CONCERN FOR THE PLIGHT OF
THE “PALESTINIANS”
The Arab and larger Muslim worlds stridently claim that their trade sanctions, their diplomatic onslaught, and their support for “resistance” activities against the State of Israel stem, not from their hatred of the Jewish people, but rather from their “concern” for the “plight” of the “Palestinian” Arabs as an “occupied” and “oppressed” people denied their “right” of self-determination in the districts of Judea, Samaria, the eastern portion of Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Yet, this is not strictly accurate. For, despite the long-standing
occupation by Spain and France of the Basque homeland, and despite the
long-term occupation by France of territory on the northern coast of South
America (known as “French Guiana”), and despite the longtime occupation by
China of Tibet, and despite the lengthy occupation by Russia of four Japanese
islands at the southern tip of the Kuril archipelago (known as the Northern
Territories to Japan) and its more recent occupations of the Abkhazia and South
Ossetia provinces of Georgia and of the Transnistria (also known as
Trans-Dniester or Transdniestria) province of Moldava, and despite the
interminable occupation by Great Britain of the northern portion of Ireland
(which occupation has prompted that country to officially denominate itself as
“The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”) and of the southern
tip of Spain (known as “Gibraltar”) and of the Falkland Islands (which are
within the territorial waters of Argentina and known as Las Islas Malvinas to
that nation) and of two areas of Cyprus (both used as British military bases,
one known as Akrotiri located near Limassol in the southern portion of the
island and the other known as Dhekelia located between Larnaca and Famagusta in
the southeastern portion of the island), and despite the massive United States
military occupation of the southeastern tip of Cuba (known as “Guantanamo
Bay”), and despite the occupation by Turkey of the northeastern portion of Cyprus
(denominated as “The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” by Turkey), and
despite the occupation by Spain of a small region of Portugal on the Guadiana
River (called Olivenza by Spain and Olivenca by Portugal), the Arab and larger
Muslim worlds have not severed diplomatic relations with, or otherwise
assumed a hostile posture against, these oppressors. And, although such nations
as
Then, perhaps the Arab and (non-Arab) Muslim nations reserve their support only for those victims who are fellow Muslims. Yet, neither is this strictly accurate. For, despite the fact that Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey occupy (Muslim) Kurdistan, and despite the fact that Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan occupy (Muslim) Baluchistan (also known as Balochistan), the Arab and larger Muslim worlds have not severed diplomatic relations with, or otherwise assumed a hostile posture against, these oppressors.
Then, perhaps the Arab and (non-Arab) Muslim nations reserve their support for Muslim victims only when they are being occupied and/or oppressed by non-Muslims. Yet, neither is this strictly accurate. For, despite the fact that (Hindu) India occupies the larger part of (Muslim) Kashmir and has gone to war three times against (Muslim) Pakistan, and despite the fact that (Christian) Russia formerly occupied (Muslim) Afghanistan and has devastated most of the rebellious (Muslim) republic of Chechnya (by virtue of having destroyed most of its infrastructure and having killed approximately 350,000 Chechens, constituting 35% of its pre-hostilities population), and despite the fact that (Buddhist) China occupies the (Muslim) Uygur homeland of Xinjiang Uygur (known as East Turkestan to the Uygur people), and despite the fact that (Christian) Armenia occupies the southwestern portion of (Muslim) Azerbaijan (namely, the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and additional surrounding territory), and despite the fact that (Christian) Ethiopia occupies much of (Muslim) Somalia, the Arab and larger Muslim worlds have not severed diplomatic relations with, or otherwise assumed a hostile posture against, these oppressors.
Then, perhaps the Arab and (non-Arab) Muslim nations reserve their support for Muslim victims only when they are Arabs. Yet, neither is this strictly accurate. For, despite the fact that, in 1982, Syria massacred more than 20,000 unarmed Syrian Arabs in Hama, and despite the fact that Turkey occupies the Iskenderun region (denominated as the Province of Hatay by Turkey) claimed by (Arab) Syria (known as the Alexandretta region to the Arab world), and despite the fact that Syria itself occupies (Arab) Lebanon, and despite the fact that Iran occupies the oil-rich region of Khuzestan (known as the region of al-Ahwaz to the Arab world) which has been populated almost exclusively by Arabs for the past 600 years and the islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Moussa located within the territorial waters of (Arab) United Arab Emirates, and despite the fact that France occupies the island of Mayotte (known as Mahore to the Arab world) within the territorial waters of (Arab) Comoros, and despite the fact that Spain occupies the cities of Cueta (known as Sebta to the Arab world) and Melilla (known as Maliliyya to the Arab world) on the northeastern coast of (Arab) Morocco as well as several islands within the territorial waters and a small peninsula of that Arab nation, and despite the fact that Morocco itself occupies (Arab) Western Sahara, the Arab and larger Muslim worlds have not severed diplomatic relations with, or otherwise assumed a hostile posture against, these oppressors.
Then, perhaps the Arab and (non-Arab) Muslim nations, as well as the remainder of the World, reserve their support only for the “Palestinian” Arabs. After all, the World has favored this “stateless” Arab population as it has no other. For example, the “Palestinian” Arabs have been permitted to establish a world-wide “diplomatic” structure both through their numerous (official and unofficial) “embassies” and through being accorded Permanent Observer Status at the United Nations.
Furthermore, the United Nations itself has established a well-funded official infrastructure for their exclusive benefit via the creation of the:
Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (which, inter alia, issues periodic recommendations to the U.N. General Assembly on achieving the “inalienable rights” of the “Palestinian” people, and which constitutes the only Committee in the U.N. system dedicated exclusively to the agenda of a single group);
Division for Palestinian Rights (which is a special unit established within the Department of Political Affairs of the U.N. Secretariat, and which constitutes the only Division in the U.N. system dedicated exclusively to the agenda of a single group);
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (which is observed annually on November 29, in lamentation over the issuance of the U.N.'s Palestine Partition Plan on that very date in 1947, and in sympathetic commemoration of the rejection by the recognized leadership of the “Palestinian” Arabs of the Plan's recommendation for the creation of a Jewish State therein);
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (which was created for the sole purpose of administering international assistance to the “Palestinian” Arab “refugee” population exclusively, while international assistance to all other refugee populations in the World -- without exception -- continues to be apportioned and administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, meaning that UNRWA's 28,000 employees assist about 4 million “Palestinian” refugees and their descendants in 6 places -- 3 countries, namely, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and 3 territories, namely, Judea, Samaria and Gaza -- while the UNHCR must make due with only 6,300 employees who must assist about 33 million non-“Palestinian” refugees in about 110 countries);
United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (which, as a unit of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, periodically publicizes Israel’s “violations” of the “rights” of the “Palestinian” people);
United Nations Human Rights Council’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel since 1967” (which produces an annual report detailing Israel’s “atrocities” against the “Palestinian” people);
United Nations Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for the Coordination of the International Assistance to Palestinians (which solicits worldwide funding for the Palestinian Authority); and
United Nations Register of Damage caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (which was created to catalogue the “damage claims” accumulated by the “Palestinians” against Israel on account of the latter’s construction of a security fence to prevent “Palestinian” suicide bombers and other terrorists from perpetuating atrocities against Jewish population centers located within pre-1967 Israel).
Moreover, on a per capita basis (adjusted to present currency values), the “Palestinian” Arabs have, to date, received more than twice the amount of financial aid provided to a devastated Europe under the post-World War II Marshall Plan; and despite the catastrophic conditions now obtaining elsewhere in the World (e.g., inter-ethnic genocide, pestilence, flooding, drought and famine in sub-Saharan Africa and much of Asia, affecting hundreds of millions of people), the relatively affluent “Palestinian” Arabs continue to receive more per capita financial aid than anyone else on the planet. No other “oppressed” people have ever been accorded this level of international recognition and financial assistance. Clearly, the World accords special and unique support to the “Palestinian” Arabs.
Yet, even this is not strictly accurate. For, despite the fact that, in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait unceremoniously expelled, respectively, 750,000 and 300,000 resident “Palestinian” Arabs -- many of whom had resided in those lands for generations -- the nations of the World, including its Arab and (non-Arab) Muslim components, have not severed diplomatic relations with, or otherwise assumed a hostile posture against, these oppressors. Furthermore, despite the fact that, in 1982, 800 Muslim “Palestinian” Arabs were murdered at Sabra and Shatilla by the Christian Lebanese Forces led by commander Elie Hobeika -- who had acted upon instructions from Syria and who later became a respected pro-Syria member of the Lebanese parliament -- the nations of the World, including its Arab and (non-Arab) Muslim components, have neither instituted sanctions against Syria for procuring the massacre nor against Lebanon for protecting its perpetrator. Moreover, despite the fact that, from 1948 to 1967, Jordan and Egypt illegally occupied portions of Mandatory Palestine (i.e., Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria and the eastern portion of Jerusalem, while Egypt occupied Gaza), and despite the fact that, in 1970, Jordan killed 2,000 and expelled 10,000 resident “Palestinian” Arabs -- among them then Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat -- in a brutal campaign that became known among “Palestinian” Arabs as “Black September”, the nations of the World, including its Arab and (non-Arab) Muslim components, have not severed diplomatic relations with, or otherwise assumed a hostile posture against, these oppressors.
It seems, then, that Sherlock Holmes' famous dictum, namely: “When you have eliminated the Impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the Truth” (from the novel
“The Sign Of The Four” by Arthur Conan Doyle,
published in 1890), has once again proven to be correct. What, then, is this
hard-to-accept Truth? -- simply that the World, especially the Arab and larger
Muslim components thereof, “cares” about the “Palestinians” only when
© Mark Rosenblit
[Note: In 2005, following the
assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri by
[Note: Some 40,000 “Palestinian”
Arabs have lived in
Palestinians in
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2005) Following reports that Palestinians have been
involved in the latest wave of terrorist attacks in
The officials told The Jerusalem Post that Iraqi security forces had recently
arrested dozens of Palestinians in
The Palestinian community in
"We're very concerned for the safety of the Palestinian community in
Iraqi security officials confirmed last week that a number of Palestinians had
been arrested for allegedly aiding insurgents in carrying out suicide attacks
that killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians over the past two months. Some of the
suspects later appeared on Iraqi TV, where they confessed to their role in the
carnage.
Another official here said Palestinians living in the Iraqi capital were being
systematically harassed by Iraqi security forces. He claimed that most of the
attacks were being carried out by Shi'ite soldiers serving in the Iraqi army.
Wajih al-Aghbar, 30, a Palestinian who has been living in
Aghbar said he was stopped by members of the Iraqi National Guard as he was on
his way to work in
"When they discovered that I was a Palestinian, they handcuffed and
blindfolded me and took me to prison," he said. "They beat me
severely and cursed me repeatedly. They told me that we Palestinians are
terrorists who carry out suicide attacks that threaten world peace and
security.
They told me to leave
few weeks. "Many Palestinians have been thrown out of their homes and are
sleeping in public parks and schools," he said. "Many Iraqis are
accusing the Palestinians of destroying their economy."
Ali al-Shalah, an Iraqi academic, defended the crackdown on Palestinians in his
country. He said many Palestinians had made a mistake by joining Saddam's
security services and participating in the oppression of Iraqi citizens.
"Some Palestinians reached very high ranks in Saddam's secret
police," he said. "Some of them were even promoted to generals. One
of them even served as head of Saddam's intelligence service."
Shalah said Saddam used the Palestinian group led by Muhammad Abbas, who was
known as Abu Abbas, to crush the popular uprising against his regime in 1991.
Abu Abbas, who died in US custody two years ago, was responsible for the
hijacking of the Achille Lauro ship in 1985.
Zuheir Andraus, editor of the Nazareth-based weekly Kul Al-Arab, described the
attacks on Palestinians in
"Palestinians living in
Adli Sadek, a prominent columnist and PA official, warned that the Palestinians
living in
"The situation is very grave and unbearable," Sadek added. "Our
leadership must raise this issue with
(©) The
[Note: For more information on the suffering of “Palestinians” at the hands of the Iraqis -- still being underreported some 19 months after the publication of the preceding article, and some 3 years after the escalating persecutions first commenced -- please read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Palestinians: 'Ethnic cleansing' in
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, February 2, 2007) After 18 members of her family were brutally
murdered by Shiite militiamen in
In 2006, more than 600 Palestinians were killed in the Iraqi capital in what Palestinian
leaders and political activists are describing as a "systematic campaign
of ethnic cleansing." Thousands of Palestinian families have been forced
to flee
Until three years ago, the number of Palestinians living in
Today, Nadia said, "There are less than 10,000 Palestinians living in
Nadia's decision to leave her home came shortly after one of her brothers,
Muhammad Rashid, was killed by Shiite gunmen as he was on his way to the school
where he worked as an Arabic language teacher.
"The murderers stopped him in the street, asked for his ID documents, and
when they saw that he was a Palestinian refugee, they immediately fired three
bullets at his head," she said. "On the same day, they kidnapped and
murdered Farid Al-Sayed, chairman of the Palestinian-controlled Haifa Sports
Club in
Another Palestinian who fled
He said Palestinians who were still living in
In the past few months, he added, he heard "horror" stories about
Palestinians who were kidnapped and brutally tortured by the Shiite militiamen.
"Some have had their ears and noses cut off," he said. "I saw
them with my own eyes. The heads of some victims were severed and sent to their
families. Many families have had their homes ransacked before they were forced
to leave."
Zakariya Al-Agha, head of the PLO Refugees Department, expressed deep concern
over the fate of the Palestinians in
"A large number of Palestinians who ran away from
Agha said another 400 Palestinians were now living in tents provided by
humanitarian organizations along the border between
According to information gathered by Agha's department, some 100 Palestinians
who were kidnapped in the past few months are still missing and presumed dead.
In addition, the Iraqi authorities have arrested dozens of Palestinians for
unspecified charges.
A Palestinian man who was released two weeks ago from prison in
"When we arrived at the prison," he said, "the Shiite militiamen
began shouting, 'We have brought the Palestinians, we have brought the
terrorists!' After they beat us for hours, they took us for questioning. They
kept asking, 'Why do you Palestinians love Saddam Hussein so much? Why did you
take to the streets to protest against his execution? We want all the
Palestinians out of
Khairiyeh Yehya, director of a think-tank organization in Jenin, said
Palestinians in
"The defenseless Palestinians... have become easy prey for the agents of the American occupation and all those who hate our people," she said. "How can anyone justify these killings?"
Atef Udwan, minister for refugee affairs in the Hamas-led government, said
his office was searching for a way to allow the Palestinians in
"This requires a political solution," he said. "We need to
persuade
(©) The
[Note: Since latter part of 2006, the
“Palestinian” Arabs have been in the midst of a civil war, with Fatah
(representing Arab nationalists) and Hamas (representing Islamists) killing
each other as well as multitudes of
“Palestinian” civilians. Unremarkably,
despite their obsessive “concern” for the “plight” of the “Palestinians”,
neither the United Nations, nor the European Union, nor the League of Arab
States, nor the Organization of the Islamic Conference, nor the Non-Aligned
Movement, nor the
Another Tack: The slaying of Yihyeh Abu-Bakra
|
Sarah Honig, THE |
Feb. 1, 2007 |
Let's indulge briefly in a hypothetical case history. Two-year-old Yihyeh
Abu-Bakra is shot dead in
Photos of the martyred infant are dramatically splashed over every front page everywhere. What fodder these prove for post-colonial discourse! The free world's decent and upstanding citizens all know who deserves sympathy. They likewise know who aimed at the wee underdog. The circumstances of the atrocity are incidental.
Unanimous revulsion is underscored by video footage, which foreign TV crews solicit from local Gazans. It's safer than entering the Palestinian fiefdom itself. A small outlay of cash buys fetching ratings-grabbers.
The fact that said tapes are in all likelihood also Arab propaganda productions bothers no one. In fact, the amplification of tendentious cant and deliberate disinformation potentially purchases some terrorist protection. The objective international media know which side needs to be feared and sweetened, and it's certainly not the liberal, tolerant and angst-ridden Israeli one.
Inevitably, tiny Yihyeh becomes another icon of
The visuals of him crouching near the Netzarim junction alongside his father as the lethal slug found its 12-year-old mark became best-sellers. Indeed, ever since, official Palestinian Authority TV hasn't ceased indoctrinating its littlest viewers, barely older than Yihyeh, with stirring reruns of Muhammad's last minutes, accompanied by emotive chants, rousing songs and poignant poetry exhorting other youngsters to go forth, espouse martyrdom, become suicide bombers and blow up Israeli kids to redeem Muhammad's blood.
Curiously, videos of the incident show no blood, not even a spatter, which was merely the first telltale hint of much amiss, leading more than one expert to deduce that this scene was ingeniously stage-managed. There were plenty more indications supporting suspicions of fraud.
It wouldn't be the first instance of brazen Palestinian fabrication, for instance the trumped-up yarns about a Jenin-massacre-that-never-was during Operation Defensive Shield.
One thing is beyond debate -- even if Muhammad was killed, it couldn't possibly have been by an Israeli bullet. The trajectory was all wrong, considering where the Israelis were. But it was perfect from the position of Palestinian snipers.
NONE OF this prevented the summary and blanket blaming of
[United States Secretary of State] Condoleezza [Rice] vigorously wags that
schoolmarmy finger with particularly displeased dourness. [British Prime
Minister] Tony Blair solemnly reminds all and sundry -- including his ethnic
Pakistani electorate -- that until
[French President] Jacques Chirac pompously pontificates to all Frenchwomen
and Frenchmen that those domineering and arrogant Jews (to borrow a phrase from
Charles de Gaulle) continuously commit the unpardonable cardinal sin of extreme
hubris by not bowing to directives from morally irreproachable and singularly
omniscient
Even the hero of
Our in-house guardians of other folks' conscience -- representing a plethora of platitude-spouting bleeding hearts from all left-of-political-center niches -- mercilessly beat their fellow Israelis' breasts and boastfully broadcast embarrassment for their affiliation with this accursed collective. They thereby bask in the glowing limelight of the unstinted outpouring of enlightened universalist approval for post-Zionists raking their benighted compatriots over the coals.
So much for the hypothetical.
IT'S NOT really all strictly imaginary. Much rings familiar because we've
been there, seen that. We've suffered the outrageous slings and arrows of
sanctimonious indignation time and again. But most of all, this isn't entirely
make-believe because toddler Yihyeh was truly shot dead in
It happened just last weekend. Others died too. An 11-year-old was gunned down and, in all, the bloodbath claimed dozens of lives.
Only the outcry was missing. Yihyeh's untimely demise made no headlines. His mother's grief tugged no heartstrings. PATV [Palestinian Authority Television] didn't sanctify his sacrifice, and the World continues as it had smugly before. Not a ripple. Nothing out of place. No pandemonium. No commotion.
Why? Because there was no opportunity to claim that Israelis pulled the deadly trigger. Yihyeh fell victim to terrorist infighting.
We always realized the world retains incredible composure when Arabs deliberately target Jewish babies. We now learn that it's also unmoved when Arabs murder Arabs -- even when the casualties include juvenile Gazans.
Bottom line: it's not who's slain but by whom. If Jews cannot be implicated, it doesn't matter.
(©) The
[Note: The below articles are just some of the many documenting the intra-“Palestinian” carnage -- including massacres of women and children, blowing up homes, attacking mosques, ambulances and hospitals, forcing people to abandon their houses, and throwing people off the tops of high rise buildings -- that the World is so content to ignore simply because Jews are not the perpetrators thereof. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
25 Gazans dead in Fatah-Hamas clashes
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2007) The number of Palestinians killed in fierce
fighting between Fatah and Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip over the weekend rose
to 25 on Saturday night, with dozens more wounded in the clashes. At least six
of the victims died on Saturday.
Among the casualties was two-year-old Yehya Abu Bakreh, who was killed when
Fatah gunmen fired at his father's car.
Fatah gunmen and Palestinian Authority policemen also attacked a mosque
in Gaza City, killing a number of worshipers.
The fighting, the heaviest between the two parties since Hamas came to power a year
ago, left the streets of Gaza City completely deserted except for hundreds of
militiamen and police officers. The PA Ministry of Education announced that
studies in universities and schools would be suspended until further notice due
to the growing violence.
A public opinion poll published Saturday showed that more than half of
Palestinians believe that a civil war has begun. Sixty-six percent expressed
pessimism regarding the general situation in the PA-controlled territories,
while more than 88% said they no longer felt secure.
The poll, conducted by
Fatah officials accused Hamas of declaring a "public war" on the party
and vowed to avenge the deaths of their colleagues. They said Hamas snipers
were using mosque rooftops to fire at Fatah members.
Hamas said the fighting was triggered by Fatah leaders with the aim of toppling
the Hamas-led government.
Two Fatah-run radio stations in
The latest clashes prompted Hamas to suspend talks with Fatah over the
formation of a PA unity government. Hamas said a decision had been taken to
protest against "crimes committed by Fatah gangs."
Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman in
Taha and other Hamas representatives called on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to cut
short his current European tour and return immediately to the Gaza Strip to try
and calm the situation.
Tawfik Abu Khoussa, a senior Fatah official in the Gaza Strip, came out with a
scathing attack on Hamas, accusing its members of "practicing all forms of
sadistic crimes and thuggery."
Abu Khoussa said a "bloody gang" within Hamas was responsible for
driving the Palestinians toward civil war.
"They are perpetrating daily massacres against our people," he added.
"They blew up the offices of a TV station and killed dozens of security
officers and civilians."
PA Attorney-General Ahmed al-Mughni held PA Interior Minister Said Siam of
Hamas responsible for the latest killings, kidnappings and anarchy in the Gaza
Strip. He announced the formation of a commission of inquiry to investigate the
"crimes" perpetrated in there over the weekend.
As interior minister,
Mughni condemned the Executive Force as illegal and accused it of targeting
commanders and members of the PA security forces. "
Mughni also said the PA security forces had failed to execute thousands of
arrest warrants issued against suspected murderers and other criminals.
The clashes began late Thursday night when one member of the Executive Force
was killed and seven were wounded by a roadside bomb near the Jabalya refugee
camp.
In response, Hamas gunmen killed Nabil Jarjir, a senior member of Fatah's
armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Jarjir was wounded when his home came under fire. Hamas gunmen
subsequently stopped the ambulance that was carrying him to a hospital and shot
him in the head, killing him instantly.
On Friday, dozens of Hamas gunmen attacked the home of Mansour Shalayel, a
top Fatah operative in the northern Strip. The attack lasted for several hours,
only ending when hundreds of Fatah gunmen and PA policemen repelled the
assailants.
Although the house was completely destroyed by missiles and explosive devices,
Shalayel was only lightly wounded. Eight Hamas members and two Fatah men were
killed in the confrontation outside the house.
Also Friday, hand grenades were thrown at the homes of PA Foreign Minister
Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas and Gen. Rashid Abu Shabak, a Fatah leader and top PA
security commander in the
"The renewed fighting between Fatah and Hamas is a real national tragedy
for the Palestinians," said independent legislator Rawya Shawwa.
"They have crossed all red lines by storming homes and killing and
terrorizing women and children. Palestinians here are living in a state of
panic and despair."
(©) The
Analysis: Hamas's
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, June 13, 2007) Jamal Abu Jadian, a top Fatah commander, fled
his home in the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday evening dressed as a woman to avoid
dozens of Hamas militiamen who had attacked it. He and several members of his
family and bodyguards were lightly wounded.
But when Abu Jadian arrived at a hospital a few hundred meters away from his
house, he was discovered by a group of Hamas gunmen, who took turns shooting
him in the head with automatic rifles.
"They literally blew his head off with more than 40 bullets," said
a doctor at
Abu Jadian, a close ally of Fatah warlord Muhammad Dahlan and a sworn enemy of
Hamas, was the third top Fatah commander to be killed by Hamas in the northern
Gaza Strip in the past few weeks. The other two were Muhammad Ghraib, a senior
commander of the Fatah-dominated Preventative Security Service, and Baha Abu
Jarad, a leading member of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's military wing.
All three were killed after dozens of Hamas militiamen surrounded their
homes for hours, firing rocket-propelled grenades and detonating explosive
charges.
Hamas targeted them because it believed they were heads of a Fatah group that
has been targeting Hamas officials and activists over the past year. This
group, Hamas officials claim, is headed by Dahlan and other senior Fatah
leaders who, with the help of the
Three other senior Fatah leaders from the northern Gaza Strip who are allegedly
involved in the "plot" have also been targeted by Hamas. But the
three -- Sameeh Madhoun, Maher Miqdad and Mansour Shalayel -- have managed to
escape unharmed with their families.
