Land theft / Settlements

How settlements in the West Bank are creating a new reality, brick by brick
By Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem. Continuing our series of exclusive reports, we look at how Israel's growing infrastructure in the region threatens not just the form but the very possibility of a future Palestinian state
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/24/west-bank-settlements-israel

The quest for a greater Israel
By Ian Black. Settler ideology has made the sanctity of the land a central tenet and effectively turned the Palestinians into aliens on their own soil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/25/quest-for-greater-israel

Families evicted from their East Jerusalem homes after 50 years
By Rory McCarthy in Sheikh Jarrah. The police came for them at dawn on a Sunday, heavily armed, wearing helmets and riot shields as they broke down the metal doors of the houses and dragged the two Palestinian families out onto the streets.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/24/west-bank-east-jerusalem-evi...

Evicted Palestinians camp by home taken by settlers
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Fresh dates and chicken soup were served up at dusk on the sidewalk in the well-heeled suburb of Sheik Jarrah this week, as the evicted Palestinian al-Ghawi family spent another night camped outside their former home.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090825/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_evicted

PM: 'We've been building in Jerusalem for 3,000 years'
Netanyahu, UK's Gordon Brown meet in London, as pro-Palestinian rally crowds entrance to Downing 10. British premier urges halt of settlement construction, PM stresses: 'Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is the sovereign capital of the State of Israel'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3767041,00.html

MKs, leftists tour West Bank outposts
Knesset members belonging to the Labor and Meretz parties and activists belonging to the Peace Now movement toured a number of West Bank outposts Tuesday morning.'If outposts are not removed by end of Knesset's summer recess, Labor will reconsider path in coalition," MK Ben-Simon says. Rightist lawmaker in response: He contracted 'Peace Now virus'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766925,00.html

Israeli MP says 'illegal' settlements to be evacuated by winter
Daniel Ben Simon, a Member of the Israeli Parliament, from the labor party said on Tuesday that settlements that are deemed illegal by the Israeli government will be evacuated in the coming few months. Hagit Ofran, the head of the settlement watch unit at Peace Now, the largest extra-parliamentary movement in Israel and the country;s oldest peace movement told IMEMC that the Israel will keep control over those settlements even after evacuating them.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61481

Israeli minister of housing defies Obama, calls ethnic segregation in Israel 'a national duty'
Whilst President Obama says he is encouraged by the freeze on illegal Israeli settlements, Israel's Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Attias has said there is no freeze on settlement construction but rather a waiting period, and at the same time he is reinforcing Israeli apartheid policy by stating that is a "national duty" to segregate the Jewish and Arab residents of Israel.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1049

Al Jazeera video: Palestinians object to 'alternative homeland'
Israeli politicians have proposed making Jordan an alternative home for Palestinians as part of a Middle East peace deal. Al Jazeera's Nisreen el-Shamayleh reports from Jordan on the Palestinians right to return and the reaction to the Israeli proposal.
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/al-jazeera-video-palestini...

Bil'in village fights for its land
By Brian Pickett. A symbol of popular resistance against Israel's apartheid policies, during the past several years Bilin has been a constant site for protesting the encroachment of Israel's wall on village lands ... Our host discussed how the perception that Israel "allows" these demonstrations, albeit with incredibly violent "control" tactics, can be misrepresented to suggest that Israel is indeed democratic, permitting spaces for dissent while continuing to actively appropriate Palestinian land. This point was a sharp one and spoke to a deep concern that the village's courageous efforts face serious limitations.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10729.shtml

Attacks

Israeli airstrike kills three in Gaza
Israeli airstrikes overnight on a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah killed two Palestinians and injured nine others. According to medical sources Nael Ali Batiniji, 22, and Mansour Ali Batiniji, 32, and Ibrahim Batiniji 24, arrived dead at Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. The three were brothers. Rescue workers were still searching for more bodies in the rubble of the tunnel. The medics also said nine injured people were taken to hospitals in ambulances after the strike. Witnesses said that the Israeli warplanes struck in the early morning hours, completely leveling several tunnels.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221353

Israeli forces kill Gaza man
Israeli forces shot two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon, killing one of them. The shooting took place in the Al-Atatra area north of the town of Beit Lahiya ... Hassanein said that one critically injured man was taken in an ambulance to Kamal Udwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Ambulances were unable to immediately reach the other man who lay on the ground bleeding and eventually died. Hassanein identified him as Ata Al-Hasoumi, 20. Medics told Reuters that the man was a farmer. Israeli military sources told reporters that two "suspicious" people had approached the border with Israel and ignored warning shots.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221304

First in 2 weeks: Fire from Gaza into Israel
IDF shoots and kills Palestinian near border fence. In response, shots fired from Gaza Strip land near Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. Soldier lightly injured after hitting his head while seeking shelter. Hundreds of bathers evacuated from beach
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766535,00.html

