Amnesty International over Israël

 

"Pas op!! Achter je!" is de clichématige uitroep om je opponent af te leiden van wat je van plan bent te ondernemen.

 

Dat verwijt dat ze de aandacht willen afleiden, en dat misdaden van andere landen geen excuus zijn voor misdaden van Israel, krijgen Israel-supporters regelmatig als ze willen wijzen op de dubbele standaards, dat Israel continu fel wordt bekritiseerd op haar gedrag, terwijl elders pas echt erge zaken gebeuren, zoals in China, Zimbabwe, Kongo, Birma of Darfoer. Hieronder wordt de oorlog in Georgië vergeleken met Gaza en de Libanon Oorlog, qua aandacht en felheid van Amnesty International's reakties.

 

NGO Monitor is opgericht om - meestal linkse - organisaties die Israel bekritiseren, kritisch te volgen en van repliek te dienen. Ze zijn daarin zeker niet onpartijdig, maar dat neemt niet weg dat ze vaak een punt hebben wat betreft de onevenredige, soms welhaast obsessieve aandacht van zulke organisaties voor wat Israel verkeerd doet of zou doen, en de ongebruikelijke felheid waarmee die kritiek vaak gepaard gaat ("Apartheid", "etnische zuiveringen", "oorlogsmisdaden" en andere hyperbolen). Zelfs ons geliefde Amnesty International is niet vrij van smetten.

 

Wouter

_______________

Amnesty's obsession with Israel

Amnesty persistently condemns Israel while ignoring suffering elsewhere

 

Yael Beck, Merav Fima

Published: 10.02.08, 17:06 / Israel Opinion
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3604542,00.html

 

Even in a month when war raged in Georgia, Amnesty International continued to focus on the Gaza Strip, persistently blaming Israel for ongoing Palestinian hardship.

Amnesty, in fact, issued harsher condemnations of Israel than of any party to the Georgian conflict. With a ceasefire holding between Israel and Hamas, resulting in a period of calm, Amnesty stubbornly continued to spew hollow publications repeating outdated allegations.

Moreover, Amnesty took pride in its relentless criticism of Israel, while the rest of the world rightly concerned itself with the unfolding crisis in Georgia. In a press release, the organization boasted: "With the ceasefire holding, the suffering in Gaza has fallen off the international news agenda. However, Amnesty International members continue to campaign." This "explanation" merely highlights Amnesty's obsession with Israel, regardless of the reality on the ground.

Regular readers of Amnesty's material are not fooled by their non-stop publications condemning Israel and can easily discern that they seldom reveal anything new. Many of its press releases are identical, except for minor alterations. Amnesty's ulterior motive appears to be to maintain a constant production rate of material denouncing Israel, regardless of actual developments.

For example, Amnesty's distasteful decision to continue issuing condemnations of Israel during a period of intense intra-Palestinian fighting clearly illustrates the point. Unsurprisingly, Amnesty failed to mention, let alone praise, Israel's commendable acceptance of Fatah members fleeing from Hamas.

While devoting so many of its resources to Gaza, at a time of acute suffering and human rights abuses in Georgia, Amnesty International failed to provide effective coverage of the Georgian conflict. Although one would reasonably expect Amnesty to immediately respond with urgency to such a crisis, raising awareness for its victims, Amnesty preferred to focus on its usual target: Israel.

For instance, on August 12, 2008, the organization released a statement headlined "Trapped – collective punishment in Gaza." An expanded version was re-issued on August 27, 2008. As NGO Monitor analysis has demonstrated, the report lacks evidence and credibility, largely ignores the context of terrorism, exploits international legal terminology, and presents data in a highly selective and distorted manner.

Concurrently, Amnesty released a series of vague and neutral statements calling on all sides of the conflict in the Caucuses to avoid harming civilians, without assuming a clear stance, nor providing comprehensive reporting on the events.

Lame response to Georgian conflict

 

Amnesty's scarce coverage of the war in Georgia is not the result of inaccessibility. Human Rights Watch managed to provide ongoing and insightful coverage, based on its delegation's observations. Such limp statements on Amnesty's part betray its commitment to the defense of every individual's human rights.

Disappointingly, Amnesty expressed less concern regarding the events in Georgia, despite the fact that a greater number of civilians were killed during that conflict than over the course of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. On that occasion, Amnesty rushed to condemn Israel in almost-daily publications. It did not hesitate to portray Israel as an aggressor and largely ignored the fact that civilians in northern Israel suffered a constant barrage of rockets launched by the Hizbullah terrorist organization.

Amnesty's lame response to the recent Georgian conflict, overshadowed by its focus on Israel, indicates that the Second Lebanon War simply served as an incentive for Amnesty to pursue its shameless Israel-bashing. Had its aversion to war been genuine, Amnesty would have responded as forcefully or even more vocally to the Georgian conflict.

Were it truly concerned with the universality of human rights, Amnesty would apply the same standards to all countries. Hence, Amnesty's aim appears clear: to persistently condemn Israel, even if it means neglecting those suffering in other, more pressing conflicts across the world.

 

The authors are researchers at NGO Monitor, www.ngo-monitor.org

 

 

Hamas tegen verlengen ambtstermijn Abbas tot 2010

 

Een nieuwe confrontatie tussen Fatah en Hamas dreigt wanneer in januari - volgens Hamas - Abbas' termijn als president erop zit. Volgens Fatah is die door het Palestijnse Parlement en de minister van justitie met een jaar verlengd zodat die samenvalt met de parlementsverkiezingen in 2010. Egypte gaat bemiddelen, en zal proberen Hamas zover te krijgen Abbas' presidentschap tot 2010 te accepteren.

 

RP

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Hamas challenges Abbas term extension

 

Sep. 29, 2008
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017419658&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Hamas is planning to declare one of its top officials as interim president of the Palestinian Authority after Mahmoud Abbas's term in office expires in January 2009, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip said Sunday.

The officials told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas would not recognize Abbas as president of the PA after that date. "We will remove his pictures from all the public institutions," said one official. "Until now, our policy has been not to challenge Abbas's legitimacy as the elected leader of the Palestinian Authority."

But, the Hamas official warned, his movement was determined to see Abbas step down in January. "If he wants to seek another term in office, he should run in new elections. By announcing that he will stay in power for another year, Abbas is acting in violation of the Palestinian Basic Law."

Hamas insists that Abbas's term expires in January 2009, while the PA president points to 2010. Abbas, who was elected for four years in January 2005, argues that the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC] amended an election law that same year so as to call for holding parliamentary and presidential elections together. The current Hamas-dominated parliament was elected in January 2006.

Earlier this year, the PA-controlled Ministry of Justice in Ramallah decided that Abbas's term would be extended until January 25, 2010, to coincide with the end of the term of the PLC.

Dismissing the announcement as a "flagrant violation of the Palestinian Basic Law," Hamas said the purported amendment of the election law was itself illegal. Hamas spokesmen explained that according to the Basic Law, the PA president's term cannot be extended because it is limited to four years.

According to a senior Hamas official, his movement is planning to name Ahmed Bahr, the acting speaker of the PLC, as interim president next January. "The Palestinian law calls for the speaker of the parliament to serve as interim president until new elections are held," he said. "When Yasser Arafat died, the former speaker of the parliament, Rouhi Fattouh, took over for two months."

Bahr, who is one of the top leaders of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said Sunday he was prepared to serve as acting PA president in January. "Abbas would not be able to remain in office after January," he said. "If he wants, he can run in the new elections. But in the meantime, I will be filling in for him."

Bahr warned Abbas against the "serious repercussions" of his decision to stay in office beyond January. "If he insists on violating the law, he will consolidate the state of schism in the Palestinian arena," he cautioned. "He has no right to steal the post of president against the will of the people."

Bahr said he did not rule out the possibility that Abbas, with the help of Israel, would wage a major offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in January. He added that even if some Arab countries continued to deal with Abbas as president of the PA after January 2009, Hamas would not accept him.

PA officials in Ramallah scoffed at Bahr's remarks, saying he was not even the speaker of the PLC. "Bahr forgot that he's only the acting speaker of the parliament and that the speaker is Abdel Aziz Dweik [who is currently in Israeli jail]," said one official. "In any case, Bahr represents a movement that has trampled the law under its foot."

Another PA official told the Post that Abbas has formed a special panel of legal experts to find a way to allow him to extend his term beyond January 2009. "The president has no intention to step down in January," he said. "The law allows him to stay for another year."

The row over Abbas's tenure is expected to be at the top of the agenda in the upcoming talks between the various Palestinian factions in Cairo. All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, have agreed to hold "national dialogue" talks in the Egyptian capital early next month. The talks are primarily aimed at ending the ongoing Hamas-Fatah dispute and ending Hamas's exclusive rule in the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians are hoping to solve the crisis over Abbas's term before the end of the year so as to avoid a further deterioration in the Hamas-Fatah power struggle.

PA officials said President Hosni Mubarak supported Abbas's stance and was trying to persuade Hamas not to challenge the PA president in January. Abbas has also sought the backing of the Arab League for his plan to remain in power for an additional year.