In yet another blow to Fatah, about 200 Hamas gunmen on Tuesday stormed the
home of Nabil Sha'ath, a senior Fatah official who was closely associated with
Yasser Arafat.
Sha'ath was not at home, but one of his bodyguards was shot and wounded before
the Hamas attackers went on a rampage inside the villa.
In addition to attacking Fatah officials, Hamas has also driven many members of
the Palestinian Authority security forces out of the northern Gaza Strip. Since
the beginning of the year, Hamas militiamen there have taken over the
headquarters of the PA's General Intelligence, Force 17, Preventative Security,
National Security and Military Police.
Earlier this week, Hamas also "liberated" a large mosque in the
northern town of
On Tuesday it became clear that Hamas was now trying to extend its
"victories" to the rest of the Gaza Strip, particularly
"Hamas is effectively in control of the northern part of the Gaza
Strip," said a senior Fatah official. "Now they are trying to take
control of the entire Gaza Strip, and I'm afraid they are close to achieving
their goal."
Many Fatah officials in those areas have fled their homes over the past few
weeks for fear of being targeted by Hamas. One of them, Rashid Abu Shabak, is
Fatah's highest ranking security official in the Gaza Strip. He and his family
left the Gaza Strip after Hamas militiamen raided their villa in
Dahlan left the Gaza Strip two months ago and has been living in
Reports from the Gaza Strip Tuesday evening indicated that Hamas was close to
taking control of Khan Yunis, a traditional Fatah stronghold, which is also
Dahlan's hometown. Hamas militiamen occupied the most important symbols in the
area -- the headquarters of the Fatah-affiliated governor and buildings
belonging to different branches of the PA security forces.
A sign of Fatah's predicament in the Gaza Strip was illustrated late Monday
night when its leaders announced a unilateral cease-fire, only to be snubbed by
Hamas. Fatah leaders also made urgent appeals to a number of Arab governments
to interfere to stop the fighting, but their calls have fallen on deaf ears.
The Egyptians, Saudis and Jordanians -- who have, until now, been making huge
efforts to end the anarchy in the Palestinian areas -- are all fed up with the
Palestinians.
Unless the fighting stops in the next day or two, the entire Gaza Strip is
likely to fall into the hands of Hamas. All Fatah can do now is vent its anger
at the remaining handful of Hamas representatives in the
Tuesday night, PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas convened his top
aides in the
One of the options facing Abbas is to break up the coalition partnership with
Hamas and to officially declare war on the Islamic movement.
Whatever decision Abbas and his Fatah lieutenants take, it will be hard to
change the new reality that has been created on the ground, especially in the
Gaza Strip. As of today, the Palestinians can boast that they have two entities
-- one in the Gaza Strip run by Muslim fundamentalists and another one in the
"The two-state solution has finally worked," a Palestinian journalist
in the Gaza Strip commented sarcastically. "Today, all our enemies have
good reason to celebrate."
(©) The
16 killed in Hamas-Fatah clashes
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2007) The number of victims in the Hamas-Fatah
infighting rose to 16 early Tuesday morning when Hamas gunmen attacked the home
of Hassan Abu-Rabiah, a senior Fatah official.
Medical personnel said that three women and Abu-Rabiah's 14 year-old son
were killed in the attack. The gunmen kidnapped Abu-Rabiah.
The Fatah in turn torched a Hamas gunman's home.
Fatah gunmen killed a commander of Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, Monday
night. Palestinian sources reported that Fatah had kidnapped Muhammed
El-Dahdouh, killed him, and thrown his body near the Palestinian TV station in
In an earlier incident, Hamas killed Jamal Abu Il-Jidan, a senior Fatah
official, at his home in Beit Lahi.
Hamas and Fatah also took their fight to two Gaza Strip hospitals earlier
Monday, killing 10 people and wounding more than 25.
Separately, a Palestinian was thrown from a tall building in
Hamas claimed that the latest cycle of violence had been initiated by a number of
top Fatah officials with the aim of bringing down the Hamas-led coalition
governing the Palestinian Authority. Hamas leaders said the Fatah officials,
led by PA National Security Adviser Muhammad Dahlan, were receiving support
from the
According to a senior Hamas official, Dahlan recently established a new militia
called the Fatah Executive Force to fight Hamas. The official said Dahlan's
force consisted of several hundred heavily armed Fatah men.
Eyewitnesses said four Palestinians were killed in fierce fighting inside the
Doctors said they were forced to close the hospital because of the fighting,
which caused a power outage.
A similar gun battle erupted between Hamas and Fatah militiamen at
Hamas said Ajour was killed execution-style after being kidnapped by Fatah
gunmen and PA security officers.
Local reporters told The
The Palestinian Doctors'
Another top Hamas operative, Muhammad Muhjez, was killed outside the home of
senior Fatah official Jamal Abu Jadian in Bet Lahiya, in the northern Gaza
Strip. Abu Jadian, who is one of the commanders of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa
Martyrs Brigades, was later assassinated by Hamas militiamen.
Hamas men shot and killed Yasser Baker, an officer in the PA's General
Intelligence Force.
Earlier, Hamas accused Fatah militiamen of opening fire at the offices of the
PA government in
In a statement, the PA cabinet strongly condemned the shooting attack, saying
it was yet another sign of the growing anarchy in the PA-controlled
territories.
Hamas also accused Fatah of trying to assassinate PA Minister of Sports and
Youth Bassem Naim of Hamas. A group of masked men fired several shots at his
office at the ministry, but no one was hurt. The minister fled the area
together with his aides and bodyguards.
Husam Abu Kainas, 26, was killed early Monday after being thrown from the
12th floor of a building in
kidnapped a day earlier by Fatah militiamen who suspected him and his family of
belonging to Hamas.
On Sunday, Muhammad Sawariki, a member of the PA's Force 17
"Presidential Guard" and a Fatah supporter, died after he was thrown
from the 18th floor of another tower in
(©) The
Hamas threats keep crossing closed
|
Yaakov Katz, THE |
Jul. 5, 2007 |
Hamas's threat to open fire at throngs of Palestinians stranded in
According to the officials, 6,000 Palestinians have been marooned on
the Egyptian side of Rafah since Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip
three weeks ago and the closure of the Rafah crossing into
During his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Sharm e-Sheikh summit last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would work to relieve the humanitarian crisis on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
In an effort to allow the stranded Palestinians to return home, the IDF
recently offered to
Egypt contacted Hamas and, according to Israeli officials, was told that
if Kerem Shalom was opened they would attack the crossing with mortars and
gunfire, even at the price of killing thousands of Palestinians.
(©) The
Fatah protest against Hamas ends in violence
[Journalists are also beaten and harassed by Hamas]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A protest by Fatah supporters against Hamas rule turned violent Friday
when Hamas men began forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and
beating demonstrators and reporters.
Some 20 people were wounded in the clashes, including two French
journalists and two children, according to doctors and witnesses.
AP staff covering the protest witnessed the beating of one journalist by Hamas supporters. He was not seriously hurt.
The violence began at the end of a Fatah prayer meeting held to protest against Hamas, which seized control of the coastal territory in June.
A similar protest last Friday also ended in clashes and harassment of journalists.
After the Fatah supporters finished prayers, Hamas men began firing into the air to disperse the crowd. The Hamas security forces then began arresting protesters and taking them away in jeeps, and also beat several demonstrators. AP Television News footage showed several uniformed Hamas men beating an unarmed protester with long sticks.
Hamas men in civilian clothes also joined the uniformed forces in dispersing the protest.
A small explosion from an unknown source injured two French journalists, one in his leg and the other on her hand. Neither injury was considered serious.
At one point, a Hamas security building was pelted with small explosive devices, according to an AP photographer on the scene. Hamas security agents responded by firing in the air.
After the clashes, heavily armed Hamas security agents entered AP's
offices in
Saber Khalifa, a Hamas security spokesman, said his force was rounding up "subverters." He didn't have a number of those arrested.
A Fatah official in
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1995-2007 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
[Note: “Palestinian” high school students have been violently prevented from taking their matriculation examinations by the storm troopers of al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. The Brigades is the “military” arm of Fatah. Fatah, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, presently maintains exclusive control over the Palestinian Authority (in the wake of Abbas’ ouster of Hamas from the P.A. in June 2007). However, due to the fact that it is not Jewish “storm troopers” denying these “oppressed” Arab students the opportunity to educationally advance, the World seems unperturbed. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Fatah gunmen ruin matriculation exams
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(July 8, 2007) Despite Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's decision
to ban militiamen from patrolling the streets of the West Bank, scores of Fatah
gunmen on Saturday forced teachers in Nablus to call off high school
matriculation exams (tawjihi).
The gunmen, who claim they are wanted by
Fayad said over the weekend that his government was determined to confiscate
the weapons of all militias and gangs in the
Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, rejected Fayad's statements,
saying its members would not hand over their weapons. "Our weapons are
legitimate because they are being used against the Israeli occupiers,"
said Muhammad Shehadeh, a spokesman for the group. "We reject Fayad's
attempt to depict us as a militia because we are a legitimate force. We call on
President Abbas to stop him and others from attacking us." Tensions
between Abbas and the Fatah gunmen have been mounting ever since the PA chairman
decided two weeks ago to ban all militias from operating in public in the
Abbas also decided to incorporate the Aksa Martyrs Brigades into the PA
security forces, a move that would turn the gunmen into official security
officers entitled to full salaries.
Fatah officials revealed that hundreds of Fatah gunmen in the West Bank were
refusing to hand over their weapons to the PA unless they received high
salaries and ranks, as well as assurances that
"The problem is that all of them want to be colonels and generals although
many never finished high school," said one official. "I don't see how
we can solve this problem other than through dialogue. We are not interested in
a confrontation with these men."
In another blow to Abbas, a newly-appointed Fatah spokesman in the Gaza Strip
resigned over the weekend after receiving threats from the Aksa Martyrs
Brigades. Hazem Abu Shanab, a top Fatah operative in
Abbas decided last week that all students must report to public exam halls
throughout the
Until now, all Fatah gunmen were granted special treatment by the PA Ministry
of Education when sitting for the tawjihi. In addition to allocating secret
halls for them, the ministry also permitted the gunmen to enter the halls with
their weapons -- a move that was seen as a direct threat to the lives of the
teachers.
In the context of his efforts to end lawlessness and anarchy in the
Enraged by the decision, some 100 Fatah gunmen went on a rampage in a number
of schools in
One of the gunmen read a statement through a megaphone in which he announced
that his group had decided to close the halls until further notice because of
Abbas's decision.
"This decision was taken by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades and all armed
factions in
Sahar Akoubeh, a senior official in the PA Ministry of Education, confirmed
that the gunmen had closed down the exam halls. She pointed out that some 250
students from the
One of the students who was forced to leave in the middle of the exam told The
Jerusalem Post that PA policemen at the scene refused to interfere to stop the
gunmen from closing the halls. "The policemen told us that they have
orders not to anger the Fatah gunmen," he said. "What kind of a
government is this? If they can't impose order, they must go."
(©) The
[Note: Fatah tortures Hamas prisoners
in
Abbas calls for early PA elections [excerpts republished]
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, July 20, 2007) Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
announced Wednesday that he was working toward holding early parliamentary and
presidential elections and said there would be no dialogue with Hamas until the
Islamist movement ended its violent "coup" in the Gaza Strip.
. . .
Abbas's announcement came amid growing tensions between Fatah and Hamas in
the
. . .
Two journalists who covered the
The protest was organized by a group of women outside the PA prison in the
city, where dozens of Hamas supporters are being held.
Hamas legislator Ahmed al-Haj delivered a speech in which he launched a
scathing attack on the PA leadership and security forces. In response, Fatah
gunmen tried to attack him, forcing the legislator to hide in a nearby post
office.
Col. Ahmed Sharqawi, commander of the
The demonstrators complained that some of the detainees had been brutally
tortured by Abbas's security forces in
In the Gaza Strip, a top Fatah leader, Zakariya al-Agha, accused Hamas of
torturing dozens of Fatah activists over the past few weeks. "I've seen
many forms of torture that were carried out by
(©) The
[Note: On August 2,
2008, Hamas attacked a stronghold of Fatah loyalists in
Analysis: Why Abbas doesn't want Fatah 'refugees' in
Aug. 3, 2008
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE
The Palestinian Authority's refusal to receive members of the Hilles clan who fled the Gaza Strip Saturday did not come as a surprise to many Palestinians.
Although the Hilles clan has long been known for its loyalty
to Fatah, the PA leadership in Ramallah asked
For many of the Hilles clan members, returning to the Gaza Strip is tantamount to a death sentence. However, this did not stop the PA from asking the men to return home.
PA officials explained that the reason behind their refusal to absorb the new "refugees" was their desire not to encourage other residents of the Gaza Strip to leave.
"Everyone knows that if we allow people to leave the
Gaza Strip, almost all the residents living there would try to cross the border
into
Yet there are also other reasons why PA President Mahmoud
Abbas doesn't want the new refugees in the
One is related to Abbas's fear that the presence of the Hilles
"refugees" in Ramallah and other
The powerful Hilles clan had established their own "mini-state" in the Gaza Strip, where they had their own extraterritorial "security zone" and militia.
The clan, which has long been affiliated with Fatah, had a military training base and a number of small factories for manufacturing various types of weapons.
Several members of the clan were also involved in various types of criminal activities, including murder, rape, kidnappings and extortion, according to sources in the Gaza Strip.
Bringing dozens of these clan members into the West Bank
would have caused a big headache for Abbas, who is still facing difficulties in
reining in numerous Fatah gangs that are continuing to roam the streets of
The last thing Abbas needs is another 180 bitter Fatah thugs
from the Gaza Strip patrolling the streets of Ramallah,
Past experience has shown that the Palestinians in the
Shortly after the establishment of the PA in 1994, former PA
Chairman Yasser Arafat deployed dozens of policemen from the Gaza Strip in a
number of
The experience was repeated in June 2007 when hundreds of Fatah members fled the Gaza Strip following Hamas's violent takeover of the area. Most of those who arrived in Ramallah are still finding it impossible to rent apartments in the city.
Many others continue to be shunned by local residents who treat them with great suspicion and often mock them for escaping from Hamas. A former Fatah security commander who was among the June 2007 "refugees" said recently that he had stopped going to public places in Ramallah because he felt that he was "unwanted" and because of the "ridiculing" looks he got from people.
Even the 150 Fatah men who fled to
Copyright 1995 - 2008
The
[Note: Protests, many
violent, have erupted all over the World against
Hamas moves on Fatah 'collaborators'
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, January 4, 2009) The Hamas government has placed dozens of
Fatah members under house arrest out of fear that they might exploit the
current IDF operation to regain control of the Gaza Strip.
The move came amid reports that the Fatah leadership in the West Bank has
instructed its followers to be ready to assume power over the Gaza Strip when
and if
Fatah officials in Ramallah told The
Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in
the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air
strikes on Hamas targets.
"Hamas is very nervous, because they feel that their end is nearing,"
a senior Fatah official said. "They have been waging a brutal campaign
against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip."
Meanwhile, sources close to Hamas revealed over the weekend that the
movement had "executed" more than 35 Palestinians who were suspected
of collaborating with
The sources quoted Hamas officials as saying that the decision to kill the
suspected collaborators was taken out of fear that
Justifying the latest crackdown on Fatah, a Hamas official in
"We will kill them all if they try to help
The Hamas official said that his security forces had launched a massive
"preemptive" campaign aimed at thwarting Fatah's attempts to
"spread anarchy and chaos." He confirmed that many Fatah operatives
had been shot in the legs over the past few days by Hamas "to make sure
that they don't help
Fahmi Za'arir, a Fatah spokesman in the
Za'arir said that several Fatah members who attended funerals of victims of the
IAF strikes were severely beaten by Hamas militiamen who accused them of
collaboration with
It was "shameful" that Hamas was directing its weapons and energies
against its own people instead of fighting against
The decision to place Fatah operatives under house arrest was issued by the
much-feared "Internal Security Apparatus," which reports to the
Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in
The order, which was delivered to the Fatah activists on Thursday, reads:
"You are forbidden from leaving your home for 48 hours unless you want to
attend Friday prayers. Anyone who violates the order will be punished."
(©) The
'Hamas torturing Fatah members in
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, January 20, 2009) Hamas militiamen have rounded up hundreds of
Fatah activists on suspicion of "collaboration" with
They said the Hamas crackdown on Fatah intensified after the cease-fire went
into effect early Sunday morning.
The Fatah members and eyewitnesses said the detainees were being held in school
buildings and hospitals that Hamas had turned into make-shift interrogation
centers.
Hamas has also renewed house arrest orders that were issued against thousands
of Fatah officials and activists in the Gaza Strip shortly after the military
operation started.
A Fatah official in Ramallah told the Post that at least 100 of his men had
been killed or wounded as a result of the massive Hamas crackdown. Some had
been brutally tortured, he added.
The official said that the perpetrators belonged to Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin
Kassam, and to the movement's Internal Security Force.
According to the official, at least three of the detainees had their eyes put
out by their interrogators, who accused them of providing
A number of Hamas leaders and spokesmen have claimed in the past few days that
Fatah members in the Gaza Strip had been spying on their movement and passing
the information to
Two Hamas officials, Salah Bardaweel and Fawzi Barhoum, accused Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his "spies" in the Gaza Strip
of tipping off the Israelis about the movements of slain Hamas interior
minister Said Siam, who was killed in an IAF strike on his brother's home in
The Fatah official in Ramallah said that, apart from being baseless, the
allegations were aimed at paving the way for a ruthless Hamas attack on Fatah
activists in the Gaza Strip.
"They were afraid to confront the Israeli army and many Hamas militiamen
even ran away during the fighting," he said. "Hamas is now venting
its anger and frustration against our Fatah members there."
Eyewitnesses said that Hamas militiamen had turned a number of hospitals and
schools into temporary detention centers where dozens of Fatah members and
supporters were being held on suspicion of helping
The eyewitnesses said that a children's hospital and a mental health center
in
A Fatah activist in
"What's happening in the Gaza Strip is a new massacre that is being
carried out by Hamas against Fatah," he said. "Where were these
[Hamas] cowards when the Israeli army was here?"
The activist said that Hamas's security forces had also confiscated cellular
phones and computers belonging to thousands of local Fatah members and
supporters.
Relatives of Abed al-Gharabli, a former Fatah security officer who spent 12
years in Israeli prisons, said he was kidnapped by a group of Hamas militiamen
who shot him in both legs after severely torturing him.
Ziad Abu Hayeh, one of the commanders of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs
Brigades, is reported to have lost his sight after Hamas gunmen put out his
eyes. According to Fatah activists, Abu Hayeh was kidnapped from his home in
Khan Yunis by Hamas militiamen.
The Fatah men said that in a number of incidents, Hamas militiamen had
kidnapped Fatah activists while they were attending the funerals of people
killed during the war. In other cases, activists were detained and shot in the
legs after they were spotted smiling in public -- an act interpreted by Hamas
as an expression of joy over
On Saturday night, three brothers from the Subuh family were abducted by Hamas
militiamen and taken to the Abdel Aziz Rantisi Mosque in Khan Yunis, where they
were shot in the legs, a local journalist told the Post.
In a more recent incident, Hamas gunmen shot and killed 80-year-old Hisham Tawfik
Najjar after storming his home and beating his four sons -- all Fatah
activists.
Fahmi Za'areer, a Fatah spokesman in the
A leaflet distributed by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in various parts of the Gaza
Strip called on Hamas to "respect the blood of the Palestinian
martyrs" and stop pursuing Fatah members. The leaflet said that Hamas had
placed hundreds of Fatah men under house arrest in the past 48 hours and was
warning that anyone who failed to comply with these orders would be shot.
(©) The
[Note: Both Hamas and
Fatah are stealing shipments of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies meant
for
Hamas, Fatah bicker following
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, January 21, 2009) Hamas and Fatah have been accusing each
other of stealing humanitarian aid that was on its way to the Palestinians in
the
They are also competing as to which one of them would be in charge of
rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure and houses.
The mutual allegations came amid growing tensions between the two parties in
the wake of Operation Cast Lead.
Hamas spokesmen continue to maintain that Fatah leaders in the West Bank were
in collusion with
Hamas officials in the
The officials said that the humanitarian aid came from several Arab and
Islamic countries about two weeks ago. They said that the Egyptian authorities
initially tried to deliver the aid to the Palestinians, but were stopped by
Abbas.
"Abbas and Fatah are afraid that the aid would be used to strengthen
the Hamas government," said a Hamas official. "That's why they are doing
their best to prevent much of the aid from entering the
Another Hamas official claimed that the aid had been diverted to the
The Hamas government said Tuesday that it has established a special fund to
help the victims of the IDF operation and urged the international community not
to give Abbas's authority any money.
Hamas also said that it would not allow the PA to play any role in the
reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. It said that the money should be channeled
directly to the victims and not to Abbas's aides in Ramallah.
Fatah strongly denied the allegations and claimed that Hamas militiamen have
been stealing the aid since the beginning of
Fatah also warned donors against dealing with Hamas directly.
A Fatah official said that on Monday night alone, Hamas gunmen intercepted
12 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid that had been donated by the Jordanian
government to the Palestinians in the
He said that the trucks were on their way to the headquarters of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) when the gunmen belonging to the
movement's armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, stopped them and confiscated their
contents.
The Jordanian authorities confirmed on Tuesday that Hamas gunmen had seized the
trucks shortly after they entered the
Last week Fatah activists and eyewitnesses in the
Meanwhile, the PA is studying a proposal to import thousands of caravans
that would serve as temporary homes for Palestinian families whose houses were
destroyed or damaged during the war.
The proposal, which was submitted to the PA leadership by the Union of
Palestinian Contractors in the Gaza Strip, is said to be worth between $8
million to $10m.
(©) The
UNRWA suspends
Feb. 6, 2009
Yaakov Katz, THE
UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the
The seizure of the 200 tons of supplies took place Thursday night and in response, UNRWA officials informed the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration that it was suspending its deliveries to the Gaza Strip until further notice. The supplies confiscated included flour and other basic commodities.
The transfer of 40 truckloads of humanitarian supplies -- some 800 tons -- planned for Sunday has already been canceled.
Officials in
Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog, who was
appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the end of Operation Cast Lead to
coordinate
It was the second time this week that Hamas stole UN supplies transferred to the Gaza Strip for impoverished Palestinians.
The first incident took place Tuesday evening when armed
Hamas police broke into a
The seizure took place after UNRWA staff earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs.
"We received a phone call this morning from UNRWA officials that they have decided to suspend their deliveries after Hamas stole supplies from one of the organization's warehouses in the Gaza Strip," explained a senior official.
The official said that the IDF noticed the trend already
during Operation Cast Lead last month, when despite the fighting,
Nuaf Atar, a Fatah operative captured during the operation,
told the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) that Hamas government officials
"took over" humanitarian aid
UNRWA Spokesman Sami Mshasha confirmed that the organization
had suspended its deliveries to
"This is the second incident this week and this is a
point of great concern for us and sets a bad precedent and if we are to provide
services to people in
Copyright 1995 - 2009 The
[The World seems not to care that Hamas has been
committing a double war crime, i.e., not only when it serially
attacks
By Jpost Staff
(Jerusalem Post, January 30, 2009) Members of a
They told the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper that for years
Hamas had used their property and homes as military installations from which
the group would launch rockets into
Palestinian Media Watch quoted the official Palestinian Authority daily,
Al-Hayat al-Jadida, as reporting on January 27, "The Abd Rabbo family kept
quiet while Hamas fighters turned their farm in the Gaza Strip into a fortress.
Right now they are waiting for the aid promised by the [Hamas] movement after
According to the report, the hill on which the Abd Rabbo family lives overlooks
Sderot [,
The Abd Rabbo family members emphasized to the paper that they were not Hamas
activists and that they were still loyal to the Fatah movement, but that they
had been unable to prevent the armed squads from entering their neighborhood at
night.
(©) The
Gazans tell Israeli investigators of Hamas abuses
By Yaakov Katz
(Jerusalem Post, February 2, 2009) Nuaf Atar spoke about the use of Gazan
schools to shoot rockets at
These are three examples of testimony from Hamas and Islamic Jihad men who were
captured by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead. Details of their interrogations
have been released for publication by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
More than 100 Palestinians were captured during the three-week operation but
most were released and only a few dozen -- members of Hamas and other terrorist
factions -- are still being held by
Nuaf Atar, 25, lives in Atatra, in the northwest Gaza Strip, and was captured
by paratroopers on January 11. In his interrogation by the Shin Bet, Atar said
Hamas government officials "took over" humanitarian aid
Hamas set up rocket launchers and fired rockets into Israel from within
school compounds since the operatives knew that the Israel Air Force would not
bomb the schools, he said.
