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UN calls for urgent aid to clean up toxic debris from summer war with Israel

23 January 2007


Lebanon needs urgent international support to clean up widespread pollution caused by last summer’s war between Israel and Hizbollah, including a variety of toxic and health-hazardous substances as well as unexploded cluster bombs, the United Nations environmental agency warned today on the eve of a major donors’ conference. “The sheer scale of the debris is overwhelming existing municipal dump sites and waste management regimes,” the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in releasing a report by 12 environmental experts who carried out an in-depth field assessment between late September and mid-October. 

Thousands of Iraqi refugees seek asylum

27 January 2007


Thousands of Iraqis who have fled the violence in their country are stranded in Lebanon seeking asylum, according to a senior United Nations official. Having not signed the UN’s Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, introduced in 1951, Lebanon does not grant asylum to any refugees, despite the presence on its territory of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. “Ninety-five percent of asylum seekers today enter Lebanon illegally through the Syrian borders and 80 percent of them are Iraqis. So Lebanese authorities send them to jail, and force them to go back to their countries of origin no matter what,” said Dominique Tohme, Protection Officer in Lebanon for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). 

Adalah: Mosque should be protected as place of worship, not a museum

23 January 2007


On 21 January 2007, Adalah submitted a response to the Supreme Court stating that it rejects the government’s suggestion to convert the Big Mosque in Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva) into a “museum of Islamic culture and Eastern peoples, so as to ensure that an expression of the various aspects of the Islamic heritage is presented according to the professional considerations of the museum’s directors, and in a way which corresponds to the regulations which relate to museums in Israel.” Opening the mosque as a museum and preventing residents of and visitors to Beer el-Sabe from praying in it is abhorrent. 

Are We Proud of This?!

27 January 2007


PCHR strongly condemns internal fighting between Hamas and Fatah movements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), especially the Gaza Strip, which has killed 19 persons, including 8 civilian bystanders, and wounded at least 70 others. PCHR calls upon the leaders of the two movements and all other nationalist and Islamic factions to make sincere efforts to contain and stop such regrettable and shameful fighting, go back to dialogue and put higher national interests of the Palestinian people above all narrow partisan interests and political conflict over authority. 

Emma Thompson bids for Palestinian Rights

27 January 2007


Record-breaking actor Emma Thompson revealed today why she is helping to make political history by supporting Britain’s first broad-based alliance for a just peace in the Middle East. Ms Thompson earned her Oscars for best actress in Howard’s End and for best-adapted screenplay for adapting Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility. The only person ever to have won film Oscars for acting and writing is backing a new historic drive for a just settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. The ENOUGH! coalition, representing over three million people in charities, trade unions, faith and campaign groups has come together to mark this year’s 40th anniversary of the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 

South African Food and Alied Workers Union condemns imports from Israel

23 January 2007


The Food and Allied Workers’ Union (FAWU) condemns Shoprite Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay and Fruit and Veg for the import of avocado pears from Israel. FAWU is appalled at the insensitivity towards the plight of the Palestinian people by the procurement of supplies from an oppressive, apartheid country like Israel. It seems like rubbing salt in the wounds of Palestinians to procure supplies. FAWU is convinced that the import of these goods are in contravention of the spirit of various International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. FAWU calls on the above retailers to immediately cease importing produce from Israel. 

The hidden cost of free congressional trips to Israel

Jim Abourezk 26 January 2007


Democrats in Congress have moved quickly — and commendably — to strengthen ethics rules. But truly groundbreaking reform was prevented, in part, because of the efforts of the pro-Israel lobby to preserve one of its most critical functions: taking members of Congress on free “educational” trips to Israel. The pro-Israel lobby does most of its work without publicity. But every member of Congress and every would-be candidate for Congress comes to quickly understand a basic lesson. Money needed to run for office can come with great ease from supporters of Israel, provided that the candidate makes certain promises, in writing, to vote favorably on issues considered important to Israel. 

Taken for a Ride by the Israeli Left

Steven Friedman and Virginia Tilley 25 January 2007


It may seem odd that many people working hard for a stable peace in Israel-Palestine find veteran Israeli activist Uri Avnery so immensely irritating. The reason stems from his moral contradictions, all too common to liberal Zionism: that is, while taking an unflinching moral stand against racist abuses of Palestinians, he somehow drops the same principles in assuming that Israel itself has a right to preserve its “Jewish character” at the expense of Palestinian rights. 

Curfew and questions in Beirut

Sami Hermez Beirut 25 January 2007


Today, January 25, 2007, violence broke out around 2:30pm at the Beirut Arab University, which is around the sports stadium close to the airport road. According to one report, it seems like the original conflagration occurred in the cafeteria and was then taken out into the streets. By now most people have seen images of the chaos that ensued. Many of us learnt about it when we first tried to use our phones and found all lines down. It is 11:30pm as I sit to write this; I am locked in my apartment along with the rest of the residents of Beirut. There is a military enforced curfew that went into affect at 8:30pm and will last until tomorrow morning at around 10:00 or 11:00am. 

Our house, in the middle of our street

Eóin Murray Jerusalem 25 January 2007


Today I sat in the comfortable air conditioned office of Trocaire’s partner B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights information centre. Meanwhile, out on the ranch — Aine Bhreathnach the Middle East emergency programme officer went on a tour of Jerusalem with B’Tselem staff. On the tour, which illustrates how Israel is using the wall to annex Palestinian land, they witnessed a house demolition taking place. As Aine witnessed it, the facts are this, in her words: “Five families lived in a house in Sur Bahir, a village near Jerusalem which is being annexed to Jerusalem by Israel. On the 22nd of January 2006, their homes were demolished.”