Moslim Zionist Shoaib Choudhury uit Bangladesh

Joden die tegen het Zionisme zijn, zoals aktivisten als Noam Chomsky en Ilan Pappe of de fundamentalistische Neturei Karta groep, kunnen overal vrij over straat gaan, in Israël, Europa of de VS, en zijn ook welkom om met Hezbollah in Libanon aan te pappen, Ahmadinejad de hand te schudden op een Holocaust-ontkennings-conferentie in Iran of kunnen zelfs minister worden in de Palestijnse Autoriteit (hoezo antisemitisme?).

 

Moslims die zich voor het Zionisme uitspreken, echter, lopen tenminste in islamitische landen gevaar, zoals Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury in Bangladesh, wie al 4 jaar een rechtzaak wegens landverraad en andere zaken boven het hoofd hangt, waarop bij veroordeling de doodstraf staat.

 

Meer over hem in 3 talen:

Journalist uit Bangladesh mogelijk ter dood veroordeeld voor kritiek op islam

Der andere Moslem
The other Moslim

Wouter
________________________________________________________

Canadian Jewish News
Cotler client [Shoaib Choudhury] faces execution

By DAVID LAZARUS, Staff Reporter
Thursday, 16 August 2007
http://www.cjnews.com/TOPScnCJN/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12986&Itemid=86

When you speak to Shoaib Choudhury on the phone, it seems almost unfathomable that this man who is laughing and sounds so relaxed and serene is facing charges that lead to his execution if he is convicted.

The Bangladeshi journalist and editor of the English-language Weekly Blitz has, for almost four years, lived almost every day under a Sword of Damocles for daring to be a pro-Israel Muslim and for crusading against the forces of radical Islam that he says are taking over his beloved country.

At writing, Choudhury was scheduled, after five postponements in less than a year, to go on trial Aug. 17 for sedition, treason and blasphemy, charges all dating back to his attempt to travel to Israel in 2003 to give a speech on interfaith dialogue.

Since then, he has been attacked, beaten, tortured and jailed, and efforts to have the charges against him dropped – including by his international counsel, MP Irwin Cotler – have failed.

Yet, speaking on Aug. 5 to The CJN during a trip to the United States – he was allowed to leave his country for the trip – Choudhury, in contrast to his upbeat manner, also came across as a man of serious and determined conviction and moral courage.

"If I am convicted or I am executed, it will not change our mission," he said. "I am sure that someone else would take over."

Choudhury is almost serene in that knowledge and acceptance. His wife, Happy, and two children, daughter Priyanka, 17, and son Hamzalah, 7, he said, support him completely. So, he added, do thousands of fellow Bangladeshis who share his pluralistic sensibilities and are fighting with him for the forces enlightenment to prevail over the tide of radical Islam in his country that is rising despite its origins as a secular parliamentary democracy.

"There's a large, large number of Bangladeshi people who feel the same as we do," Choudhury said, "and many of them – or at least some of them – have openly expressed their support for me," in particular the Bangladesh Minority Lawyers Association, which is representing him in court.

On the other hand, most top-ranked lawyers in Bangladesh won't touch his case, "because they think if they support a Muslim Zionist, it will hamper their careers," he noted. "They don't like to support me, but I don't care."

On the eve of returning to his country, Choudhury was buoyed by his six-day trip to New York, New Jersey and Washington, where he addressed synagogue audiences, visited Capitol Hill, and lunched with the American Jewish Committee, which last year presented Choudhury, at the time in absentia, with its Moral Courage Award.

He also received some excellent news during the trip. Despite Choudhury's own belief that a diagnosed case of glaucoma was causing impairment of sight in his right eye, a New York doctor told him that he has never had the disease, just the effects of a bad eye infection that was never properly treated and made worse by sleeping on a jail floor under poor conditions.

Throughout the trip, Choudhury was accompanied by Richard Benkin, a Jewish activist who was able to help Choudhury get out of prison on bail in 2005. The two invariably address each other as "my brother" and launched a website together – interfaithstrength.com –  to promote understanding among religions.

Still, they don't necessarily agree on everything. Despite his generally optimistic outlook, Choudhury thinks there is only a 50-50 chance that charges against him will be dropped, and it won't be accomplished so easily, because of the necessity to "appease radical forces."

Benkin told The CJN that while the fact that Choudhury was allowed out of his country might be taken as a positive sign, "it's not good policy to wait and hope that things go well."

Benkin believes the current interim Bangladeshi government "has to see that if the case is not resolved, there could be some real, serious consequences," particularly with regard to trade benefits.

"There are many possible routes by which these charges can be dropped," Benkin said, but he quoted Cotler to the effect that you cannot expect Bangladesh to do the "logical" or "right" thing.

"It defies logic that until this point, the sedition charges against him remain," Benkin said, "while they have been dropped against other journalists. It's almost four years later, and the government has yet to produce its first shred of credible evidence that there's anything here to deal with."

Choudhury has on occasion identified with the notion that he is living out the pages of a Franz Kafka novel. Benkin sometimes calls him "Joseph K," the protagonist in Kafka's masterpiece, The Trial.

Then there's what Choudhury considers the completely laughable notion that he has been a Mossad spy – "I mean, it's too funny!" – or that he is "blasphemous" in his acceptance of other religions.

Choudhury said he inherited his tolerant, open nature from his father, who received a master's degree in India and instilled in his family the principle "never to hate any particular religion."

Choudhury first met Jews when he was starting out as a journalist, "and they were many of my colleagues. They were wonderful."

It is incomprehensible to him why his country has not yet recognized Israel, a nation that was among the first to recognize Bangladeshi independence in 1971. Choudhury has referred to himself proudly as a "Muslim Zionist" and said that "as a Bangladeshi, I feel personally obligated towards Israel."

Choudhury is grateful for the support he has received from the West, most notably in the form of strong resolutions by the U.S. Congress and the European Union. He is also grateful for Cotler's efforts and for representations made by the Canadian government on his behalf and by other canadians, including a letter in May sent by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression to Bangladesh's high commissioner in Ottawa.

Whatever support he may have, however, Choudhury is facing a real threat if charges against him are not dropped. Yet, as Benkin said, Choudhury "would not entertain any notion of not going back," despite several offers of political asylum.

"He would never even consider it," Benkin said.

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Israël neemt 500 vluchtelingen uit Darfur op

Eigenlijk zou Israël alle vluchtelingen uit Darfur moeten opnemen, zoals ieder beschaafd land zou moeten doen, maar om één of andere reden interesseert het ons meer wat Israël doet dan wat Egypte doet, die ze zonder pardon terugstuurt naar Soedan, in elkaar slaat of zelfs doodschiet.

 

Het volgende citaat toont Israëls dilemma in een notedop:

 

Schwartz objected to any such ban. "The state of Israel has to show compassion for refugees after the Jewish people was subject to persecution throughout its history," he said.
But Ephraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Jewish people could not be expected to right every wrong just because of its past.

 

Dit laatste bevat ook een les voor ons: niet alleen kan het kleine Israël het wereldleed niet op zijn schouders nemen (al zou het, in verschillende opzichten, wel wat meer kunnen doen dan nu), het is onjuist van Israël meer te verwachten dan van andere landen vanwege het verleden van de Joden. Het is mooi om uit een verleden van onderdrukking en vervolging de motivatie te halen om op te komen voor de onderdrukten en vervolgden, zoals het ook mooi is om deze motivatie te halen uit een religieuze overtuiging, uit humanistische waarden of uit het feit dat je zelf tot een bevoorrechte groep hoort in de wereld. Dit betekent niet dat we het religieuzen en humanisten meer dan atheisten of nihilisten kwalijk kunnen nemen als zij dit niet doen; ieder mens (en ieder land) heeft dezelfde plicht goed te doen. 

 

Ratna   

-----------------------

Aug. 19, 2007 9:59 | Updated Aug. 19, 2007 16:38
PM: Israel to take 500 Darfur refugees
By JPOST STAFF AND AP

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1187502412667


Despite expelling nearly 50 Sudanese refugees in an overnight operation on Saturday, Israel has agreed to absorb 500 asylum-seekers from Darfur, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Sunday.

Nevertheless, he said Israel would begin turning away refugees from the war torn region of Sudan in an effort to stop the flow of Africans across Israel's southern border with Egypt.
Egyptian security said late Saturday that Israel sent back 48 Africans, most of them Sudanese, across the border with Egypt.

