Intifada.

If any reader still harbors the illusion that Oslo was anything but a sell-out by the Palestinian leadership, Abba’s negotiating counterpart, former Israeli military intelligence chief, Shlomo Gazit, put that notion to rest on the evening of November 17,1993. When challenged during a speaking engagement at Congregation Beth Shalom in San Francisco by an angry questioner who compared the agreement to that signed with Nazi Germany in Munich in 1938, Gazit calmly replied that while he was reluctant to make such comparisons, “if it’s another Munich, we’re the Germans and the Palestinians are the Czechs.”.

Joint open letter

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: AlHaq.org)

To: Mr. Thomas Dupla Del Moral, Middle East Director, External Relations Directorate General, European Commission

Dear Mr. Dupla Del Moral,

Re: EU-Israel Sub-Committee on Political Dialogue and Cooperation, 15 December 2010

As Palestinian human rights organisations committed to the protection and promotion of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), in light of the upcoming EU-Israel Subcommittee Meeting on Political Dialogue and Cooperation, scheduled for 15 December 2010, we would like to express our strong concerns regarding Israel’s continuing settlement construction.

For over four decades Israel has engaged in a policy of consolidating its territorial, administrative and legal control over the OPT, constituent of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, by establishing and expanding its illegal settlements. Settlements and their associated infrastructure of Israeli-only by-pass roads, checkpoints, roadblocks and the Annexation Wall, control 42% of the West Bank. Built on lands illegally confiscated from Palestinians, the settlement infrastructure fragments the occupied territory into separate enclaves, preventing the Palestinian people from making use of their land and natural resources, and exercising their right to self-determination.

In addition to having a devastating impact on Palestinian freedom of movement, family life and access to education, food, health care and other services, Israel’s settlement enterprise has further resulted in the creation of two parallel and unequal societies in the OPT – a superior Israeli settler society and a dominated and disadvantaged Palestinian society that is denied its fundamental human rights.

Oic hezbollah slam Isarael over building on muslim cemetery

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Hezbollah slamed Israel over building on Muslim cemetery in Al Quds.

The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, expressed his strong condemnation of the decision made by an Israeli court to allow bulldozing Maman Allah cemetery in the City of Al Quds, as the graveyard is an Islamic Waqf that includes Islamic endowed buildings and the remains of tens of thousands of Muslims, notably the Prophet’s Companions, Muslim martyrs and scholars.

The Israeli High Court on Wednesday rejected appeals by two Muslim organisations which complained that the museum would be built over part of an ancient Muslim cemetery.

The Secretary General considered that the desecration of graves and the remains of dead Muslims is a gross violation of the sanctity of the dead, just as it is a blatant infringement of Muslim endowments built on the same site.

Ihsanoglu noted that since Israel engaged in the desecration of the graveyard and the exhumation of Muslim graves, the OIC has issued a warning about the gravity of the Israeli attacks on Muslim graves. He also initiated contacts with the UN Secretary General and the Director General of UNESCO and a number of officials in the world to stop this flagrant aggression.

Ihsanoglu called upon the international community to intervene in order to hold Israel from carrying through its criminal act and put an immediate end to the desecration of Muslim cemeteries and aggression against Muslim property and sacred sites.

Also, Lebanese Hezbollah on Sunday slammed Israel for allowing the construction of a "Museum" on the site of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem.

A statement said, Hezbollah issues "its strongest condemnation for the desecration of a historic Islamic cemetery in occupied Jerusalem permitted by the (Israeli) enemy by allowing an American company to build a museum on the site."

Hezbollah called for Arab, Muslim and international action to put an end to these racist and inhumane practices.

"They cannot transform the original identity of the sacred city from its original Palestinian identity," the statement added.

Agencies