Israel begins new settlement, despite U.S. opposition
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- Written by Haaretz Service Haaretz Service
- Published: 19 May 2009 19 May 2009
- Hits: 2777 2777
By Haaretz Service
Israel has moved ahead with a plan to build a new settlement in the northern West Bank for the first time in 26 years, pursuing a project the United States has already condemned as an obstacle to peace efforts.
The move comes on the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, despite Western calls for Israel to halt its settlement activity.
Tenders have been issued for 20 housing units in the new Maskiot settlement and contractors have arrived on site to begin foundation work.
The initiative began three years ago, under the auspices of then-defense minister Amir Peretz, who promised to transform a former army outpost into a permanent settlement for evacuees from the Gaza Strip. The move was then frozen due to American insistence.
David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley regional council that oversees Maskiot, confirmed to Reuters he had issued the tender last week for contractors to launch infrastructure work.
"It's a process that will take months, to prepare infrastructure before we can build. We are proceeding in an orderly fashion," Elhayani said.
Elhayani insisted that the construction is being carried out completely legally.
"There is full consensus among Zionist parties that the Jordan Valley must remain under Israeli control within the framework of any diplomatic deal," he said. "The Jordan Valley is necessary for the sake of national security, and woe to the administration that strays from this path."
Nabil Abu Rudeinah, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the plan was a "message of defiance" from Israel to the Obama administration and its efforts to revive peace talks.
"This Israeli provocation demands a U..S response and a genuine and concrete pressure on Netanyahu that would guarantee a halt to all settlement activities," he said, charging that "continuation [of settlement building] would bring down and destroy the peace process."
"The Palestinian position is clear: There will be no resumption of peace talks as long as settlement building continues," Abu Rudeinah said.
The Peace Now movement called the move proof that "Netanyahu is not ready to commit to a two-state solution" and is striving to "prevent the creation of a Palestinian state."
"The way to do that is to built settlements and make all of us - Arabs and Jews - live in one state," said Peace Now chief Yariv Oppenheimer.
He alleged that settlers had deliberately timed publication of the tenders to focus a spotlight on the controversial issue during Netanyahu's talks with Obama.
The initial settlement plan was drawn up several years ago, Oppenheimer said. "But they brought developers there [Sunday] morning. The timing is significant."
The former U.S. administration of George W. Bush had termed the Maskiot project unhelpful. Washington has pressed Israel since 2006 to halt the project, which it says is in violation of the peace "road map" for a Palestinian state beside Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=1086339
Jerusalem mayor 'stepping up demolitions'
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- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 19 May 2009 19 May 2009
- Hits: 2872 2872
The pace of home demolitions in Arab East Jerusalem appears to be increasing under the city's new mayor, an Israeli rights group has warned.
More than 1,000 new demolition orders have been issued in Nir Barkat's first six months in office, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.
Many Palestinian and Arab residents of the city build illegally because of difficulties getting building permits.
The municipality said the Acri report was deceptive and inaccurate.
"There have been no changes to the city's enforcement policy [of demolition orders], nor has the mayor given any orders to increase the rate," the municipality said.
Acri report
Building in mainly Arab East Jerusalem is a highly politicised issue.
The Palestinians want the area to be the capital of a future state, while Jewish groups are trying to increase the number of Jewish settlements there.
While Mr Barkat has said he intends to streamline the application process for building permits, Acri said the municipality had added two new requirements to the process, which would make it harder for Israeli Arabs and Palestinians to get permission to build.
In a recent decision he also allocated only 7% of funds of a recent, interim budget to East Jerusalem, while the rest went to the Israeli west of the city, Acri said.
The Jerusalem municipality said this was misleading, and funds were not allocated geographically.
"In terms of Barkat's actions and budget allocations, there appears so far to be no connection between promises and deeds, and thus there is difference between him and his predecessors; Barkat also neglects and discriminates," the report said.
According to figures released by Acri, 67% of families are under the poverty line in East Jerusalem, compared to 23% in West Jerusalem.
It says there is a shortage of 1,500 classrooms in the district, with a 50% drop-out rate and 9,000 children not attending school.