Government spokesman David Baker said he didn't know if any were from Darfur, but that Darfurians wouldn't be immune from Israel's ban on unauthorized migrants.

"The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur," he said.

Egyptian police said Darfurians were among the 48 - and would be expelled from Egypt to Sudan.

Fighting between pro-government militias and rebels in the Western Sudanese region of Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since February 2003.
Eytan Schwartz, an advocate for Darfur refugees in Israel, said about 400 have entered Israel in recent years. Baker said they would be allowed to live in Israel, and that the ban applied to new arrivals.

Schwartz objected to any such ban. "The state of Israel has to show compassion for refugees after the Jewish people was subject to persecution throughout its history," he said.
But Ephraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Jewish people could not be expected to right every wrong just because of its past.

"Israel can't throw open the gates and allow unlimited access for people who are basically economic refugees," Zuroff said.

An Israeli government official said Egypt has agreed to treat the Darfur refugees well, but acknowledged it might send them back to Sudan.

Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally through Sinai in recent years. Nearly all are from Africa, including 1,160 from Sudan, and many spent months or years in Egypt before entering Israel.

The number of infiltrators shot up in the past two months, apparently as word spread of job opportunities in Israel. As many as 50 people arrived each day in June, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Israel recently announced it had reached an understanding with Egypt to take back many of the refugees and that they would be treated well. But Egypt has denied any obligation to take them back, and it was unclear what fate expelled Africans would face once returned to Egypt.

Many Sudanese find life difficult in Egypt, a country that struggles to provide jobs and social services for a growing refugee population. Egyptian riot police violently cleared a refugee encampment in central Cairo in 2005, killing nearly 30 people.

In July, Egyptian police shot and killed a Sudanese woman who was trying to cross into Israel, the first confirmed death of its kind.

And earlier this month, Channel 10 reported that Egyptian border guards beat to death two Sudanese men in front of IDF soldiers.

Egypt neither confirmed nor denied the incident.

Smokkelaars uit Gaza graven tunnels onder grens met Egypte

Het graven van tunnels onder de grens met Egypte is niet nieuw, en Israël probeert dit ook al jaren tegen te gaan. De tunnels worden zowel voor de smokkel van wapens als voor andere goederen als sigaretten gebruikt, en in een enkel geval worden zo zelfs mensen de grens over gesmokkeld. Het is een lucratieve business waar sommige mensen een goede boterham mee verdienen. Sinds de machtsovername door Hamas en de isolatie van der Gazastrook, zijn de prijzen flink gestegen.

 

Hamas probeert controle over de tunnels en de smokkelaars te krijgen om ze voor eigen doeleinden te gebruiken. Het kan maanden duren voor een tunnel klaar is en de prijs kan oplopen tot meer dan $100.000. Ondanks de openheid van de smokkelaars, en beeldmateriaal van diverse tunnels en het feit dat Israël er verschillende heeft vernietigd, ontkent Hamas het bestaan ervan:

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied the existence of tunnels in Gaza.
"Israel is claiming there are tunnels just to spoil the relationship between us and our brothers in Egypt," he said.

Dat liegen Hamas goed afgaat zou eigenlijk geen nieuws mogen zijn. Maar dat is nog niet erg doorgedrongen tot het journaal en sommige Westerse journalisten.

Ratna
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Gazans bore under border with Egypt
Gaza smugglers create underground world in dark, cramped tunnels.

By Kevin Frayer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, August 17, 2007
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/08/17/0817GazaTunnels.html

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Gazans are finding an antidote to their growing isolation: digging tunnels under their border with Egypt to smuggle everything from weapons to cigarettes to people.

A group of smugglers recently gave an Associated Press photographer rare permission to accompany them as they dug one tunnel.

Smuggling tunnels range in length from 100 yards to a half-mile, beginning and ending inside homes, animal pens or abandoned buildings. They can cost $5,000 to $200,000 to build, depending on size and sophistication. But profits, too, can be high, as much as $10,000 for smuggling one person.

Palestinian diggers, wearing masks to conceal their identities, use a pulley to remove sand from a smuggling tunnel in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt.

In underground darkness with stifling heat and limited air supply, the diggers painstakingly removed sand and rubble as they crawled through cramped spaces carrying portable lamps and homemade tools.

The southern Gaza town of Rafah has long been a key conduit for underground weapons smuggling, mostly controlled by a handful of local clans. With Israel imposing a strict closure of Gaza's borders in the aftermath of Hamas militants' violent seizure of the coastal territory in June, more and more smugglers are taking a piece of the action.

The stakes are higher than ever. Smugglers find themselves pursued by Israel, which fears the militants' growing arsenal; by Egypt, which is under growing pressure to crack down on tunnel diggers; and by Hamas, which doesn't oppose tunnels but wants to control them.

The diggers, who refused to give their names and wore masks to shield their identities, said tunnels must be deeper and longer than ever before to avoid detection. The tunnels often take weeks or months to dig, and the tunnelers sleep where they work to avoid getting caught.

Tunnelers smuggle machine guns, rifles, ammunition, explosive devices, grenade launchers and other munitions. Cigarettes, drugs, gold, automobile parts and people also move through the shafts.

The AP wasn't allowed to see what goods were moving through the tunnel.

Some Gaza tunnels are only wide enough to carry in contraband no larger than a rifle, pulled through with a rope.

Others, such as the one seen by AP, are big enough for a person. Still, once inside there's not enough room to turn around, so every 100 yards or so, a wider space is dug to enable a change of direction.

Israel estimates there are dozens of tunnels. They range in length from 100 yards to a half-mile. They begin and end in unlikely places: under the floor tiles of kitchens, inside bedroom closets or animal pens, in the nooks of abandoned buildings. People who allow their dwellings to be used for tunnels are paid.

Runners said it is most profitable to smuggle in goods such as cigarettes rather than weapons because Hamas has prohibited ordinary citizens and rival militants from carrying arms.

"After they (Hamas) took over and started controlling who can have weapons, nobody wants them any more. So why should we bring them in?" one smuggler said.

Other tunnels, however, are squarely in Hamas' hands, and Israeli officials say weapons smuggling by the militant group is going strong.

Smuggling has a long history in the area. Egypt once used a camel corps to intercept above-ground Bedouin caravans, but for years has relied on vehicle patrols. During Israel's withdrawal from Sinai, smugglers buried Mercedes cars and other vehicles in the desert sand so they could retrieve and sell them after Israel withdrew from the territory, without having to pay Egyptian taxes.

Gaza's tunnels are a major frustration for Israel, which has carried out dozens of raids to destroy them, often killing both militants and civilians.

"The Hamas terror organization continues to busy itself with the smuggling of huge quantities of weapons for use against Israel. These tunnels continue to be the main source of the weapons supplies to Palestinian terrorists," Israeli government spokesman David Baker said.

Tunnelers said Hamas has been trying to take over tunnels for its own smuggling — showing little tolerance for freelance smugglers.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied the existence of tunnels in Gaza.

"Israel is claiming there are tunnels just to spoil the relationship between us and our brothers in Egypt," he said.

Smuggling people through a tunnel can cost as much as $10,000 each, depending on their importance or whether they are wanted by Israel, the smugglers said.

Runners say the process of moving a person from Egypt involves intricate planning and coordination with the other side.

"He's handed to someone there. He stays over at that person's place, and then we bring him in at night at an agreed time," a smuggler said.

Depending on the length, width and sophistication of tunnels, they can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $200,000 to build.

That cost is the biggest incentive for smugglers to move as much contraband as possible. Profits, too, can be high, with more than a few Gaza millionaires created by smuggling.

One tunneler said the shaft he was digging would take four months to complete and that he expected to earn $12,000 for his efforts, a fortune in impoverished Gaza.


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Hamas en Fatah op de beklaagdenbank in Gaza drama

Een toneelstuk over het conflict tussen Fatah en Hamas en de absurde situatie nu de Gazastrook door Hamas wordt geregeerd en de Westelijke Jordaanoever door Fatah. Een stuk dat kritiek niet schuwt, en de problemen niet afschuift op Israël. Dat werd de makers niet door iedereen in dank afgenomen.

 

"We had quite a few problems because of a lack of money and freedoms. But we have tried to put on something critical in the face of this bitter reality," says Asma Abu Namus, one of the play's amateur actresses.

