UN expert calls Palestinian terrorism 'inevitable consequence' of... Israeli occupation and laws that resemble South African apartheid
UN expert calls Palestinian terrorism 'inevitable consequence' of | By The Associated Press | Mar 2, 2008, 02:19

GENEVA: A report commissioned by the United Nations suggests that Palestinian terrorism is the "inevitable consequence" of Israeli occupation and laws that resemble South African apartheid — a claim Israel rejected Tuesday as enflaming hatred between Jews and Palestinians.

The report by John Dugard, independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the U.N. Human Rights Council, will be presented next month, but it has been posted on the body's Web site.

In it, Dugard, a South African lawyer who campaigned against apartheid in the 1980s, says "common sense ... dictates that a distinction must be drawn between acts of mindless terror, such as acts committed by al-Qaida, and acts committed in the course of a war of national liberation against colonialism, apartheid or military occupation."

While Palestinian terrorist acts are to be deplored, "they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation," writes Dugard, whose 25-page report accuses the Jewish state of acts and policies consistent with all three.

He cited checkpoints and roadblocks restricting Palestinian movement to house demolitions and what he terms the "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

As long as there is occupation, there will be terrorism, he argues.

"Acts of terror against military occupation must be seen in historical context," Dugard says. "This is why every effort should be made to bring the occupation to a speedy end. Until this is done, peace cannot be expected, and violence will continue."

Israel's U.N. ambassador in Geneva slammed Dugard's analysis. ...
- posted by Editor @ 3:20 PM

More than 50% of Gaza casualties weren't militants: 25% were under 18
03/03/2008 | Rights Group: More than 50% of Gaza casualties weren't militants | By Haaretz Service

The human rights organization B'Tselem on Monday said in a statement that more than half of the Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip in Israel Defense Forces operations in recent days did not take an active part in the fighting. This statement came after the IDF Chief of Staff issued a statement saying that 90 percent of those killed were in fact armed militants.

In their statement, B'Tselem outlined a string of incidents in which IDF allegedly killed innocent bystanders in the course of military operations aimed at battling the escalating rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

According to data gathered by B'Tselem, 106 Palestinians were killed between February 27 and march 3. Fifty four of them were civilians who didn't take part in the fighting, and 25 were under 18, the statement said. ...
- posted by Editor @ 2:51 PM

latest count of barriers in the West Bank is 580, up from 563 recorded in November and about 50 percent higher than it was 2 1/2 years ago
West Bank Barriers Keep Rising Despite Promises of Relief | Commute Becomes 'Daily Humiliation' | By Griff Witte | Washington Post Foreign Service | Thursday, March 6, 2008; Page A14
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The hope of Abbas and other participants in the Annapolis peace talks last November was that the Israeli-occupied West Bank would become a model for what negotiations could bring.
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But in the more than three months since the Annapolis talks, more barriers have gone up than have come down.

"There has been no significant improvement in movement or access. And in fact, there's been an increase in the number of physical obstacles since Annapolis," said Allegra Pacheco, head of information and advocacy for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem.

The organization's latest count of barriers in the West Bank is 580, up from 563 recorded in November and about 50 percent higher than it was 2 1/2 years ago.

To senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, the barriers represent a breach of trust. He said he has been assured repeatedly by Israel that a significant number of the blockades would come down.

"It's ridiculous to talk about anything involving economic development when this system of suffocation continues," he said. ...

- posted by Editor @ 2:49 PM

Israel's deputy defence minister, threatened Palestinian with a holocaust
Israel’s Right to Terrorism | By *Ghali Hassan - Axis of Logic exclusive | Mar 5, 2008, 12:24

In response to Palestinian Resistance to Israel’s terror, Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, threatened Palestinian with a holocaust. Vilnai told Israeli Army Radio: “[the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah (holocaust) because we will use all our might to defend ourselves". An occupying power (aggressor) has no right to self-defence. The deliberate killing of innocent and defenceless Palestinians is not self-defence; it is terrorism.

