U.N. Report finds Israel “summarily executed” U.S. citizen on flotilla
Last week, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a comprehensive report detailing its findings regarding the May, 2010, Israeli attack on the six-ship flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Israel-blockaded Gaza. The report has been largely ignored in the American media despite the fact (or, more accurately: because) it found that much of the Israeli force used “was unnecessary, disproportionate, excessive and inappropriate and resulted in the wholly avoidable killing and maiming of a large number of civilian passengers”; that “at least six of the killings can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions”
(Read more from salon.com)
Auschwitz survivor: ‘Israel acts like Nazis’
One of the last remaining Auschwitz survivors has launched a blistering attack on Israel over its occupation of Palestine as he began a lecture tour of Scotland.
Dr Hajo Meyer, 86, who survived 10 months in the Nazi death camp, spoke out as his 10-day tour of the UK and Ireland – taking in three Scottish venues – got under way. His comments sparked a furious reaction from hardline Jewish lobby groups, with Dr Meyer branded an “anti-Semite” and accused of abusing his position as a Holocaust survivor. (Read more from heraldscotland.com)
A tale of two ghettoes
Why is Shoppers Drug Mart pulling 3,500 copies of Adbusters, my magazine, off its shelves?
A week ago, in the National Post, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) accused Adbusters of anti-Semitism for publishing side-by-side photographs of the Gaza and Warsaw ghettos ( “Anti-Semitism on your magazine rack — courtesy of Adbusters,” Oct. 23). The CJC has since successfully lobbied senior management at Shoppers Drug Mart into pulling our magazine off the Canadian newsstands. (Read more from nationalpost.com)
Israeli Artists Boycott New Theater in Settlement
An artists’ boycott of a $11 million performing arts center opening Monday in the Jewish settlement of Ariel is giving a new twist to a pressing question — where should Israel’s permanent borders run?
Leading Israeli playwrights, actors and artists say they will not cross the “Green Line” — Israel’s frontier before it captured the West Bank in 1967 — to perform in the new theater in Ariel, an Israeli enclave of 19,000 people.
The artists wrote in a letter explaining the boycott that Ariel was built in the heart of a war-won land to prevent creation of a Palestinian state. (Read more from artdaily.com)
Tutu begs singers to call off Israel tour
Desmond Tutu has urged the Cape Town Opera to call off its tour of Israel “until both Israeli and Palestinian opera lovers have equal opportunity and unfettered access to performances”. (Read more from timeslive.co.za)
US government offers Israel $3 billion weapons deal in exchange for 3-month settlement freeze
After US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Israeli Prime Minister on Friday, the US set out an offer of additional military assistance to Israel in exchange for a 90-day moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank. Construction already in progress on hundreds of units of housing would be allowed to continue during the ‘moratorium’, which also does not include East Jerusalem.
Some Palestinian analysts say the US offer is weak, as it does not pressure Israel in any way to adhere to past signed agreements or international law, but merely forestalls the inevitable failure of ‘peace talks’ between two vastly unequal players. Some have even suggested that this is an attempt by the US to bribe Israel to do what it is required to do under international law.
Since the ‘moratorium’ would not include East Jerusalem, where the majority of current construction of Israeli-only homes and displacement of indigenous Palestinian residents is taking place, some Palestinians feel that it is only a token gesture that does not in any way address their concerns.
In exchange for the temporary, partial moratorium on construction, the Israeli military would receive a gift of 20 F35 fighter jets, worth $3 billion, from the US. (Read more from alethonews.wordpress.com)
Israel plans 1,300 homes in Arab East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, the Interior Ministry said on Monday, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.
The timing of the announcement could prove an embarrassment for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the United States looking for ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the issue of Jewish settlement building. (Read more from af.reuters.com)
How the state helped right-wing groups settle East Jerusalem
The state has transferred hundreds of assets to both groups without the requisite tender process. Each year, the state also allocates millions of shekels for security at these sites, including security cameras and fences that separate the settlers from the neighborhoods’ Palestinian residents.
