Haniyeh: Hamas will not accept less than end to blockade

[Jefferson23]

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday said that the Palestinians would not accept anything less than an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza, as Israeli forces continued to attack the besieged enclave.

Haniyeh accused Israel of using negotiations as a cover for their crimes and said it must accept the "fair demands" made by the Palestinian delegation, adding that Hamas would not accept anything less than an end to Israel's assault and the seven-year blockade.

Palestinians have demanded in indirect negotiations in Cairo that Israel end its eight-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has crippled the tiny coastal enclave's economy and led to widespread suffering, as well as re-open an airport and seaport, among other demands.

Haniyeh urged Egypt to hold Israel responsible for crimes committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, adding that Israel is responsible for the collapse of the indirect ceasefire talks in Cairo.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=722524

[Jefferson23]

1. snip* The distinguished human rights lawyer Raji Sourani:

who has remained in Gaza through years of Israeli brutality and terror, writes that “The most common sentence I heard when people began to talk about ceasefire: everybody says it's better for all of us to die and not go back to the situation we used to have before this war. We don't want that again. We have no dignity, no pride; we are just soft targets, and we are very cheap. Either this situation really improves or it is better to just die. I am talking about intellectuals, academics, ordinary people: everybody is saying that.”

Similar sentiments have been widely heard: it is better to die with dignity than to be slowly strangled by the torturer.



For Gaza, the plans for the norm were explained forthrightly by Dov Weissglass, the confidant of Ariel Sharon who negotiated the withdrawal of Israeli settlers from Gaza in 2005. Hailed as a grand gesture in Israel and among acolytes and the deluded elsewhere, the withdrawal was in reality a carefully staged “national trauma,” properly ridiculed by informed Israeli commentators, among them Israel’s leading sociologist, the late Baruch Kimmerling.

What actually happened is that Israeli hawks, led by Sharon, realized that it made good sense to transfer the illegal settlers from their subsidized communities in devastated Gaza to subsidized settlements in the other occupied territories, which Israel intends to keep. But instead of simply transferring them, as would have been simple enough, it was considered more effective to present the world with images of little children pleading with soldiers not to destroy their homes, amidst cries of “Never Again,” with the implication obvious. What made the farce even more transparent was that it was a replica of the staged trauma when Israel had to evacuate the Egyptian Sinai in 1982. But it played very well for the intended audience abroad.

remainder: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20140814.htm

[Jefferson23]

2. Sales of Israeli goods in West Bank down 50% due to boycott

RAMALLAH, West Bank — In a convenience store in Ramallah, Muhammad Ali, 9, asked his mother to buy him some juice, but told her, “I do not want an Israeli one.” When Al-Monitor asked him why, he replied, “Because they are killing the children in Gaza.”

This child may not be aware that there are thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who are currently boycotting Israeli products in response to public and youth campaigns. There are posters calling for the boycott everywhere in the West Bank.

It is not yet clear what impact this will have on either the Israeli or Palestinian economy, but analysts and campaign organizers say this is not just about economy. Khaled Mansour, a leading activist in the boycott and a member of the Palestinian People’s Party, believes that “this should be a way of living in Palestinian society.” Birzeit University academic and economic analyst Naser Abdul Kareem said, “The campaigns to boycott Israeli products go beyond the economic repercussions because this is a patriotic and moral duty that contributes, even if only partially, in eliminating the economic dependence on Israel.”

The head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Oula Awad, told Al-Monitor that the effects of the boycott campaigns have not yet appeared in the official data. She said more than 70% of Palestinian imports come from Israel or through it.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/west-bank-economic-boycott-israeli-products.html#ixzz3B8Oyt4J4

[Jefferson23]

3. Gaza rocket hits Israeli synagogue, wounds three

Reuters

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: A rocket fired from Gaza hit a synagogue in the Israeli city of Ashdod Friday, wounding three people, police said.


"There is damage at the scene and a number of people were injured by shrapnel," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The attack came shortly before evening prayers ahead of the Jewish Sabbath. Ashdod is around 30 km (20 miles) from Gaza.

Hamas and other militant groups fired more than two dozen rockets into Israel on Friday, injuring two other people, with no signs of a let up in the six-week war.

Israel carried out 25 air strikes on Gaza, killing four people, Gaza health officials said.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Aug-22/268137-gaza-rocket-hits-israeli-synagogue-wounds-three.ashx#ixzz3B8PkCeZz
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

[Jefferson23]

4. Israel, Settlements and the ICC (Part 1/2) Analysis

By Manuel Langendorf , Abul-Hasanat Siddique and Norman Finkelstein
• August 21, 2014

With illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land, why has Israel not been held accountable?

