Two Palestinian children were injured on Tuesday evening when ordinance left behind by the Israeli army exploded in Al-Bureij Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical sources identified the victims as ten-year-old Khamis Abu Arab and his brother, eight-year-old Muhammad. Khamis, according to the sources, was hospitalized at a specialist eye hospital while Muhammad received treatment for light wounds and was released. source
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Peter Eyre, a British researcher in the usage of uranium during wars, revealed that the laboratory tests conducted in Wales on samples taken from the post-war Gaza Strip showed that Israel had used dirty bombs which have devastating results in the long run.Awe, never mind, only Zionist supporters who don't matter in the least.
Eyre confirmed, in a report published in Palestine Telegraph newspaper, that Israel used white phosphorus and weapons that contain depleted uranium in violation of the Geneva Convention.
The British researcher pointed out that the use of these internationally-prohibited weapons led to the spread of cancers and other relevant diseases among citizens.
The newspaper said that Eyre is expected to arrive in Gaza aboard the Free Gaza boat in the coming days carrying with him documents proving that Israel stole natural gas from Gaza shores.
In another context, former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg strongly criticized Israel on Saturday and described it as the “devil” because of its fascist practices
During a lecture organized by the Sikui association for the advancement of civic equality between Jews and Arabs in Israel, Burg directed a scathing criticism at Israel’s policy and ideology which he described as “racist". His lecture raised the ire of some of the audience and forced them to leave the room.
He also said that the Oslo accord failed, despite it was approved by both sides at the beginning, due to several reasons including that Israel saw the negotiations as a real estate deal. link
Gaza – Ma’an Hundreds of trucks loaded with 150 wheelchairs and medical equipment for the disabled and other equipment for the deaf and blind will soon depart for Gaza, according to a statement sent to Ma'an.MORE BELOW:
Dozens of European parliamentarians will join the convoy, planned to set sail in May from Italy to Egypt, where the group will coordinate passage to the Strip via Rafah.
"The latest Israeli war against the Gaza Strip increased the Palestinian struggle and suffering, leaving many injured and disabled, and many stories of misery,” said Dr Arafat Mady, head of the European Campaign.
He added, "There are some cases that we could name where patients have become 100 percent disabled, paralyzed, and others who lost their sight, and many who are no longer able to hear."
He said the aim of the convoy is to remind the world of what happened to Palestinians there and the consequences of the war, and to encourage other states to support Gaza.
He also called on Israel and Egypt to open their crossings to permit patients to travel, noting that hundreds of Palestinians have died due to lack of treatment.
100 European lawmakers, governors, mayors visit West Bank refugee camps, Italian aid convoy to Gaza
Some 100 European parliamentarians, mayors and governors arrived in the West Bank on Sunday under the auspices of a program that “twins” French cities with Palestinian refugee camps.
The leaders, who are primarily French, visited their counterparts on Sunday in the twinning project in Deheisha Refugee Camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The delegation is led by Fernand Tuil, the head of the French twinning committee (Association des Villes Françaises Jumelées avec des Camps de Réfugiés Palestiniens).
The delegation is scheduled to visit several Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Jerusalem to show solidarity with the Palestinian people, and demonstrate support for Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes from which they and their ancestors were expelled in 1948.
The delegation will also hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and other Palestinian politicians in order to receive updates about the situation in Palestine.
According to Tuil, the predominantly French delegation is the largest of its kind that has ever come to the Palestinian territories. He said the goal of the visit is to support the struggle of the Palestinian people for their national aims.
During their visit that began at noon in Deheisha Camp, the European officials met Ahmad Muheisin, head of the Palestinian side of the twinning committee, and Muhammad Al-Lahham, a Palestinian lawmaker, and attended a reception at Al-Fineiq Hall.
Another meeting is scheduled to be held in Aida Refugee Camp, also in Bethlehem, where the guests will meet Palestinian lawmaker Issa Qaraqi and other activists in the camp to discuss a potential pairing between Aida and the French city Nogent.
European figures including Swiss MP to participate in Italian aid convoy to Gaza
BRUSSELS,
Swiss MP Joseph Zisyadis and other anti-siege European personalities declared their intention to participate in the "Hope" convoy traveling from Italy to the besieged Gaza Strip earlier next month to express their solidarity with the distressed Gaza people.