Palestinians who opposed Hamas's use of their land and homes as launch pads
were shot in the legs, Atar added.
"Atar's testimony is evidence of Hamas's cynical use of public
institutions, such as schools, to attack
Another fascinating account was provided by Raji Abed Rabo, a 22-year-old
member of Islamic Jihad and resident of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern
In 2006, he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and
underwent military training. In 2007 he returned to Islamic Jihad and was
recruited to the Jabalya cell. His job was to conduct reconnaissance and gather
intelligence on IDF movements along the
He stored weaponry in his house, including roadside bombs, and was knew of a
number of tunnels that were to be used to kidnap and surprise IDF soldiers. He
also told the Shin Bet about a large bunker that was built under
Hamad Zalah, 29, is also a resident of Jabalya and was captured by the IDF on
January 12. During his interrogation, he revealed that together with his
brother, he was tortured by Hamas at a headquarters in Jabalya for his
affiliation with Fatah and his intention to light a memorial candle for Yasser
Arafat.
He said that he was whipped and beaten with electrical cords. In 2007, Hamas
operatives shot and killed his brother, who was a security guard at the home of
a Palestinian Authority official in
Since June 2007, when Hamas took over
Amad Hamed, 35, resides in Beit Hanun, and was arrested by the IDF on January
5. In his interrogation he told the Shin Bet that in 2006 he started conducting
surveillance for Hamas and training to perpetrate a suicide attack against
Two of Hamed's brothers were killed by the IDF in
Three months ago, Hamed gave his approval to place barrels of explosives,
rockets and launchers in land that belongs to his family in Beit Hanun.
(©) The
[Since ill Gazans are not dying by
'Fatah-Hamas rift threatens
By Yaakov Katz and Tovah Lazaroff
(Jerusalem Post, March 31, 2009) Hamas's takeover of the Palestinian Health
Ministry in the Gaza Strip last week may lead to the deaths of Palestinians who
require immediate medical care in
On March 22, Hamas took control of the PA Health Ministry's Referral Abroad
Department, which oversees the process by which Palestinians in
The World Health Organization and the UN humanitarian coordinator said Monday
that the PA Health Ministry in Ramallah was refusing to approve and fund
applications. As a result, the patients are not allowed to travel to Israeli or
Egyptian hospitals.
Defense officials said they were aware of the situation and that it was not
surprising.
"This is another example of the effect Hamas's takeover has on the
Palestinian people without any connection to
Tony Laurance, acting head of WHO in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, warned that
patients would die if not allowed out of Gaza.
"Around 900 patients a month were being referred outside of
(©) The
[Note: The
By BASSEM EID
(June 26, 2009) Between 1950 and 1989 in
However, it is very possible that Lt.-Gen. Keith W.
I'D LIKE to divulge some of the methods the agents of the Palestinian security
forces use in
A decade ago, on my first visit to
Once, I ran into an interrogator while driving and didn't notice I had been
asked to pull over. He requested that I follow him to the station. My
interrogator claimed to have known me for several years, after seeing me in a
show on Israeli television in 1995, where I presented a harsh criticism of the
Palestinian Authority. I asked him how old he had been then, and he answered
11. His vindictive behavior gave me the feeling that he has been pursuing me
ever since. I decided to infuriate him even further: when he asked if I was
proud to be a Palestinian, I answered "No."
THE MAIN problem with such agents, all of whom have adopted the name Abu
al-Abed, is that they're the lowest form of humanity. They intimidate the
common people through curses and beatings. Not satisfied with that, they spread
rumors about everything they hear or see.
When
After saying good-bye to one friend I met in the streets of
I would like to suggest that Gen. Dayton not just train agents in the use of
weapons, beating and torture (eight prisoners have been tortured to death in
Palestinian prisons so far this year: five in
Whenever someone is beaten or tortured, the justification given is that the
person either "opposed the peace process" or "belonged to
Hamas."At the end of the day, people return to their routines and shut
their eyes to the reality around them.
The writer is the founder and director or the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring
Group based in east
(©) The
[Note: Although no
one would know it from the posture of the international media and the plethora
of international “human rights” organizations,
Hamas travel ban may disrupt PA parlay [excerpt republished]
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, July 27, 2009) Fatah leaders were debating on Sunday whether
to go ahead with plans to hold their sixth general assembly next week or
postpone it, after Hamas said it wouldn't allow members of the faction to leave
the Gaza Strip.
Hamas officials said the Fatah representatives would not be allowed to travel
to the
Ismail Radwan, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said that his government
would consider the possibility of permitting some 400 Fatah members to leave
the Gaza Strip only if the PA released "political detainees" and
reopened all Hamas-affiliated institutions that its security forces shut down
in recent months.
"Hamas will allow them to go to the [Fatah] conference in
Fatah officials in Ramallah said they had asked
. . .
(©) The
Hamas blocks 50 [seeking medical treatment in
Aug. 4, 2009
Yaakov Katz , THE
50 Palestinians who were supposed to cross into
Hamas operatives blocked off the road and prevented the
Palestinians from reaching the crossing with
Israeli officials said the Hamas blockade was likely due to
suspicions that among the sick were disguised Fatah officials trying to sneak
out of
Hamas men at the junction ordered those arriving at the
crossing to return to the Interior Ministry in
The officials also said it was likely that by the end of the
day, Hamas would allow the Palestinians to cross into
The Fatah conference is the sixth of its kind, and the previous one took place in 1989. It is expected to bring together more than 2,000 delegates from many Arab countries.
Delegates are expected to vote for two of Fatah's main
bodies, the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council. The first
institution consists of 21 members, while the second has 120 seats. Delegates
will also discuss Fatah's strategy, especially concerning the conflict with
Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report
Copyright 1995 - 2009
The
[Note: In August
2007, the electricity grid in portions of
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Editorial**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The EU precedent
(
In fact, the process of blaming
The fact that the lights had just then gone out in
The Gaza Generating Company (GGC, which supplies less than a quarter of the
Strip's power) idled three of its four generators, and its head, Rafik Malikha,
summoned a press conference and pointed fingers at
Yet even as many observers bought into the
EU donors, who foot the bill for
The true story was presented, from Ramallah, by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. "After Hamas took over the electric company, it began collecting revenues from the population to fund its militia," he explained. "This in turn drove the EU to withhold its aid for providing fuel."
European resolve on this issue has proved fleeting, even though the EU caught
Hamas red-handed. Some 20 million per month is again flowing into
The EU has now discontinued its sanctions, having received unspecified, and doubtless empty, "assurances" that Hamas will change course.
If this brief episode showed anything -- apart from the knee-jerk alacrity
to blame
Hamas debt-collectors have for weeks been canvassing the Strip from
door-to-door, ordering residents to immediately pay their electricity arrears
-- not to the company, but to Hamas. The fact that even the EU could no longer
abide the duplicity and
The outage that kept much of
Albeit briefly, the EU didn't shy from shutting off the power to express its
umbrage at being cheated.
Ironically, the
Yet while the EU resorted to collective punishment to demonstrate its anger
at the abuse of its funds,
But the EU precedent only underlines how justified
The EU's intervention represented a perfect opportunity for
Sooner or later, if the rocket attacks continue and the terror networks
flourish,
(©) The
[Note: Scores, perhaps hundreds, of
“Palestinian” civilians residing in Nahr el-Bared, one of the 12 Apartheid
towns reserved for “Palestinians” in Lebanon (more commonly labeled “refugee
camps” by the international media), are being killed by Lebanese army troops as
the latter battle Islamists, mostly “Palestinian”, who are also based in this
town (as well as in the other 11 Apartheid towns of Lebanon). Yet the World -- including the Arab world
which regards itself as the preeminent defender of “Palestinian” rights --
seems to have no interest in excoriating the Lebanese government for the
civilian carnage as well as for the massive infrastructure damage inflicted
upon this “Palestinian” town. In fact,
some Arab countries have even provided
1,000s Flee Refugee
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press
May 23 2007
TRIPOLI, Lebanon -- People flooded out of a besieged Palestinian refugee
camp Tuesday night, waving white flags and telling of bodies lying in the
streets and inside wrecked houses after three days of fighting between Lebanese
troops and Islamic militants.
Earlier in the day, a relief convoy came under fire when a cease-fire
abruptly shattered as U.N. workers tried to deliver food and water to
residents. A U.N. official said some who approached the convoy seeking supplies
were wounded or killed, but he did not have exact figures.
The nighttime lull that allowed the escape did not appear to be part of an organized
truce -- and there was no sign the battle was over. The government of Prime
Minister Fuad Saniora said it was determined to uproot Fatah Islam, which took
up residence in the camp late last year.
There was no immediate indication of whether the flight of civilians would give
the government a freer hand in bombarding militants holed up in the camp. The
army has said its troops were trying to target only militant positions.
Twenty-nine soldiers and at least 20 militants had been killed since the battle
began Sunday in the heaviest internal fighting in
When fighting quieted after sunset, thousands of people took the chance to
escape. They streamed out of Nahr el-Bared's western gate on foot and in cars,
pickups and minivans jammed with men, women and children. Many waved white
towels or white plastic bags from the windows as they passed Lebanese soldiers
encircling the camp.
The camp is home to some 31,000 Palestinians who live crowded along narrow
streets. Video taken in the camp showed streets littered with damaged vehicles,
shards of glass and rubble from wrecked buildings, some in flames from shelling.
Despite broadcast images of Arab troops battering a Palestinian community,
The backing underlined Arab leaders' desire to break what they see as a nascent
terror group. Fatah Islam's leader, Palestinian Shaker al-Absi, has been linked
to the former head of al-Qaida in
Some 215,000 people live in 11 camps, which are rife with armed groups and
Islamic extremists.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press
Lebanese 'defensive shield' -- no problem
By Joshua L. Gleis
(Jerusalem Post, May 31, 2007) More than 50 people have been killed -- the
civilian death toll is unknown -- as Lebanese Army forces battle Islamists in
the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared, located just outside of
The event that set off the shooting began last Sunday, after security forces
raided a building to arrest suspects in a bank robbery. The suspects were
associated with the same Fatah al-Islam elements apparently involved in the
bombing of two passenger buses last month filled with Lebanese Christians.
The resemblance of the Lebanese chain of events to
Following Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin, Palestinians, Arab League,
United Nations and human rights organizations all called for investigations
into the Israeli operation, initially dubbed a "massacre" by Arab
leaders and the news media. The IDF operation resulted in the deaths of 52
Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers.
Depending on which report you believe (Human Rights Watch's or the IDF's),
anywhere between 30 to 38 of the Palestinians killed were gunmen.
Still, protests were sent to the UN Security Council, and inquiries were
conducted by the UN, journalists and human rights organizations. All admitted
that no massacre had taken place; however Human Rights Watch and others did
claim that
CURIOUSLY, similar calls by the world community for investigations into the
recent fighting in
The UN has not been called upon to examine the operation, and some Western
newspapers even took the bold step of calling the Fatah al-Islam
"terrorist" -- a word absent in describing attacks against Israelis.
Plainly, while it is acceptable for Lebanese to deal with the Palestinians as
they see fit, it is not okay for the Israelis to defend themselves from
Palestinian violence.
Granted, the Palestinians are the most oppressed people in the Arab world: They
are denied citizenship by most of their Arab host countries, restricted from
jobs and educational opportunities, and deported from countries at the whim of
security officials. At the same time, contributions from the Arab world to
Palestinian "resistance" organizations continue, as
Israeli-Palestinian violence is played out on Arab television on a daily basis.
The only time the world seems to care about the Palestinian Arabs is when they
are suffering at the hands of Israelis. Amnesty International has issued more
reports on
So this begs the question: With regard to the most recent military activity in
the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in
The writer is a research fellow at the
(©) The
Twist of history finds Palestinian refugees fleeing back to Shatilla
By JACEY HERMAN
(Jerusalem Post, June 8, 2007) Palestinian refugees living in
Behind the bricked walls and tiny alleyways of Shatilla refugee camp in central
"The army's trying to kill as many Palestinians as possible," says
82-year-old Wafa al-Shami, who had left Shatilla in 1982 after the massacre by
Christian Phalangists that killed her brother and his family. She settled in
the northern coastal camp of Nahr el-Bared, only to return now.
"We're in the way," Shami says. "If
But this is something neither she nor the more than 400,000 Palestinian
refugees living in
Shami, originally from
Outside, precariously balanced cables run between several multistory
apartments. Some of the illegal electricity transformers block out the harsh
Lebanese sunlight.
The camp's cobbled streets are awash with knocked over garbage cans and dirty
water. Open gutters line the main road on which horse-pulled carts maneuver
through late-afternoon traffic.
"This is not a Lebanese-Palestinian problem," Shami's grandson,
Mahmoud, says. The family is sitting on mattresses and sipping black Arabic coffee.
A huge poster of the late Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin hangs on
one of the walls.
"Fatah al-Islam is not a Palestinian group," Mahmoud says. "They
are being sponsored by outside groups -- the Syrians, the Saudi prince, the
Lebanese government -- to build racism against the Palestinian people.... Now
all Palestinians here are being treated as terrorists. For the first time in my
life I am being stopped in the street and searched. This has never happened to
me before."
More than 300 families from Nahr el-Bared, the scene of the recent violence,
have moved into already overcrowded Shatilla. Living with friends and family,
most of them have nothing to go back to. There are fears the fighting could
spread.
Nearly half a million Palestinians live in a dozen refugee camps across
The Lebanese government justifies its position by arguing that if it normalized
conditions for the refugees, they would be less intent on returning to what is
today
Muhammad al-Mahmoud is a university student who has temporarily given up his
studies to help distribute food, clothing and cleaning materials to the latest
influx of refugees in Shatilla. A recreation center in the camp has been turned
into a warehouse where rolls of toilet paper, medicines and baby diapers are
piled up.
"It is a massacre that is going on," he says. "The media is
not showing it, but we know that more than 200 civilians -- all of them
Palestinian -- have been killed. People here don't care for the causes, we care
only for the results."
The results are an urgent appeal from the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) for $12.7 million in assistance.
The organization estimates that some 27,000 of Nahr el-Bared's 40,000
residents have fled. Most are now in the neighboring camp of Beddawi. But as
conditions there worsen, more are expected to move southwards to camps like
Shatilla and Sabra.
The Palestinian leadership in the
In a speech this week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the
militants had "nothing to do with the Palestinian struggle" and
endangered the lives of innocent Palestinians.
The PLO representative in
(©) The
'Only the reckless still drive here'
By JACEY HERMAN, Special to The Jerusalem Post
(Jerusalem Post, June 11, 2007) Plumes of smoke spiral into the sky from the
side of the highway that links
The driver steps hard on the accelerator as the sound of cannon fire explodes
overhead. We pull up alongside a closed restaurant and jump out of the car,
taking shelter with a family of Palestinian refugees standing with their backs
against a dark brick wall.
Behind us, the last remaining snipers from Fatah al-Islam take aim across
the empty highway, while to the front, staring down from the hilltops, are
Lebanese tanks responding with cannons.
Usually at this time of day the four lane road is filled with traffic in both
directions, but for more than a fortnight only the reckless or desperate have
driven here. The army says there is only a handful of gunmen still left in the
camp, but the standoff could well continue for a while, as Fatah al-Islam vows
to fight to the death.
An estimated 16 gunmen were killed over the weekend, while the army is
reporting no new casualties in its ranks. A brief lull in fighting during
Friday prayers allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to ferry
out 85 camp residents, mostly women, children, the elderly and the infirm.
Water, cans of tuna and ready-to-eat meals were sent in.
An estimated 3,000 people are still inside, too scared to leave, or perhaps
afraid that if they abandon their homes the Lebanese army will bulldoze the
camp.
It's dangerous and scary here. It's easy to get hit in the crossfire.
Journalists are barred from entering Nahr al-Bared.
Five kilometers down the road, more than 30,000 refugees have found
temporary relief in another Palestinian refugee camp, Beddawi.
Already overcrowded and without adequate access to clean running water and
sanitation, things have deteriorated with the influx of newcomers.
Mahmoud al-Makdah is one of many without relatives or friends in Beddawi with
whom he can move in, and who has therefore been forced to take refuge in an
UNRWA elementary school. He, his wife, eight children and mother-in-law share a
classroom with two other families. A sheet separates the sleeping quarters of
each. Mattresses line the floor, and aside from a few blankets and a dirty
blackboard, the classroom is bare.
"I came here with my family because it's too dangerous to stay in Nahr
al-Bared," he tells me in clear, defiant English.
"We don't fight. Our people are not enemy for army
Some 5,000 people are living in the school.
"[Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad] Saniora says after [the] war is finished,
everyone will go back to his house. Saniora promised us he would rebuild our
camp. But I don't know what will happen after the war. If we go or if we don't
go, we don't know."
The question of where to resettle these people is on the backburner. For now,
nongovernmental organizations are working around the clock feeding and housing
the thousands. Supplies have reached the camp from all over
Meanwhile, a captured Fatah al-Islam gunmen confessed to Lebanese authorities
that the group was planning to attack United Nations officials and foreign
diplomatic services. The confession has again raised questions about who is
sponsoring the group and what their goals are. Both Hamas and Fatah leaders in
Beddawi camp said they had nothing to do with Fatah al-Islam. A Fatah
representative went as far as to complain that the group stole the
"Fatah" name to create problems between Palestinians and Lebanese.
A political analyst who spoke to The Jerusalem Post said there was still a huge
supply of weapons and ammunition inside Nahr al-Bared. The fighting could go on
for weeks, he said.
"It can still spill over into other camps. It depends whether or not the
Lebanese army is able to contain the situation. There are a lot of terrorists
inside the Palestinian camps. It is easy to enter
(©) The
[Note: Ominously, although the
Lebanese army has officially redefined the battered remnants of Nahr
el-Bared’s civilian population as enemy combatants in order to
justify massacring them without further ado, no component of the
international “human rights” community -- let alone the United Nations -- has
condemned this particularly heinous War Crime.
Even the Palestine Liberation Organization has publicly announced
its support for the depredations of the Lebanese army against the former
and present “Palestinian” residents of this Apartheid town! Moreover,
All available means
By MALCOLM GUNN
(Jerusalem Post, July 2, 2007) On May 22, a young carpenter called Mohammed
al-Saaid fled from Nahr el-Bared, the Palestinian refugee camp in northern
He left with nothing but the clothes he was wearing. "I had to leave at
night," he says. "It was dangerous in the day because there were
still some shots being fired."
He does not support Fatah al-Islam, but he is angry at the Lebanese army for
the way in which they are conducting the war. "They are firing artillery
randomly, even hitting mosques," he says. "The day before I left,
they destroyed my neighbor's house, and now since I have gone, I was told by
phone that they have also destroyed mine." Current estimates put the total
destruction at around 60 percent of the town.
Furthermore, the army has now announced that any civilian left inside will
be considered a combatant because they did not take the opportunity to flee
during the cease-fire.
It is true that, given the difficult circumstances of fighting a street war in
unknown territory, the army has a case for using artillery to protect the lives
of its soldiers; yet their uncompromising tactics have raised concerns and
suspicions from various quarters.
Christians and Shi'ites are worried that the Sunni-dominated government wants
to naturalize the camp's inhabitants into Lebanese society and President Emile
Lahoud suggested recently that the government was purposely razing the town
"as part of a plot that aims to settle Palestinian refugees in
Dr. Hilal Khasham, the director of Political Sciences at the
Most of the 30,000 refugees who have fled are now living in the Beddawi camp,
which lies on the outskirts of
Like many of his neighbors, al-Saaid believes that the government is trying to
demolish a trouble-spot camp to reduce the number of refugees in the country.
This would be in keeping with previous government policies. Al-Saaid recalls
how after the Nabatiyeh refugee camp was destroyed during the civil war, its
inhabitants were dispersed among the other already-overcrowded camps, mainly
Ein el-Hilweh on the outskirts of
The government has long followed discriminatory policies toward the
Palestinians, which Khasham says are meant to keep them poor and confined to
their camps. A report recently published by the UNRWA [United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] entitled
"Employability of Palestinians in Lebanon" demonstrated how this
policy works: "Palestinians do not have social and civil rights, and have
very limited access to the government's public health or educational facilities
and no access to public social services. Considered as foreigners,
Worryingly, the UNRWA report warns that "the newly-emergent and fragile
sovereignty of post-war
Meanwhile, a comparative study conducted by Marwan Khawaja of AUB [
THE BURJ Barajneh and Shatilla camps, which lie on the southern outskirts of
Many of the buildings which rise up above the narrow streets are crumbling and
falling into disrepair. Even more are scattered with bullet holes from the
various battles the PLO fought with Lebanese armed groups during the civil war.
Baha'a Hassoun, the UNRWA camp service officer, says the government
regularly cuts off electricity, has not provided clean drinking water since
1985 and often stops supplies from entering the camps. In 1992, the Lebanese
government passed a law banning Palestinians from buying property outside the
camps.
Doctors at the UNRWA health clinic say that levels of depression are unusually
high and that many people suffer from respiratory tract infections, which they
suspect are due to impurities in the water.
Yosef Bader, the head of the Popular Committee in the camp, sums up the
situation with the gloomy assessment that "nobody treats the Palestinians
like human beings, not even the Lebanese."
According to Rosemary Sayigh, author of Too Many Enemies: Palestinian
Refugees in Lebanon, the principal root of the discrimination was Lebanon's
sectarian regime, set up to maintain Maronite political domination and
threatened by high rates of Maronite emigration, higher Muslim birthrates and
the country's pro-Western foreign policy orientation.
"Official discrimination against the refugees has been supported by large
sectors of Lebanese society since somewhat before the
However, aside from the political discrimination, Khasham says that the army's
actions reflect a racism that pervades Lebanese society. "There is only
one thing that unites the Lebanese; that is their hatred for the Palestinians.
Because of the parochial nature of our society, people look down upon newcomers
-- and especially the Palestinians -- because of their inferior status as
refugees."
THIS SEPTEMBER marks the 25th anniversary of a civil war atrocity which still
scars the Palestinian consciousness. In the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, as
many as 3,000 Palestinians were slaughtered by Bashir Gemayel's Christian
Phalangist group.
Mohammed was a young man when the Phalangists entered with the apparent
intention of routing out PLO terrorists and ammunition. "I did not realize
that the massacre had happened until it was over," he said. "It was
only when I came outside afterwards that I saw how they had killed my
neighbor's wife and children."
Munir Marouf, the UNRWA camp service officer at Shatilla, explains that the
[Lebanese Christian] Phalangists mainly killed their victims using knives so
that the majority of residents were unaware of what was going on until it was
too late. "It was a revenge attack because they [the Phalangists] believed
that Palestinian terrorists were behind the assassination of Gemayel."
It is clear that the war at Nahr el-Bared does not fall into the category of
atrocity that the Shatilla massacre does. However, Human Rights Watch has
issued a report cataloguing a series of complaints from Palestinians fleeing
the camp of beatings by the army.
In one case, the Lebanese military reportedly detained a 21-year-old
Palestinian man for interrogation at different locations for four days. During
the interrogations, he was at various times punched and slapped by army
interrogators. "They put me back in a cell, and I slept blindfolded with
my hands tied. I heard screams from other rooms: 'My arm! My hand!'" In
another case, the army interrogated three young Palestinian men in a private
house near Nahr el-Bared. According to two of the young men, members of
Lebanese military intelligence subjected them to kicks, punches and beatings
with rifle
butts.
"They beat me with their hands, feet and even their weapons, on the arms,
hands, back and even my face and legs. It lasted, on and off, for about three
hours. They threatened me with a knife that they would cut off my toes if I
didn't speak," he said.
GIVEN THE circumstances, one would have expected the siege of Nahr el-Bared
to have ignited an angry response from the Palestinian Liberation Organization
(PLO). However, Fatah has publicly distanced itself from Fatah al-Islam and
sided with the Lebanese army. After Prime Minister Fuad Saniora met with the
Palestinian Follow-Up Committee, PLO representative in
There was not even any complaint from them when the[Lebanese] army broke the
1969 agreement that forbids them to enter any [“Palestinian”] refugee camp.
