September 30, 2006
TorStar - Israel blocked probe of observers' deaths: UN
UNITED NATIONS — Israel refused to give a UN-appointed investigation access to the officials who may have been responsible for the bombing of an observation post that killed four unarmed peacekeepers at the height of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, the United Nations said today.
The Independent-UK - Israeli group calls power plant attack a 'war crime'
The air strike on Gaza's only power station that has left most residents
with half their normal electricity supply three months later was a war
crime, according to the Israeli human rights group B'tselem.
Counterpunch - Critics are Too Generous to Israel
A mistake too often made by those examining Israel's behaviour in the occupied territories -- or when analysing its treatment of Arabs in general, or interpreting its view of Iran -- is to assume that Israel is acting in good faith. Even its most trenchant critics can fall into this trap.
September 27, 2006
Haaretz - West blocks Arab bid to rap Israel over nuclear issue at IAEA meeting
Canada sponsored a 45-29 "no-action" ballot that prevented International Atomic Energy Agency member states from voting on a motion demanding Israel use atomic energy only for peaceful purposes and help set up a Middle East nuclear arms-free zone.
CBC - Canada adding to 'tragic' conditions of Palestinians: UN official
Canada is partly to blame for allowing human rights for Palestinians to deteriorate to a new low, a UN rights expert says. John Dugard said Palestinians are subjected to "tragic" conditions in Gaza and the West Bank. He criticized Canada, Israel, the U.S. and western European countries for cutting off funding to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas' victory in legislative elections in January.
September 22, 2006
BBC- Israelis seize Palestinian funds
Israeli troops have raided a bank and the offices of money-changers in West Bank towns, confiscating funds they say were intended to fund militants.
The army said it seized almost $1.5m (£0.8m) in raids on premises in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and Ramallah.
Independent UK - Gaza: The children killed in a war the world doesn't want to know about
Jihad Abu Snaima was just the most recent of more than 37 children and teenagers under 18 killed [out of a total death toll, including militants, of 228] in the operations mounted by the Israeli military in Gaza since 25 June, according to figures from the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights (PCHR).
CIC - Canadian Arab And Islamic Groups Urge CTS Network To Drop Michael Coren Show
The Canadian Islamic Congress and the Canadian Arab Federation have joined to oppose the anti-Muslim / anti-Arab content and tone of the CTS network talk show hosted by Michael Coren, whose recent Toronto Sun editorial advocates launching a preemptive nuclear attack on Iran.
September 19, 2006
Letter to Interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham about Irwin Cotler's possible conflict of interest
Do you believe it is appropriate that your Public Safety Critic MP Irwin Cotler also be an Associate of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs , which describes itself as "an independent, non-profit institute for policy research and education serving Israel " and produces position papers such as "After the Hamas Victory: The Increasing Importance of Israel's Strategic Barrier in the Jordan Valley" which support the theft by Israel of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank in contravention of International Law, UN Resolutions and Canadian Policy?
Independent UK - Deadly Harvest: The Lebanese Fields Sown with Cluster Bombs
Lebanese villagers must risk death in fields 'flooded' with more than a million Israeli cluster bombs - or leave crops to rot
The war in Lebanon has not ended. Every day, some of the million bomblets which were fired by Israeli artillery during the last three days of the conflict kill four people in southern Lebanon and wound many more.
Stopthewall.org - British Trade Unions: “Tear down the Apartheid Wall”
The Trade Union Council, which represents 66 affiliated unions and nearly seven million workers, passed the motion at its annual conference in Brighton, UK, calling for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all occupied territories, for the British government and EU to restore funding to the Palestinian Authority and for the Israeli government to restore withheld tax revenues due to the PA.
September 16, 2006
Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) - The destruction of Palestine goes on
Israel’s latest war in Palestine and Lebanon is not just criminal and immoral. It is completely suicidal for the future of Jews living both in and outside Israel.
The Dominion - Canada's drift on Israel: From abstention to unconditional support
On June 25, Palestinians attacked a military outpost, killing two soldiers, losing two of their own, and taking a tank gunner prisoner. Hamas said it would release the tank gunner in exchange for the 400 children and 100 women being held in prison.
When Israel instead launched air raids, destroyed Gaza's power plant, and invaded the area with thousands of troops, Harper said he thought Israel's response, "under the circumstances," was "measured."
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) - A commission to investigate the occupation
During the past two months, July and August, 251 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and the West Bank, all of them by Israel Defense Forces fire. About half of them were civilians, including women, children and the elderly.
September 11, 2006
Haaretz - One blow to the brain
Border Police troops, who were waiting, threw stun grenades and fired rubber-coated metal bullets at the demonstrators, even before they left the village to head toward the fence. Limor Goldstein, 28, was wounded in the head by gunfire from a Border Police officer.
Guardian UK - Israeli military court sends captured Hamas leaders for trial
An Israeli military court yesterday ordered 15 Hamas leaders, including two cabinet ministers and the speaker of Palestine's parliament, to go on trial charged with membership of an outlawed organisation. The group, 12 of them elected members of the parliament, appeared in court at Ofer Camp on the occupied West Bank.
September 10, 2006
Gary Keenan - Palestinian Refugees' Right of Return and Related Matters
Israel's first and second requests to join the United Nations following the signing of the 1949 armistice agreements were rejected because the General Assembly considered it to be in contravention of the UN Charter. This was due to the fact that in violation of the Partition Plan (General Assembly Resolution 181, 29 November 1947), Israel was occupying the international zone of West Jerusalem (from which it had expelled 60,000 Palestinians before and during the 1948 war) and more than half of the territory assigned to the proposed Palestinian state.
September 9, 2006
Independent - Olmert backs off from West Bank pull-out with settlements plan
The government of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has issued bids to build 700 homes in the West Bank - its largest settlement construction project since taking office in May.
SF Gate - Israel said to fear war crimes charges
Jerusalem, Israel -- Three weeks after a cease-fire ended Israel's monthlong war against Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel is increasingly concerned that government officials and army officers traveling abroad could face war crimes charges, a Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
Independent - Palestinians forced to scavenge for food on rubbish dumps
Israel closed the entry and exit points into the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, on 25 June and has conducted frequent raids and bombings that have killed 262 people and wounded 1,200. The crisis in Gaza has been largely ignored by the rest of the world, which has been absorbed by the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
September 4, 2006
Illan Pappe - Genocide in Gaza
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.
Gideon Levy - Gaza's darkness
Gaza has been reoccupied. The world must know this and Israelis must know it, too. It is in its worst condition, ever. Since the abduction of Gilad Shalit, and more so since the outbreak of the Lebanon war, the Israel Defense Forces has been rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to describe it - killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately.
September 2, 2006
Inthenews.co.uk - UN chief highlights Gaza aid importance
The UN's emergency relief coordinator has said the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is turning into a "time-bomb"....
"You cannot seal off an area, which is a little bigger than the city of Stockholm, has 1.4 million people, of whom 800,000 are youth and children, and then have 200 artillery shells go in there virtually every day, seal off the borders so that it is very hard for them to send anything out, crippling the economy, for people to live or even humanitarian supplies to get in," he told reporters.
ICN - Holy Land: children go back to school as humanitarian crisis deepens
The school year is about to start here in Palestine, but exactly what it will look like this year is anyone's guess. Most families are looking at the situation with extreme anxiety. Are the government schools going to open as striking teachers protest the non-payment of salaries? How can families register their children for school with all of the accompanying fees for school books, stationary, uniforms, transportation and when they have balances owing from the last year which they cannot pay?
