Palestina

News in inglese

• Factional rivalry continues despite released PLC member Dweik’s call for unity

  Palestinian Authority forces, affiliated with the Fatah party, detained more than 40 Hamas affiliates during invasions in the West Bank on Wednesday. Among the people arrested was the deputy mayor of Nablus. The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip shut down another newspaper and detained the chief editor
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:49:57 +0300 -

• Israeli army damages three houses during pre-dawn invasion in the West Bank

  The Israeli army invaded the village of Awarta, close to the northern West Bank city of Nablus, during the early morning of Wednesday and damaged three houses.
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:15:27 +0300 -

• Israel claims it would temporarily freeze settlement construction

  Israeli sources reported Wednesday that Israel would temporarily halt the construction of settlements, excluding settlements that are currently being built, if the United States agrees that Israel continues the expansion of existing settlements for the so-called ‘natural growth’ purposes.
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:44:57 +0300 -

• Electric company tries to build high voltage electric poles on Palestinian land to supply settlement

  Villagers of Nahhalin, close to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, managed to stop workers from the Jerusalem electric company from destroying their lands for the construction of high voltage electric polls, that will be build to supply a nearby settlement.

  
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:27:59 +0300 -

• Mitchell cancels Thursday meeting with Netanyahu

  US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, decided to cancel a meeting scheduled for Thursday with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly for rejecting to freeze settlement construction and expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:45:42 +0300 -

• Israel denies Shalit was moved to Egypt

  Israel official denied media reports which claimed that the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was moved to Egypt in preparation to be handed to Israel in the framework of a prisoner-swap deal.
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:54:09 +0300 -

• Ad Dameer demands Abbas to declare a clear stance regarding political arrests

  The Ad Dameer Society for Human Rights demanded a clear stance from president Mahmoud Abbas regarding political arrests in the West Bank especially since the number of political prisoners from the Hamas movement is on the rise. 
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:30:34 +0300 -

• Palestinian woman diagnosed with swine-flu

  The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday evening that a Palestinian woman from Ramallah was diagnosed with swine flu.
  
  Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:23:12 +0300 -

• Israeli minister visits Al Aqsa mosque, Palestinians consider it a provocative act

  The Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday.
  
  
  Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:22:38 +0300 -

• The Israeli military releases the Palestinian Legislative Council head

  Dr. Aziz Dweik, head of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), was released on Tuesday from an Israeli military detention facility after three years imprisonment.
  
  Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:41:18 +0300 -

• Letter of Thanks for Support from German Left Politician Hermann Dierkes

  Hermann Dierkes, trade unionist and leader of the Left Party (DIE LINKE) in the German city of Duisburg has been accused of anti-Semitism for calling for a boycott of Israeli goods due to their attack on the Gaza Strip. To read the open letter that Hermann Dierkes is referring to in the following letter, click here (content/view/1669/381/). Thank you very much, The accusations by various German mass media and mainstream politicians accusing me of being “anti-Semitic” because I spoke out against war crimes and oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli government and army and as I support the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) hit me very hard. For forty years now I am a socialist and internationalist, fighting hand in hand with so many people for social justice, peace, radical democracy, sustainable development and all forms of racism. I am friends with many people from all over the world. My most important political teachers were the socialist trade unionist Jakob Moneta and the Marxist economist Ernest Mandel. Precisely because I am well aware of the German inextinguishable heritage of fascism and the genocide against the European Jews, I feel especially obliged to fight against racist prejudices, oppression and the roots of fascism. Human rights are indivisible for all individuals and peoples of the world. The right of self-determination has to be guaranteed for the Palestinian people as well. This is a precondition to attaining peace for the whole region. Among the many messages of solidarity I have received up to now, what really moved me was the open letter, signed by 371 Jewish peace activists from so many countries, including Israel. I would like to wholeheartedly thank them all. Duisburg/Germany, 30 of March 2009 Hermann Dierkes
  Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:13:42 +0100 -

• Canadian Filmmaker John Greyson Turns Down Offer to Premiere Film at the Tel Aviv International ...

  John Greyson is a prominent Canadian filmmaker John Greyson, a prominent Canadian filmmaker, has recently turned down an offer to premiere his film Fig Trees at the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival, in support of BDS. Greyson is a member of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. March 7, 2009 TLVFEST / Yair Hochner Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, 2 Sprinzak St, 64738, Tel Aviv, Israel yairho@bezeqint.net Dear Yair: After much wrestling with these difficult issues, I’ve come to a decision: I can’t show Fig Trees in your festival, and I can’t go forward with my proposed film shoot in Israel. This choice has been very difficult to make. As I’ve said before, I have great respect for the work you’re doing, and know what a struggle your festival faces to keep going. I want to be very clear: my decision isn’t in opposition to your festival, which has done much to promote the voices of global queers, or to you, who have done much to get queer films made and shown in your city.
  Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:55:42 +0100 -