In a press statement, MP Zisyadis condemned the Israeli siege on Gaza as a shameful crime against humanity, calling for lifting it immediately.
He also urged the world's free people and human rights advocates to urgently act to end the suffering of the besieged Palestinians in Gaza.
For his part, Sameh Habib, the spokesman for the convoy's coordination committee, said that the convoy will be composed of about 100 trucks and ambulances loaded with medicines, clothing and needs for the handicapped and hundreds of orphans whose parents were killed during the last Israeli war on Gaza.
Habib invited journalists and media outlets to cover this important event and relay the real suffering of one and a half million Palestinians to the whole world.
Organizer of the convoy the European campaign to lift the siege is making concentrated efforts to send this magnificent convoy to Gaza in the context of its endeavors to break the Israeli siege on Gaza.
The European campaign said that the convoy would be composed of hundreds of trucks coming from different European cities to the Italian city of Milan and would be transported on a large cargo ship to the port of Alexandria in Egypt and then into Gaza. source
Analysis: Goldstone mission just another unfair UN fact-finding farce, I'm afraid(No,not to "bash" Israel, but to hold it accountable for what it did!)
Accusations of war crimes and human rights violations by Israel during the recent hostilities in the Gaza Strip - whether from inside Israel or outside - seem to be developing into a fixation among those in the international community who await the opportunity to bash Israel.
The fact that there exists a clear double standard, and that Israel is singled out for special treatment - whether justifiably or not - is regrettably a given factor in the international reality in which we live.(multiple probs here, firstly,what double standards, they always use this as an excuse, there can be NO excuse to act as they did, clearly overkill and the illegal use of weapons as well. Secondly, this "special treatment" crapola is just that, absolute rubbish! Israel chose to commit genocide on a population that was corralled into an area with NO ESCAPE! And, when the innocent people DID attempt to find safety in UN compounds or their own homes, they were systematically butchered and bombed. Israel singled out? Of course they are singled out, Hamas had no DIME missiles, no tanks, no drones, no vast armed army, no white phosphorous and no huge arms deals with the USA. So yes, Israel is at fault for killing hundreds of civilians and children. And lastly, this statement of "Justifiably or Not" is ludicrous, does he mean that no matter if Israel IS guilty it should be overlooked because he believes that Israel is being singled out? Preposterous!)
the question once again arises whether Israel should agree to cooperate with Goldstone and his mission.(Why should Israel have an "option" to agree, it has NO option to agree as these are CRIMES being investigated. Criminals do not get to decide if they will go along with an investigation, how moronic!)
Taken at face value, and in a perfect world of genuine bona fides, such a mandate might indeed appear reasonable. Appointing a Jew to head the mission, as the UN press statements take pains to stress, and Goldstone's membership in the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, was doubtless intended to serve as an additional factor in persuading Israel to cooperate with the mission.(Taken at face value in a perfect world of bona fides? What he really means here is a perfect solution for Israel where no one attempts to hold them accountable. Or one where they have some type of "fix" in where they participate but never get charged or convicted, so sorry, not this time!)
However, the world is not perfect, and the impartiality of the mission and its independence, as well as the motivations behind it, are far from genuine and give rise to justifiable doubts as to its bona fides.(Oh, here we go, typical Israeli HASBARA, any commitee or investigation that actually decides to do a real investigation or place charges against Israel is somehow not a "genuine" mission, or fails to have genuine "motivations" this is just SO outlandish to non-Zionists and the rest of the normal world.)