 

Hiervoor is waarschijnlijk meer moed nodig dan voor al die zogenaamde 'heldendaden' tegen Israël. Deze mensen doen meer voor hun land dan 100 'martelaren' bij elkaar, nog los van het feit dat doelbewust onschuldige mensen de dood in jagen crimineel en onmenselijk is.

Ratna
_________________________________________________

Augence France Presse, Friday August 17, 06:26 PM

Hamas and Fatah in the dock in Gaza drama
http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com//070817/8/18wh.html

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Crowds throng the hall to hear the court's decision. In the dock are Gaza's Hamas rulers and their secular rivals Fatah. The verdict, with no right of appeal, comes late and after passionate and stormy debate: "All are guilty of killing the people and the nation."

But the dramatic verdict is just that -- drama. The judges and the accused are all actors in a satirical play, "The Nation," which has enjoyed great success in a land where culture is often noticeable by its absence.

More than 1,500 people flocked to the Shawa cultural centre in Gaza to see the play, forcing the organisers to add extra seats to the auditorium to meet demand.

"The Nation" is the work of Palestinian dramatist Said Suirki and the "trial" is tagged with the number 48.67.2007 -- referring to what the author sees as three seminal dates in the Palestinian tragedy.

Firstly, 1948 saw the creation of the State of Israel and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral homes. Then, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967's Six Day War, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

And then 2007 saw vicious internecine conflict between Hamas and Fatah, with the Islamists seizing power in Gaza in June while the West Bank remains under the rule of moderate President Mahmud Abbas.

Palestinians are left with two territories, two powers, two administrations and two conflicting visions of society -- an absurd situation that makes for rich theatrical pickings.

"We fast differently (for Ramadan) if we're in Gaza or Ramallah... If I get married in Gaza, is my marriage certificate valid in the West Bank?" asks one of the actors on stage.

A dozen men, women and children strike up a mournful refrain to lament "Where is the nation?" -- before being interrupted by the rattle of automatic gunfire.

"I wanted to put on a play after seeing the bloody events in Gaza and the huge suffering of its people," says Suirki.

"I called it 'The Nation' because it's this that has been the biggest loser in the Hamas-Fatah conflict."

Cultural life has been a rarity in the poverty-stricken Palestinian enclave that has suffered seven years of near-continuous violence. Rarer still are plays or performances that criticise or challenge those in power.

"It is an audacious idea. I think that everyone has been surprised by this work because it's an extremely critical play than in particular targets the factions," says Abdelsalam Daud from the Muntada cultural foundation, which gave financial backing to the production.

Cast members admit that rehearsing and performing the play has not always been easy.

"We had quite a few problems because of a lack of money and freedoms. But we have tried to put on something critical in the face of this bitter reality," says Asma Abu Namus, one of the play's amateur actresses.

Some members of the cast and crew were initially wary of tackling such controversial themes at a time when Hamas is accused of seeking vengeance against its critics, particularly from Fatah, and of curbing freedoms such as the right to demonstrate.

"We had a great fear that the groups in power in Gaza would sabotage our work because the factions are used to censorship. But we persevered," says Muntada foundation director Hazem Abu Hamid.

Indeed, flushed with success the cast now hope to take their production on tour, around the Palestinian territories to start with but maybe even to Israel itself later.

"We hope to get the necessary support to put on regular shows all across Gaza. But also in the West Bank and Israel, even if that would be very difficult. But we will try," Hamid vows.

Palestijn dwingt Israelische teenager tot sexuele slavernij

Het zal in onderstaand bericht om een Arabisch-Israëlisch meisje gaan, al wordt dat niet expliciet vermeld. Zulke dingen gebeuren ook in Nederland, bekend onder de misplaatste naam "loverboys". De Arabische cultuur van eer en schaamte maakt het extra moeilijk voor vrouwen om aan onderdrukking en uitbuiting te ontsnappen. Typisch een klus voor Anja Meulenbelt!

 

Dergelijke berichten zijn ook schadelijk voor het imago van de Palestijnse Autoriteit, maar veel slechter kan dat al niet meer worden...
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Palestinian turns Israeli teen into sex slave
18-year-old girl moves in with man she meets on the internet, is later forced by him to grant sexual favors to Palestinian Authority officials in lavish Ramallah villa
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3438698,00.html

Yael Branovsky
Published: 08.17.07, 08:50 / Israel News

A Palestinian from Ramallah turned an 18-year-old Israeli girl he met on the internet into his sex slave, Ynet reported on Friday.

A few months ago Tal (not her real name) met who she thought was her prince charming in an internet chat room. Following a brief period of online correspondence, the two met in person. The Palestinian took Tal out to restaurants and showered her with gifts, and the unsuspecting Israeli teen thought she had found the man of her dreams.

'Muslim girls are afraid to return to Israel'

Within a month of their first encounter she was already in love with him, and did not hesitate for a second when he asked her to move into his home in Ramallah. But shortly after the two began living together the man approached Tal and asked that she "comfort" a friend of his. She agreed to sleep with the friend as a one-time gesture for her beloved boyfriend, but was forced to have sex with others as time went by.

Tal was then brought to a lavish villa, where she and several Muslim women granted sexual services to senior Palestinian Authority officials on a regular basis. Eventually Tal managed to escape and return to Israel.

A volunteer in an organization that offers help to Israeli teenagers who have experienced similar traumas told Ynet that Arab girls from Jaffa have also been lured to the territories under false pretenses.

"The Muslim girls are afraid to return to Israel because they lose their virginity there. When they meet the person in a chat room they are certain that it will lead to marriage. Their families in Israel don't want them back because they have 'brought shame' upon them," she said.

The volunteer said the victims are usually lonely people from a low socio-economic background.

 

De erfenis van Arafat

Arafat liet op veel fronten een erfenis na: hij gaf de Palestijnen een eigen stem en een gezicht en verschafte ze een waarnemerszetel bij de VN en (beperkte) autonomie in de door Israël bezette gebieden, maar het gezicht was er één van geweld en corruptie, en de stem sprak vaak met een dubbele tong.

 

Zijn uniformen leveren nu een paar honderd sjekel op, maar interessanter is de correspondentie en archieven van hem die nog op verschillende plaatsen rusten. In tegenstelling tot de Israëlische (en de meeste Westerse) archieven, blijven Palestijnse en Arabische archieven voor onbepaalde tijd gesloten. Wie weet wat voor controversiële en comprimerende feiten er in verborgen liggen?

 

 

Wouter (archiefmedewerker)

_______________________________________________

 

Jerusalem Post, Aug. 16, 2007 0:41
Stolen Arafat uniform sold for NIS 200
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1186557458267&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A military outfit belonging to former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has been sold in the open market in Gaza City for NIS 200, Fatah officials in Ramallah said Wednesday.

The uniform was stolen from Arafat's residence immediately after Hamas took full control over the Gaza Strip two months ago. Hundreds of Palestinians, including Hamas activists, looted the house in Gaza City and stole most of its contents.

A Fatah spokesman said the looters also stole Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize Award and most of his personal belongings. Hamas denied that its men were involved in the looting, saying it was making efforts to restore the stolen items.

"We have learned that one of Arafat's military uniforms has been sold by Hamas activists for NIS 200," said a Fatah official. "They sold the uniform on the streets of Gaza City. This is outrageous and degrading." He accused Hamas of looting the homes of several Fatah leaders over the past two months. They include Nabil Shaath, Muhammed Dahlan and Intisar al-Wazir [Um Jihad].

The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper revealed Wednesday that some Palestinians were also trying to lay their hands on Arafat's private archive in his former headquarters in Tunisia. The paper said that Tunisian authorities and PLO security officers have been stationed outside the headquarters to foil any attempt to infiltrate the compound.

Senior Palestinian officials said Arafat's headquarters in Tunisia contain "treasures" of information, including his correspondence with world leaders over a period of 40 years.

After Arafat's death in 2004, the Tunisian government closed down the offices and declared them the "property of the entire Palestinian people."

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas tried several times since then to lay his hands on the archive's documents, but was turned down by the Tunisian government, the officials said. The PLO officials also named Ramzi Khoury, a former Arafat aide, as one of those who have been trying to gain access to the headquarters.