• Clash of Civilizations, Europe and the Israeli Colonial War on Gaza

  Israeli artillery flares illuminate a neighbourhood in the Palestinian town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on January 10, 2009 as seen from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza. The atrocious war that the State of Israel launched on Gaza (December 2008-January 2009) is just the latest incarnation of the Jewish-colonial settler project in Palestine. It also goes without saying that this project has been always animated by and interwoven with cultural practices and representations. “Ccultures,” as Thomas eloquentlystates, “are not simply ideologies that mask, or rationalize forms of oppression that are external to them; they also expressive and constitutive of colonial relationships in themselves,” to put it otherwise, “has always, equally importantly and deeply, been a cultural process; its discoveries and trespasses are imagined and energized through signs, metaphors and narratives; even what would seem purest moments of profit and violence have been mediated and enframed structures of meaning.” Thomas’ insight attests to the even broader view of the eminent anthropologist Talal Asad regarding the relationship between colonialism and modes of colonial knowledge. The gist of this view was aptly captured by David Scott and Charles Hirschkind. “In interrogating the colonial ques­tion in anthropology,” they write that the major point for Asad was not “the attitude of anthro­pologists toward their native informants (however reprehensible that may be) but the ideological conditions that give point and force to the theoretical apparatuses employed to describe and objectify them and their worlds.” Or, to put it otherwise, what matters most for Asad, as Scott and Hirschkind put it, is “the conceptual struc­ture of the discipline and the relation of this structure to the conditions of power in which the discipline realized itself as authoritative knowledge…”
  Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:05:48 +0100 -

• Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Policy and Land Day: Palestinian Uprising and Resistance

  land_day_--_list_of_actions 10.61 Kb On March 30, 1976, six young Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in mass demonstrations that took place in many towns and villages. Twenty-eight years before, Palestinians lost 78% of their land to the Zionists during the months before and after Israel declared itself a State in 1948. Not until 1966 did Palestinians, who remained in what became Israel, receive citizenship, living under military rule in the 20 year interim, much like Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza live today. These years were marked by continued land theft and the activation of Israel’s policy of “Judeazation” of the Galilee, and other areas where indigenous Palestinians remained on their lands. The State of Israel continues its policies of land theft. But on this day, March 30th 1976, Palestinians took to the streets to protest Israel’s land confiscations orders. They were met by police and soldiers who opened fire on protesters, killing six of them and injuring many others. The brave young men who were killed, and the many others who continue to protest Israel’s policies of land confiscation, have done more than fight for their rights and the rights of all Palestinians. They have revealed the true face of Israel; a racist state whose aim, carried out through its policies of land confiscation, is to ethnically cleanse the land of all Palestinians, including Palestinians who are now citizens of Israel.
  Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:36:51 +0100 -

• On Anti-Semitism, Boycotts, and the Case of Hermann Dierkes: An Open Letter from Jewish Peace ...

  Hermann Dierkes, trade unionist and leader of the Left Party (DIE LINKE) in the German city of Duisburg has been accused of anti-Semitism for calling for a boycott of Israeli goods due to their attack on the Gaza Strip. To read a reply from Hermann Dierkes to the following letter of support, click here (content/view/1677/381/). We are peace activists of Jewish background. Some of us typically identify in this way; others of us do not. But we all object to those who claim to speak for all Jews or who use charges of anti-Semitism to attempt to squelch legitimate dissent. We have learned with dismay the allegations regarding Hermann Dierkes, a trade unionist and leader of the Left Party (DIE LINKE) in the German city of Duisburg. Dierkes, in response to the recent Israeli assault on Gaza expressed the view that one way people could help Palestinians obtain justice would be to support the call of the World Social Forum to boycott Israeli goods, so as to put pressure on the Israeli government. Dierkes has been subjected to widespread and vitriolic denunciations for anti-Semitism, and accused of calling for a repeat of the Nazi policy of the 1930s of boycotting Jewish products. Dierkes responded that “The demands of the World Social Forum have nothing in common with Nazi-type racist campaigns against Jews, but aim at changing the Israeli government’s policy of oppression of the Palestinians. No one has made any claims of anti-Semitism against Dierkes for anything other than his support of the boycott. Yet he has been accused of “pure anti-Semitism” (Dieter Graumann the Vice-President of the Central Jewish Council), of uttering words comparable to “a mass execution at the edge of a Ukrainian forest” (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung editorialist Achim Beer), and of expressing “Nazi propaganda” (Hendrik Wuest, General Secretary of the Christian Democratic Party). We signatories have differing views on the wisdom and efficacy of calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. Some of us believe that such a boycott is an essential component of a campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions that can end the four-decade-long Israeli occupation; others think the better way to pressure the Israeli government is with a more selective boycott focused on institutions and corporations supporting the occupation. But all of us agree that it is essential to apply pressure against the Israeli government if peace and justice are to prevail in the Middle East and all of us agree that a call for a boycott of Israel has nothing in common with the Nazi policy of “Don’t buy from Jews.” It is no more anti-Semitic to boycott Israel to end the occupation than it was anti-white to boycott South Africa to end apartheid. Social justice movements have often called for boycotts or divestment, whether against the military regime in Burma or the government of Sudan. Wise or not, such calls are in no way discriminatory.
  Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:57:44 +0100 -