Palestinian armed group clashes with invading troops in northern Gaza
Palestinian fighters clashed on Monday with an invading Israeli force at the northern Gaza Strip borders with Israel. According to the Salah Al Deen brigades the Israeli force was operating inside the Gaza Strip when their fighters attacked soldiers with light machine guns. The brigades added that the fight lasted for 15 minutes. No injuries in both sides were reported.
http://imemc.org/article/61467

Defense: Video evidence missing in Shfaram lynching case
Prosecution fails to hand over video footage of 2005 lynch of Jewish terrorist, Eden Natan-Zada, to defense, reports it missing. Attn. Ahmed Raslan, representing five of seven indicted in case, suspects fishy behavior, demands that evidence produced from video be dismissed
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766633,00.html

Detention

Israeli military kidnaps 13 Palestinians from several parts of the West Bank
The Israeli military kidnapped on Monday 13 Palestinian civilians during dawn and morning invasions targeting a number of west Bank communities. The Israeli army radio announced that the men were taken to detention camps for questioning. The radio added that all kidnapped were on what the army calls "Wanted list". In on of the morning invasions Israeli troops destroyed three shops at the old city of Hebron, southern west Bank. Witnesses said that soldiers searched and ransacked homes nearby then leveled the three shops and left without giving any reasons.
http://imemc.org/article/61468

Israeli military kidnaps five civilians during morning invasions in the West Bank
The Israeli military kidnapped on Tuesday five Palestinian civilians during morning invasions targeting a number of west Bank communities. Palestinian sources said that troops kidnapped three men from Qabalan village in northern West Bank, one from Jenin city also northern West Bank, in addition to one man from Ramallah city central west Bank. The Israeli army radio announced that the five men were taken to military detention camps for questioning and that they are on what the military calls its "Wanted List."
http://imemc.org/article/61480

Prison service cancels Hamas visitations for Shalit protest
As part of series of events marking Shalit's 23rd birthday, 'Army of Shalit's Friends' plans to block family visits to Hamas prisoners in protest to detainment conditions of captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in Gaza. However, in bid to prevent clashes, Israel Prison Service cancels visits at two facilities ... The Israel Prison Service announced that family visits will not be allowed on Tuesday at Hadarim Prison in Tel Mond and Shikma Prison in Ashkelon.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766509,00.html

Israel establishes special courts for Palestinian child detainees
Israeli sources reported that Brigadier general Gadi Shamni, GOC Central Command of the Israeli Army, has signed decision number 1644 ordering the establishment of a Military Court for the Youth. The court will be in charge of all cases against underage detainees. According to the decision, judges who received special training in dealing with young detainees will be appointed by the head of the Israeli Court system. Israel has always interrogated and tried Palestinian children in ordinary interrogation facilities, and ordinary courts. Imprisoned children are also held with adult detainees and even with Israeli prisoners who committed criminal offences.
http://imemc.org/article/61474

Israeli soldiers broke into Telmond prison for women
The Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights (Hurryyat) stated that an under-cover Israeli military unit, known as Dror, broke into the Telmond prison for women, and violently searched the rooms of 32 Palestinian female detainees.The center added that the soldiers were very violent in dealing with the female detainees and terrorized them while breaking into their rooms and while searching them, paying no attention to their privacy. One of the detainees, Fatima Al Ziq, is detained with her infant, Yousef.
http://imemc.org/article/61475

Fatah proposes 3-month truce with Hamas
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are renewing a wave of mutual arrests following the deadlock reached in talks meant to bring the Fatah and Hamas delegations together in Cairo. Fatah and PA sources said Hamas security forces arrested three Fatah operatives in the Gaza Strip, and that PA security forces have arrested 12 Hamas men in Hebron.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766583,00.html

Abbas's militias kidnap nine citizens in Al-Khalil
WEST BANK, (PIC)-- The militias of Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank kidnapped Sunday nine Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas in Al-Khalil [Hebron] city including a father and his six sons as well as an ex-detainee recently released from Israeli jails. These militias also stormed the Gorba'a mosque in the town of Tafoh, west of Al-Khalil and removed the picture of slain Palestinian leaders Nizar Rayan and Sa'eed Siyam. For their part, the IOF troops, in the context of its security coordination with Abbas's militias, kidnapped on the same day two Palestinian citizens released from the Palestinian authority's jails.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m...