The mandate emanates from a UN Human Rights Council resolution dated January 12 of this year and entitled Council Resolution S-9/1, on the grave violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly due to the recent Israeli military attacks against the Gaza Strip.(Well now, I understand completely that Israel thinks it, along with the USA, should be allowed to control the rest of us peons. Additionally I see they lumped Egypt into their "hate" group, so perhaps Egypt should stop being an agent for Israel as no matter how many Palestinians they capture for Israel, nor how many people they detain or stop from entering Gaza,or how many humanitarian aid trucks, shipments of "pasta" and "baby diapers" they seize for Israel, it's just not enough. all the while loosing face with the rest of the Arab world and for what? To be still slagged off by Israel because they went along with the other 32 nations at the UN? Wake up Egypt, you will always be the house negro as far as Israel is concerned. And lastly, Canada has a racist government controlled by the Zionist lobby as was evident when it embarrassed itself to the world by banning George Galloway, when, the USA had NO problems letting him in. so that takes care of Canada. The rest of the EU is shit scared of the US and Israel and at the same time won't go against the proposal due to the vast majority of the people living in those EU countries came out in their millions to demonstrate against Israel's attempted ethnic cleansing and holocaust in Gaza. That is your answer!)
The resolution, tabled - and supported by such paragons of international humanitarianism as Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and others - was adopted by 33 votes in favor, one (Canada) against and 13 abstentions (European countries).
Further to the questionable basis of the mission's mandate, some thought might be given to the mission's composition. Without impinging on the good intentions and bona fides of Goldstone, it might be noted that Christine Chinkin, professor of international law at the London School of Economics, together with other British academics, addressed a letter to The Guardian on January 5 that was extremely critical of Israel's action in the Gaza Strip.(Note, that Goldstone's statement regarding the importance of this investigation e.g. to "make a meaningful contribution to the peace process in the Middle East and to providing justice for the victims." was used totally out of context by this Israeli writer. Again, HASBARA at work, but no matter how much they wiggle and squirm, the world wants justice against Israeli criminals this time and we intend to get it.)
With all the good intentions that Israel might have in wishing to cooperate with any fair and impartial international mission, one may assume that this mission, like its predecessors, is doomed to fail, and in any event could not claim, in the words of Goldstone, to "make a meaningful contribution to the peace process in the Middle East and to providing justice for the victims."
Nothing good will come from this mission.
A pressing problem: paranoia and power
Today, America is involved in an illegal "war" and a pre-emptive pregnancy. Everyone now knows that the invasion and occupation of Iraq were, and still are, based on a fraudulent attempt to capitalize on 9/11.
Everyone (who pays attention to politics) knows that the WMD excuse for invading Iraq was a fraud, making the entire murderous exercise even more illegal than a defensive war would be.
The only thing America and the UK were defending by invading Iraq was the vague possibility that sometime in the distant future Iraq, under Saddam Hussain or another leader like him, could pose a WMD threat to Israel.
Let's face it, Israel is paranoid. According to Canadian Mordecai Richler, Jewish paranoia has become a natural phenomenon. As he expressed it, "Coming from Canada, being a writer and Jewish as well, I have impeccable paranoia credentials."
Many will argue that Israelis have a perfect right to be paranoid based on their experiences with persecution and genocide. However, that does not give Israel the right to exercise their paranoid reactions against Gaza or transmit its national disease to America.
Now, out of the same paranoid delusions toward Iran as it had toward Iraq, Israel makes continued efforts to goad and provoke America into engaging in a war with Iran. America resists (or pretends to), giving itself the excuse of trying to approach negotiations with Iran, but finding Iran uncooperative.
According to mental health experts, “paranoia is incurable. The best course is to discharge the patient for the sake of the supporter’s health.” In short: leave Israel to its sickness. READ THE REST HERE
Israeli foreign minister sees peace talks at "dead end"
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said on Tuesday that Western-backed peace efforts with the Palestinians had reached a "dead end" and Israel intended to present new ideas for diplomacy.
"There is definitely a regression here and we must understand and admit that we are at a dead end," Lieberman said in a speech to members of his Yisrael Beiteinu party. "We definitely intend to present new ideas."
Lieberman's party is the second largest partner in the right-wing coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which was sworn in last week.
The new foreign minister also said he did not "see the logic" in continuing negotiations over Palestinian statehood launched by the previous government of centrist Ehud Olmert.
"I don't understand the logic ... to skip directly to negotiations over a final agreement, to give up all our demands of the other side," Lieberman said.
Lieberman rejects foreign 'intervention' in politics
Mar 29, 2009
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel's hawkish new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told foreign powers on Tuesday to stay out of Israeli politics, in an apparent reference to the flagging Middle East peace process.