De driehoeksverhouding tussen Abbas, Hamas en Israël

President Abbas tegen de pers afgelopen donderdag:

 

"The split that happened [between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip] as a result of Hamas's coup is temporary and will be removed," Abbas said. "The Palestinian people are opposed to this separation because we want a united and independent Palestinian state."

Abbas said he would continue to work toward reuniting the Palestinians. "We will also continue to support our people in the Gaza Strip, because this is our responsibility," he said.

 

Dit wordt ondersteund door de vrijlating van 9 Hamas leden op de Westelijke Jordaanoever door Fatah.

 

Abbas vertelde Olmert vorige week iets heel anders:

 

Israeli officials quoted Abbas as telling Olmert at their meeting that he would not conduct a dialogue with Hamas, despite pressure from a number of Arab countries to do so.

 

Tegen wie zou hij liegen?

 

Deze positie, waarin twee machtige partijen om zijn hand vragen, is zo slecht nog niet. Laat beiden maar bieden. Deze beiden worden overigens niet zozeer gedreven door liefde voor Abbas, alswel door haat voor die andere gegadigde.  

 

 

Ratna
_____________________________________________

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The Jerusalem Post
Abbas to Hamas: 'Return to nat'l unity'
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND HERB KEINON
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1186557459184&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Following conciliatory signals from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to Hamas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office warned Wednesday night that any Fatah-Hamas unification would lead to a breakdown in the diplomatic process with the reconstituted PA.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting in Ramallah with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, Abbas - for the first time since Hamas's takeover of Gaza in June - seemed to soften his stance toward the Islamist movement, calling on it to "return to national unity." Abbas's remarks were interpreted by Palestinians as an appeal to Hamas to resume talks with his Fatah faction.

Hamas immediately welcomed Abbas's statements and invited him to talk to the movement's leaders in the Gaza Strip.

"The split that happened [between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip] as a result of Hamas's coup is temporary and will be removed," Abbas said. "The Palestinian people are opposed to this separation because we want a united and independent Palestinian state."

Abbas said he would continue to work toward reuniting the Palestinians. "We will also continue to support our people in the Gaza Strip, because this is our responsibility," he said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said in a statement that any Fatah-Hamas unification would lead to a breakdown of the diplomatic process, and that the PA chairman was "well aware" of this position.

Olmert, according to his office, told Abbas as much at their meeting last week in Jericho, and government officials have said that the progress Israel had made with the PA over the last two months would end if Hamas once again joined the government.

Israeli officials quoted Abbas as telling Olmert at their meeting that he would not conduct a dialogue with Hamas, despite pressure from a number of Arab countries to do so.

In another sign of rapprochement between Hamas and Fatah, the Fatah-controlled PA security forces in Bethlehem released nine Hamas members on Wednesday who were arrested last month on suspicion of trying to establish an armed Hamas group in the West Bank.

Farid al-Atrash, a lawyer representing the Hamas detainees, said a PA court ordered their release, and that the court's decision was endorsed by PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza City welcomed Abbas's remarks as "positive" and expressed hope that the PA chairman would visit the Gaza Strip for talks with Hamas leaders on ways of resolving the crisis.

Abbas's conciliatory remarks come amid reports that Fatah and Hamas are holding secret talks.

Sources close to Hamas said several Arab and Islamic countries were involved in mediation efforts. The sources said the Hamas leadership in Syria was conducting secret negotiations with some senior Fatah leaders over ways of ending the dispute before Ramadan, which begins in mid-September.

Meanwhile, Abbas, at the press conference with Aso, thanked Japan for providing the Palestinians with $20 million in financial aid.

The Japanese minister announced that his government was planning to give half of the sum directly to the PA and the other half as humanitarian aid.

Following the meeting in Ramallah, Aso went to Jericho for a meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, PA negotiator Saeb Erekat and Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah al-Khatib to discuss a proposed joint economic project.

At the meeting, heavy on symbolism but short on substance, the leaders agreed to hold a meeting of experts in October to push the project forward.

The Japanese-initiated plan is to set up an agro-industrial park in the Jordan Valley, with goods and products from that park to be transported to a Jordanian distribution center for shipment to the rest of the Arab world.

During the meeting at the city's Intercontinental Hotel, Livni said the park would contribute to the development of an "independent and viable Palestinian economy." She said that this project could open a potentially huge market for the PA in the Arab world.

Erekat, meanwhile, told reporters after the meeting: "This is not a substitute for a meaningful peace process between the two parties that will lead to a two-state solution."

Poolse Europarlementariërs boycotten VN conferentie tegen Israël

Toegegeven, ik vond de opmerkingen van de Poolse vertegenwoordigers bij de laatste EU conferentie ook niet echt gelukkig. Men beweerde recht te hebben op meer zetels in het EP omdat er zoveel Polen zijn omgekomen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Op hoeveel zetels in het EP hebben de Joden recht volgens deze theorie?!

 

Maar men maakt het nu wel weer een beetje goed, door de antizionistische conferentie georganiseerd door het 'Comité voor het Uitoefenen van de Onvervreemdbare Rechten van het Palestijnse Volk' zo duidelijk af te keuren. Deze conferentie is niet gericht op een rechtvaardige vrede, maar op ontkenning van het onvervreemdbare recht op zelfbeschikking van de Joden.

 

Ratna 

________________________________________________________

 

Http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3438591,00.html
Polish MEPs boycott UN conference

'We can call this conference anti-Israeli,' Polish MEP says
Yaakov Lappin

Published: 08.16.07

A conference of UN NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to be hosted at the European Parliament this month, will be boycotted by Polish Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from across the political spectrum, who say that the conference is biased against Israel.

The meeting, set to take place at the European Parliament on August 30 - 31, has been organized by the UN's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People."

Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, has written to the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, asking him to cancel the European Parliament's decision to host the conference, while the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor organization said the upcoming conference as a rehash of the 2001 UN Durban conference on racism, which saw unprecedented levels of anti-Zionist rhetoric, and calls for Israel's destruction.

"I will not take part in this conference. I saw the materials prepared by the organizers," Bronis³aw Geremek, a Polish MEP, was quoted by Polish website, Europa21 as saying.

"Although there is no official statement that Israel must be pushed down to the sea there, the choice of subjects and the attitude towards the problems shows that it will be a biased, conflict generating conference. Actually we can call it anti-Israeli," he said.

'Israelis can count on Poles'

"There is not the first such initiative. (The) Pro-Palestinian lobby is very active here. If in fact, the conference will become propagandist, Israelis can count on Poles," Boguslaw Sonik, another Polish MEP, said.

Konrad Szymanski, a third MEP, said: "Israel's objections are fully justified. (The) UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People is a platform for activity of various extremists. According to the most of them Israel should disappear."

"I am astonished that European Parliament allowed such activity to be placed in its building. If there is any activity against the conference, i.e. a petition signed by MEPs, I will be very glad to support it," Szymanski added.

Israël vraagt EU om geen onderdak te bieden aan VN panel over Palestijnse rechten

Het in 1975 opgerichte VN "Comité voor het Uitoefenen van de Onvervreemdbare Rechten van het Palestijnse Volk" (CEIRPP) keert zich tegen het onvervreemdbare recht op zelfbeschikking van het Joodse volk, doordat het de 'bezetting van 1948' wil beëindigen (de oprichting van Israël) en Zionisme als vorm van racisme bestempelt.

Het maakte onder meer naam door haar bijdrage in de organisatie van het NGO forum op de Durban conferentie tegen racisme in 2001, die op een blamage uitliep voor de VN, de deelnemende NGO's en de strijd tegen racisme en antisemitisme.

 

Wouter

_________________________________________________________________

Israel asks EU not to host UN panel on Palestinians' rights

Israeli envoy to European Union sends letter to parliament president requesting he prevent panel to be held by UN's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

Associated Press
Published: 08.13.07, 17:35 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3437121,00.html

Israel has asked the European Parliament not to provide space this month for a two-day UN panel meeting on the rights of Palestinians, saying the UN group co-hosting it has an anti-Israel record.

Ran Curiel, the Israeli envoy to the European Union, wrote a letter last week to EU parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering asking him to prevent the planned August 30-31 conference from taking place at the EU assembly's building in Brussels, Israeli officials said.

Israel views the committee as a legacy of the 1975 UN General Assembly resolution - revoked in 1991 - that equated Zionism with racism.