But the municipality said Mr Barkat had made improving the quality of life in East Jerusalem a priority.
"Attempts to blame Barkat, who has been in office for less than six months, for the failures of the government and the municipality for 40 years are populist," the municipality said.
Earlier this month, the UN asked Israel to freeze all pending demolition orders in East Jerusalem and to do more to provide for the housing needs of Palestinians.
Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967. It has annexed the city and declared its east and west Israel's eternal capital.
This is not recognised by the international community, with the east of the city considered occupied territory.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8057759.stm
Published: 2009/05/19 14:57:47 GMT
© BBC MMIX
UK medics go on hunger strike after being refused entry into Gaza
- Details
- Written by Haroon Siddique, guardian.co.uk, Haroon Siddique, guardian.co.uk,
- Published: 19 May 2009 19 May 2009
- Hits: 2790 2790
• Hammersmith team stuck in Egypt at Rafa crossing since 4 May
• Group on humanitarian mission to set up cardiac hospital unit
Three British medics began a hunger strike in Egypt today to protest against being refused entry into Gaza for a humanitarian mission.
Their aim is to establish a cardiac surgery unit at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which currently has no such facility, and to help train medical students and junior doctors there. But the British medics have been denied access to the Palestinian territory at the Rafah crossing since the beginning of May.
Omar Mangoush, a cardiac surgeon at Hammersmith hospital, in London, told guardian.co.uk he had been to the crossing with his colleagues every day since arriving in Egypt on 4 May, only to be told they did not have permission to enter.
"We are on hunger strike until they let us through," he said. "We'll stay [at the crossing] until they let us in. We want to put pressure on the British embassy. We believe if the British embassy wanted us to do this they could exert pressure [on the Egyptian authorities]."
Mangoush said he had been told by the British embassy that it had received a letter from the Egyptian foreign ministry saying the medics' request for access to Gaza had been "postponed".
But he claimed American aid workers had gained entry to Gaza at their first attempt with the support of the US embassy.
Mangoush named the other British medics on hunger strike as Christopher Burns-Cox, a retired consultant, and Kirsty Wong, a nurse at Hammersmith hospital. Another six people are on hunger strike, including three Belgians, he said.
The cardiac surgeon took a month's holiday from work to take part in the mission for the Manchester-based charity Palestine International Medical Aid (PIMA)
"This is very important for us," he said. "There are loads of people with heart disease [in Gaza]. They can't get here [to Egypt], they can't get to Israel. If it's this hard for us to get to, how difficult is it for the Palestinians to get out?"
PIMA's director, Dr Ahmed Almari, said: "It's unbelievable. They're a group of doctors, they went for education and teaching, to set up a cardiac unit. It's unfair and sad that it is only as a result of a hunger strike that anybody pays attention. There's no reason to stop them from crossing."
Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing largely closed since Hamas won the Gaza elections three years ago. One of the main demands of Hamas has been that all crossings into Gaza should be allowed to reopen permanently. A number of aid groups have said the closure of the crossings is contributing to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Palestinian medical sources reported today that a one-year-old infant died yesterday at a local hospital in Rafah owing to several complications, including pneumonia, as his transfer to a hospital outside of the Gaza Strip was not possible due to the ongoing Israeli siege.
Lieberman's party wants to ban Nakba commemorations: Growing Trend toward Facism
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- Written by Jewish Peace News Jewish Peace News
- Published: 18 May 2009 18 May 2009
- Hits: 3218 3218
On May 14, the annual day for commemorating the Nakba, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinians with the establishment of the state of Israel, Ha'aretz announced the proposal of a new law in Israel banning all commemorations of the Nakba. The law was proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu, the political party of Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman. The proposed legislation threatens three years imprisonment for anyone who commemorates the Nakba. (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085588.html)
Yisrael
Beiteinu's party spokesman is quoted as saying that the law intends "to
strengthen unity in the state of Israel." That statement, and this
proposed law, should set off anti-fascism alarms. In the name of
"unity," here is a proposal to criminalize acts of memory, collective
identity, and cultural and political expression. In the name of
Israel's majority group, this proposal seeks to criminalize memory and
memory-makers, effectively criminalizing the group-identity of Israel's
largest minority population. The very existence of a culture relies on
its memory, which comprises the stories a culture tells about itself.