Information revealed here for the first time provides a glimpse of the relationship between the state and these Jewish organizations. The information was made available to leftist activist Dror Etkes by court order following a three-year legal battle.
Elad, arguing that disclosure would lead to bloodshed, fought to prevent publication of the information. The state supported this claim by furnishing cautionary opinions by security experts. But in the end, Etkes obtained a list of 11 assets relayed by the state to Elad and Ateret Cohanim, mainly from 2003-2008, without full transparency and at eyebrow-raising prices. (Read more from haaretz.com)
Galilee politician works to prevent sale of homes to Palestinians
Residents of Karmiel are invited to report Arabs who intend to buy flats in the town, said Karmiel’s deputy Mayor, Oren Milstein, in an interview on the Internet site “Besheva”. In the same interview he mentioned a weekly ad in the local press which calls on residents to report such information to a special “purple email address”. Milstein went on to say, using the first person: “Residents are welcome to turn to us the moment they become aware of a flat which is about to be sold to someone from one of the [surrounding Arab] villages. Once a flat in Karmiel is sold to an Arab family – it is a solid fact for generations to come”.
Milstein intimates that the selling of 30 flats has already been prevented in this way. (Read more from mondoweiss.net)
US activist’s family sue Israel
A civil lawsuit brought by the parents of a US peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli forces bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in March 2003 has begun being heard in the Israeli city of Haifa.
The driver of the bulldozer that crushed Rachel Corrie to death will testify in court on Thursday, while the military commander in charge of the unit on the day will give evidence at a future date. (Read more from english.aljazeera.net)
Bulldozer driver [contradicts affidavit]
The lawyer also pointed to discrepancies in the driver’s testimony regarding how far he continued driving after crushing Corrie. The driver told the court he drove another 20 meters (66 feet) before stopping, but in his affidavit he said he stopped after three meters (10 feet). In addition, the driver claimed Corrie’s body was found between the bulldozer and a mound of dirt, while another soldier said the body was behind the mound. During the hearing, Attorney Hussein displayed a photo in which no mound of dirt can be seen at all. (Read more from ynetnews.com)
IDF prosecutors chided for using testimony of mentally disabled Palestinian witness
(Read more from haaretz.com)
Jewish Extremists Try to Kill Chilean Tourist, Mistaken for Palestinian
Jerusalem – PNN – Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth published a report on Monday about the attempted murder of a Chilean tourist in Jerusalem by eight Jewish extremists who mistook him for an Arab.
Jose Dominus Nolido, 43, came to Israel to celebrate the wedding of his son’s Jewish friend and visit holy sites. As he returned to his hotel, Nolido said he was accosted by youths.
“I decided to return to my room and I went through Independence Park,” Nolido explained. “Suddenly a youth attacked me. I thought he was a soldier, since he had on Israeli army pants. I tried to flee, but I ran into seven others. I fell on the ground and couldn’t get away from the blows. Then I lost consciousness. I was convinced they wanted to kill me because I looked like an Arab.”
Nolido was taken to a Jerusalem hospital, bleeding from the head and eyes. Doctors said they feared loss of vision in his right eye. (Read more from pnn.ps — or in Spanish)
US snubs Israel over threat to Iran
US rejects Israeli request for military threat against Iran over its nuclear programme, favouring continued sanctions. (Read more from aljazeera.net)
Video: Settlers commit arson on Palestinian vehicles in Qusra: Oct 14th, 2010
Israeli settlers burn yet another mosque in occupied Palestine
Israel is worried that Jewish militants torched a West Bank mosque overnight Monday in a bid to undermine peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
A mosque in the Palestinian village of Beit Fajar, just south of Bethlehem, became the fourth in the last two years to be the target of an arson attempt, according to human rights workers. The attack is believed to be part of a campaign by vigilante settlers to ignite violence by attacking Muslim holy sites. (Read more from csmonitor.com)