Curiel called the parliament's decision to allow the conference "lamentable" and said the assembly had rejected a similar request for a meeting by the UN panel a few years ago because the committee has called for boycotts and sanctions against Israel.

EU parliament officials were not immediately available for comment.

The committee, chaired by Senegal, has 22 members and 26 observers.
Cyprus and Malta are the only members who are also EU member states, according to the UN website.

Hatikva gezongen in Bergen Belsen

De Hatikva is het volkslied van Israël.

 

____________________________________

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Hatikva in Bergen Belsen

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2007/08/hatikva-in-bergan-belsen.html

 

This little item below, that appears on a few Web logs such as here, was apparently written in April of 2007. But it deserves a much wider audience. Please do listen to the recording of the BBC from the good old days of 1945, and the recording of Hatiqva ( http://genealogy.org.il/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3 ) made in the liberated Bergen - Belsen concentration camp.

 

It is a simple reply to Ahmadinejad, to Norman Finkelstein and to their friends. It is a reply to anyone who denies the Holocaust, and to anyone who denies the meaning of the Holocaust for Zionism and the Jewish people. For those people, the Jewish state that did not yet exist, represented hope that the Jewish people would literally rise from the ashes.

 

For those who forgot what Zionism is really about, this is a reminder.  

 

Ami Isseroff

 

Scott Simon of NPR reports on a rare recording of "Hatikva" from almost 62 years ago. If this doesn't give you goosebumps I don't know what will.

It was recorded by a British reporter on April 20, 1945 in Bergen-Belsen when the British army liberated the few thousand survivors in the concentration camp, half of which were Jewish, most of them at the extremes of their strength. It was recently discovered and apparently was loaned to NPR by the Smithsonian Institute.

The British priest organized prayers for Kabbalat Shabbat for the Jews. It was the first time after six years of war and after more than 10 years of persecution. With a lot of effort the Jews organized themselves and, knowing they were recorded, sang "Hatikva".

As you can hear they sang the original version as it was written by Naftali Imber. Picturing them in the midst of the concentration camp singing after all they had been through renders this a very moving scenario.

 

Courtesy of Sandy Disler

 

Posted here as well. 
                                                            

History

The title of the national anthem, HATIKVA, means "The Hope." It was written by Naftali Herz Imber (1856-1909), who moved to Palestine in 1882 from Galicia. The melody was arranged by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia, from a musical theme in Smetana's "Moldau" that is partly based on a Scandinavian folk song.

Hatikva expresses the hope of the Jewish people, that they would someday return to the land of their forefathers as prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish people were exiled from Israel in 70 C.E. by the Roman army led by Titus who destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. During the two thousand years of exile, the Jewish people said special daily prayers for return to Israel while facing the East in the direction of Jerusalem. They celebrated the holidays according to Hebrew seasons and calendar. Zion is synonymous with Israel and Jerusalem.

Weduwe Arafat uit Tunesië geschopt

Een bijzondere vrouw......
_______________________________________

Jerusalem Post Aug. 14, 2007
Suha Arafat kicked out of Tunisia
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1186557435026&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Suha Arafat, the widow of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, has been stripped of her Tunisian citizenship and was asked to leave Tunisia together with her 12-year-old daughter, Zahwa, Palestinian sources in Ramallah said on Monday.

The sources told The Jerusalem Post that Suha was now staying in Malta with her brother, Jubran Tawil, who serves as Palestinian Authority ambassador there.

"The Tunisians have kicked her out," the sources said. "Apparently they were unhappy with her conduct."

Other sources claimed that Suha, who is said to have inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from her husband, was expelled following a business dispute with some of her Tunisian partners.

The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi said Tunisian President Zine El-Abidin Ben-Ali issued a presidential decree last week revoking Suha's citizenship. The paper did not mention the reason why her citizenship was revoked.

A Tunisian newspaper, Al-Raed, said the decree, which carried the number 1976, stated: "The Tunisian citizenship granted to Suha Daoud Tawil, who was born in Jerusalem on July 17, 1963, is to be revoked."

The newspaper said the decision meant that Suha would also be deprived of her "moral and material rights" in the country. It's not clear at this stage if Suha's bank accounts had also been frozen.

Suha moved to Tunis shortly after her husband's death in November 2004. Before that, she and her daughter had been living in Paris for nearly a decade.

Suha is believed to have struck a deal with Arafat's successors according to which she will receive about $22 million a year.

In 2006 she was granted Tunisian citizenship and a villa.

Unconfirmed reports said she recently married businessman Bilhassan Tarabulsi, the brother of the Tunisian president's wife. Suha, however, denied the reports.

Tunisian journalist Tawfik al-Ayyashi revealed that Suha had been involved in a number of economic projects in the country.

Suha and her daughter are now living in an undisclosed location in the northern part of the island.

Other family members may have joined Suha and Zahwa in Malta, immigration sources told the Web site www.maltastar.com.

According to some reports, Suha's mother, Raymonda, a prominent journalist and writer, has also arrived in Malta.

Suha was raised as a Catholic in Ramallah and Nablus and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Suha met Yasser Arafat when she was on assignment in Jordan for a French newspaper. She was immediately appointed as a public relations adviser to the PLO and later as an economic consultant to her husband.

The two married secretly in 1990 at Arafat's house in Tunisia and kept the wedding secret for 15 months.

Suha drew sharp criticism from many Palestinians when she tried to prevent senior PA officials, including PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, from visiting her husband while he was being treated in a military hospital in Paris.

In a screaming telephone interview with the pan-Arabic satellite television channel Al-Jazeera, Suha accused Abbas and then-PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei of conspiring to take her husband's place.

"Let it be known to the honest Palestinian people that a bunch of those who want to inherit are coming to Paris," she said in her appeal in Arabic.

"You have to realize the size of the conspiracy. I tell you they are trying to bury Abu Ammar alive," she said, using Arafat's nom de guerre.
"He is all right and he is going home."

Israël en PA tekenen akkoord over rol internationale waarnemers in Hebron

Een klein stapje in de goede richting. Hopelijk wordt dit gevolgd door een voortvarende aanpak van geweld door extremistische kolonisten in Hebron en elders door Israël, en van terroristische groeperingen door de Palestijnse Autoriteit.

 

__________________________________________

Haaretz, Aug. 14, 2007
Israel, PA sign agreement on role of int'l observers in Hebron

By Barak Ravid, Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Monday afternoon signed an agreement in Jerusalem that redefines the mandate of international observers in Hebron.

The agreement represents the first deal signed between Israel and the PA since their renewal of civilian and security relations this July, and is the first official agreement on the role of the observers in Hebron since the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000.

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), which has operated in the West Bank city for 10 years, includes members from Turkey, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark, and focuses mainly on relations between Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents of the city.

Israel returns Area B law and order to PA

The Palestinian police recently resumed its law-enforcement activities in Area B of the West Bank, where the Israel Defense Forces is responsible for security. The renewed police patrols, whose focus is on countering criminal activity and ensuring law and order, are being carried out in coordination with Israeli security elements.

According to the Oslo Accords, Israel has security control of territory in Area B, which includes many villages and towns in the West Bank, but the Palestinians are responsible for civilian law-enforcement activities.

In Area A of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority was granted - also in the Oslo agreements - full security control, both in terms of military and police activities. However, since Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002, Israel has assumed security control over Area A, on a nearly continuous basis.

Nevertheless, in the last four years the IDF has frequently allowed Palestinian policemen to carry weapons and do their work to ensure law and order in Area A. Only in cases when IDF forces entered the West Bank cities have the Palestinian police returned to their headquarters to avoid any possibility of confrontation with the army.

Hamas woordvoerder: "doel van het verzet is om deze entiteit van het aardoppervlak te vegen"

De geschiedenis en de huidige situatie volgens Hamas vertegenwoordiger Osama Hamdan. Dit interview was op 6 augustus te zien op Al-Kawthar TV. Vreemd dat zulke interviews niet op onze TV zenders te zien zijn..... 

 

Hamas vertegenwoordiger Osama Hamdan:

"First of all, let me clarify something very important. What is the ruling regarding those who live in Palestine, in the so-called Israel, and who are aggressors and plunderers of the land? The way we see it, they all came to Palestine from abroad, whether before the declaration of the Zionist entity or after it. If you were to conduct statistics within the Zionist entity, you would find that all these people have their origins in other countries – they came from Europe, Eastern Europe, from America, South America, or other places."