For nearly sixty years, Jews – Israeli in particular –, have exclusively used the word “holocaust” to describe crimes committed against Jews by the Nazis, ignoring the Nazi’s millions of none-Jewish victims. The holocaust is not only being used as a Zionist tool (a weapon) to shield Israel from any criticism, but also to manipulate the public and gain Israel sympathy as a “victim state”. In addition, Israeli leaders use the holocaust as a justification for ongoing Israel’s terror and war crimes against the Palestinian people. The creation of Israel brought unimaginable suffering on the Palestinian people and turned them into holocaust victims. ...
- posted by Editor @ 2:47 PM

100's of Rightists hurl stones at Arab homes in Jerusalem
"KRYSTALNACHT" IN JERUSALEM | March 16, 2008 | Rightists hurl stones at Arab homes in Jerusalem

Hundreds of extreme right-wing activists break through police barriers, enter east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber in bid to destroy house of terrorist who killed eight yeshiva students in Jerusalem. Policeman lightly hurt in clashes; nine people arrested….
- posted by Editor @ 2:42 PM

Israel warns of full-scale invasion as it quits Gaza leaving 114 dead
Israel warns of full-scale invasion as it quits Gaza leaving 114 dead | Last updated at 13:14pm on 4th March 2008

Israel pulled its ground troops out of northern Gaza yesterday after an offensive against Palestinian rocket salvos that has left more than 100 people dead.

But despite ordering soldiers out of the rogue territory, run by Islamist terror group Hamas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to continue its deadly bombing raids. ...
- posted by Editor @ 2:39 PM

EU reiterates that settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law
16/03/2008 | EU demands Israel halt all construction in West Bank, East Jerusalem | By Reuters

European Union leaders on Friday condemned Israeli plans to build hundreds of new homes in a West Bank settlement, and called on Israel to act swiftly to keep peace efforts alive.

"The EU reiterates that settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law," the bloc's presidency said in a statement after a summit of EU leaders. ...
- posted by Editor @ 8:29 PM

collective punishment wouldn’t work, Israel has opted for military escalation: since peace conference, 323 Palestinians killed, and 7 Israelis .. 40:1
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 by The Guardian/UK | Gaza: To Blame the Victims for This Killing Spree Defies Both Morality and Sense | by Seumas Milne

The attempt by western politicians and media to present this week’s carnage in the Gaza Strip as a legitimate act of Israeli self-defence - or at best the latest phase of a wearisome conflict between two somehow equivalent sides - has reached Alice-in-Wonderland proportions. Since Israel’s deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, issued his chilling warning last week that Palestinians faced a “holocaust” if they continued to fire home-made rockets into Israel, the balance sheet of suffering has become ever clearer. More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces in the past week, of whom one in five were children and more than half were civilians, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. During the same period, three Israelis were killed, two of whom were soldiers taking part in the attacks.

So what was the response of the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, to this horrific killing spree? It was to blame the “numerous civilian casualties” on the week’s “significant rise” in Palestinian rocket attacks “and the Israeli response”, condemn the firing of rockets as “terrorist acts” and defend Israel’s right to self-defence “in accordance with international law”. But of course it has been nothing of the kind - any more than has been Israel’s 40-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, its continued expansion of settlements or its refusal to allow the return of expelled refugees.