According to Sayigh, "Their support for the army tries to protect camp
inhabitants from those Lebanese who identify them with the extremist Islamic
groups. The current battles have brought Lebanese anti-Palestinianism to the
surface again."
However, it is also clear that the PLO has been silent because it is too weak
to stand up against the government. The organization has never really recovered
from the joint Israeli-Christian Lebanese offensive of 1982, when 8,800 PLO
guerrillas -- including former PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the whole Fatah
hierarchy -- were removed from the country. Since then, the Lebanese government
has tried to stifle their power, since as the representative force of the
Palestinians, they have the greatest ability to push for more rights.
"Now they are a defeated organization who have no hope of coordinating a
successful resistance," says Khasham. "They are surrounded by the
Lebanese military, their land is not contiguous like in
Sayigh points out that "Fatah al-Islam was heavily armed from the start,
and it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for the PLO to have
'controlled' them."
In Beddawi, al-Saaid says the PLO felt threatened by the existence of Fatah
al-Islam but was unable to deal with the insurgents on its own, so it was glad
to have the army rid the place of them.
What no one knows is how Fatah al-Islam gunmen were able to enter Nahr el-Bared
in large numbers with their families and with heavy weapons.
The current war has demonstrated that for the Lebanese government to
purposefully keep the Palestinians poor and the PLO -- their overarching
authority -- weak is a risky strategy.
THERE IS overwhelming support for armed resistance within the Burj Barajneh
camp -- the place is bedecked with posters of gunmen and banners honoring the likes
of [the late Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein, [the late Hamas leader] Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin and [the late successor Hamas leader] Abdel Rantisi -- and it is
clear that the social degradation plays some part in this.
Currently, however, the intended violence is almost exclusively aimed
against
One old man I meet tells me that he fled here during the war in 1948.
He says that life has only become worse in the camp, but he shrugs and says
that it is not their home, anyway. Even though he believes he will never return
to
He is not exaggerating. A group of young girls say that "God willing,
In fact, the feeling that
Yet these were not bullets fired by the IDF, since in 1982 Ariel
The Lebanese government can take partial credit for the prevalence of this
attitude. They have continually championed the Palestinian "right of
return," successfully masking self-interest as a pan-Arabic moral crusade.
In the first week of the war, when the camp was being bombarded with artillery,
Saniora gave an emotional speech in which he talked about standing "side
by side with our Palestinian brothers."
However, the rise of Islamist groups shows how these discriminatory policies
can suddenly backfire. Fatah al-Islam has proved that without much difficulty,
a well-equipped armed group can infiltrate a refugee camp and leave the PLO
fairly powerless to deal with them. As extremism becomes less secular and ever
more centered against Western influence, Saniora's government is now realizing
that it, too, has become a target.
(©) The
Where’s the international outcry against Arab apartheid?
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
(Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2011) Mohammed Nabil Taha, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy, died this week at the entrance to a Lebanese hospital after doctors refused to help him because his family could not afford to pay for medical treatment.
Taha’s tragic case highlights the plight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in squalid refugee camps in Lebanon and who are the victims of an apartheid system that denies them access to work, education and medical care.
Ironically, the boy’s death at the entrance to the hospital coincided with Israeli Apartheid Week, a festival of hatred and incitement organized by anti-Israel activists on university campuses in the US, Canada and other countries.
It is highly unlikely that the folks behind the festival have heard about Taha. Judging from past experiences, it is also highly unlikely that they would publicize the case even if they would hear about it.
Why should anyone care about a Palestinian boy who is denied medical treatment by an Arab hospital? The story has no anti-Israel angle to it.
Can anyone imagine what would have happened if an Israeli hospital had abandoned a boy to die in its parking lot because his father did not have $1,500 to pay for his treatment? The UN Security Council would hold an emergency session and Israel would be strongly condemned and held responsible for the boy’s death.
All this is happening at a time when tens of thousands of Palestinian patients continue to benefit from treatment in Israeli hospitals.
Last year alone, some 180,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip entered Israel to receive medical treatment. Many were treated despite the fact that they did not have enough money to cover the bill.
In Israel, even a suicide bomber who is only (!) wounded while trying to kill Jews is entitled to the finest medical treatment. And there have been many instances where Palestinians who were wounded in attacks on Israel later ended up in some of Israel’s best hospitals.
Lebanon, by the way, is not the only Arab country that officially applies apartheid laws against Palestinians, denying them proper medical treatment and the right to own property.
Just last week it was announced that a medical center in Jordan has decided to stop treating Palestinian cancer patients because the Palestinian Authority has failed to pay its debts to the center.
Other Arab countries have also been giving the Palestinians a very hard time when it comes to receiving medical treatment.
It is disgraceful that while Israel admits Palestinian patients to its hospitals, Arab hospitals are denying them medical treatment for various reasons, including money. But then one is reminded that Arab dictators do not care about their own people, so why should they pay attention to an 11-year-old boy who is dying at the entrance to a hospital because his father didn’t have $1,500 handy? But as the death took place in an Arab country – and as the victim is an Arab -- why should anyone care about him? Where is the outcry against Arab apartheid?
(©) The Jerusalem Post
[Note: The World doesn’t seem the least bit disturbed by the fact that Egyptian border police have bloodied 90 “Palestinian” Arabs using tear gas, clubs, water cannons and live ammunition. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
90 wounded by Egyptians near
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At least 90 Gazans, most of them women, were wounded by Egyptian border
guards using tear gas, clubs, water cannons and live ammunition to disperse the
demonstrators, who were protesting against the continued closure of the border
crossing.
One Egyptian policeman was wounded in the clashes, the worst since Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip in June.
"The Egyptian government has delivered a strong warning to Hamas following the incident," an Egyptian diplomat told The Jerusalem Post. "We hold the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip responsible for the riots that occurred along our border today."
The clashes erupted after the demonstrators stormed through the border terminal, chanting slogans against President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders.
Huda Naim, a Hamas legislator who participated in the protest, accused the Egyptian border guards of unleashing dogs against the demonstrators.
She said that some of the women who managed to cross into
"The Egyptians are participating in the blockade imposed on the Gaza
Strip," Naim said. "We appeal to President Hosni Mubarak to open the
border so that patients can go to hospitals in
Hamas officials expressed deep disappointment over
One official said it was "disgraceful" that the Egyptian
authorities were banning Palestinians from traveling to
"In the morning, we heard that the Egyptians were sending reinforcements to the border with the Gaza Strip," he said. "We thought the reinforcements were intended to help the Palestinians, who have been without water, electricity and medicine. But it later turned out that Mubarak sent his troops to beat women who were staging a peaceful demonstration."
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said his movement was planning similar protests in the coming days despite warnings from the Egyptian authorities.
"The crisis in the Gaza Strip won't be solved with additional fuel," he said. "The problem is that 1.5 million Palestinians are living in a big prison. Our goal is to end the siege and reopen all the border crossings so that our people can breath."
Copyright 1995 - 2008 The
[Note:
MAAN NEWS AGENCY
Gazans held in
Date: 10 / 02 / 2008 [February 10, 2008] Time: 15:07
Egyptian police are detaining about 500 Palestinians in a sports club in Al-Arish. Several of the detainees called Ma'an to explain their plight.
They are also threatening set fire to the building if they are not set free.
One of the callers, a resident of Al-Bureij refugee camp, said that the situation in the building is miserable, lacking medical care and other basic needs. He said that 10 of the detainees fainted but did not receive medical attention.
Another caller named Ubayda Al-Baghdadi said: "I have been detained in
the sports club for five days, and others have been detained for ten days
without even water for drinking. Gaza Strip residents who remained in
The Egyptian border has been calm since security forces retook control of
the border, closing gaps with barbed wire last Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians burst through the walls in January [2008], desperate to buy
supplies made scarce by
Some Palestinians, like the ones currently held in Al-Arish, stayed in
Egyptian security forces have also deployed on roofs buildings at the Egyptian side in order to monitor the border through telescopes.
[Note: The Maan News Agency is a
“Palestinian” news network based in
[Note: Egypt is able to torture “Palestinian” detainees without incurring any international criticism. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Gazans speak of torture by Egyptians
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, April 7, 2008) Several Gazans who were recently released from
Egyptian prison said they were "brutally tortured" during
interrogations.
According to the Palestinians, who returned to the Gaza Strip last week, the
torture methods included severe beatings, stripping naked, sleep deprivation,
sensory deprivation, electric shocks, whippings and verbal abuse.
The Gazans, who were suspected of membership in Hamas, entered
They were detained without trial and without the possibility of seeing a lawyer
or family members.
Sources in the Gaza Strip said at least 50 Palestinians had been held by
Under pressure from Hamas, the Egyptian authorities last week released nearly
half of the detainees, who were allowed to cross back into
Some of the detainees told reporters in the Strip on Sunday that the Egyptians
never told them the nature of the charges against them.
"When they arrested us, they told us we would be released within
hours," said one former detainee. "They didn't tell us anything about
the charges against us. The next thing we found ourselves moved to torture
centers belonging to the Egyptian mukhabarat [General Intelligence]."
Another former detainee said the Egyptian interrogators were "harsh and
violent" from the beginning. He said he and his friends were interrogated
about the general situation in the Gaza Strip and the whereabouts of top Hamas
figures.
"They wanted information about the movements of Muhammad Deif and Ahmed
Ja'abari [the heads of Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam]," he said.
"They also wanted to know where [Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh]
hides when
He added that the Egyptians also sought information about the several armed
groups in
Another man who was released from prison said the Egyptians asked him a lot of
questions about kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit.
"They wanted to know where he's being held and the identity of his
captors," he said. "We found it strange that the Egyptians were
asking questions that you would expect to hear from Israeli
interrogators."
The former detainees called on the Egyptian people and parliament to condemn
their authorities for torturing Palestinians. They expressed shock at the
"inhumane and brutal" torture by the Egyptian security personnel.
"We had to deal with people who specialize in various forms of
torture," said one former prisoner. "They treated us like animals.
"We were allowed to go to the bathroom only twice a day and only when
accompanied by a police officer. The food they gave us is not good even for
animals. We never expected such treatment from our Arab brothers."
(©) The
[Note: Syria is able to subject the “Palestinian”
neighborhoods of Latakia to tank, naval and mortar bombardment without any
official “Palestinian” condemnation.
Read on!]
Syria Analysis: Assad puts Hamas
in corner over Syrian assault
By REUTERS
08/17/2011
Group has been silent over attacks on Palestinian refugees in Syria;
Speculation still lingering that Hamas leaders may leave Damascus.
GAZA - Syria's crackdown on
government opponents has deeply embarrassed Hamas, which is anxious not to
anger its backers in Damascus while at the same time hoping not to alienate its
supporters at home.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's five-month purge of protesters has gathered
pace since the start of August, causing thousands of Palestinians to flee a
refugee camp in the city of Latakia this week as Syrian security forces
attacked the area.
Ordinary Palestinians watching from a distance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
have been swift to denounce the violence, but the Islamist group Hamas has itself
said nothing and tried to prevent public displays of anti-Syrian sentiment.
"If they keep silent they
will score points with the Syrian regime," said political analyst Talal
Okal, explaining that such a stance could be politically costly in the Palestinian
territories, especially in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas.
"The people will not accept it and will see it as a betrayal of the
Palestinian refugees in Syria," he added.
A number of Hamas leaders, including its chief, Khaled Meshaal, moved to Syria
after they were expelled from Jordan in 1999. From there they hone their
strategy against Israel and are relatively free to move around the region.
But the Sunni Muslim group's dependence on Assad, who is from Syria's minority
Alawite community, is proving a boon for some Hamas' rivals, who have been
highly critical of the violence that rocked the Al Raml refugee camp.
"This is a crime against humanity," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, the West
Bank-based secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
His view was shared by many in Hamas's backyard.
"We have been shocked... the Syrian president does not deserve to lead
Syria," said Ahmed Hejazi, 34, who, like almost half of all adults in
Gaza, is unemployed.
"What does he expect after the killing he had committed? Does he expect
his people to take him into their arms?"
Rights organizations say at least 1,700 civilians have been killed by Syrian
security forces since protests erupted in March.
A Gaza youth organization tried to stage an anti-Assad rally on Tuesday
evening, but plain-clothed Hamas security police showed up ahead of time and
ordered journalists away. They briefly detained a handful of youths who tried
to protest.
Hamas, which has built a reputation as a liberation movement among its supporters,
is clearly uneasy about the situation.
It has so far offered only a lukewarm statement of support for the Syrian
hierarchy and refused to stage pro-Assad events in the refugee camps.
Diplomatic sources have said it is also debating in private its continued
presence in Damascus.
Leaders of the group have publicly denied suggestions they might leave, but
rumors regularly surface, with suggestions that some, if not all, Hamas
officials could move to Qatar, Turkey or Sudan. Egypt has refused to allow the
group to open an office in Cairo, diplomatic sources said.
Hamas is not the only Palestinian faction that is close to Syria. Other smaller
groups, some of them aligned to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
have also stayed mute despite the crackdown.
"This is an absolutely shameful and hypocritical position that only has
one explanation; these factions are still betting on (the survival of) the
bloody regime," said Palestinian political analyst Hani Habib.
However, none face quite the same predicament as Hamas, and any further upswing
in the violence could force a change of policy. "The interest of
Palestinian factions has to be to their people," said Habib.
All rights reserved © The
Jerusalem Post 1995 - 2011
[Note: Not only does the World “care” about “Palestinian” Arabs only when Israel is “oppressing” them, but the European Union, in particular, “cares” about Jews only when they are the long-dead victims of Nazi Germany’s genocidal campaign which terminated approximately 60 years ago. Living Jews who are the present targets of a continuing campaign of terror by “Palestinian” Arabs simply do not elicit any such concern. For, although the EU is beginning to act in cases where it has ongoing economic and diplomatic leverage over national perpetrators of genocide and/or war crimes, the EU refuses to use such leverage to thwart and/or punish such atrocities when the perpetrators thereof are the “Palestinians” and the victims thereof are the Jews. Consequently, how fortunate are the “Palestinians” when their adversaries are the Jews. In this respect, the “Palestinians” have one stellar advantage over every other population in the World that claims -- rightly or wrongly -- to be oppressed (be they Chechens in Russia, Basques in Spain-France, Kurds in Turkey-Syria-Iran-Iraq, Uygurs in China, or Arabs in Iran). Namely, they have the great luck to be “oppressed” by the Jewish people. After all, if the Jews are such brutish oppressors, then the Europeans can certainly justify feeling absolved of the Evil that they themselves have perpetrated against the Jewish people over the past several millennia, culminating in the Holocaust. Moreover, by supporting a “Palestinian” struggle for “freedom” which has resulted, and continues to result, in mass murder and mayhem against the Jewish people, the Europeans have discovered a “morally” acceptable means of condoning the very thing of which they desire to feel absolved. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
When a war crime isn't a 'war crime'
By Evelyn Gordon
(Jerusalem Post, March 24, 2005) If you want to know the true meaning of all
the eloquent commitments to Jewish and Israeli survival voiced by European
diplomats at the inauguration of Yad Vashem's new Holocaust museum last week,
compare the European Union's current behavior in the Balkans to its behavior in
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The EU, of course, did nothing to stop ethnic massacres in the Balkans in the
1990s, just as it did nothing in
Just last week, for instance, the EU was supposed to open accession talks
with
And similar pressure on other Balkan countries has racked up impressive
successes. On March 8, for instance, Kosovan Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj
resigned and surrendered to the UN tribunal, where he is wanted for alleged war
crimes during his years as a guerrilla leader. Kosovo is currently a UN
protectorate, and it wants to begin talks on full independence this year. But
the EU and the
A former Serbian general, Momcilo Peresic, gave himself up to the tribunal the day before Haradinaj did; a few days earlier, so did a former Bosnian general, Rasim Delic. Last week, a former Bosnian Serb officer, Drago Nikolic, joined them, and this week, so did another, Vinko Pandurevic. Altogether, almost a dozen wanted Balkans have given themselves up in the past two months -- all because the EU has conditioned closer economic and political ties, which the Balkan nations desperately want, on their turning in suspected war criminals. As the Irish Times explained in a March 10 editorial, “however difficult it is to render up military leaders who become war heroes, this is the price of progress.”
Or at least, it is when the victims are Croats or Serbs or Bosnians or
Albanians. But not, it turns out, when the victims are Jews.
Many Palestinians have also committed war crimes over the past four years:
blowing up school buses, Passover seders, discos, bar mitzvas. Nor does the EU
lack leverage over the Palestinian Authority:
Every year for the past four years, it has given the PA, on average,
almost 250 million euros ($335 million at current exchange rates), and it has
pledged the same for 2005. This figure comprises some 15 percent of the PA's
2005 budget and 30 percent of its expected foreign aid for the year.
During all these years, not only has the PA failed to arrest a single
terrorist; it has never even tried. Even today, its new, “reform-minded”
chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, openly pledges not to lift a finger against the
terrorist organizations. Yet never has the EU even hinted at conditioning its
cash infusions on PA efforts to arrest the criminals. Instead, it expresses
understanding for the PA's claim that the terrorists are local heroes, and thus
cannot be arrested.
Indeed, far from demanding the terrorists' incarceration, the EU has
repeatedly pressured
Similarly, while the EU declares that bringing war criminals to justice is a
condition for Kosovan independence, it has never imposed a similar condition on
Palestinian independence. On the contrary: It has systematically worked to
undermine George Bush's insistence that progress toward statehood depends on
dismantling the terrorist organizations. In
The same double standard was evident in the EU's treatment of Yasser Arafat.
Not only was Arafat, as head of the PLO, responsible for murdering hundreds of
Jewish civilians, but as head of the PA, he presided over -- or at least made
no effort to stop -- the bloody terror of the past four years, which has
claimed more Jewish lives than all the terror attacks of the previous 52 years
combined. Yet only in Bush's
The Europeans, of course, excused this by saying that Arafat was the Palestinians' elected leader. But the fact that Haradinaj was the elected -- and wildly popular -- prime minister of Kosovo did not stop them from demanding his head on a platter. On the contrary: They viewed the Kosovans' choice of a suspected war criminal for prime minister as evidence that Kosovo was unready for independence.
The message inherent in the EU's differing attitudes toward Balkan and
Palestinian war criminals is clear: In
the EU's eyes, murdering Serbs or Croats or Bosnians or Albanians is a crime,
and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. But the cold-blooded murder of
Israeli civilians is legitimate. Thus not only need the PA not bring the
perpetrators to justice, but
And until the EU begins treating the murder of Jews by Palestinians as
seriously as it does the murder of Croats by Serbs or Serbs by Albanians, all
those fine Yad Vashem speeches will be nothing more than so much eloquent lip
service.
(©) The
[Note: The below article -- written, presciently, just a few days before rampaging “Palestinian” Arab mobs, without triggering any international criticism, began to desecrate and demolish the deserted synagogues of the abandoned Jewish towns of Gaza -- makes the point that, appertaining to the “Palestinian” Arab war of terror against Israel, there is neither any magnitude nor frequency of atrocity which the “Palestinian” Arabs might surpass which would cause the World either to deprive the “Palestinian” Arabs of the internationally-bestowed mantle of Victimhood or to absolve Israel of the internationally-imposed obligation to continue making dangerous and futile concessions to them. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Column One: The image of the truth
By Caroline Glick
(Jerusalem Post, September 9, 2005) They say that one picture is worth a
thousand words. No doubt this is true. But what is the guarantee that those
words are truthful?
On September 30, 2000, The New York Times ran a photograph that, no doubt, for
the photo editor, told the entire tale of the then two-day-old Palestinian
terror war against
The picture showed a bloodied, frightened youth sitting in the foreground and
an irate Israeli border guard, mouth agape, standing behind him, wielding a
police baton. In the background, crimson flames and black smoke plumed upward
behind cement blocks.
The photo editor never questioned what it is that he was looking at. Of course,
the boy was a Palestinian. The assailant was the angry Israeli policeman. After
all, as an enlightened man of the world, he knew what every right thinking
person knows: the Palestinians are the victim. The Israelis are the aggressors.
And so, the caption under the photograph told Times readers that indeed, what
the photo editor assumed, was reality.
Sadly, the thousand words told by that photograph were a thousand lies. The
bloodied youth in the foreground was a Jewish student from
Eventually, after receiving an angry letter from Grossman's father in
The story told by that picture then, was the story of the prejudice of the
Times' photo-editor.
In much the same manner, the images we are broadcast from Hurricane Katrina
tell us a certain story. The victims, in most of the pictures, are African
Americans. And the story that has emerged from these images is one of racism.
The white (and Republican) Federal government, we are led to believe, waited
for an unforgivably long period of time in providing rescue and relief to the
victims of the terrible storm, because of the color of their skin. The
pictures, like the people who are asked to tell us the story, repeat over and
over again that if these had been rich whites, rather than poor blacks, the
National Guard would have been called in days before to restore order to
It's a wonderful story. It is easy to follow and allows angry people to feel
justified in their hatred and prejudices against Republicans and against
President George W. Bush. But like the picture of Tuvia Grossman, it has the
singular problem of being untrue.
After the initial barrage of unfounded criticism was launched, the fact of the
matter, that the city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana did not
implement their own evacuation plans in spite of the fact that the authorities
all knew that the below-sea-level city could not survive a category 4 hurricane
like Katrina, began to emerge.
And yet, in the meantime, a myth was born that told the easy story of racism.
What both these examples show is that in spite of what we have been led to
believe by our image-inundated world, images do not speak for themselves. They
speak with the voice of their creators and their distributors. Every one of us
attaches our pre-existing beliefs to what we see and each of us is influenced
at some level, and often deeply by the interpretations that are given to the
images by those who bring them to our attention.
In
First of all, let us recall, 12 years ago, when then prime minister Yizhak
Rabin embraced Yasser Arafat and the PLO and thus embarked on the Oslo peace
process, he was able to convince security hawks of the value of his policy
explaining that the Palestinians, not Israel, were about to be put under a
microscope. Rabin argued that if the Palestinians did not abide by their
commitments to end terrorism and live at peace with
Unfortunately, events proved otherwise. The images purveyed to the world by the
PLO propaganda machine were images of cruel Israeli "occupation
forces" embittering the lives of the victimized Palestinians. The fact
that billions of dollars in international aid were stashed in Swiss bank
accounts was of no interest. The fact that the Palestinian security forces
established by Arafat were twice their
permitted size was cosmically boring. The fact that terror reached
unprecedented levels just a year after that handshake on the White House lawn
was interpreted not as proof of Palestinian duplicity, but as a justification
for increasing calls for yet more Israeli land transfers and further
strengthening of the wholly corrupt, and terror supporting Palestinian
militias.
The same was the case when then prime minister Ehud Barak went to Camp David
five years ago and begged Arafat to establish a state on all of Gaza, 95
percent of Judea and Samaria and in east Jerusalem, including Judaism's most
sacred site of the Temple Mount and then threw in land in the Negev for good
measure.
After Arafat tore up Barak's offer and went to war against Israeli civilians,
Barak declared that now the Europeans and the Americans, and of course the
Israeli Left, would accept the truth. Arafat and the PLO had been unmasked. As
PA minister for
All was known, and yet the image creators and their eager audiences from
Now, as
This challenge to the Palestinian Authority's leadership was met with listless
protestations by the likes of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. In the same manner,
Palestinian forces stood by on Tuesday as hundreds of young men and teenage
boys descended on the ruins of Neveh Dekalim and threw stones and attempted to
mount an IDF tank. It was an act of pure aggression, meant not to destroy the
tank but to create an image of Israeli aggression on the one hand, and
fecklessness on the other.
After one of the attackers was killed by the tank, the Palestinians launched
rockets at civilians by Kibbutz Yad Mordechai which borders northern
For Europeans and leftists in Israel and America, no matter what the
Palestinians do, the images emanating from here will be interpreted as
justification for further Israeli land giveaways in light of continued
Palestinian victimhood.
For Arab audiences, in
For most Israelis, the images tell a different tale completely. The images
expose the transformation of
The great challenge of
Tuvia Grossman made aliya on Wednesday. In an interview with The Jerusalem
Post, he said, "You don't realize how many people's lives have been
affected forever from terrorist attacks. Some people are wounded for the rest
of their lives. Once I get settled in, I would love to assist victims of terror
in any way I can."
Grossman's story, both his victimization and his stubborn loyalty and love for
the Land of Israel that motivated him to return here and build a life of giving
despite his terrifying experience, is the story of the Jewish people and of the
Jewish state. It is this truth we must uphold and contrast against the
barbarism of our enemies if we do not wish for their false images to become our
reality.