After wars in 2008-09 and in 2012, Israel has once again bombarded Gaza in a land, sea and air military campaign. Thousands of rockets from Hamas and other Palestinian factions have been fired at Israel, the vast majority of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.

The war remains on a knife edge as only fragile ceasefires have been enforced, while both parties shuttle back and forth to Cairo for talks. Over 2,035 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, while Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians.

In this interview, Fair Observer’s Manuel Langendorf and Abul-Hasanat Siddique speak to Norman Finkelstein, a writer, scholar and activist on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Finkelstein is the author of nine books, including Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit’s Promised Land. In part one, they discuss the Gaza conflict, the Israeli lobby and the American Jewish community.

Abul-Hasanat Siddique: In your book, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, you mention the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon as the starting point of your research into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What was it that inspired you to follow the region?

in full:http://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/norman-finkelstein-israel-settlements-and-the-icc-02734/

[Jefferson23]

5. How many Palestinian civilians is a single militant worth?

On the night of August 5, Gaza’s Interior and National Security Ministry posted a comment on its Facebook page decrying the damage caused by publishing names and photographs of “resistance fighters who fell in battle” (shahids), along with information on where they died.

The Israeli military spokesman seized on this comment as a smoking gun: proof that Hamas was deliberately concealing militant fatalities to boost the apparent numbers of civilians killed.

The Israel Defense Forces cannot refute the images of dead women and children that are broadcast abroad, so instead the army is trying to construct a narrative proving that its targets — and the aftermath of its attacks — are legitimate.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center is a vital partner in constructing this narrative. The center, which is checking the name of each Palestinian said killed in the Gaza fighting (it has gotten to 450 so far), estimates that some 46 percent of them are “terrorist operatives.” This figure may change in accordance with further investigation.

The center’s lists are accompanied by photographs of posters and death notices of some of the militants. Each name is marked “non-involved,” “unidentified” or “terrorist operative.” The source for the information of each person’s “involvement” is not mentioned, apart from operatives whose photograph appears in death notices or public reports of the militant organization to which he belonged.

Hamas’ military wing has released few of the names of its own operatives, though it did announce the deaths of the senior military leaders who had been on Israel’s wanted list for many years: Raed Attar, Mohammed Abu Shamaleh and Mohammed Barhoum, who were assassinated in Gaza this week. If concealing the names of fatalities is really part of Hamas’ propaganda strategy, a way of forging a counter-narrative to that of the IDF, then it contradicts the deep Palestinian and Hamas ethos of pride over those who were killed fighting the Zionist enemy.

“Even if Hamas had decided to hide the names of its fallen combatants and their numbers for a long time, the families wouldn’t agree,” a veteran Hamas activist told Haaretz.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.611924

[Jefferson23]

6. "Gaza in our Hearts": NYC Protesters Hang Palestinian Flag from Manhattan Bridge (Photos)

8/21/2014

On Wednesday, Protesters in New York City unfurled a massive Palestinian flag with the words "Gaza in our hearts. Boycott. Divestment. Sanctions" from the Manhattan Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Manhattan. The banner drop came as demonstrators marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.

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http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/8/21/photos_nyc_protesters_hang_palestinian_flag

[Jefferson23]

7. Despite Renewed Attacks, Israel No Closer to Defeating Palestinian Resistance

+972's Samer Badawi reports that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza remain steadfast in their resistance of Israeli occupation, and UCLA's Gabriel Piterberg says that despite the escalating levels of violence, Israel is no closer to its goal of defeating Palestinian political and military resistance - August 21, 14

#t=0

Bio

Gabriel Piterberg is a professor of history and director of G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near East Studies. He writes and teaches on the Ottoman Empire, and on settler colonialism and Zionism. Piterberg writes for New Left Review and London Review of Books. Piterberg published, among other things, An Ottoman Tragedy (2003) and The Returns of Zionism (2008).

Samer Badawi is a regular contributor to +972, a web magazine that is jointly owned by a group of journalists, bloggers and photographers whose goal is to provide fresh, original, on-the-ground reporting and analysis of events in Israel and Palestine. Previously, he served as Executive Director of United Palestinian Appeal and a director at the Welfare Association, the largest Palestinian NGO working in the occupied territories.

Transcript

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12269

[Jefferson23]

8. Gaza Cease-Fire Extended, but What's Needed for a Just Solution to the Conflict?

Amnesty International's Deborah Hyams talks about being blocked from carrying out an independent investigation of the most recent assault on Gaza, and author Vijay Prashad discusses the latest developments in the Palestinian liberation struggle - August 20, 14

Bio

Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College. He is the author of sixteen books, including The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2013), Arab Spring, Libyan Winter (AK, 2012) and (co-edited with Paul Amar) Dispatches from the Arab Spring (2013). He writes regularly for The Hindu, Frontline, Jadaliyya, Counterpunch, Himal and Bol.

