Jailed Professor Sami al-Arian Moved to Solitary Confinement Days Before Scheduled Release
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- Written by Democracy Now Democracy Now
- Published: 14 April 2008 14 April 2008
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[The cruel treatment of this Palestinian Professor after years and years of harassment continues . . .]
Jailed Professor Sami al-Arian Moved to Solitary Confinement Days Before Scheduled Release
And supporters of the jailed Palestinian professor Sami Al-Arian have issued a new warning over his health after he was again placed in solitary confinement just days before his scheduled release. Al-Arian is in the second month of a hunger strike to protest his ongoing imprisonment. Last year, Al-Arian was imprisoned for an additional eighteen months for refusing to testify before a Virginia grand jury. He’s been in prison for five years on charges that he was a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He was jailed on a plea agreement to avoid a second trial. In his original trial, a Florida jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the seventeen charges brought against him.
News Report Reveals White House Approved Torture Technique: ACLU "Appoint Special Council"
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- Written by ACLU ACLU
- Published: 14 April 2008 14 April 2008
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ACLU Calls On Congress to Appoint Special Counsel to Investigate
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WASHINGTON DC – ABC News reported that in dozens of top-secret White House meetings, the most senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, discussed and approved specific torture techniques for use on detainees. According to this report, Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft sanctioned these tactics. In light of this revelation, the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to appoint a special counsel to investigate these charges.
Jimmy Carter: Israel's 'apartheid' policies worse than South Africa's
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- Written by Haaretz Service Haaretz Service
- Published: 14 April 2008 14 April 2008
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Carter's comments were broadcast on Israel Radio, which played a tape of an interview with the ex-president, but did not specify to whom Carter was speaking. But has made similar remarks in recent interviews, such as one to CBC television.
"When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa."
Carter said his new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" was meant to spark U.S. discussion of Israeli policies. "The hope is that my book will at least stimulate a debate, which has not existed in this country. There's never been any debate on this issue, of any significance."
Read more: Jimmy Carter: Israel's 'apartheid' policies worse than South Africa's
Israel razes Palestinian home in Beit-ul-Moqaddas
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- Written by Middle East Online and IMEMC Middle East Online and IMEMC
- Published: 10 April 2008 10 April 2008
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An Israeli wrecking crew knocked down Shadi Hamdan's home in an Arab neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem in just a couple of hours, reducing the upholsterer's savings to a pile of gray rubble. {mosimage}
The demolition of the home vividly illustrates the toughest issue facing negotiators in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks: occupied Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
Israel claims the house was illegally built, although Israel’s occupation and subsequent annexation of Arab Beit-ul-Moqaddas is what is considered illegal according to the international community.
Agreeing on how to divide the ancient city is on the table but has yet to be resolved in talks launched at a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference last November. The Palestinians want to establish a capital in east Beit-ul-Moqaddas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. Israel claims the whole city but has signaled willingness to cede some Arab neighborhoods.
Israel’s policies in the past 40 years have caused great demographic changes to occupied city, now home to 476,000 Jews and 250,000 Palestinians.
Since 2004, Israel has leveled more than 300 Palestinian homes in Beit-ul-Moqaddas's Arab neighborhoods, citing a lack of building permits. However, critics say the permits are virtually impossible to obtain and consider the demolitions part of a decades-old policy to limit Palestinian population growth in city illegally occupied by Israel.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, a group that fights home demolitions, says Israel is violating the human rights of the city's Palestinian residents by tearing down their homes.
"Were Israelis and Palestinians to have an equal chance to get a building permit ... it wouldn't be a human rights issue," said Ascherman. "It's a human rights issue because it's intentional and purposeful housing discrimination."
Read more: Israel razes Palestinian home in Beit-ul-Moqaddas
Jimmy Carter to Meet Exiled Hamas Leader
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- Published: 10 April 2008 10 April 2008
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Meanwhile, former president Jimmy Carter is planning on meeting Hamas’s exiled political leader, Khaled Meshal, in Syria next week. Last week, Meshal reiterated his previous statement that Hamas would accept a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with Israel. Carter’s plans immediately came under criticism from all three leading presidential candidates. Senator John McCain called on Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton to condemn the meeting. In statements, both Clinton and Obama said they disagree with Carter’s plans. The meeting comes as Israeli public support is growing for talks with Hamas. A poll in February found that 64 percent of Israelis support Hamas’s call for a ceasefire.