(©) The
[Note: The below Jerusalem Post editorial, written just one day after the destruction of the synagogues of Gaza became a fait accompli, comments upon the fact that even the United States government strives mightily to help the “Palestinian” Arabs retain, at all costs, their misbegotten halo of Victimhood. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
**Editorial**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hold Palestinians accountable
(Jerusalem Post, September 13, 2005) Israelis awoke yesterday to the news that
the gates to
It is never exactly clear when a State Department spokesman says something like
this whether he or she is ad-libbing or whether a particular pearl has been
cleared at the [American] cabinet level. Either way, however, such statements
are instructive because they either reflect a conscious, high-level decision or
are considered so uncontroversial that a low-level official can say them
without fear of contradiction.
In this case, the uncontroversial notion is evidently that the problem is not
Palestinian savagery but
Would the Palestinian Authority be "criticized" if it had decided to
spare a single former synagogue from the raging mobs, perhaps for use as a
library, or for some international aid agency? Is the idea of sparing a former
place of worship of another religion so foreign that it cannot even be asked
for, let alone expected?
The unwritten script here is that nothing more can be expected from the
Palestinians because, after all, they are enraged by 38 years of Israeli
presence in
Despite attempts to explain it away as a benign form of striving, the
Arab-Islamic notion of jihad remains essentially unchanged since Ibn Khaldun
described it in 1406: "holy war is a religious duty ... to convert
everybody to Islam either by persuasion or force." Only Islam, he added,
"is under obligation to gain power over other nations."
This has been reflected in a "what's mine is mine, what's yours is
mine" approach that we see dominates Palestinian thinking. It goes without
saying that no Jew, building, or grave must remain in
Yet if there is ever going to be peace between Arabs and Israelis, not to
mention an end to the wider jihad against
President George W. Bush has rightly played the democracy card in the Arab
world generally and concerning Palestinians in particular. To his unending
credit, he has sometimes done so much more boldly than
What the
The State Department's revealing reaction to the synagogue decision and its
consequences shows that attempts to triangulate around the real sources of the
conflict remain entrenched in the foreign policy establishment, even in
(©) The
[Note: I disagree with the above
editorial’s analysis in one important respect.
The editorial opines that the destruction of
[Yet, it is nonetheless certainly true that the nations of the World -- especially those which comprise the lands of Christendom -- are so determined to help the “Palestinian” Arabs retain their misbegotten collective halo of Victimhood that that they, as well as the entire spectrum of international “human rights” organizations (such as Amnesty International, Christian Aid, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch), purposefully ignore atrocities that the majority “Palestinian” Muslim Arabs periodically perpetuate against the minority “Palestinian” Christian Arabs. For, to do otherwise, would force the nations and the international “human rights” community to view -- and to treat – (Muslim) “Palestinians” as oppressors. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Muslims ransack Christian village
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
(Jerusalem Post, September 5, 2005) Efforts were under way on Sunday to calm
the situation in this Christian village east of Ramallah after an attack by
hundreds of Muslim men from nearby villages left many houses and vehicles
torched.
The incident began on Saturday night and lasted until early Sunday, when
Palestinian Authority security forces interfered to disperse the attackers.
Residents said several houses were looted and many families were forced to flee
to Ramallah and other Christian villages, although no one was injured.
The attack on the village of 1,500 was triggered by the murder of a Muslim
woman from the nearby
"When her family discovered that she had been involved in a forbidden
relationship with a Christian, they apparently forced her to drink
poison," said one source. "Then they buried her without reporting her
death to the relevant authorities."
When the PA security forces decided to launch an investigation into the woman's
death, her family protested for fear that the relationship would be exposed. The
family was further infuriated by the decision to exhume the body for autopsy.
The attack is one of the worst against Christians in the
"More than 500 Muslim men, chanting Allahu akbar [God is great], attacked
us at night," said a Taiba resident. "They poured kerosene on many
buildings and set them on fire. Many of the attackers broke into houses and
stole furniture, jewelry and electrical appliances."
With the exception of large numbers of PA policemen, the streets of Taiba were
completely deserted on Sunday as the residents remained indoors. Many torched
cars littered the streets. At least 16 houses had been gutted by fire and the
assailants also destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary.
"It was like a war, they arrived in groups, and many of them were holding
clubs," said another resident.
"Some people saw them carrying weapons. They first attacked houses
belonging to the Khoury family [looking for the man who had the affair with the
woman, not realizing he had already fled the village.] Then they went to their
relatives. They entered the houses and destroyed everything there. Then they
tried to enter the local beer factory, but were repelled by PA security agents.
The fire engine arrived five hours later."
Col. Tayseer Mansour, commander of the PA police in the Ramallah area, said his
men arrived late because of the need to coordinate their movements with the
IDF.
"The delay resulted in the torching of a number of houses and cars in
the village," he said.
Taiba, the only
The residents are Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic. The village
was originally called Ephraim, and is thought to be the city to which Jesus
came with his disciples before his crucifixion: "Jesus therefore walked no
more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near the wilderness,
into a city called Ephraim" (John 11:54).
According to some accounts, Salah a-Din (Saladin), who led the war against the
Crusaders, was responsible for the name change. He is said to have found the
villagers there to be nice and kind -- in Arabic, taybeen -- and the name
stuck, to become Taiba.
(©) The
Away from the manger -- a Christian-Muslim divide
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, October 26, 2005) Tourists and pilgrims who visited
The couple was famous for the fresh orange juice and Turkish coffee they used
to serve to their customers. On the eve of the Millennium, many foreign
journalists who converged on
Azizeh's coffee shop was among the few businesses in
But life will never return to normal for Azizeh, who for many years served as a
member of the
About three years ago, unidentified gunmen opened fire at Azizeh's car on one
of the main streets of the city, hitting him in the head. Shortly after the
attack, and with the help of Israeli friends, he was transferred to
Since then, the coffee shop has closed and Azizeh, who was known as a
socialite, rarely leaves his home.
Azizeh's attackers remain at large, although their identity is known to many.
Only days before the shooting, Azizeh had refused to withdraw a complaint he
had filed against a Muslim driver who killed two of his relatives in a car
accident. The driver's family is said to have sought the help of local Fatah
militiamen in "persuading" Azizeh to back off.
Regardless of the motive, the case of Azizeh, 72, is seen by many Christians in
the context of a campaign allegedly waged by Muslims against the Christian
minority in the city. Azizeh, they argue, would not have been targeted had he
belonged to one of the large and influential Muslim clans in
"The Christians here are perceived as easy prey," complains a
prominent Christian businessman. "In recent years there has been an
upsurge in the number of attacks on Christians in
Muslim and Christian political leaders in the city strongly deny the
existence of an organized anti-Christian campaign, insisting that the violence
is mostly the result of "personally motivated" disputes that are
unrelated to religion. The victims of crime include both Muslims and
Christians, they add, accusing
"Reports of Muslim attacks on Christians are wildly exaggerated and you
should be careful not to play into the hands of the Israeli propaganda
machine," advises Omar al-Khatib, the imam of a mosque in
Yet off the record, many Christians in
Jihad, a Christian merchant from the nearby town of
His friend, George, who used to own a souvenir shop, says he's planning to move
next week to
Other Christians in Beit Jala disagree. According to a local physician, the
plight of the Christians has been aggravated over the past decade in general
and since the outbreak of the intifada in particular. "After the
Palestinian Authority arrived here in 1995, many Muslim families from
In another case, a 60-year-old Christian man was briefly detained by one of the
Palestinian security forces because he had forbidden his daughter to date a
Muslim security officer. Other Christians who tried to stop Fatah gunmen in
Beit Jala from firing into the
The same gunmen are also responsible for the rape and murder of two Christian
teenage sisters from the Amr family. The assailants then claimed that the
sisters had been murdered because they were "prostitutes" and had
been "collaborating" with Israeli security forces -- a claim that has
been strongly denied by the victims' relatives and many residents of the town.
"The gangsters murdered the two sisters so that they would not tell anyone
about the rape," says a family member. "Some of the murderers were
later killed by the Israeli army, but others are now living in Europe after
they had sought refuge in the Church of Nativity. It's absurd that Muslim men
who rape and murder Christian girls are given political asylum in Christian
countries like
Last week Beit Jala was once again the scene of religious tensions after a
Christian woman complained that she had been harassed by Muslim men from the
Earlier this year tensions between Muslims and Christians in
Some Christians point a finger at the foreign media and diplomatic missions
in Israel, accusing them of ignoring their predicament for
"political" reasons. "Although most of the foreign journalists
and diplomats are Christians, they don't seem to pay enough attention to what's
happening to the Christians in Bethlehem," says Bishara, a Christian
tourist guide. "They're obviously afraid of damaging their relations with
the Palestinian Authority."
While it's almost impossible to find a Christian who's prepared to go public in
airing such grievances, Samir Qumsiyeh, a journalist from Beit Sahur, is a
notable exception. Last month he was quoted by the Italian newspaper Corriere
della Sera as saying that Christians were being subjected to rape, kidnapping,
extortion and expropriation of land and property.
Qumsiyeh, who was not available this week for an interview because he was out
of the country, heads a local TV station called Al-Mahd [Nativity]. In a daring
step, Qumsiyeh drew up a list of 93 cases of anti-Christian violence between
2000 and 2004.
"This file is incomplete and it's not up-to-date," he told the
Italian newspaper. "Look at the case of Rawan William Mansour, a
17-year-old girl from Bet Sahur. She was raped two years ago by four members of
Fatah. Even though the family protested, none of the four was ever arrested.
Because of the shame her family was forced to move to
"Almost all 140 cases of expropriation of land in the last three years
were committed by militant Islamic groups and members of the Palestinian
police." Qumsiyeh said he was now preparing a book on the conditions of
the Christian minority. "I will call it 'Racism in Action,'" he says.
"The racism against us is gaining pace in staggering ways. In 1950 the
Christian population in
(©) The
[Note: “Palestinian” Christian
Arabs constituted approximately 20% of the Arab population of Judea,
Gazans warn pope to accept Islam
[Muslim mobs attack Christian churches in Judea and
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, September 19, 2006) Citing the words of the Prophet Muhammad,
Muslim religious leaders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday warned Pope Benedict XVI
that he must "accept" Islam if he wanted to live in peace.
The warning, the first of its kind, came as many Christians in the
Two more churches in the
In Tulkarm, arsonists set fire to the only Orthodox church in the area, causing
heavy damage to the 150-year-old structure. Local residents said the attack
occurred shortly after 4 a.m, when a number of assailants forced their way into
the church and tossed several fire bombs into the building.
Some Christian families said they were living in fear because of the attacks
and called on the Palestinian Authority to do its utmost to protect churches
and Christians.
At a press conference in
One of them, Dr. Imad Hamto, called on the pope to "repent and ask for
forgiveness." He added: "We want to use the words of the Prophet
Muhammad and tell the pope: 'Aslim Taslam'" Aslim Taslam is a phrase that
was taken from the letters sent by the Prophet Muhammad to the chiefs of tribes
in his times in which he reportedly urged them to convert to Islam to spare
their lives.
Some Muslim scholars, however, have endorsed a more moderate interpretation of
the term, arguing that its real meaning was that those who surrendered to the
Will of God would find peace.
Hamto and his colleagues accused Christians of "resorting to the power of
the sword in
They also called on the pope to direct his words to the Jews who, they claimed,
were "spreading corruption and destruction."
(©) The
Terror group threatens Gaza Christians
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, September 20, 2006) A previously unknown group calling itself
the Huda [Guidance] Army Organization threatened on Tuesday to target all
Christians living in the Gaza Strip unless Pope Benedict XVI apologized for his
remarks against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
"We will target all Crusaders in the Gaza Strip," the group said in a
leaflet, "until the pope issues an official apology." The group also
threatened to attack churches and Christian-owned institutions and homes.
"All centers belonging to Crusaders, including churches and institutions,
will from now on be targeted," it said. "We will even attack the
Crusaders as they sit intoxicated in their homes." The group said
preparations had been completed "to strike at every Crusader and infidel
on the purified
It also threatened "to strike with an iron fist anyone who dares to defend
the Crusaders." The latest threat is the second of its kind against
Christians in the Gaza Strip over the past few days.
Earlier, another anonymous group calling itself the Army of the Sword of the
Right also threatened to attack Christians and churches in the Gaza Strip in
response to the pope's remarks. The group also claimed responsibility for an
attack on a church in
At least 4,500 Christians live in the Gaza Strip among more than 1.3 million
Muslims. A Christian leader in
"We have appealed to the Palestinian Authority for protection," he
said. "Christians here are keeping a very low profile and many of them
would like to leave the area out of fear for their lives."
On Sunday, a number of Muslim clerics in the Gaza Strip warned the pope that he
must convert to Islam if he wanted to be spared. The clerics called on all
Palestinians to observe a "day of rage" against the pope next Friday
by staging demonstrations in the streets and holding public rallies. They also
condemned the attacks on the churches in the
(©) The
Bethlehem Christians claim persecution
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, January 25, 2007)
BETHLEHEM - A number of Christian families have finally decided to break
their silence and talk openly about what they describe as Muslim persecution of
the Christian minority in this city.
The move comes as a result of increased attacks on Christians by Muslims over
the past few months. The families said they wrote letters to Palestinian
Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the
According to the families, many Christians have long been afraid to complain in
public about the campaign of for fear of retaliation by their Muslim neighbors
and being branded "collaborators" with
But following an increase in attacks on Christian-owned property in the city
over the past few months, some Christians are no longer afraid to talk about
the ultra-sensitive issue. And they are talking openly about leaving the city.
"The situation is very dangerous," said Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the
Beit Sahur-based private Shepherd TV station. "I believe that 15 years
from now there will be no Christians left in
Qumsiyeh, one of the few Christians willing to speak about the harsh conditions
of their community, has been the subject of numerous death threats. His house
was recently attacked with fire-bombs, but no one was hurt.
Qumsiyeh said he has documented more than 160 incidents of attacks on
Christians in the area in recent years.
He said a monk was recently roughed up for trying to prevent a group of Muslim
men from seizing lands owned by Christians in Beit Sahur. Thieves have targeted
the homes of many Christian families and a "land mafia" has succeeded
in laying its hands on vast areas of land belonging to Christians, he added.
Fuad and Georgette Lama woke up one morning last September to discover that
Muslims from a nearby village had fenced off their family's six-dunam plot in
the Karkafa suburb south of
The couple was later approached by senior PA security officers who offered to
help them kick out the intruders from the land. "We paid them $1,000 so
they could help us regain our land," she said, almost in tears.
"Instead of giving us back our land, they simply decided to keep it for
themselves. They even destroyed all the olive trees and divided the land into
small plots, apparently so that they could offer each for sale." When her
72-year-old husband, Fuad, went to the land to ask the intruders to leave, he
was severely beaten and threatened with guns.
"My husband is after heart surgery and they still beat him,"
Georgette Lama said. "These people have no heart. We're afraid to go to
our land because they will shoot at us. Ever since the beating, my husband is
in a state of trauma and has difficulties talking."
The Lamas have since knocked on the doors of scores of PA officials in
"We heard that President Mahmoud Abbas is taking our case very
seriously," said Georgette Lama. "But until now he hasn't done
anything to help us get our land back. We are very concerned because we're not
the only ones suffering from this phenomenon. Most Christians are afraid to
speak, but I don't care because we have nothing more to lose."
The couple's Christian neighbor, Edward Salama, said the problem in the city
was the absence of law and order. "We are living in a state of chaos and
lawlessness," he said. "The police are afraid of the thugs who are
taking our lands."
Salama expressed deep concern over the conditions of Christians in
"When I see what's happening to Christians here, I worry a lot for our
future," he said. "They are targeting Christians, because we are seen
as weak."
The Lamas said they decided to go public with the hope that the international
community would intervene with the PA to halt the land-grab. "We will
fight and fight until we recover our land," Fuad Lama said. "We will
resort to the courts and to the public opinion for help.
"Unfortunately, Christian leaders and spokesmen are afraid to talk about
the problems we are facing. We know of three other Christian families
--Salameh, Kawwas and Asfour -- whose lands were also illegally seized by
Muslims."
A Christian businessman who asked not to be identified said the conditions of
Christians in
"Every day we hear of another Christian family that has immigrated to the
(©) The
FROM WND'S
Christians warned: Accept Islamic law
'New Hamas rule means real changes,' missionaries to be 'dealt with harshly'
Posted: June 19, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
The militant leader said Christians in
The threats come two days after a church and Christian
school in
"I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new
Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want
to live in peace in
Jihadia Salafiya is suspected of attacking a United Nations
school in
"The situation has now changed 180 degrees in
"Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public," Abu Asqer told WND.
"Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped," he said. "If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly."
Abu Saqer accused the leadership of the Gaza Christian community of "proselytizing and trying to convert Muslims with funding from American evangelicals."
"This missionary activity is endangering the entire
Christian community in
Abu Saqer claimed there was "no need" for the
thousands of Christians in
About 2,000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of over 1 million.
Abu Saqer said Hamas "must work to impose an Islamic rule, or it will lose the authority it has and the will of the people."
His comments come after gunmen Sunday attacked
The attack was the first targeting of Christian institutions since Hamas last week staged a coup against the rival Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, seizing all Fatah positions and security compounds, essentially taking complete control of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas officials in
Abu Saqer claimed he had "good information" the attack actually was a robbery aimed at the church's school computers, even though Bibles and Christian holy objects were destroyed.
Christians, secular institutions targeted
A month before the U.N. school was targeted, Palestinians
bombed a Christian book store in
At the time, Abu Saqer, who didn't take credit for the attack, told WND the Christian bookstore was "proselytizing and attempting to convert our people."
"As a principle, we believe that Jews and Christians will always do everything in order to keep Muslims far from their religion," Abu Saqer said.
Even before Hamas took over
Israeli officials said Hamas in 2005 established hard-line Islamic courts and created the Hamas Anti-Corruption Group, described as a kind of "morality police" operating within Hamas' organization. Hamas has denied the existence of the group, but it recently carried out a high-profile "honor killing" widely covered by the Palestinian media.
A Hamas-run council in the
'West can learn from Islamic values'
In response to the uproar, Hamas chief in
Asked if Hamas is seeking to impose hard-line Islamic law on the Palestinians, al-Zahar responded, "The Palestinian people are Muslim people, and we do not need to impose anything on our people because they are already committed to their faith and religion. People are free to choose their way of life, their way of dress and behavior."
Al-Zahar said his terror group, which demands strict dress codes for females, respects women's rights.
"It is wrong to think that in our Islamic society there is a lack of rights for women. Women enjoy their rights. What we have, unlike the West, is that young women cannot be with men and have relations outside marriage. Sometimes with tens of men. This causes the destruction of the family institution and the fact that many kids come to the world without knowing who are their fathers or who are their mothers. This is not a modern and progressed society," al-Zahar explained.
The terror chieftain told WND that the West can learn from his group's Islamic values.
"Here I refer to what was said in the early '90s by
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An attack on an 80-year-old Christian woman in
Claire Farah Tarazi was the latest victim of anti-Christian attacks that have increased in the Gaza Strip since Hamas took full control of the area in June.
Leaders of the Christian community condemned the assault and appealed to Hamas to make an effort to protect Christians.
Tarazi said a masked man dressed in black clothes had knocked on her door late at night and demanded all her money.
"He was carrying a club and a sharp tool," she said. "As soon as I opened the door, he pushed me inside and shouted: 'Where is the money, you infidel?' I shouted back: 'I'm not an infidel - I'm a proud Palestinian Arab.'"
Tarazi said the assailant had beaten her on her hands with the club, demanding that she hand over all her money and jewelry.
"I was so terrified that I gave him two golden bracelets, a cellphone and a few hundred shekels," she said. "But the man said this was not enough and hit me hard on the head with a tool he was carrying until I started bleeding." He then locked her in her bedroom and started searching the house for money and valuable items, she added.
"After he left the house, I managed to open another door into the bedroom he hadn't noticed," she said. "Then I went to the neighbors and asked for help."
Tarazi's relatives told The Jerusalem Post it was evident that she had been targeted because of her faith.
"The fact that the attacker called her an infidel speaks for itself," one of them said. "He clearly knew that this was a Christian woman living alone. He would not have dared to do the same thing to a Muslim woman."
Representatives of various women's groups in the Gaza Strip who visited Tarazi expressed shock and called on the Hamas government to halt attacks on Christians. They expressed concern over increased attacks on Christians in light of the absence of law and order in the Gaza Strip.
The assault on the elderly Christian woman is the latest in a series of attacks against Christians over the past few months. Since the Hamas takeover, a Christian school and a church have been targeted by Muslims.
Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community
in the Gaza Strip, said masked gunmen torched and looted the
"The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church," he said. "Then they destroyed almost everything inside, including the cross, the holy book, computers and other equipment."
Musalam expressed outrage over the burning of copies of the Bible, adding that the gunmen destroyed all the crosses inside the church and school.
"Those who did these awful things have no respect for Christian-Muslim relations," he said.
Musalam estimated damages at more than $500,000.
"Those who see the destruction will realize how bad this attack was," he said. "Christians have been living in peace and security with Muslims for many years, but those who attacked us are trying to sabotage this relationship."
(©) The
Palestinian Christian found dead in
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The body of a Christian official who was kidnapped over the
weekend was discovered in
The man was identified as Rami Ayyad, 31, director of The Teacher's Bookshop, which is operated by the Palestinian Bible Society.
Although no group claimed responsibility for the murder, a
number of Christians in
His bookshop and the Palestinian Bible Society had been the target of repeated attacks over the past two years.
They noted that attacks on members of the 2,500-strong Christian community in the Gaza Strip had increased in recent months, especially since Hamas took full control over the area.
Two weeks ago, an elderly Christian woman living in
In
Shortly after the Hamas takeover, a local Christian school and a monastery were looted and set on fire.
News of Ayyad's murder shocked members of his family and friends and raised fears that the Hamas government, despite repeated promises, was not able to protect the local Christian community.
Ayyad went missing over the weekend and his family and friends rushed to lodge a complaint with the Hamas security forces.
Ihab Ghissin, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry,
which is responsible for security, said the body was discovered in an
agricultural field known as Dunum Abu Daf near the Zeitoun neighborhood of
He refused to specify the cause of death, only saying that the body had been transferred to a local hospital for a forensic examination. However, Palestinian reporters told the Post that Ayyad had been fatally stabbed.
"This despicable crime won't pass without punishment of the perpetrators," Ghissin said. "We will pursue all those involved in this case and make sure that they are severely punished."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1995- 2007 The
'Christian groups in PA to disappear'
By Etgar Lefkovits
(
"The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs [non-governmental organizations]," said Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer in an address at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where he serves as a scholar in residence.
He cited Muslim harassment and persecution as the main cause of the "acute human rights crisis" facing Christian Arabs, and predicted that unless governments or institutions step in to remedy the situation -- such as with job opportunities -- there will be no more Christian communities living in the Palestinians territories within 15 years, with only a few Western Christians and top clergymen left in the area.
"Christian leaders are being forced to abandon their followers to the forces of radical Islam," Weiner said.
Facing a pernicious mixture of persecution and economic hardships as a result of years of Palestinian violence and Israeli counter-terrorism measures, tens of thousands of Christian Arabs have left the Palestinian territories for a better life in the West, in a continuing exodus which has led some Christian leaders to warn that the faith could be virtually extinct in its birthplace in a matter of decades.
The Palestinian Christian population has dipped to 1.5 percent
of the West Bank and
No one city in the Holy Land is more indicative of the great
exodus of Christians than
The town of 30,000 is now less than 20% Christian, after decades when Christians were the majority. Elsewhere in the Palestinian territories, only about 3,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, live in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, out of a strongly conservative Muslim population of 1.4 million.
"In a society where Arab Christians have no voice and no protection it is no surprise that they are leaving," he said.
In his address, Weiner pointedly downplayed the effects that
Israeli security measures, such as the security barrier being built between
The barrier, which is especially conspicuous at the entrance
to
Palestinian Christian clerics have pointed to, along with the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as a central cause of Christian
emigration.
Weiner argued there was a "180 degree difference"
between the public statements coming out of the mainstream Christian leadership
in the Holy Land -- who "sing the PA's tune" and blame
"The truth is beginning to come out," he said. "The question is what is being done with the truth."