The Egyptians are also hoping to convince Hamas to accept a proposal to deploy Arab troops in the Gaza Strip and to form a new Palestinian government that would be dominated by independent figures. Both ideas have thus far been totally rejected by Hamas, which also remains strongly opposed to Abbas's efforts to extend his term by another year.

 

Olmert: 'Israel moet Oost-Jeruzalem en de Golan opgeven'

 

Dit is niet de eerste keer dat Olmert pleit voor concessies, wel de eerste keer dat hij het ook over opgeven van Oost-Jeruzalem heeft.
Eerder al heeft hij de Palestijnen 93% van de Westoever aangeboden en een landruil om voor de rest te compenseren. Dit werd door de Palestijnen direct en resoluut van de hand gewezen, net als alle andere vredesvoorstellen die Israel tot nu toe heeft gedaan. Een ander probleem met al die vredesvoorstellen is dat Hamas in Gaza aan de macht is, en tegen vrede met en erkenning van Israel is, en hooguit bereid tot een meerjarig bestand.

Toch zijn Olmerts opmerkingen belangrijk. Het is misschien laf dat hij niet eerder over Jeruzalem wilde praten (dit had hoogst waarschijnlijk tot de val van zijn kabinet geleid), maar door deze dingen nu te zeggen maakt hij het makkelijker voor zijn opvolgster om dit taboe te doorbreken.

 

Een en ander staat in schril contrast met de starre positie van Abbas, die maar blijft hameren op het 'recht op terugkeer' van alle vluchtelingen en heel Oost-Jeruzalem, inclusief Joodse delen en de gehele oude stad blijft opeisen, daarin aangespoord door tientallen organisaties en politieke partijen, inclusief de eigen Fatah partij.   

RP

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Last update - 16:58 29/09/2008

Olmert: Israel must quit East Jerusalem and Golan

 

By Haaretz Service
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1025411.html

 

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks published Monday that Israel would have to withdraw from East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights if it was serious about making peace with the Palestinians and Syria.

In an interview with the Yedioth Aharonoth daily, Olmert said that as a hard-line politician for decades he had not been prepared to look at reality in all of its depth.

"Ariel Sharon spoke about painful costs and refused to elaborate," Olmert told the daily. "I say, we have no choice but to elaborate. In the end of the day, we will have to withdraw from the most decisive areas of the territories. In exchange for the same territories left in our hands, we will have to give compensation in the form of territories within the State of Israel."
"I think we are very close to an agreement," Olmert added.

These comments were the clearest sign to date of Olmert's willingness to meet key Palestinian demands in peace talks.

With regard to the Syria track, Olmert added that a future peace agreement required a pullout from the Golan Heights, an area under Israeli control since the 1967 Six-Day War.

"First and foremost, we must make a decision. I'd like to see if there is one serious person in the State of Israel who believes it is possible to make peace with the Syrians without eventually giving up the Golan Heights."

"It is true that an agreement with Syria comes with danger," he said. "Those who want to act with zero danger should move to Switzerland."

Yedioth Aharonoth noted that in this "legacy interview," published on the eve of the Jewish New Year, Olmert went further in making offers for peace than he ever did publicly when he was in active office and had greater power to see them carried out.

The interview was met with fierce criticism from politicians on both the right and the left.

MK Yuval Steinitz said the comments demonstrated the outgoing leader's readiness "to ignore even the most crucial" of Israel's needs.

"The prime minister's concession the essential borders of defense is a gamble on the bone of existence, and the future of the State of Israel," Steinitz told Army Radio in response to Olmert's comments.

"Ignoring the distance between rockets fired from afar and the enemy sitting on top of Jerusalem reveals how little he understands the basis of security," Steinitz added.

Former Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin criticized Olmert for having offered such concessions only on the eve of his departure from premiership.

"Olmert has committed the unforgivable sin of revealing his truce stance on Israel's national interest just when he has nothing left to lose," said Beilin.

According to Western and Palestinian officials, Olmert has proposed in peace talks with the Palestinians an Israeli withdrawal from some 93 percent of the West Bank, plus all of the Gaza Strip, from which Israel pulled out in 2005.

The negotiations, which Olmert has vowed to continue until he leaves office when a new government is formed, have shown few signs of progress and both sides acknowledge chances are slim of meeting Washington's target of a deal by the end of the year.

Olmert has also engaged Syria in indirect negotiations with Turkish mediation, but has not remarked publicly on the scope of an Israeli pullout from the Golan Heights.

Olmert has said repeatedly that Israel intends to keep major Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

A peace agreement, Olmert has said, would mean Israel would have to compensate the Palestinians for the land it hopes to retain by "close to a 1-to-1 ratio."

In exchange for the settlement enclaves, Olmert has proposed about a 5 percent land swap giving the Palestinians a desert territory adjacent to the Gaza Strip, as well as land on which to build a transit corridor between Gaza and the West Bank.

He has so far put off negotiations on sharing Jerusalem and ruled out a so-called "right of return" for Palestinian refugees, a central Palestinian demand. On both issues, there is strong opposition in Israel to significant concessions.

Olmert, who has stepped down in the face of a possible criminal indictment in a corruption investigation, will remain caretaker prime minister until a new government is approved by parliament.

A week ago, President Shimon Peres asked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, now leader of Olmert's centrist Kadima party, to try to put together a governing coalition within six weeks. Failure to do so would likely lead to a parliamentary election.

 

 

Ontevreden Fatah politici overwegen derde intifada

 

De samenwerking tussen Israel en Fatah is binnen de Palestijnse Autoriteit en Fatah zelf controversieel, en sommigen pleiten ervoor de onderhandelingen stop te zetten totdat Israel alle bouw in de nederzettingen bevriest. Wat niet wordt vermeld is dat door die samenwerking de bewegingsvrijgheid van de Palestijnen aanmerkelijk is vergroot, en politie- en veiligheidsdiensten in sommige steden de ruimte hebben gekregen om zelf orde op zaken te stellen. In plaats van harde voorwaarden te stellen kan de Palestijnse Autoriteit beter het in hun gestelde vertrouwen waar maken en daarna om meer controle over meer gebied vragen.

 

Uiteraard moet Israel er alles aan doen om geweld van kolonisten tegen Palestijnen tegen te gaan, zoals de PA ook geweld tegen Israeli's moet tegengaan. Een bevriezing van de meeste nederzettingen en stopzetting van alle nieuwe bouwplannen zou samen kunnen gaan met een einde aan de ophitsende taal in door de PA gecontroleerde media en schoolboeken.

 

RP

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

 

Discontented Fatah politicos consider launching third intifada

 

By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

Last update - 07:26   29/09/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1025207.html

 

In recent weeks, senior defense officials have been singing the praises of their Palestinian colleagues. After years of suspicion about the Palestinian Authority, Israeli officials are now convinced that the PA is resolved to deal with Hamas, which is threatening to take over the West Bank as it did the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials admit to receiving assistance from Israel and the United States and have arrested hundreds of Hamas activists and closed down dozens of its charity organizations.

But the picture is more complicated than that. While Fatah's security professionals seek conflict with Hamas, the movement's political faction wishes to reconcile with Hamas and redirect the anger at Israel.

Eight years after the second intifada's eruption, the controversy in the PA could lead to a renewed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. The recent incidents between extremist settlers and Palestinians could contribute to the conflagration.

Many Palestinians describe June 14, 2007 - the day Hamas forcibly ousted the last Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip - as the day the second intifada died. The Hamas takeover of Gaza jump-started several processes, mainly the dismantling of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank, once the backbone of the violent struggle against Israel.

Meanwhile, Hamas has agreed to a temporary cease-fire with Israel and stopped the rocket fire from Gaza. But Fatah activists say that they see the lack of progress in the peace talks, coupled with continued construction in the settlements and increased settler violence, as a recipe for renewed conflagration. This is exacerbated by their growing dissatisfaction with the PA's functioning and its helplessness in the face of Israel's infringements on Palestinian interests, whereas Hamas maintains complete control of Gaza.

Last week, Kadoura Fares, a leader of the Palestinian "peace coalition," called on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the talks with Israel immediately. Fares, a key Fatah leader from the generation below Abbas, made this statement at a conference on the Geneva Initiative in Tel Aviv. He said it was inconceivable for Abbas to keep talking with Israel while construction in the settlements continued.

Fares' statement reflects the dissatisfaction felt by many Fatah members of his generation in the West Bank, such as Hussam Khader of the Balata refugee camp, a key figure in both intifadas. Younger Fatah members - people once active in the Al-Aqsa Brigades, who are in Palestinian custody because they have not yet received amnesty from Israel - also warn of an approaching confrontation with Israel.

Israeli intelligence officials do not believe the West Bank is ripe for a third intifada, because the Palestinian public is still weary of the suffering caused by the last round. It is doubtful that Fatah could sweep the masses into another violent struggle against Israel, they say.

But the continued friction with the settlers - and certainly a Jewish terror attack against Arabs in the West Bank - could provide the spark, just as opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to Temple Mount did eight years ago. That could be pretext enough for Fatah militants, who have been hiding their weapons under their mattresses, to aim them at Israelis once again.