Transcript

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12262&updaterx=2014-08-20+08%3A38%3A18

#t=0

[Jefferson23]

9. Ontario university students' union joins BDS

Organization representing 300,000 students in Canadian province passes motion unanimously.

By Haaretz | Aug. 22, 2014 | 2:31 PM



The Canadian Federation of Student's Ontario branch decided to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel in its annual general meeting last weekend.

The branch, which represents over 300,000 university students in the province of Ontario, has passed the decision unanimously, said executive member Anna Goldfinch.

The resolution "endorses a number of solidarity tactics that have been called for by Palestinian civil society," Goldfinch told the Canadian Press.

Rajean Hoilett, the president of the Ryerson Students' Union, which put the resolution forward, urged schools in the province to not "remain complicit" with "Israeli war crimes."

However, Hoilett also told the Canadian Press that the students' union will hold several panels where students will be able to voice dissenting opinions.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.611948

[Jefferson23]

10. 4-year-old Israeli child killed by mortar fire in Negev

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A four-year-old Israeli child was killed after mortar fire struck two cars in Sdot Negev region of southern Israel on Friday afternoon.

The Israeli military told Ma'an that the child was killed amid a barrage of rockets from Gaza, which also hit a number of cities across southern and central Israel.

Israeli sources said that two cars caught fire and burned as a result of the shell.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that the child was killed in Nahal Oz in Shaar HaNegev, but a later military statement said that the child died in neighboring Sdot Negev.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=722541

[Jefferson23]

11. Israeli airstrikes kill 5 Palestinians in Gaza

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Airstrikes killed five Palestinians in Gaza early Friday as Israel's military assault on the besieged enclave continued.

Yassin Hamed Abu Hamda and Mahmoud Qashlan were killed by strikes in al-Nuseirat refugee camp while Mahmoud Talaat Shreiteh, 14, and Bashir Ahmad Shreiteh, 35, were killed in central Gaza.

Moussa Ahmad al-Abadla, 23, was killed and two others injured when Israel targeted the al-Qarara neighborhood in Khan Younis.

Israel's air-force targeted an apartment in the al-Sheikh Zayed towers in Jabalia, storehouses in Rafah, a concrete producing workshop in central Gaza and a poultry farm.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=722481

[Jefferson23]

12. Thousands march in funeral of 3 Hamas commanders

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Thousands of Palestinians marched in the funerals of three Hamas leaders and seven members of the Kallab and Younis families in Rafah on Thursday, as Israel continued to pound Gaza throughout the day.

Representatives and members of a wide variety of Palestinian political factions marched in the funerals, which set off from al-Awdah Mosque in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

In addition to the three Hamas commanders Muhammad Abu Shammala, Raed al-Attar and Muhammad Barhoum that were killed in Israeli airstrikes, Hasan Hussein Younis, 75, his wife Amal Ibrahim Younis, Ahmad Nasser Kallab, 17, Nathira Kallab, Aisha Attiya, and children Abdullah Kallab and Youssef Kallab were also mourned in the funeral march.

A Hamas spokesman said earlier that the killing of Hamas commanders would not break the will of Palestinians nor of the Palestinian resistance, adding that Israel will pay for their deaths.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=722299

[Jefferson23]

13. PCHR Calls for Stopping Extra-Judicial Executions in Gaza

Friday, 22 August 2014 00:00


The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is following up with concern reports of extra-judicial executions carried out in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli offensive, which has been ongoing for 47 days. These executions have targeted persons suspected of collaboration with Israeli occupation forces.



The latest of such executions took place at approximately 09:00 (local time) on Friday, 22 August 2014, when at least 9 persons, including 2 women, were executed by firing squad in al-Katiba yard in the west of Gaza City. Identities of those persons are still unknown to PCHR, as the executions were carried out under strict security measures.



PCHR calls upon the Palestinian National Authority and resistance groups to intervene to stop such extra-judicial executions whatever their reasons or motives are.



This morning, Lawyer Raji Sourani, Director PCHR, has sent urgent letters to a number of Palestinian leaders demanding them to immediately and decisively intervene to stop such extra-judicial executions, considering that they cause damage to all of us. Although we are aware of the circumstances of the ongoing offensive, and the direct impact of employing and using collaborators in carrying out extra-judicial assassinations and other crimes by Israeli forces, we need to confirm the rule of law and respect for human rights.

in full:http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10604:pchr-calls-for-stopping-extra-judicial-executions-in-gaza&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194

[Jefferson23]

14. Palestinian lawmakers bemoan 'unprecedented' Israeli crackdown

Of the 84 MPs elected to the Palestinian parliament from the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2006, 36 are in Israeli jails.