His comments come just months after a prominent Christian
activist, Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, was killed in
"For too long the plight of Christian Arabs has been put on the back-burner or ignored altogether," said Rev. Malcolm Hedding,
executive director of the International Christian Embassy, a Jerusalem-based evangelical organization.
The Evangelical leader, who has drawn the wrath of Catholic
leaders in the Holy Land for his strong support for
"There is a one-sided debate in which
(©) The
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Editorial**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christians' Plight
(Jerusalem Post, December 5, 2007) It's highly doubtful that Dr. Justus Reid
Weiner's chilling forecast of the impending demise of Christian communities
under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction will generate much outrage or uproar
in Christendom.
If, as expected, it fails to do so, it will be more than a shame. At the very
least, Weiner's words of warning ought to ring powerful alarm bells among
overseas coreligionists of local Christians.
As reported in Tuesday's Jerusalem Post, Weiner -- a human rights lawyer and
scholar-in-residence at the
An ongoing exodus is already under way, as many thousands of Christians
emigrate to the West.
Only 50 years ago, Christians accounted for 15 percent of the population in the
same PA areas in which they today make up no more than 1.5%. Weiner pointed to
All this fits too snugly for comfort into the international pattern of an intolerant,
aggressive and expansionist Islam. The takeover of Bethlehem recalls Islamists'
openly aggressive stance against other religions shown by the blasting of
Afghanistan's giant Buddhist monuments or the wanton disregard of the threat to
antiquities demonstrated by the Muslim Wakf's myriad construction schemes on
the Temple Mount.
Trying to survive under the Muslim thumb, PA Christians keep a low profile,
strive to give no offense and often even toe the most
extremist Arab line to evince loyalty and remove the threat from themselves.
Many publicly blame
The silence of Christian Arabs and Christians abroad in the face of the
desecration of
This pattern persists. Weiner noted that
The temptation to do so will increase in the Advent to Christmas, whose
celebration in
Like Arafat, his successor Mahmoud Abbas often poses in the guise of
Christianity's protector, implying that it, along with Islam, is menaced by
Judaism. Yet false and brazen though this cynical affectation is, it goes
unquestioned in most of the world. This year, post-Annapolis, this sham has
taken on particular significance.
Abbas has just demanded Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines,
promising "religious freedom and full access to sites of
worship to all faiths." Such promises, however, were already part and
parcel of the 1949 armistice, though brutally violated and never complied with
for a day. No fewer than 58 synagogues in
Present-day vandalism on the
This is something for world Christians to reflect upon during this holy season,
as eyes again turn to
(©) The
By LELA GILBERT
(December 24, 2007) Just a few days before Christmas, as I walked around
I was in the company of "Stefan," an Arab Christian, who serves as a
visitors' guide. He was quick to point out, as we passed through the
checkpoint, his grievances against the Israeli security fence, the
inconvenience of ID checks and the required work permits. As a resident of
My question was probably a little too direct. "Isn't the checkpoint here
to stop suicide bombers from getting into
"Bombs!" he growled. "Do they think we're stupid? If I wanted to
take a bomb in I'd just go out of town another way, where there isn't a
checkpoint." Then he added, "Look, I'm a Christian and we aren't bombers.
But if we were, we wouldn't be crazy enough go through a checkpoint!"
"So it's possible to come and go from
"Of course! There are many ways in and out of
Stefan was right. The last two suicide bombers that struck
Stefan talked a little about the difficulties confronting
MY JUNE visit to
Incense filled the warm air inside, and colorful lights and candles illuminated
the Greek Orthodox service. I glanced around recalling that this very church
had been seized by terrorists in May 2002. In a bitter siege during which
[Muslim] Arab gunmen held dozens of Christian nuns, priests, monks and pilgrims
hostage for weeks. In disbelief these Christians watched act after act of
wanton destruction as the terrorists looted historic icons, confiscated gold
and silver sacred vessels, urinated against the walls, and otherwise demolished
and desecrated the holy site.
Now, almost five years later, ancient chants echoed, and downstairs, in the
Grotto where tradition says Jesus was born, more candles blazed as a small
gathering of Italian Catholics prayed. Next door, the Roman Catholic service
was just beginning, and there was standing room only as the cross was carried
in procession toward the altar.
THE CATHOLIC liturgy began and a spirit of reverence fell across the room,
interrupted only as a handful of professional photographers scurried around on
the periphery of the crowd. While the Gospel was read and the response sung, I
reflected on this faithful Catholic congregation. They may be leaving town, I
thought, but they haven't stopped worshipping together.
Until recent years Christians have enjoyed relative prosperity in
IN 1948,
Later, during the second intifada, security became a matter of life and death
once suicide bombings were introduced. These attacks ultimately led to the
construction of the controversial security barrier.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and no friend of Israel, wrote in
late 2006, "I have spent the last two days with fellow Christian leaders
in Bethlehem; there are some signs of disturbing anti-Christian feeling among
parts of the Muslim population, despite the consistent traditions of coexistence.
But their plight is made still more intolerable by the tragic conditions
created by the 'security fence' which almost chokes the shrinking town..."
He went on to speak of dramatic poverty, soaring unemployment and practical
hardships.
In actual fact, the Archbishop's carefully crafted phrase, "some signs of
disturbing anti-Christian feeling" falls woefully short of telling whole
story.
In an 2005 interview with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JPCA),
Steven Khoury, of Bethlehem's First Baptist Church, reported that the church
had been attacked by Muslims from a nearby refugee camp "with Molotov
cocktails 14 times. Our church vans have been burned. The church was broken
into and defaced with graffiti five times." Others have reported the
shooting of the
In 2006, the
OVERT violence isn't the only difficulty faced by Christians in areas under the
Palestinian Authority. In recent weeks, Ramallah pastor Isa Bajalia, an
American Christian of Arab descent, stated publicly that he has been threatened
by a Palestinian Authority official, who demanded he pay $30,000 in protection
money to ensure his safety. On November 11, Fox News reported, "Pastor Isa
Bajalia is legally blind, yet he was also told by the official he would be
crippled for life. The trouble started after church members held a prayer
session for several Palestinians. Bajalia says he has been under surveillance
and receiving threats." Isa Bajalia has since fled Ramallah.
Among the compiled JCPA interviews of West Bank Christians are reports of
extortion by Arab Muslims, demands for protection money, seized properties,
vandalized homes and shops, widespread rape of Christian girls, honor killings,
and murders of converts to Christianity from Islam.
In July 2007, Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, a Palestinian Christian bookstore owner
who had received repeated threats was found stabbed to death in a street in
In a recent briefing, Justus Reid Weiner, Resident Scholar of the
Weiner later told me, "Now that donors have pledged $7.4 billion to the
PA, perhaps it is time that strings were attached to this enormous influx of
money. Those strings should include, among other things, a demand for provision
and protection for the Christian minority in the
In June, my son took a photograph of two little
The writer has authored or co-authored more than
60 books, primarily in the field of ecumenical Christian non-fiction. Her work
includes the recently released biography Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken
World and the award-winning Their Blood Cries Out, co-authored with Paul
Marshall. She is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom,
Hudson Institute.
(©) The
Gunmen explode YMCA library in
JPost.com Staff, THE
A band of 14 masked gunmen forced its way into YMCA [Young Men’s Christian Association] offices in the Gaza Strip and exploded a library there, Israel Radio reported Friday.
Thousands of books were reportedly burnt in the ensuing
fire. The YMCA in
The gunmen laid a second explosive device near a computer in the library but it failed to detonate. Two security guards on the scene were not able to block the intruders; they were taken by them from the YMCA and later released in the northern Gaza Strip.
The latest incident is another link in an ongoing chain of attacks against Palestinian Christians which has worsened since Hamas took power of the Gaza Strip last June.
However, Christians in the
The Palestinian Christian population has dipped to 1.5% of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, down from at least 15% a half century ago, according
to some estimates. No city in the Holy Land is more indicative of the Christian
exodus than
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report
Copyright 1995- 2008 The
Analysis: Cruelty and silence in
By Jonathan Spyer
(Jerusalem Post, December 12, 2008) Unremarked upon by the Western media, a
systematic campaign of persecution is taking place in the Gaza Strip, and to a
lesser extent in the
The perpetrators are a variety of Islamist groups, all of which are
manifestations of a process of growing Islamic militancy and piety taking place
across the region.
The Christian population of the Gaza Strip is small - 2,000-3,000 people. Gazan
politics has long been characterized by a conservative, Islamic bent.
Since the Hamas coup of July 2007, this position has become increasingly
untenable. Islamist organizations, empowered by the indifference of the
authorities, have begun to target Christian institutions and individuals in
The trend became noticeable with a series of attacks on the Palestinian Bible
Society's "Teacher's Bookshop" in
Over the following year, a series of bomb attacks on Christian institutions in
Most of these attacks took place at night, and hence casualties were avoided.
In a number of cases guards were the victims of violence.
Who is carrying out these attacks? The perpetrators are thought to be Salafi
Islamist groups like Jaish al-Islam, Jaish al-Uma and similar organizations.
The larger Popular Resistance Committees terror group has also stated that the
Christian presence in
Where are the Hamas authorities in all this?
Hamas is officially committed to tolerance toward the Christian community, and
spokesmen for the authorities have criticized the attacks. In practice,
however, only superficial investigations have taken place, and arrests are
rare. In the few cases where arrests have been made, the suspects were not
charged and were quickly released. This was the case, for example, with two
members of the Jaish al-Islam who were suspected of involvement in the YMCA
bombing.
The persecution of Christians is not emerging from a small Islamist fringe.
Rather, it is part of a larger process of Islamization taking place in
Palestinian society. The rise of Hamas is part of this.
But the cadres of the divided Fatah movement are not immune. The Popular
Resistance Committees group, for example, noted above for its anti-Christian
stance, was founded by ex-Fatah officers who sought an organization reflecting
their religious zeal.
The situation in the
A recent article in the Palestinian Al-Ayyam newspaper drew attention to the
long-simmering issue of "compulsory purchase" of land owned by
Christians. This trend has been particularly noticeable in the
The Al-Ayyam columnist who raised this issue, Abd al-Nasser al-Najjar, lamented
that no "constructive action" by the authorities to protect the
Christians has taken place. Najjar listed the PA authorities, the Palestinian
political factions, and the myriad of NGOs present in the
The official bodies of Palestinian nationalism continue to claim that the
Palestinians are a single nation, with harmony between Christians and Muslims.
The official leadership of Palestinian Arab Christianity repeats this claim.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Palestinian Christians are fearful, and are voting
with their feet.
These events reflect broader regional processes. Their failure to become known
is also part of a larger trend. The foreign media, NGOs on the ground and some
Western political leaderships prefer to foster a version of events in the West
Bank and
The writer is a senior researcher at the Global Research in
(©) The
'Hamas disinters Christians in
By Matthew Wagner
(Jerusalem Post, December 15, 2009) Every three minutes a Christian is being
tortured in the Muslim world, and in 2009 more than 165,000 Christians will
have been killed because of their faith, most of them in Muslim countries,
according to a human rights organization that is visiting
"Hamas digs up the bodies of Christians from Christian burial sites in
the Gaza Strip claiming that they pollute the earth," said Reverend Majed
El Shafie, President of One Free World International (OFWI), who will head a
delegation of human rights activists, members of parliament from Canada and
religious personalities.
During their visit to
El Shafie said that between 200-300 million Christians are being persecuted in
the world, 80 percent of whom lived in Muslim countries and the rest in
communist and other countries.
Members of the delegation will meet with Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Deputy
Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon and Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat in
the hope of enlisting
OFWI is a human rights organization whose headquarters are located in
El Shafie, 32, was born in
He decided to convert to Christianity, wrote a book about it and as a result
became an outcast and a victim of oppression.
In 1998 he was arrested, imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death.
El Shafie managed to escape, fled to the Sinai, where a Beduin family hid him
for two months, and crossed the Israeli border on a jet-ski. He was arrested in
Israel and was imprisoned for over a year in Beersheba [due to his illegal
entry and obvious suspicions that he might be a terrorist], until he was
released through the assistance of the UN, Amnesty International and the
International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which managed to obtain political
asylum for El Shafie in Canada, where he emigrated. He founded OFWI in 2004.
(©) The
[Note: In Gaza, not only do Muslim “Palestinians” persecute Christian “Palestinians”, but Muslim “Palestinians” even persecute other Muslim “Palestinians”. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Shia group 'attacked by police' in Gaza
Published 17 January 2012
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=453204
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A group of Shiite worshipers say masked police violently raided a religious service in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, prompting furious denials by the Hamas-dominated government in the territory.
Around 20 followers of the Shia branch of Islam were performing a ceremony for Ashura, the commemoration of the death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein, when masked police stormed the private home in Beit Lahiya, they told Palestinian human rights groups.
Security officers beat the worshipers with clubs, and took them for interrogation at a police station where they were further assaulted, they told the Gaza-headquartered Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
Several sustained fractures and bruises from the beating and were taken to Balsam and Kamal Odwan hospitals, PCHR said.
The Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said that upon leaving the hospital, they were handed notifications to go to the interior security headquarters in northern Gaza.
A Shiite man, who asked to be referred to as M. M., told Ma'an on Sunday "to be assaulted by Hamas security is outrageous because we are not against the law, we respect it."
"These rites concern freedom of religion ... we are Muslims like all the people in Gaza."
The Shia will continue exercising their religious rites, which they are proud of, he said.
Another Shiite man, using the name Abu Zeinab, said security forces dispersed the religious ceremony after alleging it did not have the proper license, but denied the group were assaulted.
Hamas officials initially refused to comment on the matter, and said Sunday they considered the account to be a fabrication by Ma'an.
On Monday, the Gaza interior ministry published a press statement denying the account relayed by human rights groups.
"Police tracked an illegal group with corrupted views that were planning to commit crimes," the ministry said in its version of the Saturday night raid.
The ministry also said Palestine is a Sunni country where Shiism does not exist.
"We respect all the doctrines around the world, especially the Shiite school, and we don’t intervene in what they believe and we don’t want them to intervene in our beliefs as well," the statement said.
While vowing to study allegations of human rights abuse, the interior ministry warned human rights groups to consult official sources and not believe just any account of events.
The ministry also called on the media to work for positive national goals.
PCHR urged the Gaza government to open an investigation into "the use of excessive force by the security officers ... and to bring the perpetrators to justice."
The raid broke Palestinian laws on freedom of belief and expression, and a prohibition on raiding private homes without a judicial order, Al Mezan said.
Meanwhile, M. M. told Ma'an that Shiites would "complain about Hamas to Iran, which supports the movement in Gaza."
Abu Zeinab complained that Iran did not offer sufficient support for Shiites in Gaza. While the Shia are harassed by Hamas, they faced worse suppression under Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority rule prior to the 2007 split between the governments, he added.
Hamas premier in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh is due to visit Iran in early February. The Sunni group is believed to receive considerable support from the Shia power, but the uprising in Syria, Iran's regional ally, has strained their historic ties.
All Rights Reserved © Ma'an News Agency 2005 - 2012
[Note: Gaza severely persecutes its women. However, the World pays scant attention to it, because it is not Israel doing the persecuting. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Violence up against Gaza women up under Hamas
By RACHELLE KLIGER The Media Line news agency
(Jerusalem Post, January 5, 2010) The vast majority of Gazan women face
violence, a new survey has
found.
The study, by the Gaza-based Palestinian Women's Information and Media Center,
found that violence against women in Gaza has increased since Hamas took over
Gaza in a June 2007 coup and Israel subsequently imposed restrictions on the
Strip.
The study found that 77.1 percent of Gazan women have experienced violence of
various sorts, with almost half experiencing violence of more than one type.
A quarter of the women questioned said they do not feel safe in their own homes
because of violence, and more than a third said they were unable to fight back
as they had more urgent priorities.
Sixty-seven percent of the women surveyed said they had encountered verbal
violence, 71% mental violence, 52% physical violence and more than 14% sexual
violence.
"I think the levels [of violence] are higher than they were in the Gaza
Strip in previous years and compared to other countries, the rates are
certainly higher," Huda Hamouda, director of the PWIC said. "It's
hard to imagine a family living in dignity when seven family members are living
on less than three dollars a day.
"Many say they suffer from disrespect and deprecation," Hamouda said.
"There's also domestic violence, which is committed by relatives such as
the father, the brother or the husband."
Women are exposed to hardships in every sphere, be it financial, social,
political or lack of security, she said.
"There's widespread unemployment and the number of female workers has gone
down," Hamouda explained. "It was 14.5% [female employment] in 2006
and now it's less than 10%."
The organization's researchers conducted interviews with 350 women from
different districts of the Gaza Strip during the last quarter of 2009.
According to the report, almost two-thirds of the women who were interviewed
were the breadwinners in their families, and about the same number were
dependent on handouts from international aid organizations.
Some 31% of women who are or were married were either divorced or said their
husbands were threatening to divorce them because of the financial situation.
"[Poverty] affects education and public participation," Hamouda said.
"It limits their social standing. Add to that the social norms that
prevail in society preventing women's freedom and covering up the violence. The
authorities impose this culture."
The women's rights advocate said the Hamas government is trying to impose a
certain ideology, which includes forcing women to wear the hijab (religious
head covering), implying that this has eroded the standing of Gazan women.
"They're imposing their directives and they're encountering opposition
from certain groups, human-rights organizations and unions," Hamouda said.
"It's understood that in society there is no pluralism or freedom of
thought. It's one side imposing its understandings on those under its
control."
In June 2009, the Hamas chief justice prompted a public outcry when he decreed
that female lawyers must wear the hijab in court. Recently the Hamas religious
police have reprimanded women for dressing in what they considered to be
immodest clothing and instructed beach-goers to cover up.
Hamas denies it is imposing strict religious laws in the Gaza Strip, but
anecdotal evidence suggests the Gazan population is becoming more religious.
A Gazan woman working in the private sector said it was important to realize
the feeling of intimidation was not necessarily representative of all women in
Gaza.
"I don't cover my hair and I don't feel intimidated or scared to walk in
the street," she said. "Maybe it's because I live in the city in an
area where all the international organizations work. It would depend on the
level of income, the level of education and the environment surrounding of
these women. I'm one of hundreds of thousands and I could be an
exception."
Palestinian women's rights activists have told The Media Line that domestic
violence is not tackled adequately by the Palestinian Police, who often turn a
blind eye to such complaints.
There are few shelters for battered women in the Palestinian territories.
Hamouda said laws to combat violence against women were lax and contributed to
a culture of impunity for perpetrators, especially in relation to "honor
killings," in which women accused of bringing dishonor to the family are
killed by relatives. Such killings usually involve women suspected of
socializing with men who are not their husbands or relatives.
"The authorities do punish them but they have a weak law," Hamouda
said. "When it comes to so-called honor crimes, the articles of the
criminal laws still mete out mitigated sentences to the perpetrators."
The organization is trying to increase awareness of violence against women and
make it a higher priority for rights organizations, civil society organizations
and political factions.
"We want them to help women participate in public life and make this an
important part of their strategy, not just a political slogan," she said.
(©) The Jerusalem Post
[Note: The World assists the
“Palestinians” in maintaining their misbegotten collective halo of Victimhood
by condemning -- as the illegal use of “disproportionate force” -- all military
actions by
Civil Fights: The canard of 'disproportionate force'
By Evelyn Gordon
(
Take, for example, an Israeli air strike that killed two
Palestinian teenagers last Wednesday. According to The New York Times,
"witnesses in
BUT MORE importantly, for that very reason, most armed forces do not allow civilians in firing zones. The IDF, for instance, generally declares active combat areas "closed military zones" from which Israeli civilians are legally barred, and it enforces such orders. Other Western armies do the same.
But Hamas needs civilian casualties to fuel Palestinian and
international anger at
Firing back at people who are shooting at you is also clearly legitimate military activity; no law of war obligates soldiers to let themselves be mown down without a fight just because there are civilians nearby. Moreover, soldiers have no way of knowing whether the civilians have fled or are still inside a house; all they can be certain of is the presence of gunmen.
Under such circumstances, civilian casualties are inevitable. But those casualties are not caused by "disproportionate force" or insufficient "caution"; they are the direct result of Hamas's decision to use civilian homes, with the people still inside, as bases for targeting Israeli soldiers.
Moreover, civilians are not always innocent. Those whose homes were invaded by Hamas were presumably unwilling hostages. But some Palestinians voluntarily serve as "human shields" for terrorists -- and by actively aiding and abetting terror, they turn themselves into combatants.
In one widely publicized case in November 2006, for instance,
the IDF, seeking to avoid civilian casualties, announced two planned air
strikes 30 minutes in advance to enable civilians to leave. Instead, Hamas used
the loudspeakers of local mosques to urge civilians to flood the area and serve
as human shields. Hundreds did so, and the IDF -- precisely because
What is most noteworthy about such incidents, however, is what they say about the Palestinian claim -- mindlessly parroted by the international community -- that the IDF fires indiscriminately, without regard for civilians. In fact, Hamas summoned civilian reinforcements precisely because it knew a civilian presence would prevent the air strikes. And the civilians came for the same reason -- not because they sought death, but because they knew the IDF would not shoot them.
IN ANOTHER incident that same month, hundreds of Palestinian women purposely entered a combat zone to shield gunmen besieged by IDF soldiers. Again, they were deliberately abetting combatants. And again, they knew they could do so safely, because the IDF would not shoot them. And indeed, the soldiers held their fire as the wanted men escaped by mingling with the crowd.
In July 2006, The New York Times described another
Contrast this with Palestinians' behavior when the
combatants are not Israelis. During last May's Hamas-Fatah infighting, for
instance, the Times reported: "The streets of
THE MEDIA reports above, and numerous others like them, make
three things clear: (1) Palestinians know full well that
In short, Palestinian civilian casualties usually result not from "disproportionate force" or "insufficient caution" by the IDF, but from Palestinian behavior, on the part of both civilians and terrorists.
But of course, realizing this would require actually reading
reports of the fighting. It is much easier just to skim the headlines and issue
stock condemnations of
(©) The
[Note: “Moderate”
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas helps the “Palestinians” to
perpetuate their misbegotten collective halo of Victimhood by falsely
accusing
Civil Fights: Meet the world's most incompetent ethnic cleansers
By Evelyn Gordon
(Jerusalem Post, March 20, 2008) It is hard to decide which aspect of Mahmoud
Abbas's recent "ethnic cleansing" accusation is more worrying: what
it reveals about him, or what it reveals about the world's willingness to
tolerate even the vilest and most obviously nonsensical slanders against
Israel.
Addressing the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Dakar last Thursday,
the Palestinian Authority chairman declared: "Our people in the city [of
Jerusalem] are facing an ethnic cleansing campaign through a set of Israeli
decisions such as imposing heavy taxes, banning construction and closing
Palestinian institutions, in addition to separating the city from the West Bank
by the racist separation wall."
If
But according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Jerusalem
Institute of Israel Studies,
Even during the intifada, which prompted the fence and the closed institutions
that Abbas decries, the Arab population continued
ballooning: It rose from 208,700 at the end of 2000 to 252,400 at the end of
2006, an increase of 21 percent in six years, or 3.5 percent a year.
Nor was the Arab growth solely due to natural increase: Ziad al-Hamouri, who
heads the Jerusalem Center for Economic Rights, estimates that some 30,000
Arabs have moved to Jerusalem since construction of the fence began; others put
the figure even higher.
IF ABBAS is truly unaware of these very well-publicized facts, this casts doubt
on his viability as a negotiating partner. Since any deal must be rooted in
reality, it is hard to negotiate with someone who remains determinedly ignorant
even about "core issues" such as
But in that case, the question becomes even more troubling -- because how can
you trust the moderation, good faith and peaceful intentions of someone who has
no qualms about publicly accusing you of such a heinous crime even knowing that
it is false? Bluntly, this was nothing less than deliberate incitement against
Nor was this a one-time aberration. Just last month, for instance, Abbas told
the Jordanian daily Al Dustour: "At this time, I object to the armed struggle,
since we are unable to conduct it; however, in future stages things may
change." Yet if his only reason for opposing armed struggle is that he
currently believes he cannot wage it successfully, that is hardly reassuring,
as this reason would disappear following a peace agreement: With the IDF gone
from the West Bank and Jordan border, Palestinians could easily import
quantities of sophisticated arms and plan attacks unhindered.
THEN THERE was the PA's rejection in December of a French proposal, backed by
senior UN officials, for a UN resolution mandating educational activities to
support the peace process. The proposal would have amended an existing
resolution that requires teaching about alleged Israeli crimes against the
Palestinians, thereby fostering hatred rather than reconciliation. Yet Abbas
evidently prefers fostering hatred.