Nor is the past week’s one-sided burden of casualties and misery anything new, but the gap is certainly getting wider. After the election of Hamas two years ago, Israel - backed by the US and the European Union - imposed a punitive economic blockade, which has hardened over the past months into a full-scale siege of the Gaza Strip, including fuel, electricity and essential supplies. Since January’s mass breakout across the Egyptian border signalled that collective punishment wouldn’t work, Israel has opted for military escalation. What that means on the ground can be seen from the fact that at the height of the intifada, from 2000 to 2005, four Palestinians were killed for every Israeli; in 2006 it was 30; last year the ratio was 40 to one. In the three months since the US-sponsored Middle East peace conference at Annapolis, 323 Palestinians have been killed compared with seven Israelis, two of whom were civilians. ...
- posted by Editor @ 3:19 PM

Palestinian leader accuses Israel of "ethnic cleansing": Palestinians "are facing a campaign of annihilation" by the Israeli state
03.13.2008 | Palestinian leader accuses Israel of "ethnic cleansing" | The Associated Press

DAKAR, Senegal — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of implementing policies he claimed were part of an "ethnic cleansing" campaign in the Palestinian areas of Jerusalem.

Speaking at a summit of Islamic countries in the Senegalese capital Dakar, Abbas said Israel had carried out policies designed to force Palestinians out of the city.

"Our people in Jerusalem are under an ethnic cleansing campaign," Abbas said in a speech. "They are suffering from a series of decisions like tax hikes and construction prohibitions."

Abbas said Palestinians "are facing a campaign of annihilation" by the Israeli state.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that "we would not use that term to describe the situation. I think it's probably an example of some overheated political rhetoric." ...
- posted by Editor @ 3:17 PM

U.N. Secretary-General demanded a halt to [Israel] offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since 80s
U.N. chief condemns Israel after bloody day in Gaza | Sat Mar 1, 2008 10:17pm EST | By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using "excessive" force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s.

Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gaza's Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.

The 1.5 million Palestinians crammed into the blockaded, 45 km (30-mile) sliver of coast, enjoyed a relative respite early on Sunday from Israeli air strikes and raids. Two Israeli soldiers died in a ground assault on Saturday. An Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket in a border town on Wednesday.

"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children ... I call on Israel to cease such attacks," said Ban.

"I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism," he said. ...
- posted by Editor @ 9:08 PM

Arab leaders warn Israel over belligerency
Arab leaders warn Israel over belligerency | Cairo, Feb 23, IRNA

Arab leaders said that Israel is sabotaging the Middle East peace process and warned they could withdraw their landmark offer of peace with Israel in exchange for a return of Arab lands, unless Israel explicitly accepts the initiative.

The warnings reflect increasing Arab impatience with the long-stalled peace process with Israel.
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Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been marred by ongoing Israeli construction in the West Bank and East Quds, areas the Palestinians want for their future state.

Saud, whose country is a close US ally, blamed Israel during a gathering of South American-Arab foreign ministers in Argentina on Thursday.

"It's unbelievable that we keep blaming the weak party in the equation, which is the Palestinian people, with all the suffering they live under, while ignoring what Israel does by expanding settlements, tightening the siege, humiliating the Palestinians and carrying out a mass punishment against them," al-Faisal said.
- posted by Editor @ 4:44 PM

European Union lawmakers urged Israel on Thursday not to inflict "collective punishment" on Gaza's population
EU lawmakers lambast Israel over Gaza | 21 Feb 2008 17:25:20 GMT | Source: Reuters

STRASBOURG, Feb 21 (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers urged Israel on Thursday not to inflict "collective punishment" on Gaza's population, saying its isolation of the territory had failed and its actions were endangering civilians.

They urged Israel to lift a blockade which has cut supplies to the 1.5 million people in Gaza, run by the Islamist group Hamas, and let in aid and essential goods and services.

"The policy of isolation of the Gaza strip has failed at both the political and humanitarian level," the European Parliament said in an adopted resolution.

"The civilian population should be exempt from any military action and any collective punishment."

Israeli air strikes and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip have killed some 300 Palestinians in the past year, including dozens of civilians, but have failed to prevent rocket fire, which killed two Israelis in the same period.

"The European Parliament calls on Israel to cease military actions killing and endangering civilians, and extrajudicial targeted killings," the resolution said.

The lawmakers also urged Hamas to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel. ...
- posted by Editor @ 4:23 PM