PA releases 13 more Hamas detainees in Qalqiliya
The Palestinian General Intelligence Service has released 13 Hamas members from prison in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya over the last three days, a security source told Ma'an. The source said the release came in accordance with President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to release 200 Hamas detainees from Palestinian Authority custody in the West Bank. The Preventive Security Service in Qalqilia released 12 detainees on Sunday while the Military Intelligence Service released five on Monday bringing the overall number of detainees released in Qalqiliya to 30.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221539

Egyptian police arrest man on Israel border near Gaza
Egyptian border police arrested a young man on Tuesday morning attempting to illegally enter Israel south of the Gaza Strip, Egyptian security sources said. The sources asserted that the potential border-crosser surrendered after police fired warning shots in the air. The arrestee was identified as a 20-year-old from the Ash-Sharqiya region who was working in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and Gaza. According to an investigation the young man was trying to get into Israel to look for work
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221421

Siege

400 patients in ICU facing death due to ongoing siege
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip voiced an appeal to human rights groups and international heath organizations to intervene in order to allow the entry of medications and medical equipment into the Gaza Strip, especially as 400 patients are in critical condition. The Ministry added that it needs several medications and medical equipment, especially special liquids and formulas used in dialysis procedures. Hundreds of medical machines are not functioning as the need spare parts not found in Gaza.
http://imemc.org/article/61472

Israel opens two Gaza crossings
Palestinian crossings official Raed Fattouh said that the Kerem Shalom crossing will be open for 81 to 91 trucks carrying goods including food. The Nahal Oz terminal will also be open for fuel, including cooking gas, he said. Karni crossing, formerly the main portal for deliveries of goods, will be closed, Fattouh said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221356

ReliefWeb: The naughty boys of Gaza
GAZA (ACT) - Why are the boys so naughty in Gaza? Why are people screaming at night? What is wrong with the pregnant women? The war is over in Gaza, the rebuilding is slowly on its way, but still people are traumatized after the Israeli attack at the beginning of the year. ACT International now assists the population with treatment for their panic, fear and distress. It is the new supplement to people in crisis, psychosocial programs.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/DKAN-7V8LZS?OpenDocument&RS...

Al Jazeera video: Gaza children head back to school
Gaza's children are starting a new school year, but Israel's blockade and its January war on the territory mean many are doing so without adequate supplies. Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from one school in Gaza where classes are resuming.
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/al-jazeera-video-gaza-chil...

On the light side - but with certain home truths - Smoothies in Gaza: in defiance of nature and the siege
Now that I have been trapped in the Gaza Strip and I am determined to make smoothies here. As you know people in Gaza lose their jobs, loved ones and even their lives in a matter of seconds, but that does not mean I have to lose my mojo. Here are a few challenges to my plan: Problem One, frozen fruits have not gone mainstream in Gaza....
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/08/smoothies-in-gaza-in-defiance-of-nature...

Movement restriction

West Bank visitors can get visas if they visit Israel, too
The Interior Ministry promised the Tourism Ministry last week that tourists who declare that they intend to enter only the Palestinian Authority will have their passports stamped "Palestinian Authority only," while tourists who declare they intend to visit both Israel and the Palestinian Authority will have their passports stamped with a regular B2 tourist visa, according to an internal memo from a senior Tourism Ministry official. The memo, written in English, was circulated on August 20 by Tourism Ministry senior deputy director general Raphael Ben-Hur to senior ministry officials.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109608.html

Solidarity / Boycotts

British chef: Don't buy West Bank produce
(JTA) -- A prominent British chef has called for a boycott of Israeli products from West Bank settlements. Joanna Blythman, also a popular food journalist, recently called on retailers and importers not to buy goods from Jewish communities in the West Bank, the London Jewish Chronicle reported. '[Produce] grown on Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory... the fruit and vegetables grown there amount to stolen goods," Blythman wrote in an article published in a food magazine. "The only clear and honest wording appropriate is ‘from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.'"
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/08/25/1007440/british-chef-dont-buy-wes...

Come demonstrate with us
By Dr. Dafna Golan. It's a shame Gal Uchovsky is not taking part in the demonstrations in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. It's always a pleasure to see him, and if he took part, he would see that, compared to the handful of Israelis who come to protest the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes so Jews can live there, his rally in honor of the dead and wounded at the Tel Aviv gay and lesbian center was a great success. If the tens of thousands of people who gathered at Rabin Square were to march through the small neighborhood in the heart of Jerusalem, maybe the expulsion of the Palestinian families would stop, as would the construction in that neighborhood of a new Jewish settlement, perhaps the most dangerous of all.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109900.html

Neturei Karta ideology alive and kicking
Innocent booklet in her mailbox by Neturei Karta compels Tali Farkash to explain to her son truth about the 'evil Zionists.' Neturei Karta - Aramaic for protectors of the city - spread their ideology to impressionable children as they continue their hundred-year-old struggle against Zionism
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766918,00.html

Free Gaza Movement arrives in Veracruz, Mexico
During the past 10 days, I have brought the message of Free Gaza Movement to Veracruz, Mexico. I have given a total of 4 Palestine related lectures to different groups of Mexican family practice resident physicians in the State's two largest cities: Xalapa and Puerto de Veracruz (Veracruz Port).
http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1062-free-gaza-movement-arrives-...