It is hard to imagine anything more innocuous, or more vital to the success of
the process, than peace education. If Abbas cannot even agree to that, one has
to wonder about his commitment to peace.
There are numerous similar examples, such as his June 2006 charge that
But perhaps even more worrying than Abbas's statements is the world's response.
Not a single international leader bothered to condemn last week's ethnic
cleansing accusation. Nor did anyone condemn his Al-Dustour remarks, his
rejection of the peace education resolution, or any of his other
less-than-moderate statements and actions.
Given the world's fixation with resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its
reluctance to acknowledge that Abbas may be miscast as a peacemaker is
understandable. Yet by tolerating such blatant incitement, the international
community further undermines the prospects for peace.
First, such remarks scarcely encourage Israelis to believe that Abbas is acting
in good faith, which is an obvious prerequisite for Israeli consent to any
agreement. For that reason alone, the world should be interested in condemning
such remarks.
Far more important, however, is the message this sends to Palestinians. If
Abbas can hurl such vicious and patently false accusations at
That, in turn, encourages Palestinians to believe that eventually, the world
will force
(©) The
[Note: The “Palestinians” are so determined to maintain their misbegotten halo of “Victimhood” that they are more than willing to inflict damage upon themselves in the service of that goal. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Editorial**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Self-harm as strategy
(
But as the last month has made obvious, with the rule of
Hamas in
The clearest, but by no means the only example of this is
the fuel crisis that has brought transportation in
On April 9, it launched an assault on the fuel terminal at Nahal Oz, which provides gas and fuel to the residents of the Strip. Last week, Hamas militiamen attacked trucks heading toward the Nahal Oz crossing that carried fuel intended for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and hospitals in the Gaza Strip. And the IDF was forced on Sunday to halt deliveries through the Karni crossing after vehicles came under Palestinian mortar fire while attempting to deliver food and fuel to Gazans.
Hamas, of course, does not have a monopoly on such self-harm; in one form or another, the tactic is shared by all terrorist movements, including the intifadas that brought such ruin to the Palestinian population.
How then are we to understand such self-defeating behavior? There are two ways, as political scientist James Q. Wilson has said, of thinking about terrorism. One is to see terrorism as an extreme expression of underlying injustices, and to assume that if the root problem is solved, the symptom will disappear.
The second, and more realistic, is to understand that whatever the underlying injustice, there are terrorists who by their very nature oppose solutions that would remedy that injustice. Any reform or amelioration, short of destroying the state, threatens their raison d'etre.
THIS LESSON must guide
The problem with such offers is not merely that Hamas would
use a truce to rearm and regroup. Mashaal himself, after all, has proclaimed as
much. "It is a tactic in conducting the struggle; it is normal for any resistance
that operates in its people's interest... to sometimes escalate, other times
retreat a bit," he said in a recent interview with Al-Jazeera television.
Nor is it merely that the offer is accompanied by further threats of violence.
Hamas has warned of an "unprecedented escalation" against
The real problem, however, is that here too, Hamas's aim is not to reach a lasting resolution to the conflict, but precisely to exacerbate it -- to weaken the Israeli adversary and foster the illusion that the next set of concessions will be the last. "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill," Sun Tzu said in the 4th century BCE.
IN INTERNATIONAL relations, as in other dimensions of life,
the good intentions of others alone cannot aid those who refuse to help
themselves. As the
Civilized nations are in an unenviable position when
confronting regimes dedicated to the tragic ethos of self-harm. In the case of
Hamas, the best approach remains continued adherence to the Quartet's policy of
no contact with Hamas until it accepts the international community's three
conditions for engagement: recognizing
(©) The
[For an example of how the World's huge financial aid package to the relatively affluent "Palestinian" Arabs -- resulting from the World’s perverse preoccupation with their “plight” -- is causing truly deserving innocent souls in sub-Saharan Africa to literally die of hunger, please read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Don't mention
By Evelyn Gordon
(Jerusalem Post, March 12, 2006) If anyone still believes that terror reaps no
rewards, consider the fate of some 72,000 Angolan refugees in
Or rather, they did until January 1 [of 2006], when the food allowance was cut
by 40 percent, to 1,400 calories a day. Since then, unsurprisingly,
malnutrition has soared.
UNHCR instituted the cut because feeding 72,000 refugees 2,207 calories a day
for one year costs $8.5 million - but as of January 1, the agency had yet to
receive a penny in donations for 2006. Not knowing when more money might be
forthcoming, it was trying to make leftover supplies from 2005 last as long as
possible. In mid-February, the
YET WEALTHY countries are clearly not short of disposable cash: Just three days
after the Times report appeared, the European Union managed to scrounge up 120
million euros (about $143 million) in emergency aid for a more deserving cause:
the Palestinian Authority. Of this, some $21 million -- more than twice the
annual food budget of the Zambian refugee camps -- will go just toward paying
February salaries for some of the PA's approximately 135,000 employees.
Unlike the refugees, the PA's cash crunch is its own fault. It has two immediate
causes. First, the World Bank withheld a scheduled $60 million donation in
December after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, seeking to buy votes for his Fatah
party prior to the PA's January elections, defied the bank and raised PA
employees' salaries, thereby further bloating the authority's already bloated
public sector. According to the World Bank, the PA's approximately $1 billion
in independent annual revenues is now entirely consumed by salaries; for any
governmental activity outside of salaries, it depends on foreign aid. The bank
was unwilling to underwrite such financial mismanagement.
Second, following Hamas's victory in the elections,
YET EVEN taking a longer view, the PA's financial woes are still its own doing.
Since its establishment in 1994, the PA has received unprecedented amounts
of international aid. Before the [September 2000] intifada, its foreign aid per
capita was second only to that of
In addition, since 2000, the PA's economy has been further disrupted by Israeli
security measures imposed in response to the intifada. Among other things,
Yet these measures, once again, were a direct response to PA policy --
specifically, its policy toward the terrorist war that has claimed more than
1,000 Israeli lives. Under Yasser Arafat, the PA actively fomented terrorism;
under Abbas, it has not abetted terror, but neither has it actively tried to
stop it. Not only have the PA's 58,000-strong armed forces never been ordered
to hunt down terrorists, but many members of these forces actively participated
in terror attacks, while others deliberately turned a blind eye. Had the PA
instead made a good-faith effort to fight terror,
All of the above begs an obvious question: Why would the EU rather shell out an
extra $143 million -- on top of the 500 million euros a year that it and its
member states already give the Palestinians -- to subsidize the PA's
self-destructive policies, than donate $8.5 million to provide Angolan refugees
with an extra handful of corn? The
answer, quite simply, is terrorism.
According to the accepted EU wisdom, averting Palestinian distress is a
priority because Palestinian distress fuels Muslim rage worldwide. That theory
seems dubious: If Palestinian distress were really so important to the
Muslim world, it is hard to understand why, for instance, most of the PA's
foreign aid comes from the West rather than from wealthy Muslim oil states.
Nevertheless, it has attained the status of Holy Writ in
Angolan refugees, in contrast, have yet to perpetrate a
single suicide bombing. So really, who
cares if they starve to death?
(©) The
[Note: It is important to highlight the fact that,
despite the stagnant Palestinian Authority economy, there is virtually no
starvation among "Palestinian" Arabs. In fact, for many
years, Arab farmers in Judea,
As the Jerusalem Post reported on March 18, 2007 in the lead
paragraph of an article entitled “Security and Defense:
“Airports Authority workers at the
Karni cargo crossing into the Gaza Strip haven't worked so hard in a long time.
In the past four months, they have facilitated the transfer of 1,300 tons of
strawberries and 18 million flowers to
Moreover, unlike the hapless Angolan refugees in
I do, however, disagree with journalist Evelyn Gordon on one important point. It is not terrorism -- or, rather, the World's fear of terrorism -- that has catapulted the "Palestinian" Arabs to their favored status among the nations. Otherwise, other groups that also practice terrorism, such as the Chechens, the Basques (particularly via the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna -- "Basque Country and Freedom" -- organization, known as the E.T.A.), the Catholics of Northern Ireland (particularly via the Irish Republican Army organization, known as the I.R.A.) and the Muslims of Kashmir, would have been able to achieve similar celebrity status. On the contrary, as I have stated elsewhere, the "Palestinian" Arabs owe their rarified status to the simple fact that they make war against the Jews.]
[“Palestinian” spokesmen and the World’s media outlets have been loudly and successfully lamenting for many months that the democratic and legitimate election of a Hamas government to rule the Palestinian Authority has caused Western aid donor nations to unfairly impose an “economic siege” against the “Palestinians”, thereby impoverishing them to the point of starvation. However, this is just another example of bestowing upon the “Palestinians” a misbegotten halo of Victimhood. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
The Palestinians aren't broke
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evelyn Gordon, THE
Nov. 8, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there is one thing at which the Palestinians excel, it is public relations. With their elected government ostracized by the West, their task would seem daunting. Yet despite this handicap, they have successfully diverted Western attention for months from two embarrassing questions.
The first relates to money. In recent months, the media have been filled with dire reports about the growing humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Authority. And at first glance, this seems logical: The West cut off aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas took power, and since Western aid comprised most of the PA's budget, a crisis would seem inevitable.
Yet as recent news reports have made clear, the PA appears to have plenty of money. It has simply chosen to use its funds for purposes other than its people's welfare.
For instance, Israeli intelligence has detected more than 20
tons of explosives being smuggled into
Or consider the fact, noted in an IMF [International Monetary Fund] report published last week, that in June, while the Hamas government was already pleading inability to pay existing PA employees, it decided to increase the PA's payroll by hiring an additional 5,400 employees, mainly security personnel -- read gunmen -- affiliated with Hamas. In other words, it had the money to hire 5,400 Hamas-affiliated gunmen: It was only when it came to teachers and doctors that its pockets were empty.
OR CONSIDER the incredible fact that despite the boycott, the European Union - for years the PA's principal donor -- has actually given more money to the Palestinians this year than it did in previous years. According to John Vinocur of the International Herald Tribune, the EU claims to have given $814 million to the Palestinians between January and October, "more than it would in a normal year."
Granted, the money has not gone to the Hamas government. Some has gone to Abbas's office, some to nongovernmental organizations and some directly to PA employees, through a "Hamas bypass" mechanism set up earlier this year. But the fact remains that the EU, the PA's major donor, has increased rather than decreased its contributions -- which means that if this money were being used for its intended purpose, a humanitarian crisis would seem unlikely. So is the humanitarian crisis a propaganda lie, or has this money, too, been diverted by its recipients to purposes other than the Palestinians' welfare?
BUT IF the PA's finances ought to prompt hard questions from the West, this is no less true of its counterterror efforts - or rather, the lack thereof. For years, the West has maintained that Abbas, unlike Hamas, wants to fight terror, but is incapable of doing so. Yet in fact, Abbas's forces have demonstrated exceptional proficiency in handling certain types of attacks - namely, those directed at Western journalists and aid workers.
Over the past year, there have been numerous kidnappings of
foreigners. Just last week, for instance, a Spanish aid worker was kidnapped in
This begs an obvious question: How is it that Abbas's security forces are so quickly able to locate and free kidnapped Westerners, but are completely incapable of dealing with any other type of terrorist activity?
Even during Abbas's 14 months in sole control of the PA,
from January 2005 to March 2006, his forces failed to arrest so much as a
single one of the terrorists who have launched Kassam rockets into
The conclusion is obvious: Abbas's forces are quite capable of taking action when he wishes them to do so, and in the case of Western journalists and aid workers, he does. He knows that these journalists and aid workers are largely responsible for generating Western sympathy for the Palestinian cause, and it is therefore important to him that they keep coming. And since this would be less likely if they risked torture or death at the hands of kidnappers, he makes sure that kidnapped Westerners are rescued quickly and unharmed.
But Abbas has no interest whatsoever in fighting anti-Israel terror, because that would be unpopular with his own public: As one September poll found, 63 percent of Palestinians support bombarding Israeli cities with rockets, 57 percent support suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and 75 percent favor kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Yet neither can he openly advocate such attacks, since that could lead to the West boycotting him like it does Hamas. The obvious solution is to plead helplessness and rely on a gullible West to swallow this plea.
Unfortunately, relying on Western gullibility has so far been a safe bet with regard to both money and terrorism. But if the West is serious about wanting an Israeli-Palestinian peace, it will have to stop turning a blind eye to both the PA's misuse of funds earmarked for its people's welfare and its refusal -0 not inability -0 to combat anti-Israel terror. Because if the PA can enjoy Western diplomatic and material support even without amending its behavior, it will have no incentive to change. And without change, neither the conflict nor Palestinian misery will end.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1995-2006 The
[Below is a news article demonstrating that the “Palestinians”, who are apparently suffering from a surfeit of meat, are hardly starving. Read on!]
Shipment of meat smuggled from
By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
(
The Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday that intelligence data helped them
catch the violators.
There is a strict ban on the movement of animal products from the Palestinian
Authority to
The public were warned to buy meat products only if the original package is
closed, clean and with labels of the production and expiration date.
(©) The
[Note: Despite the much-criticized “economic siege” imposed upon the “Palestinians” by the aid donor countries of the West in the wake of Hamas’ ascension to leadership of the Palestinian Authority, it seems that international aid to the “Palestinians” has actually increased. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
Int'l aid to Palestinians up since Hamas win
By Aimee Rhodes
(Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2007) International aid to the Palestinians
increased by nearly 10 percent following Hamas's election victory, the United
Nations under-secretary general for political affairs told the UN Security
Council on Thursday.
Ibrahim Gambari said on the anniversary of Hamas's win that aid to Palestinians
in 2006 had actually increased, despite the reassessment of donor programs and
the cessation of financial transfers by
He said that most of the aid was bypassing the Palestinian government.
"Total assistance to Palestinians last year -- not including funds
channeled to the Palestinian Authority government or Hamas by regional donors
-- had been $1.2 billion, which represented a nearly 10% increase over
2005," a UN press release said.
Gambari said that humanitarian assistance alone had doubled since 2004 and
primarily took the form of food aid and cash-for-work programs. He added,
however, that real gross domestic product per capita had actually declined in
2006 by at least 8%, and poverty levels had increased some 30%.
During the briefing, Gambai spoke of the need to jump-start the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He said he considered the upcoming meeting
of the Quartet slated for February 2 in
Quoted as stating, "None of us can afford another year like the last one
in
Gambari, who addressed a broad range of issues including internal Israeli and
Palestinian matters, also decried Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank,
saying that the number of "West Bank settlers had increased by nearly six
percent since 2005."
(©) The
[Note: Despite the
international media’s insistence on describing
Border Collapse A Trial [excerpt republished]
Breach Tests Resolve Of Egyptian Leaders, Causes Alarm In
By RUSHDI ABU ALOUF And RICHARD BOUDREAUX
January 24, 2008
RAFAH,
The collapse of
After masked gunmen used land mines to blast through a
seven-mile-long border wall, tens of thousands of jubilant Gazans went on an
Egyptian buying spree for gasoline, heating oil, rice, sugar, milk, cheese,
cigarettes, tires, cement, television sets and mobile phones.
But the breach stirred alarm in Israel over the prospect that Palestinian militants could return with weapons, slipping into crowds of shoppers lugging household merchandise to the impoverished territory run by the Islamic movement Hamas.
. . .
Copyright 2008
Los Angeles Times
Gazans bulldoze new hole in wall
By Joel Greenberg, Tribune correspondent
January 26, 2008
The border breach at Rafah, in defiance of a tightened
Israeli blockade imposed on
Public opinion in
Pressed by the
After announcing over loudspeakers that the border would close at 3 p.m. local time, lines of Egyptian riot police carrying plastic shields and sticks faced off with crowds, sometimes lashing out at people to push them back. Stones were thrown, and the police responded with water cannons.
A bulldozer carrying black-clad Hamas militants plowed into a concrete border wall, flattening sections of it as gunfire went off and onlookers cheered. Hundreds then surged through the opening, some carrying plastic jugs for fuel, as riot police watched from nearby.
Cows and motorcycles
In other areas along the border, thousands of Gazans
pushed past police lines and continued to move into and out of Egypt for a
third day, hauling back goods on foot and on donkey carts. Cranes lifted
camels, cows and motorcycles into the Gaza Strip, along with crates of
supplies. Sheep were heaved over the border wall.
Palestinians have been buying food, cigarettes, medicine,
electrical appliances, cement and livestock, replenishing stocks of items whose
import has been banned by
By late afternoon Friday, the Egyptian riot police were
withdrawn from the border, allowing people to move freely again. A UN official
in
As it resisted Egyptian attempts to close the border, Hamas
said it was ready to work out a permanent border-crossing arrangement with
"We insist and urge our Egyptian brothers that there must be a mechanism to allow the passage of people and goods through the Rafah crossing in a legal and organized manner," said Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas government spokesman.
But it was unclear whether
A nudge from Rice
"I understand it is a difficult situation for them," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. "But it is an international border, it needs to be protected."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in an interview published Friday
in the weekly Al-Osboa, called conditions in the Gaza Strip
"unacceptable" and urged
In two early-morning air strikes on vehicles in the Rafah
area,
In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed an
18-year-old Palestinian in a stone-throwing clash in the
----------
jogreenberg@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008,
|
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE |
Feb. 7, 2008 |
Egyptian authorities are investigating claims that many Gazans bought land in Sinai in the past few weeks.
Leaders of several Beduin tribes living in Sinai have sent a
message to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in which they strongly denied that
their families sold land to Palestinians who poured into
. . .
In their message, the Beduin leaders said they opposed selling their land to Palestinians or to any other "foreigners."
Mubarak dispatched the governor of northern Sinai, Ahmed Abdel Hamid, to warn the Beduin in Sinai against selling land to Palestinians. Palestinian sources claimed earlier that dozens of families from the Gaza Strip who crossed into Sinai have purchased thousands of dunams of land from Beduin tribes there.
"The Egyptian fear that Palestinian families are planning to settle in Sinai," the sources added.
The semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper in
According to the report, Egyptian authorities have also seized 22 vehicles with Palestinian registration plates.
. . .
Copyright 1995- 2008 The
Analysis: When Hamas founded a mini-state [excerpt republished]
By YAAKOV AMIDROR and DAN DIKER
(
Opening
However, recent events in
The opening of the state of
The radical Hamas government, which is financed, trained and
armed by
. . .
© The
[Note: Apparently,
the “improverished” Arabs of Judea and
Top Abbas aide 'betrayed' by his driver
By Khaled Abu Toameh
(Jerusalem Post, March 20, 2008) Rauhi Fattouh, former speaker of the
Palestinian Legislative Council and a close aide to Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas, denied Wednesday that he had tried to smuggle 3,000
cellular phones from
Fattouh, who served as acting PA Chairman for three months following the death
of Yasser Arafat, claimed that it was his driver who had tried to smuggle the
phones as they were crossing the
This would not be the first time that PA officials use their Israeli-issued VIP
passes to smuggle goods into the Palestinian territories.
Fattouh and the driver were caught by customs officers during a routine check
of their vehicle and baggage.
After discovering the cellular phones, the customs officers summoned the
police, who briefly detained the two for questioning.
The police then reported the incident to the office of Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav,
coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories, who
decided to temporarily revoke Fattouh's VIP pass.
"My driver has acted in an immoral and irresponsible manner," Fattouh
told The Jerusalem Post. "He has exploited his position as driver of a
senior official to smuggle the phones. He also used an official vehicle in
violation of regulations."
Fattouh said that as soon as he learned about the confiscation of the smuggled
cellular phones, he contacted the Palestinian security forces, asking them to
detain the driver. "An investigation is underway to determine who's behind
this attempt and whether the driver had accomplices," Fattouh said.
A PA security official in Ramallah said the driver has admitted to being behind
the smuggling attempt. The official said the driver also admitted to having a
Jordanian accomplice.
"The driver said that he tried to smuggle the cellular phones without
Fattouh's knowledge," the official told the Post. "He has caused huge
damage to Fattouh's reputation."
Fattouh accused the Israeli media of "exaggerating" the story. He
also lashed out at the Israeli authorities for allegedly leaking the story to
the media. Fattouh said he was enraged and saddened not because of the media
reports as much as the feeling that he had been "betrayed" by his
personal driver.
(©) The
[Note: The “impoverished” Gazans are said to be living in the most densely-populated “prison” in the World. However, this oft-reiterated aspect of their “Victimhood” also turns out to be false. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
By LENNY BEN-DAVID
(Jerusalem Post, January 21, 2009)
About 9,713 Gazans are crowded into each square mile of the strip's total 147
square miles, according to the US Census Bureau. But there are denser areas in
the world such as
Population density need not translate to abject poverty and political unrest.
Presumably, Israeli military planners and international diplomats are already
deliberating options for
Where? On the ruins of Gush Katif settlements, relatively large areas that were
expropriated by Hamas and Palestinian militias and used as bases until IAF
bombers razed them. During the fighting, the area of the former Netzarim
settlement and IDF base, situated at a crucial crossroads south of
New Yorkers are familiar with
For some of the Palestinians in Gaza, a redesigning of Levittown-type
single-family housing may be appropriate for clan life. For other
A mega-housing project in
THE PROJECT will require a shift in Palestinian thinking. Twenty-five years ago
the Palestinians vehemently opposed Israeli attempts to build new housing for
refugees. The descendents of refugees who live in crowded camps make up
one-third of
In the mid-1990s I visited high-rise apartments under construction in
Hundreds of tons of cement have been poured in
The writer served as deputy chief of mission in the embassy in
(©) The
[Note: Propaganda notwithstanding, the relatively healthy, educated and affluent Gazans are “Victims” only of themselves. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
A free lunch for Hamas
By Justus Weiner
(Jerusalem Post, February 8, 2009) Daily Telegraph (London) correspondent Tim
Butcher recently reported from Gaza after the war, stating: "Targets had
been selected and then hit... but almost always with precision munitions... I
was struck by how cosmetically unchanged
Despite this, as far back as 1996 the NGO [non-governmental organization] Human
Rights Watch has been predicting an "imminent humanitarian
crisis/disaster" in
In actuality,
Tony Blair, former British prime minister and current Quartet peace envoy,
explained that "most people don't understand -- that we're trying to urge
Israel to get fuel into Gaza, and then the extremists come and kill the people
bringing the fuel in. It's a crazy situation." Thus, time and time again,
the aid that
The "imminent humanitarian crisis" chorus is not only exaggerated, it
is also entirely specious. In the words of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the
critics "should point their criticism toward the Hamas terrorist
organization that controls the Gaza Strip." A ministry spokesman also
stated that "
LET'S LOOK at the facts.
According to the World Bank, the Palestinians are the largest per capita
recipients of foreign aid worldwide. Regrettably, over the past 60 years, tens
of billions of dollars have been mismanaged by the UNRWA due to the
organization's lax oversight and faulty accountability mechanisms. Last year,
James Lindsay, former legal adviser to UNRWA, wrote a highly critical report
calling on the organization to "ensure the agency is not employing or
providing benefits to terrorists and criminals." Moreover, a member of the
US Congress recently declared "there is absolutely no reason why the
United Nations cannot take aggressive action to ensure that not one penny of US
dollars is being redistributed to terrorists."
In the aftermath of the recent
Several other relatively unknown facts regarding
Third,
Likewise, despite the ceaseless repetition by journalists that "the Gaza Strip
is the most densely populated place on Earth," it is in fact markedly less
densely populated than an array of other locales, including a number of
economic success stories such as
AN ADDITIONAL MYTH popularized by the media, NGOs and certain governments
accuses
Some provisions of international law impose upon
Thus, arguably,
The conflated message of the NGOs and the Hamas authorities in
In conclusion, there should be no free lunch. Why should the Hamas leadership,
responsible for destroying what existed, be entrusted to dole out
reconstruction financing? Simply put, terrorists and those complicit with them
should not be handed the purse strings that will finance a new war.
The writer is an international human rights lawyer and a member of the
(©) The
[Note: Although
(according to the United Nations, international “human rights” organizations
and the international media) Gazans are on the verge of “mass starvation” due
to
Jul. 18, 2009
AP and Jpost Staff, THE
The first feature film produced by Hamas made its debut this weekend, complete with an exclusive crowd of local celebrities posing for photographers at the movie premier screening in Gaza.
The action-packed thriller, an homage to a top Hamas operative, cost only $200,000 to make and is being shown to segregated audiences of bearded men and veiled women.