 

Hij kan het zo zien, dat maakt het niet waar. In Jeruzalem hebben altijd Joden gewoond, behalve vlak nadat ze er door de kruisvaarders uit waren verdreven. In Hebron bestond een eeuwenoude Joodse gemeenschap, die in 1929 en daarop volgende jaren door de Palestijnen is verdreven. De huidige fanatieke kolonisten zijn overigens geen familie.

 

Interviewer: "In other words, there were no Palestinian Jews?"
Osama Hamdan: "No, there were no Palestinian Jews. When the British Mandate began in 1917, there was only one settlement on Palestinian land, which included several dozen Jews, who were living there in violation of the law at the time. I would like to mention that under the Ottoman state – regardless of the many reservations we have about it – there was a law that prohibited the Jews from staying in Palestine for over a month.

 

Alle Joden in Palestina werden Palestijnen of Palestijnse Joden genoemd. Joden mochten in Palestina leven onder de Ottomanen, zoals zij al eeuwen deden, maar immigratie werd inderdaad tegengewerkt evenals landaankopen.

"Their passports and personal documents were taken away from them, and they were given an Ottoman permit at the border, which allowed them to stay for a month on Palestinian land. The only group that can be called Jewish was the one in Nablus. They still live there to this day. The Palestinians regard them as part of the makeup of Palestinian society, and they number no more than several hundred. As for those who immigrated from various countries – they are not Jews.

 

Hij bedoelt waarschijnlijk de Samaritanen, die zichzelf niet als Joden beschouwen. Overigens stammen veel Arabische Palestijnen af van bekeerde Joden.

 

"Anyone who comes to live in a war zone is a combatant, regardless of whether he wears a uniform. That's one thing. Secondly, neither Hamas nor the Palestinian resistance force intentionally killed civilians. You mentioned the buses. What's an easier target – a bus, which is protected by various security measures, or a school [or] a theater, or a stadium, for example? These civilian targets – in which the killing of women and children is intentional – were not targeted by "Why were buses targeted? Because they are the means of transport used by the soldiers as well. The Zionist soldiers, who go from their homes to their bases and back, use public transportation, because it is free or almost free. In my opinion, the occupation soldiers also have a security motive in using public transport: They shield themselves behind the so-called 'civilians' within the Zionist entity.

"Therefore, the way I see it, they need to stop using public transportation, or else society should prevent them from using it, because it is the soldiers who are targeted. Just to prove it, in the dozens of operations that were carried out, the Zionists never announced, for example, that 20 children were killed, or that 50 women were killed. On the contrary, if you were to examine who was killed in martyrdom operations that targeted buses, you would find that 70% were occupation soldiers, and they may even have been in uniform at the time of the operation."

 

En wat te denken van de discotheken, restaurants, falafelbars etc.? Zeker ook allemaal omdat er soldaten waren? Volgens het oorlogsrecht is alleen sprake van een militair doelwit als soldaten in functie zijn, en niet op weg naar huis of tijdens hun verlof. Volgens dezelfde theorie mag Israël alle plaatsen bombarderen waarvan ook maar een vermoeden bestaat dat Hamas leden zich er bevinden. Als Hamas het hele gebied als een grote warzone bestempelt, waarin alles een legitiem doelwit is, dan kunnen ze natuurlijk niet klagen als ze zelf worden aangevallen.   

"We are making the preparations for a confrontation. This is not because we need to be prepared for an Israeli act of aggression – after all, aggression is intrinsic to this entity – but because the final goal of the resistance is to wipe this entity off the face of the Earth. This goal necessitates the development of the capabilities of the resistance, until this entity is wiped out."

 

Het bestaan van Israël is een daad van agressie volgens Hamdan. En Hamas zal strijden tot zij van de kaart is geveegd. Duidelijker kan niet. "So sorry we exist." 

Interviewer: "Do you think that Mahmoud Abbas, who has found himself in the crisis of the confrontation with Hamas, plays the role of a policeman, who is thwarting the Intifada, the resistance, and the jihad against the Zionist occupation in the Palestinian lands?"

Osama Hamdan: "He plays a role that is even worse than that. Mahmoud Abbas is doing this out of ideological conviction. He has been calling for a settlement ever since 1973. It was Mahmoud Abbas who created the Oslo Accords, and who was brought in by the Americans to serve as prime minister in order to confront Arafat. In my opinion, he plays this role willingly and out of conviction, which is worse than if he were doing it out of commitment to the occupation."

 

Ik denk dat dit teveel eer is voor Abbas, en hij was niet de architect van de Oslo Akkoorden. Zonder de aanslagen van de Hamas en andere groeperingen was er nu geen muur en checkpoints, en was Abbas wellicht de eerste president van de Onafhankelijke Staat Palestina. Uiteraard is sterven voor Allah veel nobeler dan de moeizame weg van de vrede, het compromis en het opbouwen van een eigen staat.    

 

Ratna

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Special Dispatch-Hamas/Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project
August 16, 2007
No. 1682

Hamas Representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan Justifies Suicide Bombings in Buses: Israeli Soldiers Ride Those Buses

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit:
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD168207.

The following are excerpts from an interview with Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan, which aired on Al-Kawthar TV on August 6, 2007.

To view a webpage devoted to Hamas, please visit:
http://memritv.org/subject/en/95.htm.

To view this clip visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1527.htm.

"The Occupation Soldiers Also Have a Security Motive in Using Public Transport: They Shield Themselves Behind 'Civilians' Within the Zionist Entity"

Interviewer: "Islamic law has forbidden aggression during jihad – by forbidding the killing of women, children, the elderly, clerics who devote themselves to the worship of God, and other noncombatant civilians who do not serve in the enemy's army. Do you consider all the Jews in Palestine to be combatants who have plundered the land? We've witnessed martyrdom operations that targeted buses and restaurants."

Osama Hamdan: "First of all, let me clarify something very important. What is the ruling regarding those who live in Palestine, in the so-called Israel, and who are aggressors and plunderers of the land? The way we see it, they all came to Palestine from abroad, whether before the declaration of the Zionist entity or after it. If you were to conduct statistics within the Zionist entity, you would find that all these people have their origins in other countries – they came from Europe, Eastern Europe, from America, South America, or other places."

Interviewer: "In other words, there were no Palestinian Jews?"

Osama Hamdan: "No, there were no Palestinian Jews. When the British Mandate began in 1917, there was only one settlement on Palestinian land, which included several dozen Jews, who were living there in violation of the law at the time. I would like to mention that under the Ottoman state – regardless of the many reservations we have about it – there was a law that prohibited the Jews from staying in Palestine for over a month.

"Their passports and personal documents were taken away from them, and they were given an Ottoman permit at the border, which allowed them to stay for a month on Palestinian land. The only group that can be called Jewish was the one in Nablus. They still live there to this day. The Palestinians regard them as part of the makeup of Palestinian society, and they number no more than several hundred. As for those who immigrated from various countries – they are not Jews.

"Anyone who comes to live in a war zone is a combatant, regardless of whether he wears a uniform. That's one thing. Secondly, neither Hamas nor the Palestinian resistance force intentionally killed civilians. You mentioned the buses. What's an easier target – a bus, which is protected by various security measures, or a school [or] a theater, or a stadium, for example? These civilian targets – in which the killing of women and children is intentional – were not targeted by the resistance.

"Why were buses targeted? Because they are the means of transport used by the soldiers as well. The Zionist soldiers, who go from their homes to their bases and back, use public transportation, because it is free or almost free. In my opinion, the occupation soldiers also have a security motive in using public transport: They shield themselves behind the so-called 'civilians' within the Zionist entity.

"Therefore, the way I see it, they need to stop using public transportation, or else society should prevent them from using it, because it is the soldiers who are targeted. Just to prove it, in the dozens of operations that were carried out, the Zionists never announced, for example, that 20 children were killed, or that 50 women were killed. On the contrary, if you were to examine who was killed in martyrdom operations that targeted buses, you would find that 70% were occupation soldiers, and they may even have been in uniform at the time of the operation." [...]


"The Final Goal of the Resistance is to Wipe This Entity Off the Face of the Earth"

"We are making the preparations for a confrontation. This is not because we need to be prepared for an Israeli act of aggression – after all, aggression is intrinsic to this entity – but because the final goal of the resistance is to wipe this entity off the face of the Earth. This goal necessitates the development of the capabilities of the resistance, until this entity is wiped out."