Political developments

US says nearing renewal of Israel-Palestinian talks
The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday that its Middle East envoys are approaching an agreement on renewing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority ... In his meeting with Mitchell, Netanyahu is expected to stress that Israel will not accept limits on its sovereignty in Jerusalem, in particular in relation to building new housing units in the city. A central focus of the meeting will be the U.S. demand to receive an Israeli "deposit" for freezing settlement construction, in order to prompt a similar gesture from Arab states on taking steps towards normalizing relations with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109887.html

PM heads to Europe with backing for settlement freeze
Behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's optimistic statement suggesting peace talks with the Palestinians may reignite by the end of September, is the apparent silent assurance that Yisrael Beiteinu chair and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will not extract his party from the coalition in the event Israel complies with the US demand to halt all settlement expansion. Should Netanyahu have to force the narrow cabinet forum to make a decision on the matter, and with Lieberman abstained on the vote, he would have a majority of four.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766047,00.html

Netanyahu close to deal with Hamas to free Shalit
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is close to concluding a deal with Hamas to free abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, Haaretz has learned. ... Palestinian commentators said Hamas now appears interested in signing a deal: Hamas needs an achievement, given its defeat in the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip in January, Gaza's stalled rehabilitation and especially its diminishing status versus Fatah in Palestinian public opinion. The biggest potential breakthrough for Hamas would be a deal freeing 450 prisoners jailed for severe crimes, whom Fatah has so far failed to get released.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109979.html

Zahhar heads Hamas delegation to Cairo
Al-Arish - Hamas leaders left the Gaza Strip on their way to Cairo on Tuesday for a new round of talks regarding Palestinian national unity. The delegation, led by senior official Mahmoud Zahhar, will meet with Egyptian security officials to determine the fate of negotiations with the rival Fatah movement.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221524

Hamas says Germany helps in Israel prisoner talks
GAZA, Aug 25 (Reuters) - German involvement in mediation over an Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap has advanced the negotiations but a breakthrough is not imminent, Hamas said on Tuesday ... Keen to atone for its Holocaust history, Germany has been a stalwart ally of the Jewish state and in 2004 and 2008 helped negotiate sensitive Israeli-Lebanese prisoner swaps.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LP255227.htm

Fayyad to the Times: 'Palestinian state to be established within two years'
Palestinian Prime Minister, Dr. Salaam Fayyad, stated in an interview with the Times in London, that the Palestinian Authority wants to establish a de-facto Palestinian state within two years, regardless of the failing peace talks.
http://imemc.org/article/61478

PNC invites its members for unusual meeting on August 26
RAMALLAH: Speaker of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) announced Monday that he has invited 500 PNC members for a two-day unusual session in the West Bank city of Ramallah on August 26. Salim al-Za'noon, speaker of the PNC, or parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told a news conference here that the invited PNC members include 73 Islamic Hamas lawmakers. "The 500 PNC members are living in 30 countries, half of them are in the Gaza Strip," said al-Za'noon, hoping that Hamas rulers of the enclave will not ban their travel to the West Bank to join the PNC meetings.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-08/25/content_8610163.htm

Fatah

Fatah elects Erekat, Qureia to PLO leadership
Fatah's Central Committee has elected peace negotiators Ahmad Qureia and Saeb Erekat to represent the party on the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). These decisions were made at a meeting on Monday night.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221445

Six candidates vying for 11 seats on PLO executive committee
Members of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will meet in Ramallah on Wednesday to elect new members of the PLO's Executive Committee.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221299

Hamas

Israeli TV broadcasts footage of Hamas men executing rebels
Channel 10 and Channel 2 TV on Monday broadcast video that appeared to show Hamas forces killing Gaza rebels believed to be part of an extremist group during an armed confrontation earlier this month. The video of the Aug. 15 clash shows what appears to be black-clad Hamas militants firing at rebels pinned in a mosque courtyard and mowing them own during a fierce exchange of fire. In two scenes, Hamas militants appeared to be executing captives by gunfire at close range ... The stations said the blurred, jumpy video was taken by cell phone from across the street. Channel 2 said Hamas rival Fatah distributed the video. Channel 10 also broadcast a recording of what it said was the Hamas military communication channel, ordering Hamas forces to execute everyone. There was no immediate comment from Hamas officials.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109786.html

Palestinian refugees

US contributes USD1.22 million to support UNRWA assistance to Palestinian refugees from Iraq
The United States Government has contributed US$957,000 toward the Agency's cash assistance programme for Palestinian Iraqi refugees in Damascus, and US$266,000 to complete the reconstruction of the UNRWA Community Development Centre in Yarmouk Camp.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JBRN-7V8DBM?OpenDocument&RS...