"It's Hamaswood instead of Hollywood," Fathi Hamad, Gaza's Hamas interior minister, said after the film's first showing Friday evening at Gaza City's Islamic University. "We are trying to make quality art that is Islamic and about the resistance, without provocative (sexual) scenes."
Hamad doubled as producer, and the screenplay was penned by
Mahmoud Zahar, the
Despite his fierce reputation, Zahar, a physician, has always had an artistic streak, with three novels and two screenplays to his credit.
The movie tells the story of Emad Akel, commander of the
Hamas military wing, who was killed in a firefight with Israeli troops in
Akel, 23 at the time, was known as "the ghost" for
his many disguises, including dressing up as a Jewish settler with a skullcap.
In the early 1990s, he topped
In the two-hour movie, titled "Emad Akel," there's plenty of action. The hero frequently leaps out of cars to open fire on Israeli soldiers, prompting bursts of applause from the audience each time. There's no romance, however, and the female actors all wear long robes and headscarves.
The actors playing the Israeli characters -- soldiers, then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his army chief of staff at the time, Ehud Barak -- speak heavily accented Hebrew, with Arabic subtitles providing explanations.
Rabin frequently yells at an inept Barak - now
The cast is made up of amateur actors, including 57-year-old carpenter Mohammed Abu Rous, who portrays Rabin, assassinated in 1995 by an ultranationalist Jew. "I wanted to serve my country just like Rabin served the Jews," said Abu Rous, who oddly resembles the Israeli leader.
The movie was shot over 10 months on a production lot that Hamas hopes will one day grow into a $200 million media city. As part of its media empire, Hamas already operates a Gaza-based satellite television station, a radio station and a dozen news Web sites. Two daily newspapers are linked to Hamas, and the group produces a Hamas newsletter and an occasional glossy for its militant wing.
Still,
Hamad and Zahar want to make their next movie about
Palestinian fighter Izzedine al-Qassam, after whom their military wing is
named. But they can't film on location, the Israeli city of
But in a stark sign of the divergent paths being taken by
the two separate territories the Palestinians want for a state, movie houses
are reopening in the
A movie poster in the West Bank city of Nablus shows Lebanese star Haifa Wehbe in an alluring red dress emphasizing her curvy figure -- a sharp contrast to the stern face of Emad Akel in Gaza that peers down from billboards clutching an assault-rifle with Israeli soldiers running in the background.
At Friday's invitation-only screening, the real stars were
Zahar, Hamad and
Zahar said making movies is just another way for Palestinians to fight Israeli rule.
"Resistance can be a word, a poem," he said.
Copyright 1995 - 2009 The
[Note: Gaza has been “suffering” from prosperity. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
'Illegal' Gaza tunnel owners suffer as Hamas economy grows
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent February 17, 2010
Owners of the smuggling tunnels bordering the Gaza Strip and Egypt have been suffering from financial problems due to their tunnels' inactivity, according to Palestinian sources.
The reason, it turns out, actually stems from the overall success of smuggling tunnels in Gaza. Hamas has recently set up 'legal' tunnels, which they use to smuggle various merchandise. As a result, existing, non-Hamas run tunnels are suffering financially.
The Hamas tunnels are used to bring in merchandise intended for sale in markets, such as food products and home appliances. Palestinians believe that the overflow of goods caused a complete smuggling standstill in dozens of underground channels. Moreover, work on digging additional tunnels has also stopped.
The tunnel owners explain that the increase in merchandise in Gaza made prices sharply decrease, which seriously reduced the earnings from the 'illegal' smuggling industry. One of the tunnel owners told a news agency that he is waiting for a reasonable business offer to come along, because at the moment it isn't profitable for him to open the channel to smuggling.
In 2008, the smuggling tunnel trade flourished due to the
Israeli blockade on
The Hamas-run tunnels, which are deemed legal by the
government, are now experiencing continuous activity. Under Hamas rule,
hundreds of underground channels have been dug between
The recent increase in smuggled goods in Gaza caused many factories to renew activity. Overall, if judging by the two most smuggled products - gasoline and cement - tunnel activity has actually caused Gaza to experience an economic reawakening.
Ultimately, the tunnel owners' crisis came from being overly successful. "The last two weeks were the worst in the smuggling tunnel trade since the blockade in June of 2007," said a tunnel owner.
Copyright 2010 Haaretz
Bargain Prices for 'Zionist' Clothes in New Gaza Luxury Mall
By Maayana Miskin Arutz Sheva Tuesday, July 20, 2010, Av 9, 5770
While Hamas continues to complain that Gaza lacks building materials, a luxury mall in Gaza City held its grand opening over the weekend. Among the goods on sale are Israeli men's clothing, and items from Turkey, France, and the United States.
Photojournalist Tom Gross, who publicized photos from
Saturday's event on his website, noted that the opening coincided with a visit to
Gaza from European Union foreign policy director Catherine Ashton. “The BBC and
other media have featured extensive reports all day long on what they term the
dire economic situation in
Pictures of the new mall were featured on the Palestinian Authority Safa website and by the Associated Press.
A variety of stores sell cosmetics, clothing, office supplies, toys, shoes, appliances and more. The mall boasts air conditioning and a delivery service.
Hamas has often accused Israel of creating a “siege” by keeping its border crossings to Gaza closed. According to Hamas, Gaza lacks electricity and building supplies.
Gross, who has previously posted pictures of fancy restaurants, shops filled with goods, and even an Olympic-size swimming pool during the “Israeli siege”, pointed out that Gaza enjoys a higher standard of living than Turkey, which recently sent citizens on a flotilla to Gaza in violation of an Israeli naval blockade of Hamas. Noting that life expectancy and literacy rates are higher in Gaza than in Turkey, while infant mortality rates are lower, he asked, “Have they considered that perhaps the humanitarian flotillas ought to be going in the other direction, towards Turkey?””
Despite the bargain prices, Israelis are advised that it is
forbidden to enter
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
Egyptian Journalist Describes 'Absolute Prosperity' in Gaza
By Maayana Miskin Arutz Sheva Friday, July 30, 2010, Av 19, 5770
With Hamas telling tales of deprivation and suffering in
"A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested
by the grand resorts along and near
Concerned that his initial impression of prosperity may have been misleading, “I toured the new resorts, most of which are quite grand, as well as the commercial markets, to verify my hypothesis. The resorts and markets have come to symbolize prosperity, and to prove that the siege is formal or political, not economic,” Al-Houl said.
The evident prosperity is not enjoyed by all, or even most,
of
Most of the new resorts “are owned by members, or
associates, of Hamas,” he reported. “In addition, the Hamas municipalities
charge high fees, in
Al-Houl quoted political activist Mustafa Ibrahim as saying
that while
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
Guest Columnist: Down and out in Gaza? [excerpt republished]
By DAVID ROSENBERG
If the Turks still insist on sending an aid ship later
this month, they might think of rerouting it to Egypt or Syria.
(Jerusalem Post, June 10, 2011) A curious incident occurred at the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt the morning of May 28. To paraphrase Arthur Conan Doyle, the curious incident was that nothing much happened at all.
Here was Gaza, billed as the world’s biggest prison, joyously celebrating what was variously described as a historical event, a tiny but symbolically important opening to the outside world after four years of seizure. Yet at the end of the first day of freedom, only 565 Gaza residents had crossed into Egypt, and the terminal was empty by the afternoon. The number fell to 404 on Sunday, picked up to 631 on Monday, and then kept dropping so that by Thursday Hamas was alleging that someone was hardening the Egyptian heart and oppressing the freedom-seeking for the second time in 3,000 years.
Rafah had been open for a year (although the categories of eligible travelers were more limited), and according to some reports, 160,000 people had traveled through it before the historic reopening. Even now, not everyone can freely pass: Adult men need visas, and crossing is limited for now to people who previously registered. But the fact is that even registered travelers didn’t rush to escape. Although the media were filled with emotional accounts of liberation, many Gazans said they were in no rush to travel.
The Gaza-as-prison has been somewhat overwrought. But what about Gaza’s humanitarian crisis? A Google search under “Gaza humanitarian crisis” reveals 1.1 million results (four times the number for Darfur, incidentally), but the references drop off precipitously after 2010 when Israel eased controls of its crossings following the Mavi Marmara. Most of the recent references to a crisis are Israel saying there isn’t one. Failing a real crisis, many Palestinian activists insist that Gazans suffer psychological trauma, which if nothing else at least is the kind of crisis well-fed and healthy Westerners can relate to.
The fact is that even at its worst, Gaza was never the humanitarian disaster it was made out to be – not the kind with starving children in the streets or with people dying slowly in hospitals for lack of medicine. Lacking pictures, activists would produce hundreds of statistics to try and illustrate a crisis that wasn’t quite there. But the statistics were selective and were in many cases not atypical of a Third World country. In fact, the infant mortality rate in Gaza is lower than most of the Middle East, and life expectancy is higher than the world average. If the Turks still insist on sending an aid ship later this month, they might think of rerouting it to Egypt or Syria.
. . .
The writer is executive business editor at The Media
Line. His book Israel: The Knowledge Economy and Its Costs will be published by
Palgrave Macmillan in 2012.
All rights reserved © The Jerusalem Post 1995 – 2011
Humanitarian Crisis: Gaza Exporting Aid!
by Gavriel Queenann
(Arutz Sheva, August 14, 2011) In another sign that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza isn't all it is said to be, Gazans are sending aid to Somalia.
Imams in mosques in the Gaza strip mentioned Somalia during Friday prayers last week and asked Gazans to donate to their brothers there.
Moreover, the Arab Doctors Union Gaza branch ran a campaign asking the people of Gaza to donate to people of Somalia.
The campaign, called "From Gaza hand in hand to save the children of Somalia", will last throughout Ramadan.
The Union took out advertisements supporting the campaign in local radios and websites to encourage people to contribute to the campaign. It is planning advertisements on local television also.
Various people responded to the campaign, but most donations came from the local non-governmental organisations and some wealthy businessmen, according to the organizers of the campaign.
One of the donors, Mohammed Abd Al Latif said, "I saw the pictures of our brothers in Somalia and felt so sorry for them; I wanted to do anything to help."
"The campaign aimed at demonstrating the extent of physical cohesion between the besieged Gaza and Somalia, showing that the Palestinian people are capable of supporting and standing by the Somali people," said Ahmad Hathat, the public relations officer of the Union.
The charity campaign underscores the fact that Gaza is swimming in surplus aid from an international community willing to underwrite the national aspirations of Fatah and Hamas to the extent that their enclaves have become transit points, rather than a destination, for aid.
All rights reserved © Arutz Sheva
[Note: While the World is always warning that the “Palestinian” Arabs are so “impoverished” that they are on the verge of a humanitarian castastrophe, at least the “Palestinians” have real food to eat. Read on! -- Mark Rosenblit]
For Hungry Haitians, Mud's A Meal
Cheap Cookies Better Than Nothing
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press
January 30, 2008
It was lunchtime in one of
With food prices rising,
Charlene, 16, with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs — cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.
The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds, 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
Although she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky, too," she said.
Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.
The problem is especially dire in the
The global price hikes, together with floods and crop damage
from the 2007 hurricane season, prompted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency
to declare states of emergency in
At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago.
Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.
Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain
compared with food staples. About 80 percent of people in
Merchants truck the dirt from the central town of
Carrying buckets of dirt and water up ladders to the roof of the former prison for which the slum is named, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt.
Then they pat the mixture into mud cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun.
The finished cookies are carried in buckets to markets or sold on the streets.
A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.
Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can
contain deadly parasites or toxins, but can also strengthen the immunity of
fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology
professor at
Haitian doctors say that depending on the cookies for sustenance risks malnutrition.
"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I
will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of
Marie Noel, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.
"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me."
Copyright 2008 Associated Press
[Note: The
“Palestinians”, who are universally portrayed as “suffering”, are not even
close to experiencing the serious deprivations striking truly improverished
populations elsewhere in the World.
Unlike the propaganda-driven “humanitarian crisis” in
'Myanmar death toll may hit 100,000'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jpost.com staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST May 8, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The death toll from
Meanwhile, two Israelis who were in
According to the minutes of a UN aid meeting obtained by The Associated Press, the military junta's visa restrictions were hampering international relief efforts.
Only a handful of UN aid workers had been let into the
impoverished Southeast Asian country, which the government has kept isolated
for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control. The
Entire villages in the
"I don't know what happened to my wife and young children," said Phan Maung, 55, who held onto a coconut tree until the water level dropped. By then his family was gone.
A spokesman for the UN Children's Fund said its staff in
"There's widespread devastation. Buildings and health centers
are flattened and bloated dead animals are floating around, which is an alarm
for spreading disease. These are massive and horrific scenes," Patrick
McCormick said at UNICEF offices in
American diplomat Shari Villarosa, who heads the US Embassy
in
The situation is "increasingly horrendous," she said in a telephone call to reporters. "There is a very real risk of disease outbreaks."
A few shops reopened in the Irrawaddy delta, but they were
quickly overwhelmed by desperate people, said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the
UN World Food Program in
"Fistfights are breaking out," he said.
A
Local aid groups distributed rice porridge, which people collected in dirty plastic shopping bags, he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared getting into trouble with authorities for talking to a foreign news agency.
UN officials estimated some 1 million people had been left
homeless in
Some aid workers said heavily flooded areas were accessible only by boat, with helicopters unable to find dry spots for landing relief supplies.
"Basically the entire lower delta region is under water," said Richard Horsey, the Thailand-based spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.
"Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water," he said. This is "a major, major disaster we're dealing with."
International assistance began trickling in Wednesday with the first shipments of medicine, clothing and food. But the junta, which normally restricts access by foreign officials and groups, was slow to give permission for workers to enter.
"Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it
will be sorted out," said the minutes of a meeting of the UN task force coordinating
relief for
McCormick, the UNICEF spokesman, said the agency had 130
people in
"We're hopeful they will start fast-tracking visas for humanitarian personnel," he said. "The government clearly weren't prepared and needs to step up to the plate. We can't work in a vacuum, and we need the host government to work with us and to eventually take over."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the junta to speed the arrival of aid workers and relief supplies "in every way possible."
As they wrangled with
The "most urgent need is food and water," said
Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the Children in
State television said
The first UN flights, carrying 45 metric tons of high energy biscuits, were due to arrive early Thursday.
Some aid workers told the AP that the government wanted
emergency supplies to be distributed by relief workers already in place, rather
than through foreign staff brought into
US President George W. Bush said the
Three US Navy warships participating in an exercise in the
In
Officials in
Jim Andrews, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said satellite photos showed flooding of similar magnitude to that of Hurricane Katrina. "It's a similar kind of land to New Orleans ... an intricate network of tidal creeks and openings that allow easy access for a powerful storm surge to penetrate right into populated land," he said.
State television quoted a government official, Gen. Tha Aye, as reassuring people the situation was "returning to normal."
But residents of
At a suburban market, a fishmonger shouted to shoppers: "Come, come the fish is very fresh." But an angry woman snapped: "Even if the fish is fresh, I have no water to cook it!"
Most residents of
The cyclone came a week before a referendum on a proposed constitution backed by the junta. State radio said Saturday's vote would be delayed in areas affected by the storm, but balloting would proceed elsewhere.
A top
"It's a huge crisis and it just seems odd to me that
the government would go ahead with the referendum in this circumstance,"
said Scot Marciel, the
This week, first lady Laura Bush called the referendum a sham, and she also criticized the junta's handling of the storm. "We know already that they are very inept," she said.
The comments drew rebukes even from some
Aye Chan Naing, editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a
"Everybody knows what kind of regime they are, so there is no question about that. The question right now is how to get the aid into the country," he said. "So the best way is to use a diplomatic way and to have an open dialogue and keep talking until they agree."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1995- 2008 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chinese authorities are racing to prevent diseases breaking out among 5 million people left homeless in the wake of the massive earthquake that killed almost 70,000.
Workers in protective suits circled collapsed communities in trucks on Monday, spraying disinfectant on the rubble.
Providing safe food, drinking water and temporary shelters was a priority following the May 12 earthquake, the Health Ministry said. Bodies discovered in the rubble were being disinfected, ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said in an interview posted on the central government's Web site.
"If we can do those four things properly, we have the confidence to guarantee there will be no epidemics after the disaster," Mao said. He said there was no evidence of contagious diseases in the quake zone, where survivors were crammed into tents and other temporary shelters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1995- 2008 The
Child malnutrition is an old stain on a new
By Henry Chu,
A healthy child his age ought to weigh nearly twice as much. But very little about Deep is healthy. Whereas a normal toddler would run around, the boy seems to struggle to keep his stunted frame sitting upright. His limbs are pitifully thin, the bones within as fragile as glass.
These are classic signs of severe malnutrition, and they are
branded on the wasted bodies of millions of youngsters across
Astonishingly, an estimated 40% of all the world's severely malnourished children younger than 5 live in this country, a dark stain on the record of a nation that touts its high rate of economic growth and fancies itself a rising power.
Soaring food prices and ineffectual government threaten to push that figure even higher. Officials are beginning to wake up to the magnitude of the emergency, as experts warn of grave consequences for the future of India's economic boom if the state fails to improve the well-being of its youngest citizens.
Already, the proportion of malnourished children is several times
greater than in
"This is a stunning fact," said Abhijit Banerjee, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has studied the problem.
To its credit,
But that achievement, as well as the recent euphoria over
Many officials were shocked when a 2005-06 government study revealed hardly any progress in reducing child malnutrition over the last decade and a half -- exactly when the Indian economy was exploding and attracting international attention.
"This has not been a policy priority for this country
for the last 40 years," said Victor M. Aguayo, chief of child nutrition
and development at the United Nations Children's Fund office in
Instead,
In a speech last year, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged the gravity of the situation, calling it a "national shame."
"We cannot deny that it is a crisis," said Loveleen Kacker, a senior official at the central Ministry for Women and Child Development. "Maybe we didn't treat it like a crisis earlier, which we should have. Then we would have taken corrective steps much earlier than now. And what we're thinking of doing now we should've started 10 years back."
The World Bank estimates that malnutrition and its negative
effects on health and productivity cost
"It's not nice to want to have an international role and then find that you're having to defend such an indefensible position," Kacker said.
Just why malnutrition remains such a stubborn problem here is due to a constellation of causes that tend to reinforce and aggravate each other, creating "the perfect storm of risk factors," as Aguayo put it.
At root is the abject poverty so pervasive in
That deprivation can stack the cards against a child before he or she is even born. Too many women here are underweight and undernourished themselves, the major reason why 30% of Indian babies enter the world weighing less than 5 1/2 pounds. Afterward, in the crucial first two years of life, many children are fed sugary water, animal milk, rice and other foods lacking the fat, protein and vitamins necessary for proper physical and mental growth.
"Women too thin and anemic, giving birth to tiny
babies, who are poorly fed in the first two years of life: That's the synopsis
of the tragedy," Aguayo said. "
That cycle is plainly evident with 20-month-old Deep and his mother, Bachiya Devi, here in the dirt-poor eastern state of Bihar, where the proportion of malnourished children younger than 3 has actually risen, not dropped, in recent years, from 54% to 58%.
Like her son's, Devi's arms are stick-thin, the bangles adorning them sliding up and down with no resistance. The sinews of her neck protrude, while her chest seems lost far below the folds of her canary-yellow sari. Her careworn face suggests an age much older than her 45 years.
With a blind husband who is unable to work, Devi depends on her parents to help out with buying food. She reckons that 100 rupees a day would be enough to guarantee two square meals for her husband, herself and the three of their five children who live at home. But from her modest vegetable stall she earns an average of 30 rupees a day, the equivalent of 70 cents.
"There are four or five days a month when the pot doesn't boil and we go hungry," Devi said. At home, little Deep, her youngest child and only son, eats one roti, or piece of flatbread, a day, plus some rice and occasionally some vegetables.
"I'm a poor woman," Devi said.
"What more can I afford?"
As she spoke, her sleeping son twitched fitfully on a bed in a "nutrition rehabilitation center" here in Saraiya sponsored by UNICEF, which in effect provides triage for the worst-hit.
The ward is a study in cheated childhood. Mumta, at 22 months, looks less than half her age; her rib cage can be easily felt beneath her clothes. Muskan, 1 1/2 , lies still under her mother's watchful gaze, a blue hand towel covering nearly her entire body. Vikas, almost 4 and suffering from cerebral palsy, can barely sit up without help from his gaunt mother, who is 45 and pregnant with her fifth child.
There are flickers of hope. After 10 days of eating nutrient-laden eggs and other foods not available at home, Deep has gained almost a pound and a bit more energy. Other children in the ward also exhibit small signs of improvement.
All the youngsters are so chronically malnourished that they
belong to a category known as "severely wasted."
However, the government accepts no foreign food aid and has not imported any of the high-energy, ready-to-eat food packets on the market that can be administered to badly malnourished youngsters to jump-start their recovery, Aguayo said. None of the country's biotechnology firms -- among the most advanced in the world -- manufactures them, though the cost would probably be only about a dollar a pound.
These triage packets would help the worst-off cases. But if
As Farhat Saiyed, a nutritionist here in
Copyright 2008
Los Angeles Times
Flooding overwhelms hungry Haitians
'If we keep going like this, the whole country is going to crash'
The Associated Press Sept. 3, 2008
Entering a flooded city on inflatable boats, U.N. peacekeepers found hundreds of hungry people stranded for two days on rooftops and upper floors Wednesday as the fetid carcasses of drowned farm animals bobbed in soupy floodwaters.
"If we keep going like this, the whole country is going
to crash," moaned Mario Marcelus, who was trying to reach his family in
Rescue convoys had been trying to drive into
Floodwaters covered some homes up to their roofs. In a cemetery, only the tops of tombs glimmered beneath the soupy water. The carcasses of dead animals, including a donkey and a cow, floated amid debris as flies swarmed.
About 150 people were crowded into a church. Most retreated to a large balcony above the floodwater, where they waited in misery for the waters to recede.
"There is no food, no water, no clothes," said the 37-year-old pastor, Arnaud Dumas. "I want to know what I'm supposed to do. ... We haven't found anything to eat in two, three days. Nothing at all."
City covered in mud
The
"This is worse than Jeanne," said Carol Jerome,
who fled from
About two-thirds of
On the ground, men used pieces of styrofoam as kickboards to try to swim out of town. People waited to help along the shores of the newly formed lake, and Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said people stranded on rooftops were becoming increasingly desperate.
"It is a great movement of panic in the city," Bien-Aime told AP as Brazilian soldiers assigned to the 9,000-member U.N. force carried him onto an idling speedboat.
About 1,500 people huddled in a shelter they nicknamed the "Haiti Hilton." Director Jean-Noel Preval said there was no food and was running out of drinking water.
His cousin Jezula Preval gave birth at the shelter to a healthy boy on Tuesday night. Jezula Preval, 23, said she tried to hold out at home, but the rain drove her out and floodwaters eventually swallowed her house.
"I lost everything, even the baby's clothes," she said.
The situation was dire elsewhere in
Aid on the way
The U.S. Embassy in
"The biggest problem right now is just getting access to affected areas," she said.
Even as Hanna moved offshore, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hurricane Ike, in the central North Atlantic, would gain strength as it approached the Caribbean and "could reach major hurricane status" within five days.
Its course remained uncertain, but the most likely track passed just north of the Haitian coastline.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press
'Nothing ... To Celebrate'
Populace Faces Bleak Christmas Amid Food Crisis
By ANGUS SHAW
The Associated Press December 24, 2008
ARARE,
In crumbling, largely Christian Zimbabwe, where a cholera epidemic has killed
more than 1,100 people, Christmas is just another day of suffering.
"There is nothing for us to celebrate. Christmas is a story of
hunger," said Monica Rugare. "It is just another day of poverty, the
way we are living today."
The country's Christmas tradition of city dwellers heading to the countryside
with gifts of food and clothing for their relatives isn't possible this year. Annual
church carol services have been subdued, if they were held at all.
On Tuesday, children found a bit of cheer playing in the stinking water gushing
from a broken sewer in the impoverished
Ten-year-old Kudzai Urere, ignoring the warnings from cholera-conscious adults
as she leaped about in the murky water, said her mother had gone to search for
food and would not be home until nightfall.
When she did return, she would be lucky to bring home vegetables, not toys or
candy.
But for most Zimbabweans, the economic collapse of what was once a regional
bread basket and food exporter has left millions dependent on international
handouts.
The cholera outbreak that has killed more than 1,100 people since August is
blamed on the collapse of water and sewage facil