Tot 500 smokkeltunnels van Egypte naar Gazastrook

 

De enige 'business' die floreert in de Gazastrook lijkt die van de smokkel door tunnels onder de grens met Egypte door te zijn. Van alles waar vraag naar is wordt via de tunnels Gaza binnen gesmokkeld. Naast wapens, sigaretten en drugs ook goederen als computers, mobiele telefoons en jeans. Onlangs is zelfs een bruid uit Egypte naar haar nieuwe echtgenoot in Gaza gesmokkeld. Voor de meeste mensen zijn deze goederen, die stukken duurder zijn dan ze normaal zouden kosten, niet te betalen. Voor deze schaarse producten betalen de tunnelgravers soms helaas met hun leven, en worden vervolgens als 'martelaren' geëerd.

 

RP

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

Inside Gaza's secret smuggling tunnels, the underground route to riches - or to death

 

With several tonnes of the world's most war-torn soil between us, the shouts of the Palestinian smuggling gang at the top of the tunnel's 30-foot deep shaft had become almost inaudible.

By Colin Freeman, in Gaza

The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Last Updated: 5:37PM BST 27 Sep 2008
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/3089367/Inside-Gazas-secret-smuggling-tunnels-the-underground-route-to-riches---or-to-death.html

 

 

Colin Freeman takes a 'guided tour' of the smugglers tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Not that their lead tunneller had whispered particularly encouraging words as he lowered me down.

"The tunnels are very dangerous - they can easily collapse," smiled Ibrahim Abu Sazzar, 23, whose small, wiry build is just right for digging the 300 yard long passageways underneath the sandy border from the Gaza to Egypt.

"One time a day a tunnel caved in on my body and I was stuck for an hour, thinking I was about to die. But what can I do - I need the money to feed my family."

Welcome, if that is the word, to Gaza's "Tunnel Town", where with every perilous scoop of earth they dig, human moles like Mr Sazzar are quite literally undermining Israel's economic blockade.

Imposed last year after Gaza fell under the control of the militant Palestinian faction Hamas, the blockade was designed to make Hamas unpopular with Gaza's 1.4 million residents by banning virtually all trade with the outside world.

But deep beneath the watchtowers and fences of Gaza's 10-mile long border with Egypt, a sprawling warren of hand-dug burrows now supplies everything from food, petrol and designer jeans through to guns, drugs and black market Marlboro cigarettes.

Tunnel gangs charge premiums of up to 150 per cent on their cargos, raking in tens of thousands of dollars a week and making the excavation business one of Gaza's few growth industries.

"We bring through laptops, clothes, computers, medicines, mobile phones and even people," said Hisham al Loukh, 23, another tunneller. "There was even a bride from Egypt who came through one recently to get married to a man in Gaza."

The first tunnels underneath Gaza's perimeters were dug years ago, when they were they were primarily to smuggle weapons and explosives for use against Israel.
But it is during the blockade of the past year that the tunnellers' hazardous craft has really come to the fore. On some estimates there are now up to 500 passageways across to Egypt, mostly clustered around the town of Rafah, which straddles the border.

The tunnels usually surface in the gardens of villas on the Egyptian side of Rafah, where many residents are either sympathetic to the Palestinian cause or willing to lend their properties in return for a share of the lucrative profits.

Each member of a tunnelling gang, usually working in day and night shifts of 10 men each, earns around $15 per metre of passageway dug, which counts as a decent wage in an area which currently has 80 per cent unemployment. But as even the briefest of sojourns down into one of the tunnels makes clear, it is a risky living.

Entering one requires perching precariously on a makeshift wooden chairlift, which is then lowered down the 30 foot deep shaft by a winch powered by a sputtering petrol generator.

As in the Second World War film classic The Great Escape, the tunnel's walls are propped up with makeshift wooden planks, and equipped with ventilation pumps to freshen the musty, damp air at the bottom.

Diggers then use small electric drills to carve a path through the thick clay soil, steering their way by hand-held compass.

But otherwise, the engineering expertise has advanced little since the days of Tom, Dick and Harry. Tunnel collapses have led to dozens of fatalaties - so many that some local shops honour tunnellers in the same fashion as "martyred" local militants, displaying pictures of them clutching spades and drills rather than assault rifles.

The threat is not just from earthfalls. The Egyptian government, which has traditionally turned a blind eye to the tunnels because of historic sympathy for Gaza's Palestinian residents, is now under growing pressure from both Israel and the US to shut them down, and in recent months Egyptian border guards have started dynamiting any entrances that they discover.

"They also pump in water, poison gas, and even sewage," said Mr Sazzar. "But they do not stop us. If part of one tunnel gets blocked, we just dig a new branch in a different direction."

On the Gaza side, little effort is made to hide the tunnels, which lurk under a network of tents and jerry-built shacks along the border.

Israel, which withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005, has occasionally sent warplanes to bomb the passageways, but has not done so since striking a cease-fire deal with Hamas three months ago.

Hamas itself used to impose strict controls on the tunnels' numbers, but has allowed them to proliferate in recent months, mindful that too much economic privation will dent its already wavering popularity with Gaza's impoverished residents.

There are also rumours that Hamas rakes in millions of dollars by imposing an unofficial "tax" on all tunnelled goods, although Dr Ahmed Yousef, a senior advisor in Hamas's foreign ministry, denies such claims.

"The tunnels have become a necessity with everybody tightening the rope around our necks," he said. "It is a safety valve to make goods available, because we cannot get them from Israel."

Tunnel entrepreneurs are now enjoying such good business, however, that they now have a vested interest in the status quo.

In recent months a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has raised hopes that the economic blockade might be eased, but some in Gaza fear that should that ever look like happening, local tunnel owners will sabotage it by paying militants to fire rockets into Israel again.

Meanwhile, the list of tunnel "martyrs" continues to grow. The day after The Sunday Telegraph visited, a neighbouring tunnel at Rafah collapsed, killing three people and injuring five others.


--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il

Veiligheidsraad bijeen over Israëlisch-Palestijnse vredesproces

 

Toekomstmuziek?

 

Veiligheidsraad bijeen over illegaal Hamasbestuur over Gaza

 

De Veiligheidsraad van de Verenigde Naties heeft gisteren een speciale zitting gewijd aan het Israelisch-Palestijnse vredesproces en met name de situatie in Gaza, waar Hamas sinds juni 2007 de scepter zwaait. Hamas is een racistische en gewelddadige beweging die gekant is tegen iedere vorm van vrede met Israel.

De Veiligheidsraad kwam bijeen op verzoek van verschillende landen, waaronder Nederland, dat optradt namens de Europese Unie. "Hamas dreigt het vredesproces te torpederen", aldus minister Verhagen. "Hamas zal niet toestaan dat Israel en de Palestijnse Autoriteit een vredesverdrag tekenen, waarin de laatste het bestaansrecht van Israel zal erkennen". Volgens Verhagen versterkt de macht en positie van Hamas extremistische ideeen in Israel. "Mensen geloven niet meer dat vrede en verzoening met de Arabieren mogelijk is".

Premier Livni benadrukte dat veel Israeli's de VN en internationale gemeenschap wantrouwen omdat die wel altijd de nederzettingen en Israelisch geweld hard veroordelen, maar de illegale coup van Hamas, de ophitsing tegen Israel en de walgelijke Jodenhaat zoals die via door Hamas gecontroleerde media wordt verspreid negeert. Ze zei erg blij te zijn met deze speciale zitting en sprak de verwachting uit dat zowel gematigden aan Israelische als Palestijnse zijde erdoor gesterkt zouden worden.

 

RP

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

V-raad bijeen over nederzettingen Israël

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/960/Buitenland/article/detail/430813/2008/09/27/V-raad-bijeen-over-nederzettingen-Israel.dhtml

 

 

De Veiligheidsraad van de Verenigde Naties heeft gisteren een zitting gewijd aan het Israëlisch-Palestijnse vredesproces. De raad kwam bijeen op verzoek van Saoedi-Arabië, dat optrad namens de Arabische Liga.

Vrede redden
De Liga en de Palestijnse president Mahmoed Abbas vroegen de raad het vredesproces te redden door Israël op de vingers te tikken voor het blijveen bouwen van nederzettingen op Palestijns gebied.

Het probleem van de nederzettingen dreigt het hele vredesproces te torpederen, zei de Saoedische prins Saud al Faisal. Alleen door het probleem aan te pakken kan het vredesoverleg dat in november op een top in de VS op gang werd gebracht, worden gered, zei hij.

Extremer zonder vrede
Volgens prins Saud heeft de stagnatie van het vredesproces de aantrekkingskracht van extremistische ideologieën versterkt. "Gevoelens van wanhoop en frustratie hebben een gevaarlijk hoog niveau bereikt", zei hij.

"De toenemende perceptie in de Arabische en islamitische wereld dat de internationale gemeenschap deze zaak niet serieus neemt moet aan de orde komen." Abbas zei dat er een 'definitief eind' moet worden gemaakt aan de 'nederzettingendiplomatie'.

Dit jaar nog?
De regering-Bush zei in november op de conferentie in Annapolis dat haar streven en dat van Israël en de Palestijnen erop was gericht voor eind 2008 een vredesakkoord te sluiten dat voorziet in de vorming van een levensvatbare Palestijnse staat.