Lebanon: Shattered camp revives under military eyes
By Ray Smith. NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, Aug 25 (IPS) - Palestinian refugees at Nahr Al-Bared in North Lebanon are living under tight military siege two years after a war destroyed the refugee camp. It has now become a test case for a new approach in Lebanon's security policy towards Palestinian refugee camps..
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/lebanon-shattered-camp-rev...

Other news

Real News video: Israelis restrict Palestinians' water supply
"After World Bank issues report, commissioned by the Palestinian Authority on the condition of water accessibility in the West Bank, Israel claims the reports authors are biased. To understand the conditions on the ground, how they've been addressed, and whether the so-called peace process succeeded in addressing them, The Real News speaks to LifeSource Project, a non-profit organization focusing solely on the issue of water...
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/real-news-video-israelis-r...

Bethlehem University students strike over aid, admissions policies
Student leaders at Bethlehem University in the West Bank threatened to "escalate" a strike over financial aid on Tuesday. The strike means that students refuse to attend classes. The Student Senate has also banned professors from teaching.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221510

Ramadan SMS messages flourish in Gaza
On the eve of Ramadan and during the first and second days, hundreds of thousands of messages were sent through the mobile phones of Gaza residents to their relatives and friends on the holy occasion.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/24/content_11932766.htm

Israel

Geophysical Institute of Israel to perform a 'controlled explosion' in the Negev
The Geophysical Institute of Israel (GII) is planning to detonate 80 tons of explosives on Wednesday in a controlled underground explosion in the Negev to study airwaves and earthquake effects. The controlled explosion is part of some experiments on the cosmographical systems; other European and Mediterranean countries would be performing the tests to examine certain effects of earthquakes. The artificial earthquake that would result from the test would be similar to a 3-degree earthquake on the Richter scale.
http://imemc.org/article/61477

Israel's main source of water faces dire shortage
The Water Authority has instructed Mekorot, the national water company, to pump only 132 million cubic meters of water from Lake Kinneret [or Sea of Galilee] this year - about one quarter of the annual average, sources in the agriculture sector said. This would be the smallest amount pumped from the Kinneret since the National Water Carrier went into service in 1964.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109874.html

FM: Cadets' course demands essence of democracy
Following the political storm caused by the Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's demand that anyone who has not served in the Israel Defense Forces or completed national service should not be eligible to take part in the Foreign Ministry's cadets' course, sources from his office said Monday evening this should not stop anyone from becoming a cadet ... Sources say the foreign minister wishes to encourage members of the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors interested in working in the Foreign Service to at least commit to national service, if not full military service, just like any Israel citizen.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766631,00.html

Slave labor
Agricultural firm Katif Venture and Development Ltd. may grow environmentally friendly produce, but when it comes to their treatment of workers, their practices, it appears, are anything but friendly. Last week, the company and two of its managers were charged with severe maltreatment of 12 foreign workers from Thailand that they employed.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418678799&pagename=JPost%...

Ministry to fine schools that deny Ethiopian students
The Education Ministry sent letters yesterday to the principals of three private religious schools in Petah Tikva indicating which students of Ethiopian origin they must accept. Sources close to the case said the ministry will likely wait until the weekend for the students to be registered, before imposing sanctions should the schools fail to comply ... Meanwhile, parents in the city threatened yesterday to bring the school system to a standstill for the beginning of the academic year next week unless the schools agree to accept the students.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109882.html

'What does it matter that we're black?'
At 8:45 A.M., Balta Zalka stood outside the Da'at Mevinim private religious school in Petah Tikva, waiting for a government official to confirm that his two daughters would indeed study there this year, as the municipality had promised. He was disappointed. ... Private religious schools in Petah Tikva said this year they would not accept the students assigned by the municipality, and would enroll only those they felt were a good fit ... At each school - Da'at Mevinim, Darkei Noam and Merhav - the principal failed to show up, each for a different reason.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109883.html

Organ theft controversy

Sweden newspaper editor: I'm not a Nazi, I'm not anti-Semitic
The editor-in-chief of the Swedish newspaper that printed an article alleging that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to harvest their organs denied accusations on Monday that he was anti-Semitic. "I'm not a Nazi," Jan Helin, the chief editor at the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, wrote in a blog entry on Monday. "I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm the editor-in-chief who has allowed the publication of a culture article because it asked a number of relevant questions."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109784.html

Shoah survivor: Swedes are the ones who saved me
Golda Zandman, 89, who arrived in Sweden after Holocaust, finds it difficult to understand Lieberman's remarks against Scandinavian country. Yad Vashem historian: Foreign minister's statements inaccurate
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3766072,00.html

