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Rice Faces Formidable White House Foe

Jim Lobe 21 February 2007


WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (IPS) - If, as she insists, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is determined to make concrete progress toward achieving George W. Bush’s vision of a two-state solution, one in which Israel would be required to make major territorial concessions, it appears that she faces a major foe in the White House. No, not only Dick Cheney and the surviving members of the neo-conservative clique that surrounded him and former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld during Bush’s first term — although the vice president’s office remains a formidable force against any concessions to a Palestinian government of national unity that includes Hamas, despite Saudi Arabia’s role in midwifing its birth at Mecca last week. 

Reinforcing the Occupation: Israel's High Court

Louis Frankenthaler 21 February 2007


Journalist Gideon Levy wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz: “From now on, the [Israeli] Supreme Court will act without Aharon Barak. It will, however, presumably continue to act within his legacy, which has authorized nearly all injustices in the territories. Barak, meanwhile, will continue to be depicted in Israel and the world as a pursuer of justice.” The Israeli High Court of Justice under the presidency of Professor Barak has impressed many observers as being many things: progressive, daring, precedent setting. However, the actual results of the Barak Court offer little in the way of comparison to a Court like the Warren Court in the United States. 

Israeli authorities destroy crops of Bedouin citizens

21 February 2007


At this moment the Israeli government is plowing the crops, in order to destroy them, of Bedouins in the Negev. 500 dunams (120 acres) of Halil al-Zarqan’s lands, of the small village Al-Mazraa in the Eastern Negev are being destroyed this morning by governmental tractors. Israel does not recognize the traditional ownership of its Bedouin citizens over land in the Negev. Since 1948, Israel has used one method or another to confiscate 98 percent of the lands that were owned and used by the Bedouins prior to the establishment of the State. Now the government is battling its poorest citizens over the last 2 percent of their traditional lands. 

EI's Ali Abunimah discusses Rice trip on Flashpoints

21 February 2007


EI co-founder Ali Abunimah was interviewed on Flashpoints Radio on Tuesday, 20 February 2007. He discussed the previous day’s talks in Jerusalem with Condoleezza Rice as she presses for Bush’s vision for a future Palestinian state. He told host Nora Barrows-Friedman, “The United States and Israel expect Abbas to act as their quisling, really, just a collaborator representing them. And Abbas’ transgressions in their books are that he has placed the desire among Palestinians for unity and democracy above the demands of the occupier and the United States.” 

Texas Independence Day Protest over Jailed Palestinian Family

Greg Moses 21 February 2007


There are different kinds of angry. Jay Johnson-Castro has tears in his eyes when he thinks about Suzi Hazahza at the immigration prison of Haskell, Texas. But he’s not going to cry without doing something, so next week, Johnson-Castro will walk sixty miles from Abilene to Haskell and hold a vigil for the release of Suzi Hazahza and “anyone else” being mistreated for their desire to be American. “I’m almost in tears trying to tell you how angry I feel,” says Johnson-Castro via cell phone as he drives home to Del Rio, Texas on Tuesday evening following three weeks of border protests. 

"No politics please -- we're Lebanese," say traders

20 February 2007


BEIRUT, 20 February 2007 (IRIN) - “Please, no discussion of politics,” reads a sign that has appeared in shop windows in the Mazraa district of western Beirut. On a work-day afternoon, it is the only hint that the area’s bustling main streets — lined with snack-bars and grocers, clothes shops and jewellery markets — has witnessed a sharp rise in Sunni-Shia Muslim tensions over the past few months. “People would strike up conversations in here about politics and they’d turn into arguments. Now I can just point at the sign and say ‘come on, that’s enough’,” said the owner of a cubby-hole bookshop, who preferred not to give his name. 

Israeli activist given three-month suspended sentence after anti-Wall protest

18 February 2007


Jonathan Pollak, an activist with Anarchists Against the Wall, was sentenced to three months in prison that will be activated if he is convicted of a similar charge again. Pollak was sentenced today after he was convicted together with 10 other activists for blocking a road in Tel Aviv in protest of the construction of the wall. He asked the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court to sentence him to jail time rather than community service or a suspended sentence, saying he has no intention to stop resisting the occupation. The ten other convicted activists were sentenced to 80 hours of community service. 

Warning notices affixed to 100 homes in unrecognized Bedouin village

19 February 2007


On 13 February 2007, Adalah sent an urgent letter to Interior Minister Roni Bar-On and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, demanding the cancellation of warning notices issued against approximately 100 homes in the unrecognized village of al-Nasasara in the Naqab (Negev) (located to the South-West of Kesseife). These notices, which were affixed to homes on 19 January 2007 demand that the homeowners appear before the Building Monitoring Unit in order to present explanations for “unlicensed building.” However, based on past experience, the sending of such warning notices constitutes the first step towards the issuing of orders to demolish homes and evacuate the village of its inhabitants. 

My birthday in Jabalya refugee camp

Philip Rizk Jabalya refugee camp, Palestine 19 February 2007


I spent my 25th birthday in Jabalya, Gaza’s biggest refugee camp. I have known Jamal, a taxi driver in Gaza, for almost two years. I could only protest so many times at his neglecting to host me in his home. In spite of the pleas of his children, whom I had met on a number of occasions outside his home, I realized today why he never did. I have often entered the homes of refugees while distributing food across the Gaza Strip and yet what struck me that day was the familiarity of Jamal sitting by my side against the unfamiliarity of his home. 

Arab couple refused residency in exclusively Jewish town

19 February 2007


The application of an Arab couple, Fatina Ebriq and Ahmed Zubeidat, to live in the community town of Rakefet in the Misgav area of the Galilee was refused in March 2006 by the regional selection committee. Selection committees monitor, accept and reject applications for housing units in community towns, and often operate according to vague and arbitrary criteria. On 11 April 2006, Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara filed an appeal on behalf of the couple to the Israel Land Administration (ILA) against the decision to refuse their application to live in Rakefet.