Amr Mousssa, die sprak namens de Arabische Liga, concludeerde dat er nog drie maanden van 2008 over zijn en dat er geen teken is van een ontluikende Palestijnse staat.

Geduld is op
Het debat kon worden opgevat als een signaal dat het geduld op is met het rustige overleg achter de schermen waar de Verenigde Staten de voorkeur aan geven. De VS heeft maandenlang weten tegen te houden dat Palestijnse kwesties in de Veiligheidsraad aan de orde werden gesteld.

"Onvermijdelijk"
Voorafgaand aan het debat zei de Russische ambassadeur Vitali Tsjoerkiin dat de VS en sommige andere landen bezwaar hadden gemaakt tegen het open debat, maar dat Washington uiteindelijk had ingezien dat het onvermijdelijk was.

"Er is vooruitgang"
De Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Condoleezza Rice wees de raad erop dat er een jaar geleden helemaal geen sprake was van een vredesproces en zei dat Israël en de Palestijnen hun onderhandelingen voorzetten, samen met vele andere partners.

Rice zei ook dat niet de Veiligheidsraad, maar het Kwartet voor het Midden-Oosten -de VS, Rusland, de VN en de Europese Unie- het aangewezen forum is om over het vredesproces te discussiëren. De vier landen hielden vrijdag ook een bijeenkomst in New York.

Iran aanvallen
Rice wist later de aandacht handig van het haperende vredesproces af te leiden door de aanval te openen op de Iraanse president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Deze haalde dinsdag in een toespraak tot de Algemene Vergadering van de VN op zijn gebruikelijke manier uit naar Israël.

Rice zei dat Ahmadinejads eerdere oproepen om Israël van de kaart te vegen onacceptabel zijn. Als de raad gaat kijken wat nu werkelijk de internationale vrede en veiligheid bedreigt staat dit volgens mij bovenaan de lijst", zei zij.   (novum/edp)

 

 

Boek met Holocaust cartoons uitgebracht in Iran

 

Zelden is er zoveel haat van een land tegen een ander land en volk verspreid, waarmee men nooit een territoriaal dispuut had, nooit door bezet is geweest en nooit mee in oorlog is geweest. De laatste keer dat een regime een volk zo zwart maakte, beledigde en bedreigde was, juist ja, zo'n 70 jaar geleden.....

 

RP

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Boek met holocaustcartoons uitgebracht in Iran   http://historiek.net/index.php/20080927927/actueel/Boek-met-holocaustcartoons-uitgebracht-in-Iran.html Historiek.net - zaterdag 27 september 2008

 
In Iran is een boek uitgebracht met cartoons en satirische teksten over de jodenvervolging. Het staatspersbureau IRNA maakte dat vandaag bekend.

Het boek werd uitgegeven op Quds Day (Jeruzalemdag), een dag waarop in Iran massaal geprotesteerd wordt tegen de aanwezigheid van Israël in Jeruzalem. Net als andere jaren ging een groot aantal Iraniërs die dag de straat op en eisten ze het vertrek van Israël uit het Midden-Oosten. Volgens hen is Israël "een kankergezwel" dat verwijderd moet worden.

Eén van de cartoons in het boek toont joden die de gaskamer verschillende keren in en uit lopen. Een andere jood zit bij de ingang met een teller die op 5.999.999 staat.

Het boek stelt onder meer dat Israël de holocaust misbruikt in het conflict met de Palestijnen. Samensteller van het genoemde boek is de politiek activist Mohammad Ali Ramin. Verschillende Iraanse studenten verleenden hun medewerking. Bij de presentatie van het boek was de Iraanse minister van onderwijs, Alireza Ali-Ahmadi, aanwezig.

 

 

Nasrallah op Al-Aqsa Dag: 'Palestina voor de Palestijnen'

 

Dit is wat Nasrallah met 'verzet tegen de Israelische bezetting' bedoelt:

 

"Jerusalem and Palestine, from the sea to the river, belong to the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the Muslims, and no one has the authority to concede a grain of earth, wall or stone from the holy land," Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Friday evening.

 

Nasrallah added that Israel was the enemy of all Islamic states. "Israel is not only the enemy of the Palestinian people, but also of Lebanon, all the Arab people and all the Muslim nations. Israel is a cancerous tumor, as Imam Khomeini said.

 

"Today, as in the past, we stress that the only way to return the land and overcome the difficulties is through the way of resistance – by the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the rest of the region's nations. It's still possible, but today more can be done that ever before."

 

Toch koos een flink deel van links in Nederland partij voor Hezbollah tijdens de oorlog in 2006. GroenLinks, de SP en Oxfam-Novib organiseerden een anti-Israel demonstratie waar Hezbollah aanhangers ongehinderd hun leuzen scandeerden, leden van EAJG liepen mee en hadden daar, evenals Femke Halsema, geen enkele moeite mee. Columnisten en commentatoren spraken van Hezbollah's 'recht op verzet' tegen Israel, al was Israel al 6 jaar weg uit Libanon.

 

RP

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Nasrallah: Palestine belongs to Palestinians from sea to river

Speaking in Beirut in honor of al-Quds Day, Hizbullah secretary-general says, 'No one has the authority to concede a grain of earth, wall or stone of the holy land'; adds his organization will continue resistance against Israel. 'Today more can be done than ever before,' he notes

 

Roee Nahmias - Ynet News
Published:  09.26.08, 21:50

 

 

No place for Israel in the Middle East? "Jerusalem and Palestine, from the sea to the river, belong to the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the Muslims, and no one has the authority to concede a grain of earth, wall or stone from the holy land," Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Friday evening.
 
Speaking in Beirut in honor of al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, an Iranian-declared observance, Nasrallah added, "Its stones, olives and figs are sacred, and no one has the right to give it up. This land must belong to its owners, and it will return, God willing.
 
"This day comes to stress a number of primary significations to the Muslims, so that the nation feels the intensity of the humiliation of past decades, when its holy places were occupied by racist Zionist hands.
 
"This is the greatest humiliation of this nation. The second message is to stress the historic, religious and legitimate responsibility of the Muslim nation towards Jerusalem, Palestine and the Palestinian people."
 
He warned Israel not to attack Lebanon. "I have always said that the way of the resistance is not a classic war. We are ready to help the resistance of the Palestinian people. But those who attack Lebanon – we shall face them.

 

"(Defense Minister) Ehud Barak spoke in the past about five divisions which would invade Lebanon, and today he talks about eight. Okay, he may have made new calculations. But you should know that your eight divisions will be destroyed on our territory by our fighters. If Israel makes this mistake… The enemy and the friend know these things are promises from the Arab victory periods and are not taken from the times of past defeats."

 

The Hizbullah leader went on to attack the United States and Britain. "We do not deny the influence of the Zionist lobby in the world, but Israel does not control the US. It is an entity created by the British. Israel is the product of the US and Britain aimed at tearing the region apart. It is the arrowhead of this inspiration.

 

"We understand this. Our holy lands will not be liberated through talks with the West. The way to return the lands and liberate the Palestinian people is through desire, resistance and self-sacrifice in the region – the same resistance which succeeded in imposing itself on this entity."

 

'Weapons from black market to Lebanese army'

 

Nasrallah also blamed elements in the Arab world for not acting against Israel. "Unfortunately, there were those among the Arabs who took advantage of the conflict within the Palestinian people to wash their hands off the Palestinian issue. If the Arab nation does what is needed, the liberation of Jerusalem will be possible, maybe even soon."

 

The Hizbullah leader went on to speak about the military armament in Lebanon. "Following the reports in Lebanon that Israel objects to the US equipping the Lebanese army with a number of arm systems, can we maintain the sovereignty of Lebanon and its people this way? Must we really wait for permission from the US and Israel to equip our national army and give it all it needs to carry out its secret missions? This is unthinkable.

 

"As for the resistance, they were angered by it because it did not need anyone's permission to arm itself, and thus this weapon is one of the reasons for power."

 

He turned to Lebanon's new unity government: "We need the unity government to make a brave decision that we do not need anyone's permission and we will equip our army. We will establish a special cabinet of ministers, and in this framework the state will purchase weapons, even in the black market, as the resistance does.

 

"If we wait for the United State's permission, we might receive trucks, weak armored personnel carriers, etc, but we will never get weapons which will allow us to face the Zionist enemy. A national force is not built through an external entity, but through national determination."

'Israel the enemy of Islam'

 

Nasrallah added that Israel was the enemy of all Islamic states. "Israel is not only the enemy of the Palestinian people, but also of Lebanon, all the Arab people and all the Muslim nations. Israel is a cancerous tumor, as Imam Khomeini said.

 

"Today, as in the past, we stress that the only way to return the land and overcome the difficulties is through the way of resistance – by the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the rest of the region's nations. It's still possible, but today more can be done that ever before."

The Hizbullah leader said the Muslims must achieve their dream, even if it interrupts Israel's vision.

 

"Today the time of the Zionists' dreams has passed and the time of our dreams has begun. Today we don't just dream, we implement our dreams. After the year 2000 and following the historic victory in southern Lebanon, the al-Aqsa Intifada broke out. It was a historic golden opportunity to realize these hopes. Unfortunately, the entire Islamic nation did not stand by the Palestinians, who were forced to sacrifice victims."