Body snatchers are back
Commmentator Israel Shamir, a Russian-Jewish convert to Russian Orthodox, is a long-time resident of Israel. In this article, he expands on a Swedish reporter's documentation of organ-harvesting by Israelis.
http://intifada-palestine.com/2009/08/24/body-snatchers-are-back/

Baseless organ theft accusations will not bring Israel to justice
By Matthew Cassel. Baseless organ theft accusations are a propaganda gift for Israel, and deflect attention from its well-documented war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ... The problem is not that [Bostrom] is accusing the State of Israel of wrongdoing, but that he is making accusations of what would amount to extremely serious war crimes while providing absolutely no evidence to support his claims.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10730.shtml

Israel cries wolf over 'blood libel'
By Seth Freedman. A Swedish report about supposed organ-harvesting by troops in the West Bank isn't antisemitic - it's just bad journalism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/24/israel-blood-libel-a...

Israel vs. Scandinavia
To most, Scandinavian countries are progressive and idyllic, even if frozen, places that offer little controversy and tall, pretty blondes of all genders. They are known for politically inclusive systems that welcome asylees and treat immigrants well with their generous social welfare systems. This past week, however, two of them fell afoul of Israel, and have become the center of the country's latest international relations assaults.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/08/israel-vs-scandinvia.html

Op-Ed / Analysis

The pitfalls of Palestinian national consciousness
By Haidar Eid. The sixth congress of the Fatah movement, held in Bethlehem earlier this month, gave us a front row seat to the closing act of an important period of Palestinian nationalism. True, the conference was held on Palestinian soil, but, ironically, under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers. The failure of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fatah) to achieve any of its declared goals was symbolized in its holding the conference under occupation. This reflects not only the demise of Fatah -- the faction that dominated the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for decades -- but the general demise of contemporary Palestinian nationalism.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10728.shtml

This week in Lieberman
Scandinavia has kept Israel's sidelined foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, uncharacteristically busy this week. Pausing for a moment his daylong tirades against Sweden on Sunday, Lieberman accused Norway of promoting anti-Semitism for marking the birthday of a "pro-Nazi" author ... Meanwhile, and as per usual, Lieberman's would-be natural allies urged him to calm down ... In keeping with his week-long attacks on the free press, and displaying an attitude toward journalism more characteristic of his native former Soviet Union, Lieberman sicced his cronies on the oldest newspaper in Israel, dispatching aides to all of a sudden discover Haaretz' plan to undermine the country's democracy.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=219056

Another brick in the wall
By Nir Hasson. After the momentous album "The Wall" came out in 1980, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd managed to combine music with a historic event centering around a wall - or, more precisely, the destruction of one - when he appeared where the Berlin Wall once stood, just months after its dismantlement. Now he is appears as narrator and as the main figure in "Walled Horizons," a new documentary film prepared by the United Nations about the separation fence in the West Bank. "When you stand in front of something like that," said Waters in a telephone interview to Haaretz earlier this month, in reference to the barrier, "it feels not just monumentally inhuman, but also slightly not real. It feels as though it's a projection of some kind of an illness.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109640.html

Israel: A stalemated action of history
By Gabriel Kolko. In late 1949 I worked on a boat taking Jews from Marseilles to Haifa, Israel. Jews from Arab nations were in the front of the boat, Europeans in the rear. ... I understood very early that there was much amiss in the countless Arab villages and homes I saw destroyed, and that the entire Zionist project - regardless of the often venal nature of the Arab opposition to it - was a dangerous sham.
http://www.counterpunch.org/kolko08252009.html

Book review: The End of the Affair by Haggai Ram
Haggai Ram's provocative, even ‘blasphemous' study confronts the ‘logic' - or illogic - of Israel's ‘obsession' with the Islamic republic. An Israeli historian of Iran who is tied to neither the defense establishment nor intelligence community - a rare commodity - Ram is well positioned to place Israeli-Iranian relations in context, to dismantle persistent mythologies, and to even suggest that Israel's worst nightmares are rooted deeper within its own changing society and polity than in Iran's aggressive intentions or capabilities
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-m...

Boycott - the sane response to Israeli apartheid
By Naomi Idrissi. UK, August 24, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) - The movement to boycott Israel is becoming respectable. In Europe and America as well as in the Middle East and many parts of the developing world, people of conscience - including many Jews - are rejecting anti-Arab prejudice and Zionist mythology and seeing Israel for what it is - an ethnocentric state which deserves to be ostracised just as South Africa was ostracised during the apartheid era. Groups like mine - Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods - support the call made by nearly 200 Palestinian civil society organisations in 2005 for a broad campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions, including an institutional academic and cultural boycott, until Israel respects Palestinian human rights and abides by international law.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/1984-boycott-the-sane-re...