"We have never interfered in the affairs of others, and we expect from others that they not interfere in ours," Lieberman told a meeting of his ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
"I do not expect from others that they have a stopwatch in hand and tell Israel when it must produce a responsible political programme," he added.
During a visit to Turkey on Monday, US President Barack Obama voiced renewed hope that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be resolved on the basis of a two-state solution, and urged leaders on both sides for "courage" to make peace. "I believe that peace in the Middle East is possible. I think it will be based on two states side by side," he said.
"In order to achieve that, both sides are going to have to make compromises. Now what we need is the political will and courage on the part of leadership," he added.
Spanish National Court Judge Fernando Andreu says he will redouble his probe of seven top Israeli military and government officials for suspected 'crimes against humanity.' He made the decision after determining that documents forwarded by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid show that Israel has decided not to prosecute anyone for the targeted assassination of Salah Shehadeh, the commander of the military wing of Hamas, in Gaza City in 2002. Spanish law allows the prosecution of foreigners for such crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity and torture committed anywhere in the world if the suspects will not be tried in their home country.
A seven-page court document says the initial evidence suggests that the attack in the densely-populated Gaza City, which killed 14 civilians, 'should be considered a crime against humanity.' Supporters of the lawsuit say Spain should pursue the suit because it has 'universal jurisdiction' in such cases.
Andreu will now probe former Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, former Air Force Commander Dan Halutz, former head of the National Security Council Giora Eiland, and four other senior officials. Andreu will also seek testimony from Palestinian witnesses. The court will ask Israel to formally notify those named in the complaint so that they can be called by the judge to testify. Should Andreu decide to issue an international arrest warrant for any of the seven Israelis, they could be detained upon arrival in any EU member state.
The lawsuit has sparked outrage in Israel, which is trying to fend off foreign censure over the civilian death toll during Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has rejected the complaint as 'delirious' and pointed out that Shehadeh was a terrorist mastermind responsible for the deaths of many dozens of innocent people. 'Whoever calls taking out a terrorist 'a crime against humanity' lives in an upside-down world,' he said. Barak vowed to do 'everything possible to get the investigation dismissed.'
Incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the Spanish probe outrageous. 'It's absurd: Israel is fighting against war criminals and they are charging us with crimes'' said Netanyahu. 'There is nothing more ridiculous and absurd than them accusing us, a democracy legitimately protecting itself against terrorists and war criminals, of these crimes; it is absurd and makes a mockery out of international law,' he said
Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad, pointing to what many see as rank hypocrisy by Spain, has called for Israel to put former Spanish officials on trial for their role in the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. His official petition, which was sent to Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, says: 'In those bombings, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent civilians were killed because NATO pilots dropped their bombs from extremely high altitudes in order not to endanger themselves. They thus caused mass civilian casualties. It is fitting that the State of Israel try the Spanish political and military leaders for war crimes if Spain does not immediately revoke the charges against the Israeli Defense Minister and Chief of Staff.'
Sensing that the case has the potential to further cement Spain's image as one of the most anti-Israel countries in Europe, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos said his government would consider a proposal to amend the controversial war crimes law that now allows the court to investigate the Israelis. But he was immediately contradicted by Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, who stated defiantly that 'Spain is a country ruled by law and the justice system [here] enjoys absolute independence. This was made clear to Israel and we are sure they understand this.'
So far none of the lawsuits filed against Israel in Europe have ever reached the stage of a court trial where Israeli leaders have appeared before a foreign judge. But Spain's case against Israel could open a Pandora's Box as sundry political organizations try to use the Spanish legal system to charge Israelis and others who are fighting terror. Indeed, Israel is now bracing for a wave of lawsuits which accuse it of human rights violations during Operation Cast Lead.
At the moment, Israel's best option for avoiding a messy and precedent-setting trial may be to exert diplomatic pressure to persuade Spanish authorities that Spain has a vested interest in protecting its justice system from malicious abuse. Britain reached that conclusion in wake of the Almog affair in 2006. And Belgium rolled back its universal jurisdiction law in 2003 after former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld threatened to pull NATO headquarters out of Brussels.
