Life set to get harder for Nahr al-Bared refugeesElectronic Intifada - 5 Nov 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rNAHR AL-BARED (IRIN) – As he picked plastics and paper off the rubble-filled conveyor belt, Issam Sayyed indicated to a white house behind him pock-marked with bullet holes and with its roof caved in. “That’s my home,” said the father of nine, a Palestinian refugee displaced from the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon, which was ruined in a 15-week war last year between the army and Islamist insurgents.
One year after AnnapolisElectronic Intifada - 5 Nov 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr r”As usual, a lot of misguided analysis is once again attributing the failure of the peace process to the imminent departure of the leaders committed to it, thus obscuring the objective factors that made the failure inevitable. Such flawed reasoning holds that once new leaderships are in place in Washington, Tel Aviv and Israeli-occupied Ramallah, the process can begin anew.” Hasan Abu Nimah comments.
Israel breaks Gaza ceasefire, assassinates sixElectronic Intifada - 5 Nov 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing of six Palestinians carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Gaza Strip yesterday evening and this morning. The victims were all killed by air strikes. This escalation is the first of its kind since the tahdia (the Egyptian-brokered truce between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel) entered into force on 19 June 2008.
Photostory: The month in pictures, October 2008Electronic Intifada - 5 Nov 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe following slideshow is a selection of images from the month of October 2008. The month in pictures is an ongoing feature of The Electronic Intifada. If you have images documenting Palestine, Palestinian life, politics and culture, or of solidarity with Palestine, please email images and captions to photos A T electronicintifada D O T net.
Obama a False HopeCampaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) - 4 Nov 2008Summary: Barack Obama has been extensively vetted during the past twenty months of his campaign. During this time, Obama has effectively managed to mobilize a diverse group of supporters ranging from young voters, to African-Americans and liberal professionals. He has steadily gained support through a savvy campaign and charismatic charm. He comes from a diverse ethnic background and purportedly offers a ?change we can believe in.? With Election Day just around the corner a close analysis of his policies and track record will indicate what kind of President Obama would actually be. source: NormanFinkelstein.comread more
17 US Terrorist Attacks On Pakistan Since September – Media ApplaudsJyoti Mishra - 4 Nov 2008One of the issues most vexing to Pakistan is the ongoing missile strikes by US unmanned Predator drones, or UAVs, into Pakistan’s tribal areas. Since 1 September, there have been at least 17 of these strikes and, while US officials say al-Qaeda leaders are being successfully targeted, local tribesmen say scores of civilians have been killed. (Source: [...]
Bilbao initiative: declaration and action planElectronic Intifada - 4 Nov 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rWe, representatives of international civil society meeting in Bilbao, agree that the State of Israel must be held legally accountable. By granting Israel impunity for its persistent and systematic violations of international law and fundamental human rights, treating it as an exception above the law of nations, and providing it with unlimited political, economic, scientific, cultural and diplomatic support, the United States, the EU and other players in the so-called international community are guilty of complicity in perpetuating Israeli apartheid and colonial rule.
Obama adviser Dennis Ross’s dodgy recordElectronic Intifada - 4 Nov 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rGENEVA (IPS) – With the 2008 presidential campaign at its end, pundits have begun to discuss in earnest what expected winner Barack Obama’s administration might look like. An important piece of evidence is Obama’s campaign team, which largely escaped the harsh scrutiny that his opponent’s lobbyist-laden team received.
Protests continue at Shipley open cast siteIndymedia UK - 3 Nov 2008Protesters from Earth First! have invaded the Derbyshire site of the open cast mine twice in the last fortnight. On Monday a number of people climbed onto diggers and machinery, stopping work for over two hours. This was preceded by a highly policed picnic that took place on the site last weekend. On Saturday, local environmental group Erewash and Amber Valley Environment Network (EAVON) held a demonstration of 40 people at the site entrance.These protests are the latest in a campaign that saw Shipley Lodge, a house on the site, squatted during the summer. The squatters used tunnels and tree houses and it took bailiffs and police an entire week to evict them, at the cost of 58,000 to Derbyshire police. The first court case arising from the eviction collapsed last Monday due to lack of evidence.Newswire: Local residents protest at Lodge Farm open cast site | Shipley Bodge court case collapses | Protestors stop work at Shipley open-cast | Picnic in the Park – Photos Shipley Open Cast Site, Derbyshire | Picnic In The Park – The Sequel | Notts Indymedia Climate Chaos topic pagePrevious Feature:
From Goma to Gaza, Mr MilibandUKWatch.net - 2 Nov 2008David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner were quick to fly to Kinshasa and Kigali this weekend to be seen to be responding to the sudden visibility of the long-running horrible humanitarian crisis of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Whether they achieve much more than another temporary truce among the assorted warlords whose troops have been living by rape and pillage in the area for more than a decade, is of course another question. But Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner have another invisible humanitarian crisis on their hands in which some highly publicised flying around could have a dramatic effect on the ground. They should announce visits to Jerusalem to speak to Israel’s leaders, and then arrive by helicopter (the airport is destroyed) in Gaza City, breaking the Israel military’s 17-month siege of Gaza. They would be able to do it with ease, unlike the handful of people who made the trip recently in two boat trips from Cyprus, bringing medicines, hearing aids for the deaf, and hope that the world could hear the horror of what is happening to them. The two European leaders could see for themselves in Gaza how Israel’s collective punishment of 1.5 million people has crippled Gaza’s economy, cut fuel and electricity, leaving its desperate people hungry, deprived of medicines, with hundreds barred from travelling for operations or healthcare, or for education. Only last week, camps in Gaza City and Khan Yunis saw waist-high water flood homes and roads after heavy rains because the pumping system was not working. All this suffering is there to be seen. And they could hear about the many avoidable deaths, and learn the names of men from 77 to 21 who died at Erez checkpoint when their permits were delayed, and about children, like one-year-old Bayyam Abu Hilu, who died at home when she was denied a permit “for security reasons”. They would hear how underlying these realities the mental health needs of every family ? particularly for children ? are overwhelming. Last weekend I was among about 100 foreigners due to arrive in Gaza for a medical conference on the impact of siege on mental health. The World Health Organisation was a co-sponsor of the conference, Walls versus Bridges and, with other international organisations, had applied to the Israeli military authorities for permission for each individual to enter. Everyone ? mainly doctors, psychiatrists, academics from the US, Canada and Europe ? was barred, and had to fall back on a blurry video conference from Ramallah. Among the grim testimonies of psychiatrists from Gaza, such as Dr Eyad Saraj from the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, which organised the conference, with WHO, was a video from the former US first lady, Rosalyn Carter. Mrs Carter deplored the fact that “the closure of Gaza is making it impossible for people to lead normal lives,” and said she looked forward to the conference’s recommendations. Do Miliband and Kouchner really not know what Mrs Carter knows about the devastating impact on people of Israel’s continuing control over the Gaza Strip’s borders, airspace and coastal water? Or about the effect of Israeli military occupation, checkpoints, and the wall, in crushing economic, social and intellectual life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank? They should go to Gaza now and see for themselves, as Tony Blair has so shamefully failed to do in his role as Special Envoy for the Quartet. Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner might then want quietly to tell the Israeli government it will become more and more difficult for them at home to resist the calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions which Palestinian civil society has been asking US and European church and other human rights groups to work for.
Dog-whistle journalism: The Times, Ramadan and the London OlympicsUKWatch.net - 2 Nov 2008Grumpy Muslims in 2012 Olympics terror shock! When Muslims are feeling tired and hungry during Ramadan they present a terrorist danger, alleges the Times. The story is so pathetic that it barely warrants serious discussion. But it?s there in the Times. On page 4. And the article is typical of so much media reporting of Islam. The paper published this ?news? item on October 27 under the headline ?Police warned of Ramadan tension during 2012 Games?. The story claimed that Scotland Yard was concerned that the 2012 Olympics in London would ?clash? with Ramadan, making it harder to ?reduce tensions between Muslims and police? during the Games. Instead of offering any proof, however, that a religious festival could present a problem for police, the Times article switched in its second paragraph to speculation about terrorism. The 40th anniversary of the shoot-out at the Munich Olympics ? in which 9 Israeli hostages died after they were taken hostage by Palestinians ? meant there was an ?Islamic terrorist threat? to the 2012 Games, the paper said. Only then did the story returned to Ramadan and the London Olympics. It quoted the head of the highly respected Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths that the police would need some basic training to deal with religious issues that might arise during the Games: ?During Ramadan you?re going to have a lot of tired, hungry, less evenly tempered people because they haven?t eaten for 18 hours.? The implication is clear: tired, hungry Muslims are more likely to lose their temper and? commit a terrorist attack on the Games. MWAW contacted Dr Ed Kessler, head of the Woolf Institute. He wrote back that he was ?very unhappy? with the Times article, which ?failed to depict the conversation? that he had had with the paper?s reporter. He said it was ?sensationalism of the worst kind? and was ?inaccurate in its reporting about the Olympics, Ramadan and the proposed Munich commemoration?. Dr Kessler has written to the Times to complain, but the paper has yet to publish his letter. The Times? method is clear: take a bit of flimsy information from the police, slap on some unrelated speculation about terrorism, throw in a quote ? torn out of context ? from a respected source to make the piece appear reasonable, and let the reader draw their own racist conclusions. The article is constructed to make it appear that fasting during Ramadan makes Muslims more likely to commit a terrorist atrocity. This is dog-whistle reporting: the article is couched in reasonable language but sends out a clear message that Islam is dangerous. It is because of reporting of this kind that MWAW is holding its conference this year on Islamophobia.