Humility, humiliation and hope in Jerusalem and the West Bank
By Mohsin Mohi-Ud-Din. Humility. In the Golden City of Jerusalem, humility drifted in my ears and made my soul shiver at sunset, as I looked out at the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, hearing the most beautiful azaan (Arab-Muslim call to prayer). I submitted body and mind at the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site in Islam. I prayed towards Mecca under the very spot where Mohammed ascended to heaven
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mohsin-mohiud-din/humility-humiliation-and...

Palestinians can relate to 'Inglourious Basterds'
...srael's formation was justified by the Holocaust and little matter was it that the Palestinians were not Nazis. Only retroactively have pro-Israel propagandists tried to portray a meeting between Hitler and a Palestinian leader into the equivalent of full-blown collaboration and partnership (they shared an enemy in the British, who ruled Palestine as a colonial mandate, which the Palestinians opposed). This is the ultimate difference between powerful victims, such as Jews, and powerless victims, such as Palestinians. (The only threat to this imbalance is international solidarity, I should add. And I would like to see it in the form of mainstream Hollywood films portraying the plight of the Palestinians.)
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/08/palestinians-can-relate-to-inglourious-...

Video: Israel's terror inside
Above is a trailer for an upcoming documentary from Max Blumenthal and the exciting new website The Daily Nuisance. It is the culmination of the work that Blumenthal and others have been doing to cover an important story not being told in the press here in the US - Israel's repression towards dissent and its non-Jewish citizens.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/08/israels-terror-inside.html

Why it is essential for Jews to speak out as Jews on Israel
By Philip Weiss. Whether we like it or not, as Jewish Americans we are in the middle of this mess. Not only do our taxes pay for the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but our very bodies have been appropriated by Israel, which claims to speak for Jews everywhere. Certainly it can be said this is an American issue-which of course it is-and certainly religion and ethnicity can be tiresome and traditional. But I think the end result of taking this position and not supporting a Jewish voice against the occupation would abrogate our responsibility to resist injustice and would, in fact, hurt the anti-occupation struggle.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/08/why-it-is-essential-for-jews-to-speak-out-...

Iraq

Monday: 15 Iraqis killed, 25 wounded
Excerpt: A major political development is shaking Iraq almost as much as today's multiple blasts in Wassit province. Shi'ite political parties are realigning themselves against the Prime Minister's party ahead of January elections. Meanwhile, at least 15 Iraqis were killed and 25 were wounded. Most were injured in a pair of bus bombings in Wassit province, where security measures were immediately tightened. Also, a U.S. family has learned that their soldier son's death in Iraq may have been triggered by abuse from fellow soldiers.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2009/08/24/monday-15-iraqis-killed-2...

Qaeda-linked group claims bloody Baghdad attack
BAGHDAD, Aug 25 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks last week that killed almost 100 people in Baghdad, according to a statement posted on a website used by Islamic insurgents.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LP280550.htm

Iraq withdraws Syria envoy after deadly attacks
Iraq on Tuesday ordered its ambassador to Damascus to return home and demanded that Syria hand over two senior Baathist leaders alleged to have ordered a deadly truck bombing in Baghdad.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/08/25/82874.html

Iraq suspends decision to pull down blast walls
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - After bomb attacks killed almost 100 people last week in Baghdad, officials have suspended a decision to remove many of the towering blast walls girding the Iraqi capital, a security official said on Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090825/wl_nm/us_iraq_walls

Baghdad bombing leaves hole in diplomatic corps
Iraq's Foreign Ministry saw 10 percent of its staff killed or injured. Foreign minister blames systemic security breaches for last week's assault.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0824/p06s01-wome.html

Kurdistan oil strike delivers barrels by the million
Gulf Keystone Petroleum may have found up to six times as much oil in Iraqi Kurdistan as it originally thought, making its oil strike the second multibillion barrel discovery in the region this year.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090825/BUSINESS/7...

Dancing by the waves, Iraqis forget war for a day
LAKE HABBANIYA, Iraq - A few hours outside Baghdad in the middle of Iraq's vast western desert is a sight that could understandably be mistaken for a mirage: a long, sandy beach filled with thousands of people swimming and dancing barefoot under the hot sun without apparent care.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/middleeast/24habbaniya.html

Plastic surgeons give Anbar victims new lease on life
By Uthman al-Mukhtar in Fallujah. The scar that ran along the left side of Noor Ali's face was a daily reminder of a time - and a life - that she wanted to forget. Ali, 28, was sitting next to a window in her house two years ago when a car bomb exploded outside, hurling shards of glass at her and leaving a wound that stretched from her eye to her neck. After the incident, she was stared at, mocked and pitied by friends and strangers and her fiancé broke up with her. She could not get a job, and wore a scarf to shield her face. Last week, Ali underwent surgery that has removed 90 per cent of her scar.
http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=l=EN&p=icr&s=f&o=35536...