 

As for dreams, Nasrallah went on to say that "while some people were busy with the internal crisis in Lebanon, there were people in the resistance who did not sleep at night since the end of the war – led by the shahid Imad Mugniyah, and they are still working to realize the dream."

 

Addressing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation, Nasrallah said, "Olmert, although he naturally should have stepped down following the Winograd Commission, remained in his seat thanks to vigorous American involvement.

 

"The post-war Israel is facing a leadership crisis. One of the most important developments was that Olmert admitted that the Greater Israel dream has come to an end, after (opposition leader Benjamin) Netanyahu admitted in the past that Zionism is facing a crisis.

 

"Out of all these things, the public's lack of faith in this entity and its future is the most important. Polls released in Israel recently say two-thirds of the public believe they are living in an area where they feel insecure."
  
Nasrallah spoke during the al-Aqsa Day events, a tradition launched in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini which calls for "Jerusalem's liberation and is marked on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan.

 

The Beirut event was attended by representatives of the Lebanese president and army commander, the parliament speaker, diplomats and other supporters. It was held in the Sayyed Al-Shuhada Mosque, Hizbullah's main mosque in the Dahiya quarter.

 

 

Palestijnse vluchtelingen tegen compromis 'recht op terugkeer'

 

Stel je voor: Tientallen Palestijnse organisaties en individuen schrijven Abbas een brief waarin zij hem aanmoedigen door te gaan met de vredesonderhandelingen met Israel, en oproepen daarvoor de noodzakelijke concessies te doen, zoals de erkenning van het recht op zelfbeschikking van beide volken, erkenning van Joodse nationale rechten in Jeruzalem, de noodzaak tot een regeling voor de vluchtelingen te komen die niet indruist tegen het Joodse zelfbeschikkingsrecht en op te treden tegen de ophitsende taal in kranten, moskeeën en schoolboeken.

 

Stel je voor.....

 

De werkelijkheid is helaas een geheel andere.

 

RP

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

Palestinian Refugee Organizations Write Letter to President Mahmoud Abbas
28/09/2008
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=2&id=1985

The Alternative Information Center (AIC)
www.alternativenews.org
September 25, 2008

Written by Palestinian Refugee Organizations
Thursday, 25 September 2008

The following letter was presented to President Mahmoud Abbas's office on behalf of 78 Palestinian organizations on Wednesday September 22, 2008. Note that ALL Palestinian political factions have signed on as well.

Open Letter to President Mahmoud Abbas

To: President Mahmoud Abbas

Chair of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee
President of the Palestinian National Authority

CC:
League of Arab States
Non-Aligned Movement
Organization of the Islamic Conference

Re: The Rights of Palestinian Refugees and the Final Status Negotiations

Dear Mr. President,

Greetings of Return

We, the undersigned Palestinian refugee organizations, civil society movements and institutions in the Palestinian homeland and in exile are national organizations working to defend the right of return. We appeal to you now because we are convinced that the alignment of the official Palestinian position and the position of the Palestinian people with regards to the final status negotiation issues is of the highest priority. Foremost among these issues is the cause of the Palestinian refugees.

We are convinced that the alignment of popular and official positions is the main guarantee of a strong Palestinian position in the current negotiation process, which is taking place in a local, regional and global context that jeopardizes the national rights of the Palestinian people. In this context, we are concerned in particular about the rights of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their original lands and properties, restitution of their homes, lands and properties and compensation for damages incurred over the past 60 years. Based on the fact that all of these rights are guaranteed under international law, and based on our awareness of the enormous pressures faced by Palestinian negotiators and the tactics of negotiations, such as secrecy with regards to the negotiation proceedings, we call upon you to adopt a negotiation strategy that is based on openness with the entirety of the Palestinian people - irrespective of their current place of residence - regarding all aspects and details of the negotiation process. Implementation of the Palestinian refugees' right of return was and continues to be the main purpose for which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was established, a purpose which forms the central pillar of the PLO's legitimacy as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Transparency and candidness of our representatives with all sectors of our society will guarantee that our rights are best defended, and strengthen our position in the face of enormous pressures.

It has been clear at all stages of the negotiations that this process aims to eliminate the core issue of the Arab/Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice: the Palestinian refugees and their rights of return and restitution. In fact, elimination of these central Palestinian/Arab demands form the center-piece of both Israeli and US policies. It is also no secret that during the so-called "Oslo Peace Process" these policies have employed insidious tactics in order to nullify these rights altogether. Such tactics include attempts to substitute the return and restitution of the refugees with monetary compensation; to reduce the number of those entitled to exercise these rights from over 7 million Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons to a tiny minority, including so-called "hardship cases" that would be arbitrarily defined by Israel; to suggest that the refugees return to homes located in the areas administered by the Palestinian Authority; and other humiliating "trade offs" whereby Palestinians are expected to surrender the right of refugees to return to homes, lands and properties of origin in exchange for other rights and demands, such as self-determination, borders, the reclamation of Jerusalem and removal of the illegal settlement-colonies. The Palestinian leadership has rejected such degrading bargaining tactics in previous negotiations, notably those known as the second Camp David summit and the Clinton initiative. The late President Yasser Arafat rejected these tactics, and he was made to pay for that with his liberty and his life.

Whereas the rights of return, restitution and compensation are enshrined in international law and specifically affirmed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and UN Security Council Resolution 237;

Whereas we see that increasing US pressure aims to force Palestinian negotiators to agree to an obscure framework for a solution that is to be achieved by any means and at the soonest date, and that such a framework is largely for internal US consumption in the context of a US Presidential election;

Whereas it has become clear that the US administration is working on other fronts to market its obscure framework for a solution in the September 2008 session of the UN General Assembly;

Whereas we realize, as a result of our movement's long and difficult experience with Israeli politics, that Israeli political actors seek to solve the internal Israeli political crisis by venting destruction on the Palestinian front through various policies and practices, all of which work to entrench Israeli occupation, colonialism, and apartheid, and aim to attain international recognition of Israel as a 'Jewish State;'

Whereas Western and Israeli election platforms must not be employed to put pressure on the Palestinian negotiators, who should in no way be a party to the political maneuvers of US and Israeli political candidates, particularly in order to protect the legality, legitimacy, and sanctity of Palestinian national rights regardless of who emerges victorious in foreign elections;

Whereas we perceive the retreat of the once principled European position, and the transformation of this position into one that conforms to the US policy of total complicity and support for Israel;

Whereas we clearly see the weakness and inability of the Arab countries to take action or play any effective role;

Whereas we witness the sharp, painful and unprecedented deterioration in the internal Palestinian political arena;

Whereas it has become plain and obvious that powerful external pressures aim to annul Palestinian refugee rights, particularly the right to return to their original lands and properties and the restitution of these lands and properties;

Whereas Israel and the US, according to Israeli officials, are intensifying their efforts to reach a framework for a solution that is acceptable to both Israel and the US and will be viable regardless of the ruling party;

Whereas the primary measure of the legitimacy of any solution remains the extent to which it will lead to the exercise of the right of self-determination by the Palestinian people, including foremost the right of Palestinian refugees to choose to return to their original homes and lands regardless of their current place of refuge,

We approach you with this statement based on our strong desire to chart a way forward that is built on the highest levels of clarity and candidness with the Palestinian people; a way forward that aims to strengthen the Palestinian position in this sensitive stage of the Palestinian struggle; a way forward that ensures that any framework for a solution will include the following principles in clear and immutable language:

1. The rights of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons to return, restitution and compensation are fundamental rights under international law and relevant UN resolutions - particularly UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and UN Security Council Resolution 237. The content of these rights is non-negotiable irrespective of the manner in which they will be exercised;

2. The right of return is an individual right held by every Palestinian refugee and internally displaced person. This right is passed on from one generation to the next, based on the individual's choice on whether or not to return, an inalienable and indivisible right, and not affected by any bilateral, multilateral, or international treaty or agreement. Any such agreement must respect the fundamental precepts and principles of international law;

3. The right of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons to return is a collective right that is not limited to one group or another, and it is an integral part of the Palestinian right of self-determination;

4. The right of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons to return is not subject to referendum.

May you remain steadfast in our struggle for freedom and dignity

Drafted: August 2008

Signed:

1. 194 Association (Syria)
2. Abassiya Association (Palestine)
3. Abnaa Al-Balad Center for the Defense of the Right of Return (Syria)
4. Aidun Group (Lebanon)
5. Aidun Group (Syria)
6. Al-Awda Palestine Network (Holland)
7. Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition (North America)
8. Arab Cultural Forum (Gaza, Palestine)
9. Arab Liberation Front
10. Arab Palestinian Front
11. Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced (Palestine)
12. Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (Palestine)
13. Beit Nabala Association (Palestine)
14. Bisan Association (Syria)
15. Coalition of Right of Return Defense Committees (Jordan)
16. Coalition of Right of Return Defense Committees (Jordan)
17. Committee for the Rights of Palestinian Women (Syria)
18. Confederation of Right of Return Committees (Europe: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, France, Holland, Poland, Finland)
19. Coordinating Committee of Palestinian Organizations Working in Lebanon (Lebanon)
20. Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine (Palestine)
21. Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
22. Democratic Palestine Committee
23. Depopulated Towns and Villages Associations (Gaza, Palestine)
24. Farah Heritage Society (Syria)
25. Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Palestine)
26. Higher Follow-up Committee on Prisoners (Palestine)
27. Higher National Committee for the Defense of the Right of Return (Palestine)
28. Inevitable Return Assembly (Syria)
29. Islamic Jihad Movement
30. Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas]
31. Istiqlal Youth Union (Lebanon)
32. Istiqlal Youth Union (Syria)
33. Ittijah: Union of Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations (Palestine)
34. Jafra Youth Center (Syria)
35. Jimzo Association (Palestine)
36. Lajee Center, Aida Camp (Palestine)
37. National Assembly of of Palestinian Civil Society Organizations (Palestine)
38. National Committee to Commemorate the Martyr Ahmad Al-Shuqairy (Jordan)
39. National Nakba Commemoration Committee (Palestine)
40. Palestine Democratic Union [Fida]
41. Palestine House Educational and Cultural Center (Canada)
42. Palestine Liberation Movement [Fatah]
43. Palestine Remembered (USA)
44. Palestine Right of Return Coalition (Global)
45. Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (Palestine)
46. Palestinian Civil Society Coordinating Committee in Palestine and Abroad (Global)
47. Palestinian Liberation Front
48. Palestinian National Democratic Movement (Palestine)
49. Palestinian National Initiative
50. Palestinian People's Party
51. Palestinian Popular Struggle Front
52. Palestinian Refugee Rights Defense Committee (Balata Camp, Palestine)
53. Palestinian University Professors Union (Gaza, Palestine)
54. Palestinian Women's Grassroots Organization (Syria)
55. Palestinian Youth Democratic Union (Syria)
56. Palestinian Youth Organization (Syria)
57. Palestinian Youth Struggle Union (Syria Branch)
58. People's Assembly of the Towns and Villages Depopulated in 1948 (Palestine)
59. Platform of Associations in Solidarity with Palestine (Switzerland)
60. Popular Committees to Defend the Right of Return (Gaza, Palestine)
61. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
62. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command
63. Refugee and Right of Return Committee (Syria)
64. Refugee Camp Popular Committees (West Bank & Gaza, Palestine)
65. Refugee Executive Office (Palestine)
66. Right of Return committee (Switzerland)
67. Ruwwad Cultural Center (Aida Camp, Palestine)
68. Salameh Association (Palestine)
69. Secular Democratic State Group (Gaza, Palestine)
70. Union of Right of Return Committees (Syria)
71. Union of Women's Activity Centers, West Bank Refugee Camps (Palestine)
72. Union of Youth Activity Centers, Refugee Camps (Palestine)
73. Vanguard for the Popular Liberation War [Sa'iqa]
74. Women's Activity Centers (Gaza, Palestine)
75. Yaffa Charitable Fund (Jordan)
76. Yaffa Cultural Center (Balata Camp, Palestine)
77. Youth Assembly (Gaza, Palestine)
78. Youth Struggle Union (Lebanon)


--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il

Geen Joodse Tempel volgens Palestijnse popsong

 

Onder Palestijnen is de mythe wijd verbreid dat Israel de Joodse Tempel wil herbouwen op de plaats van de Al Aqsa moskee. Dat is natuurlijk onzin, en slechts een kleine groep extremisten droomt daarvan, maar het is een handige manier om anti-Joodse sentimenten verder op te stuwen en mensen tegen Israel op te hitsen. Daarbij wordt bovendien vaak ontkend dat de Joden ooit een tempel in Jeruzalem hadden, zoals ook in onderstaande videoclip die wordt uitgezonden op de officiële TV van de Palestijnse Autoriteit van Machmoed Abbas.

 

RP

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

 

 

Bulletin
Sep. 25, 2008

Palestinian Media Watch

PA TV video:
There never has been a Jewish Temple - never will be!
Defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque against Israel

"Oh [Sons of] Zion, no matter how much you dig and no matter how much you destroy, your imaginary Temple will not come into being"
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Palestinian Media Watch: www.pmw.org.il

 

A music video currently broadcast on Palestinian Television denies any historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem: "Oh [Sons of] Zion, no matter how much you dig and no matter how much you destroy, your imaginary Temple will not come into being". The repeated refrain, "Al-Aqsa is ours," is meant to emphasize this statement, as the Al-Aqsa mosque is built on the site of the Temple, destroyed in the year 70 during Israel's revolt against the Roman Empire.

The video images focus on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and praying Muslims, and together with the lyrics repeat the Palestinian fabrication that Israel is planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and therefore it needs protection:
"Oh God, protect Al-Aqsa, Oh Allah, Al-Aqsa is ours, [protect Al-Aqsa] from every thief and every oppressor."

www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=VPWfTtVPmhU
PA TV (Fatah) Sep. 23, 2008

The clip includes pictures to identify the "thief and oppressor" - Jews wearing skullcaps, Israeli police and military, Israeli excavations of Old Jerusalem, the Israeli flag, and the Western Wall. The clip sings for another Saladin, the Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem in 1187, to appear: "How you [Al-Aqsa] suffer! How you have bled for years! How you scream! How you call out to the millions! What are you hoping for, who are you crying for? Saladin!"

The video was broadcast this week on Palestinian TV, the same day that a Jerusalem Arab injured 20 Israelis in a terror attack in Jerusalem. PA TV, which is under the authority of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas TV have shown this clip intermittently during the last 18 months, and it constitutes part of a prolonged hate campaign against Israel. The campaign denies the historical fact of the connection between the Jewish people, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, while infusing hatred and fear by pretending that Islam's holy site, as well as its adherents, are in great danger.

These are the complete words of the song:

"Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours, Oh Muslims, Al-Aqsa is ours, our Al-Aqsa screams and shouts, Al-Aqsa is ours. Oh Arabs and Muslims, no, no, Al-Aqsa is ours.
Oh [Sons of] Zion, no matter how much you dig and no matter how much you destroy, your imaginary Temple will not come into being, Al-Aqsa is ours.
Al-Aqsa is ours, Oh Muslims, Al-Aqsa is ours. My land, my Jerusalem, my blood and my honor will not be scorned. Al-Aqsa is ours, how you suffer! How you have bled for years! How you scream! How you call out to the millions!
What are you hoping for, who are you crying for? Saladin [Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem in 1187] ! Al-Aqsa is ours. Oh Lord, protect Al-Aqsa, Oh Allah, Al-Aqsa is ours, [protect Al-Aqsa] from every thief and every oppressor. Oh Allah, Al-Aqsa is ours. Al-Aqsa is ours, Oh Muslims, Al-Aqsa is ours."
[PA TV (Fatah) Sep. 23, 2008]

 

Felle veroordelingen van aanslag op Zeev Sternhell

 

De aanslag op Zeev Sternhell heeft geleid tot felle veroordelingen door Israelische politici, en de belofte de daders op te sporen en hard te straffen. Er werd zelfs van 'terrorisme' gesproken, een woord dat in Westerse media tegenwoordig not done is wanneer het Palestijnse (zelfmoord)aanslagen betreft.

 

De laatste tijd zijn er meer incidenten geweest met geweld van rechts. Zo is een legerpost aangevallen door een groepje kolonisten en is uit wraak voor een poging van een Palestijn om een jongetje te doden in een nederzetting en nadat een huis in brand was gestoken, een groep kolonisten het naburige Palestijnse dorp ingetrokken waar ze verschillende mensen hebben verwond.

 

Het valt te hopen dat de daders inderdaad snel worden gevonden, maar ook dat Israel de extreemrechtse agitatie en ophitsing gaat aanpakken.

 

RP

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

Dichter: Jewish terrorists tried to murder left-wing professor

 

By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent

Last update - 10:17 26/09/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024632.html

 

Israel Prize winner Zeev Sternhell was lightly injured Wednesday when a pipe bomb exploded outside his home in Jerusalem, in what police suspect could be a new campaign by right-wing extremists to target prominent left-wingers.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter called the incident "a nationalist terror attack apparently perpetrated by Jews" and said the police would not rest until "those terrorists" were behind bars.

"We should see the explosive as aimed at killing," Dichter said, adding that the attack "takes us back to the days of [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin's assassination."

Professor Sternhell walked out of his home in a quiet Jerusalem neighborhood shortly after midnight to shut a courtyard gate when the bomb went off, lightly wounding him in one leg, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

Outside Sternhell's home and in nearby streets Wednesday, the police found fliers offering NIS 1.1 million to anyone who killed members of left-wing human rights movement Peace Now. This led to the suspicion that Jewish terrorists were behind the pipe-bomb attack, due to Sternhell's harsh criticism of West Bank settlers and their harassment of Palestinians.

The police stressed that the bomb was not meant to intimidate but was a murder attempt.

After the attack on the professor, the police have beefed up security around the home of Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer.

"If this was not an act committed by a deranged person but by someone who represents a political view, then it is the beginning of the disintegration of democracy," Sternhell said Wednesday from his hospital bed in the capital's Shaare Tzedek Medical Center.

He said that "the incident illustrates the fragility of Israeli democracy, and the urgent need to defend it."