Interviewer: "Do you think that Mahmoud Abbas, who has found himself in the crisis of the confrontation with Hamas, plays the role of a policeman, who is thwarting the Intifada, the resistance, and the jihad against the Zionist occupation in the Palestinian lands?"

Osama Hamdan: "He plays a role that is even worse than that. Mahmoud Abbas is doing this out of ideological conviction. He has been calling for a settlement ever since 1973. It was Mahmoud Abbas who created the Oslo Accords, and who was brought in by the Americans to serve as prime minister in order to confront Arafat. In my opinion, he plays this role willingly and out of conviction, which is worse than if he were doing it out of commitment to the occupation."

*********************
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East.

Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.

MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Search previous MEMRI publications at http://www.memri.org

200 doden in Irak door 4 zelfmoordaanslagen

Steeds weer blijkt het nog erger te kunnen in Irak. Het noorden, tot nu toe relatief rustig, is getroffen door de ergste aanslag sinds meer dan een half jaar.

____________________________________________

4 suicide bombings kill 200 in Iraq
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070815/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 36 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Rescuers dug through the muddy wreckage of collapsed clay houses in northwest Iraq on Wednesday, uncovering victims of four suicide bombings that Iraqi officials said killed at least 200 people in one of the worst attacks of the war.

The victims were members of a small Kurdish sect — the Yazidis — sometimes attacked by Muslim extremists who consider them infidels.

Four suicide truck bombers struck nearly simultaneously on Tuesday, killing more people than any other concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City.

It was most vicious attack yet against the Yazidis, an ancient religious community in the region. Some 300 people were wounded in the blasts, said Dakhil Qassim, the mayor of the nearby town of Sinjar.

Qassim said the four trucks approached the town of Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, from dirt roads and all exploded within minutes of each other. He said the casualty tolls were expected to rise.

"We are still digging with our hands and shovels because we can't use cranes because many of the houses were built of clay," Qassim said. "We are expecting to reach the final death toll tomorrow or day after tomorrow as we are getting only pieces of bodies."

The bombings came as extremists staged other bold attacks on Tuesday: leveling a key bridge outside Baghdad and abducting five officials from an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security officers. Nine U.S. soldiers also were reported killed, including five in a helicopter crash.

The carnage dealt a serious blow to U.S. efforts to pacify the country with just weeks to go before the top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to deliver a pivotal report to the U.S. Congress amid a fierce debate over whether to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

U.S. officials believe extremists are attempting to regroup across northern Iraq after being driven from strongholds in and around Baghdad, and commanders have warned they expected Sunni insurgents to step up attacks in a bid to upstage the report.

The Yazidis comprise a primarily Kurdish religious sect with ancient roots, that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians. Yazidis, who don't believe in hell or evil, deny that.

The Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, distributed leaflets a week ago warning residents near the scene of Tuesday's bombings that an attack was imminent because Yazidis are "anti-Islamic."

The sect has been under fire since some members stoned a Yazidi teenager to death in April. She had converted to Islam and fled her family with a Muslim boyfriend, and police said 18-year-old Duaa Khalil Aswad was killed by relatives who disapproved of the match.

A grainy video showing gruesome scenes of the woman's killing was later posted on Iraqi Web sites. Its authenticity could not be independently verified, but recent attacks on Yazidis have been blamed on al-Qaida-linked Sunni insurgents seeking revenge.

A curfew was in place Wednesday across towns west of Mosul, and U.S. and Iraqi forces were conducting house-to-house searches in response to the bombings, according to Iraqi police and Army officers who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. Twenty suspects were arrested, they said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military heralded success in Day Two of a nationwide offensive against Sunni insurgents with links to al-Qaida and Shiite militiamen. Ten thousand U.S. troops and 6,000 Iraqi soldiers were involved in air and ground assaults across Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, both north of Baghdad.

More than 300 artillery rounds, rockets and bombs were dropped in the Diyala River valley late Monday and early Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement. Three suspected al-Qaida gunmen were killed and eight were taken prisoner, the military said. American troops also discovered several roadside bombs rigged to explode, as well as a booby-trapped house, it said.

In the Iraqi capital, U.S. special forces and Iraqi soldiers detained three suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leaders and four Shiite militia suspects in separate raids Tuesday, the military said. Another Shiite extremist accused of attacking U.S. forces was captured the same day in Najaf, a Shiite holy city 100 miles south of Baghdad, it said in a statement.

Thousands of followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in Najaf in a peaceful protest against the detention. Demonstrators shouted anti-American slogans and called for an end to what they called random raids and rights violations targeting the movement.

The U.S. military issued another statement Wednesday putting the death toll in the Yazidi bombings at 60. But the Iraqi estimate was based on body counts from local hospitals and morgues to which U.S. officials had no access so the total was believed to be higher.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a statement Wednesday blaming the bombings on "terrorism powers who seek to fuel sectarian strife and damage our people's national unity."

"These crimes will not prevent us from standing up to challenges and moving ahead with the political process to impose law and bring criminals and outlaws to justice," the statement said.

At least one of the trucks in Tuesday's bombings was an explosives-laden fuel tanker, police said. Shops were set ablaze and apartment buildings were reported crumbled by the powerful explosions.

"My friend and I were thrown high in the air. I still don't know what happened to him," said Khadir Shamu, a 30-year-old Yazidi who was injured in Tal Azir, the scene of two blasts.

Witnesses said U.S. helicopters swooped in to evacuate wounded to hospitals in Dahuk, a Kurdish city near the Turkish border about 60 miles north of Qahataniya. Civilian cars and ambulances also rushed injured to hospitals in Dahuk, police said.

"I gave blood. I saw many maimed people with no legs or hands," said Ghassan Salim, a 40-year-old Yazidi teacher who went to a hospital to donate blood. "Many of the wounded were left in the hospital garage or in the streets because the hospital is small."

In other violence Wednesday, a suicide car bomber killed two people and wounded seven south of Baghdad, according to Iraqi police. And a parked car bomb targeted a police patrol in southern Mosul, killing a civilian and injuring ten others, police and army officers said.

Verschillende religies, verschillende fanatici

Zijn de fanatici en religieuze fundamentalisten van alle religies even erg? Staan in de Bijbel net zo agressieve dingen als in de Koran, is de ChristenUnie net zo onverdraagzaam als de AEL? Is Geert Wilders net zo erg als de mensen die Jami in elkaar hebben geslagen?

Nee. Mensen in elkaar slaan is erger dan alleen maar walgelijke dingen roepen, en de agressieve passages uit de Bijbel worden niet gebruikt om geweld tegen niet-christenen mee te rechtvaardigen. Terwijl de AEL in België werd aangeklaagd wegens aanzetten tot haat en geweld, en Abu Jahjah het doden van Amerikaanse soldaten en Israëlische burgers goedpraatte, is de ChristenUnie wars van alle vormen van geweld.

De ideeën mogen overeenkomsten bevatten, zoals de overtuiging dat jouw geloof het enig ware is en anderen waarschijnlijk in de Hel zullen belanden, rare ideeën over het ontstaan van de wereld en goede en minder goede ge- en verboden die strict nageleefd dienen te worden, de middelen die men als gerechtvaardigd beschouwd om het Woord/het ware geloof te verkondigen, verschillen aanzienlijk.

Voor de ChristenUnie hebben de wetten van dit land, wat de Bijbel er ook van moge zeggen, toch het laatste woord. Hier is enige rekkelijkheid en creativiteit voor nodig, maar het is zeer goed mogelijk. Daarom meen ik ook dat de islam op zichzelf prima is te verenigen met democratie. Men mist echter vooralsnog de wil en creativiteit om de Koran zo te interpreteren dat deze niet meer met 21e eeuwse democratische samenlevingen in conflict is.

Hieronder bovenstaande vragen beantwoord vanuit Israëlisch perspectief.

 

Ratna
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Avram Burg: always interesting, not always right

A Chinese curse: "May you lead an interesting life." Avram Burg is always interesting, because he makes sure to be interesting. Let's face it, unless you make noisy and atrocious statements, you cannot attract much publicity for matters related to Judaism, Zionism, etc. B*O*R*I*N*G.