This law would threaten the existence of Palestinians as a remembering,
culture-producing, history-bearing people, and would prevent the
possibility of Israel becoming a truly pluralistic society where every
group's history can be told. And by forbidding the remembering of the
Nakba, the law aims to erase the 1948 dispossession of Palestinians -
including the
destruction of more than 400 villages, multiple
massacres and the creation of more than 700,00 refugees, and the
confiscation of thousands of acres of land - even as this same
political party's platform threatens another form of dispossession,
that is, removing citizenship from Palestinian citizens (http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/2009/02/growing-trend-toward-fascism.html).
Reports of the proposed law say it will punish anyone who commemorates the Nakba, not just Palestinians. In this way, the proposed law signals other recent developments in Israel, whereby Israeli Jews are being targeted in campaigns aiming to silence their protest, similar to ways in which Palestinians - both inside of Israel and in the occupied Territories - are also targeted for silencing. (For more on this targeting and the recent persecution of the Israeli Jewish group New Profile, see here: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/2009/05/rela-mazali-israels-war-against-youth.html).
The
threat to imprison anyone who commemorates the Nakba is also a reminder
that everyone engaged with the state of Israel has an obligation to
know and remember the Nakba. A good source for information and
commemoration is the Israeli organization "Zochrot," which offers
extensive education on the Nakba, both on their website (http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?lang=english)
and in actual tours of Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948.
Zochrot's "links" page also offers many different sources of
information, maps, and testimonies on the Nakba (http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=379).
Norma Musih of Zochrot writes, "Awareness and recognition of the Nakba
by Jewish-Israeli people, and taking responsibility for this tragedy,
are essential to ending the struggle and starting a process of
reconciliation between the people of Palestine-Israel." (http://www.zochrot.org/index.php?id=642) As an American Jew, I think it's just as important for Americans, and for Jews, to recognize the tragedy
of the Nakba, so that we, too, can understand what Palestinians have suffered and what is at stake for them in this conflict.
Sarah Anne Minkin
................................................................
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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Merkley to Hold Southern Oregon Town Hall, May 26 - May 28
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- Written by Alison Weir Alison Weir
- Published: 18 May 2009 18 May 2009
- Hits: 3179 3179
http://merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=52DE7127-3F41-4364-871A-6E0856DBDA62
--
Alison Weir
Executive Director
If Americans Knew
Cell: (415) 847-1782
office: (202) 631-4060
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
- Edmund Burke
Merkley to Hold Southern Oregon Town Halls
Five Town Halls are Tuesday, May 26 Through Thursday, May 28
May 15, 2009
Portland – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley will hold town halls in Coos, Curry, Jackson, Josephine and Klamath counties in late May.
He will update constituents on his work in Washington, DC and answer their questions about the challenges facing Oregon and America.
“Advocating for Oregonians is my number one responsibility,” Merkley said. “I invite all residents of Southern Oregon to meet me and discuss what we need to do to get our nation back on track.”
Last year, Merkley pledged to hold town halls in each of Oregon’s 36 counties every year. He held his first town hall in his native county, Douglas County. Klamath, Jackson, Josephine, Coos and Curry counties will be his tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth town halls.
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Klamath County.
When:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Where:
OIT College Union Auditorium
3201 Campus Drive
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Jackson County.
When:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
2:30 p.m.
Where:
Southern Oregon University/Rogue Community College Higher
Education Center
101 S. Bartlett Street
Medford, OR 97501
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Josephine County.
When:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
1:00 p.m.
Where:
Anne Basker Auditorium
604 NW 6th Street
Grants Pass, OR 97526
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Coos County.
When:
Thursday, May 28, 2009
9:30 a.m.
Where:
Coos Bay Public Library
525 W. Anderson Street
Coos Bay, OR 97420
What:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley holds town hall in Curry County.
When:
Thursday, May 28, 2009
2:30 p.m.
Where:
Gold Beach City Hall, Council Chambers
29592 Ellensburg Avenue
Gold Beach, OR 97444