"On the personal level, if the intent was to terrorize, it has to be very clear that I am not easily intimidated," he said. "But the perpetrators tried to hurt not only me, but each and every one of my family members who could have opened the door, and for that there is no absolution and no forgiveness."

Sternhell, an internationally renowned expert on the history of fascism, was awarded the country's highest honor, the Israel Prize, earlier this year. The award drew fire from West Bank settlers and their supporters, who unsuccessfully petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to block it.

Kadima leader and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni condemned Wednesday's attack, saying that the incident was "intolerable, and cannot be glossed over."

At a ceremony marking the Rosh Hashanah holiday at the Foreign Ministry, Livni said that "Israel is a lawful state and is populated by a society with values. It is the responsibility of the government and Israeli society to renounce such phenomena as soon as they rear their heads."

Senior political figures also expressed outrage at the news of the attack on Sternhell, which has touched a nerve given the country's history of political violence, they said.

"We are returning to the dark era of pipe bombs aimed at people, in this case against a very gifted person who never hesitates to express his opinion," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

According to the chairman of the Knesset's internal affairs committee, Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz: "The attack on Prof. Sternhell is a cowardly, terrorist act by those with no sense of justice." He urged the police and Shin Bet security service to strive to capture the perpetrators quickly and ensure that they receive hefty prison sentences.

"They'd better not talk to us about a few wild weeds," Meretz chairman Haim Oron said. "These people appear on the right wing."

"This thuggish and dangerous act is the result of the continuing see-no-evil approach toward the vicious violence against soldiers and police officers and anyone else who doesn't agree with the brutish section of the extreme right wing," Oron added.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an activist with a fringe settler group calling itself the National Jewish Front, said Sternhell was an irrelevant figure and that he did not believe settlers were behind the attack. "I don't denounce this incident, but say categorically that we are not involved," Ben-Gvir said.

Sternhell had recently received threatening phone calls, but the bomb attack on him took the Shin Bet and police by surprise. They had no intelligence of a terror group targeting left-wing activists.

A special police team started taking statements from neighbors of the Sternhell family. The police believe the perpetrators stayed in a house nearby in the past few weeks, studying Sternhell's movements, and that passersby and neighbors must have seen them.

"There are hundreds of peace activists in Jerusalem. We have no sign of any intention to harm anyone specific and cannot protect so many people without more specific information," a police source said.

 

Zeev Sternhell de Israëli

 

Het verschil tussen kritiek op de nederzettingen en antizionisme vervaagt helaas vaak in het debat in Nederland (en Europa), maar in Israel zijn behalve enkele Arabische politici en journalisten bijna alle critici van Israel en de bezetting zionisten, die veelal in oorlogen hebben gevochten of anderszins van hun patriotisme blijk hebben gegeven. Hun kritiek is soms ongenuanceerd, ongezouten en eenzijdig, maar zij staan achter Israels recht van bestaan.

 

In Nederland worden hun stemmen maar al te vaak misbruikt om juist dat bestaansrecht ter discussie te stellen en Israel te demoniseren. Terwijl in Israel de argumenten van de andere kant een ieder bekend zijn en deze mensen een zinvolle en belangrijke bijdrage leveren aan het debat over de toekomst van hun land, dragen hun artikelen hier vooral bij aan een eenzijdige anti-Israel stemming.

 

RP

--------

Last update - 13:20 27/09/2008
Sternhell the Israeli

 

By Ari Shavit
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024797.html

 

 

Zeev Sternhell was born 73 years ago in Poland. When he was 5 years old, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he lost his father. When he was 7 years old, he lost his mother and sister. Sternhell was a hunted child in the ghetto, and after being rescued from the ghetto, he survived the Holocaust with courage and resourcefulness, forced to conceal and even change his identity.

 

Immediately after the war, he arrived alone in France, and there he was exposed to enlightenment that captivated him. Nevertheless, the 15-year-old boy decided to leave France and immigrate alone to Israel. He did so because he considered the establishment of the State of Israel a miracle. Zeev Sternhell wanted to be a part of the miracle.

 

If Israel ever has to submit a writ of defense to the court of history, the life story of Zeev Sternhell will say all there is to say. Sternhell never exploited his past and did not ask for concessions because of it. But the past emphasized the fact that his biography is that of Israeliness at its finest. It is the biography of a highly motivated combat officer who became a world-renowned historian who studied the roots of fascism. The biography of an Israeli patriot, who has fought unremittingly against the Israeli occupation. The biography of a Zionist who has tried to heal the afflictions of the very sick society that Zionism established in this country.
 
In the early hours of yesterday morning, the afflictions of Israeli society placed an explosive device at the entrance to Sternhell's house. An evil hand emerged from the sewers of darkness. New Sicarii, the Jewish extremists of the Second Temple period, tried to raise a hand against one of Israel's most impressive and ethical citizens. Jewish terrorists tried to use explosives to silence a strong and leading voice of Israeli democracy.

 

The device was small, the horror is great. Twenty-five years after it threw a hand grenade at Emil Grunzweig during a Peace Now demonstration, the lunatic right has returned. Thirteen years after it fired bullets from a pistol into the back of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli fascism has struck again.

 

The lunatics, who are well aware that they have lost the battle for the Land of Israel, have once again committed a desperate act of hooliganism. The zealots, who know that they have also lost the battle for the Jewish people, committed a blatant act of terror against the enlightenment that Sternhell has always embodied.

 

The irony is not at all fine; it is shocking. A man whose home was destroyed by European fascism was attacked at the entrance to his Israeli home by Israeli fascism. A historian who devoted his life to studying the foundations of modern chauvinism was attacked in the middle of the night by a dark force of modern chauvinism. An Israeli whose love for Israel has no limits was attacked by Israelis with no limits. Genuine traitors to the Israeli enterprise tried to murder one of its genuine adherents.

The attack was amateurish and foolish, but it was no coincidence.

 

Sternhell was marked because he told the violent post-Zionists on the hilltops the truth. He told them that they are not Zionism, but a mutation of Zionism. He told them that they are not Israeliness, but the brutalization of Israeliness.

 

We must not generalize: It is not the entire right that bears responsibility. The right has many nuances, most of them legitimate. But the illegitimate stream on the right is a national problem of the highest order. Even a small camp of rebels against the kingdom can destroy the kingdom.

 

The conclusion is clear. The government has an obligation to act immediately and resolutely in order to dry up the swamps in which Jewish terror breeds. The deportation to Jerusalem of patterns of behavior typical of the extremist settlement of Yitzhar prove that we can wait no longer.

 

Israel must marginalize the marginal elements. It must outlaw the lawbreakers. It must return to the anti-chauvinistic nationalism of the great fighter against fascism. It must prove that it is the Israel of Sternhell, not the Israel of Yitzhar.

 

 

Schaapsherder door kolonisten gedood volgens Palestijnen

 

Het lijkt erop dat Israel het kolonistengeweld zat begint te raken en daar harder actie tegen onderneemt.

 

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

 

The Jerusalem Post
ep 27, 2008 23:32 | Updated Sep 28, 2008 11:06
 

Palestinians: Settlers killed shepherd

 

By YAAKOV KATZ, AP AND JPOST.COM STAFF

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017410665&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Palestinians and Israeli police said Sunday that a 19-year-old shepherd was found dead in the West Bank.

Palestinians claimed that Yihya Atta Bani Minya, of the town of Aqrabeh in the Jordan Valley, was shot by settlers. Two Palestinian teenagers saw a white car belonging to settlers pursue the shepherd late Saturday and then heard shots, said Palestinian Authority local government official Ghassan Daglas.

Israeli Police spokesman Danny Poleg said the youth's body was found with gunshot wounds and taken to a forensics center for an autopsy. Police were investigating the incident.

Last week, following recent settler violence in the West Bank, the IDF Central Command canceled a number of scheduled visits to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. The IDF said it would not permit any further visits until the settler leadership forcefully condemns the attacks, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The decision was made by Samaria Brigade commander Col. Itzik Bar and was delivered to the settler leadership by Maj. Nehemia Hen, who is in charge of settlement security in the area.

Jews have been allowed access to Joseph's Tomb since the beginning of the year in monthly visits coordinated with the Samaria Brigade.

Each time, at least five buses were allowed access to the tomb, which is located on the outskirts of Nablus. It was the site of heavy fighting in the beginning of the second intifada in 2000, prompting the army to withdraw from the holy site, which was later ransacked by Palestinians.

But following the settler rampage through the Palestinian village of Asira el-Kibliyeh in response to the stabbing of nine-year-old Tuvia Shtatman in Yitzhar on September 13, the IDF decided to suspend visits to the tomb.

Eli Rosenfeld, a Samaria Regional Council employee who is in charge of coordinating visits to the tomb with the IDF, said he received a call from Hen on Wednesday informing him that visits were suspended until further notice.

"Hen said that the IDF wanted the settler leadership to condemn the incident two weeks ago in Asira el-Kibliyeh as well as the burning down of olive trees near Gilad Farm, even though there is no proof that settlers were involved," Rosenfeld told the Post.

"He said that there is nothing to talk about until further notice."

During the Jewish month of Elul and ahead of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Rosenfeld said, Jews are particularly interested in visiting the tomb. On Thursday, Rosenfeld was hoping to be able to escort a rabbi from New York who flew here especially to visit the tomb.