Therefore Burg tries not to bore us. Avram Burg is the P.T. Barnum of Jewish affairs, or he is trying to be. If he is not comparing Zionists to Nazis, he is comparing Ahmed Yassin to orthodox rabbis. In Time to attack he calls for war against fanatics essentially. "Death to all fanatics," quoth Burg, in particular orthodox fanatics of all different religions. He is willing to take a gratuitous swipe at evangelical Christians (or his idea of evangelical beliefs) as well as orthodox Jewish fanatcs. The essence of his argument:

There is no theological difference between certain rabbis from Hebron, the former Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and the evangelical preacher hoping for Armageddon at the site of our Megiddo. Those who say that "God's law is first" are no different from one another, whether they wear a rabbi's skullcap, Hezbollah's turban or the cloak of a North American spiritual leader. They are all engaged in a cruel battle against me. They are the enemies of freedom and democracy, and are hostile to liberty, equality and the status of women.

It is remarkably like what I wrote in Soldiers who refuse orders. But Burg is also wrong. There are two or three differences between Ahmed Yassin and the hypothetical evangelical preacher hoping for Armageddon:

1- Ahmed Yassin was willing to use, and did use, violent methods to secure his goals. Thus far, only one or two deranged people tried to use violent methods to bring about the Christian Armageddon.

2- Yassin wanted to kill me. People like John Hagee want to defend me. From my subjective point of view, that is a very different goal.

2- Like many orthodox Jews, Burg has a stereotyped view of Christian supporters of Israel. He thinks, apparently, that all evangelicals are supporters of Israel, and he thinks that all people who believe in Armageddon want to bring it on actively by committing violent acts. These are all misconceptions about Christian Zionism.

Burg starts out to answer the same question that I answered in Soldiers who refuse orders:

The latest equation bridges between draft-dodgers and the soldiers who refuse to evacuate homes in Hebron. On the face of it, we have draft-dodgers - the left-wing bleeding hearts from greater Tel Aviv - and evacuation refuseniks - nationalistic and idealistic, but "a little" too extreme, too patriotic and too religious. And we are in the middle: We live outside Tel Aviv, but not in Hebron; we want peace but are not prepared to pay the Arabs the price. Instead of being flooded with concern over the fanatics and rabbis who have penetrated the fabric of Israeli statehood like cancerous cells, we have created an equation. We were furious for two days, we condemned them - and we went on our merry way. Everything is balanced, thank God.

But Burg has a different answer. He gives a free, blanket pass to all draft evaders, it seems, but a blanket condemnation of all right wing protest:

After the waves of demagoguery, spin and media opportunism have passed, it will become clear that this equation is extremely dangerous, because it releases us from dealing with this country's unruly elements. The more we ignore the cancer of rabbinical nationalism, the closer and more concrete the mortal danger is. The real equation is between the refuseniks of Hebron and their foundation in Torah - and Hamas, Hezbollah, Christian fundamentalists and their fanatic brethren.

And after that, he never mentions the leftist refuseniks again. I agree that protest that is not anchored in democracy is dangerous. But  protest that aims to destroy the state is equally dangerous, even if it claims to be "democratic." The Bilin protestors and the refuseniks (those who refuse to be drafted) are not against this or that policy of the Israeli government. They are against Israel as a state of the Jewish people. They are against the Zionist idea. They don't get a free pass under the rubric of "democratic protest." They should not pass Go. They don't collect $200 either.

On the other hand, the equally dangerous rabbis and refuseniks of the right do not get a free pass either. And neither do the anti-Zionist Haredi draft evaders. They should not pass "Go." But somehow, they manage to collect a great deal more than $200 from our tax money to finance activities that are subversive to democracy and to Zionism, and undermine the state as surely as the anti-Zionists of the left. Nobody should get a free pass just because we like their stand on a particular issue. That includes Burg and his immoral use of pensions and drivers granted him as ex-head of the Jewish Agency.

Ami Isseroff

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VN website gekraakt door hackers

De website van de VN, een zeer Zionistisch instituut, is zondag gekraakt door anti-Israël hackers. Op een pagina waar de speeches van secretaris-generaal Ban-Ki Moon worden weergegeven was zondagochtend te lezen:

 

"Hey Ysrail and Usa dont [sic] kill children and other people Peace for ever No war."

 

Het is de hackers blijkbaar ontgaan dat de VN geen oorlogen voert en kinderen doodt, maar hooguit te weinig optreedt tegen schurkenstaten die dit wel doen, zoals Soedan, Noord-Korea of Myanmar, landen die veroordelingen ontlopen omdat de VN te druk bezig is met het veroordelen van Israël, en de islamitische landen hun mensenrechtenschendingen niet zo'n probleem vinden. Hun oproep tot vrede kunnen de hackers beter richten aan een van voornoemde landen of aan terroristische organisaties (sorry, verzetsbewegingen), die het doden van kinderen van ongelovigen een heilige taak vinden van iedere toegewijde moslim.

 

Ratna

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From Times Online
August 13, 2007
UN website targeted by hackers
Jonathan Richards
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2250127.ece

The UN was today reviewing the security procedures on its website after a group of hackers posted anti-Israeli messages on the personal page of the Secretary-General.

A page usually given over the speeches of Ban Ki Moon was yesterday displaying messages which read: "Hey Ysrail and Usa dont [sic] kill children and other people Peace for ever No war."

The messages, apparently written by a group of hackers who go by the name CyberProtest, were posted in the early hours of Sunday, but had been removed by 9:15am East Coast time, a UN spokesman said.

"We are very concerned that this happened and we are investigating," the spokesman said. "We will make security changes to prevent this from happening again."

The messages were prefaced by the words "Hacked By Keremy 125 M0sted And Gsy That Is CyberProtest', a reference to a group of hackers - one of whom is Turkish - who have previously been associated with attacks on high-profile websites.

Today a website run by one of the group, M0sted, had links to a number of other CyberProtest attacks, including on the sites of the car-makers Toyota and Nissan, and Harvard University.

'M0sted' said that CyberProtest's objective was to spread the message "that the powerful have no right to oppress the powerless."

The website of another CyberProtest member, 'Eno7', who described him or herself as an 'IT security expert', said that the group has been founded in response to the Israeli military offensive against Lebanon last year.

"The chief architects of this protest are myself, Eno7 from Turkey, and the byond hackers team from Chile. We expanded our efforts as nine other countries joined us afterwards," it said.

Cyber Protest did not intend to disrupt the operation of its victims' websites, "only to give a message against war," Eno7 said.

Security experts said today that the attack was most likely conducted using SQL injection, where a hacker exploits a vulnerability in a site that allows it to be altered at the same time that pages are being requested.

"It needn't be a part of the site that allows visitors to interact with it - like a comments page," Steve Moyle, founder and chief technology officer of Secerno, a security firm, said. "Even in a 'read only' section, a hacker can issue a command that forces the database to issue information, and they find that vulnerability, an attacker can gain full control of the site."

Among the other sites to have allegedly been hacked by Cyber Protest are those of Nestle, the University of California, and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Today the Secretary-General's page had been restored to show extracts of speeches on climate change as well as on the adoption of a hybrid peace-keeping force in Darfur.

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Sigarettengeld voor Palestijnse gevangenen

De Palestijnse Autoriteit, zwaar gefinancierd door de EU, keert geld uit aan Palestijnse gevangenen in Israël. De gevangenen, die voor zaken vastzitten uiteenlopend van stenengooien tot het beramen van aanslagen waarbij tientallen Israëlische burgers zijn omgekomen, worden in de gevangenis voorzien van eten en drinken. De PA meent echter dat hun helden daarnaast recht hebben op extra zakgeld en sigaretten. 

 

Onder humanitaire hulp voor de Palestijnen of het opbouwen van instituties versta ik iets anders. Wordt het misschien tijd dat de politiek hier eens vragen over gaat stellen?  

 

Ratna

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Ajrami: 2-month's salary to be paid to prisoners
Date: 12 / 08 / 2007  Time:  13:14
www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24688

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The minister of prisoners' affairs, Ashraf Ajrami, said
on Sunday that two-month's allowance for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails will be paid on Monday.

Ajrami issued a press statement announcing that the money will be paid by
the ministry of finance. He added that cigarettes for Palestinian prisoners
will be distributed to Israeli jails and a batch has already arrived at the
Negev desert prison.

The Palestinian Authority pays a stipend to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails to cover the costs of food and basic necessities.

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