By Noah Browning Aug. 22, 2014 | 6:52 PM

REUTERS - Palestinian lawmakers have accused Israel of an anti-democratic crackdown as the Gaza war rages, with dozens of elected officials detained, placed under investigation or restricted in their movements.

Of the 84 MPs elected to the Palestinian parliament from the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2006, 36 are in Israeli jails, two-thirds of them under what is known as "administrative detention," where the evidence against them is not disclosed.

The measures are among the harshest ever against elected Palestinians in the occupied territories and come on top of restrictions imposed on Arab-Israelis in the Israeli parliament.

In the latest move, Khalida Jarrar, an MP from Ramallah, the main city in the West Bank, said she was woken up by Israeli troops in the early hours of Wednesday and told she had 24 hours to leave the city and move to Jericho, in the desert.

The military said Jarrar, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - a party with an armed wing that is regarded as a terrorist group by Israel - had been "actively inciting for violent actions against Israel".

"Even speech has become illegal in their ad hoc and contrived legal system," said Mona Mansour, a Palestinian MP from the northern city of Nablus and one of the few elected Hamas officials not in prison.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.612012

[Jefferson23]

15. Poll: Israeli public opposes firing Liberman, Bennett

Netanyahu's approval rating continues to drop since ground troops entered Gaza, according to survey.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should not fire Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett for their insubordination, a majority of the public believes, according to a poll broadcast Thursday night on Channel 2.

The poll was taken by Shiluv Millward Brown Market Research following a press conference Wednesday in which Netanyahu expressed his anger at the ministers’ public criticism of him and urged them to “lend a hand and talk less.”

Netanyahu sparred earlier in the day with Bennett at a security cabinet meeting.

Fifty-one percent of respondents said neither minister should be fired, 17% said Netanyahu should sack both, 5% said dismiss only Liberman and 2% recommended firing only Bennett.

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said Netanyahu should fire them for their statements and for leaking information to the press but said the prime minister did not have the courage to take such a step.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Poll-Israeli-public-opposes-firing-Liberman-Bennett-371902

[Jefferson23]

16. Netanyahu vows 'Hamas will pay heavy price' for death of Israeli boy

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed on Friday that "Hamas will pay a heavy price" for the death of a four-year-old boy who suffered fatal wounds from a barrage of mortars that struck a kibbutz not far from the border with the Gaza Strip.

The premier spoke with the head of the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council, Alon Shuster, by telephone shortly after news broke of the boy's death.

Netanyahu told Shuster that the Israeli military will intensify its actions against Hamas in the Gaza Strip "until the goals of Operation Protective Edge are achieved."

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-vows-Hamas-will-pay-heavy-price-for-death-of-Israeli-boy-371979

[Jefferson23]

17. Israel examining option of renewing Egypt-mediated truce talks

Several cabinet ministers have voiced fierce opposition to negotiating with Hamas, but a government official says Israel believes the end of the operation 'must go through Cairo.'

By Jonathan Lis

Israel is examining the option of renewing the Egypt-mediated truce talks in order to reach a long term deal with Hamas, a government official said on Thursday, even as the possibility of indirect talks with the Palestinian organization drew sharp criticism by several cabinet ministers.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.611925

[Jefferson23]

18. Abbas lands in Cairo to push for ceasefire

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas landed in Cairo Friday evening, apparently in further attempts to move forward with an Egyptian ceasefire plan in Gaza, which recently collapsed into renewed cross-border fighting between Hamas and Israel.


Before his flight to Egypt, Abbas had been in Qatar for meetings with Hamas' political leader Khaled Mashal, also to discuss efforts to reach a ceasefire deal. The two met twice over the course of one day, but a senior Hamas member said that the details and outcome of the meetings was still unknown, and at the best uncertain.

"We don't see any reason to return to ceasefire talks in Cairo to discuss the final Palestinian proposal," said the official. "It would be a waste of time."

Official news reports in Qatar reported that Abbas and Mashal had agreed in their talks to call on the UN to set a time table for the, "end of the occupation". According to the report, The two also said that the UN should act in order to create a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capitol.

Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar addressed the possibility that the Gaza Strip would be disarmed as part of a ceasefire agreement saying that, "We won't agree to international decisions that will harm the weapons of the oppostions and that won't lead to the complete end to the seige of the Gaza Strip."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4562264,00.html