"We have been fielding thousands of requests to visit the tomb," he said. "Now there is nothing we can do."

The IDF Spokesman's Office confirmed that the visits had been suspended but said this was because of "operational concerns" that would last until some time in October.

Rosenfeld rejected the claim, saying that Hen explicitly told him that the brigade commander's decision was a "punishment" for the settlers for not condemning the recent violence.

"There is no security reason why we can't go in to pray there," he said. "The IDF operates in Nablus almost every night and they can easily accompany us, like they have done for the past year."

 

Enquete: Libanese moslims keren zich af van zelfmoordterrorisme

 

Ondanks de scherpe daling is Libanon, samen met Nigeria, met 32% het land met het hoogste percentage moslims dat zelfmoordterrorisme steunt. De Nigeriaanse moslims hebben ook het meeste sympathie voor Bin Laden, maar de Libanese juist het minste. Misschien omdat Bin Laden soenitisch moslim is en Hezbollah -waar de steun voor het terrorisme vooral zit- shi'itisch?

 

De vrijwel wereldwijde afname van steun voor het internationale terrorisme is uiteraard goed nieuws, maar maakt nieuwsgierig naar de redenen. Voor Libanon laten die zich wel raden: in 2002 steunde 74% van de moslims daar zelfmoordaanslagen. Daarbij moet niet gedacht worden aan de aanval op de Twin Towers (ik meen dat Hezbollah die zelfs openlijk veroordeelde), maar aan de Palestijnen, die toen middenin hun bloedige Tweede Intifadah zaten. De Libanese moslims betuigden toen massaal hun solidariteit met de Palestijnse strijd.

 

Wouter

______________

Lebanese Muslims turning backs on suicide bombings
Poll also shows decline in support for bin Laden

 

By Nicholas Kimbrell
Daily Star staff
Saturday, September 20, 2008
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=96166

 

 

BEIRUT: The number of Lebanese Muslims who believe suicide bombings against civilians in defense of Islam are justified has fallen 42 percent since 2002, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Despite the dramatic decline (from 74 percent in 2002 to 32 percent in 2008), support for the practice remains higher in Lebanon than in all other countries polled in the survey, except Nigeria which stood in a statistical tie with Lebanon.

 

Of the Lebanese Muslims polled, Shiite respondents were more than twice as likely as Sunnis to consider suicide bombing "often" or "sometimes" justified (46 percent to 21 percent, respectively).

 

The study surveyed respondents in Lebanon, Nigeria, Jordan, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey.

 

Egypt was the only country in which support for suicide attacks underwent a significant positive change, increasing five percent. The national average, however, remained at a relatively low 13 percent.

 

A corresponding trend was noted in popular Muslim support for Al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden. According to the Pew survey, only 2 percent of Lebanese Muslims hold a positive view of bin Laden, down from 20 percent in 2003. This was the lowest favorability rating for the terrorist leader in all countries surveyed.

 

Support for bin Laden saw a similar decrease in Turkey - from 15 percent to 3 percent between 2003 and 2008. Jordan saw the largest decrease in popularity for the Qaeda chief, where positive views fell from 61 percent in 2005 to 19 percent today.

 

Nevertheless, Pakistani and Indonesian Muslims still showed solid support for bin Laden, with more than a third of all respondents in those countries expressing positive views.

 

Fifty-eight percent of Nigerian Muslims continue to support the fugitive.

 

The study also showed that 78 percent of Lebanese are "very" or "somewhat concerned" about the rise of fundamentalism within Lebanon. This overwhelming level of concern led all other countries polled.

 

The Pew survey's questions on fundamentalism extended to fears about the struggle between "fundamentalists" and "modernizers." Fifty-eight percent of the Lebanese polled believed the forces are in active opposition in Lebanon - the exact same percentage as in 2007.

 

But, again, the Sunni-Shiite divide was large. Eighty percent of Sunnis surveyed expressed concern over the struggle between modernization and fundamentalism, with 65 percent of that group identifying with the modernizers, six percent with the fundamentalists and 8 percent refusing to name with whom their sympathies lay. Only 37 percent of Shiite respondents cited the struggle, with 30 percent siding with the modernizers, 4 percent with the fundamentalists, and 3 percent refusing to say with whom their sympathies lay.

 

Questions regarding general religiosity in Lebanon found that Muslims were more likely than Christians to cite religion as an important part of their lives. Ninety-eight percent of the Sunnis, 82 percent of Shiites and 67 percent of Christians held their faith as central.

 

The study went on to note that Lebanese support for Hizbullah was divided almost entirely on confessional lines.

 

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Antisemitische en anti-islamitische sentimenten nemen toe in Europa

 

Hoewel de groeiende islamofobie in Europa ook verontrustend is, is die toch anders dan het toenemende antisemitisme. Het antisemitisme is doorgaans geheel irrationeel en niet gekoppeld aan daadwerkelijke gedragingen van de - in veel landen amper aanwezige - Joodse gemeenschap. De anti-islam sentimenten zijn toch vaak direct gekoppeld aan gedragingen van en wrijvingen met de extremere delen van de moslimgemeenschap en integratieproblemen daarmee, en tevens aan de niet fictieve dreiging van het internationale terrorisme.

Haaretz vergist zich hieronder waar men beweert dat de meeste antisemieten ook anti-moslim waren. Uit het onderzoek valt slechts af te leiden dat in de meeste landen waar veel antisemitisme was ook veel anti-islam sentimenten waren. 

Wouter

 

Zie ook op IMO:

- Europa negatiever over Joden en moslims

- Geschiedenis van het antisemitisme (judeofobie)

______________

 

Survey: Anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim feelings growing across Europe, world

 

By News Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1022130.html

 

 

Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish feelings are rising in several major European countries, according to a worldwide survey released on Wednesday.

 

The Washington-based Pew Research Center's global attitude survey found that most Muslims in countries where they are in the majority worry about the rise of Islamic extremism at home and abroad. Majorities held that view in Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria.

 

Large numbers of respondents in several Muslim countries also identified struggles within their countries between people who want to modernize the society and those dedicated to maintaining fundamentalist practices of Islam.

 

Regarding respondents' attitudes toward Jews, Britain was the survey's only European country to report no significant increase in anti-Jewish attitudes.

 

Just under one in 10 British respondents held those views. Similar numbers of Americans reported negative views of Jews during those same years.

 

The project of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center began in 2001 and comprises public opinion surveys involving a variety of subjects such as people's assessments of their lives or their views of the state of the world.

 

It provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world, the survey says.

 

The 2008 version, released Wednesday, found that half or more of respondents in Spain and Germany rated Muslims unfavorably: 50 percent in Germany, compared with 46 percent in 2004; and 52 percent in Spain, compared with 37 percent in 2005 and 60 percent in 2006. Muslim terrorists bombed a commuter train in Madrid on March 11, 2004, and killed 191 people, modern Europe's deadliest terror attack.

 

Again, the United States and Britain had the fewest respondents holding negative views of Muslims, both 23 percent. In Britain that was up from 18 percent in 2004, and it was down in the United States from 31 percent in 2004.

 

The survey found that people who held anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim views tended to be older and less-educated than those who did not. Surveyors bundled France, Germany and Spain, the Western European countries where such views were most common, to draw a picture of those holding ethnic-based negative attitudes. They found that most anti-Semitic people were anti-Muslim as well.

 

People ages 50 and older express more negative views of both Jews and Muslims than do those younger than 50, the survey said. Similarly, Europeans who have not attended college are consistently more likely than those who have to hold unfavorable opinions of both groups. They also tend to support the political right in Europe, it said.

 

The survey also said positive attitudes toward Osama bin Laden have declined in several countries but the al Qaeda leader still enjoys high support in Nigeria, Indonesia and Pakistan.

 

The survey found much more positive views prevailed in most places about Christians.

 

In some countries, however, unfavorable views of Christians have surged during the last four years, the survey said. One of those places is Turkey, a Muslim country with a democratic political system, where unfavorable views of Christians have accompanied a rise in unfavorable attitudes about Jews.

 

These are other findings:

 

-Despite the increase in anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe, the deepest resentment of Jews exists outside Europe, especially where Muslims predominate. Favorable opinions of Jews rank in the single digits in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Pakistan.

 

-Jordan, where close to 2 million Palestinians live, many as citizens, is the only predominantly Muslim country surveyed that had a positive view of the Palestinian group Hamas. Hamas controls the Palestinian Gaza Strip, but the United States considers it an international terror group.

 

-France is the most secular country in the survey. Only 10 percent of French respondents said religion was very important in their lives, and 60 percent said they never pray.

 

-France also had the highest percentage with favorable opinions of Jews, 79 percent. The United States had 77 percent, Britain and Australia 73 percent.

 

The Pew survey was conducted during varying periods from March 17 to April 21 in 24 countries. Telephone interviews were used in seven countries and face-to-face interviews in 17. Local languages were used.

 

The number interviewed ranged from 700 in Australia to 3,212 in China. All samples were conducted nationally, except for Brazil, China, India and Pakistan, where samples were largely urban. The margins of sampling error was plus or minus 2 percentage points in India and China, and was either 3 or 4 points in the other countries.

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