Other Mideast

Aid groups seek access to 150,000 in Yemen conflict
(Reuters) * Fighting spreads, hampers aid for 150,000 displaced people * Aid agencies see risk of malaria, diarrhoeal diseases * Yemen government may open humanitarian corridor, U.N. says
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LP353652.htm

Saudi Arabia frees 17 Shi'ite political inmates
RIYADH, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Monday freed 17 political inmates from the Ismaili community who had been jailed since 2000, sources said, in a new sign of easing tensions with the minority group based near the Yemen border ... Ismaili Shi'ites, a majority in the Najran area but a minority in mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia, have long complained of discrimination and poor living standards.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LO627137.htm

Saudi woman's abuse case reflects deference to custom
When Lulwah Abdul Rahman protested against her father's rejection of all would-be husbands because they were from outside her tribe, her life and career in Saudi Arabia were shattered. He locked her in the family home, revoked her right to work and beat her ... Ms Abdul Rahman is stuck. While Islam grants women legal and financial independence, Saudi customs permit men to deny basic opportunities to women.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/50fcb956-910e-11de-bc99-00144feabdc0.html?ncli...

Yahoo buys Maktoob
Yahoo, the US internet company, says it has signed a deal to buy Maktoob, the largest web portal in the Middle East. The purchase will expand Yahoo's reach to millions of consumers across the Arab world. The acquisition on Tuesday marks the first major buy by a US portal company in the Arab region.
http://english.aljazeera.net//business/2009/08/2009825112728894565.html

U.S.

US viewers take note: On [US TV] tonight, wall elegy in Jerusalem
The imposing security wall being erected in East Jersusalem, is causing havoc at the Catholic-run Our Lady of Sorrows Nursing Home, where residents are fed up with politics and the problems the barrier creates in connecting the largely Palestinian Christian residents with their beloved workers. In Georgi Lazarevski's affecting film "This Way Up," making its debut this week on "P.O.V." some characters especially stand out, particularly an impish man with a stocking cap named Jad, and an older woman who extracts pleasure from cigarettes and the company of workers, who have a harder and harder time sneaking into work, having to cross through holes in the uncompleted walls or traverse them on ladders.
http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/2009/08/on-tonight-wall-ele...

Determining US political leaders - from Israel
(WMR) -- A high-level Democratic congressional source has told WMR that in 2004 the Democratic National Committee outsourced a contract to an Israeli-linked firm to count the votes in the critical Iowa caucus. The caucus, in which John Kerry placed first, John Edwards finished second, and Howard Dean came in third, effectively spelled the end of the Dean campaign.
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5046.shtml

Obama to continue 'renditions'
The White House has admitted that Barack Obama's government will continue the previous administration's practice of sending terrorism suspects to other countries for detention and interrogation. But Obama administration officials told the New York Times on Monday that the treatment of suspects will be monitored to ensure that they are not tortured.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2009/08/200982515611934234.h...

Youssef Megahed freed after immigration judge throws out government's deportation case
"A Florida immigration judge on Friday dismissed the government's deportation case against Youssef Megahed and released him from the detention center in South Florida where he had spent the last four months. Youssef was arrested by federal immigration agents outside a Wal-Mart in Tampa this April, just three days after a jury acquitted him on federal explosives charges. We speak to Youssef, in his first extended broadcast interview since his release, and with his attorney, Charles Kuck......."
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/youssef-megahed-freed-afte...

US sends Guantanamo detainee to Afghanistan - lawyer
Aug 24 (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday released a detainee from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to his home in Afghanistan, the latest departure from the controversial prison which is set to close in five months. Mohammed Jawad was accused of throwing a grenade that injured two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul in 2002. Jawad, one of the youngest prisoners held at the facility, was now with his family in Kabul, according to his lawyer Air Force Major David Frakt.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WBT013073.htm

After 6+ years at Guantanamo, Mohammed Jawad returns home
Listen/Watch - A young Afghan prisoner has returned to Afghanistan following his release from Guantanamo Bay. Mohamed Jawad arrived in Kabul on Monday.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/25/after_6_years_at_guantanamo_mohamm...

Guantanamo's 'more evil twin'?
It is a US-run prison built from scratch on an US military base to hold "enemy combatants" captured in the so-called "war on terror". Those imprisoned there have never been charged with a crime, nor do they have any meaningful way of challenging their detention. The inmates allege abuse at the hands of their captors, ranging from sleep deprivation to brutal beatings. And no, it is not Guantanamo Bay.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/200981813114632353.html

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