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Objections to plans to confiscate Arab-cultivated land in northern Israel

2 September 2006


On 21 and 28 August 2006, Adalah submitted two objections on behalf of 19 Arab farmers from the north of Israel to Local Master Plans G13449 and HBG/1237 to the Haifa and Northern Planning and Building Committees. The plans demarcate an area of land cultivated by Arab farmers in and around the area of Wadi al-Malak to be confiscated, with the stated goal of creating a man-made forest in the area, called the “Kiryat Ata Forest” in the plans. Adalah demanded that the committees conduct a thorough examination of the facts on the ground in the area, and to withdraw the plans. 

ADC Welcomes State Department Inquiry into Israeli Use of Cluster Bombs

25 August 2006


The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) welcomes reports that the United States Department of State has opened an inquiry into whether, during its recent conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel violated secret agreements made with the United States concerning the use of American-made cluster bombs. The State Department investigation was reported today in the New York Times. According to the Times the inquiry is based upon, “reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.” 

Genocide in Gaza

Ilan Pappe 2 September 2006


A genocide is taking place in Gaza. This morning, 2 September, another three citizens of Gaza were killed and a whole family wounded in Beit Hanoun. This is the morning reap, before the end of day many more will be massacred. An average of eight Palestinian die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed. The inhuman living conditions in the most dense area in the world, and one of the poorest human spaces in the northern hemisphere, disables the people who live it to reconcile with the imprisonment Israel had imposed on them ever since 1967. There were relative better periods where movement to the West Bank and into Israel for work was allowed, but these better times are gone. 

For Israel's Security: Zainab Fawqi-Sleem and the Question of Lebanon

Ramzi Kysia Houla 1 September 2006


Yesterday, I shed my first tears for Lebanon. Yesterday, I visited Houla, a stone’s throw from the Israeli border. Yesterday, I was discovered by Zainab Fawqi-Sleem - a young, Lebanese woman who was killed in Houla, alongside her sister-in-law, Selma, on July 15th. Zainab is but one of over 1,300 innocents killed in this war, but she is the one who found me. On October 31st, 1948, in one of the few massacres of the Nakba to occur inside Lebanon, proto-Israeli militas seized the town of Houla, setting off bombs and burning down several houses. There’s a memorial to the massacre in the center of town, not far from homes smashed flat by this current war. 

OCHA: 35-50% of South Lebanon without electricity supply

1 September 2006


The Government of Lebanon (GoL) Higher Relief Council (HRC) reports the casualty figures at 1,187 killed and 4,092 injured. Between 35 to 50% of the South territory has no electricity supply which is having a significant impact upon the restoration of essential and municipal services and is limiting south Lebanon’s ability to restore economic activity. Many returnees will be discouraged from staying and may seek opportunities to re-establish their lives elsewhere. As of August 31, the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC) reports that 405 individual cluster bomb strike locations have been identified. 

Jews in NY, San Francisco, Philadelphia stage coordinated protest

Micah Bazant 1 September 2006


22 August 2006 - Yesterday, groups of Jewish activists across the U.S. protested continued Israeli military aggression in Lebanon and Palestine. Echoing a similar action that took place in Boston on August 1st, protesters staged die-ins, hung banners above freeways during morning and evening rush hours, and locked themselves down outside of zionist institutions. In New York, a group of more than 20 Jewish protestors staged a “Die-In” during morning rush hour outside Penn Station, unfurling large banners and lying down on the ground to demand a cessation of continuing Israeli military aggression in Lebanon and Palestine. 

The Lobby, the U.S. and the Israeli War on Hezbollah

Terry Walz 1 September 2006


The U.S. blanket support for the Israeli war on Hezbollah can be laid at the feet of the Israel Lobby, concluded Professor Stephen Walt and Prof. John Mearsheimer in an analysis they presented at the National Press Club in Washington on August 28. Their presentation, which was sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was a widening of their critique of the lobby and focused on the role it played in the recent Israel-Hezbollah war. It showed once again how the lobby works against both Israel’s and the United States’ national interests. 

Hurtling toward the Next Intifada: An Interview with Jonathan Cook

Andrea Bistrich 1 September 2006


This is an edited version of an interview published in German in the newspaper Die Junge Welt on 1 July 2006 between Andrea Bistrich and the British journalist Jonathan Cook, based in Nazareth, Israel, about his new book “Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish State” (Pluto Press) about Israel’s plans for the further dispossession of the Palestinians. The interview was conducted before Israel’s attack on Lebanon. Cook discusses his book, his views on Israel, Zionism, and Olmert’s “convergence” plans, and puts forward his views toward the future. 

Anything could happen

Robert Rosenberg 30 August 2006


Haaretz was reporting this morning that Israel and the Palestinians have reached agreement on the principle of a prisoner exchange quoting a Gazan source as saying that Israel is now holding up discussions of the details of the deal, including how it would take place, which of several hundred Palestinian prisoners would be released, and when it would take place. At night, Channel 10 reported on the first attempted military putsch in the history of the country, a group of colonels, brigadiers and at least one reserve major general was named as taking part among others, demanding Dan Halutz resign as chief of staff of the IDF. 

Peace Cyclists complete European ride

1 September 2006


The Peace Cycle has completed the European leg of its epic journey from London to Jerusalem. On August 30th the cyclists reached Rome, exhausted from a tough ride through northern Italy, but with their spirits high and looking forward to the next stage of the ride in the Middle East. The 25 men and women taking part, from varied backgrounds, faiths and nationalities, have showed remarkable strength and determination to overcome the physical challenges of cycling from London to Rome. Once over the Alps, they faced some of the highest and steepest hills Italy had to offer on the mountain roads from Bologne to Florence.